Stop Being Selfish Jerks
Notes
Transcript
I want to take a moment on this 4th of July to honor and pay respect for our freedom that we can be out here, celebrating in relative peace and freedom. As has been famously said, “Freedom is not free.”
So if you are a veteran—either you have served—or are currently serving in the military—would you please take a moment and stand?
stay standing, if you have family that either has served or is currently serving, would you stand?
let’s honor them.
and let’s pray for them.
—thanks for those
—pray for those who have lost loved ones, who are hurting
—pray for our country
—at the same time we realize that America is not God’s chosen nation? b/c God your Kingdom is a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic kingdom—with people from every tribe, tongue, and nation.
and we look forward to the day when Jesus will come and there will be no more wars or rumors of war. only peace.
Let’s give it up for our quizzers who helped us with this!
I need you to stand up for my opening illustration.
We are going to sing a song...
a camp song...
we sang it about a year ago..
i learned this song from my dad...
and i think it expresses well what I want to teach on today concerning humility:
At a time like this
At a time like this
at a time like this
Wooohhh...
I need the Lord to help me...
Clap Clap
Snap Snap
Woo Woo
Nanu Nanu
Funky Chicken
Wocka Wocka
I used this song last year…some of you remember this.
I learned it from my dad--
and what better song to teach us humility than this. If you just engaged in this song, it humbled you.
This passage is all about humility…and yet also with our series joy.
why?
because verse 2, Paul says:
Philippians 2:2 (NIV84)
2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.
Joy—this deep and durable delight in God—that ruins you for anything else—it is connected to humility.
look at Philippians 2:3
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Paul wants the church to have humility so they can have an incredible unity—have the same love, one in spirit and purpose.
A humble church is a united church.
a united church is a loving church.
A humble, united, loving church, is a church that glorifies Christ.
This kind of church, humble, united, loving, glorifying Christ is a church that makes the world says “What do they got.”
it is a church that is filled up with joy in God and one another.
Now,
I entitled this sermon— “Don’t be selfish jerks.”
And most of us probably know that…we shouldn’t be selfish jerks.
What is a selfish person—it is someone who is focused on themselves, all about themselves—we might use the expression full of themselves.
It is a person who is filled with pride.
Pride is the opposite of humility.
And The Bible warns about pride as being of the 7 deadly sins—in fact, it is really the chief of sins.
One of my favorite authors CS Lewis—calls Pride in his book Mere Christianity—The Great Sin.
(read quote) (2 minutes)
So how do you know if you are pride?
ask yourself “How much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me, or shove their oar in, or patronise me, or show off?” If you dislike it a lot, you are a prideful person.
competition—being a competitive person is not always wrong, it can be very good in the right setting. but remember what Lewis said--”We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or clever-er, or better looking than others....it is the comparison that makes you proud; the pleasure of being above the rest. once the element of competition has gone; pride has gone.”
so 2 tests—how much do you like it when people snub you?
how competitive are you?
chances are —if you answer these strongly—you might be full of pride.
now, if you are really honest about your own heart, me too—based on this—all of us struggle with pride—this self-absorbedness.
and all of us probably know that we shouldn’t be full of pride…because the Bible is full of warnings...
see if you can feel in the blank on some of these famous verses.
_______ (pride) goes before destruction. a haughty spirit before a ________. (fall) (Proverbs 16:18)
fill in this blank—Matthew—NT— Everyone who exalts himself will be ______ (Humbled) and whoever humbles himself will be ______. (exalted) (Matthew 23:12)
and the dangerous thing about pride—is it can be very present in churches, religious people—so deceiving.
so we talked about pride---
so what is humility?
What humility is not:
it’s not passivity. humility can be very action oriented—just look at Jesus in this passage.
it’s not being a doormat or not having an opinion. that is not humility. that’s a fake humility. Sometimes we don’t express an opinion out of fear really (what will they think of me)-not humility.
nor is it low-self esteem—because if you have low self esteem—you are still focused on whom? yourself.
according to this passage:
What humility is:
it’s considering others better than yourselves. (vs. 3) Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
that word consider is a financial or accounting word. actually consider and reckon on your financial line of your heart—that they are better.
and not only is it considering others better than yourselves, it is considering God, or His Son Jesus better you. b/c at the end of this passage—every knee is bowing, every tongue is confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
in other words—humility is having the right structure to your relationships. It is putting God as the authority and center of your life, that humbles you, and in response—it is considering the interests of others. when these relationship are arranged with God at the top, and we mimic the life of Jesus in serving and considering others better—that’s when real unity and love and community happens. that’s when life works best.
and that’s when joy is complete—make my joy complete! humility is absolutely necessary for joy.
When I have pride and arrogance, I lack joy, and I have yet to meet a proud person who had joy! b/c its never enough; there’s no true contentment; always offense; always competition.
b/c consider the opposite—having conflict or dysfunction—there’s often pride. this structure to relationships here is violated—God is not at the top, people are not surrendering to Jesus, and we are not considering others better than ourselves—and thus we have massive dysfunction in families, marriages, friendships, schools, churches, institutions, governments, nations!
I can’t tell you how many marriages I would see corrected, if each spouse would be humble. and learn perhaps the most 2 powerful words in the English language, “I’m sorry.” or “I was wrong.”
How do we have humility—2 things:
admit you are a proud person. all of us need to do this. all of us if we are honest struggle with pride it just manifests itself in different forms. CS Lewis said if anyone would like to acquire humility—the first step is to realize one is proud. He goes on to say , “If you think you are not conceited, you are very conceited indeed!”
look to Jesus—and this is the real thing that melts our pride—like the heat is melting us outside. look at Jesus!
He is in very nature God. He has always existed with God the Father and God the Son. for eternity. my kids will sometimes ask me, especially before bed, b/c they know I will keep talking if they ask me theology questions—when did God began? never! He always existed, including Jesus, God the Son.
and yet even though he was God—he did not use his title, power, privilege, and position to his own advantage. he didn’t need all the accolades that come with privilege.
but made himself nothing.
taking the very nature of a servant—he added humanity—to his already existing divinity! Amazing!
being made in human likeness.
and being found in appearance as a man—he humbled himself.
we know from God’s Word that Jesus Christ is the one through whom all things were made. Without him nothing was made that has been made.
Hebrews says Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being—sustaining all things by his powerful word. Jesus is sustaining every single molecule by his words. that’s power! He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.
we see in Scripture, Jesus is the one who walked on water, healed the sick, cast out demons, fed the 5,000. raised the dead. true power…He is God—and Yet, he humbled himself.
the one who made all things humbled himself to diapers. He needed his diaper changed.
the one who made all things, had to grow up, learn to crawl, walk, and speak.
the one who made all things we read became tired, thirsty, and weak.
and most of all the one who made all things subjected himself to at the time the worst, most painful, most embarrassing death—being hung naked on a cross. the one who made the trees allowed himself to be hung on a wooden cross.
he did this to fulfill his Father’s mission to pay for our sins on the cross. to fulfill God’s justice and righteousness.
He came on a rescue operation to save us from our pride and sin.
where would we be if Jesus had not chosen, yes volunteered in humility for this?
struggling with pride in your relationships? where would you be if Jesus had pride and didn’t come to earth?
struggling to forgive? Where would we be if Jesus held on to the pride of us offending Him...
mad at God for something—He disappointed you? well in the cross, we see that Jesus loves you so because He died for you.
struggling to take the lowly job at work? where would you be if Jesus hadn’t?
do you think that a task at home or church is beneathe you? what if Jesus had that same attitude?
in fact, the entire sermon can be summed up in this pool noodle.
most of us view life as this—a forward slash. climb the ladder. advance. at work. economically. vacations we take. and it’s not bad to get a promotion and have more money.
but the bible says true advancement is this—a u shape.
We humble ourselves under God, and he lifts us up.
culture tells you climb.
Scripture says go down to go up.
culture says the way up is up. but the Bible says if you go up you will go down. instead, the way up is actually down.
because of Jesus’ chosen humiliation—His Father exalted him. and gave him the name that is above every name.
and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess (whether out of choice now or at death) that Jesus is Lord.
humility is the you way you begin as a Christian, you admit your help “I need the Lord to help me.”
it’s the way you grow
it’s the way you make an impact--
the best leaders are not this—they are this.
the best teachers and coaches and parents are not this—they are this.
the best influencers are not this—but this. just. like. Jesus.
because reflecting Jesus’ u-shaped life.
so admit it...
look to Jesus…every day...
only this will make you humble
and only this will give you true joy.
Philippians for You The Supreme Selflessness
What is described here is not Jesus emptying himself of his eternal deity. Nor does it mean that Jesus exchanged his deity for humanity. Rather, this asserts that he laid aside his prerogatives as God in order to take on the limitations of humanity. The Son of God added to his person a human nature without surrendering any of his divine attributes. This was an act of self-renunciation on the part of the Son of God by which he voluntarily chose not to exercise all his rights as God during the time of his earthly life. But at no time did he rid himself of any divine perfections. Calvin helpfully describes Paul’s teaching this way:
“[Jesus] had been brought down to the level of mankind, so that there was in appearance nothing that differed from the common condition of mankind.”
(The Epistles of Paul to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, page 58)
We need to linger here, in order to appreciate and marvel at this. In his incarnation, Jesus did not diminish in his deity. When he assumed human flesh, he never became less than fully God. What Jesus did yield was the free exercise of his divine prerogatives. He likewise sacrificed the intimate relationship he had enjoyed with the Father from eternity past. While taking upon himself sinless humanity, he remained fully God; but he surrendered every advantage as God. He chose to empty himself of the constant use of his deity.