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brothers and sisters. It is a joy to be here with you. So thankful for friends and family who are here to support and an opportunity to, to share with you colleagues and ministry and praying that

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somehow God will take this word and use it to edify to encourage but to also help us to endeavor to keep on keeping on in the name of the Lord Amen. Yeah, Great motivators are able to

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help people to stretch beyond their capacities. You have trainers, you have coaches who are able to get athlete to push beyond where the athlete thought he or she could ever go in order for them to compete

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at higher level. It's a call. It's a challenge that they are called to do and in so doing the coaches or the teachers or the trainers prepare them to first start developing a trust relationship. Relationships

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are a so essential. Then they must also help the athletes to restrict their bodies of things that other folks are doing and eating for the sake of the work that's yet before them. Then there also training

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them to to rethink or redefine things that they have always known and done for the sake of the goal that is yet before them. It's a work that they're called to do. And then there's a call

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for that athlete for that person to relentlessly strive for their goal. And this training process is not easy . And it's not just for athletes, it's for pastors is for theologians, it's for those who are

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called to bring the community together or bring truth where it needs to be heard and to be received. The pep talk is also important because you have to motivate your people for what's yet to come. You

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see, there are some challenges out there that this person does not know they're going to face. And so you have to encourage them as they're getting ready to go and face this new challenge. Whether it's

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one that they see right now or that's on the horizon, you need to encourage them and prepare them for for that. And then there's a preparation in the mind so that when it comes, they know

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how to act, they know how to react. That's what the coaches or one who trains does with the folks. When we hear this text, paul is in prison, he's incarcerated yet he writes to

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the church in philippi and he wants to encourage them . He wants to encourage them to continue doing the great work. And that's something if I was in prison, the last thing I want to do is

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encourage anyone else. No, you come and encourage me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he writes to encourage them to continue the work and then he writes to celebrate and thank them for the ways

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in which they invested in him and in the greater Church. That's what paul does as he's riding back to them. And so it's a pep talk for perilous times. I don't know what you will face

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. Some of you said, well, we're gonna have finals. I mean some midterms coming up. So we're facing that. Yeah, some folks would go before CPM. So we're facing that. Yeah

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. Call or nation exams, things that we're facing . But be encouraged as we work through the sermon , I like for us to think about confidence, conforming. And then the last thing is to concentrate

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confidence. We're here paul and verses four through six and we think, man, this guy is conceded , he's got a lot of pride and I thought that goes before a fall, I don't know about

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paul. But then if we look at the text will begin to understand that paul is concerned that there's some false teachers, there's some judy Kaisers, there's some folks who are going to come in in good

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heart, good desires, good intentions, try to redirect the church, but nevertheless, to put them , push them away from where he's trying to get them to go by the help of the Lord Almighty

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. And so he's got to let them know his credentials. So I can say whatever they have to say, I can measure up as a matter of fact, as a matter of fact, I can

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surpass them. So again, they, the people can have confidence in this leader who is in jail and writing them as they're facing the new challenges of the great leaders that are around them. We will

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all at times find ourselves in that place. And it's not for us to be conceited or cocky, but just to know our credentials and our credentials are that were Children of the living God. We've been

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chosen and we've been called and we've been claimed and there is nothing that anyone in this world can do to change that fact. Amen. That's our credential . That's where our confidence ought to be. Our

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confidence in the righteousness of jesus, the christ. And so the challenges are yet before them. He's riding. He's sharing that and preparing them as Yeah , theologians and pastors. You're gonna be going to

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some churches. Yeah. You're gonna already be serving in churches where when you're trying to help lead them as the Lord is calling them and go there gonna be some Judaism's there who's gonna say no, This

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is the way we've always done it, and this is the way we still need to do it. And when you leave, well still we're here. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Okay, okay,

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how well is that work for you so far? Because sometimes we fall in love with our location, we fall in love what? Be careful, I'm not being bad about this, but we fall in

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love with our liturgy and we fall in love with loving people within the church that we fail to reach out to those on the margin who outside who need us to be willing to show grace and mercy just

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a little bit so that they can come in and partake and participate and be present and bless all that we're called to be as the church of jesus christ amen because sometimes we'll say well if they want what

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do we have, they need to come to us , they need to change But our Lord and our master sent the disciples out two x 2 to them , then he said live with them. And then

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if they don't show you the hospitality then you leave but you go to them knowingly I send you out as sheep among wolves. Empowered equipped. But still you must engage those on the outside. The confidence

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was not so that they can be so confidence in them in themselves, but in the Almighty, you'll hear later on paul says, I count that is rubbish. The old testament rider would tell you that

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our righteousness is as filthy rags before God. And so it is only the righteousness of christ that blesses us in our work that we're called to do conforming . Mhm texas and Baylor will be playing on saturday

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. And uh legendary coach Grant Taf for Baylor told a story about these Eskimos that were fishing in a couple of Eskimos, saw this other guy and he was catching fish and they're like man, how is

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it that you're catching so many fish? Yeah, when you create a they said what I remember reading and so he opened his mouth and he says because I warm my worms. Yeah and what the coach

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was doing is preparing the team to face a great foal, a great challenge but they needed to be focused not on their competition but on the things that it would take in order for them to be successful

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. Part of the ways that he says is that you may have to do things that are painful or distasteful but do it for the sake of accomplishing your goal conform, paul says, I want to know

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christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his suffering by becoming like him in death. If somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead . Mm he wanted them to know the ways in

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which he is pursuing, trying to conform to be like christ they're gonna be times you're going to have to stand up and when you stand up you're going to go against the status quo, when you stand

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up, you will be rejected when you stand up , your heart will be broken because people will misunderstand what, who you are and your intent. But guess what? Okay, that's what happened to our

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master and our hope, is that a greater cause can come as a result of doing it? Not just the fact that we're going to be martyrs for jesus, no conforming with the purpose and an intent

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for the greater good. Even as he's writing the church in philippi is important because at the council of of Jerusalem, they were concerned about circumcision and all of a sudden here is this this theologian, this

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pharisee was saying these new folks don't have to be circumcised. What do you mean? The promises of Abraham? Well, part of that process, in which one would have to be circumcised and you're gonna

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say they can be a part of the family, they can be a part of this and they don't have to be circumcised. What? So I don't want you to conform to the that conformed to christ

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, who is the messiah, the one in whom they were writing about, the one in whom were called to live after to serve and to represent as ambassadors conform then. I didn't understand it when I

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was younger, but I'm starting to understand it more and more. And the pastor it that jesus message didn't change his mode or his methodology did because when he was going to die and be buried and be

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resurrected and the sin upon on high and to be at the right hand of God. The folks here on earth couldn't hear the message. So we needed some folks to share the message. And so we

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needed to train and to teach them and prepare them for what it is they would face and he modeled it for them. The message doesn't change, but the mode of the methodology does. That's why we

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have a sim program to allow our commission ruling elders to opportunity as elders, ruling elders to be trained . Now, talking about doing online education for those who are working capital, campaign for a library.

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The message doesn't change. The mode of the methodology . Does what are you willing to do to change so that someone might experience the goodness of the Lord , hear the Gospel and have their lives transformed.

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I don't have my oxygen with me today. But when I contracted this lung disease, it was such a humbling experience. And I then understood this differently instead of being a moderate saying why God, how

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long God, how could you God, I'm one of your own God. But became an opportunity to say, wait a minute. My master suffered. My master experience great challenges and he died so that

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I could have victory. Oh, let me understand that differently. Let me put to death the pride that is in me so that I could take this weakness and allow God to perfect it. And may

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it be used to glorify God and help others to know that God hasn't forsaken them, that they can still have faith and they can still be used by the Almighty Amen. So my text, every time

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I talk about my loans is someone 18 and 17 . It says I will live and not die and I'll declare the works of the Lord for every breath that the enemy tried to take away. I want

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to use it to celebrate God rather than just a critique or complain about what's happening to me. Amen . Finally concentrate. The concentration is hidden in the text but the concentrating filtration becomes real when we hear

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it this way. Not that I have already attained this or have already reached the goal, but I press I press on to make it my own and I love this part here it and hear it well

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, making my own because christ jesus has made me his own. Who when you ever question who you are, why you are, where you are just know that you are christ's own. Mhm And nothing

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can separate you from the love of God Almighty A man concentrates on that, but then he goes a little further beloved, I do not consider that I have made it uh my own, but then he

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says, but there's one thing I do forgetting what lies behind straining forward to what is ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly called in christ jesus, don't concentrate on the

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stuff to your left and to the right, concentrate on the Almighty, concentrate on the goal that is at hand, concentrate on those things. So then when these other things happen, you know, I

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knew that was going to happen. How did you know? My coach told me about it, my teacher told me about it, my parents told me about it. Mhm. Concentrate on the things that

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truly matter because there's gonna be enough in this life and in your ministry that would cause you to look around And the next thing you know, you're going just like Peter Lord bid me to come here,

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come on and you get there and you get out and you're starting to do some walking and then you start focusing on the wrong stuff. And so closing . This is your season. This is your season

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to train to learn to be stretched to be formed . Yeah. So that you're prepared for what's yet to come. And when you have your moments when you cry cry, because you gotta know it's all

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right to cry when you hit the wall. It's okay because you have a community is going to be with you and the Lord who already understands. But it will prepare you because you will hit the wall

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in your pasture. It you will hit the wall when you serve. But you've got to concentrate on the one who has called you to serve as a close. I was stretched by a coach who saw

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something in me when I could no longer play ball . Had had a herniated disc. I had played on for 18 months that ruptured and had messed up my psychotic nerve. I didn't know what the pain

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was and I played through it. And he saw that I had a lot of football with me. Yeah. And he said son, will you coach as a student coach and stay close to the team

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? And I said, yes, coach Mcwilliams. He could see beyond what I could see. He didn't just see another coach. He saw a preacher . Yeah. Mhm. I'm wearing this kente cloth

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roll because my pastor had Grace Presbyterian Church in plano ralph granted at the time I was about to be a Judah izer and say pastor, I can't wear this kind of a robe and a Presbyterian church.

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And at the Presbyterian Seminary, we don't do that . Might call attention to myself and they might think I'm conceded or confident in myself, Isabelle and the pastor said to me, James, you're being called

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to be the director of racial ethnic ministries. This is a symbol of your calling, receive the gift walk in, you're calling. Make it so God