On this edition of Classic Christianity Radio, Bob George delivers a powerful teaching on encouragement, unconditional love, humility, and total dependency upon Christ. Teaching through Philippians, Bob explains that every human being longs for unconditional acceptance, meaning, and purpose — but those needs can never truly be fulfilled through other people, relationships, careers, or worldly success.
Bob challenges listeners to stop searching for complete fulfillment in spouses, children, churches, or accomplishments and instead find lasting comfort in the unconditional love and acceptance available only through Jesus Christ. He also explains the importance of being spiritually taught by the Holy Spirit
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George. Bob’s clear, timeless teachings on the complete forgiveness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ will transform your life as you learn about God’s amazing grace. Let’s join Bob as he teaches us from God’s Word.
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If you have any encouragement from being united in Christ, what he’s saying is, are you really encouraged by the fact that you are united to Christ Jesus? Is that an encouragement to you? The opposite of encouragement is discouragement. Are you discouraged by not being united with Christ? The other thing is, are you discouraged even though you are united to Christ? But the issue is, he says, is there any encouragement in your heart just because of the fact that you have come to know Christ Jesus as your Lord and Savior and the fact that in order to do so, you had to be drawn by the Father, that the Father so loved you that he reached out in eternity and grabbed a hold of your heart and you responded to the gospel message. Is there any encouragement in that truth? Is there any comfort in his love? Are we comforted by the fact that God loves you totally? Because, my friends, many times we don’t understand that God made us with a need as strong as horseradish to be loved unconditionally. That is a need of all men who are born into the world, to be loved unconditionally, to be accepted unconditionally, and to have meaning and purpose to your life. That is a need of all people. You have to have meaning and purpose to your life. You have to experience unconditional acceptance and love. There’s only one problem with that. that it is impossible to find here on this earth. There’s nothing that you do that can bring you meaning and purpose to life. There is no way that your husband or your wife or your kids or anyone else is ever going to be able to provide that need that you have for unconditional love and acceptance. We can try, we can hope, but it is an impossibility. Am I right or wrong? So if you’re looking for that kind of love, which everyone is, I got news for you. You’re not going to find it here. The only place that you’re going to find unconditional love is And unconditional acceptance. And meaning and purpose to your life. Is in your relationship with Christ Jesus. That’s why we should be encouraged. By being united with Christ Jesus. The only place that you’re ever going to get that need met. And all of us do we not have that need as strong as horseradish. We all have this need to be loved unconditionally. And to be accepted unconditionally. But the issue is that because God made us that way, and we don’t know that the only place that we can find that is in him. We are forced to try to find it the only place that we know. And that’s one another. And that’s where the disappointment of life comes in. And the discouragement of life comes in. Is the fact that I’ve got this deed. God obviously gave it to me. But I cannot find it met here on this earth. And Christ in essence saying is I never intended you to. I always intended you to find that need to be met only in your creator. He is the only one that can love you unconditionally, and he is the only one who accepts you exactly as you are. The greatest need we have, is there anyone out there who will understand me? Is there anyone out there who will accept me just as I am? And the answer to it is yes, but he doesn’t walk in flesh and blood. The answer to it is in Christ Jesus. And so he says to be comforted with this. This should be a comfort to us, a comfort to our hearts, even though the whole world, and there’s many, many people, many of you sitting right here in this room, who all of your life have tried desperately to try to find meaning and purpose to life in your family, in your wife, in your husband, in your kids, wherever it might be, only to come to a sense of discouragement that I cannot find it. And he’s saying, I want you to be comforted by the fact that even though the whole world could turn against you, that God will never turn against you and that nothing can separate you from the love of God. That is a comfort. It should be a deep comfort to our hearts that nothing can separate you and me from the love of God. Is there any encouragement from having fellowship with the Spirit of God of recognizing that when you were lost, You had no fellowship with God at all. You knew about him. You certainly could sing songs about him. You certainly could come to church and learn a little something about him. But again, God made us in such a way whereby no eye is going to see nor ear hear or mind conceive of those things that God has prepared for those who love him. But it is going to have to be revealed by the Spirit of God. So until you’re indwelt by the Spirit, you’re not going to understand the meaning of the Word of God. And that’s why that I am not interested in just building a bunch of people, most of whom don’t know the Lord from an apple tree, and sit here and try to explain the truth of God’s Word to you. Because you can’t understand it any more than I could understand truth for 36 years of my life, sitting in church listening, but I couldn’t understand anything. It’s not because I was dumb. It was because I was devoid of what it takes to understand the meaning of the word of God. And that’s the spirit of God living in you. And so what you’re looking for in a group of people are people who are born again of the Spirit of God, so that when you’re teaching the truth of the Word of God, you’re teaching to some people who can understand what you’re saying. And that is not necessarily going to draw huge numbers. And that’s not what we’re here for, is to draw large numbers. We’re here to try to develop people and to help them to grow in their knowledge of Christ Jesus. And so there should be an encouragement, a fellowship with the Spirit. Is there any tenderness and compassion in us? Do we experience tenderness of heart and compassion toward other people? And he said we should be doing that. We should be, if all of these things are true, I’m united with Christ. I’m comforted by the fact that if the whole world turned against me, God’s for me. And if God’s for you, who could be against you? I’m comforted by that. I have a light mindedness toward my brothers and sisters in Christ. I have the same love. There’s only one spirit and purpose. He said, if those things, if tenderness and compassion and fellowship and encouragement are a part of your life, then make my joy complete by being one like minded. And again, he didn’t say to make my joy complete by all of you doing the same thing at the same time, same place, same degree of enthusiasm. He said to make my joy complete by being like-minded. And that like-mindedness is in your relationship with Christ Jesus. Do not approach the word of God with a bias and say, okay, God, now confirm my bias. That is not the way you study the word of God. If you want to study the Word of God in order to get the meaning of it, you study the Word of God with this attitude, Lord Jesus, I can study this Word and I can know what it says, but so does a computer know what it says. But for me to know what it means, you are going to have to reveal the meaning of it to me. I can sit here and try to figure it out in the energy of my own flesh, but that’s what it’s going to end up with is a flesh interpretation. But if I’m going to know… what this word means, you are going to have to reveal it to me. Very simple. Only the Spirit can reveal the meaning of the word of God to you. And so it’s saying, be of like-minded. In other words, let God teach you. And guys, figure it out for a minute. Let’s just take these sections. If in this section… All of you are born again. All of you have the spirit of God living in you. All of you have approached the word of God for your interpretation to say, Lord Jesus, if you don’t teach me the meaning of what this word of God says, I’m not going to know what it means. I can quote some things, but I’m not going to know in my heart what it means unless your spirit reveals it to you. And in this section, the same group, same thing. Lord Jesus, I can study what this word says, but unless you teach me the meaning of it, I’m not going to know what it means. Same thing over here. Lord Jesus, I’m going to study this word. I can tell you what it says. Don’t have to be saved to tell you what it says. A computer knows what it says. But I don’t know what it means, and I’m not going to know what it means unless you reveal it to me. Now I want to ask you, if that’s true, and the Spirit doesn’t lie, He does exactly what He says, He’s going to reveal the meaning to any heart that is saying to Him, and any heart that believes this, that Lord, if you reveal it to me, I’m going to know what it means. How much difference is there going to be between this group and this group and this group? In your understanding? None. You’re going to be like-minded. Without even… You don’t even have to take a boat. You see, many times we say, well, what’s our denomination believe? That’s what I believe. Don’t ever do that. That’s nonsense. You believe what is true because God’s revealed it to you. And I just have confidence enough in God and his Holy Spirit that if God lives in you and he’s revealing truth to you, he’s going to reveal the same truth to you and the same truth to you and the same truth to you and the same truth to me. And we’re going to be like-minded without trying to be like-minded. We’re going to be like-minded because God has made it that way. And so he’s saying don’t do anything out of selfish ambition or conceit. In other words, don’t go around thinking yourself more highly of yourself than you ought. But in humility, he said a spirit of humility. Consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only after your own interests, but to the interests of others. And now he says that our attitude should be like that of Christ Jesus. And guys, everything we do stems from our attitude. What is your attitude toward life itself? What is your attitude toward, should I get up today or shouldn’t I? What is your attitude toward whether you think it’s Saturday or Sunday? Kind of depends on whether you’re going to be here or not. Your attitude. It says, should be the same as Christ Jesus. You notice he didn’t say your actions should be the same as Christ Jesus. Why shouldn’t our actions be the same as Christ Jesus? What’s wrong with what would Jesus do? What’s wrong with that? Well, in the first place, try it out for size and see how you do. Jesus walked on water. Try that one. Jesus raised the dead. Jesus made the blind to see. He made the deaf to hear. Go try that out for size. So it’s not what would Jesus do, but what was his attitude? If I’m going to imitate Jesus, I’m going to imitate his faith, but I’m not going to imitate his actions. Why? Well, because Jesus said that I don’t do anything unless the Father tells me to do it.
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So Christ functioned in this way. My attitude is I’m going to live in total dependency upon my Father. And my attitude is that even though, as it says, I am God, I’m not going to consider equality with God something to be grabbed a hold of and hang on to. I’m going to let go. Because, guys, you can’t press on when you’re hanging on. And if God was going to accomplish his purpose here on this earth, he had to let go of the prerogative of being God himself. become a man in order to do what show me a man how to live he can’t show me how to live as a man when he’s behaving as God because all I see there is the example of God but I also say no Lord I can’t do that I’m not God he says I know you can’t so he had to become a man and that’s exactly what God did and Being in the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but he made himself, and it’s kind of humbling when you think that he made himself nothing, he made himself one of us and he calls it nothing. He took upon himself the very nature of a servant and being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man. My friends, Jesus was God. He had the appearance of a man. He was in our earth suit. But that was God in our earth suit. I am a man indwelt by God. He was God clothed in our humanity. There’s a world of difference in those two. There are some people who think that because I became a Christian, that I become a little God. And there are some people who literally believe that and teach that. That now that you’re born again, all you have to do, if you think it, that’s God doing it. If you say it, that’s God saying it. And teach that, that we’re just little gods strutting around down here. And I tell people, if I’m God, this place is in some big trouble. And I think you could probably say the same thing. But Jesus was not in trouble. He was God who took upon himself and found himself in an appearance as a man. But he was God in an earth suit. And let’s not ever forget who he was. That is his identity. He is God. You and I are not. We’re man. Are we together on that? So he found himself in appearance as a man and he humbled himself. And he became obedient to death, even death on the cross. So, again, what did Jesus say? I don’t do anything unless the Father tells me to do it. So he lived in total dependency as a man. God, finding himself in appearance as a man, said, for me to show you, a man, how to live, then I’m going to have to live like a man. And so I’m going to show you how to live like a man. Now, if Jesus was living as God, he would be the dynamic of his own action and the cause of his own effect. Because that’s what God is. God speaks things that are not into existence as if they were. That wasn’t Jesus. He said, if I’m going to teach you how to live, then I’m going to live in total dependency upon my Father in heaven. And I’m not going to do anything unless he tells me to do it. And I’m not going to say anything unless he tells me not only what to say, but even equally as important, how to say it. I think that’s amazing how he said that. Because how we say things, guys, a lot of times means how it’s interpreted, isn’t it? And you can say something to me sometimes in one way that I’m going to interpret one way and say the identical words in another way But I’m going to interpret it in a totally different way. And so he not only told him what to say, but he told him how to say it. Now, if we’re going to imitate and be imitators of Christ Jesus, what are we going to imitate? What he says? What he does? Or his dependency on the Father? Which is it? Which is it? Which dependency on the Father? And that is precisely what he’s trying to get across here to us, is that if you’re going to walk on this earth with any kind of success, you’re going to have to walk the same way I did, and I walked in total dependency upon my Father, even to becoming obedient to death, even death on the cross. Remember some of Christ’s final word, Father, if it’s possible, take this from me. If it’s possible at all. In other words, if there’s any other way of saving these people, apart from my having to become sin and take upon myself every sloppy, dirty, lousy thing that you and I have ever done or thought, do it. And yet, Father, it’s not my will, but it’s yours be done. In other words, I am not here for my own glorification. I’m here to do your will. And so Christ Jesus went to a cross. And because of that truth, and because of the attitude of Christ Jesus, that he said, that’s what we should duplicate, this attitude of what? Dependency. The dependency upon Christ to accomplish in us what we cannot accomplish on our own. Because of that, God exalted him to the highest place. And he gave him the name that is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Now, I look at this. You may want to look at it as well. And I see that he says every knee should bow. And every tongue should confess. And he says that those that do that are in heaven. And on earth. And under the earth. Now does anyone know anybody that lives under the earth? I don’t know. Do you? He says here. That a knee is going to bow. That means somebody’s got a knee. And every tongue is going to confess. And that means that somebody’s got a tongue. And where those people are located is in heaven and on earth and under the earth. He says, in essence, this could just mean that he’s just saying in the totality of what we know in this earth, below it or on top of it, every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess. And that is true. It’s going to come at the end times when Christ Jesus ultimately returns again. To this earth that every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that he’s Lord. Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but how much more in my absence. Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Now, guys, many times people have taken this passage of Scripture to teach that you can lose your salvation. That we should work out or that salvation is not by faith. It’s also through works. And it says right here you should work out. Well, what in the world is he talking about here? Continue to work out your salvation. That means already have salvation already. Now to start to work out what has been worked in. What Christ has placed in you, now work it out. Christ has loved you perfectly. Now do what? Love one another. Christ Jesus has forgiven you perfectly. Now what? Forgive one another. How? As Christ Jesus forgave you. Christ Jesus has given you tenderness and compassion. What is working out the salvation has been worked into us. Exert compassion and understanding and comfort and love to those around us. And so it has nothing to do with the loss of salvation. It is merely saying that what I have worked in you, don’t sit there like the Dead Sea and say, whoopee, I got all this stuff, thank God. He said, no, that doesn’t make my love complete. My love is complete when you’re basking in the fact that nothing can separate you from the love of God and you therefore begin to pass that love on to those around you. Then my love is complete. My love is complete when I’ve given it to you and you have given it to someone else. And so he’s saying to us to work out what’s been worked in with fear and trembling. Now, what does that mean? Well, I remember when Paul said that when I came to you, I did not come to you with lofty words and brilliant ideas, but I came to you in fear and trembling. That doesn’t mean that Paul was sitting there all shaky. It means I came to you with reverence. Fear and trembling means that I came to you with reverence. I came to you with awe and reverence. And the same thing is true here. That work out your salvation with awe and with reverence to the one who worked it in you. Doesn’t have to sit around and walking around like this toward God. It means that you have reverence toward God. Why? It’s God who works in you to will and to do and to act according to his good pleasure. Now, here’s one for us. Do everything without complaining or arguing. Now, if all of us followed that, would our households be a wee bit different? Without complaining or arguing. Okay. Guys, we can find everything to complain about, can’t we? It’s too hot. It’s too cold. The television’s too loud. Turn it up. It’s too soft. Ever run into those things? Complaining about everything. The food didn’t taste quite as good as it did last week. Complaining. Arguing. What do you argue about? Always wanting to be right. Guy said, I married my wife. Her name was Miss Right. I just didn’t know her first name was Always.
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What do we argue over? I’m right. You’re wrong. So what? When you think about it, so what?
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Well, all of those are attitudes that are contrary to the attitude of Christ Jesus. It’s not an attitude of humility. It’s an attitude of, by golly, I am right and I’m going to be right. And I don’t care whether you like it or whether you don’t. I’m going to be right. Complaining and arguing. Complaining. It says do everything without those things, without complaining and arguing. Why don’t we try that on? Why don’t we just say, okay, for one day I’m going to function without complaining and arguing. Now he says to not do that so that we can become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation in which you shine like stars in the universe. As you hold out the word of life in order that I may boast on the day of Christ and did not run or labor for nothing. What he is saying here is, I pray that these things will become a part of your life so that I don’t have to sit back someday and say all my labor was for nothing.
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Thank you so much for tuning in to Classic Christianity with Bob George. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We truly hope that today’s message has inspired you to walk a life of faith in the Lord. Find more information online at bobgeorge.net. There you’ll also find available CDs, DVDs and Bible studies available for purchase. It’s through your help that we are able to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another and praise the Lord. Amen.
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Put Jesus first in your life and turn your life around.
