Philippians 2:1-4 (Audio only)

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Title: THIS CAN’T BE MY LIFE (part 3 of 4) Date of sermon: 11/22/20 Passage: Philippians 2:1-4

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The following sermon is by Nathan Hargrave, the teaching pastor at 12 Five Church in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
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We want to welcome you and thank you for tuning in. Our prayer is that this message will help you grow in your knowledge of God, so that you might be equipped for every good work.
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That's the word 12 and the number 5, church .com. You can also securely give to the ministry under our donation section.
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And now, seeking to equip believers for every good work, here's 12 Five Church teaching pastor,
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Nathan Hargrave. Finally made it to chapter 2 of our study through the book of Philippians.
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So go ahead and turn with me to chapter 2 of Philippians. We're going to be looking at verses 1 through 4 this morning.
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Starting there in verse 1, it says,
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So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord of one mind.
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Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves.
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Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others.
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Let's go to the Lord in prayer again. Dearly Father, Lord, we thank you for bringing us back together again today.
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And God, we thank you for your grace in our lives as we have just sung these songs, these truths about you.
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I pray that you would have been honored in our worship through song and through prayer. God, I pray right now as we open up your word that you would illuminate our minds and hearts.
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God, I pray that you would guard me from error. I pray that as I speak this morning that it would be in alignment with your word and your truth.
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And in particular, these four verses here in the letter to the church at Philippi, God, I pray that I would be true to this text.
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God, I pray that you guard me and speak through me in this. Lord, I pray that you would allow this truth to penetrate our minds, renew our minds, and work its way out through our hearts, that we would go out from this place after hearing your word, being doers of the word and not just hearers only.
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In Christ's name we pray. Amen. September 11th, 2001.
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I mean, all I have to do is say that date, and those of us that are old enough, you know exactly what
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I'm talking about, don't you? As a matter of fact, you're probably being taken back to that space now, wherever it was that you were when this tragic day happened.
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You probably remember it well. And for those of you that are younger, maybe the kids in here that don't know what
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I'm talking about by just saying a date, that was the day that the terrorists flew planes into the
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World Trade Center buildings in New York City, killing, I believe it was 2 ,974 people and injuring more than 6 ,000 more people.
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But those of us that are old enough to remember this, you probably remember the fear and the heartbreak of the whole process when you were watching it on TV, and even the aftermath, the few days afterwards, just seeing the devastation of what had happened, this fear that was all throughout the country.
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Everyone felt it. We all felt it. But you also probably sensed over those few days unity.
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The fact that this country, America, had began to unify.
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And it really didn't matter who was in office. If you remember, George W. Bush stands at ground zero, speaks to the
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American people, and it didn't matter if you were Democrat, Republican, Independent, whatever that might be, you were unified because you had one purpose.
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There was one purpose, and that purpose and that common goal was to, one, rebuild, and two, to bring justice.
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And everyone was together, and it seemed as though for a moment that America was finally one nation, because we were all unified under one cause.
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But you also probably recall that that unity didn't last long. We seemed so unified in the moment, but that unity started to slip away as differing opinions and different perspectives and all of this infighting and partisan politics came back into the scene, and we started to have disunity with our neighbors again, and that unity just kind of slipped away.
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And now here, right around 20 years later, we're more divided as a country than we ever were.
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So why is that? Why can America, under such dire circumstances, and something as catastrophic and large as 9 -11 happen, but yet unity can't maintain?
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Why can't we maintain it? It doesn't last long. Well, first of all, it's because the sinful entities of this world will always be in derision, won't they?
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They'll always be in derision. There's only one kingdom that will stand, and it will stand in unity, and we're going to see that today. But secondly, and more specifically, the governments and the rulers of this world, they have no foundation.
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They have no foundation. They are on sinking sand. They're on sinking sand, and they cannot and will not maintain because all men do whatever is right in their own eyes, and that's all this is, is just a group of people doing whatever is right in their own eyes.
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They can't maintain. They can't have unity. The only common bond that the people of this world have is that of love of self, and that can't unify.
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You can't be unified with others when you are isolated on an island of self, and that's what the world is.
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But unfortunately, the church often finds itself in this conundrum of disunity also, doesn't it?
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We see it in the church. We see Christians unify for a moment. We see ministries unify for a moment.
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We see churches unify for a moment only to watch it drift away. It's kind of like holding water in your hands.
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No matter how badly you want to hang on to it, it slips through your fingertips, and that unity always seems to go away, doesn't it?
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It always seems to slip away from us, and I would say that this disunity is more often than not blamed on doctrine.
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You've heard the statement, doctrine divides. Doctrine divides, and while I agree with that statement, doctrine does divide.
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It divides truth from error, but that's not what they're meaning when they say that doctrine divides. What they're saying is that if we would just get rid of this divisive doctrine, these hard stances that you're taking, then we will finally be able to achieve this utopian
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Christian world and life and church and unity.
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We'll be like the church in Acts, won't we? If we were like the church in Acts, we'd be suffering persecution and losing our jobs and being fed to lions, but that's okay.
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But we will finally be like the church in Acts. We will be unified in this utopian perspective, and this perspective,
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I would argue, is no different than America after September 11th because they seem unified for a moment, but it will always be short -lived, always, because there's no foundation.
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There's no unity. There's no like -mindedness. Remember last week, verse 27, the end part of verse 27, where Paul says, standing firm in one spirit, in one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel?
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That's true unity that Paul's calling for there, but it requires something, and we're going to talk about that today.
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This unity that Paul calls for in this letter is not some abstract ideology.
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It's not this idea out there that is vague or can be perceived in a different way, and everyone can kind of come around, and there's this idea of unity outside of something concrete and foundational.
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This unity that Paul calls for is one of oneness. It's one of oneness in spirit.
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If you recall last week talking about the Holy Spirit, we are all indwelt with the Holy Spirit, and we have oneness in spirit because of that unity.
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That's a foundation, but then also oneness in mind. It requires us to be connected to something bigger than ourselves.
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We get a glimpse of that a little bit right after September 11th with America. America was unified because of something bigger than themselves, but it wasn't big enough to sustain, but ours is big enough to sustain because it's
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Christ. It's more than sufficient, and to think the same thing is important, and that's doctrine.
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Doctrine is important because to think the same thing is of utmost importance. That's what Paul has called us to do.
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This, I would say, is the only thing in the entire universe that is capable of bringing lasting unity.
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This is the only thing. It's Christ. It's the only thing that can unify. So, with that being said, some of you might have this looming question because of previous experience.
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What about the churches who have both of these? They claim to be one in Christ, have the indwelling of the
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Holy Spirit, and they also love their doctrine. They're all in unity with their statement of faith, this important statement of faith.
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Don't get me wrong. It's vitally important. I'm talking about these churches that do this, but yet unity, disunity still creeps in.
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It still creeps in, doesn't it? We've seen it over and over again where even these churches that seem to have both disunity comes back, and this seems to be the precise situation that the church at Philippi are in as Paul is writing this letter.
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So, let's look here. Chapter 2, starting in verse 1. So, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the
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Spirit, any affection and sympathy. Some of your translations are going to say, therefore.
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I like that word there, therefore, because when you see the word therefore, what is it? Therefore, right?
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It's basically just saying, hey, what Paul is about to say is grounded in the previous chapter. So, what is the overarching theme of chapter 1?
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If you had to narrow it down, what would be the overarching theme of chapter 1? I would say it's to live as Christ.
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To live as Christ. Because as I said earlier, the undercurrent of unity is woven throughout chapter 1.
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Paul is constantly, he has this woven throughout. And to live for Christ is to seek to be like Christ.
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Isn't it? To live for Christ is to seek to be like Christ. We're little Christians, little
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Christ. We're seeking to be like our Savior. And to be like Christ, you must be in unity with Christ.
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And we're going to talk about that in greater depth. And to be in unity with Christ, you will be in unity with those who are also in Christ.
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So, turn with me actually. I want us to look at John chapter 17.
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We're going to be looking at the High Priestly Prayer, at least a small portion of it. John chapter 17.
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We're going to be looking at verse 20 and a couple of verses on here.
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So, he writes, I do not ask for these only.
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Who's he talking about? He's talking about the disciples and the believers that are present as he's praying this prayer. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.
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Jesus is talking about us here, isn't he? He's talking about every saint that's ever to come and ever to be. He's talking about 12 .5
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church in 2020 in America today. That's who he's praying for. In verse 21, he says, that they may all be one.
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Just as, underline that word, just as, both words. You, Father, are in me and I in you.
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You see the connection that Jesus is making here? He's saying that all believers from this point on throughout eternity, that they are to share in the unity that he shares with the
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Father, which is one of perfect unity and perfect communion from eternity past, that we are to share in that same unity.
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When he goes on, he says, that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
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The entirety of the New Testament is calling for unity, but not just so that everyone can just get along.
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It's not so that everyone can get along and everyone can look in and say, oh, look at those Christians. They're just good. Everybody is unified.
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How can they unify? No, this unity is based on, feeds from, and points to the triune
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God. That's its purpose. That's what it's doing here. Jesus is not the
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Christ because of what he does and what he did. He's the Christ because of who he is. So if we're gonna imitate
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Christ, it can't be through mere action. It can't be through trying to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and say,
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I'm gonna be unified. It requires us to be in Christ because Christ is the
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Christ because of who he is. It's in his nature, and we must be one with him. It must be through this oneness with Christ.
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And this oneness is seen here in verse 22. Keep reading with me. The glory that you have given me.
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Think about that for a second. The glory that you have given me, I have given to them.
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He who knew no sin became sin for us. We obtained his righteousness.
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That's what Jesus is talking about here. He says, I have given it to them that they may be one even as we are one.
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I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
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This unity isn't for us. It's not so that the world can look at us and say, look at those Christians. They're so good.
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Everything is great. We don't want to give them this bad impression, so we kind of put this false unity out there and we try and cover it all up because that's what our focus is oftentimes.
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And so what the world sees is unity, but it's meant to point to and bring glory to the almighty triune
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God and the great love that that great God has bestowed upon us.
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And that's what he says right there at the end, isn't it? So that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
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That's beautiful. There's so much in that. I'm not even going to dive into that because there's so much there that we could be looking at and saying,
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God loves me the way he loves his own son, Christ, because of his son's righteousness that has been put on me, that has been given to me.
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That's beautiful, but we're going to move on from there. It's founded and rooted in this oneness with Christ.
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Without this foundation, the battle for unity is already lost. We can't be unified.
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Not without this oneness with Christ. There is zero unity without it. It's all fake. It's all man -made.
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It's all conjured up, and it's all momentary. We can't unify apart from that. With this oneness, we have some guaranteed things, though.
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Some guaranteed things. And so go back to our passage in Philippians.
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I want us to see some of these guaranteed things here in verse 1. He says,
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So, or therefore, if. We stop there. This word if is from a
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Greek word that the Apostle Paul actually uses four times in verse 1. If you see,
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I have it up here. You can see he has it before each one of these four things that he lists out here.
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He says, If there any encouragement in Christ, if comfort from love, if participation in the
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Spirit, if affection and sympathy. Paul puts that in there all four times to drive emphasis.
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And I think it's hard for us to understand because this word if, and I'm not going to go into the grammatical aspect of this, but just know that I believe a better translation for this word if is the word sense.
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The word sense allows our minds to see what the Apostle Paul was originally meaning in his writing.
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And this word sense is, J .D., bring us to the next one. I've rewritten this for us to really better understand what
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Paul is saying. This is a better translation, I think. It says, Therefore, since there is encouragement in Christ, comfort from love, participation in the
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Spirit, affection and sympathy. Do you see the difference there? These are not abstract theological ideas here.
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These are not, Paul's not saying, hey, if these are present in your life, Christians at Philippi, if these are present in your life, if you have them, no, he's saying and he's affirming, they are absolutely present in your life.
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These are obviously present and not only are they present, they're very personal and they're guaranteed.
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They're absolute. Paul is saying here, if you have oneness in Christ, then all four of these things will absolutely be present.
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Think about that for a second. That should give us unbelievable encouragement and motivation so that we can rest on these things, knowing that they are certain.
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So what are these four things? Let's identify them. Let's look at them briefly. I want to skim through them so that we can kind of align our minds, knowing what is this that is guaranteed in the
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Christian life. Since we have these, well, the first one is encouragement in Christ.
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Encouragement in Christ. Now, again, we're going to be talking about that pretty extensively next week in verses 5 through 11, but what
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I believe Paul is talking about here is the fact that our Savior is one of example. Our Savior is one of example.
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Think about over in Hebrews 4, verse 15. He says, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted, as we are yet without sin.
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There is encouragement in Christ because of who He is and what He has done.
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All other religions have a God and a quote -unquote
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Savior for themselves that is altogether separate and can't sympathize with their plight, can't sympathize with their need, but we serve a
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Savior that He Himself has placed Him. He has lowered Himself to be in the position that we're in and He can sympathize with us.
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And that's beautiful. And there's encouragement in that, isn't there? There's great encouragement in Christ because of who
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He is, because of who our Savior is and what He has done. We have encouragement.
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The second thing that Paul brings up is comfort from love. Paul has expressed comfort from the love that the church at Philippi has been showing him, hasn't he?
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That's probably why he added this into this absolute certainty. I see this present in your life.
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Since this is presence, this comfort from love, he has received a ton of help from this church.
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I mean, this church has put themselves in a position of vulnerability to help
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Paul. They've suffered with Paul and they've brought Paul comfort from it, haven't they?
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They've brought him a tremendous amount of comfort. So that comfort from love, if you're a believer, love will comfort those around you.
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The love that comes from you and your oneness with Christ will comfort those around you because the love of Christ comforts those around Him, don't they?
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Anything and anyone around Christ is comforted from love. Not only that, but you will receive comfort because of your oneness in Christ from other believers.
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That comfort from love is going to be present in your life. You will be encouraged in Christ.
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You will be encouraged knowing who your Savior is and being certain in the life that He lived, in the resurrection, that He defeated death.
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And that certainty and that encouragement and now that comfort from love because of that oneness in Christ is going to be present.
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It's going to be present in your life and it's going to be present in those lives that are around you that are one in Christ. That love can't help but show and that comfort from love will be there.
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The third thing that Paul brings up is participation in the Spirit. Man, we've talked about that over the past couple of weeks quite a bit.
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I mean, the people at Philippi have, again, put themselves into a vulnerable situation to participate in the
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Spirit. And Paul says, again, in verse 27 that we mentioned earlier, he's standing firm in one
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Spirit. The Holy Spirit's work will be evident in your life. It's going to be evident in your life and it's going to be evident in the lives of those around you, both through that encouragement in Christ, through the comfort and love, but this participation.
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And this was obviously present in the church at Philippi. Paul is affirming it. And fourthly, he says affection and sympathy.
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You can jot this down. I think I have 2 Corinthians 1, 3 -4 up here. You can see it.
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But Paul says to his second letter to the church at Corinth, he says, Blessed be the God and Father of our
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Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
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And this ties into all of those things, doesn't it? It ties into that encouragement in Christ and that comfort from love and this participation in the
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Spirit and this affection and sympathy. When we are one with the triune God, just like we saw a minute ago over in the high priestly prayer, when we are made one with the triune
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God, with Christ, we will emulate His affection and sympathy. It's gonna be present.
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It will be absolute in your life. There is no question. Think about churches that don't have this.
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I think of an extreme example. The Westboro Baptist Church, that hateful group, they have no affection and sympathy.
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It's obvious that they have no oneness in Christ because that affection and sympathy is not present in their lives. You ever seen that ornery church member?
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That old guy who serves as a deacon and he's just unhappy and there's no affection and sympathy.
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He doesn't sympathize with anyone. It's probably proof that there's no oneness in Christ because when there is oneness in Christ, that affection and sympathy will be present.
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It will be. And that's what Paul is saying here. He's telling them that this is going to be present in your life.
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And he's affirming it in the church at Philippi as he's writing this letter. He's saying, I see these things. These things are absolute.
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So then he goes on into verse 2. He says, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord of one mind.
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This is very similar to verse 27, isn't it? He's reaffirming this, but in a slightly different perspective.
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So now that he said all of these things in verse 1 that are foundational, they're concrete, they're absolute,
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Paul's affirming it in their lives. This is for sure. He's saying, you are in Christ. There is oneness in Christ.
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I see the evidence of it. Now how can they possibly complete his joy? Wouldn't that be enough?
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Wouldn't all of those other four things have been enough? But now he's saying, complete my joy. All of these things are already present.
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What can I possibly bring to the table? What can the church at Philippi possibly be bringing to the table?
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Here's where Paul admonishes them. This right here is where Paul admonishes them to actively pursue unity.
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Within and out of the power of these guarantees.
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I'm going to say that again. This is where Paul admonishes them to actively pursue unity.
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Within and out of the power of these guarantees. He's saying, now that we see the fruit of oneness with Christ in your lives, you have the ability to achieve unity.
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You now have a foundation. You now stand on a foundation that is secure and absolute and guaranteed.
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So how do they achieve this unity after that? Shouldn't that unity just be present?
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Shouldn't that unity just automatically be there? Obviously not, because Paul continues to admonish them.
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He says, by being of the same mind. This really just simply means to think the same thing.
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I don't know if all of you are familiar where we got the name for our church, but Romans 12 .5, hence 12 .5
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church. Romans 12 .5 says, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.
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We've talked about it over the past few weeks. We're a body. The body has a head.
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That head is Christ, isn't it? How would a body function with two minds?
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That's what Paul is saying simply here. Be of the same mind. We see this devastating divide in this country because of opposing worldviews.
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They're unable to unify because they think differently. They think different things.
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Their thoughts and beliefs are opposed to each other. Yet we're called to have one mind.
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The same mind. I spoke about it last week, how we're to have the same mind of Christ, again, because he is the head of the body.
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So how does this work? How do we have the mind of Christ? Does this just mystically get implanted into our heads the moment that we're made one with Christ, the moment that we come to faith?
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Is that how it works? Is the mind of Christ just implanted into our brains? Is having the mind of Christ through wearing our
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WWJD bracelet? I don't even know if that's a thing anymore. I'm aging myself there. Or what would Jesus do bracelet so that we can look and say, well, what would
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Jesus do? I wonder. This abstract idea.
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Is that what it's like to have the mind of Christ? Is that how we have the mind of Christ? Having the mind of Christ only comes through a knowledge of Christ.
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And a knowledge of Christ only comes through doctrine. That evil word.
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The knowledge of Christ only comes through doctrine. Doctrine is just the knowledge of God. How are we to know what
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Christ would think and know what Christ would do if we're not getting it from here?
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If we're not getting it from His word, how are we supposed to know it? That's just doctrine. But simple knowledge is not enough though, is it?
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We probably all know a whole lot of people who have a lot of doctrinal knowledge.
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But some of these other things don't seem to be present in their life. And they can't unify with others.
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I would say knowing the right thing doesn't necessarily lead to unity. It doesn't.
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Knowing the right thing doesn't lead to unity. But I would say that unity requires knowing the right thing.
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You get that? Knowing the right thing doesn't necessarily lead to unity, but unity does require knowing the right thing.
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There's no way to get around it. Because unifying knowledge must be grounded in truth.
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It must be grounded in something foundational. And that oneness of Christ, but then even just knowing who
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Christ is and knowing who God is. So I think that leads us to a question.
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Did Paul agree with everyone in the church about everything?
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Were all his doctrines, every single one of them, in line with everyone else? Was it
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Barnabas that he had a sharp disagreement with? They even had to go minister separately in different ways because of this disagreement.
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So what kind of thinking, what kind of knowledge is Paul talking about here?
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I would say basic, fundamental, orthodox truth. What do I mean by that?
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I mean that there are things about and from the Word of God that we can have disagreement on.
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I mean I think of two of the men that probably every one of us in this room admire greatly,
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John MacArthur and R .C. Sproul. They disagree on baptism. They disagree on quite a few things, but one of the major things is baptism.
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The form of baptism, the mode of baptism. Yet those men had great love for each other before R .C.
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Sproul passed and were very good friends and were united for the sake of the gospel. There was unity between those two men, even though they didn't think all the same things.
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Because we can disagree on a few things and maintain unity. And I don't want to talk too much about it because I think most of us already know doctrines from the
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Word of God are really categorized by theologians and scholars in three sections.
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We call it like the three tiers of doctrine. You have the first tier issues. First tier issues affect the gospel.
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We would say that the virgin birth isn't a first tier issue. If you don't believe in the virgin birth, you cannot land within the realm of Christianity.
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There are things that we believe are first tier issues and the things that affect the clarity and the truth of the gospel itself.
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But then there are secondary issues. Things like baptism. What is the mode of baptism?
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How should it be done? When should it be done? We think with our Baptist leaning, we're pretty sure where that leads and we have a concrete stance, but we don't lose fellowship with our brothers who land differently because it's a second tier issue.
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And then there are third tier issues. There are things as to should a
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Christian drink alcohol or not? These third tier issues that we're not going to lose fellowship over. I'm not going to hassle on those or go into great detail about those.
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Just know that the first tier issues, I believe, is what Paul is referring to. Anything that affects the purity of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that's that knowledge that we're talking about.
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But he goes on and he says, having the same love, and this one's pretty simple, isn't it?
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We're to love one another. That love can only feed from what unifies us, and that's the oneness with Christ again.
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That oneness in Christ informs us as to what and how and why we are to love.
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The Bible tells us God is love. We're emulating that triune God. And now we have the power to make a deliberate choice to look out not only for our good, for the betterment of those around us.
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We have that power because of the foundation that God has given us. And then he goes on, he says, being in full accord.
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This is just living in selfless harmony. Notice how congruent all these things are.
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All of these things that Paul is laying out, he's saying, same mind, be of the same mind, have the same love, being in full accord.
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These are unifying. Living in selfless harmony. Ties back into these other things.
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He says over in 1 Corinthians 13, 5, I'm talking about love. It does not insist in its own way.
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It is not irritable or resentful. This is full accord. He clarifies this in the next two verses that we're going to look at here in a moment here in our passage in Philippians.
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But do you see the unity that Paul is calling for? What he's calling the church at Philippi to be deliberate in?
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One mind. And then he says again, and it's slightly different.
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He says, and of one mind. Other translations interpret this intent on one purpose.
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And I think that is a better translation for what Paul is saying here. As we have the same mind, the same love, as we're being in full accord, we must, just like back in verse 27, stand firm.
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Remember that language, that militant language of stand firm and to strive forward? It's the same idea.
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To be intent on one purpose. So what is that purpose?
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It's the furtherance of the gospel. We are unified in basic, fundamental, orthodox doctrine.
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These first tier issues that affect the gospel. And this issue that is essential.
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We will be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
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Now, you might be saying, yeah, but I've seen churches do all of this and still not be unified.
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And that's typically because verse 3 and 4 of this passage are the missing ingredient.
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Paul said over in 1 Corinthians 8 that there is a knowledge that puffs up. Because our natural propensity is towards pride, isn't it?
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And when we obtain doctrinal knowledge outside of what Paul is getting ready to address, it will lead us to look down on others who maybe don't have that same knowledge.
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It leads us to acquire some unmerited self -worth about what we know. It drives us to become dogmatic about our own opinions.
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It drives us to think more highly of ourselves than we should. And Paul knows this, and that's why he goes on in verse 3.
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Look at verse 3 with me. Do nothing. Underline that word nothing. Nothing from selfish ambition or conceit.
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But in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Selfish ambition.
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He's contrasting being ambitious to having the same mind and the same love and being in full accord of one mind to pursue that ambitiously.
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He's contrasting that selfish ambition because we're quite motivated when it benefits us, aren't we?
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We're quite motivated when something is for our own self. But are we motivated for the furtherance of the gospel?
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Are we motivated for others? He says, conceit, just thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought.
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He says, but in humility, more significant than yourselves.
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This is ultimate Christ -likeness because of the humility that our
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Savior showed upon the cross. Isn't it? This is
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Christ -likeness at its finest. Humility is a tricky thing, though. Because the moment you think you've achieved it, you've now lost it.
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It's frustrating, isn't it? The moment you think you've achieved humility, you've lost it. It's something that many people are even able to fake.
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Some of us in here may even be able to fake humility for a time. If you pay close enough attention, you'll see through the cracks, though.
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What are the cracks that we're looking for? Well, Paul tells us in verse 4. Look at that. Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others.
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Here's the evidence of humility. Are we looking out after the interest of others, or are we looking out after our own interest?
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Do we have humility? Do we have Christ -likeness? Do we count others more significant than ourselves?
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Are we placing their interest and their well -being before our own? I want to leave us with four basic points as to how true humility can be achieved.
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This is, for the most part, a summary of our passage today. These four things, how true humility can be achieved through, one, oneness with Christ.
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We saw that right at the beginning. This oneness is affirmed. It's concrete. It's foundational. There's no way of getting around it.
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If you do not have that as your starting point, you cannot have unity, and you definitely can't have humility.
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Number two is doctrinal knowledge. Doctrinal knowledge is just growing in your knowledge of God.
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That's through His Word. Number three is communion with God. This one I think some of us that love doctrine so much, we have a tendency to avoid.
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We like to read the theology, but we do not commune with the Father the way we ought to. We are not diligent in our spiritual habits, are we?
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I know I fail there so often. I'll read theology for hours a day and forget to just spend time with the
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Lord. And then fourth, fellowship with the saints.
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That's precisely what we're doing today. That feeds in us this oneness together because we all have oneness in Christ if we're in Christ, and so we share that together.
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And so this is really just a foundation that we're laying in verses 1 through 4 for next week because next week is the pinnacle of this entire book.
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Next week we're going to be talking about our Savior exclusively and His example. And this is just a groundwork to prepare our minds and our hearts towards that next week.
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So I pray and hope that this was helpful for you today, and this is something that you can walk away being challenged and encouraged and edified in and know that please ponder on these points and these matters as we prepare for next week.
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Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Dear only Father, Lord, I thank You again. Thank You for bringing us together so that we can see
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Your greatness. God, help us to desire to know
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You better, to know You through Your Word because You have given us Your revealed Word and told us exactly who
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You are in it, Lord. Help us to be diligent to seek out after that. And not only that, that it would not just be knowledge but we would commune with You, that we would spend time in Your Word communing with You in prayer, meditating on the truth of Your Word, and then drive us back together in fellowship and love towards You and love for one another.
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God, we thank You for this time. Lord, guard our hearts and minds as we go out through the rest of our week,
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Lord. And we thank You. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you again for joining us.
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If you have any question about today's message or just want to learn more, you can reach us at info at 12fivechurch .com.
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You can also go to our website at 12fivechurch .com. That's the word 12 and the number 5, church .com.