SPEAKER_01: Hey, welcome back to another weekend message from Grand Point Church.
SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Mitch, and I'm glad that you're joining us today.
SPEAKER_01: Whether you're driving or working out, we're just taking a minute to connect with God.
SPEAKER_01: We believe he has something special in store for you with today's message.
SPEAKER_01: We're kicking off an incredible new series called To Live as Christ as we walk through Paul's letters to the Philippians together.
SPEAKER_01: If you've ever wondered how to find joy when life gets messy or question whether God really has a plan when everything feels like chaos, this series is for you.
SPEAKER_01: Before we dive in, I'd like to invite you to take a moment to subscribe to these weekend messages from Grand Point Church or just share it with a friend.
SPEAKER_01: Your support helps us reach more people with the hope of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Make sure at the end of the message that you stick around because we'll be sharing some practical next steps to help you apply what we're learning together.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let's discover what it means to truly live for Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Here at Grand Point Church, we believe the word of God is the lamp to our feet and a light to our path.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: This is the word that we stand on.
SPEAKER_02: This is the word that we hold highly.
SPEAKER_02: And as we get into the word tonight, I'm excited about this brand new message series coming from the book of Philippians.
SPEAKER_02: But at this time, I'm going to ask Levi to come and lead us in our scripture reading.
SPEAKER_02: And as part of the liturgy of scripture reading, when he concludes, he will say, this is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And the congregation responds by saying, thanks.
SPEAKER_02: Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_02: Would you do that?
SPEAKER_02: Levi, come and lead us in God's word tonight.
SPEAKER_00: In Philippians 1, verses 1 to 11, Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all God's people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I thank my God every time I remember you.
SPEAKER_00: I will always pray with joy.
SPEAKER_00: or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me.
SPEAKER_00: God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And this is my prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_00: Knock him dead, Lawrence.
SPEAKER_02: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you, Levi.
SPEAKER_02: And welcome to this brand new message series from the book of Philippians.
SPEAKER_02: If you have Bibles, you're welcome to turn there, follow along.
SPEAKER_02: The text will be also on the screen as well.
SPEAKER_02: The key verse in this whole book, in this whole study, is Philippians chapter one, verse 23.
SPEAKER_02: 21, say it all together.
SPEAKER_02: For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
SPEAKER_02: Let's do that one more time.
SPEAKER_02: For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
SPEAKER_02: My goal for this series is to help you discover a genuine, fully connected life with Jesus Christ because until you have life with Jesus, you have not yet lived.
SPEAKER_02: So welcome to this book of Philippians.
SPEAKER_02: Chapter one, verse one, we're gonna jump right into it Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ, to all God's holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi.
SPEAKER_02: Let me stop right there and give you a little bit of history.
SPEAKER_02: It's always good to know the context, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: Philippi took its name from Philip II of Macedo.
SPEAKER_02: He was the father of Alexander the Great.
SPEAKER_02: Now, fast forward a couple centuries, and Philippi is conquered by the Roman Empire in 31 BC.
SPEAKER_02: So Paul is writing to Roman citizens, And this will be critical a little bit later in our study.
SPEAKER_02: But in Philippi, they spoke the Latin language.
SPEAKER_02: They dressed like the Roman citizens.
SPEAKER_02: They used Roman coins.
SPEAKER_02: The city itself was patterned after Rome.
SPEAKER_02: Now, Philippi today is located in northeastern Greece near the city of Kavala.
SPEAKER_02: It's pretty much of an archaeological site today.
SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of ruins there, although there are some amazing statues, some theaters and an amphitheater there that were from this time and are preserved and a place for a lot of archaeological guests.
SPEAKER_02: But Philippi is located as is also the location of the first Christian church in Europe.
SPEAKER_02: So you can see through the strategic ministry at Philippi how the gospel got into Europe.
SPEAKER_02: Now at this time, as Paul is writing, the average person did not travel outside of a 30 mile radius of their home.
SPEAKER_02: People didn't go.
SPEAKER_02: That was a pretty small world, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: Just think, 30 miles around your home, that's about all the people traveled.
SPEAKER_02: However, some scholars believe that Paul may have logged 10,000 miles on his missionary journeys.
SPEAKER_02: 10,000 miles.
SPEAKER_02: Now, the average adult takes between 3,000, 4,000 steps a day, right?
SPEAKER_02: Some of you monitor that with your Apple Watches.
SPEAKER_02: 3,000 to 4,000 steps a day, which is equal It's the equivalent of about one and a half to two miles.
SPEAKER_02: So that would take the average person about 14 years to travel the distance that the apostle Paul did.
SPEAKER_02: He's one of the most traveled people on this planet in the first century.
SPEAKER_02: Now, let me tell you about Paul's second missionary journey.
SPEAKER_02: Like his first missionary journey, the second one began in Antioch.
SPEAKER_02: Actually, I'm gonna just back up there a little bit because I think it may have started in Waynesboro.
SPEAKER_02: James Shoes, Main Street.
SPEAKER_02: There's no way that Paul's going to travel 10,000 miles without a good pair of brooks, right?
SPEAKER_02: So he probably started there, actually, because that's not mentioned in Scripture.
SPEAKER_02: We'll go back to Antioch, and I'll show you here on the map.
SPEAKER_02: You can see right up here above Syria is Antioch.
SPEAKER_02: Now, that is Paul's home church.
SPEAKER_02: That's not where he grew up.
SPEAKER_02: He grew up in Tarsus, just a little bit north of Antioch, but Antioch was his home church.
SPEAKER_02: That was his home base.
SPEAKER_02: That That's where he did his ministry.
SPEAKER_02: Now, he's on his second missionary journey, and he heads west toward Derbe and Lystra.
SPEAKER_02: If you can see, kind of follow that line over there to my right.
SPEAKER_02: He goes up through Derbe and Lystra, and Lystra, something very significant happened.
SPEAKER_02: That's where he picked up Timothy.
SPEAKER_02: So Paul, at this point, has Silas as a traveling companion.
SPEAKER_02: It's Paul and Silas, but now at Lystra, they pick up Timothy.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul had learned about Timothy years before, about 10 years before when he was doing his missionary journey.
SPEAKER_02: And he knew that this young guy, this next generation leader was coming up.
SPEAKER_02: So they stopped and picked him up there at Lystra.
SPEAKER_02: Now from Lystra, they moved toward Asia.
SPEAKER_02: That was their goal.
SPEAKER_02: They were together there in Antioch and they said, let's go to Asia and speak to the people there and preach the gospel and visit and encourage the churches.
SPEAKER_02: Now they're on their way to Asia and here is where we pick up the travel itinerary in Acts chapter 16.
SPEAKER_02: This is interesting.
SPEAKER_02: In Acts chapter 16, verse six, it says, Paul and his companions traveled through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, watch this, having been kept by the Spirit, Holy Spirit, from preaching the word in the province of Asia.
SPEAKER_02: Paul, Silas, and Timothy had a plan.
SPEAKER_02: Their plan was to go to Asia, but that did not happen.
SPEAKER_02: The Holy Spirit, for some reason, kept them out of Asia.
SPEAKER_02: Asia was their plan A.
SPEAKER_02: They could not do that.
SPEAKER_02: So now they said, well, let's go to plan B.
SPEAKER_02: So they went for plan B, and that was to go to Bithynia.
SPEAKER_02: So you can see, if you follow up through there, there's also, they get up there to Bithynia.
SPEAKER_02: It's a little bit north, that tan-colored place.
SPEAKER_02: They're like, well, let's go there.
SPEAKER_02: You can see the Arab pointing there, but watch this.
SPEAKER_02: When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, Athenia, but the Holy Spirit would not allow them to go.
SPEAKER_02: Plan B didn't work.
SPEAKER_02: Like what is going on here?
SPEAKER_02: What is happening?
SPEAKER_02: Where do we go now?
SPEAKER_02: See, most of you rely heavily on GPS, don't you?
SPEAKER_02: And GPS kind of recalibrates when you need to.
SPEAKER_02: I'm old enough to remember Rand McNally maps.
SPEAKER_02: Anybody remember the Rand McNally maps?
SPEAKER_02: Now you could not read one of those maps while you were driving.
SPEAKER_02: At least you should not have been.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, you could not drive while your passenger was reading one of those maps because it filled the whole windshield, the whole side of the car.
SPEAKER_02: Now, fortunately, AAA came up with something a whole lot better called the triptych.
SPEAKER_02: And so you could now have something a little bit smaller there.
SPEAKER_02: But either way, whether you were reading a map or whether you were following a triptych, if you came to a dead end or if you came to a detour or if you're going the wrong way, those tools would not recalibrate.
SPEAKER_02: Thank God for GPS, because now if we've gone someplace wrong or we can't go in there, it recalibrates and takes us a different direction.
SPEAKER_02: Now, in Paul's case, it was the Holy Spirit who was doing the recalibrating.
SPEAKER_02: For some reason, the Holy Spirit said, no, you're not going to Asia.
SPEAKER_02: No, you're not going to Bithynia.
SPEAKER_02: You're going somewhere else.
SPEAKER_02: So it says they passed by Mysia and then And they went down to Troas.
SPEAKER_02: And during the night, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, come over to Macedonia and help us.
SPEAKER_02: After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding, right?
SPEAKER_02: We all come to conclusions at some point in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe this didn't work out.
SPEAKER_02: So we conclude that there's something else that we're to do, a different place to go.
SPEAKER_02: concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
SPEAKER_02: So from Troas, you can follow that all the way up there to Troas, right next to the sea.
SPEAKER_02: From Troas...
SPEAKER_02: We put out to sea, we sailed straight for Samanthus, and the next day we went on to Neapolis, and from there we traveled to Philippi.
SPEAKER_02: Philippi, and they stayed there several days.
SPEAKER_02: It was not Asia.
SPEAKER_02: It was not Bithynia.
SPEAKER_02: No, it was Philippi where God wanted them to go.
SPEAKER_02: So the Holy Spirit kept them from going to these other places.
SPEAKER_02: Now, Paul had been to Philippi before, and he started some church is there about 10 years ago, and the Holy Spirit led him back there to reestablish his relationship with these churches and to encourage the Philippian believers in their spiritual growth.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't this amazing?
SPEAKER_02: Now, in response to all of this, this story and this itinerary, Mark Batterson says, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.
SPEAKER_02: Tell him your plans.
SPEAKER_02: You just say, God, here's what I'm going to do.
SPEAKER_02: God, here's where I'm going.
SPEAKER_02: If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.
SPEAKER_02: Now, sometimes your plans might be his, but often they're not.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes God has better plans for us, so he, by his Holy Spirit, keeps us from going some places that we might go on our own.
SPEAKER_02: When we see a detour, what we see as a detour is often the destination.
SPEAKER_02: Never, never forget that.
SPEAKER_02: Because there are times when you're on your way, you have some life plans, you have some career plans, you have some relational plans, and it's not working out.
SPEAKER_02: It seems like there's a detour.
SPEAKER_02: God's taking me around my plans.
SPEAKER_02: Just know what we see as a detour is often a destination.
SPEAKER_02: Don't be afraid of closed doors.
SPEAKER_02: Or as coach Nick Saban says, don't waste a failure.
SPEAKER_02: Closed doors are often God's protection.
SPEAKER_02: Someday, You will thank God for closed doors as much as you thank him for open doors.
SPEAKER_02: When I read that, I came across that statement.
SPEAKER_02: I thought about, oh my goodness, thank God.
SPEAKER_02: I thank God forever for closing some doors in my dating relationships.
SPEAKER_02: Thanks be to God, right?
SPEAKER_02: So I cannot imagine, I can not imagine today not knowing and being with my wife, Penny.
SPEAKER_02: God closed some other doors and he opened this door and I'm glad he did.
SPEAKER_02: I can't imagine.
SPEAKER_02: I don't even want to imagine what it would have been like if I would have stepped into some other relationships, right?
SPEAKER_02: So thank God that he closes some doors.
SPEAKER_02: When we were in ministry, just before we came here, it was about a year before we came to Grand Point, God had been stirring in our hearts about moving, about going to a different church.
SPEAKER_02: We loved where we were, but there was something inside of us that says God was moving us.
SPEAKER_02: So we put out some resumes We put out two that were very significant, very, very attractive, wonderful churches.
SPEAKER_02: And God closed the doors on both of those.
SPEAKER_02: And to this day, I'm grateful that God closed those doors because then this opened and we were able to come here.
SPEAKER_02: And so from this day on, I can't imagine not knowing you, not being at Grand Point Church.
SPEAKER_02: So I thank God that he's closed doors.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't let me go to Asia.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't let me to go to Bithynia.
SPEAKER_02: He had this place, this Philippi planned for me.
SPEAKER_02: So when God closes doors, it's for your protection most of the time.
SPEAKER_02: And the final thing that Batterson says this, he says, God wants you to get where God wants you to go more than you want to get to where you want to go.
SPEAKER_02: God has a purpose for you.
SPEAKER_02: God has a plan for you.
SPEAKER_02: And God is so set on getting you there, that he will do everything that he can, including closing some doors that you think might look open.
SPEAKER_02: God wanted Paul and Philippi for the very purpose of encouraging the church members and their spiritual growth.
SPEAKER_02: For many years, I worked in a trade where a tape measure was my most important tool.
SPEAKER_02: I worked in construction.
SPEAKER_02: This tool became a piece of my accessory apparel, and a lot of my belts often wore the mark of this tape measure.
SPEAKER_02: I would clip it on my belt.
SPEAKER_02: This was the constant for me all the time.
SPEAKER_02: So when I would build a house, it would be important that I'd measure the studs and the plates exactly so that the house would be square and plumb.
SPEAKER_02: When I would measure a room for carpet, I wanted a precise measurement so I wouldn't come up short or have a lot of excess waste.
SPEAKER_02: It had to be precise.
SPEAKER_02: Now, I would guess that every home represents in this room tonight has a tape measure.
SPEAKER_02: You may not know exactly where it is right now, but your house has a tape measure.
SPEAKER_02: Somewhere in your house there's a tape measure because all of us have occasions when we need to take precise measurements.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you're building something or you're repairing something and it requires a bolt.
SPEAKER_02: Is it a four-inch bolt or is it a five-inch bolt?
SPEAKER_02: You're not exactly sure.
SPEAKER_02: Now, if you need a four-inch bolt, the best thing to do would be get out the tape measure and measure.
SPEAKER_02: so that you get exactly what you need.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if your family plays bocce ball or not, but when our family plays bocce ball, we use a tape measure.
SPEAKER_02: We're not guessing.
SPEAKER_02: When it comes to winning or losing a game, just guessing at the distance is not good enough.
SPEAKER_02: It has to be precise.
SPEAKER_02: A random measurement is not effective when you need to be precise.
SPEAKER_02: Now, I want to ask you tonight, when it comes to your spiritual life, do you live it randomly or do you live it measured?
SPEAKER_02: Do you live it measured or is it just random?
SPEAKER_02: A random spiritual life would just be like, I got Jesus in my life.
SPEAKER_02: I accepted him as my life and I'm just kind of going to float through this.
SPEAKER_02: Whatever happens, happens.
SPEAKER_02: If I'm not doing anything else, I might go to church.
SPEAKER_02: If I'm not busy, I might read my Bible.
SPEAKER_02: If I get in a crisis, if something really bad happens, I'll pray.
SPEAKER_02: But it's just kind of random, right?
SPEAKER_02: There's no consistent and maybe no discipline with it.
SPEAKER_02: And consequently, there's very seldom growth with that because you're not measuring anything.
SPEAKER_02: You don't really have a goal.
SPEAKER_02: There's no precise destination for it.
SPEAKER_02: Now, a measured spiritual life would be taking a look at where you are now and asking yourself the question, am I more mature in my faith than I was last year or five years ago or 10 years ago?
SPEAKER_02: Am I growing?
SPEAKER_02: Am I falling more in love with God's word?
SPEAKER_02: Am I falling more in love with God's people?
SPEAKER_02: and I give him my heart and my life.
SPEAKER_02: See, there's a difference between random spirituality and measured spirituality.
SPEAKER_02: And so now it's been about 10 years since Paul was at Philippi, and now he's making his spirit-directed visit back to them about 10 years later.
SPEAKER_02: And the very first thing that Paul does at Philippi is he recognizes their spiritual growth through several observations.
SPEAKER_02: And I wanna give you these observations tonight because I think they all point toward spiritual growth in our Christian lives as well.
SPEAKER_02: So he begins in chapter one, verse three, and he says to them, now that he's with them, he says, I thank my God every time I remember you.
SPEAKER_02: It's always a wonderful thing when remembrance and gratitude go together, especially when it relates to interpersonal relationships.
SPEAKER_02: See, if you wanna be, if you want people to remember you in a certain way, certain way, then live your life in the way that you want to be remembered.
SPEAKER_02: right?
SPEAKER_02: Because people are going to remember you for who you are.
SPEAKER_02: And the reality is all of us want to be remembered and we want to be remembered well.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul says to this group of people, I thank God every time I remember you.
SPEAKER_02: Now, then he continues and he says, in all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy.
SPEAKER_02: Now, Paul's primary intention with that prayer is to affirm his affection for these church members but he's also announcing a theme that runs all through this entire letter and that is the theme of joy the theme of joy see I When someone opens their heart, I don't know, we sang a great song tonight and I kind of missed that we were going to sing that, but we opened our service tonight by singing, there's joy in the house.
SPEAKER_02: There's joy in the house of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And listen, if we're measuring at all our spiritual maturity, if we're measuring at all our growth, it is only accompanied by great joy.
SPEAKER_02: See, when someone has opened their heart to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, there is joy in the house.
SPEAKER_02: When someone has this life-changing moment because of God working in their life through the word or through worship, there's joy in the house.
SPEAKER_02: When someone comes to that place where they say, listen, I want to do something to serve my Lord and his church, there's joy in the house.
SPEAKER_02: Two weeks ago, just two weeks ago, the Point Youth Ministry started their fall meeting back together and Here at the church, And the Holy Spirit prompted our youth pastor, Scott Eckenrode, to give an invitation for any student in the room to make a first-time commitment to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: The worship team was up there.
SPEAKER_02: They were singing the last song.
SPEAKER_02: The whole evening was about to end, and Scott's standing in the back, and the Holy Spirit's prompting him, and Scott said, I couldn't resist.
SPEAKER_02: I went up on that stage, and I stopped the team, and I just gave the students the gospel, and I just asked...
SPEAKER_02: if there's anyone who would like to receive Jesus Christ for the first time in their lives, and six students responded by giving their hearts to Christ.
SPEAKER_02: There's joy in the house.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, on Thursday evening of this week, Penny and I went to The Gathering, which is our young adult ministry.
SPEAKER_02: They were celebrating their first year anniversary.
SPEAKER_02: And Carly, the director there, summarized the year with story after story after story of young adult lives being changed, relationships being changed, futures being changed by Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And I'll tell you, there was joy in the house.
SPEAKER_02: This morning, 339 members of Grand Point church, saturated our community by serving our nonprofit organizations, by being out there showing them that they are loved, seen, known, and valued.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, there was joy in this house this morning when we gathered back together.
SPEAKER_02: There's been an influx of volunteers right now joining Connections team and Kids Point Ministries.
SPEAKER_02: When people step up and they step out to serve, there is joy in the house.
SPEAKER_02: Can I tell you this?
SPEAKER_02: When I see you pulling into the parking lot, see you coming through the doors, seeing you in the sanctuary, there is joy in the house and in my heart.
SPEAKER_02: And listen, I believe if the Apostle Paul would walk another 10,000 miles and come to Grand Point Church, I believe he would say, you give me joy because of your partnership in the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: Grand Point Church, you guys are amazing.
SPEAKER_02: You're amazing.
SPEAKER_02: See, joy is the natural response to the spiritual life and growth in God's people.
SPEAKER_02: Joy.
SPEAKER_02: When you grow in your knowledge and understanding of what God has done for you, who he is to you, and what he has given you, the only reasonable response is to give back to him and somehow participate in this gospel ministry.
SPEAKER_02: Now watch this.
SPEAKER_02: Paul says in verse four, so in all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with what?
SPEAKER_02: Joy because of your partnership, your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now because being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to stretch this.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to put something into scripture that's not there, but I believe this to be true.
SPEAKER_02: Now stay with me.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want you to just check out here, but number one, spiritual growth can be measured by a believer's participation in the local church.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, I fully understand life stages.
SPEAKER_02: I understand busy I understand physical limitations, but when you get to that place where you are ready to step up and step out into some place of service in the church, please let us know and we will do our best to match your giftedness with our need.
SPEAKER_02: We will do that because that's a sign of spiritual maturity when people come and say, listen, God has gifted me in this way.
SPEAKER_02: How can I serve the church with that?
SPEAKER_02: And when you do, the joy in this place Paul writes another letter to the church in Corinth, and he refers to the church as the body.
SPEAKER_02: And he says the body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts, and though all the parts are many, they form one body.
SPEAKER_02: Later in the same text, he says, now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
SPEAKER_02: So today at the lunch, right after serve day, I came back in and saw Jim McGee sitting there.
SPEAKER_02: Jim comes to our first service.
SPEAKER_02: He's an older gentleman.
SPEAKER_02: And he just looked at me and he said, they put me with a whole bunch of young guys today.
SPEAKER_02: That was beautiful.
SPEAKER_02: Those young guys needed Jim there.
SPEAKER_02: Whether Jim could work physically or not, it didn't matter.
SPEAKER_02: He was there as a presence.
SPEAKER_02: He was there as a support.
SPEAKER_02: He was there as an affirming position.
SPEAKER_02: So the young guys were working.
SPEAKER_02: They were doing some masonry patio work.
SPEAKER_02: So it was hard work, but Jim was there with all of these young guys.
SPEAKER_02: See, your participation in the ministry of the local church is the normal function of a healthy, mature body And as individuals, though, your participation will vary.
SPEAKER_02: It may not all look the same.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you will teach.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you will serve in leadership positions.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you will serve in the meal ministry.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you will serve in our lawn and garden care.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you will serve in the care ministry by visiting people.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you will run the cameras.
SPEAKER_02: You'll mix the sound.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you will sing.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you will be a blessing to us if you don't sing.
SPEAKER_02: Just kidding.
SPEAKER_02: Some will give financially.
SPEAKER_02: Others will give...
SPEAKER_02: the gifts of affirmation and encouragement.
SPEAKER_02: Whatever your participation is, it is a partnership for the advancement of the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that beautiful?
SPEAKER_02: This is how God designed it.
SPEAKER_02: Every single one of us, the scripture says each one of you, every one of you is a part of it.
SPEAKER_02: That's the beauty of this.
SPEAKER_02: That's what brings the joy out because all of us are contributed in some way or another.
SPEAKER_02: Thursday night, Ryan and Abby, young couple, up to me and Penny at the gathering.
SPEAKER_02: I don't really know them, but their affirmations were absolutely amazing.
SPEAKER_02: Young couple, dating, they encouraged me more than they would ever know.
SPEAKER_02: It's a beautiful thing how just simple words, simple friendships, all contribute to the advancement of the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: See, I believe spiritual growth can be measured by a believer's participation in the local church.
SPEAKER_02: And I believe Now, it's important to note that your spiritual maturity is not reflected by the number of things you participate in, but in the fact that you are participating in the way that God has gifted you.
SPEAKER_02: See, in our text, Paul's fired up because the Christians are actively participating in the ministry.
SPEAKER_02: Now, the second reason for Paul's joyful thankfulness to God is his confidence that God will complete the good work that he began in the Philippian believers.
SPEAKER_02: Now, the good work that Paul's referring to is a work that God alone accomplishes.
SPEAKER_02: But watch this, the notion that it is not yet complete shows that it involves a progressive transformation in the lives of believers.
SPEAKER_02: Now, a lot of us skip right over this, but what Paul just did, he laid down an amazing, profound theological reality as it relates to our salvation.
SPEAKER_02: See, salvation involves both a point and a process.
SPEAKER_02: That's kind of how we look at salvation for us.
SPEAKER_02: from what we understand scripture, there's both a point and there's a process.
SPEAKER_02: And there's a point.
SPEAKER_02: There is a time when you become a Christian.
SPEAKER_02: And some of you know that exact time, that date, maybe even the place where you became a Christian.
SPEAKER_02: And you kind of celebrate that.
SPEAKER_02: You have an anniversary, you have a birthday celebration of your spirituality.
SPEAKER_02: Others of you maybe come to a place that one day in your lives, you're like, oh my goodness, yes, I am a believer.
SPEAKER_02: I've somehow been introduced to the gospel and I've understood it and along the way someplace I believed it, right?
SPEAKER_02: And you don't necessarily remember the time or the place.
SPEAKER_02: But nevertheless, there was a point where you crossed over from being an unbeliever to a believer.
SPEAKER_02: So that is the point.
SPEAKER_02: There is a point in time when all of that happened.
SPEAKER_02: But salvation is also a process and it's a process that we call sanctification.
SPEAKER_02: I know that's a big word and you don't have to remember that, but here's what this means.
SPEAKER_02: It means that And it's in that process that God will continue to grow us and mature us until one day it will be completed when we enter eternity with him.
SPEAKER_02: So Paul's excited about this.
SPEAKER_02: He's excited that these believers have stepped into a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_02: There's this point of salvation and he's continuing to grow it all the way until they meet him in eternity.
SPEAKER_02: Now in verse seven, Paul says, it is right for me to feel this way.
SPEAKER_02: Thankful and joyful.
SPEAKER_02: Paul says, I have you in my heart.
SPEAKER_02: Have you in my heart and I long for you with all the affection of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And I feel this way about you because of your consistent partnership in this ministry.
SPEAKER_02: You guys just didn't start something and then you dropped out.
SPEAKER_02: No, I'm coming around 10 years later and you're still with me.
SPEAKER_02: You're still doing it.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, you've even grown and it gives me great joy and gratitude to see how you have stayed with it.
SPEAKER_02: You've stayed with it.
SPEAKER_02: See, it's not really how much you start that matters, but it's what you finish that matters.
SPEAKER_02: And he says, I thank you for staying with me all the way through.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, even when I was being persecuted for my faith, I was shoved into prison.
SPEAKER_02: You stayed with me, confirming the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: Spiritual maturity is not only measured by how or how much we become involved in the local church or by how many things we start, but it's measured by our faithful to the ministry after we started.
SPEAKER_02: Brings me to my second point there in your outline.
SPEAKER_02: Spiritual growth can be measured by a believer's faithfulness to the ministry that they have started.
SPEAKER_02: And then there's one more.
SPEAKER_02: The final measurement of spiritual maturity in this text is in verses nine to 11.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul concludes by saying, this is my prayer.
SPEAKER_02: This is my prayer for you.
SPEAKER_02: He commends them with gratitude and with joy.
SPEAKER_02: And now he says, this is my prayer that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best and that you might 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_02: This is one of the most outstanding prayers that Paul ever prayed for any of his churches.
SPEAKER_02: It expresses his heartfelt desire for the Christians at Philippi You know, there are some words in the English language that are extremely colorful and powerful, and one of those words is abound, abound.
SPEAKER_02: And he uses that in this text.
SPEAKER_02: Abound means a continual overflow, a perpetual flow of love that flows freely, somewhat like a river.
SPEAKER_02: But that river, as Paul says in here, must be kept within its banks.
SPEAKER_02: Otherwise, it overflows and causes a disaster If you've ever been in a region that has been flooded, you know the calamity that floodwaters can bring.
SPEAKER_02: And so while Paul paints this picture of this river that's abounded, he also gives it some banks.
SPEAKER_02: And the banks, but it's kept within those banks.
SPEAKER_02: And the banks are knowledge and discernment.
SPEAKER_02: See, when love flows indiscriminately, we love everything and sometimes even the wrong things.
SPEAKER_02: And so Paul says it well.
SPEAKER_02: He says, I want your love to grow and grow.
SPEAKER_02: I want it to abound, but in knowledge and discernment.
SPEAKER_02: And these form the banks of the river.
SPEAKER_02: Paul says, I want you to bound more and more in the knowledge of God so that you will be able to discern not what is okay, not what is good, but what is best.
SPEAKER_02: I want to give you knowledge.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to have knowledge to discern what is best so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Keep that love between the banks of knowledge and discernment.
SPEAKER_02: So number three, spiritual growth can be measured by a believer's abounding love for Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Now, the question that remains for you and me tonight is this.
SPEAKER_02: How do we measure up on this growth chart of spiritual maturity?
SPEAKER_02: How do we measure up?
SPEAKER_02: Are we measured?
SPEAKER_02: Are we just kind of random in our spiritual lives?
SPEAKER_02: Are we doing all that we can to participate in the ministry of the local church?
SPEAKER_02: What is our level of commitment to the ministry?
SPEAKER_02: And is our love for God's word and for each other abounding?
SPEAKER_02: Is it growing more and more?
SPEAKER_02: I may have shared this with you before, but when we lived in Texas, we had some friends who had a child who did not grow.
SPEAKER_02: He just didn't grow.
SPEAKER_02: He got to this certain age, and of course, you know, you're kind of watching your children grow, and it's just a natural thing, but he reached a certain age, and he stopped growing, did not grow.
SPEAKER_02: This was not some idiopathic short stature thing where you don't grow beyond a certain height.
SPEAKER_02: No, this was an evident disorder stemming from a dysfunction with Mark's pituitary gland.
SPEAKER_02: They discovered that at one point, and because Mark was not growing, it was a concern.
SPEAKER_02: And we watched them.
SPEAKER_02: They were good friends of ours.
SPEAKER_02: Mark's parents did everything that they could to find out why he is not growing.
SPEAKER_02: They took him to specialists.
SPEAKER_02: They took him to clinics.
SPEAKER_02: They administered medications.
SPEAKER_02: They conducted tests.
SPEAKER_02: We had prayer services.
SPEAKER_02: We anointed him.
SPEAKER_02: We did everything that we could to see if Mark would start growing.
SPEAKER_02: And I don't know know what all that they did, but his ungrowth was not natural.
SPEAKER_02: And so there was concern.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what all that they did.
SPEAKER_02: I know some of the things they did, but the last time I saw Mark, he was a teenager and he was tracking in height just like everyone else his age.
SPEAKER_02: Something happened where he began to grow.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if it was a medical procedure or not, but the work that went into discover why he was not growing yielded the fruitfulness of his growth.
SPEAKER_02: See, everything that has life grows.
SPEAKER_02: And I believe God's word for us today is a call to take a measurement of our spiritual lives.
SPEAKER_02: And if we're not growing, if we're not growing, let's give some attention to why, because to live is Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Can I just tell you that serving Grand Point Church is nothing less than a joy ride.
SPEAKER_02: It is nothing less than a joy ride.
SPEAKER_02: As we get to work together and as I get to see you and see you stepping up and stepping out and growing in your spiritual lives and seeing new people come to Christ and seeing our young adults step up into leadership and on fire for God, there's so much joy in this house.
SPEAKER_02: But what brings it even greater joy, not only in the house, but in your life, is when you step up and step out in spiritual growth.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you need to take some measurements to see where you're at?
SPEAKER_02: Are you more involved than you were last year this time?
SPEAKER_02: Are you more in love with God's word than you were last year this time?
SPEAKER_02: Are you more in love with God's people and with him than you were last year at this time?
SPEAKER_02: How's your growth?
SPEAKER_02: Where do you measure up on the spiritual growth chart?
SPEAKER_02: I ask myself the same question.
SPEAKER_02: because it's all of us growing together.
SPEAKER_02: And that's what Paul discovered.
SPEAKER_02: That's what brought him the greatest joy.
SPEAKER_02: That's what brought him gratitude as he circled around 10 years later to the church at Philippi.
SPEAKER_02: He saw the spiritual growth.
SPEAKER_02: He saw what God was doing in these people and how they were responding to him.
SPEAKER_02: He saw their growth, filled him with joy and gratitude.
SPEAKER_02: See, God is delighted in who you are.
SPEAKER_02: God loves you.
SPEAKER_02: God has that plan for you.
SPEAKER_02: Perhaps he's keeping you from going here or from going there because he wants you here.
SPEAKER_02: And when you end up where God wants you, there is growth in you, there's joy in you, and the church abounds, abounds in its effectiveness.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna ask you to stand with me tonight.
SPEAKER_02: I wanna pray over you.
SPEAKER_02: I wanna pray, you know, if I could, if I'm not the Apostle Paul, I'm not gonna pretend to, but I think if I have anything in common with the Apostle Paul, it is that I have joy in my heart because of you.
SPEAKER_02: I have gratitude in my heart, in my life because of what I see God doing through you.
SPEAKER_02: There's so much joy, so much gratitude because of your stepping up and stepping down.
SPEAKER_02: But there's more to come.
SPEAKER_02: There's more to come.
SPEAKER_02: So God, I pray tonight for this service.
SPEAKER_02: I pray for everyone in this room tonight.
SPEAKER_02: I pray for everyone up here on the stage.
SPEAKER_02: I pray for myself.
SPEAKER_02: And God, I pray.
SPEAKER_02: I pray that we would all regularly take these spiritual measurements.
SPEAKER_02: Simply ask the questions, am I doing what God prepared for me to do?
SPEAKER_02: Am I going Am I going where God wants me to go?
SPEAKER_02: Am I serving where God has prepared for me and gifted me to serve?
SPEAKER_02: Am I giving, am I going, am I doing everything that God has planned for me?
SPEAKER_02: God, maybe there's some of us that feel like life is on a detour right now, and I pray that instead of seeing it as a detour, we'd see it as a destination.
SPEAKER_02: And we would look at that destination and say, God, I thought it was this, but what do you have for me over here?
SPEAKER_02: What do you have for me in this new place?
SPEAKER_02: God, I just pray that you would stir within us that desire to grow and be those women and men who serve you with everything that we have and thus discover the joy of being in a relationship with you.
SPEAKER_02: I pray all this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, thanks for joining us for today's message.
SPEAKER_01: I hope it was encouraging to your heart and it challenged your faith.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I want to challenge you to do next.
SPEAKER_01: Let it transform how you measure spiritual maturity in your own life.
SPEAKER_01: Next week we're continuing our series in Philippians as we explore the difference between happiness and joy.
SPEAKER_01: Trust me, you won't want to miss it.
SPEAKER_01: Until then, remember that life doesn't have to be easy to be joyful.
SPEAKER_01: Because joy flows from the presence of Jesus, not an absence of problems.
SPEAKER_01: We love you.
SPEAKER_01: We're grateful for you and we're praying for you.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll see you next time.
SPEAKER_01: For resources to connect with our church family, feel free to visit us at grandpoint.church.
SPEAKER_01: Keep living for Christ.