Doug McMasters: I'll invite you to take your Bible and go to the book of Philippians.
Doug McMasters: Philippians.
Doug McMasters: We've just completed our Amalgo Day series.
Doug McMasters: And we're now entering into a study of the book of Philippians.
Doug McMasters: And alongside Micah and me will be several other men who'll be handling God's word as we go through this book.
Doug McMasters: I'm looking very much to hearing their contributions as we do so.
Doug McMasters: When you hear the word joy, what comes to your mind?
Doug McMasters: For me, what comes to mind is being with uh my grandfather and grandmother and my uncles and aunts uh in a big farmhouse in Indiana after a long day, and uh a good meal's just been cooked, and everybody's around.
Doug McMasters: I'm with my cousins and my mom and dad are with their siblings and my mother's uh father and father and mother, and laughter around the table, um, someone telling a joke, somebody telling a story, and the whole place is warm with with the light of laughter.
Doug McMasters: It's a delightful uh memory of mine many, many times with family like that, and that's joyful.
Doug McMasters: That's what comes to mind.
Doug McMasters: And perhaps you might have another type of joy that comes to your mind.
Doug McMasters: Uh thinking about my sons when they were playing basketball, they weren't the best basketball players, and the team that they were on wasn't the best.
Doug McMasters: And you know, losing game after game after game isn't is a pretty hard thing to do for a child and for their parents.
Doug McMasters: Um, but when that final shot goes and it goes in and the buzzers, the buzzer cries out and breaks, breaks it, and you're all like excited they finally won a game, you know, and you're you're full of joy and all of that.
Doug McMasters: I don't know what your mind might have brought to your to your attention and remembrance, but those are joyful things.
Doug McMasters: We enter into those kind of moments, and it's a it's a great joy to have.
Doug McMasters: But there's a commonality to at least the two that I mentioned.
Doug McMasters: The circumstances were good.
Doug McMasters: Family together, family having a good time, laughter and stories all around, uh, relatives with one another.
Doug McMasters: A game won, but you change the circumstances, fight around the table, or the buzzer goes off and they lost another one.
Doug McMasters: What happens to the joy?
Doug McMasters: Well, this is one of the questions that presses in on us when we look at the book of Philippians.
Doug McMasters: Is there a different kind of joy?
Doug McMasters: And Philippians is going to show us that absolutely there is.
Doug McMasters: There is a deeper kind of joy.
Doug McMasters: There's a joy that is available that doesn't rise and fall with your circumstances, because it's rooted in something your circumstances can't touch.
Doug McMasters: And when you find that joy, you've got a joy that takes you through the rest of your life.
Doug McMasters: What's particularly compelling about this book, it's written by a man who's in prison.
Doug McMasters: Paul is in prison under Roman house arrest.
Doug McMasters: He is chained to a guard, he's facing trial, and it's quite possible that he will be facing even his execution.
Doug McMasters: The churches that he started, they're circulating around in some of those churches that Paul's imprisonment is a sign of his insincerity of being a messenger of Christ, that he's actually not legitimate.
Doug McMasters: And so some of them, for envy's sake, are actually preaching all the more, thinking that it'll press more upon Paul himself while he's in prison.
Doug McMasters: Nice church members, that one.
Doug McMasters: Those are bad circumstances.
Doug McMasters: And yet, in the middle of all that, Philippians is one of the most joyful documents that we could read.
Doug McMasters: The words joy or rejoicing are mentioned some 16 times in four chapters.
Doug McMasters: So we learn a lot about joy from this man.
Doug McMasters: And what radiates from this is this triumphant confidence of joy that can only be explained one way.
Doug McMasters: It can't be explained by the circumstances because they're all troubling and they're all circumstances of loss.
Doug McMasters: But Paul has found something that his chains cannot take away.
Doug McMasters: And that's why I want us to go to the book of Philippians, not only this evening, but for the next few months.
Doug McMasters: Because as we go through life, all of us will be facing circumstances that will be tugging at our life.
Doug McMasters: And if we put our joy in those good circumstances and they leave, so will our joy.
Doug McMasters: But if we have our joy in things that the circumstances can't touch, then we have found something far richer than any good day that we might have.
Doug McMasters: So let's begin to look.
Doug McMasters: And I want us to read the first couple verses, because what we're going to discover this evening is just that, whether there's a joy available to us in the midst of our hard times.
Doug McMasters: Let's look at verses one and two.
Doug McMasters: Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons.
Doug McMasters: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: Now notice how Paul addresses the church here.
Doug McMasters: He calls himself a servant of Christ Jesus.
Doug McMasters: And that word in the Greek means a slave.
Doug McMasters: And Paul's not simply being modest here.
Doug McMasters: Paul's offering a theological argument of his identity.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't open this letter by talking about his apostolic authority.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't talk about his credentials.
Doug McMasters: He opens up with a word about his servanthood.
Doug McMasters: Now, in many of his letters, he actually does establish his apostolic authority, but not here, not in this place, not to these people.
Doug McMasters: He wants them to understand the posture of his heart in the middle of his situation.
Doug McMasters: I am a servant of Christ Jesus.
Doug McMasters: Just hold on to that because we'll revisit that in just a second.
Doug McMasters: But notice what else he says to them: Grace and peace to you.
Doug McMasters: Two words, one of them with a Greek origin, one with a Hebrew origin.
Doug McMasters: Grace, unearned gift.
Doug McMasters: Peace, a comprehensive wholeness, not just an end of cessation of hostilities, but a wholeness of life that flows from being at peace with God.
Doug McMasters: And these two words, as we'll discover later, are a compression of the gospel.
Doug McMasters: And notice the source of them from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: Again, hold on to that because we'll revisit this introduction in just a moment.
Doug McMasters: And this evening, I want us to go through this whole letter.
Doug McMasters: I want us to be able to see the argument that's found here in all four chapters.
Doug McMasters: And as the weeks unfold and as the men begin to present the Word of God to us as we go more slowly through the book of Philippians, I want to give you sort of a framework from which you'll be able to understand all the pieces that come week by week.
Doug McMasters: The question that stands over this is what does it mean to be in Christ?
Doug McMasters: And what difference does that make when my life is hard?
Doug McMasters: Hang on to those questions.
Doug McMasters: What does it mean to be in Christ?
Doug McMasters: And what difference does it make when my life is hard?
Doug McMasters: And Paul answers this chapter by chapter with four words.
Doug McMasters: That Christ is a believer's life.
Doug McMasters: That's a good title for chapter one.
Doug McMasters: That secondly, Christ is a believer's pattern, and that's a good title for chapter two.
Doug McMasters: Third, Christ is a believer's treasure in chapter three.
Doug McMasters: And then chapter four, Christ is the believer's supply.
Doug McMasters: So think about those four words: a believer's life, a believer's pattern, a believer's treasure, and a believer's supply.
Doug McMasters: And when you've when you have life, a pattern, a treasure, and a supply from Christ, you have everything that you need for joy, no matter what the circumstances are.
Doug McMasters: Even if you're in chains, like Paul.
Doug McMasters: So let's look at those.
Doug McMasters: Let's break those down.
Doug McMasters: First of all, chapter one, Christ, a believer's life.
Doug McMasters: Verse 21 says it quite clearly.
Doug McMasters: For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Doug McMasters: Now it's one of the most compressed and one of the most dramatic statements in Scripture.
Doug McMasters: Because it comes from a man who's about to face possible execution.
Doug McMasters: For me to live as Christ and to die is gain.
Doug McMasters: I've never been in the place where execution is a real possibility for me.
Doug McMasters: But he was.
Doug McMasters: And he's not looking at that with dread.
Doug McMasters: He's actually saying, if I do die, that's gain.
Doug McMasters: So what he's saying is that in order to be there, the first part of that has to be a living reality.
Doug McMasters: For me to live is Christ.
Doug McMasters: Christ isn't just a part of his life, or even a significant part of his life, or perhaps even the most important part of his life.
Doug McMasters: It is.
Doug McMasters: And by saying that, nothing can diminish that.
Doug McMasters: Nothing can diminish his joy because Christ is his life.
Doug McMasters: He might be chained, but Christ isn't.
Doug McMasters: He might be restricted from movement, but Christ isn't.
Doug McMasters: And he's able even to look at his circumstances and to realize that God is with him even in the hardest of things.
Doug McMasters: The reason why he was in prison, the reason why he was in chains was because he was proclaiming the gospel.
Doug McMasters: And the people thought by getting him arrested and bringing him into this sort of place of restriction, they would put him away.
Doug McMasters: And that the message he was proclaiming would be shut down.
Doug McMasters: But the apostle Paul says all of this has happened for the furtherance of the gospel.
Doug McMasters: That the very reason why they wanted him imprisoned is the very means God has used to advance the gospel.
Doug McMasters: So even his enemies can't do any harm to him.
Doug McMasters: And so he says, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Doug McMasters: And that tells us if Christ is your life, you cannot be reduced by the things that happen to you.
Doug McMasters: You cannot be reduced in your identity because of your sicknesses.
Doug McMasters: You cannot be reduced in your identity because of hard financial circumstances.
Doug McMasters: You cannot be reduced in your identity even if you fail if you're in Christ.
Doug McMasters: If your life is hidden in Christ, your life is hidden where no one can put their hands and no one can seize you.
Doug McMasters: Now notice how Paul again started this letter.
Doug McMasters: A doulos, a servant, a slave.
Doug McMasters: What is he saying when he says that?
Doug McMasters: Again, it's not just a kind, customary greeting.
Doug McMasters: It's actually quite a startling one.
Doug McMasters: He's saying, My life is not my own.
Doug McMasters: I am my master's.
Doug McMasters: And when he says that Christ is his life, he says, My master owns me.
Doug McMasters: And he will direct me.
Doug McMasters: And because of that, he has nothing he has to feel like he has to protect, because he's given it all to Christ.
Doug McMasters: And Christ is the one responsible for it all.
Doug McMasters: And therefore, as he looks to Christ, he receives instead of trying to manage his life.
Doug McMasters: And so this is where Philippians begins with this chapter.
Doug McMasters: We'll break this down more and more as we go through it, but just wanted to give you that nice overarching perspective.
Doug McMasters: The second is that Christ is a believer's pattern.
Doug McMasters: And this takes us into chapter two.
Doug McMasters: And Philippians 2 contains one of the most magnificent passages of all of Scripture.
Doug McMasters: Paul is dealing with a church that has to be brought into an understanding of the fundamentals of the gospel, toward unity, toward genuine humility, toward deference and preferment of one another, as they would look to one another and place each other as better than themselves.
Doug McMasters: Should have flown out of the gospel that they'd received, but they had been sidetracked.
Doug McMasters: They had been brought into disunity and pride, and they were preferring themselves over one another.
Doug McMasters: But Paul doesn't give them a principle to change all of that.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't give them three steps to having better humility.
Doug McMasters: What he does is he gives them a person, Jesus Christ Himself.
Doug McMasters: Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, verse 5, chapter 2.
Doug McMasters: Who existing in the form of God did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited.
Doug McMasters: Instead, he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity, and when he had come as a man.
Doug McMasters: I want you to notice a key word in there taking the form of a servant.
Doug McMasters: And also to mention here of what the master himself did.
Doug McMasters: The one who was fully God, co-equal with the Father in every way, took the form of a slave, that he was worshipped by the angels, was glad to take in a basin and a towel and wash dirty feet.
Doug McMasters: That he who had commanded the cosmos and brought them all into existence was willing to be obedient to death.
Doug McMasters: Here is Christ, humbled and later exalted.
Doug McMasters: Therefore, God has highly exalted him, it says in verse 9.
Doug McMasters: So here's this pattern, this pattern of descent, and then exaltation.
Doug McMasters: We're in the book of Acts in the morning, and we're seeing the exaltation part of it.
Doug McMasters: But you might remember when we were back in Isaiah in chapter 52 and 53, and looking at one of the servant songs, and we saw the servant highly exalted, and yet taking the steps of humility and suffering and death and later becoming exalted.
Doug McMasters: Paul is pulling from that servant song of Isaiah to speak about the Savior here.
Doug McMasters: And he's impressing that upon us by saying to us, Christ is our pattern.
Doug McMasters: It is for us to go down the steps of humility and love for others, just as Christ himself has.
Doug McMasters: No need to try to protect or to project ourselves, because our master himself became a slave.
Doug McMasters: So to call yourself a slave of Jesus is to take the form that the master himself took.
Doug McMasters: Now, what is the significance of that for us?
Doug McMasters: Well, what it does, if you really grab hold of it and understand it, it dismantles every temptation to stand for your rights.
Doug McMasters: It tears apart every feeling that you have to protect yourself, that it ruins your ability to manage your reputation.
Doug McMasters: And that's a good thing.
Doug McMasters: Because here we see what the master did with his own rights, he relinquished them in love.
Doug McMasters: And in that is freedom, and in that is joy.
Doug McMasters: Because a person who is a servant doesn't have to try to be anxious about his status, right?
Doug McMasters: You don't have one anyway.
Doug McMasters: So Christ is our life, Christ is our pattern.
Doug McMasters: Thirdly, we're going to see in chapter three that Christ is a believer's treasure.
Doug McMasters: A believer's treasure.
Doug McMasters: Take a look at verse eight.
Doug McMasters: More than that, he said, I also consider everything to be loss in the view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.
Doug McMasters: And because of him I've suffered the loss of all things, and have considered them as done, so that I may gain Christ.
Doug McMasters: Here in chapter three, Paul does something very audacious.
Doug McMasters: He takes out the leisure, ledger, rather, of his religious resume, of all of his cultural credentials, and all of his spiritual achievements, and he throws it out.
Doug McMasters: Every bit of it.
Doug McMasters: Circumcise the eighth day, throw it out.
Doug McMasters: The tribe of Benjamin, throw it out.
Doug McMasters: Hebrew of the Hebrews, throw it out.
Doug McMasters: A Pharisee, throw it out.
Doug McMasters: Zealous, throw it out.
Doug McMasters: As for the law, blameless, throw it out.
Doug McMasters: I just bought some plane tickets with points that I've been saving up for years so Royal and I could go see our grandchildren at Christmas time.
Doug McMasters: Our sons too, but our grandchildren mostly.
Doug McMasters: And when I when I emptied those points to get the ticket, you would have thought I was excited because I saved some money.
Doug McMasters: I looked at the points and went, I got to start over again.
Doug McMasters: The Apostle Paul takes all of this that's been built up and he says, just throw it out.
Doug McMasters: Throw it out.
Doug McMasters: By every external measure, Paul was at the top of the spiritual list.
Doug McMasters: He says, Let's move it away from the acid column and let's put it in the waste basket, every bit of it.
Doug McMasters: Why?
Doug McMasters: Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
Doug McMasters: Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.
Doug McMasters: And he counted it not only as a loss, but as a worthless thing to throw away.
Doug McMasters: Something that you wouldn't want to keep at all.
Doug McMasters: And what he's saying is all of those credentials, perhaps not worthless in and of themselves, but certainly worthless in comparison to Christ.
Doug McMasters: The surpassing value is the key there.
Doug McMasters: And what does he gain?
Doug McMasters: He says, My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings.
Doug McMasters: What he gained wasn't just knowledge about Christ, it was actually knowing Christ.
Doug McMasters: Knowing Christ in his death and suffering, knowing Christ in his resurrection, and knowing the gift of righteousness that would come, that he didn't have to try to build.
Doug McMasters: This intimacy of relationship, that is even a fellowship and shared experiences of suffering, and a growing conformity to Christ, that is a conformity even to death that paradoxically produces life as only God could do in the ironies of this existence.
Doug McMasters: What he's doing here in chapter three is telling us where the profoundest, deepest joy is had.
Doug McMasters: It's found in Christ.
Doug McMasters: You've heard me say this before, but in a very dark, hard, difficult season I was in, in which I had a number of people who would be glad to see the back of me.
Doug McMasters: Someone asked me why I was still serving at the church I was at.
Doug McMasters: And I answered by saying this, I'm learning something about Jesus I don't think I could find anywhere else.
Doug McMasters: In the middle of that suffering, there was an intimacy of fellowship that I didn't know I needed, and I certainly wasn't looking for, but came upon me in a way that was very deep and very profound.
Doug McMasters: And the sufferings, well, they were worth it.
Doug McMasters: And so he's telling them here that this is a joy that's not a joy of good circumstances, and it's not a joy of achieved goals.
Doug McMasters: It's a joy despite death, despite failure, despite loss, despite time, despite restrictions.
Doug McMasters: There's a joy there, and it comes from Christ.
Doug McMasters: And this helps us to be able to look at the things that bombard us, that tried to seduce us, to go after them and claim them as gods, and to realize just how actually worthless they are.
Doug McMasters: When you see the surpassing greatness of Christ, even in suffering with Him, there are things thrown at you that you don't have an interest in anymore.
Doug McMasters: Because you see them for what they are.
Doug McMasters: You're not adversely affected either by the loss that comes to you.
Doug McMasters: You're not immune to trouble and you're not immune to temptation, but you're able to account whatever those things are just as they actually are.
Doug McMasters: Lesser things, not worth supplanting and replacing Christ for.
Doug McMasters: And that leads us to our last point.
Doug McMasters: Not only is Christ a believer's life and a believer's pattern and a believer's treasure, but Christ is also a believer's supply.
Doug McMasters: And chapter four is, you know, Micah asked for those verses that we treasure out of the book of Philippians.
Doug McMasters: And I think a lot of them would come to chapter four from chapter four.
Doug McMasters: Ones like, rejoice in the Lord always.
Doug McMasters: And again I say rejoice.
Doug McMasters: Again, appointing to our place of rejoicing, not in our circumstances, but rejoice in the Lord.
Doug McMasters: Find your joy there, not achievements, not even in the good gifts that God gives, but in the Lord Himself.
Doug McMasters: Or maybe Philippians 4, 6 and 7 might be your favorite.
Doug McMasters: Don't worry about anything, but in everything through prayer and petition with thanksgiving.
Doug McMasters: Present your request to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Doug McMasters: What is the remedy for anxiety?
Doug McMasters: Managing your situation.
Doug McMasters: No, not at all.
Doug McMasters: It's about Christ.
Doug McMasters: It's not about gaining the right perspective or the right mindset through the discipline that you might give to your mind and your thinking.
Doug McMasters: It comes through prayer, through being honest and open with God about the weaknesses of yourself.
Doug McMasters: But in trust, giving those things and casting the weight of your cares upon him, and thankful that he can handle it when you can't.
Doug McMasters: And the result?
Doug McMasters: Well, it's not a solution to the problem.
Doug McMasters: The result is peace.
Doug McMasters: A peace that doesn't make any logical sense because the circumstances that you're in would not be peaceful.
Doug McMasters: But the peace comes despite the circumstances.
Doug McMasters: The peace that passes all understanding is the peace that can't be explained because your circumstances are still hard.
Doug McMasters: How about this one as a favorite?
Doug McMasters: I know how to make do with a little.
Doug McMasters: I know how to make do with a lot.
Doug McMasters: In any and all circumstances, I've learned the secret of being content, whether well-fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need.
Doug McMasters: That may not be a favorite of everybody's, because it shows both sides.
Doug McMasters: I think we would like to say, I've learned to be content, well-fed, and I've learned to be content in abundance.
Doug McMasters: But Paul doesn't just do that, does he?
Doug McMasters: Whether I'm hungry or in need, I can be content.
Doug McMasters: But notice what he says.
Doug McMasters: He learned to be content.
Doug McMasters: Paul is being transparent here.
Doug McMasters: Because what Paul is saying in that word is that there were there was perhaps many times when he was discontented.
Doug McMasters: There were times when the situations aggravated him.
Doug McMasters: There were times when the circumstances weighed too heavily upon him.
Doug McMasters: And so what he's offering to us in the book of Philippians, that Christ is our supply, is not just some spiritual principle that he throws out there, detached from the circumstances of his life.
Doug McMasters: These things he himself wrestled with and entered into.
Doug McMasters: And he's saying, I've learned, as I've gone through life in its abundance and in its want, as I've gone into moments where I've been full and times when I've had to be hungry, I've learned to be content.
Doug McMasters: And in the repetition of submission and pouring himself out in prayer and finding God the supply in those moments as they repeat themselves, he says, I've learned, I've learned to be content.
Doug McMasters: And then one of the great promises of the New Testament, verse 19, My God will supply all your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus.
Doug McMasters: Now look at that word, according to his riches, not out of his riches, as though he's diminishing the bank account and drawing from it as he's offering things to you, but according to his riches, in proportion to his riches.
Doug McMasters: And what are his riches?
Doug McMasters: They're vast and infinite.
Doug McMasters: So according to the vastness and the infinite supply of God's riches, you are being cared for.
Doug McMasters: And God will supply you all that you need.
Doug McMasters: So let's go back to the first couple words.
Doug McMasters: We've seen Christ as our life, Christ as our pattern, Christ as our treasure, and Christ as our supply.
Doug McMasters: Remember what Paul opened up with?
Doug McMasters: Grace and peace to you.
Doug McMasters: Again, not a polite reading, but two words that sum up the gospel.
Doug McMasters: Grace, unearned, undeserved, unreciprocal gift granted by God to people that have no claim on Him.
Doug McMasters: Grace.
Doug McMasters: Peace.
Doug McMasters: A comprehensive wholeness that flows from that grace.
Doug McMasters: The end of hostility between the God who created us, the settling of the war that's been raging inside our heart against him.
Doug McMasters: And in its place, a sense of wholeness and fullness.
Doug McMasters: That kind of peace.
Doug McMasters: And where does it come from?
Doug McMasters: From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: Not our circumstances.
Doug McMasters: Not from our spiritual performance.
Doug McMasters: Not from our resolve to be less anxious.
Doug McMasters: From God.
Doug McMasters: And if you're in Christ, these words are yours.
Doug McMasters: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: So whatever's happening in your life right now, whatever circumstances that you've seen in the past few months, whatever you've been carrying that's made it hard for you to believe, these are your words.
Doug McMasters: Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: The promise to you is not that your circumstances will change.
Doug McMasters: The promise to you is that despite your circumstances, just as Paul's, you will find room to rejoice and to be joyful because of who Christ is to you.
Doug McMasters: Your life, your pattern, your treasure, your supply.
Doug McMasters: And if you're here this evening and you don't know Christ as your Savior, these things are not offered as an exchange for how well you perform.
Doug McMasters: These things are offered freely from a God who gives to those who don't deserve it.
Doug McMasters: And finding the grace of God and the peace of God comes by bringing yourself empty to Him.
Doug McMasters: I know that sounds scary.
Doug McMasters: To be before the living God with nothing to offer seems like the most foolish thing on earth to do.
Doug McMasters: But the scriptures tell us that is exactly what we should do.
Doug McMasters: Because we were designed to live in utter dependence on him anyway, no matter how good life was.
Doug McMasters: Even in Eden, when everything was perfect, we should live with a posture of dependence from his supply and his care and his love.
Doug McMasters: And so here in this moment, when you have nothing to bring, bring yourself just as you are, and find just as many have the overwhelming sense of God's mercy and love and grace in Christ.
Doug McMasters: Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: Let's pray together.
Doug McMasters: Father, we thank you for this glorious book that shares so much of the wondrous wealth and treasure that you are, to be able to see ourselves enveloped in you, to be brought into life out of spiritual death, to be shown how to live when sin would have taught us a different way, to count Christ as our treasure when we would have been trying to stockpile our own reserves, and to know that your supply is for us.
Doug McMasters: We can do all things through you when we realize that our resources are meager and limited.
Doug McMasters: And that all of us with receptive hearts will hear the message that you have for us here.
Doug McMasters: And that, Father, we will be filled with an abundant sense of joy and rejoicing in you with thankful hearts, despite what we may face, today, tomorrow, or years to come.
Doug McMasters: And we pray this in Christ's name.
Doug McMasters: Amen.