Let's take our Bible, please. The book of Philippians, the book of Philippians. I love this church. I really do. I love your pastor. And he and I do have much in common except for our ages, obviously. And he he is much more senior than I. And but I love I love this church. I love the spirit of this church. I love the music. And so well done. And to the glory of God. And, you know, you don't have to change your music and go all contemporary to draw a crowd. This is a Sunday night crowd in New England and praise God that the houses of God are full I was today. I was at heritage. Yeah, I told dr. Townsley. It was a full house today I don't know that there was a seat to be had Folks kept coming in visitors were there and a great spirit and just a wonderful place So some may say that it is dead in New England but there are spots like this and other places where the Holy Word of God is lifted up and Christ is seated on the throne, the Word of God is preeminent, and the preaching of God's Word is making a difference in people's lives. And that's what it's all about. And tonight I want to do my best to try to help your church as I speak to you on the subject of the fellowship of striving together. The book of Philippians, please, chapter number one, and if you have found your way there, we're gonna read verse number 27. Let's read verse 27 together, and we'll pray, and then we'll jump into the message here tonight. All right, Philippians 127, if you have it there, say amen, please. and let's read it together. Ready? Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith Let us pray tonight. Father, thank you, please, for allowing us to be here tonight. Lord, it has absolutely been a great joy for me to be in Heritage Baptist this morning in Wallingford. And Lord, just 25 minutes away now here in Southington. And Lord, other places I know that works are being built and started. I think about Brother Zach Kinsman and New Heights Baptist. Lord, what a great start this young man has had. And Lord, thank you for those who have been here decades and for those young men that are starting works. I pray tonight for the churches without pastors. Lord, I know Dr. Townsley and I spoke of that last night. He even prayed about that last evening in his office. Lord, all across this nation there are churches without pastors and without pulpits that are aflame with the Word of God. Lord, I pray, please, in these last days that we would be faithful. I pray for the preacher boys at New England Baptist College. Lord, that some of these young men would be used to fill those gaps. Lord, tonight I pray for this church to remain strong as it has been for decades. Lord, I pray that you'll help tonight as we talk about striving together for the faith of the gospel. Lord, as I speak specifically to this church on this Sunday evening, that God, I pray that the book of Philippians would come alive to us, that we would use this church as a great model of how churches should be, even in the 21st century. God, I pray that you'll bless now and add your blessing to the reading of your word. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. I don't know about you, but I love teamwork. I love when people work together for a common cause. We often might call that unity. The Bible speaks of the unity of the Spirit. The unity of the brethren. It talks about the unity of the body of Christ. And other passages that speak about this thing of working together for a common cause. But on the flip side of that, I don't know that we have lived in as divided a generation as we live in today. Dr. Townsley spoke about Tuesday as an election. You know, our nation, in many, many cases, is a divided nation. And I'm not just talking about Republican and Democrat. We could speak of liberal and conservative. But it just seems as if no one agrees with anybody about anything. It seems as if we all have an opinion and this and that, and we don't come back to something that would cause us to become unified for a common cause. As long as I pastored, for three decades, I saw, unfortunately, how often homes and families and marriages would become divided with one another as well. It was sad to me that so often marriages, having been married 25, 30, 35 years, were ending in divorce. It seemed as if there was a division. Maybe after the kids had grown and they'd become empty nesters, there was not something like the love that they said that they had one for another, or the vows that they made one for another on their wedding day. It seemed that those things do not continue to unify us as they once did. We also find that churches are divided unlike at any other time. It's sad to me that as I have traveled now and I've been in way more churches in the last nine months than I was really in 32 years I didn't travel a whole lot I was a pastor and I kind of my people kind of expected me to show up on Sunday morning Sunday night and Wednesday night and be there for Them on Tuesday when they needed to have hospital, you know visits and and all of that and God's just opened my eyes Really to so many church and I've been in some great churches. Don't get me wrong. I But I've also walked into some churches that you can just kind of cut the tension with a knife. You can just tell there's something. Everybody's not on the same page. And maybe the pastor is a little bit discouraged because it seems as if the church is not willing to follow his leadership and the leadership of the word of God in that church. And church is becoming divided. And maybe even worse than that, what we call Fundamentalism, our brand of biblical Christianity, it seems that we are divided as well. Churches can't get along with another church if they're across town or if they're 10 miles away. And that's what I love about Brother Bish and Dr. Townsley and some of these others. I love to hear that there is unity between brethren. and unity of churches, where churches like the church here, maybe some of you guys from New York, coming to allow maybe some of you young men to be trained at New England Baptist College. It's not, we're gonna hold all of our kids right here. No, we can have some help and there's some unity and a common cause. Today brother Bish and I were having lunch and we're talking a little bit about when he came 24 25 years ago and dr Townsend He said you were the first one that called him that reached out to him and you made a statement I think I'm remembering this right that you made a statement something about you know, we're not really getting the job done There's not enough of us and basically you were saying I'm gonna be here to help you. I'm gonna support you I'm gonna encourage you isn't that a a refreshing type of spirit that churches should get along? along with one another. And I'm not talking about ecumenical nature. I'm talking about those of us who believe the same and we understand the gospel of Christ and we understand the doctrines of our faith. Look, my friend, we ought to be unified together, striving together for the sake of the gospel. And so I want to help us with that a little bit this evening as we come to this passage. Now, tonight we're going to look at two churches. We're going to look at the Church of Philippi. It's where we get the epistle we call the Philippians, the letter, the epistle, to the Philippian church. And likewise, we know, and we won't take a lot of time here, but we know that there was another church, there were multiple churches that letters were written to, but there was another church that really did not have the same reputation as the church in Philippi had, and that's the church of Corinth. And obviously they were a very divided church, and we'll see that in just a little while. And so I'd like to kind of draw some comparisons tonight between the church in Corinth and the church in Philippi. But as we come to our main text tonight, look at verse 27 please. We read it just a moment ago. And Paul is writing to this wonderful church in Philippi, a blessed church, a working church, a happy church, a joyful church. We're going to find out a lot of these great character traits that this church had. And he begins the letter here early in verse 27, and he says, And I want you to notice here, the gospel of Christ. Can I please help us to understand that there is one main thing that should unify this church, that should unify churches of like faith, and that is we can all be on the same page of the gospel, the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the only way to heaven. Someone say amen right there. There are not many Gospels. Remember, Paul had to deal with many of the churches, the church in Galatia, and the Gnosticism, and all of these other things. Remember, Paul talked about, don't be swept away with every wind of doctrine. There aren't many Gospels. There's one Gospel. There was one Savior. His name was Jesus Christ. He died on an old rugged cross. He was buried, and three days later, he rose again. in the power of God his father, so that we could have true salvation. That's the gospel of Christ. If there's anything that can unify us, it ought to be the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so Paul is reminding the church about this. And he says, I want you to be reminded that your conversation should be all about the gospel of Christ. And he goes on to say that whether I come to see you or else be absent, that I may hear of your affairs. Now, notice the next few statements. That ye, now he's talking to the church, not to an individual. That ye, church, stand fast. Now notice, in one spirit. Did you see the unity there? How many spirits? In one spirit. Stand fast. We could say stand together. We could say because of the gospel, we are all on the same page. We are understanding that we live in a dark world and we have the light of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is the gospel, the salvation plan, the Romans road, whatever you want to call it. He says we should allow it to help us to stand together in one faith. It brings us together. It pulls us together. It's one spirit, he goes on to say, and in one mind. Notice that. Unity. One mind. Now skip over to chapter 2 and verse number 5. Just as a side note, the Bible says, let this mind be in you which was also in, talk to me church. So whose mind was he talking about? Paul was not saying let's all get on my page of my mind. He was not saying let's get on Apollos's page or his mind. He said really the one mind that unifies us is the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. I should think like him. Amen. And if you have trouble if you have problems in your thought life and we're going to talk about this a little bit in chapter 4 verse number 8 You need to get on God's page. You need to get on the the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let your mind Be that which was in Christ Jesus that will unify us look if we all thought about Jesus Christ we could get along with each other and My Savior was compassionate. My Savior was full of love. My Savior was a forgiver. Don't tell me you can't forgive a brother or sister in Christ here in your church. Don't tell me you're Christ-like. Don't tell me you have the mind of Christ if that causes disunity because you won't forgive someone in your church. You see what I'm saying? We should treat others like Christ treats them. Amen. So he says these are things that unify us. We're behind a common cause of the gospel, standing fast in one spirit and in one mind. And then here's the phrase tonight that we're really going to be preaching about. Notice in verse 27, striving together for the faith of the gospel. There's the gospel again. The faith of the gospel. What is it we're doing with the faith of the gospel? We are two words. We're striving together. That's the title of my message tonight. The Fellowship of Striving Now, let me just do a little teaching if I might, please. You're such a good listener as a group, and I appreciate your response. I appreciate your smiles. You turn in the scriptures when we go. Let me have your heart just a moment as we begin to teach this concept of striving together. The word striving actually comes in the original language from two Greek words, sun athleo, sun athleo. The Greek word sun is a word that denotes union or togetherness But the word athleo, it's where we get our English word, athletics. Soon, meaning togetherness or a unity of. Athleo means to contend in a competitive game. It's kind of the concept that Paul often uses about the judgment seat of Christ. You remember when he talked about the Bema seat? For we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Well, they knew what he was talking about. For in that day and in that culture, and you can even look back in history, how the Greek games, what we now call the Olympics, right? Every four years, the Olympics comes together. All the nations, what do they come to do? They come together They're striving together. They're in unity. Yes, in competition against another team, watch, but striving together with their own team so that they can win the prize. And so tonight, let me remind us, we are in a battle with the enemy, the enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is none other than the God of this world, Satan. He's trying to blind the minds of those that would believe. So the faith of the gospel, watch, we must be striving together. We must be working in a unified fashion with those, watch this, on our team. This is our team tonight central baptist church. You are on a team tonight. You're not competing against one another We are really competing for the souls of men against satan himself And so if we are not unified as a team, I I love I love watching the olympics and and you probably do too and and I don't know if you are patriotic like I am but I kind of like when they The American team comes all marching in and the flags are there and they're all dressed in the same colors. And to me, that's a unifying aspect of saying we're Americans and we're going to win this thing. Amen. I like winners. Don't you like winners? And can I just say to you, I'm afraid the army of the Lord Jesus Christ, we sang about that tonight. Too often we are being satisfied to be losers in this game instead of victorious winners. And could it be because we are not unified together? We're not striving together for the faith of the gospel. And so tonight I want to encourage Central Baptist Church. I'd like to encourage all churches of like precious faith to be on the same page with one another, but particularly your team, the Central Baptist Church of Southington, Connecticut. The definition of striving together means to wrestle in company with, to seek jointly. It kind of has the aspect I mentioned of athletics. I'll use an illustration of football. I'm a college football fan and certainly enjoy watching that and have been following that for a couple of decades. Central Ohio for many years, so I think I told you last time, I'm a Buckeye fan. And I know you can boo me, whatever you'd like to do, that'd be fine. But tell me of one college football team that's ranked in the top 25 that's here in New England, all right? And so we'll just kind of move on. That was a low blow right there, wasn't it? But you say, oh, we have our professional teams and such. But hockey doesn't count, all right? We're talking about football. But my point is, when you think about a football team, you think about 11 men. overgrown boys, young men, and you think about how that offensive line, you think about how much poundage is on that front line. They each go about 350, right? They're 6'3 and 350, and they're down in their stance. And they're all together on one line. And they're basically saying, you're not getting our guy back here. We are protecting this dude right here. This is our responsibility. You watch those guys. Often you'll hear a commentator will talk about, boy, this is going to be a contest that's won or lost in the trenches. You ever heard that? What are they talking about? And Ohio Buckeyes were in the Big Ten. And often the Big Ten over the years has really had a reputation of just being just hard-nosed football. I mean, we're just going to hit you in the nose, you know? And I remember the great football player Vince Lombardi. Remember the Green Bay Packers years ago? He was famous for making the statement, three yards and a cloud of dust. You know, look, we don't have to have the 50-yard play. We just need to get three, and get three, and get three, and get three, and we've made a first down. We're just going to hit them in the nose. We're going to walk down the line. That is a little bit of what we have to do in this generation for the cause of Jesus Christ. Watch. Are there going to be some plays where we get the 50-yard play? Yeah. And the run around? Yeah. The trick play? Yeah. Maybe sometimes. But I tell you what a win a game more times than not that is just the faithful giving of the gospel day in day out Weekend week out Sunday after Sunday so that we're unified in the in the cause of the gospel and we are making forward progress I think too many churches they say well, you know, we just it doesn't seem like we're making a whole lot of progress Hey, did one get saved? Rejoice about that The Bible says that in heaven there's great joy over one sinner that repents. Now, do we like days where five get saved or 10 get saved? Absolutely. But when one gets saved, it's a miracle of Jesus Christ. I'm thankful that we get to be in the soul-saving business because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So we're wrestling with, we're in company with, we're seeking jointly with. We are, here's the Bible word, striving together. but maybe a little more modern term that I'd like to just give to you just as an illustration. It would be the word synergy, S-Y-N-E-R-G-Y, synergy. It's kind of a word maybe often used in business. They maybe talk about having synergy with each other and again being on the same page and having unity. The word synergy means the working together of two or more to produce a combined effort that is greater than the separate parts. Let me just say it this way. This church is going to do way more for the cause of Christ if everybody does something instead of just one person doing it all. your pastor is not paid. You pay him, as it were. His salary is that you're to be the soul winner, Dr. Townsley. And we don't have any responsibility in that. We pay you to do that. We pay you to be the man, and you're the one that's going to do all the soul. No, you look at the Bible. Every Christian is to be a soul winner, right? All of us. So my point is, is that synergy develops the idea that unity of two or more people are gonna do way more than one person ever could do. Now let's just logic a little bit. Can four do more than two? And can 8 do more than 4? Are you with me? Can 16 do more than 8? I'm just saying the more that we are working together, striving together for a common cause, the more that we can get done for the gospel. I'm going to ask you to go with me to Matthew 19. Let me just use a couple of illustrations here please. Let's first use the illustration of marriage. I love marriage. I'm sorry, again, that my wife was not able to come. I promise you I am married. I have a wedding ring right here. It's the second time I've been here. My wife, she has GG duty this week. My daughter and son-in-law, who we live with down in Southern New Jersey, and they are going on a business trip this next week. So we have GG duty. That's grandma, right? We're called GG, and I'm pops. Am I a good-looking pops or what? I mean, a 53-year-old guy named Pops. And so I get back on Monday night. I teach all day at Vision on Tuesday. And then I get Joseph, my little three-and-a-half grandson, I get him all day Wednesday, all day Thursday, and all day Friday. So Gigi gets him early in the week, and I get him at the end of the week. And I'm looking forward to that. You see, it takes two to watch a three-and-a-half-year-old, amen? And you've got to share the duties. We're striving together to let this little kid live another day, right? And so Gigi doesn't kill him, or his mom doesn't kill him, or pops doesn't kill him, right? You know I'm just teasing. But I love marriage. Look with me at Matthew 19. My point is that two are better than one. And this is what God set up as it relates to marriage. Look at Matthew 19, please, verse 4. Jesus is speaking here, and he says, And I wish our generation would just read that one verse, that would take care of the transgender issue just right there, right? Now, it's not what I'm preaching about, but it's very clear, male and female, right? He said about Adam, and I was teaching about this in my ministry ethics class about marriage and morality, and we went to Genesis 2. The Bible says, Genesis 2, 18, God saw that Adam was alone, and he said, this is not good that man be alone. In fact, every woman in here is saying, yeah, that man can't live by himself. He's a mess. He's a hot mess, right? And God said, because I've seen there's a need, I will make for him and help meet, right? That's what happened in Genesis 2. That's not sexist. That's Bible. God made males and females to need each other. He made husbands and wives to need each other. Notice what he says in verse five. And for this call shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife. And they, watch the phrase here, twain, that means two, shall be, how many flesh? One. Two, watch this, two become one. Two become, that's what happens in marriage, right? You know why? Because Ecclesiastes four says two are better than one. I'm going to show you that in a minute, Ecclesiastes 4. I'm just trying to show you that marriage is a prime example of the wonderful creation that God made called marriage, the institution God made called marriage, is to help us to do more in life. He goes on to verse six and says, wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. I wish our culture would stop ripping marriage apart. I wish liberal politicians would stop taking the first and most important institution in the beginning of the creation, the home and the family and a man and a woman to have children and a home and a family that brings honor and glory to God. And our culture is ripping them apart. And God said, that is not the way I intended it to be. for two or better than one. A family can be stronger and can be a greater help to the generation, to the culture. You know why our culture's falling apart? It's because marriages are not unified like they should be. It's because homes are divided unlike they should be. I'm just trying to say that it was not like that from the beginning. Go to Ecclesiastes four real quick. I just alluded to it. But would you go to Ecclesiastes chapter number four? and I don't have to have Brother Boyle read right now. I still have voice, how about that? And I may preach for an hour, Dr. Townsley, you were teasing me about that, but, and just to be fair, you're going to Ecclesiastes four, just to be fair, doc, I did not know I was even doing that devotion until yesterday afternoon at about 1230 when Brother Devin texted me. And so I'm still, I was still, okay, well, what am I, this was an extra time, I wasn't sure about this. So that's what happens when you throw it on a preacher, you get a long winded message, amen? And we had a good time last night, of course. Anytime around the Word of God, no matter how long it is, it's good. Amen? Because the Bible always speaks. Look at Ecclesiastes 4, verse 9. I just quoted it. I want you to see it. Let's read together. Verse 9, the first phrase. Ready? Two are better than one. I love that because they have a good reward for their labor. Look at verse 10. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow, but woe unto him that is alone when he falleth. For he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat, but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail, I love verse 12, look at it, and if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him, read the next phrase church, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. I love that. He said, if you have one and you fall, you don't have anybody to help you up. Two are better than one. That other one can go and help him out of the ditch. Hey, when the husband is down, the wife can be there to lift him up. When the wife is down, the husband can be there to lift him up. When the kids are having a difficult time, the parents are there to come and lift them up. That's the family. The same thing happens in the church. Aren't you glad you don't have to have church alone, all by yourself? Aren't you glad you get to come to a body? and hundreds of people that when you're down, you got people praying for you. You got people loving you. You got people saying, hey, what can I do to help you and be a blessing? You have a hospital stay and you come home and you're recovering and meals get brought and you have a new baby and everyone's excited. You have a funeral and everybody comes to grieve. I love the church. The church is the greatest thing in our New Testament age because we get to do life together. Right? He says two are better than one. And then he says, look, a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Do you know what makes a rope? So strong. If you look at a rope, it's not just one strand. It's multiple strands woven together. And the bigger the rope, the stronger it'll hold. That's why they use ropes on ships. A ship will come up to the dock. A boat will come up to the dock. They throw that big old thick rope. Why? That rope's going to hold against the winds and the storms of the sea. A three-fold cord is not quickly broken. Obviously the same thing is true. We said with marriage the same thing is true though with the church. I won't take time to go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 12, but the Bible says that the church is likened to a body. And he says every Christian is a member of the body, but you are not the only member of the body. He goes on to say, what if everybody was an eye? Where would the hearing be? And if everybody was an ear, where would the smelling be? Are you familiar with 1 Corinthians 12? I'm just quoting it now. And Paul says, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he says, when you get involved in the local church, it's this big body of a lot of different people. And some people are the little pinky, and some people are the thumb, and some people are the head. There has to be leadership. Some people have different strengths and abilities and skill sets and spiritual gifts and all of this. And it all comes together in this amazing body called the local church. And you get to be a part of it. Can I ask you, are you playing your part? Are you doing your part? I read on Facebook a couple days ago that said that the only reason for the small toe on the foot is to find out whether your furniture has been rearranged or not. You ever stubbed your little baby toe in the middle of the night? You say, oh, the little toe is not important. Try to walk without the little toe. It gives stability to the foot. I'm just trying to say, I don't know what part of the body you are here at Central, but you're important. You're vital. Play your part. Do your part. And so we come as we kind of wrap up the message here. We have two churches that we are kind of going to contrast for just a moment. We find the church of Corinth. Would you go over to 1 Corinthians 1 with me please for a moment? 1 Corinthians 1. And we're going to make our way back to the main text in Philippians in just a moment as we close the message. but I've not yet preached for an hour, so I still have time, amen? Some of you are getting a little nervous right now, right? You're saying, he's really gonna take him up on that, right? I didn't get to preach long enough back in the fall revival because I had no voice like this. What do they do in Congress? I yield my time to another and then I'm going to take that guy's time that he didn't use. That guy that didn't preach as long as he usually does back in the fall, I get that time right now tonight. I'm just teasing. You don't mean that when you say that. 1 Corinthians 1, look at verse 10. This was a troubled church. You know the story. Paul says in verse 10 to them, Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak, now watch this, watch the unity again, that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. I mean, how much more clear can he be? He said, this is a messed up church. Now we know that because we get to read the whole book. Paul is unloading the whole thing here, right? In chapter number one, he said, I got some issue. God has some issues with you, church. He said, you're not on the same page. You're not of the same spirit. You're not in one mind. You're not perfectly joined together. And I want you to be. Verse 11. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are, notice the word, contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you sayeth, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. And they ask the question, is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? Of course, all of the rhetorical answers to those questions are, well, of course not, no. No. So why are you so divided? Why are we so personality driven? Even in our fundamental world, it seems as if we're following sometimes a man or a personality. And Paul said, put all of that away. It's really all about Jesus Christ. I promise you, every God-fearing pastor wants to say, and we have to be up here and lead and be the elder and the pastorship, I get all of that, but I promise you, because we know the scriptures, we don't want you looking at us, we want you to let us reflect you to Christ. Because the church belongs to him. And that's how we stay unified. When we start following personalities, well then what if one guy kind of goes off kilter? Do we follow him into false doctrine? Have some done that? Absolutely. So that's why we have to, Brother Howells always used to say, he said, don't be loyal to institutions, be loyal to truth. Because there are institutions that change. I'm just trying to say that Paul is encouraging this church to be unified and not so divided. Look at chapter 3. You know it. Chapter 3, verse 1. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able, for ye are yet carnal. Watch this. For whereas there is among you, read it with me church, envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? The first point, and again just two main points tonight, I just want to show you this. What are the repercussions of division? What are the repercussions of division? This local church, the church in Corinth, obviously we know as we read the first epistle, in chapter number three, we find their carnality and fleshliness. In chapter 4, Paul addresses their unfaithfulness. In chapter 5, their immorality. In chapter 6, their conflict with one another, whereas they were even taking each other to court. In chapter number 7, their marital issues. In chapter number 8, the misuse and misunderstanding of liberty. He speaks about gender issues and problems with the Lord's Supper and with tongues and with giving And on and on and on it went. It was a messed up church. He tells us why in chapter 1. He said you're all divided. You're not following Christ. You're following personalities. You're following men. You are placing men above Christ. And he says when you do that your church is going to be divided. The repercussions of division. But I believe that God's desire and God's ideal and God's model is found as we continue to read. Look at chapter three with me. Stay with me here. Verse number six. He says, I have planted, Apollos has watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one. Did you see that? They're one. Look this way. So he's using their illustration of, I'm a Paul, I'm a Paulist, I'm of this guy, I'm of this guy. And he said, look, they all have different jobs. And this guy is going to be strong in this area. And this guy's going to be a planter. And this guy's going to be a waterer. But let me just tell you, they're all doing the same work. They are one in the body of Christ. Do you see that? Paul was trying to get them to understand, and through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that this church would stop being so divided so that they could reach their potential. He's telling them what that is. Skip down to verse 9, please. For we are, I love this, chapter three, verse nine, read it together, ready? For we are laborers together with God. Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. He said, this is where I'm trying to get your church. I'm trying to get you to realize, I want you to strive together for a common cause. For the faith of the gospel. I want you to realize those that plant and those that water, they're on the same team. This is God's desire, I believe, for every church. And so we come, lastly, back to our text. Would you find your way back to Philippians chapter number four? You know that the preacher's getting to the end of the message when we come back to where we began, right? And so we've come back to Philippians. A great church, I mentioned that. If you're taking notes, I know I've seen many of you doing that. Number one, we said that there are repercussions of division, but number two, and lastly, I want you to see the results of synergy, the results of what we're calling striving together for a common cause. Go to chapter four with me, please, Philippians chapter four. What a wonderful, wonderful church this was. And obviously series of sermons could be preached about this church. I've taken many messages over the years of pastoring from the book of Philippians. Can I show you, please, as we begin in chapter number four, I just wanna show you a couple of things here. What'll happen when there's a unified church? What is the fellowship of striving together? Well, verse number three, look at it. The Bible says, and I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellow laborers, who names are written in the book of life. Number one, here's what will happen in a unified church. Number one, there'll be a procurement of workers. If a church has trouble finding workers or procuring workers, it may be because they're divided. They don't have a common cause. I loved the report about the bus ministry. I loved here. Did that not do your heart good to hear there are 60 people that work in your bus ministry? Love that. One day I sat down in my church in Ohio and I counted up how many people does it take to make one Sunday work? and you count all the bus workers, and you count all the choir members, and you count all the special music people, and you count all the nursery workers, and you count all the Sunday school teachers, it was like 180 people that we had to have. There's some churches don't have 180 people show up on Sunday for attendance, let alone 180 people that have a job. Don't tell me that that wasn't a good reason why our churches were unified. We're all pulling for a common purpose. There'll be a procurement of workers if we are all on the same page. Look at chapter four, verse number four. There also will be a possession of joy. I love verse four. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say, hey, hey, hey, look at me. Unified churches are happy places. I said a minute ago, soon you'll walk into a church, you can cut the tension with a knife. There's no happiness and joy there. People's upset. All right, preacher, bless me if you can. You know, sitting on the back row with your poochie lip all down and kind of putting the preacher on, You know, make me laugh, you know, make me feel good, make me feel spiritual. Look, when you come to church, you want to have the joy of the Lord in your heart. That's what singing helps us do, right? We worship in our singing and we sing praise and glory to God. I love the choir special. It blessed my heart tonight. It's getting us ready so that we're all on the same page and we're happy about being in church. Are you happy you came to church tonight? And some of you are saying, I'd be happier if you'd get done, right? Come on, let's be honest. I know what we're saying here. But I'm saying that the joy of the Lord is our strength, right? Nehemiah 8, verse 10. I told my people always, Doc, I'd say, I don't want to pastor unhappy people. I want you to be happy in the Lord. That does not mean that there aren't times of sorrow. And obviously, when we cry, we all cry together, right? When we rejoice, we rejoice together. But there's just something about happy Christians working together. on the same page, doing the same work, pulling on the same part of the rope, a possession of joy. Verses six and seven, there's a powerful prayer life. I love verse six and seven, you know it, we won't take time to read it all. Don't be anxious or careful for anything, but everything by prayer and supplication. Can I just say, a unified church is a praying church. You're praying for one another, you're praying for the gospel of Christ to move forward. Let me say this, you're praying for unity. Hey, if your church, if you are disunified with someone, pray for that person. That's a good thought right there. You're upset with another brother or Christian, a brother or sister in your church, pray for them instead of criticize them. Take it to the Lord. Can I ask you a question? Do you pray for your pastor? I hope you do. Do you pray for the staff? Can I say, you've got great staff here. The little bit that I've worked with them and observed them, the school staff, the college staff, the church staff, all on the same page, it seems, kind of working for the same cause and pulling on the rope together. That's a happy place, and that is a place that is filled with prayer. Can I say, verse number eight, there's positive mindsets. I love verse eight. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, What sort of things are honest? What sort of things are just? What sort of things are pure? What sort of things are lovely? What sort of things are of good report? Can I ask you a question? Are all of those positive traits? Yes or no? Yeah. And he says, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, what's the last phrase? Think on these things. A unified church is going to be thinking on positive things, not negative things. Quit picking. No church is perfect. No pastor is perfect. No church member's perfect. There's no perfect place. In fact, my dad always used to say, if you ever find a perfect church, don't join it, you'll mess it up. Because we're all imperfect people. So quit picking at the little things you don't like here at Central. Amen. I'm going to say it again. Quit picking. Quit being critical. And I don't know that you are. I'm an outsider with a hired gun. I can come in and say it because I'm leaving tomorrow, right? So if you've got a problem with something, I'm not talking about doctrine. Obviously, if your church goes haywire on doctrine, you understand. You've got to leave that. But this place is sound in doctrine, always has been. Outreach and the love of God and training the next generation. This is a good place. Thank God for it. Pray for it. Be happy that you get to attend here and that this is your church and have a positive mindset about it. And then as we close, verses 14 through 19, and we won't even take time to read them all, but this church was a great missions-minded and missions-giving church. The Bible uses the word communicated here a couple of times. He said, no church communicated with me as far as giving and receiving as you did, church in Philippi. And so the last point here, there was a provision from communication, a provision from communication. Obviously, Paul loved this church. He knew that there were some people he could count on. Now, Paul likewise had to had to spend some time correcting the Corinthian church. And he knew, as much as he loved them, he had to bring correction. They're messed up. They're not unified. But then he says, but this church over here, let me use this as a model, the church in Philippi. They get along with each other. They love one another. They have a missions flavor. They're prayers. They're happy. They're rejoicing. Can I ask you a question? Which church do you want to be, church in Corinth or the church in Philippi? You want the repercussions of division, or would you rather have the great benefits of being a unified church, fellowshipping and striving together for the faith of the gospel. I hope that this church always will continue down this path as you have for many, many decades. And guess what? The work's not done yet. New England is still in great need of churches like this. You know that all over the region. Can I say it this way? Let this church even be a model to churches that are younger pastors coming behind to learn from men of God like Dr. Townsley and Brother Boyle and others. Get training in a place like New England Baptist College where you're going to learn biblical church building and church planting and church polity so that we can be a unified place for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Would you stand with me please? Our heads are bowed. Our eyes are closed. Thank you for listening.