Charlie Brown said, “I love mankind but people drive me crazy.” I identify with that idea. I do love mankind but people – well, people can be really hard to put up with.”
People are just difficult to live with. They do such stupid things that sometimes you want to just throw up your hands and walk away.
Why do some people insist on going past first few slices in a loaf of bread and grab the third or fourth one in?
Why do children when they eat bread with PB and jelly flip it upside down to eat it?
Why do people leave half a swallow in the bottom of the jug of water in the refrigerator rather than taking 60 seconds to refill it?
I watched a lady drive backwards through the post office parking lot this past Tuesday morning – why, I do not know.
VIDEO of two guys in the office
Besides all the foolish things people do in general there are the church people in the world
Let’s talk about Church people a little…
Christians can be judgmental and unforgiving.
Christians can be just plain weird. Some of the churchy kids in HS when I was a kid did far more damage than good because they were just strange.
But worst of all some Christians can be hypocritical. They aren’t real – they are posers.
Sometimes I really don’t like people – sometimes I don’t like you. But do you know what I’ve discovered to be the real problem? It’s not you. It’s not people. It’s me.
I’ll never forget a defining moment for me. It happened in band, fourth hour when I was in ninth grade at the Kalkaska High School. I was walking across the second level of the practice room and met Carol Kimbal at a narrow spot. I moved to my left to step out of her way just as she stepped to her right; they I stepped to my right just as she stepped to her left and I’m pretty sure that is when she exploded in anger. She said, “You think you’re so important!” and then walked around me. I was absolutely and completely stunned. How on earth did she get the idea that I thought that I was important? I knew that I wasn’t important. I was a lowly freshman and the son of a preacher man in a small town. I had spent most of my life trying to prove I was tough in spite of being the preachers kid – and getting beat up fairly often because I really wasn’t tough at all. When I ran home crying with blood pouring out of my bruised nose my mom yelled, “Don’t bleed on the carpet – stay in the kitchen! (She denies ever having said that – but I was there and those are the words I remember!) I knew I wasn’t important.
Still, over the years I’ve learned that peoples sometimes see me as arrogant and condescending. I have been accused of being aloof and arrogant. I’m really not. The more you get to know me the more you’ll discover I’m really a nice guy. Honest! Really! Am I trying too hard?
So why do I sometimes struggle with people? More specifically – why do I sometime struggle with you!
So how do you get around the fact that Jesus came to save people? Let me make a suggestion. You and I need to focus on the problem – no it’s not them – it’s me.
And if you are sitting there – it’s not me. It’s you.
Say it with me – “It’s not you.” “I’m the problem.”
Well – if you and I are the problem – what is the solution?
Jesus is our example:
Some of you are reading your sermon notes with transitional lenses or Bi-focals. Inventor? Benjamin Franklin, age 79. The computer, copy machine as the presses that printed our bulletin were powered by electricity. One of the first harnessers? Ben Franklin, age 40. Some of you here might of attended or know someone who went to an Ivy League school. Founder? Ben Franklin, age 45. Some of you have been to a library this past week. Who established the first library in America? Ben Franklin, age 25. Most of us received mail this week. The father of the US Postal Service? Ben Franklin, age 31. Who started the first fire department, invented the lightning rod, and designed a heating stove? Yep.. Benjamin Franklin. Wit. Economist. Philosopher. Diplomat. Journalist. Printer. Linguist (spoke and wrote 5 languages fluently). He did all of this until the age of 84. And he had exactly 2 years of formal schooling!
Isn’t that incredible? Inspiring? Yes! But it is a little unsettling too.
As Mark Twain once quipped, "Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example."
I think I know what Twain meant. I mean, good examples can help us to work harder and reach higher, but they do have this one annoying trait. We are expected to try to emulate them. The problem with that, is they can’t help us. They have no power to enable us to achieve the same accomplishments. Benjamin Franklin’s success’ may inspire us, but they can’t empower us. There’s nothing available to make us the inventor or great thinker he was. Right?
Well, if all that is true, then why did Paul exhort us to follow Christ’s example? Phil. 2:5 "Have this same attitude as Christ Jesus.." Isn’t that impossible? Oh, some try but we all soon find out that our own perspiration and performance won’t cut it. Let me ask you- Are you always doing what pleases Jesus? Me either. Do you feel like you’re even improving? How do we handle the fact that compared to Christ we all fall far short of that goal? How do you cope when you fail, make mistakes, sin? Well, good news.
The secret for how to handle our failure and imperfections is in the verses before us.
This passage in Phil 2 is thought to contain some of the most beautiful verses in all of Scripture. In fact, many scholars say that these verses were sung as a hymn in the early church. But these verses are not mere poetry, they are also practical. If we will follow Paul’s advice we will learn that we have been given freedom to fail and in understanding that concept from God’s perspective we can become more like Christ.
Jesus is our example: Be Like Minded
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, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.
Philippians 2:1-2
Paul here makes a very simple point. What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus if it does not translate into our everyday world?
Do you have any encouragement from being united with Christ? This statement reminds me of what Paul writes in Romans 6:3-7 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
Free from sin – the weight is gone. Like suddenly not carrying around a medicine ball or grabbing a carton of milk that you think is full – but isn’t. Or filling the receiver on a phone with pennies and then removing them so your coworker hits himself in the head with the phone when he answers it.
What a great thing to not carry the guilt of sin around. I don’t have to go around feeling bad about myself – because I’m united with Jesus.
Do you have any comfort from his love? I’m reminded of John’s statement in the third chapter and the sixteenth verse. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever would believe on him would not perish but have everlasting life.
Do you have fellowship with his spirit? We have the promised presence of God himself in us to direct and transform our thinking (Romans 8:5)
Do you have any tenderness and compassion? Then pass it on! You see as believers we are called upon to not only forgive as we have been forgiven but to restore as we have been restored; love as we have been loved; comfort as we have been comforted and extend the compassion of the father, son and Holy Spirit as we have received it.
Christians are supposed to be happy people! Not grouchy people! This is a very tough sermon for me to listen to because I can be a little grouchy with people sometimes. I know that it’s a little hard for you to believe that – but it’s really true!
Listen, the Sea of Galilee is full of life because the waters of life flow through it. The Dead Sea is dead because the water flows in but not out. You and I are most alive when we extend God’s love to those who are around us.
By the way: I’d like to invite you to sign up for and to come to the FOG Class this next weekend seminar
Jesus is our example: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Philippians 2:3-4
Consider others better than yourself. Wow – this is a tough sermon for me. This is hard for me, too. I think I’m better, smarter, faster, more pure in thought and motive than most everyone else around me – with few exceptions…
Do you identify with this thought process? Raise your hands…
You with your hands up – so where is the humility? And you folks that didn’t raise your hands – I know I’m better than you because I’m not a liar! That thing called pride does cause problems doesn’t it. It sneaks up on us in the most insane and pervasive ways.
Sometimes we get so far out there we lose all touch with reality!
Reaching the end of a job interview, the HR person asked a young engineer fresh out of MIT what kind of a salary he was looking for. "In the neighborhood of $140,000 a year, depending on the benefits package."
"Well, what would you say to a package of 5-weeks vacation, 14 paid holidays, full medical & dental, company matching retirement fund to 50% of salary, & a company car leased every 2 years...say, a red Corvette?"
"Wow! Are you kidding?"
"Yeah, but you started it."
The important thing that Jesus did and that he wants us to do is to look not only to our own interests but also to the interest of others. This is like the two great commandments. Love God and love your neighbor – as yourself.
I believe in Win-Win negotiating in any relationship. This kind of negotiating requires trust between the parties and (this is key) understanding what each party needs to make a good agreement. In other words if you want to have a successful life you really need to start thinking about God and the other guy first!
Jesus is our example: Have the same attitude as Jesus
5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!
Philippians 2:5-8
We are to imitate His attitude. "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus...” Circle the word attitude. Notice he doesn’t say “Your actions should be the same as Jesus.” Paul tells us to think like Jesus more than act like Jesus. One of our problems in trying to be like Jesus is that we spend a great deal of effort trying to imitate Jesus’ actions rather than His attitude. We say things like, "Now, ask yourself, what would Jesus do in this situation." Please don’t misunderstand. I’m not knocking trying to do what Jesus does but we need to grasp this principle: thinking right always precedes acting right. A right attitude is essential to right action. The imitation of Jesus does not primarily consist in trying to imagine and do the things which Jesus would do. It consists in seeking primarily to cultivate the spirit, the disposition, the attitude which He possessed.
Be a servant
Humility is not easy – St. Thomas Aquinas, a 13th century philosopher and theologian defines humility "consists in keeping oneself within one’s own bounds, not reaching out to things above one, but submitting to one’s superior.”
In other words – humility means – you understand your limits, and you submit to authority. Humility is not a weakness, but a display of strength. It’s knowing what you could do in a situation – but holding back. Humility is the removal of the spotlight from yourself – but allowing those around you to receive glory. Humility does whatever it is, whenever it is asked, many times for nothing in exchange.
Last Sunday I told you about a wonderful gift of $700,000 for our building project. I also received a note from a guy who has quit smoking and he’s giving the money he’s saved. He gave $70.00. God is thrilled with both gifts because they are gifts of life and gifts of love.
When you live this way the result is a life in which God gets the glory and you get the exhaltation – maybe not today – but certainly when we get to the place God has prepared for us.
Look at verses 9-11
Let God be your exhaltation
9 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.
Philippians 2:9
It’s after the cross – that he’s given the crown
We live in a world of no suffering – there is a pill or a product for every kind of perceived suffering – We don’t like to suffer – so when we start to suffer, when God starts molding us and shaping us into what he wants us to be through suffering, through events in our lives – we think something’s wrong or we look for a way out.
Change your perception of reality. Your temporary distress is just the preparation for exaltation at the hand of God at the entrance to eternity.
