50 Philippians 2 - Pastor Chuck Smith - C2000 Series

now if there is any consolation in Christ if there is any comfort of love if there is any fellowship in the spirit if there is any compassion and mercy fulfill my joy and be like-minded having the same love being of one Accord and of one mind and so Paul's appeal to them now very powerful appeal if there is any consolation in Christ if there is any comfort in love and truly there is consolation in Christ how we are consoled by him how we are comforted in the love and especially the time of death the fellowship in the spirit the compassion and the mercy fulfill my joy as as John's that I have no greater joy than to hear that the children walk in truth fulfil my joy that you be like-minded having the same love being of one Accord in one mine and let nothing be done through strife or vainglory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves if you want to be great in God's kingdom learn to be the servant it is interesting to me how that these words of Paul are so often disregarded by the church I have shared with you before how my break came with the denomination over the fact that they announced to the pastor's that competition was carnal motivation but we must realize that the majority of the people we Minister are carnal and does have to be carnally motivated so we have to use competition to motivate them well competition is striving because we were to call another pastor and challenge his church to an attendance contest we're going to strive with you to see you can have the largest attendance and then the church that lost was going to have to treat the church that one to a dinner and the church that one was going to be honored you know we want to be first so we can be honored vainglory and strife or striving for vain glory and how many times that is the motive that is being used with people within the church get them into competition get them into striving and get them into vainglory we're going to put the names up here on the wall you in each windowpane we're going to inscribe your name we're going to put stained-glass in the Lord's told me which of that stained glass windows and you know you can buy your window we'll put your name or the name of your loved one in a window you know and everybody that comes as they look down the windows they'll see your name vainglory let nothing be done through strife and vain glory those are wrong motivations for serving God but in lowliness of mind just to steam others better than yourself and look look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others or the needs of others don't just look at your own needs but look at the needs of others around you and let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus and God ministered to us now by your spirit because we're treading in the holy of Holy's we're getting down to the heart now the whole issue the issue of Christianity my attitudes my attitudes toward myself and my attitudes towards other what is the mental attitude that I have towards myself what is my mental attitude towards others let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus you know what he had the nerve to ask me to do I told him I wanted to serve the Lord and Romain gave me a broom and told me to sweep the sidewalk he I hire people to sweep my sidewalks doesn't he know who I am how much I've contributed to the church let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God and thought it not something to be grasped to be equal with God he didn't grasp hath to grasp an equality with God he was with God in the beginning was the word the Word was with God the Word was God so being in the form of God and not something to be grasped to be equal with God now you talk about hey don't they know who I am don't they know how important I am they didn't even offer to carry my suitcase don't they know who being in the form of God and thought it not something to be grasped to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation ER in the Greek emptied himself and he took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men always see now the steps downward as he emptied himself starting with God equal with God and yet he emptied himself and he came in the form of a servant and was made like men and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross and so from glory and equality with God to that cruel Roman cross hanging there with the jeers and the anger of the crowd despised and rejected of man what a tremendous downward I mean from the highest height down to death on a cross surrounded by murderers that tremendous plunge Jesus was willing to take for you let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus wherefore God has also highly exalted him now we see the steps out for God said I will not leave your soul in Hell neither will I allow the Holy One to see corruption and God has highly exalted him he has given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven things in earth things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father so from the glory to the glory but the cross in between emptied himself now let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus that willingness to set aside what you are to become a servant to others not esteeming yourself more highly than you should just considering yourself privileged to be a servant of Jesus Christ humble thyself in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up Christ the example humbling himself but wherefore God has also highly exalted him and given him a name above every name that at the name of Jesus jehoshua every knee one day is going to bow every tongue one day is going to confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord now you may not want to make that confession now you may say that you are the lord of your own life I am the master of my fate I am the captain of my soul my head is bloody but unbowed one day you're going to confess Jesus Christ is the Lord those people who speak so disparagingly of him now those people who still mock his name those who use his name so carelessly in their profanity those who have spoken out so adversely against him one day they too shall bow their knee and they shall confess Jesus Christ is the Lord to the glory of God the Father the problem is is that in that day their confession will not be unto salvation you see Paul tells us that if we confess with our mouth that Jesus Christ is the Lord and believe in our heart that God has raised him from the dead we will be saved for with the mouth man confesses unto salvation but that will not be so in that day the confession will not be to salvation it will be of condemnation of themselves yes he is Lord I was wrong in rejecting him as Lord of my life wherefore my beloved as you have always obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling now unfortunately many people stop right there and we get a tremendous exhortation on works and the importance of you working out your own salvation with fear and trembling and rather than working out your salvation it is usually interpreted work for your salvation with fear and trembling and your exhorted into all of the works that you ought to be doing for God in order to be saved and those who are emphasizing a works gospel which is not a gospel because you tell me I have to work to be saved that's not good news that's bad news they use this text so often but they don't go into the very next verse where he declares for it is God that is working in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure that's what it's all about you see God said to Jeremiah when Israel had totally failed in the keeping of the law there is going to come a day Jeremiah when I am no longer going to write the law on these tables of stone but I'm going to write my law in the fleshly tablets of their heart it is he who works in you to will how does God reveal his will to me he reveals his will by the desires that he places in my heart not the desires that I necessarily have in my artha come from me but he places in my heart is desires so it is he that works in you both to will God puts it in my heart to do something God gives me the desire the yearning to do a particular work to go a particular place and I discover that that which I desire is actually God's revealing to my heart that what she's wanted me to do and so he puts it in me to will and then he gives me the capacity to do of his good pleasure several years ago I was supposed to speak in Ventura on a Sunday evening and I decided to go up on Saturday and spend the night with my aunt in Santa Barbara my aunt Lois in fact who is now moved down into the area that we can be near her and she made such fabulous enchiladas and I called her and said you know put the enchiladas on I'll be up for dinner spend the night with you and then I'll come back to Ventura tomorrow night and speak so I took off for Santa Barbara heading up towards the Ventura Freeway when I got to Sunset Boulevard I thought oh this is such a beautiful day I might as well drive along the coast drive out Sunset Boulevard come to Pacific Coast Highway such a beautiful day I'll just put the top down on my car and I'll cruise up through Malibu and go up Santa Barbara that way and just look at the ocean because I love to to stop up there Point Mugu and and watch the surf come in and just the beauty of that drive and I I thought I want to go the cosine a water nut just enjoy the beach so I wound all the way down Sunset Boulevard Nessa is winding down Sunset Boulevard I thought my I don't remember it being this far down sunset to the coast I'm probably made a mistake I probably should have stayed in on the inland route oh well you know and as I pulled onto the Coast Highway there was a couple there hitchhiking and I felt rather selfish in this convertible all by myself you know and and here they are hitchhiking and so I don't pick up hitchhikers as a rule but I stopped and I picked them up and I started to share with him about Jesus Christ by the time we got to Ventura we pulled over and they accepted the Lord and I took them by the church Rebbe speaking the next night and I said look if you show up here tomorrow night you know I'd be glad to meet you and the fellow was looking for job he was from Montana and he'd been looking he's a farmer and he'd been looking in Los Angeles for a job and I said they don't have any farms in Los Angeles so I did them farewell drove on up to Santa Barbara and like so many experience you think well you know probably never see him again but the next night when I was at the church speaking when I gave the invitation they came forward to accept Jesus Christ publicly and the man in the church the elder who came down to pray with them happened to be the foreman of the Delmar Lyman air ranch and happened to be needing an extra hand had housing and everything else and all so they came up afterwards and they came up with mr. Jenkins and they said Oh guess what's happened to us you know this man who prayed with us he you know is the foreman of this ranch and I knew that and he given them a job and and then I thought back yesterday as I was driving up and I got that sudden inspiration why not go by the coast I realized it was he who puts it in my heart to will that thought was actually planted by the Lord because he knew that that couple from Montana really desperate and in need basically for a real experience with Jesus Christ were waiting for someone to come and share the truth with them and so it is God who works in you both to will and then to do he gives you the capacity to do but he plants first of all the will in your art and this is the way that God leads us so often it's just by a sudden inspiration a thought a and idea God is working in you to will and then to do and so again it is initiated by God work out your own salvation with fear and trembling but it is God who has action working in you it's God that has put that yearning in your heart it's God that's giving you that desire and now God will work out the ways by which that might be fulfilled for he works in you both to will and then to do of his good pleasure so the net result is that my pleasure is doing his pleasure because he put the desire in my heart to do it and so it becomes really the desire of my heart or my life and thus the pleasure of my life and thus I can say with Jesus I delight to do thy will O Lord why because he's planted in my heart it is God who was working in you therefore do all things without murmuring and disputing now I have to confess that I don't always succeed in this particular injunction there are certain tasks that I do that I catch myself murmuring I wonder where Romain is you know I have to clean up this mess where's Romain you know he's not around to clean up this mess you know and I think you know I've got better things to do than to sweep up this mess here you know and so I I don't always pass with an A on this particular phase I do catch myself at times murmuring over some of the pressures over some of the things but God's working in my heart and that because when I do things and I am murmuring he usually speaks to me and says why are you doing it and of course I have to respect respond to him while I'm doing it for you Lord he says then quit your murmuring art quit doing it you know God doesn't want any griping service whatever you do in word or deed do for the glory of God and do it as unto the Lord and do all things without murmuring or disputing that you may be blameless and harmless the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom ye shine as lights in the world so 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 so Paul is exhorting them on how they are to serve the Lord and the effect of their service to the Lord is the rejoicing in the heart of Paul realizing that his ministry to them has been an effective ministry for he's brought them in to the attitude and the mind of Christ who was willing to step from his glory into the sin cursed world to hang on a cross let this mind be in you and when you see the work and the effect of the Word of God in the ministry in the hearts of the people it creates great rejoicing and if Paul said I then be sacrificed if they take my life I be offered upon the sacrifice and the service of your faith if I die for this I rejoice with you I rejoice because of what God has done with you I die happy knowing that God has worked in your life through my ministry for this same cause also do ye rejoice and rejoice with me they take my life rejoice with me don't weep but I trust in the Lord to send Timothy that I also may be of good comfort when I know of your state for I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state now this is a very interesting statement of Paul he's sending Timothy because Timothy shares his heart his burden and impulse it I don't have anyone else who really has the same heart that I have for you and for the work it is really very difficult to find someone who has the same heart as Paul the Apostle one who is willing to give himself so freely one who is really looking so little for himself but always looking for the needs in the welfare of others hard to find that kind of a minister one that is really so careful and circumspect about the things of the Lord Paul said I really don't have anyone other than Timothy who has the same mind the same heart and concern for your state as I have for all seek their own and not the things which are Jesus Christ what insight indictment against the ministers even those that were accompanying Paul him with Paul I send Timothy because he has my heart for you he cares for you as I do most everybody else really care for themselves more than they care for you they are seeking their own welfare above your welfare that is the mind that was in Christ is not in them who emptied himself but you know the proof of Timothy that as a son with the father he has served with me in the gospel so I hope to send him soon as I shall see how it will go with me as soon as I'm able to free him I'm going to send him to you but I trust in the Lord that I also myself might be able to come shortly you know if Caesar lets me out of here I hope that I'll be able to come yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and companion in labor and the fellow soldier but he is your messenger and he ministered to my ones in other words he brought to me the the offering that you sent and ministered to my needs for he longed after you and was full of heaviness because you heard that he had been sick and indeed he was sick he was near death but God had mercy on him and not on him only but also on me lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow so heap afroditi almost died he was extremely sick and they had heard of his sickness and were worried about him and so if Aphrodite's was concerned that they were worried for him because of that sickness interesting Paul had a tremendous ministry of healing miracles were wrought and yet he speaks of a Pafford itís almost dying with his sickness why doesn't God heal everybody why is it that God heals some and does not heal others Hey we'll never know the answers to that beware of those who have Pat answers on subject of Ealing or on the subjects of of the works of God or the wise of God God says my ways are not your ways they're beyond your finding out we really don't know and it's wrong to place the guilt upon the sick person that's the last thing they need is for you to come in and say well brother there must be something wrong with you some sin in your life you know that you're so sick you just don't have enough faith and all you only believe God you could get up out of this bed and walk you know you've been making the wrong confession don't say you feel bad say I feel great you know it's not going to do it God does heal I believe that I have been healed many times I know that but God doesn't heal everybody I recognize that and why I don't know I have known reprobates who have been healed I have known extremely godly people who were not healed but died it has nothing to do with the person's righteousness it has nothing to do with a person's faith healing is a work of God and its sovereign with God and it's in God's hands and it's wrong to put the burden upon the people who are sick or upon their relatives and I thoroughly discount as junk the message is that God wills that everybody should be healed so Paul said I sent he preferred itis the more carefully that when you see him again you may rejoice and that I may be less sorrowful receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness and hold him in reputation because for the work of Christ he was near death and he did not regard his life that he might supply your lack of service towards me so he hazarded his own life in order to bring their help to Paul and Paul appreciates it is sending him back with the commendation for his faithfulness we can finish the book of Philippians next Sunday and these next two chapters are classic I'll tell you there's so much I just love them and now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit rest and abide with each of you through this week that you might be strengthened by his spirit in your inner man that you might receive the spirit of understanding and enlightenment that you might be able to understand how much God does love you and of his plan for your life that you might live your life for Christ and share with him in his kingdom forever god bless you children of the king may you walk in his love and in His grace in Jesus name

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Id: o856ktwyfFM

Length: 35min 26sec (2126 seconds)

Published: Tue May 28 2013