Philippians 1:1-11

Title: Locking Arms

EOS: 3 Three _____ Should Characterize fellowship

FCF: We settle for counterfeit ideas of fellowship and as a result do not grow in the way God intends us to grow: We see prayer and participation as optional.

OKC-This was the team to beat as a freshman. I literally could not sleep.

I remember the time I got swatted. Lost by 40. We would not beat OKC my freshman year. But we kept grinding. We sharpened each other, we had lots of goals as a team and one of them was to beat OKC. And as we worked as a team this one goal was still in front of us. We had teammates from all over the world: Panama, Africa, and the man who would become my best friend was from the very town that the college was in. So we had a group of guys who were extremely different who were coming together to accomplish a common goal. My freshman year we would not accomplish this goal but it was one that we were going to continue to pursue. When I went home for the summer OKC was on my mind.

As I think about College sports their was a specific thing [basketball] that brought a certain group of men who came together for a common purpose.

Fellowship is Essential part of being a Christ follower.

Today I want to ask you a few questions about Fellowship.

Do you know what fellowship is?

Do you treat fellowship as essential to your christian walk or as an optional part.

Fellowship is an essential if you want to grow in Christ.

Today I want us to embrace 3 truths about fellowship that an ancient church in Philippi wants to teach us.

We must lock arms because:

1. Fellowship is founded on God. (1-5).

a. Fellowship is possible because of God.

We are a church plant. But have you ever asked where do churches even come from. How do they start.

Philippians 1:1–2 NIV84

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Servants/Grace and peace

Before Paul became a Christ follower he lived his life on mission. He was religious and it was all about trying to convert the world to his idea of what religion was supposed to be. His religion believed Jesus was wrong and he was trying to stamp it out through hurting christians even to death. The world said Paul was a very noble man. But then he had an encounter with God on the Damascus road. Paul went from a religion to a relationship. And he starts this letter out by calling himself and Timothy a servant/bondservant or slave. Why did he call himself this because this is exactly who Jesus is. He left heaven and came to earth as a slave to die on a cross to pay for our sins so we could have a relationship with him. Now that Paul had a relationship with God he wanted to be like his master.

b. Christian Fellowship spreads like wildfire.

Paul now wants to bring this message to the world that God loves man so much that he died for them while they were sinners. So he is on this journey going all over the world to share this with people and God leads him to Philippi.

When the love of God impacts your life you literally cannot hold it in. As he is Philippi he gets a group of people together and has an interest meeting and while there a lady named Lydia begins a relationship with God. She is the first European converts. But some of the people in Philippi were mad about this that people were turning to Jesus so Paul goes to Jail. While in Jail God opens up the jail so Paul can escape but there is a jailer who is about to kill himself. Back then if you were a jailer and your prisoners got out they would kill you. So Paul instead of escaping stays and shares this message with the jailer. So now you have this town of Philippi and there is a lady and a jailer in his family and that is how the church in Philippi starts. There were no buildings just a small group.

Application:

There are a lot of things we can fellowship in a general terms. I started this talk out on how I experienced a fellowship on a basketball. There are so many things that bring people together: it could be Crossfit or working out, it could be a common hobby. But the fellowship we are talking today about is the fellowship that every person was created for and it can only happen because God initiates it.

The church is the only fellowship in the world where the one requirement for membership is the unworthiness of the candidate. — ROBERT B. MUNGER

The Navigators. Growing Strong in God's Family: A Course in Personal Discipleship to Strengthen Your Walk with God (The 2:7 Series Book 1) . Navpress. Kindle Edition.

Have you embraced this truth that fellowship is only possible because of God?

we were created for fellowship with god and others

The reality is there are a lot of things people fellowship over. I remember when we lived in Paris Tx heather got into Crossfit and one night we went to watch the Crossfit games and people were coming together for a common purpose they were committed to and watched and wen through the same workout that the Crossfit people were doing.

We must lock arms because:

2. Fellowship allows us to participate in something greater than ourselves (3-8).

How do we participate?

a. We have authentic relationship (3-5)

Philippians 1:3–4 NIV84

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy

I love the idea about discipleship and investing in other people. But the greatest thing about discipleship is the relationship and not the program. The program or material is not bad but the strength is discipleship and we can tell Paul had authentic relationships.

He was not even with them currently, but he did not have to pray for them he saw it as pure joy.

He thanked God for them. He could not help but pray for them.

But the Philippians reciprocated this relationship with Paul.

Philippians 1:5 NIV84

because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,

From the first day they believed in the gospel they were in it to win it. From the moment they believed they were all in. Have you ever seen a new believer. It is like they are fearless. Story of Tyler Rowton in Florida. Slow down man people think you were missing. New believers are thinking anyone can come to Christ. Sometimes the longer we are Christians the easier it is to lower our expectations of God doing something great.

But these believers were now partnering with Paul financially. This fellowship actually cost them something.

Costly Fellowship-the heart of true fellowship is self-sacrificing conformity to a shared vision.-DA Carson

The kids school went for over 90% participation. This was the challenge that was given and if the class met their goal they got a Ice Cream, and got to dress up any way they wanted.

Application:

What are some things that keep us from authentic relationships:

We are messy

We don’t want to commit

How do we participate?

b. we live confidently in our identity (6-8)

Philippians 1:6 NIV84

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.

31.46 πείθομαιc: to come to believe the certainty of something on the basis of being convinced—‘to be certain, to be sure, to be convinced.’ πειθόμεθα

Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 370). New York: United Bible Societies.

This verse shows us that we have minimized salvation: whereas a lot of times we think of salvation is getting saved, this verse shows that salvation is so much more than that. We talk to people a lot and asked are you saved. And being saved is essential and it is the first saved. But God does not want us to just get saved he wants to save us, (Past tense-justification), he wants to keep saving us (Sanctification) this is where Jesus literally beats the hell out of us until we look like Jesus, and Jesus wants to save us in the future (glorification).

Because God starts and finishes salvation it gives us confidence to live in Christ right here and right now. Paul and these Philippians understood their identity and because of it were living out their salvation right here on earth.

Application:

If we lock arms and get serious about fellowship God is literally going to use us in a great way.

I think a lot of times we think of fellowship church barbecue

But I love this picture:

Get a picture of gladiator

We must lock arms because:

3. Fellowship needs passionate prayer (9-11).

V. 10-This could be a good illustration:

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 1:10

1:10. Paul stated two purposes for his prayer. The first is a near purpose: to discern what is best; and the second is a remote one: to be pure and blameless until the day of Christ. The idea of testing is clearly in view in the Greek word dokimazō, translated “discern.” The testing is with a view to approving. The word was used in testing metals and coins, to determine whether they met the specified standards.