Walk Off That Wait
Philippians 3:17-21

INTRO:
Good Morning. We continue today in our lessons from the book of Philippians with chapter 3 verses 17-21.
This morning I would like to talk about the return of Jesus. Most of you have heard this discussed, taught about and most likely you have thought about it some. Have you ever had a time in your life when you thought, this would be a good time for Jesus to come back?

There was a young man at a university, who, before he went to his next class needed to go to the bathroom. As he went in that direction he came across a crowd of other students, some of whom he knew, filling the corridor outside a classroom because the door was still locked.
The young man greeted many of them and walked right into the bathroom. Then he thought to himself, “When did they put a couch in the lounge!” In fact, he thought, “when did they put a lounge in the men’s bathroom?”
On the other side of the door in front of him he heard women’s voices and he realized that in front of about 40 people, he had just walked straight into the ladies bathroom.
He faced a dilemma. If he walked out of the bathroom, he would be embarrassed. If he stayed there, the girls would scream, and he would be in real trouble. He froze for what seemed to him like ages, hoping that those other students would get into the classroom. Finally, he slowly peaked out the door, and there was a crowd of smiling faces laughing at him.
That young man sighed as he came to the conclusion there was just no way to look cool walking out of the ladies room. He knew he couldn’t say, “Well I was having a Bible study.” He thought to himself, “This would be a good time for Jesus to come back.”

A Bible schoolteacher asked the children, “If you could ask God any question, what would it be?” The teacher received many different answers but one little boy asked this question, “God, what’s taking you so long”.

That is a profound question, and a very Biblical question. There are many times in the New Testament we are told of Jesus return. But it seems to us it is taking so long. We want to ask God, “How long, are we going to have to wait for Jesus to come and deliver us from this sin cursed planet?” Paul told us, “My desire is to know Christ’s power, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and share in his sufferings and somehow conform to his death, I press on to the goal, the prize of knowing Christ.” That is our passion; all we want to know is Christ. We are so excited we can’t wait for Him to come back.

I also want to mention here Luke 21:36 – “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” We are told in scripture that Jesus will return with the judgment we are waiting for. We are also told to “Watch therefore”. We find in Psalm 123 – “Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God,” It says our eyes wait upon the Lord. Keep this in mind as we continue.

We are so eager for Jesus to come back. And like the people ever since He ascended, we say, “How long God, how long are we going to have to wait for Jesus to return?” In our short lives what can happen though, as that wait continues; we find ourselves becoming increasingly attracted and seduced by the pleasures of this world. We are temporary residents here, this world is not really our home, but we’re going to have to be here a while.
Jesus prayed the night before he died, John 17:15 – “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world...”

Jesus wants us to live here for a time and deal daily with the debris of this sin cursed planet. How are we going to live in the world but not be of the world while we wait for Jesus to come back? Paul gives us the answer, “you’ve got to walk off that wait.”

Turn with me to Philippians 3:17-21– “17. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. 18. (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19. Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.) 20. For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: 21. Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.”

Paul tells us to join with others following his example. We are to note those who “walk” that is, those who walk in the “way”. We know how to live according to the pattern that the apostles gave us. We know that our goal is to become more Christ-like.

Then Paul tells us with tears of sorrow, that he must say again what he has said before, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. Paul reminds us that unlike those people - our citizenship is in heaven. We eagerly await our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

I. We’ve got to wait. We wait with eagerness for Jesus’ return. What Paul said was, “the way to solve our wait problem is with a good daily walk.” Paul tells us we need to decide what kind of walk is going to be our priority. Paul is telling the Philippians, “I want you to walk after the pattern set by Jesus Christ.” The walk you see us walk. We looked at that in chapter 2 where it says, “How Jesus humbled himself and he took the form of a servant and he became obedient to God.” Paul tells the Philippians and us, “That’s how I want you to walk off your waiting.” Walk off you wait.
A. Paul also recognizes, and it breaks his heart, that some people don’t walk that way. It says in verses 18 and 19, “For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, in my eyes, there are many who walk along the Christian road who are really enemies of the cross of Christ. Their future is eternal loss, for their god is their appetite, they are proud of things they should be ashamed of and all they think about is life here on earth.”[para]
B. Paul is describing people who profess Christ and are supposed to be Christians, but their lives are denying what their lips are confessing. He calls them enemies of the cross. Why? Because they are walking in a way that denies the priority of pursuing the Christ-likeness he talked about in chapter 3. “What you ought to be doing is, pressing on, straining and striving towards the goal of being like Christ.”
C. Some people are not walking the way they should, they are disgracing the cross with the way they’re walking while we wait for Jesus. Paul says, “Their wait problem could prove fatal.” He says, “What I want to do is help you walk off that wait.” He is going to give us 3 little pieces of advice this morning, which will help us as well.
II. First of all look at what Paul tells us about our walk. Paul tells us, “to always regard who you walk with”. “Join with others in following my example, ”. As we wait for the return of Jesus, we need to pay attention to who we model our walking after. Paul wasn’t bashful. He knew that Jesus was doing something real in his life and he says, “I’m not shy about it, if you need a model choose me, walk like I’m walking”. It’s like he told those in Corinth, 1 Corinthians 11:1 – “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.”[KJV], Paul is saying, “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.”
A. We have been told many times, and I believe we understand, that we are being watched by other Christians, by our children, and by the world. How we walk and who we walk with can end up being an example to many others including those we hold dear.
B. We also need to understand that whoever we choose as our hero, that person will affect how we walk. If our hero is the guy, who climbs to the top of the corporate ladder, we’re going to walk like he did. If our hero is the girl who is a great gymnast, then we’re going to walk like she did. We’re going to walk like our heroes. Those are the people we will model our lives after. Realizing the influence that those who we admire have over our lives, we better be careful who we choose for a hero.
C. Let me tell you a story which might help us to visualize what this means. One summer morning as Ray Blankenship was preparing his breakfast; he gazed out the window, and saw a small girl being swept along in the rain-flooded drainage ditch beside his Andover, Ohio home.
D. Blankenship knew that farther downstream, the ditch disappeared with a roar underneath a road and then emptied into the main culvert. Ray dashed out the door and raced along the ditch, trying to get ahead of the floundering child. Then he hurled himself into the deep, churning water. Blankenship surfaced and was able to grab the child's arm. They tumbled end over end. Within about three feet of the yawning culvert, Ray's free hand felt something--possibly a rock--protruding from one bank. He clung desperately against the tremendous force of the water trying to tear him and the child away. "If I can just hang on until help comes," he thought. He did better than that. By the time fire-department rescuers arrived, Blankenship had pulled the girl to safety. Both were treated for shock.
E. On April 12, 1989, Ray Blankenship was awarded the Coast Guard's Silver Lifesaving Medal. The award is fitting, for this selfless person was at even greater risk to himself than most people knew. You see Ray Blankenship could not swim.
F. I ask us this morning, who are we pointing our children and grand children too? Are we talking to them about Jesus? Whose walk are we talking about in front of them? Who are our hero’s? Paul did not say that he was the only one who should to be a model, did he? Verse 17 says, “Pay attention to those who follow the right example, join with them.” In other words Paul says, “I’m not the only one whose walk you can copy.”
G. As small as this congregation is these days, God has blessed us. God has blessed this church with men and women we can point our children to. We can model our own life after people whose walk we should be paying attention to. The point is, we need to regard who we’re walking with. We need to remember as well that somebody is watching—who we’re walking with.
H. Every time we tell somebody we’re a Christian, we’re inviting them to follow us aren’t we? Every step someone walks in our footprints that ought to take them closer and closer to Jesus. Paul says, “Listen, we’ve got to wait for Jesus to come back”, and while we are doing that we’ve got to walk off that wait. We cannot stay still, we must walk, and how we walk is important. The first point then is, pay real attention to who we’re walking with, take care in choosing the right model.
III. Secondly Paul tells us. “Always remember what you walk under”. What brought Paul to tears in this passage was the knowledge that many, so called Christians, were disgracing the cross by their pursuit of sensual pleasure. Their walking values were in direct contradiction to the standards of the cross. He says Philippians 3:19, “Their god is their stomach, they glory in their shame, and their mind is on earthly things.”
A. Have you ever heard people glory in their shame? I’m sure you have though you may not recognize it without some thought because it is so common in the world today. How many times have you heard a man boast about his prowess with women? How many times have we heard a person boast about the people they have climbed over or defeated in business? How many times have we heard a person in Christ enjoy the gossip about a life that has been destroyed by sin? How many times have we heard a brother or sister brag about pulling the wool over someone’s eyes?
B. Christians can actually glory in things they should be ashamed of. God gave us many gifts. God gave us the gift of 5 senses. The problem is we make the pleasure we receive from those senses our god. In other words, we make our stomach our god. It’s the problem of the “sensuous Christian”.
C. I don’t mean an immoral or a drunkard, although that would be included. What I mean is, any Christian who has made the pursuit of pleasure the center of their life, has got the wrong god. It could be a workaholic father. It could be a housewife who spends 50 hours a week watching television. It could be sports that take your attention from things that might bless your and others. It could even be a hobby that takes more resources then you can truly afford to spare. Paul isn’t talking so much about particular sins.
D. He’s talking about the sin of pandering to self—of making our pleasure the center of our life. The home, the job, the car, the parties, the friends, the status, even perhaps—the family. Paul says, “Such self interest disgraces the cross” because if the cross says anything, the cross says, “we are to deny ourselves and seek the will of God first.” In other words, the cross is an “I” that has been ruled out. Paul says in Galatians 5:24, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.”
IV. Romans 6 talks about what it means to walk under the cross. There in verses 8-14. The KJV says – “Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9. Knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”
A. To paraphrase; “if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ defeated death being raised from the dead, and He cannot die again. The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. In that way, we count ourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Because of that, we do not let sin reign in our mortal body and obey its evil desires. We no longer offer our body to sin, as the instrument of wickedness, but rather offer ourselves to God, as those who have been bought from death to life; and offer our body to Him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin is no longer our master, because we are not under law, but under grace.”
B. If we are a person walking under the cross of Jesus Christ we’ve got to give up the sin heresy. It’s a heresy that plagues many Christians. The sin heresy says this, “I know we live under grace, but we can’t be perfect and I’ve got one part in my life that’s out of control, but hey—after all nobody is perfect and we are under grace and so I don’t need to strive to do anything about it.”
C. Paul is saying, “now listen you’ve died to self, you’ve died to sin, that’s what carrying the cross is about, there is no part of your life anymore which should be out of control, every part of your life should now be under the control of Jesus Christ.” We must strive.
D. Let’s ask ourselves, is there a part of our life that is out of control? Is there an area of our life where we’ve made pleasure, the satisfying of the senses, more important than the will of God? We should want every part of our walk to be consistent with someone who has died to self and is now alive for the will of our Lord.
E. When Christ returns, when the wait is over, I want Him to be able to see that I’ve got that cross He gave me. I’ve abandoned all that stuff that used to be important. I’ve traded in all that stuff that the world calls valuable. I’ve got the cross that the King gave me. If the king's cross is important to us, it’s going to change how we think.
F. Colossians 3:1-4 – “1. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.3. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.4. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”
G. People who are enemies of the cross glory in things that should be their shame. We’ve got a glory, but our glory is a coming glory.
V. Paul tells us, “Remember who you’re walking with and what you’re walking under and third, always reflect on where you’re walking to.”
A. Our citizenship is in heaven. That word “Is” is present tense. Heaven is our present possession spiritually. The Philippians understood that. Remember, Philippi was a Roman colony. It was 600 miles from Rome and a lot of people had heard about Rome but never been to Rome, yet they were Roman citizens. They dressed like Romans. They ate like Romans. They lived the Roman culture. They obeyed the Roman laws.
B. What Paul told them is, “You also are citizens of another city you haven’t seen yet, talk like heavenly people, dress like heavenly people, obey the laws of heaven, live the culture of heaven.” In other words he says, “I want you to live here, -- like you’re already there. Let you’re walk reflect where you’re going”.
C. It reminds me of the faith of a little child. This little girl said to her mother one day, “mom, you know Jesus is alive, don’t you?” Her mother said, “Yes, Jesus is alive. He’s is heaven and someday He’s going come and get us and take us to heaven with Him.” The little girl said, “Who’s going to take care of my toys.” Her mother said, “Jesus has built this big old house and it has lots of rooms and He’s going to come and get all your cousins and mommy and daddy, your brother and sister and we are all going to be in heaven together.”
D. The little girl just nodded. The next day she was having some pudding for a snack and she said, “Mom, does Johnny know we’re moving?” Her mother said, “Moving, who said anything about moving?” The girl said, “You know to heaven, were moving to heaven”.
E. One day her mother picked up her daughter’s friend, Mary, from school and her little girl said, “Mary, did you know we’re moving to heaven?” Mary looked back and said, “I already knew that.” Surprised the girl said, “How did you know that, I hadn’t told you yet?” Mary said, “Because I read it in my Bible.”
F. That little girl really does believe she is moving to heaven and she understands that where she is right now is her temporary residence and heaven’s her real home. That’s what Paul is saying to us is, “if you really believe that, then let your conduct match your citizenship, as you wait here, walk as if you were there.”
G. Look again at verse 20, “For our citizenship is in heaven; whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:”[ASV] In other words, be ready for Him to come. Walk like you’re ready for him to come. There are some things in our lives that are inappropriate if we really believe that Jesus is going to come back.
H. For example, there was a restaurant in a city and it had 2 signs in the windows. Sign number 1 said, “Jesus is coming back.” Right below it there was a sign that said, “We reserve the right to refuse service to anybody.” That’s almost comical. “Jesus is coming back” and then “we reserve the right to refuse service.” It is also an embarrassment to Christ.
I. If we really believe that Jesus is coming back, there are some parts of our walk; we’ve might want to get rid of. We don’t want to be a racist or a people hater, if we believe that Jesus is coming back. We don’t want to be immoral. We don’t want to be a drunkard. We don’t want to be a workaholic. We don’t want to be a materialistic person. We don’t want to be a gossip. We don’t want to be a liar. There are parts of our walk, we just don’t want... if we really believe... Jesus is coming back to take us home.

CONCLUSION:
There was a schoolteacher that told her students that she was going to be gone for a few weeks. She said she would give a big prize for the student with the cleanest desk when she got back. Naturally everybody wanted to win. One little girl said, “I really want to win.” Others laughed and said, “Mary you’ll never win, your desk is always the messiest, there is no way you can win.” Mary said, “I will clean my desk, the first day of every week.” Somebody said, “what if she comes back at the end of the week?” Mary replied, “Well, I will clean my desk every morning.” Then somebody said, “what if she comes back at the end of the day?” Mary thought for a moment and said, “Well, then I’ll just have to keep my desk clean.” That is what Paul is saying.

1 John 3:2-3 – “Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him; for we shall see him even as he is. And every one that hath this hope set on him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”

Let’s ask ourselves a difficult question. Do we really believe the best thing that could happen today is the return of Jesus Christ? If you said, “yes” then the next question is, are you walking like it? I want to urge each and every one of us today, to walk off that wait, until the wait is gone.

There are people that wish He wouldn’t come back, and there are people that oppose the return of Jesus. There is not a person, there’s not a demon, there’s not a creature of hell that can stop it, when God says it’s time to come back. The Bible tells us, “The power that enables him to put everything under his control, is the same power that is going to change your lowly body to be like his glorious body.”[para]

Folks, I’m ready for the wait to be gone, and I’m ready for it to happen. But until it does, I’m going to watch by reading God’s word and look for what He wants of me and then I’m going to walk as a Christian to do His will.

I am looking forward to the wait being gone. If you are too then don’t just talk the talk, but walk and watch and wait.

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We learn from the New Testament how to be saved. We need to hear the word; believe in Jesus; repent of our sins; we must confess our belief that Jesus is the Son of God; and be baptized for the remission of our sins... If we follow these steps, the Lord adds us to His church.

Perhaps there is someone in the assembly today with the need to be buried with Christ in baptism. If you have never done these things, we urge you to do so today. If anyone has this need or desires the prayers of faithful Christians on their behalf, we encourage them to come forward while we stand and sing.

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Reference Sermon
Mike Glover