Amen. So thank you. So we're looking at this text and I wanted to kind of start off by just kind of going back so that we can understand why Paul is rejoicing and why he is encouraging them to rejoice. And I think there are some things in the text that we just ought to kind of look at by way of understanding. And so When we look at this text particularly, There are some words that are just so beautiful that Paul uses, like deep affections. He has the deepest affections. You see him use that word first in chapter 1, then he uses it again in chapter 2. And in chapter 2, there are a series of commands that he's giving or volitional statements, statements that Paul expects or desires an outcome from. And those are the ones that I kind of want to look at. Then when we do that, then I want to focus on the last bit of this letter. So if you look at your notes there that I handed out, I've kind of broken it down in this way, verses 1 through 4, the plea, verses 5 through 11, the example, and then verses 12 through 18, this is how we do it. So when you start looking at that, The reason I broke it down that way is because each of those sections starts off with what we would call in English a command, but it's a volitional statement. It's something that Paul desires from them. And so when we look at this first command in verses one through four, he starts off with, make my joy complete. Make my joy complete. And he prefaces that by saying, if there's any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation of the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy. by being of the same mind, having the same love, and being in full accord, or one mind and one mind. And being there in full accord, the way that's kind of translated, but it can also be translated with the same soul, having the same soul, having this desire that unifies them. And so Paul starts off with, make my joy complete, fill my joy." And then he tells them, this is how you go about doing that. So I want us to keep that in mind as we're working through this text, right? So Paul says, this is how we do it. We have the same love. We being in one in soul, we think the same things. We don't do things from selfish ambitions and not according to vain glory. When you guys learn Greek, if you guys learn Greek, you'll be able to pick up these words, kenosis and kenotic and all this other stuff. But this idea of vain glory, what is vain glory? What does that mean? Selfish ambition and vain glory. Has anybody pursued vain glory before? So I think it's hard to explain that because none of us think about vain glorious. Were you going to say something Kelsey? Oh, I just saw you raise your hand. So this idea of pursuing things that are empty, It's an empty glory. What's beautiful about, there's a play on word in there that is beautiful, this vain glory and the kenosis of Christ. It's a play on that word that Paul is using and kind of bringing up. to us to bring this idea. The emptying of Christ into humanity was not vain. That was a veiling of the glory of God, which is, was a wonderful way to put that. It is not that God or Christ or the Son of God lost His glory. It is rather that it was veiled. And when you read in Hebrews, He enters through the veil that was his flesh, right? So he tears that off and you see him in the resurrection and the ascension, this glorious Christ, right? And where else do you see the glory of Christ? Where else? Transfiguration, man, the mountaintop experience where Peter says, hey, hey, we should build three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah, right? And God says, shut up. This is my son. They're not the same. And Peter cowers in fear, and the next thing you know, Jesus is touching him on the shoulder. How beautiful is that? But this idea of this glory that is in Christ, and the Gospel of John tells us that we beheld his glory, glory as if the only begotten of the Father, right? And that word begotten, we have to be very careful with that word, monogenao versus monogenaes. Monogenaes means unique. He is the unique Son of God. So we are sons and daughters of God, but we're not Him, right? He is unique. He's the only one in that category, and so that is beautiful. So, how do we stop from pursuing vainglory? Focus on God, right? And what should we focus on? The word? Yeah, so the word. And does Paul help us in this letter by giving us a focus? As a matter of fact, the word that he uses right after that, Julie, is consider this. Not only, when you look at verse 5, the word there is Having this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus. But in the language it is fronete, which means deeply consider this. I mean deeply meditate on this. Right? And then he gives us this example. So Paul is saying, make my joy complete by having this attitude. Not only look out for yourselves, but look out for other people. Do nothing from selfish ambition or pursuing vain glory. And now I want you to consider the example of Christ. And then he starts off, and so if I were to ask you guys, what were the two states of Christ while he was here? And I know that you may not be familiar with this terminology, but some of you may be. The two states of Christ. Right? And I want us to kind of, the reason I'm introducing you to the theological terminology is because we are called to reason, and we are called to understand, and we're called to be able to use the words when we need to. It's kind of like going to a doctor, and they go, oh, you have a contact dermatitis. And you go, what does that mean? Oh, you got skin infection. Why don't you just say that, man? You got a skin infection, you got that, I can track with that, right? So there's a professional vocabulary that has been developed, and it's important to just be familiar with it. You don't need to know all of it, but just be familiar with it. So there are two states of Christ, right? There is the humiliation, and the exaltation. There's one more state that this particular common Christi, the Son of Christ, covers. So I want you to notice in verse 6, who in the form of God existing, so you have this pre-incarnate, which all that means is before, in, meet. So when we eat chili con carne, all we're eating is chili with meat. Incarnate means in meat. So pre-incarnate means before he was in meat. I know it's kind of crude. I know it sounds really bad, but you'll never forget that, right? Before he became flesh, he existed in the form of God, because he is God. Right? So you have this pre-incarnate state of Christ, and then what you have with the humiliation is everything after that, which is the incarnation, the passion, the death, the entombment, And then on this side, you have the resurrection, the ascension, the session, and the return. So I know my spelling is probably worse than Jim's, and that's okay. But the exaltation, and I think I have a footnote for you guys, and I referred you down to Wayne Grudem, and he's got a couple of little, he's got a little book, what, 20 Things I Think Christians Should Know, which is worth getting. It's just a little paperback, real thin. And then he's got his bigger commentaries. But it's really important to kind of understand this Can anybody tell me why these two states matter to us? Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, this is, yeah, this is, yeah. Well, the one that we're in, and we actually, we are in because we're seated right now. I know, I know you're saying, no, John, I'm seated in the Fellowship Paul Attorney Baptist Church, but the Bible says you're seated right now in the heavenly places in Christ. You are seated with him right now, right? Okay, so that's one way. So there's this sense in that we are living now and we're moving towards a particular direction. But why would this be important for us as Christians? Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And Paul is arguing against this idea, this dualistic idea in this chapter about the Greeks had the idea that the physical was really bad and the spiritual was really, really good. And so Paul is making this argument in 1 Corinthians 15 that If Christ is not raised from the dead, and when you find that verse, what happens? The price hasn't been paid. And if the price hasn't been paid, where are we? and sin, dead in our sins and trespasses, right? And then Paul follows that on with, it was co-opted by rock and roll, but Paul started it first, eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die. In other words, party hardy, dude, because you're dead, right? So, the resurrection, this exaltation of Christ is tied into this propitiation. Does anybody know what that word means? Yes. Look at you, man. You're like a budding theologian guy, man. That's exactly right. The wrath of God. Now, is the wrath of God bad? It's holy, so it's a holy wrath. What does that mean? It is just. We look at the wrath of God, and when we think about our wrath, has anybody ever here been wrathful, right? We would all like to say, well, Jesus got mad too, right? So I'm justified. But when we get wrathful, nine out of 10 times, we're irrational. The wrath of God is the perfect justice of God being meted out. That is why this exalted state is important. Because if Jesus is not exalted, the sacrifice that was offered on the cross of Calvary was not effective. And if it's not effective, then you and I have to give an answer for our sins and our trespasses. And I don't know about you, but I got nothing. This is important. If Christ was not incarnate, if Christ did not suffer, if Christ did not die, if Christ was not entombed, then this wouldn't happen, and we would still be in our sins and trespasses. So when we look at the Carmen Christi, there's a lot of stuff that's happening in this song But we are being walked through in a very, very concise way the pre-incarnate state of the Son of God, the submission and obedience of the Son of God to God the Father, the humanity of the Son of God, the atoning work of the Son of God, and the exaltation of the Son of God. So I want you to look at verse 11 in chapter 2 real quick, and then I want to move on. So somebody read verse 11, chapter 2. And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Can I get a witness? I love that verse, man. I love that verse. Why? So what's so important that Jesus Christ is Lord? Let's look at this word, Lord. Oh, wait a minute, I gotta do lowercase this word in the New Testament. Why is that word significant and why is it significant here? Huh? He takes his what? He takes his place in the Godhead? I like what you're saying. I want to tweak your answer just a little bit, okay? But I'm sorry, hold on to that. He takes his place, but why is it significant? They refer to God in total as Lord, right? So in the Old Testament, it's spelt like this. When you see this, what you're seeing is this. Yahweh, right? This going this way. which was translated before as Jehovah. So what is being said here about Jesus? He's God. Yes, He's the God of the Old Testament covenant. He is the Lord. So that's the tweaking of your answer. He's not just, this is who he is. And what's beautiful about this is that when we start talking about the triune nature of God, so we do it like this, right? So God, wait a minute, this way, God, God, God, not, not, not, not, but the Son of God also has intersection with humanity. And there's this overlap where the Son of God and humanity, and this is called the hypostatic union. That is significant because Jesus is truly God and truly man. So on the one hand, he represents all of us. On the other hand, he is God himself. There's something called the interpenetration of the Trinity, which is a theological concept, but that is kind of It's kind of a little hard sometimes to grasp, but that when Jesus says, if you've seen me, Philip, you've seen the Father, right? If you've seen the Father, then you've seen the Holy Spirit. If you've seen the Holy Spirit, you've seen the Son. In other words, you can't separate God into pieces. He is God. But this overlap, With humanity, this is where the God-man atones for us. And so when you look at this, Carmen Christie, and you start thinking about it, there's some other wording that's in there that's a little bit more. gets the imagery going better, but just understand that Paul is making some referrals back to the Old Testament, and this idea of Christ hanging on the cross is so heinous to the Jews. Why is it bad for somebody to hang on a cross overnight? It's a curse. Who said that? Okay, excellent. It's a curse. Cursed is every man who hangs on a tree. So now you get the, what Paul's talking about. He became a curse for us. And that's beautiful. So we talked about all of this stuff here. So why does that, why does any of this really matter in our lives, right? I mean, so if theology is not, is theology practical? How is it practical? It helps us understand everything better, so understanding should lead to what? A better relationship, which means we should be living in submission and obedience to Christ. Yes. It's not just head knowledge. I mean, James tells us demons have head knowledge, and they do what? They tremble. And in the Gospels, if you look at all the demonic accounts that Jesus has with all of those bad spirits, they all recognize who he is. The demons always get it right in the Gospels. They never get it wrong. People get it wrong all the time. So theology is very practical. It is very, very, very, very practical. So Paul starts off and he tells them, make my joy complete. And how would you sum up those first four verses? What is Paul telling them? If you have to sum it up, like bottom line up front. Why are you smiling, Don? I'm watching them from here. It's Rebecca, Jonathan, Sophia, and Hannah. Bottom line up front, how would you sum that up? You tell it to your kids all the time. Trust and obey. There's no better way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey. All right, Tristan, what were you going to say, Julia? Basically what I was going to say, but differently. Don't do anything out of self. You know, not being conceited, not having a bad attitude, All right. So if I say this, if I go, okay, I'm not a musician, letting you know right up front, bro. So if you want to critique, that's okay. It's not going to hurt my feelings one bit. All you need is. All you need is love. Love is all you need. And so what is Paul really telling him at the end of the day? Love God, love one another. If you do that, then you're gonna make me so happy. Isn't that what we tell our kids? once we're through yelling at him, and then, you know, stop doing that, stop doing, he's your brother, that's your sister, you don't do that, blah, blah, blah, blah, and then you say, you need to love one another, right? Love. Love covers a multitude of sins. You've heard that, right? It's in the Bible, right? What does that really mean? It'll keep you from sinning, for the most part, like you won't. You get that idea of like you first, or other before me, Like I know, I'm not going to treat them like their mama should have treated them. Yeah, right? So if I say God is love, love covers a multitude of sins. God covers a multitude of sins. Paul is all he's saying to them is, hey, love one another. And this is how you do that. Have the same attitude, think better of one another. And let me give you an example. And so now let's turn to this other section here. And we talked about the humiliation. I kind of broke that down for you guys, kind of some thoughts that I had there, and you can add to it. We talked about the name. Oh, this is what I wanted to talk to you guys about. So, when we look at the name Jesus Christ, what are we really looking at there? Say again? Messiah. Yeah, Jesus Messiah. So I heard this a long time ago. I was listening to John MacArthur. One of the things that I would say that was lacking when I first became a Christian was discipleship. Like men coming alongside men and saying, hey, this is how you live as a Christian. So I was converted by Christ, but I was still living like a pagan because nobody taught me anything, and so I started listening to John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul, Alistair Begg, those guys, John Piper, though John Piper gets too emotional for me, so I just, I have to, everything is so, John MacArthur I like, he's just like straightforward, like, hey man, this is it. John Piper's like, oh, and this, and I'm like, bro, I got you, but it's too much. But, so when we start, Looking at this, when we look at this, we are looking at Lord, Jesus, Christ. These are all titles. They're titles. Lord, God, Jesus, salvation is of Yahweh, which goes back to what we're talking about there, and Christ is Messiah or anointed one. Literally, the Hebrew means smear. He's the smeared one. So when we're reading Lord Jesus Christ, we are reading titles. Those are statements that are being made about who Christ is, who this man is. And that is when you look at the gospel of Luke, the big question that's going on through the gospel of Luke is by what authority? And particularly when you start seeing how that is being played out through that whole gospel, you see it with the centurion when he goes, no, don't even come into my house. Only say it, I'm a man under authority, and I tell this one to go here, and I tell this one to go there, and they do it. All you have to do is just say it, and it'll be done. And Jesus marvels. He goes, I haven't seen faith like this in all of Israel. The centurion understood. So when we start talking about this, when we read these names for Jesus, their titles, and it's good for us to understand what they mean and how we should maybe meditate on them a little bit. So anyways, I wanted to cover that with you because sometimes you'll see Paul use Christ Jesus and then he'll add Lord to it. Or Lord, like in Corinthians, this next section that we'll be preaching on, you know, you got one spirit, one Lord, one God who works all things. We'll be going through that text. Just kind of think through this a little bit when you have a little bit of time. And so I want us to look at now the section verses 12 through 18 and kind of walk through that a little bit. This is the section that we were going to. And Paul has some commands here for us. So will somebody read section 12 through 18 verses 12 through 18 for us? As you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and tremor. For it is God who works in you both will and to work for you. Lord of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoiced with you all. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoiced with me. Now, there's a lot of imagery that Paul is using, particularly this idea of being poured out like a drink offering, that he hasn't run in vain, that he hasn't labored in vain. And the passage that you brought up a couple weeks ago, Jimmy, the second Corinthians passage with Paul where he went through all of that, going through all of that, you know, Paul had a pretty rough ministry. And so When he writes to these men, you know, he's writing to people that were in Philippi and they saw Paul get beat and they saw him be put in the innermost dungeons. They also had known about when he was stoned to death or left for dead, depending on how you read and understand that text. Regardless, you're talking about a man who has born in his body the devotion, the love of God that he has, and the love for the people of God. You know, there were no docs in the box back then. You know, you didn't have a medic that was walking with you. You know, you didn't have antibiotics. So when you think about the Apostle Paul, we have this sterile idea of him, but the reality is this is a guy who was beat so many times, his body probably just looked horrible. And those of us that have got our bodies beat up a little bit, you know when you get up in the morning. You know how that is. You know what it feels like when you're not 100%. Well, this is Paul. This is Paul. He talks about this thorn in the flesh. And people speculate on what that may be. But whatever it was, what he needed to know was that God's grace is sufficient. His grace. So if you were to sum up this section right here, how would you sum up this section? If you were just kind of like to sum it up for yourself. And what questions do you have? Obey and rejoice. That's it, man. Be happy. I think I have a friend of mine who's a ranger guy. He goes, embrace the suck. Just embrace it because it's going to be bad. But there's something more than this. And we stand on the shoulders of men and women who are willing to face horrible things You know, we read about Paul and we're so divorced from him, but it is because of Paul being used by God that we can say today that we are Christians because the gospel was shared with the world. At that point, Rome and Greece and that area, and we are the beneficiaries of his ministry. Because He was the Apostle to the Gentiles. And we are the Gentiles. We are the non-Jews. Right? So, how else would you sum up? What question would you have here? If you're looking at this text, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. What does that mean? Doesn't that sound like a works-oriented salvation? Like, hey man, get to it. But can it mean that? How can you earn salvation from God? Huh? You can't, right? So, what does Paul mean there? Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. What are we looking for, bro? Roger that. He took inventory. We're good. All sensitive items accounted for. We're good. Continue in obedience. He says, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed. So now, not only my presence, but much more of my absence. Work out your own selfishness for your trembling. So those are connected. As you've always obeyed, continue obeying with fear and trembling. For it's God on the other side of you that's willing to work for you. Yeah, I want you to pause there for a second, Jimmy. That is a participial phrase, the one who is working in you. And I know it means nothing to some of us, and it shouldn't, and that's okay. But the idea is, it is God who is continually working in you. He's doing it. Where do you see that first use of this in this letter? It's in the first chapter in verse six. Look at Paul's confidence. He who began a good work in you will perfect it. So work out your salvation with fear and trembling, obey with reverence and awe. I gave you guys just so that you can see how some people understand this. and what they understand it to be here. And so if you look at your page number two there, and you look at number two there under that section, you'll see that there's different ways that people would understand that phraseology. And I just want to talk about this for a second. It doesn't mean, particularly when we talk about text, right? When we talk about text, as we're working through text together, as you're working through text in your own Bible study, prayerfully approach the text yourself. prayerfully try to look at what the paragraph is saying, prayerfully look at what the chapter is saying, prayerfully look at what the book is saying, and then put it into the whole canon of scripture, the author's writings, and then look at it. So look at this first interpretation. If you read this one here, right, this is what, and these are scholars, and so you know, they're smart men, they're looking at the text, they are super intelligent human beings, but it doesn't mean that we need to agree with everyone just because they're smart. So look, It means, with true concern for the possibility of failure, work out your own salvation. With fear and trembling concerning the possibility of failure. It is a recognition in God's presence that no effort can be too great. Fear is based on realizing the possibility of failure. The trembling is the concern associated with that possibility. This phrase is emphatic by forefronting. So, is that what Paul is saying here? Because who's working in us? God is working in us, right? So if God's working in us, can you fail to be saved? No, no, no. I like the way you connected the verses together, Jim, because that's right. You need to look back, and sometimes you need to look forward, but you need to connect the verses. So learned men, great opinions, but it doesn't, I don't see that. What I'm seeing here is, with the reverence that is due God, and with the expectation of being in front of a holy God, and just, have you ever stood in somebody where you involuntarily start trembling? Have you ever, you've never done that? I've stood in front of somebody and all of a sudden you just start shaking. Your adrenaline just starts going. It's not because you're really scared of them or anything. It's just you have maybe a deep sense of respect for them and you're just kind of like, your voice kind of gets a little weird and you feel like all flaky and stuff and then you walk away and go, man, I really felt stupid or something like that, right? But it's just because you have a deep sense of awe or respect for them. When we talk about God, that is, that should be in the forefront of our minds, right? When we talk about God, when we approach the Word of God, we should approach it with an understanding of, as best as we can, who this being is. So if I were to ask you something about God that just leaves you in awe, what leaves you in awe about God? He'll never leave us or forsake us no matter what we do. What about you? Dude, you're just like a little theologian, man. His power and omnipotence. Casey? His continued grace. Grace. All-sufficient love. All-sufficient love. His righteousness. His righteousness. His spirit. His spirit. Infinite. Infinite. That's a weird concept, because we define, we give it a name, but it really, it's infinite. It's scary. I would say creation. Creation. I just blowed my mind that he loved us enough to become human. You don't know, it's just too much. His forgiveness. His forgiveness. Yeah, for me it's mercy. His mercy, I just, you know, I think about His mercy and just, it blows me away. When we start talking about God, this idea of a being that is infinite, a being that is all powerful, a being who creates, a being that is always with us and never leaves us, think about this for a second. So, Kylie, when you're doing bad, God is with you. Right? So, should that deter you from doing bad? Stop you from doing bad? No? So, you should do bad in front of God. Okay, no, stop. Cast the holy water on her. It should, but it doesn't. Oh, cast the holy water on her. Right? It should stop us. It should. And you're not alone. You know, I guarantee you all of us are in that boat. It should stop us. But it doesn't. Right? Why? Why don't we stop? I got nothing to add to that. That is it. At the end of the day it's vainglory. We pursue vainglory. And unfortunately, and I use the word loosely, providentially is really what I mean by that. Providentially, God is so gracious. You know what I mean? I mean, because let's put it this way. So Kylie, when you disobey your parents, how gracious are they? You should say very, you're on tape. It depends, right? When somebody does something against you, how gracious are you? Right? That's us. That's all of us. This letter that Paul's writing to the Philippians is a plural letter, right? What do I mean by that? Those yous that we have are y'alls. He's writing to y'all. He's writing to the church. And he's saying, you guys need to be gracious with one another. You guys need to understand who it is that you serve. And let me give you this example of this great and merciful God. And this is how you ought to live in light of God. Him, and by His power. So, when we stop to consider what Paul is saying here, he says, be imitators of Christ. That's all he's saying. He's said it before in different letters. And I want you to notice something here that I find so hard. So when our kids and our grandkids would come stay with us when they were little, I had a little thing that I would say to the boys or the girls when we were going somewhere. This is my rules. No sniveling, no whining, no crying. And then I'd make them repeat the rules. So when they were playing out there and they got knocked down on the playground, I would go, what are the rules? No sniveling, no whining. The rules. No sniveling, no whining, no crying. I should have added the grumbling one to it, right? Why do you think Paul is addressing with them, do all things, and that's a command, and the way it's front-loaded in the text is this way. All things you do apart from grumbling and arguing. Why do you think Paul is addressing that with them? They still grumbled. There's always a complainer, right? And everybody wants to be with a grumbler, right? What's the problem with grumbling? What happens when somebody's grumbling in a unit? It's what? It is sin. Grumbling is a sin. We don't call it out, but it is a sin. It's contagious, right? We're all gonna die. Yeah, we're all gonna die. Oh, this is really bad. Oh, yeah, this is the worst. Like, dude, stop. Just go away. But grumbling in the church is like termites in your house. You get pockets of grumbling in the church, it's like having pockets of termites in your house and they undermine everything. And in the end, when we're grumbling, what does Moses tell them? Who are they grumbling against? God. They're grumbling against God. Grumbling is not benign, neither is gossiping. It all hurts and it is sin. And so when Paul says, do all things, not some things, all things, whatever that would imply, do all things without grumbling and In order that you may be, and what does he say there? In order that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish, and I want you to notice this, in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation. The word that's being used there, scoliosis, we get our word scoliosis from it. In the midst of this generation, do all things without grumbling. What is Paul concerned about here? What is Jesus concerned about when he talks to them about you are the light and the salt? That's exactly right. It's our witness. Have you ever met a joyless Christian? I mean, they are like the worst. Like, believe in Jesus. He loves you. I don't know why, but he does. Dude, I don't want to be around you. Look, why should we be joyful? It doesn't mean that we don't have hard times, because we do. It just means that we have hope. and we have a living hope and his name is Jesus. And so our witness matters, how we live our lives matter, how we speak to one another matters, how we treat one another in the church matters, how we treat people when we go out to eat on Sunday. You can talk to waiters and waitresses and they will tell you church people are the worst people to wait on after a Sunday morning. demanding, don't leave good tips, whatever, and then they'll leave a little card that says Jesus loves you or something like that. But what Paul is getting at here is live your life in accordance with your proclamation and in accordance with your submission to Christ. live your life in such a way that whatever you do, whatever that is, it doesn't matter if it's cleaning sewers, it doesn't matter if it's standing, you know, and leading a gazillion people in all kinds of ways and industry. It doesn't matter if you're the richest person on the planet or the poorest person on the planet. You live your life in such a way that it is commensurate with your proclamation of the Lordship of Christ. Now, How hard is that? In the Army. That's all I'm going to say about that. Because it is hard. You know, you go down range, and all of a sudden, you know, it's hard. But if we think about it from this perspective, What Paul just said, you're regarded as light in a crooked and perverse corrupted generation. You may be the only light in that arena in that moment. So I just kind of just want us to stop here for a second, just think about that. And as we walk away with things that we ought to think about, think about, OK, let me examine my life in the light of what I know of God and in light of what God says I ought to be doing. And then just kind of walk through that and understand that. Any good thing in you, any good work that you're doing is God working in you to bring that about, and yet you are willfully joining Him in that activity. And now I want you to look at this, holding fast to the Word of Life. so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain." And this is Paul saying, look, I deliver to you the word of life. I deliver to you the gospel. I deliver to you the news of Christ. I deliver to you the forgiveness of sins. I deliver to you the love of God. Hold on to that. So in the final day, now you see this final day that Paul is talking to, I will not have run in vain. I will not have toiled in vain. So for those of us that have kids that are older, that are not living the way they ought to live, you did everything you could to raise them. And then they just, they do what they want to do, right? What do you do? You keep bending the knee, you keep praying, and you keep hoping, and until one of us doesn't have breath, we don't stop, right? That's the way it is. And so because we don't want to run the race in vain, we don't want to labor in vain. We want fruitful labor. And that's all Paul is saying here. And I love this imagery. Even if I'm being poured out as a drink, remember, Paul is being detained. So he doesn't know if he's going to, what the outcome is yet. He's hopeful. He's been bearing witness to the praetorium guard. He's been bearing witness to all those that are coming to see him. But still, it's undetermined. It's beyond him. And so even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, you see this allusion to the Old Testament drink offering being poured out to God. And you see this idea of Paul's sacrifice in serving God. and in serving them. If I had to sum up the Apostle Paul's life, it would be a life of sacrifice. I would love for that to be said of me. I would love for it to be said of me what they said of David in chapter 13 of Acts. David lived, served the purposes of God, and then he died. That's it, right? That's all we want. That's all I want. Don't need no big, you ugly, just need a like, hey man, he was here, did what God wanted him to do, now he's gone. And then Paul just finishes it out and he goes, look at this. I am glad and rejoice with you all. I rejoice and rejoice with you. Likewise, you should also rejoice and rejoice with me. In other words, hey, this is all the best. This is the best, the best stuff, and that is to be in the service of Christ and to be in the service of one another as we are bearing witness of the light of God in the darkness that has temporarily taken hold of this time. Any questions on what we've covered? Any comments?