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Philippians 2:1 says: “…Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any tender affection, if any mercy, complete my joy, feeling the same…”

There's that passage. How nice. That is like the heart of the passage, it is like the Holy Spirit of the Father says, complete my joy, fill me with the blessing that I need. I love you, I rejoice in you, but make that joy totally full and manifest when you feel the same.

What does it mean to feel the same? The Greek expression means, thinking one thing as thinking the same thing. It is being of one mind, one thought, one way of thinking, being the Lion of Judah Congregation a united family, a family that is so harmonious that it is as if we had only one mind, one thought, united by the Holy Spirit.

That is the Jesus prayer. Father, may they be one, as you and I are one. The Lord wants our church to perfect that love, that we put aside all the quarrels, all the divisions of class, race, nationality, socio-economic background, education.

When we enter here all that stays out there. Here we are children of God, servants of Jesus Christ, disciples of the Lord, believers in him, united by one spirit, one faith, one baptism, one love, as the word says, one Lord. That is what the Father wants and we have to ask the Lord, Father, to remove all quarrels, all backbiting, all gossip, all resentment between us. Help us to be solicitous, he says, in keeping the bond of love. Solicitous means that you have to make an effort, you have to be like a waiter who is solicitous that his client is at the table, has the water he needs, he dropped a napkin, and before it touches the floor, he is already picking it up.

Have you been to one of those very expensive restaurants? Where those waiters are watching like lookouts in a corner. Since the glass got a little out of the water, he comes and adds a little more. Solicitous. That is a helpful young man. We have to be like that, eager to please the Father, and eager to keep the bond of unity.

That is, any little thing, many times we are not solicitous. Ever since someone said something that I didn't like, I've turned on once and for all, ever since they didn't like me, ever since they didn't call me, ever since they didn't invite me, ever since they didn't put me there like a glass of Bethlehem, now I feel ofended. So we are not solicitous.

This means that when you see that the conversation is heating up, withdraw once and for all, instead of continuing to add fuel to the fire so that the bond of love remains. A congregation has to take a vow of harmony.

He says, "... complete my joy feeling the same..." being of one mind, being of one heart, being of one feeling, one attitude, one desire, feeling the same, the same thing. Says:

“…Do nothing out of contention or vainglory…”

Note that all this is about one thing and you are going to see it in a moment, and it is the week of the passion. He's actually putting the app in before the show. In other words, what he is saying should be at the end of what is to come, but he puts it at the beginning, and then uses what follows as an illustration of what he is asking us to do.

So, then he is saying, pray to the Lion of Judah, be of the same mind, be a united church, be brothers who love one another, that he be eager to keep the bond of peace. Do nothing out of contention or vainglory.

When I stand here I have to tell them, Lord, take away all pretense, all desire to do anything for myself, to enlarge myself, or to receive something from people. I have to examine my heart very well when I do anything up here, because I know how dangerous it is when one does anything out of vainglory, out of pride, to draw attention to oneself or in some way to give oneself a guille, as the Puerto Ricans say, or a little moment over there, how good, how great... No.

One has to come up here, stripped of all human pretensions, and likewise you have to do in your ministry, what you do, if you are the leader of a cell, if you work as a hujier. Wow, how good this uniform looks, how cute I look today Sunday. No, you have to strip yourself of all vainglory and also do nothing out of contention.

Sometimes we do things, ah, so you can see, so they can notice. Neither out of vainglory, which is one thing... nor out of contention, but both things, negative and apparently positive, we should not do anything. We have to examine our hearts every time we are ministering in a group or in whatever, we must say, Lord, just because of your mercy and your goodness.

When a congregation does that, brothers, when it is made up of people like that, it is God's greatest blessing and glory. God descends on such a church. Says:

“…Do nothing out of vainglory or strife, but rather with humility…”

We have to ask the Lord to teach us what humility truly is.

“…Estimate each other as superior to themselves…”

That is a principle that is repeated many times in Scripture. If I were a Pentecostal preacher, I would say to you right now, look at your brother to your right, why don't you? Look at your brother and tell him, you are superior to me. tell him. That if I were Pentecostal. I do not want to say that I have an inferiority complex, because the inferiority complex does not please God.

What he is saying is that you have to look at your brothers and see the good in them and in a sense see so much goodness in them and be so aware of your shortcoming and your sin that it is as if you were seeing your brother. and you said, he is a much better Christian than me. What you are saying is...

Because many times we are always looking at the good that we have and the bad that others have. I believe that the Bible invites us, no, look at the good that others have and look at yourself and see all your sin and all that you still have to walk. And then you say, wow, really.

It is like this, brothers, there are many people who are here in the pulpit serving God and taking a lot of glory and there are people in the seats who will reach the Kingdom of God first before them. I understand that very well. And one has to be aware of that continuously. One has to be aware of the blessing that is in the humblest person.

We many times exalt ourselves so much, we are not sufficiently aware of our own spiritual poverty. If there is something that you have done that you believe deserves glory, give it up immediately. Always see the good that is in your brother and exalt him and bless them and leave in your spiritual poverty. And that, instead of making you inferior, will lift you up.

Look at what it says here, "... not looking each one for his own but each one also for the others..."

You see all that, those first 4 verses are an invitation to what the congregational ethics of the family of God is: do nothing out of vainglory, out of contention, be aware of your own poverty, be aware of your brother's merit, strive to maintain the bond of harmony with each other, not be one protecting your little piece.

Many times we are like that, like the dogs that growl when they are going to remove our bones. If I sat in the same place for 10 years and someone sits there, forget it, right away… grrrr…. All the spikes come out. If the little brother is bothering me because I'm singing off key, I let him know that he is bothering me. Someone sat down, it got a little too close to me because they have a coat... not looking at each one for their own, but also for the others.

It is your turn to look away from yourself and put it on the other in a benevolent way, full of grace. It is the ethics of grace. So, having said all of that, notice that's the practical part of this passage, so he uses an example of someone who took that to its fullest. Who is that? Jesus. This week we celebrate precisely that act. He then says:

“…Let there be, then, in you this feeling that there was also in Christ Jesus…”

In other words, Christ exemplified all that is there, he did not look at his own, he did nothing out of vainglory, he did nothing out of contention, he saw the beauty in others, he did everything with humility, not looking for his own pleasure, his own comfort but that of others. Says:

“…Let there be, then, in you this feeling that there was also in Christ Jesus – and he then explains why Christ exemplifies that at the maximum level. Look what his condition was –

If I am or you try to be humble, it is because we know that we have no other choice, because the truth is that we do not deserve much, but the Lord had every right to exalt himself, to be vainglorious, because everything was true. good that it can be said, he exemplified it. Says:

“…Which being in the form of God – and I am not going to expound, because it is a glorious and sublime passage, and I am going to resist because I already want to release it, but it says − … which being in the form of God – en morfe Teu , that is the word of form, Teu, God, en morfe Teu – being in the form of God, he did not estimate being equal to God…”

There is the divinity of Christ. As something to cling to, he did not cling to anything, on the contrary, he emptied himself, stole himself, emptied himself, is the word, kenosis. It means he emptied himself, emptied himself, undid himself, "... taking the form of a servant, made similar to men and being in the condition of a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death and death on a cross..."

There is the exposure of what we are supposed to do. He exemplifies that in maximum form and you and I are supposed to use him as a model. Instead of just, oh, Lord how good you are, how great you are, we praise you. No, Lord, help me to be like you in all your behavior, in all your way of being.

Because you know what? That attitude is what attracts what follows in the life of a child of God. Says:

“…For which reason God also − as he did that, God did his part, he says, − exalted him to the highest…”

He could not take it higher "... and gave him a name that is above every name so that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth, and even under the earth..."

The demons are going to have to kneel one day, the principalities, the powers, all the powers of hell are going to have one day, too... because they have authority, they have their own diabolical glory, but they do, but one day they will having to kneel captives, one day all of creation will have to recognize, the atheists, the vain, the materialists, the philosophers who did not want to recognize it, the artists who wanted to have their own glory instead of giving it to the Lord, the philanthropists who they took too much glory for themselves instead of saying, that money that I gave, is because Christ gave it to me, God gave it to me.

All those people are going to have to humble themselves before the Lord. Animals, birds, fish, insects will raise a symphony of worship to the Lord. That's going to be something amazing.

“…Every knee of those who are in heaven, on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father…”

You see, brother, that passage that they say is one of the first hymns that was sung in the church, then there is in you the same feeling that there was in Christ Jesus who, being in the form of God, did not consider being equal to God. It is believed to be a hymn that was sung in church.

There was a confession, a creed, but the origin of that is a call to us to model and exemplify what Christ modeled in an extraordinary way. This week of the passion, as it is called, this week of Holy Week invites us to reflect on the way of living of Jesus Christ, the way of being of him, what brought him to earth, what led him to the cross, which led him to lose weight and get into the transparent body of a baby and live like a man, as the Bible says, which is unattractive so that no one would want it.

If Christ had passed through one of our streets today, we would not even have stopped for a moment to look at him because he was a simple, humble, ordinary man in his physical appearance, he was not Brad Pitt, in today's ways.

One of the things that I sometimes believe, this series... the Bible series, how beautiful and how good, but I don't believe that Jesus was a movie star in his appearance. Jesus was a very dignified man, unattractive for us to want him, not so that we would want him, but unattractive for anyone to want him, that is to say, it was just as if he had walked by and looked like a jibarito from Roxbury or from Jamaica plain. That was Jesus, he was not a flashy man or anything, he was the Son of man, he was like a mixture of all humanity, he seemed Brazilian, African, Arab, he was a mixture of races, he was like humanity itself decanted, a man average.

I believe that he became like that, humble, simple, ordinary and God said, wow, I like my Son, look how beautiful, then he raised him up. When you live that way, God raises you up. People believe that it is by blowing your own trumpet that you reach glory, it is the opposite, it is by getting into a corner so that no one sees you and saying, Lord, if you want, lift me up and put me in the middle. Many times we fight for the best positions, positions of authority, if they pay us homage we get upset.

Do you know what is the way to get to glory and power and authority in the Kingdom of God? Getting in the middle so that no one in the congregation sees you and saying, Lord, if it pleases you, you can pick me up in your time. That is the person who truly rises to authority genuinely. And then no one can take it away, because God himself gave it to them.

Brothers, in this Holy Week, let us promise and propose to be like Christ, in his attitude, in his humility, his simplicity and his preference for his brothers. Let's stand up.

Let us thank the Lord for his presence so beautiful, so rich in our midst. Get ready, come Friday ready to worship the Lord. I don't think you've already filled your quota for the week, you know? We are going to come on Friday and we are going to give the Lord a little more. Amen. And go home believing that nothing was stolen from you tonight—energy, rest, or anything. Here they gave him energy and rest. When you go home tonight your sleep will be good. Amen. You will be rich, you will rest like a baby.

The Lord is with you. Rejoice because what the Lord has for your life is good. Renounce right now all fear, all expectations of disaster and decrepit old age in the name of the Lord and sickness, poverty, disobedient children. Renounce that in the name of Jesus right now. Renounce all fear, all scarcity, all weakness, all deficiency. Give up, all addiction, all oppression, all bondage. Resign in the name of Jesus right now and leave here clean, stripped, healed in the name of Jesus, full of life, confess virtue that comes from God for your life in the name of the Lord. Your desires will be fulfilled, your children will be blessed. God is going to give you your house. God is going to give you your remains, what you have been crying out to the Lord for so long, you are going to receive it in the name of Jesus. Amen.

In the name of Jesus we claim it. We say it's mine tonight, glory to God. We receive it, Father. Thanks thanks. Hallelujah! We adore you, Lord. we bless you Holy, holy is the Lord. Amen. Amen.