More Than Myself

Have you ever put together a puzzle just find that the very last piece is missing? When I was a kid I put together a 500 piece Ninja Turtles puzzle and the very last piece was missing. And it was Raphaels face.

It’s a terrible feeling right?

When it comes to how we live as Christians, Philippians 2:1–11 gives us a piece of the puzzle we don’t want missing from our lives.

We are continuing our sermon series Pursuing Christ Together as we preach through the book of Philippians.

And Last week we learned that a life that is worthy of Christ is a life lived in unity with each other—Paul called us to “stand firm in one Spirit”.

And a life that seeks to do the work of the Great Commission. Paul called us to “strive together for the advancement of the gospel”.

And Paul is continuing the argument from last week saying if you want to live the way you should there is a trait you really need to have in your life.

So let’s read the word together.

Philippians 2:1–11 ESV

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. Have this mind among yourselves, 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, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is 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 that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The lesson that we must not miss this morning is that you and I are called to a life of humility. Without humility the puzzle of your Christian life will be missing a piece.

Here’s the roadmap for this sermon—First we’ll see reasons for humility, the command of humility, the example of humility, and then the fruit of humility.

Let’s pray.

As we look at the first two verses of our passage we see that…

Humility is the right response to the blessings of the gospel.

Paul is continuing his exhortation to be living in a manner worthy of the gospel and in verse 1 and 2 he is doubling down on what he just finished saying.

Philippians 2:1–2 “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.”

Paul says in verse 2, “complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.”

That was the topic of last weeks sermon. Be unified—be worthy of the life you’ve been called to—be of one mind—that’s the goal. And if we could sum all those exhortations up we could call all of it humility—loving each other humbly.

Let me borrow from a little further down in the passage and define humility so that we know what we’re talking about. Because humility isn’t just being last in the buffet line—or being soft spoken. Humility is counting other people as more significant than yourself and looking after their interests before yours.

The main point of this passage is to that you and I should be humble like Christ is humble—that humility is a part of our calling as Christians.

And here in verse 1 Paul gives us extra motivation to be committed to that call. First we see…

1. The encouragement of Christ should lead us to be humble.

Paul says if there is “any encouragement in Christ” respond to each other in humble love.

And this almost sounds sarcastic—Paul says if there is any, but he knows the answer is yes there is. If you are saved in Christ then there is encouragement in Christ.

And encouragement doesn’t mean positive words—what’s in view here is a help that pushed you along on the path your supposed to go. Christ is helping all his people follow after him.

The truth is that you and I are no more able to walk in the footsteps of Christ by our own strength than a young child is able to lift something heavy by themselves.

Nehemiah can’t lift our garage door by himself—he needs help—the strength of someone that can encourage his efforts.

And how unfitting would it be, if after receiving help opening the door, Nehemiah strutted around the drive way and bragged about how strong he is? The right response would be humble appreciation.

Our Christian life is like that—you and I are being carried along as we follow the Lord. God is helping us to do what God has called us to do. It is by His strength that we follow Christ.

There is no place in the Christian’s life for arrogance and pride about their walk with Christ. What do you have that you have not been given? It’s hard to be focused on others when we are full of pride about how good we are.

The right response to the encouragement of Christ is that you and I would be motivated to humility. Second we see that…

2. The comfort of God’s love should lead us to be humble.

Paul says “if there is any comfort from love”

Have you ever been disarmed by someone else’s kindness? A long time ago I worked as a call center employee for Verizon Wireless.

Ok, now tell the truth…how many of you call your phone company to tell them what a wonderful job they are doing? People usually call because they are upset and often they weren’t very nice about it. And one of the tactics they taught us was to be overly kind—kindness would disarm the person.

God’s love should be like that for you and I. When it comes to this analogy you and I are the angry phone customer. And God has extended his love toward us. Hear scripture…

Romans 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,”

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

If you belong to Jesus—you experience the comfort of God’s love for you.

That’s what fuels our worship isn’t it? We recognize that God has moved towards us in great love when we didn’t deserve it and so we praise and sing and pray.

We should also fix our hearts to humility as an act of worship toward our God—it’s an appropriate response to the comfort of love we receive. We also see that…

3. Participation in the Spirit should lead us to be humble.

Paul says, “if there is any participation in the Spirit”

If you are saved you have participation in the Spirit.

When we belong to Christ we receive God the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.

God resides with us—this should lead us to great humility.

Also we see that..

4. The fellowship of the church should lead us to be humble.

Humility means being focused on others over yourself.

Friends, how sweet is the fellowship of the church? How sweet is the affection and the sympathy of brothers and sisters in Christ?

One of the greatest blessings in my life has been the people of God. I have felt the love of God for me through the people of God many, many times.

And the right response to that is a humility that seeks to serve them back over myself.

So there’s four motivations of the Christian life that should lead us to be a humble people before God and others.

Paul says because you have received these things and experienced these things you should be unified together serving one another in humility.

And as the text continues we see that this is more than a suggestion…look at verses 3-4 with me.

Philippians 2:3–4 “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.”

Self-Exaltation is the enemy of humility.

Our flesh deeply desires to be first. You can see it the sayings or our culture.

Look out for number one…What’s in it for me…Every man for himself…

But the message of the Bible is the opposite. Don’t look out for number one, count others as more significant than yourselves.

Don’t ask what’s in it for me—serve others motivated by love for them—not what you’ll get.

And instead of every man for himself—God’s word says to bear one another’s burdens.

If we are to pursue Christ in humility then we must recognize that the default position of our flesh is to exalt ourselves above others.

God says to us this morning, don’t do that, don’t live your life serving yourself—in fact, and here’s the command— do nothing from selfish concern, do nothing from conceit but instead be humble.

Self-exaltation makes exalting others impossible—and that’s the point Paul is making here.

Humility is counting other people as more significant than you and looking after their interests first. x2

And so God’s Word is calling the Philippians and West Hopewell to in all things put others first in humility.

No problem! That’s easy right?

This is extremely difficult. I struggled writing this sermon—because every other line was convicting my own heart—that I’m often not very humble.

And I don’t mean that I brag—or that I demand to be first—or made much of. I don’t do those things because I know that I shouldn’t. But humility is more than just right actions. It’s living the right way with the right heart.

And man can I get that wrong sometimes. Too often I’ll do the right thing but grumble in my heart—and it most often shows up at home. I’ll move the box but I’ll grumble. I’ll take the kids down the road but I’ll grumble and complain in my heart. That’s not humility.

I’m talking about me—but I bet this describes some of you too. Especially my brothers in the pews. Humility is hard work.

How can we possibly obey this command? How can we always put others first?

We can’t—but that shouldn’t stop us from trying. You are not going to do this perfectly but that shouldn’t stop you from making putting others first always your goal.

Do you know what we tend to do with things that we aren’t good at? We ignore them.

I don’t know about you—but if I’m not careful I can be a bit of a perfectionist. A perfectionist doesn’t like to do anything they aren’t good at. If I can’t do it perfect then I’m not going to do it—the perfectionist says.

But that attitude itself is a selfish attitude—it’s opposed to the very Word of God we are preaching on this morning.

Who is at the center of that attitude? You are, I am— “I don’t like not being perfect—I don’t like the way it makes ME feel. So I’m not doing it.”

Child of God that is not an option with the commands of God—amen?

Humility is counting others as more significant than yourself and looking to their interests first.

When our focus is on others—our lack of perfection doesn’t stop us.

I’m not a perfect husband—right Vickery? And when I mess up it bothers me. And if my failure is my focus then it makes it hard to love my wife well.

But if my focus is on Vickery—then I just keep trying to put her first—because I love her and I want her to be served and loved well —and I want to honor my God by being like Jesus in humility.

And this is true for all our relationships—for our work, our family, our friends, even our enemies—

Christian rice farmer, unbelieving neighbor kept stealing his water. What do you think the Christian did? What would we do? Chew him out? Lay holy hands on him?

The Christian farmer decided that he was going to start first, watering his neighbors rice fields and then he would water his own.

He literally put his neighbors interests first with great humility and the result of his long-suffering and love and kindness is that his unbelieving neighbor put his faith in Jesus.

The Bible is not just theoretical. Being humble and serving others over ourselves communicates the love of God and the otherness of the Christian life.

A few weeks ago, we talked about suffering being a part of the Christian life—living humbly, putting others first will often feel like suffering to your flesh

But a life of humility communicates the otherness of the Christian life and calls the world to come and see who this Jesus is that so radically changes men and women.

Brothers and sisters—what will you do with God’s call on your life to focus on others instead of yourself?

As we continue in the text in verses 5-8 Paul holds Jesus up as the example that we should follow…read with me.

Philippians 2:5–8 “Have this mind among yourselves, 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, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Christians live a life of humility because Jesus did.

The humility of Jesus is shocking because Jesus is God. There are people that say Jesus isn’t God, or that Jesus never claimed to be God—but the Bible is very clear that Jesus is God Himself.

We’re studying Hebrews in Sunday school and Hebrews 1:3 say about Jesus…“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature,

Colossians 1:15 “He is the image of the invisible God

John 1:1 Talking about Jesus says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

John 8:58 “Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”” And they understood what he was saying that’s why they tried to stone him.

John 10:30 “I and the Father are one.””

Jesus being the very God of the universe entered into creation!

There is no condescension greater than this.

The one who created all flesh took on flesh—the one who gives man the breath of life took on lungs.

And in becoming a man he did not come in a form of man that was due honor—he didn’t come as a kings son or a wealthy nobles son—he came poor and unknown as a carpenters son.

And he submitted to death. The one in whom is eternal life, in humility submitted to death—and a shameful one on the cross.

When Paul writes that “he emptied himself” this is what he is talking about.

Jesus didn’t empty himself of divinity—when God the Son took on flesh He did not relinquish his divinity. Jesus could no more stop being divine than you or I could decide to become an apple. It’s not possible. Divine is who He is.

Jesus emptied himself of the honor and glory and that was due Him because of his divinity—though being equal with God as God He didn’t grasp onto it.

Instead he came fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 53:2–3 “ he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

This is our great savior—this is the author of our lives—this is our great King who came humbly into the world to save it.

Friends how strange it is when we live our lives selfishly as followers of Jesus.

There is nothing more unbecoming for you and I to be saved by Christ and then to exalt ourselves above our savior.

John 13:16 “Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.”

More than anything else we’ve talked about this morning—the example of God the Son’s humility should drive us toward humility ourselves.

There’s a country song by Rodney Atkins called Watching You that always makes me cry a little—the whole song is about how a son has been watching his dad and wants to be just like him. The admiration of the son for the dad is what stirs my heart. All dads want that.

Likewise, our admiration for Christ should stir us to want to be like him. And with God’s help we can be.

So far, we’ve seen motivation for humility, the command of humility, the example of humility and now In the last verses of our text we see the fruit of humility in verses 9-11.

Philippians 2:9–11 ESV

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is 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 that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The victory of Jesus motivates us to continue on in humility.

I think in 3 ways

1. Christ’s Exaltation Shows That Humility Is the Path to Glory

When we look at the exaltation of Christ, it reminds us first that the way up is down.

Jesus humbled Himself to the lowest place, and then God highly exalted Him. That’s the pattern for every believer.

God lifts up the lowly. So when humility feels like losing, remember that in God’s kingdom humility leads to exaltation. It is to the humble that Christ will say well done good and faithful servant.

2. Christ’s exaltation shows us that our humility is not wasted.

Jesus’ humility led to His glory. His obedience to the Father wasn’t for nothing, and neither is ours.

When you serve quietly, when you forgive instead of fight, when you choose others over yourself and nobody notices—God sees.

And God uses your humble service even when you can’t see the fruit of it yourself. It is never a waste to look like our Lord.

3. Christ’s exaltation reminds us of what’s important.

Our text reminds us that all knees will bow to Jesus and that all tongues will confess that He is Lord.

That means that every angel, every demon, every person will recognize and confess that Jesus is in fact God.

Friends, there will be many who come to this day in utter disbelief and regret—for them this day will be a day of judgment.

But for those who are found in Christ this will be a day of celebration. A joyous day where our faith becomes our sight.

On this day you and I will not regret one moment that we pursued the path of Christ in humility. We will not regret one choice to live our lives focused on others before ourselves.

When it comes to the puzzle of our lives we don’t want to get to the end and find that humility had been missing.

Church, let us humble ourselves and love one another the way that Christ has loved us.

Let’s pray.