foreign to the gray City Eugene podcast we exist to help every person in our sphere of influence to encounter Christ experience biblical community and extend God's kingdom you can learn more about us at graceity eugene.com here's the podcast but as Casey mentioned we are starting a new sermon series we're going to be spending the next 12 weeks-ish going through the book of Philippians anybody familiar with the book of Philippians at all you can raise your yeah like people know the book of Philippians right like some of us have tattoos about the books of book of Philippians and different verses and it's one of the most quoted books in contemporary church and so when you hear about Philippians I'm sure you're like oh there's that one verse it's like chapter four something like there's there's something that that will come up in your memory but as evidenced by this great slide that Pastor Casey made that we believe there's some threads throughout the Book of Philippians namely unity and humility and joy that we can all be refreshed on and I'm trusting that God is going to really work on our hearts as we as we dig into this so um with a new sermon series you know oftentimes I come up here and I'm like on fire and passionate about something that I'm just excited that the text is preaching and it's like I explain the text to you and then it's everybody that's been around a while knows like okay here it comes here it comes Pastor Chris is going to start yelling at us for the next 15 minutes um starting off a new series especially a study through a book today is less like trying to hit a ball and more like teeing it up like setting it on to getting everything ready for for you guys to come up and for the future sermons to come up and take a shot at it for that hit to happen it's setting the stage for what I believe God wants to do through the study in preaching of this book so it's going to look a little different than when I typically come up here yet the goal is that this will set a firm foundation for our understanding of the book of Philippians and what Paul has been talking about in it so a little background on the book as we do that this letter is written by the Apostle Paul you guys may have heard of him formerly known as Saul and it's written to a church in a place called Philippi which was located on the Far Eastern end of a large fertile plain in central Macedonia modern-day Greece and this was nestled against the initial Ascent or the hill up to the Acropolis which the Acropolis was like a major power hub of the time now this was also along a main route a trade route to a Seaport called neapolis which is modern day cavalla in Greece it's at the very Northern point of the Aegean Sea and so you don't have to like look that up right now but when you get home go look it up and see kind of where it is I find it helpful to like visualize where these things actually happened not just be like oh yeah Philippi I can't Google that because it's not the same place now but it's helpful to understand that it sits in between the seaport and this major power hub along a main trade route a lot of people would have been traveling along there it was an influential place and in their District so to speak they would have been one of the more influential cities or hubs there Paul is also clearly writing this letter from detainment as he mentions being in Chains four times so he's in some sort of imprisonment captivity he is being detained now I will point this out we're not going there in the sermon but if you want to read more about the history of the Philippian Church in from a Biblical account go to acts 16 and read that and that's kind of how Paul's initial relationship with the people of Philippi started we can leave that to you for for independent study fair enough it's like a whole other sermon I didn't want to cram in the midst of this one but in order to understand this letter as we go through it I believe it's imperative that we understand a few basic things about who it's to who it's from and what is the heart of this letter from the very beginning from the very beginning spoiler alert today's message is on two verses how do you preach a whole message how do you go 75 minutes on two verses Pastor well we won't we'll do 30. but um just two verses because there's so much in it that forms how we read the rest of this work so today we seek to set the stage and understand one of the most quoted letters in the entirety of the New Testament yet one that all too AF all too often lacks like an understanding of how the letter works together there are a few times where you get to hear a message or read through it and really understand like how does this letter flow how is it is it separate letters a lot of people have tried to argue maybe this is like three letters written at different times that are kind of crammed together to these people but I pray that in our study through it we'll see this as one continuous work one letter and we will actually get to see how it all flows together and make sense as one complete letter in my goal for us today is not that just not just that we will read it from an intellectual perspective and try to like understand from a brain lens but that we will also hear this letter for ourselves in a more informed way that as Paul's writing to this church as a pastor as a leader as someone who helped plant it who at one point in time lived amongst these people and is writing to them with a tone of friendship that the Lord Jesus will renew our minds as we not just seek to understand it but we hear it we let the words penetrate our hearts and souls and maybe even minister to you in places where you're struggling and you feel like there's distance between you and God and like you're just craving some answers and a revelation from God I pray that he would do that through our understanding as we seek to hear and receive these words not just try to intellectually understand them amen so I'm going to read Philippians 1 1-2 in the ESV and then we'll pray and we'll dive into it says Paul and Timothy Servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are a Philippi with the overseers and deacons grace to you and peace from God our father in the Lord Jesus Christ this is the word of the Lord let's pray God thank you thank you for the Bible thank you that it is for us that there it is alive and well today and this isn't just trying to understand some moral or ethical code of 2000 years ago but God that this is for us that this is to help guide us how to walk in the way of Jesus how to find you how to follow you how to understand what it means to live a life after you God I pray you would reveal yourself to us not just through these first two verses but through the entirety of this series God would you give us ears to hear and hearts to receive what you have for us and God ultimately we pray that our understanding of the book of Philippians would lead to transformed life and renewed Minds not just better moral management but God our hearts and our minds would change so we thank you in faith for what you're going to do and we pray holy spirit that you would have your way that you would use my words and that you would be glorified through our time together today we pray these things in Jesus name amen amen all right so starting out who is this letter from now I mentioned like it's from Paul but as you read through this text it doesn't look just like a typical like yo this is two so and so from so and so like it there there's a little bit of Greco-Roman flavoring on it that it's important for us to understand to know how much depth is in two verses so when I was in school just a few years ago because I'm young and stuff um there's a few basic rules about writing letters that we learned that there are basically two types of letters there's like the personal friendly letters and then there's like business letters right and the business letters like you can tell they're a little more formal they have like an address inside of them like here's it it's two and it's formatted differently so you can look at it and you're like oh that's clearly a business letter but friendly letters don't have a lot of that formality and a lot of that formatting but both end and begin the same way they begin with some sort of greeting like dear father and they end with a closing like your son Chris that's me just using my name keep it simple here so they end with like this dear father and at the end they say from your son or whatever else now letters in the Greco-Roman period which is what we're reading here had this pattern in reverse and they have this three-fold salutation at the beginning and so it would look in our previous example more something like this Chris to his father greetings now you see this when you read these letters now you're like oh that's that's what's going on here so it's who it's from or who it's to who it's from all that wrapped in with greetings it's like this this three-part salutation now in comparison this letter with Paul's other letters there's several elements that stand out and we don't have time to go through every one of them and give you side by side comparison of how they're all different because there's quite a few of them but some of the things that stand out is this greeting is comparatively brief to the other letters that Paul writes to the churches there's a very fixed and formal nature of like who it's to he doesn't expound upon it it's just very straightforward and then there's this inclusion you see at the end of the overseers and the Deacons and that's just like we don't see that in any of the other letters he writes now this is one of six letters where Timothy who was known very well in Philippi was included in the greeting that Paul gave and we know through reading the rest of the letter we'll get to throughout this series that the rest of it originates from Paul alone like Paul's writing the letter but he starts out saying Paul and Timothy so like you're asking okay which parts Paul which parts Timothy should we like have an argument about who wrote it since it has both their names like the the style seems the same and continuous throughout the reality is Timothy was probably just serving as Paul's secretary here he was probably scribing writing this down and so Paul's saying from Paul and Timothy because Timothy's there he's involved and if you've ever had somebody that's involved in the writing process with you you might bounce some ideas off one another you might say like hey what's the best way to write this or they might edit you and say hey Pastor that's a run-on sentence like Casey often does for me and help you know scribe it in a better way so when it's saying Paul and Timothy it's because there was a joint effort not necessarily an equal contribution in the heart in the Pastoral sense of it but there was a joint effort in the composition of this letter now in other letters where it appears in the greetings Timothy's name is separated from Paul's because in all of the other letters Paul Begins by identifying himself as an apostle Paul the Apostle set apart for the gospel set apart for Christ Jesus you see that in the other Epistles and often times it's because he's trying to establish Authority he's trying to let him know like yo this is Paul and I'm an apostle so listen up like there's there's some of that hierarchy or or position inserted in it and Timothy is not an apostle so that's why in the other letters Paul separates those but here Timothy is a fellow servant or slave so their names are linked Paul is intentionally communicating something by the way in which he links their names it's like Paul and Timothy Servants of Christ Jesus we are brothers we are both servants we are both submitted to the will still in the work of God and he is communicating that and if we don't know the structure of the letter we're like okay cool Paul and Timothy but because it differs from all the other ones he is very intentionally trying to get across a point about this collaborative nature or that they are in an equal level as Servants of Christ there is not a hierarchy one is not leading the other both Paul and Timothy Servants of Christ Jesus and as I mentioned Paul's reason for not identifying himself as an apostle in this case is most likely related to the matter of friendship between equals that's noted in this introduction and when you're writing something from the tone of a friendship there is no place for a reminder of status I don't introduce somebody like if I'm introducing someone to Matt Klein he's an elder here if you don't know him you should meet him one of my best friends I don't say hey this is Matt Klein he's an elder our church but I'm his lead Pastor like you you don't do that right meet my friend Matt Klein I'm his Pastor like no that's not necessary because we're relating as like equals we're friends and that is the main thing that matters in that moment there is no place to be like but I preached to him on Sundays like no that's silly there's no place for that right and so hopefully that helps you understand a little bit of the interplay and the intentionality with how Paul is identifying himself here now oftentimes we read through scriptures and there's words like servants and slaves that may bring up different ideas in our understanding because of American society then how it would have been brought up let's say in the Greco-Roman world that we are reading about here and this word translated as servants is actually the Greek word for slaves and it probably as Paul is using it carries a double connotation and I want to explain that because again this one word adds breadth to Paul's theology or his Doctrine if you will how he understands God now there's the Gentile here's the non-jewish hearers of this it would have instinctly understood the word to mean like owned by or subservient to the master of a household and although this would have brought up different thoughts in the Roman world than it does in American society the slave in the Roman society was still not free they're not a free person and and they did belong to another person so the non-jewish here the Gentile here would have understood it as that now at the same time the Greek translation of the Old Testament which would have been well known in Philippi they would have understand this they would have been raised on it sort of like our children are raised on certain storybooks and Dr Seuss books and Bernstein Bears and all these things like they just they know those stories right they would have known this Old Testament verbiage and the word here was used to translate the term of servant of Yahweh like when you refer to someone as a servant or slave it was a servant of Yahweh of the Lord this phrase the servant of the Lord also carried like a sense of dependence on God and there was this uh for a lack of better words honorific honorific phrase for those that were in special service to God so the Old Testament Greek meaning of this word servant was literally like a servant of the Lord there was an honor and a dependence it was inherent in that word now the reason I say that Paul probably used a double connotation meaning he was referring to both of these is because he and Timothy are slaves of Christ Jesus they're bound to him as slaves are to a master and they're also Servants of the Lord now Christ Jesus whose bond is expressed in loving service on behalf of Christ for the Philippians and others now elsewhere Paul uses this to designate any who serve God as free Bond slaves that is as those who are free in Christ Jesus but they've used that freedom to perform the duties of a slave in service to God in his people this is the bigger picture of when he says hey here's what Timothy and I are what he's trying to encompass and so this is the closest thing in the entire book of Philippians that you can find to some statement on their status they're saying here's you I'm you're used to hearing about me as Paul the Apostle but right now I'm saying I am a servant of the Lord I am fully dependent upon Lord Jesus and because of my freedom in Christ I have given my life to serving him in his purposes now if you were to just read this verse you're like oh Servants of Christ cool they must be ushers at church or set up chairs or something right but like there's so much more to what he's communicating to us in this and as we go on in this letter there are 61 mentions of Christ in the letter and whatever else is said in the letter Beyond this is all about Jesus it's not about any person's status it's not about Paul's Authority he's saying I am a bond servant out of my freedom I am choosing to serve Jesus and that is the only status that you need to know about me because that's what binds us together that's what makes us equal that's what makes us family so that is the cause and focus of the letter is Christ and serving him so that's a little bit about Paul and Timothy in what he's communicating in the who this letter is from now who is it to and we read this term Saints it's to the Saints right like okay are these guys football fans like I know that's a low hanging fruit but like what what does it mean when we hear this term Saints now me um being a recovering Catholic when I hear the term Saints like it brings me back to like the first 16 years of my life and some of the the phrases and the practices of of the Catholic church not all that were bad mind you there's some amazing reverence and things that I believe the non-denominational world could be served well by but what I'm trying to get at here is in the Contemporary especially like Protestant church this term or phrase Saints is just something that we we lack some understanding of is that fair enough like what what is it saying isn't a saint someone who like earns the title like what exactly does that mean and why is it so is he speaking an exclusive term like this letter is only to the people that are really holy like I I don't know about you guys but because of my upbringing when I first read this I was like oh I guess I don't need to read this book because I'm clearly not a saint I am far from it even though for my first comedian I was given a Saint Christopher medal because why not my name was Christopher but like I am clearly not a saint so Saints is one of the Old Testament terms used to designate Israel that was appropriated by the New Testament writers for the people newly established by Christ and the spirit people of god Set Apart newly appropriated as God's people because of what Jesus had done now this term can be traced back to a couple places one is Exodus 19 where God addresses his people as a holy nation a people set apart for God's service and subject to Yahweh or the Lord and then its New Testament usage is likely derived from Daniel where those who receive the kingdom as an eternal inheritance are called the Saints of the most high the Saints the most high another translation might be God's holy people which keeps the original dimensions of the meaning intact and so Believers in Christ are God's people who are by that very fact also called to be his holy people called to live a life a lifestyle that is set apart that looks different from those that are not living a life after God set apart by the holy spirit for God's purposes and distinguished as those who manifest his character in the world who reflect his character in the world around them so they're becoming God's people or Saints or people of God as a direct result of their relationship with Jesus Christ their relationship with Jesus their profession of Faith with him or in him dictates you are now Saints in Christ Jesus not because of what you've done but because of what he's done in you receiving that they're Saints in Christ Jesus that's what this is referring to Jesus is responsible for their becoming people of God not their Works their ethnicity or their tribe Jesus's work is responsible for it and as the crucified and risen one he's also the subject of their new existence so these Saints live as those who belong to Christ Jesus as those who live or whose lives are forever identified with Christ they find their new identity in him their new life is dictated and is identified by the presence of if his character his lifestyle and his heart in his people now this theme is consistent throughout the entirety of Philippians both in Paul's reflections of his own life which we'll read about in coming weeks and also his affirmations and exhortations to the people of Philippi or the Philippians now one of the most striking features of this salutation is the addition of that phrase regarding overseers and deacons this is again the first designation of its kind in any of Paul's letters and we try to help you understand every time we come up here and preach if there's something that is an anomaly if there's something that sets out and is not typical it's probably trying to communicate something right like oh Paul didn't do that in any other other of his books why was he not talking to leaders of the churches and the other ones or why is that and also he mentions them in the address here at the beginning but then he doesn't mention them again it doesn't come back around and say by the way I told you guys I had something for you here it is he just says at the very beginning like this is to the Saints and the deacons and the overseers now most Scholars consider this as a deliberate reminder to the church that in Christ Jesus there's commonality between the members and the leaders of the church there's commonality it's not a separate thing Paul's not just writing to the members and the leaders get to skip out and be like ah this ain't for me like I'm good I'm actually in power here so I don't need to hear his exhortations it's like nah this is to all of you leaders are a part of the whole they're not above or outside of the church the body of Christ and they're also not separate from this address it is communicating a commonality that no hierarchy or status gets you out of living the way of Jesus and especially what Paul has to say to the church here they also do believe that there's a few things to be addressed in this letter that Paul's wanting to make sure that they pay attention to and they don't check out to the green room and Miss what he needs them to hear as well so it's like getting their attention you all need to listen up because I got a few things that are in the midst of this that are especially for you in the forthcoming exhortations if you will so it's from Paul and Timothy they are considering themselves co-labors co-servants of Christ Jesus it's two the Saints or those that have put their identity in Christ Jesus in the place of Philippi and then there is this proper part of the greeting at the end that I call the greeting or blessing that is a perfect example of Paul's ability to turn everything into gospel now sometimes in our life group or even it like as we're serving and joking around around here one of the things lately that some of us have been bantering about is just taking like a random phrase and turning it into like a sermon illustration right like you can take anything and you can find a way to like make it preach now some of them are a stretch but we can like laugh about that and in the age of social media you can find plenty of tick tocks and reels of like the youth pastor that turns anything into a sermon illustration right but the reality is like Paul was that guy like everything that he said was laced with the gospel and so because of that we can't take anything he says for face value that doesn't mean like we can't take what he says and it's meaningful but it's it's just there's so much depth to what he says that it's worth digging into and this is an example here in the greeting because the traditional greeting in this time would have simply been to say Greetings like Paul and Timothy to the Saints and Philippi greetings and then move on just very simple formality but in Paul's hands this greeting changes shape and it becomes Charis which is Grace and then he adds this Jewish greeting of Shalom which is peace and in the sense of wholeness or well-being so instead of greetings Paul is saying grace and peace Grace and wholeness and well-being to you so instead of just offering The Familiar like greetings and moving on to what he what he really wants to say Paul salutes his sisters and brothers with in Christ by saying grace to you and peace which was similar to an ancient Jewish blessing that they would have been familiar to at this time Grace and peace now to us this seems just really nice and pleasant like yeah I like Grace and peace is great like I wish that there was all kinds of Peace where I live but maybe we don't see that like it if we don't understand the depth of what Paul is trying to explain it's just like cool Grace and peace he's being unique he's not just throwing out the greetings thing but this is a representation in this one partial sentence here of Paul's theological perspective now when I say theological or the word theology it's the study of God what I'm saying is this is insight as to Paul's doctrinal stances or his perspective of who God is and what he is preaching from now I got a quote here from someone way smarter than me named Gordon fee and what he says about this and I want to read it to you and you can read along on the screen he says the sum total of God's activity toward human creation is found in the word Grace God has given himself to his people bountifully and mercifully in Christ nothing is deserved and nothing can be achieved the sum total of those benefits is they are experienced by the recipients of God's grace is peace God's Shalom both now and to come and the latter flows out of the former and both flow together from God our Father and were made effective in our human history through the Lord Jesus Christ couldn't have said it any better so we just show you his his quote but this connection here between the father and the son between God and Jesus and the God's grace is represented in him giving himself to his people unmerited unearned like that is God's grace and out of that Grace Flows a peace a well-being a Shalom so when Paul says Grace and peace he's not just giving you some nicety or platitude he's saying like hey I pray that out of receiving God's grace and all that he has done for you you will experience peace and wholeness and well-being so like two verses how are you going to preach a whole sermon on that Pastor well let's just dig into Grace and peace alone like have you ever just sat and thought about what it means to receive the grace of God how the grace of God is actually what transforms your life and changes your Paradigm about your destiny about your eternity about who you are about what Jesus has done for you and not only what you've received but then what your life should look like because of it I don't know about you guys but sometimes I can get so caught up in like trying to earn things or perform or even from a good place like God I know you've done this for me so I just want to do everything I can for you and in turn you end up just spinning your wheels and you feel like you're peeling out because you're so anxious about trying to do enough for God because how could I ever repay him for what he's done for me and what Paul's saying is because of this Grace you should have peace you shouldn't have anxiety in trying to work harder in trying to earn what I've given you you should have wholeness and well-being you should have perfect Shalom peace because of the grace you've received not trying to earn it or pay it back Jesus Paid our debt we're not in debt to him he paid our debt we don't have to try to pay it back so out of receiving God's grace and last week we talked about considering Jesus and all that he gave for us and I pray that for some of you in this room your lives were changed because this week you actually considered what Jesus has done for you but now out of receiving his grace will you live a life that Embraces peace or will you have inner turmoil because you feel like you just owe something what will you live out of God didn't come and give this awesome gift so you can feel guilty like think about that yet so many people in the church are beat over the head with all the things God's done for them that it just conditions them to think oh I gotta do something I gotta do better I'm not good enough of course you're not that's why Jesus died for you and you didn't have to earn it now let's move on and say what do we live out of because of that now how do I just let that follow me and like consume me and dictate how I see myself for the rest of my life we do not get the right to place labels and punishments on ourself that Jesus Paid the price for because when you're doing that what you're saying is what Jesus did isn't enough and I don't want to meet him someday and be like God I lived in a way that said that the sacrifice on the cross wasn't enough for me I do not want to live that way I want to live in a way that says God you have peace and well-being and wholeness for me because of your grace and I want my life as good as I can in any given week something better than others to represent that to reflect that to attract people to the gospel because they see peace not somebody trying to earn it retroactively and pay off the credit card of Eternity that's how we are to live out of this you see this connection that's made here between the father and the son is not to be overlooked sometimes we read a word and in the Bible and we don't realize it is linking something grace and peace linked together meaningful not just flippant Father and Son working together in that meaningful not just something flippant you see in the Theology of Paul whose Central concern is salvation in Christ God the father is understood to initiate salvation he's the one who initiates that and His glory is its ultimate reason for being because when he can save someone like me when he can renew my mind when he can like give me new life and turn my dead heart into something that is living and alive in him that gives him glory it doesn't give me Glory it doesn't give it gives him glory and Christ is the one through whom God's salvation has been affected in history like his salvation his work this Grace has been made pertinent in human history through Jesus Christ he is the one through whom God's salvation has become meaningful for us but texts such as this one where father and son are simply joined by the word and as equally as like I said Grace and peace and other other many other cases make it clear that in Paul's mind the son is truly God and works in cooperation with the father and the spirit for the Redemption of the people of God they are linked together they are working together for the Redemption of the people in God so that they could live a life that is free and out of that freedom choose to serve Jesus choose to serve his plans and his purposes choose to bring meaning into this world that is searching for it it record levels I believe people are looking for Hope and meaning and to be a part of something bigger than themselves and when the people of God are sharing the opportunity to follow God they're going to go find something else and there's plenty of other opportunities presented to us out there amen will we present the opportunity for grace and peace in the world around us rather than people not knowing what else to choose so they choose performance division opposition depression hatred whatever else it is like you hear me probably say those words you're like oh I don't like that word thank you but many of us in that in this room have chosen that before because we didn't know there were better options so if we have yet we're here having received the grace of God and having the opportunity to walk it out in a manner of peace and wholeness and fulfillment how many other people are prisoners in that right now that desperately need someone to greet them with Grace and peace to you from Christ Jesus like think about the gravity of a simple greeting when I first started going to gray City in Corvallis Pastor Seth preached through Philippians and he's actually preached through it again because he's been preaching long enough that he has to go back through books now and you know spoiler alert some pastors just want to go preach it again because they feel like they could have done better the first time but I'm not saying that about Pastor death that's just about me but the point of this is he preached about the gravity of Grace and peace and ever since he preached that sermon series every email he sends ends with Grace and peace Pastor Seth Grace and peace Pastor Seth and then other people are like oh yeah that's cool so they start to like put that in their thing like of course yeah that's that's Pauline right it's from Paul Grace and peace but without this that we're talking about today it just doesn't hit the same does it if I just said Grace and peace you're like oh Pastor Chris is so nice like when I say grace and peace I'm making a theological salvation statement like I pray that you experience the fullness of God's grace in your life and that yields peace so if you receive an email from me or Pastor Casey and it says Grace and peace there's a blessing in that it's not just some platitude it's not just something because we couldn't think of anything else to say there's meaning and there's depth in that worship team you can come back up so as we consider this I invite you to just kind of have a two-fold contemplation about this often weeks I'm like oh let's respond let's take action and I think that's important but like I said we're not necessarily trying to hit a home run today we're trying to tee this puppy up so we can understand the gravity of the book of Philippians but I would ask that you would Ponder one have you even begun to wrap your mind around what God's grace means in your life like if you have you not just contemplated like all the tomb's empty praise God I know that is for me somehow but like put a name to some of the things that God's Grace has covered in your life that God's Grace has paid the debt of like some of the things that he's transformed in your life by his grace when you didn't deserve it or earn it and praise him for that I'm not saying go get stuck in the mud on that but we need to recognize like God's grace is amazing It's amazing And when we recognize what his grace has covered has done and continues to do in our lives can we have Shalom as a product of that can we have peace not trying to pay off the debt for the rest of our lives as a product of that can we receive that Grace and live fulfilled peaceful content in what God is doing in any given moment type of lives rather than pridefully saying you know I don't deserve that so I'm not going to receive it or not letting people help you or whatever other ways this can manifest will you say yes that Grace is for me and because that I'm going to pursue peace in the name of Jesus and I'm going to reflect that in my neighborhood I'm going to reflect that with my family that doesn't know Jesus yet because I'm telling you what if you show up and I've been guilty of this if you show up to a family holiday and they're like how are you doing I'm like I'm exhausted I'm just doing all these things for Jesus and I have no life and I'm so stressed like oh that's appealing wow or they just stopped calling you and inviting you to things you're probably way too busy trying to earn your salvation so I'm just going to let you be okay what kind of testimony to the grace and goodness of God is that in the people's lives that are around you but if because of Jesus because of him you exude peace and kindness and patience self-control and all the other fruits of the spirit we see in Galatians if that is what people see in your life that's a little more appealing isn't it and the chaotic super busy anxious person that's just trying to prove themselves to God and others like [Music] was I put this together and even as I stand here today like I need to repent for trying to pay Jesus back for what he did for me like that's just real talk like God I'm sorry that I've been living in a way that communicates that what Jesus did on the cross isn't enough and I had to supplement it somehow that I had to come along and add a master class of my own doing to try to like make me better like I need to repent of that I don't think I'm the only one in the room [Music] we live our lives in a way as we understand God's grace going to ask for a product of peace not perpetually trying to pay off a debt that we have no business trying to pay off and will that draw people to The Living Waters of the life of following Jesus that are always refreshing that are always cold and crisp and fulfilling that bring peace to a body to a mind to a soul that this world tries to put in duress and opposition to each other there's peace because of God's grace what if what if that is how God's people reflected or represented him into this world I imagine pretty cool and I know that I want to take steps toward that and I want to invite you into that with me amen so God thank you for today thank you for your word thank you for grace and peace thank you that we don't need a 30 to 50 minute sermon to communicate depths that can enrich our lives and bring us closer to you that do verses do it well and so God would we consider the gravity of the grace we've been given an opportunity to exude peace to live a lifestyle of Peace because of what you've done for us and with this transform the world that we live in we pray these things in Jesus name and all God's people said amen would you stand as we close with worship