2nd years Term 4 2 Week 3 Epistles

0:08 So, good evening to everybody and I trust that you are all doing well and keeping us hard in prayer as we are currently busy with the Bloemfontein Crusade. We are so excited about seeing the souls that have come in and even that are going to come in for the remainder of this week. So, please continue to keep Apostle and the team in prayer. We need every prayer. We are really trusting God for a great awakening and a great shakening inside of Bloemfontein. So, just keep us in prayer as we continue to plunder hell and populate heaven. And so, I'm going to get ready to get into the session. Last week we had started with Philippians 1 but didn't complete it.

0:54 So, I'm going to be reading out of the Passion Translation and I would love you to follow with me. Like I told you last time, even though I cannot question you this week, please have a pen and paper with you, your Bible, and as things just touch your heart, touch your spirit, jot them down because ultimately this is how we begin to devour the word. We begin to really take it in and let it take heart. So, Philippians chapter 2 and I'm going to go all the way up until Philippians chapter 4. And wait once I'm done with that, I'll go into discussing each chapter separately. So, let us go. Look how much encouragement you've found in your relationship with the anointed one. You were all filled to overflowing

1:39 with his comforting love. You've experienced a deepening friendship with the Holy Spirit and have felt his tender affection and mercy. So, I'm asking you, my friends, that you be joined perfect in together in perfect unity with one heart, one passion, and united in love. Walk together with one harmonious purpose and you will fill my heart with unbounded joy. Be free from prideful opinions, for they will only harm your cherished unity. Do not allow self-promotion to hide in your hearts, but authentic humility. Put others first in the view of others as more important than yourselves. Abandon every display of selfishness, possess a greater concern for what matters to others instead of your own interests,

2:26 and consider the example that Jesus the anointed one has set before us. Let his mindset become your motivation. He existed in the form of God, yet he gave no thought to seizing equality with God as his supreme prize. Instead, he emptied himself with his outward glory by reducing himself to the form of a lowly servant. He became human. He humbled himself and became vulnerable, choosing to be revealed as a man, and was obedient. He was a perfect example even in his death, a criminal's death by crucifixion. Because of that obedience, God exalted him and multiplied his greatness. He has now been given the greatest of all names. The authority in the name of Jesus causes every knee to bow in reverence. Everything and everyone will one day submit to his name

3:13 in the heavenly realm, in the heavenly earthly realm, and in the demonic realm. Every tongue will proclaim in every language Jesus Christ is Lord Yahweh, bringing him glory and honor to God his father. My beloved ones, just like you've always listened to to everything I've taught you in the past, I'm asking you now to keep my instruction as though I were right there with you. Now, you must continue to make this new life fully manifested as you live in the holy awe of God, which brings you trembling into his presence. God will continually revitalize you implanting within you the passion to do what pleases him. Live a cheerful life without complaining or division among yourselves, for then you will be seen as

4:00 innocent, faultless, and pure children of God, even though you live in the midst of a brutal and perverse culture. For you will appear among them as shining lights in the universe, holding out the words of eternal life. I haven't labored among you for nothing, for your lives are the fruit of my ministry and will be my glorious boast at the unveiling of Christ. But I will rejoice even if my life is poured out like the liquid offering to God over your sacrificial and surrendered lives of faith. And so, no matter what happens to me, you should rejoice in ecstatic celebration with me. Yet, I'm trusting in our Lord that I may send to Timothy to you so that I can be refreshed to find out how

4:47 you're doing. Timothy is like no other. He carries the same passion for your welfare that I carry in the heart, for it seems as though everyone else is busy seeking that which is best for themselves instead of the things which are most important to our Lord Jesus. You already know his excellent reputation since he has served along me as a loyal son in the work of the ministry. After I see what transpires with me, he is the one I will send to you to bless you. And I'm trusting in my Lord to return to you in due time. But for now, I feel that I'm stirring in my heart to send Epaphroditus back to you immediately. He is a friend to me and a wonderful brother and a fellow soldier who has walked has worked with

5:33 me as we have served to ministers of the gospel and send him as your apostle to minister to me in my need. But now But now, he is grieved to know that you have found out that he has been sick. So, he longs to return to comfort you in this. It is true, he almost died, but God showed him mercy and healed him. So, I'm thankful to God for healing as I was spared from having sorrow of losing him on top of all my troubles. So, you can see why I'm delighted to send him to you now. I know that you are anxious to see and rejoice in this healing and it encourages me to know how happy you will be to have him back. So, warmly welcome him home in the Lord. With joyous love and esteem and highly

6:19 favored for people like him deserve it. Because of me he puts his life on the line deprising the dangers so that he could provide for me with what you couldn't since you were so far away. And he did that all because of his ministry. Chapter 3. My beloved ones, don't even limit your joy or failing to rejoice in the wonderful experience of knowing our Lord Jesus. I don't mind repeating what I've already written to you because it protects you. Beware of those religious hypocrites who teach that you should be circumcised to please God. For we have already experienced heart circumcision and we worship God in the power and freedom of the Holy Spirit, not in the laws and religious duties. We are those who boast in Jesus Christ has done and

7:07 not in what we can accomplish in our own strength. It is true I've once relied on all that I had become. I had reason to boast to impress people with my accomplishments more than others for my pedigree was impeccable. I was born a true Hebrew in the heritage of Israel as a son of a Jewish man from the tribe of Benjamin. I was circumcised eight days after my birth and raised in the strict tradition of the Orthodox Judaism living a separate and devout life as a Pharisee. And considering the righteousness of the Torah, no one surpassed me. I was without a peer. Furthermore, as a fiery defender of the truth I persecuted Messianic believers with religious zeal. Yet of all the

7:53 accomplishments I took I once took credit for I now forsaken them and I regard them as nothing compared to the light of experiencing the Lord Jesus Christ as my Lord. To truly know him meant letting go of everything from my past and throwing my boasting onto the garbage heap. It was like a pile of manure to me so that I may be enriched in the reality of knowing Jesus Christ and embracing him as Lord in all of his greatness. My passion is to be consumed with him and not to cling onto my own righteousness based in keeping the written law. My only righteousness will be his based on the faithfulness of Christ. The very righteousness comes from God and I continually long to know the wonder of Jesus and experience the overflowing power of resurrection that is working

8:41 within me. I will be one with him and his sufferings will become like him in his death. Only then will I be able to experience the completeness and oneness with him in his resurrected from dead realm of death. I admit that I haven't yet acquired the absolute fullness that I'm pursuing, but I'm running with a passion into his abundance so that I may reach the purpose for which Christ Jesus Christ laid hold of me to make his own. I don't depend on my own strength to accomplish this. However, I do have one compelling focus. I forget all of the past as I fasten my heart to the future instead. I run straight for the divine invitation of reaching the heavenly and

9:27 gaining the victory prize throughout the anointing of Jesus. So let those who are fully mature have the same passion. If anyone is not yet gripped by these desires, God will reveal it to them. Let us all advance together in reaching the prize of victory victory prize following one path with one passion. My beloved friends, imitate my walk with God and follow those who walk according to the way of life we've modeled before you. Uh for there are many who live by my standards. As I've warned you many times, I weep as I write these words. There are enemies of the cross for the anointed one. Doom awaits them. Their God possesses them and made them mute. They Their boast is in a shameful

10:12 lifestyle and their minds are in dirt. But we are a colony in the heaven on earth as we cling tightly to our life-giver, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our humble bodies and transfigure us into the identical likeness of his glorified body using his matchless power, which he continually subdues everything to himself. In the last chapter of Philippians, my dear and precious friends whom I deeply love, and you have truly become my glorious joy and crown of reward. Now arise in the fullness of your union of the Lord, and I plead with you, dear and saintly to settle the disagreement, to be restored in one mind in our Lord. I would like my dear friend and burden bearer to help

10:58 resolve this issue for both women have delighted and labored with me in the prize and have helped me in spreading the revelation of the gospel along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers. All their names are written in the book of life. Be cheerful and joyous celebration in every season of life. Let your joy overflow and let your gladness be seen in every relationship for our Lord is near. Don't be pulled into different directions or worried about a thing, but be saturated in prayer throughout each day offering your faithful requests before the Lord with overflowing gratitude. Tell him every detail of your life and then the wonderful peace that transcends the human understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ. Keep your thoughts continually fixed on

11:43 this authentic and real, honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind, and fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God praising him always. Put into practice the example of all that you have heard from me or seen in my life, and the God of peace will be with you in all things. My heart overflows with joy when I think of how you have demonstrated love to me by your financial support of the ministry, but even though I have so little, you still continue to help me at every opportunity. I'm not telling you this because I may need, for I've learned to be satisfied in any circumstance. I know what it means to lack and I know what it means to experience overwhelming abundance. For I'm trained in the secret

12:30 of overcoming all things, whether in fullness or in hunger. I find that strength of Christ explosive power infuses me to conquer every difficulty. You've so graciously provided for my essential needs during this season of difficulty, for I want you to know that the Philippian church was the only church that supported me in the beginning as I went out to preach the gospel. You were the only church that sowed into me financially. When I was in Thessalonica, you supported me well over a year. I mention this not because I'm requesting a gift, but so that the fruits of your generosity may bring you abundant reward. Now, have I all the need more than enough. I'm abundantly

13:16 satisfied, for I've received the gift you sent by Epaphroditus and viewed the sweet sacrifice perfumed with fragrance of your faithfulness, which is so pleasing to God. I'm convinced that my God will fully satisfy every need you have, for I've seen the abundant riches of your glory revealed to me through Jesus Christ and God our Father will receive all the glory and the honor throughout eternity of eternities. Amen. [snorts] Give my warm greetings to all the believers in Jesus Christ. All the brothers and sisters that are here with me send their loving greetings, especially the converts from Caesar's household. May the grace of our Lord be Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

14:02 Okay. So, what's lovely about the subjects is how it interacts with the book of Acts. I think between these two and that's why I try not to do them separately, although they are very theological subjects. I think they work so well, they complement so well. You know that Paul is on a journey, you know, he is at this point actually taken into prison. It's a prison epistle that he's writing, but he's writing to a church he's been a church he's established. And it helps you give just a general idea. So, Philippians chapter Sorry, let me just go back down to chapter two. Right? Last time we were discussing the joy in the midst of chains. Paul never ever writes in despair. He never writes a get me and feel me sorry kind of tone

14:48 ever, no matter what he's going through. And so, the key point is this. He's going, "Listen, I am self-emptying myself. I am emptying myself so that I'm completely humble and completely available for God to do something in and through my life." He says that true leadership is servant-hood. True leadership is servant-hood. And that greatness flows from humility. Tie back to the subject you had, submission and authority. If you want to be great, you must submit even greater. And so, in in chapter chapter two, verse 14 to 16, you know, he says, "Listen, he does everything without disputing, without complaining, so that he may do what he

15:34 needs to do." You know, he comes and he says, "Listen, it doesn't help to have a complaining spirit." You know, do what God is telling you to do and just do it. Right? Do it in such a way that you radiate the light of Christ, that you do it in integrity, and most of all that you do it in joy. So, we must know that in order to walk in spiritual maturity, that's not walking in perfection. It is still walking in progress in Christ. And Ephesians calls us to walk, but Philippian calls us to serve. So, we need to be able to walk and serve. So, you know that that statement that says, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." When you walk, as Ephesians says, in love, but you serve, as

16:20 Philippians says, with all joy, that's when you become the church that Christ decides or designed, rather. So, we ought to walk and to serve. Christ in you, the hope of glory. So, Philippians chapter 3, right? Pressing on towards the goal, you know, he goes, "Listen, don't be self-righteous, be Christ-righteous. Don't be self-righteous, be Christ-righteous. Have, you know, the the to have confidence in your flesh and your accolades is only setting yourself up to fail. That's why Paul says, you know, worldly gain is to die. You know, it's it's just What have you really gained? He said it it's almost like manure, right? He comes

17:06 and he says, "All these accolades, all these things where I've been born from, there was not even a peer among me that could compete." But he goes, "All those things are like manure. All those things are stinky in comparison to what I found in Christ." And then we must be on the continual pursuit of Christ-likeness. We need to press on. That Greek word diako means to press on, to chase down, to earnestly seek. So, the prize, though, is that we will have eternity. The prize of not conforming to the world is that we will absolutely have eternity. Philippians chapter 4, and this is a big one, teaches us that joy is a spiritual discipline, not an emotion.

17:53 Scary how many people are undisciplined in the church because they reject the movement of joy. Worry is replaced by praying with Thanksgiving. God's peace acts like a military guard over the heart. Contentment means that sufficiency through Christ, not self-sufficiency. Contentment means He goes, "I have I've had much and I've had little, but I've learned the secret The secret is to be content in Christ, knowing that God is working all things for his good. And then he goes, I can do all things. That emphasis is not personal accomplishment, but is accomplishing

18:38 through what Jesus has done. Later, Paul turns around and he writes about this partnership, this partnership in ministry, how generous the Philippians were, how God's provision had flown through his abundance. You remember stewardship? There is no limitation if you are one that God's provision can flow through. So, I want to encourage you that you press on, that you chase, that you find the peace, but that you come to a place that God can really use you and flow in and through you. All right, let's go over to Colossians chapter 1. And we're going to pick up in verse Colossians chapter 1 and Colossians chapter 2.

19:25 Just quickly opening it on my side. Right, Colossians chapter 1 again, I'm reading out of the Passion Interpretation and it says, "Dear friends in Colossae. My name is Paul and I've been chosen by Jesus to be his apostle. By the calling and destined purpose of God, my colleague Timothy and I send this letter and all holy believers who have been united to Jesus as beloved followers of the Messiah. May God, our true father, release upon you the lives of the riches over his kind favor and heavenly peace through

20:11 the Lord Jesus, the anointed one. Every time we pray for you, our hearts overflow with thanksgiving to God the Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we've heard your devoted lives of faith in Christ Jesus, your tender love towards all his holy believers. Your faith and love will rise within you as you access all treasures of your inheritance stored up in the heavenly realm. For the revelation of the true gospel is as real today as the day you first heard of your glorious hope. Now that you believed in the truth of the gospel, this wonderful message that has been spread everywhere, powerfully changing hearts through the earth just as it has changed you. Every believer of his good news bears the fruit of eternal life as they experience

20:58 the reality of God's grace. Our beloved co-worker Ephrathist was there from the beginning to thoroughly teach you the astonishing revelation of the gospel, and he serves you faithfully as Christ's representative. He informed us by the one one meaningful wonders ways life of love being demonstrated through your lives by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Since we first heard about you, we've kept you always in our prayers, and you would always receive the perfect knowledge of God's pleasure over your lives making you reservoirs of every kind of wisdom and spiritual understanding. We pray that you would walk in the ways of the true righteous, pleasing God in everything that you do. Then you'll become fruit-bearing branches yielding to his life and maturing in the richer

21:43 rich experience of knowing God in his fullness. As we pray that you would be energized with all explosive power from the realm of his magnificent glory filling you with a great hope. Your hearts can soar with joyful joyful gratitude when you think of how God has made you worthy to receive the glorious inheritance freely given to us by in light. He has rescued us completely from the tyrannical rule of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom realm of his beloved son. For in his son, all our sins are canceled and we have released from redemption through his very blood. He is in the divine portrait in the true likeness of the invisible God and the firstborn heir of all creation. For in

22:30 him was created the universe and of things both in the heavenly realm and on the earth. All that is seen, all that is unseen, every seat of power, realm of government, principality, and authority. It exists through him for his purpose. He existed before everything was made and now everything finds completion in him. He is the head of the body which is the church. Since he's the beginning of the firstborn heir in resurrection, he's the most exalted one holding his place in everything. For God is satisfied to have all his fullness dwelling in Christ. By the blood of his cross, everything in heaven and earth is brought back to him. Back to its original intent, restored to innocence again. Even though we were once distant from him, living in the shadow of evil

23:17 thoughts and actions, he reconnected you back to himself. He released his supernatural peace to you and through the sacrifice of his own body as the sin payment on the behalf that you would dwell in his presence. Now, there is nothing between you and the Father. For God sees you as holy, flawless, and restored. If indeed you continue to advance in faith assured of firm foundation to grow upon, never to be shaken from the hope of the gospel you have believed in. And this is the glorious news I preach all over the world. I can celebrate the sorrows I've experienced on your behalf. For as I join you with the difficulties, he is helped to discover the lack in that to discover what lacks in your understanding of the suffering of Jesus

24:02 Christ. Experience for his body, the church. This is the very reason that I've made be made a minister by the authority of God, a servant in his body so that in his detailed plan, I will fully equip you with the word of God. There is divine mystery, a secret surprise that has been concealed from the world of generations. But now it has been revealed, unfolded, and manifested for every holy believer to experience. Living is Living within you is the Christ who floods you with the expectation of His glory. This mystery of Christ embedded within us becomes a heavenly treasure, a chest of hope filled with the riches of glory for

24:47 His people. And God wants every one of you to know it. Christ is our message. We preach to awaken the hearts and to bring every person into the full understanding of truth. It has become my inspiration and passion in ministry to labor with tirelessly intensity with His power flowing through me to present in to every believer the revelation of being His perfect one in Jesus. Colossians chapter 2. I wish you could know how much I've struggled for you and for the church of Laodicea and for many other friends I've yet to meet. I'm contending for you that your hearts will be wrapped in the comfort of heaven and woven together in

25:34 love's fabric. This will give you access to all the riches of God as you experience the revelation of God's mystery, Christ. For our spiritual wealth is in Him like hidden treasure waiting to be discovered. Heaven's wisdom, endless riches of revelation and knowledge. I want you to know that no one will come and lead you into error though they through their persuasive arguments and clever words. Even though I'm separated from you geographically, my spirit is present there with you. And I'm overjoyed to see how disciplined and deeply committed you are because you have such a solid faith in Jesus Christ, the anointed one. In the same way receive Jesus our Lord and Messiah by faith, continue your journey in faith progressing further in your union with

26:20 Him. Your spiritual roots go deeply into His life as you are continually infused with the strength, encouraged in every way. For you are established in the faith that you have absorbed and enriched by your devotion to him. Beware that no one distracts you or intimidates you in their attempt to lead you away from Christ's fullness by pretending to be full of wisdom when they are filled with endless arguments of human logic. For they will operate with humanistic and clouded judgments based on the mindset of the world, not on the anointed truths of the anointed one. For he is complete fullness, the deity living in human form, and our own completeness is now found in him. We are completely filled with God

27:06 as Christ's fullness overflows within us. He is the head of every kingdom and authority in the universe through our union with him. We have experienced circumcision of the heart and all the guilt and power of sin has been cut away and now extinct because of what Christ, the anointed one, has accomplished for us. For we've been buried with him into our own into his death. Our baptism into death, which also means that we were raised with him when we believed in God's resurrection power, the power that raised him from death's realm. This realm of death describes our former state, for we were held in sin's grasp, but now we are resurrected out of that realm never to return. For we are forever alive and forgiven of

27:52 all our sins. He canceled every legal violation he had on our record and old arrest warrant that stood to indict us. He erased it all, our sins, our stained soul. He deleted it all and they cannot be retrieved. Everything we were once in Adam has been placed onto the cross and nailed permanently. There is a public display of cancellation. Then Jesus made a public spectacle of all the powers and principalities of darkness, stripping away from them every weapon and all their spiritual authority and power to accuse us. By the power of the cross, Jesus led them around the prison around as prisoners in the procession of triumph. He was He was not the prisoner, they were his.

28:37 So, why would you allow anyone to judge you because of what you eat or drink or insist that you keep the Sabbaths, observe the new moon celebrations, all Sabbath. Of all these were but a prophetic shadow of the evidence of what would be fulfilled for the body is now Christ. Do not let anyone disqualify you from your prize. Do not let their pretend sincerity fool as you deliberately lead into the initiation of angel worship. For they take pleasure in pretending to be experts of something they know nothing about. Their reasoning is meaningless. Sorry. Um and become and comes only from their opinions. They refuse to take hold of the true

29:25 source. But we receive directly from him he the his life's supplies. Sorry, I keep losing my place. Vitality into every part of his body is through the joining ligaments connecting us all as one. He's the divine head, the one who guides his body and causes it to grow by the supernatural power of God. For you were once included in his death of Christ as you died with him to the religious systems. Wow, I keep Sorry, my page keeps jumping for some other reason.

30:10 Right. You can't associate with that person or don't eat that or don't touch that. These are the doctrines of men corrupted with customs that are worthless to help you spiritually. For though they may [clears throat] appear to possess the promise of wisdom, their submission to God through the deprivation of their physical bodies is actually nothing more than empty rules rooted in religious rituals. So, again a lot going on here. What I want to say to you students is go look at Paul's letters. It will tell you how to be a child of God, how to run a church, how to work with leaders, how to work with people, how to bring correction. This is really Paul's epistles is really for me the diamond of God's word when [snorts] I need to work

30:57 with the body of Christ. So, Colossians chapter 1 is really about understanding the fullness. We are in the fullness of Christ. You've done new creation realities, you understand that terminology, you understand how to walk in Christ, but also how to be rooted in Christ. And then to be thankful that we have that kind of stability in Christ, right? We were once alienated, we were once enemies, we were once caught in sin, but now things have begun to change. Followed then by Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2 is understanding that we are not to cheat. We are not to get ourselves in the wrong kind of union. We are not to get ourselves caught up in religious systems thinking that that will bring anything.

31:44 It will not bring anything. It is empty inside of that. So, it is empty being inside of that. I think my internet just dropped there, but it looks like it is stable now. So, never ever be empty in Christ Jesus. Never ever find yourself become empty before the Lord. So, Colossians 2 just bringing that kind of correction into the body of Christ. Making sure, you know, that we are not being caught in the wrong kind of things, we're not being caught in the wrong kind of doctrine. I do apologize if my internet was dropping there over Colossians

32:31 chapter 1, Colossians chapter 2, but I am going to encourage you to just read it again. Um it only showed now that it was just a bit unstable. But, I want to encourage you, you know, go read that. Go read that for your church. Go read that for yourself. This, like I said, is for me the absolute crux of how to deal with day-to-day life. People say, "I don't know what to do. I don't know how to handle this situation." Christian ethics. Go into the letters and see what Paul is instructing his church to do because that is instructions unto us. We should not be caught up with the flesh. We should not be caught up doing the wrong kind of things. Rather, we should be found doing the right things, having a sound mind, going

33:16 off to sound things. So, I leave that with you this this day. I leave the thought that as we pursue Christ, as we go like Paul, as we listen to his instructions and practically apply that to the body of Christ, that surely we will see him do great and mighty things. So, I leave that with you again. If you didn't hear, if it did get a little bit um broken up over the recording, I want you to go read this. But, I want you to spend time in these letters. And if you ever you are facing discouragement or a difficult kind of situation, look to these letters. They give practical advice. They give good encouragement. If you feel like you want to go up in your

34:03 life, go look at how Paul puts it. Look at how Paul wrote how we should be living our lives. Don't look at the world and what they're doing and the people around you and how they're lacking. Rather, start with yourself first and foremost. Amen? Let us pray. Father, I thank you that as I stretch my hands towards these students, Father, I thank you that they will abound and abound in love, Father. That they would seek out the attributes of Christ. That they would know that found in your word is much an answer, a strong answer, a strong instruction, a strong guidance. I thank you, Lord, that the word will always convict us to grow more in Christ. I thank you that the word will sharpen us, that the word would prune us and shape us and form us, Father, so

34:48 that we may be the best version of ourselves in the mighty name of Jesus. And everybody said, amen and amen. God bless you all and I will see you live next week. Thank you for releasing me that we could go after the souls this week in Bloemfontein, but next week I will be live and in person with you and I'm looking forward to it. Only two more weeks left. What a mighty God we serve. Love and appreciate you and see you next week.