Our True Identity | Philippians 1:1-2

your Bibles or your devices to Philippians and pop a finger in Acts 16 as well. So I've got

Acts 16. I'll be reading just two verses and then Trudy and Andy are going to help out with

Acts 16 which is a decent passage. We're starting a new segment working through Philippians and

Craig is going to kick that off today. Philippians chapter 1, Paul and Timothy servants of Christ

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi together with the overseers and deacons,

grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you Andy.

So brother Craig has chosen Acts chapter 16. When he heard I was going to really chose a real long one.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

So Acts chapter 16.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

So Paul came to Derbe then to Lystra where a disciple named Timothy lived whose mother was

Jewish, a believer but whose father was a Greek. The believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of

him. Paul wanted to take him along on the journey so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived

in that area for they all knew that his father was a Greek and as they traveled from town to town

they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people

to obey. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in number.

Paul and his companion traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia having been kept

by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word to the province of Asia. When they came to the border of

Mycia they tried to enter Bithynia but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to

so they passed by Mycia and went down to Troas and during the night Paul had a vision of the

man of Macedonia standing and begging him come over to Macedonia and help us.

After Paul had seen the vision we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia concluding that God

had called us to preach the gospel to them. From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for

Semithrave and the next day we went to Neapolis. From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony

in the leading city of that district of Macedonia and we stayed there several days.

On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river where we expected to find a place of

prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there.

One of those listening was a woman from the city of Theotira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth.

She was a worshiper of God and the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message

and when she and the members of her household were baptized she invited us to her home.

If you consider me a believer in the Lord she said come and stay at my house and she persuaded them.

Once when we were going to the place of prayer we were met by a female slave who had a spirit

by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune

telling. She followed Paul and the rest of us shouting the name of the Lord.

She followed Paul and the rest of us shouting these men are servants of the most high God

who are telling you the way to be saved and she kept this up for many days.

Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit

in the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her. At that moment the spirit left her

and when her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone they seized Paul and Silas

and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates

and said these men are Jews and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful

to us Romans to accept or practice. The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas

and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods and after they had been

severely flogged they were thrown into prison and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully

and when he received these orders he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the other prisoners were

listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison

were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open and everyone's chains came loose. The jailer

woke up and when he saw the prison doors open he drew his sword and was about to kill himself

because he thought he was going to be killed. He was about to kill himself and he was about to

draw his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped

but Paul shouted don't harm yourself we're all here. The jailer called for lights rushed in and

fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked sirs what must I do

to be saved? They replied believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved you and your household.

Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the

night the jailer took them and washed their wounds then immediately he and all his household were

baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them. He was filled with

joy because he had come to believe in God he and his whole household. When it was daylight

the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order. Release those men

the jailer told Paul the magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released now go and leave

you can go in peace. But Paul said to the officers they beat us publicly without a trial even though

we're Roman citizens and threw us into prison and now do they want to get rid of us quietly?

No let them come out themselves and escort us out. The officers reported this to the magistrates

and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens they were alarmed. They came to appease

them and escorted them from the prison requesting them to leave the city. After Paul and Silas came

out of the prison they went to Lydia's house where they met with the brothers and sisters

and encouraged him. Then they left.

Thanks Andy and Trudy and thank you Craig. Welcome.

Okay can you all hear me? Great it's lovely to be with you. Thank you so much for

a very very warm welcome. I felt welcome from the moment I stepped in at the door.

Many people talking to me. The most wonderful cup of coffee. Rob I don't know what you normally do

for a living but I think you could win best barista of of the year internationally. Really

good cup of coffee. If you haven't had coffee here I do encourage you to have a have a taste. Good stuff.

Just a bit about me for those who may not know who I am and may be wondering what's that funny accent

that you're hearing. So I'm originally from Cape Town in South Africa. Being here for nearly 14 years

I don't think my accent has changed although when I have visited back and visited my family in Cape Town

they they say that I do talk a little bit funny. I say yeah instead of ya and ya and ya and ya and

visited my family in Cape Town they they say that I do talk a little bit funny. I say yeah instead of ya and

that kind of thing. I'm married to Carrie Anne and we've got three children. We have Jesse our son

who's 19 and kind of I think halfway out the door he lives at home. He was given a car by his uncle

and he comes and goes sort of more freely than before and then a daughter Becky who is nearly 17

and then another daughter Emma Kate who is 14 and I think she is the boss of the house.

It's lovely to be with you all. Now Michael asked me to to preach and he did this some time ago. He's

he's very well prepared and organized and as I said to someone earlier on it's very hard to say

no to Michael because he's such a lovely guy. He really is. He's such a wonderful man. He loves the

Lord and so it's a great privilege for me to come and kick off the series and he said to me please

kick off the series in Philippians. Please preach on the first two verses and I went a whole sermon.

I must give a whole sermon out of the first two verses and he had to kick off so I thought well

I will look a little bit at Acts 16 as well so we can understand how this church in Philippi began.

So I just wanted to tell you that up front as to why I'm going to be in Act 16 as well and be saying

a lot of things before I actually get to those two verses. So let's let's get into it. You know when

I was a boy I and I think every boy is like this I loved superhero movies and they're still around

to this day. Look I was a boy a long long time ago and I remember when the first Superman movies came

out it was Christopher Reeve was the actor back then and he was my favorite Superman over Spider

Man over you know all the others. He was my favorite because he had so many powers. Bullets

would bounce off him. He could fly and he was so strong super strong could fly around the world

and and changed you know geographic dynamics. He had x-ray vision. He had radar hearing so you

could hear what you're saying. You could see probably see through your clothes that's no good.

He could freeze things with his breath so he's super super powerful and for a for a boy that

that's that knows that there are people in the world that are a problem even even on the playground

at school. You you take great delight in seeing evil being opposed by such powerful force and I

think all of us as we think of evil in the world we want to be invincible over evil. It makes us

happy when there is justice and a powerful force comes in and meet as our justice. But all too often

in this world evil is too strong. It's just so powerful and we don't have the ability to overcome

it. Imagine living in Europe during the time of World War II. Imagine being identified as a Jew

in Nazi Germany and then the countries that Nazi Germany got control over. How would you have felt

particularly in the early days as politics is turning against you as society is turning against

you. Imagine the fear as the situation gets worse and worse. Now imagine that you're in a society

that hates Christians and that is your identity. You are a Christian. Imagine it just gets worse

and worse and more and more your kind is not in favor. How do you deal with that? How do you deal

with opposition? Well Paul is writing to a church that is facing opposition for their faith and he

himself has faced opposition for being a Christian and for preaching the gospel. He's faced opposition

again and again. Even as he writes the letter that you're all going to be looking at going into the

series that is now being launched even as he writes this letter he is under persecution.

Where is he writing from? He's writing from prison in a sense. He's under house arrest in Rome.

There's a guard outside making sure that he stays there. Why is he under house arrest?

Because of his faith, because of his preaching, because he's a Christian.

And it's not the first time that he's faced trouble like this. Because of his faith the

Philippian church knows very well that he was once in their city put in jail. He was put in stocks.

We read that in Act 16. Let's understand a bit of the background to this letter because it helps us

to understand then the whole letter. Now we read the story in Act 16. We saw there that

because of a vision Paul was called to preach the gospel in Macedonia. That's a whole region

and he went to Philippi. That's where he went first and that's the leading city of that region.

It's a few days in to him going there with Silas and they go look for a place to pray. They go to

the riverside and there they meet some women who have gathered there. One of those women is Lydia.

She hears the gospel from them. She believes and it seems that she becomes the first convert

of the church in Philippi. Then we read about a slave girl becoming a convert. This

girl had a demonic spirit in her that enabled her to tell fortunes and so her owners were now angry

because she's now come to Christ. She's delivered of that spirit. They can no longer make money from

her. They are furious and so the trouble began because of that. Paul and Silas were accused by

the owners of troublemaking. They stirred up the people. A riot then erupts and the magistrates

of Philippi have Paul and Silas thrown in jail and put in stocks. Then in the jail the miracle

happens where the Lord unshackles Paul and Silas and everyone else and yet they don't leave.

The prison officer wants to kill himself. The jailer wants to kill himself. He's

failed to do his job so it seems but this is God at work. No one has left. It results in the conversion

of the jailer. He comes to faith and this is how this church started. It's so exciting. It's so

wonderful. This is the new church and think about this. The first convert is Lydia and we told in

the text in Acts 16 that she was a seller of purple cloth. Now that might not mean much

but in that time purple cloth was particularly expensive because of the dye that was needed to

make it. It was very hard to come by that dye and to produce that dye. So you would not be wearing

purple unless you were very, very wealthy and so she's trading in something that's quite expensive.

So she's probably a wealthy woman. So you have someone of wealth as the first convert of the

church. Then on the other side of the spectrum you have a slave girl and she comes to faith and then

I think the jailer would probably be somewhere in the middle. It's a middle class person in society

and here we have this fledgling church as we see in Acts 16 beginning and made up out of people

from all walks of life. See God isn't interested in your standing in life and your wealth and all

that sort of thing and he's brought people from all kinds of stations of life. It's so exciting.

It's so lovely to be God's people no matter who you are, where you're from, whatever your

tribe or tongue is. That's what I love so much about the church that I'm in at Bull Creek.

It's tribes and tongues from all over the place. When we have church lunch you can see it reflected

in the food that people bring. I love it. All the different flavors. This is God. It's a miracle.

God has brought people together. There's no such thing as in the world as this kind of unity and

wonder of the church. But as we've seen for this lovely church that God has brought together,

there was trouble. We saw in Acts 16 that a riot was stirred. Now if your finger is still there

or if you still have Acts 16 open, I want to read to you Acts 16 verses 20 to 23.

Acts 16:20–23

Acts 16 20 to 23. It says this, they brought them before the magistrates and said,

these men are Jews and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us

Romans to accept or practice. The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas and the magistrates

ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. After they had been severely flogged,

they were thrown into prison and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.

See, difficulty comes around because of the gospel. It often happens like that in the New

Testament and all around the world today because people hate the gospel. They hate God. They hate

his word. These words of the gospel emanate from the one of truth, the source of all truth,

and people naturally do not like God. He has to change their hearts for them to accept this

truth. If he doesn't, they're going to stand against it. Now, thinking about the letter to

the Philippians that Paul is writing, we asked the question, and I've touched on it already,

we asked the question, where is he writing from? Effectively, he's writing from being under house

arrest in Rome. But the church that he started with Silas back when he was in Philippi,

the Philippian church cares about Paul so much so that they have sent help to him

to cover his needs. And that help was brought by someone from Philippi called Epaphroditus.

And now Paul is sending Epaphroditus back to them and there's a letter, and this is the letter

that's being carried, this letter that will be read out to the church from Paul. And so,

this background tells us how Paul had a warm relationship with these people in Philippi.

Go to the letter now in Philippians and look at verses three, four, and five, and see how he

speaks about them right at the start. He says, I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my

prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy. He is excited about these people. He loves these

people with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

And I could show you more, but this is not my area. Michael's probably gonna be preaching,

maybe Tom, I don't know, through the rest of this, but I don't wanna go and steal what they're gonna

say, but I just wanna point out to you this great warmth of the people that you've been with.

This great warmth of relationship, and you can see it carrying on in the text.

Now I wanna ask with all that background, what is the reason for writing this letter?

In one sense, it's a thank you letter because they sent help to Paul with the paparitans,

but I think there's a key reason why Paul puts pen to paper. He wants them to continue strong

in the gospel. There is opposition. He doesn't want them to shrink back. He doesn't want them

to crumble under pressure. He tells them about his focus while he's under pressure.

So if you have a look at verse 20 in chapter one, you'll see this. Paul says,

I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage,

so that now as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

You see, for Paul, it's all about Christ. No matter what happens to Paul, it's about Christ,

whether he lives or dies because of the opposition, he doesn't want to be ashamed.

It's about Christ. He wants to exalt Christ. That's the heartbeat of Paul's life. It's all

about Jesus. Have a look at verse 21. He says, for me, to live is Christ, to die is gain.

Everything about Paul's life is based on Jesus. Everything he does is shaped by the gospel.

This is Paul's identity. This is the sense of who he is. He is Jesus shaped.

And nothing can change that. If they kill him, Paul says to die is gain. It's amazing, isn't it?

I find this astonishing. May I ask you to pause for a moment and think about your life?

Are you a Christian? I take it that most of you are, if not all of you.

How much does Jesus make up your identity? Just in preparing for this, I'm asking myself the same

question. Craig, how much does Jesus make up your identity? Is Jesus the center of all that you are?

Craig, are your priorities shaped by Jesus and the things that he says in his word in the scriptures?

How do we use our time? How do we use our resources, our talents? Are these things shaped

by Jesus? What if our society becomes so hostile to the gospel that perhaps your job is under threat

or key relationships in your life, friends and family, if those relationships are under threat,

what if even your very life comes to be under threat because you are in Christ?

A friend of mine, a pastor in the UK who's now with the Lord, knew a Romanian pastor back in the

days when Romania was under the regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu, under a dictator, communist regime.

Ceaușescu was known for being harsh and wicked and certainly against Christians. He led Romania

from 1965 to 1989. One time the police came to this pastor and put a gun to his head and they

ordered him to deny Jesus or die. And this pastor replied with these wonderful words which my friend,

Justin Moat is my friend, and he said these words came from the pastor's mouth to the police.

You threaten me with death, which is to threaten me with life, which is no threat at all. They

didn't shoot him, they left him. There is a man whose identity is so settled in Jesus that he is

utterly secure in the face of great evil. Remember what Paul said in Philippians? For the Lord,

he is utterly secure in the face of great evil. Remember what Paul said in Philippians? For me

to live is Christ and to die is gain. Of course it's gain. You be with Jesus face to face,

free from all the troubles of this world. And then Paul says this to the Philippians, chapter 1,

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

27 and 28. Whatever happens, whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the

gospel of Christ. Then whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence,

I will know that you stand firm in the one spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the

gospel. Look at verse 28, without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you.

I think this is core to why Paul is writing, the reason for writing.

It is a letter seeking to encourage them to stand firm in proclaiming the gospel,

to stand firm for Christ no matter what happens. Paul writes to them, motivating them,

to live lives shaped by their Christian identity. Now let's go to Philippians, chapter 1, verses 1

Philippians 1:1

and 2 and spend some time around there. The particular area that Michael asked me to look at

with you. These verses are the greeting and the signature of the letter. Now in our letters that

we write today, typically we have the greeting at the start, so we say, dear so and so,

I often write my emails with hello so and so. And then we have the signature at the end. Now

in a handwritten letter, you don't know who it's from unless you're expecting it or you know the

handwriting, you wouldn't know it's from until you go to the end. When I was at school, long before

digital stuff, we were taught to write different kinds of letters and we were taught to sign off

letters, particularly if you're writing a familiar one, one to a friend or family, we're taught to

sign them off as things like if you're writing to mom and dad to write at the end, your son, Craig,

or your friend, Craig. That's how we would sign it at the end. But in the ancient Near East,

the time that Paul is writing, you had all the information at the top. So let's look at this

information to understand who these people are, to get a sense of their identity. Knowing who you

are, knowing your identity will help you to stand firm, I think, which is what is Paul's great

concern. So the first thing I want to point out is what Paul calls himself in Silas. He says that

they are servants of Christ Jesus, servants. In fact, if you go to the original word behind that

in the Greek, it could be translated as slaves of Christ Jesus. Now that tells you a lot about

Paul and Silas, a lot about their thinking about themselves, their identity as they understand it.

I mean, it's quite something to say that you're a servant or a slave. I mean, he's the great leader

of the church. He started the church. He's in authority. But he makes it so very clear to them

that he's not his own. He belongs to Jesus. You know, that's so different to the way the world

works. People in the world like to lord it over other people. When they've got position, it's quite

typical in the world to have the attitude where you puff out your chest and say, I'm the boss.

And you push your position over other people. There's an old TV advert from South Africa days

that I love. I've never forgotten it. It's a tea advert. And its message is this tea will just make

you so calm and in the most stressful situations. The scene is an airline ticket desk at the airport.

A well-dressed man of some importance comes up to the desk. He's desperate to get onto a flight

at the last minute. And he demands a last minute ticket onto that flight.

And the airline employee, the young woman, says to him, it's too late. I don't know if it's that

they can't remember if it's because there's no seats left or because it's just too late to get

the man processed to get onto the flight. She says, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

And the man gets so angry with her and he leans forward towards her and goes, do you know who I am?

And she calmly takes a sip of her tea.

So there's no stress. And she picks up the microphone for the airport intercom system.

And she says this, attention, ladies and gentlemen, there is a gentleman here who does not know who he

is. If anyone can help, please come to the ticket desk. And the look of amusement on his face is

just so lovely to see. It's so well acted. I love that advert.

His attitude in the middle of that whole thing. Do you know who I am?

That is so typical of many in the world. The Christians are not like that. We're not meant to

be like it anyway. We're not meant to be bossy. We're not meant to be full of self-importance

because we belong to Christ Jesus, King Jesus. That's our identity.

And that shapes how we act. We are not afraid to speak the gospel because we serve the Lord.

We don't serve men. What people say about our preaching the gospel, our standing for Christ,

has no place in shaping what we do because we are servants. And it's all about the Lord.

We do because we are servants and all Christians are servants of Jesus.

I think also in mentioning this, that he's a servant, Paul is making very clear to them

that what he has to say to them comes from Jesus. He's a man under authority, bringing what is from

the great King to them. But it's an identity statement. This is who we are. We are servants

of King Jesus. And it applies to all those who are under Christ, servants. The second thing

is the signature. Who the letter is from is, sorry, the second thing is who it is to. We've

just looked at the signature who it's from. Now the greeting. Paul addresses the Philippian church

as God's holy people. Holy people. The direct translation from the original language is saints.

He's calling them saints. I want you to notice he's calling all the people of the church saints.

So these are people, these are all Christians, saints. Now in the Roman Catholic church, in their

theology, very few people are saints. Very, very few. They have to have done especially great things

to be considered a saint. In Australia, do you know that in the Roman Catholic church is only one

saint? Only one saint, Mary McKillip. And that's a relatively recent decision that was made.

But Paul is saying that all Christians are saints. If you put your faith in the death

and resurrection of Jesus so that your sin is dealt with by him and you are made righteous

before God because your sin goes on to Jesus and his righteousness comes onto you, you are clothed

in his righteousness. If that is you, then you are right with God. You are holy. You are a saint.

And so I want us to see from this that there's more to our identity. We are servants of King Jesus

and we are also saints. It's so key to who we are that where you are from in the world

is of lesser importance. The fact that you are a saint, that's the big thing of your identity,

Christian. Where you come from in the world, that's a lesser thing. So it doesn't matter

whether you live in Perth or you're from London or Jakarta or New Delhi or wherever,

to be a saint is key to your identity. So look at verse one. To all God's holy people in Christ

at Philippi. Do you get the implication? The big thing about them is you are holy people

and you are God's holy people who in this case are at Philippi.

They are saints in other places. Yes, saints in Armidale here in Perth,

saints at Bull Creek in Perth, saints in London, saints in Jakarta, saints in New Delhi.

So being a saint is the great marker of a person if they are a Christian.

I have a friend who I know from South Africa days who now lives in London

and he works for an organization that produces materials for the church.

And he travels all over the world running seminars, training people in this material.

So he's based in London. He's been to Eastern Europe. He's been all over the UK. He's been all

over Africa. He has been in Perth. He tells the story of when he first went to Germany

to go and deliver seminars there. He was collected at the airport by a stranger,

by a person foreign to him, by a person with a language foreign to his and a culture foreign to his.

He just remarks on Facebook at how they so quickly connected and that they had a depth of relationship

that began from the moment he met the person, a special depth that is not normal for strangers.

Why? Because the two of them, Rory, my friend, and his, the person who collected him, the German person,

well they're both saints and servants of King Jesus. That's your identity. That's who you are if you're a Christian.

Now in this, Paul goes on to mention that he was a Christian. He was a Christian.

That's your identity. That's who you are if you're a Christian. Now in this, Paul goes on to mention

elders and deacons and I'm not sure why they get a special mention here and other commentators I've

looked at have said they're not sure either. There is no evidence in the rest of the letter

as to why they are specially mentioned but I do want to point out something here as an aside.

I think the fact that he mentions the elders and the deacons is evidence to us that the church is

led by a plurality of men that do this job. So it's not meant to be just the pastor. There is a plurality

of leadership. I'll put that to you as an aside. Now the last thing that Paul says to them is this in verse two.

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace means gift. This is Paul's desire that God's good gifts and God's peace be theirs.

Christians are already recipients of grace. Of course the ultimate grace, the gift of forgiveness

that makes us saints and brings peace between us and God. That's grace in its ultimate sense but

in him we find ongoing grace and peace in all kinds of ways. The grace of our prayers being heard

because we know the Lord. That's a wonderful gift that we are heard. The grace of his word

and his indwelling spirit to shape us. Later in the letter Paul calls them not to be anxious about

anything and then to rather pray about every situation and what will happen. Have a look at

chapter four and verse seven. It says and the peace of God which transcends all understanding

will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. You can rest in him.

I'm seeing that peace in someone's life right now. I have three sisters and one of them lives in

Israel and as you probably know from the news Israel is under serious attack right now. She's

been in the bomb shelter with her family, heard the bombs going off as the missiles land,

seeing the dreadful news of people being killed and attacked just in their houses and I was talking

to her last night and her peace is phenomenal. She trusts the Lord. She knows that to live is Christ

and to die is gain. This comes from the Lord.

And so verse chapter one verse two when he says grace and peace to you from God our father

and the Lord Jesus Christ he is saying that grace and peace come from them, from the father, from

the son and he is concerned that these people facing opposition which is a scary thing he is

concerned that they find their rest in the Lord. The one to whom they belong as servants, the one

who has made them saints. Paul wants them to be well. If your identity is that you belong to Jesus

and are a saint because of what he has done for you then you have grace in your life and you have

peace in your life. And so as we conclude Paul is a man whose well-being is absolutely sound.

Why? Because he is saturated in the gospel. This gospel which gives him his identity and so he can

say to live is Christ and to die is gain. His identity comes from the gospel and we too are

able to stand firm in all kinds of circumstances in all kinds under all kinds of opposition.

We can stand firm when we understand who we are. We don't need to be supermen. We don't need

superpowers to be confident. We belong to Jesus. We are his servants and he has made us holy.

We are saints. We are fit for heaven because of what he's done and so to live is Christ and to die

is gain. And so we can face all kinds of pressure in this world. For what can people do? What can

humans do to take away from us this profound identity? So brothers and sisters let's be

confident in Jesus and if you don't know him please will you speak to one of us. Speak to me or to Gary

or to Tom or others that you know who are believers who can point you to Jesus. It's so good

to belong to Jesus. It's so good to be a saint. Let's pray.

Our heavenly father we thank you for this word in the scriptures that gives us confidence that no

matter what we face because of who we are we are safe and we can say that to live is Christ

and to die is gain. For those of us who are believers would you please help us to understand

a fresh and with perhaps more depth who we are and that from that would flow confidence in this

world where on a global scale we are relatively safe living in WA but even in our culture things

have been changing. Help us not to be afraid. Help our identity to give us great confidence

and also those who may not know you Lord we pray for them that you would touch their hearts and see

that in you people are made fit for heaven and there is nothing to fear. Only glory to look

forward to. So please stir hearts that may not know you. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.