 So turn in your Bibles if you would to Philippians chapter 2, Philippians chapter 2 and we're going to look at verses 1 to 4 in this lexen this morning on a call to humility. Father, I do pray that you will help us this morning. I know that I personally am in need of your grace. I know that many times we are distracted from things that are going on at home with our husband or our children or even this morning Lord I'm weighed down heavy for many that I know that are hurting and suffering because of other people's sins and my mind is going to them and I want to leave that at your feet and be able to concentrate on the one thing that's needful right now and that is to communicate this passage in a way that is clear and is true to your word. And so Father I pray that you'll give grace not only for me but for these women as well because I know that they too are carrying burdens and their minds are easily distracted. I thank you Father that you remember that we are frail, that we are dust and Lord that you understand our infirmities, you understand our weaknesses. Help us to overcome those even now Father that we might focus on the one thing that is important right now and that is to study these four verses and to not only study them Lord but to obey them. That's the most important thing to obey. So Father give grace I pray in Christ's name, amen. Well one of the blessings of being a teacher of God's word is not only that I get to practice living out what I'm getting ready to teach but also the Lord many times gives me live illustrations to further explain what I'm going to teach on and this particular lesson he did. I happened to be with three other women and the four of us were sitting around talking and we were all talking about a wedding that was coming up in about I think it was two days from that time. And one of the ladies at the table said this boy why does that wedding have to be in the middle of the day? And she went on to say that it messed up her whole day because it was a Saturday that the wedding was taking place on. Then one of the ladies looked at me and she said what a selfish society we have become. And then she said to the first lady who said what she said the wedding is not for you. It's for them and it's to honor their day and then I said thank you for a great introduction from my lesson to Philippians 2-1-4. Now ladies I am not so pious as to think that we all do not struggle with behaving selfishly at one time or another right? In fact just this morning my husband called me, Debbie can know because I was driving here and he always calls me several times a day usually when I'm out of town how to go and everything and you know we're getting ready to move and right now I have this big office with a big desk and we put it on Craigslist and he said someone's coming this morning to get it. And I said well you will you know take my computer off and put it on the floor and my printer I said because when I get home tomorrow I've got to print some stuff off before we move Monday and he said well I'll do the best I can and I said honey please you know and there we are we all have those things you know yours might not be that but your husband might ask you to do something and you're like are you serious or even this morning as you're trying to get out the door he might have asked you to do something. Are you serious? No I have to be at the ladies conference at 9 o'clock and so we have this wrestling going on or we might hear the following in a local church you know well we can't do it that way we've always done it this way we can't change that. We have a difficult time sometimes giving up our rights don't we? We are very selfish and we have a hard time of thinking of others as more important than ourselves and my friend we are raising a generation that is worse than us. I am appalled at the children that I see today they are very selfish, self-consumed and love themselves too much and you know where they learned it from us. They learned it from us right? Now I'm convinced if we as a church and if we as women would put into practice the verses that we're gonna cover right now I'm convinced our problems would be less in our churches and less in our homes and I don't know about you but I don't like problems in my home and I don't like problems in our church so I'd like to obey these four verses wouldn't you and have a church that is harmonious and unified and a home that is harmonious and unified so in fact our relationships might be just a touch of heaven if we would implement these verses so let's cover them let's read them together and then let's talk about them Paul says if they're being there for any consolation in Christ any comfort of love any fellowship of the Spirit any tender mercies and compassions fulfill you my joy that you be like-minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind let nothing be done through strife or vanglory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves look not every man on his own things but also on the things of others now you should have an outline there before you we're going to first of all look at Paul's appeal for unity and under that we'll have eight little points there in verses one and two then we'll also look at Paul's application for unity in verses three and four and there will be two points there so eight on the first and two on the second now we don't have time to get into the context but just to tell you that as he ended chapter one if you'll look very carefully he's talking about suffering and persecution front of you it is given on the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but to suffer for his sake he says having the same conflict which you saw in me and now here to be in me so he's talking about suffering and persecution now ladies because the church was going through suffering and persecution it would be imperative that they be unified because as you go through troubling times if there is disunity it only makes things worse okay so when you're going through suffering persecution trials if there's disunity in your home disunity in the body of Christ it only makes things worse many times when we're going through suffering or persecution tension and relationships can be at their peak and then unity becomes a risk but ladies unity in the local church is possible even when you're going through trials and suffering and persecution you might say well Susan how is that possible well it is possible based on the qualities or the four appeals in verse one let's look at it appeal number one therefore if there is any consolation of Christ or in Christ now you will notice look at verse one very carefully Paul begins each of these appeals with the word if if there's consolation in Christ any if there's comfort if if if the word if is really translated since or in view of the fact that it is true since it is true ladies they are these are realities these are realities these things are not questionable these things are not oh I hope so there is consolation in Christ right there is comfort in love there is fellowship in the spirit there is tender mercies and compassion so this isn't an if it's things that are completely sure now all of these appeals in verse one are going to begin with the letter C ABC for your remembrance okay first of all Paul appeals for unity based on here's your first C consolation in Christ now what's that mean well the word consolation in the Greek is the act of calling toward or to help or begging someone call a going alongside of them and it would include exhortation and encouragement Paul is saying since you as a body of Christ have experienced the gentle encouragement of Christ then you too should live in the same way you too should live in a state of harmony you have been granted grace by Christ his comfort his encouragement so you therefore also live in the same way ladies the point is this there is encouragement in the person of Jesus Christ is there not you know I was thinking as after my husband said that I I thought and I started getting upset in my heart and I thought okay stop it Susan in light of eternity what does it matter if he unplugged your computer in your printer you know I mean just so you don't get your documents printed tomorrow it's really not gonna matter right so stop it it's really not worth it in light of attorney it's really not worth it going home and having a fight with your husband so just stop that's wicked that's sinful the point is this Paul says because that's true that Christ does encourage you comes alongside you then let us minister to the needs of others and be more concerned about them than than ourselves see how selfish we are we wake up every day and first thing we think of is what ourselves how am I gonna feed myself what am I gonna you know what am I gonna do for myself and you know this is a challenge in the middle of persecution because our flesh wants to cry out for me you know nobody understands well the second appeal is for comfort of love notice how Paul pits it if there's any comfort of love this is your second C now what does this mean well comfort means to speak closely to anyone and the word for love here is a gap a which is the type of love that God showed toward us it's not a love that is mushy gushy it's not a love that gives us what we think we you know want but what we need God loved us so much what he gave his only be out in son God gave us what we needed we needed a savior because we are sinful right and so he got paid us now ladies if we have that kind of love in our hearts towards others then that produces spiritual unity right if I love you based on what what you want you're gonna be a very selfish person if I enable you you're gonna be a very self-consumed person but if I love you to the point I give you what you need then that's true love ladies if we have that kind of love in our hearts it'll produce spiritual unity in our lives as well as produce comfort right in the hour of trial in fact I've just had a couple of conversations recently with a couple of friends of mine who enable their children I said you know you've just raised a brat is all you've done you your kids are brats and they're grown they go I know why go why'd you do it there's no comfort in that there's no comfort in that but there is comfort in giving you know children like boundaries they really do they like discipline I mean they might like to be spanked but they like discipline they like to know there's rules ladies we agape others based on their needs now notice the third appeal is for communion Paul puts it this way any fellowship of the spirit fellowship is a word which involves participation or communion in anything that's why I gave it the word communion but here it's communion or fellowship of the spirit ladies the commonality that we have is from the spirit right the Holy Spirit everybody in this room that knows the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior we all have one thing in common right we have a commonality right yes are you guys awake need more coffee now I've had two cups so that's about my limit but we have fellowship right communion because of the Holy Spirit Paul says in Romans 8 16 the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we what are the children of God so what's Paul saying if you want to have unity in your church in your home we should all share what that same commonality of the Holy Spirit which is when we know what the fruit of the Spirit is love we should all have that same love joy peace long suffering gentleness goodness meekness faith and self-control that should be present in all of us that's what the Holy Spirit produces well notice the fourth appeal here for compassion he puts it this way any tender mercies and compassion King James version describes it as describes affection as bowels bowels of compassion that's kind of a weird term isn't it but that describes you know you think of your bowels you know it's the inside your intestines so it comes to mean that describing our inward feelings our inward gut and mercy here means pity or compassion what's Paul saying ladies our Christianity should produce sympathy and affection for others sympathy and affection I was just talking to Mark Bershear in the book table room and we were just sharing I said you know we're praying for you I said you know I I've been there done that where you are I have compassion I understand I understand ladies we should have that sympathy we should feel the hearts of others sympathy and affection I shared with you yesterday about the lady who's was caught in adultery with the you know the past I mean the pastor's wife was caught in adultery and I've been trying to talk to the other woman involved the the innocent party I woke up this morning I just kept thinking about her how awful and praying for the pastor's wife that she really truly repents but we should have sympathy we should have bowels of compassion for one another Paul reminds the church at class I how important these virtues are therefore is the elective God holy and beloved put on tender mercies humility kindness meekness long suffering well after Paul gives a fourfold basis for unity he continues on in verse 2 and we're still appealing for unity and he gives another fourfold appeal only this time they're all going to start with the letter L so you got four C's and four L's okay notice how he begins verse 2 fulfill my joy perfect my joy what's Paul saying well if you guys will practice all of these things you will make my joy complete ladies this is every pastor's dream I know because I'm a pastor's wife there's nothing more joyful for a pastor and his wife to see a church living out Philippians 1 Philippians 2 1 to 4 Paul says this will make my joy complete but you know what there's nothing that's more grievous to a pastor and his wife and the elders and their wives then to see a church that's not living these verses out it's heartbreaking and ladies you know we're gonna be accountable on that day Paul says in Hebrews obey them to have the rule over you and submit yourselves to them why because they watch for your souls and then he goes on to say on that day it will be unprofitable for you if they can't present you with joy you know so that on that day your pastor's gonna stand up for before God and give an account for his sheep that he has shepherded and hopefully we have obeyed right if they've been giving out the goods that they should we've obeyed what they've said if it's the God's word and Paul says you better do that because it's not gonna be profitable for you on that day if you have not obeyed so we want to make sure and they we want I want my pastor even though he's my husband to present me with joy you know and then I will you know describe my middle name Susan Joy well he gives another four-fold appeal to unity and as I said they all begin with the letter L look at the first one make my joy complete first of all by being like minded like minded what does this mean this means we should have the same goals and be unanimous in our decisions we should be intent on one purpose now ladies this does not mean we are unanimous or have the same mind where sin is present okay that's not what Paul is saying we cannot be like minded under those circumstances when sin is present but where sin is not present what Paul is calling for here is a spirit of unity we should be like minded for example you might hear and I've heard of this of churches splitting over you know the color of the carpet or the pastor's salary or the way he raises his children or something petty like that that is not being like minded if we allow discord and strife in the church then we allow Satan to get a foothold in our church and ladies you know that what then happens it prevents the kingdom of God from being advanced and Debbie and I have been in very many churches and I can walk in the door and be up there teaching or start talking to the women and you know it's a dead church it's like Ichabod has been written over the door the glory of the Lord is departed and when you get begin to talk to the women or you talk to the pastor's wives you find out that all this garbage is going on and there is not a spirit of unity and we don't want to give Satan a foothold because it blasphemes the name of God in fact Paul gives this principle to the church at Corinth in 2nd Corinthians 1311 finally brethren farewell become complete be of good comfort be in one mind be of one mind live in peace and the God of peace will be with you do you see what he's saying if you guys are of one mind of course we know the church at Corinth wasn't there was all kind of divisions and stripes and some guy committing incest and they wouldn't put him out of the church I mean that that church was a mess but Paul says if you guys would be of one mind the God of peace will be with you I don't know about you but I want God's peace with me I don't like it when I'm not at peace with God I don't like that that feeling in my soul in fact nothing is more grievous than a church or an individual God's hand of blessing has ceased not a second appeal is for love not only be like minded but he have he says have the same love this is the same Greek word is in verse 1 agape love and ladies it must be very important because he's mentioned it two times now two times love anytime anything is repeated in scripture it's because it's important and again as I mentioned last night remember he prayed for the church at Philippi that their love would abound more and more and yet we saw that the church at Philippi already love Paul and he loved them and why is he praying for that because love is foundational for everything we do now what there's faith hope love and the greatest of these is what love ladies there ought to be a continuous love among the believers for one another we should have the same love for God's word for his people for his work we might differ on opinions you know I imagine as this conference went together there was probably differences on what how the program should look what the program should look like what color tablecloth should be on the table what kind of food we were gonna have out there where you know there might have been differing opinions and that's okay but we should all have what the same love and I should defer what doesn't really matter if the color of the pro even though that's a great looking program I think that's one of the best ones I've ever seen it's really great Debbie and I were talking about it's done with excellence we might have different opinions but ladies we better have the same love if you want unity in your church in your home you better have the same love notice the third appeal the third appeal Paul says of one accord and so this really is a synonym so don't laugh at me the appeal the third appeal is for loan L. O. N. E. which is a synonym for one loan accord one accord now this is the only time this word is used in the New Testament did you know that one accord this is the only time you'll find it and it means a union of soul we should be joined together in our souls we should be unanimous we should have the same urges the same desires when it comes to God's glory in his kingdom ladies we should all act as if one soul is guiding us we should be soulmates remember what Paul said about Timothy I have no one like-minded who would actually care for my state he was like his soulmate we all should have the same desire the same soul the fourthly the fourth appeal here is that they would be of lone mind one mind one mind lone mind the call here is to be intent on one purpose it implies not only thought but also the affection the will I like what AT Robinson says and he says it's like we're all thinking the one thing it's like clocks that strike at the same time Debbie and I had that I think it was yesterday or day before our alarms went off at the same time playing the same tune I was like well that's really weird but that's what he's saying clocks that tick at the same time the same mind one mind identity of ideas harmony of feelings you might be saying Susan whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa those eight things that's a tall order I mean you you don't know the women in my church they drive me crazy I can't I can't do these things you know it isn't possible when you think about it to think we would have the same opinions on everything right but Paul tells us in verses three to four how we can be united how we can and Paul now gives the church at Philippi and you and me the application for unity so we move from the appeal his eight-fold appeal for unity to now the application okay Paul tell me how how do I do this how do I fulfill all these things notice what he says hold on to your hats if you have one on let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit Paul says let nothing not one thing no nothing nothing nothing be done through selfish ambition which is translated strife in fact the one strife means someone who works for higher selfishness means self-willed ladies strife or contention is always an expression of enmity and results in factions and discords among the brethren ladies that should never be for the life of a believer Paul says in 2 Timothy 2 24 the servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all men patient patient when you think about our Lord Jesus Christ and you think about his life here on earth do you ever read in the pages of the New Testament that he allowed such a motive to influence him selfish ambition no and neither should we now not only should absolutely nothing be done through strife but also nothing should be done through conceit Paul says again the King James version translates this word is vanglory which means empty glory self-conceit empty pride a vain opinion of yourself ladies that is not from God if you have that you're in big trouble because James says in James 3 14 to 16 if you have bitter envy and strife in your heart glory not and lie not against the truth this wisdom comes not from above but is earthly sensual demonical for where envy and strife airs is there is confusion and every evil work but the wisdom that's from above is what pure peaceable gentle easy-to-be-treated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy so if you've got all this this stuff going on James says don't lie to yourself that's demonical that's from the devil demonical ladies if we're serving God for self praise then that is a wrong motive self should never enter the picture instead of these motives Paul says we should have a lowliness of mind a lowliness of mind what does this mean this means we should be humble we should have a humble and modest opinion of ourself in fact it actually is the same word used in Acts 2019 where Paul describes his own personal service to the Lord and he says this I serve the Lord with all humility with many tears many trials now there are some really wrong views of humility okay we're talking about humility in this session humility listen very carefully humility is not thinking meanly or lowly of yourself it's just not thinking of yourself at all now that's hard isn't it just not thinking of yourself at all having a lowliness of mind does not mean that we go around thinking oh you know I'm just I'm so humble yeah I just I'm so humble that's thinking of yourself there isn't it it doesn't you mean you don't think of yourself at all that's what Paul's calling for here don't even think of yourself at all now ladies this does not mean we're at the beckoning call of everyone okay as I mentioned I don't believe in enabling everyone that comes knocking your door and says I need this I need that James says in another place you know if your brother or sister has need and you shut up your heart of compassion from him how dwells the love of God in you actually that's first John but anyway the Greek there is and when you when your if your brother has need that you have investigated and made sure it is a need okay it's not just a want that this person has a legitimate need and so it doesn't mean we're at the beckoning call of everyone if we did that it would be disastrous right we would raise those little brats but ladies we should have an attitude of humility and we should have a servant's heart seeking to go the extra mile when needed I believe when we have a right view of our self and we see our self as vile insignificant a sinner saved by the grace of God unworthy to be called his child then a proper view of our self will lead us to an attitude of humility towards God and others ladies nothing will hurt human relationships more than an attitude of pride God gives grace to the humble but he resists the pride that means his army is set against you getting ready to fight you oh I don't know about you I don't want God against me now if we truly have the right mindset of ourselves not thinking of ourselves at all which is humility then notice what Paul says then we will esteem others better than our self esteem here means to think or reckon in the word better means to hold oneself above we are to think of others better than ourselves in fact the Greek translation reads like this you must rather in humility regard one another as more excellent than yourself so instead of Susan joy hex spending an hour licking her wounds and absorb in self pity I think of somebody else and how I can spend that hour for their benefit and not my own and ladies that's humility right and that's hard that's the spirit we should have so in a nutshell the first application to unity is diet to yourself and live to others die to yourself and live to others what did Jesus say if you want to save your life you better lose it if you want to lose your life you can you better what see if you want to save your life you better lose it or lose your life okay wait a minute here I know that passage now remember you have to you have to love me and esteem me better than yourself right now because I haven't had much sleep so if I slip on some scripture memorization it's because my mind is going to bet he will he will I'm not gonna quote it you know what I'm talking about all right well Paul expounds a little further with that thought in verse 4 look not every man on his own things but also on the things of others interesting word look here it means to look towards an object to actually spy out in fact our English word scope comes from this word not scope the mouthwash but scoping something out Paul says we should not be absorbed by the concerns of ourself but we should be spying out or scoping out other people's needs I love what Elizabeth Elliott says this is great she says if a marriage counselor were to ask each partner what are your goals and the answer was how can I best serve my husband or my wife and what can I do to further his or her goals she said the counseling period would be over and the bill low isn't that true and boy let me tell you my husband I have done a lot of premarital counseling and I've never heard them say that what's your goal in marriage oh to see whatever I can do for her or whatever I can do for it whatever and she said the counseling period be over and the bill low when it be great if we had a some community of Christians who set themselves to look only to the interest of others ladies and maybe we would adorn the good doctrine of God and make it attractive instead of blaspheming his word and making it unattractive you know it's a sad day that we live in when everyone is so preoccupied with himself and themselves and their cells in fact have you taken time to listen to your conversations lately now I know this weekend you're gonna really focus on being interested in someone else but maybe later on this week or next month you'll think about this lesson and listen to conversations that you I'm always surprised the women that I disciple that I've poured my life into for years and years and sometimes they'll leave my house or I'll leave their house and I thought you know what we spent just spent two hours together and they didn't ask me one thing about anything now I'm there to serve them that's true but I hope by my example they're learning that they should be interested in my concerns too and my needs and how they can pray for me because usually before I end any discipling time I'll say now how can I pray for you before we meet again and it's only one or two they'll say well how can I pray for you Susan so start taking taking note of your conversations you have with people and note how much you spend talking about yourself or your grandkids or your your your whatever me me me me me that's why they call it ipads iphone I I I because it's all about I and note how many times you and how much time you spend asking others about their in and really meaning it okay not just doing it that's a hypocrisy if you don't mean it okay you know we live in a world that tells us we need to fulfill our desires we need to love ourselves I say where is that in the Bible show me that in the Bible Jesus says love your neighbor as you already do yourself you already do love yourself that's the problem ladies we're to be looking out for the interest of others we need to look out for the spiritual interests of the church the body we need to scope out the needs of others the poor the fatherless the widows we need to look out for the needs of the sinner and seek to win them to the Savior now let me stop and say here this does not mean we look out for one another by being busy bodies gossiping slandering again Facebook is a great conduit for that in fact my son has said mom you don't want I don't have a Facebook account so don't try to find me on there but and I know several women that have gotten off just for that reason basis mom you don't want to get on there because some of the women you disciple you don't want to know what they're writing and I said don't tell me I don't want to know it would just break my heart they're using Facebook as a conduit for gossip slander that's not what Paul saying when he says scope out the interest of others that doesn't mean we're a busy body in other people's matters Paul says I will the younger women get married bear children rule the house give no occasion for the adversary to speak reproachfully for some are already turned aside after to Satan and they're taught walking from house to house being busy bodies speaking things they shouldn't talk about and now we have a much more modern way of doing that we don't have to walk to each other's house we just get our cell phone or whatever and we start texting we gossip that way but ladies we should be tenderly concerned for the needs of others and less consumed with ourselves so the second application to unity is scope out the interest of others scope out the interest of others let's quickly go over everything we've learned Paul's appeal for unity in verses two one to two his first-fold appeal first four-fold appeal is for consolation comfort communion compassion second secondly like mindedness love loan accord loan mine his application how do you do this how do you do those eight things die to yourself and live for others and scope out the interest of others you might be saying Susan well how does all this flesh out I mean how does this really work well I read about a man one time who pastored a church in the 1800s and his life was incredible an incredible story of a shepherd who pastored a church in fact they had 50 years this man pastored the same church for 50 years and they always had harmony in those 50 years now listen to what he says our fellowship has been ever-growing and during its 59 years of continuing there was never strife or bitterness between us of course this is 1800 language okay the dear departed one was want to say oh dear brother we never had a jar I mean it's not a jar but an argument okay we can daily contributed each to the other's treasure of grace and truth we were touching the guidance of our steps the ordering of our ways the rule of our household we always waited on God together for his mind if we did not agree we waited on God to give us oneness of mind and neither of us ever took a step against the judgment of the other hence no strife no bitterness can you imagine sounds too good to be true right and yet that is the way the body of Christ should function can you imagine how God's glory and power would be manifested in our churches today if these verses alone would be applied in every Sunday school class every youth department every nursery department every women's ministry department every choir every elder board and every ministry throughout the church what about your home could you imagine if these four verses were applied in your home can you imagine how it would change your marriage your relationship with your kids your grandkids even your neighbors your community is one of the things I'm looking forward to is moving into a new neighborhood because the one I live in now I don't know they just don't like the fact that my husband's a pastor we've tried to have people over and in our home and share the gospel and man as soon as they found out Doug was a pastor's like not want nothing to do with you so I'm praying that God will give me opportunities in my new neighborhood but can you imagine if if these verses were lived out in your neighborhood your friendships ladies it would be such a light to a lost world they would truly say behold how they love one another what Jesus say by this will all men you know you're my disciples if you what love one another maybe we would actually see revival in our churches maybe we'd see revival in our country wouldn't be great country that's going to going down so fast ladies with God's help will you determine with me to follow the patterns set forth for each of us in Philippians 2 1 to 4 will you with God's help die to yourself and live for others let's pray oh father in heaven I thank you so much for Paul's call to unity Paul's call to humility and Lord apart from your grace and your spirit we cannot do this there's no way because father we are consumed with ourself we are so completely selfish and we fight and bicker with one another to get our own way we're teaching our children the same thing by our examples and father I just pray that you'll show us how to practically live these verses out because father we even know that you came not to be ministered to but to minister and to give your life a ransom for many so help us father help us to deny ourselves take up our cross and follow you in Christ's name