Today is our second message in our series "Your Best Life Anyhow." In this series we are discovering how that because of Christ we can choose to live our best life in spite of our difficulties, problems and challenges. We are using Paul’s letter to the Philippians as our guide. Last week we talked about how that our response to our adversity depends on us and that while we have every reason to be negative, a choice to be positive is one that only we can make. Today we want to explore the need for action in spite of our challenges and to get in the game of life.

Two years ago Arianna Jimenez was 11 years old and was a star soccer player for her team in Concord, California. She and some friends were being driven home from a day at the beach when a single engine plane fell from the sky striking the minivan carrying Arianna and her friends. No one was killed in the crash but the propeller cut through Arianna’s leg, nearly severing it.

Two years and multiple surgeries later, Arianna can walk but still faces a variety of challenges and surgery. Her right leg, which is healthy, is three inches longer than her left. She is hoping the surgery will allow her to do one thing again—play soccer. She said, "I’m really excited for the surgery. It’s another step that I’m getting closer to being back to normal. It’s going to put me back in a wheelchair and more physical therapy again, but I know it’s going to make me stronger and that I’ll be able to get back to playing soccer!" (ABCnews.com Hit by Airplane, Girl Wants Back in the Game") Arianna isn’t giving up or giving in. All she wants is to get in the game! She is choosing to reach for her best life in spite of the adversity that she faces. She said, "It’s a lot of work but I think if you just tell yourself every day that you can do it and that you can make it and really focus on getting better, it’s going to help a lot more than getting angry." Arianna is choosing her best life anyhow.

That is your choice as well. Often what happens when we face problems, heartbreak and loss is to withdraw, avoid or deny the reality of the things happening to you. There is wisdom in letting your life be on pause" when difficulties come but there comes a time when you must choose to get in the game, get into life and live. Where do you start? I believe Paul shows us what to do in our text from Philippians.

Paul shows us that we get into the game first by growing spiritually (Phil. 2:12-13). As we said, Paul is writing this letter from a prison in Rome. He reminds them that when he was with them they were always quick to act but now that he is absent their spiritual growth is even more essential. In these verses he tells them first that growing spiritually isn’t an option. He tells them to "put into action God’s saving work." Those words are given as a command that was to be begun and not stopped until it was complete. In other words, not only was their spiritual growth not an option, it was going to take time. Then he says in verse 13 that they would need to cooperate with God’s power or energy working in them for the spiritual growth to have its full effect.

One thing that often is the first to go when we have challenges and problems is our spiritual growth. We stop reading the Bible, praying, being at church or with other Christians. One of the things we struggle with is the idea that if all my effort at spiritual maturity didn’t stop this or that from happening in my life, then why should I bother now? What happens is that we toss aside our personal spiritual growth, sit on the sidelines and decide we are finished. Growing spiritually is something I can neglect, forget and ignore.

In First Things First, A. Roger Merrill tells of a business consultant who decided to landscape his grounds. He hired a woman with a doctorate in horticulture that was extremely knowledgeable. Because the business consultant was very busy and traveled a lot, he kept emphasizing to her the need to create his garden in a way that would require little or no maintenance on his part. He insisted on automatic sprinklers and other laborsaving devices. Finally she stopped and said, "There’s one thing you need to deal with before we go any further. If there’s no gardener, that’s no garden!"

That same thing is true for you. You must decide if you are going to be the "gardener" of your own spiritual growth. The truth is it isn’t an option. God’s word says that we are "to put into action" the spiritual resources that have been given to us. Yes, it will take time, maybe a lifetime to move farther in your spiritual journey but you are not being asked to do it alone. God is the one already anxious to give you the energy to please him. It will be through his power that you can grow spiritually and by growing spiritually you will get into the game once again!

The next thing this passage admonishes us to do to get into the game is by living uniquely (Phil. 2:14-16). It’s interesting that Paul warns these believers to have the right attitude. He tells them to stop "complaining" and arguing." One means just a low-toned grumbling. The other is more outward disagreement with someone. The reason they were to do this was to demonstrate the opposite lifestyle to those around them. He tells them to live so uniquely that others can’t point a finger of accusation against them and that their lives would be like beacons in a dark world. He knew that this would not be easy so he tells them to "hold tightly" to their faith until Christ returns.

Another thing that we will abandon when we are struggling is the courage to live a uniquely committed life as a Christian. We chose to complain and allow our attitude to become a problem not only to ourselves but also to others. Then with a negative attitude we fail to be vigilant about our actions and we gradually fall back into patterns that are identical to the world around us. Then with our bad attitude and compromised lifestyle we lose our grip on our faith.

Living uniquely calls on us, though, to choose to have an attitude that God is at work so our complaining is useless. It also challenges us to live a life that is so different that it compels others to follow Christ. Living uniquely is not accomplished easily but only maintained by our holding firmly to the faith that will sustain us.

Having seen recently some of Hurricane Katrina’s might, it’s hard to imagine something that could stand up to the 130 mph winds that came through particularly the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Yet many inland homes did survive. A team of rescuers from the University of Alabama tried to discover why some homes survived and others didn’t. After inspecting thirty different locations, they discovered that the homes that withstood the winds did so because of more nails, metal strips and bolts holding the house to the foundation. (AP, Jonesboro Sun, 10/3/05.)

When you face your struggles, what is going to anchor you when you want to let go of your faith? It may be by your sheer will that you choose to get into the game by living a life that is unique because of your attitude, lifestyle and endurance!

Growing spiritually and living uniquely are two ways that this text encourages us to get into the game. There’s one more that I find and that is we get into the game by serving enthusiastically (Phil. 2:17-18). As Paul was evaluating his life’s circumstance he saw that he had the possibility of offering his life as a sacrifice for these Philippian Christians. The prospect of his life being used up, either in service or as a martyr, gave him great joy. The idea that he could be used to so bless someone else’s life was so exciting to him that he wanted these believers to share that enthusiasm with him. For Paul, the possibility of his very death for serving Christ didn’t paralyze him; it, instead, energized him with great joy.

In the same way that adversity and problems can cause us to check out spiritually and can cause us to let down our guard on the way we live, they can also sideline us with self-pity that causes us to drop out of serving others. What happens is that we get focused on our problems and needs and we neglect to do a crucial thing that can jump start our life and that is to serve God by serving others. Paul would have had every reason to see the possibility of his death as unjust and pointless. Instead, he saw it as a completion of his mission and purpose. You may have every reason to turn inward and close off your heart to others; but, if you do, you are denying yourself a connection with life that will give you joy!

So what do you do? Well, you choose to serve others enthusiastically. How do you do that? How can you do that? How can you get enthusiastic when all you want to do is crawl in a hole and pull the lid over you? You start by serving sacrificially (v. 17). By that I mean your doing something for someone is a sacrifice of your own self-interest and self-concern. You say, "I don’t feel like it." I understand but someone has told me that you act your way into feeling, not feel your way into acting. If you wait until you "feel" like serving, then it will never happen. Your taking a step toward someone else is a sacrifice but it is the first step toward gaining joy.

That’s the next thing Paul said in verse 18. He said that they should "be happy" and "rejoice" with him. In other words, his service should be something they have joy about also. The point is that as you choose to serve your attitude changes. You may still have the same problems but because you are touching someone else, you find real joy returning to your life.

We are blessed at First Baptist Church with a tremendous group of servant but we are especially blessed with a group I’ll call our "senior servants"—persons who are returned who serve in our church. We have a fantastic group who serve daily at the Care Center. During the time our church was an evacuee shelter, these "senior servants" were invaluable for meals, transportation, cleaning—and they did it day in and day out. Every reason so say, "I can’t," they said, instead, "I can" and served enthusiastically. That choice is yours – stand and watch or get into the game by serving enthusiastically!

This past week my wife Kathy and I joined our son-in-law in making a trip to New Orleans to retrieve, if possible, any of their possessions from their apartment. Our son-in-law as a student at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and our daughter worked for the seminary. They lived on the second floor of an apartment complex that housed seminary couples. We had seen satellite images that showed severe flooding on the first floor and the roof covering blown off on their apartment area. We had hopes that their apartment would be untouched but it was not to be. The ceiling had collapsed from the rain, exposing their apartment to torrential rain from both Katrina and Rita.

While the loss of their possessions was extreme, those who lived on the first floor was catastrophic. When you stepped inside of the apartment complex, as far as you could see in any direction the devastation was indescribable. We silently watched one young couple, who lived on the first floor, meticulously wash one set of dishes, pack them in a couple of boxes and drive away from the life they knew. Strangely, there were many apartments on the second floor untouched and perfectly fine. My son-in-law began to call those that he knew and told them the conditions of their apartments. I watched, amazed at his compassion for those who were on the first floor and his joy for those who were spared, all the while knowing he and his wife had their own challenges.

On the floor in front of an apartment across from theirs that was spared was a door decoration that had fallen off in the wind. I noticed it when we got there. As we left, I picked it up, hung it back on the door in its place and quietly reflected on what it said: "Walking by faith."

I don’t know what has you out of the game. I don’t know what has wiped you out. I don’t know if you are someone that life has spared or has put you on the sidelines. Sooner or later you are going to need to make a choice to get into the game by growing, living and serving. The longer you sit out the longer you will miss out on your best life. A decision to get into the game, to get into life and living, will only be accomplished through "walking by faith." That, my friends, will lead you to your best life anyhow!

Sunday, October 9, 2005

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org