Close your eyes and think about an ideal family. A warm cozy home, maybe a fireplace, loving parents, brothers and sisters. Smell the fresh-baked oatmeal cookies, and anticipate the cold glass of milk you’re going to drink with them. Remember playing ball with dad in the back yard and hide-and-seek with other kids.
Now open your eyes. Did that trip back in time make you feel warm, nostalgic, homesick, longing for the “good-ole’-days? You do not choose your family. They are God’s gift to you. And, you are God’s gift to your family.
I often think that a family is God’s laboratory where His grace and provision are constantly being put to the test. God also gave us something very special—our church family.
One of the very best things about Christianity is all around you—Christian brothers and sisters. You may not even be a member of this particular congregation, but if you are a Christian you know you are with family.
The Apostle Paul had a special place in his heart for the church at Philippi. He was in prison in Rome when he wrote this letter. It’s very personal—filled with joy because of their faithfulness to God.
The church was started during Paul’s 2nd missionary journey. At first it was just a small group of ladies. Lydia, a cultured business woman was the first Gentile to be baptized into the Christian faith in Philippi. (Acts 16:11ff) She was high on the social ladder.
Latter a slave girl joined. Then a Philippian prison warden and his family. A business woman, a slave from the opposite end of the social ladder, and a rough and tough journeyman of a jailer were the nucleus.
What a diverse and unlikely group formed the core of this church. I love God’s sense of humor? Look around you. He takes each one of us, just as we are, and somehow molds us into His Family.
And he puts us together so that we can use our gifts, our abilities, and our talents to minister to one another and to grow the family. You are extremely valuable to your church. Notice Paul’s thankfulness for the church at Philippi. He was thankful for…
Philippians 1:3 (NIV) I thank my God every time I remember you.
Paul remembered this little church. He thought about them often. He remembered the sweet meeting at the Place of Prayer on the riverbank, and how the slave girl was freed from her demon possession. He was especially aware of God supernaturally releasing him from the Philippian jail and the jailer and family accepting Christ.
Every time he thought about them he thanked God for their relationship. They were special to him the rest of his life. Paul had a wonderful relationship with this church.
They prayed for him. They supported his mission trips. They sent one of their members, Epaphroditus, to Paul in prison with gifts from the congregation. They told Epaphroditus to stay and minister to Paul any way he could. Epaphroditus stayed until he became to ill to stay any longer.
At this Thanksgiving season, Luaine and I thank God for you, our church family. We’re thankful for the relationship we have—a relationship established on our mutual faith in Jesus Christ.
You are a loving, caring church family. I am constantly impressed at how Sunday School classes care for and minister to each other. When one hurts or is in trouble, the rest gather around try to meet whatever needs there are. We sorrow as one, we rejoice together, we play together, and we pray for one another.
Sometimes, like most pastors, I am called on to minister to a family which has no relationship to our church or any other church. They don’t see a need for the church—until there is a crisis—a death, broken home, sickness, even a pending marriage is a dilemma to these folks.
Who will perform the funeral? Who will do the wedding? Who will bring food and offer counsel? Aren’t you glad you have a relationship with a church family that cares for you? These kinds of questions are already answered because we are family.
Don’t take this relationship for granted. Like Paul, thank God for your church family and Christian friends. Paul was also thankful for…
Philippians 1:4-5 (NIV) In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
His words surely lifted the spirits of those church members! They didn’t have it easy. Their lives were hard. Already there were the beginnings of some persecution against Christians.
In all of his prayers for all of them, with joy in his heart, Paul thanked God for their partnership with his ministry and mission.
Here’s something really exciting. The word partnership in the Greek is actually koinonia. We use this word today to describe fellowship. We all know what “fellowship” means. I don’t know how the early church every fellowshipped without coffee and donuts.
The word is much richer than that. The best definition I’ve found is, “participating with someone or others in a shared experience.”
Paul started the Philippian church, but, from the human standpoint he didn’t have much in common with them. When you think about it, we don’t have much in common. Our bond is our salvation in Jesus.
Jesus Christ is our Savior. It’s our mutual faith that binds us together in relationship. But partnership goes beyond just a relationship. For instance, here are some ways the Philippians were partners with Paul.
Absolutely necessary before we can be partners. Partners in the Gospel must be believers.
They identified themselves with Christ and His mission in the world. The purpose of Del Norte Baptist is clearly stated on the front of every bulletin and newsletter: “We are a united body of believers committed to grow in Christ and to reach others for Christ.”
—they were salt and light in their community. The lived their lives for Christ, and at every opportunity, they shared their faith with others.
They hurt when he was in prison. They kept up with his travels and travails.
Now look at each of those words—each attribute is active. To be partners requires action—active together serving Jesus. Christianity is active. To be a partner in the Gospel means action. Sometimes we Baptists miss this important truth.
This is the part we are most familiar with. It is rightly one of the fundamentals of Baptist belief: salvation is by grace and faith alone. We love to quote Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV) For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.
It is clear we cannot work or do something to earn our salvation. However some people get pretty smug about this. They say, “I’m just resting my eternal security on God’s grace.” Unfortunately, many are just resting—not doing anything for God. You cannot be a partner if you are unwilling to serve. The other side of salvation is…
Christ expects every Christian to be partners in the Gospel. He rejects a “do nothing” attitude about His church. He doesn’t want to hear excuses like, “I’m not qualified;” “I’m too busy;” “I’m too young;” “I’m too old;” “It’s someone else’s turn,” and so on.
It is important that we become just as familiar with Ephesians 2:10 (NIV) For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Christ knows each of us intimately and He knows there are some who, because of health reasons or unusual circumstances cannot serve in a very active role in the church. But those who don’t because they won’t are not doing their share, and are not partners in the Gospel of Christ.
A Christian should have a God-given sense of priorities that causes him to want to partner with others in the church for ministry and mission. It is extremely dangerous to assume that because God’s salvation is a gift and cannot be earned, that we are exempt from Christian responsibilities.
James said, James 2:20 (NIV) …faith without deeds is useless. Faith, real Christian faith is an active faith. It is a partnering faith with other believers.
John Stott wrote, “The Christian life is not just our own private affair. If we have been born again into God’s family, not only has he become our Father but every other Christian believer in the world, whatever his nation or denomination, has become our brother or sister in Christ. But it is no good supposing that membership of the universal Church of Christ is enough; we must belong to some local branch of it. Every Christian’s place is in a local church, sharing in its worship, its fellowship, and its witness.” (John R. W. Stott, Reflections)
Finally, Paul was thankful for…
Philippians 1:6 (NIV) Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Again, Paul is boosting the church, he is lifting their spirits. Paul is confident in the future of the Philippian church. He’s watched this church grow spiritually and numerically. He’s heard about their faithfulness. Everything about them was proof that God would complete his work through them.
Notice that Paul’s real confidence is in God! (…he who began a good work in you…). God was at work in the Philippian church, and their faithfulness was the proof.
Each one of us should constantly be under transformation—growing and maturing in our faith. Like a potter with his clay, God transforms you into a redeemed masterpiece for His matchless glory.
The good news is, He will not give up no matter how long it takes or uncooperative we are. You can join a service club, a fraternity, a lodge—but not one of these kinds of organizations will give you the depth of unity and fellowship and purpose you will find in the company of Christian believers who are being molded by Christ.
It is in the church that your have an eternal sense of belonging. It is in the church you find real, accepting love. It is in the church that you grow in knowledge and maturity. It is in the church where you learn to make the right moral choices in an immoral world.
In 1994 Luaine and I worshipped at FBC, Tijeras, our first church following seminary. Then we shared a picnic fellowship after the morning worship. We were happy to again be with many brothers and sisters in Christ from our first church. But you know what? At least half the congregation was made up of new faces. They didn’t know us. We didn’t know them.
But like Paul, we thank God for all of them, whether we know them or not. We thank God for all of you. All of us are in partnership together with Christ.
This is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:3-11 NIV)
Martin Luther wrote, “No man should be alone when he opposes Satan. The church and the ministry of the Word were instituted for this purpose, that hands may be joined together and one may help another.” (Martin Luther, The Early Years)