"WHAT EVERYBODY NEEDS TO DO!"

PHILIPPIANS 2:1-13

One little fellow shows us by example what we all ought to be doing. What an illustration of Christian living. It was the first day of kindergarten. "I will help you," he said, reaching for Norma's tiny hand and placing it in his own. "And I won't let anyone laugh at you no more." The other children watched, awed by his skills of compassion, uncommon for one so young. Too shy to ask the teacher to use the bathroom and too timid to use it without first getting permission, 5 year old Norma sat at her small desk crying because she had a humiliating accident. It wasn't long before all the other students heard her soft whimpers and began staring in her direction. Some students laughed because they thought her predicament funny; others giggled out of relief that it had happened to her and not to them. But one brave little boy did not laugh; instead, Norm got up from his desk and came to her assistance. Then the little rescuer continued, "And I won't let them make fun of you," he said reassuringly. How Christlike! He Who comes to us in our dire predicaments, in our misery, in our fallen condition, in our utter sinfulness says, "I will help you!" And when all the world becomes our antagonist, He becomes our Ally. And just as Norma experienced Norm's kindness, we can all experience the compassion of our Heavenly Father and pass it on to those around us. And that's what we all need to do!

1. EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW AND SHOW GOD'S LOVE: V1:
1. By saying "If" Paul has no intention of causing doubt. The phrase could equally be translated, "Since there is encouragement and consolation in Christ's love." Paul speaks confidently here; there is encouragement and consolation in Christ's love. He wants us to know that and then to maintain the same love, showing it in our actions to others.
1. The word for encouragement means to come alongside to give solace, comfort or exhortation to courage.
2. The word for consolation means to speak soothingly in order to instruct or teach or lead gently, patiently and tenderly.
3. Paul implies that there is encouragement and consolation in Christ's love for us to both experience and to share. This is a love to know and to show.
2. There was a great solace in Norm's action of love; there is also solace in God's love as we experience it ourselves and then share it with others. There is something that makes life worth living, that makes problems less threatening, that makes joy more abundant when we are loved and when we also love.
1. What a different woman Madalyn Murray O'Hare might have been if her recently discovered diary entry had been fulfilled; she wrote over 6 times in 2,000 pages, "Won't somebody, somewhere, love me?" Even this atheist enemy of God could have experienced His love if she'd allowed herself to.
2. What a difference it made to the woman taken in adultery when Jesus told her that He did not condemn her and exhorted her to go and sin no more. She experienced divine love.
3. A universal need of mankind is to love and to be loved. And God loves us and wants us to love one another!
1. John says, "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1 John 4:10.
2. Then he adds, "We love, because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19.
3. Jesus says, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." John 13:34.
4. The love and compassion that are in Jesus everyone needs to, and can, know and show.

Norm did a loving, noble thing. Still holding the small hand, the little hero turned, surveyed his classmates and asked kindly, "How would you feel if it happened to you?" The teacher observed quietly, but said nothing. The children sat motionless, stilled partly by the enormous strain and anxiety caused by the drama in this moment, but also because they had just witnessed an act of heroism they had not been able to summon in themselves. Then the little boy added, "Let's not laugh at her anymore, okay?" This was a lesson in how to show God's love. It was a demonstration of how to live as we ought to live. It was a model of Christlikeness. It was an illustration of Philippians 2:1-5 which we read this morning. And that's what we all need to do, too!

2. EVERYONE NEEDS TO LIVE GOD'S WAY: VV2-5:
1. Paul gives a glimpse of what living God's way is:
1. Be united: maintain the same love, spirit and purpose. Let schisms and divisions cease!
2. Be humble and unconceited: willing to take a position of low esteem or low recognition. Let arrogance and self-importance be put to death.
3. Be unselfish: think of the good of the other person. Put the needs of the other fellow ahead of your own interests: serving and not being served. Let self-seeking be crucified.
4. Be Christlike: follow His example of self-denial and self-giving.
2. Frank Sinatra sang, and likely lived by the philosophy, "I did it MY way!" We see people going through life with that same attitude: "I want to do it MY way!" God will allow us to do it OUR way and if we do there is a consequence. God calls us to do it HIS way and if we do there is always a blessing.
3. It is clear that God's way is that we love rather than seek to be loved, that we serve rather than seek to be served, that we give rather than seek to receive. How much
1. Richer our homes would be if husbands and wives and parents and children and siblings determined to apply these principles.
2. Happier our surroundings would be if we sought to live God's way in the midst of our neighbors.
3. Fuller our lives would be if we filled them with these positive, uplifting, and beneficial attitudes.
4. Everyone needs to, and can, live God's way. Not one of those things is unrealistic idealism that lies beyond our ability to perform, "for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." So ask, and try to be governed by, "What Would Jesus Do?" or "What Did Jesus Do?" We all need to do that!

Norma was experiencing pure, simple, Christlike love as Norm became her defender. He did what Jesus would have done. He showed God's love. He lived God's way in that moment. His tiny classmate looked up at Norm and smiled with admiration. His act of kindness had buffered her duress; she no longer felt afraid and alone. She had found a new friend. And isn't that what God would have us to do for others in their overwhelming distresses? Didn't Norm show us how to simply, kindly, and unselfishly benefit others? It was a living lesson on bringing joy to someone in need. That's what we all need to do!

3. EVERYONE NEEDS TO BRING GOD'S JOY TO OTHERS: VV2-4:
1. These are just joy producing attitudes. These are perspectives that crush no spirit, break no heart, open no wound, and darken no day. Quite the contrary! They bring JOY!
2. See how this worked in the lives of the Macedonians as recorded in 2 Corinthians 8. (By the way, these were people from the very region of modern Kosovo!)
1. 2 Corinthians 8:2 "in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality." Poor, but joyously, lavishly generous.
2. 2 Corinthians 8:3 "For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability they gave of their own accord." No compulsion drove them except their own free-will to give.
3. 2 Corinthians 8:4 "begging us with much entreaty for the favor of participation in the support of the saints," they saw giving as a privilege to be sought, not a chore to be avoided.
4. 2 Corinthians 8:5 "and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God." The secret? They relinquished self-claims and gave themselves to others and to God.
3. That kind of investment in others produces God's joy. Paul said, "For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God." 2 Corinthians 9:12. They knew how to spell joy: Jesus first, Others next, Yourself last.
4. Rich or poor, young or old, weak or strong we can all bring God's joy to others in acts of kindness, service and generosity. We all need to be doing just that!

Norm somehow knew that. As he performed his act of kindness, Norma's joy returned. Intuitively, everyone present knew they were in the presence of courage. And by his actions they were persuaded to develop some of their own. By the way, Norma never forgot Norman, nor did he ever forget her. Their friendship continued and grew into love. Their love has celebrated more than 36 years in marriage. And when you think of how Jesus Christ reached to you in your lostness and sin, and took your hand, and offered His help, how could we ever forget Him? When we realize that He gave His life for us, how could we fail to live our lives in and for Him? You can know God's love this morning; you can determine to show His love to others; you can decide to live God's way right now, and you can commit your life to bring God's joy to others. In a world fraught with violence and hate, you can bring some peace and love. Will you do that? Will you purpose from this day on to live for Jesus Christ who died for you? This is the moment to decide, this is the moment to commit, this is the moment to live for Him.

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