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Let your conduct be worthy.

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Let how you behave be worthy.

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Are we living a worthy life of the gospel?

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Welcome back to a deeper dive in Philippians.

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And in this episode, we'll be looking at chapter one from verse 21 to 30.

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But for now, let's just focus on verse 21 to verse 26.

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That is probably Paul's most famous verse, and everybody can quote that.

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I'm pretty sure if you're in Sunday school, when they ask you to quote a verse,

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that's probably the one you went to.

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That one is probably second to Jesus wept because it's so easy to remember.

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Having a desire to depart from and be with Christ, which is far better.

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Nevertheless, to remain in the flesh is more needful for you.

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And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all

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for your progress and joy in faith, that you're rejoicing for me,

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maybe more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.

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And let's just look at verse 21 because it's such a powerful verse.

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There's so much in there, and especially in the context of the book of Philippians,

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how Paul is just talking about surrender and how he's living his life on the altar.

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It just makes this verse even more powerful.

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To understand the impact of this statement, you must know that he's in prison.

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So when he says, for me to live is Christ,

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he's saying the only reason why he will choose to keep on living is for the

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cause of Jesus Christ, it doesn't benefit him.

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He only benefits Christ.

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Everything in him wants to quit and die.

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But the only reason why he's still alive is for Christ.

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And in verse 24 and 26, he explains why.

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And this is what they say in verse 24 and 26.

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Nevertheless, to remain in the flesh is more needful for you.

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And being confident of this,

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I know that I shall remain and continue

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with you all for your progress and the joy of faith that you're rejoicing for me,

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maybe more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.

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At this time in the history of the church,

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he's probably one of the few fathers in the faith.

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Most of the apostles have been killed off by the Roman emperor.

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He knows that he has a lot of people still counting on him.

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He's not just out here doing his own thing.

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He's not retired.

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He's still advancing the kingdom.

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This is such a powerful reality because he isn't gaining anything personally,

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but just fulfilling the will of his master.

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For him to live is Christ.

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The only reason I'm still around is for Christ.

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That's another way he's saying that.

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Look at verse 22.

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And I'm going to read this from the complete Jewish Bible.

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But if by living on in my body, I can do fruitful work,

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then I don't know which to choose.

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Look at the dilemma.

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And he's genuinely concerned, what should I choose?

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Should I choose something that impacts me personally?

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Being in chains, not being allowed to leave, being chained to a Roman soldier.

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Should I choose that or choose to be with my Lord and Savior?

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To be in heaven, to be where the sun never sets, to be where there's no sorrow.

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That is such a...

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Just thinking about that just makes me see how much this man loved the Lord.

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The fact that that was an actual question, because for me,

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if I'm going through a bad time and I have an option to go back to heaven,

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oh man, I'm out.

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Bye.

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But he truly loves the Lord and he loves the people of the Lord.

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And he's wondering, what should I do?

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And like I said in an earlier episode,

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he goes on to write four letters in prison to show that his work is not done.

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He adapted to his surrounding and thank God he was in prison

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so that we can get the letters, all the epistles.

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Because I love those books and I'm sure you love them too.

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The latter part of verse 21 is what he truly wants.

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He wants to die because when he dies, he's gaining the Lord.

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He's gaining heaven.

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That's what he wants.

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And when he dies, he'll go to heaven,

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see everything that he's accomplished in heaven.

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That is what he wants.

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He's choosing to stay here because his master wants him to,

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because the Lord wants him to.

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In verse 21 is the equivalent of Jesus saying, not my will but your will.

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It seems like we will all have those moments where our commitments to the Lord will be

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tested.

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How many of us today have been challenged by Holy Spirit to step out and do something

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in faith and then we let our fears get in the way.

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See this is Paul's gut check time.

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What are you going to do?

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Are you going to come in heaven or are you going to stay and endure the suffering that

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your calling demands so that my kingdom can be advanced?

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Same thing with Jesus when he's in Gethsemane crying and blood comes out.

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Saying, not my will but let your will be done.

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We will all experience those moments.

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And what are we going to do?

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Are we going to say, you know what, I'm going to give in to my fear.

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I'm not going to go and talk to that person Lord.

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What if the word you give me is wrong?

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What if they are rude to me?

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I'm not going to do that.

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Or are we going to step out in faith and embrace embarrassment if that's what happens.

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Embrace whatever comes because we are stepping out in faith and doing what he wants us to

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do.

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Jesus and Paul were deciding between life and death situations and they still chose

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to submit their will to the Lord.

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They still chose to say yes in spite of what their answers meant to their physical well

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being.

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We are saying that to condemn us.

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Please hear my heart.

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I am saying this so that we can see the standard that the Lord has for us.

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That's the standard.

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So don't be condemned.

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I've done that many times when the Lord told me to go talk to this person and I was afraid.

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I've done that.

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None of us are perfect.

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But we see the standard that Paul and Jesus set for us.

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Remember what Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ.

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While Christ laid it all on the altar, Paul did the same.

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And so we should follow in like manner.

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See one thing I learned, and this is in my recent journey with the Lord.

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We can grow in our surrender.

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The Lord is not going to start you off by choosing a life or death situation.

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He will grow you.

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He might ask you to surrender 10 minutes of your time to spend with him.

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And that's how most, actually for the most part, that's how he starts.

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He asks you, could you just spend time with me?

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Be awake or say no to TV or whatever for 10, five minutes.

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And then he goes from there to maybe talking to someone at the mall.

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It changes.

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But then as you grow in your surrender, what's happening is you're growing in your trust

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for him.

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You're growing in your dependability for him because every time you say yes to his request,

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he comes through, it gives you faith.

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And the more faith you have, the more yes you can say.

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And when he asked me to move from Cincinnati to Colorado Springs with no job lined up,

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not knowing anybody, by this point in my walk, I've seen the Lord come through in so many

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different ways that I knew he'll come through.

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I've never done this before, but I know him.

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He's faithful.

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He's God.

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And so my surrender grew and he took me through the stages.

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He will lead you in surrendering to get you to the ultimate goal, which is to be completely

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surrendered to his will for your life.

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That's the goal.

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And you see Paul in the book of Philippians exercising that.

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This is a man who's ready to go, who's ready to die for the Lord.

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Okay.

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Now let's move to verse 27 and to 30.

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Then let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see

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you or I'm absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit with one

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mind striving together for the faith of the gospel and not in any way terrified by your

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adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation and that from God.

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For to you, it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but

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also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict, which you saw in me.

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Now you hear is in me.

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And just that first verse, only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ.

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Let your conduct be worthy.

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Let how you behave be worthy.

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Are we living a worthy life of the gospel?

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Because I think in today's time, because the gospel is so preached, it's everywhere.

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And some people say over preached.

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It's everywhere.

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You go on YouTube, you go on TV, find the gospel preached everywhere.

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I think we don't understand the price that was paid for the gospel.

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Because anybody who just, anybody can go and preach.

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The preaching and the.

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Living and not lining up.

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Remember, Christian means Christ-like.

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That's what it means to be Christ-like.

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Are we living a Christ-like life?

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Because that's what it means to be worthy of the gospel.

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For us to live a Christ-like life, we have lost what it means to be a Christian.

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It is more of a terminology today than a reality for many.

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Because even when they do all these reports that are saying there's like

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a billion of a billion Christians in the world, and like America has so many

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Christians, but then you look at the society and you're like, I'd like to

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find these billion Christians because our confession is not lining up with our living.

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And Paul goes on to explain what our conduct should be.

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And he lists three things.

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He says, stand fast in one spirit, talking about unity.

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Election season is when you truly see if you're standing fast in one spirit.

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And for the most part, I don't really think we do.

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But that's a conduct worthy of the gospel.

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The next thing he says this, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.

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With one mind, striving together.

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I don't think that we have to agree all theologically, and I don't think we ever will.

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I mean, even you see in the times of Paul, him and Peter, they had a complete

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disagreement of how to live the life.

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That is part of life.

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We're all different.

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We all see different things.

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And that's okay.

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That's beautiful.

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But are we agreeing on the tenets of our faith?

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There are some tenets that we have to agree on, like Jesus.

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He's not just a prophet.

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He's not just a man.

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He is God in the flesh.

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That is what differentiates our faith from other faiths.

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That Jesus is God in the form of man.

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And so there's so many other tenets that we all have to agree on, but our heart should

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be one mind striving together.

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That's our goal.

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And when the election season comes, when all these things happen, that should never,

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ever interfere with our beliefs.

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Those are just things that we're doing on the earth, but we have to remember, we are

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spirit beings.

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We serve a God who is a kingdom.

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That's our main thing.

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The third thing that Paul says is not being terrified by our adversaries.

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Not being terrified by our adversaries.

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This is some of the conduct worthy of a Christian.

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Not being afraid.

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We've been so afraid of what the world says that we sometimes give up our faith.

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We're sometimes so scared that, and they're not going to kill us.

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They'll just slander us.

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But that is too fearful for us.

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I mean, these believers in this time when Paul was writing this letter, death was on

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the line.

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It was not an ideology.

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It was true.

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If you are known to be a Christian, you will probably be killed.

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And he's telling them the conduct of a believer worthy of the gospel is not to be

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afraid of your adversaries.

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And that's a standard that we all supposed to abide by.

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These are the qualities of a believer.

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And how far we've fallen from that.

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But once again, I'm not saying this to condemn you.

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I'm saying this to raise our standards.

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We have to step up to the plate.

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The latter part of verse 28 is very intriguing to me.

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And I want to read this in two different translations.

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I'm going to read it in the Complete Jewish Bible and the New Living Translation.

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The Complete Jewish Bible says this.

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This will be for them an indication that they are headed for destruction and you for

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deliverance.

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And this is from God.

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The NLT says this.

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This will be a sign to them that they're going to be destroyed, but that you are going

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to be saved even by God himself.

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These different translations show a different mentality that is expected of us

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Christians. That Holy Spirit, what Holy Spirit is conveying here is that when we

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conduct ourselves in a godly manner, it will be an indictment to the unbelievers.

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Our godly conduct, despite what the unbelievers do to us, will be their demise.

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The true conduct of a believer is that we are ready to put everything on the altar for

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God's sake.

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And I'm pretty sure if you go into history and read the Christians who have been

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thrown to the lions, that they will still worship, they will still sing.

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And people like Nero and other people watching, they will stand there so amazed and

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confused. How are these people being eaten by a lion still worshiping this God?

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Because they were never afraid of the adversary.

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They went down believing that God will save them.

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Whether that means dying and going to him or him appearing and stopping the whole

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situation. They were willing to trust him to death.

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And that's the standard that we as believers need to live by.

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Look at this verse in Revelation 12 11.

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was tied to a willingness to die. Our conduct should always be God first

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regardless of the consequences. That's the conduct worthy of the gospel of

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Jesus Christ. And verse 29 is probably one of those verses that we as

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Christians hide from. Listen to this verse in the New Living Translation.

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For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ, but also the

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privilege of suffering for Him. We love the first part. We have the privilege of

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trusting in Christ. Yes Jesus! Pompoms out, everything. You have the privilege of

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trusting in Him. But also, and then we hide that part. We never share that. We

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just read that like, if this is how a lot of us read this verse. For you have been

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given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ, but also the privilege of

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suffering for Him. That's how we read that. The first part is just as important as

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the last part. We have the privilege of suffering for Him. Our believing in

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Christ also comes with our suffering for Christ. Just as it's a privilege to

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believe in Him, it is also a privilege to suffer for Him. Whatever that means. In

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Paul's case, prison, lashings, and all those things is listed. For us it might

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be different. For believers in the in the east, in the Middle East, death. For us

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it could be, you don't know. For as long you're willing to do it, that is what

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God requires of you. And so I just pray that that's gonna be our heart. That we

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are willing to suffer for Him, regardless of the consequences, and choose to live a

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life that is worthy of the gospel of Christ. Salvation is not free. I want you

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to remember that. It's not free. It cost Jesus his life, and will cost you your

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life. And that's what we're in verse 29 is talking about. We have to accept the

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privilege of suffering for Him. Amen.