Philippians 8: Pursuing the Goal

Well, good morning again! Thank you for being here today to worship the Lord with the church family of Eastern Hills. And thanks for joining us if you are doing so online.

If this is your first time visiting with us, we would just like to tell you how grateful we are that you’re here, and we would like to be able to do so personally. To that end, I need to ask for just a little bit of information from you so we can reach out to you this week and see if there is anything we can pray for you about, or some way to serve you. If you’re online, you can fill out our online communication card by going to the bottom of our I’m New page on our website. If you’re in the room you can do that as well, or you can fill out a physical communication card that you’ll find in the back of the pew in front of you. You can return the card to us one of two ways: first, I’d really love it if you would bring it down to me at the end of service. I’ll be down front, and I would really enjoy meeting you and giving you a gift to thank you for your visit today. You can also drop your welcome cards in the boxes that are by the doors as you leave when service is over.

When you came into the main doors of the building today, you were almost guaranteed to have been greeted by one or even several members of our Welcome Team. These kind folks are here early every week to make sure that you have a friendly face and any assistance you might require when you come into the building. It’s such an important ministry! Thanks, Welcome Team members, for the service you provide to the church family week in and week out.

I have two quick announcements before we get into our study this morning.

Announcements

Special Called Business Meeting and Budget Discussion tonight at 5:30. We need at least 50 members of the church here in order conduct the special called business meeting.

Wet cement sesssion Wednesday night, November 13 beginning at 5:30 pm in Miller Hall, dinner and childcare will be provided.

Opening

Last week in our seventh message from the book of Philippians, we saw Paul’s shift of topic into dealing with an issue regarding Jewish legalism that the church was facing as we considered verses 1-9 of chapter 3. Paul addressed the problem of self-righteousness through the law in the power of the flesh instead of God-given righteousness through faith in Christ. Paul saw that everything that he had considered to be a gain for him as a Pharisee was truly a loss, because none of those things had led him to salvation in Jesus.

And in our focal passage this morning, we find that this redefinition of loss and gain that Paul made has also redefined his purpose in life. So let’s stand in honor of the reading of the Word of God and turn in our Bibles or Bible apps to Philippians 3, verses 10-21:

Philippians 3:10–21 CSB

10 My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, 11 assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead. 12 Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, 14 I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. 15 Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you. 16 In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained. 17 Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us. 18 For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame; and they are focused on earthly things, 20 Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21 He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.

PRAYER

Did any of you run in the Duke City Marathon, Half Marathon, or 5K this past weekend? Do any of you run regularly? I’ve known some true “runners” in my life, and their dedication and stamina are amazing to me. I mean, some people can just “go for” a quick 10 mile run, running for over an hour! I haven’t been able to do such things since I was in high school.

In fact, when I was a junior, I was actually in a program for troubled teens. One of the purposes of this program was to encourage self-esteem and physical health in the students who were involved. And part of that was running. I think I went to the program two or three times a week or something like that, and one time per week, we would run. The greatest amount of time that we ran in a single shot was 45 minutes. And then, we were signed up to run in the Duke City Half Marathon. Do you know how far that is? 13.1 miles. The farthest I had ever run at one time was probably 6 miles at that point.

It was a beautiful fall morning when we gathered at the starting point for the half marathon. If I remember correctly, we ran through the north valley, so somewhere around Corrales I guess, eventually running all the way to downtown, ending the race at Civic Plaza. I ran the first hour pretty well, trying to pace myself for the distance and the time. I was about halfway done when I finished the first hour. The second hour? That was when it started to get tough. There were markings on the street every half mile, telling me how far I had run… 7 miles… 7 1/2 miles… 8 miles... I would walk for a little bit, and then run for a while, and then walk a little more, and then… you get it. 8 1/2 miles… 9 miles… 9 1/2 miles… People were all along the race course cheering for us, giving us water and Gatorade. 10 miles... 10 1/2 miles… 11 miles. I was more tired than I had ever remembered being, but knew that I was nearing my goal. 11 1/2 miles… 12 miles… 12 1/2 miles… If memory serves, I had to run east on Fruit Avenue, then turn south on Fourth Street… 13 miles. And there was the finish line, just a block down Fourth Street. People were lining the sidewalks and cheering. And I found that there was still some left in the tank. I broke into the hardest sprint I had left in me, and sprinted the rest of the way through the finish gate, 2 hours and something like 8 minutes after starting. It was thrilling, and a great memory for me.

The entire time I was running, it didn’t matter if I could see the finish line: I knew it was there. Every step took me closer and closer to reaching it. And that was my goal: finishing. Sometimes the road was easy, and sometimes it was grueling, but I never took my mind’s eye off of the fact that there was a goal to be reached. I kept going, even when my body told me to stop. I followed through, and even now I can say that I’ve run a half marathon. I should get a 13.1 sticker for my car… just kidding.

And we see in this morning’s focal passage picture of pursuing a spiritual goal. Paul had just argued about his justification: his being declared righteous by God on the basis of his faith in the finished work of Christ, not on the basis of any inherent or behavioral righteousness that he might have possessed (last week). Paul here is talking about his own personal discipleship, his own “following” after Jesus. The Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defined a “disciple” as: “A follower; an adherent to the doctrines of another.” So if you are a believer in Christ, that makes you a disciple of Jesus. And thus, a follower of Jesus, so someone in pursuit of Him. And in this little piece of Philippians, we see that Paul speaks about the goal of the disciple, the pursuit of the disciple, the responsibility that the disciple has, the opponents that the disciple faces, and the reality that the disciple will ultimately experience.

1: The Goal of the Disciple

I may not be running half marathons, but I still run. A couple of times a week, I run about two miles. Even when I do that, though, I have a goal in mind, and the treadmill or my watch help me keep track of how close I’m getting to that goal. Doing something like running without a goal can be difficult. I mean look at Forrest Gump. For no particular reason, he decided to go for a “little run”, and kept on running for 3 years, 2 months, 14 days, and 16 hours. A goal might have helped!

And when we approach this passage of Scripture, we find that as Paul walked with Christ, he had a goal in view—one that would define his approach to life and death and everything in between:

Philippians 3:10–11 CSB

Paul’s goal was simple: to know Jesus. Having this as his one goal is how he could say as we saw last week that “everything that was a gain to [him], [he] has considered to be a loss because of Christ.” (2:7) It’s why he could say to the Philippians back in chapter 1, “Just one thing: As citizens of heaven, live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ.” (1:27).

When Paul said that he wanted to “know” Jesus, he was referring to knowing Him so well, so closely, that he would look just like Jesus in every way. This process of looking more and more like Jesus is called sanctification. Again, just like last week, this isn’t something that he’s earning…it’s something that he’s becoming through walking with Jesus day by day.

Some commentators break up this into four things that were Paul’s “goals:” knowing Jesus, knowing the power of His resurrection, knowing the fellowship of His sufferings, and being conformed to His death. But I believe that only the first thing is Paul’s goal: knowing Jesus. The other things are all a part of knowing Jesus.

To know Jesus is to know the power of His resurrection. If we’re in Christ, then we’ve already experienced the resurrection power of Jesus:

Ephesians 1:18–20 CSB

18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the mighty working of his strength. 20 He exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens—

But we haven’t experienced it in its fullness yet—when we will experience that constant victory over sin and death. We’ll experienced that later, something that we will consider when we get to verse 21 this morning.

Paul also said that knowing Jesus is to know the fellowship of His sufferings. In the book of Isaiah, Jesus was prophesied to be the Suffering Servant. To be a follower of the Suffering Servant is to suffer ourselves, and that’s something that we must be aware of. We have to “count the cost” of following Jesus, as Christ Himself said in Luke 14. Do we see that knowing Jesus is worth suffering for Him? The first disciples of Jesus actually rejoiced at the fact that they had been counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ (Acts 5:41).

And third, Paul said that knowing Jesus was also to be “conformed to His death.” What did Jesus do? He willingly laid down His life for the purposes of the Father, dying on the cross to pay the penalty that we owe for our sins. Paul explained it like this to the church at Rome:

Romans 6:5–11 CSB

5 For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, 7 since a person who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, 9 because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. 10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

This passage isn’t about being saved. It’s about what happens when you are saved—when you have believed the Gospel of Jesus Christ: that He came to earth humbly, lived perfectly, died sacrificially for us, and rose again triumphantly, all because God loves us. It’s only through faith in what Christ has done—through believing the Gospel—that we can be saved. And it’s only in being saved that we can be in a right relationship with God. And it’s only through that right relationship that we can experience things like victory over sin and eternal life that Paul speaks about.

This is what Jesus has done for all of us and for each of us, and Paul wants to know Jesus because of his love for Christ. It was his singular goal. Likewise, as followers of Jesus, because of the love that He has shown to us, we should want to know Him more and more.

In his book Knowing God, J.I. Packer wrote:

Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life’s problems fall into place of their own accord.

—J.I. Packer, Knowing God

Is Jesus our goal? Do we want to know Him more than anything else? Do we consider ourselves as being dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ? Do we want to be conformed to the likeness of Christ through knowing Him, walking with Him, experiencing the ongoing power of His resurrection in our lives, being made more like Him through suffering, putting our old selves, our old ways, to death through the power of His Spirit in us?

If not, what goals to you have that are more important than knowing Jesus? If you honestly step back and look at them, are any of those goals eternal in nature? Only what we do in Christ and with Christ and from Christ and for Christ will go the distance of forever. Are we prioritizing things that won’t last over things that will?

Before we go on, I have one last point to mention from verses 10 and 11. In verse 11, Paul almost seems uncertain of his salvation, when he says, “assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.” I just want to clarify this very quickly.

Paul is not uncertain about his hope. Interpreting this verse this way would invalidate much of what Paul has already said in this letter. Rather, I read this as that he’s confident that he will experience the resurrection (“assuming”), but at the same time, he knows that he doesn’t deserve it (“somehow”). It’s a statement of humble confidence, not a statement of doubt. We will see this more in 12-14, which brings us to our next point:

2: The Pursuit of the Disciple

When I ran that half marathon, I had a path marked out for me. I knew where I was going and why I was going there. Each mark on the pavement, each barricade to prevent me from making a wrong turn, was there for a reason: so that I could keep moving toward the goal: the finish line. Running the run of faith (if we can say that instead of walking, like the author of Hebrews does in Hebrews 12:1-2) is to be focused on the goal of knowing Jesus, and thus being more like Jesus. To know Him more is to be more like Him. But this isn’t a passive thing.

When I said that this was something that Paul was becoming, it wasn’t something that was merely happening to him. It was occurring as a part of his actually pursuing the goal that he had of knowing Jesus more.

Philippians 3:12–14 CSB

12 Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, 14 I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

Paul knew that he hadn’t arrived at full Christ-likeness, but he knew that his words in the beginning of this chapter—that righteousness is from God on the basis of faith—might tempt some to presume upon the grace of God and the righteousness which He provides… to think that they have no responsibility in how they walk.

Yes, our sanctification is a work of God, because ultimately it couldn’t happen at all without His activity:

Philippians 2:13 CSB

13 For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose.

But consider what this verse says in its context: that we are to obey the Lord, working out our own salvation in fear and trembling...because it is God at work in us…so we are to do everything without grumbling or arguing… God has saved us, and God’s Spirit works in us, but we are called to cooperate in and submit to that work.

So here, Paul tells us that we are to be actively involved in our sanctification. We have a part to play in it, to “make every effort” to take hold of it. Brothers and sisters, we are to pursue Christlikeness! Again, I’m not talking about earning anything. Jesus has earned our salvation (our justification). This is about participating in our sanctification, being made more like Christ.

Paul said that he was making every effort to take hold of it because he had been taken hold of by Christ. This is a great picture. I can’t tell you how many times when either of my girls were little, one of them would fall down and get hurt, or be scared of something, and I’d be there to scoop her up and hold her. And even as I held her in my arms, she would cling to me just as strongly. She would cling to me, her rescuer, because I had clung to her first.

We want to hold on to Jesus because He first held on to us. We’ve already been rescued… we just want to be close to our rescuer. And Paul could say that he hadn’t fully “taken hold” of complete sanctification. But he said that he did one thing: he kept looking forward. Effective running can’t be done looking over your shoulder. So Paul said that he was “forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead.”

He runs with forgetfulness. Peter O’Brien wrote:

He will not allow either the achievements of the past (which God has wrought) or, for that matter, his failures as a Christian to prevent his gaze from being fixed firmly on the finish line. In this sense he forgets as he runs.

—Peter O’Brien, Epistle

We have to deal with our sin, but once it’s dealt with, forget about it and run. If you’ve dealt with your sin with God, confessing it and repenting of it, and you’ve made it right to the extent that you can in this world, then it DOES NOT DEFINE YOU. Let it fall away in the distance behind you.

Also, it’s great to have successes in our past, but we can’t use those as an excuse for not pursuing Jesus in the present. Your past consistency in your walk with Jesus doesn’t really matter if you’re unwilling to walk consistently now. Make every effort, says Paul.

Pursue as your goal the prize. What is the prize? Knowing Jesus! The heavenly call was to follow Christ. Jesus Himself is the prize. Paul would use a similar running metaphor in his first letter to the church at Corinth:

1 Corinthians 9:24–27 CSB

24 Don’t you know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way to win the prize. 25 Now everyone who competes exercises self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable crown. 26 So I do not run like one who runs aimlessly or box like one beating the air. 27 Instead, I discipline my body and bring it under strict control, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

Paul exercised self-discipline so that he wouldn’t end up stumbling, being “disqualified.” This isn’t to say that he would be disqualified for salvation, but that he would fail to live up to what he had called others to… that he would fail to look like Jesus through pursuing something less than.

What are you pursuing? What are you spending your time on? What are you investing in? What are you learning or engaging your mind with? Are they useful things? Are you putting actual effort into pursuing Christlikeness? Are you following Jesus? This brings us to our third point:

3: The Responsibility of the Disciple

We would think that it was silly for someone to say that they are a runner, but never actually run. It would make no sense. I mean, you could kind of look the part, right? You could dress up in running clothes and get good running shoes. You could have a sport watch and a running app or two on your phone. You could even have a subscription to a running magazine and follow a running podcast. But are you a runner if you never run? No. Being a runner involves fulfilling a particular responsibility: running.

And this is going to sound harsh, but stay with me: A disciple of Jesus has a particular responsibility: following Jesus. That doesn’t mean that we’re perfect (Paul wasn’t). It means that we actively put effort into following, even if we stumble along the way. If you have no desire to actually follow Jesus, should you call yourself a disciple? Paul explains it this way:

Philippians 3:15–17 CSB

15 Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you. 16 In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained. 17 Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us.

He couches his point in the context of maturity. Maturity will cause us to more and more have as our goal the likeness of Christ in our lives, (and other things that are aspects of that from verses 10-14). If you think you’re spiritually mature, but you have no desire to look like Jesus, either you’re wrong or Paul is. And I promise that it’s not Paul. And perhaps right now this morning is when God is revealing this to you. The only right thing to do if that’s the case is repent. Confess your sin and turn to Christ in faith.

But Paul says that we should live up to whatever truth we have attained. Maturing is a process. And we are held responsible for applying and living out the things that we’ve learned. We’re to make every effort to keep growing, keep going, keep following, trusting in the power that He has already given us. Peter wrote about this in chapter 1 of his second epistle:

2 Peter 1:3–10 CSB

3 His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, 6 knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, 7 godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins. 10 Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble.

Paul suggests that one way for the Philippians to do this was to imitate him, as well as those who already do imitate him. Imitation has been a big theme for Paul in this letter already (2:17-18—imitate Paul’s gladness and joy, 2:19-30—implication to imitate Timothy and Epaphroditus, 2:5-11—of course, imitate Christ). And he will say it again in chapter 4:

Philippians 4:9 CSB

9 Do what you have learned and received and heard from me, and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

He called the church at Corinth to imitate him as well, inasmuch as he imitated Christ:

1 Corinthians 11:1 CSB

1 Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.

The truth is that if we will be in relationship with those who are walking with Jesus, it will make it easier for us to walk with Jesus as well, because we will be able to follow their example.

Proverbs 13:20 CSB

20 The one who walks with the wise will become wise, but a companion of fools will suffer harm.

Find someone further down the road than you are and imitate their faith. This might mean reaching out and meeting people in the church who sit in a different part of the sanctuary than you do. It might mean checking out a different or additional Bible study class. Students: find an adult that you can follow.

Having someone to imitate—someone to disciple you—is a great thing. But the truth is that we also will have those who oppose us and oppose the Gospel. Some might even think they are doing so for a good cause.

4: The Opponents of the Disciple

When I ran the Duke City Half Marathon, fortunately, it wasn’t an obstacle course. I didn’t have anything actively opposing me other than my body, my mind, and the distance. But those were definitely opposition enough! The race of faith isn’t without its struggles, either, and sometimes those struggles come in the form of people who deny the truth. The Philippians faced opposition from the Judaizers, as we saw last week. They claimed to know Christ, but didn’t.

Philippians 3:18–19 CSB

18 For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame; and they are focused on earthly things,

Paul was heartbroken over these people who claimed to be followers of Christ, but who denied that claim in the reality of their lives, and he offers five critiques of these people. First, he said that they actually lived as enemies of the cross. We spoke about this last week: they were adding to the Gospel, saying that salvation was Jesus PLUS being a Jew, which made the Good News not good news at all. They emptied the cross of its power by saying that anything more than faith in Christ was necessary to be saved. And Paul was harsh in what he had to say about their spiritual state:

Second: Their end is destruction. These people are not saved, because though they claim to believe in Jesus, what they have received is actually a lie, because they think that Jesus’ work on the cross wasn’t enough to save us. Truly, they put the priority on earning salvation, not on being saved by grace through faith.

Third: Their god is their stomach. They followed strict Jewish dietary rules, and demanded that others do the same if they wanted to claim Christ. Again, this is about earning salvation, not about receiving it.

Fourth: Their glory is in their shame. Some commentators see this as a reference to circumcision, and I suppose that’s possible. But I see it as the fact that the Hebrew people hadn’t earned anything by following the rules. In fact, those rules had been given in order to show the Jewish people just how far from God they actually were, and how much they needed His saving grace. The rules showed them their shame. For them to glory in the rules now was to glory in what could never save. It would have been to glory in their shame.

And finally, they were focused on earthly things. Rules couldn’t save, but they wanted the Philippians to follow the rules anyway. Paul would tell the Colossians to set their minds on things above, and why:

Colossians 3:1–3 CSB

1 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

These were opponents because they tried to lead the church astray, to keep them from running after Jesus well. We face things like this every day. The devil, the world, and our flesh all conspire to keep us from being conformed to the image of Christ. And one of the sneakiest ways that occurs is that we are tempted to trust in our attempts to earn God’s favor, because if we can feel like we deserve salvation, then we don’t need a Savior anymore. We’ve done it ourselves, and so we deserve the glory.

But the truth is that God has done all the work so that we can be saved, and while we cooperate with the Spirit in the work of sanctification now, we look forward to experiencing the fullness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the future. This is a promised reality, one with a now-and-not-yet aspect.

5: The Reality for the Disciple

This is honestly where my running analogy falls apart for this sermon, so I’m going to leave it. In the first message of this series, I gave some context for the city of Philippi. It was considered to be something like “Little Rome.” It was similar in a lot of ways to what Virgil called “the eternal city” (and Rome is even still called that). Many in Philippi were Roman citizens, and they took that citizenship seriously. But Paul shifts that view, by saying that disciples have changed “spiritual nationalities,” and now have a higher citizenship.

Philippians 3:20–21 CSB

20 Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21 He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.

Citizenship was something to be proud of in Roman culture, because being a citizen came with a whole stack of additional rights and privileges. You could marry another Roman citizen, and your children would automatically be citizens. You couldn’t be flogged. You couldn’t be put to death in any way other than beheading (a quick death). You could vote (and you should vote).

Paul also makes a tongue-in-cheek reference to the hubris of the caesars here. Whoever was Caesar regularly referred to himself as “savior,” but Paul reminds the Philippians that Jesus is the Savior, and He’s coming from our true home, heaven.

Our heavenly citizenship has MUCH greater blessing and benefit! We are not just citizens, but children of the King, who will rescue us from our “humble condition,” in weakness and sin, and make us not only like Himself spiritually, but physically as well. This is referred to as our glorification.

1 John 3:1–2 CSB

1 See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children—and we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know him. 2 Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is.

This is the “resurrection power” that Paul spoke of in verse 10.

Closing

Paul was looking forward to experiencing Christ’s resurrection power in its fullness, and in the meantime, he wanted to be a close to Jesus as he could be—to know Him more and more, and to be made to look more and more like Him, because of all that Christ had already done for him and the incredible promises that were his through faith. Is Jesus our goal? Are we actively pursuing Him, seeing that we have a responsibility for engaging in our sanctification? If we are in Christ, we can look forward to glory just like Paul did. But if we’ve never trusted in Him, then the only end we have to look forward to is destruction, because we are actually enemies of the cross of Christ.

Invitation to surrender

Invitation to baptism

Invitation to church membership

Invitation to prayer

Invitation to give

PRAYER

Closing Remarks

Bible reading (Job 22, Psalm 114)

No Pastor’s Study tonight for business meeting and budget discussion

Prayer Meeting this Wednesday night at 5:45 in Miller Hall

Our adult worship choir would like to make a special request: that you considering coming and being a part of our Christmas music this year. We have four practices between now and when the choir will perform on December 8, so you’re only committing to that much time. We’d love to have a few more voices as we celebrate the birth of Christ and lead the congregation in worship. Choir practices are at 6:30 on Wednesdays in the choir room. Let Michelle know if you have any questions of if you need music!

Instructions for guests

Benediction

Colossians 1:9–12 CSB

9 For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, 10 so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.

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