A Unified Community

So if there is 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 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 interests, but also to the interests of others.

Introduction:

‌Good morning to you once again. It's a joy to open the Word of God with you this morning. As you know, we have been in a short summer series of messages on the mission and values of Hope Church. Our mission is the Great Commission given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ after His resurrection and before He ascended to heaven. We use a statement to illustrate how we apply the Great Commission here in our city.

The mission of Hope Bible Fellowship is to make disciples of Jesus Christ by gathering together, growing deeper, and going wider with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We refer to this as the Pathway of Hope and I have a graphic that I'm getting you familiar with.

SHOW GRAPHIC

In week one we talked about why we gather together and what we do when we gather. We then talked about what a disciple is and then why and how we should be making disciples like Paul commanded Titus to do in Crete.

Today we will be talking about how we develop community together in unity as we grow deeper together. We're going to look at the first four verses of Philippians chapter 2.

As we turn our hearts toward Philippians 2, let me ask you this question to get our minds and hearts moving a little bit. What is it that gets in the way of you serving others? What is it that at the very root gets in the way of serving Christ and others in the way that scripture speaks of? What is it that gets in the way of four unity and our developing deeper in the way we experience community in the church body?

The answer of course is sin but specifically, self centeredness. Our devotion to our own interests over and above anyone else's including the Lord's keeps us from serving one another and being unified deeply together.

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Paul wrote this letter to a dear group of Christians at Philippi.

Introductory summary

_Important fact - this is an important city and here Paul planted the first

church on European soil. Luke recounts this in Acts 16.

Acts 16:6-10

- Writing from prison

- 10 years after establishing the church

- Warm, friendly tone, loves this church

- theological instruction is woven throughout the letter

• occasion

This church had special significance for Paul. It was the first church he had planted in Europe.

Lydia. - Women were significant in the church in Philippi - church basically starts with a women's prayer meeting

Paul and Silas imprisoned there for casting a demon out of a fortune-telling slave girl. God delivered them and they shared the gospel with the

jailer. After his initial departure, it is said that Paul likely visited a few times._

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He's writing to encourage a people who he deeply loves.

First in this passage we notice Paul encouraging them in the certainty of the blessings they have in Christ.

I. Be confident in what God has given us in Jesus.

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Now, in your translation the word "if" probably appears before this list of things that are theirs in Christ. Paul's not questioning if the Philippians have these things. He's using a type of tool of speech to point out that because they actually do have these things, they should complete his joy by demonstrating this unity that he goes on to talk about.

‌You have these things in Jesus so live in them.

If Christians can not live unified, sharing the same attitude or mindset, then the power of the gospel to transform comes into question. When this happens, our message, the glorious gospel can lose credibility with unbelievers. Whereas, when we are unified, God is glorified and the gospel is more credible to them. It's like, when we do things in accordance with what we say… people are more likely to believe it. I fear that sometimes we make a big deal about doing the other things of scripture but we don't champion unity with one another.

Walk through the certain blessings we have in Christ:

1. encouragement in Christ

- the blessing of knowing Christ and being found in Him. The gift of faith. There is nothing to lift our spirits more than knowing that we are found in Christ! Even though we go through pain, suffering, and trials of many kinds, we find great encouragement in our relationship with Jesus. If everything else was stripped away from us and it was only Jesus, would that be enough for you?

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2. comfort from love

- the love of Christ that comforts us. We know God's love and that love, His love makes us love others. The more deeply we become keenly aware of the love of Christ for us, we will more abundantly love others.

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3. participation in the Spirit

- the greek word that is sometimes translated as fellowship is the same that we found in verse 5 of chapter 1.

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Philippians 1:5 ESV

because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

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The Holy Spirit unites us. He unites us as brothers and sisters in the family of God. He makes us partners in the gospel. He enables us for service to each other in the Lord. He helps us in our weaknesses.

Romans 8:26 ESV

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

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The Spirit of God unites us and is how we are able to worship God. We worship God by the Spirit.

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Philippians 3:3 ESV

For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—

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Why would Paul just write these things in this letter to these people? In fact, he knew that that the Philippian church was facing possible disunity. The threat was real. Here he reminds them that the fellowship they have, the partnership they have, the koinania, they share is Spirit-produced and not from their own working.

Friends, God is building something here at Hope. We live in perilous times and there are many things that would tear away at our unity. Thank God that we have not had major struggles with this as a church. However, there is a deeper level still that we can go with our unity and sense of community moving forward.

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4. affection and sympathy

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The affection and mercy or sympathy that has been shown to us, comes for the infinite source of these. He's the God of all compassion. We get to share, as Merida writes, being "the objects of God's compassion." The tender care that He shows to us should cause us to be on the lookout for the best interest of other people, especially those who are members of the body of Christ. For a picture of this, we need look no further than Epaphroditus.

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Philippians 2:25–30 ESV

I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need, for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men, for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.

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Philippians 4:18 ESV

I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

5. the source of unity

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The reason that we get to experience these incredible blessings is because they are believers. We get to share in them too if we have trusted in Jesus Christ. If you have heard and believed the gospel message:

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God

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Man

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Sin

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Christ

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If you have believed this good news and repented of your sin then you too get to share in these incredible blessings and can rejoice in them. Paul's communication style here is a sign of how he feels about this group of Christians. He is warm and speaks pastorally to them and relishes their blessings before he gets to the part where he's exhorting them.

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Tony Merida says, "If all you ever do is tell people what they're supposed to be doing, then they will get burned out. Remind people of the blessings while giving them the imperatives. Do this for your own soul, and do this for other Christians."

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Some churches that you go to, you get a bunch of things "to do." People don't need an endless list of religious things to do. Yes, there are definite commands in scripture but we need to constantly be reminded of the blessings we have in Christ because out of that will flow our spirit produced activity. We are grace-fueled, as one writer called it. It is out of our shared faith in Jesus Christ and the working of the Spirit binding us together in unity that we come together as a church.

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When we talk about unity, we are not speaking of uniformity. However, we should be consistently unified in Christ. Let's talk about the consistency in our unity.

II. Be consistent in our unity

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The Same mind - In order to be united the church should have the same mentality.

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They should put away their rivalries and small disagreements and preference fights and set their sights on their common mission and remember their identity in Christ.

Christ like humility - In chapter one, Paul had mentioned the preachers who were movitvated wrongly by rivalry. Here, Paul tells the church as a whole to avoid this kind of attitude. If you have rivalry in a church, it will tear the congregation apart. It divides people. As such, each member of the church should be aware of rivalry when it's present and doing it's thing and kill it. We as followers of Jesus are to be about his glory and not our own. We should rejoice when God uses someone else to advance His kingdom and proclaim the Lord Jesus.

Conceit - Greek word for conceit is translated - vain glory, vain conceit in some translations. This is empty glory. Fake glory. It's glory that doesn't exist. One scholar wrote that "people are literally conceited over nothing!"

The total opposite of this is Jesus Christ. He had all glory. Real glory. And for your sake and my sake, He humbled Himself, even to death on a cross. Our culuture tells you to chase the approval of men and the "likes" of people you don't even know. But Jesus teaches us to work for God's glory and the advancement of the gospel. In this we willl never be disappointed.

Romans 12:16 ESV

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.

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A church will never truly be unified if the people do not walk in humility. There is too much in us that wants to fight for prominence and our wants and our ways. We want the special honors. But when we humble ourselves and put the needs of others above our own, then we will see unity break out in the church.

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This brings us to the final point this morning which is cease to be self-serving.

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‌III. Stop being selfish. (v. 3-4)

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Look not to your own interests

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but to the interests of others

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C.S. Lewis's description of a humble person:

Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call "humble" nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed 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 will not be thinking about himself at all. (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 128)

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When we serve out of humble thankfulness for what we have in Christ, we can live in consistent unity with other believers. The outcome of this is that we grow deeper and grow closer together as a local body of believers.

‌As we look at our hearts we need to ask a few questions:

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1. Am I competing for people's attention and approval?

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2. Do I find it difficult or easy to rejoice in the success of others?

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3. Am I conceited?

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4. Do I think I'm superior to people?

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5. Am I concerned with the needs of others?

6. Am I willing to do something about it?

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Challenges for you when you see something dark in your heart:

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1. Look to the cross.

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- There is no space at the cross for pride. Pride dies at the foot of the cross. Whenever we look and see sin in our hearts we should look to the cross and remember, know for certain that however much sin is in our heart, there is more mercy in Jesus.

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2. Seek Him in the Word.

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Reflect on what you see and humbly submit. Meditate on the greatness of God.

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3. Prayer.

When we lack humility, it often plays itself out in prayerlessness. Humble yourself before God regularly in prayer and cast your cares on Him.

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4. Find ways to serve other people.

Be like the early Christians. Be Christian. Serve humbly.

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Closing:

These four verses are going to lead directly into the hymn we find in verses 5-11 which shows Jesus as the ultimate example of selfless love. **

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Behold the man upon a cross, My sin upon His shoulders; Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice Call out among the scoffers. It was my sin that held Him there Until it was accomplished; His dying breath has brought me life -- I know that it is finished. (Stuart Townsend "How Deep the Father's Love")