Playing the Ball Where It Lies: Part 3

Philippians chapter four and we're going to read verses 10 through 13 this morning. Alright, but I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at the last, your care of me hath flourished again. Ren, you were also careful but you lacked opportunity. Not that I were speak in respect of one, for I have learned and whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound and everywhere and in all things, I am in stroke, instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and suffer need.

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. He reminds the Philippians over in verse 19. He says, my but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. Let's go to the Lord in prayer once more. Lord, we thank you for your word.

This morning, we pray that you would bless remainder of our service today as we look into your word. Lord, I pray that you would by your holy spirit, open up our heart and mind to receive and to understand the message that you have today. I pray that you would be honored and exalted and I pray Lord if there be one here that's never trusted Christ that today would be their day of salvation. We thank you Lord for our savior. We thank you Lord for the opportunity to proclaim his word and exalt his name here together today in Jesus name.

Amen. Well, this morning, I brought the ball with me. Playing the ball where it lies. If you've ever played golf or or maybe watched golf, even though when I didn't play golf, I didn't watch golf because it seemed like the most boring sport there ever was. But once I started playing it, then it got a little more interesting.

But when you hit the ball, it rarely goes. I mentioned where you want it to go. But wherever it lands, that's where you have to hit it from next. If you play by the rules, you can't take the ball and move it somewhere else. Now, sometimes we don't play by the rules when we play but with life, you don't have that option.

We may try not to play by the rules but the rules eventually catch up with us. We have to play the ball where it lies. We have to deal with life where it is. We can't go back and have do overs and mulligans like you can in golf sometimes. We have to just move on from where we are and that's what we're looking at from the scriptures.

Today and as we continue finishing up the message from last week. I am missing something. Ah, there it is. The apostle Paul in this passage told the Philippians that he had learned in whatever state, condition he was. He found himself to be content.

He had learned how to be content to when he was full and when he was hungry, when he was loved, and when he was hated, when he was beaten, and when he was patted on the back. He had learned in whatsoever state he was to be content. In the particular time that he wrote this, he was under house arrest, imprisoned, in Rome. Had been for a while. So, not exactly a state that you would jump for joy of being found in but the apostle Paul had learned in whatsoever state he found himself there with to be content and it's God's desire as God's children that we also learn to be content that we as children of God, who have the holy spirit, who have the word of God, who have Jesus Christ, our savior.

We have every reason to be content. And to move forward in life, and not be held back by the things of the past. We must play the ball where it lies. The first thing we learn in reference to that is this, we must learn to rely on Christ. Just because you have Christ doesn't mean you're relying on him like you should.

Sometimes, we seemingly forget that the Bible says, without him, I can do nothing. The same passage here, it says, Jesus said, I am the vine, you are the branches. Jesus said, I'm I'm the life giving vine. I'm the one with all the power and the nutrition and the water and everything comes from all the power, all the sufficiency is in Christ Jesus. I am the vine.

You are the branches. You must learn as the branches to rely in the life giving nutrition and sustenance of the vine. I am the vine, you're the branches. He that abideth, resteth, remaineth in me, and I in him. The same bringeth forth much fruit.

For without me, he can't do nothing. What what is the Lord Jesus mean there? Well, obviously, there's many things you can do but what you can't do without Christ is things that are pleasing and glorifying to the father. You need Jesus to do that. We need to rely on him.

We need to walk in the spirit and not according to the flesh. We must learn to rely on our savior. We must relearn to rely on him for instruction. You know, these golfers and some people don't know this. I was talking to somebody the other day and I told them these these golfers on the PGA course that make all these millions of dollars, they all have coaches.

They pay coaches and trainers mega bucks to tell them what they're doing wrong with their swing today. And they improve by listening to the instruction of their coach. Never think that you've got it all taken care of, that you know it all, that that you've got it under control, and that we don't need our coach. We do. We need him every day and not to play golf.

We need him to live life. The just shall what? Live by faith. It doesn't just say be saved by faith. It says, live by faith.

That's continuing process. We are living for Christ. This new life we have in him. We live it by faith. Learning to rely on our savior.

Listen to the instruction in his word and the holy spirit he has given to us. We need him. The Bible says there's a way that Simon seems right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death. If we ignore our our our Lord and our savior and his word, then we're going to bring ruin into our life, not joy, not success. We must learn to listen and obey, to trust and obey.

We also rely on him for strength. Because you can't do spiritual things. Pleasing to the father in the strength of the flesh. You must learn to rely on the grace and strength of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, we must relearn to rely on him, to follow his instruction to rely and rest upon his strength and his grace.

To help us to deal with what life is going to throw at us. Because good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. If you live on this Earth, you're going to deal with bad things. We have to deal with things that we don't like. Things that are difficult, trials of life, Christians just the same as the rest of the world.

The difference is, we have Christ with us. And they don't. We need to learn to rely on him. Second of all, as we learn, we learn to rely on him, we also must learn to accept the circumstances of life. Sometimes I mentioned the golfer hits the ball, it goes completely where he wasn't wanting it to go.

But that's where he has to play it from. Sometimes, every now, every once in a blue moon, I actually hit the ball down the fairway like straight. But a couple of times in my life, I've actually hit the bar, ball so far that it went past where I wanted it to and it trickled into a bunker. You know, she had this beautiful tee shot and then boom and into the sand trap. It's like, oh no.

It, I'm not good at doing sand traps or maybe you hit it right down the fairway and somebody took a divot out of the ground and there's a hole there and the ball goes right down the fairway and poop right into their divot. Now, you can't get a good hit at the ball either because you got the divot and it's not level with the ground. That happens in life. Sometimes we do bad things and bad things happen. Sometimes we seem to do everything right and bad things still happen.

We have to learn to accept and move on and keep going and not get stuck in a rut, not be held back. James one two through four. It says this, My brethren count all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. Where temptations also means trials and tests. Knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience but let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and entire or complete, wanting or lacking nothing.

James Wright to his fellow Hebrew Christians that are suffering persecution in Jerusalem. He says to them, don't get frustrated, don't give up, don't get depressed, don't get despondent because things are hard. He says, instead, remember this, you can have joy in the midst of the trial. If you will remember that God is your father, he's not going to leave you nor forsake you, that he is sovereign, he knows what he's doing, and if he allows you to pass through this trial or test, he has a purpose. Right.

He is going to use this make you a better person Romans eight twenty eight, I think I have it up here. There it is. Says and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them which are the called according to his purpose. I had noticed it before so much but at the beginning of Romans eight twenty eight, he doesn't say to them, now, you need to learn this. He says to them, you already what?

You know this. At least you should. Your heavenly father that loves you, that cares about you, that is a sovereign Lord. Is going to take the good things and the bad things. Doesn't say there's not going to be any bad things.

What he says is he can take all those things. And he can work them together. For your good, for your benefit, for his glory. God knows what he's doing. We need to learn to accept God's will.

For our lives. Ultimately, God is in control. He is not the instigator. Of sin. And the bad things that happen to us.

But he does allow bad things to happen to us. And but he does that knowing Those things can work together. If we let em for our good. I mentioned if you had a little child and they're about one year old, you want them to learn to walk. So, you pick em up and you stand em up and you say, okay and you let go of their hands and what happens?

They go, whoop. And so, being the mean, terrible parent that you are, what do you do? You pick em up again and you hold them up. You say, okay, let's take a step and they take a step and then you let go and plop. Now, that could be a little frustrating.

Maybe even hurt a little bit. Why do we do that? Because they need to learn to what? Walk. So do we.

God knows what he's doing. He is a good Lord and he is a sovereign. We need to not fight him. We need to look for the good. We need to thank him.

For what he's doing. Even when it hurts. First Thessalonians five eighteen and everything give thanks. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. What is God's will?

That we learn to give what? Give thanks in everything. Not just the things that are are pleasant or they go the way we expect them to go. But even the things that don't. Because God loves his children and he knows what he's doing.

Look what he put Job through. Now, now, did God instigate the situation with Job? Did he take away all his stuff? No, Satan did. But God clearly did what?

He allowed it. Why did he allow it? For Job's what? For Job's good. Now, Job, praise God said this, I read this last week.

He arose, rent his mantle, shaved his head, fell down upon the ground, and worshiped and said, naked and came I out of my mother's womb naked, shall I return thither? The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this, Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly. But if you read the entire book, you see that Job did struggle.

You do see frustrate. You see that it was a trial that he went through just like the trials we go through. But he never lost his faith in whom? In God. Though he didn't understand it then, he clung tenaciously to the Lord and in the end, he learned.

And one day we will. It may be today, it may tomorrow, it might not be till we get to heaven but God knows what he's doing. We need to accept his will. We need to accept the actions of others as we talked about last Sunday night. We need to learn to accept the actions of others and that we need to learn how to forgive.

Because God allows some things in our lives that are painful to refine us. We might come forth as gold. But also other people can bring bad things into our life. They can bring things that hurt. They often do things that are wrong.

Sometimes, they betray us. Sometimes, they say mean things. Sometimes, they ignore us. Sometimes, they go through a red light and hit the side of our car. People do things every day that bring pain into our life, that alter our plans.

We must learn to accept those things and to forgive those who have wronged us. Peter came to Jesus and he said, Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother who sinned against me? Till seven times, should I forgive him seven times? I mean, that's a lot. You know?

He did this thing to me seven times. Should I forgive him? Jesus said, not just seven times but what? 70 times seven. That's four ninety times.

Jesus mean for Peter to keep count. No, he didn't. He gave a large number to teach us that we don't need to keep count. We just keep on what? Keep on forgiving.

If you live around people, they're going to hurt you. The people that we are closest to often are the people that hurt us the most often because we see who they are. We're around them all the time. And they're human just like us. Why why is it marriages don't last today?

Because people haven't learned to love and forgive. As Jesus forgave us. Jesus said, be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. I brought up the illustration scripture of Joseph last Sunday night. Joseph thrown in a pit by his brothers, left for dead.

When they found out they could make some money off of him, they pulled him out of the pit and sold him as a slave. Either way, they thought he was dead. They didn't think he would survive. But he did. He ended up in Egypt, the house of Potiphar.

He served there as the perfect servant. Slave is the term we would use. He honored God even when tempted. He said, how can I dishonor the Lord and sin against him and for that, the right thing that he did, what happened? He got thrown in prison.

Thing just, he kept doing the right things and the wrong things kept happening. But it seemed he didn't get angry, didn't get bitter. He just kept doing whatever God put in front of him to do the best that he could. And he forgave who? He forgave his brothers.

When they came to him in Egypt, he finally revealed to them who he was. They were scared to death. Here's what he said. Now, therefore, be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you sold me thither, hither. For God did send me before you to preserve life.

He said it, so now it was not you that sent me hither but God and he hath made me a father to pharaoh and Lord of all his house and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Joseph says to his brothers, yeah, you're the ones who put me in the pit and sold me to the merchants but this was all part of God's plan. God knew what he was doing. God needed me here to save you. So, he said, I've learned to forgive you.

We need to be learned to forgive others and if there's odd between us and our brother in Christ in particular, we need to deal with that. We need to let it go. We need to go to them. We need to learn to forgive. They have not done to us nearly what we have done to our savior.

He's forgiven us. A more modern illustration think of is a lady by the name of Elizabeth Elliot. Anybody know who Elizabeth Elliot was? Her husband was a missionary. Him along with he along with some other missionaries went to took a plane in, landed after having communicated by some dropping things to these natives and I think it's Central America or maybe South, I am not sure, Auca Indians.

But when they landed, they got out of the plane and then after that they weren't heard from again. The Indians killed them. The natives killed them. Years later, who went back to evangelize those natives? Among others, Elizabeth Elliot, the widow of one of the missionaries that was killed.

She actually had a part in leading one of his murderers. Now, that's forgiveness. That's the example of our savior. If he can forgive, father, forgive them for they know not what they do as they stood at the foot of his cross mocking and calling him name. We can forgive others for the little things that rub us the wrong way We must learn to forgive and then, we must also learn to take personal responsibility for our actions.

We must learn to take personal responsibility For our actions. First John one eight nine. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive who? Ourselves. Ourselves.

And the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God says in his word in first John here to professing Christians as John writes to them. He says, if you say you have no sin, you're only deceiving yourself. None of us are perfect, not even Christians.

Especially not Christians. God has opened our eyes to see that we're not one. We're not perfect. That's why we came to Christ because we're sinners in need of a savior. Jesus said, I've come not to call the righteous, not the self righteous to think they're okay but sinners who know they're sinners to repentance, Jesus said.

We've come to Christ. As sinners in need of a savior and he saved our soul. We know we're not perfect. We should recognize our sin. And we need to confess it to our Lord.

That doesn't just mean say, I'm sorry. What that means is this, agree with him about what it is. Call it what it is. Confess it. It is a sin.

It's not a mistake. It's a sin It's an offense and a betrayal of our father in heaven when we lie, when we tell a little white lie. To our neighbor. It's a sin. We need to call it what it is.

So, God can cleanse us of it so we can what? Move forward. We must be willing to admit our failures. When God came to Adam in the Garden Of Eden, he was hiding and he said, Adam, what are you doing? And Adam said, well, I I was hiding because I'm naked and God said, how did you know that?

Did you take of the tree? Now, it wasn't that God didn't know. God knew but he needed Adam to what? Confess. And so how did Adam confess?

Here's how Adam confessed. The woman, you gave me, it's her fault. She talked me into it and then he went to the woman. He went to Eve and he said, Eve, what did you do? She said, the serpent, the serpent deceived me.

It's not my fault. It's his fault. And so mankind has been doing it ever since. We blame our spouse. We blame our children.

We blame our parents. We blame our friends. We blame our leaders. We blame everybody but who? Ourselves.

And we don't tend to take personal responsibility for the things we do. We sin, we do wrong, things go badly, and we want to blame others. It's not my fault. Not my fault. I didn't start it.

He started it. We pass the blame and we can't move on and we can't learn and we can't got God's cleansing in our life until we are willing to admit to what we did and take personal responsibility for it. And that's a problem with Christians. We justify things and we blame other people and the thing is we know better. We know better.

The world doesn't. We do. And if we are to play the ball where it lies and if we're to move on in life for Christ our savior, You need to learn to accept, rebuke, and confess when you've done wrong. Proverbs nine eight says, you reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee, rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. Proverbs thirteen one, a wise son heareth his father's instruction but a scorner heareth not rebuke.

Let it not be said of us that we're a scorner. Because we're not willing to hear God's rebuke in our life He wants the best for you. He is only trying to what? To help you. As parents, we rebuke our children because we hate them.

No, we don't. We rebuke our children because we want. We love them. And often times, our children learn to accept that but as adults, We often go backwards and we forget how to accept we should be willing to receive it and learn. Proverbs thirteen eight, the rants from a man's life are in his riches but the poor heareth not rebuke.

Heareth not rebuke. You want to succeed in life? Be willing to receive. The rebuke of others. Particularly of God and learn.

And move on. We must therefore accept the consequences of our actions. You know, when we sin and do wrong, there are what? Consequences. There are consequences and if we're going to learn, then we must be willing to accept the consequences to see them as consequences for what we've done that we might learn from and move on.

Turn if you would to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12 and we're going to read verses five to 10. Hebrews twelve five through 10. You know, the world wants to erase consequences because the world wants sin but the world does not want what? Consequences.

They don't want consequences for their sin. They don't want to have to deal with the result. They want to ignore it. They want to pretend that it doesn't happen and when it does happen, they want to blame it on anybody else. But sin always comes with what?

Consequences. We sin when we are drawn away of our own lust and enticed and when lust have conceived, it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth what? Death. Death. The world is always trying to get rid of the consequences.

That's why they they pass out contraceptives and stuff in high schools. Sadly, many of them want to teach teenagers that they can sin but not have to deal with a lot. The consequences. Now, do we want them to deal with the consequence? No.

But we want them to not deal with the consequences by learning not to what? Sin. That's the remedy. The remedy is redemption from sin. The remedy is victory over sin which is only found in Christ Jesus.

That's the way to be free of the consequences. Not to teach people that you can sin and get away with it. That only works for so long. Eventually, the Bible says, be sure your sin will what? You out.

A god who loves us is a god who doesn't let us get away with sin and going the wrong direction because he cares for us. You know, like not letting your child stick his finger in the light socket or put it on the hot burner or run out into the busy road. Not only do you yell at him and stop him but sometimes you have to discipline them So, they will what? So, they'll learn. And they'll be safe.

God does that for us. Hebrews chapter 12 verse five, it says, and have and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening, the disciplining hand of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasten it and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons.

For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if you be without chastisement, whereof, all are partakers and you are bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh with corrected, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much? Rather be in subjection under the father of spirits and live?

For they verily of a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Sometimes as parents, our motivation is skewed but God's motivation is never skewed. God loves us. And he allows us to face consequences of our sin. Yey, sometimes he brings difficult situations into our life to try to wake us up.

The church in Corinth was allowing a member, prominent member of their church to go undisciplined who was living in rampant immorality. Paul said, what are you doing? Don't you care about the Lord's testimony? Don't you care about this man? By not disciplining him, you're saying, hey, it's what?

It's okay. It's not okay. God knows. Sin's not okay and so sometimes, we have to deal with the consequences and the chasing hand of God for our sin rather than fighting God. We need to learn to accept be thankful, and learn to recognize his chastening hand to recognize when the things we're dealing with are because we made wrong choices.

Confess our sin. Move forward. Fix the problem. Verse here, but put you on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. The Bible says, flee temptation or flee youthful lust.

What does that mean? That means, when you see temptation, run the what? The other direction. If you've got something, if there's a habit in your life, if there's people in your life, if there's places that you go that tempt you to sin, over and over and over again, and get rid of those things. Don't go to those places.

Don't hang out with those friends. If you have a problem with smoking or drinking and you hang out with people that smoke and drink, you're going to continue to have a problem with what? Smoking and drinking. Find some new friends. They don't smoke and drink.

Flee temptation. Don't hold on to it. Fix the problem. Forsake sin. Let God help you.

You can get victory over it but you must be willing to recognize it and admit to it. Accept God's chastening and then turn away from it. And then finally, we must press forward. We must press forward. We must accept God's will.

We must accept the actions of others and learn to forgive. We must take response personal responsibility for our own actions and then, we need to, what I do with the ball? I don't know what I do with the golf ball. Rolled away somewhere. Here it is.

Okay? We must learn to accept the ball where it is and then we need to take our club and what? And do our best. To make the next hit. To put it in the hole.

And the same thing is true in life. You need to learn to move forward. We read this to begin the service this morning. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, reaching forth under those things which are before I pressed toward the mark, the pride, the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Paul says, I haven't arrived.

I'm still a sinner like you, still learning, growing, I still sin. I have a lot in my past and voided Paul have a lot in his past. Before he became a Christian, he tortured Christians. He arrested Christians. He maybe even took part in the execution of Christians.

We know he was standing consenting at Stephen's execution. He had all that in his past images wants. Not easy to forget but he said, I've learned By God's grace, to put those things behind me for the sake of what God has put in front of me. He's forgiven me. And I need to accept his forgiveness and then I need to move on.

Paul had bad things in his past. Paul had good things in his past. Paul had accomplishments. Churches he had started. Persecution he had endured.

Some people say, well, look what I've done. I've accomplished my task. Now, I can just sit back and do nothing. God, Paul, Paul says, no. God still has something for me.

What? Tomorrow. Forgetting those things that are in the path. I don't allow those things to hold back. I don't allow what those people did to me.

I don't allow what I did to those people. To keep me from doing what God has before me today and tomorrow and the next day. Yes, there are bad things. He had beaten people and he had been beaten by people. Some of his own people had betrayed him but yet, he got up and he went to the next city and he started preaching Christ again.

It's sad how many people, Christians even allow the hurts and offenses of the past and some of them, some of them really bad to keep them from going forward in life We as Christians should know there is hope in Christ Jesus. There is a prize waiting at the end of the race. The prize is our savior. The place he's prepared for us. All this pain and sorrow, it's all going to be a thing of the past.

Not only that but we don't run the race by ourselves. We run the race with Christ right beside us. We should know above all others that with his help, we can move on. We can learn to forgive the unforgivable. We can learn to accept personal responsibility.

Confess it and move on because in Christ, the Bible says, his mercies are new what? Every morning. Every day. What a joy. What a privilege is ours.

What a hope What a prize. So, let us not be weary in well doing for in due season, we shall reap if we faint. Paul writes to the churches in Galatia, he says, Sometimes you fail, get back up. Sometimes others fail you, forgive them, move on. Don't be weary in well doing.

Keep it up. May not seem that people appreciate it now. May not seem that anything's happening now. It may seem like in Joseph's case that everything's going wrong. Don't be weary in well doing.

For in due season, we shall reap. If we thank God. Do you trust him? Let me ask you this question. First of all, as we close this morning, do you know him?

Because if you don't know Christ as savior, you haven't experienced his forgiveness. You don't have a promise of home in heaven and there's only one way to get there and that's through faith in Jesus Christ. It's not by works of righteousness which he we have done but according to his mercy, through his sacrifice on Calvary that we're saved. For by grace are you saved through faith and that none of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

You can't earn it. Christ, the holy perfect, sinless son of God earned it for you and then he paid the price for your sin on Calvary's Cross and now he offers to you a gift. Will you receive it? If you do, you'll become a child of God. He comes to live inside your heart.

He says, I'll never leave you nor forsake you and he will work all things together for your what? Good. For your good. Till the day you stand before him in glory. Will you receive him today?

And if you already know him as savior, are we letting something hold us back? Is there something between our soul and our savior? Because there's something between our brother and sister in Christ that we haven't let go? Are are we being held back because there's a sin we won't admit to? Or we're mad at God for chastening us?

Learn to trust him. Learn to confess. Learn to forgive. And let's move. Forward together.

The cause of Christ our savior. Maybe there's something you need to confess to him, not to me today. You can do that as we pray. You can do that as we sing. But as we do sing a hymn of invitation, I plead with you if you don't know Christ as savior today.

Would you come? I'd love to show you how you can know it. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for what it tells us.

We thank you for the joy, freedom, and hope we have in Jesus Christ, our savior and we pray Lord if there's one today whose heart you're working on to receive you today by faith, savior of their life, to know the hope of which we speak, the joy that you put in our life, the contentment that's there regardless of the conditions. We can know what your children. Lord, I pray if there's one here today that doesn't know that but would like to. I pray that they would come as we give the femme of invitation that we might show them from God's word how they can be saved today and know it. In Jesus name, we do pray.

Amen.