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Now let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. I have a friend who was a director. He was a crusade director. Of the Billy Graham Association. His job was to get on planes and fly to different parts of the country.
and help organize those huge evangelistic crusades for Dr. Billy Graham.
So one day he's in an airplane, he's flying across country, and sitting next to him was Tom Cruise. The actor. Who asked my friend, so what do you do for a living? My friend was always looking for ways to get the gospel presented.
So he looked at Tom Cruise and he said, I'm in the security business.
Now that's a huge buzzword for actors because actors and musicians are always looking for good security people.
So he goes, Really, you're insecurity.
So, my friend went on to tell him about how to have eternal security in Jesus Christ. And that was the platform that he used. I'm in the security business. You're part of a business. You have a business.
And I'm not just meaning that you have a Occupational business, a professional business that I know, but you have. You have another business. You have a spiritual business. You have a vocational business. You have a high and holy business.
And that is God's business. And that's what I want to talk to you about here.
So that you might be a financial investor, but you have another business. You might be a consultant, but you have another business. You might be uh A construction worker, you have another business. You might be a student, you have another business. You might be a single parent.
You have another business. You might be in between jobs. But you're always on this job. It is a business That comes from God. What's more, it's a family business.
That is, Now that you're a part of God's spiritual family. You're part of the family business. You remember what Jesus said when he was, I think, 12 years old and his mother found him in the temple speaking to the leadership there? And he said to her, Don't you know that I must be about my father's business? We are in that business.
That family business. And I want you to just make a note in verse 5, even though we haven't even read it yet. Notice the word in verse 5, fellowship. You see that word?
Some newer translations translate it partnership. I think that's a better choice. It is a partnership. It is the word koinonia, translated fellowship or partnership. We are partners with God.
in a family business. God is our Father. Jesus said, I am going to my Father and your Father. The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers.
So we are part of a family business. I was reading a little article in Forbes magazine this week. about businesses in the United States of America. And the article said that family business in America is responsible for 50% of the gross national product. That it is essentially a country built on family businesses.
Now, some of us think of family businesses as the store down the street owned by a family, and it's been in the family for a few years. The article goes on to say that Walmart is a family business, as is Ford Motor Company, Tyson Foods, Sears. And Comcast. All of those are family businesses. But the same article noted that less than one-third of those businesses will survive the transition from the first generation.
to the second generation. And those that do survive, 50% of them will not survive the transition from the second to the third generation. Why is that? The article says These are businesses that get stuck doing things the same way. In other words, the business outgrows the structure.
So we are in a business. We are in a family business, a partnership. With God, with the Lord, and with others.
Now we in this business have a product. Every business has a product. Yes, we have a product. Our product is the gospel. That's our product.
That's what we give out. That's what we disseminate. That's what we're always sharing: the gospel. You'll notice in verse five, he says, For your fellowship in the gospel. Down in verse 7, he talks about the defense and the confirmation of the Gospel.
In verse 12, he speaks about the furtherance of the gospel. That is our product. Why is it our product? Because it's only the gospel that brings. Change.
That's where the life change comes from.
Now, you know what the gospel is. You know what the gospel means. Gospel means the. Good news The good news That what Jesus did on the cross was enough. To get you from earth to heaven.
That's the good news, that he paid the price. He did the heavy lifting. We can trust that he died, was buried, was risen from the dead. For our justification. That's the gospel.
Now it's that gospel that changed Paul's life. He heard it. He received it. It changed him from a persecutor into a preacher. From Saul of Tarsus to Paul the Apostle.
It changed Timothy, also mentioned here in our text in verse 1. Timothy was probably 15 years old when he first heard the gospel preached by that Paul who came through his town on a missionary journey. It changed him. It was the gospel who changed the lives of people at Philippi, like Lydia. And like the jailer, the Philippian jailer, and now there is a church there, all because of the gospel.
And now they, church members, Our partners with Paul. In the family business. of the gospel. Let's look at our text. Let's get familiar at least with it as we jump in.
I'm going to be looking with you today from verses 3 to verse 8 of chapter 1, but. Can we just begin in verse one and go down to verse eight for the Sake of context. Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ. To all the saints. In Christ Jesus, who are in Philippi.
with the bishops and deacons. Grace to you. And peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Always in every prayer of mine making requests for you all with joy.
For your fellowship in the gospel. From the first day until now. Being confident of this very thing. That he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart.
Inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and the confirmation of the gospel. You are partakers with me. of grace. For God is my witness how greatly I long for you with all the affection. Of Jesus Christ.
Christ. I want to share with you.
Some principles of partnership. Look at these as three partnership principles. in keeping the family business strong. They're pretty simple. Be thankful.
Be confident. Be aware. Be thankful. Be confident. Be aware.
Could you say those with me? Be thankful. Be confident. Be aware. Let's begin with the first, be thankful.
Paul was thankful. Be thankful for God's work. collectively. Go back to verse 3. Listen to what he writes.
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Always in every prayer of mine making requests for you all with joy for your fellowship, partnership in the Gospel from the first day. Until now.
Okay, Paul is writing from a prison cell in Rome. We have discovered that in our first study. And while he's in That prison cell. He's got a lot of time on his hands.
So he goes reminiscing. He goes through, he has a large inventory of memories. And one of those memories is about the church. A Philippi. How it started, where it is now.
And he says I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. I put a smile on my face when I think of you and remember you in prayer, he would say.
Now The way I see it. The words, I thank God, or I thank my God in verse 3, and the word joy in verse 4. seem like strange words to apply. to Paul's experience at Philippi. Because Philippi was sort of a pain.
All the way around. First of all, Paul didn't even want to go to Philippi, remember? He was trying to go several places. The Holy Spirit was shutting that down. Finally, he ends up at Troas.
He gets a vision of a man from Macedonia saying, Come over here and help us.
So he goes to Macedonia, Philippi being the chief city. And he's probably looking around for a man that he saw in his vision, doesn't see a man, goes to a group of women at a riverside, Jewish women who are praying. And one of them, one of them named Lydia, Listens to the message. and receives Christ as her Savior.
So Paul may have been thinking, I don't know, but This is what I would be thinking if I were Paul.
Okay. We got one. You know, I've had more success on other missionary journeys. I didn't want to come here to begin with, but here I am. We got one.
But then things go from that plays to much worse to really, really bad. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heidzig. As 2025 comes to a close, generous support from friends like you is vital to keep Connect with Skip Heitzig strong in the year ahead, so more people can hear God's word and find real hope in Jesus. Your year-end gift today helps reach even more hearts with verse-by-verse teaching and resources that connect people with God's love. To thank you for your generous gift of $50 or more, we'll send you Pastor Skip's new resource, The Daily God Journal, along with the digital companion devotional, The Daily God Book.
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Now let's get back to today's teaching. Because the next few days, a girl demon-possessed follows Paul and his team wherever he goes. And one day they even mock him while they're praying. Paul discerns she's demon-possessed, delivers her from that demon. Paul gets taken to the center of town and gets beaten with rods.
And then put in jail. R. C. Lensky, a commentator. tells us what that would have felt like.
Under the many blows, the skin would be broken, the blood would ooze out, the inflamed welts would cover the whole back. The rod that it speaks about was called a vitis. A vitis is a three-foot-long stick that centurions carried. The centurion used the vitus, the vine stick. For how shall I say it, to motivate.
Lazy soldiers. Paul got the full brunt. of that Vitis, that vine stick, those rods across his back. Then he gets put in jail. He gets put in the stocks.
Stocks were designed to pull the extremities out. to their maximum reach.
So that you were immovable.
So it's interesting that with that as the background, he says, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Because that's not what I would write. I would say when I think back to Philippi, I get sick to my stomach. My skin crawls, I break out in a sweat. But Paul says, I thank my God upon every remembrance.
Of you always in every prayer with joy.
Now there's a key there. And how joy is produced. When the Holy Spirit, and he does this, it's a work of grace. When you look back. Through your catalogue of memories.
And the Holy Spirit is able to push the delete key.
So, that what your mind lands on, or not all the bad things people have done to you, not all the injustices. Not all the wounds, not all the hurt, not all, well, let me tell you what's not right with other people. When all that stuff goes away, and you can look back through all the maze of pain. And say But God was working. And for that I have joy.
What is he thankful for? Simple. He's thankful for what the gospel produced. It produced life change. People's lives were changed.
A church grew. A family was extended. His memory of Lydia's salvation. Brought him joy. His memory of the Philippian jailer's conversion and subsequent baptism brought him joy.
His memory of how just a few people gathered around, and now there's a larger church, a vibrant church at Philippi, all of that brought him joy. Listen to this principle. Paul's joy. And thankfulness were directly proportional to the growth of the family business. I'm thankful for your Partnership In the gospel.
My joy is directly proportional, Paul would say, to the growth of the family business. That's how he saw his life. Yes, this hurt. Yes, that was painful. That was horrible.
But. But the gospel changed people's lives through it. He was joyful. Same thought is expressed a few verses down, verse 12. But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which have happened to me, now he's speaking about his present incarceration.
He has been unjustly accused. He has been a prisoner of the Roman government. He is now locked up in a Roman prison. Those are the things he refers to. The things that have happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the what?
The gospel, the product has gone out. The life-changing element has gone out.
So that it has become evident to the whole palace guard. and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ. And most of the brethren in the Lord have become confident by my chains and are much more bold to speak the word. without fear.
So My painful hardship. has extended the family And for that, I'm joyful. This is Paul looking back. This is the Holy Spirit pressing the Dileki. Paul looking back saying, Bless you, pain, bless you, problems, bless you, prison, bless you, chains.
Because, as hard as those were, I see the effect the gospel has had, and for that I have joy. Boy, that's an attitude. That's an attitude. I read an article. I found an article this week.
About your attitude. And it was all about. the right kind of attitude in life and It was found in, of all places, the Huffington Post. And the article was called Your Attitude Determines Your Altitude. The article spoke about how your attitude affects your ability to enjoy your life.
It affects your ability to be grateful. For blessings, to note that these things are blessings to me. And the article went on to say. It's the reason it's so important to hang out with the right kind of people. Who will influence your attitude?
You know, there's an awful lot of people, even Christian people.
Okay. who look like basset hounds. You know, they're on their way to heaven, but you'd never know it. And it's important to be with those people like Paul who can look back and go, ah. But look it, filter through it, notice how God was at work.
I have joy because of that. I rejoice in that. My mind could go back as I go through my catalog of memories. I can think about the hardships when we started, the trials and the tears that we experienced, the betrayals I've had in ministry. But as I look back, honestly, so much has been deleted.
I remember things happened, but I don't remember the particulars. And I thank God for that selective memory disorder. I think it's from him. I think back to changed lives and churches planted and souls saved, and for that I rejoice. I'm thankful for God's work collectively.
Here's the second partnership principle. Not only be thankful for God's work collectively, be confident in God's work personally. And that's what he draws our attention to in verse 6. Being confident Of this very thing. That he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
Now, allow me to unpack. This little verse. There's a lot in it. This personal work Was begun by God. It's God's work.
Notice what it says: being confident that He. Who has begun? This good work. Paul is not referring to what the Philippians did. He's not saying, kudos to you guys.
You did such a great work at Philippi. You planned, you strategized, you took demographic studies of the greater Philippian region. Nor is Paul talking about himself. He's not talking about or bragging about the work that he and Silas and Timothy did. Because frankly He just showed up.
And God did the work.
Now you might hear that go, Skip, you're not giving Paul enough credit. He did more than just show up, he spoke the word to Lydia. Yeah, but Luke, who was with him, put it this way: the Lord opened up her heart. To heed the things spoken by Paul.
So, who did the work, Paul or God?
Well, Paul spoke, but he spoke sort of because he was there. And the Lord opened her heart. The Lord did that. Then Paul was put in prison. Yeah.
And his back was covered with welts and he's in stocks, and it's midnight, so he turns to his buddy and goes, Hey, let's sing.
So they start singing hymns. And what happened? An earthquake happened. An earthquake shook the prison and opened the doors, and the chains fell off. Did Paul do that?
That wasn't Paul's work, that was God's work. Paul showed up. The Lord opened people's hearts. An earthquake happened. It is God's work that He.
was doing. I love that verse in Ephesians 2. For we are his Workmanship. His poema, his work of art. God is the master artist, skillful artist, always looking to express himself.
It's his work. Not only is it God's work, notice more carefully in the verse, it's a gradual work. It says, he who has begun A good work.
Now, that word begun implies it's still going on. Think for a moment. of the good work that God has begun in you. Think of the first time you heard the gospel. Maybe you heard it, and parts of you said, Yeah, I'm sort of touched by that.
But then you heard it a second time. And your heart softened. And a third time, maybe it took several times until you finally said, I give up, I surrender my life to Christ. At that moment, on that day, God began a work. He initiated a task.
It's an ongoing work. I bring this up because some of you that I'm talking to feel very discouraged as you look at your own life. There are problems in your life, there are imperfections in your life, and you're tempted to look at yourself and say, This is God's masterpiece? This is the workmanship. This is the poema, the great work of art.
Doesn't look very good to me. She But what you're looking at is what a visitor to a great artist studio would see if he walked in, and there's that artist with that white canvas spread out on a beautiful frame. And the visitor notices a splotch of orange and yellow and green and The visitor thinks I could do that. That's not art. I can throw paint at a canvas and put color on it.
And that visitor might even say, Excuse me, Mr. Famous Artist. But that doesn't look like a great piece of art to me, and the artist would say, that's because you're looking at a work in progress. I have something in my mind. I have a goal for this.
But you are just seeing it at its early stages. Just like you are seeing you in the middle. of the job. You see, holiness is not a light switch. It's not like You come to Christ and he flips the switch and it's like, I'm perfect.
We all know that's not true. The Christian life is not a sprint, it is a marathon. Put in your time, you go through the paces.
So it's God's work, it's a gradual work. But notice more carefully in verse 6, it's a growing work. That is, it has to do with your spiritual growth. Inside of you. Notice it says: He who has begun a good work, where?
In you. You see, God's work is always an inside job. Before it's ever an outside job, God works in you. before he works through you. It's sad, really, but most of our concerns in life.
our outward concerns. Most people, their focus, their concern is about outward things. How do I look? Do you like my hair? Do you like this dress on me?
Do I look too fat? Am I too thin? Am I too wrinkled? Am I too pale? It's usually outward stuff that we are preoccupied with.
How's the weather? How's the temperature? How do I feel? It's all outward stuff. Rarely do people really get concerned about the inside work.
Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before you go, don't miss your opportunity to request the Daily God Journal, along with the companion digital devotional, the Daily God Book. These resources are our thanks for your generous year-end gift of $50 or more to help Connect with Skip-Heitzig finish 2025 strong and reach more people with the truth of God's Word in the year ahead. Call 800-922-1888 or go to connectwithskip.com slash offer. Thanks for spending time with us today, and we'll see you next time on Connect with Skip Heidzig.
Make a connection! Make a connection, never foot. Of the crisis. I cast your bird.
Some Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of connection communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
