Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] It's good to be with you today.
[00:00:02] If you are a guest with us, my name's Chet. If we haven't had the chance to meet, love to meet you and shake your hand.
[00:00:10] But we have been in a series called Progress in Joy, and we've been looking at the book of Philippians, and we've been looking at this idea of how do we have a faith that is growing and marked by joy, where both those things are happening at the same time.
[00:00:27] Because that's what I believe the book of Philippians is about. So today we're going to continue that. But just before we do, would you pray with me?
[00:00:36] Father, we thank you so much for your goodness and your love and your kindness to us.
[00:00:42] Father, we pray that we could receive it and we pray that it could shape us to be more humble people, people that think about ourselves less and have an outward focus and approach to life. Help us to see the wisdom and the joy.
[00:01:00] And we pray for your strength in it. And we ask this all in Jesus good name. Amen.
[00:01:08] Well, I don't know about any of you, but I love tacos.
[00:01:13] Anybody?
[00:01:15] Like, I mean, we have tacos at least once a week.
[00:01:20] At least. Like, it never gets old to me, you know, and the amazing thing about a taco is, like, if it doesn't really taste that great, you just add more sour cream. You're good.
[00:01:30] It's a fail proof method, you know, And I love tacos. And there was a couple years ago, I was at a wedding. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding. And, you know, for the food for the reception, they had a taco truck.
[00:01:47] And I was like, this is the greatest idea I've ever seen, you know. And, you know, the line was people were getting tacos, but for some very, you know, mysterious reason, I actually didn't get a taco that night.
[00:02:03] I don't know. It was the one time in my life I said no to a taco. And I don't even know why, but I just didn't. And it turns out that it was an amazing blessing from God because everyone got food poisoning.
[00:02:18] And so the whole everybody at the wedding, the one time I said, no, thank you, Lord, and everybody got it. So I dodged that one. I'm still very proud of that, very thankful for that today. But, you know, it kind of illustrates to me, like, something interesting about life. You know, there's some things that you think are good, but then there's. They're not so good, you know what I'm saying? There's some things that Taste good, but then they make you sick. You got me. And what we're gonna see today as we look at the book of Philippians, the Apostle Paul is gonna say that that's true in our relationships and how we interact with each other, with the people that we're close to, with the people around us, with friends, family, all.
[00:03:11] The Apostle Paul is going to say that there's a way to live that is good and glorifying to God. And there are ways to relate to others that might feel good, but don't end up good.
[00:03:27] That might taste good, but end up making you sick. And those we have to avoid.
[00:03:33] And basically, as we're going to see in the book of Philippians, the Apostle Paul is going to say the thing to most avoid in our relationships is pride.
[00:03:44] Because that will always poison everything good.
[00:03:50] He's gonna say instead of allowing pride to be in your relationship, in your life, you have to cultivate humility. And he's gonna show us what that looks like. Now, just to go on bit further, I don't know if you have ever at a time in your life seen pride poison something good.
[00:04:12] Seen it, maybe the people around you.
[00:04:21] Seen that many times. Am I going in and out again?
[00:04:25] Oh, boy.
[00:04:29] Let's try this.
[00:04:31] These demonic microphones, they will not work in this building.
[00:04:35] These guys are doing everything. Hold on, what were we talking about today? Anybody know Tacos? Let's give. Yeah, I appreciate your deep spirituality today.
[00:04:52] Listen, the Bible's cool, but let's talk about tacos.
[00:04:56] But anyway, but pride, it has this poisonous effect on our relations. And I heard a really interesting interview this week. It was with a guy named Nate Fry.
[00:05:06] And he went into the army right out of college. He got a commission, went in as an officer. And that was always his dream was to serve his country, to do these cool things. And his career started off really great. He got the job he wanted, he wanted to be in the infantry. He and he went to Ranger school, which is a really big deal. And he made it through that and everything was going awesome. And then eventually he got the chance to go into Special Forces training, you know, the top tier stuff. And that was like his ultimate dream.
[00:05:39] And basically the Training is like 18 months, you know, so it's a long one. And he was in the last six weeks of an 18 month training.
[00:05:52] And he said he started to get really angry own mind. And he started to get just frustrated with everything. And you know how in life, like sometimes you gotta play the game a little bit, you know, maybe you're at work or you're at school or you're on a sports team, and you're like, this is really dumb that we have to do this, but you just gotta do it. You know what I'm saying?
[00:06:15] And he got to the point where he just was so frustrated with all of that that at the very tail end, he quit.
[00:06:25] And he said, you know, now that he's years removed from that, he looks at that and he says, it was all pride.
[00:06:32] I just thought I was too good for this. I thought I was above. I thought I was entitled. And ultimately, that pride ended up taking away the future that he wanted. And that's what it will always do. It will always poison the things God has for us. You with me on this? So we're gonna look at this in Philippians chapter 2. This is such a powerful chapter of Scripture.
[00:07:02] Now, when you read certain passages of the Bible, some are like, again, climbing to a mountain summit and seeing this grand view. And Philippians 2 is one of those. It's so incredible. So I'm gonna read it to you. These first 11 verses, it says this.
[00:07:20] So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection in sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
[00:07:39] And here it is. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. And those are just two different forms of pride, selfish ambition or conceit. But instead, in humility, count others more significant than yourselves.
[00:08:01] Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to. To the interests of others.
[00:08:07] Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
[00:08:32] Therefore, God has exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. So at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
[00:08:46] It's good stuff, isn't it? There's a lot in these verses, and I want to just unpack these for us today. So Paul begins, and remember, he's writing to this Philippian church, and he's saying, I want you guys to have a faith that is marked by joy and progress. I want you to have a growing faith. I want you to have a joyful faith. I want you to have a faith that's real, that changes your life and that God works through.
[00:09:14] And Paul says, and one of the key elements in this is learning to relate to people and learning to bring into your relationship something different. What he's going to show us is humility. And he begins these verses and his beginning point is he says, if there is any comfort from Christ, any love, any fellowship in the Spirit. Now this is a verse that's really easy to read over, but he's actually showing us something really, really cool.
[00:09:47] There is Another verse in Second Corinthians, chapter 13:13, that kind of has a similar structure to this. But basically what Paul is saying, he's saying, if you have experienced God in any real way, it's gonna pull you towards a different relationship.
[00:10:08] Now, here's what he's doing. He's talking about any comfort from Christ, any love.
[00:10:15] But I would say that we can presume he means the love of God, the love of the Father, in any fellowship of the Spirit. See, what Paul is talking about is what Christians believe as the Trinity, that God exists as a trinity, Father, Son and Spirit.
[00:10:34] And Paul's saying, if you have experienced God, you have experienced his nature, who he is, that he is a Trinity. Now, there could be a lot of confusing components about this, but I just want you to think about this one thing.
[00:10:50] See, what it means is at the very core of God is relationship.
[00:10:57] Father, Son and Spirit in perfect relationship.
[00:11:04] And one of the reasons relationship is so huge part of life, right? You can't escape is part of the very substance of life, our connection. With what? With each other. Part of that is because that is the nature of God, right? If you try to live your life completely isolated, it doesn't work out well, because like God, we are created for relationship. And so here's what Paul's saying. He's saying if you hang around God, one of the evidences of that is it's going to rub off on you relationally.
[00:11:47] Meaning you're going to want to begin to maybe think about how you treat people and strive to treat them in a different way than what's natural.
[00:11:59] You ever hang around someone that's really serious about eating healthy and stuff? Maybe you go on vacation, then you're like, maybe I should eat different.
[00:12:10] And then you're like, nah.
[00:12:12] But you thought about it, Amen. At least it crossed your mind. They rubbed off on you a little bit. You're like, eh, Maybe I should eat more salad. Then you're like, no, no. But there is a little rub off effect. You with me? You kind of hang around people. Maybe they love this or that, and it rubs off you. And this is what Paul's saying. He's saying, has God rubbed off on you?
[00:12:36] See, faith, it always impacts relationship.
[00:12:41] If I think I'm growing in my faith and I'm treating people like garbage, I'm not really growing in my faith. You with me? You're like, yeah, my faith is growing. And you're just like, gosh, you're a.
[00:12:53] You're a jerk.
[00:12:55] Okay, something's off here. You with me? Because the presence of God, it's gonna pull you that way because God exists in perfect relationship. So Paul says, hey, if you've experienced God, then what I'm about to teach you is going to begin to make sense. It's going to begin to pull you in a different direction. And then he goes into what not to do. So he says, here's what it looks like. You have to get pride as much as you can out of your life. Do nothing from selfish ambition and vain conceit.
[00:13:38] Now I just want to think about these two words for a second.
[00:13:42] What is selfish ambition? Selfish ambition is where I'm essentially using people for my agenda.
[00:13:53] And they're kind of, you know, they're chess pieces in what I want you with me on this.
[00:14:00] Now, it's hard to look at yourself in the mirror and say, is there selfish ambition in my heart?
[00:14:09] Like, no one I don't even like. That's just a nasty phrase, isn't it? Like, oh, that's ugly.
[00:14:14] But what Paul is gonna challenge us with, he's gonna say, hey, listen, selfish ambition and conceit is kind of the default of the human heart, but none of us want to acknowledge it. You with me on this? It's like Paul's saying, look, it's true. But I get it. You don't want to look at that because it kind of makes you wince a little bit. But today I want to just challenge us to maybe look at that in our own heart for a moment. I remember a couple months ago, Allie and I were talking and we were having like, you know, a pretty, like, deep conversation about how I could be a better parent. Kind of.
[00:14:55] Kind of.
[00:14:56] It was going well, and then it took a turn.
[00:14:59] You ever have those?
[00:15:02] But you know what Allie is like? She is just such a gentle soul. And so even when she rebukes me, it's like she in a very nice Way.
[00:15:12] And trust me, you're probably not surprised. I need a lot of rebuke in my life.
[00:15:16] But she was saying, again, very nicely, very gentle way, but I was tracking what she was saying.
[00:15:23] She said, with the kids, when it's dinner, bedtime, we're doing that. She's like, you want to get it done as quick as possible?
[00:15:35] I was like, it's absolutely true.
[00:15:38] Yeah.
[00:15:40] If I could speed this up anymore, I will. Amen. Dance like, yeah, let's lock this down. Check off. And she's like, yeah. She's like, you know, so I'm like, we're in agreement here. This is good. And she's like, I don't know why it's funny to me. It's not funny.
[00:15:59] She's like. But she's like, you're just trying to get it done because you want your time, you know? Right.
[00:16:09] Again, it's a joy to be understood.
[00:16:11] That's absolutely right. And I want to get as much of it as I can.
[00:16:16] But basically, to make a long story short, she's like, when you do that, you're not loving the kids. Well, you know, because you're getting cranky, you're being overbearing, you're being, you know, all these things. We could go on and on, but, you know.
[00:16:32] But, you know, again, very nice. She's like, look, I get what you're doing, and I understand it, but ultimately, what she's saying is it's about you and that you're. And she's like, look, in this time of our life, this is the time we have with them.
[00:16:49] It may not be what you want it to be, you know, or what's fun to you, but this is what we have.
[00:16:56] I was like, dang, you're right.
[00:16:59] Tend to end a lot of conversations that way.
[00:17:05] And. But, you know. But she really was. It's like, yeah, I was, you know, making that. And listen, I'm not there yet. You know, some lines. I don't care.
[00:17:15] We're getting this done.
[00:17:18] But ultimately, that's what selfish ambition can look like.
[00:17:22] It's really. It's about my agenda, first and foremost. You with me, and then everybody else has to be a part of that. And essentially, what we end up doing without realizing it is actually using people and not loving them. You with me, because it's about us.
[00:17:43] It's about what you want.
[00:17:46] And they're a means to an end instead of an end in itself. You with me on this. And that's selfish ambition. Paul says, look, we gotta confront that in Our lives in our hearts, and we have to root it out. And then vain conceit is where we're chasing after something that is hollow.
[00:18:11] The literal word here is empty glory.
[00:18:16] We're going after something that is ultimately hollow.
[00:18:21] But we're kind of hurting people along the way on that journey.
[00:18:28] My girls are. They're pretty, like, timid in general.
[00:18:32] So we actually, like, try to, like, encourage them to, like, jump off stuff, you know, like, stuff that I got yelled at all the time. I'm like, no, you go, do. Cause you need to get out of your safety bubble a little bit. So we have this big, like, beanbag chair, and they pulled it up to the edge of the couch, and then they realized if they climb on the arm of the couch, they can, like, jump on it. It's really fun.
[00:18:57] And, you know, normally you're like, yeah, don't be, like, climbing on the couch. But again, trying to get a little more Evil Knievel in them. We're like, hey. Cause they're pretty cautious. We're like, yeah, do it. So Abby was doing this the other day, just climbing up, jumping off. And every time she was like, dad, watch, Watch. Like, the whole. You know. And this went on for a long time. You know, just watch. And, like, anytime I would turn away, somehow she knew it. And she's like, hey, like, I see it, I see it. I see you. It's all good. It's amazing. That's the best flop I've seen on there. You know? Way to go. And this went on for a while. And that's cute when it's a little kid, you know what I'm saying? And there's a place for that. They need to be. Be celebrated and encouraged and enjoyed. But it's not so cute when we do that as adults, where we're living our life, and we're like, hey, look at me, right? Hey, look at this. That's what conceit is.
[00:19:58] That's where we're trying to get some kind of empty glory.
[00:20:03] And here's the sad thing, and here's the truth that you don't just naturally grow out of that.
[00:20:11] You actually need God's help to reshape your heart. You with me on this?
[00:20:16] And so we can grow older biologically, but still have that same drive in us, in our hearts, that kind of pulls us that way. You with me on this? And so Paul says, hey, whenever we make it about us, us, we're missing how God wants us to live our lives.
[00:20:40] And here's the interesting thing. About this. We can be really clever in how we do this.
[00:20:46] So Paul says, don't seek empty glory. Don't seek selfish ambition.
[00:20:52] Count others more important than yourselves. But here's the tricky part.
[00:20:58] Some of us, we're hearing that we're like, oh, I do do that.
[00:21:02] I serve people all the time. In fact, I serve people so much that I have no boundaries in my life.
[00:21:11] I serve people so much that I actually am miserable serving people so much because I'm just overdoing it.
[00:21:21] And so here's the thing that you have to ask yourself. Well, what are you trying to get from that?
[00:21:28] Is it really to serve them? Or is it because in serving them, you're chasing after some kind of love, approval, Something like that. And then ultimately, what that means is it's not really about them. It's about you. You with me on this. So what Paul is challenging us with is not just our actions, but our motives, too.
[00:21:54] What is driving me?
[00:21:57] Am I serving with no strings attached? Or am I serving so I could say, hey, you remember the last three months?
[00:22:05] All that I did?
[00:22:06] You don't remember? Well, good. Cause I will tell you.
[00:22:10] You with me?
[00:22:11] Or it can't be some sophisticated path to get love in our hearts. You with me on this. Because then ultimately it's not really. It's still about us. Because here's what humility is. So Paul says, instead, we need to aim for humility. Humility is not, you know, telling everyone what a loser you are.
[00:22:34] You know, I stink. I'm terrible. That might not sound humble, but that's not actually what humility is.
[00:22:41] Humility, as the great C.S. lewis said, is not thinking about yourself.
[00:22:48] Hold on.
[00:22:51] Thinking less about yourself. Thank you, Jen.
[00:22:54] But it is thinking about yourself less.
[00:22:57] Did you get that one? I really fumbled my way through it. Let's try again. It's not thinking less about yourself. I stink. I'm terrible. Yada, yada. But it's where you're living life and you're thinking about yourself less.
[00:23:11] You're not the center of the solar system.
[00:23:16] And with God's help, you're trying to say, all right, Lord, I want to live my life where it's not always about me, at least in my own mind, in my own heart. You with me on this church? And Paul says, that's actually a far better way to live.
[00:23:36] See, I believe, like, and this is my prayer and hope for you. When you come into this room, you can do it one of two ways. You can come into church and be like, is anyone Saying hi to me?
[00:23:52] Is anyone seeing me? Does anyone care?
[00:23:55] Does anyone notice?
[00:23:57] You can go down that path. But I would say, here's a way better way to enter this room.
[00:24:05] God, I'm sheer and I want to serve you. Is there anyone that needs encouragement?
[00:24:14] Is there anyone that needs. That I need to meet? Is there anyone I can feel, make. Feel welcome? Is there anyone that I can pray for? And so you flip the focus.
[00:24:29] Here's the deal.
[00:24:31] It will be way more fun, and you will glorify God in a better way. You with me on this. This is what Paul's saying, and this is true in any room. You enter it that way where all of a sudden, you're not your preoccupation.
[00:24:46] All of a sudden, that room got a lot more fun.
[00:24:49] All of a sudden, you're now a tool in the hand of God.
[00:24:54] Where God's like, yeah, actually, I do got some work for you to do, son.
[00:24:57] I want you to go meet that person.
[00:25:00] I want you to go say an encouraging word. I want you to go serve. And then all of a sudden, our life becomes a channel that God can use powerfully for his purpose. You with me on this?
[00:25:15] The more that we take our purpose out of the equation, the more room there is for God's purpose to flourish through us.
[00:25:24] See church at home. We can kind of look at our home and our families and stuff. We could just sort of be very, very reactive or a week ahead, and we can.
[00:25:37] What can I do?
[00:25:39] What are the needs?
[00:25:42] I serve.
[00:25:44] Thinking about this, You're going to have to bear with it. Church if.
[00:25:56] Sorry, that distracted.
[00:25:58] Just about to whip a microphone.
[00:26:04] Got it.
[00:26:08] Oh, come forward. All right. There we go. Perfect. Thank you, sir.
[00:26:12] All right, so the other thing I was thinking about this is how much Jesus talks about hiddenness.
[00:26:21] And there's a few interesting teaches in the scripture where Jesus says, don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing.
[00:26:28] Or he says, hey, when you pray, don't make a big deal about it. Or when you give, don't sound a trumpet. But he talks about the value of hiddenness. And I would just say with humility, with what Paul is saying, it's a cool thought to think about. What are ways I can serve and not care about recognition, glory, any of those kinds of things?
[00:26:51] What are ways I can practice that in my life because it's so healthy for my ego to be in that position.
[00:27:00] It's like, hey, you're gonna serve, but you can't tell anybody about it.
[00:27:04] Ego's like what?
[00:27:06] No, no, no.
[00:27:07] But it's so, so key for our souls. And then here's the last thing. Paul says these really, really powerful words.
[00:27:15] He says, look, the ultimate example of this is Christ.
[00:27:20] He says, have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus. Now I just want to point this out. Here's what Paul's saying. He's saying, look, our mind is not naturally going to be where God wants it to be.
[00:27:39] And don't you know that's true experientially?
[00:27:42] That's why we pray. That's why we come to church. That's why we seek Him. That's why we're learning, because our mind is part of the problem.
[00:27:51] But here's what Paul says. But he says, but you can have a new mind in Christ.
[00:27:59] That part of God's grace to us is changing and shaping our mind to approach all this in a different way. And he says, and look at the example of Christ. He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself taking the form of a servant, going to the point of death, even death on the cross. Here's what he's saying. He's saying Jesus, who was God, emptied himself of all of that to serve us, to serve you and me.
[00:28:35] It is the ultimate example of humility.
[00:28:39] It is the ultimate example of living your life not for him, but for others. And he did that for us. And then he said this. And God highly exalted him and gave him a name above every other name. Now here's the last thing about humility that's really important is that God will always honor humility.
[00:29:07] In fact, there are so many times where the Bible says, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, so at the proper time he may exalt you.
[00:29:17] If we own humility in our lives, God will own exaltation.
[00:29:25] God will own glory.
[00:29:28] If we chase glory, we're on our own.
[00:29:32] If we chase self first, we're on our own. But if we say, lord, I trust my life and my future to you, and I'm going to humble myself and I'm going to try to bring that into the relationships around me, then the Lord will take care of exaltation and glory in those things. You with me on this. And it's a biblical promise.
[00:29:57] It's something that we can trust God every single time and Christ shows it to us. So let's pray for his help in all this.
[00:30:08] Father, we thank you so much that Lord, you came to serve us in ways that are beyond what we can understand that, Lord. You emptied yourself.
[00:30:24] You became a servant.
[00:30:27] You went to the point of death, death on the cross, Lord, for our sake. And we glorify you for that. We love you for that. We appreciate you.
[00:30:37] And we pray, Lord, that that way of life could make more and more and more sense to us.
[00:30:44] Father, where there is selfish ambition and conceit, those things in our hearts help us to see it with your help.
[00:30:50] Help us to challenge it.
[00:30:53] And help us, Lord, to have that new mind that Christ offers to us.
[00:31:01] And Father, we pray that it could create just a lot of good, flourishing relationships in our lives.
[00:31:09] We all need help in this, Lord, but we know that you are there with us. So we lean on your strength, and we need it. We ask for it. In Jesus name, Amen.
