Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast.
How do we know where to find answers to the toughest questions in life?
While the simplest answer is the Bible, where do we start this search and how do we discover
this truth?
Today, in this teaching podcast, John Metter, lead pastor of Cross City Church, takes a
specific text of the Bible and helps us find truth for the life we're searching for.
Now, a new perspective on life comes from Philippians chapter two and three.
It's out of the series' perspectives because it really is all about the kind of viewpoint
that you have to have in order to have the joyful life Christ intended you to have.
In fact, what we're talking about today is the subject of humility.
That humility is one of the most important qualities that Jesus mirrored and demonstrated
and that Paul is calling us to.
And if you have the opposite of humility, you will never, ever have joy.
So you're going to want to listen today.
You're going to want to know how is it that I have humility and not pride, which seems
to tear everything down.
So let's stand together as we read God's word.
Philippians chapter two, beginning in verse one, three, verse four.
Very brief passage today.
Paul is writing and he begins with three or four.
He's taken the whole chapter, chapter one, to talk about the church of Jesus Christ.
That's our tribe series.
And the whole idea is we're a tribe of people that Jesus Christ has called out of the world
and we're following him and we're serving him.
And so now he builds on that.
He says, how are we to individually and corporately live?
How are we to act?
What perspective should we consider for life?
Here he says, therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of
love, if there is any fellowship of the spirit, if any affection and compassion make my joy
complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit intent on
one purpose, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind,
regard one another as more important than yourself.
Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also the interests of others.
Now we're going to only cover this much today, but peek ahead to the next verse if you have
your Bible open.
Add this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus.
That says it all, doesn't it?
This is what we want to be.
This is where we want to go.
Let's pray together.
Father, we thank you so much for your word.
We're praying, Father, for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that gave us this word
to also illuminate this word in every heart and every mind.
Father, help us to walk away knowing what this says and knowing what it means and how
we're delivered out.
Please help us.
This is in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Please be seated if you would.
Now those of you that know me know that I'm not a big superhero fan.
I don't go for the big hero movies today and I'm just not into that kind of thing, but
I did grow up watching Superman and black and white television.
Now if you've never seen Superman in black and white television, it's Superman who's
out of shape.
He doesn't have a six pack and somehow he still flies.
I mean it's really unusual how that depiction back in that day actually looked supernatural
to the eyes of a six year old watching black and white television.
Superman was always everywhere fighting the villains of the day and always had the strength
and the power to leap tall buildings with a single bound faster than a speeding bullet,
you know the words.
All that was kind of drilled into my mind as a young boy, but also drilled into my mind
that there was one thing that Superman couldn't overcome and that was, say it with me, kryptonite.
Kryptonite.
How many of you said that out loud?
Raise your hand.
Oh, we have some fans in the room today.
Kryptonite.
Kryptonite was this gooey green stuff from the planet Krypton from where Superman came
and it was the one thing, the only thing that would weaken Superman.
It was the thing that pulverized his strength, kept him from being Superman and so he avoided
kryptonite at every cost.
And I always remember that when I think of what we're talking about today, the subject
of pride or humility and the reality that pride is the kryptonite of Christians.
And why do I say that?
I say that because Christians have the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit in every life.
Every believer in Jesus has the indwelling Spirit of God.
As when we learn to die to ourselves and let him live inside of us in fullness, then there's
literally nothing that God calls us to do that we can't do.
We can do that in the power of the Holy Spirit.
I can do all things to Christ who strengthens me, Paul said, in the book of Philippians.
There's so much that the Holy Spirit of God wants to do in our life.
But when we allow pride to come in and humility to exit, that's our kryptonite.
It weakens our witness.
It weakens our ability to live the life God has called us to.
And that's what Paul is talking about here in this passage, the kryptonite for believers.
Now, like many churches, Philippi was threatened by disunity that came as a result of pride.
Now, this was not a large church.
This was a church that at its maximum was about 100 people in attendance.
And yet, they were extremely influential as the gateway to the Western world.
The Macedonian vision in Acts 16, 17, 18 was phenomenal in unfolding what God the Spirit
was doing and sending Paul and Timothy and Dr. Luke across to get the gospel to Lydia
and that group of women gathered at that river on the other side in Macedonia.
That became the Church of Philippi.
And from Philippi, the gospel went west, then north, and eventually, ultimately, it came
across the ocean to a place called the United States of America.
Eventually, the gospel made its way this way through Philippi.
I'd say that's influential.
I'd say that's a very influential church.
And these people probably had no idea that they were setting the stage for kingdom movement
for the next 500 years.
Wow.
So, they're an important group of people.
And the reality is that most of the time, we don't know how influential we are.
This church was doctrinally strong, but they were threatened, just like everything else
is threatened by pride and disunity and disharmony.
I want you to think about the greatest organizations that you've known on the planet that have
somehow splintered off and split because of disagreements and disharmony and disunity
and ultimately, pride gets to them and they fall.
Or I want you to think of great families that you know about, great marriages that might
have been torn apart because of the pride of one or both and the disharmony and division
entered in and all of a sudden, it was irreconcilable because one was going one way, one was going
a different way.
Think about families that are threatened by pride instead of helped by humility.
And you'll get the picture that everywhere we go, everywhere we look, pride is really
the kryptonite of great relationship.
It's the kryptonite of great organizations.
It's the kryptonite of great churchhood.
And we have to be aware that we're called to work, walk in humility.
Corinth, the church of Corinth, had this huge issue.
2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 20 and Paul writes to this church and says, I'm afraid
that perhaps when I come, I may find you to be not what I wish and be found by you to
be not what you wish, that perhaps there will be strife and jealousies and angry tempers
and disputes and slander and gossips and arrogance and disturbances.
Paul writes to the church that Corinth says, Oh, don't let this be reality.
But in Corinth it was.
So he's writing to Philippi and saying, we don't want this going on in your church.
We don't want it to be going on in your life.
Therefore, I'm going to talk to you about these joyful ways to live life.
And I'm going to begin with this issue of humility instead of pride.
These eight perspectives that we'll cover in chapters two and three are pretty interestingly
aligned with eight of the Beatitudes that you hear Jesus talking about in Matthew chapter
five.
Compare those someday because we'll certainly do that as we walk through this.
And the greatest quality we can have if we begin this journey is that humility or meekness.
Let me give you a definition.
In fact, most of the next five minutes is just a definition of what humility is because
I want you to see and feel what this is.
It is the inward quality, not just an outward expression, but humility is an inward quality
of accepting God's dealings with us without dispute.
It's the inward quality of saying, okay, God, where I am placed, I may or may not like it,
but you're in charge, you're on the throne.
And so I'm going to deal with that, not in prideful arrogance or anger, but I'm going
to deal with that in humility, trusting that you know where I am and what you're doing.
Let me go further.
Humility is the balance between being mad about everything or being mad about nothing.
You know, there are those that are mad about everything, right?
I mean, do you know anybody that's mad about everything?
Just point to them if they're in the room.
Would you do that?
No, I know you're not going to do that.
Then there are people that are mad about nothing.
I mean, nothing stirs them up at all.
And maybe there's a lack of courage there.
But what humility is, is being angry at the right time about the right things in reasonable
ways.
There are some things that should provoke righteous indignation, but it's not being
mad about everything or being mad about nothing.
It's being able to respond in the right way at the right time.
Humility, here's the definition, is gentle strength, as best demonstrated in the life
of Christ.
That's a great definition.
In fact, everything that we're going to say over the next three or four or five weeks,
these eight character qualities that we're going to talk about can all be seen in the
life of Jesus, and they should be.
And that's why verse five says what it says.
Humility is Christ-like.
It's power under control.
Jesus said, blessed are the meek or gentle or humble, for they shall inherit the earth.
Humility is so powerful because it's the opposite of pride.
And when we have pride, we're actually enemies of God.
And that's why the Bible says in the book of James, humble yourselves in the presence
of the Lord.
Be sure you're humble because the prideful person is an enemy of God, and nobody really
wants to be an enemy of God, not knowingly.
Think about it this way.
Humility is the greatest character quality you can have because satanic spiritual warfare
cannot thrive against you when you are humble.
Satan requires pride to make you fall.
But humility is a great protection in your life.
It closes the door to pride.
Humility in its companion terms exemplify Christ.
I've said that several times.
Just look ahead at verse five again.
Have this attitude in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
So today this message, based on the definition I've just given you, is going to give you
some strategies for being able to recognize humility and win and succeed in relationships.
Hopefully humility, if you begin to experience that in the right way, will give you incredible
joy in life.
And you need to have that joy that Christ promises you.
You're not going to get it your way.
You're not going to get joy by demanding it.
You're going to get joy by an inward quality that begins to take place in your life that
allows tranquility when things are swirling around you but you have this incredible trust
that God is going to help you through.
You need this.
I need this.
We all need it.
So today I'm going to give you three questions that the text answers.
Okay, we're going to approach it that way.
First of all, what should motivate us towards humility?
Why should I want to be humble?
Why should the church of Jesus Christ exhibit humility in their dealings and their relationships
and their conversation?
Why?
And it all is answered in verse one.
Do you see what verse one says?
It says, notice the ifs.
Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, let me answer the question.
Is there any encouragement in Christ?
Yes or no?
Say yes if it's yes.
Yes.
Is there any encouragement in Christ?
Yes.
If there is any consolation of love, stop.
Is there any consolation of love in Christ?
Yes.
If there is any fellowship of the Spirit, is there or is there not?
Is there?
Yes.
If there is any affection and compassion in Christ, is there?
Yes.
The answer to all those questions is yes in case you weren't watching.
Paul is using language to bring a compelling argument to us that the ifs really mean sense.
We did this last week.
Remember last week we talked about the resurrection of Jesus in 1 Corinthians 15 and Paul said
about the resurrection of Jesus.
If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ is raised.
If there is no resurrection of the dead, then we're still in our sentence.
Right?
Remember the resurrection passage we talked about?
He doesn't mean that there's doubt about the resurrection.
He means that you should know that the resurrection is real.
Therefore, Christ has been risen and we're no longer in our sense at all.
Paul's doing the same thing here with this.
He's saying if there's any compassion in Christ and what he means is since there is, you need
to see how powerful humility is in your life and why you should have it.
I love these lines here and I just want you to think through this for just a moment.
Let me say it in the word with the word sense.
Since there is encouragement in Christ every day, since there is consolation and love in
our relationship with him, since there is fellowship of the spirit once we come to faith
in Jesus, since there is affection and compassion, then we need to be pursuing this humility.
Now what does that actually mean?
Well, this is our common experience of grace right here.
When someone comes to faith in Jesus, they understand that Christ encourages us every
day of our lives.
He consoles us.
He comforts us when we're hurting.
We have the fellowship of the spirit because we're no longer walking by ourself.
He calls out to us and he's living within us.
We have affection and compassion from Jesus.
Jesus loves you.
This you know, or the Bible tells you so, right?
The whole idea of the love of Christ, the compassion of Christ, the consolation of Christ,
the comfort of Christ, the fellowship of the spirit, all these are very, very real in our
lives.
And Paul wants us to look at those and say, you know, I didn't earn those things.
All those things I received in Christ were given by grace, not because I was pridefully
attaining or performing in any way.
Listen, when you know that the only way you get all these things that you get with salvation
is by the mercy of God and the grace of God, you've got nothing to be proud of.
You didn't earn it.
You didn't attain that.
You didn't become religious enough that God finally said, oh man, do they ever have that
down?
I'm letting them into my kingdom.
You didn't avoid bad things enough where God said, oh, they've got a perfect record.
They're hitting 1,000.
We're going to let them into the kingdom.
They make all their free throws without missing.
No, that's not the way it works.
If you've come to faith in Christ, you know you came not on your own, but through Jesus
Christ.
Amen.
So I want you to think about that because that's what Paul is saying in this text.
His goal is to help us to remember what it's like to be the object of undeserved love and
unmerited favor.
Now in Psalm 103 verse 10, we're reminded, the psalmist says, he's not dealt with us
according to our sins.
And aren't you glad?
He's not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
God has treated us with mercy and compassion and grace and not as to what we deserve.
Or this one.
This is Ephesians 2, and most people know this one really well, but God, I love that
word, but God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us,
even when we were dead in our transgressions, even when we were dead to Christ, dead to
the right things in life, dead in our transgressions, he made us alive together with Christ.
And then he inserts, by grace you've been saved.
Now if we've been saved by grace, it means you weren't saved by your own effort.
You weren't saved by some attainment.
You weren't saved by being good.
Think deeply with me for just a few moments and the result will help us get to humility.
Are you ready to think?
Put your thinking caps on and I'm going to ask you to think about four or five things.
And I want you to dwell on them just a moment.
Think deeply about how amazing his love is and how unworthy you and I are for it, and
yet he still gave it to you freely.
Are you there?
Are you thinking about that?
Think about how great his love is, how undeserving you are, and how undeserving I am.
Alright, you got that fixed in your mind?
Okay, secondly, think about the gospel.
The fact that Jesus came, paid for our sins by dying on the cross, was buried, rose again
the third day, defeating death and defeating sin, and then gives that to you freely.
Think about that.
Greater love has no man than this that he lay down his life for his friends, Jesus laid
down his life for you.
Are you thinking about that?
Think about the thief on the cross for a moment.
The thief on the cross, one of them of course, Mark Christ, the other one said, Lord, remember
me when you come into your kingdom.
Alright?
And Jesus said, and I love these words, truly, truly I say to you, today you shall be with
me in paradise.
Oh, somebody say, amen, today you'll be with me in paradise.
What a moment out there on Calvary.
But here's what that says.
Jesus basically said to the thief on the cross, yes, I know you won't be baptized, but you're
still going to be in the kingdom with me.
Yes, I know you're not going to do any great works because you're not coming down off that
cross, but you're still there in the kingdom with me.
Yes, I know you're not going to be a certain type of religion because you're not coming
down off that cross alive, but you're still going to be in eternity with me.
And you think about that thief on the cross, you think about the fact that Jesus did everything
for him and he could do nothing for Christ.
So think about that for a moment.
And then I want you to think about the continuing work of the Holy Spirit in your life, convicting
you, empowering you, doing everything that needs to be done, showing you grace day in
and day out.
As you think about all those things and as you think deeply about those and as you spend
some time thinking about those, I want to ask you a question.
How could you possibly be proud that you did anything to gain God's favor?
How dare you think that you could earn this?
It took Jesus dying to give you this.
That's what Paul's saying.
If there's anything that you got from the gospel, if there's anything you got from Christ,
anything from the spirit at all, any at all, then make my joy complete.
Be humble about what God has done in your life.
This is really the place where humility begins and pride ends.
It's really the place where you begin to build your life on something important and that
is the grace of God.
And I'll just summarize it by saying this.
If we remember what God has done for us, we'll have a deep sense of gratitude which motivates
us to represent him well with humility.
So Paul is saying all these things and basically saying, since he's done all these things,
live humbly before God and before others.
He's done all these things for you.
So that's why we ought to be motivated, because of what he's done for us.
The second question is, what's the goal we're aiming for?
What does this look like?
I mean, is humility someone sitting in a corner saying nothing and maybe not ruffling any
feathers?
Is that what humility looks like?
And the answer is no.
Here's what Paul says in verse two, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining
the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
I'm going to say this about the church at Philify.
It was threatened by disunity, but it didn't have a disunity problem yet.
And Paul was heading it off at the pass.
We don't have any indication that the church was about to split, but what Paul was saying
is this could be your kryptonite.
This could be something that tears you apart.
So make my joy complete by progressing in this area of humility.
And he uses the phrases as you see, being of the same mind, maintaining the same love,
united in spirit.
And it all sounds really complicated, but it's not.
It's a number of different shades of harmony, shades of unity.
And I want you to get the drift here.
The words same and one and united are just four different ways of expressing, I want
you to be one.
You can't be one if somebody wants to be number one.
Jesus has to be number one.
Now most of the people that know me, that are around me a lot, know that I love the
color blue.
I just like blue.
I don't know why.
And as I get older, it's becoming more pronounced.
I don't know why.
It's not that I'm mad at any other colors, but I just like blue.
I like blue jeans.
You see the shirt I have on today.
I only thought about this.
I wasn't even wearing this illustration, but almost every shirt in my closet has some blue
in it.
Even my brown jackets that I wear from time to time have blue threads in them somewhere,
blue veins.
I just like blue.
I don't know why.
Today I've got a white shirt on with blue stripes and blue buttons, and if I turn this
over, you see the blue underneath.
I've got blue.
I just like blue.
Don't at me.
I just like blue, right?
I drive a blue truck.
And when I bought a truck, I mean I wanted the blue truck.
I knew what kind of truck it was going to be, but I wanted the blue truck.
My wife and I recently purchased a travel trailer for us to go on vacation sometimes
with.
Guess what color it is?
It's blue.
I have an old truck that I rebuilt.
It's a 1992 Ford F-150, and it's two shades of blue, so it's double blue.
I like blue.
I don't know why.
I just like blue, and blue's a big deal in my life.
I call that old truck old blue.
One day, at one point, I had a dog, and it was a blue tick, heel, or a hound dog.
That's not why I got him, but it was blue.
I want to say this.
Blue is pleasant to my eyes, every shade of it.
And while you wonder about where I'm going with this, I do have a point to make, and
that is that harmony and unity in almost any shade is pleasant to God.
He does not want his children pridefully arguing, debating, splitting, slandering, hurting one
another.
Humility in almost every shade is pleasing to the Father, because it's the only character
quality that stands against pride in such a powerful way.
Now, God won't sacrifice truth to bring unity, but He'll sacrifice self-will, your self-will,
to bring unity.
And that's what this text is about.
It's really about learning to die well to our own will so that we can live well to His
will.
Does that make sense?
So it means that we have to learn to come to the place of humility, and you find amazing
joy when you begin to see that happening around you and starting inside of you.
Let me just go over these lines again.
Be like-minded, it says, with other people in your tribe.
Old people don't let differences linger.
They distinguish between stands that are essential and stands that are not essential.
They can quickly come to agreement so we can be harmonious in our dealing.
Maintain the same love.
Maintain the same love for everyone around you, he says to the church.
This means we have the type of love with which Christ loved us for others.
It means we love Republicans and Democrats the same.
It means we love Oklahomans and Texans the same.
I'm from Oklahoma, guys.
Give me some love, right?
We love Baptists and Methodists the same.
Your looks don't matter.
Your color doesn't matter.
Your background doesn't matter.
And the reason none of these things matter is Christ loves us all and we're to love each
other with the same kind of love that Christ loved us with.
That's what he's talking about.
Same mind, same love.
This says be united in spirit.
The spirit of Jesus leads us to be united together as the church of Jesus, not apart,
as Christ's followers were to be walking together.
Now that means the spirit that leads you and the spirit that leads you is leading in the
same direction and ultimately it's going to bring you closer and closer together.
That unites us and humility allows us to bridge the gaps where it's difficult to be one.
I used to say this a lot in marriage counseling that when a husband and a wife have disagreements,
the one that's willing to humble themselves and bridge the gap first is the winner.
Lead the way.
It doesn't matter all these things that divide us.
What does matter is that we're together in the bond of Christ and the unity of the spirit.
That's what he's saying.
I want the church to be that.
And then the last one says it all.
Be intent on one purpose.
And of course it's the gospel purpose.
The reason God wants his children to walk together is because we have a message to give
to a very divided world.
And the world doesn't know how to reconcile.
They don't know how to forgive.
They don't know how to be humble.
They don't know how to do any of those things.
But when we live that out day by day, we are giving examples of what Jesus Christ looked
like and how he called us to live.
Be intent on advancing the gospel together.
It's the most important mission we have.
Many years ago, 347 years ago, a guy by the name of Philip, and I have to read his name,
Malkton.
I think I said that right, but you don't know, so it's fine, right?
Malkton.
He was one of the German reformers along with Luther.
And they were debating about how the churches that were part of the Reformation movement
became Christian churches, how they, in just a few short years, started bickering among
each other.
And they were becoming divided in a time where they really needed to be aligned and preaching
the pure gospel of Jesus.
And so he wrote a parable that was spread to all the churches.
It was a parable of the dogs versus the wolves.
And there was a large pack of dogs that were chasing just a few wolves.
And the parable goes that the wolf sent representatives to go spy out the dogs and to bring back
a report.
So the wolf goes and spies on the big pack of dogs and comes back and gives a report.
And the wolf says, well, what's the prognosis?
Are we going to be able to endure this fight?
And the wolf says, well, there's a lot of dogs.
And they're big dogs and they're small dogs.
They're angry dogs.
They're happy dogs.
All kinds of dogs.
So many dogs.
But he said, there's a unique thing about these dogs.
I think we'll be fine.
And the wolf said, how?
Why?
Well, these dogs, they hate us, but they really hate each other.
And so everywhere they go, they snap and they bite and they bark at each other and we'll
hear them coming because when they come, they're fighting among themselves.
We should have no problems with these dogs.
They hate each other more than they hate us.
As a parable, 344 years ago for the church to shut up and quit fighting and get the gospel
and leave it forward.
I'm sure that's still pretty good advice.
Right?
Be united in one purpose.
Paul is saying, none of this other stuff, no prideful stuff.
Get around the gospel and move forward.
I know we're all a part of this church, almost all of us in the room are today, but I have
to tell you in the kingdom today, I get so weary of Christian churches who all embrace
the gospel in the same way, fighting each other.
And if you don't think that's happening, go read Twitter for an hour.
Amen?
An hour, that's all you need.
That's all you'll ever need.
I just want to grab somebody and say, would you just be quiet and get together on the
gospel?
Let's move it forward.
Don't we have enough to do without you bickering?
And there's so much of that happening.
We would all do well to read these passages and say, let that begin in me, Lord.
Let that harmony, that unity begin in me.
Let it begin in us so that we can live it out in a way and keep advancing the gospel
the way we ought to.
Amen.
Are you with me this morning?
Isn't that important today in a divided world?
And then the last question is, how do we live this out?
And here's where I'm going to give you three things from verses three and four, very practical
points.
How do we live this out?
First of all, wean yourself from yourself.
Wean yourself from yourself.
Do you see verse three?
It begins with a negative.
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit.
I use the word wean intentionally.
We know that a child is dependent upon its mother's milk because it's a baby.
At some point, when it begins moving towards maturity, it needs to be weaned from its mother.
Right?
And what I'm using this illustration is to help us know we need to wean ourselves from
ourselves, from our preoccupation, from our love of looking at ourselves as the center
of attention, the center of the world, the center of the movie line, whatever it is.
Wean yourselves from yourself.
And the reason it's reasonable to ask a child to wean themselves from their mothers is because
it's not a forever season for them.
They're moving from immaturity to maturity.
It's not for adults.
Think about that.
It's not for adults.
It's just for the immature.
And in the same way, when Christ sees us and he sees that we have not weaned ourselves
from ourselves and we haven't learned to die to ourselves, he looks at us and thinks,
all that I've done for you, all this consolation, all this comfort, all this fellowship of the
Spirit, and you still have not stopped focusing on yourself.
And as long as you're doing that, you'll never live in humility.
You'll always have some sense of pride in your life.
When we were growing our kids up, when we were raising them, we read a book by a phenomenal
author who talked to us, who wrote to us about raising our children.
And I've never heard this term before, but it became a very meaningful term for my family.
Raising them with a sense of otherness, sense of otherness.
And that should be self-explanatory, but to go a little further than that, raising your
children so that they become mature enough to see the world not only from their eyes,
but for them to see the world through the eyes and the needs of others.
To be aware that everything's not about you.
It's not all the toys are not your toys.
All the places where you are at the moment are not your places.
You're just one of seven billion on the planet.
Have a sense of otherness.
It's a great way to raise your children.
And man, what an important way to emphasize today.
But in the church, we ought to have a sense of otherness.
Selfishness is for the immature.
Empty conceit is for those who actually do not know better.
What they do is they have an exalted view of themselves, a more important view of themselves
than they should.
And whenever you see the term used like this in different places of scripture, it's translated
in such a way where it makes it really, really a wicked kind of trait to have.
The word selfish ambition is used in the book of James where it says, wherever there is
selfish ambition, there is wickedness in every evil thing.
In other words, it opens the door for all the bad stuff.
But because of what Christ did for us and because we understand that we deserve nothing
but got everything from him, we ought to all be in a place where we can wean ourselves
from ourselves.
Listen, the only thing good I have in my life came from Jesus.
The only thing good you had in your life came from him.
Live life that way.
That's number one.
Wean yourself from yourself.
Secondly, give attention to others around you.
This is the heart part of humility.
But with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourself.
Now in spite of how that word is worded, how that phrase is worded, it's really about the
heart, the inward part of your life.
The word regard is very important.
It means that we consider and think of others first.
Find small ways of practicing that.
Somebody's trying to get in and they're laying in front of you, let them in.
Somebody that has three items in the grocery store and you've got 732, let them go.
I mean start practicing that in a little way.
Yes, it inconveniences you.
Yes, it'll take three more minutes for you to get out of the store.
And yes, I need to learn that lesson myself.
These are just examples for you today, right?
Start with the little things.
But get to the place where you're looking around and give attention to people around
you.
It's one small way of practicing what Jesus said we need to practice.
Remember the story of the good Samaritan?
The Samaritan of all people who saw the man beaten and left for dead at the roadside.
He's the only one that looked.
He's the only one that gave attention to that man.
He's the only one that inconvenienced himself to make sure that man was taken care of.
And Jesus tells this story and says, now you go and do likewise.
That's your neighbor.
That's what it means.
So do that.
Look out for others as you do for yourself to the same degree as you do yourself.
He says in verse four, do not merely look out for your own interests, but also the interest
of others.
This is the mind and action part of humility.
Instead of looking out for number one, look out not only for your own personal interests,
but for the interest of others.
Now, this is not a passage that says you need to go be a monk somewhere and just deny yourself
of everything in life at all.
Basically, Paul says what Jesus says.
That you should learn to love others, your neighbor as yourself.
You're not only taking care of whatever interests you have to take care of in your life, but
you're also looking at other people with the needs that they may have.
Paul is leaning really heavy on Jesus for all these things.
Think about all the teachings of Jesus.
Blessed are the meek, Jesus said, for they shall inherit the earth.
For Matthew chapter seven, verse 12, you know what this one says, in everything therefore
treat people the way you want them to treat you, for this is the law and the prophets.
Can I get you to think just a little deeper on that verse?
Only three or four places in the gospel does Jesus say something and then say, this is
all the law and the prophets.
One of them is the great commandment and the other is this one that we call the golden
rule.
As a matter of fact, when I was a little boy growing up, my mom used to teach me the golden
rule.
This is the way I understood it.
Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.
I can't even count the number of times that my mom would sit my brother and I down.
We were two years apart and we were very competitive against each other.
She would sit us down and say, look, this is what Jesus said.
I don't know if this is just a way to get us to be quiet or if he was really trying
to put the deep truths of God in us, but it worked both ways.
Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.
This is Jesus' teaching.
That's a pretty important thing to do in a world that seems so wrapped up in itself.
Jesus said all these things in so many different ways.
The great commandment, love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your
mind.
Second is likened to it, love your neighbor as yourself.
Jesus wants us to do it that way.
Paul wants us to do it that way.
Only Satan doesn't want us to do it that way.
So let me ask you to do another exercise with me before I close.
I want you to envision something.
I want you to envision a church that models this.
People have humility of mind.
They're in awe at what God has done for them.
They're not prideful.
They don't have selfish ambition.
They're not trying to have their way.
They're not trying to exclude anybody else.
All they're trying to do is live out the grace of God that was given to them so freely and
so lovingly.
They're always in awe of how much God loved them in spite of how we don't have anything
to love and we don't deserve it.
Envision that kind of church.
Envision a friend that models this.
A friend that's never really focused on themselves.
I mean they take care of the things they have to take care of about themselves but they
really want to take care of other people too.
They want to love people.
They want to encourage people.
They want to build them up and when you need them to be there, they're there because they're
paying attention.
They're watching.
They're doing what this says.
Envision that kind of friend and then be that friend.
Just be that friend.
Envision a marriage partner that embodies this kind of humility.
Marriage partner who says it's not about who's right.
It doesn't matter who's right.
What matters is are we in harmony together, following and pursuing God.
Imagine some of those things and then be the one that sparks that kind of life.
People can look at you and say they've got something different going on and with it they'll
see the joy that comes in your life from the lack of strife, the lack of anger, the lack
of frustration that you don't get your way.
They'll go, wake up.
We don't all get our way.
In fact, none of us really do and we began to live with that kind of humility.
Let this attitude be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus.
Put the kryptonite aside, the pride and bring the Jesus into the picture.
That's how we live.
I want you to bow your heads for just a moment.
Close your eyes.
As always, our first encouragement is accept Christ.
Put your faith and trust in what Jesus Christ did on the cross.
This message today wasn't focused exclusively on what he did on the cross, but you've heard
enough to know that he loves us even though we don't deserve it.
He offers us the ability to have salvation by faith in him and he calls us to something
higher and respond to that by faith.
Today as we exit the room, there's a decision station that's at the back of the doors where
you would exit and if you'll stop and say, you know, I need this life.
I need to know that I've given my life to Jesus.
We're always, always wanting to have that conversation with you.
Don't ever walk by without having it.
Secondly, I invite you to guest reception room.
I'd love to visit with you for your guests today.
I'd also love to invite you to lunch day if you're a guest, your lunch is on us and we
hope everybody stays and hangs out, but we really want to be able to give these guests
a free lunch.
And so come back guest reception room.
Let me do that.
And if you're a church member, just go out there and get a burger and a hot dog and some
food and some dessert and get to meet the people around.
And thirdly, I want to invite you to invite somebody else next week as we have another
message on perspectives and how we live this life.
Would you stand with me as we pray?
Father, I am so grateful today that Jesus led the way.
Always Jesus has led the way.
Thank you for Jesus mirroring this attitude that we're called to that seems so unreachable
sometimes, but we can have the attitude of Christ because he's in us.
And so Father, I pray that you will allow us to live that out.
Father, today I pray for those that need to make decisions today.
Our great joy is to help people have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
So Father, today I pray that you continue to bring conviction and continue to lead people
to put their faith in you.
Lord, thank you for all you've done for us, all you've given us.
In Jesus name I pray.
Amen.