Check Your Attitude

ILLUST: Attitude

Paul doubles-down on UNITY (move quickly here)

Following Christ - Check Your Attitude

1) Unified by Christ (“If” = “assuming”)

Blessings of being in community - Christian community is church

a. encouragement - common experience in Christ

b. comfort - affirms Christ’s love for His people

c. fellowship - with or by the Holy Spirit

d. tenderness, compassion

ALL OF THESE ARE MERCIES SHOWN BY THE LORD!

Paul desired all this in Philippi

I desire all this at Cornerstone

GOAL: to present a group of mature Christians to the Lord

Philippian church

shared same outlook

humble

looked out for each others’ interests

Cornerstone

need to share same outlook

humble

look out for each others’ interests

focus on good qualities of others in church (we ALL have bad)

Your concerns, my concerns, all of us!

How do we unify? - Watch to see in others, the qualities Christ desires - we ALL have good qualities

It’s easy to point out the bad

We worship today with imperfect people

POINT - Jesus died - not because we were already spiritually attractive

but…we have the image of God - that’s great potential!

He dies in spite of the fact that we were NOT attractive, spiritually!

So…when you see others not being attractive spiritually

ENCOURAGE, EMBRACE CONCERNS (don’t shut people out!)

2) Attitude of Christ (the Example)

His answer to disunity

If we imitate Christ, then what? UNITY!

The “hymn” of verses 6-11

Overall - Did not consider…emptied Himself…humbled Himself = LOVE

THEN

God exalted Him…in order that…every knee should bow

God gave Him…in order that…every tongue should confess

Jesus covered some distance

“Form of God” ---->>> “death on a cross”

We cannot suffer that way, we cannot relate specifically

But....the mindset? We can do that! God can affect our mindset, our attitude, if we let Him!

ATTITUDE = “Think this in you which Christ thought in Him”

Have this attitude

Have this mindset

FORM - Christ’s “form”

In Heaven - He is seen as God; that’s His form

On earth - He was seen as human, that was His form

“Not to be grasped” - doesn’t mean ‘not understood’

or robbery - doesn’t mean ‘taken improperly’

Christ released the appearance of deity

POINT - He did not use His equality with God (John 5:18, He IS God) for His advantage - He used it for OURS!

“Emptied Himself” - never stopped being God, important point

Lord --->> servant

Nature of God —>> human likeness

LEFT POSITION OF RANK/PRIVILEGE

He added humanity to deity --->>> EMPTIED (hypostatic union)

water plus dry ice - empty by adding

Stages of Christ’s action

1 - Humbled self, then

2 - Humanity

Servanthood mindset, choosing humility

Then obedient to death

US - choose humility, then obey Christ

ILLUST: Think of best boss, coach, leader, trainer, role model

“been there, done that” - willing to work alongside

JESUS BECAME MAN AND DWELLED AMONG US - John 1:14

Not for HIM, but for US!

3) Position of Christ

And 2 attitudes of people, response to Christ’s actions

God exalted Him…in order that…every knee should bow

God gave Him…in order that…every tongue should confess

TRIUMPHANT!

Isaiah 45:23 NASB95

“I have sworn by Myself, The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn back, That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.

Kneeling - position of submission, humility

People kneel today for causes and concerns, this is their submission!

ALL WILL KNEEL BEFORE CHRIST!

(“knees” relates to people, not inanimate objects of nature)

Daniels’ friends would not kneel before Nebuchadnezzar’s statue

How can anyone kneel before anything or anyone but God?

Well....

This is End Times stuff (many are fascinated by end times, well here you go)

NOT a picture of salvation here

This is final acknowledgement of truth!

Believers - bow/kneel NOW (and later) - positional, confessing we are sinners and He is Savior

Romans 10:9-13

Lost - bow/kneel later

Too late

But they WILL bow/kneel

CLOSE

We are to honor God

To do that, we honor Christ

We CAN, because of His actions

18” - distance brain to heart, mind to heart

Make up your mind to humble yourself

Then you’ll follow Him

THEN - CORNERSTONE

We’ll see unity

We’ll see attitude like Christ

We’ll enjoy our position in Christ, when we all kneel!