Selected Topics from Philippians' overview
Philippians · Roger Henderson · Oct 21, 2012
Philippians (2012), No. 41
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926331193504

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Maybe a little confusing, we're going to actually start and try to finish up the review and then we're going to go into the special topics overview. So there should be two handouts, one from last week back there and one from this week. So I'm going to, first of all I've got to turn the thing on. So I have to flip through here. Where we stopped was... We got up through verse 9 last week.

Actually, maybe we should just read in Philippians chapter 4, 4 through the end of the chapter, just to kind of get our bearings here. And now we'll go on to the questions by each of these sections. As I mentioned in the past, I've just taken the sections we've covered before and kind of created some questions for each of those sections. So if I could get someone to read 10 through 23, I think it is, and chapter 4.

Could I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again, though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. I speak in regard to thee, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer me. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Nevertheless, you have done well that you share with my distress. Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but you only. For even in Thessalonica you sent once and again for my necessities. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account.

Indeed, I have all that abounds. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. And my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. especially those who are of Caesar's household. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Thanks, Bob.

OK. So we're going to start here, and we're going to finish out these questions in this section. Then we're going to go into the other handout, which is the overview of the special topics. OK. Like I mentioned before, I just sat down with these sections, and I said, what's something that comes to mind?

So the first question I thought about here was, what was the concern Philippians had for Paul? And I probably should be, because basically it says in verse 10, but I rejoice in the Lord greatly, Now at last you have received your concern for me. Indeed you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. So what was the concern?

And just think about the relationship with the Philippians and Paul. I mean, they were a close, really in a sense, they were a very close-knit group. I mean, they really were on the same page with one another. And Paul's excited about this body of believers. They're exceptional. I think they knew he had needs. And ultimately, they joined in the there was a bond there that cut through any kind of selfish concern about their own resources.

Well they knew he was in prison, right? Right, exactly. And the prisons, back then, if no one brought you something to eat, or brought you a blanket, they didn't provide anything. They didn't do anything for you. And we forget, but in a lot of foreign countries today, that's exactly how it is too. If you don't have family or friends that bring you stuff, you don't get anything.

That's good. If you go back to chapter 1, it kind of states some of the things we just mentioned here. It talks about in verse 5, he says, in view of your participation, in the gospel from the first day, so they were concerned about getting the gospel out, so they were participating or sharing in common that. And then down to verse 7, he says, for it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment So there's what we just taught, in his imprisonment, and in defense and confirmation of the gospel, you are all partakers of the grace with me. So we see that idea of being a partaker. It occurs over and over again. And they really, as I mentioned before, they're on the same page here, of the same mindset.

And actually, in this verse, a couple of our favorite words that are in here, in terms of mindedness, this word concern here, your concern for me and we're concerned is this a freneo towards and we're actually digging a little bit deeper in the following and becoming the special topics but so that kind of shows up in there.

Okay so next question is do we know why they lack opportunity? and kind of think about their whole ministry to Paul. This is not, I don't think, a difficult answer. So why did they lack opportunity? They weren't there. They had a long distance to travel to get there. Anything else you can think of? were told why they lacked opportunity. And that's exactly right. It's actually, I didn't find an exact reference to that. It didn't say this is why they lacked opportunity.

But in some sense, you know, even though you mentioned about their, they couldn't have a face to face meeting with Paul unless they went to prison to see him. So they lacked opportunity to fellowship with him. They had to do it They had to do it via somebody, whoever went to prison to give them stuff, I guess. That was even allowed sometimes. No computers. No computers, no texting. Paul texts me here and tells me how it's going. As you point out, if you sent a letter, it had to be transported by someone who happened to be going that way.

Sometimes those things took months. It wasn't even a few weeks maybe. Let's see, what else? So do we know how at last their care for him had plarged? Do we have details about that? Well, that's actually coming. OK, just one second. And actually, your translation is a slight bit different. So that's in what verse are you speaking of?

10. 10. Oh, that's where it says, yeah, OK. Mine has, it's kind of, the translations are a slight bit different here. I can switch versions. No, that's just fine. Not to worry. No. You have received, and actually in yours it's like, it's blossomed, have flourished. Now at last you've, what's, you know.

So concerns used in many of them. Yeah, well, concern, that's that word for nail. It's this concern is that word for nail. It shows up twice in that particular one. So we don't know specifically on some of these things. But looking at the situation where Paul was in prison, you can assume they didn't, their opportunities were limited to. OK, so. So how did, and we covered this before, actually I wasn't here for this speaker, well maybe I was, I don't know.

How did Paul learn to be content? Did he take a course in how to be content in prison? How to be content in the Christian life? Was that something that was offered? I'm being a little silly here. So how did he learn to be content? He's already declared that the citizenship's not here to begin with, right? That's it. Excellent. all get pretty secure here.

If you look at that verse, he says in verse 11, not that I speak from want, but I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I'm in. So this process of being in prison, not being in prison, he saw both ends of the spectrum. And the Lord showed him through that that his sufficiency wasn't in himself, it was in Christ.

So actually there's a verse that kind of talks about our sufficiency in 2nd Corinthians. Let's look at that for a second. 2nd Corinthians chapter 12. It talks about where our sufficiency should be. 2nd Corinthians chapter 12. No, I just have it marked. Okay, well good. Would you mind reading it?

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities than that the power of Christ may rest upon me. So we're self-sufficient in Christ. We're not self-sufficient in ourselves, we're self-sufficient in Christ. So that's where his contentment came from. And he learned that. You can go back to learning it with the thorn in the flesh, and he continued to learn it with the relationship with the Philippians and being in prison.

OK, so what is the secret that Paul had learned in verse 12? Does someone remember what the word secret means in scripture? Is it secret secret, or is it something? It's now revealed. It hasn't been revealed in the past, but now it's been revealed. So what new thing was revealed to him?

And I think we've been talking about it really, it's not, this is not... So, if you look at... I'm sorry. Well, no, I mean it's just what we were talking about just then. He's learned that his trust is not in himself or the circumstances. It's in the Lord. And the Lord will give him that peace and that whatever, you know, that he needs. Even if it's not always his physical needs, he's learned to appreciate whatever the circumstances are.

Well if you look here at that little expression, I have learned the secret, that's actually one word in the Greek, and then if you look up here in verse 11, I have learned that's kind of the core word, and then this one here is the word with the idea of secret kind of attached to it, it's a compound word.

Just one of the fun. Sure. He doesn't. You said that we have learned a secret. We have a secret that's revealed to us in time as a body. But this is this is a personal rebel. I mean, I hesitate to. needs of having and not having, and teach us this secret of being fulfilled. So it's not a corporate, why, now you know it, you've read it, it's a done deal. Yes, we all have that fellowship with Christ, but it was through those needs that he came to know that contentment.

So it's kind of an interesting thing that you've been sharing. They would have a whole different set of experiences to teach that same secret. Well, he's going to build on that because he's going to say, well, I learned this. And he's going to say, in a sense, you can learn that, too. I'm sure that God will provide for you as you learn that. So that's great. Thank you. Hey, Roger. Sure. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

Well, I was just thinking, too, didn't Paul, I mean, the Lord told Paul when he first got a hold of him that he was going to show him the things he was going to have to suffer. Right, exactly. So he probably knew that was coming, but now he's... He learned it, I know. It's sort of like, somebody tells you, it's going to be hard there in college, or whatever, it's going to be hard in boot camp, or whatever it is, and you say, yeah, it's going to be hard, but once you've been there and done that, you say, that was hard, and I know how hard it was, and I know about that, and I've learned something from that. That's all part of it, being conformed to the image. Paul had the same thing.

And I think what a privilege we have to have so much of the New Testament written by the Spirit through Paul because I think it shows you that the human existence can exist in a manner where the exchange of life takes over. So just a lot of facts and information we need to deal with. It's a life that's been changed dramatically by the Lord Jesus Christ. That's good, that's good. I mean you see that a little bit in some of the other authors, but you see it particularly well in Paul. Oh yeah, absolutely. And actually there's another verse that kind of uses this, I have learned the secret.

Let's just look at 1st Timothy, 1st Timothy 5.4. I'm not sure it's exactly. Actually, it's in the section on widows. I'll go ahead and read it.

But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to practice piety in regard to their own family, and to make some returns to their parents, for this is acceptable to the sight of God. So it's a little bit maybe geeky here, but They learn to practice is the idea here of learning the secret thing.

It's the same core word. Different context, but the same idea. OK. OK. Anything else on? This is pretty, like I said, we spent a whole lesson on that. I think Jim taught this. And there's a lot more that was done and we could do. And actually, we're going to come back.

It's going to be a little challenge. I was looking at the special topics. You guys may run me out of town here after we talk about what we're going to do with that. We'll see. Anyway, that's going to be a challenge. Looks like I start next week. All right, so let's go on to the next set of verses. This is kind of chopped up a little bit.

I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me of my afflictions. So I think this question was asked when Jeremy taught it. What are the all things that are spoken of in verse 13? All things. OK. Well, OK. Does that mean I like what Jeremy did? I happened to listen to part of what he did. Does that mean he's Superman? Leap tall buildings with a bound? Is he referring back to verse 11 where he says whatever the circumstances? I think absolutely.

Take it in context. As they say, it's like location, location, location. It's context, context, context. He's talking about in context. He just said I learned the secret. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. And it's all things in the context of what he's talking about. So that means he can be in either place. He can be in prosperity or humble means.

So I think that's what the all, all things is referring to. If you go outside that, then you have to build a, this is all things. Are we building a case for a superhero or something like that? You know a neat thing about the Greek verb there is I can do. Do is better translated as be.

I like that Bob. That's identification isn't it? I like that. It's not what you do, it's who you are right? I mean really. Once you know who you are, then what you do is evidence of who you are. That's good. Yeah, very good. You're good. Okay, next question.

How are we strengthened in our Christian life? He says, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. So I kind of just took it to, how does this strengthening apply to our Christian life? Do we go to the spiritual gym? Work out and get some, you know? Use his life for what? Okay, good, good.

This just kind of gets a little confusing in the English side of things but because he does say strengthen me and the idea there being that and we've all I think prayed this and may continue to Lord give me the strength Lord help me help me and it's interesting I've been working really hard in my own mind and my kids to that it's your person, that the Lord uses his strength, but it's his strength.

And so the idea of help, and God doesn't want to give you strength to do it by yourself. He doesn't want to give you the help to do it by yourself. It continues to be his life. And so there's this, just, the words are the same. You may still pray for, oh, Lord, give me the strength to persevere through this, but it is not your perseverance. It's been a challenge to kind of rework that Christianese baggage out of dependency and prayer.

So there's a deeper identification there. No, there is. Well, and back to that identification, you know, it's based on believing and faith. And I think that, through the trials and suffering, your faith and belief is strengthened in who your father is. Because you've experienced, because you've walked through it. I think, you know, we are still individuals. We're not robots down here. And I think, you know, Donna's right on it.

It's by faith of realizing that being strengthened is a perception that ultimately things are put into an eternal perspective. And that's, again, who we are. And when you constantly realize who you are, then these trials fall into place in terms of eternity. But yet we all struggle with them because we bring this by the faith of perceiving the truth as to what it really is.

It's great. I came across a verse that uses this strengthening concept, and I'm not sure it was covered before, but in 2 Timothy chapter 2, it just makes a statement. It says, actually it's verse 1, 2 Timothy 2 verse 1. You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

I thought it was kind of, it kind of was that ill, be strong in, you think, wow, strong in the grace. You think, your mind kind of does little flips there. Well, grace, that's totally from God. How can I be strong in grace? Well, you have to know about it to start with. You have to, you know, growing in grace and it's all integrated. That's 2nd Timothy chapter 2 verse 1. You therefore my son be strong in the grace, that's the same word here, that is in Christ Jesus.

That was just really kind of to the point. I'm weary working mightily by his strength. I can't remember the exact verse, but there's an intense effort, but he acknowledges it's all Christ's strength. So, again, we're not robots, we're not passive, we're not just sitting there, OK, take over me. We're working mightily, but it's all his strength. And it is a tremendous learning process to understand the difference and give me strength. I know, like Jim said, me personally, I tend to think of it as David or Samson. All of a sudden God's Spirit comes upon me and gives me the strength to do stuff. That's not what we are. That's not the condition we have.

We have Christ in us where anything that we do, it's His strength. That's part of the growth process in Christian life, it's understanding what that means and what that looks like. Yes, it's all faith. But there's certainly a process of how does that exactly look in my life when that's happening.

That's great, that's great. I think what's really encouraging about that too, about Paul, we can't put Paul up on the desk when he spends all the time in the wilderness. And yet he had to learn it too. That's very good. Well we can't learn it if we're not hungry. I'm just kidding. That was his needs. We don't have to starve ourselves to get the same. And the Lord is gracious enough to give us the needs to have that hunger.

So when trials come along, I can't think of a word in this talk. I listened to the tape from 2003 and the Philippians and one said, yeah, Hal's teaching the trials and suffering class. Actually, Bob and I helped him with that. And he said, yeah, Hal's giving out free samples in that class. It was kind of a dead silence. Free samples and trials and suffering? I'll be rushing down to that classroom.

Well, we always used to hear Hal say, have you thanked the Lord for all those trials? Yeah. That's sort of not what first hits your mind when you're faced with a trial. Thank you, Lord, for bringing this horrible thing. I know. It's not what you think. Absolutely. OK. OK.

So another question, which do we know how Paul Do we know how the Philippians shared with Paul and his afflictions? I keep asking the same question about 10 different ways. It basically says in verse 14, nevertheless you have done well to share with me and my afflictions. And we've actually already covered this. We talked about his participation.

They were in sync. When Paul was in need, they realized it. So in the same mind, they knew Paul had needs. And they suffered when he suffered. Just like we suffer when somebody in our body is suffering, we suffer with them. I think that's the same way with the Philippians. They were on the same page with Paul. We're going to see to the extent that they were the ones that were following wherever his ministry took them. They were with him. And there's a neat verse. I don't know whether it was covered before, but it was just amazing.

How Paul, in terms of the Philippians, it's just really kind of incredible. But too, you know, we sort of forget, or we don't really forget, it's just understood. The Holy Spirit, this is the Lord's way, when Paul had a need, the Holy Spirit convicted those Philippians to, Paul has a need, we need to take care of it. I mean, it's all the Lord's work, to fulfill the need, to put it on the heart of the Philippians, That's how the Lord works. I mean, it's going on all the time. No, that's cool. Okay, so let's move on here. Time is going on here. Okay, so verse 15, 16, 17.

Would you yourself know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, but you alone. For even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs. Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account." That last verse is really fantastic, I think.

Anyway, do we know why only the church in Philippi shared with Paul? and some of this we don't. I'm asking the question that we can't do. What's that? What was that again? That's basically it. That's all the information we have. They were it. Actually, along that line, this is what just boggled my mind.

Paul sometimes is not as straight laced as you might think. 2 Corinthians, chapter 11. Actually, we're covering this in Mike's study. during the week, but actually I didn't see it there, I saw it as I was looking at this. 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and let's go down to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. I guess I got the wrong address here. Let's try first Corinthians. What I'm looking for, there's a place where Paul realizes that it's only the Philippian church that supports him.

So he's at this other church talking to these people in Thessalonica, I believe, and he says, I have robbed other churches, verse 8, to serve you. It just boggled my mind. I said, wow. So, Wayne, would you read the full verse for us, please? I robbed other churches taking wages from them to serve you. I know, just, you know, I just said, wow.

I mean, I just got such a startling statement. I mean, it seemed He realized the Flippings are the ones that are supporting me. And he used that look of grief to see what that really meant. But I just thought, wow, that's such a stark statement. I robbed other churches to say it. I think he's trying to point out, he wants the church that he's involved with, it's a blessing to them to support him. He's trying to say, hey guys, you're not supporting me. Those other guys are supporting me, and I'm here with you. He's making a comment on that body of believers, which seems kind of severe. But interesting. OK.

Why is it significant that in Thessalonica they sent Paul a gift? And we're kind of on the same theme here, several of these. Once again, since it was only the Philippians, he wasn't even with them. He'd gone on to Thessalonica, and he was still receiving gifts. So some of them I'm just going to answer and move on here, I think. And you can, in Acts 17, you can kind of see part of that. He's in Thessalonica and, you know, there's some issues there. Some of the Jews got together and created an uproar. You can read in Acts there. Okay.

And the last verse, which I think is just outstanding, verse 17. Why is the focus in 17 so important for persons receiving a gift? So Paul said in 17, not that I seek the gift itself, he says I'm not seeking, wow I got this gift and that gift and that gift, I got this much funds or whatever he got, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account. So what's being said there in that verse do you think?

And there might be better translations in other versions, I should say. Well, I think that he wants them to be blessed by their giving. He wants them to have the benefit of the blessing by giving. He says, I'm not so concerned about the gift. God, he's going to say in the next verse, in 18, he's going to say, God's going to take care of it. He's not focused on the receiving and the giving. He's focused on, hey, I want you to grow by meeting my needs.

You responded to the Holy Spirit and you gave to me. That's what he's looking for. And I think it relates to the principle of giving on behalf of the believer of the church. In fact, God honors a cheerful giver, right? Right. Exactly. There's no tithing. Right. It's a cheerful give, and that's where the blessing comes from. Because when you give cheerfully, you feel that you're in the Lord's. Right. And you're excited about helping out and excited about, hey, I have the funds. I can meet this. I can take care of this. And that person's going to, you know, I can provide for their need. This little door comes out sometimes. Sorry. OK. So let's go on here. OK. Alright, so let me just go to the questions.

Actually, I'm probably going down to verse 19. And verse 18 talks about, let's just cover that for a second. Verse 18 says, but I have received everything in full and have an abundance. I am amply supplied, having received from Paphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, and well-pleasing to God. And then 19. Another one of these seemingly Superman verses.

And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. So I said, why are all your needs supplied in Christ Jesus? One thing that struck me after I kind of wrote that down was that we may have needs we may perceive, but God truly knows our needs. And so by saying that, and my God will supply all your needs, he's saying God is going to bring in your life what you need You may say I have need for this or that, all these material things, but God's focus is on a totally different aspect of that.

I was thinking too when I read that a lot of these health and wealth ministries are based on some of these kinds of verses that are just a total inappropriate way to read that. Exactly. And to take it out of context of what he's talking about here. Yeah, absolutely.

But I think it goes back to what Ruthie was saying too, that the Lord knows our needs in trials and not in trials. He's going to supply those needs and that strength to deal with those issues. But I think it goes back to our dependence on Him. You know, you got to know who you are in Him.

Roger, I was thinking about something with my dad this week, because they're going through a pretty difficult time, and you know, looking at verses like this, and of course Romans 8, 28, I wonder if our perspective, sometimes we kind of have a what I call a front-end perspective, where it's like, okay, we can go forward with this because God's going to supply our needs, or God's going to bring this into our life.

And I don't think that's, that may be true, but it seems like versus like this, the perspective is, okay, we're in this situation, we can be confident of several things, that God is going to take everything and use it to conform us to his image. We can know right now that God is supplying our needs, so it's not like we're looking forward, okay, if I take this step, or I do this thing, God's going to bring these things into my life. Again, that may be true, but I think what we need to focus on is right now.

What do we know about what God is doing in our life right now? We know He's supplying our needs. And so we can look at our life and think, the Bible says it, so all our needs are being... So I think there's an aspect of focusing on where you are right now, and what Christ what we know about what Christ is doing in our life right now. And I think when you start looking at, okay, God's going to bring this into our life and it's going to happen, or you start looking forward, I don't know if I'm explaining myself clearly, but it seems like we should have that back-end perspective. Everything that's happened, God's going to use it for our profit, to teach us more about Him, to draw us closer to Him.

And right now we can know all our needs are be our sufficiency right now, rather than focusing too much on the future or the past, or on these other things, and get too much into the Calvinistic perspective of all this, and everything that happens is God's control. Well, yeah it is, but you can get off base of where am I now, what is Christ doing in my life, right at this very moment.

And it strikes me that we have a perception of our needs, but he knows our needs so much better. And so am I going to trust him that he knows my needs? Am I going to trust him that I'm right here, right now? And I perceive that I'm needy, and maybe I do have real physical needs, but I also have spiritual needs, too. And he's much more concerned about that than the physical needs.

That seems to work itself out. OK, then a couple of this kind of, I've got this strange mood here. What are his riches? I'll just offer a couple of verses here. Exactly. Hey, you read the verses I read. Let's look at Ephesians here just real quickly. And it doesn't say riches here. It says riches and glory. That's good. You have to read the rest of the story, right? Okay. Ephesians chapter 3. A couple of verses that just kind of... Verse 8.

To me, the least of all his saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ. That's what Martin said. And then in verse 16, and that he would grant to us according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened, actually here's our word strengthened, with power through his saints in the inner man.

Through his spirit. How would we look at the word glory, Roger? What does that mean? Isn't it who he is? Glory is his very nature. And how wealthy is he? He is unfathomable. We can't put our hands around it. We can't document it. So it's out of that unlimited wealth. Isn't that incredible? I think that's my last one.

How is God glorified? So how is God glorified? A couple of things that struck me is he's glorified Like in 1 Peter, if anyone suffers as a Christian, our suffering glorifies God because we patiently endure the suffering. It talks about that. Then it talks about that we're glorified as Christ lives his life through us because we depend upon him. And just like Jim, he's training his children to realize that it's Christ that's doing the living, not me. It may seem like I have to do the work, I have to go to work, but Christ is doing the living. That glorifies Him because you're saying, no, I can't live at all the Christian life.

That's a wonderful thing. The Christian life is the impossible life because you cannot live it yourself. If it's a possible life, you can do it. I can somehow, but you can't do it. You have to totally depend upon Him. That's such a different mindset. And he's glorified in that because it goes all back to him and nothing on us. Chapter 1 for me to live is Christ, right? He says it all. Okay, real quick here. I'm going to bring up the other handout here and hopefully I can get out of town fast before the guys get me here. First I've got to find a place here. Opportunities.

So here's what I laid out for the end of the year. So basically there's five topics. and Humiliation and Exploitation. So let's just look at... So the first one is this we talked about and this is the one that Bob and Jim are going to share. And it's FYI, I have some charts and stuff I want to send you, some additional things from Vernon that I hope will be helpful in doing this.

Are you sure you don't want to teach it? That would be really helpful. So it focuses on this word phaneo, to think, to be minded in a certain way. It occurs 31 times in Paul's writings and 7 occurrences in Philippians. And here are some examples. In Philippians 2.2, make my joy complete by being of the same mind. Maintain the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. And we have having this attitude in yourself. But it's also in Christ Jesus. And there's more. There's five more than the current Philippians.

So I guess my thought here was to kind of go through and try to see some similarities between how it's used in different situations. I was thinking you want to definitely go back and look at his other writings, too, and pull that in. And like I said, I have some charts from Vern on that I'll pass along. So that's attitude and mindedness.

And joy and rejoicing, they're part of the family of words of Keres, so it could expand a little bit there. Joy occurs seven times. Both of them occur seven times in Philippians. And sometimes they're used together. Actually, in some cases, I didn't even actually, there's so many, I didn't see both of them. What then?

Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. In this I will rejoice, yes I will rejoice. And then it says, convinced of this I know that I will remain and continue with you for all your progress in joy and faith. And then now in 17, but even if I am being poured out as a drink offering, upon the sacrifices and services of your faith. I rejoice and share with my joy. I urge you to rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me. So, maybe a little bit challenging, so I have some helps on this too.

Now we have heavenly citizenship. This is this word that was translated conduct yourself. The core word is like when we go to politics, to live as a citizen. And a really cool word is that our citizenship is in heaven. And then actually, kind of part of that, which isn't exactly the same word, but the idea that in terms of our citizenship, that we're written in the book of life, that's something that describes the believer. And there's others in the New Testament, like for example, in Ephesians, we're seated with Christ in heavenly places. So the idea here is we kind of look through and see what's our heavenly resume, if you will, heavenly citizenship resume.

And then four, this is just kind of tracing through Paul and his interaction with presenting the gospel. And actually, after thinking about this a little more, you definitely want to bring in the other epistles about this, where he talks about his participation in the gospel. But there's verses that talk about this, in view of your participation in the gospel, in defense and confirmation of the gospel. Things have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel. And then I'm appointed for the defense of the gospel. So I kind of saw here that we're kind of looking at Paul's ministry as presenting the gospel.

And there's a lot, Corinthians has a lot to say about that. And then lastly, I thought this was such a significant, in looking through the Philippians, these verses are considered kind of the pinnacle of Philippians, the fact that the humiliation and exaltation of Christ, having this attitude in yourselves, which is also in Christ Jesus, who although he existed in the form of God, did not regard quality with God, a thing to be grasped, but into himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men, and so on. I thought, you know, we've covered this before, but I thought, boy, this is the last two in the year. Actually, Bob has those two. He's gracious enough to take the last two in the year. I appreciate that. Oh, am I? Yeah, you are, hopefully. Gracious or taking it?

Anyway, I thought it would just be fitting to end up our... If you're in town, you're teaching, right? Well, it's good at the time of the season, too. Yeah, and I thought it would just be kind of appropriate to end our study of Philippians with these verses.

We've covered them before, but I didn't think we... I mean, you go through it, and you prepare for it, and you present it, and you think, boy, there's just so much more that could be said. And we can share the notes on this from what was presented before. So that's kind of the... a big overview of this. Vern sent me 10 attachments. Here Roger, I thought you needed some information. Oh, okay. 11 megabytes, I don't know, hopefully it will get past your email filter. I don't know. I sent three of them, Roger. Three and three and three, right?

So, anyway. So that's sort of the plan for this year. Also, we discussed what's coming up in 2013. And Bob, I mentioned, so we decided on James. The plan is we're going to do James. So I hope you guys are, you know, I'd love to have you join us for that. That'd be wonderful. So that's our thoughts for the new year. So I'll start working on outlining that for next year. We want to put you all under law. Get ready for James. James is going to be neat because we're going to take all the Pauline doctrine and we're going to say, how does that fit? How does that fit with James?

That's going to be the cool part. That's going to be fun. It will be. Any last thoughts? The neat thing is that it does fit. And that's exactly right. We might not think it first. We think, well, this seems to be at odds with one another. But the cool part, it does. All right, let's close now. Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for this day, for the blessings we have, Fathers. We thank you for your word. And we thank you for your spirit that guides us into the truth. In Christ's name, amen.