Good morning.
My name is Matthew Capone, and I'm the assistant pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian
Church, and it's my joy to bring God's word to you today.
A special welcome if you are new or visiting with us.
We're glad you're here.
And we are glad you're here not because we are trying to fill seats, but because we're
following after Jesus, and we're following after him together as one community.
And we're convinced that there's no one so good that they don't need God's grace, and
no one so bad that they can't have it.
And so God has something to say to everyone, and everyone needs to hear what God has to
say.
Whether you're someone who's called yourself a Christian your entire life, or if you're
someone who doesn't call yourself a Christian.
Maybe you have doubts or questions or objections to Christianity.
God is going to speak to all of those things in his word, and so that's why we open up his
word every Sunday, so that we can hear from him.
If you've been with us the last several months, you know that we just finished a series in
the book of Ruth.
And now today we're going to be starting a series on the book of Philippians.
And Philippians is a letter.
It's a letter that's written to a church very much like our church.
We're going to see at the very beginning that this is a church that has saints, and it has
deacons, and it has elders, just like us.
And it's a letter written to a city very much like our city.
Philippi was a prominent and major city in Macedonia, just north of Greece, but it was also
a military city.
It was a military city because of its history.
It was a military city because many military families would settle there.
But most importantly, it was a military city because the Roman government had declared
it to be a Roman colony.
And so that meant that if you were a Roman citizen and a soldier, you could get special tax
benefits.
And so, of course, as you know, if there's a tax incentive, people are going to move in.
And so there's a great incentive for Roman citizens and for military families to be a part
of the city of Philippi.
And this church that was much like ours and a city that's much like ours had struggles
that were much like ours because they lived in a culture that worshipped the emperor rather
than Jesus.
And this was actually heightened by the fact that they were a Roman colony.
They experienced this at a greater intensity.
They were a church that, while they were working together, they sometimes struggled to figure out
how to do that.
We're going to see that the church in Philippi had trouble with unity.
People had very different ideas, perhaps, of what their ministry needed to look like
together.
And so Paul has to address that as well.
And it's to a group of people who are trying to hold fast to the gospel in the midst of people,
other teachers who are teaching them something false.
And the author, Paul, is writing to this church that he founded.
It's a church that he started.
And this church had been around for about 10 years at the time that he wrote the letter.
We've been around about 20 years, so twice as long, but this still wasn't a very old church.
And it was a church planter, a missionary, writing back to people he loved.
Writing about how they should handle all the difficulties that were in front of them.
And by the way, when Paul writes this, he's in prison.
He's in prison in Rome.
And he writes to a city, Philippi.
If you remember the story of Acts, it's a city where he was in prison.
Remember in Acts 16, it was when Paul converted the Philippian jailer and his family.
So he's writing from a prison to a city where he was in prison.
And yet, while he's in prison, he finds tremendous thanksgiving and joy.
And so our question this morning is, how exactly does Paul do that?
How does he find joy and thanksgiving in prison, in difficult circumstances,
when both himself and the people he's writing to are facing tremendous opposition?
So that's our question as we come to the letter to the Philippians.
Remember that this is God's word.
And God tells us that his word is more precious than gold, even the finest gold.
And that it is sweeter than honey, even honey that comes straight from the honeycomb.
And so we're going to turn to it now.
We're in Philippians chapter 1, starting at verse 1.
Please read with me.
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi,
with the overseers and deacons,
grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,
always, in every prayer of mine, for you all,
making my prayer with joy, verse 5,
because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you
will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Please pray with me as we come to this portion of God's word.
Dear Father in heaven,
we thank you that you remember that we are just dust.
You know that we're feeble and frail.
You know that we need to hear your word just as much as the church in Philippi did in the first century.
That as we live in America, we need to know what you had to tell to those who lived under the Roman Empire.
And so we ask that you would do that.
That you would open our ears and our eyes.
That you'd soften our hearts.
That you'd help us to understand everything that you've written to us.
We ask all these things in the name of your Son.
Amen.
If you were watching the news early this year,
you might have seen that there was a record that was set.
And this was a record that was broken.
It had been set for,
it had not been broken for I think about maybe 10 or 20 years.
And it was the record for the highest enrollment for a class at Yale University.
This was just a normal class.
Wasn't advertised.
But as students found out about it,
word of mouth began to spread.
And so they started telling each other and registering.
And before they knew it,
there were almost 1,200 students registered for it.
And the previous record, I believe, was for about 1,050.
So this was about 150 more students than registered for any class
in the over 300-year history of Yale.
And it was so large that they had to find a new lecture hall.
They had to set up TVs and videos
so that people could sit in various places and listen to the lecturer.
They had to modify homework requirements
so that they could actually give grades to 1,200 students.
If you heard about this, you know what the class is about.
It was a class on happiness.
And so what Yale students were more interested in than anything else,
what they were eager to know about,
was how can we be happy?
And that's the question that many of us are asking as well, right?
That's the question our culture is asking.
How can we be happy?
What can we do to escape the feelings that we have, perhaps, of loneliness,
lack of satisfaction?
How can we escape the idea that maybe what we're doing isn't worthwhile?
How can we escape pain?
How can we instead feel at peace, at rest?
So on the one hand, it's an alluring question, right?
It's a tempting question.
It's a reason why so many Yale students flock to take this class.
On the other hand, if you know much about happiness,
you know that it's a cruel master.
Because happiness is dependent on what we do and what other people do.
And not only is it dependent on what we do and what other people do,
but it's dependent on our circumstances.
Some of you know from hard experiences
that you might not be able to achieve happiness right now.
Because if it's based on circumstances,
sometimes those are out of your control.
And if it's based on what you do and what other people do,
sometimes it's not enough.
Paul here in this letter that he's writing to Philippians is in prison.
He's in circumstances that would preclude happiness for him.
And he's writing to people who perhaps can't have happiness at that time either.
They're in the midst of conflict,
both from outside of themselves, inside of themselves,
opposition all around them.
And so what does Paul find instead?
Instead of happiness,
he finds what Christians throughout the ages have found.
He finds thanksgiving and joy.
And so as I said at the beginning,
we're going to be asking this question,
how does Paul find thanksgiving and joy in prison?
What does he give thanks for?
And why is he joyful?
If you're familiar with Paul's letters,
you know that the beginning of his letters
often functioned kind of like a movie trailer.
You know that if you go to see a movie in the theaters,
you're going to spend probably the first half hour or so,
at least it feels that long, right?
Watching trailers of movies that are going to come,
and you find out about plot points,
reasons you should come and see the next movie,
perhaps the main conflict that you're going to hear resolved.
And so you get an overall idea of what the movie is going to be about.
And Paul does that in every one of his letters.
Every single letter that Paul writes,
he has a trailer at the very beginning.
And this trailer helps us get a glimpse of all the different scenes,
helps us understand and see and anticipate what's about to come.
And he does this here in the chapter of Philippians.
By the way, it makes it really hard to preach.
It's easy to preach one scene.
When you have ten scenes in a trailer,
you think, what am I supposed to, you know,
what are we supposed to do with this?
And yet Paul gives us the key.
He gives us the key in his thanksgiving and joy,
and we see it in verse 5.
Gives us this important word, because.
Why is it that in verse 3 he thanks God?
And why in verse 4 is it always with joy?
Well, we find out that because in verse 5,
it's because of your partnership in the gospel
from the first day until now.
Paul's joy in his thanksgiving comes from this one thing,
this simple thing.
And this is going to be what's going to be given to us
in the rest of the book of Philippians.
It's partnership in the gospel.
And so this morning we're simply going to take a look at that.
What does Paul tell us here about the gospel?
And what does he tell us about partnership?
And what in the world do partnership in the gospel
have to do with each other?
First, let's look at the gospel.
It starts out in the very first verse.
He tells us,
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
to all the saints in Christ Jesus.
And so the gospel, if it's about nothing else,
is about a man.
It's a man named Christ Jesus.
And this man is someone that Paul follows.
He's a real man.
He lived in time and space and history.
He was a Jewish man.
He was born.
He grew up.
He was a baby.
He was a toddler.
He was a child.
He worked with his father.
They were builders.
We're not sure if they were carpenters or stone builders,
but he worked with his hands.
And yet there was something different about this man,
Jesus Christ.
And that is his name wasn't just Jesus,
but it was Christ.
And Christ means anointed one.
And he was the anointed one that was the fulfillment
of all the Old Testament prophecies
about someone who would come and save God's people.
And so he wasn't just a carpenter
who worked with his father,
but he was also a savior who died,
that he had three years of ministry on this earth,
preaching and teaching about the fact
that we need reconciliation with God,
that God is pouring out his wrath on mankind.
He's pouring out his wrath
because of the ways that we have sinned against him.
He's pouring out his wrath
because of the way we treat each other,
pushing each other down
rather than lifting each other up.
He's pouring out his wrath
for the ways that we have trashed the earth
that he gave us to take care of.
He's pouring out his wrath
for all the reasons that we have failed
to do what we should have.
And yet we see here in verses one and two,
it's Christ Jesus that Paul puts his hope in
because Christ Jesus is the one
that came and took God's wrath.
He was willing for God's wrath
to be poured out on him
so that it would not have to be poured out on us.
And so if anything,
the gospel here that Paul takes joy in
is the gospel that he tells us about
in verses one and two.
It's the gospel of Christ Jesus.
We continue to find out more about it
in verse two
because he tells us grace to you and peace.
This grace is a reminder
that the gospel is something that we don't deserve.
Grace is an undeserved gift
and so Paul is reminding us
not just from verse one of Christ Jesus,
but verse two, what he did,
that he took the punishment that we deserved
so that we don't have to take it.
That's the grace.
So we see Jesus Christ in verse one.
We see our need for him in verse two,
that we need his grace.
And we also see what he gives to us in verse two.
He doesn't just give us grace,
he gives us peace.
And so that when we have this grace,
when Christ gives us his righteousness
because he lived a perfect life,
and when he takes our judgment
because he suffered the punishment that we should,
we have peace with God.
We have peace because
despite what happens in our circumstances
and despite what we do and other people do,
we cannot lose God's grace.
We cannot lose the most important thing that we have.
And so there's something unshakable
and that's where this peace comes from.
The peace is the result of the grace.
And so we can see this outline here
at the very beginning of the letter.
They're servants of Christ Jesus.
He's the one who came and died.
But unlike any other man who died,
he rose again from the dead.
It was an act of grace.
And that grace gives us peace.
But that's not the end of the story of the gospel
and it's not the last thing that Paul has to tell us here.
Because we find out more about this partnership in verse 6.
And I'm sure of this,
that he who began a good work in you
will bring it to completion
at the day of Jesus Christ.
In other words,
the gospel is not just a one-time act
that happened in Christ's death and resurrection,
but it is something that is ongoing.
It is a work.
It is something that's happening even now.
And so for those who have put their faith
and their hope and their trust in Jesus,
they've accepted his punishment on their behalf.
He is at work in their lives right now.
He's doing something.
That the gospel is not just static but dynamic.
It's at work and it's active and it's alive.
If you attend our Explore class this weekend
and you decide you want to pursue membership in the church,
we're going to ask you,
how did you become a Christian?
But an equally valid question might be,
how are you becoming a Christian?
How has God been at work in your life even now?
What is he doing?
Because the gospel is not just something
in the past historically.
And it's not just something in the past in our lives,
but it's something that God is doing even now.
Some of you know that my car got wrecked
in the first hailstorm.
I got both my windshields knocked.
I was not hiding under the wing of the church.
I got both my windshields knocked out.
I had to have my roof replaced and my hood replaced.
It's actually still in the shop,
so I'm driving this little Mini Cooper,
which is fun.
I just hope I don't get in a wreck
because I don't think I'll win,
especially if someone has one of those bumper hoods
in the front.
But I do feel like I'm driving a go-kart sometimes.
Which, you know, it has its ups and downs.
But my car's been in a shop for a month.
And I've had a great experience with the shop,
mostly except they don't always tell me what's going on,
and so I have to call them.
And I call them probably about once a week,
and I'll say, what's going on?
What's happened?
Where are we with the car?
And so they'll tell me,
okay, well, we've replaced the hood,
and we've replaced the top,
but we have to send it to get its paint done now.
And the most recent thing was,
okay, we've had the paint done,
but we have to have all the windows replaced,
and it's a holiday weekend,
so it's probably not going to happen,
so you're probably going to be driving a go-kart
for a little bit longer.
But there's this ongoing work.
It's not just the story of how I turned my car in
at the body shop.
If I were going to tell you about the work
that's being done on my car,
that wouldn't be enough,
because it's something that's ongoing.
It's something that's happening little by little.
And so if you're a Christian today,
my question for you is this.
If you call yourself a Christian,
how is God at work in your life?
If you look back over the past year
or two years or five years,
how have you seen God at work
to bring you more love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control?
Because Paul tells us that that's what the gospel does.
If the gospel is at work in our lives,
then it is at work.
One of my favorite, by the way,
today's C.S. Lewis Day.
I have two C.S. Lewis books with me.
I'm going to read you some quotes from both of them.
C.S. Lewis gives a great illustration of this
in his book, Mere Christianity.
He says,
I find I must borrow yet another parable from George MacDonald.
Imagine yourself as a living house.
God comes in to rebuild that house.
At first, perhaps, you can understand what he is doing.
He is getting the drains right
and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on.
You knew that those jobs needed doing,
and so you are not surprised.
But presently, he starts knocking the house about
in a way that hurts abominably
and does not seem to make sense.
What on earth is he up to?
The explanation is that he is building
quite a different house
from the one you thought of.
Throwing out a new wing here,
putting on an extra floor there,
running up towers, making courtyards.
You thought you were going to be made
into a decent little cottage.
But he is building a palace.
He intends to come
and live in it himself.
So how does Paul find joy
and thanksgiving in prison?
First, it's because he knows
that God is at work.
Despite the circumstances,
despite what he does
and what other people do,
God is still working in his house.
Still rebuilding and renewing.
And he, we see in verse 6,
is bringing it to completion.
One day I'm actually going to be able
to pick my car up.
And it's going to look,
hopefully, almost like new.
Right?
It's going to be brought to completion.
So that's the work
that God is doing as well.
But that's not all we see in verse 6
because we're told
that it's going to be brought
to completion when?
At the day of Jesus Christ.
Now this day of Jesus Christ
was something that's an idea
we learned about in the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament,
it was known as the day of the Lord.
And the day of the Lord
was that great day
when God was going to come
and bring all judgment
and all justice.
It was the day
when everything that was wrong
was going to be made right
and everything would be restored.
That there is a day that is set.
And so that Jesus doesn't just
have a first coming,
he has a second coming.
We find out about,
in the Gospels,
in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
about Jesus' first coming.
And Jesus' first coming
has an emphasis on salvation.
Has an emphasis on his death
and resurrection.
But it has judgment as well.
It's not just salvation.
It emphasizes salvation,
but it also includes judgment.
Jesus' second coming
is going to emphasize judgment,
but includes salvation.
And so we're mistaken
if we look at a few cherry-picked stories
from the Gospels
and say things like,
well, Jesus,
he would never judge anyone.
I can't imagine Jesus
disagreeing with anyone's lifestyle.
I mean, look at this one story
that I picked from the Gospels
in which he affirmed someone.
We have to take Jesus
not only as the suffering servant,
but as the one who comes
in Revelation at the very end
and he's riding a horse
and he's splattered with blood.
But this time he's not splattered
with his own blood.
He's splattered with the blood
of his enemies.
Because when he comes
to bring justice
on the final day,
it has to include judgment.
And so remember I said
if you're a Christian,
if you call yourself a Christian,
you have to ask,
how has God been at work
in my life?
If you don't call yourself
a Christian,
you have to think
about the day of Jesus Christ.
Because there is going
to come a day
when God is going
to pour out his wrath
fully and finally
on the earth.
And those who trust in Christ,
who have faith in Christ,
will be saved through that
because Christ has taken
the wrath for them.
But those who have not
will not.
And so those of you
who have questions
and doubts
and objections
about Christianity,
there's a day of judgment
that is coming.
There's the day
of Jesus Christ.
And there's only going
to be one question
that matters
and that's whether you
have trusted in the gospel.
If you have,
what verse 2 tells us,
if you have grace
and peace
from our Lord
and Savior,
Jesus Christ.
It says,
grace to you
and peace
from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
So do you have
that grace
and that peace?
If you don't,
it doesn't matter
how happy you are
because your circumstances
will dramatically change
on that day.
And so God
is calling you
to follow after him.
He's calling you
to put your trust
and your faith in him
and to choose
that joy
and that thanksgiving
above.
any happiness.
That's what he's calling us to.
And so there's encouragement
for Christians.
God is bringing
a good work
to completion in you.
He's at work even now.
And there's a challenge
for those of us
who do not call ourselves
Christians
that there's going
to come a day
when Jesus not only
fulfills his first coming
but has a second coming
and he's going to judge
the earth.
And so Paul gives
thanksgiving
for the gospel
but he doesn't just
give thanksgiving
for the gospel.
Remember in verse 5
it's partnership
in the gospel.
And we see that partnership
all throughout this passage
as well
and we're going to see it
actually throughout
the whole book.
This is a book
about partnership
in the gospel.
It's a letter
written by a man
who loves
these people at Philippi.
Some of them
came to Christ
because of his teaching
and they love him.
They've been supporting him
financially for years.
They've been praying
for him for years.
And so he starts out
with a partnership.
Verse 1
he says not just Paul
but Paul and Timothy.
Now we find out later
that Paul
as we read this letter
it's going to become clear
that only Paul
is writing it.
So he just puts
Timothy's name
at the beginning
and so what does
that tell us?
Well he values
Timothy's partnership
so much.
Paul is not interested
in his own name.
He's not interested
in being
a personality
driven apostle
but he's interested
in partnering
with whoever he can.
Timothy's his partner
and so he wants
to bring Timothy in.
But it goes on
in verse 1
it's addressed to people
it's addressed to the saints
who are at Philippi
with the overseers
and deacons.
Overseers here
is a fancy word
for elder
so he's just
distinguishing
the different categories
here.
There are congregants
there's elders
there's deacons.
As an aside
this is why we have
that kind of structure
here at Cheyenne Mountain
because we want to be
faithful to what God
has given us
in his word.
And so here's a question
for you.
Let's have a thought
experiment for a second.
Let's say Paul
was still alive
and he wrote a letter
to Colorado Springs.
Would you receive
that letter?
Would you be one
of the recipients?
Only if you're part
of the church.
Paul only writes
letters to churches
and leaders of churches.
Paul is not
writing letters
to the people
in Philippi
who all have
their own faith journey
that involves Jesus.
He's writing it
to a church.
He's writing it
to these believers
who are together
working as partners
for the gospel.
And so we can't have
one without the other.
We can't have
the gospel
without a partnership
with other believers.
Those are things
to go together.
And so if you
are not part
of a church
I would encourage
you to join one.
It doesn't have
to be this church.
It could be
we're having
an explore class
this weekend.
But join some church.
There's a lot of churches
in Colorado Springs.
But find a partnership.
Find people
to partner with
in the gospel
because that is what
Paul gives joy for here.
He gives joy for people.
And oh by the way
a lot of this letter
actually is not going
to make sense
unless you're in the church.
Because as we read along
Paul's going to give
commands and orders
about how people
in the church
should get along together.
He's going to talk to them
how they work
through conflict
with each other.
He's going to present them
in chapter 2
with models
of people
they can follow after.
People that they know
who are faithful Christians
that they can use
as examples.
And so this partnership
is something
that is integral
to Paul's life.
He doesn't
Paul doesn't have
a category
let's put it this way
Paul does not have
a category
for a saint
without a church.
He doesn't have
a category
for a partnership
without a gospel.
And so we see
it goes on
in verse 3
Paul loves
these people.
He thanks God
for them
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.
And I am sure
of this
that he who began
a good work in you
will bring it to completion
at the day of Jesus Christ.
I don't want to spoil
too much
but we're going to see
next week
that part of the reason
Paul is so sure
that these are people
for whom the work
is going to be brought
to a completion
is because they're people
who are in the partnership.
They're people
who have served with him
in hard times
and good times.
And so I said earlier
we can't have
the partnership
without
excuse me
we can't have the gospel
without partnership.
But there's also
a sense in which
we can't have
partnership
without the gospel.
Remember
when we were
in Ruth chapter 3
we talked about
the difference
between thick
and thin communities
that there are
thick communities
that can help
each other
even in the toughest times.
And there are thin communities
the communities
are real communities
but they're based
around very superficial things.
And so people
in a thin community
might know your name
but they're probably
not going to visit you
in the hospital.
People in a thick community
they know your name
they're going to sit with you
when you have questions
they're going to sit with you
when you're rejoicing
and when you're in sorrow.
And you can have
partnerships
about other things.
You can have
partnerships
about cycling
or about hiking
or about
a number of different
activities here in Colorado.
And so I'm not going to say
you can't have partnership
without the gospel.
But the gospel
is the fullest
partnership.
It's the partnership
that holds together
people who have
nothing else in common.
It's the partnership
that brings together
different generations
and ethnicities.
It's the partnership
that's going to withstand
everything else.
You know you can have
a partnership
around an activity
or an interest
but what if you lose
your ability
to take part
in that activity?
And how do you resolve
by the way
this is going to get
to what we're going
to talk about
in Philippians 2
how do you resolve
disagreements?
What if you have
divisions about
how to understand
that activity?
That our partnership
in other words
has to be about something.
We live in a lonely age
in society
where people long
for community
and yet they don't
know how to find it.
Now I promised you
two C.S. Lewis quotes
today and I'm going
to make good
on my promise.
So the next one
comes from
The Four Loves
which is C.S. Lewis'
book about relationships
and he says this
people who simply
want friends
can never make any.
The very condition
of having friends
is that we should
want something else
besides friends.
Where the truthful
answer to the question
do you see the same
truth would be
I see nothing
and I don't care
about the truth.
I only want a friend.
No friendship
can arise
though affection
of course may.
There would be nothing
for the friendship
to be about
and friendship
must be about something
even if it were
only an enthusiasm
for dominoes
or white mice.
Those who have nothing
can share nothing.
Those who are going
nowhere can have
no fellow travelers.
Let me read that
last sentence again.
Those who have nothing
can share nothing.
Those who are going
nowhere can have
no fellow travelers.
And so in other words
if you want
deep and rich
and lasting community
it has to be about
something much
much greater
than yourself.
You know there's
something that I've
been thinking about
a lot recently
and that is
it's a little bit
strange.
It's a little bit
strange that I'm up
here on a Sunday
morning
preaching to you all.
You know most of you
many of you
have a military
background.
I've never been
in the military.
military.
Most of you are
married or have
been married and
I'm not.
I'm in my 20s
and most of you
aren't.
Most of you are in
your 30s I know
that's why it's funny.
There's a lot of
places I could go in
town where there are
single people in their
20s.
There are places this
morning I could go
and you might say
well you're here
because you have a
job right.
There are other
jobs I could find.
There's work for
those who are
willing to work.
So why am I here
with you all?
I'm here with you
all because I want
the treasure.
I want the treasure
and I'm willing to
walk with anyone
who's going to walk
there with me.
And we're here
together as one
community following
Jesus together.
And so whoever is
going to walk
towards Jesus with
me who's willing
to help me in that
and go with me in
that let's come
let's go.
And that's Paul's
feeling here about
these people.
That's why he finds
joy in thanksgiving
not just in God's
work not just in the
gospel but in the
partnership.
And so that we can
save each other not
just that the gospel
brings it to us
us joy but that we
bring joy to each
other as we pursue
the gospel together.
That's what's going
to hold us together
as a community.
That's what's going
to keep us.
That's also what's
going to actually
result in us finding
the gospel and
sticking with it and
being brought to
completion at that
last day.
I have been reading
through slowly the
Hobbit which I think
I read at some point
in my childhood but I
hadn't read it in a
long time and I
really wanted to and
so I started I
haven't quite finished
yet but if you
remember the very
beginning we meet
Bilbo.
Bilbo is this Hobbit
now he has some
adventurous tendencies
but he really just
likes to stay at home.
He wants his house to
be very orderly.
He wants everything to
be very predictable
and then Gandalf comes
and visits him one day
and he hasn't seen
Gandalf for a long time.
Remember Gandalf's this
wizard.
Gandalf knocks on his
door and Bilbo's very
put out by this.
He doesn't really want
to see Gandalf but he's
trying to be polite.
So he lets Gandalf in
and says okay I'll have
tea with you tomorrow.
He invites him to tea
and he thinks he's just
inviting Gandalf.
What he doesn't know is
that Gandalf leaves a
mark on his door.
And so the next day
very early people start
knocking on Bilbo's
door and dwarves keep
coming in and he thinks
okay I have a couple
dwarves in my house.
Well then there's two
more dwarves until
suddenly his whole house
is filled with dwarves.
They're eating all his
food which he didn't
want them to.
They're making a mess.
He's trying to be polite
and every time he offers
something to them they
say yes.
When they leave his
house later they leave
it in a mess.
And Bilbo thinks that
he could just have
Gandalf.
He could just invite
Gandalf into his
hobbit hole.
But Gandalf doesn't
come alone.
we can't have God and
his gospel without his
people as well.
We can't have the
gospel without a
partnership.
If Bilbo wants Gandalf
he has to let all the
dwarves into his house
as well.
But that's not the end.
The dwarves then recruit
him to go on this
adventure he doesn't
necessarily want to go
on.
It requires him leaving
his hobbit hole.
They're going to go and
get this treasure that a
dragon has stolen.
So they finally convince
him.
He goes along with them.
Along the journey Bilbo
gets to face some of his
own sin.
He makes a lot of
mistakes.
At some points the
dwarves are almost
tempted to kick him
out.
They're not sure if he
has the skills that they
really think he needs.
Sometimes he's at the
end of his wits with
dwarves and yet they
keep going together.
Why do they keep
walking along the path?
It's because Bilbo and
Gandalf and the dwarves
are all seeking the
treasure together.
And they can't do it by
themselves.
The dwarves need someone
small and little who can
get into small places.
And Bilbo needs companions
who can save himself from
his own stupidity.
And it's only as they
work together and they
partner together for the
treasure that they're able
to make it to the end.
And so brothers and
sisters, God has given
us his greatest treasure in
the gospel.
He's given us his greatest
treasure in his son, Jesus
Christ.
And so he calls us not just
to that gospel, but to a
partnership.
He calls us to walk
towards it together with
people we might not choose
to walk with, people who
are very different from
ourselves, people who might
feel like dwarves when we're
hobbits, or hobbits when we're
dwarves.
But we stick together.
Why?
Because as we find out in
verse 6, he who began a good
work in you will bring it to
completion at the day of
Christ Jesus.
Please pray with me.
Dear Father in heaven, we
thank you for the goodness of
your word.
We thank you for the
provision of your son, that
we can have grace and peace.
And we thank you for the
partnership that you have
given us here at Cheyenne
Mountain.
We ask that you would stir it
up in us, that we would seek
and look to grow more and
more as we see you working in
our lives and that we would
partner together in it.
We ask all these things in the
name of your son.
Amen.