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Preparing Our Hearts · Stornoway Free Church of Scotland - Sermons

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  In this chapter 1, we're going to look at the section verse 3 to 11, verse 3 to 11.
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  We can just read again at the beginning of that section at verse 3.
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  I thank my God in all my remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy
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  because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
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  And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
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  And so on.
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  How many of you came in here this evening and sat down and just let out a sigh?
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  You come in from a busy week, you come in here this evening and you feel to yourself,
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  well, thank goodness just for a time, just to sit, sit among brothers and sisters in Christ.
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  Sit and come to hear people praying.
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  Sit and tune in our hearts in prayer and worship of God.
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  Because I'm sure many of us come in this evening with that sense of feeling distracted,
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  sense of looking at so many different things that are going on in our own lives or the lives of others.
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  And our heads can just be a spin, a wash with different things.
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  But we come and we should be thankful for this time just to pause,
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  stopping for a few moments, looking beyond ourselves and our own situations and our own circumstances
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  and come just for this time and focus on God
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  and see and give thanks to him for what he is doing and has done for us.
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  When we sing through so many of the Psalms, we find that kind of experience in the Psalmist's life.
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  A variety of different Psalmists, but very often they find themselves in these kinds of experiences
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  that we have ourselves today.
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  So many different things going on, but just coming into the presence of God,
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  stills them, calms them and gives them a new focus and a new sense of thankfulness.
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  And that's what we want to do each time we come to worship God.
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  We want to be still and know that he is God.
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  We want to be still in his presence.
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  And as we come this evening and as we look ahead, God willing,
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  tonight as we prepare our hearts and also as we approach the weekend preparing our hearts,
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  a communion time is a time when we focus on the Lord.
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  When we think of what he has done for us.
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  When we think of the peace that he has given to us through what he has done at the cross at Calvary.
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  We come to God in prayer.
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  We come preparing our hearts in prayer for this evening and for the days ahead.
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  Each day we want to prepare our hearts by coming into the presence of God and seeking his peace and presence with us.
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  And we want to do that this evening by turning to this letter of Paul to the Philippians.
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  And it gives us an insight into how to prepare our hearts before God.
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  Paul opens up his own heart before the people of Philippi and before his Lord here as he's writing to them from a prison cell.
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  And you may expect to find someone who is downcast and despondent and in despair.
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  And yet as you read through this letter you find how uplifting it is.
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  It is a letter that's often called the letter of joy.
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  You find rejoice and you find joy and you find all of these words used often throughout the letter.
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  But that's not to say that everything was fine and well in Philippi.
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  It had its problems like every church does.
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  But Paul writes this letter to give them a real sense of focus.
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  You get the sense of affection from Paul for the people of Philippi.
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  As you see there in verse 3, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.
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  Often remembering, often praying for them and thanking God for them, for the partnership in the gospel that they have.
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  There's an affection for the people, but above all there's an affection for his saviour.
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  And that is how they are together rejoicing in God.
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  And personal letters are an amazing thing.
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  When you think of maybe letters you've received yourself, someone who's taken the time to write a letter, it shouldn't be disregarded.
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  Having been at sea myself, I received a number of letters when I was away in different parts of the world.
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  And it was always so encouraging to get letters from home, to hear a little of what was happening.
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  It was before we could get emails on the ship, you were relying on the communication being through letters arriving.
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  Some of them were amusing and some of them were moving, depending very much on who had written them and in what circumstances.
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  But it was always a joy.
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  And it's always so interesting going back and just looking over them again.
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  And as a family, we've got another personal letter in our belonging.
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  And it dates back to 1940.
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  And it was a letter written by my great uncle to my grandfather.
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  My great uncle was still away from home.
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  It was during the war.
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  And he was on a minesweeper.
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  And my grandfather had been injured during the war.
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  So he was now at home recovering.
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  And reading the letter is very moving.
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  And you might think that the focus would be on maybe the troubles that are around my great uncle at that time.
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  The things that were going on around him.
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  But it wasn't.
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  It was a focus of love and concern and encouragement towards his brother who was back home recovering.
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  And what makes it even more poignant is the fact that a few months later, my great uncle lost his life.
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  When his minesweeper was sunk.
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  So that letter has a special meaning behind it.
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  And this memory goes on in many ways.
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  But when we look at the letters that we find in the word of God, there's so much more behind them.
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  And there are letters that are not just personal to Paul and to the church at Philippi.
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  There are letters that are personal to us.
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  They are written not just to the people then.
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  They are written to ourselves today.
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  They are letters that are here for our encouragement now.
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  For our upbuilding now.
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  For doing all to us.
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  To encourage us to a deep seated joy in the Lord ourselves.
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  To remind us of the very reasons that we have to rejoice in God.
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  And we want to see in this section that we're looking at in verse 3 to 11.
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  That the letter opens with this thanksgiving and prayer.
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  They're not two separate things.
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  They both go hand in hand.
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  It's prayer and thanksgiving as one.
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  And we want to just focus on this prayer for a time this evening.
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  And just see what the prayer says to us.
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  As we think of preparing our own hearts for coming to a communion weekend.
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  And there's three things I want to see about this prayer.
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  There's a prayer here of thanksgiving.
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  That's the first thing we'll see.
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  Then secondly we'll see there's a prayer of confidence.
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  And then there's a prayer of growth.
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  With a desire for growth.
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  Thirdly we'll see.
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  So the first thing we see here is a prayer of thanksgiving.
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  Having written the greeting in the letter in verse 1 and 2.
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  Even the greeting itself.
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  We shouldn't just scan over.
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  You see there Paul and Timothy.
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  Servants of Christ Jesus.
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  That's where they see themselves as servants of Christ Jesus.
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  And they see the people of Philippi as saints in Christ Jesus.
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  So we see there the relationship that the people have with Christ.
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  And then grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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  There's a wonderful introduction there to the prayer.
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  It's rich in Christ.
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  And that's the theme that then continues as you go on into the main body of the letter.
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  And what we see first of all at its foundation is prayer and thanksgiving.
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  The church at Philippi, it's not without its problems.
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  And you might expect Paul to write to them as though the problems are going to be the main issue of the letter.
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  Things that are dividing the church.
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  That are spoiling their fellowship.
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  The struggles that the believers are facing.
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  That the thanksgiving part of this letter might just be a short section.
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  But what you find is that that's not the case at all.
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  The thanksgiving just continues to flow right through the letter.
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  And there's lots going on in Philippi.
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  You get that sense as you read through this letter that there are things going on in the background too.
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  There's adversity.
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  There's rivalry.
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  There's conflict.
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  There's people looking for their own self-achievement.
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  There's the struggle with finding the way to holiness.
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  There's all kinds of different challenges going on among the people.
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  But what Paul is almost determined to give to the people, to show to the people as he writes to them,
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  is the difference that a focus on Christ makes in all of that.
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  The way believers respond in all different situations is to have a focus on Christ.
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  And when we think of our own lives, we can have all of these different things going on.
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  Different kinds of adversity, conflict, rivalry, a sense of seeking our own achievements.
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  There's all sorts of things and struggles that we have in our lives.
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  But Paul is writing to us to remind us, have our eyes fixed on Jesus.
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  Thanksgiving, joy, and our eyes fixed on Jesus is what Paul is reminding our people of here and ourselves as well.
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  And so Thanksgiving doesn't just focus on one or two verses in this letter.
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  It goes right through it.
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  It's a thread that's running right through the letter.
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  You can look through this prayer.
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  And in every verse, as we have verses to break it up for us in our Bibles,
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  in every verse you see that there is something to give thanks for,
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  something to give a sense of joy to the people.
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  Each verse has something.
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  Paul in verse 3 is thankful to be able to remember the people.
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  He is thankful that they are there, that they have not abandoned them, that they are with them.
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  In verse 4, you have a prayer that's full of joy.
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  Thankful for the joy that there is.
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  Verse 5, thankful for the partnership that there is in the Gospel.
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  Verse 6, thankful for the confidence that there is in Christ.
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  Verse 7, thankful for the grace of God in Christ.
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  Verse 8, yearning with affection of Christ.
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  Thankful for that.
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  Verse 9, the love and fellowship that they enjoy.
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  Thankful for that.
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  Verse 10, that there is the day of Christ to look forward to.
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  Thankful for that.
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  Verse 11, thankful that it's all for the glory and praise of God.
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  So you can go through this whole prayer.
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  And there's a sense of thankfulness in every part of it.
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  Paul had his difficulties himself.
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  He was writing this letter from prison.
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  And yet, in verse 12 to verse 18 there, you see that his situation, his imprisonment, has all worked for the advancement of the Gospel.
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  He's thankful for that.
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  And so it goes on.
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  And so when we think ourselves of coming in here this evening, of sitting down with a sigh and just a thankfulness to be here,
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  we start thinking, well, what do we have to be thankful for?
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  When we come to God in prayer, what we are thankful for?
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  So we've heard in both the prayers, so much to give thanks for, so much we often take for granted.
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  So much that we often feel it's just ours to have day after day, week after week.
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  But yet, let's pause and prepare our hearts with a sense of thankfulness in prayer.
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  Thankfulness for all that is ours in Christ Jesus.
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  Thankfulness for all that we have through his goodness and mercy each day.
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  Thankful for the Gospel.
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  Thankful for the fellowship.
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  Thankful for the fact that we can approach a communion season, that we can look forward to that with the freedoms that we enjoy.
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  We have much to be thankful for.
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  Let us prepare our hearts as we seek to approach the Lord's Supper.
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  Let us prepare our hearts with a prayer with a sense of thankfulness and joy in the Lord.
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  The second thing we see here is it's a prayer of confidence.
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  There's so much assurance in this prayer.
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  The assurance that Paul is seeking the people at Philippi to have and enjoy themselves.
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  The assurance that he knows in his own life and experience.
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  When we think of what a Christian needs to be able to have that joy of the Lord as our strength.
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  To be able to rejoice even in the midst of adversity.
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  To be able to see our sin in our heart.
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  But yet to be able to see the hope that Christ gives to us.
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  What do we need for that?
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  Well it is confidence in the work of Christ.
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  Not in ourselves.
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  But confidence in the work of Christ for us and in us.
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  The work that is finished in Christ.
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  And you see how Paul starts his prayer here in verse 3.
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  What he says is,
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  I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.
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  He knows God.
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  And he knows all the goodness that there is in God.
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  And the confidence that this gives to him.
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  As he is praying, even at a distance from the people of Philippi in a prison cell.
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  I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.
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  There is a confidence in God.
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  And it's not just a confidence for a moment.
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  It's not just a confidence that is his.
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  It is a confidence that every believer can have.
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  And that's what he goes on to expand on.
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  As he prays for the people of Philippi.
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  He says in verse 4,
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  Always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy.
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  Because of your partnership in the gospel from this day until now.
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  Then you have verse 6.
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  And he says,
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  And I am sure of this.
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  There is confidence here in what he is about to say.
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  And I am sure of this.
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  That he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
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  There is confidence.
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  There is assurance there.
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  I am sure of this.
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  That he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.
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  And that is a word, a verse that every Christian needs to hear again and again.
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  And to pray and to remember and to give thanks to God for that.
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  That it's not our work.
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  It is the work that he has begun in you.
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  And too often and so often, our focus can be on our work.
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  On how we see ourselves.
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  Or how we think others would see us.
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  But here Paul is reminding every one of us,
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  It's not about us.
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  It's about the good work that he has begun in us.
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  And that he will bring it to completion.
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  How many of you have an unfinished project at home?
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  I'm sure many of us will have something that we've started out on.
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  A thing we've started with all good intention of completing this work.
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  But it's still there.
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  Unfinished.
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  It can be all kinds of things.
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  It can be a DIY project.
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  It could be a knitting.
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  It could be a jigsaw.
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  It can be all kinds of things.
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  And we start with all good intentions of finishing.
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  But it's still there.
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  And maybe it's not just one thing.
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  Maybe there's, as we say, many irons in the fire.
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  We're trying to juggle so many different things.
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  That nothing is getting done.
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  Many things are left undone.
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  But here we're reminded that when the Lord begins a work,
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  he doesn't leave it unfinished.
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  He never leaves any work incomplete.
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  It is finished.
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  And here we are reminded that in every one of us
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  who he has begun a good work in,
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  he will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
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  He will bring it to completion.
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  Not us.
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  He will do it.
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  And so there is a great confidence.
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  There's a great assurance for us here.
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  The writer James Boyce, he calls verse 6 here
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  one of the three greatest verses in the Bible
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  that teaches about the perseverance of the saints.
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  That's the teaching or the doctrine
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  that no one whom God has brought
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  into a saving knowledge of Christ Jesus will be lost.
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  And this is one of, he says, the three greatest verses.
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  There's another two, he says, Romans 8, verse 38 and 39.
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  That great passage that speaks of the fact
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  that nothing will separate us from the love of God
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  that is in Christ Jesus.
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  Nothing will separate us of that love.
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  Those wonderful verses in Romans 8.
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  The other text he has in mind is John 10, verse 27 and verse 28,
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  where John 10 says,
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  My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.
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  I give them eternal life and they will never perish
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  and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
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  There are these great texts of confidence and assurance
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  that the people of God will persevere,
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  that the Lord will keep them till the day of Christ.
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  And this is the other one.
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  I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you
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  will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
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  And we all go through that times when we fear,
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  these times when we fear,
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  when we give God our lives and we trust in Christ
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  that we are going to fail,
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  that we are going to let them down.
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  And we do.
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  We fail.
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  We're afraid because we're not good enough
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  and we're not good enough.
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  And we're afraid because we might let people down.
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  And we do let people down.
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  We do all of these things.
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  And it's one of Satan's greatest weapons
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  to think that then we are not Christians,
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  that we're not good enough,
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  that we are not saved.
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  But we have to come back to God, to Jesus,
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  and focus on what he says to us.
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  And these three great texts
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  are where we can go and remind ourselves
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  that when he works,
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  when he loves us,
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  when he calls us,
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  nothing and no one can separate us from that love.
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  Now the fact that God does all this,
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  it does not imply that we are just passive,
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  that we have nothing at all to do.
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  We, the Bible tells us,
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  must work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
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  We must come to God.
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  We must trust in God.
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  We must pursue him with all our heart.
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  But it is he who works in us.
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  And then we delight in serving him,
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  in honoring him,
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  in being obedient to him with all our hearts.
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  What a wonderful privilege it is
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  to be the children of God
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  and to know his love.
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  And doesn't that help to prepare our hearts
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  as we come and approach the Lord's Supper?
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  To know that we are doing it
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  not for ourselves or through our own works
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  or our own ways,
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  but because he is working in us.
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  And he will bring that work to completion.
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  He has done all things well.
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  And let us remember that
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  as we come to remember him.
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  The third and final thing we see in this prayer,
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  it's a prayer for growth.
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  As Paul concludes his prayer here
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  in verse 9 to verse 11,
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  you see that it is my prayer
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  that your love may abound more and more.
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  And so he goes on at the end of these verses.
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  His desire is to see the church at Philippi flourish
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  and the people at Philippi flourish in the Lord.
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  And that's the prayer that we long
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  for ourselves as well.
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  That our love may abound more and more
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  for each other and for the Lord.
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  And this was a time
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  when there were many against the Christian faith.
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  And there was divisions going on.
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  There was individual desires
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  that were coming to the fore.
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  There was grumbling and questioning
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  going on in the background.
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  There was questioning the goodness of God.
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  But what's the answer?
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  Again, it's to focus on the Lord.
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  That our love may abound more and more
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  with knowledge and all discernment.
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  That we might know God.
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  That we might know his word
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  and trust him with all our hearts.
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  There's both a learning from the word
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  and putting that word into practice.
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  Living by these truths.
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  So they're not just things that we hear
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  and listen to and enjoy together
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  in a place like this.
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  But it's something that we put into practice
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  in our daily lives,
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  in our homes,
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  in our communities.
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  That we have a place to go.
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  That we have a prayer we can offer.
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  That we have a saviour who is with us.
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  That we remember all of these things.
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  And we grow in our knowledge
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  and our understanding
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  of all of these things.
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  And that we look forward
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  with that sense of anticipation.
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  Because it speaks here
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  of the day of Christ.
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  that we will be presented to him.
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  And that we will have that sense of joy
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  as we live for him in this world.
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  But always with that longing
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  and looking forward ahead
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  that Paul speaks of.
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  Even in this letter himself,
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  he speaks in verse 23
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  as he says,
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  I am hard pressed between the two.
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  This is to go to be with the Lord
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  or to stay.
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  It's this dilemma that he has.
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  So he's in this turmoil.
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  But he has that wonderful message.
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  For me to live is Christ.
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  As he goes on in this world.
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  To live is Christ.
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  And then when that time comes,
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  to die is gain.
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  There is that confidence.
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  That ongoing living for Christ.
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  But with that great confidence
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  and assurance
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  that to die is gain.
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  We still have so much
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  to learn ourselves.
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  We still have so much
• 26:08
  to understand ourselves.
• 26:10
  And we will never know it all
• 26:12
  and understand it all
• 26:13
  in all its fullness.
• 26:16
  But we know that
• 26:18
  to know Christ
• 26:19
  and to love Christ
• 26:21
  is a precious thing.
• 26:24
  It is a gift
• 26:25
  of God.
• 26:28
  And so we let
• 26:29
  God's word
• 26:30
  be what
• 26:31
  instructs us
• 26:32
  and teaches us
• 26:34
  and gives us
• 26:35
  that growth.
• 26:36
  That's what he speaks about
• 26:37
  when he speaks of
• 26:38
  in verse 9
• 26:39
  knowledge
• 26:40
  and all discernment
• 26:41
  so that you may approve
• 26:42
  what is excellent.
• 26:45
  As we go on,
• 26:46
  we go on
• 26:47
  through the teaching of God
• 26:48
  through the word of God
• 26:50
  to us
• 26:50
  not being
• 26:51
  taken and distracted
• 26:52
  by anything else
• 26:54
  but just having
• 26:55
  our eyes
• 26:56
  fixed
• 26:57
  on Jesus.
• 26:59
  We have that
• 27:01
  wonderful blessing
• 27:02
  of Christ
• 27:03
  as our Lord.
• 27:07
  And so as we approach
• 27:08
  the Lord's
• 27:10
  Supper
• 27:11
  as we prepare
• 27:12
  our hearts
• 27:13
  in worship
• 27:14
  and praise
• 27:15
  of our Lord
• 27:17
  let us have
• 27:19
  that sense
• 27:19
  of thankfulness.
• 27:21
  thankfulness
• 27:23
  for all
• 27:24
  that he has done
• 27:25
  and is doing
• 27:26
  for us
• 27:26
  and will do
• 27:28
  until the day
• 27:30
  of Christ
• 27:31
  until the day
• 27:32
  when it is complete.
• 27:34
  Let us have
• 27:35
  that confidence
• 27:36
  in Christ
• 27:38
  that though
• 27:40
  we fail
• 27:41
  in so many ways
• 27:42
  we have that
• 27:43
  great assurance
• 27:44
  and confidence
• 27:45
  that he who began
• 27:46
  a good work
• 27:47
  and you will bring
• 27:48
  it to completion
• 27:49
  at the day
• 27:50
  of Jesus
• 27:51
  Christ.
• 27:53
  And may we have
• 27:54
  that longing
• 27:55
  and that desire
• 27:56
  to grow
• 27:57
  in our love
• 27:58
  that it may abound
• 28:00
  more and more
• 28:01
  and the knowledge
• 28:02
  and discernment
• 28:03
  of all of God's word
• 28:05
  and all of his truth
• 28:06
  to us
• 28:07
  that we would live
• 28:09
  by it.
• 28:11
  The writer
• 28:12
  Aidan W. Tozer
• 28:14
  A. W. Tozer
• 28:15
  as he is more
• 28:15
  commonly known
• 28:16
  he speaks of
• 28:17
  God's people
• 28:19
  as the Bible
• 28:20
  describes them
• 28:21
  as those who are
• 28:22
  crucified with Christ.
• 28:25
  Those who have
• 28:26
  come to believe
• 28:27
  in the Lord
• 28:28
  with all their heart
• 28:29
  and he says
• 28:30
  they have three
• 28:31
  distinct marks.
• 28:35
  And this is what he says
• 28:36
  of the Christian.
• 28:38
  He says the first one
• 28:39
  is this
• 28:40
  they are facing
• 28:41
  only one direction.
• 28:43
  they are fixed
• 28:46
  on Jesus.
• 28:49
  Then he says
• 28:50
  number two
• 28:52
  is
• 28:52
  they can never
• 28:54
  turn back.
• 28:56
  Again that ties in
• 28:57
  with what we have
• 28:58
  in verse six.
• 28:59
  He who has begun
• 29:00
  a good work
• 29:01
  will bring it
• 29:02
  to completion.
• 29:04
  They can never
• 29:05
  turn back.
• 29:07
  And then the third
• 29:08
  thing he says
• 29:09
  is this
• 29:10
  they no longer
• 29:11
  have plans
• 29:13
  of their own.
• 29:16
  How many of us
• 29:17
  have been living
• 29:18
  our lives
• 29:19
  making all
• 29:20
  our own plans
• 29:21
  thinking we've
• 29:23
  got it all
• 29:24
  sorted out.
• 29:25
  This is what
• 29:25
  we're going to do
• 29:26
  and when
• 29:27
  but the Lord
• 29:27
  reminds us
• 29:28
  that's not
• 29:29
  how it works.
• 29:31
  Now we have to
• 29:32
  come to the point
• 29:33
  where we just
• 29:33
  submit ourselves
• 29:34
  into the will
• 29:36
  of God
• 29:37
  so it's no longer
• 29:39
  our plans
• 29:41
  that matter
• 29:42
  but the plans
• 29:43
  that God
• 29:45
  has for us
• 29:46
  and to do
• 29:48
  his will
• 29:49
  remembering
• 29:51
  how he
• 29:52
  fulfilled
• 29:53
  the will
• 29:54
  of the Father
• 29:55
  not my will
• 29:56
  but yours
• 29:58
  be done
• 29:59
  he said.
• 30:00
  So these three
• 30:02
  marks
• 30:02
  they are facing
• 30:04
  only one direction
• 30:05
  they can never
• 30:07
  turn back
• 30:08
  and they no longer
• 30:10
  have plans
• 30:11
  of their own.
• 30:14
  As we prepare
• 30:15
  our hearts
• 30:15
  as we look
• 30:17
  at this letter
• 30:18
  of Paul
• 30:19
  to the Philippines
• 30:20
  it's a very
• 30:21
  personal
• 30:22
  it's a very
• 30:23
  intimate letter
• 30:24
  but it's not
• 30:25
  just for them
• 30:26
  it's God's word
• 30:28
  to you
• 30:29
  and to me
• 30:30
  as well
• 30:30
  to help us
• 30:32
  prepare our hearts
• 30:33
  to give us
• 30:35
  a sense
• 30:36
  of thankfulness
• 30:37
  to give us
• 30:38
  a sense
• 30:39
  of confidence
• 30:40
  in him
• 30:41
  and to give us
• 30:42
  that desire
• 30:43
  to grow
• 30:44
  in our knowledge
• 30:46
  and love
• 30:47
  of him
• 30:48
  and one another.
• 30:51
  So may the Lord
• 30:51
  help us
• 30:52
  prepare our hearts
• 30:54
  and fill us
• 30:55
  with thankfulness
• 30:56
  and praise
• 30:57
  and it all be
• 30:59
  to his glory.
• 31:01
  we're going
• 31:03
  to conclude
• 31:04
  by singing
• 31:05
  to God's praise
• 31:07
  in Psalm 13