The Reason to Live

Well, good morning, Sacred Mission.

My name is Justin.

I'm one of the pastors here, and it's my privilege to be able to bring God's Word to you this morning.

It's awesome to see how over the month of June we were able to have some of our pastors and leaders uh step up and preach God's word for us.

I was able to take a break off in June and focus on some leadership development and vision casting, uh, and it was a very fruitful month.

It was a very uh um uh restful time for me, and I'm just thankful that we have a community of people where there's other men who can step up behind the pulpit, preach the gospel, feed you.

You didn't starve during that month, right?

You got good meals of gospel truth, and so uh I just want to thank them and their labor and effort in the gospel, and I'm excited for these next several weeks to be able to preach uh through Philippians with you.

We find ourselves at the end of chapter one.

So we're gonna close out chapter one in Philippians this morning, and we're invited into this kind of self-dialogue of Paul.

I don't know if you've ever uh kind of verbally argued with yourself, and then somebody asks you, like, who are you talking to?

And you're like, my me, right?

Has anybody ever found themselves in that?

People think you're a little crazy.

Paul kind of invites us into this self-conflict.

But one of the things that I've thought through as I was studying this passage is there's this kind of uh refrain or common thought within Christianity or within culture that would say something like this.

Well, if when you're saved, you're going to die and go to heaven and live forever, why doesn't that just happen at the time of your salvation?

Why doesn't God, why does God leave you here, right?

That's kind of a uh a question that some people might have about our Christian faith and the things that we confess to believe.

And if we were people of self-gain focus, right?

Of motivated by the self-interest, uh, that's a common no-brainer.

Well, yeah, to die and go be with Jesus, that makes complete sense.

Why wouldn't we want that or pursue that at any means necessary?

But that's not what the gospel calls us to.

And we're gonna see where self-interest is abandoned for selfless service, that the gospel might grow and produce that which it set out to do.

And I hope that at the end of this sermon we find what I think the Bible presents as the reason to live.

Right in the beginning of this opening section of the text, 18B, kind of the second half of 18 through 21, we see this very explicit reality that Paul proclaims.

To live as Christ, to die is gain.

To live as Christ, to die is gain.

Paul continues in this letter, solidifying his determination to rejoice, right?

Jared last week did a phenomenal job walking through that passage of Philippians that talk, Paul talks about this struggle where there is Christ being preached, uh, but it's being preached out of two very contrasted motivations.

Some are preaching Christ because they truly love Christ, they truly desire to see people saved, the kingdom to expand throughout the earth.

Some are preaching Christ out of this desire to see more trials and affliction placed upon Paul.

And Jared did a great job at helping us discern Paul is not speaking in a way of, oh, as long as the message is halfway good or they say the name of Jesus, that's fine.

Not that he was okay with false teaching, not that he was okay with any type of false doctrine.

Paul will always address that.

He had no fear or qualms addressing false teaching.

We kind of find that verse being misused and misapplied in today's culture, right?

We'll be like, well, they say the name of, look, there's churches out there that say the name of Jesus, they are not preaching Christ.

And we can call them out in false teaching, and they don't line up with what Paul's saying here.

Paul's saying there's one message, but there's two motivations.

And in that he chooses to rejoice because Christ is preached.

And here he doubles down on his intentionality to rejoice.

And it is because whether he dies or he lives, there's glory in Christ.

We can't imagine that this would be an easy determination for Paul.

Don't fool ourselves in thinking that to rejoice for Paul was easy.

He finds himself under the reigning rule of Emperor Nero, one of the most brutal persecutors of the cur of the church to live within history.

He finds himself in a Roman imprisonment where he is under house arrest and chained to guards day and night, and he finds himself in conditions that are not privy or would lead him to this natural outflow of rejoicing.

But he's determined to rejoice.

Not because of his circumstance, but because of the hope that he has in the gospel setting forth and producing or accomplishing all that it has intended and purposed.

His reason was not based on his circumstance, but on reality that the gospel was accomplishing its purposes.

Paul's gospel deliverance that he speaks of here, to be delivered, is a reason for his determination to rejoice.

But it's not deliverance in an earthly state alone.

It's a fuller picture of deliverance.

Was Paul okay if he was delivered from his chains of imprisonment?

Absolutely.

But he was also okay if that deliverance came through his very life being taken from him, because his deliverance wasn't so uh focused, hyper on his earthly circumstance.

It was a bigger portrait of what deliverance would mean.

The outcome of his trials, whether it be in the ongoing continuation of his life or in the finalization of his death.

You see, Paul talks about gaining some confidence in this determination through this gospel partnership that he has with the church at Philippi.

He says that it is through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ that I am confident or that I am assured.

And there's a reality where we know Paul's ultimate confidence came through the risen, resurrected Lord, of which he was called to be an apostle for.

But to have the gospel community of Philippi praying for him and laboring in intercession, and he knows that they are petitioning God on his behalf, and he knows that the Spirit of God has been given to him and is near to him to comfort him and to strengthen him in his weakness.

That gives him an even more tangible, real confidence that resides with him even in his chains.

He continues with conveying the expectation and hope he has that he would not be at all ashamed, that he would not shrink back or cower in the face of suffering and adversary.

Paul is not determining his hope and expectation on the empty promise of some better life circumstance.

He's doing so in a greater reality of the fullness of his salvation being revealed to him through Jesus.

And if we listen to Paul's words that he is having pinned in this house arrest, we hear this beautiful harmony of another letter that we've studied in Romans.

Romans 8 declares this truth.

He says, Paul, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

For the creation was subject to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to what?

To corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Paul understood that deliverance was ultimately not from the chains of Roman oppression, but from the chains and bondage of sin in his flesh, that he would be set free, to live with Christ forever.

He says this, but now as always, for Jesus to be honored in his body, in his members, whether that be through an ongoing life committed to righteous holiness, obedience, or it would be through the death and release of his flesh that he might be in the presence of the Lord.

Paul was in no way going to risk suffering disgrace.

He would not find himself disqualified from the very gospel that he preached.

To go on living is for the glory of Christ as a servant of the gospel, to know Christ more, to imitate Christ more, to preach Christ more, to enjoy Christ more.

To die is to receive the glory of Christ as a faithful servant who has finished the race.

But the beauty of this is all is Christ.

All is Christ, whether it shows itself in life or death.

As we transition into verses 22 through 26, we see the tension of desire and necessity.

The tension of desire and necessity.

Paul brings us into this internal argument, this discourse that he has with himself.

He invites us into the tension of two perceived opposing forces.

If he is to live, it will mean fruitful labor for him.

There's a purpose in his living.

If he is going to live, if he's going to make it out of this imprisonment, he is going to have fruitful labor on the other side of that.

That's the purpose of his continual life.

Gospel labor that produces kingdom growth and the maturing of its citizens.

But if he's being honest with himself, his desire is to depart and be with Jesus.

Paul really puts on display something very beautiful for us to pause and press into.

But what does he do?

He ultimately submits those to the necessity and truth of God's word.

And we get to see that beautiful tension.

We see this in the Psalms a lot of times where David is honest about the way that he feels.

And there's a lot of times where David's honest reflection of his emotions are not sinful emotions necessarily, but they might not be in line with the will of God and what he's commanded for his people.

And so what does he do?

He subjects his emotion to the word and author, the authority of God's word.

Paul does the same thing here.

His desire is to depart and go be with Jesus.

This word for depart is literally to mean to pull up anchor.

That Paul might set off from the shores of this world and into the vastness of eternity with Christ.

If you can picture this far betterness that Paul describes in this imagery.

But what does he do?

He admits he's honest, he shows his transparency, he is hard-pressed between the two.

And you can almost imagine this living parable taking place.

As Paul, his right hand is chained to one guard and his left hand is chained to another, which is potentially why he wasn't able to pin the letter himself.

He is literally physically hard-pressed between two forces.

In this play on word, he kind of shows us this living parable in sense as he communicates his heart to his people.

But his decision is not based off of feelings or motives of personal gain, no.

He finds his resolve in the way a faithful servant of the gospel naturally would: a deep love for Jesus and a devoted love for others.

That's where his resolve comes from.

Because Paul knows that the fullness of the commands of God for his people are perfectly distilled into two simple yet greatly complex commands.

Love God and love others.

Love God and love your neighbor.

And Paul is using this divine rubric to be able to make the decision that is set before him.

It's not based off of his feelings and his desires.

It's not based off of selfish ambition and gain, but it is through the lens of what does it mean for my life to love God and to love my neighbor?

Well, he says, I have concluded, I have resolved, it is necessity for me to go on living.

Why?

For you, for your progress in joy and the faith.

This language of progress is literally the language of a pioneer cutting through thick brush to make a trail for journey and travel.

Imagine the work that is before him with Paul.

When he understands that if I'm gonna live, it's gonna be fruitful labor for me.

It's not gonna be easy.

The complexity, the difficulty, what lays ahead of him in living is far harder than to simply go to the guillotine.

To die is easy.

You might be gripped with fear on your march to your execution, but in a moment you're done.

To live means to live through pain that rips your heart out of your chest as you see people you love walk away from the faith, as you see people not believing that sin kills them.

When you see and walk and labor with others to try and mature in the image of Christ, they're supposed to be conformed to, but yet they keep going back to the very same things that imprison and enslave them.

Paul was setting forth not for a life of ease, but setting forth for hardship.

But he was willing to be that pioneer to make the course that other pilgrims could traverse.

And he says, for their joy, their joy in the faith.

Joy is a product, a fruit of gospel work in us.

Joy becomes an ever increasing reality as we traverse toward the restored image of Jesus in us.

Paul closes the section with the bearing of responsibility, a display of Christian love that doesn't seek its own pleasure and desires, but the good and beauty of others, that through their progress and joy, because of the gospel labor of Paul, they would glory in Christ Jesus.

Isn't this amazing?

Paul, his desire is to be in the glory of Christ Jesus.

But he understands the gospel necessitates that he works so that others might glory in Christ Jesus.

That's selfless service versus selfish ambition.

To choose between personal desire for the necessity of another's growth.

To gain Christ through death might be easier for Paul and expressively more beneficial, but another's growth would take labor, it would take work, it would take patience, it would take commitment, it would take long suffering, etc., etc.

We don't want to make the mistake that the decision Paul made was an easy one by any stretch of the imagination.

But we would understand, and we should understand, that because of the gospel and it's called a mission, it was an easier resolve.

It wasn't an easy decision, but because he submitted himself to the truth of the gospel, it was an easier resolve.

Necessity created by the gospel won the day over personal desire for gain.

As we close out this chapter in Philippians 27 through 30, we see a life worthy of the gospel.

Paul's gonna make a shift here.

The vast majority of the rest of Philippians is gonna be instructions for the church.

We've gotten through the introduction, we've gotten through some of his own life and circumstance, and now we're gonna get into instruction.

And 27 kind of kicks that off for us.

And we see in 27 there at the top, he says, Only let your life, let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.

So that whether I come and see you or I'm absent, I may hear of that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.

So he says, Only let your manner of life.

I think the CSB does a better job.

The Christian Standard Bible does a better job of translating this verse.

And it says this, for 27, part A, it says, as citizens of heaven, live your life worthy of the gospel.

Philippians, we titled A Colony of Heaven.

Because Paul here starts to transition into the reality that our citizenship resides in a different kingdom.

We may find ourselves living under the rule of earthly powers and in the culture and society that we abide in, but our citizenship is in heaven.

And in that, that dictates that we live a certain and peculiar way, often in opposition to this world.

And Paul here is getting ready to lay the foundation for us in understanding what would a colony of heaven, a community of people whose citizenship resides in a different kingdom, what that would look like for us.

And so he says, as citizens of heaven, live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ.

This word live is an imperative command from Paul.

Live.

Live.

Live your life in a way that is worthy of the gospel.

Not worthy in a sense of receiving.

Not that we are worthy because of our good works or because of our self-righteousness, have we been worthy recipients of the gospel, but worthy in an affirmation and evidence that the gospel has been received by grace through faith.

Another way to put this would be let your life be in step with the gospel, of the ways of which you have been saved and been given the righteousness of Christ on your behalf.

And what will the evidences of this life worthy of the gospel look like?

He kind of gives us three of them.

He says, number one, stand firm in one spirit.

That means this there's this unity that Paul's going to lay out in this brief next section.

That we would stand strong, linked, arm in arm, together in this vision, purpose, mission, one spirit, this unity.

And there's another aspect of unity that Paul says, and that you would be striving together in one mind.

One spirit, one mind that is of Christ, his gospel, his mission, that we would stand strong together, all for the faith of the gospel.

I love what Paul's setting up here.

Paul's setting up that to live a life that is worthy of the gospel as citizens of heaven fundamentally dictates that it is in the context of a gritty community.

It's not in isolation, it's not in a personal relationship with Jesus.

He says if you're going to live in a way that is in step with the gospel of which you've received, if your life is going to be evidenced that you are beneficiaries of the righteousness of Christ by grace through faith, then you would live in gritty gospel community where you would link arms and stand firm together, where in one mind and purpose you would strive alongside together so that the opposition of this world could not take you down.

The fruit, the reality, the necessity of gospel faith is to dwell in gritty gospel community.

Paul charges them.

In this, in light of this, do not be frightened when.

You face your opponents.

Why?

We don't have to be scared in numbers.

We don't have to be scared when brothers and sisters who are solidified and sealed by the Spirit are linking arms with you and you're walking into the opposition of this world.

Right?

We can be like Kevin McAllister in Home Alone.

I'm not afraid anymore.

And look what it does.

I love this.

Have you probably seen a movie, or maybe this has even happened in your own life, where somebody was persistently trying to inflict fear over you, where they were trying to control you or manipulating you by putting fear inside of you.

And then at some point something clicked and you stood up and you were able to look them straight in the eyes and show them that they didn't have that power anymore.

What's it do?

It strikes fear in them for the first time.

They get afraid.

This is exactly what Paul's saying.

You want the world to remember what's in front of them?

When they try to frighten you, stand firm and strike holy terror in their heart.

Because their destruction is ahead of them.

It'll remind them of what's ahead of them when we stand firm because we have been reminded what's ahead of us.

This section of the letter closes with an unassuming blessing.

This is the real prosperity gospel in sense.

Paul tells the church that it has been granted, blessed, graciously given to them twofold.

That they would believe and that they would suffer for that belief.

That they would believe and that they would suffer for that belief.

This is the beauty of what Paul's talking about here.

When he's putting these two things in the same basket, when he's with the same breath communicating this very truth, Paul unites the blessing to believing with the blessing to suffer for the name and cause of Jesus.

It is blessing for us to suffer for Christ.

We desire to have intimacy with Jesus.

If you're a Christian, hopefully that's a desire of your heart.

The New Testament over and over again shows the believer, encourages, and admonishes the believer that intimacy comes in suffering alongside of him.

That I might know him.

This intimacy.

How?

In his sufferings.

That I might be given to him, or that I might be united in him in the way that he suffered.

That I might count it all joy when I am privileged to suffer like he did.

For his name, for his cause.

We think of the blessed life as driving through summer seasons with the windows down, just oceans on repeat, right?

With our macchiato latte thing and majig, and we got to Instagram where we highlighted out-of-context Bible verses.

And we're living the blessed life.

This is what has been granted to me to not suffer.

For the world to love me, for me to be friends with the world.

There are many churches attempting to be friends with the world in our culture today.

There are many churches who are trying to be liked by the world.

Jesus said in Matthew chapter 10, verse 22, he declares, and you will be hated.

Matthew 10:22

That's a promise.

Bona fide, sealed and guaranteed.

You will be hated by all for my name's sake.

But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

There is blessing, church, and suffering.

It's been granted to us, it's been graciously given to you.

You should count it all joy.

This is going to create intimacy with Christ that you have never known before.

It should be our joy to suffer for the name of the gospel.

So, what is a life worthy of the gospel?

It's a life that both walks in obedience to its truth, in the identity that it has granted you as you persevere in the faith through suffering and hardships.

That is a life that the gospel calls us to.

Not accomplished in isolation, but in the thick of a gritty, gospel-shaped community.

And so, what's Paul trying to help us understand in this?

What is our reason to live?

I think this is a summary of that.

Gospel growth is the reason to live.

Why, when we get saved, we don't just die and go be with Jesus?

Because there's mission.

Because there's gospel growth to be had, because there's a kingdom to advance, because he has called us into the transcendent mission that we are able to somehow in mystery live out here on earth to expand his kingdom throughout all creation and proclaiming the good news that the Son has overcome the world.

This is the crux of Paul's resolve.

Gospel growth is going to be my reason to live.

He's become convinced that to live for the purpose of the gospel is necessity.

It's a necessary response to the very same gospel that would carry him into glory through death.

Paul has a reason to live.

To see the maturity and perseverance of the saints, to see them stand firm and contend together for the sake of the gospel, to see the gospel advance like a pioneer cutting his path through thick brush.

Paul has a reason to live.

The work and purpose of the gospel in us is not just to make us disciples, but to make us disciple makers.

There is mission.

There is mission to be had, church.

To love God and to love neighbor is the maximum of vitality for gospel life.

Not to love self and seek after our own selfish desires.

We have a reason to live, and the gospel gives us that reason.

To make mature disciples who live as citizens of heaven in a gritty gospel community that continues to see the gospel tear down the strongholds of this world that more and more image-bearers might receive the blessing of knowing his salvation.

Amen.

But for a lot of us, though, we desire not to live in selfless service, but to live in selfish gain.

And it can look differently depending on our context, right?

What I hope to present before you, we understand as two sides of the same coin.

Lives that are both really geared towards self-ish gain, but express themselves in very different ways.

The first way is obvious.

Many of us we live to gain the world.

This is kind of blatant pursuit of the things of this world, and we can see it evidently in others.

We love life in the things of this world for what they can give to us.

Right?

Most of our decisions are determined by what would benefit us best.

We don't look through the lens of the gospel to make decisions on where we work or where we live or what we do with our finances or how we spend our time on social media platforms or whatever.

We don't think through a gospel lens mostly on those choices.

We think on what will benefit us best, what will give us the most happiness, success, pleasure, comfort.

At our best, we are restrained hedonists.

We may not fully imbibe in every single spark of temptation and desire and pleasure that wells up within us.

We have some restraint.

But if we're honest, we pursue self-pleasure predominantly because that's the lens of which we make most of our decisions.

We live to gain the world.

We don't make decisions through a gospel filter, but through a self-filter.

We see all that the world has to offer us and we grasp for it.

But the problem is we don't realize it's just a fog.

It's a fog that is both unattainable by the human hand and is presently dissipating before our eyes.

This world is a vapor, a mist.

Grasp for it all you want.

You will come up empty-handed.

What we choose to live for is simply vanity because it will die with us.

To gain the world will not just mean to lose your soul.

Jesus promises us that is true.

John 12, chapter 12, verse 25, Jesus says, whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Read that again.

Whoever loves his life, ultimately you're going to lose it.

And whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

So to gain the world will not just mean to lose your soul, but, church, I want to call us to the reality that it will also cost the souls of many others whom you were supposed to be living your life for their gain.

Selfish ambition does not just bring death to you, but it will bring death to others around you.

Some of us, though, we live to escape the world.

We live to escape the world.

For some of us, the pursuit of selfish desires appears draped in a form of humility and righteousness.

We retract from the world.

We have a mentality of escapism that we don't desire to engage with the world because we fear that we might be tarnished or stained by its depravity, defiled.

And so we look to be removed from the very world.

We so fear the world that we work to be far removed from it for fear of what it might do to us.

Ultimately, though, we're not walking in step with the gospel.

We are walking in step of self-preservation.

The gospel calls us to be in the world, abiding in the midst of culture, yet living as citizens of a different kingdom.

You see, the gospel doesn't allow for us to live in self-preservation or selfish gain, but to live in reckless abandonment.

To engage the world with the good news of Jesus and his kingdom, to live in contrary holiness to the ways of this world, to have open hands of generosity when everyone else around you has clenched fists, to love the unlovely and to work for their good, be developed in them through gospel growth.

A Christian who seeks to escape this world doesn't grasp the call of the gospel and the mission that God calls us to join in on.

And you might say, well, look what this world is coming to, right?

Look what's happening in culture and society.

They are promoting wickedness.

They are celebrating evil.

They are doing these things to harm us and one another.

Look at this world.

Yeah, if we don't believe the gospel properly, we're gonna respond in retreat.

We're gonna respond in fear.

We're gonna respond in a way that is out of step with what the mission of Jesus calls us to.

Because everything he accomplished in his life, death, burial, and resurrection guarantees for us that whatever the world would choose to do to us, we have gained everything in losing.

Because we have Christ.

Why should we be afraid of this world?

Christian, why should we retreat?

Why should we seek to escape?

Why should we continue to sing, I'll fly away?

And just fantasize over that of some release of escaping a world that's going to destroy you.

Let it destroy you.

Do you not have Jesus?

Let your blood be seeds for gospel advancement, if so be it.

John Stott, a famous author and theologian, makes this very profound statement.

He says, We should not ask what is wrong with the world, for that diagnosis has already been given.

Rather, we should ask what has happened to salt and light.

I want sacred mission to stop saying what's wrong with the world.

It's sin.

There's your answer.

Get over it.

Why should we ever expect them to love God, to honor his word, to obey his command, to reflect his holiness and righteousness and ruling reign over all creation when they are utter rebellious toward his sovereign kingship?

Get over it.

Hopefully the world will get worse.

Because somehow, when the world gets worse, the church gets stronger.

In every nation where you see the church persecuted heaviest, the gospel goes forth even more.

It might be God's blessing for us to be crushed under the depravity and wickedness of the evil leaders that we reside under.

Praise to his glorious name.

Let us stop saying what's wrong with the world.

Let us start reflecting on what has happened to the salt in the light.

We will surely find ourselves hard-pressed between self-gain and the selfless service of others' gain.

But let us be convinced.

Let us resolve in gospel truth.

That it shows us the necessity of living for the gospel growth, the gain of others.

And our hope as a body of believers is that the finished work of Jesus guarantees our reason to live.

The finished work of Jesus, his life, death, burial, and resurrection guarantees our reason to live.

Look at Paul's confidence in his statement.

I know that if I am to live, it will be for fruitful labor.

He knows.

He has confidence.

Why?

Because he has full assurance that the gospel will accomplish what it has set forth and purpose to do.

Charles Spurgeon, a Baptist preacher in the 1800s in Metropolitan London, had this famous statement.

He said, The same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay.

What he's saying is, the sun is the gospel and will always produce its intended purposes.

Whether that's softening the hearts of men, that they might receive by grace through faith the salvation that Jesus offers to them, or if it will further harden them and their continued stiff-necked rebellion against his kingship.

Do we have confidence that the gospel will produce what it intended to?

Jesus seems to give us that confidence.

Matthew 9.38, the issue is not that there is no fruit on the vine.

The issue is that there aren't workers who are willing to get out there and get their hands dirty picking it off.

Why?

Because Jesus guarantees for us that a life lived for the purpose of the gospel will not be vanity, but will produce fruit.

Paul has such confidence that his resolve to live a life for the glory of Christ and the good of others would not be in vain, that it would be meaningful, fruitful, that it would not just have meaning in the here and now, but meaning that would impact all of eternity.

The empty tomb of Jesus gives Paul all the assurance that he needs.

That Jesus had resurrected from the dead didn't just make Paul unafraid of death, but it made him unafraid to live in self-abandonment for the good of others.

It was Christ's death to save sinners that caused Paul to suspend dying that sinners might be saved.

It was the emptying of Jesus for sons to be called home that gave reason for Paul to empty himself to call them to the Father.

It is the gospel.

It is the life, death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord that is our reason to live.

You don't just have to be unafraid to die, church.

You get to be unafraid to live.

Live for the gospel.

There's mission to be labored in.

There's orphans who need to find their home.

There's glory to be attained.

And yes, in all joy, there is a Christ to be possessed.

How should we then live?

I think the CSB does this well.

Live as citizens of heaven who are worthy of the gospel.

This is our call.

To live as citizens of heaven who are worthy of the gospel.

If we are going to live, can we live for this one cause?

Not for selfish gain, but for others' gain?

Can we resolve as Paul did that if God is going to wake you up tomorrow, if he's going to put breath in your lungs, if he's going to cause you to live, that we might live for his glory in the good of others?

That's what made Paul's resolve easier.

Because he made those conscious decisions through the lens of the gospel, through the truth of God's word, and he subjected himself, even the desires of his heart, to the already revealed purposes and will of God.

To live for his glory and their good.

Let's pray.