Many of us have quoted Paul’s famous words, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” But we often overlook his next sentence: “Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble” (Philippians 4:13-14). Friends, many of us know that we can’t do this life without Jesus. But how many of us have the conviction - as strong as the Apostle Paul does here - that we must be rooted in loving, encouraging relationships with other people who also love Jesus?

Spiritual conversion (aka salvation): the supernatural renewal of a person's heart...the phenomenon of believing in Jesus...living in a state of disbelief and following our own ways to having a newfound love of Jesus and a desire to follow his ways. What does this look like in a person's life? What does a person do who has experienced this? How does one's life change? Really change?

Jesus. The ruler of heaven and earth. Our king. Our judge. Our savior. How does he call us to live? What is it to bow before his sovereign rule? What does it mean to be his servants? To surrender all? What does it mean to live our lives his way...as though he were living through us?

Friends of Renewal Church,

I don't think it's a coincidence that Sunday's text is Philippians 4:2-9 in which the Apostle Paul entreats two leaders in the church who are embroiled in conflict to lower themselves to one another just like Jesus lowered himself to us.

He tells these two leading women to "agree in the Lord," but I think it's intended to sound like, "Please. Come back together in the Lord. Be together in Jesus. May your union in Christ be so fundamental to your identity that no human conflict could draw you into calloused withdrawal from one another."

We are all coping with multiple national tragedies in multiple ways which are dividing some of us who are in the Lord, leading us to move away from one another. This Sunday, my plan is to shepherd our hearts together so that we might meet together in Jesus. Toward humility. Toward repentance. Toward love. Toward hope.

Our daily lives are often so focused on just that - our daily lives, the grind. Paul, in Philippians 3, wants us to engage eternity, with our minds and with our hearts. So let's let eternity speak into our hearts today.