Sunday 08 • 25 • 19

Is a way of reflecting on what God has done and looking forward to what we hope He will do. We're going to look at a passage in Philippians 1 together. It's in your bulletin. It's on the screen behind me. As is our new tradition, we're going to read it together. So three, two, one. Here we go.

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, 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. It is right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart. For you all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. — Philippians 1:1-11

Let me pray. Father, we ask that you be with us now by Your Spirit and that Your Spirit would help us understand these wonderful things in Your Word and that Your Spirit bring about the change in our hearts that You desire and that would leave Your people deeper in love with You and deeper in love with one another. It's in Your name that we ask these things, Jesus. Amen.

Partnership in the Gospel

How's the transition gone? A mentor asked me a number of years ago.

It's been hard, I replied. I feel like we've left our best friends.

Let me give you some context. Casey and I were married twenty-four years ago and our first year was hard. We liked the idea of church. We liked the idea of joining a church, but we couldn't find one that we were interested in being part of. Friends invited us to join them at a new church in town, a church plant, and so we started attending their third Sunday. And soon we were hooked on the idea of church and church planting and the hard work that it took to plant a church.

In addition to that, we made what twenty-three years later we've now, I think, are safe to call lifelong friends. And then we moved so I could attend seminary. As I explained this costly move to my mentor, he said, "You know, it's a biblical phrase for what you experienced at that church. It's this: partnership in the gospel."

And I like that phrase. It's found in Philippians 1, the passage we just read together. It gave what I thought was a good description of those lifelong friendships that were formed as we all gave ourselves to see a church planted in Central Florida. So I often use that phrase to describe what we or others experienced as they built deep friendships through the church.

And then fourteen years ago, my family landed in Raleigh at a church that would become this church, Christ the King. It was here that partnership in the gospel took on a deeper meaning. It took on a deeper meaning as two things happened. One, I studied this for a series of sermons. I was preaching through the book of Philippians, and it was then that I better understood the words that I had used in the past to describe what Casey and I experienced at that church in Florida and what we experienced in an even deeper way in the work that we did here as we worked with the members here to replant this church.

Coming to Christ the King

As was explained, I was the pastor here from 2005 to 2010. James Sutton and I were friends in seminary, and I was working at a nonprofit ministry in New Orleans looking for a full-time job in the church. James called me and asked if I'd be interested in coming to what at the time was this church, Christ Our Comfort. The church was without vocational leadership and attendance had dwindled to about 20.

My response to James was clear. No, I'm not interested. I don't want to be a senior pastor. I don't want to be a solo pastor. I don't want to plant a replant. I don't want to raise money. The job you're asking me to do is all of those. So, no.

And he said, "Well, that's good news because we're looking for someone older with more experience than you."

Somehow, in some way, that conversation eventually led to an incredibly awkward interview here in Raleigh at Big Ed's, which I'll tell you about later. And eventually to a mutual change of heart for both James and me and to the best we could discern, God wanted the Grudums in Raleigh to replant this church.

During the first couple of years, I wondered if we would make it. Twenty months. The idea of a twenty-year anniversary was the farthest thing from my mind. But the Lord sustained us and gave a lot of grace to both make good on our successes and our mistakes. Well, here we are.

And I have to say it's been fun to watch what God has done here through your work. Many of these seemingly impossible hopes and dreams I had when I first got here—well, I've watched them happen. My family and I are really happy to call CTK our home.

Before we get to the text, I need to say one more thing. None of this happens without the generous, life-giving, incredible, meaningful friendship that Casey and I have with Jeff and Susan. In just about every way, my standing here today is a testament to our friendship. In no way does this happen without Jeff's leadership. I led the church about as far as I could take it. When I left, I didn't think I had much more to give. And as I've told him before, he's led the church in ways and in places that I could not. So I'm tremendously thankful for you, our friendship, and your leadership.

When my family moved to Seattle eight or nine years ago, we never thought we'd get to return to Raleigh, let alone to CTK. But here we are many years later, back at a church that we love with people we love, giving expression to our gospel partnership. In some ways, it started fourteen years ago, and in many ways it started long before that.

As Christ the King, as we celebrate our twentieth anniversary as a church—something that really is worth celebrating—I want to look at Philippians 1 as a way of both giving words to what I've seen and experienced at this church and to provide a model for our relationships as the Lord allows them to carry on into the future.

I will do this by looking at three things from this passage, really just focusing on verses 3 through 8. For those that take notes: we'll look at the foundations of our partnership, the expressions of our partnership, and the benefits of our partnership.

Partnership in the Gospel

Preaching through Philippians when we were early into the replant was, for me, a turning point. Much of that had to do with this passage specifically—this phrase: "partnership in the gospel." The church had grown a bit. We could not fit into my living room anymore. We were feeling relationally stretched, and I didn't know what to do. It was this phrase, "partnership in the gospel," in this book of Philippians that gave me clear direction and hope.

The Greek word that gets translated "partnership" there in chapter 1 is koinonia. It's a word that often gets translated as "fellowship." It's Saint Paul's way of telling the church in Philippi that they aren't just people doing a group project together or sharing a meal together. There's a relationally based shared commitment to a common goal that is for their common good.

This idea of koinonia—partnership—in Paul's day often had the idea of a business relationship. So let's say one day at the office, things aren't going well, and you decide it's time to fulfill your dream of starting your own company. You call it, oh I don't know, the Michael Scott Paper Company. You find fellow employees that have a similar dream and agree to partner with you in this new venture. All of you scrape together everything that you have and sacrifice time and money and jam into a tiny closet with pipes that leak—because you're equally committed to making this thing work. You're in this together. One partner's failure is everyone's failure. One partner's success is something that everyone celebrates together, ideally at Chili's. It's where small business gets done.

Each one of you has a real vested interest in making this thing go. Because you share the same vision—a successful paper company—you try to push everything else like comfort and preferences and petty arguments to the side. You know that if anything other than the vision is primary, you will fail. Unlike a sole proprietorship where it's you against the world, or a publicly traded company where you're a passive investor, a true partnership or fellowship has in its heart a self-sacrificing conformity to a shared vision.

Paul says that he and the church in Philippi have such a partnership or fellowship in the gospel. One Bible scholar described it this way: "Christian fellowship is self-sacrificing conformity to the gospel." There may be overtones of warmth and intimacy, but the heart of the matter is the shared vision of what is of transcendent importance—a vision that calls forth our commitment.

It's what you've heard in the stories today. God has and continues to use your self-sacrificing conformity to the gospel to grow and sustain this church, and that's worth celebrating together.

This partnership of Philippians 1 is a partnership in the gospel. It's made up of individuals that in verse 1, Paul called "saints in Christ Jesus"—that is, a group of people set apart and made holy because they're in Christ Jesus.

They're a partnership in the gospel. The good news that Jesus lived a life we couldn't live, a life of perfect obedience to God—what the Bible calls holy. The good news that Jesus died the death that we deserve, the penalty rightly earned by all of us, and that's all of us who are differently disobedient to God. That's what the Bible calls sin. The good news that Jesus didn't stay dead but rose from the dead, victorious over death and sin and defeating those things forever. The good news that Jesus freely offers us is life, death, resurrection.

So those who confess their sin and need for Jesus' salvation receive it. This is good news. If your faith is in Jesus, if you've looked to Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, you are now, as we see in verse one, part of that saints in Christ Jesus group. You're no longer God's enemy, you're His child. You're now both commanded and empowered by God's spirit to live a new way of life in obedience to God—the kind of life that Paul commends in this passage.

So if you're a believer in Jesus, gospel partnership isn't something you hope will happen, it's a present reality. Look again at verse five. This partnership wasn't secured over some fantastic meal or unbelievable pitch. It's been in place, Paul writes, from the first day until now. It started the moment that Jesus saved each one of you. And it's not a luxury, it's a necessity. It's the way God designed His community to work in the church. There are no sole proprietors, no lone wolves, no passive investors in Jesus' church. They're only partners in the gospel.

This is something that Paul says is worth celebrating. Look again at verses three and four.

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. Always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy. — Philippians 1:3-4

Every time he thinks about them, he thanks God for their gospel partnership with him and with one another, and every prayer that he has is made with joy. Every time he thinks about it, he celebrates it. Every time we think about a partnership in the gospel, we have reason to celebrate.

And Paul doesn't thank or praise himself for making this happen. It wasn't his ability to gather people and cast vision. He doesn't thank or praise them for making this happen either. It wasn't their great programs or affinity groups or meals after church that made this happen. Jesus made it happen. The partnership doesn't happen without Jesus.

It's what C.S. Lewis wrote about friendships among Christians. Though we may think our friendships are based on our good taste, common interest, or the amazing people that we are, in reality, Lewis writes, God is the secret master of ceremonies. Love that phrase: God is the secret master of ceremonies, working behind the scenes to create, strengthen, and maintain our community.

This phrase, partnership in the gospel, drove this conviction deep into my soul. Community in the church is always strong. Why? It's created and sustained by Jesus Himself. The community at CTK is always strong. It's created and secured and maintained by Jesus Himself. So when it seems off, when it seems like it's a little bit off, it means we're struggling with our expression of it. Community is strong. We just often struggle with our expression of it.

Three Ways to Express Partnership in the Gospel

So how do we give our expression to this partnership in the gospel? Well, three ways we see in this passage: affection, generosity, and steadfast commitment.

First, look at the uninhibited affection that Paul openly expresses. The phrases he piles up in this short introduction:

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. — Philippians 1:3

Always in every prayer of mine... making my prayer with joy. — Philippians 1:4

I hold you in my heart. — Philippians 1:7

And then there's this one, which scholars agree is the most emphatic way possible for Paul to express his affection for them. Look at verse eight:

For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. — Philippians 1:8

Stop and think about it. You know what Paul's saying there? He's essentially saying, ask God, He'll tell you. I love you like Jesus loves me, and Jesus loves you.

And it's as if Paul anticipates that this open expression of affection will make them—and maybe us—uncomfortable. So he adds this phrase in verse seven just in case we feel a little bit weary or leery of it. He said, it's right for me to feel this way about y'all. In verse seven, he explains again why this affection is right. He says, for you all are partakers with me of grace, which is another way of saying we're all partners in the gospel.

Paul's affection is grounded in this shared relationship with Jesus, and he expresses affection as he thinks about the ways the partnership has taken shape.

Earlier this week, I posted something on my social media accounts about preaching this service and as each response, like, comment came in, it brought back with it a host of memories that gave way to thankfulness. For those who were here long before I was and gave of yourselves to make this church happen. For those who are with us for a time and whose service was essential to this church's continuing existence. For fellow pastors whose encouragement and advice helped an incredibly inexperienced pastor stumble through his first church. And for long time friends not in Raleigh who've never attended CTK but through the financial support of the church and care for Casey and I made it possible for us to be here especially in those early years.

Each took their role in the gospel partnership seriously. Each gave what they could to this self sacrificing conformity for the good of Jesus' church. They each gave as they were uniquely gifted and providentially able at that time and it might not have been what I initially hoped they would give. But as God knew what we needed. That could be tough in the moment, but in reflection it's reason for affection and thanksgiving for God's way is always better.

This hymn we used to sing at my church in New Orleans: "The Jesus in me loves the Jesus in you." So easy to sing. But I would think, well, sometimes there's some people that I find easy to love and then there are others. And anyone that knows me could say the same about me. Some find me easy to love and others quite the opposite.

Here's what I'm slowly learning to do with those whom I find aren't easy to love. It's what Paul does in Philippians 1. When I think of them, I try to thank God for them. Specifically, I thank God for our partnership together and for the unique ways that he's gifted them. And then that gives me honest reasons to express my affection for them. Regardless of the person, I found that this kind of uninhibited expression of affection is, well, it's often tough to express even if it's felt.

Expressing Affection in Partnership

Most of my work now is with small groups of pastors and a large part of my work is helping them develop the friendships that they need that are both essential to their work and give expression to the gospel partnership that they have. Often though, I have to sit them down kind of halfway through our two years together and say, look, you guys like each other. You love each other. But there's this awkwardness in the group at times because you're unwilling to say that to each other. So just take a risk and say it.

Paul is both intentional and clear in expressing his affection for the Philippians. When we read it, we recognize our need for someone to say that to us and hopefully remember also that we need to be intentional in speaking that to others. So fight through the awkwardness. Trust what God says is true. Move past the good intentions and be free with your godly affection for others in this church. Or to put it another way, be generous with your expressions of affection.

And be generous with your money. Partnership in Paul's day had a financial component to it. In fact, one way to describe the book of Philippians is one long thank you note for the money that the church sent to Paul when he was in prison. Shared grace, shared commitment, and part of being in partnership is giving what you can to make this thing work. That's what the Philippian church did.

For you all partake with me of grace both in my imprisonment and the defense and confirmation of the gospel. — Philippians 1:7

Paul considers them partners in his gospel ministry. His contribution: he plants churches, gets thrown in prison, prays for them, tells others about Jesus. Their contribution: they continue the work he started in the church. That's not getting off easy. They stay committed to Jesus and one another. That's not getting off easy. And they contribute to his physical needs. Everyone does what they can. No one can do everything but everyone has something to do. This is partnership. It's also the path to expression of true community. No one has everything that's needed. Everyone contributes what they can and God takes what we have and does something spectacular with it.

When I took the job here, the church was averaging about $2,000 a month in offering. That's why it was a huge risk when we moved from one facility to the other and our rent jumped from $400 a month to $750 a month. That would be a gift right now, wouldn't it? My salary was set, the church was committed to pay a percentage of that and I had to raise the rest through my network and it was a tough time. We didn't really know anybody in Raleigh. Family was far away. My daughter was six months old.

We need to rent a house and buy a car, and we didn't know how we would afford both at the same time. Church members let us borrow cars until we could buy one. Our new landlord, a believer, said, "Let me go ahead and give you the pastor's discount"—which meant that we had no lease, no security deposit, no additional rent upfront. Then she kept misplacing our checks, which meant she never cashed them and never asked for another one. And I never missed a paycheck. The church was never laid on paying her bills, never. Sometimes all that was left in the church account was a couple hundred dollars, but each month we met our obligations. God met our needs through a community of gospel partners. Each gave what they could. Generosity wasn't measured in the size of the gift. It was a matter of heart.

Likewise, the church in Philippi wasn't wealthy. But they gave what they had. In the early days, Christ the King wasn't a wealthy church. Sometimes we had more college students here than anybody else. But everyone gave what they could, and every little bit mattered. Again, if some months we're left with almost nothing, that means the gift of ten dollars mattered as much as the gift of a hundred or a thousand. God is great at managing His resources. We give what we have. He knows what we need. He takes what we give and He makes it work.

Three Ways to Give Expression to Gospel Partnership

And it's not just speaking your affection. It's not just giving your money. The third way we can give expression to our gospel partnership is by giving ourselves.

At the end of this letter, Paul makes it clear that he's thankful for the monetary gift. Throughout the letter, he makes it clear that he's even more thankful for the steadfast commitment to Jesus and to him. Paul is no longer in Philippi. He's in a Roman prison. There are some who are taking advantage of his imprisonment. Others will say his imprisonment and his suffering is a reason to discredit his ministry and the gospel altogether. Others will use it as an excuse to bail on Paul. But not the Philippian church. It's part of the reason that Paul was thankful for them. The gospel partnership wasn't just then when he was with them. It's still going—from the first day until now. Again, because Jesus holds it together, it's actually eternal.

The Philippians demonstrate that they understand this by their actions. They are with him when it's good and when it's bad. That's why again we see in verse seven:

It is right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart. For you are all partakers with me of grace both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel — Philippians 1:7

And that's a big deal to Paul. He's a loyalty guy. Throughout his letters, he calls out those who stick with him, and he calls out by name those who abandon him.

The primary way that Paul and his letters encourages us to apply the gospel is through relationships. And this is not unique to Paul. Jesus said the Hebrew scriptures could be summed up with two commands: love for God and love for one another. He also said that people will know that we're Christians by our love.

Can I explain it like this? Back in the nineteen sixties, the CIA ran a covert operation called Acoustic Kitty. The goal was to use cats to spy on the Soviets. They wanted cats to be Cold War spies. So they implanted listening and recording devices in cats, and that part worked. What didn't work was the training. If you ever try to train a cat, you know what the CIA spent twenty million dollars to figure out: cats will not be trained. They're only interested in doing what they want. They come and go as they please.

Dogs, on the other hand—well, there's a reason you've seen pictures of military dogs laying by their master's casket through the length of the funeral. Unlike cats, dogs are loyal. They stay even when others leave. In the scriptures, the righteous are like dogs. They are loyal. They stick with their commitments. The wicked are like cats. They come and go as they want. I didn't say cats are wicked—though I wouldn't argue with you.

Wickedness is disengagement. Bailing on your commitment. It's saying you'll do something and not do it. That's the reason movies paint the absentee parent in the worst possible light. "Hey, I'm going to be your parent" and then bail on the commitment—not in what they do, but in what they don't do.

It's the reason that Dante's Inferno has those whose most glaring sin is fraud or treachery in the innermost circle of hell. For Dante's mind, this is the sin most contrary to love. Those who violate a relationship based solely on love are the worst kind of sinners. It's why Judas is at the center, and Satan is there with Judas, and Judas is the one that's most tormented.

It's the reason that Doctor King, in his letter from Birmingham Jail, expressed such great disappointment with the leaders of the white church in the South who, to quote Doctor King—

King remained behind the anesthetized and security of stained glass windows while their black and brown brothers and sisters suffered greatly. That's why sociologist Brené Brown, who is one of the leading voices on topics like shame, trust, and relationships, says the kind of betrayal that causes the most relational damage is the betrayal of disengagement. Of not caring, of letting the connection go, of not being willing to devote time and effort to the relationship.

And on the contrary, it's why thirteen years later I still remember with thanksgiving the call I received from one of you in the church. We aren't going anywhere. We're committed to this church. But I need to let you know that my daughter got a rash, some strange rash from the couch in one of the children's rooms.

Faithless is he, faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.

That's Gimli just before the Fellowship of the Ring set out on their adventure chronicled in Tolkien's book of the same name. And yet the church is full of those who have bailed when it gets dark. And as a side note, this is not meant to guilt you into staying here nor is this some micro aggression against people that have left. Really it's not. But nevertheless the church is full of those who have bailed when it gets dark and how do I know? Well I'm one of them.

It's one of the reasons I love the story of Jesus forgiving Peter. The disciple promised never to leave even if it got hard and then left at the first chance when it didn't actually get all that hard. I love it because I bailed on Jesus and I need assurance of his forgiveness too.

Gospel Partnership Benefits Others

When we do rightly give expression to our gospel partnership, perfection, generosity, and steadfast commitment, we benefit others. And as the last point, I'll highlight three of the ways that we benefit others. Rightly given expression to our gospel partnership benefits individuals by fighting shame, benefits the community by increasing faith, and it benefits the church by showing Jesus is beautiful.

Again, when Paul writes this, he is in prison and for a lot of churches he has worked with, that became a reason to ghost him. Paul in prison was a shameful thing. Didn't benefit anyone to stand with someone who was an enemy of the Roman Empire. The Philippians didn't care. Paul, one of their gospel partners was in jail and so they sent one of their own to attend to his needs and they sent some money as well.

But shame is a powerful feeling. Author Ed Welsh explains that shame comes upon us when we are disgraced for acting less than human, are treated less than human, or associated with something less than human, and there are witnesses. Shame's power comes upon us by getting us to say something to ourselves like, "I'm not worthy of another's presence." It isolates us, reinforcing that less than human narrative. Because shame comes out in community, it's also healed in community. It requires people to come alongside us, hear our story and stick with us, even though they know everything. And I found it's only in community that that shame is healed. And it's not enough simply to know about it to help their healing. You don't just need to know about it. You have to stand with them in the midst of their shame.

I think that the Philippian church by actively standing with Paul when he's in prison, by sending help and money, helps fight the shame that could easily grow while he's isolated there. And this is a natural outflow or a right expression of gospel partnership. In the middle of the love letter to the church, Paul calls them partakers with him of grace in his imprisonment. Again, partakers with him of grace is a very similar way of saying partners in the gospel. So their act of standing with Paul is an expression of their gospel partnership, which is another way of saying it's an expression of the work of Jesus.

Partnership means you share in the shame. It also means you get to share in the good stuff too. Paul considers Philippians partners in his work. Though he's in prison, Paul considers them—their actively standing with him there in prison. So he spends a good part of the letter telling them of the good work that's happening even while he's in prison.

We think about that. It would be very easy for them to say, "Paul's doing the real work of ministry. We're here comfortable in our homes, going to church while he's in prison, telling everybody about Jesus." It would be easy for Paul to say the same thing. After all, he's the one that's in prison but he doesn't. They are part of the work. They've given generously to this gospel partnership through their generosity and steadfast commitment. So Paul gives them a front row seat to the ways God is at work. He gives them the kind of view that increases your faith where you see God at work even when it seems all is lost.

It's why we're celebrating today like we are. No one person is responsible for CTK lasting twenty years. In a sense, we all are.

That's the beauty of the partnership in the gospel. We each do our little part and get to celebrate the big victory which is far more than our little part deserves. But again, that's the way God works, right? He takes our feeble efforts, turns them into something spectacular that benefits us and glorifies him. And we get to celebrate it.

Giving expression to our gospel partnership doesn't just benefit us and our community, it also benefits the church and shows Jesus is beautiful. Look, we're living in what New York Times columnist David Brooks called the golden age of bailing. He explained it this way: all across America, people are deciding on Monday that it would be really fantastic to grab a drink with someone on Thursday. But when Thursday actually rolls around, they realize it would actually be more fantastic to go home, flop on the bed and watch carpool karaoke videos. So they send the mail-in text or email: "So sorry, I'm going to have to flake on drinks tonight. Overwhelmed. My grandmother just got bubonic plague."

An openly and appropriately affectionate, generous, steadfast community stands in stark contrast to the bailing world that we all experience. It stands as a beautiful picture of what Jesus gives us in giving us himself. Our gospel partnership, when rightly expressed, gives others a picture of just how beautifully attractive this God-created community is.

As the church grows, those who are once outsiders are welcomed in. My friend Wendell Kimbrew, one of my favorite modern hymn writers, wrote a hymn called "Who is Like the Lord Our God," which incidentally, our former worship leader Bruce Benedict wrote the music for. The first verse paints a good picture of what we've been talking about:

Our father he lifts from the ashes. He raises the poor and the lost. He seats them to dine at his table, To feast without money or cost. The lonely he settles in families. The barren a mother he makes. A happy the heart of the stranger Who's welcomed by this King of grace.

And we, as the hands and feet of Jesus, we give expression to that welcome. As those who were once lifted from the ashes we welcome those who need to experience that same grace. As those who benefited from faithful friends who stuck with us when it got dark, we stay with others that are walking through similar darkness. That's the beautiful community.

The Resilience of Gospel Partnership

It requires a certain resilience to maintain this gospel partnership. It's one that's empowered and held together by Jesus, but one that also requires work on our part. And friendship is a subset of this partnership and I know no greater picture of resilient friendship than that of the friendship between the English minister John Newton and his friend, the English poet William Cowper.

So as we close, let me tell you a little bit about their friendship. Newton and Cowper were the best of friends. Their homes shared a common backyard and in the height of their friendship, they said they didn't spend more than seven hours apart. They did church together. They wrote hymns together. They encouraged one another in the work that God had uniquely gifted and called each of them to do. They committed to write a hymnal together as a lasting testament to their friendship.

And then Cowper was overcome with a great depression. He attempted suicide. He became a recluse, refusing even to attend his closest friend's church. He refused to write another hymn and his depression remained for twenty-seven years. And then he died. And through it all, Newton remained his close friend.

I thought a lot about their friendship, especially Newton's long-suffering commitment to it. I think there are two primary reasons for that. One, Newton firmly believed, like Paul did, that the work that God had started in Cowper, he would bring forward to completion.

— Philippians 1:6

And so he had great hope for his friend—not because of his friend, but because of his God. And second, Newton was secure in his friendship with Jesus. That, in many ways, was the center, the key to all of Newton's theology. His friendship with Jesus allowed him to have a deep friendship with Cowper both when it was easy and when it was hard.

Newton wrote about friendship in my favorite hymn. Let me read you two stanzas as we close:

One there is above all others, Well deserves the name of friend. His is love beyond a brother, Is costly, free, and knows no end. That he wants his kindness prove, Find an everlasting love.

Could we bear from one another What he daily bears from us? Yet this glorious friend and brother Loves us though we treat him thus. Though for good we render ill, He accounts us brethren still.

When friendship with Jesus becomes primary, our partnership with others is sure and secure. The road might get dark and seem lonely, but we don't walk it alone. We freely receive and give to others what we've received from God. For all committed to giving expression to and benefiting from this glorious partnership in the gospel.

That's kind of grace I've experienced here and it's the kind of grace I hope we all continue to experience for years to come.

Prayer

Father, thank you for what you've done up to this point and we ask that you do it again. Would you keep doing it? Show us grace upon grace, not just as the church body, but in our individual relationships with you and with one another. Jesus, it's in your name that we pray, amen.