Friends,
The
story is told -- At the beginning of a new year, a high school principal
decided to post his teachers’ new year’s resolutions on the bulletin board. As
the teachers gathered around the bulletin board, a great commotion started. One
of the teachers was complaining. "Why weren’t my resolutions posted?"
She was throwing such a temper tantrum that the principal hurried to his office
to see if he had overlooked her resolutions. Sure enough, he had mislaid them
on his desk. As he read her resolutions he was astounded. This teacher’s first
resolution was “not to let little things upset her in the New Year.” Or how
about this one…a son called his parents to wish them a happy new year and when
his Dad answered the phone, He asked his dad,” well Dad, what’s your new year’s
resolution? His dad replied, "To make your mother as happy as I
can all year," When his mom got on the phone he asked her the same
question. His mom replied my resolution is "To see that your dad keeps his
New Year’s resolution." Or some of you may have given up on resolutions
taking the same attitude as the characters in the cartoon Calvin and Hobbes: The
cartoon character Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes once said, “God put me on this
earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I’m so far behind
I’ll never die.” This might be the case
with you…just keeping up with what you have may be enough. But, even if this is the case, it is
important not to forget that we have responsibilities to focus in on eternal
matters of the spirit and soul…to keep our commitments that the Lord wants and
expects us to keep. We need to consider
keeping first things first as we enter into the New Year. If we do, we will be
blessed beyond the season.
Philippi
was a Roman colony on foreign soil. In a
like way, the church is a “colony of heaven on earth.” Paul has been the
athlete in his letter to the Philippians…now, he is the alien (3:17-21). We are all aliens…citizens of another world,
living on earth. This should help our
perspective as it relates to the lives we live.
Paul continues to deal with the difficulties presented by the Judaizers,
or culturally Jewish Christians. He uses
some strong language to describe them, calling them “the enemies of the cross
of Christ.” These people are not
spiritually-minded, but earthly-minded…holding to rituals and beliefs that God
had given to Israel, but fulfilled in Christ.
Following regulations under the guidance of flesh, rather than
submitting to the Spirit, is their calling card and it shows their allegiance. Jesus
has already broken down the wall separating Jews and Gentiles (2:14-16)…now the
Judaizers are trying to rebuild it. Unfortunately,
this is a problem that still exists today.
Some choose to build walls and regulations where the Lord never
intended, rather than build the unity of the Spirit. It is bad enough that such ones go
astray…worse, still, that they lead others astray. It is no wonder that Paul weeps over them.
When
a lost sinner becomes a Christian, this person becomes a citizen of heaven, and
his or her name is written in the Book of Life (see 4:3). This person begins
eternal, heavenly living at that point. Paul’s
point, in relationship to conversion is -- we may have to live in this world,
but we should not be citizens of it. It
is necessary to continually remove the yoke of the world’s pleasures and
priorities that seek to bind us. The
good news is that we who are believers can be and need to be exemplary
citizens…any person can choose to be a “spiritual citizen” – it is a
choice. Citizens of heaven understand
spiritual matters; they are governed by heaven’s laws. And the greatest spiritual matter that
governs us is love…we are more concerned about others than ourselves, more interested
in giving than getting. The heavenly
citizen glories in the cross (Galatians 6:14), not in self and experiences a
new vision – looking ahead for the Savior. He or she is willing to share the
Good News. When Joseph was revealed to
his brothers, he chose not to dwell on his brothers’ past, but to see matters
from God’s point of view – He looked ahead at God’s plan for them. The fact that Jesus is returning is a
powerful motive for living a dedicated life of service…today.
Christians
who are looking ahead, Paul says, will receive a glorified body, like Christ’s
(1 John 3:1ff). This will happen in a moment (1 Corinthians 15:42ff)…and at
that moment, everything in this world will be completely worthless to us, which
relatively speaking, is how it ought to be today. But, we say – I like my things. This is
fine…there is nothing necessarily wrong with this…just don’t hold on to them
too tightly. When Jesus comes again, He
will “subdue all things unto Himself” (3:21b) or “arrange in ranks” or “bring
everything under His control” may be a better way to interpret it. Citizens of heaven allow Jesus to arrange
matters in their lives according to the proper priority, living for things that
truly matter…with eternity’s values in view.
Even though matters increasingly crowd our priorities and choices, being
a citizen of heaven should be the most prized possession we have! Let’s remember this as we enter into
2015.
Steve
Ely offers this -- During a practice session for the Green Bay Packers, things
were not going well for Vince Lombardi’s team. Lombardi singled out one big
guard for his failure to "put out." It was a hot, muggy day when the
coach called his guard aside and leveled his awesome vocal guns on him, as only
Lombardi could. "Son, you are a lousy football player. You’re not blocking…you’re
not tackling…you’re not putting out. As a matter of fact, it’s all over for you
today, go take a shower." The big guard dropped his head and walked into
the dressing room. Forty- five minutes later, when Lombardi walked in, he saw
the big guard sitting in front of his locker still wearing his uniform. His
head was bowed and he was sobbing quietly.
Vince Lombardi, ever the changeable but always the compassionate
warrior, did something of an about face that was also typical of him. He walked
over to his football player and put his arms around his shoulder.
"Son," he said, "I told you the truth. You are a lousy football
player. You’re not blocking…you’re not tackling…you’re not putting out.
However, in all fairness to you, I should have finished the story. Inside of
you, son, there is a great football player, and I’m going to stick by your side
until the great football player inside of you has a chance to come out and
assert himself." With these words, Jerry Kramer straightened up and felt a
great deal better. As a matter of fact, he felt so much better he went on to
become one of the all-time greats in football and was recently voted the
all-time guard in the first 50 years of professional football.
This
entire message is about perspective. We
need to consider our perspective as it relates to how we live. Christians allow the Lord to set their priorities. We should not be looking to set our own priorities
and then say…okay, Lord, give it your rubber stamp of approval. When we are living for Christ, everything
changes. We may all be busy, but is it
the Lord that is guiding us in our busyness?
Or is He left behind, because we are not following His priority for our
lives. This is what we mean when we say,
Jesus is Lord. He is Master, Ruler over
everything. When we dedicate our lives
to Christ, this is what we claim. I am
no longer Master. My attention is on
Him. If I am heavenly living on earth,
this affects everything. When we are
living as citizens of heaven, we should dedicate a certain amount of time every
day to be with the Lord, in study and prayer.
We should come to worship focused on him, having prepared ourselves for
it. Our prayers should be in tune with
the prayer leaders. We also sing from
our hearts, and not just our mouths. We
should be intently focused on the Lord’s Supper. The first checks we write each month should
be to the Lord. We should not only hear
the sermon, but live it out in our lives.
When we live as citizens of heaven, it changes…not only our perspective,
but our priorities, as well. Be a winner
at the most important thing that matters in this life…living as a heavenly
citizen on this earth.
Blessings,
Don
