All right, we're gonna be looking at Philippians 1, 21 to 26 this week. We're gonna say the last four verses that kinda, I think, lead into the second chapter. And so we're gonna just work on Philippians 1, 21 to 26. really familiar verse that begins that passage. So, the title of this exposition of Philippians, we're titled the exposition of the whole book, Surprised by Joy, because the main theme in the book is, or one of the main themes is the joy that comes from the gospel and from aligning your life with God's purpose. in the gospel. And so, it's from C.S. Lewis' book title, Surprised by Joy, which has not, he doesn't mean this, he's talking about his own salvation experience, but I borrow the title. And four key words in the book, the words joy and rejoice, or two of them, there's only three dots, but those are two words, and then imprisonment and gospel. There's joy and rejoicing, the Apostle Paul in most surprising circumstances is filled with joy. And so the theme of the book is that we can really walk in joy in the most surprising circumstances because of what Christ is doing in our lives. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones' theme of the letter is how to rejoice in the Lord. That's what he says, how to rejoice in the Lord. So let's go to the Lord in prayer and we will turn to the scriptures. Father, thank you so much for this time. We ask you to be with us tonight. Lord, we ask that you might open the eyes of our hearts to truly hear and understand your word. Lord, this message from the Apostle Paul, just so needed and relevant, we pray that you would help us by your spirit to receive it, humble ourselves under it, repent and believe more fully and deeply that we might exhibit this kind of joy in our lives. We pray this in Jesus name, amen. So the theme in a sense tonight is the ultimate fruit of genuine faith. There's several ways I could have defined this theme. It's about, again, about joy, But it's actually about really Paul's fundamental purpose in life, which is really the key to joy. But it's also Paul's fundamental purpose in life is what every Christian's purpose in life should be. And it's going to be something that as we look at it, really honestly, it's very convicting and it shows us what we should aspire to and what we should, by God's grace, be able to make progress in, toward. And in that sense, it's the ultimate fruit of genuine faith. We can say we have faith, and Scripture talks about this, you know, examine yourselves to see if you're in the household of faith, 2 Corinthians 13, 5. That is, you may profess to believe, but show and look at your life and see, do you see evidences of the Spirit's work in your life? It's not just that we profess and we understand the gospel, we believe it, we say we believe it, but is there evidence of the Spirit's work in us? And this is talking about one of those really significant evidences of the Holy Spirit's work in our lives. And it is related to this issue of the reason we live. Why do you get up in the morning? What is your purpose in life? So that's why we're calling it the ultimate fruit of genuine faith. The question, what is life all about? That's those first two blanks there. What is life all about? And let's read and hear what Paul says about this. And I tell you, to set the context a little bit, I want to start at, to go back into verse, End of verse 18, when he says, I rejoice, yes, he said, well, verse 18, what then only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice, yes, and I will rejoice. For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in anything. but that with all boldness, Christ will even now as always be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. That's the previous passage we looked at. And so leading into now our text for tonight. So he says that now in verse 20, end of verse 20, as always, Christ will be even now as always exalted in my body, whether by life or by death, that Christ will be exalted. For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me, and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better. Yet to remain on the flesh is more necessary for your sake. Convinced of this I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith So that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again So Paul tells us his purpose in life, what is life all about to Paul and And I want us to think about this for a minute, to live as Christ. Martin Lloyd-Jones in his book on the exposition of Philippians, talks about this and he says, Paul's purpose in life, we can sometimes look at this and think, this is the purpose of a really spiritual man. We can kind of fall into the trap of almost kind of a Roman Catholic way of looking at Christians. There are some who are saints, and then there's the rest of us. That's the Roman Catholic way, right? But the Bible, remember, who is he writing to? He's writing to the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi. Every Christian is a saint, and so there really is no distinction. So Paul's purpose in life should be every Christian's purpose in life. And so Dr. Lloyd-Jones says, and when he comes to this passage, asks the question, we need to ask ourselves, can you say this is true of me? For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. That's the heartbeat of true biblical Christianity. Now, I say that, That's, you know, the evidence of genuine faith, there has to be a work of regeneration in the heart, right? Where we go from being people who are all about ourselves to being about God. We see ourselves as sinners in need of grace, so the Spirit has to do a work. He gives a new heart. He takes out the heart of stone, puts in a heart of flesh. And then the Christian life is now walking in the Spirit and yielding more and more putting off the old man and putting on the new man. There's a growth in grace. And what Paul is exhibiting here is a growing faith. It's not like, you know, I mean, if you're really honest, can you say to yourself right now, for me to live, all that matters to me is knowing Christ. And that if I could, I would rather go home right now. That's really how we ought to be, we ought to be aspiring to that. And that really, when that is happening in our hearts, that is the ultimate fruit or proof of genuine faith. When you can say, for me to live is Christ, to die is gain. and you really feel that tension. Now, I said that's something that happens. There has to be a work of grace in the heart and salvation. And then we have to be sanctified and grow in our knowledge and love for Christ. But that should be what we're all challenging each other to. And it's for every one of us. It's not just for the pastors or the elders or the deacons or the church leaders. It's for every Christian. This is the call of our lives. This is what he's getting at. This is why I wanted to just really focus on these six verses because it's so important. It's such a searching passage. So let's think about that. And I wanna share with you a little bit of what Dr. Lloyd-Jones does in his chapter on this. He talks about common answers to the question. Number one, common answers to the question. Remember the question, what is life all about? We're gonna get to Paul's answer, and we're gonna unpack it in detail in a minute. But let's just step back for a minute and think, what are the common answers to the question, what is life all about? And the first that Lloyd-Jones brings up is life is just mere existence, mere existence. And here he's speaking of just kind of an unexamined life that's just existing. Probably this is more characteristic too of people who might be evolutionists, There's no purpose in life, there's no meaning, we're just alive. So that's one way of looking at life. The purpose of life, there really is no purpose, it's just exist, right? Another purpose of life, number B, is life is pleasure. Particularly physical pleasure, bodily pleasures. Life is all about pleasure. This is the Epicurean mindset, right? Just the ultimate goal of life is pleasure. And we can sometimes live that way because life can be pleasurable, right? And so, and all pleasure is not evil, God's created them. But if we're living for pleasure, that's not living for Christ ultimately. C, life is Enduring suffering, just enduring. Now some Christians can fall into this trap. This is kind of a stoic mindset that life is hard. Life is pleasure is looking for all the happiness everywhere. It's a positive, B was all positive. Find everything that you can, go for the gusto, enjoy it. This is life is miserable, you just got to endure it, C. Life is Suffering. Enduring suffering. So just fight through it. Bite the bullet, fight through it, endure. There's something noble in that. That's what life's all about. Not too many of us are tempted to that, but there are some Christians who can have a mindset that they forget about the goodness of God and there's no joy. And if you believe in the sovereignty of God and you're going through suffering and you realize that Christian life is a lot about suffering, we've been talking about that from first Peter, right? His purpose is suffering so that we can grow in grace. Well, life is suffering. Oh no, I just gotta endure it. I just gotta endure it day after day, get up, I'm gonna suffer. So some Christians can live like that. That's not the way we're supposed to live. D, life is, bettering the world or making the world a better place. This is kind of an idealistic view. I just need to do what I can to make the world a better place. Now, some of these, there's truth in all of these at some level, right? I mean, there's a place for pleasure, there's a place for enduring suffering, but the purpose of life is just to impact the world, you know, make it a better place. And there is some truth in that, but it's not, the reason to live. E, life is about spiritual experiences. Life is spiritual experiences or mysticism. It's about just experiencing spiritual pleasure and just mystical spiritual experiences. To go from one to another, to search for the next mystical mountaintop experience. Some Christians live like that. And then last F, Lloyd-Jones talks about life is religious activity and service. There are a lot of people who just see that the purpose of life is to be about religious activity and service. This is a particular temptation for us as Christians, particularly in ministry. We just focus so much on what we're supposed to do and we can live just to do the next spiritual thing, the next religious thing, right? Okay, so with that in mind, think about, you may, you probably see certain ones of those that you're tempted to kind of gravitate toward. Paul's, number two, Paul's answer to the question, what is life all about? Paul's answer to the question, raison d'etre, the French phrase that means reason to exist. Paul's answer to the question, why am I here? What is life all about? Is stated in the verse that we read at the beginning. For me to live is Christ. That's his purpose. The purpose of his life is Christ. It's all about Jesus. It's all about Christ. And he has learned that everything in life centers on Christ. He lives a Christ-centered life. And the corollary to that, if you really believe life's all about Christ, a corollary takes, you know, you have a principle and a corollary takes it and reasons from it, a logical deduction from it. And so if it's all about Christ, then death is gain. To die is gain, the corollary to die is gain. So Paul's saying for me to live as Christ, to die as gain, this is my motto, this is my life. This is my reason to live, my reason to exist. And that's what we wanna talk about now and think about what he means by that and what he tells us in these verses. And what I want us to see is, I mentioned it's the fruit, it's the ultimate fruit of genuine faith. And what we're gonna see though is that to get the right fruit, you've gotta have the right root. And so now, number three, an inward attitude slash root, an inward attitude slash root. So it's an attitude that we need to be cultivating because it all starts in the heart. The Christian life is all about the heart, starts from the heart, right? So we need to, what does it mean for us to live as Christ, to die as gain? to cultivate this heart. So it's an inward root attitude. And from the book of Philippians, we can understand that for this root, and the root is to live as Christ. It means that our goal is Paul's goal, which is to know him. A, just to know Jesus, to know more about him. And you could write down beside this, the next point will be is to exalt Him. And we'll look at those verses in just a minute to see that. To know Him and to exalt Him. To know Him, you look at Ephesians 3, 7-10. I mean Philippians 3, 7-10, same letter. Paul's letter to Philippians, chapter 3. It's good if we're looking at the same book as I'm looking at when you're looking at Philippians 3, 7-10, you hear me read. But whatever things were gained to me, if you were looking at Ephesians, that would be confusing. Okay. Philippians 3, 7, whatever things were gained to me, those I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of their surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ. and may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death." So Paul has come to the place that What he wants each day, more than anything else, is not religious activity. It's not merely to make the world a better place. We're gonna see that it's part of what's gonna be a fruit, another fruit of Christian life. That's not the focus. The target of his heart is knowing Christ, is knowing Jesus better. It is to understand more of the wonder of His character, to look more closely at the glory of His work, to meditate on the depth of His love, to understand the riches of His grace, to look more and more and more at Christ. I mean, to look at the cross and to look at all that Jesus experienced for us and to know that He's a loving Savior. And so we want to know Him and love Him. So knowing Him and loving Him, actually, it's know Him and exalt Him are the points, but to know Christ is to grow in our love for Christ. And that's what Paul is saying. He's saying his life is really all about loving Jesus. Now think about that. You fall in love with someone and what are your thoughts go to? You think about when you first fall in love, how easy is it to think about the person that you've fallen in love with? It's not hard, is it? And they're constantly on your mind. Paul saying that he has cultivated a heart that he is in love with Jesus. So that his heart naturally gravitates like the center of gravity of his life is to think about and love Jesus. Saying this is the reason to live. The reason to live is to pursue a deeper and deeper love of Jesus. And how do you do that? You keep looking at Jesus. You keep looking at him and you look at his love and you look at how much he loves you and it makes you love him. And he's saying, this is the reason to live. It's not pleasure. It's not making the world a better place. It's not religious activity. Those things are all far, compared to everything, they're rubbish. They're garbage compared to knowing Jesus and loving Jesus more. He said, this is the way that we need to think about our Christian lives. And it's so easy to forget that, isn't it? I mean, isn't it easy just to think about the things we're supposed to do when we get up in the morning, and we know we're supposed to do this, we're supposed to do that, and we go through our activities, a lot of good things. And not that we don't think about Him at all, and we think about Him, but we don't think about Him at the center of everything like we need to. And Paul's saying, this is what I've learned. This is the secret to living. And the reason he is so joyful in a prison cell facing imminent, what could be imminent execution, trapped from his calling in life is to minister the word of God, to preach the word of God. He can't do it. He can't be out preaching, planting churches. but he's filled with joy because he's learned that no matter where he is, he can be knowing and loving Jesus and nothing can stop him. They can't take that away from him. And in fact, the more that he suffers, the more that he's able to know and love Jesus. Because it becomes more real, he can see more clearly. He can see that behind the veil that separates the physical world from the spiritual world, and he sees more and more clearly the glory of Christ. I was thinking about how suffering is so valuable. And I had a, there's a quote by Spurgeon that I meant to bring in here and I didn't bring in. So it's like one of those things where, but anyway, I'm gonna, it's not gonna do justice to it. So you can read the quote. I'll try to, maybe we can send it out by email or something. It's that good anyway. He's basically talking about, he says, he says untested faith may be true faith, but it will be little faith. Untested faith may be true faith, but it will be little faith and remain small faith unless it's tested. And he says this, he says, a ship on calm waters with no wind won't move. It's pleasant in a way, but you make no progress. But the storm comes, the winds swell, the waters rage, the boat may experience water splashing across the deck, the sails may, you know, be just, so massively affected by the wind that you wonder if they're gonna break. The mass may creak with the groaning of the power, but the boat makes progress toward its desired destination. In the same way, we have to go through suffering so that we actually make that kind of progress. But the key in making progress in the midst of suffering is to have your sails up and your rudder pointed in the right direction. And so what we gotta do to really make progress is the orientation of our boat needs to be for me to live as Christ. Lord, what will exalt you? How can I know you and exalt you? That's Paul's purpose, to know Jesus and to lift him up. In chapter one, verse 20, right before our passage, he says, whether I live or die, whether by life or death, that Christ may be exalted in my body. That's what I want. I want Christ to be exalted. So it is knowing him and it's making him known. That's his purpose. And when that is your purpose, come what may, you're gonna be able to make progress in your faith, grow in grace, become more like Jesus, and may be fruitful as a Christian. So that inward root attitude is knowing and loving Jesus. And that's why we can't forget that. We have to keep reminding each other. It's all about knowing and loving Jesus, because we tend to forget that. There's an interesting verse in 1 Timothy 3, No, 2 Timothy 2, I think it's around verse eight or nine, Paul says to Timothy, remember Jesus Christ. Imperative sentence in, he's writing to a pastor and he says, remember Jesus Christ. Really, you need to tell me that? Yes, I need to tell you that. Remember Jesus Christ. It's all about Jesus. So that's the inward attitude slash root. It's all about Christ, to live as Christ, to know him, to exalt him. The outward evidence slash fruit. the outward evidence slash fruit that you actually are knowing and loving him, is what we see in the rest of this passage. Paul says, for me to live is Christ, to die is gain. And then what he shares with us this wrestling that's going on in his life as he thinks about, because he so wants to love Jesus. Oh man, it's up on the thing there. Okay, this is Spurgeon. Thanks, Thomas. When a calm rains on the sea, spread the sail. Wait a second. Oh, I got you. Okay, I see it now. It's two different fonts. Go with the white, not the orange. Okay, there you go. Untested faith may be true faith, but it is sure to be small faith, and it is likely to remain little as long as it is without trials. Faith never prospers so well as when all things are against her. Tempests are her trainers, and bolts of lightning are her illuminators. When a calm rains on the sea, spread the sails as you will, the ship does not move to its harbor. For on a slumbering ocean, the keel sleeps too. Let the winds rush and howl, and let the waters lift themselves. Though the vessel may rock, and her deck may be washed with waves, and her mast may creak under the pressure of the full and swelling sail, it is then that she makes headway toward her desired haven. There's a little more. It's, okay. Well, I think I, well, go ahead and show me what is next. Oh yeah, this is good too. I didn't even tell you about this. No flowers are as lovely a blue as those that grow at the foot of the frozen glacier. No stars gleam as brightly as those that glisten in the midnight sky. No water tastes as sweet as that which springs up in the desert sand. And no faith is so precious as that which lives and triumphs in adversity. Doesn't Spurgeon makes me feel like just shut up and sit down and let that man speak. Tested faith brings experience. You could not have believed your own weakness if you had not been compelled to pass through the rivers. And you would never have known God's strength if you had not been supported in the flood. Faith increases in quality, assurance, and intensity. The more it is exercised with tribulation, faith is precious and its trial is precious too. Do not let this, however, discourage those who are young in faith. You will have trials enough without seeking them. I love that. Don't go after seeking them. The full portion will be measured out to you in due course. God will take care of it. Meanwhile, if you cannot yet claim the result of long experience, thank God for what grace you have. Praise him for that degree of holy confidence you have now attained. Walk according to that rule and you will still have more and more of the blessing of God until your faith will remove mountains and conquering possibilities. There it is. Thank you, Thomas. Great job, man. It's so awesome. So the outward fruit, what we see now is the fruit of the root that wants to live, to live as Christ, wants to love Christ, know Christ. The fruit is a passion to serve God's people. It's evident impact, I'm sorry, it's costly service to God's people. That's that first A, 4A. The outward evidence slash fruit, A, costly service to God's people. Paul is wrestling with what he, life, my life is all about Jesus, he's saying, and so all I wanna know, I wanna know Christ, and I can't wait to get to heaven, because that's gonna be Christ without any veil anymore. can't wait to get to heaven, but I also love making him known here. I love serving his people because loving him means loving his people. And so I'm torn between the two options, to go on and be with Christ, which is better by far. In fact, that phrase, I mean, when he says to die is gain, Back to, I'm sorry, back to number two, B. I forgot to share this. Well, when he says, to die is gain, then later he says in verse 23, but I'm hard-pressed in both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ for that is very much better. That's the American standard, very much better. And it actually is three different Greek terms. It's an adjective, an adverb, and an adjective, back to back to back. Very much better is pretty good. It's a little stronger than that. To me it has the force more, actually one of the words is actually stronger. So it's like, it's better, rather, stronger. Three terms in a row. to go on and be with Christ is better, rather stronger. And he's piling words upon each other to say, to go on and be with Christ is incomparable. How much better? It's indescribably better. But he doesn't conclude that he wants to go on to be with the Lord. He says, Yet, verse 24, to remain on in flesh is more necessary for your sake. Convinced of this, I know I will remain and continue with you for your progress and joy in the faith. So what Paul shows is the costly service to God's people is one of the key evidences of a heart that really loves Jesus above everything else. And it's not religious activity done for the sake of religious activity. It's knowing and loving Jesus and wanting to express that love to Jesus. How do you show Jesus how much you love him? How do you tangibly show Jesus you love him? by loving his people. Remember what, how you treat his people is how you treat him. Paul knew this very well. He knew it from both angles. Acts chapter nine, verse one says, Paul was still breathing out threats against God's people. I mean, it's saying that it's like he's walking around. I wanna go get, he's thinking about it. He so hates the people that are following Jesus. Saul the persecutor, Saul the Pharisee, so hates them and he's walking around breathing out threats. He's just, they're coming out quickly. I just wanna get them, I wanna arrest them. And so he asked for letters from the chief priests and he goes to Damascus to go arrest some more Christians because the church in Damascus is thriving. And on the way, Christ appears to him and what does he say? Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? He's breathing out threats against God's Christ's people, but Jesus says, you're not persecuting my people, you're persecuting me. Because if you persecute my people, you persecute me. Think about Matthew 25, the final judgment. when Jesus will separate the sheep from the goats, remember? The goats will be on his left hand, the sheep on his right hand. And he will say to those on his right hand, I was hungry. Well, first of all, I say, blessed are you. You love my father. You're gonna inherit this wonderful inheritance is prepared for you from before the foundation of the world. Why? Because I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty, you gave me drink. I was naked and you clothed me. I was in prison and you visited me. And those sheep on the right will say, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or see you thirsty and give you drink? And Jesus will say, Whenever you did unto one of the least of these my brothers, you did it also unto me." So if we love Jesus and we're living to live as Christ, then it means that we're willing to lay down our greatest desires, and our greatest desire as we cultivate our hearts. Like I said, this isn't, it's not, the Christian life, we have a new heart, but we have to cultivate that new heart and direct it so that it becomes more and more like this, so that our heartbeat is, we can say more today than it was yesterday for me to live as Christ. It's getting closer to that. To die is gain. When we get there, as we're getting there, more and more and more, then those moments when we are loving Him, we start seeing the connection now to love Jesus is to bless Him and want to just minister to Him. And the way I minister to Him is by ministering to His people. When you serve one of the least of these, His brothers, you are doing it to Him. And see, Paul's exhibiting the whole, just the abundant fruit of that in his life. He's saying, listen, and think about it. He's in a prison cell. He's chained to a Roman soldier 24-7. Can you imagine what it'd be like to be chained to another human being all the time? I mean, think about that, 24 hours a day, chained to another human being, you know, Roman soldier. That's what he's living. He doesn't know how long it's gonna be. He knows he may be coming to the end of his life. He may be about to be executed. The sense that he knows he's gonna die for Christ. Some of the brethren have already died for Christ. And he's thinking about that, but yet he knows, hey, that's my promotion for me to live as Christ, to die as game. But he's learned even in the midst of this prison cell, even in the midst of this difficult circumstance, I can be making a difference right now. I could be loving Jesus right now. That's why I'm writing a letter to the Philippians. I am loving my savior. And his heart, as he writes, you can just see how much he loves them. He loves them because he loves Jesus. So if we love Jesus, if that's the root, the more we love Jesus from the root of our hearts, the more the fruit of loving costly service will be evident in our lives. Now it doesn't mean you wait till you feel it, you start serving when you don't feel it, but you keep trying to love Jesus as you serve. You keep remembering, it's about loving Him. It's not about this person and how they respond to me that we want each other. We appreciate the warmth of Christian affection and all of that. We're supposed to express that, but it's really, I'm loving Jesus most of all here. And when we start thinking like that, it changes everything. And so that's what Paul is saying. This is my life. Costly service to God's people is a fruitful labor. That's the first point under A. Costly service to God's people is a fruitful labor. Verse 22, if I'm to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me. So it's costly, but it's in its work, but it's gonna bring fruit. And it's also a necessary work. Verse 24, "...yet to remain on the flesh is more necessary for your sake." I'm hard-pressed from both directions. Verse 23, "...have a desire to go and be with Christ." That's very much better. yet to remain on the flesh is more necessary for your sake. This idea of necessary means absolutely essential. He knows that there are pressing, in fact, the same word is used in Titus 3, 14, a pressing needs, this word necessary. So it means pressing needs. I know there are great needs in the Philippian church, and I know that God wants to meet those needs, and I have an urgent desire to love Jesus by meeting those needs, and I think he's gonna let me come meet those needs. Therefore, I'm gonna stay alive, I think. And he's right, he doesn't die this imprisonment. He's out for a while, then he gets imprisoned again later, and then he's martyred. Probably about four, well, three to five years after he writes Philippians. Now, so it's fruitful, I mean, the outward evidence, fruit, number four, costly served to God's people, a fruitful labor, a necessary work, B, evident impact on God's people. When we operate like this, there will be, and it's not always gonna be the same, but Paul describes evident impact on the people of God. What's gonna happen? There will be progress. Verse 25, convinced of this, I know I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith. So progress is the number one joy in the faith. That we wanna serve His people and what then it becomes, we wanna see progress. We wanna see our Christian brothers and sisters make progress in their Christian life. It's not just about doing certain things, it's about seeing them make headway. In fact, the word means literally progress is to cut forward. It's like you picture somebody hacking through a machete, hacking through the jungle. I want to labor to help you make progress in the faith, to cut forward in the faith. And not just making progress, but also joy, more joy. Because when you make progress in the faith, joy comes with it. And there's actually a third point. I didn't get my point down here, sorry. Cause I think you don't have one number three, do you under B? Okay, there's a number three. The bonus point here. Evident impact on God's people. What does he see? He sees progress. He sees joy in the faith. And then verse 26, their proud confidence. will abound. So proud confidence abounds. That's what the New American Standard says. I would translate it a little differently. I would say their exaltation overflows. I'm sorry, their exaltation, exaltation, not exaltation, exaltation, E-X-U-L. Exaltation overflows. It's a word which can mean boasting or joyful boasting, but it also means exaltation. This is like, it means to rejoice with exceeding great joy in a way that you can't contain, it just comes out. So he said, I wanna see your exaltation. And then he uses a word, the verb here, overflows, it's a verb, parasuo, which means to be over and abundant and overflowing. So exaltation is already a strong word. Your joy is uncontainable just in the word exaltation. And then he says, but that exaltation, I wanna see overflow. So he's gonna minister and serve. So the goal of ministry is to love Jesus by loving his people, to see them make progress, to see their joy grow so that they actually become so joyful that they're exuberant in their love for the Lord and their service. That's what we wanna see. So he's telling us, if we wanna be like him and love Christ, We need to set our focus, our heart's desire on cultivating an attitude of the heart for me to live as Christ. Lord, help me get closer to that today than I was yesterday. Help me to truly long for heaven more today than I did yesterday. Help me, Lord. And then help me serve your people. Help me love you back by loving your people. And there's a reciprocal impact. It's not just that you look to love Christ and serve. It's actually getting out there and serving like flips it around. When you serve God's people, you actually grow in your love for Jesus too. So it's not A then B, it's A then B then B then A then A then B then B then A. You just keep doing both. focus on Christ, serve the people of God, sacrificially, costly service, give yourself to the ministry, because you love Jesus. And in doing that, in seeing them make progress in the faith, and their joy overflow and exaltation grow, you see Christ's glory, you love Jesus more, and it just, it spirals so that you then become a person like Paul, who can be joyful in any circumstance. That's what he wants for us. And so if we have our hearts like this, our circumstances don't matter, but in reality, like we saw earlier with that quote from Spurgeon, suffering has an amazing ability to make these things, to empower this kind of stuff. That's the paradox, isn't it? Because we all naturally avoid suffering and like he encouraged us at the end of his quote, don't go out seeking suffering. God will measure out enough for you. He's got a plan. But when we suffer, if our focus is on knowing and loving Jesus and living is just Christ, suffering will make that come even clearer. Suffering will help us focus on really matters, which is loving him by loving his people. And we will make progress and we will help one another to do that. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we come to this passage and we thank you for it. And we confess, Lord, we fall so far short of where we should be so much of the time. But Lord, we want our heartbeat to be just like Paul's. To live is Christ. To die is gain. We thank you that you said that if we pray in accordance with your will, we pray in accordance with your name, we have that which we ask. Lord, make us like this. Make each one of us people whose heartbeat is Christ, whose supreme desire is to know him and to make him known. Do this for the glory of your Son, Lord, that we might be more joyful in Him, that we might serve more diligently, minister to one another more sacrificially, and see each other make more and more progress.