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[Silence] [music] [music] Walking and talking with my mind.

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Dead on Jesus. Walking and talking with my mind. Dead on Jesus. Walking and talking with my mind.

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Dead on Jesus. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah We can pray in the midnight Pray on, Jesus

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We can pray in the midnight Pray on, Jesus We can pray in the midnight ♪ Hail, all ye people ♪

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♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ And all the world ♪ ♪ Hail, all ye people ♪ ♪ And all the world ♪

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♪ Hail, all ye people ♪ (Music) May we bow our heads. Blessed God our Father, give us the mind of the Master that we may truly be rightly related

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to you. In Jesus' name, Amen. In Philippians, the second chapter, the fifth through the eleventh verses of each word, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God,

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did not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name,

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that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. The subject of the message, "Communion with Christ." Communion with Christ. Communion

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Communion with Christ occurs in our lives through the working of his Spirit in us. Communion with Christ involves the presence and power of his Spirit. is doing something together. When we come together at the Lord's table,

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we commune together, we participate together, we even drink together, we engage in table talk together. To commune together is to have all things common. It is to be of one soul, one mind, one heart. The Apostle Paul refers to this kind of communion with Christ when he says

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Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus." He admonishes the Philippian Christians to have the mind of Christ. The mind is the functional aspect of the soul. The mind is the manifestation of the spirit of the person. Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ One of the characteristics of the Christian community recorded by Luke, the first historian

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of the church was that the disciples of Jesus Christ were of one mind. There is a fierce being waged today for the minds of men. Leaders of various groups with conflicting ideologies seek to possess the minds of people. Brainwashing is a devious and demonic process in which the mind is taken captive. But the most precious treasure a person may possess is peace of

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mind, that state of mind which is the result of communion with Christ. "Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus." When Paul wrote those words, Christians in Philippi was threatened. The church there was threatened by division, quarrels, and jealousy. It was a situation which threatened to tear the church apart. In addition to being threatened from

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confusion and conflict within, they were threatened from without because there were teachers of false doctrine who attempted to get the church off the main track. So there were fighting within and fighting without. And to such a community facing a threat of nonexistence, the apostles said, "Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus."

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Now it's one thing to talk about the mind of the Master. It's something different to have it in us. We're familiar with liver transplants, heart transplants, and so on. But here Paul Paul is talking about the transplant of the mind. Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ.

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Now Paul is not speaking of a sometime affair. And it may depend on how one feels at a given time as to what his mind may direct him to do. But what Paul is speaking of here is in relation to communion with Christ.

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having the mind of the Master in what the Apostle is concerned about here as a constant relationship and everyday affair, so that one can say every day, every hour, every moment, "Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus." And then he gives us a glimpse of what we may consider the mind of the Master. Here it is.

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"Christ, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant." If we would consider Christ's pre-existent state before he came to earth, before we see him as the historical Christ,

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He exists as the Logos, the eternal Word which coexists with the Father. For in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Without the Word was not anything made that was made. But before this incarnate Word becomes flesh, we see Him with the Father in the preexistent state.

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Christ is the full expression of God. He is God. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Son is equal to God the Father. All of God is in Christ. And this is not something he grasped from God, not something secured through robbery. It is a precious possession which is his by the very nature of his being. And so it is revealed in the glory which is his in his preexistent state.

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But as we observe the mind of the Master, he humbled himself and took on the form of a servant. He was rich, but he became poor for our sake. Now it means something for one to be rich and to be willing to become poor for another. I listened to a man this past week as he said he was addressing a group of young people and he asked them if there were anything that they were willing to die for.

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And they all said no. Well, we need not kick on young people and ask that question. We can take older ones as well and ask, "If there's anything, what would you be willing to die for? Anything in this world you'd really be willing to put your life on the line and say, 'Well, here

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I stand. I'm willing to die for this.'" Well, Paul says to the Christian community, "Let this man, being meek, which was in Christ Jesus, he humbled himself. In other words, he emptied himself and took on the form of a servant. He gave up his lofty position as kings and became a servant for our sake. And now why Paul said this is that in that church

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people were suffering from conceit. Now I know we don't have any problem with conceit. all of us are very humble. But in the church in Philippi there was conceit, folks. And some of them thought more highly of themselves than they ought to have thought. And they were getting in the way of really being servants of Jesus Christ. And I think that may help

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a little debate. That one of the problems that we face is that we do not have the mind of the Master. And we are quick to tell people that, "I have my mind." "Honey, my mind's made up. Don't worry about the mind of the Master." And I don't care what anybody said, I have my mind made up, I have my own mind."

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Well, that's the way they were. They were fussing and fighting, quarreling in that church, and Paul said, "Now look here." He said, "Let the mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus." He humbled himself.

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You know, so often the reason we don't have more done And there is a great spirit of unity in all of us working together for good, and so we don't have to mind the domestic. Some of us are like that frog who wanted to go to Miami with the birds.

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It was too far for him to hop. He couldn't fly. So he made a deal, you know, with the birds, you know, you take this little rope and hold it and each end bird would hold it and the frog took hold of the rope and so the birds began to fly and the frog was there. And as they were flying away, they flew over some farmers. And the farmers stopped and said, "Well, look at that. Who did that? Who ever did that?

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That person must be a genius. Who thought of that?" And the crow, for fear that somebody else would get caught up for it. And to be sure that he got the credit, he got high beer. Well, that's the way many of us are.

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Full of fearful that someone else would get credit for something that we have done, that we destroy ourselves in the process. But he says, "And Paul says, 'Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who sought it not robbery, to be equal with God, and who humbled himself and took on the form of a servant.'"

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That's a long journey. That's a long journey. Now it looks like it's a long journey from I to we. It's a long journey.

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Some people still haven't made it. It's a long trip. Some will sail on eagle ships, and others really take on the trip from I to we.

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And it's a long, long journey to be able to come from being high and mighty to being humble instead. He took on the form of a servant, which really means that he took on the form of a slave. He who was king, who had all things, an angel singing his praises and bowing before him,

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humbled himself and took on the form of a servant and became obedient even to the death of the cross. In other words, not only did he humble himself, but he suffered humiliation. And I hope that a lot of people today who are out from the church, because we don't want to be humiliated. Somebody overlooked us or somebody did this that we didn't like and they left.

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But Paul is saying that the way really to have unity and harmony and peace is to have the mind of Christ. And if we all have the mind of Christ, there will be peace, there will be fellowship. Fellowship. Peace and fellowship. Well, that means that we must somehow be committed.

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One night, when Jack Pa was the emcee on the Tonight Show, he was discussing the remarkable work of Dr. Albert Price, He was a missionary doctor in Africa some years ago. And before Schweitzer was 30 years of age, he had earned doctorates in philosophy, theology, medicine, and music.

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And Jack Paul was expressing his appreciation of a man who was a famed concert pianist, and with all of these talents, giving his life in a remote corner of Africa, when he might have had the praise of the world in some large city somewhere. And after a long pause, Jack Paw uttered these significant words. He said, "You know, I'd like to be an Albus Riker if I could commute. If I could commute."

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In other words, a lot of times we would like to commute. When it comes to being, we'd like to commune with Christ for a few moments and then commute. But what Paul is talking about is commit, is to commit ourselves. Not just a Sunday affair, one day a week and a few moments on Sundays when we gather around

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the communion table and the minister utters some words saying, "Let us commune together," other said, "We know we communed then." No, that's not what he's talking about. He's talking about having a mindset, a way of thinking, of having thoughts filling one's mind so that one has a way of looking at the world so that the perspective that one has is the mind of

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the Master and he lives and acts in it. It's a way of being. That's what Paul is talking about. And he says, "If we have this, we can do well. We can continue, we can do what we ought to do. Some of us would rather commute than commune. But communion comes through commitment. So too often we make our religion a part-time, half-measured hobby rather than

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the total commitment of a whole life. The mind of the master. Christ humbled himself as a servant, as a slave, and became obedient to the cross, suffered an ignoble death like a criminal on a cross between two seas, he died. Humiliated, yes. But in his humiliation, we also see the exaltation, because God raised him up. And Paul says he's been exalted. Oh

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Yes, he was humiliated. He was questioned, yes. But in his humiliation we also see how God exalted him because God has raised him up and given him a name which is above every name. "For at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Now that's all you need to really remember. That was the first

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confession of the Christian Church. Well you may not learn the Apostles Creed and all of that. We don't have a Creed as such as Baptist. But the one thing that the early Christians said was that Jesus Christ is Lord. That's all. That's the that Jesus Christ is Lord. That this Jesus that was humiliated, this Jesus that was exalted

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and sits on the right hand of God the Father Almighty, that this Jesus is Lord of my life. That he's my Lord and he's my master. This is what's important. He's the one who is humble, He's the one who is humiliated. He's the one who is a servant. He is the one who was obedient to God even to the death of the cross. And he is the ruler of my life. And so that's what Paul is saying to us.

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Let this mind be in you. If you would, if you would commune with Christ. If you would sit at the table with him. If you would drink from the same cup with him, if you would somehow break bread with the Master, if you would talk with him and walk with him, let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.

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For when the mind of the Master is in our lives, Jesus reigns. Jesus shall reign where the sons of his successive journeys run. His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, till moon shall wax and wane no more. Let this mind be in you that Christ may rule in your life.

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And to be able to say, "Yes, I hear the power of Jesus' name." Let angels prostrate fall, bring forth the royal diadem, and crown him Lord of all. Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus our Lord. In so doing we will commune with him, not only now, but always.

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So, as we sing the old rugged cross, hymn number 96, we invite you to accept Jesus Christ as one who will be humiliated and one who lives for his own sin. [Music] [Music]

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[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

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♪ The day is nigh ♪ ♪ When all shall be calm ♪ ♪ Till earth and heaven ♪ ♪ Are one in Christ Jesus ♪

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♪ And all shall know ♪ [Music] ♪ I am ♪ ♪ The Lord ♪

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♪ And you are ♪ ♪ My heavenly ♪ ♪ Lord ♪ ♪ You are ♪

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♪ The light ♪ ♪ Of my life ♪ ♪ I'll take my love with me ♪ ♪ I'll take my love with me ♪

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♪ 'Til the morning comes ♪ [Music] [Music] [Music]

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[Music] [Music] ♪ For there is no mountain high enough ♪ ♪ For a mountain that's not enough ♪

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♪ And there is no mountain high enough ♪ ♪ I'll be there to help you when you're down ♪ ♪ You'll be found by the mountains ♪ ♪ By the rivers ♪

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♪ You'll be found by the rivers ♪ (music) [BLANK_AUDIO]