Philippians 2:5-11 (Audio only)

The following sermon is by Nathan Hargrave, the teaching pastor at 12 Five Church in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

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And now, seeking to equip believers for every good work, here's 12 Five Church teaching pastor,

Nathan Hargrave. What a song. What a truth.

You know, as we were praying this morning, me and JD and Lorelei got to spend a little bit of time in prayer.

It just struck me thinking about Moses being set in the cleft of the rock because he couldn't see the glory of God.

He could only see the backside, just a glimpse, because if he would have seen the entirety of God, he would have died on the spot.

And when he left that spot after seeing just the glimpse of the backside of the holiness of God, he comes down from the mountain and people can't even look at his face.

They have to cover his face because the glory of God was reflecting off of him. And I think and pray, and we prayed this morning that that would be us leaving today, knowing that we can't see the glory of God, not in our state.

We would die in that moment, but just that God would put us in the cleft of that rock and allow us to see just a glimpse of his glory.

And hopefully and prayerfully, we will get to see that this morning in our passage here in Philippians.

So turn your Bibles. Philippians chapter two, we're going to be in verse five this morning. Let's read our passage.

It says, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant and being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Therefore, God has highly exalted him, bestowed on him the name as above every name, so 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

Lord to the glory of God the Father. There is so much rich truth right here in just these few verses that I think we could literally spend every single

Sunday for the next few years right here, but don't worry, we're not going to. I have to get through them because Pastor Jeremiah is already prepared for the next few verses, so I have to get through them today, but just know that over the years here at 12 .5,

as we study things like Christology, the study of Christ, then we are going to be coming back to this passage in greater detail.

That's for sure. We will definitely be doing that because in these few verses, we see one of the most concise, beautiful pictures of our

Savior found in Scripture. I mean, its beauty is first and foremost found in its content, isn't it?

As you've read this passage this morning, and I'm sure you've read it before, you see your Savior in the midst of that, and so its content is of the utmost beauty to us, but it is also beautiful in its poetic form.

If you notice that verses 5 through 8, they have a very different structure and flow than the rest of the

Apostle Paul's writings, and there's a reason for that. These few verses, these first four verses that we read this morning, 5 through 8, they are commonly believed to have been a hymn that was sung by the early church, and this hymn that was sung by the early church,

Paul uses here in his letter to the church at Philippi, this beautiful Holy Spirit -inspired

Word of God letter, he uses this hymn, this great hymn that they sang. And so,

I think what this tells us, at least what this tells me as I study it, is that the early church understood the importance of having a firm grasp on what we refer to in theological circles as, and we'll have it up here so you can write it, the hypostatic union, the hypostatic union.

This is just a fancy way of saying Jesus was truly God and truly man at the same time.

And the early church, I believe, understood the importance of having a firm grasp of this hypostatic union because of the fact that they most likely sang this song regularly.

This hymn would have been sung regularly, which is probably why Paul used it. Now, it's a little different.

It's hard for us to understand because we like singing brand new songs every week. That's the current church setting.

It seems like Caleb pops out a new praise song every other day, and we like to rotate it. And if a song stays in rotation in our churches more than two years, we like to put it to pastor.

But historically, the church has not been like that. The church has hung on to songs for extended periods of time because they use songs as a form of indoctrination.

And I know that word carries with it some bad connotation within our context, but indoctrination is not bad as long as indoctrination is founded and based upon truth.

Indoctrination is necessary, and it's good. It's us catechizing ourselves, our children.

We teach our children truths and indoctrinate them to those truths, and that's what the early church has commonly used singing songs for.

And that's why it's important for us as a church to sing doctrinally, theologically accurate songs regularly because of that.

Because I've heard it said, actually, come Monday morning, the congregation will remember very little of what the pastor says on that Sunday, which is kind of a shame.

But it's true. We'll remember very little of what the pastor says, but they will always remember the lyrics to the songs that they sang regularly.

And so there's some truth in that. That's the way God has designed it, which is probably why

Paul uses this song here. The people at Philippi, they knew this song well, I'm sure. And through that, they already knew of this doctrine of the hypostatic union, and they knew it well, which is more than likely why

Paul doesn't go into a lengthy theological dissertation on this matter here.

I mean, if you notice, he gives it four verses, which that doesn't seem sufficient enough when it's talking about such a weighty matter as the hypostatic union, but there is a lot here.

And again, we will be coming back to this passage when we study it. But as for our study today, I don't want us to lose sight of the thrust of why

Paul is bringing this hymn to the forefront with the church at Philippi, because it's not only theologically rich, it's also very ethical.

It's very practical. It's very practical when Paul writes, look at verse five there in our passage, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

Paul's making a transition from his exhortation. Remember the passage we studied last week, his exhortation, and now he's going into an illustration of that exhortation.

And this phrase, have this mind, that phrase is looking both forward and backward.

It's looking forward and backward. This is why we know this is a transition from the exhortation to illustration.

And what's it looking back to? Well, if you remember last week, we talked about the idea of unity and how it is woven throughout the entirety of the

New Testament, and in particular, this letter to the church at Philippi. And this unity can only be had through, y 'all remember?

I know you remember the songs from last week, obviously. No, I'm kidding. Through oneness in Christ being its foundation.

Yet, because of our remaining sin nature, we still struggle to maintain this unity, don't we? We struggle with that, which is why

Paul gives this exhortation in verse 3. Look back to verse 3 that we looked at last week in chapter 2.

It says, Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Paul is telling us to do nothing from selfish ambition because this is really at the root of our sin nature, isn't it?

Selfish ambition, Satan fell because of his selfish ambition, wanting to be

God. Adam fell out of selfish ambition, wanting to be God, knowing good and evil.

This is at the root of our selfishness. So, selfish ambition is really rooted deep within, and that's why

Paul said, but in humility there in verse 3, count others more significant than yourselves.

This is Paul's exhortation to us. Thank goodness he doesn't just leave it there because if he did, we would be left with some vague idea of what humility and really unity is.

We'd be left with this vague idea of, well, humility is what

I think humility is, or unity is what I think unity is, but he doesn't leave it there. He gives us, again, an illustration of what humility should look like.

And he goes on into the ultimate illustration of selflessness and humility in verse 5 of our passage.

He says, which is yours in Christ Jesus. Now, we're reading from the ESV, but the

New King James Version, I think, translates this verse a little more concise and better to what

Paul wrote, and it just simply says, which was also in Christ Jesus. This humility was also in Christ Jesus, which we'll see as we read on.

And this is what that phrase, have this mind, is looking forward to. Remember, that have this mind is looking both backwards and forwards.

So it's looking back to the exhortation, and now it's looking forward to Christ. So I would say that over the next few verses where Paul gives us one of the most beautifully concise and doctrinally rich pictures and imagery of our

Savior, whom he's telling us to imitate. So I want to see four things in these next few verses, four things in the next few verses.

And the first one is the contrast, the contrast. Look at verse 6 with me.

He says, who though He was in the form of God. Let's stop there for a moment.

Who though. Right here we see the contrast between us and Christ, don't we? Because remember, this is an illustration of His exhortation to us.

This contrast is pointing out the absurdity of our selfish ambition and pride, the absurdity of it.

Because think about this for a moment. Us, sinful, finite, created beings that have absolutely zero rights to demand anything other than eternal damnation.

That's us. That's the contrast. But then Christ. Put Christ in there, and it says though He was in the form of God.

Now again, we're not going to be able to dive into all the complexities of that today because of time.

But what He is pointing to here is the fact that Christ has been, always will be, eternally

God. That's the contrast that we're looking at. Us versus Christ.

Us, Christ. And so that's what we want to see. Turn with me back to the book, the

Gospel According to John, chapter 1. Gospel According to John, chapter 1. I know all of you know this verse pretty well.

I just want us to look at it because I want us to see some proof and go to other passages of Scripture where we see this fact that Christ is in the form of God.

John, chapter 1, the first three verses says, In the beginning was the Word, and the

Word was with God, and the Word was God. What is that Word? It translated from the word

Logos. What is this word Logos? This is Christ. This is who we're speaking of, that He is in the beginning.

And in verse 2, he says, He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.

You see it? It's very clear here. The deity of Christ. We're seeing a contrast between us and Christ.

Turn over to the book of Colossians, just a few books over, chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1, and we're going to look at verses 15 and 16.

Just more confirmation. Colossians 1, starting there in verse 15, says,

He is the image of the invisible God who is at Christ, the firstborn of all creation, which, by the way, does not mean that He's a created being.

Again, we don't have time to go into that. Just know that's not what that means. It goes on. It says, For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.

All things were created through Him and for Him. Do you see it here?

There's an obvious and monstrous contrast between us and Christ.

This exhortation that Paul has given us to be humble. We have absolutely zero right to not be humble and live for others and to demand anything of pride.

And the contrast between that and our perfect Savior who, from eternity past, has been

God and has created everything. I'll go back to our passage in Philippians here.

There in verse 5, there's a phrase, the form of God. He was in the form of God.

This does not mean that Jesus was a replica. This does not mean that Jesus was a mirror image of God, just in an appearance sake and maybe a few of the same attributes.

Back over in Colossians, you don't have to turn there, but later on in verse 19 of chapter 1, he says, "...for

in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell."

He was fully God and it speaks to the oneness and the unity, in essence, in the eternal

Godhead. And this is why the example of Christ is the perfect illustration for our exhortation.

For the simple fact that when we understand who we are down here, who we are in contrast to who

Christ is, our selfish ambition melt away under the chasm of worth.

Do you see that chasm? Do you see it? Do you see the void that's left there that we can't even fathom the idea of just how vast and how different Christ is than us?

We cannot understand the contrast of an eternal

Creator with His creation. Because if He's the potter and we're the clay, like Paul says over in Romans 9, then what right do we have to say, why have you made me this way?

Much less, what right do we have to say, I want some of the glory that is rightfully yours that I don't deserve?

Because that's ultimately what we want when we're seeking after selfish pride, selfish ambition, right?

That's what it is. Do you see the contrast? Who though He was in the form of God, goes on and says, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

Ah, this is where this passage gets tricky, isn't it? Groups like the Jehovah's Witness and other heretical groups throughout history like to use this passage.

They like to go to this passage and they like to twist it and make it seem as though Jesus was just another created being.

If you don't know much about the Jehovah's Witness, they believe that Jesus was a created angel.

They believe He was Michael the archangel and that God brought Him to earth in the form of a man and at His baptism,

God decided to share His deity with Him and that He was just another created being and they like to use this passage to try and prove that point.

So, we were just told though that He was in the form of God. If He is in essence

God, He's in the form of God and now the first thing He does is not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

Which is it? Well, let's look at verse 7.

He says, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men.

The Incarnation. What a perfect passage for us to land on right after Thanksgiving getting ready to come into Christmas.

The Incarnation. John 1 14, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and in this

Incarnation the Owner and Creator of everything willingly gave up His rightful position. That's what it's getting at.

Yet, this does not mean that He gave up His deity. We need to be very clear about that because back in verse 6 it says, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

In the Greek we get this word isa for the equality. This isa and this word,

I'm not a chemist so I need to make sure. I need to look at my notes. I had to look it up here. It's in the plural but this is where we get our word isomers.

I believe that's how you pronounce it again. I'm not a chemist. I know nothing about that. I didn't make it too far in school with that.

But isomers are chemicals that differ in certain properties and structure but are identical in atomic weight.

I'm going to say that again. Where we get the word that Paul used here, isomers, they are chemicals that differ in certain properties and structure.

Jesus was in human form at the time but they're identical in atomic weight.

They're identical. This is talking about the exact same thing. When he says he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, he is pointing to the fact that Christ is deity.

He is God in full. And so, in becoming a man,

Jesus did not in any way forfeit or diminish his absolute equality with Father.

What it's suggesting here is that he's referring to all prerogatives of deity. What do

I mean by that? I'm not sure I know what I mean by that. Some of you are like, prerogatives of deity.

But what I mean by prerogatives of deity is that Jesus being truly God always obtained within himself all attributes of deity.

You hear me? All the attributes. Yet, in his human form, he set aside certain privileges.

Do you understand what I'm saying when I say attributes? These characteristics of who

God is. We see that God is love. That's an attribute of God.

We see omniscience, omnipresence. All of these things, Christ had them within himself and never lost them.

And we're going to see that here in a second. He just set aside certain privileges to use them. And we can see this in that when he says, a thing to be grasped.

Look there in that verse, a thing to be grasped. The language that's used here is not referring to taking a hold of.

It's kind of like when my children, my little ones, they want a bowl of cereal and those bowls are up high and they have to reach for them.

They need to grasp for the bowl and they can't get it. And they need one of us to come and pull the bowl down and give them a bowl of cereal.

But that's not what the language that's being used here about grasping is. This language is holding onto or clinging to.

They already have the bowl. They've always had the bowl. The bowl is rightfully theirs. They have no need to hold tightly to it.

They have no need to reach for it. They have no need to grasp for it. And that's the language that Paul is using here, really, that this

M is using here. And the fact that when it says a thing to be grasped, it gives us this idea that maybe

Jesus was like, well I can't reach that high and I can't be the Father, so I'm not even going to try and reach that high.

No, that language is Jesus already has it. He's just not holding tight to it.

He's letting go of His prerogatives of deity, even though He still obtains it. It's still rightfully

His. So again, He's telling us that Jesus didn't fight for what was rightfully

His. So what does this look like? What does this look like in Christ?

Well, exactly what verse 7 is telling us. Verse 7 again says, "...but emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant and being born in the likeness of men."

And here's where we see point number two, the connection. The connection.

Our first one was the contrast. We see the contrast in this hymn, and now we see a connection in this hymn.

He says, "...but emptied Himself." Again, this does not mean that Christ gave up His deity.

The language used here tells us that Jesus Christ emptied Himself of His advantage and privilege, emptied

Himself of it, refusing to assert any divine right on His own behalf.

Jesus had the ability to utilize any and all of the attributes of God at any moment while on earth, but chose not to.

He chose not to use some of them for His own benefit. Does that make sense?

And for ours, absolutely. So, He who created everything,

He who owned everything, in this moment forsook everything. Set it aside.

He didn't grasp at it. He didn't hold tightly to it. And this is a stark contrast between us and our example.

Our Savior, instead of clinging to what was rightfully His, He emptied Himself while we are grabbing and grasping for something that isn't ours, seeking to fulfill our own self with what doesn't belong to us.

So, what a thing to be grasping for, a selfish ambition and pride when there's such a chasm of worth between us and our

Savior, our example. But here's where we see the connection. It's between us and Christ by taking the form of a servant.

This is that same phrase that Paul used in verse 1 that I like to reference too.

The slave, when Paul said, me and Timothy, slaves of Jesus Christ, Jesus is being referred to by taking on the form of a slave.

And this is not an undercover boss situation. Any of y 'all ever seen that show? You know what

I'm talking about? Where like the CEO or the president or the owner of some big corporation puts on a wig and some makeup and a fake mustache and puts on the uniform and pretends like he's part of his employees just to go undercover and see what's going on in his business?

This isn't what's happening here because he is actually putting on slaves' garments.

But not just wearing the slaves' garments as an act or a show or outward appearance.

He's actually become a slave in the fullest sense. It's important for us to understand that.

Jesus comes in the form of a slave in the fullest sense. And how did he do this?

Well, look at the verse, being born in the likeness of men. So just as heretics have tried to use this passage to deny the deity of Christ, others have tried to use this passage to deny the humanity of Christ.

And both of these things are dangerous and inaccurate.

But the language used here only affirms this hypostatic union that we're speaking of, the truly

God and truly man. Because the Greek word for likeness, it refers to that which is made to be like something else, but not in just appearance, but in reality.

Again, he didn't just merely put on the slaves' garments. He actually became a slave in reality and in fullness.

The only attribute of man that Christ did not obtain was that of our sin nature. That was it.

He had flesh. He had hunger. He had fatigue. His humanity was full.

And it's important that we understand this because if Christ was not truly man, He could not have been a substitute for us.

He would not have been able to take sin upon himself. God cannot take sin upon himself.

God cannot sin. Christ could not have sinned, but yet we know that he who knew no sin became sin for us.

If he had not been human, he would not have been able to do that. He would not have been able to take on the sins of the world if he was not truly

God also. If he was not truly deity, he would not have been able to take on the sins of all the elect because a mere man could have paid for his own sins if he would have lived a perfect life, but he could not have paid for the sins of others.

So it was required that he be truly man and truly God. And I believe the early church understood this concept concretely.

Paul's using this song to affirm this truth even deeper and to point to, again, the contrast and the connection.

And our third point I want us to see is the compassion. The compassion.

Look at verse 8 with me. And here in verse 8 is the essence of Paul's illustration for us.

He says, "...and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."

So here in verses 6 and 7 that we just talked about, he lays the groundwork, or the song lays the groundwork, of who

Christ is. And now in verse 8, he tells us what Christ did. And what did

Christ do? He humbled himself. He humbled himself. Paul could have stopped right there and said, now go imitate this.

Christ humbled himself. Go imitate it. But he doesn't. He goes on and says, "...by

becoming obedient to the point of death." Because Christ did not show us an example of humility part way.

He carried it through, didn't he? I mean,

I know I said it a few weeks ago where he's hanging on the cross. He could have called down a legion of angels and said, enough.

I'm done. This is enough humility. I've come. I've been born in the likeness of man.

I've humbled myself to the point of coming from full deity to now keeping my full deity, but also adding humanity to it, becoming like you, the creature.

He could have stopped there, couldn't he? And said, now imitate that. It would have done us no good. But thankfully, he carried it through, and he always would have.

There was never a moment when Christ would have backed out because he had fully committed his will to the

Father, hadn't he? That's his humility. That's where the humility comes in. And then in this song, and the early church understands this better than we,

I think, can comprehend it. I know we've talked about it before, but it's important that we remind ourselves of it. He doesn't just leave it at, by becoming obedient to the point of death, because he also could have left it there.

But the song even goes deeper and says, even death on a cross. Man, it just keeps going deeper and deeper because we see a cross, again, as jewelry.

We see it as something beautiful because that's what our Savior paid for our sins on.

But this was the lowest form of death, the most humiliating, the most shameful form of death.

And the Creator of the universe allowed His creation to denigrate and humiliate

Him in this way, and ultimately kill Him through the most detestable form of death known to man.

But don't get lost in the weeds of the external humiliation and pain.

Don't get lost there. Don't get so focused on it. So I think we do that times. We see something like the

Passion of the Christ. We watch the movie, and we see the scars, and we see the pain. We see the humiliation, and we become so fixated on that.

But when Christ was hanging on the cross and said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

It had far less to do with the physical pain. It had far less to do with the external humiliation, and far more to do with the fact that God the

Father, the one that we read about in John 1, 1 right there, had had perfect face -to -face communion with the

Son from eternity past. And in this moment that God the

Father is pouring His wrath, the wrath that is due all of the elect from all eternity onto His Son, that's the humiliation that our

Savior took upon Himself. That's the humiliation that this hymn is bringing out, is pointing to, that our

Savior, our perfect illustration, an example of humility, is pointing to.

The one who knew no sin and becomes sin for us. Galatians 3, 13 says that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.

For it is written, cursed is everyone who hanged on a tree. This curse, this judgment that came upon sin in that moment that was paid for by our

Savior, which is why He had to be full deity, truly God and truly man to do this.

Because for the first time in all of eternity, the sinless perfect Creator took sin upon Himself. And I use that phrase very intentionally, the

Creator. Remember both the passages we looked at in John and in Colossians?

Nothing was created apart from Him. He's the Creator. He is eternally

I am. He is God. And now He is taking sin upon Himself.

Again, don't get lost in the sin just in general. Don't get lost in that.

Say, well, sin in general. No, it's your sin. It's my sin. It's the sin of all the elect from all eternity.

This sin that causes us to pridefully seek after self. The sin that separates man from God.

This is the sin that Christ took upon Himself. And every single time we seek out after self, every single time that we want something that is not rightfully ours, we know that Christ paid for that.

Praise God. And that's what He bore. That's the humiliation that we're speaking of. This is the ultimate illustration of humility that Paul wants us to see.

Christ did all this for His elect. This gives us freedom and motivation.

This should give us great motivation to do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but to count others more significant than ourselves.

To let each one of us look out not only to our own interest, but also to the interest of others. That's what gives us the motivation because of the illustration of our

Savior. When you see that contrast, what right do we have?

But then we see the connection that Christ came and met us where we were.

That connection is beautiful. And fourthly, let's see here.

My bad. I'm jumping the gun here. I'm getting a little too excited, guys. I think it's important for us to acknowledge again that the religion,

Christianity, this is not a pull yourself up by your bootstraps religion. We can't just look at the example of the contrast and then the connection, but this religion is a gaze upon your

Savior and live way of life. That's why Paul is using this hymn here.

This is why we're looking at such a beautiful doctrine here of who Christ is, that He's truly

God and truly man and the example that He has set before us. Because when we gaze upon our Savior, we see that if you want to kill selfish ambition, look to the one who gave up His prerogative of deity for you.

Gaze upon Him. Look to Him. Be reminded of Him. If you want to crush pride in your heart, if pride keeps coming up and trying to take over your life, don't try and pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

That's not the point of Christianity. It's look to your Savior who humbled Himself by becoming as those

He created. And if you want to look out after the interest of others, if you find yourself living for yourself and not for others, and you just want to live for others,

I want to, you're not going to be able to do it without looking upon the one who submitted His will to the Father. You can't.

It's impossible. You can only do it through the power of gazing upon our Savior. What a perfect example and substitute for us.

And this is why I said at the beginning, this hymn is not only theologically deep in this theological dissortation, but it's practical and essential in tying

Paul's exhortation to us in. But, praise

God, it doesn't end there. He goes on into verses 9 through 11, which is where we see our fourth point, the crown.

The crown. Read those three passages together. Therefore God has highly exalted

Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so 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 Lord to the glory of God the

Father. Just those three verses. A lot to unpack there, but we're not going to today.

I just want to address these. I'll address those another day. I wanted to drive your attention to the fact that our

Savior reigns. That's the beautiful part that we can leave today.

Gazing upon our Savior, knowing what He did and who He is and that He reigns.

And when we are in Christ, we will share in that glory because we shared His righteousness because of who

He is and what He did. So when we humble ourselves towards our brothers and sisters and when we die to self and live for others and the world rebukes us and pokes fun at us because that humility and that selflessness looks like weakness, doesn't it?

Looks like weakness to the world. They look at humility as weakness.

It's not power. It's the opposite of power. But when they do that, we can be reminded of what our

Savior did and how He is highly exalted and that every knee will bow before Him.

Every knee in heaven, every knee on earth, and every knee in hell.

Every knee bows before our Savior because He reigns.

He's the one that has the crown and praise God that He does because we get to reign with Him because we are brought in in oneness with Him.

And it's all because of who He is and what He has done. So this week as we go about our lives and we seek to mortify sin in our hearts and in our minds, the only possible way that we can do that is through gazing upon our

Savior who has given us the power to do so and in that we will reign over sin and death because our

Savior reigns over sin and death. That's good news, isn't it? That's good news.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Dear only Father, Lord, we thank you again for today.

We thank you for a time that we have been able to just see a glimpse of your glory.

God, we thank you for who you are. We thank you for sending your Son. We thank you.

We thank you for seeing it through because we would be without hope.

God, we thank you for who you are and what you've done and in that Lord as we struggle through this divided flesh of ours that so badly wants to go back to its chains of sin at times, that as we fight that battle and as we struggle through it that we would not try and do it in our own power but that we do what

Paul is telling us when he says to have humility and to have unity and then tying that into the illustration of our

Savior so that we know we can look to our Savior and see the perfect illustration and the perfect example,

God. And in that Lord, in that that you would work in our lives, make us more like your

Son. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you again for joining us.

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