e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good morning and welcome back to Central Church of Christ glad to have you again with us this morning worshiping online really glad to have you guys uh we are picking up in week two of our Philippians series we're studying through the book of Philippians all through September uh today we're talking about working together and just being unified in Christ and we're going to put a lot of Focus On Christ cuz that's what Paul does in Philippians chap 2: 1- 11 so really hope that uh you enjoy the worship service and that you're inspired and that you draw close to God through the servant sermon don't forget to pick up your communion elements get ready for those as we take communion together here in just a little bit let's join our worship service it's already in progress out of the exits if you uh see somebody uh we can show you where those are at but we'd like to give you something for being here this morning so thanks for being here uh we are continuing our Wednesday night classes uh and the series for the adult class is courage to stand and that starts at 7:00 p.m. and Tim will be teaching that class this Wednesday we also have sign ups for the men's Retreat and that is men navigating everything that is on September 20th and the 21st that's a Friday and Saturday uh if you can come to both nights it's $40 for the men and um if it's just for Saturday only it's $30 just for that day but uh we've got some really good stuff plan for it we're excited about it and uh I think we're doing steaks and potatoes on Friday night so cuz we're men and we got to have meat and potato we don't do salads we don't do vegetables it's just meat and potatoes if there are vegetables it will probably be a topping on the potato so but uh please uh uh register for that and uh and go ahead and sign up for that because it is something that we want to we need to get a count on and uh make sure that we have enough food and and resources and stuff for that also coming up on November 3rd is the 80th anniversary of Central and I'm proud to say that I have been a member for 21 of those 80 years and been coming for 26 years now and so um it's cool that 80 years that's that's a very long time and still going strong we're also celebrating Ernie's retirement as well and we definitely need RSVP for that because we need to know how much food but we're also inviting a lot of uh people to be here on that Sunday so we want to make sure we have enough seats is that correct we if we need to put more seats out we definitely want to be able to do that but also from a food standpoint uh if you're staying afterwards we need to make sure we have enough food for everybody and this Sunday sermon today is still on the work to work together series and it is don't worry be happy and with that we'll have a prayer and then we'll begin our time of worship let's pray dear father we're just so thankful and and grateful to be here today and uh father just so incredible what you've done through this church for the last 80 years and uh we're just we just pray father that you will continue to guide and direct us and lead us for another 80 years plus father um we just ask that at this time we can close our minds and just just be humble father in your presence and just take on a spirit of obedience during this time father to to just be with you as we worship and just give praise to your holy name and it is in your son's name that we pray amen good morning church all right little Fuller Cloud crowd than last week we uh Labor Day people were kind of spread and everything but people are coming back filling in the holes it's uh good to see each and every one of you what an encouragement to be together to uh show the love of the father to one another and that is a big part of what we do here at this time is we show up we show up and we are the hands the feet the body of Christ today we're talking about uh working working together and um got me thinking about um uh an issue that's really important in my profession which is compliance um now I know compliance means many things to different people for me it's whether the person's going to take the medication that I prescrib right so uh I know you guys take all your medicines exactly the way that your doctors prescribe them to you but that is an issue for a lot of people in fact one of my colleagues um actually uh was a part of a clinical trial where they actually tested to see if people really did exactly what they were supposed to and uh I know it would come as a surprise to you but they found that a lot of people didn't right so they put little radio tags in the top of the uh pill bottles and they and which would indicate whether they took the pill bottle cap off or not and took their medication so you want to check your pill bottle tops today and see if your doctor has done the same thing for you um but but remarkably enough they found people would respond they would say yes yes I'm taking my medicine I'm doing everything but I'm not getting any better and we'd be looking at them going this doesn't make sense this is the right medicine for you but uh you should be getting better so uh that kind of brought some light well at first I was a little doubtful but then um uh when I was when Cruz was much younger and I try to embarrass him every single chance I get especially when I'm in a group like this um we would have we would have discussions about whether things were working not working and he's like Dad you know I just can't he was he was really young I just want to make sure that you know this was a long time ago but he said Dad I just can't get my teeth to look the way I want them to look and I said well are you brushing your teeth and he goes well I kind of and so we had this really important discussion about we only brush the teeth we want to keep so I said which tooth or teeth do you want to brush and he said well all of them and I said yes that that's what you need to do and we we know this concept we know that that's important but how many of us read scriptures like the scripture we're about to read where it says in humility consider others better than yourselves you know I'm having a lot of trouble in my Christian walk I just don't know what's going on uh are you considering others better than yourselves well you know that's a nice idea but maybe not really applicable to every situation really could that be a compliance issue well I'm I would like to maybe put forward that God knows what it means to have good healthy relationships good working relationships with each other and this passage we're going to read in just a minute I think has some really important things that if we put those things into practice I think it changes our worship Our Life Worship and I pray that that as we're listening to JD as we're listening to the scripture being spoken to us this morning and as we worship and sing the songs we're going to sing I pray that those songs will really touch your heart I pray that they'll the words that JD says will really inspire you to really Follow The Words of Christ this morning would you stand and let's say this together it's a long one okay so let's let's stay with it here we go is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ any comfort from his love yes any Fellowship together in the spirit yes are your hearts tender and compassionate yes then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other loving one another and working together with one mind and purpose don't be selfish don't try to impress others be humble thinking of others as better than yourselves don't look only for your own interest but take an interest in others too you must have the same attitude that Jesus Jesus had Christ Jesus Jesus Christ I'll get it let's sing hum yourselves in the sight of the Lord hum yourselves in the sight of the [Music] Lord and He will live you up and he will live you up Jesus is the son of God Jesus is the son of God and he he died for us and he he done for us Amazing Grace how sweet the [Music] sounding Amazing Grace how sweet the [Music] sound that same like me that save a rich like me [Music] I once was lost but now I'm [Music] found I once was lost but now I'm found was blind but now I see was blind but now I see so humble yourselves in the side of Lord so hum yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up and he will lift you up amen that's where it starts this humility we are the family of God this may be one you're unfamiliar with but just keep it up you're doing great we're part of the family that's been born again part of the family whose love knows no end for Jesus has saved us and made us his own now we're part of the family that's on its way home and sometimes we laugh together sometimes we cry sometimes we share together heartaches and sigh some times we dream together of how it will be when we all get to heaven God's [Music] family when a brother meets sorrow we all feel his grief when he's passed through through the valley we all feel reliefed together in [Music] sunshine together in Rain together in Victory through his precious name and sometimes we laugh together sometimes we cry sometimes we share together heartaches and [Music] S sometimes we dream together of how it will be when we all get to Heaven God's [Music] family and those some go before us will'll all meet again just inside the city as we iner in there'll be no more with Jesus will be together forever God's [Music] family and sometimes we laugh together sometimes we cry sometimes we share together heartaches and sigh sometimes we dream together of how it will be when we all get to [Music] heaven [Music] God's great job we we are one in the spirit we are one in the Lord we are one in the spirit we are one in the Lord and we pray that all Unity will one day be restored and they'll know we are Christians by our love by our love yes they'll know we are Christians by our love we will walk with each other we will walk hand in hand we will walk with each other we will walk hand in hand and together we'll spread the news that God is in this land and they know we are Christians by our love by our love yes they'll know we are Christians by our love we will work with each other we will work side by side we will work with each other we will work side by side and will guard each man's dignity and Save each man's prde and they'll know we are Christians by our love by our love yes they'll know we are Christians by our [Music] love one heart one Spirit one voice to praise you we are the body of of Christ one goal One Vision to see you exalted we are the body of Christ and to this we give our lives to see you glorified [Music] one heart one Spirit one voice to praise you we are the body of Christ now that you know the song we're going to say it again one heart one Spirit one voice to praise you we are the body of Christ one goal One Vision to see you exalted we are the body of Christ and to this we give our lives to see you glorified one heart one spir one voice to praise you we are the body of Christ we are the body of Christ great job we together here in Jesus name his love is burning in our hearts like living flame for through the loving son the father makes us one come take the bread come drink the wine Come Share the Lord no one is a stranger here [Music] everyone [Music] belongs finding our forgiveness here we in turn forgive all wrongs he joins us here he breaks the bread the Lord who pours the cup is risen from the dead de the one we love the most is now a gracious host come take the bread come drink the wine Come Share the Lord we are now a family of which the Lord is said the on s he meets us here in the breaking of the bread will gather soon Where Angels Sing will see the glory of the Lord and coming King now we anticipate the Feast for which we wait come take the bread come drink the wine Come Share the Lord come take the bread come drink the cup Come Share the Lord please be seated morning I believe the purpose of scripture is to encourage us and we see that throughout the Bible the Philippians letters from Paul to the church was his letter of joy to them and they were his joy and encouragement to him while he was in prison he was encouraged but the example this morning I like to talk about we're going to focus on the writing in chapter two of Philipp Philippians concerning our Lord and the example of humility Christ humility I think that can encourage us this morning this morning the scripture in Philippians 2 6-8 reads in the New Living Translation though he was God he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to instead he gave up his Divine privilege he took the humble position of slave and was born as a human being when he appeared in human form he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal death on the cross simply put our Lord humbled himself and placed others before him his serving and his sacrifice was For All Mankind that he was faithful through his death burial and Resurrection we were redeemed from our sins we can not only have the gift of abundant life now but through our faithfulness and our obedience we have eternity to look forward to this is the good news of the Gospel that forgiveness of sin and freedom from guilt are available through faith in Christ to all people including us each Sunday we focus on the sacrifice he made for us and we humble ourselves to go that he humbled himself to go to the cross for us he also left us a way to remember him and through that we have the Lord's Supper we're going to take a few minutes as we uh pray over the cup and the bread I excuse me the bread and the cup and just give you a chance to meditate on that but before that in Matthews 26 26 through 28 it reads while they were eating Jesus Took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to his disciples saying take it and eat this is my body he took the cup and when he had given thanks he gave it to them saying drink from it all of you this is my blood of the Covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin so now as we prepare our hearts and our minds we're going to reflect and remember how he showed us the example of humility and we're going to do that by going to our father at this time father God we uh so thankful for opportunities we have each day to come to you whether we're here in Collective worship or at home or wherever we're at in this life Lord we know that you are listening you are near and you have our utmost concern we love you you love us and as we remember back on the cross that you took the pain and suffering your body was broken you died on a cross for us and we just thank you as we for taking this bread that will help us remember how much you care for us in your son name we pray amen father God we uh come again thanking you for bearing it all on the cross you didn't have to we know that you cared enough for us you loved us enough that you gave it all for our sins and we thank you for that as we partake in this cup that rep represents that blood Lord uh we just are mindful that uh you care that much for us and thank you again for your kindness and grace and mercy that you showed us every day we do this in a manner that'll be pleasing to you in your son name we pray amen for at this time we are having a chance to give back to our Lord and savior in this church that uh that we're under the eldership and the leadership uh if you give it online we'd appreciate that and we thank you again uh if you're able to give today uh as far as the membership we have boxes in each exit you can put your contribution donation in that uh if you're visiting today we just thank you for being here we uh you're not obligated to contribute today but your presence here is is well felt and we give a chance to meet you after uh worship today so let's pray upon uh this offering Lord uh there so many things that we can be thankful for we know that all these blessings that come from you we take things for granted sometimes but we know if we really focus on life we know that you're in control of everything as we prosper and we work and we do things that are give us a chance to live a Abundant Life we know that you have a hand in everything so at this time we thank the eldership for their diligence on contributing and distribution this money throughout not only Spartenburg but throughout this local uh area and throughout the kingdom of the world and we pray Lord that as we give back we give as a cheerful givers that we know that uh giving not only helps this local congregation but helps the community so thank you again for the time we have to hear your worship we pray upon JDS he delivers the message today in your son name we pray amen Philippians 1:27 above all you must live as citizens of Heaven conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news about Christ then whether I come and see you again or only hear about you I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose fighting together for the faith which is the good news let's pray dear heavenly father we thank you for this day and our many blessings and Lord I pray for all those in need of your healing whether that be if they are in pain from a sickness or an injury or even if they are mourning and I pray God that you will help them and take care of them God I also pray that you will help all the babies and newborns in the church and that you'll help them grow into strong young Christians that they never lose faith in you God I pray that you will speak through JD and that you will help him speak that you will help speak through him bless his words to touch the hearts of whoever needs it we pray this in the name of your precious holy son Jesus amen have you ever called me JD thank you for that morning everybody Welcome to Central we're in our Don't Worry Be Happy Series and so are you happy yet I hope you are I hope you're happy good so let me ask you a question what makes you angry what would how would you fill this in how would you say nothing makes me angrier than when what fill in the blank well if you want to you can actually fill in the blank on the notes app or on the church app if you take the notes or you can do it on the bulletin that we hand out the paper bulletin uh but let me tell you some things that make me angry or some things that I know make other people angry so uh you know there are things when driving that make me angry for me one is when I'm trying to merge onto the Interstate and the person's coming in the right lane and they have plenty of room to get over and let me in but they just choose not to because they're like this is my Lane it's not yours and then they speed up and force me to slow down and come to a stop oh it makes me so angry like just be nice just be a nice person let me in nothing makes me angry than that or what about this well this doesn't make me so much angry I'm probably more guilty of making somebody else in our household angry at this when the dishwasher is empty and the whole family goes and sticks all the dishes in the sink instead of putting them in the dishwasher does that make you angry um I personally don't even notice but you know some people might get angry from that or uh how about this I've been dealing with three different types of insurance in the past month and I hate it when I have to deal with insurance because they just want to deny everything they just want to say nope nope no I know you pay every month but we're not going to approve that one we're not going to let you have what you need to make things right in your life and so dealing with insurance companies can be something that can make you angry or how about when you're you know praying and you're seeking advice from from wise counsel and you're you're just scrutinizing over this major decision and you finally make the decision and then as soon as you make it somebody comes along and flippantly criticizes it and like yeah that's a wrong decision why'd you even do that oh it can be so angering when when somebody does that without even thinking or how about when somebody comes up and offers unsolicited advice and it's an area where you're an expert and they're not and you're like okay just move along okay you what do you don't talk to me about that you don't know what you're talking about or how about well let's just skip that one okay let's just skip that one um you know what about waking up 15 minutes before the alarm clock does that make you angry I wake up and I'm like are you serious and like I look at my phone thinking maybe I got maybe it's 1:00 in the morning I can go back to bed but nope nope I'm up and might as well get up now okay well those are all kind of funny things and and silly things but there's other things in this world that can really really infuriate people and and for the right reason like injustices and abuse of power corruption manipulation crime and that's just the Michigan football team but you know there's there's so many things in this world that can just that rightfully make you angry there's people people do bad things you you've seen this before hurt people hurt people what do you think about that well I think there's truth to that I I think it's a true statement and I think the reason that's true is because everybody's hurt and so hurt people hurt people I think a better way to say is if you spend enough time around anybody you're going to get hurt you spend enough time around me I'll eventually hurt you it's it's just human beings we have this tendency to be really selfish and to hurt each other even when we don't mean to we just we we hurt each other sometimes you know you say something and you don't realize how somebody's going to take it and you don't even mean it to be harmful and they just get their feelings hurt I mean it's hurt people hurt each other so what we've done we've done a great job of coming up with all kinds of solutions for how to handle it when somebody hurts us for example we get really judgmental we look down on them or you know we get on the interstate and then speed around them and give them that you know shake your fist at them or give them a dirty look or something you you get really judgmental at people when they hurt you or you might say hey eye for an eye tooth for tooth I'm going to get you back you hurt me I'll hurt you even worse or we just become jaded and we start to think that you know that's just the way it is everybody's going to hurt me and and so I can't trust anybody and so we go into self- protection mode uh we either check out or we stop trying to build relationships we stop trying to make friends or or be a good person because it's like they're nobody's going to treat me well so why would I treat them well or or we just stop caring or at least we tell ourselves that we don't care uh I don't know that you can actually stop caring but we tell ourselves yeah I don't I don't even care anymore if it gets bad enough between you and one other person you might just cut them out of your life all together and say I'm done with you forget it I've had enough or you could go the opposite direction and you could say all right if if everybody likes me all the time then nobody's going to hurt me and you just try to people please all the time and just try constantly try to make everybody around you happy which can be man it can be exhausting or you might say you know what if I'm dominating everybody then they can't hurt me if I'm in charge if I'm in control if I have the control of the situation control the relationship you know you're not going to hurt me if anybody's going to get hurt in this it's going to be you I'm going to do the hurting and I'm I'm going to have power well whatever it is there's all kinds of ways we handle this uh but our culture has become very very self-centered very Meir even even licensed therapists will will tell you you got to take care of yourself nobody else is going to look out for you nobody else loves you as much as you love yourself you need to take care of yourself first you need to put your needs first and sometimes that's true sometimes you do need to take care of yourself I'm not tell I'm not here to tell you don't take care of yourself today but I think that we might be able to find some other solutions that might be helpful as well well there's certainly a lot of people problems in Philippi when Paul wrote his letter to the church in Philippi they had all kinds of people there but it was very much a Roman occupied uh uh City it was in uh modern day Turkey so you got kind of Italy where Rome is and then Greece and then turkey so you can kind of get that map of the Mediterranean Sea in your head and you can Vision where it was uh but it was Roman occupied it was a military retirement town so Roman soldiers wherever they were stationed when they would retire uh Philippi was a place where they would send them and allow them to retire they' give them a plot of land there's a lot of Farmland in Philippi it was kind of a farming community and so it's it you think of the movie Gladiator if you've seen that and like the vision he gets of being with his wife and son and that farm and all that that's kind of what Philippi was like the Roman soldiers would retire there and they get to live out their days kind of peacefully and having a farm and having a family and all that so you have this Roman occupied Town that's that's overr with former Roman Roman soldiers uh it's also a really important part in uh uh place in Rome this kind of a side note but a hundred years before Paul wrote his letter to the church in Philippi that's where Mark Anthony and Octavian who's later Caesar Augustus defeated Bruce and cases that's the place that's the Battleground so if you know that story in history you've seen the the TV shows about it or or read books about it well that's what we're talking but it was wasn't just Romans that lived there of course there was a Christian Church Paul came in you can read about it in the book of Acts around 50 ad um Acts chapter 16 tells this story but he goes to Philippi and the first church on European soil is planted in Philippi and they were uh Paul was badly mistreated you again you can read it in Acts but Paul talks about that in first Thessalonians he talks about how badly he was mistreated they were uh they had people following around just calling them names and and shouting them down trying to prevent them from being able to spread the message of Christ Christ they were beaten they were put in prison only until Paul finally let them know hey I'm a Roman citizen you can't do this to me and then they got scared and they apologized they let him out of prison and they said please get out of here please leave and Paul did leave but not before establishing the church and he established this church uh that that thrived and did really really well uh but then there were these other uh Jewish Christians that would come to Philippi so Philippi was uh this this town it's kind of similar to Spartanburg there were major routes that passed through Philippi so you got 26 and 85 in Spartenburg uh it's it's a great place for me because I got a lot of family in Ohio and they love to stop stop and visit us on their way to the beach on the way to Florida or whatever it's it's a great stopping place to just stop off and and stay for a night before you go on with your travels so Jewish Christians would stop in and they come visit the church uh but these Jewish Christians had different ideas of what it meant to be faithful and so instead of preaching Christ the message of Christ they were preaching the message of circumcision well you got to be CC circumcised if you want to get to heaven and so Paul he calls these these people dogs he's he's like stay away from these he warns against them in Philippians chapter 3 well not only that but they had these power struggles from within the church the people that were there in Philippi that were worshiping that were serving God they were having conflicts and so he talks in chapter 4 about these disputes that were breaking out and he urges them hey settle these matters and he urges the church to come along these these two women who were prominent people in the church who were having a dispute and it was impacting the whole church and it was impacting their witness for Christ and he's like look this this can't be good we we might have a split if we don't hurry up so you you need to settle this so you can get back to what matters most so there's all these problems in the church in Philippi they had lots of people problems lots of reasons to become angry at each other not just getting cut off on on the interstate and so Paul addresses them in Philippians chapter 1 127s where we'll start he says Above All Above everything else you must live as Citizens of heaven what's that mean how do you live as citizens of Heaven well he's going to continue on and tell us he says conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news about Christ and this is what that looks like he says when I come to you and see you again or only hear about you I'll know that you're standing together with one Spirit one purpose fighting together for the faith which is a good news and that's something that's really critical I think we need to understand and we need to not forget because in our me first world one thing that's kind of come out of that is a lot of Christians in the name name of Christ believe they can be a Christian and not really be part of the church they've been hurt by the church they've been they've been abused sometimes by the church they've been uh maybe they showed up to church and G were given dirty looks or maybe they said had some nasty things said to them and and so they said you know what I love Jesus I don't love the church and so I I can just be a Christian on my own and Paul's like look if you want to be a citizen of Heaven you've got to stand together you've got to fight together and what are you fighting for well you're fighting in one spirit you're fighting for one purpose and that purpose is the same thing we talked about last week it's the good news you're fighting to get the message of Christ to the world because until the message of Christ gets to the entire world the church is not complete the body of Christ can't be complete without everybody it's a together religion it's not a single onep person religion and so Paul's telling us we've got to be together here he continues on in Philippians 2 1 just a few verses later he says if there's any encouragement from belonging to Christ any comfort from his love any Fellowship together in the spirit are your hearts tender and compassionate I love how Chris answered these in the call to worship because these are rhetorical questions the answer is supposed to be yes the answer is yes if you're in Christ you've experienced all of this is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ yeah a lot there's a lot of encouragement from belonging to Christ any comfort from his love i' I've received lots of comfort in my lifetime from his love I hope you have too I hope you you've you have moments in your time where you can look back and say oh I was comforted by Christ's love at that moment when I needed it most is there any Fellowship together in the spirit absolutely are your hearts tender and compassionate yes and this is an if then statement he doesn't stop here he says if any of that is true then will it make me truly happy well Paul's already told him what makes him happy we talked about that last week in verse 18 he's talking about these other things that people were worried about he's like that none of that matters their motive none of that matters the only thing that matters the thing that brings me joy the things that I Will Rejoice about is the message of Christ being preached so here in Chapter 2 he says make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other loving one another working together with one mind and one purpose again that one mind and one purpose is the gospel it's not he's not saying you have to agree in everything he's not trying to make you know Christian robots where we're all the same exact person he realizes that you know there's going to be uh you know people that have differences in opinions differences in in tastes you know there's some songs we sing this morning that you might like and there's some that you might not like and that's okay you don't have to agree wholeheartedly in everything I hope you like the message of every song by the way but but you might not like the tune you might not like the way it was sung but but here's the thing we we can have our differences but we need to agree wholeheartedly with what matters most we need to love one another because the way that you spread the gospel is through love and if you can't love one another then then how can you spread the gospel to anybody else and tell them about this incredible message of love and we got to work together with one mind and one purpose what Paul's saying here is he's saying stop getting angry with each other over these things don't that don't matter take your focus off of yourself and all the things that upset you and make you angry and and by the way Paul's not angry when he's saying this he's saying it with a smile he's he's not he's not like you know just yelling at them and screaming at them he's he's joyful here and he's like look the these things let me tell you there's other things that are more important and things that can bring you together things you can work towards together and so he says all this he says you know you make me truly happy agree wholeheartedly with each other loving one another working together with one mind and one purpose but they've got all these problems so the question is how you know how how do you do that how how do you love one another when you can't agree how can you love one another when when you you you know I think we should do this and you think we should do that how how can how can that be well he gives us the answer he doesn't just leave the church hanging the very next few versus he gives them an answer and here it is don't be selfish don't try to impress others be humble thinking of others is better than yourselves don't look out only for your own interest but take an interest in others too so let's break that down let's dig into that a little bit and see what he's saying he's saying don't be selfish don't try to impress others that's that's one statement it's it's two kind of combined statements but he's saying the same thing here what he's saying is stop trying to look better don't try to impress others selfishly so that people will think you're better than you are or think you're something you're not take the mask off stop stop acting like you got it all together stop trying to make everybody think that you're you're on top that you're the best at whatever it is just stop trying to look better but don't just stop trying to look better he says be humble think of others as better than yourself so stop thinking that you're better don't just stop trying to look better but stop thinking that you're better stop looking at other people and being like man I'm so glad I'm not doing that so not so glad I'm not like her like that's not what we're called to do as Christians when we think of other people we don't think of other people from from this lofty post uh where where we're looking down on them like oh man like you've really messed up this time you're you got to get your act together no stop thinking that you're better and don't look out for your own interest but take an interest in others too what he's saying is stop trying to make yourself better now this one the first two it's like yeah yeah amen but this one can be a little tricky because don't you come to church to try to be better like don't we want to be better people isn't that a good thing he said stop trying to make yourself better and and here's here's what I'm saying and here's what I think Paul's saying Christianity our faith coming to church is not it's not a self-help thing it's not it's you don't come here to try to make yourself better I know that we we we do try to make ourselves better but that's not the purpose of it and that and if you if you come here and that's your goal I just want to be a better person I just want to make myself better that's not how you make yourself better that that's what he's saying here if if you try to to make yourself a better person then what you're doing is you're focusing on yourself and when you focus on yourself you just become more selfish and and and so there is a way to make yourself better and what he's saying is the way you make yourself better is focus on other people stop thinking about yourself here here's what I've learned what I've learned about myself and what makes me angry you know we talked about what makes you angry what I've learned about myself is I only get angry when I'm thinking about myself like when when I'm thinking about other people and I'm thinking about their needs and what they want like the person that's driving on the interstate if I'm thinking you know they probably have somewhere really important to go and they need to get there and and I need to let them get by so they can get to where they need to go I don't get so mad when they speed up and and don't let me in I I just you know slow down hey I'm not in a hurry I'll just get behind them no big deal but when I'm thinking about myself oh it's infuriating it makes me so angry you see we've come up with all these solutions for how to deal with people and they don't work like those Solutions don't help you love people better they just make you feel angry they just make you be resentful you make you hold grudges Paul's saying don't don't do that and here's the thing we can't live as citizens of heaven without each other we have to have each other so you can't go on judging each other you can't go on uh getting people back we can't go on uh kicking people out or or just building up these walls and and and just you know like you know what I don't need I don't need people I'm just going to be I'm just going to take care of myself that's you can't be a citizen in heaven without each other so you can't be a citizen of Heaven if that's your solution we've got to find a better solution so let's look at that the same points we made with that verse and let's let's make it practical let's talk about what it looks like in life stop trying to look better what's that look like well practice giving credit to others instead of trying to get all the credit and and take all the glory and make yourself look good and make other people think you're good start practicing giving other people credit it starts with worshiping God give God the glory give God the credit that he deserves because he deserves it all right I mean he's the Creator and he loves you and every blessing comes from him every gift comes from him so worship God every chance you get not just on Sunday morning but day in day out give God the praise and the glory that he deserves and admit that that he's best he's not just better he's best and then after you give God the glory then then thank those who have helped you succeed if you look good it's because there's a lot of people that are helping you look good so admit that and give praise to those people when you get an award when you get honor when you get recognition I love when I see people that get that honor and get that recognition and the first thing they think to do well first they give God the glory and then they think to thank all the people that have helped them get there I I love seeing that because that's that's what we're called to do we need to make other people look good um celebrate the successes of others so when you see somebody that does something that's good good that's honorable that's praiseworthy then celebrate that celebrate it with them make them look good seek to make them look good don't seek to make yourself look good but it's not just looking good stop thinking of yourself or stop thinking that you're better so practice humility we talked in our men's group uh on Thursday night about humility and this word I love the word um and and one of the the famous quotes that you've probably heard before we talked about it on on Thursday night as well is humility is not uh thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less and and thinking of yourself uh thinking less of yourself I think is is for me it's really easy to feel like I'm a humble person when I when I do that I just think less of myself and then then it kind of humbles me and and the reality is that that's just that's not that's not true humility because you're still thinking of yourself um thinking of others is humility so again it goes back to thinking of God think of God all the time worship God give God the the praise and the glory that he deserves humble yourself before God recognize that he's God and you're not recognize that Jesus is the savior of the world you don't have to be but then don't look think less of yourself seek to have an accurate awareness of your own strengths and abilities and your own weaknesses uh Ian in youth group on Wednesday night did a spiritual assessment with the youth group my kids came home I didn't get to be in there cuz I was with the adults now but but my kids came home and showed me we were talking about what their strengths and weaknesses were it was pretty cool and then they handed me this blank sheet of paper and said all right you do it well it wasn't blank but the the test or the assessment was blank they said you do it dad and I've done these before so I kind of knew what to expect but I went ahead and filled it out on Thursday morning and um I I I looked ahead and I saw what the different spiritual gifts were that were on the sheet and I kind of figured like okay this will probably be me this will be me this definitely won't be me and it was it was pretty right based you know like I said I've done before uh but the the top one was Administration for me one of my biggest spiritual gifts is Administration and um that's not bragging it's just it's the way that I'm wired it's and I'm not the best administrator by the way there's lots of people way better than I am but but for me I naturally gravitate towards uh using that gift it's something that come that I like to do something that comes natural to me uh there's some other ones as well and then there's definitely a list of things that I need to grow in uh but it's humility part of humility is to have an accurate understanding of both your strengths and your weaknesses but then also recognize the strengths and abilities of others so you're thinking of others more you're looking for okay you know what I might not be good in this but this person's really good in this and and and that's how we work as the body of Christ is we we share our gifts and our talents with each other right and not only thinking of yourself better but stop trying to make yourself better so how do we do that well I said we pract or we we practice service so that looks like helping others accomplish their goals I'm a very task oriented person I have lists every day and I try to check off my list and a good day is when I've checked everything off my list that I set out to do and a bad day is when I hardly got anything done that's kind of how I'm wired uh that's that gift of administration I guess well help other people check off their list you know look for ways to you know so I brought it up earlier so one way that I can help somebody in my house check off their list is when I see the dishes piling up in the sink I can actually do it you at our house I know this isn't the case all the time but in our house that's I'm not the primary person who's responsible for that uh we try to share that Duty as much as we can but Megan has you know she knows that I do a lot of other things so she's kind of letting me off the hook on that so it's not my primary responsibility but if I see it and it needs to be done and I know Megan's doing a million other things it doesn't take more than 5 minutes for me to help her do it and then I help her accomplish her gifts I make her life better you seek to make other people better practice service hospitality is another one by the way Hospitality bottom of my list I couldn't believe it I was like are you kidding I thought I was a hospitable person turns out Megan's extremely hospitable and I just projected that onto myself because we live together um but it it turns out I'm actually not very good at it I just I just get credit because Megan's really good at it but but Hospitality you know it's not just opening up your home but sharing your blessings with those who could use it so do you have a car and you have somebody that could use a ride that's Hospitality sharing your blessings your gifts for people who can use it that's how you that's how we work together as the body of Christ we we we think of others as more important than ourselves and by the way when we do that when we do these things when we practice giving credit to others when we practice humility we practice service well we have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had though he was God he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to instead he gave up his Divine privileges he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being when he appeared in human form he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross do you see these phrases he didn't think of himself he didn't think of his own position as something to cling to he gave that all up because he was thinking of us in the position we were in in the position we were destined for if he didn't do what he did he didn't just stay up there in heaven he gave Heaven up he he didn't just become a human though became a slave he humbled himself and he didn't fight the power but he obeyed God and he said God not my will but yours be done in obedience to God he died not the death that he deserved because he didn't deserve to die and not just any death he died a criminal's death on a cross Jesus did all this for us you see Jesus gave up citizens ship in heaven for us and so as citizens of Heaven he wants us to just be like him to live the way that he lived to do the things he taught you know he taught this if you go back Paul all he's doing in Philippians chap the end of chapter one in the beginning of chapter 2 all he's doing is just repeating what Jesus has already told us in the gospels but many who are the greatest now will be least important then and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then the greatest among you must be a servant but those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted so any who become a as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven if you try to hang on to your life you'll lose it but if you give up your life for my sake you'll save it Jesus took everything that we understand about how the world works and how we understand about greatness and power and authority and he just completely flipped it upside down and he said you know what if you want to be great make yourself the least and make other people around you great that's how you become great if you want to have a spot in heaven if you want to be a citizen of heaven then you got to bring people with you and by bring the only way you bring people with you is by bringing them up and lifting them up and building them up and encouraging them and praising them and blessing them and being a servant to them you have to humble yourself if you want greatness and that's exactly what Jesus did and that's exactly what God did for Jesus because Jesus humbled himself God elevated him says therefore God elevated Jesus to the place of highest power and gave him the name that's above all names that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on Earth and under the Earth every knee either has bowed or will bow to the name of Jesus the man who humbled himself more than anybody ever could giving up all the glory in heaven becoming a slave dying a criminal's death God brought him back up and elevated his name and we will all bow to the name of Jesus every tongue will declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father and so let's work together forget about what makes you angry forget about all those things that set you off forget about our differences let's work together for the one purpose that God's called us to which is to tell people about this loving Savior Jesus Christ who who can who can he knows everything you've ever done but he's already he just wants to forgive it and he wants he he just wants to love you and he wants you to be loved and he wants you to know how much you are loved and so let's go into the world and let's tell people about that if you need to respond to this message in any way I'm going to offer an invitation right now I invite you to come forward if you need any prayers you can do that you can also see our elders at the doors on your way out about invite you to respond however you need to as we stand and as we sing I surrender all to him I freely give I will ever love and trust him well when you worship live with us this is the time we normally offer an invitation for anybody to respond to the message and so we want to make that offer for you as well if you need to respond to our message in any way uh you can do that by contacting our elders directly we have several ways you can reach them they're on the screen right here or if you have any prayer requests that you'd like our prayer team to be lifting up to God for you this week please email our prayer team and if you need any information about who we are what we believe or any other thing about Central you can visit us at sparenberg church.org again thanks for joining us this week hope you have a blessed week for