DECEMBER 16, 2018
FR. PHIL EBERHART
So I have a question to begin with this morning...
How important is it when you repeat your self? It means that you want something specific to happen or something done a specific way ... according to the instructions right? YOUR instructions! Anyone with kids?
The same is true when we see this in the Scriptures...
Jesus said... Truly, truly I tell you ... How true is that?
And in our reading this morning Paul says to the Philippian church... REJOICE ...
LET ME SAY IT AGAIN ... REJOICE!
That is the theme of the day I believe. The Third Sunday of Advent, we turn the corner from a kind of dread at the appearing of the Day of the Lord to an excitedly nervous anticipation. It's like waiting on the birth of a child. Dad's often have this experience!
When Val had the twins, from the time we checked in and they began to induce her labor, we were 36 hours till they were born. I have to tell ya, even for patient guys, 36 hours is a long time! She got tired of my face and sent me home, then called me back at 4 am - but it still went another 12 1/2 hours before the twins were born. And the doc told me to go get something to eat, so I left the hospital and went to McDonalds --- I was hungry! Walked back in and Val had gone to the delivery room in transition. They were paging me all over the hospital!! I almost missed the birth of my twin daughters after 36 hours of labor! Made it by about 10 minutes!!
Advent is kind of like that!! Wait for it ... wait for it .... wait for it....
suspense builds, anticipation is high. You almost give up ... or you want to.
I've been praying for renewal and revival in our culture, in our nation for 30+ years! Do you give up and go back to fishing? My prayer has been, "LORD, don't pass us by!"
I see what is happening around the world, the Presence of God in worship in Africa, the immediacy of His witness in Jerusalem and Nazareth and in the Galilee in Israel.
Yet we persist in our unbelief, like they did in his own home town. On the outside, to the naked eye, it looks like things are getting worse and worse. Is it just me?
The instruction that Paul gives the church in Philippians 4 is the kind of stuff that life long studies are made of! This section of Philippians has been so oft quoted in bible studies that it needs to be emblazoned on the walls of the Church - or piece of paper on your mirror in the morning!! It needs to be somewhere where you will see it often and repeat it to yourself, almost hourly!!
REJOICE! LET ME SAY IT AGAIN ... REJOICE !!!
Even from our OT reading it echos this morning...
Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! 15 The LORD has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. Th e King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil. 16 On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. 17 The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. (Zeph 3:14 ff)
But Paul goes on and lays out a plan for us to attain and maintain an attitude of PEACE ... Have you ever heard of "The Peace that passes Understanding?" Here it is.
Is that something that you desire? Is your life so filled with peace that you can go home now. I don't need to hear the rest of the sermon! I've got this cooked!
I for one, can hardly wait to hear what I'm gonna say!!
Look with me down the page from the first lines of the reading from Philippians 4...
FIRST - Show others your GENTLE SPIRIT
Jesus little brother, James, uses the same word when he says [Jas 3:17] "the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle,[G1933] reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy."
How is that for a check list? When you look in the mirror in the morning, run that check list on your spirit and heart! But how do we get there? Does ANYBODY pass that test? EVER??
Paul goes on. Here's HOW!! Well first the WHY !!
SECOND - You are able to be all those things James talks about ... PURE... PEACABLE ... GENTLE ... REASONABLE, FULL OF MERCY AND GOOD FRUIT ... UNWAVERING... WITHOUT HYPOCRICY!" because THE LORD IS NEAR.
Any questions?
How do you consider God to be for you... like the Bette Midler god - Out, there ... somewhere... God is watching us... God is watching us. The great DEISTIC heresy of the Great Watchmaker that wound it all up and left it to us. "God helps those who help themselves!" NO! God helps those who CANNOT help themselves!! US!
OR do you consider God to be IMMANENT - NEAR - AT HAND. Jesus was certainly in this camp!! "I watch to see what my Father is doing, and do that!"
OK. THIRD -- Here is the list in v. 6
Paul contrasts our worrying and anxiety with a posture of prayer like the one that Jesus took, over and over and over and over. It was so marked in His life that His disciples determined that in comparison they didn't ever know HOW to pray and they asked Him to teach them, Thus we have the Model Prayer we call the Lord's Prayer. That's a whole sermon series!!
So Don't worry! But Pray... in fact with SUPPLICATION - When we bow our head or bow our knees we are moving toward supplication. It is prayer out of our deep sense of need to the only source that can actually change the circumstances in our life!
Oh and don't forget THANKSGIVING! We enter his gates with what? Thanksgiving in our hearts and We enter HIS Courts with what? PRAISE
It's an attitude of Gratitude!
MAKE YOUR REQUESTS - Please be specific with God.
Val put a request in the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem 18 months before our girls were born - I WANT TWO, BEAUTIFUL, HEALTHY CHILDREN
Very specific and direct - rolled up and placed in the wall of 24-7 prayer in Jerusalem after over a decade of being told NO CHILDREN are in your future.
Almost a million dollars in medical treatments, all to no avail. Six simple words... I Want 2, beautiful healthy children. She just forgot, One At A Time!
God answered her specific request with a specific answer.
KNOWN - God wants to know you, intimately. Now if you've read Ps 139 you might say, "but He already knows me, better than I know myself!" EXACTLY.
It is in prayer to GOD that He can begin to reveal to us, WHO we really are IN HIM! Paul said his whole goal in life, above all his accomplishments (just a chapter earlier in this same letter) was to
KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN. His goal was to know God in the same way that He was known by God - That happens through prayer and interpersonal communion with God - talking with him. There is no such thing as intimacy without conversation! Hello!
Now here is the great thing, in v. 7
And the PEACE -- the SHALOM of God -- The Wholeness of your salvation life IN HIM, begins to take hold!
In fact , it sets up guard! These are military terms. Peace POSTS A GUARD over your heart and mind! Not just calm in the storm, but PEACE - Settled knowing that God is able, in the face of the greatest storms and trials - GOD IS ABLE ! That PEACE actively guards your heart and mind so that nothing can shake you. You are IN CHRIST!
St Peter put it this way: [1Pe 1:5 NASB] 5 [You] are protected[G5432] by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
OK ... so now what?
Take control of your mind! One of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control!
FINALLY Paul says...
Think on these things...
THE TRUE ... THE HONORABLE... THE RIGHT ... THE PURE ... THE LOVELY AND OF GOOD REPUTE ... THE EXCELLENT ... WHAT IS WORTHY OF PRAISE!
There is our target friends. Where would we find all those things? On the nightly news? In the papers or blogs we read? ANYWHERE in the information overload we experience every single day? NOPE.
One place... Hold up you hand in front of your face. Small finger... HEAR ... next finger ... READ ... middle finger ... MARK .... index finger ... LEARN and thumb... INWARDLY DIGEST.
Only one place. Paul said it to the Corinthian Church too:
[2Co 4:5-6 NASB] 5 For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
Let's bow our heads and our hearts...
Our Lord and God, Christ Jesus, Messiah. You are the very image of the invisible God! Help us to fix our eyes on YOU, JESUS ...
TRUE, HONORABLE, RIGHT, PURE, LOVELY, OF GOOD REPUTE, EXCELLENT -- WORTHY OF PRAISE!
Open our eyes to see you in all your splendor - shine in our hearts, to give us the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in Your face, Jesus.
Keep us in your peace, your Shalom.
Lord , have mercy!
Christ, have mercy!
Lord, have mercy!
OPEN OUR EYES, LORD
WE WANT TO SEE JESUS
TO REACH OUT AND TOUCH HIM
AND SAY THAT WE LOVE HIM!
OPEN OUR EARS, LORD
AND HELP US TO LISTEN!
OPEN OUR EYES, LORD
WE WANT TO SEE JESUS!
AMEN AND AMEN
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