August 17, 2025 • 27 mins
Grace and peace. These two words, often paired together in Paul’s letters, hold deep meaning for how the church is called to live and grow together.
In Philippians 1:2-6, Paul reminds the believers that what God begins in them, He is faithful to complete. Grace and peace go hand in hand, just as faith and good works, encouragement and perseverance, prayer and action. When God brings His people together, He weaves their lives into a greater purpose—working all things together for His glory.
Join us this Sunday as Pastor Tim shares how the things that belong together in the Christian life also work together to form a living testimony of God’s ongoing work. Recorded Sunday, August 17th, 2025 Message by Pastor Tim Ward Scripture: Philippians 1:2-6
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Things that go together, work together, and oftentimes they work together well.
Think about these things and see if they aren't meant to go together.
In fact, actually what I'm going to do is I'm going to mention the first word,
and I want you to say what goes with it.
Love and marriage.
(00:21):
A horse and hot dogs and...
That could be a lot of different things, couldn't it? Okay, so how about hamburgers
or cheeseburgers and fries?
Okay, how about baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and yeah, brewers? Oh, no.
(00:42):
Okay, peanut butter, salt and hammer and nails.
Birthdays and cakes. Okay, so some of these things go to, how about Thanksgiving and turkey?
Keep yep so some of these things to go go
together and they they seem to go together well they
(01:03):
work together if you have any one of these without the other it just doesn't
seem like things are complete right now think of some famous people pairs Romeo
and Ozzie and now some of the younger ones probably don't know that, do you?
(01:23):
This one might be difficult. Tweedledee and?
Okay, cool. I got to tell you, one of my roommates and I in college,
we lived in an apartment.
We had a little cabinet in our kitchen and people called us Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
And so we painted that on our cabinet, Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
(01:44):
Bert and Fred and, some of you could have said Kate, But anyway,
Fred and Wilma, or Fred and Ethel, Ginger.
Okay, Laurel and Abbott and, okay, here's an old one, Fibber McGee and Amos and?
Lone Ranger and Batman and oh
(02:07):
listen this one the captain and whoa
you've been you guys are really good Sonny and Donnie and Simon and JFK Jackie
okay Jack and all right anyway so what's so great about pairs or things that go together.
(02:30):
Just this, we were not made to go it alone. We were not made to be individuals and loners.
Why do you think God made Eve for Adam?
Someone once said, how important are you? Probably more than you think.
A rooster without a hen equals no baby chicks.
(02:52):
Mr. Kellogg without a farmer equals no cornflakes.
A nail factory is worthless if there's no hammer factory.
A cracker maker will do much better if there's a cheesemaker nearby.
The most skillful surgeon needs the ambulance driver to deliver the patients.
(03:13):
I mean, obviously things, we must have certain things to go together.
We cannot live in this alone. The plain and simple truth is, no man is an island.
We need one another. We need one another for support and encouragement,
help and aid in what we're doing.
Jesus said, gave this instruction, a new command I give you,
(03:37):
love one another as I loved you, so you must love one another.
Paul wrote in Romans chapter 12, verse 10, be devoted to one another in brotherly
love, honor one another above yourselves.
And then in Romans 15, 7, he wrote, accept one another then just as Christ accepted you.
(03:59):
Galatians, he wrote, you, my brothers, were called to be free,
but do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature. Serve one another in love.
These scriptures, and many like it, tell us that we need one another for help
and encouragement and life.
(04:19):
If one man falls and if he's alone, there's no one there to help him up.
And believe me, I have experienced that many times.
You know, it's easy to get down at my age. It's easy to get down on my knees.
But I need a Hoyer lift to get up anymore. So we need help.
These scriptures, as I said, tell us a whole lot more. This morning,
(04:41):
I'd like us to investigate four other groups of things that go well together
and work well together, and it would be a great deal of good for us to look at.
So if you would turn with me in your Bibles, if you have with you to Philippians
1, verses 2 through 6, we will not read all of them together,
but a little bit at a time.
The first thing we say, we read in this, is grace and peace.
(05:06):
These are the first two things to go together, according to Paul.
Grace and peace. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my God every time I remember you.
A lady—let me go back.
I don't want to go ahead yet. A lady who was a Sunday school teacher of seven-year-olds
(05:30):
and seven to 12-year-olds once said,
one Sunday school day I was teaching my kids the story of Abraham pleading with
the Lord not to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and the righteous people living there.
I explained how Abraham started by asking that the city be spared if he could
(05:51):
find 50 righteous people there in the city of Sodom.
And then that didn't work. So he asked, what if I find 45?
Okay, for 45, I won't destroy the city. What about 30?
If I can find 30 righteous people in Sodom, will you destroy the city?
No, I won't destroy the city for 30. Then he said, what about 20?
(06:13):
And the teacher said, I continued. Finally, Abraham asked Sodom,
asked that Sodom be spared if they could find only 10 who loved the Lord there.
And what do you think God said?
And she says, when I paused for the answer, one little boy raised his hand and
said, I think God said, don't trust your luck.
(06:36):
I bet he'd heard that at home. Kid, don't trust your luck.
We all know that God did destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. In fact,
they did push their luck, and they were destroyed.
Brothers and sisters, most of us, if not all of us, push our luck once in a while.
We push our luck with God. We push the limits of what we should and should not do.
(06:58):
We trust God's patience more than his justice.
But God is the God of all grace. 1 Peter 5, verse 10 says, And the God of all
grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ,
after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you
(07:18):
strong, firm, and steadfast.
Our God is the God of all grace.
Grace upon grace, as it says in Scripture, and this is something that can't be said about us.
We don't have that kind of grace for others.
We should, but we don't.
We are occasionally gracious, but not all the time. We will stand for just so
(07:39):
much, yet there's a limit to our grace. I tell people that my...
Well, one of my highest spiritual gifts is cynicism, and that's really not a
spiritual gift, just so you know.
And one of my lowest spiritual gifts is mercy.
When people screw up, I want to say, just get a life, you know?
(08:03):
And don't you sometimes want to do that? When people are over and over and over
messing up their lives, just say, come on, get a life.
Get beyond this. drug addicts who are caught in it over and over.
But yet God is a God of grace. He is always gracious and will always be.
That doesn't mean that we can continue to thwart his grace.
(08:26):
Psalm 103, verse 8, the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding love.
Verse 10, he does not treat us as our sins deserve.
That's grace. When God does not treat us or give us what our sins deserve.
We should be very grateful that God does not treat us like we deserve.
(08:48):
It's all because he is gracious and he is full of grace, rich in mercy.
One time when Billy Graham was driving through a small southern town,
he was stopped by a policeman and charged with speeding.
Graham admitted his guilt, but he was told by the officer that he'd have to appear in court.
The judge asked him, are you guilty or not guilty? When Graham pleaded guilty,
(09:12):
the judge replied, that'll be $10 a dollar for every mile that you went over the speed limit.
Suddenly the judge recognized the famous preacher. You have violated the law, he said.
The fine must be paid, but I'm going to pay it for you.
He took a $10 bill from his own wallet, attached it to the ticket,
and then took Graham out and bought him a steak dinner.
(09:36):
That, Billy Graham said, is how God treats repentant sinners.
Not only does he pay the penalty and the fine for our sin, but he takes us out for a banquet.
And I might add—.
It's called grace because we don't deserve it.
God paid it, and he paid our debt, and that gives us a lease on new life.
(10:01):
It's interesting, though, I would dare add, I don't think that Billy Graham
went out and sped again, do you?
I think not only he experienced the grace of the judge, but he realized that
he was in the wrong for admitting his guilt, and he went out and changed the way he drove.
(10:23):
I wonder if we would take a lesson in that in dealing with God's grace.
We need God's grace continually in our lives.
We need his grace to be saved and to live each day. We need his grace to give
us the gift of moving toward heaven.
We need to have his grace to survive and succeed in this life.
(10:44):
Paul was saved by the grace of God, and he was empowered to serve by the grace of God as well.
God's grace overcomes our past and empowers us for the future.
It's a miracle that this Jew,
Paul, this Jew, this Pharisee, this leader of those who persecuted the Christians
could become a preacher of the gospel, and yet God transformed him when he saw the light.
(11:12):
It could only happen because God was gracious to him.
All the good things that come to us in life—physical, material,
spiritual—they're all because of God's grace, and yet grace without peace is pretty hollow.
The second thing we see that Paul is writing about in this, the pair that goes
(11:32):
together, is prayer and joy.
In verses 3 and 4, he says this, In all my prayers for all of you,
I always pray with joy because of your partnering in the gospel for the first day until now,
being confident in this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it
(11:53):
on to completion until the day of the Lord.
Nope I got the wrong way so and he says I
thank my God every time I remember you in
all my prayers for you I always pray
with joy you know in James it
tells us we are to think of our troubles and our trials we are to think about
(12:15):
them with joy look at them with joy I don't know about you but it's really difficult
to look at my troubles and be joyful but here in this situation Paul is talking
about with these people that he is thinking about and praying about them,
and when he prays about them is full of joy.
He couldn't help but pray for the brothers and sisters every time he remembered
(12:35):
them, and these prayers brought joy to his heart.
Mary Chase from Atlanta, Georgia, said our area had been suffering weeks of drought.
I appealed to my four-year-old granddaughter, Chandler, to pray that we would
get some very badly needed rain to help the trees and flowers.
That evening, my daughter overheard Chandler praying, God, Grandma wants some
(13:01):
rain, and you have to do whatever Grandma says. Amen.
We all know, as we all know, God doesn't have to do whatever we ask,
whether it's a grandma asking or anyone else.
However, I tend to believe that the prayers of children do have far more sway
with God than the prayers of adults. That's just my thought.
(13:22):
Psalm chapter 8 talks about the prayers and the speaking of children and how
it edifies God, and they're powerful.
The reason I feel this way is because children are often more pure than adults are.
They don't have ulterior motives oftentimes when they're praying.
(13:43):
They haven't become tainted by the world, and purity has its privileges.
What a privilege we have to be able to talk to God anywhere,
at any time, at any place.
If you wanted to talk to the governor of this state, you'd probably have to
go through certain people to get to him.
And even then, I don't know if you'd get a personal audience with the governor
(14:05):
without having something that he wanted.
In fact, you probably couldn't even send him a letter that would be read by
him, chances are, because the man is busy.
Thank God it's not that way with our God.
Our God is approachable, and he's not too busy to listen to everyone's prayer.
Have you ever thought of that?
(14:26):
Have you ever comprehended that? 8.2 billion, I think it is,
people on Earth, probably more than that now.
I haven't been keeping track of the births lately.
But 8.2 billion people on Earth, let's say 30%.
Of that are Christians, so 2.5 billion people all praying to God. Oh, boy.
(14:54):
I had a hard time in the vacation Bible school in the sanctuary with 60-some
kids and adults in there trying to listen to what was going on.
Can you imagine? I mean, that just amazes me that God can hear us all speak
to him and take individual attention in each one of us.
Hebrews chapter 4 verse 16 said let us then approach the throne of grace with
(15:19):
confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
The door to the throne of God is open 24-7, 365 days, and to everyone.
Well, wait a minute, 366 days every four years.
And we need to be knocking on the door and in that room as often as needed.
(15:39):
William Carey was a missionary who was once reproached for spending so much
time in prayer that he neglected his business.
He replied that supplication, thanksgiving, and intercession were much more
important in his life than laying up treasures on earth.
He said, prayer is my real business.
(16:00):
Cobbling shoes is a sideline. It just helps me pay the expenses.
Prayer should be our business. A minister asked a little boy,
do you say your prayers every night?
He replied, no, not every night. Some nights I don't want anything.
Prayer is more than just asking God for something.
In fact, Ephesians chapter 6, verse 18 says, and pray in the Spirit on all occasions
(16:26):
with all kinds of prayers and requests.
With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for the saints.
Pray continually, give thanks continually, rejoice continually.
We are admonished in Scripture to pray for one another.
Paul speaks of praying in the Spirit. Now, I'm glad that sometimes you guys
(16:48):
move to different spots in the church,
but oftentimes I will come in here in the sanctuary, and I would just walk through
the rows and pray for you as you've been sitting here on Sunday,
just praying that God will do his work and meet in your heart and in your family.
We would do well to pray for each other and pray for our loved ones.
(17:11):
Pray for those that we know or relate to that don't know Christ.
It would be good to be a people of prayer.
Praying for one another may be the most spiritual kind of praying that you can do.
Also praying for one another is where the joy comes in. You've heard it said
before, but someone has said that the letters J-O-Y stand for putting Jesus
(17:34):
first, others second, and yourself last.
When we bring sunshine into someone's life, we can't keep it from our own.
When we shine on others, another way of saying that, a rising tide raises all ships.
When we elevate others, it ends up elevating ourselves.
And what is our habit normally when we deal with others?
Normally, our habit is to put others down, thinking that putting others down
(17:59):
will raise us up and make us more important.
But Carnegie says a rising tide raises all ships.
Some of my greatest times have been spent in prayer and worship,
have been on the road driving.
Don't worry, I don't close my eyes when I'm driving and praying.
But oftentimes in my travel, someone comes to mind, oftentimes one of you,
(18:23):
and I just breathe a prayer over you.
The more time we spend in prayer for others, the greater joy we will have.
Prayer and joy go together.
That's when we spend much time in prayer for others. The other thing that we
see in the Scripture is giving and the gospel going together.
It doesn't specifically say giving. It talks about a partnership.
(18:46):
Because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,
Paul is speaking about a partnership with them and spreading the good news of Jesus Christ.
Preaching the gospel in the name of Christ, that is what we are supposed to be doing today.
Preaching Christ, preaching salvation through Christ, preaching the word that
(19:07):
Christ has called us to follow him.
And sometimes we need to do that with words.
Most of the time we need to preach the gospel with the way we live and the way we act.
When the gospel is preached at home, abroad, on television, on the radio,
in school, at work, it must be supported by the way we live.
(19:28):
This is where giving and partnership comes in. Everyone knows the saying, you get what you pay for.
Anything of value costs money and costs participation. If you want to spread
the gospel, if you want the church to grow, we need to continue to give and
be obedient, faithful givers.
Tony Campolo tells the story of a homeless man who offered to share his coffee with Tony.
(19:53):
Tony said he was offered that cup of coffee to share that, and he looked at
it and he said, the coffee must have been teeming with bacteria, but I took a drink.
Then he said, that's very generous of you to share your coffee with me.
The homeless man, without a penny to his name, replied like this,
(20:18):
Mr., I believe that when God gives you something extra special,
like this cup of coffee, you should share it.
And God gave me this cup of coffee this morning to share.
Brothers and sisters, someone shared something extra special with us, the gospel of Christ.
They told us about Jesus, and it's only right that we share it with others.
(20:41):
It wouldn't be right for us to go to a restaurant, a new restaurant,
and like it very well, and then just say, we don't want to tell anybody else about it.
It would be best if we find something we like, if the Spirit of God has entered
our mind and our hearts through the gospel of Christ that we share with others.
The fourth thing we see is starting and finishing.
(21:04):
Verse 6, being confident of this, that he who began a good work will carry it
on until the day of completion, until the day of Jesus Christ.
Paul knew that God had started a good work in them and that he would finish that work.
A little girl went fishing one time with her daddy.
After a period of time, she threw down her fishing pole. Her daddy asked,
(21:27):
what's the matter, honey?
She said, oh, nothing, daddy.
I just can't seem to get anyone to wait on me.
Some people stop fishing before the fish start biting. They quit before it's quitting time.
Starting and finishing a project can be two different, completely different matters.
(21:49):
Oftentimes, we will start a project and maybe turn it over to somebody else.
But when you complete that project, there's a huge, huge sense of relief and
accomplishment that God has given it to.
Preacher Charles Swindoll said, dieting is a discipline, so when it gets tough, we quit.
(22:10):
Finishing school is a hassle, so we bail out.
Sticking with a job is sometimes very hard, so we start looking for a new job.
Going to church gets to be a drag, so we just go when it's convenient.
Daily Bible study and prayer require some discipline, so we quit after just a few days.
(22:30):
Working through conflicts with people is rough, so we quit.
I read a thing or saw a thing on Facebook. I bought a membership at the local
fitness club, and it's been about two weeks and still nothing's happened,
so I think I'm going to go in there tomorrow and ask why.
(22:50):
But anyway, in a book, Long Obedience in the Same Direction,
Eugene Peterson wrote, It's not difficult today to get a person interested in
the message of the gospel, but it's terribly difficult to sustain that interest.
Millions of people in our culture make decisions for Christ,
but there's a dreadful attrition and dropout rate.
(23:14):
People love to accept Christ, but to go on and to live a Christlike life.
He goes on, in our culture, anything, even news about God, can be sold if it
is packaged freshly, but when it loses its novelty, it goes in the garbage heap.
There's a great market for religious experiences in our world,
but there's little enthusiasm to sign up for the long apprenticeship as it leads
(23:39):
to generations of following Christ in what's called holiness.
Former Senator Mark Hatfield tells of.
Touring Calcutta with Mother Teresa and visiting the so-called House of Dying,
where sick children were cared for in their final days, and the dispensary where
(24:02):
the poor line up by the hundreds to receive medical attention.
Watching Mother Teresa minister to these people, feeding and nursing those left
by others to die, holding those who had leprosy and other diseases,
Hatfield was overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the suffering she and her
(24:25):
co-workers faced daily.
He asked this, how can you bear the load without being crushed by it?
Mother Teresa replied, my dear senator, I'm not called to be successful.
I'm called to be faithful.
Paul said, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.
(24:46):
Now there is in store for me a crown of righteousness. I have finished the race.
The prize goes to everyone who finishes.
There's something to be said for the finishing as anything, especially the Christian life.
However, we must realize that we don't have to go it alone in the race.
(25:06):
Paul said, he who began a good work with you will carry it on to completion. He will be with you.
That's why we have a church body, to help each other as we grow and move in
this life, help each other as we minister to others.
God gives the increase in our
hearts. He also gives us the strength and grace to live each day for him.
(25:27):
Life is not an easy job.
We really can't do it alone. But God has promised that we don't have to do it
alone. We don't have to go it alone.
We don't have to live life on our own.
No man is an island. He told us that we need to be with each other.
(25:47):
Jesus said, I am with you always, even to the very end of the age.
In 1886, Nevada had a state fair. They decided to have a contest to see what
mule teams could pull the most.
The first place team of mules pulled 14,000 pounds.
(26:11):
This was the 1886 version of the tractor pull.
Let me tell you what, the exhaust was much different than they have now.
But anyway, the first place team pulled 14,000 pounds. The second-place team pulled 13,000 pounds.
Someone said, I wonder how much they could pull if they were teamed together.
(26:34):
Could they pull 27,000 pounds, 14,000 plus 13,000?
So they hitched up both teams, and together they pulled not 27,000, but 35,000 pounds.
Generally, things that go together also work together. In other words,
a fancy word they say today is synergy. When things work together,
(26:56):
they work together better than individually added up.
Two things are generally better than one.
Thank God for things that go together and work together. Grace and peace,
prayer and joy, giving in the gospel, and starting and finishing the race.
Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, as we close this service, we give you thanks.
(27:19):
Father, help us to learn from Paul and the other writings of writers of Scripture. In Jesus' name, amen.
Things that go together, work together, and oftentimes they work together well.
Think about these things and see if they aren't meant to go together.
In fact, actually what I'm going to do is I'm going to mention the first word,
and I want you to say what goes with it.
Love and marriage.
(00:21):
A horse and hot dogs and...
That could be a lot of different things, couldn't it? Okay, so how about hamburgers
or cheeseburgers and fries?
Okay, how about baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and yeah, brewers? Oh, no.
(00:42):
Okay, peanut butter, salt and hammer and nails.
Birthdays and cakes. Okay, so some of these things go to, how about Thanksgiving and turkey?
Keep yep so some of these things to go go
together and they they seem to go together well they
(01:03):
work together if you have any one of these without the other it just doesn't
seem like things are complete right now think of some famous people pairs Romeo
and Ozzie and now some of the younger ones probably don't know that, do you?
(01:23):
This one might be difficult. Tweedledee and?
Okay, cool. I got to tell you, one of my roommates and I in college,
we lived in an apartment.
We had a little cabinet in our kitchen and people called us Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
And so we painted that on our cabinet, Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
(01:44):
Bert and Fred and, some of you could have said Kate, But anyway,
Fred and Wilma, or Fred and Ethel, Ginger.
Okay, Laurel and Abbott and, okay, here's an old one, Fibber McGee and Amos and?
Lone Ranger and Batman and oh
(02:07):
listen this one the captain and whoa
you've been you guys are really good Sonny and Donnie and Simon and JFK Jackie
okay Jack and all right anyway so what's so great about pairs or things that go together.
(02:30):
Just this, we were not made to go it alone. We were not made to be individuals and loners.
Why do you think God made Eve for Adam?
Someone once said, how important are you? Probably more than you think.
A rooster without a hen equals no baby chicks.
(02:52):
Mr. Kellogg without a farmer equals no cornflakes.
A nail factory is worthless if there's no hammer factory.
A cracker maker will do much better if there's a cheesemaker nearby.
The most skillful surgeon needs the ambulance driver to deliver the patients.
(03:13):
I mean, obviously things, we must have certain things to go together.
We cannot live in this alone. The plain and simple truth is, no man is an island.
We need one another. We need one another for support and encouragement,
help and aid in what we're doing.
Jesus said, gave this instruction, a new command I give you,
(03:37):
love one another as I loved you, so you must love one another.
Paul wrote in Romans chapter 12, verse 10, be devoted to one another in brotherly
love, honor one another above yourselves.
And then in Romans 15, 7, he wrote, accept one another then just as Christ accepted you.
(03:59):
Galatians, he wrote, you, my brothers, were called to be free,
but do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature. Serve one another in love.
These scriptures, and many like it, tell us that we need one another for help
and encouragement and life.
(04:19):
If one man falls and if he's alone, there's no one there to help him up.
And believe me, I have experienced that many times.
You know, it's easy to get down at my age. It's easy to get down on my knees.
But I need a Hoyer lift to get up anymore. So we need help.
These scriptures, as I said, tell us a whole lot more. This morning,
(04:41):
I'd like us to investigate four other groups of things that go well together
and work well together, and it would be a great deal of good for us to look at.
So if you would turn with me in your Bibles, if you have with you to Philippians
1, verses 2 through 6, we will not read all of them together,
but a little bit at a time.
The first thing we say, we read in this, is grace and peace.
(05:06):
These are the first two things to go together, according to Paul.
Grace and peace. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my God every time I remember you.
A lady—let me go back.
I don't want to go ahead yet. A lady who was a Sunday school teacher of seven-year-olds
(05:30):
and seven to 12-year-olds once said,
one Sunday school day I was teaching my kids the story of Abraham pleading with
the Lord not to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and the righteous people living there.
I explained how Abraham started by asking that the city be spared if he could
(05:51):
find 50 righteous people there in the city of Sodom.
And then that didn't work. So he asked, what if I find 45?
Okay, for 45, I won't destroy the city. What about 30?
If I can find 30 righteous people in Sodom, will you destroy the city?
No, I won't destroy the city for 30. Then he said, what about 20?
(06:13):
And the teacher said, I continued. Finally, Abraham asked Sodom,
asked that Sodom be spared if they could find only 10 who loved the Lord there.
And what do you think God said?
And she says, when I paused for the answer, one little boy raised his hand and
said, I think God said, don't trust your luck.
(06:36):
I bet he'd heard that at home. Kid, don't trust your luck.
We all know that God did destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. In fact,
they did push their luck, and they were destroyed.
Brothers and sisters, most of us, if not all of us, push our luck once in a while.
We push our luck with God. We push the limits of what we should and should not do.
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We trust God's patience more than his justice.
But God is the God of all grace. 1 Peter 5, verse 10 says, And the God of all
grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ,
after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you
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strong, firm, and steadfast.
Our God is the God of all grace.
Grace upon grace, as it says in Scripture, and this is something that can't be said about us.
We don't have that kind of grace for others.
We should, but we don't.
We are occasionally gracious, but not all the time. We will stand for just so
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much, yet there's a limit to our grace. I tell people that my...
Well, one of my highest spiritual gifts is cynicism, and that's really not a
spiritual gift, just so you know.
And one of my lowest spiritual gifts is mercy.
When people screw up, I want to say, just get a life, you know?
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And don't you sometimes want to do that? When people are over and over and over
messing up their lives, just say, come on, get a life.
Get beyond this. drug addicts who are caught in it over and over.
But yet God is a God of grace. He is always gracious and will always be.
That doesn't mean that we can continue to thwart his grace.
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Psalm 103, verse 8, the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding love.
Verse 10, he does not treat us as our sins deserve.
That's grace. When God does not treat us or give us what our sins deserve.
We should be very grateful that God does not treat us like we deserve.
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It's all because he is gracious and he is full of grace, rich in mercy.
One time when Billy Graham was driving through a small southern town,
he was stopped by a policeman and charged with speeding.
Graham admitted his guilt, but he was told by the officer that he'd have to appear in court.
The judge asked him, are you guilty or not guilty? When Graham pleaded guilty,
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the judge replied, that'll be $10 a dollar for every mile that you went over the speed limit.
Suddenly the judge recognized the famous preacher. You have violated the law, he said.
The fine must be paid, but I'm going to pay it for you.
He took a $10 bill from his own wallet, attached it to the ticket,
and then took Graham out and bought him a steak dinner.
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That, Billy Graham said, is how God treats repentant sinners.
Not only does he pay the penalty and the fine for our sin, but he takes us out for a banquet.
And I might add—.
It's called grace because we don't deserve it.
God paid it, and he paid our debt, and that gives us a lease on new life.
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It's interesting, though, I would dare add, I don't think that Billy Graham
went out and sped again, do you?
I think not only he experienced the grace of the judge, but he realized that
he was in the wrong for admitting his guilt, and he went out and changed the way he drove.
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I wonder if we would take a lesson in that in dealing with God's grace.
We need God's grace continually in our lives.
We need his grace to be saved and to live each day. We need his grace to give
us the gift of moving toward heaven.
We need to have his grace to survive and succeed in this life.
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Paul was saved by the grace of God, and he was empowered to serve by the grace of God as well.
God's grace overcomes our past and empowers us for the future.
It's a miracle that this Jew,
Paul, this Jew, this Pharisee, this leader of those who persecuted the Christians
could become a preacher of the gospel, and yet God transformed him when he saw the light.
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It could only happen because God was gracious to him.
All the good things that come to us in life—physical, material,
spiritual—they're all because of God's grace, and yet grace without peace is pretty hollow.
The second thing we see that Paul is writing about in this, the pair that goes
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together, is prayer and joy.
In verses 3 and 4, he says this, In all my prayers for all of you,
I always pray with joy because of your partnering in the gospel for the first day until now,
being confident in this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it
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on to completion until the day of the Lord.
Nope I got the wrong way so and he says I
thank my God every time I remember you in
all my prayers for you I always pray
with joy you know in James it
tells us we are to think of our troubles and our trials we are to think about
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them with joy look at them with joy I don't know about you but it's really difficult
to look at my troubles and be joyful but here in this situation Paul is talking
about with these people that he is thinking about and praying about them,
and when he prays about them is full of joy.
He couldn't help but pray for the brothers and sisters every time he remembered
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them, and these prayers brought joy to his heart.
Mary Chase from Atlanta, Georgia, said our area had been suffering weeks of drought.
I appealed to my four-year-old granddaughter, Chandler, to pray that we would
get some very badly needed rain to help the trees and flowers.
That evening, my daughter overheard Chandler praying, God, Grandma wants some
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rain, and you have to do whatever Grandma says. Amen.
We all know, as we all know, God doesn't have to do whatever we ask,
whether it's a grandma asking or anyone else.
However, I tend to believe that the prayers of children do have far more sway
with God than the prayers of adults. That's just my thought.
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Psalm chapter 8 talks about the prayers and the speaking of children and how
it edifies God, and they're powerful.
The reason I feel this way is because children are often more pure than adults are.
They don't have ulterior motives oftentimes when they're praying.
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They haven't become tainted by the world, and purity has its privileges.
What a privilege we have to be able to talk to God anywhere,
at any time, at any place.
If you wanted to talk to the governor of this state, you'd probably have to
go through certain people to get to him.
And even then, I don't know if you'd get a personal audience with the governor
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without having something that he wanted.
In fact, you probably couldn't even send him a letter that would be read by
him, chances are, because the man is busy.
Thank God it's not that way with our God.
Our God is approachable, and he's not too busy to listen to everyone's prayer.
Have you ever thought of that?
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Have you ever comprehended that? 8.2 billion, I think it is,
people on Earth, probably more than that now.
I haven't been keeping track of the births lately.
But 8.2 billion people on Earth, let's say 30%.
Of that are Christians, so 2.5 billion people all praying to God. Oh, boy.
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I had a hard time in the vacation Bible school in the sanctuary with 60-some
kids and adults in there trying to listen to what was going on.
Can you imagine? I mean, that just amazes me that God can hear us all speak
to him and take individual attention in each one of us.
Hebrews chapter 4 verse 16 said let us then approach the throne of grace with
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confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
The door to the throne of God is open 24-7, 365 days, and to everyone.
Well, wait a minute, 366 days every four years.
And we need to be knocking on the door and in that room as often as needed.
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William Carey was a missionary who was once reproached for spending so much
time in prayer that he neglected his business.
He replied that supplication, thanksgiving, and intercession were much more
important in his life than laying up treasures on earth.
He said, prayer is my real business.
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Cobbling shoes is a sideline. It just helps me pay the expenses.
Prayer should be our business. A minister asked a little boy,
do you say your prayers every night?
He replied, no, not every night. Some nights I don't want anything.
Prayer is more than just asking God for something.
In fact, Ephesians chapter 6, verse 18 says, and pray in the Spirit on all occasions
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with all kinds of prayers and requests.
With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for the saints.
Pray continually, give thanks continually, rejoice continually.
We are admonished in Scripture to pray for one another.
Paul speaks of praying in the Spirit. Now, I'm glad that sometimes you guys
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move to different spots in the church,
but oftentimes I will come in here in the sanctuary, and I would just walk through
the rows and pray for you as you've been sitting here on Sunday,
just praying that God will do his work and meet in your heart and in your family.
We would do well to pray for each other and pray for our loved ones.
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Pray for those that we know or relate to that don't know Christ.
It would be good to be a people of prayer.
Praying for one another may be the most spiritual kind of praying that you can do.
Also praying for one another is where the joy comes in. You've heard it said
before, but someone has said that the letters J-O-Y stand for putting Jesus
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first, others second, and yourself last.
When we bring sunshine into someone's life, we can't keep it from our own.
When we shine on others, another way of saying that, a rising tide raises all ships.
When we elevate others, it ends up elevating ourselves.
And what is our habit normally when we deal with others?
Normally, our habit is to put others down, thinking that putting others down
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will raise us up and make us more important.
But Carnegie says a rising tide raises all ships.
Some of my greatest times have been spent in prayer and worship,
have been on the road driving.
Don't worry, I don't close my eyes when I'm driving and praying.
But oftentimes in my travel, someone comes to mind, oftentimes one of you,
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and I just breathe a prayer over you.
The more time we spend in prayer for others, the greater joy we will have.
Prayer and joy go together.
That's when we spend much time in prayer for others. The other thing that we
see in the Scripture is giving and the gospel going together.
It doesn't specifically say giving. It talks about a partnership.
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Because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,
Paul is speaking about a partnership with them and spreading the good news of Jesus Christ.
Preaching the gospel in the name of Christ, that is what we are supposed to be doing today.
Preaching Christ, preaching salvation through Christ, preaching the word that
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Christ has called us to follow him.
And sometimes we need to do that with words.
Most of the time we need to preach the gospel with the way we live and the way we act.
When the gospel is preached at home, abroad, on television, on the radio,
in school, at work, it must be supported by the way we live.
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This is where giving and partnership comes in. Everyone knows the saying, you get what you pay for.
Anything of value costs money and costs participation. If you want to spread
the gospel, if you want the church to grow, we need to continue to give and
be obedient, faithful givers.
Tony Campolo tells the story of a homeless man who offered to share his coffee with Tony.
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Tony said he was offered that cup of coffee to share that, and he looked at
it and he said, the coffee must have been teeming with bacteria, but I took a drink.
Then he said, that's very generous of you to share your coffee with me.
The homeless man, without a penny to his name, replied like this,
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Mr., I believe that when God gives you something extra special,
like this cup of coffee, you should share it.
And God gave me this cup of coffee this morning to share.
Brothers and sisters, someone shared something extra special with us, the gospel of Christ.
They told us about Jesus, and it's only right that we share it with others.
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It wouldn't be right for us to go to a restaurant, a new restaurant,
and like it very well, and then just say, we don't want to tell anybody else about it.
It would be best if we find something we like, if the Spirit of God has entered
our mind and our hearts through the gospel of Christ that we share with others.
The fourth thing we see is starting and finishing.
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Verse 6, being confident of this, that he who began a good work will carry it
on until the day of completion, until the day of Jesus Christ.
Paul knew that God had started a good work in them and that he would finish that work.
A little girl went fishing one time with her daddy.
After a period of time, she threw down her fishing pole. Her daddy asked,
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what's the matter, honey?
She said, oh, nothing, daddy.
I just can't seem to get anyone to wait on me.
Some people stop fishing before the fish start biting. They quit before it's quitting time.
Starting and finishing a project can be two different, completely different matters.
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Oftentimes, we will start a project and maybe turn it over to somebody else.
But when you complete that project, there's a huge, huge sense of relief and
accomplishment that God has given it to.
Preacher Charles Swindoll said, dieting is a discipline, so when it gets tough, we quit.
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Finishing school is a hassle, so we bail out.
Sticking with a job is sometimes very hard, so we start looking for a new job.
Going to church gets to be a drag, so we just go when it's convenient.
Daily Bible study and prayer require some discipline, so we quit after just a few days.
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Working through conflicts with people is rough, so we quit.
I read a thing or saw a thing on Facebook. I bought a membership at the local
fitness club, and it's been about two weeks and still nothing's happened,
so I think I'm going to go in there tomorrow and ask why.
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But anyway, in a book, Long Obedience in the Same Direction,
Eugene Peterson wrote, It's not difficult today to get a person interested in
the message of the gospel, but it's terribly difficult to sustain that interest.
Millions of people in our culture make decisions for Christ,
but there's a dreadful attrition and dropout rate.
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People love to accept Christ, but to go on and to live a Christlike life.
He goes on, in our culture, anything, even news about God, can be sold if it
is packaged freshly, but when it loses its novelty, it goes in the garbage heap.
There's a great market for religious experiences in our world,
but there's little enthusiasm to sign up for the long apprenticeship as it leads
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to generations of following Christ in what's called holiness.
Former Senator Mark Hatfield tells of.
Touring Calcutta with Mother Teresa and visiting the so-called House of Dying,
where sick children were cared for in their final days, and the dispensary where
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the poor line up by the hundreds to receive medical attention.
Watching Mother Teresa minister to these people, feeding and nursing those left
by others to die, holding those who had leprosy and other diseases,
Hatfield was overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the suffering she and her
(24:25):
co-workers faced daily.
He asked this, how can you bear the load without being crushed by it?
Mother Teresa replied, my dear senator, I'm not called to be successful.
I'm called to be faithful.
Paul said, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.
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Now there is in store for me a crown of righteousness. I have finished the race.
The prize goes to everyone who finishes.
There's something to be said for the finishing as anything, especially the Christian life.
However, we must realize that we don't have to go it alone in the race.
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Paul said, he who began a good work with you will carry it on to completion. He will be with you.
That's why we have a church body, to help each other as we grow and move in
this life, help each other as we minister to others.
God gives the increase in our
hearts. He also gives us the strength and grace to live each day for him.
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Life is not an easy job.
We really can't do it alone. But God has promised that we don't have to do it
alone. We don't have to go it alone.
We don't have to live life on our own.
No man is an island. He told us that we need to be with each other.
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Jesus said, I am with you always, even to the very end of the age.
In 1886, Nevada had a state fair. They decided to have a contest to see what
mule teams could pull the most.
The first place team of mules pulled 14,000 pounds.
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This was the 1886 version of the tractor pull.
Let me tell you what, the exhaust was much different than they have now.
But anyway, the first place team pulled 14,000 pounds. The second-place team pulled 13,000 pounds.
Someone said, I wonder how much they could pull if they were teamed together.
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Could they pull 27,000 pounds, 14,000 plus 13,000?
So they hitched up both teams, and together they pulled not 27,000, but 35,000 pounds.
Generally, things that go together also work together. In other words,
a fancy word they say today is synergy. When things work together,
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they work together better than individually added up.
Two things are generally better than one.
Thank God for things that go together and work together. Grace and peace,
prayer and joy, giving in the gospel, and starting and finishing the race.
Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, as we close this service, we give you thanks.
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Father, help us to learn from Paul and the other writings of writers of Scripture. In Jesus' name, amen.
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