September 27, 2026 | From Start to Finish
From Start to Finish | Philippians 1:6–7
Philippians 1:6–7
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. (ESV)
In Philippians 1:6-7, Paul’s love and confidence toward the Philippian believers are rooted in the grace of God at work in them. Though they were still imperfect, Paul could remember them with gratitude, pray for them with joy, and hold them in his heart because they shared in the Gospel and were being changed by God’s grace. Their partnership showed itself through sacrifice, defending the Gospel, and lives that confirmed its truth. Paul’s confidence was not based on their ability to reach spiritual maturity on their own. It rested in God’s faithfulness. The God who begins the work of salvation and transformation in His people will carry it through to completion. That truth gives believers hope in their own slow growth and patience toward brothers and sisters who are still growing. God finishes what He starts.
Transcript of From Start to Finish | Philippians 1:6–7
Introduction
Jed Gillis: We're gonna continue in Philippians chapter 1. As we do that, children, if you're headed out the door to children's church, you can go ahead and do that. You're also welcome to stay in here. We're glad to have you with us.
The Drawing Analogy
Jed Gillis: Occasionally, I go online and I look up instructions for how to learn to draw. That's not because I'm good at it. In fact, it's decidedly because I am not good at it. But it's fascinating to me how people can take a 3D reality and then line after line with a pencil, they create something that my brain just can't get from point A to point B.
And sometimes you'll see, if you go on, you'll see these, these kind of funny descriptions where they'll be like, "Here's a four-step process to draw, you know, a moose," or something like that. And step one is, like, rough sketch. That one I can do. You just kinda draw a circle and you draw a little oval, and I say I can do it. My kids would say, "No, you actually can't even do that very well." But I can get closer. And it looks like a little stick figure. And then step two is like, okay, now take your rough sketch and make a rough line drawing. And then step three is like, okay, now really make sure those lines are good and dark. Make sure the angles are exactly what you want.
And then, because it's funny drawing instructions, the next step says, now just add, you know, shading and texture, and all of a sudden it's this beautiful pencil drawing. You know, step three I could sorta do. It looks like a stick figure. Step four, it's like I'm gonna need a lot more steps in between three and four to get there.
Sometimes I think reading scripture can be kinda like that. You can go to the Bible and see, "Love your neighbor as yourself. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Endure when life is hard. Rejoice always. And you can go, "That's a lot easier said than done." Like, I understand all those words, and yet I still, step four feels a very long ways away to actually bring it about in your everyday life when the rubber meets the road. And I think we get a little of that when we see Paul talk.
How Do We Live It Out?
Jed Gillis: Last week, we looked at the way he spoke to the Philippians and really his mindset as he thought about people who had fellowship in the gospel with him, which was that he remembered them over and over. He responded with gratitude when he thought of them. He prayed for them. He continually, repeatedly did this, and then he had joy.
And maybe you hear those things and you think, "Tss, my life doesn't always look like that." You think, "I get the big stick figure ideas. I can say the words." But when you talk about, "Let's add shading and texture," and actually live that out, feels a little bit more difficult. Especially when you know that the people you're supposed to have gratitude and joy for sin.
And sometimes they sin against you. And they're different from you. And they don't always like the same things you like. They don't always dislike the same things you dislike. And you say, "Paul, that sounds really great. Remember them, be thankful, be joyful, pray, do it over and over. Have real fellowship in the Gospel." It sounds wonderful. But how do I actually live that out? On an everyday basis when people aren't perfect and when I am far from perfect.
Paul's Greeting to the Philippians
Jed Gillis: And so I'm gonna continue reading. Really, I'm gonna go back and start in verse three so we get the context. This is Paul's opening to the Philippians. He says, "I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God."
I see what Paul says, and I see a lot of lofty things that I'd say I want to be like that. But it's hard to live it out. It's hard to really have that be true of you in your relationships with imperfect people.
It Is Right to Feel This Way
Jed Gillis: So let's try to get into, like, Paul, how did you do this? 'Cause the people at Philippi were sinful, too. Paul, what is the framework, what's the structure of the way you thought about them so that you could honestly say these things?
So we're gonna start in verse seven. Notice he says, "It was right for him to feel this way about them." He doesn't just say, "I feel like this," he says, "It is right for me to feel this way." That's interesting, and I think the reason for that, imagine if somebody comes up to you and says, "You are just such a godly person. I love your humility, your patience. You're always kind, you're always thoughtful." We go down this whole list, and probably your first reaction, especially if you are actually godly, is, "Oh, you don't know how many times I fail." Right? "Oh, if you really knew me, you wouldn't say all those things." You know, somebody comes along and says, "Oh, you're a fantastic parent or grandparent or husband or wife," and you're like, "Well, if only you knew all the times I'm not."
And I think that's probably why Paul had to say, "It's right for me to feel this way." Because everything we know from the book, I mean, if you read through the Book of Philippians, there's a few things that he says, "Hey, you two need to get along, agree in the Lord." There's a few things, but it's not, like, a lot of correction. You get the idea that you have some, a lot of godly people sitting in this church who really love Paul and love each other and love Jesus.
So probably they hear Paul say, "I thank my God in every remembrance of you, always making my prayer with joy." And they're like, "Paul, you don't really understand. Like, if you really knew me, you wouldn't feel that way." Paul says, "No, it is right for me to feel this way."
Paul's Mindset (Phroneo)
Jed Gillis: Now, the word feel here may mislead us a little bit. This isn't mainly an emotional word. Like, we think of feelings, and we think primarily emotions. The word behind this is actually a very important word in Philippians. It's the Greek word phroneo. If you turn over to chapter two and verse two, "Complete my joy by being of the same mind." That word mind is the same one. If you go to verse five of chapter two, he says, "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus." That's the same word. If you go to chapter three in verse 15, he says, "Let those of us who are mature think this way." That sense of thinking this way is related to the same word.
He uses it several times, and it's not really emotions primarily, but it's also not like a single act of thought. It's like a mindset. Like, if I were to say, "Have this mind in you, which is also in Christ Jesus," if you've grown up around church, probably your thought is, "Okay, there was a pattern of thinking that Jesus had. I need to have the same kind of pattern of thinking."
We could illustrate this, sometimes around athletics we do. We'll talk about a team either playing to win or playing not to lose. That's two very different things, right? We see it all the time. We see a football game and the team's going out and they're winning and they're just killing the other team.
And you get somewhere in about halfway through the third quarter, like, "Oh, we've got it. We're gonna back up. We're gonna play prevent defense." And all of a sudden they lose their edge, they start making mistakes, and they let the other team back in the game. They stop playing to win, in one sense, and they start playing not to lose.
It's a difference of perspective. It's not like a one-time thing. It's not, well, I decided to do this right now. It's a perspective, a mindset, like a whole set of attitudes and dispositions. This mindset. Paul is describing it that way. He's saying, "When I look out at all of you in Philippi, when I think of you, I have a certain mindset, framework towards you."
Which is what we described last week. I remember you over and over. I'm grateful. I pray for you. I do this repeatedly and intentionally, and I have joy because we are partners in the gospel. We have fellowship, or we have friendship in the gospel, genuine, deep friendship in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul says, "It's right for me to have this kind of mindset towards you because of that partnership."
You Hold Them in Your Heart
Jed Gillis: Now, as part of when we talk this morning, I want you to imagine with me that Paul, if he were saying all of this in Philippi, we're gonna imagine that there's a guy sitting up on the front row, and he raises his hand and he's like, "Um, Paul."
We'll call him Simon just to pick a name. Simon raises his hand and goes, "Paul, do you mean it's right to think this way, but it's really hard for you to think this way, right?" 'Cause Simon's not quite tracking with Paul. And we all need somebody who doesn't quite track so we can make sure we understand and the questions get asked, right? So Simon goes, "Paul, you really mean like you wish you could feel this way about us, but we have all these problems, and so it's hard for you to try to get there, right? Is that what you mean?"
Paul continues. Because I hold you in my heart Like, it's right for me to feel this way because I hold you in my heart.
Now again, English words don't always help us. Heart sounds emotional. It's not primarily emotional, although it includes that. It's like at the core of who I am. Paul says, like the real me, the core of why I make decisions and all of that, you are right there. I hold you in my heart.
Because you are all partakers with me of grace. This word partaker is related to the word earlier that we saw in verse five, partnership or fellowship or koinonia. He's going back to the same idea. He's saying there is this kind of connection we have. Last week we talked about it as we have a shared treasure, we have a shared commitment, and we have shared actions that reflect those things. So we have fellowship, friendship, partnership. We could use a lot of different words. Paul's saying, "That's true of us, so you are in my heart at the core of who I am."
Partakers of Grace
Jed Gillis: And Simon could raise his hand again. It's like, Paul, you mean when they do the things you like, right?"
You mean when they don't sin, right? You hold them in, you hold us in your heart like when we check the boxes and perform the right way, right? No, because they're partakers with Paul of, what's that next word? Grace. They're partakers of grace. Paul, here he draws us from fellowship in the Gospel, the announcement of what has been done for us, to say God's motive behind what He did for us, His undeserved favor. He says, "I hold you in my heart because God has poured out His grace. You've participated in that grace. You treasure it. You're committed to it. You love it. God's poured out this favor on you, so you're in my heart."
And their commitment and their treasuring of Jesus shows up in verse seven. At the end, he gives really three different categories. First, he says, "In my imprisonment." Now that probably... It doesn't mean that everybody in Philippi would have ended up in jail. That certainly didn't happen. Maybe some of them did, and actually were imprisoned alongside him. That's possible.
It's also possible that he's, imprisoned, and they are supporting him while he's in prison, which is risky, especially in that day. Because unlike our modern world, if you were going to have food and clean clothing and all that kind of stuff, you needed somebody outside of the prison to come and help you, to come and support you. And by coming to support Paul, they are saying, "Hey, we're with him." You know when somebody's in jail and you come along and say, "We're with him," there's a risk, especially in an ancient world. They came along and helped when Paul, who was imprisoned for the gospel, when he was imprisoned, they came and in a risk to themselves, in sacrifice to themselves, they came and supported him.
That's one way that their fellowship, their friendship showed up. It demonstrated what they treasured. They treasured Jesus more than their own personal prosperity, more than their reputation in the community. They loved Jesus. It demonstrated their commitment. They didn't just forget Paul when he was in jail. They showed that they really did have fellowship in grace.
Defense and Confirmation of the Gospel
Jed Gillis: So in his imprisonment, and then there's two words here which we could separate these out as two slightly different ideas, in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. So the defense is the idea, it's the Greek word we get apologetics from. People will raise objections to the gospel. They'll raise objections to a Christian understanding, and the church at Philippi were trying to answer those objections.
They were partners with Paul in that, in the defense of the gospel, and in the confirmation of the gospel. The idea here is instead of responding to objections, you're demonstrating its validity, like this is real. It's one thing for somebody to come along and say, "I'm not sure I can trust the Bible." And you say, "Well, here's the reasons we can trust the Bible." It's one thing for somebody to come along and say, "I'm not really sure that God saves us by grace instead of by us doing good works." And you say, "Well, here's what scripture says, and here's the defense."
It's a whole different thing for somebody to come alongside and see your life, and by the way you live, and by the way you talk, and by the way you love, for them to say, "I don't know if I trust the gospel for myself, but I sure see what it's doing in them." In the confirmation that this gospel is real, that it's true, that it gives rest and peace.
Paul says, "I see that in you. I know we're partakers of grace because you practically help me when I'm imprisoned. I know we're partakers of grace because you defend the gospel and you demonstrate its truth.
Longing with the Affection of Christ
Jed Gillis: Then he makes this statement in verse eight, "God is my witness, how I yearn for you all, how I long for you." Now, you want the emotional term, this is the emotional term. It's used in 1 Peter 2 to describe the way infants long for milk. If you've been around infants recently, they are not indifferent to milk They long for it. And they'll let you know if they don't have it, right? They long for it, and they're hungry for it, and they need. It's used the same way, same word in James chapter four when it says, "God has a longing for His people"
That's kinda wild if you think about that, right? Like infants long for milk, God longs for His people.
Or in 2 Corinthians 5, we long for a resurrection body. You think, how good's it gonna be when you have a body that never runs down, never breaks, doesn't hurt, it just works the way it's supposed to? How much do you long for that? That's how much Paul longs for the Philippians.
He says, "I miss you and I long for you with the affection of Christ Jesus." Sometimes I think we miss this, too. Commentators have said the most frequent emotional term used to describe Jesus in the New Testament is compassion. That's literally this word. It's translated as compassion, but it's the idea of feeling, like at the core, at the they use bowels to talk about the seat of their emotion. We don't really use it that way, but absolutely the most you can feel it inside you. Matthew 9 says, "When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them." He felt it all the way to the middle of who he is. That's the same word. Matthew 14, "When Jesus went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them."
Matthew 15, "I have compassion on this crowd because they've been out here three days with nothing to eat." Luke 7, "And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her." Or in the story of the prodigal son when the father sees his son coming. He doesn't just love the son out of duty. He doesn't say, "Well, my heart's not really in it, but I guess I should love him."
The text in Luke 15 says that the father saw him and felt compassion. And he ran and embraced him and kissed him. As believers, we experience the same affection that Jesus had towards the crowds, that Jesus had toward the sick, that Jesus had toward the hungry, that Jesus had in all those things, the same affection that the father had toward the prodigal son.
We are supposed to experience that affection for those who belong to Jesus. That's what Paul says. God is my witness how I long for you all. I have this deep compassion for you all with the same affection, with the affection of Christ Jesus.
The Quality of Our Love
Jed Gillis: This whole section, by the way, maybe if you read it, maybe it makes you feel a little uncomfortable. Feels very emotional, right? For Paul to say, "It's right for me to feel this just over the top, overflowing joy towards you all because you're in my heart." And you're like, "Okay, Paul, that's, probably enough." No, he's gonna keep going, right? "I yearn for you. I long for you all." Paul, maybe calm down a little.
But think about this when you go read Paul other places, do you get the idea that Paul is just this like bubbly overflowing guy? Because I don't. Go read Romans. It's like, all right point one, point two, point three, point four, logically all connected. Now he gets to there and like, "Oh, I love the people," and he goes on, right?
So he does have that but he does not always talk like. This is not just an overly emotional person expressing something. This is Paul expressing the depth of the love of Jesus. "I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus."
Sometimes I think we love other Christians maybe out of duty. And we go, "Okay, is that enough? I mean, I tried to love them. It's difficult, but I'll try to care for them." I wanna ask you this question this way. If Jesus loved you the same way you love your brothers and sisters in Christ Would you be happy with that?
I know. Ouch.
Now, Jesus is infinite. He can love everybody at once. You can't love everybody at once. You can't talk to everybody every week. You can't connect with everybody. Of course, I don't mean if you could be infinite like Jesus. I'm not talking about the quantity, like the number of people you love. I'm talking about the quality of that love. If Jesus looked at you and said, "Well, I guess they trusted in me, so I have to love them."
If Jesus looked at you... And we make these kind of jokes, and I understand there's a joke, but if Jesus looked at us and said, "Well, I guess my church is pretty good. It'd be great if it weren't for all the people." It wouldn't fit coming out of Jesus' mouth, would it? That's not the love Jesus has for you. It's not the love Jesus has for me. The power of the Gospel is shown in producing supernatural love, not only for Jesus. But for those who belong to Jesus.
We're not called to love one another just out of duty because the King didn't love us just out of duty. Praise God for that. Hallelujah.
So I wanna ask you again. If Jesus loved you the same way you love your brothers and sisters in Christ, would you be happy about that love?
And while we're asking some diagnostic questions, let's ask how our allegiance to Christ shows up. Does it show up in defense of the Gospel? When there are people around you who aren't so sure that the Christian faith is right, you don't have to know every answer. You don't have to be the next YouTube apologist, okay? But are you willing to say, "No, this is true, and, here's why I believe what I believe"?
That was one of the ways the Philippians demonstrated the reality of their partnership in the gospel. Are you willing to sacrifice to help others whose allegiance is to Christ? Are you willing to risk? To say, "Yeah, I wanna support them." The Philippians did in Paul's imprisonment.
Does your life demonstrate the validity of the gospel, the confirmation of the gospel? If somebody sees the way you emotionally handle day after day. None of us are perfect. We're coming back to that in just a minute. But would they conclude the gospel of Jesus Christ fills my soul with rest and peace? Do you love God's people at the core of your being? Do you have that kind of mindset that Paul describes?
Now, if you're like me, if we make that a report card, you go, "Ah, my report card's definitely not all As." Maybe it's not failing, maybe it is. But you go, "It's definitely not perfect." In fact, maybe I start answering, asking all those questions, and maybe you sit here and because you know you aren't where you want to be, maybe you start to kinda check out and not even really engage the questions because you know you're not perfect. And it's too hard to face it sometimes.
God Finishes What He Starts
Jed Gillis: But this text is not meant to discourage anybody in Philippians, anybody in Philippi. It is not meant to discourage them, and the verse we skipped over is what makes all the difference. 'Cause verse six says, "I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."
When you look at that report card and you go, "I don't measure up where I wanna be," you have to go back and remember God finishes what He starts. In you and in your brothers and sisters.
Okay, so wait. What good work are we talking about here? How does that work? Because, I mean, the Philippians gave money to Paul. They supported him. Maybe that's what they're talking about. No, because look at the way he words it. Verse six, notice carefully, "I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you."
Not through you. Not you're going and doing good things, and so God will make sure all that works out. That's not his point. He says, "God made ... began a good work in you." God started a transforming work. It's the same concept that Paul describes in Galatians chapter 3 where he says, "Having begun by the Spirit, are you now perfected by the flesh?"
Your spiritual life started because God worked by his grace. Then are you going to continue it because you just worked up enough willpower to do the right thing? That's the question in Galatians 3. He's looking at this good work of salvation. We use the word salvation sometimes in a sloppy way.
Sometimes we think of it as only something in the past. We say like, "Tell us how you got saved." And we mean, like, when did you come to faith in Christ the first time and what did that look like? We mean what happened in the past. But salvation biblically is a much bigger term than that. It refers to the whole process where you go from dead in your trespasses and sins to living with God forever. Where you go from, I'm gonna be a new creation. That's something that starts, and then you grow and you're transformed, and one day you're perfectly transformed. You look at this entire thing.
Now, justification, conversion, all of that initial step, that's a point in time. It happens. But salvation is bigger than that. It's really important for us to get that in this text. Because if you only think of salvation as a thing that happened when I was, you know, six years old or whatever, if you only think of it that way, then like, wait, God, what good work are you completing? But if the whole thing is God's good work, really salvation describes the process by which God transfers us, this is Colossians language, from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son.
He gives us a new allegiance, a new kingdom. God has started that in the Philippians, and Paul says, "That good work, God's gonna finish it."
And Paul is confident that God has started this work because of what we looked at last week, because he has seen it in the Philippians' life. He's seen their deep Gospel-oriented, grace-saturated friendship or fellowship. He's seen that in them. He knows they treasure Jesus. He knows they're deeply committed to him, and he sees their action.
And all of that in his mind, this adds up that he says, "God's done something in you. And if God's done something in you, God finishes what he starts."
Every Stage of Life
Jed Gillis: That means I want you to think about a range of different situations. You could add hundreds beyond what I'm gonna say. But I want you to think about when you look at that teenager who's really growing in grace. They love Jesus, and you think, "Man, they're immature. They got a long ways to go." God finishes what He starts.
And when you are that teenager who says, "I really wanna love God, and I mess up" And I don't even wanna tell people how I mess up. God finishes what He starts. He started that good work, He'll finish it. When you look at the 25-year-old who's making life choices you would not make. And you're frustrated by that, maybe they're your kids.
But you say, "No, they, I see their lives. They're partakers of the gospel." Then what can you know for absolute certain? God finishes what He starts. And when you are that 25-year-old and you're wrestling through those choices and you're like, "I don't really know what the right thing is to do. What if I mess it up?
Where am I gonna end up? Am I going to be transformed?" God finishes what He starts. When you look at the 35-year-old who says, "I should not struggle with this sin anymore. I still do. One who says, "I've been fighting this sin for 25 years. Am I ever gonna be better? Am I ever gonna make it? God finishes what he starts.
When you look at the 45-year-old who's trying to figure out how to lead in their family, in their work, in church, but there's all new situations. And they they make mistakes, and they do things differently than you would. What do you do with that? You have confidence in the gospel that God finishes what He starts.
And when you are that person who's trying to figure out that next stage of life, how do I do this so that I keep growing and loving God? Am I gonna mess it all up? Will I get there? God finishes what He starts.
You look at the 55-year-old who's navigating, "How do I live with an empty nest?" It's all different again. I thought I figured all this life stuff out. Now it's all new. Can you look at that with confidence? Can you step into the challenges? Can you do all of that? Yes, because God finishes what He starts.
When you're a new retiree. And you're like, "How do I spend my time and energy? Like, what do I do? what's my purpose?" Many questions to wrestle through. But one thing you don't ever have to doubt, the God who started this work in you, not your career, that's not the point. The God who started this work of salvation, of transformation in you, God finishes what he starts.
And if you're 80 years old and you're tired and you're tempted towards cynicism or complaint. Where am I gonna have confidence to make it all the way to the end? It's not in you It's that God finishes what He starts.
Paul wants them to know that when he looks at them, that's what he thinks. He does not look out at, if he were here, at this room of people and see a collection of your worst days. Praise God for that. He looks out and sees a whole bunch of people that God has started this amazing, miraculous transformation in, and he says, "God finishes what he starts."
Whoever you are, whatever age you are, if you know he has started this work in you, you know he will finish it. I know you aren't yet what you want to be. Neither am I. I know you feel like you're a million miles short, and I know you're tempted to say, "What's the point of trying to keep growing in godliness? I keep failing anyway." The point is that you know God finishes what he starts.
Because think about why do we not finish what we start? There's a lot of reasons we might. Sometimes I just change my mind. I decide this wasn't a good idea anyway, I need to change it. Sometimes I run into difficulties and say, "It's not worth it anymore," so you pivot to a new plan. Sometimes you run out of energy. Sometimes something more important comes up in your life. Sometimes you just lack perseverance.
Which one of those could be true of God? None of them.
No matter how slow it looks, if God started a work in you and in your brothers and sisters, he will finish it. He's never gonna decide it wasn't a good idea. God is never going to look at your life and say, "They're too much work." Transforming them isn't worth it. He's never doing that. He's never running out of energy. He's never saying, "Well, you're too hard to change." He doesn't get into your life and then realize, "Oh, your background's really messed up Your family situation and your habits, they're too bad. It's just too much work to change you. Forget you. Let's find somebody easier." God never does that. God finishes what he starts. Nothing more important comes up. God doesn't have the limits on his time and his energy like we do. He doesn't second-guess, "Is my schedule too busy to transform them?" No, 'cause God finishes what he starts.
Closing
Jed Gillis: As one commentator said, Paul's confidence is not in the Christianity of Christians, but in the Godness of God, who is supremely trustworthy, able, and committed to finish the work he started. Praise God.
That's why Paul can say, "It's right for me to feel this way about you all." Not 'cause they were perfect, 'cause they weren't. Not 'cause they always treated Paul well, 'cause I'm sure they didn't. Not because they had checked the boxes and they were, like, mature enough for their stage in life. Not because of any of that stuff.
Paul said, "It's right for me to have this mindset about my gospel friends, to remember them, to be grateful, to pray, to do it over and over with joy. It's right for me to do this." Why? Because God finishes what he starts. That's why he's excited about it. That's why he loves them like this. That's why he can have this mindset, because he knew. That's what God's doing. So he could love them like Jesus loves them. God finishes what he starts in the Philippians.
God finishes what he starts in you. I know it may not always feel like that, and I know it may feel slow. And when you look around the room and see other people who aren't finished yet, the same God who finishes what He starts in you will finish what He started in them. That's our confidence. Or as the Book of Jude says, rejoicing in God's ability to keep us. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy. To the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
I hope that when you look around this room. And see, brothers and sisters. I hope that we as a body of believers can look around this room and not see. The collection of places where we fail to measure up. Yes, we need to notice those sometimes. Yes, we need to go confront brothers and sisters sometimes. Yes, we do all that. I hope you look around this room and see a whole bunch of trophies of God's grace who aren't yet perfectly polished. You see, God finishes what He starts. Hallelujah.
I wanna invite you just to respond to God in prayer. Worship God. If God's convicted you, do business with Him. Spend a moment in prayer, and then the music team will come up and we're gonna sing together.