Last Sunday at The Family Church here in Gainesville, senior pastor Philip Griffin delivered Part Four of his sermon series on the New Testament book of Philippians, this particular message titled Joy Through Humility. Tbe Bible passage of focus was Philippians 2:1-11. which you can read by clicking on it. It all concerns putting aside one's own pride and imitating Christ's humility by putting on the role of a servant, tending to others' interests over one's own...
In opening his message, Pastor Philip brought up an incident a few years ago in the Black Sea when two Russian ships collided head-on after neither's captain would yield to the other. That epitomizes the problem with pride, he pointed out: contentiousness not only can lead to disaster, but it also steals our joy. The opposite of this stubborn pride is the humility that Christ practiced and which he exhorts us to adopt...as servant believers. What is the mind of Christ in this regard? Philip listed three aspects: (1) in order to have a relationship with us, Christ put aside his divine rights and privileges as God's son, (2) in order to lead us he took on the role of a servant to show that true power and true position are to be used in serving others...we as his followers should do the same, and (3) in order to love us, he died the death he did not deserve, motivated by his selflessness...calling us in turn to live sacrificial lives on behalf of others. In a nutshell, as our pastor stressed, the mind of Christ is about "giving", not "getting". But all of this requires setting aside one's pride...
Looking at this "pride" issue personally, I find it much easier to notice when someone else is letting their pride get out of hand when they act unreasonably and stubbornly toward others, often with the excuse that they are "proudly" defending the rights of whatever group they identify with, be it an association or some demographic group that emphasizes pride for its members. I understand the need for each of us to feel a sense of worth and that the sad truth is that, for many of us, the outside world can unfairly put us down because we are perceived to belong to the "wrong" group...in this light, it's important to have a positive sense of self, which can be translated as "pride". Also, if I am to seek to value the interests of others...and they presumably mine...then we should all be honest with ourselves and others about what exactly constitutes our own interests and not be ashamed of it...that to me is false humility. After all, if everyone is humbly yielding to each other for who's first in the food line, then none of us are ever going to get around to eating...
You can watch Pastor Philip's message by going to the church's YouTube video website...here's a link to it: [link]. The Family Church is located in far western Gainesville at 2022 SW 122nd Street and holds its weekly services on Sunday morning at 9 and 10:30. I'm looking forward to another installment in the Philippians series, as well as the great music...and that good coffee. Prayer, learning, discipleship, friendly folks...all in all a good place to hang out on a Sunday morning...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment