April 7, 2025 • 47 mins
Philippians 2:1-11 Message by Dale Meredith at The Red Door Community Church.
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Now I just wanna reference.
This beautiful artworkhere, which I did not do.
Just so you know, one of our youngadults, Joe Frost, did this painting,
and it was during a worship nightwe did at the Naval Store last
year.
And, the relevance
of this painting willcome to light as we go
through, the message
for today.
All right.
So we are in our series, defiant Joy,going through the book of Philippians.
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And so let's dive into thepassage for today, which is
Philippians two verses one to 11.
And
it is a, before we
begin to read, I just wanna set thescene of this passage of scripture.
It is
one of the, most treasured
and precious passages ofscripture in all of scripture.
If we did not have thispassage of scripture, we
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would be, limited in
our understanding of who Jesus is.
And the divinity of Jesus.
The passage that we'll read in amoment is possibly the clearest
passage on the incarnation, on thetruth of the incarnation, that you
will find anywhere in scripture.
So it's an incrediblyimportant and incredibly
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precious, passage of
scripture.
So I'd encourage you to adopta posture of really leaning in.
Lord, what have you gotfor me this morning?
Through your word, through thisincredibly powerful and press
precious passage of scripture.
All right, let's read.
Therefore, if you have any encouragementfrom being united with Christ, if any
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comfort from his love, if any, commonsharing in the spirit, if any tenderness
and compassion, then make my joy completeby being like-minded, having the same
love being one in spirit and a one mind.
Do nothing out of selfish ambitionor vain conceit, rather, in humility,
value others above yourselves.
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Not looking to your own interests, buteach of you to the interests of others.
In your relationships with one another,have the same mindset as Christ Jesus,
who being in the very nature, God didnot consider equality with God, something
to be used to his own advantage.
Rather, he made himself nothing bytaking the very nature of a servant
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being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as aman, he humbled himself by becoming
obedient to death, even death on a cross.
Therefore, God exalted him to thehighest place and gave him the name
that is above every name, that atthe name of Jesus, every niche should
bow in heaven and on earth, andunder the earth and every tongue.
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Acknowledge that Jesus Christ isLord to the glory of God the father.
Amen.
Oh, right.
Before we dive in, babe, can I justask, could you just get me some water?
I'm a little bit parched up here.
My tongue is stickingto the roof of my mouth.
All
right.
So, Paul says,
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at the beginning of this passage, hesays to them, make my joy complete.
She's essentially saying, just make my daychurch, make my day, make my joy complete.
How?
By the church, in this case, thePhilippian Church, knowing their
foundation and their identity in Christby the church being unified and by the
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church having the same mindset as Jesus.
And what is that mindset?
It is a mindset of true humility.
So let's just break down the firstpart, the first few verses, verses
of the passage that we just readand break it down so that we can
grasp what he's actually saying herein the framework of, can we just
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set this next slide up, Sabrina?
Thanks.
All right.
Identity and our foundation, butthen also unity and humility.
So he's saying if you have, and this isan identity and a foundation statement
that he brings here, if you haveany encouragement from being united
with Christ, my friends, we couldpark there on just that truth alone.
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For days.
Have you come this morning,did you wake up this morning?
Encourage because your life, if youprofess Jesus as Lord and Savior,
your life is united to the life.
Of Christ, like you don't have to earn it.
You don't have to wake up everyday securing it, behaving right?
So in order so that Christdoesn't flee from you.
Now Christ has bound his life to yours.
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That's what it is to be saved.
That's what it is to be born again.
It's that the life of Christpermanently united to your life.
There is a lot.
Of encouragement to be gained byjust pondering on that truth alone.
If that is true of you, my friends,what could possibly shake you if you're
eternally united to the life of Christ?
What in this life could truly, truly shakeyou if you were to truly, truly apprehend
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the fullness of that reality right there?
I think we forget to thinkabout that sometimes, don't we?
Who we are in
him that, that foundational
identity, any comfort from his love?
Because it is his lovethat binds him to us.
Any common sharing in the spirit,any tenderness and compassion.
What is he talking about here?
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Any deep, deep affection because whenyou understand who you are in Christ
and you understand his love for you.
The natural overflow.
That is a posture of deeptenderness and compassion.
So sharing this withthe word and way people.
On Wednesday night, our Bible study,the, the word for tenderness there
in the Greek is actually, if you wereto translate it directly, it's the
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word B, translate directly to bowel.
So if you have any bowelsand compassion, right?
What?
What could that possibly mean?
Well, for the ancients, this place here.
It was where you felt so very deeply.
It's that place.
And so when I
say church, you know,
love your guts.
That's kind of tappinginto that truth there.
It is a, it's a gutborn affection and love.
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It's deep.
It's deep, deep in the bowels.
I think something gets lostin modern translation there,
but you know what I mean?
And then he goes, then what?
Make my joy complete bynext slide there, Sabrina.
By being what?
By being unified.
By being humble, by being like-minded,actually agreeing with one another.
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Oh, this does not come easy, does it?
By having the same love loving one anotherwith the love that Christ has given you.
Being one in spirit and of onemind being deep spirited friends.
That's beautiful, isn't it?
I've borrowed that language from EugenePeterson in the message paraphrase.
Be deep seated friends.
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That just sounds like areally good time, doesn't it?
Just to be in the companyof deep seated friends.
Is there any greaterblessing in the world?
Ugh, humble.
Doing nothing outta selfishambition or VA conceit.
Valuing others above yourself,not looking to your own interests,
but to the interests of others.
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And so off the bat, the conclusionsthat we can draw from this right
from the beginning is this joy isfound in knowing your foundation
and your identity in Christ.
Joy is found in being a unifyingmember of a unified community.
So it's not just found inbeing in a unified community.
It's actually contributing to the unityof that community by being a unifying
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member of a unified community, joy,that is a joyful, joyful place to be.
And joy is found in a life of humility,which enables you to be a person of unity.
There is no unity apart from humility.
You can't have.
Unity without humility.
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We try to do that, andthat's called uniformity.
That's when we all just convince ourselfwe're unified because we look the same.
We sound the same, we wear the same.
We think the same.
We support the same politiciansand sports teams, and we all
listen to the same music.
That's not unity.
Okay?
It's diversity that proveproves unity, and it's only
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possible through deep humility.
All right.
So there is a deep joy in unity,which comes when we know and we live
out of a Christ founded identitywith a humble Christ-like mindset.
So that is my encouragement for us allthis morning, that we would lean into
that, that we would desire to know thejoy that comes with living in this way.
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We would desire to know the joy thatcomes from living out of a Christ.
Found that identity with ahumble Christ-like mindset.
And so this is what Paul is saying.
He wants this for this church, andthat will bring him the greatest joy.
And I don't think it's astretch to understand why.
I mean, for, for those of you who areparents, you know the joy of seeing your
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children getting along and being unified,loving one another, serving one another,
championing one another, that bringsjoy to a parent's heart, doesn't it?
And for Paul, he sees these churches likehis children, and for God, well, we are
his children, so you wanna bless the Lord.
Love the people around you.
Be deep spirited friendswith those around you.
Don't put a smile on the Lord's face.
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You know, it doesn't put a smile onthe Lord's face when you just bitch and
complain about all the people around you.
And just when God, them,them, them theming.
I know that God really enjoys that.
Who really enjoys that.
At the end of the day, nobody enjoyswatching their children fight and
disagree, but that place of unity birthedin humility is precious and beautiful and
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just, just a source of deep, deep joy.
So why does unity matter?
Other than being a source of joy,why would the Philippian Church being
unified matter so very much to Paul?
'cause remember the first chapterof Philippians, we got this real
sense of what really matters toPaul and what really matters to Paul
is the advancement of the gospel.
And why does that matter to Paul?
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Because in Paul's mind, when thegospel advances, the kingdom comes
and the darkness is pushed back andlight comes and evil is overcome
by good when the gospel advances.
So it matters greatly to Paulthat the gospel advances.
And the gospel advances best througha unified church, doesn't it?
And so unity matters.
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Unity matters to Paul, andit should matter to us here
because it's the will of God.
Again, the words of Paul here asfound in Ephesians that God made
known to us the mystery of his willaccording to his good pleasure.
And what is this will to bring unityto all things in heaven and on earth.
The whole point of this all is unity.
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It's reconciliation.
It's bringing everything back into aharmonious state of shalom and oneness.
Next.
Because our unity tells the worldabout the love of Gods Jesus.
As he's praying before he goes tothe cross in John's gospel here,
my prayer is not for them alone.
I pray also for those who will believein me through their message that all
of them what may be one unified father,just as you are in me and I am in you,
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this deep relational unity, then what?
Then the world will know thatyou sent me and have loved them.
Even as you have loved me, our greatestwitness is not in how loudly we scream
the gospel in people's faces and nothow loudly we tell the wrong how the
world, how wrong and immoral it is.
But as we love one another, as we dwellin unity, it's a, it's a beacon to a
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broken disintegrating world around us.
That beacon of love.
Yeah, Adam's, as I was goingthrough my message with Adam
yesterday reminded me there's
this saying, division
in the church breeds atheism in the world.
Oh, it's a challengingstatement, isn't it?
I think there's a lot of truth to it,because when the church is divided, our
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lives are telling a lie about the goodnessof the gospel when the church is divided.
Our lies don't bear a true witness tothe truth of the gospel and the truth
of who God is and how he sees the worldand how he wants to relate to the world.
All right, next.
Unity matters because it is therethat we know the presence of God.
Psalm 133, how good and pleasant it iswhen God's people live together in unity.
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It is like precious oil pulled on thehead, running down the beard, running
down Aaron's beard, down the collary robe.
It's as if the Jew of Herman were fallingon Mount Zion for there, the Lord bestows
his blessing, even life forevermore.
And so that picture of oil, itsounds kind of gross, doesn't it?
As you just read it, like can takeit and it's plain kind of, you know,
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describing there, you're just like,oh, Gracie, and did they have shampoo?
Then?
How did he get all thatoil out of his beard?
But what did oil represent?
In the Old Testament, it represented thespirit, represented the very presence
of God and and so it's
saying that's what unity is.
Unity to be unified in the name of Jesusis to know the very presence of God.
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There will be life, there will be lifenext because it's the very ministry
that we have been called to all thisis from God writes Paul in Second
Corinthians, who reconciled us to himselfthrough Christ and then gives us what.
The Ministry of Reconciliation.
You know, there's thisinteresting reality, right?
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Every single person on thisplanet is an image bearer is
made in the image of God, right?
Not just the Christians.
Every single person human beingis created in the image of God.
So every person is an image bearer,but not every person is a name bearer.
And for those who bear the nameof Jesus, this is your ministry.
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It is a ministry of reconciliation.
That's what you had to wear every daywhen you walk out the door, to just be
that place where heaven and earth collide.
Where God's will is done on earth thatis, is in heaven and the kingdom comes.
And that's not so much just runningaround preaching the gospel at people,
but it's carrying the presence ofGod wherever your foot treads and
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bearing witness in whatever way isauthentic to how God has created.
You.
All right.
So why does Unity matter?
There we go.
And with this in mind, as we, as weconsider all this, I wonder sometimes
if we're not just a little bit casualabout unity, a bit quick and a bit
willing to divide over differencesthat ultimately just do not matter
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content, or at least happy to feeljustified in our reluctance to forgive
our brothers and sisters in Christ.
A little bit justified carryingbitterness and resentment.
But 'cause we truly understood thepreciousness of unity, would we really
waste our time with things that divide?
I think if we're honest, there issomething in the human heart that inclines
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us to division that client inclines usto fight with one another, to be against
one another rather than for one another.
We acknowledge the good of it, right?
But there is something in ourheart that often pulls us in this
direction of division, of conflict,of disagreement, of fighting.
And you know, not always outwardly,because you know, we're very good at
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sanctifying our behavior, aren't we?
Church, we're very good at lookinglike nice Christians on the outside
and then what's going on in the heart,and this is what this is all about.
It's not about the outward behavior.
Yeah, it's like the positiveposture of your heart.
Are you for.
The people here.
Are you here because God calledyou here and you know he called
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you here so that you could be four.
This church family.
But then beyond that, are you forthe church down the road, or are
you just worried about all thethings that they do different to us
and how we do it better than them?
You know, I know nobodywould think that, would they?
You know?
No.
I've been greatly challenged through this.
You know, when Paul said in back inchapter one, where he talks about, you
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know, what does it matter what people'smotives are in preaching the gospel?
Whether a false mood is or true,all that matters is the gospel is
preached and you know, and that asa teacher, right, as one who is,
can be very black and white, right?
And likes things to be right.
You know, I can get my littleknickers all in all sorts of wedges
about, oh, is this being done right?
Oh, oh, oh.
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And it's not a unifying heart posture.
Now, do we accept false teachingdistortions of the gospel?
No, we don't, but it What is theposture of our heart towards our
brothers and sisters in Christ?
Is it one of humility and unity?
So if you just take a look at thesefew verses, what you're gonna see is
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Paul describes the heart that fights,and then he describes the kind of
heart that doesn't fight, but thatmakes peace and that brings joy.
And then he shows us how to getthat kind of heart that makes peace.
So what kills unity?
He talks about it here.
Selfish ambition and vain conceit.
And so what is, oh, the water.
I forgot to drink it.
Ugh.
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Ah.
So much better.
Alright.
Oh, don't tip over.
Okay, what kills unity?
Selfish ambition and Bain
Conceit.
So let's
have a look here.
Selfish ambition is havinga spirit of divisiveness, a
desire to put oneself forward.
It's a desire to be first, adesire to be recognized, to
be seen, to be acknowledged.
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And what I would advise as we come beforethis is to resist the temptation to start
to think of all those other people whooperate like this and just graciously
hold the mirror up to your own self.
Don't worry about the others,let the Lord worry about them.
You just hold it up to your own goodself and see if there is anything
here that resonates for you.
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All right.
Vain conceit or vain glory,as it says in the King James.
And what does this mean?
It means to be glory empty.
So the Greek word there is keno.
Docea.
So keno means empty, whichI thought was really funny.
'cause who knows what kenois like as a gambling thing.
Yeah, yeah.
It's gonna empty
your wallet.
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So funny.
They would call it
that.
Yeah.
And then
docia means glory, so it actually means.
To be somebody who is glory empty, and ifyou are empty of that, what does it do?
It makes you hungry.
It makes you hungry for honor.
For respect to be seen,to be acknowledged, to be
valued, to be appreciated.
It's kind of this anxiety as chinKeller put it, a ra, a radical
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cosmic insecurity and anxiousnessfor assurance around your identity.
But it's this, it's kind of this GNAdeep seated conviction in you that you
don't count and that you don't matter.
So therefore you need to spend yourdays proving that you do and gaining
that approval from other people.
So you need to be seen andyou need to be acknowledged.
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And again, we can immediately in ourminds go to a caricature of this, of some
very obvious, arrogant, prideful person.
Don't do that.
Okay?
Allow the spirit to bringconviction to your own heart and
go, where is this in me, Lord?
Where might I be able to inviteyour spirit that I could be set
free of any kind of selfish ambitionor vain conceit that would rob
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your church of a joy filled unity?
Because remember, it's not just about you.
Is it, this is what we forget, right?
We can so easily come to church and wecan hear these messages and we can receive
them in the sense of, of like self-help.
So how do I just become a better personso that I can look in the mirror and
just be more at peace with who I am?
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But no, no, no.
It's like how, how do I take the beautifultruth of God, bring it to bear in my
own brokenness for the good of others?
It's, yes, it's for your own good, but.
Ultimately it's for the goodof the people that God has
called you to love and to serve.
Okay, so why are we this way?
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Why are we can, can we bepeople of selfish ambition
and people of vain conceit?
And I think it is because we're madeto live forever in God's presence.
But when we turn away from thepresence of God, we, we miss out
on receiving what we need most.
We miss out of being in the presence ofhis glory that fills us in a beautiful
way that doesn't distort us or deform us.
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John 17 three says, this is eternallife that they know you God.
So outside of knowing God anddeep relational, knowing not.
Had knowledge about God, but relationalknowing of God, there is only death.
This is what the implications ofthese words of Jesus is, and so
we are made to never be forgotten.
We were made.
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We weren't made to be unseen or unknown.
We were made to know God.
We were made to be known by God.
We're also made to be deeplyknown by one another as well.
But this relationship.
Our relational world is all broken.
It's broken by sin, and so we feel broken.
We feel incomplete, missing,and restless and anxious.
So we desperately look to everyone aroundus that we possibly can to get them to
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say, you are good and you're special.
You're important.
You're worthwhile.
You're significant.
Welcome to the unholyfuel for social media.
Hey you.
But there's a great quote from Madonnathat just describes this so beautifully.
She says this, my drive in lifecomes from a fear of being mediocre.
That is always pushing me.
I push past one spell of it and discovermyself as a special human being, but
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then I feel I am still mediocre anduninteresting unless I do something else.
Because even though I havebecome somebody, I still have
to prove that I am somebody.
My struggle has never ended,and I guess it never will.
Oh, what a horrible way to live.
There's no freedom there.
There's no joy.
It's, oh, just this hamster wheelof having to prove yourself.
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You know, our culture'sresponse to this reality is well
just go believe in yourself.
All that matters is what you think of.
You just love yourself.
Oh, that's such helpful advice.
It's really not.
It doesn't work.
We are deeply relational beings.
We're actually meant to get our identityand worth from beyond ourselves, but
not ultimately from other people,because that does not work either.
When we do this, we end upusing other people as a means of
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validation, and then what happens?
We end up resenting themwhen they don't deliver.
Happens in church all the time, youknow, people come and then they like, you
know, and as, as, as leaders, we can be
particularly, I guess susceptible
to this and all this expectationsthat these people are gonna meet all
my needs and all my self validationneeds, and then we don't perform
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and then people get really upset.
And we've all been, you know, probablyon both sides of the coin here.
And that's the journeyof maturity as well.
So what I say here today, rememberno guilt, shame, or condemnation.
The conviction comes, oh, hallelujah.
Praise the
Lord.
Right?
This is not
about guilting or shaming anyonebecause we're all on a journey of
maturity in this space of coming tofully understand our identity in Christ
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and how God sees us and who we are.
You know, and so, but when we don'thave that assurance, we end up competing
and we compare, you know, so I'm okayso long as I'm better in some way.
Then, you know, that person or thosepeople, again, welcome to the unholy fuel
for social media, the basis of comparison.
Just getting that sense of, oh,right, I'm okay because I'm better
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than them Happens in church all thetime, you know, oh yeah, I might do
this, but at least I don't do that.
So, oh dear.
So we use people to bolster our shakyego, and every time you meet a new person,
you can be unconsciously wondering,how can this person contribute to my
need to prove that I count and that Imatter, and then life, or life therefore,
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becomes a constant battle to use people.
So this is the sickness pride,which is a hunger for glory and
need for respect and need to beultimately assured that we are o.
K, but so then what builds unity?
If that's what Tears it down.
Destroys it.
What builds it?
Well, humility.
So Philippians one, five.
Paul gives this instructionto the church when he says,
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oh, we got it there, Sabrina.
Nope.
Philippians one verse five.
Ah, yeah, there we go.
In your relate oh two, sorry about that.
For the confusion in yourrelationships with one another, have
the same mindset as Christ Jesus.
This is the instruction he gives to thechurch as to how to cultivate humility.
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And your relationships with one havethe same mindset as Christ Jesus.
So what's a mindset?
A set of beliefs that shape how youmake sense of the world and yourself
influencing how you think, feel,and behave in any given situation.
Often our mindset isn'tsomething we think about.
But it's something that'sgood to think about.
When you know you this week, asyou go through this week, watch how
you respond and react to differentsituations through your day.
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And they'll tell you what your mindset is.
You know, the attitude with whichyou wake up in the morning will
tell you what your mindset is.
The attitude with which you go to bed atnight will tell you so much about your
mindset.
You know,
the way I drive tells me alot about my mindset and it's.
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Because, I don't have
a lot of tolerance.
It turns out my pride, I think, gets
manifested, quite greatly
on the road.
And this assumption that I am vastlysuperior to whoever the other, the
driver.
And, I have no
tolerance for anybody whodoesn't drive like me.
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And I verbalize it to no one in particular'cause I'm using the car by myself.
But, um.
It, it reveals a lot about my mindset.
It's going, okay, if I genuinelywas a humble driver, would I be.
Losing my mind 'cause thisperson is driving so very slow.
Or the, or people's inabilityto navigate roundabouts, like,
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you know, but this self, right?
But it's this, but I have this belief andit's like, well, driving brings it out.
And so chances are this mindset ismanifesting in other places other than
just the traffic, if I'm gonna be honest.
Right.
So.
Yay.
Bring on traffic.
Bring on the revealing of my unhealthymindset that I can bring it before the
Lord and have it redeemed.
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So having the same mindset as Jesus.
So let's first take alook at the word humility.
What is it?
The Greek word used inthe New Testament means?
Gentle, modest, deferential.
But the outside the Bible, inancient Greek literature, this
word was always used negatively.
This is so interesting.
So in Greco Roman culture, sothe culture in which this letter
was originally written to bedeferential and gentle and modest was
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considered the attitude of a slave.
And so their culture valued strength.
They believed socialstability depended on fear.
Respect was built on fear.
If people feared you,then they respected you.
Humility that was for slaves,and yet Christianity changed
everything in the Bible.
This word or variations of itappeared 270 times almost always
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positively, and that is nothingshort of a worldview revolution.
And if you go back to Greek philosophy,philosophy to Aristotle, to Plato, you
will not find humility listed as a virtue.
But in the Bible, humility is central.
Consider Jesus's words whenhe says it is the meek.
It is the humble whowill inherit the earth.
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And he says, what?
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.
For I am meek, I am humble.
I am gentle and lowly in heart.
And what is he saying?
Well, if you think about thegospel, right, what it is.
If you come to God and say,Lord, look at my accomplishments.
Look at what I have done.
Am I not wonderful?
You must therefore receive me.
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God's gonna say, you don't know me.
You don't know yourself clearly,and you do not understand the cross.
But if you come saying, Lord, I repent.
I need your grace.
I have nothing to merit yourfavor, but I ask that you save me.
Accept me for Christ's sake.
That's repentance and that'sfaith, and that is humility.
So do you see how essentialit is in the kingdom?
The only thing that can destroy youeternally actually is a lack of humility.
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Think about the Pharisees.
They were the only onesJesus had problems with.
He didn't have a problemwith the prostitutes.
You have a problem with the tax collectsyou happily hung, hung out with them.
The Pharisees, he couldn'tget through to them.
Why?
The pride that sat in theirheart that they were right.
Pride, pride, pride.
You.
So ultimately, Jason doesn't, theyhave a problem with, you know, these
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sins that we get all wigged out aboutand judging one another about, right?
Ooh, they swore, Ooh, Jesus must be outthere sticking his fingers in his ears.
No, the, I'm not endorsing swearing.
All right.
But.
It's the, it's the self-righteous heart.
The one that says, oh, I've got it all.
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I'm right.
Or at least I'm more right than them.
So therefore I'm okay.
I'm right.
That's the heart that isimpenetrable to the gospel.
That's a dangerous ground to be on.
That's why Jesus said, bewareof the use of the Pharisees.
Yeah, and you put real emphasis on that.
Beware.
Beware of it.
'cause it's sneaky and it's subtle andit feeds our flesh and before we know
it, it's kind of gripped our heart.
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Be really be aware of thatyeast as it creeps in.
So you can lack almost anything,but not humility because humility
is what connects you to God.
And humility, ultimately whatconnects us to one another.
You can't have a deep abiding,deep spirited friendship between
two prideful people can you?
You can't, 'cause there'sno vulnerability there.
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So the kind of relationshipthat we are creative for is only
found in postures of humility.
So do you see how important humility is?
What is it?
It's not weakness, it is not self-hatred.
It's seeing yourself accurately beforeGod and seeing God accurately as well.
And that changes everything.
So by way is giving us ameans of self-evaluation to
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really assess our hearts.
And I'm borrowing this from Tim Keller,who borrowed it from Jonathan Edwards,
insights on humility and pride.
So let's just have a lookat this for a moment.
Pride is drivenness a relentlessneed for success and validation
is scornful a tendency to mock,ridicule or look down on others.
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Willfulness being unteachable and willingto admit wrong and rigid in beliefs.
Self-conscious and excessivefocus on oneself, whether in
arrogance or insecurity, and that'sreally important to note, right?
Pride is not just for the overtlyarrogant pride is for the one who is
constantly obsessing about themselves.
You know, if you go home after everysocial interaction and just sit there
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analyzing everything you said, right?
You have a pride problem.
Okay.
If you can't walk out the doorof your house without obsessively
considering what you are wearing,there is a pride problem there.
And you might convince yourself, you know,oh, I'm not proud because I don't boast.
No, but it's just ultimately,it's all just where your gaze
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is fixed.
So whether
it's arrogance or whether it's overlyself-conscious and now self-awareness.
Yeah, right.
We need to have an awareness of ourselvesthat's, that's good and healthy.
Okay?
But that's obsessive self-consciousness.
You've tipped in to pride, and again, Isay this not to condemn, shame, guilt,
anybody, pure recognition at the heartthat you'd be able to repent, bring it
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for the Lord, and go, Lord, oh gosh,this is a bit icky, this thing in me.
Lord, would you help me?
Would you heal me of this?
Would you remove this from me?
All right, so humility.
It is the opposite of these contentmentinstead of drivenness, courtesy and grace.
Instead of s skillfulness, opennessand teachability, instead of
willfulness, self forgetfulnessinstead of self-consciousness.
Why does time go so fast for me?
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That's very unkind.
All right.
How many pages have we got here?
People hang in there.
All right, so who's readthe screw tape letters?
So great.
Okay.
'cause this brings, soI'm just gonna read a bit
of this, from the
Screw Tape Letters, whichis a book by CS Lewis and it
describes, a senior
demon screw tape
and he's, instructing
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his nephew
wormwood.
And, it's so,
so incredibly insightful.
But this
particular bit on, pride and
humility, so this is ScrewTape Counseling wormwood.
So your patient has become humble.
Have you drawn his attention to the factall virtues are less formidable to us
once the man is aware that he has them.
But this is especially true of humility.
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Catch him at the moment when he is reallypoor in spirit and smuggle into his
mind the gratifying reflection by Jo.
I'm being humble, andalmost immediately pride.
Pride at his own humility will appear.
You must conceal from the patient.
The true end of humility, let him thinkof it not as self forgetfulness, but as
a certain kind of opinion, namely a lowopinion of his own talents and character.
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By this method, thousands of humans havebeen brought to think that humility means.
Pretty women trying to believethey are ugly and clever men
trying to believe they are fools.
And since what they are trying to believemay in some cases be manifest nonsense,
they cannot succeed in believing it.
And we have the chance of keeping theirminds endlessly revolving on themselves
in an effort to achieve the impossible.
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So the enemy, which in their minds isGod wants him to be so free from any
bias in his own favor, that he canrejoice in his own talents as frankly
and gratefully as in his neighbors.
Talents.
He wants each man in the long run to beable to recognize all creatures, even
himself as glorious and excellent things.
It's really good, isn't it?
Again, CS
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Lewis, in his, book mere
Christianity, again on humility, hewrites, do not imagine that if you
meet a really humble man, he will bewhat most people call humble nowadays.
He will not be a sort of greasy, smarmyperson who is always telling you that.
Of course, he's nobody.
But probably all you willthink about him is that.
He seemed a cheerful, intelligentchap who took a real interest
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in what you said to him.
If you do dislike him, it will be becauseyou feel a little envious of anyone
who seems to enjoy life so easily.
He will not be thinking about humility.
He will not be thinkingabout himself at all.
So what is the way to humility?
Because the way to humility is notto think yourself into humility.
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It's not to condemnyourself for your pride.
That won't form humility in you.
What does Paul do when hewants to instruct the church
about the way to humility?
He goes to a poem, he goes to thishymn that we read in verses six to 11.
And why?
So this passage from six to 11that talks about Jesus and that
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we read at the beginning.
So it's whether it was a poem that waswritten by Paul, or whether it was a
poem that was known at the time thatPaul just took and put in his letter
to the Philippians, this Christ hymn,he uses poetry for a specific reason.
I think because to understand humilityand have it deeply formed in you, you,
you can't really work on it directly.
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Humility has to be abyproduct of something else.
Real humility is not thinking lessof yourself, but thinking of yourself
less, so you're not gonna attainit by thinking about yourself.
I really like thisdescription of humility.
Humility is a shy virtue.
As soon as you look at it, it goes away.
It's a great way of thinking aboutis it's very shy as we've got, these
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friends of ours and one of their classicstories is, one of their members of their
family when they were younger went awayto Africa and a bit of a mission trip,
and they came back and when asked how itwas, how it affected them, their comment
was, oh, I got so good at humility.
Yeah.
That doesn't sound quite right, does it?
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Oh dear.
So what's
Paul saying?
Paul's saying that the way we aregonna fix what is most wrong with us
in our center is you gotta see Jesus.
You need to have the theology and thedoctrine of who Jesus is and what he
did actually on fire in your heart.
Not all sorted in your head.
But on fire, in your heart, youknow something, you praise God for
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something that actually captures yourimagination, and this is what beauty does.
When we see Jesus as beautiful, whenwe see the cross as beautiful, when
we see the gospel as beautiful, itcaptivates us and it forms something
deeply precious in us that kills pride.
We must come to see Jesus asbeautiful and not just useful.
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So often that's what happens in the churchand in a, even in our devotional time,
we just come with this sense of like,show me what I need to do today, Lord.
And it just leaves us as justlike this life coast or this life
manager, like it's your devotionaltime, a thing of beauty for you.
Do you just.
Enjoy being in his presence or hasit always gotta be useful for you
to walk away feeling like it wasa good time with the Lord today?
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'cause I learn something, you know?
Or, or are you are you just be ableto sit in restful, contented joy, it
just being in his beautiful presence.
'cause that is what cultivatesa humble heart of humility.
If you do not find Jesusbeautiful, my friends.
I would suggest that youhaven't actually truly seen him.
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You've only seen a distortion andthere's plenty of distortions on display.
It's actually takes quite a bit ofwork to perceive him in his beauty
because there are so many distortions.
Um.
You know, look at Jesus.
And in this poem, what does Paul describe?
He describes this beautiful trajectoryof Jesus's humility, a symphony
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in three movements, if you like.
And so we see the incarnation,though he was God, he became human.
We see the atonement.
He went lower sufferingdeath on the cross.
And we see his exaltationbecause he humbled himself.
Yeah, because he was obedient.
God.
Then what lifted him up, and this isa pattern that we ought to follow.
This is the mindset that we ought tohave as how we live our lives, Christ
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in us enabling us to die to ourselves,that we will trust that in our obedience.
The Lord will lift us up andwe've got this beautiful, like
very simple image here that helpsput picture to this because.
This is what?
This is power of poetry, right?
Because what sits right in themiddle of this poem, the central,
central line, is death on a cross.
The cross sits at the middle of thispoem, and that is very, very, I poignant.
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So this is trajectory that the poem takes.
Jesus was divine in his glory.
He emptied himself kenosis.
That's a great word, that heemptied himself of his divinity
and he took on the nature.
Of a servant, and he liveda life of humble obedience.
I said this on Wednesday night, andthis is really important to know, you
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we're coming out to Easter, which isall about the death and the resurrection
of Jesus, and we celebrate Christmas,which is all about the birth of Jesus.
And we can think Christianityis all about those two things.
Jesus being born and Jesus dying,and Jesus rising again and ascending.
But the life of Jesusreally, really mattered too.
And one of the reasons that itreally, really mattered was he showed
us what it's to be truly human.
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He showed us how tolive a truly human life.
And a truly human life is one livid livedin humble submission to the will of God.
A truly human life is one livefreely in loving service to those
around you, even your enemies.
That is what it is to be truly human.
And so this poem takes you downto this point of death, to death
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on a cross obedience unto death.
He wasn't obedient to death, hewas obedient to the point of death.
Humbled to the point of death.
And then what happens?
Because of his humility, the Lord raiseshim up, exalts him to that place of glory.
And this is a pattern that we are to standbefore and wonder at, but also to seek to
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live according to this pattern as well.
Not being afraid of death, not beingafraid of dying to ourself, but knowing
that in our humble, submitted, yieldingto the way and the will of God.
That from that place thatGod brings true life.
So the paradox of humility is that the wayup is down the way to be rich is to give.
The way to rule is to serve, and the wayto happiness is to seek it for others.
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So we try to fill ourselveswith glory, but we remain empty.
Jesus who had true glory emptied himself.
So that what?
That we could be full becausehe gave up his reputation.
We no longer lead to clinging to ours.
We get so worried aboutour reputations, don't we?
Jesus didn't worry about hisreputation, never defended himself.
Just let the Lord take care of that.
That's freedom, isn't it?
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That is joy.
That is freedom to be so free.
You don't need to worryabout your own reputation.
You can just leave thatin the Lord's hand.
You're just free love.
Whoever the Lord brings across your path.
This is joy, this is freedom.
And of course, this kind of mindsetwill lead to unity because you
don't care about being right.
You don't care about beingacknowledged, being validated,
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being respected, joy for you.
This is, this is, this is, this willbe your joy in this place, and this
will make you a joy to be around.
Hey, it is a joy to bearound, truly humble people.
It is an absolute delight.
If you see Jesus as beautiful aswhat he did for you as the most
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stunning, beautiful act of sacrificiallove, that will humble you to be
loved, genuinely, and extravagantlyis a deeply humbling experience.
It's one of the reasons why I've gotthis painting of Joe's here, right?
Because this is a painting of whatJesus washing the disciples feet.
That is humbling.
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Jesus did the most lowly taskthat a slave would do in a house.
He washed his disciples dirtymanky feet, and they were foul.
Right?
It was not a good time forfeet back in ancient days.
Okay?
Because there's just a lot of.
Yucky stuff on the roads that youtread and you didn't have nice covered
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shoes, and so your feet will not becovered in like dirt and poo and stuff.
And Jesus, Jesus likewashes the disciples feet.
And we saw Pete, when you readthe story, Peter's reluctance, no,
Lord, no, because he's humbling.
When the Son of God washesyour dirty feet, grace humbles.
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You know, we can try and shamepeople out of their pride.
That doesn't work.
What delivers people of pride is grace.
It is grace.
At the center of this poem standsthe cross before the wonder
and the beauty of the cross.
There is no room for pride.
And the pride that causes one toself grand, oh, sorry, to self
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aggrandize or the bride thatcauses one to self-flagellate.
The need to make oneself big, or the needto try and make one's mouth sell small.
But to stand before the cross isto stand before grace and nothing
will humble you like grace.
And this is a blessing of your ownpride, your selfish ambition, and
your vain conceit if you will own it.
Right.
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Stand before the cross, my friendswith all of your stupid pride, all
of your stupid striving, all of yourstupid meanness towards others, or
your stupid selfish ways, or yourstupid bitter heart, your stupid
neurotic self-consciousness, right?
I'm kind of like, you know, forthose of you who who've seen
this morning, I am so prideful.
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You are.
You know what?
You're really blessed because youhave so much crap to bring before
the cross that God's able to pourgrace on because we are sinner bound.
Grace abounds even more.
Hey, so stand beforethe cross with Oliver.
Own every bit of your stinkingpride, and watch it melt away
at the foot of the cross as yougaze at the loving face of Jesus.
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The face of welcome,the face of acceptance.
And then let it melt away.
And then just delight in youridentity as one who was loved by one,
who would love you like that one.
Who would love you to death.
Delight in that delight that you are animage bearer, that you are a name bearer.
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Delight in that, my friends.
All right, let's bring this home team.
Do you wanna come on a. Church, canI just ask you to, close your eyes
and bow your heads for a moment and,
I just wanna take a moment ofjust stillness before the Lord
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and just to ask that
question, just prayerfully
ask that question.
Lord, what is there of thismorning that is for me?
Well, where is pride
robbing me of joy?
Where is pride ruling my life?
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Or perhaps for you, it's likeI don't know that I've ever
really seen Jesus as beautiful.
So maybe the cry of your heart in thismoment is, Lord, show me your glory.
That cry of, Moses' heart,
show me your glory.
Show me your beauty.
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Maybe there has been a moment ofdeep humbling for you this morning.
Maybe the Lord has shown you.
A place where you are deeply,deeply prideful, where you are
deeply in bondage to pride, andit's made you very judge judgmental.
It's made you very self-righteous, alwayslooking out, criticizing other people.
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It's made your heartsomewhat small and shriveled.
Would you dear friends, stand beforethe foot of the cross and see the
loving eyes of Jesus upon you.
Would you see and you receiveHis grace poured out upon you.
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He doesn't condemn you.
He just welcomes you into life.
Into life with him.
Allow his grace to melt away that pride.
Allow his grace to tellyou who you truly are.
You don't need to strive for these things.
Just receive them from him.
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You don't need to strive.
And scramble for worth and identity.
He freely gives it freely.
He has given freely, he has given.
You know, the Apostle Paul, he hadto be knocked off his high horse in
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order to be able to behold the truthof who Jesus was, and it changed
everything for him in that moment.
And maybe that is for you today.
Maybe you know, oh Lord, I needto be knocked off my high horse.
Humble me Lord, that Ican be free of this pride.
That enslaves me and snaresme, and robs me of living in
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beautiful, unified, humble, joyousrelationship with those around me.
Oh Lord, do this beautiful and preciouswork in all of us, we pray, Lord.
Amen.
Church, how about youstand and let us worship?
Now I just wanna reference.
This beautiful artworkhere, which I did not do.
Just so you know, one of our youngadults, Joe Frost, did this painting,
and it was during a worship nightwe did at the Naval Store last
year.
And, the relevance
of this painting willcome to light as we go
through, the message
for today.
All right.
So we are in our series, defiant Joy,going through the book of Philippians.
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And so let's dive into thepassage for today, which is
Philippians two verses one to 11.
And
it is a, before we
begin to read, I just wanna set thescene of this passage of scripture.
It is
one of the, most treasured
and precious passages ofscripture in all of scripture.
If we did not have thispassage of scripture, we
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would be, limited in
our understanding of who Jesus is.
And the divinity of Jesus.
The passage that we'll read in amoment is possibly the clearest
passage on the incarnation, on thetruth of the incarnation, that you
will find anywhere in scripture.
So it's an incrediblyimportant and incredibly
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precious, passage of
scripture.
So I'd encourage you to adopta posture of really leaning in.
Lord, what have you gotfor me this morning?
Through your word, through thisincredibly powerful and press
precious passage of scripture.
All right, let's read.
Therefore, if you have any encouragementfrom being united with Christ, if any
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comfort from his love, if any, commonsharing in the spirit, if any tenderness
and compassion, then make my joy completeby being like-minded, having the same
love being one in spirit and a one mind.
Do nothing out of selfish ambitionor vain conceit, rather, in humility,
value others above yourselves.
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Not looking to your own interests, buteach of you to the interests of others.
In your relationships with one another,have the same mindset as Christ Jesus,
who being in the very nature, God didnot consider equality with God, something
to be used to his own advantage.
Rather, he made himself nothing bytaking the very nature of a servant
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being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as aman, he humbled himself by becoming
obedient to death, even death on a cross.
Therefore, God exalted him to thehighest place and gave him the name
that is above every name, that atthe name of Jesus, every niche should
bow in heaven and on earth, andunder the earth and every tongue.
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Acknowledge that Jesus Christ isLord to the glory of God the father.
Amen.
Oh, right.
Before we dive in, babe, can I justask, could you just get me some water?
I'm a little bit parched up here.
My tongue is stickingto the roof of my mouth.
All
right.
So, Paul says,
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at the beginning of this passage, hesays to them, make my joy complete.
She's essentially saying, just make my daychurch, make my day, make my joy complete.
How?
By the church, in this case, thePhilippian Church, knowing their
foundation and their identity in Christby the church being unified and by the
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church having the same mindset as Jesus.
And what is that mindset?
It is a mindset of true humility.
So let's just break down the firstpart, the first few verses, verses
of the passage that we just readand break it down so that we can
grasp what he's actually saying herein the framework of, can we just
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set this next slide up, Sabrina?
Thanks.
All right.
Identity and our foundation, butthen also unity and humility.
So he's saying if you have, and this isan identity and a foundation statement
that he brings here, if you haveany encouragement from being united
with Christ, my friends, we couldpark there on just that truth alone.
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For days.
Have you come this morning,did you wake up this morning?
Encourage because your life, if youprofess Jesus as Lord and Savior,
your life is united to the life.
Of Christ, like you don't have to earn it.
You don't have to wake up everyday securing it, behaving right?
So in order so that Christdoesn't flee from you.
Now Christ has bound his life to yours.
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That's what it is to be saved.
That's what it is to be born again.
It's that the life of Christpermanently united to your life.
There is a lot.
Of encouragement to be gained byjust pondering on that truth alone.
If that is true of you, my friends,what could possibly shake you if you're
eternally united to the life of Christ?
What in this life could truly, truly shakeyou if you were to truly, truly apprehend
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the fullness of that reality right there?
I think we forget to thinkabout that sometimes, don't we?
Who we are in
him that, that foundational
identity, any comfort from his love?
Because it is his lovethat binds him to us.
Any common sharing in the spirit,any tenderness and compassion.
What is he talking about here?
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Any deep, deep affection because whenyou understand who you are in Christ
and you understand his love for you.
The natural overflow.
That is a posture of deeptenderness and compassion.
So sharing this withthe word and way people.
On Wednesday night, our Bible study,the, the word for tenderness there
in the Greek is actually, if you wereto translate it directly, it's the
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word B, translate directly to bowel.
So if you have any bowelsand compassion, right?
What?
What could that possibly mean?
Well, for the ancients, this place here.
It was where you felt so very deeply.
It's that place.
And so when I
say church, you know,
love your guts.
That's kind of tappinginto that truth there.
It is a, it's a gutborn affection and love.
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It's deep.
It's deep, deep in the bowels.
I think something gets lostin modern translation there,
but you know what I mean?
And then he goes, then what?
Make my joy complete bynext slide there, Sabrina.
By being what?
By being unified.
By being humble, by being like-minded,actually agreeing with one another.
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Oh, this does not come easy, does it?
By having the same love loving one anotherwith the love that Christ has given you.
Being one in spirit and of onemind being deep spirited friends.
That's beautiful, isn't it?
I've borrowed that language from EugenePeterson in the message paraphrase.
Be deep seated friends.
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That just sounds like areally good time, doesn't it?
Just to be in the companyof deep seated friends.
Is there any greaterblessing in the world?
Ugh, humble.
Doing nothing outta selfishambition or VA conceit.
Valuing others above yourself,not looking to your own interests,
but to the interests of others.
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And so off the bat, the conclusionsthat we can draw from this right
from the beginning is this joy isfound in knowing your foundation
and your identity in Christ.
Joy is found in being a unifyingmember of a unified community.
So it's not just found inbeing in a unified community.
It's actually contributing to the unityof that community by being a unifying
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member of a unified community, joy,that is a joyful, joyful place to be.
And joy is found in a life of humility,which enables you to be a person of unity.
There is no unity apart from humility.
You can't have.
Unity without humility.
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We try to do that, andthat's called uniformity.
That's when we all just convince ourselfwe're unified because we look the same.
We sound the same, we wear the same.
We think the same.
We support the same politiciansand sports teams, and we all
listen to the same music.
That's not unity.
Okay?
It's diversity that proveproves unity, and it's only
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possible through deep humility.
All right.
So there is a deep joy in unity,which comes when we know and we live
out of a Christ founded identitywith a humble Christ-like mindset.
So that is my encouragement for us allthis morning, that we would lean into
that, that we would desire to know thejoy that comes with living in this way.
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We would desire to know the joy thatcomes from living out of a Christ.
Found that identity with ahumble Christ-like mindset.
And so this is what Paul is saying.
He wants this for this church, andthat will bring him the greatest joy.
And I don't think it's astretch to understand why.
I mean, for, for those of you who areparents, you know the joy of seeing your
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children getting along and being unified,loving one another, serving one another,
championing one another, that bringsjoy to a parent's heart, doesn't it?
And for Paul, he sees these churches likehis children, and for God, well, we are
his children, so you wanna bless the Lord.
Love the people around you.
Be deep spirited friendswith those around you.
Don't put a smile on the Lord's face.
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You know, it doesn't put a smile onthe Lord's face when you just bitch and
complain about all the people around you.
And just when God, them,them, them theming.
I know that God really enjoys that.
Who really enjoys that.
At the end of the day, nobody enjoyswatching their children fight and
disagree, but that place of unity birthedin humility is precious and beautiful and
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just, just a source of deep, deep joy.
So why does unity matter?
Other than being a source of joy,why would the Philippian Church being
unified matter so very much to Paul?
'cause remember the first chapterof Philippians, we got this real
sense of what really matters toPaul and what really matters to Paul
is the advancement of the gospel.
And why does that matter to Paul?
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Because in Paul's mind, when thegospel advances, the kingdom comes
and the darkness is pushed back andlight comes and evil is overcome
by good when the gospel advances.
So it matters greatly to Paulthat the gospel advances.
And the gospel advances best througha unified church, doesn't it?
And so unity matters.
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Unity matters to Paul, andit should matter to us here
because it's the will of God.
Again, the words of Paul here asfound in Ephesians that God made
known to us the mystery of his willaccording to his good pleasure.
And what is this will to bring unityto all things in heaven and on earth.
The whole point of this all is unity.
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It's reconciliation.
It's bringing everything back into aharmonious state of shalom and oneness.
Next.
Because our unity tells the worldabout the love of Gods Jesus.
As he's praying before he goes tothe cross in John's gospel here,
my prayer is not for them alone.
I pray also for those who will believein me through their message that all
of them what may be one unified father,just as you are in me and I am in you,
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this deep relational unity, then what?
Then the world will know thatyou sent me and have loved them.
Even as you have loved me, our greatestwitness is not in how loudly we scream
the gospel in people's faces and nothow loudly we tell the wrong how the
world, how wrong and immoral it is.
But as we love one another, as we dwellin unity, it's a, it's a beacon to a
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broken disintegrating world around us.
That beacon of love.
Yeah, Adam's, as I was goingthrough my message with Adam
yesterday reminded me there's
this saying, division
in the church breeds atheism in the world.
Oh, it's a challengingstatement, isn't it?
I think there's a lot of truth to it,because when the church is divided, our
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lives are telling a lie about the goodnessof the gospel when the church is divided.
Our lies don't bear a true witness tothe truth of the gospel and the truth
of who God is and how he sees the worldand how he wants to relate to the world.
All right, next.
Unity matters because it is therethat we know the presence of God.
Psalm 133, how good and pleasant it iswhen God's people live together in unity.
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It is like precious oil pulled on thehead, running down the beard, running
down Aaron's beard, down the collary robe.
It's as if the Jew of Herman were fallingon Mount Zion for there, the Lord bestows
his blessing, even life forevermore.
And so that picture of oil, itsounds kind of gross, doesn't it?
As you just read it, like can takeit and it's plain kind of, you know,
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describing there, you're just like,oh, Gracie, and did they have shampoo?
Then?
How did he get all thatoil out of his beard?
But what did oil represent?
In the Old Testament, it represented thespirit, represented the very presence
of God and and so it's
saying that's what unity is.
Unity to be unified in the name of Jesusis to know the very presence of God.
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There will be life, there will be lifenext because it's the very ministry
that we have been called to all thisis from God writes Paul in Second
Corinthians, who reconciled us to himselfthrough Christ and then gives us what.
The Ministry of Reconciliation.
You know, there's thisinteresting reality, right?
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Every single person on thisplanet is an image bearer is
made in the image of God, right?
Not just the Christians.
Every single person human beingis created in the image of God.
So every person is an image bearer,but not every person is a name bearer.
And for those who bear the nameof Jesus, this is your ministry.
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It is a ministry of reconciliation.
That's what you had to wear every daywhen you walk out the door, to just be
that place where heaven and earth collide.
Where God's will is done on earth thatis, is in heaven and the kingdom comes.
And that's not so much just runningaround preaching the gospel at people,
but it's carrying the presence ofGod wherever your foot treads and
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bearing witness in whatever way isauthentic to how God has created.
You.
All right.
So why does Unity matter?
There we go.
And with this in mind, as we, as weconsider all this, I wonder sometimes
if we're not just a little bit casualabout unity, a bit quick and a bit
willing to divide over differencesthat ultimately just do not matter
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content, or at least happy to feeljustified in our reluctance to forgive
our brothers and sisters in Christ.
A little bit justified carryingbitterness and resentment.
But 'cause we truly understood thepreciousness of unity, would we really
waste our time with things that divide?
I think if we're honest, there issomething in the human heart that inclines
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us to division that client inclines usto fight with one another, to be against
one another rather than for one another.
We acknowledge the good of it, right?
But there is something in ourheart that often pulls us in this
direction of division, of conflict,of disagreement, of fighting.
And you know, not always outwardly,because you know, we're very good at
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sanctifying our behavior, aren't we?
Church, we're very good at lookinglike nice Christians on the outside
and then what's going on in the heart,and this is what this is all about.
It's not about the outward behavior.
Yeah, it's like the positiveposture of your heart.
Are you for.
The people here.
Are you here because God calledyou here and you know he called
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you here so that you could be four.
This church family.
But then beyond that, are you forthe church down the road, or are
you just worried about all thethings that they do different to us
and how we do it better than them?
You know, I know nobodywould think that, would they?
You know?
No.
I've been greatly challenged through this.
You know, when Paul said in back inchapter one, where he talks about, you
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know, what does it matter what people'smotives are in preaching the gospel?
Whether a false mood is or true,all that matters is the gospel is
preached and you know, and that asa teacher, right, as one who is,
can be very black and white, right?
And likes things to be right.
You know, I can get my littleknickers all in all sorts of wedges
about, oh, is this being done right?
Oh, oh, oh.
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And it's not a unifying heart posture.
Now, do we accept false teachingdistortions of the gospel?
No, we don't, but it What is theposture of our heart towards our
brothers and sisters in Christ?
Is it one of humility and unity?
So if you just take a look at thesefew verses, what you're gonna see is
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Paul describes the heart that fights,and then he describes the kind of
heart that doesn't fight, but thatmakes peace and that brings joy.
And then he shows us how to getthat kind of heart that makes peace.
So what kills unity?
He talks about it here.
Selfish ambition and vain conceit.
And so what is, oh, the water.
I forgot to drink it.
Ugh.
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Ah.
So much better.
Alright.
Oh, don't tip over.
Okay, what kills unity?
Selfish ambition and Bain
Conceit.
So let's
have a look here.
Selfish ambition is havinga spirit of divisiveness, a
desire to put oneself forward.
It's a desire to be first, adesire to be recognized, to
be seen, to be acknowledged.
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And what I would advise as we come beforethis is to resist the temptation to start
to think of all those other people whooperate like this and just graciously
hold the mirror up to your own self.
Don't worry about the others,let the Lord worry about them.
You just hold it up to your own goodself and see if there is anything
here that resonates for you.
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All right.
Vain conceit or vain glory,as it says in the King James.
And what does this mean?
It means to be glory empty.
So the Greek word there is keno.
Docea.
So keno means empty, whichI thought was really funny.
'cause who knows what kenois like as a gambling thing.
Yeah, yeah.
It's gonna empty
your wallet.
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So funny.
They would call it
that.
Yeah.
And then
docia means glory, so it actually means.
To be somebody who is glory empty, and ifyou are empty of that, what does it do?
It makes you hungry.
It makes you hungry for honor.
For respect to be seen,to be acknowledged, to be
valued, to be appreciated.
It's kind of this anxiety as chinKeller put it, a ra, a radical
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cosmic insecurity and anxiousnessfor assurance around your identity.
But it's this, it's kind of this GNAdeep seated conviction in you that you
don't count and that you don't matter.
So therefore you need to spend yourdays proving that you do and gaining
that approval from other people.
So you need to be seen andyou need to be acknowledged.
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And again, we can immediately in ourminds go to a caricature of this, of some
very obvious, arrogant, prideful person.
Don't do that.
Okay?
Allow the spirit to bringconviction to your own heart and
go, where is this in me, Lord?
Where might I be able to inviteyour spirit that I could be set
free of any kind of selfish ambitionor vain conceit that would rob
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your church of a joy filled unity?
Because remember, it's not just about you.
Is it, this is what we forget, right?
We can so easily come to church and wecan hear these messages and we can receive
them in the sense of, of like self-help.
So how do I just become a better personso that I can look in the mirror and
just be more at peace with who I am?
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But no, no, no.
It's like how, how do I take the beautifultruth of God, bring it to bear in my
own brokenness for the good of others?
It's, yes, it's for your own good, but.
Ultimately it's for the goodof the people that God has
called you to love and to serve.
Okay, so why are we this way?
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Why are we can, can we bepeople of selfish ambition
and people of vain conceit?
And I think it is because we're madeto live forever in God's presence.
But when we turn away from thepresence of God, we, we miss out
on receiving what we need most.
We miss out of being in the presence ofhis glory that fills us in a beautiful
way that doesn't distort us or deform us.
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John 17 three says, this is eternallife that they know you God.
So outside of knowing God anddeep relational, knowing not.
Had knowledge about God, but relationalknowing of God, there is only death.
This is what the implications ofthese words of Jesus is, and so
we are made to never be forgotten.
We were made.
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We weren't made to be unseen or unknown.
We were made to know God.
We were made to be known by God.
We're also made to be deeplyknown by one another as well.
But this relationship.
Our relational world is all broken.
It's broken by sin, and so we feel broken.
We feel incomplete, missing,and restless and anxious.
So we desperately look to everyone aroundus that we possibly can to get them to
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say, you are good and you're special.
You're important.
You're worthwhile.
You're significant.
Welcome to the unholyfuel for social media.
Hey you.
But there's a great quote from Madonnathat just describes this so beautifully.
She says this, my drive in lifecomes from a fear of being mediocre.
That is always pushing me.
I push past one spell of it and discovermyself as a special human being, but
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then I feel I am still mediocre anduninteresting unless I do something else.
Because even though I havebecome somebody, I still have
to prove that I am somebody.
My struggle has never ended,and I guess it never will.
Oh, what a horrible way to live.
There's no freedom there.
There's no joy.
It's, oh, just this hamster wheelof having to prove yourself.
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You know, our culture'sresponse to this reality is well
just go believe in yourself.
All that matters is what you think of.
You just love yourself.
Oh, that's such helpful advice.
It's really not.
It doesn't work.
We are deeply relational beings.
We're actually meant to get our identityand worth from beyond ourselves, but
not ultimately from other people,because that does not work either.
When we do this, we end upusing other people as a means of
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validation, and then what happens?
We end up resenting themwhen they don't deliver.
Happens in church all the time, youknow, people come and then they like, you
know, and as, as, as leaders, we can be
particularly, I guess susceptible
to this and all this expectationsthat these people are gonna meet all
my needs and all my self validationneeds, and then we don't perform
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and then people get really upset.
And we've all been, you know, probablyon both sides of the coin here.
And that's the journeyof maturity as well.
So what I say here today, rememberno guilt, shame, or condemnation.
The conviction comes, oh, hallelujah.
Praise the
Lord.
Right?
This is not
about guilting or shaming anyonebecause we're all on a journey of
maturity in this space of coming tofully understand our identity in Christ
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and how God sees us and who we are.
You know, and so, but when we don'thave that assurance, we end up competing
and we compare, you know, so I'm okayso long as I'm better in some way.
Then, you know, that person or thosepeople, again, welcome to the unholy fuel
for social media, the basis of comparison.
Just getting that sense of, oh,right, I'm okay because I'm better
(23:17):
than them Happens in church all thetime, you know, oh yeah, I might do
this, but at least I don't do that.
So, oh dear.
So we use people to bolster our shakyego, and every time you meet a new person,
you can be unconsciously wondering,how can this person contribute to my
need to prove that I count and that Imatter, and then life, or life therefore,
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becomes a constant battle to use people.
So this is the sickness pride,which is a hunger for glory and
need for respect and need to beultimately assured that we are o.
K, but so then what builds unity?
If that's what Tears it down.
Destroys it.
What builds it?
Well, humility.
So Philippians one, five.
Paul gives this instructionto the church when he says,
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oh, we got it there, Sabrina.
Nope.
Philippians one verse five.
Ah, yeah, there we go.
In your relate oh two, sorry about that.
For the confusion in yourrelationships with one another, have
the same mindset as Christ Jesus.
This is the instruction he gives to thechurch as to how to cultivate humility.
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And your relationships with one havethe same mindset as Christ Jesus.
So what's a mindset?
A set of beliefs that shape how youmake sense of the world and yourself
influencing how you think, feel,and behave in any given situation.
Often our mindset isn'tsomething we think about.
But it's something that'sgood to think about.
When you know you this week, asyou go through this week, watch how
you respond and react to differentsituations through your day.
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And they'll tell you what your mindset is.
You know, the attitude with whichyou wake up in the morning will
tell you what your mindset is.
The attitude with which you go to bed atnight will tell you so much about your
mindset.
You know,
the way I drive tells me alot about my mindset and it's.
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Because, I don't have
a lot of tolerance.
It turns out my pride, I think, gets
manifested, quite greatly
on the road.
And this assumption that I am vastlysuperior to whoever the other, the
driver.
And, I have no
tolerance for anybody whodoesn't drive like me.
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And I verbalize it to no one in particular'cause I'm using the car by myself.
But, um.
It, it reveals a lot about my mindset.
It's going, okay, if I genuinelywas a humble driver, would I be.
Losing my mind 'cause thisperson is driving so very slow.
Or the, or people's inabilityto navigate roundabouts, like,
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you know, but this self, right?
But it's this, but I have this belief andit's like, well, driving brings it out.
And so chances are this mindset ismanifesting in other places other than
just the traffic, if I'm gonna be honest.
Right.
So.
Yay.
Bring on traffic.
Bring on the revealing of my unhealthymindset that I can bring it before the
Lord and have it redeemed.
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So having the same mindset as Jesus.
So let's first take alook at the word humility.
What is it?
The Greek word used inthe New Testament means?
Gentle, modest, deferential.
But the outside the Bible, inancient Greek literature, this
word was always used negatively.
This is so interesting.
So in Greco Roman culture, sothe culture in which this letter
was originally written to bedeferential and gentle and modest was
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considered the attitude of a slave.
And so their culture valued strength.
They believed socialstability depended on fear.
Respect was built on fear.
If people feared you,then they respected you.
Humility that was for slaves,and yet Christianity changed
everything in the Bible.
This word or variations of itappeared 270 times almost always
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positively, and that is nothingshort of a worldview revolution.
And if you go back to Greek philosophy,philosophy to Aristotle, to Plato, you
will not find humility listed as a virtue.
But in the Bible, humility is central.
Consider Jesus's words whenhe says it is the meek.
It is the humble whowill inherit the earth.
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And he says, what?
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.
For I am meek, I am humble.
I am gentle and lowly in heart.
And what is he saying?
Well, if you think about thegospel, right, what it is.
If you come to God and say,Lord, look at my accomplishments.
Look at what I have done.
Am I not wonderful?
You must therefore receive me.
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God's gonna say, you don't know me.
You don't know yourself clearly,and you do not understand the cross.
But if you come saying, Lord, I repent.
I need your grace.
I have nothing to merit yourfavor, but I ask that you save me.
Accept me for Christ's sake.
That's repentance and that'sfaith, and that is humility.
So do you see how essentialit is in the kingdom?
The only thing that can destroy youeternally actually is a lack of humility.
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Think about the Pharisees.
They were the only onesJesus had problems with.
He didn't have a problemwith the prostitutes.
You have a problem with the tax collectsyou happily hung, hung out with them.
The Pharisees, he couldn'tget through to them.
Why?
The pride that sat in theirheart that they were right.
Pride, pride, pride.
You.
So ultimately, Jason doesn't, theyhave a problem with, you know, these
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sins that we get all wigged out aboutand judging one another about, right?
Ooh, they swore, Ooh, Jesus must be outthere sticking his fingers in his ears.
No, the, I'm not endorsing swearing.
All right.
But.
It's the, it's the self-righteous heart.
The one that says, oh, I've got it all.
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I'm right.
Or at least I'm more right than them.
So therefore I'm okay.
I'm right.
That's the heart that isimpenetrable to the gospel.
That's a dangerous ground to be on.
That's why Jesus said, bewareof the use of the Pharisees.
Yeah, and you put real emphasis on that.
Beware.
Beware of it.
'cause it's sneaky and it's subtle andit feeds our flesh and before we know
it, it's kind of gripped our heart.
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Be really be aware of thatyeast as it creeps in.
So you can lack almost anything,but not humility because humility
is what connects you to God.
And humility, ultimately whatconnects us to one another.
You can't have a deep abiding,deep spirited friendship between
two prideful people can you?
You can't, 'cause there'sno vulnerability there.
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So the kind of relationshipthat we are creative for is only
found in postures of humility.
So do you see how important humility is?
What is it?
It's not weakness, it is not self-hatred.
It's seeing yourself accurately beforeGod and seeing God accurately as well.
And that changes everything.
So by way is giving us ameans of self-evaluation to
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really assess our hearts.
And I'm borrowing this from Tim Keller,who borrowed it from Jonathan Edwards,
insights on humility and pride.
So let's just have a lookat this for a moment.
Pride is drivenness a relentlessneed for success and validation
is scornful a tendency to mock,ridicule or look down on others.
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Willfulness being unteachable and willingto admit wrong and rigid in beliefs.
Self-conscious and excessivefocus on oneself, whether in
arrogance or insecurity, and that'sreally important to note, right?
Pride is not just for the overtlyarrogant pride is for the one who is
constantly obsessing about themselves.
You know, if you go home after everysocial interaction and just sit there
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analyzing everything you said, right?
You have a pride problem.
Okay.
If you can't walk out the doorof your house without obsessively
considering what you are wearing,there is a pride problem there.
And you might convince yourself, you know,oh, I'm not proud because I don't boast.
No, but it's just ultimately,it's all just where your gaze
(30:52):
is fixed.
So whether
it's arrogance or whether it's overlyself-conscious and now self-awareness.
Yeah, right.
We need to have an awareness of ourselvesthat's, that's good and healthy.
Okay?
But that's obsessive self-consciousness.
You've tipped in to pride, and again, Isay this not to condemn, shame, guilt,
anybody, pure recognition at the heartthat you'd be able to repent, bring it
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for the Lord, and go, Lord, oh gosh,this is a bit icky, this thing in me.
Lord, would you help me?
Would you heal me of this?
Would you remove this from me?
All right, so humility.
It is the opposite of these contentmentinstead of drivenness, courtesy and grace.
Instead of s skillfulness, opennessand teachability, instead of
willfulness, self forgetfulnessinstead of self-consciousness.
Why does time go so fast for me?
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That's very unkind.
All right.
How many pages have we got here?
People hang in there.
All right, so who's readthe screw tape letters?
So great.
Okay.
'cause this brings, soI'm just gonna read a bit
of this, from the
Screw Tape Letters, whichis a book by CS Lewis and it
describes, a senior
demon screw tape
and he's, instructing
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his nephew
wormwood.
And, it's so,
so incredibly insightful.
But this
particular bit on, pride and
humility, so this is ScrewTape Counseling wormwood.
So your patient has become humble.
Have you drawn his attention to the factall virtues are less formidable to us
once the man is aware that he has them.
But this is especially true of humility.
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Catch him at the moment when he is reallypoor in spirit and smuggle into his
mind the gratifying reflection by Jo.
I'm being humble, andalmost immediately pride.
Pride at his own humility will appear.
You must conceal from the patient.
The true end of humility, let him thinkof it not as self forgetfulness, but as
a certain kind of opinion, namely a lowopinion of his own talents and character.
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By this method, thousands of humans havebeen brought to think that humility means.
Pretty women trying to believethey are ugly and clever men
trying to believe they are fools.
And since what they are trying to believemay in some cases be manifest nonsense,
they cannot succeed in believing it.
And we have the chance of keeping theirminds endlessly revolving on themselves
in an effort to achieve the impossible.
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So the enemy, which in their minds isGod wants him to be so free from any
bias in his own favor, that he canrejoice in his own talents as frankly
and gratefully as in his neighbors.
Talents.
He wants each man in the long run to beable to recognize all creatures, even
himself as glorious and excellent things.
It's really good, isn't it?
Again, CS
(33:20):
Lewis, in his, book mere
Christianity, again on humility, hewrites, do not imagine that if you
meet a really humble man, he will bewhat most people call humble nowadays.
He will not be a sort of greasy, smarmyperson who is always telling you that.
Of course, he's nobody.
But probably all you willthink about him is that.
He seemed a cheerful, intelligentchap who took a real interest
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in what you said to him.
If you do dislike him, it will be becauseyou feel a little envious of anyone
who seems to enjoy life so easily.
He will not be thinking about humility.
He will not be thinkingabout himself at all.
So what is the way to humility?
Because the way to humility is notto think yourself into humility.
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It's not to condemnyourself for your pride.
That won't form humility in you.
What does Paul do when hewants to instruct the church
about the way to humility?
He goes to a poem, he goes to thishymn that we read in verses six to 11.
And why?
So this passage from six to 11that talks about Jesus and that
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we read at the beginning.
So it's whether it was a poem that waswritten by Paul, or whether it was a
poem that was known at the time thatPaul just took and put in his letter
to the Philippians, this Christ hymn,he uses poetry for a specific reason.
I think because to understand humilityand have it deeply formed in you, you,
you can't really work on it directly.
(34:44):
Humility has to be abyproduct of something else.
Real humility is not thinking lessof yourself, but thinking of yourself
less, so you're not gonna attainit by thinking about yourself.
I really like thisdescription of humility.
Humility is a shy virtue.
As soon as you look at it, it goes away.
It's a great way of thinking aboutis it's very shy as we've got, these
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friends of ours and one of their classicstories is, one of their members of their
family when they were younger went awayto Africa and a bit of a mission trip,
and they came back and when asked how itwas, how it affected them, their comment
was, oh, I got so good at humility.
Yeah.
That doesn't sound quite right, does it?
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Oh dear.
So what's
Paul saying?
Paul's saying that the way we aregonna fix what is most wrong with us
in our center is you gotta see Jesus.
You need to have the theology and thedoctrine of who Jesus is and what he
did actually on fire in your heart.
Not all sorted in your head.
But on fire, in your heart, youknow something, you praise God for
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something that actually captures yourimagination, and this is what beauty does.
When we see Jesus as beautiful, whenwe see the cross as beautiful, when
we see the gospel as beautiful, itcaptivates us and it forms something
deeply precious in us that kills pride.
We must come to see Jesus asbeautiful and not just useful.
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So often that's what happens in the churchand in a, even in our devotional time,
we just come with this sense of like,show me what I need to do today, Lord.
And it just leaves us as justlike this life coast or this life
manager, like it's your devotionaltime, a thing of beauty for you.
Do you just.
Enjoy being in his presence or hasit always gotta be useful for you
to walk away feeling like it wasa good time with the Lord today?
(36:35):
'cause I learn something, you know?
Or, or are you are you just be ableto sit in restful, contented joy, it
just being in his beautiful presence.
'cause that is what cultivatesa humble heart of humility.
If you do not find Jesusbeautiful, my friends.
I would suggest that youhaven't actually truly seen him.
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You've only seen a distortion andthere's plenty of distortions on display.
It's actually takes quite a bit ofwork to perceive him in his beauty
because there are so many distortions.
Um.
You know, look at Jesus.
And in this poem, what does Paul describe?
He describes this beautiful trajectoryof Jesus's humility, a symphony
(37:18):
in three movements, if you like.
And so we see the incarnation,though he was God, he became human.
We see the atonement.
He went lower sufferingdeath on the cross.
And we see his exaltationbecause he humbled himself.
Yeah, because he was obedient.
God.
Then what lifted him up, and this isa pattern that we ought to follow.
This is the mindset that we ought tohave as how we live our lives, Christ
(37:39):
in us enabling us to die to ourselves,that we will trust that in our obedience.
The Lord will lift us up andwe've got this beautiful, like
very simple image here that helpsput picture to this because.
This is what?
This is power of poetry, right?
Because what sits right in themiddle of this poem, the central,
central line, is death on a cross.
The cross sits at the middle of thispoem, and that is very, very, I poignant.
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So this is trajectory that the poem takes.
Jesus was divine in his glory.
He emptied himself kenosis.
That's a great word, that heemptied himself of his divinity
and he took on the nature.
Of a servant, and he liveda life of humble obedience.
I said this on Wednesday night, andthis is really important to know, you
(38:25):
we're coming out to Easter, which isall about the death and the resurrection
of Jesus, and we celebrate Christmas,which is all about the birth of Jesus.
And we can think Christianityis all about those two things.
Jesus being born and Jesus dying,and Jesus rising again and ascending.
But the life of Jesusreally, really mattered too.
And one of the reasons that itreally, really mattered was he showed
us what it's to be truly human.
(38:45):
He showed us how tolive a truly human life.
And a truly human life is one livid livedin humble submission to the will of God.
A truly human life is one livefreely in loving service to those
around you, even your enemies.
That is what it is to be truly human.
And so this poem takes you downto this point of death, to death
(39:08):
on a cross obedience unto death.
He wasn't obedient to death, hewas obedient to the point of death.
Humbled to the point of death.
And then what happens?
Because of his humility, the Lord raiseshim up, exalts him to that place of glory.
And this is a pattern that we are to standbefore and wonder at, but also to seek to
(39:30):
live according to this pattern as well.
Not being afraid of death, not beingafraid of dying to ourself, but knowing
that in our humble, submitted, yieldingto the way and the will of God.
That from that place thatGod brings true life.
So the paradox of humility is that the wayup is down the way to be rich is to give.
The way to rule is to serve, and the wayto happiness is to seek it for others.
(39:54):
So we try to fill ourselveswith glory, but we remain empty.
Jesus who had true glory emptied himself.
So that what?
That we could be full becausehe gave up his reputation.
We no longer lead to clinging to ours.
We get so worried aboutour reputations, don't we?
Jesus didn't worry about hisreputation, never defended himself.
Just let the Lord take care of that.
That's freedom, isn't it?
(40:15):
That is joy.
That is freedom to be so free.
You don't need to worryabout your own reputation.
You can just leave thatin the Lord's hand.
You're just free love.
Whoever the Lord brings across your path.
This is joy, this is freedom.
And of course, this kind of mindsetwill lead to unity because you
don't care about being right.
You don't care about beingacknowledged, being validated,
(40:36):
being respected, joy for you.
This is, this is, this is, this willbe your joy in this place, and this
will make you a joy to be around.
Hey, it is a joy to bearound, truly humble people.
It is an absolute delight.
If you see Jesus as beautiful aswhat he did for you as the most
(40:57):
stunning, beautiful act of sacrificiallove, that will humble you to be
loved, genuinely, and extravagantlyis a deeply humbling experience.
It's one of the reasons why I've gotthis painting of Joe's here, right?
Because this is a painting of whatJesus washing the disciples feet.
That is humbling.
(41:17):
Jesus did the most lowly taskthat a slave would do in a house.
He washed his disciples dirtymanky feet, and they were foul.
Right?
It was not a good time forfeet back in ancient days.
Okay?
Because there's just a lot of.
Yucky stuff on the roads that youtread and you didn't have nice covered
(41:37):
shoes, and so your feet will not becovered in like dirt and poo and stuff.
And Jesus, Jesus likewashes the disciples feet.
And we saw Pete, when you readthe story, Peter's reluctance, no,
Lord, no, because he's humbling.
When the Son of God washesyour dirty feet, grace humbles.
(41:59):
You know, we can try and shamepeople out of their pride.
That doesn't work.
What delivers people of pride is grace.
It is grace.
At the center of this poem standsthe cross before the wonder
and the beauty of the cross.
There is no room for pride.
And the pride that causes one toself grand, oh, sorry, to self
(42:23):
aggrandize or the bride thatcauses one to self-flagellate.
The need to make oneself big, or the needto try and make one's mouth sell small.
But to stand before the cross isto stand before grace and nothing
will humble you like grace.
And this is a blessing of your ownpride, your selfish ambition, and
your vain conceit if you will own it.
Right.
(42:44):
Stand before the cross, my friendswith all of your stupid pride, all
of your stupid striving, all of yourstupid meanness towards others, or
your stupid selfish ways, or yourstupid bitter heart, your stupid
neurotic self-consciousness, right?
I'm kind of like, you know, forthose of you who who've seen
this morning, I am so prideful.
(43:05):
You are.
You know what?
You're really blessed because youhave so much crap to bring before
the cross that God's able to pourgrace on because we are sinner bound.
Grace abounds even more.
Hey, so stand beforethe cross with Oliver.
Own every bit of your stinkingpride, and watch it melt away
at the foot of the cross as yougaze at the loving face of Jesus.
(43:29):
The face of welcome,the face of acceptance.
And then let it melt away.
And then just delight in youridentity as one who was loved by one,
who would love you like that one.
Who would love you to death.
Delight in that delight that you are animage bearer, that you are a name bearer.
(43:51):
Delight in that, my friends.
All right, let's bring this home team.
Do you wanna come on a. Church, canI just ask you to, close your eyes
and bow your heads for a moment and,
I just wanna take a moment ofjust stillness before the Lord
(44:12):
and just to ask that
question, just prayerfully
ask that question.
Lord, what is there of thismorning that is for me?
Well, where is pride
robbing me of joy?
Where is pride ruling my life?
(44:36):
Or perhaps for you, it's likeI don't know that I've ever
really seen Jesus as beautiful.
So maybe the cry of your heart in thismoment is, Lord, show me your glory.
That cry of, Moses' heart,
show me your glory.
Show me your beauty.
(44:57):
Maybe there has been a moment ofdeep humbling for you this morning.
Maybe the Lord has shown you.
A place where you are deeply,deeply prideful, where you are
deeply in bondage to pride, andit's made you very judge judgmental.
It's made you very self-righteous, alwayslooking out, criticizing other people.
(45:22):
It's made your heartsomewhat small and shriveled.
Would you dear friends, stand beforethe foot of the cross and see the
loving eyes of Jesus upon you.
Would you see and you receiveHis grace poured out upon you.
(45:45):
He doesn't condemn you.
He just welcomes you into life.
Into life with him.
Allow his grace to melt away that pride.
Allow his grace to tellyou who you truly are.
You don't need to strive for these things.
Just receive them from him.
(46:05):
You don't need to strive.
And scramble for worth and identity.
He freely gives it freely.
He has given freely, he has given.
You know, the Apostle Paul, he hadto be knocked off his high horse in
(46:28):
order to be able to behold the truthof who Jesus was, and it changed
everything for him in that moment.
And maybe that is for you today.
Maybe you know, oh Lord, I needto be knocked off my high horse.
Humble me Lord, that Ican be free of this pride.
That enslaves me and snaresme, and robs me of living in
(46:50):
beautiful, unified, humble, joyousrelationship with those around me.
Oh Lord, do this beautiful and preciouswork in all of us, we pray, Lord.
Amen.
Church, how about youstand and let us worship?
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