For those of you that might be new to us, which I'm not picking out any new faces, but just so that you know that our normal teaching pastor is in Spain this morning covering the pulpit for the man that spoke to us last week. So I am given the responsibility, accepted the responsibility of sharing with you this morning. In the week's household, there is a new saying going around, and that is Isn't this an adventure? For those of you that know me, I don't know how I come across to people, but by nature, I am one that very much likes to know what is expected, know what's coming. Kind of like Mr. Monk in that, I don't mind change, I just don't want to be there when it happens. That's what he says. But we're on an adventure in the week's household. And this morning, I just want to emphasize to you that we do not know what the future holds. It's a game we might play with ourselves to think that we do and we get by with it from time to time but there are things that intervene that let us know for certain that we don't know what the future brings. Norm could testify as he sat here last week at this time on this front row that he had no idea that this week he would get his chest cut open and some surgery done. And that's just an example of, and that's just a profound example of the things that break into our lives that cause us to think again about those things that we are not certain of. I don't know how you are by nature, I know people take things differently, but maybe you are a person that sees life as an adventure, you know. the more unforeseen, the more spontaneous, bring it on. Maybe that's your kind of attitude. But I would say that even the boldest among us find some degree of uncertainty about what the future holds. And it's not just the future that holds uncertainty for us. Some of you, as you sit here today, know what uncertainty is even in your present circumstances, whatever those may be. that there is lots of opportunity in this life, in the human experience, to experience uncertainty, both of the future as well as the present. There's a book called Understanding Uncertainty, written by Dennis Lindley. There's a quote I'd like to read from it. It says, there are some things that you know to be true, and other things that you know to be false. Yet despite this extensive knowledge that you have, there remains many things whose truth or falsity is not known to you. We say that you are uncertain about them. You are uncertain to varying degrees about everything in the future. Much of the past is hidden from you, and there is a lot of the present about which you do not have full information. Uncertainty is everywhere. and you cannot escape from it. Those are true words. Mr. Lindley is not a theologian or a philosopher. He's actually a statistician. He, much like our own Mr. Madison, did deal, he's no longer living, but dealt with information and trying to glean from information statistics. statistics specifically that he could go on and use to help people make decisions and so forth. And if you weren't aware of it, most of you are, but if you weren't aware of it, there's a whole business. There is much money to be made from being able to begin to predict with some reliability what the future holds. One of the highest paying occupations for someone that has a math major, like myself, is that of an actuary and really an actuary does nothing more than trying to figure out the probability that someone 48 years of age driving a 2005 Chrysler Town and Country 20 miles round trip to work on any given day in Andrew County will have a claim to make against his insurance and then how much that claim is likely to be. As I said, that's just an example of something that there's a whole science and a whole realm of mathematics dedicated to trying to begin to create some certainty or to create some probability about what the future might hold. You can understand that any business would love to know what the future holds. We, however, are not omniscient. and so that we will never know what the future holds. We are not omnipotent. We can't create or control what the future holds. And so as humans, it is our destiny, our quest, our adventure to learn to know uncertainty and how to deal with it. What are you going to do with uncertainty? Our passage today in Philippians comes from the book of Philippians, as Steve had already said, is a letter from Paul to dear friends of his. The Philippians were living in unsettling times and one of the biggest things that was unsettling to them was the fact that Paul was in prison. Now understand, Paul had birthed the church on his journey through. A small group of people believed and formed a congregation, and so they are a relatively new church. And again, I think it's easy for us in this day and age to forget how new Christianity was in the first place. You know, in the day and age we live in, I had any number of people from as old as I could understand begin to tell me about Christianity, tell me about their experience with Christianity, you know, tell me the truth of the word and so forth. So in my own life experience, you know, I've had multitudes of people that have given me a background, a foundation of Christianity, you know, and then on top of that, think about the fact that we've had 2000 years of history. on which Christianity has had an opportunity to unfold. But now put yourself in the shoes of the Philippians. You know, I don't know to what degree word got out about Christ, you know, his actual life and so forth. But it was a new thing that was happening. It was a new occurrence. Okay, so if you have a man that came through and spoke words to you that that rung true, in your heart that this is truth and this is God speaking through this man, even if I had that confirmation within myself through the Spirit that this was truth, it would be very unsettling to find out that this man was now in jail precisely for preaching what he was preaching. I want to liken it in an example illustration to be very much like when you're teaching a child to ride a bike. there comes a point at which you have to let go of that bike. And all you can do is maybe give one last strong push in the right direction so they've got some momentum. But what it comes down to is from that point forward, all the parent can do is give instructions to say, keep pedaling. You've got to keep pedaling. Watch where you're going. Don't worry. That's what I kind of picture Paul doing in this letter, is telling them, you know, I can't physically be there. I can't hold you up anymore. But he's telling them what's important, you know, trying to boil it down to those things that are essential for their growth in Christianity and their growth in their faith. And so that's what the letter of Philippians is, is him giving instructions about the Christian life and how to continue in the Christian life. That's the bigger context of what we're talking about today. The more immediate context, if we look in chapter four, he says things like this. These are some of the things that he says to do. He exhorts them to do steps of action, if you will, what to do to continue on in the Christian faith. In verse 4, he says, rejoice. And that is a very broad theme throughout the whole book of Philippians. He's telling them, be joyful, rejoice. Again, I say rejoice. In verse 5, he tells them to be reasonable. In verse 6, he says, don't be anxious. Think about that kid riding the bicycle. You're now the kid, not the parent anymore. you know how easy it is, as soon as Dad lets go of that bike, to be uneasy, to be uncertain. You know, you are very prone to, it's very understandable that there are risks involved. Any second I could fall and hurt myself on that bike. And yet, we see that, even in that illustration, if the Philippians don't listen to what Paul's saying, then they will become uncertain. They will become scared, and even like, and when you ride, whether it's Christianity or riding a bike, when you become scared, that is detrimental to the whole process of going forward. You know, if a kid keeps, quits pedaling, and they lose momentum, that bike's going to teeter, and eventually they'll fall. And so there's a real strong parallel there between the idea that we've got to proceed, we've got to go on, and this is what Paul is doing. Going on in verse 8, he tells them to think on a list of things, and that's where we'll spend the majority of our time this morning, is these things that he tells them to think about. And both with the previous things I've mentioned and with this, and then he goes on to say, Practice what you have learned, received, and heard, and seen." And both times, back in 6 and here in the end of our passage, he says that the peace of God will guard your hearts. So he's not saying, you know, ignore your circumstances. He's not saying, like I'm so prone to, just don't think about your circumstances. He's saying think on these things And then the peace of God, the result will be that the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds, the peace of God will be with you. All right, so we are concentrating on verse eight. He says, finally, so after the things he said, he says, finally, whatever, that whatever there, I just want to point out for our younger congregation, that is not saying whatever. You know, it's not the disinterested, disconnected, I'm fed up with, you know, this whatever. He is saying there's a multitude of things. There are multiple things that are going to fit in these categories I'm going to give you. And he uses the word each time he gives a new category. Whatever is. whatever it is. And so it's like he's saying, go out there and find those things or any number of things that are of these qualities, go out and find them. And I don't know why it is, but I am so prone in my high school Sunday school class to keep reminding them that the kingdom of God is not about a restrictive set of rules and offense we have to live in. You know, the kingdom of God is expanding. It's taking over. It is growing. It is. It is freedom. There is freedom. And so when I think about Paul saying, telling them, you know, there's any multitude of things out there that you need to add to your collection of these things to think about. It's just yet another reminder to me that there are that it's big, you know, it's various. It's again, I guess, because I fight against that in my mathematical analytical mind, I love the notion of things being expanding, growing, a variation, a variety of things. So he says, whatever, whatever are true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable. And then the last two actually just a summary saying if there's anything excellent, if anything worthy of praise, think about these things. So let's look at these individually a little bit. Let's talk about what things are true. Now as I said, I've said a couple, referenced a couple times, I was a math teacher for years, now in computers. I like things where they're predictable. I love, and I hope you appreciate the fact that 2 plus 2 equals 4. What's true before you were born is true when you enter grade school. It's true forever in our base 10 numbering system that 2 plus 2 equals 4. Can you appreciate that? You love the fact, sure you do, Daniel. You love the fact that that is predictable. It's eternally true and it is perfectly true. What is something that's true? Something that's true basically means that it accurately represents reality. How close is it to reality? How well does it reflect what is real? That's what truth is. And so when I can grab on the fact that 2 plus 2 is 4, that is true. That is real. I can show it in any number of ways. That is the fact. But not all things are eternally true. Okay? There are some things that represent reality for a time, but not for all time. I was in high school and college in the 80s. Big hair was a part of the 80s. Everybody had big hair. I had hair. I met my wife in the 80s. She had big, beautiful hair. We got married in the 80s. Our wedding photos are full of big hair. Big hair is not the reality today in the sense it was in the 80s. It may come back, and I hope I live that long. No, not really. But big hair is something that was a reality in the 80s that has come and gone. So there are some things that just pass from a temporary reflection of reality onto a new reality, okay? So there are some things that are just temporarily true. That is not the case, let me say it this way, that things are not just not true. Things are false. Things are not a true representation of reality. not only because they pass or fade, but some things are just not a reality ever and never were accurately representative of reality. Some things are actually intended to twist, distort, or hide the truth. They are and always have been lies. Our enemy is summed up as the father of lies. From the beginning, his intent was tried to promote non-truth and sub-truth. Examples that you recall from scripture, he said, did God really say, you will not die, God knows that you'll be like Him. Later, New Testament, we hear, turn these stones to bread. Throw yourself down. Worship me. And with each of those, there were promises as well, but the lie was there. For the Philippians, the lies were probably more along the lines of, do you really believe that? Again, thinking about them being apart from Paul, and them having to practice those things they'd seen and heard and had been taught in him, it'd be easy for them to think, is that Paul Nody is talking about? Is Jesus a farce? Is Jesus the real thing? Or more importantly, find themselves concluding, or maybe wondering, this Christianity is just going to cause trouble for me and my family. Now, maybe the lies which some of us are more familiar with don't sound like those exact lies that would be going across the minds of the Philippians. Like I say, we trust that our past will be back and that we will continue to hear the truth pronounced so we don't have And we've, like I said, we've come to understand the history and the personal history we each have with Christianity. And so it's not that doubtful. So the lies we hear might be something more like, come on, just try it once. It will be fun. It will be so satisfying. It will be worth it. No one will ever know. You deserve it. Or for others, perhaps, it's more the accusations of, you couldn't do that. You never will. Nothing will ever change. You are so worthless. If they really knew who you are, or maybe no one understands, no one cares. No matter what the form of the lies, those are all examples of lies that speak against the truth. So how does one combat the distortions, the doubts, and the lies? It's a course with truth. We're told that you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. For every lie that there is out there, there is a truth that stands against it. And that's another thing I want you to understand is there's only one way to know, understand, and for the truth to be pronounced. The truth is singular in that sense, that there is a reality, an ultimate reality and truth. And there's a variety, a multitude of ways that it can be distorted or brought into question. So that's one of the things we battle again, is all the ways that we can be lied to. There's an interesting thing about this word here that's used in the Greek. The word is alethe, alethe. The last part of it, the alethe, means to be concealed or to be hidden. The front part is just the letter A, like in our word agnostic. We know that agnostic means to to know, agnostic, agnostic means to not know. A theist is someone who believes in God. An atheist means someone that does not believe in God. So this word is a-lathe. It means not hidden, not concealed, not able to be concealed. I enjoy that very much because we live in a society where it seems we can be tempted to think and we can begin to experience the idea that truth is hard to find. And in a sense, that is true. The ultimate truth is not supported, promoted, encouraged outside of these walls. outside of the body, universal. Okay? So there is a sense in which it is fought against, it is attempted to be covered up, but I love the notion that the word truth, as used here, means not able or not covered up, to be exposed, to be seen, is what this is about. It's kind of like the idea that the truth will come out. the truth will be known, that it can't be hidden. Turn, if you went to Romans 1.16, as I thought about that idea of truth being hidden or suppressed. I thought of Romans 1. Romans 1.18 says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world. in the things that have been made, so that they are without excuse." It talks about people trying to suppress the truth, but if you read the whole picture there, they see the truth. It says that the truth is revealed. He uses the word plain. It is plain, he says. It is clearly perceived, even to the ungodly and the unrighteous. But of course they choose what they will do with that truth and they choose to repress it. Now we may not be choosing to actually repress the truth, suppress the truth. But Paul is telling the Philippians and us that unless we do something to promote the truth that it does take a back seat. A word of warning here. Just because something seems true to us or to our society, obviously, it is not the case that it's true. It may not meet just because something is true, it is real may not meet the other criteria that are listed here as well. Truth is an antidote. for all that is false, distorted, or misleading. But just like in Scripture, we're always told to share the truth in love. There is a place for truth, and that's the reason these other characteristics are here as well. Not only does Paul say, whatever is true, began to store up, to think on these things, he says, whatever is honorable, Some other translations say, instead of honorable like the ESV uses, they say honest, noble, things that win respect, things that earn respect, things that are worthy of respect, or things that are dignified. We use the word honorable as part of a title sometimes, the honorable judge, whoever, or some other public official. whose position indicate eminence or distinction. It's interesting, I tried to, I was thinking originally to have up on the screen some image for each of these. And it's interesting when I googled for honorable, I don't know if you would expect this, but most of what I saw out of the hundreds of images there had to do with men in military uniform. That's a place in our society that's still willing, in many circles, still wanting to say that this is honorable, that what they're doing is worthy of honor. And again, that's nothing, that's just Google's interpretation of what images are honorable. But those are just, again, pictures when we think about what is honorable, some things that can come to mind. In Philippians 4, or sorry, this use of the word honorable in Philippians 4 is one of four places that this Greek word is used in the New Testament. In 1 Timothy 3.8, we're told deacons likewise must be dignified. That's that same Greek word for honorable, is dignified. It goes on to say not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. So it's a qualification of deacons, that they be dignified or honorable. That same passage, a couple verses later in 1 Timothy 3.11, it says their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. And in the last of the four places that we see this word honorable or dignified used is Titus 2.2, where it says older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. To be honorable or respectable, one must first be honest with themselves. I don't think, most people generally are pretty consistent in the way they value things, their value system generally, very often, filters down to many areas of their lives, although we find that we're able to compartmentalize. But I think it's important that we understand that if we cannot be honest with ourselves about who we are, what we're about, the truth of who we are, then that just becomes a first step for actually being true about all things, honorable in all things, dignified. If we are one that's conniving and slimy, It will be hard that stands in the way in my mind in my opinion. That's to me is kind of Contrary or is the opposite of what it means to be honorable? Now we and in that light we think about our conscience our conscience is very often what we have to deal with and like I said before just because something agrees with our own conscience or the conscience of our society is is not the final judge of what is honorable either. It's interesting that the passage we talked about, about the truth, that in Romans it talked about the ungodly suppressing the truth. It goes on to, among other things, the results of the suppression of truth that we found, we talked about before. It talks about that they did not honor God or give Him thanks But they became futile in their thinking. They became foolish in their hearts and were darkened. They become fools and exchange the glory of God for images resembling men and birds. God gives them up. And so there are consequences for ignoring what is true. And one of those things is that they give themselves over to what is dishonorable. The suppression and abandonment of truth leads to dishonor, among other things. The next one is just. Think on, dwell on, think about the things that are just. Again, some other translations use the words fair, or right, or righteous. But basically, in its essence, we're talking about conformity to God's standards. So like I've warned before, it is not our standards by which honor and truth and justice are determined. I like the notion of or the thought of, and I know it's been portrayed in movies and so forth, but when the gavel finally hits the block and the decision is finally made and justice has been served, That, to me, is a good picture. Anything that fits in the category of justice being served, the standards of God being upheld, those are the things that Paul is saying that we need to store up. Justice is an ammunition against, or an antidote to, envy. I don't know if you think about it, but if you truly believe that God is just, and His justice will prevail, that really takes away a lot of the potential for envy and jealousy. Because very often we're envy and jealous just because we begin to believe that, you know, if I don't look out for me, then who will? And why do they have that and I don't have that? You know, there's some, it's not fair. We have a filter on our internet at the school. I get the emails from students that say, I want to get to this website. And they're not, you know, they're not always bad websites. A lot of times it's just because we can't afford to have all our bandwidth used up for people to watch YouTube videos and so forth. Anyway, this week a kid in his statement said, it's not fair that we don't have YouTube. what's not I mean what's not fair about that and so I emailed him back haven't not got a response yet but I asked him I said how is it not fair that you don't have YouTube if all the students in the school don't have YouTube to me that sounds pretty fair but we do have a perverted idea of what justice is and we must rely on something higher than our own judgment. Next thing he says is to think about whatever is holy, or sorry, pure is what it says in the ESV. In other translations, it says holy. Basically, the idea of being without moral blemish, without moral imperfection. Now, I understand that when a bride comes before her husband, that she is human. Okay, I get that. I understand that no human is perfect. But to me, when I think about when I very often I'm at a wedding, and I think about what's going on there, and and mostly because I think about the Bride of Christ, Christ and His Bride. To me, that is one of the things I gravitate to when I think about the idea of moral perfection. And I think again, that that's a very Pleasant thought to me that it says that Christ is going to make his bride clean, that she will be washed, I will, you will be washed and made pure in the sense of being morally pure without blemish. Purity, obviously, is an antidote for perversity, lewdness, and all kinds of immorality. Or to think about, to dwell on purity. The next word is lovely. Some other translations talk about being acceptable, precious, amiable, lovable. The dictionary says having a beauty that appeals to the heart or mind as well as to the eye. And so it's kind of that idea where it's the whole package in terms of the way it's perceived through my senses as well as who that person is in their character. you know, is what we're talking about in terms of being lovely here. Another translation talks about being lovable. You know, what are those things, what makes someone lovable? You know, it's characteristics within them that bring out or promote love in myself. Another definition is of great moral or spiritual beauty, that which promotes love. I just went and visited Norm, and if you've not met, if you don't know Bev and Norm Price, they are lovely people. I understand that it wasn't always the case before I got there, but as the day progressed, Norm was getting more sleep, was being more and more himself, able to communicate and so forth, but I don't know, it was an example of me, it will stick in my mind as an example of something that is lovely. to watch Norm speak of his thoughts of the possibility of it being his final breath this week, and to think about what was on his mind and his concern for his wife, and then to watch her, in turn, want to suppress his concern for her, to watch her comfort him, in the thoughts of her not being uncomforted, it was a lovely scene. It promoted in the whole room what it means to think about others, to be concerned and loving towards others. That is just an example and you know what it's like to meet someone that is lovely. You know what it means to you and what it does to you when someone by their character is able to conjure up those things in you that are truly loving. Obviously, something that's loving or lovable, lovely, is going to be an anecdote for selfishness. If you understand, if you know what it's like for love to be welling up in you, there's really not much room for selfishness. It also fights against the idea, you know, I think about Lovely being both character and what's perceived through the senses. If all we care about is what's perceived through the senses, that's when people get used and abused. You know, when all you care about is the outside, if that's what people make preeminent in their thinking, And that's when people cease to think about that person as a person. They just become another object in their life. The last one it uses says here is commendable. And by the way, the words lovely and commendable is the only two places that particular Greek word is used in the New Testament. There weren't other sources to draw upon there as far as parallel passages and so forth. But commendable. obviously has an idea of something that is to be commended, admirable, of good repute, of good report, has a good reputation, if you will, okay, worthy of praise would be another way to say it. Obviously, if we think about those things that are of good repute, think about those things that are admirable, then that very possibly can be an antidote for mediocrity. You know, as I look and see how my brother strives in his walk with Christ, if I see that as commendable, it begins to transform in me what priority should be, what I should be striving after myself. And so if I, up to that point, had been content to settle in some regard, and I see my brother, what it means to be commendable in a given area of life, that challenges me. And that's another power of adding things, thinking on things that are commendable. The last two words, anything of excellence, is there anything worthy of praise? It's like Paul is saying, Let's just put a bow on this. He said, if there's other things, you know, I've listed some. This is a not all inclusive list. He's saying if there's anything that's excellent. If there's anything worthy of praise, think on these things. Now, when he uses the word think here, it's not just, you know, in one ear out the other. He's talking about dwell. In fact, it's interpreted in other translations. to dwell on these things, has the idea of what a cow does with its cud, you know, that it eats the grass off the field. And I don't, I mean, it's, and he chews it. I'll just say he chews it again. And he chews it multiple times to get all the good out of it. That's what any ruminant does, cow or sheep, whatever. They chew that multiple times and in doing so they get all the good out of it. That is the picture there of what it means to think on these things. Mold these things over, dwell on them. I may close with an illustration. Among other things in our house that we're having to pack up is we have a den and we've got lots of books that we've accumulated over 25 plus years of marriage, we've got just a whole wall of books. And Kath has been going through and separating those books out. You know, there are things that we will keep, there are things that we'll give away, there's things that we'll throw away. And so she is going through that library and basically evaluating the worth of each of those books. As far as what Paul is calling us to in Philippians here, it is much like him saying, talking about how you're going to fill the library of your mind. What kind of things are you going to have in your mind to dwell on? What are you going to fill your mind with? And so Paul is saying, you know, if it's, is it excellent? Is it lovely? Is it true? You know, you can think about all the, and that's the reason I use the example of a library, was you think about all the different words and ideas that can be, are in print. Think about the vast work of man that's in print out there that could be part of a library. There's some of that you don't want. The majority of it you would not want in your library. Okay? And that's what Paul's saying here is be Be careful, let there be a filter through which what you choose to dwell in your mind comes through. Don't just grab something because it's easy to read. Don't just think on something because it's a dainty thought that you'll let just play in your mind. Be careful about what you allow to be in your mind. Another thing I want to think about is if I consistently If I began to think about the good books I want in my library, I might begin to ask other people around, what are good books? I've heard on multiple occasions people come to Tony and say, if I want a commentary, what would you suggest? And so our thought lives and what we dwell on should be that way as well. We should observe from the people around us, even inquire of them. you know, what it is that we need to be thinking about. People around us can be a source of knowing what is pure and good and true about what we should think about. But what we're going to find is those things as we go on, we find things that are really true from other people. And we find things that are truly lovely, We're going to begin to, and I do this with, you know, eventually if I asked Tony multiple times about a book, I'd say, where did you get that book? Where do you shop? And that's what we need to discover about the Word of God, is when we find things that are truly noble and praiseworthy and excellent and the things that Paul mentions here, we're going to begin to see a pattern that where those things come from, The thing that truly reflects the reality of all those things is found right here. That when people have a thought that's truly noble and excellent and praiseworthy, chances are it's going to be something that was a result of or some byproduct of what's here. We'll begin to look for the source of those things. As we look at Scripture and understand the source that it is, We find out that these things are yet a representation of a bigger object, that these things in and of themselves, this printed word is really just a mirror image or reflection of God himself. And so when Paul says to dwell on these things, he's not just saying you need the power of positive thinking. He's not just saying you need to just fill your mind with things that will help you not think about other things that are part of reality. Paul knows that to the degree that we are successful about finding those things that are true and honorable and lovely and pure and praiseworthy and excellent, to the degree that we find those as we seek those and even develop a taste for those, we're going to find that the ultimate source of all that is found one place, and that is in God. I also want you to think about the work of God as reflected in the, sorry, the character of God as reflected in the work of Christ. When you think about the life of Christ and the death of Christ, is there any contradiction to saying That is truth. That is honorable to think about the death of Christ. There is justice portrayed in the death of Christ. There is purity portrayed in the life of Christ. It conjures up me. I understand love better from the picture of Christ on the cross than any other example of love that I have. And therefore, it is commendable. Those are the things that I should, the things of Christ, the work of Christ are the things that I should stand back and say, that is worthy of praise. That is excellent. I just want to challenge you in your thinking. I want to challenge you to just be reminded, this is not new to anybody, but I would encourage even to think about to what degree is what I watch on TV any of these things? To what degree is the way I converse with my co-workers at work any of these things? I'm not saying it's not. I can find examples of some of these things in my place of employment, okay? But I just want to challenge you to think about that. It's not just a luxury or something to be added on to your Christian faith. But if I'm not filling the library of my mind with the things of God, ultimately, then I'm going to be prone to doubt and uncertainty and wavering. I'll be prone to the lies that are out there if I do not seek and fill the library of my mind with the things that are excellent and praiseworthy. Let's pray. Dear Lord, I thank You for Your Word. I thank You for what it represents in terms of the revelation of Yourself to man. I thank you that we can see in the word what truly is truth. Lord, that we can understand that the variety of things that we hear and see and practice and maybe even speak, Lord, that are something short of truth. Lord, we have all example and all reason to gravitate to those things of you. It's not natural within us, but Father, as your spirit lives and moves and works within us, Lord, we can see we can understand how it all fits together. What's true becomes trustworthy. What's trustworthy gives itself to love and the surrender of ourselves to you, to you, Lord, that we just can understand. that the doubt and the fear and everything else that is so prevalent, Lord, just falls away, falls aside to those things that are ultimately of you. Lord, we thank you for the picture of Christ. We thank you for what's represented in the life of Christ. Lord, may we continue to know it, to understand it. Lord, may it be our ultimate picture of the things we think of. In Jesus name. Amen.