[Generated Transcript]

It’s been a joy to be walking through Philippians with you and to come every week and get a chance to worship with you all. And then afterwards be able to spend some time and eat together and get to know you at a more personal level. So I just wanted to share that as we come to the sermon. I’ve really enjoyed my time here and we have many more weeks to go. So I hope that you’re enjoying me being here. It’s not an easy way for you to get out of it. We’re coming to Philippians 2, and as I’ve said before, we’ve kind of gotten through the introductory section.

Paul’s written in chapter one about his feelings for them, and then giving an update on his ministry, and then he’s sort of given a summary. Here’s what I want to teach you. There’s three things he wants to teach them. He wants to teach them about unity as a church, how to live as confident in the Lord in our lives, and then how to rejoice in the Lord by rejoicing in Christ. This week, we’re gonna come to the first of those, and Paul’s gonna be addressing unity. Let me, just to give a brief overview as we come to the reading, he’s gonna talk about unity, appeal for it, and then he’s gonna show us unity because of what he tells us about Christ. As we come to God’s word, let’s hear what Paul has to say, beginning in verse one.

So if there’s any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born the likeness of men. and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

As we come to this section, I want us to see first how important Paul sees this passage. What he’s trying to teach them right here, he views with utmost importance. Now, I’m not just trying to be like a motivational speaker where every time this is the most important thing you can learn, but I wanna show you from verse one. When I’ve read this in the past, I just see this as a list of sort of platitudes. Here are a few good sort of statements. If there’s any encouragement, if there’s any comfort, if there’s any participation or community, if there’s any affection and sympathy, but there’s something more going on.

And I think the first clue is that he is appealing to the triune God. If there’s any encouragement in Christ, any participation in the Spirit, And then when we read comfort from love, we know the Father is supposed to be there. He’s appealing to the triune God, saying, I’m just not appealing on his qualities, but God himself has something for you. There’s a triune appeal.

And then what he’s appealing to, when you read if there’s any encouragement in Christ, Encouragement there is not just sort of helping you to feel good, but it’s sort of the encouragement that a father gives to a son who needs to be instructed in something.

Let me encourage you to wash the dishes like you’re supposed to. That’s the sort of encouragement that that word means. If there’s any encouragement in Christ means if there’s anything that Christ has called you to do, Is there anything that Christ has said, it would be good for you to do this, but by good, I mean, you really should do this. That’s the encouragement. This is a word trying to exert on their will. I want you to do something new. That’s what this word is getting at. And the second is like it.

Any comfort from love. Those two words often will go together and you’ll see it in in first Thessalonians He uses the same words together to try and get them to change to do something not just feel good about themselves But but even the comfort from love is saying if you’ve been discouraged in something The father is coming to say it’s okay. You’re able to do this and giving you comfort along the way and That’s, again, that’s the sort of comfort that he’s talking about.

It’s a father coming up to his son saying, I’d like you to do the dishes. And the son’s saying, well, I’m not good at it. And saying, it’s going to be OK. We’ll be able to do it. He’s not just telling you what to do, but he’s supporting you and comforting you. But there’s a third thing he gives, participation in the Spirit. That you know that not just is God telling you to do something, but the Spirit is walking alongside you to do it. So Paul is giving a really strong appeal. He’s not just going to give out teaching there.

I’m going to teach you about unity, and then we’ll leave it out there, and maybe it’ll change your life. But he starts out in verse 1 saying, no, this is God’s call for you. This is God’s call for what you need to learn and what you need to do. And so, that’s why I say this is an important section. I’m going to turn that to you and to me. This is God’s call for us.

What does God want us to do? Well, if there’s anything that God wants us to do, is what Paul says, if there’s anything that God wants us to do, it’s this. And what is it? Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Paul presses unity. Now I’m going to skip over this kind of quickly and then get to what he tells about Christ, but we’ll come back to it. So if you think I’m going too quick, we’ll come back and apply this more. But I want to hit on one thing with this. Do you see how comprehensive it is? He even repeats being of the same mind. Did you hear that?

Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Some of us might think of unity as, OK, I’ll agree to do that, and I’ll just keep my thoughts to myself. But Paul leaves no space for that in the unity that he’s talking about. It’s a holistic unity. You guys need to be of complete unity, of complete companionship. You’re working with the same mind. You’re having the same love for things. You’re devoted to the same things. And then he comes back to it and says, you need to be of one mind. There’s a drive towards holistic unity.

Now, some of us hear that and we think, well, there would be a lot more unity if people would listen to what I was saying and would agree with me. Right? Isn’t that how we often approach a conflict? If only they would hear me. Think of that, think about how you, the things that affect you and your family. Maybe you’re the father of a family and you think, if only my kids would listen to my advice more. Right? Wouldn’t that solve so many problems? I know what they need to do with their life.

They just needed to listen to the advice that I’m giving them. Or you’re a child in the family and you think, well, my parents don’t listen to anything I say. They’re not hearing what I’m saying. They don’t care about the things I care about. We think that the solution is if only people would hear what I was thinking. If only they could understand what was in my mind. But where Paul goes is a different route. Look at verse three.

How do we reach this unity? Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. What Paul wants to communicate, he says, if God has anything for you to do, it’s pursue unity, but unity through humility. Do you see that? Verse 2 is unity, but then immediately follows up and says, how do we do that? By humility, counting others more significant than yourselves. By not looking to our own interests, but also those of others. This is what Paul wants to get across. Pursue unity through first humbling yourself.

He’s going to drive this home by pointing to Christ. And this is, I’ve said this before, we’re going through Philippians way too fast. You could spend a long time looking at this Christ hymn as he meditates on the humility of Christ. But we only have one week, and it’s in the bigger section. So if this strikes you, meditate and pray over this section this week.

There’s a lot more to dig into than we’ll get to. But I want to first, we’ll revisit the application of looking at unity. What does it mean for us as a church? How does it look for us personally to humble ourselves in the pursuit of unity? But I think it’s best to first look at how Christ exemplified this.

Because this is what Paul says, have this mind among yourselves. Do you remember verse 2 where he repeats twice? You have to have the same mind. Have one mind. Well, we think unity is going to be reached if everyone had our mind. But what Paul says is, no, unity in the church is reached by everyone pursuing to have Christ’s mind. This is the mind that you have to have among yourselves, the mind which is in Christ Jesus. Let’s hear what the mind, the mindset of Christ, and then we’ll come back to see ourselves.

Let me read verses 6 to 11. This is the mind which is Christ’s, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” So everything about Christ, he’s saying we need to have a different mind about ourselves, but more importantly, how do we think about glory? How do we think about glory? Do you see how in verse 11 everything leads to the glory of God, the glory of Christ?

But where it all began was that he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. He didn’t count the glory of God something that he needed to seize and grab for himself. And so you only get to the glory at the end because he was willing to give up the glory at the beginning. And I think that that rings true of what he wrote before, his instructions to us. Because when he’s targeting humility, what’s he getting at? He’s getting at that we’re seeking our own glory. That’s our problem.

Think about a time that you were offended in your family. What really sort of gets you riled up? If you’re a parent, what makes you come down extra hard on your children? Isn’t it, well, they said something that was disrespectful. I gave them a clear instruction, and they just ignored me. Or they rolled their eyes and they walked away. So that’s really bad, right?

But there’s also a personal edge to that, too. Well, they’ve offended you. When they’ve disrespected you, there’s a respect that you have. There’s a glory you have as a parent, that God’s given you, and they’ve chipped away at that. they’ve tried to insult that.

And that digs at you, doesn’t it? What that’s getting at, that feeling, that personal offense that you feel is because they’re getting at your glory. Do you see that? Well, as a child, isn’t that the same thing? What really gets to you that your sibling does?

It’s when they do something against you. They insulted me. They said something that was untrue about me. They took something that was mine. It’s something that’s offending you personally. They didn’t respect who I was. What that’s getting at is your glory that you feel is being impeded on.

See, that personal, the thing that raises our blood pressure, gets your heart beating, throws you into a fit, a temper tantrum. As adults, we don’t say we have temper tantrums, but you know that we do. We still have that same reaction. We just hide it better, or we tell our kids that, well, I’m in charge and I can do this sort of thing. Well, what throws you into that? I think it’s most often you feel like your glory is being attacked. You feel offended. So much of us comes down to a grasping forward, a pursuit of glory. But what is Christ’s mindset towards glory? Let’s walk through this. It says, though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. What does that talk about?

That the Son of God lived in the Trinity before creation, and he was the most glorious thing that existed. There was no one more glorious than him. And so in a sense, did he have anything more to achieve by giving up glory, or by risking it? There is no one who’s going to compete with him for the glory that he had. Do you see that? He was equal, he was equally God with the other persons. He was God himself. There was no one else who was as glorious as him. And yet, how does he treat his glory? He did not see it as a thing to be grasped. I need to cling on to this and seize it. And so what does he do?

It says he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born the likeness of men. So God himself gave up his glory. He emptied himself of his glory in order to become man, to take on flesh and live as creature. Do you see how that doesn’t make any sense in how we think of glory?

You think, maybe I’m willing to risk money to try and make more money somewhere. But God had no one he was competing with. He had all glory. All glory was his. And yet the way he treated his glory was, I’m willing to let that go. That’s an interesting way of thinking about glory.

How could you have so much glory, have so much praise directed at you, and yet you’re willing to become a creature? But then it goes even further, not just in becoming man, but it says, in being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. So he didn’t just come to Earth and then become the greatest king on Earth.

He was born in a stable to a poor family, and he wasn’t recognized. He wasn’t prominent. In fact, when he’s 12 years old, he says he humbled himself underneath his parents, who knew far less than him, who had far less glory than him, and yet he respected them because that was his position that he was in. He was a child who was obedient to his parents, even though he was the son of God.

Do you see that? So he didn’t just, in his estate, as becoming human, look how much he gave up of his glory. But look, as a human, how much he went underneath people who had no right giving him any directions, who had no right telling him what to do. How many times do you think he was punished for something by his parents that he didn’t do, that was unjust, and yet he would have had to just accept that punishment and respect them as his parents?

And he’s the son of God whose very orders created the whole world. He would speak and something would come into being and he has that power at his hand. He could show his glory at any moment and everyone would have to bow down and worship him. Every knee on heaven and earth would bow down before him.

And yet he didn’t. He would take an unjust punishment and he would just have to live with it. Where does that sort of humility come from? That’s the humility it’s pointing to because it drives that he’s willing to even be shamed. Christ was willing to be shamed. because of the way he treated his glory.

He became obedient, and not just obedient to his parents, but obedient to the father to the point that he was willing to die. Christ died on the cross. And it’s not just the fact that his life ended, but it driving the point of he was even died on a cross. What is that getting at? It’s a shameful death. He was lying naked on a tree, which for the Jewish people is a curse. He was lying there at other people’s, as they’re whipping him, as they’re mocking him, naked, exposed to everyone, as a curse. And yet, he’s the son of God. And at any moment, he could call angels to take him down. But he suffered all of that shame, and only because of the way that he viewed his glory.

It’s not something I need to grasp onto. It’s not something that I need to seize for myself. It’s not something that I need them to be able to recognize about me, that I need to claim from them. Christ wasn’t there to state his glory, because he already had it and he gave it up to come to earth. That’s what it’s getting at.

So then verse nine, therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. So the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Because of the way that he treated glory, he has all glory, even greater glory.

But don’t let verses 9 to 11 erase what we saw before, because Christ still had to go through all of that. It’s not saying that none of that mattered, because look, he was really just trying to get this glory here at the end. What it’s saying is, look at the way that Christ treated his glory. So Christ did not treat glory as something that I need to seize, I need to demand it. I need to pursue it and not let go of it because he gave it up to come to earth.

It wasn’t something that he had to demand from others. You need to recognize who I am and how good I am at something. That wasn’t how he treated it. He was wronged so many times in his life. He was misunderstood. It wasn’t something that he had to vindicate himself in human eyes. It wasn’t something that he would use to escape suffering.

He was willing to suffer so much, and because of that, his glory became something that he depended on God to give to him. That’s something that’s so peculiar about Christ. The Son of God, who has all glory as Christ, had to receive his glory from the Father. That is the Christian life, isn’t it? There are ways that just seem so interesting that it so parallels our own existence. A Christ who in some ways is so different than us and yet chose to walk the exact same path as us.

Joseph was sold as a slave. And he’s living as a slave in Potiphar’s household. And yet he’s living faithfully as an Old Testament Christian. So much so that he’s blessing Potiphar. And who is giving him glory? God is giving him glory. He’s depending on God to justify him. He’s not earning anything for himself.

He’s serving Potiphar, a pagan. Paul gets shamefully treated at Philippi, and he gets kicked out, and what does he do next? Well, he just goes to the next place and starts preaching in the synagogue. And we’re gonna see that they kick him out, and they beat up his friends, and he has to leave, and he goes to the next place and starts preaching in the synagogue. He doesn’t go and justify himself. He doesn’t say, no, you need to recognize that I’m right. Don’t you recognize that it’s not about him. He says, no, God’s going to vindicate his word.

And a church is born in Thessalonica, and it does. Paul was letting God be his glory. And that’s the pattern set by Christ here. Therefore, God the Father highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that’s above every name, so that the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. Where does the glory of Christ come from? The glory of Jesus Christ is from the Father because of what he has accomplished.

It wasn’t something he had to grab for himself or demand while he was on earth, but he entrusted himself to a faithful creator while doing good. And God gave him his glory. Do you see how Jesus treats glory? The Son of God didn’t see glory as something that needed to be grasped. as something to be seized on, as something to be demanded from others or demonstrated. They need to vindicate me. But he entrusts himself to God the Father and received all glory and honor. Now, I want to revisit verse 3 and 4 and think about maybe in backwards order.

Because Paul says, OK, this is what you need to learn. This is, if there’s anything that Christ has for you as a church, it’s this. Unity through humility. What is the humility that will lead to unity? It’s having that mind of Christ. It says, let each of you do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to your own interests, but also the interests of others. The humility he first points to is specifically, he describes it as selfish ambition or conceit. What that’s trying to get at is the idea of we tend to view things based on, are they on my side or not? The selfish ambition is frequently used in sort of political ideas or discussions, kind of meaning like a party mindset. Do nothing out of a party mindset.

If I were to ask you, well, why do you go to this church? Or if someone asked me, well, why do you preach at Providence? Well, maybe I would say, because I’m a Presbyterian. Now, I know not all of you are Presbyterians, but just for the sake of argument, I’m a Presbyterian. But is that right? Is it my Presbyterian convictions which guide me? Or is it because Christ, Christ guides me? Well, to take myself as an example, I am a Presbyterian, but I’m a Presbyterian because I’m a Christian, and I think this is the most faithful expression of being a Christian.

We’re not something just because of what party you’re on or what team you’re on. The whole world is trying to compete over trying to get you on their side and their team, but I fear that what Paul is saying is it’s just so divisive. Because you align with the people who agree with you most, and then you know who the enemy is. But whose team are you on? Are you ending up on Christ’s team, or are you just on the Presbyterian team?

Does that make sense? So it’s a subtle difference. I go to this church because I’m a Presbyterian, or I go to this church because I’m a Christian, and people will describe me as a Presbyterian. What is your allegiance? Is your allegiance to Christ, and are the rest of the labels just descriptions, or have those descriptions become your allegiance? Does that make sense? Someone may describe you politically based on how you vote, but is your allegiance to Christ, and that’s a description, or have you actually become identified by that party? And that’s now your allegiance.

It’s a subtle difference, but a big, a big difference in the effect. And you act out of selfish ambition, a party mindset. Christ is no longer the mind that you have, but it’s your agenda, your party, the thing that you’re striving for. And it becomes, unity is only going to come if they start coming to my side. Do you see that? But if you’re seeing your allegiance to Christ and the rest is just describing how you see Christ, well, then we can find unity around Christ and not the labels, the labels that can divide. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. It says, let each of you then look not only to his own interests, but also the interests of others.

We talked for a bit about how are we viewing our allegiance. Is it to Christ or is it based on the labels that we use to describe ourselves? And is that allowing us to find unity looking at Christ? But then what is the approach that you have towards others that you do disagree with? Because the unity that we’re striving for is not a unity of, well, we all are on the same page because we all like Christ, and so we’ll just ignore the differences. The unity is going to drive beyond that. So how do we actually sort through these differences? Well, I think the second thing he addresses is, how do you then approach it?

How do you think about the convictions that you have, or the ways that you view people who you see yourself as against? It says, look not only to your own interests, but the interests of others. Are you coming across as someone who’s trying to understand other people? Who’s willing to first think, well, I might be wrong about something. who’s maybe willing to take a hit and lose face, be shamed, in order to reach unity with someone and find greater clarity over Christ.

Would you turn with me to John 8? I want to see these sorts of things in Christ himself, since that’s where Paul goes, Jesus in this section is trying to teach the Jews things that they’re not able to understand, that they’re just arguing with him about. Looking at verse 12, we’re going to skip around a little bit, but just to show you an example. Verse 12, Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

So the Pharisee said to him, you are bearing witness about yourself. Your testimony is not true. What Jesus is saying is true and they can’t understand it. So he tries to explain again. Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true for I know where I come from and where I’m going. But you do not know where I come from or where I’m going. Now, if you know Christ, you know everything he said there is true, and he could have said it in an even more confusing way and be even more accurate, but he’s trying to get them to understand, you don’t know where I’m coming from. It’s not a person. I come from heaven. I’m the Son of God. I have so many witnesses to my glory, but they’re not understanding.

But do you see sort of the way that he’s approaching this? They’re saying things that, no, they’re trying to ignore him. Throw him off. We don’t agree with you. And yet he’s trying to win them over. He’s going in a way very soft. Now let me explain that again. Let me say it this way. Let me try and say it that way. But then, in verse 31, things are going to start taking more of an edge. I’m going to show you a few things, he says.

So that Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And they said to him, we are offspring of Abraham, and have never been enslaved to anyone. And they’re going to continue that line of thought. Verse 39, they answer him again. So he rebuts, and they answer him again. They say, Abraham is our father. Now, you probably read this and just kind of skim over it, but they’re actually making a dig at him.

So who was Jesus’ father? Joseph, right? But he was born before, like, everyone would know that Joseph was not his father. Because he was born before they were fully married. This is what they’re talking about. Well, Abraham’s our father. And you’ll see it because it’s going to get even more clear. Look at verse 41. Jesus says, you were doing the works your father did. And they said to him, we were not born of sexual immorality. We have one father, God. Do you see how that’s getting even more clear? We weren’t born of sexual immorality. You were. Because they don’t know who his father is. Go to verse 48.

The Jews answered him again, after he tries to explain another time. The Jews answered him, are we not right in saying that you’re a Samaritan and have a demon? Again, it’s even more explicit. What are they trying to say? Well, someone was there and Mary wasn’t able to admit who it was, so it must have been a Samaritan. They’re trying to just get him angry. They’re poking at his glory, at his pride, and trying to get him to just react. Trying to insult him.

Read Jesus’ responses. He says things which are hard to take, which are direct, but he never responds with a personal dig at them. Do you see that? Jesus wasn’t there defending his glory. He wasn’t there trying to divide out sides, saying, well, I’m going to dismiss you Pharisees because you’re not listening to what I’m saying. but he was trying to find unity about God’s truth. And over and over again, he’s trying to get them to see truth, trying to respond to what they’re saying and get them to see things in a better way. Do you see the gentleness and humility of Christ as he is slandered and he slowly is coming back to them? Now, going back to Philippians, I just want to end looking at then what are we striving for? where the humility is in us striving for unity.

It says, do nothing, sorry, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. And he goes on to say that that mind is Christ. The thing that God wants his church to do, if there’s anything that he’s calling them to do, is to strive for unity. And the unity he’s calling for is a holistic unity. I want you to all be on the same page. How does that happen? That happens with you, and you, and every one of you individually.

It happens when you’re not thinking about, well, how do I argue someone into the way that I’m viewing it? But how do I meet someone I disagree with and we see Christ more clearly? It’s not you necessarily coming to their side, but being willing and open to come to their side in order to get a better view of Christ. So I think some of you, maybe in a pursuit of unity, are quick to dismiss things and just not pursue having the same mind and the same love and just say, we’ll just kind of icing over that. But some of you go the other way and you just go into attack mode. Well, we need to agree on this stuff. This is doctrines of the faith. We need to have the same mind. But then you’re pressing your mind to them.

How are you pursuing unity through humility? Because the end that you want, the end of a Christian, is not that people agree with you, but that the church has the mind of Christ. Are you seeking your glory, or are you seeking Christ’s glory? Are you seeking your glory, or are you seeking Christ’s glory? Are you seen as a person who is pursuing unity in Christ and quick to listen and slow to speak? The reason that we do this is because, frankly, how we come. We don’t come here as people who have very much to offer. We come here as sinners who have been called out from the world because Christ had humility to come to us. And so then when we in the church become known for being divisive or pushing our own opinions, our own thoughts, we’re acting against the character of the Savior who bought us by his blood.

But if our life is seen as one that pursues the glory of Christ, and one that’s marked by complete humility, and no one here on earth remembers you a day past the day you die, or they misunderstand you and malign you your whole life, but they see Christ more clearly and see him as glorious, then you will hear at the end of your days, well done, good and faithful servant.

See, Christ was hanging shamed on a tree and he died that way. And God has exalted him to be glorious over all of creation. And so we who have been called by Christ out of darkness are now called to, in humility, pursue the glory of Christ. So that at the end of our days, it’ll be God the Father who gives us glory. And not we grasping at it ourselves based on things that we’ve thought we’ve achieved in this life that end up being worth nothing. God is calling you to pursue glory in the same way that Christ pursued glory. And he says, the Father will give you glory if you pursue the glory of Christ. That’s a glorious promise for us. Let’s come to the Lord in prayer. Father, we come to you and we We pray that we would have the mind of Christ our Savior.

We know how little we are willing to give up the things that are ours, the glories that we hold onto, our pride, even giving up the argument. We always want to say that last thing to try and win it. because we’re grasping for our glory. Lord, we pray that what would be more important in our eyes than ourselves, our own interests, would be the interests of Christ. And that looking to the interests of Christ, we would look to the interests of his people. Lord, we pray that this church, that we would be known as a church that loves one another. That we would be one as God is one. These things Christ has prayed for his church and we pray that it would be true.

That of all the things that mark us would not be good food or friendship or theological knowledge or music, but that it would be a humility, a humble unity and love for Christ and then Christ’s church. I pray that where there are divisions among us, that your spirit would be at work to bring clarity to your truth. both in the facts of truth, but also the spirit of truth, which is Christ. That you would be convicting those of us who are not acting according to Christ, and that you would be glorified in that. We praise you, be giving encouragement to those who are not recognized in the ways that you are working through them, but living humbly, that you would be giving them encouragement for their journey, that they would know that your face smiles upon them and that that is enough. We pray that that would be so through the church, which is the hands and feet of Christ. We pray this all in Christ’s name. Amen.