The Fruit of Joy - Philippians 1:3-5 (Nov 26) Myles Holmes

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists.

Globify God for the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

The spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Let's pray together, Church.

Father, we are here because of those words that we've just sung.

Because of the historical reality that 2,000 years ago, a man named Jesus Christ died on the cross and was verifiably raised three days later.

And Lord, his cross and his resurrection and his ascension to heaven, Lord, they bear a profound impact on our life today.

And so, God, it's so meaningful for us to gather in your presence and to declare, Lord, that we have a debt that we could not pay on our own, and to give you all the praise that we could possibly muster up as a church, Lord, to say, Lord, that we are thankful for the cross, for that old rugged cross, to say that we are thankful for the work of salvation that you have done in our midst, and Lord, to say this to you right now, each of us in our hearts, in this moment, saying this to you, Lord, that we want your cross, Lord, your work that you did through Jesus Christ to profoundly influence us more.

And so, God, by the power and presence of your Holy Spirit here right now, Lord, drive the truth of your word deeper into our hearts.

Change us, transform us, Lord.

We leave it all on the table.

There's nothing hidden from you.

God, would you change us?

Lord, we lift this all to you.

We pray you'd bless our time together.

We pray this in the name of your Son.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

It's so good to be together this morning and to gather in the presence of the Holy Spirit to open up his words.

If you have your Bible with you, and I hope that you do, you can open it up to Philippians chapter 1.

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

And if you don't have a Bible, the ushers are going to make their way to the front of the worship center and they're going to go to the back.

You can flag them down.

They'll get a copy of God's word into your hands.

If you don't own a copy of God's word, you can just keep this.

This is our gift to you.

We just ask that you would read it and trust that your life will be transformed as you do.

We as a culture love leaders, don't we?

I don't know about you, but anytime some sort of like news article comes up, or maybe it's like a YouTube suggestion about maybe what any of the big leaders of our day are doing, there's something, some sort of this human interest in who this person is, and specifically the work that they're up to now.

And really, isn't our life kind of spent looking for like these high-level leaders, leaders who have a high quality of character, and leaders who are accomplishing a work that we can kind of get behind?

We think about people like Martin Luther King Jr., who led the American civil rights movement against racial injustice, and in his leadership and especially his speeches, was able to appeal to the masses and to the sense of justice and equality that was really there in the American population.

You think about the inspiration of people like Nelson Mandela, whose commitment to reconciliation and forgiveness, even after 27 years of imprisonment, garnered a world really of support for his movement.

You think about people like Winston Churchill, who, when a nation was in deep turmoil, it was his leadership really that unified a nation against the Nazi threat of Germany.

I'm sure you could add a whole host of historical names and popular names and even names in your own life of these leaders who, by their character and work, have kind of garnered your support.

You've looked at them and you've said, that's someone I want to follow.

And I want to suggest to you that Christianity, when you really boil it all down, Christianity is nothing more than looking to Jesus and seeing in his historicity who he was and the work that he did, especially in the cross and in the resurrection, and saying of this man Jesus Christ, his leadership is worthy of my following.

This is really what the Christian faith boils down to.

It's to recognizing that Jesus is a leader that is worthy of following.

And yet, if we compare Jesus to these list of names that I mentioned, and I'm sure we could add a whole host of other names, we we recognize that, like, you can't even quantify how much greater the impact of Jesus' work, how much greater the impact had on the world than any of these leaders.

These leaders will have died.

Their influence maybe lasts today, but it's certainly dwindling, and yet you see in Jesus Christ this movement that happened in the first century, this movement of thousands and thousands of Jewish people and Gentile people turning to Christianity and following Jesus as a leader.

And since his day, it's been the largest movement in the history of mankind.

And it's still today, to this very day, even as we gather together this morning and we sing songs about what Jesus has done and we say we're here for him, isn't his influence one of the greatest of all time?

And really, as we think about Christian living, as we think about pursuing the life of a Christian, of all that God calls us to, this really is it.

It's really having a vision of Christ in his greatness and in the work that he is doing and being captivated by it and saying, I want to be a part of that.

This is so good for us to hear because so many of us kind of have this vision of Christianity that's kind of like law-based, isn't it?

I was talking to a Mason that was working on my fireplace yesterday, and this is what he's saying.

You know, you know, he says, I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian.

And I immediately started to think about that and all the things that I'd heard come out of his mouth and all the way that I'd seen him, you know, kind of live in my house and said, Well, there's not a lot of evidence.

But he he kind of started to share his theology of what that meant for us for him, and it really was a law thing.

And if that's your vision of Christianity, that it's all about what I do, that there's just this set of rules that I need to follow, it's gonna be really hard.

In fact, it's impossible.

No one can bear the weight of it.

And yet, when you see Jesus for who he is, for the beauty of his character and who he is as a person, but then for the greatness of his work and what he is accomplishing, then everything changes.

All of a sudden, there's this desire to get behind him, to follow him and the work that he is doing, this desire to get on board.

This is the way it's always been.

This is the way it's always been.

All for all of the history of the church, the church has been filled with the disciples of Christ who see what Jesus is doing and give up their life to follow him.

Wasn't that true?

The earliest followers, when they saw Jesus, they jumped out of their boats, they swam away from their lives, and they said, This is the man I want to follow.

And very practically they did that.

They gave up their life to follow him, and very practically, that's what we do.

We give up our life to follow him, and this vision of Christ's person and his work, it really motivates us to the core disciplines of Christianity.

And we're gonna see that in the life of Paul this morning in Philippians 1, verses 3 to 5.

Philippians 1:3–5

And so let's read it together.

Look at what Paul says in Philippians 1.

Read along with me.

I'm reading from the ESV.

He says, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

We have a vision of Christ that changes the way we live.

And the first thing I want you to see from here is this that I praise when I acknowledge God's work.

I'll praise when I acknowledge God's work.

Notice here in verse 3 that Paul begins his letter as he so often does with thankfulness.

He says, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.

As he contemplates the Philippians, he he just cannot help from the very beginning of the letter but to overflow with thankfulness.

And the way that he does this should kind of be like a shock to us, our Joshua drop, because I don't think we've ever seen this kind of thankfulness before.

Look at what Paul says.

He says, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.

That is those are shocking words.

I don't know if there's anyone in your life that you can say, every time you think about them, you are thankful for them.

Like even your spouse, isn't it the reality?

Like, wives, let me talk to you for a minute.

Some of your husbands right now are growing these mustaches for November, and you're looking at them and you're saying, Man, and in all my remembrance of you, there are some times where I'm not super thankful.

I'm not super thankful for that slug that's on your face right now.

I would love if that, you know, anytime now, November's coming to a close.

All his remembrance, every time he thinks about this church, he is overflowing with thankfulness.

Where does this come from?

Well, we'll notice in verse 5, and we'll get to this in more depth in a few moments.

But he says, he tells us exactly, he says this because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day from now, this thankfulness overflows because he Paul has experienced this fellowship with the Philippian church.

And in many significant ways, they have linked arms together in the work that Christ is doing in involving themselves in Christ's mission.

But it's not only because they are partners in the gospel, but because also because of the occasion for which Paul writes this letter.

God had seen Paul had seen God's work in the life of the Philippians.

Paul had seen that this church that he had planted, we saw this last week that Paul planted this church, was thriving and multiplying and maturing so much that they had sent one of their very own, Epaphroditus, to Paul, with gifts to support him.

And I'm sure at this moment, Paul's just overflowing with this thankfulness as he considers the work that God has done in them and he even talks about it in verse 7.

Listen to these words, read it with me in verse 7 of chapter 1.

It's 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.

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

Paul's thankful because these are partners in the gospel, but they're also partakers of grace.

They've linked arms in his imprisonment, supporting Paul.

Notice also, remember what Paul said in verse 1, that the people that he's writing to are saints in Christ Jesus, that there's this fellowship in the fact that Jesus has made all of them holy by his death and resurrection.

I'm sure you can imagine Paul in this moment.

Could you imagine?

Paul has poured out his life for churches like the church in Philippi.

And when Paul went to Philippi, we read this in Acts 16 last week.

He went to Philippi, there wasn't even 10 Jewish people.

Like God was not working at all.

This was a desert when it came to spirituality.

And yet, Paul faithfully preaches the gospel.

And he hosts the first church service in Lydia's home.

And years later, as he's in prison, he gets sent Epaphroditus, and Epaphroditus tells him of the work that's happening in Philippi.

And could you imagine Paul's ecstatic as he discovers that there has been a multiplication of mature disciples, and there has been a longevity to that work, that this Holy Spirit is working and sanctifying and multiplying disciples in Philippi.

You can imagine how jacked up Paul was about this, how excited Paul was about this.

Especially as you consider Paul's life mission.

What was Paul's life mission?

Paul's life work really was to mature and multiply disciples.

This is what he lived for.

In fact, in a few minutes, a few weeks in Philippians 1, we're going to see this.

Paul's going to be contemplating life and death.

He's in prison, he's thinking, this might be it for me.

I might die.

And man, it's going to be awesome.

Like if I die, I get to be with Jesus.

We know that verse.

To live is Christ, to die is gain.

I get to be with Jesus.

That's going to be so amazing.

Just to close your eyes and in the very moment you are with the Lord.

And yet, as Paul weighs these things to die and be with Christ or to live, he he decides, I gotta live.

And you know what he says?

He says this for your, the Philippian church, for your progress and joy.

Oh man, what a rebuke to us.

This is the Christian's life mission.

The person who's following Christ has taken up Christ's call to go and make disciples of all nations, and this has become the overwhelming, consuming work of their life, so that before they are a mother to their children, they are a disciple maker.

Before they are an employee to their boss, they are a disciple maker.

This is the work of every follower of Christ who has taken up Christ's words to make and mature and multiply disciples.

We see this so clearly in Colossians 1.

We see it in Philippians, but we especially see it in Colossians 1.

And this is going to come up on the screen for us.

I want to read this for you.

Look at Paul explaining his ministry really in Colossians 1.

He says in verse 24, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.

And in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's affliction for the sake of, you see this church, for of his body, the church, the people of God.

That is the church.

Of which I became a minister, a servant, according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known.

Verse 28, Paul goes on, he says, Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

For this I toil, struggling with all his energy, that he powerfully works within me.

Do you see here Paul's life mission?

And is this impacting you?

Is this showing you what the Christian's life mission is to be?

Is to toil with all of your energy, to even endure great suffering for what?

For the maturity of your brother and sister in Christ.

Church, this is the life work.

This is what Jesus told us to do.

One thing Jesus said in between the time of his resurrection and his ascension, there is one thing he told the church to do.

And we could be obsessed about a lot of things as a church, but I think and as the people of God, but if we should be obsessed about one thing, I really think it should be the one thing that Jesus told us to do.

He said, Go and make disciples, and we see this is Paul's overwhelming life mission.

And so as he sees it being accomplished, the work of God, he acknowledges the work that's happening in Philippi.

He's overwhelmed with thanksgiving.

And church, I want you to understand this.

When you make this your life mission to make disciples, you want to know something that's amazing?

You can't help but just walk through life and always be thankful for the work that God is doing in your midst.

Because God is going to accomplish his work.

It's like you link yourself to something that will always make you thankful because Jesus said that he's going to build his church and the gates of hell will not stop it.

Nothing can stop this mission.

In fact, Paul's going to talk about this in verse 6.

He says, I'm sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

So there's some part of this is Paul's like, I'm not surprised that this work is happening in you, Philippi, because I saw your conversion, and if you've been converted, God is going to bring this work to completion.

And so when you make it your life mission to make disciples and to see that, very practically see that work come to completion, you know what's happening amazing?

You're going to see it.

A lot of goals that we set, isn't there, as Christians and really as human beings that we don't see come to fruition.

Yet the amazing thing is when you make your life mission, when you set your life goal the same thing as God has told you to, you can't help but see it fulfilled.

See if you align your life with God's mission and make disciples, the things to be thankful for will be so long you could never exhaust it.

And that's that's that's like Paul's language here.

Do you see it?

In verse 3, I thank God in all my remembrance of you.

Every time I think about you, church, every time I think about you know that one person, I just can't help help but be thankful for the work that he's doing in you.

The list is so long.

No matter how many times I think about you, church, I am always so thankful.

Because God is working in you.

And this thankfulness, this joy can be yours if you align yourself with God's mission, because every time you're close to someone, you're gonna see God's work happening in them.

This is amazing.

This like this should be like really motivating to us to get behind God's mission of making disciples.

Because I want to be a part of something that's successful.

Don't you?

We want that in life, don't we?

Like many of us cheer for teams, sports teams because we we want this.

Like, wouldn't it be amazing if I could tell you you could cheer for a team, they will always win.

You'll never have to face like Leafs fans, we know this, you know, the disappointment of having a team that should be winning, but they're just not winning, and you face this frustration of like, oh man, the Blackhawks shouldn't be losing to them.

It's frustrating.

I don't want to I don't want to cheer for losers.

Listen, if you uh devote your life to the mission that Christ has called you on, you will never cheer for a losing mission.

It will always be accomplished.

Because if God starts the work, he's going to accomplish it.

And every time you think about that believer you're pouring your life into, every time you share the gospel, you can be filled with thankfulness because God is using it.

He's using it for his work.

It's so helpful for us.

It's so it's so practical.

If our heart is rightly aligned vertically, the fruit of that will be a constant thankfulness for all people.

All people.

That's a sounding.

In a room of a hundred people right now, like there's gotta be some people that in the nature of our flesh we're not thankful for, right?

Like my house has five people, and there's always usually at least one where I'm like, okay, you know, it might be a little more peaceful if there were just four of us right now, right?

And in a room of a hundred people, how how amazing would it be to be able to say, I'm so thankful for all these people.

And you know, there's only one thing that can do that in your life if your life is rightly aligned with God's mission.

So that even the people that are a thorn in your flesh, a splinter in the seed of progress, even those people are to be thankful for because you recognize God's working in them.

And he's gonna bring that work to completion.

Two things often get in the way of us experiencing thankfulness for other people.

This thankfulness we're talking about that flows from this vertical relationship with God.

And the first thing is that we often withhold thankfulness from people who don't directly contribute to our mission.

See, if this is us, then we'll be thankful for people who are able to progress and advance and deliver for us what we desire for them.

But we won't be thankful for people who are kind of inconvenient to us.

And so let me ask you this question: when was the last time you blessed, you served, you gave to someone who would never be able to give you anything in return for that service?

Is a circle of people that you are influencing right now?

Is there anyone who in that circle, it's kind of like a challenge to hang out with them?

Like it's kind of an effort to pursue them.

And they don't offer back to you like the same friendship that you would desire, and yet you've just decided I'm gonna serve this person and be thankful because I want to see God's work accomplished in them.

What do you do with difficult people in your life?

People who not only they don't give back to you, but not these these people kind of make your life really hard.

You know, and the reality of the church is that there are gonna be people like that that make our lives difficult, and yet if our desire is to see God's work in them, we will commit ourselves to them and be thankful for seeing the work of God happening in them, but not just thankful when they have something to give us back in return.

And I want you to understand this is only gonna happen when we set our eyes on God.

That's the only way it can happen.

When you see Christ for who he is and the work that he is doing, and you are enthralled with this vision, it is the only way this thankfulness can ever be produced in your life because you desire to see that work happen in other people's lives.

Another thing that keeps us from thankfulness is this this is kind of like selfishness that keeps us from thankfulness.

Another thing that often keeps us from thankfulness is envy.

Envy says that I can't be thankful for you because you have what I want.

And at its heart, it sounds childish, but I'm convinced that envy truly does.

Plague us constantly.

So that you and I are constantly tempted to look at other people's circumstances and to think, man, if I if I could just have those circumstances, life would be so much better.

You know, if my spouse was just like that, or my if my kids were like behaved like those kids, oh man, well, life would be so much easier.

I'd be able to glorify God for sure.

Look at other people's materials.

The house that they live in, the car that they drive, and we're filled with kind of like this God, why would you bless them with that and not me?

Instead of being able to be thankful for the position and trust God for the position that He has us in, we we're filled with kind of this poisonous envy.

And so let me just ask you these questions.

Maybe, maybe the Holy Spirit right now is doing a work to root out this envy in your life.

Can can you work and commit time and energy to making other people look excellent around you?

Maybe this is in your home, maybe this is in your workplace, maybe this is especially in the church or in the context of your small group.

Can can you work to make others look good?

Maybe you're never even noticed for it without envy filling your life.

Do you feel a need to constantly bring up other people's negative qualities to kind of bring them down so that you can be honored?

Can you serve people who God in that moment is exalting and maybe men elevate without being exalted and elevated yourself?

Can you pray for the advancement of others when it kind of puts you in the shadows and in the backlight?

See, if we can't do these things, we will never be thankful people because envy is rooting out all thankfulness.

And again, how do we get over this?

How do we get over this envy?

We place our eyes on God.

You know that?

Contentment in God is the only thing that can push envy out of your life because you recognize I'm content in what God has given me, and I don't need anything else that anybody else has.

God's placed me here for a reason.

It says contentment, our eyes are on God.

We see his leadership, we see who he is, and we're following him.

Next thing I want you to see, though, that Paul's gonna show us is this.

That when we see Christ's leadership, we we then pray to advance God's work.

We pray to advance God's work.

Now in verse four, Paul's thankfulness overflows in prayer.

He says that in verse four, always, in every prayer of mine, for you all making my prayer with joy.

There's an order of events here that I think is really instructive for us.

First, Paul remembers the church.

That just happens in life, doesn't it?

I said to my wife this morning, all right, shower thoughts like so weird.

Isn't it so weird in your life?

I don't know how it works, but like these thoughts just come into your brain, you're like, where did that come from?

I haven't thought about that person for like 15 years, and yet now when they're in my brain, I'm thinking about them.

And Paul had this habit that whenever a memory would come into his mind, he would meditate on it in thankfulness, and then that thankfulness would overflow into prayer.

And we notice in verse 4 that this is really habitual for Paul, so that there is this kind of like uh the frequency of it is 100% of the time, in all my remembrance of you, I remember you, and then always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy.

It's become habitual to him.

Paul displayed this throughout his life.

That's why in 1 Thessalonians 5.17 he could say this: pray without ceasing.

In Ephesians 6.18, he could say, pray in the spirit at all times.

It's not as though Paul was some sort of like monk who 24-7, he's had this eternal prayer list and he's constantly praying to the Father.

But it was that Paul was constantly living in the light of Christ in his union with him, so that every time Paul thought about something in the world, he he then lifted it to God in prayer.

In other words, Paul's mind was so affected with who Christ is and the work that he's doing, so that every time something came into his memory, especially these people, he he turned to prayer.

And in Philippians 4.6, this is gonna be his the way that he exhorts us, he's gonna say to us in Philippians 4.6, don't be anxious about anything.

But in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

And that's very practical.

Anytime something comes in your mind and begins to cause you to worry, very practically, what you need to do then is to give it over to God.

To pray.

So Paul had this kind of like, like, nothing could get into his mind without then, no memory could come to his mind without then it filtering to Thanksgiving and then filtering to a life of praying and making requests for those things.

How does Paul do this?

How do you live a life of such like you're so saturated in the gospel that your first like habit, your knee-jerk reaction is to turn to Christ?

Because I'll tell you what my knee-jerk reaction is.

It's not often to turn to Christ.

When anxious thoughts come in my mind, don't you share?

I hope I'm not like the only person who struggles with this.

I think we all do.

When anxious thoughts come in my mind, you know what I want to do.

I don't want to run to Christ, I want to like think about that more.

Maybe I can solve this problem.

Maybe I can like work this out.

If I just think I'll just stay up all night.

Here's my plan.

I'm gonna stay up all night in the delirium of like 3 a.m.

and I haven't slept at all.

I'm gonna think about this problem.

I'm gonna solve it tonight.

And it never works, does it?

Never works.

And Paul had made this habit.

And you you get this reality that Paul is so united to Christ, he's so convinced of who he is in Christ, that there's just, he cannot filter any information through his mind without it filtering through his identity in Christ.

And you get this sense in verse one where he said, that I he said, Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ, but then he also said to all the saints, and he includes himself in this, those who are devoted to God, holy in Christ Jesus.

It is Paul's union with Christ, that Christ is in him, and Paul is in Christ that makes it so that every thought Paul has cannot but be filtered through Christ.

So that everything he does is really clothed in prayer.

I was recently reading a book by uh a biography on the Puritan Thomas Goodwin, and some of you are probably more familiar with Thomas Goodwin than you know, because you've read a probably one of the best books I've read in the last 10 years, a book called Gentle and Lowly.

And Gentle and Lowly was really influenced by Thomas Goodwin and his preaching and writing.

Really a preacher more than any other that could kind of like if you could open up Christ's heart and see his heart of compassion for sinners, I think Thomas Goodwin did that better than anyone.

And by the way, if you haven't read Gentle and Lowly, I would highly recommend that.

As definitely one of my top three books of all time, but if not, top one in the last 10 years that's been written.

So helpful.

But Thomas Goodwin wrote these words, and I think this maybe helpfully summarizes what we're after here.

He says, the indwelling of Christ by faith, that's the union that we have in Christ in experiencing it.

He says, the indwelling of Christ by faith is to have Jesus Christ continually in one's eye.

A habitual sight of him.

I call it so because a man actually does not always think of Christ, but as a man does not look up to the sun continually, yet he sees the light of it.

So you should carry along and bear along in your eye the sign and knowledge of Christ, so that at least the presence of him accompanies you, which faith makes.

This is so helpful.

Just as you live in the light of the sun, and yet you never find the need to look up at the sun in order to receive its light, so you live in the presence of Christ, so that everything you're doing throughout the day, it is soaked in the light of Jesus Christ, so that in a moment you can turn to him and pray.

And so this is what faith really practically does.

Faith carries Christ with me everywhere I go, into the workplace, into the baby's room to change that diaper, into the nursery, into church, everywhere I go.

I carry faith with me, and then the language of faith is then prayer.

So that not that it's not like I'm constantly praying and my my coworkers are starting to think that I'm kind of weird because I'm walking around the office murmuring, but it's that I'm constantly living in the light of Christ, and so quickly, when something comes to mind, I'm turning to him in prayer.

I'm making this habitual.

And so let me make let me maybe say this as an application.

How often over this past week, we could even think about this morning, how often does your mind run to conversation with Christ during the day?

How many times this week have you gotten to the end of your day and realized that you haven't even thought about Jesus Christ since you closed your Bible in the morning for your morning devotions, or maybe you didn't even do that?

See, this type of prayer will only be possible when our mind is so filled with the glory and exaltation of Christ that everything we do, Jesus is in our union with him, bleeds into it.

I want you to notice, though, that this prayer for Paul, this habitual prayer that would stem from his memory of the Philippians and his thankfulness of the Philippians, it wasn't purposeless.

Paul's prayer was very tactical.

In fact, the word for prayer here in the original language, it kind of denotes this need for a request.

And in fact, Paul will use it again in verse 19, and you'll see there that Paul in prison says of the Philippian church, For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance.

And so Paul knew that the Philippian church was praying very practically and purposefully for Paul to be delivered from prison.

It was a purposeful prayer.

Now, Paul's prayer here is very purposeful.

I want you to see that Paul's prayer here is really for the advance of these believers' growth.

In fact, he tells us exactly what he's gonna pray, what his prayer is in verse 9 to 11.

We're gonna see this in a few weeks.

He says this it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment abounding more and more, so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless in the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ through the glory and praise of God.

In other words, what is Paul's prayer?

We could boil it down to this maturity.

He prays for the church.

I want you to abound more and more, I want your knowledge to abound more and more, I want your discernment to abound more and more, so that when Jesus returns, you are filled with the fruit of righteousness.

I want you to grow.

Paul's praying for gospel maturity in the lives of other believers.

And can I can I just ask you this this morning?

Do you know of someone else who is praying for you very practically right now?

Do you know of someone who like they know what's going on in your life?

They know this week the challenges that you are gonna face, and they are lifting you up to the Lord in prayer.

Do you know of someone like that?

You know what the response is if the answer is no to that?

The response is not like, how dare you?

Someone hasn't asked me.

The response is to do what Paul does so often in the churches in the letters.

You know what one of the most constant things he would say to the church is this, pray for me.

Pray for me.

The response is to tap your neighbor on the shoulder after the service and say, Hey, listen, listen, can you pray for me this week?

Could you pray for me right now?

Like very practically, there are some things I'm going through, and I just need prayer because I have this idea that Paul has that I can't grow without prayer.

I need you to pray, and you won't believe the power that is funneled into your life when you do this.

Church, you know that prayer is effective.

You can't grow without it.

God reminded me of this so vividly this week as I was preparing this.

I was just reminded of, you know, pastoral ministry and the necessity of being a praying pastor and the absurdity of thinking that you could do ministry without praying.

And so I was just thinking, you know, like how how I just I need to be, you can never, I'll never get to that end of my ministry and say, okay, you know, I prayed enough.

I just prayed too much.

I just prayed for that church way too much.

I just know I will never do that.

And so I'm thinking practically, you know, trying to let this text plow my own life before I preach it to you.

And and I was just reminded of a season in my life where I just really practically prayed through these prayer cards, little index cards, four by six, they've become some of the most holy little items in my life.

And so I pulled them out again, and some of them are dated to years ago.

And I just started praying for them.

And one of the things that came up was just the heart for the lost, just that God would be giving me a heart for the lost.

And, you know, one of the items on that little prayer card is for an opportunity to share the gospel.

And when your job is to hang out with Christians, you know, sometimes it is hard to find an opportunity to share the gospel.

And so I'm just praying, God, you know, I don't know, I don't know what it's gonna look like, but Lord, would you just give me this opportunity?

And then that day there's a person working on my house, and we get some pizza and we sit down and he says, Hey, so what do you do?

And I'm and all of a sudden I realize, oh man, sometimes prayer is too effective.

Sometimes prayer is too powerful.

And I get to card for my wife, and you know, I'm praying for my wife, I'm praying for her growth, for her advancement.

And one of the things I'm just really practically praying for is that she would have a friend in in ministry.

You know, it's so important when you are a pastor's wife to have a friend who is in that same role that can support you and and kind of share the burden alongside you in a way that maybe other people can't understand.

And so I'm praying, Lord, would you provide something for her?

And then just this morning on the way to the on the way to the church this morning, she says to me, you know, someone, the pastor's wife from the area reached out to me and said she wanted to meet for coffee.

And I'm just I'm looking at that and I'm saying, prayer is so powerful.

And I'm looking at my life and I'm thinking, how many times have I not prayed for something that God would have so quickly said, yes, yes, I will do that in your life?

And I wonder what that how many things that's true for you.

I wonder what God would accomplish in this moment if you would just in just humility and vulnerability would turn to a brother in Christ and say, I need your prayer, I can't do this.

So much practical application here for us.

Let me maybe just help us think practically about prayer.

One of the things I think we need to get from this this morning is this that when our mind is filled with Christ, everything we do will be clothed in prayer.

This is the reason Paul could pray so constantly, always, he says, always in every prayer of mine, is because his mind was so filled with Christ.

Paul showed us this in verse two verses, right?

That he's a saint, he's holy in Christ, but he also showed us in verse two that grace and peace flow into the believer's life from God the Father.

And so this theology, it drives him to prayer, that the only place I can find grace and peace is in God.

And so, of course, if I want anything meaningful to happen in the Philippian church, I need to pray.

If I want anything meaningful to happen in the life of my family, I need to pray.

If I want anything eternally meaningful to happen in the context of my small group, in the context of my church, in the context of my life, I need to pray.

Paul has such a high view of God that nothing other than prayer makes sense.

In fact, let me let me maybe illustrate this for you.

Imagine that you and I were to start a business together.

I had this great idea where it's like, you know how like cheese whiz comes in a can?

Some of you are already like, I'm in.

I don't even know what the idea is.

I'm a full investor.

Here's$10,000 for this idea.

What if we had like pancakes, you know, pancake batter in a can and you just spray it onto the can and it makes a pancake?

Okay, so okay, I lost a lot of investors there.

But say, let's you and I were want to make this investment, and we hear that there is an investor who they just have millions and millions and millions, billions of dollars in new market, and they've put an ad out all over social media looking for investment opportunities.

We wanna give you our money.

We want to pour our resources into your business idea.

And imagine you and I have a per uh an acquaintance who is like personal friends with this investor, and they tell us, hey, listen, you gotta go to this guy because I'm pretty sure he's gonna put some funding behind your idea.

Well, you and I would be foolish not to go to this person who has all the resources to accomplish what you want to see happen.

All the resources to make possible this thing that you are bringing to him.

That investor has all the resources to make it happen.

Listen, if we can if we can illustrate that with an rich investor, how much more does God have the power to accomplish anything that we ask of him?

And if we have this high view of God's power to accomplish these things, why would we not go to him?

You know why?

It's because you and I, our prayerlessness, it proves that we really do have in our heart of hearts, we'd never say it, but we have a low view of God's willingness to accomplish these things in our life.

Because otherwise, it just wouldn't make sense to do anything other than just pray.

When we're faced with that problem that's causing us anxiety, it wouldn't make sense to like stay up all night thinking about it.

The only thing that would make sense is to turn to God and pray and say, God, do something.

I don't have the power, I don't have the resources.

But God, you do.

And this is one of the only ways that prayer will ever happen in your life is when you recognize how poor you are and how lacking you are in the things that you need to make life happen, and how rich God is, and how prayer is the connection between those two things.

Another thing, really practically, is this one of the best ways that you can pray is by making a habit of prayer, by linking the memory of people or things to the habit of prayer.

This is very practically, this is what we see in Paul's life.

He had made a habit of this.

So that every time he thought about someone, he turned to prayer.

And really practically, you can commit to doing this right now.

Every time I think about this person, I'm going to pray for them.

In fact, it doesn't just have to be people, like there can be moments throughout your day where you just link that thing that you're doing to prayer.

What if all of us right now, what if all of us committed to every time we brush our teeth, for the duration of that time brushing our teeth, so for four minutes a day, right, everybody?

Right?

Right?

Turn your neighbor.

It's been two minutes already today, right?

Smell their breath, let's confirm this.

What if every time you brushed your teeth, you prayed for the lost?

That's four minutes a day.

I did the math, I had to use a calculator because I'm a pastor and that's why I got into pastoral ministry because I don't do math.

But that's hours and hours in a year.

Almost a full day of praying for the lost.

Just by linking it to this little habit.

What if every time you you did dishes, so many dishes?

But what if every time you did those dishes you prayed for your family?

Such a powerful way to prayer that can fill our lives with pray when we link it habitually to things that we are doing.

And instead of God being a little portion of our day or maybe a little portion of our week, even he would, his whole life would light our entire existence.

And so we pray to advance God's work.

The last thing I want you to see here is that we partner to accomplish God's work.

Partner to accomplish God's work.

Notice the reality of Paul's affection for Christ's leadership here leads to him being thankful that he has gospel partners in verse five.

He says, because of your partnership in the gospel, from the first day until now.

Paul's rejoicing here comes from this realization that he has brothers and sisters to link arms with in this mission that he has to make and mature disciple.

Now, the Greek word here for a partnership is going to become increasingly important to us as we work through Philippians.

It's this word koinonia.

And it was used very often, whether it was in marriage or business or friendship, to speak about two people who had common interests and shared in those interests together.

And a major major reason for the letter of Philippians really will be for Paul to talk about koinonia and to teach the church how to live their lives in the light of their union with Jesus Christ.

This is what Christ-filled fellowship really looks like.

And so Paul really models this in many ways.

We already read this, but but we read it.

I'll read it again for you again, so you can get a sense of Paul's fellowship with the church in verse 8.

He says, I yearn for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.

How much does Paul love these brothers and sisters in Christ that he's in fellowship with?

Paul can say the same amount that Jesus loves him.

I love these people.

This fellowship it overflows in verse 19, knowing that the Philippians are praying and supporting Paul.

And in verse 25, Paul telling the Philippians that he would stay for their progress and their joy, they're linking arms together.

In chapter 2, verse 17, Paul is describing the suffering he's enduring for their sake.

He's saying, Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am Glad and rejoice with you all.

Paul says, if what happens to me is for the sake of building up your faith, I rejoice in it.

Throughout much of the letter we see the Philippians, Paul, for love.

They send Epaphroditus who almost dies on the journey to see Paul.

He's willing to give his life for Paul so that he can get these gifts.

Whether, you know, likely that gift was money.

We know for sure if a church is sending gifts, there's going to be some sort of baked goods in it, right?

And Epaphroditus was willing to die to get these things to Paul.

This is the fellowship that God is calling this church to.

This is really the heart of why we're getting through going through Philippians, because we want to see God.

We want to look to God and say, God, more like this.

We want to experience a fellowship like this.

This is this is not church basement, cookies, and coffee kind of fellowship.

Let's talk about our week.

This is like brothers and sisters going to war type fellowship.

There is a unity that is deeper than any other unity in the world.

How do we have this fellowship?

A few things I want to maybe really practically put before us about ways that we can experience this fellowship as a church.

There are thousands of ways that we could apply here.

And I mean, I think there are some that are pretty practical to us in the place that we are at as a church.

And so let me put a few before you.

The first way that we can practically pursue this fellowship is to make sure that in all our interactions with each other, we are emphasizing the spiritual side of this fellowship.

Listen, I I I know, I praise God that one of the things that's happening naturally in the life of our church is that people are getting together and experiencing life together.

I hope that you're experiencing that.

I hope that you are, you know, kind of making an effort to invite people over to your house to practice hospitality with them and have a meal with them.

And I hope that effort is being made to you as well.

But really it starts with you offering that to other people.

And let me just encourage you to always emphasize the spiritual side of that.

Don't let that just kind of be like it's the same dinner you'd have with an unbelieving neighbor.

Take time to encourage one another in the faith, to speak about spiritual things, to pray for one another.

Let me just encourage you in the nature of our relationships on a Sunday morning, after the service ends, what do your conversations look like?

Are you talking to the same old people about the same old things week after week?

Or are you seeking ways that you can serve other people in conversation, that you can experience this spiritual fellowship together, that maybe you can pray for them for the advance of the gospel in their lives.

Notice that Paul says here that this partnership that we experience is a partnership in the gospel.

This is the very thing that links us together, and this is how we practice and participate in this, is when we are pressing the gospel into each other's lives, when we're celebrating the gospel advancement in each other's life.

And very practically, one of the ways that we participate in this fellowship is through baptism.

Next two weeks, we have at least three baptisms happening.

And this is an amazing chance that we get as a church to come alongside these people and say, hey, we have fellowship with these people.

Their partnership in the gospel, it's just like the way I came to the gospel.

You know, the reality is like every time we hear one of these testimonies, isn't it always the same?

Like, you know, before Christ, I was immense, then I came to Christ, and he fixed my life, and now I'm growing in fruit and abundance.

And the same in your life is gonna be the same in every.

I mean, I don't want to take away from any of the testimonies, but that's the work that God has done in all of our lives.

And this is the fellowship that the person beside you, if they are in Christ, the person beside you has experienced that same thing.

God's grace is transforming us, and this is where our fellowship comes from.

This is so important because there are things tearing apart churches that have nothing to do with the gospel.

Oh, the worship.

I don't like the worship music.

I don't like the family ministry.

I don't like the color of the carpet.

I don't like the hole in the drywall in the Shekinah glory window.

No one said that yet, but I'm sure it's got to.

The core of our unity here is the gospel.

It is the work that Jesus Christ has done.

So, very practically one of the ways that we'd partner in the gospel is by pursuing that practically in our relationship, making sure that our fellowship is not just like without the gospel, but pressing the gospel deep into other people's lives.

Here's a second way we can partner in the gospel.

Over the month, and again, this is very practical and to the context of our church.

Over the month of December, many of you know as you get the weekly offerings that we are behind in our budget.

And this really is a the reality of giving is that this is us partnering together to say, God, we want to see this work accomplished in New Market.

We want to see lost people saved, we want to see saved people matured, we want to see mature people multiplied, and this work cannot be done unless we link arms together very practically financially and contribute to the work being done.

And so if you get the weekly newsletter, you know that we're about 80,000 behind in our operating budget this year.

And so one of the really practical things you can do is in December, we're gonna be taking up a special offering.

And our desire in the special offering is to make up as much as we can of this deficit, trusting it to the Lord, trusting that the Lord can fulfill that.

And so I would just ask you as a church, would you partner with the other believers?

Again, this isn't me, this isn't the elders, this is the church.

This is the partnership that we share together.

Would you partner with other believers who are also doing the same and ask God, what might I be able to give?

And we're asking you above and beyond your regular giving to think in this time of the year, you know, this coming Tuesday is Giving Tuesday.

This is a time where many people are thinking about what they might give and how they might give above and beyond, but to consider yourself along with your family, what might I give to God's work, to partner very practically with these brothers and sisters in the gospel advancement of this church in Newmarket.

And so we'll have a special offering that will start next week and we'll provide details for how to give to that.

But I just want to very practically put that before you as a way that we can practically partner in the gospel, asking God to accomplish his work together.

The third way that we can partner in the gospel is in what we're about to experience right now in communion.

And very practically, Jesus gave us two ordinances that would constantly emphasize our partnership.

The first we've already talked about is baptism, and baptism is really initiation into the partnership of the gospel, but very practically the Lord's Supper is continuation of that partnership that we have together in the gospel.

And this is an opportunity for us, each of us, in this room together.

It's very important that we do this together as believers.

This is the way that Jesus instituted it.

That we do this together because what we're doing by each of us taking the cup and eating of the bread is proclaiming this reality is that it's this blood and it's this flesh that unites us.

This is why we're here.

Because each of us need this, each of us needs to be united to the work that Jesus Christ has done on the cross.

And so we're gonna take communion together now, and I'm gonna invite the worship team up.

And you should have received a communion cup on your way up, but if you haven't, then the ushers, or at least one usher, is gonna come up and be really sprinting around and getting everyone.

He's gonna come and go to the back of the worship center, and you can stick your hand in the air, and they will make sure that you will get a cup into your hand.

And there are two reasons why you'd not take this this morning.

One is if you're not not a believer.

Uh, this symbolizes the blood poured out for you, and that you have accepted that.

What we sang earlier, that we have a debt that we cannot pay, and then that debt has been paid for you by Jesus Christ.

So if you're not a believer, we just ask that you'd let this pass.

The second reason you might not take that is if you have any unrepentant sin.

I'm not talking about sin.

We all sin, but I am talking about sin that you're unwilling to give up.

And the Holy Spirit has been pressing you, convicting you, and yet you're looking God in the eyes right now and you're saying, No, I'm not doing it.

I'm not giving it up.

I need this sin.

And I just ask that you let this pass.

Paul says that to eat this is to bring judgment upon yourself if you're in that heart state.

And yet, if you'll turn to the Lord right now and find forgiveness, Christ has offered this as a gift to you, a gift for you to experience.

And so we're gonna take this together right now and do this very practically to proclaim our partnership together in the gospel.

You'll notice here that there's two layers on the top.

The first will get you to the bread.

Paul writes in Corinthians, for I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you.

That the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread.

We had given thanks, he broke it, and he said, This is my body which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way, he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

Christ has been an amazing leader of your life.

And as we participate in this communion together, we are remembering that.

And we're gonna spend some time worshiping the Lord together in a moment.

But I just wanted to share this quote with you.

This is from one of my greatest spiritual examples, Charles Spurgeon.

And he wrote this, this was his final sermon he preached, and he had lived a life that was very difficult.

It was so busy with the ministry and work of the Lord.

The work the Lord was working through him and through his preaching.

And yet the ministry had really taken a toll so that he died far too young.

And yet he said these words in his last sermon.

He said, There is never like there is never his like among the choicest of princes.

He is always to be found in the thickest part of battle.

When the wind blows cold, he will always take the bleak side of the hill.

The heaviest end of the cross lies ever on his shoulders.

If he bids us carry a burden, he carries it also.

If there is anything that is gracious, generous, kind, and tender, lavish and superabundant in love, you will always find it in him.

These forty years and more have I served him, blessed be his name, and I have had nothing but love for him.

And I would be glad to continue yet another 40 years in the same dear service here below, if it so pleased him.

His service is life, peace, joy.

Oh, that you would enter it at once.

God help you to enlist under the banner of Jesus even this day.

And may you and I enlist under that banner.