Partnership in the Gospel

Good morning.

My name is Matthew Capone, and I'm the assistant pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian

Church, and it's my joy to bring God's word to you today.

A special welcome if you are new or visiting with us.

We're glad you're here.

And we are glad you're here not because we are trying to fill seats, but because we're

following after Jesus, and we're following after him together as one community.

And we're convinced that there's no one so good that they don't need God's grace, and

no one so bad that they can't have it.

And so God has something to say to everyone, and everyone needs to hear what God has to

say.

Whether you're someone who's called yourself a Christian your entire life, or if you're

someone who doesn't call yourself a Christian.

Maybe you have doubts or questions or objections to Christianity.

God is going to speak to all of those things in his word, and so that's why we open up his

word every Sunday, so that we can hear from him.

If you've been with us the last several months, you know that we just finished a series in

the book of Ruth.

And now today we're going to be starting a series on the book of Philippians.

And Philippians is a letter.

It's a letter that's written to a church very much like our church.

We're going to see at the very beginning that this is a church that has saints, and it has

deacons, and it has elders, just like us.

And it's a letter written to a city very much like our city.

Philippi was a prominent and major city in Macedonia, just north of Greece, but it was also

a military city.

It was a military city because of its history.

It was a military city because many military families would settle there.

But most importantly, it was a military city because the Roman government had declared

it to be a Roman colony.

And so that meant that if you were a Roman citizen and a soldier, you could get special tax

benefits.

And so, of course, as you know, if there's a tax incentive, people are going to move in.

And so there's a great incentive for Roman citizens and for military families to be a part

of the city of Philippi.

And this church that was much like ours and a city that's much like ours had struggles

that were much like ours because they lived in a culture that worshipped the emperor rather

than Jesus.

And this was actually heightened by the fact that they were a Roman colony.

They experienced this at a greater intensity.

They were a church that, while they were working together, they sometimes struggled to figure out

how to do that.

We're going to see that the church in Philippi had trouble with unity.

People had very different ideas, perhaps, of what their ministry needed to look like

together.

And so Paul has to address that as well.

And it's to a group of people who are trying to hold fast to the gospel in the midst of people,

other teachers who are teaching them something false.

And the author, Paul, is writing to this church that he founded.

It's a church that he started.

And this church had been around for about 10 years at the time that he wrote the letter.

We've been around about 20 years, so twice as long, but this still wasn't a very old church.

And it was a church planter, a missionary, writing back to people he loved.

Writing about how they should handle all the difficulties that were in front of them.

And by the way, when Paul writes this, he's in prison.

He's in prison in Rome.

And he writes to a city, Philippi.

If you remember the story of Acts, it's a city where he was in prison.

Remember in Acts 16, it was when Paul converted the Philippian jailer and his family.

So he's writing from a prison to a city where he was in prison.

And yet, while he's in prison, he finds tremendous thanksgiving and joy.

And so our question this morning is, how exactly does Paul do that?

How does he find joy and thanksgiving in prison, in difficult circumstances,

when both himself and the people he's writing to are facing tremendous opposition?

So that's our question as we come to the letter to the Philippians.

Remember that this is God's word.

And God tells us that his word is more precious than gold, even the finest gold.

And that it is sweeter than honey, even honey that comes straight from the honeycomb.

And so we're going to turn to it now.

We're in Philippians chapter 1, starting at verse 1.

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

Please read with me.

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,

to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi,

with the overseers and deacons,

grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,

always, in every prayer of mine, for you all,

making my prayer with joy, verse 5,

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.

Please pray with me as we come to this portion of God's word.

Dear Father in heaven,

we thank you that you remember that we are just dust.

You know that we're feeble and frail.

You know that we need to hear your word just as much as the church in Philippi did in the first century.

That as we live in America, we need to know what you had to tell to those who lived under the Roman Empire.

And so we ask that you would do that.

That you would open our ears and our eyes.

That you'd soften our hearts.

That you'd help us to understand everything that you've written to us.

We ask all these things in the name of your Son.

Amen.

If you were watching the news early this year,

you might have seen that there was a record that was set.

And this was a record that was broken.

It had been set for,

it had not been broken for I think about maybe 10 or 20 years.

And it was the record for the highest enrollment for a class at Yale University.

This was just a normal class.

Wasn't advertised.

But as students found out about it,

word of mouth began to spread.

And so they started telling each other and registering.

And before they knew it,

there were almost 1,200 students registered for it.

And the previous record, I believe, was for about 1,050.

So this was about 150 more students than registered for any class

in the over 300-year history of Yale.

And it was so large that they had to find a new lecture hall.

They had to set up TVs and videos

so that people could sit in various places and listen to the lecturer.

They had to modify homework requirements

so that they could actually give grades to 1,200 students.

If you heard about this, you know what the class is about.

It was a class on happiness.

And so what Yale students were more interested in than anything else,

what they were eager to know about,

was how can we be happy?

And that's the question that many of us are asking as well, right?

That's the question our culture is asking.

How can we be happy?

What can we do to escape the feelings that we have, perhaps, of loneliness,

lack of satisfaction?

How can we escape the idea that maybe what we're doing isn't worthwhile?

How can we escape pain?

How can we instead feel at peace, at rest?

So on the one hand, it's an alluring question, right?

It's a tempting question.

It's a reason why so many Yale students flock to take this class.

On the other hand, if you know much about happiness,

you know that it's a cruel master.

Because happiness is dependent on what we do and what other people do.

And not only is it dependent on what we do and what other people do,

but it's dependent on our circumstances.

Some of you know from hard experiences

that you might not be able to achieve happiness right now.

Because if it's based on circumstances,

sometimes those are out of your control.

And if it's based on what you do and what other people do,

sometimes it's not enough.

Paul here in this letter that he's writing to Philippians is in prison.

He's in circumstances that would preclude happiness for him.

And he's writing to people who perhaps can't have happiness at that time either.

They're in the midst of conflict,

both from outside of themselves, inside of themselves,

opposition all around them.

And so what does Paul find instead?

Instead of happiness,

he finds what Christians throughout the ages have found.

He finds thanksgiving and joy.

And so as I said at the beginning,

we're going to be asking this question,

how does Paul find thanksgiving and joy in prison?

What does he give thanks for?

And why is he joyful?

If you're familiar with Paul's letters,

you know that the beginning of his letters

often functioned kind of like a movie trailer.

You know that if you go to see a movie in the theaters,

you're going to spend probably the first half hour or so,

at least it feels that long, right?

Watching trailers of movies that are going to come,

and you find out about plot points,

reasons you should come and see the next movie,

perhaps the main conflict that you're going to hear resolved.

And so you get an overall idea of what the movie is going to be about.

And Paul does that in every one of his letters.

Every single letter that Paul writes,

he has a trailer at the very beginning.

And this trailer helps us get a glimpse of all the different scenes,

helps us understand and see and anticipate what's about to come.

And he does this here in the chapter of Philippians.

By the way, it makes it really hard to preach.

It's easy to preach one scene.

When you have ten scenes in a trailer,

you think, what am I supposed to, you know,

what are we supposed to do with this?

And yet Paul gives us the key.

He gives us the key in his thanksgiving and joy,

and we see it in verse 5.

Gives us this important word, because.

Why is it that in verse 3 he thanks God?

And why in verse 4 is it always with joy?

Well, we find out that because in verse 5,

it's because of your partnership in the gospel

from the first day until now.

Paul's joy in his thanksgiving comes from this one thing,

this simple thing.

And this is going to be what's going to be given to us

in the rest of the book of Philippians.

It's partnership in the gospel.

And so this morning we're simply going to take a look at that.

What does Paul tell us here about the gospel?

And what does he tell us about partnership?

And what in the world do partnership in the gospel

have to do with each other?

First, let's look at the gospel.

It starts out in the very first verse.

He tells us,

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,

to all the saints in Christ Jesus.

And so the gospel, if it's about nothing else,

is about a man.

It's a man named Christ Jesus.

And this man is someone that Paul follows.

He's a real man.

He lived in time and space and history.

He was a Jewish man.

He was born.

He grew up.

He was a baby.

He was a toddler.

He was a child.

He worked with his father.

They were builders.

We're not sure if they were carpenters or stone builders,

but he worked with his hands.

And yet there was something different about this man,

Jesus Christ.

And that is his name wasn't just Jesus,

but it was Christ.

And Christ means anointed one.

And he was the anointed one that was the fulfillment

of all the Old Testament prophecies

about someone who would come and save God's people.

And so he wasn't just a carpenter

who worked with his father,

but he was also a savior who died,

that he had three years of ministry on this earth,

preaching and teaching about the fact

that we need reconciliation with God,

that God is pouring out his wrath on mankind.

He's pouring out his wrath

because of the ways that we have sinned against him.

He's pouring out his wrath

because of the way we treat each other,

pushing each other down

rather than lifting each other up.

He's pouring out his wrath

for the ways that we have trashed the earth

that he gave us to take care of.

He's pouring out his wrath

for all the reasons that we have failed

to do what we should have.

And yet we see here in verses one and two,

it's Christ Jesus that Paul puts his hope in

because Christ Jesus is the one

that came and took God's wrath.

He was willing for God's wrath

to be poured out on him

so that it would not have to be poured out on us.

And so if anything,

the gospel here that Paul takes joy in

is the gospel that he tells us about

in verses one and two.

It's the gospel of Christ Jesus.

We continue to find out more about it

in verse two

because he tells us grace to you and peace.

This grace is a reminder

that the gospel is something that we don't deserve.

Grace is an undeserved gift

and so Paul is reminding us

not just from verse one of Christ Jesus,

but verse two, what he did,

that he took the punishment that we deserved

so that we don't have to take it.

That's the grace.

So we see Jesus Christ in verse one.

We see our need for him in verse two,

that we need his grace.

And we also see what he gives to us in verse two.

He doesn't just give us grace,

he gives us peace.

And so that when we have this grace,

when Christ gives us his righteousness

because he lived a perfect life,

and when he takes our judgment

because he suffered the punishment that we should,

we have peace with God.

We have peace because

despite what happens in our circumstances

and despite what we do and other people do,

we cannot lose God's grace.

We cannot lose the most important thing that we have.

And so there's something unshakable

and that's where this peace comes from.

The peace is the result of the grace.

And so we can see this outline here

at the very beginning of the letter.

They're servants of Christ Jesus.

He's the one who came and died.

But unlike any other man who died,

he rose again from the dead.

It was an act of grace.

And that grace gives us peace.

But that's not the end of the story of the gospel

and it's not the last thing that Paul has to tell us here.

Because we find out more about this partnership in verse 6.

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.

In other words,

the gospel is not just a one-time act

that happened in Christ's death and resurrection,

but it is something that is ongoing.

It is a work.

It is something that's happening even now.

And so for those who have put their faith

and their hope and their trust in Jesus,

they've accepted his punishment on their behalf.

He is at work in their lives right now.

He's doing something.

That the gospel is not just static but dynamic.

It's at work and it's active and it's alive.

If you attend our Explore class this weekend

and you decide you want to pursue membership in the church,

we're going to ask you,

how did you become a Christian?

But an equally valid question might be,

how are you becoming a Christian?

How has God been at work in your life even now?

What is he doing?

Because the gospel is not just something

in the past historically.

And it's not just something in the past in our lives,

but it's something that God is doing even now.

Some of you know that my car got wrecked

in the first hailstorm.

I got both my windshields knocked.

I was not hiding under the wing of the church.

I got both my windshields knocked out.

I had to have my roof replaced and my hood replaced.

It's actually still in the shop,

so I'm driving this little Mini Cooper,

which is fun.

I just hope I don't get in a wreck

because I don't think I'll win,

especially if someone has one of those bumper hoods

in the front.

But I do feel like I'm driving a go-kart sometimes.

Which, you know, it has its ups and downs.

But my car's been in a shop for a month.

And I've had a great experience with the shop,

mostly except they don't always tell me what's going on,

and so I have to call them.

And I call them probably about once a week,

and I'll say, what's going on?

What's happened?

Where are we with the car?

And so they'll tell me,

okay, well, we've replaced the hood,

and we've replaced the top,

but we have to send it to get its paint done now.

And the most recent thing was,

okay, we've had the paint done,

but we have to have all the windows replaced,

and it's a holiday weekend,

so it's probably not going to happen,

so you're probably going to be driving a go-kart

for a little bit longer.

But there's this ongoing work.

It's not just the story of how I turned my car in

at the body shop.

If I were going to tell you about the work

that's being done on my car,

that wouldn't be enough,

because it's something that's ongoing.

It's something that's happening little by little.

And so if you're a Christian today,

my question for you is this.

If you call yourself a Christian,

how is God at work in your life?

If you look back over the past year

or two years or five years,

how have you seen God at work

to bring you more love, joy, peace, patience,

kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control?

Because Paul tells us that that's what the gospel does.

If the gospel is at work in our lives,

then it is at work.

One of my favorite, by the way,

today's C.S. Lewis Day.

I have two C.S. Lewis books with me.

I'm going to read you some quotes from both of them.

C.S. Lewis gives a great illustration of this

in his book, Mere Christianity.

He says,

I find I must borrow yet another parable from George MacDonald.

Imagine yourself as a living house.

God comes in to rebuild that house.

At first, perhaps, you can understand what he is doing.

He is getting the drains right

and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on.

You knew that those jobs needed doing,

and so you are not surprised.

But presently, he starts knocking the house about

in a way that hurts abominably

and does not seem to make sense.

What on earth is he up to?

The explanation is that he is building

quite a different house

from the one you thought of.

Throwing out a new wing here,

putting on an extra floor there,

running up towers, making courtyards.

You thought you were going to be made

into a decent little cottage.

But he is building a palace.

He intends to come

and live in it himself.

So how does Paul find joy

and thanksgiving in prison?

First, it's because he knows

that God is at work.

Despite the circumstances,

despite what he does

and what other people do,

God is still working in his house.

Still rebuilding and renewing.

And he, we see in verse 6,

is bringing it to completion.

One day I'm actually going to be able

to pick my car up.

And it's going to look,

hopefully, almost like new.

Right?

It's going to be brought to completion.

So that's the work

that God is doing as well.

But that's not all we see in verse 6

because we're told

that it's going to be brought

to completion when?

At the day of Jesus Christ.

Now this day of Jesus Christ

was something that's an idea

we learned about in the Old Testament.

In the Old Testament,

it was known as the day of the Lord.

And the day of the Lord

was that great day

when God was going to come

and bring all judgment

and all justice.

It was the day

when everything that was wrong

was going to be made right

and everything would be restored.

That there is a day that is set.

And so that Jesus doesn't just

have a first coming,

he has a second coming.

We find out about,

in the Gospels,

in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,

about Jesus' first coming.

And Jesus' first coming

has an emphasis on salvation.

Has an emphasis on his death

and resurrection.

But it has judgment as well.

It's not just salvation.

It emphasizes salvation,

but it also includes judgment.

Jesus' second coming

is going to emphasize judgment,

but includes salvation.

And so we're mistaken

if we look at a few cherry-picked stories

from the Gospels

and say things like,

well, Jesus,

he would never judge anyone.

I can't imagine Jesus

disagreeing with anyone's lifestyle.

I mean, look at this one story

that I picked from the Gospels

in which he affirmed someone.

We have to take Jesus

not only as the suffering servant,

but as the one who comes

in Revelation at the very end

and he's riding a horse

and he's splattered with blood.

But this time he's not splattered

with his own blood.

He's splattered with the blood

of his enemies.

Because when he comes

to bring justice

on the final day,

it has to include judgment.

And so remember I said

if you're a Christian,

if you call yourself a Christian,

you have to ask,

how has God been at work

in my life?

If you don't call yourself

a Christian,

you have to think

about the day of Jesus Christ.

Because there is going

to come a day

when God is going

to pour out his wrath

fully and finally

on the earth.

And those who trust in Christ,

who have faith in Christ,

will be saved through that

because Christ has taken

the wrath for them.

But those who have not

will not.

And so those of you

who have questions

and doubts

and objections

about Christianity,

there's a day of judgment

that is coming.

There's the day

of Jesus Christ.

And there's only going

to be one question

that matters

and that's whether you

have trusted in the gospel.

If you have,

what verse 2 tells us,

if you have grace

and peace

from our Lord

and Savior,

Jesus Christ.

It says,

grace to you

and peace

from God our Father

and the Lord Jesus Christ.

So do you have

that grace

and that peace?

If you don't,

it doesn't matter

how happy you are

because your circumstances

will dramatically change

on that day.

And so God

is calling you

to follow after him.

He's calling you

to put your trust

and your faith in him

and to choose

that joy

and that thanksgiving

above.

any happiness.

That's what he's calling us to.

And so there's encouragement

for Christians.

God is bringing

a good work

to completion in you.

He's at work even now.

And there's a challenge

for those of us

who do not call ourselves

Christians

that there's going

to come a day

when Jesus not only

fulfills his first coming

but has a second coming

and he's going to judge

the earth.

And so Paul gives

thanksgiving

for the gospel

but he doesn't just

give thanksgiving

for the gospel.

Remember in verse 5

it's partnership

in the gospel.

And we see that partnership

all throughout this passage

as well

and we're going to see it

actually throughout

the whole book.

This is a book

about partnership

in the gospel.

It's a letter

written by a man

who loves

these people at Philippi.

Some of them

came to Christ

because of his teaching

and they love him.

They've been supporting him

financially for years.

They've been praying

for him for years.

And so he starts out

with a partnership.

Verse 1

he says not just Paul

but Paul and Timothy.

Now we find out later

that Paul

as we read this letter

it's going to become clear

that only Paul

is writing it.

So he just puts

Timothy's name

at the beginning

and so what does

that tell us?

Well he values

Timothy's partnership

so much.

Paul is not interested

in his own name.

He's not interested

in being

a personality

driven apostle

but he's interested

in partnering

with whoever he can.

Timothy's his partner

and so he wants

to bring Timothy in.

But it goes on

in verse 1

it's addressed to people

it's addressed to the saints

who are at Philippi

with the overseers

and deacons.

Overseers here

is a fancy word

for elder

so he's just

distinguishing

the different categories

here.

There are congregants

there's elders

there's deacons.

As an aside

this is why we have

that kind of structure

here at Cheyenne Mountain

because we want to be

faithful to what God

has given us

in his word.

And so here's a question

for you.

Let's have a thought

experiment for a second.

Let's say Paul

was still alive

and he wrote a letter

to Colorado Springs.

Would you receive

that letter?

Would you be one

of the recipients?

Only if you're part

of the church.

Paul only writes

letters to churches

and leaders of churches.

Paul is not

writing letters

to the people

in Philippi

who all have

their own faith journey

that involves Jesus.

He's writing it

to a church.

He's writing it

to these believers

who are together

working as partners

for the gospel.

And so we can't have

one without the other.

We can't have

the gospel

without a partnership

with other believers.

Those are things

to go together.

And so if you

are not part

of a church

I would encourage

you to join one.

It doesn't have

to be this church.

It could be

we're having

an explore class

this weekend.

But join some church.

There's a lot of churches

in Colorado Springs.

But find a partnership.

Find people

to partner with

in the gospel

because that is what

Paul gives joy for here.

He gives joy for people.

And oh by the way

a lot of this letter

actually is not going

to make sense

unless you're in the church.

Because as we read along

Paul's going to give

commands and orders

about how people

in the church

should get along together.

He's going to talk to them

how they work

through conflict

with each other.

He's going to present them

in chapter 2

with models

of people

they can follow after.

People that they know

who are faithful Christians

that they can use

as examples.

And so this partnership

is something

that is integral

to Paul's life.

He doesn't

Paul doesn't have

a category

let's put it this way

Paul does not have

a category

for a saint

without a church.

He doesn't have

a category

for a partnership

without a gospel.

And so we see

it goes on

in verse 3

Paul loves

these people.

He thanks God

for them

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.

I don't want to spoil

too much

but we're going to see

next week

that part of the reason

Paul is so sure

that these are people

for whom the work

is going to be brought

to a completion

is because they're people

who are in the partnership.

They're people

who have served with him

in hard times

and good times.

And so I said earlier

we can't have

the partnership

without

excuse me

we can't have the gospel

without partnership.

But there's also

a sense in which

we can't have

partnership

without the gospel.

Remember

when we were

in Ruth chapter 3

Ruth 3 · chapter mention

we talked about

the difference

between thick

and thin communities

that there are

thick communities

that can help

each other

even in the toughest times.

And there are thin communities

the communities

are real communities

but they're based

around very superficial things.

And so people

in a thin community

might know your name

but they're probably

not going to visit you

in the hospital.

People in a thick community

they know your name

they're going to sit with you

when you have questions

they're going to sit with you

when you're rejoicing

and when you're in sorrow.

And you can have

partnerships

about other things.

You can have

partnerships

about cycling

or about hiking

or about

a number of different

activities here in Colorado.

And so I'm not going to say

you can't have partnership

without the gospel.

But the gospel

is the fullest

partnership.

It's the partnership

that holds together

people who have

nothing else in common.

It's the partnership

that brings together

different generations

and ethnicities.

It's the partnership

that's going to withstand

everything else.

You know you can have

a partnership

around an activity

or an interest

but what if you lose

your ability

to take part

in that activity?

And how do you resolve

by the way

this is going to get

to what we're going

to talk about

in Philippians 2

how do you resolve

disagreements?

What if you have

divisions about

how to understand

that activity?

That our partnership

in other words

has to be about something.

We live in a lonely age

in society

where people long

for community

and yet they don't

know how to find it.

Now I promised you

two C.S. Lewis quotes

today and I'm going

to make good

on my promise.

So the next one

comes from

The Four Loves

which is C.S. Lewis'

book about relationships

and he says this

people who simply

want friends

can never make any.

The very condition

of having friends

is that we should

want something else

besides friends.

Where the truthful

answer to the question

do you see the same

truth would be

I see nothing

and I don't care

about the truth.

I only want a friend.

No friendship

can arise

though affection

of course may.

There would be nothing

for the friendship

to be about

and friendship

must be about something

even if it were

only an enthusiasm

for dominoes

or white mice.

Those who have nothing

can share nothing.

Those who are going

nowhere can have

no fellow travelers.

Let me read that

last sentence again.

Those who have nothing

can share nothing.

Those who are going

nowhere can have

no fellow travelers.

And so in other words

if you want

deep and rich

and lasting community

it has to be about

something much

much greater

than yourself.

You know there's

something that I've

been thinking about

a lot recently

and that is

it's a little bit

strange.

It's a little bit

strange that I'm up

here on a Sunday

morning

preaching to you all.

You know most of you

many of you

have a military

background.

I've never been

in the military.

military.

Most of you are

married or have

been married and

I'm not.

I'm in my 20s

and most of you

aren't.

Most of you are in

your 30s I know

that's why it's funny.

There's a lot of

places I could go in

town where there are

single people in their

20s.

There are places this

morning I could go

and you might say

well you're here

because you have a

job right.

There are other

jobs I could find.

There's work for

those who are

willing to work.

So why am I here

with you all?

I'm here with you

all because I want

the treasure.

I want the treasure

and I'm willing to

walk with anyone

who's going to walk

there with me.

And we're here

together as one

community following

Jesus together.

And so whoever is

going to walk

towards Jesus with

me who's willing

to help me in that

and go with me in

that let's come

let's go.

And that's Paul's

feeling here about

these people.

That's why he finds

joy in thanksgiving

not just in God's

work not just in the

gospel but in the

partnership.

And so that we can

save each other not

just that the gospel

brings it to us

us joy but that we

bring joy to each

other as we pursue

the gospel together.

That's what's going

to hold us together

as a community.

That's what's going

to keep us.

That's also what's

going to actually

result in us finding

the gospel and

sticking with it and

being brought to

completion at that

last day.

I have been reading

through slowly the

Hobbit which I think

I read at some point

in my childhood but I

hadn't read it in a

long time and I

really wanted to and

so I started I

haven't quite finished

yet but if you

remember the very

beginning we meet

Bilbo.

Bilbo is this Hobbit

now he has some

adventurous tendencies

but he really just

likes to stay at home.

He wants his house to

be very orderly.

He wants everything to

be very predictable

and then Gandalf comes

and visits him one day

and he hasn't seen

Gandalf for a long time.

Remember Gandalf's this

wizard.

Gandalf knocks on his

door and Bilbo's very

put out by this.

He doesn't really want

to see Gandalf but he's

trying to be polite.

So he lets Gandalf in

and says okay I'll have

tea with you tomorrow.

He invites him to tea

and he thinks he's just

inviting Gandalf.

What he doesn't know is

that Gandalf leaves a

mark on his door.

And so the next day

very early people start

knocking on Bilbo's

door and dwarves keep

coming in and he thinks

okay I have a couple

dwarves in my house.

Well then there's two

more dwarves until

suddenly his whole house

is filled with dwarves.

They're eating all his

food which he didn't

want them to.

They're making a mess.

He's trying to be polite

and every time he offers

something to them they

say yes.

When they leave his

house later they leave

it in a mess.

And Bilbo thinks that

he could just have

Gandalf.

He could just invite

Gandalf into his

hobbit hole.

But Gandalf doesn't

come alone.

we can't have God and

his gospel without his

people as well.

We can't have the

gospel without a

partnership.

If Bilbo wants Gandalf

he has to let all the

dwarves into his house

as well.

But that's not the end.

The dwarves then recruit

him to go on this

adventure he doesn't

necessarily want to go

on.

It requires him leaving

his hobbit hole.

They're going to go and

get this treasure that a

dragon has stolen.

So they finally convince

him.

He goes along with them.

Along the journey Bilbo

gets to face some of his

own sin.

He makes a lot of

mistakes.

At some points the

dwarves are almost

tempted to kick him

out.

They're not sure if he

has the skills that they

really think he needs.

Sometimes he's at the

end of his wits with

dwarves and yet they

keep going together.

Why do they keep

walking along the path?

It's because Bilbo and

Gandalf and the dwarves

are all seeking the

treasure together.

And they can't do it by

themselves.

The dwarves need someone

small and little who can

get into small places.

And Bilbo needs companions

who can save himself from

his own stupidity.

And it's only as they

work together and they

partner together for the

treasure that they're able

to make it to the end.

And so brothers and

sisters, God has given

us his greatest treasure in

the gospel.

He's given us his greatest

treasure in his son, Jesus

Christ.

Christ.

And so he calls us not just

to that gospel, but to a

partnership.

He calls us to walk

towards it together with

people we might not choose

to walk with, people who

are very different from

ourselves, people who might

feel like dwarves when we're

hobbits, or hobbits when we're

dwarves.

But we stick together.

Why?

Because as we find out in

verse 6, he who began a good

work in you will bring it to

completion at the day of

Christ Jesus.

Please pray with me.

Dear Father in heaven, we

thank you for the goodness of

your word.

We thank you for the

provision of your son, that

we can have grace and peace.

And we thank you for the

partnership that you have

given us here at Cheyenne

Mountain.

We ask that you would stir it

up in us, that we would seek

and look to grow more and

more as we see you working in

our lives and that we would

partner together in it.

We ask all these things in the

name of your son.

Amen.