Standing Firm Together

In this message from Philippians 1:27–30, Justin shares what it looks like to “let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.” The gospel doesn’t just change where we’re going. It changes how we live right now.

Because of Jesus, we are called to stand firm, side by side, united in purpose and striving together for the faith of the gospel. We have received the gospel together, and now we are called to live worthy of it together.

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Guys are glad to be here. We are certainly glad that you guys are here. I think there might be uh a couple of individual seats. I know there's some folks kind of hanging around in the back. Um, you might be able to find something, but for the rest of you, there's a little bit more space at the uh 845 service. If you want to give that a try in the future, it might uh be helpful. But um thank you guys so much for being here. We really are thrilled that you guys are all here uh and a part of this as we continue on in the book of Philippians. You can go ahead and you can navigate to Philippians chapter one, verse 27. And following, if you've got a Bible with you or you want to navigate there on a device, we are actually going to be finishing our first chapter of Philippians today, which uh is pretty exciting for me because as a church, this is our first chapter of the Bible that we get to finish together, which is uh just pretty neat. It's exciting stuff. There's only 1,188 more to go. So if we take a month each, it will take us exactly 99 years. So buckle up, everybody. It's gonna be fun. Well, if uh if you are just joining us, uh, we've been working through Philippians chapter one, like I said, and so far the author, Paul, has been talking about himself, not in a bad way, but remember, Philippians is a letter, and so as is pretty understandable, Paul starts the letter by updating the recipients in Philippi with a little bit of what's going on in his life and just uh, you know, some things about himself and his situation. And while he's doing that, he shares this incredible verse that really encapsulates his perspective on life that we looked at last week, which is verse 21, where he says, To live is Christ and to die is gain. Well, where we're at in the letter today, Paul kind of starts to shift a little bit and he turns his attention from himself and his life and kind of his perspective on some of these things. Uh, and he starts to really turn his attention to the recipients, the Philippians. And he says basically that he's hoping to come and see them. But as we've talked about throughout this series already, uh his situation kind of leaves that in doubt. As Paul is writing this letter, he's actually under house arrest in Rome. And so he's not certain whether he's going to be able to see them or not. And so he goes ahead and he gives the Philippians some encouragement or kind of addresses them from afar in the letter itself and basically takes, you know, all these things he's been saying about his own life and this perspective that he has that to live is Christ. And he encourages the Philippians to have that same attitude or that same perspective. He's urging this same devotion in their lives, uh, you know, that is in his life for them too. And so I want you to take a look at what Paul has to say here in Philippians chapter one, verse 27 through 30 as our passage for the day. He says this He says, Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or I'm absent, I might hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and this from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had, and now hear that I still have. So there's a lot there in this passage, and we're gonna work our way through it this morning. But I I want you to hear this that in order for us to really fully understand or correctly understand what Paul is saying here, we're gonna have to have a little bit of a history lesson this morning. Some of you guys are gonna be excited about this. Some of the kids up here in the front row might be rolling their eyes at me here pretty soon, but uh we have to have a little bit of a history lesson this morning because Paul is communicating a truth that's very specific to the Philippians context. And if we don't have that context, we can completely miss what Paul is really saying here, or worse, we can really misinterpret or misunderstand what he's saying here. And this context that I think is important for us has to do with the history of Philippi itself and really the history of the Roman Empire going all the way back to the assassination of Julius Caesar. All right, so some of these kids, like I said, you're gonna feel like you're in history class for a minute. The rest of you, hopefully, some of this comes to mind as we roll along, but we're gonna take a little crash course in Roman history here, real quick. Because Rome, if you might remember, we all think of the Roman Empire, but Rome actually rose to prominence originally as a republic until a certain general came along who rose to power named Julius Caesar, who uh crossed the Rubicon. If you know that phrase, literally that comes from Julius Caesar actually crossing the Rubicon River in Italy, which was a boundary that the Roman Senate set saying that no general in Rome could cross the river with their army because it was viewed as a threat to the democracy or a threat to the Roman Senate. And eventually Julius Caesar did that. He crossed the river, you know, was deemed a traitor. It triggered an immediate civil war, which he ultimately won and became a dictator. Now, this all took place about 50 years or so before Jesus in 49 BC is when Caesar crossed the Rubicon. Now, needless to say, a lot of the Roman senators were not too thrilled about that. And so, in kind of the next five years, some dissent kind of arose. And what eventually happened is this plot came about to assassinate Caesar, led by two of these senators in particular, named Brutus and Cassius. If you're a Shakespeare fan, you should, you know, et tu brute, this should be kind of ringing some bells for you guys a little bit. So Brutus and Cassius lead this plot to assassinate Caesar, but unfortunately for them, Caesar was a little more popular than they anticipated, and they actually ended up having to flee Rome because of the riots that started after this assassination. And so Brutus and Cassius flee Rome and they head to the east, where they land in Greece and Syria and start to raise armies, essentially to defend themselves, but also to make a play at taking power back in Rome. Unfortunately for them, while they're off in the east doing that, in Rome, Caesar's great nephew, and who became his adopted son, a guy by the name of Octavian, raises his own army, teams up with a friend of Caesar's named Mark Antony, another, you know, Mark Antony, Cleopatra, right? History lessons should be triggered here a little bit. So Octavian and Mark Anthony set out to pursue Brutus and Cassius. Now, I'm sure some of you are wondering, well, what on earth does this all have to do with Philippians? I'm getting there, I promise. All of this took a little while, but finally in 42 BC, Octavian and Mark Antony catch up with Brutus and Cassius, and they have one of the most important battles in history, which was the Battle of Philippi. So the Battle of Philippi takes place in 42 BC. You should have a cool little map here for you to look at, where Octavian and Mark Antony defeated Brutus and Cassius, and they essentially set the course of history here for the Western world, but also for when Jesus comes on the scene. Because this battle more or less represents the death of the Roman Republic and the birth of the Roman Empire. Not completely, but it's pretty close. Octavian and Mark Antony, after this battle, actually end up having their own war against each other because why not? It's politics, I guess. Octavian wins that battle and becomes the first emperor of Rome under the name Caesar Augustus, which, if you read Luke 2 at Christmas, right, in those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that all of Rome would have a census taking place. This is how all this kind of connects here. But what does this have to do with Philippians chapter 1, verse 27? Well, here's the deal. After that battle of Philippi, a lot of the veterans from the battle settled in Philippi. And so when Paul is writing to the Philippians here, he's writing to a city that is largely populated by the descendants of this battle. And here's where it really gets interesting. Because of the special place in history that this battle had, uh, or really the special place it had in the life and the story of Octavian or Caesar Augustus, he actually gave the city a new title and special privileges with it. I'm not going to tell you the new title, it's just a bunch of words in Latin that's kind of crazy. But one of the privileges that was given to the city of Philippi, and the reason why you just got this whole story is because it's important for us to understand this and how big of a deal it was, was he gave the city of Philippi what was called the Italic Rite. Now, the Italic Rite, what that meant is that Philippi, as a Roman colony out in the provinces, was treated as if it was on Italian soil. In other words, they basically acted like Philippi was now an extension of Italy itself. And that was special compared to all the areas around them. Most Roman Roman provinces were not treated like that. And where this really becomes relevant for us is that with that, many of the people in Philippi were granted special citizenship. They actually became citizens of the Roman Empire when most people that lived in the provinces of Rome were not citizens. And this was a huge deal. Roman citizenship came with a lot of perks. It was a special thing. And so for these people in Philippi, they understood this special status that had been granted to them by the emperor as essentially a gift for their role in his history. Right? He had come along, he had deemed them citizens, given them this italic right. And so, because of that, there was this special civic pride in Philippi where these people really knew what it meant to be part of the empire, to want to represent that well and to live it out well, which finally brings us back to verse 27 and why I'm telling you all this. Because when Paul says here, only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, we can misinterpret this. You know, depending on your background, Paul's saying, just make sure you're worthy of the gospel of Christ can sound like another religious guy out there telling you, hey, make sure you're good enough. Do what you need to do to get in. In fact, that's the message of most religions. But what's so important for us to understand here is that's not at all what Paul is saying. The word that Paul uses here in Philippians chapter 1, verse 27, where we we get this translation let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel or live worthy, literally means live as a citizen. Conduct yourself as a citizen. And this is something that the Philippians would have resonated with immediately because of this special Roman citizenship that many of them had. They knew what Paul was saying when he used this word. And we know that Paul chose this word specifically for their context because Paul will say something very similar to this in other places. He gives this encouragement in some of his other letters to live in a good way or to live worthy of Jesus. But in most of those places, he uses a different Greek word that means to walk. He'll say something like, walk worthy of the gospel. For example, one of the kind of the famous examples here is Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1, where he says, I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. Which I think it's important for us to register there that he says, not walk in a manner worthy enough to be called, but walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have already been called. Paul's making the same point in Philippians chapter 1, verse 27, with a play on the Philippians' dual citizenship. That it's not something for them to live up to, it's something they've been given. You see, the Philippians had been made citizens of the Roman Empire and they lived with pride because of that. And now the Philippian Christians were being told that they had been made citizens of heaven and they should conduct themselves in light of that. And it's so important that we understand this, that we understand what it means here in Philippians 1.27. Because if you read or you hear live worthy of the gospel of Christ as some kind of religious requirement or prerequisite that you have to live up to, or this standard that you need to be worthy of Jesus, or you need to be good enough to get into heaven, you've missed the whole point. And we can miss it when we don't understand the context here because Paul isn't telling us to be worthy enough for this, because you will need never be worthy enough to be a citizen of heaven. You need the emperor to give it to you as a gift. And that's what Paul is saying here that Christianity isn't a list of requirements to be good enough for God. It's the good news that if you are a follower of Jesus, if your faith is in him, then you have been given citizenship in heaven because the king purchased it for you with his blood. Now live like it. That's what Paul is saying here. Paul is saying, live like you have been given the greatest gift you will ever be given because you have. If you are a follower of Jesus, the King of Kings, hasn't just given you citizenship in heaven, he has taken you in all of your sin and your unworthiness, and he's cleaned you and clothed you and adopted you into his family as his son or his daughter. He's given you a seat at his table in his home and given you an inheritance that can never be taken away in any way, shape, or form. And you're part of his family now. And Paul is saying, live like that. Not be good enough for Jesus. You can't be. He's saying, you already belong to the kingdom, and now live in light of that. Conduct yourselves as somebody who is worthy because the king says you are. That's the gospel. That was the truth of the gospel that Martin Luther woke up to in the 1500s that helped spark the Protestant Reformation. You see, Martin Luther was a monk that was devoted to trying to make his life worthy of God, of being good enough. And as a monk, he he kind of spent his days in endless prayer and fasting and confession and all of these things, but through all of it, he still felt sinful and felt like he wasn't good enough. And he was terrified of God's judgment. Right? This was, you know, back in, you know, kind of more medieval days. And so uh he was pretty scared of this stuff. And Luther actually writes that he hated the phrase, the righteousness of God. Because to Luther at the time, he understood it as this standard of God that he needed to live up to, that he needed to be righteousness and holy and perfect, and he never felt like he could get there. And so Luther wrestled with this. You know, what does the Christian life look like? How am I supposed to do this? How am I supposed to be good enough or to be worthy? And as he was wrestling with these things, he read the book of Romans. And in particular, one of the verses that it had an impact on his life was Romans chapter 1, verse 17, where it says this it says, For in it, meaning the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Martin Luther realized reading through that verse where it says the righteousness of God is revealed, that the righteousness of God wasn't something for him to earn or to get, but it was something that he had been given. That God's righteousness is revealed or given to us by faith. And then out of that we're called to live in light of it. That we're called to live as people that already are righteous in God's sight. And we have to be grounded in that truth or that understanding of the gospel, not just as we walk or work our way through Philippians chapter 1, verse 27, but as we live our lives. Because just about every religion out there will paint itself or paint the path to God through your own work, through your own effort, and being good enough, being worthy for whatever it is that the ultimate goal is. But the gospel is fundamentally different. The gospel isn't a standard that we achieve or that we're worthy of in order to be accepted. It's the good news that God has already made us citizens of heaven. And because we are citizens, we're called to live in light of that. And that's what Paul is saying in verse 27 and following. And so, with the rest of our time this morning, I want us to think about what does that look like? And so we're going to continue on with Paul here and see kind of how he uh continues to elaborate on this or explain it, where he continues in verse 27 and he says, uh basically, let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel that I might hear of you, that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. Now, there's a few things to point out here, uh essentially, but that Paul says that if we conduct ourselves as citizens, we should be standing firm in one spirit. You know, it's interesting that could be one spirit in like a general sense that we're all meant to be together and unified and things like that. And I do think that's part of it. But considering that Paul just talked about the Holy Spirit in verse 19, where he mentions the spirit of Jesus, I also think he's making this point that it's probably better for us to understand that we are called to be standing firm in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit that empowers us and strengthens us to do those things. And it's in the Holy Spirit that we can do what Paul says next, which is to have one mind. Paul actually uses this Greek word suke, which is where we get the word psyche from, that kind of uh it's kind of meant to encapsulate like all of our mental, emotional self, that it's our thoughts and our feelings that are meant to be in line together, focused on Jesus. And uh he continues on here and he gives this phrase, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, which I really think is this great kind of image that helps us to see what living as a citizen actually looks like. Because what Paul says here, this word that he uses to strive side by side actually means to engage in an athletic contest together or a military endeavor together. We might picture it as like the offensive line on a football team, this picture of brothers kind of lined up shoulder to shoulder, side by side with a common goal in mind. But obviously for the Philippians, a football team probably would not have come to mind, but they uh likely would have taken it in more of a military context. You know, in particular, they may have had a very specific image of soldiers fighting side by side of the Roman legions that they would have been very familiar with because some of the people in Philippi would have been descended from the Roman soldiers in the legions that fought in the Battle of Philippi. And even if they didn't have that kind of connection to it, they would have very or would have been very familiar with the Roman legions that were stationed in Philippi or traveled along the Roman highway that went through Philippi regularly. And so that image of the legions would have been a common sight for them of these men marching and fighting side by side in the same way that Paul was calling them to here, to strive side by side for the faith of the gospel. That they were meant to be fighting for the cause as citizen soldiers together. You know, I think the Philippians would have understood exactly what Paul was calling them to pretty well, and I think they also would have understood something else about all of that that it's not easy. Right. It's not easy to stand side by side like that and to contend for the faith, to fight the good fight. Paul continues on in verse 28 through 30, and he kind of you know hints at this a little bit. He says this, he says, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had, and now hear that I still have. You see, the picture that Paul paints of following Jesus isn't an easy one. Jesus never promised that. Paul doesn't promise that here because it's actually incredibly difficult. And there's a reason Paul uses this imagery of striving side by side, fighting alongside your brothers and sisters in Christ, because the reality is there are opponents. There is an enemy to the cause of Christ, right? That we are in a spiritual war, is what scripture teaches us. And I think sometimes we do a disservice to really the gospel and to Christ when we paint following Jesus a little bit too easily as just believe in Jesus, you get to go to heaven, and your life is going to be better for it. And there's so much truth in that, but it's not really the full truth. Because the gospel isn't that we're being taken out of the war to sit on the sidelines and just take it easy. The gospel is that we are given a free ticket to the winning side because Jesus purchased it for us. But what we have to understand as followers of Jesus is that we are still in the fight. That we are meant to be God's hands and feet on this earth as long as we have breath in our lungs, serving Him and being uh in this war together, side by side, contending for the faith. Now, I think sometimes this can be a little bit of a shock to us in our modern context because for most of us, our daily lives are, you know, we don't have a lot of struggle and suffering. I mean, all of us go through things, but not to the extent that maybe most of humanity throughout history has gone through. To to the original readers of this, the idea of struggle and suffering and conflict wouldn't have been an alien thing or this this strange thing to them. It would have been the norm. It would have been the world that they lived in. And I think the thing that we're supposed to understand, though, is even in our suffering, is that in Jesus, those things are redeemed for a better purpose. That our suffering isn't pointless or part of uh, you know, just kind of a losing effort, but that Paul can say to us, our suffering now actually is something that's given to us by God for our good. And I know that can be really hard to hear, but we have to remember Paul's perspective on life. This idea that to live is Christ. It's all for him. And so I think in Paul's mindset, in his perspective, everything in life is ultimately for Jesus. Even the worst things. Even our suffering can be taken by God and redeemed for a better purpose or used in our lives to point us to God, for God to be at work in us and through us. And that's why Paul can say in verse 28 that it has been granted to us not only to believe, but to suffer for his sake. Right? The the language here is kind of interesting. I I don't know if anyone's translation actually has it this way, but you could say that what Paul is saying here, if he translated it a little differently, is that it has been graciously given to us to suffer. I don't know about you, but the you know, when somebody says they're gonna graciously give me something, to suffer is not the the fill in the blank I would go with. It's a a little bit like opening something horrible on Christmas and like, thanks, Paul, this is uh a good one. But here's the thing Paul's understanding is that God can take even those things in our life and work good out of them. And the reality is we're not always gonna see it on this side of heaven or in the moment. Sometimes life is just hard, but we've got to trust that what Paul is saying here is true, that God takes even those things and makes them opportunities for him to be at work in us and through us for our good. And again, it's not because God wants us to suffer, but it's because of our sin that it's just gonna be a reality of life on this side of heaven. And at least now Jesus takes that and redeems it for our good. But ultimately, the undeniable truth is that life will be hard. That there will be moments of suffering. Jesus says in this world you will have trouble. But we also know that when life gets hard, God has promised that he'll be with us. And not only that he will be with us, but that God has given us his church, his body, the people sitting to your left and your right, or that you are connected with in your life as brothers and sisters in Christ, to fight side by side together, to be in it together and to contend with one another. But in order to do that, we have to live out our lives as citizens in a different way. We have to link up with one another in a different way than just sitting side by side on Sunday mornings. That kind of life as citizen soldiers, as people that are striving side by side for the faith of the gospel together takes more than just sitting next to people. It takes doing life together, being vulnerable with one another. Right? We need people to do this together with. That's what it means to live as a citizen. After all, the last time I checked, I don't know of any uh, you know, one-person countries out there for anybody to be a citizen of. The idea of citizenship means that other people are a part of it with you, that you are a part of something bigger than yourself. And that's what Paul is calling us to here to be a part of. And so as Harbor Community Church, one of the important things that we think there is for us as a people is getting involved in a group, of getting out of just this context on Sunday morning, sitting side by side together, but actually doing life together, journeying alongside one another in a different context of being vulnerable with each other and sharing our life and our struggles and our successes and our prayer requests with one another in a way that we can sharpen each other and encourage one another and do what Paul is saying here to strive side by side for the faith of the gospel. But I'm also gonna tell you, church, I hope you caught that. I just said being in a group is one step towards doing that because it doesn't just fulfill the requirement. It's not like being in a group checks the box and then you've just got this area of your life covered, but to develop the kind of relationships that Paul's calling us to have, where you have brothers and sisters in Christ side by side with you that truly know you and are walking alongside of you in a way that you can encourage each other, hold each other accountable, push each other forward, that requires being vulnerable with one another. It requires being consistent with one another and doing life together and being in a group can help set the conditions for that. But at the end of the day, it's on you and it's on me and it's on each one of us to actually live that out to be in the kind of relationships or to develop the kind of relationships that that takes to group. We have to be in a group, but we also have to put in the work to see those kinds of things develop. And so I'm really excited because the neat thing about this and the timing of where we're at in Philippians is in the timing of kind of this early uh season in the life of our church, is that we uh happen to also be rolling out kind of our system for groups right now. And so I want to encourage you to check this out. This week we just got our app that is available through something called Church Center that you're gonna be able to check out and is gonna be kind of the place to go to that will help you connect with the different groups that we have available. If you're not part of one already and you need to find one, you can actually download this app using the QR code on the screen, or you can follow a link that Matt sent out in an email this week. You can also just download the church center app on Google Play or the App Store with Apple, and then you can search for Harbor Community Church. It's a little trickier doing it that way, but you can do that. Uh, and the reason for that, you know, I'm not crazy about technology and apps, but this really is great because it will help you get connected with a group, and there's so many other things that it does too. You can actually pull up our weekly bulletin there. So if you're a digital person, you can just have the bulletin right there on your phone. We can uh, you know, kill a few less trees every week for the bulletins, which is great. Um, you can actually too, if you're a volunteer with us, you're gonna be able to manage your volunteer schedule in this app as well. And so it just has so many great functions that puts it all together. And so I want to encourage you, check that out and be on the lookout primarily for how you can connect with a group. We uh I've been just blown away by the amount of groups that we've been able to start rolling out, and we want to see that continue to proliferate that's a hard word, proliferate. We want to continue to see more groups launching, more people stepping in and creating opportunities on different days of the week in different neighborhoods around the island. Because uh, you know, without a building, the coolest thing about this is that we're sending groups to different restaurants and the library and homes all around Hilton Head for there to be this multiplication of people and followers of Jesus that are doing life together. And so we would love for you to help us be a part of continuing that and growing that, or at the very least connecting with one of the ones that already exists. So please get on there and check it out. There's uh another neat thing, too, that's gonna be rolling out actually here in about 59 minutes because it looks like it's 11.01. So at 12 o'clock today, if we have your email, you're gonna get an email for something called Right Now Media, which is an incredible resource that actually can be used amongst our groups or as individuals. You don't have to be in one of our groups to use this, but you should be in a group. Don't forget that. Uh, you can do that either way. Um, you'll get this email if we have it, inviting you to sign up and create an account. There's no obligation, it's free, nothing that's there. It's just you got to have an email and a password to log in because it's kind of, you know, behind a paywall that we've taken care of for you. And so you can jump on there, and there are incredible resources there with thousands of video Bible studies that, again, you can use individually for yourself or that you can participate in with others as part of these groups. And uh, there's actually even material in there for kids. And so if you're a family or parent with kids, there's some great content in there that you can check out to see if there's something that your kids would like to look at or check out. But we want to encourage you with that today. We want to try to just make it as easy as possible for you to grow in your faith and to be involved with others. And so you can check that out. And uh, if you don't get that email at noon today, that's probably just because we don't have your email in our database right now. And so if that's the case, just shoot Mat or I an email. Um, probably me. I I'll I'll knock it out a little faster than Matt will. So you can send that my way and I'll take care of that for you. But uh, we'll get you in there, we'll make sure that um we can set you up with that just as a gift to help do life together in our groups. Um, because at the end of the day, we've got to be doing that. We've gotta be doing life with one another, striving side by side for the faith, like Paul says in Philippians chapter one. That's what we are called to do, to live out this unbelievable gift that God has given us of citizenship of heaven, of being a part of his family, be adopted and loved and cleaned and clothed. And if you're here today and you're not sure if you've received that gift, maybe you've never heard Christianity or the gospel presented in that way, that you've always thought that it was about being worthy enough or being good enough, good enough to get to go to heaven. We would love to talk to you about the gift of God's grace that he has for you. You can talk to Matt or myself either today or or just throughout the week. We'd love to just explore that with you and help you understand the gift that God offers each one of us. But if you are a follower of Jesus, if you've received that gift, then let's take Paul's encouragement and his challenge here today, church, and go out and strive side by side for the faith of the gospel. Let's live in light of the gift that we've been given this week. And let's see God make an impact on this island and in our homes and our schools, on our teams, and allow him to use us in this war for his good or for his glory and for our good. Would you pray with me? Father, we love you and we praise you. We thank you so much for everything that you do and have done for us, God, and we just we just stand in awe of the gift that you have given us, God. I pray that even this morning, as we consider these words in Scripture, Lord, that you would just renew in us a sense of awe for what you've done, God, on the cross. That we would be reminded of the truth, that we can never be worthy or good enough, but you've done it for us and you've given us citizenship in your kingdom and in your family as a gift. And so, God, I pray today that we would be encouraged and empowered to live in light of that. I pray that you would be at work in our hearts and minds. And for the folks that maybe are just coming to clarity on that, that are just coming to clarity on your goodness, on the fact that they don't have to be good enough or worthy enough or strive for your kingdom, that they can strive on the opposite side of that. God, that they can strive from your goodness and your mercy to make an impact on this world. God, would you just help them to uh to grow in that truth, to see the gospel clearly, and would you just make us a people and a church that knows the gospel well, that teaches the gospel clearly, that goes out into this island and this world to make an impact for your kingdom and that strive side by side together for that. So, Father, we thank you. We love you, we thank you so much for Jesus and that he makes it all possible. It's in his name that we pray. Amen.