1 Paul and Timothy, servants1 of Christ Jesus,

To all the asaints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with

the boverseers2and cdeacons:3
2 d
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ.
3 eI thank my God fin all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every

prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 gbecause of
your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And
I am sure of this, that he who began ha good work in you iwill bring
it to completion at jthe day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to
feel this way about you all, because I hold you kin my heart, for
you are all lpartakers with me of grace,4 both min my imprisonment
and in nthe defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For oGod is
my witness, phow I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ
Jesus. 9 And it is my prayer that qyour love may abound more and
more, rwith knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may
approve what is excellent, sand so be pure and blameless tfor the
day of Christ, 11 filled uwith the fruit of righteousness that
comes vthrough Jesus Christ, wto the glory and praise of God.
12 I want you to know, brothers,5 that what has happened to me has

really xserved to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known

throughout the whole imperial guard6 and yto all the rest that zmy
imprisonment is for Christ. 14 And most of the brothers, having
become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more
bold ato speak the word7 without fear.
15 bSome indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others

from good will. 16 The latter do it out of love, cknowing that I am

put here for dthe defense of the gospel. 17 The former proclaim
Christ eout of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to
afflict me in my imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way,
whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that
I rejoice.

Paul begins his letter to the Philippians with a customary greeting

identifying himself and the letter’s cosender, Timothy. Paul is
writing from prison, perhaps in Ephesus (AD 54–57), Caesarea (AD 58–
60), or Rome (early 60s AD).

Paul’s ministry takes place within the three-decade span between

his conversion around AD 33 and his execution in Rome around AD 64.

It is significant for understanding Paul and his letters that he

lived in three cultural worlds. He was a native Jew—a Pharisee by
training—and thus rooted in the Jewish way of life. Yet Paul grew
up in Tarsus, a Greek-speaking university town, and was well
acquainted with Greek language and culture. Finally, as a Roman
citizen, Paul was familiar with the politics and power of the Roman
Empire.
As a Roman colony, Philippi would have had a prominent cult dedicated
to worshiping the emperor. It would have been common for
residents—Roman citizens or not—to participate in the imperial
religion, even if they worshiped other pagan gods. From public
statues to household shrines, the environment of Philippi called
for honoring Caesar above all. However, by affirming that Jesus
is Lord, Paul challenges the Philippian Christians to redirect their
faith in Christ.

Paul may not have been able to do the kind of ministry had done
before with lots of traveling and church planting, but he didn’t
allow this to discourage him or keep him from the work. Where there
is a will, there is a way. Paul had the will to do ministry no matter
what the circumstances were so he found a way.

He wasn’t free to go where he may have wanted, but he could share

to the people around him and he did. Besides that, he wrote letters
to the people he couldn’t visit as well as praying for them.

There are many names the New Testament uses to address followers
of Jesus: Christians, brothers and sisters, the Church, children,
friends of Jesus, believers, soldiers, ambassadors, disciples, the
elect, sons and daughters, and saints. But one of the primary words
is servant or bondservant. The books of Romans, Philippians, James,
and Second Peter all begin with references to the writers being
servants or bondservants of the Lord Jesus Christ. These early
church leaders were simply following the teaching and the example
of Jesus.

Philippians 2:5-11 – Paul’s description of incarnation (Avtar).

5In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as
Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider
equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7rather,
he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as
a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death
on a cross! 9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and
gave him the name that is above every name, 10that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the
earth, 11and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus was popular and famous, He never sought earthly power or

position or prestige. Our Lord came into this world as a servant
and Jesus remained committed first and foremost to offer Himself
as a servant.
As believers, we should follow the example of Jesus, who was equal
with God but humbled Himself and became a man.

John 12 :26 Jesus said, “26Whoever serves me must follow me; and
where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one
who serves me.”

The Father honors those who serve Him. And we serve Him by serving
and loving others. We do this by genuinely and lovingly providing
care and caring for other people.

Biblical servanthood can be defined as loving acts performed in

the power of the Holy Spirit to meet the spiritual needs of those
around us.

Matthew 22:37-40:

37Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first
and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your
neighbor as yourself.’ 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these
two commandments.”

Paul wrote, in 1 Corinthians 13:13, “These three remain: faith,

hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

To be a servant, each of us must stop focusing on ourselves and

generously meet the needs of others. If we do this without expecting
recognition from people, Scripture promises that the Father will
honor us.

Last week Ryan, Priya and myself we went to Virar as Catherine,

Hudson and Jezreel invited us to meet a family (DAS) in distress
and need. One of the family their daughter is being rejected for
marriage. One of the family wife and daughter had mental disorders.

We got an opportunity to share the gospel with them and pray for
their needs. All of us could have enjoyed the Saturday
afternoon/evening being with family and kids, However we all saw
an opportunity to serve. This is partnering in the gospel.

Philipians 1:3-5 3 eI thank my God fin all my remembrance of

you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer
with joy, 5 gbecause of your partnership in the gospel from the first
day until now.
Ryan and Lakshmi were out in Virar again meeting with Crystal,
encouraging her praying for her, then they went to see Gajendra
& Rubeena. Being friends with them praying for them. Because their
is love for God in their hearts, they also have love for people
and hence they are going extra mile to win them for Christ Jesus.
This is servanthood.

My question for us : As a follower of Jesus, do we see ourselves

first and foremost as a person who loves others via our servanthood?
Are we, first and foremost, a servant … or one who prefers to be
served?

When the body of Christ loves and serves those in and outside of the church, God can make an
impact through us on the world

Servanthood is love in action. We each have a different spiritual gift, and we are to use that gift
serve others. We heard in last few weeks that each one of us have gifts and we needs to use
them not ground them.

1 Peter 4:10: “10Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as
faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”

There is one influential question we can ask, “How may I serve you?”

And, as the body of Christ, we need to use our gifts together, as the living, breathing Body of
Christ to serve Him and serve others … Not for our glory, but for His glory.

Gurmeet story as a listener.

Servanthood - means doing what Jesus did.

In John 14:11-14, Jesus told His disciples that they would do even greater works than He did.
Jesus said:

“11Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on
the evidence of the works themselves. 12Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the
works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to
the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in
the Son. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

What work was Jesus doing. He was sharing the fathers love, bringing
hope, healing the sick, talking about the eternal life, about
righteousness.

If we have the desire to share the gospel, there is always an

opportunity to do that. If you can’t speak, you can write. If you
are blind, you can still speak. If you are on a plane, you can share
with the person next to you. If you are in the park, you can share
with the lonely elderly people. If your parents don’t want to see
you, you can write. If we are not sharing the gospel, it is because
of a lousy excuse and not a legitimate reason.

Paul shared with his cellmates. We are not in prison and we can
certainly share with the people around us.

Serve your Father is noticing

We are not saved merely to be freed from guilt and sin but so that we will serve the Lord and
others.

Yes there are some kind of service where people notice you like when you are the podium/stage
worshipping, playing guitar, keyboard, Djembe, preaching, translating, making announcements,
Sunday school, serving tea/coffee, etc. In such acts to service people notice you and may even
appreciate you for your service.

However there are many services you may do where people don’t notice you, you quitely going
to hospitals/prisons praying and brining hope healing encouragement to the people who have
lost hope, people who need healing.

We should humbly seek to serve people with the attitude Christ had. Even when our giving is
overlooked or taken for granted by everyone, our heavenly Father notices.

Hebrews 6:10 teaches us, “God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have
shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them.”

Servanthood - Praying for others.

As we see in all of the books Paul writes, he actively prays for

those he ministers to. Every time we go through Paul's letters this
fact comes out. I don’t know about you, but I still need to learn
this lesson to regularly, faithfully, and lovingly pray for the
people I share with.

I was sharing with Ryan about my challenges of waking up early

morning, my spirit is anting but in flesh I’ve been failing. He
encouraged me to wake up for 21 days straight and the body will
automatically understand the pattern.

Waking up early is the first step. Next step is to get in the posture
of prayer, connecting your spirit with the spirit of God. Praying
for people with whom you or some from the church shared should gospel
should become our life style.

Phillipians1:3-5 e
I thank my God fin all my remembrance of you, 4 always in
every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy,
We need to learn and imitate from this scripture. We need to remember
people, We need to Thank God for people He has given us and We need
to prayer with Joy. Making prayer should be a joy it shouldn’t be
a tick box activity.

Paul prayed for spiritual growth. He prays for their love to abound
more and more, for their knowledge, their discernment. He prays
that they will approve the things which are excellent and for their
sincerity and blamelessness.

We don’t see him praying for their careers or health, or long life,
or exams. Not that he never prayed for these things (in James we
are commanded to pray for the sick), but he realized these were
not the most important things.

He prayed that their strengths would become even stronger. In other

words he wasn’t content that they were doing well. He wanted them
to reach on forward and upward.

Why was Paul’s ministry so effective? Why did God bless him? Probably
because he was a man of prayer. God used his prayer to accomplish
great things.

So I ask, do we pray regularly for the people you share with, for
your co-workers, for your family and friends and brothers and
sisters in Christ?