Living in Gratitude: A Community of Love and Hope

1. "A couple weeks ago, we started this long, slow walk through the book of Philippians. This is Paul's letter to the saints. In Philippi, a couple weeks ago, we saw how that group of saints came to be, how that church came to be. [01:16] (14 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


was birthed, how God, through His Holy Spirit, specifically sent Paul and the rest of the missionary team to this specific place, made His light shine in this spiritual darkness. We saw how God called Lydia, opened her heart to respond to the things that Paul had been speaking to her. We saw the spiritual battle that was taking place as the spiritual forces of darkness and the Holy Spirit were engaged when Paul cast out that demon. We saw Jesus' words coming true. Jesus told the disciples, they'll hate you because they hate me, and we saw Paul's persecution and being beaten and thrown in prison. But then we saw God's sovereignty over creation itself, sends the earthquake, prison doors open, and we saw the conversion of that jailer." [01:16] (42 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "The second big category that he prays is that they would abound in what I'm going to call spiritual wisdom. Spiritual wisdom. He specifically says, he prays that they would grow in their knowledge, but he has these three things connected. Knowledge, discernment, but also approving what is excellent. It wasn't just the knowledge of the gospel, the understanding of the gospel, the understanding of Scripture, stuff that's maybe in our head, but he wants it to move down and impact and transform our heart. Discernment. Or some translations talk about depth of insight. but even beyond that, that it begins to impact our affections, what we approve, what we desire, that we approve that which is excellent." [04:52] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "The third big category that he prays for them is that their righteousness would grow, that they would continue to abound in righteousness. He used this phrase that they would be pure and blameless at the day of Christ, would be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ. And on one hand, it's talking about their salvation, their salvation that they have a righteousness that has come from Christ. In chapter 3, Paul is going to talk about his personal testimony, and he says, I did not want to have a righteousness of my own, but I wanted a righteousness that comes from God by faith." [09:06] (32 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "Fourth big thing he's praying for them is that they would would abound in hope of the full gospel, bound in the hope of the full gospel. He mentions here the day of Christ, that you would be pure and blameless at the day of Christ. This is a phrase that's going to show up several times in the letter that we're going to read. It was twice in this paragraph. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ. His prayer is that they will be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. Later on in chapter two, his prayer is that they will be holding fast to the word of life so that at the day of Christ, Paul's work would not be in vain." [12:07] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "For the last 20 years, I have been watching a group of saints abounding in love, abounding in love. If you don't hear anything else from me today, I hope that you will hear this. You have loved me and my family well, bountifully well. And I am very well aware that not every pastor can say that. I think David Bowman, director of our Therian Baptist Association, is here somewhere. Where are you at? The Holy Spirit is not directing my gaze. Anyway, but I'm sure he gets calls every Monday morning of those who are not being loved well by their church. My eyewitness testimony to you is this. You have abounded in love for me and my family for the last 20 years, and I thank God for that." [13:36] (54 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "For 20 years, I've been enjoying the fruit of your righteousness in Christ. I've had the privilege over 20 years of baptizing 244 people. That's incredible. That is the fruit of your righteousness. That's parents making disciples of their children. That's our children's Sunday school department systematically teaching the Word of God. That's our Awana workers who every week are helping them to memorize Scripture and understand Scriptural truth. That's our pre -teen ministry, our student ministry. That's the fruit of your righteousness in Christ. I've had the privilege over 20 years of baptizing 244 people. That's the fruit of your righteousness in Christ, and I get to be a part of that." [23:14] (38 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "Just like Paul, for the last 20 years I've been watching a group of saints abounding in righteousness through Christ. That was his prayer. They would be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. They would be filled with the fruit of righteousness. Again, miserable lot of people, religious people to be filled with head knowledge, doesn't get to the heart, doesn't get to their affections, and they're filled with self -righteousness. But it's a beautiful group of people that realize that all of the righteousness that they have has come from the work of Christ that is in their life. And any fruit of righteousness that anyone else might be able to point to, what they're really pointing to is the work of Christ in their life." [22:09] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "And finally like paul for the last 20 years. I've been watching a group of saints abounding and giving glory to god One of the things I like about the the dna of this church is we are not self promoters It's not a look at me It is a look at the christ that is in me It is not I but as christ in me and our our hope of whether you are making donations to vacation Bible school, it's not because you want to get credit of how many crayons you gave It's because you want to be part of the name of jesus being famous in our community and on and on I could list you get that as a church and Rejoice in that and I hope that what is happening on this day that that's what we're doing That today really is a celebration of 20 years of god's grace God's gracious work in us through us and around us and I hope at the end of this day This is what happens all will be done to the glory And to the praise of god" [27:01] (61 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)