All In: Going With Christ
Notes
Transcript
"It has been estimated that probably 95% of all church members have never led anyone to Christ."
Pray for Souls
Pray for Souls
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,
always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy,
Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;
do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Notice, Paul says, “The Lord is at hand; don’t be anxious about anything...” The prayer is tied to the anxiety we get over the world around us, particularly as it relates to the coming of the Lord. What Paul is saying is this: We don’t know when he will come, but he is coming so don’t be anxious about anything but pray about everything: including those we love who are lost.
The Philippians were a praying people who were seeking the Lord and we are called to pray for the lost.
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;
therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
Do you earnestly see the lost and feel the weight of this truth: If your child, your friend, your spouse, your neighbor, your co-worker, your classmate dies without Christ they will be separated from him for all eternity, beg God to save them today!
A few years before the death of Charles Spurgeon, an American lecture bureau tried to hire him to come to America to deliver 50 lectures, speaking in all the large cities of America. As compensation, the bureau offered to pay all expenses of Spurgeon, his wife, and private secretary, and to pay $1,000 per night for each of 50 lectures. But Spurgeon promptly declined to make $50,000 in 50 days, saying, “I can do better. I will stay in London and try to save 50 souls.”
Live Lives of Holiness
Live Lives of Holiness
Second The Philippians LIVED lives the displayed the Gospel to the culture around them (v. 1:27-29)
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel,
and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God.
For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,
As Believers one of the primary ways we can share the good news is by living lives worthy of the good news. The Philippians set an example of godly living. They weren’t perfect, but they loved the Lord and it showed.
Paul similarly commands us to live lives worthy of the gospel. This means we must be cognizant about how our lives portray Christ to the world around us. Our first testimony about Christ to the world around us is the life we live.
If we’re bitter, or angry or hateful. If we’re rude or superior, or dismissive, it reflects on the gospel. No one will come to Christ because of the life you lead. You must share the good news or people will not no, but there are untold thousands who will never even listen to the gospel because of the lives led around them because of people who proclaimed Christ.
Your life is either a testimony to the changing power of Jesus or a stumbling block to the gospel.
Encourage The Gospel By Giving
Encourage The Gospel By Giving
One of the things that the Philippians are best known for is they SUPPORTED Paul's Evangelism by financially giving to him both in Philippi but also after with gifts to support his missionary work. (v. 10-20)
and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days.
And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.
One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.
And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.
Lydia supported the ministry in Philippi and beyond, sending financial support and allowing Paul the use of her home for a place of ministry.
As Christians one of the ways we can help spread the gospel is by giving. We give to our local church so that we can serve poeple and share the gospel with them. We give to missionaries and to those in our church who wish to go on mission trips. We support the gospel work of the regular preaching of the good news from our pulpits.
We are called to give. The Philippians were known for their giving:
Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble.
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.
Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again.
Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.
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.
ays they gave in Philippi, in Macedonia and beyond even to this point giving as he awaited trial (Phil. 4:18).
As Christians we are called to be generous and our generosity is to be given for the kingdom.
We do great work here at Truitt. We give food weekly through our food pantry. We give to children in our community feeding over 50 children and youth each Wednesday through our Awana and Youth Programs.
We are a generous church and we should be commended for that. Let us give faithfully to the kingdom in other ways. There are missionaries around the world that need help spreading the good news.
Articulate The Gospel
Articulate The Gospel
Finally, the Philippians partnered with Paul in the preaching of the gospel.
The Philippians Partnered with Him in Sharing the Gospel (Philippians 1:3-6)
Some of Paul's greatest evangelistic allies were in Philippi:
• Lydia who supported Paul with a place to live in Philippi and probably the location of the church at Philippi at least early on.
• The Philippian Jailer whose whole family came to Christ when Paul and Silas were imprisoned there.
• Euodia and Syntyche, two women that Paul admonishes but who were active with Paul in his evangelism efforts in the city.
• Epaphroditus, whose name literally means Belonging to (ep) Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and passion, he was probably the pastor of the church at Philippi who was sent to attend to Paul's needs and later was even sent with aide to Paul when he was imprisoned until he grew deathly ill and had to return home.
Paul’s ministry in Philippi was marked by those who preached the good news with him.
At the end of the day we are not commanded by Christ in the great commission to send out but to go tell. We tend to give ourselves a pass as modern Christians with our professional ministers and missionaries, but the command to go is yours.
For over thirty years the Salvation Army and William Booth in particular were subject to some of the most vile persecutions Christians suffered in modern times. But the General lived to see the day his army would be honored around the world. His own King Edward VII invited him to Buckingham Palace in 1904. All the persecution and trials of the previous decades must have seemed insignificant to Booth as he heard King Edward say, “You are doing a good work—a great work, General Booth.”
When the king asked Booth to write in his autograph album, the old man—now seventy-five—bent forward, took the pen, and summed up his life’s work:
Your Majesty,
Some men’s ambition is art,
Some men’s ambition is fame,
Some men’s ambition is gold,
My ambition is the souls of men.