If any Bibles turn to Philippians chapter 1, I kind of teased you last week, got you all revved up for the second coming, and we're going to wait until next year. Because I'm going to start focusing on the Incarnation next Sunday. But being the week of Thanksgiving, I thought we would just remind ourselves of The spirit of thanksgiving, and I've mentioned this on more than one occasion, cardinal sin among all people is unthankfulness. That's what Paul says in Romans 1, and not giving thanks to their Creator and recognizing He's the Creator. And so a primary Evidence of our salvation is that we have a thankful heart and a joyous heart. They go hand in hand. So if you're able to stand as we look at Philippians 1, 1 through 11. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I'm sure of this, King James says, being come for this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart. For you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent. So be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. Let's pray. Father, we're so grateful for your word, and as the psalmist says, it's a light lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. And Father, it is a means of grace, It is a means of faith, for faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. It's a means of sanctification. Jesus prayed for us and said, Father, sanctify them by truth. Your word is truth. Father, it's the means of salvation when the gospel is sown into a good soil. And Father, by the Spirit of God, you bring that person to Christ. So Father, we thank you for your word, and we thank you for the Holy Spirit, who's the spirit of truth. Without him, Father, we can never understand your word. But Father, because of his work and ministry to us, he can bring illumination, he can bring understanding and knowledge and faith. So Father, help us to hear your word, help us to believe your word, and help us to obey your word. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. I want to look at several things here, and I think the first thing we want to consider is being thankful in all circumstances. This is repeated all through scripture that we're to rejoice. The first chapter of 1 Peter, the first chapter of James talks about rejoicing in the midst of trials and tribulations. Peter tells us that God allows these to demonstrate that our faith is genuine. And so being thankful is a demonstration of genuine faith in our life. And we're not spiritual masochists. You know the joke between the sadist and the masochist? The sadist said, hit me, hit me. And the masochist said, hit me, hit me. And the sadist said, no. Some of you think on that a minute. But we're not spiritual masochists. We're not looking for suffering. But it's a reality of this world. This world has fallen. Our bodies are affected, Sandy was talking about this this morning when she's come in, our bodies are affected by the fall and they're deteriorating. I can't, I'm really, I guess I don't want to say disappointed. I've been a strong guy all my life, just genetics. I've lost a lot of strength, particularly in my lower body, my legs. Very few people could knock me off my feet because my center of gravity is low and I had great strength in my legs and my hips. But I'm losing that. When I used to be able to pick up something that was pretty heavy, I can't do that anymore. And why? Because of the effects of the fall. My hands are getting just riddled with arthritis. And my really worry there is I won't be able to do my chords with my left hand. I mean, you can cut my hand off here and I can just use my stubs to strum the guitar, but I want these fingers to be able to do the chords, you know. But we rejoice in all things. And in this context, Paul's in prison. This is his first imprisonment. Most likely he's in Rome. There's some that want to say he may be in Ephesus or Caesarea in the earlier confinement that we read in Acts. But when he's writing this letter, this is one of the prison letters along with Ephesians and Colossians. And because he refers to Praetorian Guard, he's under house arrest basically, but he has a Roman soldier that's chained to him, connected to him, and now Timothy is with him, and he has some freedom, he has access to people coming and seeing him, coming and going, but he's under house arrest, he's in prison. And now he gives us indication in this first chapter that he believes God's going to deliver him in this experience. When he writes 2nd Timothy, he knows he's not going to be delivered. He knows that death is soon to come to him because of his faith. But here, he's got a pretty good idea that God's going to deliver him. He says, for me to live is Christ, to die is gain. He says later on, I've learned to whatever condition I'm in to be content. But Paul's in prison and Epaphroditus, who has come to Paul with a gift from this church at Philippi, probably food and maybe some money to help him in his house arrest. But Epaphroditus has come to bring this gift from the church at Philippi to Paul in Rome, but he falls deathly ill. And one of the reasons Paul writes this letter and sends Epaphroditus back is so that they can understand that God has delivered him because they were greatly concerned for Epaphroditus. And so this idea of joy and thanksgiving has a background. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 that Philippi was among some churches in Macedonia, and probably the key church in Macedonia. Now he's appealing to the Corinthian believers to contribute to an offering that Paul's been collecting for the brothers and sisters back in Jerusalem and Judea because there's been a significant famine. And so Paul, as he establishes these churches, has been collecting this offering. And he tells us, in 2 Corinthians chapter 8. We want you to know brothers, talking to Corinthian believers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches in Macedonia, which Philippi is one of these churches, probably the primary church. For in severe tests of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means of their own free will, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints back in Judea and Jerusalem. And this is not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord, and then by the will of God, they gave to us. And so this church, at least at some time, was suffering affliction, was suffering poverty, but their hearts were full of joy and they contributed in this offering that Paul was giving. And so some of the background, no matter what condition we find our life in, what the psalmist says, this is a day the Lord has made, now what? Rejoice in it. Now the context of that psalm is the day of salvation. And in one respect, every day is a day of our salvation, because the old description of salvation, I was saved, I'm being saved, I will be saved, right? I was justified by the grace of God, I have peace with God, I'm being saved through sanctification process, and then I will be saved completely when Jesus comes back and I'm glorified. And so every day is a day of salvation for us because we are growing in Christ. And so the psalmist said, this is the day the Lord has made. He's behind this day. This day is not the making of our power or someone else's power. God's in control. And then this thankfulness is centered on relationships and not on circumstances. A lot of times we let circumstances dictate to us how we feel, how we rejoice. And first of all, it's with God the Father and Christ Jesus. Paul says that he and Timothy are slaves, doulos, bond slaves. It really meant slaves. It's translated servants here, but it was a slave. It was someone who was under the authority of a Lord. And Paul's saying, Timothy and I are bond slaves, bond servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, of God the Father, and we are under their authority. And about At least a third of the Roman Empire were slaves when Paul writes this letter. It was a very common experience and common condition of many people. And it wasn't uncommon for a slave to be initially maybe captured, and then auctioned off and bought, and then auctioned off again and bought, and that just kind of a continual circle. Now, have we been bought? Yeah, we've been bought with the precious blood of Christ. And so, we are His bond servants. And so, Paul is basing his joy, he's basing his thanksgiving, first of all, that he's in a relationship with the true and living God and His Son, Jesus Christ, whom He sent. And so, his source of joy. Now, fruit of the Spirit, fruit singular of the Spirit is what? Love. What's the next one? joy. Our joy, the source of our joy is from God. I think I told you once before when I was in college for one year, I was a cheerleader or a yell leader. We called ourselves yell leaders. The girls were cheerleaders. We were yell leaders. I only did it for one season. We only had a basketball team and a baseball team at that time at MoBet. So our job was what? to rev up the crowd and get them excited. Now our basketball team was, at best, mediocre. Travis Brown, he graduated from Sumner High School in the city. Travis Brown was a ball player, but he didn't have much around him. So it's our job to try to rev up the crowd in spite of the performance on the court. And as a preacher, preachers can rev up a church. But all that stuff is temporary. And a lot of times, it's conditional to circumstances. The thankfulness that we have is centered in our relationship with Jesus Christ, and that is constant. At least Jesus is constant, right? He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. God's word is constant, endures forever. And so we focus on him, we focus on his word, and that's our stability. That's the rock in which we're anchored to. And the thankfulness is secondarily with his fellow believers. And he tells us here in, and this happens. This has happened to us. in every church we've served. Now, not with everybody that has been in the church, and I've told you before, some of the best people I know are church people, but some of the meanest people I know are church people. But, what Paul says here, now this is the church, go back to Acts 16, Paul had other plans, but God gave him a vision of a Macedonian man standing, come and help us, come and help us, And so God followed, Paul followed the Lord's leadership, and they crossed over, he was planning to go north, they crossed over west into Europe, into Greece, and Paul goes to Philippi, and I mentioned it I think this Wednesday night in the Bible study, He went to Philippi and he looked for the synagogue, but there was no synagogue because you had to have at least ten male Jews to establish a synagogue. Philippi was a Roman colony. It meant that it had the same autonomy, had the same laws that Rome had. In fact, when you read chapter 16, and Paul and Silas are arrested, and they're scourged, they're beaten and thrown into jail, and God miraculously delivers them, he brings it to the attention of the authorities that he's a Roman citizen. And Roman citizens were not to be scourged or beaten. And these guys, their jaw drops, they start sweating, they're wringing their hands, uh-oh, we're in big trouble. And they want to release Paul, and Paul says, no, you're going to escort me. You're going to escort me out of town so everybody can see what you've done is unlawful. And it was a Roman colony, but it was a Gentile city. So Paul goes down to the river, which was the common place for people to go to pray, and he finds some women there, Lydia being the predominant one, and he shares the gospel with them, and Lydia comes to faith, and Lydia seems to be a very successful businesswoman, and so she begins to hold, have this church meet in her home, in her house, and so Paul is the founding, father of this church. And so he says here, he says, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. He says, every time I think of you, I thank God. There are some people I think about, I ask why God, instead of thank God, you know. But Paul says, every time I think of you, I give praise to God. Always in every prayer of mine, I don't leave you out. I pray for all of you, making my prayer with joy. Why? Because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And he says, and I'm, well, he talks about being confident that God's gonna complete the work with him, but I wanna jump down to the next verse. It is right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart For you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in defense and confirmation of the gospel." Their hearts were united. I've been in churches where, and I know of churches where their hearts weren't united. And all that brings is division, strife. It destroys the witness of the gospel. Paul's saying because we are knitted together in Christ Jesus and we have each other in our hearts, that's a testimony and a confirmation of the gospel. Jesus said the world's gonna know who we are because what? We have love, what? One for another. He's not talking about we have love for lost people, that's true. But he says the great witness of the gospel is the transformation for our lives, and we get people, we got people from all kinds of walks, even here this morning, all kinds of walks, all kinds of backgrounds, and Jesus brings us together, and we hold each other in our heart. And that's why we ought to be patient with one another. That's why we ought to be forgiving with one another. That's why we ought to be praying for one another, because we're united in Christ. And so Paul's saying his thankfulness, his joy, is centered on relationships. And even, not even performance necessarily, but relationships that are in Christ Jesus. And a thankful heart and prayer, they're linked together. That's really the essence of thankfulness, is that we express it through prayer. We express it through praise. Paul's compulsion, now if you, Morning 5 said compulsion. I don't know if you know that episode. He was talking to Andy about, I think about Otis having a compulsion complex to drink. But he said compulsion, and Andy said, what? It's compulsion. Paul has, he couldn't help himself. He says, in all my prayer, every time I think of you, in all my prayers, I always pray for you. Thankfulness drives us to prayer. It drives us to focus on God's goodness, of his grace, his mercy, and pray for one another. So he had a compulsion to pray. And he had confidence in God's purpose. Verse six. To me, one of the most important verses of Philippians. This is King James translation. Being confident of this very thing. that He, God the Father, who began a good work in you at salvation when He called you to Christ, will complete it unto the day of Jesus Christ. That's God's promise to us. There's times I don't act like I'm saved, I don't feel like I'm saved, but God's promise to me is be calm for this very thing. that when God began a good work in you, Mike, as a seven-year-old boy, he's going to complete it until Jesus comes back. And that completion is our glorification. Because our salvation is not based upon our performance. It's based upon what Jesus has done and what he secured for us. And so we can have confidence in that very thing, and we can rejoice in that. So Paul has confidence in God. And by the way, The thing I mentioned before, that you there is plural. He's really talking to the whole church. And he's talking to us as the body of Christ, the whole church. All those that have been called to Jesus by God's grace and God's power, that whole universal body of Christ is going to experience the completion of our salvation, the whole church. That's why Paul talks about when that trumpet sounds, the dead in Christ are gonna rise. He says, we're not going to precede them. We're not going to go before them. Because part of the question there at Corinth was, well, our loved ones have died. Jesus hasn't come back yet. They've died. Are they going to be resurrected? That was part of the question that he answers in chapter 15. And he says, yes. They're going to precede us. When that trumpet sounds, they're going to come out of those graves. And in that moment twinkling in the eye, we're going to join them, and we're going to meet the Lord Jesus, and we're going to be transformed. Those bodies of true believers in this cemetery are gonna come back together, and they're gonna be glorified. They're gonna be made for eternity. So this whole discussion in 1 Corinthians, that this body is not made for eternity. It is mortal. It has been corrupted by sin. It is dying. That's what Paul said to Corinthians. So the outward man is perishing, and we're all perishing. The inner man's being renewed day by day. And then when Jesus comes back, if I'm in the grave, this body is going to come out of the grave and it's going to be transformed. I'm going to have a glorious resurrected body like Jesus. I don't know all that means. We just have glimpses of it in the New Testament after Jesus was resurrected. It's gonna be recognizable, but yet it's gonna be, there's gonna be continuity and some recognition, but there's gonna be some distinction and difference, but it's gonna be a glorified body that is immortal, immortal. It is made for eternity, and that's what we have. So Paul has confidence in God's purpose, but he's concerned for these believers' progress. That's why he's praying for them. That's why he's rejoicing them. And for God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ. So he's concerned about their progress. Really, this is a primary burden of every pastor's heart, to see the folks that he is responsible to grow in grace. Joe Kaminski. who comes once in a while. When I first met Joe, he was still raw. He'd just been a believer for a while, but he was still pretty raw. But I've told him to his face, over the last 10 years, I've seen the grace of God work in his life. I've seen the word of God, it's because he's become more and more serious about being a student of the word. I've seen the grace of God work in Joe's life. When I was at Goddard Road on Wednesday night, Wednesday afternoon, I was at church and got a phone call and it's just kind of a whisper of a struggling voice of a lady asking about what time our church started, prayer meeting started. And I told her it's seven o'clock and that's about all the conversation was. When she came, she had just been diagnosed with cancer. And she was terrified and almost paralyzed by fear because she had just been diagnosed with cancer. If I remember right, she was in her 50s. And she started coming to church. She heard the gospel. She gave her life to Christ. I was able to baptize her. But the cancer just kept roaring in her body. She ended up in hospice at her home. But she was transformed from this weak, fearful voice as she lay dying in her bed at her home in hospice to a very confident assurance and witness of the grace of God. That can only be the grace of God. That can only be the power of the gospel. Even in the short span of how much she grew in her faith as she was dying of cancer. That's the burden of every pastor, to see those that we're responsible for grow in God's grace. About 10 years ago, Matthew was kind of dating this girl that was homeschooled, and she was graduating from their homeschool group, and so he wanted us to go down for this graduation party. It was somewhere down in South County, I think, maybe around Fenton or maybe more South County. Anyway, we went. We walked in the door. All of a sudden, this girl walks up and says, hi, Mike. Well, it was Susie Funk Warren. She was Susie Funk. She was in my youth group when I was at Baylor's Baptist Church. And this is what she said to me that is one of the most important things anybody can say to me. She said, you know, the only thing I remember was you sitting down with us and teaching us the Bible. She says, that's what I remember about your ministry, that you taught us the Bible. And now she and her husband have been faithful followers of Christ, serving in their church. And I saw them again at the associational meeting back in September, our annual meeting. And she said the same thing to me. In fact, she said to her pastor, she said, this is the guy I told you about. You don't know how much that blesses my heart. that what she remembers me about is not all the fun and games, not the youth camps, not the lock-ins and all kinds of stuff that we do in youth ministry. She said, what I remember most is you teaching us the Bible. Because that's what endures forever. And so Paul has concern for the believer's purpose. He has this compassionate plea and this comprehensive petition, and we're gonna look at that in just a moment. And there's kind of a crescendo here as we look at the remainder of this passage. He says, how I yearn for you with all the affection of Christ, and this is my prayer. First of all, he says, I pray that your love may abound more and more. Love for God, Do we still doubt God's love for us? Many, many church people do. I want to point you to the cross. If you want to know if God loves you, look at the cross. Again, Romans 5.8, while we were yet sinners, God commended his love toward us while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. If we ever doubt, I remember when I first surrendered to preach, and I might have been 15 or 16 years old, I remember being in my room that I shared with my brother. He was not there, I was by myself, and I just had this overwhelming sense of doubting God's love. And the first place the Holy Spirit took me to was John 3.16. He says, Mike, and this was the key verse as a seven-year-old boy of me coming to Christ. I've told you this many times. I knew enough as a seven-year-old boy that if I failed to believe, I was going to what? Perish. I knew enough as a seven-year-old boy, my failure to trust in Christ was I was going to perish. And I believed in hell, I still believe in hell. But the promise is, he who believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. So the Holy Spirit took me back to that same verse to give me assurance and confidence of God's love for me. But Paul's saying, I want your love to abound more and more. There's people in our lives that have hurt us, offended us, betrayed us, all kinds of things. And we struggle with loving them, don't we? Well, again, back in Romans 5, the passage says that the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. in verse 5, but hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured, King James says, shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Now quickly, I think that's twofold. Once the Holy Spirit brings and applies to us the love of God that was demonstrated in the Lord Jesus Christ in salvation. But He also fills us, again, the fruit singular of the Spirit. There's nine characteristics there, but it's fruit singular. Why? I believe it because it's the character of Christ. It's Jesus. He's the fruit of the Spirit. He's the evidence of the Spirit. But the first one is what? Fruit of the Spirit is what? Why? Because the Holy Spirit is shed abroad the love of God in our heart. And so Paul's saying, I want you to grow in that. I want you to mature in that. I want that love to abound more and more. Your love for God, your love for each other, your love for me. I'm praying that God produces that in your life. And he says, according to knowledge. Okay? Now this, that word love there is agape. We all are familiar with agape. But agape love is a volitional love. Phileo generally is interpreted as brotherly love. And a lot of times that depends on circumstances if we're gonna exercise it. And then there's eros, the erotic love. That's very seldom used in the New Testament. It's either Phileo or Agape. Agape is volitional. We make the choice. We make the commitment. I'm going to choose to love. Even I've been offended, I'm going to choose to love. Even I've been taken advantage of, I'm going to choose to love. I told you about Dr. Borum from Covenant Seminary, who just the love of God just oozes out of his whole body. That his stepfather, put a move on Dr. Barr's wife. And what he wanted to do was just knock him off his feet. But he knew that he needed to love this man. And so his advice was find something, some point that you can touch with an individual to begin to build a relationship of love. And with his stepfather, it was gardening. His stepfather loved to garden, put in flowers, all kinds of stuff. So Dr. Bart started getting involved with that. Struggled a lot. Every time he thought about what this man tried to do with his wife, he had to bring that under submission to Christ. But he loved this man, over and in a garden, digging dirt, putting flowers, 25 years. And then one day, Dr. Barr was preaching here in St. Louis area, and his stepfather says, can I come and hear you preach? He says, sure. Came, heard the gospel, believed the gospel, was transformed. Why? Because he made a decision to love this man. He made a decision to love this man. And by the way, it's very difficult to be angry and hateful against someone you're praying for. If you want to change your attitude toward an individual, start praying for them. Start lifting them up in prayer, and God's going to change me, He's going to change you. That person is in His hands. But as we pray for them, it's very different. Going back to college days, basketball team, there was a guy, I can name his name but I'm not going to, I just assumed, walked up to him and just cold cocked him, just jacked him right in the jaw. I just didn't like him. I didn't like the way he started around campus. I just didn't like him. And God brought me under conviction, and I started praying for him, and my whole attitude toward him changed. When you pray for someone, it's almost impossible to remain angry or hateful toward that person, or unforgiving toward that person. hand with the sermon. See, the sermon is the ability to use the knowledge. And this is biblical knowledge. This is understanding who God really is, who Jesus really is, who we really are. We grow in that knowledge. That helps us understand the love of God for us and our responsibility to love. I won't go to 1 John. 1 John says, if we say we love God and hate our brother, we're a liar. Because how can we love God, who we do not see, and hate our brother, who we do see? And so we have to have active discernment. We recognize false teaching. We recognize false teachers. And so this love is just not, oh, I don't know how I want to express it. I guess without discernment. There's lots of guys on TV that are very winsome, very attractive, but if you hear what they're teaching, they're not teaching the Word of God. And so we have to have discernment. He says, I desire that the effects of this love, and this is kind of building one upon the other, love abounding, growing in knowledge, growing in discernment, and then demonstrating excellence. With knowledge with all, this sermon that you may approve what is excellent. Jump over if you have your Bibles. If not, get a hem mill and rattle the pages. He says, Rejoice in the Lord, chapter four, verse four. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say again, 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. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is holy, whatever is commendable, if there's any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think about these things. That comes from that knowledge, that comes from that discernment, so that we can prove what is excellent, that we can prove that our lives can be a demonstrating evidence of the saving power of God's grace. And an authentic life, that's part of the excellency here. So you'll be pure and blameless in the day of Christ. Sometimes that's translated with sincerity. In Roman world, they would make a pot, and sometimes in the process it would become cracked. And so they would just take some filler and fill it in to hide the cracks. Now, it had the appearance of being a good pot, but on the inside it was still cracked. So what Paul is saying when Jesus in the New Testament talks about this sincerity, about this purity, is that there's no cracks. Nothing under the surface that's being hidden. That means we cast off secret sins. We cast off besetting sins. We don't fool ourselves in thinking, well, but nobody knows. Yeah, God knows. And he's saying, I want your life to be pure and be a demonstration of the grace of God. And finally, it's all for the glory of God. Filled with the fruit of righteousness, that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory of God. The fruit of righteousness is our transformed life. Our thought patterns change, our language changes, our habits change, our desires change. We're moving in a different direction. We're on this straight and narrow road. It's hard, it's difficult, it's crooked, it's steep. Very few find that road. It means we go against the flow. The world's rushing toward us, and we're standing, and we're walking, and we're going against the flow. We're headed to the goal line, and Jesus said there's a broad way that leads to destruction, and many find themselves on that broad way. But we're going upstream. We're going against the flow. We don't need to be arrogant. We don't need to be condescending. We don't need to be self-righteous. We need to be humble and know it's only by the grace of God that we're on this journey, but we're on this journey. And he's praying for this church at Philippi that they continue to grow, that their love increases, their understanding increases, their discernment increases, and the fruit of righteousness increases in their life. We can say, I'm not sure who said this first, I'm not what I ought to be, but I thank God I'm not what I used to be. Be confident in this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it under the day of Jesus Christ. Sometimes in our faith walk, we feel like we take one step forward and two steps back. I told you one of my favorite verses from Proverbs 24, though a righteous man falls down seven times, he keeps getting back up. So our life in Christ is a demonstration of thankfulness and a demonstration of joy. Well, we need joy in this world, don't we? We need joy. And it only comes through Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you, Father, for your faithfulness to us. Thank you, Father, for the work of your Holy Spirit, God the Holy Spirit, who brings this love to us. in the application of your saving grace to us in Christ, but Father, also enabling us to make those choices to love, to forgive, to pray, to grow in your grace and your truth. So Father, fill us with your joy, the joy of your salvation. Help us to Sincerely and honestly deal with sin in our life because it is a robber of that joy. David expressed that in Psalm 51. When he cried out, restore to me the joy of thy salvation. And so Father, fill our hearts with your joy and your love. Give us discernment in understanding truth. Help us never to compromise truth for the sake of unity. to compromise truth for a false expression of love. But Father, help us to truly love one another, that we might be a witness to this world. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.