Published: February 9, 2025 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: Worship 2 - Part 5 | Scripture: Philippians 2:1-15
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kind of focus on what Paul says in verse three of Philippians 2 well actually I think it may be verse five me not start out with a
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mistake we can add one later but not start out with a mistake yeah verse five have this attitude in you or in yourselves which was also in Christ
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Jesus and so the question I want to ask is how do we change an attitude parents okay don't we don't we use that
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with our children you know I don't like your attitude it's like well it's mine I mean what am I supposed to do with that change your attitude okay has everybody given any thought to how to do that how
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do you change your attitude that's not very good how do you change your pen that's easier how you problem Maria
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oops reminds me of a question my father always used to ask when we were upset he would asked you want me to give you something to cry about I don't know if your parents ever use that I don't know did I ever use that yeah okay it's such a philosophical
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question because it leaves you pondering what is worse than what I'm currently crying about but the answer is very obvious um it involves physical pain okay well that is not how really it's
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not how one changes an attitude I was to say it requires mental effort to pursue a different at it requires mental effort to pursue a
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different attitude okay um or that's true it does it requires effort which is why the that in this section of Philippians and so many other places uh
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many of the verbs that Paul uses in terms of of our attitude are in the imperative they're commands that these are things that we're supposed to do um
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but as we know from such things as exercise and dieting there's a great deal of resistance to even that mental exercise that need is needed to change
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an attitude um so the church I think has recognized and the Church of course is is all about trying to change attitudes U not all about doing it in
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the right way but there are so many ways that the church has tried I don't mean Fellowship Bible Church per se although we've had our share of of some of these
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things and I do want to point out how how we not we don't actually change an
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attitude an attitude is something that is inside it's deep and it's fundamental U it is actually do I don't know if we realize this as we raise our children that the attitudes that we are demanding
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our child change at the moment are actually deeply rooted in their personality they're not so easily changed they they may be easily supressed which is actually what we're
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asking them to do say suppress your attitude right now because it's bothering me um now obviously we don't want them to have negative attitudes or dangerous attitudes or belligerent
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attitudes but what we really want at the moment that we say that is for them to stop what they're doing and stop acting the way they're acting and we're probably not giving a whole lot of thought maybe we are we
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should but we're not giving a whole lot of thought to the underlying cause that is surfacing in that situation and and this is also uh
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indicative or at least descriptive of the church we talked last week about the idea of idea of uniformity and throughout most of church history uniformity has has normally
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passed for both unity and peace only to find out later on that it was nothing more than the suppression of hostility and that's why we have church
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splits that's why we have reformations that's why we have religious wars that that there's no actual change in Attitude going on there's just a suppress a
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suppress a supression of behavior and so that's certainly not the the right answer and I want to point out some of the things that uh that that don't work that the
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church has tried um one thing that has often been often been tried are things called shepherding
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groups because what we're talking about in terms of attitude here is in in Philippians chapter 2 is how we relate to one to one another and that's what Paul is saying
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let me reread it starting in verse one he says if therefore there is any encouragement in Christ if there is any consolation of love if there is any Fellowship of the Spirit if any
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affection and compassion make my joy complete by being of the same mind maintaining the Same Love United in spirit intent on one purpose do nothing
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from selfish or empty conceit but with humility of Mind Let each of you regard one another as more important than himself do not merely look out for your
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own personal interests but also for the interests of others have this attitude which in yourselves which was also in
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Jesus so it's about us it's about the body and as the church especially in the latter part of the 20th century realized the the the the kind of the meaning of and the essential nature of
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coia it of course tried to programiz coin programiz coin an and to have Fellowship groups because what we're what we think we're trying to
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do here is to get everybody to a place where they like everybody else and I'm not sure that's what we're trying to do here I don't I I don't mean we should
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hate one another by by any means but I do know that we still retain personalities we we retain um
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either a a we we retain our social psychology I want to put it that way that some people are very gregarious and outgoing and other people are not that they're very they're very introverted and I don't again I don't
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think we're trying to make one uniform robotic image of a Christian and all of us fit that form I I don't see that in scripture and I certainly don't see that
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in life and so much of what you see in the in the print media for the church as well as the program is an attempt to to make us all into some type of automatron
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type Christian that we all do the same thing have the same feelings that's not biblical but maybe even worse that's not
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effective and I don't know have any of you had experience with something like shepherding groups sometimes they're called small groups one I I've never figured out why
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no one figured this one out but why not isn't this great why not coin Ania
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clubs and you can think of that two way it's either a place where you get together or it's a club that they you get you know beaten with to I've never seen this one so don't I
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hope I don't actually um but the these don't actually work um rigid discipline mind control um guilt trips these these
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have all been not not necessarily under any of those terms but these all have been employed to try to convince Believers to to fall in line with what Paul is saying here in Philippians
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chapter 2 and my experience has been that they they do generally fail okay because I think they fail um because we're we're looking within ourselves to
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find the answer to this uh conundrum how do you change an attitude okay um we're we're somewhat like the foolish Galatians having begun in the spirit we're trying to work things out in the
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flesh and we're looking within ourselves and we're looking in sometimes um uh I've known actually our church did this years and years ago um you've probably
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all heard of a spiritual gifts inventory um it's essentially a Myers Brig Sanctified with Christian questions and instead of worldly ones but it's a psychological profile that is then
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thought to tell you what your spiritual gift is um I do remember that when we did this again many years ago probably 25 30
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years ago well at least 30 years ago because yeah it was at least 30 years ago um there really was no discussion of what you were supposed to do with that once you found out what your gift was
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and there was no mechanism by which that would then be incorporated into to the life of the body but again we try to do something we try to do something we try to do some type of program read some
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book take some test that shows us what our role is in the body but then we're still dependent upon the the leadership of the body to make to make space for us
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in that giftedness it it all seems very mechanical and forced at least to me anybody have any any thoughts on that
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how do we change an attitude how do we how do we bring ourselves into alignment with what Paul
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is saying here or very simply how do we have this attitude which we see in Christ Jesus Justin
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well it it does and this is one place that we're definitely heading this morning um and and actually um that comment right there is actually quite radical in our uh situation in life in
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Western um Democratic Christianity especially American especially American Christianity we do tend to recoil from any type of communal commitment that
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it's it's all about me and that has seeped very much into our Christianity
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yes it it is a culture uh that is and and culture is a very um culture is kind of a a jellish word um you can't really nail it to the wall um but but I think we all have a basic
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understanding of culture culture is the nature of inter relational Dynamics within a group of human beings it
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encompasses a whole number of things it encompasses education and art it also encompasses uh morality and ethics um it incompasses um values so it's it's a
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very very broad term where culture as a word becomes confusing is when we think we can actively and consciously change
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it and and that's actually not something that we can do culture is is is not it's not static there there's no there's
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there may be a a momentary snapshot of culture but culture is constantly changing and it's it's then there are sub and micro cultures and it's a very
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but within Christianity and within scriptural uh descriptions of the church I think there is a definite U element in which the people of Faith represent a
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culture an embedded culture within the surrounding unbelieving culture
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I think it reques conly
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yes um it's hard to be bitter against people for whom you're praying certainly um yeah so that's that's a powerful element that we're going to see in fact that's the next thing in the in the four lists that we see well actually breaking
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bread and then prayer Aon
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humility um the only place that Paul uses a singular verb the only place where he's speaking in this section of individual Christians is when he tells us not to
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look out for our own interests every other verb is plural in this whole section so there there is a right in that in the way his
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grammar is structured that there is kind of an an answer to at least the problem the the problem is
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me the problem is each individual believer that's the problem that needs to be to be overcome and that's where the question
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is how do we do that Jesus Christ is listed here I mentioned this last week Philippians 2 is typically looked upon as the is the
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Christ hymn and that's how it's been set to music um I think um handle may have put it to music you know it's it's all about Christ and how God has highly
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exalted him and certainly that's true but we do have to remember that in the context in the structure of Paul's letter the Christ hymn is given to us as an
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example of how we ought to live with each other have this attitude in yourselves plural which was found in Christ Jesus
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who being found in the form of God you know all of that all what's left so that's actually and I I don't want to diminish the importance theological importance of that section but it's
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actually uh somewhat parenthetic to what Paul's actually admonishing the Believers in Philippi okay um and so Jesus Christ is our
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example and so what I want to do here is I want to try to do a little bit of exegesis of this section of Philippians
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hopefully hopefully looking at what Paul is doing here in terms of the text will help us to uh to begin to understand how by the power of the Holy Spirit we can see this change within
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each one of us and within all of us corporately where we begin to approach that attitude which is selfless which is praying for one another exhorting one
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another serving one another all of those things that that people have mentioned um but with without having Pro program in it okay without
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having okay um I remember we were attending a church in Oklahoma City where um the the pastor set up a a
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24-hour prayer time where all through the 24 hours I can't remember how long we did it uh people would would come to the church there there was a room that
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they would go I don't know why a particular room um but they would pray for an hour for the church and for the people it was very
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programmed um and it honestly it didn't last very long programs just don't really last very long this is something that I think we see and we recognize is a is an it's an attitude which means
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it's it's um it's a life view it's it's how we perceive our role in life not just in the church and it's not just Sunday morning so going to church is not
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the answer okay so let's look at this passage the first two verses so we look at verses one and
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Paul is setting the basis for what follows okay so this is the basis of basis of coia this is the basis of Fellowship now
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he actually uses that word In this passage when he talks about the Fellowship of the spirit and I don't think that's just an arbitrary Association I think he he understands
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that it is by the spirit and through the spirit that true coia happens it doesn't happen through human effort but rather it it is the desire of the Holy Spirit
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to bind our hearts together as one and so the Fellowship of the spirit in verse one is kind of at the the center of his list and I think it's at the center of
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his theology I should say this differently it's at the center of Paul's ecclesiology that the person and work of the holy spirit is at the center of his
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doctrine of the church the person and work of Jesus Christ is at the center of his soteriology and his eschatology his
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doctrines of salvation and of the end of all things but when he goes to his doctrine of the church his understanding of the church his Focus shifts within
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the Trinity to the person of the Holy Spirit and his work so I think it's not it's not without significance that as we're studying the word coinonia that's
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associated In this passage with the holy spirit with the spirit it says Spirit but I'm assuming it's the holy spirit so this sets the basis now um
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Abigail mentioned truth there there are a lot of human Fellowship groups there there are a lot of reasons um by which men and women
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associate with one another happily and all of those are um mundane they're all of this world
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none of them are uh none of them are lasting none of them are Eternal none of them them have fundamental truth within them so for example uh the bridge club that my parents were a part of for so
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many years and and all of the different parties that they would have and whatnot that was a form of Fellowship um they all pretended that
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they were enjoying it except Mr petrain apparently his wife was always cheating or didn't know what she was doing because that's one memory I have
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of the bridge when it was played at our house was Mr Petrino but uh so that he was never a happy camper this is
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reality and re reality in spite of our postmodern philosophy reality is something that we all deal with on a day-to-day basis we have our own view of what reality is and we basically Orient our mind and and our uh perception and
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our actions to whatever reality we have uh accepted within our minds what Paul does in his letters is he he keeps washing us with the water of the word to
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help us to understand what reality truly is the truth as it is in Jesus Christ he says which does not mean there are other
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truths and that the truth in Jesus Christ is one of a bunch of options we could have the truth as it is in Buddha and the truth as it is in Muhammad no it's it's the truth and then as he said
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says in uh to Timothy that the church then is the pillar and Foundation of Truth now we we live in an age where what is truth um all all truth is
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relative um reality is what you make it and we we cannot succumb to that in order to change our attitude I think we we need to continue to bathe ourselves
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in the word of God understanding the the reality of what he is and what he has done who he is and what he has done and I and so
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when he says here if therefore there is any encouragement if there's any consolation if any fellowship if any affection and compassion these are all
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words nouns that characterize coia so if we said what does coia look like well it looks like encouragement it
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looks like consolation it looks like Fellowship it looks which means participation sharing it looks like affection and it looks like compassion those are the adjectives that
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describe a community that is that is experiencing biblical Fellowship
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coia and it is trinitarian it is the father and the Son and the Holy Spirit that are um pouring out these adjectives or these nouns into
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to our our community so it's a it's a lot of it is a lot of work Tim mentioned that it you know it's it's it's a mental discipline but it it is also as we're
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going to see as we move toward the end of this section where where Paul says work out your salvation with fear and trembling now again even there I do not think he's speaking
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singularly he hasn't so far everything's been plural but as soon as he says that says for it is God who is at work within you
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both to Will and to do according to his pleasure so we we cannot lose that all right so the first section there the the introduction this is very very
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similar um to the common refrain we find in the pentat took where before giving the Ten Commandments or the dietary laws or the
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Holiness code or the various things that that we tend to look at as the means by which the ancient Jews earned their salvation no before every one of those
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there is a heading I am the Lord you your God who brought you out of Egypt see that that's that is the premise that is the reality behind everything was
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that was then required of the Israelites it wasn't the other way around do all this and I will be your lord now I have brought you to myself therefore do these
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things and that's that's what Paul's saying here this these ifs are rhetorical there is encouragement there is compassion there is affection there is fellowship all of these things and
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there is consolation all of these things exist because what what God has done through Jesus Christ he might even just say I am the Lord your God who brought
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you out of sin not Egypt Egypt was a type and this is the Fulfillment of that type and so this is a very these two verses are
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incredibly important because this is the foundation of everything that's going to come afterward any
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comments all right well verses three through five is the exhortation
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one typical with Paul he's going to interrupt his immediate exhortation with a lengthy and very important parenthetical
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important parenthetical statement he's not simply going to say imitate Christ he's going to go into a deep description of what it is about Jesus Christ that we're to imitate and
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that is his humility or his his selflessness and it's the selflessness of one who was infinitely worthy of
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worthy of self-love so it's an argument from the greater to the Lesser if Jesus who is equal with God empties himself and takes on the form of a
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servant how much less worthy are we that we should not do the same does that make sense you know he he shows us the the
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exaltedness of Christ and yet the self humiliation and that is the standard by which this attitude is measured have
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this attitude in yourselves which was in Christ Jesus okay so uh verses 3 through five that's
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exhortation then verses 6 through uh 11 is the Supreme
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Lesser and I guess one thing I want to make make sure that I'm conveying here as I've said it already but as you read through this passage and it is I think one of the most familiar passages to Believers is Philippians 2 that you
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understand that the the emphasis of the passage is passage is not verses 5 or 6 through 11 as important theologically as that P and beautiful as that passage
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is that's not the thrust of what Paul is saying here okay and I don't mean to be Blasphemous or sacriligious have diminished the word at all and if if
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anything I'm trying to say that as beautiful and as powerful as this passage is it serves as an example for what Paul's getting at for what we're
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supposed to do with it and certainly we're supposed to exalt Jesus Christ and worship him as the one who did not view equality with God as a
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thing to be grasped but rather emptied himself and took on the form of a servant but how do we do that we do that by doing the
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same within the body we don't do it simply by singing it okay does that does that make sense just just taking the passage and setting
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it to music doesn't answer its purpose I'm not saying we shouldn't set it to music don't don't please don't get me wrong but that's that doesn't that doesn't serve its
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purpose the it's purpose is served when we have the same attitude that is reflected in that hymn that glorifies Christ that's the purpose
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of it okay so it throws us backward to the first section of the chapter and it throws us forward to the concluding section of the chapter that we're going
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to get to now verses 12- 11 is the exort or 12- 11 12- 15 is the exhortation part two
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Paul picks up the thread that he had put down in verse four but he does so after having Illustrated the entire attitude so he says in verse 12 so then my beloved just
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as you have always obeyed not in my presence only but how much more in my absence work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is
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at work in you both to Will and to work for his good pleasure do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may prove yourselves
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to be blameless and innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse
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generation among whom you appear as lights to the world that you you can take and I don't suggest you do this but
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you can take verses 6 through 11 out and everything still flows now there' be a great loss okay you would be left to fill in
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the blanks when he says in verse 5 have this attitude in yourselves which was found in Christ Jesus and then he moves on to then work out your salvation so that you might be
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seen to be children of God lights in this world above reproach in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation but that is exactly what he's
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the that that those two sections that bracket that that flank the Christ hymn this is what he's actually exhorting the Philippian Believers and through the
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Holy Spirit he's exhorting all believers all congregations that we imitate Christ in his self humiliation
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so that that's kind of the exegesis I think it has an interesting uh pattern to it where
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is Blended with obedience
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we see the work of God interspersed within the exhortations of obedience uh and I think we I hope we all understand that that Paul's not viewing this as as optional
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Behavior he's not viewing this as as say those who who say you can accept Jesus as your savior but what Paul's dealing with here is whether or not you want to take that extra step and make him your
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lord um that that is a perverse and
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Ariel Titus where we see this I this I guess action that people of God are to
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take OPP that to say about that's a similar concept
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how everyone is trying to regard one another as more important than themselves get this game of chicken where nobody knows how to serve anyone
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body nobody how do you decide who serves who I think Titus you see
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have more experience more sanctification are challenged
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not stand everyone standing at other's to for to for vers 3 through 11 show that Christ the head of the body who had the greatest he was he is Grace he is
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Holy he cared for us in his action to come down and be be our sacrifice if we as his children don't
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recognize that's the attitude we should have going to mess upal yeah that that's a good point Um this
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Um this can how do I how do I put this because I I have witnessed this in my years in the pastorate and and that is people who are um militantly
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um militantly helpful I am going to help you whether you need it or not um and I I think this ties in with with what Justin said about some people you know
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uh we talked about it last week Martha commented uh her comment about comfort and you know how you're comforted and then there's another time when you comfort others that the the spirit works
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that way it it is not a leveling where we're all at the same place we're not all at the same place it's it actually and I think this is something I'm going
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to close with because uh one of the things that I've observed in addition to militant helpfulness militant helpfulness is also a stubborness toward
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help an unwillingness to accept assistance which is actually really just as bad as being militantly
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helpful neither of them are actually coia and it may seem like that you just don't want to be a bother you you don't want to be a bother to others but what you're doing is is if if you push
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yourself on others in a militant way that is not the Holy Spirit and but also conversely if you refuse The Compassion
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the affection the consolation and insist on doing it yourself that is also hindering the Holy Spirit does everybody see that I think I
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would say this within our body we Heir more to that second than to the first we're willing to help others but not willing to be helped
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but as we move on in this talking about coia I think what what Ariel's saying what Justin said this is getting at the heart of the Dynamics of it and that is we Comfort one another with the Comfort
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wherewith we were comforted by God or for example in 2 Corinthians 8 where Paul says you now have an abundance and they have little and your abundance helps to meet their need and then later
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on when they have an abundance and you have a need you know it's not a static situation it's a dynamic one it also has to do with Christian maturity Paul's going to say in Philippians as many are
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perfect in Christ that's a pretty small camp right there but the word you know that's not yeah that doesn't help much um the the word of course can be
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translated perfect it it means mature and the context actually shows that because he shows that those who don't understand this will grow in their understanding as time goes on but this
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not just you know someone who's just become a become a Christian is not to be immediately thrust into service Ministry that they have need of discipleship they have need of training
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they have need of of compassion because uh quite possibly they're they're losing their lifelong friendships maybe even their relationship with their
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family so it it's a it's a situ it's a dynamic situation whereby the holy spirit is the one who directs each person's actions just like the the
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nervous system of our body autonomically directs the actions of of all of our parts and yet there there are differences so that's going to take us
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into First Corinthians which is a very important uh place for coia U it's going to take us into a discussion of the Lord's Supper so there's there's a lot wrapped up in this and and we can't we
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can't unpack it all at once but I I want to make sure that we understand that we're starting with here where where we start is with what Jesus did and and if
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nothing else we need to meditate and begin to get our mind more fully around what Jesus did and who he was in doing
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it the the operative word in the Old Testament is the the Hebrew worded which I think it was um Coverdale
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um Coverdale when the English were translating the Bible into English they couldn't come up with a word for the Hebrew HED and so they came up with the word loving kindness because it is a love that is by
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its nature directed to one undeserving of it and and that is the that is the nature of what God has done for us
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through Christ is he has poured out his love to those who are undeserving of it so it's not even that we that we love one another and help one another because
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we love one another it's even more than that and that is my opinion of the person doesn't really matter that I do not consider myself I
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consider only Jesus Christ and in that consideration and attitude I give of myself to the other and then I also
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receive from the other what God intends for me me through them well let's let's close in close in prayer father we do pray that you would help us to understand this uh this coia
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this Dynamic that that you have orchestrated in the godhead that one who is eternally God should submit himself in obedience to Eternal God that the son
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should submit himself to obedience to the father and that he should take on the form of a servant and that he would manifest that obedience even to the point of the death on the cross and this
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you have set as our example not that we will redeem one another but rather that we would consider each other more important than important than ourselves help us by your spirit to
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indeed have this attitude within ourselves which we see in Christ Jesus for we ask in his name amen