"The Joyful Christian" Philippians 2:17-30 Sunday Evening Worship Service

Well, it is a great privilege to open God's Word with you this evening.

I do want to say how thankful I am to be a supported missionary of this church the last 25 years, and really that the friendships that I've had with your pastors, with Jesse, with Michael Connor, with John Malone, with Gary Holmberg have been the kind of friendships that have sustained me in ministry.

So thankful for them, thankful for you.

I wonder if you've heard the phrase the Chinese dream.

China's Supreme Leader, Xi Jinping, started promoting it as a slogan in 2012 as a part of his rise to power.

And it was an expression of his desire and many people's desire to see China transformed and rejuvenated as a nation, and especially to see hundreds of millions of people brought into the middle class from poverty.

He connected it to what he called the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

And I have to say, living in China the past 23-some years, it's been amazing to see.

When I first went to China, that there were almost no private vehicles.

Every vehicle you saw on the road was either a taxi or it was a bus or a government vehicle of some kind.

Everyone else was on bicycles.

If you went to McDonald's with a student friend of yours, I was in student ministry, you would have to pay.

They had no disposable income.

Actually, it would be a bit of embarrassment for them that you were taking them to such a nice meal and they couldn't reciprocate.

Half the country was living on less than$5 a day.

So Xi's slogan really did capture the dreams of a generation.

Now, of course, he was borrowing the concept, right, of the American dream, not accidentally.

When China opened up to the West in the early 1980s and Western things and Western media began to flood in, people were just drinking it in.

When I first went to China in 1997, students, there would be like one dorm room per hallway that would have a little television, and so all the students would cram in to watch this one TV, I mean, an impossible number of students in a room, and they're huddled around watching a sitcom.

Want to guess what it was?

Growing pains dubbed into Chinese.

Which, if you've never seen Kirk Cameron speak and Chinese come out of his mouth, it's one of the funnier things that you could ever witness.

But a sitcom about an American middle class family doing American middle class things was just amazing to them.

They were so poor.

Helen Wong, in her book called The Chinese Dream, describes their perception this way: American middle class people live in a villa with a two-car garage in the suburbs.

In front of the house, there's a green lawn.

They have two to three children and a dog.

The husband goes out to work and the wife stays at home taking care of the children.

On weekends, they drive their SUVs to the countryside for barbecues and camping.

Now, I don't imagine that any of those things are a big deal to us, right?

I mean, we probably take them for granted, but a couple of decades now of material prosperity has been flowing in China.

Not for all, but for many.

And the dream remains strong.

Of course, you don't stop at a villa.

It would be better to have two or three.

And an SUV is fine, but in Shanghai, if you can buy a Tesla or a Hummer, for sure you're gonna do that.

Trips to the countryside have given way to trips around the globe.

Probably the hardest thing for me to communicate about China is that it's not that different than the United States.

By and large, we have the same vision.

We have the same material dreams.

And I think that that means something significant for the two largest populations of Christians on the globe.

It means that you and I and our Chinese brothers and sisters are surrounded by, swimming in the waters of, constantly listening to the siren song of health, wealth, and happiness.

You don't have to do anything for it to become the default operating system of your life.

It updates automatically.

Stay safe.

Keep yourself marketable.

Protect yourself at all times.

You only live once.

There's a better future out there for you and your children.

Now here's the challenging part.

Not all of that is bad.

There's nothing wrong with houses, suburbs, lawns, children, or dogs.

There's nothing wrong with SUVs, barbecues, or camping.

And many of the phrases that I just named, taken the right way and in the right context, have something perfectly fine and human about them.

Christians shouldn't necessarily be opposed to any of them.

And at the same time, they represent what I believe to be the greatest challenge facing people living in the most affluent of times and affluent of countries.

More dangerous, in a sense, than LGBTQ or critical race theory, more dangerous than compromising on biblical authority or sexual ethics, more dangerous than false teaching or church conflict.

Those things are pretty easily identifiable.

We can say, oh yes, that's bad.

Let's not do that.

But this greatest of challenges that I think you and I face as human beings living in this time is that we will grow comfortable.

Comfortable, secure, confident, and focused on making our lives just a little bit better.

We can have our Christian faith too, but we keep it on the side.

Kind of like in a little box.

It's for Sundays.

It's for special times, emergency situations.

Maybe we treat it like a little plant that we just have to water once a week on Sundays.

It's still there.

But your view of what it is is dimmed, it's dulled, it's diminished.

You see, the American dream and the Chinese dream alike are death to a life of Christian faithfulness.

The Apostle Paul wrote the book of Philippians as a thank you letter to a supporting church.

But he didn't fill it with nice-sounding phrases and platitudes.

He does write to say thank you, but more than that, he wants to challenge the Philippians with a greater vision of Christian faithfulness.

He wants to call them to strive side by side for the faith of the gospel.

He wants to challenge them to press on towards the goal for which God has called them heavenward in Christ Jesus.

The last thing he wants for them, or for us, is for us to grow comfortable, to coast, or to compromise.

So as a supported missionary of this church, I thought it fitting to open this book with you.

And I want to look at a passage right in the middle of the book.

It's a passage and a section that we can easily overlook, I think.

It's something of a travelogue, some details of comings and goings.

Paul needs to tell them about which of his associates he's gonna send them.

They're expecting Timothy, but he's gonna send Epaphroditus, he needs to tell them why.

But in Paul's mind and in God's, nothing is wasted, right?

So what this travelogue really presents us is the Christian life illustrated.

If I'm a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're a follower of the Lord Jesus, how should we view ourselves, our lives, our goals, our identity?

The main idea of the text today is that the joyful Christian should view themselves as a sacrifice, a servant, and a soldier of Christ.

The joyful Christian should view themselves as a sacrifice, a servant, and a soldier of Christ.

So we'll think about that in that order.

So we'll think number one about a sacrifice, number two, a servant, and number three, a soldier of Christ.

Let me read Philippians 2, verse 17 and 18.

Philippians 2:17

Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.

Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

Now, Paul has just finished exhorting the church to work out their salvation, to grow in Christ's likeness, which we call sanctification, and as he does so often in this letter, he links what he's saying to the day of Christ.

He says he wants to be able to say on the day of Christ that he didn't run or labor for nothing.

He wants to see them persevere in their faith.

And this makes him think again about his circumstances.

He remembers, oh, I may not have long on this earth.

He did this in chapter one.

Oh, yeah, I'm imprisoned, I'm on trial, my life is hanging in the balance.

Right, I might die here soon.

That's what he's referring to in verse 17 when he says, even if I'm to be poured out as a drink offering.

Now, drink offering, it's one of the harder offerings to understand in the Old Testament.

Uh, so often as a burnt offering is being offered on the altar, they would pour about a quart of wine on top.

It's like an offering on top of an altaring.

Numbers 15, you can read about it.

It's a required sacrifice, but in the Old Testament, it doesn't describe a lot what's the meaning of the drink offering, what it's symbolizing.

But when we get to the New Testament, Jesus powerfully picks up this image at the Last Supper, right?

The night before his crucifixion, he takes a cup of wine and he says to his disciples, This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

And that's really interesting because they're about to drink it in, but he says, This is a cup that's being poured out.

You know, when we take communion, that's what we remember, but we're we're drinking it in, we're consuming it.

We pour it in to remember that he poured it out.

That which is life to us was death to him.

So the drink offering is the physical life of Jesus poured out for the spiritual life of others.

And that's what is necessary for you and I to have any hope of going to heaven, right?

If sin requires death, and it does, and if after death comes judgment, and it does, then what every one of us face is a reckoning for our sin.

There is no way that you and I are going to be able to stand before a holy God on our own righteousness, on our own merit.

We deserve death and judgment, and it's coming.

But what Jesus was saying he was about to do at the Last Supper is give his life for anybody who will turn away from their sins and trust in him.

That's an amazing offer.

If you're here tonight, this is the most important.

If you do not understand this message, the good news of the gospel, forget everything else that is said.

This is something that you have to grab onto.

Jesus is offering you his life for yours.

And if you will trust in him, then you will be saved from the wrath of God eternally.

I was speaking to a Buddhist man in the park just a couple weeks ago.

He said to me that the most important thing is that we learn to respect other religions.

I told him that's not the most important thing.

The most important thing for him is to turn away from Buddhism, which doesn't offer him anything, and turn to Christ and be saved.

Now, Paul is not saying here that he's like Jesus in being able to pay for sins.

But he is saying that Jesus pouring out his life as a sacrifice is the pattern for his life.

Look, he says, even if I'm poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I'm glad and rejoice with you all.

I find this so interesting.

There's a double sacrifice and offering going on here.

The Philippian church, which is the fruit of Paul's ministry, is an offering to God.

And Paul himself, especially if he dies, he gets to be the accompanying drink offering poured on top of that offering.

And this makes Paul glad.

This makes Paul rejoice.

He thinks they should rejoice too.

Make sense?

Wait a minute.

What?

What kind of life dream is that?

It's not the American dream or the Chinese dream, is it?

In his mind, he takes his life in his hands as a cup, and he goes ahead and he just pours it out.

And he says, if this brings glory and honor to God, wonderful.

That's his dream.

That's the great metaphor of his life.

Spilling his drink.

This precious thing.

I'm going to pour it out in the service of my Lord.

And by the way, this was not just one time in his life.

He gets to the very end of his life.

The last thing that he writes in 2 Timothy, what does he say?

For I'm already being poured out as a drink offering.

And the time from my departure has come.

I've fought the good fight.

I've finished the race.

I've kept the faith.

Brothers and sisters, do you view your life as a sacrifice?

You might ask, well, do we have to?

I mean, maybe that's just Jesus and Paul.

Well, Paul in Romans 12, 1, says it should be normal for every Christian.

Beloved, in view of God's mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing God.

This is your spiritual act of worship.

Well, how do we do that?

What does this mean?

You start by realizing that you don't have anything that's yours.

You don't have anything you didn't receive.

Your very life is a gift to you from God.

You take your life and you give it back to Him as an offering.

This keeps you from living like a person walking around trying to spill their drink.

It's a terrible way to live.

Standing for Christ in your workplace might mean getting passed over for promotions, and we're moving into an era where many are just gonna lose their jobs for standing for a biblical view of sexuality, many other things.

That's okay as a drink offering.

Your involvement in a local church from the perspective of it's one long pouring out of yourself for the good of others.

I assume that that's especially true in a place like this that is so transient.

The ones of you that stay and shoulder the burden of ministry, you're just pouring out your life and you've been doing it faithfully for so long.

Spending your free time on building relationships with non-Christians, try to show them the love of Christ, it's gonna open you up to disappointment.

It's not always gonna go well.

That's okay as a drink offering.

So do you view yourself, that's our first question tonight, as an offering to be poured out?

Kids, do you?

Young people, married people, or are you focused on pouring out yourself for the good of your spouse?

So we're gonna view our life as a sacrifice, but there's a second way that Paul has in mind here.

Let's pick up the text in verse 19.

I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you, for I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.

For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.

But you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel.

I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me, and I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also.

Now these verses, of course, about Timothy.

He's a traveling companion of Paul.

He was converted on Paul's first missionary journey and becomes one of his closest partners in ministry.

It's often Timothy that's the one who sent when Paul can't make it to a church to check in on them, to help them grow.

He often is the one who will come back and then report to Paul.

I think the Philippian church, which was a church that really dearly loved Timothy, they were hoping that Timothy would come if Paul couldn't.

So Paul is explaining that though he hopes to send him, he hopes that he'll be released and able to come too.

But for now, neither are coming.

You know, one observation I was making about this text is about prayer and planning.

Prayer and planning.

The fact that Paul is an apostle doesn't mean he knows the future.

You notice that here?

God is working through him to write inspired scripture, that's true, but that doesn't mean Paul has any kind of infallible read on his circumstances.

So twice here he says, I hope.

Verse 19, verse 23, and then in verse 24 he says, I trust I'll be able to come.

He doesn't know what's going to happen, just like we don't know what's going to happen.

But notice then that he hopes in the Lord Jesus.

And he trusts in the Lord.

Now, those aren't just throwaway lines to sound spiritual.

He means that he places his desires, his hopes, his plans, his prayers in the Lord's hands.

His hopes and plans don't stand alone, like we read in James 4, that we shouldn't be boastful in saying that we're going to do X, Y, and Z, but instead we should say, if the Lord wills.

Same idea here.

Nothing wrong with hoping, planning.

But as you look out on the future, make sure you're praying and make sure that you're planning by placing things in the hands of the Lord.

Back to Timothy, Paul's partner in ministry.

See there in verse 22, we're told that he has served with me in the gospel.

What does it mean to serve in the gospel, to be a servant-hearted Christian?

I think there are three lessons we can take away from Timothy.

First is to care about others.

Look at verse 20.

He's unique to Paul because of what he cares about.

I have no one like him, or perhaps better translated, I have nobody as like-minded as him.

How?

Well, in being genuinely concerned for your welfare.

Timothy gets it.

He knows that what really matters is how the church is doing, not how the missionary band is doing.

It's what he cares about, and you can tell.

My brother John was converted as an adult about 10 years ago.

He says that we had a pivotal conversation that I don't remember.

I really think the Spirit said this to me.

He just attributed it to me.

He was a compulsive gamer, like the kind of person that every waking moment he's not working, he's playing video games.

He says that I told him after like a 12-hour stretch of playing video games nonstop.

He said I said to him, You are what you care about.

That's what he attributed to me.

It led him to put down the game controller and pick up a Bible and start to read it.

You are what you care about.

But I think that that's true on some level.

You and I are defined by the things that we really care about.

Well, all Timothy seems to care about is how other people are doing, their welfare.

It makes him like-minded with Paul and with the Lord Jesus.

So a question for us: what do you and I care about?

Do you care about the spiritual well-being of people around you?

You should, friends.

Who are you investing in spiritually?

You might say, well, I don't think of myself as someone who has a lot to offer other people.

But if you believe the gospel, you have at least that to offer other people.

You'll notice how much of the New Testament scripture is just reminding people of the gospel.

I'd encourage you to think and pray just tonight.

Who are people that you could be investing in around you?

Who could you be discipling?

But the second thing that we learn from Timothy is not to seek our own interests.

Look there at verse 21.

It says, they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.

I was thinking, who are the they?

And how would they feel about hearing this?

They all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.

I don't know who Paul has in mind, but apparently Paul looks around and he sees a lot of self-seeking.

He sees a lot of selfish ambition, a lot of self-centeredness.

Now, that might sound bad until we stop and think about the fact that that's the default setting of all of us, right?

So I wake up in the morning, I just I'm hoping to get my coffee, and I'm hoping that none of my kids give me a hard time.

You know, that's how I start the day.

Seeking your own interests comes as natural as breathing.

To a fallen human being.

What Timothy is doing is supernatural.

The interests he cares about are the interests of the Lord, the interests of Jesus Christ, his name, his word, his honor, his church.

So, first caring about others, and then second, seeking your own interest, but there's a third mark of a servant here, and that's proven worth.

And in verse 22, Paul says they know Timothy's proven worth.

How is a son serving with a father, he served with him in the gospel?

What does that phrase proven worth mean?

What means that this other centered, not seeking his own interests, but the interest of the Lord, kind of serving, is something that Timothy has shown over time.

It wasn't like a short burst.

It was something that he persevered in, became a reputation.

Think about the kind of reputations that people are trying to build out there.

I mean, social media is the way that so many try to build a reputation these days, but I don't think proven worth is something that you're going to be able to show in a TikTok video.

It's not something you can display on Instagram in any way, shape, or form, right?

Proven worth has to be something that people around you see in you over time.

But that's worth aspiring to, right?

That's the kind of thing we read this about Timothy and go, I'd like to be known as a person of proven worth.

I'd like the leadership of my church to look out and see me as someone who's faithfully serving.

A person of proven worth.

So that's our profile of a servant here.

Cares about others.

Not their own interest, but over time to a place of proven worth.

All right, so we're we're rounding out this vision of the Christian life.

A sacrifice, a servant.

I want to consider one more thing tonight, and that's a soldier.

Let's pick up the text in verse 25.

I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need.

For he's been longing for you all, and has been distressed, because you heard that he was ill.

Indeed he was ill, near to death.

But God had mercy on him, and not only on him, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

I'm the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious.

So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men, for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.

So Epaphroditus is a member, he's a part of the church in Philippi.

He was chosen to take this monetary gift to Paul, who desperately needs it.

Paul's in prison having to provide for his own food.

That's the way it would work in ancient prisons.

So he desperately needs this money.

He's been carrying on a ministry with Timothy from jail, so they both need it.

So this mission to take money was important.

It wasn't easy in that day and age.

It's at least 700 miles by land plus 80 mile sea voyage.

He's going to have to guard the money, which was probably in coins.

No easy job.

Somewhere along the way, Epaphroditus gets very, very sick.

You can see there in verse 27, Paul says he was near death.

We don't know the details of the illness, what it was, but we we know it was on the journey because look at verse 30.

We're told he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.

Don't be confused by that last phrase there.

It just means that he was lacking the needed support, the money.

Until Epaphroditus gets to Paul with the money, the mission is incomplete.

Well, Epaphroditus didn't turn back after he got sick.

He risks himself to complete the mission and finish the job.

Now, while he does so, he's worried because he knows that word of his illness has made it back to the church in Philippi, and he's worried that they're gonna think that the job was not done.

They won't know what has happened until this letter gets back.

Now, we don't know if Paul has worked with Epaphroditus before.

He isn't mentioned anywhere else in the New Testament, but don't miss the description there in verse 25.

My brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier.

The first is what Paul would call any Christian, my brother.

The second is a smaller group.

Fellow workers are those that joined in his missionary efforts at different levels over the years.

It's a special group.

But this third group is even more rare.

Fellow soldier.

Only twice he uses it here and in Philemon 1, talking about Archipus.

But Paul does say to Timothy that the Christian life should be thought of this way in 2 Timothy 2.

He says, join with me in suffering like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer.

Paul says Epaphroditus was a fellow soldier because he endured hardship in his unswerving commitment to pleasing his commanding officer, meaning the Lord.

I wonder if you think about the Christian life as a war.

It clearly is.

Our battle is not against people, it's against our own flesh, it's against the world system that's opposed to God, and it's against what the New Testament called the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

But there's no question it's a war from beginning to end.

If you're going to go into battle, you better go in thinking of yourself as a soldier, braced for conflict, ready to see it through to the end, clear on who the commanding officer is, understanding what you're fighting for, willing to endure hardship, and not focused on civilian affairs.

Now there are civilian affairs to be attended to in life, right?

There's housework to do and bills to be paid and schedules to be maintained, but a soldier resolves not to be entangled in them.

They cannot keep him or her from the battle.

And what we are given here is a picture of a good soldier.

Paul wants the Philippian church to receive Epaphroditus back with the honor that is due to a good soldier.

No country, no group is going to last long that doesn't honor their soldiers well.

He says, honor such men.

The reason you honor good soldiers is that they inspire more good soldiers.

June 28th is a special day.

Now it is my wife's birthday, but that's not what I'm referring to.

June 28th, 1810.

Adniram Judson was a young man attending the annual meeting of the Massachusetts General Association of Congregational Churches.

Afterwards, he had lunch at the home of Anne Hasseltine, 21-year-old pastor's daughter.

And he was smitten by her dark hair, her dark eyes, her vivacious manner.

It was only about a month later that he writes an astonishing letter to her father asking for her hand in marriage, but includes his intention to go abroad as America's first overseas missionary.

Listen to what he writes.

I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world, whether you can consent to her departure to a heathen land and the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life, whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India, to every kind of want and distress, to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death.

Can you consent to all this for the sake of him who left his heavenly home and died for her and for you?

For the sake of perishing and immortal souls, for the sake of Zion and the glory of God.

That's a good soldier, Ad Nairam Judson.

I wonder if you think that the good soldier metaphor is more fitting for men than for women.

Perhaps in the world of military combat, that's true.

I certainly hope that our sons are ready to be soldiers if the needs arise.

But in the history of the church, some of the best soldiers have been women, right?

Anne Hasseltine Judson was the best of the best.

Listen to what this 21-year-old, vibrant, talented young woman writes in her journal after considering the proposal of this young aspiring missionary.

I have at length come to the conclusion that if nothing in Providence appears to prevent, I must spend my days in a heathen land, I'm a creature of God, and he has an undoubted right to do with me as seemeth good in his sight.

I rejoice that I am in his hands, that he is everywhere present and can protect me in one place as well as in another.

He has my heart in his hands.

And when I'm called to face danger, to pass through scenes of terror and distress, he can inspire me with fortitude and enable me to trust in him.

Jesus is faithful, his promises are precious.

Were it not for these considerations, I should, with my present prospects, sink down in despair, especially as no female has, to my knowledge, ever left the shores of America to spend her life among the heathen, nor do I yet know that I shall have a single female companion.

But, whether I spend my days in India or America, I desire to spend them in the service of God and be prepared to spend an eternity in his presence.

If ever there was a good soldier of Christ, Anne Hasseltine Judson was.

Now look, I know that Paul and Timothy and Epaphroditus were full-time Christian workers.

I just added to that with Adniram and Anne Judson.

But what I'm talking about is not for missionaries, pastors, full-time Christian workers only.

What did Anne say there?

Whether I spend my days in India or America, I desire to spend them in the service of God.

It doesn't matter what you do.

Every single one of us is called to endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

Doesn't matter if you're young or old, somewhere in the middle.

Doesn't matter if you're a schoolteacher or a farmer or an electrician.

Life is war because heaven and hell are real.

So is the battle between the forces of darkness and the kingdom of light.

So we have this glorious, full-orbed picture of the Christian life: a sacrifice poured out to God, a servant of all, a soldier of the Lord.

Now, it'd be easy to finish this passage with a call to duty, a bracing call to stand up and be counted in obedience and faith.

And those are good things.

But if we did that, I think we would miss something important in this passage.

All three of the images are real, but they are sobering, right?

Humbling, challenging.

We might assume, are they a bit of a downer?

Are they a bit depressing?

What's the attitude with which the apostle faced them?

Go back up before we close to verse 17.

Let your eyes rest on this.

Even if I'm poured out as a drink offering on the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am sobered, humbled, challenged, depressed?

No.

I'm glad.

And I rejoice with you all.

And oh, you should be glad and rejoice with me.

Why is Paul glad?

I'm quite sure that modern psychology would not take a lesson from him.

They would give him a diagnosis.

A man waiting to die shouldn't be glad and rejoice.

He's not in full possession of his faculties, they would say.

But of course, Paul knows what he's saying.

He knows exactly what he's saying.

He remembers with joy that his Savior did not count equality with God, a thing to be held on to, but made himself nothing.

Became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

He took to himself the form of a servant, because he didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

And Jesus was the very best of soldiers, wasn't he?

Remember him setting his face like flint to go to Jerusalem, knowing what awaited him there.

He defeated all his enemies.

Sin and Satan and death itself fell before the Son of God.

Paul is glad he gets to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.

He's also glad because by faith in Christ Jesus, victory is his and it's ours.

So he knows that to live is Christ and to die is gain.

And that's why we say the joyful Christian should view themselves as a sacrifice, a servant, and a soldier of Christ.

May that be true of us, brothers and sisters.

Let's pray.

Amen.

And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thank you for joining us today.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.

Our service times and church information are on our website at ibc.church.

For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to tms.edu.

I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily.

Serve others around you and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with boldness.

May the Lord bless you.