SPEAKER_00: Good morning, church.
SPEAKER_00: We started our Philippians series.
SPEAKER_00: We're preaching through the book of Philippians.
SPEAKER_00: As we head into the school year, I would invite you to take a Bible and open it up to Philippians.
SPEAKER_00: Last week we looked at this idea of what it means to live as Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of joy and command for rejoicing.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of gospel proclamation.
SPEAKER_00: We fearlessly advance the gospel with joy.
SPEAKER_00: This is some of the things that have been introduced.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're going to walk through verses 3 through 11 to look at some gospel bonds.
SPEAKER_00: I do want to pray before we do that.
SPEAKER_00: Last week I told a good friend of mine, his name is Pastor John Venable.
SPEAKER_00: And we've recently struck up a friendship through Pine Cove.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, We're going to pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, What are you preaching?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I'm preaching in Mark chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Austin, we're going to pray for you with Mark chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: I said, What's a prayer request?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, just pray that I would get out of the way and God would use me.
SPEAKER_00: And I failed to pray for him.
SPEAKER_00: So God in his goodness can hear our same prayers.
SPEAKER_00: You can look up his church.
SPEAKER_00: He's a great guy, Pastor John Venable, a New Life Church in Alexander, Arkansas.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray for him.
SPEAKER_00: And if you think about him during the week, pray for Pastor John and pray for his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: I think he's doing a lot of things incredibly well.
SPEAKER_00: He's been at the same church now for 14 years.
SPEAKER_00: And I think when you've stayed that long, you start to be able to see fruit of like lasting ministry, and next generation comes through, and you get to see the saints equipped for ministry.
SPEAKER_00: So it's just exciting to hear stories from Pastor John.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray for him and we'll get to it.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I thank you for the worship that we've already experienced in this place, to lift up your name, to pray prayers over one another, to have an encouraging fellowship in this place.
SPEAKER_00: And so we just give you the thanks and we give you the praise.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray in this moment, as John asked me to pray for him last week, that I would just get out of the way.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, and you would be seen high and lifted up, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You said, if if you're lifted up, you'll draw men and women to yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And so won't you do that in this place?
SPEAKER_00: And I pray for John.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for his friendship.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for his encouragement.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that you would use his ministry in Arkansas to bear so much fruit that your kingdom would come, your will would be done in Alexander, Arkansas.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for the family that he's raising.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you, God, uh, for the kind of example that they are in that church.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for new leadership to come alongside of him.
SPEAKER_00: I know one of the things he was grieving is that their ministry staff was in transition.
SPEAKER_00: And so, God, won't you provide in every way?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, use New Life Baptist Church as a as a lighthouse, as a as a beacon of hope for the gospel, not only in that community, but all the way to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: As I know that they want to see the gospel go out to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And so use Pastor John uses ministry.
SPEAKER_00: God, would you be glorified in that place and in this place?
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So when you think about common bonds, maybe you think about some family bonds.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, many people went to family reunions this past summer.
SPEAKER_00: I got to see my sister this past weekend, had a great family time.
SPEAKER_00: There's a family bond.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you'll think of vocational bonds.
SPEAKER_00: And my wife is a speech therapist, and I learned in college that the shorthand for that is SLP, speech language pathologist.
SPEAKER_00: And anytime she comes across another SLP, it's an instant bond.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've ever seen that.
SPEAKER_00: My wife's got a pretty dynamic personality.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just the SLP, she's just outgoing and friendly, but there's that bond.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's common interest bonds.
SPEAKER_00: You like a certain sports team or you have this certain hobby.
SPEAKER_00: What we're gonna see in the scripture is that there are gospel bonds with believers.
SPEAKER_00: And there's there's an irony happening here because Paul is saying my imprisonment has served to make the gospel go out even more effectively.
SPEAKER_00: In other places, he writes, I'm in chains for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's a physical picture of being shackled while he's doing ministry, but he's also talking about how we are, quote unquote, shackled to each other with a common mission and a common bond.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've ever been in handcuffs or been arrested, been detained.
SPEAKER_00: I've never been in handcuffs.
SPEAKER_00: I was pretty surprised though recently when one of my children sent me a picture of them in handcuffs and a sheriff's deputy was behind them, and I said, What is going on?
SPEAKER_00: They quickly said, It's just a prank, Dad, don't worry.
SPEAKER_00: They were being really nice and they let me take this picture.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't get in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Good.
SPEAKER_00: Good.
SPEAKER_00: But that child of mine who will remain unnamed understands what it is to be in handcuffs and be bound together.
SPEAKER_00: When I read this passage, I want you to think of that.
SPEAKER_00: Think of this idea that in a church family, we are literally shackled together, not just physically, but in a spiritual way, because we have a partnership in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And what we're gonna see in a couple weeks is in verse 27, this beautiful picture when Paul says, So we we strive.
SPEAKER_00: We were striving, standing side by side for the faith of the gospel to go out and we march out of this place and make sure that Jesus is proclaimed in every corner of this world.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't even read the scripture yet.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just getting too excited.
SPEAKER_00: Follow along with me in chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna read verse one and two, because it's right there.
SPEAKER_00: We'll go all the way through verse 11.
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.
SPEAKER_00: 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: And I'm sure of this that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus, and it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.
SPEAKER_00: A few quick observations in this text before I encourage you to start taking notes.
SPEAKER_00: Every time we pray, it would be an encouraging thing to think about prayers like this in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine if you just start, as Pastor Mike was telling us, to remember the things that we're thankful for.
SPEAKER_00: Every time I pray for you, Philippian church, I'm thanking God for you.
SPEAKER_00: And here are the things I'm thankful for.
SPEAKER_00: I'm thankful for this, and I'm thankful for this, and I'm thankful for this, rather than I can't believe you stinking church at Philippi, you're not doing anything right.
SPEAKER_00: What's going on?
SPEAKER_00: You know the letter that he sent to the Corinthians?
SPEAKER_00: That's not how he starts here when he sends it to the Philippians, he says, I thank God for you.
SPEAKER_00: What a good way to start our prayers.
SPEAKER_00: And I mentioned last week this you all repeated for verse seven and verse eight.
SPEAKER_00: It highlights our unity in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think that y'all was around back here in the first century, but if Paul was writing this in Texas, he might just say, I thank God for y'all.
SPEAKER_00: And every time I think of y'all, I'm so encouraged by y'all and your love for God and your love for each other.
SPEAKER_00: That yeah, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Born and raised, Texas proud.
SPEAKER_00: The Greek word, though, is not y'all, it's koinea.
SPEAKER_00: And you might be familiar with that term koinania.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of times people talk about the sweet fellowship, the sweet koinanea fellowship between believers.
SPEAKER_00: And it's it's more than just a friendship, and it's more than just uh we're a part of the same family.
SPEAKER_00: It is rooted in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That we are covered by the blood of Christ, that we are sent out with a common mission.
SPEAKER_00: We have a fellowship in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It's a common bond in gospel partnership and gospel proclamation.
SPEAKER_00: That one you could write down if you're interested, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: Koinania, a common bond in gospel partnership and gospel proclamation, which means when we are functioning in a healthy way, church, it's not just the Green Beret Christians that share the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It's all of us.
SPEAKER_00: This is our gospel bond.
SPEAKER_00: We have a common bond.
SPEAKER_00: And so his letter in general is about the church's growth, your progress and joy in the faith.
SPEAKER_00: There's this reference to joy all over the place, or even a command to rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't want to miss that picture in chapter 1, verse 47 that this quininea and this common bond and this gospel partnership is literally us standing side by side, striving side by side for the faith that we have together.
SPEAKER_00: It's a shared faith, it's a common bond.
SPEAKER_00: We want to get the gospel out.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you're a big hymn fan, but that hymn, Onward Christian Soldiers, always comes to mind when I think of that.
SPEAKER_00: Man, we're marching onward.
SPEAKER_00: We're marching all the way to the new heavens and the new earth.
SPEAKER_00: And while we do it, we're gonna get as many people along the road as we can.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
unknown: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to tell you just briefly three realities found in the lives of those that have strong gospel partnerships.
SPEAKER_00: I want every person in this church to have strong gospel partnerships.
SPEAKER_00: And if you do, here are three realities that are just true of you.
SPEAKER_00: The first is this joy.
SPEAKER_00: And so in verse three through five, we have that idea of joy, then all the way throughout the rest of the letter, the command, rejoice, rejoice, rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: Listen again.
SPEAKER_00: I thank my God in all my remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine for y'all, making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
SPEAKER_00: Why can Paul pray a prayer with joy because of their partnership in the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: This reality that in the life of every believer, there are strong gospel partnerships, and that creates a joy that's deeper than your circumstance.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna hear later in Philippians.
SPEAKER_00: Why can I do all things through Christ who strengthens me?
SPEAKER_00: He says, Because I know the secret of contentment.
SPEAKER_00: What's happening on the outside cannot change what's true about me on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: That I got the joy of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And this strong gospel partnership creates that sense of joy.
SPEAKER_00: When you know your friends in discipleship or small group or across the church, or even in that second gathering that we have, when you know that they're sharing the gospel, we're gonna pray for a young lady that's going out for two years to share the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And when you know that's happening in the life of your church family, that increases your joy.
SPEAKER_00: John 10, I always go back to this.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, The thief comes to steal and to kill and to destroy, but I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly.
SPEAKER_00: That abundant life is a joy-filled life.
SPEAKER_00: I'll never forget learning for the first time in John 15.
SPEAKER_00: I want to encourage you to turn there.
SPEAKER_00: John 15, Jesus gives this picture of abiding in him.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna preach this later as we preach through our vision series coming up in the middle of August.
SPEAKER_00: And there Jesus says, Look, I am the vine, you're the bread.
SPEAKER_00: If you just stay plugged into me, you're gonna bear good fruit.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says this at the end.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11, these things I've spoken to you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
SPEAKER_00: Every time we obey the Lord, we should expect joy.
SPEAKER_00: So when we speak up and share the gospel, there is a joy there.
SPEAKER_00: When the Lord is calling us to obey in some certain way, we've read the scripture in our morning devotions, we say, okay, Lord, help me out.
SPEAKER_00: I want this to be different in my life, and then you actually obey, there's a joy there.
SPEAKER_00: When God says, Hey, I think this needs to change in your life, here's something that needs to be refined a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: And I know you're in this sanctification process, and you're growing gradually more and more and more to reflect the image of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so we let those things be burned out of our life.
SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
SPEAKER_00: There's a joy there.
SPEAKER_00: Someone who has strong gospel partnerships, strong encouragement and accountability, strong sense of being on mission together, there's a natural outflow in your life that you have joy.
SPEAKER_00: You're obeying the Lord, you're seeing your brothers and sisters, obey the Lord, and that increases your joy.
SPEAKER_00: If I were to just ask you honestly, if you were gonna give yourself a score from one to ten, ten being the highest, where's your joy meter today?
SPEAKER_00: And you don't need to tell anyone else, just know that in your heart, except for this, that if it's pretty low, you should ask yourself, where are my gospel partnerships?
SPEAKER_00: Where are my gospel bonds?
SPEAKER_00: When am I talking about how the Lord's teaching me things and I'm I'm growing?
SPEAKER_00: When am I talking about being on mission and sharing the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: If it's low, maybe the thing you can do is of course ask the Lord for more joy.
SPEAKER_00: But then say, Can you increase my ability to be bonded together with other believers that I'm on mission with?
SPEAKER_00: Joy, number one.
SPEAKER_00: Another outcome, a reality in the life of someone with strong gospel partnerships is a confidence.
SPEAKER_00: Now don't misread this.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about pride or arrogance, I'm talking about a confidence first, a confidence in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, a confidence that those that you've surrounded yourself with are gonna keep honoring him with their life.
SPEAKER_00: Let me show you.
SPEAKER_00: First, a confidence in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I love verse six here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure of this, he says.
SPEAKER_00: I am confident of this, that the God who started a good work in you is gonna carry it out to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I love that sense of confidence.
SPEAKER_00: What a great promise.
SPEAKER_00: When God has started something in you, he's not a half-hearted, half-jobbed person.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all can just assume what could go there.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna preach that word.
SPEAKER_00: God finishes what he starts, he is faithful to his promises.
SPEAKER_00: I'll always remember this song, He will hold you fast.
SPEAKER_00: I love that song.
SPEAKER_00: It's written by Shane and Shane, and the chorus just says, He will hold you fast, he will hold you fast, for my Savior loves me, so he will hold me fast.
SPEAKER_00: It's that picture of a promise that we have in Jude chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: I remember when Pastor Mike preached it here at our church.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: God is able to keep you, to present you blameless on that last day.
SPEAKER_00: God finishes what he starts, and there's an extreme confidence Paul has at the Philippian church saying, Hey, look, hey, listen, God's doing a great thing.
SPEAKER_00: I see it.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, I'm excited about what you're doing and the outcome and your fruit.
SPEAKER_00: But before I say anything else about that, let me just say I'm so grateful that God finishes what he starts.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so grateful I have a confidence that he will hold you fast.
SPEAKER_00: That song I mentioned became really real to us.
SPEAKER_00: I shared this story one other time when Krista was diagnosed with breast cancer, and we had no idea what was coming.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I remember telling the kids, and we were sitting in the living room, and we had given them some bad news over the years.
SPEAKER_00: And anytime we sit them all on the love seat and we sit across from like, oh great, this is the bad news couch.
SPEAKER_00: We sat with them, we told them, and I remember one of them specifically looked up and said, Mom, are you gonna die?
SPEAKER_00: And we just had to say, We don't know.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
SPEAKER_00: We're praying, we're snot, snotting those, talking to them about what's going on and why she has to go down to Houston and go get these tests and get these biopsies and do more treatments, possibly, and all of this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: There's so many unknowns.
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, about 150 ladies from our church in New Mexico and from the school that Krista worked at and from our community came filing in to our backyard, and they all each had one of those candles that we use at Christmas Eve services, and they were singing this song.
SPEAKER_00: He will hold you fast.
SPEAKER_00: For my savior loves me so, he will hold me fast.
SPEAKER_00: And they sang it and they sang it.
SPEAKER_00: A few of them read some scripture and a few of them prayed, and then they filed out and said, No hugs.
SPEAKER_00: Chris can't hug all 150 of us.
SPEAKER_00: But what a great promise that even when you don't know what your circumstance is dealing you or the hand that you're getting dealt, you can still rest that God is faithful, that he will hold you fast, that he carries you to the end, that he finishes what he starts.
SPEAKER_00: Those that have strong gospel partnerships are reminded of that truth, and they stand on that truth, and they don't take their eyes off of that truth.
SPEAKER_00: I think of Hebrews chapter 12, where we're told to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.
SPEAKER_00: We need strong gospel bonds in our life so that we stand true to what God has already promised.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: So it's an increased confidence, but not only in God, an increased confidence in these believers to bear good fruit.
SPEAKER_00: I love that verse six is sandwiched between verse five and verse seven.
SPEAKER_00: So right in the middle, God's the one that holds you fast.
SPEAKER_00: But verse five and seven, Paul says, I just want to remind you, I see good things happening in your life.
SPEAKER_00: We have a strong gospel partnership, verse five.
SPEAKER_00: Verse seven, it's right for me to feel this way about you because I hold you in my heart, for you are partakers with me of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: That sense of a confidence of God's grace bearing fruit in the lives of genuine Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Again, John 15 says in verse 8, Jesus says, When you bear good fruit, you prove to be my disciples.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder how strong your confidence is in the Lord, and then how strong your confidence is in those Christians around you that are growing and and and helping you grow as well with iron sharpening iron.
SPEAKER_00: And before we're done on this verse, I just I love to pray this one.
SPEAKER_00: Last last week at the Creek, we had five people get baptized, and I prayed this verse over them as they were getting baptized, and I said, God, I'm so glad that we can trust you.
SPEAKER_00: That the spiritual growth of these people, some were adults, they'd have been Christians for a long time, some were young, they'd have been Christian for a few months.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm confident of this, God, that because you started something good in them, you're gonna finish something good in them.
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder what kind of confidence you have, both in the Lord and in the fruit of those around you.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's his power at work through believers, your participation in growth and sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: That is how you live out the life of being a gospel first person with strong gospel bonds.
SPEAKER_00: So a joy, a confidence, third reality of those that have strong gospel partnerships is an affection.
SPEAKER_00: An affection for one another.
SPEAKER_00: Listen one more time to verse seven.
SPEAKER_00: He says, It's right for me to feel this way about you because I hold you in my heart.
SPEAKER_00: What a what an affectionate phrase.
SPEAKER_00: I hold you in my heart.
SPEAKER_00: I am grateful that you love me and I love you.
SPEAKER_00: We have this strong family bond.
SPEAKER_00: I hold you in my heart.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: For God is my witness how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul is speaking about this sense of affection twice in these verses.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Not only do I hold you in my heart, but I have the affection that Christ has for you.
SPEAKER_00: So when you have these kinds of friendships and church relationships, brothers and sisters described as koinania or a strong gospel partnership, it increases your affection for each other.
SPEAKER_00: It increases your love for one another, it increases your ability to not only love God, but love others as we are commanded to.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: Concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write you.
SPEAKER_00: For you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.
SPEAKER_00: That is indeed what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia.
SPEAKER_00: But we urge you, brothers, do this more and more.
SPEAKER_00: When I think of this kind of strong affection, I I love thinking about discipleship relationship I had one time.
SPEAKER_00: This gentleman, uh, we met about three times a month for the course of a year, and we went through some discipleship curriculum and some accountability and some scripture memory.
SPEAKER_00: But more than that, we we spent time together.
SPEAKER_00: We were together when we went out and shared the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We went door to door, we were together as our kids were growing up.
SPEAKER_00: We shared our dinner table, we spent time with one another.
SPEAKER_00: And towards the end of that official discipleship time, I was encouraging him now mentor someone else, and he was mentoring someone else from work.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Aaron, I just want.
SPEAKER_00: Tell you, you are one of the only men in my life that truly know me, that know my my faults, my weaknesses, my strengths, that you just truly know who I am, that I'm not putting on a face, and I don't I don't have to hide anything around you.
SPEAKER_00: And then he said this, which I will always you talk about holding an affection for someone in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He said, You're one of the only people in my life that have truly opened my heart up to.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he's very close with his wife.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he loves his kids, even his family outside of that, parents, brothers, I think there were pieces of his life that he would just hold on and not totally trust those closest to him with.
SPEAKER_00: But he said, Aaron, in our relationship, I've just totally opened my heart up to you.
SPEAKER_00: That's genuine affection.
SPEAKER_00: That is a strong gospel partnership.
SPEAKER_00: And my question before we move on from that is does anything need a change in your life so you can have more of that?
SPEAKER_00: So you're not just walking around saying, I don't care about anyone, and I don't care if they think this about me, and I'm just doing I'll do me and they can do them, and everything's gonna be fine.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's not a strong gospel partnership.
SPEAKER_00: Loving God and loving others, that's where it's at, Christian.
SPEAKER_00: That's where it's at.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I think of some of our young people, a few of them going off to college, which is nuts, some of them going back to school here in the next couple weeks.
SPEAKER_00: What needs to happen when you step on a campus and you say, I want to make sure that the friends that I'm running with, those people, are these strong gospel partnerships.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna we're gonna have iron sharpening iron, and we're gonna be on mission together, and we're gonna love each other, we're gonna have a great sense of affection deeper than the world knows, because the world can't know the kind of love that Christians have for each other.
SPEAKER_00: I want to have that sense of affection for my friends that I run with.
SPEAKER_00: So a joy, a confidence, and an affection.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you two more, two responses.
SPEAKER_00: If you do have these strong gospel partnerships in your life, two responses that you personally will do.
SPEAKER_00: The first is this pray hard.
SPEAKER_00: If it was grammatically correct, I might have said, pray harder.
SPEAKER_00: I need to pray harder in my life.
SPEAKER_00: That because of these friendships and bonds, you see people being on mission around you, and you want to be on mission, it causes you to pray in a way that we see modeled here in Philippians chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse nine.
SPEAKER_00: It's my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.
SPEAKER_00: I love this connection between knowledge and truth.
SPEAKER_00: That as we pray for those that are on this gospel partnership with us, they're racing the race after Jesus with us, we pray that their knowledge and truth would increase, and as that increases, their love for God increases.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We have a genuine love for God and a genuine love for others.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus said in Luke chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: What's the greatest commandment?
SPEAKER_00: He says, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, all your mind.
SPEAKER_00: Love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul's praying that your love would abound more and more and more, that as you love the Lord more, you will love others more.
SPEAKER_00: He prays for them that they would discern the excellent teaching over false teaching, that they would walk in purity, that they would be blameless, that they would experience the fruit of righteousness in their lives, that their lives would be lived for the glory and the praise of God.
SPEAKER_00: These two verses are so rich.
SPEAKER_00: You want to know how to pray for me, one of your pastors?
SPEAKER_00: Please pray this prayer.
SPEAKER_00: That my love for God would abound more and more, that my love for others would abound more and more, that I would discern what's excellent and true in the scriptures, that I walk in purity and blamelessness and righteousness, and God would be glorified in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I'd love for you to pray a prayer like that over me.
SPEAKER_00: You want to know how to pray for your kids or your grandkids?
SPEAKER_00: Philippians chapter 1, verse 9, verse 10, verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: God, would they love you more and more and more?
SPEAKER_00: And then would that they love others because of that?
SPEAKER_00: You want to know how to better pray for your spouse?
SPEAKER_00: I just don't know what to pray.
SPEAKER_00: We pray sometimes, and I just don't know what to pray.
SPEAKER_00: Open your Bible to Philippians chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that their love for you would abound more and more and more, that they would know what is excellent and true, that their life would be filled with fruit and righteousness, and their life would count for your glory.
SPEAKER_00: When we have strong gospel partnerships, there are people that we're running with, doing ministry with, and they're praying like this.
SPEAKER_00: They pray for you, and you pray for them.
SPEAKER_00: That's how we continue to see the kingdom of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: As Jesus told us, your kingdom come, your will be done.
SPEAKER_00: We see that when we are running the race with other Christians, and we see the reality of this in their life.
SPEAKER_00: We pray for their love, for their knowledge, for their growth.
SPEAKER_00: We pray that their lives should be lived worthy of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Their actions and attitudes would honor the Lord, would be Christ honoring, and their lives would be to the praise and glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: When you have strong gospel partnerships, that's happening in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I want more of that.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So that's the first response.
SPEAKER_00: Pray hard or even pray harder.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a second response.
SPEAKER_00: Those that are living in that way are waiting expectantly.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what are we waiting for?
SPEAKER_00: You might have caught this, you might have missed it.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 6, when Paul says, I'm confident that God's gonna finish what he started, when is the end of that?
SPEAKER_00: The end of that is the day of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is going to return.
SPEAKER_00: We are going to be caught up in glory, and there will not be any further need for me to be sanctified and refined and continue to put off sin and put on Christ because it's gonna be ready right there.
SPEAKER_00: I'm face to face with him, and I'm waiting expectantly for that day.
unknown: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I want strong gospel partnerships to remind you, Aaron, it's not about today, it's about tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: It's about a day where Jesus is coming back.
SPEAKER_00: The people that live their lives in such a way that reflect strong gospel partnerships would echo these words that we see in Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: Come, Lord Jesus, come.
SPEAKER_00: So it's in verse 6, and it's also in verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: As he's praying that they would be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you've heard me say it, but I'm gonna say it again.
SPEAKER_00: When we see things repeated in the Bible, especially in a short amount of verses, that's repetition, and I say that's like a flashing red light.
SPEAKER_00: There's something important about the day of Christ being mentioned here.
SPEAKER_00: That those that had this koinonia fellowship, this love for God and love for others, and we're we have a common mission, and we're onward Christian soldiers, and we're striving side by side for the sake of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That is the kind of person that's waiting expectantly for Jesus to come.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, I'm ready.
SPEAKER_00: Come, Lord Jesus, come.
SPEAKER_00: I am ready.
SPEAKER_00: And what I want to hear is what Jesus teaches in Matthew chapter 5, 25.
SPEAKER_00: In this little parable, he says, His master tells him, Well done, good and faithful servant.
SPEAKER_00: You have been faithful over little, I will set you over much.
SPEAKER_00: Enter the joy of your master.
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready for that day?
SPEAKER_00: Are you waiting expectantly for that day?
SPEAKER_00: I hope you are.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope you're longing for the return of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you're running hard after Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That you're surrounding your life with others that are running hard after Jesus, that you have these common gospel bonds.
SPEAKER_00: When he returns, I hope he will say those things to you.
SPEAKER_00: Well done.
SPEAKER_00: My good and faithful servant.
SPEAKER_00: What are these gospel partnerships look like for you?
SPEAKER_00: And could you right now, if you had to think about it, take a note and write down three or five or seven people in your life say that's these people.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're like, Pastor Aaron, I can't even think of three.
SPEAKER_00: Can we help you?
SPEAKER_00: We can help you get into a discipleship relationship, we can help you get into a small group, we can talk about being more honest and open and vulnerable.
SPEAKER_00: We'll talk about being better connected into this church family.
SPEAKER_00: I would love to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Any of our staff, any of our pastors, our ministry said, we'd love to do that.
SPEAKER_00: I want to make sure you have strong gospel partnerships in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And then in verse 3, if you do have that list of five or seven, or you make a greater list, make sure you're thanking God, right?
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for y'all.
SPEAKER_00: I want to say, God, thank you for bringing these people into my life.
SPEAKER_00: Just ask right now, Holy Spirit, are you showing me a need to put more of these people in my life?
SPEAKER_00: I want to make sure that I'm a gospel first person.
SPEAKER_00: I want to make sure that there are gospel first people in my life, that I've got strong gospel bonds.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how Paul says it in 1 Corinthians 15.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: That he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: This is the first thing he wanted to make sure that the Corinthians knew.
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's the first thing in all of his ministries.
SPEAKER_00: One application is checking your gospel partnerships.
SPEAKER_00: Another application to a sermon like this is you can't have gospel partnerships unless you first received the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We heard a lot of that last week, but I would just remind you again if you've never asked Jesus to be your king, it's understanding that your sin deserves a punishment.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus paid it all on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And he was buried in a grave, but he didn't stay there.
SPEAKER_00: Three days later, he proved his victory when he resurrected.
SPEAKER_00: He is raised, he is alive, he is ascended, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he has said, Everyone who turns from sin and trusts in me, I will give you eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's just that.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's simply receiving the gospel and saying, Jesus, I need you.
SPEAKER_00: But I do know every time the word is preached, there is a response for us in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: What is the response for you?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: For Philippians 1 and the encouragement, the encouragement of joy and gospel partnerships, encouragement about the kind of people in our life and the kind of church we want to be.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be a church that Paul would write to and say, I thank God for you.
SPEAKER_00: There's a partnership in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: You're doing it right, you're bearing fruit, you're living for his glory, and I pray that your love would abound, and I pray that your knowledge of Christ would abound and you would walk in righteousness and live for his glory.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, as we come to a moment of response, whether we just need to speak to someone we came to church with, say, here's something God's doing.
SPEAKER_00: Or come up to the front and pray with a pastor.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, help us to know what needs to be different in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to live for you.
SPEAKER_00: Do business in this moment.
SPEAKER_00: You have your way.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.