Crystal Sparks' Podcast

195. [Philippians Study] Counting All as Loss

• Crystal Sparks

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What's worth more than your most impressive accomplishments, your proudest moments, your deepest knowledge? According to the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3, absolutely nothing compares to knowing Jesus Christ.

Paul's credentials were impeccable: properly circumcised, pure Israelite lineage, from the prestigious tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew-speaking, Pharisaically trained, zealously religious, and legally blameless. By all cultural standards, he had every reason to boast. Yet he declares all these achievements as worthless—literally "dung" or "rubbish"—compared to knowing Christ.

The episode traces Paul's spiritual journey from intellectual knowledge of Christ to intimate relationship with Christ to fully experiencing Christ through resurrection power, suffering, obedience unto death, and ultimate resurrection hope. This progression challenges us to examine our own spiritual development: are we still clinging to religious accomplishments, family heritage, theological knowledge, or even past sins as sources of identity?

Most powerfully, we confront the question: what are you boasting in? Whatever credentials or achievements you value most, Paul invites you to count them as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord. Only when we release our grip on everything else can we truly gain Christ and be found in him.

My hope is that this podcast helps grow your faith and equips you to accomplish your dreams and goals!

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to another part of my Philippian study that I have been doing with our staff at Staff Chapel. If you haven't listened to the other parts, you might want to go back deeper into my podcast, check out those episodes, and catch yourself up to join where we're at today. We've been doing a study through the book of Philippians. It's been a verse-by-verse kind of study. And today, um, hopefully you have your paper Bible. And so if you do, turn it to Philippians uh chapter three. We're gonna be in Philippians chapter three. We've been in this, or this 11th part, and we've only made it to Philippians three um verse. I think today we're picking up, we're gonna go through. I'm gonna try to make it through verse 11. I feel like that's pretty ambitious, but we'll see. Um, we did the first three verses last time, so we'll see how we go. Okay, um, so all of the Bible can be summed up like this. Um, we have God's law, which is the first five books of the Bible, and then after we come out of God's law, you move into God's people. And so it's all a story about God's people and what he's doing in them. Reminder that everything that God was is doing from Genesis to Revelation is to get a people that's set apart for himself. And so, do you guys need help finding Philippians? It's in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, and then Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians. So it'll be on my Bible. It's page 1395. So, did you find it? Okay, good, good. If somebody's still looking around you, can you help them help a brother or sister out? Let them know where it's at. You getting it? I know it takes a second. So the first part of the Bible is God's law. So that's the first five books of the Bible, then God's people. And so that's gonna be Joshua all the way through. Um, some say Job, and some it's disputed. But then next is God's wisdom. And so this is gonna be the prophetic books or the poetry books rather in the Bible. So it's gonna be Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs. Then we move into God's prophets, and these this is God calling back his people. And so it would it would be easiest if it was like all in chronological order, but it isn't. Actually, the oldest book in the Bible is the book of Job. And so, plot twists, and so it was written before Genesis was written. And so, but the prophets, some of them uh will mirror into the stories of God's people, and so you'll see overlap of some of those stories. And then we go into the New Testament, and the first four Gospels are God's son. So, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John give us the story of Jesus. So, when we're looking for the life miracles of Jesus, um, we go to one of the four gospels, and so that's God's son. The next is God's church, and that's gonna tell us the story of God's church all the way from Acts through the book of Jude. And so we hear about God's church, and then finally, the book of Revelation is God's coming back, and so, which is that's good news, amen. And so that's like a quick overview of the Bible, but it we're gonna be in Philippians uh chapter three, and it says this uh verse one, it says, Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you, it is safe. And so we talked about last week about how uh repetition brings safety. And so sometimes we want to hear like a new message from God or like God do something new. And actually, the new thing is the old thing. And it's like you never graduate from the basics. And so we talked about last week in our study about how it's just revisiting those foundational things in our faith, those foundational things of who we are as a church. And sometimes I think we you start to get into weird doctrines when you're looking for something new and strange. And so I'm always leery of people when they stand up and their message starts out with, I've never heard somebody preach this before. In 2,000 years of Christianity since the resurrection, if you're if you've got a new original unicorn version of the Bible, that's dangerous. That's we call that a cult. So now you're into strange doctrines. Um, we want to align ourselves with what tradition has said um historically in the church. How has things been interpreted? So he says, These things to be repeated, it's not tedious. It's for you, it's safe. He says, beware of the dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of um mutilation, for we are the circumcision who worship God in spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. And verse four, though I also have uh confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so. So Paul's like, hey, if you think you have reasons to be confident in your flesh by yourself, let me just tell you, I have more reasons than all of you. And verse four is where we're beginning today from last week. And he says, circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, concerning the law, a Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, concerning righteousness, which is the law, blameless. I'm gonna go ahead and keep reading. It says, But what things were gained to me? These I have counted lost for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things, somebody say, All, all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Um, and that is where we're gonna stop. Okay, so here's here's some things we hear in this text that we just talked about. There's a lot of talk about circumcision, and circumcision was actually like one of the greatest things talked about um in the New Testament was this big dispute. And basically, circumcision, uh, the people coming into the faith, the Gentile people getting saved and coming into the faith, one of the things they were doing to them is getting them circumcised immediately because that was Jewish tradition. So today, uh, this would look like at our church when Pastor Brian got done preaching and he gave a salvation response. Hey, for every person that just uh gave their life to Jesus, Pastor Jimmy and Pastor Denver are over here on the side with a knife. If you're men, you go over there and you're gonna get sh and girls, you're gonna come over here. And if you're married, your head's gonna be covered and they're never gonna see your hair ever again. I mean, that's really what it looked like for male and female. So people say it's really hard to text decided. I'd say, I'd take texting decided over that. And Paul was actually a big advocate of not putting um these Jewish traditions onto the Gentile people. He's like, guys, don't make them be circumcised. But however, he did make uh Timothy, which is his son of the faith, get circumcised. And so I thought this was pretty funny. Um, this is Timothy when Paul shows up and says, You're gonna be circumcised. He's like, Hold up, Paul, like you just wrote all these letters to everybody else, and now you're telling me I have to be circumcised. So, why circumcision? Well, every time that God made a covenant, um, there was always a sign. Every covenant that God made, there was a sign. And so when God shows up uh to Noah, he gives Noah a sign, and the sign was a rainbow, and that's so exciting. Like I love a rainbow sign. And you think, what did what did God's covenant with Noah? What does the rainbow represent? Promise of what? Never flooding the earth. And so where are rainbows? After the rain, and where are they? In the sky, right? And so a sign is always gonna be a part of what that covenant promise is. So the rainbow, every time we look up, we're reminded that he's not gonna flood the earth, and so it's it's gonna be connected to the covenant that's being made. So the sign and the covenant have parts of it. So knowing this, that Abraham knew that Noah got a rainbow. And so when God shows up to Abraham, he says, I'm gonna make covenant with you. And Abraham's excited, and until God goes, actually, I'm gonna I'm gonna circumcise you. So this is God telling, this is God telling Abraham about the covenant. This is Abraham going, wait, we're gonna do what? I want a rainbow. And sometimes you get a rainbow, sometimes you get circumcised. You know, sometimes it's painful, sometimes it's beautiful. And if you walked with God for any amount of time, you know that sometimes when God asks you to do something, it's a rainbow. And then other times it's circumcision. So um, so you're gonna see this talked about a lot. But Abraham, what remember the sign is always tied to the covenant being made. And the circumcision was representing God's bringing forth a family, like he's bringing forth a people. And so it was on the part of the male for a reason because it's saying, we're a new family. We're a new people. Like I'm consecrating you, I'm setting you apart from myself. So fast forward, now we see Jesus come on scene. And Paul lets us know that it's no longer a circumcision of the flesh, but it's a circumcision of the heart. And so now God doesn't want it to be an outward thing that's being done, but it's gonna be an inward thing. Because again, the sign is always representative of the covenant being made. And God came to transform hearts. Like all the covenants leading up to the new covenant were things on our outward world that were changing, promises that were gonna change what we outwardly saw. But now God's coming in to reside within us. And so this is the beauty of what he's uh the circumcision talks. So when you see that, I don't want you to think about flesh circumcision, but I want you to think about heart circumcision. And Paul's Paul's letting them know here, hey guys, like you guys are like so hung up on this, but really it's something deeper that I want to talk about. So he gives seven reasons to boast here. Uh, seven reasons. He's like, if anybody's gonna boast, I have seven reasons. And so Paul goes through his seven reasons to boast. Uh, the first one is that he was he received circumcision according to the law. So he's saying, on the eighth day, I received circumcision. So ironically, the Judaizers um who were persecuting the New Testament church, the Jewish people that were persecuting uh the church, that a lot of them weren't even circumcised on the eight days. Some of them were new to the faith, some of them their families weren't obeying the law. And so what Paul is saying here is I've been obeying the law before I could even make the choice to obey the law, I was already in obedience to the law because I came from a family that was adhering to every part of it. So even before I had the free will myself, I was already in perfect promise. I was in perfect obedience to what God's law required. So he's like, if you want to talk about reasons to boast, here's my first reason to boast. I I've never known a day away from God's presence. I'm like, that's a pretty big flex that you can say I've been obedient literally since birth. Um but he says, number two, I belong to the nation of Israel. He's like, all you guys, you've been grafted in, some of you are from other places, but he says, Hey, I've got a people that I actually belong to, which is Israel. And so if anybody could say that I'm an insider, I'm an insider. So Paul is ethnically Jewish, uh physical descent of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So he can link himself all the way back. So he's like, if anybody has a reason to boast, I do. Like you guys, you started in, some of you weren't even born into this, but I was born into it. I'm from the nation of Israel. And so why it matters is he's not a Gentile convert or a Samaritan, but a true Israelite by blood. To the Philippians, Paul is saying, I'm not just religiously committed, I'm from the chosen nation itself. So he's like, this isn't like a church attendance thing for me. Like I was born into this. Uh the next, he says, I'm from the tribe of Benjamin. Now, the tribe of Benjamin is the tribe that from Israel's first king, um, we know the person Saul. In fact, his name, Saul, was after the first king of Israel. So he's like, I'm from the tribe of Benjamin. The tribe of Benjamin um was really highly esteemed because they were a tribe of people that didn't bow to pagan gods. And so he's saying, okay, not only do I belong, do you see how he's like zooming out like the nation of Israel, but now I'm zooming in right now. I belong to the tribe of Benjamin. But then he goes on to say, I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. Like you're not gonna find anybody more Hebrew than me. Meaning to say that he was a Hebrew of Hebrews means that he didn't just speak Hebrew, but he also spoke Aramaic. And we see, are y'all learning something? In Acts 22, um, Paul gets arrested and basically he speaks to them in his Hebrew tongue, and all of a sudden they realize who they just uh captured. And it actually gave him favor in that moment. And so we see that this part of who he is, he's like, guys, not only am I from the right country, not only am I from the right tribe, not only in front of the right people, but this culture is something I embodied my entire life. Like I know the language forwards, backwards. You want to ask me about the culture? I know the whole culture. And then he goes on to say, as to the law, I'm a Pharisee. So a Pharisee was somebody who they would have to memorize the first five books of the Bible. Then you would be selected out as a young boy by a rabbi to come and learn from him. And then at a certain point, and you're following the rabbi, you would be released now to go teach other people the law. And so he's saying, guys, I know all of this. Like this law that you're trying to bring against these people, I know it forward, I know it backward, and I probably am one of the ones that taught you. Um, Gamalael was his teacher, and he's brought up in one part of the gospel because people are disputing about the Christians. And Gamala says, Hey, listen, if this is a fake religion, it'll it'll just die off. But if it's from God, nobody can stop it. And we see that here we are 2,000 years later, and it's still spreading across the earth. It can't be stopped. And so he's saying, as to the law, I'm a Pharisee. So if you're looking for my credentials about the law, I was a Pharisee of Pharisees. I knew it all forward and backward. And then he goes into the next thing. He says, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church. Like, and so zeal was a big theme when we look in the book of uh Jeremiah, and then also it's mentioned in the book of Ezekiel, and this zeal for God's house, for God's people, um, was a big deal. In fact, Jesus, it says that he was identified for the zeal for the house. And he says, My zeal to be a religious person is that I persecuted the church. Like my boasting point was I used to be just like you. Like my boasting point is I used to be against these same people that you're so frustrated with. I used to be on your side. I was the one persecuting them too. So he's like, guys, on every level, I've got you. And he says, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. So he says, when I look at the entire law, I was keeping all of it perfectly. Now I will just say that's a pretty major flex. I can't, I mean, I might really, Paul, were you really perfect in the whole law? But you know, it's kind of like the rich young ruler that came to Jesus and he said, I've kept the law perfectly since my youth. I'm like, you're a liar. You're a liar, but I'm fine. I mean, it's Paul. He can say whatever he wants. He calls himself blameless. The Lord let him record it in scripture. Amen. So he's saying, even if someone could boast in their performance, um, he's saying, I can and I don't. And he's he's looking at all of this, and he says, why? He says, What am I gonna trust? Like I can trust in any of these things. So just saying, let me break it down this way for us. Some of you, your boasting point is your family line. Some of you, your boasting point is the neighborhood you live in. Some of you, your boasting point is that you know so much scripture and you love to flex on people. Some of you, your boasting point is that you do everything that God asks you to do and you have this religious piety that you're above everybody else. Some of you, your boasting point, I'll just be honest, is the sin that you used to live in. Like you brag about it. And and he's saying, hey guys, like I could boast in any of these things, and I don't. I don't. He says, quite literally, he says, I count them all as loss. And he's like, none of them mean anything to me. And so this passage makes clear that theology and life, they go together. And and Paul, what he does so beautifully throughout his letters, he's gonna always lay a theological groundwork, and then he's gonna talk about our ethics or how do we live this out. And so we see this um throughout scripture. In fact, even whenever um you you know the scripture where it talks about husbands, um, honor your wives, or wives, honor your husbands, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. Um, that is preceding a long theological statement that Paul's saying. So he's saying all the things that we're learning, they're not just for us to be puffed up and no more, but it's actually for our ethic or how we live to begin to be transformed. So, in other words, I don't care about how much you know, I care about how much you live. And so Paul goes into, I've got all these things that I know, I've got all these things that I've lived, I've got all these things that I've been through, but all of those, it means absolutely nothing because he now transitioned into ethics. And so he's saying, How do I live this out? And so he begins to go through, he says that all of this is lost for Christ. And then he goes, Lost for Christ, all is lost for Christ, and everything is rubbish, dung outside of Christ. So there's this progression that he's taking us through. He first says that it's a loss for Christ. He's like, when I think about all these things, I gave it up for Jesus. Like I gave it up for Jesus, but then he goes even further. He's like, Not only did I just give it up for Jesus, I actually look at everything in my life and I say that all of it is nothing compared to Christ. Like I give up everything. I give up every reason I can boast, I give up every reason for my pride to get in the way, I give it up all. And then he goes to a layer deeper in this text because he's like taking you deeper into his thought process. And he says, actually, everything is rubbish, dung. The actual word there would be a curse word. It'd be like shut up, but with a different than the you like actually that's how passionate he is. That's that's actually. I mean, if you want the real word, he cursed right there. He's like, I count it all as blank outside of Christ. So when I look at everything, like all the things, so when you see people that start to get puffed up, because the Bible says that God resists the proud, but he's near the humble. And when you come to God and you're the person that's like, I did this for him, I served this many times, I gave this much, I did this, I know the whole law. I get I sacrificed my summer to be in lead, and I, I, I, hey, all of that, it's lost for Christ. And like when you really get to a place, you look at your best things that you could ever uh do, your resume of qualifications, and you're like, actually, it's rubbish. Like compared to Christ, it's rubbish. Me on my absolute most perfect day, perfect behavior, all the lineage, I haven't I have not kept the law since I was born, it's still rubbish compared to Christ. So he's taking you deeper into this thought. And so he's saying, when I encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, I gained a new way of living. My old life wasn't even appealing anymore. All I wanted was Christ. And I'll say, when you have a real transformation moment, and I think he does it little by little, because I think when you first get saved, there's still things that like lure you back. But I'll say the further you go in God, the more it just goes from loss for Christ, all is lost for Christ. And then actually you look at everything you used to be and you're like, it's rubbish. Like it's nothing. I don't even want that anymore. I don't even know who that person is anymore. Like if she walked into the room, I'd have to walk up and introduce myself because I'm so far disconnected. And that's what he's saying. He's like, the further we follow Christ, the more deeply in love we fall with him, the more distant we are from those things that we used to receive all of our identity from. Is this good? Okay. So then he does the same thing because I love how he like parallels these ideas. He does the same thing in knowledge of Christ. He says, first he has the knowledge of Christ in the scripture. It says that he just wants to know Christ, like just satisfied knowing Christ. But then he goes to the person of Christ, and then he goes into experiencing Christ. I love how he even says he wants to know him, but then he goes deeper. He says that I might be found in him. Now, I don't know about y'all, but like I've never gotten to a point of being like so in love with Brian, knowing him, that I'm like, I actually want to crawl inside of you. Like, you know what I mean? But Paul's like, it's such a deep, intimate knowing that it's like, I don't know where you end and I begin. It's like I'm so I'm found inside of Christ. And so it's the person of Christ, and that it overflows into an experience with Christ. And so I will just encourage you as you go into this journey, maybe you're like, man, this Christian life is really hard. Maybe you're just like, I'm counting it as loss for Christ. But if I'm just being honest, I want to go back to it. It's probably just because you're on building block number one. You're just getting to know Christ. But man, when there gets to a point when you're in love with the person of Christ, you start to count all as loss. Like it gets easier to give things up, it gets easier to let things go. It gets easier to not walk in with your pride or your credentials or your puffed-upness. Y'all know what I'm talking about. And then finally it gets to a point where it's like, all I want to experience is him. And like if he's not in it, I don't want it. And it and you start to have these things where y'all know what I'm talking about. Like your experience of life begins to be different, your perspective begins to be different, everything begins to shift. Why? Because I've moved from a knowledge of him to a person, I'm doing life with him, to all of a sudden now all I'm wanting to experience is the God things. I don't even want the things that I could have. And so he's letting them know here that he's Paul longs for um not just for forgiveness, but intimacy. He desires that the people are gonna know him in these four uh four areas. Number one, the resurrection power, the victory. He begins to line out exactly what he wants them to know. He says, I want you to know the power of his resurrection, the victory. The power of his resurrection that he's alluding there to is the Holy Ghost. Like he's like, guys, we're called to live a Holy Ghost kind of life. Like you have the same power that raised Jesus from the dead dwelling in your mortal body. He's like, I want you to experience this kind of powerful victory. And he's talking to a church that's persecuted, he's talking to a church that's going through a lot of need, a lot of want. And he's saying, even in the midst of your darkest season, you can experience resurrection power. Even in the midst of things that you don't understand, you can experience resurrection power. You can walk in victory even though your life looks like loss. And there's these two things going hand in hand because he's going, I count everything else as lost, which seems foolish, right? It doesn't seem like victory would come on the tails of that. But he's like, in Christ, when I'm living my life in Christ, I look at loss as victory. My perspective begins to shift. Everybody else looks at it as you used to have a lot of friends, now you have no friends, but you just see victory. You look at it as I had all these things planned out for my life, I had all these things, these uh things that I thought God was gonna do, but God asked me to lay them on the altar, and people see it as loss, but you see it as victory. And so he's saying, guys, I want you to experience this resurrection power, this victory we have available. Next is suffering, which is fellowship. And um, I heard uh my professor the other day, uh Dr. Green, he says there's three ways of knowing God. There's the salvic, the salvic expression, which is when we get saved. Um, number two, it's uh rooms where we experience the presence of God and corporate uh measures of worship where you feel God's tangible presence. But he said, number three is we experience them in our suffering. And he said, number three is actually the deepest because it's a personal knowing, no matter the cost. And he said, number one is like a moment, right? Salvation, it feels so good. Like I'm I'm saved and that's good. Number two is a moment where the Spirit of God is moving and corporate uh measures of worship, and those moments are so great. Like I love moments we have at together at camp, different things like that. It's awesome. When you're reading the Word of God and the Word just comes alive to you, that's amazing. But there's a knowing Him and the suffering that God uh that Paul's letting us know here. So part of the gospel know it message is knowing uh we will endure times and seasons of suffering on this journey. Like it's not if you will, it's when you will. And it's it's he's saying it's even then, it's knowing him. Like that's that's being found in him and going into a deeper place with him. So number three is death, which just means obedience. Death, which means obedience, means I'm not doing this for a season. Like it's literally unto death. And for the early church, it literally to be a Christian means that you might die, quite literally. Like you might be martyred. None of us are afraid of walking out of here today and being martyred for the gospel's sake, but they were. That was a very present reality. And he's saying, guys, this isn't just something you're trying out in your high school years. This isn't just something that you're doing for a season. This is an until death. Like to my very last breath, I want to be found being faithful to God. The story of God, and uh people talk about the book of Revelation a lot. I'll give you a cheat code to understand the book of Revelation is faithful witnesses who God's looking for. That's the whole point. Is when you go through hard times, when you go through difficult seasons, are you gonna be a faithful witness or are you gonna bow? And it's unto death obedience. And a lot of us have an unto he asked me to do something that opposes my logic. Um, I have an obedience until it makes me uncomfortable. I have an obedience if it's convenient, I have an obedience if my schedule works out. I have y'all know what I'm talking about. I have an obedience if everybody agrees with it, I have an obedience if my parents like it. I have an obedience if my friends think it's okay, I have an obedience as long as I'm still at the cool table at lunch, I have an obedience until and he says, No, it's an obedience unto death. Like it doesn't matter, God, I'm doing exactly what you asked me to do in every season. And finally, the resurrection, which is hope. And so our hope is not that everything turns out perfectly. In fact, Paul never tells them, like, if you follow Jesus, all your wildest dreams will come true. It's actually not true. Actually, and if you notice, Paul was imprisoned and beaten and all the things, and he never one time asked for God to rescue him out of the hard time. The hope he had was in the life after this. It's eternity. And that's where his hope was is that at the end of it, that we all hear the words, good, well done, good and faithful servant. That's our hope. My hope isn't, it doesn't matter what happens in the world, it doesn't matter what happens in my family. All those things are just bonus. But the goal is at the final resurrection, that's my hope is that I'm gonna be reunited together with him. And so this kind of ends that. I did it, I went all the way through verse 11. Um, and so that ends that kind of statement. Um, but just for us to consider like what are the things that we boast in? You know, what are what are the things that you personally boast in? Do you boast in the fact that you've been a person who's always followed God and you've never missed up a single day of your life? That's great, and I love that. That's an awesome testimony, but it's not a reason to boast. And actually, it's more about God's grace that preserved you and kept you than it is about you living perfectly. Do you boast that you're the person like the man that's beating his chest and he said, I always pay my tithes and I always go to prayer? Is it you fulfilling religious obligations? Or is it in God, thank you, that you made my heart like yours that I want to give, that I want to pray. Do you see how it's it's excitement that I'm doing the right thing, but the the end of the story isn't me. The end of the story is God. And so, what is your reason for boasting? And whatever it is, may we not be found on the side of the Pharisees, but may we be found on the side of Paul, and that we count it all as loss. So all the things that we could do well, all the things we could do good, it pales in comparison with the beauty of Christ. Amen. Uh Father, we just thank you so much for who you are. Oh, Lord, we thank you that you are speaking to us. And Lord, we do, we count it all as loss. Lord, the things that we could have done with our life, the things these lead students could be doing right now instead of being here, we count that as loss. Lord, it pales in comparison and knowing you. That Jesus, we want you more than anything else, that we might know you, but ultimately that we might experience you. Lord, we want your life to be our life. Lord, that we're so encompassed and so enveloped in you that we don't know where you end and we begin. And so, Father, we just thank you for a summer of growth, Lord, a summer of going deeper, a summer of discovering you, not just um, not just in the things that we want to do, but Lord, whatever you ask. There's no distance too far, there's no sacrifice too great. We give you our yes in Jesus' name. Somebody who believed it said, Amen. I love you guys. Have a great day. Thanks so much for hanging out here on my podcast. Do me a favor and hit the subscribe button if you haven't done so already, so you never miss out on anything here on my podcast. Also, one of the best ways for us to begin to reach other people is by you sharing. So if you can do me a favor and share this podcast with a friend, family member, or maybe on your social media, help us get the word out so we can help others.