The Joy We All Long For | Philippians 2:1-11

Philippians 2:1-11  |  Sam Shaw

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning, everybody. My name is Sam, and uh it is such a privilege to be here. Sixteen years ago, another couple, and myself and my wife, actually planted the orchard. And what a privilege to be invited back to share. Do you know in the New Testament it says four different times Jesus sat down to teach? So we're just trying to be biblical here. Actually, I had hip replacement six weeks ago. So I'm I'm using a cane, and when I find a rebellious elder, I'm prepared, or rebellious deacon. But uh, I was thinking when John was talking a moment ago, if you talk to people who have come to Christ in the last ten years, they will talk about two things. They will mention that they heard clearly the gospel that only Christ could forgive them and save them, change them, and uh and they they repented of their sins and they turned to Christ. They will share that. And then they will add, and then I was invited to church, and I saw a community of people who were genuine, they were authentic, they actually loved each other, and there was beauty in the community. Beauty in the church. And it seems like God uses those two things today to draw people to Himself. So what we're gonna look at using Philippians 2, go ahead and take your Bible, go back to it that we read just a moment ago. Look at the kind of church God wants us to be and the kind of church deep down a lot of us really are looking for. If you're here visiting for the first time, I'm so glad you're here. If you are checking out Christianity, thanks for being here. Really glad that you're here. And you need to hear the kind of direction, the direction we're going as a church. So Philippians chapter 2, beginning with verse 1, says this. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, if a Christian has ever encouraged you, if you've ever read the Bible and a verse just jumped out at you, really encouraged you. If if there's any comfort in love, if someone's love has ever comforted you, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Now the apostle Paul is writing this. He's hundreds of miles away. He's sitting in prison, chained, unjustly accused, probably cold, probably hungry, probably sick, his future is uncertain, he's facing death. And what he writes is this I'm okay with all that. I'm okay with that. But you know what would actually thrill me? You know what would actually fill me with joy if I hear that you are pulling together, that you're all working together, there's there's harmony and there's there's unity and there's beauty and there's love. That would make my heart race so fast. That's what every parent wants. Every parent wants their kids not to be fussing and fighting all the time. That's what every coach wants. He wants his team to pull together, work together. It's what every business leader wants for his team. Every church leader, every pastor longs for this, where there's there's people are pulling together, working uh together. Last year, 4,000 churches were planted in the United States. Last year, 7,000 churches closed. Lifeway research says over 1,700 pastors left the ministry every month last year. 1,300 of them terminated by their churches. If you've ever been a part of a church split, if you've ever been a part of a church fight, you know how exhausting and emotionally painful that is. Someone said there's no hurt like church hurt because these are our brothers and sisters. So here's my question. Why is it so hard for us to work together? Why in marriage are there so often conflicts? Why are families breaking up so often? Why are there more lawsuits, civil lawsuits being filed than ever before? Why are business partnerships dissolving? I mean, what is going on? How do you explain that? If you're up in a group of people and uh the discussion is kind of dragging, I'll give you a question that will really liven things up. Ask the people who are around you, what do you think is wrong with the world? And there's one answer you will never hear. It doesn't matter how many people you have talked to, what do you think is wrong with the world? You will never hear anybody say nothing. It's great. I don't even know why you're asking the question. It's perfect. Everybody knows something is broken in the world, and you don't have to look at Washington or over another country or the community. All you have to do is look in the mirror. And if you're honest, you say, something is broken in me. And so today I just want to try to answer from this text three questions. Where does that brokenness come from? Why is it that we can't seem to pull together in marriages, in families, and churches, and businesses, and uh teams, associations? Where does that come from? Second question, what does health look like? What does wholeness look like? What does unity look like? And third question, how do we get there? So three questions. Why? Is there so much conflict? Second question, what does unity or wholeness look like? Third question, and how do we get there? Because we all know the world is broken because it's filled with people, and people are broken. This church is broken because it's filled with people who are broken. So we want to say, we want to ask the question, where does that come from? And that takes us to the very first part of the Bible, Genesis 1 and 2, where God creates this magnificent universe full of love and joy and peace, and he creates two people, plants them in paradise, uh in male and female. He created them. And for a while there was there was harmony, there were no discussions or fights, there were arguments, there were, it was just love and there was peace, and people felt fulfilled, and then they were tempted. Genesis chapter 3. They look at a piece of fruit and they say, hmm, let's see, what do I want? Do I want a piece of fruit or do I want fellowship with the God who made us and loved us and created us and created this incredible world? What do I want? The fruit or God? I'll take the fruit. And something snapped. Their souls were broken. Their eyes were open, and instead of looking at each other, they looked looked at themselves. They saw they were naked, they tried to hide themselves, made big leaves, and then like little children who know they've done something wrong, mom and dad comes home, they're hiding. God flushes them out. And listen to what that first man said. God, the woman you gave me. I wasn't married and I was doing fine. And I woke up and there she is, and I'm married. You gave this, you could have chosen any woman in the world, but this woman has led the entire world into sin. The woman you gave me. So there is a blaming of God. The couple is separated from one another inside themselves. They realize something is broken. They were created to reflect the love and the glory of God, just like the moon reflects the light of the sun. But you darken the sun. The moon has no light of its of itself. And you and I were made to reflect the glory of God. Let me show you what I mean. Look at the next verse. Verse 3 says, Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. No one likes to be called conceited. That word conceit's an interesting word. In the Greek, it's it's two words smashed together: kino, doksa. Kino means empty, doksa means glory. Glory empty. Glory hungry. Glory means I want to be respected. I want to be admired. I want to feel valuable. I want people to realize that I do matter. Glory empty. And that's all of us. Happens to all of us because we're glory hungry. We begin to feel like we don't matter. We're restless. We're critical. And it shows itself in anger or in sadness. We look around and we say, they're not doing it right. We can't admit we're wrong. We refuse to change our mind. We can't take advice. We don't listen. And the older we get, the less significant we feel. And we fight it with everything in us. We look for ways to feel valued and to have our own glory. And you can see how this just leads to division. In the Old Testament, the word glory is the Hebrew word kabod, K-A-B-O-D. It means heavy. Weighty. When God would come in the Old Testament, there was an earthquake because God is heavy. And we want our words to have weight. We want people to think we're we are people who deserve to be listened to. So we got selfish ambition, which means you push your way to the top, you sweet talk your way to the top, and you're glory hungry. The very thing you were made for, you're empty of it, and you want that. You need that. That's where brokenness comes from. It's in our hearts. It seeps into church. Here's the second question. So what does health look like? What does wholeness look like? Look at the next, look at verses one and two. Look at those words: encouragement, comfort, love, participation, affection, sympathy, joy, having the same mind, same love, united in affection, intent on one purpose. Man, I find a group like this and I say, sign me up. Yeah, I want to be a part of something like that. What if church was characterized by these things? You'd be turning people away from the door for lack of space. My wife and I are empty nesters. We got four kids, they're all grown, we got ten grandkids, they're all grown. But my empty nester home is not always like this. And if you know my wife, you know she's not the problem. Philippi is the best church in the New Testament. But in chapter 4, there are two women who cannot get along. Glory empty, glory hungry. And yet Paul really thinks this can be a church can be like this. And the question is, how? Look at verse 3. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourself. Humility is the key to unity. Humility is what health begins to look like. What wholeness, it's the first step. And what's surprising is Paul brings up humility and he lives in a shame-honor culture. Humility was what marked slaves. What was important in Roman society was power, rank, position, strength. Humility was a vice. It was not a virtue. And so it's really strange that Paul brings this up. And it's not our favorite virtue either. I have yet to have a young couple bring up with their newborn baby and show me their baby and say, yeah, he's a beautiful baby, but we hope when he grows up, he's humble. I've never heard that. What they ought to say is when he grows up, he's going to humble us. That's what's going to happen. Yet the Bible has mentions humility 270 different times. It's almost always almost positive. Jesus, the meek and the gentle, the humble inherit the earth. Jesus, take my yoke on you. I'm humble, lowly of heart, find rest. Jesus, whoever exalts himself will be humbled. Whoever humbles himself will be exalted. James, God resists the proud. God gives grace to the humble. Isaiah 66, God says, this is the one to whom I look. He who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. And I think one reason, friends, that we don't talk about humility very much is we confuse it with a low self-esteem. Let me be clear. Humility is not being hard on yourself. Humility is not putting yourself down. Humility is not denying your strengths, it's just being honest about your weaknesses. If you can throw a fastball 95 miles, 90, 95 miles per hour, you don't hide that from the coach. That's not humility. If you're a musician like these on stage, you don't say, well, I'm not very good. That's false humility. Humility is not feeling inferior. It's not denying reality. It's not pretending to be something that you are not. That's false humility. Humility is taking the focus off yourself. And recognize that any gifts, any abilities, any breaks in life have come from God and have been given to you to serve other people. Humility is taking the focus off of yourself. We can't become a Christian without humility. If you come to God and say, I want you to accept me because I'm a really pretty good person, if you'll check the record out, I think you'll find I fit. And God will say, You don't understand yourself, you don't understand the cross, you don't understand me. But if you come to God in humility and you and you say, There is no reason you should accept me or save me or forgive me, I'm asking you, forgive me and save me. Not because of me and what I've done, but because of Jesus and what he has done. You're in the kingdom. Humility is not only the way we become a Christian, it is the way we grow as a Christian. So how do you know if you're humble? This is really tricky. If you come up to me after the service and say, Sam, how are you doing with humility? And I say, Great. In fact, I'm writing a book, Humility and How I Attained It. Be a bestseller. No, it's just the focus is on me. It's tricky. Listen to what C.S. Lewis said. To get near humility, even for a moment, is like a drink of cold water to a man in the desert. Do not imagine if you meet a really humble man, he will be what most people today call humble. He will not be a kind of greasy, smarmy person who's always telling you that, of course, he's nobody. Probably all you'll think about him is he seems a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him, it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility. He'll not be thinking about himself at all. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less. Humility is not thinking less of myself, it's thinking of myself less. He goes on. If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that you're proud. It's a big step to be sure, but nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed. Boy, that'll knock you off your high horse. If you think you're not conceited, you are very conceited indeed. So how do you know if you are? I listened to a sermon by a man named a pastor named Joe Coffee several weeks ago as I was putting this together, and he really helped me understand. He used two illustrations. He gave the example of Burger King. In 1974, Burger King came up with a slogan that went viral, and it was brilliant. And you know the slogan. What's the slogan of Burger King? Don't you want to have it your way? Everybody wants to have it your way. In marriage, you want to have it your way. In business, in church, have it your way. And it's so easy to come to church and to say, well, this is the way I want it. It is so easy to leave a church and say, I don't like the way they're doing that or that. I'm going to go somewhere else. I'm going to do it my way. That's one of the signs of the lack of humility. In fact, he says, Don't look down on, don't look after your own interest, but the interest of others. Doesn't mean you don't have interest, doesn't mean you don't have needs. Of course you do. It means your focus is on others. What do they need? Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less. Preachers like to tell a story of a man on a desert, deserted island, desert island for years. And he was finally found. The Navy found him. And they said, Aren't you here alone? He said, Oh, I've been here alone the entire time. Well, there are three huts you have here. What are they? And he said, Well, the first hut, that's where I sleep. The second hut is where I go to church. The third hut is where I used to go to church. You know why that, you know how we chuckle? Because it rings true. It rings true. If something's not done the way we want it, the tendency is I'll go somewhere else. I'll have it my way. And here's the second illustration. He calls it the uh the sore elbow problem. I have really good elbows. I say that humbly. I have really good elbows. Um there are parts of me because I had a hip replacement six weeks ago. That's why I'm sitting down really. But there are parts of me that are sore right now. My elbows are not sore. They are healthy. I never think about my elbows. But if my elbow becomes infected, that's all I think about. Humility means I really don't think about myself a great deal because I'm healthy. I've had my glory hunger satisfied. But if you're thinking about yourself all the time, it's it's a sign, no, you really, there is pride there. There's a lack of humility. And so I ask myself, what if we implemented what Scripture says, verses 3 and 4? In humility, consider others more significant than yourself. Look to what is best for others and not yourself. Think about driving in Memphis, and someone cuts you off in traffic. And you say, You cut me off. I'm sure you need it to do that. That's okay with me. That's fine. You go in on a parking lot, and there's one parking space, and there are two cars going toward it. And what do you say? I'm sure you need that more than me. I'm okay with just driving around a little bit more. It's it's it's this is so rare, so unusual. So, what if church was like that? What if church was a place where you said, I don't need to have it my way? What best serves other people? My concern is not how people treat me, my concern is how I treat other people. We'd be much more like the church that he's talking about here. Last question How do you do this? And again, it's tricky. The best-selling leadership book, business leadership book, uh, in the last 25 years says a great leader is humble. I read that and I thought, boy, that's really good. And then it goes on to say, and if you're humble, you get the attention of people above you and you get promoted. And I think he's back to himself again. Thinking, what's best for me? So, how do you pursue humility? And that takes us to verses 5 through 11. A lot of people think this was a hymn sung in the early church. And Paul's thinking about how can I describe what God wants in his church to these folks in Philippi? And that hymn comes to mind, and so he writes in the hymn to this. I think the best theology is not what you get in textbooks, it's in much of it is in worship music, the kind of things we sing. Listen to what he says: have this mind among yourself, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself. That's that word kino. Emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And when it says he emptied himself, it doesn't mean he ceased to be God. He didn't give up his deities. He gave up his status. He gave up his privileges. He emptied himself of glory. If you'd seen Jesus in heaven before Christmas, before Bethlehem, all you'd have seen was light, beauty, love, power, glory. And Jesus walks away from that, not from being God. He doesn't reduce himself, he restrains himself. He gives up what is his by right. He doesn't use his power while he's walking on earth. I dare you to find a miracle that Jesus did it for, that did he did it for his own benefit. No, he's using his power and his authority for the sake of others. He's modeling, consider others more significant than yourself, what is best for the interest of others. Nothing compares to this. The high king of heaven becomes small. And just when you think it can't get any lower, verse 8, being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Crucifixion was designed to humiliate people publicly. Think of the last time you were humiliated, how you felt. And Jesus willingly, voluntarily, steps into that. Into that humiliation. That's what he feels. And it's not the end of the story. Therefore, God highly exalted him, bestowed on him the name above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. What does that teach? The way up is down. The way to get rich is to give away. The way to rule is to serve. The way to be happy is not to seek your own happiness, but to seek the happiness of others. You and I try to fill ourselves because we're glory hungry. We're glory empty. We want to be respected and known and welcomed and treated as significant. We're glory empty. And Jesus, who's glory full, empties himself of glory so that we can be filled with his glory. So that God the Father can look at you and me in Christ and say, you are more precious to me than all the jewels and the riches in all of the universe. Friends, if this, if you ever get this, if you if you can grasp this, that he emptied himself in glory to satisfy my glory hunger, my glory emptiness, and I can be filled, it makes the difference because now if you ignore me, that's okay. He doesn't, the one who loves me most. If you don't greet to me when we're passing the hall, that's okay. If you mistreat me, it's a totally different mindset that we have. How do you develop humility? You stop trying to be humble. That's just focusing on yourself again. You put your eyes on Jesus who humbled himself. Tuesday is St. Patrick's Day.

unknown 25:31

St.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

Patrick's Day is not about green beer and shamrocks. Patrick was a British, an Englishman who was kidnapped, taken as a slave to Ireland, spent a number of years in Ireland as a slave, somehow came to know Christ, escaped, went back to England, studied, and then went back to Ireland to plant churches. In the year 451 A.D., here his prayer is. As I arise today, may the strength of God pilot me, the power of God uphold me, the wisdom of God guide me, the eye of God look before me, the ear of God hear me. The word of God speak for me, the hand of God guard me. The way of God lie before me, the shield of God protect me, the host of God save me. May Christ shield me today. Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I rise, Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me. He was known as a courageous, humble man because it was all about Jesus. So let me just sum this up. Unity comes from humility that focuses on the glory of Jesus. And I want to close with two words. One to the church here, and one to every individual who is here. Here's to the church. Unity does not mean we're all the same. Unity is not uniformity. In this church, we differ politically, racially, we differ socially, financially. We're young, we're old, we're men, we're women. Some of you might not like each other. What unites us is we are relentless about focusing on Jesus. Listen to what Don Carson wrote. The church itself is not made up of natural friends, it's made up of natural enemies. What binds us together is not common education, common race, common income levels, common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs, or anything of the sort. Christians come together not because they agree on everything, but because they have been saved by Jesus Christ and owe him a common allegiance. In this light, they are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus' sake. That's where humility comes from. That's where unity comes from. And now word to every individual here. When I preach some sermons, there are some of us who sit there and say, I sure wish Alicia was here to hear this. I wish my friend Jim was here to hear this. If I preach on gossip, it doesn't hit everybody. This hits every single one of us. Because the truth is we are all proud people. We're not humble. We're all glory hungry until we're filled with the glory of Jesus. And this is hard to admit. How do I know that? Because we're all sinners. And pride is the root of all sin. Some think of us think we're smarter than God. We think we're smarter than everybody else, more significant. So here's my call to you today. Let's just confess, let's confess we're proud people. Let's just open up our souls and say there's so much brokenness in me and so much emptiness in me and have it my way in me. And let's just acknowledge the truth before God. That is the first step toward humility. Just telling the truth to Him. Humility, unity is a byproduct of humility. And we only become humble, not by trying to fix ourselves because we cannot, but by keeping our focus on Jesus. So would you bow your head in prayer with me for just a moment? Would you tell God and confess to God right now, I so much of the time I want it my way, I'm just thinking about me. Would you acknowledge that to the Lord? And would you tell him, I can't fix this? Ask him, would you help me to focus on Jesus? And by the way, if your head is bowed for a moment and you have never surrendered your life to Christ, I can't think of a better day for you to say, there's no reason, because I am a mess, there's no reason for you to accept me. So please save me, not on the basis of who I am and what I've done, but because of Jesus, who he is and what he has done. And then ask the Lord, would you go to work in my life? Would you fill me with the glory that you emptied yourself from? Help me to be a person like this. Help us to be a church like this. So, Father, this is the prayer of every single one of us. And we thank you that we are loved, we are accepted, we are forgiven, we are treasured. And it's a safe thing to pray that to you. So we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.