And so I want you guys to know a bit about me. I grew up at a very, very small private high school. When I say small, I mean, like tiny. I graduated counting myself with three. Yeah, got some Yeah. You can ask my dad. Our graduation ceremony last like half an hour. We had the whole like, you know, they had to walk the whole way, and then the next person came, like, the after they walked the entire day. Like, it was insanely short. And it was awesome, because then we went to jalapeno tree right after so tiny, tiny private school. But by the grace of God, we were still able to play sports despite how small we were, and I got to play a lot of them. I played football, I played basketball, I played volleyball, but my favorite was basketball, and I praised God every day that I got to play basketball for the entire four years of high school. And I remember one game in particular, the most my dad is probably he's probably thinking, which game you talking about, because it's so common. But we'll get to that in a little bit. It was my senior year, all right, so like I said, small school, you need about five people to have a full team of players on the court. We had eight players total on the team. And because this was so late in the year, we had gotten down to five because some players were failing and some were injured. And so the game starts, we have all five of our team on the court, and we start running our plays. I get past the ball, I'm putting up some points. Everything is going nice and smooth, but there was a problem. The other team had a really big guy with a really big attitude, andhe was very, very aggressive.I would get the ball, and he would do everything he could to mess me up. I would get elbowed in the side, jammed in the back. He'd step on my toes. He'd kick me as I'm running like he would do whatever he could to make sure I didn't score. So I fought back, and I got ejected from the game before half time. Now, remember, we had five people on the team. You need five people to run most plays by the association we played under because they had a lot of small private schools. They had a rule to where you could keep playing with four out of the five, as long as everyone was on board. Because everybody was on board, the game went on. Let me tell you, after that moment, we got mopped like they totally mopped the floor with us. I don't remember the exact score. It was somewhere in the ballpark of 25 to 98 that's a football score in basketball. And even then, it was a blowout. And so the entire time I was on the bench, my coach was just chewing me out. He was like, if you hadn't fouled out, you could be there. You'd be there to help them. They wouldn't have to go through this, because you wouldn't be here just the entire time, just every time they put up a shot. That wouldn't happen if you were in.I got the message,so the game ended, and we're heading back to the locker room, and I finally get to see my teammates, like, face to face, and they're just drenched in sweat. They're like, red and splotchy, like they had been working hard. One of them was even injured and kept playing through the game just so that we could actually have that game.See, my pride had cost us. They'd cost us that gamebecause I had to provethat I was tough. I had to prove that I wasn't going to be walked on. And because of that, it hurt my team. It didn't just affect me, it affected them. It drove a wedge between us. It caused them to not trust me. We had problems going through the rest of the year because they couldn't see me as someone who was able to stay in the whole game.Because that's what pride does?We like to think that pride just affects us individually. It makes us a greedy person, a selfish person, but no prideaffects everyone.It drives a wedge between people. It divides people. And I'd be willing to guess that everyone in this room has experienced pride in some way and how it affected their lives and how it divides people. Maybe it's in your own life. Maybe it's something that you've struggled with before, that you struggle with selfishness, with pride, or maybe. You, you've experienced how someone else's pride has affected you, howsomeone else's selfishnesshas hurt you, has divided you.Maybe it was in the workplace, maybe it was at school,in your own family, even.Maybe it was even in the church.And the church can be the ugliest of places for pride to rear its head. And pride has shown itself in the church since the dawn of the church. See Paul's letter to the church at Philippi, he has to address pride within the church that's causing so much division.And the way that Pauladdresses this problem of pride in the church not only shows the Philippian church how to overcome it, but it gives us the keys on how we can overcome pride within our own church today or within our own lives today. And so let's see what Paul has to say. We're going to be in Philippians chapter two, starting in verse one. Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion. So I'm going to stop there for just a moment, because there's a lot of this, this, if being thrown around, like if this has happened, if whatever. And so if we look at verse one in the original Greek, this each clause is established with the word A, which we translate to, if, now, when we think of the word, if we kind of tend to think of these transactional things, if then Right? Or we tend to think that it's hypothetical. But here's what Paul is not saying when he says the word if Paul isn't stating that the existence of these qualities is hypothetical, in essence, that they might have felt encouragement through Christ, they might have experienced fellowship in the spirit, it's not a hypothetical. Paul is also not stating that these qualities are suppositional, basically meaning that we're unsure if that actually happened, right? That you know if you experienced encouragement you might not have but if you did, no, that's not what Paul is stating here at all. It's actually very certain what Paul is stating that this is in these opening clauses, the experience that the sorry, the Philippian church, has experienced encouragement in Christ. They have experienced comfort from love. They have experienced participation or fellowship in the Spirit. And so because of the way that Paul is is using this language in the original Greek, audience would have understood that when he says this word, a he's meaning since, so therefore, since there is encouragement in Christ, since there is comfort from love, since there is participation in the Spirit. And so why are we so sure? That's what Paul means. Why are we so sure that when he says, if he actually means since, well, you may notice that the beginning of this verse it says, Therefore, some translations might say so. But either way, that word is calling back to what Paul has stated in a previous chapter. And so if we jump back just a few short verses to Philippians, one, starting in verse 27 says, Whatever happens, conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then whether I come and see you or only hear about you, in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel. Catch this without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you, and then jump ahead to verse 30, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had,and now here that I still have,Paul's not writing this letter from the comfort of a coffee shop across the street. Paul is writing this letter from the comfort of a damp prison cell, and this wasn't the first time Paul has experienced opposition for the sake of the gospel. He had been routinely beaten, routinely imprisoned and hunted down, all for the sake of furtheringthe gospel.And so the Philippian church knew this, and it is on these grounds. Sounds that Paul is appealing to the Philippians, because the Philippian church is also going through some stuff. They're facing opposition from the outside. They're facing persecution, but they're also experiencing dissension from within the church. See, they're fighting off false teachings, like many other churches in the first century. And on top of that, there was some infighting within the church, specifically among two women named yodia and syndicate, that was apparently enough for Paul to mention them by name in the later on, later on in the letter. And so there's a lot happening in the Philippian church. There's a lot of infighting, there's persecution, and so what Paul is doing is he's equating the Philippians current struggles, for the sake of the Gospel, with his own struggles he's having. He's reminding them that through the hardship they're currently experiencing, they have experienced encouragement in Christ. They have been comforted by his love. They have experienced fellowship with one another through the Spirit. And any of us in this room who have experienced hardship know the joys that can be found with hardship when we come together and we build each other up, when we experience that love, that encouragement, that comfort through hardship. And so Paul, he's setting the stage here. He's reminding them that because they have all experienced this. They've seen these blessings. They've seen the blessings found in persevering for the gospel and being united with one another. And so Paul is setting the stage here. He's He's saying, if all of this, but since all of this, then he goes on to make his appeal. In verse two, Paul says, Then, making my joy complete by being then make my joy complete by being like minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. See, Paul's not writing to the Philippian church as an uninvolved spectator, like he's not an outsider looking in. Paul speaks very fondly of this church. There's a shared admiration, a mutual love for one another. You can even see later on throughout the letter, Paul mentions multiple times that the Philippian church has been so generous to fund lots of his mission work. So these guys have a close relationship. And so Paul, what Paul is doing is he's reminding the Church of the joy that they've experienced in hardship, but he'salso saying, as friend of friend, Hey,make me happy.I've built this church up, and I've seen how God's worked in you. So now just complete my joy. And how do we complete Paul's joy? It's simple, by being like minded,having the same loveand being one in spirit and in mind.See when the church stands together, right when we are united under one love,when we share a common goal, nothingcan stand against the church. I it.So my job here at Colonial Hills is student minister, and so that means I get the blessing of taking our students to mission Arlington every spring break. For those of you who don't know what mission Arlington is, that's when our students become the hands and feet of Jesus by spending their entire spring break jammed in an old church building. That's where they're sleeping on cots and sleeping bags and air mattresses. And then for the rest of the day, they're doing service projects, and they're doing rainbow Express, which is basically sharing the gospel with children of low income apartment complexes. And it's an amazing event, and I get to see God use my students in such an awesome way. But the big deal about doing mission Arlington, specifically during spring break, is that I know my students are at school the whole the weeks leading up to it, talking to their friends, and they have friends who are like, Man, I'm going to the beach for spring break. We're going to Colorado, we're going to Disney, where we're doing all of these things during spring break, or they have those friends that are like, Man, I'm doing nothing for spring break, and it's awesome. They get to enjoy some well earned rest that whole week. And so as they're leading up to mission Arling. 10 this week that they know is going to be physically, emotionally, spiritually taxing. They're hearing all of their friends talking about all the things that they could be doing during the week. But the thing we see with Mission Arlington is that when our students get there, we can physically see what it looks like when they become like minded students who don't normally talk to each other, who don't normally hang out with each other outside of Wednesday nights, are now forced to be in these groups to minister to these apartment complexes, these people in need to meet needs because they're rallying around this shared goal, this shared mission,to meet needs and share the Gospel,so that people might come to experience Real life change, that these people who are complete strangers to them a week ago might know what it means to be a child of God for the first time in their life. And in these last two years, I have seen just how muchmore throughout the year,how much more can be accomplished when they are united for a common goal,within mission Arlington, but also outside of it.And this is true for everyone who is a member of the church, if you are a believer of Jesus, if you are a member of his body, this is true for you, that we are united under one goal, just to bring the Gospelto all of our communities,to be like minded when we gather.This is true for the local church, just as true as it is for the Philippian church, this is why Paul is urging them to make his joy complete in this way. But he doesn't just stop there. He continues in verse three, it says, Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Well, what is selfish ambition. What does vain conceit? So the phrase that Paul uses for selfish ambition is one that would have been understood by the Philippians to basically mean using underhanded tactics in order to gain the upper hand.The ESV translates it as rivalry.It's competitiveness. It's basically seeing your life as a competition where you have to come out on top, and you'll do whatever you can to make sure that happens. Simply put, selfish ambition is pride.It's when we do things for our own gainwith no care for how it affectsother people.And so this attitude of selfish ambition drives a person to vain conceit. Well, what is vain conceit? I mean, it's, it's in the name, it's conceit that is vain, that is useless. It's pride with absolutely no grounds to stand on. See when we focus on the things that that build us up, that make usfeel important,then that lays the foundation for disunity throughout the church. Selfish ambition and vain conceit is the complete and total opposite of being like minded, and this selfish ambition, this vain conceit, manifests itself within the church in a number of ways. I mean, you name it, when we allow preferences right to rob us from experiencing true, authentic fellowshipin the spirit,whether that's worship styles, or maybe you're not a fan of this Sunday school class, or maybe you don't like how we do certain community outreach, or maybe you just don't like the fellowship nights or the fellowship events that we do,whatever you can namewhen we allow the preferences that we have to prevent us from getting plugged in with the church,to develop that community,then we're robbing ourselvesof the joy that's found in these things and.It, and we're laying the foundation to be divided within the church. And so how do we combat this division? How do we stop us from being divided? Well, Paul gives us the answer, Continuing in verse three and on to verse four. Says rather in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others. Now.When we valueother people's interestsmore than we value our own,we stand united.But when we look to the ways in which we can build ourselves up, do the things that make us feel important, when everything has to look the way we want it to,we stand divided. Thisis why we look outside and see our society is at each other's throats. I mean, you turn on the news and it's left versus right, it's black versus white, it's young versus old, it's everyone versus everyone else. Both sides are fighting for their voices to be the loudest, because to them, their voice is the only onethat is important. Iit all because we can't look pastour own desires.But when we seek humility,when we look to others and see their needs as being more important than our own,then walls are broken,and we can truly stand united. We can truly experience fellowship and participation within the spirit as members ofChrist's body.And so what does this look like today? I'll give you an example. I worked a few summers back at Sky Ranch, over in van, and it was an amazing time. I had an absolute blast there, but it was a rough, rough gig, because my job there was to oversee a cabin fullof 2010 year old boys. Yeah,and each week, each activity was absolutely jam packed with more and more things to do. There was water events, like there was water slides, there was Lake days, there was indoor rec, outdoor rec, Bible stuff, you name whatever it was, it was probably thereto say I was exhausted, is puttingit very lightly.And so one Sunday,Sunday was the day that we inbound all the new kids, right? We get to meet their parents, meet them, you know, try to build those relationships fast so that we can impact them throughout the week. Everything had happened, you know, we were at the end of the night, kids were getting showered, they were laying in bed. They're talking, hanging out, yada yada. Well, something happens, and we end up having to take one of our kids to the ER,and the closest er toSky Ranch was 45 minutes away,and so me and another stranger from the medical staff, took this kid to a the ER, and we got back to our cabins around four in the morning so that we could wake up at five in the morning. Idon't know about you guys,one hour of sleep is not enough for me. You may be built different. I can't I need sleep, see, but that's when my assistant counselor, my friend Jace, he stepped up. You see, as counselors, we were granted one meal off a day. Each cabin had about three counselors. That meant Each counselor could take off one of the meals. And so if Jace took off lunch, I couldn't take off lunch, because Jace was taking off one. And so that meal off where we got to go into the staff lounge and just be away from those the prying eyes of those kids. It's amazing. And Breakfast was the most coveted of all of the meals. Just picture it. You're spending the week 2010 year old boys jammed into four walls. You get to wake up and just leave. Just go straight to the staff one. Lounge, enjoy your coffee, do your Bible reading, or maybe you just sit in silence for an hour. Whatever it is, it's every counselor wanted breakfast, and Jace was supposed to have breakfast off that morning. And so we're getting these kids ready. He comes up to me, I shared with him the events of the previous night,and he tells me,You take breakfast off,get some sleep.Now, I've never heard the choir of an Angel before,but I can't imagine it sounding any better than that sentence there. So all the kids left. I went back to my room. My head hit the pillow. I slept like a rock. It was amazing. So we went through the day, and at the end of the night, I go back up to Jace. You know all the kids are sleeping. I'm like, Hey, I just want to say thank you so much for giving it up. And he says to me, don't mention it. We're a team.We are a team.We're a united front.We're bringing the Gospel to these kids.We're giving them the opportunity to experience life,experience abundant, authentic,real life for the first time in their lives, maybe through a relationship with the God of creation, who is the source of that lifethat was our common goal.And y'all don't know Jace, but I do, and I know he was tired too. Jace was a hard worker. He worked hard, he played hard, he earned that breakfast in silence, butbecause we were unified.We had one mind.We were of one spirit.Jace looked at me, and he saw my needs,and he said they were more valuable than his own. HeThis is what Paul is talking about,in humility, looking to the interests of others over our own interests,uniting to a common mission.That is the whole purpose of the church is for believers, people who are united to Christ, to come together full of the Spirit, experience life with other believers, so that we can be built up, so that our needs can be met, so that we can go out and share the Gospel, because we are united under one goal. And Paul gives us the ultimate picture of what this looks like Philippians two verses, five through eight says, in your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ, Jesus, who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God to be something or something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. I guys, this is the love of Godthat in order to unite us to him, he who was everything, made himself nothing, so that we couldhave everything,and that same love that God shares for us to unite us to him,unites us to each other,the same sacrificial, humble love that Christ showed us, we now can show each other. Remember how in verse one, Paul starts this whole passage off with the understanding that the Philippians had experienced everything that was mentioned, right? They had experienced encouragement in Christ. They had experienced. Comfort from love. They've experienced fellowship in the Spirit. He knows. They've experienced this because they're believers in Christ.They've experienced hardship, they've experienced persecution, and yet, through all of that, through Christ, they were able to find joy. Through it all, they were able to come alongside each other, build each other up, meet each other's needs, do all of that, because that is how Christ built the church. And so the best part of everything that I'm saying this morning is that if you are a follower of Jesus, if you are a believer that He died and rose again, then you are united to Christ. And if what verses five through eight say about Christ is true, which we know it is true, then that means it is true about you as well. Galatians 220 says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who lives but Christ lives in me. So the life that we see Jesus live, the life that Paul summarized in verses five through eight, that life that Christ lived is the life, the life that you now have.So that means that if he's united to you,he's providing you with the powerto love others, to value their needs as more than your own.And this starts with the church.Jesus is not in the business of making lone wolf Christians. Jesus didn't die on the cross for us to say, All right, I'm saved, and I'm going to go hold myself away in my house and not talk to anyone else. That's not what Jesus is in the business. For Jesus is in the businessof creating a people,a kingdom,a kingdom that spans across nations, across City Lines, across county lines, a kingdom united for a common purpose, which is to bring the Gospel to every ear who can hearand meet the needs of those who needit. I you.So if you're believer in this room this morning, If you confess that Jesus is your Lord, that He has transformed you from the inside out, everything that I'm saying right now applies to you the life that Jesus lived, lives through you.The best part of my job is seeing those moments where my students, they humble themselvesfor the sake of the Gospel,whether that's mission Arlington, where they give up their entire spring break so that kids can have food in their mouths and hear the Gospel for the first time, or if it's just on a regular Wednesday night, where they see a student come up there for the first time and not experience community, and they welcome them in with open arms,for the sake of meeting needs, for the sake of unity,because we are one people, united under one goal. Andis, could you imaginethe impact that colonial Hills could have if we fully allowed ourselves to be like minded, to fully trust that the Holy Spirit is active in our lives,to trust that he's leading usto something greater than ourselves, and it all starts with us seeing others needs as being morevaluable than our own.How is Spirit leading you to respond?Have you struggled with pride and. Your own lifehas the Spirit revealedways in you and ways in your own life in which you're seeking your own ambition, where maybe you only care about your own preferences, or maybe you're just doing things that are hurting other people because you benefit from it. How is he revealing this to you? Is he showing you areas in which you need to or you can pursue the needs of others? Is he leading you to find ways to get involved in the church, in the mission of colonial hills,see leading you to get involved in the church, to experience that fellowship, that community,to know and be known by othersto meet the needs of your brothers and sisters in Christ here in your church home. So I'm going to ask the band to come back up, and I want to enter into this time of responsehow is the Spirit leading you?How are we allowing our pride to get in the way of true fellowship? IHow can we get involved in being the church? Where is the spirit showing us we can meet the needs of other people starting here? Is he leading you to get involved in a ministry in kids ministry and student ministry, is he leading you to be a part of what we're doing with outreach? Love thy city, Fall Fest. Whatever it is that we have, maybe you have a talent, and he's leading you to get involved in our praise team. Maybe he's just leading you to come to the altar and pray, to let it all out,to experience the freedom that He's given us. So if youneed a moment to just pray, do it in your seat, you can come to the altar, just worship. However he is leading you to I want to invite you to worship.