Thank God for my Church

Morning, we are going to be looking at the Word of God this morning.

If you got a Bible ready, turn it to Philippians chapter one.

And we're going to be starting this brand new series today called Thanks Living.

And so I know that y'all are ready for the festivities that November brings and Thanksgiving brings.

And so I want to talk to you from Philippians 1, this book study that we're starting, chapter 1, on the topic, Thank God for my church.

As I was thinking through that, I was doing some study this week and came across this terminology called the Napoleon Complex.

I don't know if you've heard of that, but I looked it up online, and the Napoleon Complex is basically this that Napoleon, because of his stature, tried to make up for it with aggressive behavior, with fighting instincts, and was trying to overcome for the insecurity.

And I'm five foot five.

I won't admit that I have Napoleon complex, but I will tell you this: that ever since elementary school, I wanted to be known as strong.

Whether it was tackling the biggest kid that I would throw my head down and go after, whether it was in a fist fight or when I started going to the gym, I wanted to be seen as strong.

In fact, there was one time at Tennessee Temple University when Heather and I were having some relationship issues and I got angry.

And so I went to the gym and I got so angry that I thought I'm just gonna shove all these weights on here.

And I put a 45 and a 45 and another 45.

I put three 45s on there.

And what that weighs with the uh bar up to 315 pounds, which I'd never lifted that much before.

And but I was so angry, and I just thought, that's it, I'm gonna show them my strength.

And so there in an empty gym, I lifted the off the bar, and then I went to pull it back, and man, it came crashing down on my chest.

And I thought, what do I do?

And so I wiggled back and forth, and thank goodness that I didn't put the the things on the end of it.

And so uh I was able to turn back and forth, and those weights fell off.

But I remember that feeling of the limitation of my strength.

When we think about strength, it's not those things.

You know what the Bible says in Nehemiah 8.10?

It says that the joy of the Lord is my strength.

It says that that is what makes me strong.

And the Bible says that God inhabits the praise of his people.

So stick with me.

If the joy of the Lord is my strength, that praise is my strength, and then God inhabits the praise of his people.

Where is his people?

What are his people?

His people are the church.

And so when we come together, God inhabits that and it gives us scripture says strength.

Well, one of the key verses in Philippians is chapter 4, verse 4, and it says, rejoice, again, that praise, that joy, rejoice in the Lord always.

Isaiah 4:4

And it says it again.

Why would he repeat the same line?

It says, and again I say, rejoice.

So it says, practice, practice, do this.

You want to be strong?

It's just like lifting of those weights.

To be strong, you got to do it again and again and again.

So he says, give praise, give thanks, give thanks.

And not just thanksgiving, but thanks living, give thanks again, and again give thanks, and practice giving thanks, and then we will be able to have strength.

Well, I want to give you a little background to the book of Philippians.

Paul is writing this letter from a jail cell, uh, awaiting probably in Rome.

And so he's writing this letter to a church that was created in Philippi, that he was on his way to his second missionary journey, and it and and the elect that church was 11 years earlier than this letter.

And so Paul is sitting there and he's reflecting as he writes this.

And we're gonna get ready and read where it says that, but he's reflecting about the church.

Um, and in fact, we will go ahead and read.

It says, Paul and Timothy bondservants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who were in Philippi with bishop and deacons, grace to you and peace from God, our Father and Lord Jesus Christ.

Listen to what he says.

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.

Every remembrance.

And uh so I was picturing Paul there in his cell and just reflecting on his years of service and his church and his love for this church that was built in Philippine.

And it made me think about a song that I've heard recently.

Uh, maybe you've heard it.

It's called Take Me Back.

And in the song, the lyric, um, it's Cochrane and Company that does the song and it says, Take me back to the place that feels like home, to the people I can depend on, to the faith that's in my bones.

Take me back to a preacher and a verse where they've seen me at my worst, to the love I had at first.

Oh, take me back to church.

And so, Paul, throughout this letter, is thankful for his church.

Let me pray.

Father, we love you today.

We thank you for the opportunity that we have to take in your word.

Lord, I pray for every hearer today.

Lord, I pray that you would uh bless us with your truth and God, um, clear our minds.

Give us just a few moments to hear what your word has to say, Lord.

I believe every person that is under this, God, has an opportunity uh to be drawn closer to you uh for lives to be changed this morning.

So, God, I pray that you would speak in Jesus' name.

Amen.

And so the first thing this morning, point number one, is this that Paul here is thankful for the friendship of the saved.

He says here, I thank God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making requests for you with all joy.

And verse five, for your fellowship in the gospel.

So what he says is, I'm thankful for the fellowship in the gospel, the friendship of the saved.

You know, things bring people together.

There's groups for those who have gone through struggles.

So there's cancer groups, there's alcohol groups called AA, there's grief care when somebody has lost a loved one, there's divorce care.

And a common theme throughout those groups is this that when people have gone through a difficulty, they're able to find commonality with somebody else who's been through a similar situation, and they find a friendship often there.

And listen to me.

So when you look around to the church, the body of Christ, what we all have in common is that we were all lost and we've been saved.

Praise God today.

Be thankful today if you've been saved.

And so Paul has this thankfulness for the friendship of the saved, and he remembers that.

And he's he's having these memories of that, and he says, Fellowship of the gospel from this day until now, verse 6, being confident in this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

So Paul, letter A, is this that he's having memories of a common birth.

He remembers back in Acts 9, his very own conversion, when he was walking down that Damascus road and light shone from heaven and it called out, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

And so he remembers that occasion where Jesus came into his life, where his life was changed, and he began walking past that.

And a few chapters later in Acts 16 is where we find him on his missionary journey.

And I guarantee you, he's remembering the fellowship, the friendship of the saved.

He remembers in Acts 16 how he came across Lydia.

It says that she was a seller of dyes, but Lydia he came across her, and it says that she heard and believed all that Paul had to say.

Lydia was saved in Acts 16.

And then further, he did some ministry.

There was a girl that was brought to him that had demon possession.

They cast her out.

I guarantee you that that girl had a life change.

And then he got cast into prison for that.

And he was sitting in prison.

And the jailer, when the earthquake came, the prison doors flew open as God sent this miracle so that Paul could be freed.

And the jailer was about to take his own life because of the situation.

And Paul said to him, No, don't do that.

And the jailer said, What, sirs, must I do to be saved?

And Paul led him to Christ.

And that was the beginnings of the church of Philippi right there, as Paul was headed on his second missionary journey.

So he remembered those things.

Do you remember how it felt when you got saved?

Do you remind your Bible and it felt like the words on the page were jumping out just for you?

Do you remember having that feeling?

Have you ever had that feeling?

Do you remember having excitement about church and getting ready for church and going there to be fed?

And it wasn't a burden, it wasn't something that you had to do, but it was something that you get to do.

Listen, I want to tell you today, every person in the history of the world that will be in heaven will be there as a result of becoming a part of the church.

In John 3.3, it's claimed as this the new birth.

Jesus says in John 3.3, except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.

And so all of the saints that'll be occupying one day the streets of gold have this common birth.

They were born again into the body of Christ.

They became the church.

Man, this is what excites me about this.

It's this very thing that Scripture said there in John 3, 3.

It's this one thing, the only recorded reference I know in Scripture that it says every time a lost sinner comes to Christ, it says there's a heavenly interruption.

It says that the angels in heaven stop and rejoice over one lost sinner that comes to repentance in faith.

And so it's this new birth, it's a bond that we're given.

And so Paul is reflecting on the memories of the common birth, the birth of the church at Philippi, and it brightens him to think on it.

Well, that takes us to letter B, not just a common birth, but Paul is having memories of a community bond.

Look at verses 7 and 8.

Just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you are all partakers with me of grace.

God is my witness how greatly I long for you with all affection of Jesus Christ.

And so Paul is having memories of this bond with the body, the things they did and went through as the church began.

Now, listen with me.

This was the very beginnings of the church.

It wasn't a cult, it wasn't just a group, it wasn't a one-time flash in the pan thing.

This was the institution of the church that we have today.

I was having a conversation one time with an atheist in a barber shop, and as I was going through that conversation, uh it became clear to me that he had studied the things that he was going to defend, and he kept on saying that the Bible says this.

And everything was very far out of context.

It was taking a piece of scripture, but not looking at the whole that revealed to it, and it kind of pointed out to a lot of misinformation.

And so as I talked to him, I finally got to the point where I said this, sir, let me ask you this.

If I went my whole life with what I've believed, and I came to the end of my life and I found out that all of it was false.

All of it was wrong, I said, What have I lost?

I said, Sir, tell me what have I lost?

I said, I've spent a lot of time with faith.

I've spent a lot of time with going to church and being at the minimal philanthropic to my community.

Um, I've spent a lot of time serving people.

Um I've been in bus ministry, I've been in kids ministry, I've been in teen ministry, I've had adult small groups in my home, I've been on visitation ministry, I've I've done all these things, ice cream truck ministry, um G guys, never never once any music ministry, uh, didn't have anything for that, but I've spent a lot of time, and I've making through my life some of the greatest memories that I've ever had with the church.

What have I lost?

And I said to the atheist, but if you come to the end of your life and you're wrong, what have you lost?

All of eternity.

And so I thank God for the community bond we have.

I thank God for a church.

I love church.

I thank God for it.

And Galatians 4.10 tells us a reminder, as we have therefore opportunity, do good unto all men, especially of the household of faith.

And so Paul is being reminded these memories of a common birth, a community bond, his church.

Well, that takes us to the second point this morning.

I'm thankful, Paul said, for the fruitfulness of the sanctified.

Well, what does that mean?

Listen to verse 8 and 9.

God's my witness, how I long for you with affection, and this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in the knowledge and discernment.

And so we see that Paul, he's thankful for the fruitfulness of those sanctified, and he goes into a prayer for that.

What does that mean to be sanctified?

It means to grow.

And so, Paul, as he reflected back on church, it was a place and a group of people that were able to be fruitful because they grew together.

They matured as a body, they helped one another and so matured.

They were accountable to one another and so matured.

And so Paul prays for them in this prayer of thankfulness.

He prays for compassion.

Paul prays for love.

Remember, this is the same Paul that wrote 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter.

And it's actually, it's used in weddings, but it's really a love rebuke.

He's saying, if we don't do this, there's a problem.

And he says the key ingredient in that chapter for love is, or for ministry, is love.

You see, the church at Corinth got to thinking that they were super saints because they had gifts.

We all are given a gift.

When you become a Christian, immediately you're given a gift.

And so they thought that there were different types of gifts that made them better or greater than one another.

He said, listen, a spiritual baby has a gift.

You are not great because of a gift.

You're great because of love.

And if you have a gift without love, then what it says in the beginning of that chapter, it says loveless gifts are noise.

It's just like a clanging cymbal.

Without love, it is nothing.

It goes on over and over to say, you can sing for Jesus without love.

You can preach for Jesus without love.

If you have an empty cup, it comes out and there's no love.

You can be serving out of weariness.

You can serve teenagers without love.

And it's noise.

You can serve and be grumbling.

And what it is is noise if there's no love.

Listen, in your homes, look, if you're a husband, you can be giving everything you have to provide in your marital relationship, but have not love, and it's noise.

It's without use.

Listen, ladies, you can be cooking and cleaning and exhausting yourself to try to make a perfect home, but without love.

It's just noise.

Parents, without love, those children.

Listen, it's just noise, it's background noise.

It's no good.

And he says, so I'm praying that you would have compassion.

I want you to stop right now there online, and I want you to say this out loud.

I'm not gonna be just noise.

Go ahead, say it.

I'm not going to be just noise.

He says, the sanctified, he is thankful for the fruitfulness of those who are growing.

Growth, a growing church, listen, will not stay the same.

Growth won't allow it.

And so the fruit of compassion, the fruit of love should be maturing.

They will love the work of the church, the people of the church.

And so, as you're listening there online, if you've been connected to a church for three, six months and you haven't gotten in anybody's life, listen, that's not growth.

See, as God works on you, the fruitfulness of maturing of growth is that you start to have compassion for people.

You might have a compassion problem.

The work of the ministry doesn't exist without people.

I love to preach, but it doesn't matter without people.

I love when we get to minister, and some people may say, I love music.

Music doesn't matter in ministry if it's not ministering to somebody.

You may say, I love graphics or media or I love this thing or that thing.

It doesn't matter.

I remember one conversation I had with a middle school teacher, or really kind of overheard, and uh they said, I asked them what they did and uh what class they taught, and they had taught history, and um they said they made this statement, you know, it would all be just fine and well if I just didn't have to deal with the students.

I thought that that doesn't make any sense.

You became a teacher to not deal with students?

A life that can be changed is that student.

I really took kind of offense to what they were saying.

Like I was visiting as a youth pastor and was so glad to be able to come to lunches and invest in students.

And this person, what it told me was they they fell in love maybe with the subject.

But what good is the subject as a teacher if you don't have an audience to teach?

And so we have to love people, and that's a mark of growth.

And so Paul prayed for that.

He prayed for compassion for people.

He prayed, uh, letter B, Paul prayed for convictions.

Look at verse 10 and 11.

That you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense to the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

So he prayed that the people would approve what is actually.

He prayed that they would have conviction.

Listen to me, church.

There are 50 plus verses in the Bible in 19 books that cover the area of doctrine.

Directly mention the word.

In fact, the book of Jude is completely about the fight for sound doctrine.

Jude 4 says, certain men have crept in ungodly, and he calls them clouds without water, carried about like the wind.

And so when I was looking that up this week, what what does that mean?

Clouds without water.

You know, clouds form when water condenses in the sky.

And the condensation lets us see what we look up out of our car and see.

We see the formation of something, but we wouldn't see it without water vapor.

Without water, what is being said here is there's no depth.

Without water, there's no dimension.

It's in effect pointless.

And that's what he says here that without water, it's nothing.

Paul, in not such a nice way, says, without doctrine, the church is dumb.

It's pointless.

Listen, at CCW, we have four foundational pillars: clear biblical truths, dynamic worship, fulfilling service.

And so we live in these truths.

And listen, we believe in one book.

We are going to go to that book.

Some things, listen, are never going to be old fashioned.

The gospel is never going to be old fashioned.

It's always going to be relevant.

Doctrine is always going to be relevant.

Listen.

I love that churches are using all kinds of means to reach people, but I want you to hear me.

For the sake of the doctrine, we're not going to just be a flash in the pan church with no depth.

I'm not looking to be the next trend or the next fad.

Listen, or the entertainment church.

Paul said that's clouds without water.

Now, don't mishear me, because the same Paul said, hear this.

I am become all things to all men by all means that some might be saved.

Now, creatively, we do all we can to reach.

Yes.

If there's a means that can reach people, yes.

The methods can change.

The message never changes.

And so we see that he says, doctrine, look, I ask our staff all the time when we're looking at events.

I asked them to think of this question: what is our purpose?

Why are we doing what we're doing?

Let's figure out the purpose first.

What's our purpose behind it?

Because I don't want to be shallow.

Listen, we are going to get broader as God continues to bless in this new building and our property.

And we have seen, listen, over 70 visitors in the last month coming to our new building.

It's been so exciting.

And so we are going to broaden, but I want you to understand something online campus.

We're going to deepen as well.

We're going to broaden and we're going to deepen.

And so as we get broader, we go deeper.

And uh it took me to um an idea, and I just want you to understand where I'm coming from with this.

The clouds without water.

There was a method that I went after, and a a uh youth pastor who was um actually had been in it over 30 years, had come to an event, and I was explaining to him, I was young, and I was trying to do all I could to be creative.

And and I'll be honest with you, I I missed the boat in an area.

Um, and so I I said, most of the kids that come to this event are lost.

And so what I want to do to reach to lost is make the environment feel comfortable.

Um we had this great big two gyms full of inflatables, mechanical, all kinds of prizes, and we had a Christian band come in.

And what I told them to do at the front before we got to the gospel and all that, I said, I want you to play secular music with clean lyrics.

Um that was my idea.

I said, you know, it'll make them feel like this is just normal.

Um, they'll know the music, they'll feel comfortable.

I didn't check the playlist of songs.

And so um, as we're going, a song came on, and the words that were playing over and over and over, and it actually wasn't a band, but they played, they they had a little song mix and they had turned on.

And uh there was this uh song at the time that had gotten popular called Gagnum style.

And when you listen to that song over and over and over, listen, there's nothing wrong with being sexy between you and your wives, you know, your husbands and wives in your marriage, listen.

But it said that over and over.

It says, I'm sexy and I know it.

And I had this pastor who was my friend, a mentor, 30 plus years.

He took his youth group and they left the event.

And I felt so bad about that.

I I I didn't even hear it right as the song came on.

It took me a few minutes in, and I thought, oh, I knew when I heard it, this isn't what I wanted.

But I went back and I made a phone call to this uh this pastor friend, and I said, Hey, listen, I said, I know that your group left.

I said, I think I understand.

I said, but help me.

I said, teach me.

And and he said some things to me.

He said, you know, we do do all we can, Rick.

He said, I think the event was good, the amount of people there, amazing.

There were 1,500 teenagers.

He said, it was so cool.

He said, but he said, there's a point where we push too far and we're getting away from what we believe to create something there.

And he says, that's, and what he was telling me, it's clouds without water.

Um, and so I want you to hear something.

We want to expand the kingdom reaching loss, but we want to grow in conviction.

That's what Paul was saying.

We want to reach a loss, but our conviction has to deepen as well.

Here is what happens when we don't stand by convictions.

We don't deepen in doctrine.

We begin then to justify sin.

When we don't get in this book and get deeper, then at some point we begin to justify our sin.

And when we begin to justify sin, we become disinterested in church.

And when we get disinterested in church, we lose who we are.

And when we lose who we are, then we get discontent and we get discouraged and we get depressed.

And so you see, it's a slippery slope.

I remember when I attended Tennessee Temple University, I love this part of our time there.

But every Monday morning we would have a chapel, and in that chapel we would recite, and as time went on, you just learned it, but we began to recite our confession of faith.

Basically, our doctrinal creed, and it kind of sounded like this: we believe in God the Father.

We believe in his risen Son.

We believe in the deity, virgin birth, and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We believe in the verbal inspiration and authority of Scriptures.

We believe that the Bible is God's plan and purpose through the ages.

We believe salvation is by grace, plus nothing and minus nothing.

The conditions to salvation are repentance and faith.

We believe in the everlasting blessedness of the saved in heaven and the everlasting punishment of the lost in hell.

And in this we believe.

We would say that every week, and it was our creed, it was our doctrine, it was what we believed.

And so Paul says, I'm praying that you would approve what is excellent so that you'll be without offense.

Hear that?

I don't know about you, church, but I don't want to be an offense to the gospel.

I don't want my life to be a stumbling block because I want to justify something.

I don't want to be an offense.

I want to approve what is excellent.

And that's what he's saying here.

I don't want people to question do I love Jesus?

I don't want people to question my walk.

I just want one day, listen, church, I want my Abba to look down on me.

And I want him to be proud.

I know some of you, probably some of the fondest memories that you can think back on is when your dad was proud of you.

Man, I don't want to be an offense to the gospel.

And I think sometimes that can happen when we allow things to creep in.

And that's what he said there that in Jude 4, that they had crept in.

And it looked good, but it didn't match with this word.

And so Paul prays for convictions, and he's thankful for those with convictions.

That takes us to the third point this morning.

This he's thankful for the future of serving.

Paul's charge here.

I'm gonna read through some of it in verse 12, but he's thinking about the furtherance of the gospel, the future of the gospel.

And at this point, remember he was in chains.

Listen to what he says.

But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel.

So that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ.

And most of the brethren in the Lord have become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

And so we see that Paul, he gives a charge, letter A, on his chains.

He's promoting the gospel.

And listen to me, sometimes what that has meant throughout history is that there's gonna be persecution.

Now, where we live, today we don't live in an America where you're persecuted as in you're gonna go to prison, not yet, for sharing the gospel.

Um, it certainly has progressed to where you've got to be politically correct and you've got to be careful how you share and what you share.

But we're still not to that point.

But Scripture said the last of the Beatitudes, blessed are they who are persecuted for my name's sake.

Divine congratulations to those who are persecuted for me.

And I want you to understand, Paul got this ministry is right where you are.

And so listen to me.

I don't know where you are today, and I don't know what circumstances have gotten in your life, but ministry is right where you are, good or bad.

It's your location, it's your situation.

Even when it doesn't seem right to you, there's opportunity for ministry.

Paul said, I'm in prison, but I'm good because I'm in prison and God has allowed ministry.

He says, My chains haven't held back the message of the gospel.

In fact, the whole palace guard has gotten a hold of the gospel by me being here.

The whole guard, can you imagine?

Paul said, I'm here and it's good.

Verse 13 says that the whole place has been impacted.

And then he said in verse 14, others, brothers in the faith have been given boldness to see what I've gone through and know that the gospel's still pushing forward.

They can't chain up the gospel, they can't stop the gospel.

The institution of the church started, then it's still going.

Now, this book started, then it's still going.

Now, nothing can stop it.

And so the future of the gospel is bright.

And I want you to understand something.

I was looking up a statistic this week about that gospel.

In the gospel, um, we learned in a class, the gospel in ten words.

Christ died for our sins and rose from the grave.

Ten words.

Simple, profound, very hard for a lot of people to say.

Why?

A recent survey by LifeWay Research: 80% of people who attend church believe, they believe that they have a responsibility to share those ten words.

80%.

61% of those people also responded on the survey that they had not shared that same gospel in one full year.

Can you imagine?

80% believe that they should.

Over half had not.

And listen to this statistic.

50% that responded to that same survey had not invited one person to church in that entire year.

Why?

It's kind of wrapped up in this one word.

We get caught up with rejection.

We're not concerned about going to jail for the gospel.

Why are we so tied up?

We're worried about being rejected.

We're worried about feelings.

Listen to me, church.

Family members, if we believe this book, truth from cover to cover, one day have an eternity somewhere.

They have a destination somewhere.

Co-workers have a destination somewhere.

And we're tired up about these ten words.

Christ died for our sins and rose from the grave.

Friends are in desperate need of the gospel, your story.

If they reject you, count that as persecution.

And Matthew and Paul said, Blessed are those that are persecuted.

Now listen, I know Paul.

If we had time to go there in 2 Corinthians, he knew about persecution.

He said he'd been beaten five times, he'd been shipwrecked, he'd been left naked and destitute, he'd been flogged, all kinds of persecution happened to this man sitting in prison.

Paul, I believe this, would do anything for the gospel.

But at the end of that 2 Corinthians 11, you can look it up 24 through 28 when he talks about all of his stripes and persecutions.

This is what struck me.

Listen to what he said.

He said, and besides all of that, you know what hits me daily is my deep concern for the church.

Paul was so thankful for his church.

He was thankful for these people.

That takes us to letter be there.

Paul's charge.

He first gave a charge on chains, and now he gives a charge on consistency.

If you look at verse 19 through 26 as he promotes consistency in sharing the gospel, consistency as a Christian shares the gospel.

It says, For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my expectation and hope that in nothing I'll be ashamed, but with all boldness as always.

So now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or death.

For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit for my labor.

Yet what I shall choose, I can't tell.

He says, I'm hard-pressed between the two.

I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, to go to heaven, which is far better.

Nevertheless, to remain in the flesh is needful for you.

Be confident of this.

I know that I shall remain and continue with you for your progress and joy of faith.

And so he's talking about a consistency.

Consistency, church.

Listen, consistency shares the gospel to the world.

When you're a consistent Christian, when they can look to your life and it's consistent, it shares the gospel.

Verse 20 says, I want you to be bold.

I don't want anybody to have any shame.

It says, Christians be bold.

I was reminded of a scripture.

It says, the wicked flee when no man pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.

And so when we live for God, we're able to have boldness.

It's easy to sleep on our pillow that's not full of lies.

It's easy to have a restful life because we have a clear conscience.

And so it says that the righteous are bold.

He says, be bold about the gospel.

Don't be concerned about that rejection.

It's a soul.

And so we see that.

And he said, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

I feel like the longer that you live, you realize that truth.

And he talked about in verse 25, faithfulness and service furthers the gospel.

It made me think about in May of 1982 through September of 1998, there was a baseball record that has not been broken, probably will never be broken.

Cal Ripkin Jr.

played in 2,632 consecutive games, being known and labeled as the Iron Man of Baseball.

Listen to me.

For 16 years, this is what happened.

Cal Ripkins showed up for work.

He showed up for work and he was ready to work.

16 years he didn't miss one day.

And he said about that there were times when the team was rebuilding, that it was hard to keep motivated about showing up.

There was time when the team was losing and it was hard to keep desire.

He said, but I was stubborn in that way, and I knew that the right thing to do was to keep showing up.

Oh church.

Paul said, I'm thankful for the furtherance of the gospel.

And what he was saying here was, when you're tempted to miss a day, when you're tempted to throw in the town, when you're tempted to say, man, it'd just be easier if I didn't have to bear that burden.

Listen to me, Jesus Christ gave everything to make you a part of his church.

And every day that you're a part of the church, every day that you have air, every place that you go, that's where ministry is.

That's a determination.

Are you going to show up for work?

Are you going to show up, man, be like the Iron Man of baseball.

Be like Cal Ripkin Jr., consistent.

And so we see after consistency, Paul gives one more charge.

He gives a charge, letter C, on conduct.

Look at verse 27.

He says, only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel.

And so he says, let your calm your conduct be known for the gospel.

Let it coincide with the con the gospel.

The conduct and character of the of a Christian furthers the gospel.

What are you doing each day to further this gospel?

He says the way that we live our life furthers the gospel.

Our conduct matters.

There's another scripture that says, walk worthy of your calling.

If you say you're a Christian, then you've got to act like a Christian.

That's what Paul's saying.

You've got to be a Christian.

If you're going to say that's who you are, then be that in conduct.

Sometimes often I think people get pulled away by that temptation.

It's okay if I just do a little bit of this.

It's okay because I'm just human and everybody messes up.

There's always a way of escape.

And so we show up and we're consistent and we, our conduct matters.

And Paul says that.

Be worthy.

And we say, well, I listen, my little piece to this puzzle doesn't matter all that much.

I beg to differ and I want to share to you.

In the 1960s, there was a scientist named Edward Lorenz, and he would popularize something called the law of sensitive dependence upon initial conditions, otherwise known as the butterfly effect.

And in the butterfly effect, what he said is that a butterfly can flap its wings somewhere in the world, and it can set molecules in motion, which set other molecules in motion, setting a wind in motion that somewhere on earth there could be a tornado or a hurricane or a wind that would cause damage that would that would then cause destruction and change life patterns.

And so, in essence, that's the butterfly effect.

And what he was saying in that is just the flapping of a wing matters.

And so let me tell you this way: if I won an award, you could say, man, that's great.

What Pastor Rick did was phenomenal.

And I'm so glad that he worked hard and he and he got that award.

And I could say in my uh awards, what I really need to do here is thank Richard and Patricia Wright, my parents.

If it weren't for them, I would have never gotten to this place in my life.

And if my parents were interviewed, they could say, well, I need to thank Austin and Kathy Bolden, and I need to think, thank my grandparents on either side and go further back and get into great-grandparents and great-grandparents.

And you can see how the effect goes further and further and further back.

How far back can you look to say what the effect has been?

Well, how far ahead can you look to see the choices that you make and how they matter?

They matter.

You've been placed in this particular position in history to do something that matters.

And you only get this one chance to do it, this one life.

Everything that you do for everyone matters forever.

You have an impact on this life and world right now.

And so let your conduct, church, be worthy of the gospel.

As I was thinking through this sermon and considering that, um, you know, the other week I preached and I got caught up at the end of the sermon.

Um, I was talking about a time when I was in church and I was a young boy, and I didn't even know why in the moment that I was given the invitation, um why I became emotional as I thought back through it later.

I think I got a hold of it, but I was thinking to a time when I was a boy in church, and it was important to people that I be in church.

It was important to those people to be in church, and what we were doing was mattering in the moment to those people.

And so I wanted to show you some pictures that are gonna be brought up of some churches that I was a part of in my life.

I thought about Pleasantville Baptist Church.

That's the first church that I ever went to.

Um, I was there for a few years of my life, and I remember that time.

I can remember the pastor.

And then we moved on to a church called Fairwinds Baptist Church.

In fact, it was the school I went to.

It was the school I would graduate from, Fairwinds Christian School.

And so I went to that church and I remember those pastors.

In fact, uh, the senior pastor who had founded that church turned a hundred years old the other week, and he still preached.

Man, I'm thankful for that heritage.

And even though I was really a mess in those days, I'm thankful as I look back at the memories that I had in that church and the consistency of people in that church.

And then I went to college at Tennessee Temple University, and you'll see Highland Park Baptist Church, the most incredible facility I'd ever seen to that point.

It boasted some 5,000 members, and I never, never had seen a church that looked like that before.

It was huge.

And man, what things did I learn in that place and the great speakers that I heard from in that place.

Man, what a time for me in church, all through my college years.

And I came home from my time there and I began for the first time in ministry at the Middletown Baptist Church.

And God started to form me.

I was so excited about working in the ministry for the first time, getting involved with people to serve in church.

And then God called me and Heather as we got married to Calvary Baptist Church.

And he kept us there for just over nine years, serving and ministering and teen ministry.

And that church meant so much to me in that building and the memories and the friendships in that church.

And now God has allowed me to be here at the church at Chelsea West Or and so thankful for church.

I want you to understand that there was a time for me as a teenager, about two years that I was a prodigal.

And so as I was thinking earlier about the lyric to that song that I shared with you, listen to a verse here.

It says, There was a time that I swore I would never go back.

I was blind to the truth, didn't know what I had was running.

I was searching, but every place I turned for healing left me more broken than the last.

I tried to walk on my own, but I wound up lost.

Now I'm making my way back to the foot of the cross.

It's not a trophy for the winners, it's a shelter for the sinners.

Man, just like Paul sat there in his memories, I gotta get back to church.

For me, listen, for me, part of my testimony is as a teenager, nobody knew the great struggle I was going through.

Behind these eyes, with my father and bus ministry and me there by his side, a lot of people probably thought I looked apart, but I was falling apart.

Behind this face was a cry that was saying, somebody love me and talk to me, help me.

And I want to tell you, in the valley, I found help at church.

I found a youth pastor that loved me in church.

There were some old church ladies that kept loving on me at church.

I remembered what I had learned at church.

I remembered back, and I passed my struggles at church.

I exchanged my stresses at church.

And I kept reading, I began to read back the Word of God.

And it was because what I learned at church, as I read the Word of God, I wanted to get into ministry.

And when I did, I committed that at church, and God began to work in me and my life at church.

I started sharing my faith and led people to Christ at church.

And then guess where I met my wife?

It was at that Tennessee temple, but it was there on the property of a college that was meeting at church.

And listen, my children today, listen, all of them, Cali was saved after a function of the church, and my kids after I wana came to know Christ at church.

I thank God for the church.

It's lasted more than any institution of humanity and will continue into eternity.

And the Bible says, and the gates of hell cannot prevail.

Satan can't stop it.

Why?

Because it's more than an organization.

It's an organism, it's living, it's vibrant, it's vital, it's alive.

Thank God for church.

I do.

Listen, I'm telling you, I'm not problem-free because I thank God for church.

Life is often a struggle, but what I can tell you is that I'm not ever leaving church.

I might quit the gym.

I might quit something else.

I might cut back on TV, but I'm never going to quit church.

It's no wonder Paul said, I thank God upon every remembrance of you.

I think Paul could have echoed the chorus that we looked at earlier that said, Oh, take me back.

Take me to the place that feels like home, to the place I can depend on, to the faith that's in my bones.

Take me back to a preacher and a verse where they see me at my worst, to that love I had at first.

Oh, I want to go to church.

Paul said, Thank God for the church.

It's what I joined when I got saved.

Thank God for the church that helped me to get my growth.

Thank God for the future of the gospel through the body of Christ.

Say it with me today.

Thank God for church.

I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes there online.

And I want to give you an invitation.

I want to ask you today, have you ever joined the church?

Have you ever joined this body of believers?

You can today.

You can say a simple prayer like this.

You can say, Dear Lord, I know that I'm a sinner.

I believe that Jesus died on the cross, that he was buried and rose again from my sins.

And today, Lord, I want to give my life, my heart to you.

And I want to become a part of your church.

If you're there online listening and you prayed that prayer, the Bible says that you've been born again at John 3.3.

You have given, you've been given a new life in Christ.

And it's that very same thing that makes the angels in heaven rejoice.

If you've done that today online, in just a little bit, there's going to be a number that comes up.

We would love for you to text us.

We've got a book we can send you in the mail.

We would love for you to know what to do next in your wall.

But the second thing is this maybe you've been saved, but if you've been honest with yourself through this message, you can say, my life hasn't been producing much by the way of church.

Listen, the body needs you.

We are the hands and feet of Jesus to this world.

And you're needed.

You're needed as the church.

And Paul said, I thank God when I reflect upon this body.

Man, I'm so thankful for the memories I have of the church.

But you're part of that.

You are vital, you are necessary, and God's put you where you are.

There's no other person in history that's going to impact the circle of life that you will with the gift you have and the way that you have it.

I want you to think about your family.

I want you to think about your circle, your friends, your coworkers.

Who is going to reach them if not you?

Listen to me, it's so vital for you to continue on as the church.

And listen to me, as Paul was made thankful as he reflected on it, as we bond together and we be the church, that's something that we can constantly be thankful for.

And what we've been reminded in the beginning was this when we're thankful, when we're joyful, it is then when we have strength.

And when we have that strength, when trial and struggle and conflict come, we'll still be able to get through it strong because I'm a part of the church.

I thank God for my church.

Let me pray.

Father, we love you.