Worship Preparation Guide for Sunday, July 13

God’s Word commands us to “count others more significant than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3).  How is this possible?  What is necessary for this to be a reality in our lives?  The same verse provides the key: “humility”.  “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”  

Only when humility is a part of our character will we count others more significant than ourselves and look out for their interests above our own.  Humility is the opposite of the prideful anticipation of being served by others and excepting them to meet our needs. 

So how does humility become a reality in our lives?  Again Scripture gives us the answer in this week’s passage: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).  Humility is not a characteristic we gain through hard work or develop by learning certain skills or techniques.  

Humility comes as we look to Jesus on the cross and consider His humble sacrifice.  He came to seek us when we were not seeking Him.  He came to serve us while we were seeking only to serve ourselves.  He came to love us even while we were His enemies. 

John Piper writes, “Christians are stunned into lowliness.  Christ loved us and died for us and forgave us and accepted us and justified us and gave us eternal life and made us heirs of the world when he owed us nothing.  He treated us as worthy of his service, when we were not worthy of his service.”  (The Mind of Christ: Looking Out for the Interests of Others, August 31, 2008, DesiringGod.org)

Stunned into lowliness.  That’s what should happen when we come before our Lord in worship.  It should stun us that Jesus “who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

(Philippians 2:6-8)

This is what happened to Isaiah when He saw the holiness of God and experienced His grace (Isaiah 6).  He was stunned into lowliness and obedience.

Pray that happens to you and me and everyone who will gather for worship this Sunday.

God the Father has highly exalted Jesus, and has “bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11)

This Sunday we have the amazing privilege of coming into the presence of our Savior, bowing in His presence and confessing together that He is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.