Philippians (Program #26) – Thinking the Same Thing and Rejoicing in the Lord

“Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say rejoice.” This wonderful short refrain is loved nearly by all believers.  We might use it to comfort  suffering friends or we may declare it or even sing it aloud to help ourselves and others be more joyful in the Lord. But have you ever examine this verse in its Biblical context. We will do just that today, I hope in so doing we all will be made more joyful in the process.

In a lot of his Epistles the apostle Paul mentioned various saints by name that were important to him and had really joined themselves to his ministry. In this letter to the Philippians he mentioned two sisters (Euodias and Syntyche) in chapter 4, and these two even had co-labored with him in the gospel but we are going to find out that he wasn’t singling these two out in particularly in a very positive way.

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Exodus (Program #6) – God’s Calling of the Prepared One (2)

At the age of 40 when he was just in his prime, God called Moses.  But God did not employ him in that calling for another 40 years.  By now Moses is an old man, drained of both his strength of body as well as strength of soul.  Yet this was the time God could use him for His purpose.  God’s preparation of Moses, the one sent by God to deliver His people is one of the most revealing and illuminating stories in the Bible because it fully applies to us.

Firstly we are going to see the purpose of God’s calling.  In another words,  God has called each of us as believers in Christ, but what is the purpose of that calling?   Then number 2, we want to see how God prepares us to be His called ones, and to be His sent ones to accomplish His purpose.  This is seen in the way God called Moses and the way God prepared Moses to be His sent one.  Again this would be very applicable to us in our Christian life.

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Philippians (Program #25) – Awaiting Christ for the Transfiguration of His Sufferings

What is the body of our humiliation referred to by the apostle Paul in Philippians 3:21?  Many people are trying to excessively glorified their physical body today and make it more honorable by indulging in the enjoyment of the material things. But the Bible says it’s not until the Lord comes that we would be conformed to the Body of His glory.

The believers in Philippi have been saved of course and regenerated in their spirits but there is still the need for them to care for the two others parts of their being; the soul and the body.  We will see in some greater details today.  The background of this book is that the Philippians believers were been hampered or frustrated by two different groups of people. One was the Judaizers, which Paul had called dogs in the concision in the some other very derogatory name. The other group is the group called Epicureans.  Why were these two groups so damaging?

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Exodus (Program #5) – God’s Calling of the Prepared One (1)

Israel, out of the pain of their suffering and under the oppressive hand of Pharaoh in Egypt cried out to God to save them.  These cries were heard and God was moved in His compassion to rescue His people.  Yet He tarry for 80 years before coming in to save them.  Have you ever been forced to wait for God to answer your cry?  Why does God make us wait?  The surprising answer may be that God is really waiting for us.

We are going to see today that God was deeply motivated by the cries of His people, Israel to deliver them from the tyranny they were suffering under in Egypt.  But He delay taking action for a long period of time.  We can all relate to having to wait on the Lord for what seems like a mini eternity.  Our God is a very patient One.

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Philippians (Program #24) – Having the Same Mind and Walking by the Same Rule

What is your goal in life?  Time management seminars are constantly telling people to prioritized their time according to their goals. But what is God’s goal for us?  Does our goal in life match God’s goal?  Today’s life study of the Bible covers pursuing Christ in Philippians chapter 3, a marvelous and wonderful topic.

A tremendous verses Philippians 3:13-14 “Brothers, I do 1not account of myself to have laid hold; but one thing I do: Forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I pursue toward the goal for the prize to which God in Christ Jesus has called me upward.”

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Exodus (Program #4) – The Life Useful to God

We all know that Moses was a great man used mightily by God for the accomplishment of His purpose.  Have you ever noticed though that God did not use him until he was well beyond the peak of his natural strength and ability.  In the New Testament, the apostle Peter was also greatly used by the Lord, but not until after the Lord had subdue his natural strength and severely dealt with him and restricted him.  What can we learn from the experience of these spiritual men as it relates to our life before Christ.

We are going to have another surprising message for our listeners today.  We are going to look at the characteristic or trait that most equips or qualifies a person to be useful to God in the accomplishment of His purpose.

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Philippians (Program #23) – Gaining Christ by Pursuing Him

“I pursue, if even I may lay hold of that for which I also have been laid hold of by Christ Jesus”, Philippians 3:12 and in it the apostle Paul tells us that Christ Jesus has lay hold of us for a purpose, a specific purpose and that purpose is that we may lay hold of or gain Him.

Focus on Philippians 3:12-14 and this conveys a picture of the apostle Paul pursuing after Christ to gain Him. But this happened only after Paul had been gained by Christ. This is a wonderful picture of the Christian life, Christ gaining us beginning with our salvation for a purpose and then our life becomes fills with meaning as that purpose become for us to gain Him. This is marvelous. These three verses just crystallized the whole feeling of the apostle’s Paul’s life…

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Exodus (Program #3) – Preparation of the Slave Savior

Surely Moses is a great man of God used by Him for His purpose.  But chapter 2 of Exodus, the story of Moses from his birth until he is finally prepared by God for His use, is a story where women, females play nearly all of the major parts.  Is this just idle curiosity or is there a valuable message for us to be seen from these details?

We saw at the end of our broadcast yesterday that God uses the female life very significantly in the accomplishment of HIs purpose.  This may be a little hard to grasp but concepted may be is a little obscure when you first hear it

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Philippians (Program #22) – Conformed to Christ’s Death to Attain the Out-Resurrection from the Dead

“To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, If perhaps I may attain to the out-resurrection from the dead.”  Those were the words of apostle Paul in Philippians 3:10-11 and also the subject of our life study today.

Philippians 3, on the heart of the experience of Christ. These are very deep yet practical experiential points and on being conformed Christ death so that we may attain to a spiritual reality called the Out-Resurrection from among the dead.

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Exodus (Program #2) – Israel Under Slavery

Exodus, the second book in the Bible begins with God’s people in a pitiful condition.  Enslaved by the evil Pharaoh and daily being killed under the tyranny of his heavy hand.  Exodus is the story of how God release His people from this bondage and it has a glorious conclusion.  The worldly people today are in a condition much like the children of Israel in Exodus.  The parallels are striking in this graphic Old Testament book of pictures.

When we come to this book, we often refer to it as a “picture book”.  We spoke a little about this in our program yesterday.  What do we mean when we say Exodus is a book of pictures?

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