Philippians, Mindful Humility - Php 2:1-11

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

guys turn with me to the book of Philippians. Welcome

to The Roots if this is your first time where

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

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

in a series going through Philippians and so if you

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

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

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

and you can go grab one for yourself, take it

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

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

We made it all the way through chapter 1. It

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

really excited to be digging into it. But once you

get to Philippians chapter 2, I would please ask that

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

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

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

and then you guys will be able to sit down

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

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort

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

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. Have this mind among yourselves, which

is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in

the form of God, did not count equality with God

a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking

the form of a servant, being born in the likeness

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

himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even

death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him

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

so that the name of Jesus every knee should bow

in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And

every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the

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

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

We ask as we go over your word that it

would be alive, it would be active, that it would

be rooted deep into our hearts. that it would start

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

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

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

we ask that you would start to soften hearts, give

us eyes to see and ears to hear and the

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

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

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

a series called Philippians, and looking at gospel perseverance through

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

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

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

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

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

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

He wants to encourage them He wants to encourage them

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

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

Paul is writing from prison. And so Paul does not

want this church to be discouraged as they hear about

all the things going on to him. But instead he

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

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

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

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

about his love and his care for them and how

much he desires to see them continue to grow in

their faith and knowledge and unity with one another. The

last couple weeks we looked at Paul kind of once

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

in prison, God is using that very thing to spread

the gospel. And that Paul himself is living in such

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

confident that Christ is going to be glorified. That even

if it means he dies or gets to continue to

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

that no matter what happens, Christ is going to be

glorified in it. And so Paul kind of has this

plea to the Philippian church to say, live a life

worthy of the gospel. That he hopes that regardless of

whether he gets to see them or not, that he

hears a report that they are standing firm together. That

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

with one another. And so Paul has been calling this

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

And now this week, Paul has stressed this so much

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

maybe be considered the secret ingredient to this unity. Or

the secret ingredient to partnering with other people Because I

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

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

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

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

of it. that each one of us brings a myriad

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

to the marriage, to the family, to the friend group,

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

And then another person shows up, and they show up

with all of their problems and preferences, and all of

us would prefer to have our own way. Normally we

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

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

going fine until you showed up. I was doing everything

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

then you had to show up and open your mouth

or say something that was contrary to how I thought

or how I would desire things to be. And this

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

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

bites and devours each other just to get ahead, get

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

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

everyone thinks that their idea is the best idea. Maybe

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

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

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

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

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

most intimate relationships you can have in this life. And

so very quickly you realize that you both have two

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

trying to have unity together can try to feel like

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

So we get to these issues and because unity and

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

to do things our own way. Or we avoid trying

to figure out how we can partner together. We try

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

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

the factions grow larger and larger until everything breaks. And

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

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

like we saw last week, are called to have unity

and deep partnership with one another. But we struggle to

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

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

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

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

So he wants them to be encouraged towards unity by

telling them what they need in order to accomplish it.

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

which will be a great source of encouragement. And it

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

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

for this message really would be Christian Relationships 101. Nice

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

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

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

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

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

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

being in full accord and of one mind. Paul says

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

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

just please, would you complete my joy by being unified

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

of his churches that he helped plant on one of

his missionary journeys. And the last thing he wants to

hear about is how this church he helped plant tore

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

like watching your family fall apart because your children insist

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

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

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

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

how in the world are we going to get a

bunch of knuckleheads on the same page? And Paul gives

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

The path to unity is humility. The path to unity

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

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

we jump into how Paul defines this type of humility,

we need to understand why fighting for unity is so

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

by looking at kind of three reasons unity is important.

Taken from our text is, why do we need to

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

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

looked at this last week. We saw how it speaks

volumes to the world when they look at the church

and see us on the same page. When they look

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

around the same values and ideals and faith. That we

as believers would actually strive to live in such a

way that all of us are not satisfied with where

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

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

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

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

word with the hopes that we would all be unified

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

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

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

therefore am a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to

walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which

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

bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the

unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. There

is one body and one spirit, just as you were

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

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

who is over all and through all and in all.

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

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

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

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

same love. Our love for one another shows the genuineness

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

we know that we have passed out of death into

life Because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love

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

another that tells the world we belong to Jesus. Like

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

all people will know that you are my disciples if

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

to have the same love that unifies us and identifies

us as the people of Christ. Which is also why

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

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

people from every walk of life and do something that

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

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

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

take all of us and unite us into one people

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

cross to die for the sins of all who would

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

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

ask for these only, but also for those who will

believe in me through their word. that they may all

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

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

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

The glory that you have given me I have given

to them, that they may be one even as we

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

they may become perfectly one so that the world may

know that you have sent me and loved them even

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

whom you have given me may be with me where

I am to see my glory that you have given

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

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

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

church and keep it healthy. So the unity of the

church is important for so many reasons, but how are

we to accomplish this? Paul says the way we strive

for unity is through humility. This is verses three and

four in our Philippians text. He says, 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 interest, but also to the interests of others.

So the way we maintain or fight for unity is

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

and foremost to be served, but thinking through how can

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

churches struggle is because we by default live the opposite

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

ahead of others. Thinking of ourselves as better than those

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

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

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

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

and potentially even in our churches. Which is why Paul

is laying out here a very clear idea of what

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

selfishness is kind of crazy. Because we might not realize

just how selfish we are. Have you ever considered that

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

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

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

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

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

how on the other side of things, this actually might

be the best to benefit you. We might do a

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

them for selfish reasons. A good example of this are

husbands and wives. We do lots of things to bless

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

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

that we can actually get what we want. And if

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

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

the things you wanted me to do. So now you

owe me. You need to do what I think you

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

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

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

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

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

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

One of my favorite and most humbling texts in the

Bible is a story that Jesus says in Luke 17.

He says, will any one of you who has a

servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he

has come in from the field, come at once and

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

prepare supper for me and dress properly and serve me

while I eat and drink and afterward you will eat

and drink. Does he thank the servant because he did

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

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

We have only done what was our duty. You just

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

be humbled real quick. Does he thank the servant because

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

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

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

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

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

gifts that were given to you, not just to be

used and spent for your own desires and wants. Those

things were given to you to be stewarded. Those things

were given to you to be used to glorify God

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

feel like I have any kind of guarantee on the

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

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

things because they make us feel good about ourselves. Because

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

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

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

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

Knowing that we are honoring Christ in the way and

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

significant than yourself. As you humble yourself and realize that

you are not that important. You are not the center

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

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

just take a deep breath really quick, The more prideful

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

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

any of this. And the more impossible any of this

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And pride also might be tricking you right now, making

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

it to be that way. Whereas pride will actually just

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

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

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

pointed out that the more prideful a person is, the

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

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

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

And I love this. He points out that if you

want to gauge just how prideful you are, ask yourself

how much you hate seeing pride in other people. That

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

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

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

Because pride by its own nature is competitive. And so

you see another person walk in the room with this

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

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

significant than yourself. That other people are of more importance

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

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

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

if you were to think of others as more important

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

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

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

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

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

being selfish. But if I was actually concerned with the

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

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

no matter what it costs me for actual love of

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

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

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

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

Paul says, each of you look not only to his

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

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

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

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

live it to see other Christians built up to look

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You are interested in their best interest rather than only

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I do not think I have ever heard anyone who

is not a Christian accuse himself of this vice. The

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

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

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

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

mere flea bites in comparison. It was through pride that

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

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

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

pride says. But Paul is going to call us to

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

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

to be of the same love, and then he points

us to the ultimate example of this mindset, this type

of love and humility. Not only is he going to

show us the greatest example, but Paul is going to

show us just what humility will cost. That is you

dying to yourself for the sake of others. Instead of

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

the mind Philippians 2 5 through 11 says have this

mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus who

though he was in the form of God did not

account equality with God as a thing to be grasped

but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant

being born in the likeness of men and being found

in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to

the point of death even death on a cross therefore

God has 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 confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God

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

he preaches the gospel to them. He preaches the gospel

to encourage them, and we need to preach the gospel

to our pride. We need the gospel power and the

example of Jesus and his humility to put us in

our place and to show us what true love and

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

though being God, meaning he had every right to stay

up there, he made the choice to come take on

the form of a servant by becoming a human, It

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

And at that death on a cross, Jesus came from

the highest place to serve, to serve us by laying

down his life. So what excuse do we have to

not lay down our life for others? Are we so

prideful to think that we are above Jesus? Jesus is

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

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

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

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

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

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

come off any throne that we have ourselves on to

lay down our lives for the sake of others. Even

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

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

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

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

laid down his life for us, and we ought to

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

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

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

all of us looking to the benefit of one another

are growing closer and closer to one another by seeking

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

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

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

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

throughout Scripture. That God throws down the prideful and exalts

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

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

who are younger be subject to the elders. Then listen

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

humility towards one another for God opposes the proud but

gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the

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

he may exalt you. Casting all your anxieties on him

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

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

God in due time will lift you up. A marriage

full of pride, a person full of pride, a church

body full of pride is setting itself up to be

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

family humbling themselves, laying down their lives for one another

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

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

that could possibly try to keep you from humbling yourself,

Peter says here clearly to cast them on the Lord.

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

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

We can have this radical kind of humility knowing that

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

matter how far you lay yourself down for others, God

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

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

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

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

opposed to his ways and his example set for us

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

be sure in the end that we will be thrown

down and we will pay dearly for our treason and

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

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

his finished work on our behalf, that he paid the

price for our sins by dying the death we deserve

and instead gives us his perfect. when we really dwell

on the gospel that alone should humble us that the

reason we can even stand before a holy God is

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

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

But instead we are standing confidently before Christ, not because

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

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

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

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

No room to be proud. No room to be arrogant

towards anyone. Because all of us are undeserving sinners who

have been saved by a merciful God. If we can

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

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

to spur on and to be mindful of the humility

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

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

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

need to take a real look at your sin again.

Because it humbles us to be able to truly love

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

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

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

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

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

at his name. And yet he exemplifies for us this

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

care for them Serve them. And he gives that to

us to be an example to how we are to

love one another. People in our life that do not

deserve the grace and love and care that we extend

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

He told us to love them as he loved us.

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

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

going to be humble by accident. You need to renew

your minds with the gospel. The reality of our sinfulness

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

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

wants to see this church united. And so he calls

them to take on the humility exemplified by Christ to

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

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

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

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

before God and before one another. That we no longer

seek just our own good, but the glory of God

and the good of others. Because the path to this

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

Would you please stand to your feet?