The weather forced us to cancel services on site this weekend. We broadcast on facebook.
Temptation is as old as time. Adam and Eve faced temptation and they didn’t do so well.
Jesus faced temptation and won (but he was a special case)
Paul faced temptation. Think about his life; all the hardships from beatings to shipwrecks, to hunger. How tempting would it have been sometimes to just throw up his arms and walk away. Don’t forget that Paul was a pastor. You know two of the greatest temptations as a pastor? They are pride and discouragement and they go hand in hand. One moment we think, “Everyone should think this is am important as I do, just because I am the pastor and I say so.” And the next moment is “No one cares about this. Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, guess I’ll go eat worms.” Now you know the tug of war in my head. If they are honest, every pastor is sandwiched between those two temptations and I’m pretty sure Paul was no different. He faced temptation too.
And we have talked about the conflict in the Philippian church. You know how you react to conflict. Some people are tempted to jump in there and fight even if they are wrong. Others are tempted to turn tail and run, even if they are right. And the Philippians were just human. They faced the same kinds of temptations as we do; from materialism, to alcohol abuse; from lying to stealing; from overeating to laziness. They were tempted just as we are.
Let’s just be honest. We all face temptation. Mine are likely different than yours. Maybe for you it is chocolate cake, maybe a wondering eye, maybe “borrowing” something that isn’t yours, being judgmental, speaking evil, alcohol, racism, looking at things you shouldn’t look at; going to places you shouldn’t go, to associate with people who aren’t good for you.
We all have temptations and they are not fun. When I talk about joy in temptation I’m not saying that we ought to seek out temptation. I’m not saying that we ought to celebrate temptation. Nor am I saying that temptation is fun.
Strangely enough, though, Paul does find a reason for Joy in temptation.
I know, right now your greatest temptation might be to say, “The pastor has gone crazy!” But please fight that one off until I explain myself, OK?
Let’s look at the text for today.
Therefore, let’s stop right there. This passage is connected to the preceding passage that we we talked about last week. Remember, Jesus humbled himself and God exalted him for our salvation.
THEREFORE, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence. Up to this point, Paul says, I have been able to guide you in how to live your new faith. He knows he will not be able to do that for long, however.
He continues, now you will have to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”
There might be different ways to understand this, but I think Paul is saying that salvation is a gift from Jesus. Discipleship is figuring out how to live into that gift. And the Philippians will have start doing discipleship on their own.
Becoming a Christian does it come with an instruction book. No. Ultimately, for good or for bad, we are responsible for living out our new life in God.
So far this is not anything to be joyful about is it. Essentially Paul is saying, “soon you will have to do this without me!” But wait. Paul continues.
For it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Aha. There’s the joy! This is the good news here.
We work out our own salvation, but God is working in us.
This is called sanctification. SANCTUS is the Latin work for holy, so sanctification is “holification” or making us more and more like Jesus.
God’s work doesn’t stop with forgiving your sin. God does not abandon you. God is at work in you transforming you. God is at work in you making you better than you were. Hopefully better today than yesterday. Hopefully more like God next week than you are this week. God is at work in you. And taking it one step further, God is at work “enabling you to both to will and work for his good pleasure.”
God is working to change your will or desires. And
God is working to change your work or your actions.
God is working on both the temptation and your resistance to temptation to make you more like Jesus each and every day.
God is working to take away the power and the danger of temptation.
Why is that so exciting? Because all of that is for God’s good pleasure!
Because every time you win over temptation, saying “NO.” God wins a victory making you a little more like Jesus.
Every time you struggle with temptation and ultimately say, “I’m not going to do that.” God wins a victory making you look a little more like Jesus that day.
Every time you don’t pick up the bottle, every time you don’t look at that person or those pictures, every time you don’t lie, every time you don’t get discouraged or don’t beat yourself up, or don’t hold a grudge. God wins a victory making you more and more like Jesus.
That is worth an AMEN isn’t it? That is worth some celebration! That is where the joy comes in. Not because you were tempted, but because God is working in you to win victory over temptation.
Let’s jump to James and we see the same thing.
No one, when tempted, should say, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it.
OK? Got that the same message as Philippians. God offers salvation, but we still must struggle with temptation.
Then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death. Do not be deceived, my beloved.
Do not be deceived. Temptation is not the sin. It is when we act on the temptation or cave in to the temptation that we sin. And that is not OK.
The good news is that, God is working in us to give us power over temptation and therefore over sin.
James writes, every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.
That’s sanctification. Every time we win against temptation it is a gift coming from God. Every time we win against temptation we participate in the fulfillment of God’s purpose of making us more and more like Jesus. Praise God! That is worth some joy.
I will be the first to admit that we don’t always win over temptation. Things don’t always go our way. Paul, in fact, is sitting on death row and he says if I get out of here I rejoice. “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.” If this doesn’t work out the way I hope I still “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.” Paul rejoices in the Philippians and their becoming more like Jesus. “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice” Paul says, win or lose, rejoice! Resist temptation or fall flat on our face, rejoice! God is at work in you whether you blow the temptation off like a feather, or wrestle it in a cage match to the death. Rejoice because God is at work in you to make you more and more like Jesus so “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice”.
Does that make sense? Do you still think I am crazy talking about joy in temptation?
Do you see how wrestling with temptation can actually be a joyful thing? It brings to light the victory that God is winning in us. Day by day, temptation by temptation we are becoming more and more like Jesus.
Occasionally we hear a story about an alcoholic who finds Jesus and is never tempted to take another drink. Occasionally we hear a story about a person who is immediately and miraculously freed from the bonds of some troubling compulsion or habit the day they meet Jesus. I pray that a beautiful thing like that happens to each of us.
But usually the process longer. Usually the process of sanctification is slower. Usually the work of making us holy is more difficult, but just a beautiful. And along the way while God is making you more beautiful “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice”.
So, I leave you with Paul’s words of beautiful encouragement from the message version of Philippians.
Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof … of God’s power in you and the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment