Philippians 2:1-4 (The Humility That Holds A Church Together)

We open Philippians 2:1-4 and name the real threat behind so much church conflict: selfish ambition that breaks unity from the inside. We lay out practical tools for humility and service so our church becomes a place where everyone is cared for because everyone shows up ready to serve. 
• Paul’s call to one mind through humility 
• refusing gossip, grumbling, and uncharitable talk 
• grounding humility in grace, not spiritual status 
• listening patiently as an active act of love 
• serving others even when it interrupts our plans 
• bearing burdens, protecting freedom, forgiving misuse 
• sharing Scripture and wise words for strength 
• using authority as quiet service, not spotlight 

Share and Connect

Transcript

Why Philippians Links Unity And Humility

SPEAKER_00 0:28

All right, we are in the book of Philippians. We have worked our way through chapter one. We are in chapter two. And we we know, hopefully, if you paid attention two weeks ago that chapter one and chapter two are connected. Paul is moving on from a focus on himself, and he's focusing on the problems of the Philippian church, and uh he is giving a command. He's giving a command, and this is sort of what we talked about. Well, not what we talked about, what I talked about last week. If you had a chance to listen to the Facebook thing, if you didn't, it's there, it's 20 minutes, go listen to it. But basically, Paul is giving us a command to um fight the temptation to let internal strife keep us from being who God wants us to be. And primarily we're gonna fight that through humility and service to one another. We're gonna be unified through humility. We're gonna use humility and the thought that other people matter as a tool to unify us against the drama that so often can embroil a church and keep the church from functioning the way a church should function. And I'm not gonna perfectly repeat what I preached last week, but essentially this is a continuation of the material that we have been covering over the past several weeks. Paul is focusing on the Philippian church, and he has told them to live in a manner worthy of the gospel, and that means, in particular for Paul, living in unity, living with humility, living with a servant's heart, putting aside selfish ambition and conceit. And with that, let's read our scripture. Philippians chapter 2, verses 1 through 4. It's on the paper. Um screen's not working today. So if there's any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, 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

Reading Philippians 2:1-4

SPEAKER_00 2:30

one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others. Paul is saying here, if what I've been preaching about over the past uh chapter and a couple of verses is true, and it is true, then finish my joy, finish this process by putting away the selfish ambition and conceit that is uh creating division inside the Philippian church. Ask God for humility. Ask God to help you change your mindset and arrive at a powerful unity that grows this church. That in a nutshell is what I talked about last week. Again, you can go listen to that if you missed it. Uh, I purposely left out a good bit of material last week knowing that I wanted to talk in person about some of this stuff. Um, we're not gonna really dig into line by line like we normally do. I did that last week, but there's a man named uh Diedrich Bonhoeffer. Maybe you've heard of raise your hand if you've ever heard of him before. All right. He uh he's famous for several things. He wrote a uh a couple of great books, even though he was very young. But the thing he's most famous for is basically standing up uh to Nazi Germany whenever the rest of the

Bonhoeffer And The Attitude Of Christ

SPEAKER_00 3:47

church did not. And he ends up actually being uh executed, imprisoned and executed by the Nazi uh regime for standing up for the right thing. But he did a good deal of thinking about, I guess, the practicalities of what Paul is teaching here and elsewhere where Jesus teaches where he says uh whoever wants to be first must be a slave of all.

unknown 4:09

There you go, buddy.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

I just didn't want the microphone to fall on him or or someone. But he did a good deal of thinking about that, and a good deal of thinking about this attitude of Christ, where again, it's whoever wants to be first must be a slave to all. And again, that word slave there is well chosen because it's supposed to stand out. No one wants to be a slave, and yet we are called to be slaves to the gospel. Okay? And it's it's that attitude that will combat the destructive selfishness that can rise up in a church. Paul commands us in the face of this temptation to be humble. He's telling us to look out for one another. And just practically speaking, I I want more, I want to know more about what does it mean to be humble? What does it mean to look out for other people? What does it mean to put others before yourself, to put away selfish ambition, to put away conceit? And Bonhoeff provides us, I think, six or seven little phrases here that I think fit nicely that puts practicality to this sort of uh command from Paul. Christians should, number one, hold their tongues, refusing to speak uncharitably about Christian brothers or sisters. James 4, 11 says, Do not speak evil against one another. Ephesians 4 29 says, Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths. This is in general, but definitely applied to a church setting. James 5, uh, verse 9, do not grumble against one another.

Shut Down Gossip And Grumbling

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Do not let negative talk, negative gossip thrive in our church. Don't let it happen. Cut it off, shut it off. Don't be a part of it. Walk away.

unknown 5:55

Right?

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Shut it down. If you've got the boldness, tell somebody else to shut it down if they're bringing it up. With love and truth, of course, but tell them. And listen, just because some bit of gossip might be true doesn't mean it's right. I always heard that weird argument where it's not gossip if it's true. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. It's not your job to talk to somebody else about their problem. Go to that person, go with the pastor, go with an elder to the church to that person. That's how you deal with that. Stuff happening in a church is not ammunition for entertaining conversation. It's just not. And it happens. And it bothers me so, and this is a maybe it's an everything, every church sort of thing, but it does bother me where we will look at the sins of the world, we'll we'll look at homosexuality, we'll look at transgenderism, we'll look at this, we'll look at that, and we will rightly condemn it and rightly understand it has no place in the human condition, the human lifestyle. And yet we can sometimes be riddled with gossip in a church, and it's just as much, just as much of a sin. Don't let gossip become a damaging poison to the unity of a church. Christians should, number two, cultivate the humility that comes from understanding that they, like Paul, are the greatest of sinners and can only live in God's sight by his grace. In 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 15, Paul provides a statement which basically ends when he calls himself the chief of sinners, the worst of the worst.

Humility Through Grace For Sinners

SPEAKER_00 7:36

He's the worst. Romans chapter 3, verse 23 tells us all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 through 9 leads us to understand that we are saved by grace and not by works. We need something external to lift us up out of the miry pit, to use King James version of the Bible. So what exactly is Paul saying about himself? He's saying he's the worst, he's the chief sinner. Think of who Paul is and what he's accomplished and what he teaches and what he's done, and yet he has the humility to look at himself and understand that he's the worst in comparison to others. And if Paul says that about himself, what do we think about ourselves? This is not to be negative about yourself, but it's it does provide a bit of grounding in your life. It's listen, I think about this, and it is, and take this the right way, it is grounding to know that Hitler, if he were to be saved, would have needed the same grace that I received. Now, there's definitely some practical differences between me and Hitler, okay? But at the end of the day, in order to have a relationship and connection to the Savior, we both will have needed the same grace. That's humbling. It's humbling. You are not perfect. And so what this does is provide a framework for humility as we deal with one another. We're not better than one another. Just because I'm the pastor doesn't mean I'm better than you. Just because someone's been saved longer than you have doesn't mean they're better than you. That's what this does for us. It puts us on a level playing field, it builds unity because I might not understand what you're going through. I might not understand your struggle, I might not understand your failure, but I certainly understand the need for grace because I need it in my life as well. And so it allows us a framework for basically being hand in hand with one another, even whenever we come from different places and have different experiences, but the same grace. Amen. As Christians, we need to listen long and patiently so that they will understand their fellow Christians' needs. James 1, verse 19, quick to listen, slow to speak. Proverbs 18, verse 13, to answer before listening is folly and shame. Go tell you, Tara does this naturally.

Listening Long Enough To Understand

SPEAKER_00 10:03

She is a gifted listener. She will listen and she will listen and she will listen, and people will talk, and they will talk, and they will talk, and she will listen, and she will listen, and she will listen, and I will go away, and I'll go do something, I'll come back, and she will still be listening and listening and listening. And I have to it's a gift. And it's not that I don't care about people's struggles and problems, it's just that squirrel, or like, I got things to do. But we got to get to a maturity where we patiently listen to other people. Listen to them. Listen to them. What a challenge. You might say that this is the difference between hearing and listening. One is passive and one is active. Does that make sense? I can hear everything my wife says, but am I listening? Am I listening? Can I get in some amans from the husbands in the house? My wife said, Were you listening to me? Like I heard you. Not the same. Not the same. And uh just to not throw myself completely under the bus, Tara will do the same thing to me every once in a while. Okay? But we do that to one another. Let's be listeners. Let's take the time to listen to what people are going through so that we can understand what they're going through, so that we might better understand how we might we might be able to help them. What how we can guide them. We might know somebody or know something. We we might have a similar experience. But listen, Christians should refuse to consider their time and calling so valuable that they cannot be interrupted to help with unexpected needs, no matter how small or menial. Luke chapter 10, verses 30 through 37 is the story of the good Samaritan. You know the story. Someone gets beat up by robbers. All these important people walk by, but they're too busy, essentially, or they

Serving When It Interrupts Your Plans

SPEAKER_00 11:59

can't be bothered to step in. And finally a Samaritan shows up. If you don't know, Jewish people and Samaritan people did not get along, and yet the Samaritan takes time to serve the hurting and the broken. Galatians chapter 6, verse 2 tells us to carry each other's burdens. Pray that we are not annoyed when people need help, but instead enjoy the chance to serve. Enjoy the chance to serve. Now, I'm not asking you to get fired from your work because you're choosing to go serve. You get responsibilities and obligations. I'm not telling you to leave your spouse at home with the kids and all the housework so that you can go serve, right? Serve your family first. But take joy in serving. Take joy in work in being able to, like, how great is it that we can help each other? What a blessing it is. What a good thing it is that I can go and run and do something for someone, that I can help you guys, that you guys can help help us. And it's a good thing. It's a great thing for a church to have that attitude. I'm not, and listen, let me be clear here. Some of this applies to just life in general, but I am specifically talking about how the church, how we interact with one another. And any church you ever end up at again, how you will interact with that church in that congregation. This is what we're talking about. Be a people that takes joy in the fact that we can go help somebody. Fight the knee-jerk reaction whenever you're a little busy and somebody asks for help and you go, oh, who don't raise your hand, but you know what I'm talking about. Something happens, someone asks for help, and you go, oh my God, again. Or you go, I can't, but I've got this to do right now. No, just God, thank you for letting me be able to do this for my brother, for my sister. That's the correct attitude. And it will build a unity that we can use in the church to do good things for the kingdom of heaven. As Christians, we should bear the burden, and this is interesting to me. So pay attention to this one. Bear the burden of their brother or sisters in the Lord, both by preserving their freedom and forgiving their sinful abuse of that freedom. Galatians chapter 5, verse 1. For freedom Christ has set us free. Galatians chapter 6, verse 1. Restore gently.

Freedom With Forgiveness And Restoration

SPEAKER_00 14:19

Colossians chapter 3, verse 13. Forgive as the Lord has forgiven you. In Romans 15, verse 1, the strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak. Again, this is a church setting. We're not talking about dealing with the world. We're not talking about dealing with people at the workplace. We're talking about dealing with people inside a church that we have a connection to. There is a liberty that we have just by being created by God. So even if you're not saved, but you're created a human, which is 100% of the population, there is a liberty that people have out of that creation. And on top of that, whenever you are saved, there's an even greater liberty on top of that. Fight for that liberty. Celebrate that liberty and that freedom. Help other people get to that liberty and that freedom. Lift people up. It's a good thing. But also understand and know that there is, there's going to be people who misuse that liberty. They abuse the freedom. They're going to make mistakes like you have made mistakes. Forgive them and help them and let them continue to walk in that freedom. Does that make sense? I think that Romans chapter 15, verse 1 verse there, the strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak is very powerful to me because it tells me that there is this understanding that in any in any church setting, there's different levels of maturity. What if with our children who are definitely not as mature or as capable as we are as humans, what if we just gave up on them every time they made a mistake and we didn't keep trying to let them survive by teaching them? It's the same thing in the church. If we have Christians among us who are young Christians and they are not necessarily living up to the freedom and the liberty that they have, it is our obligation to help them, not to destroy them or keep them down, to lift them up, and so that in five years' time, ten years' time, they are now ready to help the people below them. It's a process. It's a process. Christians should, and we're almost finished, declare God's word to their fellow believers when they need to hear it. Let me read that again. Declare God's word to their fellow believers when they need to hear it. Second Timothy chapter 4, verse 2. Preach the word in season and out. In Ephesians chapter 4, verse 15.

Speak Scripture When People Need It

SPEAKER_00 16:48

When you do speak the word, speak it in truth and in love. Proverbs chapter 27, verse 6. Words from a friend can be trusted. One of the more meaningful things that happened during my uh the loss of my brother and the immediate like days of that process was that this group in college, Campus Choir, that me and my wife, she wasn't my wife then, but we were a part of it, is that they sent down to me a big stack of basically note cards. You know what I'm talking about, little note cards. And on that stack of 75 to 100 note cards was just a bunch of scriptures that the other people of that group had written down. And I sat there on my couch in those very lonely nights, flipping through and just reading those cards over and over again. Did it magically make the tears go away? No. Did it magically make the discomfort and disquieting feelings that I had in that moment go away? No. But boy did I appreciate and love it. And boy, did it make a difference. This card sat there for years on the end table at my parents' house. I don't know where they are now, but I know for a fact that my mom also used those cards over and over again. She would just pick them up and flip through and read those encouraging scriptures, that encouraging word over and over. Share the word of God with your brothers and sisters in Christ. It doesn't have to be as dramatic or as painful as that. It can be a simple, godly word of wisdom whenever you're working at with something at work. It can be a word of wisdom whenever you're trying to figure out how to discipline your child. And it could be a word of encouragement in the midst of a really bad day because we all have those days. Share the word of God. And in order to share the word of God, you've got to know the word of God. It's a double challenge here. How can you share the word of God if you don't know it? How can you share something encouraging that's straight from God and straight from the Holy Spirit if you don't, if you don't know this? Share the Word of God. Declare the Word of God to one another and see what happens. Christians should, number seven, finally, understand that Christian authority, pay attention to this. Christian authority is characterized by service and does not call attention to the person who performs the service. Mark chapter 10, verses 42 through 45 is this this whole thing, but basically

Authority That Refuses The Spotlight

SPEAKER_00 19:29

ends with Jesus saying and declaring, whoever wants to be the greatest must be servant. The Son of Man came to serve. Matthew chapter 6, verses 1 through 4. Do not practice righteousness to be seen. Jesus is teaching about prayer and about fasting and about giving. And in each instance, he's warning people that these actions are only meaningful if you're doing it for the right reason. John chapter 13, verses 12 through 15 is the story, the model of Jesus washing his disciples' feet, which was the job of a household slave. I closed my eyes whenever I was going through all this and just thinking through certain things throughout my life. And I think of all the problems that have been born out of people handling their assumed authority and sometimes even their God-given authority in the wrong way, in the wrong manner. Here's the thing some people live their entire lives and they never experience any monoclonal of authority. At home, they never have authority. At the workplace, they never have authority. When they were growing up, they never had authority in their own house or if they were on a team or in a club or in a classroom. And so the minute that they are given a little piece of authority, what happens? It goes through their head and they misuse it. They don't understand what authority really means. And unfortunately for the church, this happens all the time. The temptation to use that authority that might be offered to someone in a position in a church, the temptation is that they won't use it in a manner worthy of the gospel. And it creates division and problems. And authority is not a bad word, by the way. It's not. I'm not one of those people who believes that authority corrupts absolutely. It doesn't. I don't think there's anything wrong with people who have power and authority. But you have to acknowledge the temptation that it can be used in a wrong way, in a selfish way, and it can definitely and certainly has hurt the church. And normally from people who should be trusted and respected from pastors, from leaders, Sunday school teachers, elders, council members. But it happens. People misuse the authority, and yet when we look at the authority of Jesus, it wasn't that he was just walking around being a pushover, but he was walking around using his authority to serve. That was the function of his authority. Not the Lord over somebody, even though Jesus was Lord, but to serve. Now, Ephesians calls you the head. You're the head of your wife. You're the head of your household. You are the authoritative figure. And so maybe some homework should be, and I don't want to see your work, but maybe the homework should be to go home, and at some point soon, whether physically or metaphorically, you should probably think about washing your spouse's, your wife's feet as a symbol of your authority that is fixated on service to others. I'm not saying you're not the boss. You're the boss. And you set the standard for service in your home. As the pastor of this church, there's a level of authority that I have. I hope I always use that authority to serve, to never make it about personality, to never make it about what I want, my dreams, my desires. That stuff is trash. I'm here for you. Parents, you are the authoritative figure in your parent in your children's life. Serve them in a way that brings glory and honor to the gospel. And you've got to figure that out on your own, right? I can't tell you exactly how that looks in every situation. But I do know you've got to serve. If Jesus served, we serve. These seven things here are the tools of humility that we need in the church. Tools of humility. Don't talk about people. Don't entertain that. Understand that you've got to listen to people. Understand you've got to serve people. Understand

Tools Of Humility And A Serving Church

SPEAKER_00 24:03

that you exist for other people. Understand that you're not perfect. Understand that you've got to give grace. You've received grace. You've got to give it. Understand the power of freedom. And the fact that people will misuse it. So help them. Understand the fact that as a church there's going to be human struggle because we're human. And we just have to use some of these tools. And there's more we could have mentioned. There's more we could come up with, but these are just some practical ways to walk through this church life being humble and being focused on other people. I said this last week, and I just know that not everybody got got to hear it, so I'll say it again. Whenever you if I were to walk into this room every Sunday, or if I were to walk into a small group study that we're going to do or whatever, and I walk in with a mindset that I am only here to receive. That would be a one-sided equation where I am receiving and everybody else is everybody else is giving. If you were to walk in here with that same mindset, well then everybody walks in here trying to take, take, take, take. Consume, consume, consume, consume. And that equation doesn't work out very well. The challenge that Paul is giving us in this scripture is to walk into church ready to serve others. If I walk in ready to serve you, Dave, and you walk in ready to serve me, we will both be served. Does that make sense? If church is a well, not like the well, but the, you know, the water well, okay? If the church, thank you so much. Whale, whale. Well, well, well, whatever. Anyways, if the if the if the church was this water well in here, right, the goal would be that we don't all draw at the same time, but some people are drawing while some people are pouring in. And if we're all have that mindset, the church will grow and be healthy, right? Then that's the fear that I've heard some people say before is that, Pastor, if I'm so fixated on serving others, who's gonna be paying attention to me? Who's gonna take care of me and what I want? I have preferences. I want to be served. And the reality is if we all come in with that mindset, there's plenty of service to go around for everybody. That's the kind of church I want to be. Does that make sense? Can we pray together this morning? Let's pray and just ask God to help us have the correct humility to be unified as a church. Heavenly Father, thank you so much. Thank you for your sacrifice. Thank you for your humility. Thank you for the fact that you didn't come just to lord

Prayer For Unity Through Humble Service

SPEAKER_00 27:20

over us, Lord, in your power, in your might, in your majesty, in your authority, in everything that you are. You came in humility to serve. And I simply pray that you give us that same attitude through your Holy Spirit. I pray that you help us just be aware to fight the urge of disinuity, to fight the selfish desires, to fight the little things that crop up in any sort of human group, but especially a church where we all have different preferences and ideas and we all come from different circumstances. We're all going through different things. But Lord, I pray that we would fight the things that tries uh to basically tear us down and to rip us apart, but that we would be unified in service to one another, unified in humility, that we would put away selfish ambition and conceit and pick up your example and live by it to serve one another. Let us take joy in the ability to serve. Let us take joy in the fact that we have one another and that this this is a privilege that we get to do this together. Lord, lead us and guide us and take care of us. I pray that every single person walks out of this room blessed. I pray for all the pregnant women. I pray that you give them comfort and peace in their body. Let everything be happening at the right time, at the right place, every cell doing the right thing at the right time, every atom in the right place at the right time, Lord. And just bring peace to this house. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.