Is it wrong to want to be great?

Pastor Max Lyons opens with his 2007 move from Idaho to Los Angeles for a church internship, where a StrengthsFinder test named competition as his top strength. A more seasoned intern told him he had no idea how competition could do anything for God's kingdom, and Pastor Max wrestled with whether ambition is wrong. He points to Matthew 20, where Jesus does not rebuke the disciples for wanting to be great but for how they wanted to get there, then hands them the road map: whoever wants to be great must be a servant. "The world defines greatness by status, but Jesus defines greatness by service." Week two of the Philippians series moves from Paul's kingdom perspective in chapter 1 to kingdom practice in chapter 2, as Paul writes from prison to a young church planted among retired Roman soldiers who called Caesar lord.

Think of yourself less

Paul urges the Philippians to be of one mind and, in humility, to count others more significant than themselves. Humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less. Everyone who walks into a room is wondering what others think of them, which means nobody is actually thinking about you. Worship lifts our eyes off ourselves to God and then toward loving and serving people. You can serve with a sour attitude, like a diner waitress slamming down the toast, but Jesus calls us to serve with humility. Our culture sells conferences on stepping into your power, yet God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. Pastor Max recalls a family fighting over their parents' will; the one sibling who wanted nothing was the one the parents trusted to execute it, because they would make sure everyone was cared for. God likewise chose David, a content shepherd who was not trying to become king. The challenge: who is one person you can bless this week, expecting nothing back?

Have the mind of Christ

Philippians 2:5–11 calls us to have the mind of Christ, who did not grasp at equality with God but emptied Himself, took the form of a servant, and humbled Himself to death on a cross, so that God exalted Him above every name. The passage deliberately contrasts Adam and Jesus: Adam grasped what was not his while Jesus laid down what was rightfully His; Adam said my will be done while Jesus said not my will but yours; Adam brought death and Jesus brought life. Pastor Max remembers his first consulting manager, a control freak who dictated every detail, and his second, who asked questions and taught him how to think. Jesus wants more than mindless obedience to commands; He wants us to know how He thinks. Pastor Max jokes about selling WWJT bracelets, What Would Jesus Think, because if we know what Jesus thinks about our workplace, our family arguments, and our finances, we will know what to do.

Live like Jesus

"Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" once frightened Pastor Max as a new believer, until he saw it does not say work for your salvation. We are saved by grace through faith and then work out what that looks like on Monday, not just Sunday. Our culture mistakes information for transformation. He tells of watching YouTube videos on the ring muscle-up when he started CrossFit, feeling like an expert, and then needing two and a half years of practice to land one; to date he has done exactly three. Many Christians consume sermons, podcasts, and books and assume they have arrived, able to recite the Greek word for community without living in it. Be doers of the word, not hearers only. Applying what Jesus teaches means getting your hands dirty and sometimes falling on your face.

People God can trust

Paul closes the chapter with two living examples. Timothy has proven worth and genuine concern for others when everyone else seeks their own interests. Epaphroditus, a man with a thoroughly pagan name, nearly died for the work of Christ. God is not looking for gifted people but for trustworthy stewards, people who think like Him and live like Him so that when something needs to happen He says, that's who I'm sending. As a former high school baseball coach, Pastor Max asked himself which relief pitcher he could trust with the game on the line; God asks the same of His church.

Do the work in quiet

Everyone wants to be used by God, but few want to do the unseen work required to become someone God can use. Before anything happens in public it must happen in private: time with the Father, reading His word, blessing people where nobody is watching. God can only take you as high as your roots go deep. The closing challenge is to pick one area of obscurity and be faithful there this week, perhaps turning a commute into prayer or an audio Bible, so that God can say, that's my boy, that's my girl, that's who I'm choosing.