WWUTT 012 Look to the Interests of Others (Philippians 2:1-5)

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As a ministry, as we minister for Jesus Christ, we should not be out there for our glory, but to advance the glory of God, and not doing this by ourselves, but in one accord with the body of Christ when we understand the text.
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Welcome to When We Understand The Text. My name is Pastor Gabe Hughes, and it is good to be along with you here as we are jumping in today to Philippians chapter 2.
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This is one of my favorite chapters of the Bible. In fact, when I have my bookmark online to my
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ESV study Bible, as soon as I click on that bookmark, the chapter of the Bible that comes up is Philippians chapter 2.
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Now, I'll tell you, right off though, that doesn't mean that I'm somehow some pro or expert in this particular chapter.
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It just happens to be the chapter that comes up in my bookmarks. But I do love it so much because we see this beautiful song talking about the servanthood of Christ, and that because of his obedience, he was lifted to a place that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
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Lord to the glory of God the Father. We're probably not going to get to that section of the chapter today, though.
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We're going to look at primarily verses 1 through 5. And so that's where we will be in our text.
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Coming up toward the end of the program, I will have a question related to Luke 6, verse 38.
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We'll talk about that and what that means coming up here in just a little bit. If you would like to submit a question to the program, email is the best way to get a question to us.
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So go to our website, www .utt .com. You will see the latest podcast posted on the right side of the page.
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And there is an email link right underneath that. So if you click on that email and send us an email, that is the best way to get a question to us, a comment, or anything that you've heard either on this broadcast or in one of our
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When We Understand the Text videos. Sorry, I'm moving my mic here. You get all the mic moving sounds that go along with that.
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So again, send a message to us through our website, www .utt
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.com. Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Before we get to the text today, jumping into Philippians 2, why don't we first come to the
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Lord in prayer? Our gracious God, as we come to you today, I pray that you open up these words to us, that by the power of your spirit, you are continuing to communicate these things to us.
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And Lord, I pray that you search our hearts, convict us, and forgive us of our sins. Let there be no evil way in us that would prevent us from understanding this the way that we need to, and having our hearts and minds transformed to be made more like Christ.
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Lead us and guide us in these things so that we might come to a better understanding of what it means to have a unity within the body of Christ.
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And we pray and ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Philippians 2, beginning in verse 1.
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So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from his 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 and 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 interests, but also to the interest of others.
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And if I might go ahead and throw in verse 5 here, even though this leads into the next section, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.
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So we're primarily going to concentrate on those first four verses here. At the very beginning of the chapter,
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Philippians 2, to give you some backstory on where we were yesterday before jumping into this chapter, the apostle
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Paul was saying to the Philippians that they need to rejoice in the sufferings that they endure for the gospel of Jesus Christ because it has been granted to you, chapter 1, verse 29, that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw that I had and now hear that I still have.
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So previously in the letter, as Paul has kind of opened up this letter to the Philippians, he talked about the things that I am struggling and suffering through.
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You're participating with that in me. And that would have been a joy to the Philippians to know that, that they get to participate in the same sufferings for the advancement of the gospel as the apostle
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Paul was going through. So we're suffering through these things together, whether I'm with you or whether I'm away,
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I want to hear that you are all together in one mind. You're standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, as he says in verse 27.
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So for all participating in these things together, let's really do that. Let's participate in these things together.
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So he's kind of unfolding those thoughts a little bit more here in chapter two in these, in these first few verses.
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So then having said that, having said that you should rejoice in suffering for the gospel of Christ, knowing that you are being blessed to suffer in these things, and it is being granted to you by Christ that you not only believe, but be able to suffer for his sake.
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So therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any comfort in his love, if there is any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy, this joy that I've already expressed in this letter that I have for you, confirm it for me by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
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Now, as Paul is getting into this section here, he is not saying that he's, he's not sure whether or not there's any encouragement in Christ.
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Okay. He's not expressing doubt here. So if there's any encouragement in Christ, but I don't really know if there's any comfort from his love.
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I kind of hope there is, but I'm not really sure. Okay. That's not the way that we read this. In fact, I see this as being more of a call and response sort of a thing.
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Do you know what I'm talking about? We used to do this in churches all the time. Very few churches do this anymore. Did this all the time in all the churches that I grew up in when
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I was a kid, you would have a hymnal and in the back of the hymnal, there would be a call and response section.
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So the worship leader would read a section and the congregation would respond by speaking back after him.
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So you know what I'm talking about? And I kind of see that as being the same way here. Now this isn't call and response. That's not what
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I'm saying, but this is just kind of give you a, to give you a picture of the context in which Paul is delivering this.
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So previously he had opened up his letter to the Philippians by giving them encouragement in Christ and he's comforted them with his love and their love has comforted him.
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There is participation in the spirit and he's talked to the Philippians about how they are participants with him in the advancement of the gospel.
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There is affection and sympathy. They've expressed that for Paul and he's expressing his affection for them. So if those things exist, complete my joy by being of the same mind.
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All right. So Epaphroditus has come back from Rome with this letter and he's reading it in front of the
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Philippian congregation written by Paul. We're going through this and kind of taking it apart and digesting it over a period of several weeks.
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This would have been read all at once in front of the Philippian church though. So what, 15 or 20 minutes that it would have taken to read it out loud and without chapters and verses.
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So as Epaphroditus is reading this to the congregation, he would be saying it like this. He would say, so if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, and it's like the
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Philippian church would have responded by saying there is. And then the next part, Paul continues by saying, then complete my joy by being of the same mind.
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So that gives you kind of a better picture of the context there. Again, I'm not saying that that's how that happened or that's how the exchange would have gone, but that's how the
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Philippians would have received it. Paul's now summarizing everything that he said previously in the letter.
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There is encouragement in Christ. The Philippians know that. They know that now by what Paul has established in the previous chapter.
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There is comfort from love. There is participation in the spirit. There is affection and sympathy.
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So therefore complete Paul's joy, joy, which we have seen expressed so many times over the course of this letter.
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He expresses joy for the Philippians. And if these things are true for the Philippians as he is writing it to them, then complete his joy, the joy that he has for this church and knowing that they are participants with him in the advancement of the gospel, complete my joy by being of the same mind, by being by having the same love, by being in full accord and of one mind.
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And then we read in verse five, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. So he's saying that as we would have the mind of Christ, let us be one in those things.
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Being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Now, Paul is not promoting groupthink here.
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That's not what he's talking about. Just this mindless go with the flow, do what everybody else is doing sort of a thing. And that's a common criticism of Christianity.
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We'll hear people out there who will say, oh, yeah, you religious folks are just like a bunch of sheep. We are.
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We are a bunch of sheep and Christ is our shepherd. But they'll say that we're a bunch of robots and automatons and we just think like everybody else and we just follow the crowd and beep, boop, boop, beep.
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You know, that's that's kind of the criticism that we get. But we were we are not robots in Christ. We were robots before we came to Christ.
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That's when we were caught up in groupthink. Paul talks about this in Ephesians chapter two.
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You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of the world.
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Before we came to Christ, we were following everybody else, everybody else in the world. We were just like them following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.
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That is who we were before we came to Christ. But hear me as I'm saying this,
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I'm not thumping my chest or popping my collar and saying, now, look how much better I am now because I'm a Christian. So all the rest of those people out in the world, they follow around like robots.
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But I'm better because I'm a Christian. Not what I'm saying, because the glory is not ours. The glory belongs to God as we go on.
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But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace, you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
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He gets all the glory for it. We don't get anything. Well, we I won't say we won't get anything. We are heirs with Christ, as Paul talks about in Titus chapter three.
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So we get all the stuff that the king gets. But in terms of any of the glory or any of the praise or any of the recognition, none of our works has anything to do with our salvation.
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It is the work of God. When we were trapped in our programming, following the course of the world and the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.
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We had no ability to call upon God and leave that life of sin and follow him. He acted and pulled us out of that, out of darkness into his marvelous light.
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And we've been set free. Our minds have been set free previously following in group think in Christ.
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Our minds have been set free and through Christ. We have been reconciled to God.
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I love that word reconciled because in its meaning there is deep truth to reconcile means to accept that which was not previously desired.
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So here's the thing. When we were dead in our sins, following the prince of the power of the air, following the passions of our flesh and carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.
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When we were in that state, we did not desire God and he did not desire us. When we were like that, we didn't desire him and he didn't desire us.
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But because he loves us, he didn't leave us dead in that state.
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He sent his son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins and all of the wrath of God that was due us because of our blasphemy, because of our transgressions against him, all of that wrath was poured out upon Christ instead and God crushed him.
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And now because our sins are forgiven in the work of Christ on the cross, Christ has imparted his righteousness to us as it says in Romans chapter three verses 21 on Christ imparted his righteousness.
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So now when God looks at us, he doesn't see our sin. He sees the righteousness of his son and God the father loves us with the same affection that he loves his own son.
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We have been reconciled to God. Now with the spirit of God living in us, with our minds and hearts transformed to have the mind of God, not the mind of this world.
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Now we have the mind of God. Now we desire God and he desires us.
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Now we love God because he first loved us. That's what it means to be reconciled.
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But we've not only been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, we've also been reconciled to one another.
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In Titus chapter three, it says we were once hated by others and hating one another.
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But when the goodness and kindness of God, our savior appeared, he saved us not by works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy.
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And so we've been reconciled not only to God, but to his people. As it says in Titus chapter two, verse 14,
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Christ came to redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for himself a people who are zealous for good works.
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So we're reconciled to one another. We are now of that one body, that one mind, we have the same love being in full accord with one another in the body of Christ.
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That is the way that we are supposed to be. But folks, if we believe in the wrath of God, if we believe that God's wrath will judge a person for their sin and their blasphemy that they committed in this lifetime, when they had the opportunity to repent and follow
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Christ and did not, if we believe God's wrath would be upon them and they would be consigned to hell for all eternity, that should encourage us all the more to go out to the world with the gospel of Christ.
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And we can tell them, I once was just like you. I was once in this place where I was following the course of this world, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom
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I once lived in the passion of my flesh. And I was carrying out the desires of my body and mind.
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And I was a child of wrath, just like the rest of mankind. But God drew me out of that.
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And then you preach them the gospel. And in Romans 10, 17, it says, faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.
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And as you share with them the gospel, the Holy Spirit will open their hearts up to receive it and they will repent of their sins and follow no longer in the passions of the flesh and be transformed by the renewing of their minds.
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And then they will know God's will, his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12, 2 is basically what
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I just quoted. So if we believe that God's wrath is upon the disobedient,
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John 3, 36, he who has the son has life. He who does not obey the son shall not see life.
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But the wrath of God remains on him. If we know that is true of everybody who is not a follower of Christ, that should in that should motivate us all the more to preach the gospel to as many people as we can.
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That's one of the inspirations behind wanting to do this broadcast. As a matter of fact, yes, I'm speaking to the people of God as we read
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God's word together. But I hope that hearts and minds are being transformed and renewed by the declaration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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I wanted to be able to find another way to do this more and more and to invest my time wisely in a way that God's gospel is being proclaimed.
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And so this this broadcast was born when we understand the text. So we must go out with that testimony, loving the world, not thumping our chest and saying
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I'm better than you because my mind is set free and yours is still following in this group think with the rest of the world. We love them so much that we would call them out of that by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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So Paul is encouraging us now reconciled to God in Christ Jesus now reconciled to one another that we need to have the same mind having the same love being in full accord and of one mind and that mind is what it's the mind of Christ is expressed in verse five.
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Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. I'm going on into verse three. By the way, I'm back in Philippians two
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Philippians two verse three. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
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Going back to chapter one verse seventeen. We read about those who were competing with Paul.
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They proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment and it by contrast
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Paul is saying don't be like them. Even though I rejoice that the gospel is going out even though there are people who do that competitively or they try to come up against others.
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I just rejoice that the gospel is being proclaimed but don't be like them do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit like they do and the word that is translated conceit literally translates as vainglory.
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I love that so don't do this for your glory. It is for the glory of God in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
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Our tendency folks is to look after ourselves as Paul goes on in verse four let each of you look not only to your own interest but also to the interest of others.
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We're inclined to look after our own interests but Paul is saying as as that is the direction that we're inclined to do and when we struggle with the flesh instead take that passion that you that you naturally have for yourself and instead turn that around and have it for others not only your own interests but look also to the interests of others.
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This is essentially what Jesus meant when he repeated the great one of the greatest commands love your neighbor as yourself what is what is the greatest command love the
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Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength the second one is like it to love your neighbor as yourself all of the law and the prophets are fulfilled in these two commands to love your neighbor as yourself basically means as you are inclined to love yourself instead love your neighbor turn that love that you have for yourself around and love your neighbor instead and this be the expression of the love that God has shown each and every one of us though we gave him every reason not to love us he loved us anyway and so we should love others the same.
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Verse 5 have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus and that is where we're going to pick up tomorrow as we continue this study of Philippians chapter 2 our
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Lord God as we wrap up this devotional for today I pray that you continue to teach us these things what it means to have the mind of Christ teach us as we go keep us submissive and obedient to your word help us to be able to renounce the passions of the flesh and instead follow the passion of the
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Spirit of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord and we pray this in Jesus name amen. Judge not that you be not judged does
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Jesus really say that yes he does Matthew 7 1 but do not miss the context Jesus is not saying that we shouldn't judge at all he's saying don't judge hypocritically continuing on he says how can you say to your brother let me take the speck out of your eye when there's a log in your own eye you hypocrite first take the log out of your eye and then you'll see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye did you get that first take the log out of your eye and then take the speck out of your brother's eye by this the
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Bible is actually telling us that we're supposed to judge Proverbs 27 5 better is open rebuke than hidden love
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Proverbs 31 9 open your mouth judge righteously Matthew 18 15 tell your brother is false
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John 7 24 do not judge by appearances but judge with right judgment 1
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Corinthians 2 15 the spiritual person judges all things 1 Corinthians 5 12 judge those inside the church 2
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Timothy 3 16 the Bible is useful for reproof now we're definitely not supposed to be jerks when it comes to judgment we also read in 2
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Timothy that the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone correcting opponents with gentleness
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Titus 3 2 says to be gentle and show perfect courtesy to all people the purpose is not to point out everyone's wrong so that we can show how much more right we are the purpose is to point them to Christ who forgives sin and gives eternal life know the word of God so that we're able to instruct each other properly when we understand the text our question today comes from Casey in Melrose Minnesota he says dear what thank you for putting together the video on Catholicism and maybe
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I should have played the the video on Roman Catholicism before this question I'll do it tomorrow and I'll bet you
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I'll even be able to find a question on Catholicism because we've received quite a few so that's the video that's coming up in tomorrow's broadcast
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Casey says I hear a lot about Luke 638 can you do a video explaining this verse I along with tons of other people would appreciate your clarification on this
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I take your videos and apply them and use them as study guides your videos are what I've been looking for in helping me understand scripture thanks and God bless you thank you so much for your message
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Casey and I hope that everyone knows that our videos are available for ministry purposes you don't even have to ask our permission to use them so long as you're not using them for profit if you need to copy them to DVD to take to someone's house or over to the church or wherever do it please and thank you
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Casey I appreciate the video suggestion we actually have a waiting list of videos right now but I'll add it to that list and at least at least be able to give you an explanation of Luke 638 here let's go back to verse 37 and look at it in context
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Jesus is speaking here in what is commonly called the Sermon on the Plane Matthew has the Sermon on the
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Mount Luke has the Sermon on the Plane and the way this section starts will sound familiar judge not and you will not be judged yep there he goes sounds like Matthew 7 1 right condemn not and you will not be condemned forgive and you will be forgiven and here we get into verse 38 give and it will be given to you a good measure pressed down shaken together running over will be put into your lap for with the measure that you use it will be measured back to you okay so first of all
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Jesus is directing his words at our fleshly human tendency to judge and condemn just like in Matthew 7 1
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Jesus is not saying not to judge at all he's not saying you're not allowed to have discernment although some definitely do take the call to discernment and turn it into outright condemnation they definitely need to heed the instructions that begin in Luke 637 we have this tendency to find fault with and criticize others that's our fleshly tendency right hated by others and hating one another as we talked about before unfortunately this does still happen within the body of Christ and it kills my heart when this happens it is the most deplorable thing that I've observed as a pastor people taking tertiary issues or even secondary issues and raising them up to primary importance and they call each other names and fight and argue and bicker over these things and think less of one another over these things
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Proverbs 6 says that it is a wicked person who sows discord among brothers and it's something that the
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Lord hates so repent of it stop doing it Romans 2 3 do you suppose oh man you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself that you will escape the judgment of God Jesus said in Matthew 7 remove the log from your own eye and and he does actually say this also here in Luke chapter 6 so let's let's just keep going here judge not and you will not be judged condemn not and you will not be condemned now here's the contrast condemn not and you will not be condemned forgive and you will be forgiven give and it will be given to you if you forgive others their trespasses
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God will forgive you your trespasses we see this at the end of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew chapter 6 for if you forgive others their trespasses your
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Heavenly Father will also forgive you but if you do not forgive others their trespasses neither will your father forgive your trespasses
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God has forgiven you so you must show that same grace and forgiveness toward others and the
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Lord will give back to you a good measure pressed down shaken together running over will be poured into your lap and there's a great picture there by the way you think of a person in Bible times who would wear a robe and a cloak if he's sitting down the robe makes this kind of basin shape in his lap and when he puts his long sleeves around and he makes this shape of a container
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God would give you so much you would not be able to hold it in that that's basically the picture that we've got going on here then in verse 39
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Jesus told them this parable can a blind man lead a blind man will they not both fall into a pit a disciple is not above his teacher but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye but do not notice the log that is in your own eye how can you say to your brother let me take the speck that is in your eye when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye you hypocrite first take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck that is in your brother's eye so if you've got a log in your eye and your brother's got a speck he's basically walking around with his eyes closed and you have the blind leading the blind that's the picture going on here a person who refuses to see his own faults cannot correct the faults of others again as it was stated in the video
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Jesus is not saying don't judge at all we just need to judge wisely we must judge with pure hearts and sometimes folks we must judge in such a way that we abstain from engaging in the matter entirely
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John Calvin once said if we wish to avoid every kind of quarrel and fight we must learn first to deal gently with many things and to ignore many more in Romans chapter 12
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Paul said as much as it depends on you keep the peace with everyone and I hope
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Casey that shed some light for you on Luke chapter 6 tomorrow we're going to come back to our study in Philippians and we're going to begin again in chapter 2 we'll cover the same four or five verses that we looked at today and keep on going so that we might know
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Christ Jesus as Lord every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is
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Lord God bless you you've been listening to when we understand the text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes pick up his book 40 of the most popular
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