The Peace of Christ

I want to start by communicating my gratitude once again to this church as supported missionaries of Jefferson Park. It's been a great gift for Megan and I and our kids to be a part of this body the last year. And as I mentioned, when we first started working through Philippians last spring, I chose this book to preach through because it's written from a supported missionary to a supporting church. It's a thank-you letter written from the Apostle Paul to the Philippian church who had sent money to him through Epaphroditus. He was in prison and would have had to provide for his own needs. They sent him money at just the right time. He needed this church to step up and they did. But Paul doesn't waste an opportunity just to write a thank you letter. He adds what is one of the most wonderful descriptions of the Christian life that we have anywhere. So that's what we've been studying. Last week we looked at this soaring description of sanctification as a race that is to be run. So our country and our king did not send us 5,000 miles to start the race, but to finish. the race. This week we continue to unpack this thing called sanctification in a series of commands that the apostle gives us. So nine verses, 10 commands. This is a chock full passage for us. Things that we're supposed to memorize and fix in our minds. Things that we're supposed to take action on. And they're all grouped under this heading of standing firm. Maybe you can see that there in verse one. Stand firm thus in the Lord. I mentioned last week that Paul loves metaphors, and he's not shy about using the running the race metaphor one week, and this week, we're switching gears, we're switching metaphors, we're thinking about a military metaphor of standing firm. That's what's in view here, you may notice there, he talks about the peace of God guarding our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, that's also a military term. And this is one of Paul's favorite images of the Christian life, really. In the book of Ephesians, he concludes that great book by talking about the armor of God and talking about the schemes of the devil that are going to attack us as believers and we have to stand firm. We have to stand our ground. There's a place like 2 Corinthians 10 where he says that the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. He wants you and I to think about the Christian life like a soldier standing their ground and having the enemy pressing upon us, charging us. So how do you and I stand firm in this great cosmic battle between good and evil, between God and Satan? How do we face down the spiritual forces of evil which are in rebellion against God, the kingdom of God and his people? What do we do when we're attacked by the world, the flesh, and the devil? How do we stand firm? Now I'm not much of a military historian, but I was doing some reading recently about the Battle of Gettysburg and the Civil War up at a small town in Pennsylvania. Much of that battle was a game of tactical maneuvering where the the Union Army was trying to maintain their line against these southern generals that were just looking for any way to divide the Union forces, to flank them, to get around them. As a company of soldiers, if you can keep the enemy in front of you, if you can keep your line together, if everybody's shooting the same direction, you can generally hold out. But as soon as you're facing an enemy this way and this way or this way, you really have no choice but to retreat, but to fall back. There's a great scene in the movie Gettysburg where they dramatize the Union regiment led by Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and his troops taking their stand on Little Round Top, this kind of low rise there outside of Gettysburg. He wants to impress upon his troops the fact that they can't retreat. So what he says to them, if you look to your left, and he points to trees out this way, if he says, if you look to your left, you will see that there's no one there. That's because we are the end of the line. The Union Army stops here. We are the flank. Do you understand, gentlemen, we cannot retreat. We cannot withdraw. We are gonna have to be stubborn today. It's a great scene. They had to stand firm. And that's the task for you and I this morning as we come to this text. That's the message to us. Stand firm. We cannot retreat. We cannot withdraw. But how do we do it? If you're taking notes, the main idea of our text today is that we stand firm by pursuing unity, godliness, and discernment. stand firm by pursuing unity, godliness, and discernment. And that'll form our outline for our time in Philippians 4, 1 through 9. I encourage you to follow along as you're and your copy of God's word as we work through the text. So first, let's think about pursue unity. That's number one, pursue unity. I'll read verses one through three again. Therefore, my brothers whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life. Therefore, the start there connects back to the citizenship that we have in heaven that motivates us to run the race of this Christian life. And notice here in verse one how much Paul wants to underline his love for these believers in Philippi. He calls them brothers, that affectionate way that Christians should talk to one another, brothers and sisters. We are in the same family because of our adoption into God's family. He says he loves them, he longs for them, they are his joy and his crown, for Paul to live as Christ. And so these people who are the fruit of his ministry are that which crowns his life. There's nothing more important to him. And then he says it one more time there, my beloved. Now have you ever had someone start to say some really kind things to you? And you wonder to yourself, I wonder if something challenging is coming next. That's sort of what we have going on here. I mean, Paul really does love them dearly and deeply. They're not likely to doubt his sincerity. But look at what happens next. It's quite striking. He's gonna call out, by name, two church members in Philippi. What would that be like, even thinking about it in a sermon right now? I'm not gonna do it. As I look around, and I even pick people to use as an illustration, that would be embarrassing. Actually, nobody names their kids Euodia or Syntyche anymore. I mean, this is quite striking. I couldn't find another place in the New Testament where Paul called out church members. rebuking them publicly. They haven't left the faith. This is not Demas who loved the world and left or Alexander the metal worker who did Paul a great deal of harm. These are sisters that are in the church. Why is he willing to do this very public thing? I think, number one, that it means we should really pay attention. This is so important. It surely teaches us how important it is that you and I work to preserve the unity of the church. Every church goes through conflict, right? I mean, if you think that this church doesn't have conflict, it just means you're new. Sorry to tell you that, but stick around. Christians are sinners. They're repentant sinners, yes. growing in holiness, being conformed to the likeness of Christ. We still struggle with indwelling sin, so we struggle with each other. Conflict is a reality for us. It's a reality in other relationships, in the marriage relationship. children, with your siblings, with your classmates. I mean, conflict is a part of our lives and all our different relationships. But what we have here is practical help for resolving conflict. So I want to think about four things that this text tells us to do when we are in conflict. Four things. Number one, take responsibility for your side. Take responsibility for your side. He says, I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche. I wonder if the repetition there kind of stands out to you. It's very emphatic. But by not saying, I entreat Euodia and Syntyche, by saying one by one, it's like he's getting each woman's attention and saying, I want you to think about your side of this. Paul isn't taking sides here. Now, he surely knows more about the conflict than you and I do. We don't know what this was about. Epaphroditus has come to him, so he would have had more details. But he doesn't get in on them. He doesn't zero in on who might be at fault, who might have started this particular problem. We don't even know what it's about. But he's clear that each of them needs to focus on their part of it. And that's exactly what you and I don't want to do in any conflict. You know, when we're in conflict, we have 20-20 vision about the problem of the other person, about what they did. We can see that so clearly. And we acknowledge that we're not perfect, right? But we don't tend to see our own stuff quite that clearly. I was thinking about the fact that in marriage counseling, if you can get fighting spouses to agree that they are 10% of the problem. This is a strategy I use. Are you willing to admit in this conflict that 10% of the problem is yours? It takes a pretty hard heart not to be willing to do that, right? But if you're willing to see that you're even 10% part of the problem, there's hope. Because now you can work on what you need to work on. And if you can get two people doing that, progress can be made. So that's number one, we need to take responsibility for our side. Second notice here that we need to agree in the Lord. Once I'm in the position of being willing to take responsibility for my side, what next? Well, again, it's instructive here that the lens still doesn't focus on the issue. but on the unity that these women are supposed to be able to achieve and reach for in Christ. Literally the Greek here says that he's entreating them to be of the same mind in the Lord. Now I think this would have been pretty unsatisfying to Euodia and Syntyche at first listen to because he doesn't sort out the problem for them. He doesn't help them figure out what the particular thing is at hand. What does he do? It's like he moves from the lesser to the greater, or the lower to the higher, taking them up to a place where they can find agreement, which is in their relationship in the Lord. Let's say that they're disagreeing over who should have leadership over the orphan ministry in the church. Let's just suppose it's that. It's an important issue. It needs to be resolved. Paul doesn't tell him how to resolve it. But he says, think about all the things that you actually do agree upon in the Lord. You agree that the ministry is important. You agree that the gospel needs to continue to go forward. You agree that the reputation and the honor and the witness for Christ is important. And sisters, you even agree that your friendship is a precious enough thing to be restored in Christ. So he moves them up to that level where like-mindedness is achievable. If you think about it, that's what makes having a gospel church possible in the first place. That's what makes what we're doing here possible. We're not here because we agree on the same politics, or we have the same background, or we share the same hobbies. We're not even here because the music, the way it's done, the song selection, the style is just the way we would like it. I'm sure we don't even agree on exactly how the schedule should be run, how the building, what money should be spent on it from the budget. There are a thousand things that we don't have perfect agreement on. But the most important things understanding the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that there is a way for sinners to be made right with the Holy God through what Jesus did on the cross, and then the adoption that makes us one family, all those important things are what we agree on. We agree in the Lord. Should this affect the way we do congregational meetings? Have you ever been to a congregational meeting where it seems like the church has lost sight of this? I have. So agree in the Lord, that's second. A third thing that we can do in conflict is to get help, get help. Actually, literally here, it's to be the help. Paul asks someone unnamed, who he calls true companion, to help these women. Commentators make lots of guesses of who this was. Could have been Lydia, the one who helped start the church in Philippi. Could be one of the pastors of the church. Could be that he's referring to the whole church as his true companion. I'm not sure, but what's helpful is to see again that the conflict isn't a private matter. The church is mobilized here, not to turn a blind eye to the conflict, not to let division fester. So I think two things at once here for us. As church members, when we see conflict, we're deputized to lovingly step in and say, are you and so-and-so having conflict? Is there something that I can do to help? Can I encourage you as far as it is possible with you to live at peace with this person? And on the other side, if someone's trying to help you, receive it in the spirit of someone who cares. These women were going to have to be humble enough to receive help. I think one of the ways that we need help sometimes is just to figure out if we're in a situation where we just need to forgive and forget, or we need to bear with the person, or whether we need to actually go and have a conversation. Pulling in someone, not to gossip, but to get help in knowing, is this something where I should pursue it further? Get help, number three, and then fourth, remember the gospel. Look at what he says here. Help these women who have labored side by side with me in the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life. Paul isn't throwing around nice sounding phrases here. He's asking everybody involved to consider what really matters. Having your name written in the book is a way to refer to salvation, those who will finally be saved. You know, it might seem odd that these people who have been co-laborers in the gospel might forget the gospel, but when we're in conflict, oftentimes, we can't see the forest for the trees. We can only see the thing that we're focusing on. So, we see how important unity is here. Take responsibility for your part. pursue agreement in the Lord, get help when needed, and focus on the gospel. I think it's so important for us to notice that Paul was willing to name names. Whatever embarrassment might have initially been there is worth it so that the Philippian church can return to striving as one person for the faith of the gospel. And it's important for us. So let me just ask you, who do you need to resolve conflict with this morning? I think one more thing that's worth saying here before we move on. In churches like ours that rightly hold to a vision of complementarianism in the church, which is as Paul writes other places, the office of elder pastor in the church is reserved for men. That's clearly taught in scripture. That does not mean, notice here, that women are in any way sidelined in the ministry. Do you see what Paul called these women here? He called them fellow laborers. They have labored side by side with him. And so our vision of ministry should be one in which we're all laboring together. I mean, Lydia was the prime mover in getting this church started, as we see in Acts chapter 16. Yodi and Syntyche are part of the effort. They didn't need the title of elder to be integral to what was happening. So sisters, I hope that the class that we had this past fall from Titus 2 was an encouragement to you. We hope that evangelism and discipleship is going to be flourishing among the women of this church and that we can do this in a unified sort of way. But our first point here, Pursuing unity is the first essential to standing firm. Let's consider a second pursuit, and that's pursue godliness. Pick it up in verse four. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Well, what we have here is really a series of commands. The pace is picking up here. Begins with the command to rejoice in the Lord. Joy is the most consistent theme of the book of Philippians. We noticed previously that it's so striking for the epistle of joy to be written from prison to a group of people that were under persecution. That single word always there has real meaning, rejoice always. When the power goes out, yes. When people don't follow through on commitments, yes. When we're sick, Yes. Always means always. And then he repeats himself again for emphasis. Again, I will say rejoice. The Department of Redundancy department. No, this needs repeating. Rejoice always. Now, why would joy be a command? I think you and I are often likely to view joy more as a byproduct of good life circumstances, or maybe as a temperament that some people have. But joy is a consistent biblical command. So it must be something that we can choose, rather than being a byproduct of life circumstances. It's something we can do. So what does it mean for you and I to rejoice in the Lord? Well, maybe we should say what it isn't first, what it doesn't mean. This isn't a pasted-on kind of superficial demeanor, where we're smiling in spite of what's happening around us. It's not where we're denying real problems. In a few verses earlier, Paul was weeping as he thought about enemies of the cross of Christ. He describes himself elsewhere as being sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. So this is realistic joy, but I think that little prepositional phrase, in the Lord, is key. Our relationship with the Lord paves the way for us being able to pinpoint blessings that are there even in the worst of trials. So I have cancer, but I've been forgiven of sin. I have financial trouble, but I have an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade away. I struggle with loneliness, but my Lord loves me and promises to be with me, and I know there's a day when loneliness will be no more, So we're commanded here to shake off melancholy and find our joy in the Lord. But we have a second command there in verse 5. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. This word reasonableness, in Greek it's epiekis. It's more often translated as gentleness. To the ancient Greeks, it described a certain demeanor. So Aristotle speaks of the epiechus person this way, the one who by choice and habit does what is equitable, and who does not stand on his rights unduly, but is content to receive a smaller share, although he has the law on his side. That's so helpful. This is how the rejoicing Christian is experienced by other people, as reasonable, as gentle, as not standing on their rights unduly. As those who have received grace, we should be different than other people who have not received grace. On some level, in the world, it makes sense for someone who hasn't received grace to be harsh, to be prickly, to bristle at potential insults. The world is a hard place and it hardens people, but beloved, you and I, if we've received grace, we should be softening. We should be becoming more and more gentle. In the pastoral epistles, gentleness is one of the qualifications for elders in a local church. So Brian and Keith and Ben, brothers, we are called to gentleness in our ministry. I think we need to pay special attention to this when we find ourselves in authority over other people. So parents, we need to regularly apologize to our children when we are not gentle with them. Husbands, you may need to apologize to your spouse for not being gentle. Those you supervise at work should say about you, yeah, their gentleness is known to me. In the context of a suffering group of Christians, Paul knows that it's easy for those who are persecuted to respond with defensiveness and anger, so he exhorts the opposite here. And then he provides the strength to do it by saying the Lord is near. When we're in a position of weakness and vulnerability, we can lean on the nearness of God. Our defender and judge will make things right in the end. When we're in a strong position, we are chastened to think about the fact that the Lord will evaluate us for our gentleness. We remember the Lord Jesus who when they hurled insults at him, he did not retaliate. So beloved, are we gentle? Rejoicing, reasonable or gentle? And then a third aspect of godliness is commanded in verse six. Look again there. Do not be anxious about anything. but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Again, we're struck here by the nature of the command. Don't be anxious means that anxiety is a choice. We might not have thought of it that way. I mean, anxiety is the thing that shows up in the morning when I begin to think about my day. There's looming class deadlines. There's work pressure that mounts. There's relational problems that fester. There are money issues that lurk. The future's unclear to us, and so anxiety comes. But look here, Paul is saying that you've got this regular fork in the road. So this way, anxiety. This way, prayer. Actually, it's more like the self-driving car of your life just wants to get on the highway of anxiety automatically. You're the one who has to go, oh, there's an exit sign here. Prayer, supplication, make my requests known to God. Notice the all-inclusive language, about anything and in everything. Is there a more important and less obeyed command anywhere in scripture? I mean, think about the things that make you anxious. Do you pray about those things? It's a simple question with profound implications. There are three different words for prayer here. They're all similar. Prayer, supplication, request be made known to God. But then we see this added phrase with thanksgiving. This gives the right attitude and perspective in prayer. We've been given so much in comparison to what we need. So we thank him as we pray. Now what's the payoff of taking the off-ramp of prayer rather than the highway of anxiety? It's the promise of verse seven. The peace of God surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. The peace of God is the peace which God himself has. It's the calm serenity in his very nature that the praying Christian is invited to share in. surpasses understanding because on a human level, there's nothing like it. There's nothing in fallen human nature that would stare at looming problems with calm serenity. To look at a terminal diagnosis and be at rest. To face financial reversals of fortune with a shrug of the shoulders and a smile on the face. Even to just not use low-level anxiety as the engine that drives your life. We're told here that this peace of God will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. The language pictures a garrison of soldiers. The Philippians would have thought about the Roman garrison that was in their city to protect them and guarantee the Pax Romana, the peace of Rome, the military might that protects them. Well, beloved, far better than military might is the peace of God that guards the eternal well-being of the believer. All right, so let's take stock of these three commands, kind of a checklist to evaluate our relationship with God. Am I making the choice to rejoice in the Lord always? Is that joy overflowing into a reasonableness, a gentleness with others? And am I turning anxiety into prayer so that God's peace can overflow into my life? In many ways, these first two points take care of the in-house aspects of standing firm, Unity sets up the battle line of soldiers where we lock arms and make sure we can trust each other as fellow workers in the Lord. And godliness makes sure that I am, as an individual, am guarded by the peace of God. Let's look at a third pursuit here. Point number three, pursuit discernment. Pick it up in verse eight. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. A final exhortation here for the section. Again, he affirms the relationship by calling them brothers. The word should be read as a collective, so brothers and sisters. And we have a list here. Notice the repeated whatever is, whatever is, And then finally, think about these things. We're being asked here to make choices. This time, choices having to do with discernment. Things like, what am I going to pay attention to? What am I going to think about? What am I going to approve of? As believers, we're called to live in the world, but not be of the world. How do we do that? Well, he gives us six adjectives and two nouns that form kind of a filter we should use. Let's walk through them briefly. Whatever's true, so we're to separate truth from falsehood. Maybe you've heard the phrase, all truth is God's truth. If we understand that phrase rightly, we mean that because God is incapable of being false, what is out there in general revelation should match the truth of the scripture. We need to discern what that is. We must become discerners of truth. Second, whatever is honorable, So whatever is worthy of respect and admiration, things that lift the mind from the cheap and tawdry to that which is of real moral worth, which by the way is not gonna be what gets the most views on YouTube, right? That's not the filter here. Whatever's honorable. Third, whatever is just. This is the idea of right conduct, the kind of behavior that's the right way to live, the just way to live, that which is not wrong. Whatever is pure, so things that are morally blameless. If your thoughts could be played on a screen right behind your head, you don't want things going on there that would make you blush, that would make you ashamed or embarrassed if others could see them. Whatever is pure. Then whatever is lovely, so things that are good to look at. Anything is commendable, these are things that are generally worthy of admiration, and then after these six adjectives, we get two nouns. If there is any excellence, or things worthy of praise. Excellence usually points to virtuous things. Worthy of praise usually points at people who are worthy of approval. All right, this list, this is a great list to commit to memory. It should function for us as a kind of filter. Where we live in China, the air quality is not very good. So we have about six air filters running at any time in our house. And my favorite air filters, so this young guy up in Beijing is working for the State Department. He figured out that instead of buying a $500 blue air filter put in your house. If you just took like a $5 fan that you could buy at the local store and take the face off of it and then buy filters wholesale, take a square filter and put it on the fan and put Velcro around it. Then he took a particle counter and measured the air quality in the room and showed that it's basically the same. And then he made a bunch of money doing it. But the added benefit of these air filters is that your kids can periodically pull them off and show them to you and say, hey, do we need to change these, dad? And you're looking at this black circle of gunk and thinking, boy, that's what would have been in my lungs. Well, beloved, our minds are like that when we fill them with filth. What you watch, what you listen to, what you read, the friends you keep and what they tell you, above all, what you choose to dwell on in your mind and in your heart, it's either good and wholesome and beneficial or it's a buildup of filth. So you'd better install a good filter, right? I think we can apply this to things that we can control and things that we can't control. some things come at us that we really can't control. So as we're engaging in relationships with people, people are gonna say things to us that we can't control. As we go through our day, things are gonna pass in front of our eyes that we can't control. As we read books, there's a mix of good and bad. So there are many thoughts that come into our minds that we shouldn't beat ourselves up about. But as Luther said, though, we can't keep birds from flying over our heads, we can keep them from building a nest in our hair. And that's the case here. Many things that will come at us without our control, we just need to filter them out. But then there are many things that we do have control over, and we just need to say no to them. So if you're watching, if you're listening to political commentary that's convincing you that the most dire things that are happening in the world are happening in Washington, D.C., and you're living in a state of anxiety as a result, there's a connection. If you're struggling with lust and you regularly watch movies that glorify lust, there's a connection. By the way, for young people, when I was a young believer, I had some friends when we were new believers, they felt very strongly that they should keep watching all the stuff that we used to watch and listening to all the stuff we used to listen to so that they would know how to relate the gospel to culture. And I think what they were underestimating is the extent to which culture was changing them rather than the other way around. Now, the point here is not to create a list of do's and don'ts. Paul's point is to urge us towards what is good, what is truly virtuous, what is going to form godly character. We want to identify good things and dwell on them. So let's make a New Year's resolution together. Let's build relationships and have conversations that center on good things. Let's grab good books that are going to fill our minds with truths about God and ourselves. The elders go out of their way, down the hallway, classroom, whatever, to have a a selection of healthy, good books. You guys should be ransacking that thing regularly. What are you gonna read this year that's gonna help shape your mind? Above all, what is your commitment to taking this and making it the filter of all filters? This is the only final ground of authority and truth that we have. It's an incredible gift to us from God. So how committed are you as we start this year to regularly, to daily filling your mind with truth? So what are you thinking about? What makes it through your filter and grid? I think in an age of aggressive media marketing, we need to be on our game here. I've met a lot of Christians who seem to think that Fox News or whatever their chosen news source is gonna apply the grid for them. They're not. Neither is your favorite podcaster. Nobody can do the filter for you. You're gonna have to build the filter for yourselves. Think about these things. Now, unless we think of Paul cares only about the life of the mind, he turns from thinking to doing in verse nine. what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. The point of the contemplation is not the writing of books, the preaching of sermons, the holding of Bible studies, but putting things into practice, getting out of the easy chair and into the game. Paul's mentoring is mentioned here again, pointed to for imitation. They learned, they received, they heard, they saw. By the way, this is why you need mentors, disciples, pastors that are not on YouTube. You need living people involved in your life that you can use as a model. This has to be lived in front of you. So get that kind of a mentor. And then get busy putting things into practice. Living in unity, actually resolving conflict. instead of shuffling it under the rug. Pressing on towards the goal of sanctification in your Christian life. Rejoicing in all circumstances. Testifying to the gospel of God's grace. Building up the church. Let's go. That's Paul's call to us. Now brothers and sisters, I know this is a lot for us to chew on. Ten commands in nine verses. Any one of these commands is enough for us to spend a couple hours just thinking about, evaluating our life. That'd be a good thing to do at the start of this year. As we do so, I want to counsel against a feeling of discouragement that's really possible for us here. You know, if we think about it in terms of spiritual battle, if the evil one can't split our line through disunity, If he can't sink us through a failure to pursue personal godliness, and if he can't distract us through insufficient discernment, then he surely would love to just overwhelm us with a feeling of failure and personal inadequacy. Maybe that's why there's so much grace sprinkled through this passage. Did you see it? If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you are loved and longed for. You are a joy and a crown. You are in the Lord, and your names are written in the Book of Life. The Lord is near to all who call on Him. The peace of God stands as a garrison around your mind and your heart as you pray. And finally, the God of peace will be with you. So much grace. And as we think about how our obedience falls short of what it should be, we look and see the Lord Jesus, who came to live the life that we should have lived. He rejoiced in the Lord always. His gentleness was evident to all. He prayed to the Father, not just for himself, but for all of us. He thought about things that were true, honorable, commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy. Beloved, He is our trust this morning. He is our righteousness. If you've never come to the place where you've understood your need to turn away from sin and trust in the Lord Jesus, I urge you to do that this morning. When He died on that Roman cross, He did it to pay for all the sins of all who would turn from their sins and trust in Him. So that's available to you this morning. Let's rejoice. Let's remember that the God of peace is with us. Let's pray together. Our Father, you've been so good to us in Christ. We pray now that you would empower the obedience that you command, for we pray in Jesus' name, amen.