Well listen, good morning church, and welcome. We're so glad that you're with us. Listen, last week was a little bit different for us. Last week, we did what we call a local Sunday.

And so on our local Sundays, the campus gets to preach locally that day, right? Instead of all being together for the message, on the local Sundays, we get to speak into some direct vision and direction. Our campus pastors, or Jordan spoke here, and we had a great week last week. Man, I'm so thankful for our teaching team, the way that works for us.

I got the chance to be down at our Stone County campus. And I don't know if you know this, but man, we are expanding on that campus, and so we launched a campaign just at Stone County last week, where we're asking that campus to lead the way in giving over the next year. And so for all of you in Stone County that are giving towards Stone by Stone, thank you. Man, we cannot wait to open more seats.

Let's celebrate what's going on down there. It's good to be in a church that's growing. Really, really thankful. Let's talk a little bit about this week.

Here's what I want to talk about this week. Have you ever been anxious or been curious about the next stage of life? Maybe you're a senior this year, a senior in high school or a senior in college, and you're talking to people about the next season or the next stage of life, and you're asking them questions like, "Hey, what should I expect? What's it going to be like after I graduate?" Maybe you're here today and you're engaged, and man, you're so excited about that wedding, but you're nervous because you really don't know what's going to be different once you get married.

Maybe you're here today. Listen, I talked to someone in the atrium at Lincoln Road, and she is expecting a child in the next two weeks. So I said, "Let's tone down the music a little bit," right? But if you're a new parent, you've got so many questions.

You're wondering, "Hey, what's going to be different now that I'm a parent?" Well, here's what I want you to do this morning. I want you to imagine that today, when you walk out of your campus, wherever you're worshiping with us today, that as you walk to your car today, let's imagine that someone walks up to you and they say, "Hey, listen, I want to know something. I see that you're leaving church. You must be a Christ follower.

I'm considering following Jesus. Would you answer this question for me? What's different now that you follow Jesus?" You ever thought about that? I love the moments, especially in our church, we do this almost every week, where we say, "Jesus, we want you to come into our life and save us," and we do, but that also means he begins to shape us.

And so what we're talking about today is what's it look like not to just be saved, but also to be shaped by the gospel, right? By the good news. And so here's what we're going to do. We're going to be in Philippians.

And maybe you remember this from several weeks ago. We've kind of challenged you, and I hope you've done this with us this series, to read the whole book of Philippians. Now, don't worry, it's just four chapters. But these four chapters, there is so much in this book.

You're going to love this letter. I don't want you to miss reading it. So if you haven't read the whole book, go home today and just read the whole book. It won't take you long.

I'm a slow reader and I can do it in about 25 minutes. You can do this. The other thing I want to challenge you to do in this series, because we still got three or four messages in the book of Philippians, I want you to bring your Bible. You go, "Man, it's on the screen, bro.

It's not that big a deal." Well, let me tell you what we've been doing. We've been doing a little bit of an experiment, and at House Church on Wednesday night, we ask everybody to bring their Bibles. And it's the coolest moment when it comes to reading the scripture and you start hearing the pages turn. Can you hear that?

And the coolest thing happens because all of a sudden you look over and there's a dad helping their child find the book of Philippians, and it's kind of hard to find. And there's someone else that jumps in and is like, "Look, y'all, I got to go to the table of contents. I'm just going to tell you." But we all are reading. And there's something powerful and personal about being together and finding your Bible, because most of you have one.

You just may not know where it is. But I want you to bring it on Sunday, because I think there's some power to reading these together. Now, I think it's powerful when it's coming from your Bible, okay? Maybe it'll start a habit, all right?

So let's do this. Let's read this together. We're in Philippians 2, and you've heard this the last few weeks. This is a thank you letter.

And now listen, this isn't a typical thank you letter. I get some thank you letters from seniors, and they're terrible. Like, "Thanks for the Cane's gift card and phone charger. Love you." This is different.

This is coming from Paul that loves this church in Philippi, and he wishes he could be there, but he's in jail. He's been locked up for sharing the gospel. And the church knows what's going on, and so they send him a gift. And in response back to the gift that they've given him, Paul begins to write.

He begins to give them wisdom. He begins to give them insight, because he's seeing some things that he didn't see in the middle of it, but he can see now. And that's what this is. It's just a thank you letter from Paul, okay?

So here we go. Let's read it together. Philippians 2. Here's what I'm going to do, because this is the most powerful part of the message.

Every campus, I want you to stand up while we read today. Yeah, you thought you would get a little nap, didn't you? Yeah, not yet. Not yet.

All right. Here we go. Good morning. Now you're awake.

Let's read this together. "Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in his Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind." Now, this is a big verse. "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourself, not looking to your own interest, but each of you to the interest of others." That'll preach right there.

Could probably just stop now, huh? Verse five, "In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness." Verse eight, "And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Can we get an amen?

Amen. All right. Hey, listen, you can be seated. Here's what we want to talk about, y'all.

What's different? What's different now? Now that you've chosen to follow Jesus, what should you expect or what should you look for in your life to be different? Here's the very first thing.

I think there should be a new unity. And I want you to see it right here in these scriptures, in these passages, because this is something that we've got to lean into. This is something we've got to experience as followers of Jesus. Look what he says you should look for.

Check this out in the verse. We should be like-minded. It's really hard. You're like, "Greg, we're a really big church.

We got five different campuses, but you think we should have a similar mind?" Yeah, because we have the same love. We're one. Wait, I thought we were like hundreds or even thousands. No, we're one in spirit, and we're one in mind.

Now watch, go back one more verse. Watch what he tells us to look for. You're not going to believe this. When the Spirit is at the center, you're also going to experience tenderness and compassion.

Did you know we had that much in common? If you're like me, you're looking around and you're like, "This brother next to me, he's bald. This brother next to me, he's this color. This brother next to me, he's poor.

This brother over here, he's rich." But you're telling me there's a lot we have in common? You mean we can be in five different campuses this morning, we can be up in Jones County, we can be all the way down in Gulfport, and there's still a similarity? There's still a oneness about us? Now listen, that's not natural.

Okay, what's natural is that we begin to talk about the different ways we were raised, or we talk about the different hometowns, or we talk about all the things that might separate us. But he says, listen, there's a common seed in you if you've invited Jesus into your heart. And what happens so often is we try to fit into all these different molds, and we become known for the exterior. We know, "I know that church.

Yeah, they've got a steeple. I know this one. They're known for their worship, right? Man, you go in there, they worship hard." Or, "I know this church, man, they're casual.

You can wear anything in there." Those aren't bad molds. Those aren't bad descriptions. They're just less than. Paul's writing to this church, he says, "The thing I want people to know you for is this oneness, this unity of spirit." That you guys all have the same value, that you're known for the way that you love people, the way that you see people, the way that you respond to people, the way that you treat people.

He says, "That's the oneness, that's the unity that I want you to experience. That's the thing I want to be recognizable about you." It's not your denomination. It's not your style. It's not the way your buildings look.

No, no. It's this common spirit that I experience when I walk into any of those campuses or any of your homes. It's unity. Sometimes you can see it the clearest on a Saturday afternoon at a college campus.

And man, we had some football yesterday. I'm not going to talk about it. My Eagles, we're getting close. Bulldogs had a big win.

The Lane Train went down, okay? You got to celebrate that. I'm sorry. When you walk onto those campuses, you have alumni from all over the state, and they come back and they talk about, "You remember when we used to walk this campus?

Man, I can tell you stories from things we experienced." Then somebody pops in, "I remember I was there, man. Back when I was here, this is what happened on the baseball field. Back when I was here, this is what the football games looked like." There's a tenderness. There's a compassion that just kind of sweeps through the tailgates.

Somebody has extra seats, what do they do? They look for a little dad and a son walking around. I want to give them to these guys. There's something about football, right?

There's something about the colors. There's something about there's a feeling in the air, right? It unifies us. We all come around a similar mission.

We're going to win. We come around a similar goal. We're going to make it to the playoffs. Paul is saying, "I want that to be in the church.

I want you to be known not for what you're against. I want you to be known for the things that you're for." For it to be electric, for there to be a feeling there, for there to be a common language and synergy amongst the people that call themselves partners at Venture. So here's the question I want to ask you about unity. How are you contributing to the unity?

Are you someone that kind of walks around like, "Golly, it wasn't a great day. Yeah, I go there, but I'm really not involved," or, "Yeah, I hear there are some good things happening there, but I'm just kind of in and out." Or are you someone that says your story's more like this, "Hey, you go to Venture? Let me encourage you. Hey, you know what?

In fact, I serve the kids over there. Each week you'll find me. I'm making disciples. Hey, I come back on Sunday nights and I get knee-to-knee with students.

You know, I'm giving sacrificially towards this mission and vision because it's more important than what I desire, because it's reaching people." You want to wrestle with that a little bit. Are you contributing to the oneness? Unity is rare, but there's a common spirit, there's a common work, and man, it's so beautiful in a melting pot of a church like ours. You go, is that an obstacle or is that a blessing?

It's a blessing. Man, we got so many schools represented. We got so many different backgrounds. Most of you, you don't know if we're Baptist or not because we're a Bible-believing church.

We believe in making disciples. We believe in life change and baptism. We believe in raising up a next generation that knows, loves, and follows Jesus. Let that be the thing that people know us for.

Here's the second thing I want you to look for. This is what you're going to tell someone who asks you, "Hey, what's different now?" The first thing you're going to say is there's a new unity. There's something about following Jesus that you find a synergy around. The second thing you would say is there's a new attitude, and you see this so clearly in this next verse.

Now, this verse right here is a difficult verse. Let's read it together. "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves." You knew we were going to come back to this when we read it.

"Not looking to your own interest but each of you to the interests of others." Wouldn't you love to be married to this person who practiced this? Wouldn't you love to be this person's friend, that that described them? Wouldn't you love if I could tell you this, "Hey, we're about to hire you. We're going to bring you onto our team, and here's what you can expect about the team.

They're unselfish. There's a spirit of humility. Most of the people on that team, they don't even look to their own interests. They're going to do everything they can to help you succeed." And I love where he starts.

There's like a progression in this as Paul's describing, this is what I want you to look like. This is what I want the church to be like. He starts with selfish ambition. He says, "Let me remind you of this.

This is sometimes hard to hear, but it's not about you." Oh, man, I know, but I always sit here, and we've gone here for so long, and we've contributed. He says, well, man, that's good. God's going to use that, but I need you to be focused on what's next, the next generation. He says, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition." Like, that's not just words we say.

That is Paul. That's the word of God that's saying, hey, for this thing to be about unity, it can't be about you. It's really hard for a team to be about unity and it be all about you or the leader. Then he says, well, let me tell you how you're going to do that, because when you read that, you're like me.

That's hard. Okay? That's not easy. So in my mind, I see Paul going, well, let me help you.

Here's how you're going to get there. It's going to take a dose of humility. So I'm seeing Paul, it's like he's writing him a prescription. All right, if you want it to not be about you, then the first thing you're going to need is humility.

Now, let's talk about humility. Here's what humility is, okay? Humility is not thinking less of yourself. That's not our goal.

We're not trying to not be confident. We're not trying to say you can't be excited about what God's doing in your life or your story. No, of course, right? You have a story to tell, and God's the center of it.

But humility does mean thinking of yourself a little bit less. I'm going to tell you, I'm just being honest as your leader, I'm really good about thinking about me. I would be lying if I haven't heard my wife have to say to me, "You know, sometimes it doesn't have to be about you." I'm leading from vulnerability. Like, that's a true story.

Any of you remember the golden age of country? You remember a guy named Toby Keith? You remember this song right here? "I want to talk about me.

I want to talk about I. I want to talk about number one." I'm not going to sing, but you know the song. "My, oh my, what I want, what I need. You love talking about you, you, you, you, usually.

But occasionally, I just want to talk about me." I started thinking, man, I don't want that song to describe me. I don't want that song to describe us. I want us to be known as people that see other people and begin to respond to others. You say, well, how in the world do I even do that?

Like, how do I start that? Philippians 1. We're in Philippians 2 today. Philippians 1 is all about your relationship with Jesus, and it starts vertically.

Like, when you accept Jesus, when you invite him into your life, all of a sudden it changes the way we do relationships horizontally. That's where you find the power. That's where you find the strength to see beyond yourself. It's supernatural.

It's not natural. But chapter 1 says, if you'll start with me, if you'll put me first in your life, then you're going to see others differently, and you're going to begin to respond to them differently. It's a response. It's kind of like an if/then statement.

Like, if you'll put Jesus first, if you'll allow the Holy Spirit to work in your life, then you'll see other people different. It's like this. This analogy is going to help you. Several years ago, when my kids were starting to get older and they had more opinions, my wife would cook for them, and they would say things like, "Mom, these eggs aren't that great." Or they'd be like, "We're going to do tacos again?" And she came up with a great response.

She said, "Listen, you're confused. When someone cooks for you, you have one response, and it's thank you." You don't say, I want this, I want that, you should have done this. If they cook, no matter what house you're at, mine included, then you say thank That's this passage, Philippians 1. If Jesus has come into your life, then the way you see others, there's only one response.

He gave up his life, so you give up yours. He has grace for you, so you have grace for others. He sees you in your lowest moments, and he still loves you, and he invites you into relationship. You see them in their lowest moments, and you love them, and you care for them.

He put your needs above his. He left heaven to come here for you. He went to the cross for you. So now you do the same.

You model that. It's a response. It starts with responding to Jesus, and then you can respond to others. Now, here's the third thing, okay?

So we started with there's a new unity. Hey, man, here's what I tell you is different about me. Now that I follow Jesus, I'm a part of something. Man, and these folks, they think the same.

There's a synergy. People give to each other. They serve my kids. It's like nothing I've ever experienced.

There's a common thing. We worship together. It's like there's one voice, man. There's a unity.

There's a new attitude. Because he put me first, I'm beginning to put other people's needs ahead of my own. You're going, "I wish I was married to that person." You can be. It starts with Jesus.

It's not too late. There's a new attitude. But then the third thing I see in this passage is there's a new posture. Now watch this, because this is hard.

We talked about this Wednesday night in house church, and it hit me. This is a whole different way to think. Look at this. He says, "You should have a new posture.

You should be a servant." But you're going, "Wait, that's Jesus. You're telling me Jesus, who is God, like the whole Trinity thing, like the one that was in heaven, that was there from the very first, that created the heavens and the Earth, that formed me out of dust, he left all that to become a man, still had the deity of God, but he chose the nature of a servant?" Yeah. That's what I'm telling you. It's radical.

Of all the people from page to page in the New Testament to take on the role of being a servant, it wasn't the disciples. It was Jesus. It was Jesus himself. He was the one that said, "My new posture, the way you're going to recognize me is I'm going to serve you." Now, I'm just going to give you, and I've tried to do this throughout the message, kind of give you real talk.

I wouldn't do that. If I had come down from heaven, I would come in majesty. I wouldn't be born in a barn. I'd be like, here comes Craig.

He has come, and he is rolling, and he's staying in the nicest place, and he's got the best education. He's got servants all around him. Let's worship him. That's not what Jesus does.

He picks the lowest, and he says, "I'm going to begin to come and redefine this whole thing by the way that I serve people." You guys remember the moment, you guys remember the night? This is where it really got weird. You remember the final meal that Jesus shared with his disciples? Again, me, we're going to the steakhouse, we're eating good, we're talking big stories.

I'm listening to everybody praise me, talk about how awesome I was. May even take up an offering. Jesus, final meal, the last moment, and he picks up a bucket of water, and he gets a towel around his waist, and he gets down on his hands and knees, and he washes the disciples' feet. That's the posture.

That's the picture. Here's where it really gets weird. We're reading a book called "Lead," okay? And so if you lead an organization, listen to this.

Watch what he says about leading. A true leader knows that people are not the objects of their power and control, but the focus of their sacrifice and their service. Let me ask you something. Is that the way you lead your organization?

Is that the way you lead your classroom? Is that the way you lead in your friendships? Now, you ready? Here, these next two are going to get even harder.

Is that the way you lead your children? Is that the way you lead your wife? See, Jesus led differently. And it was so real sitting around that circle Wednesday night when we opened up the scripture because I'm talking to a business owner.

I was talking to a teacher that'd been teaching for 30 years, legit, and we're redefining what it means to be in a position of power. You're just the chief servant. Now, here's what I want to do because I need to encourage you because I've kind of laid it on pretty hard, and this is a hard passage. It's kind of easy to understand.

It's really hard to do. But I want to encourage you because I want you to see this because I don't get it right all the time, and I think you've heard that throughout this message, but I realized when I started thinking about this that it's not just me that doesn't get it right. So watch this. Watch the disciples.

The disciples are just traveling with Jesus. They're going from village to village, and Jesus picks up on a conversation they're having. So you know how it is, like when you're the teacher, you're the leader, you listen to your kids upstairs. What are they talking about up there?

What are they talking about in the back seat? I wonder what my team... If you're a coach, you do this all the time. You're listening.

What are they talking about while they're in the locker room and I'm not in there? Look what the disciples were talking about, okay? Here we go. We're in Mark 9.

Let me get out of the way so you can see it. Mark 9. Now, next week I can stand right here because you're going to have your Bible. Mark 9, starting in verse 30.

They left that place, and they passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were because he was teaching. He was teaching his disciples, just like we always do. He said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.

They will kill him, and after three days he will rise." But they didn't understand what he meant, and they were afraid to ask him about it. They came to Capernaum, where there was a house, and he asked them, "What were you guys arguing about on the road?" But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. Oh, I missed it again. Sometimes we're having the wrong conversations, guys.

Who's teaching this week? What song are we going to worship to? Where am I going to serve today? Should we give or shouldn't we?

Those are the wrong questions. How can we get to be a part? You're telling me there's a need in KXB to disciple children? I'm in.

You mean there's a reality that there's 70 different families that are called Venture Home that open up their house or their garage every Wednesday night to 20, to 30, to 40 people to come and gather? Yeah. You mean there's people that give up their Sunday nights to come back and disciple sixth graders? Heaven's going to be different for you.

Yeah. Unity. There's a oneness. So here's what I want to do.

Several years ago, there was a challenge that went around. This is how we're going to close, okay? And I thought it was a beautiful challenge. It was kind of weird.

It was called an ice bucket challenge. We're not going to do that. But it got everybody's attention, right? Because it was something everybody was doing.

They used it to raise money, all those kind of things. Well, one of the things we did at our house, we used to always do a chore chart. I don't know if y'all did that when your kids were little, but it was each day there was a role that each person had to play, okay? So here's why I want to close.

I want to give you a humility challenge, okay? And so here's what I'm going to ask you to do this week. Now, you can find this online, you can get it on the app, you can print it out, you can put it on your refrigerator, you can take a picture of it. But if someone asks us what's different about us, what has changed now, here's how you're going to be able to answer this because you're going to do this this week, okay?

We're going to do it together. We're all taking the challenge. First thing we're going to do on Monday is we're going to listen. It's really hard to be one if you're never listening to the needs of others.

I mean, come on, you know this. You got two ears and one mouth for a reason. Tuesday, we're going to work on noticing people. I tell you, it makes me feel so good when people notice me, and maybe that's a maturity issue, or maybe that's just universal.

But on Tuesday, I want you to notice some things. You may notice your wife's haircut, and she got it cut like two weeks ago. You may notice some things about your kids. Hey, I just want you to know, I've noticed that you have been killing it at school.

Way to go, bro I want you to notice some things that you don't typically notice on Tuesday, all right? Come on. Wednesday, this is on house church day. I want you to serve somebody.

Now, I saw this. I saw it once tonight. I saw one of our families say, "Hey, here we go. Before we go home, boys, you go get the trash.

Boy, you go get the toys. You go help your mama." And then they did it. But before they left, this family made a decision, we're going to serve. You may have been coming to Venture Church for years, and you've never served.

I don't know, man. I want to challenge you. Find a place to sign. It's what Jesus did.

I want you to choose we over me. Ooh, that's a hard one, isn't it? Jesus did it when he washed the disciples' feet. So finally, and then I'm going to tell you, this one's the hardest for me because every time I unload the dishwasher, I want to say it.

Anybody notice I unload the dishwasher? Yeah, who fed the dog today? I did. I'm terrible about that.

I want you to do something this week and choose to go unnoticed. Now, listen to me. This is a heart-to-heart conversation. This list is wonderful.

It's great. You can't do it without Jesus in your heart. It starts with getting saved. The next step is getting shaped.

You can't go to second base without starting at first. It starts when you say, "Jesus, come into my life. Jesus, give me a different purpose, give me a new lens, give me the ability to listen. Help me serve others because naturally I just don't." That's the whole message here.

That's Philippians 2. It's not about you, it's about others. But first, bring Jesus, ask Jesus, invite Jesus into your daily rhythm. Some of you look at this and you go, that's never described me, but it can.

It's not magic, it's Jesus. And the challenge today is to say, man, listen, let his grace welcome you into a new lifestyle where you're shaped by him. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to bow your heads for just a second, and man, this is a weird message to preach because I got a lot to do this week.

Man, I am intimidated by this. I don't like standing up here challenging you this way because that means it starts with me. But I want to breathe life and a little bit of hope into your marriage and into your family. It doesn't have to look the way it looks right now.

Man, when you put Jesus in the center of this thing, you begin to lead like him. You begin to serve like him. And so I want to do this for you. You can come down at the end, let somebody pray over you and for you.

Maybe you need endurance to not stop. Maybe you want to come at the end and take communion. That's a way of saying it starts with you. The altar is open.

As we sing this next song, let it be a moment where you worship and you invite him into the rhythms and the decisions and the moments of everyday life this week for you. Father, I thank you for your grace. It starts there. God, I thank you that you see us and you abandoned.

You left heaven to come here. You chose this position of a servant. And so God, we want to be able to ask that person, we want to be able to answer that person differently. That, yeah, there's something different about me, man.

It's Jesus. It's Jesus. Yeah, he's given me the ability to lead differently, man. He put me first, so now I put others first.

It's Jesus. Philippians 2 is all about Jesus. So God, today as one church with one voice, desperate to have unity and to have worship together, to take on a new attitude and a new position, God, I just know it starts with you. So Father, come into our life.

This may be the very first time for us to step into a relationship with you. God, don't just save us, man, shape us. Father, we're ready for heaven. We can't wait to be with you for eternity.

But for now, we want to look different. What's so different? God, you put us first. Give us what we need to put others first today.

It's in your name we pray. Amen.