Philippians 4:15-17

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Studying Philippians 4:15-17

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Hello, good morning. This is Truth and Love. So glad that you could join me this morning. It is a cold morning and it's starting to feel like winter.
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I'm not sure if you've looked at the weather yet, but it seems like, which they did this last week, it seemed like there was some snowflakes on the weather forecast that may be around Christmas Day.
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I talked to a few folks that are looking forward to that and hoping that's going to happen.
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I'm one of those that's looking forward to it, hoping it's going to happen. But we were kind of disappointed last week.
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But that's how it goes. That's how forecasts go. But I'm glad that you are with me.
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I'm glad that you're joining me to look at God's Word. I'm so thankful to be able to do this.
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And we have the freedom to look at God's Word, study it, worship. We don't know where things are going in our country right now concerning our ability to do these things and to go to church and to worship.
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But we are ones who should be living in victory because we know that Christ has won the victory, that we can live in victory and that we know we are going to be victorious in the end, no matter what this world and the powers of darkness, the enemy, as Ephesians says in chapter 6, verse 12, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of weakness in the heavenly places.
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Our fight is not against flesh and blood. The enemy is trying to tear down the kingdom of God, but we don't want to live in a pessimistic kind of way.
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We want to live in a victorious way, despite how hard the enemy is trying to attack us, trying to attack our world, our country.
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There may be some successes, some apparent wins from the enemy side, certain decisions that the governor makes and legislators make, but we can live in victory.
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Christ has won it. We're going to be victorious in the end. We can live in that victory, despite what the enemy is doing to attack us.
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So, I'm so thankful that we can do that. We can live with hope.
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Again, this is truth and love. We get that from Ephesians chapter 4, verse 15, but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who was the head, even
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Christ. And that's our goal. That's our aim. As we spend time together, as I try to do this video ministry, is to speak truth and speak the truth in love with the goal in mind of growing up in all aspects into him who was the head, even
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Christ. We want to grow up in all aspects of all doctrines of scripture.
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And then, especially as we're going to see today in Philippians, that, of course, is not the end goal.
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The end game in and of itself is to grow up in just knowledge, even though that's part of it.
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That's necessary. And the apostle Paul speaks to these churches about growing in knowledge, about growing in wisdom, but that in and of itself, we can't stop there.
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That's not the end game. And Paul is going to address that. And it's so amazing. He's going to address that in today's verses about how that's not the end game, but it leads us to this knowledge and understanding.
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And I know there may be some out there that may accuse me of having blinders on.
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You know how horses have blinders? They put the blinders on the side of their eyes so that they can only see forward.
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They can't see what's around them. And there may be some folks that accuse me of having blinders on and focusing on one aspect.
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And of course, I wanted to touch on probably that aspect right now in just a minute and make a few comments about that.
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But I want to avoid that. I don't want to do that. I want to grow up in all aspects of Christ.
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And I want us to do that together, growing up in all aspects into Christ. And so to do that, we have to touch on many different things.
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And it may seem, and it may come across sometimes as we are focusing on one aspect of scripture, one doctrine of scripture.
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But that's necessary sometimes. If you're going to learn something, you've got to spend some time in it.
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You can't just breeze over something.
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Scripture calls us to study to show yourself approved.
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And so if you're going to study to show yourself approved, you've got to spend some time on the different doctrines of scripture so that you can study them and so you can know them.
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Study to show yourself approved and be able to give a defense of the that's within you.
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So we want to be able to do that. And it may come across, I understand that as me or whoever you're thinking of or speaking of, they may be just focusing on one issue.
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And of course, we want to avoid that. We don't want to be just one issue Christians in the
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Bible. We want to grow up in all aspects. So let's pray for each other that we don't do that.
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But I just wanted to to remind anyone out there that that's that's not my heart.
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That's not where I am. But so if it seems like there's one aspect of scripture that I'm focusing on,
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I want it to be clear that I want to grow up in all aspects. But we do have to spend quality time on different doctrines so that you can study them so that you can grow up in them in Christ.
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And the doctrine that I that I wanted to touch on today, before we get started in Philippians, is there's a conference going on right now.
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It's starting again at nine o 'clock. And so I'm going to have to wrap this up so I can get back in there and rejoin that conference.
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Conference went all day yesterday, and it's going to go on all day today. And the conference is on postmillennialism, which
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I've done a small video on that subject earlier. But it's a it's one of the views of the end times that scripture speaks of prophecy in times.
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And I would encourage you to to seek out the conference.
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I'm going to be they're going to post the videos. I'm going to be sharing some of the videos so that maybe you, if you have a moment, you can look into this particular view of end times.
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And the reason, and I'm just going to tell you the reason that this this view appeals to me so much is because and you may have been like me growing up for so long, you know,
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I only I felt like there was only I felt like there was only one view of end times, only one view of eschatology, because that's the only the only view that was ever brought up, only view that was ever taught.
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And I thought there was only one view of eschatology. But as I learned, as I grew, as I studied scripture,
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I was listening to other other pastors. You know, my doctrine, my theology on different things has changed.
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And as I've as I've studied and as I've listened, as I've grown, I found out there are other views of eschatology of end times of prophecy that that people look at and see in scripture.
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And one of the things that appeals to me so much about this view of end times.
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Hey, Pam. Yeah, we'll pray for you. Absolutely. And let me say that while you're since you mentioned that if I can pray for you, we always pray at the end.
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And if I can pray for you, I'd love to be able to do that. All you have to do, just like Pam is type me.
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And it is on which I've the Lord has blessed and allow me to stream live three different places on my
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Facebook feed, on the ministry's Facebook feed. And then also I'm live right now on YouTube on my
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YouTube page. So you can share from from any platform, not not share me.
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That's another thing that I want to continue to reiterate. You're not sharing me.
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You're sharing our time together. If this has been an encouragement to you, if you've learned anything, I want to share
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Jesus. I want to share God's word with our community. I love our community. And I want to join with you in reaching our community for the
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Lord Jesus Christ. This this platform is not what God has ultimately called us to.
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He's ultimately called us to get together, to be a community where we meet and join and worship together and help one another.
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This is just an extra means that he's provided for us right now to get together and studying
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God's word. It's not in person. I understand that. And and that's not the ultimate end goal.
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If we were able to get together in person more often,
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I think that would be ideal. But God has blessed and allowed us to have this platform.
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And so many people are on social media right now. And so it's a it's a wonderful platform to try to to join together and use this platform to reach people with Jesus and the gospel and God's word.
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So if it's an encouragement to you, if it's been a help to you, if you want to join me in reaching the community,
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I would love for you to like to share. Let me know that you're watching. Let me know if I can pray for you.
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Again, all you have to do is type me. And if you want to do anything else as far as joining with me to to advance the gospel in this ministry or any other way, you know, just shoot me a message.
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Let me know how you would like to help and join together in doing those things. I like to talk.
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I like to do videos with pastors, with other folks in ministry. Hello, mom and dad.
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So anybody that I can join with, of course, that has the same goal of reaching our community with Jesus Christ and the love of Christ, the gospel,
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God's word, you know, I'd love to be able to join with you in doing that. So thank you, Pam, for reaching out this morning.
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And we want to pray for you and anybody else that may won't pray this morning. All you have to do is type me.
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But I don't remember exactly where I was at. But the thing about this particular end times view that appeals to me so much as opposed to the one that I grew up with, the one that maybe you're most familiar with, is this is the difference that I've seen.
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And of course, there's folks out there that hold to this other view that we're so familiar with so strongly that, you know, they are vehemently opposed to me or to the particular view that I'm leaning towards, that they would want to argue against it and, you know, defend their faith.
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And that's fine. You know, I'm open to that. I'm not opposed to anyone discussing scripture with me, as maybe they are, as opposed to me as I would be to them.
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But here's the difference that I've seen and that I've experienced in looking at these two views and being able to defend these two views.
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It seems like from the view that I grew up with, that most of you are probably familiar with, you know, everyone is looking at what's going on in the world.
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And all the bad things that are happening. And this view, if you hold this view, you're looking for Jesus to come at any time.
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And when we say Jesus to come, we're specifically talking about the rapture, the rapture of the church, where Jesus is going to call
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His church to meet Him in the air. And then there's going to be a seven -year tribulation.
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And then there's going to be the millennial reign of Christ here on earth. And then the end comes after that.
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So that's the view that I grew up with that I thought was the only view.
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But when it comes to defending that view, this is what I've experienced. I was one of the reasons, and it may be common with other folks too, this experience that I had.
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I always found it hard to study that subject because I didn't know where to go.
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I didn't know where to look. I didn't know how to defend it. So it's always been a subject that I would avoid because this is the view that was taught to me.
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This is the view that I held, but I didn't know where to study it, how to defend it. And everybody wants their pastor to study the book of Revelation, but because it's so difficult to understand and interpret, you just don't know where to go.
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And I don't want you to reflect in your heart. If you hold this view or whatever view of end times that you hold, but if you hold this view of end times, examine yourself real quick.
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Examine yourself. Are you able to defend that particular view?
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You say, that's the view that I hold. Yes, we're looking for the rapture. We're looking for the tribulation.
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We see all these bad things happening. Can you defend that particular view?
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Now, I know that especially right now, I have seen quite a few pastors going through Revelation, going through the end times subject right now locally.
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There's quite a few that are doing it and they are able to teach it. They have studied this view and the interpretation of this view enough to where they can share it.
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Those that can do that, we view them as experts. At least my pastor is able to defend it.
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I don't have to, but our pastor. But we've got to go back to scripture that says, study to show yourself approved.
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And so it's not just our pastor that has to study and show itself approved and know it.
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We need to be able to do it too. But what they are able to teach, what they are able to defend from my point of view is what they've accumulated from other people, the meanings of the text.
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And when it comes to, from those who defend that particular point of view of end times, they will take a certain scripture about the end times and read it and explain it and say, well, this is what this has to mean.
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And it has to mean this and it has to mean that. But they don't really defend it from scripture.
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But when it comes to this other view, from me studying it, from me listening to other folks that hold to this view, when it comes to explaining and defending this view of end times of scripture, you will look at a passage that is concerning end times, eschatology.
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And then to be able to defend it, what they will do is they will go to other passages of scripture and say,
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I know this is hard to understand, but this is what it means from other places in scripture.
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This is where they are getting it from. This is the other places in scripture where you can interpret and understand what those end time verses are talking about.
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So that's the difference that I've seen in trying to defend these two views. On the one hand, you have a view that will look at a scripture concerning end times and just say, this is what this has to mean.
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It just has to mean that. And the reason it has to mean that is because if it doesn't mean that, then their end times view just falls apart.
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So it has to mean certain things, even if you can't find any other scriptures to back it up. But this view that I'm leaning towards, the post millennial view, you look at an end times verse and you are able to find other passages, many other passages to help interpret that passage, to understand it and see what it means and see what scripture is talking about, what
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God wants us to know. So I believe that you should be able to defend a certain verse from the rest of the
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Bible, from other scriptures that's what appeals to me so much about this particular end times view is you're able to defend it from other passages of scripture.
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For instance, just one example, and I've got to hurry because I want to end so that I can get back to the conference.
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The Antichrist, very popular doctrine. Everybody's familiar with that term.
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That's probably one of the most popular terms worldwide is the Antichrist. And so we are looking for an
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Antichrist to come on the scene during the tribulation.
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Well, a lot of folks that believe in this particular view where that an
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Antichrist is coming and he's going to be a world leader, come on the scene. Where do you defend that?
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Where do you come up with who this Antichrist is? And they go to all several passages all throughout scripture and say, this is, this is the
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Antichrist. This is, this verse is talking about the Antichrist and this is who he's going to be.
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But they rarely go to the passage of scripture that actually mentioned the
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Antichrist and then define the Antichrist. And you won't find the Antichrist in Revelation or anywhere else.
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You only find the Antichrist in 1st
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John and 2nd John. I think those are the only two places that you find the Antichrist spoken about and defined.
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And if you go with the definition from 1st and 2nd John about who the Antichrist is or the mindset of, of Antichrist, then you go to these other verses that they use to defend
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Antichrist and it doesn't match up with John's definition of what Antichrist is.
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And so that's, that's how it appeals to me. That's why it appeals to me so much is that you, you can't say this is what this means without being able to defend it with the rest of scripture.
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And that's just one example. A lot of folks go to Daniel chapter nine and we, that was one of the verses that we, in my other video that we talked about, a lot of folks go to Daniel chapter nine to say that the
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Antichrist is in Daniel chapter nine. But in the context, Daniel chapter nine is speaking of the
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Messiah. He's speaking of the Messiah. He's speaking of Jesus Christ, not the
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Antichrist. And so it's just, it's amazing. If you, if you study the scripture in context, it will reveal itself to you.
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And so I just wanted to share that with you, just to appeal to you, not to a certain point of view, but to appeal to you to be obedient to scripture when it says study to show yourself approved.
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That, that's all I'm reaching out for, is being open -minded.
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All of us being human and not in our glorified state yet, we all have room to grow and learn.
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No matter how knowledgeable we are, no matter how studied we are, we can all grow and learn in scripture.
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So we shouldn't, if someone wants to examine scripture, we shouldn't shut them down.
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Because we may, we may be able to help and someone may be able to help me. So it's, it's frustrating when, when someone wants to shut me down, when
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I want to examine scripture and I hope you don't have that experience. If you truly desire the milk of God's word,
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I hope when you reach out to someone, they don't shut you down because it's a very disappointing experience to be shut down.
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So let's jump into Philippians this morning. And sorry for that, that long introduction.
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I just wanted to speak on those things for a moment, but if I can pray for you, all you have to do is type me and we'll pray at the end.
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But we are, we are coming towards the end of Philippians. We're in Philippians chapter four, and I'm going to specifically look at verses 13 through 17, 13 through 17.
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But we're going to read a few other verses so that we are interpreting this particular section in context.
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And I think looking at the context will help us to understand where Paul is coming from.
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And Paul is going to bring out what I was speaking of just a moment ago, that when
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I said, he calls us to knowledge, he calls us to wisdom, he calls us to grow in our doctrine of Jesus Christ and all the doctrines of scripture, he calls us to that.
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But he's going to show us that even though that's necessary, there's a purpose, there's a purpose in that.
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There's a, there's a, another step after that, that he wants us to, to be working towards and almost as if it's our, our heart's motivation for growing up in all aspects into him and in our doctrine and our knowledge and wisdom.
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So let's get started. Verse 13 in chapter four of Philippians is one of the most popular verses in scripture.
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And it says, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. And of course that, that verse is oftentimes taken out of context.
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So what we want to see Paul saying here is he is, he's writing to the people over and over and over again in Philippians.
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He, he, he continues to, to speak of their giving of their, their, their heart of giving to him and how much they're taking care of him and, and the gift that was sent to him where he's at in this location through Epaphroditus.
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He is so thankful and he, he repeats this thankfulness concerning their, their willingness to share and give gifts to him and provide for him and take care of him over and over again.
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We see starting in verse 10 kind of is the beginning of this session. He says, but I rejoiced in the
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Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity.
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You know, they, they, they wanted to help him. They just didn't have the means and the ability to help him.
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But now it's been revived and that ability to help him has, has come back around and they're able to, to provide for him and take care of him and send gifts to him.
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But then he has this little section of verses 11 through 13, 13 kind of, kind of wraps up this little section 11 through 13.
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He says, not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance
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I'm in or whatever circumstance I am. I know how to get along with humble means and also know how to live in prosperity in any and every circumstance.
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I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both having abundance and suffering need.
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And then verse 13, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. So you have his, on one hand, you have his gratefulness for their provision for, for always taking care of him and the gifts that they give him.
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But then on this hand, he begins to speak to them and say, even though I have this provision,
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I want you to know that I've learned to, to get along without it and be content in whatever circumstance
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God has me in. I'm content. I have joy even without the provision, even without the gift, but he doesn't want them to misunderstand his point that he is still grateful for the gift, for the provision that they provide for him.
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And so that's, he, he goes on to say, in verse 14, going in that direction.
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He wants them to learn to be content in whatever circumstance God has them in.
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They don't have to be prosperous and, and, and rich, filthy rich.
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Um, they, he wants them to, to follow his example of being content and joyful in whatever circumstance
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God has them in, but so that they don't misunderstand him and think, okay, maybe he's not grateful for what we're doing for him and the provision that we're providing and the gifts that we're giving.
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Maybe he's not grateful. He doesn't want them to think that. And we know that, but by what he goes on to say next, he says, nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction.
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So they're giving their provision, they're joining with him, all the things that they are doing.
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He wants to remind them, even though I'm content in whatever I have, I want you to know what you're doing for me.
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You've done well. It's a beautiful thing. I think the original language tries to bring out that it's a beautiful thing, what you're able to do, what you're doing for me.
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And I want you to know that I am thankful for it because it's a beautiful thing.
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It's a godly thing. It's a two things going on and he doesn't want them to misunderstand where he's coming from, but he wants them to understand and know that he is grateful.
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You have done well to share with me in my affliction. Verse 15, and you yourselves also know
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Philippians that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I departed from Macedonia, no church, and here he is going to lift them up.
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He's going to lift their hearts. He's going to encourage them in this area. I know that I spoke to you just a second ago of being content, and I know it come across as me being ungrateful for your sacrifice, your provision for me.
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I want you to know, despite the fact that I can be content and you can be content, he is going to encourage their hearts here and reiterate how grateful he is and how good it is where they are in their hearts, in their desire to give and provide.
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He says, after I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, but you alone.
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What an encouragement, and the language that Paul is using here is, and he does it quite often here in Philippians, he's using a business -type language where there's like a ledger and you have someone in debt and you have a place where you can mark they give to pay off the debt.
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They're in the hole or they're in the black or the red on the ledger.
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So these are business -type terms when he says, in the matter of giving and receiving, he's speaking in business -type terms.
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So if you look at Acts where Paul is going on his journeys and he's going to these churches, and you look here specifically like in Philippians where he's giving to them the gospel, he's giving to them
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Jesus Christ. And when I say Jesus Christ and the gospel, we're speaking of course, the saving power of the gospel, the justification aspect of the gospel.
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But if you look at these books, you also see the rest of the aspects of the gospel and Jesus Christ.
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And it doesn't just stop at justification, but Paul teaches them how to live in Christ, how to walk in Christ, how to walk in the spirit.
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And so it's not just that one aspect of the gospel that Paul gives them and it leaves them alone.
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He is teaching them how to live that out.
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And I think we looked at that in Philippians. Was it verse 12?
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Yeah, verse 12 in chapter two. So then my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
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So yeah, it's not just that first aspect of the gospel. It's all the other aspects of the gospel that Paul is teaching them to work out their salvation.
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And so Paul is giving, giving, giving to them Jesus Christ and they are receiving.
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They're receiving this payment of Jesus Christ. And so they feel an indebtedness to Paul because he shared with them so much that they want to give.
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And they felt this gratefulness so much after receiving what
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Paul has given them that they continue to give and to provide and share with Paul gifts and provisions.
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And of course, Paul, as we've said before, he is thanking them. He is encouraging them in their heart of giving.
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And he says here, no other church shared, but you alone.
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And we can see their heart of gratefulness for what Paul has done for them in teaching them about the
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Lord Jesus Christ and how to walk in him. And then he says in verse 16, for even in Thessalonica.
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So when Paul visited, and he visited this church and he was teaching at Thessalonica, you know, of course, the same thing.
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They, of course, every church had different issues, but he was teaching them Jesus Christ.
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He was teaching them salvation. He was teaching them how to live and walk just like he did with the
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Philippian church. And so when he was there at Thessalonica, for even in Thessalonica, he said, you sent a gift more than once for my needs.
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He said, I was even at another church and that church, you know, you could have expected that church to do their part in taking care of me and providing for my needs.
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He said, but even when I was at another church, you didn't just expect them to take care of my needs and provide for me and take care of me.
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You continue to send gifts and take care of me and provisions no matter where I was at.
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And he just didn't leave it up to another church. That was how grateful they were for Paul.
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And that's how grateful Paul is for them that he wants to continue to encourage them.
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But verse 17, here's where we get to the part where Paul wants them to not misunderstand again.
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He didn't want them to misunderstand his contentment as ungratefulness.
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And here, he doesn't want them to misunderstand the goal of giving.
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He doesn't want them to misunderstand the goal of giving. And I would say that he doesn't want us to misunderstand the goal of giving.
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So what is the goal of giving? Verse 17, not that I seek the gift itself.
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So I think he says all this after the contentment part and before this part, he says all this other stuff just to ease their heart.
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He doesn't want them to misunderstand. In teaching them the true, where their heart needs to be, the true interpretation.
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He doesn't want them to misunderstand the fact that he is grateful for their provision and what they do.
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But he wants them to understand correctly what Jesus is doing in their hearts.
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Not that I seek the gift itself, the gift that Epaphroditus sent, the gifts that he sent when he was at Thessalonica, excuse me, all the provisions that they provided.
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And as grateful as I am to you, Philippian church, it's not just the gift that I seek.
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And he's going to say this, and it's not just the gift itself that you should seek to give.
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Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit, which increases to your account.
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So there's a spiritual aspect of this behind the physical giving.
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We can be grateful for a gift, a physical gift. We can have a desire to provide a physical gift to someone, to provide and meet the needs of someone physically.
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We can have that desire, and that's a good desire. And Paul says it's a beautiful thing.
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It's a beautiful thing for us to have that desire and for us to not just have the desire, but to fulfill that desire and to give physical gifts and to meet other people's needs.
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But we need to understand that there's a spiritual aspect behind the physical giving.
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If we just stop at the physical giving and stay in the physical realm, that's where we begin to move into the sinfulness of it.
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The pride creeps in, look how much I gave, look how much I have done. You need to, and we can then hold it over somebody else's head.
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Look how much I've done for you. You need to treat me this way. You need to do this for me in return, because look at what
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I've done for you. We can move into that realm. When we stay in the physical and focus on the gift, we can move into a sinful behavior.
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That pride, that manipulation, and whatever else can be conjured up in our heart when it comes to staying in the physical realm of giving gifts and providing and meeting needs of somebody else.
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Paul says we need to move outside of the physical area or realm of giving physical gifts, because there's a spiritual nature behind it that we need to focus on.
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He says, but I seek for the prophet, not for himself.
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He's enjoying receiving the gifts from the Philippians, not because he's receiving a gift and how much the gift benefits him.
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He's enjoying receiving the gifts that benefit him physically, because it provides a spiritual growth for the giver.
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That's the reverse. That's the spiritual side of this. It's taking the focus off the gift, so that we don't fall into the sinful realm, but it looks at the spiritual nature of gift giving, so that we can focus on it rightly, glorifying
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God, growing in Christ. He is enjoying this physical gift, because it profits them spiritually.
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I seek for the prophet, which increases your account, their account.
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The folks at the Philippian church, their account, it profits them. What does that word prophet mean?
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It can be interpreted as fruit. They begin to bear fruit because of their gift giving.
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It bears spiritual fruit. Where else did we see that?
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We saw this at the beginning of Philippians. I want to look at Philippians chapter one.
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It seems like this mindset is where Paul begins and where Paul is ending.
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He's going to speak to this spiritual nature of where he wants them to be.
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Then here, of course, in chapter four, this gift giving is part of that growth, that spiritual growth.
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That's why he points it out. Let's look at Philippians chapter one, where he speaks on this same subject of their spiritual growth.
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I'm just going to start at verse one. We're going to make our way to, we're just going to read through verse 11, but we're making our way to this similar idea that he's revisiting in chapter four.
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Verse one, Paul and Timothy bond servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers or elders or pastors and deacons, grace to you and peace.
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I read this and I wanted to make this comment in verse one. He's speaking to and writing to the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi.
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Then he makes this comment, including the overseers, pastors, elders, and deacons.
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That hits on what I was speaking of earlier. No matter how long you've been in ministry, how much you studied,
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Paul says, I'm including you pastors and deacons. You need to hear this too.
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So if someone is in ministry and someone has been in ministry for a long time, this is the attitude that I think we should have as folks being in the ministry and being in the years to maintain this type of attitude that Paul's letters,
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Paul's teaching are still for me and I can still grow and I can still learn and grow up in Christ.
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I've not arrived. Paul speaks to that in Philippians as well.
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We don't need to have the attitude that I've arrived. I've made it. I've learned all that I can learn.
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You need to start learning from me. Paul says, this is including you pastors and deacons.
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He says in verse two, grace to you and peace from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my
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God in all remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all in view of your participation.
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And this is where he begins to get in to this idea that he's revisiting in chapter four, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.
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Remember he spoke of that earlier. And you yourself also know
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Philippians that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I departed from Macedonia, he's revisiting that thought of the beginning of the ministry.
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They were there in his heart, in the participation. So this is almost a revisiting of what he talked about in chapter one, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.
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So it hasn't stopped. It's continued for I'm confident in this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
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That's why it's continuing because Christ is is going to perfect it.
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It's Christ doing it and it's Christ perfecting it. Verse seven, for it is only right for me to feel this way about you, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me.
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And there's he's revisiting those thoughts as well. Then participating in the grace and in the gospel, in the defense of the gospel, confirmation of the gospel, in the suffering, in the imprisonment, he's revisiting that.
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Verse eight, for God is my witness, how I long for you, long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.
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And this, I pray that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and in all discernment.
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There's that knowledge and discernment and wisdom that I was speaking of that Paul wants us to grow up into.
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He wants the Philippian church to grow up in knowledge, discernment and wisdom.
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Those things aren't bad. Those are good. But as he tells us in chapter four, it's not the gift that we need to enjoy.
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We need to enjoy the profit, the fruit that it bears spiritually.
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Verse 10, so that, did you hear that? So that you've got this knowledge and I want you to have more knowledge.
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I want you to grow in more discernment so that you may approve things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ.
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Having been filled with the fruit, there's our word of righteousness, which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.
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So remember what he says in verse 17, not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit or the fruit, which increases to your account.
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Verse 10 in chapter one, so that you may approve things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes through Jesus Christ.
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So he's reiterating this and reminding them that these gifts, this knowledge, this discernment that I want you to continue in, that I want you to grow in, it's for the purpose of growing fruit, of profiting you, increasing your account spiritually and spiritual things.
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And he speaks also so that you may approve things that are excellent.
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He revisits that in chapter four in the verses that we've looked at recently.
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Chapter four, verse eight, listen to what he says here. And this also captures the idea of them growing and producing fruit, which increases their account.
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Verse eight in chapter four, finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence, there's our word from chapter one.
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And if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things, the things you have learned and received, there's our business terms again, and heard and seen in me, practice these things and the
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God of peace shall be with you. So that's the purpose of doing these things in the physical realm, providing gifts, meeting needs, but we can't remain or stay in that realm because it will lead to a sinful heart.
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We need to look at the spiritual nature behind it. And so that's why he's encouraging them to grow more and more in your knowledge, grow more and more in your discernment and continue to provide these gifts, to provide provision for me and for everyone else, but be growing in things that are excellent, worthy, lovely, honorable, whatever's right and pure, growing those things, let your account increase in that area, in those things.
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He's concerned about their spiritual fruit and growing in Christ.
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So that as he says in chapter one, verse 11, which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.
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And that's the end goal, that's the end game. We want to move past the physical realm of just the gift giving and the gift receiving, and then move one step further because that is to the praise and glory of God.
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That's our end game. That's our goal is the praise and glory of God in all that we do.
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So I hope that was helpful. I hope that was encouraging to you. Thank you for watching. As I said before, if you want to join me and lock arms with me and reaching our community using these means, let me know that you watched.
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Would you like the video? Would you share the video and just participate with me in reaching our community?
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We want to pray for Pam this morning. And if I can pray for you, you watch the video later, all you have to do is type me and I will see the notification.
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Hopefully some other brothers and sisters will see the notification or the comment and they will pray for you as well.
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But let's end in prayer. And we'll wrap this up this morning.
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Father, we thank you so much for allowing us to be together, to join together and to join looking at your word and to be filled with knowledge and discernment and wisdom that leads to living, right, living, working out our salvation, which leads to fruit and growth.
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And it leads to giving you praise and glory because all this is through your son.
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And so we give praise and we give credit, we give honor, we give glory, we give blessing to your son.
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We give praise to Jesus and we give honor and glory to you, Father. And we thank you. We thank you for the spirit who works in us to pray for us when we don't know how to pray, to intercede for us, to teach us, to grow us, to enlighten us.
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And we thank you for your word that the Holy Spirit uses the sword of the spirit.
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Father, I thank you for this day that you've given us.
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May you use us in this day to glorify you in our reactions, in our behavior, who we are and how we live.
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Let us point to you. Father, we want to pray for Pam. We lift her up this morning and whatever is on her heart, we ask that you would comfort, give peace and give help in the things that are concerning her this morning on her mind and on her heart.
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And all of us, we all have difficulties and problems that we won't resolve and we won't fix.
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So we seek you and seek your help in these areas.
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And we ask that you would help us to have the heart to trust you, that you work things out for your glory.
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And we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. All right. Thank you for watching. I want to remind you really quickly that I'm getting ready to go continue to watch a conference that's going on this weekend.
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I think it starts at nine o 'clock. It went all day yesterday. It's going to go all day today.
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They're going to provide the videos after the conference is over. And I'm probably going to be sharing some of those videos.
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And I would encourage you to give it a listen, open your
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Bibles, see if it's true. And I would just encourage you to study and see what you think.
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And with that being said, remember that Jesus is King. Let's go live in that victory.
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And let's continue to go out there and proclaim the gospel. Hope you have a good day. And I hope to see you soon.