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With Thanksgiving Is it possible we may have made idolatry of thanksgiving to mean what we only do at the end after our expected answer to prayer? If we get the expected result then we thank God who has bowed to our demands and produced what we demanded in prayer. No wonder we have become a thankless generation - ungrateful to God for who He is but instead waiting first for specific prayer answer. Maybe we can learn from Jesus who saw the hungry crowd and with seven loaves and fish in hand began to thank God in the present reality - uncertainty of feeding 5K people with what is at hand. This type of thanksgiving is echoed by Apostle Paul as he wrote his Philippian friends: “6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus”. Philippians 4:6-7 Thanksgiving is the expression of complete

Esteem Others Better than Self? The world encourages us to first take care of self. The instruction in the plane before take-off clearly speaks to this. “If you are travelling with a child or someone who requires assistance, secure your mask on first, and then assist the other person”. Very contrary to Jesus who came to serve and not to be served. Esteem others better than self? You must be kidding. The Philippian Church had conflict without and within. The root of all conflict is selfishness (James 4:1-3). We have conflicts within in our homes (marriage, children, in-laws and outlaws) and even in the Church itself among individuals and camps of people. Paul is now addressing the root and asking the Philippians and us to deal with it. Why? Again for the sake of the Gospel and for the sake of Christ there must be unity. Jesus said they will know us (as His) by our love for one another. “Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of

My Conduct, Your Conduct How we conduct ourselves matters to God for one purpose – for the sake of the Gospel; in essence for the sake of Christ. Our conduct is not the basis of salvation but if you are saved and has Christ living in you, there is an expected conduct (way of living). We established last week that “For to me, to live is Christ”; meaning Christ is doing the living and enabling the doing in me. Let’s hear Apostle Paul encourage his friends, the Philippians – Jesus will complete the good work He started in them and us. We must always answer, Is this how a “Kingdom of God’s” child would act? 27 Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation,[d] and that from God. 29 For to