Alright folks, thank you so much for joining us here again today at the Everlasting Truth broadcast where we give you everlasting truth for an ever-changing world. Truly, I am grateful for those of you that are taking your time to be here week after week, broadcast after broadcast. I have heard back from some of you and it's blessed my soul. To know that it's been a help to you and it's an encouragement to me to be able to encourage you That's why any minister if their hearts right. Anyways, that's why any minister does what they do They just want to be a help and I appreciate this radio station. I know that it has the same desire It just wants to be a help and we hold hands together and we try to do that to help those that listen So we we thank you truly we do. Thank you We're not gonna ramble on much today. We're gonna go ahead and go straight into the text because there is much to be said here I realized how much I had to unpack in the last episode So we're gonna go ahead and get into it Philippians chapter number four if you have your Bible Philippians chapter four And we are discussing, this is our second broadcast on the subject, but we are discussing the relationship between the church and the missionary. The relationship between the church and the missionary. And it's a very misunderstood relationship. Oftentimes, it's a very disconnected relationship. I know as a church member and even as a pastor, I have went extended periods of time where missions becomes one of those things that's kind of out of sight, out of mind. And I've supported missions pretty much my entire Christian life. I can't think of a time when I've ever not supported missions. It's just like tithes and offerings to me. It's giving to God's work. It doesn't take the place of tithes and offerings, but it is just as important. I do believe that. But just because we give doesn't always mean that our heart's intact. with that missionary effort. And so my goal in this broadcast is to help you get a little bit more of a biblical understanding and a biblical encouragement that hopefully will tie your heart to your missionary and hopefully will get you more involved in missions and give you a greater desire to see your missionaries prosper, that your local church supports, and for you to be more involved. And I'll tell you this as a pastor myself, your pastor would love for you to be more involved in missions. They would love for you to have a bigger heart for missions. They would love for you to give to missions. They would love to see you pray for your missionaries. And so this is for the edification of the church, to help the church be a better church and to hold the hands of those that are going to the uttermost parts of the earth to fulfill the great commission. Those of us, you know, the Bible gave us this commission in Acts 180 said, but you shall receive power after that. The Holy Ghost has come upon you. Praise God for that. Then he said, here's why I'm going to give you power. It's not for you to do miracles in these cool things to be a spectacle. He says you're going to receive power. And he said you shall be witnesses unto me. under Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and under the uttermost parts of the earth. And so Jerusalem was their hometown. And for those of us that are average lay people, so to speak, just the average church member and congregant, our mission field is here in Jerusalem. But we know that there are those that are going to the uttermost parts of the earth. They're leaving the four walls of their city. They are going in places that are far removed from our comfort zone. And our job, as those that are staying stationed at home, our job is to help those that are going out. And my goal through this broadcast is to help you. Do better at that to be more encouraged to do that to love your missionary more. Let's pick up where we left off We're gonna go and read the whole text for context sake and then we will pick up begin to break it down where we left off Philippians chapter 4 verse number 10 But I rejoiced in the Lord Greatly that now at the last your care of me hath forced again wherein you were also careful, but you lacked opportunity Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned, and whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Notwithstanding you have well done that you did communicate with my affliction. Now ye Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. For even in Thessalonica you sent once and again unto my necessity. Not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. But I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God. But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now in our last broadcast We worked through verse number 10 through 13 and we talked about the suffering of the missionary verse number 10 told us about their lack of support verse number 11 through 12 told us about his learning to be satisfied and verse number 13 taught us about the lord's strength And we talked about how the context of this, and I don't want to do too much recap, but for those of you that maybe didn't hear yesterday, I do think it would be beneficial for us to cover this very quickly. But Philippians is essentially a letter between a local New Testament church and their missionary. We know that the apostle Paul was a great missionary and Philippi was a church that supported Paul in his missionary efforts. If you were to look at the back of your Bible, you would find maps probably that show Paul's missionary journey. If you were to read the book of Acts, you would find Paul's first, second, third missionary journeys, and we would equate him as being one of the first great missionaries. And Philippi, as we read through this text, we find out is a church that supported Paul in his missionary efforts. I'm not going to go back through it because we discussed all that yesterday. But what we find in the passage that I just read to you in Philippians chapter 4 is a passage that covers the relationship between a specific missionary named Paul and a specific local New Testament church that supported him, the church at Philippi. And so we started off verse 10 through 13, talking about the suffering of the missionary. And now we come to verse number 14, talking about the sharing in the mission, the sharing in the mission. Look at what he says in verse number 14 concerning giving and receiving. He says, notwithstanding you have well done that you did communicate with my affliction. Now, when Paul talks about communicating with their affliction, what does he mean, communicate with their affliction? Well, we know that the communication he's talking about, if we were to look at verse number 15, he's talking about giving and receiving. Verse 15, now ye Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me, there's that word, communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. So when Paul talks about communicating with his affliction, he's talking about the church giving to him and him receiving from them. supporting him financially and with the things that the missionary needed to do the work, whether it was monetary gains or whether it was physical needs or whatever it was, they were providing and supporting Paul as a missionary in that local New Testament church. Now I'm talking about the sharing in the mission. I want you to notice number one, the communication. And then we'll talk about the commendation, the communication. He says in verse 14, the latter part, ye did communicate with my affliction. The word communicate here is important to understand because it's not a word that we would usually use in this context. But I think if we get grip of what it says, it will revolutionize the way we view missions. The word communicate here comes from a Greek word, which means a couple of different things. It could mean to share in company with. It could mean to cooperate with. It could mean to become a partaker together with. It could mean to fellowship with. So essentially what the apostle Paul is saying here is that when Philippi gave, they communicated with Paul's affliction and his missionary efforts, and it meant that they cooperated in the hardships and the afflictions of that missionary effort with Paul. For Philippi to communicate with Paul's affliction and his missionary efforts means that they became partaker of the hardships of the mission with Paul. Those afflictions that the missionaries suffered, the hardships and the difficulties that are on the mission field, Paul said, when you give and communicate with that, it is if you are fellowshipping with me in my suffering. It is if you are cooperating with me in my suffering. It is if you are sharing in company with me in my suffering. the afflictions and the hardships and the trenches as we would call it that the missionary lives in as they are on the front line spiritually and they are infantry men going out and fulfilling the great commission and the great work and they are being soldiers of Jesus Christ as Paul told Timothy to be and they are out there in the trenches when you give to the missionary you communicate with them in that affliction and it is as if you are fellowshipping there in that trench with them It is if you are cooperating in that trench with them, that's what it means to communicate. It means to fellowship with. And so Paul says, you communicated with me, not in the easy stuff, but you communicated with my affliction, the hardships, you shared that with me. He said, when I was struggling, you, it's as if you were there with me when you gave and you were partaking in that with me. I'm afraid we don't view missions that way. And I told my church this, and I'll tell you this, and I think it resonates for a lot of us. There's a lot of times where I don't feel connected to our missionary efforts at all. Even when I give, I don't feel like my money is really making a difference. I mean, when we look at the cost of living and we look at everything going on, my couple of hundred dollars, what does it really mean? And oftentimes that discourages me and I give anyways because it's an obedience thing, but I don't feel that connection like I'm actually doing something. I don't feel like I'm really supporting that missionary. You know, a lot of times for me, it's like when we see a homeless person and we go buy them a meal and I'm thinking to myself, it's wonderful that we did that. But at the end of the day, he's going to go back and he's still going to be hungry for his next meal. Did we really even make a difference? And if you're not careful, you'll begin to feel that way about missions. But what the apostle Paul does here is he discourages us from that kind of thinking. And he says, no, no, no, no, no. It is if you are communicating with me in my affliction, when you give, you are sharing in the mission with me. You're there with them. You know, this means that when we give to missions, we are a part of the work. We're in the trenches with them. I know you feel disconnected and I know you feel like it's not making a difference. But this text says it is. It's like you're there when you give to missions and you support that missionary and God sees that missionary on the front line. He don't just see the missionary anymore. He sees the ones that are holding his hand and he sees that trail all the way back to your pocketbook, your wallet, your bank account. And he sees you in the trench right there with him. No, you might not be the one handing out that tract. No, you might not be the one in that foreign village somewhere. But the reason they're in that foreign village is because you're doing what you're supposed to do over here. And without us doing that, where would that missionary be? You're sharing in the mission with them. I know we feel disconnected, but the Holy Ghost says tonight, you're not disconnected. He says you're sharing in the mission with them. You are communicating. You are at work. Communicate. Remember means to cooperate, to fellowship with. You're there with them. So we see the communication and then look at this. This is good. We see the commendation. Verse number 14. Notwithstanding you have well done in that you did communicate with my affliction the fact that they gave and Communicated with Paul's affliction as a missionary and they supported that missionary as a church He says you have well done in that you did that When Philippi gave to the missionary, the Holy Ghost commended them for it. I want you to remember these words written down in Philippians 4 and verse number 14 are not just Paul's words. These are words which the Holy Ghost gave. They didn't come by any private interpretation, Peter said. The holy men of god spake as they were moved by the holy ghost This is the holy ghost speaking in verse number 14 And he looks at a church in verse 14 that had given to missions and had sacrificed to support a missionary And he says you have well done Let me ask you this When you stand before god and you stand before christ at the judgment seat of christ, don't you want to hear well done? When jesus looks at your church like he examined those churches in revelation chapter 2 and chapter number 3 Do you want him to look at your church as a local new testament bible believing congregation and say ye have well done? Well right here, let me give you a little A little helper on how to do that give the missions Because the holy ghost looked at a church that gave the missions and said you have well done He commends that. God honors that. And I'm going to flip it around in a minute. Not only does God honor that, but it honors God and God will honor it both ways. God commends it. He likes that. You say, well, I want to see God bless my life. Give demissions. He said, try me. See if I will open up a window and pour you out a blessing that you can't even contain. You can't out give God. He commends those that give to missions. So we see the sharing in the mission. We see the support of the missionary. Look at verse number 15. And I briefly said this yesterday, but I do want to brush over it again. Verse 15. Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. Paul says at one point no church was supporting me except for you Philippians and what's amazing is in verse number 10 Paul says there was a time where you didn't even have the opportunity to support me and So you and I tend to think that when a missionary comes through our church and they're looking for support to get on the field We have this idea. Well, you know if we don't support him somebody else will and They'll take care of it. The church down the street, the next one they've got scheduled, the next one they got lined up, they'll support them. But what we find here is that's not always true. That is not always the case. At one time, Philippi was the only church supporting Paul. And if they would have backed up on their support, what would have happened? See, it's a it's a big question. It's a big deal. And the ripple effects of us not supporting missions are huge. If there had never been a missionary named the Apostle Paul, good chance you and I wouldn't be here because he was the apostle to the Gentiles. That's me. And that's you, unless you're a Jew this morning. Where would we be without a missionary? It matters. And we must support them so that they can go. If we don't give faithfully to missions, we can't just assume somebody else in some other church is going to do it. You want to have an impact on this world? You say this world's getting wicked. Support a missionary. Let them shine the light in the darkness. Let them take the gospel of Christ. And help them do it the support of the missionary and then we go to verse number 17 And we see the salary of missions the salary of missions Trying to think of how much of this we need to cover today because I I want to be able to expound on this and i've got much more to deal with here But let's go ahead the salary of missions verse 17 Not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account You said what do you mean by the salary of missions? Here's what I mean. I mean it pays to support missions Paul said I want you to give to me as a local church. I want you to give to me as a missionary He says here's why not because I'm desiring a gift. I Paul said it's not because I want some lavish lifestyle. I want you to remember back in verse 10 through 13 Paul says I've been without before I know how to to be a based I know how to lack I know how to go without I'm I've learned to be content I can do all things through Christ would strengthen with me He says I want you to give not just because for me he says I want you to give to missions He said because I want God to do something for you. I Desire fruit that may abound to you ought to circle this in verse 17 Your account it pays to support missions and I don't mean pays the missionary. I mean it pays you You will be rewarded for it We always think about missions and we think about the cost of missions But we don't ever consider the payment of missions it pays He says that fruit will abound to my account and your account. When we give, God will reward it. Remember verse number 14, he said, you communicated with my affliction. We talked about how that says, if we got down in the trenches with Paul in his affliction, we are sharing in the mission. And since we share in the mission, guess what? Praise God. We share in the reward for the mission. We share in the compensation for it. And we will reap a reward together since we give to missions. And it's as if we are sharing in that labor with that missionary, then we too will share in the reward that that missionary receives and fruit will abound to our account. You see, when you're holding hands with that missionary and they reach a soul, God traces that that that ministry right on back through that missionary on right on into you. And he sees you holding the hand of that missionary and he rewards you for being there with that missionary. Through your giving. He'll reward you for it. You know, a lot of times we say, well, I can't afford to give missions. What this text convinced me and my church of this week was that we can't afford not to give more to missions. I want God to say, well done. Like he told them in verse number 14, you have well done. And that you did communicate with my affliction. I want God to give us fruit that will abound to our account at Calvary Baptist church. In my own individual life. I want God to give fruit to my account because my wife and I gave to missions. I want to see that. And here's what will happen. If you understand this and you will apply this, this will do something for you. And I'm living in this right now. It will give you a hope and an expectation because God promised here. To reward you and give you fruit, if you will give to missions. He promised you. He said that he would. And so what this does is it breeds a type of hope and expectation and excitement for you to sit back and say, now I'm going to I did my part. I sowed the seed I gave to a missionary effort. And now I'm going to sit back and see what God's going to do with it and see how God's going to reward me. Now that's not the whole reason we give. We don't give just to get. But I'll say this, if you do give, you will get. You'll do it with the right heart. He that soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly, but he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully. But there's an expectation. Psalm 126, five and six said this concerning the great commission. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless, listen to that, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Speaking of the work of missions, he said, if you'll go forth and bear precious seed. You will undoubtedly, doubtlessly come again with rejoicing, there will be an expectation of reward. And so this is given an excitement to me as a pastor, making this decision this week to to to to get more involved in our giving the missions because of this text has breeded an excitement in me as well as my people, I believe. Because God promised to give us fruit to our account for doing that, and God will do it for you. I'm going to close with this right here very quickly. We think, once again, about the cost of missions, but what about the payment of missions? I was at a meeting just this week, and a preacher was preaching, and he was talking about a couple churches that he pastored. If I'm not mistaken, he had two of them that he had pastored. One was in debt and the other one was super in debt. Both very behind. And as he came into that church and he incurred that debt, he said, I tell you what we're going to do. We're going to give our way out of debt and we're going to support missions because God promised to reward missions. God promised if we would give, he would give to us. He said, so that's what we're going to do. And they began to give to missions, even though they were that far in debt. And the one that was so far in debt, I don't have a number, but he just said it was a great amount of debt. Within two years, they were out of debt. Within two years. Not from saving, not from worrying about the cost of missions, but taking God up on his promise that fruit will abound to their account when they give to missions. You say, well, that don't make sense on paper. Most of the stuff God does don't make sense on paper. I have found that the more that I give, the more that I get my Christian life on more than one occasion, the more that I'm willing to give to God, the more that God is willing to give to me. And I would rather see what I can get out of God's big hands and see whatever I can hold in my little hand. I think God's got a better ability to take care of me than what I do. And you get to see that kind of thing when you give to missions, the salary of missions. Lord willing, we'll come back and we'll talk about the last two points in the next broadcast, the sacrifice of missions and the supply of missions. Thank you so much for being here. I hope this gets you more involved in wanting to support missions. God bless you, friend. Thank you for being here and we'll see you next time.