Over the last couple sessions, we have talked about obedience, submission and worship.  All of those things are foundational to conduct being worthy of the Gospel of Christ.  We ended the last session with a thought, an implanted idea, that in discovering what he was missing as a religious Jew, Paul was not only born again, not only transformed by the renewing of his mind, but he was made ready.  Ready for what you might say?  Ready for whatever!

 

Ready to live man!  Ready to impact eternity!  Ready to not only stand for truth but to live for it!  Ready to face his companions of the past, still locked in their drudgery of religiousity.  Ready to face the rampant paganism of his day.  Ready to face the circumstance and situation of living for Jesus…and ultimately ready to face the Lord Himself…on that day when he would again speak with Him face to face in the doorway of eternity.

 

Why did I want to come here?  Why have I spoken with you about submission and worship?  Why have I sought to deeper your commitment to truth and your dependence upon God Almighty?  Because I want you ready.  Ready for what?  For whatever!

 

Ready to leave here and drop the bitterness you’ve held against your dad or your wife or your boss for so long.  Why?  Because it dishonors the Lord.  Ready to return home and break off that inappropriate relationship you have.  Ready to return to your families and begin to protect your home from the poisonous filth of modern media and invest in those little ones with family devotions, Bible readings before bed and prayer before lights out.  Ready to worship for real, not just with hands raised and hearts bowed when the bass drops during worship but in the moments when only God sees because its that time, those times when only God can be glorified you see…

 

Ready to get back into the swing of your lives fully prepared for the reality of the soon return of the Lord…Ready to face the circumstance of the day and the surmounting difficulty that awaits the follower of Jesus tomorrow.

 

Surmounting difficulty?  Oh yes.  Today you can be a Christian and fold right into society.  You shouldn’t be able to.  A Christian should be so salty that their lifestyle should publically conflict with the tide of the culture.  Jesus certainly did.  The title Christian in our world today even is confusing.  I have no idea what you believe even if you tell me, “yea, I’m a Christian.”  And I think to myself, well that’s interesting.  You find the followers of Jesus called Christians how many times in the Bible?…only three times.  So what are believers called in the Bible?  Servants…or bondslaves of Christ.  You see the whole idea of hupatasso is envoked…

 

And the Lord has promised that the wheat will grow amongst the tares, only for a time…and then the harvest…well I believe the harvest has begun.  The separation of the bondslaves and the Christians.  Those that have submitted their all to God, just as He designed from the very beginning…and those that simply claim Christ but serve Him not.  Jesus said it Himself in Matthew 15, “these people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.”

And that offends, man.  The harvest has begun and yet it has arrived in a form that no one expected.  Society will harvest its own before Jesus.  What do you mean?  I saw a headline this week on the cover of USA Today.  It was two lines, one on top of the other.  It read on the first line, “Gay Marriage,” and on the second line, “You Be The Judge.”  The entire world has it wrong.  The church as a whole has it all wrong. 

 

The problem is not the first line.  It’s the second!  You be the judge?  Do you see it?  The revelation set forth by God from the Garden?  Can you perceive it?  The harvesting by the world of its own…the problem is not Gay Marriage, the problem is not fornication, the problem is not adultery, the problem is not lewdness or drunkenness or sorcery…those are all problems, those are all sin, but they are not THE problem…the problem is that man has made himself his own judge. 

 

I want you to leave here ready!

 

Society trusts in itself and man we are being led to the slaughter.  Because the end of every man is what…six feet down.  Death, decay, corruption…and folks are tauting the banner of Christian and marching right into their eternal graves.  It is Jesus that defeated the grave.  It is His way, His truth, His life that leads to precisely that…life, and life abundant.  And I want you ready.  Because 20 years ago there was no talk of this gay marriage business.  No legalization of illicit drugs.  No legalization of adultery…what’s next?  God only knows man…and today, this weekend I want to tell you believer, your readiness is your responsibility.  And it is accomplished “only” through submission to God…solely through worshipping Him now!

 

And it all begins now.  Today.  While the rain isn’t yet quite pouring, just drizzling.  You must choose to worship God now…or you will certainly deny Him soon.  You must choose to come under His covering and give your all to Him now…or you will certainly disclaim Him soon.  Some of you are already falling.  Arguments and strife in your home…secret lives of sinful indulgence…backbiting your pastors and your friends when they’re not around…hittin’ up happy hour with your homies after work…some of you are already denying Jesus today…man great will be the fall when the real storm comes upon that home you’ve built on shifting sand…and the storm is beginning.  The world is calling it’s own to itself.  The father of lies, the prince of the power of the air is harvesting…and many are being cut off at the stalk.

 

I want you ready.  Paul was ready.  Saul was not.  Obedience gained him nothing.  He counted all he had and arrived at as loss.  Paul found that word “monon” that key to coming alive in the Spirit and living a life that matters…He exercised his God given choice…to submit his life to the Lord and worship.

 

Look again with me at Philippians Chapter 1.  One last thing I’d like to share with you before I’m through.  Look again at verse 27…Paul says “Only LET your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ.”  Oh Paul, what a scratch and sniff!  You ever have one of those?…its like a picture of a strawberry and it smells like nothing but when you scratch it, it kinda smells like a strawberry…like a real one…but it isn’t…its such an odd invention…

 

But Paul gives us one here…man he is scratching upon a deep truth here…a deep truth that even Abraham knew.  Its found all the way back in the Book of Genesis, in chapter 15…

 

Verse 1 begins, “After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram.””  (In other words, be ready man…the opposite of being afraid is being filled with courage and resolve right?  Being ready!)  “Do not be afraid, Abram.  I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”  But Abram said, “Lord God…(read through verse 17)…

 

Notice the covenant between God and Abram…God did it all didn’t He?  I mean when it came time to seal the deal, to take the oaths and make the covenant…Abram slept!  A deep sleep fell upon Abram.  Now have any of you ever been in a deep sleep?  Isn’t it the best?  So peaceful…maybe you get a case of OMS (open mouth syndrome) and you just saw logs man…so comfortable, so peaceful, so renewing…well that was Abram’s state here while God made the entire promise.  Both sides.  “Abram, I will do it all.”

 

Just as He said to Paul, “Paul I will do it all…I will take you into disperse places…I will take you into difficult situations and even cities where they will surely seek your life…but I will do it all…I will show Myself faithful…all that is on you, be ready!”

 

“Matt I will do it all.  I will bring about the plan of purpose of the ministry I have set before you.  I will lead you in leading April.  I will raise your children up in My grace in truth.  I will provide for you and I will work through you.  You just be ready.”

 

God said to Abram, My convenant I swear by Myself and all that I have promised through My convenant with you, I will bring about…”  Just like He will in your lives also.  He has promised you love, power, soundness of mind, gentleness, meekness, strength, purpose and victory…and He swore it by Himself as He paid the price for all of that upon Calvary’s cross, and He proved it by Himself when he walked right out of His own coffin…but Abram, be ready…

 

How Lord?  I don’t know if you caught it as we read through Genesis 15.  Somethings Abram did because of a direct order from God.  “Gather the heifer, the female goat, the ram, the turtledove and a young pigeon.”  And Abram saluted and obeyed.  But then something Abram did without a direct order…do you see it?  Do you see His submission to God’s plan not just his willful obedience of God’s commands?  Do you see His commitment to God’s purpose in worship of his Creator, not just His acknowledgment of God’s truth?

 

It’s there in verse 11.  See it?  “And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away!”  He was ready man.  He had received the promise of God, had glimpsed the plan of God and he had submitted his all under God…and so when the vultures circled…he was ready.  When they came down…Abram went all Jackie Chan on them!

 

How we have missed this in our own lives?  How have we done all that God has asked, all that He has commanded, yet the vultures of the cares of this world, the vultures of temptation, the vultures of the flesh, the vulture of “be your own judge” has come and eaten up the offering of covenant to the Most High?  Because we have missed the only aspect of choice that has the power to ready us…the only “let” that defeats compromise…we have missed submission man…and in that we have missed worship…

 

And the vultures rip away our obedience don’t they.  Here Abram had done all that was commanded and yet there was still something that if missed would have limited the purpose and plan of God in his life…He himself had to be committed to the same plan you see…

 

And that’s it.  The essence of conduct worthy of the Gospel of Christ.  The indespensible quality that is found in not Christians, but citizens of heaven man.  The character cornerstone of those that are ready…ready for today, ready for tomorrow, ready for the Lord’s return…ready for whatever!

 

What are the vultures in your life?  Is it your desire for man’s approval?  That was one of Paul’s.  Is it that you are concerned that many will be offended that you are fully committed to glorifying God and not man?  That you will address sin first in your own life but also in the lives of those that God has placed around you?  Correcting, rebuking, exhorting and teaching the ways of God in love and living according the Spirit and not the flesh.  Are you afraid of losing your job, your house, your money, your reputation, your respect…are you just afraid?  The king of all vultures.

 

Fear is the father of dishonesty, did you know that?  The Word of God is truth and the Vulture King that will drive you out from under the blessed covering of God during a torrential downpour…is fear.  I want you ready. 

 

Why not live for the Lord?  Why not live for truth?  Why not be salty salt?  And feverishly bright light in this darkening world?  Why not be honest, and the definition of honest…is standing for truth with an unwavering commitment to God’s eternal glory…Sarah was afraid…and so she abandoned truth…look over at Genesis 18:15, “But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh”, for she was afraid…

 

Denied what?  No.  Denied Who.  God…why?  For she was afraid.  No no no, perfect love casts out fear, 1 John 4:18 says, and perfect love has arrived.  And so Paul would say “let” man “let your conduct be worthy of the Gospel of Christ.”  It’s beyond obedience, it’s higher than compliance…it is perfect love…hupotasso. 

 

Commiting to the plan of God…entrusting your whole life to the glory of the Lord Jesus.

 

And what does that look like?  Yes gathering the animals…but man drive away the vultures…protect the pure offering of love and worship to a worthy God…and in that, you’ll be ready…ready for what?  Ready for whatever…and most importantly, ready for what God has planned for you, and your family, and your friends, and your church, and your world and ultimately…your eternity!

 

I’d like to leave you and this place, and this time…with God’s Word ringing in your ears and hearts.  Turn with me to Psalm 91 as we ready ourselves to close…

 

One thing I’ll add, as the Holy Spirit speaks directly to our hearts, “…and through My love and grace, all who are found to dwell in this secret place, will be counted worthy of the price I paid…the Gospel of My Son, Jesus Christ…as they with great might, drive away the vultures.”