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Pastor Thom Keller: There’s a better life and Jesus offers it, but you must choose it. Jesus said it: If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel will save it.

So the choice is yours. You can hold on to your rights and discover the best that you can do, or you can surrender your rights freely back to him, of your own volition, your own choice, and discover the best that he can do for you, which would be...

Guest (Male): It’s said you make your choices and then your choices make you. So you better make good ones. Well, there’s no better choice than to surrender to Jesus. What that entails and what it looks like is our focus today on Study the Word with Pastor Thom Keller. As we open Philippians chapter 2, we’ll notice to choose Christ, in part, is to give and serve. Picking up on that point is Pastor Thom.

Pastor Thom Keller: Biblical basis for church membership is clear in the Bible. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul says that the church body has many different parts, with each individual part being a necessary part to complete the body. Paul describes church members not by what they should receive in the local church, but by the ministry they should give.

Each part of that body serves the body, not itself. The arm doesn’t serve the arm, it serves the body, and by serving the body, it serves itself. When I cease to remember that fact, that I have been engrafted into the body specifically to give, when I forget that, my attendance will devolve into an entitlement mentality rather than a servant mentality with the line of the day being, "What have you done for me lately?"

So again, if I may suggest, leave this thinking behind and every Sunday morning pray and ask God to help you get out of yourself and reach out to others, which is what a truly loving fellowship does. Listen again to verses 1 to 4. Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the spirit?

Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, working together with one mind and purpose. Don’t be selfish. Don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interest, but take an interest in others, too.

And this last section is such an important principle. Don't be selfish. Don't try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don't look out only for your own interest, but take an interest in others, too. Boy, you talk about principles that are practical guidelines for finishing well.

The key to finishing well, the key is surrendering your life and your will to Christ. This speaks to the difference between you being seated on the throne of your life versus Christ being seated on the throne of your life. Because until you surrender your life to Christ and give him the right to call all the shots in your life, you will remain selfish and self-centered because you are the one calling the shots. You're the center of the universe. And in that place, your primary concern is what? Is who? Me. The big "I."

Verse 2 on the practical side, as we get into that, says don't live to make a good impression on others. And boy, this one is such a trap for me. I've shared this before: when I played soccer and I'd have an assist, after the goal, they'd go and applaud and congratulate the guy that made the goal. I'd be standing there in my heart saying, "What about me? What about me? I gave the assist. What about me? It was a beautiful assist. Didn't anybody see that? Isn't anybody going to say anything about that?"

I struggle with this one. So the Bible says don't live to make a good impression on others. And yet we tend to get caught up in this. And yet we understand this when others try to impress us, don't we? Have you ever heard somebody brag about their achievements? "Yeah, I just won the Lebanon County Triathlon. Yeah, I just graduated summa cum laude. Yeah, I just did this. I just did that."

When they brag about their achievements, how does that affect your opinion of that person? You think less of them. They tell you what they're telling you hoping you will think more of them, but in actuality, it causes you to think less of them. Then why, oh why, do we think it won't work that same way when we try to impress others with our achievements?

But when you find someone who doesn't brag about their achievements, or even hides them, you think all the more of them. I have a friend, many of you know him, who played football for the Dallas Cowboys. Would you ever know that from talking with him? No, he would never offer that to you out of nowhere. Never. In fact, everything he's ever told me about his football days, I had to pull out of him. And because of that, because of that, I respect him all the more.

So the next time you're tempted to tell someone about some achievement of yours, some victory, some award, some shiny object you own, remember this statement. It's crass, but it's true: self-praise stinks. It's been said pride is the only disease known to man that makes everyone sick except the person who has it. That's pretty good, isn't it? Pride is the only disease known to man that makes everyone sick except the person who has it.

The solution, again, as we said earlier, take yourself off the throne and give Christ his rightful place. Submitting your will, giving your identity to him. Oswald Chambers said this: "Nothing is as distasteful to God as self-conceit. This first and fundamental sin, in essence, aims at enthroning self at the expense of God. If we are honest," he says, "when we measure ourselves by the life of our Lord, who humbled himself even to death on a cross, we cannot but be overwhelmed by the tawdriness, the shabbiness, and even the vileness of our hearts."

Going on to verse 4, it says, "Don't look out only for your own interest, but take an interest in others, too." Don't think only about your own interest, but be concerned about the interest of others. Do you know what every church needs? A few more good listeners.

This isn't in my notes, but I remember when my wife first started counseling at the pregnancy center in Lebanon. She came home after counseling with a girl who was pregnant, was considering aborting the baby. I forget how long my wife listened to her—for an hour, at least an hour. And when the woman was done, she said to my wife, "In all my life, no one has ever listened to me like this."

Do you know how rare good listeners really are? I mean really good listeners. How rare they are? When you are talking with someone, do you do most of the talking or most of the listening? That's your first test. When you're talking with someone, do you do most of the talking or do you do most of the listening? If you're not sure, here's a second test. Let's say that you meet a stranger or an old friend, and for 10 minutes, they just talk about themselves. Do you get bored? Do you lose interest? Do you want to walk away?

If that's true, then you're probably not a good listener. Because that's what a good listener does. He or she listens to the other person, really listens the whole time they're talking. The key to the art of conversation is simply learning to listen. That is the art of conversation, not talking.

How, how do you do that? You become curious about people. You learn to ask questions and be genuinely and sincerely interested in them as they talk. It's been said a good listener is not only popular everywhere they go, but after a while, they learn a thing or two. You know, if you think about it, if you really think about it, if all anybody ever does is just do all the talking, how are they going to learn anything? They just regurgitate what they already know. What they know is going back in their ears. It's a closed loop. You learn by listening to others.

Going on, Philippians 2:5-11: "You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges. He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross. Therefore God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father."

A powerful set of verses. A lot of those will be examined next week. But oh, how our flesh reacts to this idea of servant-hood. Key, however, is to always remember as you read chapter 2 is that these verses are married to the four preceding verses—verses demanding unity in the church.

And so this ties in perfectly to our earlier entitlement mentality versus a servant mentality. On this matter of church life and your demanding your own way or even just expecting to get your own way, Jesus is our example. Again, verses 5 to 7: "You must have the same attitude that Jesus Christ had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges. He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being when he appeared in human form."

Here's the point: when you, when I, get high on our horse and want things our way or expect everyone to see things our way, remember this. When you cop this attitude, you are placing yourself above God because verse 6 says, although Jesus was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights. And not only did Jesus not demand his rights, he made himself nothing. In Greek, that means to empty himself, to deprive himself of force. And not only did he make himself empty and deprive himself of force, he went even further, taking on the form, the position of a slave among his peers.

So how does today's lesson apply to me? Well, the first one involves homework. Purpose to pray Saturday evenings, Sunday mornings a prayer maybe something like this: "God, I pray that you would help me to move out of my comfort zone Sunday morning so that I can reach out to others in church, giving them the comfort of love to help ease their feelings of grief and distress."

You say, "But I don't know if they need the comfort of love." Surveys continually show that over 50% in a church service—of all the people, 50% are hurting over some issue going on in their life today. Listen, we all need to have that grief and distress eased from us. And as a side benefit—a huge side benefit—you will become a giver instead of a taker.

But some of you might say, "But I'm the one who needs the comfort of love. I need someone to ease my feelings of grief and distress." Great, that's wonderful because as you press through and pray that prayer and give the comfort of love to others, you will experience a lessening of your own grief and distress. It works that way, doesn't it?

That's a biblical principle: we receive by giving, not by taking. Try it. Just try it. Second application deals with my rights. Paul tells us that Jesus surrendered all of his rights. He gave up the right to remain with his Father in heaven. He gave up his right to a home, saying that birds have nests, foxes have dens, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.

He gave up the right to money. He had to borrow a coin from someone for a sermon illustration. He had to send Peter fishing to pay his taxes. He gave up the right to marriage. He gave up his right to his reputation. But he went further: he gave up his life itself, becoming obedient to death on a cross.

For what purpose? So that God might exalt him and give him a name that is above every other name, that at that name every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. But there's another reason he gave up his rights. Jesus was modeling to us how our lives should be lived, to show us that the only way to win is to surrender. The only way to conquer is to submit.

Jesus wants you, he wants me, to follow his example, losing ourselves in order to gain Christ. This is called the great exchange: our life for his life. Jesus said it: If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel will save it.

So the choice is yours. You can hold on to your rights and discover the best that you can do, or you can surrender your life freely back to him, of your own volition, your own choice, and discover the best that he can do for you, which would be... Will you surrender your life to Christ today?

You know, U-turn is a test tube of sorts because almost all these guys have the identical story coming in. The story of addiction is an amazingly predictable story with very predictable stages and outcomes. And that is what allows me to say the following with such conviction. As I observe these guys, what are the spiritual attributes of those who graduate from U-turn and remain clean, still faithfully walking with the Lord—two years, five years, 10 years after graduating?

You know what it is? It's those who have fully surrendered their lives to Christ. Those who have told God that they will go anywhere, do anything he asks, give up anything he wants them to give up. Because in doing so—listen carefully to this—because in doing so, they give up their right to every form of self-determination. And this even relates to drugs. It means that they stop determining not to use drugs or alcohol and instead surrender even that to Jesus.

So instead of determining not to use drugs, they instead surrender their entire life to Christ. And when they do so, they will come to realize that drug use is not a part of the life that Christ has for them. So they don't beat drugs back by determining not to use them, but rather they simply never go back to drugs because drugs are not a part of that new surrendered life that is lived fully and wholly for Christ.

You say you're talking semantics? No, no I'm not. It's a difference between you attempting to do something in your flesh as compared to living out a surrendered life which simply does not include those things. How about you? Are you ready to give up control of your life to God? Are you ready to admit that God can do a better job of running your life than you can? Is that obvious to you yet? Or do you still argue with that? Are you willing to go anywhere, to do anything that he calls you to do?

You know, I've said this many times: there are two decisions that I think every person knows they've ever made. The first one is, have you ever accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? That's the first question. But the second question is this: has there ever been a time in your life where you surrendered your life to Christ? And people say, "What does that mean?" Oh, it's pretty simple. You surrender your life to Christ.

You put him on the throne of your life. You say to him, "Lord Jesus, I will go anywhere. I will do anything. I'll give up anything you call me to do because I believe that the life you have chosen for me is a better life, a wiser life, a more fulfilling life than any life I could choose for myself. And although it's a little scary and unknown, I'm all in. I'm all in."

And folks, when you read stories of autobiographies, biographies of people that God has used to do great things for the kingdom of God, I'm telling you, I challenge you to prove me wrong in this. When you read those autobiographies, somewhere—chapter 1, chapter 8, chapter 12—somewhere you will see where they did this very thing. It's always there.

Because you see, God won't take part of that stool. He won't. He won't fight you for it. But when you mean it, when you invite him to take that throne of your life and you let him sit there and retain that position, that's when your life begins. I'm telling you, it's when your spiritual life begins. This isn't about salvation. This is about your life making a difference because Christ is calling the shots. Are you willing to do that?

You know, my guess in a group this size, there are only a handful of you that are really willing to do that. Because it's a big decision. You don't make this lightly. But it really does come down to that question: who can do a better job of running your life? Who do you think can be more trusted to bring joy and fulfillment, completeness into your life—you or God?

If you're one of those few, I'm going to invite you to pray that prayer right now. You know, this doesn't require some big show. It just requires a heart that's sincere and God hearing that heart and making the surrender. Father, you know every single heart. But if you felt God tugging on your heart to give up the throne of your life, then I ask you to do that right now. If you'd like to do that, just pray this prayer. Pray this prayer quietly in your heart: "Father, I surrender my life to you. I want your best in my life, not my best. I want your life lived through me, not my life. I want people to see you in me, not me. And so I will determine with all my heart, with every ounce of sincerity that I have, to go anywhere, to do anything you call me to do, to give up anything you call me to give up, to live that exchanged life—you living your resurrected life in me and through me. Lord, I surrender all to you."

That's the starting point. You can't surrender to someone that you've not given your life to. If you'd like to do that, just pray this prayer quietly: "Father, I acknowledge that I have sinned. I ask you to forgive me for those sins. I receive Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and Lord. You dying on that cross that I could have life everlasting. Thank you, Jesus."

Father, we love you, we praise you, we thank you that you are Lord of all. And this we pray in Christ's name, and all of God's people said, amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. You’ve been listening to Study the Word, an outreach of Calvary Chapel Lebanon. Our study of Philippians continues next time with Pastor Thom Keller. You can hear this message again any time of the day or night online at ccleb.com or subscribe to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon.

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