Better Together

Better Together • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

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Sports are a team sport. All of them. Even golf. Golfers have many people who work with them to make them better players. We see teamwork all the time and know the power behind it. But what does that teamwork lead to? At the end of Philippians, Paul finishes it up by saying, “There are ALL these people out there who are pulling for you, who love you, who are for you.” Here at The Journey, we have pretty high turnover. Not because people hate us and move on (I don’t think), but because of our military population and the transient nature of this place. We’ve figured out we have people here for about 3 years. We want to be a church who looks at the end of those 3 years and says, ‘We’re in this together and now we’re sending you OUT to a new place to do even more and better things for Jesus.’ In the end, we are better together. Knowing we partner together, struggle together, work together, celebrate together, we are in this together. No matter where we go or end up. It is the POWER behind the church, together.

Notes

Transcript

Intro

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We’ve been going through this series in Philippians through the lens of the Church, what does this letter have to say to the church as a whole? And the main idea that we’ve come out of it is that we are Better Together. When we come together, and put our differences aside for the sake of Jesus’ mission, God can accomplish incredible things through us.

And today, we are wrapping up the series, and you know how we’ve been sort of jumping around all over the letter looking at these different sections? Well, we’re going to wrap up the series in an unexpected place. This little paragraph that does not sound too much like teaching, but more like housekeeping details that Paul is communicating. But that I actually think have a huge importance on how we understand the role of the church and how we understand our mission.

New Living Translation Chapter 2

25 Meanwhile, I thought I should send Epaphroditus back to you. He is a true brother, co-worker, and fellow soldier. And he was your messenger to help me in my need. 26 I am sending him because he has been longing to see you, and he was very distressed that you heard he was ill. 27 And he certainly was ill; in fact, he almost died. But God had mercy on him—and also on me, so that I would not have one sorrow after another.

28 So I am all the more anxious to send him back to you, for I know you will be glad to see him, and then I will not be so worried about you. 29 Welcome him in the Lord’s love and with great joy, and give him the honor that people like him deserve. 30 For he risked his life for the work of Christ, and he was at the point of death while doing for me what you couldn’t do from far away.

Prayer. So, a little bit of background on what’s going on here. Paul is on house arrest. Has been for 2-3 years. The people of Philippi hear about it, want to help him out, so they send Epaphroditus. Some commentators believe Epaphroditus was the pastor of the church. Epaphroditus gets really sick and the news of that reach the people of the church in Philippi...

Here’s why this is important. Because for that church, these were probably the two main leaders they knew. Some of you were here when Jerry was the lead pastor.

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