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0:20 All right, this week on the Daily Blade, we are going to study eleven verses out of Philippians 2. 0:25 If you've been tracking with me, I'm just going through the book of Philippians, so here we go. 0:28 I'm going to read it each week because I think repetition matters like crazy that we'd be reminded of this passage, and so each day we'll see the context of the passage. 0:37 Paul says, So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in a full accord and of one mind. 0:52 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 0:59 Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also the interest of others. 1:03 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the 1:24 point of death, even death on a cross. 1:26 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. 1:43 I want to dig into this part, if there be any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from his love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection, any sympathy, here's what Paul's saying. 1:53 If you consider yourself a Christian at all, this is not for super Christians, this is not for church staff people, this is not just for like missionaries and evangelists, but if you've experienced anything that Christ offers you, encouragement, comfort, love, if you have any connection at all with the Spirit of God that 2:12 dwells in every believer. 2:14 So in other words, what he's saying is if you are in the least bit a follower of Jesus, then this is Paul's hope for us. 2:22 He says, Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 2:29 Paul says, I want you to complete my joy by being unified in Christ Jesus. 2:35 It's interesting that when Jesus prays what is known as the high priestly prayer in John 17, he prays the same thing. 2:44 He prays for his current followers. 2:46 He also prays for his future followers, like me and you. 2:49 And what he prays for us is that we would be one as he and the father are one. 2:57 That's crazy. 2:58 And the only way that's going to happen, he says that he would he prayed that we would know as the Father loves Jesus, he loves us. 3:06 It's a crazy thing to get your mind around, man. 3:08 I mean, I know God loves me, but I feel like there's some drop-off between the way he loves Jesus and the way he loves me. 3:14 Like I love my wife and I love my dog. 3:17 But there's a big old drive drop-off when you get from my love for my wife to love for my dog. 3:22 That's how I've always thought of God's love for me, but that's not what he says. 3:26 And so it is that kind of love of God that we receive that unifies us. 3:32 Now, you got to ask the question: does unity mean uniformity? 3:35 And the answer is no way. 3:36 But our love for Christ and Christ's love in us should supersede our personal preferences, that we unify around primary issues in the church like Christ, the authority of Scripture, the gospel. 3:49 And then we give latitude on secondary issues like the kind of music you like, mode of baptism. 3:56 You know, I've heard some pastors use the illustration that there are national and state boundaries. 4:03 And so, you know, wherever you live, I live in Florida, and so there's a state line that separates Florida from Alabama, and so Florida is not Alabama, no problem. 4:13 However, we are a part of the United States of America. 4:16 Then there's a boundary that separates us between Canada and us from Mexico, and if you're on the other side of that boundary, we are not citizens of the same kingdom. 4:26 And so, Christians, what we should be doing is unifying on primary issues and giving latitude on secondary issues. 4:34 Primary issues are issues of salvation, issues of Christology, things like that. 4:39 Secondary issues are things that are not salvific, that are that don't question the very word of God, the authority of the word of God. 4:48 And so he says that we should have the same mind. 4:51 We're gonna see in um tomorrow or maybe the next day that we are to have the mind of Christ. 4:56 He says that that we have the same love that the love of Christ compels us, not the love of self. 5:04 So let me ask you this do you find yourself dividing over small issues with other believers based on your personal preferences? 5:15 Instead of being of the same mind, having the same love and being in full or one accord. 5:21 And so if you're like, yeah, I have a tendency to do that, then come back tomorrow because he's going to tell us how we live in unity under the banner of the gospel with one another.