Philippians 3:1 “Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you, and it is a safeguard for you.”

You are all intelligent people. Seventy years from now you will still know that the cross is the place where Jesus died; that he died on that cross as our substitute; that he satisfied everything God demanded for our salvation; that God forgives our sins as a result; that all of this is a gift–not something we earn or pay for ourselves. You will remember this even if you never hear it mentioned again.

But what if we don’t keep talking about this same old thing like it is our greatest treasure, the most important thing in our lives, the one thing that always makes a difference? Will the gospel become little more than facts we learned a long time ago, something that we used to believe?

Let me illustrate with an example from sports. You know a large number of people who are fans of football. They never tire of watching their teams or talking about them. If you asked them whether they were going to watch their team on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, they would never say, “Nah, it’s always just the same old thing. They throw some passes. They run some running plays. I don’t need to see that again.” When the game is over, some of them will spend far more time than it took to play the game talking about the great plays and the bad plays, questioning the coach’s decisions, accusing the referees of criminal incompetence.

What happens if you move some of those people someplace where they can’t see their favorite teams play anymore? What if they can’t listen to the games on the radio, and no one else cheers for their team? Neither the newspapers nor the evening news ever make mention of them. What if they move half way around the world, where not only has no one ever heard of their favorite team, but the sport they call “football” is played with a round ball and a goalie?

Some of them may remain fans until the very end. But many of them will begin to lose interest. Their tastes will change. They will remember that there was a time when they thought that watching football and pulling for their team was important, but not so much anymore. Not only might they be cheering for a different team. They might be following an altogether different sport.

You and I are more than Jesus’ fans. We have trusted him with our lives and our eternal destinies. The things that Jesus has done to save us, the grace and love that you have come to know from going to church and studying the Bible, deserve your ongoing attention. They are worthy of your interest and fascination. They call for your unending exploration and discussion.

Then not just your knowledge, but your faith will stay in place as long as you live. It is a joy for those who preach, as it was a joy for Paul, to give you these same old things, because this is a safeguard for you.

Philippians 3:1 “Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you, and it is a safeguard for you.”

Contrary to what some people think, the Christian faith is not mostly about rules and restrictions. It is not mostly about obedience or sacrifice. These things have their place, it is true. We have no right to ignore them or throw them out. But those are not the things that make us rejoice.

Nor is the Christian faith just an empty emotion of joy. There is a hollow, temporary joy some people get from drugs or entertainment. There is a shallow, undependable kind of joy some people get from having the money or the things that they want. There are even churches that try to give people joy by giving them money or keeping them entertained. One I know even uses drugs. That’s not what Paul means when he says, “Rejoice.”

“Rejoice in the Lord.” In the Lord Jesus God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. In the Lord Jesus we find God’s mercy and grace. In the Lord Jesus our sins are forgiven, because in the Lord Jesus our sins were all punished and disposed of by his death on the cross. In the Lord Jesus God sees us as his holy children and loves us as though we were only innocent and pure. In the Lord Jesus we will live forever and heaven is our home. In the Lord Jesus everything that happens in life must serve us. Even the devils cannot hurt us. In the Lord Jesus we have the strength to resist sin and love each other. In the Lord Jesus we have a real reason to rejoice.

There is nothing I would rather do than spend long hours each week studying and thinking about this grace. I will get far more out of my sermons than any of my listeners ever will. That is no trouble for me. It is the joy of preaching the same old thing.

But it is also a joy because I know what it will do for those who hear. As Paul says, “…it is a safeguard for you.”

The same old thing is a safeguard. It continues to steady our faith and put it on sure and certain ground. And we need that in the years ahead, because Christian faith makes us something of a target. The devil has put a bounty on our heads because we believe the gospel. The world is all too ready to assassinate our faith. They would be happy if we were to believe almost anything except the gospel.

That’s why preaching and teaching the same things is a safeguard. An emphasis on the gospel keeps our spiritual compasses pointing north. In the face of competing ideas about God and sin and salvation; in the world’s wilderness of ideas about priorities and truth and spirituality; familiarity with the simple Bible truths makes sure that we can find our way home to grace. There, our joy in the Lord will always be waiting.

Philippians 3:1 “Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you…”

You like new things. But you like some old things, some favorite things, too. I don’t think that you would like to have something new, something you have never tried before, for each meal every day for the rest of your life. Think of all your favorite foods, your favorite recipes, that you would never get to taste again. Some foods always taste good.

I don’t think that you want every song you ever hear for the rest of your life to be something you never heard before. Once you like a song, you want to hear it again. You might grow tired of some. But there are others you will enjoy hearing for the rest of your life.

Often, the things we like the most, the things we really enjoy, are the things we know the best, things with which we have become most familiar. The old things make us feel comfortable, sometimes even safe.

When Paul wrote this letter to the Christians in Philippi, he had many reasons for joy, and many circumstances in which he urged it. But most of what he wrote was nothing new to these people. They were the same things he had taught them when he lived with them in the past. He was repeating himself. “And that’s okay,” he says, “because it is no trouble for me to do so.”

“Of course not,” you might think. “It’s easy to write about the same things over and over. It takes less work. It takes less thought.” But that is not necessarily true.

If a pastor cares at all for the people for whom he preaches, writes, and teaches, he doesn’t want his sermons to become a substitute for sleeping pills. He knows that your spiritual health needs constant reinforcement in the foundational truths of the gospel. He works hard, then, at presenting the same old truths in a fresh and interesting way.

The message at Christmas is always going to be about God loving us so much that he left heaven, became one of us, did so in a poor family as a helpless little baby without even a decent place to be born, and put up with it all to save us. But how does one say that in a way that captures your attention, and helps you see why it still makes a difference? The message at Easter is always going to be about God loving us so much that let himself be crucified to pay for our sins and rose again to promise eternal life. But where can I find the words that will help you appreciate the peace and joy of that promise again?

I know the temptation for you here, because I have wrestled with it myself. It is the temptation to say, “I’ve heard this. I know this. I want something else, something new.” It is the temptation to decide that the gospel is just boring.

There is hardly a more dangerous temptation you will face your whole life. The same old gospel is what keeps your faith alive. Without it, your faith will die. The same old gospel isn’t boring. It is more like the title of one movie about Jesus, The Greatest Story Ever Told. It is more than entertaining. It is life giving. Like Paul, faithful pastors want to give this message to you in a way that stays fresh, even while it stays the same old thing. It is no trouble for me, then, to give you the same old thing, but not because that is easy an easy thing to do.

Philippians 1:4 “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel…”

We don’t feel joy every moment of every day, but the fundamental reason to have it never goes away. Paul says that he prayed with joy, in spite of the problems, because of his partnership in the gospel with these Christians in Philippi. We can break that reason into two parts.

First, they had a partnership in the gospel. The message of the gospel, the good news it promises, doesn’t change. For the believer, who is always saved, always forgiven, always loved, always God’s child, always a citizen of heaven, always having everything work for his good, there is always a reason for joy. This is true even in the most difficult situations.

Some loved one dies unexpectedly and too early. But we know the believer is in heaven. We know God will not forsake us now. We may be ill, without a job, struggling to survive, living in the stress and strain of bad relationships. But God does not change, his promises do not fail, and all the treasure he has given us does not diminish. We still have reason for joy.

You see, the same message we share and distribute never stops applying to us. Every time we tell the story, we get to be refreshed in its promises to us. The more we focus on the gospel, the more we are filled with confidence that our sins are forgiven, our guilt is lifted, our future is secure, and our current circumstances must be serving us. The gospel never ceases to be a source of joy.

Second, Paul prayed with joy because of their partnership in the gospel. God has not left us alone to spread the faith. Our Christian mission is not a solo project. He has united us to others who share our faith and mission.

For just about any interest you might have, you know that it is more enjoyable when you can share it with someone. Maybe you like reading. Reading a book is something we generally do alone. It’s often better if you don’t have distractions. But if you liked the book, you get more enjoyment out of it if you can find someone else who shares your interest. You want to discuss it and promote it.

Our gospel partnership is more than just a hobby. In the gospel we have discovered the meaning of life. It is the secret to a life that never ends. In the gospel we have discovered life itself.  The greater the number of people who share our faith and join our cause, the greater our joy. Because we have been given each other as partners in this great good news, we have reason to pray with joy.

Philippians 1:4 “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel…”

Our word “prayer” is a little generic. We could call what Paul was doing on behalf of the Philippians “pleadings.” His requests contain a note of urgency, almost begging God for his help. What was it that gave Paul’s prayers such an edge?

We might sum it up with three “P’s.” The first “P” was prison. As Paul wrote these words, he was a prisoner in Rome, waiting for his trial before the emperor. That meant Paul needed the prayers of the Philippians. But urgent prayers were needed for more than Paul’s personal welfare. This could also affect his gospel ministry. Is there anything more scandalous than a pastor going to prison? We are not unfamiliar with clergy scandals. They make it hard to reach new souls. They convince some Christians to leave the church. Paul was innocent of any wrongdoing, but were the Philippian’s unbelieving neighbors going to understand? And what might the threat of imprisonment do to the people who were already members of the church?

For the Philippians, there was poverty. By and large the people who joined this church had barely enough to support themselves. They had so little to support the gospel work the Lord had given them. But they turned out to be a model congregation when it came to the matter of Christian giving and generosity.

A third “P” was persecution. Paul had spent a night in jail in Philippi before being forced to leave town. Later he urges the Philippians to stand firm and contend for the gospel “since you are going through the same struggles you saw I had” (1:30).

Our challenges aren’t exactly the same, but they aren’t completely different, either. Sharing our faith isn’t going to land us in jail, at least not yet, but our message is still counter-cultural. Our beliefs about the sanctity of life, human sexuality, the origins of the universe, inappropriate language, the dangers of money and things, and respect for authority still inspire hostile reactions. The central tenants of our faith–that we are so utterly sinful and spiritually dead that God had to send Jesus to do 100% of the work to save us–do not find a welcome reception. People want to believe that they are basically good. They think they may or may not need a little spiritual help from time to time.

This all poses a temptation, doesn’t it? We would like to tone down our more distinctive Christian beliefs. We want to fit in instead of stick out. Then what happens? To quote Jesus, we become like salt that has lost its saltiness. We don’t make a difference. As one astute observer noted, “The church that marries the spirit of this age will find itself a widow in the age to come.”

We may not live in poverty, but we also feel the pinch of fewer resources than we think we need. That poses temptation, too, doesn’t it? We don’t want to support a losing cause, so we give less than we might. We don’t think we have enough for ourselves, so we pull back from doing the work God has given us. We start blaming. We blame the irresponsible, spendthrift leaders who want the church to live beyond its means. We blame the stingy givers who aren’t very good stewards. It can all too easily begin to pull our gospel partnership apart. Then the gospel suffers.

If God has brought us to the end of our resources; if he has surrounded us with unrelenting persecutors; if there is nothing more we can do but pray, then he has placed us in the perfect position. In order to help us, God must bring us to the end of ourselves. When leads us to the place where we can see no help for our souls but Jesus, then he leads us to put all our faith in Christ and his perfect life, his sacrifice for sin, and he saves us. When God let the Apostle Paul be troubled by his thorn in the flesh, and he could do nothing to get rid of it but pray, then he had to rely on God’s power, and God’s power alone. Paul came to see that when he was weak, then Christ’s power rested on him. Then he was strong.

And when the obstacles we face drive us to our knees in urgent and constant prayers, and there is nothing more we can do but look to him for help, then God’s power can rest on us and our mission. God will answer our prayers to bless our partnership in the gospel.

1 Peter 4:10 “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”

“Faithfully administering God’s grace” is a little free in its rendering of Peter’s words. The Greek reads more literally, “a good steward of God’s grace.” As much as this wants to emphasize what you do, it wants to describe who you are even more. When you use your gifts to serve, you are a God’s steward, a good steward who cares for God’s gifts the way he intends.

Stewardship is not a new concept to most of us. In the household of a wealthy man, the steward was the master’s most trusted servant. He was the manager to whom the owner could entrust everything else he had. Joseph was the steward in Potiphar’s house. Joseph was responsible for overseeing and taking care of everything Potiphar owned.

It comes as no surprise that God asks us to trust him. No being has ever proved more trustworthy than our Lord, who still loves us even when we have despised him, graciously saved us from our sin, and faithfully provides for us every day. What’s not to trust? Peter is right when he says two chapters earlier, “The one who trusts in him will never be put to shame” (2:6).

It beggars belief that God should trust us as his stewards. But that is exactly what he does. And the trust he has placed into our hands affects more than the smooth running of a home or the success of a business. How we use his gifts to serve others, whether we use his gifts to serve others, can affect the eternal fate of the souls he died to save.

Just the same, you and I are his stewards, servants of the living God into whose hands he has placed gifts for service to his kingdom. No king has ever claimed a higher title, no celebrity has ever claimed a higher honor, than the one that God has graciously entrusted to us. We are stewards of God’s grace, and that trust is one that ennobles you and me.

Sometimes we need some straightening out on this whole concept of serving. Jesus once delivered an attitude adjustment to help his disciples understand who they were, and who they should aspire to be, “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

We are the servants of the Servant, who gave his life to serve us. Use his gifts, then, to serve each other.

1 Peter 4:10 “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others.”

Peter’s words include you, and me–every one of us. He is not referring to some special class of Christians. Over the years, I have run into people who thought that Christianity was for a special kind of person. They say, “I’m just not into all that morals and Bible study stuff,” as though Christian faith were a hobby some of us use as a pleasant distraction, and not God’s revelation of himself and how all people relate to him.

Are we tempted to use a similar excuse for not taking a more active role in serving? “The pastors and lay leaders are interested in all that stuff. It makes sense for them to sacrifice their evenings, and weekends. They have made a choice to put less into enjoying the good life. Getting involved in church is for people like that. But that’s not me.”

But if you still have a pulse, then “each one” still includes you. No exceptions. We can no more exclude ourselves from serving others than we can exclude ourselves from believing God’s word. Opting out poses a serious danger to our faith.

What, then, do we do? Remember, we have received gifts. “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others…”

It will help to understand Peter’s word for “gift.” It describes the results of God’s grace. This is what happens when God shows his undeserved love to people. At the end of this verse, Peter talks about God’s grace in its various forms. This grace has given us life-changing gifts. We need to keep this in mind when Peter tells us to use our gifts to serve others.

Think about the big gift God has given. Someone was once impressed that my father gave me a car. I have to admit that was a big gift worth thousands of dollars. I know other people whose parents have given them an entire house!

I don’t know anyone who has ever offered to give away the only Son he had, at least not the way God did. He didn’t give his Son up for adoption to a nice family that was going to give him better care than he could. He gave his Son to a world he knew was going to abuse him, because he knew that this was the only way he could rescue that world.

Jesus gave the world the purest life of love ever lived. He traced every detail of God’s law in his ministry of mercy. It was a privilege that people got to see it, and we get to read about it in action. But God did more. He gave the credit for that life to you, as though you were the one who lived it, as though it were your very own.

God did still more. After three years of selflessly loving people, Jesus gave control of his life over to his enemies. They pinned him to a cross with iron spikes, hanging him there until he died. He died in place of us, not so much like the soldier who jumps on the grenade to spare his friends (though he certainly claims us as his friends). He did something unheard of. He was like a soldier who jumps on the grenade to save his enemies. Paul says in Romans 5, “…when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son…” Jesus’ death prevented us from having to die and go to hell for our sins. It satisfied God’s justice. It gives us peace with God. It gives us life that will never end.

Someday, when Jesus returns, once more God will amaze us with his selfless giving. “It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them,” Jesus promised the crowds one day (Luke 12:37). If it weren’t enough that he already lived and died for you, Jesus is waiting to return just so that he can serve you more.

God’s grace, as Peter points out, has various forms. This is also seen in our talents and abilities. These are not just skills we have developed. They are gifts–gifts of the God who does all this to serve us; gifts that we have received because our Lord is so full of grace. He has heaped on each one of us one gift after another and made himself our servant in time and in eternity.

Can we, then, come to any other conclusion than the one Peter makes? “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others.” How could we do anything else?

Ephesians 1:18 “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you man know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.”

God has riches waiting for you, glorious riches in heaven. This is your inheritance, your “new-birth” right as God’s children. That sounds good. It sounds great. But it may seem a little vague. Have you ever noticed that when God describe heaven, he usually talks about the absence of the things we don’t like here? It is the place with no more sorrow, no more pain, no more hunger, no more tears, no more sin, no more death. But when it comes to describing what heaven is in a positive way, even God himself seems to be at a loss for words. Later in this same letter Paul says that God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. And heaven is one of those things that defy human words, because it is more than our little brains are even capable of imagining.

So Paul tells us it is the riches of a glorious inheritance. What do “riches” mean to you? Is a millionaire rich? Is a billionaire rich? Do we even know how much that really is? If a billion people made a human tower, they would stand up past the moon. If you started counting from one to a billion, it would take you 95 years to finish. If you found a goldfish bowl large enough to hold a billion goldfish, it would be as big as a football stadium. A billion seconds ago it was 1979. A billion minutes ago the Apostle John was still alive. A billion hours ago our world hadn’t been created yet. (A billion dollars ago was only about 6 hours ago at the rate dollars are spent in Washington D.C.)

Of course, the riches of heaven aren’t measured in dollars. And a billion is something we can imagine, as we have just demonstrated. The riches of our glorious inheritance far exceed all this, more than we can even imagine. And yet, it is not more than we can hope or believe. Another place Paul writes the Corinthians, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him–but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.” Maybe human words can’t describe it. Maybe our minds can’t fully picture it. But God’s Spirit has still revealed it in a way that our believing hearts embrace and long for. He makes it possible to see that our future is full of glorious riches now, and know we will live in them forever.

God doesn’t wait for volunteers. He has found us and called us to receive his gifts by faith. Doesn’t that calling speak to our situation now? I am more than the graying, middle-aged has-been with poor eyesight and a funny Minnesota accent the world sees. In Christ I am far richer than the world’s super rich, because all the treasures of heaven belong to me. Don’t we, then, have confidence for our life now as well as the life of glory to come? This is our calling. See it. Believe it. Let it change your life.

Ephesians 1:18 “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you…”

If God has called you, that makes you a special person. When I receive a call to serve a new congregation as their pastor, God is telling me, “I haven’t forgotten about you. I still have a special purpose for your life. I have singled you out to serve me, and I want you to think about what that means for a little while.”

Most of you who are reading this haven’t been called to be pastors, but God has given you an even more important and more fundamental call. He has called you to be his children by faith. He has singled you out to know him as your dear Father, to see his Son Jesus become your real brother, to discover the ultimate act of love for you in Jesus’ death on the cross, to receive forgiveness for all your sins, to be free from every guilty burden that has weighed on your soul, to live each moment of your life under the smiling face of a gracious God, and to know that it all only gets better after you die.

In short, he has called you to hope. You may not look any different after you have been called to faith. You don’t stretch up several inches after the guilty burden has been removed. You aren’t suddenly immune to all the world’s dangers, and the grass doesn’t turn gold beneath your feet. Yet somehow, the world looks different. Your life looks different. Everything that happens looks different. To borrow a turn of phrase from the movie The Santa Clause, it’s not that seeing is believing. Rather, believing is seeing. By bringing you his gospel, and calling you to faith, God has given you hope.

God’s hope makes all the difference, because God’s hope is certain. Everybody wants a better future. That’s why politicians try to inspire a sense of hope in their political campaigns. That’s why people from so many parts of the world bring their hopes for a better life to America. But hope that is built on human calculations and planning and projections is nothing more than a wish, because we neither know nor control the future. It is a dream that offers comfort, but it may be nothing more than an illusion.

The hope to which God has called us cannot fail. No one else controls God, but God himself controls the future. He does exactly what he pleases, and he never changes. If he makes a promise, he always keeps it, and nothing can stand in his way. If he says he forgives our sins, he does–every time! If he says he will give us eternal life, he does! We are living in it already! The hope we have in him is the only hope that comes with an absolutely unbreakable, unfailing guarantee.

Do you know what that means? It means that Lutheran Church father C.F.W. Walther was right when he said, “Der Christ ist ein optimist.” I’ll bet you can already translate the German. “The Christian is an optimist.” We know that the future is good. For those God has called, both fists full of his promises, even the parts of the future that are bad are good. We have certain hope! This hope frees us from anxiety. It makes us patient as we struggle through more difficult days now in anticipation of what lies ahead. At all times, in every circumstance, we have hope because God has called us to be his own.