Adopting the Attitude of Jesus

Welcome- For those who may not know me, my name is Kent Hinrichsen and I’m the youth and college pastor here at Crosspoint and I want to thank you for choosing to worship with us wether in person or online this morning. I want to start this message off with a story.

Introduction

It was a Monday night in January of 2019 (Pre-COVID shutdowns), I am on my way to Bethany Baptist in Peoria to meet Amber, my fiancee at the time, my now wife. We were continuing our pre-marital counseling that night and we were supposed to have come up with a passage that was meaningful to us that we wanted the pastor to talk about at our wedding ceremony. Before that night Amber and I had discussed what passage we wanted. We knew that we didn’t want a cliche/popular passage that was read at majority of weddings. We wanted to be unique. So out went 1 Cor. 13, and out went Eph. 5. That night we ended up telling the pastor that we wanted the beginning of Phil. 2 read (specifically v. 1-11). In summary this passage talks about having an attitude that resembles Jesus. Having an attitude of humility and a heart to serve one another, putting the interests of others above our own.

At that time I had no idea how much I would need to be reminded of those truths as that passage became very real to me on our wedding day as I was standing at the alter looking at my beautiful bride who had been infected with the flu, struggling to stand up, leaning on my arm to support her body.

Men I don’t know what your expectations for a wedding night are but I’m sure it doesn’t look like you sleeping in the bed by yourself while your newly wedded wife sleeps in a chair because she can’t lay down. I learned quickly what it means to serve selflessly that night as I had to put my wife’s interests ahead of my own.

Transition statement: Now as much as the beginning of Phil. 2 gave me great counsel on how to be selfless, humble, and loving toward my wife, I believe this passage gives us a great reminder of how to treat others, whether inside or outside of our community. I hope that this passage of scripture motivates you to exhibit Christ-like characteristics in your family, in your local church, and to those in your community. I believe that Phil. 2 will help us as we continue to strive to do Life in Community.

With that being said, lets read Phil. 2. I want to read the first 11 verses to start. If you are able, I ask that you arise for the reading of God’s word.

Read Phil. 2:1-11.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 2

2 If, then, there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. 4 Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.

CHRIST’S HUMILITY AND EXALTATION

5 Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus,

6 who, existing in the form of God,

did not consider equality with God

as something to be exploited.

7 Instead he emptied himself

by assuming the form of a servant,

taking on the likeness of humanity.

And when he had come as a man,

8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient

to the point of death—

even to death on a cross.

9 For this reason God highly exalted him

and gave him the name

that is above every name,

10 so that at the name of Jesus

every knee will bow—

in heaven and on earth

and under the earth—

11 and every tongue will confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated.

In previous weeks, Dave has talked about why the Christian community is unique and why it is important that we are in community. This morning we will discuss how to be in community and why that matters. We will be using Phil. 2 which we just read as our primary text to do this. It is known that Philippians was written by the Apostle Paul while was he was in prison. In this letter Paul addresses a conflict between two members in the church at Philippi. Some scholars believe that Paul writes Phil 2 as a foundation for why it’s important to be unified as a church as he appeals to the people in conflict to be reconciled and unified.

And We see this very clearly in the first few verses in chap. 2. We see this concept of community or what I like to say, having common unity.

Common Unity

Re-read Phil. 2:1-2

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 2

2 If, then, there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. 4 Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.

emphasize v. 2.

Then Paul continues with what is looks practically or how to have common unity.

Read v. 3-4

Let’s stop here for a moment. Can we all acknowledge that living out verses 3-4 is one of the hardest things to do? Raise your hand if you agree that doing nothing (not one thing) out of selfishness, but rather putting others as more important than yourself, not looking for your own wants but rather the interests of others. raise your hand if you agree that is hard to do. If your hand is not raised, I would love to meet with you for coffee sometime and I want to know how you do it because it is a struggle for me to do that. People of all ages struggle with this concept.

You see it in little children fail to live this out when they don’t want to share toys or when they just have to get that cookie from the store instead of listening to their parents. You see teens fail to live this out when they would rather continue playing video games rather than obeying their parents when they tell them to do chores. You see young adults fail at this when they desire success in their field of work at the expense of relationships with people around them. You see married couples fail at this when a spouse would rather watch TV (sports, favorite tv show) rather than spending time to have deeper relationship with their husband/wife. You see other working adults fail at this as they strive to have the most comfortable life possible instead of looking at the needs of the people around them. And these are just examples of where I have failed at living this concept of selfless living in my life. Where I have put my interests above the interests of those around me. If I had to guess, I’m not alone in this struggle.

All of our sin struggles comes down to this. Will we serve our sinful flesh or will we serve God and follow his commands? (Repeat this.) If we bear the title Christian, this means that we live to glorify God and follow the example of the life of Jesus Christ.

Transition statement: To remind readers of how Jesus lived His earthly life Paul writes verses 5-11.

I love how the CSB translates the beginning of verse 5. In the original greek. Verse 5 literally says “Think this among you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” I love how the CSB uses the english word “adopt” to depict what this looks like. Can I have a Gospel Geek out moment? To adopt something means to take something that wasn’t originally yours and then to live as if it were your own.

When we were born into this world, we were born with sin. Meaning we have a natural bent, a natural wanting to glorify or serve ourselves instead of glorifying or serving God. We use the terminology that humans are depraved. Meaning that without God’s help, we will only choose what our sin nature craves and that is to serve only ourselves.

Now, to illustrate this truth a little bit, I want to show a clip from a show called, “Community”.

To set the stage for this clip. Jeff, is a student at a community college and is at a college debate. His opponent is arguing that humans are good as Jeff is arguing that humans are evil.

Play clip.

To correct Jeff, Paul said it in Romans as he was quoting David from Psalms. But anyway.

For the sake of time I will summarize the debate between Jeff and his opponent. The two banter back and forth until it’s time for the final rebuttals. For the man in the wheelchair who is opposing Jeff, he turns his wheelchair around goes at Jeff at full speed then stops to fling himself at Jeff. Jeff catches him. Jeff’s opponent then claims that because Jeff caught him even though he hates him, man is good. Just then Jeff’s teammate, Annie, walks over to Jeff and kisses him and Jeff drops his opponent to the floor. Annie then claims that man was seduced and dropped the paralytic man, therefore man is evil.

All this to illustrate the point that left to our own selves, we are depraved and will choose to serve ourselves. Because this is the case, we have a broken relationship with God. We need God to intervene, we need God to save us from our sin. To do this, Jesus, God the Son, had to be selfless.

Re-read Phil. 2:5-11.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 2

5 Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus,

6 who, existing in the form of God,

did not consider equality with God

as something to be exploited.

7 Instead he emptied himself

by assuming the form of a servant,

taking on the likeness of humanity.

And when he had come as a man,

8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient

to the point of death—

even to death on a cross.

9 For this reason God highly exalted him

and gave him the name

that is above every name,

10 so that at the name of Jesus

every knee will bow—

in heaven and on earth

and under the earth—

11 and every tongue will confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

To clarify v. 11 doesn’t mean that everyone gets into heaven. It does mean that everyone will see Jesus face to face. Those who have a right relationship with Him will see Him and be blessed but those who don’t have a relationship will see Jesus and be condemned. I plead with anyone who doesn’t have a relationship with Jesus, please don’t wait any longer. We are not promised to live another day. If you don’t know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior and you die without have a relationship with Him you will spend eternity separated from God in Hell. Please, I beg you. I don’t want anyone to have to experience that reality. Please humble yourself and enter into a right relationship with God today.

For those who do have a relationship with Jesus, Paul continues his flow of thought in Phil. 2:12-18. Read. Stop after v. 12.

-work out your salvation- apply your salvation not earn it. Think muscle in body image. We must apply what we already have if we want to represent Christ to the world. This is something that we can’t do on our own. We must rely upon God to do this. Continue reading.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 2

12 Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose. 14 Do everything without grumbling and arguing, 15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, 16 by holding firm to the word of life. Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run or labor for nothing. 17 But even if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrificial service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. 18 In the same way you should also be glad and rejoice with me.

I don’t have time to go through this section verse by verse but I hope you see some other descriptions of what it looks like to live in community.

- Do everything without with grumbling and arguing, blameless and pure. in the midst of a world that is crooked and perverted. (some things never change). Without Jesus, people in society are still crooked and perverted. The big idea in this passage is that Christian community should look different from the rest of the world.

This is standard for someone who confesses Jesus as their Lord.

This is the standard. This is what is expected of us. For those who confess Jesus which means we have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us. Because of that the standard do everything without grumbling and arguing, be blameless and pure in the midst of a world that is crooked and perverted.

The reality is that we will fail at this everyday because we are still have our flesh which has a sinful bent.

That doesn’t mean we have a cop out answer of, “oh well I’m never going to be perfect, this is just the way it is.”

No it means that when our sin is exposed we confess it to God, we ask God to change our heart attitude and we trust in His forgiveness and His changing power to make us more Christ-like.

Paul concludes this passage with two examples of what it looks like to live like Christ.

Timothy

Epaphroditus

For the sake of time I won’t read this but rather encourage you to read this when you get home.

Application- It’s easy to serve others when you get along but it’s hard when you are in conflict.

A great picture of Christian community is that of communion. This morning is the first Sunday of the month so we will be partaking in communion. The first impressions team can start passing communion.

Pray for offering

Benediction