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Philippians, Mindful Humility - Philippians 2:1-11

The Roots Community Church

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  1. How's it going? We're back for more. Why don't you

  2. guys turn with me to the book of Philippians. Welcome

  3. to The Roots if this is your first time where

  4. it's all about Jesus. We love God. We love people.

  5. We reach the lost and we make disciples. We've been

  6. in a series going through Philippians and so if you

  7. do not have a Bible, we'd love for you to

  8. have one in your hand. You can just raise your hand. Um,

  9. or I believe that they're out on the Connect desk

  10. and you can go grab one for yourself, take it

  11. home to keep. We're going to be in Philippians chapter 2.

    Philippians 2 chapter mention

  12. We made it all the way through chapter 1. It

  13. only took us like four weeks or something. So we're

  14. really excited to be digging into it. But once you

  15. get to Philippians chapter 2, I would please ask that

    Philippians 2 chapter mention

  16. you would all stand because we're going to read God's

  17. word and show honor and reverence for his word, pray,

  18. and then you guys will be able to sit down

  19. and we'll get into today's word. Let's read it. It says,

  20. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort

  21. from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,

  22. complete my joy by being of the same mind, having

  23. the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

  24. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility

  25. count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you

  26. Look not only to his own interests, but also to

  27. the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which

  28. is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in

  29. the form of God, did not count equality with God

  30. a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking

  31. the form of a servant, being born in the likeness

  32. of men. And being found in human form, he humbled

  33. himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even

  34. death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him

  35. and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,

  36. so that the name of Jesus every knee should bow

  37. in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And

  38. every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the

  39. glory of God the Father. This is God's word. Let

  40. us pray. Heavenly Father, we lift this time up to you.

  41. We ask as we go over your word that it

  42. would be alive, it would be active, that it would

  43. be rooted deep into our hearts. that it would start

  44. to bear fruit in our lives, that we'd be conformed

  45. to your image, that we would look more like our Savior.

  46. So we give you glory, we give you time, and

  47. we ask that you would start to soften hearts, give

  48. us eyes to see and ears to hear and the

  49. faith to put these things into action. We give you glory,

  50. we give you thanks. In Jesus' name, everyone said, amen.

  51. Would you please be seated? So we've been in Philippians.

  52. a series called Philippians, and looking at gospel perseverance through

  53. gospel partnership. And now that we're several weeks into this thing,

  54. I'm just going to kind of give us a little

  55. bit of a recap of what we've been looking at.

  56. First week, we looked at our introduction. Who's Paul? Who's

  57. he writing to? He's writing to this church that he

  58. planted some time ago, and he's kind of checking in.

  59. He wants to encourage them He wants to encourage them

  60. to persevere in their faith while they are partnering with him.

  61. While they're also watching other things going on in Paul's life.

  62. Paul is writing from prison. And so Paul does not

  63. want this church to be discouraged as they hear about

  64. all the things going on to him. But instead he

  65. wants to encourage them and say, hey, even though I'm

  66. locked up, don't worry. This hasn't stopped what God has

  67. planned to do. Because instead of hindering the gospel, the

  68. gospel is actually going forth. And he's told the Philippians

  69. about his love and his care for them and how

  70. much he desires to see them continue to grow in

  71. their faith and knowledge and unity with one another. The

  72. last couple weeks we looked at Paul kind of once

  73. again giving more encouragement that as he's suffering, as he's

  74. in prison, God is using that very thing to spread

  75. the gospel. And that Paul himself is living in such

  76. a way that no matter what happens to him, he's

  77. confident that Christ is going to be glorified. That even

  78. if it means he dies or gets to continue to

  79. live and be let out of prison, that he's confident

  80. that no matter what happens, Christ is going to be

  81. glorified in it. And so Paul kind of has this

  82. plea to the Philippian church to say, live a life

  83. worthy of the gospel. That he hopes that regardless of

  84. whether he gets to see them or not, that he

  85. hears a report that they are standing firm together. That

  86. they're striving side by side together. That they're suffering unafraid

  87. with one another. And so Paul has been calling this

  88. church not only to be encouraged, but also to be unified.

  89. And now this week, Paul has stressed this so much

  90. to them. And he's going to give them what can

  91. maybe be considered the secret ingredient to this unity. Or

  92. the secret ingredient to partnering with other people Because I

  93. don't know if you guys know this, but partnership and

  94. unity can be hard. Partnership and unity can be very,

  95. very difficult. And I'm going to tell you why. Usually

  96. because you're a part of it. Because I'm a part

  97. of it. that each one of us brings a myriad

  98. of problems and preferences to the group, to the team,

  99. to the marriage, to the family, to the friend group,

  100. whatever it is. I bring all my own problems and preferences.

  101. And then another person shows up, and they show up

  102. with all of their problems and preferences, and all of

  103. us would prefer to have our own way. Normally we

  104. don't like really to think about what problems we're bringing

  105. to the table. We'd much rather go like, things were

  106. going fine until you showed up. I was doing everything

  107. just fine, kind of letting things go my way, and

  108. then you had to show up and open your mouth

  109. or say something that was contrary to how I thought

  110. or how I would desire things to be. And this

  111. is what can make partnership or unity possible. so difficult.

  112. We all know this. Look at our political landscape. Everyone

  113. bites and devours each other just to get ahead, get

  114. ahead with their ideas. Maybe your place of work, you're

  115. working on a team, you're working on a crew, and

  116. everyone thinks that their idea is the best idea. Maybe

  117. it's your family who struggles to talk to one another

  118. because it's either their way or the highway, or maybe

  119. you're that person in your family. Call you out. How

  120. about maybe where we see this most up close and personal,

  121. your marriage, that usually brings that, it's one of the

  122. most intimate relationships you can have in this life. And

  123. so very quickly you realize that you both have two

  124. competing ways. You have two competing ideas, preferences. And so

  125. trying to have unity together can try to feel like

  126. convince a cat that a bath really isn't that bad.

  127. So we get to these issues and because unity and

  128. because partnership can be so difficult, normally we'll just try

  129. to do things our own way. Or we avoid trying

  130. to figure out how we can partner together. We try

  131. to avoid any conflict, which then means nothing gets addressed,

  132. nothing gets fixed, nothing ever changes, and the divisions and

  133. the factions grow larger and larger until everything breaks. And

  134. these aren't the only places that this occurs. This also

  135. can happen in the church where we as God's people,

  136. like we saw last week, are called to have unity

  137. and deep partnership with one another. But we struggle to

  138. do so because we're entangled in sin and preferences and

  139. our own individual pride. And so Paul here doesn't want

  140. that for the church. He doesn't want that for the

  141. Philippian church. He doesn't want this for the church at large.

  142. So he wants them to be encouraged towards unity by

  143. telling them what they need in order to accomplish it.

  144. And he's going to point after that to the ultimate example,

  145. which will be a great source of encouragement. And it

  146. will dispel all excuse making on our end. So today's

  147. message is titled Mindful Humility. Mindful Humility. And a subtitle

  148. for this message really would be Christian Relationships 101. Nice

  149. and straight forward. So let's look right at the beginning

  150. of this text. Paul has a passionate plea for unity,

  151. verses 1 and 2. He says, so if there is

  152. any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation

  153. in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy

  154. by being of the same mind, having the same love,

  155. being in full accord and of one mind. Paul says

  156. if you have an ounce of encouragement from Christ, the love,

  157. the Holy Spirit, or affection, Paul makes this. this personal plea,

  158. just please, would you complete my joy by being unified

  159. in one mind? Paul's a church planter. This is one

  160. of his churches that he helped plant on one of

  161. his missionary journeys. And the last thing he wants to

  162. hear about is how this church he helped plant tore

  163. itself apart from division and lack of unity. It'd be

  164. like watching your family fall apart because your children insist

  165. on their own way and just can't seem to get along.

  166. So Paul calls on them to be of the same mind,

  167. same love, and be on the same team. And this

  168. is a big order. This is a tall order. So

  169. how in the world are we going to get a

  170. bunch of knuckleheads on the same page? And Paul gives

  171. the answer, and it's the main point for today's message.

  172. The path to unity is humility. The path to unity

  173. is humility. And if we're going to have gospel partnership

  174. with one another, then humility is a non-negotiable. But before

  175. we jump into how Paul defines this type of humility,

  176. we need to understand why fighting for unity is so

  177. important in the first place. We're going to do so

  178. by looking at kind of three reasons unity is important.

  179. Taken from our text is, why do we need to

  180. have the same mind, same love, and be on the

  181. same team? So let's look at the same mind. We

  182. looked at this last week. We saw how it speaks

  183. volumes to the world when they look at the church

  184. and see us on the same page. When they look

  185. at us and say, hey, those people, they're actually unified

  186. around the same values and ideals and faith. That we

  187. as believers would actually strive to live in such a

  188. way that all of us are not satisfied with where

  189. we're at. But we continue to grow in our knowledge

  190. of Jesus. And as we all do that, that we

  191. actually go, we're all reading the same book. We're all

  192. reading God's word. We're all listening and sitting under God's

  193. word with the hopes that we would all be unified

  194. in our thoughts. That we would be conformed to Christ's

  195. image together with one another. We see this in Ephesians 4, 1-6.

  196. It's kind of all there. It's Paul. He says, I

  197. therefore am a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to

  198. walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which

  199. you've been called. With all humility and gentleness, with patience,

  200. bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the

  201. unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. There

  202. is one body and one spirit, just as you were

  203. called to one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord,

  204. one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all

  205. who is over all and through all and in all.

  206. So it makes sense that we'd all be on the

  207. same page. We're following the one true God. We're all

  208. saved and sealed by the same one spirit. We're all

  209. standing on the same word. We're called to have the

  210. same love. Our love for one another shows the genuineness

  211. of our faith. Look at this, 1 John 3.14 says,

  212. we know that we have passed out of death into

  213. life Because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love

  214. abides in death. Once again, it's our love for one

  215. another that tells the world we belong to Jesus. Like

  216. what Jesus says in John 13. He says, by this,

  217. all people will know that you are my disciples if

  218. you have love for one another. So there's this call

  219. to have the same love that unifies us and identifies

  220. us as the people of Christ. Which is also why

  221. we're called to be on the same team, where we

  222. see there one accord, one mind. That Jesus can take

  223. people from every walk of life and do something that

  224. is very difficult to do. Have us get along. Have

  225. us be conformed to his image. People with different problems backgrounds,

  226. all kinds of reasons. And because of Christ, he can

  227. take all of us and unite us into one people

  228. in himself. It's incredible. Jesus, before he went to the

  229. cross to die for the sins of all who would

  230. believe in him, said this. He's praying for his disciples

  231. and all future disciples. John 17 says, I do not

  232. ask for these only, but also for those who will

  233. believe in me through their word. that they may all

  234. be one, just as you, Father, are in me and

  235. I in you, that they also may be in us,

  236. so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

  237. The glory that you have given me I have given

  238. to them, that they may be one even as we

  239. are one, I in them and you in me, that

  240. they may become perfectly one so that the world may

  241. know that you have sent me and loved them even

  242. as you've loved me. Father, I desire that they also

  243. whom you have given me may be with me where

  244. I am to see my glory that you have given

  245. me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

  246. So this unity, this oneness of mind, this love is

  247. a mark of God's church. And it helps preserve the

  248. church and keep it healthy. So the unity of the

  249. church is important for so many reasons, but how are

  250. we to accomplish this? Paul says the way we strive

  251. for unity is through humility. This is verses three and

  252. four in our Philippians text. He says, do nothing from

  253. selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more

  254. significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only

  255. to his own interest, but also to the interests of others.

  256. So the way we maintain or fight for unity is

  257. through humility. Each person of the body, not looking first

  258. and foremost to be served, but thinking through how can

  259. we serve and put others before ourselves. The reason our relationships, marriages,

  260. churches struggle is because we by default live the opposite

  261. of this way. We're selfish. Self-seeking. Trying to get ourselves

  262. ahead of others. Thinking of ourselves as better than those

  263. around us. Looking to our own interests before and above others.

  264. And that's a recipe for disaster. It's a recipe for division, dissension,

  265. our pride. Our own selfishness and self-seeking tendencies are destroying

  266. any chance of unity in our relationships. in our marriages,

  267. and potentially even in our churches. Which is why Paul

  268. is laying out here a very clear idea of what

  269. it means to be humble. You're not just looking out

  270. for yourself, but you're also looking out for those around you.

  271. You put it simply like that, you're like, oh, that's

  272. just like partnership. We're actually going to work together together.

  273. It's not saying that you don't consider yourself at all.

  274. It's saying, look up and consider those around you also.

  275. And Paul gives us four clear things here. Dramatic effect.

  276. He says, do nothing out of selfish ambition. Or your

  277. Bible might say, do nothing from selfishness. In order to

  278. be humble... We must get rid of our selfishness. And

  279. selfishness is kind of crazy. Because we might not realize

  280. just how selfish we are. Have you ever considered that

  281. you might be following Jesus, loving others, not out of humility,

  282. but out of selfishness? That the real motivation, you do

  283. the things you do, aren't first and foremost because they're

  284. the right thing to do or because they'll be a

  285. blessing to other people. But in fact, you're thinking about

  286. how on the other side of things, this actually might

  287. be the best to benefit you. We might do a

  288. lot of right things and not realize that we're doing

  289. them for selfish reasons. A good example of this are

  290. husbands and wives. We do lots of things to bless

  291. our spouses and But the real reason isn't so that

  292. we can see that other person built up. It's so

  293. that we can actually get what we want. And if

  294. we're not careful, we might be doing the same exact

  295. thing with God. Jesus, I followed you. I did all

  296. the things you wanted me to do. So now you

  297. owe me. You need to do what I think you

  298. should do. That's selfish. That's selfishness. Paul says do nothing

  299. from this motive. Second one, he says do nothing from vainglory.

  300. This one's kind of funny, to me at least. It's

  301. It's empty conceit or empty pride. It's like you think

  302. really highly of yourself and you have no reason for it.

  303. There's no reason that you think so highly of yourself.

  304. One of my favorite and most humbling texts in the

  305. Bible is a story that Jesus says in Luke 17.

  306. He says, will any one of you who has a

  307. servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he

  308. has come in from the field, come at once and

  309. recline a table. Will he not rather say to him,

  310. prepare supper for me and dress properly and serve me

  311. while I eat and drink and afterward you will eat

  312. and drink. Does he thank the servant because he did

  313. what he was commanded? So you also, when you've done

  314. all that you were commanded say, we are unworthy servants.

  315. We have only done what was our duty. You just

  316. sit with that parable for a little while and you'll

  317. be humbled real quick. Does he thank the servant because

  318. he did what was commanded? Being a husband, being a wife,

  319. a Christian, a good employee, a good brother and sister,

  320. a son or daughter, mother, father, maybe an incredible athlete

  321. or a skilled artist isn't there for you to feel

  322. good about yourself. Those gifts are gifts. Those things are

  323. gifts that were given to you, not just to be

  324. used and spent for your own desires and wants. Those

  325. things were given to you to be stewarded. Those things

  326. were given to you to be used to glorify God

  327. and to build up others. If you're a great spouse,

  328. You shouldn't be self-satisfied because you're so awesome. You should

  329. rejoice because you get to be a blessing to your spouse.

  330. We just don't think like that. That's the thing. Because

  331. we usually go like, yeah, I'm great to them, but

  332. what about me? What about my wants? What about my needs?

  333. What about me, me, me? So then we usually get

  334. a little bit reluctant to give anything. Because we're like,

  335. I'm not going to give of myself. If I don't

  336. feel like I have any kind of guarantee on the

  337. other side of this thing, then I'm also going to

  338. get what I want. Selfish. We shouldn't just do these

  339. things because they make us feel good about ourselves. Because

  340. all we're doing when we do that is puff ourselves

  341. up with pride. I'm awesome. I'm a great husband. I'm

  342. a perfect wife. I'm the best Christian ever. Instead, we

  343. should do these things for the benefit and joy of others.

  344. Knowing that we are honoring Christ in the way and

  345. for the things that he made us. When you're a

  346. good husband, that shouldn't be cause for arrogance on your part.

  347. Because by God's standard, being a good husband is the

  348. bare minimum. Isn't that crazy? So we want the pat

  349. on the back. But like, that's just what you were

  350. supposed to do all along. The same thing goes for you, ladies.

  351. We all want everyone to see how much we're doing,

  352. how much we sacrifice, how much we care more than others,

  353. and on and on. That's self-seeking. That's not rooted in

  354. genuine love, concern, and humility towards other people. That's rooted

  355. in pride. Paul tells us instead, to count others more

  356. significant than yourself. As you humble yourself and realize that

  357. you are not that important. You are not the center

  358. of the universe. Life is not all about you. You

  359. don't even exist for you. Which I gotta say, let's

  360. just take a deep breath really quick, The more prideful

  361. we are, the more we're going to struggle with hearing

  362. any of this. The more you're going to hate hearing

  363. any of this. And the more impossible any of this

  364. is going to sound. But that's only because your pride

  365. and selfishness are so strong that it can't fathom the

  366. idea of not putting you first. When we hear this stuff,

  367. we go like, that's impossible. We just realize, oh my goodness,

  368. my pride is so strong that it's like, the idea

  369. of having to do something for someone else, it's going

  370. to cost me and I don't get anything out of it.

  371. It's purely just to bless them. That's a tall order.

  372. And pride also might be tricking you right now, making

  373. you think, you don't need to hear this. This message

  374. really isn't for me. But you know who needs to

  375. hear this? I heard a pastor say that one time,

  376. and I was like, that is sneaky. Our sin and

  377. our pride are so, so sneaking. But this is what

  378. I need you to hear, is that this is for you.

  379. As much as this is for me. Individually, each one

  380. of us need to hear this. Because if we're truly humble,

  381. we're going to hear these words, and honestly, it might

  382. just make us laugh. We're like, I am so prideful.

  383. I am so selfish, my goodness. And I don't want

  384. it to be that way. Whereas pride will actually just

  385. try and justify our self-righteousness. Well, I'm only like that because,

  386. insert excuse. The pervasiveness of sin is so, of pride specifically,

  387. is so subtle. I believe it was C.S. Lewis who

  388. pointed out that the more prideful a person is, the

  389. less prideful He thinks he is. You're so prideful, you

  390. don't even think you have pride. Meaning if you think

  391. you aren't prideful at all, that means you are immensely prideful.

  392. And I love this. He points out that if you

  393. want to gauge just how prideful you are, ask yourself

  394. how much you hate seeing pride in other people. That

  395. one's crazy. He's saying if you see someone else who's

  396. just so prideful and you're just like, I can't stand

  397. that person. They're so prideful. That's just because you're super prideful.

  398. Because pride by its own nature is competitive. And so

  399. you see another person walk in the room with this

  400. big sense of ego and you're like, absolutely not. That's pride.

  401. That's pride. But Paul calls us to count others more

  402. significant than yourself. That other people are of more importance

  403. than you, your brother, sister in Christ, your spouse, your coworker,

  404. your boss, your family. And imagine the blessing you could

  405. actually be to others if you didn't think of yourself first. Instead,

  406. if you were to think of others as more important

  407. than you with no strings attached, actually being selfless. I

  408. was thinking about this, about like, how much easier would

  409. it be to share the gospel when I'm not sitting

  410. there going like, oh, this might be weird or awkward

  411. for me or make me feel weird. Like I'm just

  412. being selfish. But if I was actually concerned with the

  413. other people around me, I'd be like, no, no, no.

  414. The real cost is if they don't hear this. So

  415. no matter what it costs me for actual love of

  416. these people around me, I can't afford to not tell them.

  417. That's actually being selfless. But normally it's just like, oh,

  418. that's going to be really awkward for me. Meaning we

  419. actually should care about other people more than ourselves. Lastly,

  420. Paul says, each of you look not only to his

  421. own interests, but also to the interests of others. Simply put,

  422. consider other people's priorities. Consider other people's desires and cares

  423. and needs. not just your own. That as a believer,

  424. you don't live this Christian life for yourself, but you

  425. live it to see other Christians built up to look

  426. more like Christ. That as a believer, you aren't here

  427. to get what you feel like you deserve from your spouse.

  428. from your boss, from your family, from your coworkers. Instead,

  429. you were there to be a source of life-giving blessing

  430. to your family, to your place of work, to your spouse,

  431. in hopes to see them become more like Christ. That is,

  432. you are actually giving of yourself for other people's good.

  433. You are interested in their best interest rather than only

  434. being concerned with your own. It's like we said, that's

  435. just our tendency. That's just our natural way we are.

  436. Which isn't good. Why Paul has to say something about it.

  437. Interestingly enough, C.S. Lewis calls pride the anti-God state of mind.

  438. If you go read this chapter from his book, Mere Christianity,

  439. it's incredible. All About Pride is one of the most

  440. humbling things ever and revealing. But he says this. He says,

  441. I do not think I have ever heard anyone who

  442. is not a Christian accuse himself of this vice. The

  443. vice I am talking of is pride or self-conceit. And

  444. the virtue opposite to it in Christian morals is called humility.

  445. According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil,

  446. is pride. Unchastity Anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that are

  447. mere flea bites in comparison. It was through pride that

  448. the devil became the devil. Pride leads to every other vice.

  449. It is the complete anti-God state of mind. And to

  450. put simply, it's because you think you're God. That's what

  451. pride says. But Paul is going to call us to

  452. a different type of mind. A different type of mindset.

  453. A different type of mindful thinking. To be of one mind,

  454. to be of the same love, and then he points

  455. us to the ultimate example of this mindset, this type

  456. of love and humility. Not only is he going to

  457. show us the greatest example, but Paul is going to

  458. show us just what humility will cost. That is you

  459. dying to yourself for the sake of others. Instead of

  460. an anti-God state of mind, instead we need to have

  461. the mind Philippians 2 5 through 11 says have this

  462. mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus who

  463. though he was in the form of God did not

  464. account equality with God as a thing to be grasped

  465. but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant

  466. being born in the likeness of men and being found

  467. in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to

  468. the point of death even death on a cross therefore

  469. God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the

  470. name that is above every name so that at the

  471. name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and

  472. on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess

  473. that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God

  474. the Father. So what does Paul do here? Simply enough,

  475. he preaches the gospel to them. He preaches the gospel

  476. to encourage them, and we need to preach the gospel

  477. to our pride. We need the gospel power and the

  478. example of Jesus and his humility to put us in

  479. our place and to show us what true love and

  480. humility towards God and others looks like. It says, who

  481. though being God, meaning he had every right to stay

  482. up there, he made the choice to come take on

  483. the form of a servant by becoming a human, It

  484. says he humbled himself to the point of what? Death.

  485. And at that death on a cross, Jesus came from

  486. the highest place to serve, to serve us by laying

  487. down his life. So what excuse do we have to

  488. not lay down our life for others? Are we so

  489. prideful to think that we are above Jesus? Jesus is

  490. the ultimate example of humility, and Paul doesn't say that

  491. that's there for an excuse. Oh, well, that's Jesus. That's

  492. what we all want to do as Christians. Yeah, but

  493. that was Jesus. Paul says this is the example. This

  494. is the mindset that we're going to have. The mindset

  495. that we're supposed to have towards one another. that we'd

  496. come off any throne that we have ourselves on to

  497. lay down our lives for the sake of others. Even

  498. if it's painful, even if it costs you, it's the

  499. example given to us in Christ. It's how he loved us,

  500. and it's how we are to love one another. 1

  501. John 3.16 says, By this we know love, that he

  502. laid down his life for us, and we ought to

  503. lay down our lives for him. for the brothers. I

  504. need the band to come up, please. The path to

  505. our unity is only found in our gospel-enabled humility. That

  506. all of us looking to the benefit of one another

  507. are growing closer and closer to one another by seeking

  508. each other's good and growing our bonds of love for

  509. each other. Not thinking of ourselves first, but desiring, like Paul,

  510. to see Christ's bride flourish. And through this example, Paul

  511. actually is also giving us a biblical principle that's all

  512. throughout Scripture. That God throws down the prideful and exalts

  513. the humble. James 4.10 says, humble yourselves before the Lord

  514. and he will exalt you. 1 Peter says, likewise you

  515. who are younger be subject to the elders. Then listen

  516. to this, he says, clothe yourselves, all of you, with

  517. humility towards one another for God opposes the proud but

  518. gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the

  519. mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time,

  520. he may exalt you. Casting all your anxieties on him

  521. because he cares for you. What does this mean? It

  522. means if you're prideful, God will oppose you. If you're humble,

  523. God in due time will lift you up. A marriage

  524. full of pride, a person full of pride, a church

  525. body full of pride is setting itself up to be

  526. knocked down. A marriage, a relationship, a person, a church

  527. family humbling themselves, laying down their lives for one another

  528. will be unified and lifted up by God. And any worries,

  529. I love this Peter text, because any worries, any fears

  530. that could possibly try to keep you from humbling yourself,

  531. Peter says here clearly to cast them on the Lord.

  532. He tells you to humble yourself and wait on the Lord.

  533. Casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.

  534. We can have this radical kind of humility knowing that

  535. God is for it. That God is with us. No

  536. matter how far you lay yourself down for others, God

  537. can lift you up again. God is with the humble.

  538. And we're going to have this type of godly unity

  539. that we're called to. We need God's presence among us.

  540. We don't want God opposing us because we're prideful living

  541. opposed to his ways and his example set for us

  542. in Christ. If we try to oppose God, we can

  543. be sure in the end that we will be thrown

  544. down and we will pay dearly for our treason and

  545. rebellion towards God. But if we humble ourselves, repent of

  546. our sin of pride, of selfishness, and place Christ and

  547. his finished work on our behalf, that he paid the

  548. price for our sins by dying the death we deserve

  549. and instead gives us his perfect. when we really dwell

  550. on the gospel that alone should humble us that the

  551. reason we can even stand before a holy God is

  552. because we're clothed with Christ's righteousness not your own Because

  553. you couldn't. You don't have righteousness to stand before him justified.

  554. But instead we are standing confidently before Christ, not because

  555. of our own righteousness, but because we're covered by Christ.

  556. That should humble us. There's nothing in ourselves that would

  557. allow us to do that. We need God's help. And

  558. it's in this that we have no room to boast.

  559. No room to be proud. No room to be arrogant

  560. towards anyone. Because all of us are undeserving sinners who

  561. have been saved by a merciful God. If we can

  562. be mindful of the gospel, mindful of God's love and

  563. grace shown towards us, then that will be... Help us

  564. to spur on and to be mindful of the humility

  565. we're called to have one another's. I'm not sitting here

  566. going like, well, I mean, yes, Jesus died for my sins,

  567. but my sins weren't as bad as that guy's. You

  568. need to take a real look at your sin again.

  569. Because it humbles us to be able to truly love

  570. those around us who also don't deserve it. Like, that's

  571. just the reality. None of us deserve it. But God

  572. gives us that grace. He's so good and he's so loving.

  573. And it's insane to say that he's so humble because

  574. he's lifted high above every name where everyone will bow

  575. at his name. And yet he exemplifies for us this

  576. insane humility to die for undeserving sinners, to love them,

  577. care for them Serve them. And he gives that to

  578. us to be an example to how we are to

  579. love one another. People in our life that do not

  580. deserve the grace and love and care that we extend

  581. towards them. But God didn't ask us if they deserved it.

  582. He told us to love them as he loved us.

  583. And you're not going to be humble by accident. I

  584. just want to break the news to you. You're not

  585. going to be humble by accident. You need to renew

  586. your minds with the gospel. The reality of our sinfulness

  587. and the great reality of the undeserved grace we've been

  588. given if we've placed our trust in Christ alone. Paul

  589. wants to see this church united. And so he calls

  590. them to take on the humility exemplified by Christ to

  591. empower them to that end. You need Christ. We can't

  592. do this in our own strength. It's impossible. We should

  593. consider and hear God's word for us this day that

  594. if we're to be unified, we need to humble ourselves

  595. before God and before one another. That we no longer

  596. seek just our own good, but the glory of God

  597. and the good of others. Because the path to this

  598. high call of godly unity is through godly humility. Amen?

  599. Would you please stand to your feet?