Paul began this letter to his friends in Philippi by telling them that every time he remembers them he does two things, he thanks God for them and he prays for them joyfully. Tonight we are going to begin to see why Paul feels so strongly for this group of people, what it is about them that he is thankful for and what he prays God will do in their lives. As we talked about our last time together, thankfulness and prayer are the bedrocks of Christian friendship, they are not just what Christian friends should do they are how Christian friendships should be formed. Rather than looking for what we have in common we have this great opportunity to have our relationships forged and held together by the Spirit who lives within us. I believe that this is how diversity actually becomes a strength within a community, when we don’t gather according to what we already see and know but we allow the Holy Spirit to gather us for the glory of Jesus and the redemption of men, when we truly let God join us together in the midst of great differences. When I refer to great differences I don’t mean that in terms of size but in actual greatness, where we can realize that the things you do differently, the things you have experienced differently, the things you process, express and understand differently are great, they are beautiful, they are a glimmer of God’s majesty that I have never seen before and may have never seen without you. Christian Friendship is supposed to be about WHO we have in common, the work of Jesus and the infilling of the Holy Spirit and how we can see our Father more fully through each other. Tonight I hope we can simply see that thanksgiving and prayer are the basis of fellowship and that fellowship is an intimacy that creates a bond that cannot be broken by time or space and that in its deepest expression, fellowship binds us together by the gospel and for the gospel until Jesus has finished the work of completely establishing His kingdom. Friendship is not really about us, it is for us, and it is given to us by God so that through us His kingdom can come and His will can be done on earth as it is in heaven.