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Scripture
Reflections
Note: These questions have been prepared to follow the pattern of the series based on the sermon content from Pastor Josh Lilly.
Sermon: Thinking Like Jesus
Text: Philippians 2:1–11
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ 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… he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
— Philippians 2:3–8
Day 1 — Not a Ladder: Come to Jesus First
Read: Philippians 2:1–5; John 3:3–8; Romans 8:9–11
1. Pastor Josh warned us not to hear this sermon as a religious attempt to climb a mountain and become something. How is that different from the way every other religion talks about change?
2. “The mind of Christ only belongs to those in whom the Spirit of Christ dwells.” Why must new birth come before we can think like Jesus?
3. Where are you most tempted to treat Christianity as A, then B, then C, in order to arrive at D—rather than as a relationship with the living Lord?
4. If you have never been born again, what is the first call of this passage—not “try harder,” but what?
5. If you do belong to Christ, how does it change the week to remember that the Spirit is already transforming you, and you are partnering with that work rather than manufacturing it?
Prayer: Father, we cannot think like Your Son apart from Your Spirit. Keep us from turning this holy text into a ladder. If any among us have never come to Jesus by faith, draw them today. For those who are Yours, keep transforming our minds into the likeness of Christ.
Day 2 — Embrace the Grace You’ve Received
Read: Philippians 2:1–2; Ephesians 1:3–8; Romans 5:5
1. Paul lists five gifts: encouragement in Christ, comfort from love, participation in the Spirit, affection, and sympathy. Why is the “if” really a “since”?
2. The sermon said a Christian is not a half-full cup, and not even a full cup—a Christian is a person whose cup overflows. Which of those five gifts do you most easily forget you already have?
3. Empty people treat every relationship as a chance to be filled. Gospel people serve because they have already been filled. Which posture marked your last conversation in the body?
4. What completes Paul’s joy is not a larger platform but a church that shares one mind and one love. What would complete your joy in this congregation?
5. “God cannot love you more. He will not love you less.” How would believing that sentence today change the way you walk into church, work, or home?
Prayer: Father, thank You that our cup overflows. Forgive us for living as if we were empty and for asking every relationship to fill what only Christ can give. Let the encouragement, comfort, and fellowship we have already received in Jesus become the well from which we
serve.
Day 3 — Serve from Fullness, Not from Need
Read: John 13:1–5; Mark 10:45; Philippians 2:1–4
1. Jesus knew the Father had given all things into His hands, knew where He had come from, and knew where He was going—then He picked up a towel. Why must identity come before the basin?
2. He washed the feet of Judas. What does that do to the excuse that you will serve once people deserve it?
3. The sermon asked, “Christian, do you know who you are?” Answer that in your own words from the gospel, not from your performance this week.
4. Some seasons feel like the 3:00 a.m. cry of a child, when you wonder if anything is left. How does “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” meet a tired saint without pretending the tiredness is imaginary?
5. Imagine this church five years from now if more of us operated as people whose cups overflow. What would a visitor notice first?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, You did not come to be served but to serve, and to give Your life as a ransom for many. You served from fullness.
Teach us who we are, whose we are, and where we are going, so that we can stoop without fear of running dry.
Day 4 — Nothing from Selfish Ambition or Conceit
Read: Philippians 2:3; Philippians 1:15–18; James 3:14–18
1. Paul had already named “selfish ambition” in chapter 1—preachers using Christ to build a name or to wound him in prison. Where does rivalry still try to preach in your own heart?
2. Conceit is empty glory: significance with no weight. The sermon said much church conflict is a glory contest we refuse to admit. What contest are you quietly running?
3. He would not tell us to reject what was not real. Why is it mercy, not insult, that Scripture assumes selfishness will be waiting when we wake up?
4. Empty glory is the significance we try to manufacture for ourselves. Where have you been manufacturing a name instead of receiving one from the Father?
5. How would today’s ordinary decisions change if the good you were seeking first was someone else’s, especially inside this local church?
Prayer: Father, we confess the hunger to be first and the contest for empty glory. Forgive us for turning Your church into a stage. Nail our rivalry to the cross of Jesus, and teach us to refuse the significance we try to make for ourselves.
Day 5 — Real Humility Looks Carefully
Read: Philippians 2:3–4; Romans 12:3, 10; Galatians 5:13
1. False humility pretends that what is true about you is not true. Real humility owns the truth of who God has made you to be, then lives in self-forgetful service. Which one have you been practicing?
2. “You do not have to be nothing in order to serve.” How does that free gifted people to step forward without theatrics?
3. “Count” is a deliberate judgment, not a mood. Whom do you need to count as more significant this week—on purpose?
4. Paul does not tell you to abandon your own needs. Some groups have used Christian language to strip people of everything. How do you hold wise care for yourself and careful attention to others at the same time?
5. When you are in conversation in the church, what is usually on your mind—your story, or their need? When did you last miss a cry for help because you were not looking?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, You knew who You were and still took the form of a servant. Deliver us from false humility and from self-absorption. Give us eyes that notice people and needs, and the will to count others more significant than ourselves.
Day 6 — Embody His Descent
Read: Philippians 2:5–8; John 1:1–14; Matthew 26:36–46
1. “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.” Why is that sentence both a command and a gift? What changes if the mind of Christ is not a book you check out of a library?
2. The sermon insisted: if you do not get Jesus right, the rest of the puzzle will not come together. Who is Jesus in verses 6–8—truly God, truly man, and what else?
3. He did not empty Himself of deity. He emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant. Why does that distinction matter for worship and for humility?
4. Jesus valued service above status and obedience above self-preservation. In Gethsemane He asked if the cup might pass, then drank it. Where are you being asked to obey when self-preservation would be easier?
5. “Jesus’ suffering saves; ours bears witness.” How does that keep you from hunting for hardship and from treating your pain as if it finished what the cross left unfinished?
Prayer: Eternal Son, You were in the form of God and did not cling to equality as a prize to use for Yourself. You took our likeness and went to a cross. Give us the mind that is already ours in You. Teach us to go low for the good of others and the glory of the Father.
Day 7 — The Name Above Every Name
Read: Philippians 2:9–11; Isaiah 45:22–23; Hebrews 12:2
1. The Father highly exalted the Son and gave Him the name above every name. Why is that vindication, not a promotion from man to God?
2. Pastor Josh said the name above every name is the divine name—Yahweh, confessed when every tongue says Jesus Christ is Lord. How does Isaiah 45:22–23 make that confession unavoidable?
3. Jesus knew who He was and still let the Father lift Him up. Where are you still looking to a human audience to tell you what you are worth?
4. Every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth. The text does not say every knee will bow gladly. Why is today a mercy if you have not yet confessed Him as Savior?
5. You can serve for the hundredth time with no applause, because what the Father says is what matters. What hidden obedience do you need to pick back up this week?
Prayer: Father, You have given Jesus the name that is above every name. We bow the knee now, gladly, and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord—to Your glory. Lift up the humble in Your time. Free us from the need to be seen, and let our lives already begin the worship of heaven.
Family or Group Discussion
1. Which part of the sermon or this week’s readings most challenged or encouraged you, and why?
2. Where is our family or group most tempted to live as if our cups were empty—or to run a quiet glory contest with one another?
3. What would it look like, in this household or group, to count others more significant this week in one concrete way?
4. Take time to pray for one another: for hearts that embrace grace already given, for humility that notices needs, for anyone who has not yet bowed the knee to Jesus, and for hidden servants who need the Father’s encouragement.
Weekly Practice
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.
• Begin each morning by naming one gift from Philippians 2:1 you have already received. Serve from that sentence, not from your mood.
• Before a conversation in the body, ask: “Is this a mirror for me, or a window toward them?” Then look carefully.
• Practice real humility once this week: own a gift God has given you, and use it for someone else’s good without announcing it.
• When you want credit, say aloud: “The Father lifts up the humble. His verdict is enough.”
• Write and finish the sentence: “Thinking like Jesus would change __________ in me this week.” Then take one step. If you have never confessed Christ as Lord, let that step be to bow the knee by faith.
A church that lives this way becomes a people whose cups overflow, who refuse empty glory, and who stoop like their Lord—together—for the glory of Christ.
These questions are prepared to serve personal, family, and small-group study of the Word as we continue the Philippians series. May the Spirit who gave us the mind of Christ, who fills our cup to overflowing, and who still points us to the exalted Lord Jesus form in us His humility—for the glory of Christ and the strengthening of His church at Crossroads.