Thanking God for You
Sermon Series: Philippians
Message By Eddie DSouza on February 15, 2026
Passage: Philippians 1:3–11
On February 17, 2008, the first gathering of Cross Cultured Church took place in the house of some of our founding members. In 2008, the men who led that meeting, which included me, did not have a robust biblical understanding of the church. We thought it would be a sufficient success if the church gatherings lasted a year or two. Today marks eighteen years of God’s faithfulness toward us. I am grateful to God that Jesus builds the church and not a bunch of twenty-something-year-olds who would be pleased to run church services for a year or two. Jesus is building his church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
I have a second reason to be grateful. I have been on the payroll of Cross Cultured Church since February 2011. For fifteen years, you have partnered with me for the gospel and have become partakers of grace with me.
In more than one way, I relate to Paul in his thanksgiving for the Philippian church this morning. I intend to preach Paul’s thanksgiving (Phil 1:3–11) over three sermons starting today and ending on March 1. In today’s sermon, I will show us that Gospel partnering partakes in grace, producing Godward gratitude, joyful supplication, and affectionate yearning. I repeat: Gospel partnering partakes in grace, producing Godward gratitude, joyful supplication, and affectionate yearning.
We will look at each piece of that statement. Gospel partnership; Partakers in grace; Godward gratitude; joyful supplication; and affectionate yearning. But first, let me pray.
Heavenly Father, I am grateful for these eighteen years of your grace upon us as a church. I ask that you, who began a good work among us, will bring it to completion on the day of Christ. Now, I ask that by your Spirit, you enable me to speak your words to us and feed our hearts and minds, causing us to live for your glory in all that we do. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
Gospel Partnership
Our first stop today is to consider what it means by partnership in the gospel (v. 5). The word translated ‘partnership’ is ‘κοινωνία.’ This word has several meanings: association, communion, fellowship, and close relationship. It is also descriptive of the goodwill that manifests an interest in a close relationship—that is, generosity or fellow-feeling. In this case it means a gift or contribution on account of the closeness. Κοινωνία comes from the root ‘κοινος,’ meaning common. To have fellowship is to be a fellow—share a commonality, a fraternity with one another. Partnering financially with someone is due to a sense of commonality in the relationship. Either the relationship is special, or the cause is.
Which one is it in the case of the Philippians and Paul? Paul is clear. The Philippians partnered with Paul in the gospel. It is not because they loved Paul that they partnered with him. They partnered with him because they loved Jesus. The gospel of Jesus is the commonality they share. The gospel, meaning good news, is that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins, so that when we repent and confess that Jesus is Lord, we receive forgiveness and are released from God’s wrath on account of our sins.
When Christians support a gospel worker out of pity for their condition, they are doing a work of charity—they are caring for the poor. When Christians support a gospel worker for the cause of the gospel, they are partnering in the gospel—they are caring for the lost. What kind of Christian are you? Do you see your act of financial contribution toward Cross Cultured Church or other Christian ministries as an opportunity to partner in the gospel or as a burden to bear on account of tight budgets?
While we will spend more time on the role of finances in the Christian ministry when we get to Philippians 4, let me make a few comments here as appropriate. First, God condemns the love of money and warns those who trust in riches. Second, God is not against Christians earning more wealth. He tells the rich that “they are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasures for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life” (1 Tim 6:18–19). John Piper says, “The reason the use of your money provides a good foundation for eternal life is not that generosity earns eternal life, but that it shows where your heart is. Generosity confirms that our hope is in God, and not in ourselves or our money. We don’t earn eternal life. It is a gift of grace (2 Tim 1:9). We receive it by resting in God’s promise. Then how we use our money confirms or denies the reality of that rest.”[1]
Third, God richly provides us with everything to enjoy (1 Tim 6:17). God is not against anyone using the good gifts he has given for enjoyment. He expects us to enjoy his gifts to the fullest. Real and lasting joy is in enjoying God-given gifts in ways, times, and degrees that he has designed them to be enjoyed. Our eternal joy is found in some degree connected to our partnership in the gospel. When we use our money for the cause of the gospel, we show that we love and believe the gospel and want others to hear and believe it as well. This shows that we will enjoy heaven, where the promises of the gospel become sight, and the returns of our investments in the kingdom of God are realized.
Partakers in Grace
The second part of our study today concerns partakers in grace (v. 7). Paul is confident that God has begun a good work among the Philippians and will bring it to completion because they are partakers of grace with him. The word translated ‘partakers’ has the same root ‘κοινωνία’ but is slightly modified to describe more than the commonness of cause, tending to shared experience.
The shared experience of Philippians and Paul is the grace that Paul personally experienced and that the Philippians shared in through their gospel partnership with Paul. What is especially noteworthy is that Paul has two experiences—his imprisonment and his preaching ministry. He refers to both of them as the grace. How can one call suffering a grace? Paul calls his imprisonment grace. He uses the word grace here as a privilege. He is privileged to preach the gospel and to suffer for the cause of the gospel. Moreover, the Philippians shared in this experience by their constant prayer for him, their financial partnership with him, and sending Epaphroditus to him to care for him when he was alone.
The Philippian church shows us that pastoral care is not the only direction of care in a church. The church also cares for its pastor and missionaries. They partake in the grace of being in the ministry without being in that particular ministry by their prayerful and practical care toward the gospel minister. There are many activities that Christians can undertake that do not require their church leadership to be involved in or to lead. One of those is caring for their ministers.
Finally, gospel partnership and partaking in grace are not two different experiences. They go hand in hand. While gospel partnership may sound merely like an expense, such a partnership is no partnership at all. True gospel partnership extends the wallet and the heart, prayer and care. As the Philippians have shown us, every member of the church need not go visit Paul. But they sent Epaphroditus. When we partner with our ministers, interns, church planters, or missionaries, we must be like the Philippians. ‘Out of sight, out of mind’ is not Christian.
Godward Gratitude
Let us now turn to the three effects of gospel partnership. The first of these is godward gratitude. Paul says that he thanks God. If you search the Bible, you will always find that God is the object of thanksgiving.
Every culture has a different way of responding to expressed gratitude. In some cultures, such as parts of India, one does not accept gratitude but deflects it by saying it was my duty. In other parts, one says mention not or do not embarrass me. In other cultures, such as French and Spanish speakers, people say “a rien” or “de nada,” respectively, meaning “it was nothing.” On the other hand, the English speakers will acknowledge gratitude and say “you’re welcome.”
The Bible does not have such expressions. Instead, thanksgiving is always Godward for the acts of various people. There is an instance in the Bible where thanksgiving is to another person. However, it appears to be flattery and not genuine (Acts 24:3).
While I do not intend to be dogmatic about it, there is a lesson in the Bible. It shows us that all good things come from God, who is the right object of any gratitude.
Rom 1:21 tells us that it is the nature of the unrighteous not to honor God or give him thanks. Christians are grateful people. They see God’s grace in everything. They are not given to complaining and murmuring about how things are not good. The wilderness generation of the OT is a warning to us about murmuring and ingratitude.
Friends, are you prone to murmuring and complaining or Godward gratitude for his grace in your life? Some people may ask whether you are a glass-half-empty or a glass-half-full person. I do not think this is about pessimism or optimism. It is a heart condition. Does the flesh control you, or are you led by the Spirit?
C.S. Lewis discusses the importance of praise in his book Reflections on the Psalms, which I think is also applicable to thanksgiving. Listen to Lewis:
The most obvious fact about praise—whether of God or anything—strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honour. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless …shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it. The world rings with praise—lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favourite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favourite game – praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars. I had not noticed how the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious, minds, praised most, while the cranks, misfits, and malcontents praised least…Except where intolerably adverse circumstances interfere, praise almost seems to be inner health made audible.…
I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: “Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?” The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about. My whole, more general, difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us, as regards the supremely Valuable, what we delight to do, what we indeed can’t help doing, about everything else we value.
I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.
It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed… If it were possible for a created soul fully… to “appreciate”, that is to love and delight in, the worthiest object of all, and simultaneously at every moment to give this delight perfect expression, then that soul would be in supreme beautitude….
The Scotch catechism says that man’s chief end is “to glorify God and enjoy Him forever”. But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.[2]
Lewis is right. We must recognize that our thanksgiving completes, not complements, our enjoyment of the gifts we receive.
While we are on the topic of what is appropriate and fitting—praise and thanksgiving expressed audibly, let me make one more comment before we press further. Lewis reminds us that it is not just our voices but our bodies that must align with our heart and soul. He says:
The body ought to pray as well as the soul. Body and soul are both the better for it…. But for our body, one whole realm of God’s glory—all that we receive through the senses—would go unpraised. For the beasts can’t appreciate it and the angels are, I suppose, pure intelligences. They understand colours and tastes better than our greatest scientists; but have they retinas or palates? I fancy the ‘beauties of nature’ are a secret God has shared with us alone. That may be one of the reasons why we were made—and why the resurrection of the body is an important doctrine.[3]
Lewis has a point here as well. While I do not intend to speak about the beauties of nature or the purpose of bodies in this sermon, I do want to address the body’s role in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. A restrained body—one that has been disciplined against expressing appropriate praise to God—is a sign of ill health of the soul. There may be many causes of this ill health, but there is only one diagnosis: the soul is ill.
Joyful Supplication
Second, joyful supplication. Paul prays with joy (v. 4). Gospel partnership has produced joyful supplication. Paul prays for the Philippians not merely from a sense of duty because they support him, but joyfully. He receives their service with gladness and prays for them with joy. Because he loves the Philippians and he loves God, prayer is not a burden for Paul. He is not bored. He enjoys praying to God for the Philippians. What do I mean when I say he loves the Philippians and he loves God? Yes, it is a parody of the command to love God and neighbor. But there’s more. Paul prays for the Philippians so that their lives will result in ascribing glory to God and offering praise to God (v. 11). That’s one aspect. Paul prays for the Philippians that they may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ (vv. 9–10). That’s the other side. He wants the good of the Philippians and the glory of God at the same time. This combined intention produces joy in his heart. Paul has learned to approve what is excellent (v. 10). Therefore, he can rejoice in his prayer because it is an excellent request.
Affectionate Yearning
Finally, Paul yearns for the Philippians with the affection of Christ Jesus (v. 8). He is not ordinarily grateful for their partnership. His care for them, his yearning, is analogous to Christ’s yearning for them. He has the same affection for them as Christ does. That may not mean he has the same degree of affection, but the same quality of affection. He desires well for them. These three effects are the products of gospel partnership and partaking in grace produced in the recipient of the partnership.
Closing Comments
Friends, I feel like Paul at this point. I have been a recipient of your partnership in the gospel for the last fifteen years. You have been partakers of grace with me in the last eighteen years, both in my preaching ministry and when I was away at seminary. Your ministry toward me produces godward gratitude, joyful supplication, and affectionate yearning in me.
It is right for us to give thanks to God for his smile over us for these eighteen years. Lord, we ask for more.
Lewis, C. S. Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer. 1964. Repr., William Collins, 2020.
———. Reflection on the Psalms. Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1958.
Piper, John. Desiring God. 3rd ed. Multnomah Publishers, 2003.
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[1] Desiring God, 3rd ed. (Multnomah Publishers, 2003), 196.
[2] Reflection on the Psalms (Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1958), 93–97.
[3] Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer (1964; William Collins, 2020), 17–18.