The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E84 - Gratitude

Episode Date: September 14, 2020

Hey, church family, if you've got your Bible, I hope you do. It's Devo Tom. We're going to be in the book of Philippians. What an epic week this last week we had. It's saturated. And I sure do hope that you heard from the Lord and you said, here I am, send me, whether that was to send you in prayer for missionaries around the world, whether that was send you to go, or whether that was to send you to be radically generous to fund the advancement of God's kingdom. And last week, on Sunday, I talked on hope and kind of did an overview of the book of Philippians, talking about how Paul's hope in jail, as he is writing to the church at Philippi, how hope preaches and apparently the way he lived and the way he spoke,

even though he was in terrible circumstances, he had this hope in Jesus, and it led all the jailers and all the people of Caesar's house to the Lord. And so since I did just a bit of an overview this past weekend, I thought for our Devo time going forward, which I don't know how long these things will last, but I thought we would just do a deep dive into the Book of Philippians. Now, the Book of Philippians is one of, as you heard last week from Jeff Kopp, our chaplain in the prisons. It's one of the prison epistles, meaning that Paul wrote this letter from jail to the church at Philippine.

and what's crazy about it is he will talk all through this about where he places his hope and where he places his confidence, that he does not place his confidence in his circumstances, but he places his confidence, his hope, his trust, his faith, in his Savior. And another thing that you were going to see here is the love of a pastor in his church. So if we'll pick it up, we're going to do the first 11 verses or so in our time together. So again, you need to hear this. from prison, Paul pens these words to the church at Philippi. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,

to all the saints in Christ Jesus, who are at Philippi with the overseers and the deacons. This means that this is a fully established church. There are pastors, elders, deacons in this church. Verse two, he says, grace to you, and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Before we go any further, one more. time. I know I sound like I'm on repeat here, but Paul is going to be on repeat. The words joy,

rejoice, peace are going to show up over and over and over and over. And let me remind you one more time where he is. He is in prison. And from prison, he writes grace to you and peace. Grace and peace. Grace would have been kind of the Roman greeting because it is by grace that we all have been saved, but none of the Romans, none of the Gentiles were born into any kind of system that would have pointed them to God, but it was the grace of God that he would elect them and choose them. And so that was the Gentile or the Roman greeting. And so he gives that one and peace, Shalom. That would have been the Jewish greeting. And he says, grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 3, I thank my God in all my remembrance.

of you. All right. I got to stop right. If I was in jail, which could very well happen, right? If I was in jail and I was writing a letter to 1122, I think I would probably start with me and my needs. That would be my instinct. I would say, dear, 1122, grace and peace to you. And then I would probably want to bring up what's wrong with me, what my conditions are like, how you could pray for me, how you could help me, how you could help me get out of jail, whatever it is. But look at what Paul does, because this is what grace and peace does. You see, his first thought is not about himself.

His first thought is about his friends. His first thought is about other people. And even though Paul has a million things to complain about while in the bottom of this dungeon, probably chained to some jailer, he starts with an attitude of gratitude. You see, every single one of us live on this continuum between gratitude and entitlement. And entitlement believes I deserve.

And gratitude believes I don't deserve. You know, one of the things to check yourself on is, on that scale, do you live way more towards the entitled section of it, or do you lean more towards the gratitude? Paul is full of gratitude. And here's what he's grateful for. 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. Let me ask you something. If you're part of the Church of 1122, it's a really big church. It's a really big church. Tens of thousands of people attend live

and hundreds of thousands of people participate in 1122 online. All that may be true. But do you have people that are praying for you like this? And if not, I'm just going to tell you, even if you're a Christian and you're a follower of Jesus, if you don't have people that are always in every prayer making your prayers with joy and constantly remember you in their prayers,

then you're not doing this whole Christian. journey right. You see, this is not, being a Christian is not a one-man show. Now, nobody else's faith can save you. It has to be your own personal faith in Christ, but being a Christian is not a private event that you and I were wired for relationships. And if you weren't praying for your brothers and sisters in Christ like this, then we're not doing this thing right. I've invited you, I don't know how many times to join a disciple group because the disciple group is the place where you find these kind of relationships. I know you've got work relationships and they're great. And I know you've got neighborhood relationships and they have their place too. And I know you have family relationships and that

is super, super important. But discipleship relationships are built on first and foremost authenticity in the gospel and praying for one another. Look what he says because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. I hope you'd consider joining a disciple group, whether that's alive when you show up to or you do disciple group online. I mean, with the options we have, there really is no excuse. I promise you it is so important. And so Paul says,

I thank my God, in all my remembrance of you always, in every prayer of mind for you all, making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you

will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. That's verse 6. This is Paul's way of saying, and I know that the Holy Spirit will progressively sanctify you until the day that you are glorified. It's what he says in Romans chapter 8.

It's what he says here in Philippians chapter 1. That for every person that's a believer in Jesus Christ, then we are being progressively sanctified. Sanctification just means to look more and more like Jesus. that the word of God with the spirit of God in you is like a hammer and a chisel, just chiseling away everything in you that doesn't look like Jesus. Now, it doesn't necessarily happen overnight.

That's why it's called progressive. But over time, the Bible says, I am confident of this. He's not saying you won't struggle. Romans chapter 7 makes that clear. He's not saying you won't stumble and fall. Peter denies Jesus three times, never gets kicked out of the kingdom of heaven.

So we may stumble, we will fall. Those things are a part of our sanctification. However, he says that he is confident of this, that when God saved you, not only did he save you from the penalty of your sins at the moment of your salvation and you were justified, he is also currently saving you day by day from the power of sin in your life. That's called sanctification. And one day, the blood of Jesus will save you from the very presence of sin.

and that's called glorification. And so, you know, maybe you've got somebody in your disciple group or maybe a son or a daughter or somebody that claims to know Jesus, and they do, they've surrendered their life to Christ, but they're in a time of struggle right now. Well, one of the things that we can take confidence in as Christians is though we struggle that our confidence is not in our behavior, our confidence is the finished work of Christ at the cross.

And because of that, we can be confident that he who began the good work in us, will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Verse seven, and 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 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 this is my prayer, that your love may about,

more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and be so 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. I don't know how familiar you are with the Apostle Paul, but these are some of the sappiest lines that you will ever find that the Apostle Paul writes. Usually he's hardcore and he's straight to the point, but there is this thing going on in his heart for his people at the church Philippi. And he says this. He says, I thank God. Does I pray for you? Day and night, I pray for you. I remember you because we're partners in the gospel. And then when he gets to verse seven, he says this, it is right for me to feel this way about you.

Verse eight, he says, for God is my witness. I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. You see, being a Christian, it's not simply limited to write theology about God, but the love of God should flow through us so that, listen to me, church, that you and I love one another. There's something about Paul's words in verse 7 and 8 that just really resonate with me about our church. I feel this way about our church, about you. even though I know we haven't I haven't met everybody that goes to our church but but there's so many times where people come up to me and introduce themselves and I know you've been paying attention when you say we go to church together because I don't want you to say I go to your church because it's not my church it's Jesus's church and if you're here and I'm here it's our church so I want you to say we go

to church together and when I hear that and when I hear the stories of how God has transformed you or transformed your marriage or how God has saved you here at our church it It stirs up some affections in me that I have a hard time putting words to. At the end of almost every sermon I've ever preached here, I typically say, I love you like crazy. And I mean that. I mean that. Everything good that I have in my life right now, except for my wife and children, has come through the hands of the church of 1122. All of my best friends, my elders, we have people here at this church that are like my family.

Most of my family lives out of town, but some of my family lives here, and they're part of our church too. And this place truly is our family. And so much like Paul is thanking God for this church, Church of 1122, I pray for you all the time. I pray for you individually when I know of prayer needs that you may have, and I pray for us corporately all the time. And I thank my God all the time for you, for this church. and so just know that. I really do love you. I get invited to speak literally all over the world,

conferences and churches and all of that kind of stuff. And while I'm happy to do so, I enjoy doing it. I think it's a part of what God has called me to do. There's no place I would rather share the gospel than right here at the Church of 1122. Thank you. Thank you for being the brothers and sisters, the encouragers, the disciples, and the disciple makers that you are.

but God did not bring us together just so we could all feel warm and fuzzy towards one another. I want you to see what Paul says his prayer for the church at Philippi is. And oftentimes this is what I pray for you. He says, and it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge. That's why we do this. 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. That's what I pray for you.

I pray that we would be unified as a church, that our love as a church would abound when people say, do you know anybody to church at 1122? That the word on the street wouldn't be about the preaching, wouldn't be about the music. It would be about how our love abounds in this city. and that through God's word, your knowledge would increase, and as your knowledge of God increases, then your relationship with Him increases, and that would lead to discernment so that you would know what God's perfect will for you is, that you would know when it is the Spirit of God leading you so that you may approve what is excellent and be so pure and blameless for the day of Christ,

and that your life, your life would have all kinds of what Paul calls the fruit, of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ. Now, not begrudging submission, not just white-knuckled morality. That's not what I pray. I pray that your love for Christ would have abound so much and your love for one another would abound so much that there would be a fruit of righteousness in your life, like in your marriage and in your parenting and in your business and with your school friends. And that would not come through your own effort. It would come through Jesus Christ, and it wouldn't be about you because it's not about you. God is for you. It's just not about you. But all of that, that your relationships and the fruit of righteousness

that he is producing in you would be to the glory and praise of God. Church of 1122, I don't think I would have the relationship with Christ that I have right now if it wasn't for you and what you mean in my life. I thank you for that so much. Let's pray. Your Father in heaven, Lord, I thank you, and I praise you for this church. God, it is right for me to feel this way about the people that make up this movement. The elders and the deacons and the pastors and the staff and all the folks at all the campuses, including Baker and Union and Lord, even all of the folks that tune in online, Lord, I thank you. I thank you for this movement.

Lord, I pray that as you draw us closer and closer to you, you would continuously draw us closer and closer to one another. And Lord, I pray, I pray that our knowledge of you would increase so that our discernment of your will for our life would be sharpened. Lord, I pray that as we deepen our relationship with you, that the fruit of your righteousness would abound in our lives, not so that anybody would say anything about us, but it would all be to your glory and praise.

We pray in Jesus' name.