Okay, open your Bibles if you
would to the book of Philippians. The name of the message is brotherly
love. Last week in our study we looked
at verse 6, which brings the believer so much assurance, oh
my, and the fact that he that has begun a good work in us will
finish it, will complete it to the end. And that good work,
again, is to be born again, to be regenerated by God the Holy
Spirit. And then He will complete it.
Isn't that wonderful? Here, take us home. And you know
what? I'm going to say something. I'll
say it later on in the message, too. That is more certain than
any other certainty in this world. The fact that if you've begun
a good work in us, he's going to finish it, and he's going
to take us home. That is the most surest thing
in this world. Isn't that wonderful? That's absolutely wonderful.
My oh my. Why? Well, because of the perfect
synatonic work of the Lord Jesus Christ, which was done 2,000
years ago. And he redeemed his people from their sins, didn't
he? 2,000 years ago, he redeemed them. It's a work that's finished.
How do we know that? Well, because his own words,
right? It is finished. That's wonderful. That's the
best news this old sinner's heard in a long time. It's finished. It's wonderful. Well, let's read
the first 11 verses. To find our text today, to see
the context of our text, our verses will be verse seven and
eight in Philippians chapter one, but let's read from verses
one to 11. Paul and Timotheus, the servants
of Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at
Philippi, with the bishops and deacons. Grace be unto you and
peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I
thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always and every prayer
of mine for you all making requests with joy, for your fellowship
in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident,
here's that verse from last week, oh, this is wonderful, being
confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good
work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Now,
verses seven and eight. are directly connected with verse
six, and he's still speaking about the good work that God's
done in them. Even as it is meet for me to
think of you all, because I have you in my heart, insomuch as
both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel,
you are partakers of my grace. For God is my record, how greatly
I long after you in the bowels of Jesus Christ. In this I pray
that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and
in all judgment, that you may approve things that are excellent,
that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ,
being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by
Jesus Christ unto the glory in praise of God. Now Paul, in verses
7 and 8, he further justifies his confidence in regard to the
fact that God the Holy Spirit has begun a good work in the
Philippian believers. That they're truly born again.
He's confident of this. He's confident of this because
of their actions and more importantly because of their speech and who
they worship and praise now. They turn from idols. Remember,
this is the first European place that the gospel has went to.
And these Philippian believers had been given faith to believe. They'd been born again by the
Holy Spirit of God and then given faith to believe, right? Because
what comes first, regeneration or faith? Well, you have to be
born again in order to believe. You can't believe without being
born again. So God's begun a good work in
them, given them the gift of faith, and now they're trusting
and resting in Christ. And we see from the text here
that God kept them continually on Paul's heart. And second,
we see that they stood by him in the defense of the gospel
and the furtherance of the gospel. They stood with him. Listen to
these verses in the amplified version, verse seven and eight.
Listen to this. So instead of meet, it is right
and appropriate for me to have this confidence being that God's
begun a good work in them and will complete it. and feel this
way about you all, because even as you do me, I hold you in my
heart as partakers and sharers, one and all with me of grace."
See, there's been a lot of confusion with the portion that says, my
grace. What it is, is they're partakers
of the same grace. When Paul says, you're partakers
of my grace, it's really, they're partakers of the same grace.
Are we all partakers of the same grace as believers? We are, right? The grace of God in Christ. See,
that's what's being brought forth here, is that we're all partakers. And so he's saying to the Philippians,
you're all partakers of the same grace that I have, which comes
from God. in God alone. Because listen
to this. This again is the amplified version. I hold you in my heart
as partakers and sharers, one and with all me, of grace. They're
all sharers of grace. Whose grace? God's grace. Amen, sister. God's grace. God's
grace. This is true when I am shut up
in prison and when I'm out in the field. For God is my witness,
how I long for and pursue you all with love. Now let's read
verse seven again. Even as it is meet for me to
think of you all, because I have you in my heart, insomuch as
both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel,
you are all partakers of my grace. See the word meet there in the
Greek? It means right or just. Right
or just. So it's appropriate and right
for Paul to have this confidence that God's begun a good work
in the Philippians. that they're truly born again
of the Holy Spirit of God. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. And see the word translated think,
even as for me to think of you all, to think this of you all,
that speaks of an action of a person constantly having his mind directed
in a practical way in the good interest of someone else. He's only thinking good of them.
This is the wonderful thing about this book, as I've told you since
we started studying it. There's no reproof in this book.
It's all joy, building up edification of the believers. And remember
who the true author of these words are. It's God the Holy
Spirit, beloved. It's God the Holy Spirit. It's wonderful. So, we see here then, by reading
this verse, that the Philippian believers had a large place in
Paul's heart. He loved them. And he loved them
with that love that only comes from God, the fruit of the Spirit,
right? Love, peace, joy. Right? So that fruit, this love,
is not a natural love that we have for one another or for our
family members. This is that foreign love I've
talked about when we went through Galatians that's not natural
to us, right? It's a love for God. It's a love
for God's people. It's a love for the scriptures.
It's a love for the gospel. Right? That's not natural to
us. Naturally, there's none good, no, not one. There's none that
seek it after God. This love wants us, it makes
us seek after God, doesn't it? We desire now to seek after God.
We never desire. Before the Lord saved me in my
30s, I had no desire to seek God at all. Not at all. As a matter of fact, that's the
furthest thing I wanted. But look what God's done by His
mercy and His grace. And we're going to see in our
study in Acts, this is amazing, in chapter 8, Paul is wreaking
havoc on the church, beloved. I mean, like, he's destroying
the church. And then in chapter 9, he's converted. And they're
amazed that he who once persecuted the church is now preaching the
gospel. That's grace, isn't it? That's
a miracle of grace. It's wonderful. Make your heart
shout, doesn't it, brother? My, oh my, it's wonderful. It's
absolutely wonderful. So the Philippians had a large
place in Paul's heart. And remember, it's because he
was with them. He started this church by God's grace. God started
the church, of course, but Paul was the instrument that God used
to start that church. So he had a connection with them.
You know, the connection we have is I'm your pastor and you're
my family. We have that connect. They had
that connection, beloved, that special connection. And so they
meant so much to him. And remember, they went through
adversities as we see. I'm going to bring this up later
on. I'll bring it up right now anyways. But in the defense of the gospel,
when people were saying Paul's not qualified to be a priest,
Paul's not doing it, they defended him. And that knit their hearts
even more together. What happened to us three or
four years ago? And what's the result of it?
Our hearts are knit together even stronger. Do you see? They went through, I like what
some old preachers say, they went through the trenches together.
We're all soldiers. All of us are soldiers for Christ.
We went through the trenches together. That's why we're so
knit together. That's why there's such a different
spirit here now. It's amazing. And it's wonderful
to see. It's absolutely wonderful to
see. And one may ask, well, why did
they have such a large place in his heart? Well, again, they
stood by him through trials and tribulations. Look at verse seven
again. Look it, look it. Even it is mean of me to think
this of you all, because I have you in my heart, insomuch as
both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.
So even though he was in prison, they supported him. And even
when he's preaching the gospel and against the opposition, they're
supporting him. They're right there saying, we're
with you, Paul. Remember that thing that happened
four years ago? I didn't have to say a word, did I? You all. You
all said enough's enough. That's what they're doing for
Paul. That's why you guys are so dear to me. And I mean it
when I call you family. We've been through the trenches,
beloved. And it's amazing. It's absolutely amazing. And so they all received the
same grace by... And remember, grace is a gift.
It's given to us. We don't deserve it. We don't
merit it. It's given to us. Faith is a gift. It's given to
us. It's amazing, isn't it? We can't even... We don't deserve
it, and yet here He is. God the Father gives us the gift
of faith to trust Christ, to look to Christ. It's amazing. It's absolutely wonderful. My,
oh, my. And so the reason they're partakers
of the same grace as him is because they're born again. Are you born
again? If you're born again, then you're
partakers of the same grace I have. Right? You guys know me. I don't
get caught up in all the stuff with the... If a person claims
to be born again, well, praise God. Right? We can have fellowship together.
We might not agree on all the points, right? But we can have
fellowship together, can't we? If you're truly born again, oh
my, we're going to have good fellowship, let me tell you.
My oh my. And they had the same Savior,
right? Who's our Savior? The Lord Jesus Christ, right?
Is He not our Savior? Well, yeah. So see how they're
partakers of the same grace. We're partakers of the same grace,
right? The grace of God. We have the same Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's our Redeemer, right? He
purchased our soul with his precious blood. Well, yeah, amen. That's
my King. Is he yours? See, the age-old
question is, now I'm gonna say something here, and somebody
might say, well, the age-old question is not what doctrine
do you believe? The age-old question is what
think ye of Christ? What do you think of Christ? Who is he? Is he God? Now, I believe that when the
Lord says, we're going to learn, we're going to learn, the Holy
Spirit's going to teach us the truth, right? He will. He'll
guide us, and we won't understand it all. When I was a baby, I
didn't understand nothing, did I? Did you? But as you grew, and you learned,
right? And you were taught, right? See, you have to be born first,
right, to know anything. And you have to learn, or be
taught, be taught. We can learn some things, but
we do have to be taught. You see, you have to be born
again. You have to be taught by the Holy Spirit of God. Isn't
that amazing? I love it. I love it. Oh my goodness, I love it. God
is so good. He's so good. So they're born
again by the same Spirit. Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit
of God, they have the same Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and they
were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Now, some folks might not believe that, but that's what the Scripture
says. I don't understand it all, do you? And I preach it, and
I'm like, well, we're chosen in Christ and before the foundation
of the world, but every time I say that, I'll be honest with
you, my mind just goes... That's amazing, but it's the
truth that's in the scripture, right? And we bow our knee to
the scripture. This is wonderful. I don't understand it, but this
is wonderful. God chose Israel out of all the other nations.
I don't understand that, but that's what he did. And that's
a picture of God's elect, right? Left all the other nations in
darkness. I do know this, that all the Lord's sheep will be
saved. And I know if you're born again, you're one of the Lord's
sheep. I know that, because that's what the scripture says, right?
Isn't it wonderful? Oh, it's wonderful. Now, think
of this, too. They were all redeemed by the
same blood. Who redeemed us, Brother Brian? Christ redeemed
us. He shed his blood for us, right? He's the Lamb of God. He's the
perfect, spotless Lamb of God. It's wonderful. And we were redeemed
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now think of this too,
Paul was a man, he truly was a man of towering intellect.
He knew a lot of stuff. He sat under one of the most
famous teachers of his age. And he knew a lot of stuff. But he was also a man of great love for God's people.
Great love for God's people. And we see here, look at verse
8. He calls God as his record of
this love. He's not just saying, I love
these folks. He's saying, God knows I love them. God knows
I love them. Look at this. He brings the only
one. Look at this. He brings the searcher
of all hearts to be his witness. For God is my record. How greatly
I long after you in the bowels of Jesus Christ. Now bowels there
is the heart. In the Greek, it's the heart.
It's the affections. He has great affection for them.
He loves them dearly. He loves them dearly. And again,
why does he have this great love for them? Well, because they
stood beside him. They didn't forsake him. Remember
he said, Demas has forsaken me. He loves the world. They didn't
forsake him. Even when he was in bonds and
far away, they helped him. They loved him. They supported
him in the defense of the gospel, in the furtherance of the gospel. It's wonderful. And they were also supportive
in the gospel going forth. Right? They were witnesses themselves. Everywhere they went, they spoke
about Christ. My! Listen to what a great scholar
says about this expression, because I have you in my heart. He said,
this could just as probably be because you have me in your heart.
It was mutual. His love for them was reciprocated
by them. They had a great love for him
too. Isn't that amazing? That's the work of God, isn't
it? That's the work of God, beloved. My. And then we're going to see
later on Paul's mind is turned and that affection for them breathes
out prayer for them. He prays for them. He loves them
and he prays for them. See the word defense in our text?
In the Greek this is a judicial term referring to an attorney
talking his client off from a charge. Thus presenting a verbal defense,
a verbal defense. So Paul was presenting a verbal
defense of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now he was
a Jew before, right? He was still a Jew by birth,
but he's born again now. He's a believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ, but he knew more about the Jewish religion system than
most of the Jews did. And so he defends the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ preaching that salvation is only through
Christ who is the Messiah. The Messiah has come. And his
name is the Lord Jesus Christ. My oh my. And remember, there's
no New Testament. He's preaching from the Old Testament,
isn't he? He's preaching Christ. The New Testament hasn't been
made yet. It's being written. But it's not all put together
yet, is it? So they're preaching. They're all preaching from the
Old Testament Scriptures. And who are they preaching? Amen,
Sister D. They're preaching Christ. They're
preaching Christ. That's who they're preaching.
Isn't it wonderful? Oh my. Now God, the Holy Spirit, regenerates God's people, begins
that good work in us, and completes that good work in us, and does
everything in between, doesn't he? There's nothing left up to us.
Now, I'll tell you what, that's wonderful. Because if there was
anything messed up for me, or anything left up to me, I'd mess
it up, would you? But it's all done. Now we're
being conformed to the image of Christ. Every believer is
being conformed to the image of Christ, right? We're stones
being made ready. And God cannot lie, right? God cannot lie. So if he's begun
a good work in us, he's going to complete a good work in us,
right? And God cannot lie. So therefore salvation is sure,
isn't it? That's wonderful, isn't it? You ever lack assurance? You
ever say, how can I be a Christian and do these things and be this
way? Let's be honest, right? Oh, yeah. Praise God our salvation
is not dependent upon us, right? This salvation, sure. Now that
doesn't give us a license to go crazy. I always got to say
that because people say, you preach like that, you can go
do whatever you want. Absolutely not. The love of Christ will
constrain us from sin. Right? You know what's happening when
we're saying that? When we're saying, how can I be a Christian
and do this and be like this? That's conviction, beloved. That's
us realizing that we're just needy sinners who need Christ
every day. It's not just a Sunday thing,
is it? It's not just a Wednesday thing. I need a Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and just repeat
it again. Right? But aren't you thankful
that He has begun a good work in you? We'll complete it and
here do everything in between too. That includes our spiritual
growth. People, you know, people make
millions of dollars on how to have spiritual growth. Just stop. Focus on Christ. Focus on Him. How do we grow and learn? Sit
under the gospel, right? Hear the gospel preached and
proclaimed. Read the scriptures. And the Holy Spirit, we don't
even have to be looking to grow. The Holy Spirit will grow us,
right? Here, give us more joy. How do
I have more joy or how do I have more love or how do I have more
peace? Only through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that doesn't
mean we're not, now you all know that I've suffered with depression
and anxiety. I'm not talking about that stuff
at all. I'm not talking, because that
stuff can just be debilitating. And I know that. I've experienced
it. But I'm just talking about the
inner joy that's in us that comes from Christ. Comes from Him. the joy and the peace that passes
all understanding, that amidst all the trials and even our depression,
we're still clinging on to Him. Right? That's rottenness by God
the Holy Spirit. Isn't that wonderful? It's absolutely
wonderful. It's beautiful. And praise Jesus for this wonderful
salvation by His blood. Praise God that this salvation's
sure. See, and think of this too. The
one that we're putting our trust in is not just a man who claimed
to be God. It's a man who is God. God incarnate in the flesh. And
why did he come, brother? To save us from our sins, right?
And he did it, didn't he? Yeah, blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us. Oh, I had a, we all, every
one of us had a huge ordinance of, back in the days, the ordinances
that were against us, they would nail it to a jail door. All these offenses
written. Well, you imagine our offenses
written against, and who did we sin against? Somebody said, God, that's right.
See, everybody said, well, we sin against other men. Yeah,
we do that, but first and foremost, we sinned against God. So that,
that must be settled, because His law demands that, right?
And without the shed in the blood, there's no remission of sin.
So the blood must be shed. So God Himself, oh, what great
love He has for His people. God Himself sends the Lord Jesus
Christ, His only begotten Son, sends Him, God in the flesh,
the second person of the Trinity, God in the flesh to this world.
And he has one mission. To save his people from their
sins. And in doing that, he's going to establish a perfect
righteousness for them, right? By totally fulfilling the law
in his life. Because he's a substitute. He's
got no sin, right? See, we've sinned against God
so much, we can't even... But he has no sin. So the life
he's living is as a substitute for you and I, beloved. Establishing
that perfect righteousness. Right? And then he goes to the
cross. He's sinless. He's spotless. And he goes there. And the sins
of his people are being laid upon him. In Gethsemane, he's
sweating great drops of blood. He's already feeling the effects
of it. Right? But yet he's sinless. Then he goes to the cross and
offers himself up, the scripture says, without blame. So he's
a sinless man. He's God in the flesh. And he's
offering himself up for the sins of his people, which is a number
no man can number. Right? It is as great as the
sand of the sea. I've been to the sea, picked
up a handful of sand. You can't count one grain. It's amazing.
That's incredible. And so he's offering himself
up. And he cries these words, it
is finished. And he gives up the ghost. Now,
he willingly gave up the ghost, too, didn't he? That's incredible,
too. He willingly gives up his life.
And then he dies, and he's buried. And then three days later, he
rises from that grave. And he goes to glory. My, oh,
my. You see that the right hand of
the Father, interceding for all of us. presents the blood, right? The blood of the Lamb. And the
scripture says He's raised for our justification, so that we
can be justified and stand before God. So in order for us to be
justified and stand before God, right, we have to be spotless. God can't look us in, so we must
be sinless. Remember that perfect righteousness
he established? We're clothed in that perfect,
spotless righteousness. Isn't that wonderful? My, so
then we cry with Jonah, salvations of the Lord. We're redeemed by
his blood, saved by his grace, given faith to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Let us rejoice, beloved. Salvation's
of the Lord. It's not anything we do. It's
all by Him. Now, do we willingly come to
Him running? There's another thing people
get confused. They say, well, you guys don't believe in any
will. I believe in my will, but my will's bound to my nature,
and if I have a dead nature, then I'm not doing nothing. I'm
not going to even approach God, I'm not even going to want to
be near God. But if I made will, and if I'm born again, see, born
again, the good work, right? The good work. If there's been
a good work done in me, what are we going to do, sister? We're
going to run, aren't we? We're going to run to Christ.
They could hook up a team of wild horses to us, we'd pull
them horses, wouldn't we? We'll run right to Christ. I'll
tell you what, it's true. Rupert Bartenbach used to say
that. That's one of my favorite statements. A team of wild horses
couldn't hold back a believer that's being drawn to Christ,
born again and being drawn to Christ, man. We would just, because
why? We flee to Christ, don't we?
We flee to Christ. We're made willing in a day of
God's power. It's wonderful. My, oh my. If God's begun a good
work in you, that's the most certain thing in this world.
We're born again by the Holy Spirit of God. And we can have
confidence in Christ. Our boast is in Christ, not in
anything we do. See, it's the opposite of religion,
where religion, I was in religion. I used to boast about what I'd
done and who I talked to and knocking on doors and all this
stuff. Now I just boast in Christ. Someone said to me recently,
what about all the rewards? I said, well, Christ is my reward.
I don't need nothing else. Right? I don't need nothing else.
Christ is my reward. I'm not getting all caught up
in this reward stuff. No, no, no. No. And the apostle, the apostle
is confident that since they've trusted Christ, that they're,
they're, they're, he will complete that work. He begun it. He's
not going to leave him, he's not going to leave a work half
done, is he? He's not going to say, well, I started the work,
now the rest is up to you. What would happen? We'd be done. We'd make a mess of everything.
No, he says, I started the work. And how do we know that? That's
scripture. See, scripture, we always have
to have scripture back up what we say. He's the author and the finisher. Amen, sister. The
finisher. See, scripture interprets scripture. It doesn't say he's the author
and we're the finisher. It doesn't say he's the author
and we're the in-between, folks. It says he's the author and he's
the finisher. I used to know a guy who was
an author in Oregon, and he wrote the whole book himself. And I
said, did you plan and purpose that book before you wrote it?
He goes, absolutely. Did God plan and purpose our
salvation? Yeah. Isn't that wonderful? Did he
choose us in Christ before the foundation of the world? Yep.
Just like my friend who was an author, he'd have all the characters
all laid out. He'd have the story, and then
he'd put them in the story. We're saved in time and space,
aren't we? It just makes our minds go fizzing,
doesn't it, Brother Brian? Isn't it wonderful? You're a chosen generation, the
scripture says. Chosen by God out of your generation
to be partakers and receivers of the grace of God. Let's read verse 7 again. Look
at this. Even as much as it is meet for
me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart
in so much as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation
of the gospel, you are all partakers of my grace. Now again, these
Philippians were partakers with him in his bonds or whether he
was preaching the gospel or the furtherance of the gospel. They
were praying for him and sending relief to him and let us not
forget as we found out when we first started studying this book
too, the Philippians themselves are suffering. Right? They're going through persecution
and tribulation for turning from the idols that they used to worship,
the idols of their fathers, and worshiping the one true living
God. They're facing persecution from their own families. And
yet here they are, concerned about Paul just as much. I love
it. When I came in, y'all, how's
your back? How you doing? It's wonderful.
And the fact that you're praying for me means more to me than
anything else. I'll tell you what, it's wonderful. My, oh,
my. I know what Paul means by this
with these Philippians, because I feel that way with you all.
It's wonderful. Like I said, we went through
a lot. And think of this. Whether it be by suffering, preaching,
or writing, they stood by him. They encouraged him. They assisted
him. They forsook and laid difficulties
and discouragements They removed those things. Other
people put discouragements and disappointments in the past of
Paul, and they supported them all through that. They supported
them all through that, no matter what. And on that account, they suffered
for the gospel. You see? Isn't it wonderful? Now look
at verse 8. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you
in the bowels of Jesus Christ. Look at Paul makes a humble appeal
with these words, for God is my record. He's appealing to
the searcher of all hearts, who is our great God, our glorious
God, who can witness to Paul's love and affection for the believers.
It's not just a word salad. He means what he says. He means
what he says. And then look at these other
words here. How greatly I long after you in the bowels of Jesus
Christ. Note here, Paul is talking to the whole church. I love this about Paul. And I
think we have this here. He's not usurping, putting his
authority over everybody. He brings Timothy in along with
him, and Paul's a great preacher, but he's like, Timothy's with
me, and Silas, and Barnabas. There's no higher up thing going
on. I'm a man called to preach, but
I'm right here with you all, right? We're all sinners saved
by grace, aren't we? That's all we are. That's all
we are. So Paul's talking to the whole
church here, the bishops, the deacons, and all the rest of
the saints at Philippi. He's not vaulting one up above
the other. I've been in churches where preachers go and cozy up,
we were talking about, who was I talking to about, sister, I
was talking about, it was you, where preachers cozy up to certain
givers. I have no idea who gives and
what, I don't wanna know who gives what. Dan handles all the
money and Kathy, and I'm so thankful. I know nothing at all, except
for the balances. Because I've seen that in too
many churches, it's awful, it's horrible, and it ought not to
be that way. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are
saved by the same grace. Don't vault me up. I'm just a
sinner saved, just like you all are. Don't vault any preacher
up. We're just sinners saved by grace.
The one we should vault up is Christ, and Christ alone, right? My, oh my. So Paul didn't care
if they were weak believers, strong believers, poor believers,
rich believers. The apostles' respects were without
distinction, just like God's is, right? God's not a respecter
of persons, is he? No. I know that because he saved
me. And you would say the same thing,
wouldn't you? My, oh my. And I'm gonna, I got more but
I'll have to put it in next week's. Think of this, he longed for
them as parents long after their children. I still care and love my kids
more now more now. And I have to keep from, keep,
is it true for you all? I have to keep from sticking
my nose in the things that they do even though I know that what
they're going to do is going to cause some trouble in their
life maybe. I can warn them, right? But I've learned that
we have to learn from our mistakes, don't we? And have you ever noticed
this too? We can tell them and they won't
listen. You know what? When we were younger,
our parents told us and we didn't listen. But we learned, didn't
we? We're all smiling. We're all
smiling. So this love that Paul has for them is like a love for
a child. Because you remember, he was there when the church
started. He was their first pastor. He loved them, and he still loves
them. And it's so evident, it's so evident with what he's bringing
forth here. He longed to be with them. You
know how we long, when we're gone away, we long to be back
at the church and to have fellowship with each other? That's how he
longed for them. You know, Norm Wells told me
one time, whenever he's gone, he's thinking about the folks
back home. I know exactly what he means. When I was at West
last year, I was thinking about you all here. Well, Travis is
going to preach. Oh, wonderful. They're going to get a blessing
from that. You just have that. It's a love. It's a love that
you have for one another. And this love is a spiritual
love. Again, it's not a human love.
It can't be mustered up by us. It has to be wrought in us by
God the Holy Spirit. And it's absolutely wonderful.
It's glorious. It's glorious. Brother Brian, would you close
us in prayer?