Complete My Joy

Introduction

A few years ago, I witnessed firsthand what may go down as the single greatest upset in sports history. We were hosting a dodgeball outreach, and the teams were broken down by age. So, there were teams that were junior high and teams that were senior high. Each team went out into the community and recruited their own team for the tournament, and then we were going to present the gospel to them after it was over. And, I will never forget seeing one of our senior high boys teams rolling into the parking lot. They had managed to recruit guys who were 5 star prospects, some of whom are playing in the NFL right now. Their team was LOADED. As in, I almost disqualified them from the tournament because I was afraid they would hurt someone. They would throw the ball so hard that all you could see was a blur flying across the court. And, of course, they were dismantling everybody that they played against. The more they won, the more we all heard about until they were trying trick shots and dancing. They found themselves in the championship match against a team of barely pubescent junior high boys — the type that have no idea the pitch of their voice until after they speak. We’re talking David and Goliath, the 1980 Russian Hockey team against the Americans, Buster Douglas verses Mike Tyson kind of stuff. My concern at this point is not who will win but whether we can avoid the emergency room. As we get started though, I noticed the junior high boys aren’t timid, and they are QUICK. Their muscles weren’t formed all the way, and they could drop down into a puddle like a jelly fish. No matter how hard the older guys threw the balls, they couldn’t hit them. And, as they would throw at one guy, he would drop flat down, and the other guys on the team would hit the guy that had just thrown it. And, finally, one-by-one every single college recruit had been taken out by guys that couldn’t bench press the bar.

Great teams aren’t necessarily the result of great players. Great teams happen when the sum total is greater than the individual parts. And, the opposite is true. There have have been bad teams that were loaded with great players. You know, our church is made up of some strange pieces. Just look at our staff! But, what we’re going to see today is that it’s not about the giftedness of each person but the unity of the whole that makes the difference. In fact, what we see is that when all of us with all of our weaknesses and all of our weirdness unite together with a singular heartbeat we display the power and wonder of the gospel.

God’s Word

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Unity in God, Unity among Us

v. 1 “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy” There’s a wonderful picture of the Trinity here that would be easy for us to miss, but it’s important to what Paul is saying. It follows a pattern very similar to , which helps us understand this better. We’ve been encouraged by Jesus’ grace, we’ve comforted by the Father’s love (Cf. 2 Cor passage), and we’ve enter into a (fellowship) in the Holy Spirit. That creates in us passion and compassion, affection and sympathy. We are saved through the relationship that the Godhead has among its persons. The Father loves us and wills that we be saved. By his grace, Jesus comes to earth so He might live and die as our substitute to save us by his righteousness. The Spirit brings us into participation or fellowship with God by convicting us of our sin, drawing us to the Father, and apply to us the finished work of the risen Christ. So, we are saved THROUGH the unity within the godhead to accomplish God’s purposes for salvation. It’s not just that we have gotten ‘any’ encouragement, comfort, or fellowship. It’s that we’ve gotten so much!

v. 2 “complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being full accord and of one mind.” And, that’s what brings us to the main idea of what Paul has begun saying here in the main body of his message to the Philippians. “Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel.” The gospel is the result of the eternal unity that exists among the godhead. You are saved because of the Father and because of the Son and because of the Spirit working harmoniously together to make you saints forever. So now, live worthy of it. The church is to reflect the “unity” of God through the “unity” of the body. The Spirit brings us into participation/fellowship with God, and the very same Spirit, indwelling all believers brings us into participation/fellowship with one another. Our relationships with one another are the result of what God has done, and our unity with one another is to resemble who God is. All of us are to come together with all of our weirdness and all of our baggage and all of our scars and all of our disorders as a single body with a single mind and a single love so that God might be seen in us. You’ll notice that he speaks twice of us being of the “same/one mind.” He’s not saying that we all have the same thoughts or the same opinions or see everything the same way. He’s talking about unity, not uniformity. In fact, this type of single-mindedness is most clearly demonstrated when unity is kept even though there is great disagreement. What he’s talking about is having our focus, our concentration set upon Christ and his Kingdom. It’s having our minds obsessed with and consumed by the gospel so that ultimately we are able to take all of our thoughts, all of our opinions, all of our preferences, and ultimately submit them to what is best for the gospel and the advancement of the Kingdom. Where “single-mindedness” for the gospels exists, “unity” will exist, even when there is a difference of opinion and even conviction.

How Any Church Can Be United (headline)

So, the question becomes: how then can we be united with one another when unity seems so difficult? How can we display the wonderful unity in God so that the world will be drawn to him and love him and see him as wonderful? Paul tells the Philippians how to overcome their divisions so that they can be unified. And, we see, in fact, how any church can be united (headline).

See Yourself “Honestly”.

The starting place for unity in the church is for you to see yourself “honestly”.

v. 3 “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit.” To see yourself honestly, you have to understand your “role”. There’s something I want to point out about these steps toward unity that Paul gives to us in verses 3-4. They are given to us as individuals. They describe steps that you have to take yourself, and that I can’t take for you. Steps that I have to take, and you can’t take for me. I can only evaluate my own ambition and conceit. I can only control how I value others and how I prioritize my interests and yours. Unity of the whole is a responsibility that each of us bears individually. It’s easy for us to lose personal responsibility when we talk about something as big as the church. But, the unity of our church and effectiveness of our church and the fulfillment of the mission of our church begins in the hearts and lives of individuals. Do you wish our church were more unified or friendlier or more loving or more evangelistic? It begins with you. What step can you take individually that will help the church move there collectively? In the gospel, Jesus didn’t say, “They should.” Jesus said, “I will.” And, brothers and sisters, if we are to have a church marked by the gospel we need Christians who don’t say, “They should be more loving or more compassionate or more relational,” rather we need Christians who will say, “I will be more loving and more compassionate and more relational and help others do the same.”

“selfish ambition” And, we see that if you’re to see yourself honestly, you must guard your “motives”. This is what he’s getting at when he talks about ‘selfish ambition.’ How easy it is to do the right things for the wrong reasons. There’s a way to camouflage serving yourself as serving Christ and his church. It’s possible to do what is apparently sacrificial in a self-serving way. Selfish ambition is giving so that others will think highly of you. It’s ministering to them so that they will have a high opinion of you. It’s going on a mission trip to prove that you’re serious or quoting scripture to prove that your godly and well-grounded. It’s the opposite of not letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Selfish ambition is to secretly compete with Jesus for worship and adoration that only He deserves. And, it torpedoes the unity of the church by either insisting that you maintain the platform or ministry that caters to your ego or by filling you with resentment of others when they won’t capitulate to your agenda. It divides the single-mindedness of the church where they have to choose either to remain with you or with the others, rather than all deciding collectively how to glorify Christ. APPLICATION: Here are some questions that can help you evaluate your motives: Does it bother you that you don’t have more influence, even if others are growing in Christ? Do you find yourself doing what is right only when others are around? When serving in the church, do you think most about others thinking you did well or about Christ being glorified? Oh, brothers and sisters, let’s build a Christ-honoring, Christ-seeking, Christ-glorifying church at Iron City, not a modern day version of the Tower of Babel to show others how good we are.

“conceit, but in humility” If you’re to see yourself honestly, you must watch your “attitude”. Paul contrasts two attitudes, one that divides and one that unifies. The attitude that divides is “conceit”, and the attitude that unifies is “humility”. Conceit literally translates as ‘empty glory.’ That is, it’s to give yourself a crown. It’s Michael Scott buying himself the ‘world’s greatest boss’ cup. It’s Lori Loughlin bribing her child’s way into USC because they didn’t deserve it. It’s an award on your resume that you gave yourself. It’s a crown, but it’s worthless and empty. It’s wanting to lead when you don’t have influence. It’s needing to have your opinion heeded, even if others see it as less wise or as unwise. It’s comparing your service and your sacrifice to others so that you believe better about yourself. It’s serving in the children’s ministry or worship ministry or mercy ministry so long as it makes you feel better about you. And, it divides. Conceit inevitably evolves into resentment. “How do others not give me the recognition that I deserve?”“Why do others not contribute as I do?” And so, Paul calls for us to instead have an attitude that would have been undesirable — humility. Humility in Paul’s time was used to describe a slave he performed lowly service for his master. But, what is undesirable in the world is preferred in the Kingdom! No church has ever split because everyone was too lowly in spirit. No church has ever divided because no one wanted the credit or had to have their idea implemented. See yourself honestly!

See Others “Graciously.”

v. 3b “count others more significant than yourselves” Not only must you see yourself honestly, but you must See others “graciously.” That is, humility doesn’t just affect the way that you view yourself; it affects the way that you view others. Paul is making a value statement when he says that we should ‘count others more significant than (our)selves.’ But, it’s not a statement of actual value but of practical value. In other words, he’s not saying that we should count others more significant because they are more significant. Rather, he’s calling for us to take for ourselves the position that Christ took when He emptied himself of the dignity of his throne to be born in manger filled with hay. Jesus did not die because he was less significant than us. He did not suffer because He was of lesser value than us. I hope it makes you uncomfortable to even hear that said. We could add up every life in the history of the church and every life in the future of the church, and we would not even begin to get close to the incalculable worth of Jesus. After all, that’s the only way He could take all of our places at the same time. Yet, practically, He died for us as though we were more significant. That’s grace. That’s the type of grace that gospel calls for us to apply to our relationships, especially within the church.

Grace changes how you view others. Grace measures “generously”. Whenever we meet someone, we evaluate them. And, have you ever noticed how much more likely you are to pick up on their negatives than their positives? And, it’s not just people that we meet. It’s our friends. It’s our church family. The more time we spend around each other, the more clearly we know each other faults and flaws and problems. Often, we can describe someone’s flaws much more honestly and much more comprehensibly than we can their strengths and good qualities. We’re naturally cynical, aren’t we? But, grace is the opposite of cynical. Grace is generous and charitable. Grace is inclining your heart to love someone when its more natural to critique them. Grace makes it impossible to gossip and quick to give the benefit of the doubt. Grace is choosing to think highly whenever possible. Grace crushes all of those thoughts in us that put us at odds with others. Grace is counting others more significant than yourself.

Don’t Eject

Grace changes not only how you view others, but also how you treat others. Grace applies “mercifully”. That is, grace always chooses to treat others in a way that reflects how Christ has treated you. The hardest part about being in the church is that we have to be in the church with other people, isn’t it? People are painful. People let us down and offend us and overlook us and wound us. But, if I’m going to count them more significant than myself, if i’m going to measure them generously, treat them mercifully, then, I’ve already decided before I’m hurt and angry and disappointed that I’m going to forgive them. Our culture couldn’t find an Easy Button so we settled for an Eject Button. So, when marriage gets hard and work gets hard and school gets hard and friendships get messy, we just eject. Rather, than face what frustrates us and deal with what disappoints us, we eject out, and we miss the depth and maturity that comes with difficulty and with forgiveness and patience. And, this is why very few people today understand church in the way that the NT describes. Don’t eject when you get frustrated and fearful and wounded. ‘Count others more significant than yourselves.’ See them through the lens of grace and offer mercy!

Live for the Joy of Others “Sacrificially”.

v. 4 “Let each of us look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” Finally, for unity, you must live for the joy of others “sacrificially.” The ultimate call that Paul is giving them is for them to actually LIVE in a manner worthy of the gospel. That’s the point of seeing themselves honestly and seeing others graciously. It’s that it might affect how they love each other and serve each other and make decisions together. It isn’t just living worthy of the gospel individually, but collectively that he’s after. He wants them to take each other’s joy seriously. Think of how he says it. He starts off by saying “Complete my joy” by being united together. In other words, Paul is boldly telling this church to make decisions and take actions based on what will bring him joy. This command doesn’t even make sense if its given to a narcissistic, consumeristic church where what matters is that the music excites you and the message entertains you. This is a fellowship that is to go deeper than that. All the way to the bone. It’s a radical way for us to think about church. And, the way that we’re to do this is to ‘look out not only for (our) interests, but also to the interests of others.’ In other words, they are to complete Paul’s joy by sacrificing what they want for the joy of each other. And, as counterintuitive as it seems, sacrificing what we want for the joy of others creates a source of rich, deep joy in us in place of the superficial, cheap, hollow happiness that we’re used to. It’s follow in the steps of a Savior who said that it’s ‘more blessed to give than to receive’, a Savior that found ultimate joy in laying down his own life so that we could have joy in God himself. What Christ teaches us is that you can’t buy your way into the joy of generosity. You can’t vacation your way into the joy of really helping someone. And so, the call here is to take “your” joy so seriously that you live for the joy of “others”. Because that’s what love is. Love isn’t being happy because someone serves you. Love is being happy because the other person is happy. Love is serving their joy because their joy brings you joy.

A church founded upon joy and not preferences, love and not music style, servanthood and not consumerism is a much a grander vision for the church. And, this is the recipe for unity. Unity is always the result of sacrificed “preferences” for a higher “priority”. Unity is making decisions based upon maximum benefit over personal benefit. Unity is prioritizing what’s most beneficial to the whole over what’s most comfortable for me. This is why you serve in the nursery and prepare to teach every week and make yourself uncomfortable by turning a visitor into a friend. It’s not because it’s comfortable or convenient or easy. It’s for joy. And, that’s why we have people here who are able to worship with a music style that may not be there favorite. They want to reach more and minister to more and so they’re willing to sacrifice their priorities for a higher priority. They don’t leave or cause conflict. They worship because the gospel is too great for disagreements so petty. This morning, take the joy of your church more seriously than your own interests. Take the joy of the person beside you more seriously than getting your way or enjoying your preferences. And, brothers and sisters, you will find that the joy that comes from a unified church and stirring baptistry and full nursery will outweigh the hollow, cheap satisfaction of living for your own interests.