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Sunday Morning Messages

Finding Joy in Humility

Finding Joy in Humility

You can find joy by focusing more on Jesus and less on yourself.

Humility is not something that we do well. Often, even our humility is done in order to make people think more highly of us: we desire recognition and to have ourselves lifted up above everyone else. The problem is, this kind of attitude makes it impossible to have lasting unity as the Church. Fortunately, Jesus has given us the ultimate example of humility, and because of him we have hope of great things in the future for which we can be joyful. Additionally, when we learn to humble ourselves to Jesus, we can begin to put him first rather than ourselves.

This whole series through the book of Philippians in the Bible has focused on the fact that When your focus is on yourself, happiness is dictated by your situation. When your focus is on Christ, joy is found in every situation. This principle doesn't change here either.

Text to read: Philippians 2:1-11 NLT

Paul points out that unity in the Church is of special importance. In fact, in our first week, we talked about finding joy in a true and healthy Christian community! The problem is, if the most important thing to each of us is ourselves and looking good and feeling good and being better than others and being recognized for being good, eventually something will happen that goes against those things and our unity will break down. This is why humility is so important!

Jesus calls you to true humility.

When your focus is on yourself, happiness is dictated by your situation. When your focus is on Christ, joy is found in every situation.

Humility is a huge biblical principle. Time and time again, Jesus said we have to be less to be greater, last to be first, and have to die to ourselves to live for Christ.

Remember what we've said is necessary for joy over and over again: less of yourself and more of Jesus. This means you've got to humble yourself first to Christ and second to others!

Too often, you make your humility all about you.

This is false humility. It is filtered through how others will perceive you. You don't want to seem prideful, so you deflect complements and give heartless platitudes that give others credit without being genuine.

Your humility probably--unconsciously or otherwise--focuses on the questions: "What can I get out of this," and "How will this impact how people see me?"

I won a medal for being the most humble man. They took it away a day later ‘cause I wore it.
— Unknown

Jesus gave the world's single greatest example of humility and in so doing, the world's single greatest hope.

God becoming human is the biggest act of humility possible. And he didn't just become any kind of human: he was born to a carpenter's family, in the backwater community of Galilee (a future disciple would remark, "can anything good come out of Galilee?"), in the smallest country, under another nation's rule. He could have come as a ruler, but came as a servant.

Through this act of humility, Jesus took our sin (rebellion against God and missing the mark on what we were made to be) on himself and provided a way for us to be forgiven of our sin and reunited in a life-giving relationship with God.

There's no need to try to get ahead of others in life, because everyone has been made equal through Jesus.

In the end, Jesus will return and everyone will recognize that he is Lord and will bow the knee to him. The question is, will you be there in fear and trembling as an enemy combatant, or will you be there in awe and wonder as you are ushered in as a son or daughter of God?

Action Step:

  • Ask the Holy Spirit to show you one way you can be humble; do it, and keep it a secret!

Prefer to watch or listen to the whole thing? Do so below:

Secret #2 for finding joy in your life.

Secret #2 for finding joy in your life.

How can I find joy?

Suffering, pain, challenges, trials, difficulties: these are present in all our lives at one time or another. Most of us also spend a lot of time worrying about how to prevent these things from happening...even though they will no matter what we do.

But what if I told you that there is a way to find joy and see good things happen as a result of these situations?

Text to Read: Philippians 1:12-30 NLT

Some key points from this message:

Paul's situation isn't great, but he is allowing it to be used for Jesus Christ, thus bringing purpose and joy into it.

When your focus is on yourself, happiness is dictated by your situation. When your focus is on Christ, joy is found in every situation.

Your attitude in the situation will impact the effect it has on you and those around you.

Paul's joyful attitude positively impacted the palace guard and other believers (vv. 12-14), but what would have happened if he had a downcast or bitter attitude instead?

The key for Paul was his understanding that it is the spread of the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus' sacrifice for humanity, that truly matters (vv. 15-18).

Give your situation to Jesus and trust that he will use it to make a difference.

Paul doesn't talk about how he's going to deliver himself or how he's doing great things. He talks about how the Church's prayers and the Spirit of Jesus will lead to his deliverance. Paul understands that where he is powerless, God is powerful, thus he talks about his deliverance in passive rather than active terms (vv. 19-21). God will use the situation to do something for his glory and the spread of the Gospel.

When Jesus is where your significance is found, you can stand strong and rejoice no matter what comes (vv. 22-30).

A note on joy:

Joy is a fruit made up of faith, hope, love, contentment, and gratitude.

We can find meaning and joy in our situation when we allow it to be used to glorify Jesus.

Action Step:

  • Ask your closest friend what motivates you the most. If their answer is not “Jesus does,” ask the Holy Spirit of God to change your motives.

Prefer to watch or listen to the whole thing? You can do so below:

Secret #1 for finding joy in your life

Secret #1 for finding joy in your life

Joy comes from putting Christ ahead of everything in your life and being unified with others who do the same.

As Pastor Chester Miller finished preaching and readied to dismiss his congregation at a morning worship service on March 1999, one of his church members, Victoria Smith, pulled a gun on him during the closing prayer.
Why? Because Pastor Miller had not preached from the book of Revelation that Sunday. The 58-year-old woman in Saddle, Arkansas said a sermon from Revelation was “important for her feud with another church member.” McHenry’s Stories for the Soul, 2001 p.13

While it is jarring to think an incident like this could happen involving church people, the fact is that whenever people gather together, things like this happen. What is supposed to be a place to care for each other and find belonging becomes a place of division.

We often approach things like church with an attitude of What can I get out of this? Rather than what can I give to Christ and others.

Despite what we so often see within Christian community, Jesus followers are meant to live lives characterized by joy, which is what we'll be looking at the next few weeks in the book of Philippians.

Today's Text: Philippians 1:1-11 NLT

Things to note:

  • Paul and Timothy forego giving their honorific titles of Apostle and pastor and instead call themselves slaves of Christ Jesus. They humbly acknowledge that they are completely open to following the will of Jesus.
  • Paul is joyful at the Church of Philippi's willingness to work toward the spread of the Good News of Jesus.
  • Paul encourages the Church to overflow in love and care for one another as they push each other toward a greater knowledge and understanding of Jesus' commands and to focus on building each other up for the sake of the Good News.

Here it is quite apparent that Paul believes Christian community (ie, Church) is very important, yet over the past couple decades we have seen the average regular church attender drop from gathering with believers three times a week to 1.8 times a month!

This isn't the problem we're tackling today; rather, it is the symptom of a greater problem. Now, rather than focusing on Jesus and on others, everything has to filter through our own selfishness. On a Sunday you may ask yourself, "Is church really the most entertaining or productive use of this 1-2 hours?" Suddenly, kids' sports, sleeping in, mowing the lawn, going on a weekend trip, or just staying home to relax may take priority over gathering to worship Jesus and encourage each other!

This is one reason why joy, which is supposed to characterize those who follow Jesus, seems so hard to attain:

When your focus is on yourself, happiness is dictated by your situation. When your focus is on Christ, joy is found in every situation.

Other points:

As you learn to put others’ best interests ahead of your own for the sake of the Gospel, you learn to value others.

As you get involved in partnering together for a common goal, you are bound together by purpose.

As you love one another as Christ loves the Church and lovingly help each other pursue Jesus, this will be a healthy family.

When your focus is on yourself, happiness is dictated by your situation. When your focus is on Christ, joy is found in every situation.

When everything centres on Christ, we will care more for each other and, in turn, our unselfish obedience and care will result in more Christian joy.

Action Steps:

  1. Identify one area where you have been pursuing your own interests at the expense of loving others and make it right.
  2. Encourage each other to become more like Jesus.
  3. Confront sin with love.

Prefer to listen to the message? Do so below:

Why Don't Christians Take Better Care of One Another?

Why Don't Christians Take Better Care of One Another?

“Expect more, pay less." That’s the company slogan Target advertises to its customers. Unfortunately, it’s also the management philosophy many businesses have toward their employees. Mindful of the bottom line, some companies constantly search for ways to wring more productivity out of workers while simultaneously attempting to reduce the costs of their “human resources.”


It takes the average hourly employee at McDonald’s 30 weeks to make as much money as the restaurant’s CEO earns in an hour. In such a world, former Costco CEO Jim Sinegal stood out as a refreshingly generous leader. Throughout his tenure, Sinegal’s annual salary remained steady at $350,000 per year, roughly one-third of the pay of other Fortune 100 CEOs.

At the same time, Costco paid its employees 42% more than their chief rival. Sinegal was also committed to offering Costco’s workers healthcare costs at a fraction of industry-average costs. Contrary to prevailing trends, Costco remains closed on the Thanksgiving holiday so that its employees can enjoy time with family.

When the United States economy went into recession, Costco did not lay off a single employee. In fact, Sinegal pushed through a $1.50 hourly raise for his people in 2009. According to CFO Richard Galanti, “The first thing out of Jim’s mouth was, ‘This economy is bad. We should be figuring out how to give them more, not less.’”

Sinegal was also passionate about keeping down the prices of Costco products for customers. He limited markup 15% of costs regardless of whether the market would allow Costco to charge more.

Singegal’s generosity to employees hasn’t dragged down the financial performance of Costco—precisely the opposite. When rivals were cutting payrolls and shutting stores after the recession, Costco held steady. Stock prices have more than doubled and sales have risen nearly 40% since 2009.

Craig Jelinek, Singeal’s successor, has carried on his legacy. 

Costco understands that generosity is not a negative; rather, it is a great positive! This is a very Christian way of looking at life.

Unfortunately, professing Christians are not generous givers. Statistics show that More than one out of four professing American Protestants give away $0. The median annual giving for a Christian is $200—just over half a percent of after-tax income. About 5 percent of Christians provide 60 percent of the money to churches and religious groups. Twenty percent of Christians account for 86 percent of all giving. Among Protestants, 10 percent of evangelicals, 28 percent of mainline folk, 33 percent of fundamentalists, and 40 percent of liberal Protestants give nothing (Driscoll, A Call to Resurgence).

Additionally, Six out of ten churchgoers believe tithing is a Biblical mandate, but fewer than one out of ten actually give 10% or more of their income to any cause or organization (Facts & Trends, May/June 2006, p.17)

This is not what Jesus called his Church to, and on-the-whole, Christians are still one of the most generous and socially active groups in the world. However, there is a serious problem here.

Christians are called to be much more generous than most of us actually are!

Text to read: Acts 11:27-30 NLT

In response to this prophetic word, the church of Antioch gave cheerfully and sacrificially. No one was compelled--they did not have to be--they just gave as much as they could.

Generosity is a sign of obedience and spiritual maturity.

Paul notes in 2 Corinthians 9:13 NLT, "For your generosity to them and to all believers will prove that you are obedient to the Good News of Christ."

When you allow yourself to truly obey God and be transformed by his Holy Spirit, you will have such a deep care for others' wellbeing (especially others in the Body of Christ) and will become so much more sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leading, you will not be able to help but become more and more generous!

Generosity requires that you trust in God's provision.

2 Corinthians 9:10-11 NLT

God has given you all that you have. He provided his Son, Jesus, for you so you can receive life and forgiveness, he provides you with a job, with resources, and with food to eat. Generosity shows spiritual maturity, because to give sacrificially requires that you trust in God's willingness and ability to provide for your needs.

Jesus-people are giving-people.

We give in response to what Jesus did for us: he humbled himself by coming to live among us as one of us, he resisted temptation for us, he was beaten and bloodied for us, he was crucified until dead for us, and he rose again three days later for us. Jesus now mediates on our behalf before our Heavenly Father: why? For us. Jesus has given us everything!

Jesus tells us that we must pick up our cross and follow him. He was exceedingly generous, and those who follow him must be exceedingly generous as well.

As a church, we're called to touch our community with Christ's love with the hope that they will turn and follow him. But how can we do that if we’re not even caring for each other?

Our focus should not be on what others are or are not doing for us, but should be about how we can show love toward others. When we all begin doing that, we will all begin to care for each other!

Action Step:

  • Ask the Holy Spirit to show you a need of a Jesus-following person or ministry and give obediently and generously to meet it.

Prefer to listen? Do so below: