Philippians 1:27-2:11, What Do You Think?, Dr. John B. Carpenter

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Philippians 1:27-2:11 What Do You Think?

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Philippians chapter 1, start from verse 27 to chapter 2, verse 11, hear the word of the
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Lord. Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent,
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I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents.
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This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God.
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For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw
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I had, and now hear that I still have. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
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Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
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Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others. 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, 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.
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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
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Lord, to the glory of God the Father. May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word.
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Now, what do you think? What do you think of Palm Sunday? You may not even think of it at all, or even know that there is such a thing, but for many
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Christians today is what tradition calls Palm Sunday, when they remember Jesus coming into Jerusalem in that last week, and it begins what for them they call
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Holy Week. I think there's too much going on in that last week before Jesus is crucified for us to pack it all into one
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Holy Week, and that for the Christian every week is supposed to be holy.
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What do you think? What do you think of March Madness? Who's going to win the
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NCAA basketball tournament? If you think a lot about it, you're probably from around here, at least from North Carolina or Virginia.
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If you don't think about it at all, you're probably not. Well, what do you think of spring?
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If you think of warming weather and blooming flowers and budding trees and baseball season and tax refunds, that says something about you.
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If you think of pollen and allergies and grass cutting and other chores and having to pay taxes, that also reveals something about you.
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What do you think of world events, war and Ukraine and Gaza?
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If you told me what you think, you know, the Russians must be stopped, or it's none of our business, or the
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Gazans are just reaping what they sowed, or the Israelis should stop their genocide. Well, I could probably tell a lot about how you think.
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How you think determines what you think. If you think weaker people are always the victims, in other words, if they're losing, they must be in the right, or that you know better than what are the reported facts, or that you believe that which requires the least of you, that reveals how you think.
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How you think determines what you think. What you think shows how you think. They say education should be about teaching kids how to think, not what to think, which sounds good, and a good teacher can often show the students good and bad ways of thinking, you know, like asking them, you know, why do you think that you can change sex?
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Did you conclude that on the basis of the facts of biology, or because people are pressuring you to think that?
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But usually, the truth is, usually it's the best way, the best way is to show people how to think is by telling them, frankly, what to think, by specifically showing them that, you know, this is true, that sex is biological, and therefore unchangeable.
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Think that two plus two is four, because society is just making you think that, because we've chosen to believe that, but because that is true.
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Truth is objective, and it's real. It doesn't change by how you feel about it. Here in Philippians, God tells us how to think and what to think, and he does that in four parts.
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First, the application, second, the exhortation, then the humiliation, finally, the exaltation.
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Well, first, application. Paul says, for me to live is Christ. Remember, we saw that last week in the earlier passage.
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To me to live is Christ, and that's by serving the church with his partners. That's how he's going to live for Christ.
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And to die is gained by departing and being with Christ, which he says is far better for him personally.
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But even though it's a hard decision, for him, it's contemplating, what shall I do? It's like choosing between get a free vacation to Hawaii or a river cruise through Europe.
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Hmm, which shall I choose? Between getting a free beach house or a mountain lodge, which one would it be?
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Steak or lobster? Here is choices between, hmm, getting my head cut off so I can depart and be with Christ or staying and serving the church.
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Well, for now, he says, he'll go for staying because it is more necessary for the church so that the needs of the church tips the balance.
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Now, what's the application of that for you? Starting in verse 27, Paul is saying, you know, if I'm going to postpone my trip to be with Christ for you and for the gospel, then you do your part.
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I'm doing my part. I'm staying here for a while at least for you, for the gospel. Now, you do your part and your part is let your manner of life, that is the way you live, be worthy of the gospel, the good news of Christ.
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Live like you really believe that God himself came in the body. Live like you believe that he lived a perfect life, that we couldn't, then he died for us and he rose again.
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Live like you believe that. Live a holy life, not just one week out of the year or even 40 days prior to Good Friday, but live that way for your, all your life.
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Apply it to your life so that, Paul is saying, like I just did, you, like I just put the needs of the church ahead of my own needs, so you put the needs of the church and of getting the gospel out ahead of your personal desires.
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I just chose what is best for you, church, because of the gospel.
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Now you choose what is best for others, for the church, instead of just your personal desires.
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And if you do, you will stand firm in one spirit, you'll be unmovable, won't be easily shaken by criticism of a kind or attack or whatever.
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You'll be with one mind, that is you'll be united, striving, that's working hard, side by side, like a team, like a phalanx of soldiers, locking shields together for the faith of the gospel.
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That's the purpose of it. For other people, like your children, the children who come here, your neighbors, for them believing the gospel, just like if you believe in the mission of an army, you'll join that army, you'll be side by side with them.
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If you believe in the mission of the church, you'll join the church. And as you're doing that, striving for the faith of the gospel, you may get opposition.
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Now in this culture here, people may oppose you by telling you that you're a bigot for believing what scripture says about morality, especially sexual morality.
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Or if you seek, like Paul here, what's best for the church, instead of just your personal wishes, you may be criticized for not helping the business make money on Sunday morning.
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In verse 28, don't be frightened by these opponents, by your critics, even if they're in your own family.
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Be fearless, he says. Be fearless because that fearlessness is a sign to them of the truth of the gospel.
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Your fearlessness, your standing up to intimidation when they pressure you with insults or with criticism is a clear sign, he says, to them.
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It's evidence that you really believe the gospel and that you believe what it says about the coming judgment.
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The judgment is coming on their life. It's coming on the things that they are living for.
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The pleasure they think is above all, they can't believe you're criticizing it, or the dollars that they are chasing that the gospel says will be destroyed.
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They're living for it and you're living as if what they're living for is nothing, because it is.
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It's a clear sign to them of their destruction, that that righteous judgment of God we saw in 2
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Thessalonians, that it is coming. It's good news to you, the gospel is.
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That's what gospel means, it's good news. It's good news to you because it tells you of your salvation, not of your destruction.
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But they hear it as bad news because it reminds them that everything that they're living for, the money, the thrills, the things, the ego, will just go up in smoke.
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The destruction or the salvation is from God at the gospel reminds people, the saved or the lost, what is coming from God for them.
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It reminds the saved, you, that salvation is coming. It reminds the unbelievers that destruction is coming and you're standing firm against their criticism will be seen as a clear sign, he says, to them that the gospel is true.
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And maybe they'll believe it and then they'll be believers and the gospel will be good news of their salvation.
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Well, for us it reminds us of our salvation because in verse 29 the gospel tells us that God has granted, the
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Greek word means just it's kind of an adaptation of the word grace. He's graced us.
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He's given grace gifts to us and two grace gifts he mentions. One they already know about and the other they're a little surprised by.
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They know already that their faith in Christ has been granted. That's a surprise to a lot of Christians today who often assume that faith is what we contribute, that it's a product of our free will.
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That's the way many people view the gospel. God makes us offer and what we add to it, what we do to activate it is that we believe.
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We gin up our faith. We concoct it out of our hearts and that makes us receive the grace of God and so we're saved by that.
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That's the many people's view of the gospel. It's like you heard it compared this way. You get a check for a million dollars, that's the gospel, but you still have to endorse it for it to be deposited, that kind of thing.
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So that's what they think. We have to add our part. That's what the faith comes from us. They think that what separates us, people who are saved, from people who don't believe and so get destruction is that we by an act of our will chose to believe and it came from us.
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But the Philippians, taught by Paul, they knew better than that. We have faith, not because we just concocted it, but because God gave it to us.
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We didn't gin it up out of our own will. It was granted to us. Now notice in verse 29 it has been granted, it is grace given, that you should not only believe.
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You know when you say not only, like a tv ad, not only do you get this, the thing you're first offered, but wait there's more.
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Not only do you get this set of steak knives, you get these spoons too. Not only do you get three nights in our hotel, you get free breakfast.
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We're saying not only do you get this thing that you've already known about, you've already been offered, which now you take for granted, now you get this extra surprise.
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Here, what they already know they've been given is faith in Christ. It has been granted to you not only to believe in Jesus, that they already know.
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They know it. A lot of times people today don't know it, but now you do. But wait, there's more.
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Not only do you get faith in Jesus as a gift and so salvation, you also get a bonus.
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There's more. You get to suffer for Him. And not just to suffer, now everybody does that, you get to suffer for Jesus.
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You get to participate in His suffering. You get to share it. He's going to share some of His sufferings. He had a lot of sufferings, you know.
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He'll share some with you. Isn't that great? What an offer. That's the grace gift God will bless you with if, in verse 30, you are engaged in the same mission that Paul is.
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So, the same fight with the world, the same quest to nurture the church, build the church, spread the gospel that Paul was in.
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The fight to defend the gospel and confirm or nourish the church in the faith. Now, we don't normally think of suffering for Jesus as a gift, so we need to change our minds.
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Paul is telling us here not what to think. You need to think of this suffering, not something you want to avoid desperately, but hey, this is a gift.
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Remember the apostles? They're beaten, and I think it's Acts chapter 5. They're beaten for their witness, and they go home rejoicing that they were privileged to suffer this persecution for the sake of Christ.
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So, that's the application. That's what you're to think. Think of it as a gift. Think differently about suffering for Jesus.
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Think differently about losing money, being criticized, about the unity of the church, about making it a priority, struggling to defend the gospel and build up the church.
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Think about that. Second, exhortation in chapter 2 verses 1 to 5.
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An exhortation is an encouragement to inspire, to persuade urgently, to advise you to do something that you should do that's important for you.
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I exhort you to exercise. It's good for you.
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The exhortation here is succinctly put in verse 5, which is the pivot of the whole passage. Verse 5, have this mind among yourselves which is in Christ Jesus.
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Think like he thought. How do you think? Verse 1, therefore, it begins in Greek, and you ask what's the therefore?
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Therefore, therefores are pointing back to something before he said earlier. Because of what he told them in chapter 1 verse 27, stand firm in one spirit side by side.
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They're going through the same struggle as Paul, and he wants them to go through it together. So, therefore, because of that, they should be united.
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On what basis? Why? Why should we stand firm in one spirit? Why should we be side by side, united in the same struggle?
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Well, he tells us why. If, in verse 1, it's a conditional sentence.
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So, if one thing is true, then the conclusion leads to this. If, in verse 1, there is any encouragement in Christ, is there?
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Is there encouragement that comes from Christ, from the gospel? Of course there is.
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Then, if there is any comfort from love, do you receive any comfort from the love of God, from knowing
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Jesus? Any comfort? Is there? Well, of course. Then, what does that mean?
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What's the application? If there is any participation, that is any sense of fellowship with Jesus spiritually.
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It's the same word we talked about last week, koinonia, a partnership. Is there any koinonia, any relationship with Christ?
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He's saying, do you feel his kind presence that he's sharing with you in good times or bad times?
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Is there? Well, of course there is. For the true Christian, Jesus is not just an historical figure like George Washington, you kind of learn about, and nobody did this or that.
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He's someone you feel, you know, you participate, you share, you fellowship with him.
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There's koinonia with him. Then, what's that mean? If there is any affection, any sympathy, any deep -seated caring about Jesus and other people, has your heart been made soft by the gospel?
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Then he says in verse two, complete, that is, fulfill my joy. Top it off by being of the same mind.
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So he has his cup, his life is like a cup, and it has a lot of joy in there, but it's still not quite full.
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But if you have the same mind together and the same mind that Christ had, you'll make it full.
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He was joyful that they had become partners with him in the work of the gospel. Now he says, if you want to fill up my joy, make me so I'm overflowing with joy, partner with each other, have the same love, same as they had for Jesus, for Paul, have it for each other, church members, think the same way.
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It's important to agree, at least on some of the basic doctrines. Yes, we can have different opinions about some minor things like the end times, but we can't be a united church if we have kind of wildly different doctrines.
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Everyone's just kind of, well, I believe this, you believe that, whatever. So we have to have some unity about what we believe.
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And so we have a two -page statement of faith based on the Nicene Creed and the New Hampshire Baptist Confession that we ask all members to agree to.
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We have to have some shared ways of thinking, as we see here.
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But truth be told, he's not really talking about doctrinal agreement here, but an agreeable attitude in the way we relate.
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In our day, we have a lot of people who will easily agree to statements of faith because they don't really take theology seriously anyway.
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They're not going to argue about most theology because they don't even think about it. But they will be adamant about other things, maybe how tiles should be taken up off the floor, musical styles.
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It's got to be hymns or Bible versions. Has to be that early 17th century
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Anglican version. You could say things that are just outright heresy. They don't even know it because they don't think about it.
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And they'll let that pass. But if you read a version they don't like, they'll get upset. Paul is saying here, stop squabbling over those kind of things.
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It's not just immature, but it shows that you've lost touch with the fact that in Christ, there is encouragement and comfort and love and fellowship, affection and compassion.
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You don't have to have everything your way because you're satisfied with Jesus.
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There is comfort. There is affection. So in verse 3, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit.
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Nothing. I'm offended because my opinion was disregarded, so I'm out of here. Now, even though at the end of chapter 1, some were preaching
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Christ because of selfish ambition. Remember that? Some are preaching Christ because of rivalry and ambition. Just like today, they saw, even then, they saw that you could be somebody preaching.
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People are listening to you. That's great. They want that. They want to get their views, their opinion out there. They want to get recognition.
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Still, that doesn't mean we should be doing it for that reason. Don't preach out of selfish ambition or anything just because you want to make a name for yourself.
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Motives matter. Understand that the quest for glory for ourselves is one of the main things that drives many people, that quest for glory, ambition.
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Some people live only for money. They don't care how other people think about them. They don't get money. Some others live for pleasure.
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Some only for glory, for their ego to be looked up to, to be somebody.
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They'll sacrifice their money. They'll sacrifice their pleasure. They'll work hard. But if they can just be known, they can be recognized, that's what they're after.
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And so they may come faithfully to church for decades, but their quest is that the church be the stage in which they get to be the big man or woman to strut their stuff, to be looked up to.
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Let's clearly understand that many people go to church out of selfish ambition and conceit.
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They got to be seen. They got to be respectable. Got to be special.
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Maybe they got to have a title like reverend. They want to be recognized. They want to be called an elder, even if they don't have a gift for it.
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And so when the gospel is finally really taught that all our righteousness is like filthy rags and that we depend desperately on the life and death of another, of Jesus, they don't want to hear that.
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Jesus as a good example or a good moral teacher who tells them to keep rules that they think they can achieve.
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Now that they like. They'll go with that. But preaching the one who lived for us because he had to.
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He lived and died for us because we had made a wreck out of our lives, because we were dead in our sin, who took the punishment that we deserved, who humbles us by doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
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No, they don't want to hear that. So they have a religion that's all about selfish ambition and conceit.
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Maybe about morality they think they can live up to by making themselves look good. But a church that's formed by the gospel, the encouragement, the comfort, the fellowship, the affection and the sympathy of Christ should be growing out of that selfish ambition and conceit like a baby grows out of a pacifier.
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That doesn't mean it'll be perfect. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the famous German pastor known for his book, The Cost of Discipleship, wrote another little book called
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Life Together about life together as Christians, as the
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Nazi regime took over more and more of life in Germany in the 1930s and early 40s. Some of the few true
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Christians there drew closer together, sometimes just living together in the same house or the same compound.
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And so they experience life together and sometimes that means some conflict. And in that book
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Bonhoeffer wrote, quote, the sin of resentment that flares up so quickly in the fellowship indicates again and again how much false desire for honor, how much unbelief still smolders in the community.
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And the image there is of a fire. It's at least a smoldering. There's embers that each of us has this little flame of selfish ambition, of conceit still lit within us.
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We do. It may be smaller than some but I think we all have it and we need to be aware of that.
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Keep a watch on it. What happens when we honor some people? We recognize them for the work they did.
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We give them a round of applause and maybe a gift. Do we think, hey, what about me?
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I've been coming faithfully. I've been helping. I've been giving. When do
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I get my applause? When do I get my gift? When do I get my recognition? Oh, that craving for honor rooted in unbelief still smolders in our hearts, doesn't it?
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Instead of looking to our own honor when we'll get the recognition, be the big man in the church, he exhorts in verse 4, look out for the interests of others.
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He means especially each other, other Christians, other church members. How can I promote the honor, the welfare of other church members?
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You're supposed to be looking out for that. Keep an eye out for opportunities to help each other.
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Like our church covenant says, watching over one another with an affectionate care. Do you see here how important church membership is?
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That you can't obey this exhortation to look out for each other if you don't know who each other is.
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Who are you looking out for? If you don't have a specific body that you are looking out for, how can you obey this exhortation?
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You know, our whole capitalist system assumes, rightly, that each of us is looking out for ourselves.
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We want the best deals for ourselves. We'll buy a meal out if we think it's the best deal for ourselves.
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It's the best value for money. Or a shirt or a car is best for us at the lowest price so we can keep more money and buy more things for ourselves.
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And that's not wrong. That's just natural. What Paul says in verse 4 is when it comes to other
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Christians, don't just stop there. I'm looking out for number one.
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Okay. Well, what about for other people too? Does one of them need a job?
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Particularly people in the church. Do they need a job? Keep a lookout for one. Do they need someone to watch their kids?
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Well, do it if you can. Do they need a cheap car? Well, keep a lookout for one. Let them know.
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Have them on your mind. Think about their needs. The natural way of thinking is just to think about myself. And that's fine.
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It's not fine just to think about yourself. But we want you to be able to take care of yourself, sure.
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But the supernatural way of thinking is also to think of others. Here the exhortation is because of the encouragement, the comfort, the fellowship, the affection, the sympathy we find in Jesus.
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The exhortation is to think differently about others, other church members.
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Maybe start thinking of others for the first time. What do you think?
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Third, humiliation. Verses five to eight. Have this mind among yourselves.
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Think like Jesus thought. And here's how he thought. Now comes one of the most important passages on the person of Christ in the entire
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Bible. Here is the second person of the Trinity. He's pre -existing before he was born as Jesus.
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And don't miss that all this profound, this glorious theology isn't here just so that theologians with PhDs can write doctoral dissertations or impress you with abstract debates on the meaning of kenosis.
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This is here as an example of why you should be doing practical things about how you should be thinking.
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Why should I mow the church's grass? Well, here's why.
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Why should I wash the cups? Well, here's why. Why should
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I clean the kitchen or install an oven in there? Well, here's why.
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Someone else can do that, you might think. Someone who doesn't have as important things to do as I do.
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Well, here's why. Why should I give someone a ride to church?
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I'm in a hurry. I want to go straight to there. I want to detour to pick someone else up. Well, here's why.
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Why should I come and teach the kids here? They don't respect me like they should. Yeah, they don't.
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Well, here's why. You should still do it. Think this way, like Jesus in his humiliation.
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In verse 6, notice he was, that's past tense, speaking of the time before he was born, before the incarnation.
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The Bible does not teach that we exist before we are conceived and born. I don't say before I was born, before 1964
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I was, no. That's when we come into existence, at our conception and birth.
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There is a time when we were not. Before we were conceived, we were not. But here
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Jesus is different. He existed before he was born, before he was in the form of God.
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And here's a tricky idea. The word form there means the outward shape, the appearance.
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It's not saying that God has a shape or an appearance, physically, like he has a body, or even here that he had a body before he was born as Jesus.
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The form is like the things that manifest being God. The appearance, how
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God appears to others, the glory, the prerogatives, the rank, the titles, the perks of God.
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Like in our country, we have the president with his powers given in the Constitution. That's the essence of being the president.
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And then he has the form. That's the living in the White House, you know, that presidential seal they always put on the lectern when he speaks.
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The band plays Hail to the Chief. The Secret Service protection, the title, Mr. President, being able to give the
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State of the Union address. All these are the forms that have come along with being president.
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So here in eternity past, Jesus had the form of being God. He was not only
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God in essence and his being, but he appeared to the angels, to saints in heaven, to cherubim singing holy, holy, holy to be the
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Lord God Almighty. Yet he did not deem, that is he didn't think about or calculate equality with God, keeping those prerogatives, keeping that recognition, that glory.
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That's the form, the praise, the adulation, the perception of who he is.
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He didn't grasp that to keep hold of it. Now we think of ourselves first, maybe only, that we can grab what's ours, go for the gusto, go for what's yours.
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The son thought differently. Jesus did not grab what he had a right to. This is the opposite of our original sin.
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Our first parents were tempted that they could become like God if they reached out and grasped the fruit.
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That's what they were grasping for, trying to be like God. They were grasping for the form of God.
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They grabbed at the chance of being equal with God and they got only death. Jesus, on the other hand, had it already.
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He had the form of being God and he let it go. He let it go so that he could go to death.
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He embraced instead humiliation. In verse 7, he emptied himself.
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Now that doesn't mean that he ceased to be God. We have to be careful here to see what he emptied himself of and what he emptied himself into.
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He emptied himself of the form, again, of God, the glory, the prerogatives, the recognition, the worship from others.
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He embraced humiliation by letting go of the glory of heaven, letting go of having everything as God, everything was his, being worshiped by angels and saints.
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That should change that he let go of that. That should change how we think of living for those things, living to get rich so we can have glory, so we can have rights, so we can have everything we want.
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Many people think that's what life is all about, getting the very things that Jesus emptied himself of. If we believe in him, we should think like him.
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And so our minds will be changed. Then what did he empty himself into?
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It says in verse 7, taking the form, there's that word again, same word, the outward appearance of a servant, the glory, the recognition of a servant, the form.
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So he had the form of God, the glory, holy, holy, holy of God, and he let go of that for the form of a servant.
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Who does that? He intentionally went from the form of God to the form of a servant, the exact opposite of what many people go to religion for.
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Jesus here took that form of a servant when he was born in the likeness, the appearance of man. That doesn't mean that he just appeared to be a man, but he really wasn't one.
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No, he appeared to be a human being because he really was one. He took that form after giving up the form of God, and then in verse 8, in the form of man, again, that's the outward appearance, the recognition.
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How much recognition does God get? He gets all of it. He gets worship and praise, the angels chanting for him. He gave that up.
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How much recognition does a servant get? None. He was found by other people to be just another human being.
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It's the way they recognize, they found him, that's the way they saw him, and so they treated him like another person. That's his humiliation.
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For 12 years until 2022, there was a TV show called Undercover Boss, and then the
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CEO or chief executive officer or owner of some large corporation, you know, like Moe's Restaurants, would put on a disguise and then go to work as a lowly entry -level employee at one of his stores somewhere, and so he saw how the employees work when they don't think the boss is looking, or whether they liked their job, how they treated him, how the company worked, you know, at the bottom.
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And so the boss took on the form of a servant and was found that way by the other workers, by other supervisors, even suffering the humiliation in the short run that some workers do.
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Like one Undercover Boss who was actually fired by a manager for not doing his job well enough.
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They were still the big boss, you know, in essence, they had that rank, but they had let it go, let it go the form, anyway, of that position.
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And that's what Jesus did, except he did it all the way to the point of death.
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He didn't, you know, as they were about to arrest him, decide, you know, okay, I've had enough of playing around with this.
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I'm gonna and reveal himself and take back the forms of God. So everyone recognized him and amazed them all.
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No, he was in essence equal with God, and yet he prayed, not my will, but yours be done, and obeyed the
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Father's will all the way to death. And not just any death, but the most brutal, disgusting, humiliating death imaginable.
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Death on a cross. Fourth, exaltation.
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Notice in verse 9, therefore, because of that, because Jesus let go of the form of God, embraced the form of a servant,
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God has, past tense, it's done, exalted him. He has already raised him up, not only from death, but he's given him rank, esteem, glory.
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He's given back those forms of God. God has given him the name that is above everything. That's not just fluffy sounding words, you know, just kind of sounds good.
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No, it means that there's no other name in all the universe that deserves more respect. And so all will confess or acknowledge that it is the greatest name.
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All will eventually, either now or later. For many, it will mean acknowledging what they denied before Jesus revealed himself in the form of God to them.
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They may deny it now, but they will recognize it. They will finally acknowledge it. Everyone will finally admit what will be obvious.
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He is Lord. All the denials will end. Then all will glorify
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God, some in their terror and some in their adoration. Glorifying God is not only the chief end of man.
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The glorifying of God will be what man is doing in the end.
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Now, what do you think? I think it's possible that even some of us could still be infected with that selfish ambition, that conceit, the me first love of honor, the smolders in the hearts of us sinners.
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Some of us could still be thinking like the world. We can even cover that up with theology.
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We love verses 6 to 11, the lofty idea of the pre -existence of Christ, his glory.
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I think a lot of Reformed people love the form of being respectable, upstanding theologians. We might have the doctrine right, but do we have the mind of Christ?
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I wonder if Jesus was a member of this church, would he play with the kids of Jim Jr. or be involved with the guys of Jim?
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Yeah, I think so. You think he would care if they came in here with their pants too low? Probably not.
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He wouldn't think it too low of him to talk to them or to your unbelieving family, to give someone a ride, to mow the grass.
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I hope everyone here right now would willingly, gladly confess that Jesus is
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Lord. I just hope we all not only say with our minds that he is
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Lord, but that we show with our lives that we're willing to suffer, so give clear evidence to suffer and serve like him, because that shows what we really think.