Philippians 3:7-14 Matthew 4:12-17

Confirmation is a beginning, not an ending. So many of our teenagers think that after they finish Confirmation, they can just go their own merry way and we don't see them again until they are about twenty four years old and they bring their own children back to church. But that is not the way it should be. Confirmation is a starting place. It is a place where people begin to really study their faith, their Bible. It is a place where they really begin to dig in to know Jesus Christ. So as we have our Confirmands with us this morning, we want to urge them this week and next week to recognize the fact of the importance of this event, how it makes them full members of our congregation with all rights and privileges, how it gives them the ability to receive the sacraments and most importantly, to begin their own ministry in spreading the Good News about Jesus Christ.

Notice that it is called Good News and not Fun News. Many churches seem to believe that we have to entertain people now. I'm sure that is not what we are called to do. We are not called to entertain teenagers or young adults or even old adults, but we are called to preach the Good News and tell people about Jesus Christ and salvation.

The particular epistle that was read this morning is one of my favorites, the epistle to the Philippians. There is an interesting passage in there that Tom Matthew read. I want to read it to you again. It is just a short sentence. Paul said, “I consider all things rubbish that are not Christ or found in Him.” Hum. Now I want to tell you that the English translators of that sentence cleaned it up. Paul didn't use the word rubbish. The actual Greek is a word that I won't use from the pulpit but it begins with an “s” and ends with a “t”. You might find it on the sidewalk when a dog has recently passed. You don't go looking down at it and say, “Oh Mabel. Isn't that lovely?” You say, “Mabel, look out. Don't step in it.” That is the word that Paul actually used and oddly enough, all the English translations have cleaned it up. If you hear the actual Greek word, it conveys the passion of Paul. He is sincere about the fact that everything else in life doesn't matter except focusing on Jesus Christ, inviting Him into our heart, living passionately for Him, and having that mind in us that is in Christ Jesus. We know we are thinking like Christ when we live the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They actually give us a clue as to what the mind of Christ was like when Paul says, “The gifts are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, goodness, gentleness and self control.” When we have those things within us, we are in Christ and we are living for Christ and that is what Christianity is all about. Those are the traits that we need to have to call ourselves true Christians. Paul says that everything else is rubbish (or worse). Everything else is dog dirt. Think about that for a moment. What is everything else? Our world would look for power, prestige and possessions. Paul says they don't mean anything. Power, prestige and possessions. They don't mean a thing if we don't have Christ as the center of everything. It doesn't mean you can't have power and use it for His sake. It doesn't mean that you can't have prestige and use it for His sake. It doesn't mean that you can't have possessions and use them for His sake. You can have these things but we must use them for His sake.

I look back on my own life and think of how much time I spent practicing basketball. I know our teenagers are probably going to do that with a sport. Maybe it is soccer. Maybe it is basketball. Maybe it is volleyball. Paul would say, “All that is rubbish  garbage - unless it is done for the greater honor and glory of God.” Then it may be significant.

I look back on my life and think, “Boy, have I put effort into school trying to learn things.” As I've shared with you before, I had learning disabilities. I don't retain things auditorally. I retain things kinesthetically which means I have to do something to remember it rather than just hear it. So none of the lectures I had in school stuck with me but what I would have to do is write down every word the teacher said and then walk the halls of my home or walk the halls of my college or walk the halls of my seminary using flash cards trying to remember the things in order to pass my courses. For seventeen years of advanced studies I did that. Paul would say, “That is all rubbish” unless it is used for the good of other people and not used selfishly, unless it is used in Christ and for the greater honor and glory of God. It is humbling to think that that's how it is with God. It would be easy to become arrogant and brag about things I have obtained in my life, credentials that I have gotten and yet I know now they are meaningless to God unless I use what I learned for Him and in behalf of Him. So I want to pass that on to our Confirmands this morning. I want you to understand that what you obtain in this life is rubbish if it is not used to give glory to God and help other people.

I told this congregation some years ago about a football player and coach who has been an outstanding example of getting it right. His name is Tony Dungy. You may remember that Tony was the coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He got fired from that job. Then he became the coach of the Indianapolis Colts. He was their coach for seven years. In 2006, he won the AFC championship and in 2007 he won the Super Bowl. Tony has the distinction of being the only coach in the National League who has beaten every team in the League, all 32 of them! He is also the only football player who played in the NFL who had both thrown a touchdown pass and intercepted a pass in the same game. Quarterbacks just don't do that and he wasn't even a quarterback. He was a safety at the time. Tony is a fascinating character. Tony had a side life which was more important to him than his coaching life. And his side life was what he did for Jesus Christ. He said he did his whole coaching life so that people would look upon him and value the things that he valued. He volunteered for Big Brothers/Big Sisters. He created a mentoring program for prisoners and he rehabilitated people who had bad childhood and college records in order to play for the Colts just like our own Marvin Lewis with the Bengals seems to do. He would take a young man who may have gotten arrested, picked up on a drug charge or a fighting charge in a bar, and take these guys and mentor them. He molded them so they really made something significant of their lives. He introduced them to Jesus Christ. He stayed with them until they finally were producing and living the kind of life they ought to be living. As I learned about this man, I admired his football prowess, his strength, and his achievements. But more than that, I admire what he does for Jesus Christ. He considered it as rubbish the stuff that he accomplished on the athletic field. Though it was great, he considered of first importance the things that he did for Jesus Christ. He has written three books about it. He is now one of the speakers for Athletes in Action. He is sharing his life now in his retirement from sports to bring the Good News - not the Fun News, but the Good News - of Jesus Christ to others.

I am thinking about different people in my life I have run into&how many of them would sacrifice their lives for the sake of Jesus Christ. I don't know very many of them. I am reminded of a young woman I told you about who was a member of one of my other churches that I served. This woman was fascinated with Elvis Presley. Do you remember me talking to you about her? Her name was Linda. She would attend every performance that Elvis gave much to the chagrin of her husband. She would manage to get herself in the first row of the audience so that she could catch his scarves when he wiped his forehead and threw them out into the audience. Big wup! Oh boy. How important was that? I couldn't help but think as we read Paul's passage how that was all rubbish! Just meaningless. She put so much energy into that. And yet as we look at our society, we see people screaming and yelling like she did when the American Idol winners come on stage. Little girls are squealing, young women are fainting, and things like that and I think, “Ugh. Our value systems are so screwed up.” It is all rubbish. What is important? What is important is life in Jesus Christ. That is more important than anything. Absolutely anything. That is what Paul was telling us. That is what our Confirmands need to know. That is why we make them learn the basic doctrines of the church that they will share with you this morning. It is important. It is what the purpose of life is all about. It is acquiring the fire of Christ living inside us and sharing it with others.