WEBVTT 00:00:13.759 --> 00:00:19.679 Let the king of my heart be the mountain where I run. 00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:25.600 Fountain I drink from always passion. 00:00:27.280 --> 00:00:40.240 Let the king of my heart be the shadow where I the ransom for my life always passed. 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:41.600 You are good. 00:00:47.359 --> 00:00:48.560 You are good. 00:03:06.080 --> 00:03:11.919 The mountain I drink from always my song. 00:03:16.639 --> 00:03:18.639 Well, welcome, Redeemer Family. 00:03:18.879 --> 00:03:22.800 Good to be with you this week on our midweek devotion Bible chat. 00:03:22.879 --> 00:03:33.039 We're gonna be making our way through the book of Philippians from now on during these midweek devotions, just taking a few minutes in the middle of the week to open up a book of the Bible and have a little Bible chat. 00:03:33.199 --> 00:03:35.120 So we're gonna be opening the book of Philippians. 00:03:35.280 --> 00:03:42.159 The reason why I want to look at the book of Philippians is because this is Paul writing to a church is having a tough time. 00:03:42.319 --> 00:03:53.199 This church of um and Philippi, and these are Paul's friends, and Paul is in jail, and yet this is the book that he writes the most about joy. 00:03:53.360 --> 00:04:05.280 And so I think it's an interesting book for us to consider, not that we are locked up, but we are certainly locked down in a series of ways and experiencing it in different ways. 00:04:05.439 --> 00:04:11.680 Each of us, we are being limited, and yet our joy does not have to be limited. 00:04:11.840 --> 00:04:34.879 So he begins this letter writing to his friends, this church, and he says, Philippians 1 verses 1 and 2, he says, Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons, and then he says this verse 2, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:04:36.079 --> 00:04:41.759 So for our first Bible chat in Philippians, I just want to stop there in those first two verses. 00:04:41.839 --> 00:04:51.120 I think that's enough for us to enter in to look at how is it the way, what is the way by which Paul enters into this letter, into these people? 00:04:51.199 --> 00:04:56.000 What's the way that he views these people and he communicates to them? 00:04:56.160 --> 00:05:02.959 And what we see right away so good for us to see is that he begins with grace. 00:05:03.920 --> 00:05:06.240 He says, He says, You guys are saints. 00:05:07.199 --> 00:05:09.439 He says, Grace and peace to you. 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:39.920 And now right now it might be filled with just family members, or maybe you're in an empty house, and maybe you know your people are over the phone or on Zoom chats, but our lives are filled with people and people are imperfect, and we are imperfect, and so our approach and our regard to people has to begin with a beginning point of grace, or else there will always be a breakdown. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:50.560 I've read once before where somebody said the moment imputation breaks down, a relationship is the moment the relationship is doomed. 00:05:50.720 --> 00:06:03.040 Meaning, as soon as you stop imputing to the other person grace and righteousness and love, the relationship is doomed because the other person and even you are imperfect. 00:06:03.199 --> 00:06:05.839 And so the beginning point has to be grace. 00:06:05.920 --> 00:06:10.319 And this is how we see Paul beginning with this church that you know is imperfect. 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:11.680 He says, Grace to you. 00:06:11.839 --> 00:06:13.920 You are saints in Jesus. 00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:16.399 You are a saint. 00:06:17.519 --> 00:06:26.560 And how good that is for us to hear, because certainly our lives are filled with people who need grace to be showered upon them. 00:06:27.439 --> 00:06:40.800 If we even think about the way that Paul begins all his letters, he begins with this grace and peace, Galatians 1 3, Ephesians 1 2, Colossians 1-2, 1 Thessalonians 1-1, uh, 2 Thessalonians 1-2. 00:06:41.040 --> 00:06:48.720 I mean it just on and on and on is Paul saying, Grace and peace, grace and peace, because it all begins with grace and peace. 00:06:50.160 --> 00:06:52.560 It is by grace that we are saints. 00:06:53.120 --> 00:06:56.480 We are God's children viewed holy and perfect. 00:06:57.439 --> 00:07:05.120 We're not saints because we're saintly, we're saints because in the grace of Jesus we are righteous by his word. 00:07:05.519 --> 00:07:08.079 What a peace that gives us. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:12.160 And then these questions begin, right? 00:07:12.319 --> 00:07:19.199 Like, what would it look like if we really handed over people in our lives to the grace of God? 00:07:19.360 --> 00:07:27.519 What if we decided we were beginning to regard and approach and communicate to the people in our lives in grace from the beginning? 00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:34.480 Not and not like wait until they earn something and then be gracious, but what if we began in grace? 00:07:35.680 --> 00:07:44.720 What would it look like to shower them with grace before giving advice or waiting for them to deserve something? 00:07:47.120 --> 00:07:53.439 And then can you imagine what it would be like to be in a relationship with people that do that for you? 00:07:54.800 --> 00:08:02.800 Well, I would dare to say that that's the parent you love, I would dare to say that to the friend you love, that's the friend you're waiting on. 00:08:04.240 --> 00:08:06.480 And it's certainly the God we have. 00:08:08.240 --> 00:08:09.759 Grace to you. 00:08:09.920 --> 00:08:24.720 That's why Paul starts this letter, Philippians, a book of joy, while he is in jail and prison writing, and he says he just knows that our joy does not have to be limited, even though our life is limited. 00:08:25.920 --> 00:08:30.000 Grace and peace to you, you are saints, a redeemer family. 00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:33.039 Our just short Bible chapter this week. 00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:42.399 It begins in this book of Philippians by saying, Grace and peace to you, all you saints, have great joy this week, and we'll talk to you soon.