And now at this time, you may open up your Bibles to Philippians chapter 2, that is Philippians
chapter 2, and follow along silently as we read Philippians chapter 2.
The Bible reads, "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 others better than themselves.
Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took
upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things
in earth, and things under the earth.
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father.
Wherefore, 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 trembling.
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 ye may be blameless and harmless, the
sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom
ye 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 the sacrifice
and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all; for the same cause also do ye
joy and rejoice with me.
But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good
comfort when I know your state.
For I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state.
For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's.
But ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with the Father, he hath served with me in
the gospel.
Him therefore I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me.
But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly.
Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in
labor, and fellow-soldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants.
For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that
he had been sick.
For indeed, he was sick, nigh unto death.
But God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow
upon sorrow.
I sent him therefore the more carefully, that when ye see him again ye may rejoice, and
that I may be the less sorrowful.
Receive him therefore in the Lord, with all gladness, and hold such in reputation.
Because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply
your lack of service toward me.
And Brother Temmo, would you pray for us?
Be preaching again, and I want to thank Pastor Thompson for asking me to fill in for him.
You know, it's a great privilege.
Preach at arguably the best church for a hundred miles.
And you know, he's ill, so he asked me yesterday afternoon, he said, "Oh, it's okay if your
sermon's, you know, short, you know, 30-40 minutes, and you know, it's Sunday night and
I shouldn't be holding people up too long, you know, it's okay, it's okay, don't..."
But he doesn't understand that when I write sermons, it starts out like, just start right,
right, right, right, and then pretty soon I've got like 30 pages, and it actually takes
me longer to take those 30 pages and chop it down to 15 pages, which is about an hour
for me.
And so it was pretty late at night, I got down to 22 pages, and so I think we'll probably
be out of here before 8 o'clock, but I don't know about that, you know, maybe, maybe not.
Okay, so Paul's letter to the Philippians, to the believers at Philippians, is a very
positive letter when you read through the whole thing, and it's filled with encouragement
and exhortation, and you know, clearly it was a really good church, and there's verses
that we'll see that later on, and you know, it's contrasted to the letter at the Corinthians
which had a lot of problems, right?
And so, you know, this, Jesus said in Mark 13, 37, I'll read it for you, "And what I
say unto you, I say unto all."
And so that's telling us that, you know, these letters to these churches apply to churches
today, you know, there's no new thing under the sun, really.
And so, you know, it's applicable to all of us today, here.
And before I start, I want to pray real quick.
Dear Father, thank you for your word, and fill me with the Holy Spirit to help preach
it right, and preach those things that are ratifying and exhorting to the people, and
give them ears to hear, Father, and that they can use this and ponder on it and meditate
on it.
In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
Okay, so, look at chapter 2 verse 5 in Philippians, "Let this mind be in you," which was also
in Christ Jesus, and the title of the sermon is "Let this mind be in you."
And so the word "mind" has many definitions, and, you know, in this verse, I think the
word "mind" means like a will to do something, or a desire to do something, or an inclination,
or a disposition.
You know, for example, I have a will to, you know, exercise more in 2026, you know, at
least the first month, you know, maybe just the first week, I don't know.
We'll see how that goes.
You know, or we have a desire to strive for something.
And so I have a mind to do something.
And the Bible is its own best dictionary.
And so to understand the meaning of a word, you know, we look for some other verses that
use that word in the same way.
Now, of course, with words that have multiple different meanings, we need to make sure that
we found the verses that are using it in the same way.
For example, you know, sanctification can talk about both spiritual salvation and can
also talk about sort of like physical sanctification and being set apart from the world.
And likewise, the word justification is also used two different ways in the context.
It can be justification of your sins and spiritual salvation or it can be justification before
men.
And so the Bible is its own best dictionary, but you've got to be careful which verses
you're looking at.
And then when you find those verses, you know, you compare it to the meaning of that word
and that verse to the word that you're using in the verse that you're studying.
And so please keep a marker in Philippians 2, that's our text for tonight, and turn to
Galatians 5-10, Galatians 5-10.
And Galatians 5-10 uses the word mind with the same meaning as in Philippians 2-5.
So while you're turning, I'll read another verse that uses the word mind with the same
meaning.
It's Nehemiah 4-6.
"So built we the wall, and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof.
For the people had a mind to work, for the people had a mind to work."
And so the people had a will or a desire to build that wall.
The people had a mind to work.
Okay, so Galatians 5-10.
"I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded, none
otherwise minded.
But he that troubleeth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be."
So remember that the book of Galatians, the letter to the Galatians is the Judaizers were
trying to bring in circumcision and the feasts and all the keeping of the law for salvation.
And so Paul is saying he's confident that the believers in Galatia would have a will
to judge those Judaizers and kick them out of the churches, because they would be none
otherwise minded.
They're minded to do that.
And so now I'll use the word "minded" with similar meaning.
Parents should have a mind to spank their children, because the Bible says so, and it's
the right thing to do.
Another example is we should have a mind to read the Bible every day.
Another example is the pastor has a mind to preach against those that falsely speak evil
of our church.
Another example is brothers Bill and Sean and Jesse have a mind to preach many facts
in their sermons, many, many facts.
And it comes to the point where you run out of room on the bulletin to take notes.
And so note to self, bring extra note paper.
And so go back to Philippians 2.5, look at Philippians 2.5.
And so with this in mind, Philippians 2.5 says, "This mind which was also in Christ
Jesus." And so what are the specific wills or desires that Paul is referring to when
he wrote that under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, when he said "this mind"?
What is that specifically?
Well, if you notice in verses 5, 6, 7, and 8 are all one sentence.
And you know, of course the punctuation wasn't there in the original Greek text.
And so I think sometimes, you know, the punctuation is generally right, although sometimes I've
seen it's like, "I'm not so sure about that," you know, and so again, you know, you ask
for the Holy Spirit to help you understand it.
But in this case, this is all one sentence here.
It's all one thought.
And so that mind, "Let this mind be in you," in verse 5, is referring to then the properties
or the characteristics that Jesus had in verses 6, 7, and 8.
And that was the mind which was also in Christ Jesus.
And verses 6, 7, and 8 describe Jesus as a humble servant, obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross.
And so in verse 5, Paul is exhorting the Philippians to desire to be like humble servants, to have
a will to be obedient even unto death.
And that same exhortation again applies to all believers today, to all of us in that
church.
And someday believers will again be killed for the cause of Christ.
We don't know when that is.
But there's plenty of verses in the Bible where Jesus and the apostles admonish us.
Jesus said, "Take heed, watch and pray, for ye know not when the time is."
And so, you know, it's easy to say, "Oh, well, I don't think it's going to happen
any time soon."
But I don't know.
That seems to kind of take a casual attitude to Jesus saying, "Take heed, watch and pray."
That seems like, you know, like now.
Don't be messing around.
It could happen in, I don't know, five years if they build the temple quickly enough.
I mean, there's just no telling how fast things can change these days with technology and
the rulers of the darkness of this world can flip people's opinions just like that.
And so look again now at Philippians chapter 2 verse 5, "Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus."
And so now just that statement can stand by itself exclusive of what it says in verses
6, 7, and 8.
If it was just by itself, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."
You know Jesus had many righteous characteristics beyond just being a humble and obedient servant.
And you know he was loving, he had righteous judgment, he was hardworking, he was bold,
you know he really ripped on those Pharisees, and of course he was completely without sin.
But he was also fully man.
And I'll read for you Hebrews 4.15, "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched
with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet
without sin."
And you know Pastor Thompson has preached in the past sermons where you know Jesus is
both fully man and fully God.
And if you look at Philippians chapter 2 verse 6 it mentions that.
It says, "Who in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God?"
So that's one of the verses that tells us that Jesus is God.
And then if you notice in verses 7 and 8 it also tells us that He was made in the likeness
of men and that found in the fashion as a man.
So that's not quite as good of a proof verse perhaps, but I think that verse in Hebrews
4.15, that's a pretty good proof verse.
And I suggest people, a homework, to go look in the Bible for themselves and study those
verses where it talks about Jesus being man and God, and let yourself be fully persuaded.
So that's your optional homework for tonight.
And so since Jesus was God, you know, the Bible, I'm sorry, so the Bible says that even
the thought of foolishness is sin, right?
And that Jesus was without sin.
And so did Jesus have any foolish thoughts?
No.
Which is, I mean, when you think about that, it's just like, "What is that?"
You know?
And this is, and you know, and so, you know, Jesus was, I think, constantly walking in
the Spirit, and everything Jesus did and said then was out of a righteous motivation.
And stop and think about that for a moment, right?
Everything Jesus did and said was because He loved the Father, and He loved the Holy
Spirit, and because He loved every person that ever was or will ever live in the future.
And all His motivations were righteous, whereas with people, of course, sometimes, you know,
we do the right things for the wrong reasons.
And I guess a quick note about reprobate right now.
He loved every person that ever was or ever will be, but that doesn't mean He loves people
that are currently reprobated, or obviously people in hell.
He doesn't love people in hell.
And reprobates are those people that have rejected God's Word, and I don't think it
necessarily means they heard the gospel and rejected it, but if you look at Romans 1,
it doesn't say that they heard the preaching of the gospel, they just rejected God and
His truth.
But you know, Jesus did love those people that got reprobated before they rejected God,
right?
Every false prophet, John MacArthur, Charlie Stanley, you know, and then psychopaths, Jeffrey
Dahmer, Ed Gein, and Jesus loved all of them, and they could have been saved at some point
in their life before they rejected God, they could have been saved.
God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
And so, you know, believers are to let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
So believers should, because he did everything out of right reasons, righteous reasons, believers
should also do things for the right motivations and the right reasons.
And you know, and this morning, Brother Bill preached on Jonah, and I was thinking about
this, just like, well, there's an example, Jonah did the right thing, but for the wrong
reasons.
Right?
And he did not want to go and preach to Nineveh, but you know, Jonah had free will, right?
But God gave him an offer that he couldn't refuse.
It was like, okay, I've been in this fish for three days, I'm not dead yet.
You know, this probably means I could be here for the rest of my life.
So I have a choice, do what God says and go preach to Nineveh, or live the rest of my
life inside of a fish.
And so, and I think, but you know, in the end, he went to Nineveh, and as Bill preached,
he wasn't happy about that, and he hated the Ninevites, he did the right thing, but for
the wrong motivations.
And I'll read for you Colossians, first Colossians, sorry, first Corinthians 2.16.
No, I'm not preaching out of a Bible that's got two books of Colossians.
It says, let me turn to that, I mean Corinthians 2.16, first Corinthians 2.16, first Corinthians
2.16, "For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have
the mind of Christ." But we have the mind of Christ. And in the context of that, it's
talking about the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of the God, and he
that is spiritual judges all things. And so what I think that's talking about is born-again
believers have that regenerated new man, which was created after God in righteousness and
true holiness. And so, you know, we have the Holy Spirit in us, and we have that new man.
And so I think that's maybe what that's referring to is when we have the mind of Christ. And
I'll read for you Ephesians 424. "And that ye put on the new man, which after God is
created in righteousness and true holiness." So it's saying, "ye put on the new man." And
isn't that very similar to "let this mind be in you?" And so Jesus is our ultimate
example for us to try to walk after. "Let this mind be in you" then is more than just
walking after Jesus. "Let this mind be in you" is more than just following, having
a will to follow His commandments. "Let this mind be in you" is following the commandments
with the right motivation as Jesus did because He was without sin. He had no foolish thoughts.
For example, we should serve God because we love Him, and we should not serve God because
our motivation is to be seen of men, or to be creating strife, or there's several reasons
that people can do the right thing for the wrong reasons. And so that's kind of the overall
context, and now let's walk through verse by verse. I'm just going to preach the first
part of chapter two, but to get the context let's look at Philippians 1.29. And as we
go I'll point out applications for believers today. So Philippians 1.29, "For unto you
it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for
His sake, having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now here to be in me." So
having the same conflict which ye saw in me. Believers at Philippi, Paul's saying the believers
at Philippi will suffer for Christ's sake just like Paul had suffered. And just like
believers everywhere suffered back then and will suffer again in the future. Right now
you know we have a pretty light affliction, but those times are going to change. So now
look at Philippians 2.1. "If there be therefore any consolation in Christ," so the word "therefore"
is a conjunction. So verse 1 in chapter 2 is referring back to chapter 1 verses 29 and
28. So it says, "If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love,
if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies." And so consolation in Christ.
The word consolation means strengthening, having happiness while being in distress,
having happiness while being in suffering. And so the consolation that's being talked
about in verse 1 is that believers can have happiness in Christ when we suffer, right?
Because it says, "Consolation in Christ." And so now please turn to 2 Thessalonians
2.16 where it gives a little bit more, it's sort of a verse, a parallel verse to that,
talks about that. 2 Thessalonians 2.16, it explains how believers have consolation in
Christ. At least one way how we have consolation in Christ. So 2 Thessalonians 2.16, "Now our
Lord Jesus Christ himself and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given
us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace." Now the word hope used in the Bible
is knowing a good thing is coming. It's not like how the word hope nowadays people kind
of talk about like, "Well I hope I win the lottery." But the word hope, just like in
Titus 1-2, "And hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world
began." So the word hope is knowing for sure with certainty, full assurance that something
of good is coming. So he's given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, through
that free gift. Verse 17, "Comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work."
So comfort your hearts means to strengthen your hearts. And he hath given us everlasting
consolation. What exactly does that mean? So believers can have happiness in Christ
knowing that they're saved from hell, right? We have our everlasting salvation. Believers
that trust in Christ, we know that we'll be buried someday and we'll be resurrected with
incorruptible bodies. That's a promise, right? And so we have that everlasting consolation.
There'll be no illness in these bodies, no broken bones, no pain. And that's our everlasting
consolation. And we know also that our time here on earth is very short, but the time
with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit in new heaven and the new earth will be forever
with our incorruptible resurrected bodies. And so that's an everlasting consolation. And
so all these things that we suffer here on earth, it's just a blink of an eye. It's like
nothing compared to eternity. And Romans, I'll read for you Romans 8, 18 says something
like that. It says, "For I reckon that the suffering of this present time in our mortal
bodies are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."
And I think the glory which shall be revealed in us is talking about our resurrected spiritual
bodies. So, because of all that then, believers have a consolation in Christ when we suffer.
Okay, now go back to Philippians chapter 2 verse 1 and see where the verse says, "Fellowship
in the Spirit." And so the Holy Spirit indwells believers and believers, we have that fellowship
with the Holy Spirit, our new man. And I'll read for you 2 Corinthians 13-14, "The grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with
you all." Amen. And so the word communion means fellowship. You know, our spirit and
our new man is in fellowship with the indwelling Holy Ghost that we have. And so, you know,
our man's spirit has happiness even though we're suffering. We just need to tap into
that by walking in the spirit, by walking in the new man and the communion of the Holy
Ghost. And John 14 26 tells us the Holy Ghost is the Comforter with a capital C. So that's
one of the names of the Holy Ghost. And so the Holy Ghost himself strengthens believers,
you know. And just stop and think about that for a minute, right? We have the Holy Spirit
in us, a part of the infinite God who's all-knowing, all-present, all-powerful. Infinite has always
existed and will always exist. And that should be a comfort to us, knowing that. I'll read
for you Acts 9.31. "Then had the church's rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and
Samaria, and were edified, and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of
the Holy Ghost were multiplied." So the Holy Ghost was comforting believers then and he's
comforting believers today. We may not notice it or know it all the time, but who's to say how
much worse things would be if you didn't have the Holy Ghost? We just know that the Holy Ghost is
with us and it's kind of like, you know, if you're taking a medicine and you go, "Well, I don't know
if this medicine's working or not." Well, because you've always been taking it, who's to say you
might have been worse off if you hadn't have been taking it? And so the Holy Spirit is always with
us and He comforts us, whether we realize that or understand that or acknowledge that even.
And so Philippians 2.1 also says, "The comfort of love." Believers are strengthened knowing that
God loves us. You know, we can be strong because the Lord knows the future. He loves us and He
wants what's best for us. He watches over us and He'll protect us according to His will.
You know, that's another thing to think about, right? That He wants us to serve Him and He loves
us and He wants what's best for us. And so when we pray, we should pray that it's the Father's
will to protect us in conflicts and in persecution. Now, of course, sometimes those things line up to
happen to us for reasons that we don't understand. But, you know, just like we trust in God for our
spiritual salvation, we need to trust in God also for our physical salvation. And there's,
in Romans chapter 8, the Bible reads, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" Verse 32, "He that
spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give
us all things?" And so God offered Jesus, his son, as a sacrifice. And if he was willing to do that
much for us, you know, how shall he not with him also freely give us all other things, too? I mean,
what could be, what can God give us that would surpass that somehow? And then in verse one,
in chapter two, Philippians also says, "Bowels and mercies." You know, so the literal meaning of
bowels is like your intestines and your heart and your kidneys and your liver, you know, all are
innards. But in the Bible, the word the bowels are symbolic of the source or the seed of emotions
like mercy, love, kindness, charity, compassion. Now please turn to Colossians 3.12. Turn to
Colossians 3.12, which is another verse about bowels and mercies. Colossians 3.12, "Put on
therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind,
meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel
against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." And so that's another one of the characteristics
that Jesus has that let us have that mind of forgiveness to our brothers and sisters.
"And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness." And so this verse is
saying believers put on the mind of Christ. "Have mercy and kindness and humility and meekness and
patience for others. Forgive others as Christ forgave you." Okay, now go back to Philippians
2-2 and that verse reads, "Fulfill ye my joy that ye may be like-minded, having the same love,
being of one accord, of one mind." So Paul is writing, "Fulfill ye my joy." You know,
Paul will have joy over the churches at Philippi if they have unity, if they're like-minded with
themselves, right? Having the same love, one accord, one mind. And so those same exhortations
apply to us today. And it says, "Having the same love." You know, the same love is who? Well,
it's the same love as in verse 1. It says, "The comfort of love." It's Christ's love for believers,
that we should have the same love for our brothers and sisters. And Christ was willing to die to give
his life up for believers. Now, I think that's probably not going to happen anytime soon,
but you know, in the end times, I think there's going to be believers dying to other believers.
And so these verses will take on a much more profound and direct meaning in the future.
Now please turn to Ephesians 4-11. Ephesians 4-11. Ephesians 4-11.
"And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some 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. And so again, you know,
we as believers, we try to attain to that fullness of Christ, that measure of his stature. I mean,
we're obviously, we're never going to get anywhere close to that. But that is, that's our exhortation
is to strive for that. And it says, in the unity of faith, and so an application for today is unity
is important for our church to grow. You know, right now we're kind of small and people are
pretty in sync with each other. But you know, imagine if we had, you know, 100 people, 200
people, 300 people, there's going to be some divisions. And so we need to keep an eye on that
as we grow to have that unity. And the way we maintain that unity is that we put a high value
on unity. We value unity of the church as a whole compared to our own self-interests, right? Because
if we start putting ourselves ahead of the church, now there's going to be divisions. But if everybody
is of the same mind and the same faith, unity of the faith, and that we prioritize the unity of the
church and then have the same mind as Jesus, then how could we not be of one accord and one mind,
right? I mean, Jesus and the Bible is our example to follow. And if we're all in sync with that,
then there's not going to be any disagreements between us. Of course, easier said than done.
Please turn to Romans 15, verse 5. Romans 15, 5. So the unity of believers is a major theme
in many of Paul's letters. And while you're turning, I'll read from Romans 12, 16. "Be
of the same mind, one toward another." Again, believers having the same wills and desires
creates unity, the same mind. All right, you're at Romans 15, 5. "Now the God of patience and
consolation," there's that word again, consolation, "grant you the like-minded," like-minded,
"one toward another according to Christ Jesus." So we're like-minded according to Christ Jesus.
If we have the same mind as Christ, then we're also going to be like-minded with each other.
"That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."
And so again, if we all walk after Jesus, we will have unity. Now please turn to 1 Corinthians 1,
verse 10. 1 Corinthians 1, 10. "Now I beseech you brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly
joined together in the same mind and the same judgment." The same mind, the unity is when we
have the same wills and the same desires, the same inclinations, same dispositions, and we're
following the same book, we're following the same commandments. And I recall that the Church at
Corinth had many, many problems, and divisions are mentioned in several passages in 1st Corinthians.
And it's interesting, I think Philippians also mentions a division, and it's in Philippians 4,
chapter 2, but keep, keep, I'll just read it for you, stay in Corinthians. And so Philippians 4,
2, it's a short verse, "I beseech you, O dia, and I beseech sun tuchke, that they be of the same
mind in the Lord." And so when Paul was there in the church at Philippi, there was these two ladies,
and, and, you know, maybe they were not in unity. And because Paul's beseeching both of them,
"I beseech you, be of the same mind in the Lord." Again, our unity comes from being in sync with,
with Jesus. And so can you imagine being these two ladies, and, and this letter from Paul comes,
and it's being read in church, and they're like, you know, and, and, you know, maybe they had
already fixed it up by then, but even if they had, you know, it's, it's like, yeah, you got your name
in the Bible, but it's not necessarily a good mention. And, and, you know, and if we, we know
each other in heaven, and I think we will, there's going to be a lot of people that will say, "Oh,
Yodi and Suntuke, what exactly, what was going on there?" And, and, and it may be,
it may be something really big, and you're like, "Oh, okay, yeah, I get it." Or it could be something
like really minor, or it started out minor, and it just snowballed into it, and they're going to be
like, "Whoa." And so, you know, let that, let that be a lesson to us. You know, things can start out
small and turn into a big beef. Okay, now please turn to 2 Corinthians 13 11. 2 Corinthians 13 11.
"Finally, brethren, farewell." So this is like the closing couple of verses in his second letter to
the church at Corinth, the church that was kind of had a lot of problems. "Finally, brethren, farewell.
Be perfect. Be of good comfort. Be of one mind. Live in peace, and the God of love and peace
shall be with you." So one of his last exhortations in the last letter to the
church at Corinth was "be of one mind." And so it's important, right? It's just as important today.
There's no new thing under the sun. And it's kind of interesting. Go back to Philippians 1.27,
Philippians 1.27, where Paul's letter reads, "Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel
of Christ. And whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you
stand fast in one spirit and one mind." Again, one mind. "Striving together for the faith of the gospel."
You know, so striving together, you know, means working together toward a common goal.
And working together creates unity, right? You know, for example, we go out and knock doors.
We've got these shared experiences and, you know, good things happen and we rejoice in that.
You know, other times, you know, false prophets or, you know, sods and witches are
causing us problems and we have that shared experience, right? And that creates a bond,
right? Creates unity. You know, maybe you've heard the expression foxhole friends or foxhole buddies.
And it has to do with, like, people that were in a war and where your life depended on your friend
in that foxhole and you were in there, you know, getting shelled and shot at for, you know, who
knows how many days in a row. And these soldiers became very close friends and they were like best
friends for the rest of their life because they were foxhole buddies. And so we, you know,
our battle is not a physical battle. It's a spiritual battle. But, and again, you know,
the persecutions aren't so bad today. But, you know, fast forward to the end times and we're
going to have foxhole buddies, friends, fellow believers that are risking their lives for us.
And we're counting on them and they're counting on us. And those relationships will, I think,
continue on through heaven forever. And so, and when people work together closely like that,
they're much, much less likely to squabble over like minor insults and injuries. You know,
sometimes people say things without thinking, silly things, right? The tongue can no man tame,
and then sometimes on the receiving end, people are just a bit too thin-skinned. And so, you know,
just let it go. Let it go. You know, this person that you're maybe having some sort of a beef with,
he could be your soul-winning partner, and you and them can be out saving people from hell,
right? Think about it. It's just if you've got some beef with some person and go, "Ah, I'm not
going to go soul-winning. I don't want to go to church." You know, now there's going to be more
people in hell just because your friend was maybe too harsh with some words or you were kind of
thin-skinned about it. No, let it go. Let it go. You know, and not just people in hell, but also
your own eternal rewards. Eternal rewards. They last forever. You know, I don't think anybody's
going to get to heaven and go, "Oh yeah, you know, I've got all these great rewards. I've got plenty
of rewards." I think everybody's going, "Oh man, I wish I'd worked harder. I wish I got more rewards."
And so do you want to lose out on rewards just because you're not willing to forgive your friend?
You know, again, let it go. Let it go. Let it go. Now look at Philippians 1.27. "Only let your
conversation be as it becomeeth the gospel of Christ." So that conversation means our lifestyle.
You know, that is, that is, it's suitable, you know, for preaching the gospel. And always remember,
we as believers are ambassadors for Christ. We need to put a, have a good conversation,
especially when we're out knocking doors. Okay, now go back to Philippians chapter 2 verse 3.
Philippians 2 verse 3. "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness,
lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves." And so be done through means,
you know, what is the reason or the motivation that you're, that you're doing something.
Nothing be done through strife or vainglory. And so that verse is telling us, you know,
don't do things through, for the purposes of strife, of creating strife with your brother,
especially your brother or your sister, or for vainglory, for your own kind of, look at me, pride
and gloating kind of a thing. But it says, "But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better
than themselves." And so that's the motivation that we should have, that we esteem other better
than ourselves. And the word esteem means to, to rate highly, to regard as high value. So if we
esteem others more than ourselves, you know, that's a long, that's a big step to not having
vainglory and that's a big step toward having unity. And so believers should value others
more than themselves. In Romans 12.10, the Bible reads, it says something similar to what we just
read. It says, "In honor, preferring one another." In honor, preferring one another. So preferring
means like putting your brothers and sisters above you, that is steaming them higher. And so Paul's
saying, you know, value others more than yourself. And remember, you know, that Jesus was a servant.
And one definition of the servant is, "One who is devoted to another to the disregard of one's own
self-interest." I mean, there's lots of different definitions of servant. But when I looked it up,
I thought, "Ah, that's really interesting. Devoted to another to the disregard of one's own self-interest."
So that's, you know, that's exactly what, you know, in honor, preferring one another means.
And it's exactly what it means that we should esteem others better than ourselves. And so,
being a servant in that definition is doing, is fulfilling those two things. And that was Jesus's
will and his desire was to value others more than himself. And, you know, and ultimately even to the
death of the cross, you know, where he allowed himself to be crucified and he bear our sins and
he went to hell for three days and three nights. And so he preferred us, he esteemed us. Now verse
three also warns believers not to be motivated by vainglory or strife. You know, and strife is
caused by contentions. You know, if some person thinks they're superior to another or they try
to put themselves over and above other people, you know, and I don't see strife in our church here.
You know, again, we're still kind of small, but you know, as it grows, there's going to be the
risk of strife increasing. But that strife wouldn't happen between brothers and sisters
if the mind of Jesus was in us. Okay, now look at the word vainglory, and it's only found in two
verses in the Bible. Vainglory. And I'll read for you the other verse, which is Galatians 5:26. "Let us
not be desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, endying one another." And so that verse is kind of
already sort of halfway telling us what vainglory means, that it's empty, like the word vain is
empty, and glory, you know, is glorying in yourself. And so vainglory is like empty pride, you know,
empty pride in yourself, in your own accomplishments, or just to be seen of men, right, that would be
vainglory. And, you know, and so that's a thought of foolishness, right, if people have that vainglory
in themselves. And it's something that can be in all of us, vainglory can be in all of us. Why?
Because we still have the old man, we're still attached to that sinful flesh, and that flesh has
ego, that can be damaged, it has pride, you know, it cares about itself and it doesn't care about
others, right? The Bible says in my flesh is no good thing. And so believers need to be careful
about that old man, you know, be careful about pride when we're serving God, that we don't do
things that we're not serving God for the wrong motivation, that we're serving out of pride of
self. And it's kind of something that can creep in very subtly, and so I think we have to be
very careful about that. And especially like in churches that we have where we're doing a
lot of work, right? We're doing the first works, and so there's, you know, reasons, valid reasons
for people to be prideful. You know, compared to say like other churches where they have no works,
and you know, pastors not even saved, they have no works to be proud about. But still there's
probably plenty of pride. But the point is, because we are doing works, we're at, I think,
at greater risk of having that pride. And just like the church at Philippi was a great church
in Philippians 4.1, he calls them "my joy and crown." I mean, that's pretty high praise from
the apostle Paul, "my joy and crown." And so, you know, and if it's a risk to the church at Philippi,
and, you know, it's certainly a risk to us, too, you know, right? And so, we churches today,
we should take heed and watch, you know, what I say unto you, I say unto all, you know,
take heed lest any man should fall. And, you know, the church is made up of individuals, right? The
church is a whole. It's the sum of the parts. And so, each one of us as individuals has that
responsibility to keep that pride in check and to love our brothers and sisters and search our
hearts for those wrong motivations. You know, what motivates you for serving God? Is any part of it,
even just a tiny part of it, you know, pride in your own accomplishment, you know, or worse,
to be seen of men. And so, you know, watch for that and keep it in check and nip it in the bud.
And so, let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, I think also has a broader scope.
And it's just not, it's not just talking about the works we do for brothers and sisters or for the
church. It includes also how we as believers interact with people outside our church. And,
you know, and I've been reading and thinking a lot about online comments, like on YouTube and
Facebook and X. And it's always interesting because the false prophets are chiming in,
and it's just like, "What do you mean the Bible doesn't say you have to repent of your sins?"
"And you're a heretic!" And then people are commenting back on that, and I haven't done
that yet, but I've just been kind of thinking and wondering about that. And for sure, it's right to
post and explain Bible verses to counter heresy, yes, but while we're doing that, can we be doing
it for the wrong reason? Like, "Oh man, I'm going to crush this heretic! This verse just destroys
you," right? And so there's some pride creeping in there, you know? And you know, is it right to
comment against false prophets and expose them? Yes. But can we do it for the wrong reasons, for
the wrong motivations? Yeah, I think so. You know, and maybe just you feel better. It's like, "Yeah,
that guy's a false prophet. He's going to hell." And it just feels good to just kind of get that
off your chest because we knock so many doors and people are just so turned around by these subtle,
subtle, subtle damnable heresies. And you feel like you want to lash out at them and just let
them have it, right? And is it right to comment against the fags that they should kill themselves?
Yes. But can we be doing that for the wrong reasons? Sometimes people just stir up strife.
They want to be stirring up strife. And is it really something that's productive?
Is this something that the motivation is for the right reason? Or are we just trying to push
people's buttons, right? And it happens. Like I said, I don't post, but I did have a conversation
with my son-in-law a couple months ago. And I said to him, I said, "Oh, one of Pastor Thompson's
rules is when men are preaching a sermon, that each sermon must use the word faggot or fag or
faggadum or faggadence or faggification or faggotry at least one time." And I was trying to kind of
push his buttons because he doesn't think much of our church. And he just kind of smiled and didn't
say anything. And then a day later or so, or that night, I was thinking about it and I was like,
that was wrong. That was really prideful. And I shouldn't have did that. If anything, I want to
try to draw them to our church. I don't want to be like pushing them away. And it was a prideful
statement. And again, you know, the tongue can no man tame. So always remember, we're ambassadors
for Christ. Carrie, have your conversation likewise. I'll read for you 2 Corinthians 4.1.
"Therefore, seeing that we have this ministry, the ministry of reconciliation, getting people saved,
as we have received mercy, we faint not, have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty,
not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the
truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." Commending
ourselves to every man's conscience. So, commending means kind of like showing that
you're worthy and you're doing good things because we're manifesting that truth.
And so, you know, I give you homework part two. You know, if you're a person that posts on social
media, take your last 10 posts or however many posts and just kind of think about and look at
them. It's like, what were your motives? You know, was the kingdom of God furthered? Or, you know,
what was, or what was kind of your motive or what was the result? Like, you know, maybe you just
wanted to feel better and get it off your chest. And sometimes you need to do that. But I don't
know if that's really the right thing to do because, you know, that gloating and pride and in the end,
you know, the internet is just awash with false prophets and damnable heresy. And we should speak
out against it. But I also kind of wonder sometimes is that these people are just digging in more and
more and more and more and then sort of just bystanders are looking at this and going, "Oh,
well, here's this guy preaching free grace, the gift of God. Once saved, always saved." And then
you got 20 people saying, "Ah, you're a heretic. You're going to hell. Of course you got to repent
of your sins." And so from the outside perspective, it's like, "Well, these people are outnumbering
this person. Maybe that's what's right." And I remember if it was one of the pastors or somebody,
the main thing is Pastor Thompson, he went on like ChatTPT and said, "What is repentance
in spiritual salvation?" And it said, "Repent of your sins." And so, you know, these ChatTPTs
and so-called AI are just a reflection of what is on the internet. And 99 percent of Christians
don't believe in the true gospel. And so the ChatTPT is just reflecting that. And so, you know,
consider in your own heart. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind when you're commenting,
"Is this something that's furthering the kingdom? Why am I doing this?" And also, when you think
about it, how many hours do you spend reading comments and replying? You know, is this really
the best use of your time? Or maybe you should just be reading God's Word and studying and
meditating on that. Now, it is kind of interesting to sort of pick apart all the damnable heresy on
YouTube, and that kind of helps arm us when we're out knocking doors to understand how these
false prophets are splitting hairs and very subtly sneaking in works. But you know, after you spend
a couple hours of it, it's just like you've pretty much seen all of it anyway. It's just the same
kind of nonsense rehashed over and over, right? Oh, give your life to Christ. Follow Jesus.
Surrender your will. Make Him the Lord of your life. Have a relationship with Jesus. Now that
one's kind of tricky because honestly, when we get saved, we do have that father-son relationship,
but what most people think about when they say, "Oh, you have to have a relationship with Christ,"
what they're talking about is fellowship and walking in the commandments. And okay, so the
application, you know, getting back to keeping our pride and our check and making sure we're
doing things for the right reasons is when you get ready to speak or write a comment, you know,
you know, watch out for that old man, you know, and especially online comments. I think it's very
easy to kind of get in the moment and speak foolishly and you're not face to face. And so,
you know, read that comment twice before you push that post button. And, you know, and of course,
watch for that old man when you're going door to door, right? People will try to push your button
and don't take the bait. Don't take the bait, you know, or worse, don't be the person putting the
bait out and trolling, you know, and the internet talks about trolls, right? And it's interesting,
trolling is a form of fishing where a boat's got like a bunch of lines and it's going along
the lake or the ocean and it's dragging these lines with bait, so it's trolling for the fish.
And so don't take the bait. Trolling is fishing. Okay, now please turn to Philippians 313,
Philippians 313, and Philippians 313 says, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended,
but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth
unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God
in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded, be thus minded,
and in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal this, I'm sorry, God shall reveal even this
unto you. Last part of the verse, God shall reveal even this unto you. And I think what it's saying
is, you know, if we're doing things that we shouldn't be doing or we're doing it for the
wrong reason, we're otherwise minded, God's going to reveal that to us. And also, you know, I'll
read for you Psalm 139-23. "Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts."
And, you know, "Search me, O God." God knows our thoughts better than we know ourselves.
And so to me, this is a pretty scary prayer to be asking God to search me and try me,
you know, because I probably won't like what God shows me. And of course, you know, that's
the old man. That's the flesh saying, "Oh, I don't know. Do I really want to ask God to search my
heart and search my thoughts?" It's like, you know, and I already, the old man says, "Hey,
you already got plenty of stuff you got to fix. You don't need to ask for more." But you know,
it's a good thing, but it is kind of something that takes a little bit of courage, I think,
to ask that prayer, to pray that prayer in all sincerity. And so, you know, another application
for Tay is search your heart daily. Search your heart. You know, even if you don't ask God to
search it, you can search it yourself, especially before you act or speak or hit that send button
on that online comment. You know, if your motives are not right, then, you know, when you notice
that, it's like nip that in the bud. And sometimes, like when I talk to my son-in-law, we might not
realize it until afterwards. And so, you know, learn from that and think back. And so, next time
you get in that similar situation, it's like, "Be careful about what I'm saying here. I don't
want to do that same mistake again." You know, learn from your past mistakes. And, you know,
should we be serving God and man then with the right motivation? Let this mind be in you,
and keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. And so,
when you're speaking with your family, friends, or you're at the door preaching at the pulpit,
you know, be careful about that old man. Okay, now go back to Philippians 2.4.
Philippians 2.4. "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of
others." So, this verse is saying, just don't focus on yourself. Don't be selfish. You know,
look after yourself and your family and your brothers and sisters and others at church.
And there's a verse that's similar to that. I'll read for you Romans 15.1. "We then that are strong
ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves." We should serve others
because we care about them. That would be the mind of Christ. And we should serve others not
for vainglory or to be seen of men. You know, we should serve each other to help disciple our
brothers and sisters. You know, a lot of times we try to figure out what a verse means, you know,
after the sermon. It's just like, what about this verse? And what do you think that is, right?
And or, you know, if a brother and sister's having, you know, troubles in their life, you know,
maybe spend some time looking through the Bible and finding some verses that could help them,
right? And, you know, and just even just simple things like, you know, give them a ride to church
if they need a ride because their car's broken. Maybe help them fix their car, you know, help them
fix their plumbing, you know. You know, teach the kids in the church, you know, words in Spanish
and or even old people. Teach them words in Spanish, too. You know, serve the church,
right? Song leader, play an instrument, clean the church, lead a soul-winning time,
because we're serving our brothers and sisters. Okay, now look at Philippians 2 5,
"Let this mind be in you," which was also in Christ Jesus. And again, this can stand alone
as a general exhortation, and so we should be striving for those same wills and the same
desires as Jesus, our motivation. And Jesus is our ultimate example to try to follow after.
And I'll read for you 1 Peter 2.21, "For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also
suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow His steps." And I'll read for you
Ephesians 4.13, "Unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."
So Jesus as the Son of Man, you know, He was the standard that the Bible says believers should try
to achieve. And we're commanded to walk after Jesus, that we should try to do as He did as
the best we can with the right motivations. And, you know, and sometimes we can do that
when we walk in the Spirit and sometimes we walk in the flesh. And Jesus, I think, walked in the
Spirit all the time. Because in John 3.34 the Bible says, "God giveth not the Spirit by measure
unto him." Not by measure. It's like He was completely filled all the time. But, you know,
and believers today in the New Testament, we have the Holy Spirit indwelling, but we can ask to be
filled with the Holy Spirit for power to do spiritual works. And so, you know, in any one
given situation, then we could make the right decision for the right reason. Now, Jesus,
He always did the right thing. He made the right decision. He said the right words for the right
reason. Obviously, we're not going to be 100% righteous on that. But in any one of these
situations that we're faced with, we've got the Holy Spirit. We've got the new man. We've got the
Bible. We could make the right decision for the right reason. It's just not going to happen every
time. But we could in each individual situation. And I'll read for you Ephesians 3.16. "That he
would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with the might by his
spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and
grounded in love." So the inner man is the new man. I'll go back to Philippians 2.6 where the
Bible reads, "who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equaled God but made himself
of no reputation. It took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men."
So made himself of no reputation. Jesus didn't come as a prince or a ruler. He came as a humble
servant. He was laid in the manger. A manger is like a feeding trough for animals.
And so Jesus, the Son of God, serves God the Father. And think about that, you know,
to have him come down and come into the body of a human, right? Jesus, who had been with God the
Father for eternity past and in this throne of glory and he had to give all that up, you know,
to come down to earth and to be crucified and have his cruel, painful death and, you know,
allowing the vilest of men to torture and kill him. And just think about it, right? The creation
that he made is doing that to him. And in Hebrews 12, too, it says, "For the joy that was set before
him endured the cross, despising the shame." Despising the shame. You know, his own creation,
you know, men who are like, you know, less than the tiniest speck of dust of nothing compared to
God, right? I mean, there's no comparison, right? But yet he submitted himself. He had that humility.
And I think that's something that's kind of hard for us to grasp. And we see that in Philippians
2, 8, "And being found in the fashion of a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross." And so I think it's hard for us to really understand what that means,
that God the Son would come down to earth and live that life and suffer through all that in three days
and three nights in hell. And he did that because it was for the joy that was set before him. He
endured the cross. And he did that because Jesus loved us, right? And so that we could all be
saved. And he had that right mind. He had that right motivation of love. And Jesus, you know,
that was his ultimate act as a servant to mankind, was to pay for the sins of the whole world.
You know, Jesus had the mind of a humble servant. And, okay, now go back to Philippians 2, 9.
"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name."
And so Jesus was humble and obedient. And because of that, God the Father exalted him.
And this is a recurring theme in the Bible. You know, there's many, many verses in the Bible
where it talks about the humble shall be exalted. And so, so homework number three,
pick any one of the three. There is, in the New Testament, there's six verses that have the word
humble and then either exalt or proud. And it can be like exalted or exalting, right? So, and if you
use like a wild card, it'll find them. Six verses in the New Testament have the word humble and then
either word exalted, exalt or proud. And I'll read for you one of them. Matthew 23 12, "And whosoever
shall exalt himself shall be abased, and he that humble himself shall be exalted." And you know,
even the apostles asked, "Who will be the greatest in heaven?" And Jesus answered and said, "Whosoever
therefore shall humble himself is this little child. He the same is the greatest in the kingdom
of heaven." So, you know, humility. The way up is down. Be humble as a servant. And so, you know,
the takeaways from this sermon, the title is, "Let this mind be in you," which was in the full
verse is, "Let this mind be in you," which was also in Christ Jesus. And so, Paul's exhorting the
believers to have that mind of a humble and obedient servant. You know, God wants us to obey
him and serve him out of right motivations. It's not just doing the work. It's doing it for the
right reason. Remember Jonah. And we should serve God. And we should serve our brothers and sisters
out of love and out of gratitude and a sense of duty and not to do things in vain glory or strife.
And the key thing I think is unity. Unity comes when all of us are of one mind and of one accord
and one heart. So prioritize unity of the church family over yourself. And again, unity in between
believers is easier said than done. We see that a lot. And serve the unsaved because we love them.
They have the greatest need of all. And we should look to Jesus as our example to walk after.
And we can follow his example because everything he did, he did in his human body. And so anything
that he did, we can do too. He made a lot of miracles. And now we probably can't ask God the
Father and through the power of the Holy Spirit. But there was a lot of apostles at the time
that did many miracles. And a lot of the same miracles that Jesus did. And even Moses did
miracles. And so, I don't necessarily think that Jesus was God in the flesh. And He did
it through the powers of God. But I think that He did it through prayer to the Father.
And He said, "The Father always hears me because I do everything that He asks." And He was
filled with the Holy Spirit. But again, that's one of the homeworks. Look at those verses
where it talks about where Jesus is fully God and fully man. But we can follow His examples
because we have the Holy Spirit. We can pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We have
the Word. But again, that old man is ever-present. We have a will. The Spirit is willing, but
the flesh is weak. Watch out for that motive. Even a little bit of pride sneaking in. Insert
your heart. Nip that in the bud before it poisons you. And so, you know, all believers
in all churches, we should watch out and do the right things, motivated for the right
reasons. And with that, we'll close in prayer. Thank you, Father, for your Word and the advice
and the counsel and how it all fits together and the example that Jesus gave us to follow.
And help us to have a mind to walk in that new man every day, and not in the flesh. In
Jesus' name, Amen.