Philippians 1:1-11 (Christian Leadership)

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Join us as we welcome visiting paster, Andrew Smith, as he unpacks the Word for us this morning!

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Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day sermon We pray that as we declare the
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Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who
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Christ is May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you
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I bring you greetings from Bethlehem Bible Church I'm very happy to be here.
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I love this church body so much I found out this morning that when
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I sent my wife to the chocolate Expo Who went to the chocolate Expo just one literally one person, okay?
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I found out that when I sent my wife to the chocolate Expo that someone was there and said oh hi I know you
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I recognize you by your skirt, which is kind of a weird thing But you know what hey whatever it takes the
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Lord knits together the hearts of his people does he not and indeed? He has knit us together it is
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Always a joy for me to come and serve at the Shepherds Church I got a text message from Pastor Kendall last week or something like that And he said hey, you know we have this need would you be willing to help serve and and I was like oh sweet I just started studying the book of Philippians.
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I get to really dig into actually. I think I said new phone Who dis I think that's actually how I responded to you, but I I've now saved him in the phone, so okay
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We're good to go all right So leadership is is a funny thing and I found out that Derek has been going through a kind of a leadership seminar thing and I've done some very similar things in my past There's a lot of different philosophies for leadership
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I studied some of these like I said in grad school that one of them is this idea called true north some people have heard
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Of true north it's pioneered by a man named Bill George It's being replicated across the world the visionary sets the the goal for the company and everybody
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Follows along there's the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership from New York Times best -selling author
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John C Maxwell some of you are smiling in the audience I even studied
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Andrew Dubrin's masterful volume leadership research findings practice and skills
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Which is an amazing multi -use volume it has great leadership tactics
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It also works very well as a doorstop and a sleep aid so but anyway
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At my real job. I am a leader I I get to use some of these tactics some of these these things that I've learned they help with communication and and My ability to serve the people that I am you know in charge of the people that I represent
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But the thing is that you're not here to hear me talk about grad school, right? Maybe Derek's gonna ask me questions afterwards, but I don't know whatever
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But that's not what you're here for you're here to to hear about the Word of God but I'm a very giving person, so I'm gonna give you something that I learned
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Maybe in grad school. I don't know I don't know before that For free and if you're super smart, you'll have heard this one before This is a this is a call response.
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We have call and response by the way I do need to negotiate with BBC for a higher budget for blow pops
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I think that's They're all over the place this morning. I'm loving it This is call and response, this is a leadership concept.
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Are you ready is everybody ready lead by See you know You're all worldly No, here's the thing this isn't a leadership concept right this isn't because some
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Harvard Business Review guy Was really smart and figured this thing out and put it in some textbook and now it's point one of 75 ,000 points no it is a biblical concept
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Yes This is awesome, this has never happened to BBC.
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I can tell you that much I Texted my wife this morning.
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I said it is absolute chaos this morning. I am loving it. It's so fun.
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It's it's the blow pops Okay, yeah, maybe you're right. Maybe it is the blow pops.
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Okay. Maybe I'm not gonna get clearance for that a part of my budget Okay, anyway Lead by example is this biblical concept
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Except Jesus led by example Jesus trained his disciples, and then what did his disciples do?
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His disciples trained disciples, and how did they do that? They didn't do it by going to class they did it by living together
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They did it by working together by working side by side by serving in the body
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Together and throughout the acts of the Apostles penned by Luke we see this over and over and over again this morning
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We're gonna look at the least of Jesus disciples
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Certainly in his letter to the Corinthians Paul describes himself as exactly that right the one untimely born
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But some might regard Paul as the greatest of Jesus Jesus's disciples
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We're gonna look at the Apostle Paul this morning and how he did this exact thing that we're talking about how he led by Example in the book of Philippians, so if you'll open your
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Bibles with me to Philippians chapter 1 We're gonna be looking at leadership by example
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Let's go to the Lord before we read his word Heavenly Father We just thank you for all that you have given to us.
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We thank you father for Children for for life Lord We thank you for the joy that you have given us unvarnished joy knowing that we are
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Saved and sealed by your son and your spirit We praise you father for an opportunity to to talk about you this morning to worship you through the hearing of the
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Word of God We pray that you would bless this time that you would bless our fellowship rich fellowship
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Not only around coffee Lord But but also as we talk about life and we talk about all that we are
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Encountering in our lives because you have given them to us your name. We pray Amen, so now
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I will read Philippians chapter 1 verses 1 to 11 Paul and Timothy servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and the deacons grace to you and peace from God our
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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ I Thank my
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God in all of 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 and I am sure of this that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ It is right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart
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For you are all partakers with me of grace both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel
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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
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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 we first see
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Philippians in a New Testament context in the book of Acts and in Acts 15 16 Paul and Silas meet up with Timothy already described as a disciple and one night
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Acts 16 9 Paul sees a vision and a vision appeared to Paul in the night a
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Man of Macedonia was standing there urging him and saying come over to Macedonia and help us This is the
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Macedonian call when you hear someone talk about the great Macedonian call This is it Acts 16 verse 9 and when
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Paul had seen the vision immediately We sought to go on to Macedonia concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them now
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Sometimes I wish that our calling from God was this clear Right like Paul.
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I mean we hear Paul talk about himself. He was He was a Pharisee he was incredibly well trained he was smart he was a leader of his of the
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Jews I Don't really think it took all that training to figure out that God wanted him to go to Macedonia But they did so there they go
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Philippi is the first city that they came to now anybody know where Philippi is by the way
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I Didn't know until I looked at the you know 67th book of the Bible the book of Maps Philippi sits along this broad
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Road called the Ignatian Way if you actually look at even now there is the Via Ignatia You can go travel it if you want to I'm sure there are very expensive touring companies that you could pay to go
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You know follow the missionary journeys of Paul or something like that, but the area around Philippi was rich in natural resources
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It was a wealthy city They had a lot anyone traveling through this area would have to go there and knock over Derek's note
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Anyone who traveled through this area would have to go through the city because it was the main thoroughfare It's like well. I mean if you're going from the east side of Massachusetts to the west side of Massachusetts You're probably gonna hit the pike at some point.
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That's just how it is right to make it even better. It was a Roman Province so a lot of the overbearing governance of Rome wasn't present there because they had
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Elected or appointed officials, and they didn't have to worry about a lot of these things But it but it also meant that Philippi was like little
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Rome. They wanted to be like Rome They did a lot of the things that Rome did They worshiped lots of Roman gods and Egyptian gods in the city gods
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Philippi was a Syncretistic city which kind of meant that they would take this from this gun and that one this sounds familiar to our culture doesn't it?
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Right they would just take all these ideas and put them together, and you know whatever you know It's the Sheila ism if you've ever heard of Sheila ism my pastor talks about this
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He knew someone named Sheila back in LA or something She would always say oh well
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You know this part works for me, and that part works for her, so maybe it's a BBC cultural thing we talk about Sheila ism anyway
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But there was no synagogue in the city so despite all of this stuff There was no synagogue which basically meant there were very few
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Jewish men who were willing to come together and form a temple form Synagogue so Paul and Silas and Timothy did some investigation
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And they found out that there were some people meeting outside the city at the riverside So they go out to the river and and they teach the women who are gathered there at 1613 we see
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Lydia become the first recorded convert in Macedonia This Philippian church this tiny church began in her house, but Christian life in Philippi was difficult
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Paul Silas and Timothy they ended up having to leave Before they were done before this process of planting the church and developing the church which usually would take one to two years
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Was done they had they had to get out they got arrested because it's Literally one of my favorite passages in Acts where Paul gets annoyed at this girl
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Who's following them around saying you know all these things and so he casts the demon out they get arrested Then they find out all these are
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Romans And they get freaked out and then there's an earthquake and and the bars fall off and the Philippian jailer freaks out because he thinks
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They're gonna escape, but they stay and he and the Philippian jailer gets converted. It's a crazy story. It's nuts
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But all this stuff happens, and they're like all right We gotta we gotta go we got it. We have to move on And So Paul always wanted to go back
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He always wanted to go back to Philippi his work There wasn't finished, but he couldn't he's it literally says the spirit prevented him from going we don't know what that means
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But but he couldn't go back even though the church there continued to support him And so this is the context this is all context setting for our book for the letter of Paul to the
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Philippian Church It starts like this Paul and Timothy servants of Christ Jesus To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons now
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I Stood up. This is in my notes, but I stood up and what does pastor Kendall do he gets you all to clap for me
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I? Don't know that was weird, but but Paul and Timothy self -described as slaves of Jesus Christ very different very unlike our modern culture our modern parlance
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We are slaves of Jesus Christ. We are fully committed, and we are bound in duty to our
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Messiah possibly two of the most important New Testament figures after the resurrection of Jesus Christ described themselves as slaves
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When Paul writes to the Corinthian Church in 1st Corinthians chapter 2 he says when I came to you brothers I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or of wisdom
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For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him Crucified I already mentioned
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Paul. He's he's well -heeled. He's well educated. He is a Pharisee He's the Pharisee of Pharisees circumcised on the eighth day all of these things he knows how to convince people he lived in Rome They debate all the time.
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He knows what to do, but what does he do he puts himself on? the back burner He displays the
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Word of God the power of God why to lift God up to make God the central focus
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That's what a servant does He puts his master first Steve Lawson writes about Paul and his feelings for the
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Philippians And he says this the relationship that the Apostle Paul had developed with the believers in Philippi was a close bond marked by a deep
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Affection Paul was the founding pastor of this church and had already invested much of his life in them
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He warmly refers to them as my joy and my crown in chapter 4 this book reveals the depth of authentic Christian fellowship between Believers right and we and we see this throughout the book of Philippians.
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I would commend to you to read Philippians this week It's not long and it is just a book that is packed with unity and packed with joy
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MacArthur calls Philippians the sunniest epistle of Paul I read this book.
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I can't help but smile while I'm reading to myself, right? Grace to you and peace from God our
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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ these men write grace unmerited demerited grace a Free gift from God the
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Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. We know this from Ephesians 2 grace and peace I Talked about what
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Philippi was like it's hardly a comfortable place for Christians to be there's all this fighting There's issues with the
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Romans. He says have peace It's a very Pauline kind of a greeting But it doesn't make it any less impactful that we would read it here and Boyce writes about this and and he makes this important Point he says you always see grace precede peace
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You always see grace precede peace He says that in God's order of things God's hand is always there in grace before any spiritual blessing
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That is so in order that salvation might be entirely from him That's the picture that we have
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And so here we are joy and unity the focuses of this wonderful book opened to the
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Church of God in Philippi one man calls this book intensely personal gospel focused doctrinally rich prayer inclining holiness growing eternity gazing and joy producing
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That is the book of Philippians But undergirding all of this is the why why is this book joyful?
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Why does this book promote unity think about what's happening with this church? They're under persecution
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Paul is a thousand miles away in prison joy unity
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The situation doesn't look good, but strain says in Philippians Paul models for us a godly response to persecution
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Writing as a man in chains yet rejoicing in the welfare of the church and the spread of the good news
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He teaches us how to think Christianly even heroically about life and death in the service of Jesus Christ Now our picture of leadership is starting to emerge
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We're starting to understand what Paul is doing when we consider how to think Christianly as a
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Christian when we consider our place we can't help but come together for the common joy that is knowing our Lord Jesus Christ and that's what drives us
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Chapter 1 verse 27 listen to this encouragement from Paul to the church Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ So that whether I come and see you or I am absent
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I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel
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This is the overarching structure of Philippians Philippians chapter 1
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Show and tell you guys do show and tell I guess showing tells a little bit less interesting with your homeschooled
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My son I'm public school dad I do show and tell Show and tell okay verses 1 through 26 and we're only gonna get through 11 today verses 1 through 26 are
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Paul Showing the Philippians how to act verses 27 and following he is telling them He is exhorting them, and we'll see a little bit of a mix
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We'll see some telling in our passage this morning But this is show and tell one things that my pastor always says is listen if you have kids
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Another one of those things for free. I'm very giving this morning if you have kids And you and they're doing something they ought not do you can't just say don't do that you have to redirect
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Don't just say no Say do this instead because Kids will do anything.
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I mean they're crazy right a little bit, but but yeah And that's what's happening here this this telling right this redirecting
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Okay, so let's come back to our passage. Let's come to to chapter chapter 1 verse 3 to see how
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Paul Shows his example to this church We're gonna look at three ways three ways the
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Apostle Paul led the Philippian church by example three ways He shows the proper way to act as a Christian you'd be a church leader father spiritual father mother small group leader
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Maybe just a friend who knows the word Whatever it is Paul lavishes his love on this church through this gentle leadership by example and the first of these
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Not hard to figure out Is in verse 3 Thankfulness you see it with me
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I thank my God in all my remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine for you all
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Making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now
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It's like basically everything Paul writes these verses are dripping with theology every single word here is specific
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Look closely Paul's writing to who the Philippians right, but he doesn't thank the
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Philippians Who does he thank? God Matthew Henry reminds us
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He says it encourages us in prayer and enlarges the heart in praise to see every mercy coming from the hand of God as our
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Listen Whatsoever is the matter of our rejoicing ought to be the matter of our
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Thanksgiving what we have the comfort of God must have the glory of That's what
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I do all things in him who gives me strength means by the way Everything is from him
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Paul models for us always looking heavenward when considering our blessings Paul is thankful to God But there's more he says
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I thank my God in all my remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine for you all
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He tells us that whenever he's in prayer whenever he's praying he remembers his spiritual children in Philippi And they're mired in this conflict in this in this muck with others in the city
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The church isn't perfect right if we look at a chapter 4 we see that there's some kind of problem between uotia and Syntyche We don't really know what it is, but Paul encourages them to make peace with one another
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So we even see that there's a picture here that something's going wrong, but Paul doesn't pick size. He doesn't say well, you know
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Uotia I loved but Syntyche I hated to borrow some other biblical language. He doesn't say anything like that He didn't say well. I'm gonna pray for Syntyche, but uotia you're on your own.
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He doesn't do anything like that That's not what he does. He says every prayer of mine for you all
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This is love and this is leadership earnestly desiring for God's blessing on the entire church And I kind of I kind of Hinted at this next point that there's always this constant in Paul's prayer life.
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You see it. What does he say? He says in all my remembrance always in prayer for you all
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Paul is careful when he prays He gets on his knees or I don't know his at this point
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He's are probably bad. So sits on his bed or lays on the floor or whatever it is that he does
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He's not just kind of like well Should probably play pray for the Philippians, I guess
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I don't know. I mean Ephesians is a mess, you know Corinth is it is that like it's not what he's doing
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He is purposefully praying it is planned organized and deliberate I don't know if any of you have like prayer cards that you pray through.
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I like the Family of the week. I texted one of my deacon buddies. I was like do we got to start doing this is a great deliberate planned prayer
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All right He knows who when and why he is praying and he also
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Doesn't pray begrudgingly Now We've all had that moment.
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You've had a long week at work Maybe you slept badly because it was like randomly 85 degrees in the middle of April hypothetically
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Your alarm goes off and your brain says devotions, but your heart says snooze, right?
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I've been there Three days ago, I Understand but Paul prays with joy look at the end of verse 4
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I thank my God in all my remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine for you all Making my prayer after 15 minutes after my alarm has gone off.
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No with joy. He says Henry again as holy joy is the heart and soul of thankful praise
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So thankful praise is the lip and language of holy joy By the way,
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I also commend to you Matthew Henry. He's got some Great stuff Have you ever heard of him? Unity and joy are are all over this book
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Paul references joy 16 times in this book either his own or in exhortation to those in Philippi This is deep spiritual earnest joy
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Lawson writes it such joy is a fruit of the spirit that only God can produce the
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Evidence of grace is a deep gladness in the heart that knows all is well in the
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Lord Okay, so so in this in this picture of thankfulness, we've seen three prongs
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First he's thankful not to the Philippians but to God for the Philippians and for what he has done there second we've seen that Paul's prayer is careful and deliberate and planned and Third we've seen that Paul prays with joy thankfulness and joy are are
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Intermingled as we consider all that we are to be thankful for how can you not be joyful?
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And the inverse is true as well And that brings us to chapter chapter chapter verse 5
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Paul shows us his example and now we ask this question. Why? Why is
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Paul so thankful to the Lord about Philippi? Let's look.
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I thank my God verse 3 and all my remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine for you All making my prayer with joy why because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now
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That sounds great. Doesn't that sound nice? partnership in the gospel the gospel the
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Gospel Evangelion the good news that is the heart of our faith everything that we've seen thankfulness joy unity
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All of these things come from the wellspring of the gospel Paul recognizes how the
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Philippians have partnered with him in this But wait a minute there are a thousand miles apart
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So What? From the first day until now this is 10 years
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Paul is in Rome Philippi a thousand miles away across the Adriatic Sea It's 300 bucks by air, by the way, just in case you want to know
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I looked it up last night when I was finishing up my studying Thank you
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Google, okay Google So to help us understand this let's look at this word partnership
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Guiding principle don't get into the Greek do that This word partnership is koinonia.
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I bet some of you have heard this word before Koinonia, it's often translated fellowship fellowship.
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It's a good thing coffee and muffins. I like coffee and muffins While social fellowship is wonderful.
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That's not really what this word means again. Listen to Boyce He said university fellows.
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Oh There's a connection. Somebody just made it can I wait fellow? I've heard that okay University fellows would share not what is of interest to merely two or more of them
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But what is held common by them all? Their fellowship consists in their mutual interest and they and the share that they have in it
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This is the way the Bible regards fellowship and it was this for which Paul was so thankful in the case of the young church at Philippi They may have had things in common, but Paul is not speaking of these
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He is thankful for their share in the gospel of God They had been taken up into a divine fellowship
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They were united not on a social level, but by their commitments to the truths of the gospel that is biblical fellowship and There's many kind of ways to look at this fellowship
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Every single commentary had like a different way to break this thing down. So I picked one with only four points There was one with 12.
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We'll be okay. We'll make it Four ways in which this commitment this fellowship took form fellowship in the message fellowship in money fellowship in mission and fellowship in maturity
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Message money mission maturity. I'm gonna guess that commentator was probably
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Baptist, but I From the very beginning when these men entered
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Philippi they met with people who would support them And that's what happened at the riverside Lydia believed and was baptized.
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How much did she support them? She invited them into her house That's where the church started and think about who's in this church at this point
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Who are the who are the players that we've seen we've seen Lydia seller of purple We've seen a former slave girl
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Whose demon was exercised by Paul which is what led to their arrest. By the way, we've seen a
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Roman jailer Right or at least someone who worked for Rome. I mean, these are the people that are in the church
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What common ground do they have? I don't know what it would be. But the the fellowship that tied them together was not shared experience and Yet the very fact that this church continued to exist and said good report through Epaphroditus showed
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Paul That their unity was in the message of the gospel Because just like when
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Paul explained to the Corinthians What did he know when he went to the Philippians the same thing the Word of God That's what they had
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First the message then fellowship in money the Philippian church supported Paul we see this in chapter 4
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Paul writes I am well supplied having received Epaphroditus having received from Epaphroditus the gifts that you sent a fragrant offering a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God Monetary support looks different now you have like a website or something where you can give to the
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Shepherds Church Which is pretty I guess great. I don't know There's electronic financial support systems
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But it's yet another way that we can model our behavior after the fellowship that the Philippians shared with Paul they supported him financially
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They also supported him in mission message money Mission the
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Philippians didn't call up like the United Macedonian delivery service and like package some stuff up and ship it over to Rome They sent
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Epaphroditus Epaphroditus was probably Like their associate pastor or something to that effect
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I mean, this is this is not like some random person who is like I don't have a job
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I'll go to Rome whatever now. This is an important person to them. They sent Epaphroditus Ferguson writes that your checkbook is important But it is not all
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Important it is for example never money wasted when we send people to encourage missionaries as well as provide them with financial support finally fellowship in maturity
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Paul knew this church from infancy. He started this church But I keep going back to Corinthians.
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This church was not like the Corinthian Church That ought to have grown past taking in milk first Corinthians 3
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Listen to how Paul writes to the Philippians later on in chapter 3 He says I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus verse 4 chapter 3 verse 14 let those of us who are mature think this way, right?
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He's he's coupling himself with them. And if any if in anything you think otherwise God will reveal that also to you
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Only let us hold true to what we have attained brothers verse 17 Join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us
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The Philippians were growing This letter was written 10 years later and Paul saw evidence of continued growth in this church and rejoiced in that Paul is deeply humbly and thoroughly thankful to God for this church
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And he is honest with them he doesn't shy away from telling that he models thinking
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Christianly to them his fellowship with them is deep Referring even to their mutual fellowship in the sufferings of Jesus Christ Far beyond gathering over coffee.
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This is earnest love For one another one commentator Closes his commentary on this by saying real gospel partnership endures and perseveres and sticks with it to the end
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It is not a temporary flash of activity or excitement It is the stable pattern of Christian living in the fellowship of the church
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It's easy to pray and give and go once or twice when we're feeling benevolent and generous
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But the authentic partnership that the gospel creates keeps on praying and keeps on giving and keeps on Going so Paul models thankfulness he also leads the
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Philippian church by Encouraging them. This is our second way that that Paul leads this church and we see this in verses 6 through 8
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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 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
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Both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel for God is my witness how
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I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus What an incredible encouragement this is
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In the midst of these trials to hear from their spiritual father that he has the full confidence that God will not
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Abandon them Regardless of what they do is an incredible source of Comfort Hendrickson says note how closely the
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Apostle links human perseverance verse 5 with divine preservation Any doctrine of salvation which does not do full justice to both these elements is unscriptural
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Although it is true that God brings his work to completion It is equally true that when
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God has once begun his work in men the latter by no means remains merely passive instruments
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This is totally consistent by the way With what Paul says in chapter 2 when he says in verse 12 therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed do so now not
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Only as in my presence, but much more in my absence It's mom and dad are right there
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Probably gonna obey them mom and dad are on like a trip or something or you know You're home with the babysitter who's on their phone doing this like it's a little bit harder to obey
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But but that's what this is saying here, then he says Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling
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For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure
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This is not Salvific our salvation is something that is done to us
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But this continued work of sanctification is exactly what Paul is encouraging the Philippians with in verse 6 again only possible through God I Tried to kind of paint a picture of this and it turns out that as an adult especially as an adult man
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It this is a really hard picture to kind of concoct to kind of figure out And here's what
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I came up with probably because my children were running around like maniacs Do you ever?
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Drive somewhere you have a kid in the backseat and they fall asleep You pick them up you put them in their bed and the next morning they wake up You remember that feeling you fell asleep in the car you woke up in your bed.
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You know everything was gonna be okay or If you're that kid and you wake up, and you can feel dad carrying you
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You know I don't get carried much anymore Kendall's probably big enough to pick me up, but You know
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I just think about that with my daughter who's now 14 I haven't picked her up in a while But you know when she would kind of wake up and she'd look at me and she'd smile and she kind of knows her
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My shoulder that feeling that comfort everything's gonna be okay, don't worry about it daddy's got you that feeling
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Is what's happening here that feeling is what Paul is talking about when he says
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I? Am sure of this that he who began a good work, and you will bring it to completion
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This is the language of John 6 Jesus speaking all that the father gives to me will come to me
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And whoever comes I will not cast out Before I've come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me and this is the will
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Of him who sent me that I should lose nothing of All that he has given me
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Our perfection will be made complete in the day of Christ Romans 8 nothing not even ourselves can separate us from the love of God Paul saw himself in in many ways as one of the
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Philippians and he describes in verse 7 how dear they are to him By describing his relationship with the
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Philippians is having them in his heart He's describing his as one man said deep -seated passion that has endured over the years
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Like two pieces of metal welded together His entire being is forged to them by the unbreakable bond of the
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Spirit What a description Paul returns to fellowship again in his encouragement of the
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Philippians We see partakers here in verse 7, but guess what? That is the same root word as what we saw in verse 5 koinonia
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Fellowship, but but what does this mean when when he says that the
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Philippians were partakers of me with me of grace both in my imprisonment and In the defense and confirmation of the gospel.
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Well, they weren't in Rome, right? They were a thousand miles away. We've already said this but they supported
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Paul one man wrote that they were ready to lay down their comforts and their Reputations and their very lives for the gospel in solidarity with Paul they would link arms with him and they would defy the world the flesh and The devil for the sake of the cause of Jesus Christ Christ This is a united church that loved
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Paul so deeply that he says in verse 8 that he yearned for the Philippian Church with the affection of Christ Jesus He is literally saying here.
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I love you all the way down in my guts Yep All the way down in my guts.
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This is the word literally means intestines This is the first Greek word
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I ever learned and it was well before I took a class in anything But it sounded cool and my pastor said it and it hasn't left my mind in fact
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I was reading this and I was looking at a commentary and it says oh this word means intestines. There's like oh, that's Splankna Splankna Right.
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See it's one of those words. It's like I'm not gonna forget that like Splankna and Gungus miss Those are two words that I'm just never gonna forget
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Talk to me about them after if you want to know what they mean, but Splankna that's the word here. I love you all the way down from the tip of my head to the bottom of my toes
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I love you so much. That's the idea here right in our kind of modern language. I love you with every fiber of my being
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That encouragement that leadership from Paul. Could you imagine by the way if your boss was like that? I Got you.
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I love you. I'm thankful for you. Oh I'm gonna show up on time tomorrow. I made him bring a coffee with me, right?
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This Drove the Philippian Church to action the church dug in they worked they served they preached the gospel they matured as Saints They remembered chapter 3 joined in imitating
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Paul. That's what he says and they did it So we've seen Paul's leadership through Thanksgiving We've seen his leadership through encouragement and now we're gonna look at verses 9 to 11
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Balls Paul's biblical leadership through his mission for his charge leaders build people up They equip them
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They teach them they show them their value and they charge them to excellence
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Christians are equipped to serve the Lord through what through obedience to him Christians are taught by other Christians via discipleship
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Christians find our worth in Jesus Christ and we are charged to carry forth a gospel message in Our last point we're gonna see four ways that Paul charges the
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Philippian Church Voice writes about this. He says God is somewhat like a father who is raising a large family
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He is pleased to have that family and he's delighted that you are a member of it, but he is not satisfied only with that He also wants you to grow up and be a good citizen
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Spiritually speaking he wants productive children. He wants your life to be fruitful with good works
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This is the message of Philippians 1 9 through 11. So let's look at that together
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Philippians 1 9 to 11 and it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment
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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 now, this is a very
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Pauline thing. This is one sentence All right If you look at it, there's no periods in there.
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It's all commas This is a building sentence to look at what he says. He says it is my prayer okay, so that verse 10 and Verse 10 be filled with verse 11
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These build on each other these four things they build together and the first of these Just like everything else that I've talked about this morning comes directly from the text verse 9 grow in love
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This is agape love probably most of us have heard that I've used like 10 Greek words this morning shame on me
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Most of us know this word though agape. It's a word that is all over Paul's writing agape Love is is unconditional love that that drives and is driven by action not emotion
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All right, that's agape love Hendrickson writes that the love of which Paul speaks accordingly is intelligent and purposeful delight in the triune
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God the spontaneous and grateful outgoing of the entire personality to him who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ and consequently as a result
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The deep and steadfast yearning for the progress of his kingdom and for the true prosperity of all of his redeemed
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Doesn't that sound like what Paul is doing here, right? Remember imitate me not just hey imitate me but imitate me as I imitate
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Christ and so when we when we look at this Right this this agape love from God We see it in action here
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Although the Philippian church was doing well and maturing and growing Paul writes that they should first Thessalonians 4
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Excel still more you're doing a great job. Keep up. Keep it up You also notice that Paul doesn't really say love your brother and sister in the faith more
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Love everybody more It doesn't even say love God more He just says it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more
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This is because agape love this is the love that we see in John 3 16, by the way Is a reciprocal love modeled by God the father to his children.
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We love him because he what first John first loved us We love him because he first loved us
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Paul exhorts the Philippians to grow in love because our love for one another listen is indexed on our love for God That's where it comes from Lawson wrote obeying the greatest commandment
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Which is to love God with one's entire being is the key to keeping the second greatest commandment
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Which is to love one's neighbor the former love God Produces the latter and notice what it says at the at the end of verse 9.
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It just doesn't it doesn't just say like Just love more. No, he says that this love would grow with knowledge and discernment and Really this reinforces us as English readers who you know, it doesn't say agape.
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It's his love So like what does that mean? But it reinforces for us that this is not an emotional love
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Right, this isn't you know puppy love or whatever. This is a love that desires the best for one another
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You see a brother stumble and sin help them Encourage them point them to Scripture if you see a sister who's struggling lift them up love them
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If there is a bad egg in your flock confront them Knowledge and discernment will drive you
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Christian to have courage to love your entire spiritual family enough to deal with Something bad going on within It is still love even if it
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Isn't cherubs and valentines This love is the execution of Christian maturity in service to preserve and lift up your brothers and sisters.
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That is agape love And so Paul exhorts the Philippians to grow in that love grow in love next he encourages them to approve what is excellent
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Verse 10 approve what is excellent grow in love so that you may
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Approve what is excellent? How can you do that?
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through knowledge and discernment Which is what we see at the end of verse 9 One man said
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The approval of things that are excellent in the Christian life is always Determined and directed by love if your love abounds with a biblically grounded knowledge of the
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Lord Jesus Christ If you really know him and if it is characterized by a mature wise and spiritual discernment
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You will identify excellence in terms of what honors God and blesses others
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It will always be a loving excellence loving toward our Savior and loving toward his church
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These are these first two active exhortations built on one another demonstrated by Paul And they yield excellent results number one grow in love number two approve
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What is excellent and we'll see two more points. These are more passive, which is interesting
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Second half of verse 10 you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ Some translations use the word sincere instead of pure you might have seen this and sincere comes from this term sine sera
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Anybody know what that means by the way? anyone Why not I might as well ask it means without wax and what would happen in in in the biblical times
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Is that you would make pottery and you would put pottery in the in the kiln and it would you know? Roast bake what does it do bake bake it would bake and you'd pull it out and once in a while You know there'd be some cracks in it
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So what would they do they would fill those cracks with some wax some nice hard wax and you know
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They polish it up. You couldn't even see it But what you would do is you would take a piece of pottery and you would hold it up to the light and The the pot would block the
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Sun, but the light would shine through The wax and so they would start to put a stamp on good pots sine sera without wax
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Right sine sera Pure this is a pure pot. This is a perfect pot, and that's what this term.
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That's where we get the word sincere It doesn't mean perfect by the way important fact
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But it means blameless Confess your mistakes when you make them if you sin Confess those confess those to the person you've sinned against confess those to God My moment of confession in two weeks.
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I have to fly to North Carolina because I got a speeding ticket at a mandatory court appearance and my entire tactic is
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I Messed up. I'm sorry. That's pretty much it. That's all I've got I mean what am I gonna say to the guy?
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I mean he got me on radar, but I wouldn't say anything anyway because Pure and blameless it doesn't mean that you don't make mistakes.
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It means that you own them Paul is exhorting the Philippians to not stumble into a moral failing not don't make a mistake
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But not stumble into a moral failing that would bring them or anyone else down in the long term.
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It's not sinlessness But it's living a lifestyle that would not be ensnared by the world.
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That's the picture strange says Be much in the main things
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Be much in the word be often on your knees Pray with and for your family delight in the
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Lord's Day savor the preaching of the gospel Go hard after the excellent things of the
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Christian life for this is their eventual goal that you might be found an authentic real sincere vessel on that great and final day
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Go hard after the excellent things I'm just a cause to get that printed you can put that above the door go hard there you go and Finally verse 11 we've come all the way to verse 11
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Paul pushes the Philippians to be filled with righteous fruit This is the spiritual progression of these three verses.
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This is a direct result of living a pure and blameless life Again the fruit of righteousness is not salvific
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But it is representative of a sanctified state Ephesians 2 it is
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God's purpose to produce such good works in all believers because we are his workmanship Created in Christ Jesus for good works, which
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God prepared beforehand that we would walk in them but we ought to be reminded by one man who said that righteous fruit comes only as I run to and rest in and cling to and Depend on and savor and cherish and hunger more for more of Jesus Christ Jesus is the object and determinist of our pursuit of Christian holiness he is
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The most excellent thing of them all that's another word.
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We don't see often terminus Like that word the object the end we
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Mentioned the Nicene Creed earlier and in the Christian religion We use catechisms to help us hold fast to fundamental truths about our faith in a simple question -and -answer
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Format we can train ourselves new believers our children whomever it might be to understand foundational reformed orthodoxy
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One of those catechisms arguably the most famous catechism the
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Westminster shorter catechism opens with a question and it says
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What is the chief end of man? Have a feeling some of you know, the answer
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Is to glorify God and enjoy him forever And if you look at verse 11
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Dad, I'm supposed to get a Snickers for that or what? I don't know what your thing is But that's what we did at home. I think it was
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Lifesavers for us, but whatever This is the truth that Paul ends this passage with in verse 11
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Paul tells the Philippians that he prays for them fervently in verse 4 and as we close our passage
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That's what 9 to 11 is. This is his prayer This is his prayer
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And it is my prayer He says that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment
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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 Everything that you do to the glory and praise of God Paul Their leader the founder of this church
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Really God is the founder of the church, but you know Paul planted the church He handed the baton to Timothy He handed it to Barnabas He handed it to the churches throughout his missionary journeys.
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He led them all contending for the faith living a life of thankfulness encouragement sincerity blamelessness and filled with the fruit of Righteousness now if if you're not a
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Christian a lot of this probably doesn't make sense. It's like okay. Well great nice message
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If You're not a Christian you must know that there is a terrible end
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For you that terminus. It's still a cool word, but it's not good for you Without an intercessor in Jesus Christ you will be condemned and you will live eternity being punished for your sins
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Don't want that for you. I don't want that for anyone I I Would plead with you to flee to the cross who is this
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Jesus that we talk about That all of these things are for Submit to the
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Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved but if you are a
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Christian if You do know Jesus Christ Well, you're not off the hook either
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Sorry You are called to imitate Paul as he imitates Jesus you like Paul's disciples before you are called to take the baton
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Paul models leadership so that we would learn it so that we would run the race
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So that we would keep the faith So that whenever that time is we might hand it off as well.
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Let's pray together Heavenly Father We just thank you for this amazing opportunity that you have given to us to come before you to sing praises to your name to Worship you through reading to worship you through singing to worship you through hearing the
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Word of God preached We thank you father for your encouragement. We thank you for the fellowship the deep
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Life fellowship that we have here. I thank you father for this amazing church in Chelmsford We just praise you we honor you