"The Message to the Philippians Part 2" By Brother Parrish Lee August 9th,
2015
Thankful to be back; wonderful
time there. Plenty of stories for
another time. But, as I said, it’s
wonderful to be back. I heard it was
marvelous message; almost made me a little jealous, but I did get a chance to
hear it. Wonderful, wonderful time. We have said that this month, this month
would be the month that we would go through the Book of Philippians. Our Scripture thought for the month is
simply: Philippians 1:6 Being confident of
this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it
until the day of Jesus Christ: Giving honor to that same Almighty
God. Giving honor to our Creator, the
One who is the Lover of our souls. The
Bible calls Him our advocate, the Shepherd and Bishop, the Bible calls Him the
Rose of Sharon, the Bright and Morning star, and the Lily of the Valley. The Bible calls Him He that lives forever and
ever, the ancient of days. The Bible
calls Him the Bright and Morning Star, and it calls Him the Lamb of God. Giving honor to Him. Giving honor to all those who have gone
before us, here at the fellowship: our
funding pastor, he and his family, our pastor, he and his family, and all those
who have come and stood in the gap to make up the hedge. I’m very thankful for men and women and
families of God who say, “It is worth the cost; it is worth the cost.” And, having said that, we’d like
to go to our Scripture for the day: Philippians 2:1-4 If there
be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any
fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfil ye my joy, that ye
be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or
vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than
themselves. Look not every man on his
own things, but every man also on the things of others. If we could just bow our heads for
just a moment. Lord, we do come to You, and
we are constantly amazed. We sing Your
songs of worship, but You outshine them all, Almighty God. We stand in Your presence and are just
breathless and wordless when we behold Your beauty and Your comeliness and the
wonderful majesty of Your Spirit. We
ask, we ask Lord, that You would just treat us as Your children; sons and
daughters. Give unto us our daily bread
as we ask of You, for You have guaranteed that, as You said, that Your word
would not return unto You void, but would accomplish that which You sent it,
and we ask, even so, Lord, let it be.
This we do pray and claim in Jesus’ name, and everyone said, amen. First of all, glad to be back, and
second of all, I hope everybody—we had several calls and texts, a lot of people
are having some vacation time, some family time, where they’re spending time
with their families; our prayer is that everybody has a safe time, and return
safe also. Wonderful time with our
families, and this is honorable in God, for He is the creator of the
families. Amen? He created man, He created woman, and all
that came from them. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Last week, Brother Jesse—wonderful
message, by the way, Brother Jesse.
Yeah, I got a little helper to help me out with that. Wonderful message: This Gospel Must Be Preached. This Gospel Must Be Preached. He went to the Book of Philippians, chapter
one, and he had three main parts, he said, ‘God opens the door and God shuts
the door.’ He also said, ‘God finishes
what He starts,’ and that, ‘Suffering is not the End.’ I really, really liked a couple of parts where
he talked about the place of Philippi actually got their name form the father
of Alexander the Great. Very
interesting. And, he made a really
strong point when he talked about, where the scripture says, “I pray that your
love abounds…” and how our love needs
to abound. And he talked the message of
evangelism, the message of evangelism. We’re going to take a couple of
pages out of that book, now, as we go through chapter two. Actually, this is actually two messages… Don’t be afraid. I know, Brother Jesse, you said last week’s
message was kind of short, so I could take some of your time and put it on this
week, but I don’t think anybody’s going to put up with that. Plus, it takes too much to clean this suit if
they start throwing tomatoes and eggs; I don’t think I can have that. But, there’s actually two messages: Message number one is the message to the Philippians, the message to the Philippians, and there is another
message right along that, and that is the message that is in those that lived
in Philippi, in those that lived. So,
there is a message to the Philippians, and we call that the Book, or the letter,
of the Philippians, and, there’s a message in the people who actually lived there.
And we hope that we can talk a little
bit about both of those, and we pray that this message is very beneficial for
us. And, actually we’ve got four parts
to the message, and six points. Part 1: It Starts with Love “If there be therefore any
consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit,
if any bowels and mercies,” Apostle Paul says, “Fulfil ye my joy…” If there be any consolation in Christ,
comfort of love, fellowship of the Spirit, bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my
joy, “being likeminded, having the same love…”
So, it starts with love. It
starts with love. A familiar theme, as
our pastor had said it some years ago, and that has actually been the key of so
many things for our walk with Christ as he mentions to us in Philippians
chapter two, it starts with love. If ye
be likeminded, having the same love, the same love, being of one accord and one
mind. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
What same love? That same love,
it was given to Apostle Paul, it was given to Apostle Peter, that came from the
Lord Himself, that love. Be likeminded, having the same
love, and, “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory…” I was in New Jersey, at a family reunion, and
they talked about the plight of some of the churches that have gone, and he
said, “You know, sometimes people just get in an unforgiving state of mind,
where they think they’re more right than somebody else. They take a stand on something, and they
don’t want to see any other way than that way.
They got some strife in the church, and strife has been known to break
up churches. Or, there’s an element of
somebody, they need as much glory as somebody else, and, so, they think they
are as good or better than the pastor, or deacon, or the elder, or board member
or usher, or whatever. They think they
should be there, they should as many kudos, so they’ve got the vainglory, and
that also brings a lot of discontent into God’s house.” But, Apostle Paul says, “Let nothing be done
with strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other
better than themselves.” Part 2: The Church Is Built
On the Lord Jesus, and Everything Is Beneath Him Philippians 2:9-11 Wherefore
God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every
name: That at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the
earth; And that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. He had to tell the people of
Philippi that—they were a part of Greece, way back when, and we know they had
the infusion of the Greek gods; Greek mythology, everybody’s heard of that, we
learned about that in school—back then, it wasn’t just myths, it was religion
for people. They had these towers and these
temples, and they would go in there and worship—and he would tell them, “Look,
God hath highly exalted who? the Lord Jesus Christ, and has given Him a name
which is above every name. And, this
Lord Jesus, everything in Heaven bows to His name, and everything on earth, and
t=everything under earth bows to His
name. In other words, there’s nothing
that’s going to be over God’s head, here.
And ain’t nothing going to walk right up to Him and be bold enough to
take Him on. Ain’t nothing going to slip
on by; everything bows to that precious name, the Lord Jesus Christ. So, they
were witnesses that, “Oh, you mean, all the Greek gods and the Roman gods?” Yes!
All the Philippian gods and the pagan gods? Yes!
What about all the natural gods?
What about the gods of pride, and envy, and strife, and… Yes, yes, yes! Everything bows to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, hallelujah! Hallelujah!
That’s good to know. It’s good to
know that this one is not a roll of the dice.
This one, here, is the one true and wise God. Now we have to go to our Scripture of the
month: Philippians 1:6 Being confident of
this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it
until the day of Jesus Christ: If God has begun a work in you, He
will finish it. If God has begun a work in you, it don't matter how you feel,
it don’t matter what you know, it don’t matter where you are, it don’t matter
what you been through. If God has
started something in you, God will finish it. It’s just incumbent on us to make sure that we
stay where God wants us to be so that that blessing can get there, and not put
anything in the way. Nothing in the way,
between me and what God has for me. I
had a person who was teaching me in the faith some time ago. He had left, and he came back, and, when he
came back, some people who were younger in the faith than me, and they asked
him, “Hey, I heard that you were really, really strong. What happened? How did you fall away?” and he said, “Well,
you know, God would lay on my heart to fellowship with somebody, and, you know,
I’d go watch a TV show or catch a movie.
Or, He’d lay on my heart to pray; I’d go shopping. Not that there’s anything wrong with
shopping. Or, God would lay on my heart
to read the Bible, and, you know what I would do? just not read the Bible; I’d
find something else. So, all those
blessings that God was trying to give to me, I would say no to them. Soon, I found that I just couldn’t get all
excited about this message any more.
But, after I got out into the world, I discovered that there is nothing
out there for me. It is God and God
alone.” So, if God says that he wants to
bless you, make sure you stay where He wants to bless you. Make sure you don’t have anything in the way,
and listen to what he tells you. And,
here’s another point about this: When
God says He’s going to bless you, He’s going to bless you for real, and real
good. And, you will not outlive His
blessing. I want to make a really plain
point about this: People say, “A
blessing is an instantaneous, a momentary thing, and then I’ll move on to
something else.” No! You will not outlive God’s blessing. God told Abraham, “I will bless you. Your seed will be like the sand in the sea,”
and that’s still going on, thousands of years later. That blessing is still rolling. In fact, not just Abraham. I don’t know anybody that has died that
actually used up everything they had; spent every dime, ate every last bit of
food… Every time God’s going to bless
you, that blessing outlives you. Outlives
you. He has so much for us. Part 3: Christians Have to Watch
Their Tongue Philippians 2:14-16 Do all things
without murmurings and disputings: That
ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst
of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I
have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain. Christians have to watch what we
say. “Do all things without murmurings
and disputings.” You ever know someone that
just complains about everything? If it’s summer, it’s too hot; if it’s winter, it's
too cold; if it’s nighttime, it’s too dark; if the sun is up, it’s too bright. If they don’t have a job, they complain about
not having a job; if God gives them a job, they complain about the job. They complain about their family, and, when
they’re away from their family, they complain about that. Complain, complain, complain, and please
don't let them talk about the church. This
sister that, that brother this, the leaders that, you know, the pastor this. Complain, complain, complain, but, a;; those
things that they could complain about, ask them, just ask them, “All these
things that you’re complaining about, if you’re a Christian, have you lost any
sleep in praying over any of these things?
This brother, that sister, your family, the job, any sleep at all, when
you’ve taken it to God?” Generally,
that’s the end of the conversation. But,
the truth is, God doesn't like it when we murmur—murmur, murmur, murmur—God
doesn’t like it when we murmur and have disputings and discontent; God doesn’t
like that. And He doesn’t like it when
we do it with the things that He has given us. In fact, according to this, in verse number
sixteen, “…holding forth the word of life…” Those are the words that God wants
us to hold. If we hold forth on murmurings
and disputings, according to verse fifteen, we will not be blameless. But, according to verse sixteen, if we hold
forth the words of life, as He has called us to be lights to the world. God’s called us to be the lights of the world;
speak life. Speak it! Speak something that brings light on the
scene. Speak something that helps
somebody, that enriches the situation.
Take it to the throne, that God may bless it. Now, those are the three parts of
the message to the church. Now, there’s a message in the church, in the
people of Philippi. Brother Jesse, I’m
going to have to borrow a couple of the statements you made, they were just so
good. As you were talking about acts
chapter sixteen—I’m glad you didn’t go over all the points—I’ve been dying for
this message for weeks, and, actually, this is supposed to be Brother Chris’s
turn, I said, “Chris, I can’t hold it any more!
I got a little Jeremiah welling up in me!” (Jeremiah 20:9) And Chris said, “Okay. Okay, go ahead; we’ll see how you do.” Actually, he was okay with it. We’re talking about the message in Philippi. Those were messages to the Philippians, but this is a message in Philippi. Acts 16:11-12 Therefore loosing
from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothracia, and the next day to
Neapolis; And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of
Macedonia, and a colony: and we were in that city abiding certain days. So here is where it gets started,
they’d gone to several different places, and, as Jesse said, sometimes God
shuts a door in one place, and He opens another door in another place. Why? because God has a will, that’s why. And this is what was going on. God took him places, and now they’re at
Philippi, and they’re abiding certain days.
Acts 16:13 And on the Sabbath we went out of the city
by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake
unto the women which resorted thither. So, point 1: The Message in Philippi, “Philippians is a
place where we go to seek God, and get interrupted.” We go to seek Him, and we get
interrupted. You ever think, “I’d like
to get a little fellowship, or maybe I could pray with somebody, or I could
pray for myself. Maybe I’ll do some paying,
or listen to some music. Just something
I want to do to seek God,” and something comes along to interrupt you. Then you’re in the land of Philippi. Then you’re with the Philippians. If you get interrupted when you go to seek
God, then you’re in Philippians. Acts 16:14-15 And a certain
woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which
worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto
the things which were spoken of Paul. And
when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have
judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And
she constrained us. Jesse made the point last week,
this is the beginning of the church of Philippi. Hallelujah.
A whole group of women, but one of them, one of them, a single one was
enough, and the Bible says that God opened her heart. Was this message just for her? No! No!
According to the Scripture, her and her household got baptized. The beginning of ministry at Philippi started
with Lydia. “If you found me faithful,
come and abide with us.” Her household. It doesn’t say how many, but it makes
reference to it a little later on. So, point 2: Philippians is a place of evangelism, where
they went and they shared with the ladies that were there, and salvation. Number One, it’s a place that, when you go to
seek god, you get interrupted, but it’s also a place of evangelism and
salvation. Acts 16:16-24 And it came to
pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of
divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: The same followed Paul and us, and cried,
saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the
way of salvation. And this did she many
days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in
the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. And when her masters saw that the hope of
their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the
marketplace unto the rulers, And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These
men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, And teach customs, which are
not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. And the multitude rose up together against
them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them,
they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: Who, having received such a charge, thrust
them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. So, this whole thing started
out—if I was Apostle Paul, “You know, all we wanted to do was go down and
pray. That’s all we wanted to do.” Actually, if I was Apostle Paul, I would have
had a better answer than that. But, all
it started off with was wanting to go and pray.
And, here, after sharing with Lydia, after sharing, her household
getting baptized, after them receiving the faith, they go on, trying to get to
prayer, and there’s a woman with a spirt of divination. Point 3: Philippians is a place of
persecution. It’s a place where, if you
live godly in Christ Jesus, yes, there’s somebody that’s going to talk about
you. Somebody ain’t going to like
it. Somewhere along the line, people are
not going to be happy with it. This just
happened to be a person with a spirit of—no, it wasn’t the spirit of false
prophets, it wasn’t the spirit of belligerence and anger, it wasn’t the spirit
of malice—this was a spirit of divination; it as a spirit of gambling. It started out as a gambling spirit, just
following them around. A gambling
spirit? Yes. A gambling spirit that led
into greed, which led into anger, because spirits don’t generally come alone. They come regimented. If you think you’re just fighting one battle,
you’ve got to pray the whole thing out, the whole thing out. And, so, as he casts the spirit
out of her, and the people who had gotten their gain, they saw it was all over;
the good-luck charm was no more good luck.
As this happened, they said, “These people do exceedingly trouble our
city. We’re tired of this Christian
stuff. Get it out of here!” What happened? they beat them, just because
they were Christians. They beat them, and
they threw them in jail. They beat them;
they beat them, and they threw them in jail. When we were in Israel, we got a
chance to see the jail, the kind of jails that they get thrown into. Several people were there. It was literally, it was like an upside-down
cave. So, the bottom of it was like
hollowed-out, and there was one little stone stairway to get down there to it,
and there was like a hole on top, so, when they say, “…thrown in jail,” you
literally got pushed and thrown down into jail.
It was quite a thing to see. And, so, they were fastened, in
other words, they put chains on them, and they closed the gates, and they were
all lowered down there… They didn’t have
no electricity back then. So, it was
kind of dark. And, I would suppose, right
about now, you would think, “Wow, talk about being discouraged. Ah, I could be discouraged.” But, this isn’t the end of the story, when
they were in Philippi; this isn’t how the story ends. Acts 16:25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and
sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so
that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors
were opened, and every one's bands were loosed. So, at midnight… Midnight is normally talked about as being
the middle of the night; that’s when it’s supposed to be the darkest, in the
middle of the night. At midnight, that’s
when they began to worship. When it’s
darkest, when it’s hardest, when it’s most challenging, they began to worship,
they began to pray, they began to open up and seek and tell God how good He was,
and how to bless His name. When it’s
darkest, when it’s the most trying, and everybody else that was there heard
them praising, and praying, and singing.
All of the other prisoners heard them, and that’s for a reason. Because the next thing they heard was an
earthquake, and they know that it wasn’t Caesar, it wasn’t a magistrate, it isn’t
anybody else that brings an earthquake on the scene but God Himself, the One
that they were praising, and praying, and shouting, and singing to. And this earthquake came for a specific
purpose. God sent an earthquake; the
Bible says that it shook up the foundation of what was holding them. So, not just the gate was open, but their
shackles. Not, and earthquake, I can
see, structurally, it will tear off a gate, but the shackles? Because when God sends an earthquake, He
sends one for real. When God’s going to loose
you, He’s going to loose you for real!
All the way back—yes, He’s going to open the gate! Yes, He’s going to take the shackles off! Yes, He’s going to make a way! And, yes, He’s
going to let you know what’s going on!
So, here we see (Point 4:) Philippians is a place of deliverance. It’s a place of deliverance. Acts 16:27-31 And the keeper of
the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew
out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had
been fled. But Paul cried with a loud
voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and
came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and
said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? So,
here, the earthquake, not only did it loose all the prisoners, and they saw
access to this one God that Paul and Silas were praying to, but it woke up the
jailer. It woke that guy up. He saw everything open, and he knew, “Oh,
man, my keepers are going to kill me; I might as well kill myself.” But the Bible says, yeah, it was midnight, so
there was no light, no electricity. The
Bible says Apostle Paul, God showed that to him, and he said, “Do yourself no
harm,” and then he asked for some
light to be brought in. First I need to
save you, and then I need to bring you some light. And you know what the jailer asked? He didn’t ask, “How did you guys have the
power to do it?” He didn’t ask
that. He didn’t ask, “Man, you guys must
be pretty strong! Wow, it went all the
way down to the shackles!” He didn’t ask
any of that. He didn’t even ask, “What’s
the name of your God?” He asked, “What
do I got to do to be saved. I see that
whatever God you’re talking about, he is the real God. What do I have to do to know God?” And Apostle Paul shares with him how to see
him saved, and his family. So, we see
here that (Point 5:) Philippians is a place of answers and salvation. Answers and salvation. One
more point, and then one more part. And we’re just going to skim over this
(Acts 16:34-40). Here, we see that, in
the morning time, what happened was they called—the people who bet them, and
put them in jail, called and said, “Go ahead and let them go.” Bu apostle Paul wasn’t going to take
that. “Now, this isn’t about
freedom. This is about what you did to
God’s servants, and this is about everybody that saw you do it, and they need
to know.” He said, “No, if you want us loosed,
you come down here and loose us.” And
they got scared about that. And so, we
see that (Point 6:) Philippians is a place where you take a stand for the God. Now, back to our last part: Part 4: Those with
Testimonies Philippians 2:19-22 But I trust in
the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good
comfort, when I know your state. For I
have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which
are Jesus Christ's. But ye know the
proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the
gospel. Now, what do you think that they
would learn from these two? One the one
hand, you had Timothy, who cares and loves them so much, so, obviously, they’re
going to learn about how to love each other; that’s what they’re going to learn
from Timothy. On the other hand, we have
Epaphroditus, who shows up, who lets his life be a hazard of sacrifice, and
showing, “I minister to my leadership, because I realize that, if Apostle Paul
is taken care of, then so are the churches at Philippi, and Galatia, and
Thessalonica, and the churches of Colossi, and the churches in Hebrews, and the
churches in Corinth. All those churches
are going to be taken care of, if I can make it easier for him.” So, they’re going to learn to work with their
leadership on one hand, and see the Gospel go forth, and, on the other hand,
they’re going to learn to love each other.
So, what kind of Church are they going to have after these two brothers
go and minister? They’re going to have a
church full of Love. A church full of
love. Amen.
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