Thank you, Mark, for leading us. What a privilege it is to say that it is well with our soul, regardless of what's going on in the world, what our circumstances are. We can say it is well with our soul because of Jesus, because we know him through faith. That's what we're going to talk about this morning.

Good morning to everyone. Another beautiful day in September. You'll appreciate this in January. So remember how nice it was. We're continuing our study of this letter to the Philippians this morning. And we noted last time in our introduction that this letter is a letter of joy. It's a letter of rejoicing. 

And we talked last time quite a bit about the distinction between happiness and joy. Happiness is based on circumstances, on happenstance. And of course, in this world, our circumstances shift like sand. Good one moment, bad the next. And so we noted that happiness, although pursued relentlessly by men, is an ill-fated pursuit. But joy, true joy in Jesus, is something that abides continually for the one who believes. This is because true joy in Jesus is not based on things which change, but rather on truths that remain. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So why is it that I do not always experience the joy that is mine in Christ? Why sometimes do I seem to have this abiding joy slip through my grasp? David wondered about that often. If you read the Psalms, he had many struggles, many trials, some brought on by his own actions. In Psalm 42, he said, "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night while they continually say to me, 'Where is your God?' When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me, for I used to go with a multitude. I went with them to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast." 

David's in a hard place at this time. He's struggling to hold on to the joy that he knows is only found in the Lord. And he knows. He even asks himself in verse 5, "Why are you cast down, oh my soul? Why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance."

Sometimes the circumstances of life overwhelm us. And it is in these times that we must reckon what we know. We must come back to the word of God. We must turn back to Jesus in all that we know. And my friends, we know. But it can be a little hard to hold fast to what we know. It can be a battle to believe, to focus on what matters, what is true. 

You see, the matter of joy, holding on to that joy, having that deep abiding joy, to be able to say it is well with my soul is not a matter of circumstances but of focus. This is why the Bible tells us again and again to set our mind on things above, on eternal things, and to look to Jesus as we run the race of this life. Truly, circumstances are irrelevant to joy. As we see in the example of Paul in our text, as he writes to the believers from prison in chains, chained to a Roman soldier, unjustly persecuted for his faith and testimony in Christ. And yet he is rejoicing. He is filled with joy. And this because his focus is on Jesus. His mind is immersed in eternal things, the believers, the gospel, the hope of his coming, the confidence that he has in God. 

The key to joy, abiding joy, is focus on Jesus and all the truths that are ours, the promises that are in him, yes, that are found in his word, and in the love and fellowship, the common grace and hope that we have as believers in Jesus Christ. But sometimes, sometimes our circumstances hit us and we have to work through these things. We have to truly take all those thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. We must remember the word, remember the promises of God in Christ, and get our minds straight. 

As Peter says, pull in all the loose ends of our mind as you would gird up a tunic to run. I had one of those days, really, an afternoon this past week. As most of you know, about a month ago, I had a bad sinus infection and it caused my left eye to turn blurry and I lost the center of my vision. I thought that when the sinus infection went away, the vision would come back, but it hasn't. I finally went to the eye doctor and they couldn't make heads or tails of why. They said my macula was thickening in the back of my eye and they referred me to a specialist in Wausau. I was in contact with them and made an appointment for what would have been tomorrow to get an injection in my eye. 

But the other day, while we were butchering some chickens, the specialist called me and he said he reviewed my file and test and that he would not take my case. I thought, well, that's odd. What's that mean? He suggested that I go to Madison to the research hospital because he thought I would need daily care for a while. So I was a little shocked at this news, a little discouraged. And I couldn't get any answers or indications, you know, what's going on. Sorry. So I knew when I wrote this I wasn't going to make it through this. 

So anyway, I had to keep butchering chickens. But I was upset and a little angry, a little afraid, and just basically in a foul mood of discouragement. I knew that God was in control. I know that God works all things for my good, that I need to rejoice, and I need to count it all joy. Andrew said, I almost texted when you texted me and said rejoice. And I thought, might not have been good at that moment, you know. But the emotions and uncertainty and possible outcome were overwhelming in the moment. Would I live like this the rest of my life? I knew, I know, I know. But I couldn't get over the feeling and discouragement. And I felt alone and scared. I thought to myself, you know, no one cares. And then I was convicted because sometimes I don't act like I care. I don't remember what matters. I don't love my brothers and sisters as I should. I just get wrapped up in myself and in the world. 

And I think, like David, this is sometimes how it is for us. And believers have all sorts of trials and tribulations, sometimes very difficult situations, hard to imagine. I talked to my buddy, Doug Foley, a couple of days ago. And his back is out really bad. He's hobbling around like an old man. He said, well, at least I don't have rods in my spine and constant pain like Ray Brown. At least I didn't cut my hand off with a chainsaw like Sam. He said, at least I can see with both my eyes. I laughed. And he said, but at 2 o'clock this morning, I wasn't thinking about anyone else's pain, he said, just my own. 

Sometimes we have a bad hangnail, right? And then we meet a guy that has no arm. It's a matter of perspective. But you know what? My hangnail still hurts. I think it's this way when we are overcome by some difficult circumstances in the moment. We can know all the truth that we need to know, which is so important, but yet just be brought to our knees by circumstances. Romans 8 says, as Mark read this morning, that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. But he says in Romans 8 that we don't even know how we should pray sometimes, and that in those times, the Spirit makes intercession for us. Life can be like that sometimes. We don't even know how to pray. 

But we know the word, the truth, who God is, how he loves us and cares for us and has promised us his grace and mercy and hope in Jesus. And I had to come back to those things as I lay in bed the other night and assess my situation. I had to apply all those things that I know, that I continually preach to you. And I had to remember what matters and remember how good God is. And I had to trust him and get my focus back on Jesus and on others. I had to remember who I am and what I have in Christ, why I am here and what really matters. And these things never change. 

Circumstances are irrelevant, as hard as they can be sometimes. Abiding joy in Jesus is a matter of focus and renewing our mind and loving one another. And my friends, this is what this letter to the Philippians is all about. Paul has joy even in his horrible circumstances, even as he's chained to a Roman soldier for his witness for Christ. And even though the believers who love him so much, those he longs for with the affection of Christ, they are concerned. They're worried about Paul. They're worried about his situation. But he wants them to rejoice. Why? Because God is working. And the kingdom is going forth, even through these circumstances. 

We must learn, as Paul says in chapter 4, to be content in all circumstances in Christ. And trials are sometimes the best teachers. We have to learn. He says, I learned to be content in Christ, no matter what situation I'm in. This is the key to abiding joy. Let's look at our text. 

In Philippians 1:3, it says, "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, making a request for you with all joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now." Being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, and as much as both in my chains and in the defense of the confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace. For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you with all the affection of Jesus Christ. 

I've given you five points on your outline this morning. First, thankfulness, second, prayer, third, fellowship in the gospel, fourth, confidence in God, and fifth, common grace, common love. 

Well, first we see that abiding, enduring joy comes with thankfulness. Philippians 1:3, "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you." Paul writes that every time he thinks of these precious believers in Philippi, he gives thanks to God for them. 

We talk often about what happens to a man or a woman when they choose to place their faith in Jesus alone. 2 Corinthians 5 tells us that God makes the one who believes in Jesus into a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come. We see in Romans 5 that God pours his love out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given to us as a permanent resident in us and a guarantee of our inheritance. We receive a new heart and a new spirit, and the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit come and make their home in us, according to John 14. 

There is a powerful transformation for the one who puts his faith in Jesus alone and what he accomplished at the cross. But this is not so for the man who rejects Christ, who does not know Jesus by faith. He is still in Adam, still dominated and controlled by indwelling sin under the law, destined for eternal death in the lake of fire. The man in Adam is an entirely different creature than the man in Christ, with different desires, different affections, different goals, and an entirely different destiny. 

And because of the new birth, because of regeneration, we have precious fellowship with all who believe Jesus. This strikes me most when I think about the great friends we have in India: Augustine, Philip, Stephen, Siobhan. I traveled all the way around the world to India into a different culture, different languages, religions, truly a different world. And I met these men in their homes and worked with them in ministry in slums and leper colonies. 

Although we had absolutely nothing in common in the world, we shared the same faith, the same Holy Spirit, and we have sweet fellowship right away when we meet a believer, even if it's on the other side of the world. And yet I have no fellowship with my neighbor in Adam. They're nice people. We have a friendship, perhaps an acquaintance, but we do not have fellowship like we do with believers. 

2 Corinthians 6:14, Paul said, "Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?" 

When you think of your brothers and sisters in Christ at Living Hope Church, are you thankful? Are you thankful for this place, for the people here who love the Lord, for those who have a strong desire for the word of God? And do you have a great affection for them, a strong desire to minister to them and encourage them in Christ? 

This is the kind of relationship that Paul had with the believers in Philippi—sweet fellowship, love for one another, a strong desire to spend time together, to minister together, and to bring the gospel to the world. "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, making a request for you with all joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now." 

Abiding joy comes from being thankful to God, and abiding joy comes from prayer. We cannot have a clear focus on Jesus, a dependence on God, and fellowship with Him moment by moment, day by day unless we are spending time with Him, unless we are talking to Him, unless we are casting our cares upon Him, knowing that He cares for us. 

Prayer is fellowship. It's talking to God. It's a relationship with God, and it's dependence on Him and trust in Him. We've been studying on Thursday nights in our Bible study in Hurley, the 11th chapter of Hebrews and the doctrine of faith. It’s so fascinating in those first few verses, and what we've learned is that those first few verses show that faith, as it says in Romans 10:17, comes by hearing the Word of God. 

So when we look at the examples given there, such as in the life of Abraham, we see that the first thing that must come is a word from God, a revelation, a truth. For instance, God came to Abram in Genesis 12 and He told him to get up and get out of your country, get away from your family, to a land I will show you. God spoke to Abram. 

Now in these last days, we know from Hebrews 1 that God only speaks now through His Son, and that through His Word. That's why Romans 10 says faith comes by hearing a message about Jesus. So as God spoke to Abraham, God speaks to us through His written Word by His Spirit, and faith is a positive response to that Word. 

In other words, I choose to believe what God says. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We hear, we believe, and this belief in what God says produces in us a conviction. We hold fast to, we trust in, we take God at His Word for that promise. 

So when Jesus, for example, came to this earth and lived a sinless life and died in my place for my sins and took the wrath of God that I deserved, and He said to me in the gospel that if I would forsake my own righteousness, if I would leave behind religion and works for righteousness and simply trust what Jesus did alone in my place for my sins, then He would give to me His righteousness. He would give to me the gift of eternal life.

He told me that through His Word, through the gospel. At this point, I had a choice, as every man does, either to believe the gospel, to take it for myself, or to reject God and His gift and go my own way. John 1:11 says, "He came to his own," referring to the Jews, "He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name." 

We hear a lot of times, "We're all children of God." We're not all children of God. Jesus said to the Pharisees, "You are of your father the devil and his works you wish to do." We have to become children of God. We're born in Adam; we become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. 

He gives to us the right to become children of God. John 3:16, such a familiar verse, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." 

Listen to this clear verse, John 3:18. He who believes in Him is not condemned. That means to trust Him, to trust His death in our place for our sins. But he who does not believe is condemned already. Why? Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

So I heard the gospel, I chose to believe the gospel and trust in Jesus alone, nothing I have done, no ritual, no sacrament, no religious act or good work, but solely in the grace of God and the person and work of Christ. And you know what, my brother, my sister, in Christ? This belief in God's Word produced in me a strong conviction. Now I am convinced based on the Word of God that I have eternal life by God's grace alone through faith alone. 

And what we see in Hebrews 11 concerning faith is that having heard the Word of God, having believed and having now a firm conviction of this truth, this now affects how I live. I died with Christ through faith and now I live for Him. All I ever wanted to do my whole life was hunt and fish and trap and for maybe from 13 to 21 drink a lot. That was all I wanted to do, but hunt and fish and trap, that was my life. 

It's all I cared about. When I believe Jesus, He changed so much in my life. Not that I still didn't do those things or want to do those things, but that's not my joy. That's not where my joy is found. My joy is to live for Him. I want to tell people about Jesus. I want them to hear the good news. I want to know Jesus more and more through His Word and to abide in Him and walk with Him so that I might glorify Him in all that I do. Paul said, "We believe, therefore we speak." 

I am NOT who I was. I am no longer in Adam. I no longer have the same motives or desires. I'm a new creation and now I live for Jesus. The Word heard, the Word believed, the conviction of the truth of God's Word results in a new way of living. This is the definition of faith. 

All that to say that I pray to God continually because I believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. I trust Him and I know that what He tells me in His Word is truth. You know, when I turn on CNN, or I don't turn on CNN, but I turn on Fox News, I don't know that what they tell me is true. None of them. No one in the world, no man, not even you, Mark. I don't know that what you say is true, but when God tells me the truth in His Word, when I read His Word, I can take that to the bank because what He tells me is true. I trust Him, and this abiding relationship with God produces joy independent of my circumstances. 

Thankfulness produces joy. Prayer and dependence on God produce joy, and witness and fellowship in the gospel bring joy to us as we fulfill God's will for us in our life. Philippians 1:3 again, "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, making requests for you all with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now." 

When Paul came to Philippi, he came preaching the gospel of grace. He came preaching Christ. Now remember that was a Greek culture, pagan, temples of worship, horrible things going on there. Paul was a strict Pharisee before he was saved, right? Hated the Gentiles, but God transformed him and then Paul dedicated his life to go into places like Philippi and tell them the good news so they could be saved. 

He came there preaching Christ, preaching the gospel, and they believed. Some of them were saved, and there was a church formed there, and many forsook their religion and turned from what they had been trusting in and turned in faith to Jesus alone. And many of them from that first time when Paul came believed and had fellowship with him in the gospel. 

We will see also that they supported his work in the gospel, giving to him even when no one else did. They were partners with him in the gospel from the first day until now. On my wall in my bedroom, by my bed, I have two framed pictures. One is a picture of hands forming a pot of clay and the other is my ordination certificate. On that document, it says, "Set for the defense of the gospel." 

Sometimes I lay in bed and I look at those two things and I try to remember why God has me here, to remember that he's in control. He's the potter, right, forming the clay. That he has a purpose and a mission for me here as he does for you. We are here to proclaim and defend the gospel of Jesus Christ, to be witnesses for him, to persuade men to believe Jesus. 

And the way that we do this is primarily by proclaiming a clear message about Christ. There's so much confusion in our world and even in the church and those who call themselves Christians. So many preach a false or cloudy gospel. Another Jesus, Paul says, a false way to heaven. 

My friends, salvation is not by works. It is not by sacraments. It's not by religious acts or rituals. Each one of us is born an Adam. We are born sinners by nature and we all have committed acts of sin, and we deserve to be punished for our sins by eternal death. No matter what good I do, it does not change the fact that I have broken God's law and deserve his wrath. And God would be righteous to send every man to hell. 

He has found all under sin, but the good news is that he has chosen, Romans 11:32, to have mercy on all. Isn't that good news? I mean, what if only rich people got to go to heaven or religious people only got to go to heaven? Jesus died for every man, and he offers salvation to every man. God sent his Son, the perfect spotless Lamb of God, to be the sacrifice for my sins and yours. He died a death he did not deserve. He never sinned and yet our sins were placed on him at the cross. He became sin for us in order that we might become the righteousness of God in him. 

He took the punishment that I deserved in my place. And God says that through faith in him alone I can receive his righteousness and be made right with God and spend eternity in heaven with him based solely on God's grace alone through faith in Jesus alone. Turn to Romans 4 with me. 

Romans 4:2. Abraham was the father of the Hebrews, of the Jews, and they held him up in high esteem. Paul uses him as an example in Romans 4:2. He says, "For if Abraham was justified or made right with God by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness." 

Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. Listen to these shocking words. "But to him who does not work but believes on him who justifies the good people, right? Who goes to heaven? Do the good people go to heaven? That's not what the Bible says. He says, 'To him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.'" 

Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. This is the clear message that we have been given to take to the world to every creature. 

In 2 Corinthians 5 it says that God has made us his ambassadors as strangers and pilgrims in this world, and he has given to us the word of reconciliation to go out and preach the gospel and implore men on Christ's behalf to be saved, to believe Jesus. In John 17, Jesus said that we've been left in this world so that the world may know that he is the Christ. This is our commission, this is our privilege, and my friends, this is our joy. 

Perhaps no other thing in this world do we find as much joy in as we do in witnessing and having the opportunity to tell someone about Jesus and lead them to everlasting life through faith in him. Can you think of anything better than that, Ray? Nope. Nope, nothing better than that. 

And I'm so thankful for the faithful witnesses that took an old grumpy Catholic like me and told me the truth and led me to faith, to new life. Joy is found in thankfulness to God. Joy is found in prayer and an abiding relationship with God. Joy is found in witnessing, telling men about Jesus. We see next that joy is found through confidence in him. 

Verse 6 is one of the most amazing verses in the Bible, one of the most encouraging as well. It says, "Being confident of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." We've touched on the doctrine of salvation, particularly justification, how a man is saved. There are actually three parts to salvation. Justification is that legal declaration of righteousness, the imputation of God's righteousness to us through faith. And then sanctification is a conforming to the likeness of Christ, an outward conforming to the inward reality of who we are. 

Glorification is what Mark talked about earlier, when we are caught up to meet him in the air and we receive a new body. What a glorious day that'll be, hey? As we saw in Romans 4 earlier, justification comes to the ungodly when he realizes he's a sinner deserving of judgment and turns in faith to Christ and his one-time sacrifice. That's justification. 

And then sanctification and glorification. So we read about that in many places in the Scripture. So in this sense, salvation is a process. We are saved, right, if we believe Jesus. We are saved, justified, sealed forever. But we also are being saved, sanctified. That is, we're being outwardly transformed into Christ's likeness. What verse 6 of our text explains to us is that salvation is a work of God. 

We will be saved in glorification fully by his grace. And that when he saves a man at justification, he promises to continue that work until Jesus comes to take us home, what he here calls the day of Jesus Christ. I just want you to turn to a couple of passages with me and see the great encouragement of the promise of salvation for those who believe. 

In John 10:27, Debbie's favorite passage, Jesus says, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand." 

Notice that Jesus says that he gives to us eternal life when we place our faith in him. Let me ask you, how long is that? It doesn't say one year life, it doesn't say five year life, it doesn't say ten thousand year life, right? It says eternal life. He said, "I give to them eternal life." We have eternal life today, my friends, and forever if we have placed our faith in Jesus Christ. 

In John 6:37 it says, "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I'll by no means cast out. If you come to him, he will not cast you out. He says, 'I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of the Father who sent me, that all of all he has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.'" 

That's good news. Did you know that God wants us to know that we have eternal life, that we are eternally secure in Christ if we believe him? I grew up in a religion that taught me that I could never know for sure that we are going to heaven, because it was a system of works and self-righteousness and religious ritual, and we were trying to earn our own righteousness, earn our way to heaven, please God, so we could never know if we'd done enough. 

In fact, the church I grew up in taught that saying you knew you were going to heaven is called the sin of presumption, and this guaranteed your damnation. My friends, how would you like to be in a system, a religion like that? Billions are around the world. Islam, Hinduism, Roman Catholicism, mainline Protestant denominations, and on and on—works, righteous systems where you can never have confidence of eternal life because your confidence is ultimately in yourself and your works, which you know deep in your heart are always falling short of the glory of God. 

True joy, abiding joy, and assurance of salvation come only when our confidence is in God. This is a promise, my friends, for those who have been justified by faith. He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. God wants us to know that we have present possession: eternal life. 

1 John 5:13 says, "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life." Jesus said, "Let not your heart be troubled.” Does your heart get troubled sometimes in this world, especially at election time? Don't let your heart be troubled; set your mind on heavenly things. He says, "You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also." 

Don't you love those words? The heart and promise of our Savior. If it were not so, he said, I would have told you. He tells us the truth. 

So we see that true joy, not worldly happiness based on circumstances, but true abiding joy comes from being thankful, comes from a life of constant prayer and communion with God. True joy comes from fellowship in the gospel with our brothers and sisters in Christ. True joy comes from confidence in Him, what He has done, and His power to keep me and preserve me and deliver me on that day. 

And we see last that true joy comes from common grace and common love. Verse 6 again, "Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." Just as it is right for me to think this of you all because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace. For God is my witness how greatly I long for you with all the affection of Jesus Christ. 

Even in chains, in the defense of the gospel going before Nero, in the confirmation of the gospel, we are all partakers together of God's grace. Wiest makes this comment on this verse: he said, "The word defense is a Greek judicial term referring to an attorney talking his client off from a charge, thus presenting a verbal defense. Paul was defending the faith before the tribunal of the world, Nero's throne. A successful defense would result in the gospel being confirmed, that is, made stable in the sense that its claims would be shown to be true. The Philippians were partners with Paul, not only in the missionary work of proclaiming the gospel, but also in the defense of the same and the hopeful confirmation of it among those to whom Paul would give his defense." 

The point is that every believer, and especially these believers who had Paul in their heart, who loved and supported him from the first day until now, even in his chains, were partakers together in the grace of God, that they would have joy, that they would have fellowship, they would be partners in this work, keeping their eyes on the right place. 

The word grace means unmerited favor. God shows us mercy in that he does not give us what we deserve, but he goes further in that he gives us what we don't deserve. Salvation, blessing, new life, eternal life, love and fellowship, care, provision—his grace superabounds to us. 

We, having been justified by faith, now stand in God's grace. We don't move in and out of it. We sang that song, "It Is Well With My Soul," this morning. What's it say? "The bliss of this glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the whole, has been nailed to the cross and I bear it no more." We don't sin and then we're out, right? Jesus paid for our sins. He gave us eternal life. We stand in grace. He covers us. He continues to make intercession for us. 

We, having been justified by faith, stand in grace. Where sin abounded, grace superabounded. We're in this together, my friends, and because of Christ we have a great love for one another. We have fellowship, we love one another, we encourage one another, we work together for the furtherance of the kingdom through the preaching of the gospel. This is our great privilege, and it's our great joy. 

Sometimes we may take this for granted—church fellowship, Bible study. We may see these as optional, something I don't necessarily need all the time, especially if I have other plans in the busyness and distraction of this world. But can you imagine being taken prisoner, hauled off to a jail somewhere, isolated, surrounded by those who do not know the Lord, all alone, day after day in your cell? Could happen. 

How then would you appreciate what you have here now, this morning? How then would you long for the fellowship of believers, of the Word, for freedom to preach and to share and minister to one another? Paul expresses this in verse 8. He finds himself in this situation. "How greatly, God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Christ." He missed them, he loved them, he needed them. "How greatly I long for you all." 

Paul loved them as Jesus loved them. How I long for that in my life, to love men as Jesus loves men. This is the epistle of joy, and Paul is teaching us about how we can have abiding, enduring joy. It's a matter of focus, Colossians 3, "Set your mind on things above, not on the things of the earth, for your life's hidden with God and Christ, and when Christ appears, you're going to appear with him in glory. Set your mind on things above, not on the things of the earth." 

I just want to close by reading Psalm 121. It's just eight verses, but so encouraging and useful. It says, "I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence my help comes. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper, the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil. He shall preserve your soul. The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth and even forevermore." 

Our joy is in the Lord. Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we're so thankful, so thankful for the gospel, for grace, thankful for your gift of your Son that you've given to us. And I just pray that everyone here in this place would understand salvation in Christ, that Jesus took the penalty that I deserve for my sins, and that simply by turning to Him in faith, forsaking everything I'm trusting in, my own works, my own righteousness, any religion or anything like that, and just trusting in what Jesus did for me. Help us, Lord, to be your witnesses, to speak boldly and clearly as we ought, and help us to love men as you love men. In Jesus' name, amen.