Epistle to the Philippians

So therefore, why are we trying to squeeze a password into a couple of characters? I'll give you a real world example.

My password on one of my social medias right now, good luck trying to hack it though, is, um, Philippians space 2 colon 3 comma Consider others more important than yourselves period.

[laughs]

That's literally a scripture quote with the comma, with the period, with the spaces, with the capital letters, Philippians-

That's your password

... um, with the numbers, the colon.

God, in, in the Book of Genesis, God created it, and it was very good, so it can reveal to us a bit about who God is, but also it reveals God's intimacy with us.

God, i- in Philippians, it says, "God did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped." He, He emptied Himself, and He lowered Himself, and He, He took on our nature.

Mm.

Mm.

He, he was captivated by the mystery of the incarnation- Mm ... of God's humility.

That there's a prayer of his that he would pray at mass with his brothers.

He would say, "Brothers, look at the humility of God." Like, that same thing that Paul was seeing in the Philippians.

God, God emptied himself.

And until tomorrow, go serve your king.

Philippians was written by Paul from a Roman prison.

It is often called the epistle of joy for its encouraging tone.

In this letter, Paul encourages the Philippians to live in a manner worthy of the gospel by steadfastness and humility in Christ and cheerful obedience to God, who is working in us to bring about His good pleasure.

This is Wretched Radio

with Todd Friel.

I'll give you a real world example.

My password on one of my social medias right now, good luck trying to hack it though, is Philippians space two colon three comma consider others more important than yourselves period.

That's literally a scripture quote with the comma, with the period, with the spaces, with the capital letters of Philippians.

That's your password.

Gregory,

That's what I call them.

The Psalms, the Proverbs, Philippians, the gospels, you know, those were the spaces.

I felt like I knew how to read them and other things like laws and, uh, just all these stories of kings with names I couldn't pronounce.

Those did not interest me at all.

And before the break, Tara Lee, oh my goodness, I just love, love, love this conversation.

It's no wonder the enemy was working so hard to dismantle it with all of our tech issues before we started here.

But you were talking about how, and I love the way you said this, you were sitting in the comfortable seats in Scripture, reading Psalms, Proverbs, Philippians, you know, the Gospels, the places that are more comfortable and avoiding the more difficult places and spaces in Scripture until a pastor says, you're going to get to know God when you read the whole of Scripture.

Yeah.

I'll give you a real world example.

My password on one of my social medias right now, good luck trying to hack it though, is Philippians space two colon three comma, consider others more important than yourselves, period.

That's literally a scripture quote with the comma, with the period, with the spaces, with the capital letters from Philippians.

That's your password.

Gregory,

When Jesus became a man, John chapter 1, the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Philippians chapter 2, 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 to God, but made himself of no reputation, taking upon himself the very nature of a servant, and he humbled himself, became obedient unto death, even the death on the cross.

Jesus set aside his omnipotence and set aside his omniscience and set aside his omnipresence to live as man.

not to have a cheat code of being God so everything's easy and I just look like I'm enduring temptation because I'm really God.

And if Christ is in you through the Holy Spirit, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness.

But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.

Philippians chapter two, therefore, 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, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do his good pleasure.

in our Sunday morning Bible study.

Anyway, and by the way, in the Old Testament, servant language and David language, they are linked as well.

in other passages we won't get into all of that but i'm just trying to show how these different motifs come together to form this really cool web narrative of sorts anyway jesus is called the servant of god i have not come says jesus to be served but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many there we see in matthew chapter 20 how jesus identifies himself as a servant Later on in the New Testament, in the book of Philippians, chapter 2, Paul quotes the so-called Christ hymn.

And this Christ hymn describes Jesus as a servant.

The servant motif was so important to ancient Jews, and these ancient Jews applied it to Jesus the Messiah, or many of the ancient Jews did.

I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou should keepest them from the evil.

And then Cindy had Philippians chapter 3, 10 and 11, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

Amen.

Amen.