SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the road after teacher Steve Hall.
SPEAKER_01: I exhaust the humble, starting with deciding.
SPEAKER_01: Live to us who exhausted on the third day and have seated at the right hand of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Every one of us will bow the knees.
SPEAKER_01: Every one of us will bow down to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Even the most avid atheists will have to bow down to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Why not start now?
SPEAKER_01: Because you're going to do it anyway.
SPEAKER_00: At the road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on the road, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: We are in the book of Philippians.
SPEAKER_01: If you have your Bible, turn to Philippians.
SPEAKER_01: You know that we are studying this idea of the leverage of joy.
SPEAKER_01: That the book of Philippians is Paul's manifesto on joy.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't have a Bible, there might be some in front of you in the slots in front of you, or you can just use your phone.
SPEAKER_01: And the app also has the notes on it, the Road app.
SPEAKER_01: But this manifesto of joy by Paul is talking about this leverage of joy, and that's what we've been talking about for about six weeks.
SPEAKER_01: And there's 104 verses.
SPEAKER_01: It's really, really a short letter.
SPEAKER_01: It's one of the shortest letters in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: But 19 times Paul talks about joy.
SPEAKER_01: And we are in Philippians chapter 2, and we're going to look at leverage number seven.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, if there's any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord and of one mind.
SPEAKER_01: Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself.
SPEAKER_01: Let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others.
SPEAKER_01: Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men.
SPEAKER_01: And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth.
SPEAKER_01: So even in hell, they're going to bow to the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
SPEAKER_01: So this is Paul's favorite church.
SPEAKER_01: He loves the Philippians, and he knows they've been under pressure, and there's been a lot of persecution.
SPEAKER_01: And he's talking about two areas of divisiveness that are hitting the Philippian church.
SPEAKER_01: One is from without, and that is persecution from the Jews, and even some from the Romans because of the province there in Philippi, and it was such a popular place for ex-Roman soldiers to go.
SPEAKER_01: It was populated with many men and women who considered this kind of like the second home away from Rome.
SPEAKER_01: So it was called the Little Rome.
SPEAKER_01: So there's persecution to this new faith coming from without.
SPEAKER_01: And chapter 3 covers this more.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get to that.
SPEAKER_01: But there was also some division within, and in chapter 4 it talks about two women who can't get along.
SPEAKER_01: And so he's now addressing this issue of unity.
SPEAKER_01: And he starts off by saying, therefore, if there's any consolation in Christ, and the key operable phrase here, prepositional phrase, is in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And in the Greek, it doesn't say in because it almost sounds like it's conditional.
SPEAKER_01: He's actually encouraging them with four statements where if you look at your Bibles right now, it might say in, and he talks about if, if, if, four times being in Christ, if there's any consolation, we could translate that in the Greek to since there is consolation.
SPEAKER_01: So it's actually an emphatic statement of encouragement, not a conditional statement.
SPEAKER_01: So here's how we might read it.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, since there is consolation in Christ, and since there's a comfort of love, and since there's fellowship of the Spirit, and since there's affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, and being of one accord, of one mind.
SPEAKER_01: Now, there's a difference between uniformity and unity.
SPEAKER_01: Uniformity is pressure to be formed or to act like everybody else.
SPEAKER_01: And the church is notorious for that.
SPEAKER_01: Kind of this outward pressure to conform.
SPEAKER_01: But unity comes from the heart.
SPEAKER_01: Unity in a marriage comes from the heart.
SPEAKER_01: Unity on an athletic team that's successful has to come from the heart.
SPEAKER_01: And unity in a church comes from the heart wherein there's a common mission.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not a believer in unity for unity's sake in anything.
SPEAKER_01: There has to be a common mission.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I love now, ladies.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to what I'm going to say all the way through.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, because I wrote a book on this.
SPEAKER_01: I have a chapter on it.
SPEAKER_01: It's called the S-word.
SPEAKER_01: The reason I love the S word, which is submission, is not because I'm going to put women in their place or I'm going to put someone in their place.
SPEAKER_01: I love submission because of what it in its Latin meaning really means.
SPEAKER_01: It means subbed, sub, under, a mission.
SPEAKER_01: Sub to a mission.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll say to you, man.
SPEAKER_01: If you're having trouble with your wife submitting, then the question to you is, what's your mission?
SPEAKER_01: So many marriages have no mission.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing to sub to except you.
SPEAKER_01: And that's not good enough.
SPEAKER_01: God calls us to a submitted heart in the church, the mission of Christ, to a family, mission of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: To a company, whatever the mission of that company is.
SPEAKER_01: We submit because our heart is aflame and fired up for the mission.
SPEAKER_01: And so he's calling forth to the church at Philippi that let's be unified in Christ, submitted to Christ, because in Christ, he says, there's affection and mercy.
SPEAKER_01: There's a fellowship of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: There's a comfort of love.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a consolation that comes in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that exciting?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's exciting stuff.
SPEAKER_01: So here's joy leverage number seven.
SPEAKER_01: Joy leverage number seven is this joy comes through selfless living.
SPEAKER_01: Joy comes through selfless living.
SPEAKER_01: The key phrase here is in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Philippians chapter one, our joy is found by putting Christ first.
SPEAKER_01: And if you've been here, you heard my messages on that.
SPEAKER_01: But Philippians 2 is going to be about putting others next.
SPEAKER_01: So chapter 1, putting Christ first.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 2, putting others next.
SPEAKER_01: Paul is the soul winner in chapter 1, but he's the selfless-minded in chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: Joy leverage number 7 is the joy of selfless living.
SPEAKER_01: In the 16th century, the Renaissance astronomer Nicholas Copernicus challenged the belief that the earth was the center of the universe.
SPEAKER_01: Copernicus argued that the sun didn't revolve around the earth, but that the earth revolved around the sun.
SPEAKER_01: The Copernicus revolution turned the scientific world upside down by turning the universe inside out.
SPEAKER_01: In the same way, each one of you need a spiritual Copernicus revolution.
SPEAKER_01: The paradigm shift happens when we come to terms with the fact that the world actually doesn't revolve around you.
SPEAKER_01: News flash.
SPEAKER_01: You are not the center of the universe.
SPEAKER_01: But God is, and Christ is, and when we learn to walk in Christ, we can have a spiritual Copernicus revolution that can turn our world right side up by turning our heart inside out.
SPEAKER_01: To begin to dethrone ourselves and enthrone Christ.
SPEAKER_01: To realize that our life revolves around Christ, not Christ revolving around us.
SPEAKER_01: When we begin to learn that, there's a new surrendered lifestyle, and that's where Paul takes us next.
SPEAKER_01: Let nothing, verse 3, be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself.
SPEAKER_01: Let each of you look not only for his own interest, but also for the interests of others.
SPEAKER_01: So selfless living is the opposite of Lucifer.
SPEAKER_01: The opposite of Satan.
SPEAKER_01: And really the opposite of the culture that we're living in.
SPEAKER_01: So we know in Isaiah 14 that we had the first selfie.
SPEAKER_01: The first selfie is in Isaiah 14, verses 12 through 14, where Satan says, and scriptures say, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will exalt and sit on the mount of the congregation on the highest side of the north.
SPEAKER_01: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.
SPEAKER_01: I will be like the Most High.
SPEAKER_01: God, here I am in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Click.
SPEAKER_01: Selfies.
SPEAKER_01: I was telling Liz this morning, I said, we should not call it selfish living.
SPEAKER_01: We should call it selfie living.
SPEAKER_01: Selfie ish living.
SPEAKER_01: Selfie is living.
SPEAKER_01: So for guys, you know it's I was going through some of my pictures last night.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why I was bored.
SPEAKER_01: I got back from speaking at a conference with the Air Force Academy cadets with their God chasers retreat down in Westcliff.
SPEAKER_01: Had a fun time down there.
SPEAKER_01: How do you like the title of my talk?
SPEAKER_01: I am a Christian Hedonist.
SPEAKER_01: And um and so uh and I did do a selfie while I was there.
SPEAKER_01: With Ben Polk, who's leading it, and we took it for his dad.
SPEAKER_01: So um selfie is living.
SPEAKER_01: So guys, we kind of we kind of flex.
SPEAKER_01: But women, it's duck face.
SPEAKER_01: And it's this is this is how it looks.
SPEAKER_01: It's like hand on the hip, usually in front of a mirror or something, and it's like we call it in the whole, we call it pouty face.
SPEAKER_01: Now you might call it duck face, but listen to this.
SPEAKER_01: Over 94 million selfies are taken every day and posted worldwide.
SPEAKER_01: The average millennial will take 25,700 selfies in a lifetime.
SPEAKER_01: Whoa, that's selfieish living.
SPEAKER_01: Females between 16 and 25 spend five hours a week doing selfies.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's not only selfish, but it's dangerous.
SPEAKER_01: Do you realize there's more people killed every year to selfies than shark attacks?
SPEAKER_01: And I don't understand that unless you're just getting too close to the cliff or something and you fall in.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But there's more people who die from selfies than shark attacks, and I think the TV world should realize that we need to stop having shark week and have selfie week.
SPEAKER_01: We are never more like the devil than when we practice selfish ambition and conceit.
SPEAKER_01: We are never more like Jesus when we practice lowliness of mind and esteem others better than ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: And the key word here is others.
SPEAKER_01: So four motives.
SPEAKER_01: I see in our passage, four motives of selfless living that gives us joy.
SPEAKER_01: And the first is this esteeming others better than yourself in your actions.
SPEAKER_01: So not just saying it, but actually in your actions.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul gives us here in chapter 2 four examples of selfless living.
SPEAKER_01: Christ, in verses 5 through 10, in his giving of his life for us, Paul through discipleship and leadership, verses 11 through 18, Timothy in serving Paul, verses 19 through 24, and then Epiphroditus in ministering to others, verses 25 through 30.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus came not to be served, but to serve.
SPEAKER_01: So you're not the center of the universe, church.
SPEAKER_01: The road's not the center of all churches.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not the center of all pastors.
SPEAKER_01: You are in a surrendered life going to find joy when we realize that the world that you live in can, if you allow it to, revolves around Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And so the more we live in Christ, the more Christ changes the motives of our heart.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what's interesting.
SPEAKER_01: Even psychology is realizing the healthiness of selfless living.
SPEAKER_01: Thomas Plant, PhD professor of Santa Clara University, an adjunct clinical professor of psychiatry at Stanford University, found that people who serve others at least two hours per week over many years reduced mortality by 40%.
SPEAKER_01: That people who served others handle stress better than those who didn't.
SPEAKER_01: Especially when you serve people less fortunate than yourself.
SPEAKER_01: The levels of compassion and empathy rise and actually you become healthier.
SPEAKER_01: Quote: One team of sociologists tracked 2,000 people over a five-year period and found that Americans who described themselves as very happy volunteered at least 5.8 hours per month helping others.
SPEAKER_01: This heightened sense of well-being might be the byproduct of being more physically active as a result of volunteering, or because it makes us more socially active.
SPEAKER_01: Researchers also think that giving back might give individuals a mental boost by providing them with a neurochemical sense of reward.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that exciting?
SPEAKER_01: Studies have shown that selfless living, well, four things.
SPEAKER_01: It came out, I read five or six articles, and you saw this common theme.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, it decreases chronic pain.
SPEAKER_01: So if you deal with chronic pain, you might consider not just thinking about your pain, but thinking about others.
SPEAKER_01: Decreases chronic pain.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, it lowers your blood pressure.
SPEAKER_01: Lowers your blood pressure.
SPEAKER_01: Number three, for teens, it increases positive behavior in teens.
SPEAKER_01: And then number four, it gives a sense of purpose and satisfaction to one's life.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that exciting?
SPEAKER_01: So, I mean, even psychology is realizing the kingdom truths of the way Jesus challenged us to live our lives for others and to give ourselves away toward others.
SPEAKER_01: Verse five, let this mind, so this first is a mental attitude, this is a heart attitude.
SPEAKER_01: Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.
SPEAKER_01: So here's motive number two.
SPEAKER_01: Motive number two, loving Jesus by living like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Loving Jesus by living like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus had a mindset that though he was God, fully God and fully human, that he was willing to leave heaven and leave all the benefits and rewards of heaven to come to this earth because of his love for us.
SPEAKER_01: Even says that for the joy, Hebrews 12, 2, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross.
SPEAKER_01: He came with joy, and I was, when I was sharing with the guys yesterday at the retreat, I was saying, you know, you realize he was scourged?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was scourged?
SPEAKER_01: Thirty-nine lashes with a cat of nine tails, that means nine leather straps coming off this stick, this post that the Roman soldier would carry that had metal slithers in it and stones that ripped the flesh that caught the back of Jesus in the top part of his neck, and then they just ripped it down his back.
SPEAKER_01: Most men going to crucifixion died because of the scourging alone, ripped down through the flesh and the outer areas of our skin down to the very organs being exposed.
SPEAKER_01: Ripped that way, and to such an extent that Jesus couldn't even carry the cross the entire way to Calvary.
SPEAKER_01: Someone else had to carry it for him.
SPEAKER_01: For the joy set before him, he did that.
SPEAKER_01: And I think it's why Paul says it in other places you haven't even resisted sin to the point of the shedding of blood like Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I'm reminded of that.
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't sleep last night.
SPEAKER_01: I woke up.
SPEAKER_01: I have struggle sleeping right now.
SPEAKER_01: I think my adrenals are all messed up.
SPEAKER_01: And um and so I was uh Liz and I were talking, and the thing that got me to sleep is wait, these little dinky struggles you have, and I couldn't help but be reminded of what I just preached a few hours before.
SPEAKER_01: Just being scourged.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing.
SPEAKER_01: To actually carry the pressure of this church and many of you and your struggles into my life is only just slightly, in a tiny way, comparable to the sin and the burdens and the pressures that Christ carried for the joy set before him.
SPEAKER_01: Church, as we begin to love others, we're gonna carry their burdens.
SPEAKER_01: You're supposed to.
SPEAKER_01: We carry those burdens and then we hand them back to Christ, and then we carry the burdens and we hand them back to Christ, and we carry the burdens and we surrender them back to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That was the mindset of Jesus who left his heavenly home for us for seven, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men.
SPEAKER_01: Motive three, for the joy of selfless living, serving others like Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And this church is full.
SPEAKER_01: Unbelievable.
SPEAKER_01: Never been around an organization of so many people serving as this church.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I come here on a Tuesday or a Wednesday or Thursday, and people are coming in and they're coming out and they're coming in and they're coming out and they're fixing this and they're fixing that.
SPEAKER_01: Steve Clark and his team of volunteers are just a little starting to grow this little army.
SPEAKER_01: Little army starting to happen of people serving.
SPEAKER_01: And how about those donuts?
SPEAKER_01: How about that coffee out there?
SPEAKER_01: And somebody put it together.
SPEAKER_01: Daryl and Della do that, and we've got a roadmap.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to come in and speak.
SPEAKER_01: Everything else has been done by volunteers serving.
SPEAKER_01: And guess what?
SPEAKER_01: They're all happy.
SPEAKER_01: They're happy.
SPEAKER_01: There's joy in that.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to do spring's initiative.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to do springs initiative this summer.
SPEAKER_01: We do spring's initiative every summer.
SPEAKER_01: We had twice as many people serving in Springs Initiative last summer as we did the summer before.
SPEAKER_01: We had twice before that.
SPEAKER_01: And we go and we paint a house.
SPEAKER_01: Fix up a house.
SPEAKER_01: We got a group going to Guatemala in the first of June.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
SPEAKER_01: They're going to all do it joyfully.
SPEAKER_01: And they're the happiest people on the face of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: The happiest place on the face of the earth shouldn't be Disneyland.
SPEAKER_01: It should be right here in the local church.
SPEAKER_01: We should be happy.
SPEAKER_01: We have Christ, but also loving and caring about others.
SPEAKER_01: It's interesting that Paul speaks of himself as a forerunner so many times in his letters, but here he calls Jesus the first forerunner of being a bond slave.
SPEAKER_01: Of being a bondservant.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Paul says again numerous times in his letters, I'm a bondservant of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: James names himself as a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Jude begins his short letter with a bondservant of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And a bondservant was one who was a slave who had been set free by his master, and then he chose to be a slave.
SPEAKER_01: Again, Deuteronomy 15, because he loved his master.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, God's called us to be bondservants.
SPEAKER_01: Not because of duty, but because of devotion and love for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And it's the greatest joy, it's the greatest happiness of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I loved giving that message yesterday, being a Christian hedonist.
SPEAKER_01: That our greatest satisfaction comes in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing compares with it.
SPEAKER_01: And being found an appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, God also has highly exalted him, given him the name which is above every name, that the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth, that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Motive number four, God exalts the humble.
SPEAKER_01: God exalts the humble, starting with his son, who died for us and was exalted on the third day and now seated at the right hand with the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Every one of us will bow the knee.
SPEAKER_01: Every one of us will bow down to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Even the most avid atheists will have to bow down to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Why not start now?
SPEAKER_01: Because you're going to do it anyway.
SPEAKER_01: Why not begin eternal life now?
SPEAKER_01: And the big reason is because many of us think that eternal life is out there someday when we physically die, and yet the scriptures are clear.
SPEAKER_01: Christ said, I came that you might have life and might have it abundantly.
SPEAKER_01: Eternal life can begin right now.
SPEAKER_01: This abundant life can begin right now by bowing our knee to Jesus, to giving our heart to Him completely.
SPEAKER_01: That's the joy.
SPEAKER_01: The most unhappy people in the world, I believe, are not unbelievers.
SPEAKER_01: Because many of them are just ignorant pagans.
SPEAKER_01: The most unhappy people in the world are those who know Christ.
SPEAKER_01: They've given their heart to Christ and they choose to go back to selfie-ish living.
SPEAKER_01: And so they've got this selfie life, and yet they know, and there's this tug of something greater, but they won't dive in because they've still got this way of thinking that it's between me making myself happy or Jesus making my life boring.
SPEAKER_01: That was my story.
SPEAKER_01: I thought about Jesus and I went, man, I want to do this and I want to do that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to have to quit doing that if I do this.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is boring.
SPEAKER_01: And then God brought a Copernicus revolution in my life.
SPEAKER_01: And I realized, wait, wait.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the reason John 10.10.
SPEAKER_01: To me, John 10.10, he said, I came that you might have life, might have it abundantly, was so much more powerful in my heart and in my life than even John 3.16.
SPEAKER_01: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
SPEAKER_01: Great verse.
SPEAKER_01: Love it.
SPEAKER_01: Many of us memorized it as kids, but it was what caught my heart was abundant life in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Joy.
SPEAKER_01: Everlasting joy found in him.
SPEAKER_01: It's what Pascal discovered.
SPEAKER_01: It's what Aristotle discovered in his own way.
SPEAKER_01: I believe he did.
SPEAKER_01: It's what Augustine discovered.
SPEAKER_01: It's what C.S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis discovered.
SPEAKER_01: It's what many of the great philosophers, it's what they discovered.
SPEAKER_01: And in so discovering, they surrendered everything to Christ, and their life became not easy, but an inward joy.
SPEAKER_01: So, church, there's joy and selfless living when we surrender everything to Christ, and he lives his life through us in the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: James says, humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up.
SPEAKER_01: Humble yourself, and he will lift you up.
SPEAKER_01: Peter says it this way.
SPEAKER_01: Likewise, you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, all of you, be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody here need more grace than what you got right now?
SPEAKER_01: Walk in pride, God resists you.
SPEAKER_01: Walk in humility and selfless living, and God will lift you up.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to be in flow with God.
SPEAKER_01: It's hard enough.
SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you have been blessed by today's message.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with us further, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Go to the road.org, click on the ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.