A Grateful Goodbye

Well, my message today is very simple. There are no attention grabbing illustrations to start with. There will probably be no deep exegetical insights this morning. There's no PowerPoint this morning. As I drove down here this morning, I found myself thinking, Alas, how will I keep you awake if there's no PowerPoint? But it is my last time to preach to you as your pastor. I hope that in God's providence there may be some other times to come back and minister in the future and maybe the Lord will allow that. But it's my last time to minister to you as you're shepherd. And I find it very appropriate that we come in our journey through the book of Philippians to chapter 4 today. In verse 10, where Paul expresses his gratitude as he says goodbye to the Philippians. And so I have two very simple goals this morning. Well, three goals. Not to cry too much. Number two, I want to explain Paul's grateful goodbye and then I want to express my grateful goodbye. Paul describes himself in several ways in this passage as he says goodbye to the Philippians. And I know that this side of heaven there is for the Christian no final goodbye because we will see each other again and we'll be together forever. So I'm fully aware of that. But I do want the chance to express this. Paul did a grateful goodbye to you. He describes himself first of all in verse 10 as a joyful man. Look at what he says there in verse 10. I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned but you had no opportunity to show it. Paul is expressing his gratitude for their concern. What kind of concern? Well, it's clear in the following verses that he's talking about a gift that they had sent him. That in verse 18, for instance, he says, I have received full payment and even more. I am amply supplied now that I have received from a paphroditus the gifts you sent. They are fragrant offering an acceptable sacrifice pleasing to God. So he's expressing gratitude for their concern for him which was expressed in the form of gifts which they sent him, support which they gave him. And he's expressing his gratitude for that. He makes it very clear that his gratitude is not just for the gift though. His joy is in the Lord. You see how he said it there in verse 10, I rejoice greatly in the Lord. It's not that I rejoice in the gift. He's grateful for the gift but I rejoice in the Lord. We're going to see as Paul talks some more that is joy, his contentment, his blessing is not dependent on whether or not he receives something. His blessing and his joy is dependent on his relationship with Christ. And so we can all say, I hope we can all say that, that we rejoice in the Lord. Paul had told them to do that back in verse 4. He had to command them, rejoice in the Lord always. And he can honestly say that for himself he rejoices in the Lord. Paul was a joyful man. And I want to join him this morning and say, I leave here this morning a joyful man. I am joyful in the Lord for much the same reason Paul was. I am joyful for your concern. You have expressed for me and my family. And so just like Paul expressed that to the Philippian church, I want to express that to Johnston Chapel. I am joyful. I rejoice in the Lord because of your concern for us. Thank you for your giving to us. Through the years you have given very generously to our family. I want to thank you for the financial provision you've made for our family, for the salary you've paid us each year very generously, very graciously. I want to thank you for other gifts that you have provided our family. I want to thank you for benefits that you have continued to add through the years. And how gracious you have been in providing health insurance and dental insurance and life insurance and retirement program and expense accounts to be able to do the work of God in a more honorable fashion. I want to thank you for so many Christmas gifts. Christmas was always a time where you just showered the pastors with your expressions of love and concern and I want to say thank you for that. We're deeply grateful to you for the way you express that in so many different ways. Thank you for so many other spontaneous gifts. Thank you for the person that you provided for us. In 14 years we called that our home and loved that home and you took care of it so well and took care of us so well there. I want to thank you for that. And then you gave us the freedom to move out on our own and establish our own residents and build a little equity for the future and I want to thank you for giving us that freedom to do that. But thank you for the way that you have financially provided for us just like the Philippians thank Paul. I thank you. Or Paul thank the Philippians. I thank you. You have provided for us and shown your care and concern in so many other ways beyond remuneration. I want to thank you for the times that you have responded to us when we had illness. You know it's our joy as pastors to walk with you through times of illness and physical difficulty but there are times when we get sick too or we have surgeries and things like that. In those times you all came to our sides and we appreciate that very, very much. Thank you. Thank you for the time that you responded to us in family difficulties. Whereas human as anyone and we had our share of family difficulties. You know, Jeanne and I are doing fine by the way. It's no problem there. We're fine. We're celebrating in a couple of weeks, 36 years together and we're great. Whenever you have kids, you know, you have some stresses and difficulties and we thank God for our three wonderful children. But we had our share of difficulties with child rearing challenges and you were always there for us. You always came to our side. I can look out and see some of you that were models to our daughters, mentors to our daughters aside. Talk to them about some things that they weren't hearing from mom and dad in those years. Thank you. Thank you for your help. Thank you for the many, the many cards notes, personal words of encouragement and support. So many ways that you've expressed your love and concern. I'm a joyful man this morning because of that. Our family is a joyful family. But Paul said, not only did I rejoice in the Lord greatly, he also said, I'm a contented man, verses 11 and 12. He says, I'm not saying this about the gift in verse 10. I'm not saying this because I am in need for I have learned to be content, whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. It's a great blessing to learn contentment. And Paul says, I'm a contented man, but he says several things about it that are important for all of us to learn. First of all, he says that contentment is learned. It is learned. Did you notice twice he said that, I have learned to be content. content is not a natural virtue. It is not a natural state of heart and mind. It must be learned. Paul had learned that. He was contented because he had learned contentment. See, Paul was born into wealth. Paul had the best education that could be provided in his day. Paul had the status of being a leader in Israel. He was a meatier rising through the ranks of leadership in Israel. The sky was the limit as to what Paul would do. The name he would make for himself in Israel. His life changed course directly, completely when he met Christ and became a follower of Christ. And he learned through hardship and through difficulty that he could be content, regardless of what his circumstances were. And that leads me to the second thing he says about contentment. Not only is it learned, it is not dependent on our material state. He says that very clearly in verse 11, I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances and he describes those circumstances in verse 12. He says, I know what it is like to have a lot. I know what it is like to have nothing. And I have learned that you can be content either way. It is not dependent on your circumstances. You see things will never give you contentment. You will always be looking for more if you find your contentment in a certain level of possessions. You will get used to that level too. And then you will want another level and another level and another level. Contentment is never found in things. You have heard me tell before the story of John D. Rockefeller who in his days in the early 1900s was probably the wealthiest man on earth and someone asked him one day, how much does it take to be content? And his answer was just a little more. Probably the wealthiest man on earth would say, I just need a little more to be content. A little more than I think I will be content. You see, contentment is not found in things. It is not found in your circumstances. Contentment is an inner satisfaction that enables the trusting child of God to live above external circumstances. Whether there is much or whether there is little, and that leads me to the third thing that Paul teaches about contentment here. And that contentment is possible in either extreme. He says it there in verse 12. He says, I know what it is like to be in need. I know what it is like to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. So he is learned to be content whatever the extreme is, whatever the circumstances are. You can learn to be content with very little. You can learn to be content with a lot. And it may be just as great a challenge to learn to be content with plenty as it is with little. Now I know what some of you are thinking. Some of you are thinking, I'd like to find out, I'd like to experience what it's like to be content with much. Well, if you have that spirit, you would not be content with much. You see, because if you're feeling that a little more or a certain level would bring contentment, it won't. It will not bring contentment. And so it's not that next level that will bring contentment. It is possible to be content in either circumstance because our contentment rests in Christ, in knowing Him, knowing that we are His, knowing that He cares for us, knowing that He will provide for whatever our real legitimate needs are. That's where contentment is found. So contentment is learned. It is not dependent on our material state. And contentment can be experienced in either extreme of life with little or with much. Paul says, I'm a contented man. And I would like to say this morning, in a little different vein, I am a contented man. As I wrap up my ministry here, I leave with a very deep sense of contentment. Now, please don't misunderstand that. There are still things that I would love to have seen done that have not been accomplished yet. There are still things that I wish I had done a little differently. You always look back over 18 years and think, I wish I'd handle that a little differently. And I wish I'd done that maybe a little better. Now, there are a few of those things and I'll learn to let those things go. But looking at the broad scope of 18 years, I have a deep sense of contentment about what God has enabled us to accomplish together here. I've done a lot of thinking about that this week. There are several things that express the deep contentment in my heart. I'm deeply contented, first of all, as I think, about all of those who have been saved over the last 18 years. And there have been a lot of you that have come to no Christ in that time. Some of you I have led to the Lord myself. Some of you have come to Christ through the preaching of the Word. Some of you have come to Christ through other ministries of this church. Some of you have come to Christ through other people in this church, witnessing to you and reaching you with the gospel. But I have rejoiced in seeing everyone who has come to know the Lord whether young or old in these last 18 years. I think God has given me a special blessing before I left. Starting with the first Sunday in January, where we had a lady who attended our church for the first time on January 6th, I believe it was. And at the invitation stepped out and came forward and said, I need to be saved. We have had nine adults do that in the first six months, not just children, nine adults come to receive Christ that as far as I know, nobody had talked to them. They were reached through the preaching of the Word. Or as I had one couple tell me they had a 101 class and they said we were sitting in a church service in March and we had been attending here about six months and finally we realized we just never, we didn't know Christ. And we batted and received Christ right there and they told me that a month later in a 101 class and they said we want to come forward next week and let everybody else know about it. I think the Lord has just somehow given me a special opportunity to see some of that in the past six months and my heart is deeply contented about that. I received a card just in the last couple of weeks from one of those, a couple of those people. This is a kind of thing that you never throw away. John, we both just wanted to thank you for leading us in the right direction with Christ and helping us both to understand why we should be saved and live a Christian life. There's no other person that has made us understand the Bible like you do and explain things so well. Words can never describe how grateful we are that you are in our life and let us to Christ. We look forward to serving Christ each and every day sincerely and they sign their names. That brings such joy to my heart, such contentment to my heart to know that God through His Word has reached some people who are in His family who otherwise might not have been all of that in God's sovereign plan. But I am thankful that He's used this church, many of you, and on occasion, even me, to reach some with the gospel. I'm thankful and contented about those who've grown spiritually. None of us can ever be content with where we are spiritually, but it does give me a great sense of contentment to see that there has been spiritual growth. Many of you have shared with me very specific things about how God has spoken to your heart, how you've grown, and how the Word has taken root. And I'm so thankful that I'm seeing evidence and some fruit of the impact of God's Word in people's lives. I am deeply contented about the health and the growth of our church. There's still mountains to climb. There's still new territory to take. But I leave contented that God has given us some good ground and we've taken some good hills and I'm thankful for the health of the church. As I look back over the 18 years, I am so deeply satisfied in my spirit about all of the ministries that have sprung up that God has brought to be in this place. I was thinking about them this week and I tried to make a list and I thought of divorce care and divorce care for kids, grief share, mobs, celebrate recovery, good sense budget course. We've begun to partner with six community ministries, Union Mission, Abel Center, Wade Center, tender mercies, heaven sent, we can. Ministries like the Philippian ministry, the men's fellowship breakfast, the evangelism outreach commercials, prayer ministries like our Friday morning men's prayer group are standing in the gap prayer ministry, the contemporary service, Chapel A institute, mission trips, the growth in student and children's ministries and I know the list could go on. I know I've left out some and I don't want you to misunderstand. I have not started all of those ministries. Some of them have been started by other pastors, some of them have been started by faithful lay people who had a burden to reach a certain segment of our community. But I've been able to witness that in these 18 years and I've been able to stand by and provide some vision and some, some, at a boy go get them and I'll support you 100% and I've just been grateful to be a part of that over the last 18 years. I'm deeply contented as I think about the improvements to facilities over the last 18 years. The pavilion playground area that has been greatly improved, new parking, I'm thankful we needed that. Million dollar education wing that has served us well. The auditorium renovation as far as projection and lighting and sound equipment, a new bus, a new van, a garage across the road to store a lot of things and then that providing us opportunity to renovate space for a new children's ministry room and update our student ministries room. Seeing finally the completion of the buying of the property next door that we have talked about and thought about for so long, I'm very contented about seeing God, what He has done in these 18 years and I do not take credit for those things. I have been witness to a moving of God among his people to accomplish those ministries and those things that God has done. I'm so thankful to be a part of that and I'm contented. My heart rests contented. Paul not only said I'm a joyful man and a contented man, he also said I am a powerful man, verse 13. He said I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. Now notice Paul says several things about that power, that strength that comes from the Lord. He describes first of all the source of that power. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. The most literal translation of the original language here would be I can do all things in association with the one strengthening me. Our culture has a belief system, really does and our culture believes I can do all things through education or I can do all things through money. I can do all things through success. I can do all things through positive thinking. I can do all things through political power. There's nothing wrong with some of those things and there are great things that be accomplished through those avenues. But only all things that God requires of us can be done in association with Him who strengthens us, meaning Christ. Christ is the source of our power and strength. Whatever we have spiritually, He is the source of. Paul was very clear about who he was. Paul said in Romans chapter 7, I know that in me, dwells no good thing. It is in my flesh, in my sinful nature. So he was very clear about the fact that the only power and strength he had was through Christ. And you remember what Jesus said, Jesus said, I'm divine, you're the branches. Without me, you can do nothing. Without Christ, we have no life flowing through us. We're just dead branches removed from the vine. But it is in Christ that we find the source of our strength and the power to live as He wants us to live. Exactly what Paul says, the source of my power is Christ. But He also says something about the use of that power. He says, I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. You see, knowing that the power comes from Christ does not, should not, make us just sit back and say, well, I'm just going to wait for God to start doing things. Paul says, I can do. I can do all things. Everything through the one who strengthens me. That means I have a responsibility to step out, to act. I have a responsibility to read my Bible so that I can grow. I have a responsibility to develop disciplines of prayer so that I can draw near to my Lord to understand His art and see His direction. I have a responsibility to be a witness to my neighbors and friends. God will work. He will strengthen as we step out. But if we never step out, we never sense the power of God. Because we have a responsibility to do and He provides the strength and the power as we step out in faith. I believe it's a lot like driving your car. You're not going to get anywhere if you just sit in the driveway and try to turn a steering wheel. If you've got to engage the transmission and say, I will move this car. We're going in a certain direction. When the power steering kicks in and you can direct the car and move the car, the transmission works. Some of the time. It works. With the Lord, He says, and Paul said to these people in the church at Philippi, He said, continue to work out your salvation. Chapter 2 and verse 12, work out your, live out the implications of your faith. You have a responsibility to live for Christ. And as you do, you will find it is God who works in you to will. That means to give you the desire and to act. Give you the strength, the ability according to His good purpose. God's purpose has been set from eternity past. As we see what He wants us to do and step out to do it, He gives us the power, the desire, the strength, the ability to do it. That's how the Christian life works. So Paul says, I can do. There's a responsibility. There's a use of that power. And then He talks about the extent of that power. He says, I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. I don't misunderstand this, this verse has been abused. What Paul is saying is I can do everything that God requires of me. He's not saying I have all power. That would be claiming omnipotence and only God is omnipotent. Only God has all power. Only God can do all things. What Paul is saying is everything that is required of me. And in the context he's talking about being content and with little or with much whatever situation I'm in, I can face whatever God requires of me, He will give me the strength to be able to face that and prevail in that. He is not saying I can do things that I've never done before. God will give me the strength. Now there are times obviously spiritually where that's true. But please don't take a verse like this and climb in the cockpit of a plane and say, I can do all things through Christ, He strengthens me and just start down the runway, have no clue what you're doing. Don't use the verse that way. It's not what He's talking about. But whatever God requires of you, He will give you the power to do. Now here's my personal application of that principle this morning. I am a powerful man only, only as I depend upon the power of Christ to work through me. Whatever God requires of me, He will give me the strength and the power to do. God has said, I want you to change directions in your ministry. One of the hardest things I have ever done is to leave this church. I do not leave kicking my heels and saying, man I am so glad this is hard, very hard. But I know God has said, this is what step I want you to take. So I'm looking to Him to give the strength. I know nothing about running an educational program. I think ABC is a little foolish for saying, we want you to run a master's program. I feel a little bit of sense of apprehension and intimidation about that. I believe that's what God's called me to do. And so I know He will give the strength to do it. Now I feel exactly the same way about you. You are in a position where God is requiring you to do something that's not easy to do. It's never easy for a church to shift leaders to search for a new pastor. It's never an easy time for the church, but God has called you to do that right now. He is requiring of you that you seek out another senior pastor. And you know what? You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. You can do everything. Whatever He requires of you, the strength, the power, the ability to do it will be there. Do you trust Him that it will be? I want to say to our deacons this morning, you have been so diligent. And I don't know if you folks realize how much effort and time they have put in so far in just these two months in this transition process, they are working extremely hard on your behalf. And I want to say to them this morning, what God requires of you by way of wisdom to lead this church and choosing the next person, He will give you the ability to do. Trust Him, He will give you the ability to do that. And I would say to the other pastors, the extra responsibilities you're picking up are not going to be easy to add to what you're already doing. But God will give you the strength to do whatever He requires of you to do. I can do everything in association with the one who gives me the strength to do it. That's what Paul is saying. He was a powerful man. You can sense and know His strength and power to do everything God requires of you in these coming weeks and months. Paul not only said, I'm a joyful man, I'm a contented man, I'm a powerful man. He also says, I'm a thankful man for His 14. Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. He's coming back to His thankfulness. There's a little bit of ebb and flow in this passage and it's a beautiful thing to watch. Paul begins by saying, I'm grateful for your concern for me. And he says, but I want you to know, I'm not dependent on that. I've learned whatever state I'm in to be content. So I can be content with nothing. Now he comes back in verse 14 to the other side of it and says, but I do want you to know, I'm grateful for it. Yet you did a good thing. Greek word means a beautiful thing. Not good morally, but beautiful in appearance. What you did was a beautiful act. He's grateful for that. He goes on to describe His gratefulness in verses 15 through 19. Not even going to take the time to read them, but he talks about how they gave to him time and time again. And because they had given to him and he'd received their gifts from a pafforditis, he knows that God will supply their need in verse 19. This was a giving church so God would give back to them. God would supply their need. This church is a giving church. God will supply your need. You have given bound to flee. God will give to you. God will supply your need. As you seek His face, He will supply your need. Paul was a thankful man. I want to say this morning, just like Paul. I'm a very thankful man this morning. I leave very grateful, very thankful to you. And I want to express, like Paul did to the Philippians, some of the things for which I'm grateful, for which I'm thankful. A few of you, maybe, as I'm looking around, I'm trying to find some of you who would have been here 55 years ago, a few of you were. I want to thank you for calling preacher Jimmy to be your pastor because it was through his clear preaching of the gospel that my family was reached. So thank you. My mother and father came under the sound of the word of God through his ministry. My mother got saved through his preaching ministry. Thank you for calling him. I don't know where I'd be today. God's providence. Were it not for that? I thank you for calling him. I want to thank you for your ministry to children. This church has always been a church that believed in ministering to children. In 1960, when I was eight years old, I trusted Christ as my Savior in a little vacation Bible school across the road and a little white building that some of you remember. And I thank God for your ministry to children through the years and that that continuous strong. I thank God for a vibrant youth group that I was privileged to be a part of back in the 1960s. Some of you are still here that we're a part of that youth group. Some of you are going to be meeting next week. In fact, there are 45 to 50 people that I've heard of so far that are coming from all over the country to come back for that reunion. Why? Because that was a special youth group. And that continues today, that emphasis on student ministries and youth ministries. But I had the privilege of being part of a great youth group. And I want to thank you as a church because some of you were a part of that. And I know most of you in this service have come since that time, but I want to thank you. I want to thank you for giving preacher Jimmy the freedom to take some risks and do some things that churches in that day were not doing. You allowed him to put a ping pong table in the church. You allowed him to put a soft drink machine in the church. You allowed him to put up basketball goals so we could play basketball. Say those are kind of frivolous things. Oh no, not to a student. My high school years, I wanted every spare moment to be out here. And for those of you who are in the youth group in those years, you remember that. And we played ball. We did all kinds of stuff. And we were here. I mean, it was to the extent that on my graduation night, Roger Walker and I, both of us members here at this church, Dean Betty Walker's son. Roger Walker and I didn't frequent the parties that were hell in graduation night. You know where he wanted to be? We wanted to be here. So we came out and played ping pong till the wee hours of the morning, just the two of us, because this was such a special place. Thank you for always being interested in students. And I want to challenge you. Don't lose that. The students are not the church of tomorrow. They are a part of the church of today. And take some risks, okay? In the 60s, it was put in a ping pong table in the church. And I know Jimmy fought some battles over that. He's told me about him. So when your leadership says, this is what we need to do to reach the students of our day. Listen, listen to them. Be willing to take some risks. Thank you for your vibrance. For providing a vibrant youth group for me. I thank you for a lifelong friendships that were developed in those years. I am grateful and thankful today for the older members of our church. You were models to me. You were mentors to me as I grew up here. When I was in that youth group in the 60s, I looked up to you. I watched you. And you modeled for me what it was to live the Christian life. And that's why I love you so dearly. Some of those folks in the first service that are hardly ever able to come to church anymore. Some of them were here this morning. And as I looked into their faces, I remember them. They were the deacons back in the 60s. They were the church leaders back then. They are very responsible for where this church is now. They're the pillars on which we stand. Always honor them. Don't forget them. I want to thank you for sending us to camp because it was at camp when I was 17 years old that I surrendered to the Lord's working in my heart to preach the Word of God. Now we'll never forget the hillside where that happened. So thank you for sending your young people to camp. Way back then and still today, keep it up. Thank you for being a home church to me when I went off to college. And I could come back and know that this was home. In my early years of ministry, my first 17 years of ministry in North Carolina and Florida in Indiana, this was always home when I'd come back. But your Jimmy would say, I want you to teach my class or I want you to speak. I had two revival meetings here back in the 80s. This was home to me then. Thank you for providing that for me. I want to thank you this morning for calling me as your pastor. 18 years ago. Thank you for accepting me and my family and not expecting me to be like preacher Jimmy. There's something that we talk about in pastoral circles and it's referred to as the sacrificial lamb syndrome. It happens a lot quite often when someone is called to follow a man who's been somewhere for so long, like Jimmy was for 37 years, a founding pastor of this church. Quite often when you call another pastor, that person is not accepted. And they stay a couple of years and then maybe another guy comes and he's not accepted. And they stay a couple of years. I've seen this happen over and over and over again. And sometimes it's the third or fourth pastor before the church is ready to accept someone else. You accepted us from day one. You are wonderful people because of that. So many other reasons. But this church loved preacher Jimmy but from day one accepted us and did not expect me to be just like him. Please do that for the next person. You will honor me if you do. Thank you for being so supportive of my ministry through the years. Thank you for encouraging vision and planning and a willingness to change to reach others. Thank you for taking bold steps like a contemporary service to position ourselves to reach a younger generation than mine. Please don't stop where we are now. There are other bold initiatives that will need to be taken in the future to continue to be relevant to today's culture. Please be willing to take those steps. Thank you for your willingness to do that with me. Thank you for encouraging mission trips. I will never forget when Fred Bolton came to me and said I'm going to go to the deacons and I'm going to tell them they need to be sending you to visit our missionaries every year. And he did. And the deacons said he's right. Let's do that. And so I think it was 1998. You started sending me to visit a couple of our missionaries every year. I can't tell you how that changed my life. I can't tell you the passion it gave me for world missions. I had always considered myself strongly supportive of world missions. I can't tell you the passion that is engendered in your heart by being on the field. And it goes way beyond me. I mean there were teen groups going out before I started. There are adult groups going now. And more and more people are seeing that passion and that vision. Some of you have already heard some of the reports about this Jamaica trip that just finished up last week. And you're going to hear a report of it later. But God has ignited a passion and so many of our people who have seen what happens in other parts of the world. And I am grateful for the vision of this church to allow that to happen. Thank you for allowing me to continue to learn and grow. For allowing us as pastors to go to conferences to hear, to learn, to be able to stretch ourselves. For allowing me to work on a doctoral program that enabled me to grow personally and I believe as a pastor. Thank you for the staff that you've provided here at the church. And I want to thank the staff for everything they mean to me. Thank you for your loyalty. Thank you for your support. Thank you for becoming different over the years. I love you for your passion, for your ministries. And I want to thank you for your impact on my life.