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I greet all of you in the blessed name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As we are preaching through the book of Philippians, we have come to Philippians 1:7-8. Allow me to read for you Philippians 1:7: "Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace." Verse 8: "For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ." The Lord bless the reading of His holy and sacrament.

There’s a saying that when you have it, you will not cherish it, but when you lose it, that is when you will miss it. For example, we will not cherish our health until we lose it, or we will not cherish our family until we lose it—or our marriage, our work, our time, our life, and so forth.

At this point in time, the Apostle Paul was imprisoned in Rome. As he was languishing in the prison cell, what do you think were the things that were really important to him? What were the things that were always on his mind, things that he would long after? Perhaps some of you may say freedom—after all, he was incarcerated. Others may say it could be good health and strength—surely, he would not be in the best of health. Yet others may say it could be happiness and money—certainly, he would be very sad as he was imprisoned. Maybe money could make his life a little more comfortable, or even get him out of prison. But those were not the things on his mind. This is what we want to learn from today's passage. What were the things that the Apostle Paul longed to have, things that were always on his mind, things that were really important to him? The title of our message is: What Are the Things Most Important to Us?

Firstly, the importance of brotherly love. Let us begin with verse 7: "Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all." The word “meet” means right or righteous, and it can be translated as acceptable or proper. The word "this" is a reference to the preceding verse 6: "Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."

In other words, Paul was saying it was only right, acceptable, and proper for him to think of the Philippians in this way: that God who had saved them, He is sanctifying them, and He will finish His redemptive work in them. He will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Paul knew the Philippians very well because he was the one who brought the Gospel to them. He knew about their conversions, he knew about their spiritual victories and struggles, and he was confident that God, who had begun a good work in saving them, would certainly keep them being saved all the way until the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You and I can never be absolutely sure of a person's salvation. We are not all-knowing. We do not know the hearts of men—only God knows the hearts of men, only God is all-knowing. But nonetheless, if we know the person well enough on an intimate spiritual level, we could somehow have a certain amount of certainty about the person's salvation. For that to happen, we must not only know the person as an acquaintance but as a true friend. We must be involved in the person’s life. We must be concerned about the person’s spiritual walk and obedience to the Word of God.

It is sad—think about this: If the people whom we have known in the church, people whom we have grown up with in the home care groups, in the fellowship groups, people whom we have called friends for many years, and yet we know so little or nothing about their relationships with the Almighty God—isn’t it sad? Paul was different. He was involved in the lives of the Philippians. He had played a part in their spiritual lives. He was always thinking about them. Whenever he thought about them, he would consider their salvation, and he was confident that God was doing His salvific work in their lives. He knew that this was the right way to think about them.

And the reason why he was able to think of them in this right way? He went on to say, "because I have you in my heart," which means because he loved them with all his heart. When we love someone, our hearts and minds would both be involved. Obviously, we must first develop the right thinking about them. If our minds are filled with evil, wicked, negative, and wrong thoughts about them, we will not be able to love them in our hearts. In fact, we will start to despise or hate them.

Some years ago, during a Thanksgiving service in the Far Eastern Bible College, the students were given the opportunity to share their testimonies of thanksgiving. At that time, the matron of the college was a very strict elderly woman, and she used to scold and discipline the students. One of the students, as he shared his testimony, said, "I am learning to love the matron." Another student turned and said to his friend sitting beside him, "How can you love someone, or learn to love someone? You either love, or you don’t. How can you learn to love?"

But the truth of the matter is that you can learn to love someone, and it begins with having the right thoughts about the person. And in order for you to develop the right thoughts about the person, you must first be involved in the person's life. You must know the person well enough, and the best way to develop the right thoughts about the person is to pray for him or her. Indeed, some people can be really hard to love, especially those who have hurt us, slandered us, or falsely accused us.

When a husband commits adultery and betrays the wife’s trust, it is so difficult to rekindle the love again, right? But please do not give up on the marriage. What you should do is to pray for the spouse, and when you start praying for the person, that is when you begin to develop the right thoughts. And once your mind is conquered by the grace of God, your heart will also be conquered. Romans 5:5 says, "Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." It is possible because it is a supernatural love.

Can you imagine, as the Apostle Paul was sitting in his prison cell in Rome, he was not thinking about himself. The most important thing on his mind was the Philippians, and he was thinking about them because he loved them with all his heart. This is the brotherly love that we are talking about.

Dear friends, perhaps there may be some people in the church whom you do not see eye to eye with. There may be some people whom you do not agree with. When you see the person walk into the church through the front door, you quickly slide to the other side to avoid him or her. Or there may be someone in the church you wish you will never see again.

1 John 4:20 tells us, "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" Deep in our hearts, we know this should never be the way. As believers, we must have this brotherly love.

Well, do not despair. You repent. You take steps to get to know the person, to be involved in the person’s life, and you begin by praying for that person. You begin by considering how the Lord has saved him, and the Lord who has saved him is still working in and through his life, and the Lord who has saved him will finish His redemptive work in that person’s life until the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

When you develop the right thoughts about the person, when your mind is conquered, your heart will also be conquered too. And then you will realize that, at the end of the day, all that really matters are not all these trivial things—disagreements, differences, discouragements, disappointments, divisions—but brotherly love.

Our second point is the importance of partnership. Look at the last part of verse 7: "Inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace." The word "defense" comes from where we get the English word "apologetics," which means speaking in defense of something. In this case, it is about speaking in defense of the Gospel. The word "confirmation" means to establish or to validate the truth pertaining to the Gospel. Whenever we evangelize, whenever you and I share the Gospel, we are actually defending and confirming the truth of the Gospel. That is what we are doing.

That is what the Apostle Paul had done. Here he was reminding the Philippians how they had stood by him in the partnership of the Gospel. Remember, after Paul shared the Gospel in the city of Philippi, souls were converted, praise be to God—Lydia, her family, the women by the riverside, including the demon-possessed slave girl, they all came to believe in the Gospel.

Obviously, the owners of the slave girl were furious because Paul and his missionary team had taken away their source of ill-gotten income. They had both Paul and Silas arrested, beaten, and thrown into prison. While imprisoned, all of a sudden, there was a great earthquake, and the prison doors were opened. But the prisoners did not escape.

The Philippian jailer was trembling, and he was about to kill himself, thinking that all the prisoners had escaped. Paul and Silas stopped him, and they had the opportunity to share the Gospel with him and his family.

When they were released from prison, Paul immediately went to the house of Lydia, which supposedly was used as the Philippian Church. The Philippians nursed his wounds—he was wounded—and they encouraged him in the Lord. You can read about that in the book of Acts.

Since then, the Philippian Church had continuously been supporting Paul and his ministry. In other words, Paul was right to say that both in his imprisonment and throughout his ministry, the Philippians had stood by him. Although the Philippians were not physically with Paul in his missionary journeys, and most certainly they were not physically with him in prison at this point in time, as Paul sat in the prison cell, he could feel as if the Philippians were standing beside him, so to speak.

Let us take a moment and consider this. As Paul preached the gospel, he had experienced many things, right? He had weakness, souls being converted throughout his preaching ministry. At the same time, he had faced different kinds of adversities: hostilities, animosities, persecutions, as he traveled from one city to another in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. He had faced shipwrecks, beatings, and multiple imprisonments. Through it all, what did Paul really experience? God's grace. If the Philippians had stood by Paul all this while, then what did the Philippians also experience? God's grace, right? That was the reason why Paul said, "Ye are all partakers of my grace."

Obviously, Paul was not the giver of the grace; God was the Giver. He was referring to the divine grace he had experienced. As he experienced those graces that God had provided for him, the Philippians, who stood by him, were also recipients of those graces. "You are all partakers of my grace."

My friends, when we support the mission works in Myanmar and in the Philippines, we are standing together with our missionaries, whether it be Reverend Biak, Reverend Lynn Oak, or Reverend Rego Galapi, as they do the gospel work. When they do the work of the ministry, they will experience many different things: victories, challenges, as well as trials and tribulations.

Last Friday night, after the prayer meeting, our missionary, Reverend Linwood, was on a video call with me, and he shared with me that his sister's family, living in Phalam in the northwestern part of Myanmar, had to escape into the forest because the military and the tribal groups were fighting. They were shooting into the village, and many lives were lost. A few weeks later, Reverend Biak and Reverend Lynn Oak will have to travel through this same place because they will be on their way to our church in Rakhine. They have to pass by this same place, and they will be on their way to preach and teach the word of God. It is most dangerous, don't you think? They will need God's grace to do the gospel work, and when they receive God's grace to do the work, we, who are standing together with them in this gospel work, we who are supporting and praying for them all this while, we will also be recipients of God's grace. We are all partakers of God's grace. Can you see that? Isn't it amazing? We are thousands of miles away from them, and yet together, we are partakers of God's grace.

Whenever we go through trials, it is inevitable that we always think we are alone. We think we are fighting this battle alone, dealing with this problem all by ourselves. But to know that our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ are in a partnership with us, that they are standing side by side together with us, praying for us and supporting us—that is when we will have the strength to press on and persevere.

You know, that is where many pastors and preachers draw their strength from. Obviously, the strength comes from God, but God has provided the people to stand together with them in the work of the gospel. So, when they look around and see all these people standing together with them, that is when they draw this spiritual strength to move forward and fight the good fight.

Dear friends, there will always be problems in the ministries. When the church is going through all those trials, where are you? The question we need to ask ourselves is, "Where are we?" Can the pastor and the church leaders have this assurance—that the people of God will stand together with them, not just in good times, but even in the most difficult situations? Will they stand together with those who do the work of the gospel, just like the Philippians stood together with Paul? Whether in his imprisonment or throughout his entire ministry, they stood by him.

I pray that all of us will stand together in the work of the gospel. Not everyone is called to be a preacher; some of us are called to be Sunday school teachers, fellowship leaders, musicians, ushers, and so forth. But every one of us is called to pray. We are saved by the gospel, and the moment we are saved, we are called to be partakers of the gospel. We work in partnership with everyone who endeavors for the gospel to be advanced. And if they receive grace, we receive grace too. If we receive grace, they receive grace too, because we are all in this partnership. Paul says, "Ye are all partakers of my grace."

Our third and final point is the importance of spiritual fellowship. Let us move on and look at verse 8: "For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ." The word "bowels" is a reference to the internal organs, which means something deeply seated inside here. It is a reference to the deep emotions and affections of Jesus Christ. By virtue of our connection with the Lord as believers, we are all connected to the Lord, and we have this deep emotion and affection, which the Lord himself provides.

At this present moment, as we have said, Paul was in a prison in Rome, which was about 800 miles away from the city of Philippi. In other words, he was far away from the Philippians. As he was languishing in the prison cell, he could be thinking about his own freedom, right? He could be thinking about when he would be released. But that was not the thing on his mind. What was the thing he missed most? The fellowship. That was why he said, "For God is my record, God knows my heart, He knows me, He knows how much I long for your fellowship and encouragement with deep emotions and affections in the Lord Jesus Christ. God is my record."

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we experienced almost six lockdowns in Melbourne. During the lockdowns, we were all restricted in so many ways. Remember, we could not go out of our homes; we could only go out once a day for not more than one hour. We could not meet anyone except our own family members. We could not eat in restaurants; we could only do takeaways.

During that time, what was the thing you missed most? Eating in a restaurant? Going to the shopping center? Going for your daily walks? Going overseas for holidays? Did you only miss those things? What about the church? Churches were forced to go online—no physical worship. Although we were still able to worship God through the Zoom online worship, for which we were most thankful, it was different. We were isolated from one another. We could not see each other physically. Did you miss the physical worship services? Did you miss the Holy Communion, the home care groups, the fellowship groups, the choir practices, etc.? If you missed all these things, then you will be able to understand what Paul was experiencing. He was longing for the fellowship he had with the Philippians. He was not longing for freedom or for more money. Of all the things we mentioned—happiness, good health—he was longing to have this fellowship with the Philippians.

One of the most important lessons we can learn from the COVID-19 pandemic is perhaps it reveals to us what is truly in our hearts. What are the things most important to us? Remember, if you have it, you will not cherish it, but once you lose it, you will miss it. What is the thing that you missed most during the COVID-19 pandemic?

For three years, we were not able to have our physical church camp. In one week's time, God willing, we will be on our way to Phillip Island. We will have our camp speaker, Reverend Dr. Jeffrey Khoo. For the first time in three years, we will have our physical church camp. Are you not excited? Are you not longing for this spiritual fellowship?

Dear friends, please do not shy away from the spiritual fellowship that God has provided through this church. Whether it be home care groups, YPG, DHW, or whatever home care groups you are in, don't shy away. For whatever reasons you may stay away from the physical spiritual fellowship, it is unacceptable. It is unthinkable, because as believers, we should be longing for the spiritual fellowship. Do you realize that our fellowship here on this earth is but a foretaste of our fellowship in heaven? If you are a believer and I am a believer, we will be fellowshipping in heaven for all eternity. If that is the case, how can we be only focused on the things of this world? How can we be consumed with the affairs of this world, so much so that we do not long for the spiritual fellowship we have with one another?

Dear friends, what are the things most important to you? Is it money? Is it your health, your life, your house, your car? One day, all these things will be taken away from you. The things that are most important to you should be the things that will last forever—spiritual things, like the love for our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, things like our partnership in the gospel, our involvement in the gospel for the glory of God, and things like our spiritual fellowship. For in heaven, you and I, if we are true believers, will be fellowshipping forever and ever. These are the things most valuable and precious to us. Let us pray.

Our Father in heaven, we thank Thee for enabling us to consider these two verses. Indeed, many times, our hearts are drawn away by the things of this world, so much so that we value those things that we ought not to, and we devalue those things that we ought to value. Forgive us. Thou hast taught us through Thy precious Word, through Thy beloved servant, the Apostle Paul, that even when he was imprisoned, what were the things

that were really important to him? What were the things that were always on his mind? What were the things that he longed after? Brotherly love—the love for his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, the Philippians. The partnership of the gospel and also spiritual fellowship.

O Lord, help us to remember and help us to apply this truth into our lives. At the end of the day, what really matters are not those trivial things that we see and have today. What really matters are those things that will last forever—spiritual things. Our love for fellow brothers and sisters, our involvement and partnership in the gospel, and our spiritual fellowship. This we pray in Jesus' name, amen.