We have spent four months studying Paul’s letter to the Philippians, today we will conclude this series by going back over several of Paul’s most famous statements from the letter and seeing that they all have a very common thread. From the beginning we called this series “Bridges of Joy”, the letter is filled with references to joy, callings to rejoice and revelations of contentment. A bridge is something that is built to lead from one place to another especially when the way has been blocked by something that cannot be easily crossed. All men begin in the same place and were created for the same destination. Jesus told us that He is the Way, the only way to the Father, Peter wrote that God wills that none would perish but that all would come to repentance; the destination we were created for is the Father, to live with Him eternally as adopted sons. The chasm or difficult place to cross was caused by sin, but the reality is that sin is not what currently separates men from God, the separation is unbelief. Jesus defeated sin, He defeated death, He took the keys of hell and death and He died for every sin that has been or will be committed, Hebrews says He offered Himself “once for all”. Sin continues to be our enemy but it is no longer what keeps men from God, the only obstacle in man’s way now is a rejection of Jesus as the Son of God. The destination is the Father, Jesus is the Way, unbelief is the obstacle and we, the adopted sons and daughters of God are those that point to the way and announce the greatness of the destination. We are the light of the world and the salt of the earth, we are those that have been redeemed and say so, those that have been reconciled and now live in the ministry of reconciliation, those that have been loved by the Father and now live to love one another and make His love known. Joy then is not a feeling we seek for God to give us, it is a reality we choose because of what God has done in and for each of us. Joy is not caused by external circumstances it is constant because of the eternal reality of adoption. Joy is not like a fire that gets stoked at times and calmed at others, it is more like a pilot flame that never gets extinguished and causes the flame of devotion to rise. We are called to be bridges of joy because we have reached our destination and are now aware of being loved with an everlasting love. That awareness is to become the theme of our life and our work is not to earn, keep or deserve that love, it is all for the purpose of revealing that same great love to those that have not yet been redeemed. The ministry of reconciliation is a work of joy, it is not an effort to be reconciled it is a joyful response to being reconciled. Ambassadors of Christ are not efforting to be chosen by God they are living in the bliss of being chosen and calling others to the same relationship with Jesus that they have been given. Imitators of God are not those that simply mimic or impersonate God from what they have seen or heard in an effort to flatter Him; they are dearly loved children that have been so loved by the Father that their mission in life has become to make Him famous and to spread His love abroad. The statements of Paul in Philippians that we will read one final time today all reveal a common position of his heart that might be uncommon to us. Paul writes: “For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus . . .” and “I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord . . . I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength”. The common thread in all of these statements is that Paul reveals that He is not living for Jesus, as if to prove himself worthy of being loved, he is living from Jesus, confident of being loved, sure of salvation and committed to obedience no matter the difficulty of the direction. The difference between for and from is one letter in terms of how it is written but it is the difference between the perishable and the imperishable in how it is lived out. This morning we will close out the book of Philippians by reviewing these four statements of Paul and asking ourselves if we are living for Jesus or if we are living from Him.