Exhortation to Unity Through Humility

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Pastor David Harris Sr. Philippians 2:1-5

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In saying that, please turn with me to the book, the little epistle to the
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Philippians, to the little book of Philippians, the epistle of Philippians. This is a wonderful, wonderful epistle.
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It's only four chapters, and the reason I chose this, and I have spoken on this very familiar passage from Philippians chapter 2, we're going to only look at roughly four verses today, but I'm going to take up the rest to the next portion of it, of the humility of Jesus Christ and His exaltation.
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But first and foremost, I'm going to speak to you today, not only from the word of God, but I believe something
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I can honestly say with all my heart, soul, and mind, this is something that's very dear to the heart of Jesus Christ.
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And that is, and we will see this, not in detail, but we will see it later as we will turn to it in John 17, you don't have to turn there now, but Jesus prayed about this, that they would be one as we are one, and Jesus was speaking about the
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Father and Himself being one and unison. So the church itself must be in unison.
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Actually, Brother Seth touched on some of this this morning, about humility, and humility is the glue that keeps unity among each other.
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It's the glue, it's the force, it's the bond, and the spirit. The opposite of humility, of course, is pride.
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Brother Keith preached about that, I mean, spoke about that from David's, that's what happened. David got lifted up in pride, he was not being watchful.
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And anytime you see a fall, there's always pride involved. And let me tell you this at just the same, on the same level, that pride is what destroys and divides a church body.
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It's what causes division. So Paul the Apostle speaks to us from Philippians 2, and he's going to speak to us about unity through humility.
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So I'd like to speak to you this morning about the great exhortations of unity through humility, and I believe it's very important for us to see this from the
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Word of God. Now, let me give you a quote by J .C.
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Rowe. He said this, Let us watch against pride in every shape, pride of intellect, pride of wealth, pride of our own goodness.
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Nothing is so likely to keep a person out of heaven and prevent them from seeing
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Christ as pride. So long as we think we are something, we shall never be saved.
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Let us pray for and cultivate humility. Let us seek to know ourselves correctly and to find out our place in the sight of a holy
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God. J .C. Rowe says it just right, doesn't he? In layman's terms, he goes on to say,
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Let us daily strive to copy our Savior's humility. Pride is the oldest and most common of sins.
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Humility is the rarest and most beautiful of graces. Humility like this is one of the strongest evidence of the indwelling of the
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Spirit of God. We know nothing of humility by nature, for we are all born proud.
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To convince us of sin, to show us our own vileness and corruption, to put us in our right place, to make us lowly and self -abased, these are among the principal works which the
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Holy Spirit works in the soul of man. Few of our Lord's sayings are so often repeated as the one which closes with the parable of the
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Pharisee and the tax collector, Everyone that exalts himself shall be abased.
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And he that humbles himself shall be exalted, Luke 18, 14.
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To have great gifts and to do great works for God is not given to all believers, but all believers ought to strive to be clothed with humility.
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I believe that was read today from 1 Peter. The Apostle Peter said that we are to clothe ourselves with humility.
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So we need to look at humble living in the light of the greatest example of all and that's the humility of Jesus Christ and we're going to look at that next
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Lord's Day. But I'd like to focus this morning on some exhortations about unity through humility.
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Let me read the word of God to you this morning from this little epistle. Now keep in mind, the
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Apostle Paul, as he wrote this little epistle, is in a dungeon. He's in chains.
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He's learned to be content in whatever state he is in. Here he is.
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He writes this powerful epistle of joy. He has joy unspeakable, full of glory in the worst of situations, in the worst of circumstances.
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And how can this be? Beloved, it's the Spirit of God on this Apostle's life.
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And the Spirit of God is working and breathing through this Apostle and he writes in the worst of situations and circumstances this epistle of joy to the church.
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And I cannot help but think that this man is pained and burdened in his heart for the church and how the church is divided and how the church is going astray and how they're abiding and devouring one another.
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And he even mentions that in the book of Galatians. He said, you ran well, but who hindered you from obeying the truth?
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But here he speaks from lowliness and humility in a dungeon cell where he's hungry.
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He's in weakness. He's probably lost his eyesight. His eyesight, tradition says, was not very good.
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So he had to get help from others to write epistles. But here he writes it, some with his own hand.
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But yet the Spirit of God is working through this man through weakness. And in his weakness, the
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Spirit of God is strong. And we need to listen, to engage and to hear what he has to say.
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This is what bonds God's people together is humility.
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The Word of God says this, verse one, chapter two, I'm going to read it all the way through verse 11, but we're just going to look at the first four verses today.
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Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the
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Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy in being like -minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
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Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself.
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Let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others.
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Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond slave, and coming in the likeness of men.
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Listen to this. You want to talk about humility? There is the model of humility right here.
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In being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
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Therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him the name, which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of those in heaven and those on earth and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
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Lord to the glory of God the Father. Hallelujah. May God bless the reading of His word from our ears to our hearts this morning.
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Please pray with me. Our Father, and our great
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God, hallowed, hallowed be Your holy, holy name.
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Eternal being, all powerful, all wise, ever present,
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Spirit of the living God, I would pray today to open the eyes of our hearts, that we may behold the
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Lamb of God, O Lord, that we would be sanctified by Your truth, for Thy word is truth.
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Change us, O God, transform us more into the image of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, our
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Master, our King, our Savior. And for this, we would be all careful to give
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You the glory, O Lord. And I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
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There are four important points that I would like to set before you in this text today in Philippians 2.
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I cannot take credit of myself on this outline. I love
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Pastor John MacArthur. I love his outline, so I'm borrowing his outline and I'm going to preach it from the
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Scriptures, but I'm borrowing from his outline, so I'm giving him credits. Really great pastor and a servant of the
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Lord. I could not find a better outline, by the way, so I'm borrowing his. And then,
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God willing, next Lord's Day, we're going to revisit this, look at the last point. But the four points
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I would like for us to look at, along with the text and speaking of unity through humility, is these are the first three points.
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There's four, but the fourth one I'm going to save until next Lord's Day. The first one is the motives of spiritual unity.
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The motives for spiritual unity, which is found in verse 1 and 2. The second is the marks of spiritual unity, verse 2.
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Third is the means of spiritual unity, verse 3 and 4.
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And the fourth, again, next Lord's Day, we will look at the model of spiritual unity, which is found in verse 5 through 11.
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So we have the motives of unity, that answers the question why.
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The marks of unity answers the question what.
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The means of Christian unity answers the question how. And the model of unity answers the question who.
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So you have the marks, I'm sorry, the motives, the marks, the means, and the model.
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Answers the question why, how, who.
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All those are very important. Why should we seek unity? What is unity?
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I meant to say what as well. How do we experience unity? And we will see the model of who is the who.
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Very simple, direct, very practical, and I believe is absolutely essential for the church of the living
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God. Especially in the time when the devil is working very hard to divide the church of Jesus Christ.
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But you know as well as I do, Jesus said, upon this rock I will build my church, and that means it will prevail.
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He's going to build it, and every elect will come into the kingdom. None will be lost.
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That's guaranteed. So the devil can do everything he can to try to divide the church of the living
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God, but there is always a remnant. What is known as the church is not always the church, right?
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And actually I heard this from Pastor MacArthur at a shepherd's conference years ago, and he preached on this from Acts, the book of Acts.
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Actually it's Acts, the continuing Acts of the Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. Not necessarily the
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Acts of the church itself, but it is the continuing works and Acts of Christ, His works, through the power of the
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Holy Spirit, through the apostles, and through the church and believers. But the devil was working very hard to divide the church, and as I said, this is what
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MacArthur said, he says, the church of the tares is very much larger than the church of the wheat.
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That is the truth. Well, how's the tares going to be divided?
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Well, the Lord knows exactly how to do that. Just in your devotional time, look at the parable of the tares and the wheat, and that answer is given.
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It will happen at the last when the Lord comes, and He's going to sift and He's going to divide, but the church of Jesus Christ will prevail.
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Let's look at the motives for spiritual unity. The motives of spiritual unity is given to us in verse 1 and 2.
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Paul says this, Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if there is any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the
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Spirit, if any affection and mercy. So there you have the text before us.
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Now, Paul is also saying, I desire you to be like -minded.
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It's the same thing as he says in chapter 1 verse 27. As you see, verse 27,
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Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent,
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I may hear of your affairs that you stand fast in one spirit.
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Notice he says one spirit. With one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.
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Striving together for the faith of the gospel. Paul repeats this again in Ephesians.
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One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all is in you all.
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This is critical because it speaks of a oneness. There's a unity.
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And again, what divides this is the awful sin of pride.
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This is where we must take heed. But Paul gives exhortations of how to battle this with humility.
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Now, it's the same thing he says in chapter 1 verse 27, which
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I spoke to you. And now he tells them why he wants them to be one mind.
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He means of one mind and how they could be of one mind. This is very, very practical, isn't it?
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Motives, tells us why. Important for us to maintain the unity of the faith in the church.
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Why is it important for us to have one spirit? Why is it important for us to be like -minded?
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Why is it important for us to be striving together for the faith of the gospel? Is it not to eliminate any conflict?
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There's always conflict, but it can eliminate conflict, especially unnecessary conflict.
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Is it not to eliminate discord among the brethren? And by the way, if you look in Proverbs, God hates those that sow discord among the brethren.
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God is one of the seven abominable sins that God hates. The first is those that lift themselves up a haughty look, a haughty spirit.
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And beloved, take heed as Matthew Henry says, the awful sin of pride is what turned an archangel into a devil.
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Search our hearts, O God. Now, all that's important, extremely important because it's biblical.
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The four motives are given here in verse 1, in addition to verse 2.
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And notice with me, therefore, he says, if therefore there is any consolation, any encouragement in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the
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Spirit, if any affection and mercy. And the
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Philippian believers' biggest battle was not actually with their external circumstances, but it was with their internal attitudes that destroyed the unity that causes division among the body of Christ.
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Paul had demonstrated to the church here at Philippi his own refusal to let external circumstances to control his attitude.
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Look at what condition he's in. He's in a dungeon. He's in a jail cell.
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He's being mistreated, but he does not allow those circumstances to control him.
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He rises above them because there is an internal strength, and that strength was
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Christ in him, the hope of glory. And so is Christ in us as well.
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Therefore always ties together his conflict and their conflict there.
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If you look at verse 28, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of the salvation that is from God.
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For to you it has been granted on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake.
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You got to realize, here we are, as Brother Keith mentioned that this morning about David, he's in Zion, but these brothers and sisters in Christ in the early church, suffering was a normal thing.
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Suffering was a normal thing. And to suffer for Christ's sake, to be persecuted for Christ's sake, and as you well remember when even
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Paul and Silas was beaten and chained, they started singing before God, but they counted it, they rejoiced and counted themselves worthy to suffer for Christ's sake.
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It was a joyful thing. The world would look at you crazy if you do something like that, but it's the spirit of the living
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God, and we know while we take joy in that kind of suffering, I don't think we can relate to that personally, but there's a lot of suffering going on right now in third world countries with brothers and sisters, believe me.
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And then he says in verse 30, having the same conflict, which you saw in me and now here is in me.
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Paul set the example, but it's amazing, isn't it? As he continues to write, he doesn't set himself up as the example.
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The model is Jesus Christ. And that's why Paul can say this, is because he looked to Christ.
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It was Christ and Christ alone that gave him the joy and all that he has in Christ.
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We know how his life ended. Under Nero's decision,
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Paul was beheaded. Like most of all the other apostles except for John, they all suffered and counted it worthy to suffer for Jesus' sake.
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Paul has a great burden here, beloved, and this burden is very real.
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It comes from the heart of God. I really believe here at Redeeming Grace Church, if we look to this,
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God's going to keep and strengthen us because we look to Christ. And you think about what is laid out before us from verse 1 to verse 4.
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It's not about ourselves. It's about others. The motto of a little
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Pentecostal college seminary I went to a little small group of Pentecostal believers.
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I don't agree with the Pentecostal doctrine, but there's one thing I really appreciated from them. They were the most selfless people
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I've ever seen in my life. And their motto at that college was called, live for others.
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Live for others. Praise God. And isn't that what should mark us as a
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Christian? Number one, we live for Christ. Paul said it. For to me to live is
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Christ. But to die is gain. But in the process of that dash between the time we're born to the time we leave this world, it's living for Christ.
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It's living unto God and for His glory, but it's living for others. It's all about reaching and serving and loving.
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It's not about ourselves. And I really do believe this, beloved.
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This is why God is removing these celebrity preachers because it's not about them.
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God will share none of His glory with any of them, to no one.
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He removes them. Many of them are being disqualified.
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Rightly so. Rightly so. And I pray they do get restored to the faith, but that comes through humility, comes through accountability, comes through repentance, and they can be forgiven.
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But as far as coming back behind the pulpit to speak for the Lord Jesus Christ and speak the word of God to the body of Christ, they are cast away, disqualified.
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Biblically, they should be. As Peter says, judgment begins in the house of God.
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God will continue to expose anyone. Even if it's things that's done in private,
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He can expose it publicly. Be sure your sins will find you out, as Numbers 23 says.
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Well, here we have it. We have, is there any consolation in Christ?
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He is not speaking of doctrinal abstractions. He's speaking of the present practical spiritual experiences.
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We, notice the we. We could read this, this verse, this way, since or because there is consolation in Christ, encouragement in Christ, because there is consolation in Christ, the fellowship of the
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Spirit, because of their affection and compassion, He says, make my joy complete by being of the same mind.
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Because of all these things, there are driving motives. These are the truths that should compel us, as the love of Christ compels us.
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And that's what compelled the Apostle Paul. The love of Christ compelled him for the souls, for the love of the church.
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The love of Christ compelled him for everything he did in the church. And he felt he had a great debt to pay, not because of the salvation, he knew that debt was paid for, but for the church's sake, because once he was a murderer of believers.
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What a burden. And he felt like, well, he should give all that debt to grace.
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This is what should motivate us. And what should it be? The consolation in Christ.
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Think of that. Is there not great consolation in Jesus Christ this morning?
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Beloved, no matter what you and I go through, is there not consolment and consolation in Jesus, that He is the man of sorrows?
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I had a guy with me, not in my notes, but this is something that fits right here.
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This man's not a Christian. He's 65 years old. He could outwork me from 5 to 10 to 1.
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And I thought, wow, I thought I had pretty good work ethics. This man right here is like a workhorse, a
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Trojan. Well, he shared with me a little bit about some things he went through years back. He said he had two brothers years back that died in a horrible car crash.
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I said, oh, brother. I didn't call him brother, but I said, oh, my friend. What a tragedy.
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And then he mentioned that I also had a 6 -year -old child that got ran over by a car.
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I almost started crying before him. I said, look, I had no idea.
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I said, I don't know your pains, but Jesus knows your pain. I didn't try to preach to him.
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I just said, but I tell you what, in a practical way, my friend, no one knows that pain like Jesus.
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Jesus is the man of sorrows, acquainted with our grief. And he looked at me and said, yes, you're so right.
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I pray that was a little seed for him to look to Jesus. And he told me, he said, every day, he's 65 years old.
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This happened back when he was young, when his little 6 -year -old girl got ran over. He said,
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I think about it every day. But yet, there is great consolation in Jesus.
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Amen? If you look at some of the hymn writers, we sing them quite often here.
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It is well with my soul, Spafford and all these great hymns.
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There's much suffering. There's much suffering there. But in that suffering, there's joy unspeakable, full of glory.
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And Christ is exalted because he's a man of sorrows. Hallelujah, what a
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Savior we have. He's acquainted with our griefs. He knows your pain. He knows all that you're going through.
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And Paul said, if there's any comfort, consolation in Christ. Luke 2 .25
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says that the one basically summarizes it. That Jesus is given titles.
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But here in Luke 2 .25, Jesus the Messiah is given the title, the consolation.
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That means the encouragement of Israel. He is Israel's consolation.
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He is God's people's consolation. Encouragement.
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If you want encouragement, it's in Christ. And where Paul goes with this is, well,
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Christ gives us encouragement. Then, therefore, we should encourage one another. Barnabas was known as the son of encouragement.
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And that was Paul, the apostle's mentor. Paul could say in 2
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Corinthians 1 .5, for as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.
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2 Thessalonians 2 .16, Paul says that God has loved us and given us.
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Listen to this, an everlasting consolation and good hope by grace.
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C. H. Spurgeon said this, The Holy Spirit consoles, but Christ is the consolation.
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He goes on to say, if I may use the figure, the Holy Spirit is the physician, but Christ is the medicine.
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Hallelujah. Aren't you glad? If there's any consolation in Christ.
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Next is, if there's any comfort of love. Comfort of love, that word love is agape,
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God's love. It's the highest love of any love. There's other loves in the Greek, there's phileo, eros, where we get the word fellowship, friendship, eros, erotic love.
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But the highest love is the love of God and Jesus.
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Paul's second question here, in a sense, is passage affirming the great comfort of love.
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Every child of God should know what it is to have Jesus, to give him the comfort of love.
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He gives us not only consolation, but comfort. 2 Corinthians 1 .3
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says that God is the God of all comfort. There is no way that cannot comfort us, and no circumstance beyond us is comfort.
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But this is just more than just comfort, beloved. This is comfort of love.
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You see that, there's a difference. So many people look for encouragement, don't they?
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We all need encouragement, the consolation, but it's in Christ.
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If you really want real encouragement, it's in Christ. If you really want comfort, it's in love.
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All this is from God, it's God's gifts to us. You see how gracious our
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Heavenly Father is? The word comfort in this passage is like the ancient
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Greek word parakletos. It's the idea behind the word for comfort in the
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New Testament. It's always more than soothing sympathy, but it has the idea of strengthening and helping, of making one strong.
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And Paul said that in Ephesians as being brought out this morning. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
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It's not our might. Our might's nothing. Our joy is nothing.
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It's the joy of the Lord that's our strength, right? It's the love of God that compels us.
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It's the idea of strengthening, helping, making strong. The idea behind this word is communicated by the
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Latin word for comfort, fortis, which also means brave, encouragement.
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The love of God in our life makes us strong in the Lord. Makes us brave.
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Comfort of love, comfort of agape. Paul's third question here is if there's any fellowship of the
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Spirit. What about the fellowship of the Spirit? It's a great value of fellowship of the Spirit.
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Just not mere fellowship. If you just got mere fellowship, why people go to churches, there's a lot of fellowship.
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There's a lot of country clubs that could give you fellowship. But this is different.
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This is talking about fellowship of the Spirit. Isn't that the truth? The Spirit of the living
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God. Commentator Trapp says this, The Lord doeth usually and graciously water the holy fellowship of His people with the dues of many sweet and glorious refreshing so that they have a very heaven upon earth.
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Amen. End quote. And how can we not think about that wonderful psalm that I've pointed out a few weeks ago.
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Brother Keith mentioned it too. It's that wonderful psalm that only has three verses.
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The blessed unity of the people of God. A song of a sense of David. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.
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How good it is! It is like the precious oil upon the head running down on the beard of Aaron.
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Running down on the edge of his garments. It is like the dew of Hermon descending upon the mountains of Zion.
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For there the Lord commanded the blessing life forevermore. And if you notice what David is basically saying, it comes down from the
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Father of lights. It comes down from God. It's like God is pouring it down like anointing oil, like dew coming down.
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It comes down, descends upon us because it comes from God. Isn't it wonderful?
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God condescends. God gives from above. He comes and you look, how can he do this to such vile, debased creatures and loves us so much with an everlasting love in Jesus.
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But this is how he desires to bring us in through Christ and strengthen us in oneness and unity.
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This is the bond. Folks, this is the bond. Brother Keith, I never will forget as you told the children, it wasn't for children, it was for all of us.
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He did this a couple of years ago when we were at the other church building. He brought up one stick and Felicity, I believe, came up and Brother Keith said, here, take this one stick.
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Can you break it? Pop. But good illustration, Brother Keith. Then he put a whole bunch of, a lot of sticks together and did try to break it.
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I can't, she couldn't break it. Well, that's the way it is with the bond of the Spirit, the unity together, the strength of it, more cords wrapped, making it stronger, stronger, and stronger.
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That's the way the power of God is. Constellation in Christ, comfort is the law of fellowship and the
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Spirit, affection and mercy, communicated to us both in a directly spiritual way from Jesus and from Jesus through His people, for His people.
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Now, the basic exhortation that the Apostle Paul gives to Christians here in Philippi was verses 2 through 4.
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This is an exhortation. Paul gives specifics of the exhortations regarding love and humility among believers.
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Next is the marks of spiritual unity. The marks. Verse 2,
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Fulfill my joy in being like -minded, having the same love, being of one accord and one mind.
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Where have we heard that before? I believe we've heard it in Acts 2.
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If you go with me to Acts 2, listen to this. Verse 40,
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And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation.
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That's a good exhortation, isn't it? That's what we should be telling the world. Be saved from this perverse generation.
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Perverse, wicked, vile, crooked.
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God makes the crooked straight. Then those who gladly received
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His word were baptized. And that day, about 3 ,000 souls were added to them.
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God did this. This is church growth, God's way. And they continued steadfastly in the
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Apostles' Doctrine. Here it is. Number 1, the Apostles' Doctrine, fellowship to third, breaking of bread, and in prayers.
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There is the blueprint of church growth. God's way. Then the
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Bible says, Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the Apostles.
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Now all who believed were together. Notice that word, together. And had all things in common.
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All things. Not some. And sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had a need.
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They were givers. They were givers. And they gladly gave because they knew how much
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God has given folks in Jesus. They were helping the church, those that had need, the widows, the poor, whoever it was that had need, they said, no problem, we got it.
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Verse 46, so continuing daily. Listen to this. Daily, with one accord, there it is, in the temple, breaking bread from house to house.
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See, it wasn't just in the temple, it was house to house. They ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart.
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Oh, how we need this today. And what else were they doing? Look at verse 47.
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They were praising God. How about praising God? Praising God and having favor with all the people.
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And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. If you jump to chapter 4, look at verse 32.
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And I like to bring something out beautiful here. Notice what it says in verse 32. Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart.
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It was not only one accord, it was one heart. And one soul.
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One. Neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own.
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But they had all things in common. Notice verse 33. And with great power, the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the
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Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There's great power, there's great grace, and look to chapter 5, after God killed
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Ananias and Sapphira by lying to the Holy Spirit, and verse 5b, so great fear came upon all those who heard these things.
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Verse 11, so great fear came upon all the church, and upon all who heard these things.
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Great fear! Beloved, I'm telling you what, you want to see a real revival? Let great power of giving witness to the resurrection of the
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Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them, and produces great fear when sin is exposed, and God deals with it.
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That'd be revival. And what did it say? Verse 13, yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly.
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They wouldn't dare join that church because they knew, they knew they would be exposed, unless they repented.
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Oh beloved, this church was pure. God help us where we are today.
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May God search our own hearts. Where there's marks of spiritual unity, fulfill,
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Paul says, my joy in being like -minded. Like -minded.
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Jesus, our Lord Jesus, had a passion for His church to be pure, beloved.
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The head of the church made it a priority as he prayed for the unity of the church.
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Go with me to John chapter 17. This is actually the
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Holy of Holies of the Gospel of John. We're going through the
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Gospel of John, and I'll tell you what, it's going to take us some time, if God willing we ever get to chapter 17, but this is the
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Holy of Holies. Charles Spurgeon says of chapter 17, verse 20 to 26, he says,
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It is significant, beloved, that the Savior should in His last moments,
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His last moments, not only desire the salvation of all His people, but should plead for the unity of the saved ones, that being saved, that they might be united.
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It was not enough that each sheep should be taken from the jaw of the wolf, He would have all the sheep gathered into one fold under His care.
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He was not satisfied that the members of His body should each of them be saved as a result of His death,
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He must have those members fashioned into a glorious body. Unity lying so very near the
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Savior's heart at such a time of overwhelming trial must have been held by Him to be priceless beyond all price.
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End of quote. And Jesus prays to the
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Father, listen to this. First He prays, I'm not going to read the whole chapter, but Jesus first of all prays for Himself, and there's a reason for that, because He's asking the
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Father in that hour to glorify the Son that Your Son also may glorify You.
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Because it was all about the glory of God the Father. Verse 5,
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And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
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That's so deep. Verse 6 to verse 19,
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Jesus begins to pray for oneness and for His own disciples, for His very own.
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Do you notice here that Jesus never prays for the world? That doesn't mean that we should not pray for the souls, but the priority of the
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Lord Jesus Christ was to pray for His own. How critical it is for myself to pray for the church, for you to pray for one another, and that we all to pray together in the
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Spirit, and by the Spirit, in the power of the Spirit, but we ought to pray that Christ would strengthen us and care for us, and whatever it may be, to pray for one another, right?
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Well, lastly, in verse 20 to 26, Jesus basically is praying for the unity of all believers, all of them.
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Notice what He says in verse 20, I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word.
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That's us. And we'll believe. And what does He pray?
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What's the very first thing He mentions? That they all may be one as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent
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Me, and that the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one,
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I in them, You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one, notice how many times
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He says one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, that's how the world may know that we are one, and have loved them as You have loved
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Me. And then He says this, Father, this verse right here, this causes me to weep every time,
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I desire that they also whom You gave Me as a love gift may be with Me where I am.
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Listen to what He's praying, folks. He's praying that we would be with Him. That they may behold
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My glory, which You have given Me, for You loved
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Me before the foundation of the world. I'll stop right there. Notice what He's saying. We so desire that with that wonderful hymn that we may behold
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His face, but beloved, you know Jesus desires to behold your face. I want you to think about that.
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He desires to see you even more than you desire to see Him. What such wondrous love is this.
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Oh my soul. There you have the great prayer of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. That's another sermon on top of a sermon, but we need to catch everything by the
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Spirit here before us. Well, there's so many other things
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I could say here. Paul believes in the unity of the church. It was upon his heart, this was his burden, but always in truth, right?
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Never apart from truth. Not for unity's sake, as J .C.
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Rowell says, but it's always in truth. It's a great concern to Paul's heart, and the heart of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Paul gives to us this letter to the Philippians from a prison cell and a dungeon with this burden upon his heart.
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Where these verses 1 through 4 give to us the most concise, practical understanding of true unity, honestly, in the
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New Testament. In other words, the Apostle Paul is telling them how
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Christians should live, how they should behave, how they should walk, how they should act in a behavior before God and before man.
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So in these verses, the Apostle Paul says this fourfold exhortation.
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Namely, unity in humility. Fulfill my joy, he says.
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Well, I didn't get to the means. I can hold that until next
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Lord's Day because I need to conclude this. We can hit the means and the model next
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Lord's Day. But I would like to bring out something. And by the way, the means is the how, the model is who.
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He tells us how. He tells us how in verse 3 and 4.
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Basically, we have a fallen nature and we even fight against that fallen nature even though we're redeemed.
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We must put to death the self -centeredness that the world does not highly regard.
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Humility, that's a virtue. You know, what does the world highly regard? It's pride.
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It's the opposite. It's what God hates. The Word of God places the utmost importance on the virtue of humility.
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We'll deal with that Lord's Day next week. But I would like to bring a conclusion. Ephesians 4 .3
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says, being diligent to persevere the unity of the
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Spirit in the bond of peace. In the bond of peace, God's peace. The peace that surpasses all understanding.
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In this application, I would like, and I chose this from something
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I read from Thomas Smith. And by the way, Thomas Smith is a godly man.
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He was born in 1808. He died and went home to be with the Lord in 1873.
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But he gets this 12 rules for promoting harmony among church members.
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Yes, he was a godly Presbyterian preacher. But he gets these, actually these were not original.
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He gets it from William S. Plummer. Godly man. By the way, Ben's father,
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Brian Allen, loves Plummer. He has a devotional, doesn't he, Ben? And he constantly just, if you want to read
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Plummer, Brian Allen posts this on our group text all the time. So actually, this originally came from Plummer.
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But Plummer gets it from the Scriptures. And I've chosen this because I really believe that this would help us in application of how we can safeguard the unity of redeeming grace church in the name of the
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Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. And how we could fulfill what Jesus said in John 13, 34.
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A new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
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And believe me, redeeming grace church, you do show that love.
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I just want to just pour more oil and more fuel on the fire that you would burn for God in the sense and have a blaze for God's glory and love one another as Christ has loved us.
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Here they are. There are 12, he called it, rules for promoting harmony among the church members.
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Number one, to remember that we are all subject to failings and weaknesses of moral character of one kind or another.
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Matthew 7, 1 -5 and Romans 2, 21 -23. Two, to bear with and not magnify each other's weaknesses.
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Galatians 6, 1. To pray for one another in our social meetings in particular in private.
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James 5, 16. Fourth, to avoid going from house to house for the purpose of hearing news and interfering with one another's business.
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Leviticus 19, 16. Five, always to turn a deaf ear to any slanderous report and to allow no charge to be brought against any person until well -founded and proved.
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Proverbs 25, 23. Six, if a member be in fault, to tell him in private before it is mentioned to others.
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Matthew 18, 15. Folks, this is just Christianity 101.
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We need to practice. I'm starting with myself. If you want to be more spiritual, more godly, here it is.
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Number seven, to watch against, he says shyness, but actually that word means viewing others with distrust or suspicion.
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To watch against distrust or suspicion of each other and put the best construction of any action that has appearance of opposition or resentment.
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Proverbs 10, 12. Proverbs 10, 12. Number eight, to observe the just rule of Solomon, that is to leave off contention before it is meddled with.
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Proverbs 17, 14. Number nine, if a member has offended, to consider how glorious, and I love this, how godlike it is to forgive.
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And how unlike a Christian it is to revenge. Ephesians 4, 2, that we are to forgive one another as Christ has forgiven us.
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Ten, to remember that it is always a grand artifice, and that artifice means a deceptive means of getting something, a trick of the devil, to promote distance and aminosity, which means hostility, among the members of churches, and we should therefore watch against everything that furthers his end.
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James 3, 16. The last two are very powerful.
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Eleven, to consider how much more good we can do in the world at large, and in the church in particular, when we are all united in love, that we could do when acting alone and indulging a contrary spirit.
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John 13, 35. Twelve, lastly, to consider the express injunction, that word injunction basically means command, so he's speaking of the express command of Scripture and the beautiful example of Christ as to these important things.
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Ephesians 4, 32, 1 Peter 2, 21, John 13, 5, and 35.
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So there you have it. One day,
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God willing, Brother Ben and myself, we're going to put this down in print and say this right here is something redeeming grace church, we want to set before us.
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This will help us keep the bond of the unity in the Spirit. Unity and peace are a duty well -pleasing to God, beloved.
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God is the author of peace and not confusion in all churches. And God's Spirit rejoices in the unity of our spirits, but on the other hand, where strife, divisions are, the
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Spirit of God is grieved. It quenches the Spirit of God, it grieves the Spirit of God.
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It is the apostle that no sooner calls upon the Ephesians not to grieve the
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Spirit of God, and as he presently adds, a remedy against that evil, that they are to put away bitterness and evil speaking.
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And he says in Ephesians 4, 32, and be kind to one another and tenderhearted, forgiving one another, and even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you.
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Think of that, folks. We are never ever,
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I should say, we are ever more like Jesus Christ when we forgive one of the greatest marks of the
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Christian life. Look at how forgiving God is. Look at how much
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He's forgiven you. Unity and peace are pleasing to God. He rejoices in the
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Spirit, so He rejoices the heart and spirits of God's people. Unity and peace brings heaven down, folks, upon earth among us.
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Paul said it. The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the
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Holy Ghost. Romans 14, 17. Hebrews 12, 23.
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To the general assembly and the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven, listen to the apostle here, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.
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Bunyan said this. John Bunyan. I love this Puritan. Let me close with two
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Puritans and say a prayer. The unity and peace of the church make communion of saints desirable.
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What is that embitters church communion and makes it burdensome but divisions?
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Have you not heard that many complain that they are weary of church communion because of the church contention?
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But now, where unity and peace are, there are
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Christians long for communion. And Thomas Madden drives it home right here.
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Our union is from God and in God and to God. From the
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Spirit, with God, through Christ. The whole Trinity.
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Think of this. He says the whole Trinity is concerned in this union. And by the communion of the
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Spirit, we are mystically united to Christ and by Christ to God. The Father is, as it were, the root.
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Christ is the trunk. The Spirit is the sap. And we are the branches and our works are the fruits.
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This is the great mystery delivered in the Scriptures. Christ doeth not only dwell in us by faith, but God dwelleth in us, and we in God, and the
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Spirit dwelleth in us. I thought, wow. Did y 'all get that?
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That's a seal upon a seal. Amen and amen. Let's pray.
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Our Father and our God, Lord, we worship You and we thank
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You for Thy Word. Thank You, Father, that Your Word sanctifies us to be more like Jesus.
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Lord, chop away with the axe, the divine axe, to the root of the tree of anything,
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Lord, that's displeasing to You. Help us to search our hearts,
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Lord, of any pride. And Lord, may we be found looking to Jesus with humility.
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Lord, You said You resist the proud. You oppose the proud, but Lord, You give grace to the humble.
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Lord, You desire us to have broken hearts, contrite of heart.
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This pleases You, Lord. And Lord, help us to now humble ourselves before Your mighty hand that we may be found in You, Lord, and may it exalt us in Your due time.
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Lord, we thank You for this time of worship. Lord, make us, our prayer is,
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O Lord, mold us, make us, break us, whatever it takes. Use us,
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Lord, for Your glory, I pray, for Jesus' sake and for Your church's sake.