July 14, 2025 • 32 mins
Where do you find your joy? Is it in delicious food, exciting vacations, meaningful relationships, or good health? These sources of happiness seem natural—but what happens when they're taken away?
In this eye-opening exploration of Philippians 3, Ben Carruthers guides us through the Apostle Paul's radical perspective on joy. Writing from a Roman prison, Paul makes a shocking claim: all his impressive credentials and accomplishments—his perfect religious pedigree, his authority, his blameless law-keeping—he now considers "rubbish" compared to knowing Christ.
What makes this perspective even more remarkable is Paul's life after coming to Christ. Rather than prosperity and comfort, he experienced beatings, imprisonments, shipwrecks, hunger, and constant danger. Yet from these circumstances came a letter overflowing with references to joy.
This apparent contradiction reveals the heart of the gospel message. True joy isn't dependent on favorable circumstances or personal achievements. It persists through hardship because it's rooted in who we are in Christ, not what we do. Our righteousness isn't earned through a spiritual checklist—it's a gift received through relationship.
Ben reminds us that while earthly sources of joy can disappear in an instant, the joy found in Christ remains constant. Through powerful personal stories and biblical insights, he demonstrates that God established relationship before rules, desiring connection above compliance.
Listen as we discover the freedom of finding our worth in Christ alone, and learn how to experience "Joy Anyway"—a joy that persists regardless of circumstances because it's grounded in an unshakable relationship with the God of the universe who desires to know you.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, good morning.
I'm Ben Carruthers.
I'm the director of student andfamily ministry here.
It's great to be worshipingwith you this morning.
And I had to laugh.
I had to just go up to Soniaand I was like during the
baptism.
I said did you know that JackReacher is a godfather?
You look just like Jack Reacher, matthew, holy smokes.
I saw you in the hall.
I was like Jack Reacher, oh mygosh, I love you.
(00:26):
Glad you're here.
Come on back.
Yeah, so my name's Ben.
I'm super excited to be here andto talk about this sermon
series, called Joy, anyway,which we've been diving into the
book of Philippians over thepast three weeks, and so we're
talking about joy and, as youread this passage, there wasn't
a lot of joy to be found inthere.
So the goal of this morning isto really have our eyes open,
(00:48):
because it really is litteredwith the theme of joy and, being
that this sermon is around theidea of joy, I'm making you a
promise that I will not mentionDisney World once in this whole
sermon.
I'm going to get through it.
I'm going to do it, I believe.
But there is joy in thispassage.
What did you say?
Well, now, all right, from nowon, I get one, but we're going
(01:15):
to dive into this passage, andso this is probably something
that you maybe have been askingyourself over the past three
weeks.
But this question of where doyou find joy?
Where do you find joy?
Perhaps for some of you, it'sin food.
Maybe it's in food A big juicycheeseburger, which, let's be
(01:39):
honest, no matter what anyonesays, is way better than a
Chipotle burrito, way better,way better Big old juicy Lucy,
no problem, right?
Maybe that's where you find joy.
Maybe it's vacation to a themepark in Orlando.
I don't know, maybe that's it.
Maybe vacation is where youfind your joy.
(02:00):
Maybe in relationshipsRelationships to your kids, to
your wife, to your husband, tothe people here, to family, to
friends.
Maybe it's in relationships iswhere you find your joy.
Maybe in health.
Maybe you just find great joyin being healthy and eating
healthy and probably not eatingall the Juicy Lucys that you
want to and being active.
(02:20):
There's a men's group that everySunday, at 1 o'clock, plays
pickleball, and I love it.
I come out on Sundays and I getmy butt whooped by men 20 years
older than me.
It's pretty humbling, but maybethat's what brings you joy.
What I'd like to do is we'regoing to pray, and as we pray, I
want you to think about thatquestion what brings you joy?
(02:42):
And that picture, or whateverit is that comes to mind.
I want you to hold on to thatto the end of the message this
morning, because we're going tocome back to it as we dive into
this passage.
That, I think, gives us apretty clear idea of what joy
looks like and where true joycomes from.
So will you pray with me, god,we give you thanks and praise
(03:06):
for this morning, for the giftof baptism and for the gift of
Scripture, scripture that talksabout joy, this letter from Paul
, written in prison to a churchjust starting up in Philippi, of
a message of joy on where weget our joy.
For some of us, lord, that's ahard question to answer right
(03:31):
now, and so, lord, I pray forclarity of this passage.
I pray that you speak clearlythis morning and that we leave
this place with a new idea ofwhat joy looks like.
In your name, we pray Amen.
Last week, if you were here,ryan had a ton of glasses that
he weaved into his sermon, and Ithink he cursed me because I
can't read what's on my paperwithout these bad boys.
(03:52):
Now, this is something new, soI'll be going back and forth.
So, this idea of fluence, wehave to kind of understand the
greater context of what's goingon in this letter.
Yeah, paul wrote it when he wasin prison in Rome, to this new
church, which is not a buildingthat we think of church today.
It's a group of believers,believers in this new movement
of Christianity.
This is something new, and sohe's writing to these young
(04:14):
believers about something veryspecific, about something very
specific that's going on withinthe church at that moment.
Philippians 1 through 3, so ourpassage started at 4, so we got
to go back a little bit toverses 1 through 3, so you can
pop that up there for mePhilippians 3, 1 through 4.
Finally, my brothers andsisters which, by the way, there
(04:36):
are four very long chapters inthe book of Philippians, and
he's not even halfway throughand he's already saying finally,
which proves that he was apastor right off the bat.
Finally, my brothers andsisters, rejoice in the Lord.
To write the same things to youis not troublesome to me and
for you it is a source ofsteadfastness.
Beware of the dogs, beware ofthe evil workers, beware of
(04:59):
those who mutilate the flesh,for it is we who are the
circumcision.
So here Paul starts off bywriting this message of beware,
(05:28):
beware of these dogs, beware ofwhat they are teaching and
preaching, because this iswhat's going on.
Paul had missionary journeys,right, he went all to these
different places and he spokeand preached the good news, the
gospel of Jesus Christ, andpeople started to gain momentum
with this message, started tobelieve in this message that
it's just Jesus.
Right Now, this is a reallydifficult message for many
(05:50):
people.
If you were Jewish, you livedby a certain set of laws.
This is what it meant to be inrelationship with God by
following these laws.
Now you're told that it's thisJesus guy, that believing in him
, finding a relationship withhim, is what brings
righteousness and salvation.
So it's a confusing time.
At the same time, it's evenmore confusing for a group of
(06:13):
people called the Gentiles.
The Gentiles were people whowere not of the Jewish faith,
who did not follow the Jewishlaw, and so now they hear this
message of this guy named Jesus,who lived and died and was
resurrected by the power of Godand by the Holy Spirit, and that
they have a relationship withhim in this way that it's Jesus
(06:33):
is the way to righteousness andJesus is the way to life.
And so they hear this messageand they start to follow this
new gospel.
Well, at the time, there were agroup of people called the
Judaizers, and the Judaizerswere Jewish Christians who
believed in the resurrection ofJesus, in the relationship with
him, but also believed that youhad to follow the law, the
(06:56):
Jewish law.
You see, it just wasn't about arelationship with God, with
Christ, but you still had tofollow the Jewish law, which,
for men, meant circumcision,which means that you had to
follow the Jewish law, which,for men, meant circumcision,
which means that you had tofollow dietary restrictions,
which meant that you had toworship on all the Jewish
holidays and festivals andfollow all of the Jewish law.
And Paul is referring to thisas dogs, they are saying this is
(07:19):
not the gospel.
The gospel is Jesus.
Only Now, throughout this wholemessage, we're going to refer
to the law, and Paul talks aboutit in great length here.
But I want you to know and we'llcome back to this that the law
is not bad, that Paul is notbashing the law.
So keep that in mind.
So Paul's writing this churchand saying man.
(07:39):
People are coming around andtelling you something different,
telling you a different gospel,so be aware, be aware of what
they're doing and continue topreach.
And then he goes on to say thatif it was about the law, if it
was about keeping all of thesethings and a checklist of doing
(07:59):
all the right things, there wasno one really more than me that
have confidence in their ability.
You see the word flesh in thatpassage.
We often use it as sinfuldesire or sinful nature, but
that's not what Paul is sayinghere.
Paul is using human nature hereIn our ability or inability to
follow the law.
(08:20):
Can we do enough?
Paul is saying if there'sanyone who could have confidence
in doing enough, it's me.
So Philippians 3, or the nextpart of Philippians says this
Once it popped there we goPhilippians 3, 4 through 6.
Even though I too have reasonfor confidence in the flesh,
which means I have reason tobelieve in the confidence of my
(08:41):
human nature, my ability to dothings, if anyone else has
reason to be confident in theflesh, which means I have reason
to believe in the confidence ofmy human nature, my ability to
do things, if anyone else hasreason to be confident in the
flesh.
I have more.
Circumcised on the eighth day, amember of the people of Israel,
the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrewborn of Hebrews.
As to the law, a Pharisee as tozeal, a persecutor of the
church.
As to righteousness under thelaw, blameless, he's saying.
(09:04):
If anyone has confidence intheir ability, it would be me.
The Jewish word for confidence,which also means trust or faith
, is pepoithesis.
It's up here on the screen,pepoithesis.
Everyone say pepoithesis.
Yeah, now, if you're like meand horrible at Greek, I
remembered it by saying Pepoy'sthesis.
(09:25):
So there you go, you canremember that now, pepoy's
thesis.
This word, which he uses acouple times in the passage,
means confidence, trust or faith.
He's saying, man, if there'sanyone that could have faith in
his abilities to be foundrighteous, it's him.
And then Paul goes on to giveus a list of reasons why.
(09:46):
So can you go back to thatscripture?
I think I jumped on you, but goback to that scripture for me.
He says this he says reason tobe confident.
I was circumcised on the eighthday, which in Jewish faith
meant that was the day you weresupposed to be circumcised.
A week, seven days representedcreation.
God rest on the seventh day.
Eighth day is new life, and sohe was circumc.
Rests on the seventh day.
Eighth day is new life, and sohe was circumcised on the eighth
(10:07):
day.
A member of the people of Israel, a true Hebrew, a member of the
people of our tribe of Benjamin.
Benjamin was a tribe that hadsome prestige about it.
It was the only tribe thatstayed with Judah when Israel
split and divided.
It was where the first king wasfrom, King Saul of Israel.
Benjamin had some prestige toit.
(10:29):
So he's giving you a backgroundinto his family.
Look at it.
If it's family family tree, I'mset.
I got that.
And then he goes.
As for a Pharisee, someone whofollows the law, I was a
Pharisee, not just a Pharisee,but he's stunted under Gamal,
which is Gamal the elder.
Like the Pharisee of Pharisee,the teacher, a high-ranking
teacher and official.
(10:49):
He's stuttered under him.
Persecutor of the church,righteousness under the law,
blameless, in other words.
Paul is saying I'm the man.
That's what he's saying.
That's Paul the man, olivia,who does an awesome job with our
slides.
I said, olivia, can you find apicture of Paul like being the
man?
Like what does it look like tobe the man?
(11:10):
And she asked me.
She's like do you mind if I useAI, and she asked me that
because I don't like AI.
It kind of freaks me out alittle bit.
I've seen Terminator 2 way toomuch.
I know how it it ends, I'm alittle bit freaked out about it.
So she did.
So.
This is Paul AI, paul as beingthe man he looks kind of like
that fun uncle that comes to theparty.
Right, he had everything goingfor him.
(11:31):
He had everything.
He lists everything in which hecould have confidence in.
He was the man.
He had it all.
There might be a moment or twoin your life when you know what
this feels like, to kind of beon the mountaintop.
For one of those instances inmy life I don't have many, but
one I can remember very clearlywas right out of high school I
(11:53):
think I was probably 19 yearsold.
A buddy of mine, brad, and Istarted a band and that band was
called Two Minute Warning andwe put out a CD and that's it.
Right, there I am the handsomefellow on the right wearing
flip-flops for our CD cover.
We put this CD out and Brad, mybuddy, he wrote all the music.
(12:15):
He played guitar, lead, guitar,my buddy, he wrote all the
music.
He played guitar, lead guitar,acoustic guitar.
He played bass.
I drummed.
That was my contribution to theband.
I just drummed, but it was fun,man.
We got to go into a recordingstudio and record these songs
and then we sold the CD, mainlyto people like in our youth
group and my mom who bought overhalf of the coffees.
Okay, and it was awesome.
(12:39):
We'd sell these CDs and thesekids would come up and want us
to sign it and we'd be playingout somewhere and they'd be like
play Two Minute Warning, playTwo Minute Warning.
So we'd bust out a Two MinuteWarning song.
It was awesome.
I felt like the man.
And then about a week latercame and no one cared about Two
Minute Warning.
I don't know if any of you havetwo-minute warning hits on your
(13:00):
iPod playlists or are stillrocking two-minute warning.
I highly doubt it.
No one remembers this, but Ican tell you for that day or two
when kids were asking to buyCDs and asking for us to sign
them, I felt like the man andthen it was gone.
It was gone.
(13:25):
See, we put confidence in thingslike this and Paul is saying if
there was anyone to putconfidence in their abilities
and their righteousness to befound in doing all the right
things.
It's me Paul was the man, andtheir righteousness to be found
in doing all the right things.
It's me Paul was the man.
But this part of Scripture isnot about him bragging about his
ability to be found righteousin the law.
(13:46):
It's not about him boastinghimself up.
A matter of fact, it's just theopposite, because after that he
tells you exactly what hethinks about those moments.
Go to the next passage for me.
In Philippians 3, 7 through 8,he continues.
So, after he lists his resumefor you, which is pretty
impressive, he says Yet,whatever gains I had, these I
(14:09):
have come to regard as lossbecause of Christ.
More than that, I regardeverything as loss because of
the surpassing value of knowingChrist Jesus, my Lord, and it's
not just knowing of, like I knowof some of you, or I know of
all this, it's this relationshipthat he has with Christ Jesus
(14:29):
as his Lord.
For his sake, I have sufferedthe loss of all things and I
regard them as rubbish in orderthat I may gain Christ.
He looks at his resume, at allof those things that the world
would say yep, you have power,you have prestige, you have
(14:50):
authority, the world would sayyep, you hit it.
He looks at all of that and hesays I find no confidence in any
of that.
None hit it.
He looks at all of that and hesays I find no confidence in any
of that.
None of it.
Not only that, but he calls ita loss.
Not only that is, he calls itrubbish.
Now, another Greek word for youtoday is skubala.
(15:11):
Everyone say skubala.
Much easier.
I got no rhyming for you onthat one, but skubala, scubala.
It's interesting.
Who you talk to Depends on thescholar that you read.
There's a couple differentideas of what this word means.
One is that we find it in a lotof ancient writings when
talking about farming, wherethey would clear a field and
(15:31):
take all of the good grain andall of the good food and then
there would be the droppingsleft for the dogs or the animals
.
They would refer to that aswaste or skubala.
Now, when I took Greek inseminary, the way that you learn
it because it's a lot more funis that skubala means like dung.
(15:54):
It means like a big pile ofbull, scubula, right, they love
teaching this because it makes apoint.
Now, both, whatever you want toview it, as Paul is making a
very clear point here that allof that is worth nothing if not
(16:14):
in Christ.
All of the accomplishments isscubala compared to knowing
Christ.
This is a dramatic change inwhat people would view.
It's a dramatic change in theworld today, the way that we
view things.
Because let's go back to hislist of all these things, that
(16:37):
accomplishments that he had, man, if that was his life before
knowing Jesus, and he says thatthat's a bunch of scubala
compared to knowing Christ.
Well then, what was his lifelike after knowing Christ man,
if he had power and if he hadprestige and if he had authority
?
What in the world did his lifelook like?
(16:58):
And he tells us in the book ofActs and also in his letter to
the Corinthian church in thesecond book.
He tells us, he tells us whathis life was like.
Are there ministers of Christ?
I'm talking like a madman.
I am a better one, with fargreater labors, far more
imprisonments with countlessfloggings and often near death.
(17:19):
Five times I have received fromthe Jews the forty lashes minus
one.
Don't know why I just putthirty-nine.
He made us do math, I don'tknow.
Three times I was beaten withrods Once.
I received a stoning Threetimes.
I was shipwrecked.
For a night and a day I wasadrift at sea on frequent
journeys, in danger from rivers,danger from bandits, danger
(17:43):
from my own people, danger fromGentiles, danger in the city,
danger in the wilderness, dangerat sea, danger from false
brothers and sisters in toil andhardship through many a
sleepless night, hungry andthirsty, often without food,
cold and naked.
That doesn't seem better.
(18:04):
Well, there's more, so maybe itdoes get better.
So the next passage incorinthians.
It continues on.
And, besides other things, I amunder daily pressure because of
my anxiety for all the churches.
Who is weak?
And I am not weak.
Who is made to stumble?
And I am not ignorant.
Not only has all this physicalstuff happened to him, but Paul
(18:28):
is full of worry and anxiety forthese young, new churches
holding on to this new gospel ofwhat it means to live in life
with Christ, to be foundrighteous in Christ.
He has worry and anxiety.
Okay, well, maybe it getsbetter.
We got one more.
Let's see if it finally turnsaround for Paul, even
considering the exceptionalcharacter of the revelations.
(18:50):
Therefore, to keep me frombeing too elated or too proud, a
thorn was given to me in theflesh, a messenger of Satan to
torment me.
This is Paul after Christ.
Paul before Christ.
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The resume looked pretty good.
Power, prestige, authority.
Walked into a room.
People knew who he was.
Post-christ.
This.
That doesn't make sense.
So it might look a little bitlike this the fun uncle on the
(19:42):
left makes more sense.
Joy is found in Christ right.
The joy of the Lord is mystrength.
Joy is found in Christ.
Then why does Paul on the rightlook like a man who's never
seen joy or experienced joy?
(20:03):
But Paul says everything beforeknowing Christ is scubala.
It doesn't compare to knowingChrist Jesus.
How can this be, how can thisbe a message of joy when it
looks like this?
(20:25):
Because Paul is preaching thegospel here, because Paul is
giving us good news, because itshould be good news for us to
hear that our righteousness, oursalvation, is not built into a
checklist of following a certainset of rules, that if we check
(20:47):
every box, this is how we'remade righteous.
If we do enough good things,this is our ticket to heaven,
paul is saying that is scubala,that is rubbish.
Now again, the law is important.
I'm going to come back to it.
So make sure we know that thelaw is important.
But when people are saying it'sjesus and that's when he has a
problem, that's when we shouldhave a problem, because it's not
(21:10):
about jesus and the good worksyou do, it's not about the
salvation that comes and therighteousness that is found in
Jesus and making sure you'refollowing all these risks.
It's just Jesus and praise Godfor that Because, like Paul is
saying, man, if there was oneperson who had confidence in the
things that he did to earn hisrighteousness, it would be him.
(21:32):
I can't hold a candle to Pauland so praise God that our
righteousness is not found inthe things that we do.
And there's a flip side to this, the flip side that our
righteousness, our salvation,our forgiveness of sins is not
found in the things that we do.
(21:52):
And it's also not found in themistakes we make.
There is no mistake that youcan make that can take you away
from the love that is in ChristJesus, our Lord.
That can take you away from thelove that is in Christ Jesus,
our Lord.
We can take those and we laythem at the feet of the cross.
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Man, some of you might thinkit's way too big.
I've hurt too many people.
It can't be that easy and I cantell you from personal
experience.
There's nothing that you can'tlay down there, that Christ
won't forgive, and that's goodnews.
You see, we have these twoimages up here the cross, where
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we go and lay down our mistakes.
We lay down those sins in ourlives, those things that we've
done to hurt ourselves and hurtother people, the mistakes that
we make.
We can go and freely lay themdown at the feet of the cross
and know that we haveforgiveness.
Why?
Because of what we just sawhere the promises in baptism.
We'll baptize anybody infants,teenagers, adults, whatever but
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the purpose behind it is thesame.
But the purpose behind it isthe same.
The babies don't come to thiswater and receive these promises
of forgiveness of sins, ofeternal life, because of
anything that they have done.
They're babies, they haven'tdone anything, but yet these
promises are given to thembecause they are a child of God.
(23:23):
When an adult comes here, whena teenager comes to the font,
it's not because that they havenow done enough to deserve these
promises.
It's because of who they arethat they receive the promises
that are in this water and notreally even in this water.
This is a sign that we use asymbol of God's promises of
forgiveness of sins, of life.
This is good news and it's inthis good news message that we
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find joy, and it might not be ajoy that puts a fun uncle smile
on our face.
It's that joy that, when Paulwas in prison, writing to the
Philippians having gone to beingshipwrecked, being beaten,
being arrested falsely wrecked,being beaten, being arrested
(24:12):
falsely that he can write aboutjoy that is found in Christ
Jesus.
This is the good news of thegospel.
This is the joy that is foundhere in this passage.
This is how we bring it back tojoy.
So what did you picture when Iasked you what brings you joy?
What did you think about Afterseeing that picture of the
(24:37):
burger?
Did you think about food?
Probably, come on, now someonedid.
I love burgers.
I know you're thinking we cantell, but it's okay.
I love Juicy Lucy.
They're incredible.
And when you get a Juicy Lucyman with just ketchup and just
mayo which is the only way tohave a Juicy Lucy and you bite
(24:58):
into it and the first thing youfeel are pickles, it's horrible,
absolutely horrible.
Why?
Because it taints the wholeburger.
You can't get rid of picklejuice.
It ruins everything.
And so something that brings megreat joy is taken away by a
horrible pickle.
Maybe it was food that youthought of, maybe it was that
(25:19):
vacation to that destinationthat will rename nameless, or to
an island, or to a hotelgetaway.
Maybe vacation brings you joy,but the reality is about that
vacation.
Is you come back?
You never leave the problemsthey're waiting for you and, a
(25:39):
matter of fact, sometimes whenyou take a vacation from work
and you're gone a week, you comeback to a million emails and
more work than you had before,and that thing that brought you
great joy now brings you alittle misery.
What about relationships withyour son, your daughter, your
husband, your wife?
Arlo is my son and he had tocome up.
(26:00):
He had to get up early becausehe accoladed the first service
and I said, buddy, you're goingto hang out and listen to dad's
sermon, and he's like, probably,but I I'm probably gonna sleep
through the whole thing.
I said, thanks, buddy.
A relationship that can bringyou great joy can sometimes
bring you no joy.
Matter of fact, thoserelationships can be broken and
(26:23):
they can bring a lot of pain.
Was it health?
Was it health that brings yougreat joy?
I think everyone in this roomcan understand that this can be
taken away from you.
After the sermon today we'regoing to sing a little bit and
then we're going to invite Rayup.
We're going to pray for Ray.
Ray is one of our worshipleaders that's been doing it for
a while and she has anincredible story and we asked
(26:47):
her to share a little bit of itbecause her story fits really
well with the message today.
Raised up with lupus for manyyears and it hasn't gotten any
better.
Matter of fact, it's gettingworse and there are more things
now that she deals withhealth-wise and it's a scary
time for her and her family andsomething that we all think we
(27:07):
have.
Health can be taken away and ifwe ask her to share her story a
little bit and she wrotesomething in here that I want to
read After all of this going onin her body immune system,
shutting down, immune system,attacking blood cells, feeling
with physical pain, weakness,extreme exhaustion she wrote
this she is reminded that if youlook hard enough, you can find
(27:30):
the blessings in the trials anduse it as a testimony for the
goodness of God.
See, even though health,vacations, relationships, things
that bring us joy can alsobring us great pain, there can
(27:50):
also be joy found there.
What about for some of you?
When I asked what brings youjoy, you had a blank slate
Nothing, because right now youcan't think of anything that
brings you joy.
The joy that we have is not ofthe things of this world,
(28:13):
because they can be gone likethat.
The joy that we have is in thepromises of Christ, of being
found righteous in him, of, forsome reason, not because of the
things that we do that are goodor the things that we do that
are bad.
For some reason, god still saysI love you, you're my son,
(28:37):
you're my daughter, and the lifeis a gift that I give to you.
So finally and I mean finally,I'll end here is I want to talk
a little bit about this law,because sometimes passages like
this are used in a way to say wedon't need the Old Testament,
we don't need the law, andthat's not what's going on here.
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Paul, a matter of fact, isusing this to understand how
important the law is.
The law is not just a list ofrules that we need to follow, or
else, a matter of fact, if yougo back to when we were given
the law, the Jews were given thelaw.
In Exodus it says this, andthis is really important because
we think about the TenCommandments and we think that
this starts off right withcommandment number one, and
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that's not the case.
Commandment one starts in versethree, starts in verse 3.
But God has this to say first,and God spoke all these words I
am the Lord, your God, whobrought you out of Egypt, out of
the land of slavery.
God reminds us that before thelaw came, there was relationship
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, that he is our God, that freedus from slavery.
There's the relationship.
This is really the last part.
Now, about five years ago, mywife and I moved into our house
in Zimmerman and I love movies.
It's like I love movies a lot,it's my thing and so I wanted to
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buy a nice TV.
I hadn't had a nice TV for along, long time, and so I bought
a big 80-inch.
I hadn't had a nice TV for along, long time, and so I bought
a big 80-inch television for abasement, which totally didn't
fit, but I didn't care, it wasbeautiful and I had it mounted
on the wall.
It was awesome.
Man, I'd watch my action movies, I watched Jack Reacher, all
this stuff I'd watch it.
It was incredible.
And I get a phone call on theway home from work and it was my
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wife and she said are you onyour way home from work?
I said yep, and she's like Iwant you to prepare yourself.
I said well, that's never agood thing to hear, like what,
what's going on?
And she said Ezra, which is ouryoungest at the time, was
probably two, two and a half.
He said he got a hold of thevideo game controller I and he
threw it and I was like, well,that's not good at your
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television.
And it broke and it cracked andthere was just silence.
And I don't know silence on mypart because I didn't know what
was.
I was like shocked, right.
Silence on her part, becauseI'm sure she was scared for
Ezra's life, right, and I washalfway home and so I said, all
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right, I'll be home in a littlebit, and I hang up the phone and
I had half the drive to get allmy yells, all my scuba out and
everything before I got home,because when I got home I
encountered atwo-and-a-half-year-old scared
boy who was my son, and what hewas waiting for, even at two and
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a half, was probably apunishment because he had broken
a rule, but before that rulewas ever in place, there was a
relationship that goes farbeyond the rules.
See, rules are set up.
The law was given to us for usto understand how to be in
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relationship with God, not for achecklist to follow.
So, central Lutheran Church,may you find joy in that that
the God of the universe, thecreator of all things, desires a
relationship with you.
Amen.
Well, good morning.
I'm Ben Carruthers.
I'm the director of student andfamily ministry here.
It's great to be worshipingwith you this morning.
And I had to laugh.
I had to just go up to Soniaand I was like during the
baptism.
I said did you know that JackReacher is a godfather?
You look just like Jack Reacher, matthew, holy smokes.
I saw you in the hall.
I was like Jack Reacher, oh mygosh, I love you.
(00:26):
Glad you're here.
Come on back.
Yeah, so my name's Ben.
I'm super excited to be here andto talk about this sermon
series, called Joy, anyway,which we've been diving into the
book of Philippians over thepast three weeks, and so we're
talking about joy and, as youread this passage, there wasn't
a lot of joy to be found inthere.
So the goal of this morning isto really have our eyes open,
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because it really is litteredwith the theme of joy and, being
that this sermon is around theidea of joy, I'm making you a
promise that I will not mentionDisney World once in this whole
sermon.
I'm going to get through it.
I'm going to do it, I believe.
But there is joy in thispassage.
What did you say?
Well, now, all right, from nowon, I get one, but we're going
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to dive into this passage, andso this is probably something
that you maybe have been askingyourself over the past three
weeks.
But this question of where doyou find joy?
Where do you find joy?
Perhaps for some of you, it'sin food.
Maybe it's in food A big juicycheeseburger, which, let's be
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honest, no matter what anyonesays, is way better than a
Chipotle burrito, way better,way better Big old juicy Lucy,
no problem, right?
Maybe that's where you find joy.
Maybe it's vacation to a themepark in Orlando.
I don't know, maybe that's it.
Maybe vacation is where youfind your joy.
(02:00):
Maybe in relationshipsRelationships to your kids, to
your wife, to your husband, tothe people here, to family, to
friends.
Maybe it's in relationships iswhere you find your joy.
Maybe in health.
Maybe you just find great joyin being healthy and eating
healthy and probably not eatingall the Juicy Lucys that you
want to and being active.
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There's a men's group that everySunday, at 1 o'clock, plays
pickleball, and I love it.
I come out on Sundays and I getmy butt whooped by men 20 years
older than me.
It's pretty humbling, but maybethat's what brings you joy.
What I'd like to do is we'regoing to pray, and as we pray, I
want you to think about thatquestion what brings you joy?
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And that picture, or whateverit is that comes to mind.
I want you to hold on to thatto the end of the message this
morning, because we're going tocome back to it as we dive into
this passage.
That, I think, gives us apretty clear idea of what joy
looks like and where true joycomes from.
So will you pray with me, god,we give you thanks and praise
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for this morning, for the giftof baptism and for the gift of
Scripture, scripture that talksabout joy, this letter from Paul
, written in prison to a churchjust starting up in Philippi, of
a message of joy on where weget our joy.
For some of us, lord, that's ahard question to answer right
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now, and so, lord, I pray forclarity of this passage.
I pray that you speak clearlythis morning and that we leave
this place with a new idea ofwhat joy looks like.
In your name, we pray Amen.
Last week, if you were here,ryan had a ton of glasses that
he weaved into his sermon, and Ithink he cursed me because I
can't read what's on my paperwithout these bad boys.
(03:52):
Now, this is something new, soI'll be going back and forth.
So, this idea of fluence, wehave to kind of understand the
greater context of what's goingon in this letter.
Yeah, paul wrote it when he wasin prison in Rome, to this new
church, which is not a buildingthat we think of church today.
It's a group of believers,believers in this new movement
of Christianity.
This is something new, and sohe's writing to these young
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believers about something veryspecific, about something very
specific that's going on withinthe church at that moment.
Philippians 1 through 3, so ourpassage started at 4, so we got
to go back a little bit toverses 1 through 3, so you can
pop that up there for mePhilippians 3, 1 through 4.
Finally, my brothers andsisters which, by the way, there
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are four very long chapters inthe book of Philippians, and
he's not even halfway throughand he's already saying finally,
which proves that he was apastor right off the bat.
Finally, my brothers andsisters, rejoice in the Lord.
To write the same things to youis not troublesome to me and
for you it is a source ofsteadfastness.
Beware of the dogs, beware ofthe evil workers, beware of
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those who mutilate the flesh,for it is we who are the
circumcision.
So here Paul starts off bywriting this message of beware,
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beware of these dogs, beware ofwhat they are teaching and
preaching, because this iswhat's going on.
Paul had missionary journeys,right, he went all to these
different places and he spokeand preached the good news, the
gospel of Jesus Christ, andpeople started to gain momentum
with this message, started tobelieve in this message that
it's just Jesus.
Right Now, this is a reallydifficult message for many
(05:50):
people.
If you were Jewish, you livedby a certain set of laws.
This is what it meant to be inrelationship with God by
following these laws.
Now you're told that it's thisJesus guy, that believing in him
, finding a relationship withhim, is what brings
righteousness and salvation.
So it's a confusing time.
At the same time, it's evenmore confusing for a group of
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people called the Gentiles.
The Gentiles were people whowere not of the Jewish faith,
who did not follow the Jewishlaw, and so now they hear this
message of this guy named Jesus,who lived and died and was
resurrected by the power of Godand by the Holy Spirit, and that
they have a relationship withhim in this way that it's Jesus
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is the way to righteousness andJesus is the way to life.
And so they hear this messageand they start to follow this
new gospel.
Well, at the time, there were agroup of people called the
Judaizers, and the Judaizerswere Jewish Christians who
believed in the resurrection ofJesus, in the relationship with
him, but also believed that youhad to follow the law, the
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Jewish law.
You see, it just wasn't about arelationship with God, with
Christ, but you still had tofollow the Jewish law, which,
for men, meant circumcision,which means that you had to
follow the Jewish law, which,for men, meant circumcision,
which means that you had tofollow dietary restrictions,
which meant that you had toworship on all the Jewish
holidays and festivals andfollow all of the Jewish law.
And Paul is referring to thisas dogs, they are saying this is
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not the gospel.
The gospel is Jesus.
Only Now, throughout this wholemessage, we're going to refer
to the law, and Paul talks aboutit in great length here.
But I want you to know and we'llcome back to this that the law
is not bad, that Paul is notbashing the law.
So keep that in mind.
So Paul's writing this churchand saying man.
(07:39):
People are coming around andtelling you something different,
telling you a different gospel,so be aware, be aware of what
they're doing and continue topreach.
And then he goes on to say thatif it was about the law, if it
was about keeping all of thesethings and a checklist of doing
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all the right things, there wasno one really more than me that
have confidence in their ability.
You see the word flesh in thatpassage.
We often use it as sinfuldesire or sinful nature, but
that's not what Paul is sayinghere.
Paul is using human nature hereIn our ability or inability to
follow the law.
(08:20):
Can we do enough?
Paul is saying if there'sanyone who could have confidence
in doing enough, it's me.
So Philippians 3, or the nextpart of Philippians says this
Once it popped there we goPhilippians 3, 4 through 6.
Even though I too have reasonfor confidence in the flesh,
which means I have reason tobelieve in the confidence of my
(08:41):
human nature, my ability to dothings, if anyone else has
reason to be confident in theflesh, which means I have reason
to believe in the confidence ofmy human nature, my ability to
do things, if anyone else hasreason to be confident in the
flesh.
I have more.
Circumcised on the eighth day, amember of the people of Israel,
the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrewborn of Hebrews.
As to the law, a Pharisee as tozeal, a persecutor of the
church.
As to righteousness under thelaw, blameless, he's saying.
(09:04):
If anyone has confidence intheir ability, it would be me.
The Jewish word for confidence,which also means trust or faith
, is pepoithesis.
It's up here on the screen,pepoithesis.
Everyone say pepoithesis.
Yeah, now, if you're like meand horrible at Greek, I
remembered it by saying Pepoy'sthesis.
(09:25):
So there you go, you canremember that now, pepoy's
thesis.
This word, which he uses acouple times in the passage,
means confidence, trust or faith.
He's saying, man, if there'sanyone that could have faith in
his abilities to be foundrighteous, it's him.
And then Paul goes on to giveus a list of reasons why.
(09:46):
So can you go back to thatscripture?
I think I jumped on you, but goback to that scripture for me.
He says this he says reason tobe confident.
I was circumcised on the eighthday, which in Jewish faith
meant that was the day you weresupposed to be circumcised.
A week, seven days representedcreation.
God rest on the seventh day.
Eighth day is new life, and sohe was circumc.
Rests on the seventh day.
Eighth day is new life, and sohe was circumcised on the eighth
(10:07):
day.
A member of the people of Israel, a true Hebrew, a member of the
people of our tribe of Benjamin.
Benjamin was a tribe that hadsome prestige about it.
It was the only tribe thatstayed with Judah when Israel
split and divided.
It was where the first king wasfrom, King Saul of Israel.
Benjamin had some prestige toit.
(10:29):
So he's giving you a backgroundinto his family.
Look at it.
If it's family family tree, I'mset.
I got that.
And then he goes.
As for a Pharisee, someone whofollows the law, I was a
Pharisee, not just a Pharisee,but he's stunted under Gamal,
which is Gamal the elder.
Like the Pharisee of Pharisee,the teacher, a high-ranking
teacher and official.
(10:49):
He's stuttered under him.
Persecutor of the church,righteousness under the law,
blameless, in other words.
Paul is saying I'm the man.
That's what he's saying.
That's Paul the man, olivia,who does an awesome job with our
slides.
I said, olivia, can you find apicture of Paul like being the
man?
Like what does it look like tobe the man?
(11:10):
And she asked me.
She's like do you mind if I useAI, and she asked me that
because I don't like AI.
It kind of freaks me out alittle bit.
I've seen Terminator 2 way toomuch.
I know how it it ends, I'm alittle bit freaked out about it.
So she did.
So.
This is Paul AI, paul as beingthe man he looks kind of like
that fun uncle that comes to theparty.
Right, he had everything goingfor him.
(11:31):
He had everything.
He lists everything in which hecould have confidence in.
He was the man.
He had it all.
There might be a moment or twoin your life when you know what
this feels like, to kind of beon the mountaintop.
For one of those instances inmy life I don't have many, but
one I can remember very clearlywas right out of high school I
(11:53):
think I was probably 19 yearsold.
A buddy of mine, brad, and Istarted a band and that band was
called Two Minute Warning andwe put out a CD and that's it.
Right, there I am the handsomefellow on the right wearing
flip-flops for our CD cover.
We put this CD out and Brad, mybuddy, he wrote all the music.
(12:15):
He played guitar, lead, guitar,my buddy, he wrote all the
music.
He played guitar, lead guitar,acoustic guitar.
He played bass.
I drummed.
That was my contribution to theband.
I just drummed, but it was fun,man.
We got to go into a recordingstudio and record these songs
and then we sold the CD, mainlyto people like in our youth
group and my mom who bought overhalf of the coffees.
Okay, and it was awesome.
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We'd sell these CDs and thesekids would come up and want us
to sign it and we'd be playingout somewhere and they'd be like
play Two Minute Warning, playTwo Minute Warning.
So we'd bust out a Two MinuteWarning song.
It was awesome.
I felt like the man.
And then about a week latercame and no one cared about Two
Minute Warning.
I don't know if any of you havetwo-minute warning hits on your
(13:00):
iPod playlists or are stillrocking two-minute warning.
I highly doubt it.
No one remembers this, but Ican tell you for that day or two
when kids were asking to buyCDs and asking for us to sign
them, I felt like the man andthen it was gone.
It was gone.
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See, we put confidence in thingslike this and Paul is saying if
there was anyone to putconfidence in their abilities
and their righteousness to befound in doing all the right
things.
It's me Paul was the man, andtheir righteousness to be found
in doing all the right things.
It's me Paul was the man.
But this part of Scripture isnot about him bragging about his
ability to be found righteousin the law.
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It's not about him boastinghimself up.
A matter of fact, it's just theopposite, because after that he
tells you exactly what hethinks about those moments.
Go to the next passage for me.
In Philippians 3, 7 through 8,he continues.
So, after he lists his resumefor you, which is pretty
impressive, he says Yet,whatever gains I had, these I
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have come to regard as lossbecause of Christ.
More than that, I regardeverything as loss because of
the surpassing value of knowingChrist Jesus, my Lord, and it's
not just knowing of, like I knowof some of you, or I know of
all this, it's this relationshipthat he has with Christ Jesus
(14:29):
as his Lord.
For his sake, I have sufferedthe loss of all things and I
regard them as rubbish in orderthat I may gain Christ.
He looks at his resume, at allof those things that the world
would say yep, you have power,you have prestige, you have
(14:50):
authority, the world would sayyep, you hit it.
He looks at all of that and hesays I find no confidence in any
of that.
None hit it.
He looks at all of that and hesays I find no confidence in any
of that.
None of it.
Not only that, but he calls ita loss.
Not only that is, he calls itrubbish.
Now, another Greek word for youtoday is skubala.
(15:11):
Everyone say skubala.
Much easier.
I got no rhyming for you onthat one, but skubala, scubala.
It's interesting.
Who you talk to Depends on thescholar that you read.
There's a couple differentideas of what this word means.
One is that we find it in a lotof ancient writings when
talking about farming, wherethey would clear a field and
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take all of the good grain andall of the good food and then
there would be the droppingsleft for the dogs or the animals
.
They would refer to that aswaste or skubala.
Now, when I took Greek inseminary, the way that you learn
it because it's a lot more funis that skubala means like dung.
(15:54):
It means like a big pile ofbull, scubula, right, they love
teaching this because it makes apoint.
Now, both, whatever you want toview it, as Paul is making a
very clear point here that allof that is worth nothing if not
(16:14):
in Christ.
All of the accomplishments isscubala compared to knowing
Christ.
This is a dramatic change inwhat people would view.
It's a dramatic change in theworld today, the way that we
view things.
Because let's go back to hislist of all these things, that
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accomplishments that he had, man, if that was his life before
knowing Jesus, and he says thatthat's a bunch of scubala
compared to knowing Christ.
Well then, what was his lifelike after knowing Christ man,
if he had power and if he hadprestige and if he had authority
?
What in the world did his lifelook like?
(16:58):
And he tells us in the book ofActs and also in his letter to
the Corinthian church in thesecond book.
He tells us, he tells us whathis life was like.
Are there ministers of Christ?
I'm talking like a madman.
I am a better one, with fargreater labors, far more
imprisonments with countlessfloggings and often near death.
(17:19):
Five times I have received fromthe Jews the forty lashes minus
one.
Don't know why I just putthirty-nine.
He made us do math, I don'tknow.
Three times I was beaten withrods Once.
I received a stoning Threetimes.
I was shipwrecked.
For a night and a day I wasadrift at sea on frequent
journeys, in danger from rivers,danger from bandits, danger
(17:43):
from my own people, danger fromGentiles, danger in the city,
danger in the wilderness, dangerat sea, danger from false
brothers and sisters in toil andhardship through many a
sleepless night, hungry andthirsty, often without food,
cold and naked.
That doesn't seem better.
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Well, there's more, so maybe itdoes get better.
So the next passage incorinthians.
It continues on.
And, besides other things, I amunder daily pressure because of
my anxiety for all the churches.
Who is weak?
And I am not weak.
Who is made to stumble?
And I am not ignorant.
Not only has all this physicalstuff happened to him, but Paul
(18:28):
is full of worry and anxiety forthese young, new churches
holding on to this new gospel ofwhat it means to live in life
with Christ, to be foundrighteous in Christ.
He has worry and anxiety.
Okay, well, maybe it getsbetter.
We got one more.
Let's see if it finally turnsaround for Paul, even
considering the exceptionalcharacter of the revelations.
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Therefore, to keep me frombeing too elated or too proud, a
thorn was given to me in theflesh, a messenger of Satan to
torment me.
This is Paul after Christ.
Paul before Christ.
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The resume looked pretty good.
Power, prestige, authority.
Walked into a room.
People knew who he was.
Post-christ.
This.
That doesn't make sense.
So it might look a little bitlike this the fun uncle on the
(19:42):
left makes more sense.
Joy is found in Christ right.
The joy of the Lord is mystrength.
Joy is found in Christ.
Then why does Paul on the rightlook like a man who's never
seen joy or experienced joy?
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But Paul says everything beforeknowing Christ is scubala.
It doesn't compare to knowingChrist Jesus.
How can this be, how can thisbe a message of joy when it
looks like this?
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Because Paul is preaching thegospel here, because Paul is
giving us good news, because itshould be good news for us to
hear that our righteousness, oursalvation, is not built into a
checklist of following a certainset of rules, that if we check
(20:47):
every box, this is how we'remade righteous.
If we do enough good things,this is our ticket to heaven,
paul is saying that is scubala,that is rubbish.
Now again, the law is important.
I'm going to come back to it.
So make sure we know that thelaw is important.
But when people are saying it'sjesus and that's when he has a
problem, that's when we shouldhave a problem, because it's not
(21:10):
about jesus and the good worksyou do, it's not about the
salvation that comes and therighteousness that is found in
Jesus and making sure you'refollowing all these risks.
It's just Jesus and praise Godfor that Because, like Paul is
saying, man, if there was oneperson who had confidence in the
things that he did to earn hisrighteousness, it would be him.
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I can't hold a candle to Pauland so praise God that our
righteousness is not found inthe things that we do.
And there's a flip side to this, the flip side that our
righteousness, our salvation,our forgiveness of sins is not
found in the things that we do.
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And it's also not found in themistakes we make.
There is no mistake that youcan make that can take you away
from the love that is in ChristJesus, our Lord.
That can take you away from thelove that is in Christ Jesus,
our Lord.
We can take those and we laythem at the feet of the cross.
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Man, some of you might thinkit's way too big.
I've hurt too many people.
It can't be that easy and I cantell you from personal
experience.
There's nothing that you can'tlay down there, that Christ
won't forgive, and that's goodnews.
You see, we have these twoimages up here the cross, where
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we go and lay down our mistakes.
We lay down those sins in ourlives, those things that we've
done to hurt ourselves and hurtother people, the mistakes that
we make.
We can go and freely lay themdown at the feet of the cross
and know that we haveforgiveness.
Why?
Because of what we just sawhere the promises in baptism.
We'll baptize anybody infants,teenagers, adults, whatever but
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the purpose behind it is thesame.
But the purpose behind it isthe same.
The babies don't come to thiswater and receive these promises
of forgiveness of sins, ofeternal life, because of
anything that they have done.
They're babies, they haven'tdone anything, but yet these
promises are given to thembecause they are a child of God.
(23:23):
When an adult comes here, whena teenager comes to the font,
it's not because that they havenow done enough to deserve these
promises.
It's because of who they arethat they receive the promises
that are in this water and notreally even in this water.
This is a sign that we use asymbol of God's promises of
forgiveness of sins, of life.
This is good news and it's inthis good news message that we
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find joy, and it might not be ajoy that puts a fun uncle smile
on our face.
It's that joy that, when Paulwas in prison, writing to the
Philippians having gone to beingshipwrecked, being beaten,
being arrested falsely wrecked,being beaten, being arrested
(24:12):
falsely that he can write aboutjoy that is found in Christ
Jesus.
This is the good news of thegospel.
This is the joy that is foundhere in this passage.
This is how we bring it back tojoy.
So what did you picture when Iasked you what brings you joy?
What did you think about Afterseeing that picture of the
(24:37):
burger?
Did you think about food?
Probably, come on, now someonedid.
I love burgers.
I know you're thinking we cantell, but it's okay.
I love Juicy Lucy.
They're incredible.
And when you get a Juicy Lucyman with just ketchup and just
mayo which is the only way tohave a Juicy Lucy and you bite
(24:58):
into it and the first thing youfeel are pickles, it's horrible,
absolutely horrible.
Why?
Because it taints the wholeburger.
You can't get rid of picklejuice.
It ruins everything.
And so something that brings megreat joy is taken away by a
horrible pickle.
Maybe it was food that youthought of, maybe it was that
(25:19):
vacation to that destinationthat will rename nameless, or to
an island, or to a hotelgetaway.
Maybe vacation brings you joy,but the reality is about that
vacation.
Is you come back?
You never leave the problemsthey're waiting for you and, a
(25:39):
matter of fact, sometimes whenyou take a vacation from work
and you're gone a week, you comeback to a million emails and
more work than you had before,and that thing that brought you
great joy now brings you alittle misery.
What about relationships withyour son, your daughter, your
husband, your wife?
Arlo is my son and he had tocome up.
(26:00):
He had to get up early becausehe accoladed the first service
and I said, buddy, you're goingto hang out and listen to dad's
sermon, and he's like, probably,but I I'm probably gonna sleep
through the whole thing.
I said, thanks, buddy.
A relationship that can bringyou great joy can sometimes
bring you no joy.
Matter of fact, thoserelationships can be broken and
(26:23):
they can bring a lot of pain.
Was it health?
Was it health that brings yougreat joy?
I think everyone in this roomcan understand that this can be
taken away from you.
After the sermon today we'regoing to sing a little bit and
then we're going to invite Rayup.
We're going to pray for Ray.
Ray is one of our worshipleaders that's been doing it for
a while and she has anincredible story and we asked
(26:47):
her to share a little bit of itbecause her story fits really
well with the message today.
Raised up with lupus for manyyears and it hasn't gotten any
better.
Matter of fact, it's gettingworse and there are more things
now that she deals withhealth-wise and it's a scary
time for her and her family andsomething that we all think we
(27:07):
have.
Health can be taken away and ifwe ask her to share her story a
little bit and she wrotesomething in here that I want to
read After all of this going onin her body immune system,
shutting down, immune system,attacking blood cells, feeling
with physical pain, weakness,extreme exhaustion she wrote
this she is reminded that if youlook hard enough, you can find
(27:30):
the blessings in the trials anduse it as a testimony for the
goodness of God.
See, even though health,vacations, relationships, things
that bring us joy can alsobring us great pain, there can
(27:50):
also be joy found there.
What about for some of you?
When I asked what brings youjoy, you had a blank slate
Nothing, because right now youcan't think of anything that
brings you joy.
The joy that we have is not ofthe things of this world,
(28:13):
because they can be gone likethat.
The joy that we have is in thepromises of Christ, of being
found righteous in him, of, forsome reason, not because of the
things that we do that are goodor the things that we do that
are bad.
For some reason, god still saysI love you, you're my son,
(28:37):
you're my daughter, and the lifeis a gift that I give to you.
So finally and I mean finally,I'll end here is I want to talk
a little bit about this law,because sometimes passages like
this are used in a way to say wedon't need the Old Testament,
we don't need the law, andthat's not what's going on here.
(28:58):
Paul, a matter of fact, isusing this to understand how
important the law is.
The law is not just a list ofrules that we need to follow, or
else, a matter of fact, if yougo back to when we were given
the law, the Jews were given thelaw.
In Exodus it says this, andthis is really important because
we think about the TenCommandments and we think that
this starts off right withcommandment number one, and
(29:20):
that's not the case.
Commandment one starts in versethree, starts in verse 3.
But God has this to say first,and God spoke all these words I
am the Lord, your God, whobrought you out of Egypt, out of
the land of slavery.
God reminds us that before thelaw came, there was relationship
(29:42):
, that he is our God, that freedus from slavery.
There's the relationship.
This is really the last part.
Now, about five years ago, mywife and I moved into our house
in Zimmerman and I love movies.
It's like I love movies a lot,it's my thing and so I wanted to
(30:04):
buy a nice TV.
I hadn't had a nice TV for along, long time, and so I bought
a big 80-inch.
I hadn't had a nice TV for along, long time, and so I bought
a big 80-inch television for abasement, which totally didn't
fit, but I didn't care, it wasbeautiful and I had it mounted
on the wall.
It was awesome.
Man, I'd watch my action movies, I watched Jack Reacher, all
this stuff I'd watch it.
It was incredible.
And I get a phone call on theway home from work and it was my
(30:25):
wife and she said are you onyour way home from work?
I said yep, and she's like Iwant you to prepare yourself.
I said well, that's never agood thing to hear, like what,
what's going on?
And she said Ezra, which is ouryoungest at the time, was
probably two, two and a half.
He said he got a hold of thevideo game controller I and he
threw it and I was like, well,that's not good at your
(30:47):
television.
And it broke and it cracked andthere was just silence.
And I don't know silence on mypart because I didn't know what
was.
I was like shocked, right.
Silence on her part, becauseI'm sure she was scared for
Ezra's life, right, and I washalfway home and so I said, all
(31:08):
right, I'll be home in a littlebit, and I hang up the phone and
I had half the drive to get allmy yells, all my scuba out and
everything before I got home,because when I got home I
encountered atwo-and-a-half-year-old scared
boy who was my son, and what hewas waiting for, even at two and
(31:29):
a half, was probably apunishment because he had broken
a rule, but before that rulewas ever in place, there was a
relationship that goes farbeyond the rules.
See, rules are set up.
The law was given to us for usto understand how to be in
(31:50):
relationship with God, not for achecklist to follow.
So, central Lutheran Church,may you find joy in that that
the God of the universe, thecreator of all things, desires a
relationship with you.
Amen.
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