An Unequal Partnership

Welcome to Faith for Living. First Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga brings you today's teaching designed to apply God's word to the struggles and challenges of our day that we might have faith for living. While today Joel Trek, Minister of Outreach and Church Planning, brings us a message entitled, An Unequal Partnership. The Bible text for today is from Philippians chapter 4, verses 10 through 13. Here now is Joel Trek. Partnerships are really, really important. In fact, I don't even go so far as to say that partnerships are really the driving force and some of the greatest things that have ever been accomplished in the history of Western civilization. In the Bible, partnerships are really important. You'll find that partnerships are all throughout the life of Paul, individual partnerships, Paul and Barnabas. Paul and his good friend Luke, Paul and Timothy, and you'll find that also Paul had partnerships with whole churches, like he had with the partnership that he had with the Philippian Church. Now, before we're tempted to add Paul and his partnerships to the great list of partnerships somewhere around Morkin Mindy on our big list, we should take note that this isn't just an ordinary partnership that we're talking about. Paul had gospel partnerships. He had partnerships of caring and partnerships of sharing. There are the kind of partnerships that all of us are called to have with one another, both here locally and throughout the world, globally. And Paul is teaching us that when we have these gospel partnerships with one another, God is glorified and his people are filled with joy. So that's what we're going to look at this morning. We're going to look at those gospel partnerships under the two big headings that Paul gives us in Philippians chapter 4. We're going to look together at partnerships of caring and partnerships of sharing. And what we'll discover is that these partnerships are unique. We'll ask questions like, what is Paul talking about when he talks about this partnership of caring? What does he mean when he talks about a partnership of sharing? In some ways, when we talk about caring and sharing, it almost sounds like something you'd hear on a daytime talk show, it's almost like straight out of Oprah's, the big give. Is there anything uniquely Christian about caring and sharing with one another? Well, let's go to the text and take a closer look and let's study together the power of gospel partnerships. Now, the first thing that we'll notice and that Paul points out to us is that a gospel partnership is a partnership of caring, verse 10, I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. The Philippians cared deeply about Paul. Their thoughts were with him. And when they didn't have an opportunity to show that compassion and concern for him in a tangible way, there was always this intangible bond that they had together, sort of like embers that are burning white hot at the bottom of a campfire, just waiting to ignite and overflow when given the opportunity to do so. That specifically, specifically, how is it that we care for one another? I think we get a good picture of what this partnership of caring looks like. When we look at the relationship that Paul had with his people and specifically how he fulfilled his end of this partnership of caring. And when we look at the way that Paul cared for the Philippian church, two things immediately stand out. First of all, Paul prayed for the Philippians. If you go to chapter 1, beginning in verse 3, Paul writes, 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. The second thing is kind of obvious, but I missed it at first. The second thing is he wrote them a letter. He wrote them a letter showing that he loved them, talking about the joy that they had together, pointing them always in everything to the supreme joy of their salvation in Christ Jesus. The amazing thing is that we are called to and can be engaged in these same kind of caring partnerships. We can be in partnerships of caring that involve praying for one another. We're called to be in partnerships of caring where we write to one another. If the medium of email has become to you a medium of one sentence replies, you can actually pick up a pen and some paper and write to one another to encourage one another. I know, it will be tough at first, but look at your keyboard and all the letters are there. Just take a pen and move your hand like this and make those letters. It will be slow at first, it will come back to you, you will be okay. But above all, if we are caring for one another, we are pointing each other to Jesus Christ, we are pointing each other to the work that he has done on our behalf and encouraging one another and caring for one another in this way. In some ways, I think a modern picture of this partnership of caring that we have for one another is seen so clearly in an example from this church. I think of the example of the partnership of caring that this church has with one of our former pastors, Rankin Wilburn. Many of you know Rankin well, many of you love Rankin well, like Paul, Rankin spent many years preaching and teaching here at this church in a way similar to the way that Paul preached and taught at the church in the Philippi. There was a bond of fellowship, a bond of love between the two of them, and Rankin, like Paul, was eventually sent away from the church to another part of the country, to another part of the country, but for those people a different part of the empire to a different church. Yet there's a gospel partnership because of the fact that he's no longer here with us. We have a gospel partnership with him. It's a partnership of sharing, which we'll get to in a minute, but I think even more than that, even more fundamentally and foundationally, it's a partnership of caring. We pray for Rankin. Many of you, if you've gone on vacations, have visited his church in Los Angeles. Many of you went to his wedding, or at least got the pictures that were floating around the internet. I know that partnership of caring with Rankin is so deep that when I was first called to this church, I called him because I care for him about maybe an hour or two after I had been called to this church. He knew already somebody had already got on the phone and called him, why? Because we have a secret button in the session room that pipes into his cell phone, I looked, no such button. But because we care for him, we love him. And so we want him to know what we are doing as a church. We want him to experience joys that we have fellowship with one another. I think it's not a stretch to say that even if you don't have that same kind of partnership of caring with Rankin, I know many of you have that same kind of partnership of caring with other pastors who have served here and gone on. Joe Hishma comes to mind. Who many of you have gone to visit in person, many of you love and pray for him. Mike and Steve, Ben, so many of those people that I feel like I know deeply and personally, because of the stories that I've heard about them, because you love them, because you're involved in a partnership of caring with these servants of God that's beyond this local place that stretches far and wide. Now when we talk about a partnership of caring, it can be easy to think of this as sort of a sentimental hallmark type of caring that's filled with daisies and flowers and things like this, but I think it's important to remember that when Paul talks about a partnership of caring, it's a gospel partnership of caring. Paul is grateful and happy that the Philippians care for him, that they love him, but he knows that there's a foundation for that caring that makes it absolutely rock solid versus 11 through 13, not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content, I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I've learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Paul has contentment, he has strength to take him through the highs and the lows because of Jesus Christ, that's good news, and it's good news to us too. You may have the most amazing caring family in the world. You may have friends that care for you and love you, maybe you're from a broken home. Maybe you have far more fair weather friends than you'd like to admit. Either way, our caring only goes so far. If you come to me and you tell me, Pastor, I've just been diagnosed with cancer, I can tell you that I care for you, I can tell you that I love you and that's good, but you need something so much more than that. You need the peace that comes from the gospel, you need the peace that surpasses all understanding which guards our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. You need the peace of a right relationship with Jesus Christ and the strength that comes from that, the strength that comes in the Spirit that says, I can do all things through the Spirit of Christ who is within me. That's what a gospel partnership is all about. We care for one another because Jesus Christ cares for each and every one of us. Our partnership of caring is actually just the beginning. Paul is also calling us to a partnership of sharing. A gospel partnership is one in which we share with one another. Look here at verses 14 through 18. It was kind of you to share my trouble and you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left for Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving except you only. Even in Thessalonica, you sent me help from my needs once and again, not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. I've received full payment and more. I'm well supplied, having received from a Paphroditus, the gifts that you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice, an acceptable and pleasing to God. The Philippians sent Paul, a financial gift. They sent a Paphroditus to him with some money to help sustain him so that he could continue his missionary work and continue to plant churches and do the work of the gospel ministry. We are called to do the same thing. All of us are called to give financially to the church in order that the gospel ministry can be sustained. Now, before I begin this part of the sermon, I have to preface this a little bit. Now, I had originally saved the topic of money for a three-part series that I was planning, called Money, the End Times, and Predestination. Colin, how many people can I fit on my front yard carrying pitchforks and torches? But the good thing is, when we preach through a book of the Bible, when we start at the beginning and we go all to the end, we can't just keep repeating our same favorite topics and we sometimes get the topics that are a little bit more uncomfortable to talk about. This is one of those topics, but I'm not bringing it up for any other reason than here it is. It's in the text, it's here, so we're going to talk about it. Okay? Have I done enough hand-ringing? Let's get into it. When we are involved in gospel partnerships, that is a partnership of caring, but it's also a partnership of sharing, where we give our financial gifts for the work of the gospel ministry. That is kingdom would grow, that new churches would be planted, that new people would come to know the Lord, and we give not only to those exciting and entertaining aspects of the gospel ministry, but also to the more mundane things as well. We give to missionaries who come, and these missionaries here, when they come back, they need help financially, and when they come back, they're going to tell amazing stories about works that the gospel is doing in far-flung places like Paul did in Philippi, in Ephesus, in Thessalonica. We're also called to give to the gospel ministry in simpler things. We need to support people who are taking out our garbage, people that are washing the windows, so the thing that offends people about this church is Jesus, and not the fact that our building smells weird. We give because of what Jesus has done for us, because we love Jesus, and we love the church, and we want to show that intangible partnership of caring that we have for our missionaries, that we have for our church planters, for the elderly, for our young people, for the poor, we want to show that partnership of caring in a tangible way, and so we give. We give with a pure heart, and the Old Testament, the prophets, repeatedly say, and Jesus quoting them says, Go, go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. If our giving doesn't come from a pure heart, one that has been changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ, it's worthless, and it's not about the amount either. The flippians were one of the poorest churches that Paul planted. They couldn't give extravagantly, they couldn't give as often as they wanted to, but their hearts were inflamed by a passion to see the gospel ministry go forward. They loved Jesus, they loved His church, and they trusted that they could give sacrificially, knowing that God would meet every one of their needs, that He would never leave them or forsake them. And so they gave to His kingdom work with what else, joy. Now remember, don't miss the point that this is a gospel partnership of sharing. You can share our resources and give to the church because of verse 19, and my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory and Christ Jesus. Now, that's not saying that you will have health and wealth. That is not saying that you will be a rich person guaranteed. Jesus wasn't a rich person. Paul had to work a second job as a tent maker in order that he could do the gospel work and support himself. He lived off of the kindness of churches like the church at Philippi, but this doesn't mean that God will supply every need according to His riches in glory and Christ Jesus. I'll use a personal example here. I used to struggle greatly with the sharing partnership of gospel ministry. I remember when I moved out of California, after college, I moved to New York City. I was poor. I lived in a very rundown apartment in a very sketchy part of the city, would be probably putting it best. Several years ago, it was named the Crack cocaine capital of the Eastern Seaboard. It was a colorful place, and I remember thinking to myself as our church entered into a small group season where we were talking about giving. The first word I heard about that, I was incensed, giving, I'm poor now. This is like, if you're asking me to give, it's like saying to a person with one kidney, give away 10% of it, I'm poor now. I need what I have now, just to survive, let the people on Park Avenue give. Let the people who live on the ridge give, who have the great views, they can do it. But as I was reading the scriptures, as I was praying, it was almost like this voice came to me, and I heard it over and over, it seared into my conscience, I died for you. Do you trust me? And so I did. I took the leap of faith, I went in, and I set up my online bank account so that I would dive automatically on the fifth of every month, because it met two of my biggest weaknesses, my tendency to grab hold of my wallet with both hands, and my tendency to forget things. So I knew that if I set it up automatically, it would go, and it would be fine. I wouldn't even have to look at it. You know what? I never noticed it. I never for one second felt it. God supplied every need of mine in the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus. And not only that, He gave me several C.I. told you so moments along the way. Does God ever give those to you? One came when I was just getting ready to ask my wife, Kate, to marry me. I went out and I found the perfect ring, one that I knew she loved, and I said, I'm going to get that ring. I had some money saved up, and so I figured, well, I'll use my savings on this ring, and what's left over, I'll pay it off slowly, but surely. And a little voice came into my head just for a minute and said, you know, if you weren't given these checks to the church every month, you'd probably just be able to pay for the thing and walk away. But I was invested, I was into it, I wasn't exactly sure if I could figure out how to stop the automatic payments. I'm not that good at computers. If you are, don't tell me how to do it, please. You'll be all of you, be my accountability partner in that. Here's what happened. The day after I bought that ring, the day after I went to work and I got a bonus. I had never received a bonus at that job before, and in the several months that I worked at that job until I moved and started seminary, I never received a bonus again. It was $10 more than what I owed on that ring. $10, and my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. I died for you. You can trust me. So what's the result? What is the result of these gospel partnerships that we're called to have with one another? The glory of God and the joy of His people. Let's look at the last verses, starting in verse 20. To our God and Father, be glory forever and ever, Amen. Great every saint in Christ Jesus, the brothers who are with me greet you, all the saints greet you, especially those in Caesar's household. As a result of the partnership that the Philippians had with Paul, God was glorified and the church grew. People were coming to have new understanding of the gospel, even people who were in Caesar's household, the last people that we would ever expect to, a, even hear the gospel, much less believe it. The church was growing, and the gospel was shining like a bright light in a dark world. Because of the gospel partnerships that Paul had with the Philippians, it's amazing. And yet, even when we see this worked out before our very eyes, when we read about it, when we see it with our own eyes through the stories of missionaries and ministers and friends so often we doubt this. We don't believe it. Gospel partnerships don't come naturally to us. By nature, we don't like to get involved. We walk down the street and we see something gone terribly wrong and we say, I better speed up. I've said this to myself, I'm just too busy to be involved. I've got things to do, I can't get involved in this. And yet, the gospel of Jesus Christ is that Jesus Christ cared for us. He wasn't too busy to be involved. He came to this earth, he was born of a virgin, he prayed for us. He went to the cross so that we could have everlasting life. That's the gospel. And in light of that, let's care for one another. We don't like to share with one another. Our money is our own. We would rather do anything else in the world but then give it away. This is my money. I worked for it. Nobody ever gave me a hand out in life. Besides what is gas now, like 390 a gallon, four bucks? I'm barely making it now. I'll give later or not. God's good, he doesn't need my money. The gospel of Jesus Christ is that Jesus has already gone and prepared mansions for us. He is the giver and the sustainer of life and he will never leave us. He will never forsake us in light of that. Let's share with one another. And when we do, those gospel partnerships will bring glory to God and build unbreakable bonds of joy that will be with us in this life and in the world to come. Amen. Faith for living is brought to you by your friends at the historic first Presbyterian church In downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee, through expository Bible preaching, living worship, loving fellowship, and compassionate outreach, we want to be a ministry of God's grace with lives transformed through the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have programs and opportunities for every age level, from the youngest to teens to 30 something to retirees. Join us for Sunday morning worship at 830 and 11. We are located at 554 McCauley Avenue across from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga campus. 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