Dear Friends

 

Over the past weeks we have been looking together at Paul’s letter to the Philippians and I hope that you have found the Sunday morning messages to be worthwhile.  Personally, it has been both a privilege and a huge challenge to study this letter, to dwell in it, and to ask God what he wants to say to us as a church through it.  As I have said many times before, when I come to putting together a message for the church, there are times when I find myself asking God whether this is a message to be preached or just a message for me to take on board personally.  The answer to this has been “both”.

 

I am particularly challenged by Paul’s words to the Philippian church found at the beginning of chapter 2, where he says “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”  In these verses he sets out the key to the church being a strong community of God’s people, a people who are positioned to proclaim Christ and to be a light in the darkness.  He follows these words with the ultimate example of humility, of servanthood, of obedience and of love; that of Jesus Christ himself, and he encourages us to have the same attitude as Christ.

 

This is a huge challenge to us, particularly when we live in a culture where self-interest and individuality are promoted.  The church, however, is meant to be counter-culture, to be a light in the darkness, to shine in this world.

 

I love Liberty Church.  I love seeing men and women give of themselves for the interests of others, whether those “others” are part of the church family or part of the wider community.  I love seeing the example of Godly men and women, and children, who act selflessly and who lift up the name of Christ.  I realise, in myself, that every act of selfishness on my part only seeks to destroy community and to dishonour the name of Christ, whether that act is highly visible or is only seen by me and God.  On the other hand, every time I am willing to lay down my agenda, to be generous to another human being, to take an interest in another person, to listen to, to encourage, to help; every time I am able to say to God “not my will but yours be done”; every time I seek to bless another in any way at all, I am strengthening the bonds of unity in the body of Christ and I am lifting up the name of Jesus.

 

As we move towards the Christmas season and the time when we celebrate the reality of a God who made himself nothing for us, let us take every opportunity to do good, to bless others, to surrender our own agendas and ambitions, and in so doing to honour the name of Jesus.

 

Much love

 

Jon