Philippians (Program #20) – To be Found in Christ

When someone comes to our home to visit us where might they find us?  Well maybe they find us preoccupied with normal daily human life, may be they find us in good pleasant behavior.  Probably they would find us in neither of these cases we would be happy, nothing sinful here, nothing immoral. But the apostle Paul was not so easily satisfied. He was desperate in earnest in his desire and aspiration to be found in Christ. And not just in the doctrinal, objective way, but that he would be found fully occupied and filled with this One, Whom he love and pursue and to lay hold of.

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Philippians (Program #19) – The Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ

The apostle Paul was one who was very knowledgeable about the law of the Old Testament. He had years of first hand experience with the law and what it was to live under the law. Yet he also became fully acquainted with Christ. The book of Philippians gives us a unique comparison of these two levels of spiritual experience from one who is fully qualified to make such a comparison.

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Philippians (Program #18) – Counting All Things Loss on Account of Christ

“I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I may gain Christ.”  What a blessing for a believer in Christ to reach a point the apostle did in Philippians 3:7-8 where the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus caused him to count all things as dung.

Before Paul was converted to Christ he was not one who had a problem loving the material things, the material world. Quite the contrary he was a person who was fully given to the Jewish religion, to philosophy and to the culture of his time. His whole being was for Judaism and for everything that’s included in it.  So, we read these verses in Philippians 3, how Paul, the apostle counted all things loss on account of Christ, we have to realize he is talking about here giving up his Jewish religion, his philosophy and his culture, that were all referred to in earlier verses and not the aspect of the material world. more…

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Philippians (Program #17) – The Three Positive Aspects of the Believers vs the Three Negative Aspects of the Religious Judaizers

“Bewares of the dogs.” No, we are not talking about the warning sign on your neighbour’s gate.  We are talking about the apostle Paul’s warning at the beginning of Philippians chapter 3. Paul was warning the Philippians of the Judaizers, the Jewish leaders who were troubling the believers in Christ.  We are in for an enlightening message today.

We are at the beginning of chapter 3 in our life study in Philippians.  There is a background to this chapter, the Epistle to the Philippians was written when Paul received material supply from the believers in Philippi. Through Epaphroditus they had sent the supply to take care of Paul’s need during his imprisonment.  After receiving their gift, Paul wrote them this Epistle.

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Philippians (Program #16) – Being Like-Soul and Risking Our Soul

What causes divisions among Christians today?  Virtually every division in the Body of Christ comes from Christians who truly love the Lord and desire to do something for Him.  In this life study of Philippians program today we want to examine the source of division.  This is a fascinating life study and very much related to the experience of Christ.

Because our experience of Christ is affected by the matter of division. The basis for fellowship is the apostle Paul’s comment in Philippians 2:20 about Timothy been like-souled with him.  Paul says “I have no one like-souled who would genuinely care for what concerns you.”

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Philippians (Program #15) – The Apostle’s Concern for the Believers

“Ministering to the House or to God”  Watchman Nee gave a message with this title once.  Hope our listeners can stay to grasp the depth that are contained in this thought. Are we too busy taking care of the Church, God’s house, that we’re not taking care of God?   Or are we too busy taking care of God that we forget about caring for the Church, His Body?

We are going to see in our program today from the book of Philippians chapter 2, that these two aspects of our experience and our service cannot be separated.

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Philippians (Program #14) – A Drink Offering Poured Out Upon the Sacrifice of the Believer’s Faith

Philippians 2:17 says “But if i am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and priestly service of your faith, I rejoice together with you all.” What is this drink offering that the apostle said he was poured out at?  If our experience of Christ has not come to the point where we have been constituted as a drink offering we have not yet experienced Christ to the uttermost. The drink offering is our topic today on this life study of the Bible from the book of Philippians.

We touched the drink offering back in the life study of Genesis, it was a remarkable program at that time, and we had several calls from people who have some inkling of what it was but really had an experience of being brought into a vision of it for the first time. more…

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Philippians (Program #13) – Holding Forth Christ

In Philippians 2:14 the apostle Paul says “do all things without murmurings and reasonings.”  This is a very small verse that many of us pass over or may be even take for granted. In today’s life study from the book of Philippians,  we are going to focus how it affects our obedience to work out our salvation to live Christ, to express Christ and to hold forth Christ.

Murmurings and reasonings that are mentioned in this verse are a big problem and frustrated our Christian life. These are two little annoying things always troubling us in our daily life to undermine the real experience and enjoyment of the Lord.  Many of us probably take not only this verse for granted but we probably take our murmuring and reasoning for granted.  We just consider this as normal path of our daily experience, but actually these are the main items that the apostle Paul is laboring not just to deliver the Philippians that we ourselves would be saved from these things. more…

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Philippians (Program #12) – Working Out Our Salvation

“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”  This is the apostle Paul’s word to us in Philippians 2:12. It seems to be nearly a contradiction to the verses in Ephesians chapter 2 which tells us that salvation is the gift of God and not of works. Well, we will try to unravel the seeming paradox of today’s life study of the Bible. We are going to look at both aspects, both sides of God’s salvation today.

Let’s take a look back for a moment before we get into this topic specifically, yesterday we saw the verses 2:5 -11 Christ in our salvation is really our pattern and today we have the working out of this full salvation. What is the connection that we are going to see?

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Philippians (Program #11) – The Exaltation of Christ

Philippians chapter 2 deals with the exaltation of Christ and Paul about that very topic has this to say in verses 9 through 11. “God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should openly confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”  That’s the inspirational portion in the New Testament.

A striking feature of our program today that the exaltation of Christ rather than something apart from us and far away from us that took place or will take place in the heavens, not so.  Actually there is the participation in an experiential aspect of that we are very much privilege to have a portion in and that’s our treat today.

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