Life Together: Building Gospel Community and Joy

But here's what we're not interested in. We're not interested in a crowd filling rooms and buildings. We're interested in building a community. We're interested in helping people connect with one another because that's what we were made. That's the message of the gospel. It's the message of the book of Philippians that we would build relationships with one another founded on the reality that Jesus is alive and binding us together to continue to live that life now with one another, encouraging one another, being tender to one another, exhorting one another, challenging one another, having a community of people where we are known and we know others. That's what we want. [00:44:49] (39 seconds)  #CommunityNotCrowd

Our hearts long for a source of identity and connection and purpose, and we try to find that in everything and anything that we can, in sports teams and movie franchises, and Netflix documentaries, and the type of car we drive, and the type of clothes we wear, and the type of place we go to on vacation. But what we have in Jesus is hope, Hope that overcomes those things, hope that gives us new life and experiences new life, and a hope that challenges us to live for that above other things, that challenges us to live for Jesus, to live on mission. See, reality is we were made for community and we are also called to community. The meaning and the purpose that you are looking for is not gonna be found in your career. It's not gonna be found in your education. It's not gonna be found in any of the things that you can buy, the accomplishments and achievements you can make. It's only found in something that lasts, something that's eternal. That's Christ. That's Jesus. [00:50:36] (67 seconds)  #HopeInChrist

in a church, an ecclesia, a gathering of people. See, church is often referenced as a building, but the the building isn't where we get our name. When we gather, we are the church, but the church is the group of people. The building gets its name from us. It's a gathering of people coming together in the name of Jesus, proclaiming his good news, proclaiming his gospel, believing in him, and singing those praises, praying together, studying the word, learning from the apostles and the teachers and the leaders in the church, and and continuing to go and then live that out outward. That's the purpose of gathering. [00:38:37] (36 seconds)  #WeAreTheChurch

Now, Paul was an adversary of the church. He heard this message and thought it was anathema, that it was a heresy, that it was a lie. And then, he encountered Jesus. Through the experience of his presence, he began to believe. And through the community of believers coming around him and encouraging him and discipling him, he rose up to become a leader, an apostle, a witness, a church planter who then began to go out on his own journeys with others to proclaim the gospel at whatever the cost because he wanted everyone else to experience what he had experienced, the transformation of the good news of Jesus. [00:35:01] (43 seconds)  #PaulsConversion

We are a growing church that has more people than we had last year. We are a growing church that has more problems than we had last year. We're a growing church that has more challenges than we had last year. And we're a growing church that has the same God, that has the same hope, that has the same mission and vision. We are a growing church that has an opportunity to experience the life of Christ together, to experience the hope of Christ together, to experience the mission of the gospel together. That is what we are called to do. That is how we are called to live. [00:49:58] (38 seconds)  #GrowingWithPurpose

That's where you start to experience the transformation of the gospel, when you are rubbing shoulders with others and encouraging one another and and convicting, challenging, sorting things out with one another, figuring things out with one another. It's in connection that we are changed. That's the message that Paul is writing. Continued in that. Continue to find connection. Continue to grow. And the Philippians weren't just nice people. They didn't just figure out a way to be kind to one another. No. They found a central mission and vision for their lives, and that bonded them together. [00:46:27] (40 seconds)  #TransformedTogether

So there's practical reality to to the finances, but then there's a spiritual reality. When we give, it's an act of worship. Jesus says, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. It's an act of us saying, hey, God, we we believe trusted in you. We wanna be a part of what you are doing in our lives and the lives of others. That brings transformation. It changes us. And it's not about the amount that you give, it's about being faithful because God's not gonna call you to give more than you have. [00:53:21] (31 seconds)  #FaithfulGiving

We are called to give with our time. Again, I referenced the seven marks a little bit earlier. One of the things that we should be compelled with is missional engagement. The idea that it's not just just for us that we are being changed by the gospel, that we want others to experience that too. We want our coworkers or the people that we live next to, the people that we live with. We want them to experience the gospel. Maybe it's your barista. We want them to hear the message of Jesus and be transformed by the love of God. We wanna commit to that. [00:54:27] (32 seconds)  #MissionalEngagement

Lydia was a wealthy woman, a woman who sold purple goods, which basically meant she made fabrics and things, and she sold them to the wealthiest people in society, a color that still, in some ways, signifies royalty and an opportunity for her to continue to have all kinds of income, and then with that income, do whatever she wanted, and that's not what she did. What she did is she poured the money into the church, right, into seeing God's kingdom grow by hosting people in her home for worship and providing meals and supporting Paul's ministry as he went on to proclaim the gospel to make sure that his needs were provided for. And, we see that later in the letter that others continue to do the same, continue to bring prayer, continue to worship, continue to preach the gospel and and disciple one another. [00:47:08] (50 seconds)  #LydiaGenerosity

And as we experience that, we want others to experience that too. And that, in turn, fills us more because we have the grace of God, the gifts of God, the spirit of God in us, and it compels us to seek after loving, abounding more and more, loving others, experiencing that as well. And so, what we have here is is an opportunity because as a growing church and a growing church has needs, every church has needs because we're full of people. It's an opportunity for us to commit to community, to commit to loving one another, to commit to serving one another, to commit to supporting one another, to step outside of ourselves and against the culture often, and to think of others more highly than ourselves, to think of others more often than ourselves. [00:51:54] (53 seconds)  #CommitToCommunity

It's a false sense of connection, and yet our hearts long to be connected. So even in that, it's something that we're trying to experience. When we read this letter, don't you want that? Don't you wish somebody would write to you with encouragement and tenderness and joy that a text message would even just come in and say, Hey, thought about you today? We're created for that. We were made for that. That is what God wants for us. Genesis two, that we should have others in our life loving and caring and connecting. That's why we were made. [00:43:19] (43 seconds)  #CraveRealConnection

I mean, movie series and franchises have become a source like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings or Star Wars, where they're reading books and watching shows and wearing shirts and going to conferences, conventions, whatever they call them. It creates a point of connection. And if it's not that, it's Netflix watching the next most recent series or documentary, and you can't cancel your subscription because if you don't watch it, then you have nothing to talk to talk about at work the next day because everybody's watching it. And we want to connect. [00:30:27] (37 seconds)  #FandomConnections

Think about, like, sports teams. People gather in parking lots before the game and wear the colors of their team. They have food and create a festival of sorts before crowds massively flow into stadiums and arenas where they will chant and cheer and put all of their hopes and dreams into a victory for that morning or that evening, and everything in their identity begins to be shaped around being a Cowboys fan, so much so that they keep mentioning it all the time. They just continue. And if it's not that, it's movies. [00:29:50] (37 seconds)  #TeamIdentity

The community wasn't just connected because their team had won a few times. They weren't just connected because of some sort of ethnic or cultural connection or bond. They were connected under the power of Jesus. The good news of the gospel had enlivened their hearts to what real life was, and as they began to experience that and and learn and yearn for more, they they began to bind together into a connected body of Christ, and in that connection, they began to find partners and partakers of grace, people who experienced the gifts of God, people who experienced the mercy of God, people who experienced that even in the midst imprisonment could find joy and hope and peace. And so Paul's prayer for the community in Philippi is that their love may abound. That the way that they experience and express the love towards one another would bear fruit in righteousness, that they would transform their community and that others would be invited in to experience that as well. [00:48:56] (60 seconds)  #JailerConverted

The idea that it's not just just for us that we are being changed by the gospel, that we want others to experience that too. We want our coworkers or the people that we live next to, the people that we live with. We want them to experience the gospel. Maybe it's your barista. We want them to hear the message of Jesus and be transformed by the love of God. We wanna commit to that. One of the ways that we do that is by serving on teams. I I mentioned the kids are over in the other building right now, nice and cool, which is great, but also that we have so many kids that we have to cap the rooms. Well, we need more people. With more volunteers, we can expand and and have more classrooms to disciple those kids and keep them safe and encourage them and equip them to follow Jesus for the rest of the days of their lives. It's an opportunity for us to serve families in that way. [00:54:36] (50 seconds)  #AttentionEconomy

It's also serving others, being a part of the body of Christ, using the gifts and talents that God has given us to serve one another. And so the really easy thing for us to do is gather together on Sunday mornings and then to get lulled into a sense in which this is all it is, that we experience life by having a a pick me up in service, and God wants us to do this consistently, regularly. That's what God's people do is they gather for worship. They gather to sing and pray and and study, but that isn't the only thing that we are called to do. We are called to put our hands in and to to live a life together, to experience what it looks like to serve one another. And so maybe that's serving our kids team or the worship team or production or host team or safety team or there's a dozen teams. Not because we just wanna keep people busy, but because in order to serve one another, there's a lot of opportunity. There's a lot of needs, and there's a lot of ways that God has gifted each and every single one of you to do that. He wants you to do that. That's why we have starting point. That's why we have connect cards. And it doesn't matter how young or old you are, there is a place for you to participate in the life of the body of Christ because we are called to do this together. [00:56:21] (78 seconds)

See, the reality is that oftentimes in our world, we are given something to to to connect to or someone to connect to, like an actor. Right? Michael b Jordan, one of my favorite actors. I can remember him as a 17 year old or whatever he was in Friday Night Lights throwing a football across the TV screen and watching the story. The reason we get so connected to actors is because the stories that they portray, the lives that they live, whether positive or negative, whether good or bad, it's the ups and downs that draw us in and we begin to see and feel the emotions that those characters feel. If we continue to see the same actor in all of these different roles over time like him, begins to draw this connection to us. We begin to feel a sense of which we know them. But we don't. It's just pretend. [00:42:04] (59 seconds)

There's a few things that we see in these first 11 verses. The first is this, his tenderness. His tenderness for them. He remembers them consistently in his prayers, looking at them, almost in his mind remembering each of them and praying for them, and when he does that, he experiences great joy. He's filled with joy, and he's he's continuing to do that. He holds them in his heart. He yearns. He longs. He desires to see them again. He misses them. This is an intimate relationship, a community that Paul experienced in a place of of great diversity and great challenges and great opportunities to be distracted, and yet something about the gospel brought them together. And he continues to long for that relationship, that friendship. See, we are created for community. We are created to experience things like that. [00:40:05] (69 seconds)

And as he began to journey, he met a young guy named Timothy who he took under his wing and began to disciple him and encourage him and equip him to be a leader himself, eventually calling him like a like a son to him. And together, Timothy and Paul and a few others went to Philippi, this Roman city, this colony, and they began to preach the gospel at a riverside to some women. And there, they met a woman named Lydia. Lydia was a believer in God, which means she had somehow heard the message of the Jewish God, the God of Israel, and and she had put her faith in that being the one true God, the God who reigned over everything and and and everyone, and the God who was in control, she believed in him, but she hadn't heard the message that Jesus was the one who would reconcile us to that God. [00:35:48] (54 seconds)

And when Paul proclaimed that message to her, she believed, and she began to be transformed. And others began to hear the message and believe as well until there became a small gathering of people. And, Paul and Timothy began to continue to preach, but also do other things like perform miracles, casting out demons even of a young girl. And, in process of that, because the young girl had been a a slave and been able to make money for her owners, well, Paul gets put into prison, interfering with the economics of the time because of the gospel. But that didn't stop them. In fact, they're in jail singing praises to God, worshiping him for who he is. Their circumstances don't deter the message of the good news of Jesus. [00:36:42] (57 seconds)