My Hero

Message Transcription

Well. Good morning church. It's good to be together today and especially today. Uh, to celebrate Hippolito and Francesca for their incredible work in Peru. Immediately following our services, we're going to have a reception just located right at this door in the garden room. And there we have a picture. Well, it's actually it's a print of the statement that's on the plaque that we've given them. But we would like as many of you as possible to go by and sign your name to that. So every time that they see that, they'll remember their family here in Lubbock, Texas, as they head into retirement. Thank you both for ministry and partnership and the gospel. And to Karen, uh, who has been our long, steady partner in this journey with them. We are thankful. Thankful for you. Perhaps, like you, my head has been swimming the last 12 hours. 14 hours, 16 hours. We have witnessed firsthand again the disharmony in our country. As the elders were messaging back and forth last night, and I was privileged to be a part of that, each one of them said, uh, unacceptable, right. We condemn violence in any way, shape or form. It's not the answer to our political striving. It's not the answer, it's not the solution. And so we stand against it. And no matter what political stripe you have aligned yourself with, we believe here that we are to be peacemakers in the way of Jesus.

You may remember that time in the garden when the soldiers were coming to arrest Jesus, and Peter pulls out his sword and Jesus stops him and says, listen, put the sword away. Yes, whoever takes the sword dies by the sword, and we're not going to be that kind of people. And so I hope that you will join me and our leadership here as we pray for peace in our country, as we pray for the families that were impacted by the violence yesterday, that we pray for the former president, that he would be healed. This is not the solution. And so, church, may we be peacemakers this week. Let's pray together. God, that is our heart, at least in our in our best moments, we want to be people of peace. People who recognize that you are the one who is ultimately in control. Violence is never the answer. It's not the answer in our families when we disagree with one another. It's not the answer at work when we disagree with one another. And it's certainly not the answer in politics when we disagree with one another. Ah, there's so much of our language is charged. It invites these anger and stirs up fear and chaos. God, may we not be agents of fear and chaos. Instead, father, may we bring peace. And may it not just be words that come out of our mouth, Lord, but may it be a life that we live.

And so, God, we ask for your healing mercy and your peace to be with those, um, Mr. Trump with his family. For the folks who lost their lives yesterday and their families. Oh, God, we need you. We need you now more than ever. Would you help us to be your people of peace? God, this morning, as we gather around your word and these words that Betty read a moment ago of of Paul's, of learning to view even our very lives in such a different way that just to know you to be known by you, it's worth more than anything. Oh, God, would you help that to become true for us? That our great boast is that we are yours, that you have redeemed us and saved us, that you have gifted us and called us to be your agents, your ambassadors here on this earth. God, we want to be faithful to that calling. And so, as we gather under your word this morning, as we reflect and and think about these words here for a few minutes, would you help us, God, whatever is threatening to distract us, any chaos or fear that that we've been harboring in our hearts? God, we just offer it to you now. Anything that would keep us from hearing from you. Oh, father, would you hear our hearts as we offer them to you in prayer? Thank you father.

Thank you for your peace that comes to us by the indwelling of your Holy Spirit, that fruit of the spirit at work in our lives. Holy spirit, you're welcome here. Would you come now? And now may the words of my mouth and the meditation of each and every heart be acceptable and pleasing unto you. Oh God, our rock and our Redeemer. Amen. Two alarming now to talk about. Take your pictures down and shake it out. Truth or consequence? Say it aloud. Use the evidence. Race it around. There goes my hero. Watch him as he goes. There goes my hero. He's ordinary. Don't the best of them bleed it out while the rest of them Peter out. Truth or consequence? Say it aloud. Use that evidence. Race it around. There goes my hero. Watch him as he goes. There goes my hero. He's ordinary. Some of you may recognize those lyrics. They come from a 1997 song called My Hero by a group named the Foo Fighters. I don't know what that name means, so there may be others who could tell you that, but I was fascinated this week as I was thinking about this new series that we're jumping into called The Epistles Greatest Hits Volume two, where we're going to survey the epistles this summer at the end of the summer. And and just look at some of the more famous passages and think some together about what they could possibly mean for us today.

And then looking at culture and seeing how are others trying to make sense of this. And often it's in the world of art that we see folks wrestling and grappling with some of these big ideas. Here. Dave Grohl and his mates wrote this song, and he was interviewed about it several times, and some folks thought that it was about a former bandmate of his, a guy in the band Nirvana named Kurt Cobain, who tragically took his life in 1994. And so they would ask him, Dave, is this song about Kurt? Is this about him and who he was? And he said, no, actually it's not. Now, there may be a piece of it that that certainly I was thinking of him as I was writing down these words, but rather it's it's my just appreciation for the, the ordinary man and the extraordinary power that can come through him, the ordinary, somehow embodying the extraordinary. This song was kind of running through my mind as I was reading through Paul's words that we just heard from Betty a couple of minutes ago. Can't help but think of the Philippian church that itself was struggling. They were wrestling with all kinds of things. They were different in a lot of different ways. They were a diverse socially and economically and certainly ethnically. And yet they partnered with Paul, generously supporting his missionary journeys. And they were facing some challenges.

They were facing challenges within their church and out in the community, trying to to live as a different people, a different way than the culture around them. They wrestled with conflict and fighting and selfishness, and some to the point that they were so disillusioned with the gospel and with how hard a struggle it had been for them that they thought maybe God had just left them all alone. And so Paul's writing to them to remind them. He starts his letter off by saying, God started something in you that he's not quitting on. He began this incredible work, and he's going to finish it. He's going to carry it on to completion. Don't lose heart. Don't get discouraged. Whatever happens, Paul says, live your life in a manner worthy of that calling, worthy of that knowledge. Knowing that God is with you. And that life, he says, is the life that's marked by humility. And so in chapter two, he does this beautiful poem of the humility as embodied by Christ our Lord, who, though he had everything, he gave it up. He sacrificed it so that we might become brothers and sisters in Christ. He who could have called 10,000 angels instead is willing to sacrifice and live for others. You know, it's funny in church and maybe not here at Broadway, but but just put on your imagination hat with me, if you will, for a minute.

But sometimes we're tempted to think that our thoughts and preferences are God's thoughts and preferences. Now, I know that's kind of strange, isn't it, to think that that you somehow believe everything that God believes and you think everything he thinks, and he always agrees with you. But just again, imagine it. But when we're willing to to follow the way of Jesus, to take our needs and our desires and our preferences, and actually to to put them at the back of the line and instead to invite someone else in their needs and in their views to actually a place of honor. God can do something amazing in that. And so we come here in Philippians three. If you don't have your Bible open to it, I invite you to turn there. You can follow along on the slides. I want to back up just a couple of verses before where Betty started reading, so that we get the full picture of Paul's invitation to become the kind of person who doesn't just talk about it, but lives it. In fact, he says, as as Reagan challenged us a few minutes ago, rejoice, my brothers and sisters. It's no trouble for me to say rejoice. There's something powerful about a people who recognize who they are and whose they are, and learn to count their blessings and to live that out. He says it's not any trouble for me to write the same things.

In fact, it's a safeguard. It's one of the ways that helps keep us protected, protected from these outside influences, from the anger and the resentment and the bitterness, he says. Let's live as people who rejoice. And if we're willing to embrace that notice, it protects us from getting sucked into the negativity and friends. There's going to be some this week, and we've already begun to see the pushback and the response to, say, church, how will we respond? Will we be people who rejoice that the tomb is empty, that we have a God who is an overcomer, who can help us, who can strengthen us, who can encourage us and our students? This past week spent a week at camp wrestling and challenging one another with this very truth. What kind of people are we going to be when we go back home? Because it's one thing to live that way at camp. It's another thing to come home and to live it out, and we know that. He says it's a safeguard because there are some there are some dangers that lie ahead. Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh, though I myself have reason for such confidence. It's kind of an interesting little page here.

Rejoice, brothers, there's no trouble for me to say that. Let's rejoice. We don't put our confidence in the flesh, even though I kind of have reason to. Paul. What? Aren't you kind of undermining what you're about to say? He has some strong words of warning, but evidently there's a group from the text. There's this group, and most likely it was Jewish Christians who were pushing back and saying, well, that's all great, Paul, but what about circumcision, brother? What about that? What about that symbol, that sign that marks you out as God's people? And and Paul's going to write some pretty tough words here. Pushing back. He describes him number one as dogs. Now, how many of you have a dog? Right. In our culture, dogs are what man's best friend, right? Not in the ancient world. My dogs were not man's best friend. They were filthy. They were scavengers. They were dirty. In fact, if they came into your home, you were in big trouble because they were unclean. And so Paul says, those who who are trying to push something other than being found in Christ, who are trying to say, yeah, but it's it's Jesus and this ritual, it's Jesus. And this other thing, he says, they're dogs. The rabbinical saying, back in the ancient world with the nation, the nations of the world are like dogs and dogs was an insult that Jews used for Gentiles.

There are a bunch of dogs now, Paul says. Ironically, the ones who are calling dogs have actually become dogs themselves. Not only that, there are men who do evil. If you go through the Psalms this week, watch. Look at the language they use to describe people who follow Torah and those who don't. And the people who follow Torah are righteous, but the people who don't are evildoers. And once again, this ironic twist here, he says, those who who actually think they're following the shore, they're actually evildoers. And not only that, they're mutilators of the flesh. You know, the sign of the covenant between God and his people was circumcision. And he says it can't just be physical. In fact, the Old Testament writers repeat this over and over and over again. You look at Deuteronomy and Leviticus and Jeremiah and Exodus. They talk about this idea of of circumcising. The heart of Jeremiah says circumcised ears. Exodus talks about circumcised lips. See, Paul says, if the only thing that's Christian about you is your words, then you're just mutilated. It's not real. And there's this strong, heavy weight, right? You feel that he turns these phrases on their heads. Anyone who puts their confidence in the flesh is deceived, which is kind of strange. Why, then Paul launches into this argument about why he has reason to boast in his in his flesh. He says if anyone thinks they have a reason to put confidence in the flesh.

Verse four I have more circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, in regard to the law, a Pharisee as for zeal, persecuting the church, as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. Paul said, I had achieved the highest place, the life that I had set out to live, the one he dreamt of as a child he'd been passionate about since a young boy. He's now achieved it. He's living it now. Think about that for a minute. How many of you have achieved your life goals? Right. I struggle to keep my New Year's resolution for more than 30 days. Paul's going. All these. All this life I've pursued not just a life, but the life I'm living it. And he's not talking down about it like putting it as this legalistic thing. He's saying it was a privilege. And I had set this goal and I had achieved my goal and I was proud. It's still there's something missing. I think it's important for us to wrestle with this for a minute, to think about these words that Paul is saying. I set this goal. I had achieved it. And yet still now again, not here at Broadway, but just put your imagination hat on for me. Have you ever noticed how church people sometimes have pretty strong ideas about how they think the church should be? Have you ever noticed that and how they tend to kind of congregate together? Like this little group over here has their ideas and they talk about it, and they point at that group over there.

Who's not like that? I mean, not here, obviously, but just for the sake of argument, can you imagine that there's this group over here and says, man, I wish our church was just more committed to evangelism and outreach then we'd be the church. And then we have this other group that's over here going, no, no, no, I wish we were more serious Bible students. Like we just studied God's Word. We just knew it better, more deep then we would be in this other group goes, no, no, no, no. What about community? I mean life together. How important it is that we have one another. We're just more committed to small groups and community life. Then we would be there and others go, well, I just wish we took our heritage more seriously, like churches of Christ. Like, I just wish we were more like like the old church. Then we'd have it. Then we have others who go, no, no, no, I wish we were more contemporary. I mean, I wish we could not do a cappella, we could do instrumental. And then you have people go, well, I don't like instrumental. I wish we could just do acapella back and forth. And they they talk about their ideas, believing, man, if we could just do that thing, if we could just be like that church over there, then.

Then we'd be the people that God wants us to be, right? We talk about our ideas as if they were just implemented. Then everybody would understand it. It'd be so simple, so clear. I know I've wrestled with that struggle with that. But as I read Paul's words here and I hear him say the very best of me, I mean, the I became who I had longed to be. Everyone around me looked up to me. Everyone knew if you needed an answer, that's the guy you talked to. He said, when I think about that and then I compare it to knowing Christ, it's not even close. Whatever it says, my prophet, he says. I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What's more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I've lost everything. I consider them rubbish. Some of you may be reading the KJV this morning. It says dung and that's the nice translation, right? That's the word. Paul uses everything before it's garbage that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness that comes from my own, but from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. And and so somehow to attain to the resurrection of the dead. Paul says, everything that I had gotten, that I had received up to the moment that I encountered Christ, I realized it was all garbage before then. When I was a kid, I remember talking with my dad. I was first starting to like girls, and I didn't have a lot of confidence. And, you know, there was this one girl I liked and she already had a boyfriend and my dad son, when she finds out how great you are, she's going to throw rocks at that other boy. She's after you. All right. Paul says, when I consider the amazing power of Christ and being found in him, I throw rocks at all that other stuff. And you're going, Paul, that's really good stuff. And he'd say, yeah, it is good stuff. It's not that we shouldn't take church seriously, and we shouldn't have conversations about how do we live authentically as a witness to Christ, right? When we have candidates who are literally being shot at because others are so disillusioned like that's there. How do we live in response to that? That's a real thing. We've got to face that this week. And Paul says, do you remember what you have in Christ? Because if so, that should change how we shape the outflow of this event, that we don't have to participate in the chaos.

We can stand back and say, hey, there's a different way. There's a different way to solve these problems. I just want to know Christ. I want to know the power of his resurrection. To rejoice that we're with God. To be his. To be in his community. And Paul gets emotional when people come in and start messing with that. He gets really emotional. And it's a good thing again to be passionate. But Paul says, are we passionate about the right things? He might challenge us to say, May we never presume that our preference is worth more than a relationship with somebody? We go, oh, Paul, can we tamp that down a little bit? Because this is pretty important over here. Paul says. Yeah, it's very important, but it's not more important than being found in Christ and sharing life with him and being led by His Holy Spirit. And that should inform then how we respond to those over here. This is what Paul's after. He says, this is my life and I'm inviting you and challenging you. Would you come join me in the every day ordinary? One of my favorite things that I appreciate most about Paul is Paul said some really hard things. In fact, Peter would say in one of his letters to the church.

Yet Paul says some hard stuff, right for Second Peter. But what Paul always does is he recognizes, but I don't I don't have it all figured out. Like, I'm pretty clear on some things, but but there are some other things I'm not so sure about, and I haven't quite gotten there yet. Not that I've already attained all this, he says, or that I've already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I don't consider myself to have taken hold of it. Not yet. But one thing I do forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. I don't have it all figured out yet, church. I'm still wrestling with it. I'm still trying to understand what it looks like to die to myself, to put others ahead of me, to really wrestle with that. And I don't have it all figured out. But one thing I'm doing, I'm I'm forgetting the past and I'm pressing on. I'm pursuing that goal. And I love how he slips in there. Now, if any of you who are mature, we should we should view life this way. This is how we're to approach things. And if on some point you think differently, that to God will make clear to you only could we live up to what we already know, to what we already have? Well, Carl, I don't know how I'm supposed to respond to an when these situations happen, we say, I understand.

Me neither, but what do you know? Well, I don't know what to say to someone who who lives so differently than me. I just can't even fathom the idea that they would have a life like that. I just, I don't know, and I know. Okay. What do you know? Could we live up to what we already know to be true? There goes my hero. Watch him as he goes There goes my hero. He's ordinary, right? I don't know, it's like. Like two Peruvians say, you know, maybe God could use me. Maybe God could use us. Maybe. But why don't we go to Lubbock and study and learn and get trained up? And when we finish, we're going to go back home, and we're just going to start sharing the gospel. And one day somebody's going to say, hey, would you want to talk about this on the radio? And I said, sure, why not? And the next thing you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of people have heard the story of Jesus. Because two ordinary people said, I may not know everything, but I know I want to be with Jesus, and I know he wants me to share it with others.

There goes my hero. Their ordinary. Church. I guarantee you, there's somebody in your world that you're going to encounter this week who's looking for a hero, not somebody who has all the answers, not somebody who can take really complex social problems and challenges and boil them down to the simplistic truth that we can slap on a bumper sticker. But somebody who can humbly say, as Paul did, not that I'm perfect at it, but I'll tell you what I'm doing. I'm trying to chase after what I already know to be true. There goes my hero. She's ordinary. He's ordinary. God, we are so thankful for Paul. For the words that he has given to us and challenged us with here. A challenge he first gave to that Philippian church who was wrestling with how to live out their identity as the people of Jesus in a culture and in a world that didn't agree, that didn't believe. And in the moments God, when it felt so overwhelming to try to live differently, they felt alone, left all alone, and Paul just reminded them that that God, you started a work in them that you're not about to quit on. You're going to keep working it until that day. It's done. God, would you remind us of that this week that you have begun a good work in each one of us, that you have breathed new life into us through Holy Spirit, that you've given us strength and power to be those men and women that that got our world desperately needs just everyday ordinary heroes.

Heroes. Not because they have all the answers and can solve every problem, but but heroes because they're pursuing the life that's truly life. A life of peacemaking and rejoicing, of service and humility. Yeah. Thank you for our servants. Hipolito. Francesca, for their willingness to dedicate their lives to serving every day as best they could. And God, for 47 years, you've blessed them and blessed their ministry. Now, God, would you challenge us, those who come behind them, to pick up the mantle and to keep going? God, thank you for the opportunities that that you've created that you will draw us into in the week to come, opportunities to trust in you, to not give in to anxiety or despair or hopelessness, but to keep. To keep faithful to what we already know to be true. That you are faithful and that you love us. God, would you help us to live that ordinary, everyday life of the disciple that was modeled to us by Jesus, who, though he had everything, he gave it up that he might take on human form to live in and among us to show us the way. God, would you help us to follow likewise, would you help us to live as humble servants of the true King this week? In Jesus name, Amen.