Turn with me, if you would, back
to Philippians chapter one. Philippians chapter one. I put
an article in last Sunday morning's bulletin called Absence Makes
the Heart Grow Fonder. And I meant every word of that
article. I meant every single word of
that article. In verse seven here of Philippians
chapter one, the apostle Paul said, I am saying all of these things
to you. Everything that he had to say
to them, he said, I'm saying all of these things to you because
I have you in my heart. He told them, you are in my heart. And I wanted to say that to you
in that article last Sunday. And I want to say that to you
right now, tonight. I want to say that to you right
now. You are in my heart. You are in my heart. Because
of Christ. All because of Christ. And we all acknowledge that to
be so. It is all because of Christ. He gave the heart. He gave the
love. He gave the bond. He is the bond. He is what unites us. It is all because of him. It is all because of him. And
because of him, you are in my heart. Now I'm not one, I don't
normally say people's names in my messages. I don't know if
anybody notices that or not, but I'm not one to call out people's
names, and I'm not going to, but I would love to call out
all of your names. and tell you, I just really want to talk to you
for a minute. All of the circumstances involved,
everything that's just taken place, and I just really want
you to know, I just really, really want you to know, you are in
my heart. As things go and as things change,
we're about to go through some big changes. We're gonna go to
this new building and things are about to change. And, you know, responsibilities will
grow. And I want you to know you're
in my heart. Like I really, I really want you to know that. All of us are very busy right
now. All of us are very, very busy
right now in one form or fashion. If you're in the medical field,
you're very busy right now. If you are in the construction
field, you are very busy right now. If you're in any field, you're
very busy right now. If you have kids at home, you're
very busy right now. Our home lives are busy. Our home life is busy. That's
just the home life, much less all the other responsibilities.
It's very busy. Our work lives, our school lives
are busy. This ministry is busy right now. And I'm so thankful for that.
I want to be busy in the ministry. I really do. I want to be busy.
I am so, so thankful for that. We are trying to finish this
building. We are trying to fill this pulpit. We're being asked to go preach
the gospel here. We're being asked to go preach
the gospel there. Thank God. Thank God that anybody
would want the gospel to be preached anywhere, here, there, anywhere. We're going all over the place
preaching the gospel. Thank God. Oh, may the gospel
thrive. Lord, send the gospel out. Call
laborers to the field. But it's busy. It's a busy moment. And I don't
know when or if it's ever going to get unbusy. I keep saying
as soon as the building's done, you know, as soon as we get past
that, I don't know if it's going to get unbusy or not. I really
don't. So I want you to know this. I'm
telling you, I want you to know this. I'm just, um, Like, I just really want you
to know this. I love you. I love you. You're in my heart.
You're very, very much in my heart. It doesn't matter how
busy we are. It doesn't matter how many directions
we're pulled into. And I'm not just talking about
the congregation as a whole. I'm talking individually. Individually. Over these last two weeks, I
missed you all. I missed you. And you, you will
know what I'm talking about. When there are moments when you're
doing things and doing life and going through whatever, and all
of a sudden something will happen that will make you really realize,
man, I love my wife or man, I love my children. Well, I've had that moment and
I have, I just really want you to know.
I mean, I really, I want you to know that you're in my heart. You're in my heart, no matter
what, no matter what. You're in my heart. I want to
say to you, along with Paul and Timothy, if you look here at
Philippians 1 verse 1, it says, Paul and Timotheus, the servants
of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at
Philippi with the bishops and deacons, Grace be unto you and
peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I
want grace and peace to be with you. I want grace and peace to be with
you. The grace and peace of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's gift,
God's grace. God's gift of life. Oh, I want eternal life to be
with you. I want it to be with me. God's gift of salvation, eternal
salvation, God's gift of His Son. I want Christ to be with
you. I do, I want Christ to be with
you. I want the eternal peace that comes from being with Him,
being in Him. The peace that comes because
of His sacrifice. No matter what happens, as long
as we have His sacrifice, there's peace. As long as we have His
blood, there's peace. It doesn't matter what I do,
you do, what anybody does. If we have the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, there's peace. The peace that comes because
of His finished work, Absolutely finished work. I want the peace
of the Lord Jesus Christ to be with you. I have you in my heart. Therefore, I greatly, greatly
desire God's grace and peace from Christ to you. That's what I want. I want. I
want Christ's sacrifice to be on me and you. Me and you. May it be on us together. Verse
three, he said, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Every remembrance of you. We
take the Lord's table together. And in that, our Lord said, this
do in remembrance of me. Don't we love remembering our
Lord? Don't we love remembering our
Lord? Go out into the world and you forget all these things.
You just forget all these things. You get so caught up in everything
that's not this. And don't you love when the Spirit
of our Lord comes to us and brings that remembrance of Him again? Don't you love remembering his
life that he lived for us on this earth. If you at all pay
attention to the life you're living on this earth, it's not
that good. Don't you love thinking about
that perfect, spotless, holy, innocent life that he lived for
us on this earth? What he did, what he said, what
He suffered for us. Don't we love remembering His
death that He died for us on this earth? Died for us so we don't have
to. Forsaken by God the Father. for us so we don't have to be. A brother just read in my study
for us Psalm 22. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Don't you love, I mean, oh, when the Lord lets you enter
into the fact that God forsook him so that God would not have
to forsake us. I love remembering that. He was
forsaken so that we could be termed not forsaken. Don't we love remembering His
resurrection? Every time I think about Him
walking out of that tomb, I love the thought of that. I love the
victory. I love the power. The hope He brought to us through
it. Don't we love remembering His
ascension? You think about the fact, not
only the event and the moment of His leaving this world and
the ascension, but the fact that He ascended into heaven and sat down on His throne. Don't you love remembering His
reign when everything out there is
falling apart? Don't you love getting back a
hold again of his sovereign reign over all things. Don't you love
remembering the fact that we have a life. We're going to now
live together with him because of everything he came and did
for us. We have a life to come. Don't we thank our God upon every
remembrance of Christ? Every one of them. Well, can't
we say that we thank our God for every brother and sister
who truly loves God and loves Christ and loves everything that
He did for us and rejoices in that? We can say that. We really can say that. If you
are in Christ and if Christ is in you, I thank God for you. I thank my God for every remembrance
of you. Verse four, Philippians 1 verse
four says, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making request
with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first
day until now. I thank God for giving me fellowship
with you. I do. I thank God for giving
me fellowship with you. Fellowship in the gospel. Fellowship
in Christ. If it were not for Christ, nothing
really would hold us together. Nothing really, if it were not
for Christ. But because of Christ, we have
fellowship. That means we're on common ground. It means the same. That's what
it means, the same. We have fellowship in worship. Our worship is the same. We worship
Christ together. And I love that. I'm so thankful
for that. We're on common ground there.
We have fellowship in thanksgiving. We give thanks for the same thing. We thank our God for Christ. Thank God for Christ. Thank God
for everything he did for us in Christ. We have fellowship
in praise. We praise and honor and glorify
and magnify Christ. Christ alone. If any man glory,
let him glory in the Lord. We have fellowship in faith. Every soul that God has given
it to has the faith of Christ Himself. And therefore we all believe
Him. We all believe His Word. We read
this Word and we believe it. We're looking to Him. We're hoping.
In Him, we're trusting, we're waiting together in fellowship. Verse six says, 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. This fellowship
that we have causes us to cry. He started it. He finished it,
he'll perform it all the way to the end. He started it, he finished it,
he'll perform it all the way to the end. Anytime one of us
says that, all the other ones cry, amen. Amen. Us having each other in our hearts. That is, that's his work. That's
his doing. Verse six says, being confident
of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you. Christ in you. Christ in us is what creates
the desire to have each other in our hearts. It's Christ in
us. It's His work, which He hath
begun in us. That's what creates this love
for each other. Verse six says, 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. He has saved
us and called us with a holy calling. not according to our
own works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And this
salvation of mercy and forgiveness, and this calling of grace and
love, it will never end. It will never end. What binds us together will never
stop binding us together. God told the first man, Adam. He said, it's all about the blood.
Adam and Eve sinned, and the Lord killed a lamb, covered them
in those skins, and told him, and Adam told Abel,
it's all about the blood. All through the Old Testament,
those sacrifices cried, it's all about the blood. All of the New Testament of Christ
cries, it's all about the blood. And Revelation 5 tells us that
for all eternity, all of God's saints will be crying, it's all
about the blood. That's our fellowship, that's
our love, and that's our union. So verse two, look back at verse
two. It says, grace be unto you and peace from God our Father
and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance
of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making requests
with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first
day until now. 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. Even as it is meet for me to
think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, In as
much as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation
of the gospel, you all are partakers. And if your Bible has that center
margin, you'll see those last three words mean with me of grace,
you all are partakers with me of grace. What do we have that
we have not received? We've all been made to be partakers
of grace. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, now I'm
found. I was blind, now I see. Grace humbles men and women. That's what it does. It humbles
men and women. And that's what makes them lovely.
That's what makes them lovable. I've told you, this story, the
story of Mr. and Ms. Burke so many times,
but I'm gonna tell it to you again. Many years ago, a long time ago,
horse and buggy days, this lady, Ms. Burke, attended a church
that was having a gospel meeting one weekend, Friday night, Saturday
night, Sunday morning. And her husband, Mr. Burke, He had no interest in
the gospel. None whatsoever. He had no interest
in going with her to worship God. No interest. But because
it was a special meeting, she asked him to go anyway. And he
said he would go. So Friday night came and he got
the buggy out, hooked the horse up to it. They rode into town.
And the man preaching preached God's absolute sovereignty and
glory. He preached the true and living
God. And he preached the absolute truth about sinful, wicked man. And Mr. Burke did not like it.
Didn't like it at all. He was furious all the way home,
just mad. He said, I'll never go back.
Don't ever ask me to go again. I'll never listen to that ever
again. Saturday came and she wasn't
about to ask him, but he asked her, he came to her and he said,
what time does that service start tonight? She said, it starts
at seven. Are you going? And he said, I'm
gonna go one more time. So he hooked the buggy up, they
rode into town, and the preacher there gave Christ all the glory
and gave man none of the glory, and he stormed out all the way
home just furious, absolutely furious. That night, Miss Burke
got sick, and she woke up Sunday morning and she couldn't go to
the service. But when Mr. Burke got up, she noticed that
he wasn't putting his work clothes on, he was putting his dress
clothes on. And she said, what are you doing?
And he said, I'm gonna go one more time. I'm just gonna go
one last time. So he hooked the buggy up, he rode into town,
sat down in the service, and the Lord opened his heart. Like the Lord opens the heart
of all of his people. And he heard the gospel, he heard
what he was, and he heard what Christ was. And the Lord truly
broke his heart. He just, with tears coming down
his face, he rejoiced in the glory of what Christ had done
for sinners. And on the way home, he said,
it was like everything declared the glory of God. Everything. And he said, it was like the
wind blowing through the trees, the leaves sounded like they
were saying, glad you're safe, brother Bert. And he said, he
went over the brook and the water sounded like he was saying, glad
you're safe, brother Bert. He said, the birds singing sounded
like they were saying, glad you're safe, brother Bert. And he got
home, and he put the buggy up, and he put the horse up, and
he was walking up that back path, and his wife was standing at
the top of the steps with her hands on her hips, and she said,
God saved you, didn't he? And he said, yeah, I believe
he did. How did you know? And she said, I heard you singing
all the way down the drive. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound saved a wretch like me. Now, that man is in my heart. He's in my heart. Any soul that
God reveals that to and brings that to, that man is in my heart. That woman is in my heart. There is a love there for God's
people who truly have bowed the knee to Christ. And why is the
love there? It's because of what Christ did
for him. It's because of the gift of God
to him. And that's the reason why you're
in my heart. And that's the reason why I pray
I'm in your heart. It's because of what Christ has
done for us. Because of what Christ has given
to us. It's all because of the grace
and the peace and the love of Christ. And we're going to close
on this verse right here. If you look at verse eight, it
says, for God is my record. How greatly I long after you
all in the bowels of Jesus Christ, in the heart. Because of the
heart, because of the love. God is our record. He's the one
who created this love. He's the one who put it there.
It's there. And He's our record of it. Lord,
for Christ's sake, make this love to grow. I want it to. I
want it to. I pray Christ might be in our
hearts. I pray we might be in His heart. I pray we might be
in each other's heart. I pray so. All right, let's all
stand together.