Philippians Chapter 2 Verses 1 – 4

· This is the greatest of challenges possible for the church and for all of us. For some, it is their greatest failure. Not greatest only as in grand, but the one with the most negative impact. If you fail at these verses, you cannot serve the Lord. 1 John 2:9, “He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother (miseo, meaning detests, pursues hatred, is love less to his brother), is in darkness…” If you fail in unity, you fail in love. If you fail in love, you fail in glorifying Jesus in your life… These verses contain the greatest of challenges possible for the church, which is made up of each of us individually…

· For some it is their greatest triumph! Not greatest only as in grand, but the one with the most positive impact! If you strive and receive and apply and work for these verses, you are personally doing the most Christ-like thing one could ever do, and you are lighting your own path towards following and honoring the Lord! 1 John 2:10, “He who loves his brother (agapeo, meaning to welcome, to serve, to find a way to be fond of them, to end contention) abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.” If you succeed in unity, you succeed in love…and that shines glory towards the cross!

· Barrage of quotes…, so good though! Someone said, “Unity if the fruit of humility.” A.W. Tozer said, “One who lacks humility is fooled about himself!” Martin Luther said, “God created the whole world out of nothing, and so as long as we are ok with being nothing, He can make something out of us!”

· This is the greatest failure of the church because this is the single reason why our corporate witness is hindered in the world. Imagine a church without division. Without disunity. Without inter-church and intra-church contention…! But everyone of us simply striving to honor and worship the Lord by how we conduct ourselves! What would the world think of us then?

· Certainly, individually many succeed here but the hard part is that corporately, well, if one fails, we all fail… It’s been said that the culture of an organization is equal to its worst behavior tolerated! WHOA! Ugh, I know it’s terribly difficult. People are mean. People make mistakes. People think only of themselves (traffic is a great example!). Did I say people? I meant Christians… but Paul pleads with them to see it the way Jesus saw the multitudes… Unrighteousness and cruelty and selfishness, its all just ignorance…, truly stupidity…, and I get it, stupidity frustrates and enrages! But look at what Paul says!!

· If there is ANY. ANY! 1%. One crumb. One dust flake. One molecule. If there is any consolation in Christ… Jesus You died for my sin, You loved me even when I hated You, You showed me mercy, You gave me grace, and You still do today…, but that’s not enough for me to check myself and be welcoming, fond and end contention with them…! See how that makes no sense!?

· There IS a TON of consolation in what Christ has done for me, for you and for US…, but if ANY…, if that means anything to you…, if ANY comfort of love, if ANY fellowship of the Spirit, if ANY affection and mercy…, the point is find a way to get over yourself for the sake of what is good and what is right. Here, one Christian fails, and the witness of the church fails. STOP FAILING!

· Failery Chapel, First Fail Baptist Church, New Hope Church of Failure, what are we doing!? But just like this church in Phillipi, personal interests were exalted, worshipped, honored higher than God’s interests. Can you see that all that is idolatry but without the wooden gods…?

· Pull back the Insta-God Filter! You may be a Christian by self-assigned title but the absolute truth is that you and I are no followers or worshippers of Jesus Christ unless these verses are our ambitions!

· Like-mindedness, one love, one accord, one mind. Conform to them? They’re stupid! NO! Be not conformed to the image of the world but be transformed into the image of Jesus! Isn’t that all that it means to be a Christian? Oh no, being a Christian means that I am forgiven of my sin and I am under the grace of God and I have eternal life through Him. There’s a huge problem with that theology…, YOU’RE THE THEO! All of that is all about you!

· Being a Christian means you are being and becoming more like Christ. How many of you prayed a prayer asking Jesus as your Lord and Savior and that’s why you’re going to heaven? Well, what if that ask is accompanied by a continuation of idolatrous, satanic, evil acting!? Dude, why so confident!? Somehow being saved and being a Christian have diverged…, separated and it should not be so.

· Rather Paul says now that you follow Jesus, let nothing be done, NOTHING, through selfish ambition or conceit. The word for selfish ambition…its literally…its only strife. It literally means contention. All contention is idolatry! Oh, but we have to stand fast…, you can do that without strife, man! We can discuss, disagree and we can do it in agape (welcoming, considerate) love! How? Be interested in honoring the Lord! Sheesh this is so basic and so missing!

· The word for conceit is “self esteem or personal opinion.” Paul says nothing. Nothing should be done with that as the motivation. That’s the world, man, which you were saved out of, right? Well, what if that’s still you? Bruh, are you saved but not a Christian? Doesn’t work that way!

· But in lowliness of mind…, willing to yield, putting yourself second, striving and flexing all your hangups to empathize and connect with the other person, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Paul doesn’t say for me to think that you are better than me, you’re not… (although everyone is better than everyone else in something)! The charge is for me to esteem you better than I am esteeming me! Simple! And yet the GREATEST failure of the church! Imagine, just imagine if we all did that. Christians acting like Christ…, BRUH!

· Let each of you look out for each other. Merging in traffic would be a breeze! HA! Look out for me. I’ll look out for you. This is the Way. There is no other. I’m telling y’all, this is concerning, this whole idea of being saved but folks just fine living apart from Jesus. I mean, the way the enemy has wired the religious narrative today, some can’t even discern that they are so far from being a Christian…and even worse, most don’t care. This is the poison, the disease that had crept into the church and remains the greatest challenge even today.

· So, what must you do?

Philippians Chapter 2 Verse 5

· This whole section, which some refer to as perhaps the most theologically significant scriptures in all of the New Testament, and not only that but just simply the call, the process, the principles, the run-rules of what we/I am/are supposed to be and in truth who we now are IF we are in Christ, to make everything make sense and grow forward into what God has planned for us, this whole section starts with the word LET!

· Which means, this is totally under your control and your decision and my decision must be to submit to God’s will. Surrender to the work of the Holy Spirit. We have to let this be for each of us and if we don’t do this, it’s not going to happen!

· So, let this mind be in you, the one mind we are all to be keen to have, this mind which was also in Christ Jesus! I mean that’s it! That’s what a Christian is, right! Someone who decides to want to think and to actually think and consider and calculate and conclude just as Christ would if He was doing it and not you!!

Philippians Chapter 2 Verses 6 – 9

· Here is the downward progression of God, Jesus Christ, which ends in total deliverance, victory and exaltation. Jesus Christ, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth!

· This stepping down into His own creation, making Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, humbling himself and becoming obedient even to the point of death, that was all His decision! He didn’t get voted out 2 to 1 in heaven! HA! He looked upon those that had made themselves His enemies and because of His goodness, His maturity, His incredible strength of heart and character of power and love, He stepped forward and put me first, put us first.

· And because of that, somehow, in some mysteriously even arguable way (because its confusing and past my understanding) even God, all that God could be and all that God was for real for real, on the inside, became known and eternally significant as the citizenship of heaven exploded with countless souls! His full of grace and truth would never have been communicated, known, expressed, manifested unless Jesus LET this be His decision!

· This is holy ground, man! This is what makes all levels of power of darkness look like a bunch of useless, sad and weak cock roaches! This is the more than conqueror, this is the rivers of living waters, this is the FULL OF grace and truth. This is what we signed up to follow! And check this out…, here’s the proof text on those statements!...

Philippians Chapter 2 Verses 10 – 11

· Never would have happened unless Jesus had known His worth but submitted Himself to what was needed by those that He loved so much. God, the King of kings, Lord of lords, took (with His own hands) the form of a slave… Why? Because it was the wisest, strongest, smartest, best, most powerfully loving thing possible. That is the mind of Christ. And Paul says get saved, become a citizen of heaven, and then get Christianed…, and LET the mind of Christ be in you so that Christ would come back to the world through you.