How has this year been for you and your family? Where do you go for strength when exhaustion and despair take over? Where’s your focus right now in making the most of your circumstances?

Read Philippians 2:1-5. What are Paul’s four appeals of motivation to the Philippians? What is the relationship between unity and humility in these verses?

Read Philippians 2:6-8. We focused in this sermon on the emptying of the incarnation. What are the starting and ending identity of Christ in these verses? Why do you think Paul nearly repeats himself: “being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form…”?

Compare Philippians 2:9-11 with Isaiah 45:14-25. What similarities do you see between these two passages of Scripture? In his commentary on Philippians, Moises Silva writes, “Whether or not Paul composed the Christ-hymn, it patently expresses his own conviction that the worship of Jesus Christ does not compromise Israel’s monotheistic faith. ON the contrary, Jesus Christ the righteous Savior bears the name of the one Lord, Yahweh, ‘to the glory of God the Father.’ (p. 112) Discuss as a group this idea that the name bestowed by God the Father on Jesus is the name LORD.

In this sermon, we looked at the effect of hope on our openness to suffering and on our gratitude. What grace upon grace will you need to imitate and worship Christ this week?