Philippians 1
3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
4 always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy,
5 for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now,
6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
7 just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace.
8 For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.
9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment,
10 that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ,
11 being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
12 But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel,
13 so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ;
14 and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
15 Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill:
16 The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains;
17 but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.
18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.
What is the first thing you think when I say the word “church”? We use the term church to describe several things.
If someone says, “We really had church today!” they are saying that the church service was incredible.
If someone says, “We are going to church.” they are speaking about a building. There is nothing wrong with using those terms because we all understand what is being talked about. Yet it is important that we don’t lose sight of the real meaning of “church”.
THE CHURCH has nothing to do with a building, and nothing to do with whether or not a service was exciting. It has to do with people. Listen to some things from the word.
Acts 2:47 And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
Romans 16:5 Likewise greet the church that is in their house.
Acts 14:27 Now when they had come and gathered the church together, they reported all that God had done with them, and that He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.
Acts 8:1-3 At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.
In each of those scriptures we are not talking about a building, we are talking about a group of people. What is unique about these people is that they are people who are in a relationship with God.
It is important that we understand this truth:
The church is not made up of perfect people
I know that your immediate response is to that statement is, “Duh!” But we forget that often, and we end up setting our expectations so high that we are completely shocked when someone acts in a less-than-perfect way. Paul teaches us some important things regarding dealing with “less than perfect people”.
Philippians 1
3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
· We need to be thankful for each other
Paul didn’t just teach us to be thankful here.
1 Timothy 2
1 Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men,
2 for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.
We are to be thankful for all men. Not just to people who are kind and loving… but for all men. People do not have to be perfect for us to love them. It is important that we lower the bar of acceptance.
Romans 15:7 Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.
Listen to the way the NIV
Romans 15:7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
We are going to be accepting even though someone may be a little difficult to get along with. There were at least two really difficult people in the church at Philippi. The reason we know that is because Paul will address them in chapter 4.
Philippians 4:3 I implore Euodia and I implore Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.
We are going to be thankful for imperfect people, but wait, there is more.
Philippians 1
4 always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy,
5 for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now
· We need to pray for each other
Notice that when Paul prayed for people he did it with joy, it wasn’t a terribly hard thing for him to do. It was never, “I really don’t want to, but I guess I have to pray for you.”
I love something that Samuel told the Israelites after they decided that they wanted a king.
1 Samuel 12
20 Then Samuel said to the people, "Do not fear. You have done all this wickedness; yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart.
21 And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing.
22 For the LORD will not forsake His people, for His great name's sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you His people.
23 Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you; but I will teach you the good and the right way.
Both Paul and Samuel understood the importance of praying for people.
Philippians 1
6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
· We need to be confident in the work that God is doing in others
If we are not confident in what God does, we will end up getting in His way and trying to force people to change outwardly to conform to our standards.
God leads people into His perfect will for their lives. Listen to what Paul writes in the second chapter of Philippians.
Philippians 2:13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
God works in us and He gives us the desire to do His will and the ability to do His will.
Hebrews 12:2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith….
He is the beginner and the finisher! Listen to the words of David.
Psalms 138:8 The LORD will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands.
God is not about to forsake the work of His hand, He is not about to stop working in your life, He is not going to stop working in the lives of others…trust Him.
Philippians 1
7 just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace.
8 For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.
9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment,
· We need to love each other
We never have an excuse for not loving.
Jesus said loving one another is priority 1
John 15:12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
If we don’t love there is something wrong!
1 John 4
20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
It is that love that distinguishes Christians from non-Christians.
John 13:35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
Listen to one more thought from 1 John.
1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.
Love people even though there not perfect because only love enables you to overlook faults.
1 Peter 4:8 And above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins."
Love is always the right thing.
Philippians 1
10 that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ,
11 being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
12 But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel,
13 so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ;
Talk about a positive attitude! This is the guy who wrote Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. He not only wrote it, he believed it!
14 and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
15 Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill:
16 The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains;
17 but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.
18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.
· We cannot allow negative attitudes to affect us
Paul’s attitude amazes me. Here were these people who were out there preaching, and their entire motivation was to rub Paul’s nose in the fact that they were free and he wasn’t! Paul’s response:
Nothing they do can steal my joy!
You and I need that attitude. How many times has someone with a bad attitude caused you to have a bad attitude?
If someone has a bad attitude, it is their problem, don’t make it yours. Listen to what Jesus taught about this.
Matthew 23:14 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.”
Just remember, phonies receive greater condemnation, so it really is their problem.
Listen to what Paul wrote to the Corinthians.
2 Corinthians 2:17 For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.
We are going to be sincere regardless of what anyone else. Refuse to allow insincerity to rub off on you. Remember sincerity (without wax?)
Listen to what Paul has taught us:
· We need to be thankful for each other
· We need to pray for each other
· We need to be confident in the work that God is doing in others
· We need to love each other
· We cannot allow negative attitudes to affect us