Okay, well good evening. I'd like to welcome you to our evening service. Hope that you had a good afternoon and we're looking forward to getting into the Word of God. Let's go ahead and bow together for a word of prayer and then we'll start with our congregational singing tonight. Father, we're so very grateful for this opportunity to meet tonight, and I pray that as we open up the Word of God, you'll speak to our hearts in a very special way. Be with Chris as he handles the Word of God, help him to do it with clarity. As we have opportunity to pick some of our favorites and also to share testimonies of what you've been doing in our lives, I pray that you would take those things and really uplift and encourage each person that's here. And I just bless our fellowship together as a body, in Christ's name, amen. All right, good evening, Anchor Baptist Church. Good to see you all tonight. Brave in the balmy weather, you know, but it's, the humidity is low, so that makes it bearable. I like it that way. Still turn to page 500, page 500 in the red book, since the blue book only goes to 200. Please stand with me. I will sing the wondrous story with you. So sing out as we sing all four verses of, we will sing the wondrous story. ♪ I will sing for a story of the rising of the free ♪ ♪ From the land of joy and glory to the cross we now bring ♪ ♪ Yes, I'll sing for a story of the rising of the free ♪ ♪ Still in the states of glory, death and fire as we'll see ♪ ♪ From the tree that grew this way ♪ ♪ Through the foggy mountain valley ♪ ♪ Through the valley to the sky ♪ ♪ Let us all sing the glorious story ♪ ♪ Of the rising of the queen ♪ ♪ This day we witness the glory ♪ ♪ That our father once conceived ♪ of the story of the rising of the King. Singing with the saints of glory, let the choir of Christmas sing. We will lead you wherever you want and ever be. We will hear you sing. Just a few pages back further in the book to page 509. 509, saved, saved, saved. I'm not there, but it's all too clear. There's no distance between. I'm not too far away from you. ♪ And all these things we bring for you ♪ ♪ Stay with everyone ♪ ♪ Take your cups of wine ♪ ♪ For us we are one with the world ♪ ♪ And it's the best way ♪ ♪ Stay with me for every step of the way ♪ ♪ As my soul is laid ♪ ♪ Amidst all that is winding on ♪ ♪ I know you'll find me all the way ♪ ♪ Stay, I'm coming home ♪ ♪ Stay through the night so long ♪ ♪ I'll never see you again ♪ ♪ Stay, stay, stay ♪ ♪ O Earth, be in awe of God ♪ ♪ In love He sent to thee ♪ ♪ Come unto me, and I'll meet you all ♪ Please have a seat. And we're going to go deeper into the book, but only to page 520. Page 520. Get there in a second. Redeemed. Redeemed. ♪ Risen by mercy, returned by the Lamb ♪ ♪ Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed by the Lamb ♪ ♪ Redeemed by the Lord, redeemed, returned by the Lamb ♪ ♪ We praise you, Lord God of hosts ♪ Amen. At this time, we'll have some testimonies and favorites. Oh! If you think you can try it, I know what it is. Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross. Think so? Are you sure? Let's give Morgan a break on that one. Well, we will put that one on hold. I've got it starred. And so let's- 575? Okay. Now, who asked for 584? I forget who it was. Over here? You want to come up and sing a solo with me? 584, ah, I haven't heard that one in a long time, yes. Let's go to, what was it, 575. And we will sing a stand up, stand up for Jesus. And you gotta stand up. Please stand with me on this one. ♪ Stand up, stand up for Jesus ♪ ♪ Raise him high to the cross ♪ Onward, we all to Him, to Him we shall be led, to Him all is fair, to Him all is happy. Have a seat. That would be a really good special for somebody to play on the piano some Sunday night. Huh? Okay. That was page 597. I mean, looking at the young lady that suggested it. 597. The Battle Hymn of the Republic? This time of day? Okay. Verse 1. ♪ Glory, glory, hallelujah ♪ ♪ His truth is marching on ♪ to our southern brother. All right, page 105 in the blue book. In the blue book, page 105. That sounds very familiar. For me to live as Christ. Y'all know this one. ♪ I sing with all my heart and soul ♪ ♪ I sing with all my heart and soul ♪ ♪ I sing with all my heart and soul ♪ 116. Here we go. Here we go. First two, first two. ♪ As we watch the world go by ♪ ♪ Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh ♪ ♪ And see the world as it is today ♪ Okay, let's go to 116 in the Red Book. Okay, I can't read my scribble sometimes. Still verse 2. This is my Father's world. Page 116 in the Red Book. Come on Doug. This is my father's world. The birds, their carols raise. The morning like a dilly light. I like 116 in the Blue Book. That was a good one. I like this is my father's world too. Page 43 in the blue book. Now let me know if I read my scribbles wrong. Page 43, how can I fear? ♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. Page 93 in the blue book. This is getting to be someone's favorite. Balvenie. Amen. I remember you. I remember you. Okay, go to the red book, page 558. Way in the back. 558. 558, I don't know if I know this. Can you play it through? Please. Okay, I can name that tune after about two more. All right, here we go. ♪ And every life that I've lived ♪ ♪ Which was in the sight of thee ♪ ♪ I want to bear thee in my memory night ♪ ♪ In my memory night ♪ Amen. Page 482. Honestly, we have not sang this in a Sunday or two. Okay, page 482. ♪ Hail, all the sinners ♪ ♪ Peace to all that remain ♪ ♪ Hallowed be thy name, O Israel ♪ ♪ For thine is the kingdom, O Israel ♪ ♪ Thine be the kingdom, O Israel ♪ ♪ Thine be the kingdom, O Israel ♪ ♪ Thine be the kingdom, O Israel ♪ You know, a little bit louder and they won't need streaming to be able to hear you outside these walls. All right, page 482. That was the last one I've got written down. Let's take one more from each section. Monica. One in the red book. One in the blue book. Okay, young man. 49 verse 3, blue book. Ah, it's mine. Oh, 41? I'm glad you got it. I would have sang 49. Okay, so I got one, one, one. That was a guy. Liam. 83. In the red book, okay. And I need a, I need a, I need a, got nothing but guys. The adult, Tori. One, 61, 51 in the blue book. Okay, let's go to page one in the blue book. Page one, A Servant's Heart. ♪ I will survive, I will live on ♪ ♪ Living on what is mine ♪ ♪ But I will be, I will live, I will be ♪ ♪ Living on what is mine ♪ ♪ And we all must retire ♪ Page 41 in the Blue Book. Page 41, page 41. Worthy of worship. ♪ Worthy of worship ♪ Worthy of praise ♪ Worthy of honor and glory ♪ Of all the glad tidings we sing ♪ ♪ Offerings we bring you are worthy ♪ ♪ Father, Creator, you are worthy of our praise ♪ Savior, Sustainer, You are worthy, worthy and wonderful, worthy of worship and praise. Now we'll go to page 83 in the Red Book. 83, 83, 83, 83. Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah. you Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land. I am weak, but Thou art mighty. Hold me with Thy powerful hand. Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more. Feed me till I want no more. All right, we'll go back to the blue book to page 100. Oh, there it was right there. Page 151. Page 151. I run to Christ. I run to Christ. Let's sing the first and the last and stand with me on this. Believe in me, His voice I hear, His words I'm used to know. I want to rise with joy and glee, and find abundant peace. I do, I do. ♪ I watch you this day ♪ ♪ Deliver me, I cry to thee ♪ ♪ Temptation hits her face ♪ ♪ I love thee, I sing, they watch you ♪ ♪ And I, I wonder why ♪ Please be seated. Wasn't sure if I was getting an invitation. Philippians 2 tonight. We'll be going through the entirety of Philippians 2. And I just want to say thank you to the pastor for extending an invitation to be here and share the word of God with you. It's been a privilege to share what God's been doing in a chaplaincy in Texas, there in San Antonio. But honestly, my real joy and passion is to feast on God's word with you. And I look forward to doing that tonight. I will forewarn you. I got a little carried away in preparing for this message. This is such a rich text, and we're probably gonna spend the bulk of our time just in the first four verses. But my intent is to get through all of Philippians chapter two. I do have a timer on here to keep me honest. But if it goes in the red, I'm sorry. All right, so Philippians chapter two, let's just start by reading those first four verses. and then provide some context. So beginning in verse one there in Philippians chapter two, Paul writes, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." To provide some context to where we're at here in Philippians, I've provided a little bit of an overview. There you go. where in the first chapter we're greeted by Paul, or really the Philippians are greeted by Paul, and he gives thanks for the testimony and the blessings of the Philippian church. He gets into the fact that he is imprisoned, and in his explanation of that circumstance, he gets into what some might call a theology of suffering. And in that, he also ties that suffering to the fact that he was a bearer of the gospel. He was there for the sake of the gospel, for which he rejoiced. Then in Philippians 2, we really get into his primary exhortation and the information that he wanted to convey to the Philippian church at that time. And in the last two chapters, we find a few more exhortations and encouragements in light of the false teachers and their sacrificial gifts, respectively. Now our focus tonight is going to be on Philippians 2, where Paul exhorts the church at Philippi to be like-minded in light of the finished and ongoing work of Christ and the Holy Spirit there. And what we'll find is really, as we work our way through this, that God wants us to bring him joy as a unified church. I'm thankful tonight to be with Anchor Baptist Church, which is a church we feel very deeply unified with and we love very dearly. But tonight, let's focus in on the exhortation that Paul gives us by understanding the commandment of Christ and the following of the examples, not only of Christ, but those in Christ that we find in this chapter. If we're going to bring God joy as a unified church, we need to understand what the commandment is, first of all, that we find in Philippians chapter 2, the commandment of Christ. Look in verse 1 and see something of a prerequisite, something of a precondition for the command. There it says, if there be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, then he gets into the command. Now, as you're reading this, you might wonder, well, there is consolation in Christ. There is comfort of love. There are all these things. He kind of says all of this at the tail end, at the end of chapter one, in his discussion of the gospel and how it pertained to his suffering there in prison. But consider that these prerequisites, I don't like that word, more like a precondition of the command that he's about to give. This is somewhat of a description of the function, the role that the Holy Spirit has in the believer's life. If you would, if you're taking notes, I would encourage you to look back at these passages that I'm about to read. But consider Romans 8, verses 16 through 17. Paul writes there that the Spirit, the Holy Spirit itself, beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. and if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. John also writes concerning the Holy Spirit in John 14 25 to 27. These things, recording the words of Jesus, these things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. So then Philippians 1, in light of these two passages we just read or that I just read to you, the main idea really is that as a result of the gospel, there is God's intercession, there is God's comfort, there is God's fellowship, there is his kindness, all identified in the personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit. These are the prerequisites, the preconditions to the command given in verse 2, that the Holy Spirit reside in you bear in you the comfort and the joy and the fellowship of God. Now you might be wondering, well then how exactly does the the Holy Spirit comfort us? I have this as a side note, so it's not a rabbit trail. But how does the Spirit comfort us? Do we look for some kind of a physical sensation or some kind of an experience in which we might describe that the Spirit is comforting us? I know when I was a very young believer, I looked for a sort of sensation of the Spirit comforting us. But Christ gives us explicitly how the Spirit comforts us in John 14, 26, which we just read. The comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things he will bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever i have said unto you the holy spirit's comfort and all of this joy and peace it's not an emotional or a mental or a physical peace it's a spiritual peace that comes from living in light of the reality as god as god defines it in scripture the holy spirit brings to our memory the truths of christ And that is the comfort we find in the Spirit, the Spirit which must reside in us if we are to fulfill the commandment given in verse 2 in Philippians 2. So that is the preconditions or the prerequisites, however you want to label that, the reality that must be in place before you can go to the commandment. There we find it in chapter 2, verse 2. Paul writes, fulfill ye my joy. That's the commandment. Interestingly, this is the only real commandment or imperative, grammatically speaking, that we find up until verse 4. You might be wondering, well, isn't it, you know, be like-minded, have the same love, be one accord? No, the commandment is fulfill my joy. Paul is telling the Philippians, fulfill or complete my joy. The word fulfill, of course, as I mentioned here, is complete. Paul is asking the Philippians to complete what joy Paul already possesses. It seems for Paul that joy comes from this consolation in Christ, this comfort of love, this fellowship of the Spirit, these bowels and mercies that we found in verse 1. So in light of the comfort, the fellowship of their possessing the Holy Spirit, which in turn is the result of their faith in the gospel, the Philippians were commanded to fulfill, to complete the joy of Paul. Now you might be saying, okay, that's well and good for the Philippian church, but what about Anchor Baptist Church in 2024? How do we fulfill the joy of Paul 2,000 years after he's dead? Now consider that Paul is writing under the inspiration, the dictation of the Holy Spirit. It's not just Paul's desire that the Philippians complete his joy. This is God's desire. God, the Holy Spirit, commands the Philippians to fulfill the joy of Paul. But again, Paul's dead. So how do we complete this commandment? How do we accomplish this? Well, we ask, if it's not Paul, is it God? Do we complete or fulfill God's joy, his happiness? Well, the short answer is no, we do not. And I'll explain why. It's because God's joy is a divine attribute. Just as His holiness is perfect, just as His love is perfect, just as His righteousness and His judgment are perfect, so too is His joy. Psalm 1611 says, At Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Interesting enough, as far as I've seen, there are no commandments throughout all of Scripture where God tells us to give him joy. Nothing explicit. And it's because God's joy is already perfect. We can't add to it. We can't complete it. Nevertheless, we do bring God joy. God takes delight in his people. Luke 15 10, likewise I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. Psalm 147 11, the Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him and those that hope in his mercy. Zephaniah 3 17, a very Familiar passage with relation to God's joy. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice over thee with joy. He will rest in his love. He will joy over thee with singing. Now, I go back to my saying there's no explicit commandment for this. And let's, you know, bug our kids a little bit. What happens when we say, well, I'm not telling you you have to do this. What do our kids do? Well, then I don't have to do it, right? That's kind of human nature. When we hear that, I don't hear a commandment, so I don't have to do, well, think about this. Obviously, the believer shouldn't have that kind of response. That's beyond the question. We love him. We obey his commandments. We rejoice in him. We desire his blessings. But if I were to go to my wife and say, I love you, and I'm going to provide for you, and I'm going to honor you, but I don't expect any of that to give you happiness. I expect any of that to give you joy. Well, what's the point? What's actually driving me to do those things? Well, it's pride. It's no longer about her, it's about doing it for myself. Why do I love her if it's not for her happiness? It's because it makes me feel good, not because it makes her happy. Why would I provide for her so that I feel accomplished and not like a scumbag? Why do I honor her? So that people look at how awesome I am for having someone as awesome as she is. It's not about her, it's about me. That's pride. That's what it is when we don't seek the joy of the person that we wish to honor. We should desire to bring God joy just as seriously as if it were an explicit command given in Scripture, knowing that it doesn't add anything to God's already perfect joy. It's not the main focus of this chapter though. Yes, we want to bring God joy, but how do we do it? Paul tells us here in Philippians 2. In seeking to bring God joy, we do so through the means of unity. There in the second half of verse two, he says, be like-minded, have the same love, be of one accord, be of one mind. These are the states or the conditions in which we must exist as a body of people who desire to bring God joy. To be like-minded is to have a shared general mindset with other believers. Having the same love, understanding what our desires ought to be as Christians and pursuing them. Being of one accord or one spirit, of one mind, of one opinion. This is the meat of the passage. that to fulfill Paul's joy or to bring God joy, we must be like-minded. We must have the same love. We must be of one spirit, of one mind. And we're going to see exactly what that looks like when we go through the fruit that Paul explains in the following verses. But let's consider for a second what it means to be unified in the Holy Spirit. In fact, Paul talks about this in another epistle there, just a few pages to the left in Ephesians. Go over to Ephesians 4. There in Ephesians 4, Paul writes, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you, that's plural, that's collective, that's the church. I beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And this is his reasoning. There is one body. and one spirit, even as you're called, in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all, but into every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. What he said, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Verse 11 says, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. that we thenceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive but speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, make an increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. Now what's all this have to say? It means as different as we all are, as different parts of the body of Christ as we all are, we are to be unified for one purpose, and that is to be the body of Christ, to be God's people. One God, one baptism, one faith. In other words, we are the body of Christ. And as a result, we ought to bear the fruit of that being a part of the body of Christ. Unity to the body of Christ, it's as natural, it's as expected as having a thumb. You didn't wake up one morning and wonder, do I have a thumb today? Did I remember to put my thumb on? Did I leave it somewhere? You don't think about that. You expect there to be a thumb. You don't even think about having a thumb on your hand. In fact, if your thumb was missing, you would notice. I would hope you notice. My question to you, friend, is do you know that you're a part of the body of Christ? And if you are, well, how are you unified with the body of Christ? If you're not, well, you need to trust in the finished work of Christ. You need to become a member of the body. I'm not talking about church membership. I'm talking about, as Romans 12, five says, so we, being many, are one body in Christ and everyone members of one another. We are joined together with Christ as a body. Now, if you might question tonight whether or not you are a part of the body of Christ, it's really just a matter of looking at the fruit of your life. It's really a matter of seeing how the Spirit has worked in your life. And so we come to the next section here, where we see that we must bear fruit as a holy body in Christ. The fruit of the Spirit, if you will. The results of fulfilling the command that we find back in Philippians 2, verse two, is that nothing is done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, esteeming others better than themselves. In other words, humble servitude, if you will. Verses three and four, they are a result of verse two. If we are unified, if we have one mind, if we have one accord, then we have lowliness of mind. We lack strife. We don't have vainglory. We view one another better than ourselves. That is the natural fruit of being unified. Now the question might be, you know, well, I don't really know what other people's issues are in the church, or I don't know that there's anybody better than me, and maybe no one's thinking that explicitly. But the fact is, you wouldn't know that your toe was hurting if your foot was disconnected from your leg. If we are unified together with Christ, we begin to take notice of what's going on in the body of Christ. That's why he says in verse four, look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. That word look means to notice, to take note. It doesn't just fly past you. It doesn't just go blindsided. Now obviously we all have our things going on, things that keep us focused in other areas. I'm not saying we have to have a full understanding of what everyone's going through. But when something's wrong in the church or there's something wrong with those who are around us who are a part of the body of Christ, we should know something's up. We should desire to help. That's a fruit of the Spirit. That's a fruit of being a part of the body. This is as natural as the fruit that Paul gives over in Galatians 5, 13 through 26. We talked about love, joy, patience, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness. All these different fruit are a result of having the indwelling of the Spirit. They're as real as having five fingers on your hands. So I'd encourage you, examine the fruit of your life in Christ. Do you have the love, the joy, the peace, the long-suffering, the gentleness, the goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, but haven't shown a pattern of exercising this fruit among fellow believers? What evidence do you really have? Do you only express it at work when you're among unbelievers? Would you even call it that at that point? The fruit of the Spirit is not to be self-indulgent, it's to have a role of function among fellow believers. So look at the fruit of your life and see what the Holy Spirit is doing. You should see as a believer this fruit that is exercised among the body of Christ. Now, what does all this unity talk have to do with bringing joy to God? Remember, that's our focus. We're not just taking care of other people in the church for the sake of taking care of people in the church. We're desiring to bring joy to God. That is the commandment of Philippians 2. Well, consider this. The fact of bringing joy to Christ with unity, that's the most powerful tool of evangelism. that the church has, it's unity, it's love. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another. But when your pursuit is not Christ, when your pursuit is not the joy of God, then that unity can become the most dangerous weapon in Satan's arsenal. Fact is, we're surrounded by churches where this is the exact case. In fact, We find a church like that in Scripture. In Revelation 2, Christ speaks to the church of Ephesus. He says, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil. And thou hast tried them which say that they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars, and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake has labored, and has not fainted. That all sounds like a description of a godly church, does it not? But then he goes on to say, nevertheless, I have something against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent. Now he's not talking about loss of salvation. He's not talking about the fact or the question of whether they were saved to begin with. The fact is they were believers. But you can remember when you were first saved, the joy and the affection you had for your Savior. And over time, the cares of this life, the distractions of the world, all these things come into play and start taking our affection away from Christ. It's a daily battle. But as a church, this can become very dangerous. So much so that God can step in in a very negative sense. What that looks like, it's not my place to say. I don't have the time to get into that. But as a church, we must pursue with unity the joy of the Lord. We must have our affections set upon Him or else our unity is in vain and becomes a weapon of Satan. Yet in God's hands, when our affections are in Christ, when the church is unified and adores their Savior, that is what changes the world. That is how the apostles, the 12 and Paul, were able to turn this world upside down. It's by building a church whose heart and affections were set on Christ. And their joy was found in bringing joy to their God. Now what does this all look like in a practical sense? I got six minutes left. go through the rest of the chapter. So, very quickly, we're going to go through the rest of Philippians 2, and we're going to see exactly what this looks like in the examples that Paul gives in four individuals. So, looking at the very next verse to verse five. Great. So, right off the bat, Paul sets the standard, right? Christ. You want to be unified as the church in seeking the joy of God? Be like Christ. Well, that's not helpful. I can't be like Christ. At least not in this life, right? This text is often very much focused on the theological implications of Christ's deity, but keep in mind the real example is what's in focus here, and that's Christ's humility. Christ was a humble, obedient servant to the Father. So much so that he became nothing by human standards. He stepped into creation and became such a man that you wouldn't even look at him twice because he looked that common. He seemed that common. He wasn't, in people's eyes, the God of creation, the Lord of Israel, the Savior of all mankind. To them, he was no more common than a beggar on a street. That was the level to which Christ humbled himself. all the glory and all the aplomb that he deserves, he set aside. Didn't mean he emptied himself as deity, rather he veiled himself, covered up himself to be that humble servant. So again, how do we live up to that standard? Well, think about yourself in light of Christ. Christ humbled himself, humiliated himself, he bore our sins personally on the cross, he satisfied the wrath of God to give us life. We can look how the Holy Spirit works in others, we can see that as a pattern for our own lives, but all of that ultimately points to him. So ask yourself, when was the last time you humbled yourself to death for another believer? Well, the fact that you're sitting here leads me to believe that none of you have done that, right? I assume everyone's alive in here, right? Okay. So then, if we're not up to that point, but we're kind of expected to be at that standard, well, if we're willing to be at that standard, why is anything else an issue? Why can't we humble ourselves to walk across a room and ask how someone's doing? Why can't we humble ourselves to bring soup to someone when they're sick and bounce with their homes? Why can't we humble ourselves to sitting down and listening to someone talk about their cat who has cataracts and has had some kind of liver disease for the last five years? Why can't we do these things? It's because we're proud. We think our time is too valuable or we think it's not important. Christ humbled himself to death. That's the standard. Let us humble ourselves to love and care for one another as the church. The next example we see is Paul himself in verses 9 through 18. Of course he starts, wherefore God hath also exalted Christ, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Wherefore, this is what the result of that is, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and troubling. For it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings, that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. Yea, and if I be offered upon a sacrifice in service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all. For the same cause also do ye joy and rejoice with me. For the sake of time, I'll simply say when it comes to Paul and the example that he was setting for these Philippians, Paul was in prison, and he was willing to offer himself up as a sacrifice for their joy. You say, well, isn't that a little weird, Paul, saying like the Philippines should be joyful of the fact that he was willing to die? You know, great Paul, you died. Thanks. No, the desire there was that Paul wanted them to see a life lived out for Christ to the point of being willing to die for the sake of Christ. Think of the disciples in Acts where they were beaten and spat upon and sent out and told not to preach in Christ's name. What was their response? They glory in the fact that they were counted worthy to suffer persecution for the name of Christ. They rejoiced. because they were able to sacrifice themselves for Christ. They were a living sacrifice for Christ, as Romans 12 describes. But keep in mind, we don't just do things for the sake of personal glorification. We don't do it for a dead prophet. We don't do it for an impersonal deity. We do it for a risen Savior. We do it for a God who lives. We do it for the Christ who died and now stands at the right hand of the Father in glory and majesty. One in whom all the world and all creation will one day bow and proclaim as God. That's whom we serve. That's whom we sacrifice our lives for. And Paul is one example of joyful sacrifice. A third example, which was talked about this morning providentially, was Timothy in verses 19 to 24. He's an example of loving like-mindedness, someone who was so like-minded with Paul that Paul would essentially be able to send him out as a proxy to multiple churches, essentially to be in his place. He trusted Timothy. And Timothy was not only competent with the gospel, but he was competent with the very doctrines he was taught, as we read about in 1 and 2 Timothy. Now you might wonder, did Paul brainwash Timothy or something, or, you know, put him under, you know, endless hours of, you know. No, Paul didn't brainwash him, he indoctrinated him. Okay, well, what's the difference? Well, reality is we're all indoctrinated, and we all allow ourselves to be indoctrinated. In fact, what we're indoctrinated by, what we allow ourselves to be indoctrinated by, reveals those things which we place our affections in. The things that we love are the things we allow to indoctrinate us. You know, those songs or movies or Facebook reels or Instagram videos or TikToks or YouTube videos, Are they the things that indoctrinate us? Because if they are, those are the things you love. But if Christ and God's people are those whom we love, then we should allow and seek ourselves to be indoctrinated by those who follow them. If we love Christ, shouldn't we love the body of Christ from whom he died to save? The two go hand in hand. You cannot love Christ and hate his body. You simply can't. And so if we're going to love Christ and the body, we must be willing to learn together, to grow together, to have the same mind. Now we may not come to the same conclusions, we may not have the same opinions, but shouldn't our hearts desire to be of that same mind, to be of that same opinion? Where I often see the divide among believers isn't so much in basic doctrines, it's in opinions. Areas that don't even merit being considered external factors to the faith. Things like whether or not you should vaccinate, who you should vote for, things that we should or shouldn't watch or listen to. You might say, I can love them while holding this different opinion, but what if I told you that your love is limited? Because you choose to hold so strongly to an opinion that keeps you divided. You know, the question you might could ask whether to gauge that you truly love a fellow believer who holds a different opinion is not, do I believe why I believe? Do I know why I believe what I believe? But rather ask, do I know why they believe what they believe? If you've never actually had a conversation about these matters, how invested are you in those believers? Are you actually trying to be unified, or are you using doctrine as a facade, a means of avoiding the things that truly are keeping you divided? Now, of course, we will hold different opinions, and we will have different thoughts, and we will come to different conclusions on the nuances of Scripture. But let's be honest, how much do you really care about those within the church who think differently than you on these matters? Do you idolize opinions to the point of allowing them to keep you divided? Timothy wasn't that kind of a person. He may have had different means of doing things than Paul. He may have had different thoughts about doing things than Paul. But even by the end of Paul's life, he looked at Timothy and said, I have no other person as like-minded as you. We are of one mind. And that's whom we're called to emulate. The final example we find is Epaphroditus. Not really a common name. I don't know of any children named Epaphroditus. But Epaphroditus was a phenomenal person here in this passage. What we find here in Philippians 2, 25 through 30, is a man who came from Philippi to Paul to minister to his needs. to the very point where when he came, he served him even though he was ill to the point of death. He was so sick and so ill that he was risking death in his service to Paul. In fact, when it says in this passage he didn't regard his life, it means in the positive that he was willing to risk danger to cast his life away to fulfill those needs. And really, he embodied Christ's command to love one another as he loved us. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. This is made all the more poignant by Paul's description of Epaphroditus as a fellow soldier. We talked about what a soldier does this morning. Reality is we all have a common enemy in the world, the flesh and the devil. And the church must, of necessity, stand as a unified front. We put on the whole armor of God. We stand shield to shield against the enemy. And one of the basic concepts that are drilled into us in the military is that the failure of one results in the failure of all. Another way to put this is the weakest link breaks the chain. The weakest link breaks the chain. This concept seeks to drive into us a deeply embedded loyalty, one that Epaphroditus himself exemplified. this faithful loyalty to our fellow soldiers, to our fellow sailors, our shipmates, our fellow Marines, because we recognize that our lives are on the line. A single sailor who fails to observe a torpedo coming toward a ship can cause everyone on that ship to die. People depend on that lone sailor for their lives just as much as he depends on his shipmates to feed him, to point guns down range, to acquire vital intelligence. We need that kind of loyalty in the church. We need to recognize each other's necessary position in the church as a unified front. A Marine who loses his rifle in a battle will fight his way back to his rifle, even if it costs him his life. Not because he's concerned about killing as many enemies as he can, but because his fellow Marines need him. And they need him to help everybody get home safely. Are you as loyal to your brother and sister in Christ? Are you willing to ensure that they are able to persevere in this Christian life, whatever the cost is to you? That was the heart and the spirit of Epaphroditus. That was the example that Paul gave to show us what it means to be unified in bringing joy to our God. A faithful servant of Christ. as a faithfully loyal member of the body. Now we've seen these four examples. We've seen the fruit of being unified. But again, all of this is vanity and danger if our hearts and our affections pursuit is not the joy of Almighty God. So let's seek to bring God joy. Let's set our affections toward Him, not just as individuals, not as lone wolves, but as a unified body seeking to be further unified to the glory and the joy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's bow for prayer. Father, I thank you for the privilege of breaking the bread of your word with these beloved brothers and sisters in Christ. There's some faces whom I'm not familiar with, but if there's anyone in here that doesn't find themselves a part of the body of Christ, I pray that they would soon seek to remedy that. Or if they're questioning what their circumstance are, they would find a brother and sister in Christ and they would seek out that unity, not for the sole purpose of being unified, but so that we can be unified as a body in Christ that we may bring you joy. May we love you and set our affection upon you. May we have a deep passion and a desire to bring you the glory that you deserve, that you died for, that you rose again for, that every knee would bow, that every tongue would confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. For it's in his name we pray. Amen. It's a nasty world and the Christian life is a challenging life. And we desperately need to, in the analogy, link our shields and move as a unit. And we really need to strengthen one another. And so thank you for taking the scriptures, Chris, and just laying it out. The example of Christ, who pays the ultimate price so that we can be redeemed to the Father. And then we think of Paul's sacrifice. We think of Timothy's sacrifice. We think of Epaphroditus. And these are great examples for us to follow and in a very practical way. This is something that we need to do when we go home tonight. This is something we need to do when we go to work tomorrow. This is something we need to do on a daily basis and following the example of our Savior and walking in the power of the gospel. We're redeemed people. We need to live like it. Let's go ahead and take out our hymn books please and we'll turn to our closing hymn. And our closing hymn is there shall be showers of blessing, 529. We'll sing the first and last verses and let's go ahead and stand together as we sing this. 529. There shall be showers of blessing, this is the promise of love. There shall be seas of refreshing, sent from the Savior above. Showers of blessing, showers of blessing be. ♪ Mercy has come to start calling ♪ ♪ But for the shepherds we weep ♪ ♪ There shall be shepherds of blessing ♪ ♪ Oh, that you may find love ♪ ♪ Now that you have heard the blessing ♪ ♪ Now is the time for Jesus to be called ♪ ♪ Shepherds of blessing ♪ I want to remind you that teens you have a singspiration so if you could head to the back for the teen hymn sing and that'll be tonight and also want to remind you in the middle of the week we have our midweek Bible study and prayer and we are starting, we just started the book of 1st Corinthians. So we're going to look at 1st Corinthians chapter 1 this Wednesday and just going to work our way through that book of the Bible. This past Wednesday we looked at the story of the plant of the church and I hope that kind of whets your appetite for some of the things we're going to get into. The book of 1st Corinthians is a really practical book and that book is all about Paul answering questions and addressing problems. And we are made of the same stuff, and so there's a lot for us to learn from the book of 1 Corinthians. Chris and Paige, if you guys can stay in the back so that folks can come by and greet you. And I'm going to go ahead and bow and lead us in prayer tonight, and then we'll be dismissed. Father we're so grateful for the Word of God and I thank you for this passage of scripture that reminds us if we are indeed your children that we have a duty to walk in the light as your people and I pray that we would walk after the example of Christ who has redeemed us and given us life through his death and resurrection, help us to follow the example of Paul who was willing to sacrifice all for these people. We think of Timothy who followed in his footsteps and he was a faithful man and Epaphroditus who was even willing to sacrifice his own health for the church at Philippi. And I pray that you'll help us to really have a deep love for one another, and may that love be something that flows out of a genuine affection for you. And help us to be a faithful people, help us to be a thankful people, help us to take opportunity to apply this text of Scripture in a very practical way this week. We ask for your blessing as we head to our homes, and we ask it in Christ's name, amen. you