First Parish Church

First Parish Church
180 York Street
York, Maine 03909
Telephone (207) 363-3758
email office@firstparishyork.org

“From Surviving to Thriving” - August 17, 2008

Rev. Dr. Richard B. Knight

August 17, 2008

Selections from Philippians

    We’re studying Paul’s letter to the Philippians on Thur. mornings. Paul founded the church in Philippi. - recorded in Acts 16 Establishing this church was important to Paul and to Christianity. It was the first church in non-Jewish territory, in Gentile. It was the first European church, since Philippi was in Greece. This was Christianity moving onto a new continent. Paul had great affection for the Philippians, as you’ll hear. This is the most personal of all of Paul’s letters.

Philippians 1:1-14
    Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

    I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.

    It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus.

    And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

    I want you to know, beloved that what has happened to me has actually helped to spread the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to everyone else that my imprisonment is for Christ; and most of the brothers and sisters, having been made confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, dare to speak the word with greater boldness and without fear.

    Paul’s Letter to the Philippians is called the "Epistle of Joy." He uses the words joy & rejoice 16 times in this brief letter. What’s amazing about this fact, is that he wrote this letter from prison.

    I had some friends a few years ago who did some prison ministry. I went with them a few times to help lead a Bible Study and offer holy communion.
The prison was very clean, well kept. The air was fresh.
The water was clear. That’s of course, easy for me to say. I’m sure it wasn’t a pleasant place to be. But I’ll bet it was a whole lot nicer than First Century prisons, where St. Paul found himself. And yet he writes the Epistle of Joy, while in prison.

    In our Bible study, we’re trying to figure out Paul’s secret - how did he do it? What was there about his character and his faith that made him not only survive the imprisonment but also thrive within it?

    Let’s take a quick look together this morning:
The letter starts out this way: "Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

    Did you notice what he called himself? - a Servant of Christ Jesus. In the midst of an imprisonment, Paul never forgot who he was and whose he was. He belonged to Christ. His identity was found in Christ. It’s a powerful thing to know who your are and who you belong to God.

    Martin Luther, the great Protestant Reformer used to say to himself in anxious times, "Remember Martin, you have been baptized! You have been baptized! You belong to Christ!

    Illustration. In the musical, Man of La Mancha, Dulcinea is Don Quixote idealized love. Even though she is a peasant woman of questionable character, he sees in her the finest of qualities and makes her the Queen of his heart. He gives her the name, Dulcinea. Later on in the story, she goes back to some of her old ways, and Don Quixote must say to her, "Dulcinea, remember who you are. You’re Dulcinea."

    The Apostle Paul seemed to always remember who he was - a child of God, a servant of Christ. And like that crumbled up $20.00 we talked about during the children’s message, he still was a person of worth, highly treasured by God, even though he was going through one of the roughest times of his life.

    So that’s one of his secrets - always remembering who you are in Christ, who you belong to as a child of God.

    National Geographic did an article recently on "How to Survive (almost) Anything." Laurence Gonzales the author has spent the past 30 years doing extensive research on how people survive extreme situations - such as natural disasters, or being a POW, living through the Holocaust, or even being lost on a mountain or in the wilderness for days. Gonzales has found that character, emotion, personality, styles of thinking, and ways of viewing the world were the key ingredients. And he encourages people to practice certain habits so they become a part of us, habits that will serve us well in a crisis.

    One of things he discovered was the benefit to helping others. "In a survival situation, tending to others transforms you from a victim into a rescuer and improves your chances."

    John Leach in his book "Survival Psychology" writes that in disasters, natural or otherwise, doctors and nurses have a better survival rate because they have a job to do and a responsibility to others." This was documented in the concentration camps of WWII, where the people who helped those around them stood a far better chance of surviving."

    The Apostle Paul understood this instinctively.
So while in prison he decides he must write to his favorite church, to encourage the Philippians in their faith.
"I thank my God every time I remember you." His focus is not on himself and his problems - crises have a way of making us self-absorbed - instead Paul focuses on them - he needs to encourage them & build them up, he also needs to warn them about those who would lead them astray in teaching a false Gospel, he writes to praise Timothy and others, and to address a dispute between two women - Euodia & Snytyche- he urges them to stop fighting.

    The point is - Paul’s focus is not on himself but rather on them, his concern is not about what he’s going through but rather on what they’re going through. He wrote 4 letters from prison that ended up in the New Testament - Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon & Phil.
Paul decided to make the best of a bad situation by placing his focus on others and their needs. That is very important in moving from surviving to thriving

    It reminds me of a Chinese Proverb:
If you want to be happy for an hour - take a nap.
If you want to be happy for a day - go fishing.
If you want to be happy for a mos. - go on a honeymoon.
If you want to be happy for a year - inherit a fortune.
But if you want to be happy for the rest of your life - go out and help others.

    Another thing Laurence Gonzolas found out when he studied survivors of extreme situations is that they found ways to keep a positive attitude, and one of the ways they did it was by having a Mantra.

    Illustration. He tells the story of Jerry Long, who was 17 years old when he broke his neck in a diving accident. Long was completely paralyzed and had to use a stick held between his teeth to type. Long wrote: "I view my life as being abundant with meaning and purpose. The attitude I have adopted on that fateful day has become my credo for life: I broke my neck but it didn’t break me." - that was his Mantra - the thought that focused his energies, attitude and spirit.

    Illustration. Steve Callahan was adrift in a raft for 76 days. His mantra was simply the word "Survival."
Over and over he would tell himself, "Concentrate on now, on survival."

    If St. Paul had a mantra during his time here in prison it would have to be, "Rejoice." "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say ‘Rejoice.’" "Yes, and I will continue to rejoice." "Finally sisters & brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me." "I rejoice in the Lord greatly."

    "Rejoice" was his mantra. It was a habit of the heart that Paul adopted in life and in prison to move him from surviving to thriving.

    Pastor and author Charles Swindoll wrote this:
    The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company ... a church ... a home.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable.
    The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude ... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me, and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you ... we are in charge of our Attitudes."

    Paul cultivated a contented spirit, a grateful spirit, and a positive spirit by tending to his attitude. He tells us how to do it in Phil. 4.

    Phil. 4:8 - "Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

    Find the beautiful in every situation - what’s commendable, what’s worthy of praise. Look for the ways God is at work. On the mission trips we call these, "God Sightings." Paul says, "Since I’ve been the whole Palace Guard has now heard of Christ, and other Christians have been inspired to speak boldly because of my imprisonment." Paul looked for the fingerprints of God, at work within the situation.

    There’s one more obvious point about how Paul survived and even thrived in prison. It’s also found in the first verse of the letter. "Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi,"

    "Paul and Timothy" - he didn’t go it alone. Paul nurtured strong and close relationships in his life, and those close spiritual friendships served him well in the toughest of times.

    There’s a beautiful example of this truth in Exodus 17. The Israelites were battling the Amalekites.
Moses seems to have God’s power emanating through him - such that when he raises his arms the Israelites would be winning the battle. But when his arms would drop, the Amalekites would prevail. Moses needs some help. So young Joshua & a guy named Hur come alongside Moses and hold up his arms in the air. And the battle was won.

    We all need people to hold us up when the battles are tough and our strength is weak.
    - Moses had Joshua & Hur.
    - Paul had Timothy and the Philippians.
    - Who do you have?
It’s an important question to not only survive the battles of life, but to begin to thrive within them.

    Please reflect upon these habits of Paul that served him well in desperate times.
1 - He never forgot who he was - a Servant of Christ.
2 - He never forgot his calling to be of service to others.
3 - He had a mantra, a faith statement to cling to - "Rejoice in the Lord."
4 - He cultivated a positive attitude
5 - He didn’t go it alone.

Simple principles, powerful results.

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