Sanctuary Covenant Church, Minneapolis, MN
Joyful Work | Philippians 1:1-11
I'm so glad today that we serve a God of promises, that God's just not out here saying stuff and then doing something totally different. I'm glad today that we serve a God of promises who will do what he says he will do. Thank you Jesus. Father, we thank you so much for your goodness and your faithfulness. Thank you Lord that you keep your word, that you are not a man that you would lie, but God you do what you say you're going to do. God, you say that you would never leave us nor forsake us, you say that you would be by our side, you say that you would give us strength for the journey and we thank you that you are a God of promises. God you never promised that the road would be easy, you promised that you would be with us even as we walk through the valleys of the shadow of death, you promised that you would be with us and so we thank you that you are a God of promises. God you never told us that we would not get sick in our bodies, but you promised that you would be a healer and so we thank you that you are a God of promises. If you never said that the relationship would never get rocky and you never said that we would not fracture and break, but you said that you are a God who would put things back together again and so we thank you that you are a God of promises. Father in this room today and watching online are people who need to know that you are a God of promises, that in the same way that you have been faithful to the folks that we see and read about in your word, God that you are able and you are willing to be faithful to us as well and so Lord our prayer today is actually Lord do it again, Lord do it again, Lord do it in our day, Lord do it in our lives, God do it in our situations, Lord do it again. So we believe because you said to believe, we walk out of our faith because you call us to do that and so Lord would you meet us right now in our faithful action and would you bless us far more than we can imagine. This is our prayer and this is what we need, it is in Jesus' name that we pray, and all God's people say together, amen, amen, amen, and we put our hands together, thank God, for His faithfulness, good morning sanctuary, it is an honor and a privilege to have the opportunity to be with you today, if I have not had the chance to meet you yet my name is Edron Lee Pastor here at the sanctuary and I am so honored to be able to share in our worship experience today, I want to thank God for all that has already taken place for the songs that have been sung, for the prayers that have been lifted up, especially over our sanctuary community groups, I want to encourage you whether you have been here at sanctuary for a long time or whether you are new to sanctuary to find your way to one of our sanctuary community groups. We are not a huge church, we are not a mega church by any stretch of the imagination but we are large enough where you can be here and struggle to get connected unless you are intentional, and these community groups are one of the ways that we intentionally want to help you go from Sunday morning to a smaller, more manageable group where you can get to know others for the sake of care and accountability and growing together in the faith, and so I want to encourage you, I want to strongly encourage you, I want to admonish you as your pastor to find your amen, that is an old Baptist churchy word, that is an old church word that we do not admonish people anymore, might catch a charge or something if you are, but I want to admonish you to find your way to our sanctuary community groups, it will change your experience of our church and it will grow you in your faith to get into a smaller setting where you can be known, when you are not there somebody can reach out because they know you are usually there, you are not there, when needs come up, as you have various needs in your life, there are people who are intentionally already connected to you to help meet those needs, life is going to keep life in, it is going to happen to all of us, and you do not want to try to find your people in the middle of a crisis, build community before you think you need it, I am a good benediction, I am going to sit down, I am already a preacher, but I do want to strongly encourage you to get connected to our community groups and let them bless your life and be a blessing to others as well, today we are kicking off a new series in the book of Philippians, we are going to walk together over the next several weeks through the book of Philippians in a series that we are calling joyful work, joyful work, if you have your Bibles, join me in the book of Philippians as we jump into this series, joyful work, Philippians chapter 1, we are going to read together verses 1 through verse 11, it is going to appear on the screen, I would also encourage you to always bring your Bibles something to write with when you come to worship as well, Philippians chapter 1 verse 1 through 11, if you are able, would you stand with us as we jump into God's Word, I want to ask us if we can read this together as well, Philippians chapter 1 verses 1 through verse 11, and here is what the word of God said, Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all God's holy people 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, I thank my God every time I remember you in all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 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, it is right for me to feel this way about all of you since I have you in my heart and whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me, God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus, and this is my prayer that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ through the glory and praise of God, amen. The grass withers and the flower fades but the word of our God shall stand forever. You may be seated. I want to talk for a few minutes this morning in opening up this new series from this topic, rejoicing and praying over you. Rejoice and praying over you. Church, if there is a trend that can at one time make you laugh and at the very same time make you feel sorry for anybody who is currently dating and looking for love it would have to be the balloon popping dating shows that are all over the internet. Picture this, a nervous dude walks into a room and makes his way towards a row of young women each with a balloon in one hand and a pin in the other hand waiting to spring into action. And before this brother even gets to say a word they get to decide if he's someone they would potentially date and if they would date him they hold on to the balloon and if not they pop it immediately. He hasn't said his name. He hasn't said where he went to school, what kind of car he drives. Before he even stops walking they get to spring into action and decide if he's worth keeping. Perhaps if he's lucky it's a slow process and maybe one balloon or no balloon pops. But at other times it's rapid fire. As a cacophony of pops can be heard as all the women choose at the very same time to break this brother's heart. It's that weird space of being in the situation where it's on one hand funny at the same time ruthless. It's must see TV. At least that's what I heard. I heard you could start watching one episode. The fascinating part of the show from each sanctuary is that when the host begins to ask people why they pop their balloons so quickly. For many of them they give petty and ridiculous answers sometimes. I didn't like his belt buckle. He smiled too much. He doesn't have a side hustle. I saw one episode of a brother who was an aerospace engineer and they turned him down because he didn't have a side hustle. There was something about working for somebody that was a turn off for a bunch of these sisters. Even more fascinating though than the fact that they'll turn you down for silly things is the fact that when the host turns the table and asks the women or the men if depending on the show what they actually do want in a potential mate they struggle mightily to name what they want. They find it easier to say quickly and clearly that the person standing in front of them is not what they want but at the very same time they struggle to name or give any sense of what they actually do want. Friends I would argue that this is absolutely a common reality in our world today. Our world has seemingly been discipled to a place where we are experts of our disapproval. We are extremely gifted and disapproval and we are skilled at making our disapproval as loud and disruptive as it can be. We are experts at calling out what we don't like. I left my last church because I quit dating that person because I'm not going to stay on this job because and at the very same time we have underdeveloped muscles when it comes to naming with joy what we do like. Somehow some way friends we have become connoisseurs of criticism and I want to suggest today that we have before us a call to joy. We need even in the church a call to joy. We need practices and rhythms that help us to name and celebrate the good that is happening in us around us and even to us. We need practices that help us get really good at not just saying what we don't like but actually being able to name what we do like and what we enjoy. We have before us a call to joy. We need ways of giving sound to what's good in our lives because it can help us to cut through the clanging noise that comes with destruction and constant criticism. This is not a new thought. This is not an original thought for me. There's an ancient ancient proverb that says this. One joy can dispel a thousand sorrows. Think of all the things in the world that's wrong right now. Think of all the ways your life is not quite what you want it to be right now. This proverb suggests that being able to name one thing with joy can dispel a thousand sorrows. So over the next few weeks as a church we're going to walk through this letter of Paul written to the church at Philippi and I believe that God is calling God's people to learn to rejoice even in the midst of challenging times. My job today is simple. I get to set the table for this series and then get out of the way and so I know the Vikings are playing as well and so I want to give you space to get your heart and your mind right for what the Lord has in store for that game this afternoon. So I just want to set the table for what the book of Philippians is about. Say a little bit about what we see here in the beginning of chapter one and then I'm going to get out of your way. Patricia that's for you by the way. When we think about the book of Philippians I want us to think three, four things. The book of Philippians is first and foremost a prison letter. It's a prison letter. It is one of four letters that Paul writes while he is imprisoned for actions related to spreading the gospel. Paul is writing this letter from his imprisonment. It is a prison letter. If you can put yourself in the frame of mind of Paul he is imprisoned for sharing the gospel can you imagine the urgency with which he writes as he's not sure what's going to happen to him beyond this point. So he's writing to a group of believers and he's writing with urgency and he has a sharp focus on trying to say the most important things, the most impactful things that will work towards the well-being of the church and the spread of the gospel. Paul is not sure he will survive beyond this letter and so he is writing. This is when you read the book of Philippians it is a prison letter. But it's also an encouragement letter. That's the second thing I want you to know about the book of Philippians. It is an encouragement letter. Many of Paul's books in the New Testament are written to respond to a crisis happening in one of the churches he helped to start. But this book is not like that. There is no specific crisis that Paul is responding to. He writes this book because it is for the purpose of encouraging God's people. He's writing to say what's going well. How many of you write to say what's going well? Most of us don't fill out the survey that they send us unless it's for terrible service. We get the best service and we say I paid for it. But when something goes wrong it's more natural to write when something's wrong. Paul writes this letter to say what's right about the church and it's so refreshing to read because it's not about a crisis. It's not about something wrong. It is a letter to express his appreciation and his affection for God's people. And he writes to the Philippian church this way because more than any other of the churches that he found Paul receives consistent support and care from the church at Philippi. So Paul's love and his affection overflows for this church and it's tangible and it's clear all throughout this book. It is a prison letter. It is an encouragement letter. It is also a letter about Jesus. The central figure in all of the letter that Paul writes to the church at Philippi is actually Jesus. Many of us love the book of Philippians because it is full of quoteable and quoted messages and passages. But at the core of the book is Jesus. There in chapter two Paul writes this is what all of what I'm saying is about. He says to the people, he says to them it is only possible to follow Jesus if you are united and if you are humble and he says if you need an example, look no farther than Jesus our Savior. This is the foundation of this entire book chapter two. It is the foundation of this letter and everything else that we read in the book of Philippians is founded and built upon what we see said about Jesus in chapter two. And this makes perfect sense because Jesus is the foundation and the center of our faith. As a church we have to talk about a number of things. But everything that we do, everything that we teach, everything that we talk about, Jesus has to be the foundation and the center of it. Everything else matters only to the extent that it is built on and around Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. The book of Philippians is a prison letter, it's an encouragement letter, it's a letter about Jesus. And finally it is an honest letter. I don't want to suggest that the Bible is not an honest book. But church can sometimes feel like a dishonest place because many of us have been conditioned to only talk about the good stuff. There's not a lot of space for lament and pain and the realness. But in this letter Paul actually puts that whole idea on his head to say that you can't really acknowledge the hard things if you want to get to George. Paul says actually the only way to actually get to joy is to acknowledge that life has some hard things all up in it. Paul points to the fact that following Jesus does not guarantee you an easy way. In fact Paul says that following Jesus guarantees that you must suffer in the very same way that Jesus did. In fact Paul, friends, right there in that first point Paul writes from a prison. Can you imagine Paul writing from prison? Talking about naming and claiming it. Can you imagine Paul writing from prison saying send me your money, I'll send you this oil. You put it on your head, turn it around three times and the jail cells of your life will open up. Paul writes from prison and he writes an honest letter and this is good news for you and I because life be life and people be people in. The devil is still devilish and that was just Monday this week. Paul acknowledges for us brothers and sisters that hardships are a part of what it means to follow Jesus and as he does so Paul is faced with a challenge. He says clearly to us that following Jesus can be hard and it will be costly and Paul has some options. Paul could have said because following Jesus is hard, don't worry about it, don't even follow Jesus. Paul could have said that. He could have said my friends, your brother Paul and Timothy writing to you, life's going to be hard so don't even worry about following Jesus. Go do something else because it'll probably be easier. That's not what Paul does. Paul also had the option of saying life with Jesus is hard and it's costly so do it but do it with a bad attitude. He could have said following Jesus is hard so do it with a stink attitude. Do it but as you do it make sure you let everybody know I'm doing this just because I have to. Paul could have pointed us to the Marshawn Lynch School of Theology. I'm just here so I won't get fined. Paul doesn't offer either of those things as options for us as followers of Jesus. In fact in this book Paul tells us that you and I are called to do the work of following Jesus and he says let that work shape your affections and your attitude to such a degree that even when it gets hard you can do the work with joy. That's the entire message of the book of Philippians. It is work. Following Jesus is work. It's not easy. It's hard. You will want to quit, you'll want to turn around, you'll want to give in, give out, don't. And if you do it in such a way where you put Jesus' model at the center you will actually learn to do the hard things with joy. That's the miracle of what we see in this book. And when we look at this first part of the book of Philippians here in chapter one Paul does a very standard beginning in the same way that he does all of his books. Paul offers a greeting to the people he's writing to. He gives us a sense of why he's writing the book. And when we look at the beginning of this chapter it gives us some encouragement into Paul's mindset as he writes to God's people. Paul starts this book and this is the first point of a two point message. God bless you all today. Paul begins by rejoicing over God's people. That's how Paul starts this book. Let's look at verses three through eight of chapter one again as Paul rejoices over God's people. He says, "I thank my God every time I remember you and all my prayers for all of you. I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 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. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you since I have you in my heart and whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel. All of you sharing God's grace with me. God can testify verse eight how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus." Do you know Paul has a reputation of being mean and uncaring? But Paul here shows us his full humanity. He says, "I love y'all man. When I think of you I get joy." And he says, "I rejoice over you because you have been from the very beginning my partners in ministry." As I was, I had a different direction I was going to take this message this week but I couldn't get through it because as I was writing I just became full, overwhelmed with joy at who we are as a church. And in the same way Paul took time out of this book to just rejoice over God's people sanctuary. I want to make you uncomfortable. I want to brag on you just a little bit. There are some things I love about who we are. Let me let me preface it this way. We are not a perfect church. We're not a perfect church. I want to say that on camera. We are not a perfect church. Far from it. But I love this church. I love the ways you pray and care for one another. Everything that we do comes out of a foundation of prayer. There are people on Sundays while some of you are sleeping, some of you are sitting on the side of that bed deciding if you're going to come to church. Amen, sister. The only honest one in here, the rest of them, front end. There are people here early praying over this space. There are people here praying before they get on stage to rehearse. There are folks praying as rehearsal is happening before a service. There are people walking each of these roles and touching every seat and praying for you. Everything we do is rooted in prayer. All throughout the week, after the benediction has happened and you all are going on to your next thing, there's prayer happening and care happening in the life of our church. There is a prayer team of our church that I would say is probably as strong as it's been in the 13 years I've been here at sanctuary. You all are covered in prayer. There is care happening in our church that will never make the live stream. It never will be featured in the same way some of the other things that we do will just because of the nature of it. But there is care happening. When a loved one dies, there are teams who come around people in our church and who are the tangible expression of love and care. I love that about our church. Some people think about our church. They don't think about that stuff. They see the upfront stuff. They see sermons and they see worship and they see some lights and big screens on the wall. But I believe the core foundation of our church is the ways in which we pray for and care for one another. Because there are weeks that this screen is like nah, I'm not coming on. And there are weeks where the little demons get in the sound system in the back and it just does not do what it's supposed to do. And I told our team a couple weeks ago, I grew up in a church where we didn't have none of this stuff. I thank God for it. But who we are at our core is not because of this stuff. It's the way we pray for and care for one another that sustains our church. I love sanctuary, how we pray for and care for one another. I love the way we extend hospitality with a smile. It sometimes catches me off guard. When I hear somebody who's new here and they're like, I'm grateful that I came in and somebody smiled at me. Because sometimes I assume that's happening everywhere. I love the fact that we have people like Jake Jackson who will has never met a stranger in his life. If you want to get into church quickly or get out of church quickly, figure out who Jake is and then go the other way. Because Jake is going to talk your head off and make you feel at home. I'm grateful for people like Mel Hernandez who will love on people in real intangible ways. I'm grateful for all of you who are learning how to look out for strangers, look out for new families, how to look out for people who don't have somebody to sit next to and inviting them to sit next to you. I love the way we extend hospitality with the smile. I love the way we worship with passion and with vigor. We get loud, y'all. We get loud. And I know it's a stretch for people who come from different contexts, but we're not going to quiet down. We're going to get even louder. I love, I love looking over here at Second Service and seeing Sister Jenny and then a couple of rows back that you'll see Sister Vida and then a row back you'll see Elder Khan. And there's a brother who's not here today. I don't see him today. I haven't had a chance to meet him yet. There's a Latino brother. Every time I see him, he's like this. Like that's his posture the entire time. I love the way we worship. I love the way we bring our full body and our full selves into worship. I love sanctuary, how we worship with passion and with vigor because it makes a difference. If we were worshiping just some God, we could maybe be like, yeah, I'm going to let somebody else take care of it today. But I love the fact that we make a big deal about God every single time we come together. I love that about you sanctuary. I love the way that we serve without fanfare and without fussing. It's one thing to serve and fuss as you serve. But there are so many people in our church who serve and never ask for the spotlight. One of my favorite people, I saw him in the kitchen this morning and I had to not give him the heads up that I was going to call him out from the stage. Mark Thompson is one of my favorite people in our entire church. Mark does everything. He serves so faithfully. He just keeps showing up. And if you need a model, Jesus is our model. If you need a tangible model of what it means to get involved here and serve, just figure out who Mark is and match what he's doing. Just show up and help. That's the prototype. Just show up and help. Grab a chair, move a table, redirect somebody's kid when they're mixing up all the drinks at the connection stand. Do it gently. Just show up and help. I love how we serve without fanfare and fussing. We are in a lively part of the city of Minneapolis on purpose. And there's always needs that come up. You can't prepare for all the needs that come up. There is a way in which sanctuary you all continue to just be helpful. When things go wrong, when things go awry, you just are helpful. I love that about our church. And I love, and I can take all day to do this. I'm just going to name one more. I love the fact, I love the way that we encourage one another and carry the story beyond this place. Sister Jean is somebody that I love. She always has a word of encouragement. But I recently discovered that Sister Jean's cell phone has an incredible camera and she's always taking pictures. And now I look forward to the recap of her service after church. I'm going to stop making fun of Android phones because her pictures are incredible. But that's not the point of what I'm talking about. The thing is, she loves this church and she has taken upon herself to just share the news of what's happening in our church with whomever will look on her Facebook feed. That is a tangible way of carrying the story and the work of sanctuary into the world. And nobody asked her to do it. She's not receiving payment to do it that I know. No, she's not. I love those of you who are encouraging in the work and then carry the work beyond the staff and the elders. That is how sanctuary becomes and remains the sanctuary has always been when we do this together. That is that there's so much that I love about our church. I could literally go on and on and on and that that that example is what I see here in the first chapter of the book of Philippians from Paul where Paul from a prison cell says let me tell you all just how incredible you are. He shows us his pastoral heart here. Paul says maybe you're too close to the action to see what God is doing in and through you. Let me tell you from the perspective of my prison cell just how much I love you because of how you continue to show up. Sanctuary, the very same thing is true of you. You are a beautiful people. You are a loving people. You are living out the gospel of Jesus and I love you for it. Paul offers acknowledgement. He rejoices over the people and then he finishes out this first part of chapter 1 by praying over the people. And guess what Paul's prayer is for the church at Philippi. He says I pray that what you're already doing you'll do more and more of it. Paul doesn't say hey let's bring in a strategist. We need a strategy for the next way we're going to be. Paul says what grace and growth looks like for you is to do more and more of what God has already called you to do. He calls out some specific things that he praised for this church. He says I pray that you would grow in love. They're already loving but Paul says continue to grow in love. He says I pray that you will grow in knowledge and in depth of insight. They're already knowledgeable people. There are already people who have the gift of insight. They're following Jesus already and Paul says my prayer for you is that you would do more and more of that. He says I pray that they would be able to discern. He says I pray that you would grow in wisdom as a church. He says I pray that you might be pure and blameless for the day of Christ Jesus. They're already good people. Paul offers a prayer and encouragement for them to grow and he's not doing so from a place of deficit. He's not saying you're awful now. I need you to become good. He says you're already good. You're already faithful. I can already count on you and I pray that the more and more this will continue to be true. Paul says I pray that you would be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Christ Jesus and I'm like man Paul you've been stealing my stuff. Consensory my heart for you is that you would just continue to grow in what God has for you. There are already some incredible things happening in our church. There are already people who are serving our church in incredible ways. Our staff and our elders and our key leaders in our church are incredible and my prayer is that more and more of you would join with them in the work that's already happening. If we are to be the church we're called to be the next step is not a new thing. It's more of us joining in to do what God has already called us to do. We're already making a difference. We can make a greater difference with more of you. We're already doing what God has called us to do but we can have deeper more far-reaching impact if more of us would do it together and so I pray for you the very same things that Paul prays for the church here in verses 9 through 11. I pray sanctuary that we would continue to grow in love. I pray that we would continue to grow in knowledge in depth of insight I'm done. I pray that we would be able to discern together what is best that we would be wise together that we would listen to the Holy Spirit together that we would be guided by God's word together. I don't want us to have a kind of arrangement where the wisdom is held here that the church doesn't know what's going on and they need the pastor to tell them where God is moving. God speaks to all of us and there are some spaces where I'm actually a liability where you need to be there representing the kingdom of God. I pray that we together would increasingly grow in purity and be blameless in the day of Christ Jesus that our lives would look like Jesus that we would not be outwardly holy and live secret lives of brokenness. I pray together that our lives would be filled with righteousness the fruit of righteousness including joy. I want that to be a descriptor of sanctuary that it is a place of joy that when I'm there I just feel God's joy and when I leave that place I'm dripping in joy and that when I feel down and if I can just get to the house of the Lord I feel joy and even if I can't get to church on Sunday if I call one of my brothers or sisters from the church well at the end of that conversation I'm rejoicing because they have poured into me they have encouraged me they have spoken God's blessings over me that's that's what I pray for our church and listen if we do that it doesn't mean life or ministry are ever going to get easier but it does mean that we can learn to rejoice in the midst of the hardness when we pray God doesn't always change our situation but God will always change us in the midst of the situation sanctuary I love you I thank God for you and I pray for you that more and more we would together become who God has called us to be can we stand together and pray Father in the name of Jesus Lord I pray that you would help us to be the people you've called us to be Lord I pray today that you would help my brothers and my sisters in this room to see themselves the way that you see them God all the beautiful things that you are are nurturing within us and allowing to blossom even more I pray Lord that you would draw our attention to that that we would know that we are loved and we are cared for and that you provided for our needs and that you've given us far more than we even need so that we might be a blessing to others God I pray for the ministry that will happen this year as we go into fall programming I pray God that every sanctuary community group will be a place of healing and nurture and growth for the brothers and sisters of our church I pray that our youth ministry and our children's ministry will be places where children will be blessed and encouraged and grow in their faith God I pray that our ministry in the neighborhood here would continue to flourish and even grow even more God I pray that you would unlock every resource that we need to be the church you've called us to be and God I pray in one tangible expression of this that more and more of us would be willing to share the story of what God is doing in our church Father we go into a world that desperately needs hope and I believe you're sending us out as your ambassadors so God would you bless us to see ourselves that way and strengthen us to do the work you've called us to do Father we love you we're so grateful to know you first love us be with us now in Jesus's name now unto him who is able to keep us from falling and to present us his faultless before his glorious presence with exceeding joy to the only wise God our Savior be all glory honor majesty dominion and power both now and evermore sanctuary family would you join me by saying amen amen God bless you I love y'all so so