Growth in Christ

Well, sometimes a road that seems very promising can turn out to take you where you never wanted to go. I experienced this back in December. Some of you may remember this. I was traveling to Louisville for a seminary class. And unfortunately, the Sunday that I was leaving to drive there was also the Sunday we had that big snowstorm. And so I drove through the snowstorm. And it was much worse than expected, probably the worst driving experience of my life. And after about five or six hours, I had finally made it into West Virginia, and I needed gas, and I found an exit, and I pull off, and I fill up the tank, and I'm kind of preparing myself to get back on the road. And I just took the exit. I know I just got to go back this way, and surely I'll make it back on the road going where I need to go. Well, I get out of the gas station. I'm driving along. And it seems to be taking longer than expected. And I've not seen any, you know, right-hand exit. Well, eventually, to my horror, I find out that I am on a one-way, half-mile-long entrance ramp to get on 64 East, going back to Charlottesville. And so this was a very troubling thing because I could only go about 20 miles per hour. And I'm thinking, where is the next exit? In fact, I found one and almost got stuck. And it's a long story from there. But I share that because the reality is the Christian life can be like that. You know, we as Christians, we want to grow, we want to progress, we have somewhere we're trying to get to. But there's always the danger that in our effort to grow, we can start down a path that leads in a very dangerous direction. And this seems to be exactly the Apostle Paul's concern for the Philippians. He's writing this letter to them, he loves them, he wants them to grow, he knows that they want to grow, but he also knows that there will be those who will come along and try to help them grow by pointing them in the wrong direction. So look again at verses one and two of chapter three in the book of Philippians. Paul says, finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. Now Paul is speaking here about false teachers, men whom he describes as dogs, evildoers, and mutilators of the flesh. And as you hear this, it sort of conjures up the image of a ravenous wolf with fangs and claws that's just ready to rip and destroy. And so maybe if you're trying to picture who these men would be, you know, have a picture in your mind, you might picture something like a criminal or a gangster or, you know, someone with obscene tattoos and wild hair. That's not at all the kind of man that Paul has in mind. I mean, if you were to picture who these men would be, I think a much better picture would be someone dressed in a suit and tie, someone well-groomed, someone with that million-dollar smile, someone who's charming, who's always polite, who's smooth with his words, who's hardworking, who's well-read, who's cultured, I mean, it would be an eminently religious man who prays and gives and goes to church. And he'd be someone who is just eager to help you in your faith. You see, the man that Paul is describing here is a ravenous wolf, but it's one dressed in sheep's clothing. He's describing men who have the appearance of godliness, but deny its power. And in this particular case, Paul is warning the Philippians of men that we now call Judaizers. Or elsewhere in the New Testament, these men are called members of the circumcision party. Because they were Jews who had become Christians, or at least professed to be, and they were telling Gentile Christians that in order to be a true Christian, They had to keep part or all of the Old Testament law, especially the command to be circumcised. And we know that that's who Paul is talking about because he calls them mutilators of the flesh. And that's Paul's pejorative way of referring to the circumcision party. And that's why he says in verse three, no, for we are the circumcision. Now it's important to understand that the problem with the Judaizers went far deeper than confusion over what obedience to God looked like. This problem was not parallel to the way that Baptists and Presbyterians today have a disagreement about baptism. And we disagree over who should be baptized, and when they should be baptized, and how they should be baptized. And because we all want to obey God, and it's a question of just, okay, what does obedience look like? The difference is the Judaizers weren't just saying that one needs to be circumcised to be an obedient Christian. They were ultimately saying one needs to be circumcised in order to become a Christian and to be justified before God. In other words, they were saying that Christ alone is not enough before God, that we need Christ plus works. And so what they were doing is exchanging the glorious gospel of the grace of God in Christ for a man-made religion of salvation by human effort. And as a result, they were looking upon genuine Gentile believers who had put their faith in Christ, and they were viewing them as unclean outsiders, men whom Jews called dogs, while assuming that their own fleshly circumcision gave them privileged standing before God. And in so doing, they were leading or attempting to lead Gentile Christians away from Christ and toward works-based salvation through circumcision and Old Testament law-keeping. And the Apostle Paul recognizes this for what it is, a complete denial of the gospel of Christ and a pathway to hell. And so that's why Paul unmasks these men as dogs. He's saying they are the unclean ones before God. It's why he unmasks them as evildoers, saying, look, they are clean on the outside, like a whitewashed tomb, but inside they are full of dead men's bones. And why he calls them mutilators of the flesh, because they have perverted the sacred Old Testament rite of circumcision into mutilation that condemns to hell. And it's why Paul begins, he says, finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord, rejoice in his grace, and do not be lured away into the Judaizing doctrine that leads to bondage, envy, and misery. But you know, Paul felt the need to warn them of this. Something he'd warned them before. He feels the need to warn them repeatedly because there's something appealing about the Judaizers message. It's poison, but it's poison that tastes good. And there's something about it that resonates with us and seems plausible. There's something about it that appeals to the Christian who wants to grow and progress and to be more serious about his or her faith. And there's something about it that appeals to the person who wants to feel assured before God. You know, to try to illustrate this, I'll mention earlier this week I was talking with a couple friends. And we were talking about assurance before God, and I said, well, imagine you left the United States, and you went to a foreign country, and then you're coming back. And I remember the first time, it's sort of, you've got all these government officials, they interview you, and you feel that little sense of nervousness, are they gonna let me in? And so what do I do when I'm standing in the line? Well, I kind of reach in my pocket to double, triple, quadruple check, I've got my passport. Because that passport gives me confidence, it gives me assurance that I am going to be allowed in. And you know, in a parallel way, we as Christians, we understand that the day is coming when God will judge the world. And he will either welcome us into his everlasting kingdom or he will thrust us out into everlasting destruction. And we want confidence, we want assurance, we want to know what is it that I can cling to that can make me feel assured that God is going to let me in. And you see what the Judaizing doctrine is doing, is it's offering a little passport, saying just get circumcised. Or it could be just get baptized. Or it could be any other thing of just do this, just do that, so that something that you have done, you can reach in your pocket, you can feel and say, okay, I'm gonna get in because I've got this. Or, you know, to give another reason that the Judaizing doctrine is attractive, you know, I think back of when I was in school and a big test was coming up. And, you know, oftentimes I maybe didn't, I hadn't done all the reading, I didn't feel very prepared. But what I would do is, you know, the day before, I'd talk to classmates. And I say, so did you do that study guide? What did you think of the homework? Did it seem hard to you? And I kinda wanna feel out where they're at because I know that even if I'm not super prepared, as long as I'm sort of more prepared than they are, I'll be okay. Because the teacher's gonna have to grade on a curve after all. We know in the same way, we turn to that before God. And we want something, we can look at other Christians and think, well, I might not be doing good enough, but you know, I think I'm ahead of them. And you see, that's what the Judaizing doctrine does. It offers something extra, something more, something that you can do to try to outdo another person and you can look at them and feel like, okay, I am gonna be okay. But of course the great problem with the Judaizer's doctrine is that it brings about the exact opposite of what it promises. It holds out the hope of assurance, but it leads to fear. It promises freedom and spiritual progress, but it leads to bondage to sin. And it promises life. but it leads to death and to condemnation because it takes us away from the one and the only one who can give us real freedom and life and confidence before God, and that is Christ and Christ alone. But you know, friends, this is something that we need to beware of because Judaizing doctrine comes in many forms. I mean, it's not like there are many Judaizers today in the sense of Jews who infiltrate churches to try to get us to be circumcised and keep the Old Testament law. But there are Judaizers at heart everywhere, because the heart of Judaizing is self-righteousness and legalism. And I don't just mean self-righteousness in the sense of being stuck up and thinking you're better than everybody else. I mean self-righteousness in the sense of thinking that something you do contributes to your justification before God. I mean, have you noticed that every other religion, at least that I'm aware of, in the world, except for biblical Christianity, has some form of self-righteousness at the heart of it? I mean, think of Islam, right? How do you go to heaven? Well, you follow the five pillars, and your right hand needs to outweigh your left hand. Buddhism, you attain salvation or nirvana by following the eightfold path. Hinduism, you attain salvation through either the way of works, the way of knowledge, or the way of devotion. Rabbinic Judaism, salvation comes through walking in repentance and keeping the law. It is only Christianity that says salvation does not come through what we do for God, through what we attain, but it comes through what God has done for us. And yet even within Christianity, self-righteousness so often rears its head. This was the great issue of the Reformation, when men like Martin Luther and John Calvin recognized this leaven of the Judaizers in the Roman Catholic Church. They saw salvation being sold through indulgences. They saw forgiveness being earned through penance. And they saw the outward act of baptism being used as a means to confer justification before God. And to this very day, the Roman Catholic Church explicitly teaches that justification before God is based on faith plus works, exactly like the Judaizers Paul is speaking about here. And yet even closer to home, this self-righteousness so often creeps up in our own hearts as well. Because it is not just a matter of what we do on the outside. It is fundamentally a matter of the heart. And we can take good things, even the best of things, like praying and reading the Bible and going to church and being kind, and those very things can actually lead us away from Christ if we begin to rely on them as the basis of our acceptance before God. And so in other words, our efforts to grow and progress as Christians can actually turn out to be a U-turn leading in the wrong direction. And that is Paul's great concern here in Philippians chapter three. That is what he wants to warn us against. And so what he does, the rest of this chapter, for the Philippians and for us, is show us how to grow in Christ the right way. And he uses himself as an example. And through his example, we are going to find three crucial things we must do in order to grow in Christ. And the first is this, grow in Christ by putting no confidence in the flesh. grow in Christ by putting no confidence in the flesh. Look at verse three. Paul says, for we are the circumcision. That is, we who believe in Christ are the true people of God, who worship by the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. Now when Paul speaks here of flesh, He means who we are apart from Christ and all that we do by our own efforts. And he's saying that the Christian life from beginning to end is lived by forsaking confidence in the flesh. Christians don't rely on the flesh for justification before God. We glory in Christ Jesus. He alone is our righteousness and the basis of our confidence before God. And Christians don't rely on the flesh for sanctification. We worship by the Spirit of God. That is, our worship is enabled and empowered by God himself. We don't begin in the Spirit and then try to become perfected by the flesh. No, we receive the Spirit by hearing with faith, and we grow by walking in the power of the Spirit we've received. But just in case any would insinuate that Paul only claims that we should put no confidence in the flesh because of his own fleshly inadequacies, Paul continues. Verses four through six, he says, though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. What Paul is saying is that if there is anyone who could possibly have confidence before God based on the flesh, it's him. If there is anyone who could possibly progress spiritually through human effort, it's him. Look at his pedigree. He was born into the one nation that actually was God's special people. He was circumcised on the eighth day according to the law. He was a pure-blooded, pure-tongued Hebrew of Hebrews. Look at his knowledge. He was a Pharisee, a member of the strictest sect of Judaism. His teacher was the famous Gamaliel. He had memorized the Old Testament from his childhood. He was an expert in the law of God. Look at his zeal. He was a persecutor of the church. He was one who outworked all of his contemporaries. He says in Galatians 1, verse 14, I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people. I think that's Paul's humble way of saying he was first. And he says, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. And look at his righteousness. He says, as to righteousness under the law, I was blameless. Paul was more scrupulous in his law keeping than any, even among the Pharisees. He was tenaciously devoted to obeying the law of God, so much so that in the eyes of man, he was blameless. Now friends, let's put this into perspective. What might the modern day Paul look like? Well, imagine a man who was born in the church. His dad's a pastor, his granddad's a pastor, his great-granddad's a pastor, and his great-great-great-granddad is Charles Spurgeon. This is a man who was homeschooled, who won the Bible Bee every single year. And then he got his PhD from Harvard. This is a guy who never got into any trouble his whole life. He was impeccably diligent and law-abiding. And not only that, but this guy is the most zealous religious person you have ever met. He prays hours a day. He studies the scriptures. He boldly preaches to others. He endures whatever insults come. He is so zealous. In fact, he goes on mission trips to dangerous places, risking his life. And you see, from the perspective of the flesh, Paul had it all. I mean, he's that spiritually intimidating kind of person before whom we'd all be tempted to just wilt. And so if anyone could have confidence before God or progress spiritually according to the flesh, it's Paul. And in fact, for a long time, Paul had that confidence. I mean, he really thought his law keeping could save him. His personal righteousness was gained to him. It was treasure to him. But then, As Paul recounts in Romans chapter seven, there was this one command in the law that came. You shall not covet. And that command came and it was like all sorts of covetous desire just started oozing out of him. And no matter how hard he tried, it was the command he just couldn't keep. And he found that the commandment which promised to bring life, sent shivers of death down his spine, because Paul knew that the law which said the one who does them shall live by them, also says, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law to do them. You see, the way to God by self-righteousness, it's like a journey. where you start off with a burden that's easy and light, but with every step you take, that burden gets a little bit heavier, and it gets heavier, and it gets heavier until it becomes a crushing weight that utterly crushes you. You see, when you put confidence in the flesh, you have your good days, and you feel good. You have your bad days where you feel low. But then the closer you get to God, the more clearly you see that even the best of days just isn't good enough. And a journey that starts off with the bright sunshine of hope begins to be clouded over with dark clouds of guilt and shame and fear. And that's how it was for Paul. In fact, it seems that his guilt and fear drove him to incredible lengths to do whatever he could to try to earn righteous standing before God. In fact, he was persecuting followers of the way, Christians who he thought were heretics. And he with great zeal is trying to hunt them down. And while he is going on the road to Damascus, it is then that he meets Jesus Christ. And it was then that he came to see that the very one he had been opposing and persecuting was actually the one who had borne his unbearable burden on the cross. And he came to realize he no longer needed a righteousness of his own that comes from the law. Because Christ had provided righteousness for him. And look at how Paul describes this experience in verse seven through nine. Paul, after describing the gain and the treasure he used to place in his own righteousness, he says this, but whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. You see, Paul met Christ, and then he looked at all his self-righteousness, all his fleshly status and achievements, all he had once treasured and hoped in, and he says, what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss and rubbish, that is, dung, for Christ. In fact, he looks back at those things and he flings them aside as nothing but an obstacle. The very things he thought were bringing him to God were nothing but rocks and rubble, keeping him from Christ. So he throws it aside. He counts it as loss. He counts it as nothing and less than nothing. And he says, I no longer need a righteousness of my own that comes through the law, because I have the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. Oh, friends, you see, Christ is our substitute. He died on the cross for us, for our sins, to pay the price so that our sins are gone and he lived a perfect life as our substitute so that we might receive his perfect righteousness. And that means there's nothing left for us to earn. There's no condemnation for us to dread. Listen to how John Bunyan explains coming to this realization in his own life. This is the author of Pilgrim's Progress. In his autobiography, he says, one day, as I was passing into the field, this sentence fell upon my soul. Thy righteousness is in heaven. And with the eyes of my soul, I saw Jesus at the Father's right hand. There, I said, is my righteousness. so that whatever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say to me, where is your righteousness? For it is always right before him. I saw that it is not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse. For my righteousness is Christ. Now my chains fell off indeed, my temptations fled away, and I lived sweetly at peace with God. Now I could look from myself to him and could reckon that all my character was like the coins a rich man carries in his pocket when all his gold is safe in a trunk at home. Oh, I saw that my gold was indeed in a trunk at home, in Christ my Lord. Now Christ was all, my righteousness, sanctification and redemption. And so friend, if you're here this morning and you don't know Christ, this righteousness is available for you. And so whatever self-righteousness you think you have, whatever confidence in the flesh you possess, count it as loss for Christ that you may gain him and be found in him, clothed with his righteousness forever. And believer, Christ is your righteousness. You are clothed with his righteousness by faith. the righteousness that you have, not a righteousness of your own that comes through the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. So rejoice in the Lord, not in your performance, and grow as a Christian by worshiping God in the spirit, glorying in Christ Jesus, and putting no confidence in the flesh, either now or ever. Now secondly, grow in Christ by treasuring Christ supremely. You see, the fruit of putting your confidence in Christ, rather than in your flesh, is love for Christ and treasuring of Christ. You see, it's not that we just love and treasure the benefits Christ gives us. But through the gospel, through realizing that this one who has saved you is the one who has loved you from before the foundation of the world, the one who is altogether righteous, altogether pure, altogether gracious, altogether loving and kind and wise and powerful. It is through this gospel that you see the glory and the wonder and the beauty of Christ himself. And you treasure him and you cherish him and you love him. Look again at verses seven and eight where Paul describes this. He says, but whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. Paul does not just treasure Christ as a ticket to heaven or the key to a better life. He treasures the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord. In fact, he loves and treasures Christ so much that not only does he count his self-righteousness as loss, he says he counts everything as loss for Christ. He says in verse eight, yet indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, and for his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. In other words, all things, they're not only less than Christ, they are as nothing and less than nothing by comparison. And friends, what might these all things be that Paul lost for Christ? Well, he lost his position among the Pharisees. He lost his social status. He lost the very things that he formerly would have clung to for his sense of identity, for his sense of worth and importance before others. He may well have lost family relationships, and he certainly lost many close friends. He lost comforts, he lost health, he lost wealth, he lost respect and social position. And yet, Paul gladly exchanges these things for Christ as if they were nothing. And he is receiving everything. In fact, this transvaluation extends so far that look at what Paul includes as gain in verses 10 to 11. He says, I've suffered the loss of all things, verse 10, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. In other words, the treasure of knowing Christ so transforms Paul's value system, that he looks at all the things of the world that he once treasured, he says they're lost and they're rubbish, and then he looks at suffering, and he says, and that's gain. Because suffering brings me closer to Christ. Because it's through suffering that Paul dies to sin, he dies to self, and he's purified to live for God. And it's in the midst of suffering that Paul found communion with his Lord the sweetest, because his Lord had suffered for him. And Paul also knows that one day he will be raised up to live with Christ forever, but he knows that the path leads through suffering. So he gladly walks along it. In other words, Paul treasures Christ so much that he counts everything else as either gain or loss in proportion to whether it brings him nearer or further from Christ. And if suffering brings him closer to Christ, then Paul can say with the hymn writer, nearer my God to thee, nearer to thee, even though it be a cross that raiseth me. And so brethren, what about us? Do we treasure Christ like that? If we want to grow as Christians, that is how it's going to happen. Christian growth doesn't come through imbibing the doctrine of the Judaizers. It doesn't come through fleshly effort. And it doesn't come by comparing ourselves to others and trying to impress people with our spirituality. Christian growth happens when we abide in Christ and the confidence before God, which he gives us. And as we do that, we see that he is altogether loving, that he is altogether gracious, that he is altogether satisfying. We see the wonder and the glory and the beauty of Jesus, and we treasure him more and more. And the more we treasure Christ, the more we count gain, whatever would bring us closer to him, and the more we count loss, whatever keeps us from him. Friends, that's how we grow as Christians. And thirdly, and finally, Paul shows us here that we grow in Christ by pressing on toward the goal. Now we've seen that we don't grow in Christ through the flesh. and that we already have a perfectly righteous standing before God. But that doesn't mean there's nothing left for us to strive for, and it doesn't mean that God's work within us is complete. Paul says in verse 12, not that I have already obtained this, or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. So what is the this that Paul says he is pressing on for? I mean, if he already has confidence and knows he's justified before God, what is he seeking? Well, I think it refers back to verse 10, where Paul says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. And so what Paul's saying is that his knowledge of Christ is not perfect. His experience of the power of the resurrection to transform his life is incomplete, and that him becoming like Christ in his death, being dead to sin, is not yet done. In other words, Paul is saying, God is not yet, is not done sanctifying me. I haven't arrived. And friends, if God wasn't done sanctifying Paul, he is certainly not done sanctifying you or I either. And you see the moment we believe we are justified before God and we are just as justified as we ever will be even on the day of glory. But sanctification is a process that begins the moment you believe and will not be complete until your body is resurrected on the last day. And moreover, sanctification is something we're called to strive for and press on toward. You see, justification we receive by faith alone, not works. But sanctification is something we do work for. Not with fleshly effort, but with the strength that God provides. As Paul just told the Philippians in chapter two, verses 12 and 13, he says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Don't work for it, but now that God's given you salvation, work it out in your life, be sanctified. And then he says, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Don't work it out according to the flesh, it's by the power of God. And then here in verse 12, Paul says, I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. And look at the way Paul says he pursues sanctification, verses 13 and 14. He says, Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do. forgetting what lies behind, and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. He says he forgets what lies behind and strains forward to what lies ahead. Now this forgetting, what does it mean? Well, it doesn't mean that Paul forgot the past. In fact, Paul was very careful to remember the work of God in his life so that he could thank God for it. And it certainly doesn't mean he forgot the past in the sense of forgetting what Christ had done for him on the cross. We are to remember that. In fact, at the end of this service, we will partake of the Lord's Supper to obey Christ by remembering what he has done for us. This forgetting also doesn't mean that Paul forgot his past sins and failures. You know, Paul's not teaching that the way that we assuage guilt and, you know, is that we just forget about our sins. No, Paul found freedom from guilt by remembering that Christ paid for his sins on the cross. In fact, Paul elsewhere remembers his sins for the purpose of thanking God for his mercy. The kind of forgetting Paul's talking about here has to do with forgetting his own past accomplishments. and the temptation to find satisfaction or contentment in them. You see, the time following spiritual triumph is actually a dangerous time for a Christian. There is the danger of becoming satisfied with your spiritual progress. You remember in Pilgrim's Progress, after Christian makes it through the narrow gate and past the cross, he goes up this big mountain. And he seems to be making great time, and he gets up and he sees a rest spot, and so he sits down to just enjoy the view. And then what happens? Well, he falls asleep. And then he wakes up, and he slept longer than he expected, and he rushes off, and later he realizes he has left his certificate behind. And I think the basic point that Paul is making here is this. Keep progressing. Don't lose your spiritual fervor. Press on toward the goal. Don't think that you've just sort of arrived and that now you can just sort of coast. Even when things seem easy in the Christian life, press on. Don't be content to have little sins in your life. Don't slide into spiritual sleep and laziness. But finish the race. Press on toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ. God has called you to be conformed to the image of his son. Let that be your desire. Let that be your goal. Keep pressing on. In other words, don't let maturity breed slothfulness, but let it bring about vigilance and zeal. And as Paul says in verse 15, he says, let those of us who are mature think this way. And if in anything you think otherwise, that is in whatever areas you need correction, God will reveal that also to you. And then finally in verse 16, he kind of brings us full circle. And he says, only let us hold true to what we have attained. In other words, we are to be pressing on toward the goal, we are to be striving to run the race, striving for maturity. But do it holding true to what you have attained. Don't let go of Christ to try to grow as a Christian. Don't think that having begun in the spirit, you're going to be perfected in the flesh. No, abide in Christ. Put no confidence in the flesh. Treasure Christ supremely. And with your eyes fixed firmly on him, finish the race, pressing on toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ. May God give us grace to do so. Amen. Let's pray.