Who's the Gaffer?

Do you ever pay attention to the credits at the end of the movie? How about the author’s acknowledgements at the end of a book? Or the legal jargon at the end of business emails?

I really don’t. I watch the movie, but I don’t care who did the make-up and stunts, and if I want to know who an actor is, it’s easier to find it online. Books, half of you probably don’t read books, let alone anything extra at the end, right? ;)

[Philippians 4:21-23: Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me greet you. All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.]

Along with skipping credits or acknowledgements, how many of you skip genealogies? How about the final greetings of Paul (or Peter or John)?

The book of Philippians was actually a letter Paul wrote the church in the town of Philippi. The words Paul writes were intended for real people. He wrote to teach them, encourage them, disciple them. The things he said were inspired, so they are just as relevant to us today. Through them we are also taught, encouraged and discipled.

In the verses in this chapter, we see some personal comments from Paul towards a specific person or two. Today we read his final greetings. There’s not a sermon with a 3 point outline based on these couple of verses. I don’t have some awesome application of these verses to our lives.

But God had Paul write them for a reason.

It’s easy for me to think that people had it easy in Bible times. I mean they didn’t have facebook or tv or all sorts of distractions like we do today. But these letters were written to people who had their own issues. Sometimes they got along, sometimes they didn’t. Sometimes they did what was right, sometimes they didn’t.

When you are reading the Bible, remember these people are real. They read this letter from Paul and had the option of whether to believe and obey what they read or not. You have that same choice. As we are finished reading through Philippians, are you going to choose believe and obey what you’ve read or not?

1. Skim through chapter 4 and find the names of some of the specific people Paul directs comments towards. Anything interesting jump out at you?

2. The ______________ of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

3. Take a minute and journal your thoughts about this passage:

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These are devotionals written for the teens. A handful of us are taking turns writing, so it may seem like sporadic passages. It all flows nicely for the teens in their devo books though.