The Beauty of Gospel Partnership

Let's read God's word together.

Philippians chapter 1, verses 3 through 8.

Philippians 1:3–8

I thank my God and all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you, all make 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.

For you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.

For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

This is the word of the Lord.

Church, let's pray for the word, Heavenly Father.

Um we just humbly come before you just in all of all you're doing in our lives.

Father, we just uh just hold your word above above all.

And uh we're so thankful to have your words to us, and we're so thankful to have uh brothers like Brother Robert to interpret your word.

We just pray for that interpretation this morning.

We pray uh that uh Robert bring to us what you'd have us to learn from your word today.

Father, we pray that we're listening closely to your word.

We pray for Spirit's help, and we just pray for your spirit to reach us and teach us more about you today so we can serve you more and love others stronger.

And Father, we just ask all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Wow, I heard one person respond.

Good morning.

There we go.

I was wondering if this thing was on for a second.

Glad to be here with you guys to worship with you.

Welcome to Heartland.

We are continuing in our journey through the book of Philippians.

This morning, as you saw, we're in Philippians 1, verses 3 through 8.

Philippians 1:3–8

And I just want to mention from the beginning uh that this is a section of scripture that when I began preparing, it really just I don't know how to phrase it other than it just wrecked me.

Um it wrecked me from the standpoint of the humility of Paul and my prayer as we work our way through the text that you will see the same humility and both be encouraged by it because there's incredible encouragement in this passage, but also be challenged by it because I would say there is quite the challenge for most of us, if not all of us, in this passage as well.

And we know that Jesus Christ is a friend of sinners.

We know he invites you and I, weary sinners, to find hope and joy and the everlasting justification of his blood.

And what we see today in today's text that is so incredibly beautiful, and it comes from verse six, is that when he begins a good work in us, he will complete that good work in us.

And all that to say, whether you walked in the door this morning and you're tired and weary from the things of the week or the realities of your life in this season, or you are energetic and joyful from the things of the week and from the realities of your life, the word of the Lord has something for you.

Jesus welcomes you and we welcome you.

And what we get to see this morning, and the beauty of this text, is the benefits of not just partnership, not just completion and not just affection, but the benefits of gospel partnership, the benefits of gospel completion, and the benefits of gospel affection.

And that is so clearly evident for us in these six verses, especially when you consider the context in which they are written.

And I would encourage you if you pop in at any point during our journey through Philippians and you missed the first one that we did last week that kind of set the context for the book.

I would encourage you to go back and listen to that at some point because it will really help you as we work our way through the entirety of the book.

While we know that there is gospel partnership, there is gospel completion, and there is gospel affection, one of the difficult and heavy realities is at the same time we recognize that the pursuit of joy is all around us and it's rooted deep within us.

We yearn for fulfillment, we yearn to find satisfaction in all areas of life, maybe even in every desire that we have.

And what happens or what can happen is we can replace the pursuit of everlasting truth with the pursuit of what I would frame as fleeting satisfaction, a satisfaction that is temporary.

And you, like I, when you begin to think about that, are probably prone not to think of yourself in that moment, not to think of yourself as the one who pursues fleeting satisfaction, but instead you're rather quick to point your fingers to what you would phrase as the world.

The world does that, not me.

My neighbor does that, not me.

Other people do that and not me.

I want to call your attention to one of the things that I would say defines the condition of the church in some ways, not in all ways, and not in every case, and not in every church, but in some ways in the church in 2026.

I would agree personally with Spurgeon's assessment.

I do not think the church, and this is from Spurgeon, not from me, I do not think the church rejoices enough.

We all grumble enough and groan enough, but very few of us rejoice enough.

One of the greatest concerns or dangers that I believe is facing the church in the day in which we live and the culture in which we live is this thing called individualistic consumerism.

And it's dangerous because what the result of individualistic consumerism is, is bitter groaning instead of joyful rejoicing or joyful thanksgiving that we see from Paul here.

We say things like, This is my church and I love it, until my preferences aren't met, until my interests aren't catered to.

And if that happens, then I'm just gonna bounce and go to the church down the road, and that's gonna be my church, and I'm gonna love it until my preferences aren't met or my interests aren't catered to.

There's this elevation of personal preferences, there's this elevation of desires, there's this elevation of personal platforms over the sacrificial love of the covenantal commitment to one another rooted in the blood of Jesus.

And what we see expressed from Paul here to his brothers and sisters in Philippi is not an individualistic consumerism.

We see him express a joyful thanksgiving for all of them.

I want that to be in your mind as we work our way through the text.

With that, look with me at verses three through five where we see this gospel partnership.

And what we see from the beginning, we see Paul's attitude in verse three and verse four.

He has this uh attitude or expression of thanksgiving in verse thanksgiving in verse three.

In verse four, we see him pray this prayer of joy or acknowledge that this is a prayer of joy, and it's for what we would call gospel partnership as described in verse five.

Isn't it quite remarkable?

This goes back to the context of last week.

Isn't it quite remarkable that Paul looked at his brothers and sisters in Philippi with thanksgiving and with joyful remembrance, considering what took place when he was in Philippi?

Remember when he was in Philippi?

It wasn't riddled with prosperity, it wasn't riddled with everything going his way, it was riddled with difficult circumstances.

The brother was in prison in Philippi.

It was also this conglomeration of people with radically different backgrounds who'd been transformed by the power of the gospel.

And he is looking back on them.

He's not seeing the differences, he's not seeing the difficulties, he is praising God for them, thanking God for them, for all of them with joy.

No one would have faulted him if he started this prayer by saying, You remember how hard it was when I was there?

You remember how difficult it was, how terrible it was at times?

Remember that I was in prison.

But instead, he says, I thank God in all my remembrance for you.

So not only do we see thankfulness in verse three, we also see him speak to God being personal.

And that is important.

He doesn't just say, I thank God.

He said, I thank my God.

It was a personal, he was a personal God for Paul.

God was not some random deity.

He was personal, he was his God.

And I say that to point out it was Paul's understanding of who God was and what God did and ordained in his life that helped him in the area of Thanksgiving in the midst of something that was incredibly difficult.

You see, Paul's Thanksgiving didn't root with Paul's personality.

Paul's thanksgiving was rooted in who he, the fact that he knew who God was and what God did, and that he was good.

On the area and in the area of Thanksgiving, I want to call your attention briefly to a verse from 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 18.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

It says this, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

I want to pose a question for you before I read another couple of passages about Thanksgiving.

We see Paul as a thankful person.

I want to ask you a question.

Are you a thankful person or are you a complaining person?

Are you thankful or are you a complaining person?

Let me read for you a couple of more passages.

Philippians 2, verses 14 through 15.

Philippians 2:14–15

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among you, among whom you shine as lights in the world.

James 5, verse 9.

James 5:9

Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged.

Behold, the judge is standing at the door.

Grumbling and complaining are in opposition to the gospel.

Grumbling and complaining are in opposition to the gospel.

I heard another faithful brother this week say to grumble and to complain is the antithesis of the gospel.

So if you're known for being a complainer, even if it's complaining in subtle ways, I want to challenge you and encourage you to be on guard, to check your posture and check your heart towards others.

We see Paul, who had, from the worldly standpoint, who had every right to complain, yet he expressed thanksgiving.

Are you expressing thanksgiving or are you complaining?

Verse 4, Paul voices a prayer, and he wasn't just thankful for a select few.

He was not just thankful for those that he liked, and he was not just praying for those that he liked.

Notice the language.

He was thanking God with joy for who?

For all of them.

For all of them.

It wasn't a chore or a challenge necessarily for him to pray for them.

It was a privilege for him to pray for them.

It was a privilege for him to be in gospel partnership with all of the church at Philippi.

To go back to last week, I used uh this similar illustration.

It wasn't that he had to co-labor with them.

It was that he got to co-labor with them.

It wasn't that he had to thank God for them.

It was that he got to thank God for them.

It was a privilege to be able to do so.

And we're going to spend more time in what this partnership specifically looked at in chapter four as well.

However, this morning, I do, for context, I want to read for you a few verses out of chapter four, verses 15 through 18.

This is what it says, and you, Philippians yourself, know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only.

Even in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs once and again.

Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.

I have received full payment and more.

I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and a pleasing to God.

You see, this partnership, it certainly included the planting of the church at Philippi, which we hit last week, which we see in Acts 16.

But the partnership also included this provision, this providing for the needs of our brother Paul, so he could carry out the work of ministry, both when he was in Philippi, but also as he continued his missionary journey in other places.

How beautiful is the gift that is gospel partnership.

And I want to draw two applications here before we move on to the second point.

And they both have to do with the difficulty of and the reality of gospel partnerships.

One has to do with partnering with people who God created differently than you, and the other one is partnering with people who you may have differences of opinions with.

You see, Paul, nor do the Philippians allow conflict or suffering or differences to destroy what we see as a fruitful gospel partnership for the glory of Christ.

They didn't allow those things to destroy it, even within the same local church.

It is easy to point out the faults of other people, right?

It's easy to do that within the friendship between two people.

I really thought somebody might say amen to that, but it's definitely difficult to do that within the context of a church that includes multiple people or see the gifting or personality of another person as being wrong because it's not the same as yours, because they don't talk like you, they don't act like you, they don't communicate like you.

Brothers and sisters, we are many parts in one body.

Many parts in one body.

I don't know about you, but I don't often look in the mirror and think, man, God, I wish everybody was created just like me.

Right?

I don't thank God that people are created just like me.

Other people certainly don't thank God that people are created just like me.

Right?

Some of us are more timid, others of us are more outgoing.

Praise God for that.

Some of us are very direct people who will speak very directly to things, and others of us are less direct.

Praise God for that.

Some of us are internal processors.

My wife is an internal processor, others of us are external processors.

Praise God for that, that there are both.

But what can happen with the flesh that is within us is we can allow differences like that to hinder partnerships instead of fostering it.

There is value in the fact that I'm an external processor and my wife is an internal processor.

But if we don't approach that healthily from a biblical standpoint, that can cause great conflict in our relationship.

The same is true within the context of a church.

We can allow difficult circumstances and conflict and differences to rob us of joy instead of filling us with joy.

God created us all differently and unique for his purpose.

We are many parts and one body.

Many parts and one body.

I love what Spurgeon has to say about this.

Never mind about a thousand differences if thou art in Christ and I am in Christ.

We cannot be two, we must be one.

Here's a question for you.

When was the last time you paused?

And thank God for your gospel partner here at Heartland that you are covenanted to?

I'm not talking about all the ones that you get along with really well.

Even the one that is vastly different than you, that God created differently than you.

Maybe even the one that annoys you.

Yes, I said it.

Maybe even the one that annoys you.

When was the last time you got on your knees and thanked the living God that they are a part of the same body of Christ that you are, and they are you are many parts in one body with them?

Thank God for your gospel partners.

Paul didn't think less of the jailer because he was Roman.

He didn't think less of the jailer because he was the person that kept him in prison in chains.

He saw him as a valuable partner for the gospel and for gospel ministry and thank God for him.

Paul didn't think less of the slave girl who had been spiritually tormented and was poor and was frowned upon, who was native Greek.

He saw her as a valuable partner in gospel ministry and thank God for her.

Paul didn't think less of Lydia, that rich Asian lady who was a purple seller of purple goods, a woman of means.

He saw her as a valuable partner in gospel ministry and thank God for her.

Is there someone that you are viewing within the body of Christ because God made them differently than you, or you are viewing them as bringing no value to the body?

If so, you should repent of such attitude.

Maybe even need to ask that person personally for forgiveness for the way that you have treated them or interacted with them.

You shouldn't wait for that person to come to you.

We should be devoted to one another with thanksgiving in the way, the same way that Paul is devoted to the Philippians.

When you think about specific people within your church, you should be flooded with Thanksgiving.

Flooded with Thanksgiving.

The all language in verse four and in verse seven is why I frame the introduction the way I did.

And it's also why, and the the second aspect of that, you know, difference of personalities was the first one that I want to address.

The second one is differences of opinion.

Because the four all language that we see in verses four and in verses seven is in opposition to this, what many would frame a subgroup mentality of the 21st century church.

When I say subgroup mentality, I mean people who will rally together in opposition or disagreement to others in the church.

And what happens is you have these little fragments of people developing little mini churches within the churches because they agree on different aspects.

And here's some examples.

We should have a 45-minute service instead of an hour and 15-minute service.

Here's a silly one.

We should paint the walls this color instead of this color.

We should do communion bi-weekly instead of weekly or bi-monthly instead of weekly.

We both agree that this person's personality is not the best for our church.

There are a group of us who have been talking, and we need to do this or not do this.

What happens is when you have small disagreements like that based on preferences that can turn into sinful division within the church if it's not handled appropriately and with the right attitude.

Charles Spurgeon said this: in essentials, they should have unity, in non-essentials, liberty, and in everything they ought to have charity.

We're going to see as we work through the book of Philippians that not everyone in Philippi agreed on every little thing.

There was disagreements and there was conflicts.

If you don't trust me, go read chapter four.

But Paul clearly understood, and they clearly understood, that that shouldn't retract from the posture of thanksgiving and joy for their brothers and sisters in Christ.

They understood that they were not flippantly bound together.

We must understand that we're not just some flippant body who is bound together.

We're not expected to agree on everything.

The partnership or fellowship is not defined by us coming.

I love the fellowship things that we do on to kick off the year and end the year.

So don't hear me discount that.

Boring partnership.

Not only boring, but it would be weak.

We all have different gifts that we bring to the body of Christ.

This is not just a partnership, this is gospel partnership.

And guess what?

Because of that, we have work to do together.

We have work to do together.

And the work isn't just to come and sit around and do nothing and sit on our hands.

It means that regardless of race, regardless of opinions on secondary issues, regardless of conflict, we are bound together as a redeemed community of believers.

Doing gospel work.

We see all that in what Paul lays out here.

We must refrain from ridiculous, silly, infighting over stupid, trivial issues and conflict because it distracts us from the gospel partnership that we see laid out for us here in the letter to the Philippians.

We have been called to a work in the same way that Paul and the Philippians have been called to the work.

May we model ourselves after them and go and get to work and move past any silly, frivolous inviting.

So we see gospel partnerships, and perhaps the most humbling and encouraging verse in all today's sermon text is verse six, where we see the beauty of gospel completion.

The beauty of gospel completion.

How encouraging a reminder verse six would have been for the church at Philippi.

In verse six, I want you to notice two things.

These are two critical things that we see in verse six.

God began the work, God will complete the work.

God began the work, God will complete the work.

We know from what we read last week in Acts 16 that the people who made up the church at Philippi had pretty humble beginnings as it relates to the gospel.

Right?

The work that began in Lydia, the slave girl and the jailer, were pretty radical transformations.

This wasn't, I grew up in church with my grandma taking me and my mama taking me, and I did the same thing everybody else for 17 generations have done, and I put my faith in Jesus.

No, these were radical transformations by the power of the gospel.

And at the time this letter was written, around 10 years would have passed, and Paul encourages them in the Lord to keep at the work.

The Lord will complete the work that he began in you.

Something I found joy in in my study this week is for whatever reason, that the as I was studying this, the Lord led me back to when Jesus was on the cross.

Does anybody, you don't have to say it out loud, but I want you to think in your head, what was the last words that Jesus muttered before he took his last breath?

It is finished.

It is finished.

Think about the beauty of this.

The proclamation of it is finished became the declaration that he will finish.

Think about that.

The proclamation of it is finished became the declaration of he will finish the good work that he began in you.

Without the work of Christ on the cross, without the gospel, we do not have Philippians 1:6.

Philippians 1:6

We do not have it.

Verse 6 is impossible without the gospel.

Why?

Because the work doesn't begin without the gospel, and it certainly will not be completed without the gospel.

The horrific news for the Philippians and for us is they were sinners separated from a holy God.

They had zero chance on being restored to the God of creation on their own, and so do we.

But the good news is that the Lord saved them through the work of the Spirit in some pretty powerful and radical ways through the power of the gospel.

That is good news.

But you know what the best news is?

Is that the Lord will bring that work to completion on the day of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, the work that began with Christ will also end with Christ.

We have to understand that your salvation and my salvation is not our doing.

We have to understand that.

It is so critical for us to understand that it is his.

We can't save ourselves, we can't initiate our own salvation.

That is a work that he begins, not us.

It's also a work that he will finish.

It begins by pure grace and it is sustained by pure grace.

If you've lived any life at all, you will understand that you cannot complete the work on your own.

How many days have you waken up, woken up from wherever it is that you're sleeping, whether at home or traveling or whatever, and you say, Man, today's the day I'm really going to conquer sin.

I'm not going to come up short in any way, shape, or form.

I'm going to conquer it.

Probably every day since you professed faith in Christ through the prompting of the Spirit, you've said that.

Or maybe multiple days.

You know what I also can guarantee?

Every day that you've said that is a day that you failed to complete that.

You can try to resist, but you will fail.

C.S.

Lewis brilliantly brilliantly wrote these words.

The great thing to remember is that though our feelings come and go, his love for us does not.

It is not wearied by our sins or our indifference, and therefore it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins at whatever cost to us and at whatever cost to him.

You can rest if you have put your faith in Christ, you can rest in the fact that your salvation is sure secure.

It is secure.

His grace will not fail, his love will not subside, and his blood will never be overcome.

And one day you will go home to be with the Lord.

And regardless of how crazy your background is, regardless of how egregious your sin is, regardless of what you think of yourself or what other people think of you, if God in his sovereignty through the power of the Spirit has begun a good work in you, he will see that work completed.

Period.

Those who trust in Jesus will endure until the end and be not deemed not guilty because of the blood of Jesus.

If you've not put your faith in Christ today, this good work that he speaks of that began has never begun in you.

My prayer today is that verse six would be something that, man, I long for that.

I long for the good work to begin and for the good work to be completed.

And that's what the Spirit used to prompt you to put your salvation in Christ for the first time.

Because what happens often is we hear, and we as Christians often say, the day of my salvation was the best day of my life.

And it very well may be so up until this point.

But the best day of your life will be the day that the work is completed on the day of Jesus Christ.

Think about that.

As joyful as the day was that the blinders was removed, and you recognize your need for Christ, and you realize, man, I am saved by the power of the blood of Jesus.

As joyful as that day was, think about how joyful it will be when that work is completed.

It will be completed.

Romans 8:30, those whom he predestined, he also called.

Romans 8:30

Those whom he called, he justified.

Those whom he justified, he glorified.

If he predestined you, he will call you.

If he calls you, he will justify you.

If he justifies you, he will glorify you.

You don't get one of those without all of those.

And one day, because of that truth, you will be in the presence of Jesus.

And what a day that will be.

God begins the work and God finishes the work.

Aside here, I don't know about maybe some of you husbands, but I have probably about 30, 40 projects at home.

Maybe 20 of those I haven't started, and 10 or 20 of those I've got 90% done, right?

I'm not always the best about completing the work to satisfaction.

God will complete that work.

It's not a 90%, it's not 80%, it's 100%.

And I want to emphasize this as well.

While you've been called into this good work, and it's a privilege for us to be a part of the work of Christ, it's a privilege for us to be able to proclaim Christ and be sanctified and justified.

As it relates to the work of taking the gospel and it relates to the work of the gospel and gospel partnership, we must also know and understand that while we've been called to it, God doesn't need us.

This is so humbling.

God doesn't need you.

God doesn't need you.

You may say, but my gifting is so strong.

I don't care how gifted you are, God doesn't need you.

But if you remove me, this ministry would subside and stop.

I don't care how critical you think you are to ministry, God doesn't need you.

But if I don't protect the church, who will?

You really think that you living out whatever preferences that you think you need to live out to protect the church is going to protect the church better than the one who died for her?

God doesn't need you.

If you're reasoning for anything, is because I'm the only one who can, you are missing the humility that Paul has in verse 6.

Outside of biblical, this is a personal note for me, outside of biblical convictions, which you guys know, my biblical convictions, I try to make those super clear, especially in the area of uh elder-led plurality.

Outside of, I believe that's the most appropriate way that we see in the New Testament to carry out the church.

The other thing for me there, outside of biblical convictions, is practical implications.

Personal fear is another reason for me.

I'm so adamant about elder-led plurality.

I want to be really clear with you for a second.

I do not trust myself to be the sole person of leadership without accountability from brothers that I trust.

For one reason: pride.

I don't care how humble you think you are, pride is an issue.

Pride is an issue.

And here's why.

Because the praise of many men can easily become the ministry demise of one man.

Paul in humility is expressing the Lord will complete the work.

He's not saying, Philippians, you will complete the work.

He's not saying, I, Paul, will complete the work.

He is saying the Lord who started the work will also complete the work.

And it is our absolute privilege.

It is the privilege of our life to be used by God in this way.

May we in humility remember that the Lord doesn't need us as we submit to Him and recognize that He is the one that begins the work and He is also the one who will complete the work.

Which brings us to verses seven and eight, where Paul acknowledges the beauty of gospel affection.

What we know about Paul and his relationship with the Philippians is that he loved them deeply, right?

He loved them deeply.

He had this deep affection and care for them.

He speaks to their perseverance, to their enduring until the end.

Because God will complete the work he began in them, as we see in verse 6.

And then he is saying in verse 7, therefore it is right or was right for me to hold you in high regard.

Why?

Because they are partakers of the same grace.

Paul held the gospel in highest regard.

We see that in his life, we see that in his words.

Paul held out the gospel in high regards.

Therefore, it was right for him to look at fellow adopted children of God through the lens of the gospel and hold them in high regard as well.

A simpler way to put this very easy statement.

Paul loved Christ, therefore, Paul loved his church or the church.

Paul loved Christ, therefore, Paul loved Christ's church.

As I say often from this pulpit, you can't hate the church and love Jesus.

You can't hate the church and love Jesus.

Paul had not just seen their conversions, but he had seen the fruit of their participation in ministry as well.

He had seen them endure through difficult situations and circumstances of ministry as well as well.

And they set forth to proclaim the gospel in the midst of all of that.

And he's saying, Therefore, we are particular partakers of the same grace.

Like you have received the same grace that I have received at justification.

And here's the other part they've not only received the same saving grace, they have also received the same sustaining grace.

I love how H.B.

Charles put verses seven and eight just once in its application.

We have tasted of the same saving grace.

We are being sustained by the same grace.

Therefore, we endure together and not alone through that same sustaining grace.

The danger, what happens, is too often when Christians face difficulty or people within the church face difficulty, we we begin to look at ourselves as solo fighters for good, right?

That would be the best case scenario.

And the worst case scenario is we begin to look at everybody else as enemies in the midst of difficulty and in the midst of suffering.

And Paul is saying, we are partners for the gospel.

We are partakers of the same grace.

Therefore, I look at you with joy and with thanksgiving.

Because we endure not alone.

We don't endure in silos, we endure together.

We are sharers of his sustenance.

I love the emotion that he has in verses seven and eight.

When I read Paul, one of the first things that comes to mind for me often is the brother was a bulldog for the gospel, right?

He was a bulldog for the gospel.

And what I mean by that is he would storm into any situation the Lord called him to for the sake of the gospel, regardless of what it cost him and regardless of how difficult it would be.

He was a bulldog for the gospel.

He also loved the gospel and what we see here and in other places.

Not only did he love the gospel, but he loved people.

He loved people.

In verse 8, he double-clicks.

Not only do I love them, but he yearns for them with the affection of Christ Jesus.

He longed to be with them.

And he longed to be with all of them.

That same language I pointed out earlier.

He didn't long to be with the people he liked within the church at Philippi.

He longed to be with all of the people in the church at Philippi.

Do you long for your church when you miss?

Do you long for the people of God that you have partaken in the same saving and sustaining grace with when you are not with them?

Do you miss your church family more when you are not here than the excitement you have being able to fill the Sunday morning 9:30 time slot with something other than the church gathering?

Why do we treat church attendance so flimsy?

I want to point out some of the specifics of the verbiage in verse 7.

Even caught myself doing this when I was writing the sermon.

I kept writing Christ-like affection.

He doesn't say, look at verse 7.

He doesn't say I yearn for them with Christ-like affection.

He says, I learn for them with the affection of Christ Jesus.

The Lord within him, the spirit within him that indwells him is the source of that yearning.

He's saying, I, Paul, hold you dear, Philippians.

I hold you dear, all of you, I hold you dear.

I, Paul, Philippians, all of you.

I personally yearn for every single one of you to be present with you.

And perhaps most significantly, the Christ that is within me yearns for you as well.

You see, the beautiful realities of gospel partnership is yes, the affection that we have for one another, but it's also the affection that Christ has for us.

I remember sharing with a couple of brothers not long after I got here.

I got here in October.

This would have been December.

So what is that?

I can't count today.

Three months, two months.

Some really difficult things from my childhood.

And those brothers expressed an affection toward me that can only be explained by the fact that we are partakers of the same grace.

They weren't fair weather friends.

They didn't have to love me, but they did.

I was this new guy from Nashville.

They didn't know me that well.

And that in itself is not only an expression of their affection for me, but what we can't miss in situations like that when our brothers and sisters come alongside us and they love us through difficult circumstances is it's an expression of their affection for you, but it's also an expression of Christ's affection for you.

Christ has affection towards his children.

And it's easy to lose sight of the affections that Christ has for us.

And the as the temptation to do so happens, as it arises, here's my challenge for you this morning.

May we respond by looking to the shed blood on that rugged cross, and may it remind us of the good work that he began in our life and confirm in our hearts and in our minds and in our the depths of our being and feelings that he will also indeed complete that good work.

And may we find rest in the affections of our church family, our brothers and sisters who we're doing life with, and may we also find rest in the fact that God in the flesh, Christ Jesus, has an affection for us so deep that he went to the cross to begin the work, and he will also complete the work.

As we close, I want to share with you the lyrics of a Charles Wesley hymn.

I'm not gonna try to sing it, but I want you to listen to the words of this song, and then I'm gonna pray for us, and we're gonna respond with communion, then we'll have a response song as well.

Here's what the Wesley hymn says Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin in nature's night, thine eye diffused a quickening ray.

I woke, the dungeon flamed with light, my chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed thee.

No condemnation now I dread.

Jesus and all in him is mine, alive in him my living head, and clothed in righteousness divine, bold I approach thy eternal throne, and claim the crown through Christ my own.

Brothers and sisters, the Lord will complete his work.

May that drive in us a humble commitment to gospel partnership that is willing, as an old friend of mine used to say, that is willing to attack hell with a water pistol.

May that be our posture, humble before the Lord, knowing that he will complete the good work that he began.

Let's pray.

Father, we're grateful for your word.

We're grateful, we're grateful for the church at Philippi and the reality that we can look to that church.

And it's really not all that different from the vast number of local churches that are expressed in many different contexts today.

It's different people from different backgrounds with different opinions.

But Lord, they are committed to the work of the gospel.

They are partnered together, not simply partnered in the earthly sense that we think about of, oh, we'll sit around the table, we'll shoot the breeze, we'll be in agreement, we'll get up and we'll walk away.

But partnered in something much deeper than that, partnered in the gospel for the sake of the gospel.

May that be our posture in humility.

May we submit to one another for the good of one another, for the glory of Christ, and for the sake of proclaiming your name to the nations.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.