God’s Favorite Country

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Transcript:

I don’t know if I’m completely alone in this. I suspect I’m not. But really for the first time in my life, it has been hard for me this week in preparation and in thinking about our Independence Day not to be pessimistic about our country.

And if that didn’t make sense, let me clarify. It was hard yesterday to be in a festive mood about it. It’s been hard in the week leading up to it to be in a festive mood about celebrating the independence of our country with the direction that things are going.

And folks, I’m not just being a sore loser or a bad sport because I’ve been on the losing end of some political arguments lately, or that we have been on the losing end of some political arguments lately. It’s not because this happened with gay marriage or because this happened with government health care or because this happened with the EPA. It’s not been about a political issue, ladies and gentlemen.

It’s been about, if I can borrow a phrase, the fundamental transformation of our country, regardless of who has done it. America has never been a perfect country. I think we all know that.

Now, it’s not as bad as some would want us to believe. But there have been some injustices that have taken place in the history of our country, and I think we’ve come a long way towards correcting those. We no longer import people to this country as property.

That’s a good thing. We no longer march people at bayonet point out of their homes and send them thousands of miles away. I think that’s a good thing.

We no longer intern people because of where their ancestors came from. I think that’s a good thing. We’ve done a lot to address the injustices in the history of our country.

And ladies and gentlemen, even though I say this, even though we have never quite lived up to our ideals, I still think it’s the ideals on which this country was founded. The the factors in making this an exceptional country, one of the greatest that has ever been. And what has made me pessimistic is not the fact that I’ve been, okay, there’s this political issue and I lost here, my side lost, or we lost over here.

It’s been the fact that those freedoms and those ideals are being undermined. When rights that are, first of all, and needs to be said here, our rights don’t come from our government, they don’t come from the Constitution. They are given to us by God, that’s why our founders called them inalienable rights.

They can’t be taken away. They are inalienable rights given by God and guaranteed by the government, supposed to be guaranteed by the government. But when they’re written into the Constitution and then totally ignored, or when rights are created out of whole cloth that are not enshrined in the Constitution and had never been right.

Something’s going on that makes it very hard for me to be optimistic about the country. And I didn’t bring you here this morning to talk about, oh, we’ve got to fix the country, we’re just losing it. This is not a gripe session by me.

Y’all could hear that any day of the week. But it’s just to say, as we were watching fireworks last night, as we were celebrating Independence Day, There is still a part of me and always will be a part of me that just loves this country and thinks God has blessed us incredibly. But I couldn’t help but watch it and feel like we’ve lost something.

And thinking about my grandparents’ America and how we’ve corrected a lot of the wrong things that went on generations ago, but how we’re losing some things that what are my grandkids’ America going to look like? And it’s enough, ladies and gentlemen. If you’re like me in this, if you’re not, you’re probably thinking, get on with it.

Stop talking about the politics. And we are going somewhere with this, I promise. But if you’re like me in this, it is easy to lose hope.

It is easy to feel like, well, everything’s lost. All our hope is lost. Everything’s just going to get worse from here. And it may. But we need to be reminded, ladies and gentlemen, our hope, our hope has never been in a country.

Our hope has never been in the Constitution. As great as it is, our hope has never been in the flag. We are not saved because we are Americans.

We’re not even Christians because we’re Americans. Being Americans does not give us a special relationship to God. I know that would come as a surprise to a lot of people.

But you know what? God had a special relationship with the nation of Israel. special covenant with the nation of Israel.

And even at that, individuals thought that they were okay with God because they were part of that nation and Jesus had to give them a stern wake-up call to the Pharisees that they were putting their eternal destiny in the fact that they were descended from Abraham. And Jesus reminded them, and Paul wrote about it substantially in the book of Galatians, that if they wanted to wrap themselves in Abraham, the way we sometimes wrap ourselves in the flag, that what they really should have taken from Abraham was that it was his faith that put him in right standing with God, not his DNA. Folks, our hope, our standing with God, our hope for the future, our salvation, none of it has anything to do with the fact that we’re Americans.

And I say that to us as a reminder this morning because I know a lot of people in probably in this building, in this part of the country especially, are in the same boat with me where we feel like, well, we’re losing in our country, so all hope is lost. Please understand my heart when I say this, that I’m not anti-American, but this never was our country. This is not our home. I love America, but we’re citizens of a higher kingdom, as it says in the book of Philippians.

If you’ll turn with me to Philippians chapter 3 this morning, we need a reminder. We need a reminder of where our hope lies, where our home lies, and we’re going to look for just a few verses in Philippians chapter 3 at what God’s favorite country really is. And no, it’s not America and it’s not Israel.

God does have a favorite country and it’s not defined by geography. We’re going to start in verse 15 of Philippians chapter 3 where Paul writes to the church at Philippi and says, Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded. Again, the word perfect.

I know I say this every time we come across that word, but I just want to make sure that we understand what it means. It doesn’t mean flawless, without sin. It means complete.

So if we want to be complete, if we want to be mature in Christ, let us be thus minded. Okay? If any of us want to be mature in Christ, think this way.

And if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. So he’s talked in previous verses, which maybe we should have started there, But he’s talked in previous verses about the singular importance of Christ, of knowing him, of knowing his resurrection and his sufferings, of being counted with him, and as it says in verse 14, pressing toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. He talked about how everything, everything has got to be centered on Christ. Otherwise, this life is meaningless.

And he says that we are supposed to be minded thusly. We’re supposed to be predisposed to that mindset. We’re supposed to think that way if we want to be complete in Christ. And then says, and then I trust that if you’re not, that God will reveal it to you.

And that should be our prayer on a regular basis. That if in any area of our thinking we’re not focused on Christ first and foremost, that God will reveal that to us and that we’ll be alert enough to recognize when he reveals it to us and have the wherewithal to do something about it, to change it. If my thinking is not Christ-centered in some area, we have a tendency to compartmentalize our lives.

What I mean by that, there’s a book that I read many years ago called Men Are Like Waffles, Women Are Like Spaghetti. It was actually a brilliant book. But it talked about how men think like a waffle.

You know the little boxes and compartments and waffles, and you can pour syrup in some of the compartments and not in others. And men can be that way. We can divide up our thinking.

And I’m just thinking about this. Whereas women, everything’s connected, and you’re thinking about 15 things. That would be exhausting.

As a man, that would be exhausting. But you know what? I think as human beings, we all carry within us both of those tendencies.

And he’s warning here against this waffle kind of thinking that we have where, yes, I can be focused on Christ in this area of my life and this area, maybe even all areas of life except this one, whatever it is. I want to keep this compartment to myself. Maybe it’s money.

Maybe it’s relationships. Maybe it’s how you spend your time. But I can have this compartment over here or all of these compartments and I can fill them up with Christ, but I’m going to keep this one back over here for myself.

And we all have a tendency to do that. whatever it is. And so what he’s saying here is, I pray that if you’re any wise-minded, if there’s any area of your life where Christ is not first and foremost, I pray that God will reveal that to you and that you’ll do something about it.

Nevertheless, where to we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. And wherever we’re already doing well, wherever we’re already focused on Christ, let’s stay there and press forward and not fall back into the old pattern. And so he says in verse 17, brethren, be followers together of me.

Now that sounds on the surface of it, that sounds on the surface like a very arrogant statement. I just wish you could all be like me. But if you know anything about Paul, that’s not what he’s saying because there are other places where he talks about imitating him as he imitates Christ. It’s not that Paul is the example.

Paul is like the moon here. The moon reflects the light of the sun. And so we look at the moonlight.

The moon has no light. Excuse me, the moon has no light of its own. The moon is merely a reflection of the sun.

Same thing with Paul. His example is not his own. Insofar as his example reflects Christ, then he says, follow me.

And so even though it doesn’t say that in this instance about follow me as I follow Christ, We know from everything else he teaches. I mean, come on, he’s talking about focusing on Christ. And elsewhere he says it, imitate me as I imitate Christ. So he says, brethren, be followers together of me. And again, there the implication is as he follows Christ. And mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example, for an in-sample.

Mark so, excuse me, mark them which walk so as ye have us for an in-sample. He says, follow my example, because I’m following Christ’s example. And as you look at my example, also look around for others who are walking the same way, and follow them too.

For many walk, of whom I have told you often. Here he gives us a contrast. He says, there are some people who are walking as we try to walk. Now, Paul would be the first to admit he didn’t walk this way perfectly.

Always focused, always centered on Christ. I think he’s a lot better at it than I am. But he would be the first to admit there were areas of his life, I mean, he said he was the cheapest among sinners. And so Paul was not a perfect example.

But someone who was trying. He says, there are those of us who are trying to walk in this focused way, focused on Christ, centered on Christ, let everything in our minds be focused on Christ, and every aspect of our lives be centered around his will. And then he draws this contrast and says, then there are others.

And in verse 18, he says, for many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. He said, because there are others who are going to come in among you. He warns that the early churches were infiltrated by people who had their own agendas, and maybe they wanted to be part of the church for money. Maybe they had weird doctrines they wanted to promote.

People had all sorts of ways of slithering into the church and promoting things that were not of God. And so he warned them. He says, I’ve warned you before, and I’m warning you now again even weeping.

Have you ever warned your children of something so earnestly and they just wouldn’t listen, they wouldn’t hear you, and you wept over it? That’s what he’s feeling now. He says, I tell you again even weeping, that there are some who are the enemies of the cross of Christ. They’re the enemies of the cross of Christ because of what they believe and how it’s making them act.

See, our actions always, let me rephrase that, our actions will typically follow our belief. And when our actions and our belief do not line up, we can’t stand that discord and one of the two is going to change. But typically, what we believe affects how we act.

And so there were many who didn’t believe in Christ, didn’t believe in his doctrine or the apostles’ doctrine, and it changed the way they acted. And they were bringing not only heresy, but they were bringing sin into the church, and they were trying to entice people instead of focusing on Christ and focusing on His will and His glory and His kingdom to get them entangled in the things of this world, to get them entangled in the cares and the desires and the lusts of this world. And Paul calls them the enemies of the cross of Christ. That is a pretty serious indictment there.

We’ve probably all been called names at some point or another. I’ve been called a number of names that hurt, but I can’t imagine anything that would hurt as badly as being called an enemy of the cross of Christ. Now for those who are enemies of the cross of Christ, they probably don’t care. But for us who are believers, we look at that and realize that is an incredible, that’s an incredible accusation.

That’s a serious charge, and that’s something to take seriously. And we want to be on guard and make sure that we are walking in a Christ-minded, Christ-centered way instead of a way that’s entangled with the things of the earth unless we follow the path set for us by the enemies of the cross of Christ. He says, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. He talks about these people who are the enemies of the cross of Christ. And by the way, they have made themselves the enemies of the cross of Christ. I think it’s interesting here, too, that it doesn’t say the enemies of Christ. Although certainly the world has positioned itself in such a way that it makes itself the enemy of God.

The Bible says that friendship with the world, that doesn’t mean people, but friendship with this world system is enmity with God, means to be an enemy of God.

But it says here the enemies of the cross of Christ. Now, I don’t want to make too much out of just a few words, but the doctrine of the cross of Christ is the idea that there is right and there is wrong, there is sin and there is judgment and that sin deserves judgment and that we deserve judgment for our sins and that judgment was separation from God, enmity with God, separation from him for eternity in hell and that yet God loved us enough that even though we didn’t earn it or deserve it, God loved us enough that he sent his son to die on the cross to take all the penalty that we owed for sin, everything that we deserved, that he took all of our punishment and all of our judgment, and now when we repent and respond in faith, we can have forgiveness of sins and we can have peace with God. Why on earth, why on earth would you hate that message?

Why on earth would you find that message offensive and something you needed to destroy? A message of such love and such mercy that was unearned and undeserved. Why would you want to be an enemy of that message unless you looked at that message and took stock of your life and realized that accepting that message, accepting the idea of the cross of Christ means that you would have to admit the wrongness of your sins and you love the sin too much and want to stay in it.

And folks, because they loved the world so much, they decided that they’d rather be enemies of the cross of Christ than hate their own sin. And it says here, their end is destruction. Now that’s not just for a special class of people.

Somebody from outside could listen to this preaching today and say, well, those Christians, they’re just sitting there talking about how God loves them and hates the rest of the world and is just going to destroy them. It’s an us versus them thing. No, folks, this is not a special class of people that God says their end is destruction.

Paul writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit here saying that their end is destruction is not talking about a special class of people. He’s talking about people. He’s talking about the human race.

All of us, our end is destruction apart from the cross of Christ. We either side with the cross of Christ or we side against the cross of Christ and take the destruction that we deserve because sin terminates in death and separation from God. That’s it. It leads to our destruction.

And so he’s reminding them. There’s this attitude in the world. Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you may die.

Let’s just party it up because, you know, I get so sick of hearing people, I don’t think they say it so much anymore, that’s kind of last year, but I got so sick of hearing people say, YOLO, you only live once. I thought we need to start saying you only live twice, but YOLTS doesn’t have quite the same advertising ring to it. It’s true though, you only live twice.

This idea, well, we only get one life, so let’s live it up, let’s live life to the fullest. I’m not against living life to the fullest unless we’re talking about embracing the things of this world in opposition to the things of God. And there’s this idea because God does allow time for mercy. He also sometimes allows us enough rope to hang ourselves, I believe.

That God lets us go on our way for a little while. Why else would the Jews have questioned in the Old Testament, how long, God, until you destroy Babylon? Here, we’re being punished by the Babylonians.

You’re using the Babylonians to punish us for what we’ve done. And yet look at what they’ve done. And God reminded them judgment is coming.

Why would Peter have to remind the people? God is not slack concerning his promises, as some men count slackness. But he is merciful and not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

God gives us time to either repent or solidify our choices. But there’s this idea, because we don’t see the consequences immediately, that I can get as entangled with the lusts of the world as I want to, and there’s never going to be a consequence. Let’s just live it up.

But Paul reminds them that the end of that life, the end of walking away from the cross of Christ, is destruction. He says their God is their belly. Their God is their belly.

Well, that just means whatever impulse they had, they gave in to. Whatever impulse they had, they gave in to. I don’t know that it’s speaking strictly of food and eating.

That’s a hard one for me, though. We had a cookout last night before fireworks. I had three hamburgers.

I justified it to myself because they shrank up and they were small. If they’re smaller, you can eat more, right? Then somebody made brownies, and I just had one of those at first. Somebody made saltine toffee, which is only fair to make at Christmas because it’s addictive.

And I ate about a third of the container and finally said, you’ve got to get this away from me. Came home from fireworks, had another hamburger and another brownie. I didn’t need it.

I wasn’t hungry. I was still stuffed from dinner, but it was delicious and I wanted more. I gave in to the impulse.

Every once in a while, that’s not going to kill me. But we know that there are people, and sometimes maybe we have this tendency, they just give in to whatever impulse strikes them. Whatever you want to do, the mantra of our world since the 1960s has been, if it feels good, do it.

That’s what he’s talking about with their God being their bellies. Whatever impulse you have, whatever craving you have, whether it’s for food, whether it’s for money, whether it’s for sex, you name it, whatever the impulse is, do whatever feels good. He says their God is their belly, whose glory is in their shame.

Many things. Hear me on this. Many things.

It’s easy a week out after the decision to hear this and think I’m talking about homosexuality. I’m talking about, if I’m talking about homosexuality, it’s in conjunction with a lot of other things. But have you noticed that in our world today, the things that used to be hidden and spoken of in whispers and used to be shameful are now trotted out in the open and flaunted?

Again, hear me on this. I’m not singling out homosexuality. Now, that does come to mind because I remember in a chapter, I remember a chapter from a book or maybe it was an article headline that said, what used to be the love that dare not speak its name has now become the love that won’t shut up.

I thought that was apt. But folks, it’s not just about homosexuality. Let us not as a church, as Christians, ever let the world think we think that’s the only sin.

Didn’t adultery used to be a shameful thing? I kind of thought it still was, but apparently not. I guess I’m just old school.

Drunkenness used to be a shameful thing. Any number of things. And folks, I’m not saying these things to make people feel bad.

These things were shameful and God said don’t do them because they will hurt us and they will hurt other people. But there are any number of things that used to be sins against God that are just now, hey, if you want to do that, be proud of it. I’ve heard people laugh and almost brag about, well, yeah, I’m a huge gossip.

What? Why would you brag about that? I’ll admit to you, I’ve had issues with that in the past, and it’s been a thing I felt shame about, and it’s more of a confession thing.

I’ve had a problem with telling things I’m not supposed to a long time ago. not anything y’all have told me, but folks, why is it that we glory? Why is it that the world glories in its shame?

It’s like the more outrageous you can be, the more you can thumb your nose at God, the better. And Paul warns and says the end of that is destruction. Now don’t take any of this the wrong way and say, Paul’s just saying, yeah, they’re going to get what they deserve, them over there.

He’s talking about human nature here. He’s talking about the sin nature that you and I all possess and that we all would give in to as much as we want and follow that path were it not for Jesus Christ. This is not a Christian versus the world thing. This is a the world versus God thing.

And we’re all in that same boat except Christ has made it possible by saving us, by pulling us up out of the mud and cleaning us up not because of any good that we’ve done but all because of his good, all because of his power, all because of his grace and mercy has cleaned us up and given us the ability to walk a different path. Where instead of being mired in the things of this world, instead of being attached to the things of this world, he says it’s possible to walk in a godly way. It’s possible to live a godly life.

He said it’s possible to live a life that imitates me. And that is the point of this. When the Bible talks about predestination, the Bible says that he predestined us to be conformed to the image of his son.

Now I’ve told you before, there are some people who teach that that that means God chose some to be saved and some not to be saved. I don’t happen to agree with that interpretation. I know there are plenty of people who do, many of them much smarter than I’ll ever think about being.

But when I read that, what that says to me is that it’s always been God’s plan that when he saved us, that he then would not just leave us the way we were when he found us, but that he would make us every day to be more and more like Jesus Christ, to be conformed to the image of his son. That has always been his plan A for us. And so he finishes this parenthetical, this thing in parentheses in verses 18 and 19.

He says, I’ve warned you of them. I’m warning you again, even now weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. And he’s saying, don’t be like them. Those whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things, who are just focused, focused in like a laser, cannot break that focus.

Like my kids with the TV. Had to take Madeline to the ER this week. That was a long story.

Or not to the ER. But that was last week. Just took her to the hospital this week.

She’ll watch TV. And the doctor comes in and asks her questions. And you wave your hand in front of the face.

There’s like laser-like focus. Cannot break the seal. We call it the seal. You cannot break the seal until you turn the TV off. Sometimes the world has laser-like focus.

Sometimes people have laser-like focus on the sinful things of this world. and you can’t break the seal. And he’s saying, don’t walk in that way. Again, not us versus them, world versus God.

And he’s comparing us and saying, don’t be like you used to be. Don’t do that. Here’s the warning.

Here’s the contrast. Avoid this. He says, for our conversation is in heaven. Now that word conversation, I still do not understand why this word was translated conversation.

And this is a great verse. It’s a great verse as it is. But folks, when you understand what he’s saying here in the Greek, and I am not a Greek scholar, I know a few words here and there.

But when you understand what he’s saying in the Greek, it opens the verse up even further. And it has so much more meaning. That word conversation in Greek is polytouma.

The same root word, P-O-L-I, from where they get the Greek word for city. We still see it in things like politics, police, things that have to do with government. This word, ladies and gentlemen, polituma, means citizenship.

It’s not just our conversation. Oh, we’re talking about heavenly things. It’s our citizenship is in heaven.

I want you to take a minute and just let that sink in for a moment. Our citizenship is in heaven. From whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our citizenship is in heaven, the place where we look for the appearing of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. That word citizenship is so important.

That word citizenship carries with it all sorts of rights and all sorts of responsibilities. You see, I was fortunate enough, and I think as far as I know, everybody in this room was fortunate enough to have been born in this country and to be natural born citizens. But I’ve also known people who were not born here, who moved here, and went through the grueling legal process of becoming citizens because that was their dream and that was their goal, to become citizens of the United States.

I’ve seen how hard they worked. I’ve seen all the hoops they had to jump through, the enormous cost, the cutting of a lot of ties with the place of their birth, all because that idea of citizenship meant something to them. It’s a hard concept for those of us who never had to do a thing for our citizenship.

In Paul’s day and age, the word citizenship meant everything. As a Roman, you had rights. As a Roman citizen, which Paul was, he had certain rights that not everybody in the empire had.

As a matter of fact, most people in the empire didn’t have. He had certain rights when it came to trial. He had certain rights to hold certain positions. He had rights not to undergo certain kinds of punishment.

Did you know as a Roman citizen he couldn’t undergo crucifixion? The Romans were, we look to the Romans and look at them as the height of ancient society. They were in many ways almost more barbaric than some of the barbarian tribes they dealt with.

And we see that in some of their punishments. But to be a citizen meant that a lot of those things you were exempted from. You had rights and you had responsibilities within the Roman Empire.

That word means something. Folks, our citizenship, we think if you were asked today, and I’m not talking about liking a border, because they don’t like it when you give them smart mouth comments. Not even trying to be smart, I told them one time coming back from Mexico, they asked where I was from, and I said Oklahoma, and they got huffy, because I guess they wanted to know what country.

Oklahoma is my country, I’m sorry. I’m not talking about if you’re asked at a border crossing, what’s your citizenship. Do not say heaven.

You’re liable to get thrown in some nice room for several hours. But if somebody outside of that context were to ask you, where’s your citizenship? I know we all think America, but would it even cross our minds?

No, no, my citizenship isn’t heaven. The American citizenship is great. It’s nice, but it’s not where my hope or my security lies.

I’m a citizen of a higher kingdom. I’m a citizen, folks, I’m a citizen of a country that can’t be invaded or overruled by the Supreme Court. Think about that.

I remember the speech that Ronald Reagan, well, I don’t remember this, it was probably back in the 60s, I wouldn’t have lied then, but I remember seeing video of the speech that Ronald Reagan gave, I believe it was in 1964 when he was stumping for Barry Goldwater, and said that if we lost freedom here, I believe it was a rendezvous with destiny speech, If we lost freedom here, that it would be, basically it would be lost everywhere. And that we would sentence our children into a thousand years of darkness. There is nowhere, and people have talked, there’s nowhere else to go.

And people have talked at various times about how all the world, during the Cold War, people in communist countries tried their hardest to get here. People from Cuba, people from Vietnam, they risked their lives to get here. I watched a documentary a while back about all the crazy things people tried to get across the Berlin Wall and get to freedom.

And many of these people wanted out of communist countries to come to America because there was freedom. And many have said, and I think Reagan was one of those who said it, that if we lose freedom here, this is the last stand of freedom. There is nowhere else to go.

You know what, ladies and gentlemen? That is a very bleak point. It’s correct.

Very bleak point, and it could make