The Joy and Power of Authentic Community [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. As I look back over the course of my life, I have to just bear this testimony. The things that I've been most committed to are the things that cost me the most joy.

Now they might have been some of the hardest things, but my marriage of over 31 years has been absolutely great. If you say, what's one of the greatest blessing in your life? I'd say my marriage. And you say, well, what have you sacrificed more? What have you given?

I'd say probably my marriage. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Unspeakable Joy as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastoralan.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Alan Wright. Are you ready for some good news? I know who you are. You are the beloved of God. I know who you are. You are the beloved.

And those sociologists are reporting that loneliness is epidemic in our country. The church, the body of Christ, the fellowship of the beloved is the answer. We only have one verse today, Philippians chapter four, verse one, Philippians chapter four, verse one. Therefore, my brothers whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. You need to know that where the ESV translates it, whom I love, that this is an instance where the old King James has it better. It just says beloved. He actually uses the word beloved twice. It literally reads as all nouns, brothers, beloved, longed for ones, joy, crown, beloved.

You are the beloved. Now I just want to pause here for a moment and just a little bit of instruction for anybody that didn't grow up in the South. If you're new here, we're so glad that you're here. People from the North, Midwest, even the West Coast, there are a number of things that might surprise you about our culture. And every now and then I just think as a courtesy to let you know some things that might otherwise you might think is very odd. This is one that might catch you by surprise that there's a rule here in the South that if you are a man and let's say you're at a diner or a coffee shop, the waitress or server who is a complete stranger to you has every right to call you a term of endearment. And we want you to be aware that if she says, can I get you some more coffee, sweetie? That this is just natural.

This is just natural. That a complete stranger can call someone a sweetie. The humorous article in a recent edition of our state, author Jeremy Jones says of North Carolinians, we pour syrup upon strangers and friends alike. Anyone you pass might be a peach or a muffin. To a southerner, every living breathing soul is coated in sugar.

And so we want you to be aware of this. You just need to understand that if she calls you honey, it doesn't mean she wants to marry you. It's just, we think it's sort of cold and cruel to just call somebody you.

So we don't just go and say, hey, you there want some more coffee? It needs to be something a little bit more like, could I freshen that up for you, sweetie pie? And so this is, it's a nice thing to have somebody call you by a term of affection when they don't know you at all, because it kind of helps brighten your day.

Now, any basic term of cordiality that we have can become elaborated and expanded. So just so you understand the rules, honey can be honey pie, honey bee, honey baby, honey bunch, or just hun. And as author Jeremy Jones again puts it well, anyone also can become a pie of any various sorts, sweetie pie, sugar pie, honey pie, or cutie pie. If they put pie on the end, it just adds to it a little bit.

So it's one thing to be a cutie, but if you're a cutie pie, that's extra special. Now the use of fruits and vegetables for terms of endearment is allowed as long as that particular food can be regarded as sweet. So for example, it's fine to call someone a peach, but not a lemon.

There are a couple of things that surprise you that you might not think were a sugary term of affection, but it does work. I don't know exactly why, because this particular item is kind of round and plump and unseemly, but it's quite nice to call someone pumpkin. My cousin, my older cousin, Phyllis, she used to always call me little pumpkin, and I was quite blessed by it. You can call somebody by a green vegetable name as long as there's a qualifying tasty adjective preceding it. For example, it's acceptable to call someone sweet pea. There may be some health conscious people that think this is the problem with the South. Everything's coated with syrup and sugar, and they'd like us to think of some more nutritional terms of endearment. I've thought about it, but it just doesn't work very well.

Can I freshen up that coffee little tofu? It just doesn't. Good morning, broccoli pie.

It just doesn't sit very well with it. If you're in a coffee shop or a diner in the South, someone who doesn't even know you might call you sweetie pie. I just wanted you to know that. I also want you to know that if you were in the first century and you were a stranger to the apostle Paul, but you were in the Philippian church, even if he'd never met you, he would call you beloved. It's my chosen term for you. It's the way I would bring salutation if I were writing you a letter, beloved.

I originally had thought I would try to treat each one of the five descriptive nouns that Paul uses in verse one. The word brothers is certainly inclusive of sisters as well. It is the idea we are family and we are connected because we have the same father and we have the same brother, Jesus. When you're a family, it's something that's very different because you are connected in a real sense, not by choice, but by design. There is an organic connection that we have together in the body of Christ, that no matter where I am in the world, if someone else is in Christ, that person is my brother or my sister. It changes everything.

It changes everything. He also uses a noun that literally means longed for ones. It is a word that means a tender, but deep, affectionate yearning. It's the kind of language that you would use if you were away, perhaps, overseas serving your country and couldn't be home for Christmas.

Overseas serving your country and couldn't be home for Christmas. I long for you. Then he describes the Philippian Christians as his joy. We learn in Philippians about the supernatural joy that comes through the Holy Spirit in our lives.

But what Paul's saying here is extraordinary. He's saying, my joy is found not only in knowing Christ, but in you. The relationships that I have with you is this great cause of joy.

Just understand that there's an inextricable link between the quality of your relationships with others and the joy in your life. Then he calls them his crown, the prize of my life. The prize of my life, he says, is not my accomplishments.

It's not my scholarship. It's not my recognition amongst others or any fame. You are my crown.

You are my prize. Anybody, whoever comes to the end of their life, when they're nearing their last breath, if you ask them what was most important to them, what was their great prize? It will always be relationships. I would love to deal with each one of those concepts, but instead, the Lord just kept impressing on my heart this term that I use of you so often, that Paul uses of us, and where I want to just focus on this word, beloved. It is an absolutely beautiful word that is brimming over with a depth of theology that makes the word possible. That's what I want to talk to you about today, as we think on this group link Sunday where we are wanting to do all we can to help you be connected, and for anyone who listens, podcasts, radio, wherever you might be, the importance of being connected in the body of Christ.

Let me start with this. The book of Philippians, this little letter is very different than Colossians or Galatians, where Paul is addressing a heresy. He's really, at times, passionate, even angry, because he's wanting to articulate the accuracy of the theology of what's happened for us in Christ. There is some beautiful theology in Philippians, but it's not the principal thing that runs through here. It's not principally addressing a heresy. It's not really like Ephesians, where you just have the grandeur of just over and over, all of this Christology, or even this defining of who the church is. But when you read Philippians, it really reads, and this is what scholars point out, it's like a letter of friendship.

That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Have you ever thought that joy is a delight reserved for those who have no problems? Or have you ever assumed that some people are just born with a joyful personality?

If so, get ready for some good news. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit available to all in Christ, no matter the circumstances of life. Though Paul was in jail when he wrote his epistle to the Philippians, he spoke of joy sixteen times. No matter what you're going through, you too can discover the secret to joy. And if you don't know what joy means to you, you're going to go through. You too can discover the secret to unspeakable joy, as Pastor Alan Wright leads you through a life-building exploration of Philippians. When you make a gift to Sharing the Light Ministries today, we'll send you the new CD album, The Secret of Unspeakable Joy, as our way of saying thank you for your partnership. Your gifts are the only way we are able to continue broadcasting the message of grace all over the nation. Happiness may rise and fall with happenstance, but joy is ever-present in the Spirit.

So become a partner today and discover joy like never before. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. We're in the final days of this special offer being made available to you. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. And this is the way in the ancient world, it follows in many ways, if we could go through it, it follows kind of the outline of the way you'd write a letter to a good friend. And that's the way it reads. In fact, I went back through Philippians just addressing this question of how relational is it? And what you see is almost every verse. In some way or another, there's something relational.

I won't give you them all. Philippians 1, 7, it's right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart. You're partakers with me of grace. Philippians 1, 25, convinced of this, I know I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith.

You see there's always this language, with you, I'm with you. If there's any encouragement in Christ, Philippians 2, 12, I mean, Philippians 2, 1. If there's any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, make my joy complete by having the same mind, all about relationship, about relationship. He talks about in Philippians 2, 25, I've thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus.

He's been longing for you all and he's been distressed because you heard that he was ill. He's all about these relationships. And I've gone through, I won't take time, I've written down about 20 verses. And you could just see if you go through, this whole epistle is about relationship.

And also we see a kind of honesty with what we're talking about. A kind of honesty with Paul that is very endearing to me. And we saw this in Philippians 2 where Paul says that he'd like to send Timothy back to Philippi. In fact, he puts it this way, I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon so that I too may be cheered by news of you for I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. For others seek their own interests, not those of Jesus, but you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father, he served with me in the gospel. I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me. And what Paul is saying there is I don't know if I'm going to be executed or not. I really know that you need Timothy right now and I'd like to send Timothy and he'd be an encouragement to you, but he's just being honest. He's saying, I need him.

I need this close friend nearby while I'm in prison here until we find out the result of my trial. It's a very relational epistle and it is a picture, a wonderful, beautiful picture of what the church looks like. There's such a deep connection. And I want to just say that there is a message that is the spirit of this age that we beloved must absolutely come against. And the message essentially says that you will have more joy in your life if you actively try to always keep your options open. Don't tie yourself down with commitment.

You'll be more free if you don't get too committed. It's hard to even get anybody to RSVP to anything anymore, isn't it? Because everyone wants to wait to the last second in case something better comes along, right?

And we're just like that now. We're postponing marriage because people are afraid of all the commitment. It'll take away my joy. We're afraid of getting committed to even a church sometimes or some group of people because we've been duped by this message that says greater joy comes, the less committed you are. What a life from the pit of hell. As I look back over the course of my life, I have to just bear this testimony. The things that I've been most committed to are the things that caused me the most joy. Now, they might be some of the hardest things, but my marriage of over 31 years has been absolutely great. If you say, what's been the greatest blessing in your life? I'd say my marriage. And you say, well, what have you sacrificed more?

What have you given? I'd say probably my marriage or raising their kids. Any parent can tell you this.

I mean, you can't even sit down and write down the number of sacrifices you make for your kids and you just do it. But if you say, well, what's also the greatest cause of joy? Where's your blessing in your life?

What's the relationship with kids? Ministry fits into this. I love, love pastor. I love ministry. I love writing.

I love teaching. I make a lot of sacrifices. But there's so much fulfillment, so much purpose in that friendships, real friendships that you stay committed to. It just means something. I've loved that the Lord has allowed me to be here. It'll be 20 years this November. And there's some value in sticking around somewhere.

I'm not saying that every pastor needs to do that. And please don't ever let me wear out my welcome. But I just, I love you. And I tell you, there's something beautiful about that. I like being in one community for a long time.

I know that's not possible for everybody, but I'm just saying that what I have found in life is that the things that I've been most committed to have actually brought me the most joy. And that seems to be running exactly opposite of the spirit of the age and the message of this culture. And what Paul is just doing is here is just very open, very transparent, very passionate, very affectionate. He's writing to the Philippians. This is all about our relationships. And so he calls him beloved. Now in the ancient Greek world, there were several words for love. Our language in English, we miss out by only having the word love.

It doesn't tell all the story. And in the ancient Greek, they had a word for the romantic passionate type of love called Eros. And in the paganism of that ancient Greek world, the confusion over Eros, not understanding its beauty and the wonder of what God has created with this kind of romantic love for husband and wife, would often become confused with a kind of a idolatrous yearning for intoxication led to cultic prostitution, all of this. And this word comes into the scriptures in a beautiful picture of love between a man and a woman in a covenant relationship. And there's a word also in the ancient Greek for a friendship type love, Philane.

It's a word, when you ever see that word Phil, that little root like Philadelphia, city of brotherly love, that's where it's coming from. And there was a concept also called Agape. And this preceded the New Testament. And Agape interestingly came from this Greek idea from a word that meant to breathe, like longing for. And it actually had an ancient Greek idea of being preferred. It's an interesting thought that the word that comes into the New Testament for love, that unconditional love of God that we so cherish that Paul calls and throughout the New Testament, the Agape of God, really comes from an older concept about being preferred. And I think in so many ways, this makes sense as I'll try to explain today, for a lot of people who have a hard time ever believing or receiving or experiencing and feeling the love of God, I think so much of the answer of this will be unveiled today as we talk about what it really means to be accepted in Christ himself. And so there is a way in which this love is set apart and distinct from every other form of love because it's seated in choice. And I just talk about this a lot, but a covenantal type of love is absolutely different because what it means is that you love someone because you're in a committed relationship, because you're in a posture of choosing them. It's like a parent who loves his or her own baby.

It's weird. You start loving your child before the child's born, or if you adopt, you start loving the child before you've adopted the child. And it's because it's your child. And this is the nature of this love, agape.

More to say about that in a few moments. So the word for beloved is agapetos. It's just a noun form of agape, loved ones, beloved ones.

And it's beautiful. One of the things that's so beautiful about being God's beloved and the beautiful thing about calling someone else beloved is that this is a definition of your life that isn't really about any characteristic intrinsic to you. It's not really about any of your particular good or bad qualities.

And it's certainly not about any of your accomplishments. For to label someone beloved is not so much to say something about who they are intrinsically, but it is to say something about the one who loves them. In other words, you can be beloved and you could be unaware of it, whether you know it or not.

The prodigal son, when he was in a faraway land amongst the pigs and the prostitute was his father's beloved. And so I love this that if you wake up in the morning and you have had a hard time and you have begun to have those feelings about yourself where I'm seeing my worst traits. Alan Wright, today's teaching as we talk about the joy and power of authentic community in unspeakable joy. Stay with us, Alan is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and a final word.

C.S. Lewis said, no soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. In other words, joy isn't an elusive dream reserved for a select few who have no problems or for those who were born with a joyful disposition. Actually, joy is a fruit of the spirit available to all in Christ. No matter what you're facing, you can have the joy of the Lord in the midst of it.

The apostle Paul did, though he wrote his epistle to the Philippians while imprisoned, he spoke of joy 16 times. Alan Wright's newest CD album, The Secret of Unspeakable Joy takes you chapter by chapter through Paul's explanation of the secret of joy in Philippians. When you make a gift today to sharing the light, we'll be delighted to send you the new CD album as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Become a partner today and discover the secrets of unspeakable joy. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. We're in the final days of this special offer being made available to you. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Alan, as we come down here towards the landing of this particular series, do you find it important to also say, okay, this journey to joy, this journey of joy is not something we do in a vacuum all alone?

Yes, we become so individualistic in our Western culture, don't we? And even in the things of, well, the deepest matters of joy and faith, we can tend to think that that comes. But the longer I'm a Christian, Daniel, the more I see that this kind of affection that Paul has for the Philippians, this that he shares over and over throughout this letter, this has become my experience as well. I love to pray, but I love it more when I'm praying with others. I love to worship, but I love to worship more when I'm with others. I love to study the Word of God, but I love the revelation that comes in the midst of sharing it or receiving it in the body of Christ. So our identity is we are the beloved, we are accepted in the beloved, and that means that there's a community together in Christ. How beautiful it is. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.