In this sermon, Trent Moody focuses on Philippians chapter two, verses one through four, where Paul calls for Christ-like humility. Moody examines the motivations for humility, including consolation in Christ, comfort of love, fellowship of the Spirit, and affection and mercy. He emphasizes the importance of serving one another and looking out for the interests of others. The sermon highlights that humility involves esteeming others better than oneself and rejecting selfish ambition and conceit. Overall, the sermon encourages believers to live out their faith with Christ-like humility and love for one another.

May be seated. So as I mentioned earlier, Robert was going to be preaching today, but unfortunately they're sick. So if you will be praying for them and quick recovery. And what I'm doing is pulling from a message that I preached back in 2015. And as I was looking through some of these messages, this one really caught my attention, and I think and believe and pray that it will be a benefit to our body, and hopefully instruct us in the ways of Christ.

So this is Philippians chapter two, Philippians chapter two verses one through four. And to many of you I'm sure this is a familiar passage. This has been a passage in our family for years and years that we have worked on memorizing and just reminding ourselves of these very basic principles of Christianity. One of the beautiful things about what we heard this morning was the hope that we have in Christ and the hope of the glory of God and this grace that we walk in. And in Philippians 2, he really helps us to understand regarding the love of Christ, but then he helps us to put some shoe leather to it if you will.

It brings it right down for us to live out these things that we know to be true And so that's kind of the direction of this. It's a call to Christ-like humility, is what I've titled this. So let us read Philippians chapter two verses one through four. And this is what he says. Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit.

But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others. Let's pray. Our Father, we ask you now to please give us wisdom into your word that you would Help us Lord to be doers of the word and not simply hearers. Lord we thank you for the wonderful theological thoughts that you allow us to contemplate and to meditate upon.

And Lord now we ask you to help us to bring these things down and live them. Help us to live out our faith with one another and we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. In Romans 829 Paul says this, for whom he for knew he also predestined to be conformed into the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And ultimately that's the goal, is that we would be like Christ, that we would be conformed into the image of his son.

And really this is one of the most wonderful verses of scripture that ensures our conformity to Christ likeness. We heard it mentioned this morning, actually I believe Scott quoted from Philippians about he who began a good work and you shall complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. And this is the promise that we have from the word of God that this is the work because whom he foreknew he predestined to be conformed into the image of his son. And Paul is going to, and the Holy Spirit, through the apostle Paul writing this, is helping us to be conformed into the image of Christ. And so part of this work of bringing us into Christlikeness is a work of sanctification that begins in our day-to-day living and in our lives once we are saved.

And part of this is the work of true humility. It's one of the things that we reject. It's one of the things that if you think you have it, you actually don't. It's something that is contrary to our nature. This type of humility is derived from an understanding that Andrew Murray says is based on our knowledge of the terrible nature of the power of pride that has entered our being.

All the wretchedness of which this world has been the scene, he says, all its wars and bloodshed among the nations, all its selfishness and suffering, all its vain ambitions and jealousies, all its broken hearts and embittered lives with all its daily unhappiness have their origin in what this cursed pride has brought upon us. Everything that you're seeing in our world today is because of pride. So what is this motivation that Paul gives to Christ-like humility, to Christ-likeness and it is this, this chapter 2 obviously is not a beginning fault. He says therefore, He's basing this back in if you look in verse 27 I'm not going to read all of this, but he says only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ That's really our design as believers. We want to live worthy of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

To live worthy, not only to think in a way that is glorifying to God, we want to live in such a way that's glorifying to God. And it cannot be done without Christ-like humility. You know, everyone here this morning who has been justified freely by the grace of God is now equipped with the power of the Holy Spirit and His working in us to be made and conformed into the image of Christ. It's very Paul-like to give us this motivation. Paul is, he was always encouraging even though yet he had correction and instruction.

And I appreciate that with the scriptures. It's not all down, it's not all telling us all the things that we don't do well. But he gives us this great motivation. And he gives us four motivations that correspond with the four Christian duties that Paul calls the Philippian Church to begin to live out. He begins by asking these Philippians this.

He says, Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy. He lists these four like little topics here. One commentator said it is extremely difficult to give the force of these expressions. He says they contain a torrent of most affecting eloquence. The apostle pours out his whole heart to a people with whom all his heart he loved.

And that's the way I feel this morning. I want to pour forth these things from God's word to a people that are greatly loved. Can you imagine? Here we have the apostle Paul. He's separated from a people whom he loved.

Have you ever been separated from people that you love? I think we've all experienced that and know that heartache in a sense that we're not with those with whom we love. That's what Paul was experiencing. He wanted to give them something. He wanted to motivate them to Christ-like behavior.

Oftentimes, our words fail us. We have deep feelings for someone but to express those feelings can be difficult. But Paul has a great help for them through the Holy Spirit and So now the problem for us is to understand what he is saying, but on receiving this, being on the receiving end of his instruction to us, we also have the Holy Spirit to help us to understand what he is saying. So first of all, Paul says, therefore if there is any consolation in Christ. The word if here that Paul uses is not a question mark.

It's almost like what Scott was talking about today. It's not a I hope so. It's not if there's consolation. It's more of since there is consolation. It should be such a consolation that we feel the sureness of it because there's consolation in Christ.

It's not a question as if there is consolation, but if we understand it and we are living based upon it. It's the act, this word consolation is interesting, it's the act of exhorting or encouragement towards a virtue. So really the entirety of Scripture is this consolation, it's an exhortation, it's an admonition or an encouragement for the purpose of strengthening and establishing the believer's possession of redemption. The purpose of this is to strengthen our faith, to grow us in Christlikeness. Another commentator noted this.

He said, consolation is properly encouragement. The stirring up of spiritual activity. It's ascribed in Acts 9.31 to the action of the Holy Spirit doing this stirring up. But here viewed as a practical manifestation of the life flowing from the union with Christ. We are in union with Christ through the Holy Spirit and he says here, if therefore there is any consolation in Christ, he's laying out these motivators to then do what he commands in verses three and four.

So that's what we're looking at first, are these motivations to be like Christ. We see this in, Paul says this also in First Corinthians one, 10, and 11. He says it in this way here though, he says, now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. He desires here in 1 Corinthians, he says that you speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment for it has been declared to me concerning you my brethren by those of the household of Chloe's household that there are contentions among you he he's pleading with them the King James would say I beseech you therefore brethren he also says it in Ephesians 4 I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you are called. That's Paul's, he's pouring it out there for them, he's wanting to motivate them, he's pleading and beseeching them to do this.

Paul is, he's pouring out, if you will, his deep affections for them, and at the same time, seeking to draw out of them that same deep and fervent affection that they will then show towards one another. Next he says, if there is any comfort of love. Ellicott notes this, He says, out of our encouragement in Christ comes naturally the comfort of love. That is, as always, the deep and thankful sense of comfort of his love, overflowing into comfort, lovingly given to our brethren on this encouragement in Christ, it's both received and given out to others. And St.

Paul, the Apostle Paul notes this in 2 Corinthians, and if you'll turn there just for a moment, I want you to see this, in 2 Corinthians chapter one, verses three through seven. Look at what Paul does, speaking about this comfort of love and the comfort that we have as being part of the body of Christ. He says, excuse me, I said 2 Corinthians, I don't know if I said that right, 2 Corinthians 1 verse 3. He says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all of our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.

Now if we are afflicted it is for your consolation and salvation which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope for you is steadfast because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also we, or excuse me, so also you will partake of the consolation. And so, if there's the main idea, Scott mentioned that this morning, this interpretive key here of a word that is repeated, he's repeating this word comfort, comfort, comfort, and consolation in Christ. And so my question to you is this, has Christ given you any incentive or motivation to love?

Do you have any motivation or incentive to love? Is there anything in Christ that motivates you when you look out among these people to love them? 1 John 4.9 says, in this the love of God was manifest towards us, that God has sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. And listen, beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

If you've not found any motivation or incentive in Christ's love to you, to love one another, then I doubt that you have ever experienced the love of God in salvation. Now that sounds harsh, but Jesus says much of the same thing in John 13, a new commandment I give you that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love one for the other. Next is there he says if there is or excuse me if any fellowship of the spirit. The word fellowship is the koinonia it is that idea of what we described here just a while ago, this fellowship of the body and I'm sure that some of you have heard this word before, it means this participation in anything together, it's the fellowship of the body of Christ, It is the communion or the common union of God's people and in this case, the communion that believers have with the Holy Spirit and therefore each other.

It's like the Holy Spirit, excuse me, it is the Holy Spirit that binds us together as the body of Christ. We saw this in Acts chapter two, and they continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers. What motivated this? The coming of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit did this.

These people were from all over. They were all over the place and yet instantly at the coming of the Holy Spirit there was a fellowship of the Spirit. Have you ever experienced that before with someone that you've newly met? Romans says this in chapter 12, "'So we, being many, are one body in Christ "'and individually members of one another.'" Think about that. We are members of one another.

The same picture that we have within a marriage relationship. Literally your wife is part of your body. Of course you're going to nurture and cherish her. First Corinthians 12 speaks of this as well. And Paul, he says this finally, he says, if any affection and mercy, it means pity or sympathy, it's translated often as inward affections tender mercies.

And so the next word that we see here is mercies and has in it this idea of compassion and pity. So what's he saying? He says if there's anything in Christ that causes you to feel inward affections and compassion towards one another. But I don't know about you, but when Christ saved me, he did something to me. He changed me in a very specific and unique way in that I now had tender affections for God's people.

That's why Scott and I get so concerned about people who can they have no desire to be a part of a church and they're fine whether they come or go or just watch it online or whatever. A true born-again believer is born by the Spirit of God which produces in them a tender affection towards one another that we care about each other. Years ago there was a man, a sales representative at a hardware store in Virginia. And I walked in one day and he was there and a friend of mine that worked there introduced me, said, you want to meet this guy? He said, y'all will hit it off.

And we began to talk and instantly our conversation was about the Lord and about the things of God and about his goodness and within moments my heart was tied to this man. I had affections for this man because he loved Christ. He had the same, we had the union of the Spirit of God. We had a joining of hearts and understandings. It was a work of the Holy Spirit.

We talked for the first time and I was moved to tears when he spoke to me of some of the trials that he had faced regarding cancer. He had a larger family. He was working to try to provide for them. He had almost died at one point, and I think now he has passed away, but he's telling me of his overwhelming hope in the glory of God that Scott spoke about this morning. It wasn't this oh I hope so.

He had a confident hope in the glory of God and instantly there was a unification of the Spirit. It was just what Paul was saying if any affections and mercies this fellowship of the Spirit. Colossians 3 12 says therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another, forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do but above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which also you were called in one body and be thankful." So in verse 2 we see the duties of Christlikeness. Verse 2 he says, fulfill my joy by being like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

These are the duties, if you will. He's moving from this understanding of, hey, here's the motivations to be like Christ, if there's any consolation of love. Has Christ done anything for you? Of course he has and it fills us up with the love of God and this love for one another because I know you love Christ and I love Christ and we are bound by the Spirit of God to love one another. Has a man ever hated his own flesh?

We are the body of Christ. How can we not love one another? And so that is our duty to Christ's likeness. Paul is, he's basing this persuasive argument and he draws them out and hopefully he's drawing us out as he reminds them and us of the encouragement and love and fellowship and affections and Compassions that we are to possess in Christ He now tells them that this would fulfill his joy. Fulfill my joy by being like-minded.

Be like this. Fulfill his joy. Remember these I want you to have a general understanding of the context of this. Paul had experienced intense persecution. They were experienced persecution.

So the heaviness of this is pretty large more than what our minds understand. There is a weight to this is what he's saying and what I'm going to share with you in just a few moments, I'm gonna share something that's really like surface level kind of thing that I think needs to abound among us. But he says to fulfill my joy by being like-minded, We should have great joy in having the mind of Christ. If you read on in Philippians, you'll read in verse five, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And he goes in and speaks about the humility of Christ and then the exaltation of Christ.

But he had this desire for them to be of a like mind, to have the mind of Christ to be thinking the same thing. He wanted them to have not only the same mind, but he wanted them to have the same love. He said, he said fulfill my joy by being like-minded having the same love. I don't know if any of you have noticed this but the Christian life boils down to this. Love.

Love God and love one another. Jesus said these were the greatest two commandments. This sums it all up. Love God and love one another. And so What I'm saying is not that we overlook sin or false teaching or anything like that, but what I am saying is that love will cover a multitude of sin.

As we look out and as we live our lives together, we're going to be just covering sin all the time. If you're going to live with me, you're going to have to cover my sin all the time because I'll have it and so will you and we're just going to love and we're going to cover. I'm not saying that we're sweeping things under the rug but I'm saying we're not going to be so easily offended at every little point and jot that we can't even dwell together and overlook things and love each other. That's what we need to do. We need to love one another.

And then Paul says, and I'm kinda skipping through some things here for sake of time, but he says this, being of one accord of one mind, he kinda sums it up again, but then he gets us down here to this third point, this practical outworking of Christ-likeness, and that's really where I want us to get to. So we have this understanding up here, we have this head knowledge, if you will, of what Christ is wanting us to be, where he's motivating us with these great motivators. Is there any love in Christ? Have you had any consolation of the love of Christ? Have you enjoyed these things?

Do you have reason to love? And then he brings it down to the practical outworkings of this in verses 3 and 4. And he says this, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others. So here this practical outworking of what Paul was getting to, this, remember doctrine is not an end in itself.

Doctrine should lead you to action. It should instruct and inform your behaviors and how we live with each other. And so the idea is that Christians do not live with a self-first mentality. I've told you this before and it was something I'd written down years ago about the word joy. We are to be joy-filled Christians and if you think of an acrostic here you have J-O-Y Jesus first other second yourself last.

It's kind of a thing I do with the kids sometimes. Jesus first, other second, and yourselves last. But when you get these things flipped up, our typical tendency is to have Y-O-J. And we go around with Yodge, and it's like ourselves are first, and other second, and Jesus last. And we're all discombobulated.

Look it up. Anyway, we do not want to get all messed up in that. What we want to do is have the joy of Christ and we want to understand that Christ did not put us here to serve ourselves, but to serve others. The word he uses here is selfish ambition. It's derived from the word meaning to work for hire but in a bad sense.

It's one who is susceptible to being bribed, one who is selfish or self-willed. They work only for wages, what they can get out of it. In other words, they do things for their own benefit and their own profit and it's all for themselves. And what we do within the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is not for our own benefit. We hear it all the time people come, well I just don't get anything out of prayer meeting or the worship service or whatever.

That's coming with a self-focused intentionality. We're not coming just to suck things out of things. We're coming actually to lay our lives down for one another. We're coming here to serve one another. We're coming here to worship the Lord Jesus Christ and to serve others.

The most miserable people are always those who look to get something out of it. But those who come with a hard attitude of I just want to come and serve and love people. I just want to give myself. Paul says I'm pouring myself out like a drink offering. Paul was the one of the happiest men around.

Those are the happy people. They pour out their lives for others and they just look for ways to serve others. So are you seeking the good of everyone else as you serve in this church? Are you seeking, or are you seeking personal benefits or praise or acknowledgments? Are you seeking to serve Christ and when you wash a dish you think God's people ate off this.

When you vacuum the floor you think, that's because God fed us today. We had so much it spilled into the floor. Praise God. It's all in how you look at it. Oh, that we would love one another.

It goes down to motives. Why are we doing what we do? When you serve, why? Do you serve because Christ served? This next word here that he mentions here, he says, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit.

It's seeking glory for yourself. The King James says, Vainglory. Mueller says, Pride is the most naked form of selfishness which is the essence of sin. And Paul tells us to do nothing from this motivation. But he says in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself.

It means to be humble. This is not to be understood as self-loathing or pity party or walking around you know ho-hum feeling bad for yourself. That's not what humility is. It's not what this idea of lowliness is. I like what Matthew Henry says, he says both of these are destructive of Christian love and kindle, un-Christian heats.

He says Christ came to slay all enmity therefore let there not be among Christians a spirit of opposition. Christ came to humble us and therefore let there not be among us a spirit of pride. When we look out we're thinking of others. Others. Whenever there is strife among believers, pride is at the heart of it.

Every time. This means simply that we should be quicker to point out our own faults than the faults of others, quicker to point out others talents and giftings than our own. And so this demonstrates itself in our service to one another. So I wanna make a super practical and really elementary application. And I'll start with this.

On the Lord's Day, today's the Lord's Day, what are you demonstrating about your esteem for others? How are you demonstrating your esteem for others? What I'm talking about is one of the lowliest forms and as I said really it's an elementary form of service because remember what Paul is talking about here he's preaching to those who are experiencing persecution for their faith. What I am talking about is not that. I'm kind of, we're just going to kind of skip a rock here across the surface of what Paul is getting to.

You see one of the best ways To demonstrate esteem for others is to serve them. And we have an opportunity every Sunday to serve one another. In a very practical ways. I mentioned it already, vacuuming and washing dishes and cleaning tables, putting up chairs and folding. All of these things are acts of service.

And it's a way to actually love one another. One of the things that I've noticed every Sunday is that we have some real servants in this church. We have some people that you don't have to ever remind them or ask them to do anything. They have an eye for it. When the trash is full, they're changing it.

When the tables need to be put up, they're putting them up. When the floor needs to be vacuumed, they're vacuuming. When the commode is stopped up, they don't say, hey Deacon, you need to go and stop the commotives. They just go do it. We're blessed with that and every Sunday they're actively esteeming others as better than themselves by diligently cleaning up and setting up.

They see what needs to be done and they do it. They cannot not do it. It's hard for them not to do it. They have to fight against it to not do it. And so they just do it.

It's wonderful. However, not everyone has this second nature to seeing what needs to be done and doing it. It's just that's just the life. How many of you have more than one child? Do all of them just naturally want to clean up after themselves?

Come on now. I know I'm not the only one with children this way. We have to actually teach some of our children to do this every day. It's not their nature. However, it will be in their nurture.

We will train them to do it. For them it needs to be encouraged and needs to be taught they need to have some motivation and this is this is how we do things in our natural homes or our families. This is what a mama spends most of her time doing, teaching them to do what's not natural. So one simple principle in this area is this, if you see something that needs to be done, find a deacon to tell them to do it. No, kids, I'm joking.

That's not what you do. You see something that needs to be done, do it. You just found the person who has the responsibility to do it. It's wonderful. Another principle that my dad taught me from the time I was, I think, breathed, first took a breath, never sit down if you see someone else working.

I could add to that, if you see someone else working, then you should be working. Ask how you can help them to work. Jump in there and lend a hand. Now, I know that there's a hundred opportunities every Lord's Day for us to minister to one another through spiritual matters. We can be praying, and I see this and I praise God for it.

We're praying for each other, we're ministering to one another, we're loving one another, but at the same time we do not need to be neglecting the seemingly less spiritual, seemingly less spiritual forms of serving and loving one another and that's in our service. At what point have we done our share of serving? Is there a point at which we've done enough? I've been serving for years. I think I'll move to the side and let others serve.

Now this may seem funny or odd that I said this question but it's actually the words that I've heard before. Not recently but I have heard them before. So let me set the record straight. We finished our service on this earth when we are no longer on it, but we are in heaven. Christ himself demonstrated this.

Look at what Christ the Lord of glory did in John 13. Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going to God rose from supper and laid aside his garment took a towel and girded himself After that he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with a towel with which he was girded. So when he had washed their feet, taken his garment and sat down again, he said to them, Do you know what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things blessed are you if you do them." Christ was the greatest servant of all. He would take the most menial task and he would serve those who were so undeserving. And finally Paul gives this present imperative which means that we are to continually do something.

He says look not every man to his own, look excuse me I had the wrong translation, let not each of you look out for not only for his own interest but also for the interest of others. Our focus and Paul's joy is tied up in the concept of putting others first. In all that we do, we're to be concerned about the benefit that we can provide to others and not ourselves. As one man said, a selfish spirit is destructive of Christian love. We must be concerned not only for our own credit and ease and safety, but for those of others also, and rejoice in the prosperity of others as truly as our own.

We must love our neighbor as our self and make his case our own." You see, I want to take the time this morning to help us and to call us back to this really most surface level act of love and service. But I also want us to understand that in reality there could come times in our life, in this country, that this will be much deeper than what I've given today. That we would look out for the interest of others. I'm reminded of a passage in Hebrews and this is just coming to my mind and I can't think of the exact verse but he speaks there of those who came to visit this the writer of Hebrews in prison and it was at the own possible destruction and actually was of the plundering of his own goods because when they identified themselves as being joined to this person in prison then the authorities would then ravage their stuff and take their property And they looked out not only for their own interest, but also for the interest of others. And they loved each other.

So brothers and sisters, if there is any consolation in Christ, if there is any comfort of love, If there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affections and mercies, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same mind and having the same love being of one accord of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit but in lowliness of mind let each of you esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interest but also for the interest of others and let us go therefore and obey the commands of our Lord and love and serve one another And the opportunity is knocking at the door. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for the Word of God that teaches and instructs us in the way that we should go.

Oh Father, I pray that you would help us to have a deep sense of our love for one another and a deep sense of our obligation to love and to serve one another. I pray that the love of God would so fill our hearts, Lord, that we will find great joy in serving each other, even in menial tasks, even in things that seem so small, Lord. Those can be some of the greatest demonstrations of the love of Christ when we consider others more important than ourselves because this is exactly what the captain of our salvation did for us when he did not consider himself to be too high and too holy to humble himself and to come to this earth and lay down his life for his friends. We thank you and praise you in Jesus name. Amen.

We are dismissed.