HUMILITY

Purpose:  To educate how Jesus demonstrated how to be humble so that we will learn how to be humble in our own lives.

Introduction:

• The book of Philippians really doesn’t have a common theme but it is a letter by Paul to the saints at Philippi.
• He is mostly encouraging them to keep following Jesus Christ. 
• Many times we speak about being humble but today I want to show the steps to being humble according to Christ.

Scripture:  Philippians 2:1-2

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Subject Sentence: What Would Jesus Do?

Body:

1. Glad To Be On The Team – vs.3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
    
   1. Someone once observed, “The true test of a servant is if you act like one when you are treated like one.” Sometimes we get hung up on our own titles or tenure and need to remember that we really are all just servants.
   2. Servant leadership begins in the mind and heart. This is why Philippians 2:5 challenges us, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (verse 5). When we start thinking about who we are professionally or the gifts and capabilities we bring to the table, we lose the mind of Christ, and we cease to be a servant leader.
2. Glad To Help Others – vs.4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
    
   1. It’s really quite simple: servants serve. When we take “the form of a servant,” our success comes in helping others. This is what true servant leadership is all about.
   2. Of course, this means that we need to train ourselves to see the needs of others. Without the mind of Christ, we will be self-focused and oblivious to the needs of those under our care. Skilled servants are sensitive observers as well as being excellent at meeting needs.
3. Glad To Serve– vs.5-11 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so 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.
    
   1. A servant’s highest ambition is to successfully help others reach God’s best for their lives. He is not looking for promotion, but for opportunities to serve. True servants live the Bible principle that the way up is down.
   2. Our reward will come when God says Well done faithful servant.

Closing: 

• “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”—Mark 10:45
• Servant leadership is not so much what we talk about being as it is who we are. When we have Christ’s humility and look for ways to serve, rather than to be served—that is servant leadership.