“Feed My Lambs”

Philippians 3:4b–14 ⁴though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness, under the law blameless.

            Do you love Jesus?  Feed His lambs.  We all have many things that we are good at.  There are many people who obey the laws, are polite and nice to others and even see the faults of others.  We all have confidence in what we can accomplish on our own. Sometimes we have enough confidence we do not need faith to accomplish most things. In fact we replace faith with our confidence and actually without knowledge push God away. 

            There are some that are like the Pharisee in Paul.  They know law and try to live every part of their life to their law, even trying to guide others to do the same.  These people take the gospel as law and measure it in steps that need to be followed in order to be saved. 

There are many who have zeal for the Lord and in some cases that is good, however there are other cases that are bad.  Like those who follow Islam the one with too much zeal is as bad as Paul was before Jesus confronted Paul.  These people are ready to persecute anyone who does not believe or even think like them, and they will do it in the name of God.  You know that is taking the Lord’s name in vain, don’t you? 

And of course there are those who feel they are blameless in any situation that transpires from their actions with others.  These people like to lay blame on others, and throw the law outwardly on others so they can look like they are blameless. 

These are all sins of the flesh because none of them come from the spirit in us, rather the Holy Spirit in us.  All of which starves God’s lambs.  You did know you too are one of God’s lambs?

Matthew 21:33–46 ⁴³Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. ⁴⁴And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

⁴⁵When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. ⁴⁶And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.

If we live always in the flesh we starve ourselves as the flesh tells us we do not need a steady diet of God’s word.  The flesh says we can do it all ourselves, and we do not need the steady diet of fellowship in God’s word either.  We not only do not starve ourselves but we also starve other lambs of God too. 

Ok why am I concerned with you being in God’s word through fellowship in God’s word called Bible Studies or small groups?  Well it’s not because I get a bonus, or a prize, or even a pat on the back.  It is because I love Jesus and I as your pastor was called to feed God’s lambs.

Though you can lead a lamb to the baptismal waters and even get them wet; I can’t seem to convince you to drink of the baptismal words of our Lord.  We are a small church and not growing for a reason, can you guess what that reason is.  The real question is do you want to be a church that is growing?

Philippians 3:7–14 ⁷But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

Paul gave up the things of the flesh and in doing so he had to do something that would seem to many as foolishness; Paul had to put his life into the hands of the word of Jesus, he had to move forward in faith.  We are all people of the flesh.  It is hard to take that leap of faith to move forward in life.  Sure we can live this life in flesh, but what joy we can obtain if we move forward as a church in real faith in Christ and God’s word.

Philippians 3:10–14 ¹⁰that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

¹²Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ¹³Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

            Because Christ Jesus made us His own.  These are just some of the words that we can obtain joy from.  Christ gruelingly suffered to obtain us from death and the evil one.  Jesus hung for our transgressions so that we would not have to in the afterlife of eternity.  Isn’t this something to get excited about every chance we can?  Isn’t this something we can come together to share in the joy?  We have a creator called Yahweh, a God who has always been and in losing us to the fall works through blood sweat and tears to regain us daily.  Christ came to feed His eternal Lambs, that is, you and me.  Christ died and lives so that we can too as the eternal lambs and relationship of our God.  Amen.