Philippians chapter number one and we just open in prayer and ask the Lord's help and guidance. Heavenly Father as we come before you this afternoon and we open this great book of joy and I pray Lord that you would just speak to us through it that you would use me and Make me your messenger this afternoon, Lord. Again, as I often pray, give me strength in my weakness. We heard this morning, Lord, that when we're truly willing to become weak, that's when we're strong in you. So Lord, I pray that you would help me. Not only that you would help me, Lord, to be your vessel, your speaker, but Lord, help us all to have ears to hear, not just physical, but spiritual ears, to apply these things to our hearts, Lord. Lord, how much of our theology is just left on paper. But true theology is never left on paper, it's applied in life. So Lord, will you help us? Help us to hear. Help us this afternoon as we look at this message from Paul about well-placed confidence. Help us to rejoice in the confidence that we have in you, knowing that you're trustworthy and you're true, and that your promises are faithful, and yea and amen in you. So we thank you again for the opportunity to come together, and pray you minister to our hearts in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Who knows this game? Anybody? I wish it was snakes and ladders. I'm telling you, that would be a lot less hostile. Who knows what this game is? I mean, I'll give you a clue, it's written on it, but... Risk. Who's ever played Risk? JJ. Now, I don't know what type of Risk games you play, but the Risk games I've been involved in have turned into brutal affairs of war. I've played with pastors, and that's a mistake. That's a mistake. Because when you play with pastors, because the game of risk, if you're not aware of it, it's a game of war, and it can get quite competitive, and it can get quite aggressive also. And what happens in risk is sometimes allegiances are formed between different players that turn against other players, and it becomes this, place of iniquity, really, where the dark side of every individual that steps forward to that board comes out. And if you've played Risk with Pastors, you'll have seen a side of pastors that you never want to see again. These men on these pulpits that tell you all these, you know, truths of the Bible, tell you to be true, tell you to be faithful, tell you to be consistent and committed, and to stand with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, gets on the risk board and turns from being Christ-like to being anti-Christ-like. Now, Pastor Moore is notorious for this. He's a wicked and evil man under there, I'll tell you that. I've played with him. Some others have played risk with him. I think William played risk with him and Stephen Borland and refused to play the game ever again. And I did as well, I must admit. By my own confession, I lost my sanctification and threatened, I must say I didn't do it, but I did threaten to break my pastor's fingers because he was so devious and so betraying. But there was a lesson in that. There was a lesson in risk. And the lesson was simply this. It's foolish to put your full confidence in men. Because people will let you down. And people will show a side that you never expected to see. So we shouldn't place our confidence in men, no matter the title, no matter the position. And I'm talking about full confidence. I'm not saying that you can't trust me to teach you, I'll do my best, but I always tell you to check the word of God, that whatever I say needs to be verified against the scripture, and that's your job. And if you're a good sheep, you can help me be a good shepherd, and if I'm a good shepherd, I can help you grow a sheep, and we work out this together. But your ultimate confidence can't be in man. It has to be in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we encounter this essential principle here in Philippians 1 and verse number 6. Now, last time around, we looked at the joy of friendship, and how Paul remembered their friendship and their fellowship, and it brought joy to his heart. Remember, Paul is in chains. He's writing to those of Philippi, you know, the Lydians, the jailers, all those people we encounter through the book of Acts, and he's writing to them, and his heart's full of joy. In the midst of his imprisonment, in the midst of his anguish and agony as being restricted, remember, it's said to you that he couldn't go and evangelize where he wanted to go. He couldn't do what he wanted to do. He was restricted, and the enemy, and all the plans of God had worked together that he was there. But the Lord couldn't stop him praying, and he prayed for these people. He didn't pray with them with tears of anguish because of the mess that they'd made with the gospel message, the gospel of grace that he'd taken to them. He was thrilled. He was overjoyed. with these people and their work and their life in the gospel. But here in Philippians chapter 1 and verse 6 it says, until the day of Jesus Christ. And here we encounter this essential principle in the Christian life. The only reason, let me make this abundantly clear, let me emphasize this for you. The only reasons why Christians continue in their walk with Christ, or their work in Christ, is because Christ is at work in them. We said this this morning, didn't we? This surrender aspect. You know, this morning's message wasn't recorded for IT, didn't work. The stream that went out on the church website had no audio to it. And I thought, you know what? It's a message people need to hear. that we need to surrender to God and we need to stand upon the Word. And for whatever reason, the technological gremlins wouldn't have it, but tonight we continue to pound that message in that we are to be rooted and grounded in Christ because He is all in all. See, without God in our lives, and without God working in our lives, we're going to fall, we're going to fail. Do you remember the illustration this morning? For those of you that missed that this morning, the illustration was simply, and I can say this because nobody's heard it on the live stream, so I'm going to do it again, is that, you know, ministers travel along in a train and the train's bumpy as it goes along the carriage. And the minister is in a carriage and he's in the compartment he's in, there's a young man across from him and the young man reveals himself to be a Christian. And as he converses, the minister converses with the young man, the young man starts to reel his woes and his worries and his troubles and his trials and how he's falling and he's failing and he's down and he feels like there's no hope, there's no purpose and he can't go on. But the Christian life is too much of a struggle. It's too hard. So the minister pulls out a pocket knife, and he unfolds it, and he says to the young man, I'm going to make this pocket knife stand upon this Bible. And the minister, the young man, thinks that it's some type of magic trick, that he's going to be able to balance it as the train goes along and moves up and down and bumps. So the minister gets the pocket knife unfolded, and he holds it in his hand, and he puts it on the Bible, and he holds it up straight like that. And the young man says, go on then. The minister says, I'm doing it. The young man says, you're not doing it, you're holding it. You're holding it up. And the minister says, yes. Because Christ holds us up. We can't stand without him. And the moral is that without him, we'll fall. If Christ let go of us, we fall. If we walk away from Christ and go on our own efforts, we fall. We need God in our lives. We can do literally nothing without him. That's what the Bible says. And if we're to believe the Bible, if we're to be honest, if God is God, and this is his revealed word, when Jesus says, without me you can do nothing, I think he means nothing. Not some things, nothing. He's the vine, we're the branches. That's the concept. We can do nothing without him. God's ongoing work in the lives of the Philippians has given him, Paul, confidence concerning the church at Philippi. He's confident of this very thing. What thing? He, God, has begun a good work in you and will complete it, perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. And notice that Paul doesn't argue that they're gonna go on and they're gonna flourish because of Paul. He doesn't say you're gonna go on and you're gonna grow and your faith's gonna be amazing because of me. He's not confident in him. He's confident in God. He doesn't link this ongoing ability, this confidence in their abilities He doesn't say because you're an educated bunch, because you're pretty smart and you've your wits about you, you're gonna grow and you're gonna flourish and everything's gonna be tickety-boo. No, he doesn't bring it to abilities. He doesn't bring it to people. He doesn't bring it to persons. He doesn't bring it to programs. He simply says, I'm confident. Why? Because it's God that's begun the work and it's God that's gonna finish it. He's gonna complete the work that he started So God is at work in their hearts, and Paul reminds them that it's the Lord that began the work, continues the work, and is gonna finish the work. You know, God never starts what he will not finish. How many of you here are good at starting things but not finishing them? All the time, little projects in the house. You start it, full of gusto, off you go, and then it becomes a bit tedious, a bit time consuming, a bit frustrating. You need a bit of patience, and what happens? Gets put to one side, maybe to be never looked at again. That's not how God works. That's not how God works. Whether it's the creation of the world, the atoning death on the cross, the work of salvation in the life of sinners, God never starts a work that he will not complete. There are no loose ends with God. When we get to the end of Scripture, we've read, we've studied Revelation, we've got right through the end. There's nothing left. There's nothing left unfinished. There's no promise that's not being fulfilled. God always finishes what he starts and Paul knew this and he dealt in those assurances and he never left anybody in doubt of that position and as he writes to the church at Philippi he's telling them to completely trust in God because it's God at work in them and when it's God at work the work will not be stopped and it will be completed. Paul trusted completely in the message and the one who stood behind it. Here's the first thing that I want to have a look at as we go through this verse and think about the work in the hearts of those in the Church of Philippi. and Paul's confidence in this. The first thing there is Paul had confidence that the work had commenced. And we're going to deal with three things here, and each time we're going to have a look at Paul's certainty and Paul's comfort. Here's Paul's certainty in this. The word confidence Philippians 1.6 is in the Greek. It's got a sense of, I am persuaded in myself, or I trust. Same word used when Christ is being mocked upon Calvary's cross, Matthew 27 verse 43. But they say, he trusted in God, let him deliver himself now. And that word trust is the same thing. So what are they saying? In other words, they're saying, paraphrasing a little bit, he persuaded himself that God would keep him or help him. So when Paul says he's confident, it means he's persuaded in the message. He's persuaded in God. He's trusting in God that he's going to do this. He's confident. And it says, he who has begun a good work. That Greek word is the same Greek word that's used in Galatians 3.3. And Galatians 3.3 is one of my life verses. It's a prompt reminder for me whenever I'm trying to do things in my own strength. Galatians 3.3, he's so foolish that a work that was begun in the spirit is now made perfect by the flesh. that were begun same as used by Paul in Philippians. So, Paul knew he had certainty that a good work was begun in the Philippians. How did he know that a good work had begun? Because there was evidence of it. He knew they were saved, but more so, there was an outward evidence of the inner salvation. You see, their good works had not resulted in salvation. That's an impossibility. We know that biblically. But their good works had resulted from their salvation. That's an imperative. So good works to salvation, impossibility. Good works out of salvation, imperative. that our salvation should produce fruits. By their works, by their fruit, you shall know them. So the way I look at it, theologically speaking, is that every born-again believer will produce fruit. The question is, how much fruit? And how much fruit depends on how much you lean into Christ for his strength and his power and submit to his shepherdhood and his lordship for your life. So Paul had seen this, and because of that, he was certain that the work had commenced. He'd seen evidence of the Holy Spirit conversion in the life of this church at Philippi. So he had certainty, and that certainty also gave him comfort. What was the comfort is that when the work of God begins, it means that the Holy Spirit has took up residence within the heart of the individual. The comfort was that they had got saved, they were shown the evidence, but behind that, the Holy Spirit was there working present in the new life. And when the new life breaks through, when the new you breaks through, it's a marked contrast from the old you. And if the old you It's a tongue twister. It looks like the new you, there's something going wrong in that process. Because when we're born again, we are a new creation. When we're born again, we're filled with the Spirit. When we're born again, that indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the power of Christ upon us and through us will produce newness, different attitudes, different actions, different thoughts, different patterns. So if you take a Christian, quotation marks, and you look at their old life, and you look at the new life claimed in Christ, and nothing's changed over 20 years, they're the same person as they were, we're not to be the gatekeepers of salvation, not about that. But you have to think, what's happened there? Because when Christ comes in, the news should start to flurry. We should see it. And that's what's happening at Philippi. And Paul was given comfort because he's looking at them and he's thinking, do you know what? They got it, not in their head, but in their heart. They're living it. And I can trust there's a certainty there that the work has commenced and a comfort there to know that they're born again. They're born again. I can tell you this from the pulpit to the pew. that it is a hard thing to carry for a pastor when he's not sure about somebody. It's hard. It's hard. It's a burden. And it doesn't bring comfort. It brings disease, not disease, unease. Worry. All the people that come into this place and leave this place between the two services across the board, Sometimes I think, do you know why I'm not sure about them? That doesn't bring me comfort. It brings distress. But Paul, when he looked at the church at Philippi, he had confidence that the work had begun. There was a certainty, and because of the certainty in God and in the work that he's seeing, there was comfort. There was comfort. So Paul was confident that the work had commenced, and secondly, he was confident that the work would continue. And again, we'll look at his certainty, and we'll look at his comfort. So the certainty there is that because God has brought about this regeneration, because the new birth is genuine, because it's Spirit-led and Spirit-filled, and he's seeing evidence of it, he is confident that the work will continue. Because it's God that brings about the regeneration and only God then can complete the work that he started. This is Galatians 3.3. He's so foolish that a work that was begun in the spirit is now complete in the flesh. That actually the work of completion is not ours. It's not ours, it's God's. And sometimes we get into the Christian life, and this is the thing, and a lot of people shy away from the Christian life because they think, oh, it's rules and regulations, and it's about me improving this, and me improving that, and me fixing that, and me making myself better, and polishing myself up to the point that I am just perfect. That's not the Christian life. It's not biblical. Yes, God will change, and he will work, but it's God doing it. trying to get ourselves into a place where we're clean and presentable to God is the cart before the horse. It's upside down. It's an upside down gospel. God does the work, and as you grow in Him, He continues to do that work. And he deals with the big sins, and then he starts to move on, and he deals with the big sins, and you're thinking, oh my goodness, thank you, Lord. All those big sins are gone. In my case, the stuff that I was doing, it was gone. It was finished. The drugs, the drink, and all the rest, it was gone. And I'm like, well, I've made it now. You've dealt with all my sins, Lord. Thank you. You've took it away. I'm not going to do any of these big sins anymore. That's me happy now. That's me complete. That's me fixed. That's me finally done. And in the words of the most ridiculous Northern Irish comedian, Jimmy Cricket, if you remember him, God says to you, come here, there's more. There's more. Let me show you what sin truly is in the light of my holiness. And he starts to reveal things and show you things you've never even seen. And he continues to do that until the day of Jesus Christ. And Paul is absolutely certain, he's confident that the work would continue. Why? Because it's God that started that work. Bible says in Romans 8 verse 33, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. It's a work of God, not of human hands. It's God, it's God that declares the sinner righteous. It's God that does the work of sanctification. What do I mean by that? The changing and conforming and shaping and molding you to the image of Christ like his dear son. That's who he wants you to be like. And God does that work. The Holy Spirit does that work. The word does that work. The local church as you're part of it and grow in it is part of that work. And that will continue, and God will continue the work that he's begun throughout our Christian lives. Sanctification, it's both an act, it happens, you're set apart, separated, but it's also a process. It's ongoing. And folks, sometimes that hurts. It hurts. The word of God's a mirror. And as we look into it, and we see God, and we see ourselves, that's gonna sting sometimes. But God needs to do the work, and the work that he's doing is perfect and needs to be done. The church at Philippi was a work of God's grace. You think about this. When Paul entered Philippi, there wasn't even enough Jews to have a synagogue. Where did he meet these people? Where did he meet Lydia? The river. He found a group of women praying by the riverside, and from this humble beginning, others were added. Now, we don't know how large the church at Philippi was, but we know it was one of great spirit. And Paul wrote lovingly to these people because they were doing the work. They were filled with the spirit. The work had begun in them, and the work was continuing in them. And it was God's work and not their work. Paul was certain about that. He was certain the work would continue and he was comforted in that. Comforted the fact that it was God that started it. It wasn't the work of man. It was God's grace that birthed this church. So Paul was comforted that God was at work in there. Because when God's at work, nothing can stop it. And when we think about the church, no matter the state you think it's in, we know it's in corporately. The true believers are still Christ's church. And Jesus, he stands there and up in Banias and Dan, stands before the disciples and says, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So what are we saying here? We're saying that the permanence of the church's existence, the permanence of a local church is dependent upon God. But that doesn't discount us walking in God. It brings us back to this morning, that I absolutely believe with all my heart and all my soul, no matter what goes on, no matter what the world brings, no matter what laws change, that if each and every believer that's part of this local fellowship has the courage to truly surrender to God, to recognize his Lordship, and stand upon that, that until the Lord returns, there will always be a local body of believers gathering together under the name of Milton Baptist Church. I absolutely believe that. I think it's also true that if we fall away from the Word and the One who holds us and has begun this work, and we start to drift privately, individually, and then by extension corporately, and we continue in that path, and the Lord ties for 200 years, there might well not be a local body here. The Lord might remove the light. He's done that in churches across the land. He's doing it now. Ichabod has written over the door, the glory hath departed. See, it's God that does the work. It's his church. And if we're faithful to him, we stand, we submit, we surrender. We're willing to be weak and allow his strength to be our strength. And we stand together. We stand on the word and we walk in that, applying it as God has told us to do. We show the fruit of our salvation. There's nothing can stop us, nothing. We just need to believe and apply that. But Paul believed it, and it brought him comfort about the church at Philippi. God had spoken to those at Philippi. He was working through them, and because they were in him, that assured their continuity. If we drift from that church, there's no continuity assured, only when we're in the will of the Lord. and we are surrendered as individuals and a congregation can we be assured that the work will continue as long as God wants it to. So Paul was confident the work had commenced, he was confident it would continue and then finally He had confidence that the work would be completed. So here we have again Paul's certainty. And he says in Philippians 1, 6, as we've read, that he's confident of this very thing. He's begun a good work and he will complete it, perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. So you have this little phrase, until the day of Jesus Christ. Now the Bible talks about different days. In relation to the Lord, there's distinctions. We did some of this in our Peter studies, if you remember. I think William had that. From what memory, I think William had that. I was on holiday and he had to deal with that and got into a bit of a fight with his wife, from what I hear, but there you go. But today, now, we're living really in what is man's day. There's no doubt about it. And, you know, we have an overarching principle of the day of the Lord that's coming, but it's man's day now. If you turn to 1 Corinthians chapter number 4 and verse number 3, 1 Corinthians chapter number 4 and verse 3, Paul writes, But with me is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or man's judgment. Yes, I judge not my own self." That little phrase, man's judgment there, when you kind of get behind it and look what it literally means, it means man's there. And that's what Paul's saying. He's saying, you know, God may be silent or seem like He's silent now. It seems like men are the judge of all things, that men have elevated and exalted themselves into the place where they are judge over all. And that's humanism 101. That began in the Garden of Eden, and that's what we see manifesting all the time, that we are God. We're judge, jury, and executioner when it comes to laying down the law. This is man's day. But there is a day coming called the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord is mentioned 16 times in the Old Testament. It's referred to in Isaiah, chapter number 2, where God refers to judging the nations, dealing with idolatry, human pride, shaking the earth. The Day of the Lord is mentioned four times in the New Testament. 1 Thessalonians 5.2. Let's turn there. We'll look at the New Testament passages. 1 Thessalonians 5.2. Well, let's read verse one. concerning the times of seasons brethren you've no need that i should write to you for you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the lord comes as a thief in the light so we have this reference to the day of the lord this is not a day um for the the believer this is a day for the unbeliever because the day of the lord marks out this great period of judgment that begins at the tribulation period the time of jacob's uh trouble you'll see the phrase repeated 2 peter chapter 3 Revelation 1.10, you don't need to turn there for the sake of time. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 2, I think the correct rendering there really is the day of the Lord. KJV will say, New King James will say the day of Christ, but it's not contextually fitting in there. I think it's the day of the Lord is the better rendering, and other versions will use that rendering. But the day of the Lord is the common period of judgment through the millennial age, and it concludes with this cataclysmic dissolution of the universe when everything is brought together. We read that passage this morning from Revelation when the Lord comes back, the one who is faithful and true, who comes back on that white horse to end the battle of Armageddon. So you have the day of the Lord, and then you have the day of God, and this is 2 Peter chapter 3, you can turn it there, we'll have a look at this. So the day of the Lord, the day of the Lord begins at the time of Jacob's trouble, and it ends at the end, at the return of the Lord there, in the millennial age, at the end of the millennial age. And then, so 2 Peter, Chapter 3 and verse number 10. No, I'm on 1 Peter, that's wrong. I've changed my Bible tonight, that's what happens when you change your Bible, it goes all over the place. This is talking about the day of God. The day of God takes us from the end of that millennial period into eternity, the eternal state where God will be all in all. That's what it says. Go to 1 Corinthians. We'll have a look there as well. 1 Corinthians chapter number 15. And we'll see Paul talk about this, this great chapter. You know it well, the resurrection chapter. If you look at verse 24, it says, Now, when all these things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him. who put all things under him, that God may be all in all." That brings us to eternity. When the Son offers up the kingdom that all death and hell are thrown into the lake of fire, it's done, it's dusted, it's beautiful. And we enter into that eternally as the new heavens and the new earth. That's the day of God. Which leaves us with the day of Christ. What is the day of Christ that Paul is talking about in Philippians chapter number 1 and verse number 6? The day of Christ is the day the Lord returns for his church. It's the rapture. Now we don't have time to do a study on that and do a study on the rapture, so you're gonna have to take my word for it, have a look at it yourself. But the day of Christ is different from the day of the Lord. The day of Christ is different from the day of God. The day of Christ is one that brings great comfort for the believer. That's what Paul writes when he writes to the Thessalonian believers when he talks about the rapture. And he tells them to not be fearful. Be comforted by these words. The day of Christ is coming for those that are in him. John 14, behold, I go and place for you that where I am you will be also. That's the day of Christ. And because Paul's certainty was on that, his certainty was that Christ was returning for his bride. that the ambassadors would be pulled out before the onslaught of God upon the world. Because he had certainty in that, he had comfort. That Paul's eye was upon the day of Christ, that he looked to that in anticipation, the day when the blood-bought bride will be united with the bridegroom, taken to heaven, married to the Lamb. And my, oh my, this brought Paul comfort. He was sure that the work that the Holy Spirit had begun, he was confident of this very thing, that he had begun a good work, would and would perform it and complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. He knew that the work would be completed. He knew that the Holy Spirit wouldn't stop. He knew that the working would continue in the church at Philippi until they met their Lord in the air. And here lay Paul's comfort and joy. He was thrilled that God was at work in these people, and he was confident that that work would be completed. And we should take great comfort in those things. If we're here tonight and we know the Lord is Savior, then we should be full of certainty and comfort that he that's begun a work in us will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. That our confidence should be in him. Remember to start, I said that our confidence, if we put it in man, when we put all our eggs in man's basket, those eggs will break. Our hearts will be broke. But if we temper our confidence and trust, yes, the people that God has put in our lives, I believe absolutely that the church is God-designed, that pastors and teachers are God-designed. And if a pastor and teacher truly has a call on their life and it's evidence that God's called them into ministry, he's put them in the ministry, not that they've just chosen it because it's something to do, and that pastor has planted and put in the local church congregation that he is a gift from God, I absolutely believe that. Not in his abilities, but just that God has blessed you with a godly man. I believe in the church. So we've got to trust, but we temper that because behind it we have to see the God who's at work. And that's where we put our confidence. That's where we put our trust. Our confidence should never be placed in man alone. How many times have people elevated preachers and teachers to the position that they were never meant to be elevated to, and they've idolized them, they've venerated them. And then that pastor, that preacher falls into immorality. quits the ministry or does something horrendous, is guilty of spiritual abuse or whatever it may be, and what happens? Out the window goes that person's faith. Oh, it's a Christianity thing. It's all a sham, it's a mock. There's no truth in it. What's the problem there? Confidence has been placed in man. And when we put our confidence, our faith, and trust totally in the things of this world, totally in men that teach from the pulpit, that are still sinners, that still have a sin nature, that are not perfect, when we put our complete and total trust in them, when we don't see the Savior behind them, our confidence is misplaced. It's misplaced. But when we put our complete trust in Christ, when we see behind the one that stands in the pulpit, and we see the Lord Jesus Christ, and we look to Him, and that everything that's said from the pulpit, everything that's done is held up to the Word of God, that the Word of God is not the standard, the preacher's opinion's not the standard, it's the Word of God that's the standard, and we trust in Christ, our faith is well-placed. It's a well-placed confidence. Now, that doesn't mean that when we place our trust totally in Christ and really, you know, our confidence depends and varies in the object we're placing our confidence in. And the thing is in life, and this is just how fickle we are as human beings, that we struggle at times to put our complete trust and confidence in Christ. We do. We struggle. Like I said this morning, we struggle to surrender. But we put our confidence fully and totally in inanimate objects all the time. Every time you sit down in a chair, you're putting your confidence in that chair that it's gonna hold. When Francie sat in that chair, that's what happens when you're in the front, you get in. When Francie sat in that chair, he put his confidence in it that it would hold. It's still holding? No? It's wobbling. You don't even think about it, do you? Who here drives a car? Any car drivers? Okay. Any electric car drivers? No? So it's all petrol? You know you just start a fire, a combustion, every time you start that key, and get in that car and drive off? You don't question it, do you? Nice you've got a bit of a banger like me. You're like, praise the Lord, I started today. You put your confidence in things all the time. All the time. You go to the hospital, and you get checked up, and they strap you up, and, you know, I did an ECG the other day. They hook me up with these things, a printer thing does a thing, and then they say you're okay. I've no idea. Not a clue what that is. I can't look at it and analyze it. I don't know what the sticky things are doing. I know they're doing something. I know the printout means something, but they could tell me anything. They could have told me that day, you're dying, your heart's gonna fail, and I'd have believed them. But we put our confidence in things all the time. But when it comes to the eternal one, the one who spoke the universe into existence, the one that holds it together, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the only one in this world that you can 100% rely on and trust on. He'll never leave you, he'll never forsake you, he's a better friend than you ever had, he's a better savior than you can ever find in the world. And we struggle to put our confidence in him. What is that about? This is our human sinful nature. Folks, I want to exhort you. I want to challenge you. Put your confidence in Christ. It's well placed. He'll never let you down. He'll never let you down. He will complete a work that He has started. I'm going to tomorrow do the funeral crematorium service for Russell. And Russell was a believer, for those of you who know Russell, that maybe have come to the church, he'd suffered from dementia for quite a while, but he's gone to be with the Lord now. I have absolute confidence in that. I can go, I can do that funeral, and I can tell the people there that Russell's faith has become sight. that his well-placed confidence has paid reward, that he's now with his Savior. I have no doubt about that, absolutely no doubt about it. I know, I have certainty that a work that was begun in Russell is now being completed. And because of that, I can have comfort. And because of that, the believers there can have comfort. I tell you who can't have certainty, and I tell you who can't have comfort, those outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thames is the bricks. You can't have this without Christ. But with Christ, with Christ, you can have well-placed confidence that He will never let you down and will always be with you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,