In Christ

Choose The Better

Marah: from bitterness to sweetness

This Wednesday we go through Philippians 1:1-11 with the Junior High as the start of our first series. It’s always hard to preach through a greeting, which is what this section of the book is, but I hope to show Paul’s love for the Philippian church, how we can relate to this love, how we can mimic this love, but most importantly that we should strive to have this love. 

Title: One Team, One Gospel, One Goal

The main point: As Christians we are a team with the ultimate goal to glorify and praise God as partners in the gospel. 

This is how that works out:

Start by recognizing what team you’re on and who’s on your team (v 1-2): 

- Your team consists of all those who are servants of Christ Jesus, all those saints IN Christ Jesus (because without Christ Jesus, we are sinners, but IN Christ Jesus, we are saints, having been given the righteousness of Christ), including the overseers and deacons who lead you within the local church. This is your team. 

Be thankful for your team (v 3-5):

- Understand what Christ has done by putting the team together. Be thankful for the people who are your partners in the Gospel. These are the people who you will spend eternity with. Most importantly, rejoice in your prayers of thankfulness. How awesome is our God to bring us to life from death in sin and give us people to fellowship with! As Christians we can stick close together, bear each other’s burdens, love and forgive one another because all those things have been done for us. 

Understand who makes the team better [Still working out wording kinks on this one] (v 6):

- God begins the work of salvation in our lives, He calls us, the Spirit regenerates us, and Christ substitutes Himself and gives us the righteousness we need to live a holy life. Understand that God therefore begins the good work in us and also brings it to completion in glorification. Never once should we doubt our assurance and security since the God of the universe, the sovereign, the all-powerful creator keeps us and guides us in perseverance until our faith is turned to sight. 

Love your team (v 7-8):

- As Paul wrote this letter from prison, we see how important his fellow believers truly were to him. He held them in his heart, he yearned for them with the affection of Christ Jesus. What a powerful statement about the love Paul had for the Philippians. Yearning: The strongest word the Greeks could come up with for affection and love. His whole body reacted to the love he had for them. But this is not a normal love, this is supernatural, it’s the affection of Christ Jesus. Oh, how I pray that we would love each other with this kind of love! This is the type of love that brings unity to complete fruition, this is the kind of love that sacrifices everything a person has for another! This kind of love can only come from a place of complete purity - from God. 

Pray for your team (v 9-11a):

- Why is it important to pray for your team? Well, because we can’t make ourselves better! God has to be the driving force in growth. If God sustains us in our sanctification, then we need to ask God to help us. We have a responsibility to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, but that can only be done through the power of the Spirit. Paul wants the Philippians to love with knowledge and discernment, to approve what is excellent, to be pure and blameless, to be filled with the fruit that righteousness produces. Paul really loves these people - he wants them to experience a closeness with God that causes the kind of joy that keeps a guy like himself from losing hope in prison. 

To close (v 11b)