“Making a Difference”
(Philippians 1:9-10)
Dr. Richard S. Koole
Chapel Pointe
May 18, 2008
I. Introduction
A. The Role of Influence
1. Influence can be negative
Josiah Wedgwood, maker of the famous Wedgwood pottery, one day showed a nobleman through the factory. A boy who was an employee of the factory accompanied them. The nobleman was profane and vulgar.
At first the boy was shocked by the nobleman’s irreverence. Then he became fascinated by his coarse jokes and laughed heartily. Mr. Wedgwood was distressed. At the conclusion of the tour, he showed the nobleman a vase of unique design. The man was charmed with its exquisite shape and rare beauty.
As he reached for it, Mr. Wedgwood designedly let it fall to the floor. The nobleman uttered an angry oath! “I wanted that vase for my collection,” he said, “and you have ruined it by your carelessness!”
Mr. Wedgwood answered, “Sir, there are other ruined things more precious than a vase, howsoever valuable, which can never be restored. You can never give back to that boy, who has just left us, the reverence for sacred things which his parents have tried to teach him for years! You have undone their labor in less than half an hour!”
2. But influence can also be positive
a. “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”
1. Visiting Savannah, Georgia
2. Bonaventure Cemetery….Hanging Moss
3. Most famous monument
· Replica of their 10 year old daughter
b. The Little Girl
In a cemetery a little white stone marked the grave of a dear little girl, and on the stone were chiseled these words—
“A child of whom her playmates said, “It was easier to be good when she was with us”
3. What kind of influence are you having?
4. You may have no idea who is being influenced by you
a. What kids remember about their parents
B. Paul’s special prayer in Phil. 1:9-11
1. Prayer for the members of the church in Philippi
2. That they will have what it takes to influence those around them
3. A pastor’s prayer for his people
(9) And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, (10) so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, (11) filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
II. Text
A. My prayer for each of you
1. That you might be loving (v.9)
a. The value of love
1. God is love
2. They will know we are Christians by our love
b. Defining true love
1. True love continues to grow
a. “that your love may abound more and more”
b. “abound”
1. “to be great in amount”
2. “more and more each day”
c. The target of your love
1. Love for God
2. Your spouse
3. Love for each other
4. Love for the unsaved
5. Love for your church
d. Is your love growing?
1. Or is it growing cold?
2. True love is not blind
“that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and in depth of insight”
a. The more you know about God’s love, the more you will love him back
1. Information and transformation
b. What I learned in our look at Creation
1. Unbelievable power and majesty
2. And to think he loved me
3. “While I was yet a sinner Christ died for me”
c. Pray you might grow in your insight into other people
1. To sense the hurts and needs
d. What I learned at my first church
1. Some really stupid moves
2. I believe I’ve grown in insight
2. That you might be discerning (v.10)
“so that you may be able to discern what is best”
a. Not a test between “good” and “bad”
1. Rather to test “the good” from “the best”
b. I want God’s best for your life
1. Many settle for spiritual mediocrity
2. Individuals and churches
c. Pilot—“I’ve got good news—bad news”
1. Bad News
a. Lost all instruments
b. Don’t have a clue where we are headed
2. Good News
a. Have a tailwind and making great time!
d. Have you sought God’s best will for your life?
1. Teens searching for God’s will for their life
2. Seek after the best
3. Don’t settle for second best
f. Men at half-time
1. Have climbed the ladder of success
a. As they finally get to the top of the ladder
b. Find the ladder took them to the top of the wrong building
2. Have made a career….but not a difference
3. A family in ruins
a. Negative influence on kids
b. They became just like you
4. You’ve achieved a career…but not a life
3. That you might be pure (10)
(9) And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, (10) so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, (11) filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
4. That you might be blameless (v.10)
5. That you might produce fruit (v.11)
a. Now we’re talking about “influence”
b. We have been called the “salt of the earth”
1. Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth.”
c. So what’s that all about?
III. Characteristics of Salt
A. Salt has great value
1. Value of salt when Philippians was written
a. Roman soldiers paid in salt
1. Even today we say “He’s worth his salt”
b. Petra
1. The salt caravans
c. Different salts were prized for—
1. Flavor
2. Purity
2. Salt was more valuable than gold!
a. Our bodies must have salt
b. Prized by the ancients
3. Christians are called the “salt of the earth”
a. Each of you has incredible value in God’s eyes
b. Temple of Holy Spirit
c. We are His “ambassadors”
d. We are the sons of God!!!
e. He gave His son to die for you
4. You may at times feel worthless….but you’re not
a. You are “priceless”
b. God knows about every detail of your life
1. Including your pains
c. You are “priceless” in His eyes
1. Consider what He paid for you…
2. His own son
B. Salt has incredible influence
1. Salt influences everything it touches
a. Even if unseen
b. You can taste its presence
2. The power of influence
a. Voltaire
Voltaire’s agnosticism and skepticism are traced by some to a priest of the church of Christ, who sowed the seeds of deism in his youthful charge and introduced him to dissolute companions.
b. John Locke
The English philosopher, as a young man had for a friend and counselor Lord Somers, described as “one of those divine men who, like a chapel in a palace, remain unprofaned, while all the rest is tyranny, corruption, and folly.”
c. John Wesley
At Oxford, John Wesley determined to have no companions except those who would help him in the life of faith and righteousness that he was trying to lead.
3. The influence of parents
a. Three Hairs and lost influence (#1624)
A strange dog came to a preacher’s house, and his three sons soon became quite fond of it. It so happened that there were three white hairs in the animal’s tail. One day an advertisement was seen in the newspaper about a lost dog which fitted that description perfectly. “In the presence of my three boys,” said the minister, “we carefully separated the three white hairs and removed them.” The real owner discovered where the straying canine had found a home and came to claim him. The dog showed every sign of recognition, so the man was ready to take him away.
Quickly the minister spoke up. “Didn’t you say the dog would be known by three white hairs in its tail?” The owner, unable to find the identifying feature, was forced to leave. The minister said later, “we kept the dog, but I lost my three boys for Christ.” His sons no longer had confidence in what their father professed. He hadn’t practiced what he preached.
b. Influence is greatest at home
c. Who are you having an influence on?
1. Home?
2. Work?
3. Neighborhood?
4. School?
d. I’ve always had a dream for Chapel Pointe
1. Our influence on other churches
2. So many old churches that have lost their way
3. They are watching us to see the way
e. We are an original…my dream
1. Most growing churches are new plants
f. I’d rather have the challenges that come with growth
1. ….than the ones that come with decline
g. I just don’t want us to be “another church”
C. Salt loses its influence if stuck in the shaker
1. French fries … Baked potatoes
a. Without salt?
b. Horrible
c. Tasteless
2. But if salt is left inside the shaker?
a. Wasted potential—
3. Worship in Barbershop
“I was in a barber shop,” remarked former President Woodrow Wilson, “when I became aware that a personality had entered the room. A man had come quietly in upon the same errand as myself, and sat in the chair next to me. Every word that he uttered showed a personal and vital interest in the man who was serving him; and before I got through, I was aware that I had attended an evangelistic service, because Mr. Moody was in the next chair. I purposely lingered in the room after he left, and noted the singular effect his visit had upon the barbers in that shop. They did not know his name, but they knew that something had elevated their thoughts. And I felt that I left that place as I should have left a place of worship.”
4. Christians should lift others higher
a. Your language
b. Jokes
c. Gossip
d. Criticism
D. Salt will sting in an open wound
1. Rubbing salt into wound
a. Stings
b. Why?
c. Purifies
2. Swimming in Dead Sea
a. Salt finds the wounds
b. Pain
c. Yet—purification!
1. We can’t “blend in”
2. Churches that “blend”
3. The quest to be “politically correct”
3. Christians have led the opposition to society’s sins
a. William Wilberforce and the slave trade
b. Richard Niebuhr and Nazi Germany
c. American abolitionists
d. Americans and abortion
E. Salt preserves
1. Before refrigeration
a. Rubbed salt into meat
b. To preserve it from decay – rottenness
2. Even though it feels like a losing battle
a. Still commanded to take a stand
3. Christians preserve society
a. The day the Church is snatched
b. Hell on earth
c. Why Christ tarries….
F. Salt creates thirst
1. Need for water
a. Salted popcorn at movie theatres
1. Need to buy a $4 coke!
b. A key property of salt
2. Christians create a thirst—
a. For things of Christ
b. A craving
c. Jesus is called “the living water”
d. Drink and you’ll never go thirsty again
3. Examples
a. Apostle Paul in Rome when he wrote Philippians
1. Chained to guards
· Under “house arrest”
· Caesar’s very own Praetorian Guards
2. Four guards chained to Paul for 6 hour shifts
· 24 inch chain
3. The revival in Rome began in Caesar’s household
· Among the guards chained to Paul
· They couldn’t escape his influence
4. They developed a thirst for what Paul had
b. Bishop Gets Special Treatment
Bishop Evin Berggray, primate of the Norwegian Lutheran Church, who was under Nazi guard, is reported to have gotten peculiar treatment from his captors. It is said that his 11-man guard was changed constantly to prevent their coming under his strong spiritual influence.
c. Paul created a thirst for Christ…how about you?
1. Do people want what you have?
G. Salt loses it value when it loses its purity
1. Dirt in a salt shaker
a. No longer white
2. “Good for nothing”
a. No influence
3. Would dump dirty salt onto dirt paths
a. “To be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men”
b. No other value
4. Your influence on others is directly proportional to your purity
(9) And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, (10) so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, (11) filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
IV. Summary
A. Start at home
It is said of Boswell, the famous biographer of Samuel Johnson, that he often referred to a special day in his childhood when his father took him fishing. The day was fixed in his adult mind, and he often reflected upon many of the things his father had taught him in the course of their fishing experience together. After having heard of that particular excursion so often, it occurred to someone much later to check the journal that Boswell’s father kept and determine what had been said about the fishing trip from the parental perspective. Turning to that date, the reader found only one sentence entered: “Gone fishing today with my son; a day wasted.”
B. What kind of influence are you having?
1. You are whether you want to or not
2. Who has God brought into your life to influence
a. Are you a positive or negative influence?