August 9, 2009 – A work has begun…in YOU. Philippians 1:1-11
Who of us has a project on the go? Ok, how about 2-3 projects…more? Anyone have something they wish they hadn’t started? Some folks like to work on just one thing at a time; plan it, prepare for it; do it till it’s done. Others can have several things in the works, in various stages of completion, with plans for several more in their mind, and still look for more things to do…We’re all a little different, and that’s a good thing, it gives a fantastic variety to our community, right?
Today, we are starting a new series through the book of Philippians. It’s a very ‘upbeat’ letter from Paul to a church that he planted himself. A main theme of the letter is ‘joy’; joy for good friendships, joy in suffering, joy in salvation, joy in fellow-servants of Christ, joy in just knowing Jesus, joy in serving the Lord, joy always, and he says it again…rejoice!
We’re going to take the next few weeks and walk through this book with the goal of encouraging each of us to live for Christ in every situation, in every part of life, whatever the occasion, whatever the cost. Turn in your Bible with me to the book of Philippians. It’s found in the middle of several of Paul’s letters to various churches. It’s page 830 in the bibles provided in the pews.
Philippians 1
1Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers[a] and deacons:
2Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving and Prayer
3I thank my God every time I remember you. 4In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
7It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
9And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
Greeting – typical of Paul (thanks and a prayer for the church). Are we thankful and do we pray for our friends? Do we truly thank God for the people in our lives? Every person we have a relationship with, whether family or friend is a gift from God. We have the opportunity to grow with them and also to help them grow in Christ. Paul saw this in the people whom he started that church with.
I am thankful for each of you, those who have been here since the early days when the thought of planting a church out of a bible study group was just that, a thought. And for all who are part of what Westshore Community Church is today, I am filled with joy at the partnering we have together in building the church, here in this community. I get a sense of what Paul must have felt when he says, ‘every time I remember you…’ I am thankful for what each and every person brings to make this a special place.
And I hope and pray that we ALL feel that way, thankful, for what God is doing in our lives as individuals and as a family as we grow in love for God, and love for each other, as we grow in knowledge of His Word, as we reach out in love to this community through various ministries, like VBS, like Christmas Eve, and through future outreaches made possible by the addition of new people with new abilities and gifts…God is doing something new all the time.
And God will build His church, He will finish what He started. Look at verse 6. 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. Paul is confident in his prayers and joyful for his friends because he knows that God is working in the lives of all of them. God started something, He began a project, and he will finish it. Does it bother you, or perhaps someone else, when you begin a project, and then leave it unfinished, perhaps never to be completed? I quite like working on things, whether it’s a job around the house, painting, working with wood, I even try my hand a t small bits of gardening. But when I start something, I like to see it finished.
I think of the floors we had installed in our house a while back. There was all the messy part of ripping up old, worn out carpets, tearing down the fireplace, hauling it all away, cleaning up the floor, purchasing new flooring (though choosing it was difficult), hauling more stuff to the dump, etc, etc. But then the neat part of the project started…installing new floors. New underlay first…you have to have a proper base for the floor. Then, piece by piece, click by click, the new floor started to come together. Little by little, the whole lower level of our home started to have a new appearance, a new perspective. And when it was done…wow, what a difference.
But what I didn’t say yet, was that it was not me doing the installation. We had a master installer, a professional do the work. He had the skills, the tools, and the no-how that I did not possess, to make the finished work turn out so well. In fact, if I had started the job, I would have messed it up before the 1st piece of flooring went down. You see, what he did was measure the width of each piece of flooring, and calculate that to end up with a complete piece at the end of the room, the first ones would need to be trimmed just a bit, other wise we would end up with a very difficult gap to fill at the other end of the room. But we didn’t have that problem, because the pro new what he was doing.
Just like I needed a pro to install my floors, we all need THE PRO to begin the work in our lives, so that at the end of our lives, we don’t have any worries at all, because the work was started and completed by none other than God Himself. When God is working in our lives, He does not stop until the work is done, and when is it done? When Jesus returns, that’s when. God’s not going to give up on you (too hard for me), He’s not going to ever think, ah…good enough. And He has all the tools to help us fulfil our purposes and grow into what He has planned for each of us.
You see, it’s just not enough to get the job started, it has to be finished. JUST getting saved and thinking, ok that’s all I need for eternal life, now I can live however I want to, is not right. It is like going to Disneyland but stopping just inside the gate and not experiencing what it is meant to be. There’s a lot more to Disneyland than just what lies inside the front door. Would you decide to go there, and then not DO anything when you got there? OR would you see the sights, hear the sounds, get on a ride or two, perhaps even ones you weren’t sure you would set foot on. Try new things, go on an adventure.
That is something like what the Christian life is meant to be. We don’t just get a ticket into the Kingdom of God then just sit there once we’re in. No, we should try new things, meet new people, go beyond what we thought we could ever do, go places we never thought we would ever set foot in. We must stretch our faith, trust in the Lord, even when it’s not something we are comfortable doing. Let Him work on us, work in us, and work through us to bring more people into (not the magic kingdom) but into God’s Kingdom.
Paul was not always comfortable as an evangelist. He was OFTEN in chains, in jail, locked up, put on trial, shipwrecked, ridiculed, beaten…all for the sake of telling people about Jesus, and how we should serve Him. How ‘comfortable’ are we? Have we gotten used to just being saved, no work to do now, or do we feel the urge and the need to go out and tell someone about the love of Christ, and how it has changed our lives, and continues to change us.
Paul is somewhat proud of what the people in the Philippians’ church are doing. He knows they support him and back him all the way. No matter what happens to him, or where he finds himself, he knows he has a support team that’s there for him. We all need that, people to support us. People to pray for us, people to help us in times of need, people to celebrate our triumphs and mourn in our sorrows. People who are true friends, not just fair-weather, all is as-it-should-be friends. But those who, no matter what, are there for us. This church needs to be that for it’s members, and for those who may happen to walk through the door but one time. Every soul that comes here needs to know that they are loved for who they are, a child of God, will not be judged for what they’ve done in their lives, because we ALL have sinned. They need to know that we can forgive just as God has forgiven. We all need to know that we have a purpose, and that purpose is to live for God and serve Him only, not just ourselves.
God wants us to grow; He wants to keep working on us, building us as individuals and as a church. Look at Paul’s prayer for the church in verses 9-11. He’s asking God that we will have a love, not just for Him and for each other, but a love of knowledge and insight into the character of God and His Word. Why, why should we love knowledge of God? It is so that we can know what really is right for us, and be able to discern what is not right. Let’s face it, there are a lot of different messages out there about how we should live life, and about how we should serve God. If we LOVE getting to know God more, if we LOVE getting to know His Word, then we will know how we are to fulfill our purposes in God. Basically what Paul is saying is that we have to know what is right in God’s eyes so that we can keep our noses clean and not get on the wrong paths of life and mess up, doing good until Jesus comes back.
God desires that we should produce good fruit; the fruit of righteousness Paul calls it. You ever bite into a rotten apple, or a sour berry? Not very pleasing is it? God wants us to produce and be filled with good fruit. What is that? I believe it is the harvest of seeing many people come to faith in Christ. If we do all the things we’ve seen here, love one another, serve God only, allow God to work in us, and love getting to know Him more, than we can show that to others, as a testimony to them that God DOES make a difference in our everyday life. That knowing and following Jesus Christ is what really completes us, it’s what we are all really in need of, a saviour, Christ the Lord.
That is one of the best ways we can bring glory to God, by leading exemplary lives for others to see, so that they too will put their faith in Jesus and allow him to start a good work in their lives so that the Kingdom of God can grow from one small group of people, into a changed community for the glory of God. Do you believe it? Can He do it? Yes He can!
