Jonathan is currently a Master of Divinity student at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary and wants to become an ordained pastor upon graduation. Till then, this blog is in honor of his Dad, the real Pastor Romig. Please do not preach this sermon, but feel free to quote it using proper attribution (aff link).The original Mission Impossible television series ran from 1966 to 1973. The show was about a group of secret agents as they rescued hostages, uncovered criminals, and did it all in complete secrecy with cool hi-tech equipment. In 1996 Hollywood made the show into a movie staring Tom Cruise called Mission Impossible. In one of the scenes Ethan Hunt, played by Tom Cruise, is suspended by wires and lowered into a high-security room in the heart of the CIA. He has to download a computer file without touching the floor or setting off the security system. As he is lowered into the room the agent lowering him accidentally let’s go of the rope and Ethan drops several feet before being caught just a few inches above the floor.
Did you know that when they filmed the scene Tom Cruise kept hitting his head on the floor? They would drop him, and because his balance was off, he’d keep smacking his face against the very thing he was trying not to touch. Maybe that’s how you feel.
Maybe you feel like you’re trying to live a Christian life but keep smacking your face into your mistakes. You try and live in unity with your family and church but fail. You try to do things with good motives but do so out of guilt. You try to think other people are more important than you but you know it’s not true. You try to give people what they want before you get what you want but they end up taking what you want and that’s not what you wanted. You try to be humble but you’re rather prideful about your humility.
If you’re not a Christian and still try to live well but get frustrated by the results what do you do? To fix his problem Tom Cruise put coins in his shoes. Our problem requires a much different fix. Philippians 2:12-30 speaks to how difficult it is to live as Jesus lived. But it also gives us hope in this struggle.
God calls us to live as Jesus lived. But doesn’t he know it’s difficult? Does he really call us to this challenge? Yes.
Christianity is a struggle; and God calls us to this struggle (Philippians 2:12). God wants us to work out how to live this life for him.
God calls us to live like Christ, and this is not easy (2:12c). When Paul calls us to work out our “salvation” it’s not to save ourselves. Salvation only comes about through the grace of God. Paul is saying to strive to live a life that honors God. We are to show what it means to be a people who are saved by grace. Struggling in our faith looks different for different people. For some our faith in Christ is itself a struggle. We find it hard to believe in the first place. When we wrestle with God despite our doubts it honors him.
For others we believe but aren’t sure what should change. Should we tell everyone about Jesus, go on trips to Africa to feed starving children, give money to the homeless, or live for Christ where we’re at? How should we act around our friends and family? There are so many different struggles to working out our “salvation.” So often we view these struggles as disobedience but this is not the case. God is pleased with a heart that seeks to please him. Deciding how to live for Christ when so many don’t care truly honors God.
God calls us to struggle because Christ struggled first (2:12a). Paul begins this passage with a “therefore” referring us to the previous passage. In Philippians 2:1-11 we see the work of Christ humbling himself from the praise of heaven to the humility of man to the point of death on a Cross. We also see him rise in victory over death and exalted by God the Father in heaven. God calls all of us who believe in Christ to honor God with our lives as well. Christianity is a struggle but Christ struggled first. God calls us to be different because Christ was different. This gives us hope because we know someone broke ground before us. God has accomplished what we could not do by or in ourselves. He has lived a holy life so that we too might live in holiness.
God calls us to struggle to live faithfully (2:12b). Paul calls the Christians to work out their salvation even when he is not in town. The Philippians probably wanted to appear extra spiritual when Paul was around. As Christians we too like to appear extra-spiritual around other believers. We like to quote Scripture verses and talk about grace. But when the Christians disappear sometimes our spirituality does too. This is not authentic Christianity. This is garbage Christianity.
Even the world recognizes the importance of a life lived consistently. In Life’s Little Instruction Book Jackson Brown wrote, “Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.” When we live consistently for Christ we honor him.
God calls us to struggle with a healthy fear of who he is (2:12c). Paul calls the Philippians to work out their salvation with “fear and trembling.” This fear is a divine fear. As we work out our faith we do so out of love for our Lord and in sober recognition of how holy and just our God is. God desires us to grow in holiness not because he prefers it but because he requires nothing less. One day we will all receive a reward for whether we lived this life for Christ or if we lived it for ourselves (1 Cor 3:12-15).
I tried karate out for the first time when I was fourteen. The first day after the first class I practiced all my new moves in the yard. The second day after the first class I couldn’t practice at all because I was sore. The third day I went back to class. If I had stopped the first time I got sore I would have never earned my yellow belt. If I had stopped because of the frustrations I ran into while a yellow belt I would have never earned my orange, or blue, or purple, or green belts. Each one of those belts brought with it new frustrations and challenges. Every day I learned something new and how much I didn’t know. Every day I practiced and I sweat but the longer I didn’t give up the more I grew. Pretty soon I could look back and say, “Wow, I’ve come a long way.” Christ wants us to continue to work out our how to live our lives. He wants us to persevere and fight and fight and fight and fight until one day we get our black belts and a “well done, good and faithful servant”(Matt 25:21).
Christianity is a struggle, and God calls us to this struggle. It’s clear that God calls us to the struggle. But I find the more I struggle the more I fail. It’s like I cannot do it on my own. Where can we find help to live like Christ? We can find this help in God.
God struggles for us as we live out our faith (Philippians 2:12-2:13). God gives us the strength to live for him.
God is working in us to make us into new people (2:13). Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” God is working in us “both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” It’s both us doing good works and God working through us. God is working inside of us to transform the outside of us.
This transformation pleases God. He’s doing this by the power of the Holy Spirit. Many Christians act like God is not the one piloting our lives. We give ourselves the credit for our successes and blame God for our failures. We try and try and try to please God without God. But how does that honor him? God gives us salvation and is working in us to produce a life that reflects that. God has not and will not leave us to our devices. Take courage God is working in us to make us into new people.
We are to live as new people as a witness to the world (read 2:14-15). Knowing God is working in us should change our attitudes and our actions. We are to “Do all things without grumbling or questioning.” We are to be “blameless and innocent.”
When Paul writes about a “crooked and twisted generation” he is referring back to the nation of Israel as they rebelled against God (Deut 32:5). Israel failed when it complained and rebelled in the wilderness. But God calls a new generation of believers to match our actions with our beliefs. He calls us to “shine as lights in the world?”(2:15) He calls us to hold onto Jesus Christ and God’s written word (2:16). He calls us to rejoice even when times get hard (2:17-18). We are to set our hearts on Christ. God is molding us into a light that shines in the darkness. And we are to trust God is struggling for us as we live out our faith.
This church used to have potlucks all the time. The whole church would make great meals together and sit and chat. After every one of those meals we’d have to clean up the gym. As I grew up I ran off whenever it came time to cleanup. When I grew older I realized I should stick around and help out.
One Sunday as I was picking up chairs and carrying them to the cart when a little boy named Joel decided he would help me cleanup. He was about five years old at the time. So the next chair I carried he latched onto and began to walk with me to the cart. We did this several times before his mom called for him to go. Who do you think Joel thought carried the weight of those chairs? Who do you think really carried the weight of those chairs? When God asks us to struggle for him he’s the one carrying the burden.
He calls us to latch on with everything we got and to walk with him. But he is the one giving us strength. He is the one giving us courage and perseverance. We struggle, but we do not struggle alone. God struggles for us as we live out our faith.
It’s good to know that God is working in us. And that God is all we need. But sometimes we get frustrated and discouraged. What should we do in times like these?
God gives us brothers and sisters in Christ to struggle alongside us (Philippians 2:19-30). God gives us a Christian family for support.
This last December my friends decided I should go gave camping with them in the middle of winter. I wouldn’t have done anything like this if they hadn’t relentlessly pushed me to go. So Tuesday evening we packed up all our gear and journeyed outside. It was the middle of winter so it was freezing and near to snowing. We hiked up into some boulders in a bottom of a creek.
In my head, I pictured a short drop into a wide room with lots of space. Instead, we dropped down twenty feet into a room filled with boulders, and then dropped about another ten feet to another room filled with rocks. It was completely black except for our lights. We made a fire and a bedding area and I went into survival mode. Survival mode said I should curl up into my bag for warmth. But my friends brought me outside to climb the mountain and see the stars. Then we made a fire in the cave and ate mini-hotdogs. That’s about the time my flashlight burned out. So from about 9:00pm on I had to rely on my friend’s lights to get me thru.
I finally convinced our group to leave at about 2:00am since 3/5of us hadn’t slept. We packed up our bags and headed home. That’s when one of my friend’s remembered the extra headlamp he had in his bag. So for the last leg of the trip I had a light again. This was one of those adventures I will look back on for a long time. Christianity is an adventure and it’s a hard adventure. But it’s also a rewarding adventure. We need brothers and sisters in Christ to push us along this adventure. We need them to motivate us to take a leap of faith. We need them their to give us light when we have none. God gives us brothers and sisters in Christ to come alongside and struggle with us.
Scripture tells us of two men who encouraged Paul on his adventure. Timothy encouraged Paul by being committed to his church family (read 2:19-24). Paul desires to send Timothy as an encouragement to the Philippians. It says Timothy is “genuinely concerned for their welfare”(2:20). God calls us to struggle to live for him, but he doesn’t call us to do it alone. He gives us brothers and sisters in Christ to support us. God never designed us to make it through this life alone.
Imagine how bored the Lone Ranger would have been without Tonto. The original radio show of the Lone Ranger made it through eleven episodes before adding Tonto’s character. They added Tonto because the Lone Ranger needed someone to talk to. We’re the same way. We consistently need a friend to talk to about God.
Maybe you’re thinking you don’t have any brothers or sisters in Christ. And maybe you don’t, but I doubt it. Church is filled with brothers and sisters in Christ of every age. Notice Paul says Timothy is like his son (2:22). Not only do we need to grow with believers; we need mature encouragement. The older generations have so much to give to the younger generations. If we ignore them we will miss out on huge blessings. If you’re struggling in your faith don’t do so alone; find a mentor.
Epaphroditus encouraged Paul by willingly sacrificing for the sake of others (read 2:25-30). I am impressed by how far Epaphroditus went to serve Paul. He served so hard he got sick and nearly died (2:26-27,30). Service requires sacrifice. Even though Epaphroditus nearly died Paul does say that he completed the service.
Paul says, “he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me”(2:30). Paul doesn’t mean this as a judgmental statement, but as one of thankfulness. Epaphroditus gave as an individual what the church couldn’t give as a whole. We inside the church are much too needy for the church to meet all our needs on just Saturdays and Sundays. We need a family who is there for us at our worst. God gives us brothers and sisters in Christ to struggle alongside us.
On Monday August 16th, 2010 I stood at 413 feet above sea level in Culpeper Virginia. On Saturday August 21st, 2010 I began to climb up Long’s Peak to 14,259 feet above sea level. It probably wasn’t smart to climb Long’s Peak five days after changing altitude but I went anyways.
I fell asleep at about 12:45am the night before and woke up at about 2:15am to drive to the trailhead and begin our hike by 3:15am. Only six of the twelve of us brought flashlights. I gave up my light to a friend who had night blindness. We stumbled up the trail in near-darkness till the sun began to rise. What most people don’t know is the first 6 miles up are the easiest. When you make it to the boulder field, you feel like you’re almost there, but you’re not. The remaining 1.5 miles to the top are the most difficult.
After the keyhole we began to cross a section called the ledges. The worst part requires you to step on a stake driven into the rock with a drop-off to the side. Once I made it past the ledges I met the trough, which was like a long stair climb on loose rocks. When I reached the top of the trough I was exhausted and my friend told me we still had to go up “the narrows” and “home stretch.” I was ready to give up.
Christianity is also struggle. We’ve already climbed so far and hard and it feels like it is time to give up. But we can’t give up. God is working good through our struggle.
As I was about to turn back a man stood on top of the boulder I didn’t want to climb and yelled at me, “If you don’t make it to the top from here, it’s going to eat at you for the rest of your life!”
You know what… he was right. And if you give up now in your walk with God, it’s going to eat at you for the rest of your life.
God has called us to live for him and he’s called us knowing it’s difficult. He’s given us the power of the Holy Spirit to aid and work through us. He’s given us the power of brothers and sisters in Christ to encourage us. God is working good through our struggle.
That day I chose to keep climbing. I made it to the top of the trough, and then along the skinny ledge called the narrows with the thousand-foot drop below and then I climbed up the home stretch. My friends encouraged their out-of-shape-sea-level friend every step of the way. They formed an arch for me to walk through when I reached the summit. Manly tears sprang to my eyes as I made it over the last few rocks to the top. They were manly tears because nobody saw them.
I prayed a lot on the way up the mountain that day. I’m glad I made it to the top. It’s a site I will never forget. God also wants us to continue the work out our faith. He wants us to climb this mountain and climb it hard. He’s working in us to give us strength. And he’s given us this mountain as a gift so we can learn to rely on him. He knows when we reach the end we’ll see just how far God has taken us. God is working good through our struggle.
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