Hopefully you still have your
Bibles open there to Philippians chapter 4. That's where our message
will be from this morning. I've entitled the message, Giving.
The last major subject that the Apostle Paul deals with in his
letter to the church at Philippi is giving. Giving and offering. Giving is an important subject
in the New Testament. It's mentioned quite a few different
times Book of Second Corinthians, the Apostle Paul devoted two
whole chapters, chapter eight and nine, to the subject of giving. And Paul mentions that in some
detail here in Philippians chapter four. And I have six points from
our text that Dan just read for us that I pray will be helpful
in this subject of giving. Imagine I say this, I don't know,
I didn't check myself, but I would, would imagine. I say this whenever
I preach a subject on giving to this congregation. I want you to know right up front,
this message is not intended to put pressure on you to give
more or anything like that. This is a very generous and giving
group. God's giving you a generous and
giving heart. Brother Henry said, I remember
him saying this, the time to preach on giving is when everybody
is given. That's the time to preach. So that's what we're
doing this morning. But the first point kind of backs
up what I'm saying on this is believers need to be taught to
give. Believers have been, when we're born again, God gives his
people a heart to give, a generous heart that desires to give. But believers do still need to
be taught to give. In verse nine, Philippians four,
Paul says, those things which you have both learned and received
and heard and seen in me do. and the God of peace should be
with you. Now that could be talking about this whole epistle that
Paul's written. Paul says you've been taught
the gospel. Now do it. Do it. You've been taught faith
in Christ. You've been taught salvation
is by grace through faith. Now do it. Believe him. Trust
in Christ. You've been taught that Christ
is your righteousness. Righteousness doesn't come by
works of the law. Christ is our righteousness.
Now trust him. Look into your works and trust
Christ. Look to Him alone. You've been taught the truth
of God's word, the truth of the gospel. I pointed out to you
the dogs of false religion. Now avoid those dogs. Don't let
them tear you up. Don't let them tear you away
from the gospel. You've been taught the truth. Now believe
it. Cling to it. And the same thing's
been true, is true about giving. You've been taught to give. God's
given your heart to give. Now do it. Do it. And here's
why I say this is a shocking thing to me. It's a shocking
example of how believers need to be taught to give. Look at
verse 15. Now you Philippians know also
that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from
Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving
and receiving, but you only. Now you think what a statement
this is. This is the apostle Paul. we're talking about here.
This guy is no unheard of novice. This is the Apostle Paul. The Apostle went out on a mission
trip. Now the Apostle Paul, I mean,
you think of this. This man is the greatest preacher other than
our Lord to ever live. Went out on a mission trip to
go out and preach the gospel of Christ to the Gentile world
that had never heard of Christ before. The Apostle Paul's going
out to preach to them. He's going out on a difficult,
difficult journey. And nobody sent any support with
him. The Apostle Paul had founded so many different churches. He
preached the gospel to the people for the very first time. The
Lord raised up a local congregation there. And even those places
that first heard the gospel from the Apostle Paul, the local church
was started from his ministry. Even those churches didn't send
him an offering. with him, to help him on his
journey. This is a very difficult journey. Now these people were
believers, weren't they? Absolutely they're believers.
But they needed to be taught giving. They needed to be taught.
And like I said a minute ago, this congregation is such a generous
and giving group. I thank God for you. I can't
tell you how Practically every single time we hear of something
happening, you know, someplace else, another congregation or
something, something bad will happen, something, you know,
a need will come up. And people come ask me, do they
have a need? Do they have financial needs?
Should we take up an offering? You know, can we give something
to help them? I appreciate that attitude. I
appreciate that attitude so much. That's not natural in this flesh,
is it? God gave that to you. I thank God and I thank you too.
But we still have to be taught this grace of giving. You know,
we're reminded of the gospel over and over and over again.
We preach the same gospel over and over and over again. Paul
said it's good to be reminded. It's not grievous to me to say
the same things over and over again to you. We need to be reminded
of the gospel. We need to be reminded of salvation
in Christ. Because you know what? We'll
become lazy in faith, and lazy in good works if we're not constantly
reminded of Christ. Well, the same thing's true of
giving. We need to be reminded of this and taught this so that
we don't quit. The church at Philippi didn't
quit. Look at verse 16. For even in Thessalonica, you
sent once and again unto my necessity. They didn't quit giving. They
didn't quit. And I hope we do the same thing.
I hope we don't quit. But we need to be taught this
grace of giving. And number two is this, giving
is born from love. Verse 10, but I rejoiced in the
Lord greatly that now at the last your care of me hath flourished
again, wherein you were also careful, but you lacked opportunity. Now the church here at Philippi
had wanted to send an offering to Paul, but They lacked opportunity. They lacked the ability to do
it for whatever reason. I don't know what happened, but
for whatever reason, they lacked the opportunity to do it. Sounds
like they wanted. Maybe they did take up an offering.
They sure wanted to. But it looks like here, there
just wasn't a way for them to get that offering to Paul. They
couldn't just mail him a letter. They couldn't electronically
transfer funds like we do today. Travel was very difficult. Maybe
they didn't know exactly where he was, but for whatever reason,
they wanted to get this gift of support to Paul, but they
couldn't get it to him. And here's why they wanted to
send him a gift, because they loved him. The apostle Paul was
the first person to preach the gospel to them, and they loved
him. They loved him, they appreciated
him. They benefited from him spiritually, and they wanted
him to benefit from their physical things. True giving is not an act of
duty that we have to perform. Nobody's putting a duty on, I'll
show you that in a minute. Nobody's commanding you to give.
Nobody's putting a duty on you. True giving is a joy. It's a
joy that comes from love. Love for God and love for his
people And I'll give you a little example on that. At Christmas
time, when our family is opening our presents, we all take turns.
Some people have a free-for-all, open-all. We take turns so we
can see everybody opening up their presents, you know. And
invariably, somebody will say, oh, wait, wait, wait. Open this
one for me next. I've been so excited about this.
I want you to have this. I'm just so excited. Open this
one next. I want you to have it. Well, why are we so excited
about that? Why are we excited about opening
a present to our own self? Why are we excited to have somebody
open a present from us? It's love. It's love. We're excited. We want to give to this person
that we love. Well, that's how believers are
to give. In love. In love. Because we enjoy giving. Enjoy it. It just makes us happy
to give. Because we love. Because we love. Now here's the third thing, look
back at 2 Corinthians 9. Giving is born from faith in
Christ. 2 Corinthians 9. In verse six. But this I say, he which soweth
sparingly shall reap also sparingly. And he would sow bountifully,
shall reap also bountifully. Now Paul compares giving here
to a farmer sowing seed. You know, if a farmer wants a
bigger harvest, what's he got to do? He's got to plant more
seed. He's got to take good seed and
throw it away, doesn't he? Throw it into the ground. But
the more seed he throws away, the more seed he puts out there
in that good ground, the greater harvest he'll have. So Paul's
telling us the more we give, the more blessing that there
will be. This is one of those things, religious propaganda
is put out there and put on people, you know, saying that you give
more, the more you give, the more God will bless you. We know
the, I won't say the blessing won't be ours, but the gain,
the gain of that giving may not necessarily be ours. And here's
what I mean by that. Don't listen to that religious
propaganda. Don't give an offering to God
expecting God's gonna give you more back. Don't put $50 in the
offering expecting God's gonna give you 75. That's investing. That's not giving. That's investing. You give willingly. Whatever
it is God lays upon your heart. However it is that God blesses
you, however he enables you, and whatever it is God has laid
on your heart to give, that's what you give. Verse seven. Every
man according as he's purposed in his heart. So let him give,
not grudgingly, not of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. You give out of love. You give
cheerfully. Here's the way my life goes.
I could do something for Janet and do it grudgingly. That's
not gonna go over too well. Let me just tell you, that's
not gonna go over too well. Give cheerfully. Because you
want to. It's not because you're looking
for something in return. And the Lord will use that offering
to bless somebody else. It may not necessarily be an
increase to you. It'll be a blessing to somebody
else. Look at verse 11. Being enriched in everything,
to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.
For the administration, the experience of this service, not only supplieth
the wants of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings
unto God. While it's the experiment, the
experience of this ministration, they glorify God for your professed
subjection unto the gospel of Christ and for your liberal distribution
unto them and unto all men, and by their prayer for you, which
they long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you. Here's what
Paul is saying in here. Other people who are in need.
to find themselves in need and you give, the giving that you've
had, we take up and we send to them to help them. They're going
to thank God for your generosity. See, they benefited by it. They
increased by that. They had the gain from it. We
didn't have the gain from it. They did. And they thank God. They thank God for your generosity.
They thank God for your commitment to the gospel. You were able
to do something that blessed them. Doesn't that make you happy? Doesn't that make you happy? You know, if you give to support
a preacher or a missionary, and they go out preaching, and they
find one of God's sheep, they preach Christ to them, and the
Lord saves them, the Lord gives them faith in Christ, I tell
you what, that person sure is going to be thankful you supported
the gospel so it could be sent to them. Doesn't that thrill you more
than keeping a little bit of money in the bank? Doesn't that thrill you
more than God giving you an increase in your investment and your offering?
But he blessed somebody else. He caused someone else to know
Christ from your giving. And I'll give you an example. I didn't think of this when I
was preparing my notes, but this week, I received two emails from
people never met before. Didn't even know they existed.
And they heard messages on sermon audio that I preached right here. I prepared this message with
you in mind to preach to you, but they heard it. They heard
it on the internet. One woman wrote and she said
she was just in despair. You know why she was in despair? She's looking at herself. for
evidence of salvation. And she thought, how could it
be that I know the Lord? How can that be? She saw so,
oh, I was just in such straights. And she said, I got on Sermon
Audio and found a message you preached from Romans chapter
seven about the two natures of a believer. Explain to me why
I am the way that I am. And she said, my heart was so
calmed. I was just so blessed. She said, my husband, I listen
to one of your messages every single day now, and we're so
blessed. That happened because you support
the gospel. Doesn't that thrill your heart? Here's a sister we've
never met before. God blessed her. God blessed
her by something you did. Aren't you thankful? Oh, I'm
so thankful for that. That's what Paul's saying here.
Oh, I'm so thankful. What is the motivation for you
to continue giving that way? Huh? It's faith in Christ. Look at what Paul says here in
verse 15, 2 Corinthians 9. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift. Our God has given to his people
the unspeakable gift. The value of it, it's unspeakable. It's unspeakable because we don't
have the language to say how valuable it is. The father has
given his own darling son to redeem his people from their
sins. He's given us His Spirit in our
hearts as the earnest of the inheritance. There's more coming.
He's given that to us. Now, if the Lord ever shows me
what He gave to redeem my soul, how Christ gave Himself to be
crucified for me so that my sin could be put away, you know what
I'm going to say? What can I give so others will
hear Him and believe Him too? When I see the Father gave His
only begotten Son for me, the only response is, what can I
give to help others hear Him too and believe Him too? The
motivation for giving is faith, isn't it? It's faith in Christ. Fourthly, giving is born from
following Christ. 2 Corinthians 8 verse 1. Moreover, brethren, We do, you
to wit, we want you to know of the grace of God bestowed on
the churches of Macedonia. How then a great trial of affliction
and abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded under
the riches of their liberality. For to their power, their ability
to give, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power, beyond
their ability to give, they were willing of themselves. praying
us with much entreaty that we should receive the gift and take
upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. And
this they did, not as we hoped, and we hoped that, you know,
they would give, we taught giving, and this they did not as we had
hoped, but first they gave their own selves to the Lord and unto
us by the will of God. They gave so much more than we
had ever hoped that they would because they gave themselves.
They gave themselves. Now Paul talks about these churches
in Macedonia that were in great trial and affliction and were
in poverty. Philippi is one of those churches in Macedonia. That's where you find the town
Philippi. These people were desperately
poor for the gospel's sake. They'd been driven from their
homes, people wouldn't do business with them, people wouldn't give
them jobs, people out in the community shunned them, all because
they believed the gospel. They turned from idolatry and
they believed the gospel. They trusted Christ that they
would not compromise. And they were in poverty for
it. I mean, they just, people just took what belonged to them
and just, I mean, oh, the poverty. I mean, they were struggling
mightily to keep a roof over their head. They're struggling
mightily to have enough food for their family to eat. And they gave. These people who
are in such poverty, they heard about believers in other places
that were in need. And in their poverty, they took
up an offering to seem to help them. You know, it's one thing
to give out of abundance, isn't it? It's a white horse of another
color to give when you're struggling to have enough food for your
family to eat. And you give, because you give of yourself.
You give out of poverty. And I don't know how big their
offering was. You know, it may have been relatively small. I
don't know. But don't ever look at the size
of the offering. Paul wasn't looking at the size
of the offering here. The Lord saw that they gave.
Remember when the disciples were standing with the Lord one day
after the service and they were standing there by the treasury
and all these people going, someone cast in much, big amounts, they
were cast into the treasury. And some poor little widow woman
shuffled by and put two mites, just two pennies, just, you know,
what's that worth? Two pennies. She put those two
mites in that offering in the treasury. Talk about the Lord
loving a cheerful giver. The Lord there took notice of
her offering. He said she gave more than everybody
else did. He loved a cheerful giver. He took notice of her
offering. I can give you a modern day example
of that too. On one of our trips to Mexico,
I went, we went with a group of men, me and another pastor,
and we were there, and you know, when we would go to Mexico, we'd
always take a gift, you know, to them, to help the groovers
feed us and house us, you know, for a week, and to help the pastors
and different things, you know, we took an offering to them.
And we were at one of these pueblos, And that church took up an offering
to give to the men that came to preach to them. And we both told Cody, we can't
take this. And Cody said, yes, you take
it. Yes, they gave it. They took up an offering to give
to you. They want to give, you gotta take it. Now these folks live in stick
houses. They don't have running water
in their house. Not one of them owns a car. We would call them
poor, wouldn't we? They would look at us, just middle
class people, and they'd say, you're rich. I don't know anybody
that rich. And out of their poverty, they
gave. I mean, you talk about humbling. Oh, how humbling that
was. Paul said, oh, you give and people
give thanks to God for you. Well, that's true. That's true.
I gave thanks to God. Oh, that's humbling. Now, what
makes a person give like that? What made these people in their
poverty give like that? I can tell you. It's following
the example of our Savior. Look at verse 8. 2 Corinthians
8, verse 8. Make sure I'm in the right place,
yeah. Now, I speak not by commandment. Nobody's commanding you to give.
Nobody's commanding you. This is not like a tithe. I'm
not commanding you to give 10%. And I strongly encourage you,
don't give 10%. Don't give 10%. If you calculate
what 10% of your check is and you want to give that, give a
dollar more, a dollar less. Don't give 10%. We're not under
the law. You're not being commanded to
give here now. This is what God lays on your heart. But by the
occasion of the forwardness of others, by their example, and
to prove the sincerity of your love. That's why you give, because
you want to, because you love. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. Oh now, now I see the motivation
for giving, don't you? When I see how the Savior made
himself to be nothing, so that I could be redeemed, I have to
give. I want to give. I want to support
that gospel that tells other people about him. When you think
about the son of God, nobody's as rich as he is. He's rich in
possessions, isn't he? He owns everything. He said,
the cattle on a thousand hills are mine. If I was hungry, I
wouldn't ask you. I wouldn't ask. See, we're not
giving this because God needs us, are we? No. We give out of
love. We give because we want to. He's
so rich, He owns everything. And everything we have, He gave
us. He gave it to you freely. Whatever it is you have, God
gave it to you freely, didn't He? But when we give, all we're
doing is just returning back to Him what He already gave us.
It's already His. And on top of possessions, He's
rich in glory. He's rich in holiness. He's rich
in righteousness. And at Calvary, this gracious,
rich person emptied himself of everything that he is so that
he could redeem his people from their sin. When he had made sin
for his people, he emptied himself of righteousness. He cried, I
thirst. I know his mouth had to be dry,
but I don't think he was crying about thirst for water here.
He's hungering and thirsting after righteousness because he'd
been made sin for his people. He emptied himself that way.
The source of life, the prince of life, emptied himself of life. He suffered everything God's
justice demanded for the sin of his people, and then he gave
up the ghost and died. Because that's what my sin demands,
death. He impoverished himself and emptied
himself of life so that his people would be given eternal life.
He emptied himself. He impoverished himself of righteousness
so that he could make his people the righteousness of God in him. So that we'd be rich in righteousness. So rich in righteousness is the
righteousness of God. So rich in life, it's eternal
life. Oh, He suffered being separated
from his father. He suffered being separated from
the gracious presence, the gracious, loving presence of his father. He cried, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? He suffered that so that his
people would never be separated from him, so that we'd never
be separated from God, so that we could be with him where he
is beholding his glory. Now if I ever find out, by God's
grace, that the Son of God did that for the likes of me? He
did that for the likes of me? You know what I'm going to say? What can I do to support His
cause? What can I do? How can I serve
in His kingdom? I don't care what it is. If it's
holding the door, if it's sweeping the floor, what can I do in His
kingdom? What can I do to serve His people?
I see how He gave Himself to serve me. What can I do to serve
you? Just tell me I'll do it. I mean,
I'll do it gladly. And you know why I'll do it gladly?
It's out of love. It's out of thanksgiving. I'll
do it because I want to follow the example of my Savior who
gave so much for me. Giving is following the example
of our Savior. Fifthly, giving is the fruit
of salvation in the heart. I look back in our text, Philippians
4. It's the fruit of salvation that's in the heart. Look at
verse 11. Not that I speak in respect of
one, for I've learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.
I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere
and in all things I'm instructed both to be full and to be hungry,
both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through
Christ which strengtheneth me." Now, Paul makes it clear here.
He's not trying to put pressure on them to give to him so he
can have an easy life. He says, I know how to be abased.
If that's what the Lord intends for me, I know how to be abased.
I know how to do without, and I know how to abound. So since
I know how to be abased, he makes this clear. I'm not trying to
get your money. I'm not trying to give to get
your money. Now, I sure do thank you that you gave it. Sure, it
did help a lot, but I'm not twisting your arm to try to give it. See,
he says it in verse 18, but I have all and abound. I'm full, having
received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you,
an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing
to God. Now, the church at Philippi took
up an offering and they did it in their poverty and they put
it in the hand of their pastor and told him to take this to
the Apostle Paul. And he had to go on a hard journey
to get there. It was difficult for him to get
there, but he went on this journey, this hard journey to bring this
offering to Paul. I mean, they really meant for
him to have it, didn't they? They went to some trouble to
make sure he had it. And Paul says, now I know how
to be amazed. I know how to do without it.
But that sure was generous. I thank you that you sent that. Now there's an example here.
I want you to take note of it and you beware of this. You beware
of some preacher who's trying to get something from you. And
you know it when you see, you know when somebody's trying to
get something from you. You beware somebody's trying to get something
from you. God's servant's not trying to get something from
you. Paul was not trying to get something from them, was he?
What was Paul's goal for that church at Philippi? What was
Paul's goal for us now? What is the goal of God's preacher
to the people to whom he preaches. What was his goal? It's not his
benefit. It's your benefit. See what he
says in verse 17? Not because I desire a gift,
but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. See, Paul wanted
them to have the fruit of salvation. Now these folks, they're not
saved because of their works. They're not saved because they
sinned to suffering. This wasn't fruit, you know, that saved them
in any way. No, they're saved the same way
you and I are. They're saved by God's grace. They're saved
by the obedience of Christ. They're saved by the blood of
Christ. They've been washed in the blood
of Christ. But the fruit, the evidence of salvation, is seen
in our actions. It doesn't contribute to our
salvation, but it's the fruit of it. It's the evidence of it.
And when a person wants to give, they give willingly. They give
because they want to help the cause of Christ. They give because
they want the gospel to be preached. They give because they want the
gospel to be preached here. I want it to be preached to me.
I want it to be preached to mine. I want it to be preached to my
children, my grandchildren. I want it to be preached to my
friends, to my neighbors, to the people in the community.
I want it to be preached wherever God might be pleased to send
it. If I give to help that, I want to. I want to. And when we do
it because we want to. We do it because we love the
gospel. Because we love the Savior. Because we love God's people.
Because we love God's missionaries. Someone's going out and preaching.
I don't want them to do it without. I want to help them, don't you?
That's the fruit of salvation. It's the fruit. Now since giving
is the fruit of salvation, Can't you see how it's good for us?
It's good for us to give it, it's the fruit of salvation.
It certainly is good for those we help, isn't it? It's good
for them, but it's also good for us. It's good for us to give
sacrificially, because that is the fruit of salvation. And when
you look at it that way, so you see, oh, giving's not a duty,
it's not something, a law that's been laid upon me, it's a blessing. It's not a responsibility. God's
given me the blessing to be able to give. It's the grace of giving. And here's the last thing. And
I looked and looked and looked and looked at this this week.
Giving is well-pleasing to God. Paul says at the end of verse
18, these things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet
smell, A sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God. I think
the thing that helped us understand this first, Brother Henry said
one time, start with what we know. Start with what we know.
Well, here's what I know. This is what I know for sure.
About the sacrifice that's well-pleasing to God. That odor that is a sweet
smell in the nostrils of God. The father is well-pleased with
his son. Audibly he said so from heaven.
This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. I know that
the father is well pleased with the obedience of his son. It's
perfect. He's well pleased with it. It's
the only righteousness that he'll accept. I know that the father
is well pleased with the sacrifice of Christ. In the Old Testament
when it talks about the the odor, the smoke of the sacrifice. When that's been done according
to the law, when that's been done in self-righteousness, God
said, it's an offensive smoke in my nose. That's our works. Our works are an offensive smoke,
just an irritating smoke in the nostrils of God. But the sacrifice
of His Son, well, that's a sweet odor. It's a sweet odor because
the sacrifice of Christ satisfied God's justice. It satisfied God's
holiness. It satisfied God's righteousness.
The sacrifice of Christ enabled the father to be just and still
be merciful to the likes of you and me. That was well pleasing
to the father. The father is well pleased with
the blood of his son. Well pleased because the blood
of his son washed all of his people white as snow. It took
away the sin that made God angry so God could smile in peace.
at his people. The father is well pleased with
his son. Now, I'm not going to try to
put myself in that place and say, well, God's pleased with
me because I did this or I did this or I didn't do this. The
father is pleased with his son. He's not pleased with my works.
He's pleased with the sacrifice of his son. All right. We know that. You know that.
We're starting with what we know. I know the father is well pleased
with the sacrifice of his son. then how can my giving be well-pleasing
to God Almighty? When it's done in faith, in Christ,
in love for Christ, it's well-pleasing. Anything we do in faith for Christ
is well-pleasing to the Father. And since it's well-pleasing
to the Father, you just mark this down. You mark this down. The Father will not let you suffer. He'll not let you suffer want
because you gave. He's not going to let you suffer
want when you gave an offering that's well-pleasing to Him.
You won't suffer want. Verse 19, now you remember Paul's
writing to people here who gave out of their poverty. He says,
but my God shall supply all your need according to His riches
in glory by Christ Jesus. As you've heard so many times,
you can't out-give God. Now He's got more to give than
we do, don't we? He won't let you suffer lack, even when you
do give out of your poverty. You're not going to find yourself
begging bread because you gave an offering in faith and love
for Christ. That's a blessing, isn't it?
That's a blessing. I hope that helps us all understand
this business of giving and what motivates us to give. It's faith
for Christ and love for Christ and thanksgiving. for his unspeakable
gift to us. And we look at it in that way,
the way scripture presents it, it's a blessing in it. What a
blessing to be enabled by God to come into his courts and bring
an offering that he'd accept. Isn't that something? All right,
let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, we thank you for
this instruction in your word. We thank you that you've given
your people a heart of faith and love for Christ, of generosity,
a heart to give. Father, we thank you for teaching
us in your word, teaching us to rest in Christ, to trust him,
to look to him and him alone, and teaching us to give. Father,
I pray that you'd accept us only in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
thank you for the abundance in which you've enabled us to give,
just to return a portion back to you, which you've already
given to us. And Father, we know none of our works are good enough. Nothing, we don't want to stand
before you in anything that we've done, but only in our Lord Jesus
Christ. And Father, I pray that you'd
accept our giving, that you'd accept our prayer, that you'd
accept our worship, that you'd accept our worship in Christ
and Christ alone. We pray that you'd always and
only see us and hear us in Christ our Savior. Father, it's for
his glory and his namesake we pray. Amen. All right, Isaac.