Sermons in Brief - Mini Messages from Pastor Harmon
My Utmost for His Highest- A Sermon for the New Year - Philippians 1:20-21
New Year’s predictions are interesting, especially when made by Supermarket tabloids!
I used to buy the “National Enquirer” just to read some predictions to my congregation on the Sunday before New Year. But alas tabloids ain’t what they used to be. They have become more gossip rags than prognosticators.
But wait . . .now there is Art Bell, a well known Radio Broadcaster. His talk show (which I do not recommend tuning into) specializes in the weird, eerie, paranormal, ufo’s, conspiracy theorists and the supernatural.
Every New Year’s Eve Bell invites callers to make a prediction for the coming year. The predictions are then reviewed at the close of the next year and given a verbal "Ding" if they are deemed to have been correct, or a "Bonk" if the prediction did not come true.
Here are just some of the 129 predictions to be reviewed this New Year’s Eve:
• California or part of it will separate from the coast.
• Mount Rainier explodes and causes great destruction.
• World War III by July under the leadership of President Condolezza Rice.
• Fidel Castro will pass away this year and Cuba will change and become like Las Vegas.
• Bigfoot will be proven to be real and a body will be found.
• A large tsunami will hit Northern California, Oregon and Washington.
• George Bush will resign.
• Bats will invade the US from Mexico.
• The Democratic Party will collapse this year.
• There will be a zombie plague.
Now, I have three predictions for 2007 I wish to make:
1. We might never see It
2. If we see it, we might not get through It
3. If we get through It, It won’t be anything like we imagined
Because I really believe in my predictions, I believe we should hold tight to hand of the One who is the same yesterday, today, and forever!Because I really believe in my predictions, I also believe it is important to live the example set by Apostle Paul Philippians 1:20-21: “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
The New Living Translation puts it this way: “For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past. And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die. For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better.”
Paul was in prison. He couldn’t guarantee tomorrow. If he saw tomorrow he couldn’t guarantee he would see the next day. Yet his determination was to live so as not to embarrass himself or shame his Lord. His determination was to live so as to bring honor to Christ, to be bold for him. For to Paul living meant living for Jesus and dying meant being with Jesus. Either way he couldn’t lose!
Oswald Chambers called Paul’s example (this lifestyle with which we must enter New Year) “My Utmost for His Highest” living.
Are you acquainted with Oswald Chambers? Millions have been touched by Oswald Chamber’s classic book first published in 1935: “My Utmost for His Highest.” It has become one of the largest selling devotional books of all time. The daily devotions were actually put together by Chamber’s wife after his death from verbatim shorthand notes of her husbands classroom lectures, sermons and devotional talks. For Chambers died when he was 43.
Biddy Chambers, who identifies herself only as B.C. in the foreword “just happened” to be a court stenographer and “just happened” to write down all of his teachings as a Bible school teacher and chaplain to military troops during WWI and “just happened” to start putting together these notes for publication for the spiritual benefit of others. Now more than thirty titles bear his name all compiled by Mrs. Chambers! For half a century following her husband's death she labored to give his words to untold millions of people.
The amazing thing to me is that Chambers was a holiness preacher. Chambers was a very popular Bible teacher and evangelist. From 1906-1910 he conducted an itinerant Bible-teaching ministry in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan. Much of his ministry was in holiness circles. He believed and preached that not only be saved, born again but that Christians must go on unto holiness of heart and life. They must seek to be entirely sanctified, totally dedicated to God, filled with his Spirit, and living lives of love towards God and each other. He taught and preached what Nazarenes consider their reason for being, their distinctive doctrine. All the more amazing is the popularity of “My Utmost” in the lives of those in many diverse denominations and theological backgrounds.
Richard Halverson, former chaplain of the United States Senate, attests to this: "no book except the Bible has influenced my walk with Christ at such deep maturing levels."
Charles Stanley, popular Southern Baptist pastor, says “With the exception of the Bible, no book has had as profound effect on my life as “My Utmost for His Highest.” (It) is not a treasure to be admired but a message to be lived.”
Ruth Bell Graham wrote that “My Utmost” is “…one of a kind. It has been a source of challenge and blessing in my own life for years. I don’t think anyone can read it consistently without being a better servant of Christ.”
An article in Newsweek Magazine stated that President George W. Bush reads My Utmost for His Highest daily every other year.
The title comes from one of Chambers own mottoes and often said watchwords: My Utmost for His Highest! The very first devotion on January 1 has this as its theme. It concentrates on this particular passion, eagerness, consecration, dedication to live
My Utmost for His Highest! This watchword I desire to be our Church’s theme as we enter 2007. I encourage you to purchase and read the book. I must warn you it is meat not milk. You may have to read a single page many times but the rewards will be inexhaustible. But especially I encourage you to adopt the watchword as your own: MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST! For if it becomes your rallying song there is no telling what dedication, devotion and discipline will emanate from your life.
Have you ever been to Bruegger’s Bagels? I was drinking a beverage out of a Bruegger’s Bagel coffee mug, you know one of those advertising cups you buy and then get discounted refills. I had never noticed the slogan on the cup before: ‘TOTALLY COMPLETELY OBSESSED WITH FRESHNESS.” Oswald Chambers, like the Apostle Paul before him, was TOTALLY COMPLETELY OBSESSED WITH JESUS CHRIST. His watchword and song was: My Utmost for His Highest!
In Chamber’s devotion for January 1, there are two main points taken from the great passage in Philippians. Paul is imprisoned. He does not know whether he will be executed or released. It matters not for he is determine to live as Chambers translates it:
1. MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST
2. MY UNDETERREDNESS FOR HIS HOLINESS
It’s as if Paul were saying, "My determined purpose is to be my utmost for His highest— my best for His glory."
1. MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST (20)
Phil 1:20 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
Paul’s determination, his resolve (looking for a New Year Resolution?), is to be "my best for His glory" and to give "my utmost for His highest": that Christ will be exalted in his body. That “my life will always honor Christ” the New Living says. That is a beautiful way, that is the only way,to enter a New Year. It is the only way to live as a Christian! To be absolutely and entirely for Him and Him alone!
In vs. 20 Paul mentions something about shame. Phil 1:20 reads “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed.” Chambers writes: “We will all feel very much ashamed if we do not yield to Jesus the areas of our lives He has asked us to yield to Him.”
• What is Jesus Christ asking of you?
• What is he prodding you to do?
• What has he brought to your attention over and over again?
Will you do it? Will you yield to Jesus that area of your life he is speaking to you about? Are you determined that your life will be lived My Utmost for His Highest--my best for His glory???
One of Chuck Swindoll’s (the author, pastor, radio preacher) friends is William Johnson, owner of the wonderful Ritz Carlton hotels. When they won the most prestigious honor called the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award, Swindoll congratulated his good friend. Humbly the great businessman gave others the credit and said they would now work even harder to earn the respect that came with the honor. “Quality” he said “is a race with no finish line.”
LIVING FOR CHRIST’S HIGHEST IS A RACE WITH NO FINISH LINE: My Utmost for His Highest!
One other point Oswald Chambers makes in his January 1 devotion is:
2. MY UNDETERREDNESS FOR HIS HOLINESS (21)
Phil 1:21: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” New Living - Phil 1:21 “For to me, living is for Christ, and dying is even better.”
Paul was determined that nothing would stop him from doing exactly what God wanted. Nothing was going to deter him from God’s will. You say I do not know what that word means: “undeterred.” It’s unfamiliar: deter d-e-t-e-r. It means:
- to prevent
- to discourage
- to hinder
- to restrain
MY UNDETERREDNESS FOR HIS HOLINESS
There is an updated language version available for “My Utmost” where the editor rephrases it this way: My Unstoppable Determination for His Holiness. Undeterred—unstoppable. Paul had an unstoppable determination to live for God! Nothing was to hinder him from giving his best for God’s glory. Nothing in life, not imprisonment or harsh treatment or pain or sorrow, not even the threat of death was to stop him from living to the Glory of God. My UNDETERREDNESS for his holiness! My Unstoppable Determination for His Holiness.
As we enter the New Year we, too, must resolve to be undeterred—unstoppable. If not, we will be detoured. As we enter into 2007 we must be determined to be undeterred--UN-DETOURED from living for His glory, His highest, His holiness.
Eugene Peterson calls it “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction.” He has a paragraph:
“Our attention spans have been conditioned by thirty-second commercials. Our sense of reality has been flattened by thirty page abridgments. It is not difficult in such a world to get a person interested in the message of the gospel; it is terrifically difficult to sustain the interest. Millions of people in our culture make decisions for Christ but there is a dreadful attrition rate. Many claim to be born again, but the evidence for mature Christian discipleship is slim. In our kind of culture anything, even news about God, can be sold if it is packaged freshly; but when it loses its novelty, it goes on the garbage heap. There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship, in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness.”
What I Am calling for from myself? What I am calling for from you? A LONG OBEDIENCE IN THE SAME DIRECTION. We must sign up for a long apprenticeship in holiness. MY UNDETERREDNESS FOR HIS HOLINESS
I am sure you have heard this story. I have shared it with you many times.
Ignace Jan Padrewski was a famous Polish pianist and statesmen. He was once scheduled to perform at a great concert hall in America. It was a black tie affair; a high society extravaganza.
Present in the audience was a woman and her nine year old son. She was hoping that he would be encouraged to practice the piano if he could just hear the great Padrewski.
Weary of waiting for the concert to begin, the boy squirmed restlessly. Then, as mom turned to talk to another adult, the boy slipped out of his seat and down the aisle. He was drawn to the concert grand piano on-stage. He was mesmerized by the tufted leather stool. He sat down on it and began to play “Chop sticks.”
Suddenly the crowd hushed and hundreds of frowning faces turned in the direction of the child. Irritated and embarrassed some began to shout: “Get that boy away from there!” “Where’s his mother?” “Somebody stop him!”
Backstage Padrewski heard the uproar and the simple tune. He hurried on-stage and placed his arms on either side of the boy playing a counter melody. The two made music together as the master pianist kept whispering: “Keep going, don’t quit.” “Keep playing, don’t stop.” “Don’t quit.”
So it is with us. Our lives may seem as insignificant as “chop sticks.” What does it matter in the grand scheme of things how I live? It is easy to get off the path, to become detoured in living for his holiness. We may think we can’t do it. We’re right! We cannot live My Utmost for His Highest on our own, apart from grace. What we must remember as we play our simple tune to the Glory of God that the Master comes, places His arms about us, and says “Keep going, don’t quit!” “ Keep playing don’t stop!” “Don’t quit! We’ll play together. I’ll help you make the music.” Remain unstoppable!