Partnership
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Introduction
Introduction
What is one characteristic that Christians should be known for? Partnership in the Gospel. We should be tied together focusing on how the gospel impacts our lives and needs to impact the lives of those around us. Partnership beacons us to travel and help missionaries and churches reach their communities for the gospel. Partnership in the gospel is why we gather each and every Sunday. We gather to teach the gospel, we gather to worship the God who rescued us. The truth is family is partnership and we have been adopted into a great family.
14 Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble.
15 And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only.
16 Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again.
17 Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.
18 I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.
19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
20 To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.
21 Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me greet you.
22 All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s household.
23 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
Partnership in the Gospel
Partnership in the Gospel
Paul begins his closing by rejoicing in the partnership and sharing he had with the Philippians in the ministry. It wasn’t just that the church at Philippi sent money or Epaphroditus, but they truly shared in his troubles. The bore some of the burden with Paul.
How did they share? They were what Paul considered partners.
The word koinonea is used once again, just as it was in the beginning of the letter.
3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,
4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy,
5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
Philippians 1:3
This word partnership means to share to have in common. Having things in common or having a partnership is not one sided. They cared for Paul and Paul cared for them.
Why did Paul write the letter to them? he cared about what they were experiencing and wanted to encourage them. How did the Philippian church care for and partner with Paul? They sent him a gift and a person to communicate the deep concern they had for Paul.
What does partnership in the gospel look like for us?
It means we rejoice and pray and support one another. When I hear of the good things happening because a young girl in our church is sharing the gospel with classmates, I rejoice. I praise God for the people who have invested in her, I praise God for her parents. And we celebrate her faith. If you have not heard the story, Hallee Inman was able to share the good news of Jesus with her classmates when they began asking questions.
We celebrate when we hear of others in our church using the gifts they have to bless others. We celebrate and share the joy of seeing Steve Hancock use a movie about Steve McQueen to share his faith with other men. We celebrate and are partners when we see our partners in the gospel go to El Salvador, or go to Houston because we partner it is us going.
Do you see yourself as a partner in the work of God? Will you allow yourself to rejoice when we hear of the good things people are doing because we are in the same family? Can you be encouraged by the ministry work others do as opposed to being critical of yourself? Will you allow God to increase your faith and increase your involvement in the sharing of the gospel?
Paul was grateful for his friends who supported his work from the beginning. Paul’s focus is not on the gift but on the partnership and the fruit of the gospel that benefits them both.
One key thing that we can learn about partnership from Paul is how we must respond. Paul in these closing verses is thankful for the church not solely because they gave him a gift, but because of their growth in the gospel that allowed them to sacrifice for the mission of God. Paul is grateful for the church because they are behaving like Christians, because there is a spiritual maturity coming.
How have you seen people in this church grow in maturity in Christ? Have you rejoiced in their progress? Would you be willing to encourage them with a kind word?
You see there are three types of people typically found in a church. First, there is the Christian person who is so unrestrained in their praise of people it is hard to avoid the conclusion that they control others by extravagant flattery. Second, there are those Christians who are firmly committed to the belief that if any believer does any good in any way, it is nothing other than the product of what God is doing in them and through them and they end up offering very few praises. Third, there is the christian who offers their thanks to God in front of other people, who gives God the glory and the believer in progress encouragement.
Paul was grateful for his friends who supported his work from the beginning. Paul’s focus is not on the gift but on the partnership and the fruit of the gospel that benefits them both.
Seek Spiritual Fruit in Giving
Seek Spiritual Fruit in Giving
Paul makes the point that he is seeking the fruit that increases to your credit according to verse 18. This could be read, “What I desire is that more be credited to your account.” The word fruit in a financial sense means “advantage, gain, profit. Paul is speaking like an investment banker. Paul desires continuously increasing profits, daily compounding of interest.
Paul’s focus is on their spiritual development and on the church in Philippi storing their treasures in heaven. Paul desires the one bank account that matters to grow.
1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
Colossians 3:1-2
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,
20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
or perhaps
1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Paul wants the people of Philippi to realize the gift helped but more than the gift Paul is seeking growth in spiritual fruit, a storing up for themselves treasures in heaven. How does one do this?
When we practice what the bible preaches is when we store up for ourselves treasures in heaven. Life transformation because of the gospel is storing up your treasures in heaven.
I don’t know if you are like me, but I focus mostly on the opportunities I missed or failed to bear fruit. What we need is the positive of the gospel continually in our ears, and on our minds that we might bear fruit and fruit that will last.
I equate this to a sports figure or performance driven person. When you make a mistake and it gets in your head to the point that it affects another part of your game or performance. Like at the olympics and an ice skater misses a jump, and then that sticks with them so that they miss the next, and the failures compound.
Instead of feeling like a failure, pause and remember the gospel that you are accepted based on what Christ has done. You can bear fruit because the spirit lives in you. You are not defined by what you have done, but by what Christ did and what God is doing in your life.
I think of pruning in scripture. In order for a tree to bear better fruit, it must be pruned. our failures and missed opportunities should be reflected on as times of pruning so that we learn to bear better fruit. In the words of Alfred, “what do we fall down sir? So we can learn to pick ourselves back up.” Perhaps it should be said so we can learn to let God pick us back up.
Right Giving Pleases God
Right Giving Pleases God
The gift and the heart behind the gift lead Paul to declare that the gift sent is a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.
Think of how many times gifts give on the alter of god are declared unacceptable, and un pleasing to God.
One example of sin corrupting the people of God causes this declaration:
21 “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them.
23 Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
24 But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Amos 5:
or what of
11 “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.
12 “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts?
13 Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil,
17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.
Isaiah 1:
or the most infamous of all
6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Paul is declaring a truth we all want to hear, your gift is good. What you have done pleases the Lord.
Put yourself in the shoes of the Philippians as they would have heard this word.
In the same way, the Philippians are poverty-stricken (), persecuted (1:28–30), and divided (2:14; 4:2), but God will nevertheless meet their needs out of his limitless resources (4:19). Not simply despite these hardships, but through the Philippians’ obedient handling of them, God is working in them to guide them safely to salvation (cf. 2:12–13). This is the ultimate need of God’s people, and this is the primary sense in which to understand the promise of 4:19.
They gave though they had need because they worshipped God. I want to stress this point, the only logical reason to give money away when you are in need is God. The call to sacrificially love as he loved.
The act of giving is an especially important topic for us. Money is something we worship and use and seek after more than most things.
Giving done biblically is always in response to acknowledging God has given us everything, that the gospel is true and we are his because of his sacrifice, therefore he determines what we should do with our money, not us.
In our culture we use the phrase my money, my hard work, my, my, my...
All that we have is from God so the giving of those gifts is an exercise in worship, and trust, honoring God.
Why don’t people give?
They don’t believe.
They don’t know why.
They’re in transition.
They are in a difficult financial season.
They don’t know how.
They don’t know where the money goes.
They have too much debt.
They’re not involved.
They don’t trust the churches leadership.
God will provide through other people
My gifts don’t really count.
I only give to projects I like.
I will tithe when I can afford it.
I see us all in this room as partners in ministry. Who I am giving to and why I am giving are the two major questions I must ask. I give my tithe to God as an act of worship. I sacrifice financially to give to this church and to outside mission projects above and beyond my tithe because it honors God, keeps me dependent on God, and teaches me faith.
Giving to the Mission of God is an acceptable sacrifice in the eyes of God. This is where we must tie in giving sacrificially back to verse 13 of this chapter
13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
The promise is here God will supply every need of your according to his riches in glory. The problem with this promise is how we have come to interpret it. We have taken this verse to mean financial and physical needs. However God knows what we need and will supply what we need.
Hudson Taylor’s famous dictum, “When God’s work is done in God’s way for God’s glory, it will not lack for God’s supply.”
Certainly, verse 19 allows for the possibility that God will supply the physical needs of his people, but this is not the primary concern of the verse. We sometimes forget that many faithful Christians have suffered deeply for the sake of the gospel and have prayed as earnestly as Hudson Taylor that God might alleviate their suffering, but it has nevertheless continued. We dare not claim that the faith of these Christians was somehow flawed, that their lives were less committed than they should have been, or that their suffering must not have been as intense as we imagine. If we take Jesus and Paul as examples, it becomes apparent that sometimes obedience to the will of God requires physical deprivation to the point of death.
Thus, when we experience difficult times, we need the moderating presence of God, who shows us by the cross of Christ that he is for us, not against us, and that he was so filled with love for us that he sent his Son to die on our behalf. If this powerful truth dominates our lives, then we can face even the ultimate human hardship with the equanimity of Paul (1:18b–26), and we can rest assured that God is conducting us toward salvation even in the midst of our hardship.
More often Christians view wealth simply as something neutral, which can be used for either good or evil purposes.22 The Christian’s responsibility is to use wealth for good purposes, to be like the two servants in the parable of the talents, who used their money wisely and pleased their master (; cf. ), or to be like the shrewd manager, who used “worldly wealth” to gain friends for himself (). Wealth is a powerful tool for good, and Christians should, to paraphrase John Wesley, make all they can, save all they can, and give all they can.23
The Old Testament warns that wealth tempts those who possess it to believe that they are self-sufficient, that they have no need of God, and that they are in fact themselves gods. “Give me only my daily bread,” says Proverbs, “otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ ” ()
Paul by refusing to find contentment in the Philippians’ gift, and the Philippians by being willing to give it. Paul’s contentment rests in the advancement of the gospel, and so he is joyful despite the physical deprivations of prison and the emotional struggles of opposition from fellow believers. The Philippians’ monetary gift will help to alleviate his physical distress, and the presence of another friendly face in the form of Epaphroditus is undoubtedly an emotional comfort, but Paul can do without both; and if the gospel’s purposes will be advanced by sending Epaphroditus back, Paul is willing to do so.
The Philippians, on the other hand, by their very act of giving have refused to let their wealth control them and have instead taken control of it. They have therefore taken away its power and refused to allow it sacred status. Jacques Ellul puts it well: “There is one act par excellence which profanes money by going directly against the law of money, an act for which money is not made. This act is giving.”
Give the Glory to God
Give the Glory to God
