Who's more important?

Introduction: Start off with James and partiality. Judging between people. Judge between people - rich and poor...

(James 2:1-6)

Trans Sentence: What we are talking about this morning isn’t about judging between people; it’s about judging ourselves against other people.

Let’s take a look at our passage for this morning. Philippians 2:3-4

Philippians 2:3–4 NASB95

3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

This passage begins with a put off. In other words we are being challenged to get rid of a bad habit and then we are challenged to put on a new good habit. So what are those bad habits?

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit: (v3)

Define selfishness: (of a person, action, or motive) lacking consideration for others; concerned chiefly with one's own personal profit or pleasure: Some synonyms - egocentric, egotistic, egomaniacal, self-seeking, self-absorbed, self loving, inconsiderate and thoughtless.

Define conceit: Excessive pride in oneself: Some synonyms - vanity, narcissism, self-love

2 Timothy 3:1–5 NASB95

1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.

Any body recognize these behaviors in the people around you?

So, Babies/Children are the epitome of selfishness - babies need everything done for them. Some adults act the same way - incapable of doing for themselves - even though they can.

c. Others as more important:

So since we talked about the put off let’s talk about the put. The habit to begin doing instead is to consider others as more important than yourselves. Now that is a mighty tall order. This is one of those upside down things about the kingdom of God. Just like babies we adults are naturally going to want to take care of ourselves. I got stuff I have to do. I’m hungry I want to make sure I am well fed....

e. How to do it? Humble yourself! Sometimes helping take care of someone else’s interest can be a very humbling time. The last few years of my parents life I watched my day take care of my mom as dementia slowly removed her ability to do anything for herself. He humbly moved into a full care facility to be with her even though he could have managed taking care of himself on his own.

The question is who do we help? Anyone we can - or do we judge between people. Who are we willing to humble ourselves for? Once again this is one of those things that we need to make a choice. The passage is vague on who to help - one another. We are one another, but is the homeless guy down the street count?

2. So what is it mean when it talks about personal interests? What are we supposed to do?

a. Look out for our own personal interests - These are all those things we do on a daily basis. We are looking out for our own interests when we eat, when we go to the store, when we buy something we may or may not need… in fact anytime we spend money on ourselves we are looking out for our personal interests. Everything we do on a daily basis for our selves - like going to work is a personal interest. What would happen if we didn’t do the things that are our own interest and did something for another? If you skipped work would you get fired? If you spent money on someone in need would you starve? How far do we have to go to fulfill this bit of scripture? Do we forget about our own interests? There has to be a balance.

b. And what about others interests? In our society and culture most of us have pretty much the same interests. We are all a bit different but we all have needs and personal interests. Sometimes due to issues beyond our control or even due to issues within our control we find ourselves with personal interests that we can’t handle. In these times we need help. Who likes to ask for help? Some of us don’t mind but some people are way to proud to ask for help. Asking for help is the humbling that must take place on the other side. Sometimes no one knows you need the help if you never ask. If you never ask you never receive help. What happens then? What happens when the personal interest is never taken care of? Homelessness? No heat in the winter? No food?

Is this passage just about helping brothers and sisters in the church, or do we help everyone?

c. The good thing about today’s passage is that it doesn’t say we have to neglect our own needs. It doesn’t tell us to become homeless because we are helping others all of the time. Philippians 2:4

Philippians 2:4 NASB95

4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

Do what you can when you can. The idea is to be humble and put others first. Don’t push the other guy down so you can be the first in line. Don’t ignore someone when you know they need help. Do what you can to help. But why, you might ask. Well:

3. We should take on this attitude because someone else did the same for us.

a. You see, we all have a personal view of our selves. Some of us think highly of our selves; some not so highly. Some are puffed up with the conceit that is mentioned at the beginning of the passage. Others don’t see themselves as much as anything. Sometimes this happens because of upbringing, maybe something that happens along the way in a life that is blessed or a life that is hard. This personal view of our selves is often very hard to change. However, know this, no matter what your personal view of yourself is there is someone who did exactly what this passage says. There is someone who humbled Himself to the point of doing what you needed to do for yourself but were totally unable to do. That thing was to bring reconciliation with God. Philippians 2:5-11

Philippians 2:5–11 NASB95

5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus was that someone who did the thing for us that we could not do for ourselves.

b. Jesus died for us - that makes us the most important thing: Jesus humbled Himself. First He followed the will of the Father and emptied Himself. He gave up His place as the Son of God in the Kingdom of heaven and became took on the form of a man. To add to the humility of that for Him He also went to the cross. He allowed Himself to be crucified that He would be the sacrificial lamb to remove our sins and bring reconciliation for mankind with God the Father. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine emptying yourself of all the power and authority as the Son of God and taking on this?

But why? Why would anyone do that. Philippians 2:6 says:

Philippians 2:6 NASB95

6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,

equality with God was not a thing to to be grasped. Jesus knew who He was. How many of us know? Look back through the Bible and you will find that some of the times of biggest failure happened because men wanted to be like God.

Eve fell for the you will be like God trick. Nimrod who built the tower of Babel wanted to be like God. Leaders all through history have considered themselves Gods. What happened? They took advantage of others instead of looking out for their interests. Leaders should be looking out for others interests more than their own.

In the Army one of the things we learned in leadership training was that you always make sure your subordinates are taken care of before you worry about yourself. Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes not so much.

c. So what should knowing this about Jesus help us do? Well it should help us trust in Jesus that if we do what He did we will be alright. If we humble ourselves and help others with their interests and not just take care of our own then He will help us with ours. It’s a wonderful upside down economy that Jesus runs.

In verse nine of the passage it says that God exalted Jesus because He did this thing. Well if we humble ourselves and put others interests before our own, God will also exalt us in some way before men.

Close: So what’s the big deal, help someone every once in a while. Well there is more to it then that. This is one of those passages that points to our worldview.

You see - the world tells us that we are number one. My business and my interests are more important than anything going on in your life. Just look around you. Do you see all the inpatients? Do you see all the people who have to have their rights even if it means that you don’t get to have yours. What would happen if everyone was like that?

This passage points to the other side of that coin, that worldview. The other side of that coin has people to work at helping others. It points to people who take some time to do what they can when they can for someone else. We aren’t trying to be God but we are trying to be like Jesus. We are trying to empty ourselves by humbling ourselves and doing things for people that we may not want to do or doing something for someone that we may not want be around.

So what’s your worldview. If you don’t know think about it. At some point in the future you just might need to have an answer. You just might be confronted by a situation that will ask you to do something for someone that just might cost you more than you want to give. The question is: how far are you willing to go? Are you willing to give everything you have for someone else? Are you willing to give your life that someone else might live?

What’s it going to be?

Pray