SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you have a Bible.
SPEAKER_00: If you do, open it up to the book of Philippians.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a Bible, you can take one of the ones right there in the seat.
SPEAKER_00: We replace those all the time.
SPEAKER_00: We'd be more than happy to give that Bible to you as a gift.
SPEAKER_00: We're starting the book of Philippians for a couple reasons.
SPEAKER_00: We just ended an Old Testament book, and so I like to preach both Old and New Testament here at FBC Wimberly.
SPEAKER_00: We're also starting the book of Philippians because it is God's word written through Paul, all about joy.
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand if you could use a little bit of joy in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, me too.
SPEAKER_00: But in addition to that, this year, our pastor team, our elder team, has clarified our vision statement.
SPEAKER_00: And so you've seen it all over the website and you've seen it in other places.
SPEAKER_00: We voted on it as a church in April.
SPEAKER_00: It's simply this we exist to magnify Christ and share the gospel in every home in the Wimmerly Valley and beyond.
SPEAKER_00: And so coming up in the middle of August, after school gets back, we're going to be doing something a little crazy.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you'll just be patient with us.
SPEAKER_00: We're all going to pack into one worship gathering at 10:30.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to bring in the Easter chairs, and a few of the small groups are going to be disrupted.
SPEAKER_00: But we're doing that for five weeks to intentionally seek the word and hear more about this vision statement that the Lord has given us from the scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Philippians, in the middle of all that, is going to be encouragement to us to live out this vision that we would magnify Christ.
SPEAKER_00: To live is Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You just saw that.
SPEAKER_00: To magnify Christ and share the gospel in every home in the Wimberley Valley and beyond.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know the word gospel is repeated eight times in four chapters in the book of Philippians?
SPEAKER_00: I had the blessing and honor to preach to the eight, nine, ten, eleven-year-olds at that Highland Lake Baptist encampment, and I told them what I've said a lot here.
SPEAKER_00: When you see repetition in the scripture, it is like a blinking red light.
SPEAKER_00: Flashing.
SPEAKER_00: I'll take flashing.
SPEAKER_00: Flashing red light.
SPEAKER_00: This is the repetition and emphasis of the gospel going out to the ends of the earth, starting right here in the Middle East.
SPEAKER_00: You know, one person would say to live as Christ is to fearlessly advance the gospel with joy.
SPEAKER_00: I want that to be our church.
SPEAKER_00: I want that to be my life.
SPEAKER_00: I want that to be your life.
SPEAKER_00: To fearlessly advance the gospel with joy.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look and see how this letter starts.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to read verse 1 through 5.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to skip down to verse 27 before we're done because I think verse 27 says a lot about how we are, as a church family, supposed to strive side by side for the sake of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Follow along with me.
SPEAKER_00: Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, for you all making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
SPEAKER_00: Skip down to verse 27.
SPEAKER_00: Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So that whether I come to you and see you or am absent, I may hear that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: As we walk into this introduction, I want to show you a video that every time I see it, I'm I'm pretty amazed.
SPEAKER_00: This is a video put together not even by a Christian organization that just talks about the spread of Christianity through the first century to now.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh many people would would date the book of Philippians to be around 62 AD.
SPEAKER_00: That's after Paul has had two missionary journeys.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna spend a lot of time in Acts 16 looking at these new believers that Paul got to meet.
SPEAKER_00: And so you just you you can imagine as he's writing the book of Philippians, he's thinking about these people that he saw give their life to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And they've got this kind of rag muffin gospel house church thing going on, and he just wants to encourage them and say, Hey, continue to walk in joy and continue to be faithful.
SPEAKER_00: And don't forget, we all have to partner together to make sure that we share the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine if the first century church, second, third century church did not share the gospel, and you did not see the whole gospel going to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know even in 2026 we are still responsible as Christ's followers to say, I want to live on mission, I will take the mission, I will be serious about magnifying Christ and sharing the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna see as we walk through just this introduction a couple things.
SPEAKER_00: The first is this see the grace of Christ in the senders.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul and Timothy are authoring this letter, and they they want to say some things about the grace of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints who are at Philippi.
SPEAKER_00: This word servant, bondservant, and other letters, do loss, is that idea that they have been changed by the grace of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That they have gone from serving one kingdom to another.
SPEAKER_00: Paul has a very dramatic testimony you can read in Acts chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: The scales fell off.
SPEAKER_00: He went from persecuting the church to seeing the church flourish and expand.
SPEAKER_00: Read about that in Acts chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: If you just want a shorter version, read 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 5 and 6.
SPEAKER_00: Our student minister did a great job last week in this text, talking about the legacy of a grandmother and a mother pouring into Timothy, who pastors in Ephesus.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you could just write that down.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 5 and 6.
SPEAKER_00: Timothy clearly is standing on this faith that he's found in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I like 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to it like this.
SPEAKER_00: By the grace of God, Paul says, by the grace of God I am what I am.
SPEAKER_00: And his grace toward me was not in vain.
SPEAKER_00: On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is within me.
SPEAKER_00: And so when Paul says he is in chains for Christ later in chapter one, and he's trying to write to these Philippians to spur them on in the faith and remind them that the joy that they have in Jesus and to continue to live the mission, all of that is just the grace of God in his life.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if even in our culture these days, cell phones and text messages, if you still write thank you letters, just a show of hands.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone?
SPEAKER_00: Anyone writing thank you letters?
SPEAKER_00: A few, just a few.
SPEAKER_00: It's a dying art.
SPEAKER_00: Let's bring it back.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, handwritten notes, let's bring it back.
SPEAKER_00: I would be really bad at thank you letters if it wasn't for my wife.
SPEAKER_00: She's the one that's always reminding me, hey, did you write that thank you letter?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, we gotta write a thank you note.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is writing a thank you letter to the saints in Philippi.
SPEAKER_00: They've given him financial support, they're praying for him, and they have a partnership in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's saying, look at verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: I thank my God.
SPEAKER_00: Every time I remember you, I'm thanking God for you, and I'm praying for you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for praying for me.
SPEAKER_00: But he's also writing a thank you letter to God, making sure that the Philippians know that they follow Christ only because the grace of God, that they should continue in their faith only because the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so he starts off by saying, I'm just a servant of Christ, and I'm writing to you that you might continue to be faithful in your walk with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Would you fearlessly advance the gospel with joy?
SPEAKER_00: And so if you had to write a thank you letter today, we talked about it with the prayer time about his faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: What kind of things would you say?
SPEAKER_00: To finish this sentence, God, thank you so much for your grace in my life by showing this, or by doing this, or by making this a reality in my life.
SPEAKER_00: What kind of things would you put in a letter like that?
SPEAKER_00: And then, furthermore, we're gonna be in Philippians for the next several weeks as we're continually reminded of God's goodness and God's grace in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: How can you remember that and put that on the front of your mind?
SPEAKER_00: Paul just starts by saying, I am a servant of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I am what I am by the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: How do we live that out as followers of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: How do we speak that with our words?
SPEAKER_00: How do we retrain our thoughts, take every thought captive?
SPEAKER_00: How do we physically write those things down just to say, God, thank you so much for your grace in my life?
SPEAKER_00: So we see the grace of Christ in the senders of this letter.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, we see the grace of Christ in the saints.
SPEAKER_00: That's who's addressed here.
SPEAKER_00: The saints, the called out ones, the set apart ones.
SPEAKER_00: These saints, they've responded to the gospel, and they've not only responded to the gospel, but now they're partnering in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, Thank you so much for your gospel partnership.
SPEAKER_00: He says it like this when he addresses the Colossians in chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: I love this idea of all the saints of God being transferred from one kingdom to a different kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: Colossians 1, verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: And so from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Does that sound familiar?
SPEAKER_00: Philippians chapter 1, verse 27, walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
SPEAKER_00: He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.
SPEAKER_00: So when you see the grace of Jesus in these saints, this is the group of people at Philippi that have been transferred out of the kingdom of darkness and brought into the kingdom of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They've been brought into the light.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to spend a lot of time looking at Acts chapter 16 because there's three very specific examples of people that did this very same thing.
SPEAKER_00: The grace of God brought them out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.
SPEAKER_00: I just want you to think as we walk through this list, is that what God has done in my life?
SPEAKER_00: Have I been transferred out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light?
SPEAKER_00: Here's the list.
SPEAKER_00: It's really interesting.
SPEAKER_00: It's Lydia, who is a wealthy businesswoman, a poor slave girl that's that's committed to indentured servitude to her owners, and then this blue-collar worker, jail guard, and all three of them in one chapter of Acts, they all give their life to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There's a beautiful diversity in the kind of people that the gospel changes.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus paid for all.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: There's this beautiful diversity.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter what social class you're in, rich, poor, if you're blue-collar, white-collar, if you're a man, you're a woman.
SPEAKER_00: The grace of Jesus is available to anyone that would come to the foot of the cross and say, Jesus, thank you for dying for me.
SPEAKER_00: Please forgive me of my sin.
SPEAKER_00: Please be my king.
SPEAKER_00: So let's just take a look quickly.
SPEAKER_00: The first Christians at Philippi.
SPEAKER_00: The first one, Lydia.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 16, verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: It talks about her being a God fearer.
SPEAKER_00: And I read this passage a lot when I'm walking through baptism conversations with young people, older people, say, What happened in the life of Lydia for these things to be true?
SPEAKER_00: And later in that section, it says, God opens her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we know what Paul was saying because earlier in the context, it says, verse 10, they concluded that they were to go into Macedonia to preach the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul is preaching the gospel to a God fearer.
SPEAKER_00: But what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: God fearer.
SPEAKER_00: In Acts chapter 10, there's a similar story of a man named Cornelius, and he didn't quite understand the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know about Jesus and his perfect life and death and resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: He feared God.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he was even giving offerings to God.
SPEAKER_00: But God gave him a vision and said, My man Peter is going to come tell you about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Then Peter gets a vision and says, You can go share the gospel with Cornelius, even though he's not a Jew, he's a Gentile.
SPEAKER_00: Peter's like, I don't know about that.
SPEAKER_00: We can't make all these animals clean.
SPEAKER_00: We got to live by the law.
SPEAKER_00: And so Peter gets the vision again.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, he shows up at Cornelius' house, and his servants say, I think you're supposed to come speak to Cornelius.
SPEAKER_00: And he shares the good news about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The fact that Cornelius was a God fearer meant that he believed God Yahweh was good.
SPEAKER_00: He believed that the Israelites were under God's faithful protection and grace, but he didn't know about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And Cornelius needed to learn about Jesus, and the same thing happens with Lydia.
SPEAKER_00: So God sends Paul and Silas on that missionary journey into Philippi.
SPEAKER_00: And she feared God.
SPEAKER_00: She's at a place of prayer, but she doesn't know about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So verse 14, it says, God opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.
SPEAKER_00: After she was baptized, her and her household as well, she urged us, saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.
SPEAKER_00: She prevailed on us.
SPEAKER_00: That hospitality was strong.
SPEAKER_00: She wanted to come and serve these men that had brought the gospel to her.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's Lydia's life.
SPEAKER_00: But then the next one even seems to be more dramatic.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's this slave girl, and she's possessed by a demon.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 18, she's following Paul and Silas around, saying, These men are servants of the Most High God who proclaimed the way of salvation to you.
SPEAKER_00: Now that seems to be a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: I've been on some mission trips, and if the local people there were following us around while we were trying to share the gospel, saying, Listen to these guys, they have the way of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: That would seem pretty awesome.
SPEAKER_00: The issue was she just did it over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: They had no opportunity to actually talk to anyone because she's just screaming at them the whole time.
SPEAKER_00: These men, they're servants of the Most High God.
SPEAKER_00: And eventually Paul says, Listen, this is enough in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Be quiet.
SPEAKER_00: And the demon goes out of her, and her owners were very angry because she was possessed by evil, she could actually read people's fortunes and tell people's future.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, if you ever go to a fortune teller or a tarot card reader and they're actually saying things that seem true, you better tucktail and run the opposite way.
SPEAKER_00: Because if they have any power, it's not from God, it's from the evil one.
SPEAKER_00: And so in Jesus' name, this evil thing was put out of this girl, and now her owners are like, well, what about our money-making thing on the side?
SPEAKER_00: We had this great side hustle, we're pretty angry at them, and they cause a scene in town and get Paul and Silas thrown into jail.
SPEAKER_00: Yet many scholars assume that since this girl had such a life-changing experience when the church of God was birthed in Philippi, that she was a part of it.
SPEAKER_00: That she connected somehow with Lydia and her family, and then this next guy and his family, and they were the saints to the saints who are at Ephesus.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God that he changed the life of this young lady.
SPEAKER_00: The third one is this jail garden.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to read verses 30 through 34.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, I'm not preaching Acts.
SPEAKER_00: I know it seems like we're just stuck there for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: But I will tell you this.
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever felt like God gave you a bad hand, because if I was on a mission trip and I got arrested for sharing the gospel and I'm just sitting in jail, I would feel like, God, what what what the heck?
SPEAKER_00: I'm sitting in jail for sharing the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sitting in jail because we healed this girl in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: We're sitting in jail as criminals and we've done nothing wrong.
SPEAKER_00: God, I got words for you.
SPEAKER_00: But instead, Paul and Silas are late into the night singing praise and praying.
SPEAKER_00: Despite the fact that I think they have every right to say, What gives, Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Why are we sitting in jail?
SPEAKER_00: And instead they say, God, we trust you, we love you, you're faithful, you're gonna work this out.
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know how you're gonna work it out, but we're gonna spend our time not being angry at you, but praising you, singing hymns, and giving you the praise that you deserve.
SPEAKER_00: And so later, when this jail guard comes to them and says, I gotta know how how I can be saved, I'm just curious in my mind if he knew to ask that question because the way they handled adversity.
SPEAKER_00: Rather than having a bad attitude, they were like, Okay, Lord, we trust you.
SPEAKER_00: And in my life, when I have hard things happen, do I just get down in the dumps?
SPEAKER_00: Do I shake my fist at God?
SPEAKER_00: Or do I say, Lord, I trust you, and you're gonna work it all out?
SPEAKER_00: I believe that you're not ignoring this.
SPEAKER_00: God, I'm still so grateful for all the areas in my life where you have saved me and poured your grace out and been so faithful to me.
SPEAKER_00: There's something we can learn about being stuck in jail with the right kind of attitude.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 30.
SPEAKER_00: It goes on.
SPEAKER_00: It says this.
SPEAKER_00: Well, let me just tell you what happens.
SPEAKER_00: There's an earthquake.
SPEAKER_00: God gives this supernatural earthquake, and all the prisoners stay.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why Paul and Silas have favor for them to say, Hey, let's just not escape.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know that you have the way out the door, pretty easy, but let's just stay right here.
SPEAKER_00: And it's dramatic because a jail guard wakes up, says this, verse 29 The jailer called for the lights, rushed in, trembling with fear.
SPEAKER_00: He fell down before Paul and Silas.
SPEAKER_00: Then he brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
SPEAKER_00: They said, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.
SPEAKER_00: If you're familiar with that story, this jailer was so afraid that he was gonna get the worst punishment by the Romans, that he was gonna be crucified for being a bad guard because he fell asleep on the job.
SPEAKER_00: And as he's sleeping on the job, this earthquake comes, and he wakes up and he's like, Oh great, I know I lost some prisoners.
SPEAKER_00: So he takes his sword, he's fixing to run it through his gut.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, Stop.
SPEAKER_00: Then he calls for the lights and he rushes in and he says, This, sirs, I gotta know about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You want to guess what happened?
SPEAKER_00: He and his household believes, they're baptized, and I believe it's Lydia and this slave girl and this jail guard that are the first saints in Philippi that start this church.
SPEAKER_00: These are the Christians that have this church plant, this new church startup.
SPEAKER_00: And God is doing something great at Philippi, and now we have this letter where Paul is writing to them saying, Remember your joy.
SPEAKER_00: Remember to fearlessly advance the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Now, one quick note about the end of Acts 16 before we move on.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 16, verses 35 through 40, seem a little bit out of place.
SPEAKER_00: Paul seems to be protecting his own name, and that's not something that he does a lot in other places.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read it to you.
SPEAKER_00: It says, But when it is day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, Let those men go.
SPEAKER_00: And the jailer reported those words to Paul, saying, The magistrates have let you go.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore come out now and go in peace.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul said to them, They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison.
SPEAKER_00: And do they now throw us out secretly?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Let them come themselves and take us out.
SPEAKER_00: The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens, so they came and apologized to them, and they took them out and asked them to leave the city.
SPEAKER_00: So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia, and when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed.
SPEAKER_00: Why would Paul be so worried about having his name cleared?
SPEAKER_00: Why would Paul be so worried about not being just released secretly?
SPEAKER_00: And other scholars would help me to understand this.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's a whole lot less about his reputation, and a whole lot more about the reputation of these new believers.
SPEAKER_00: This jail guard is now associated with Paul and Silas.
SPEAKER_00: Lydia is now associated with Paul and Silas.
SPEAKER_00: Even the girl that was freed from demon possession is associated with Paul and Silas.
SPEAKER_00: And if they leave secretly, people say, Whatever happened to the Paul and Silas guy, we don't know.
SPEAKER_00: They just left secretly.
SPEAKER_00: That could have put a stain on the reputation of these new Christians that were in this community.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, I'm not going to put a stain on their reputation because they're the ones after we leave that are going to be sharing the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to make sure not just my name is cleared, I want to make sure they are not associated in any negative way because of something that happened with us.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're cleared so that they now can be cleared and do the work about sharing the gospel, striving side by side for the sake of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: When I started to understand that, it just gave me more clarity for why when we put our membership process in place, we have a sit-down conversation with everyone who's wanting to become a member of our church.
SPEAKER_00: They talk to a pastor or minister on staff.
SPEAKER_00: We talk about the importance of spiritual disciplines, sharing the gospel, the importance of fulfilling one another language in the scripture.
SPEAKER_00: But another thing we talk about is protecting the witness of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And we say, listen, protecting the witness for Christ has to be a lot more important than protecting the witness of this church.
SPEAKER_00: You are a Christian and you represent him, and anything that you do that might bring reproach on the name of Jesus, we're going to avoid that at all costs.
SPEAKER_00: But then we closely after that say, Can you make sure that your life is lived in such a way that you don't bear any stain or reproach on the church here?
SPEAKER_00: So if you say, don't they go to FBC Wimberly?
SPEAKER_00: What's up with that?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: That's a real conversation that we have with everyone that walks through our membership process.
SPEAKER_00: What you see is a bold vision, a bold mission to make sure they are striving side by side for the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The sinners under Christ by his grace.
SPEAKER_00: The saints are believers under Christ by grace, and they partner together to make sure that everyone gets to hear that salvation is in no other name but the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That is why at our church we continue to say, how can we partner with other churches?
SPEAKER_00: And you've seen it, there's a church plan up the road, Divine Community Church in Butah, and their pastors come and preach here at our pulpit.
SPEAKER_00: I've come and preached there at his pulpit.
SPEAKER_00: People from our church have sent others to that church in Butta.
SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_00: We financially support that church every month.
SPEAKER_00: Some of your tithes and offerings that come to our church go directly to them.
SPEAKER_00: There are other churches that we've sent funds to.
SPEAKER_00: There's one in Tyler called Redemption Church.
SPEAKER_00: Look it up.
SPEAKER_00: Great church.
SPEAKER_00: Brand new church started.
SPEAKER_00: They're trying to do something fun and creative and get people to know who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_00: Another church plan that we've sent resources to is in St.
SPEAKER_00: Marcus.
SPEAKER_00: It's the Well Community Church.
SPEAKER_00: You can look that one up.
SPEAKER_00: We send people to the well when we go and share the gospel on campus at Texas State and they say, well, Wimberley's a pretty far drive.
SPEAKER_00: We say, that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's a church that meets right here behind Bobcat Stadium.
SPEAKER_00: And we know the pastor.
SPEAKER_00: His name is Chris, and he'd love to take care of you.
SPEAKER_00: You know, nothing encourages me more than when I get text messages like this.
SPEAKER_00: I want to show you the screen.
SPEAKER_00: You may not be able to read it all.
SPEAKER_00: I can read it for you.
SPEAKER_00: There's this question from one of our church members.
SPEAKER_00: About a month ago, we prayed for Pastor Josh at the Vine.
SPEAKER_00: And I enjoyed praying for him.
SPEAKER_00: And so then I get this question.
SPEAKER_00: What's the name of the church fellowship over there by Texas State that we recommend kids to go to?
SPEAKER_00: I got a student over now, and I am trying to get her connected.
SPEAKER_00: I love text messages like this, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the answer it's the Well Community Church, Pastor Chris Millar.
SPEAKER_00: They meet at Travis Elementary behind Bobcat Stadium.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'll put that in my notes and I'll share with these other two men in my group.
SPEAKER_00: We'll encourage everyone to write down the names so that we have them ready when we need them.
SPEAKER_00: And there's one in Kyle.
SPEAKER_00: Please share that one with me again so I can put it in my notes.
SPEAKER_00: Has a great witnessing opportunity on the plane coming home from Branson, and I'll share more about that later.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, I got that church.
SPEAKER_00: It's divine in Butta through Google.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Perfect.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what the bottom part says, but all I can say is this.
SPEAKER_00: When I get a text message like that, and I have people in our church, fellowship, saying, Hey, what about where God is moving in our area in Butta and saying, Marcus and Kyle?
SPEAKER_00: What about that church out in East Texas?
SPEAKER_00: I know some people out in East Texas, and we we just want to say what we're doing is we're striving side by side to try to get the gospel into every home, into the Wimmerley Valley and beyond.
SPEAKER_00: That's a beautiful expression of our vision here.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we see happening in the book of Philippians with Lydia and the jail guard with this girl that was rescued from demon possession.
SPEAKER_00: And I just ask you for your own life, how are you fearlessly advancing the gospel with joy?
SPEAKER_00: What things might need to change in your life that you would put getting the gospel out with words, more of a priority in your daily life, more of a priority in your friend group, more of a priority when you go to the barber, more of a priority when you go to H E B.
SPEAKER_00: That's one thing my wife loves about Wimmerly.
SPEAKER_00: She says, every time I go to HEB, I see people I know.
SPEAKER_00: Every single time I go to H E B, I see people I know.
SPEAKER_00: When you go to H E B, are you walking in there saying, Is today the day I get to share the gospel with somebody?
SPEAKER_00: Is today the day I get to point someone to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Is today the day?
SPEAKER_00: Because what we're gonna see as we walk through the book of Philippians is this is a young church being formed by the Holy Spirit, and Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is writing to them saying, make sure you live out your joy and make sure you continue partnering in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, those two things are connected.
SPEAKER_00: When we live out our joy, we will share the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: When we share the gospel, we will have joy.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that good?
SPEAKER_00: Here's our last point for those of you that have sat through this whole thing thinking, golly, Pastor Aaron gets really excited about these things.
SPEAKER_00: Make sure or ensure that you have received the grace of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Not just the grace of Christ in the sender, not just the saints at Philippi, but you in your life, make sure you have responded to the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Make sure you have received this forgiveness of your sin.
SPEAKER_00: That you come out of the domain of darkness into the kingdom of light.
SPEAKER_00: Make sure you have cried out to Jesus, saying, Jesus, I need you to be my king.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for dying for me.
SPEAKER_00: And you rose, and the same victory you had, I can have too.
SPEAKER_00: Don't leave this place without being sure of that.
SPEAKER_00: Don't put your head on the pillow tonight without being sure of that.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians 2 is a uh excuse me, Ephesians chapter 2 is a great picture of this.
SPEAKER_00: How we receive the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It's a little bit long, but just listen.
SPEAKER_00: It's so good.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1 through 10.
SPEAKER_00: You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world and following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived, in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
SPEAKER_00: But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive together with Christ, even when we were dead in our trespasses.
SPEAKER_00: By grace you've been saved, and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: For by grace you've been saved through faith.
SPEAKER_00: This is not your own doing, it's a gift of God, not a result of work, so that no one may boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
SPEAKER_00: Have you received the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: One time I was with a pastor in New Mexico and we were having lunch.
SPEAKER_00: This young guy came through and we were just getting to know him, and pretty clear it was going to turn into an opportunity to share the gospel with him.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're sharing the gospel, we're asking if he's received the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And I'd never seen anyone do this before.
SPEAKER_00: He reached into his wallet and he pulled out a crisp$10 bill.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I want to give you this$10 bill.
SPEAKER_00: Young man's like, I could, I could use, I I'd like that$10 bill.
SPEAKER_00: He says, What's yours?
SPEAKER_00: It's not mine anymore, it's yours.
SPEAKER_00: And the guy's like, Okay.
SPEAKER_00: And he still didn't have it in his hand.
SPEAKER_00: And this guy, his name's Pastor Michael, says, What do you have to do to make sure that this$10 bill is yours?
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: You're giving it to me.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: I have to like work for it?
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: What do you have to do?
SPEAKER_00: I'm says it's yours.
SPEAKER_00: You can't pay me back and you can't earn it.
SPEAKER_00: It's yours.
SPEAKER_00: What do you have to do?
SPEAKER_00: And eventually the guy said, Oh, I have to take it.
SPEAKER_00: I have to receive it.
SPEAKER_00: I have to put it in my hand and put it in my wallet.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same way with the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It's for by grace you've been saved through faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's not your own doing, so that no one may boast.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot earn salvation.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot do something enough good to make up for our bad, to receive the forgiveness of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He has poured out his blood, paid for forgiveness, made it possible, and what he's asking you to do is just receive that.
SPEAKER_00: In Mark chapter 1, it says the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
SPEAKER_00: The time is now.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, repent and believe.
SPEAKER_00: That's the receiving.
SPEAKER_00: I want to turn away from my sin.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, I want to trust in you.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you've been coming to church, if you've enjoyed coming and being around these other Christians, man, this church is so friendly, and we love singing to Jesus and we love this preaching, but you've never actually received the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Today's a day for you.
SPEAKER_00: Say, Jesus, I'm asking you to forgive me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking you to be my king.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be one of those saints that is talking about in the book of Philippians.
SPEAKER_00: I want to live my life for a bigger purpose.
SPEAKER_00: I want to live on mission for you.
SPEAKER_00: It starts by saying, Jesus, thank you for dying for me.
SPEAKER_00: I want to receive the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It was a beautiful thing preaching to those kids at kids' camp.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, when you're when you're dealing with eight, nine, ten, eleven-year-olds, you don't want to pressure them.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to like hold their feet against the fire and say, You gotta trust Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_00: They're still like trying to figure out what that means.
SPEAKER_00: And so I still boldly share the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I still want to give them an opportunity to receive the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: But that second night, we were preaching, I was preaching, the Lord was doing things that I couldn't control because I didn't think I was gonna get through to these younger people.
SPEAKER_00: I thought I was gonna preach over their heads, and God was doing something bigger than me.
SPEAKER_00: And I just told him, I said, listen, no pressure.
SPEAKER_00: No pressure.
SPEAKER_00: But if you would say that you've never asked Jesus to be your king, you've never asked him for forgiveness, and you want to do that tonight, would you stand up?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm looking across the audience, like six or seven hundred young people, and no one's standing.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: It's up to the Holy Spirit, it's not up to me, it's no big deal.
SPEAKER_00: So I just waited, I gave it a moment, and then one after one, kids start popping up.
SPEAKER_00: Kids start popping up.
SPEAKER_00: And say, go talk to your leader, go talk to your leader.
SPEAKER_00: It was really cool.
SPEAKER_00: There were seven young men that responded in our group.
SPEAKER_00: Four of them had their dads there as leaders.
SPEAKER_00: And so the the guy that got to go talk to you, the leader that went to talk to them and went out into the lobby, read through some scriptures, is actually their dad.
SPEAKER_00: I've got videos that were sent to me yesterday from the media guy that sent me pictures of these dads walking their sons through scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
SPEAKER_00: I can't wait to share that with those dads.
SPEAKER_00: But when I say that you've got to receive the gospel, that's what these nine and ten-year-old kids did.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if it's what you need to do today.
SPEAKER_00: What a joy it was to see them respond to the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, many of you have also asked about my beard.
SPEAKER_00: If you're meeting me for the first time, you don't realize that I had a, I don't know, four or five-inch beard last week.
SPEAKER_00: And because a couple of these students memorized not just verse 3 and 4 in Philippians 2, but verse 3 all the way through 11, they got to shave my beard.
SPEAKER_00: I've got a picture here.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's another one with the two kids that got to shave it.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, isn't that awesome?
SPEAKER_00: So the kids that went to kids' camp and Miss Melinda were like, Aaron, you should keep your beard like that for Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, heck no.
SPEAKER_00: So it's gone, and it'll come back in a couple weeks.
SPEAKER_00: As we're coming to a close, I want you to think about these three, these three categories.
SPEAKER_00: The grace of God and the sender, how Paul and Timothy were servants of God on mission, partnering in the gospel with these other saints at Philippi.
SPEAKER_00: The grace of God and the saints, and how Paul's identifying that said, You gotta live your life worthy of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Live for joy, live on mission.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe the grace of God in your own life today.
SPEAKER_00: Because today might be the day that you say, Jesus, I need to trust you.
SPEAKER_00: Then you can come be a part of everything God is doing here in this church for us collectively attempting with everything we have and every fiber of our being to magnify Jesus, our King, and share the gospel in our homes in the Wimberley Valley and beyond.
SPEAKER_00: Would you be excited about partnering with this church and allow, like it says in verse 27, to strive side by side for the faith of the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: Would you be so excited about what God is continuing to do in this place?
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna see evidence of that tonight when we do baptisms at the Creek.
SPEAKER_00: These are people that say, Jesus has changed my life, and I want to go public with that.
SPEAKER_00: Man, would you just be excited to be a part of something much bigger than yourself?
SPEAKER_00: I know I am.
SPEAKER_00: Where do you see the grace of Christ in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you for the book of Philippians.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for this message of joy.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the message of mission.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, for those in this place that maybe have slowed down on their efforts to share the gospel, slowed down on their efforts to live on mission.
SPEAKER_00: Would you just help us?
SPEAKER_00: Would you help us to be surrendered to you?
SPEAKER_00: Would you help us to be mindful how the Spirit is leading?
SPEAKER_00: Would you help us to be so bold, as Paul says in Romans 1?
SPEAKER_00: I'm unashamed of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It's the power of salvation of those who believe.
SPEAKER_00: Make us be bold.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, for those that need to respond in any other way today, I just ask that you do business with us in this place.
SPEAKER_00: God, you do whatever you want to do, anyways, because no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to say, in this time, would we would we be free to respond to the things that you are wanting to do?
SPEAKER_00: Keep us from being guarded, keep us from being embarrassed.
SPEAKER_00: And whether it's it's to respond in the seat or come up and pray with one of our pastors, to come up by by themselves on these steps and say, Lord, this is going to be different now in my life.
SPEAKER_00: We just ask that you would have your way, that you would do business in this time of response.
SPEAKER_00: We pray that in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.