Your aim is not to climb up, but to climb down.
Sermon Title: THE WAY UP IS DOWN
Sermon Text: PHILIPPIANS 2:1-11 (ESV)
Sermon Series: PHILIPPIANS: FINDING JOY IN THE JOURNEY
By: PTR NESTOR SY
Sermon Notes:
PHILIPPIANS 2:1-11 ESV
1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The goal is not to climb up, but to climb down.
The way up is down.
MATTHEW 20:25-28 ESV
25 But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26 It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
“The problem with spending your life climbing up the ladder is that you will go right past Jesus, for he’s coming down.”
John Ortberg
1: Stop Comparing
“Comparison is the thief of joy.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
We cannot look on the interests of others and consider them better than us when we are keeping score.
2: Be a Servant
JOHN 13:3-4 ESV
3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.
The path to greatness is found on the road called servanthood.
“Usually, giving our life to Christ isn’t glorious. It’s done in all those little acts of love, 25 cents at a time. It would be easy to go out in a flash of glory; it’s harder to live the Christian life little by little over the long haul.”
Fred Brenning Craddock, Jr.
The best way to forget yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
3: Be Humble
“If you meet a truly humble person, he will not be thinking about humility, he will not be thinking about himself at all.”
C. S. Lewis
PROVERBS 16:18 ESV
18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
JAMES 4:6 ESV
6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
Humility is a “do” thing, not a “feel” thing.
As God calls us to follow him by losing our lives, we cannot lose.
“It is our job to humble ourselves and leave it to God when and how he honors us.”
Lance Witt
JOHN 5:30 ESV
30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
JOHN 6:38 ESV
38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.
JOHN 8:50 ESV
50 Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge.
MATTHEW 23:11-12 ESV
11 The greatest among you shall be your servant.
12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
JAMES 4:10 ESV
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
“I trusted the people who really mattered.”
Erik Weinhenmayer