Philippians: The Key to Joy 17

LISTEN! December 16, 1979: Texas Women’s University graduation and the Dallas Cowboys.

●    Sometimes glorious victories are won out of bitter apparent defeats

●    God is a Being with traceable habits. One of His most consistent habit is bringing great victories out of what appear to be utter defeats.

So today I'm going to read the scriptures as we go instead of at the beginning of the message, and I'll be reading 3 or 4 scriptures as we go along through the message.

So let me pray for us. We're grateful, Father, for this good day and for your good kindness to us. We pray as we think about Your word. And your truth,

and especially about you. And how you go about your being. I pray that we are encouraged. That we would be humbled and that would be submitted to you.

So we pray that your Holy Spirit will help us, and we ask it in Christ's name, Amen.

December 16th, 1979 was a Sunday. I was a student at Dallas Seminary. My wife and I were sitting in a graduation ceremony at Texas Women's University. It was a huge auditorium, completely full. It was an eternal, eternal ceremony, lasting forever. And we were there because my mother-in-law was receiving her master's degree in early childhood development. Very happy day for the family, Very happy day for Grandma Joyce.

I was miserable. However, I was miserable because at the time I had a very bad addiction. It's an addiction from which I have now been fully delivered and I'm deeply grateful for. I was a massive, at the time, Dallas Cowboys fan. And I was in this ceremony without a cell phone, waiting for the Internet to be

invented. I had no idea what the score was because the Cowboys were playing the Washington Redskins. And they had to beat the Redskins in order to get

into the playoffs. And I had no idea what the score was. And no idea how the game was going. So I'm sitting here in misery. I happen to glance up at the balcony and I see a little black and white TV. And 25 people huddled around it.

What do you think they're watching?

Well, I knew what they were watching. So I dismiss myself from my chair as

if I was going to use the restroom. I went up and sat at the back of that crowd and watched the game on TV. There was only three minutes left. And it was depressing. Because my Dallas Cowboys were down by 13 points. They're not getting in the playoffs and they're going to be beat by the Washington Redskins of all teams.

We truly live in a fallen world, friends. We really do. They're down 13 points.

There's 3 minutes left. And I thought I might as well be depressed here as depressed down there. So I sat to watch it. And with two minutes and 20 seconds left. Roger Staubach threw a touchdown. Now we're only down 6 points. And then they got the ball back. And with 39 seconds left, he threw another touchdown. And we won by one point. Let us rejoice, let us rejoice.

Especially Kelly and his family.

I told you that story to say this very important thing, friends. Sometimes there is an amazing victory won. Out of an apparent defeat. I want to talk about the day that today in relation to the person of God and the habits of God. So in Psalm 25, verse 4, David, who was king of Israel, said to God, “make me know your ways, O Lord.” The word ways is a word that means habits.

Ways of going about life. Path of living. Or character. And David knew that God was a being with habits. He had ways of being. God has traceable ways of going about things.

Let me read you a few of them. He's communicating, taking initiatives, saving people, forgiving people, being patient with people, helping people, showing mercy to people, showing grace to people, providing for people, speaking truth to people, rebuilding people's broken lives,  showing up at critical times for people, and giving people another chance. So God is a being with traceable

habits and one of his main habits. All through the scriptures and all through life. God has a habit of bringing great victory out of apparent bitter defeat.

He's up to that all the time.

Big Idea: God wins great victories…out of bitter (apparent) defeats.

Let me give you some Bible examples of that. By the way, you have an outline in your bulletin. If you want to look at that. You're welcome to. It has seven Bible examples. I was reviewing this last Wednesday and said this will be as long as a graduation service if I do all of these.

So I cut it down. We're not doing all 7.

●    Exhibit A: Israel's backed up against the Red Sea.

God led Israel out of Egypt. He was leading them by a pillar of cloud in the daytime, a pillar of fire at night, and he brought them straight to the Red Sea, and he backed them up against the Red Sea so they had no escape. The Egyptians said, “What have we done, letting all of our slaves go?” And they chased after them and there they were backed up to the Red Sea with the army of the Egyptians bearing down to them. They have nowhere to go.

Exodus chapter 14:10-29, says this. “Pharaoh drew near. The sons of Israel looked, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they became very frightened. So the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord.” Verse 21. “Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord swept the sea back by the strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land. So the waters were divided. The sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on the dry land, and the waters were like a wall to them on the right and on the left.

Then the Egyptians took up the pursuit. And all of Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen went in after them into the midst of the sea. At the morning watch, the Lord looked down on the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and the cloud. And brought the Egyptians, the armies of the Egyptians, into confusion. He caused their chariot wheels to swerve. He made them drive with difficulty, So the Egyptians said let us flee from here, for the Lord is fighting against the Egyptians. And when the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hands over the sea, so that the waters may come back over the Egyptians. And over the Chariots and their horsemen. So Moses stretched out his hands over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state. At Daybreak, while the Egyptians were fleeing right into the midst of it, the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. The waters returned cover the Chariots and the horsemen, Pharaoh's army, and they were all gone into the

sea. Not one of them remained, but the sons of Israel walked through the land on the dry ground in the midst of the sea, and the waters were like a wall to them, on their right hand and on their left hand.”

It's one example of this fact. That God has a habit of bringing great victory out of apparent defeat.

●    Exhibit B:  David at Ziklag

David has been anointed king. Saul is still king. Saul hates David. He's trying to kill him. David's in the far South of Israel in a place called the Negev. He has 600 men and they are traveling around making a living, living by raiding Pagan villages. They're stealing stuff from pagans in order to live. And they are on a huge three day raid going around the Negev, raiding and then.

This happens in chapter 30 of 1-8 First Samuel. “Then it happened when David and his men came to Ziklag. That's their own town, on the third day. That the Amalekites had made a raid on the Negev and on Ziklag, and had overthrown Ziklag and burned it with fire. And they took captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great, without killing anyone, and carried them off and went their way. When David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices to weep. Now David's two wives had been taken captive, Ahinoam, the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite. Moreover, David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him. For all the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, “Bring me the ephod.” So Abiathar brought the ephod to David. David inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I pursue this band? Shall I overtake them?” And the Lord said to him, “Pursue, for you

shall surely overtake them, and you shall surely rescue all.”

So the story goes on to say that David did pursue them and David did

overtake them, and David defeated them and David got back everybody. Not one person had died. Wives, children, everything. Their cattle, everything, the text says, great and small, they were able to get back. The point is, God has a habit of winning great victories out of what is apparently a bitter defeat. We'll do one last one.

●    Exhibit C: Naomi in Moab

●    Exhibit D: Naomi in Moab

●    Exhibit E: An #unwed mother in Nazareth

●    Exhibit E: The two witnesses of Revelation 11

●    Exhibit F: Peter denying Jesus

●    Exhibit G: Jesus on the cross.

If you're following that, that is this Jesus on the cross. It's got a band of people following him. They think this is the king. We finally got the Messiah. Life is good. He's going to overthrow the Romans. Life will be great. But it didn't happen.

As you know. He was captured, beaten, tried illegally 3 times in the middle of the night. Found guilty, sentenced to death, executed on the cross. Laid in a borrowed tomb, stone rolled in front of it, guards of Roman soldiers set around it.

And the disciples, the 11 remaining disciples, and the other maybe 120 or more people who followed Jesus. Are bitterly depressed. Everything is lost.

Everything is lost, the Messiah is dead and buried, and his tomb is sealed.

And we are hopeless. We are helpless. It's the worst possible defeat. You cannot imagine a more bitter defeat than what has happened here. They have taken their hopes in like a watermelon thrown off of a 100 story building to the concrete. It's over. It's all dashed and gone. What they didn't understand very well at the time, and I don't really blame them because I get to this place myself, is that God has a habit of winning great victories out of apparent bitter defeat. And so in Luke 24:1, “On the first day of the week, when it was early daylight, they came to the tomb.” This is the women who followed Jesus out of Galilee. “They came to the tomb. They had their spices to prepare his body.

And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, and when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, 2 men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing. And the women were terrified. They bowed their faces to the ground. The men said, “Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He's not here. But he has risen. Remember how he spoke to you while he was still in Galilee saying?

The Son of Man must be delivered from the hands to the hands of evil men.

And he will be crucified on the third day. He will rise again.” And they remembered the words, and they returned from the tomb and reported all these things to 11 and to all of the rest.”

 The point being that this was the most bitter possible defeat. God brought

great victory. And in the process of bringing Jesus alive through this great defeat. It ended up being the victory. Paid for our sins. It ended up being God's opportunity to hand us forgiveness based on trust in Jesus Christ. It looked like the worst possible victory, but it was the worst possible defeat. It was the greatest possible victory. You cannot turn anything around more than Jesus did right there.

Big Idea: God wins great victories…out of bitter (apparent) defeats

It's God's generosity because he has a habit. He has a habit of taking great defeat and changing it into great victory. So the central idea, God wins great victories out of apparent bitter defeats.

A “WHAT IF?” Application: Faith Community Bible Church

What is there in your life about what you would say I have suffered or I am currently suffering a bitter defeat? Something 's gone wrong. The wheels have

gone off something. I hate it, I can't fix it. It's wearing me out. It's deeply

discouraging. I see no way out. There's nothing I can do about it. I don't know what it is in your life between those and the two sentences and those watching

online. There's probably 1000 people going to listen to this. I don't know what those thousand things are. I have no idea. But I do know that like David in First Samuel 30:6, “We need to say I will strengthen myself in the Lord my God.” Even if nobody's standing with me. I will strengthen myself in the Lord my God, and I will ask him to work. I will ask him to reach into this mess.

This is an intractable problem. This thing. This thing that I cannot personally fix. To change hearts, to change minds, to change stuff. So that God will repair it. Won't take a minute right now and pray for that.

Father, I don't know what these thousand things are or more. But you know

everyone of them. 

You're the same God who? Rescued the Israelites at the Red Sea. 

The same God who rescued David's family.  

You're the same God who brought Ruth and Naomi back to Bethlehem. Put them in the line of the Messiah. 

You are the same God who raised up the two witnesses of Revelation.

You are the same God who restored Peter after he denied you.

You are the same God who brought your son back to life.

And we are praying together right now. That you would exert that kind of power. In these apparent bitter defeats.

Lord, we love you no matter what the outcomes are, but we're casting ourselves on you. We're just acknowledging we need you to work. We don't have it in ourselves. And so will you show mercy? Will you help? We ask this

in Christ's name. Amen.

I want to give you a second application and that application is.

What if? Faith Community Bible Church is another example of God bringing great victory out of apparent defeat.

What if? I want to rehearse you a little bit without any detail, the apparent bitter defeat on June 30th, I think it was Steve Walker who stood on this platform and said our brand new pastor has resigned and he's gone.

It was a bitter, bitter announcement for all of us. That was 14 months ago yesterday, friends, 14 months ago.

And so what happened in the ensuing weeks was we had a lot of discouragement, a lot of accusation, a lot of anger, a lot of confusion.

We had 9 out of 18 staff members leave, 300 out of 1100 people eventually left. We had no lead pastor, We had no worship pastor, we had no student ministry pastor. We lost a whole bunch of other key, key staff. We had an elder board that was down to four men and they were, they were struggling. We had a staff that was struggling. Those who remain. We had great discouragement about what had gone wrong, great confusion about what to do to make it right.

It was a mess. It was a bitter, bitter mess. It felt like a defeat to me. I lived through it. A lot of you did live through it. Hate to bring up a dramatic PTSD thing, but this is like being backed up to the Red Sea, is it not?

This is like what went wrong? How could we fix this? What are we ever going to do? That was a great apparent defeat, but God has a habit of bringing great victory out of apparent defeat. I'm personally convinced you can make your

own judgment. That's exactly what he did.

Let me tell you what I've seen so far as far as victory he's brought out of it 13 months later, rebuilt, unified and striving. Unified, dedicated elder board staff and elders who love each other. We just launched a new Deacon ministry. We just had 24 people return from evangelism in Ecuador, and 15 of them were teenagers. We just had an evangelism training weekend with Larry Moyer. We have strong finances and no debt. We have stabilized in attendance. We're seeing new families coming. Last Sunday we were tight, tight, tight on parking, for the first hour. And the second hour.

This morning we got a text to the staff saying please park on the dirt so there's room out there. We have a major outreach coming in April. We have a spirit of joy and courage. If you were not here Sunday night, you should watch it.

It was fun. It felt like a party.

We have a new lead pastor. He's already started leading the staff, loving people, getting to know people and praying for people. I've worked with Travis for one month now and I will say this, Travis is humble. He is hardworking.

And he's a natural leader. It's a big deal.

That feels to me like victory. Now what if?

What if there's some more victory coming? What if God's going to do more?

What if, for example, he's going to work on us personally and as a body of believers to be people? Who love him better and love others better. People who are even more full of grace and more full of truth. People who talk to each

other and never about each other.

What if God is going to continue to work in us? Friends, you can renew and revive a church to some degree with new bylaws, new structures to some degree. But to really do it, by the way, we've done some new structures, we've changed some things that caused some of our previous trouble. It's the right

thing to do.

But to really do it, you have to deal with our own hearts. What if God is going to deal with our own hearts? What if he's going to bring a massive number of people to faith? What if he's going to use us to plant churches, maybe 3 or maybe 5 every three years for the next who knows how long? What if he's going to raise some full time workers? What if he is going to cause us to be people who make a huge difference in this valley and beyond?

What if He’s going to establish Travis Connick as a 25 year faithful under Shepherd at FCBC? What might God be up to?

I'm personally feeling very encouraged. I'm optimistic now. I'm not hallucinating. We're not out of the woods. It's not the millennial

Kingdom. I'm very clear.

We still need to trust God. We still need to strive. We still need to submit to our own personal spiritual growth. We still need to be people who are, who are in crazy, crazy ways, willing to talk to each other and willing to submit our own hearts to the transformation that God needs to do in our lives. It's not the millennial Kingdom, but God has done great things.

I want to close by saying this. God was in this church from day one through today, including June 30. God is a being who has walked with us faithfully.

Despite our own sins and shortcomings. He walked with us faithfully.

I don't think he's planning to leave. It's a very amazing story in Exodus 33, where God was so fed up with the people of Israel, they had been so obstinate, he said to Moses. I want you to take these people and go on to the promised land and I'll send an Angel with you. But God said I personally will not go with you. And Moses said to God. If you're not going. I won't go.

Now he was more respectful than that. But it was a very wise thing for Moses to say. I mean, I appreciate angels. They're God's ministering spirits. It's wonderful. Thank you, God, for angels.

Who wants to go on through the wilderness without God? You'd have to be spiritually insane and Moses said, “I don't want to go on through the wilderness without you, Lord.”

And truthfully, I don't want us to go forward without him if he's not going with us, if he's only going to send an Angel.

Let's park it here, you know, let's park it here. Let's just quit striving. But I think he's a being who is willing and happy to go with us, and I think there's huge evidence that he's been with us so far. God has a habit. Of winning great victories out of apparent bitter defeats. We need to thank him for that, we need to trust him for that, and we need to bring those pieces of our own lives to him. That needs some renewal and some victory and we need him to step in.

Friends, I'm going to pray for us. And just a moment, we're going to celebrate the next positive, glorious step in God's victory here at FCBC.

Let me pray for us. Lord, thank you for what you've done. Forgive us for what we've not done and for what we've done. Thank you for your faithfulness

to us. We're deeply grateful. Thank you that we are here today. In such a state

of renewal and hopefulness. Thank you that we're here today, Father. It's your

goodness to us. So we entrust ourselves, we entrust this body of believers to you. Help us to honor you. We need your help in Christ's name. Amen.