Well, the session extends the privilege of the pulpit to the Reverend Mark Sumter. And Mark, if you want to come on, Mark is the regional home missionary for our Presbytery, the Presbytery of the Southwest, and helping with planting of churches throughout the Presbytery. But he comes to you this morning as a preacher of the gospel. And Mark, we look forward to you leading us to Christ. Let's bow together in prayer. Let's pray. Our gracious father, how we thank you that we are not alone as we open your word. You accompany us. Indeed, you make yourself especially known in the preaching of the word as we are your servants. We thank you, Father, that even as we open the passage together, It is your spirit who would teach us and lead us, all with a view that our hearts would deepen in devotion, in the knowledge and the love for and service unto our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son. And so be our help and our strength. Indeed, may we return to you hearts full of praise and thanksgiving, even as your word is open to us. We ask this now in Jesus' name and all for his sake. Amen. I have to work at what we might call conversationally speaking, I have to work at plotting, going at a pace, maybe a consistent pace, step after step after step in life. My nature is to live life with fits and starts, the starts and the stops. In that regard, I'm not really much of a plotter. It's kind of interesting that my last name being Sumpter, it is from the Latin and the French that means pack mule. And yet I find myself really not much of a plotter. I want to submit to you that one of the lessons that we draw from Philippians 1 at verse 6 is that there is to be a plotting, a pace about which we are concerned to be those who are giving thanks to God. It doesn't happen all at one worship service. Thanksgiving to God does not happen all in one season, even as we here in America set aside the day, the day coming soon, to give thanks. There's to be a plotting about it, a pace about it. Something that reminds us from this passage, Philippians 1 at verse 6, of some chronology. Think with me as I read the passage here, verse 6, being confident of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. You see, there's some there's some chronology here in view, and it's not too much of a stretch to be thinking that Indeed, because of the Lord's work, having the opening of this, this mighty grace that comes to us in a day of what we would say is our experience of that grace. He who began that good work in you. Now we know Paul is going to speak even here in other places about that eternal counsel of God. But the gospel comes to us in faith and repentance and through the instruction of a pastor, our parents, boys and girls, your moms and dads teaching you and leading you. And it may be something very memorable or something not memorable at all. But you know, in the course of discipleship, the course of everyday life, the course of following your Savior, the Lord Jesus, there's something in our experience by saying, yes, God is at work. And thus it's permissible to be thinking of some chronology here He who began that good work in you will carry it on unto that day of Christ Jesus. And thereby, there's a pacing. There is a plodding along. It doesn't happen all at once. So Paul is calling us to hear this pacing of being a thankful people. Why? in this passage because our God is faithful. He's constant. He is ever attending. He is ever overseeing. He is ever cultivating. He's ever enduring in His love and His power. So do you think of yourself as being in this long haul of discipleship down the road of life saying, yes Lord, You who began that glorious work of grace in my life and you're carrying me on throughout the completion of those days of grace unto that day of Christ Jesus, plotting, are you thinking yourself as pacing on that marathon of indeed being a life of offering unto God His thanksgiving. Think with me over a couple of points based on this fact that indeed we are to be plotters because of the chronology of grace that is being at work in our hearts and lives. There is, first of all, a plotting or a pacing of thanksgiving according to His work of beginning. Those are our words. Verse 6, He who has begun. There is a thanksgiving according to the work of beginning. And the focus, you see, is rightly on God. He is the Lord. He is the one and all of his majesty and all of his splendor and dominion, certain with with with the apostle thinking that he who began were being were being reminded, even if it's just it's it's underlying in the words or they're just under the surface of the words are being reminded that our God exists as the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. eternally existing one and yet three distinct persons. And thus we have our God who begins. He who has begun this is speaking in the first place about Jesus. He has given himself over to pacing. in that life of being devoted to his father under the father's service. We have it in John chapter 17. This was Jesus earthly life for us. He said to his father, I have glorified you on Earth. I have finished the work which you have given me to do for Jesus to be speaking about finishing. We understand something that he knew of his beginning. Father, Son, and Spirit. He's the one who's been appointed in this eternal counsel of our God and our God has ushered forth or issued forth His plan of salvation. Jesus is the one appointed under the task in this earthly ministry to carry out this work. It began with Him. He is the firstborn. He is the elect of God. of the first of the election of our God. His son is the one appointed for the task from eternity. The planet set forth he would come. And the course of his life would be this case. This plotting. Of giving over his life unto his father to be stayed on his father. It is the sun communing. It is the Son given over in that heartfelt service, that heartfelt obedience. There's the gospel for us. Jesus came for us. Jesus lived for us. He died for us. He rose for us. This is the one in whom all the wisdom, the knowledge of our great God indeed is embodied. He is the one who is altogether righteous. He is the one who's altogether compassionate, full of pity. He's the one who's altogether expressive of that heartfelt, righteous devotion of thanksgiving, that pure devotion of thanksgiving. And it begins here in the eternal counsel of our God, Father, Son, and Spirit. And Jesus is commissioned with such an appointment. And you see the point now. When Paul relays these words, he who has begun a good work in you, Paul is saying that eternal counsel and that plan and Jesus, who is our life, who is our thanksgiving. You know, the book of Hebrews in one place summarizes his life as the son who learned obedience. And what was he doing? Offering up prayers and petitions and supplications. He's the son who learned obedience, and that's how the writer to the book of Hebrews summarizes his life. He gave himself over unto his father in service. The point is, shouldn't this shape our own understanding about matters of beginnings? How do we approach a fresh start? How do we approach new obedience? How do we approach new repentance, new faith, Paul says the backdrop is he who began a good work in you. He who began that work in you. By taking Jesus Christ by faith, we come under his Lordship. We come under his sovereignty. And we say, Lord, my life now in Christ by faith and being united to Jesus by the Spirit's Word. We say, Lord, my life is all yours. It's all yours. And so every new start every new day. We've just sung the words here. Great is thy faithfulness. Through your mercies were not consumed. Indeed, your faithfulness is new every morning. Each day there's a pacing. My life belongs to the Lord. He who began that work. It's a new day to begin in that sense of repenting and turning over Thanksgiving to our father. You see, with the doctrine of election right here in front of us, with the Lord Jesus Christ, God's very Son, who received that first appointment, it's all according to mercy and grace. He told his disciples, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit. And this is the thanksgiving that we're talking about. It's undeserved favor. Undeserved kindness. Undeserved mercy. Were we seeking Him? No. Were we in some capacity inclined toward Him? No. Given to spiritual interests? Already predisposed? Readied? Inclined? Showing somehow that we're a good fit with His plan? A good fit with His interests? No and no and no. Every day is that new start of resting in grace. Every day is that new start of saying, Lord, I'm here as a thank offering to You. And since we made no contribution to our salvation, since we didn't start anything, we can have wonder and marvel and be given to faith, a faith of expectation. Lord, what is it? And how might I give you thanks with this new repentance? What is it and how might I give you thanks? in this new opportunity, this new responsibility before me. And so there's a pacing throughout our lives where we're coming to those junctures and intersections of life where there's something new, a responsibility, an opportunity, or indeed new and deepened devotion in Christ Jesus. He who began that good work. We didn't contribute to any of it in the first place. Have you ever considered yourself to be borrowing thanks from our God? If Jesus is our head, and he is, and chiefly known as one who prayed, and he did, in Christ Jesus, we draw down the resources of Christ and his strength to be a thankful people day by day. And that's why he would hide in secret to go and pray, and his disciples would find him. We've been looking for you, Master, and he's there devoted in prayer. That's why we have him repeatedly saying, Father, and he would break the bread or he would multiply the loaves and he would pray, he would serve. He's turning to his father in communion. He said, I have come to do the will of him who sent me. Do you have an anticipation? Of Thanksgiving. with any areas of life that might be new for you. This idea of chronology is with us in the passage. He who began, Father, I'm Yours. You're calling me here. There's the opportunity there. There's this important responsibility tomorrow back at work here. Something new. Some juncture. Some intersection. He who began, that good work in you will carry it on to completion. pacing with that thanksgiving, his day to day faithfulness in your life. Indeed, he will never leave you nor forsake you. Anticipate, anticipate that he will meet you with provision and you will turn it all over to thanksgiving each day. One other point. Secondly, if there's not only a thanksgiving according to what he begins, But there's this other idea of more of the chronology and the time kind of spectrum that we have in the passage. There's Thanksgiving. Also, according to his work, his good work, which leads unto completion. Thanksgiving, according to his good work, leading unto completion into that day of Christ Jesus. The passage goes on. He was begun a good work in you. Will complete it. Will complete it. The power of God's electing love, the setting of his love upon your heart, that he might kindle afresh that newness of obedience, that faith and repentance and turning to Christ. It is not a raw, bare, sterile. Power and love and wisdom. Paul connects the word here good. Philippians 1.6, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you. The verse does not read this way. The verse does not go this way, that He who has begun a work in you. It's His goodness. His expression of love, His expression of power, His expression from all eternity of His electing love is to be set upon you and set upon you for goodness. His good work in you. Why the words, good work in you? Unto the completion of it until the day of Christ Jesus. This is God's eternal love set on you for His purpose. His plan. His orchestration. He holds you in the palm of His hands and He nurtures you. He fathers you. deep compassion, fatherly care, day by day, faithful and constant in his own pacing of that love to carry you, even as the NIV says, and we've read this morning, to carry it on to the day of completion in Christ Jesus. What is that good purpose? What is that good work? What is that fatherly good purpose? Is that He might make us more and more after the image and the likeness of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 8, 28, and we know that all things work together for good. To those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose, for whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. So what does this spell for us? What does this mean for us in the plotting, in the pacing of thanksgiving throughout our lives? This good work that He has begun in your heart and life, brothers and sisters, moms and dads, boys and girls, is that good work of security. It's security here connected that He's going to carry you. If the first part of the passage was speaking about the chronology that He who began, and we're thinking of new opportunities and new responsibilities, new repentance, new faith, new prayer, New initiative in ministry, discipleship, and service. This is now not speaking about newness, but carrying you through. The good purpose of conforming you increasingly to follow Jesus. More likely, when we have the doubts, the hardships, The Philippians knew disunity, the Philippians knew interpersonal conflict. The Philippians knew suffering. It's been granted to you. Not only to believe, Paul will say later in the chapter. Granted to you not only to believe, but to suffer. For Christ, so likely this carrying it on to completion. We speak of that shapening work, that nurturing work of conforming us to Christ Jesus more and more. The pacing and the plotting, then, is an anticipation. Lord, in this hardship, I anticipate by faith, faith in Christ Jesus, united to the Spirit, that you will increase Thanksgiving here, Lord. I may not see it now. I'm at the hospital with my wife, my beloved son or daughter. I'm learning of the possible dismissal of the job coming to me. Downsizing. I'm quite concerned for a new little one and her care in home. I'm concerned about aged parents. I'm concerned, Lord, about some area where there's been a hardship with interpersonal conflict. Lord, you know the situation, the passage. He who began that good work. He will fatherly nurture you, carry you. And you say, Father. You know my heart. I am not ready at this moment with thanksgiving, but oh God, I come in Christ. I come anticipating that You will lead me in such a way that there will be the thanksgiving that will come from my heart even in this hardship. He will carry it on until the day of Christ Jesus. My name, Sumter, means to be a plotter, a pack mule. I have to work hard at plotting, at pacing. I typically live life with the on and off switch, fits and starts. I'm being called in this text to plot, to pace, to pace out. to anticipate a greater constancy of Thanksgiving through the chronology of life, the seasons of life. Boys and girls that you might have a Thanksgiving that you know right now is boys and girls that will that will perhaps deepen and go in other directions as you become the 15 year old or the 19 year old young Marys that are here this morning. A Thanksgiving that you have that's deep in your own ways will grow even deeper in your 40s or your 50s. Those in your middle years, your middle age years, you're serving the Lord. And you're looking back over life. And yet there's that deepening. He's walking with you and there'll be more seasons of pain carrying you through until the completion. And those of us as senior adults, we're looking back and saying, he's been with us. Lord, carry me. I don't know what's around the corner here soon. The months or years just ahead. Perhaps some of the twilight of my life is beginning to be seen. Lord, carry me until the day of Christ Jesus. But all you see is its pacing. This is its pacing. This plodding along. Lord, you are the God to receive all thanksgiving. To plod it out. To pace it out. Why? Because our God and Father is the God who himself who paces it out with his compassions. His compassions will not fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. At one point in the Gospel of Luke, we're told in the Bible there that Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem. Read that he was pacing out, setting his face to go to the cross. And his compassions would not fail. His mercies would endure. His love indeed would be everlasting. Because at the cross. He completed the work that his father had given him to do. How much more so? How much more? As he holds us, frail as we are, weak in our sins, consumed with worry, threat, fear, he will carry us. He who has begun that good work in us will carry it on to completion unto Christ Jesus. What security that we can say, Lord, my life, this season, this that is before me, is for you another moment and opportunity and a heart of thanksgiving. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, the range of needs represented in the congregation this morning would be a range of needs that you fully know about. Be pleased to show us new repentance, new areas of faith and service and life. Be pleased, O God, in the seasons where there may be hardship and trial, difficulties, Show us, O God, that you are faithful, constant, ever carrying us. And, O God, may it be that we take these promises of your great praise, of your mighty works, and we turn them back to you for prayer and service and devotion. Increase our thanks. Take us, O God, that you might receive the praise day by day, week by week, month by month. You are our God. You've demonstrated your great love. We are your sons and daughters. Lead us forth in discipleship, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.