February 25 // Tribal Principles

Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. How do we know where to find answers to the toughest

questions in life? While the simplest answer is the Bible, where do we start this search

and how do we discover this truth? Today, in this teaching podcast, John Meador, lead

pastor of Cross City Church, takes a specific text of the Bible and helps us find truth

for the life we're searching for. We are so glad you're here today. If you have your

Bibles, please take them and turn to the book of Philippians. This will be our third week

in the book of Philippians. A couple of weeks ago, we did kind of a quick overview. Then

last week we looked at verse one of Philippians chapter one. Today, tribal principles, some

principles that Paul is writing to the church at Philippi about helping them know how do

you live this life of joy? How do you get to that place where joy really becomes a possibility

in your life? Philippians chapter one, beginning in verse one. Stand with me as we read God's

word together today. As you stand, I want to keep in mind before you, it's kind of hard

to believe that we're only six weeks away from Easter. It's hard to believe it. I mean,

it comes fast. Next week is March 3rd. March 31st is actually Easter Sunday. We have Easter

weekend, the Good Friday Cross service that we do every year, and then of course Easter

Sunday morning. Lots to pray for. I ask you to just do your best to reach out to people,

invite them to come. We would love to see this place full of people. Many of them maybe

never have heard the gospel before. We would have no greater privilege than to see them

come to faith in Christ. At the very least, hear a clear presentation of the gospel, which

they will. Philippians chapter one. All right, we're going to read all of the first eight

verses. Now this is a family letter, a small church, Philippi, between 75 and 100 people

in that church. It never got bigger than that. And yet it was a significant group of believers.

It was the first church in Europe. Paul heard the Macedonian vision, came across with Silas

and Timothy and Luke. And so we have this incredible letter that he writes back to the

church at Philippi. It's a family letter, as I said, four times in this text that we'll

read the words, you all are side by side. And I'm just going to say y'all today. I hope

you'll forgive me because you all is y'all. It's not right. Y'all with me today? Y'all

with me. Amen. And then four other times, the word you is used always in the plural.

So actually there's eight y'alls in this verse. It's about the family of God. Here's what

it says. Paul and Timothy, bond servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus

who were in Philippi, including 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. That's

that plural there. Always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all in

view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. For I am confident

of this very thing that he who began a good work and you will perfect it until the day

of Christ Jesus. Anybody that loves that verse just say amen. That verse is going to be a

verse we come back to in a moment and spend some time on. For it is only right for me

to feel this way about you all because I have you in my heart since both in my imprisonment

and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with

me. For God is my witness how long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. You

see it's all the way through there. You'll never be able to read this first chapter the

same way again. Y'alls all the way through that. Let's pray together. Father, I pray

for the illumination of your Holy Spirit in this text. Help us to see these simple words,

what they mean, how they should affect us towards joy. We ask this in Jesus name and

everybody said amen. Please be seated if you would. So we've talked a little bit about

Paul and the circumstances before he wrote this letter today. Writing back to the church

at Philippi that he started after the Macedonian vision. So this is obviously a group of people

that he loves. He's interacted with them now for about 10 years in various ways. And so

he's writing this letter back to them, helping them know the focus of joy. Now at this time

he's in a Roman prison as he writes. And I have to think about the Roman imprisonment

of Paul. He was in prison several times. He was always in prison it seemed like. But in

prison he wrote the book of Ephesians, the book of Colossians, the book of Philippians

and then a more personal letter called Philemon. He wrote them all from a prison cell. And

he was in various forms of Roman imprisonment. Sometimes he was in chains. Often he was chained

to a Roman soldier. All the time he was in prison. Sometimes he was in an underground

prison at Caesarea by the sea. And I can't imagine sitting down and writing a letter

with a quill pen of some sort and a parchment of some sort and what subject would first

come to my mind. If I'd been in prison, in and out of prison for two years for preaching

the gospel of Jesus, I could only imagine what I might write a letter about. He could

be writing a letter about the injustice of where he is. He could be writing a letter

about Nero and the wicked Roman empire. He could be writing a letter about those that

betrayed him or deceived him. But no, Paul in this prison cell says, I know what I'll

do. I'll write a letter about joy. I'll let people know that no matter what your

circumstance is, no matter how hard your day is, no matter how hard your year or your ministry

is, no matter how hard it is in life in general, you can have the kind of joy that you want

to write home about. And that's what he does in the book of Philippians. He's writing

back to them. And in all his comments, they all lead to this idea of joy that's beyond

the happiness of what the world can give you, beyond the happiness of just good friendships

and good feelings and good food and whatever else brings us happiness. It goes far deeper

than that. It's about the joy that supersedes all those things. You want to read this book.

You want to dissect this book. But here's what happens. We read the book of Philippians

and we read through it very quickly because it's only four chapters. It's very simple.

And we kind of read through real quick and we miss some of those really important pieces

of this letter on joy. Well, I want to go slowly through this. So as we read this passage

today and look at this passage, we're going to look at some tribal principles that will

help us be at the same place Paul is in the joy when times are tough, the joy when things

aren't perfect.

So first of all, I want you to notice as we read this that Paul talks about the right

kind of remembering, the right kind of remembering. He's praying for people and he's praying for

the church as a whole. And he says this as an unusual line. He said, I thank God in all

my remembrance of you always offering prayer with joy. I'm sure there are many things that

brought Paul joy about this church. Think about the Macedonian vision that was so supernatural.

He finally found God's will for his life and he went that way along with Silas and Timothy

and Luke. Think about Lydia, the lady that was at the seaside basically at the area by

the water, by the river where she was open to the gospel. God had already prepared her

heart and there was no synagogue there. There were not enough Jewish people there. It was

basically a Roman colony, but Lydia was open and Paul preached the gospel and she accepted

Christ and the passage in Acts 16 says that she and her family were baptized. And then

he turns around and says to Paul, why don't you just have my house, take my house, take

my porch, start your church in this place. He might've had that memory. It might've been

the memory of being in jail with Silas and singing hymns in jail. You remember that story

of the book of Acts and prison doors opening up and the Philippian jailer coming to faith

in Jesus Christ. Or maybe he's remembering casting demons out of the young girl that

was prophesying over him by demonic infiltration in her life. All kinds of things he could've

been remembering, but he also references in the letters some bad things as well. He said,

beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those that preach the gospel from

the wrong motive. So Philippi was a typical church. It wasn't a perfect church. Even though

they had a perfect savior, it was a church with good and bad. And yet Paul says, I thank

God for all my remembrance of you. It wouldn't have been like Paul to say, I thank God for

some of the things that I remember about you, but some of those things I'm not going to

thank God for. He doesn't say that. He says something very different. He says, I thank

God for everything that I remember about your life. Now I want to read this text and I see

Paul's heart and his life. I realized that this is not a perfect church, but he is taking

a perfect attitude. He has a selective memory loss, a selective memory loss. How many of

you in the room have ever been accused of selective hearing loss? Would you raise your

hand if you've ever been accused of that? Because that means you only hear what you

want to hear, right? How many of you that have been accused of that are men? Would you

raise your hand if you are men? Okay. I believe that. How many of your wives accused you of

that? Would you raise your hand? No, no, you don't have to do that. You don't have to do

that. Well, selective memory loss is much like a selective hearing loss. You only remember

what you want to remember. Why would Paul say, every remembrance I have of you, I give

thanks to God with joy over that? And I think the answer to that is Paul remembered the

great things about what God was doing at the church at Philippi and set the other things

aside. I think he didn't keep that in mind. I think he had a memory and a selective memory

loss. As you walk through the letter to Philippi, you see some of those things that he doesn't

really bring up, but are facts about what was going on there. Now, there's lots of reasons

for joy. He talks about their participation in the gospel and the fellowship of the gospel.

It means that they have the same kind of faith. It means they have the same savior. It means

they have the same mission. It means that they are like-minded when it comes to carrying

out the ministry of the gospel. And in the beginning of that church, they worked together

in a powerful way. But Paul, when he prayed, when he thought back to them, thought back

about the great things that God had done there and forgave them the things that weren't great.

And I want to tell you today, that's a great attitude to have. It's a great tribal practice

to have if you're going to have joy in the body of Christ. Stay with me here.

Did you know the Bible tells us that God remembers our sin no more? And we can't chalk that up

to God being someone that has a memory problem. God doesn't have any thought problems, any

memory problems. But the Bible says that he remembers our sin no more. As a matter of

fact, I'll go back to the book of Hebrews chapter 10, a great, great text that talks

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

about the powerful things that happened through Jesus Christ being our high priest. And he

says, this is the covenant I will make with them after those days, says the Lord. I'll

put my laws upon their heart and on their mind I will write them. Then he says, and

their sins and their lollusties I will remember no more. Now I don't know about you, but I

get a lot of joy when I hear that verse right there. Their sins I will remember no more.

How many of you in the room have sins that you remember that God has forgiven you of

and you're glad God remembers them no more? Just say amen today to that. I am grateful

for this verse. This verse tells me that God not only forgives, but he forgives completely

and he doesn't bring it up again. He allows that to be the path and the path ought to

be the path and it ought to bring you joy that you're forgiven as it brings joy that

I'm forgiven. And it's important for us to know that we can also practice the same kind

of forgiveness and remember those other things no more. Learn the lessons, but release them

from their offense. And Paul is taking that approach. All my remembrance of you, I thank

God with great joy. I'm not letting anything else that happened to me while I was there

hold me back from the great joy I have from what God is doing in this spiritual family.

I wrote this down because I think it's important that selective memory loss will allow us to

forget what we need to leave to the past and remember what we need to bring us into the

future. That's a pretty big deal. You've got to remember the good things. You've got to

forget the tough things that happened to you in the body of Christ and in life in general.

And I know you can anguish in prayer if you want. You can just worry over that all the

time you want to worry over that, but it won't bring you progress and it won't bring you

joy. Paul chose to remember those things. All those things brought him joy. He didn't say,

I thank God for most of my remembrance of you. I thank God for some of my remembrance

of you, except that one thing or two things. He said, I thank God for all my remembrance.

And it was just his practice. Keep reading in the book of Philippians and you'll see

he comes across a verse that you're very familiar with. Philippians chapter three, verse 13

and 14. He says, one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what

lies ahead. I press on. Paul says, I'm not going to sit there and think about all the

victories or the successes or the failures of the past, but what I am going to do is

I'm going to remember the great things and then I'm going to reach forward and move towards

the prize that God has for us. And I was writing this down the other day. I just felt led to

just in that moment, writing it down to say, take a moment right here at this point in

the message. Just take a moment. And I felt led to say, you need to exercise this kind

of remembrance in your own church life and your own faith life with your family of faith.

How do you do that? Well, you do that by saying, I'm going to have a selective memory loss

here with the imperfect people that are around me. I'm going to remember what God did in

spite of them and how God worked around them and sometimes even through them. Maybe you

need to have a selective memory loss for others in your life that hurt you, that wounded you.

Maybe it means you need to forget and forgive that one person that said something to you

or about you or what that leader did those years ago. That keeps you from really fully

believing God in this present day or what that pastor said or what that group did or

what the church of Jesus Christ as a whole did or didn't do. And just come to the place

of saying, I know that the church is not perfect, but I also know that Jesus Christ is and I'm

going to keep my eyes on him. I'm going to press on towards him. I'm going to forget

what lies behind. I'm going to reach forward to what lies ahead. One of the greatest things

you can do in life is to be able to come to the place like Paul. I thank God for every

remembrance of you, all the great things that God did through you. When my father was a

pastor back in the day when I was in college, my dad pastored for a number of years. He

actually was a full-time pastor when he passed away a few years ago. And I was in high school

and just graduated from high school going into college. My dad was in a church in Oklahoma,

always pastored small churches in Oklahoma until that point. And sometimes small churches

can be tough. They can be hard. And he was in a tough church, a hard church. It was a

good church in many ways, but tough in other ways. And I knew some things that were going

on behind the scenes and some accusations that were made about him that were not true.

They were not moral or anything like that. They just had some people that didn't like

him for some reason. And I can remember being in college thinking, man, I wish I could meet

up with some of those deacons on my own. I would help them out a little bit. And it wasn't

a very spiritual thought I was having. I just wanted to come to my dad's defense. And one

of the things I said during that time, God began working in my life and I began reading

scripture and seeing that he was calling me to do something. And I said, God, I'll do

anything for you except pastor. I won't pastor. Because all I can think of is the experiences

my dad went through as a pastor and I'm not signing up for that. I'm just not going to

do it. And over time, God worked in my heart, worked in my mind, helped me see that he was

bigger than any church, that he was really the one I'd be serving and not people that

might be hard to deal with. And I was able to get past that. And I'm so glad I did. But

it came from selective memory loss. It came from doing the same thing that Paul is doing.

I thank God for every remembrance I have of you with great joy. Because I saw what God

was doing through the church and in spite of imperfect people, Jesus was really being

elevated and exhausted and people were coming to faith in Jesus. Even in that church back

then, that helped me get past all the imperfections of the church. And Paul is showing us how

to get past of all the imperfections of the church. And if you don't do that, what a loss

it will be to the church and to your life. So I have three words of advice to you. Let

it go. Let it go. God has the ability to wipe that clean, to forgive everyone involved.

Let it go. You say, well is that cryptic? Are you referring to something pastor? And

I'm saying no. Nothing at all except whatever you might have experienced that keeps you

from moving forward. Paul says you need to have the right kind of remembrance. The right

kind of remembrance. Secondly, Paul moves into this great verse, verse six, where he

talks about the right kind of confidence. Verse six is amazing. We're going to have

it on the screen here. I want you to read it out loud with me. Yes, out loud. And I

want us to read it out loud so that we can kind of let it reverberate inside of our minds

and hearts. And here it is. I think it's on the screen right now. Are you ready? Read

it with me. For I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you

will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Isn't that an amazing verse? Let's read it

one more time. This time read it like you believe it, okay? Here we go. That means loud.

For I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect

it until the day of Christ Jesus. You need to highlight that. You need to write it down

somewhere. Maybe you open up your Bible to the very first page where there are several

places for you to write a note down. Write this verse down right here. How you run the

race has something to do with you, but how you finish it has everything to do with him.

You came to faith in Jesus because he convicted you of your sin if you are a believer today.

But how you finish the race has everything to do with who he is, and less about who you

are. Paul's writing this verse and essentially is saying, I am so convinced of this, so persuaded

of how God works in a person's life, that I declare to you, he who began a good work

in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. Whether I'm with you or not, whether

another leader is there or not, I'm not worried about anybody who's in leadership there or

absent. I'm not worried about any circumstance that's good or bad. I'm convinced that he

who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. My confidence

is in God, is what Paul is saying. Is your confidence in God? Do you have the right kind

of confidence? That's a pretty big deal. At the very least, this verse speaks of eternal

security at the very least. I know that whoever God saves, he will mature or perfect or complete

until the day of Christ Jesus. It doesn't mean he's going to make you a perfect human

being. It means that he is going to mature you until the day when you are ultimately

totally transformed and you have a glorified body and obviously will be just like Jesus

in that sense of the word. That's what John is talking about when he says, when we see

him we shall become just like him because we'll see him just as he really is. That's

an incredible thing that can't happen until heaven, but in the meantime you're going to

be growing and you're going to be maturing and being perfected by everything that he's

doing in your life. It means eternal security and everything else about growing in the Christian's

life. Let me just say this, doctrinally speaking, we say this a lot and it's true. Here's a

line that we use as a Baptist and I'd say most Bible believing people have this line

as well, once saved, always saved. If you've heard that line, would you raise your hand

if you've heard it before? Once saved, always saved. Over the years of preaching, I've come

to define quite a bit about what it means to be saved. I've added a word to that once

saved, always saved. I always add that word because it's important for people to stop

and consider what they're thinking or saying when they say this line. Here's what I say,

once truly saved, always saved. You know why I do that, correct? Don't you know why I do

this? Because I don't want someone to believe that there's some transaction that happens

where you fill out your name on a card when you walk forward during an invitation or that

you did in vacation Bible school or that you did at some summer camp or some service where

you just prayed a prayer but it didn't make any difference in your life at all and then

you're banking on that for eternal security and I would just say no, no, no, once truly

saved, always saved. Once the Spirit of God actually grips you and you have not only eternal

life but you have the Spirit of God dwelling in your life, once he begins to change you

from the inside out, that's the truly we're talking about. Once truly saved, always saved.

If he began and did work in you, not a church work but a divine spiritual work, if he began

and did work in you, he will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. That's what Paul

said. Long before vacation Bible school, long before church camp, long before revivals,

long before Billy Graham, long before TV ministries and track, Paul said he that began a good

work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. At the very least it means

that once you are born again into the kingdom of God and you have Christ in your life, your

salvation is secure and eternal. Somebody clap in this room, my goodness, that means

forever and ever, forever. So what does that really mean and where do we get that idea?

Well Jesus introduced that idea in John chapter 10 verse 28, most of you know this verse.

John 10:28

He said I give eternal life to them and they shall never perish and no one will snatch

them out of my hand. Verse 29 goes on, Jesus goes on and says my heavenly father has given

them to me and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand. What a powerful word

to those disciples, to us today in John chapter 10. Later in his letter to Ephesus, Paul wrote

John 10 · chapter mention

this in Ephesians chapter 1, in him that is in Jesus, you also after having listened to

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed you were sealed in him

with the Holy Spirit of promise who is given as a pledge of our inheritance. So not only

are you going to be in the hands of Jesus and the hands of the father that no one can

snatch you out of, you are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. His presence in your

life is a pledge from God himself that I will bring you to myself in that final day. If

you have the Holy Spirit in your life it's God's wedding ring on you that says they are

married to me. I am the groom, they are the bride. I will have them on that last day.

What an incredible picture. He that began a good work and you will complete it until

the day of Christ Jesus. Jude in this tiny little book just before the book of Revelation

at the end of the New Testament opens up by saying to those who are the called, beloved

in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. You like that word? I like that word kept.

If you've been called that means you are also loved or beloved and it also means you

are kept by Jesus Christ. You are kept men and women in this room if you have come to

faith in Jesus Christ. Kept by God who is more powerful than anything else and cannot,

there's no way anyone can snatch you out of that. Go all the way to the last verse of

Jude and here's what he says, to him who is able to keep you from falling and present

you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy. At the very least, he

who began a good work and you will complete it to the day of Christ Jesus means your eternal

security. The Baptist faith in the message of 2000 has a great wording for this. I'm

going to read directly out of that, I'll quote it. It says, all true believers endure to

the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ and sanctified by his Spirit will never fall

away from the state of grace but shall persevere to the end. Now keep listening to me. Believers

may fall into sin through neglect and temptation whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their

graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments

on themselves, yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.

Now you're thinking through your minds. So that means a person can have a season of sin

even though they're true believers in Jesus and I would say yes to that. That's exactly

what the Baptist faith in the message clarifies. That's exactly what the book of 1 Corinthians

helps us with. That believers in Jesus Christ are not perfect on the day they accept Christ

but are being made perfect, made complete in the whole journey of walking with Christ.

And while there may be a season of sin that you're in, you will not be happy in that

season of sin. You will be miserable because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in your

life that convicts you at every turn. You're going the wrong way. You're going the wrong

way. Turn around. Come back to me who died for you, who saved you. I am so grateful for

the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life. I can't tell you how many times that conviction

or that sense of grieving him or quenching him has made me stop at my tracks and say

this is not the direction I'm supposed to be going in because I'm a child of God kept

by God and he's doing a work in my life and I don't want it to stop. That's what this

verse means. It's real. He's real. At the very least it speaks of your eternal security

but it also speaks of the progress of the believer. Because salvation gives you a new

nature and with a new nature you don't just live any way you want to live. You don't live

the way you lived in the past. You have the Spirit of God inside of your life and you're

constantly being led and convicted to go the way God calls you to go. So if you're asking

the question which you should be, what does it take to finish well? What does it take

to be perfected? It takes someone who can begin the work and finish the work who lives

inside of you which is what verse 6 says. He who began a good work in you will perfect

it until the day of Christ Jesus. Do you find it interesting that in verse 6 Paul starts

with the word he with the pronoun for God instead of using the actual name of God instead

of saying God who began a good work in you or the Lord who began a good work in you or

Jesus Christ who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.

He doesn't do that. He uses the word he. And normally in language of the original language

the use of the pronoun draws attention to the character instead of the name. In other

words when you think of God you think of a certain thing. When you think of Jesus you

think of a certain characteristic. But using the word he means you have to do a search

in your mind what is the character being emphasized in this verse. Now here's the verse again.

He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. And here's

what I believe Paul wanted us to be thinking about. Not just these huge theological concepts

but very practical concepts about the he who began a good work in you. I want you to look

at it on the screen with me for just a moment. You have the verse he who began a good work

in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. And the way we ought to think about

this in the various days of our lives is like this. He who created me will complete all

the work in me until the day of Christ Jesus. He who saves me will complete me until the

day of Christ Jesus. He who forgives me will complete me until the day of Christ Jesus.

He who strengthens me will keep me until the day of Christ Jesus. He who transforms me

will perfect me until the day of Christ Jesus. He who indwells me will perfect me until the

day of Christ Jesus. He who provides for me will perfect me to the day of Christ Jesus.

He who leaves me will perfect me to the day of Christ Jesus. In other words for every

need you have on the road to being perfected, being matured, Jesus has an answer for that

as it's his personality and his character

at work in your life.

He who began a good work in you will complete it

until the day of Christ Jesus.

The right kind of confidence is right there, right there.

You've seen him create, you've seen him save,

you've seen him strengthen, you've seen him forgive,

you've seen him transform, you've seen him do all these things

and now he's in your life doing those things.

And when you doubt, you just remember that he who began

will also perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

The right kind of confidence means we have no confidence

in ourselves.

Paul goes on in the book of Philippians chapter three,

verse three, and he says,

for we are the true circumcisions who worship

in the spirit of God in glory in Christ Jesus

and put no confidence in the flesh.

Paul says, we're not the people that say,

oh, I can do this on my own.

We're not the people who say, I don't need God.

I mean, I know the right thing to do.

I'm just gonna do it.

We're not the people who do that.

We put no confidence in the flesh.

We don't put any confidence in religion.

But what we do put confidence in is he who began

the good work, who's gonna complete it

until the day of Christ Jesus.

At no point is God unable to complete the work

he began in you.

Did you hear me?

Now you may feel pretty inadequate,

but God is never inadequate.

You may feel like you're not sure how he's gonna come through,

but he is sure, he knows exactly

how he is going to come through.

That's what compels Paul to say,

what he said in Galatians chapter two, verse 20,

and many of you know this verse.

I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh,

I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me

and who gave himself up for me.

It's not I, it's Christ.

It's not me doing the work, it's God doing the work.

Now some people feel, I just like to call this

the perseverance of the saints.

Have you heard that phrase before?

The saints will persevere.

Even the Bible's faith in the message says

the saints will endure, true saints will endure.

But I don't prefer that word because I want it to be

I want it to be really clear that it's not my perseverance

that makes this happen, it's not your perseverance

that makes it happen, even though we ought to persevere.

It's his preservation that makes it happen.

So I like the line, the preservation of the saints.

When I get to heaven one day and I stand before Jesus Christ

and he says, well done good and faithful servant,

I'm gonna look back at my life and I go, well it wasn't me.

Who was you?

All along, it was you.

That's why getting to heaven is an absolute free gift.

I didn't earn my way there.

I may have earned a few crowns like you will earn crowns

as you serve him, but those are to be cast

at the feet of Jesus in glory and honor of him.

Well done good and faithful servant, well it wasn't me.

It was you Lord.

Paul says the right kind of confidence

is really important in your life.

In 1 Corinthians 15 10, another favorite of mine,

here's what Paul says, he says,

but by the grace of God I am what I am

and his grace towards me did not prove vain,

but I labored more than them all and yet not I,

but the grace of God in me.

Now you have to read that two or three times

before you figure out what he's saying.

He's saying it's God's grace that made me so motivated

that I wanted to give my best, but it was not me,

but the grace of God in me that caused me to do what I did.

Paul had this acute awareness that it's not his performance

that makes him complete until the day of Christ Jesus,

it's what God does in his life.

You need to have the right kind of confidence

and the right kind of confidence is not in you,

but in him.

And if you're ever in doubt,

don't beat yourself up over your inability,

but lean on him and his ability to bring it all to pass.

For I'm convinced, I'm confident of this very thing,

that he who began to good work in you

will complete it even to the day of Christ Jesus.

And there's one more thing that he says here

in verse seven and eight,

and it's the right kind of affection.

Here's what he says to this family,

this church family or family of faith,

the tribe as we've been describing it,

for God is my witness how I long for you all

with the attraction or affection, excuse me,

affection of Christ, the affection of Christ.

I long for you all.

Paul's a man's man, he doesn't do a lot of,

he doesn't do a lot of touchy-feely stuff,

but here he is saying, man, I've got this feeling for you.

He actually uses that phrase in Philippians,

and I long for you with the affection of Christ.

It took me a while to figure out all that he was saying,

but I think I have it now.

Y'all remember going and taking family photos

when you were young?

Anybody remember the name Olin Mills?

Gosh, those were nightmare times for us.

I mean, to get all six kids to be able to smile,

sit still, not pick their nose, not hit each other,

while the photographer was trying to set us up was tough.

Some of the hardest times of our life.

I mean, that's the person's kitchen we faced.

We had six kids at Olin Mills at one time,

and almost every single time at the end of it,

they didn't like us and we didn't like them,

and Olin Mills was happy for us to leave.

They didn't even want any appointments

after it's self pictures, just let the family go.

Just let them go.

It was rough.

But almost every time there was at least one photo

where everybody's eyes were open, everybody was smiling,

and they looked like they were a family,

and we would hold that photo up and we would say,

yeah, I see the family resemblance.

That's our family.

And we'd have those warm feelings, right?

And we'd still pull those photos out every once in a while,

and we forget all the bad things, right,

leading up to that photo, and we rejoice in that one moment.

Now, Paul's doing this not in a sense

of Olin Mills' photograph, but he's doing this

in the sense of the church at Philippi,

he was walking with him in what he calls

the fellowship of the gospel,

in view of your participation of the gospel

from that day until now.

In other words, you get me.

You understand me, and I understand you.

And we're in this place surrounded by the Roman Empire

and Greek culture, and we are definitely in a minority,

and we have a priority of getting the gospel

to other people, and we worship someone

that nobody else knows, but we understand each other.

And when I think about you, my family of faith,

I move with this warm affection of Jesus Christ.

The first time I traveled overseas to preach was in Brazil

at the age of about 22 years of age,

and we stayed with, the different members of our team

stayed with Brazilian families who spoke largely

only Portuguese, and we spoke largely only English.

And we would go to worship services with them

at their church, and we would just have meals with them

and so forth.

And I was astounded at the age of 22,

astounded by the closeness of fellowship

and the camaraderie I felt with a family

that we didn't have anything else in the world

in common with except the gospel of Jesus.

That's all.

We both loved Jesus.

There were some words that translated amen,

translates everywhere, hallelujah translates everywhere.

They used English for praise the Lord,

and so we could be in their worship services

and kind of understand what was going on.

But more than anything else, we felt affection for them

in an unusual way because we are fellow believers with them.

And I'll be the first to tell you,

I'm not an emotional guy at all.

I rarely ever cry.

Just when the cowboys lose, which is a lot, I guess.

But I can think about some of you in this church

and some groups of you that I walk closely with.

And I have to take a step back and push pause

because my eyeballs are sweating just a little bit.

At the great affection I feel because we are

on the same page of the gospel.

We have the same calling, the same mission.

And God is using us in some incredible ways.

That moves me.

And I'd like to think I'm a little bit like Paul there,

who talked about the affection of Jesus Christ.

And it's not just there because Paul's also thinking

about another time where they're not just gonna be

standing around praying or worshiping Jesus on earth,

but they're gonna be standing around a throne.

That's in that last day, that last time.

Standing on that throne, worshiping the King of Kings

and the Lord of Lords.

That's part of the camaraderie of the body of Christ

and part of what Paul is communicating right there.

The right kind of affection for those people around you.

It's not the affection that says,

I like you and you like me and we're a happy family.

It's not even the statement of,

I don't like you necessarily, but I love you in Jesus.

You've heard that before.

People have said that to me.

You've said that to me before, by the way.

Pastor, I don't like you, but in Jesus, I guess I love you.

This is more of God placed us together.

We're walking together as the body of Christ.

And I have warm affection for you of Jesus Christ, Paul said

to the church at Philippi.

Wow.

So put it all together.

What does this passage say about finding joy?

I'll summarize it like this.

Find your joy in the great things God has already done.

The ongoing work he's doing within you

and the amazing tribe he's placed around you.

Find your joy there.

It's there to be had.

It's there to be experienced.

And when you walk in that,

no matter what your circumstances are,

no matter the potholes in life and the difficulties

and all the adversities,

Paul was going through all these things.

But there in the midst of all that,

you'll find the joy that Jesus intends for you to have.

And I want that for you.

He wants that for you.

Would you bow your head for just a moment?

As I close in prayer, I'll just simply say

that the fellowship that we're talking about here

is entered into by a faith relationship with Jesus Christ.

Coming to him by faith, asking him to forgive you of sin,

give you the gift of eternal life.

And we would love to talk to you about that today.

Maybe you're not sure if you are truly saved.

We talked about once truly saved, always saved.

Are you truly saved?

Have you truly come to faith in Jesus?

Has there been times after you put your faith in Christ

in your mind that your heart was being transformed?

Have you seen evidence of the work of his spirit

in your life?

And if that's there, rejoice.

If it's not there, let's talk about it.

And we can talk through what that means

and what it takes to come to the place

of giving Christ your life.

So I invite you to come by the decision stations

that we have available at the End of East Service.

I invite you to come to our guest reception center.

If you're a guest here today,

I would love to visit with you for just about 10 or 15 minutes

about Cross City Church and how we might be able to connect.

And then lastly, I invite you to invite others to come back

as we walk through this amazing letter.

Would you stand with me as we have a closing word of prayer?

Father, I do wanna thank you so much

for this group of people in this room today

for this book, the Book of Philippians.

For the Apostle Paul, who wrote this

under the inspiration of your Holy Spirit.

And ultimately thanking you, Lord,

for the fact that you want us to know these things

and to be able to find joy in our life circumstances in you.

So Lord, I pray today that you will help make application

to every heart, every room, every person in the room today

that allows them make the decisions that lead us to you.

Thank you, Father, I ask all this in Jesus' name.

Amen, God bless.

Have a wonderful Lord's Day.