Shane Willard | Beware the Dogs - Sunday AM Service

[Music] you alright so if your truck likes following an actual Bible Philippians chapter 3 we've been working on this letter that Paul wrote to a church at Philippi now because we're starting a brand new series here I want to sort of review this and in order so we know where he's coming from Philippians is is a part of a group of letters called the prison epistles now the problem with that is is that sort of just sort of rolls off our tongue sometimes I've heard preachers preach this and they'll go now Paul was writing this from prison and it sort of has this tone like la-dee-da right like Paul oh yeah Paul's in jail in Rome being tortured on a regular basis not like come on let's think about that for a second if I was to say I stopped yesterday and saw my friend on death row in some Australian prison your question would be my goodness what did he do how did he end up in jail why are we listening to a prisoner why are we reading a letter of prisoner road to another group of people who were theoretically breaking the law to and why does that matter to us glad you asked now to understand why Paul is in jail we have to understand a couple of things one there was upwards of twenty four different messiahs in a hundred and one hundred twenty year period of time there was twenty four people saying I'm the one anointed of God to free the Jews from Roman oppression right there was Simon Ben Quora there was Simon Bar Kokhba there was Menahem there was all these guys that claimed to be the one and they all died horrendous deaths they all really got killed pretty badly but there was one Messiah who came along after about twenty years after Jesus and he was smart he just said he'd stayed anonymous and he called himself the Egyptian and what the Egyptian did was he hired four thousand secret assassins and he led a secret revolt out into the wilderness and what they did was they fit in during the day so no one knew who they were but then at night they'd come out dressed in all black and if you were a corrupt High Priest or you were a corrupt government official they would just slit your throat they were called the Sicari and they would just slit your throat and leave you in the ground and then what they would do is they put their little Zorro symbol there was some sort of symbol to identify we were responsible for this right so they would they would put their little Zorro symbol and then the next day when the light was out people would come out and because there was no such thing as CSI Jerusalem it was just sort of like well he's dead right and so the Egyptian was wreaking havoc on Roman occupation and so they didn't know what to do with him right the other part of the story is that the Jews of Jerusalem had a real hard time with Paul right and you can understand this a guy who used to torment you is now claiming to have a conversion experience that no one else saw and it was quite magnificent not only did he get converted supposedly he's claiming to have office Dalek Authority they didn't buy this and and supposedly this movement was so radical that he started to interpret the Bible in ways that they didn't like he was saying things like don't worry about circumcision when the Bible clearly says you need to circumcise who said things like don't worry about what you eat Christ makes all things clean right and the Bible clearly said something else and so they had a real problem with this guy and so they they bring him to Jerusalem and they announced they say you gotta come here you know you have account for your preaching that's what you got to do you can read about this in acts 21 if you're really interested in it acts 21 tells the whole story they get Paul to Jerusalem and they simply say hey tell us the rumor is everyone everywhere is is saying that you're preaching against the people the law this place what's going on here right and so Paul says well everybody's coming to God over there it's really a compelling message and they say well listen we don't question that we honor anybody coming to God what we question is your method and so he ends up agreeing to do a temple cleansing a mob of Jews end up catching him in the temple and they drag him outside to beat him to death but the cops the Roman soldiers stopped the beating as you do right so the cops stopped the beating and then they arrest Paul and they accuse him in acts 21 verse 39 they accuse him of being the Egyptian who started a secret revolt of 4000 secret assassins they arrest him because of that so Paul is in jail because of a false accusations what the Jews did they couldn't get Paul out of their hair so they brought him to Jerusalem and then tipped off the Romans that he was the Egyptian they've been looking for right that is why Paul ends up in jail now pestering could you do me a favor hand me that remote control because I made a mistake and left it there there we go alright so let's let's look at this let's dig into this a bit and here we go so Paul's in prison in Rome because of one false accusation and one true one the false accusation is he was accused by the Drude by the jews of being the egyptian that was coming against roman occupation the true accusation was once he got to rome and in jail he wouldn't come off the idea that jesus is lord not caesar at the time of writing the Philippians were the only church that responded to bring him food in the first century if you were an enemy of the state and you were in prison they did not feed you it was up to your family and friends the problem is Paul isn't from Rome and so out of all the churches Paul started evidently the Philippian Church was the one that bit showed up and sent a man named app Aphrodite's to feed him clothe him give him some blankets some comfort things like this Paul's awaiting a trial that would bring execution we know that for a fact that Paul was executed by the Roman Empire Paul has affirmed his love for them as well as their Christian character and generosity Paul's prayer for them in the in the chapter one is that they grow in love and are shown to be authentic even when all the lights are turned on he praised this beautiful prayer over the Philippian people where essentially he says may you be shown to be the real deal even if all the lights are turned on if all the lights are turned on on your life may it be shown that you are the real deal Paul insists that the same creative power from Genesis 1 is still at work in us this is the book Ray says he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it a reference to creation a simp essentially what he's saying is is that if God was powerful enough to handle all the chaos in Genesis 1 and bring order out of it how much more is he able to handle your chaos in order to bring new life new creation he can bring that forth in your life if he could handle the chaos at creation then your little problem is nothing right it's a very sort of inspiring thing for a guy that's chained to a wall awaiting execution being tortured on a regular basis very sort of inspiring way to handle out and handle problems Paul's Paul attempts to name the creative power he calls he calls this creative power at Christ in the first century in the Roman Empire they had two words for the force that holds all things together the first one was Lagos or word the second one was mysterion and he uses both it says the Lagos and the musterion are Christ so he's making this this case that Jesus is the force that's holding all things together he uses a beautiful phrase Christos Curtis essentially as Christ gets bigger lives will get better and that just makes sense if the force that created it all gets elevated but for the force that brings order out of chaos gets elevated then your chaos dies to that Paul gives hope that this situation will turn out for my deliverance or turn out for my salvation that's in Philippians 1 verse 9 and and into a first-century I can't get into this this morning but to a first century rabbi to say this will turn out for my deliverance is not saying I have enough faith to get out of this it is my faith is great enough to go through whatever with clean hands up clean heart and pure taste it's that kind of idea it's a direct quote from the wisdom literature particularly the book of Job and one of the Psalms now it's in that context that we get to this this is Philippians chapter 3 sorry Philippians chapter 3 verse 1 finally my brothers rejoice in the Lord to write the same things to you as no trouble to me and it's safe for you so evidently he's repeating himself here and then he says something that that is quite in your face look out for the dogs or what well you might we might say beware the dogs beware for the evildoers look out for those who mutilate the flesh misleading he's lumping a certain group of people into one group and he's going dogs evildoers mutilators of the flesh and then it gets clearer what he's talking about for we are the circumcision who worshiped by the Spirit of God and glory of Jesus Christ and put no confidence in the flesh he's saying there's a group of people who their confidence and their standing with God has to do with a small operation they got when they were eight days old and didn't remember it right so there's a group of people who say you know what we are right with God because we are circumcised he goes now that'd be where the dogs beware the mutilators of the flesh beware the evildoers we are the true circumcision you got to understand for a 1st century Jew to be saying something like this this is not small potato stuff this is in-your-face sort of thing though I have myself have reason to have confidence in the flesh in other words if you want to compare credentials let's go right if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh I've got more I was circumcised on the eighth day you win of the people of Israel okay of the tribe of Benjamin a Hebrew of Hebrews as to the law a Pharisee that that's just a way of saying I've memorized the whole thing I know it better than you asked to zeal a persecutor at the church as to righteousness under the law blameless in other words if you want to go that way I win but I'm urging you not to go that way because there's a better way and what Paul goes into is he goes into a very compelling view for a new humanity what we would say is a new kind of church a church that does something bigger than just honor tribal identity now if you're if you're looking at this in your thinking hang on a second I got out of bed this morning I came to church is this man fixing to preach a sermon on circumcision yes and no all right so give me a few minutes and we're gonna go we're gonna go through this I promise you you'll find yourself in this so Paul says three things he says first beware the dogs beware of the dogs second beware the evildoers and third beware those who mutilate the flesh which leads to this question what is he talking about what's he going on about well let's let's look at this all right so in the first century there were people who came to follow Jesus from the Jewish tradition the problem was is what do you do with people from other traditions or other tribes who wanted to have faith in Jesus what do you do when it came to Jewish rituals and the other question is what in the world does this have to do with us and we're still studying this stuff what does this have to do with us well to understand this we have to understand where the story came from all right when you look at the Bible beware of people who take one verse out of the Bible out of any con texts and go that's it now the Bible tends to go somewhere we got asked the question where is this going and in the first eleven chapters of Genesis the Bible's going in a very bad direction alright so that the story of humanity is heading in the wrong trajectory alright so Genesis chapter 4 a guy named Cain kills a guy named Abel it's his brother and you would think well that was violence we're gonna go away from that but actually what you find in the first eleven chapters of Genesis is the violence and the evil escalates in the wrong direction let me show you a few things a few things around this right so here's Genesis chapter 4 verse 23 this is right after Cain killed Abel so Lamech said to his wives Adah and Zillah hear my voice you wives of Lamech listen to what I say I've killed a man for wounding me now that's escalation a guy wounded him and he responded by killing him that's one-upsmanship you know even in an eye for an eye that's a wound for wound he goes past that and goes you wound me I'm gonna kill you that is called escalation so he says I've killed a man for wounding me a young man for striking me if Cain's revenge is Sevenfold then Lamech says seventy seven fold so in Genesis chapter four you have a guy bragging about his ability to be more violent than the previous violent guy that's going the wrong direction it gets worse two chapters later in Genesis chapter six the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of his thoughts of his heart was only evil continually that's a big statement I can find no righteous thoughts amongst anybody that's going the wrong direction it gets worse in Genesis chapter 11 there's a story about a tower called Babel and the real story is about an increase in technology this is a story about when stones were replaced by bricks which made it easier to stack stones are very difficult to stack they're they're they're odd shaped but somebody invented a brick which allowed people to stack them and build bigger towers now that doesn't matter to us today because we have steel and concrete back then bricks were a big because you could mass-produce them and build a tower now watch watch what happens here this is Genesis 11 and they said to one another come let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly and they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar they then they said come let us build ourselves a city and a tower in other words they're not going to use this new technology to bless anybody else they're gonna build themselves a city and then sells a tower and watch what it says with the top in the heavens now this is important because in their tradition the flood went to the heavens they said we'll show God will build a tower over the heavens so that the flood if he decides to judge us again we can out technology God's judgment so not only is this new technology not being used to bless other people they're using it to serve themselves and not only they're using it to serve themselves they're using it to serve themselves in such a way where they have convinced themselves that this new technology allows them to out outdo anything God might do to right the ship this is going the wrong direction in Genesis the first 11 chapters of Genesis everything is moving the wrong direction now we need to see history in three dimensions that when ancient history right today history writers write history for one reason let me tell you what happened ancient history writers didn't do that they wrote it in three dimensions they wanted to tell you what happened but the bigger point was what does this mean and more importantly how does this change the way we're going to see things forever never never never never what did this do to change the way we're gonna see things from here on out right so the writer of Genesis the first 11 chapters he wants you to feel the meaning of this and the meaning is this whole thing could fall apart this whole things hanging on by a thread human beings really have no hope left to their own devices because look at what's happening here look what humans beings did in this period of time in the first 11 chapters of Genesis it covers a very long period of history in 11 chapters it's not giving you a whole lot of detail but it's giving you a whole lot of meaning and that meaning is these people tend to ruin themselves and dia is is is this whole thing could fall apart which leads me to this question have you ever felt that way have you ever looked at the news that thought man this whole world could fall apart have you ever looked at the news please realize that the world is getting better not worse but the news makes money telling you what's wrong what's wrong and when they don't have anything to report about what's wrong they'll tell you some sad story about a celebrity you know if you pick it up you'll see it right if they don't have anything bad to say they'll tell you some sort of scandal from a celebrity which gets them through the news cycle until they can tell you something bad again the idea is is that we can we can get to this question well wait a minute is this whole thing about to fall apart the good thing though is in Genesis 12 it starts to go well something good happens here's the story of that he says now the Lord said to Abram go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to a land that I will show you and I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great now does it stop there watch this what it says so that you will be a blessing I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing now you guys have been have heard a word from from brother Jerry about this is the year of flourishing right and and I'm not interested I'm not I'm not interested so much in what to believe you guys have well articulated what we're believing God for my question and I want to put some language around the other side of it which is how do you believe what you believe in other words if you did flourish what then what's going to happen on the other end of that in in Abraham's case it says I'm gonna bless you I'm gonna make your name great wait a minute so that you could be a blessing to other people now in the ancient world this was unheard of in the ancient world gods were regional so that God was the charge of that group of people that God was to charge and that group of people that God was in charge of that group of people and and if we need to see whose God is stronger we'll have a battle it's the the idea in the ancient world was our way is better our God is better our tribe is better and if you don't see it our way we're gonna show up and kick your rear end that's that's that's how this is going to go right and we'll just see whose God is bigger but this God is setting himself apart from all the other gods in the world by saying I want to make of you a great nation so that you could bless all other people no one had ever that's an idea that was very that would have never been heard of in the ancient world this is I'll bless those who bless you and who had disowned as you I will curse but in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed in other words anyone that wants in on this can get in on this and woe be to those who stand against it because this is a new this is the first time in scripture that you see a new type of humanity here's what's going on right the first type of humanity wasn't working very well and so God has this idea about a new sort of humanity and in that new sort of humanity right all people will we bless through this one guy all people we bless now let's dig into this just a little bit so God starts with one man when the intent to bless all people this would have been unbelievable of this in the ancient world this man had to be grounded in faith in God but not just a regional God a God that was for all other people this has to move from one man to one family to one tribe to one nation to all people this is the idea in Genesis 12 we're going to create a new humanity a humanity that is not divided by tribal lines by racial lines by even by even geographical lines we're not going to do that everybody that wants in this God evidently is for all people now that was a magnificent thought in that day but it was too much they had too much to sort of process there so let's apply that what does that have to do with us what does it mean to be people of faith well evidently people with faith are being enrolled as co-operators with God to bring about a new sort of humanity that being a person of faith is not just about the list of what we believe it's about working of how we believe that and how we embrace and establish this new sort of humanity where all people are being included in this thing that God is doing to people with faith our resistance to evil in the world blessing is about blessing all people in the ancient texts evil was not doing something inherently wrong evil was anytime you hoarded to yourself something God had done with no thought of how that's going to affect some body else evidently flourishing for flourishing sake was not what God was about but it was flourishing so that you could participate in what God was up to in other people let's say this way people with faith are inclusive of people who are not like them let's say and that's very challenge going to start with one man that leads to one tribe and one family and one nation to bless the world if you're going to do that how do you get his attention and evidently God chose the most craziest way to get this guy's attention he says the sign every tribe had a sign it could have been a mutilation on the body here or here you you would know you would know they belong to that tribe because of some sign on the body and God says no no no no no we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna do circumcision no one can really see that no one can tell but that's gonna be the sign of a group of people who are serious about participating with God in this new sort of humanity watch what he says this is Genesis 17 right this is a nod come in Abraham's very very old and God says I want you to circumcise yourself with a rock right it's an odd odd first command to a 90 year old man is pick up a rock swing hard don't miss that is crazy stuff right right 90 year old people their hands shake their eyes aren't great it's just not good it's it's it's a it's a perfect storm of a problem right Genesis 17 verse 9 to 11 watch this and God said to Abraham as for you you shall keep my covenant you and your offspring after you throughout your generations this is my covenant which you shall keep between you and me and your offspring after you every male amongst you shall be circumcised now this is a Genesis 17 can you see how years and years and years later when a rabbi tries to reinterpret that to say we don't really have to do that with Gentile people that can be problematic right you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins like this is very very very specific and very literal this is you can't really make a case that he's being metaphorical here he's like no no let me talk to you a little this is very literal language and it shall be a sign of the Covenant between you and me so this is about tribal identity this is about this is how you're gonna know these people are part of this tribe that I'm doing a new thing with right this is how you're gonna know they were circumcised which leads me to all kinds of observations about tribal identity let's talk about it this way we all hold our tribal identity close can't escape it if you're British you're British if you're selling African it's South African right if you're black you but you're white you're white you're Kiwi sorry if your dear Australians you're Australian we all hold it to some degree we all hold our tribal identity close that matters to us here's here's what Genesis 12 is getting after and this is what we still haven't worked out right Genesis 12 is teaching us that people of faith when our tribal identity potentially harms someone else and has crossed a bigger line when our tribal identity works against humanity it is counter to what God is up to let let me illustrate right if you are all right so we're in Queensland right so we'd have a couple Marone fans in here right right alright comer owns right right and of course we're we're what ten case from New South Wales so we got a few blues fans in here right right and in May everybody gets their colors out right this is tribal identity right it's it's the morones against the blues and you can know who belongs to what by the shirt they wear a whole lot easier than right but this this is this is good right this is good you go to Robina town centre up here right somebody there's gonna be a group of people wearing maroon shirts and a group of people wear blue shirts particularly around May and June when this thing called state of origin goes on these are tribal identity right and everybody everybody supports their team and they should this is this is a great thing but if you're if you're wearing your Maroons jersey and you're a full-blooded Marone you were born in emerald or something right there's no it doesn't get no more Queensland than you right and you're into it right you're going down you're walking through being a town centre and there's and there's a group of four people wearing blue shirts and in and let's say you're a medical doctor and you see one of them start to have a heart attack he holds his arm holds his chest falls to the ground and the other three wearing the blue shirt goes help somebody call a doctor somebody called triple o and you're there and you're a doctor and you look at that you think well if he was only wearing the right shirt I'd probably help it right right that is when tribal identity is now counter to something much bigger in a new humanity Blues morones Reds Springboks All Blacks someone's having a heart attack you drop your tribal identity and you help them you do CPR you do whatever you do it this is this was the idea given in Genesis 12 that when our tribal identity which should be it's the tension between honoring our tribal identity honoring what we believe and then the outworking of how we believe what we believe and what that does to affect how we treat people not in the tribe how do we treat the person wearing the different cut how does a springbok treat an all-black the night before the game if there's a problem right tribal identity cannot trump humanity that that our tribal identity anytime our tribal identity Trump's the goodness that God is up to in all of humanity it's counter to what God is up to let's see if I can explain this using developmental psychology terms okay so so there are there's three phases of exist so you have a kid right there's egocentric existence right if you're a philosopher you it that's called pre conventional wisdom egocentric is something you see in a two-year-old no one tells me what to do my favorite word is no my other favorite word is mine no mine if you quit giving to me I have a fit now two years old that is appropriate actually it's appropriate developmentally for two year-old to sort of figure out how far can I go where do I need to draw back how do I get exactly everything I need from whoever can give that to me and if I don't get it I will throw a fit now if you're 32 and someone tells you no and you throw a fit it's off-putting right because egocentricity is only cute for so far you can only poop your pants in public to a certain age before it's like dude we have facilities for that you know he's like yeah but I had to go I just put my pencil but no no but we have see but but but at two years old at two years old you you see people do things in a two-year-old you can't believe like pick them up and smell their butts you see that you're like did she do something I don't know and then they pick up and they sniff their butts and you're thinking I don't even know that I would pass that test are you kidding me right now right right but they sniff their butts why because at two years old egocentrism is sort of co right but then you at some point you've got to get past that to ethnocentrism yet no centricity filosophy it's called conventional wisdom and this is I will give it all for the tribe but no one else this is when someone I'm not a parent but I'm assuming somewhere around a door so you start handing out chores and you start explaining hey we're a family and because we're family everybody has to pull their own weight no no no we're not going to ask you to to do things that is above you but to make your own bed and pick up your toys and things like this we're gonna ask you to do that because you are a part of something bigger than you you're a part of a family or a tribe and then and then sometime after that hopefully the family journeys to worldcentric existence which is called post conventional wisdom which is wait a minute we're aware about how our actions or inactions affect the whole world the way we consume affects somebody else the way we drive affects somebody else the way we eat can effects can affect somebody else the way we the way we give affects somebody else the way we hoard can affect somebody else these things effects of a well we're aware of that then we've become world centric which leads me to some observations about the gospel all right this is where Paul is going an egocentric gospel is this flourish so that all of your desire for stuff is fulfilled so here's what there's a thing called faith and you can work that faith so that you could flourish but an egocentric gospel is flourish so you can have more stuff flourish so that our need for more things can King can go have faiths you could get more stuff anything that threatens your flourishing must be crushed so in an egocentric gospel it uses gospel language it says Jesus God faith Bible but it actually the Wow twerking of it the how to believe that is really egocentric it's about us but then there's an ethnocentric gospel and at the acentric gospel is flourish and cheer for people just like you to flourish right so I'm gonna believe God that I'm gonna flourish I'm gonna work my face so I could flourish and if it so happens that you flourish - I'm gonna legitimately celebrate that because we're all a part of the same tribe that's a step in the right direction it uses gospel language though to just simply mask tribal identity it says wait a minute wait a minute if you believe like us if you affirm the same statement of faith that we have if you if you come to our our rituals of of worship if you if you do that and you're just like us then we will celebrate your flourishing so we will celebrate our own flourishing and your flourishing as long as you're a part of our tribe but then there's something far more profound than that and that is a world centric gospel a gospel that says flourish so that you could help others flourish so you can make somebody else's life better I feel confident this because I've been coming for 14 years I feel confident then I am speaking with the Heart of Jerry Savelle with this that that Jerry Savelle would not ever say flourish and then enjoy it and don't help anybody else and don't worry about it no but see but see if we don't hear the whole story if we don't get to the whole heart of of what faith is about from Genesis 12 faith was about working faith so that you could flourish in order to have resources to help everybody else flourish it wasn't just about learning enough about scripture learning enough about God learning enough other stuff so that I could know a whole lot of stuff its way then how can I take this and pass it on to some body else how can I take this extra money I have and help feed some body else how can I take the extra resources I have for medicine and help give medicine to some but how can we take this extra shelter we have and and give up a little bit of shelter ourselves so that someone else can have shelter this has been the goal since the beginning this Jesus Bible God faith are all about helping others see the beauty in Jesus because Jesus was drawing all humanity to himself so let's talk about it this way so in Philippians the world is starting to have faith in Jesus now let me stop for a second let's talk about that I have yet to be to a prayer meeting in a church yet we're at some point in that prayer meeting somebody didn't pray either privately or publicly Lord use us to draw more people to yourself right Lord use us to draw more people Lord we're believing you for people we're believing you that people will see the beauty of God this is this is a good thing to pray here's the question if that actually happened how would we feel what would it be like if a hundred absolute pagans who knew nothing about e what would happen if they all bum-rush this place at once it's what you prayed for but then you're gonna have to walk through egocentric ethnocentric well it's like you it's like you walk in a kid from 2 to 8 like like are are we willing to actually humble ourselves and allow these people that we're praying God to bring in this is what was happening in the first century the first century was like come on come on let all humanity come to know Christ but then they started doing it and and it wasn't what they expected these people it surprised them these people didn't know that they were supposed to circumcise themselves they they were surprised to find out that when you tell a thirty year old man you got to be circumcised to be a part of this thing that he didn't want to do it right they were believing God for hey more people more people we celebrate people coming to God but wait a minute wait a minute the rituals and the temple they got to get to Jerusalem and worship no no no and so there was all these arguments about wait a minute what do we do with these people that we just prayed for which leads me to this observation about ourselves if we are praying for God to bring more people in or what would we do if he actually did it are we willing to walk through that entire process so in this story the tribe is saying we honor your conversion but you've got to become like us we honor the decision you made welcome but there's more you've got to become like us and Paul is writing back to these people and saying beware of those dogs beware of the people who say that the new humanity makes everybody become like one certain group of people beware of the dogs and he says it three different ways watch what he says when I show you this in Greek it was a great old-school alliterated sermon watch what he says beware of the dogs beware the evildoers beware the mutilators of the flesh beware of the dogs the evildoers he's you realize he never thought we'd still be reading this he's ranting to a group of people he's like they're dogs none of us that they're evildoers not their mutilators of the flesh right like he is he's ready and he's actually he uses Greek alliteration to make his point let me show you these words in Greek because he's talking about the same group of people watch what he says he says beware the dogs the word dogs is the word kindness chitin Oz his dog it was a metaphor in the first century for unclean you'd say it was it was actually a racial slur really it was it would be as bad as saying like the n-word or so it was it was it was bad it's something that's kind it's all a dog an outsider an unclean one and he's doing something very clever here he's saying hey Philippians those people are claiming look they've got me chained to a wall awaiting execution I can't get there what we find out later in acts is that they sent a delegation to all the pulse churches to teach them how they're going to think so Paul's havin to do in letter form and and he's trying to counteract what live people are doing in Philippi and he's like beware they're telling you you're unclean if you don't do this I'm telling you they are the unclean ones they are the kindness they are the beware of the dogs then he says beware of the evil doers the word evil doer is caucus which is exactly what it sounds like it's evil doer foul toxic it's waste it's where we get the word caca from like like like oh you're full of caca like it's it's it's that it is that it gets translated evildoer which sounds like someone's doing something inherently evil but the the the the the bigger connotation is beware of the unclean beware of the ones full of crap be beware beware of the ones the workers of bullcrap beware of the workers of poop be beware of those full of caca beware beware the dogs they are full of chuckles this this he is not mucking around here he is he is hey beware of the kindness because they're full of cockles beware of that he is not mincing words at all and then and then the third one the mutilators of the flesh the word mutilation is its conta Toman but remember what he says right after that he says for we are the true circumcision it's a play on words Kanta Tommen is to mutilate to cut to pieces peri Tommen is to circumcise perimeter - so perrito man is to cut around I don't think I need to explain that anymore without going to seventh grade anatomy class right perrito to cut around kata Tommen is to chop into pieces in Galatians later he says if they want to circumcise so bad I just wish they'd cut it all off right he just go ahead and just chop the whole thing off right and that's in Galatians chapter 5 it's in the Bible you can go read that later right he says he says beware of the kindness because they're full of coccus if they want to parry Tommen to make you fit in I just wish they'd go ahead and cut they're just cutting their mutilators they think they're doing something neat and clean but they're not they are mutilators of the flesh now which leads me to a few questions what do we do with this like this is profound Philippians 3 is profound confrontation of people who were letting tribal identity affect how they were treating everybody else which leads me to this question are we guilty of that so great sermons are not meant to be agreed with or disagreed with right so if you come up to me afterwards to say I love that I agree with you you've missed the point if you say I hated that I disagree with you you also missed the point great sermons are not meant to be agreed with or disagreed with declarations are meant to be agreed with or disagreed with sermons are meant to be wrestled with what good does this sermon do you if you're not willing to ask a few questions of it and wrestle with it a bit so let's let's talk about a few questions that we could wrestle with around this one do we have faith to flourish for egocentric ethnocentric or worldcentric reasons what's your motive do you simply want more stuff or are we existing to allow our tribe to flourish or is it even more propelling that do we want our tribe to flourish so that everyone somehow our tribe can bless people not like us let's say this way do we present the gospel with an even me tone here's what I mean by that that we don't think we're more righteous we don't think we're more clean Jesus loves even me if I told you about all my darkness you'd be surprised that Jesus loves me too and you you could come in you could be a partisan yeah yeah but I was a criminal I know but cook you could be a part yeah but I struggle with my sexuality I I know but you can Jesus loves you as well yeah I struggle with unrepentant overeating I I know I know you do it's it's obvious you blood types chicken gravy we can all see this right but but you're not surprising anybody right right we understand we we all no one's gonna be surprised when we find out your true eating habits we can say right but come on hey hey come on in we even a if I told you all my darkness you'd be really surprised too do we present the gospel with an even me or do we take one thing that's unique one thing about our belief system that unique one thing about our code one thing about something oh well unless your this we're cleaner that is beware of the dog do we let people belong before they believe or behave this is one outworking of it do we pray to God to allow people to see the grace of Jesus but then resist the humility it would take to let them be what they are but do we allow people to fully belong here before they believe and become like us and before they learn to behave listen gone I mean gone are the days this was 30 years ago 30 years ago this is how church growth worked find people who already know how to behave bring them here we'll teach them what to believe and then they can belong let's try that's country club that's terrible stuff right the way by far and that's going the right direction is is I don't care what you are who you are where you came from what your current thought is you can belong here because we believe that the Spirit of the risen Christ is the only way to make permanent change and we're going to trust him to do all the convicting and all the changing and on the way there you can belong here because we're in a tribe that believes God is for all people even us even you you can't want mercy for yourself and then justice for everybody else it just doesn't work that way let's say this way where are we tempted to use the gospel to simply validate our tribal identity is there any place that we use words like Jesus God faith is there any sense that we've we've come to believe that we are so aligned with God that when we speak of God we're just speaking of ourself with a giant megaphone right like you don't do that right God is in the process of forming all of us still and we're not even close we have any to scratch the surface of what God is doing where do we use our codes and our good things and even our Bibles to go we belong and you don't let's say this way do we believe that we're a bit better more righteous or more pure is there any sense that we're like that beware of that dog beware of that dog let's say this way in what sense are we enabled or is there any sense that we're a bit full of Koko's is there any sense of that like like this was um this happened to be just a few months ago I was at a church and someone was talking to me afterwards and they were like man let's look at your schedule how do you hang with them and them I said what do you mean they said well we've seen your schedule you've done a state conference for the seventh day of Venice and you've also taught for the Catholics and then you hang out with these Word of Faith people and then you've done an assembly god national conference but you've also done a baptist national come for somewhere else this is one place you'd have had to wear a robe how do you hang out with all these people how does that not confuse what you actually believe now that one question told me everything I needed to know about that person I'm begging you can't hang out with people not like you you can't live in peace with people that believe a little is it the cross of resurrection a bit more unifying than that like no matter what this person here believes or this person here believes at the end of the day if my hands are around the foot of the cross and his hands around the foot of the cross aren't we brothers beware of that dog it is full of Koko's you know what I'll listen to you I'll listen to you but if you say one thing I don't agree with I'm not gonna listen to you ever again are you seven you can't listen to someone unless they already agree with you you can't read books unless you already agree with what the author says beware of that dog that is full of coccus we don't love them until they convert beware of that dog I met some very moving people and I can't mention their names because where they are is illegal and um and what it's illegal what they're doing so to process it's not illegal what they're doing to proselytize is illegal so to evangelize is illegal and and I was talking said I was telling them about the frustration of how hard it would be to convert this poor group of people that are from a different tradition and and they went you know what it was at first but we shifted and what we had to ask ourselves the question are we loving them so that they'll convert or are we loving them simply because it's the right thing to do and he said once we shifted that it doesn't matter if they ever convert we're gonna still give them medicine we're gonna still give them food we're gonna still do that we've seen more people come to Christ once we shifted that the thought of I'll go as long as I can convert them beware of that dog beware of that dog or any sense that our group is right or better more educated richer beware of that dog beware of the dog that says faith is a list of what's in the ancient Hebrew faith was not a what word faith was a who word who do you trust how are you gonna work your faith in who you trust said that you could flourish but not just flourish flourish for your tribe oh but not just flourish as a tribe flourish for all mankind Paul is reasserting what God was asserting in genesis 12 which is i have a vision for a new humanity a new group of people who accept people not like them because the foot of the cross unites us all that is beautiful and compelling beware of the dog because it can be full of coccus beware of that let me pray for you Lord we love you we honor you everybody it's been a great service why don't you thank you for joining us like to take this time to say thanks once again maybe you'd want to become a part of that family of the Jesus Christ our family not about joining a church is about joining of your family that goes beyond all sorts of boundaries and barriers you need to be able to say that simple prayer with us if you'd like to follow me you say Jesus come into my life take hold of me lead me guide me father thank you for sending Jesus to take my place on the cross and in hell and so that I may live a life that is pleasing unto you thank you Father for sending Jesus Holy Spirit come in and empower me to live a life that we pleasing to God what a thank you for saying that prayer and joining our family we'd love to be in contact with you if you would respond to the details on the website via email or phone we'd love to be able to send some resources to you god bless and have a wonderful day

Channel: Heritage of Faith Church Gold Coast

Views: 4,383

Rating: 4.7272725 out of 5

Keywords: Heritage of Faith, Gold Coast, Shane Willard, Gold Coast Churches, Faithful Shall Flourish, Glory Flourishing Abounding, Jerry Savelle

Id: 3aTOucdl5CM

Length: 47min 55sec (2875 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 05 2018