Philippians 4:10-20
Please turn in your copy of God’s
Holy Word to the New Testament to the book of Philippians. Our
reading today is Philippians chapter 4 verses 10 through 20.
This is the next to the last sermon in our study from Philippians.
And so we give thanks to God, I think since maybe since February
with some breaks over Easter and summer, we have made our
way through one of Paul’s prison epistles. And in today’s verses
in chapter four, verses 10 through 20, we get his thank you note
to the Philippians. He’s thanked them a couple of
other times for their partnership in the gospel enterprise, his
missionary endeavors. But he’s going to take 10 verses
out of, I believe there’s 106 verses in the whole letter to
the Philippians. He’s going to take 10 verses.
So roughly 10% of the letter, he’s going to specifically thank
them for their gospel partnership, but he’s going to teach them
about relying on God for their needs. And so as we keep those
things in mind, let us hear God’s word from Philippians chapter
four, beginning at verse 10, I read these words. This is Paul
speaking. I rejoiced in the Lord greatly
that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were
indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that
I’m speaking of being in need for I have learned in whatever
situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low.
I know how to abound in every and any such circumstance. I
have learned the secret of facing plenty. and hunger, abundance
and need. I can do all things through him
who strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you to share
in my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning
of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership
with me in giving and receiving except you only. Even in Thessalonica,
you sent me help for my needs once and again. Not that I seek
the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.
I have received full payment and more. I am well supplied
having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant
offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. And my God
will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory
in Christ Jesus. To our God and father be glory
forever and ever. Amen. Pray with me. Lord, we
ask now that your word would be. a lamp to our feet, a light
to our path, that it would be a delight to our souls, and that
it would be truth for our transformation, truth for our Christian living,
truth for our way of life in the Christian church. We thank
you for your word. We thank you for its clarity,
for its truth. And we thank you that it is very
specific to our daily lives. And we pray that by your spirit
and by your word’s power, you would shape us knock down the
idols in our lives, remove our faithlessness, strengthen our
trust in Jesus. And we pray that our hands and
feet would be inspired to go forth this day and to serve you.
We ask and pray in Jesus name. Amen. When I was in college,
it was really before internet and before cell phones, I had
a weekly telephone call with my parents. Every Sunday night
about 8 o’clock I was expected to be in my room. And yes, children,
there was a telephone hanging on the wall and you had to be
physically there to pick it up and answer it. We had a real
answering machine with a tape in it. The whole works. It was
an archaic day, as many of you know. But we also, in our family,
exchanged lots of letters. I would weekly receive a letter
from my mom or my dad, and very often, twice weekly, a letter
from my grandmother. Now, some of you know my grandmother
who lived in this town. She’s been gone about maybe eight
or nine years now. But she was what we call in our
family a modern-day Saint Nicholas. And in many of the letters she
would send to me, there would be a $20 bill. And if the letter
had tape on it, scotch tape on it, it would have a $100 bill. Yes, for some reason, my grandmother
had no fear of the postal system. So, James, you’ve given, I guess,
us good faith. But she would mail cash. Now,
she gave these gifts freely. She would send a letter and say,
you know, I know what it’s like to be away from home. I know
how cheap your dad is and probably how little money he’s sending
you. But she would send, he’s not here, I can say that. My
mom’s not either. She would send money so that I could put a little
gas in the car or have a treat or go out to eat with other students.
She would do that. But when the $100 bills would
come, she would say, you probably need some blue jeans. Or maybe
your shoes have worn out. Or maybe there’s a Tennessee
girl you’ve met who needs to go to dinner or something like
that. She knew it takes money to live life. And she gave these
gifts freely. But she did expect a thank you
note. She expected a letter in return. And so I can look back over college
and remember just this back and forth of what’s going on in Graham,
North Carolina from her. And what was going on in Bristol,
Tennessee at Little Presbyterian King College. Back and forth,
the letters would go. And often my parents would hear
my news through the report that came from my grandmother. But
she expected acknowledgment of those gifts. And so, dear grandmother,
thank you for your gift. I used the money for X or Y or
Z. And very often in her next letter,
she would reply, I’m glad you got some blue jeans. Or I’m glad
you were able to go to ice cream with some college friends. Or
I’m glad the gas money helped you do X or Y or Z. You see, when you write a thank
you note, you affirm the gift. I have a friend who is a fundraiser. He’s a fundraiser in a pretty
large organization. They raise about $17 or $18 million
a year. And he tells me that when you
thank donors, you need to tell them a benefit. of what their
money, what their monetary gift, what their investment has done
for your outfits work. And he says, you know, you don’t
say things like we paid salaries and we paid the electric bill
and we paid everybody’s cell phone bills. We don’t do that. We took the gospel to the ends
of the earth. We, we proclaim the name of Jesus. X number of times. And you see
the benefit. The benefit is really a gospel
benefit. It’s not about bills paid and
those that does happen, but we tell of a benefit. You know,
my grandmother loved to hear that I had a new pair of blue
jeans and that they fit comfortably. And it made me feel more joyful
to go to class looking decent and not like a kid from North
Carolina might look or something of that nature. in this thank
you note that the apostle Paul gives, he is going to speak to
the Philippians and to us about the heavenly returns that we
enjoy when we invest in the work of the gospel. And those heavenly
returns come in two forms. The first is contentment with
our present condition. And the second big picture theme
in this passage is he’s gonna give us a lesson in heavenly
finances. And we’re gonna take a look,
a walk through this passage and look at a number of phrases that
begin with the letter C. This will be maybe like popcorn.
They’ll pop quickly and catch our attention. Then we’ll move
very fast to the next one. So let’s make our way through
these. In verse 10, the apostle Paul says, I rejoiced in the
Lord greatly that now at length you revived your concern for
me. You were indeed concerned for
me, but you had no opportunity. And so the first thing we want
to consider from this passage is the Philippians’ concern. Their concern for the Apostle
Paul. Their concern for him as a missionary of the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Missionaries go. Missionaries
are sent. Missionaries are set apart and
very often they are out of sight and out of mind. And it can be
very easy for us as Christians, as members of the church, to
forget those who have been set apart and sent and who have faithfully
gone into the dark places of the world to proclaim the good
news of the Lord Jesus. But the Philippians did not forget
Paul. They did not forget that he had
been with them, that he had faithfully preached the gospel to them.
They had come to faith in Jesus. Remember the Philippian jailer
in his household? Or remember the strange slave girl who was
a soothsayer who brought great wealth and gain to her owners? or to Lydia, the dealer of purple
cloth. These were those who heard the
gospel from the lips of the apostle Paul, came to faith in Jesus,
and the Philippian church was built up by them. And Paul is
saying to them, you have not forgotten me. You are concerned
about me, about me physically, about me spiritually, and about
my work and my labor in the gospel enterprise. He literally says
in verse 10, it’s a word picture. He says, I rejoiced in the Lord
greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for
me. There’s a word picture and that word revived in the New
Testament. And it’s this picture of a tree in springtime that
begins to bud and blossom and produce new growth. We have a
fig tree outside of our house, and in the wintertime, it looks
awful. It looks like a dead tree. But maybe around February or
so, it’ll get these little green nodules on it, and those will
sprout as spring comes and the heat comes and the sunshine shines
on it. And it will grow into a leaf
bearing tree and then a fig bearing tree. And the apostle Paul is
saying to the Philippians, for a time, and it’s because you
had your own troubles, your own issues, your own life, your tree
was dormant. It looked like a winter tree,
but now it is revived and it is budding again. And it is budding
in such a way that it shows life. You see, we send missionaries,
we send gospel servants around the world, and we need to not
let our interest, our concern for them wane. Just outside here,
these sanctuary doors, you’ll find a little rug from Turkey,
and it was a gift to us from Noreen and Andrew Brunson, and
we remember, Very well, our brother Andrew is in prison in Turkey.
Just this week we hear that they’re going to impose probably three
life sentences upon him because they’re accusing him of being
a traitor to the Turkish government and being involved in some sort
of terrorist group. He’s been a faithful servant
of the gospel and we need not let our concern become like a
dead tree in winter. but we need to let our concern
for him and for others blossom and begin to bud again so that
they are always on our hearts and minds and that we are locked
in on our support. We are locked in on our Sunday
evening prayers for these folks, and we are locked in on the cause
of Christ. So in verse 10, we find concern. Look with me at verses 11 and
12. We read, not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have
learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how
to be brought low. I know how to abound in any circumstance. I have learned the secret of
facing plenty and hunger and abundance and need.” We look at Paul’s circumstances.
He was in a Roman prison. He was at times, and it may be
possible that it was in the times where the Philippians were unable
to give their attention, their concern to him, he went without
food. He went without daily provision
and having ordinary needs met. Now we live in the first world.
We don’t live in the second world or the third world where we’re
worried about clean water, we’re worried about whatever. Our biggest
problems are the internet not working. Our biggest problems
are a flight delayed, a flight. Our biggest problems are maybe
eating supper at six and not five and having our tummy growl
at us and tell us that the pains of hunger are there. You see,
we have first world problems. We don’t know what it is to be
really low or to be really poor and down and out. Paul’s circumstances
were not good. Paul’s circumstances as he was
under imprisonment in Rome were physically and spiritually difficult. And he says so, I know how to
be low. I know how to abound. I know how to be hungry and have
plenty. I know how to have abundance
and need. He is speaking on extreme terms,
extreme low and extreme high, and not the in-between that we
most often face each day as we live life in this world. He’s
living in Rome with no resources. And the only people who remember
him are the Philippians. Now remember, he’s made his way
across the Mediterranean Sea. He’s made his way around to the
Corinthians and other churches that are named in his New Testament
letters. And it’s only the Philippians, he’ll tell us, who remember him
and who partner with him. He has no resources. He’s like
you and I. He lives in a sin-filled, sin-cursed
world where there’s sickness, there’s danger, there’s injustice. There are all kinds of circumstances
that bring hardship upon him. And it reminds us of the Christian
way. Remember Jesus as he came. Jesus was born, our catechism
teaches us. He was born of a woman and that
in a low condition in the poor stable of Bethlehem. He suffered
the miseries of this life. He was made under the law of
God. He suffered under Pontius Pilate.
He was crucified. He was dead and he was buried. And he continued under the power
of the grave for a time. You see, brothers and sisters,
as Christians, our circumstances until we reach heaven are not
ideal. And that leads us to the third
thing we want to consider from this passage. It’s in these same
verses, verses 11 and 12. And that word is contentment. contentment. I have a weather
app on my phone and it connects me to the weather channel and
somewhere in this area, mine says Glen Raven when I’m at home,
though I live in Burlington, but somewhere it receives data
about the temperature. about the humidity, about the
cloud cover, the rain, the precipitation, the moisture in the air. It has
all of this stuff. What is it doing? It is somewhere,
somehow measuring data and sending it to my telephone. And sometimes
we think contentment comes through measuring data. How happy am
I? How fulfilled am I? Was there
a sale at Bloomingdale’s or wherever it is you shop? We measure contentment
by external circumstances, but the Bible does not. The Bible
tells us that we are to be content. We are to be settled. We are
to feel cared and provided for by the providence and the pleasure
of almighty God in spite of our circumstances, in spite of our
surroundings, in spite of what is taking place in the world
and what is taking place in life. Our Shorter Catechism, when it
speaks of the commandment about do not covet, it says we are
to be satisfied with our own provision from God. We are to
be content in whatever situation God puts us in, and we are not
to become discontent with how God is treating others. You know,
we can always look over the neighbor’s fence and say, they just got
a newer car, or they just got their house painted, or they
just had a baby, or, that husband brought home flowers or that
wife did this or that. And we can look over the fence
at the Jones house and we can say, I’m not happy because I
don’t have what they have. And the Bible doesn’t speak that
way of contentment. The Bible speaks of contentment
basically in resting in the promises and the provision of almighty
God, which by the way, he has tailor made for your every need. There is not a thing you are
missing. in your life that God doesn’t
want you to have. And there is not a thing present in your life
that God did not give you graciously and from his wonderful plan and
wisdom. And so brothers and sisters,
we need to take with the apostle Paul the example of finding the
secret of contentment. And his secret is this, I have
learned to be content. I know how to be low and abound. I have learned the secret of
facing being with and being without. And you know, there’s a truth
we need to remember in this passage. And that is this. It is very
easy to learn contentment when you have nothing. We live in
the first world. We go to our refrigerators and
we say, there’s nothing to eat when there’s plenty in there.
We look in our cupboards and say, there’s nothing to eat and
there’s plenty. in there. It’s just not what
we want. We look in our closet and say, I have nothing to wear. Oh, it’s just that there’s nothing
that makes us feel good that day. We need to find contentment. in our blessings, but it’s so
much easier. It is so much easier when we
are without to find our contentment in God. The apostle Paul says
elsewhere, he says it to Timothy, the pastor, he says, godliness
with contentment is of great gain. And so brothers and sisters,
whatever you are pursuing in this world, make sure one of
those things is contentment and even godliness. because the word
of God says that is a great gain. There’s another word, it begins
with a C, of course, and we find it in verses 13 and 19, and that
word is confidence. In verse 13, the apostle Paul
says, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. And then
in verse 19, he says this, my God will supply every need of
yours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. Now, Philippians 4.13, That is
a verse that we see everywhere. And it ought to give us confidence.
It’s a verse affirming the confidence that we all should enjoy in Christ
Jesus. Just the other day, I was walking down the street and I
saw Philippians 4.13 on the back of a shirt. Just the other day,
I saw a sports star on his Twitter account In speaking of being
able to win the NBA finals, say, I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me. And sometimes we say to ourselves,
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And we want
that to mean I can sweep the floor through Christ who strengthens
me. I can go to the grocery store
and get everything on the list through Christ who strengthens
me. I can play a soccer game or a basketball game or go to
school for the glory of God through Christ who strengthens me. Now,
is it true that Christ gives us strength and we can bring
glory to his name through a lot of things in life? The answer is yes, but
not in Philippians 4.13. You see, the context of Philippians
4.13 is the apostle Paul says, I have learned to be content
with nothing and with a lot. And whatever my circumstances
are, I am content because God gives me strength to be content. You see, we belittle this verse.
We belittle this verse to say I can sweep the floor through
Christ who strengthens me. You can sweep the floor because
God gave you life and breath and health. You don’t need Jesus
to help you sweep the floor. I mean, you do, but you get the
point. This verse, this verse comes out of a context of the
apostle Paul’s suffering in prison. the apostle Paul going without
in prison for the sake of the gospel. And he says, if I have
to keep on going, it will only be because Jesus gives me strength.
You see the weight of that verse in light of the context. And
so we have confidence in tough circumstances, just like Abraham. Abraham climbed that mountain
with his son. And when his son said, behold
the fire and the knife, But where’s the lamb for the sacrifice? Abraham
had the confidence to say, Jehovah Jireh, my provider will give
for himself a lamb for the sacrifice. And so you may face some very
difficult circumstances in your life. And I don’t mean sweeping
the floor or playing in the NBA finals. God does care about those
things. But you may be facing a job you
feel like you can’t do day to day. You may be facing some spiritual
weight that you cannot lick a sin. That habitually presents itself
in your life and you know it is wicked and you know that God
disapproves of it and you are tired of confessing it daily
and it is wearing you out and it is killing your life spiritually.
This is a verse for you. I can do all things. weighty
things, spiritual things, tough things through Christ who gives
me strength. And then there’s verse 19. My
God will supply every need of yours according to his riches
and glory in Christ Jesus. That verse reminds me of Romans
8 32. We love Romans 8. What in this life can separate
us from God’s love? What in this life can take away God’s love
for us? Nothing, not a thing. But in
Romans chapter eight, verse 32, it says, God did not spare his
own son. So why would he withhold other
good things from you? And so dear brothers and sisters,
we need to live life confidently. We need to live life in the confidence
that God will provide, that he has every resource in heaven
and on earth, and he can give you those resources, even the
strength to make it another day in the midst of hardship as we
faithfully try to serve him. While you suffer, while you serve,
while you don’t know how you will get up and do the next day,
you keep on going like Paul did because you have learned the
secret of contentment, knowing how to abound and how to live
low. because Christ gives you strength
and God will supply every need. There’s another word, it starts
with a C of course. We’ve looked at concern and circumstances
and contentment and confidence. Now we look at commitment. In
verses 14 through 16, we see the commitment of the Philippian
church to the apostle Paul. He says, beginning in 14, yet
it was kind of you to share in my trouble. You Philippians yourselves
know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia,
no church entered into partnership or fellowship with me in giving
and receiving except you only. Even in Thessalonica, you sent
me help for my needs once and again. We’re a commitment phobia culture. We fear getting locked in. We
fear making a commitment. Somebody says, why don’t you
come over for dinner Saturday night? Well, let me check my
schedule. That’s just a cop out, isn’t it? We say to somebody
who tells you that they’re sick and need of help, well, my thoughts
and my prayers are with you. That’s a bunch of malarkey we
know. We wiggle out of contracts. We wiggle out of serious commitments,
whether they be church or marriage or other situations. We don’t
want to be committed. And here is an example of a people
committed to God, committed to the gospel and committed to the
apostle Paul. And he says, when no one else
would partner with me in the advance of the gospel, you Philippians,
out of your poverty, out of your weakness, you committed to me
and to the gospel enterprise. Now I have a theory in mind here,
and there’s probably some merit to it. The Philippian church
was a largely populated colony of Rome by military retirees. And they know the principle of
we don’t leave brothers behind. They know the principle of when
you were sent to a century post, you keep that post until you
were told to do otherwise. You don’t quit, you don’t fall
away, you don’t shrink back. And I can only imagine that the
commitment of the Philippians was certainly out of the grace
of God at work in them, but it was out of their sense of duty. And do we have that sense of
duty, brothers and sisters? The duty that we have to be connected
to the gospel enterprise and to be committed to those who
are set apart and sent to be committed and concerned and to
share in the troubles and to enter into partnership with those
who’ve been called by God to preach and teach and expand the
gospel enterprise throughout the ends of the earth. Are we
that committed? And I would suggest if you look at the statistics
in our day and time, church attendance is lower. Commitment to funding
the kingdom efforts of God is not where it once was. And so
we need to consider our commitment. We need to consider our commitment
to the gospel enterprise. Can you believe it? The apostle
Paul says it was only you Philippians. who sent me. And think of all
the churches that he had preached in and taught in and labored
in and brought them the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Yet they, for whatever reason, had not committed to him. Has
the gospel pushed you? Has it changed you? Does it compel
you and even constrain you in such a way that you say, I must
serve God and I must invest in the kingdom? There’s another
C as you can imagine that pops up in this verse. It’s in verse
17 and it’s the word credit. The apostle Paul says, not that
I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your
credit. You see, the Apostle Paul knows
very well, he knows extremely well that the gift they give
him, oh yes, it provides him with food and energy and clothing
and maybe some legal help as he’s imprisoned in Rome. It provides
him with all those things that he needs, even medicine for his
sickness. But more so, he sees the fruit
as the goal. I just read an article in the
last week or so about the nephew of a famous, or maybe infamous,
depends on how you look at the guy, I won’t say his name, but
I’ll say infamous, prosperity gospel preacher in America. And this nephew of this famous
gospel, prosperity gospel preacher in America says, I left the Gulf
Stream gospel for the simple Christ honoring ministry. I left the airplanes and the
fine suits and the luxury suites in places across the world to
simple life in a local church, proclaiming and living and preaching
the gospel. And you see, many gospel preachers
are living really out of the fruit of the prosperity they
have gained for themselves. And Paul says, not me, not I,
I don’t seek the gift. I seek the fruit. And what is
that fruit? It is Christ in you. It is Christ entering in the
hearts and the minds of people throughout Macedonia, throughout
the Mediterranean Sea, in Rome, into Caesar’s household, and
men and women and boys and girls, young and old, of all age and
rank and status, coming to faith in Jesus and bowing their knees
to him. And he says to the Philippians,
it is to your credit. Now, In the Roman culture, a
thank you note, a thank you note, like the Apostle Paul wrote the
Philippians, should have done a couple of things. It should
have said, thank you for the gift. And it should have said,
now here is your great honor for the gift you gave. And in
the Roman culture, pride was a big thing. They should have
had a plaque and hung it on their wall. We gave X dollars to the
Apostle Paul and he went to three churches and preached the gospel.
There were 1,700 converts and oh yeah, we paid his legal fees
and he got a deal. It’d be something like that.
Oh, but the apostle Paul doesn’t do it that way. Look at what
he does in verse 17. He says, not that I seek the
fruit, the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your
credit. I receive full payment and more. I’m well supplied.
Having received from Epaphroditus, that’s their pastor, the gifts
you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing
to almighty God. You see, he shows these donors
the heavenly dividends that are being paid on their behalf. You’ve given a gift. I have used
it faithfully, and God has multiplied it in such a way that you cannot
imagine the work that it has done. And so it is to their credit. It is to the glory of God and
to the good of the nations. There’s one last C word in this
passage. We find it in verse 18. And the
idea is this, it’s commendation. It’s God’s commendation. Verse
18, he says, I have received full payment and more. I’m well
supplied. I’ve received from Epaphroditus
the gift you sent. It’s a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable
and pleasing to almighty God. Now I’m told that there are three
reasons people give to charities, including a church. They give
for the cause, they give for the person behind the cause,
and they give for the tax write-off. Now some of those are human reasons. My tax guy says give this much
and when I Go to April 15th, it’ll benefit me. We give to
a cause, we give to a person, we give for different reasons.
Do we ever give to receive God’s commendation? And I’m gonna explain
what I mean in that just a moment, not to earn your salvation, not
to purchase God’s blessing, but do we ever say when we are putting
our envelope in the offering or we are coming to church on
a workday or teaching a Sunday school class or serving God in
some monetary or spiritual way, do we ever say the fragrance
of my offering is rising to heaven and as it enters into the nostrils
of almighty God, it is like those old Testament sacrifices and
the aroma is pleasing in his sight. Well, we should, we should
think about it that way because that’s the way the Bible speaks
of it. We receive God’s commendation
for the work that we do, for the money that we invest in the
kingdom of almighty God, our gifts, our offering, our sacrifices. They were helpful to Paul, yes.
They were helpful to the advance of the gospel, yes. But they
rose up to God and they were pleasing And his senses. And so when we support missionaries,
when we labor in the church, when we pray on Sunday nights
for Andrew Brunson, when we we strive for the gospel to advance. We don’t do it for salvation.
No, we’ve been saved by Jesus. We rest in him alone for our
salvation by faith. But if we’ve been saved by Jesus,
we’ve been saved for good works. And those good works are good
for our neighbor and give glory to God, but they rise to God. They rise to God and he accepts
them as pleasing in his sight. And one day we will hear him
acknowledge these gifts. We’ll be like the man in the
parable who had so many talents, one buried them. One took his
and made a little money. One took his and made a lot of
money. The one who buried, God said, you’re a wicked, you’re
unfaithful servant. The one who made a little, God
commended him. The one who made a lot, God said,
I’m gonna give you more. So friends, what are you doing
with your time, your service, your prayers, your finances?
Are you commending yourself to this world and accumulating things,
or are you commending yourself to God? And the things that you’re
offering are rising as a pleasing sacrifice up to the heaven of
heavens. This is Paul’s thank you note.
This is Paul’s thank you note to the church at Philippi. You’ve
made the gospel ministry possible and fruitful. And notice how
he ends. Anytime God is at work in us
making us content, anytime God is at work through the church
and the gospel enterprise and it’s funded and able to produce
fruit, we give praise to God. And look how he does that. In
verse 20, to our God and father be glory forever and ever. Amen. Pray with me. Our Lord,
we thank you for this word today that teaches us how to be content,
but also how to invest wisely in the and the kingdom efforts. Lord, teach us how to be happy,
how to be content, how to be resting in your provision. We
thank you for Christ and what he’s offered to us. We thank
you for our daily bread, which you so freely give to us. We
also thank you that you let us earn money, you let us earn funds,
and we can invest them in the gospel work. And we pray that
as we do that, as we offer our labors, our time, our talent,
our tithes, our offerings, that they would rise to the throne
of heaven and be accepted through Christ as pleasing in your nostrils.
And we ask and pray for your help and grace to live this radical
kingdom-minded way. And we pray it in Jesus’ name,
amen. Let us rise and respond to God’s
word together as we sing number 455, come all Christians be committed.