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Date: 21st September 2014

Series name: ‘Colony’ (Philippians)

Sermon # in series: 4

Sermon Title:

Bible Reference: Philippians 2:1-11

A disclaimer from Pastor Stuart

My role in the church here is to feed and care for God’s people the best I can. Key to that, in my opinion is teaching and preaching from the Bible; but that is not all a pastor has to do! In fact after the emails, staff admin, hospital visits, community visits, leadership meetings, etc, etc, there sometimes seems to be little time for sermon prep! Years ago I used to agonise over trying to come up with two, often three, totally original sermons each week. But I’ve found that, for me at least, that is impossibility. I’ve learned to be grateful for and to use the gifts God gives to help me – not only the Holy Spirit, but other Bible teachers and preachers.

Over the years I’ve discovered that if something teaches, inspires and excites me it’s likely to do the same for those I speak to. So I admit that sometimes I find myself depending heavily on other people’s ideas, at least to ‘prime the pump’ and therefore I claim originality for very little in these sermons. If you look hard enough and wide enough you’ll probably find who I’ve been reading and learning from! I never knowingly plagiarise, but if you find I have, then I apologise. It must have been that what was said was just too good not to use!

I am particularly indebted to the likes of John Piper, Sam Storms, Wayne Grudem, John Ortberg & Rick Warren. The Lord regularly uses them to get my spiritual pulse racing. I’m also indebted to many who kindly make their sermons available on the likes of sermoncentral.com and preachingtoday.com. Others who help me include ‘The Doctor’ (Martyn Lloyd-Jones), C.H Spurgeon and any of the Puritans.

These sermons are not made available because I think they’re good but in the hope and with the prayer that they may be used by the Holy Spirit to bless others as they have blessed our own church here in Ipswich, UK.

Unless otherwise specified, all scriptures are taken from the HOLY BIBLE NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder and Stoughton Limited.

The Importance of Humility - Philippians 2:1-11

New chapter but same theme (chapter divisions inserted later to help readers)

Last time ‘conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of gospel’, 1:27. One of the characteristics of that life is living in unity, getting on with each other. Paul comes back to that again here, because, as much as he loved and appreciated this group of Christians he’d heard things that caused him concern. Some of the people aren’t getting on, tensions are just below (and sometimes above) the surface, Cp 4:2. So as lovely and good as the people were they were still real people, with real life issues. I’m glad Paul mentions these things because it kind of encourages me in a way – churches today aren’t so bad after all despite the tensions within the church Paul and more importantly God, still loved them with an intense love.

Of course we’re striving (at least I hope we are) to become more like Jesus and become more patient and tolerant – but sometimes we get it wrong, sometimes we get wound up or wind others up. We’re human! Doesn’t excuse it, but it does explain it.

So what’s the answer? Well the answer we find here in Ch 2 which starts (though for some reason the NIV doesn’t show it) with a ‘Therefore’! – ‘Therefore, …’ (Read 2:1-5a)

Now with those words in our ears I want to hand over to our guest speaker this evening, Mr John Ortberg. Pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, San Fransisco. (Explain when I first heard him; Authored ‘If you want to walk on water …’ plus several others.) Now as you listen to him bear in mind that he hasn’t heard my previous sermons in this series and so he covers several things I’ve already mentioned to you. He either hasn’t listened to my previous sermons or just wants to go over them again to make sure we’ve all got them!

Hmm, OK, maybe not!

OK, let’s listen to this sermon, and keep in mind that we’re going to share the Lord ’s Supper afterwards. The message is just under 30 minutes long.

‘God’s great decision’ – John Ortberg http://vimeo.com/6268344 (From 1:45)