Well, good morning. It’s great to be with you as we continue studying Philippians. And I think this week’s passage has a lot of relevance to, as Isaac has already led us in a time of reflection and prayer, to the events that have affected our city this week. You know, last week we looked at a section that was all about how do you live a gospel focused life? And of course, Paul, we believe, was speaking to a young church. You know, the gospel spread across the world. And when it went new places, these were all young churches, new churches. They didn’t have a lot of seasoned saints to lead them. And so Paul is giving them direction. Here’s how you live a gospel focused life. But here’s one thing that’s interesting about growing in Christ. And if you’ve ever done any kind of long endurance sport, maybe. I know some of us recently ran a marathon or a half marathon. I’ve done some. I don’t like to run, but I love to do a longer bike ride. I’ve gone on some of those longer bike ride events, and one thing that’s interesting about those long endurance events is how you begin. Almost really doesn’t matter at all because plenty of people start strong. There’s a whole big pack of people all out front the first couple of miles, and then each mile a few more fade off a few more miles in. Before you know it, some of those people who started strong don’t even finish. And so it is great to start with a gospel focused life. But what we want to talk about today and where Paul is going to take us today is how do we stay the course, right? How do you stay focused for the long haul? And even when tragedies hit, when hard times hit, when things didn’t go the way you thought they would. How do you stay on course? How do you endure? How do you continue to stay focused on the gospel, even in the course of the long haul? Because the Christian life isn’t a sprint, it is a marathon. And so we’re going to be in Philippians chapter three. We’re going to wrap up chapter three today. Go into the beginning of chapter four. If you don’t have a Bible, we have Bibles out in the connection corner in the notes. The page numbers that are there are tied into that Bible and Philippians in that church Bibles on page 921. We’re going to look at chapter three, verse 17, and set up four ways. Paul is going to give us direction on how we stay the course, how you endure, how you continue even through the challenges, even through the hardship. So turn with me in Philippians chapter three. I’m going to read our section today, and then we’re going to draw out those four ways we’re called to stay the course. Philippians three verse 17, brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us, for many of whom I have often told you, and now tell you, even with tears they walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame. With minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for my joy and my crown, stand firm. Thus in the Lord, my beloved. So Paul begins by addressing them, and the first way that he encourages them to stay the course. You’re young church, you need to live a gospel focused life. It’s not based on what you do, it’s based on who he is. But here’s how you stay the course. The first way he says here is right here in verse 17. Brothers, imitate me. Start by imitating me. And for us, the important phrase is for us to know whom to follow. Know whom you should follow. It is important who you look to for direction, who you choose to imitate. Because all of life is imitation. If you think about the very beginning, the way life started, you learned everything about life just by watching whoever was closest to you, whether it was your parents or a grandparent or whoever raised you, you learned how to walk. First of all, someone pointed this out to me. What if people around us didn’t walk? They only crawled. Would you ever have the vision to think you could walk? But the fact that you see people walking and it’s incredibly difficult. Watch a kid try to learn to walk. They’re falling over all the time. And yet they keep trying and they keep trying and they keep trying because they see you doing it. They know I can do that. If they can do it, if all those people are walking around, maybe I can walk to you, learn to walk. You learn your language. In fact, and I think probably most kids don’t really like hearing this, but most of what your direction in life is pretty much determined set, statistically speaking. Okay, this isn’t absolute. You can choose your own path, but a lot of it is really closely correlated to your parents. Of course, your skin color is determined by that. But things like eye color, hair color, politics are usually you’re more than likely to end up with politics similar to your parents. The food you like or dislike oftentimes is almost completely determined by what did you eat growing up? What was in our home, the teams you cheer for? We could go on and on and on. So much of that is imitation. I saw these people do this over and over again, and I picked it up that way. And by the way, the same is true of us spiritually, because as you grow and mature, you can choose who you want to imitate. You can choose who you get time around, and hopefully you choose wisely. Just being around them, you’re going to pick up stuff. That’s why this word imitate here in particular is so powerful. Because in all of Greek literature, this is the only time this word appears. And this is a fine distinction for just a second. So follow me. Because of course the Bible was written in Greek. The New Testament was written in Greek. That would have been the trade language of the time, even though every country had their own language. Because of Greek culture spreading all throughout the world, that became the language by which business was transacted between countries. And so if you want to reach the most people, you write it in Greek, even though probably the people who wrote the Bible spoke other languages, we wrote it in Greek to make sure we can reach as many people as possible. But just like if you go to a bookstore, hopefully and more than likely to have Bibles, they may have quite a few Bibles, but they also have thousands of other books in the bookstore. They don’t just only carry Bibles. More than likely the same is true of ancient Greek literature. Yes, the Bible was written in Greek, but there were thousands of other writers who were writing in Greek. You had philosophers, historians. You’ve heard some of these names Aristotle, Plato. If you’re curious, Marcus Aurelius, you’ve heard some of these ancient names. Herodotus. They would have written in Greek. And so there are thousands and thousands of other writings in Greek. And of all those writings across all ages, hundreds and hundreds of years, this is the only time this word for imitation is used that we know of, that we have record of. And really, it’s the normal word for imitate with the word with on the front end. I think this is especially interesting that this only shows up in Scripture and Christian literature, because imitation isn’t an individual activity. I don’t just pick out one person and try to imitate them apart from others around me. When it comes to growing in your faith to stay in the course, it’s not a solo activity. We’ve got to do it in community. We’ve got to imitate with others. Join in me. Join in with others. We grow because we sharpen one another. You’ve got to be around other people. Yes, my faith is personal, but. But it’s not private. That call to grow as others sharpen me. So it’s really important that you know whom to follow, who to be around. That’s why that imitate word really means about the emphasis is together. We’ve got to be growing together, imitating, pursuing together. Now, what I love in this passage is Paul doesn’t only just say, imitate me. And by the way, some look at that in our modern age and go, isn’t that kind of weird? Isn’t that kind of self-centered? Paul’s going, hey, look at me, watch me, follow me. Of course, we all follow someone on social media that you’re watching and probably imitating, but part of it feels a little bit like too prideful. But at this time and that was the common standard. I mean, Jesus, follow me, a rabbi. If you wanted to learn something, you probably didn’t go to a college. You probably picked someone to follow, to imitate, to live with. It was true also in Greek culture with philosophers. So this was a very common practice. This wouldn’t have shocked them. But Paul doesn’t just say, imitate me. There are others to imitate. Look back in verse 17, he says, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. And a couple of weeks ago we looked at ten qualities of the commendable. And to them he pointed out, follow a path, for that is, follow Timothy. Here are two guys that are also guys you want to look to. And so he says fix your attention on them. Look at them. That’s what that phrase keep your eyes on means. Fix your attention on something. This doesn’t just mean I looked at it for a second and tried to take it in. I knew a guy who was a Division one, wide receiver in football, and he said what they taught them early on was, when you’re looking for the ball, don’t just look for the entire ball. That’s too broad, that’s too big, he said. You look for the tip of the spiral, the very smallest point, and you focused all your attention on that. And then what you do is that that ball’s coming into you. You look at all the way into your hands and you don’t look away to that ball is all the way in your hands firmly grasp. And he said it. But then this was the next step. You don’t just stop there, then you take it and you keep your eyes on it until you have it all the way tucked in, tucked away, fixed, focused attention all the way down firmly. And then you turn and look up field and to see who’s about to crush me to death, or who can I avoid and run down field around. Not until the end. Now, if you watch any football game, when do the balls get dropped? Assuming it’s a good throw, you know all that well almost all the time. It gets dropped when it’s about here and bro knows he has it and he’s already turning to look up field before he’s got it all the way in. He’s turning and moving and then is dropped. Focus your attention. Keep your eyes on it all the way in. It’s not just a casual glance. I’m studying in depth the kind of people I want to follow. I want to be like. That’s why it’s so important to choose wisely whom you follow. If you want to stay the course, choose the faithful person. Choose the person who has endured well. Learn from them. That’s the first way we Paul gives us direction on how we stay the course for the long haul. Now look at the second one here. Look at verse 18 because he said, imitate me, imitate others, follow them, focus on them. But secondly, he says, for many of whom I’ve often told you and now tell you, even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and the glory in their shame, with their minds set on earthly things. The second way that we stay the course and go for the long haul is to stay alert to deception. Stay alert to deception because there are many that want to take you off course. Many would love nothing more than to watch you fail in your pursuit of Christ. It’s really sad to say, but it is true. How do you stay alert to deception? You’ve got to know what to look out for. And for that we look to the standard of God’s Word. That’s why I’ve listed that verse in Acts 17:11. We want to be Bereans. We want to act like Bereans. The Bereans were called the more noble because they would daily what they heard Paul teach. They would daily go back and examine the scriptures to see if it was true. Where do you find your standard of behavior of truth? It’s in God’s word. It’s not just in how I feel. It’s not just in what I heard from someone else. Ultimately, this is our judge. This is our standard. And here’s what Paul says to watch out for. Look at this first one. What he said. I have often told you and now tell you, even with tears, that many walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Now for before we point out the actual things, the first thing is to notice is that Paul says, I’ve often told you, Paul is not afraid to keep bringing up something over and over again. He’s what I would call an active shepherd. And he’s got a young flock. He’s got people that need protection, and you can’t just say, well, I told you once, you should have got it. Yeah. How does that work? How does that work with your children? How does that work with yourself? I tell myself stuff all the time and forget it. Look, he is not afraid to say. I’ve often told you. And I’m going to tell you again. And I keep coming back to you, and I’m going to do it in a way, hopefully, that you can receive it and hear it and that takes wisdom, because if you keep repeating the same thing over and over again, people can drown it out. It could fall on deaf ears, they can get tired of hearing it. It takes wisdom, it takes timing, it takes sincerity. In fact, he says, here I have say this with tears. You can tell he’s stirred emotionally. It’s not just about him. He cares deeply about them. And if people know you’re coming out of deep concern and love and care, that often opens the heart up just a little more to hear it. But notice the first way he warns them here in this list. He’s going to give them five things to watch out for people who want to take you off course, people who want to deceive you. Number one, they walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. They walk as enemies of the Cross of Christ. And that word enemies could also be translated something like those who hate or haters might be another way to say it. Enemies of the cross of Christ. Haters of the cross of Christ. Now, this is also an important aspect of Bible study that we all need to embrace. It’s really important when you’re reading scripture to not just only identify with the heroes of Scripture, but also identify relate to those who are not the heroes who do it the wrong way. It’s really easy to feel like, yeah, I would have been David. I would have been the one to go and get Goliath. You know, he’s just like me. But it’s not as easy to say, well, maybe there’s a little bit of Judas in me too. Maybe I would have been. Let us aside. And so when this passage says enemies of the cross, it’s important for us to relate and go, okay, yes, all of us have been there. All of us have been enemies of the cross. At some point in our life. Ephesians 2:12 talks about this. You’ve been alienated from the covenant of God. Ephesians two one through two. Talk about how the fact that you were dead in your trespasses and sins following the course of this world, you were going your own way, and you didn’t want anything to do with Jesus. You did not want him bothering you at all. Now, to be fair, you might be thinking, okay, John, great, I was an enemy, but hater really did I hate Jesus? That’s pretty strong. I don’t think I really ever hated him. Look at this quote I’m going to throw on screen screen because. I think that’s the temptation for many of us to think, I know people who hate Jesus, and I’m a little better than them. I don’t act like that. Here’s what one commentator said. I thought this was so helpful for the most part. Maybe we did not feel hostile towards Jesus. Looking back, I wasn’t necessarily hostile toward him, it was just that we did not really want to be bothered, or to have to face the demands of Jesus, or to think too much about that rather threatening business of giving our lives over to him. Yeah, maybe I didn’t hate him. I just wanted him to leave me alone. And you want to know how Jesus describes that person? Jesus himself uses the same word, the exact same word for enemies. In Luke 19:27, here’s what he says of his enemies. They are those who did not want me to reign over them. Jesus himself described the people who did not want him reigning over them as their enemies. We’ve all been there, is the point. So yes, Paul is addressing a group of people who are actively attacking the Philippians. But don’t forget, we’ve been there. You’ve been there. If you know Christ at one time you were his enemy. Now, specifically here, though, we want to look more in depth because that’s not only what Paul is talking about. He’s not just talking about general fallen nature distanced from God. He’s also talking about those who are actively opposing Christ, who are actively opposing the cross, who are actively saying, we don’t believe in the power of the cross. In fact, many believe what they were doing at this time was actively opposing the power of the atonement, the power of the cross to deliver us from sin, the power of the cross to pay our penalty for sin. I think I’ve listed in your notes 2 Corinthians 5:21 God made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf. He took our place, the penalty that was due us for our sin. Jesus took that, and there were many. In fact, Charles Spurgeon said of his time, he was a famous Baptist preacher in the 1800s and London extremely famous. I mean, pick whichever well-known pastor that you like to follow now. He was bigger than that at the time, and he started to notice this tendency in other churches around him of just denying the power of the atonement. Jesus really did have to die for us, for our sin. That seems kind of gruesome. We think mainly he was primarily a good example and he is a good example for sure. But they started to deny the atonement and he called them out for it and he got ridiculed for it. Charles. Hey, Chucky, why do you gotta keep causing division? What’s the problem? Why are you causing separation? Can’t you just get along? Why do you got to put other people down and point out this is just a fine distinction? And I’ve said this quote so many times, I love it, I heard Ed Childers share it here first. Years ago he said unity at the sake of truth is not unity. It’s heresy. When you start to deny the atonement, that makes you an enemy of the cross, and that’s not where any of us want to be, and we don’t want to be pointing people away from the cross. Watch out for those who are enemies of the cross. Look at the next thing he says here. I’ve told you with tears, many walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. Now we’ll get a little bit into some language stuff here, but that word end is the front end of that word telescope. The original word for end is that word. Tell us and you hear it in the word telescope, which just means something out in the distance. It can mean that that’s why a telescope looks far off, looks out toward the end of something. It can also mean the finish line. Paul used that word we saw in in chapter three already in verse 12 and in verse 15. I’ve not already been made perfect or complete or mature. We’ve seen that word a few other times already, and probably the way we could translate as well is the goal. Here’s the goal off in the distance I’m headed towards. And so when these people that Paul is talking about look out towards their goal, here’s what they see. They see destruction, destroyers. Watch out for those who seek to destroy. And there’s a big difference between those who have as their goal destruction, versus building up. You’ve had this happen where someone comes to you with a concern and there’s two different types of people. Some come wanting to literally help build you up to help make you better, even if they don’t deliver in the right way, even if it’s not the right timing, they still come with a sincere desire to strengthen you, to make you better. But then there’s those. And this sums up middle school right here. All they want to do is tear you down. Destruction. I’m going to point this out to make you look small, to make you feel little, to tear you down, to hurt you. This is their goal. Now, this has a double meaning. That’s their goal when they interact here with the Philippians. But that’s also where they’re personally are headed. And they may not even realize it. Their end, their goal is destruction. Look at this next one. Their end is destruction, their God is their belly. That word belly we would use maybe the word guts, the center of emotion and direction. I feel it in my gut. I just have a gut feeling. This is the way I should go. This is the thing I should do. Their God becomes, and has a double meaning here, their God becomes their impulse. In fact, the thing to look out for are the impulsive. That’s the blank in your notes there. Their belly is their appetite. Not just their physical food appetite, but whatever impulse they have that is their God. I’m going to follow whatever I’m feeling. This must be good, because I’ve felt it. At the end of the day, what they are actually serving and what they are worshiping is themselves. If I have thought of it, if I feel it, it must be good. I’m going to follow that. But that’s not our standard. Our standard is not our impulse. In fact, the person driven only by their impulses is a slave to their impulses. And we don’t want to be a slave to sin. What do we want instead, Theresa? Freedom. We don’t want to be a slave. Sorry. I had to wake her up there. Somebody nudged her. No, no, no, I’m sorry. She wasn’t asleep. She wasn’t asleep. I’m kidding. We want freedom. We’re not a slave. You don’t have to obey everything you feel. You don’t have to do it just because you want to. That doesn’t mean it’s good. Their God is their belly. Their God is their appetite. Look here at the next one. They glory in their shame. I think the way the person to look out for here is the person who is twisted. And I chose that word very specifically because we already saw it in chapter two. Look back at 2:15. You say do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless, innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. He’s already said that this generation there are those who are crooked and twisted, and in our generation and among the Philippians, there are those who are twisting morality. They want to flip it upside down. They want to. In fact, the quote here is from Isaiah chapter five referenced in the notes. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil. Yeah, I’ve seen this on the news where someone who’s pro-abortion will come across a Christian and they will call the Christian who’s anti-abortion. They’ll call them evil. They’ve completely flipped twisted morality upside down, turned it on its head. Woe to… watch out for those. They want to take you off course. They want to tell you that what the Bible says is evil. No, that’s actually good. And vice versa. Watch out for that. And then here as well, he says they glory in their shame. So it’s not just that they are twisted, but also they take glory in it. It’s not just that they do the wrong thing. They want you to celebrate it as well, not just allow it to happen, maybe even hide it. We’re going to take glory in it. This is where we’re going to find our glory, our purpose, our meaning, our delight. And then the fifth warning he gives them here. Their end is destruction. God is their belly; glory in their shame. And their minds are set on earthly things, which means they only live for the moment. So our minds. Colossians three two talks about this. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Our focus is to be above, and we live on earth and engage in earth. But we know this isn’t everything. This is just a temporary moment that’s passing away. It’ll be gone like that. We were at a wedding last night. One of my closest friends, his oldest son got married and we were all sitting there going. Just yesterday, we were at your wedding, just yesterday. And now your son is getting married. How did that happen? Just like that. And so many just live for this moment, this brief moment. But there is an eternity that awaits. Keep your mind on things that are above. Not just this brief moment that will pass so quickly. Set your mind on the things that are on above. We do that by meditating on Scripture. Psalm one is a great passage to memorize– on his law we meditate day and night. Man, make sure God’s Word is absorbed in your life and we’re going to get to next month. Philippians four eight as a memory verse. As we set our mind on these higher qualities, we’ll see those listed, whatever is pure, whatever is noble, whatever is excellent, whatever is honorable, whatever is praiseworthy think about these things, set your mind on them. That’s where our mindset is to be, not just on the temporary, earthly element. These are people to watch out for who want to take you off course. And of course, any one of us, by the way, even as a Christian might display some of this at times, what we’re talking about is a pattern, and we want to grow and change and correct. But if you want to stay the course, be careful who you spend time around. Now the third way here to stay on course. If you look at verse 20, our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. The third way that we make sure to stay on course is to know who you really are. Remember who you really are. Know who you truly are. And I’ve put this set of contrast in your notes because he talked about the enemies of the cross of Christ, but now he gives the contrast to that. Those are the people you don’t want to be like. But who are you truly in Christ? Look at this first word. They are enemies. But then he said in verse 20, but our citizenship is in heaven. They are enemies of God. We are citizens. This would have been such an important word to the Philippians. We’ve talked about this over and over again, how they were so concerned about Roman citizenship. If I was a citizen of Rome, I was more special than everyone else, and there were more citizens there and other Roman colonies. They had a special status as a colony. Citizenship meant everything. But no, no, no, look, as important as you think that is, your citizenship is somewhere greater. You’re a citizen of a greater city. It’s not just here, not just in Rome. But he also points out they seek this destruction. But what do we seek? Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await. We eagerly await. We seek a Savior. We’re not after destruction. We’re after a Savior. We are waiting for one who will come and redeem us all. They are slaves to appetites. That’s how they’re driven along. They have to obey their appetites. But we are called to deny ourselves. Bring up Luke 9:23. All the time. Anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself. Take up his cross, follow me. Part of being a Christian is to say I’m not just going to follow whatever I feel, I’m going to judge it against God’s Word. They glory in their shame. And this is that last contrast. They glory in their shame. We glory in a future hope, in a future hope. And look here at how he describes this. We await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body. The actual wording there is our body of humiliation. And every passing year you get a little more humbled by your body, and you realize I can’t do what I used to do. And even if you’re young, by the way, your body lead you astray all the time. The impulse, the desire that shows up seemingly out of nowhere. But there will be a day where he will come and transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body. We await that future hope, that future glory. Know who you really are, who you truly are. This is who you really, truly, fully are. Keep coming back to this if you want to stay on course, keep coming back to the truth of who you are. And lastly, number four, how do you stay on course? Stand firm in the truth. Look at verse one of chapter four. Therefore my brothers, whom I love and long for my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved, stand firm in the truth we’re called. When you are facing the challenge, the temptation to go off course, come back to his word. Stand firmly in His word. Find your foundation in His word. And as you grow in your faith, that excitement for His Word and anticipation for His Word that should be growing every year, there should be an eagerness that grows, a sense of urgency to be in his word. Now, some of you are already listening to Christmas music because you can’t wait to Christmas. November 1st you had that dial set, endless stream of Christmas music. But that that eagerness, that anticipation. I mean, think about you remember how that was as a kid. You could not sleep the night before. You were like, I wish I could just go to sleep. I want to go to sleep. And then you wake up, it’s Christmas. There was so much excitement, eagerness, anticipation, other settings where there’s eagerness, excitement, anticipation, urgency, wedding night. We had a wedding here not long ago. Devin Dixon, Audrey Puckett, they got married. And right before the wedding, I go downstairs to find Devin, make sure he’s still around. You know, hadn’t escaped or anything. And I go down there and he’s all alone in the choir room, and I thought, who left the groom all alone? You never do that. Right. How dangerous is that? But he was great. He was good. But there was just a nervous anticipation and excitement, as there would be for everyone in that moment. I’m sure Audrey was as well. I wasn’t around her, but there was the everybody there, the parents, everyone. This is an exciting day. We’ve been waiting for this. That should characterize us as Christians. We should have that same sense. And it’s hard, by the way, I get it. Okay? If you’re running a marathon, you might start with excitement and it comes and goes there. Sometimes you’re questioning your life choices. You’re wondering, why am I out here? What am I doing? Why did I decide to do this? Who talked me into this? I’m going to call him and never talk to him again after this. You are going up and down. But listen. And here’s where this all comes back to with the tragedies that affected our city this week. There better be a sense of urgency in your life about walking with Christ. There better be a sense of urgency about making sure you know him and that you’re following him because you’re not guaranteed another minute. The same plane that crashed there. It could have could have been here right now. It could have been anywhere of all. In fact, of all the places that crash occurred. That plane was crossing the country, crossing the ocean. And it crashed in Louisville. I think God is wanting to get the attention of our entire city. I think he’s trying to shout at us, wake up, Louisville, wake up! I’m not going to tarry forever. You can’t just pretend that life is going to go on the way it always had, and tomorrow is going to be just like yesterday. And I can choose to ignore God. There are no guarantees. I can’t plead with you enough if you don’t know him. Or maybe you’ve known him and you’ve been straying and you’re struggling with finding purpose. I talked with a guy about that yesterday. Look, make today a stake in the ground. Today I’m going to commit my life to him. You’re not going to be perfect, but I’m going to commit to follow him. Listen, I’d love to talk with you about that. I’m always down front after. Or sometimes I’m going after you. If you’re not coming to me, I’ll come out and find you. But I’d love to talk with you about what that means to follow him. Don’t wait another day. Let that sense of urgency hit every one of us, and if you know him, take that same sense of urgency and begin praying for someone in your life who doesn’t, and pray and pray that this tragedy would just stir in them a hunger for Christ like never before. Let’s pray. God, we thank you for your word. Thank you that we can stand firm in the truth of your word. Thank you that we find hope and joy and purpose and meaning and life everlasting in you. I pray that daily your word would convict us of sin, that we would confess and turn to you, that we would lean on one another. That you would help us to stay the course. God, if you’re stirring in anyone’s life today who doesn’t know you, would you give them the courage to take a step of faith to follow you? And help each of us here to walk with a sense of urgency every day. We’re not guaranteed another moment. There are thousands and thousands of airplanes in the sky over Louisville every day. But there’s many other ways that we walk by faith and know that this could be it. Would you bring courage? Would you bring hope? Would you bring eagerness, urgency, anticipation? Thank you for saving us. Jesus, we love you. Amen.