Philippians - There Are No Solo Soldiers - Php 1:1-2

Welcome to The Roots, where it's all about? It's all

about Jesus. We love God, we love people, we reach

the lost, and we make disciples. And we want to

help you grow in your love and your knowledge of Jesus.

That's what we do here. And we also know that

it's the deepest roots that grow the strongest trees. So

I want you to put down roots here. I mean,

it's kind of in the name, right? Put down roots.

Put down roots. Anyway, we're going to start a brand

new series right now today. And it's a series going

through the book of Philippians. We are so excited and

more accurate than calling it a book. It's actually the

letter that Paul wrote to the church in Philippi. And

we've called the series Philippians gospel perseverance through gospel partnership,

gospel perseverance through gospel partnership. And today what we're going

to do is we're going to look at the first

two verses, just the introductory greeting piece. And then we're

also going to give an overview on what the whole

book is about. So please grab your Bibles and start

opening them to Philippians chapter one. And if you need

a Bible, we have a bunch on that back table

back there. So wave your hand and Gabe will actually

run it to you. And if you don't own a Bible,

please keep it. We want you to have these Bibles.

That's why we get nice Bibles that we want you

to have that you can read and stay eating your

spiritual food as we talk about with our boys often.

We need another Bible over here. I'll point them out.

We need another one here. Look at that. And right here.

Give out all the Bibles. That's what we want to do.

We have literally hundreds and hundreds of them, so don't

feel shy. Please raise your hand high. We want you

to have a Bible. And open it to Martin. Duncan's

son was raising his hand. Get that kid a Bible.

In the book of Philippians, reading those first two verses

of chapter one, There's actually something new that we'd like

to start doing as a church. And what we're going

to do is we would like during the reading of

our main text, if you're able, for us all to

stand together while we read it. So it's not for

any weird or ritualistic reasons. It's a simple gesture that

we can do to show God how serious we are

at his word, to show reverence for his word. And

what I actually love about this is as we stand

when we're reading it, it's showing a posture of readiness

to respond to God's word. So if you are able,

while we read our text today, I'd love for you

to stand with me It's Philippians chapter 1, the first

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

two verses. Let's read them, and then I'll pray. Paul

and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints

in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers

and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our

Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. God, we

thank you for your word. We thank you that you've

given it to us, that we're not left to wander

in the darkness. but you've given us the light of you.

You've given us the light of your word. God, we

give ourselves to you as we march through your word today.

Give us ears to hear what you'd have us say,

that you would say to us, and give us hearts

to receive the word you have for us today. If

it's a challenging word, God, let us rise to the occasion.

If it's an encouraging word, let us receive that encouragement

to keep going. But God, we thank you that we

get to go through your word freely together as your

people in your house as we worship your name. So

we give all the glory to you. In Jesus' name,

everybody said... Amen, you guys may be seated. Everybody loves

a one-man army story. Just gets you super pumped. Think

about like Rambo. Yeah, Cardi's like, yeah, definitely Rambo. You

get pumped against impossible odds you have one man standing

against them all. Or think about like the Bourne series,

Jason Bourne. Or Ripley from Aliens. Got another Aliens fan

over here. John Wick, anybody know John Wick? There we go.

How about The Punisher? Come on, a little more visceral.

Not for the faint of heart. Or a lesser known guy, Sisu,

anybody seen that? That's just over the top craziness. One

man standing against, and you guys can think of, I'm sure, many,

many other examples, but all these characters are kind of

the same archetype, the same type of person. An army

of one fighting through impossible odds and winning. So they're

overcoming these odds and they win. We love to see

these stories or to read books with these stories in

them about these crazy, amazing characters. And part of the

reason why I think we love them so much is

because we like to see people do the impossible. We

like to see people overcome things that they shouldn't be

able to overcome. And the reason I think we like

them is because we all know deep down inside that

the mass majority of people when left alone, they don't

make it. Think about that show alone, you know, dropped

in the wilderness, got to survive the longest. I mean,

even the most comfortable people in that show, you're like, well,

they're not going to last forever. Something's, they're not going

to last forever by themselves. The reason we like these

stories is because it's impossible to That's why the more

realistic stories that we see are the stories of groups

of people who do the very same thing. They're being

pitted against impossible situations, but they all stand together to

overcome all these odds. I think of stories like the

Band of Brothers or Remember the Titans, the Avengers, or

the better Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy. Just kidding. I'm

not trying to split the room. Black Hawk Down, that's

a movie I love. Or a movie I love even more,

The Lord of the Rings. Come on now. Groups of

people all coming together to support each other. They come

together to protect each other, to have each other's back.

And the example that came to mind when I was like, oh,

they have each other's back, I was thinking about Forrest Gump.

You know him and Bubba? They're like, hey, let's sleep

back to back because we don't have to sleep with

our head in the mud. Right? You protect each other.

You have each other's backs. You carry one another. Samwise Gamgee,

the goat. What does he say? I can't carry it

for you, but I can carry you, my boy. Groups

of people coming together to encourage one another, to bear

one another's burdens. These are the more realistic stories that

we love. And they're more realistic because we know that

every single one of us needs help. This is not

a foreign idea that I'm putting in front of you guys.

Every single one of us knows we aren't supposed to

be alone. And it's very on brand for even talking

about men's ministry night where Pastor Duncan is up here.

Like we are not supposed to be alone. I want

you to listen to what Solomon observed in Ecclesiastes chapter four.

You don't have to turn there. I'll have it on

the screen. This is verses nine through 12. Two are

better than what? Two are better than one because they

have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall,

one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him

who is alone when he falls and has not another

to lift him up. Again, if two lie together, they

keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? And

though a man might prevail against one who is alone,

two will withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken.

We all know this to be true. We are just

stronger and better together. We are. It's almost like humans

were designed to need each other. Like the creator created

humankind in such a way that we actually need each other.

So where does this idea come from? Clearly the creator.

It's not an original idea from these story writers or

these script writers. It's literally how God tells us to

be as his people. We're told all over the Bible,

and I'm going to go through this list real quick,

but we're told to love one another, to pray for

one another.

And I

think I might have forgotten a couple in there. That's

quite the list of one another's. This idea of needing

each other It comes from God. He designed us for community.

He designed us for fellowship. He designed us to belong

to one another. And that's going to be really important

for us to remember as we're going through the book

of Philippians, this letter that Paul wrote to the church

in Philippi, because when it comes to the Lord's army,

there are no solo soldiers. There are no solo soldiers.

As much as we love those stories and they get

us pumped because they're impossible, never really could happen. We

love those stories. That's not how God designed this to work.

We were a people saved into a family, a family

of believers. We who were once not a people are

now a people. We are adopted into the family as

co-heirs with Christ. That means there's other heirs. There are

no solo soldiers in the Lord's army. A solo Christian

is a walking contradiction. And one pastor, he put it

like this, even talking through all those one another verses,

he said, it's kind of hard to one another yourself.

By definition, you just can't do it. You can't one

another yourself. We were made for community. Community first and

foremost with the Lord. That's the first most important community

and also community with each other. And what's awesome is

it's in this community with each other that God uses

to help us persevere in our faith. This community that's

centered on the gospel of Jesus. And that's part of

what Paul's entire point is in the book of Philippians.

So what I want us to understand today, and if

you're taking notes, you can write this down, that partnership

in gospel work helps us persevere in faith. Partnership in

gospel work helps us persevere in faith. This is literally

one of the graces that God has given us in

our Christian community and fellowship. And this whole letter to

the Philippians is just saturated with Paul's thanksgiving for their

partnership in gospel work with him. He calls them his

joy and his crown, brings him joy that they're concerned

for him or they've revive their concern for him and

they support him. It encourages him and in return, he

wants to encourage them, to encourage them to stand firm

in their faith and keep pressing on toward the goal,

the finish line, to persevere in their faith. And at

the same time, he gets encouraged to do so. It's

this mutual edification, this mutual encouragement to keep running this race.

It's their partnership in the gospel work that causes them

to rejoice, which is pretty cool, just to be joy-filled

because of this partnership. It's their partnership in gospel work

that encourages them to keep going, like we've said, and

it's their partnership in gospel work that helps them persevere

no matter the opposition. So we've got to understand that

there is opposition that comes against not just the biblical

writers and the biblical audience, but even us today. There's

still opposition against us. So before we get into that

specific piece, let's do a little context work. So this

is getting back to our first two verses here. If

you just read the first verse, it raises several questions.

Who is this Paul guy? Like, who even is Paul?

And who's Timothy? Why is he writing to the believers

in Philippi? So what I want to do is I

want to answer these questions, this letter written by Paul

and Timothy. Let's start with Paul, formerly known as Saul

of Tarsus. He was a persecutor of anyone that was

following Jesus. I want you to flip over a page

in your Bible. So Philippians chapter three, so kind of

hold your plate or just turn the page. You know

where the page is at. Chapter three, we're going to

read the second half of verse four through verse six.

If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in

the flesh. So we're learning about Paul here for a second.

And Paul sounds like he's kind of boasting and he says,

it says elsewhere in some of his other letters, like if,

No one should boast. But if I were to take

a moment to boast, and then he says some stuff

like this. If anyone else thinks he has reason for

confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the

eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe

of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. As to the law,

a Pharisee. As to zeal, a persecutor of the church.

As to righteousness under the law, blameless. Paul's one of

the Jews that all the Jews wanted to be like.

He's the one that they would look up to. Yeah,

it's a bummer. They would look up to him. They

would strive to be like Paul. He was born of

the tribe of Benjamin. According to the law of God

given to Moses, he says he nailed it. He did it.

He was an expert in the law. And with great zeal,

he persecuted the church. If you know a little bit

about your early church history, he even stood before the

people approving of them stoning Stephen to death. They were

laying their cloaks at his feet. And what did Stephen do?

He was rebuking the people for killing the prophets beforehand,

the ones that said that the righteous one of God

was coming. And he continually rebuked them because when the

righteous one, Jesus, actually showed up, they betrayed and killed him.

So Paul, who's ferociously persecuting the followers of Jesus, so

much so that that's one of the main reasons the

church scattered. That Paul is now writing a letter to

them full of love and gratitude. What happened? How did

such a change happen? I'll tell you how it happened.

Jesus happened. That's what happened. I want you to hold

your place in Philippians and turn to Acts chapter 9.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

In Acts chapter 9, this is where Saul, who will

Acts 9 · chapter mention

be named Paul, is on his way to Damascus. And

he's going there in order to arrest more people for

following Jesus. And on his way, a bright light shines

so bright it blinds him and knocks him off of

his horse. And this bright light is the resurrected Jesus

appearing before Paul. And Jesus sends him to a guy

in Damascus named Ananias. And it's in Damascus where he's

given his sight back and he gets baptized as a

believer again. So I want to pick it up right

here in the middle of verse 19. So this is

Acts chapter 9, verse 19. For some days he was

Acts 9:19

with the disciples at Damascus, and immediately he proclaimed Jesus

in the synagogues, saying, He is the Son of God.

And all who heard him were amazed and said, Is

not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of

those who called upon his name? And has he not

come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before

the chief priest? But Saul increased all the more in

strength and confounded the Jews. He confused them who lived

in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. What

a conversion. From causing all the havoc in Jerusalem, literally

causing the church to spread out because he was persecuting

them so hard, going from arresting and killing people for

preaching to them that Jesus is the Christ, the Son

of God, to boldly preaching it himself. And not only preaching,

but at the time of him writing this letter to

the Philippians, he actually was in prison in Rome for

preaching in the name of Jesus. He was locked up

while writing this letter to the Philippians. He went from

locking other people up for preaching Jesus to being locked

up for himself. It was such a radical conversion that

the other disciples back in Jerusalem, they were actually scared

of him. They're like, there's no way. How could this

even be possible? Could he truly be a follower of

Jesus now? They were super sus the whole time. Now

there is a ton more that we can say about Paul.

but we don't have enough time for that in today's sermon.

So we're gonna leave it at that. I think it's

enough to get us started. But this, Paul is the

main author of Philippians. But our big idea for the day,

if you remember it, what you wrote down was partnership

and gospel work helps us persevere in faith. And the

first partner mentioned in Philippians is actually the co-author of

the book. It's Timothy. Timothy is the first partner that

we run into. And Paul met Timothy When he was

on his way back, so he went through and started

preaching the gospel in all these cities. And he says,

I want to go back and I want to check

on how all these cities are doing. And it's on

his way back, checking through all these cities, that he

meets Timothy. So if you flip over to Acts chapter 16,

Acts 16 · chapter mention

we're going to read about this. This will be the

first three verses in chapter 16. I don't know, make

any whole places in your Bible and turn. Hopefully you've

got those little bookmarks in your Bible. Acts chapter 16 says,

Acts 16 · chapter mention

Verses 1 through 3, Paul came also to Durban, to Lystra.

A disciple there, a disciple was there named Timothy. Get this,

the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer,

but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken

of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted

Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised

him because of the Jews who were in those places,

for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

Can I get an ouch? He wasn't a baby when

this happened. I'll just throw that out there. But Timothy

is so well-spoken of by the believers that Paul wants

him to join. Like, that's a big deal to think like,

oh man, his reputation went so far ahead that the

number one guy going around spreading the gospel is like,

I want this guy to come with me. He wanted

him to join him on the road. And it's in

this partnership that Paul sees Timothy and he calls him

his true son in the faith. This laboring together in

gospel work has given them such a close bond, a

much closer bond than it had with many other people.

This is the same Timothy that Paul left in Ephesus

to help lead the church there. He trusted him enough

to leave him in a church to help the church.

This is the same Timothy that Paul wrote 1 and

2 Timothy to, the book. True son to Paul and

partner in gospel work. So Paul and Timothy, these are

the two who wrote this letter and who they write

it to. Well, back in our Philippians text, you guys

can turn there. Philippians 1, 1 and 2. Paul and Timothy,

servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ

Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons,

grace to you and peace from God our Father and

the Lord. Jesus Christ. So what is a saint? So

it's not the same as in a Catholic sense. This

word means anyone who has been set apart for God,

who is exclusively his. All those whom God has selected,

partakers of salvation in the kingdom of So what does

that mean? That means this letter was written to all

the Christians in Philippi. Christians, and also to include the overseers,

or those of the church elders, the shepherds, the pastors,

and the deacons. And that word is the servers, those

who served and met the practical needs of the church.

So this book is written to Christians, overseers, and deacons,

all there in the church at Philippi. And this city, Philippi,

is known as Little, I want to call it Little Italy,

but it's Little Rome. Because even all the structures, the

way they built everything, made it look like Little Rome.

I can't remember the actual term for it, but I

call it a capital city in the region for Rome

was Philippi. Little Rome. This was actually also the first

church that Paul planted on European soil in eastern Macedonia.

And it all started, think of things starting from humble beginnings,

It started from two families being converted. The first one

was Lydia, a seller of purple goods, her and her family.

And the second was a jailer who guarded Paul and

Silas when they got locked up there. It was the

jailer and his family. That's the start of the church

in Philippi. That's how it started. Like a small thing

that spreads, like a mustard seed that grows into a

big tree. This is how God's kingdom works. And if

you want to read about the rest of that, we're

not going to read it today, but Acts chapter 16,

Acts 16 · chapter mention

read the rest of that chapter and you'll get the

whole story about that. But this is who Paul and

Timothy are writing to, all the believers in Philippi who

have come to faith since the gospel made it there.

And Paul and Timothy send them grace and peace from

God our Father and Jesus our Lord, which if you

read pretty much any of Paul's letters, it's the same

greeting he gives everybody. He wants them to have grace

and peace from God our Father and Jesus our Lord.

So Paul and Timothy, brothers in Christ, partners in gospel

work together, are writing to their other partners in gospel work,

the church in Philippi, thanking them for their partnership and

encouraging them to keep going. So what I want to

do just to show that this is so prevalently in

the whole book of Ephesians is I want you to

listen to these verses. We're going to do a quick

survey through the letter. I'll have all the verses on screen.

If you want to try to keep up by flipping there,

you can, but I'm going to go through them pretty quick.

First one's Philippians 1, 3 through 5, says, I thank

my God and all my remembrance of you, always in

every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer

with joy because of your what? Partnership in what? From

the first day until now. Chapter 1, verses 12 through 14,

I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened

to me has really served to advance the gospel so

that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard,

he's locked up, and to all the rest that my

imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having

become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much

more bold to speak the word without fear, to continue on,

to persevere. Philippians 1, 18 through 19, yes, and I

will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and

the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will

turn out for my deliverance. 125, convinced of this, I

know that I will remain and continue with you all

for your progress and joy in the faith. Verse 27,

only let your manner of life be worthy of the

gospel of Christ. So continue in the faith so that

whether I come to see you or am absent, I

may hear of you that you are standing firm in

one spirit with one mind, striving side by side for what?

The faith of the gospel. Chapter two, verses one and two.

So if there's any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love,

any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete

my joy by being of the same mind, having the

same love, being in full accord and of one mind,

this partnership together. 2.17, 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. Likewise,

you should be glad and rejoice with me 3.13, brothers,

I do not consider that I've made it my own,

but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and

straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward

the goal for the prize of the upward call of

God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are

mature think this way, gospel perseverance. And if in anything

you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.

Only let us hold true to that we have attained. 4.1, therefore,

my brothers whom I love and long for, my joy

and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.

I entreat Judea and I entreat Syndicate to agree in

the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help

these women who have labored side by side with me

in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of

my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life. 4.10,

excuse me. I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now

at length you have revived your concern for me, this

gospel partnership. You were indeed concerned for me but had

no opportunity. And 4.14 through 16, yet it was kind

of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves

know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I

left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in

giving and receiving except you only. Even in Thessalonica, you

sent me help for my needs once again. And again. Okay,

do we need to take a breath after that? Maybe

I'm the one that needs to take a breath after that.

You guys hear this theme of a beautiful partnership in

gospel work? This beautiful partnership in the gospel, a partnership

in gospel work that encouraged perseverance in the faith? It's

all throughout the whole letter that Paul and Timothy are

writing to the Philippians. Partnership in gospel work helps us

persevere in the faith. We were meant to walk this

Christian life out together. We were meant to have fellowship

and community together. And like I said at the beginning,

we were saved into a family, into a family. I

want you to turn to first Peter chapter two, toward

the end of your Bible. First Peter chapter two, we're

going to read two verses nine and 10. Starting in

verse 9, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood,

a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that

you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you

out of darkness into his marvelous light. How much of

that sounds individualistic so far? None of it. It's going

to get a little less individualistic here. Verse 10, once

you were not a people, but now you are God's people.

Once you had not received mercy, but now you receive mercy. Well,

who is Peter talking to? A good general rule of thumb,

anytime you're reading the letters in the Bible, in the

New Testament specifically, the very beginning that usually says who's

writing it and who they're writing it to. Well, Peter

here is talking to believers, the elect exiles, he says,

that are spread all throughout the region. He's talking to Christians.

That's who he's talking to. Once you were not a people,

but now you are God's people. All who have put

faith in Jesus' finished work on the cross have been

saved into a people. Jesus, God in the flesh, born

of the Virgin Mary, lived the perfect, sinless life that

no human could ever live. And even though he was sinless,

He chose to die a sinner's death. A sinner's death

that every single one of us deserves because of all

of our sin. There is no one who doesn't have sin.

1 John tells us if any of us claims to

be without sin, we're a liar and we're calling God

a liar. All have sinned and fall short of God's glory.

But anyone who repents of their sin who puts faith

in Jesus, who confesses Jesus Christ as Lord, they will

be saved. It's a guarantee. It's a promise. It will happen.

And just like Jesus, who three days after his death,

raised from the grave, we too will be raised to

eternal life. This is the good news of the gospel.

This is the good news of the gospel. Jesus died

for the sins of all Sounds very individualistic, but just

like Peter said, we were saved into a people, that

Christ died for a people. He didn't save us to

leave us alone. alone. Going back to our TV show

alone example, he didn't pick you up from whatever in

the helicopter and drop you in the middle of nowhere

and say, there, you're saved now. It's not how he

did it. I want you to turn to Ephesians chapter two.

And if I can have the worship team come up, please.

Ephesians chapter two, starting in verse 13. There are no

solo soldiers in the Lord's army. We're all in this together.

Verse 13 says, but now in Christ Jesus, you who

once were far off have been brought near by the

blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who

has made us both, and both being the Jews and

the Gentiles, made us both one and has broken down

in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing

the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might

create in himself one new man in place of the two,

so making peace. There's a lot going on in Ephesus

between Jews and Gentiles and fighting peace. And so a

lot of this letter is to address that hostility. Verse

16 says, and might reconcile us both to God in

one body through what? The cross. Thereby killing the hostility.

And he came and preached peace to you who were

far off and peace to those who were near. For

through him, Jesus, we both have access in one spirit

to the Father. So then you... are no longer strangers

and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints

and members of the household of God. Built on the

foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself

being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure is being

joined together, grows into a temple, a holy temple in

the Lord. In him, you all are also, excuse me,

in him, you also are being built together into a

dwelling place for God by the Spirit or in the Spirit.

We are no longer strangers and aliens to each other.

We're fellow citizens. We are fellow citizens of heaven, of

the household of God. Jesus' death didn't just accomplish our

salvation in a silo. By his blood, we were brought

nearer We were made a people together. And fellow citizen,

that word fellow, the definition is literally a companion or

someone in the same situation as you. We are partners together.

And it's in this partnership that we get one of

the greatest benefits. We get brothers and sisters. We get

brothers and sisters together. Ones who help us stand firm

in our faith. To be immovable. That help us run

this race in such a way as to win. What's

the point of running a race? You want to take

first place. That's what competition is about. Brothers and sisters

that help us just keep going. To help us not quit. Quit.

Brothers and sisters that help encourage us. This is such

a huge blessing that we get in the fellowship of believers.

But I want to make it more specific to what

Paul is actually talking about in Philippians. It's not just

their partnership in general that he's talking about, is it? No.

It's his partnership. It's this partnership in gospel work that's

encouraging him the most. So that's what I want us

to remember. And that's what I want us to do.

I want us to do that. I want us to

just follow along with the example that Paul is talking

about here. When speaking of the signs of the end

of the age in Matthew 24, Jesus said, it's those

who endure to the end that will be saved. That

no matter what we go through, we need to persevere

to the end. Standing firm in our faith to the

end should be of primary importance to us as believers.

Our perseverance matters greatly. This is kind of a big deal.

And that's why our partnership in gospel work, I think,

is so important. Because partnership in gospel work helps us

persevere in our faith. It's one of the graces that

God has given us to keep us on track. So

I say, let's get to work. You say, Greg, what

do you want me to do? I'm like, let's get

to work. That's what I think we should do. Not

on our own. but let's partner together. Let's partner together

in gospel work. What do I mean? Serve together at church.

I mean, a lot of us are already serving, but

like serve together at church. Do ministry together. Study the

Bible together. Just grab a Bible, sit down with someone,

open it and start reading and studying. Do that together.

How about evangelize together? Nobody likes evangelize by themselves. Why

do you think the Mormons send them two by two?

Everybody loves a buddy. Let's do it. We want some

support some strength and evangelism, do it together. Go to

city gates, help the homeless together, Thursdays and Saturdays. Go

with tiny heartbeats and go stand on the sidewalk outside

Planned Parenthood. Go on a missions trip together. Do this

stuff together. Well, I don't know, like where's the missions?

Research them together. Find them, let's go. How about this one?

Suffer together. Nobody likes to suffer alone. Suffering alone is

like literally the worst thing ever. Let's suffer together. Weep

with those who are weeping and rejoice when it's time

to rejoice. Suffer together. Do gospel work together. It's more

than just fellowshipping together. I think doing fun stuff as

believers is awesome and we should totally keep doing that.

But don't let it stop there. Don't let it stop there.

Let's do some gospel work together. And kind of as

like a sidebar, if you're hearing this and you're struggling

with the desire to want to do gospel work, I

think it's something to consider. First off, we're literally commanded

by God to go and make disciples of all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son,

and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to be all

that I commanded you. That's part of what we're commanded

to do. We are Christ's ambassadors as though God were

making his appeal through us. So we're supposed to go

and implore people to be reconciled to God. That means

like beg them. I'm begging you get right with God.

That's part of what we're supposed to do. So the

first thing I would say is humble yourself before the

Lord and submit. Do what he told you to do.

We all know that we give our time to the

things that we care about, right? You care about something,

you're gonna give your time to it. But the opposite

is actually also true. The things that we give our

time to, we start to care about. I could sit

down with my youngest son with a box of Legos,

not really caring about what we're doing. We're just hanging

out building Legos. And then I start to spend time

making something. And the more time I spend on that,

the more upset I'm gonna be if someone comes in

and steps on it. I just started to care about

it more That's not the only thing it works with.

It works literally with everything in life. Think about your relationships.

The more time you put into your relationship, the more

you are going to care about it. Whether that's with

your spouse, with your children, with your friends, with your

brothers and sisters in Christ. It's putting the time into

it is going to increase your affections for whatever it is.

So I think we should be brave. We should be humble.

And we should spend our time partnering together in gospel work.

And there is something that I didn't know where to

put in my notes. And as I was literally, I

left the office, already studied through my notes and felt

God was like putting on my head. And I was like,

I don't know where to put that God. So I

kind of wrote it in now. So who knows? This

could be a plane crash and just deal with it.

I want you to be honest and dig deep Have

you ever struggled with your faith? Have you ever struggled

to persevere in your faith? Whether that is you read

something in scripture, you're like, I don't know how to

believe that. Or this is what God clearly says that

he did for me. And I'm like, I don't know

if I believe that. Or maybe you read something and says,

it's clear that in scripture, God tells me to do

this thing and I'm struggling to do that thing. Be

honest for a minute and raise your hand. Have you

ever struggled in your faith? Now I want everyone to

look around the room You're not alone. We've all had

some struggles in our faith, persevering in our faith. And

what's Paul telling us an answer is? Partnership and gospel work.

Like you gotta do the, you gotta spend the time together.

God gave us, it's so funny how God gave us

stuff to keep our hands busy and the blessing and

benefit that we get from just obeying that is insane

to me. That one of the most important things we

want is assurance of our salvation and perseverance in the

gospel message, that we will persevere in our faith all

the way to the end. And what is one of

the answers God gave us to doing that? It's each other.

It's our gospel partnership. So I want you to remember that.

So when I talk about like all these different, very

practical ways to just live life together and do gospel

work together, I don't want you to brush over that

and be like, it's such a normal, natural, whatever kind

of thing. This is the natural things God tells us

to do. The natural things God tells us to do

that has such great spiritual and supernatural impact. And not

in a weird way. I'm saying in a true, honest

way that these normal mundane, simple things God uses to

accomplish very amazing things. Outstanding things. In the Lord's army,

there are no solo soldiers. We were saved into a family.

We need each other. God designed us to need each other.

And it's our partnership and gospel work that helps us

persevere in our faith. Amen? Can you guys please stand

to your feet?