On Bended Knee

September 25, 2005

Pastor Ray Angerman

Philippians 2:1-8

My oldest daughter Ashley started playing soccer in elementary school and now she plays soccer for Concordia University in Chicago, IL. One of the things that I have learned from being around soccer players is the importance of coming together around a common goal. If you want to win, team unity is essential. You can have the most talented athletes and the best coaching staff, but if the team doesn’t work together you will not win. It’s a team effort and requires everyone to pull together.

Often, during the season, players will get sidetracked. It may be a loss that sidetracks them. It may be a personal problem with another player, or a family problem. It may be a disagreement with a coach. It really doesn’t matter what it is, but when a player’s attitude keeps them from giving their all and pulling together with their teammates, the whole team suffers.

The same is true for us as Christians. Our effectiveness is not only determined by how strong our relationship is with God, but with each other.

God is not impressed by how smart you are, or by how talented you are, or by how much knowledge of the Bible you have, or by how well you can sing or play an instrument or teach or preach. God is not impressed by a big building, a full parking lot or a big budget.

What God is after is a heart that loves Him completely.

God is looking at whether the character of Christ is being formed in us. Are we becoming more like Christ?

One of the ways you can tell whether you’re becoming more like Christ is to ask yourself:

Do I look for ways to serve or do I make excuses?

Do I generally think the best or worst of people?

Do I take others for granted or do I thank them for a job well done?

Do I build up others and encourage them or do I criticize them?

Do I ask, “What does God want?” Or just do what I want?

Our answers to these questions reveal if we are becoming more like Christ. And becoming more like Christ determines our effectiveness as Christians and as a church.

I have always been amazed at how effective so many of the cults have been. In many cases, the message they are preaching is far more difficult to believe than Biblical Christianity. But the one thing that they have that makes all the difference in the world is that they are sacrificially united. They have a shared vision, a common goal, and a singular purpose. They share with each other and support one another. I believe that this is why they are so successful. This kind of unity is very attractive especially to young people.

Unfortunately, what many people experience in so many Christian churches is not a singleness of purpose and a unity of the Spirit. What many people experience is an uncertainty of purpose, a vagueness of basic faith, and a disunity that comes from conflicting desires.

This problem is nothing new— it has existed from New Testament times. It is a serious problem however.

One of the greatest challenges the church has is the challenge of coming together as one. This is the focus of Paul’s message in our text today.

To begin Paul reminds these Christians what they have in Christ.

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, … (v. 1)

The first thing that you notice about this text is that Paul begins each of these statements with the word “if”. What does he mean "if”?

How can you possibly become united to Christ by faith and NOT be encouraged?

How can you know that He loves you and forgives you, and NOT be comforted?

How can you possibly believe in Jesus Christ and NOT understand tenderness and compassion?

And the answer of course, is that you just can’t. It’s impossible. And Paul knows that. Paul uses the word “if” because the Christians in Philippi were living like it didn’t happen.

Paul’s saying in essence, "Remember! Take just a moment out of your busy lives and remember what you have personally experienced from Jesus Christ.

Remember…

The love, encouragement, fellowship, tenderness and compassion of God that has changed your life forever.

The times when you have experienced the joy and wonder of believers who really love and care for each other and are radically devoted to each other.

When you were welcomed into God’s family and thought to yourself, "Man, this is as good as it gets."

Do you remember those times? Paul says. I know you do!

Now I ask you my family here at Good Shepherd:

Has being accepted by Christ into His family been an encouragement to you?

Has His love given you comfort?

Has the Holy Spirit enabled you to enjoy intimate fellowship with God?

Has God shown you tenderness?

Has He shown you compassion?

The answer is yes! I am glad you remember.

Remembering what we have received in Christ gives us perspective. We have been blessed way beyond what we deserve.

Therefore, because we have received so much from the Lord, how are we to respond to one another?

Listen to what Paul writes in verse 2

…then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. (v. 2)

Look at the words he uses. We’re called to be like-minded. We are to have the same love. We are to be one in spirit, one in purpose.

As Christians, the things we think, do, and say, and the decisions we make are to be according to God’s will for us and for His body: the church.

When we are on the same page with God then we will be on the same page with one another.

This is so important. One of the greatest needs of the church today is for oneness in the body so that we are a witness to the world.

Jesus Himself pointed this out in what is known as His High Priestly Prayer to His Father.

I want all of them to be one with each other, just as I am one with you and you are one with me. I also want them to be one with us. Then the people of this world will believe that you sent me. (John 17:21 )

This is church growth principle #1.

What Jesus is saying is that our oneness is a testimony to the fact that God sent Him into the world. In other words, if we want people to believe that the Father sent the Son, we need to demonstrate our oneness to them. What a challenge!

So what stands in our way to achieving oneness? Listen to what Paul writes in verse 3…

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit… (v. 3a)

There is an enemy that wants to destroy our church, our relationship with one another, and our relationship with Jesus. It is the enemy within each of us: our own selfish ambition and our vain conceit that can derail the activity of God in our midst.

Listen to what St. James says about this:

Do you know where your fights and arguments come from? They come from the selfish desires that war within you. (James 4:1)

Selfishness is at the root of every sin. The middle letter of sin and pride will always be the letter I. Selfishness deals with "what I want."

Selfishness seeks to attack, dominate and control other people rather than to serve them. Selfishness is the direct opposite of what God is. God’s love is selfless and other centered. So, if we would like to be like Christ, we must resist every selfish attitude and action.

Selfish ambition and vain conceit never brings people together; it only drives them apart.

So what’s the solution and where do we begin?

Paul gives us a command in verse 3:

…but in humility consider others better than yourselves. (v. 3b)

Here is a command that has the power to deliver us from attitudes of selfishness and pride. This is how we are to treat one another and it all begins with humility.

Humility is the ability to see ourselves as we really are before God. Humility informs us that we are no better than anyone else. I remember an old Mac Davis song that went like this, “O Lord it’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in everyway.”

But when we get “one on one” on bended knees before God we realize that we “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Then we see ourselves for who we really are and we are humbled.

Our hearts will only become humble as we bow before the living God and acknowledge Him as Lord over our lives and as we surrender to His will. Only then will we be able to see others from His perspective and see how valuable we all are in His sight. So we must put on humility so that we can regard others as more important than we are.

And then, Paul says this:

Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. (v. 4)

A natural result of regarding others as more important than yourself is that you focus on their needs, not just your own.

But our selfishness wants to keep us from doing that.

Why such a struggle?

When you go back to the Garden of Eden, before sin entered the world, you see God’s perfect, unspoiled plan for us.

What did things look like then?

How were they different then, than they are today?

Man had perfect oneness with God. Before God created Eve it was just Adam and God and then God said, "It is not good for man to be alone.” And so He created the woman, out of the man, and He says the two are one flesh. They love God and they love each other. They are radically devoted to one another. They truly, in every way, live for the other! That’s perfect oneness! And God says that’s "very good"! That’s as good as it gets.

But something bad happened in the Garden and man disobeyed God and man’s oneness with God and with each other was destroyed.

It didn’t take long before Cain kills his brother Abel. Listen to the statement Cain makes in verse 9 when God comes looking for Abel. "Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘where is your brother, Abel?’ ‘I don’t know,’ Cain replied. ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’" Do you see what’s happened there? Because sin destroyed man’s oneness with God it also destroyed man’s oneness with each other. Sin brought selfishness. Cain didn’t care about his brother anymore. He was only concerned about his needs, his wants, his feelings, and his desires. Man had developed a self-serving attitude. So what’s the cure for that?

Listen to Paul again:

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: who being in the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being fond in appearance as a man, he humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross!”

Because of man’s sin, our sin, our relationship with God and each other has been destroyed. God desired oneness with us so much that He allowed the sacrifice of His only Son Jesus on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins.

Jesus humbled Himself, putting our interests so far above His own, that He suffered the brutal death of the cross.

Why did He do that? Because more than anything—He wanted to restore our oneness with Him.

He loves us that much.

So how are we to respond to such a love as this?

Paul concludes:

Philip. 2:9-11

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, [10] 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.

Listen to what the first Christian church did according to Acts 4:31-32, "And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak the word of God with boldness. And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul."

Let us humble ourselves and pray on bended knee until this place is shaken, and we cleansed of our selfishness and pride.

Let us seek Him until we are filled with His Spirit that moves us with love and compassion for one another.

Let us center on Jesus until we speak the Word of God with boldness to a lost world that so desperately needs Him.

Then and only then will we be of one heart and mind.

May God give us this day, a fresh filling of His Holy Spirit.