Philippians Chapter 4

Paul ends his letter of joy by telling his readers to be united and he commends them for their service to him. In this last chapter some of the most memorable verses in the Bible jump out and tell us how to live with joy.

"Therefore, my beloved and longed for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved." (v.1)

"Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (v.4-7)

"Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy-- meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you." (v.8-9)

"But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (v. 10-13)

"And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen." (v. 19-20)

Philippians Chapter 3

The third chapter to this letter is packed with great verses about Christ that I hope will help you this Thanksgiving week be more in awe of Christ and thankfully for Him.

"Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation! For we are the circumcision, who worship God in Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so:circumcized the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless." (v. 1-6)

"But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." (v.7-11)

"Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended ; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (v.12-14)

"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the workings by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself." (v.20-21)

Philippians Chapter 2

In chapter one we see Paul writing to a church he loves and who have shown their love to him. He is encouraging them to press on for the Gospel through their stuggles even as he is pressing on through his imprisonment. In chapter two Paul talks to the about unity and how because of Jesus we should lights in a darkened world.

"Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, have the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others." (v. 1-4)

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (v.5-11)

"Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." (v.12-13)

"Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain. Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. For the same reason you also be glad and rejoice with me." (v. 14-18)

Impact of Philippians Chapter 1

Recently I've been challenging myself to everyday sit down and read the whole letter to the Philippians. It has a been a great experience to everyday read and soak in the words of this letter Paul wrote to a church he truly loved and who sacrificially loved him as well. As you read through the letter you can't help but realize how many verses are so well known and impactful to so many lives. What I want to do today is highlight some of the passages that are so impactful in chapter one in hopes that it will stir you to read the whole letter in one sitting for a week so that you can soak in the glory of God's Word.

"I thank my God upon every rememberance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;" (v.3-6)

"And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." (v.9-11)

"Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice." (v.15-18)

"For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith;" (v.21-25)

"Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me." (v.27-30)

Appealing To All Five Senses

I just finished reading a great book from the Disney Institute called "Be Our Guest" where they talk all about Disney's legendary customer service. There were so many great takeaways in the book for any type of business you're in but particularly for the church there were so many things to think about. One of the sections that was particularly interesting and thought provoking to me was a section where they talk about how important it is to appeal to all five senses while you are in the park and how each section of the park uses differnt means to let all five senses know you're in a different area then you just came from.

As a church we usually have different areas (ie. entry, kids area, youth area, main room for service, maybe adult classes) and it made me think "what is the church doing to appeal to peoples sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste senses?" What if depending on which area you were in there was different types of music? What is in the different areas the surface you walk on is different? What is for kids the area smelled like cotton candy or popcorn while in the adult area you have the smell of coffee or pastries? What if as you move from area to area the colors and design changed so that you knew you were in a different area?

There are so many ideas we can do as a church to make when we gather a memorable experience and then when you add the Holy Spirit into the mix as the ultimate experience maker then Wow! What are some ways your church has appealed to all five senses or what are some creative ways you can think of to appeal to them?

Building Bridges at Work

So I've been working at my new job for about three months now and one of my goals was to build bridges with people who are un-churched. In the job I had before this one I was working on a daily basis with people who are hurting and far from Jesus so it was a great experience to build a relationship with them and share with them the hope of Jesus. In my new job I've already built relationships with two un-churched people and I'm hoping that soon they'll not only come with me to church but come to small group with me. God places us in our jobs for many reasons but I believe one of the greatest opportunities for us is to build relationships with people far from God and invite them to come to church and also share the Gospel with them. I guess the question is then have you built any relationships with un-churched people in your work place and if not when are you?

Multiplication

It has been a while since I've blogged but reading "Killing Cockroaches" by Tony Morgan has hopefully inspired me to be more diligent. Basically "Killing Cockroaches" is a book of blogs that Tony has written over the years. I found it really enjoyable and it helped me realize a blog doesn't have to be some professional piece that would be published but it can just be my thoughts on random stuff.So....
Yesterday our church, McKinney Fellowship, had a big day called Equipping for Impact where around 400 people who are either already volunteer leaders or are interested in becoming a leader attended. It was a really great day beginning with Bruce Miller, Sr. Pastor, talking about how 14 years ago McKinney Fellowship was a church plant for another church in the Dallas area and now has come the time where God has really been challenging him on how McKinney can multiply into the future. So many churches have the goal of becoming HUGE mega-churches but quite honestly the stats don't bear out that mega-churches can do it all. In Collin County if all the existing churches were filled for three services every Sunday only 40% of the people that live in Collin County would fit. That is amazing!
McKinney Fellowship has decided that their new key plan is multiplication...small groups will multiply and so will the overall church through new independent church plants, campuses, and venues in places like prisons, coffee shops, and senior living facilities.
Over 42 different cities are represented at McKinney Fellowship and there is no way they could reach all those people in their present facility or in any facility for that matter. I applaud McKinney Fellowship for realizing the only way to reach those 60% of un-churched people in Collin County is the bring church to them instead of the old mindset of you come to us.
How is your church doing? Do they realize that they can't reach everyone so they need to think about multiplication or are they satisfied with the status quo?

Please Lead!

Lately I've been talking with different friends who fill all sorts of different association pastor roles, from children's to small groups to you name it roles in the church. Somewhere in the discussion it always comes around to what are the major things that you need from your leader(s). There are many different things that depending on the associates personality they want from those above them but without exception the thing that everyone mentions as top priority is clarity of the vision. I know in the past when I've been in associate level positions the thing that frustrated me the most and made my job the hardest was when I couldn't get a straight answer for where we're going and what we are trying to do. Without the leader or leaders being able to communicate to the rest of the staff and lay people where we're going and why it becomes very hard to get excited and band together for a mission.

As a leader we need to spend time communicating to those around us the vision of where we're going and why because if we don't we'll lose people along the way. Now I realize not everyone who is in a leadership position is gifted in creating, developing, or communicating a vision for the future. If you fall into that category of leader then it is important to put into place some people that have that gift. Throughout the Bible we find leaders who could either communicate with clarity the direction of the future or they had someone around them that could communicate it.

If you are a leader I encourage you to take the time and talk to all your staff and lay leaders and get an honest assessment of whether you are clearly communicating the vision of where you believe God is calling you to go and if they say they don't get a sense of clarity then take time to work on it because if you don't you'll start to lose people. God has called out leaders and I believe one of the most important things a leader can do is communicate clarity of the vision.

Temptations

In Matthew chapter 4 we read about how Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness where He was tempted by the devil. During His time in the wilderness the devil tempted Jesus in three areas that I believe pastors are tempted today. The Bible talks about how Jesus is our mediator and how He understands our struggles and I believe when you look at these three temptations we can see clearly how He can understand struggles we go through in 21st Century ministry.

The first temptation thrown as Jesus was a physical temptation, Jesus was hungry and the devil wanted Him to perform a miracle that would satisfy a physical drive or desire. A physical drive that affects many pastors today is their sexual drive. It is becoming more and more common to hear stories of pastors having affairs with their secretary or a woman in the church. These stories of temptation destroy families and churches but the sexual temptation that the internet provides is even more common and less likely to be found out. Jesus understands our physical desires and is their for us.

The second temptation the devil brought at Jesus dealt with pride. The devil took Jesus up to the pinnacle of the temple and told Him the angels would catch Him because of Who He is and therefore nothing bad would happen to Him. In our North American church culture where pastors become celebrities because of books or conferences it is very easy for a pastor to get caught up in how cool he is or how influential he is. Many pastors start to believe the hype and lose track of who they really are and who Jesus is. Pride is what caused the devil to fall originally and he realizes that we as pastors and leaders are so easily caught up in that same struggle. Jesus understands our tendency toward prideful thinking and is their for us.

The third temptation the devil brought at Jesus dealt with accumulating material possessions. The devil showed Jesus all of the lands and promised them to Him if He would simply worship him. This temptation follows right along with the previous temptation because for many pastors the material possessions come at the same time pride starts to creep in. We live in a materialistic world where everyone is trying to have the bigger house and the nicer car. So many pastors try to figure out a way to get more money so that they can have the nicer things in life but how many times in order to get more money do we have to sacrifice the truths of Scripture. So many pastors are okay with not preaching the hard things of Scripture so that more people will come and then we'll have more money in the offering. Jesus understands our desire to have more material possessions in life and is their for us.

Matthew chapter 4 deals with how Jesus was tempted by the devil and overcame him by speaking Scripture and trusting in His Father but it is also a good place for us pastors to go today and realize that Jesus truly does understand the struggles we go through as pastors in North America today and He wants us to know that we can still go to Scripture and trust in Him for strength through those times when the devil tries to tempt us.