Giving Up OUR Expectations Taking on GODS Surprises Philippians 1: 1-14 February 24, 2013 (Second Sunday in Lent) Rev.

. Deborah Dail Denbigh Presbyterian Church Scripture:

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in Gods grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God. I want you to know, beloved, that what has happened to me has actually helped to spread the gospel, so that is has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to everyone else that my imprisonment is for Christ: and most of the brothers and sisters having been made confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, dare to speak the word with greater boldness and without fear.

Sermon: Surprise! We shout as they enter the darkened room. Surprise! Sometimes we can tell right off the bat if the person being surprised had figured it all out ahead of time or if he is truly shocked. Some people carry to their graves the real truth. They knew about the party, but gave such an Oscar-worthy performance that those who planned the surprise believed they had pulled it off. Some surprises are fun. Some are not. Sitting in a doctors office and receiving an unexpected diagnosis is a surprise no one wants. Having your spouse walk out the door when you didnt see it coming is not fun. Losing your job when you had no idea your position was on the chopping block is not fun. Being blindsided by a friends betrayal is not fun. These are the surprises that leave us devastated, empty-handed, blown away and wondering what to do next. Surprises fly in the face of our expectations both the good and bad surprises. It may surprise you to know if you havent studied Philippians before that its author, the Apostle Paul, wrote this letter from prison. Yet, the overall theme of Philippians is joy. It may surprise you to know that what landed him in prison was preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The course of Pauls life before he converted to Christianity might also surprise you. Paul was a Jewish convert to Christianity, but before he was converted he spent his days trying to destroy Christians either by having them thrown in jail or having them killed. It may surprise you to know that Paul started the church in Philippi with the conversions of a suicidal jailer, a woman at a prayer meeting and a woman he delivered from a spirit, along with some of their family members. Surprise. As we turn to Philippians chapter 1 we can tell that Paul both knows and loves the people to whom he writes the people who are the church at Philippi. He says I thank my God every time I remember
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you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. Paul counted the Philippians as friends and partners in ministry. However, he is concerned about them and wishes he could visit them at this critical time in the life of their church. Its been about 10 years since the first people converted to Christianity and the church at Philippi was born. Things have become a little rocky in the church. There are the usual people problems inside the church that are creating disunity. There are also people from the outside who are threatening to undo Pauls solid and faithful teaching about the Gospel namely, that all one needs to do to be saved is confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Paul is in a mess hes in prison. The church at Philippi is in a mess there is disunity within and threats from without. Yet, Paul boldly says: I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. I personally would have expected Paul to have lost hope in his own situation which looked dire. It was possible that he would be executed. I personally would have expected Paul to have lost some measure of hope about the Philippian Church based on reports he was receiving about their behavior and the teachings of those who threatened to undo their faith. Instead, he surprises us with saying of the Philippians and of himself: I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. Surprise! Paul tells some of his own story from prison and confesses his own surprise of how God is working things out in his situation. While he is not necessarily confident hell get out of jail or even escape execution, he sees that God is working out Gods purposes despite Pauls imprisonment. Rather than thwarting the spread of the gospel, Pauls imprisonment has created a brand new mission field for him. In fact, just the knowledge that Paul has been arrested and faces possible execution for just preaching has caused some in high places to consider Christ. Paul has been surprised that instead of cowering in fear, most of
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the Christians who are aware of his imprisonment have become bolder in sharing their faith. I think as human beings we often get locked into certain expectations. One of our expectations is that if we or someone we care about arent visibly making progress in faith or in life in general than no progress is taking place. We lose hope when we have set-backs or when those we so long to grow seem stymied in their growth or maybe even have gone back to square one. As human beings we often get locked into the expectation that if we land somewhere we had not planned to land if our life situations turn out differently from our what we had envisioned that our futures are limited, that we cannot serve God, that we cant make a difference. Paul could have spent all his time in prison chomping at the bit because he wasnt out on the mission field visiting churches and preaching the Gospel to those who had not yet heard it. He could have been so focused on what had been taken from him that he missed the opportunities right in front of his face the guard to whom he was chained, his fellow prisoners, those on the outside of the jail walls whom he could encourage with letters. Paul could have been so locked into his picture of how God was going to use him that he could have missed Gods picture and Gods plan. We all land in situations we hadnt planned on. Our lives take twists and turns we could not have imagined. Relationships we have counted on have not worked out. Colleges we had hoped to get into didnt accept us. Jobs we had hoped to get didnt pan out. Family lives we have envisioned dont resemble our imaginings. The brilliant, wellbehaved, fully-employed, happily married productive citizen children and grandchildren weve imagined havent become quite as brilliant, well-behaved, fully-employed, happily married or productive as we had hoped. The churches we have joined and once thought were perfect have turned out not to be all we had expected. The good health we had counted on has not been our lot in life. The list goes on.
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We are left with unfulfilled expectations. Sometimes we despair. Sometimes we run away and look for those expectations to be filled elsewhere. We chomp at the bit, we spend all our energy on what might have been, could have been, should have been. All the while we miss Gods surprises. We miss opportunities to minister and share the Gospel which are right in front of our faces. We miss Gods surprising plan to complete the good work He began in us and those around us. Carol Kent has written a book that I have not yet read but intend to read soon. Her book is titled A New Kind of Normal. Carol Kent has lived every parents nightmare. After her only son was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, Carols life took a permanent detour. She and her husband, Gene, have been adjusting ever since, moving to Florida to be near the prison, starting a new ministry for prison inmates and their families, and sharing the faithfulness of God with anyone who will listen. Carol knows what it means to live with an unthinkable circumstance that will never change and to still make hopefilled choices. Carol uses her own story, the story of Mary the mother of Jesus and stories of women who have experienced their own new normal to share now God has led them to choose life, gratitude, vulnerability, involvement, forgiveness, trust and action. (from Carol Kent website, book promotion) During this season of Lent, let us encourage one another to give up OUR expectations and take on GODS surprises. Let us encourage one another to discover Gods ministry opportunities right where we are even if weve landed somewhere wed rather not be. Let us live in bold confidence that the one who began a good work among us will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.