Sermon | Randy Garcete

Well, good morning and a special greetings to each and every one of you this morning.

I've been blessed to be here so far this morning.

And um yeah, I just appreciate everything that's been shared so far and especially the songs this morning.

Dan, uh the focus on peace.

I I noticed a a line in the joyful, joyful.

We adore the I can't uh repeat it anymore off the top of my head, but it it was had to do with the idea of of rest, joyful rest.

And joy and rest in my mind don't really go together.

When I think of joy, I think of something that's not restful, something like a like a party.

That that fills me with joy.

Um, but there's some of you here who probably think of rest as joyful.

Um, I think it is, but it's just that it was uh an interesting line that caught my eye.

And I just appreciate that that focus on peace and rest this morning.

Um if you saw my axe as I walked down the aisle here, you probably didn't feel very peaceful.

Uh, but I uh would like to use this as an illustration to um introduce the sermon this morning.

How many of you have heard of the grandfather's axe uh paradox?

Okay, all right.

So this morning I'm gonna be talking, we're gonna be looking at a at a paradox in Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

And a paradox, I'm I'm gonna illustrate what a paradox is by by describing what's called the grandfather's paradox or grandfather's acts as a paradox.

So a paradox is a seeming contradiction uh that when is properly understood, it may prove to be true.

So two apparent contradictory statements that when you actually look at the conclusion of it actually are reasonable or make logical sense.

So uh for the sake of the illustration, I'm gonna pretend that this is this was my grandfather's axe, and he passed it on to my dad, and my dad passed it on to me.

And I've been owning this for a number of years, and the more I use it, um the more the handle gets worn down.

I'm gonna pretend this is actually wood and not plastic and rubber.

Uh, but over time, let's pretend that in a year from now the handle wears out, and I have to replace the handle.

Now, this is grandfather's axe, and it has a lot of uh sentimental value to me.

It's something I hopefully can pass down to my son.

But the handle wears out after much use.

So I go down to Stony Point and they set me up with a new handle to replace it with.

So after another couple years, after much faithful use, uh, the axe head wears out.

I'm not sure how that would happen, but I'm sure it could.

And all of a sudden I realize I have to actually replace the head of my axe as well.

So I make another trip down to Stony Point and buy a brand new axe head.

Bring it home, assemble it back with my with my um handle.

Would I still call it grandfather's axe at that point?

Is that axe still grandfather's axe?

So that's called the grandfather's axe paradox.

It's not the same materials anymore, but it is um in in a sense, it is still grandfather's axe, because that's how you have identified it.

An ancient version of this was called the the ship of Theseus paradox, and it's a um, I don't know if this is true or not, I think it's just a an a an illustration from from ancient Greece.

But if the ship of Theseus is sitting in the harbor year after year after year, and eventually the planks of the ship begin to rot, and if we go and replace the rotting wood planks of Theseus's ship, um, and eventually all the wood on his ship is replaced with new wood, is it still the ship of Theseus?

Okay, I'm I'm belaboring the point here, but scripture is filled with paradoxes, and paradoxes are a literary um device that helps us understand profound truth.

And some of some examples of this in scripture are statements by by Jesus.

Whoever finds their life will lose it, whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

So there's by losing my life, I gain it.

And by gaining my life here on earth, I lose my my my eternal life.

Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

It's another one.

The greatest among you will be your servant.

So greatness and servanthood, those those two dynamics there.

When I am weak, then I am strong.

So heavenly strength and earthly weakness can be two sides of a paradox.

So most of these have have two sides to the coin, if you will.

Poor man uh who is actually rich in in heavenly gain, or a rich, uh a rich man on earth who is poor in the eternal sense.

The paradox I want to look at today is found in Philippians chapter two, and I invite you all to open up your Bibles to that chapter.

I've been going through the book of Philippians for the past several months now, and we've been looking at a really special letter that Paul wrote to a little church that he deeply loves.

And uh you just see his love for this church sort of infused in this letter.

And this is a church that is um trying to live out their citizenship in heaven while being citizens of Rome.

This is a Roman colony, um, Philippi, and everything about this city in the ancient world was like a a miniature copy or a miniature version of the city of Rome.

And so those ideals that the the messages that they believed, and the the lifestyle, um the core sort of worldview of the average Philippian citizen was the same as that of the Roman Empire.

And a couple things we've looked at just recently has was uh in chapter two, where Jesus' example of humility, of leaving the his heavenly realm and coming to earth and taking on the form of a servant and dying the death of a slave, and in turn being glorified again.

Uh his example of humility is the example of humility for the church in Philippi and for the church here at Grace Point.

And one of the main major themes that runs through this letter is is Paul's desire to see the church unified.

And I don't know if you remember, if you were here the sermon, the time that I preached about, uh I think it was in uh chapter two.

Actually, it was the end of chapter one, where he says, standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.

And that picture of a Roman uh group of soldiers that are locking shields together, standing firm side by side, that idea of unity and a unified church.

That is a theme that runs through this letter.

And that's a context which our verses today are going to be to be seated in this uh unified humility.

So I'm gonna pick up um in verse 12, maybe just uh uh one or two things before we get to that, actually.

I talked about paradox at the beginning, and uh verse 12 and 13 are one of the greatest paradoxes in scripture, and it's a paradox uh of human responsibility, human agency in the process of God's transforming power and salvation, and God's sovereignty, human responsibility and God's sovereignty, grace and obedience.

And these two things are are each one side of the coin.

We're gonna be looking at that, and I know there's some confusion that can creep into here if uh if we don't read it carefully.

So my prayer today is that I can um communicate this with clarity and that you don't leave here confused.

Uh as I've looked at this, I've gone in circles and have gotten uh so down in the weeds with it that I can I I've I've at times sat in some confusion.

So my prayer is that the Holy Spirit can guide our our hearts and our eyes and our minds as we look at this.

All right.

So picking up in verse 12, I'm just covering verse 12 and 13 today.

I made the decision to cut out um 14 through 18 after I realized I just don't have enough time to get through all that.

So this will be this could be a shorter sermon today.

So he says in verse 12, therefore, my beloved.

I'm just gonna pause right there.

So whenever you see therefore, it implies that the whatever came before that verse or that statement, that is the context from which these next verses are gonna stem from.

So therefore connects what we just read before verse 12 to what he's gonna say next.

Therefore, you could also you could also say because so because of what you just read, my beloved, and what did we just read?

Christ's example of humility, as our example of humility and love for each other.

That true greatness is actually found in humility, therefore, my beloved, and again notice how he calls his church, how he addresses them.

He says, My beloved.

Um I don't know if if you're married here today, I'd be curious to see what pet name you call your spouse.

Some of some of you might might uh is there anyone here who calls their their husband or wife my beloved, other than Christy and I?

I'm just just kidding.

We don't, we don't.

All right.

We go, we call each other babe, some of you call each other love, uh honey, uh, all terms of endearment.

I don't call someone that without having a deep committed love to them.

It's typically just my wife.

Paul's uh addressed the what he his pet name for his church is my beloved.

It's a term of endearment.

He loves this this this church, he loves, he loves this group of people, he's a he's a very, very deep love for them.

As you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

There's side A, side one of the coin, and side two of the coin is for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Two things I just want to clarify before we really dig into the meat of it, is the the the uh the line where he says, as you have always obeyed.

The question that that came to my mind and that I I I sort of pondered is Um, who are who are they supposed to be obeying?

Are they is he saying, as you have always obeyed, are they is he saying God?

Or as you have obeyed me as an apostle?

And there's some debate around this, but I think there's a sense in where where both of those ideas are true, where this church uh was obeying God by how they were living, but they were also obeying Paul as the apostle at the direct link to Jesus.

Uh he he says in in another uh letter, I think it's to the in Corinthians or in Ephesians, he says, Imitate me as I imitate Christ.

He talks about delivering the tradition of the faith to to the church.

And in a couple other places, he he he speaks with some harsh, what we would all what we would think of today as uh our tendency would be to call it toxic leadership or toxic authority.

Uh, he talks about the rod of discipline and and don't don't let me come with with with harshness and see that you're you know you're not walking in line.

So he had this this this authority that came from God, and that he was come he was commending them, complimenting them for hey, your your obedience, uh obey as you've always obeyed, as you have always obeyed.

So now, not only in my presence, but much more in my absence.

I want to focus on that phrase there.

Not only in my absence, but much more in my presence.

Paul had spent a lot of time with with this this group of believers.

Um, and in his time with them, he could tell and he could see by their by their just by interacting with them that they were walking in obedience, that they were walking faithfully to the in uh in light of the gospel.

But now that he's away from them, he's absent from them, his hope and his desire is that they will continue to walk in faithfulness even when he's gone.

I remember in high school, uh every now and then the teacher would get called away for whatever reason.

Maybe in the afternoon he had a doctor's appointment or something, and he would maybe place one or two of the upper graders, you know, the seniors in charge of the class while he's gone.

And you know the term uh when the cat's away, the mice play.

That was very much the case there.

And I think Paul is hoping that when him as himself as a cat, when he's away, that the mice won't play, uh, but that they will continue to walk in faithfulness, not just because they want to impress Paul the apostle, but because it's born out of a heart of love for God, that it's a genuine faith that is being lived out.

And uh even when he's gone, in my absence, that's his heart.

He wants them to basically take off their their training wheels and to bike without training wheels.

Okay, so the I'm gonna dive into verse 12.

Work out as you have not only my absence, but much, not only my presence, but so much more in my absence.

I want you to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Work out your own salvation.

So this is side one of the paradox coin.

Work out your own salvation.

This verse has generated a lot of discussion, debate, and argument in sort of theological circles throughout history.

And the debate often centers around uh how much is man responsible in the work of salvation and sanctification, how much is is God responsible?

And you have two sides, you have maybe uh two sides on that spectrum, where on the on the one hand, your hyper-Calvinists would say that salvation is entirely dependent upon God, it's he predestines you, he and uh whatever salvation comes into your life is because of him.

He he not only uh predestines it but controls it, and that you basically have no um agency in that process.

On the other hand, uh you might have groups that say uh that that believe that salvation is uh a matter of my of keeping my performance up spiritually, uh a performative salvation.

So is this when he says work out your own salvation, is he what does he mean by salvation?

Uh a couple things I want to just just lay out as to to explain some of this.

So, number one, the immediate context here is that he is writing to a group of people.

This is about uh corporate faithfulness, not simply individual faithfulness or performance.

So Paul is addressing the whole congregation when he says, work out your own salvation, in the Greek, your own is plural.

So he's addressing the entire congregation in context of remaining unified, standing side by side.

It's unity and faithfulness as a congregation.

The term work out in the Greek is kater gazomai, and it basically means to accomplish or to produce or to bring out.

So accomplish, produce, or bring out your salvation.

Now the term salvation is is in the Greek is soterion, and that's a term we're much more familiar with.

Um I'm actually just gonna ask for a raise of hand, uh, somebody to shout out what is in your own words, what is salvation?

When you hear when we talk about salvation, what does that mean?

I'm there there are no this is not a trick question.

I'm just I'd love to hear some feedback on this.

What does salvation mean in Christian theology?

Deliverance from sin.

Okay, anyone else?

Eternal life.

Christ's blood spent on my behalf.

Okay.

Cleansing, freedom from slavery.

Okay, I love that.

It's such a beautiful word, and it's such a a deep word, and so there's so many different sides or maybe uh angles that are emphasized when we when we talk about that in our own words, but in in just a plain, simple sort of definition is deliverance or um final uh future deliverance from God's judgment for sin.

Um it's used 18 times in uh by Paul in the in the New Testament, and most of the time that is what it means uh when he's using it, but it can also mean uh ongoing salvation after conversion.

So, in essence, sanctification, salvation that is ongoing, uh growing in conformity to Christ's image, increasing in holiness.

When we think of it often we think of salvation as as an experience, as a moment in time when I uh left behind my life of sin and I turned my life to Christ.

And it was on that day I was saved.

Um salvation is part of that.

Salvation, that's that's the starting point of salvation.

Um justified from sin, declared righteous by the blood of Jesus.

And that's that's a wonderful hope, actually.

Because without that, what it you know, we're we're sort of lost.

I mean, we really are.

So is Paul telling the Philippians here that they need to work out their own salvation, that they need to earn their salvation?

I would argue that he is he is not.

He's not saying, earn your salvation through good works.

In fact, he's pretty adamant about that in the rest of the New Testament.

He says in Ephesians 2, 8 through 9, very common verses, for by grace you have been saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Okay.

So in Romans 4, 5, and I get I'm ripping these verses out of out of their immediate context, but uh to anyone who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.

So salvation is something that is credited as righteousness to somebody who believes in faith.

In Thessalonians, he says, For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So salvation is something that we receive uh outside of ourselves through the Lord Jesus Christ.

I believe in this immediate context, he's writing to believers.

He's not writing to a group of unbelievers.

So salvation has to relate to this group of believers.

And I believe that salvation here is related to uh an ongoing sanctification of a group of people who have already been saved, not salvation as regeneration of an unbeliever's heart.

So when when God saved you, if you're a believer, if you're a Christian today, when he saved you by the blood of Jesus, he that began a work in your life.

And in essence, uh he began the work of transformation, the the work of transforming you from a uh someone who is dead, spiritually dead person, um, to someone who is a new man, a new creature.

We just uh my my kids just uh found two caterpillars or were given two caterpillars about a month ago.

And just last week, the the second one uh came out of its cocoon and uh turned into this this beautiful monarch butterfly, and we took it outside, released it, and I was just amazed.

Lucy was too.

She it landed on her and she was petrified.

I've never heard a little girl scream like that.

But this uh how does how does a caterpillar turn into a cocoon and then eventually turn into a butterfly and fly away?

It's an amazing process.

But that's what what God began in your life when he saved you through the blood of Jesus.

He beg began something in your heart.

And that work continues.

It's not a one, it's not a one-time event.

That work, that work continues, his spirit transforms you slowly but surely.

Uh Paul says earlier in chapter one, he says, I'm sure of this that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ.

And that's a beautiful promise that we have.

That salvation includes that initial conversion, that initial decision and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but it includes ongoing sanctification sanctification, ongoing transformation and cleansing.

And it has a starting point and an ongoing journey of growing in holiness and becoming more like Jesus.

That's why when you you see, um I don't have good examples of this off the top of my head, but when you talk to an older person, maybe somebody, a man who's in his in his 50s or 60s or 70s, who at one point when he was younger did not walk with God, was not saved, was in fact a wretch, uh a sinner, uh a reprobate, but earlier made a decision to follow Jesus.

In their old age, they're you just don't recognize them anymore.

But people who knew them before they were saved say, you should have you should have seen him before he knew Jesus.

Um he was a different man.

And salvation has that effect uh of transforming someone over over a lifetime.

Okay.

Work out your own salvation.

Then there's this phrase, with fear and trembling, with fear and trembling.

Just last night I took the kids out for a walk, and we're just walking the back streets of Dover, and it's getting darker now, uh, much earlier, um, because fall's coming, which is really exciting.

And we were walking under a set of trees along the street that were under the the lights of a of a street light, and these trees were sort of swaying in the wind and casting shadows on the road.

And one of my children just said, Daddy, I'm scared.

And uh the fear came from from watching the shadows on the road, and there was fear there.

That's a scary fear, it's a fear um how we often how we think of fear today is is uh dread or terror.

And that is not a uh often is not a biblical uh version of fear.

In scripture, fear is fear of the Lord is often an attitude of reverence or humility and serious responsibility before God.

Not it can include terror, but it is a fear that draws us closer to God as opposed to a fear that drives us away from him.

Proverbs says, fear is a beginning of wisdom.

Fear is a beginning of wisdom.

In the the the song Amazing Grace, there's a line there by is it John John Newton, Frank?

Isaac Newton, is that the scientist?

It's one of the Newtons.

Okay.

He says, 'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved.

So in the one line, he's talking about fear of God.

My heart began to fear God when I experienced his grace, but at the same time, it relieved my fears of whatever of uh whatever other fears he had.

So fear and trembling, work out your own salvation.

All right, we come to side two of the coin.

If we're gonna flip the coin now, side two of this paradox is is this is God's God's work.

For it is God's for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

So this brings us back to the source of spiritual transformation.

When we read, work out your own salvation in fear and trembling.

For a lot of us, if that's where it would end, we'd be left with the burden that is just too heavy to carry.

Because we know how broken we are, and we know we know how insufficient our own efforts are.

But this next line, this neck, the second side of the coin, sort of jerks us back to the source of that transformation, away from our own abilities or our own performance, down to the this anchor.

That is the truth that God is the source of our spiritual transformation.

This contrasts with the the spirit of our age.

Uh we love a self-made man.

We love the the picture of the cowboy out on the you know the western plains, nothing but you know his horse and his his saddle and his his six shooter.

And um that picture is is so ingrained in the American spirit and culture.

Um and it's it's a picture of agency.

It's the the the entrepreneur who who's like leaves behind everything and and and goes all in to start something up himself and and build something great.

And we we we use a term uh that is related to that cowboy image, is somebody who pulls themselves up by their own bootstraps.

We admire that type of self-uh responsibility, that personal responsibility and agency.

And when you read uh in this bringing that to our uh to the spiritual world, depending who you are, when you read that this that side one of the coin, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

If you're someone who is is very self-reliant and have a lot of agency, you might come away or you might your initial reaction might be, okay, good, I can do something.

I can I have some say, and I can put I can put my head down to work and I can um I can play a big part in my own spiritual transformation.

Um but without side two of the coin, it will leave you empty, it will leave us empty and uh struggling under the burden of that that weight.

So this is a tremendous gift and and joy, a promise that as we work out our own salvation, God is working in you through his spirit, and not only uh uh not only so that you can go out and and and do the work, if you will, but he he gives you the desire, it says both to will that has to do with desire or um, yeah, the desire to do and to work.

So it is um is God who fills us, who quickens our will.

There's a quote here that says, God is named here as the one who works, he is the infinite worker.

When our finite work is empowered by God's work, then our work is an expression of God's work.

The priority of God's work does not vitiate our responsibility to work.

We are not puppets on God's strings, we are fully responsible human beings, obligated to continue to work out our salvation.

He gives us both the desire and the ability to carry out the work.

He fills us with the desire and the capacity.

Why?

For his own good pleasure.

God isn't a mechanical um robot that that programs us and and lets us be.

He takes great pleasure and great joy in seeing his spirit change your heart, your mind, your actions.

He finds joy in that and it pleases him.

Just like a father who looks at his his child and sees sees them struggling and wrestling and slowly changing their attitudes or their heart over time.

So is there is there tension here between these two sides of the coin?

Is there is God's grace in tension with our obedience?

Is it is it either's either's, you know, which one has the greater emphasis?

Our responsibility and obedience, or God's grace and and sovereignty?

And I don't think I don't think either.

I think Paul wants us to hold both together.

We work out what God works in us.

There's another quote here that says, human energy could never accomplish the work of God, yet God did not accomplish his purposes without it.

The two function in perfect harmony, and people cooperate and contribute to what God does in them and in the world.

It is both comforting and sobering to realize that God initiates the relationship.

It is equally sobering to realize that nothing short of full cooperation with God's working confirms personal salvation.

Thus, both the divine initiative, so God's initiating work and human response accomplish his purposes.

And just one more quote by Mark LeCleer.

He says, uh, Paul does not say, work out your salvation, but really God does it all, so the command is only rhetorical.

Nor does he say, God works in you, so sit back and let him.

He says, Work out your salvation, for God is at work in you.

So two sides of the coin, equally sort of held in tension.

Humans acting in obedience and because God is acting in them.

Turn to Philippi uh to Titus chapter three.

Titus chapter three.

I invite you all to stand.

And if you had the ESV, we're gonna read this this passage together.

It's it's a it's a good, it's a lengthy little chunk of of scripture, but I think it it encapsulates really well or explains really well what Paul is getting at.

This idea of us working out the salvation that we already have.

So Titus 3, he's writing to the church.

We're gonna read verses one through eight.

And I don't know how many of you have the little title above chapter three.

Mine says, Be ready for every good work.

All right.

Let's pick up in verse one.

Let's read it out loud together.

Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.

These things are excellent and profitable for people.

All right, amen.

You may be seated.

Doesn't that just explain really, really well what Paul is saying in in Philippians?

He's saying the salvation that you have, you did not always have.

You were once led astray, filled with malice, just dead sinners.

But since the salvation of Christ has come and filled your lives, now that salvation empowers you to work out the salvation that is in you, to live it out.

So it's essentially living out what you already have: justification and salvation through Christ.

Just a really powerful promise.

I'm gonna end here with just thinking through how can we how can we maybe apply these truths to our lives.

And I've uh two two ideas to sort of think through.

And and the first one is this is that um as a Christian, your efforts matter.

As a Christian, your efforts matter.

Okay, I don't have any stones getting thrown at me yet.

I qualify that statement by saying, as a Christian, we hear a lot about um our works being like filthy rags.

And that is true in the sense that there is there is nothing you can do to earn salvation as a sinner, as an unbeliever.

But as a believer, your efforts in pleasing God, in glorifying him with your life, they matter to him and they fill him with pleasure.

Uh there's there are segments of of of Christianity or or faith traditions that would that would almost um see this idea as as heretical, that there uh that there's nothing we can do.

There are no good works that we can do to please God.

It is entirely his him.

And that is true in the sense of of initial salvation, but as believers, um, the way that you work out your salvation as a Christian, your your efforts do matter.

Paul says, do all to the glory of God.

And um this this idea of works as like as filthy rags, that nothing I do as a Christian really makes a difference.

It's it's all filthy rags in God's eyes.

Um and so it's like your your efforts as a as a Christ honoring Christian in your work, uh in your relationships, um, they don't really matter because it's all just filthy rags.

I think it's a misguided view.

And an incomplete view.

Your good works in trying to earn initial salvation are filthy rags.

But as a believer, the way you live your life, it matters.

It does matter.

The way you parent your children.

The way that you treat your spouse.

These things do matter.

James says, faith without works is dead.

So your efforts do matter as a Christian.

Secondly, trust God's work in you.

Trust God's work in you.

I think probably the most comforting and encouraging takeaway for me from these verses today is that God is working in my life as a Christian.

I might not always feel it.

You might not always sense it.

It might not be obvious to you.

Maybe you've made some really, really big mistakes over your life.

Maybe you've just in your eye just messed everything up.

But the hope in these verses is that you can trust that God is still at work in your life.

That He hit He has not given up on you.

Again, Paul said that the work that He began in you, He will see to completion.

And that can be a long process.

That can be a lifetime.

But trust that God, trust that God is working in your life.

Trust His work in you.

God is so, so patient.

And I think much much more patient than we are with ourselves sometimes.

Because we see all of our flaws and we see our mistakes, our failings.

And I know for myself, I can at times think, well, I don't know if I'll I'll ever figure this out.

Maybe this is just, I'm sort of doomed to struggle with this in this way, or this attitude, or this pattern.

But God is so patient and he finds pleasure and joy in that slow, slow-changing transformation of his spirit in your life.

So this coming week, as you um go to work, you engage with your customers, with your coworkers, um, as you um do life with your spouse, or maybe you're living at home, maybe some of you younger people are still in your parents' homes.

Um, maybe it's your interactions with your neighbors.

Um if you're a Christian, work out your own salvation in fear and trembling.

The salvation that you already have, work it out.

And trust that God is working in you and that he finds pleasure in the ways that you bring your best work to him.

I invite you all to stand uh for a closing word of prayer, and I will turn the time over to the uh song leader or uh to Kim.

Let's pray.

Father, we come before you in Jesus' name, and we are so grateful to you that you love us, and that um salvation can be ours, that we don't have to fear eternal separation from you, but that because of the blood of Jesus, we can um be separated unto you.

We can be your sons and your daughters.

And I ask that you could help us to live out these truths today and that you could continue working in our lives, even when we mess up and when we fail.

And uh help us to just trust that you are at work in our lives, and help us to faithfully uh work out our salvation this coming week.

All this I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.