Keep your head up kid

Well for every Canadian team the NHL season and post season is over. The Toronto Maple Leafs were the last team to go. which led the manatee a satire online news feed to post a this article poking fun at the devastating floods in Fredricton and the loss of the leafs.

But for every Leafs fan there is a well known fact. After Summer the leaves begin to fall. After winter they fall again. Sorry if I sound bitter, the truth is sometimes cheering for a team involves bitter disappointments and you have a choice. Abandon the team by switching loyalties, or as the great and sometimes fallible Don Cherry would say...

Keep your head up Kid

Don Cherry is famous for this line designed to encourage players to shake off disappointments and walk with pride. To keep going and show no fear.

Well if anyone would know about this it is Don Cherry. This man dealt with lots of disappointments in his hockey life career. In fact they made a movie about it called ...

Keep your head up Kid

Here is a short clip from the first movie...

So why am I talking about Don Cherry and hockey. Well the truth is you don’t have to be a Leafs fan to know what disappointment feels like.

We have all been discouraged at some point in our life. Probably more than once, which means something we all have to do at some point is learn how to deal with discouragement and learn how to respond to it.

So the question I want to ask this evening is...

How should we as Christians be responding to discouragement?

because let’s face it with all the sunshine and roses we also get sunburns and thorns. Around the world in places like Sri Lanka and Nigeria Christians are being murdered. Closer to home laws are past that are in direct opposition to God’s law, and it is getting harder to be a Christian so...

To answer This question we are going to look to a Christian leader of the early church who knew all too well the disappointments and struggles of being a follower of Jesus. On numerous occasions he was arrested, or would receive word that there was trouble in a church he planted, but never did he waiver. He continued to speak boldly and through him God transformed many lives. His name is Paul.

When Paul wrote the passage we are about to read, again he is being confined. Let’s read

Philippians 1:27–30 NLT

Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News. Don’t be intimidated in any way by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed, but that you are going to be saved, even by God himself. For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him. We are in this struggle together. You have seen my struggle in the past, and you know that I am still in the midst of it.

Philippians 1:

How should we as Christians be responding to discouragement?

Well turns out Don Cherry wasn’t the first to share this message because what Paul seems to be saying here to the church in Philippi is in the face of difficulties and discouragements is...

Keep your head up kid

Me: I was a pal bearer for my grandfather Alvin Ebbett. It was an assortment of grandchildren and as we gathered in the room off the foyer of the Hartland Wesleyan church my Uncle John came in with some last minute instructions. He told us today was a sad day and if any of us wanted to or needed to cry we were not to try and hold it in or deny our emotions, but one thing he asked of us was to keep our head up. Today is a sad day, but also a day of celebration as we celebrate the life of a great man. He told us to walk with pride as direct decedents of this man.

I may have paraphrased a bit but I will never forget that conversation. Keep your head up. It may be a hard day, but you keep your head up and you keep going with boldness and confidence.

We: We all have bad days. Days when we feel discouraged or defeated, but even in the midst of these days there is something that should help us to keep our heads up and keep going. We are citizens of Heaven. Children of the King on high. And no matter what we face we face together as one. We are Christians.

God: this seemed to be the message Paul was trying to get across here in Philippians. In verses leading up to this Paul acknowledges life is hard and his desire to go home but also an obligation to stay to help others find the way. He talks about being imprisoned and the struggles he has faced, but his conclusion to all this is conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news about Christ.

He encourages them to stick together and fighting for the faith and not to be intimidated by the enemy. With head held high and an unwavering faith we remind the enemy they we will be destroyed but we will be saved, even by God himself.

These three verses are so empowering and remind us no matter what the enemy throws our way we are on the winning team so we should’t give up and even when we feel discouraged we can walk with head held high.

Besides in verse 29 we are reminded...

Philippians 1:29 NLT

For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him.

You: Listen no one is telling you you can’t feel sad when Christians are martyred, nor are we saying you can’t feel upset with the way things are going. What I am saying to you is no matter what the enemy throws your way you remind him of his impeding destruction by keeping your head held high as a child of the king, as a Citizen of heaven fighting for the faith along side your brothers and sisters.

We: We don’t need to be discouraged what we need is to remember who our Father is.

Next Step: sing I’m a child of the king