Stand Fast
- Details
- Sunday Morning Service
- Jeremy Richards
- Copalis Community Church
- 05 October 2025
- Philippians 4:1-3
- Matthew 5:21
- Matthew 18:15-17
Therefore, my beloved and longed for brethren, my joy and crown. So stand fast in the Lord. Beloved, I implore Eudia and I implore Cinque to be of the same mind in the Lord. And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the Gospel with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life. So we're going to read about or speak about Judea and Cinque a little bit today.
But if you would just pray with me that God would open our hearts for what they were struggling with. You and I also have a tendency to struggle with also that has not escaped humanity over the centuries. So let's pray together. We are taking communion. I think it's a little bit interesting.
It's important to recognize that in taking communion that one of the requirements of taking communion is that you bring your attitudes, emotions, relationships to the Lord. If there are relationships out of order in your life. Let me just try this again. If you have relationships, especially in the church, that are out of order, it is not right for you to take communion if you are unwilling to address those in a biblical way. I'm just going to try to be really nice about this because I'm generally a nice person.
I try to be. It is not good for a believer to suffer the consequences of taking communion out of disobedience because they refuse to address a relationship that is out of order in their lives. It's not worth it. We're going to talk about that a little bit. So I pray that as we're open, this is a sensitive issue and I want to be prepared spiritually to handle this a little bit.
So if you would pray with me. Father, thank you so much for your kindness to us, Lord, that you don't allow foreign bodies to exist under the surface. Lord, out of your grace you squeeze out that pusy sliver, Lord. You restore health and healing and joy to your body. Thank you for being so kind to address the areas in our heart regarding relationships, Lord.
We appreciate it. We thank you for it, Lord. And as you do it, Lord, gently soften our hearts also in Jesus name. Amen. So we're going to be in chapter four of Philippians.
It says, therefore, my beloved and long for brethren, my joy and my crown. So stand fast in the Lord. Beloved, there is an area in the Christian life where individuals need to stand fast to hold on. Our emotions are like wild waves of the sea. Our relationships come in chaotic and filled with confusion.
And it's important to stand Fast at times, right to hold on lest those waves that are bursting around us knock us off the foundation we stand on. So we are going to look at this. In chapter four, Paul begins to address the church that he is going to bring a rebuke to in just a moment. And he starts off, concluding some thoughts in chapter three and beginning in chapter four, by addressing the people that he's talking to. And he calls them my beloved and longed for brethren.
That his relationship with this people is typified by a great love for them, a great love for them. That he is an individual who wants to be with these kind of people. He enjoys being around them. He is caught up in their spiritual development. He prays continually for them.
He calls them them his joy and his crown. I always thought it was a little bit interesting what it meant for believers to have crowns. And I know my dad has talked about this before and it helped me understand. I don't think there's going to be a hierarchy or a level system in heaven where people with more crowns get to enjoy more, have a better seat or whatever, or have experience more fulfillment in heaven. But it does make sense to me in the scripture that those crowns that we have are the interaction we have had and the experience we have with other believers.
There is an ability to enjoy what another person has. Even though your personal fulfillment has not changed, right? You see this in high school sports all the time, right? The kids are out there playing and it seems like the dolts who aren't even playing, right? They're not dribbling the ball, they're not making any hoops, they're not making any moves.
It seems like they're enjoying it more than the kids, right? It seems like they're making more noise and more engaged in what's going on. They're screaming, going crazy, cursing the refs, and just getting all. Everyone's like, you guys sit down over there, let them play, right? They're getting enjoyment, maybe sometimes too much enjoyment over their kids playing.
In a sense, somewhat similar way, we're able to enjoy the benefit another person has in heaven without necessarily ours being changed. Also, the ability to see an individual who gets to experience a heaven is. Heaven is going to be a benefit for every believer. And Paul calls these individuals his joy and his crown. And his goal for them is to stand fast in the Lord.
Well, it's important to recognize that those people who are viewed in this way are able to receive something from the authority over them. The authority who views a people with great love longs to be with them, wants to share their experiences, is a joy to them, is able to interact with them in a different way than someone who views them as a trial or a burden. The individual who sees someone with love can interact in a special way with the people who are loved. The ability to speak directly into their life is given by a loved people to an individual who loves them. I always like Mr. Boma.
Right. Mr. Boma now is a big. He gets a lot of our apples and makes a stronger apple juice. But he would always say in class, you know, I'm not desiring to, you know, make people uncomfortable, but I'm going to call people out, but I'm going to give them. I'm just going to say their initials, right?
And then he would say, jeremy Richards. Right. And you were just, like, called out in the carpet. But because we loved Mr. Boma, it wasn't a thing. And so I wanted to let everyone know how much I love you, how much I appreciate you as people, how much is a joy to be around you.
And maybe like Mr. Boma to say some people's initials, you wouldn't feel offended if I called out your name and say, hey, look, there are some areas that you need to deal with that as a result of calling out people's names, there is an ability for that person to address an issue that they may not have if the person didn't love them. So that sliver that they carried in their palm that had been infecting them and causing pain when brought to the doctor, there's an opportunity to take that thing out that might have been left ingrained in their hand for lots of time.
The truth is, as there are and still are in the body of Christ today, individuals that are struggling with relationship issues. Relationship issues. And we're going to look at that in chapter four, verse two, it says, I implore Eudia and I implore Cincte to be of the same mind in the Lord here. Paul, whether he's heard about it through a letter or experienced it personally, he recognized, recognizes that there's two individuals who have a relationship issue within the church. It has come to his attention.
It's not just, oh, just two immature people. No. He's recognizing this infection as being one that harms the whole effect of the body. Right. Just because you have a sliver in your hand doesn't mean the rest of your body is not affected by this thing.
Okay, so we have Judea and Cincte, and Paul is imploring them to be of the same mind. The same mind. This is not necessarily saying. He is calling them to be in agreement over the things, the issues that they are going through. Right.
We live in a church and everyone come to church here. We live by the church. But there are people with different perspectives within the church. Right. We painted the walls a few years ago.
Right. And everyone has a different opinion on the color of the church. I didn't even think the walls need to be painted personally. And then I was the one painting them with all the other guys. Right.
Stacy wants to paint all the time and I don't understand. Right, Right. He's not asking us necessarily to be in agreement over all the physical aspects that a church encounters. What he is asking us about is to be of the same mind. He is asking us within the several and different kinds of difficulties and choices that we need to make in Body of Christ.
We are being asked to have the mind of Christ, to act as Christians as we deal with the difficulties that everybody will encounter as people from different perspectives bring their, their values, what they feel is important, their likes and dislikes into a church, their personalities, their abrasive characters, their loud voices, their, you know what, whatever. It's all going to cause types of friction. And what Paul is asking for these ladies, he's imploring, he's begging within a body, within a little petri dish that we get to grow in. He's asking us to be of the same mind, to take the mind of the Lord and use it as a salve to, to bring healing to those friction areas that you and I are being called to live as Christians within the body of Christ. We are being asked to treat people like Christ treated people.
How is that? Jesus says that I did not come to serve, to be served, but to serve and give my life for a ransom for many. If we're to have a mind of Christ, that's absolutely important to recognize that you are being called to walk in footsteps that are similar to his. And that means being called to serve his body. His body is made up of people who are not always pretty.
And you are being called, if you have called to yoke up with Christ, you are called to serve him, serve people with Christ, to take the mind of the Lord. We're going to continue with this. In verse three, it says, and I also urge you, true Companion, help these women who labored with me in the Gospel. As we go through this, I want to take just a minute of time to recognize that there is a function for women in the church. Right.
We tend to struggle different ways and kind of be moved along with the waves of society, some pushing one way, some pushing the other way. But it is important to recognize that from early church history that women have played a central pivotal role, important role within the body of Christ that the Old Testament writer seems to take special attention and show that women are having an extraordinarily important grace filled impact on the church's history from creation until today. It's important that we as a church recognize the value of women within the church so that we don't neglect the benefit of what they have to offer, that we don't suffer the consequences of of women not being in ministry. Right. Okay.
But we also have to address the nature of that ministry. We need to look that God created man and female, that he gave them both a dominion, mandate to have dominion over, to subdue. That both of them were called together for a purpose to accomplish God's commandments, His desire for creation. We know that as a result of the curse that that was distorted in men and female, that that desire to fulfill that blessing was cursed, distorted and has become ugly within friction within the male and female relationship. But in the beginning both pulled together to accomplish God's plan in the garden.
They were more fruitful male and female pulling together than man could have done alone. They could accomplish more together than man could have alone. Women could not have accomplished as much without man being there. Also that united together, each expressing a different but essential part of God's nature.
That they were able to fulfill the commandments of God more fully together. It wasn't good for man to be alone because his wife complemented his nature and enabled them to fulfill that great commandment to subdue and have dominion better. But we also have to recognize that even though man and woman are of equal value, they are not. They are of different.
They have different direction or purpose. They have the same worth but not the same calling. That they are different in nature. That each one of them expressing a different piece of God's nature and uniquely fulfilling that piece are able to accomplish God's purpose more. It is a lie that we are experiencing today that has some truth in the name saying man or woman and equal, that has some biblical truth that there is no male and female within the kingdom of God.
But what's wrong is when they take man and woman and equal to mean that man and women are the same, that is wrong. When we make them the same, we miss out on the fullness of the benefit that comes from God's nature being displayed through an individual Made as a woman. Man cannot do that to the degree that a woman can, you can. Women can mutilate, or men can mutilate their body to an extent where it appears that they are a woman. But they can never.
Never. I'm just going to tell you again, they can never. They can mutilate their bodies. They can chop it up so that someone with an undistinguishing eye might think they're a woman. They can put on women's clothes, but they can never.
Let me just try this one more time. They can never in any way duplicate the function that is given to a woman by God. It is miraculous.
Never. Women can mutilate themselves, but they can never accomplish the beauty of the design that is given to man by God the Father in the creation of Jesus Christ. It is something that is done without knowledge. People don't think well to say that is the truth. But the Bible is according to knowledge and is beautiful.
Man and women, oh, so beautiful, accomplishing the fulfillment of God's desire for them. It says, I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the Gospel. I'm not going to get into the specifics of the difference of the complementary nature of men and women's role within the body of Christ. That's not my responsibility right now. But it is my desire to call out for women, for men, to be accurately displaying that calling, to urge people today that not to let difficulties disrupt the benefit that God has for you.
The truth is, is that even. Let me tell you, let you in on a big secret. You may not have noticed or you may not have heard, but there are still relationship issues within even this church. This is where everyone gasps, no, not here. Kapellus.
No, I didn't know. Right? But we are being called, we are being urged as companions in the Lord with different viewpoints, with different perspectives. All of that is good. But within that multicolor robe that you and I bring to the church of God, we are called to put in practice that mind of Christ which restores relationships.
Number one, Matthew, that was that. This is going to be a message where the porch is bigger than the house.
Okay, Matthew 5.
So in Matthew 5:21, it talks about anger. And in relationships, anger in the display of it in some way is what causes a breach within relationships. And we're going to talk about the kind of nature that needs to be apparent, that needs to be spiritually observant in the life of every Christian before we move on how to deal with these relationships issues. In verse 23 of chapter 5, it says, Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you. Leave your gift there before the altar.
Go your way first be reconciled to your brother and then come to offer your gift. In a Christian's life, we are being called to minister to the Lord in several and different ways. All of that ministry is important, but it's not near as important of the foundational aspect of our relationships within the body. That which the body can accomplish is important. The way that the body relates to each other is even more important.
We have a lot of sickness going on right now, right? The body can go out. My dad used to love to chop wood and, you know, all that kind of thing. And he had that manly disease that all other Richards gone out. And we're like, you know, let's see who can split the most wood the fastest, right?
But now that which he could accomplish now is supplanted by a different problem. His body is not relating to each other correctly. That body relating to each other is more important than the swinging of the axe. What the body can accomplish is less important than the relationship within the parts of the body together. And so here we're called.
The number one thing is that if there is an issue in a relationship within the body of Christ, it takes priority. The dealing of it is more important than the other aspects that the church can accomplish. It is of supreme importance to deal with these relationship issues first because it dramatically affects what the body can accomplish even more than you necessarily doing what you think is important to you, right? It says, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First, be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.
Remember, this is something that you feel that your brother has sinned against you. If you feel there was a breach in a relationship, it becomes your responsibility to take the initiative and go and deal with this. We're going to go to Matthew 18 to continue this thought. It says, you others, help these women, help them to overcome this. It's important that we of a church learn how to address wrongs and grievances within the body.
First of all, we need to recognize that it is our responsibility, responsibility to go to the person who has been wronged or has wronged us. Take the initiative, solve the problem. Leave your gift. Leave your responsibility. The meetings, the things you gotta do.
First, be reconciled to your brother. If it is a real issue and that doesn't deal with it, there is ways to deal with it. In verse 15, we'll go through them. Chapter 18, verse 15. It says, moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him.
Anyone know the next word? Alone. Now, this is not necessarily trying to put people who should not be alone together. Alone together, right. This is an appropriate setting in appropriate time that you are to go alone to this individual and approach them with the misunderstanding, the hurt feelings, the wronged perceptions, right?
To go to them alone. Do you notice that the first step is not what we normally do?
Anyone know what the the first step, if somehow we got it from our natural flesh. Get as far away from the person that you've been wronged. Gather as many people as you possibly can that are not involved in the circumstance. Tell them and relate to them how the entire problem must have been the other person's fault.
That generally distorts the picture in some way. It says, the first person to plead his cause seems right until his neighbor comes and examines him in an issue where there are misconceptions, where there are equal witnesses who are both present at the point. For them to discuss that intimately alone is more productive than you pushing your perspective of the event on everybody else.
If your brother has sinned against you, go to him alone and tell him his fault. Be brave enough, be strong enough, be big enough. If you're big enough to attack him before everyone else in the church, but not big enough, not enough strength to go to him, then I suggest that you just close your mouth and pray for strength. Everyone, hear what I'm saying. If you are not big enough to go to the person directly, but are plenty big enough to undermine the other person's character to the community, I suggest that the thing we need to return to the biblical standard of going to him alone.
Now, this does not deal with every kind of scenario or situation. Some people still are wronged. Verse 16. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established. If you have a real grievance against somebody that is not addressed by going to them directly, the second step, I feel like.
Like reiterating here. Second step, that is the one that goes after number one, right? It is not the first step. Number two follows. When we learn to count, we learn one and then two, right?
The second step is to go to a group of trusted individuals and bring the problem to them. In First Corinthians, we're going to hear a rebuke by Paul against the Corinthians, I believe, about chapter 6, verse 1 of First Corinthians, it says, dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we will judge angels?
How much more things that pertain to life? If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge? I say this to your shame. Is it so that there is not a wise man among you, not even one who will be able to judge between his brethren? Listen, when we have brought an issue to another person and that has failed to reconcile the differences that are beautiful in the body of Christ, that are necessary that God allows different people grading on one another.
He allows it and he thinks it's beautiful. But when it causes a problem, we are to go to someone who is esteemed to judge, not one who loves to listen to gossip. Our goal, if you have failed in addressing the issue between you and your brother, is to find a person who can judge fairly, to listen to your concern, not an individual who likes juicy tidbits.
And then you know what they do, right? Okay? To find in the body of Christ. If you do not recognize that the elders have been appointed by the church and are willing to hear grievances by one person against another, where both parties can entrust the outcome to another person and thereby relieving themselves of the distress that that issue has been causing to their character. To just turn that over to a judge is a beautiful freedom that you don't have to carry the load any longer.
The church board here can fulfill that position. Or respected spiritual people in your life who are not just there to make you feel good to pat your bum and tell you that you're always right. We need spiritual parents in the house, not spiritual pamperers. We need people with maturity hearing these things. Okay, in verse 17, we see a final thing.
And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. It's important. These issues that we are having with each other, if left undealt with, has the possibility of defiling many. It's important to address these things when they're small, because small things left unaddressed, left to fester.
I always love the guy of Pegasus. No, I know. I don't love the story. I Remember the story Pegasus Auto Parts, if you remember that used to be on the hill above Hump Tulips. And he hated hospitals.
But finally his leg got so bad that he went to the hospital and it was awful. They put a cast on it and it was rotting and gross. But then he was so afraid to go back to the hospital that it just continued to rot in the cast. It was too late to save his life and he died. Because what could have been healed easily at the beginning was left to fester uncontrolled.
What an awful thing to lose people in our body to unforgiveness and bitterness because it wasn't dealt with early on. We're going to go back to Philippians to close before communion.
It says, I implore Judea and I implore Cincde to be of the same mind in the Lord. It is definitely not always women who have problems with people within the church. Everyone hear me. It is not, but at times it is. They are of a different kind of nature that was given to them by God, a mothering and a beautiful thing that they have that hold ons and defends.
Women in this case need a special encouragement that in order for them to fulfill the benefit, the blessing that comes from their relationship with the Lord, there needs to be a willingness to let these things go and find forgiveness in the church.
We are urging people as a church, not because people are bad, but because the body needs to be strengthened. I urge you also, true companions, you and I is the body of Christ. He is urging that thing which they are struggling with. They need help in. They need help.
Those people who are unable, for whatever reason, to quickly deal with a problem, a festering wound, they need help. Listen, I'm going to try one more time. The individuals who are struggling with relationships, issues in this church, they need help. Paul is calling on us as a church to help these people, to come alongside them the way we help them, by pointing them in a biblical direction to deal with the issue quickly, come to forgiveness so that the body may grow together. And it's my urging today as we are dealing with issues within our church, also to urge us as people.
Let's deal with this biblically. Let's do it right. I wish I could say people's names, but probably the best name is just to give initials, Jeremy Richards. It's still, still there, struggling with unforgiveness and hate and ugliness. And as God deals with that in my heart, I pray if I could urge you true companions whose people, whose names are written in the book of life.
Let's deal with these things quickly and move on with the function of the body. Amen. So we're just going to just go straight into communion. I'll just pray and then as I'm praying if you give yourself just a little bit of time to address your personality and relationship issues within the church I believe it would be all for our benefit to deal with it. Well amen Father.
We do come to you Lord just asking forgiveness Lord that number one we need to walk like Jesus yoked up to him and following him Lord and deal with our relationship that beautiful diversity within the body of Christ which you allow and which is really for our own benefit. Lord forgive us for being the people who stifle that in the lives of other people Lord. And we just ask as we take communion that it wouldn't be for condemnation but Lord for freedom. I just ask in Jesus name Amen.