Philippians 2:1-4 Paul says to us, “Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there's any consolation of love, if there's any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, (2) make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. (3) Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves. (4) Do not merely look out for your own personal interests. But also for the interests of others.”

There's now lying in your bulletin friends. If you want to follow in that, you're welcome to look at that.

Father, thank you for this paragraph. We know that Paul wrote it from jail

about AD 62. To the people of Philippi. But we're also deeply convinced that you wrote it. By your spirit for us today in this room for us today who are online. Thank you for the message. Thank you for your book. Help us be people who honor you by submitting our hearts, our minds, and our wills to your will in this book. Help us in Christ name, Amen.

LISTEN! Here's an imaginary conversation between a high school basketball coach and a student. He says to the student, listen, if you can't jump and you can't shoot and you can't dribble and you can't rebound and you can't learn the plays and you are painfully slow running, maybe you shouldn't go out for basketball.

Now when the coach says that, he's not saying the jury's out on whether you can do this or not. He's saying I've seen you play basketball. I used the word if

but I really meant “since”.

●    These are “First class conditional clauses” meaning: “since (not it) these force things are true, you should not go out for the basketball team”

We start with the word if, but what we're talking about is so obvious that we really mean since. Since you can't do these six things, young man, please save me the time and the pain of cutting you from the basketball team. I've seen you play basketball. Please don't go out for basketball.

First class conditional statements. So Paul begins today in verse

one with four first class conditional statements. He starts with the word if.

But the things are so obviously true that he actually means since. So here's the outline of what we're going to do today. It's pretty simple.

“Since these ‘1st class conditional clauses” are true:

The first verse 4 things that are obviously true.

And then he says to us in verse 2, here's my command. Here's what I want you to do, make my joy complete. And then verses 2 down to four, here's how you do it.

You make my joy complete by doing these seven things in a relationship with each other continually.

Four things that are true that amount to towering blessings. One command makes Paul's joy complete. How do you do it? You do it with the seven things that he's going to spell out for us.

Here are the four things that are true. Verse one, since there is encouragement in Christ, this is not in doubt.

●    There is encouragement in Christ. The message is somebody is walking with us. Somebody capital S is walking with us through all the valleys in life. Through all the uphills, the downhills, the peaks, the valleys, the pain, even if I get in the valley of the shadow of death, I have the encouragement that Jesus Christ is walking with me, somebody strong and compassionate. This word encouragement used here is the same word used in John 14:16 which Jesus applied to the Holy Spirit. He is the Helper, He is the Paraclete. It means somebody who puts their arm around your shoulder and walks with you.

And so what Paul is saying to us here is we are people who have great help just being in Christ. That's encouraging. We also have great help, we have great encouragement because we've been rescued. We were separated from God. Our sin puts us at an infinite distance from Him. We were helpless. Nothing we could do. I tried, I worked for 19 years. I had a plan. It failed utterly. There was nothing we could do until Jesus paid for sin and the cross. We could put our trust in that and be forgiven.

We could come to a place where we say Jesus is my plan.

I have no plan

I have Jesus plus nothing. Putting everything in what he did for me in the cross. And so I have the encouragement of knowing.

I'm not facing eternal punishment. I'm not going to spend forever without God in a dark place all by myself in tongue chewing pain. That feels encouraging to me. That's a big change in my eternal destiny. We have terrific encouragement in Christ. Because we have all that we need.

2 Peter 1:3 “Seeing that God has given you everything you need for life and godliness.” Not necessarily everything you want. But everything you need for life and godliness. We still have troubles, but we're not resourceless anymore.

Now we have the indwelling Holy Spirit. Now we have this book that guides

us. Now we have people in the body of Christ who care about us. The problems are just as rough, and truthfully, they get a little worse when you trust Christ because. You change teams.

He went from the Kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of light, and therefore all of those in the Kingdom of darkness now hate you. It can be really rough, but we are not resourceless anymore. We have encouragement because we have what we need. We have encouragement in Christ because we have meaningful things to do with our lives. This is so compelling to me. I don't know if you ever think about it. You being in Christ have meaningful things to do with your life. You're not working all of your life to just die and have it be over.

You have meaningful stuff you can do. God made you good at things, and the things He made you good at are the things you enjoy. And you can do those things for His glory and for the benefit of other people and for your own joy.

Whatever it is that God made you good at, you can do that. You can be a person who shares Christ in the jail, who brings Bibles to me so I can give them to my sister. You can serve on the missions team, serve on the student ministry team, serve on the kids ministry team, security team.

We must have fifty teams of people here who are getting it done for Christ, doing meaningful, important, enjoyable things. We're not. Rearranging chairs on the deck of the Titanic. We have meaningful stuff to do and it's God's great gift to us.

We have that encouragement. We have terrific encouragement because we are facing eternal joy, eternal glory. Paul says in Romans 8:18, that these minor struggles in life are not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed to us. We'll get to heaven. We'll experience the joy and glory and say, I would do that 20 times for this. I would do that 1000 times for this.

I know it's hard to realize in the trenches. It's hard to realize in the trenches, my friend. But we would do this 20 times for what's coming for us. God is giving us joy. We're going to be an eternal glory. That's encouraging. The Philippians have the encouragement that God brought Paul to them.

How many of you have had God bring amazing people into your life?

Especially at critical times. People who came into your life and helped you in substantial ways and you look back on it and say, oh, thank you, Lord, where would we have been without Jerry and Ella Mae? Where would we have been? Where would we have been? You know their names? We get that encouragement. God brings tangible people into our life, flesh and blood people who walk with us as our helper. The first thing that's true, we have encouragement in Christ.

●    The second thing is true, we have the consolation of love.

Consolation means a persuasive message. We have the persuasive message that we are loved. We have no doubt that God loves us, that he has interceded for us. He loves us in the past when he created us, when he decided to create us, in the past when Jesus paid for us in today, when we're facing our struggle in the future, when we stand before him, we have a persuasive message

that God is giving us, that even if we have bitter things in life, we are much loved. I have Post-it on my mirror. I've told you about it five times.

“I'm a much loved son of the most powerful and compassionate being who could possibly exist. And I am also well loved by some amazing people. It's God's kindness.“

There's consolation to me in being loved. I'm not loved perfectly and I don't love perfectly. But I'm loved well, and that's his generosity.

●    Third true thing, verse one, there is fellowship in the Spirit.

There is no doubt about that. We're indwelled by the Holy Spirit that puts all of us in fellowship with all of us. All of us who have trusted Christ have the Spirit and therefore we have this amazing fellowship, this close relationship, this crazy joy that we're not orphans. We're part of a family. We belong. We have fellowship in the Holy Spirit with the Holy Spirit and the Father and the Son, but in the Holy Spirit with each other, we have a family who cares about us. It's the third true thing. And

●    The fourth true thing, verse one. There is affection and there is compassion.

When you're in Christ, there is affection. There is compassion. It's not in any doubt these two words are gut level words. They're words that literally speak of our bowels. Have you ever had a near accident when you thought you were going to get killed and just something in your stomach it’s. This is a stomach level of compassion that we experience from God and toward theirs.

This settled assurance that the God of the universe is for us. God is for you.

He can't help himself. He's crazy for you. He loves you like crazy. I grew up thinking God was against me because of the bad things I did. I was very convinced I'm in trouble with God. But it turns out the book says no, he's crazy about me.

Doesn't make sense. But it's true. God is crazy about you, crazy committed to you. So since those four things are true, Paul says in verse 2, Here's the one command here, here's the one thing I want you to do, he said. I want you to

“make my joy complete” Paul says. You've been blessed with faith, meaningful life, an amazing eternity. There's just incredible things coming, but I want you to do something right now, Paul says. I want you to make my joy complete.

And the summary of it is, he's saying to the Philippians, I want each of you to love each other with an unwavering passion. He said I'd be happy. Paul's saying I've got a lot of joy now because I'm headed for eternity, because I have meaningful things to do with my life. I have people who care about me.

My word. Timothy comes into my rented house every day and helps me. I have crazy joy right now. But if you want to complete it. You Philippians could

complete my joy. He's going to tell us how to do that and in essence is get along with each other.

Get along with each other. Friends, if there's a grandmother, you know, she's 85 years old. Christmas is at her house this year. All the kids are home. All the grandkids are home. She's sitting in a rocking chair in the corner. Everybody's having fun. Everybody's being kind. Everybody loves each other. She's watching them play games and help each other and tell stories about family life. And it's just utter joy. And someone says, how are you doing, mom?

And through tear filled eyes she says. My heart is full. My heart is full because I'm watching the family get along and love each other. And Paul is saying you

would make my heart full. If you would treat each other in the family with utter kindness.

God is saying you would make the heart of God full if we at FCBC would be that kind of family. Who is having such a great relationship and so much kindness, so much forgiveness, so much grace that God is saying I love, I love seeing my kids get along. I just love it. Here's what he's going into in the rest of this paragraph. He's going to talk about how is it that we make the heart of

God full? How is it that we give Him joy, give ourselves joy, give each other joy? The answer is 7 things. I know that's a lot.

Seven things, verses 2-3 and four. Fill this command to complete Paul's joy by

●     Being of the same mind.

This is a word that means agree together, cherish the same views, mostly translated, be harmonious, cherishing the same

goals. It's a pattern of thinking in my mind that promotes harmony in all of us. It's a pattern of thinking in our individual minds that promotes harmony in all of us. How do I do that? How do we do that?

We're all dedicated to Christ, first of all. We're all reading the book Capital B.

of all, we're all submitting the Holy Spirit. On a daily basis, if I'm committed to Christ, I'm saturated with this book and I'm depending on the Spirit. I'm going to be a great family member.

I will be a great family member. Friends, if you're coaching a soccer team and you teach these children how to play together, how to pass it, how to stay in their position, you teach them some plays. Then the team can know the plays.

But if the individual player doesn't do the plays and if the individual player doesn't develop their own skill level. You're not going to have a good team.

It's two things involved, it's the team having a plan and it's the individual living into the plan.

And I'm saying I need to be a person who is committed to Christ for my own joy, for my own obedience, and for your good. Who's reading this book for my own joy, for my own obedience, and for the good of the body at FCBC? Whose daily getting up and saying Spirit of God control me for my own joy, my own good, and for the benefit of the body at FCBC. When we all walk in the door having spent a week loving Christ. Reading his book and submitting to his spirit, we're in a great place. We've got a team that knows the play and that also individual players are committed to their part in the play. And so the

question is, am I personally committed to Christ more today than yesterday?

Am I faithful in the book? Am I getting up and saying, “Spirit of God, today is your day?” You make all the decisions, you make all the calls, you make all the choices, whatever you want. Lord, the answer is yes. I just need to know what the question is.

I'm going to do it, whatever it is. I just need to know what the question is. I'm submitted to you, so I'm part of that kind of a body. First two, maintaining the same love. The word maintaining means to lay hold of something and cling to it. It's like getting a death grip on something. You've got a hold of something, it's so valuable, you're not going to lose it. And his command is get that kind of

a grip on love.

●    Maintaining of the same love

It's the famous word agape. It's the Greek word agape. It's the famous love. It's the love of choice. The love of decision, the love of sacrifice, is not speaking of a love of emotion. Is the kind of love that says I love you because

I decided to and there's nothing you can do about it. That's what I'm supposed to say to my bride at the altar.

“I love you because I decided to and there's nothing you can do about it.”

You're just, you're just in love for the rest of your life because I made a decision. It's not based on the lovability of another person. This is such a challenge, friends. It's easy to love lovable people. But that's what the world does. The world loves lovable people and hates unlovable people. We are people commanded to love out of our own personal decision, not out of the love ability of another person. Is the kind of love that says I'm going to, I'm going to figure out what you need and I'm going to bless you.

I've made a commitment in my heart to do it. There's nothing you can do about it

●    United in one spirit.

It's a compound word. It's 2 words put together. It means desire together with another. Usually translated as united in spirit or sometimes translated harmonious. It's the idea that we're going to be united together because we decided to, because God commanded it, and because the Holy Spirit creates unity in the body of Christ. I said this last week, at the risk of insulting your intelligence, I'm going to say it again.

Ephesians 4:3, “Being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” The Holy Spirit creates unity in the body. We diligently preserve it. We diligently seek peace. Unity is a special creation and a great love of the Holy Spirit. It's his baby. Don't mess with his baby. We're people who are called to be committed to that as well. Listen, friends, divisive people are miserable and they spread misery. Harmonious people are joyful, and they spread joy.

God is calling us to be harmonious. Next issue, verse 2 being intent

on one purpose. So this is a little tricky because the very first thing.

Paul, Paul said to us at the very beginning of verse two, the first thing he says is being of the same mind.

Now he says “being intent on one purpose” and he uses the same word both times, the same word both times. So in the first time he used it, it's a

general statement that says sort of be of the same mind, agree together.

Cherish the same views, be harmonious. And now he uses the word again with this meaning.

This is a specific call to shared direction and shared purpose. The first one is to be a harmonious kind of a person. And the second one is to agree together in the body on what you're going to do. So if I'm a harmonious person, if we all are individually harmonious, then we band together to point the affections of all peoples to the all satisfying person of Jesus Christ. We say to ourselves, I'm going to be a harmonious person. And we're going to band together to point out every person we encounter, all peoples meeting, all the people groups around the world, Assam and everywhere else. We want to point them to Jesus Christ because he's an all satisfying being. Nothing else is all satisfying. We want to be that harmonious #5 verse 3.

●    Doing nothing from selfishness or empty conceit.

I will warn you, friends, this is a challenging one. Here's what selfishness means. Courting, personal distinction. Desire to put oneself forward. A partisan and factious spirit that is willing to engage in devious methods.

This is not a pretty picture. That is what it means to be a selfish person. Here's the conceit word. Groundless, empty personal pride. It's saying I'm better than you, I know better than you. We're going to do it my way. Paul's command is don't do any of those things.

Let your heart be. I want to be. I want to be a person who says you're more important than me when you hear me, read the definition of selfishness and empty conceit. It's pretty easy to say I know a person like that.

You probably do. Probably know a lot of them. I probably do too. Here's the

bigger problem. It's not the people we know who are like that. It's the question of am I like that? That's the big thing. We read this book to say it's about me.

It's not about this guy I know at another church or at this church or a guy I know in the neighborhood. They're going to have to deal with God themselves.

This is about me and my question of how much is there in me of sinful thinking and sinful relational style? How much are there in me that says I want my way? How much of me is selfish and full of empty conceit? Here's the prayer, Holy Spirit of the living God, please search my heart, reveal any of

this to me, weed out of me, pull it up by the roots in Jesus name, Amen.

The amplified statement of this is do not ever do a single thing for self promotion with devious means, with a factious spirit, with a personal arrogance and self important willfulness. Here's the short version.

Here's the street version. Don't be a Christian jerk.

It's not in the original text.

●    Humbley regarding others as more important than yourself.

Verse 3 says here's how I want you to go about that, and then he commands us the sixth thing. I want you to be a person who humbly regards others as more important than yourselves. It means to turn from selfishness to concern, turn from willfulness to care, turn from pampering myself to serving others, turn from pride to humility. Everyone of you clothe yourselves with humility because God's opposed to the proud. He gives grace to the humble. If I am a

proud person, I am saying to the God of the universe, you and me in the parking lot. I'm inviting opposition from the God of the universe that is the height of spiritual insanity. I mean, there are certain people in this room that I could say, hey, you and me in the parking lot and they would go out there and just pummel me. Pummel me would be stupid of me to do that.

But if I'm saying that to the God of the universe. What is wrong with me? Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. He will exalt you at the right time. I got to refocus from self focus to other focus, trusting the Holy Spirit to change me in that. End of verse 4. Here's the last thing he tells us.

●    Looking out for the interests of others, as well as your own.

As well as your own interests. Now this doesn't let me off the hook to mow my own lawn, pay my own bills, take my own walk, you know, do my own dishes. I've got to look out for my own interests, but I've also got to start saying to myself, I need to pay attention to your interests as well. I cultivate inside of myself a growing concern for what? Concerns for you?

A growing concern for what concerns you. Here's the titles of the body of Christ, the church, the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, the family of God, the household of God, the flock of God. It's all relationship metaphors. It's all talking about us being in a family. We're not a looped, loosely connected group who happen to all like model rockets. We are a tightly knit group who've all put our hope in Christ and spend eternity together. It's a family metaphor. We're that close to each other and we're called to be people who look out for each

other's interests. I want to read you a couple verses later on in Philippians 2 where Paul straight up equates the seeking of another person's interest.

Was seeking Christ's interest. He straight up says, if I seek your interest, I'm also seeking Jesus' interest. And so over in Philippians 2:19-21, Paul says, “but I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly so that I also may

be encouraged when I learn of your condition. For, I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare. And for they all seek their own interests and not those of Christ Jesus.”

Timothy is generally concerned for the Philippians welfare. And that Paul equates to seeking Jesus' welfare. When I seek your welfare, I am seeking the welfare of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am doing exactly what Paul is commanding me to do. I have to be a humble person to do that. Listen to some of these

things, friends. He, he who is greatest in the Kingdom of heaven, shall be servant of all. First shall be last. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever wants to be first shall be the slave of all.

I have come to a place in which I say I want to be the greatest person in FCBC. By being the most amazing servant this body ever had. Whoever is the slave is going to be the greatest. Here's the central truth.

Central Truth: If “first class conditional clause”. Meaning since God has continually given to me crazy grace and forgiveness and compassion, wouldn't it be right for me to continually give these to you? If I've been given crazy grace, compassion, forgiveness, kindness, patience, generosity, long-suffering. Wouldn't it be right for me to give them to you? And you to give them to me,

and us to give them to each other. I think, you know, Paul's got just basically a watertight argument here that says how can I take all of this grace from the Lord Jesus?

And not give it to you. I've got to be the channel that's just throwing through me to other people. If God has given me crazy grace, wouldn't it be only right for me to give it to you?

Let's pray please, friends.

Thank you for the Amazing Grace that you have entrusted to us, given to

us, poured out on us. Father, we are drowning in an ocean of grace.

Thank you so much.

I'm asking that we today at FCBC would be people. Who are continually committed? To love each other well. To give continual grace, to relate with grace and truth. Being people of kindness, long-suffering, patience, forgiving.

People who decide. I love the people in this body, everyone of them, because I decided to, because I decided to.

Help us in that, Father, when

we pray in Christ's name, Amen.