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Top o' the evening to you. So my old Croatian supervisor still
says top o' the morning or top o' the evening. I can always
whistle, you know. It's alright. I was getting my
wife again. She's got that drill sergeant
thing going on. She already yelled once today. We are almost done with the book
of Philippians. What does that mean? That we are. I know I've gone back and listened
to, I think, If we're not up, no we're not up today because
I haven't done John's one that he recorded on his phone yet.
So we have two more classes that are not uploaded and then it
will all be caught up in Current. I went back and I listened to
Bob and then some of John's. I just love the multiple views
of this letter that we're looking at here. We're not even going
to exhaust every way to look at this letter. But the beauty
that it does have, and I hope that's been coming out as we've
gone over this book. So yes, we will be in the last
chapter for today and next week. And then we'll be going over
to Genesis. The first 11 chapters of Genesis is our plan. I'm really
looking forward to that. But let's finish up Philippians before
I get ahead of myself. Spoiler alert and all that. So
if somebody would not mind opening us up in prayer, and we'll go
ahead and start week 11 of Philippians. Gracious Heavenly Father, we
come humbly before you, just so thankful for the goodness
and grace that you've shown us, the mercy that you've also shown
us. Lord, we ask that the power of
the Holy Spirit to encourage us this evening, that you would
edify us as we look to dig into your Word. I ask that you would
enable Jim to instruct us well, and that we would remove any
distractions that we would have within our minds, Lord. We tend
to wander, especially during these times that the Lord is
being preached or a prayer is being had. Lord, so we just ask
that you would guard our minds and our hearts to kind of focus
in tonight, Lord. We ask that you would be glorified.
We ask that you would be glorified. Amen. Amen. You were bagging on me for my
Raiders, and you're wearing Steeler stuff in here. Someone's like, the Raiders haven't
won a playoff game since before Brady's second ring. I'm like,
they're lying. I gotta look this up. I'm old. It's true. He's got the key row, so I like
David Carr. And he's not Tom Brady. Anyways,
yes, I don't care too much about sports anymore. I still follow
it. I love baseball. I love listening to baseball.
But, and that's great, we'll talk about it in a little bit.
Just things that we should focus on, and again, there's nothing
wrong with enjoying certain things, but you know, when you're running,
you're the commissioner of 13 different, you know, leagues
and stuff like that, it's probably not the best use of your time. So anyways, today we're gonna
be in Philippians. As I said, we're finishing the book. So
tonight we're gonna go, we ended in verse one, last class. So
we're going to be doing verses 2 to 9. And just so you remember
that last verse we ended on, the start of chapter 4. So then,
my brothers and sisters, dear friends, whom I long to see,
my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my dear
friends. That stand firm is admonition.
And then I believe we're getting into this next address here from
Paul about this particular situation. We have a few here. Do we mind
starting here and reading one verse each going back and then
we'll come up to the front and start again. So this side and
then we'll like a typewriter. I do. Are they all gone back
there? They may be gone and I'm sorry
if they are but I did print some out. Is that week 11? So yeah, we're going to start
the table here, one verse each. Go back to the Achilleans and
we'll come back up to the front row here and go back. Two to
nine. I entreat you, Gideon, and I entreat
you. To agree in the Lord, yes. I
ask you also, true companion, help these women who have labored
side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the
rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. known to God. Finally, brothers, whatever is
true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is
pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is offendable, if there is any
excellence, if there is any excellence, The end result was all verses
were read, I am happy. So I really hope that we do break
down and look at what's being said here. Part of the reason
is, when we started off, we talked about a basic hermeneutic. Remember,
hermeneutic is just a method that you use to interpret scripture.
And then each one, who's a student of the word, which should be
every believer, we approach interpreting with a different lens, with a
different intention. But as long as we're using a
proper hermeneutic and staying within certain boundaries. But
let's collectively work together and look through some of this.
He starts off, I entreat Yodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree
in the Lord. What does this mean? What are
we looking at here? Unity. So there's something between
these two saints here. There's something. Because even
that verse 3, yes. I ask you also, true companion,
help these women who have labored side by side with me in the gospel
together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers whose
names are in the book of life. But just that verse 2 there, I entreat
Leodia and I entreat Sentechie, these women who have labored
side by side with me, If you remember at the start of the
church in Philippi, Paul's on his ministry, doing one of his
mission journeys, right? And he gets to Philippi. Do you
remember what happened in Philippi? Who was he speaking to in Philippi?
You can cheat and go back to chapter 1, that's fine. I want
us to talk about this so we're looking at what's going on here.
Again, helping us to understand studying the scripture but also
so we have such a familiarization that these are brothers and sisters
who are being written about by brothers and sisters who we are
going to be glorifying and worshiping our God forever. So this is awesome
seeing these other stories as well. And it gives me encouragement
because who in here hasn't had a little bump in with another
brother or sister? Let me get the one liar in here. So who is Paul speaking to when
he first gets to Philippi? No, I'm sorry, I messed up. See,
Jim's doing it. I'm going back to the book of
Acts. So disregard what I just said about going back to chapter
1. In the book of Acts is where we'll see the ministry taking
place. He's preaching in the synagogues, but then there are
these faithful women that he's speaking to that are following,
that are serving, that are coming and teaching in my house. So
if you remember in Philippi, the early church was because
they were thrown in jail. They had the Judaizers, they
had the other legalists, they had opposition, Paul, Luke, and
his other brethren that were there, which I'm going to do
some quizzing on that in a little bit. But they're thrown into
jail. However, there were these women, and again, remember, that's
why I did the historical background. Philippi was a mini-Rome. It was a legit Roman colony and
had all the freedoms of being such a Roman state. And so women
there had different privileges than they had in other parts.
So the early church in Philippi, though, was heavily influenced
and the growth was because of these faithful women. And again,
look at the letter, though. If this took place in Corinth,
Paul's going to use some very brotherly language, but it's
going to be more The correcting again, you know, and you're doing
something wrong, but here it's yes, you're doing something wrong,
but look at the sweetness still here. He's like, you know, I
entreat you, you know, to agree in the Lord. And then he asked,
I ask you also true companion. We don't know who he's speaking
about, but who wants to give an opinion, a sanctified guess
as to who Paul might be talking to here. There are no wrong answers, only
incorrect ones. Who might Paul be talking to,
especially in reference to the believers in Philippi? The jailer? What did you say? Who else? Who was with Paul in
prison in Philippi? I heard somebody say something
that's an answer but not the answer to this question. Who
said? The Holy Spirit? Yeah, somebody said Luke, right?
You said Luke wasn't in prison with them, but that's the one...
Correct. And in fact, the building of
the church in Philippi is where the pardon acts that Luke addresses
from we, it starts in Philippi and the we ends in Philippi.
You know, prior to that it was they, they, they, they, he, they,
we, Philippi, and then they leave Philippi, they, they, they. So
that's why I say Luke. Somebody said Timothy. Who was
with Paul in jail? Silas? But he says, and the rest of
my, oh he says Clement here, so here's another name we have.
Clement, but I don't think he's speaking about Clement because
he also names Clement. Don't know exactly who Clement
is. There are some early church fathers who credit that with
Clement of Rome. And some other stuff, I'm not
going to get into that historical, I disagree with it, but I'm not
going to get into all the particulars because I don't have 100%. But
there's some names of those who are laboring with Paul. Yeah,
I'm going to put the jailer there because His whole family, right? And I'm sure that they weren't
just sitting on that. And the rest of my fellow workers,
whose names are in the Book of Life. That's a beautiful thing.
Paul is always adamant about that. My brothers and sisters,
we're sharing in this Gospel promise together. We're looking
forward, eagerly waiting for the Lord to return. Let's live
like He would have us live now. Women, you helped labor with
me early in this church here. Faithful servants, help them
out. Help them reconcile this. Help them fix whatever this problem
is. I don't know what the issue is. Nobody does. It's not addressed
as a very overt sin, but it's also something that troubles
Paul. Paul is about unity. Somebody
said that, talking about unity here. So I treat them to agree
in the Lord. Which we've already seen previously
in this letter. Agree in the Lord. Be in one spirit. Have
this same mind in you. And that's what He's telling
them. And this good companion to help these women. So... Just the importance of that with
the women ministering in Philippi. Because there is, and again,
I'm not going to get into that there, different takes on the
offices in God's church. But when it comes to the role
of women, and we joke, again, for a long time people thought
that I'm just this huge, I said thought, they may still think
it, this huge, misogynistic, chauvinist of the house, you
know, overbearing patriarch. And then they find out she also
doesn't drive. You don't let your wife drive. I'm like, oh my goodness, no. Please go fix it. Oh, now you're
telling her what to do. No, I didn't. I'm just gonna shut up now, but there
is this overbearing, and then there's, on the other extreme,
this misinterpretation and just abusing the roles that God has
given. OK, I bring that up because these women are serving, and
we can get into the whole idea of deacons. I'm not going to,
like I said, get into that, where I agree with the pastoral letters
and the qualifications. But they're obviously, especially
in that term, women who are serving. And Paul is constantly thanking
and entreating them to others about their service to the Lord.
They're serving. They're diakonin. So, just something
to think about there. An unknown issue, but I love
that there are many that have labored with Paul. Just on that,
I just want to, again, going back to the historical, who else?
We've got the four names that were with Paul in Philippi, but
what are some other names in the early church that we're familiar
with? You can cheat and use some of the disciples, that's fine.
I just want us to see in the early church, in God and Christ's
early church, the laborers, and these are brothers and sisters
of ours, so what are some other names? Barnabas? John Mark, what's significant
about that? There were teams going out. There were teams going
out? Was it always teams? Anybody remember that? Again, this is just to add some
education to us, because he's talking about fellow workers
here. Alright, because that's a very good point that I wanted
to hit on. It's Paul and Silas here planting the church in Philippi. Well, I say here, but he's writing
in prison now. It's Paul and Silas that go to
Philippi, but wasn't it Paul and Barnabas before that? So
does anybody remember what happened? There was a falling out? Do you
remember what it was about? Alright, don't know exactly,
John Mark did something to cause Paul to say he is not consistent
and we need consistent people for this Lord's work here. Barnabas,
say again? He left him? And here's Barnabas
like, no, here's a fellow laborer, I'm taking him in. So, again,
something that we mean in our, could have been prideful, we
don't know, but now it's Paul and Silas and then Barnabas and John
Mark. So again, the Lord will use what
he uses in ways we don't see. Lydia. She's the one who had the fancy
garments. Yes. That's why I love the historical
understanding of Philippi. Where else is that going to happen
at? Doesn't say she took him to her husband's house. Again,
don't know her situation, but it's hers. And she's a businesswoman.
Because of her freedom in this Roman state. So, God's providence
is beautiful in the early working of the church. Who's some others? What'd you say? Titus? You can cheat and look
at the table of contents and give me some of those names.
There's lots of names. He wrote a couple of books there. That's the one I was hoping we'd
get to, so Jim will just throw it up there. Because this is entreating
Yodia and Sintike and their problems. And I'm going to pronounce it
a hundred different ways because I don't know how to pronounce
her name. Sintike. Sintike. It's a cool looking name though. Who? Epaphroditus? Some other
names already in the church? I was trying to get to Peter
here because do you remember the incident with Peter and Paul? Do you know where we read about
that? If you read Galatians, Paul will
address that because he's addressing the entire church in the region
of Galatia about this adding to the gospel. And it even says,
I had to bust out our brother Peter because he was going contrary
to this. So again though, there obviously
was Some issues between brothers, but they fix it because then
later you read in Peter's letter Where he's telling you listen
to Paul you need to read Paul's letters and treat them as scripture
So there is animosity here one. We don't read about it anymore
after that incident, and it's just a brief I had to you know
call a brother to repentance on this and driving on Yep So I'm sure that even Paul, we
read about it and we see him and his humility, but he's not
above needing sanctification with that heavy grit sandpaper
sometimes. There has to be something. He was a very big Pharisee and
to see his whole world come crashing down, that's why I believe that
the conversion that he had was needed for that heart. But then
we see the great things going on here. And these are just some
of his fellow co-workers. And again, like I said, Clement,
you can read different historians. I recommend historians. And just
on that, we will constantly tell you, yes, you have a favorite
theologian of the day. Read somebody from 50 years ago.
Read somebody from 100 years ago. Read somebody from 500 years
ago. Read somebody from the 1st century.
That's a little bit more difficult, but you start seeing what's taking
place. They weren't meeting like this,
but they were hungry for, you know, what does this mean? What
does it say? How do we defend this? And again, these are just
fellow workers whose names are in the Book of Life. If he's talking about the reference
to the Lamb's Book of Life, something in the Old Testament, the Book
of Life, either way he's talking about these, what he considers
saints, brothers and sisters in the Lord. All right, and then
we get to some rejoicing though. And again, if this was something
taking place in Corinth, there'd be a whole chapter dedicated
to that. Instead it's a, I'm writing to you to please agree
in the Lord, you, my faithful co-worker, help them, and you,
and all of my other fellow workers. This is sisters that we wanna
see reconciled. All right, so that goes to that
walking together as well. And then Paul goes into his awesome
Paul-like closings. The letters, the big
openings, the big closings. That's why I say I love... I
forget who it was now. Somebody asking, John, what's
this scribble on your name? He signs his name, you know, Slave
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the acronym. So you look at all these
little letters, and they alternate lowercase and uppercase. Oh,
that was Michelle. That's who was asking about it.
What's this under your name? But he signs that, and it's kind
of like, you know, Paul would always give his letter. You can tell
mostly just from reading the letter who wrote it. You know,
where it's definitive, this is me saying this, but other times
it's the claim that they have, and that's just a little signature
I like on his. But Paul says that, rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. That's
what we should be. He has given him this encouraging
admonition. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice.
I say again, or hear me, hear me well. Rejoice in the Lord. And then he goes into this beautiful
encouragement, and I'm hoping to again spend some time on some
application for that. But he tells, let everyone see
your gentleness. I'm reading in my net here, so
if it's a little bit different, I do apologize. Let me flip over
there. The ESV, let your reasonableness
be known to everyone. I think another translation,
let your gentle heart be known, your gentleness, your gentle
spirit. Somebody else have something
different? Gentleness. But let everyone see your gentleness.
The Lord is near. Alright. Let's stop on that again. This
gentleness. The reasonableness as it says. What are we looking
at here? Rejoice in the Lord. Let your gentleness be known
to all men. The Lord is near. Is he just randomly throwing
these expressions out there? Maybe. Does he mean the Lord
is near us in the time of His return, since Paul is constantly
talking about His return? Be eager as we're waiting for
His return? Or is he talking about the Lord is near, we are
in our Lord, we are together, His Spirit is with us, a comforter.
Is he talking about that kind of near? Or is it both? There's no right or wrong answers,
only no answers. I say both. Thank you Zoe. I don't know why
you always sound so masculine in my classes here though. I like the word, like, the Lord
is near, the Lord is with them. But just because to rejoice in
the Lord always, and again I say rejoice, let your gentleness,
and then the other thing is to remember that people are looking
at you. Yes. And so, even to see how
you handle conflict. That's a good thing. People are
watching. They don't have to agree necessarily,
but to approach it in a way like you were saying and continue
the way they feel about each other, their affection for each
other. Because like she said, they're being watched closely
as to how they handle things. And especially if these are two
of the women that were there at the beginning, definitely
eyes are on them. And yes, the opposition is always
all. That's why when Christ says that, they will know you are
mine by your love for each other. And the world does love to see
that. Oh, look at these Christians over here acting like these fools
over here. And we, I say we because it's
a collective thing, bring shame and dishonor over and over again
to the world. Thankfully, we can approach the
throne of grace and have that repentance, which is again what
Paul is telling them here, to reconcile though, and then rejoice
in the Lord. Let everyone see your gentleness. Yes, the Lord
is near. I believe it could be both because they are often told
He's coming. We're eagerly waiting for His
return to make all things new. And then yes, he goes into this,
do not be anxious about anything. Do not be anxious about anything. Instead, in every situation,
through prayer and petition or prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving, tell your request to God. And the peace of God
that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds
in Christ Jesus. So be not anxious. And then through
prayer and supplication, we can fully rely on God. And I love
that though. The peace of God. It's overpowering. It's going to overshadow all
of that. Alright. This is what I want us to hit
though. What is... I get anxious. Sometimes you're anxious in a
positive way, which is not bad. It could be bad, but when you're
returning home after a long trip or something like that, right?
And you kind of get that anxious anxiety. I hope so. I get the anxiety. I'm like,
man, I guess I'm going home. No? Okay, good. What are some of the things that
we're anxious over? Who stole mine? Decisions. Family. Decisions. There's lots of things alright.
We can be anxious over little things. I'm about to have a surgery.
I trust this doctor who's done a thousand surgeries but I could
be that one that doesn't work out on here so let me fret and
worry about that. What does that anxiety do to
us though? Are you effective when you're over anxious? And
it's where I even argue that positive anxiety, that good anxiousness,
but are we elevating whatever we're anxious over above what
we should. So that's again just a caution.
Because yes, I remember many a trip could not wait to get
home so you get that anxious. Awaiting, I know that my child's
going to be born here in the next little bit. So there's that
anxiety that's taking place. One for yay and the other for
hurry up and be done with it. So which one are you? We know
it's not the. But what does this keep us from
though? Through prayer and supplication,
thanksgiving. You're worrying about this right
here, which I'm not saying that that's not something to worry
about, obviously, especially in a lot of the uncertainties
we have. But what are you saying when
your anxiety over this is preventing you from... But in everything,
in every situation, through prayer and supplication, You worry about it and you're
not putting your faith, right? Because it says that the grace
of God will overshadow this. Right? It will overpower all
this. But what was that middle part again? So, don't be anxious.
The power of God will overshadow that and give you peace. Right? But it's the prayer, the thanksgiving,
the supplication. Right? We're worrying about decisions.
Yes. And sometimes, I love that. We
don't cast lots, literally, but we will figure it out. If this,
by this date, then that means God wants this, and I'm going
to follow that. Okay, you just threw your dice. I get it. I'm not
saying whether that's good or bad. We've done that sometimes. Flip a coin for dinner. Oh, no.
You know, the taboo. No, it's just it was an easy
decision maker. But in our decisions, we should, through prayer. That's
the thing about prayer, etc. If we're focusing on this, this
one gets jammed. Especially working with all the
knuckleheads. And then I get into the, but this, but this.
Especially when somebody is trying to help you. Have you been there?
You're stressing over something. And somebody comes like, hey
brother, check this out though. Look what God's promise says here. No, but I
want to be sad over this. And I want to, you know, this
is not going to work. I can say that because that's
me. What Brian Oakley has called the male poochie lip. Walk around with the poochie
lip. Yes, I trust God, but I also know that He doesn't have to,
that He is the Sovereign and whatever is according to His
will. So that might mean that I'm worrying about these things,
but it doesn't mean that I should worry about them. If I'm in all
situations, through prayer and petition and
supplication with thanksgiving, telling my request to the Lord,
the God of peace that surpasses all understanding will guard
your hearts and minds. If you are focusing on the Sovereign,
it's easier to forget about these other anxieties. That is difficult. Again, I love Brian Nolfen, that's
why I He reminded me so much of John, and they had the same
attitude. You know, oh, that's, yes, okay, well, let's pray about
this. Oh, well, are you going to church? Hey, guy I've never
met before, I'm going to call you out on the sin you have right
here. You realize that's sin, right,
brother? You call yourself a brother, you realize that's sin. Let's pray about
this. Wow, that's co-workers in the ministry, though. That's
how you do that. That's not foreign to the Bible.
It's foreign to us, especially in America. That's not foreign
to the Bible. Brother, you're wrong. But here's how you can
be encouraged. Look at this. Don't be anxious
about anything, but in every situation, through prayer, supplication,
thanksgiving to the Lord, make your requests known. It doesn't
say your requests are going to be answered. Make your requests known, and
the God of peace that surpasses all understanding will guard
your mind. This is difficult to be anxious
if you are focusing on walking with the Lord. And kind of going
on, Paul doesn't stop there. He talks about what you think
about really doesn't affect your anxiety. And finally, brothers,
whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is just, whatever
is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, anything
excellent, or anything crazy, where they think about those
things, and then he goes further into behavior. Yep, practices. And that focus still goes back
to the one who provides this peace. Again, that's what it
is, yes. I have a problem that needs a
solution, and especially men, we have plan A, B, and C, especially
in our lives. I've got this plan. Yes, I trust
God, but I have this awesome plan right here. Hang on, let
me lay it out for you. I've got four pages and a map,
but we're not focusing on the right thing. And yes, so closing
off his letter there, it says, finally, brothers and sisters,
As Kyle just said, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of respect,
whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever
is commendable, if something is excellent or praiseworthy,
think about these things. And then as he said, what you
have learned and received and heard and saw in me, do these things
and the God of peace will be with you. That goes back to imitate
me as I'm imitating Christ. Imitate those who have walked
away with this gospel truth and see how they're living out that
life. They're practicing these truths. Of course we see some
of that, even looking at the John Mark situation. But there
was reconciliation, there was, as you said, call him back to
me. There's this love for God and his people and working through
that. And we think we have some problems here trying to figure
out certain scheduling. This is the early church, this
is persecution. This is coming out of a whole history of, especially
for the believing Jews, a whole history of this is how it's always
been. And then the citizens there in
these different areas, that's not their lifestyle. They're
very pagan, polytheistic and such, so this is different to
them. But just to see this unity Paul is always calling for. This
unity, this walking together. This God of peace. How is the
God of peace going to be with you? Well, focusing on Him through
prayer in every situation. And then thinking on these things.
So that's what we're going to finish our time with, looking
at these things. It says dwell on these things, or think on
these things. On whatever is true. What does that mean to
dwell on whatever is true? What are we going to dwell on
that is true? The Word. How do you know that the Word
is true? It sounds like some circular reasoning
there to me. Is that circular reasoning? It's circular reasoning
that I absolutely agree with though, because everything is
circular reasoning. If there's anything excellent,
and if you still haven't got it, if there's anything worthy
of praise, what would you immediately go to? What is worthy of praise? I love how Paul does stuff. And
you are right, and it is teaching though. How Paul does things. And again,
this letter, it's not a correcting letter like Corinth. It is similar to some of his
other letters where it's encouraging, but this is a more endearing
and love-felt letter. Obviously, Paul has love for
the brethren. We see that in all his letters. He prays for them in all his
letters. But this one in particular, and I don't know what it is,
but just reading from the start of it, the prison, the jailer,
the family, the women helping there, and the way that they
were able to do more in this Roman state, Paul has an obvious
affection specifically for these brethren in Philippi. But yeah,
this is a beautiful book. And then, yeah, so who's the
one worthy of praise? So if nothing else, that's why
I'm asking these questions. Who's true? This answer. The answer to this is the answer
to the first one. Who's worthy of praise? So then, what's true? The one
who's worthy of praise. What's to be honored? The one
worthy of praise. Who's just? Who's commendable? Who's most
excellent? who is worthy to be praised. Focus, and he's already
told you, pray. In every situation, with supplication,
thanksgiving, and your prayer request won't be answered, is
not what it says. It says that the peace of the Lord will be with
you and guard you. And it doesn't mean it's easy.
And then focus. And of course, walking in those
ways. Dude, is that a shark on your shirt? He said, no, it's
crumbs. I know, man. We almost got in
a lot of trouble on Wednesday. Open up that water bottle. We
would have both been sunk. Yeah, in the end of the practice,
these things are exemplified by those who follow Christ. We
talked about that a little bit last week. What does that mean for us? How
do we live this out? In this situation it's perfect. There's
brethren who have something. Walk beside them. Help them think
on Christ together. And for you guys, rejoice. Here's
encouragement for you. Don't be anxious about anything.
The Lord is near. He's with us now and He is coming. Paul is very clear on his excitement
over this. Whether I go be with him or he
comes and reclaims. He's awesome about that. Think
on these things that are always, if they're not pointing you to
the one who's worthy of praise, you're thinking about the wrong
things. What she said in the previous chapter, your mind is
stuck on these worldly things still. You're holding on to the
world and you should be focusing on where your citizenship is
and the one who is the ruler there. And just hammered it home
again. The God of peace will be with
you. I think of that one passage where
he talks about being transformed by the renewal of your mind.
I think that kind of ties in as well. When we're thinking
about, well, thoughts, what we're focusing our thoughts on, studying
the words that we have. In order to be transformed, like
saying goodbye, you have to start there with some knowledge and
then put it into practice. Do you realize how blessed we
are to have all the letters here? Just imagine the brothers and
sisters in the first century church getting that letter from
one of the apostles, one of the brethren. It doesn't even have
to be one here, but just getting a letter from one of them. But you're
not privy to the letters that are going out everywhere else.
Eventually, more and more would get these letters. I saw that
letter. Oh, is that the letter? But initially, they don't have
that. We have. So you just went to
another book. Hey, Paul's theme. Paul's teaching here. from the
enlightenment of the Holy Spirit is echoed here. They didn't have
that. We are very, very blessed to have a completed letter. A completed canon of the letters
to help us see these doctrines. So that's just something to be
thankful for. Also how the Old Testament really reforms all
in this way that in every scenario that Israel, from a worldly standpoint,
had reason to create this. Whether that's in Egypt, or whether
that's with, what's that guy, Artaxerxes and Haman. Haman to
one of the armies of Assyria surrounding them. And the whole
time, God's message is consistent the whole time. And he shows
up every time. So Paul's coming from a rich
history of God always coming through for his people and always
being faithful. And so for us, we come from that
same history. And yet, although we are anxious,
which it's so easy to be, we forget God's faithfulness. And
Paul's calling them to think about it, because the Word of
God informs that whole list. And you go back to our history. It's all inside. That's why it's
encouraging and discouraging going through the book of Judges.
They've got it figured out. Yes. No. God, what are you doing?
Okay, that didn't work out. That's alright. God's faithful.
God is just. God is raising up. And yes, you
guys got it. Yes. No, no, no. What are you doing?
Rinse and repeat. That's also Jim. Yeah, hopefully we're making
an example, a good example for those that we are influencing.
I still encourage, I see all the young ones here, and especially
since I'm going through some of the studies that I'm having
to do, seeing more intentional how the early churches were teaching,
about teaching, and making sure that the people of God understood
what needed to be understood. And that's the difficult part.
Anybody have anything else to add to this? Any more comments?
And next week we'll finish up chapter 4. Whatever is just, whatever is
pure, whatever is holy, whatever is commitable. If there is any
excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about
those things. I know your point is going back to the worthy of
praise, which is supposed to be thinking on God who is worthy
of praise. I've also used this scripture
for, I'm not, like I've not done this perfectly at all, but things
that I listen to and watch, Because I'm like, uh, you know, I really
want to watch that because everyone's watching that. That'd be so fun
to watch and I'd really enjoy that. But man, this is really
not something that's honorable. Or this is not something that's,
you know, I would be proud to show the father, like, hey, look
what I'm watching. It's, yeah, like, have a good
one. And cross off the ones that it's
not and go, OK, maybe, I use this pure, pure, lovely, this is the net. Whatever is worthy of respect,
true, just, pure, lovely, commendable, something excellent or praiseworthy.
Of course, that is our treasure. Our treasure in Christ. That
is where we should find everything. But it goes again to there are
some enjoyments we have here. By the way, John, I have two
of my four stories. I couldn't find the other ones,
but I will send them to you. I get weird looks. Sometimes
I find enjoyment out of watching mixed martial arts competitions
and other martial arts competitions. You call yourself a Christian,
you're watching these two guys beat each other up. I've struggled
internally before with, is it all this stuff, is it something
I should be watching? Well, I'm watching the sport and I'm hoping
that they're not really grudgingly hating each other because I also
watch boxing and Tyson threatening to bite people's ears off. Never
mind, he did bite an ear off. But the point is, the threatening.
I think he told somebody, I'll eat your children and your children's
children at one point. But it's a lot of showman stuff.
So I have got that from people. And again, if I'm convicted of
that and I still watch it, absolutely I'm in sin. And if anybody were
to know some situation like that, you should call a brother or
sister on that. But other times, like we joked about the football.
Is it wrong to enjoy sport? Is it wrong to enjoy the athleticism
involved? The Raiders maybe? Disregard what we talked about
earlier, brother. So he's writing to the church,
and he says, the peace of God will keep all of you, and then
he finishes off with, the God of peace will be with all of
you. That's a beautiful conviction, I like that. But he's writing,
we tend to take these letters and make them singular views,
but he's really talking about a body of believers, how this should be related to
everyone, because the sphere that they find themselves, they're
to be rejoicing in the sphere of the Lord. It's just a beautiful letter.
I mean, if we turn our attention to God, the way we're pointing
it, to Christ, not only in the things of the church, but like
in our domestic squabbles, like when we're arguing, well, y'all
don't argue, and I and I argue with one another. If we would
both turn our attention to God, and by the way, men, don't ask
him to pray at that moment. It does not work well. You're
just using a scripture. Yeah, I have. I need to heat
up over it. Like I said, let's pray. We're
going to do a whole retreat about it. Yeah, we're going to pray.
It's like, between me and you. Yeah. The Lord decided to do
it. But it's this idea of, in everything,
you just make it known. God, you're really close. our attention to God collectively,
that makes us value each other in Christ. Like, it's the hardest
thing to do. You're sitting with somebody,
and somebody, another brother or sister comes up to you and
says, did you pray for them? And you're like, oh yeah, I did
pray. And praying for them is prayer,
right? Taking our attention off of lust,
and putting our attention on what really belongs on God. And that's not easy. It's just
not. But I like the way that Paul
does it here. You know, peace of God will keep
you, and the God of peace will be with you. And that's beautiful. And then he says, it's all over
the letter, starting out with his commending them for what
he's heard and how they're continuing in faith. Be in one mind, be
in one spirit. This is the spirit and mind you
should have. Here's Christ, your example. Imitate those of us
who are following Christ and that's your example. I really
love it because there is a, today it's easy to get caught up in,
for many things, a cult of personality. We like that. I even like the,
it's a joke account, but the celebrity pastor. He's almost
as good as the church curmungeon, who's actually my favorite. I
love the church curmudgeon. But this celebrity idea, or follow... No, we're following Christ. And
again, as I said the last time though, yes, if you want to follow
godly men and women in your life, as long as they are following
Christ, ultimately you're not following them, you're following
their example of Christ. And that's what we should be
looking for. That's what we should be living. I'm just getting more
and more convicted of the... The young ones, again, if you
haven't noticed, we're getting a lot of children in here. And
we're encouraged by it, but we also understand that that is
a task to teach them the things of God and to pray for them in
addition to everything else. But we're all walking through
this together here, so let's make sure that we're all being
that good example. I say I love it. I haven't got
my smile from him yet. But we're cool it appears. I thought he
wasn't going to forgive me for not opening the water for him
but he seems to have forgiven me. And I love his shark shirt so. Anything else? Anybody else?
Do you like the letter to the Saints
in Philippi? Somebody said no. It's like when the guys at work
told me, hey, Jim's a contrarian. Watch, ask him. I refuse to answer. Nothing else? Well, I appreciate it. Next week,
as I said, will be the finishing week for Philippians. And then we're going to go into
the first 11 chapters of Genesis and park there for a little bit.
It's going to be good. We're still going to have the
BFFs. Probably going to change for
next month. I need to find out again from the ladies. But you'll know well
ahead of time. Huh? Did change it because the
women's got push back? I'm going to forget. I'll ask you. We've got a new digital brain
I'll check with. Awesome. Does somebody want to
close this in prayer? I'll do it. Wow, thank you back there. Thank you God that we get to
meet, that we get to open Your Word and hear from You and discuss
it with each other so that we can have knowledge and understanding
and also application so that we can walk out the faith which
You've delivered to Your saints. And God, I thank You for the
brothers and sisters here. I just ask that as soon as you
hear the word from Philippians, we'll pour forth for my wife,
God, so that we might glorify you and be transformed more and
more into the image of Jesus as individuals and as a body.
In Jesus' name. Amen. You all are awesome. Thank you so much. 14th is? Did I change that on the big
calendar? Oh, Jimmy. We apologize. We got caught up on Sunday and
forgot to present you so we'll do it this... We meant to present you on Sunday
and family and stuff, so I'm just apologizing for that. I
was like, then I was like, oh, I forgot something. All right,
so I apologize Wednesday, and then we'll take care of it there,
though. Those your boots, bro? You got boots like that? John?
Yes. God bless you, bro. I really want to get into the
covenants. I was talking after Genesis 11, getting into the
covenants. Oh, get your key? Alright, I'll hit you up when
you get back there, bro. I'll be right back. Oh, did he? Yeah.
Philippians Week 11
Series Philippians Study
Bible Study on the Book of Philippians
| Sermon ID | 912222126477741 |
| Duration | 52:58 |
| Date | |
| Category | Bible Study |
| Bible Text | Philippians 4:2-9 |
| Language | English |
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