[Music] hey good morning everybody and once again welcome to illuminate Community Church online so great to be with you today as always if you have discovered us for the first time we would love to have the opportunity to get to know you so we're gonna ask just one small favor from you if you would just take a second and text the word connect to that number below and that'll just give us the opportunity to introduce ourselves a bit more fully to you so before we get into the message want to let you know that a
couple days ago we gave an update in terms of our plans really what we're calling phase one of our regather indoors so the best thing for you to do is to go to our website illuminate community comm you can check out the information there as well as on our app and as always thank you so much for your encouragement for your love for your support and most of all for your ongoing prayers during this time so this morning we continue in our study in the book of Philippians we come to chapter 2 and look here's
the deal we are discussing a topic that relates to every single one of us every single person listening can relate to the discussion that we're gonna have today because what we're talking about is pride and arrogance this will be a lifelong struggle for every single one of us now in 1993 William Bennett edited a book and the title of the book is called the book of virtues and it's essentially a collection of stories that was meant to be read by parents to their children in hopes that the kids would grow up to be good well-functioning
citizens and adults and the book is about this thick it's a couple inches thick but what's interesting is that of all the virtues mentioned in that book there is one that is missing and that is the virtue of humility it's almost as if in our time humility isn't seen so much as a virtue but as a vice it's like humility is seen as as weakness and yet in the life of Jesus and in the life of his church humility is absolutely essential for us to be healthy so I have to admit something at the beginning
here's the deal there are some sermons that are easier to preach than others only because of what I personally struggle with and so what I can tell you is this I am in process on this one you and I if we're going to embrace humility it will be a lifelong struggle to rebell to fight against everything that comes naturally within us but it's important for us to ask the question why why is this so important in the first place I'm always struck I'm always struck by the amount of self-help material that exists in the world
today it seems like everybody is bent on improving themselves and that's a great thing but most of those books materials those articles they begin and end with the individual in mind meanwhile Jesus says I actually have the secret I have you you want to improve yourself here's the secret to it he mentions it in Matthew chapter 21 he says this whoever wants to become great must be a servant of others in other words the way to improve yourself is to focus on those around you so a lot of what you hear today is going to
be countercultural and counterintuitive and that's why it works and the reason why this is important for us as a church is because if we don't display humility amongst each other we will never become the church that God wants us to be so in Philippians chapter 2 Paul is continuing as he writes this letter he's writing from prison he's in Chains he's writing to this church that he helped plant some years earlier and he's a spiritual father to many of these people and there are many things about this church that are going well but he has
a pastor's heart and so he writes with this very gentle and corrective tone because he says you've got a lot of things going for you but there's just this one thing this one thing you lack and he says this in chapter 2 verse 1 so if there is any encouragement in Christ any comfort from love any participation in the spirit there's any affection and sympathy seat complete my joy by being of the same mind having the same love being in full Accord and of one mind so Paul loves this church and again he affirms many
great things that are happening amongst them now let's make sure we understand exactly what Paul is saying because the language he uses is important so see that little that little English word if the Greek translation of that word actually appears four times in verse one and it said as an assumption Paul is assuming all of these things are present within this congregation so he's saying I'm assuming there is encouragement in Christ I'm assuming that you have comfort from love I'm assuming that there's participation in the Spirit assuming that there's affection and sympathy you have all
of these amazing things and because you have all of these amazing things you have what it takes to do what I'm asking you to do there is one thing that you lack and as Paul mentions this certainly his readers ears are perking up because they're thinking well what is it that we lack is it Paul says my joy is not quite complete well well what can we do what are we lacking what can we do to make your joy complete Paul and he says it he got to be of the same mind same love full
Accord and then he says it again and of one mind in other words he says here's the thing you lack and this is what would make my joy complete you need to be unified in terms of how you think and how you act unity in the church is so very important before Jesus goes to the cross he prays to the Father and it's that moment where he prays for future believers in this moment he's actually praying for illuminate Community Church he's praying for all those who will place their faith in him and he asked something
of the father of all the things that Jesus could ask of the father what is the one thing he would ask John chapter 17 he says I do not ask for these only not only for the people that are in my presence now he says but I'm gonna make a request for those who will believe in me through their word so as they spread the message of Jesus they tell people they tell people got down to the generations we're here today because of those early believers sharing their faith we stand in that line in that
tradition Jesus says I'm praying for future believers and here's what I'm asking that they may all be one well in what sense just as you Father are in me and I in you that they also may be in us the example of unity that Jesus gives is the unity that he has with the Father there couldn't be a greater unity there couldn't be greater togetherness greater closest and Jesus says the relationship that I have with my father that's what I want for my church that's what I want for the people that follow me that make
up the church I want them to be unified why he tells you so that the world may believe that you have sent me our unity sends a very powerful message to the world and the message is this Jesus is who he said he was just look at his followers and look at how diverse they are and yet in the midst of all this diversity look at their unity you know the New Testament tells us that the very first time the word Christian was used and applied to Jesus followers was in the city of Antioch and
Antioch was one of the most diverse cities of its time and the text actually tells us names names and from these names we understand that there are people from different races different backgrounds different socio-economic groups and they were all coming together and and there was no word to describe what people saw in this group like these people and societies is it you think racism is bad in our time it was extreme and it was everywhere back in the first century and yet here were these people coming together unity all different walks of life different races
and people on the outside we're looking in going what is it how is this happening this just doesn't happen anywhere else and that's the first place that they were called Christian the only way for them to describe it was to describe what they had in common what was it that brought their unity Jesus Christ Christian's little Christians that's why unity is so important the first church displayed it so as these early Christians come together let me ask you this do you ever wonder why Christianity took off what was spread like wire wildfire this little fledgling
movement in the first century 300 years later would become the religion of the Roman Empire how did that happen two reasons number one people saw the resurrected Jesus jesus said destroy this body three days I'm coming back and I'm gonna visit everybody and he did it and then people were like game on even the disciples at first they were kind of like I don't know man they killed Jesus they killed our leader they're all huddled together in the upper room and then there's this one event that changed everything they saw the resurrected Jesus like game
on boys he did it he did what he said he was going to do and then Jesus makes all of these appearance appearances and Paul says at one time he appeared more than 500 people at once and Paul says some of them are still alive go talk to him they'll tell you the same story Jesus did what he said he was going to do post-resurrection appearance threw gas on the flames of christianity but then there was a second reason why Christianity spread and that's because of the unity within the early church wouldn't it be cool
if we had a picture of what this unity look like we actually do have it in Acts chapter 2 Peter preaches this amazing message probably the greatest message outside of what Jesus preached the greatest sermon ever preached and a lot of people respond in faith these people come together and the church is formed wouldn't it be cool if we had a picture of what that was like for them we do actually after to verse 42 and they devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching so when the church comes together what happens they receive the Word of
God the Apostles taught and what else and the fellowship they came together they broke bread they ate together they prayed together and ah came upon every soul it's like they could feel it deep down inside and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles the apostles were carrying on the gig that Jesus gave him when he was on the earth what kind of stuff were they doing the text doesn't tell us exactly but if the past is an indication they're healing the sick they're casting out demons and all who believed who believed in
Jesus Christ they were together they had all things in common that's unity all things in common they were unified in terms of how they thought and how they acted and here's the proof verse 45 and they were selling their stuff they sold their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need hey there's a brother that's in need okay I have something I can sell and help that brother I can help meet that need and day by day they were attending temple together breaking bread in their homes there's this hospitality aspect
that welcomed each other into their homes they received their food with glad and generous generous hearts they were generous with one another praising God and having favor with all the people I have a feeling that like us over and over again they were saying only God look what is happening in our mess only God could do this and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved more and more people were being added every day why because everybody wants to be in a community like this a community that loves and
cares for others like this now here's the question how in the world do we today mirror this community of believers Paul tells us in Philippians the next few verses chapter 2 verse 3 and 4 if you're ready for it do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but in humility count others more significant than yourself let each of you not only look to his own interest but also to the interests of others so Paul is laying down a very simple but very profound principle and it's this unity is brought about through humility need to say it
again unity is brought about through humility so case in point let's bring it home think about the last heated argument heated disagreement you had with a family member and you were wrong but you didn't want to humble yourself and admit your mistake how's that relationship going see there can be no true unity until there is humility until you say look I just need to say I was wrong and what I did was not right and my attitude was completely misguided and it was destructive and I am sorry when one adopts a humble posture it's like
throwing gas on the flames of unity there can be no true reconciliation even until there is true humility and so many people don't understand the true nature of humility I think for many people in our time they think of humility as being this person who kind of walks around and then they're like ah you know I'm I'm kind of a nobody I don't count I'm I'm the scum of the earth I don't matter everyone's better than me that's not humility that's self-loathing a man named John risk and I love how he put it in the
Christian perspective he said quote I believe the first test of a truly great man is his humility I do not mean by humility doubt of his own power or hesitation in speaking his opinion but really great men have a feeling that the greatness is not in them but through them that they could not do or be anything else than God made them that's so good humility is not thinking less about yourself humility is thinking about yourself less it's understanding that you were created in the image of God and therefore worthy of the utmost honor respect
and dignity it's seeing yourself rightly but it's also seeing your place within humanity and there's a reason why pride is called the original sin because it was pride existed before the garden if we had the time I would walk you through Ezekiel chapter 28 where the Prophet speaks against the wicked king of tyre and essentially he says you know everything about you and your success has made you proud and that's what happens right the more successful we are the more we begin to think I'm the man and that's where the king of tyre was at
he begins to think he's the man he comes become very successful very powerful and the Prophet says your success has made you arrogant but then the text turns and it's as if the Prophet speaks beyond the man to the power behind the man and that power as it turns out is actually satanic the motives are revealed and here's what we read in Ezekiel chapter 28 verse 17 the Prophet says your heart was proud because of your beauty you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor now the prophet Isaiah gives us some details as
well and what we learn is that Satan or Lucifer what happened was he was so beautiful that he became enamored with his own beauty and he was an intelligent creature and he began to think you know that throne that God sits on I should be sitting on it and the created thing doesn't tell the Creator how it goes and so God removed Satan from his presence and he crash-lands and now the earth is his domain only for a season but what we learned there is that pride corrupts wisdom that's important pride crud frozen by the
way this is why intelligent people are very often their own worst enemies intelligent people often think I already know it all so therefore I have nothing to learn you see this you see this in the Garden of Eden as well right because what happens is Satan appears and what's the lie that's told the lie that's told is this you know God may not be good as you think he is there are some things you don't know that you should know and the temptation essentially was for them to become like God what is that at its
core that is the very temptation that Satan's to come to and that is pride that's why they say pride is the original sin because at its core in origin that practice is actually demonic so let me give you a couple of questions just to help just to help us wrestle through this a little bit and work this out in our own lives here's a couple questions that might reveal the pride in our own life here's quite the first question do you often compare yourself to others so pride is the encouragement to make ourselves look better
and in an effort to do this we have to pick people that are less than we are people who are maybe less successful maybe they're less affluent maybe they don't have the intelligence we have maybe they don't have the family we have whatever it is maybe they're less attractive but here's what humility is if you want to cure if you find yourself caught up in the comparison game here's the cure don't compare yourself to anybody other than Jesus Christ compare yourself to the life of Jesus and that is the that is the motivation that's sort
of the humbling factor in a good way that comes upon you when you say if I'm going to compare myself to end it to anybody I'm gonna compare myself to the goodness of Jesus to the gentleness of Jesus to the humility of Jesus second question do you find yourself criticizing others so criticism actually comes as a result of our own insecurities very often the thing that we criticize and other people is the thing that we don't like about ourselves humility allows us to read Jois in the success of others here's another question do you often
think about how you can get the attention of others so pride always says look at me look what I've done look Who I am look what I've accomplished it's about what you feel what you want and you desire humility is about focusing on others you've heard us say before essentially in every church there are two types of people the first person walks in and says Here I am I am so ready for you to serve me the second person walks in and says there you are there you are how can I serve you you tell
me which one makes for a healthy church you often think about how you can gain the attention of others all of us as kids we have this overwhelming desire to be noticed and I had the extreme joy when my boys were little of coaching them in little league baseball and quite frankly the most entertaining and the funnest moments of Little League baseball occur during t-ball when they're just starting out and it's so cute because you see these kids they step up to the plate little T's sitting there and the balls on it and before they
do anything they're turning around and they're scanning the bleachers and what are they doing they're looking for mom and dad all right and they want to get mom and dad's attention they're like mom mom dad dad watch watch me watch me watch me are you watching it watch it okay here I go and they hit the ball and then what do they do they turn around and they want to know if mom and dad are still watching and everybody's yelling run run run and so the kid takes off running to third base and everybody cheers
for me so it's so fun and you know when they're four or five years old it's actually kind of cute but here's the thing some of us never grow out of that childlike desire for attention and as we get older we mask it it manifests itself in different ways and so we're not running around saying hey everybody watch me watch me watch me what we're doing is we're saying hey everybody look at me and what I purchase Hey look at me and and notice what I project through social media that's all about image control very
often and it sort of creates this fantasy land that you want my life that's all about attention it's so easy to achieve pride because it comes naturally that's why I said at the beginning this stuff is gonna be counterintuitive is gonna be countercultural and you and I are gonna have to fight what's inside of us naturally in order to obtain a humble posture let each of you regard others as more important than himself now realize that Paul was writing this to the church not just to an individual and this would have been read in front
of the entire congregation and Paul understands that nothing destroys the church from within like an arrogant and proud attitude now I've been thinking a lot about how this relates to our context even here at illuminate and illuminate has been we have experienced tremendous blessings in a very short amount of time but you know the church is actually a very fragile thing health takes time to build but it can be undone quickly so I think it would be good for us all to agree on something and this is gonna help us adopt a humble posture here's
what I'd like for us to do I'd like for us all to admit right now that every good thing that happens at this church happens because of God every good thing that happens happens because of Jesus Christ Jesus was the one who said I'm gonna build my church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against her this is his doing so let's participate with him in humility in the building of his church one pastor likened it to a broken kite that was caught up in a hurricane and a broken kite will fly far and
fast in the winds of a storm so let's say after the storm subsides the kite gets interviewed and the kite says wow did you see that ride Wow I flew far and fast and I was amazing even a broken kite will fall fly far and fast in hurricane winds and so it is with us see that kite cannot ignore or minimize the source of its flight and yet sometimes as Christians we do this all the time and when we start giving ourselves the credit the end is near that's why Paul says make my joy complete
you have all of these wonderful things in the midst of the congregation I sense the love I sense the affection but here's the thing there's some pride and there's some arrogance and that's not healthy and that's the thing that will be your undoing so make my joy complete I'm gonna bring this to your attention and here's how we're gonna work on a competition thinks there can be only one winner and that winner should be me when we begin to forget the source behind all all that is done here we're in trouble and by the way
this can start with misleadership how do you know that pride becomes a problem in leadership well it's the desire for a title pastor elder a leader in some way from a congregational standpoint it might be the desire to have church exactly the way you want it to be regardless of the fact that there is a wide variety of people within the body of Christ and this is where conceit comes in concede is that smugness and thinking that everything has to go my way and should be done in the way that I think it should be
done this is exactly what Paul is speaking against he's saying that proud people only care about themselves humble people care about others proud people fail to recognize that they are part of the church we don't attend church we are the church therefore we have people from all walks of life that enter into this building cross-generational and we have to do what is in the common good interest of everybody and pray for us because that's not always an easy thing to do especially as we begin to reopen our doors and regather as a congregation and let
allow me to say this the mature Saints will recognize this they recognize that disunity comes out of selfish pride when a person turns their particular preferences into a prejudice and then they begin judging their brothers and sisters and we can't allow that to happen so Paul says don't just look out for your own interests but the interests of others and as we'll see next week Jesus from modeled it and when we do it brings unity and it sends a message to the world that there is something different about us so let's take this time to
remember the model actually that's what we're gonna talk about next week as Paul goes on he says I'm not just telling you this but our leader actually he had skin in the game when we talk about humility and his humility led him all the way to the cross and because Jesus displayed humility towards us certainly we can display humility toward one another so as Jesus just before Jesus went to the cross he told us to remember his sacrifice and he didn't make his sacrifice about himself but literally he says this was done for you this
was done for you this is the motivation behind our our posture of humility toward one another and so as we end our time Chris is gonna come and he's gonna help lead us in our time of communion and I'm gonna pray and then I'll be back up to lead us as well so father we're just asking right now that you would impress upon every heart listening number one how much you love them how much you care for them the humility displayed by Jesus that led him all the way to the cross and that father we
would respond in kind out of that toward one another that we would step into that space and we would say this is only what God does and the world looks and says wow that must be a god thing father we ask it all for your glory we pray in the name of your son Jesus Christ as always the one who makes it possible amen [Music] in Christ alone my hope is found the sea is my light my strength my song this cornerstone this solid ground firm through the fiercest drought and storm would hide some love
what's absurd peace when fears are stilled when strivings cease my comforter my all in all here in the power of Christ I stand you know we have an amazing Savior just the thought that Jesus would leave his place on high with the father come to the earth served broken Humanity in humility and this is what he wanted his disciples and us to remember in his death and so the night before Jesus faces his crucifixion he's sharing the Passover meal and at one point he takes the bread and he breaks it and he says now this
bread represents my body which is broken for you Jesus doesn't say let me tell you about the excruciating pain I'm going to endure for you Jesus doesn't say I can't wait till this is all over instead he makes the focus the very people that he's dying for he says this is my body and it's broken for you so as often as you eat the bread do so and remember me [Music] and in the same way he took the cup and he proclaimed something revolutionary but was actually predicted by the Old Testament something new was coming
everything in the Old Testament pointed forward to Jesus and Jesus says now is the time so this cup now the contents the redness of the vault line it now represents my blood which is going to be poured out sacrificed for you the Bible tells us there can be no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood and that's why Jesus had to die that's how serious our sin is now there's no need for the blood of animals with Jesus it's one and done because his blood is perfect so he said as often as you drink
the cup do so and remember me [Music] Father in this moment in time we stand here ourselves humbled by the humility of Jesus we express our gratitude now and we anticipate that glorious day when we will be with him face to face and until then I pray that the humble life of Jesus would be made manifest through aluminate Community Church and that those who are not yet a part of us would take notice and they would want what we have all for your glory we pray in your son's name Amen no guilt in life no
fear in death and this is the power of Christ and me from life's first cry it's a final prayer and Jesus convinced my destiny no powerful hell no scheme of man can ever pluck me from his head so he returns or calls me home here in the power of Christ our skin the seer in the power of Christ I stand
