Joyride - Hope

This month we are taking a joyride through the NT book of Philippians and learning from the Apostle Paul how we can experience more joy in our lives.  Joy doesn’t come from the places we often think it does.  For example, joy isn’t just found when everything is going well.  Paul talked about the joy he had, and he was writing this letter while he was sitting in prison, bound up in chains.  Last week we heard that joy doesn’t come when we promote ourselves and push to get what we want but actually comes when we are willing to give to and elevate others.  Joy comes with humility and not selfish ambition.  Today we are going to talk about the joy we can experience when we place our hope in God and not in the word.  

Before Paul became a follower of Jesus, he was a rising leader in the Jewish community, and he placed all his hope for the future in himself.  In Philippians 3, Paul said he had hope for his future because he had the right heritage, the right training, and the right temperament to get all he wanted in life.  Paul’s hope for the future was based on his own position and ability, but once he met Jesus, he was willing to give all of that up and put his hope in God.  Paul literally left behind everything he knew, and all that he trusted in, to embrace Jesus as his Savior and Lord and place his hope in Christ.  

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.  I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,  and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection -from the dead.  Philippians 3:7-11

For Paul, joy was not going to be found in the things of this world or from the things that Paul could get on his own.  Joy was not going to be found in Paul's own goodness, strength, or ability, it was going to be found in Christ.  Paul said he wanted to know Christ and experience the power of Christ's resurrection.  He wanted to experience the power of life over death, victory and freedom over sin, and eternal joy, but any hope of experiencing these things would come only by giving up all things to trust in one thing, Jesus.

As we focus on hope today, let’s be clear about what we mean.  For the world, hope is a feeling or desire that what we want to happen in the future, will happen.  This kind of hope is  wishful thinking.  I hope I get good grades on the test.  I hope I get the job.  I hope things go well for me.  But biblical hope goes much deeper.  Biblical hope is the confidence that God will provide a better future.  It is the anticipation of God’s fullness and power in our lives and in our future.  The circumstances we go through may not be easy, and we may not get what we want, but we are confident that it is God’s plan for us.   

I have been inspired by the hope that I have seen in my sister and brother in law.  In many ways, their story has paralleled Paul’s.  They were willing to give up all things for one thing, a deeper relationship with Jesus, because they knew that this one thing was better than everything they had previously put their hope in.  A few weeks ago my brother in law, Tom Nealley, was here and he shared with us some of their story.  

In the eyes of the world, my sister and brother in law had everything.  Tom had a great job, they had a beautiful home, and they were financially secure.  They had everything, but after they began to walk more closely with Jesus, and heard God’s call for the church, and their own lives, they began to wrestle with what God wanted for them.  I watched as they began to give up all things for Christ.  

When Tom took the job at their church, I watched them sell the house they built and downsize to a smaller house.  Then they downsized again to a townhouse.  They moved several times as they heard God’s call, and they went through periods of uncertainty and frustration, but never once did I hear them say that they ever regretted the choices they made.  They never looked back.  It was their hope that kept them looking to God’s future and trusting in God’s plan.  Watching them on this journey over the past 20 years, I can honestly say that while things have not always been easy, they have found joy.  As Tom said, they have better stories for their lives, they have grown and matured in life, and they have more faith, more hope, and more joy.  

While God may not be calling you to give up all things the same way they did, God is calling all of us to live with that kind of hope.  Are we willing to place our hope in Christ alone and live the way God calls us to, even if it means giving up those things we lean on in this world?  Can we live with this kind of hope?  

If this is the kind of hope we want guiding our lives, Paul shows us three ways we can find it.

1. Hope looks to the future.  Not only does Paul say that everything he trusted in this world is garbage, but he says that he will never look back but always look forward. Philippians 3:13-14.  Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Hope doesn’t look back to what we have done in the past, or what we trusted in before, hope always looks to the future and what God promises to do for us in the days to come.  It was a vision of what God wanted for the church that kept my sister and brother in law moving forward.  They continue to have hope that God will use them to bring about this vision and as they live with this hope they have more joy.

2. Hope looks beside you.  If you want to be a more hopeful person, hang out with more hopeful people.  Philippians 3:17

Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. 

After Paul chose to follow Jesus as his Savior and Lord, he went away for 3 years to study and learn.  While we aren’t sure of all that took place during this time, or who Paul was with, he clearly was with people of hope who also trusted in Jesus.  Part of the transformation in my brother in law’s life was that he too spent time with hopeful people.  He spent hours each week in some pretty intense Bible study, and he sought the input from people who became spiritual leaders in his life.  He also walked through it all with my sister and their family.  It was hopeful people around them that made all the difference.

If we want to grow in hope, and increase our faith and trust in God, we need to hang out with hopeful people who place their faith and trust in God.  This doesn’t mean we find perfect people who have already arrived, it means we walk with others on the journey of faith and then learn and grow together.  This is why small groups and being part of a true community is so important.  We need one another to help keep us going in the right direction.  We need one another to give us confidence and courage when things get difficult, and to remind us that our failures are not final.  We need one another to help us forget what lies behind us and keep looking to God’s future for us.  We can’t do it alone.  

3. Hope looks above you. Any real hope for our future will not come from looking around us to the things of this world but from looking above us.  Let’s face it, our government is not going to provide for us.  Our economy is not going to provide for us.  Our healthcare system is not going to provide for us.  If we place our hope in any of these things, or any other system in this world, it will let us down.  Hope for our future comes from looking to God.  

Paul ends this part of his letter with these words.  

Philippians 3:20-21  Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.  

The truth is that we don’t need more of this world to make us more hopeful, and more of this world will not bring us more joy.  What we need is more of Jesus.  We need more faith in Jesus, more trust in the power of God, and more hope in the future God has for us.  None of these things are found by looking around us, they are only found by looking to God.  Instead of looking at the promises that more wealth makes to us, or the promises that our government makes to us, let’s focus on the promises God makes with us.  

This week, I invite you to spend time reflecting on 12 promises of God found in the Bible.  (You can find them in the next steps online or at the connection table.)  Reading, reflecting, and trusting in these promises can help us place more of our hope in God, and the more hope we have in God, the more joy we will experience in life.  It is these promises, and many more, that inspire us, and they help us forget all that lies in the past, and all that we once trusted in, and hoped for, and allows us press on toward the goal, which is to know Christ more.  

The goal is more joy and that comes with more hope, and more faith.  And many times faith and hope only come when we are willing to give up all things for the one thing that is better than all, Jesus Christ.  So let us forget what lies behind and strain toward what is ahead.  Let us press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

 

Next Steps

Joyride - Hope

Read Philippians 3:1-11

● What things did Paul give up in order to place all his hope in Christ alone?  

● What things of this world do we often place our hope and trust in?  

● When has God called you to give up all things, or even one thing?  

Hope looks to the future.  Philippians 3:13-14

● What in your past do you need to let go of?

Hope looks beside you.  Philippians 3:17

● How can you connect with more hopeful people?

Hope looks above you.  Philippians 3:20-21

● Use these 12 promises of God to help you find hope in God alone

12 Promise of God

God gives strength to the weary - Isaiah 40:31

God gives us rest - Matthew 11:28-30

God’s love never fails - Isaiah 54:10

God redeems us - Colossians 1:13-14

God fights for us - Exodus 14:13-14

God gives us wisdom - James 1:5

God forgives our sin - 1 John 1:9

God lifts us up - Matthew 23:12

God never forsakes us - Deuteronomy 31:6

God gives us eternal life - John 3:16

God provides for all our needs - Philippians 4:19

God has a plan for our lives - Jeremiah 29:11

Joyride - Humility

This week we are continuing our joyride through the book of Philippians.  As Pastor David shared last week, Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi references joy 16 times in just 104 verses, and his message shares with us how we can get the most joy out of life.  It’s important to remember that Paul wrote about joy while he was sitting in prison, so joy is not determined by our circumstances.  We can be chained up in all kinds of problems but still experience joy because God, who is the source of all joy, is with us.  

Today we are going to talk about something that can not only help us experience more joy in life but can also make us more popular among our friends and more productive at work.  And here is the best news of all - it doesn’t cost a thing and it is available to each and every one of us.  Humility.  

A few weeks ago, Justin gave us a great working definition for humility.  Humility is not thinking less of ourselves, but thinking of ourselves less.  While this might be easy to say, it can be difficult to live because in countless little ways we put ourselves first all day.  For example, studies show that the average person checks their phones 150 times a day.  If we spend just 60 seconds checking out the text or notification that comes, we have spent 2 ½ hours of our day simply looking at our phones.    

We have become addicted to our phones.  Many people now openly admit that they are addicted to their phones, and when we hear the chime telling us that we got a text message or email - we have to immediately see who is contacting us.  Even if we are meeting with someone else, or spending time with family and friends, we will set it all aside to see who wants us, or needs us.  

And if we can be honest for a moment, while social media is a great resource because it keeps us all connected and allows us to share our lives and interests with one another in some great ways, it can also consume us.  When we start living for likes, we might not like how we are living.  Because our technology has the ability to turn our hearts inward, we have to guard against this, and one way to do that is to remain focused on humility. 

In Philippians 2, Paul begins to make the connection between humility and joy.  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, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.  Philippians 2:1-4

While Paul says we will make his joy complete by being humble, the truth is that our joy will be complete when we are willing to be humble.  One reason that humility brings joy is because we were made to be humble.  Think about Adam and Eve, they were created to be children of God and to surrender themselves to God’s will and love.  What got them in trouble, and what started to make everything fall apart, was that they abandoned humility and gave in to pride and selfish ambition.  It wasn’t enough to be children of God, they wanted to be God. They wanted more for themselves.

Because we have been created to be humble, when we humble ourselves, we experience joy.  And when we see humility in others we are drawn to it and feel a sense of joy.  What many people lament about professional (and even college) sports right now is that so many players make it about themselves.  Many athletes today don’t use their talent and natural ability to elevate a team, or inspire a city, or even lift up a nation like in the Olympics, they simply want to promote themselves.  They use their position to get noticed on instagram, tiktok, and twitter because the more attention they get, the more endorsements they get, and endorsements bring money and power and position.  While these people do have their following, it is often the humble heroes, and those who put team and others over self, that we are drawn to.   

The Olympics are coming up and they often give us amazing stories of humility.  Five years ago at the Olympic Games in Rio, Nikki Hamblin and Abby D’Agostino were competing in the women’s 5,000 meter race.  When Nikki had to slow her pace at the back of the pack, Abby bumped into her and both women went down.  Nikki got up and was about to keep on running when she saw that Abby was hurt so she went back to help her up. (Pic 1)  She said, come on, we have to keep going.  Nikki helped Abby over the finish line (Pic 2).  She was not thinking about herself but of someone else.  What continues to bring joy from this story is that today Nikki Hamblin is a women’s running coach- still helping others up, and Abby is on the Olympic team going to Tokyo.  

It used to be that we looked for and even demanded this kind of humility from our leaders, but no more.  On both sides of the political aisle it seems that the more arrogant and loud and self-serving you are, the farther you can go.  Perhaps it is the lack of humility among our leaders today that has created the division and dissension we experience.  In other words, what we are seeing is that without humility - there is no joy.  

Even in business, studies have shown that it is the humble leader who excels and makes companies succeed.  It is the humble leader who not only experiences joy but shares it with their employees helping them all do better.  Several years ago, there was a great business book written by Jim Collins, called Good to Great.  The book looks at several businesses that went from being good companies to truly great ones and what caused their transformation. While they wanted to exclude top leadership from this evaluation, they realized they couldn’t because what they found is that every great organization had a humble leader.  

The eleven good-to-great CEOs are some of the most remarkable CEOs of the century … The good-to-great leaders never wanted to become larger-than-life heroes. They never aspired to be put on a pedestal or become unreachable icons. They were seemingly ordinary people quietly producing extraordinary results. … It is very important to grasp that Level 5 leadership is not just about humility and modesty. It is equally about ferocious resolve, an almost stoic determination to do whatever needs to be done to make the company great.

Resolve, determination, and a strong desire to succeed are good things.  Ambition is a good thing.  What Paul says is that selfish ambition is bad.  Selfish ambition, when we only care about ourselves and getting what we want, when we are determined to put our ways and our wants first, that is what will destroy a company, or a team, or a marriage, or our nation. While it seems like we would experience more joy when we get what we want, the reality is that we experience more joy when we give to others and work to lift everyone else up.  

Humility can make us more productive at work, and it can make us more popular because humility lifts others up and makes others grateful.  We all want to be around humble people who work to lift us up.  Thinking less of ourselves and putting others first is one thing we can all do to not only increase joy in others, but add joy to our own lives.  Paul goes on in his letter to show us exactly what humility looks like, and as you might guess, it looks like Jesus.  

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 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!  Philippians 2:5-8

This is perhaps one of the oldest New Testament passages we have and it is called the Christ Hymn because we believe it was the words of a psalm or hymn that people used in the worship of the risen Jesus.  Literally, people were singing about the virtues of humility that were seen in Jesus and they were calling upon themselves and others to embrace that same mind, heart, and spirit.  

Jesus was truly humble.  Jesus was God, but He was willing to limit Himself and enter into this world as a human being.  He gave up the glory and power of heaven to come into this world.  And even as a man in this world, Jesus was willing to not be served but to serve, and not to surround Himself with riches, but with people who needed Him.  

Being humble isn’t easy.  We all want the recognition of being great, and we want the accolades of others, but all of that is fleeting.  Wealth and power and position don’t last, but the joy we feel when we are humble and serve others does.  It not only lasts but it lifts us up.  When we are humble, God lifts us up.  

We were created to be humble so we can make intentional choices every day to grow in humility.  Let me share three of these choices with you.  

1. Sit with the lowly.  This is what Jesus did.  Jesus didn’t stay seated at the right hand of God in heaven, He chose to come to the earth and literally sit with us.  Jesus did not consider equality with God as something to be held on to.  He gave up all He had in heaven to sit with us on earth. 

Once here on earth, Jesus again chose to sit with the lowly.  Jesus didn’t sit with kings, high priests and religious rulers on thrones of power, He sat with children, fishermen, tax collectors, and sinners.  Jesus chose to sit with the lowly and He gives us an example of humility that we can choose to follow.  Who will we choose to sit with this week?  

At work, is there someone who needs some encouragement or support, someone that no one else gives much time to but needs someone in their corner?  How can you sit with them this week?  

Who are those who are often overlooked and forgotten in our community?  How can we sit with them this week?  

How about sitting with some children at VBS, or sitting with some of our homebound members?  If you fill out the opportunity card we can help you find wonderful seats where you will experience joy.  

2. Take a back seat.  While we all might want to ride shotgun through life, what might it look like to take the back seat.  Jesus didn’t elevate himself, He gave everything to elevate us.  He took a back seat, He died on the cross, so that our sins could be forgiven and so we could be lifted into the presence of God.  

In your marriage, what would it look like to elevate your spouse's needs before your own?  At work, can you help promote the work of someone else and let them shine?  Even here at the church, are you willing to take a back seat for someone else?  In many churches it is the back seats that are coveted, so taking a back seat might mean moving up front, or to the center of the aisles. 

David shared last week how so many of you were willing to take a back seat when we returned to worship this Easter.  Many of you took a back seat and moved to the cafe so that others could have a seat here, and what many of you found by taking a back seat was joy.  You truly enjoyed worship in the cafe!

 3. Serve beneath your status.  Jesus served beneath his status.  Again, Jesus was God in the flesh, He had all the power of heaven in his hands and yet it was Jesus who washed the feet of his disciples when no one else wanted to do that job.  At work, are you willing to take on the tasks that no one else wants to?  At home, can you do the chores that no one else wants to do?  And what about the church?

At my church in Altoona, a man came to me one week and said, do you know that there has been a piece of paper under the pew in front of me for the past several weeks.  Our custodian must not be doing a good job.  I wanted to say to him, did you ever think of picking it up yourself?  That work was below his status.  

What I love about Faith Church is that so many people are willing to serve in lowly positions.  When we first opened up for worship after the pandemic it was our church leaders who committed to wiping down the sanctuary after each service.  When I spoke to other pastors who said their churches wanted to open up but no one wanted to clean after worship, I could say, it’s my leaders who are doing it.  

Maybe this is why there is so much joy here at Faith Church, because we have learned how to sit with the lowly, take a back seat, and serve beneath our status.  These practices not only bring us joy, but they spread joy and instill joy in others.  We make our joy complete when we embrace humility.  

If you want to experience more joy, and if you want more of the power and love and adventure of life, pick one of these three activities and practice humility this week.  Humility will make us more popular, it will make us more productive, and it will provide joy in ways that nothing else can. Humble yourself before the Lord, the Bible says, and when we do, God will lift us up.  

Next Steps

Joyride - Humility

Read Philippians 2:1-18

When has being humble brought you joy?  

When has the humility you have seen or experienced in others brought you joy?

What stories of humility have inspired you to be humble?

The “Christ Hymn” (verses 6-8), outline the humility that is seen in Jesus.  How does this humility inspire you to follow His example?  What can you do this week to follow Jesus’ example and humble yourself?  

Three ways to practice humility:

1. Sit with the lowly

2. Take a back seat

3. Serve beneath your status

How did Jesus set the example of humility in each area?

When have you seen this kind of humility?

What one specific way can you practice this kind of humility this week?

The promise of humility is that God WILL lift you up.  See James 4:10.  Thank God for this promise and the joy that comes with humility.