Ten years: a decade, 520 weeks, 3,652 days, 87,600 hours. A lot can change in ten years: less hair, more weight, deeper wrinkles. As I stand here this day, ten years to the day when I became pastor of this church, my mind is literally boggled at where I am today, and where we are today, and the journey we have made together over the last ten years.
As I struggled to discern the message I should bring this Sunday, I had several different texts and thrusts dancing in my head, when sitting at the Executive Committee Meeting in Nashville a couple of weeks ago, a dear lady got up and read one verse, Philippians 1:3, and the Lord impressed me immediately to preach this message.
First Baptist Snellville and the church at Philippi have so much in common, even concerning the time period when Paul wrote this letter.
It had been ten years since Paul had founded this church in Philippi, just as it has been ten years since I came to pastor this church.
In the beginning of his ministry there, Paul faced great opposition to building a true New Testament church, just as I faced opposition when I first came, in my desire to build a conservative, Bible-believing, soul-winning church.
Paul saw tremendous opportunity in this booming metropolitan city, just as I had a vision in my heart for this area from the first time that I saw it.
This church could have been called "The Fellowship of Joy", for the theme of joy is woven through the tapestry of these 104 verses like threads of silver. If you put Philippians on CD, joy would come up on the screen. This church was full of joy, and it brought joy to Paul's heart like no other church.
Not every church brought joy to Paul's heart. The church at Corinth was a divided church, a fractured fellowship of fighting factions that were feuding and fussing, suing one another; so selfish and carnal they were even dying because of their abuse of the Lord's Supper.
The church at Galatia was a deceived church. They had forsaken God's grace for man's law as a way of salvation, and the foul air of legalism was stifling that church.
But the church at Philippi was a delightful church; a church full of joy, happy in the Lord Jesus, winning people to Christ, loving one another.
Corinth had discouraged Paul, Galatia had depressed Paul, but the Philippians had delighted Paul. Corinth had hurt him, Galatia had hindered him, but the Philippians had heartened him.
The way Paul felt about that church, is the way I feel about this church. The way Paul loved that church, is that way I love this church. What I say about Paul, and his relationship to the Philippians, I am saying about me and my relationship to you.
I. His Grateful Delight In The Church
Paul's memory goes all the way back to "the first day." (v.5) For Paul and the Philippian church it was "love at first sight." From the first day they met they were for him, and he was for them. They were singing out of the hymnbook and reading off of the same page, and no wonder:
a. He Was Grateful For The People Of The Church
"I thank my God upon every remembrance of you." (v.3) It was not the place of the church, nor the possessions of the church, but the people of the church for which Paul was grateful. Every time he thought of them, all he could do was sing, "What a fellowship, what a joy divine."
When those precious people, those sweet saints came to mind, an attitude of gratitude welled up in his heart; not an attitude of grumbling, not an attitude of grief, just gratitude.
Philippi was a people's church. It was the people that made the church, and not the church the people. That's what I love about our church. We are a people's church. You come here and you'll see different levels of education, different levels on a social scale, different interests, different abilities, and yet our hearts have been knit together by the invisible bond of the Holy Spirit.
In an orchestra, all of the instruments are tuned to a tuning fork. When those instruments are tuned to the same note, they will all be in harmony. When your heart is tuned to the Holy Spirit, and my heart is tuned to the Holy Spirit, there will be a harmony that only the Holy Spirit can produce.
Dwight L. Moody once said, "There are two ways of being united frozen together or melted together." Thank God that we are not rusted together by ritualism, frozen together by formalism, linked together by liberalism, or even chained together by conservatism. We are melted together by the Holy Spirit and a blazing love for the Lord Jesus Christ.
b. He Was Grateful For The Partnership Of The Church
In v.5 we find that Paul was also grateful "for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now." As you know, the Greek word for fellowship is koinonia. It means to share in common, to have something in common. This church had the same things in common we have in common. They had a common Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that common Lord, they had a common life in the Holy Spirit. Because of that common life, they had a common love for Jesus, and for one another.
Notice they were partners in the gospel. From the very beginning they had one common goal, one heartbeat. Their desire was to get out the gospel, send the light, bring in the sheaves, sow the seed, and win the lost. How I thank God that you have had that desire.
Think about it. In ten years, 4,850 people have gone through the baptismal waters of this church. There are hundreds of others whom we also have led to Christ, who went to other churches. Now I could not have done this alone. The reason why God has so blessed us with a harvest is because this church has had an attitude of evangelism, it has provided an atmosphere for evangelism, it has initiated an action of evangelism.
This was why the church at Philippi was so full of joy. Did you know that soul-winning churches are the happiest churches on earth? Did you know that soul-winning Christians are the happiest Christians on earth? Did you know that soul-winning preachers are the happiest preachers on earth?
Let me tell you something you will never find anywhere in the world. You will never find a true soul-winning church fighting. They don't have the desire, nor the time, to fight. Soul-winners would rather fight Satan than fight saints. They would rather further the faith than fracture the fellowship. I have been involved in a couple of church scrapes, and there is one thing I have noticed in churches that do fight, the fighters are never soul-winners.
c. He Was Grateful For The Prospect Of The Church
"...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." (v.6) I am so glad to know that salvation is not my good works for God, it is God's good work in me. Every part and parcel of the Christian life begins and ends with God. Salvation is God's work for you, sanctification is God's work in you, service is God's work through you.
God began the work of salvation in me, and that tells me that I can never lose my salvation, because what God starts, God finishes. If salvation was my work I might not make it. We have all started something that we couldn't finish.
I heard about a little boy who came home one day and said, "Daddy, Jimmy's daddy has a list of men that he says he can whip, and your name is at the top of the list." He said, "Is that true?" So Tommy's daddy went down to see Jimmy's daddy. He knocked on his door. When the door was opened he said, "I want to ask you a question. Your son told my son you have a list of men that you can whip, and my name is number one on the list. Is that right?" He said, "Yeah, that's right." He got right in his face and said, "Well, I don't think you can do it. Now what are you going to do about it?" The man cleared his throat nervously and said, "I'm going to take your name off the list."
Thank God that we can look up to heaven and say,
The walk you have in Me begun,
will by your grace be fully done.
II. His Godly Devotion To The Church
Paul said something about this church he never said about any other church. He said in v.7 "I have you in my heart." You may carry thoughts in your head and tools in your hands, but you only carry treasures in your heart. This church was a treasure to Paul, for where a man's heart is, there will his treasure be also. That explains two things about Paul:
a. His Longing For The Church
For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ." (v.8) Philippi was his favorite place to visit, his favorite pulpit in which to preach, his favorite people to be with.
As a husband and a father, I had rather be with my immediate family, my wife and my children, than anyone else on earth. But as a Christian and a preacher, I would rather be with this church family than anyone else on earth.
The church was in his heart because his heart was in the church. There was something about that place and about those people that sounded a "home sweet home" to his ears.
b. His Love For The Church
Paul didn't love this church with an ordinary love, but with "the affection of Jesus Christ." The word affection is the Greek word for bowels. In Paul's day, the Greeks thought that the intestines, the liver, and even the lungs, held the most tender part of human emotions. What Paul was saying was "my love goes to the deepest part of my heart." Paul had a love that only a pastor can have for a church.
It was a shepherd's love. The word pastor means shepherd. Nobody loves the sheep like the shepherd. It was a sacrificial love. "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep." (Jn. 10:11) Paul had given his life to this church, in this church, and in the Philippian jail, was even willing to give his life for the church.
It was a sanctified love, for it was the affection "of Jesus Christ." More than a human love that can melt in the heat of problems, criticism, and discouragement, Paul had a heavenly love that would last for all eternity.
III. His Great Desire For The Church
Paul prayed specifically and specially for this church. There were three things he asked God to do in this church, through this church, and for this church. As we look to the future, ever how long that might be until the Lord tarries, I pray these same three things for this church:
a. Love With Intensity
"And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment." (v.9) Now it is common knowledge that a church ought to have love. But what is not common knowledge is it is not just any ordinary run-of-the-mill kind of love. It is to be an agape love; not phileo, a social love; not eros, sexual love; but agape love, which is supernatural love. This love, Paul says, is to "abound."
Love is not only to abide in the church, it is to abound beyond the church. The word abound has a Latin root that means "wave after wave." Our love ought not to trickle like a stream, it ought to roar like an ocean.
I have come to the conclusion that there are three things a church can never carry to an extreme. A church can never trust God too much, a church can never obey God too much, and a church can never love God too much. A church may grow without loving, but it cannot love without growing.
I heard about a man who used to drive all the way across a large town to a church, and he would pass many other churches on the way. Someone once asked him, "Why do you pass all of these churches nearby to go to that church across town?" He said, "Because they love a fellow over there." I know one of the reasons why we have thousands of people attending this church, is because we love people over here.
But notice that this river of love is to flow between two banks: the bank of knowledge and the bank of discernment. Knowledge, without love, is intellectual arrogance; but love, without knowledge, is shallow sentimentality. That means sometimes love will be tender, but it means at other times love will be tough. That means sometimes love will be tactful, but it means at all times love will be truthful.
b. Look With Intelligence
"That you may approve the things that are excellent." (v.10a) Literally translated, Paul said we are to "test things which differ." Or, "to test the things which are better." It is easy to know the difference between good and bad. What is hard is to discern between what is good and best. You see, the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is this: the non-Christian is spending his life, but the Christian is investing his life. We need to invest our life not just in the good things, but in the best things. Life is too short to read good books, we need to read the best books.
Our prayer ought to be:
Holy Spirit, truth divine,
Dawn upon this soul of mine;
Word of God an inward light,
Wake my spirit, clear my sight.
There are so many good things our church could get involved in. We could spend full-time picketing abortion clinics. We could spend full-time fighting the liquor business. We could spend all of our energies trying to influence Washington. Those are all good things, but the best thing is to simply keep preaching the Word, winning people to Christ, and spreading the gospel to a lost and dying world.
c. Live With Integrity
"...that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." (vv. 10b-11) There has never been a day when it is more important for the church to live like the church, than this day in which we are constantly under the microscope of a media that's always looking for some reason to criticize us and to bring reproach to the name of Jesus.
We need to be "without offense." The word offense refers to the part of a trap to which bait was attached to catch an animal. The point is, don't ever cause a brother to fall into one of Satan's traps by the way you live.
The Greeks had a different word for integrity. Their word was sincerity. The word sincere comes from a Latin word sine cera that literally means "without wax." In the days of Paul, the porcelain industry was big business. The finer and the thinner the porcelain was, the more expensive it was. Oftentimes while making a piece of beautiful porcelain, the potter would crack the porcelain while it was heating in the oven.
If a dealer was honest he would discard this porcelain, but dishonest dealers would take wax and melt it and fill up the crack. The only way you could tell if this crack was in the porcelain was to be to hold it up to the light of the sun. Those dealers who were reputable and honest would put a label on their porcelain sine cera to show that it was without wax, without a crack, without a flaw.
It is my prayer, that as long as I pastor this church the world can hold us up to the light of the Word of God, and we will be sine cera, without wax, without a flaw, without a crack; not perfect, but blameless. If I have the privilege of pastoring this church another ten years, and even another ten years after that, may we be longing for His kingdom, looking for His coming; all the while "being filled with the fruits of righteousness, so that we will be living "to the glory and praise of God."