Praying with an Attitude

This passage that I've been looking at over the last few weeks really has been a passage that has at times overwhelmed me. I was mentioning to the elders yesterday morning that I had a, a sleepless night. It was Thursday night and I just found myself having a hard time going to sleep as I've been meditating on the passage and just coming face to face with the Parts of the apostle Paul and just kinda beginning to unpack what was inside the man just his attitude was, was just overwhelming to me and so I I already know that I, it's gonna be quite a challenge to do justice to the passage to be able to present to you what it is that I have experienced from the passage is a task.

that is, that is a tall order, too tall of an order for me.

And so we would, I want to ask you to join me in prayer, asking the Lord to, to help us out here. Lord, we just thank you so much for the time that we have had already. Lord, we thank you so much for your word. We thank You, Lord, how it is living and active, sharper than a two-edged sword.

We thank you, Lord, how we are instructed, Lord, how you through your word minister to our hearts and you help us, Lord, to understand the things that we need to understand. Lord, it, it is a light onto our path, Lord, it helps us to see with more clarity. Lord, as we, as we engage your word this morning, I am asking that you would help me as your cracked vessel to communicate the truths of your word to your people in a way that connects. that registers.

I pray that you would help them to be fed from your word, Lord, that Father, they would, they would experience some small measure of what I know I have experienced over the last couple of weeks as I have considered this particular passage of scripture. Lord, we thank you above all things for Jesus, you are good, and we give you thanks and we give you praise, Lord. It's in His name that we come to you and in His name that we pray to you. Amen.

As I've been thinking about this passage, I, I found myself, thinking about my own mom. And the reason is, is, is because my mom, as long as I have known her, has always had a way of being connected to people. she, she was born and raised in New Zealand and, she eventually got married, to my father who was in the military and they moved here to the United States and I can remember, ever since my youngest days, and just the sense of relationship that my mom seemed to have with her, with her friends from New Zealand.

And I remember just fast forwarding, I was about 15 years old and my mom and my sister and I had taken a trip to New Zealand.

And one of the things that she wanted to do is to, to take a little bit of a detour to Australia, a little bit of a detour to Australia, and it, it seemed as I recall to be very important to her to go there because there was a friend of hers named Named Joy. A lady who she had not seen for 13+ years, a friend from her childhood. And I remember, we, we were in Australia, we, we hopped on a bus and my sister and I and my mom were there on the seat and we were on the bus for a few hours and then finally we, we got to the destination.

The bus stopped and, and I had never met the lady before, but, but Joy was out there on the other side of the street with her daughter just standing there.

And waiting. Waiting to see my mom. And it seemed as if as soon as the bus stopped, my mom immediately Just rose to her feet and she took a beeline through the aisle, out the door, and my sister and I are sitting there like, what's up with that? she just took off.

I figured she thought, she probably thought I'm 15 years old, I could man up. I would be OK to be by myself with my sister, but she takes off and I'll never forget looking out the window and as soon as Joy saw my mom and my mom coming out, out of the bus, that they just at 15 years of age and as a young man it seemed weird, but they ran across the street and they just like, it was like time stood still and they just embraced. One another and they wept together. And again, as a 15-year-old young man, it seemed goofy to me.

But in coming to the Lord and since those days and even over the last week as I began to think about that, I, I, I have found myself impressed with my mom's capacity to love. And her capacity to feel. And it didn't matter how much water had separated the two for all of these years, it didn't matter how much time had passed, it didn't, it didn't matter that when my mom and Joy saw one another, it was as if no time had passed and no distance existed between the two of them. Just that sense of intimacy and relationship.

In our passage today, we will catch a glimpse of the affection. Between Paul and the Philippians. He loved the Philippians. I cannot even begin to emphasize how much Paul cared for the Philippians.

These were a people that were on his heart. He felt deeply in his affection for the Philippians. As we take a look at this passage, we are going to skim the surface of Paul's prayer for the Philippians, and as we skim the surface, we are not even going to cover the petition. The only thing that we will look at as we consider Paul's prayer, his regular ongoing prayers for the Philippians, is we are going to consider his attitude.

That's it, his attitude. If you would turn in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 1 verse 3, Philippians chapter 1 verse 3, as you are turning there, let me just say a few things by way of background information. We read about Paul's first visit to Philippi in Acts chapter 16. He came to Philippi on his second missionary journey.

This would end up being the first church ever planted in Europe. And the apostle Paul was there in the room when God gave birth to this church. The apostle Paul essentially founded the church. He is the one who was there when God gave birth to this church at about 49 AD.

And so God did just a wonderful work. We won't get into the details now, but suffice it to say that God did a wonderful work in, in establishing this church using Paul to plant the church. One of the things that we need to understand is that the Philippians had an intense love for Paul. It was a reciprocal love, a, a reciprocal joy and just thankfulness, just, there was this reciprocal reciprocal thing happening between the two of them in the relationship with one another.

the the, the Philippians would provide the apostle Paul with gifts on more than one occasion. The Philippians would send to him monetary gifts on at least 3 occasions, and one of the reasons why the apostle Paul is writing this letter to the Philippians in part is to thank God for them and to thank them for the gift that they gave to him. They had just sent a monetary gift to him in support of him while he was in prison at Rome. And so basically, in the writing of this letter on the occasion of this letter, it had been 10 years since the birth of the church.

The apostle Paul had been able to see the Philippians a couple of times since the birth of the church. On his 3rd missionary journey, he swept through Philippi at the beginning and then on the way back near the end of his missionary journey, so at least on 3 different occasions, he was there in Philippi. But here we are now on the occasion of the letter. As I said, it had been, maybe 8 years since the planting of the church and a couple of visits later, about 800 miles away between Paul and, and, and the Philippians, and he writes this letter.

Now I want to direct your attention to a part of the letter, Philippians chapter 1 verse 3. Listen to the word of God. He says, I thank my God. In all of my remembrance of you.

Always offering prayer. With joy in my every prayer for you all. In view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. For I am confident of this very faith.

That he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all. Because I have you in my heart. Since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me.

For God is my witness. How I long for you all with the affection. of Christ Jesus. The message this morning is entitled, praying with an attitude.

5 relational building attitudes of a prayer warrior. The apostle Paul was an expert. At relationship building, and he was a superb prayer warrior, and I would submit to you this morning that the two go together. One of the reasons that he was able to feel as intensely as he did is because of his prayer life.

He was connected to Christ. He was rooted in In the true vine. He knew what it meant to be intimate with Christ and the overflow of his relationship with Jesus was such that we, we read what we have just read from Paul as he writes to the Philippians. Praying with an attitude, 5 relational building attitudes of a prayer warrior.

Relational building attitude, number 1 is thankfulness. Number 1, thankfulness to God for believers. Note what he says in verse 3, I thank my God in all of my remembrance of you. I thank my God, that personal pronoun my should not be overlooked.

This, this helps us to understand the sense of intimacy. It wasn't just any old God. But Paul is describing him as my God, the one with whom I have relationship. I thank my God, and he is, he is here helping us to understand that at the end of the day, the reason why the Philippians are what they are is ultimately because of God.

Paul knows that the work was a work that was wrought by God, that the, that the lives of the Philippians that had been transformed by the power of the gospel, that was because of my God. And Paul in his address to God as he prays to God, he is thanking his God, he says, I thank my God in all of my remembrance of you, in all of my remembrance of you. The apostle Paul had memories of the Philippians. The apostle Paul, if you could sit with him and ask him to tell you about his memories with the Philippians, he would take you to the day when he founded the church.

He had the pictures of people in his mind, and he remembered them faithfully and consistently. He would tell you about how, how he and his brother Silas went to the riverside, and there at the riverside, there were some Jewish ladies who, who were praying, and he began to speak the gospel to the ladies and one of those ladies, Lydia, came to faith in Jesus, and Lydia would be on Paul's heart ever since that day over the In the course of the last 10 years, she would be one of the all who would be on the heart and mind of Paul.

No doubt Paul would begin, he would be able to tell you about how it wasn't just Lydia, but your whole household came to faith in Jesus, the whole entire household came to faith. And she, and she, she, she begged me, she begged me to stay in her home with her family, and she prevailed upon me.

And this is what we did. I stayed with her for a season. And the apostle Paul would, would perhaps talk about how, how he went out to proclaim the gospel using her home as a base for a season. I'm not sure how long the season was, but there was an occasion in which there was a a, a, a, a slave girl who had a spirit of divination.

She could foretell the future and the apostle Paul would deliver that girl of the evil spirit and her owners would be angry at Paul. They would take him to the magistrate. and the apostle Paul before the magistrates would be beaten and thrown into the inner chambers of the prison, and his feet would be fastened by stalks, and the apostle Paul would be able to tell you about that experience and how he and Silas were singing praises to God and praying to God, and at the midnight hour, the, the grounds began to shake and the chains fell off and the gate opened and was free to take off, but Paul would say, I didn't take off.

The jailer was on the verge of suicide.

And I just didn't take off, but I stopped the jailer in his tracks. I began to minister the gospel to the jailer, and what happened? The jailer came to faith in Jesus. And then what happened, he brought the gospel to his family, he brought me into his household, and they all came to faith in Jesus, and the church was birthed.

I thank my God upon my every remembrance for all of you. I thank God for the experience that he gave to me to minister the gospel to you, and how many of you came to faith in Jesus as a result. And what happened? Paul would be saying, so, what happened, those people in turn took the gospel to others.

And when I came by on my 3rd missionary, visit and, and coming through and come, there were others that I got to meet more. More of my gospel inheritance, more people who were impacted by the gospel, more brothers and sisters in Christ, those who had come to faith, and I got to meet them too, people like you and Syke and others like that. And the apostle Paul in this passage is expressing a thankfulness to his God, because of all of his remembrance. He says, in all of my remembrance of you, I thank my God.

His thankfulness no doubt would have endeared him as if he needed to endear himself to the Philippians anymore. If you're at Philippi, you received this letter and you're reading through this. What a blessing. What a blessing.

The apostle Paul still remembers us. The apostle Paul thinks about this all the time. The apostle Paul is thankful to God for us. What an encouragement is this not a relational building attitude of a prayer warrior that we see here in this passage.

You see, Paul could have found fault. He could have started off his letter by finding faults in the Philippians, not that there was a whole lot of fault to find, but there was some. We fast forward to chapter 4 and there's Eodia. And sent to key.

They were co-laborers in the gospel, but yet they were at odds with one another. They were bickering with one another. I don't know why, we don't know why, but there was something, some sense of division between the two of them, and Paul has to eventually say, you, I, I urge you, Odia, and I urge Syke to live in harmony together in the Lord, but Paul, he waits until he sets this foundation up. If you're Eoia and Shinseki and you hear and you feel the heart of the apostle Paul, by the time he gets to Eoia and Shinseki, come on, let's get, let's get along.

I'm sure they would have been ready, willing, and able to receive that counsel and to really begin in earnest to try to work out their problems with one another. He could have found fault, but instead I thank my God. I thank my God. Want to move on to the 2nd attitude.

The attitude of dependence upon God for the growth of believers, dependence upon God for the growth of believers, he says, I thank my God in all of remembrance of you, always offering prayer, always offering prayer. He was a man who prayed to God for the Philippians, all the time, all the time, he says, always offering prayer. This indicates his dependence upon God. He knew that without God working in their lives, he was without hope.

So he would come to the one who he knew who could, who could cause transformation, who could strengthen, who could build up. He comes to this, to, to his God, and he's praying to God on their behalf. And notice what he prays, we're gonna fast forward, not much to be said here, but just, just, just fast forward and let's take a peek at the petition in verse 9, he says, and this is what I pray. That your love may abound still more and more.

It's not that they weren't loving, they were loving. He commands them. Your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve the things that are excellent. He's asking that God would give to them the wisdom to know how to choose between the good, the better, and the best, and that they would increasingly gain ground in their ability to choose the best all the time.

He says, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ, the apostle Paul always had the day of Christ in mind. He saw people through the lens of the day when they would stand before the Lord Jesus Christ. And with that day in mind, he's exhorting and encouraging and he's coming alongside and he's pouring out his heart to the Philippians. This indicates, I believe, his belief and his trust in the Lord, that the Lord would hear his prayers and that the Lord would answer this prayer in the affirmative.

And again, what an encouragement to the Philippians to know that Paul, Paul is bringing us before God's mighty throne of grace and prayer. So here is a man who was thankful to God, and he was dependent upon God, and we're gonna move on to number 3. The third relational building attitude of a prayer warrior is joy, the attitude of joy. joy over believers because of their commitment to the gospel.

And, and again, track with me and please note, he says, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer. With joy, with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now, until now. It is one thing to remember. And to pray for people.

It's another thing to do so with a heart that is filled with joy. And this is the heart of Paul. He is overflowing with joy, always offering prayer with joy, and, and joy here in the Greek is in the prominent position, meaning more literally you can understand it as With joy, offering prayer in my every prayer for you all. He puts that front and center in this phrase.

He's emphasizing the joy part of the prayer. As I'm praying for you, I am able to do so with a heart that is filled with joy. To have joy is to feel and experience great happiness about something. And and here we see Paul in every prayer for the Philippians.

Overflowing with joy. They were a joy to him. The memory of them did his heart good. He would be happy about the Philippians.

They were a source of joy, and not just they, but, but please note the passage clearly indicates every single Philippian, every single one of them, for you all, he says, every single one of them. How in the world does a man have a heart that is so fat to where he is able in, in his remembrance of every single one of them to give thanks to God for them. There had been a lot that had happened since the church was planted. Paul had been all over the place, ministering the gospel to countless cities, pouring out his life, for the glory of God and the growth of the church and the advancement of the gospel.

It would, it would have been very easy for Paul to just forget these people, but he doesn't, and upon every remembrance of them, he remembers them with a heart that is filled with joy. He wants them to know that they are a source of joy. And if I am a Philippian, And if I know that the effect I have on the apostle Paul is that his heart is fattened with, with thanksgiving and joy, I am encouraged to know that. What, what a blessing.

What a blessing. Joy is a fruit of the spirit, so this clearly indicates the man walking in the power of the Spirit. And brothers and sisters, this, this joy, this is the first time we read of it in this epistle, but Paul is gonna refer to joy. It is a major theme in the epistle.

It is a major theme. Joy is referred to, I'm not gonna get into every single passage, but Philippians 1:8. Philippians 1:25, Philippians 2:2. Listen to Philippians 2:17, he says, even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice, I rejoice and I share my joy with you all.

Philippians 2:18, immediately thereafter, he says, and you too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me. He is hungry for the experience of gospel rooted joy in relationship with one another, and we see this heart. Being, being manifested in his prayer attitude as it is communicated here to the Philippians. We see joy referred to in Philippians 2:28 and then in Philippians 2:29, he says, speaking of Epaphroditus, Epaphroditus was the man that he sent to them, giving to them this letter, wanting to express thanks to them, and he says to them, receive Epaphroditus in the Lord with all joy.

Receive him with all joy. Philippians 3:1, rejoice in the Lord. Philippians 4:1, my beloved brethren whom I long to see, we're going to see that word earlier in the epistle here in a few moments, but he says, whom I long to see, my joy and my crown. So stand firm in the Lord, my beloved, 44, rejoice in the Lord always again I say rejoice.

And here in the passage we're looking at, he doesn't waste any time before he's making a reference to joy, to joy. We're gonna move on to the 4th attitude, confidence. Confidence in God to work in and through the lives of believers. He says in verse 6, for I am confident.

I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever. I am, I am certain you can, we, we can take this one to the bank. I am confident of this very thing. What are you confident about Paul, that he who began a good work in you, this was a good work that he began, the one who began the good work will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Note that his confidence is in God, and note that as he refers to God as the one who began the work, God began the work. And God will see to it, Philippians, that the work he began will be completed until the day of Christ Jesus. He did not save you to let go of you. He saved you to keep you and to guarantee that the day would come when you would stand before the Lord, holy, righteous, and without blame.

I am absolutely confident, Philippians, that God is not going to let you go. He's gonna finish the work that he began. This is an absolute encouragement, not just to the Philippians, but by way of extension to us. This is an encouragement that those who belong to God, those who are chosen of God, those who come to the place in their life where they repent and believe and are converted, that when God justifies them, they can never lose their justified status.

They just simply can't. They simply can't, there is no one or nothing that can separate them from the love of Christ. He who began the work, Philippians, he will complete that work. I am confident in him to see to it that he will do such a thing.

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. We can trust in him. He is trustworthy and he is faithful. And for those of you who have come to faith in Christ, I can say to you with confidence that he who began the work, he is going to complete that work.

He's not gonna let you go. He is taking your sins as far as the east is from the west. Right, he has cast them as far as the east is from the west. He counts your sins against you no longer, you are justified in Christ, you can take it to the bank that the day will come in which you will be in his presence, that is our hope and our hope is in Him and in Him alone.

He who began the work, he will complete that work, and Paul wants so much for his Philippian readers who knew this, no doubt. To know it again. It's OK to remind them again of stuff that they already knew because in communicating this in, in a sense what Paul is communicating is his heart. He's communicating to them his heart.

So he is confident in God to work in and through the lives of the believers. This confidence has an has an eschatological sense to it, the day of Christ Jesus. And Paul is always thinking about that day. And he's always thinking about God's people in light of that day, and he's always wanting to be an instrument of God's grace to bring people to the place where they would be presented to the Lord on that day, holy, righteous, and without blame.

He refers to this day of Jesus in Philippians 1:10. In Philippians 2:10. 2:16 and 3:20. In case you want to look those passages up later, we don't have the time to get into them.

But brothers and sisters, suffice it to say, We have something good to look forward to. We have something good to look forward to. You see, the day is gonna come when we will, we will lay aside the earthly tent. Some of us are closer to that day than others, but when the day comes, we will be ushered into the very presence of Almighty God, and we will behold Jesus face to face.

We will see the Lamb of God who took away our sins, and we will worship him freely and unhindered. We will be able to praise Him in a way that is worthy of his name. No longer able to sin, we will be perfect in Him, glorified at some point in the future, to be absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord. We have something good to look forward to.

We must praise the Lord. There is no reason for us not to be thankful and to be joyful, and it's not just true about me, but it's true about our brothers and sisters in Christ. Every single one of us who are in Christ, we will stand before Him on that day, and we will be clothed in righteousness. on that day, we will be shining brighter than what we could ever imagine.

What a day that will be. And Paul thinks about that day, and he connects that day to his Philippians, and what, he who began the work will complete that work until the day of Christ Jesus. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

Whenever I think of that day, As I've gotten older, and I'm not quite the old man that I'm becoming, but I feel like I'm getting there. I see that I'm getting there. But, but I think about those who have gone on before me. There's, there's people in my care group.

Who have had to bid farewell In my own family. My wife and I a little more than 2 years ago. We had to bid farewell. But the day is coming when we will see not just Christ, but those who were redeemed by Christ.

I think about Elizabeth Myers and I look forward to seeing her. I think about Papa Tom. I'm gonna see him. We have a hope.

We have a hope. We have every reason in the world to rejoice in Jesus. I think about what happened last week with Jordan. He almost had to bid farewell to his bride.

But God was gracious, and God raised her up. And what, even had he taken her away, there would be a day when Jordan would see his bride again, and so at the end of the day, it is well, it is well with my soul. I believe Paul's, his care and his concern, his thankfulness, his confidence, his joy over the Philippians is absolutely undeniable. I want to move to the 5th and the final attitude, love for believers.

Well, you've already said that. I, I know, but I think we're gonna crescendo here. I think as we jump into verse 7, the emotional force with which the apostle Paul is coming across is gonna meet a high point that we haven't seen yet. No, this in verse 7, again, the, the 5th point is, is love for believers, but in verse 7, he says, for it is only right for me to feel this way, to feel what way, everything that I have just communicated.

This is the, this that I'm talking about, and it is only right for me to feel this way, thankful and confident and joyful. It is only right for me to feel this way about you all. To feel this way about you all because I have you in my heart. That's why I feel this way.

Because God Himself has etched you in my heart. You are there, and I have every confidence because of the fact that you are etched in my heart, of the things that I have said, and it is therefore only right to feel this way about you all, since both In my imprisonment, which is where he is right now, and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, speaking, I believe, of the times when he was completely free to just proclaim the gospel and to go as he pleased, to build and to plant and to, and, and, and, and to start churches.

But he says, in both my imprisonment, such as is now and when I have had the freedom to proclaim Christ, so you all are partakers of grace with me. You all are partakers of grace with me.

I am on the receiving end of God's grace, even as I sit here in chains. That does not erase the fact of God's grace to me. I am here in stalks. I have been, at times beaten for my faith, but that, that, that, that makes no difference.

This is a form of God's grace coming to me. And he says, you all are partakers. I think he's referring to the fact that they not just prayed for him, but they gave to his needs from time to time. And then here we go in verse 8.

He says, God is my witness. I'm going to appeal to the highest authority of all. I'm going to appeal to the one who knows all things, to the one who is with me now, even as I write, and I'm going to appeal to him, and I want for you to know that he is witness and he will testify on my behalf how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. I long for you all, he says, for you all.

I long for you. I would love to see you. I would love to behold your faces and to fellowship with you. You see this intense desire that Paul has in his being to want to connect with people.

He was highly relational, and we see this relationality of Paul within the context of his prayer for the Philippians. I long for you all with the affection, and the word affection speaks of the intestines. It's a metaphorical term to indicate that I long for you with every bit of my physical being that is in me. I long for you all, he says.

I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus, Christ Jesus. Part of what troubled me Thursday night as I lay restless in my bed. Is this passage. Trying to wrap my mind around the intensity of the love of Jesus for his people and knowing full well that I don't fully get it, I get it, but I don't get it.

That the love, there is not a, there's not one person here who fully understands the extent of the love of Jesus for his bride. He loves his bride, way more than we could ever fully comprehend. We get a glimpse of it when we see him nailed to a cross in agony and pain and suffering. We see the love of Christ for us, where he is there crying out to the Father, praying to the Father, forgive them, forgive them.

We were his enemies, and he is saying to God on our behalf, oh God, forgive my enemies. I am dying for them. I am taking upon myself your wrath, which should be poured out upon them, but I am taking their place at the cross, and I am dying for them so that they might be brought into a relationship with you. Paul is saying, I, God is witness, how I have longed for you with the affection of Jesus.

Jesus's affection for us is so strong that he was willing to die on the cross so that we could be brought into a relationship with him. That is how strong is his love for us. He loves us. He has shown mercy and compassion to us.

He will finish the work that he began in us. The compassion of Jesus for us is overwhelming, and Paul is, is so bold as to say, God is my witness, how I have longed for you. With the affection. Of Jesus.

This is not me. This is not me in and of myself. This is the work of God in my heart. It is the affection of Jesus.

Where does he get such an affection from? It's prayer. It's in this environment of prayer, that as he comes before the throne of God's grace, and he worships the Lamb of glory, and he experiences intimacy and communion with him, his heart begins to overflow with these relational building attitudes, and, and, and he is able to say with a clear conscience, I have longed for you all. With the affection of Christ Jesus.

Praying with an attitude, 5 relational building attitudes of a prayer warrior. I'm not going to repeat them. You took your notes and because of time, we have to stop. It is hard to stop.

Because I want to hang out with Paul. And I want to hang out with the Jesus that is his Jesus. And I want to be conformed into the image of Christ. And I want to be able to by God's grace follow Paul as he follows the Lord.

And I am reluctant to step away from this passage because to be honest, I don't want to. I don't want to, I need this. I need Paul and his example, I need Jesus and his ministry through Paul to me, hard to step away. But we will I want to ask the ushers to come forward as you prepare.

Your offerings for the Lord. If you have your connection card and you have filled it out, please take the time to drop that into the offering. Where if you are a first time visitor, you're free to take it to the welcome table, and we have a gift for you out there. OK.

Thank you for coming. Thank you for listening. And I pray that God through His word has ministered to your hearts. Lord, we thank you so much.

For all that we have in Christ Jesus. We are overwhelmed by your grace to us. Lord, we have looked at these attitudes of a prayer warrior. And we ask Lord that you would help us to follow Paul, help us as he follows you, or should I say as he has followed you.

Lord, take what little we have. And multiply the gift for the purpose of building up the body both here and the way we think of our missionaries. And we pray your blessing upon them. And the churches that they oversee, the ministries that they oversee.

We pray, Lord, that You would help us to manifest these attitudes in the context of our families. Help us. In our care groups, Lord, oh God, you have done so much on so many different levels, but Lord, help us to excel still more and more. We pray, Lord, that you would confirm these attitudes in, in, in the life of this church, and may we, may we, Lord, glorify you in these things, in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.