A Magnificient Obsesssion

Introduction

Well, today is the first day of our gospel meeting. This is our fall meeting, and we’ve been looking forward to this for quite a while. One of the reasons we’re looking forward to this is because of the subject. We’re talking about living in a corrupting world. And that’s a challenge to all of us as Christians. And it’s getting increasingly difficult. And Brother Payne addressed some of that even in his lessons earlier this morning. And hopefully you were here to hear those. But these are relevant topics that have been selected for this meeting, and they’re important topics to all of us as Christians. And so we hope that you are here to partake of them and to draw strength and encouragement from them. But the other reason we’re excited excited about this meeting is because we have the right man for the job.

Brother Buddy Payne is with us today, and his good wife is here with us this morning as well. At the 9 o’clock hour, Brother Payne mentioned his association with this congregation, going back to and and through his his father, who many of us knew and loved very dearly. But Brother Pain himself is uh uh very familiar to all of us. He’s preached several gospel meetings here for us in the past. In particular, I remember too, I was a fairly young Christian, uh young in the faith at uh the time when he came uh for the first lesson or first series of lessons that I heard him preach, and he was talking about marriage and the home and family. And I have lots of notes in my Bible uh from some of the things that he taught, and and I dare say that I grew a lot from that lesson in terms of thinking about my life and role as a husband and as a father.

He preached several years later another series of lessons for us from the book of Psalms. And that was very enriching and very rewarding. And I have lots of notes in my Bible by different Psalms because of the things that Brother Payne shared with us. He is not a full-time evangelist, although that’s probably hard to believe when you hear him preach, because he is very capable, of course. But he is the president of Florida College over in Temple Terrace, Florida. He also is a member of the Livingston Street Church there in Tampa, where he has served as an elder for many years.

Well, I appreciate that, but that was too much emphasis on the wrong syllable. It’s a pleasure to be with you and to turn our attention now to things that relate to what God has told us about standing up in the face of a corrupting culture. But you will pardon me if I take just a moment to say a couple of personal things. It was a shock to see Marilyn walking in the door. She drove over by herself this morning to be here to hear sermons she’s already heard. So that’s pretty good, don’t you think? So it’s a precious thing to have her here with me. She is certainly the wind beneath my wings and always has been. We’re on working on year number 54. So that’s pretty good.

She stayed with me that long. And the other thing I wanted to say is it’s a privilege to be with you. This church has been a beacon for a long time. I’m thanking God for the elders here, for the evangelists who work with you, for your deacons, for the leadership otherwise. You are truly blessed. I hope you realize how blessed you are to have the kind of leadership you do. And I hope you’ll lift up their hands in the work that they do, for they carry a heavy weight of responsibility, especially the elders and their wives, as they answer for your souls. So thank you for the privilege. I want you to turn to Philippians chapter 3 as a beginning place this morning. Philippians chapter 3.

This passage will be our theme for the morning. And I can think of no better way to conclude the lessons today as Christians facing a crooked and perverse generation. If you were not here at the first hour, we read from Philippians 2. Let’s look at verse 15. It says that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ. But I have not run in vain, nor labored in vain. Those Christians in the first century were facing a terribly corrupt, perverse society. You need only go back and read about the Roman society in the first century, and you’ll understand what I’m saying.

If you think things are horrible in America, we haven’t touched the hem of the garment for horrible. The Roman Empire was full of corruption, perversion, sexual immorality, corruption at all levels. It was awful what Christians were having to face in that first century. So we’re not alone in this, and I do not wish you to leave this series of lessons at the end of our time together on Wednesday with any kind of negative spirit about how horrible you have it. You have it really well, thank you. And even though our culture is heading in a wrong direction, we still have it much better than many Christians in many centuries. So let’s not get overly concerned. God is in heaven and is still ruling. And our responsibility is to do all that we can to be all that He wants us to be, wherever we find ourselves.

So Philippians the third chapter is Paul’s expression about himself as he found himself in that first century, having been a faithful Jew, one who was known among the Jewish people as a student of the law, as one who stood up for what he believed was right, and then he learned about Jesus. So I want to read you that. Verse 7, Philippians chapter 3. But what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. But indeed I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him. Not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I’ve already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended. But one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, let us, as many as are mature, have this mind. So the theme for this hour is to have the same mind that Paul did when he found Christ. And I’m calling this lesson a magnificent obsession. Because the Apostle Paul’s change and the complete and utter devotion he had to his new master was a magnificent obsession.

I want the same. And I wish it for you. Christ will accept nothing less than a magnificent obsession. That name comes from the title of a book by Lloyd Douglas, written back in the 1920s, early 30s. Eventually a movie was made of it. And I won’t ask for a show of hands. But probably if I ask you how many of you have read the book, I’d see no hands. And how many of you have seen the movie? Probably a bunch of hands. The movie’s not as good as the book, as is usual. And may I just preach a little bit on the side here, thrown in free of charge. We are society. Part of our culture that’s happening to us is we’re becoming a society of receivers, not readers.

And God gave us a book. I don’t care if it is on a computer. He gave us a book. That means he wants us to be readers. So may I urge you not to lose your capacity and your ability to be effective. Readers. And you do that by reading, not watching movies. I’m not against movies. Except a lot of the filthy ones, which you have no business watching. That was not part of the lesson. Magnificent Obsession is a book. Written by Lloyd Douglas. Probably is not a book you knew much about by Lloyd Douglas, but the other most famous book that he wrote is one called The Robe. Have you heard of that one? The Robe. It was his story of the man who won when they cast lots for the robe of Jesus.

It’s the story about that man. It’s a fascinating story. So is this one. So what I want to do is I begin this lesson after reading about Paul’s magnificent obsession. I want to just tell you briefly the story of the magnificent obsession, so you’ll read it. So I’m not going to tell you the whole story, just enough to tease you. The story begins in a lake outside the edge of town. Bobby Merrick, as usual, is causing trouble. He’s a playboy and a troublemaker. That’s all he’s good for. He has a great big boat, fancy boat, and he’s rushing around that lake doing stupid things. And has a terrible accident and is about to die. And they bring a piece of survival equipment and save his life.

The sad story is that at the same time in the same lake, Dr. Phillips, a world-renowned brain surgeon, was having a heart attack while he exercised in the lake. There was only one piece of equipment that could save his life, and it was being used to save the ne’er do well Bobby Merrick. And Dr. Phillips died. That’s how the story begins. As the story unfolds, you begin to learn through Bobby Merrick and Dr. Phillips’ widow more about the life of this good man. And what you learn is his whole life was centered on following Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. One of the fascinating things that started coming out was people started coming out of the woodworks who had been to this doctor and had received care from him for no charge.

But they had been told everyone to a person would say.

Let not your right hand know what your left hand is doing, and God who sees in secret will reward you openly. So he would tell people you are not allowed to say one word about this, or you lose the power of what this is about. But now that he was dead, people thought they had the right to tell. And so they would speak about it to his widow and to others who knew. And by the way, Bobby Merrick found out not too long after he was saved that he had cost the life of this wonderful man while he was around messing around causing problems everywhere. And this good man who had really changed the lives of lots of people, saved their lives literally and spiritually. And they saved Bobby Merrick’s worthless life.

But he began to learn that this man was living a life worth living. He even got to know his widow and kind of fell in love with her.

Thank you, Bobby Merrick. Useless human being that you are. And then came a turning point in this young man’s life, as he figured out he was going nowhere. And decided he had to change his life. And that’s where the magnificent obsession comes in. And what I’m not going to tell you is the end of the story, but I can tell you it’s magnificent. Because this useless human being took a life that was headed for nowhere except trouble and challenges and problems and hell, if I may say it, and started giving his life for the sake of others. And it ends with a magnificent obsession, which turns into a magnificent salvation. But no more magnificent than the Apostle Paul’s committing his life to Jesus. And I say to everybody in this audience, have you given your life to Jesus?

Was there a time in your life when you decided once and for all, I’m no longer following my own pathway, which is headed for danger, trouble, and hell itself. I have come to realize the sacrifice my Lord made for me. That he was willing to leave equality with God, which he did not have to do. Take upon himself the form of a human being, and not only that, to be a servant among humans, and let pitiful, paltry humans kill him because of me. It’s beyond belief. And what you said about the Lord’s Supper this morning was so powerful. Think about the level of sacrifice Jesus made for me. Please put yourself in that. And no wonder the apostle Paul would say the things I counted worth anything were worth nothing compared to the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord.

1. Paul’s Single-Minded Devotion: One Thing I Do

It was like everything else that mattered to me. You can throw it in the garbage. May I ask you, Christian, is that the way you feel about being a Christian? Or is it a pitiful imitation of that? We need a magnificent obsession, beloved. It’s not real. Christ will have no part in it. So I want to talk to you a little bit about what this means. Can we get Paul’s single-minded devotion? He said, There’s one thing I do. One thing. What that means, beloved, is that everything else compared to the one thing means no thing. There isn’t anything else. So when I make a decision about anything else, the one thing always guides anything else. Is that true for me as a Christian? Can we get such a vision?

I wonder sometimes if it’s possible for me. Go back to Ephesians 3. And I want to remind you that the same apostle that wrote Philippians, wrote Ephesians by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And he wrote this to us to tell us we can be what God wants us to be. So what I’d like to do is read for you the prayer of the Apostle Paul for you and for me. And please, beloved, as we start in Ephesians 3 and verse 14, will you put your name in there while we’re thinking about this together? For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. That he would grant you, me, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man.

That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height. To know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us. To him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. You see, when I read that passage, I know that with his help, his power working through me can do exceedingly abundantly above anything I ever dreamed of. Specifically, he can turn my pitiful efforts into a magnificent obsession.

2. So Devoted to the Word of God, Like Jesus

Will you let him? And will I? Which is demonstrated by the complete and utter conviction that we will do what he says, no matter what. Our culture, as corrupt as it’s getting, will not affect my devotion to Jesus. Because it’s all there is. So I pray for congregations of saints, this one in particular today, who first of all are so devoted to the Word of God that they will be like Jesus. So let’s look at Jesus for a minute in Matthew 4. Please turn there with me. I mentioned earlier this morning that I sure like hearing pages turn because it means people are opening their Bibles with me. I don’t typically put the verses on the screen. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s fine with people who want to do that.

I don’t want to do it because I want you opening your Bible. I hope you have one with you. That’s another problem our culture’s teaching us. You don’t need to bring your book. Bring your little computer device. Here I go again. I’m not against computers, people or telephones. I have a smartphone, believe it or not. But I am against letting them substitute for using a book. Here’s why. When my grandkids see me with a telephone in my hand, they don’t know what I’m doing with that thing. I could be doing pornography. As too many are doing. But when they see me with this in my hand, they know I’m reading the word of God. That matters to me. And I like it when folks bring their book to church.

Because I hope your book is worn out with using it, and it’s so worn that you know where things are on every page in it. Because it’s become your companion. In the fourth chapter of Matthew, as any Bible student knows, is the story in Matthew’s account of Christ’s temptations. Verse 3 says, When the tempter came to him, he said, If you’re the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. And he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. This is not a lesson about the temptations of Jesus. That deserves lots of good lessons. What I want you to see is how Jesus handled temptation. Every time the devil tempted him, how did he respond?

It is written. This is what God says.

So how about it, Christian? Are you devoted enough to the Word of God what is written that no matter what circumstance you find yourself in, you with Jesus can say to Satan, or anybody else that comes your way representing Satan, here’s what God says about it. It’s written. And I’m not following you, because you’re saying things that don’t agree with what he says. That only happens with people who are so devoted to the word, they know what God has written. And I don’t know you that well. But my suspicion is, please correct me if I’m wrong, is there are a significant number of folks in this audience who have not opened this book to any significant degree for a week or two or three. To any significant degree.

Had such a deep respect while he was living the human condition for the word of God. How could I not? Let’s turn now to Acts 20. I want to show you something else. This is the same Apostle Paul speaking to the elders at Ephesus, whom he had personally taught, and now he was having to leave them and probably wouldn’t ever see him again. And he brings them together in Acts 20. In verse 17, he said he called for them from Miletus, and they came to meet him. And verse 18 says, You know, from the first day I came to Asia in what manner I always lived among you, serving the Lord with humility and many tears and trials which happened to me, and I kept back nothing from you that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you.

And then skip down to verse 27. He says, For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. So you take heed to yourselves and all the flock on which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Verse 29. I know this is after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. From among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves. Therefore, watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. Can I just pause there a moment and give you a personal story? My daddy taught at Abilene Christian University, which was Abilene Christian College back in those days in the 1940s.

And he was so disturbed by what he heard was going on at Abilene that he refused to go. That week that he wanted, they wanted him to come back as a former teacher. They were having a female theologian from Baylor preach on the book of Romans on their campus and proud of it. One lifetime, ladies and gentlemen. And they’ve completely changed where they stood in 1940s. The apostle warned. People will arise speaking perverse things. They’re going to change what God says. God has not changed what he said, folks, but men have changed what God said. So what’s our only hope? Verse 32. And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

Your only hope here in Bumbee Avenue is to hang on with all that’s in you to God and the word of his grace, which is able to save your souls. You don’t hang on to that with all that’s in you, with a magnificent obsession that I will not be turned to the right hand or to the left, and you’ll end up the same place every generation has ended up since the gospel was given.

3. Pray to Your Father in the Secret Place

Not if you have a magnificent obsession. Now go with me to Matthew 6, would you? Part of the Sermon on the Mount, part of which we’ve mentioned already at the beginning of Matthew 6 about almsgiving. A second thing Jesus said in that powerful passage starts in verse 5. When you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room. And when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place. And your father who sees in secret will reward you openly. Jesus was not against public praying, folks.

In fact, he commanded it in 1 Timothy. But public praying has a danger. It’s a danger that you may be doing it to be seen and heard. Whereas if you’re in your closet and the door’s closed and you’re by yourself, it’s just you and God. It’s pure motivation. It’s a good test. He says you pray in secret, God who sees in secret will reward you openly. So I’ve prayed for a congregation full of saints. I pray for every saint in this church that it is as common and natural for you to get in your closet or whatever private place it is for you, away from everybody on earth, not another person around, but you and the God of heaven and Jesus Christ, your Lord, and get in there for the purpose of communicating.

You’re praying to God.

I said a special prayer myself this morning. For God to give me somehow the power to get across to this group of people the importance of what we’re talking about right here. Is it the pattern of your life, Christian? To be in a secret place with God. And if it isn’t, why isn’t it? It’s absolutely critical. And there’s a bunch of reasons. I have four passages up here. We’re going to turn to one of them, Revelation chapter 3. But all of these passages say the same thing. They say this. God wants to be with you in that secret place. If you can even imagine such a thing. It’s incredible. Revelation 3.20. Bible students remember that this section of Revelation is written to the church at Laodicea.

It’s written to Christians. And he says, verse 20, who’s speaking here? Well, in my Bible, it’s red letters. It’s Jesus talking to the God to the Apostle John. And he says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Here’s what Jesus is saying to every Christian. Will you let me in to your private room? I’m knocking. Will you let me in? If you let me in, I will dine with you and you with me. Folks, how many folks in that room? You and Jesus. That’s it. And you have that invitation from Jesus every single day. I don’t know how many times you eat, but I eat every day. You have an invitation every day from Jesus to have a personal dining with him. Did you take him up on that yesterday?

I’m pausing on purpose. You don’t have to answer to me. I’m asking you. Jesus wants to come in and dine with you. And you know that we turn that down more often than not. That’s beyond belief. I will tell you for myself, I went too many years not meeting every single day in a private place with Jesus. Too many years. I have reached a point, and please pardon the personal reference. I cannot go a day. I can’t do it. Without private time alone, pouring my heart out to Jesus. How about you, Christian? Can you go a day blithely and simply say to Jesus, that was not as important today as all the other stuff I have to do? We’ve all done it too many times. I’m telling you, beloved, it’s life changing.

If you ever figure out that secret time with God rewards you openly. And I have to tell you, I can’t prove it. But there are so many times where things seemed impossible. They cannot possibly happen. And I had privilege of being alone with Jesus. And somehow or another, good things came about. It’s too many times, folks, for me, not to say the providential hand of God has been active again. And I wish that for every child of God. You’re missing out, beloved, on the essence of Christianity if you don’t have a personal, close, intimate, private relationship with the God of heaven. And he wants it. How can you turn it down?

4. The Pattern of the Life of Jesus

And then when you look at the pattern of the life of Jesus, it’s overwhelming. I mean, while Jesus was on earth, did you know that every time you turn around, he’s off by himself praying somewhere? That’s the pattern. If he needed that while he partook of the human condition, I think it’s the greatest testimony of his humanity. He was fully human. I know he was also fully God. And do I understand that, or does anybody know? But it’s what the Bible teaches, but he fully partook of the human condition as well. So we’re going to look briefly at the book of Luke. Don’t worry, there’s a sermon in every one of those verses, and I’m not giving it. But I do want to touch on it.

Some of them. So I’m going to start in Luke 5. Verse 16. And what I want to tell you is the context of Luke 5, he’s now into his personal ministry. He’s as busy as any human being ever has been. In fact, there are times he didn’t have time to eat or sleep. And what does it say in Luke 5? 16. So he himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed. That was the pattern. Chapter 6 and verse 12. Now it came to pass in those days. He went out to a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God. And by the way, the disciples had all gone. He was by himself all night. What did he do next day? When it was day, he called his disciples to him, and from them he chose twelve, from whom he also named apostles, Simon, whom he also named Peter, Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James, the son of Alpha, Simon was called the zealot, Judas the son of James, and Judas is carried and became a traitor.

Did you know, Class? The night before he picked the twelve apostles, he spent all night praying. You think it might be good sometime when you make the most important decisions of your life if you spend all night praying? I have an idea he spent about three hours on Simon, don’t you? But whatever he talked about that night, the next day, he appointed twelve men who would be his most important emissaries to the world. Chapter 9. Verse 18. It happened as he was alone praying, his disciples joined him, and he asked them, saying, Who do the crowd say that I am? I love that passage. Think about this. He was alone praying, and his disciples joined him. Doesn’t that imply they knew where he was? So here’s a question I have for you, Christian.

If your wife can’t find you, or if your husband can’t find you, is one of the first things they think, oh, he or she is in the closet praying. Or maybe there’s another place you use to go to pray by yourself. Evidently they knew where Jesus was alone praying. Be a good habit to establish. Luke 22. How in the world would someone prepare for the hardest thing any human being has ever been called on to do? Luke 22, verse 39. And coming out, he went to the Mount of Olives as he was accustomed, and his disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said, Pray that you enter not into temptation. He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw and knelt down and prayed.

How do you think, beloved, Judas Iscariot knew where to find Jesus in the middle of the night? Because it was his custom to go out to the Mount of Olives and pray by himself or with somebody. How about you, Christian? If it is not the pattern of your life to be alone with Jesus and with the God of heaven, you’re not following the pattern of Jesus. I pray for congregations of saints who will take the gospel to the whole world. That is another six lessons, and I’m not preaching it this time.

Conclusion

That’s another whole series of lessons, which we’re not going to preach today. But they are all tied up with this notion of a magnificent obsession of being connected to the most important thing there is. So I pray for all of us that we are pressing toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. That we as mature Christians are like-minded with the Apostle Paul. And that, ladies and gentlemen, will turn the world upside down in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. So I thank you for your careful and undivided attention this morning. And it is my prayer that if there’s any Christian here today for whom this magnificent obsession has yet to overtake you, that you’ll leave this assembly this morning with the avowed purpose, there will not be a single day ever pass in my life again that I won’t have time for the word of God and for private time with me and God alone ever again.

Because it’ll change my life for his sake. So let that be your challenge today. And maybe you need to come forward and make some kind of public statement about not being devoted. That’d be great and let us all pray together. Or if you’re not a Christian today, haven’t you seen that you’re giving up the most important thing there is? Your life is meaningless without the Lord Jesus. You’ve left the most powerful, amazing thing that will come upon you if you give your life to Jesus. Listen to Paul. Everything to me and anything to me is worth nothing now because I have Jesus. The name above all names. Will you come and say, I believe with all my heart Jesus Christ is the Son of God? That’s the most blessed thing you’ll ever say.

Were you to say that with faith, we would stop everything and immerse you in water, just like Jesus said to do. And you will rise to walk a new life once and for all, devoted to Him. Why in the world would you wait? So we have a tradition, I’m assuming we’re going to sing a song, of standing and singing a song. If there’s anyone that needs to respond to the gospel call in any way, we ask you to come to the front and these men will help you while we stand and as we sing.