After this Sunday, I will pause our series "Your Best Life Ever Now!" for Advent. But this week we will look once more at Philippians in 2025. We gain a window into Paul's personal relationships and how relationships between believers were fostered and treasured in the New Testament time. There were deep and meaningful friendships, some even inseparable. They made generous sacrifices for one another: traveling, giving, caring, learning and suffering together. News and prayers were treasured gifts in the days of foot travel. Surely one of the reasons Paul stood firm as a prisoner was because of good friends. We will consider what the situation was like for them and the shape of Christian friendship. Next week we will begin our Advent series "Grace Required: The Family Tree of Jesus."

This Sunday we continue in our series, "Your Best Life Ever Now." Have you ever received a gift that you absolutely loved? What did you do with it? Most likely you opened it up and started enjoying it in whatever way it was meant to be enjoyed. God has given us an infinite gift. It is called salvation. And we are invited to open it and enjoy it for the rest of our lives. Paul tells us in Philippians to "Work out your salvation." It is a beautiful perspective on the all new life and relationship that God has given us. We will consider what this means, what it looks like and the results it brings.

In our series "Your Best Life Ever Now," we arrive at Philippians 2:5-11. It is one of the most beautiful and profound descriptions of who Jesus is and what he chose to do for us. It also describes how God the Father honors what his Son went through for us. It starts in heaven, comes down to all the ugliness of the earth, and returns to the heavens. This is what our Savior did, what he chose to do. What kind of God humbles himself like that? He's a God of lavish love, unthinkable authority, and unimaginable glory. Jesus lets go of all that was his, empties himself, humbles himself, and dies on a cross, for us. We're told that we should "have the mind of Christ." God intends to help us with this.

In Sunday's passage, we will see Paul encouraging the church in Philippi to live their lives for and with each other. Contrary to what our culture tells us, there are no self-sufficient human beings, and certainly no self-sufficient Christians. We will see that a life lived for others is truly the best life we can live- one marked by unity, humility, and generosity.

In our series "Your Best Life Ever Now" we look at another transformative life perspective from Paul: You are a worthy Citizen of God's Kingdom. We belong to something that God is doing in the world right now to make us ready for the next. What God is doing now is transformative, redemptive and lasting. He tells us 4 things citizens of the kingdom do and he shows us how and why they do them. Come and belong to the Kingdom this Sunday

We continue in our series "Your Best Life Ever Now." Here we see that Paul has a completely new center to universe of his life. This new center changes everything for him. "To live is Christ." Christ is his life. Religion was not his life. Ministry was not his life. Success was not his life. Freedom was not his life. Christ was his life. Jesus was the sun of Paul's solar system. Everything revolved around Jesus. This new center gave him purpose, relationships and hope. Is Christ your center? How does he change these things for you?

Have you ever doubted that you had anything to offer God? You look at others who seem so "gifted" and think, I could never be like that. Or perhaps circumstances have changed for you and you aren't as available to do the things you used to do for God. Or perhaps you feel like a spiritual novice. You don't feel like your life is kind of messy and you feel like all the people around you at church have it "all together." I suspect Paul may have had those feelings, having been a zealous missionary who was now rotting in prison for several years. However, he also discovered something else while there: I am still useful to God. Knowing that lifted his spirits and even brought him joy. Please join us Sunday for our second in our teaching series, "Your Best Life Ever Now."

his week we begin an all new series entitled "Your Best Life Ever Now' through the book of Philippians. Have you ever been in a really negative situation in which, no matter how much you wanted out, no matter how hard you tried, there was almost nothing you could do? If you are in a situation like that, I empathize with you. If you remember one, you're probably happy it's passed. We want out of those situations ASAP and hope never to go back again. Paul was in one of those situations. He was in a Roman prison awaiting trial. While there he wrote a letter to the church he started in the city of Philippi. He was stuck there and there was little he could do about it. But it happens to be one of the most positive letters of all the ones that we have. Paul is encouraged, he is strong, he is confident, he is hopeful. How is it possible to live a positive life in the most negative of circumstances? If that makes you curious, let's try to learn together how he did it beginning this Sunday.