Is this life really all about me? (Philippians 2:1-18)

I wonder what people are looking for in a church, the one thing that scares me when I look at some of the poplar teaching by so called pastors is the idea that church is about us.  It is about what God can do for us, how we feel after going to church, Church should be a place we go and leave feeling good about ourselves.  The pastor should speak on something that is uplifting.  I have been told by some that a sermon should go no longer than twenty minutes, and don’t speak on not sinning that may offend someone.  That no one wants to go to church and leave feeling bad because l told them that they cannot do something.  We need to make sure that the music is to everyone’s liking so that they can all be entertained by it.  But then I think back to the Word of God, and I come this question is my life here on earth really all about me, about the things I want, the things that I desire.  Should I just ignore those around me that may be hurting and suffering because it makes me uncomfortable?  Then God reminds me about His word and I read in Philippians these words, “Don’t be selfish; don’t live to make a good impression on others.  Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself.  Don’t think only about your own affairs.  But be interested in others, too, and what they are doing.” (Phil 2:3-4)

As I read just those few words written by Paul I am reminded of how it is not about me, our us but it is about God.  Our lives are to honor God in all we do, when we go to work we work hard not for us but for God, when we go to church we worship God.  We are to live our lives in order to please God in all we do.  We are to treat others with love and respect, and that is hard to do sometimes.  But is this not what Christ did for us?  Paul goes on in verses 5-11 to tell how Christ who was God, gave up His position in heaven to come and be a slave here on earth.  Christ came from heaven to die as a criminal, not for Himself but for the glory of God.  For it is through His death and resurrection that death was defeated.  WE are to follow the example of Christ and serve God with are entire lives.  It is so easy to make life all about us all about what we want but we as Christians must give up our lives in order to truly be alive.  In the gospel of Mark we read where Christ tells those around Him “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. ^ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”(Mark 8:34-35)  These words spoken are also found the gospels of Matthew and Luke.

The reality is that we serve a God that loves us enough to send His Son to die on a cross, so we can enter into a relationship with Him.  But we want to begin to try to come into the relationship on our terms.  We want to make it all about us, but it is not about us it is about God, it is about what He has done for us.  We are to allow Him to begin to change us as we get to know Him better.  It is through Him we are saved it His grace and His blood that saves us.  We did nothing to deserve His love but we are allowed to freely accept it and come into His kingdom.