Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.(Philippians 2:17 – ESV)
Paul took a risk; he didn’t want to labor in vain (vs.16). Timothy risked it all on serving Jesus single-mindedly. Epaphroditus risked his health for their wealth, his life to fulfill the ministry (he agonized for people in prayer – Colossians 4:12).
The even if is in the present tense, not talking about his death so much as his life right then, he was even now being poured out, in other words, since I am being poured out. It wasn’t his death he was speaking of, it was his life, he was a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2), and his death was only the culmination of that. It wasn’t that he was saying that his martyrdom was the drink offering, but his life was. It wasn’t just that he was willing to die for the cause, but that he was willing to live for it. The sacrificial death was only the end of a sacrificial life. Paul is saying since I am being poured out, and it is upon your faith, I rejoice. He rejoices because his labor isn’t in vain, they have faith and are sacrificing and serving God themselves, and his being poured out is the “cherry on top”, as it were. The Philippians were making the greater sacrifice, says Paul, because their sufferings were multiplied. This shows Paul’s true humility. He considers it all as a sacrifice, unity, everyone playing his or her part.
It is not joy in spite of; it is joy because of, counting it joy to be counted as worthy to be poured out. Do you consider what God has poured in you worthy to be poured out? Paul’s greatest joy came when giving the greatest sacrifice. Now only God can make us to be like that. Paul says I am rejoicing, you are also being sacrificed, so also joy, let us all joy together for one another. We love one another, and our joy is made full. Obedience is greater than sacrifice, but if you are obedient you will sacrifice, it is the sacrifice of obedience. Ultimate sacrifice produces ultimate joy. What have you said no to in order to say yes to God, to His will, to His kingdom, to His Church?
Paul was fully poured out, now to the point of his very life. His heart was spent on them in service to Christ. People talk about pouring in to someone’s life but you cannot pour in unless you pour out, and you can only pour out what has been poured in. I am not talking just about giving advice and mentoring someone, I am talking about taking risk; giving up things you need for what they need, like a parent does for a child (1 Thessalonians 2:8), doing it as if something of yours was at stake. When someone pours themselves out like that you know it, you know them in a way that resonates with your own soul. This is why I call Martin Luther my friend, good and bad, he poured out himself in his life and it shows in his writing, and in those things written about him. He didn’t leave anything in; he poured it all out. Sure he made mistakes but he took risks and he left a legacy still felt to this day.
The great heroes of the faith have the heart of a humble servant, selfless, one who was willing to give himself up in the simplest task not for his own fulfillment or his own gain, but for the sake of the Lord he loves. God is the end not the means to an end. That would be just pouring to get something, not to give something.
One key way we pour ourselves out is in and through prayer. We need to pray like it means something, like we have a stake in it, like we are taking a risk. That is how you seek God; that is the place where He works. If it doesn’t cost you anything it doesn’t benefit anybody.
F.B. Meyer – "It was because Moses was prepared to be blotted from the book of God for his people that he carried them for forty years through the desert and deposited them on the very borders of the Promised Land. It was because Jesus wept over Jerusalem that He was able to send a Pentecost on that guilty city. It was because Paul was prepared to be accursed for his brethren according to the flesh that he was able to turn so many from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God." "No heart pangs, no spiritual seed."
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This was taken from a previous post from 5-2-08, but now includes the audio, which has additional material in it...we will be doing this with many of our older posts, so that they can have the audio attached to them...hope these are edifying and enjoyable for you...God bless...
We will also be doing many brand new posts with new audio in the very near future...stay tuned!
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