Joy to the world
A study of Philippians
Part 2
“Joy in serving”
Today we will continue our study of Paul’s letter of joy
Also known as the book of Philippians
In this short letter
Paul
The Apostle
Writes to the church at Philippi in Macedonia which is Northern Greece today
And he in spite of the circumstances in his life writes a letter filled with love and joy
Let me remind you of his present circumstances
He has been arrested in Jerusalem for preaching Jesus
He appealed to Caesar being a Roman citizen and was taken to Rome
Where he was being held against his will
But already he had experienced other imprisonments
He had been beaten and stoned
Left for dead
He had been shipwrecked
Ostracized by his own people
He had been lied about and treated like a common criminal
And still he writes a letter called Paul’s letter of Joy
In this short series
It is my desire
With the grace of God
To shed some more light on Paul’s joy
And prayerfully we can learn to unleash this gift in our own lives
Last week we began with “Joy in others”
And looked at how we find joy in all of our relationships
How we must first find and focus on Jesus Christ
How we must give thanks to God for those he places in our lives
Look for the good in them and focus on that
Forgetting the bad
And Pray for them
Pray that they find love that overflows
Pray that they find knowledge and understanding
And as a result learn to live pure and blameless lives
Then as they and we follow Paul’s plan
Joy will reveal itself and grow in all of our relationships
Today we are going to take a look at the second of Paul’s reasons for joy
It is “Joy in serving”
Please open your bibles to Philippians 2
Once again put your finger or bulletin in there as I will go back there several tines this morning
Philippians 2:1
“Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit?”
Paul begins his teaching by asking a question
In cowboy terms he says
What do we need to do to find joy?
How do we get it?
And in today’s teaching
He shows us a pattern for find joy through our service to the Lord
Each and every person that has accepted Christ as savior has been given at least one spiritual gift
Some are gifted with preaching or teaching
Others in encouraging others
Others in giving
Others in Praying / interceding for others
There are many others
Listen you may be gifted with music
May be gifted with skills that can help others and the Church
I could spend weeks
Month’s --even years describing all the ways we are gifted as believers
But that is another topic for another day
What I want to focus on this morning
Is a question
A burning question
No matter what your gift is
How do we
Find joy through serving?
I could tell you my thoughts
And you could tell me yours
But I am not interested in my opinions any more that you are interested in mind
I
As I pray your are
Am interested in what God says
In this case
He speaks through Paul
Let’s look at what he says
Verse 1b
“Are your hearts tender and compassionate?”
We heard these words in sermon one concerning our relationships
Tender compassionate hearts
Are a big key to finding joy in all areas of our lives
Many people
Even Christians
Live only to make a good impression on other people
Only to please themselves
But you see
Lack of tenderness in our hearts
Lack of compassion
Causes Selfishness
And selfishness causes discord
And Joy can’t shine in a habitat of disunity
Paul stresses Spiritual unity in service as a
A key to finding joy in our service
You see when we work together
Caring for the problems of others
We are showing the world and the church
The love of Jesus
Verse 2
“Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.”
Agreeing with each other
Working together with one mind and purpose
Loving each other
Wow
Paul is teaching the Church in Philippi and us in the process
What we should have learned in kindergarten
----Pause--
There is no joy in serving on a team that is not united
No one likes to argue
Well I should say
No one should like to argue
Finding joy in service
Hinges on unity
Serving should be a pleasure
And when it is we find joy
Verse 3a
“Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.”
Once again we see Paul warn us about selfishness
Once again this is something we should have learned in kindergarten
We cannot have joy in serving when we are self seeking
The look at me syndrome
I really hate it when conflict occurs
And it does occur
And someone says
After all I have done for—
The church
For others
For society
We find joy in service
By serving as Jesus served
And he was
Never
Never
Selfish
Never self centered
Never seeking glory for himself
He always put others needs ahead of his own
Giving of his gifts and talents
His love and compassion
Next Paul says in Verse 3b
“ don’t try to impress others.”
No one likes a puffed up blow hard
When we strive to impress others through our own selfish actions and out of a desire to glorify ourselves
We find that most the times
Others are not impressed
And if they are
The impression often fades when they see the motives behind the person in question
There is a saying
And it is true
No one cares how much you know
Until they know how much you care
Paul continues in verse 3 with more outlines to find joy in our service
Verse 3c
“Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.”
Be humble
Humble does not mean weak
Humble does not mean soft
Humble does not mean we have to be a doormat
It means that we understand that everything we have and are and know is a gift from God
And knowing this
Humility means we give glory where glory is due
It feels really good to serve our Lord
And I can’t tell you the Joy that comes from serving humbly and giving God the glory
He goes on to tells us to think of others as better than ourselves
In the world today and in the working class culture this goes against what we are taught by the world
The world says fight for what you get
The battle cry of the world today is
That’s not fair
I want what I deserve
The world teaches to climb to the top on the heads, backs and accomplishments of others
Like Yertle the Turtle from the Dr. Seuss Book
This is what the world teaches
But the world is a messed up place and it is getting worse
Paul teaches us in this book and uses Jesus as our pattern
Our role model
That humility is the key to joy in serving
Jesus always
Humbly served
From his birth in the manger
To his public ministry that included bumping around with all sorts of people that the “ Religious culture”
Thought we unimportant
Unclean
Beneath them somehow
To his last few days as he endured hardships
Pain and suffering
Ultimately dying on a wooden cross
Like a common criminal
For us
Not for his own sins
He had no sin
But for my sin and your sin
Our imitation of this type of humility is how we find joy in service
Paul goes on
In verse 4
4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.”
I really like the way this is worded in the NLT
Don’t only focus on your own interests
But
Take an interest in others
This means listening to them
Discovering their likes and dislikes
Finding ways to make them feel special
I can tell you from personal experience
People like it when you remember their name
They like it when you ask about their jobs and lives and families and really show an interest
And when you show that interest with the “Christ “mindset
You are serving them and may not even know it
You see
Your interest
Your love
Your concern
Your compassion
Is
Part of your witness
And you are serving them by showing them Jesus
Working
In and through you
And that should bring you joy
Paul goes on in Verse 5
“You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.”
We hear that a lot
Have the attitude of Christ
Sometimes we lose sight of what that actually means
What would Jesus do was a popular saying a few years back
But
To have the same attitude as Jesus
I believe
What did Jesus do is much more on target
What did Jesus do when he was taken advantage of?
What did Jesus do when he was rejected?
What did Jesus do when he was lied about?
Betrayed
What did Jesus do when people came to him for comfort?
For help
For guidance
You see we can say what would Jesus do?
Or we can open the pages of God’s word and see what Jesus did
And imitate that
That is how we have the same attitude that Christ had
And that is once again how we find joy in serving others
Let me read Verses 6-11 for you to
Though he was God,[a]
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges[b];
he took the humble position of a slave[c]
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,[d]
8 he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
and gave him the name above all other names,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Paul writes and shows us the example of humble service
And he shows us the joy available when we do as Jesus did
Paul goes on with his instructions for Joy filled serving
Verse 12
Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important.
Let me get real common on this
Paul says to paraphrase or cowboyise this
You did what I taught you while I was here
So do what I taught you when I’m not
You see many in the world have no problem following the rules while the one in authority is there
While someone is watching
Think with me for a moment
Do you see people speeding when the police are in plain view?
Not usually
But -----
Same deal
Integrity is how you act when no one is watching
That is what Paul is saying
If you want Joy in your service to The Lord
Do what you know is right
For The glory of God
No matter who is or is not watching
He continues with verse 12b
“Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.”
I want you to focus with me here
Notice Paul does not say
Work hard to earn your salvation
He says work hard to show the results of your salvation
Salvation is a free gift
Bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus
And with that salvation came the gift of the Holy Spirit
And with the Holy Spirit comes the fruits of our salvation
Remember from last week Galatians 5:22-25
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.
Paul says we are to work hard to show our salvation to the world
Though the gifts he has given us
But Paul goes on to say
In verse 13
That we are not doing these things on or in our own power
Verse 13
“ For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.”
God is working in you to produce the fruit of your salvation and the Power to do what pleases him
You see we can’t please God in our own power
But when we have Jesus
We have already pleased him and will want to continue doing so
Verses 14-18
4 Do everything without complaining and arguing, 15 so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. 16 Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless. 17 But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God,[e] just like your faithful service is an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy. 18 Yes, you should rejoice, and I will share your joy.
Paul wraps up his instructions for finding joy is serving with these verses
Don’t gripe
You can’t serve with Joy when you are griping about serving
Don’t argue
Arguments cause strife
And strife steals joy
Also when the world looks at the Christian and at the Church and see them acting like the rest of the world
Why would they want to be part of it?
Paul says live clean lives
Last week we saw similar teaching
He said pure and blameless lives
Being a beacon of light to a lost and dying world
Let your light shine for all to see
He says Hold on to the truth of God’s word
To the truth of God’s promises
To the Truth of God’s love
Paul says he rejoices in his service
That he rejoices in his relationships
And that he
Because he loves us
He wants that joy for us as well and that he will rejoice in our Joy
If you want to find Joy in serving God
It really is simple
Like last week
Step 1 is Knowing and focusing on Jesus
We have to know the source of Joy to know joy
Then
Have tender and compassionate hearts- a servants heart we call it
Work to achieve unity in your life and in the church
Work with others with one mind and one purpose- to further and spread the Good news
Put yourself and your pride aside
Get I out of the vocabulary
And be Humble like Jesus
Putting others ahead of your self
Seeking Glory for God instead of self glory
Don’t be selfish
Don’t try and impress others
Work hard to show the fruit of your salvation/ to let your light shine
Don’t gripe and complain but do everything with a good attitude
And rejoice in your ability to serve Christ through serving others
And rejoice in their joy through serving as well
Next week is our Children’s play and we will look at Paul’s next reason for Joy
----Joy in believing----
If you want to read ahead read Philippians 3
Close from the heart
Pray
