SNBS with Pastor Josiah Shipley - Philippians 2:1-11

Whitten Baptist Church

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Those of you coming in, we're going to be in Philippians chapter 2 tonight. I am going to, as people are coming in,

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I'm going to go ahead and recap real quick Philippians chapter 1. And for those of you that have sat under my teaching for any amount of time,

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Sunday night Bible study, we've been at it for over two years now, 13 plus 1,

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John. I went back and added up everything we've covered in the past two years.

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We normally cover, it takes us four weeks to cover one chapter. That's our regular pace. I've tried to speed it up because that doesn't really work in this format as well.

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Plus I'm doing all the reading, so it goes by a little bit faster. Anyway, two weeks ago we covered

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Romans 8 in one week. Last week we covered Philippians 1 in one week. I cannot do that with Philippians chapter 2.

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Tonight I intend on getting through verses 1 through 11 and they are huge. We might not even finish that.

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We're going to be on Philippians 2 for maybe two weeks before we move on. But tonight we're going to focus in on verses 1 through 11.

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This is on Christian unity and who Jesus Christ is.

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And those are not two different things because we need to be unified in our knowledge of who Jesus is.

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So let me catch everybody up who wasn't here last week on chapter 1 and then we'll read chapter 2. Okay.

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Chapter 1, Paul starts out by talking about fellowship and partnership with his fellow believers in Philippi.

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That word is koinonia. We're going to need to know that word. Now, this is one of the prison epistles

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Paul is writing while imprisoned. This is towards the end of his life, 60s

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AD. And Paul is writing to this church and he prays for all of them individually because of their koinonia, their partnership in the gospel and their continued faithfulness in that partnership.

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Now in verse 6 of chapter 1, he told them that he is sure of this, that he who started a good work in them will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

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He encouraged them by reminding them that God didn't just save you when you were, when you realized that your conversion at 10 years old, that God loved you and then he left you to his own.

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Grace begins before the world ever began. But your realization of grace begins at your conversion and it does not stop during your

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Christian walk. It didn't stop at conversion. It continues on. You need God to serve

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God. Let me say that again. You need God to serve God. It is God who is working in you, enabling you to desire and work out his good purpose.

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He enables you to have the desire and to carry out that desire for his good purpose. Because according to Ephesians 2, we carry out naturally the desires of our flesh, which are always evil.

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Paul keeps talking to them and then he gets to verse 27 of chapter 1. And this is really the preface for chapter 2 because remember, these little chapter divisions were not originally there.

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This was a letter. In verse 27 of chapter 1, Paul said this, just one thing, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.

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Then whether I come see you or I'm absent, I will hear about you, that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind, working side by side for the faith that comes from the gospel.

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You don't just need the gospel to save you. You need the gospel to sanctify you. Live your life in a manner worthy.

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We talked about last week how Paul makes it crystal clear that you were not worthy, but he died for you anyway.

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The point of the gospel is not to tell you that you are worthy of Christ's sacrifice, but to tell you that you are not worthy of it.

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But he is sanctifying you, molding you to make you more and more in his image. Remember our analogy, it's not ours, it's scripture's analogy.

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Scripture says that we are all clay and he's the potter, and he is molding us into whatever form he wants.

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And he's molding us into the image of his son, and when you are saved, you are positionally set apart, positionally sanctified, positionally placed in the body of Christ.

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And that when you're in the body of Christ, the I can't say to the ear, I don't need you. Okay? Whatever part of the body of Christ God has placed you in, your job is to be that working, that body part, whatever that function is, to the best of your ability, because God is working in you.

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You are in Christ who is working in you. I've used this analogy before, but since the

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Bible often speaks of us being part of the body of Christ, Jesus spoke about himself, let me tell you a story real quick, and then we'll finally read chapter two.

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When I was in high school, I injured my MCL, okay, that is the ligament on the inner part of your knee.

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I checked with Evan to make sure I was right. I had a partial MCL tear, which basically means if there are a hundred strands in my

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MCL, I tore 20 of them. Now at that time, I was one of the stronger guys on the football team.

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I could squat 465 pounds. When I hurt that MCL, I was about the weakest guy on the team.

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I couldn't play, I couldn't lift, I couldn't do anything. I was pretty much worthless. Because one body part was not doing its job, the rest of the body suffered.

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And like I said, I hurt my right knee. Well, after a couple of weeks in the crutches, my left ankle got hurt.

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Do you know why my left ankle was hurting? Because it was having to pick up all the slack that my right knee wasn't doing.

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Don't get lost in the analogy. My point is this. As a body of Christ, we are a cohesive unit. We are individually being molded into the image of Christ and Christ's church as a whole is being molded to His image.

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And when you are not wired with Christ, it does not just hurt you. It affects others.

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It affects others. We've spoke about this before, but remember, please, please, please realize that since you are part of a body, if you are not doing your job and you're not where you're supposed to be, your brothers and sisters will feel those effects.

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However, where sin abounds, grace abounds even more. So that when you do shine your light and others see it, they can be edified.

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Think about this. We've spoken in this before. The Bible says that Noah found favor with God, but how many people got on the ark?

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Eight. It never says anything about them being righteous or unrighteous with God, but through the blessing of Noah, others received that grace, that mercy,

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I should say. So Paul ends chapter one by saying, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel.

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Notice the very first thing he says after that is not by getting a megaphone and going on the street going and saying,

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I love Jesus. The first thing he says about living worthy of the gospel is standing firm with your brothers and sisters in Christ, with one spirit, with one mind, working side by side for the faith that comes from the gospel.

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Not being frightened in any way by your opponents, because that's a sign of their destruction, but of your deliverance. And this is from God, for it has been given to you on Christ's behalf, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him.

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God just didn't give you faith at your conversion. He gives you faith throughout your Christian walk, throughout your sanctification.

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I need that faith. Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief, right? Once he says, live your life in a manner worthy in verse 27 of chapter one, he tells you to stand firm, that koinonia, with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

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Okay. Chapter two. We're going to read chapter two, verse one through 11, and I'm going to read out of the

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Holman. You can read whatever version you want, but if you want to follow along with me,

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I'm going to read out of the Holman. So we're in chapter two, verses one through 11. If you don't listen to another word

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I say in the next 40 minutes or so, I want you to listen to what scripture has to say, and then you can turn me off or whatever, but please,

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I beg you, whatever you're doing right now, listen to what the word of God has to tell you. Verse one.

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If then there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by thinking the same way, having the same love, sharing the same feelings, focusing on one goal.

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Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, consider others as more important than yourselves.

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Verse four. Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Well, how do we do that?

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Verse five. Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus, who existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for his own advantage.

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Instead, he emptied himself by assuming the form of a slave and take on the likeness of men.

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And when he had come as a man in his external form, verse eight, he humbled himself by becoming obedient, obedient to the point of death.

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Even death on a cross. For this reason, God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, those in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

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And every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father. We're going to come back to that last part in a little bit.

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You'll see why we can only cover 11 verses tonight. Okay, this unity that we're speaking of, you can't be unified in the spirit if you're not in the spirit.

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Let me say that again, please, guys. You cannot be unified in the spirit if you're not in the spirit.

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I love my church at Witton. I could take a lie detector test right now and say I love them.

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My best friends in the world are my fellow believers at Witton Baptist Church, and it's not because they have great taste in sports teams, because most of them do not.

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It's not because I'm buddy -buddy with them or I can hang out with them. That is not why there's koinonia at my church, because there's a lot of people that have the same characteristics and quality.

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Some of my best friends, I have almost nothing in common with. They're the exact opposite of me, okay?

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The reason why I have that love for them is because we both have the same love that comes from Jesus, and we're both focused on one goal, and that's glorifying

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Him. Think about the triangle. If we have two people, okay?

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If they try to move towards the other, they leave where they're at, and they become less of themselves.

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They're never going to get to each other. But if they're both focused on one goal, as they both focus on that one goal, they grow closer together.

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Guys, any believer on this planet that believes that Jesus Christ is

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Lord, I can have koinonia with that person. I can have fellowship with that person. I can belong with that person, because we're focused on one goal.

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If then, or since there is, encouragement in Christ, consolation of love,

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I'm back in verse 1, any koinonia, fellowship with the Spirit, any affection and mercy.

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That word, affection and mercy, if you're reading the King James right now, it's going to say literally, bowels of mercy.

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The word in Greek is splantna. It means guts, intestines. That's the type of mercy, that core mercy and love and encouragement you should have for your brothers and sisters in Christ.

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Not the ones you're friends, your brothers and sisters in Christ, you should have that type of mercy, that inner core, splantna, those bowels, that affection of mercy.

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That's some pretty intense mercy. Now what is mercy? Mercy is when someone does not get the punishment they deserve.

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When someone wrongs you, okay, when someone wrongs you, mercy is not the type of forgiveness we talk about where you say you forgive them and then you talk about them behind their back or hold a grudge against them for the next 10 years.

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Mercy is them not getting the condemnation they deserve. Ephesians 4 .32,

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be kind and compassionate, forgiving one another, and just as the Lord forgave you, so you must also forgive.

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I ask you, did Jesus wait for you to ask for forgiveness before he forgave you?

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No. Because if he did, if Jesus waited for you to humble yourself before he showed you grace, he'd be waiting all the way until you died and went to hell.

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He, according to chapter 1, started the good work in you, and he will carry it on to completion. He has bought a people for his own possession, and he bought it with his blood.

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I fear that sometimes we have more mercy for a dog on an animal adoption commercial than we do for our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

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I once had someone tell me, well, yeah, Josiah, but these guys have wronged me before.

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Right, that's what mercy is. There's no such thing as mercy unless there has been sin or wronging.

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There's no such thing as mercy. You can't forgive someone, you can't forgive someone if they've never wronged you.

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Be kind and compassionate, forgiving one another. If the verse stopped there, as it does on most little pillow quilts, that's not that hard of a verse to follow.

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But it's the next part. Just as, cathos, just as the

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Lord forgave you, so you must, not should, must also forgive.

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Think about how the Lord forgave you, not just before you were a believer, but still in that heart right now.

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So you must also forgive. Guys, I think one of the core things we as believers need to know is who

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God is. Because if you know who God is, the more and more you know who God is, the more disgusted you are with the sin in yourself, and the more you realize your need and undeservedness for grace and share it with others.

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Okay, Paul says in verse two, Fulfill my joy by thinking the same way, having the same love.

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Love is from God. We only love him because he first loved us. Sharing the same feelings, focusing on one goal.

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The goal is the glory of God. We're going to talk more about that in just a second. Verse three and four.

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Okay, Josiah, you have shown us what type of mercy we're supposed to have, what type of unity we're supposed to have.

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You've laid it out. Now, how do we do that? Don't just tell me what I'm supposed to do. How do

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I do that? Well, per usual, the Bible gives you a list of do nots and do's so that you can know how to do that.

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It doesn't just tell you what not to do, it tells you what to do. I love when the Bible does this, makes it crystal clear.

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In answering a how question, the Bible is going to be very explicit for us. You ready?

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Verse three. Do nothing out of selfish ambition. Some of your

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Bibles may say rivalry. Do nothing out of selfish ambition. Now, let me ask you a question. What do you think the

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Bible means when it says nothing means nothing? Do nothing out of selfish ambition.

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I had someone in a moment of frustration a few months ago. They knew they were doing something wrong and they said,

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Josiah, can't I just be selfish for one day? You tell me. Do nothing out of selfish ambition, but in humility consider or count others as more important than yourselves.

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I think that word count consider everyone who's listening to this right now needs to really pay attention to this. It does not say that by the world standards they are more important to you.

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It says count them as more important than you. It does not say that by everyone else they are more important to you.

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In fact, they probably aren't. By everyone else's answers, they may be below you, but you are to consider to count, to treat them as if they are more important than you.

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How do you do that? But looking out not for your interests, but for the interest of others.

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Okay, well, Josiah, look, how serious is God about selfishness? I'm going to read two passages to you real quick just to show you how serious the

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Lord is about selfishness. You can write these down and read them later. Again, I would encourage you to do that.

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The first one is out of Romans chapter two, verse seven and eight. Romans chapter two, verse seven and eight. Write this down, read it later.

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This is how serious God takes selfishness. God will repay each one according to his works, eternal life to those by persistence and doing good, seek glory, honor, and immortality, but wrath and indignation for who?

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Verse eight of Romans two, wrath and indignation to those who are self -seeking, disobey the truth and are obeying unrighteousness.

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The first thing God says, the first sign God says he will pour out his wrath and indignation on self -seeking people.

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In case you're not convinced, guys, I am simply trying to show you how seriously God takes selfishness.

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This is second Timothy chapter three. Paul writes to Pastor Timothy and says this, but know this, in the last days, difficult times will come for men will be lovers of self.

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Whoa. You read on. There's six verses of all the sins that people will have.

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And then at the end, it says these people have a form of godliness, but deny his power.

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These are people that claim to be Christians. And the first thing Paul says, you know that the end times are coming, or maybe

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I better should say the last times and perilous times is that people will be lovers of self. You should love yourself.

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No, that's the first thing God said he's going to punish. Selfish ambition. See, there's a difference, church, between what some of you call treating yourself and some of you call selfishness.

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There's nothing wrong with treating yourself so long as it's not selfishness, but sometimes

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I think we get those two terms confused. Lover of self.

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Here's how you know. How do I know which is which? Are you putting others above your needs? Are you putting others above your needs?

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Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit. That word conceit is quite literally kenodoxion.

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It means vain glory. Doxia or doxology means glory. Vain glory.

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You know what vain glory is? It's glory given to anybody else other than God. Let me say that again.

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Vain glory or conceit is giving glory to anybody other than God.

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Verse five. Okay. I know I give a lot of verses that I say every Christian should memorize, but seriously,

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Philippians 2, 5, write this on your arm, tattoo it on your forehead, make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus.

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Well, hold on. I thought we were talking about unity. What's with this shifting to who Jesus is? You can't be unified if you don't know who you're unified in.

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Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus. Verse six. Who existing in the form of God.

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If you're reading NIV or NLT right now, it will say who being God or being in the very nature

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God. The Greek word morphetheo means the form of God. Jesus, existing in the form of God in equality with God.

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Did not use that for his own advantage. Think about this for a minute. Paul starts off chapter two by telling you to humble yourself and treat others as more important than yourselves.

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And the prime example he uses is God, the son, who in equality with God, the eternal

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Yahweh, the son of Yahweh humbled himself and took on the form of a slave, morphe theulo.

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And he humbled himself. Pay attention. Verse eight. How did he humble himself?

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In verse eight, by becoming obedient, by becoming obedient. If you want me to sum up how to live your life worthy of the gospel, obey, obey.

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I'm hearing Ava say it right now. Obey. Obey. Remember the passage in first Samuel. I think it's chapter 15 where God tells

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Saul, go to the enemy, take nothing back, leave no one alive. Well, Saul and the soldiers bring back animals to sacrifice to God.

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They bring back property. God asked Saul, what are you doing? I told you not to bring anything back. Saul says, yes,

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God, but the soldiers brought them back in order to offer you sacrifices. And God, through the prophet

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Samuel says, what does God desire more? I desire obedience more than sacrifice.

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I desire obedience more than sacrifice. Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.

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He didn't say if you love me, you'll talk about how much you love me. We must not love in word or speech, but in truth and action.

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If you love him, you'll keep his commandments. And when you don't, you will feel the conviction of the

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Holy Spirit so much because the Lord chastens those he loves that you will immediately get right backstabbed with God.

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And if you don't, you're going to continually, continually feel that conviction of the Holy Spirit until one day

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God will use harsher measures to make sure you're listening, as some of us can attest to.

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He's existing in the form of God, and even though he's equal to God, he's still humbling himself to obedience.

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I want you to picture this for me. Picture that Jesus Christ is the creator of the world, according to John chapter one, he is.

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His creation rejected his love and refused to acknowledge him as Lord. So he assumed the form of a slave, i .e.

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his creation, and humbled himself below that creation and allowed that creation to murder him so he could become a curse for them and their sin could be imputed on him.

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That's Jesus. That's Jesus who humbled himself to that level. How dare us not?

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If Jesus Christ, according to verse eight, humbled himself by becoming obedient to the Father, and Jesus humbled himself that much, how could we not humble ourselves below our brothers and sisters in Christ?

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Let me give you another picture of who Jesus is as we keep talking about this type of humility that leads to unity.

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I want you to write this down, but I'm going to read it to you. Verse nine through 11, let me read it again. Philippians 2, nine through 11.

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For this reason, God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is

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Lord, to the glory of God the Father. I want you to remember that passage. I'm going to flip all the way back, and you can write this down or you can read with me, to Isaiah chapter 45.

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I'm flipping all the way back to Isaiah chapter 45, and you are welcome to read it with me.

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Now I want to remind you, and I'm going to start, guys, for those of you reading with me, I'm going to start in verse 18.

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This is Isaiah 45, verse 18. If you're reading your Bible, just a little reminder with the

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Old Testament, if you see the word Lord written in all capital letters, that is not a typo.

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If you see the word Lord written in all capital letters, that is telling you the divine name Yahweh is being used there,

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God's name. Remember, in Exodus chapter 3, God described his name to Moses three ways.

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He said, I am that I am. He said, I am. He said, my name is Yahweh, which is built off I am. I am

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Yahweh, the eternal one, the eternal being. I am. Before Abraham was,

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I am. I just am. Now, if Lord is written in all caps, that means that name

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Yahweh was used. If it's not, if it's just a capital L in all lowercase, that means Adonai, which means master.

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So as you're reading along, if you hear me say Yahweh, look in your Bible, you'll see that it's written in all capital letters,

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L -O -R -D. And again, some of your Bibles may even spell it Jehovah, same word. All right.

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And that's who's speaking. I'm in Isaiah 45, verse 18. Now, I want you to listen. And at the end, you may hear something familiar.

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Isaiah 45, 18, for this is what Yahweh says, God is the creator of the heavens.

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He formed it and he made it. He established it. He didn't create it to be empty, but he formed it to be inhabited.

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I am Yahweh and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret somewhere in a land of darkness.

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I didn't say to descendants of Jacob, seek me in a wasteland. I Yahweh speak truthfully.

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I say what is right. Verse 20, come gather together and draw near you, fugitives of the nations, those who carry their wooden idols and pray to a

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God who cannot save, have no knowledge. Speak up and present your case. Yes, let them counsel together.

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Who predicted this long ago and who announced it from ancient times? Was it not I, Yahweh? There is no other

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God but me, a righteous God and savior. And there is no one except me. Verse 22, turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth for I am

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God and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, please listen. This is

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Yahweh speak in verse 22. By myself I have sworn a word will not be revoked.

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Every knee will bow to me and every tongue will swear allegiance. Did you just hear that? Isaiah 45, 22, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.

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Does that sound familiar? Didn't we just read that in Philippians? In Isaiah 45, written 700 years before Jesus, Yahweh is speaking,

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God, and he said every knee will bow to me and every tongue will swear allegiance. Now back in Philippians, look at verse 9 and 11, 9 through 11 again.

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At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will swear allegiance. Paul quotes this passage in Isaiah in Romans 14, 11 too.

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You can look it up later. Romans chapter 14, verse 11. I want you to listen very closely to what just happened. Paul quoting

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Yahweh, quoting Jehovah, quoting God from the Old Testament, takes that passage in the

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Old Testament, quotes it in the New Testament and replaces the word

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Yahweh for Jesus. You know why? You know why he can do that and not be blasphemy? You know why he can do that and not be a misquote?

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Because Jesus is Yahweh. Because Jesus is God. So that Paul, oh goodness, 750 years later, can write the same thing that God said and say at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow.

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And notice, because people may say, yeah, but what about people that have died since then?

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Every knee will bow, verse 10, of those in heaven and still on the earth and those under the earth.

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Wherever they are in eternity or in the present age, every single knee will bow and every tongue will swear allegiance.

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It doesn't say every knee might bow or some knees or most. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is curious, that Jesus Christ is the

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Lord to the glory of God the Father. I want to leave you with that little part before we move on.

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Isaiah 45, Philippians 2. Compare it for yourself. I commend it to you. And read that again.

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I'll give you one more. Joel chapter 2 says whoever calls on the name of Yahweh will be saved. Romans 10, 13 says whoever calls on the name of Jesus will be saved.

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You know why? Because Jesus is God. Now, with that in mind, let's go back.

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That Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords, to whom every knee will bow and every tongue will swear allegiance to, that Jesus, according to verse 8, even he humbled himself by becoming obedient.

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How dare us not? How dare us not? What is humility?

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Well, it's summed up in one verse, John chapter 3, verse 30. My witnights are probably going to get sick of hearing it soon because I've quoted it every week.

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John 3 .30, he must increase and I must decrease.

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I think I've spoken to this before. Guys, when we pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit, that is a honorable, exalting prayer.

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That's a good prayer. But it's not like God injects you with more Holy Spirit. That's not what happens.

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The same Holy Spirit that has always been in you is still in you if you're a believer. If you're not, he's not there. But it's not being injected with an extra dose of Holy Spirit.

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It's you being emptied of yourself so the Holy Spirit can work through you. He must increase by you decreasing, said

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John the Baptist. That's how God's increased. That's how God's mortified, by you getting out of the way and dying to yourself.

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If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself by taking up a cross, a torture device daily and following me.

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You exalt God by not exalting yourself, but by humbling yourself and exalting him.

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Equal to God, verse 7, he emptied himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men.

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He didn't even come as a conquering king. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

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Father, if there be any other way, let this cup pass me, but not my, but thy will be done.

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Not my will, but yours, God. I am going to set the example of obedience for all the world to see.

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This is humility. It's obedience. You want to show the world you love God? Obey.

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Obey. There is it simply put. You don't need a doctorate in theology to know that.

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Obey. God made it really easy for us because James, John, Paul, and Jesus all said, the greatest commandment is this.

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And notice they always say commandment and then say two things because they're one and the same. Love the Lord your God, not in part, but with all of you, your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

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That sums up the whole law. That sums up the whole law. What kind of love are we talking about?

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Well, we're talking about the kind of love that does not a single thing out of selfish ambition, but considers others as more important than themselves.

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That's the type of love we're talking about. We only love him because he first loved us. Jesus didn't wait for us to be on good terms with him or to start liking him or to start seeking him out.

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One more thing on this point before we move on to talk about the name of Jesus. Romans chapter three says that there is no one who seeks

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God. What do you think the Bible means when it says no one? Well, in the Old Testament, God said, you will find me when you search me with your whole heart.

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But according to Romans chapter three, there's no one seeking God. So how will anyone ever find him?

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One word, grace, grace, it has been given to you on Christ's behalf to believe in him.

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For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And it's not of yourselves, guys. It's the gift of God, not of works, so that no one on this planet can boast.

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For we are his creation, Ephesians 2 10, created in Christ Jesus, position of sanctification for good works, progressive sanctification, that God prepared ahead of time that we should walk in them.

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Your sanctification was prepared ahead of time by God. Your job is to obey.

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That's your job, to obey. Just like God called Jeremiah in the womb.

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He had his good works planned out. Jeremiah's job was to obey. Verse 10, so that at the name of Jesus.

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Now why did Paul say at the name of Jesus? Have you ever thought about that? Or did you like me just read past it and not think twice about it?

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I did that for years. He could have just said, so then at Jesus, but he said at the name of Jesus.

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What's with the emphasis on the name of Jesus? Well, it's not the actual phonetical sound or letters,

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J -E -S -U -S. When Acts says, neither is there salvation in any other, for there's no other name, we're not talking about J -E -S -U -S, because it wasn't even written in English.

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We're not talking about in Greek, Iesu. We're not talking about the actual letters, that the name of Jesus, otherwise you'd have to be able to read or write to be saved.

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That's not what it means. So that at the name of Jesus, what is meant when he says at the name?

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Well, a name is great or not. It's either great or not.

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Not because of how it's spelled or how it's pronounced, because who or what it represents.

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The name Yahweh in its original form is not even pronounceable because there's no vowels in it. It's not how it's pronounced, it's what it represents.

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Let me give you an analogy. Every one of you, don't put this in the comment section, every one of you right now can think of a name that you always decided you were never going to name your kids, and you don't like that name, because you knew somebody in high school or whatever that had that name and you didn't like them.

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So that for the rest of your life, that name is associated with something negative. Am I right or wrong? That name, because of someone you didn't like or who was annoying or who wronged you or whatever, that name for the rest of your life has a negative connotation because of who and what that name represents in your mind.

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Whether it's fair or not, that's what's happening, right? Clint. Dude. Clint, it is good to see you, man.

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Even through this. I love you, man. Hit me up after this. Guys, a name is not great because of who and what or how it's spelled.

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It's great based on who and what it represents. So again, every one of you can think of that. You can think of a name that you don't like because you immediately have negative attributes about it because of someone you knew with that name, and you'll never name your kids that.

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You'll never name your dog that. At the same time, there are some names, and those of you from Witten, when

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I say these names, the moment I say the name, your eyes are going to light up because of who and what that name represents.

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Marty. Now, when I just said the name Marty, every one of you have a series of attributes that you in your brain attributed to that name because of who and what

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Marty is. When I say Vicky or Jeff or Char or Rebecca, you all have an idea of what that name represents to you because of who and what it represents.

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When we say that the name of Jesus is worthy of all praise and glory, it's not because of how it's spelled, it's because of who and what it represents.

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When we say at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, they're not going to see the writing on the wall, they're going to see who and what that name represents and have no choice but to bow down before it.

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When we say the name of Jesus is above all names, what we are saying about that name is that who and what it represents is infinitely greater, infinitely worthy of more glory, infinitely worthy of more honor and praise than anything and anyone else that has ever existed.

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That's what we're saying about the name of Jesus. So then in Acts when it says, neither is salvation any other for there's no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved,

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Acts 4 .12, what it's saying is who and what that name represents is the only source of salvation and that's

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Jesus Christ. Verse 11, to the glory of God the

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Father. Glory is one of my favorite things to speak about. We'll probably spend our last 10 or 15 minutes speaking on this one word, glory.

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What does glory mean? Let me challenge you guys, please, please, don't read the

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Bible. When you come across a word you're so familiar with but you don't really know what it means, just to keep on going, stop, figure out what that word means, not according to your mother or your pastor or your brother or your conscience, for goodness sake, but according to the

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Bible. What does that mean? I would rather you read one verse 10 times than 10 verses one time.

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I've said that for a long time. And for those of you, when you read the Bible, you read five or six chapters at a time, that's awesome, but let me encourage you, and I don't mean this in a demeaning way, there is no way

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I could read six chapters of the Bible and then tell you everything that passage has taught me.

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There's so much in each sentence that I really think it would do you better, especially if you're a new believer or haven't read through that particular book of the

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Bible, to sit there and dwell, meditate, chew on one verse at a time before moving on.

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At any rate, to the glory of God the Father. What is glory? Okay, the

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Bible speaks of the glory of God a lot. It speaks of it as being the end goal of all things. It speaks of it as being what creation is for, for the glory of God.

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What does that mean, the glory of God? It's the ultimate purpose in creation, redemption, love, forgiveness, mercy, wrath, judgment.

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It's the ultimate purpose of everything, the glory of God. That's what the ultimate purpose is.

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God is holy. Okay, now, let me walk you through this next part.

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God is holy. Witten, what does holy mean? I want to see it in the comments.

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What does the word holy mean? And while you're typing that in, as you all are right now, what does holy mean?

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As you type that in, the Bible says in Isaiah chapter six, holy, holy, holy is the

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Lord God almighty. The whole earth is filled with his glory. To be set apart. That's right.

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Set apart. That's what holiness means. Now, yes, very good. Now we are set apart in Christ Jesus positionally, and we are being made more set apart, more holy progressively.

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Good job guys. Now, when we say God is holy, when we say

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God is holy, what we are saying, no, not sinless perfection.

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Absolutely not. You couldn't be coming more holy if you're already all the way holy. Boo. Okay.

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When we say God is holy, we are saying that he is set apart, that he is different, that that is who he is.

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He's set apart from everything and everyone else. They are the series of attributes that make him God. His holiness is who he is.

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It's who he is. He's set apart from all other things. All other things.

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Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty. The whole earth is full of his, and you would expect them to say holiness, but Isaiah doesn't.

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The whole earth is full of his glory. If his holiness is who he is, his glory is the outward manifestation of that holiness.

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It is the light that shines on who God is. His glory is when he shows us who he is, and to a smaller degree, when we show the world who he is.

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His holiness is who he is. His glory is his manifestation, his making known who he is.

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Okay? It's often associated with light. When the shepherds in the field when Jesus was born, when it says the glory of the

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Lord shone around them, they probably for the first time in their life came face to face with who God was.

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The glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were afraid. They were afraid.

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The more and more God is glorified, the more and more we are showing the world and ourselves who he is.

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So that the more holy we become, as in the more sanctified, the more we glorify

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God, the more we see who he is, and i .e. hate the sin that remains. Think of it this way.

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What makes the moon beautiful? Maybe this analogy will help. What makes the moon beautiful? I thought about this the other night.

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It was a clear night, and I saw the moon. Does the moon have its own light source?

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No. It reflects the light of the sun, right? Apart from the sun, apart from the glory of the sun, the moon is a lifeless, worthless rock that has no purpose that we would never see.

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But the better the moon shines, sheds, transfers the glory of the sun, the light of the sun, the more beautiful it becomes to us.

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The moon fulfills its purpose. The moon fulfills its purpose by reflecting the light of the sun 93 million miles away.

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That's how the moon fulfills its purpose. Guys, we have no glory on our own.

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We have no purpose. We are a dead, lifeless rock. But the better we shine the light, the holiness, the glory of God, the more we have a purpose.

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The more we have a purpose. Matthew 5, 16 says,

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Let your light so shine among men, that they may see your good works and glorify the

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Father that's in heaven. See, we show, we glorify God by living out that light and shining it so that they glorify

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God. Right? That's how we do that. First Corinthians 10, 31 says,

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And whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. And whatever you do, let your light so shine.

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It doesn't mean you have to be on a mission board somewhere. It doesn't mean you have to be a pastor. And whatever you do, let your light so shine in a way that others can see.

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You don't even have to open your mouth yet. Not even there yet. We're not even at that part yet. But they can see your good works and glorify the world.

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Glorify the Lord, your Father that's in heaven. Remember, the world will know you're my disciples.

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This is one of the most amazing verses. You would expect it to say, The world will know you're my disciples by the way you love the world.

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By the way you serve them. That's not what it says. The Bible says, The world will know you're my disciples by the way you love each other.

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Folks, I have unbelievers sometimes say something like this. Josiah, there's something different about your church at Witten.

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It's actually a family. Like, not just they talk about it. They really love each other. That's something different.

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See, the world knows that we're his true disciples by the way we love each other. By the way we love each other.

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My job, our job, is to so glorify God and so empty ourself that we can reflect the glory of God more and more.

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Just like the moon. Now, how do we glorify

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God? How do we glorify God? Well, according to verse five, we make our attitude that of Christ Jesus.

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What did Jesus do? Well, he being Yahweh, he being God, he being

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Jehovah, emptied himself, verse seven, and assumed the form of a slave.

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Verse eight, and he humbled himself. How? How did he humble himself? Don't stop the sentence there.

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How did he humble himself? He humbled himself by becoming obedient.

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Miss Charity, it's so good to see you. He humbled himself by becoming obedient.

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Now, ladies and gentlemen, if Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords,

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Yahweh incarnate, if he humbled himself by becoming obedient, then how much more should we?

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Remember, Romans 8, 32. What shall we say then?

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If God is for us, who can be against us? He didn't even spare his own son, but delivered him, killed him, for us all.

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How with that will he not give us all things? How is he not gonna give us all things?

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If he did that, he didn't even spare his own son, he'll give us everything we need to live life in godliness.

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Our job is to glorify him. How do you glorify him? By obeying. How do I obey?

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Love God and love each other. And don't just do it with your mouth.

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No one's interested in that. No one believes that. Do it with your actions.

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I am not lying to you. When I tell you, Rachel's here in the room right now, make sure

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I'm not lying. Ava is coming up on two years old. She's like older than a year and a half, maybe 20 months.

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To my knowledge, we have bought her with our own money, two outfits, maybe three.

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Pajamas. Couple pairs of pajamas. You know why? Not simply because of affectionate and giving grandparents, which she does have.

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She is wearing clothes that Charlie Romo wore years ago that were passed down to Avery and to Jazzy and then to Ava and are now being passed down to Nadine and so many others.

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The clothes that Charlie wore, Sophie Litchford wore. Sophie Litchford, goodness gracious. Guys, that's love.

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That's love. Witton Baptist Church, 6773 Macon Road is the only other place in Memphis other than my house where if I look at Rachel and she's not holding

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Ava and I don't have Ava, I don't freak out. You know why? Because I know she's in the arms of somebody that loves her and cares about her.

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Guys, I love my church and I don't love them because of worldly reasons.

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I love them because of that koinonia because we're focused on one goal. We love not our lives even unto death as Pastor Jeff preached this morning.

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We love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And when you have people that have that goal in mind, it brings them together.

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Okay, last point and then I'm done. Excuse me.

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Last point, I'm done. If you wanna glorify God, if you wanna glorify

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God, you obey. What is obeying? But loving God and loving each other.

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If you right now go, Josiah, I swear to you, I want to obey God. I want to love him more.

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How do I do that? Start by serving. Start by serving. Start by serving your fellow believers.

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Let me tell you something. What did Jesus tell them? He said, blessed are those who gave me water and gave me food and visited me and helped me when

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I was sick. And the people said, Lord, when have we ever seen you sick or in prison or hungry or thirsty?

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And Jesus said, if you do it to each other, you do it to me.

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Why? Because if they are saved, they are in the body of Christ so that if you serve them, you are serving

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Christ. And when you love them, you are loving Christ because that's his church.

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That's his body. Those are his people. And that's that koinonia.

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And that's that fellowship. That's that love we have with each other. Find a way.

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I don't care if it's text. I don't care if it's Facebook. I don't care if it's Marco Polo. I don't care what it is. Find a way to reach out to somebody.

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Maybe someone you don't normally reach out with. Pray for them. And all you have to do is send them a message saying, hey,