The central theme is the profound joy found in ministry, rooted in the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and its application to God's people, unbelievers, and even adversaries.
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welcome to back to the bible radio
in just a moment we'll join pastor and
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for an encouraging message from god's
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one of the major messages in the book of
philippians is the joy of ministry
in chapter 1 we have the joy of the
message of our ministry the gospel of
jesus christ
in chapter 2 the joy of the model for
our ministry the lord jesus christ the
servant of god
in chapter three the motives for our ministry
ministry
and in chapter four the means of our ministry
ministry
chapter one we have the message of our ministry
ministry
and this message ought to give us great
joy just think of the privilege we
have of sharing the gospel whether you are
are
a sunday school teacher an elder a
deacon a trustee
a church visitor a minister a missionary
you sing in the choir whatever it may be
you are helping to get out the gospel of
jesus christ
in chapter one you find the apostle paul
applying this gospel to three different
groups of people
uh you'll notice he talks about the
fellowship of the gospel
in verse 5 because in verses 3 through 11
11
he talks about the fellowship of the gospel
gospel
he applies the gospel to god's people
that's going to be our subject for today
you must always look at the people of god
god
through the heart of the gospel
in verses 12 through 26 he talks about
the furtherance of the gospel
and here he's applying the gospel to the unbelievers
unbelievers
how do we get the gospel out and then verses
verses
27 through 30 he talks about defending
the faith of the gospel
in verse 27 striving together for the
faith of the gospel
we have enemies and nothing be terrified
by your adversaries
so here we have three different groups
of people
to whom the gospel must be applied
to god's people the fellowship of the gospel
gospel
verses three through 11 to the unsaved
verses 12 through 26 that's the
furtherance of the gospel
and then even to our enemies verses 27
through 30 the faith of the gospel
now verses 3 through 11.
i mentioned that here we're dealing with
the fellowship
of the gospel perhaps you've
read in the peanuts comic strip where
linus says that one day he wants to
become a great doctor
but lucy says you can't be a doctor you
don't love mankind to which linus
replied i do love mankind it's people i
can't stand
and sometimes the people of god are
difficult to get along with
and yet here's the apostle paul in
verses 3 through 11
explaining to us the tithes that bind us
together now what are they
i thank my god upon every remembrance of you
you
always in every prayer of mine for you
all making requests with joy
for your fellowship in the gospel from
the first
day until now being confident of this
very thing
that he who hath begun a good work in
you will perform it complete it
until the day of jesus christ the first
tithe that was binding the hearts of the
philippians to the heart of the apostle paul
paul
i have you in my mind
he remembered them i thank my god upon
every remembrance of you that means the
whole remembrance
now there were some things about the
philippian church that when
he remembered them could have brought sorrow
sorrow
for example when he was at troas acts
chapter 16.
he didn't know where to go he was
waiting waiting waiting then he had that vision
vision
well he could say i want to forget about
that delay at troas he had a vision of a
man who said come over and help us
and so paul and his team went over to philippi
philippi
and they couldn't find that man but they
did find a
women's prayer meeting thank god for
women's prayer meetings
a group of jewish women and some
gentiles who were jewish
proselytes or jewish
followers were there having a prayer
meeting by the river
and then that slave girl came along and
created problems for paul
paul was thrown into prison he was
whipped he was humiliated
now there was division in the church at
philippi there were some people who were
fighting one another
paul could have had some memories of
philippi that would bring him sorrow
but you know what he says here i thank
god upon every remembrance the whole
thing you know what he's saying
he is saying you've got to see the total picture
picture
now my preacher friend there are people
in your church who are creating problems
for you but you've got to see the total picture
picture
look at them through the eyes of jesus christ
christ
and the gospel paul said i thank my god upon
upon
every remembrance of you i'm thankful
for your fellowship in the gospel
i'm confident that god is at work in
your life
maybe he's not at work like he ought to
be that's not his
fault that's your fault maybe you're not
allowing him to do everything he wants
to do
but you must look at people in jesus christ
christ
chapter 1 verse 1 to all the saints
in christ jesus every chapter in
philippians begins with
in christ chapter 2 verse 1 if there be
any consolation
in christ chapter 3 verse 1. finally my
brethren rejoice
in the lord in chapter 4
we read verse 1 so stand fast
in the lord always look at god's people
in jesus christ you know whenever you
meet an unsaved person you can love him
because he's somebody for whom christ died
died
whenever you meet a christian you can
love him he's someone in whom christ
lives paul said i have you in my mind i
thank my god upon the whole remembrance
of you
missionary friend that person who's
creating a problem for you right now
a hundred years from now you'll look
back and you'll say you know
god was taking care of that god is at
work be patient
god is not able to work in our lives the
way he'd like to
we sometimes hinder him in his ministry
in our own hearts
let's be thankful for the fellowship of
the gospel
let's be thankful for the people of god
i have you in my mind that's the first tie
tie
that binds our hearts together but in
verses 7 and 8 there's a second
tie that binds our hearts together paul
says i have you
in my heart even as it is right for me
to think this of you all
i notice that nine times he talks about
you all
there was division in the church he
wants to include everybody in his message
message
even as it is right for me to think this
of you all because i
have you in my heart
it's one thing to have somebody in your
mind and quite something else to have
them in your heart
in as much as both in my bonds and in
the defense and confirmation of the gospel
gospel
you all are partakers of my grace
for god is my witness how greatly i long
after you all in the tender mercies of
jesus christ tie number one i have you
in my mind
is there somebody in your church you're
trying to forget is there somebody in
your christian life you
you don't want to have them in your
memory watch out you'll lose the joy of ministry
ministry
secondly i have you in my heart this was
not a
normal natural human love this was a
divinely supplied love
it was the love of the lord jesus christ
i long after you all in the tender
mercies of jesus christ
we are taught of god to love one another
more than that we have that gift of love
in our hearts the love of god is shed
abroad in our hearts
by the holy spirit who is given unto us
we're commanded to love one another
now god doesn't command the heart to
feel a certain way he commands the will
to act a certain way what is christian love
love
christian love is an act of the will
christian love means i treat you the way
god treats me
god is patient with me so i'll be
patient with you
god is kind to me i'll be kind to you
and you should be kind to me
god tells me the truth i should tell you
the truth and do it in love the way god
does it christian love is not a feeling
you say well there are folks in the
church i don't like that may be true
you might not want to spend a week's
vacation with them or even an
evening with them that doesn't make any
difference in christian love it's not a
matter of feeling it's a matter of willing
willing
we treat other people the way god commands
commands
us to treat them i have you in my mind
i have you in my heart
the apostle paul loved these people
oh how much he had suffered for them but
these people were participants with him
in the work of the lord
verse 5 their fellowship in the gospel
verse 7 your partakers of my grace they
were not spectators they were partakers
they had participated in paul's ministry
and you know the more you work together
the more you stand
together the more you weep together and
sacrifice together
the more you love one another i think
one of our problems in churches today
is we have too many spectators we don't
have enough participants
you see when you love people then you're
concerned about the gospel
why was paul defending the gospel there
at the roman court because he loved the church
church
paul was paying a tremendous price there
in rome
he was there to defend and confirm the gospel
gospel
to get the church to be an accepted legitimate
legitimate
religion in the roman empire
and oh the price he was paying why
because he loved
god's people in the old testament the
high priest
had two stones two precious stones
one on each shoulder and then he had 12
stones over his heart on the breastplate
individual stones they represented the
tribes of israel there were six names
on the stone on his left shoulder and
six names on the stone on his right shoulder
shoulder
and there were 12 stones over his heart
this is the way it is in ministry we
bear god's people
on our shoulders collectively we love them
them
individually and those stones over the
high priest's heart
were a reminder to him to love the
tie number one i have you in my mind i
think about you
tie number two i have you in my heart i
love you
tie number three i have you in my
prayers i pray for you
9 through 11. and this i pray
now if you were going to pray for the
church at philippi what would you ask
god to do
this prayer would be good for all of our
churches first of all it's a prayer for maturity
maturity
and this i pray that your love may
abound yet
more and more in knowledge and in all judgment
judgment
discernment that you may approve the
things that are excellent
you may prove the things that differ
approve the things that differ
that you may be sincere and without
offense till the day of christ
being filled with the fruits of
righteousness which are by jesus christ
unto the glory and praise of god
he prays that they might have mature
christian love a developing
love it abounds more and more
a discerning love a love that's not blind
blind
you know i hear people say well if you
do what you do in love it'll be all
right well what kind of love
you see love without discernment could
be lust
love that lacks discernment is blind
christian love is not blind
christian love is very discerning
because we must have the guidance of the
spirit of god
now he's praying for developing love
there were some problems in the church
when you read chapter 2
paul wrote and said be like-minded have
the same love
be of one accord be of one mind let
nothing be done through strife or vain glory
glory
my i bet they were having some business
meetings that were really interesting
what's the solution for all these
problems love
discerning christian love abounding love
and discerning love
that you may approve the things that are excellent
