Spiritual Disciplines-Service Part 2

Paul is, in my eyes, the most fascinating character in the New Testament not named Jesus. Before his name was changed to Paul, his name was Saul of Tarsus. As Saul of Tarsus, his devotion to religion was pretty much unmatched. He dotted every “I” and crossed every “T”, and this wasn’t just something he adopted as an adult. Having been raised by a father who was a Pharisee, he was steeped in it from his childhood days. It is likely that his family moved from Tarsus to Jerusalem early in his childhood, so he could be afforded every opportunity available to young Jewish boys. It is believed that at the age of 13 he began to sit at the feet of Gamaliel, who was considered the greatest Jewish teacher of his day, in fact to this day, Gamaliel is still one of the most respected Jewish teachers ever. If eternal life in heaven was something that one could earn by adherence to the 10 Commandments, he’d have earned it, because he had diligently obeyed all 10 since he was a child. On top of that, some experts believe that as a Pharisee himself, he had memorized the entire first 5 books of the Old Testament.

Saul of Tarsus was a very impressive, deeply devoted, religious leader in the Jewish culture of his day, but everything he did was motivated by a desire to personally succeed and to make sure never to miss checking off the all important boxes on his religious spreadsheet.

Early on in His ministry, Matthew records a time when Jesus was overlooking a large crowd of people, they had been following Him everywhere, including running around the Sea of Galilee in order to meet the boat He was in on the other side. Matthew records that: Next Slides

Matthew 9:36-38

Matthew 9:36–38 ESV

36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Jesus calls them “sheep without a shepherd”, yet history tells us that there were literally thousands of religious leaders in Jerusalem in those days. There were the Jewish Priests, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, all there to provide spiritual leadership to the Jewish Nation, yet it appeared they all operated with no heart for God nor His people. Saul was one of them.

That is until he met Jesus on the Road to Damascus, where he was heading to hunt down, imprison and kill followers of Jesus. From that point forward he no longer operated to check off boxes on his religious checklist. In fact he looked at all he accomplished as a religious leader in the past, and considered it “rubbish”. Compared to his life now as a follower of Jesus. Let’s look at his statement a little closer this morning. It fits quite well with Service and Living with an Eternal Perspective. Turn in your Bible to:

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Philippians 3:7-21

Philippians 3:7-21-Page 1249 in the Pew Bibles

Read Phil. 3:7-21 allowed

Paul begins in verse 7 by saying that all that he had accomplished in the past as a respected and sought after religious leader was for “loss”. Interestingly, the word he uses for loss, both in verse 7 and again in verse 8, is the same word that would be used in terms of a ship being lost in a shipwreck out at sea. Basically what he is saying is that,

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A life lived for the sake of selfish desires, even a deeply devoted religious life, is a shipwrecked life.

Paul carries that thought even farther later in verse 8, when he calls all he had accomplished in the past as “rubbish”.

If you have ever been out for a walk and stepped in a very specific pile left by a dog, you have a good understanding of what Paul had in mind when he wrote the word “rubbish”. That’s the word.

Paul had learned that a life lived satisfying selfish desires, no matter how noble some of your accomplishments may have been, has no benefit in view of eternity.

To illustrate this point, I want to give you an illustration I first saw at Brittany’s graduation banquet at our church in 2016. Her youth pastor got this illustration from Francis Chan and was giving a challenge to the graduating Seniors that I want to give to all of us this morning.

I want you to imagine that this rope is the timeline of your existence. And pretend that it goes on forever and ever, there is no end to it.

Now I want you to pretend that this red part right here, represents our time here on earth. We’ve got a few short years here on earth and then we have all of eternity somewhere else! What blows me away, is that so many of us think only about this red part right here! We are consumed by it! As we get a little older, we spend a lot of time thinking, I am going to work really hard in this small section right here, so then when I get to the end of this red part, my future is set.

I’m thinking, are you kidding me? What about all of this? You see, what we do during this small red part here, determines how we are going to exist for millions and millions of years. So why would I spend all of my time in this red portion, trying to make myself as comfortable as possible enjoying myself as much as I can, when that comfort ends right here?

Paul says, I tried all that, I lived life for the here and now. I committed myself fully to satisfying the desires of my heart, to gaining the respect and admiration of the people, and my life was a shipwreck, nothing more than a pile you avoid when you’re out on a walk. I’m done with all that. He goes on to say: Next Slides

Philippians 3:13 ESV

13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

Did you notice where he had his focus? This red portion of the rope meant nothing to him, and that included his failures from the past, and believe me, he had some significant failures from the past. Don’t forget, before he committed his life to following Christ, he had put followers of Christ in prison, and was responsible for the death of many Christ followers. And what does he say? He says; “I’m forgetting all the garbage of my past, all of that baggage is behind me. My eyes are on the prize and the prize isn’t in the red portion of this rope. It’s in the white portion.”

I find it interesting how different Paul is compared to counselors that are out there today. They spend much of there time trying to dig up the baggage from our past. Paul refused to let the baggage from his past determine the timeline of his eternity. I’m pretty sure that Paul had an intimate relationship to the truth of Psalm 103:11-12 Next Slides

Psalm 103:11-12

Psalm 103:11–12 ESV

11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

What an amazing set of verses King David writes! Spurgeon was convinced that David wrote this towards the end of his life. Years after his adultery with Bathsheba, and his orchestration of the murder of her husband. And what does he write? He writes that it was beyond his ability to comprehend, God’s steadfast love towards him.

I want you to notice something in verse 12 that I missed most of my life. First off, know this, every detail of this book is completely planned out. Nothing written in here just happened to be here, every phrase, every single word, was thought out completely by the God Who inspired it. Including what David records here in verse 12. Did you ever wonder why David didn’t write “as far as the north is from the south”?

If we join an exhibition that is heading north to the North Pole, if we keep on hiking past the North Pole, we will no longer be headed North. You see, once you reach the North Pole, all directions lead south. The same is true of the South Pole. Once you arrive at the South Pole, all directions lead North.

So what does that mean for this passage? Had David written “as far as the north is from the south”, that would have meant that, theoretically, at some point in time we would once again meet up with our transgressions. But David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote; “as far as the East is from the west”. That is huge for us, because that means that once we confess our sins to God and He forgives them, forgives our transgressions, and casts them as far as the east is from the west, we will never again see them.

Paul understood that thought very well, that is why he wrote; Next Slides

Philippians 3:13–15 ESV

13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.

The sins of the past, the transgressions of the past, all the baggage from the past was enslaving, so he put all of it where it belongs, in the rear view mirror. Then he did the unthinkable, he ripped his rear view mirror off and threw it in the trash heap.

Never again would Paul live his life as Saul of Tarsus, never again would his focus be on the red in the rope. Because he understood that; Next Slides

Philippians 3:20-21

Philippians 3:20–21 ESV

20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

He may have lived his life in the red, but his focus was always on the white.

I mentioned that the 1st time I saw the rope illustration was for Brittany’s graduation banquet at church in 2016. In many ways this illustration changed the course of life for Pam and me. We determined from that day forward that we wanted more. Pam is going to share what began to change for us from that day forward.

Pam shares followed by Bobby Michaels song “Anything That Costs Me Nothing”

You know, God has called all those who trust Him to live a life of significance for Him, unfortunately, far too much of the time we only offer to Him our leftovers, we do not place before Him our very best. As a result, most believers go through an entire doing nothing that is remembered past the red part of the rope.

I want to close this morning with the question that is at the bottom of your handout in the bulletin: Pick up rope and display the white part. Next Slide

What did I do this past week that matters in light of eternity?

Close in prayer and then move in to Communion.

As we move in to Communion this morning, I’d like to approach the Lords Table from a different perspective that what may be normal for us. You know shortly before Jesus celebrated Communion with His disciples, He patterned for them a beautiful picture of humble service when He washed the feet of the disciples. I wonder if this isn’t one of the many things that He wanted them to remember until He returned. You see our humble service plays a significant role in what we receive in the white part of the rope.