ATTITUDE CHECK
Philippians 2.1-4
S: Humility
C: Service, Father’s Day
Th: Toward the Goal
Pr: LIVE HUMBLY BEFORE OTHERS.
?: Why?
KW: Reason
TS: We will find in our study of Philippians 2.1-4 three reasons why we should live humbly before others.
CV: “We will purposefully practice being a community marked by love and grace.”
Type: Propositional
I. GOD IS AT WORK (1)
II. ONENESS IS ESSENTIAL (2)
III. PRIDE IS A CONSTANT ENEMY (3-4)
PA: How is the change to be observed?
• Consistently live out what is in you.
• Obstinately work toward unity.
• Ruthlessly deal with pride.
• Humbly live before others (especially your children).
Version: ESV
RMBC 15 June 08 AM
INTRODUCTION:
Two weeks ago, we began our two month series on the letter Paul writes to the church in Philippi.
Our study theme for Philippians is…
1. “Toward the Goal.”
When Paul is writing this letter, he is under house arrest in Rome.
For 24/7, he is literally chained to one of the elite soldiers of the empire.
But this has hardly broken the spirit and determination of the apostle Paul.
For he will write toward the end of this letter, these words (3.14):
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
But how do we get there?
How do we get ourselves positioned so that we are moving toward the goal?
ILL Humility (H)
Like most 13-year-olds, Masoud Karkehabadi was busy studying in school. Unlike other kids his age, however, he was a senior in college, cracking the books in prepa¬ration for his medical-school entrance exams.
With an A average and an I.Q. of more than 200 (140 is considered genius level), Karkehabadi earned his biology degree from the University of Califor¬nia at Irvine in June 1994. Then he began medical school the following fall and was on his way to becoming a neuro-surgeon - all before he’s old enough to get his driver’s license.
For someone with an intellect that any adult would envy, Karkehabadi was refreshingly kidlike. He jumped from scientific discussions about 6-hydroxy-dopamine - a drug he used in his research on Parkinson’s disease - to casual chats about his favorite video game.
How did the older students treat the preteen prodigy? "Some of them teased me at first," he said. "But when I started tutoring them, they got much nicer."
Here is what we learn from that story…
2. A key ingredient is humility.
Masoud’s fellow-students learned humility.
When they found out that they could learn much from Masoud when he was 12, 13, and 14 years old, they learned to be quiet and nice.
It is a good lesson to us as well.
For we need to…
3. LIVE HUMBLY BEFORE OTHERS.
And as we look at today’s text, we are going to discover why.
Why should we live this way?
We will find in our study of Philippians 2.1-4 three reasons why we should live humbly before others.
OUR STUDY:
The first reason is that…
I. GOD IS AT WORK (1)
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy…
I know that it does not quite sound right when we stop at this point, but there is a problem with how these phrases are translated.
The “if” is communicated in a way that there is an expression of doubt.
But the grammatical construction is not doing that.
Instead, it is speaking of realities.
It is speaking of realities that God is doing in and through us.
This is why I included the New Living Translation’s rendering:
Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? (NLT)
I think then, this verse is saying…
4. We are profoundly blessed.
Each of those questions presumes an answer.
The answer is “Yes!”
You see, God is really at work in us.
These are not some theological abstractions.
This is God’s real work in us.
The first reality is that Jesus has come alongside of us.
And now we know, with confidence, that we belong to Him.
Thus, we can take His encouragement, and move forward.
The next reality is found in the phrase “comfort from love.”
This describes when someone comes to us close.
They speak softly and privately, but they speak good words.
They are words that console.
They are words that encourage.
They are words that strengthen us.
And this is what Jesus does for us.
He keeps us going by reassuring us over and over of His love.
Participation of the Holy Spirit signifies fellowship.
When we become Christians, it is the Holy Spirit that comes to live inside of us.
In fact, we become temples, the very place where God resides.
This is why God is never far away.
He is always present, whether we are aware of Him or not.
The final reality is that because Christ has saved us and the Holy Spirit resides in us, we have been given affection and sympathy.
We have become tender and compassionate.
We have a sensitivity to the needs of others that we did not possess before.
So what does Paul want us to get about these realities in our lives?
What does he want us to do with these profound blessings?
It is this…
5. Consistently live out what is in you.
ILL Consistent (H)
A car was observed with the following three bumper stickers.
"Don’t be fooled by genetically engineered food – demand labels and safety testing for food";
"Eat for the health of it";
"Support or¬ganic farmers."
And where was the car observed?
The car was at a McDonald’s drive-through.
We Christians should not be found inconsistent.
We need to live out the truth of what Paul told us earlier (1.6).
…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
God is at work in us.
It is a reality that we can live out.
It is not out of our reach.
It is in our grasp, if we will humbly receive the truth of it.
The second reason we are live humbly is that…
II. ONENESS IS ESSENTIAL (2)
…complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
Paul tells the Philippians to make his joy complete.
In other words, he says, “Make me glad!”
And he says it in a way that we will understand that this is not optional.
Unity in the church is never optional, for…
6. We are designed for teamwork.
In the Greek text, “being of the same mind” means that we think the same thing.
There is common understanding, and with that understanding, there is genuine agreement.
Along with that, we are to have the same love.
In other words, we live out the fact that love always seeks good.
We are consistently looking out for the best for each other.
The idea of “being in full accord” literally means that we are “one-souled.”
We have authentic heart agreement.
And you don’t get that unless you exclude personal ambition, selfishness, hatred, envy, and jealousy.
The last description of this teamwork is to be of one mind.
Literally, the Greek reads, “thinking one thing.”
We work together intent on one purpose.
We are on the same team!
We don’t always act this way, but it is true nonetheless.
And the whole of Scripture is clear.
We cannot claim a unity with Christ and then walk in disunity with other believers.
This means then that we need to…
7. Obstinately work toward unity.
We need to remember that if God has brought us together, then we need to work together.
We don’t have the choice to say to someone else to push off.
We should never ultimately believe in “blessed subtraction.”
For what God has joined together, we should not tear apart.
Please note this…
Fracturing Christian relationships is one of Satan’s major objectives.
He wants us arguing.
He wants us being offended.
He wants us distrusting each other.
He loves this when it happens.
But if we get our purposes right, he cannot be successful.
If we resolve to pull together and glorify God…
If we resolve to communicate the truth about Jesus…
If we resolve to obey God’s Word and love one another…
…then Satan is a major loser.
But to truly live out oneness, we will have to remember that…
III. PRIDE IS A CONSTANT ENEMY (3-4)
Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
We need to speak truth to ourselves.
It is our responsibility to advance God’s work and not advance our selves.
There is no room for rivalry and selfish ambition.
There is no room for quarrelling, infighting, and strife.
There is also no room for conceit.
Literally this reads “empty glory.”
It is speaking of a highly exaggerated self-view.
If we do these things, we are bound to collide with others.
We cannot avoid it, unless…
8. We practice a different set of values.
The term that Paul uses here to define humility is different than you might think.
It speaks of “lowliness of mind.”
But what makes it more interesting is that it was a derisive term used of slaves.
It was used to describe those that were common, unfit, or considered of little value.
But there is something about humility we need to grab on to.
For humility is the opposite of pride.
It is not weakness.
If we have a low self-esteem and allow people to run all over us that is not humility.
Humility is strength of character.
Humility is to look to another person and see their interests and to count them as more important than your own.
That does not come from weakness, but from strength.
It takes strength to look out for others.
Humility is a call to high Christian character.
It is a call to strength.
The world may think it is weak.
Not so.
It is strength.
Therefore, we need to…
9. Ruthlessly deal with pride.
We must be deliberate.
We must be persistent.
We need to resist it.
We must not give in to it.
I like how The Message renders these verses:
Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. (MSG)
At the beginning of the service, you watched a video called, “What Would You Do?”
What keeps you from helping those that are in need?
What keeps you from being there for those that are hurting?
What keeps you from reaching out to those that are stuck in our culture?
Is it fear?
Is it weakness?
Is it pride?
Is it that you still have not figured out how to live humbly?
CHALLENGE:
One of the stated values of our church – what we are aiming for – is that…
10. Randall Value: “We will purposefully practice being a community marked by love and grace.”
That is not easy.
It is not easy because it takes a willingness to be humble.
It is not easy because it means thinking of others first.
It is not easy because it means putting another’s interests ahead of your own.
It is not easy because it takes strength.
ILL Christlikeness (S)
A drunk named Joe was miraculously converted at a Bowery mission. Prior to his conversion, Joe had gained the reputation of being a dirty wino for whom there was no hope, only a miserable existence in the ghetto.
But following his conversion to a new life with God, everything changed. Joe became the most caring person that anyone associated with the mission had ever known. Joe spent his days and nights hanging out at the mission doing whatever needed to be done. There was never any task that was too lowly for Joe to take on. There was never anything that he was asked to do that he considered beneath him. Whether it was cleaning up the vomit left by some violently sick alcoholic or scrubbing the toilets after careless men left the bathroom filthy, Joe did what was asked with a soft smile on his face and with a seeming gratitude for the chance to help. He could be counted on to feed feeble men who wandered into the mission off the street, and to undress and tuck into bed men who were too out of it to take care of themselves.
One evening, when the director of the mission was delivering his evening evangelistic message to the usual crowd of still and sullen men with drooped heads, there was one man who looked up, came down the aisle to the altar and knelt to pray, crying out for God to help him to change. The repentant drunk kept shouting, “Oh God, make me like Joe! Make me like Joe! Make me like Joe! Make me like Joe!”
The director of the mission leaned over and said to the man, “Son, I think it would be better if you prayed, ‘Make me like Jesus!’”
The man looked up at the director with a quizzical expression on his face and asked, “Is he like Joe?”
Folks, hear this…
Love and grace always win the day.
When we humbly show them, we too will be accused of Christlikeness.
And believe me, that kind of accusation will be a good thing.
This kind of humility, though, is not just for our church relationships and ministries.
11. We are also to live humbly in our closest relationships.
It is in our closest relationships that we need the most work.
It is here that we need to have real attitude checks.
For it is easy to get lazy around those that we know best (after all, we think they are stuck with us).
We are to show humility in our marriage relationships.
It takes time to figure out that marriage is not about self-interest.
It is looking out for the best of the other.
It is about moving as “one.”
I always enjoy watching two people who have put in a lot of time together.
We have some fine examples of this in our church family.
They get to the point that they know what the other is thinking.
They will even finish each other’s sentences, and not get mad about it.
It is a harmony that is cherished.
But that does not come easy.
It takes deliberate growing in humility.
We are to show humility in our family relationships.
Dads, I want to especially encourage you to be humble before your children.
Often, we don’t get how important this is until the kids are grown up and out of the house.
We are not supermen.
We do not know it all.
We do not have unlimited strength.
We can’t figure everything out.
We sometimes fail.
And when our children know that we know how to say we are sorry, they will follow our example.
And more importantly, they will follow the humble attitude of Jesus.
For as Paul writes (and will lead off our study next week)…
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus… (NIV)
For Further Study: Isaiah 14.12-14; John 17.21; I Corinthians 1.10; II Corinthians 13.11; Galatians 5.26; Ephesians 4.1-6; 4.30; 5.18; Colossians 3.12-15; I Thessalonians 5.19
BENEDICTION:
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
RESOURCES:
SermonCentral:
Beaman, Brad Humility: The Key to a Like-Minded Church
Hereford, Steve Maintaining Spiritual Unity
Hunt, Darrin You First
Other sources:
Barclay, William. The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians. The Daily Study Bible Series. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1959.
Calvin, John. Calvin’s Commentaries. 22 vols, ed. The Calvin Translation Society. Edinburgh, Scotland, 1843.
MacArthur, John, Jr. Philippians. The Macarthur New Testament Commentary. Chicago: Moody Press, 2001.
Muller, Jac. J. The Epistles of Paul to the Philippians and to Philemon. The New International Commentary on the New Testament, ed. F. F. Bruce. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1976.
Wiersbe, Warren W. The Bible Exposition Commentary: New Testament. Colorado Springs: ChariotVictor Publishing, 1989.
Wuest, Kenneth S. Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament. 3 vols, vol. 2. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1978.
