The Humble Life
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Through out television and movies, one theme keeps repeating itself
It’s the overly arrogant, self obsessed and often highly ambitious jerk we all want to see get their comeuppance; what they deserve
I think of characters like:
Gordon Gecko in Wall Street
Tony Stark
Dr. House
Colonel Jessep in A few Good Men, and no, I’m not going to say it
In some of these cases we wanted to see the arrogant character get what they deserve and in others we wanted to see them come to their senses and finally mature
Unity Re-Iterated
Unity Re-Iterated
v1-2
Paul begins this next section by listing 4 certainties of the Christian life that prove we can have unity
In each of these statements he is making the argument “if you have…be in unity”
The if is there as a rhetorical tool, not as a conditional statement
Even though he is says “if you have” he’s not telling you to check and see if you have these 4 characteristics; instead he is saying “if you have” to get us thinking.
But he is really saying “because you have”
It’s like asking a rhetorical question. It’s supposed to jolt our thinking.
1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,
Encouragement in Christ
I like the way the NLT puts it “Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ?”
The obvious answer is yes
by being in Christ, we can get through the hardest times because we know our short time here is not the full story
Christ and his death, his life give us encouragement in the face of anything by reminding us that eternity has already been won
Comfort from love
Again the NLT puts a nice twist on the translation “Any comfort from His love?”
And again we see the obvious answer is yes
Much like encouragement, comfort is something we receive when from Christ when we are experiance difficulties
Participation in the Spirit
Participation in the Spirit is a little less agreed upon
it is possible Paul is discussing our participation with the Holy Spirit
But it is also possible He is speaking about our fellowship together in the Spirit
It could be referencing or unity with the Spirit or our unity to each other in the Spirit
Either way, again we see Paul is pointing us toward agreement
We are either united to each other by the Spirit or united to the Spirit with each other
Affection and Sympathy
One last time I think it is valuable to go to the NLT: “Are your hearts tender and compassionate?”
This gives credence to the 3rd point possibly be speaking to the churches unity with in the Spirit because here he is undoubtedly speaking about our compassion towards one another
If we are united to each other, then we should also have compassion and sympathy for each other
Affection is a “gentle feeling of fondness and kindness”
Sorrow is sorrow for someone else’s miss fortune
Because we have these 4 things Paul calls the church at Philippi to complete his joy by:
being of the same mind - which he mentions twice in verse 2
Having the same love
Since we all receive Encouragement, comfort, participation in the Spirit and affection of sympathy we can channel those benefits toward each other
The thrust of Pauls argument is this:
Since there is encouragement in Christ, comfort from love, participation in the Spirit and affection and sympathy, and compassion toward each other; be in unity of mind and love one another
Unity Leads to Humility
Unity Leads to Humility
v3-4
When we live out those 4 certainties, and thus end up in unity and compassionate toward each other we show it by humility
“Church Hurt”: Over my lifetime the reputation of the church has been in steady decline, but I think the saddest thing to happen over the past years is the creation of the phrase “Church hurt”
It’s sad that our culture has created a term specifically to describe the hurt church members have cause those in the church around them
I have lunch once a month with a handful of pastors. 3 are retired and 4 of us still serving
This past week two of the retired pastors were talking about their kids and how seeing churches mistreatment of them lead their kids to be against even the idea of pursuing vocational ministry
Also this week I saw a video where the speak was talking about atheists and what usually drives people into true atheism
Atheism being the belief there is not God as compared to agnostic which is uncertainty about God
He said two things are needed to make someone an atheist
1) a reduction of everything down to pure materialism
But he goes on to say this is usually not enough, and says “it also really helps if you were viciously hurt by someone religious”
But if we compare this to what Paul says in verse 3-4 we find that the entire concept of church hurt should never exist
3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Paul contrasts selfish ambition and conceit with humility
Selfish ambition may not always appear bad.
Honestly, ambition is a great characteristic to have
But when it is selfish, though sometimes the selfishness is disguised it will take root and sooner or later destroy you and the people around you
Selfish ambition is a desire to raise yourself up to a new level
It might be to get ahead in my career, or accumulate power within the church
It can be seen in a husband and wife when they struggle for power within their relationship
May it’s something small like deciding where to go for vacation “But I want”
Or it can be something large like a husband working too much or a wife withholding sex
It can be in the workplace where you may be willing to do anything to get a promotion even at the expense of someone more deserving
Or it can be with your children; making them play in a sport so you can brag about how good they are
It can even show itself as being selfless sometimes
Parents do this a lot; they spend money they do not have to give their kids things they do not need
Why would they do that? It let’s them feel like they are doing good; or prevents them from feeling like they are failing their children
Why do we act with selfish ambition? Conceit
Conceit
In Greek it is
Kenodoxia; Empty conceit, vainglory
Miriam Webster: excessive appreciation of one's own worth or virtue
Selfish ambition is rooted in an overly excessive view of yourself
Both of these items, conceit and selfish ambition, are rooted in the same sin; pride
Pride leads us to believe we deserve better
We have selfish ambition because we look at our life and others lives and believe we desire what they or, or even better than they have
So we let a good thing in ambition turn get corrupted by selfishness
We believe we are better than others around us become conceited
Instead, Paul directs us to “think of others as more important than ourselves”
His summary of how we think of others as more important than ourselves is to look not into our own interests but to the interests of others
It’s not that we cannot look after our own interests, but that others interests should be more important than our own
Give each other grace
Give of your time
Give of your resources
Give of your talents
Rejoice in their victors and mourn in the suffering
Speak their love language
words
acts of service
quality time
gifts
physical contact
Be in prayer for them
Nothing makes us more Christ like than to have a humble spirit
We will see more of this next week when Paul discusses Christ and His humility; specifically how he looked at our hopeless situation and viewed our needs as more important than his comfort
It was this humility and his compassion toward us that lead him to the cross
