Get Out of Your Head - Part 3

Hello, ladies.

Welcome to Thrive.

My name is Megan.

I'm so excited to be with you tonight.

Hope you guys have um gathered with some of your friends and that you are hanging out together, watching Thrive together.

Dad's got the kids away, and uh you guys are leaning in uh to this message.

And I'm so pumped about this message because it has been teaching me uh just over the past few months, I've as I've been studying the book of Philippians and especially in Philippians 2, um, it has uh just uh challenged me so much, and I hope that this will uh challenge you as well.

This bit this passage, Philippians 2, has actually been something that has profoundly marked my walk with Jesus as a follower of Jesus for many years.

Um it's probably been one of the most necessary and game-changing uh passages of my life, and I think one of the most game-changing passages of our time.

If you really want to know how to biblically navigate the chaos in our world right now, and it is chaotic in our current climate, Philippians 2 needs to be your guide.

Um, because the idea behind Philippians 2 is all about being united, it's all about being unified under one idea, one mission, one purpose.

And I think that's a concept that we can all get behind right now.

If the church is going to survive as one, we have got to get behind this idea of uniting.

This is one of the darkest moments in, I think, in just in the past few months.

Um, and one of the darkest things about these this time has been just the divisiveness that I've seen within our church.

Now more than ever, I believe that we have to fight for community with everything that we have, fight for community with one another.

So if you're gathering with a group of people, that's you fighting for community.

I want to I want to say, good job.

That's awesome.

Um, and so tonight that's that's what we're doing.

We're we want to try and fight for community.

We want to understand what it means to be united together in Christ.

And we look, I think here's the thing about unity.

I think we really like the idea of unity.

We we can see the benefits of mission and purpose, of course, but unfortunately, the reality is a majority of the time, we'd rather be right than to be unified.

We blast each other on social media or uh we write out people out of our lives completely.

In fact, I remember uh this pat over the past few years, uh I noticed this kind of trend around the holidays, and it really hurts my heart.

Um this trend among my friends and people I see on Facebook and Instagram that just say, hey, if you don't like being around a family member, if they uh if you disagree with what they have to say, then you don't have to go spend time with them.

You can do whatever you want.

And while there is some truth to being um careful about what what you what you allow to settle in your mind, I don't think that idea holds up to Scripture.

In fact, I think it's kind of counter to what scripture has to say and really to the Jesus that we follow.

I mean, you didn't see Jesus walking around saying, hey, uh, I just don't agree with those people, so I'm gonna go this way.

In fact, he confronted that.

He stood in the gap for that.

Um, he ate dinner with people, he sat and reclined at table with multiple kinds of people who had different ideas, and he sat and he listened and he taught.

Um what we really see in Philippians is that unity is really driven by the way of humility.

In fact, unity in the body of Christ can really only be achieved by the selfless humility of Christ's likeness, the selfless humility of Christ's likeness.

But here's the thing, here's the thing.

What if we could be both right and united at the same time?

Is this even possible?

Well, Paul in Philippians 2 teaches us how we can really do that.

How can we break through our pride and function as one body?

If we learn anything from Philippians 1, it's how to stand against the external conflicts that come against the church.

But in Philippians 2, we see Paul begin to talk about how to stand against internal conflicts within the church.

And how could that be?

How can we have internal conflicts?

Because we're human.

And that's just going to happen.

And so he knows that.

And so Paul really teaches his readers how to fight against division.

Because here's the truth.

If the enemy wants to destroy the body, he's gonna do it from the inside out.

That's just that's just reality.

He's gonna do it from the inside out.

He uses division like a virus, and too soon to say the word virus, but he uses division like a virus, making the body sick, breaking it down little by little.

That's what division does.

But luckily, there is a cure.

There is a key to that, and it's really not complicated.

In fact, it's just one word.

And the key to unified church is through humility.

Humility is the key to unity.

In order to achieve Christ-like unity in the body, we have to practice Christ-like humility.

In an umbrella of ways, we can see Paul defining humility three ways.

So that's what we're gonna do tonight.

We're gonna unpack Philippians too.

If you want to jump in, open up your Bibles, or follow along on the screen, you can.

Um, we see three different ways Paul defines humility.

Firstly, we see humility is kingdom motivated.

Humility is kingdom motivated.

Now, what we need to understand about humility is that it is not a calling, it's a command.

It's something that is required of all of us.

We are commanded to be humble.

It's all over the Bible, not just the New Testament.

This isn't just a new idea that Jesus came up with or Jesus lived out.

It's something that God has required of his people from for all time, from the very beginning, we're called to live a life of humility.

I mean, think about it, there are a couple of verses that pop into my mouth right now.

If my people would uh call on my name, if they would humble themselves and call on my name, if uh what does the Lord require of you is to seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.

The difference between calling and command here, though, is that sometimes we feel like calling is it's optional, but a command is definitely not, right?

Command is not optional.

But look how Paul puts it in verses one through four.

Verses one through four.

He says, oops, wrong page, wrong page.

He says, So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

What Paul is saying here is that if you're in Christ, if you are in Christ, meaning that you have committed your life to following Jesus, then you're going to walk like Christ.

Being one in Christ together.

This is the expectation that Paul had for the Philippians.

But not only was it expected for them, it's expected for us too.

Paul is calling them to unite in love and unity.

And what he does in these first few verses is he really asks them to take kind of a diagnosis of their body, take a night diagnosis of the body of Philippi, of the church, of what they have experienced personally.

He looks at these specific traits.

If there are any of these, so if you'll follow along with me, encouragement in Christ.

Encouragement from being in Christ, changed lives because of his love, community in the Holy Spirit, agreement of same-mindedness, the same purpose and love and harmony in mind and intention, humility and motives meant to serve others and not self.

We see in verse one that their key word here is enity, inny.

It's used over and over again.

Really, Paul is trying to get this point of cross that if you claim to be a follower of Jesus, this is what you're going to do.

So there are really four innies that we kind of see here.

And let what I want you to do is I want you to see if they really exist in your life.

And if they do, then there is an action that we are called to take, a responsibility that we're called to pick up and carry.

If you can say that you have experienced Christ and you are found in him, if you can say that you have found comfort from the extraordinary love of Christ, if you can say that you have experienced the power of the Holy Spirit and his gifts and its fruit-producing power in your life, if you can say that you have a heart and have compassion for God's people, then it's our responsibility as followers of Jesus to do nothing without selfish ambition.

Or to do nothing from selfish ambition.

I'm sorry, nothing from selfish ambition or conceit.

To function from a place of selfish ambition, this is what this means.

It means to put yourself first, really.

It means to pursue your own agenda, to pursue your own glory, to put yourself forward and to not really care about the interests of others.

But what he says, instead of doing that, instead, we should count others more significant than ourselves.

To look not only to our own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Because here's the truth love and unity are hinged on humility.

Love and unity are hinged on humility.

One of my favorite uh theologians, David Guzick, he says this uh just about this idea.

He says, if you consider you above me and you consider me above you, then a marvelous thing happens.

We have community where everyone is looked up to and no one is looked down on.

Now imagine that.

What would our world look like if this was the mindset that you looked out for the interest of me and I looked out for the interest of you?

What would that look like?

It would look like the kingdom of God.

So the second thing we see, second way we see humility is defined here is that humility is chosen.

Humility is chosen.

Look at verse five.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

This mind.

Have this mind among yourselves.

To have this mind is the mind of humility.

This mind of humility.

It's a mind that looks not only to our own interest, but also to the interests of others.

A mind that counts others more significant than themselves.

It's a mind that does nothing from selfish ambition or vain conceit.

And this mind belongs to Jesus.

But if you're in Christ, if any of these things apply to you, then it's also your mind too.

If we are in Christ, then we have to we have chosen, we can choose to take on the mind of Jesus, which means that we can choose to take on the mind of humility.

It's a choice.

This mind is one that must be sanctified and chosen.

It must be sanctified and chosen.

We have to choose the mind of humility in order to act in humility.

But the sad reality is we'd rather be right than be unified.

We'd rather be right than unified.

So we forego Christ-likeness in place of, in which we put in place rightness.

We forgo Christ-likeness for the sake of being right.

The believer's mind must reflect the proper model if it's in order for it to be lived out for God.

And the mind of Christ is the proper reflection of that model.

So what does the mind of Christ look like?

How do we know what the mind of Christ looks like?

Well, Paul breaks down the next few verses of what the mind of Christ looks like.

He says in verse 6.

Verse 6, he says, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

But he emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by being obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Therefore God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

That if you know Jesus, then that should get you excited, right?

Because that's the mind of humility.

This is the mind of being unified in Christ.

Now, what this is known as is known as the hymn of Jesus.

And what it does is it traces the supremacy of Christ through in servanthood to show the audience the ultimate example of what it looks like to walk in humility.

It's outward focus and kingdom ambition.

The phrase kingdom ambition is vital.

We need to understand what that means.

Because ambition in itself is not bad.

It's really the way we were created.

We were created ambitious creatures because we were created to rule.

That was the perfect world we were created in.

But then sin happened and it broke that.

And so now we don't seek kingdom ambition, we seek self-ambition.

When we value kingdom ambition over selfish ambition, we walk in the way that we were originally created, the original blueprint for our lives.

When we seek kingdom ambition over selfish ambition.

And this looks like when we seek what's best for God's kingdom over the kingdom of self.

When we seek what's best for God's kingdom over the kingdom of self.

When we think of humility, often we think of someone who's kind of a silent doormat, someone who doesn't really stick up for themselves or ever speak up.

But what humility is, is what it's not, it's not a passive emotion.

It's not something to be, someone that to be walked all over.

Jesus certainly wasn't that, but it's an active response.

Humility is not a passive emotion, it's an active response.

And it's always sacrificial in nature.

It's always sacrificial.

It gives up its rights for the sake of others.

The path of humility is always cross-shaped.

The path of humility is always cross-shaped.

The hymn breaks is known as the hymn of Christ because it really breaks down five areas of the life and death of Christ.

All five areas: the pre-existence of Christ, the incarnation of Christ, the death of Christ, the resurrection, and the ascension.

It really highlights the humility of Christ in every single one of those areas.

And so that's what I want us to do.

I want us to break those down.

What does this look like to walk in the humility of Christ?

And really, what does it look like to walk in the path of the cross?

Verse 6 says, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

Before Christ took on human flesh, he's always existed.

Christ is infinite.

He has always existed.

He's eternal.

Paul highlights the fact that he was in the form of God, meaning his true and exact nature possessed all the characters and characteristics and qualities of God.

That word formed, it means schema in the Greek.

It's kind of an outward appearance of the inner self.

It's an outward appearance of what's going on on the inside.

And so Hebrews 1.3 says that he is the exact imprint of the nature of God.

Jesus, he is the exact imprint of the nature of God.

Colossians 1.15 says that he is the visible image of the invisible God.

Yet even though he possessed equality with God, he did not view his standing as something to be used or exploited to his own personal benefit.

In verse 7, Paul highlights the humility of the incarnation using phrases like emptied himself, form of a servant, likeness of men.

And it's important to know that when Jesus, when Paul says he emptied himself, it doesn't mean that he became less God.

It does not mean that he emptied himself of his God nature.

He didn't do that.

What it does mean is that Christ gave up status and privilege and became poor on purpose.

He gave up status and privilege and became poor on purpose.

Trading the form of God, the schema of God, for the form of a servant.

Christ gave up his rights, his status, his privilege, being born in the likeness of men.

And that phrase, likeness of men, I mean, that should do something to your guts.

That doesn't, it blows my mind that Jesus would become his, become the likeness of men.

The same God who made man after his likeness became like his creation.

I mean, think about that.

Like a sculptor becoming his own statue.

Like a king really becoming one of his citizens.

That doesn't mean he became less of a king.

He's totally the king, but now he's living and working among his citizens as a citizen.

This is nuts.

What king would do that?

Jesus, the king of all kings.

2 Corinthians 8.9 says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for his sake he became poor, so that by so that you, by his poverty, might become rich.

Though he was rich, for my sake he became poor, so that I could become rich.

Jesus not only modeled this, but he also taught it to his disciples.

Even though one of the verse in Matthew says that even though he uh was the Son of Man, came not to serve be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Jesus exchanged his place and his position in heaven for my poverty, substituting my penalty with the payment of his blood.

Jesus exchanged his place and his position for poverty, yours and mine, substituting our penalty with the payment of his death.

Verse 8 says, Being found in human form, there's that word again, being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Jesus modeled his humility by being obedient to the Father's will.

Hebrews 5 8 says, although he was the Son, he learned obedience through what he served, suffered.

Matthew 26, 39 says, going a little farther, he fell on his face, saying, My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass for me, nevertheless, as I will, but as you will.

Jesus chose humility.

This was his constant posture of his life.

So that when he was, um when it was time for him to go to the cross, he had prepared for it the whole time.

And that brings us to number three, the definition of humility.

Humility is practiced.

Humility is practiced.

The ability to obey came from practiced self-denial to disobey in the face of temptation.

We see Jesus practicing this all the way through his life.

Even from the beginning of his ministry, as he's going, uh before he goes into mission, he goes into the desert and he fasts for 40 days and he meets the enemy face to face.

And the enemy presents him three times, three temptations he presents with him there.

And each time Jesus says no, he practices denial in the face of temptation.

His life was not his own.

He lived in a constant posture of humility.

I mean, look at it, even in that verse.

He fell on his face in the posture of humility.

If Jesus can learn through suffering, then so can we.

If Jesus can learn how to be humble in the face of suffering, then we can too.

The humility of Christ was sacrificial to the point of giving up his own life for others.

This is kingdom ambition.

It's others focus.

It's not what's best for me, it's not what works out for me, it's not what works out best for my family, it's what's best for others.

Kingdom ambition is Christ-like.

He didn't view his life as his own.

And this is what it means to have a mind of humility, is to view your life as Christ's.

This is real humility, not viewing your life as your own, counting others' lives more significant than yourselves.

The phrase Paul uses here, the human form, when he took on his the outward appearance of man, it's vital.

We need to understand that.

Because the cross, at the cross, was the ultimate form of humiliation.

It stripped away every piece of human dignity.

It was public, it was naked, it was degrading.

It was believed to be the worst execution in history.

A method typically used during rebellion.

That finding that fact just blows my mind.

It was a method used during rebellion when its victims were in excruciating pain.

They were put on a cross for rebelling against the Roman government.

They were put on a cross and an extraciating pain the whole time, ultimately led to their suffocation and their asphyxiation there.

To pay for human rebellion.

Jesus took on the punishment for our rebellion.

He literally became human form.

Schema.

He became the human form of our state of rebellion against the holy God.

Jesus became everything about humility, even their rebellion.

Let me show you how this works.

2 Corinthians 5 21 says, For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

If you look at the cross and then you look back at Genesis 3, we see several consequences for sin that result in their decisions to rebel against God.

Nakedness, shame, guilt, fear, separation from God, pain, bloodshed, death, and a curse.

On the cross, Jesus became every single one of those consequences.

But think about that.

Let that settle in.

Jesus became every single one of your rebellion, of my rebellion.

He could have done it any other way, but he chose the path of humiliation.

Jesus chose the path of humiliation and obedience for our salvation.

The cross was kingdom motivated.

It was chosen, and it was practiced in his posture his whole life.

And on the other side of that is his ascension, its exaltation, its glory, its riches, its magnification, it's the name that's above every name.

But Jesus didn't go into that, go into the cross, go into taking on our punishment for our rebellion for that, even though he does receive that, it was because he loved us.

Because love is active, it is moving.

It was because of his obedience and humility that he obtained all of those things.

1 Peter 5, 5 says, Close yourselves in all of you with humility towards one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

God's a big fan of humility.

And I think as his people, we should also become big fans, if humility, I was reading uh this morning, um, reading this morning the story of Ruth.

Um, and if you know anything about the story of Ruth, Ruth is a foreigner.

She is um the enemy of God's people, but she moves into God's town.

He moves, she moves into Bethlehem with God's people.

Um, and she goes to work and she she makes this declaration of faith to her mother-in-law Naomi, who is an Israelite, and she says, Where you go, I'll go, where you stay, I'll stay.

And if anything but death parts us from here, um, let it let it be so.

Your God will be my God, your people will be my people.

She makes this really bold uh declaration of faith, showing this incredible kindness and love and faithfulness toward Naomi.

And so if you jump to Ruth 2, you see she meets Boaz.

Now, she doesn't go into knowing Boaz, but you see she meets um Boaz, this uh really valiant guy with integrity who is Naomi's family's kinsman redeemer, someone who should redeem her family.

And Ruth goes to work and she she begins to harvest, uh harvest barley from Boaz's field, and out of um just the hard work and determination and really the declaration of faith she makes in Naomi, Boaz sees that kindness and shows kindness to Naomi.

And that whole story just made me think of the verse that we talk about so often.

Um, you reap what you sow, right?

You you you really you reap what you sow.

We love to quote this all the time.

But if we really understand the full picture of that, if you really reap what you sow, then that means that when uh we're talking about harvesting and planting, you don't plant a whole stock of corn, you plant a seed, right?

And out of that seed becomes an abundance of corn.

Out of uh any kind of plant, you start with a seed, you start with something small, right?

It's kind of like humility.

And it made me think of uh Galatians 6 9.

Let us not grow tired of doing good.

At just the right time, we will reap a harvest of blessing.

That's what we're after.

Humility moves us into a place where we can plant seeds of faith, seeds of humility.

And in one day, maybe not in that instant, one day, we'll reap a harvest of blessing.

So, what do we do with this?

How do we walk in humility?

What steps do we need to take?

Well, I have a few.

The first one is that we need to choose humility.

Humility is a choice, it's something that we have to choose.

We don't promote ourselves or do things to promote our own motives.

And this is really countercultural because we live in a time that says, in order to succeed, you must promote yourself.

But but according to scripture, according to what we see here is that humility doesn't seek its own agenda.

It doesn't pursue its own glory.

We have to choose humility.

The second thing we have to do, we have to check our motives.

Why are we posting what we're posting?

Why are you going out of your way to do that?

Is because you're going to get something out of it, is because you really count them more significant than yourself.

We have to check our motives.

Proceed if they are good for others and the kingdom.

Don't if they're not.

Why are you about to post what you're about to post?

Choose your check your motives.

Practice humility as much as you can.

Think less of yourself and more others.

Practice humility as much as you can, just for fun.

Like, how can I serve someone else today?

What can I do?

What how can I go out of my way to serve someone else?

That's practice.

And that adds up, like a debit account, right?

The more you put in, the more it's the more you um you more you uh obtain there.

Choose others over yourself.

Live in a posture of humility.

When you do, you will live in the posture of Christ.

Live in a posture of humility.

Imagine a community whose goal was to function as the one who made them a community in the first place.

Imagine a community whose goal was to function as the one who made them a community in the first place.

It's impossible to have community without unity.

Humility is kingdom motivated, it's chosen, and it's practiced.

Let's pray.

Father, we love you.

We thank you so much for Philippians 2.

We thank you for uh the gift of humility and how um you really teach us how to walk, Jesus, how to live, how to um how to say no to the flesh and yes to the spirit.

And we pray that that's exactly what we would do here.

That we would be a people who say no to the flesh, but constantly say yes to the spirit.

People who walk in humility.

And that, and we think we pray that the world would notice.

We pray that the world would um choose to follow you because your people have chosen to follow you first.

Where we uh we ask your forgiveness for how we have acted and how divided we've been.

And we ultimately we just pray for healing um over your people, over your world.

And we pray um that you would make us a people like Jesus.

We love you, Lord.

We just thank you all, praise you for all these things in your name.

Amen.