At this time, I would invite you to open the Bible with me to the New Testament and the epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Philippians, chapter 4, verse 1. Philippians, chapter 4, verse 1, which can be found on page 900, that is, 982. of the Church Bible, 982. This passage seems to fit an occasion like this one, something of my swan song, though today is not really a farewell or even goodbye, and not only because we'll be around here and there until mid-March, For even when three of us, at any rate, depart more permanently for Africa, it'll still be more of a see you later than anything else. At any rate, I'm very grateful for this opportunity to spend another final Sunday, at least functionally, as your pastor. I stand here representing my family, certainly Jennifer and Joanna. looking ahead to Uganda with excitement and some fear and trembling, but also sad to let go of you all here at Covenant. I believe the sort of emotions which well up are evident in what Paul has to say here. A letter he wrote from a prison cell far away from the church at Philippi, as he conveys a sense of separation from a congregation he had helped to build and build up. In my case, I can feel the separation already, the sense of missing you, yet I can also relate to the hope Paul has of seeing the Philippian Christians again in the not-too-distant future with their paths destined still to intersect. So keeping these things in mind and taking them to heart, understanding the context here, let's give our strict and undivided attention to it, to the reading of God's holy, life-giving word, inspired, infallible, and inerrant. Again, Philippians 4, verse 1. Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my Beloved." Amen. Let the one who has ears to hear, hear what the Holy Spirit is saying. Brothers and sisters in Christ, I had this freshly impressed upon me recently, the reality of the internal call of God, something that ordained men know about, experiencing it, at least we're supposed to. With it comes this sturdy sense of purpose. I didn't ask for it. This is not my doing. This is not the unfolding of my plan. I ran away from God through my college years in particular without any real resolve or thoughts whatsoever of repenting and returning to Him one day, but our Heavenly Father intervened. He stopped me in my tracks. He called me back to Himself. I had no intention of going to seminary, to study, to train, to follow God's calling to be a pastor until one day the editor of the trade magazine I was writing for informed me that my work was so uninspiring that he would fire me within a month unless there was a dramatic change. Only then was I shaken out of my complacency and made, by the Holy Spirit I believe, to stop working just to collect a paycheck and to open my eyes to what I was really passionate for, namely kingdom work and specifically the possibility of pastoral ministry. And it certainly wasn't my burning desire to minister in predominantly Korean-American settings. for a time. But if I was to stop working as an assistant editor and then go to seminary in the then near future, I would need a source of income in the meantime so that I gave in to the badgering of my Korean friend who had been bugging me to teach English over in South Korea. So I did it, mainly for the money. to rid myself of debt and to save up tuition money for seminary. Not realizing that God would use it all to begin a work of enlarging my heart for Koreans and later on Korean-Americans and Asians and Asian-Americans more broadly. Something that would become a shared experience with my wife, Jennifer, right after we got married as I interrupted seminary. to go off with her to spend the first year of our marriage teaching English together back in Korea. And though it was my second time there, I was still going and taking my new bride with me largely for the money to finance not only my seminary training, but also the early years of our married life. God, it seems, though, had other ideas, bigger plans than just that. As we returned home, and I finished my degree program, and I began applying to all kinds of churches, only to have immigrant Korean American churches, the ones that would be showing the most interest. Apparently God had been preparing me and my wife for it all along. But he was just getting started. just warming up, as over a decade and three daughters later, we came to the conclusion that we had exhausted our usefulness there in such circles, and that maybe the next chapter was to be all about stability. No more moving around. It was time to hunker and settle down, which we have done, growing some roots here in Cedar Falls with all of you and within the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. with which I am so compatible in theology and practice, and to bring my parents here to Buddha. Only after 10 years to uproot again, for all the unknowns of service overseas in an environment notorious for being challenging, Covenant Presbyterian, let's just pretend and say you were with me before my conversion to Christ, maybe drinking a beer with me my senior year of college. It would have been OK. I would have been legal by then. And that you began outlining for me the next 33 or 34 years of my life, describing for me what I have just recounted to you. As you might guess, I would have rudely interrupted you. I would have stopped you short. I would have asked, hey, dude, forget what you're drinking. What in the world are you smoking? I never, ever could have possibly dreamed up or imagined anything like this. Becoming a Christian, and then a pastor, and on top of all that, following such a winding route with all kinds of twists and turns as a husband, father, and minister of the gospel. You gotta be kidding. Even after my conversion to Christ, I would have found the rest of the story, as it has unfolded so far, hard to believe. And yet as I reflect upon it, I know this, that I wouldn't trade it in for anything else in the world. It's been of the Lord, our triune God, and as always, He has known exactly what He is doing by His grace and for His glory, and His glory largely in the good of His people. I believe that our time here, despite our sins and shortcomings, has brought honor to his name, to the name of his son Jesus, and that our relationship here has testified to how Christ transcends everything else. How when, by his spirit, we rally around him, the things that might make us differ pale in comparison and fail to divide us. And I believe it has done his people good. Yes, I'm confident that he has used me for your good. You've helped reassure me of it. But I also know that he has used you for my good. As for instance, you have had a very sanctifying, stretching effect upon me as you have further taught me how and what it means to be a pastor. And such things really lie at the heart of what I want to bring to you this morning from God's Word. Because the powerful call of the Gospel to steadfastness in Jesus and the service of Jesus has as its aim the ongoing glory of God and the ongoing good of His people. We are to trust and obey what we have here in a pastor's parting plea. After all, while it is admittedly my plea, it is also and more fundamentally the authoritative divine word as it comes through the apostle and in the form of a plea he is making. So as I draw upon what the scripture says here, it amounts to at least these two things that I wish to highlight. What are we dealing with here? First, a call to stand firm worth paying attention to. A call to stand firm worth paying attention to. Church Paul is not unclear. Therefore, my brothers, he says, stand firm in the Lord. Meaning what? Well, as William Barclay points out, the New Testament Greek translated into English as stand firm was used of an infantryman standing fast in the shock of battle with the enemy surging down upon him. There are forces at work in this world, you see, that are hostile to Jesus Christ and those who follow after Him. And you and I, if we are Christians, need to stand firm, and as Paul is careful to put it, stand firm in the Lord through union and communion with Him and reliance upon Him. We need to hold our ground, hanging tough as we bear witness to Christ. as we persevere as soldiers of our Lord and Savior, realizing that we're on the winning side, that this world belongs to Him, that He has come to reclaim it, to redeem it. And that's a message that by the grace of God I've preached to you over the years, and that today I do not wish to deviate from. It comes in this case with a therefore, a little conjunction that signals something that we should hear what Paul has to say in light of what he has been saying. At the end of the preceding third chapter, for example, where Paul more or less says in verse 17, follow me and those like me, follow us in as much as we follow Christ. In verses 18 through 20, he explains that it boils down to imitating those who embrace Christ and all that he calls us to, to both a life of delayed gratification and a life of blessed hope. In other words, those who go against the grain and do not live for the idolatrous cravings of this world, be it for man's approval, Be it for things like comfort, control, pleasure, power, or the things that promise to bring them to us, like money, or social status, or worldly success, or maybe the most insidious one of all, self-righteousness. For the Philippians, being part of the Roman Empire was to help deliver these things to them. For us, it's pursuing the American dream, or even some Christianized version of it. Paul is pointing us to those who do not live for these things, because they hold out for something better. All that God is and will be for us in Christ. All that He guarantees us, purchased by His precious blood, at the price of which we belong to Him. Gaining a new master, and no longer mastered by our sin or by Satan or any of the dark powers that be. They live for Christ, for King Jesus and not for Caesar or some other earthly king or kingdom, revealing in the words of chapter 3, verse 20, that their citizenship is in heaven. And they bring something of heaven to earth as they know Christ and make him known. even if it means suffering. Not because of any greatness in them, but because of the infinite greatness of God and of all the many and massive promises to his people that he swears to make good on. That he is, present tense, making good on. A climactic and complete fulfillment of which they await. We wait, Paul continues in verses 20 and 21, a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body by the power that enables Him to subject, even to subject all things to Himself. One day at His return, the ascended and exalted Christ will raise from the dead His people People like us, and in the process, resurrect everything, bringing heaven to earth, bringing about the healing of all things, making this world what God has always intended it to be, even as He meets out judgment upon the wicked, those found outside of Jesus. Because of this, Because it swallows up everything else. Paul and those like him are willing to endure whatever it takes to live for Christ. It's a reality well illustrated in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, in the C.S. Lewis story, as I heard another pastor and friend once point out, when he cited a certain line from Mr. Tumnus, the faun, who wouldn't cave in to the pressure being put upon him by Queen Jadus. to side with her and against his friends, even if it meant being turned into a stone by her, saying what? Saying, I believe in a free Narnia. Do you believe in Jesus, and in a free world as a result, and the life of the world to come, and how it has already dawned in His bodily resurrection? Then you will live like it. following those who show you the way. Now, a significant part of me has often shied away from calling upon the likes of you to follow the likes of me. I question my own example when it comes to embodying the supreme valuing of God and His promises in Christ. And yet I've learned that I can't shirk the responsibility that, especially as a pastor or missionary evangelist or teacher, I have to model what it is to be a Christian and not just proclaim it. And if, by the grace of God, I have been an example to you worth following at all, I want to acknowledge some people, some people that God has used along the way to mold and shape me. I'll go in chronological order. First, my parents. I'll start with my father. He was always there for me. Always. From playing ball with me and the other kids in the neighborhood to imparting the wisdom of his experience as I grew up. He was and is the opposite extreme of the deadbeat dad. And then there's my mother. who introduced me to Christ as I grew up, who prayed for me, who prayed for me even when I became the quintessential prodigal son, who nevertheless gave me the space I needed to learn by experience on my own that the way of transgressors is hard, as it says in Proverbs 13, verse 15 in the King James Version. And she remains to this day a constant source of encouragement, to be a godly man at home, in the church, and in the world. Second, my wife, Jennifer, you may not know her story in lots of detail, but she had a humble upbringing. She was taught the value of delayed gratification from an early age, and I know that during Her time here, she has willingly delayed being gratified many times. Not that I was out gallivanting, but I'm thinking mostly of the late nights when I still had sermon prep to do or a shepherding visit to make or another marathon-like session meeting to be at. when she was often at home with Miriam and Lydia and Joanna, but without the presence and support of her husband and their father, and in many ways alone, humanly speaking. And Jennifer, you of all people know that I'm not some idyllic husband, but I do love you and want to publicly thank God for you. for the heart he has given you for his kingdom to sacrifice and set me free to serve the church. I couldn't ask for a better and more lovely partner in life and in ministry. Third, I am going to point to others in this church family, even if for a brief moment. Well, just to let everyone else off the hook, I'll just pick on Ed Olthoff. who has endured those long session meetings with me, with their prayers for the saints and those thorny dilemmas to work through in pastoring people, and who attended almost every presbytery meeting with me, who was never harsh but always helpful when I had my own personal struggles to confess, and who did and still does it all, so disconnected from the internet, so remarkably off the grid, to a degree, anyway. The bottom line, though, is that I am learning. I am learning to follow Christ in every model I can find who points me to Christ and Christ-likeness. And as someone who has been your pastor and not sure When I will see you again, once Lord willing we're gone this spring, I encourage you, I exhort you to do the same, to so stand firm in the Lord. And that takes me to something else we need to hone in on. For what else do we have here? First, a call to stand firm, worth paying attention to. Second, A call to end time joy worth pursuing. A call to end time joy worth pursuing. Beloved, just listen to how Paul addresses the Philippians. Not only as my brothers, which is a generic term embracing both brothers and sisters, just in case you're wondering, but as those I love and long for. As my joy and crown. As my beloved. as he repeats his usage of a form of the word for sacrificial love, agape. John Calvin points out that these are not terms of flattery, but of real, sincere affection, of truly Christian love. Paul loves the Philippians with the love of Christ, and I am happy to say that I can echo these words when it comes to you, Covenant. I love you with the love of Christ. such that I'm not interested in being merely nostalgic. Though I do have to confess there are plenty of memories that I don't plan on forgetting anytime soon. Make no mistake about it, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Baptizing children and adults, leading people to profess their faith as the Lord would add to His church, difficult pastoral cases, Not always above and beyond the need for discipline. Hours upon hours of listening and counseling. You putting up with me, not just me putting up with you. Slogging our way through COVID and all that mess. Trying with his aid to do right by God and his people. Trying this, that, and the other thing when coming to outreach from international fairs to Reformation weekends to a Christianity mental health and the church conference. Being part of guiding us to a unified push towards handicap accessible bathroom construction, which finally materialized, along with the training and certifying and electing and ordaining of new office bearers. doing a skit with a member of the congregation about to retire as a mailman. All praise and thanks be to God. I could even mention the stink bomb episode. But then I checked myself, remembering that was actually a different church when I was more involved in youth-specific ministry. But as wonderful as so many of the memories are, as God's bygone grace is, I'm looking forward to what lies ahead, because God has grown me in my love for you in such a way that I have invested myself and all my efforts as a pastor into your hearts and lives, to be one of His instruments, to lead you to faith in Christ and Christ alone, and in and through Him, forgiveness of sins and eternal life. salvation and sanctification, to be one of his instruments, to equip you to be his witnesses in this world, at home, at work, at school, at play, wherever he plants you, all in anticipation of and preparation for the day of judgment, when Christ will graciously, joyfully reward all who belong to Him. Paul has had a stake in the Philippians' Christian faith, and I've had a stake in yours. So with Paul, when I think of your joy in the Lord, inaugurated now and consummated then, I think of it as my joy. This end-time joy, eschatological joy, if you will. So that with Paul, when I think of you being crowned on the last day, I think of it as my crown. You, made one with Christ, are a significant part of my own joy and crown covenant. word translated crown and its original usage, again, according to Barclay, could refer to the victorious athletes being awarded a crown or to being crowned as a guest at a banquet or on some other occasion of great joy. I think all of those images apply here. What exactly am I saying? That more than the memories, I am clinging to the hope. of seeing you again, not only in this life, but in the life to come, when our Lord crowns his own. When my own joy will be maximized when I see you being crowned, knowing that God somehow took and used me, allowing me to have a hand in it, along with others, like perhaps the next man he calls here, with his agents and very junior and subordinate partners, including, but not limited to those holding the office of minister, of course. It's a way of sharing in our Lord's own joy, who laid down his life to make atonement for sin, to bring all of these things about, knowing how worth it it would be in the end. so that whenever I've been tempted to quit, to throw in the towel, or to simply withdraw and safeguard myself a little from the pains of ministry, the love of Christ compels me not to. It's as if the Lord says to me, you're going to let your love grow cold over what you've suffered at times when I have gladly suffered the equivalent of hell itself upon the cross to bring you and those you serve to glory. It's as if He says to me, you get back in the game and you keep on as I give you your second wind in the Holy Spirit. So that I can't tire of saying it, so that I won't tire of saying it, whether it's now or in any of my future interactions with you, continue in repentance and faith, faith in Jesus Christ. Press on to the very end. Persevere as the Spirit of Christ perseveres in you, as I myself must persevere. That we all might make it to glory in the end and experience the reunion of all reunions. That the memories we now share will only end up being the beginning of our story, a story of God's grace upon us, a story that will not end, a story that will culminate in endless beauty to our Lord's fame and renown. As you two are crowned and will be made fully conscious of it, the difference you make in the Lord's hands, having it unveiled then, everything from loving and supporting your pastors and their families to the way you led others to Christ and enabled their nurture and discipleship. And as according to the book of Revelation, we are all crowned, and then do what? But cast them all, every single crown, at His feet, which will make everything we go through to get there again. worth it, more than worth it. And let me throw this in as well, because it's very central to the plot line. When I say persevere in faith, one thing I mean is persevere as a community together. I believe Paul here takes us in this very direction that when he says, stand firm thus in the Lord, he is partly referring to what he says next. including what we find in chapter four, verses two and three. In his word to two of the leading ladies of the Philippian church, to with the help of the church, stop quarreling and agree in the Lord. In so doing, he is calling the Philippian church to guard their sense of Christian community and of the communion of the saints, to manifest their oneness in Christ, to be at harmony with one another because of him. When it comes to you, one God-given strength I see in you is your sense of community. You're being such a peaceful bunch, not given over to conflict and contention or to things like gossip and backbiting. Freedom from such is a precious thing and unique, hard to find. And yet it's possible for one's strength to be one's weakness at one and the same time if it's taken for granted. So don't do it. Don't let it happen. Prayerfully preserve and pursue it all the more. I'm talking about you growing and taking things to the next level as a community where you are encouraging one another to persevere and not causing one another to stumble. Doing what's required to cultivate and show a united front. Thus, enhancing your testimony to the world around you as you portray Christ even more clearly. That people might be drawn to him through you. That they might join the likes of you and me on this pathway of persevering faith. bound for the heavenly city. First, call to stand firm, worth paying attention to. Second, a call to end-time joy, worth pursuing. Dear brothers and sisters, in conclusion, I'll just say this, that while I'm looking forward to seeing the fruit of it all in the age to come, I'm also looking forward to measuring your progress in the meantime, as much as is humanly possible when enabled by God's Spirit, I can't wait to hear reports and I can't wait to see it for myself whenever, as the Lord permits, I and we get the chance to come back and visit. You've promised to pray for me and my family as we step out in faith and minister the gospel and seek to raise up and train pastors and pastors-to-be and other leaders and build up the church directly and indirectly in East Africa. as Christ extends and deepens His reign, and we'll be praying for you, too, to impact the Cedar Valley and beyond. We'll be praying confidently, too, knowing that our God doesn't start something without finishing it. You can look it up in this book of Philippians, chapter 1, verse 6, knowing that He has obviously started and maintained a very special and unique work of His grace here. We've been privileged just to be a part of it, to participate in one of the chapters of this book. So that means we're praying for one another. That we're still in this thing together. And along with the God we know in Christ, there's no one we'd rather be in it with than you, our cherished church family here at Covenant Presbyterian. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, please pour out your blessing upon the ministry of your Word, working by your Spirit, even as it is about to be reinforced through the sacrament. Take the message I have delivered and, as you have encouraged my own heart, encourage all of your people in this place, even as we say farewell, goodbye, but not of a sort that is characterized by finality, for our relationship continues, our bond in Jesus Christ remains, and the work of His kingdom is something we will keep participating in, even if in different places in a variety of ways. For your glory, would you do it? Would you bless your children to persevere in repentance and faith in you and your Son to the very end? As beyond this life, we look forward to being gloriously and unendingly reunited with the fellowship of your immediate presence and that of one another on the horizon, all praise and thanks to the dying and doing of Jesus for sinners like us, his resurrection, his triumph over death and over every principality. These things we pray in the Savior's name. Amen.