Sermon for Sunday August 15th, 2004

Living Joy by Sheila Crowe

Philippians 2:1-2:11

Good sermon last week - I choose joy
Then I went home --
Kids didn’t want to take a nap
Fought over the same toy – a broken happy meals toy
Bills, laundry, dishes
Watched the news, economy, terrorism, gas prices, the price of chocolate is going up

Choosing Joy is easy, it’s living a life of joy that is so hard.
It takes a major attitude adjustment
A change in our focus from self to others

Oh, I know we, as Christians, are always thinking of others and trying to serve others. Of course our efforts to care for others is kind of like the story two friends who went to dinner together to one of the family style restaurants – you know where the bring the food on common platters and you serve yourself. Each of the friends had ordered filet of sole and after a few minutes the waiter came back with their order. Two pieces of fish were on same platter, a very large piece and a much smaller one. One of the men took the platter and proceeded to serve his friend. Placing the smallest piece of fish on a plate, he handed it across the table. “Well, you certainly do have the nerve! Exclaimed his friend.

What’s troubling you?” asked the other. “Look what you’ve done,” he answered. “you’ve given me the little piece and kept the big one for yourself “How would you have done it?” the man asked His friend replied “If I were serving I would have given you the big piece, “Well replied the man who had done the serving “what’s your problem I‘ve got the big piece haven’t I.”

Far too often our unselfishness is really like that of the friend. It is really about what we want. We want but Joy, true joy, comes out of unselfish living in the midst of a community of others.

In Philippians 2 Paul is saying you and I already have everything we need to live joyfully. He does this by making four if statements. In the English language “if” often conveys a degree of doubt but in the Greek language this sentence construction called the first class condition does not have anything to do with doubt. On the contrary these “ifs” are not to be understood as conditional statements but as true statements. It is Paul’s rhetorical way of forcefully saying “since.” Since you have encouragement from being united with Christ, since you have comfort from his love, since you have the fellowship with the Holy Spirit and since you have been given tenderness and compassion make yours and my joy complete by living in unity.

George F. MacLeod, in Leadership Vol 2 says the Bible is all about community: from the Garden of Eden to the City at the end. The pattern for joyful Christian living is a unified community of believers. Jesus didn’t call each of the disciples and then send them out and say I want you to live out there all by yourself and just think about God. Just look at the beauty of creation, sit out on the lake in your boat and you will experience God. Or better on Sunday mornings stay at home in bed and converse with God. No, he called them together into a cooperative spirit and molded them into one body. Ephesians 4:3-4 says: There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called --- one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Unity of believers was so important to Jesus that it was his final prayer before going to Gethsemane. John 17:20 records this prayer, “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.


The oneness that exists between Christians is a oneness created by God. It exists not because we have so much in common, not because we all look alike or act alike but because we are mutually dependent on God. We are all depend upon Him for salvation, divine forgiveness and eternal hope and in our dependence we are into interdependence upon each other to provide here on earth a unified a community of Christ. We are called to be a united community where people can be real with one another, where people can share their hearts without fear of being judged or labeled. We are called to be a harmonious community characterized by love, honesty, and respect stirring one another on to a deeper intimacy with Christ.

Unity is something that happens from within. It is a work of the Spirit resulting from our abiding in Him. Unity in Christ means that we are joined in our desire to make God our focus that together we are seeking the glory of Christ. We are his body, we are his bridesmaid, he is the vine and we are the branches, all these things point to the fact that we are to be united for a common cause and the common cause is the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ. (from Sermon Central)

Paul understands that this isn’t always easy. He is writing to the Philippian church to thank them and encourage them. The church of Philippi was a great church but there was a problem in the church. There were human in it. Two women, (now don’t make too much about it being two women…) Euodia (yoo-oh-dee-uhs) and Snythche (sihn tih tshee) were leaders in the church. They were responsible for bringing many to Christ and helping the church grow but now there was a squabble among them and others in the church were well aware of it. It was causing divisiveness and pain in the church. They were talking about each other, making innuendos and implying things.

We don’t know what they were arguing about maybe it was the affections of a man, or differences of opinion in the carrying out of their church duties, or how church funds should be spent, or maybe it was about family jealousies. Paul doesn’t tell us because the cause is less important than the devastation that it was bringing about in the unity of the church.

Paul is writing to the church to remind them that they are one in Christ and that they need to get back to Him. He is admonishing them to return to Christ being the focus and then he tells them how to do it. I love Paul he is such a practical writer a little wordy perhaps but his advice is powerful. You can sum it up in one word – others. VERSE 3-4.

Check the attitude of your heart. Are you focused on God or on your own desires and wishes? I am convinced that most of the arguments in churches, families and workplaces today are the result of selfish ambition and vain conceit. We have our own agendas, our own thoughts, desires and wishes and we are bound and determined to make them known, understood and accepted by everyone else. We and we alone are right in our thoughts and no one else is thinking right like we are. And by golly we aren’t going to give in to them! Think about your last argument with your loved one, the last fight in your family, the last fight in this church. It was because you were right and they were wrong wasn’t it?

Selfish ambitions and pride is to God just as serious as murder, adultery and idolatry. We need to ask ourselves when we are being argumentative, do I want my idea preached and accepted or do I want the gospel preached?

“True humility implies unselfishness. I look at this verse and cannot help noticing the last line, “let each esteem others better then ourselves.” We live in a society which stress that everyone should be looked at as being equal and I would agree with that, socially everyone should be equal but scripture goes one step past, it teaches we should look at others better then ourselves. What this teaches is simply we need to put others before ourselves. Think of others before we think of ourselves. Our consideration of others must precede concern for ourselves. Never mind what I think is best, what do others think is best. It requires listening, hearing and understanding. What are they saying, what are they feeling? This is not at the expense of truth but it seeks the Truth of God first and foremost.

This does not mean I become a doormat for everyone to step on. Notice verse 4 again. The self centeredness that considers only one’s own rights, plans and interests must be replaced by a broader outlook an outlook that look which is wide enough to include others in its scope. It means we quit trying to be the judge and the jury.
When you are tempted to lash out or gossip or slander another person because they don’t agree with you and what you think is right, hold your tongue and serve their interest instead. When we speak evil of another person we are once again putting ourselves in place above them. We set ourselves up as God with the power to judge.

You would be amazed what you can see and learn when your outlook includes others and their interests. All of sudden you can begin to understand and when we truly understand each other then and only then together can we seek to serve the body of Christ. We are all part of the body of Christ, we should all work toward the good of that body. We should work toward the good of all for the glory of Christ.

Think about that last argument again – did you even think or consider God? Did you even once stop and think about what would glorify Christ? Or were you more worried about defending yourself, your idea, your family, your way, your right!!! Did you stop to even try to hear God through the other person’s needs, ideas or thoughts? Can you honestly say you unequivocally that you were doing what God wanted? In humility consider others better than yourselves.

And then Paul gives us the greatest possible example of what that means. VERSE 5-11. Jesus didn’t just preach humility, he lived and died it. He made himself nothing, he humbled himself, he gave of himself. He washed his disciples feet even though they didn’t get it, even though they deserted him, even though they had other ideas. Jesus, God’s own son, considered you and I more important than his own life. Paul is telling us that by accepting god’s selfless act of love for us through Jesus Christ, we are in the same way compelled to practice that same love in our relationship with others.

There was a fascinating study on the principle of the Golden Rule was conducted by Bernard Rimland, director of the Institute for Child Behavior Research. Each person involved in the study was asked to list ten people he knew or she knew best and to label them as happy or not happy. Then they were to go through the list again and label each one as selfish or unselfish, using the following definition of selfishness: a stable tendency to devote one’s time and resources to one’s own interests and welfare – an unwillingness to inconvenience one’s self for others.

In categorizing the results, Rimland found that all of the people labeled happy were also labeled unselfish. He wrote that those “whose activities are devoted to bringing themselves happiness…are far less likely to be happy than those whose efforts are devoted to making others happy.” Rimland concluded the happiest (the most joyful) people are those who help others – do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Living a life of joy comes out of our relationship with others. Living joy, joy that is long lasting and eternal put Christ first, others second and ourselves third. Living joy checks the attitude of the heart and seeks to bring Glory and honor to God not to oneself. Amen and Amen.