Sermon Cloud

When Will I Be Happy with My Life?

When I’m Understood

Philippians 1:27—2:2 

INTRODUCTION

When will I be happy with my life?  We’ve been looking at the different answers to this question.  Because we’re all under the impression that happiness is just in front of us if we can only make something happen.    

Today…   I’ll be happy when I’m understood!     

We all think this.  We want to be known, understood… Cheers—the television show from the 80’s and 90’s drove this home.  Their theme song was as popular as the show.  You want to be where everyone knows your name.  Where you’re known, understood, accepted.   

Why?  I think it’s because we want to be free to be ourselves—warts and all, problems, baggage—we want to feel like we don’t always have to be on.  We’ve had this and so we conclude—if everyone could just understand me, life would be great. 

Problem—if that’s the answer, then what’s your focus?  To get everyone to understand you.  Do you know people like this?  Are you like this?  It doesn’t lead to happiness—it makes us controlling, pushy. 

Don’t wait to be understood.  The gospel calls us to understand others—that is what will make us happy.  Cheer’s created this amazing phenomenon where people felt like they were part of the gang at the bar.  They were part of the family there—not because the tv characters understood the viewers, but because the viewers understood the characters.    

In our passage, Paul speaks about unity in the face of opposition.  AS we look at Paul’s words, we have to understand that unity only comes through understanding others.  We’ll see that in three points today: 

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  1. Understanding Others Brings Unity in the Church
  2. Understanding Others Brings Unity With the World
  3. Understanding Others Comes from Being United with God

1. Understanding Others Brings Unity in the Church (v27)

“Worthy of the gospel”

This isn’t earning the gospel, but being characterized by it.  Salvation is a gift. Gifts make you humble.  A walk worthy of the gospel in this passage means unity 

Stand for Unity

In one Spirit (v27).  Not just one spirit, but in the Spirit.  We’re all standing in the same place—in the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit makes us Christians.  Makes us a family. 

To do this well, we have to recognize that the Spirit makes us one family, but it also makes us different because the Spirit works differently in each of us.  The Bible says it’s like a body—one body with different parts that do different functions. 

Isn’t this our biggest struggle?  Relationships.  Starts in the church  How are we doing in the church?    No one likes the church when it’s divided.  No one respects the churches divisions.  If we’re not united, the world has every reason to ignore us. 

People get it that there are going to be different approaches to things in the church, and they have more respect for people, for churches that honor the differences and know how to disagree. 

Jesus said, “A kingdom divided cannot stand.” 

Quote from the Lord of the Rings:  “In nothing is the power of the enemy more clearly shown than in the fighting that divides those who oppose him.” 

I’d go a step further.  Today, we may not fight with those who aren’t like us, but do you know and appreciate what the Spirit of God is doing in the lives of others? 

Strive for Unity—Paul says we have to fight together for this. 

As a TEAM.  Where do you see talented people fail because they can’t work as a team?  Sports—all the time.  Marriages—happens a lot.  USA Olympic basketball team.   

To experience this, you first seek not to tell them your story, but to listen and understand theirs.   

We have rich and poor, black and white, young and old, and homed and homeless in our church family—do you know how God’s Spirit is working in the lives of people who aren’t like you?  How are they encouraged by God?  What gives them joy?   You Understanding (not being understood) is the key to real unity in the church— 

Gary Chapman:

“If we do not feel understood in a relationship, our differences are magnified.  We come to view each other as a threat to our happiness.  We fight for self-worth and significance, and the relationship becomes a battlefield rather than a place of rest.” 

Trying to be understood makes things worse.  You can’t get anyone to understand you.  That is squeezing too tightly.  But seeking ot understand is letting go of their reaction and being concerned about your response—that’s all you have control over anyway. 

Gary Chapman  
“Understanding is not the answer to everything, but it creates a climate of security in which we can seek answers to those things that bother us.  In the security of understanding, you can discuss differences without condemnation.  We discover how to bring out the best in each other.  The decision to understand holds tremendous potential.  “ 

A Puritan pastor hundreds of years ago said this, “In important things—we need unity, in secondary things— we need freedom, in all things— we need love and understanding.” 

When we do this, create community. 

If you start by needing to be understood, no one will be understood.  If you start seeking to understand others, then you get both.   

2. Understanding Brings Unity with the World (v28-30)

Opposition is present, v28—opponents, v29—suffering, v30—conflict.  Today what opposition do we face? 

People who don’t understand or like our faith.  People who think our faith is the cause for so much of the world’s problems.  People who don’t want us to share our faith or force it on others.   

As a first step, we should often deal with opposition the same way we approach the community of the church—We should UNDERSTAND THEM!   

Usually for me—“I don’t believe in that either.  I don’t believe in that God either.  I think that’s wrong too.”  Often we can help debunk peoples’ wrong ideas of Christianity.   

The more we take the time to understand where people are coming from, the better relationship we develop, and there are a lot of instances where opposition will dissipate with understanding.   

A number of people at DT have been asking non-believers in their lives questions about what are the biggest problems in the city, biggest problems that people have with the church.  We are listening!  And we are learning.  Not getting defensive, but trying to understand where people are with this.   

When Christians and non-Christians have taken the time to understand each other, then, “even if you remain the skeptic or believer you have been, you will hold your own position with both greater clarity and greater humility.  Then there will be an understanding, sympathy, and respect for the other side that did not exist before.  Believers and non-believers will rise to the level of disagreement rather than simply denouncing one another.  This happens when each side has learned to represent the other's argument in its strongest and most positive form.  Only then is it safe and fair to disagree with it.  That achieves civility in a pluralistic society, which is no small thing.”  (Tim Keller, Reason for God, xviii-xix). 

Now, this doesn’t always happen.  Paul had major trouble in Philippi.  He was captured, falsely accused, beaten with canes, and imprisoned in stocks because his faith opposed some of the business practices in the city.  There are times when people are going to continue to be hostile to you and your faith no matter how understanding you are.  This is all the more reason why we have to be unified.   

Paul says, Our Unity Shows the Outcome of our Conflict(v28)

When the church stands and strives together, God speaks.  Paul is living this out.  Caesar’s own Imperial Guard is being affected because of Paul. 

At this point in the reading of this letter, the Philippian jailer would have said:  “Yep, that did it for me!  After all the suffering, Paul was singing praise to God.  They didn’t escape when they had the chance.  I knew that they had something real.”  You can read about this in Acts 16.   

When we engage together in mercy ministry, this is a great way that we strive together and speak to the city about God’s heart for the poor, God’s heart for the healing and restoration of the city.  When we act together, God speaks through us!  

So we don’t have to be frightened

Some see it and want what we have.  Some see it, and reject it, but our lives are a testimony that is more powerful than their opposition.  Wes—when things go bad, you can be a calming influence on others.  Pretty soon, you’re the go to person.” 

Here’s an amazing note on Suffering  (v29)

It’s a gift—One thing if Paul said, “well, you’ll be blessed one day, but in the mean time, you’ll have to suffer (sorry about that).”  But Paul says suffering is a blessing.  

Gordon Fee—“Through death on the cross, he not only saved us, but he modeled for us God’s way of dealing with the opposition:  loving them to death.” 

Union with Christ flourishes when we suffer.  WE are part of something big—God’s plan to save the world.  Jesus suffered to conquer sin and death, when we suffer and respond in faith, we continue to show the victory of Christ over evil. 

Suffering is evidence that God looks on you with favor.  This is big, mind and life altering.  Huge today and in Paul’s day. He wants to show the world his answer through you!  He’s chosen you to be a modern picture of Jesus. 

3. Understanding Comes from Being Understood by God (2:1-2)

Paul says “If,” but it’s clear that he means “since.”  He’s saying you understand others since you’ve been understood by God.  You’ve experienced God, and that is what motivates you to understand others.   
 

You have comfort from the love of God.  God’s love is unconditional.  It’s his love that you share with others.   

Participation in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God’s presence within you.  He knows you intimately and loves you.  You extend this to others.   

This experience of God—Father, Son, and Spirit gives us the desire and the feelings to love others.  V1—Affection and sympathy.  Experiencing God produces real feelings to care for and understand others. 

But how can you know that this will really make you happy?  How can we know this is really the true path to happiness?   

If you doubt, you need the beginning of verse 1:  You need the encouragement of Christ.   

Jesus did this—during  his whole life only God understood him.  He spent his whole life loving, serving, seeking to understand others, to join with them.  It’s true he explained and taught and preached about his mission and the kingdom of God, but first and foremost, Jesus spent his time understanding us and our needs.  He didn’t wait until we understood him before he served us.  He lived and died for us while we still didn’t understand him.  For Jesus, it was more important to sacrifice himself than to make sure he was understood.   

Jesus’ life is the one that God chose to resurrect!  Jesus died in his understanding service of us, and God brought him through death and out the other side.  Jesus’ life was resurrection because that’s the life that God blesses.  And he did this for us.  Now he shares his blessings and his example for us to follow.   

When you follow Jesus, it causes you to pass through death into resurrection.  Understanding is heaven come to earth.  When you live like this—you experience Jesus and heaven to today.  That’s real happiness that lasts.