Lead Pastor
Sermons by Wade Allen (Page 16)
The Bible has much to say about our thought-life and how our thoughts influence not only what we say but also what we do—and ultimately who we become. This is why Paul encouraged us to have the same mind-set as that of Christ in Philippians 2. If we allow the Holy Spirit to transform our minds—as the Bible instructs us to do—our words and actions will soon follow.
The Bible is clear in its teaching about the goal of the Christian life—God wants us to be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). That is the goal—that is the “end” that God wants for each one of His children. So if we are to live our lives with the end in mind, we must always be thinking about what it means to be conformed to Jesus’ image—what will my life look like if I look like Jesus? If we do not start now to think about what that life should look like, we will never be able to do it in the last weeks or months of our lives. We need to begin living with our eternal end in mind.
In this passage, Paul is presenting us with two examples of lives that are worthy of the gospel—Timothy and Epaphroditus. In each of these examples, Paul celebrates the ways in which God has worked in and through these men. He presents them as examples to us to follow, and clarifies for us the benchmarks by which we should measure success in the ministry.
I was watching highlights from Saturday’s football games, I saw a member of a Top 25 ranked, Division 1 team squirt water on one of his opponents as he was tackled out of bounds. After the game, the coach was asked about the incident. His response was priceless. He said, “What are we 7 years old!?!” Yesterday, that young man’s actions were unworthy of the team and the name that he wore on his chest and back. His behavior was ill-timed and immature—and he forgot that the whole world was watching. As we consider this game of life that we make our way through each day, we must not forget whose name we represent as we try to walk in the Spirit day-by-day. Paul challenges the Philippian believers to live a life that was worthy of the gospel. As we study this passage in Philippians 1, we will learn exactly what that looks like and be challenged to altar our lifestyle to be one that always brings glory to the One who has saved us and made us a part of His family and His kingdom.
Today, we’re going to take a few minutes to think about a time later in Paul’s life—the time when he wrote this letter to the church in Philippi. We find more information about this time in Acts 28. If you were to read that passage, you would discover that Paul is writing this letter almost certainly from the city of Rome where he is imprisoned. But as we will soon see, the ministry of preaching the gospel could not be contained with his incarceration. No! God used his imprisonment to advance the gospel even further than before because the gospel is unstoppable!
We have come to the end of our study through the Book of Ruth. This story is part of a much larger story of how God brings redemption to the whole world. Just as Ruth and Boaz’s obedience and faithfulness to the Lord impacted future generations in their family, our choice to obey God today will also impact generations to come. Are we leaving a legacy of faith in our homes and communities?
When we left off last week, Ruth had just gone home to Naomi with the six measures of barley in tow. When Ruth conveyed everything that happened at the threshing floor, Naomi said, “Just wait, child. He will not rest until this matter is settled. You can be assured that he’ll do it today!” This is where our story picks up—the morning after their encounter at the threshing floor. Boaz knew what he had to do—he had to give the other man (the closer relative to Elimelech) the opportunity to redeem Elimelech’s widow and widow daughter-in-law. The issue would need to be settled once and for all. As he made his way back into Bethlehem that morning, I’m sure that his mind was racing trying to consider every possible outcome of this delicate arbitration that was about to take place.
As we’ve been walking through the story of Ruth, we have seen tragedy, desperation and deliverance. But up to this point, the deliverance that Ruth and Naomi have experienced has been temporary. As we continue in this story today, we will see how a brave act of courage changes their lives forever.
In our message last week, we considered all the tragedy that Naomi and Ruth experienced in the land of Moab. We talked about Naomi’s desperate condition—questioning God and struggling to see the purpose of her pain. It seemed to her that her life had no purpose—only pain. We need to discover the purpose in our pain, because nothing in our lives is wasted. God uses both good and bad to bring about His purposes in our lives. We must look for and trust in His providence at work in us. There is no such thing as coincidence. Look for God’s purposes in every situation. He was certainly working in Ruth’s life!
When we left off last week, all the men in Ruth and Naomi’s family had died while living in the foreign land of Moab. Naomi had heard that there was food back in Israel, so she decided to return to Bethlehem in hopes that God would have mercy on her and provide what she needed to be able to live. So let’s consider this next part of the story.