Unity Through Humility - 9/27/2026

Let's go ahead and turn our Bibles to Philippians 2, verses 1 through 4.

Philippians 2:1–4

While you turn there, my name's Jack.

I'm one of the pastors here.

So glad that you're here today.

And while you turn there, I want to go back in time 25 years ago.

Raise your hand if you are the youngest in your family, okay?

Like me.

There's a few of us, and I want you to know that we are the favorites of the family.

And I think that's a pretty obvious truth, but I just want you to make sure you know that today.

And uh part of being the youngest, though, is that if you have older siblings, well, obviously, if you have older siblings, then you're the youngest.

But uh, if you have siblings, you'll get picked on as the youngest.

And so for me, uh, I that I was no exception to that growing up.

I had two older siblings, an older brother and an older sister.

Uh, part of the reason why I love being a pastor is I get to stand up on stages like this and make fun of them.

This is my revenge for the torture they put me through.

No, I'm just kidding.

But 25 years ago, my family went on a road trip.

We went started in Florida and we ended in New York, and we were just doing this whole trip during the summer.

It was a great time, except for the fact that my brother, who was generally pretty mild and pretty easy on me compared to most other older brothers that I knew in our friend groups, uh, during this week, he decided I'm going to just be ruthless with Jack.

Like at nonstop, every single time there was an opportunity for him to make fun of something or to pick on me or do something that he knew was going to bother me.

He took it.

We were in this van for a week together, and he was going to make the most of it and make up for a lifetime of not making fun of me.

And my parents, they just had it.

Like they were so frustrated and consistently looking back and saying, Pat, knock it off.

And he just was not getting in.

And so finally, my parents had an idea.

And we went to lunch, and again, my brother is just pestering me and just like it was just really wanting to get me and frustrated.

And finally, my dad just said, Enough.

All right, everyone, up.

Let's all go to the car.

And he got my mom in the car, he got my sister in the car, he got me in the car, and he stopped Pat from getting in the car.

He said, You stay here.

And he got in the car and drove off.

And we never saw him again.

And uh, no, I'm just kidding.

No, but my parents, their threshold and their sanity was on the line.

They just said, We need to teach him a lesson somehow.

Because if you're a parent in this room, you can relate to this.

We just want our kids to get along.

Like, please, just for my health, keep me young, like for my sanity, but even for your good.

Like, these are supposed to be built-in friendships, right?

And in fact, there have been studies that show that parents that they will often evaluate how they were as parents based on how their kids get along as adults.

And it's something that parents deeply want.

And the reason I'm telling you this is because as we're looking in the book of Philippians, the Philippian church is a church that Paul planted, and he sees them as spiritual children to him, that he is a spiritual parent to them.

And they're doing so many things well, but there's one thing that they lack, and it's they're not getting along well together.

And in this very short passage, Paul is going to address this and he's going to encourage them in the way that they should go.

And this morning, the big idea that I want each of us to see is that we've been talking about how we're a part of the story.

But if we're going to be a part of God's story, it means that you and I, we have to be a part of God's family.

Being a part of God's story, it means that we are not alone.

It means that we are a part of God's family.

And this is what Paul wants the church to understand.

And so I'm going to read these four verses just all together here, real quickly, and then we're going to jump in.

Philippians 2, verses 1 through 4, Paul writes, If then there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.

Philippians 2:1–4

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves.

Everyone should not look to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.

Let's look at verse one together.

So Paul begins this with an if then statement.

And some translations will say, therefore, and it's just a good reading biblical principle is whenever you start a chapter with a therefore, ask what's the therefore, therefore.

If Paul is midstream here, why is Paul saying this?

And what was Paul saying preceding this?

At the end of chapter two, chapter one, Pastor White talked about this last week.

The fact that Paul was saying, you might and very well will be led if you follow Jesus to suffer.

Like things will go hard.

And if you're a follower of Jesus, it this is just a reality of this.

And so Paul is saying to this church that you are going to be called to suffer if you're a follower of Jesus.

And so, because of this, now we need to recognize the things that are available to us in that suffering.

In fact, Paul is probably assuming some of them have already suffered for Jesus.

And this is almost a rhetorical thing.

He's saying, if then there's any encouragement in Christ in your suffering, if any consolation of love in your suffering, if any fellowship with the spirit in your suffering, if any affection and mercy in your suffering, and we'll just stop there real quickly.

Because what is Paul talking about in this?

He's talking about things that the church would acknowledge, whether they are or not.

They probably would, just to be able to sound like they're better Christians than they actually are.

But Paul is saying that they are, even in hardship, experiencing the encouragement of Christ.

You know, encouragement is the idea of putting in courage to someone.

It's not just being smiley and happy all the time.

Being an encourager is being willing to help impart courage into another.

And Jesus gives us courage.

And so maybe in your suffering, hopefully you've experienced encouragement.

Hopefully you've experienced, despite hardships, Christ's love.

You've experienced fellowship with the Holy Spirit, even when people that you know and love who don't follow Jesus have turned their back on you.

In your affliction, you've experienced affection and you've experienced mercy in all of your suffering.

I hope and pray, and I'm sure this is the case, you've experienced all or most of these things.

And most of the Christians there would probably say, sure, yeah, that sounds about right.

Sure.

Then Paul continues on.

He's like, if that's the case, awesome.

That's great.

Make my joy complete.

See, Paul is writing this from a prison, and this letter, there's so much said about joy in this passage, in this book.

Paul writes about joy consistently, how much joy this church brings to him.

He calls this church in chapter four his joy and his crown.

He loves this church.

And yet, Paul is acknowledging here that my joy is not yet complete in you, though.

My joy is not complete in you.

There are still some things that are keeping me from getting to that place.

And really, one thing in particular.

Now, Paul is speaking in this passage at a little bit more of a higher level, but what many scholars believe is he's talking about a very specific thing that's happening in this church.

And the very specific thing he addresses in chapter four that many scholars believe this passage is referring to is when Paul says, I urge Iudia and I urge Syntache, which is a great name.

Can we bring that name back?

Syntachy to agree in the Lord.

You have these two women in the church, two people in the church, and there's division and there's divisiveness, and they're arguing, and they're not getting along with one another, and it's leading to tension in the church.

Thankfully, that happened 2,000 years ago.

Doesn't happen anymore, right?

We never disagree with anyone, we never get frustrated with anyone.

Unfortunately, that's not the case.

Paul was writing about something specific back then, but it still very much connects with our world today.

If we're going to be a part of God's story, we have to recognize that's not just about us.

We're in God's family.

But if we're going to be a part of God's family, what does that mean for us?

You might hear messages that talk about how we're the family of God, that Christ has adopted us and God has adopted us through Christ into his family.

And you might wonder, what does that actually mean?

Well, thankfully, in this passage, Paul helps us understand it.

Because when we're part of God's family, we unite around what matters most first.

Paul continues on in verse 2 Make my joy complete.

How?

By thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent, on one purpose.

That there's four things that should unite us, that these are the things that should matter most.

Now, as a 21st century Western person, I immediately, when I read thinking the same way, the question I have is okay, so are we all just like robots?

Like so, I literally am thinking the exact same thoughts that you're thinking, and you're thinking the same thoughts that they're thinking.

Like it what about the God has made each of us unique?

Like, how does this play into this?

Is Paul calling us to all be uniform in absolutely every way?

And I don't think that's what Paul is saying here.

Paul is calling them to be united in four specific things.

First, he's calling them to be united with the mind of Christ.

To be united by having the mind of Christ.

In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul he paints this incredible picture of the church.

And in 1 Corinthians, he talks about how we're the body of Christ.

But in 1 Corinthians 2, Paul says something amazing.

He says that we have the mind of Christ.

That each one of us, that if you are a follower of Jesus, that you in Romans 12 encourage us to renew our thinking, to be in alignment with the mind of Christ.

That Jesus literally affects how we think.

And so it's not that I'm living and doing everything that everyone else does and we're all living the exact same life.

I'm still living the life that God has called me to.

But as I live that life, my thinking is governed by Christ.

My thinking is guided by Him.

Should I make this decision?

Should I do this thing?

Should I say yes or no to this?

How do I make the right and wrong decisions in life?

I'm governed by the mind of Christ.

How do you grow in the mind of Christ?

Spend time in his word.

Spend time in the scriptures.

Romans 12, but allowing ourselves to be renewed in our thinking, it happens through spending time in God's Word.

And what's amazing is while my thinking might look practically day-to-day different than yours, if people see our lives, they're going to see some consistencies in the principles and the values and priorities and how we think and process things.

This is the mind of Christ.

But secondly, we're called to be united by the love of Christ, the love of Christ.

Christ's love is something that's so amazing that I hope each one of us can take a hold of and really embrace and just think about the fact that Jesus loves you.

Like embrace that truth.

But Jesus doesn't just love you, He loves all the world.

And what's amazing is when you're speaking to other Christians, other followers of Jesus, what's amazing in this is that you're speaking to someone who doesn't just know this intellectually, but they have actually experienced it because they have received it.

And that is something that is a unifying thing.

Recognizing that you and another follower of Jesus were both sinners.

And we were dead in our trespasses and sins.

But because of God's great love, not just for me, but for you, he has made us alive together with Christ.

And that is something that is a unifying thing.

That you have experienced Jesus' love, so have I.

And immediately there is a unity that is beginning to form.

Paul continues that we should be united by the Spirit of Christ.

There's not multiple spirits, multiple Holy Spirits, there's one Holy Spirit, and He indwells all believers.

He indwells you, He indwells me.

He leads us and guides us, convicts us, challenges us, encourages us.

And the same Spirit lives in me.

If he's in you, that should lead to a unity forming in the church.

And lastly, we're called to be united by the mission of Christ.

The Great Commission, Matthew 28.

Go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I've commanded, Jesus says, and know that I'm with you always, even to the end of the age.

These are all things that we are called to be united by.

These are the things that should matter most to us.

It's so easy for us to get hung up on secondary, third, fourth, tertiary issues that I'm not saying it's wrong to have opinions on, but allowing things that never won us to Christ to divide the body of Christ.

Like, think about it.

The things that you might be tempted to be divided with someone else.

Ask yourself the question: is this the thing that won me to Jesus in the first place?

If it's not, then it's probably not worth dividing over.

It's probably not worth just having that tension and division between somebody.

We are called to be united in these ways.

And my hope is that you'll recognize that unity, it does not mean uniformity.

We're all going to live different lives.

We're all going to be called to live and follow Christ in what He has called us to do.

But unity, while it doesn't mean uniformity, it does mean harmony.

That our lives, while it might look different, there is a way that it harmonizes together, like a beautiful uh music, like the band up here.

They're not all playing the same instrument, playing the same chords.

They're all doing different things, and yet there's a harmonization that happens there, and it creates something beautiful.

And that's how it is with our lives.

As I was thinking about this, I was thinking about 2018.

And my wife and I, we went on a mission trip in Slovenia, which is in Central Europe.

And uh it's a beautiful country.

We have some friends that are there, and just we love that country so much.

And we're putting on a music camp there.

So I brought a bunch of student musicians from my church and some adult musicians, and we were going to put on this concert for their parents at the end of the week.

And these kids who knew next to nothing, literally, like did not know how to play music.

It was like school of rock, okay?

Where I'm like Jack Black.

I'm teaching these kids, or we're teaching these kids how to play music.

And it was an incredible time, incredible week.

Kids gave their life to Jesus.

It was amazing, and the concert was great.

And at the end of the trip, we were walking around, and some of the musicians on our team were just super, super exceptional.

But there was one kid named Michael who was, in particular, I think, a cut above all of them.

Like an absolutely exceptional drummer.

He could do anything.

But the thing with Michael is that if he said three words the entire trip, that probably was more than actually was.

Like he was very quiet.

He's very to himself, he's very introverted.

And so we're walking around downtown Ljubljana, which is the capital city near the end of the trip, and we're walking and we see this jazz trio.

A jazz trio, an upright piano player, someone's playing the upright bass, and then you see a small broken-down drum kit.

And Michael comes to us, and he we're watching this band, and they're great.

And he says, Should I ask them if I could play?

And I'm like, famous last words, bro.

Like, you don't offer that up if you're not going to actually follow through and ask now.

And uh, and so he and so finally he gets the courage and he waits for the break and the song, and he jumps in and he goes over to them.

He says, Hey, uh, I I could play drums.

And and he found out very quickly, they don't speak English, like they don't know what he's saying.

But finally, they kind of figured it out and piecemealed what it was he was saying that he's a drummer and they're very kind and they let Michael hop in on the drums.

And what's amazing, if you showed up two minutes later for the first time heard them, you would have thought that Michael was the drummer because he literally just perfectly just jumped right in and just was perfect, and just playing jazz with these guys is incredible.

And the reason why he was able to do that is not because they spoke the same language, he didn't know the guys' names, he didn't know anything about them, and they didn't know anything about him.

But what they knew is that there are unifying principles to jazz that you must listen far more than you even focus on what you're playing, that you need to put what you're playing in context with what the others are doing, and in doing that, while Michael was not playing the same part, he was creating a unified sound.

And even though they knew nothing about each other, there was tremendous unity in watching that.

The church is the same way, you're not gonna know everybody, you're not gonna be able to even speak in ways that make sense to other people.

But you know what's interesting is when we unify our lives around the things that matter most to God, man, there is a unifying thing that happens within the church.

The world sees it, and there's a harmonization, and this unity is built.

And all of a sudden, Jesus' prayer in John 17 begins to be lived out because Jesus says, I pray not only for my apostles, but also for those who believe in me through their word.

May they all be one as you, Father, are in me, and I am in you.

And this is what it means to be in God's family that we unite around the things that matter the most, that we're united in those things.

But secondly, we resist the things that could tear us apart.

And Paul here is going to actually stick a mirror up to them and have them do some internal work.

Yes, there are external things if we're not careful, they can tear the body of Christ apart.

But Paul wants them to recognize that the biggest danger to the Philippian church is internal.

Paul says, do nothing out of selfish ambition.

Now, is Paul anti-ambition?

No, Paul's not anti-ambition.

In 1 Corinthians 15, uh, Paul throws kind of uh some shade, a little bit of a humble brag at the other apostles.

He says, you know, those guys, they work hard.

I worked harder than any of them.

I work harder than any of the apostles.

Like, Paul is not against ambition, Paul is not against working hard.

If you are a driven person, that's a good thing.

That's a gift from God.

But then you might be wondering, well, how do I determine if my ambition is what Paul's calling here, selfish ambition, or if it's truly godly ambition?

Maybe this will help.

Selfish ambition is focused on advancing my kingdom.

It's about me advancing my kingdom and my name, my brand.

It's all about me.

And the second part, and this might be the biggest one, is that it's built by my power.

People who are embracing selfish ambition want you to know I built this with my own two hands.

I did this.

It's accomplished for my glory.

It's about me.

I want you to think Jack is so amazing at the end of it.

Whereas when you look at godly ambition, godly ambition, it's advancing God's kingdom.

Sometimes at the detriment of our own.

Having to be willing to say, Not my will, but yours be done.

Let your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.

It needs to be built by God's power.

You recognize I could not have done this.

Any good thing comes from God above.

That this is God who works.

And you have that acknowledgement.

That's godly ambition.

And it's accomplished for God's glory.

Not to me, not to us, but to your name be the glory, Lord, because of your love and faithfulness.

That is the way that we are called to live.

And this is how we can tell the difference.

And what I love about this is that Jesus at the at the end of the Lord's Prayer, he says, All of these things, you pray these things at the very end, it's and yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

And that's how you could tell the difference.

Whose kingdom, power, and glory is it for?

If it's for God's, that's godly ambition.

But if it's for myself, Paul says, resist it because it's selfish ambition.

He says, resist and do nothing have selfish ambition or conceit.

This word conceit is the Greek word kinadoxia, and it literally means vain glory.

Glory that is directed in the wrong way.

Glory that is focused on giving myself the praise and admiration and not God.

In every generation, we have things and lines of work that are that do so much for self-promotion.

Uh, whether it's, you know, I want to be a movie star, I want to be a rock star, uh, 60% of Gen Z want to be influencers nowadays, okay?

And have the phone on them.

And that's even seepedest way in the Gen Alpha, by the way.

So my girls, uh, they're Gen Alpha, and this is my daughter Eleanor at her graduation, her kindergarten graduation.

It's so sweet.

And if you've never been a part of a kindergarten graduation, it's quite the event, I'm telling you what.

And uh it's it's it's something.

But you'll have the kids come up on stage and they'll say for Ella, you know, she was an encourager.

And they give her her diploma, and she walks up and she said, I want to be an artist.

And I'm like, Sobbing in the front row, like just I'm so proud of her.

That's awesome.

And then you have Susie, and Susie's a hard worker, and she comes up, and I want to be an engineer, and people clap.

And then Johnny and he's a piece of work.

Come on up here, Johnny.

And uh, you know, and it it but what was amazing, honestly, it was kind of scary too, is the amount of kids who stood up on the microphone and said, I want to be an influencer.

And they're like five and six.

Like that's just crazy.

I'm surprised that they even knew what an influencer is.

And I'm not anti-influencer.

If you're an influencer here right now, please don't post about me, okay?

What I am, and what Paul seems to be against, though, is selling yourself, trying to promote and glorify yourself, viewing yourself as the product and the brand.

If we're followers of Jesus, man, it's about him.

My life is about him.

And whether I show it on Instagram or not, or TikTok, or whatever, it doesn't matter.

I could do that and still glorify him, but I have to check my motives.

I have to check myself because Paul says that these kind of things that should not be in the church, we need to resist whatever internally within us can tear the body of Christ apart.

But lastly, we need to honor others above ourselves.

If you're gonna be a part of God's family, Paul says that this is what we should do.

Paul says, but in humility, consider others more as more important than yourselves.

And this word, humility, is a very, very scandalous almost word to use in Paul's day.

Because while the Roman Empire were the ones that were the dominant empire and everything, and the Greek Empire had ended, Greek philosophy and thought was still very prominent.

And so, because of this, you have to remember Philippi, they're just north of Greece.

So Greek culture is very prominent, especially in Philippi.

And Greek culture looked down on the concept of humility.

Humility was for slaves, and humility were for people who are in jail.

What's amazing is if you go to chapter one, what does Paul say about himself?

He says, Paul, a slave of Christ, and later on he says, and I'm imprisoned for the gospel.

Paul is saying, Yes, humility might be for those people, and it's for me, but man, this is what all of God's people should be about.

And this was something that was very, very controversial.

Even in the early centuries of the church, there were opponents to Christianity because the church called for people to be humble.

There was a man in the second century named Celsus.

He said that the humble man is a wretched creature, groveling on his knees, throwing himself on his face, clad in rags and covered in ashes.

You should not be humble.

And this was his problem with Christianity is that it called for you to be humble, as Paul says, to in humility consider others as more important than yourselves.

And Celsus is saying this is why you should not embrace Christianity.

And Paul is saying it's the only way Christianity works if we actually are willing to humble ourselves.

The last decade there's been a lot of conversations, a lot of messages and books and talks and videos and all this about unity.

Like we want the church to be united through pandemics and politics and all elections and all of these things.

Be united, be united.

How can the church actually do this?

Paul says it's through humility.

The path to unity in the church is through humility in the church.

And tragically, this is why a lot of churches won't experience unity.

Because it requires myself to humble myself.

It requires me to be willing to not focus on just what I want, but what's best for others.

As Paul doubles down, everyone should not look to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.

That when I show up in this room, it should not just be about what I can get out of this time.

But how can I ensure that this is a beneficial time for everyone?

And how can I be a blessing to others, not just showing up to church on Sundays to consume a message and worship, but actually see how can I give back to be a part of the life of this church?

How can I serve?

Jesus, he calls us to serve.

In Matthew 23, he says, the greatest among you will be your servant.

Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

The only way that churches can get to unity, true unity, is when we're willing to humble ourselves.

And the reason why this is the case, by the way, is because God honors the humble and he humbles the proud.

And so if I'm humbling myself, you know what I'm doing?

I'm inviting God into the process of creating unity.

I'm inviting him in.

I'm saying, God, I want to be someone that is used by you to help make our church united, a healthy church that honors you.

I'm going to humble myself.

And in doing so, I believe you are going to be there with me and you are going to walk with me in the process.

But often the problem is, and I know this is the case for me, I'm looking for other people to go first in being humble.

You do it first.

Let me see, then I'll follow.

But unity happens in the church when someone is willing to finally say, I'll go first.

I'll do it.

I will humble myself.

I will focus on the things that are most important.

I will resist the pride that is within myself.

I will care for others more highly than myself.

As I was thinking about this, I was thinking about when I first came on staff, uh, there was someone on the team that I had some friction with.

And uh that we our ministries work close together.

And you know, there's this moments that we butt heads, big personalities, and just some tension.

And I remember it got into the pandemic, and there was still that tension that was there.

And finally they texted me and said, Hey, let's get coffee.

And I thought, oh gosh, okay.

What did I do now?

And we sit down at coffee, and they sat down and they said, I just wanted to say, I'm sorry.

I've been divisive with you, I've not been loving towards you, and how I act, how I speak about you.

I wanted to personally apologize, and I want to be united with you.

And I sat there and I heard that, and I thought, that's right.

That's no.

I heard that and I I broke down.

I said, Man, I'm sorry.

The Spirit of God put a major spotlight of all the areas that I had contributed to disunity in that relationship in that moment to be able to have that conversation, and we came in to that coffee as rivals, and we left as brothers.

And honestly, the only thing I'm frustrated with now is like, man, why did he get to go first?

Why didn't I do it?

Like, come on, Jack, you're the pastor.

But for me, I'm so grateful that he went first in that moment.

Because someone had to.

And maybe for you, there's tension in a relationship that you have with someone here in the church.

Jesus says, if there is division, that before you offer your offering of worship to set it aside, go and be at peace with one another, reconcile with each other.

Reconcile.

Own your part in it.

You might not be able to control what they say.

You might sit down and you might tell them everything that you've done wrong in the relationship.

And for whatever reason, maybe their heart is just not ready to own their part in it.

But can I encourage you to still go first?

You cannot guarantee the end result.

I can't guarantee what the end result is going to be.

But God honors us when we're willing to say, I'll go first, even if it's not the way I want the conversation to go, I'm going to humble myself and own my part in the division.

Because it's not all about me.

It's not all about us as individuals.

We are part of a family.

And if we're going to be a part of God's family, if we're going to be part of a story rather, then we are a part of God's family.

And that's a non-negotiable.

And if we're going to be a part of God's family, then we are united around the things that matter most.

We resist internally whatever it is that could tear us apart.

And we honor others above ourselves.

So as we close, I'm going to read this passage one last time.

And my prayer is that the Spirit of God will maybe reveal to you a place that you can pursue unity through humility with someone in your life.

Maybe it's someone in this church.

Don't leave this place if you can have that conversation with them today.

Philippians 2, verses 1 through 4.

Philippians 2:1–4

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, if any constellation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves.

Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.

This is what Paul is calling us to be in the church.

To be united.

And how can we be united?

Unity can only happen through humility.

Let's pray.

Father, I'm grateful that you give us this encouragement.

It could be hard, it could be challenging.

It is hard.

It is challenging.

But what I'm grateful is we're going to see next week that this call for us to be humble is something that you have led the way for us in Christ.

And I'm so grateful for that.

And Lord, I pray that Alderwood, that we as a church would be one as you, Father, are one.

And I pray, Lord, that unity and harmony would be the things that mark our church community.