The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ Be With You All
First B Jackson
2018-02-11

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Alright. Hey. Good morning, church family. How are you? Good to see you.

I think we're gonna have a full house this morning being combined service. What do you say we, stand up? Give our God praise? I've got a Psalm I wanna share with you. It's from Psalm 95.

Let us come to him with thanksgiving. Let us sing Psalms of praise to him. Let me pray on that quick. Lord, we we have come to worship you, to adore you, to give you the praise that you so rightly deserve. So I pray that you'd fill us up, but also that we'd be a blessing to you as we sing.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

Alright. Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord, my God. When I'm an awesome wonder, consider all the worlds I hand have made. I see the stars.

I hear the ruling thunder that power throughout universe displayed then sings then sings my soul, my savior God to thee. I'll breathe thou art. I'll breathe thou art. Then sings my soul, my savior God standing to die. I scarce can take it out.

Out on that cross, my burden gladly bearing, he bled and died to take away my sin and sings and then sings my soul, my savior God today. How great thou art, how shouts of acclamation and take me over what choice shall fill my heart. And I shall bow in humble adoration and their profane. My God, I crave you all in sings and then sings my soul, my savior got to be. How great thou art, how great thou art.

Then sings my soul,

Amen. Y'all can have a seat. Got a few announcements for you. There is Monday nights at first B. It's like a stack of cushions.

It's just a comfortable place to land. Monday nights, it's comforting. Monday night, 06:00 down the fellowship hall. Carl, what you preaching on?

Yep. Meal music message and tomorrow's message is on the cost of following Jesus.

The cost of following Jesus from Luke. Alright. Fantastic. Awana happens at the same time. Our kids club is happening in this room tomorrow night at 06:00, pouring scripture into the minds and the hearts of kids.

Lots of volunteers present too, and we appreciate it. It's a great program. Youth, we'll meet on Tuesday night at 06:30. And Mike, you want to come up and

Yeah.

Do a little tap dance for us? No. Would you come on up and

So, yeah, my name is Mike Demetrius, youth director here at First Bee. Excited. We've got youth group this Tuesday night from 06:30 to eight. And we're also gonna be we're gonna be we are almost to the end of James, so we'll be finishing that up. And then we've got on Friday, since we don't have any school, we're gonna do a high school breakfast.

Got some fun stuff to talk about, some good the breakfast club. Blake, you're the man. Breakfast club. Yeah. We're gonna have the breakfast club this coming Friday, 09:30 in the morning.

So come and get your grub on. That's what I got for us.

Okay. Thank you very much. Guatemala, Mike and Tanya are also leading a trip to Guatemala. Today, if you're planning on going on that trip to Guatemala, would you please see Diane after this service? And she will there she is, Diane.

She will be she's a notary and she'll be notarizing the statements, all this paperwork stuff. So if you would do that, that would be great in between services. We do have coming up this week, Wednesday is Valentine's Day, and we're going to do babysitting for a date night for couples who would like to have their kids watched here at the church. So February 14 from five to nine we're doing is that right? Email Dancey if you would like or you can get in touch with the church and we'll get you in touch with her.

That's happening this Wednesday evening. There's also an indoor yard sale that's coming up next week, so it says in the fine print there, drop off your donations of good and great stuff on February twenty first and twenty second, and then come back and buy different people's good and great stuff on February 23 and the twenty fourth. Okay, that's the way that that's working. It's an indoor yard sale fundraiser also for that trip to Guatemala. We have kind of an abbreviated time frame for fundraising for this trip.

So we are very thankful for the breakfast last week was fantastic, and it got us a long way towards the goal of getting there. Turning point, you heard Carolyn Wozniak's announcement last week, and you see the bassinet out there with baby bottles in it. That's a fundraising campaign for Turning Point Pregnancy Resource Center. Grab one of those bottles on the way out. And know this, we have a congregational meeting today at 11:30.

So if you're a member and you want to stay around and vote and listen to discussion and talk about budget, that's happening today at 11:30. If you're not a member and you want to hang out and just see what it's all about, you're welcome to. You just can't vote. Okay? That's the way that that goes.

Is there anything else? Am I forgetting anything? Hearing none, we will move forward. Would you all stand up and we will greet one another, and the band up here will bring

you back together with a song. Alright. Love you, buddy. How

are you? How are you?

Amen.

Alright. How firm a foundation?

How firm a foundation you saints of the Lord. Slayed for your faith in his excellent word. What more can say than to you, he has said. For you who for refuge to Jesus have loved. Fear not.

Fear not. He is with us. So be not dismayed for he is our God, our sustainer restraint. He'll be our defender and cause us to stand upheld by his mercy for almighty. And how firm, how firm our foundation, how show our foundation and we will not be shaken.

Jesus' firm foundation. Amen. Would you pray with me?

God, we sing to you our immovable rock, the anchor for our soul, the the solid foundation beneath our feet, our immovable, unshakable God. This is who you are. And, Lord, we just confess that we're not and that you are almighty God. And and so we come before you with thanksgiving, purposefully giving you praise because you truly, truly deserve it. I I do pray that you'd fill our hearts with your grace and your love and your truth and all that you are.

And that would come spilling out, not just today, but but every day. And that we would just enjoy being in your presence. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

You can be seated. I'll invite the the frontline team to to come forward. We'll participate here in the worship through giving, and I'd love to just pray and give thanks. God, with a a grateful heart and an open hand, we we we come to you. For you have been so generous and so kind and so loving toward us, how could we not not respond in in in the same way?

Thank you, God, for your spirit that empowers us to live a life of, victory. And I pray that the gifts that you've given, that we wouldn't see them, as our own. That, really, they're, they're for you and and and for others, and it's just crazy how in the process we're filled up as as we pour it out. That's that's something only you can do. And so I pray that you'd use the the gifts, the talents, everything that that we have in here to to build up your kingdom.

Because really that's what we're looking for. That the world could know the light that that you are, and help us to be light. In Jesus name. Amen.

There they go. The children are dismissed to head down to children's church. And it's good to be here this morning. It's good to be here with all of y'all. I mean, both services combined together.

There are times of the year where we couldn't do this comfortably, but this is not one of those times, right? We can do this, and it's nice to get together. We're having a congregational meeting afterwards, so to all be together in one accord is really, really nice. We're closing out the book of Philippians today, so these are the last three verses. Actually, after we close out the book of Philippians, have a baptism today, so be thinking about that.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ and you have never been baptized before and you want to be baptized, there's water here. What hinders you? Alright? Think about it. We'll send somebody to your house to get your clothes if we need to.

But I want you to think about Philippians four twenty one through 23 is the scripture for today. It's not very long, obviously. The last thing we ended with last week and my God will supply all of your needs according to the glorious riches of Christ Jesus. Paul expresses a confidence of his God, he says, but he says and he will supply all of y'all's need in Christ Jesus in the glorious riches of Christ. And then we go into this, and you might just see this and go, oh, this is end of the letter.

Why do we even go over this? Why do we even touch the last line of a letter? Because when we send a letter, you know, the last line, the little tag, in fact, most people nowadays send an email and they have a ready made prescriptive in that's already on there, and it'll say, have a nice day or excuse the typos. I did this on the run or whatever. It just has the last line.

You know, as I look around the room, I'm seeing all your last lines right now. I'm thinking of you. Paul does have a lot of similarities in what he writes because his message doesn't change. The grace of God is what he's preaching, and that's what he almost always starts with, and that's what he almost uniformly ends with. Sometimes he adds to it.

Sometimes he might scale back just a little bit, but usually it's grace and peace. He has a couple of sentences right here that are just personal and great. Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. Now in his closings, it kind of mirrors or it's the short form of what the whole book is about. Are all the saints important in Philippians?

It starts off. This is a letter from Paul and Timothy, slaves of Jesus Christ our lord to all of the saints who are in Philippi. And so when he's closing out, he says, greet all of the saints in Christ Jesus. That's first. The brethren who are with me greet you.

That's a second group of people. Probably, the leaders that are with him. Timothy is still with him at this point. Epaphroditus is still with him at this point. Luke may well have been with him at this point.

We see the writing in Acts that Luke was with him along this time. So the brothers who are with me greet you. That's probably the leadership, people who are hanging out with Paul but he doesn't stop there. He says, all the saints who are here greet you. Philippi, all of the saints greet you.

So he is this is this big church triumphant, universal, all believers in all times. Everyone who's put their faith in Christ is in one family. Unity is a very strong theme in the book of Philippians. Unity through humility and mimicking what? Mimicking Christ and mimicking those who mimic Christ.

Unity, all the saints greet you. Now, Paul has already discussed in this that there were some people that were preaching for the wrong reasons. There were people who were definitely trying to add to his pain, he says, add to his dismay. But at the end, he says, we're all in one big family. Greet every saint in Christ Jesus, every one of those who has been made holy by Christ.

They are imperfect, and they're limited in their humanity, but you know what? They're in Christ Jesus. They are filled with his goodness, and they are worthy of love and greeting, and the greeting is a warm embrace. The brethren who are with me greet you. That's the ones that I know personally, and all the saints greet you.

Your helping out here has helped a lot of people. And he goes on, hey, wait a second. That's interesting. Out of here, kids. No, I'm not going to say anything ugly.

I'm not really. Sorry. All the saints greet you, but especially those who are of Caesar's household. Isn't that a great personal note? He says at the beginning, I want you all to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me, the fact that I'm in jail, the fact that I have been arrested and brought here after the shipwreck and everything else, I'm here now, and what has happened to me, all that has come to pass that was hard stuff for me has served to let the whole imperial guard, the whole praetorium, all of the palace guard know about Jesus because of it.

And now he's including them in this number at the very end. Two sentences there. Read every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren who are with me greet you warmly and all the saints here in Rome greet you but especially those who are of Caesar's household. Y'all had something to do with this.

This is fruit that abounds to your account. The fact that they are found in Christ is in some way linked to your willingness and obedience to follow after the heart of God. Amen And then we get to the greeting that's at the very end. Now this is New King James. We've been in New King James the whole time that we've been going through this study.

It is based on a textual tradition called the Textus Receptus, and you'll see something I'll point out in just a minute. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. That's the way it ends in the New King James Version, and that is great. It mimics other endings of other books.

It sounds exactly like several and very similar to some others, but consider the weight of what that is, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's already discussed in chapter two Christ's humility and his willingness to come. Though he had complete equality with God, he did not consider that equality with God as something to hold on to or to grasp, and so he emptied himself and made himself as nothing, took on the form of a man found in nature as a man with his full divinity suppressed but still there. Okay? The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Why did he do that? He came to pay the price for sin. He came to live a perfect life, which he did, and when it came down to being obedient even unto death the night before crucifixion in the garden, he prays to his father. God, if there be any other way than this, please let's do that, But your will be done and not mine. The humility of the second person of the trinity of Jesus Christ, having lived a perfect life and not deserving death.

The humility of him to say, I will walk in it because it is your plan. Let's do it another way. If you've got another way, it's the exclusivity of the gospel is right there. There is no other way. Jesus says, I'm the way.

I'm the truth. I am the life. All of the Jewish tradition building up to that point and pointing forward to the Messiah landed on him and all of the traditions since then has looked back to him. The grace because we don't deserve the love and favor of almighty God. We have by nature and by nurture and by choice, we've sinned against him but what Paul is wishing all of the Philippians at the end of this letter and all of us is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

All he comes back with the all again and it's not just my southernism saying y'all, alright? It is really that's what he's saying. Of y'all is what he's saying. Every single one of you. Greet every saint in Christ Jesus.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, and then he adds to that, amen. That's a kind of a verifying thing. It is the equivalent of a notary signing off on something, right? This is and so be it. This is the way that it is.

It kind of ratifies everything that has been said previously. That's the New King James. In the New American Standard, you'll read this, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. And you go, wait a second. That's not exactly the same thing, and it's not exactly the same thing.

The textual tradition of the Textus Receptus, which has been around a long, long, long time, and then this other textual tradition, all of the modern translations go with the other line. The King James, New King James, Young's Literal still remain with, and the King James three and several other of those hang with the Texas receptors. I don't mean to be too technical, but I want to see that there's something here too. There's some goody in here I want to squeeze out of it, but we just weren't in this version. Alright?

The word your, I told you at the beginning of our study in Philippians, there are no singular use all the way through the book of Philippians. When you say, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, that was Paul that was saying that. So it's a singular because he was saying it, but he's already made it obvious that that is available to all of you in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus. He keeps saying that.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, and in all of these, the New American Standard, the ESB, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. The heart of the HCSB is the Holman Christian Standard Bible, the Southern Baptist come out with in the last few years, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. And you notice that the S is not capitalized on this. The new revised standard, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. The amplified version, which is usually amplified.

It says exactly the same thing. Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. NIV, the grace of Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, and I put this one at the end because it says, amen. The others have a a little note that says, many manuscripts include, amen. Kinda ratification.

I think amen's there. I like this because I've read the book of Philippians. I like this one and I'm not arguing for one or the other. They're not, there's not a point of theology. It's a personal note.

He's writing to a group of believers in a particular place, and you know when Paul writes, he writes to the place. He doesn't write to the Baptist Church there, and he doesn't write to the Presbyterian Church there. He writes to the church there. Amen. The unity of the body of Christ was important to Christ.

It was important to Paul. It's important to me. It's important to all of y'all who get that you don't deserve to be in this body. Does that make sense? We're level at the foot of the cross.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. So the themes of the book of Philippians. I'm going give you a chance. You tell me.

What are the themes of the book of Philippians? Holler it out, really. Oneness, happiness, joy, unity through humility. He gives us a model, joy in the journey. He's in prison.

He knows that there are people who are suffering but he says, the Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing. But in everything, no matter how your relationships are going, in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God and the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds through Christ Jesus. So the availability of God's peace is one of the strong themes in Philippians. You can get along and you can get along because that is how Christ has made us, remade us.

That is the way he's forming us. Remember from Romans eight twenty eight, we all like to hang on this one when we're going through hard times. It says that we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are according to his purpose. The next verse says, to those he called, he also justified and those he justified, don't get hung up on predestination right here, but he predestined to be conformed into the image of his son. Every day, for those of you who are willing and submitting your will to his and yielding, every day, God is making you more and more into the image of his son as you yield to him.

The availability of God's peace. It is a peaceful and joyful place of unity when we submit our will to God's will and we can only do that through Christ. What is our motto here at the church? It was it was here long before I was here. With all we are, loving God, loving people through Christ.

Through Christ because it's the only way we can do that. That's the way we access the father. That is the way we love others. So the themes are these, and I think that nobody would argue with me about those themes, but I've hit upon something that is even more so. The joy in the journey part, it says, depending on which translation, 14 times or 15 times or 16 times in depending on what you count as joy.

If you count rejoice, it adds up to 16. So 16 times it's mentioned joy, and if you ask anybody what Philippians is about, I'd say seven times out of 10, they're going say joy. The other three there probably say unity. Joy, joy, joy. Chuck Swindoll's book about Philippians is called Laugh Again.

It's about joy. Well, it's 16 times. The centrality of Jesus in this is often overlooked, though. He's mentioned 40 something times in four short chapters. There's a guy named Handley Carr Glenn Moole, and I'm gonna read a long quote.

I pray before I ever read a long quote. I pray for days before I ever read a long quote because y'all turn off for long quotes. This is that good. I've prayed through it. I've been released to do it.

I feel like I have. This is the Bishop of Durham, Anglican Bishop of Durham in nineteen o one. Doesn't he sound exciting already? I'm gonna have to have glasses. This is a long quote from a book called Philippian Studies Lessons in Faith and Love from Saint Paul's Epistle to the Philippians from 1900.

The mere number of mentions of the savior's name in Philippians is remarkable. More than 40 times we have it in this short compass. That is to say it occurs amidst all the variety of subjects. On an average, our Lord Jesus Christ is about once in every two or three verses. This is indeed perfectly characteristic not only of this epistle but the whole New Testament.

What the apostle preached was not a thing but a person. You getting that? It's Jesus. This is what the book of Philippians is about. It's Jesus.

Christ, Christ Jesus, Christ Jesus, the Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ but let us not look only at the frequency of mention. Let us gather up something of what these mentions say concerning the king. The writer begins with describing himself and his associates as the servants, the absolute bondsman or slaves of Jesus Christ, and truly such servants witness to the worthiness of their master. He addresses those to whom he writes as holy ones in Jesus Christ. Their standing, their character, their all depends on him, on union with him, on life with him, without him, and apart from him, they would not be saints at all.

The writer speaks of his imprisonment at Rome. The subject is full of Jesus Christ. My bonds in Christ is his remarkable description of captivity, and the result of that captivity was to his exceeding joy just this amidst a great variety of conditions and detail, including some exquisite trials to patience and peace, Christ is being preached, that Christ may be magnified in my body whether by life or by death. He is kept absolutely cheerful and at rest, and the secret is Jesus Christ. He has occasion to speak of his trial with its delays and its suspense between life and death.

The whole is full of Jesus Christ. To me, to live is Christ. He fills and as if it were, he makes life for me and to die is gain. Why? Because to depart and to be with Christ is far, far better.

He dwells in various places on the life and duties of the Philippians. His precepts are all this in effect. Christ applied to conduct. Let your life walk be as it becometh, the gospel of Christ. Filled with the fruit of righteousness which is through Jesus Christ.

It is granted to you not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for his sake. I didn't touch on the subject while I've been preaching about self forgiveness because I had never thought about it until Hanley Carr Glenn Moole pointed this out. But listen to this little bit on self forgiveness because some of y'all have done some things in the past that you're hang hanging up on that I could never be used by God because of X, Y, or Z. Okay? Listen to this little passage right here.

In particular, he has to press on them the homely duty of practical self forgiveness. He takes them for model and motive to the heaven of heavens and shows them Christ Jesus there. As for us men and for our salvation, he prepares to come down and then he comes. Let this mind be in you. As you contemplate the original glory, the amazing incarnation, the atoning death of Christ Jesus, That's that two, five through 11.

He expresses hopes, intentions, resolutions as to his own actions. All is still in Jesus Christ. I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy. I trust in the Lord to come myself shortly. Does he speak of the believer's joy?

We rejoice in Christ Jesus. Rejoice in the Lord always and again, I say rejoice. Does he speak of pardon and peace? I counted all things lost that I might win Christ and be found in him having the righteousness which is of God by faith? Does he speak of knowledge and of power that I might know Christ experientially and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings Being made conformable unto his death, I can do all things in Christ which strengthens me.

He speaks of holy immortality, of eternal glory, and of pleasures forevermore. It is no vague aspiration. It is a sure and certain hope, and it is altogether in Jesus Christ. Our hope, our home, our citizenship is in heaven from whence also we look for the savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change the body of our humiliations into likeness to the body of his glory according to the working whereby he's able to subdue all things unto himself. Do you hear about how much this is about Jesus?

He bids his beloved converts to stand fast and he does so in the Lord. He bids them to be of one mind. It is in the Lord. He bids them always be calm, always self forgetting. The Lord is at hand.

He assures them an all sufficient resource for their every need and my God shall supply according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. His last message of blessing and that's what we're studying here today brings together their inmost being and this same wonderful person. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. What a witness it is. All to the glory of our beloved redeemer, to the majesty of his person, to the fullness and perfection of his work.

The solidity, the sobriety, the strength of the faith which is in him. There is no inflation or rhetoric in the language of the epistle about him. Glowing with love, it is all clear and calm. Yes, for Christ Jesus is not a phantom of the fancy, a hope floating on the thick waves of wild enthusiasm. He is an anchor, sure, and steadfast.

Blessed are they who ride secure on the deep, held fast by him. This epistle, the Philippian epistle, witnesses to him as to a treasure worth all our seeking at any cost. Infinitely precious to our joyful finding, infinitely deserving of our keeping, of our holding, of our apprehending as he in his mercy has laid hold of us and he will keep on holding on to us even to the end unto the day of Jesus Christ Amen. So, I like old bishop Moo I had skipped over that. I mean, preach it every time we hit it.

No doubt but you just think, oh, what is Philippians really about? When he says, I have found the secret to being content. His contentedness is in Christ no matter what his circumstances. I like that. Print is not dead, people.

Read. It's wonderful. Beginnings and endings as I I have been considering this book for the last since about October, I guess, in front of y'all. The main application point from Paul's ending here, I think, does point to Christ and it does point to every believer, everyone, all the saints, all the saints. It's unity.

Let me back up for just a second. Right here, I didn't ever explain with the your spirit why that's different. The your there, I said there are no singular u's in the whole book of Philippians. They're just plurals. So, it's all of y'all.

Each time it's mentioned, y'alls but it says spirit and that's one thing and nobody translates it at the Holy Spirit which confuses me a little bit when I look at it but he's writing to a particular group of people who had a particular spirit. They were generous and they were good to Paul and he's saying to them, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your and its singular spirit. It brings them together in unity even at the very end, the last word and then he seals it with an amen and I think that's that to me has the ring of truth. That to me rings true. It definitely is a with all of y'all.

That's fine too but I just wanted to bring that out and textual tradition stuff, if you hit it and you go, I don't know about that. There is no point of theology that hangs on it. There are some personal notes of style that hang on it. The main application form from Paul's ending here, I think we've covered is Jesus. The beginnings.

I mentioned every time we do a beginning, always start with grace and peace. You know the reason I do that? Because Paul always starts with grace and peace. And so this week, as I was looking through, I thought, you know, I'm gonna actually, I was waiting on a meeting to start, and it wasn't starting. I thought, I've got time.

I'm gonna flip through the beginnings of every book in the New Testament and see how it starts off. Well, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they're stories about Jesus. They're gospel narratives, passion narratives with long introductions. That is about grace. From beginning to end, it is the grace of Jesus Christ.

The Jewish Messiah, the chosen one of God that can make all things new. So, that doesn't start specifically this way. Acts is a continuing story. The beginning of the church, how that got started. Acts starts like Mark with the Holy Spirit for the church and then, we have books of Paul.

Romans, grace to you and peace. First Corinthians, grace to you and peace. Second Corinthians, grace to you and peace. This is not a convention of the day. In the day, it just said greetings from such and such.

He's saying grace is what it's all about, and he's saying peace is where you end up if you'll accept this grace. Second Corinthians, grace to you and peace. Galatians, grace to you and peace. Even when he says, oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? He starts off with grace and peace, and he ends there too.

Ephesians, grace to you and peace. Philippians, grace to you and peace. Colossians, grace to you and peace. First Thessalonians, grace to you and peace. Second Thessalonians, grace to you and peace.

First Timothy, to an individual, he says grace, mercy, and peace which I like. You've done some things, right? Grace is unmerited favor. You are getting something great that you don't deserve. Mercy is you've done some bad things and you're not getting what you do deserve.

To an individual, that's a really important thing. Grace, mercy, and peace to first Timothy and second Timothy and Titus, Philemon, grace to you and peace. Hebrews has a Jewish flavor from the outset. It is a defense of the new covenant standing against the old. James, Jewish flavor from the outset, very early written by James obviously.

Peter, grace to you and peace be multiplied. Second Peter, grace to you and peace be multiplied. First John says, so that your joy may be full. Second John, grace, mercy, and peace. Revelation, grace to you and peace.

That's the way they begin, the way they end. Matthew ends with the great commission for us to go tell about the grace and peace of God available in Jesus. Mark, and they went out preaching upon the commission of Jesus to spread the good news of grace and peace. Holy Spirit was forecasted at the end of Luke dovetailing perfectly with the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts but it opens with their understanding that they are continually praising and blessing. John says, so that you may believe and in believing in Jesus have eternal life.

Acts and Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house. Now, in between Philippians which is what we're ending today and where we're starting next time is first Timothy, Paul was released from his imprisonment. He was unhindered and able to preach the gospel as he chose, and he did so in a rented house maybe with the Philippian gift that they sent. But it's in between Philippians and first Timothy where he is released from his actual bondage and able to be there. Argue with me later if you want to.

Romans, this is the way it ends. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. First Corinthians, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with Second Corinthians, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Galatians, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Ephesians, grace be with you all.

All of those who love our Lord Jesus in sincerity Philippians, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all or be with your spirit. Grace be with you. Amen. Colo first Thessalonians, grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Second Thessalonians, grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all First Timothy, grace be with you and amen.

Second Timothy, grace be with you, amen. Titus, grace be with you all. Amen. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you and your spirit, amen. Hebrews even ends with grace be with you all.

Peter gets a little bit more emphatic. Greet one another with a holy kiss. Peace to you all who are in Jesus Christ. Amen. Grow in the grace and knowledge of your savior is his second book.

Little children, keep yourselves back from idols, John says. That our joy may be full. Peace to you. Jude ends with a doxology and it says, keep yourselves in the love of God and then, at the great end, Revelation twenty two twenty one says, and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. We must start and end with peace and I think that that's an abstract thought for too many of us.

Do you agree with me? What does grace really mean? It's unmerited favor. Okay, how do I show that? Be nice to people.

Start with grace. They haven't earned your respect. They haven't earned your love. Who cares? Did Jesus wait for you to earn his love?

No, he did not and if you can extend grace and favor to people, do it by all means and then after you get to know em and they really don't deserve it end with it too If God is still being gracious to you, you can still be gracious to them Amen. This is where we'll start next time First Timothy Now, Paul his true son in the faith he calls him is Timothy. He's been traveling with him for a long time and now, Paul is teaching and Timothy is elsewhere and he's sending it. He says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God, our savior includes Timothy in that group of our savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope to Timothy, a true son in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our father and from Jesus Christ our lord. Amen.

Now, thank you for sitting through HG Moles long long quote. I appreciate it. I'm gonna invite the band back up, and we're gonna sing a song that is very apropos to today and every day. This is Amazing Grace. This is unfailing love.

This is what it is about. I know that we've all done things that we don't deserve favor, but God extends it anyway, and it is free for the taking. He will transform you if you will yield to him. I can say that because he's done that. Right after this, we're going to do a baptism.

Would you all stand with us? Eugene and I are going to sneak out at some point. We'll come back up. If you want to be baptized, come forward. We'll talk about it.

Who breaks the power? Who breaks the power in sin and darkness? Whose love is mighty and so much stronger, the king of glory, the king above that I would be set free. Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me. Who brings who brings our chaos back into order?

Who makes the orphan a that you would bear my cross, that you would lay down your life, that I would be set free. Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me. And let's sing worthy

worthy worthy is the is

king king who who conquered the the grave. Worthy is the lamb who slay. Worthy is the king who conquered the grave. This is

Eugene would rather play guitar than change clothes. I usually give a chance for them to say something. They are saying something when they get in this water, but I'm gonna give you a chance. Do you want to? Okay.

Maybe later. It's okay. You know what? Usually, when I baptize people, I know em. Not always.

I've had grandmothers call and say, hey, two cousins that live far apart are gonna be together in Jackson. Would you baptize them up in the lake somewhere? Yes. Amen. For sure and so I get a chance to barely know these people before I baptize them but I'm doing it in obedience to command of Jesus Christ, our lord and I'm doing it upon their profession of faith.

How are we going to overcome? We overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. Eugene's making a testimony today that he believes in the blood of the lamb that was slain, who was given as a penal to pay the penalty for his own sin. So when he's being baptized, that's what is meaning. But I know this guy, and I know that he surrendered to the will of God for his life, and he goes forward like Peter jumping out of the boat and going forward.

And I appreciate it, and I love him. And I just wanna say that as we get in the pool, I love you, brother. I'm thankful for you. So let's do this.

Sing the chorus a song. This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love. That you would take my place, that you would bear my cross, you would lay down your mind, that I would be set free. Oh, Jesus is same for all that you've done for