Philippians, Gospel perseverance through gospel partnership - You'll Be in My Heart - Php 1:3-11

Well, welcome to The Roots, where it's all about Jesus.

We love God, we love people, we reach the lost,

and we make disciples. And I need everyone to say,

the deepest roots grow the strongest trees. So put down

roots here, let's grow together, amen? Well, we're gonna continue

our series today going through the book of Philippians. This

series is called Philippians, Gospel Perseverance Through Gospel Partnership. Gospel

perseverance through gospel partnership. And this letter from Paul to

the church in Philippi is actually full of joy and

full of rejoicing and gratitude. You see it all throughout

the whole book as he's reading. But it's all over

this partnership that he's sharing with them in gospel work.

This mutual partnership that encourages them to stand firm in

the faith, to hold their faith until the very end. end.

And our hope in this series as we're going through

it is actually that we would see that same love

and care that they have for each other, and it

would actually encourage us to do the same thing. That

we would be encouraged to have that same love and

care for one another here together. To partner in this

gospel work together to get it out into the community

and into the world. And that God would use this

partnership that we have in the gospel to do what?

To persevere in our own faith, that we would have

our own gospel perseverance through this partnership. And we actually

have a couple of things. I'm going to plant a

seed for it now. So you guys keep your eyes

out or open for the next month and the month after.

We're going to have some opportunities for some gospel partnership

stuff coming up with that we're excited to share. So

we'll talk about that more for all of October and

all of November. So be ready for that. But I

want to give you guys just a heads up that

it's coming. But today we're going to be in Philippians

chapter one, verses three through 11. So if you would

please grab your Bibles and start opening up to the

book of Philippians. And if you don't have a Bible,

we have a stack of them right there in the back.

And Gabe is actually available. Just wave your hand and

he'll run you one. If you don't have one, he'll

bring you a Bible. And please keep that. It's a

gift for you. We want you to have God's word

in your hands all the time. So turn to Philippians

Philippians 1:3–11

chapter 1, verses 3 through 11. And if you would

join me in standing, if you're able, while we read

our text today, we stand as a simple gesture to

show God how serious we are about his word, to

show reverence for his word to his people, and also

to model a posture of readiness to respond. So Philippians

Philippians 1:3–11

chapter 1, verses 3 through 11. We're going to read it,

and then we're going to pray together. 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. And I'm sure of this, that

he who began a good work in you will bring

it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It

is right for me to feel this way about you

all because I hold you in my heart for you

are all partakers with me of grace, both in my

imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.

For God is my witness, how I yearn for you

all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is

my prayer that your love may abound more and more

with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve

what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for

the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness

that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise

of God. Let's pray. God, we thank you for your word.

We do take it seriously. God, we receive it today.

We open up our hearts and our minds and our

ears and our eyes to receive everything you'd have for

us today. God, we're ready to be encouraged and challenged

and rebuked if necessary. But God, we thank you for

your word and we take it serious. So God, let

it ring true in our hearts today as we go

through it. And we thank you for all this in

Jesus' name. Everybody said, amen. You may be seated. Who

here remembers that classic animated Disney film, Tarzan? Yeah? It's

a solid flick. Good throwback movie. But the reason I

bring up Tarzan actually has nothing to do with apes

or humans or even the lesser known characters like the elephants,

if you remember. Is this water sanitary? Sure looks questionable

to me. I'm not talking about any of these animals.

I'm actually going to talk about A goat. And you're like,

wait a minute, there's no goats in Tarzan. I beg

to differ, because when it comes to writing movie soundtracks,

Phil Collins is the goat. And he wrote the soundtrack

for Tarzan. Goat, he's the goat, it's just true. And

when I read what Paul's writing here in the Philippians,

I can't help but sing Phil Collins. Because verse seven,

what does it say? It says, it is right for

me to feel this way about you all, because what?

I hold you in my heart. Now what song in

the Tarzan soundtrack comes to mind When you hear, I

hold you in my heart. You'll be in my heart. Yes,

you'll be in my heart. Come on. Tarzan. Phil Collins.

He's the goat. That's why I called today's message, You'll

Be In My Heart, because this is why I can't

help but sing every time I read what Paul's saying

to the Philippians, the church in Philippi, that you'll be

in my heart. Now, you guys are going to have

that song stuck in your head all day, so you're welcome.

But this idea of holding someone in your heart, what

does it actually mean to hold someone in your heart?

What does it mean to have someone in your heart?

And I think at a base level, it just means

you love them. That you're fond of them. Yes, absolutely,

that you're fond of them. But I think to truly

hold someone in your heart goes a little further than

just this idea of fondness. I think it means you

actually care for them. You have a level of care

for them. That you think about their well-being. that you

want the best for them, you'd wish the best for them,

that you want to protect them or help them, you

want to lift them up or build them up, you

do good to them. And if you look at what

Paul means when he says that he holds the Philippians

in his heart, then it also includes caring about the

love and unity that they have with one another, that

he cares about the unity they have with one another.

And he also cares that they would know what the

Lord sees as good and right. He cares about how

they stand before the Lord when he returns, that he

cares that they will be found pure and blameless. And

he cares about them fulfilling the purpose that they were

created for, that their whole life would bring glory to God.

These are some things that Paul lists out as what

it means to hold the Philippians in his heart. So

in short, if you kind of like put all of

that stuff together, What Paul's demonstrating is how believers ought

to be and ought to care for one another. And

this is what it means to hold each other in

our hearts. So looking at Paul's example, what I want

to argue today is that believers care about each other's

growth and holiness. That believers care about each other's growth

and holiness. But it's not just general growth and holiness.

If you leave a human being alone, it will just

naturally grow. So it's something a little bit different than that,

not just general growth and holiness, but we ought to

care for each other's spiritual growth and personal holiness. Our

spiritual growth and personal holiness, that we are growing into

mature Christians, strong believers, giants of the faith, ones who

are spiritually mature, who stand before the Lord, pure and blameless.

So to hold someone in our hearts means to care

about them on that level, on this deeper than just

a surface level. Well, that's how Paul cares for the Philippians.

He truly holds them in his heart, and he can't

help but smile when he thinks of them. Look at

how our text starts. It starts right there in verse 3.

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.

He's saying, every time you pop into my head, I

thank God for you. That's what he's saying. Have you

ever had someone randomly pop into your head? I don't

think that's as random as you think. I think that

oftentimes God will put people on your hearts and pop

them in your heads for a specific reason. Maybe they're

going through a hard time. Maybe they just need some encouragement.

Maybe actually something cool happened to them and they need

someone to share it with. But I don't think it's

as random as we think. So if someone pops in

your head, my encouragement to you is reach out to them.

Give them a call. Shoot them a text. Maybe it's nothing,

but maybe it's something. Or maybe it's even like Paul's

explaining here in our text. Someone's brought to your remembrance

so that you would turn and just thank God for them.

And that would be an encouragement for you. But Paul continues,

I thank my God and all my remembrance of you,

always in every prayer of mine for you all, making

my prayer with what? With joy. Making my prayer with joy.

with joy. Every time you pop into my head, I

thank God for you. And my prayers are full of joy.

It's bringing Paul joy to pray for them. Why? Because

of verse five, because of your partnership in the gospel

from the first day until now. So when the Philippians

pop into Paul's head, he can't help but smile and

thank God with joy because of their partnership with him

in the gospel from the first day until now. Now

we're going to talk more about what uh when we

get to like kind of the end of philippians but

paul reminds the philippians that when he left macedonia and

this is back when the gospel first started to spread

in the area that they were the only church that

partnered with him in giving and receiving the philippians were

they're the only church and they've been partnering with paul

and gospel work ever since the beginning and what i

want you to remember from this is that the effect

of the gospel is evident in their life through their

partnership The effects of the gospel are evident in their

lives through their partnership. And just kind of a quick question,

how do you know if someone has real, genuine, saving faith?

How do you know that they truly believe in the gospel?

How do you know that the gospel has taken root

in someone's life? Well, you look at what grows, right?

What kind of tree is grown from their belief? What

is the fruit of their life? What has it produced?

What's the evidence that you see? Do you see them

growing in spiritual maturity? Do you see them growing? And

I'm saying them, but we also hold up a mirror, right?

We see us growing in spiritual maturity. Are we looking

more like Jesus or less like him? If we're made

aware of God's demands on believers, How do we respond?

Do we reject them? Or do we accept them? What

about when we know that standard and we fail to

meet it? What do we do? Do we feel godly

sorrow that convicts us, that leads to repentance? Or are

we indifferent? Or do we try to justify our sin?

What's the evidence that Paul sees in the Philippians? When

he looks at them, what's the evidence that he sees

because once they've received the gospel, it changed them. Genuine

faith in the gospel of Jesus will change you. Genuine

faith in the gospel of Jesus will change you. You'll

see outward fruit, but on a more important level, the

deepest parts of you, your motivations, your drive, your affections

will all be changed. Why? Because your nature is now different.

And Paul's seen this change in the Philippians. Because for us,

we can't see the heart, can we? What can we see?

We can see the hands. We can see the outside.

We can see the results. And Paul's seen this change

in the Philippians, which makes what he says in verse

six kind of make sense. He says, and I'm sure

of this, that he who began a good work in

you will bring it to completion at the day of

Jesus Christ. So Paul's seen this work that the Lord

has begun in them. Why? Because they are partnering with

him in the gospel. They're caring about something way outside

of themselves, something that believers care about. And he is sure,

and that word sure means to have trust or confidence

that the one who started this work will complete it.

He will complete it. Like a builder building a house,

they don't stop partway through. They build the house until

it's complete completion. God is building his people into the

image of Jesus and he will not stop until we

are complete. I want you to listen to this verse.

It'll be on the screen so you don't need to

turn there. This is in 1 Thessalonians 5. Now may

the God of peace himself. So who's talking right here?

May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and

may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept

blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He

who calls you is what? He will surely do it.

If God set out to do something, He will do it.

He will do it. Every promise He's ever made, He's

fulfilled it. If you don't believe me, read your Bible.

Example after example after example that God always fulfills His promises.

That He is faithful. that he is steadfast. He's not

like man. What does man do? Man changes their minds

all the time. No, he is the same yesterday, today,

and tomorrow. And who's the ones making sure that we're

sanctified and kept blameless when Jesus returns? God is. God's

the one who's doing it, not us. I mean, we've

got a lot of work to do, but he's the

one making it happen. He's the one who called us,

and he's the one who sustains us. He's the one

who began the good work in us, and he will

bring it to completion. God will. And we'll talk more

about this day of Jesus Christ here in a moment.

But here, Paul is thankful to God and prays with

joy when he thinks of the Philippians because of their

partnership in the gospel. He knows that the work that

God started in them, he will accomplish. bring to completion.

And it makes sense that he would feel this way.

So look at the next verse, verse seven. It is

right for me to feel this way about you all

because you'll be in my heart. Because I hold you

in my heart. For you are all partakers with me

of grace. Or another word to understand that is, or

you all have fellowship with me in grace. both in

my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.

So what's Paul saying right here? He's saying it's right

for me to feel this way or it's proper for

me to feel this way or to make sense that

I would feel this way. Make sense that he would

feel confident that God will complete the work he started

because of the evidence he sees in them. The mutual

affection they have for each other, especially while he's locked up.

He's writing this letter to them while he's in prison

in Rome. And they are sharing in this grace in

his imprisonment. They have this fellowship of grace or the goodwill,

loving kindness and favor they have with one another. And

the fact that they work to defend and confirm the gospel,

this is what believers do. This is what those who

have been exposed to and receive the mercy and grace

of the Lord. They will defend and confirm the gospel.

Those who have received his mercy, grace, forgiveness and salvation

will So yes, it's right for Paul to have confidence

that God will complete the work that he started in them.

He can have this confident stance. But now Paul makes

like a slight shift in what he's saying. Even with

the confidence that he has, which he just expressed, he

still prays for them. He still prays for the people.

Look at the last few verses of our text, verses

eight through 11. For God is my witness. Ask the Lord,

he knows. how I yearn for you with all the

affection of Christ Jesus. So you can go ask God.

Do we have this slide with all of the verses

on there at all? Because I don't want like one verse.

If not, it's totally fine. You guys got your Bibles

in your lap. So I want you to see all

these verses together. How I yearn for you with all

or with the affection of Christ Jesus. So he's saying

you can go ask God. Paul longs for and pursues

in love after the Philippians in the same way that

Jesus loves. That's what that that verse kind of like

expanded or blown up is. That's some deep affection and love.

The affection Jesus had is what sent him to the cross.

And that's the example Paul's using here to describe how

he feels. That's kind of a big deal. And in

case you don't believe what Paul, if Paul really means it,

I want you to hold your place in Philippians and

I want you to turn to Romans chapter nine. Because

Paul has some big words to say there. We're just

going to read the first three verses of Romans chapter 9.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

This would actually be a good reference. If you have

a reference Bible, it will already be in there. If

you don't have a reference Bible, you could literally write

Romans chapter 9 next to that verse in Philippians. But

Romans 9 · chapter mention

it says, I am speaking the truth in Christ. All right? Paul,

we get it. You're not lying. I'm not lying. My

conscience bears me witness... That word accursed there is the

Greek word anathema. That means damned to hell. And if

you listen to what Paul is saying here, he feels

such a deep love for someone He's saying if their

being saved meant that I was damned to hell, I mean,

Lord help me, I'm not there yet. That's some deep

love and affection for a brother and sister. Do I

have this kind of love or affection? I mean, the

obvious answer is not yet. I'm working towards that. But

am I growing towards this type of love and affection

and care for my brothers and sisters in Christ? following

this extremely high bar. But guys, that's the model we're

given to follow. That's the model we're given to follow. Husbands,

love your wives like what? Like Christ loved the church

and gave himself up for her. This kind of love,

it's kind of normal when it comes to Christianity. This

is the kind of love and care and affection that

we're modeled and told to love. When I know what

the word is, it starts with an R, to do,

just do these things. This is how you're supposed to love. Okay,

I want you to go back to your text in Philippians.

Paul has this deep affection for the Philippians, but it

isn't just an affection that sits there and hangs and

does nothing. It actually leads to something. So what does

this affection lead to? It says, for God is my witness,

how I yearn for you all with the affection of

Christ Jesus, and it is my what? It is my

prayer that your love may abound more and more with

knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what

is excellent. That means to test, to prove, to distinguish

between good and evil or lawful and unlawful and so

be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled

with the fruit of righteousness that comes in through Jesus

Christ to the glory and praise of God. So this

affection that Paul has for the Philippians leads to Paul

praying for the people. But then again, if he's already

confident that God will finish the work that he started,

then why pray? Why pray? Why pray for something that

you're already confident is going to happen? And this is

really important for us to understand that Paul doesn't see

God's sovereignty as a reason to not pray. And that's

really key to understand because we have a high view

of God's sovereignty, especially here at the roots. God is sovereign.

He is in the heavens and he does what he pleases.

He works all things to the counsel of his will.

The king's heart is a stream of water in the

Lord's hands. He bends it where he wills. God gets

to do what God wants to do and it will

be the way he wants it to be. High view

of God's sovereignty. Paul shares this view of God's sovereignty

because I just quoted a lot of what stuff he says.

It doesn't stop him from praying. Why? Doesn't stop him

from praying. And actually, if you think about this, because

I'm going to answer the question just through the why

out there, but Jesus actually tells us that God knows

what we need before we ask, but we're still told

to bring our request to God. And I think the

better that we understand God's sovereignty, the more confidence we

can have when we pray. I mean, how much more

confident do we pray when we know we're praying according

to God's will? Think about 1 John 5, starting in

verse 13, it says, I write these things to you

who believe in the name of the Son of God,

that you may know that you have eternal life. That's

a great comfort. Verse 14, and this is the confidence

that we have toward him, that if we ask anything

according to his will, he what? He hears us. And

if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask,

We know that we have the requests that we have.

Oh my gosh. We know that we have the requests

that we've asked of him. I mean, I think that

should light some fire in our prayers. We will have

a tendency to understand God's sovereignty better and maybe feel

like we don't have to pray for stuff. That's the

opposite of what Jesus tells us to do. It's the

opposite of what Paul does, even after quoting the same thing.

Our understanding of God's sovereignty should raise our prayers to him,

knowing that he's in control of everything. Paul is confident

in God's sustaining and completing power in the Philippians' lives

and still prays for them. But look what the things

that he prays for. And this is actually looking at

what Paul prays for the Philippians. That's, I think, gonna

be key or our biggest clue in understanding the argument

for today. Because our argument was believers care about each

other's growth So look at verse 9. And it is

my prayer that your love may abound more and more.

And that's that their love for the Lord and for

each other would be preeminent. It would excel. It would

increase and grow with knowledge and all discernment. So with

their love that they would abound in true and precise

knowledge and judgment. But for what purpose? Verse 10 starts with,

so that. This is the purpose. You may approve what

is excellent. And that approve what is excellent is words

kind of put together that you can understand as to

be able to judge between or test and prove to

distinguish between good and evil, lawful and unlawful. It's being

able to know right from wrong in God's eyes. That's

what that means. But why? Why? And so be pure

and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the

fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the

glory and praise of God. So that we can stand

before Jesus pure and blameless. It's why we'd want to

be able to test and approve what God sees as

right and lawful and good. So we can stand before

Jesus pure and blameless. It's just like Paul told Timothy

in his letters to Timothy to present yourself before God

as a worker approved, he says. Paul wants them to

be able to distinguish between good and evil or what's

right and what's wrong so that they would do good

and do right. We have to remember that our salvation

is freedom from sin, not freedom to sin. Let me

say that again. Our salvation... is a freedom from sin,

not a freedom to sin. And this is where we

think about Romans 5 and 6, where sin abounds, grace

abounds all the more. But are we to continue sinning

so that grace may abound? I forbid it. By no means.

We don't keep sinning just so that grace can get

more glory and abound more. By no means. So what

does Paul care about for the Philippians? What is he

praying for? He's praying for their spiritual growth and their

personal holiness. He's praying for their spiritual growth and their

personal holiness. That's what Paul cares about. He wants them

to stand before the Lord pure and blameless, full of

the fruit of righteousness that comes from Jesus, all to

the glory of who? God the Father. All to the

glory of God the Father. But when, now we get

to go back and talk about for the day of Christ, when,

what is that day? That day is the last day

of the present age, the day in which Christ will

return from heaven, raise the dead, hold final judgment and

perfect his kingdom. Now that's kind of an important day

for us to remember. And that's kind of an important

day for us to be ready for. And I say

kinda as like a joke to soften the blow. You

need to be ready for that day It's the day

of the final judgment that Jesus himself talks about. I

want you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 25.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

We're going to read a handful of verses here. In

Matthew chapter 25 is the first of the four gospel accounts.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

We'll start in verse 31. Verse 31. When the son

of man comes in his glory and all the angels

with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.

Before him will be gathered all the nations. He will

separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the

sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep

on his right, but the goats on his left or

on the left. Then the king will say to those

on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my father,

inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of

the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food.

I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was

a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and

you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me.

I was in prison and you came to me. And

the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we

see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give

you a drink? And when did we see you a

stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you? And

when did we see you sick or in prison and

visit you? And the king will answer them, truly, I

say to you, as you did, as you did it

to one of the least of these my brothers, you

did it to me. And then he will say to

those on his left, depart from me, you cursed, into

the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

For I was hungry and you gave me no food.

I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I

was a stranger and you did not welcome me. Naked

and you did not clothe me. Sick and in prison

and you did not visit me. Then they also will

answer saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or

thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in

prison and did not minister to you? Then he will

answer them saying, truly, I say to you, as you

did not do it to one of the least of these,

you did not do it to me. And these will

go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

There is a day and it will come like a

thief in the night. Do you know when a thief

shows up in the night? No, because you would have

prepared for them. That's the point of a thief coming

at night. There is a day that will come like

a thief in the night when Jesus will return. And

this is what will happen on that day. So there

should always be a sense of urgency when it comes

to proclaiming the gospel. There's always a sense of urgency

because we're not promised tomorrow. Jesus could come back at

any moment. So now is the time to implore the

lost to be reconciled to God, to beg the lost,

to be reconciled to God, to be found righteous before

Jesus when he judges and enter into eternal life. Because

those who are still in their rejection of Jesus, who

have rebelled against him, they're still in their sin, not

having believed in Jesus, their destination is eternal punishment. the

fire that's prepared for Satan and his angels. So how

is one found righteous? How are we found righteous? on

that day, the day of Christ, when he returns to

judge the living and the dead? Well, let me tell you,

it is not by anything you can do. It's not

by any works. It's not by holding up to this

perfect standard on your own merit. Why is it not

by works? It's so that no one can boast. It's

only by Jesus. It's only by faith in the finished

work of Jesus on the cross. Salvation is by grace,

the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

And we will know that we have a genuine saving

faith when we look at the fruit of our lives.

We look at what has been produced in our lives.

Do we love like the Philippians? Do we partner in

gospel work together? Do we do the things that Jesus said?

To feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, welcome

the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned.

Do we look more and more like Jesus? Are we

growing in that? Are we growing in our looking more

like Christ, which is the image of God, which is

the perfect image of what humanity was created to be

That's why we say it's all about Jesus. Like it really, guys,

it really is all about Jesus. Like we have to

have our eyes so fixed and focused on Christ. He

is what we ought to be like. He is what

we will be like when we are resurrected. Are we

growing to be more and more like Jesus? I'm not

saying you're going to arrive there, this side of heaven,

because you're not. We're not perfect yet. We will be

made perfect. But if we're growing in that, that's our

assurance of salvation. as we start to see these things

growing in our lives, then we ought to pray like

Paul prayed, that we would grow in our love, that

we would grow in our knowledge and discernment, also that

we could know what is good and do it, so

that when we stand before Jesus on judgment day, we

are pure and blameless before him, full of the righteousness

that comes from him. Can I have the worship team

come up, please? So believers, Christians, we care for each

other's spiritual growth and personal holiness. We care for each

other's spiritual growth and personal holiness. We care about how

we stand before Jesus on judgment day. So my question is,

how are we doing at that? How are we doing

at having that kind of care? Because I know when

I'm on autopilot, I'm very, very self-focused. I'm not really

thinking about other people. I might be concerned about my

own growth and holiness, but on autopilot, I'm not really

thinking about others. My natural bent is to think of myself.

But if you gave yourself a grade, we're going to

go back to school now. If you got to grade

your own test on how you're doing at having your

level of care for others, what would that grade be?

We might not be at the level of Paul yet,

but are we headed in that direction? And I have

a list of questions I want to ask that I

think are really helpful for us to ask when we're

doing a self-assessment. So we should ponder these things. Do

I ever think about my brother's spiritual growth? Is that

ever something that crosses my mind? Do I care if

my sister is growing in holiness? And holiness being walking

in accordance to God's demands and obeying him. Do I

spend time praying for these things? Do I care more

about my brother or sister's comfort than their conformity to Christ?

Am I willing to lovingly encourage, exhort, or maybe even

correct a brother because I want them to stand pure

and blameless before the Lord? Do I rejoice and celebrate

when I see another believer becoming more Christ-like? Do I

celebrate that? So what grade do you give yourself? You

don't have to shout it out loud, but think in

your head. What grade do you give yourself when you're

answering these questions? Do you give yourself an F because

you never do these things? I just flunked. I failed it.

Give yourself a C minus because you're barely scraping by.

C's get degrees, baby. I don't think that applies here.

But taking a self-assessment and being honest because what's the

point if you're not honest? There's no growth if you're

not honest. It's just fake. So if you take a

self-assessment and you're truly honest with yourself, how are you

doing at caring for the growth and holiness of your

brothers and sisters? And if you answered no to most

of these questions or you gave yourself a bad grade,

and this is my loving encouragement and admonishment, choose to care.

I think it's been on the screen for a long

time now. Choose to care. I'm telling you, choose to care.

Do you know that you can choose to care I mean,

I fight tooth and nail against people who tell you

you don't have a choice in life. That external circumstances

cause you to feel or think or do or be

motivated to certain things and it's out of your control.

I reject that fully. Why? Because when God demands you

to do something, he puts a choice in front of you.

So you should choose to do it. You've been freed

from slavery to sin. If you put faith in Christ,

you're freed from the slavery to sin. You're no longer

bound to it. But now you're a slave to righteousness,

it says. That's what God says. So where you had

no choice other than to sin before, now you have

the choice to obey the Lord. So I'm telling you today,

choose to care about the growth and holiness of your

brothers and sisters. And if you were here last week

or listened to the message online, I said I think

one of the easiest ways to grow in your affection

for something or to grow and care for it is

to intentionally spend more time on it. You invest and

spend more time on something, you're going to start caring

about it. So we should be spending intentional time together

for the purpose of growing in spiritual maturity and holiness.

So what could that look like? That could be studying

God's word together. Grab someone and grab a Bible. Open

it up and start reading it together. How about praying

for each other's growth? Like you should have a list

on your phone, on a post-it note somewhere, on your

bathroom mirror, in your head. Have a list of people

you're just praying for from the church for their spiritual

growth and their maturity or their holiness, excuse me. Like

have a list. But let's take it a step further.

Why don't you actually pray when you're together too? Come together,

talk about it, pray about it. Ask each other questions

about your own personal holiness and then hold each other

accountable in a loving way. Care more about each other's

conformity to Christ than their comfort. And yes, that means

you gotta be brave and address sin. That's part of this. God,

great guidance. God tells us how to do that, that

we can follow. We address sin in our brothers and

sisters in Christ. It's not very loving to see a

blindfolded person walking towards a busy street and not try

to stop them. That's not the loving thing to do.

The loving thing to do is stop. You're walking towards danger.

So when you see your brother or sister walking in sin,

the loving thing to do is say stop. You're walking

towards danger. Help them see the truth. And we should

rejoice and celebrate our growth together. We're just like real

quick to focus on the failures and we forget to

focus on and celebrate the wins. Let's go from victory

to victory, not failure to failure. You fail, yeah, you

scrape your knees. Let's get up and let's keep going

forward and let's celebrate that next step towards Christlikeness. We

should celebrate that and encourage it in each other, in

one another. Let's do that, let's rejoice and celebrate. But

intentionally invest more time in these kinds of things and

just watch what happens. I promise you your love and

affection and care for each other will grow. And you will,

especially if it's surrounded around this, this growth in ourselves,

a spiritual growth and this holiness, you will grow to

care about those things in one another more. We'll start

to care for each other. Like Paul cares for the

Philippians and the Philippians care for Paul. We'll start to

love each other like Jesus loves us. He's the perfect

example of what it is to love our brothers and sisters.

So believers care for each other's growth and holiness. So

we ought to be deeply concerned with how we all

stand before the Lord. And that concern should move us

to act on it, to pray, to partner, and to

persevere in our faith until Jesus returns. Amen. Amen. Can

you guys please stand to your feet?