Pest Control - Part A

Now Paul writes about not problem circumstances but problem people. But get this, they are Christian people that are the problem. Christian people that are opposed to Paul. This disillusions lots of people who after they come to Christ say something like, Christians would be so wonderful all the time.

It's a good thought. But the reality is we're all fallen, we're all sinful, we're all imperfect and yet we all get together. How do you deal with conflict in the Church?

That's the question Skip Heitzig tackles today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Tune in to discover how the Apostle Paul handled conflict in the body of Christ and how you can be a part of uniting the Church. But first, Skip wants to share about another way you can hear these encouraging Bible messages. I want to invite you to follow my podcast so you can get even more inspiring teachings. Just search Skip Heitzig, that's Skip, H-E-I-T-Z-I-G on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere you listen to your podcasts. And don't forget to follow the podcast so you know when a new teaching is available.

Thanks Skip. Right now, we want to share about a resource that can help you become more familiar with the Holy Spirit and how He helps you live in victory. The Holy Spirit is mysterious.

In the Bible, Jesus even said He moves like the wind. Even so, Christians are instructed to know and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and His help, counsel, and comfort, as Skip Heitzig reminds us. You can't neglect the Holy Spirit since the Scripture is full of the Holy Spirit from beginning to end, from Genesis to Revelation. Not only is the Bible full of the Holy Spirit, you can be too. The Holy Spirit is a divine person who helps us. How many of you think you need all the help you can get to live your Christian life?

Yeah, I'm with you. We need help. Discover who the Holy Spirit is with Pastor Skip's DVD study, Expound Holy Spirit. And for a limited time, you can also get a copy of Lenya Heitzig's booklet called Empower, Discover Your Spiritual Gifts. Both resources are our thanks for your gift of $25 or more. To help expand this Bible teaching outreach.

To give online securely, visit connectwithskip.com slash offer, or call 800-922-1888. Now, we're in Philippians chapter 1 as we dive into our study with Skip Heitzig. So there was a man, he was stranded on a desert island all alone for years. Finally, he was found, and a rescue team was sent to pull him off the island and bring him back to civilization. Well, they get to the island and before they take him off, he goes, well, let me show you around first so you can see what I've done with the place. So he brought them to a hut that he lived in. He goes, this is the home that I built with my own two hands.

They were impressed. And then he showed them a second building and he said, this is the church that I built with my own two hands. Now he was alone on the island, but he said, this is the church I built with my own two hands.

And then somebody from the rescue party noticed a third building and he said, what about that building? He said, oh, that's the church I used to go to. If you've gone to church for very long, you know that that sentiment is not far off. That the longer you go to church, you discover that church history is filled with contention sometimes and discord over years. And it's one of the things that unbelievers have noticed. People who do not believe in the Jesus we follow will sometimes, in fact, oftentimes say, well, you know, there's a lot of denominations in the Christian world and it just seems like you guys can't get your act together. You don't all agree on all the points. You know, it's like the old joke, how many Christians does it take to change a light bulb? And it's not an easy answer. Presbyterians, none.

Lights will go on and off at predestined times. Catholics, none. Candles only. Baptists, at least 15. One to change the light bulb and three committees to approve the change and decide who brings the potato salad. Episcopalians, three. One to call the electrician, one to mix the drinks, and one to talk about how much better the old light bulb was. Charismatics, only one.

Hands are already in the air. Pentecostals, ten. One to change the bulb and nine to pray against the spirit of darkness. Unitarians, we choose not to make a statement either in favor of or against the need for light bulbs. However, if you're in your own journey, you found that light bulbs work for you, that's fine. You're invited to write a poem or compose a modern dance about your light bulb for next Sunday's service, in which we will explore a number of light bulb traditions, including incandescent fluorescent three-way long life and tinted, all of which are equally valid paths to luminescence. Methodists, undetermined.

Whether your light is bright or dull or completely out, you are loved. You can be a light bulb, a turnip bulb, or a tulip bulb. Christian or church-wide lighting services planned for next Sunday bring the bulb of your choice and a covered dish.

Nazarenes, six. One woman to replace the bulb while five men review the church lighting policy. Lutherans, none. Lutherans don't believe in change.

Amish, what's a light bulb? Well, now that I have effectively ditched all denominations and offended everyone, I want to go to the text itself in Philippians chapter one. We're going to be looking at verses 15 through 18, and here's where we are. Last time we were together, we noted that Paul was dealing with problem circumstances. He had been on trial. It was a mistrial. It was a miscarriage of justice.

It landed him in prison in Caesarea, then in prison in Rome. Now, Paul writes about not problem circumstances, but problem people. But get this, they are Christian people that are the problem. Christian people that are opposed to Paul. This disillusions lots of people who, after they come to Christ, say something like, Well, I thought it would be much different among Christians. I thought Christians would be so wonderful all the time.

It's a good thought. But the reality is we're all fallen, we're all sinful, we're all imperfect, and yet we all get together. Remember Jesus said when he gave his sermon to that synagogue in Nazareth, he said that he had come, his words, to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to give sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. Did you hear the description of the audience he speaks about?

Poor, brokenhearted, captive, blind, oppressed. Sounds like a messy bunch to me. And that is who we are as we are all together. Now the critical question is how do you handle pests? How do you deal with people who claim to be Christians, yet at the same time they're weird, irritable, sometimes wrong, or just plain goofy? How do you handle them?

What do you do? Well, we are given a three-fold strategy in these four verses of Philippians chapter 1. Whether you are a church leader, whether you are a group leader, whether you gather a small group in your home, or you go on a missions trip, or you just hang around Christians, these are valuable principles to know. Let's begin by just looking at our text in verse 15. Paul says these words. Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill. The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains, but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached.

And in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice. The first thing we must do is identify the troublemakers. Now this will not be difficult.

Troublemakers show themselves. They emerge on their own. You don't have to look for them.

You'll find them pretty easily. Paul did in his experience in Rome. Now as we examine these words in this text more carefully, we discover who he is speaking about. First of all, we want to make a note that these people Paul is writing about are believers. They're believers. Notice in verse 15 he says some indeed preach Christ. Some of what?

Some of whom? The answer is given in the previous verse. Verse 14, most of the brethren in the Lord.

Please notice that. That's part of the group. Most of the brethren in the Lord have become confident by my chains and are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some, that is some of them, some of those brethren in the Lord, indeed preach Christ. So Paul is not dealing with heretics here or Gnostics or Judaizers or unbelieving idol worshipers. He's talking about Christian brothers and sisters who preach Christ, evidently leaders in the church in Rome.

Why is this important to make a note of? Well, I've noticed that some of us like to idealize the early church. We think that the early church must have just been perfect all the time. And I've heard sentiments such as, boy I wish our church could be like the early centuries. Those were the good old days.

I've discovered the good old days is just a combination of a good imagination and a bad memory. Because if you think about it, the New Testament is filled with early church issues. Example, the church at Corinth was an early church. Ever spend much time in 1 and 2 Corinthians? If you have, you understand that when Paul wrote that letter, he was speaking to a divided church who were arguing over leadership. There was rampant divorce, there was lack of love, there was immorality, there was the discussion over spiritual gifts that nobody agreed on.

It sounds very contemporary to me. If you're wanting to be like the early church, I think we've hit that mark. They were not a perfect group of people. I guess the most disturbing issue is why does that happen in the church? Why among redeemed, saved people can there get to be so many problems? The Puritan John Trapp answered that question the best. He said, The devil loves to fish in troubled waters.

That's good, isn't it? The devil loves to fish in troubled waters. Satan loves to exploit and amplify any conflict or disagreement or issue that may be among us. If you have never read the book, The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, I recommend you read it.

C.S. Lewis decided to write a book from the vantage point of the devil trying to undo people. The devil in this book, Screwtape, the senior demon, is training a younger protege demon named Wormwood on how to mess people's lives up.

In one section of the book, he writes a letter to Wormwood, My dear Wormwood, says Screwtape, the senior demon, The church is a fertile field. If you keep them bickering over details, structure, money, property, personal hurts, and misunderstandings, one thing you must prevent, don't ever let Christians look up and see the banner of victory flying because you will lose them. Never let them see the glory of God. Now that's exactly what Paul does. Paul lets us see the glory of God. That's how he will answer this whole contention issue you'll notice in a minute. He flies the banner of victory and he shows them the glory of God. But let's look at these troublemakers.

Let's identify them. One thing I want you to notice is they were jealous. Look in verse 15 at the word envy. Some indeed preach Christ even from envy.

Now we have another word for envy in our language, jealousy. They were jealous over Paul. Why were they jealous over Paul? Well, Paul was an easy target. He was quite successful. Paul was highly intelligent. He was very gifted, extraordinarily successful in spreading the gospel.

He had seen with his own eyes a vision of the resurrected Christ and at the time this was written, Christians were already regarding his letters as holy scripture. So he's an easy target. And people in seeing Paul decided, let's shoot him down. Now this is just human nature.

I notice this on every level, whether it's people mad at Wall Street or the one percenters or the big corporations, always the big successful guys that are the easy targets. So they were jealous. He uses the word they preach from envy. Not only were they jealous, they were a contentious group.

Look at the next word. Some indeed preach Christ from envy. That's jealousy.

And strife. Now that describes somebody who is an argumentative person. That's what strife means, somebody who stirs up a conflict, argumentative. Do you know any people like that? They're just, you're around, they're always stirring up a conflict, always argumentative. Some people thrive on being argumentative. In fact, some people are known more for what they are against rather than what they are for.

You never quite know what they're for. You just know they're against a lot. That's strife. They exist to slam others and they were slamming Paul the Apostle. I have a colleague in the ministry who I've known for years, I respect, and he was speaking about and answering questions that young ministers were asking him about the ministry. He said, what is the most difficult experience you've ever had in ministry?

And he said, well there are two. Number one is when people who know truth walk away from it. When somebody who should know better, there are Christians who've been exposed to truth, been exposed to the word, bring their Bibles, read along, suddenly one day they, for whatever reason, walk away completely from living for Christ. He said, but the second, he was speaking about ministers who were coming against him, he said, those who live to attack others in the ministry.

It's like they falsely accuse and they live just to stir up trouble. So envy and strife. We do not know how this strife was expressed.

We can only suppose. Maybe there was a group of people saying, well, you know, Paul the Apostle, there must be sin in his life, that's why he's in jail. Because God would be more faithful and not allow him to be in prison unless something's wrong with him. Or maybe they were saying, well, Paul hasn't tapped into the victorious, Holy Spirit filled life. If he did, if he had, then he wouldn't be in prison.

He'd be free like we have, like we are. But we do know they were jealous and we do know they were contentious. Something else they were, they were selfish. If you go down to verse 16, he amplifies it further. He says, the former, that is the first group, the guys against him, the former preach Christ from selfish ambition.

Very interesting term. It is a political term that speaks about a politician canvassing for office, using negative campaigns, putting other people down to make himself look better, to promote himself. So here's a group of people putting Paul down to puff themselves up, like a politician might do in a negative campaign ad.

They got some perverted pleasure by slamming Paul so that they could make other people think they are much better. This is not new in the New Testament. We know that John the apostle spoke about a guy named Diotrephes. If you know your Bible, 3 John verse 9, that little letter toward the end of the New Testament, he says Diotrephes loves to have the preeminence. He loves to have the preeminence. In other words, he wants to dominate people. He's a control freak. Diotrephes loves to have the preeminence among them.

Keep this in mind. Next time you hear gossip, and there are unfortunately too many people even in the church who love to spread gossip. When you hear gossip, somebody's ego is being exalted. It's usually shared because I know this and you don't and I'm concerned. And ego is being exalted as that information is being divulged.

A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small package. And selfish ambition was part and parcel of what was wrong with these people. They were selfish. So they're jealous, they're contentious, they're selfish. Paul mentions them.

Not by name. He doesn't want to make too much out of it. He doesn't want to be self-serving, but he mentions what they did.

But there's a fourth thing. They were malicious. Notice in verse 16, the former preached Christ from selfish ambition. Not sincerely.

Now watch this. Supposing or hoping to add affliction to my chains. Now Paul is revealing their motivation. They're doing all this. They are this way.

They're pushing me down to pull themselves up and here's why. They want to add affliction to my bonds. What does that mean? The word affliction is a common New Testament word, thalipsis. Thalipsis is a word that means pressure or trial, but it literally means an irritation. It means friction.

It is the irritation caused by the rubbing of an object over another object. Now notice it says, Paul says they want to add affliction or irritation to my chains. For two years Paul was in chains. I know you've heard that. I know we've read that. We've discussed that.

But I just want you to think of what that means. That means for two years Paul couldn't take a potty break alone. He had no freedom. He had no isolation. He had no privacy. He couldn't eat a meal alone.

He couldn't have a conversation in that rented house in Rome for two years. He was chained to a guard. That means there was a shackle around his wrist with a chain attached to the shackle of another soldier who only occupied that place for a few hours at a time. But Paul, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 2 years, he had a chain. That means that that shackle would irritate his skin and his bones and scabs would develop and it would bleed and it would thicken, etc. You get the picture. So he says the reason these people are this way toward me is they want to add to the irritation that I already have in my chains.

That is their motivation. That's Skip Heitzig with a message from the series Technicolor Joy. Right now, a trip to Israel is a life changer. Your Bible study will never be the same. Skip has lived in Israel and led tours many, many times. Here he is to invite you on his next tour. You know, there's always something new to see and experience in Israel. And I'm so excited to let you know that I'm taking another tour group to Israel next spring in 2022. You're in for an incredible time as we travel throughout Israel and experience the culture that's so unique to that country. We'll start on the Mediterranean Sea and head north, seeing places like Caesarea and Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River. We'll spend several days in and around Jerusalem and see the Temple Mount, Calvary, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Mount of Olives, and much more. This remarkable itinerary is made richer with times of worship, Bible study, and lots of fellowship. Now, I've been to Israel a number of times over the years, and I can honestly say that visiting the places where the events of the Scriptures unfolded, where Jesus lived, taught, and healed, it just never gets old. I can't wait to see you in Israel.

Start planning and saving now to tour Israel with Skip Heizek. Information at inspirationcruises.com slash c-a-b-q. That's inspirationcruises.com slash c-a-b-q. Listeners like you are a crucial part of helping connect people around the world to the good news of Jesus.

If these messages have made a difference in your life, please consider helping connect others to Jesus so they too can experience His love and grace. You can do that by giving a gift today at connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Or you can call 800-922-1888.

That's 800-922-1888. Thank you. Tune in tomorrow as Skip Heizek shares how you can have the same attitude of Paul and live a Gospel-centered life. Look at how Paul answers this. He says, What then? You know what that means? That little question, what then?

You know how we would translate that? So what? So what? What does it matter? What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense, they're pretending to be pure in their motives, but they're not, in pretense, or in truth, Christ is preached. And in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice. Man, you cannot stop this dude. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on His word. Connect with Skip Heizek is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.