The Key Ingredient to a Successful Church

Matt Doane

Philippians • Sermon • Submitted 6 years ago

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Introducitng Philippians: Paul's prayer for the church and the Church's secret ingredient to success.

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Introduction:

I want to begin this morning by talking about food.

I want you to think of your favorite food that you order on a regular basis when you go to your favorite restaurant.

Now, what are the ingredients that make up your favorite food?

What if one of those ingredients were missing? It would change the entire taste of the food right?

It’s hard to narrow it down but one of my favorite things to eat are Chicken Wings.

But, one of the things I love about Chi

Now, Blue Cheese is either one of those things you like or hate. There isn’t really an in-between. But I love Blue Cheese.

For me, Blue Cheese is essential for enjoying my favorite food. It’s a key

What is the key ingredient to a successful Church?

What is the key ingredient to a successful Church.

What does it take for a church to be successful in l

Is it having state of the art facilities or programs?

Is the key ingredient to a successful Church having unlimited resources of money?

Is the key ingredient to a successful church having a certain number of attendees weekly?

Is the key ingredient

It’s amazing that by not including one ingredient in something you make can change the entire

Philippians 1:1–11 ESV

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Background

We are taking the next several weeks to walk verse by verse through the book of Philippians.

I am very excited about this study. Praying through Scripture and praying about what to preach as we enter 2019, I kept coming back to doing a study on the book of Philippians.

A study verse by verse of Philippians is different from a topical study that we often do. While topical studies are not necessarily bad, there are many benefits of studying a book verse by verse.

A few of them include:

1. Studying a book of the Bible verse by verse helps us look at the entire counsel of God.

I have been guilty at times in my walk with Christ to go to certain passages I like or even understand. Going verse by verse through a book will help us not skip over anything but study the entire book of the Bible and be able to understand God’s word in context.

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

2. Studying a book of the Bible verse by verse helps us to tackle the hard verses.

3. Studying a book of the Bible verse by verse helps us to understand God’s word in context.

There are many people led astray because they take one or two verses out of context. They build an entire idea around one or two verses and if those verses were read within context of the entire book, the reader could have avoided taking the verse out of context.

As we study Philippians each week, my prayer is that God will help us understand this wonderful book and allow us to see exactly how we can apply the truths we read about to our life.

The title of this sermon series is Philippians: Unity, Humility, Joy. Over the next few weeks, we are going to see the idea of these three things throughout this letter.

Philippians: Unity, Humility, Joy.

Background:

Before we get into the meat of the passage, I want to give a brief background to the letter of Philippians.

The apostle Paul penned this letter to the church at Phillipi under the inspiration of God.

We know that Paul was imprisoned at the time he was writing this letter as V. 7 he calls the believers in Philippi partakers or partners in the gospel even while he is in prison.

The church at Philippi was very special to Paul because it was the first church he helped plant in present day Europe.

The main theme we see throughout the book is encouragement. The apostle Paul encourages the believers to live and grow their new life in Jesus Christ.

We know that compared to other churches we read about in the New Testament, that the church at Philippi was pretty healthy, but Paul did not want the believer’s to sit back and relax but keep pressing forward because the Gospel is too glorious to simply sit still and not live out and share with others.

The title of this sermon series is Philippians: Unity, Humility, Joy. As we walk verse by verse through this amazing book, we are going to see these three ideas emphasized and I pray this study will be an encouragement and also a challenge to us as individual believers but also to our corporate body of believers as we press forward in 2019 and make disciples for the glory of the Lord.

This morning, we are going to break down V. 1-11 and we can break this passage down into three parts: Salutation, Thanksgiving, Prayer.

Salutation:

After reading the salutation in V. 1-2 We learn three things about the book of Philippians.

The Authors: Paul and Timothy: We know that Timothy was Paul’s disciple and he was very well known at the church at Phillipi. One of the main reasons that he is mentioned here is because he was on the team that helped start the church at Phillipi and Paul was going to send him to the church shortly after writing this letter.

The Audience: The Saints at Phillipi together with overseeers and deacons. Paul was writing this letter to the “Saints” also meaning those set apart by God and becoming more like Jesus Christ. He was also addressing the overseers and deacons which would have referred to offices in the church at that time.

The Audience: The Saints at Phillipi

The Greeting: Grace and Peace to from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Greeting:

Paul begins this letter with a solid Gospel truth.

Notice that he lists Grace before Peace. This is the idea that once someone experiences grace through Jesus Christ, they can then experience peace in a way that nothing else can bring.

From the greeting we know that Paul is going to continuously remind the believers at the church at Phillipi of the grace and peace they have in God through Jesus Christ.

Thanksgiving

V. 3-8 Paul gives his Thanksgiving for the church and makes a warm statement about how thankful and grateful he is for the church at Phillipi.

Let’s read V 3-8 again:

Philippians 1:3–8 ESV

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

Paul pours his heart out to the church in these verses and shows true love and joy for the people in this church.

V. 3: Paul is making his prayer with joy.

V. 7: Paul holds the people in his heart.

V. 8: Paul yearns for the church at Phillipi with the affection of Jesus Christ.

As we study Philippians it’s important to note that this letter was written out of complete love from Paul and his desire was for the readers to know his heart and know that everything he was about to write them was out of a true love and joy he had for them because of their partnership in the Lord.

His joy came from knowing that the believers at this church loved the Lord and they were growing in their walk with Christ.

Prayer

After his Thanksgiving in 3-8, Paul then moves on to prayer. I want to spend the majority of our time this morning on these three verses because the Apostle Paul’s prayer gives us the key ingredient to a successful church.

Let’s read V. 9-11 again and we will find out.

Philippians 1:9–11 ESV

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

These verses answer the question: “What is the key ingredient to a successful church?”

We find the answer to a successful church in V. 9.

Looking at V. 9, The ingredient is “Love.”

The key ingredient for a successful church is love.

We can learn so much from Paul’s prayer to the church at Phillipi and it all starts with Paul’s petition for the church to “Abound in love”

If we want to see God do incredible things at FBA and be used by God to reach this world with the Gospel, we must abound in love or another way to put it is to continue and have excessive love for Jesus First and each other second.

So from Paul’s prayer, we learn three things about a loving church and Paul gives these three pieces of wisdom to the church at Phillipi if they want to continue being effective with the Gospel.

1. A loving church models humility.

We see love in the context of “Agape” love in this passage and refers to an expression of love.

Our first love as Christians is Jesus Christ because we know that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone and we are hopeless and helpless without the love of God through Jesus.

Love is also practiced among believers because God intends for His children to love one another.

Listen to the words of

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another

God gives us the ultimate example of love through sending his son Jesus to the world so that we might live through him.

As Christians, loving one another is not optional but is a command and shows evidence that we have experienced new life in Christ.

Is loving other people hard? You bet it is. Is loving people you go to church with hard? Of course, because we are all sinners and we will make mistakes when it comes to loving one another perfectly.

However, that should never keep us from growing in love and serving one another.

A good way to show love for one another and to express love for one another is to serve each other.

True love is saying “What can I do for this body of believer’s” Instead of saying “What can the church do for me.”

Genuine love for one another is doing as says and we will study this more when we get there in a couple weeks but listen to it:

4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Thom Rainer who is the current president of Lifeway but is retiring once a new CEO is hired did some hilarious but sad findings about church conflict. He did a Twitter poll of what churches were arguing about and here are a few of my favorite ones:

An argument on the length of the Pastor’s beard.

An argument over the Lord’s Supper because Cran/Grape Juice instead of pure grape juice.

Arguments over what type of green beans the church should serve.

An argument over whether people should be allowed to wear black shirts because black is the color of the devil.

My personal favorite: A church argued over allowing “Deviled” Eggs to potlucks because it had the word “Devil” in it.

Those are pretty funny but they are also extremely disheartening.

Churches that are not abounding in genuine humility and love will start to put emphasis on preferences and things that do not matter when it comes to living a Gospel-Centered life.

As we walk in humility as a church body and put other’s needs before ours. God will bless FBA and allow us grow in love for Him and for one another.

Let’s take a look a the second truth about a loving church.

2. A loving church grows in purity.

Paul goes on to talk about loving one another with knowledge and discernment so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.

Love for one another grows when we have knowledge and discernment. The way we grow in that is by knowing the Lord and growing in our knowledge of Him.

I think it’s safe to say that if your love for the Lord is not growing, your love for people is not growing either.

When our knowledge and love for God grows, we will begin to love other people and see them the way God sees them.

When I started my first student ministry job 8 years ago, there was a lady in the church who had helped with the student ministry that just absolutely hated my guts.

Everything I did was critiqued and negatively taken by this woman. Now, I was fresh in full time ministry and I’m sure I made mistakes but this woman would not give me a break.

After having several run-ins with this woman I decided to spend time praying for her daily. My desire was for God to mend our relationship and to let us have a mutual understanding.

I decided to have meeting with her and let her know that I was sorry if I had come across as every being hateful with her and told her I loved her.

I cared more about the body of Christ and the purity of the church then what I felt or the awkward conversation I was going to have to have with this woman.

I did my part. I loved her as Christ commanded me to love her. I prayed for her. I tried to seek restoration and it humbled me.

I could have easily ignored her and just avoided the situation all together.

However, as we strive for purity, we have to have hard conversations. We have to commit to working out our differences and loving one another even when it is extremely difficult.

That took humility on my part but it wasn’t an option to love her, God wants the church to grow in love so that the church will be pure.

When we choose to love others as Christ has loved us, we will grow in purity and look like what the Church is supposed to look like.

We studied last week and the fruit of the Spirit and the first fruit is “Love.” We should not only be growing in love as individual believers, but we should grow in love as a corporate body of believers.

My prayer for FBA on a regular basis is that we will be a loving church and love in a way that Christ loves us.

When we do that, we will grow and operate in a way that brings honor and glory to God.

Listen to

24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,

Believers in the local church should encourage or stir one another to love and good works so that as a body we can grow in the Lord.

Our Christian life is not meant to be an individual way of life but a life lived out with other believer’s as we help one another grow in a way that looks more like Christ.

I want to encourage you that if you come, sit, eat, and go home every Sunday, you are missing out on a blessing of being part of the community.

We are blessed to have many wonderful Grow Groups at FBA. I want to challenge you to visit one if you are not already involved. If you don’t like the one you visit, visit another one. No one will judge you.

It’s so important to be part of a Grow Group because our Grow Groups provide opportunity for spiritual growth and genuine love from other believers.

Visit the Info Point when we are done and ask which Grow Group might be a good option for you.

So a loving church grows in purity, all of these things lead to the outcome of a loving church and that is:

3. A loving church points a hostile world to a loving Savior.

Paul’s prayer ends with the statement that he prays the church is filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

We’ve looked at how a Church can grow in love and Why a Church should grow in love, now we see the outcome of a Church that grows in love.

The outcome is being an effective witness and glorifying God in their lives.’

A Church that is growing in love and models a Christ-like love will be contagious.

When a guest walks in the doors at FBA. What do they see? What do they experience?

If love for one another is something missing, they will not return.

Why wake up early on a Sunday morning, get the kids ready, and waste gas to come to a building where people simply sit and sour.

I’m not saying that FBA is not a loving church because I am encouraged that we are a loving church.

I have had friends and family come visit and tell me that they can tell FBA is a loving church and a friendly church.

Maybe you are here this morning because you attended FBA and felt welcomed and wanted to be a part of the ministry that is taking place here.

I don’t think that’s the problem for FBA. But as Paul writes to the church at Philli, he is warning them not to get comfortable but to continue abounding and growing in love toward one another so that they can point to how beautiful God is.

The thing we must understand about the Christian life is that a Christian life is always growing. We have never arrived as a Christian. I don’t care if you’ve been a believer for 50 years or 5 years. We are ALWAYS growing in Christ.

The same goes for the church or the body of believers that meet at FBA to worship. We are always growing and looking more like Christ.

The moment we stop growing in our walk with Christ is the moment we start to hold on to things that just don’t matter.

Oftentimes churches that are not abounding in love start to argue over preferences and things that have nothing to do with the Gospel.

If we aren’t careful, we can hurt our witness to a world that needs Jesus by arguing over things like “not wearing black shirts,” or “not allowing ‘Deviled” eggs at Potlucks”

I want 2019 to be one of the most fruitful years at FBA. My prayer is that people will know Jesus as their Lord and Savior, my prayer is that our partnerships with Honduras and Cleveland will be fruitful and my prayer is that we will establish community partnerships where we are going outside the church walls to minister to people who normally wouldn’t attend church.

In order for those things to happen, we must be a church growing and abounding in love for God first but also one another.

We ultimately are living out our faith when we abound in love and serve others in the church body. (Gospel)

Think about the good news of Jesus. He loved us when we were considered enemies. He saved us by grace through faith when we did nothing to earn or deserve his love.

Loving others even when it’s difficult points to a loving Savior who shows his love for us every single day.

Paul’s prayer for the church at Phillipi is a prayer of love and genuine care for the saints. We can learn so much through the Apostle Paul’s prayer but most importantly we learn that the key ingredient for a church to be successful is “love”

The evidence of a loving church is a Church that Models humility, Grows in Purity, and points a hostile world to a loving Savior.

We love because He first loved us.

Let us pray:

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