Staying The Course | Philippians

Описание: Introduction:
Pastoring is watching for souls (Hebrews 13:17).
It is soul care.
And hopefully, prayerfully, the longer we have the privilege to do this, the more we come to recognize the temptations plaguing souls. We come to recognize the patterns of temptation — common pitfalls — that believers are especially prone to, so that we can help God’s people navigate those temptations.
Or, we could also say, we come to recognize the common appeals to the flesh that the people of God are very prone to embrace to their own detriment.
One of those common pitfalls — a temptation that mirrors the thinking of the world — is the idea that PROGRESS means finding something NEW, something DIFFERENT; and the assumption that because it’s new it’s going to be BETTER.
The idea is, “TO MOVE FORWARD, to make progress, WE NEED TO CHANGE THINGS.”
BECAUSE THIS IS A COMMON PITFALL, PASTORS FIND THEMSELVES PERIODICALLY NEEDING TO EXHORT GOD’S PEOPLE SEE THE NEED TO STAY PUT, TO STAY ON THEIR PRESENT COURSE — KNOWING THAT THEY ALREADY HAVE WHAT THEY NEED.
There is a restlessness that characterizes sin.
There is a discontentment that exists in sin.
There is an inability (when we are not in a good place) to find lasting satisfaction in any long-term course, so that perpetual dissatisfaction leads to a perpetual desire to change our course, to change our circumstances, to change what has become routine to us — instead of recognizing that our need is to change our approach to what has become routine.
QUESTION: CAN YOU SEE THIS ATTITUDE IN THE WORLD AROUND YOU? THE IDEA THAT NEW IS BETTER?
Each generation thinks itself more sophisticated than the previous generation — more advanced, more intelligent, more enlightened, more respectable (less embarrassing).
WHY? Because of technology in some cases (which naturally benefits from accumulation). Technology truly does advance, and that unfortunately often leads to the assumption that this is also true in the realm of ideas.
“A NEW way of thinking must be an IMPROVED way of thinking!”
“A NEW view of morality must be a step forward in morality!”
Of course, there’s a logical disconnect in all of this.
At the very time that the NEW WAY proclaims its superiority it can be blind to how it was dependent upon the PREVIOUS WAY, and in many cases, resistant to the factual evidence that the new way isn’t always a step UPWARD, but is very often a step DOWNWARD.
In its pride, it enjoys the fruits of the previous generation even as it diminishes the previous generation.
WELL, THE DEVIL IS MORE THAN HAPPY TO SELL THIS VERY SAME LIE TO BELIEVERS.
Believers can become victims of spiritual boredom.
Believers can become victims of the itch for change.
Believers can lose their way by abandoning a SOUND WAY for a NEW WAY.
It is DISCONTENTMENT, but in the realm of GOOD THINGS.
This can happen in the realm of doctrine.
This can happen in the realm of relationships.
This can happen in the realm of spiritual practices and disciplines.
This can happen in the realm of location.
STANDING AGAINST THIS LIE (new is better) ARE THE REPEATED EXHORTATIONS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT THAT CALL US TO STAY OUR COURSE.
I would remind us again that the Word of God never warns us about things that aren’t a real threat to us.
The Bible never warns us about things that you and I can’t fall prey to.
So, when we are warned and exhorted and commanded, again and again, to stay our course when it’s the good course, you know that believers can be tempted to be MOVED out of a SOUND WAY for the empty promise represented in a NEW WAY.

THERE ARE MANY PASSAGES FROM WHICH THIS EXHORTATION FOR STAYING OUR COURSE COULD BE DEMONSTRATED BUT LET ME DEMONSTRATE IT FROM ONE IN WHICH WE ARE BEING SHOWN THE WAY FORWARD IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
The question addressed by these verses has to do with the mindset that belongs to Christian maturity.
How does maturity think? How does it think about itself, how does it think about life, how does it think about its future?