There is a great part of Philippians that talks about that, and if you will, follow along with me, and we're going to read that this morning. Philippians 2, verses 1 through 8. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry 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 made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Let me add my welcome to that of Boaz and David's. Thank you so much for coming. It is great to be here. It's great to have you here worshiping with us, and I pray that the Lord will meet you here. And I'm actually confident that he will and I'm confident that he will because We're just doing it. We're focusing on a special text this morning There are few texts in the Bible that are as pregnant and as rich and as beautiful as this one We are if you this is your first time to be with us or the first time to be with us in a while We are studying the book of Philippians and we're focusing in on this book that Paul wrote to some people who are beginning to be discouraged and And they just kind of thought life would be better than this by now. And he's saying to them, you have joy, you have reason for true hope and true joy in Christ. And we're kind of focusing in on kind of a word that I've defined poorly, actually, I think. We're focusing in on how the gospel addresses our cynicism. And I want to give you just a little bit of an example of cynicism before we go back into this text. What do I mean when I say that? A lot of us, you know, we just kind of have these shields. We say, well, that's not me. You know, I'm not Glenn Beck. I'm not sitting here looking at what's wrong with everybody. I'm not that guy. Let me kind of give you an example of cynicism in our time. I was at Mississippi State as a campus minister for six years, and I walked out of the bakery one day, and right across from the bakery was the Memorial Chapel, and they'd just finished a two-year-long restoration project for the memorial tower, the clock tower with the carillon, the bells, it's beautiful. And it was great. It was beautiful. Back, you know, where it needed to be in the middle of campus, ringing again. And I walked out with the guy who I think was the president of the student body at that time. That's an irrelevant point. Anyway, he and I walked out, and he looked up, and they had, part of the restoration, they put one of those metal roofs on top of it, you know, and it's kind of that bluish-green color that it's gonna fade and look beautiful, and it already looks beautiful. But he looked up at it, and he goes, isn't that a stupid color for a roof? And I stopped him, and I said, do you have any idea how many millions of dollars are spent every year to keep you happy? The entire economic system of Mississippi State depends on keeping people like you happy. And so they spend $11 million on a gym so you can work out. And they spend $2 million on a building that will look pretty for you and play bells for you. Can you say anything positive? That's kind of our level of cynicism. We're just so picky. We're just so hard to please. It's so easy for us to see what's wrong with everything. And we need to have that addressed. There is something in us that basically says nothing is good enough for us. And to that attitude, this text stands out in the sharpest possible contrast. This text stands up and it tells us what kind of God Jesus is. So let's turn our attention to it. When I was in seminary, I got the privilege of living in Jackson, Mississippi for three years. And Jackson, it's an interesting town. It's a state capital. It's kind of the financial capital of Mississippi. And so it's got quasi-powerful people in it. And it's small. And so everybody kind of runs in the same social circles, right? While I was there, I heard about this meeting between a man who had been the president of the strongest bank in Mississippi, his son, and a man who had been the custodian for the strongest bank in Mississippi, his son. And I don't know if you have people in your life where you really wish you could meet them because there's some story you want to tell them. There's kind of something you wish you could say to them that would, it's something they don't know, but you wish you could tell them. And you don't want to write it, you want to meet them and tell them that story. And so these two guys met and the custodian's son, the custodian's name was Eddie. And the custodian's son said, you know, I've been wanting to tell you this story. He said, on the night that my daddy died, the first person my mom called was your dad, was your father. It was John's father who had gotten Eddie the job. And it was John's father who had always just taken a kind interest in them. And Eddie said, the first person my mother called was your dad. And I could hear over the phone your dad say, oh, no. And he said about 30 minutes later, 10 o'clock at night, we heard a knock on the door. And your dad walked into our living room. And he sat there. He just sat there. sat there for two hours. Occasionally he would say, everything's going to be all right. Sometimes he would give us just a little bit of advice. Sometimes he would pat my mom's hand or pat my hand, but mainly he just sat with us. And somehow through that silent sitting, he sat from 10 till midnight until we were finally ready to go to bed. And then he left and he said again, everything's going to be all right. And through his presence, I believed everything was going to be all right. And I just want you to know that I never forgot the night that the president of the biggest bank of the state sat in my living room. And John's son, in a very typical Southern way, just kind of shook his head and said, well, that's the kind of man my daddy was. That's the kind of man he was. Don't you love stories like that, that pick up a person's character and kind of pulls that character out of them and lays it in front of you so that all you have to do is hear that story and you know the person. If you're going to do that with one text of scripture, if you're going to pull out one story, one example and say, this is the kind of God Yahweh the Lord is, If you were going to pick out one text of Scripture and say, this is the kind of Savior Jesus is, what would it be? And what attribute of God would you focus in on? We are looking at one of the most written about texts in the entire Bible. It was staggering to me as I studied for this sermon, not only how much I had in my library about this text, but as I began to reflect on it and look in my pastoral library is nothing to be in shock and all over. But as I began to look over my library and just noticed, I don't think I have a book in it. Maybe some of the biographies, but I don't think I have a book in my library that doesn't reference this text. It's that pregnant. It contains all of the truth and the beauty of Christianity, all of it. And I want to take you through it. I want you to see what we're talking about here, what Paul writes. If you go back to the text, I just want to keep it up in front of everybody. What Paul writes about here is he's talking about squabbles in the church and arrogance in the church. And all he does is he points their gaze to Jesus. And in doing that, he uses a hymn. Most of your Bibles, especially if you have an older translation, will set this text apart kind of in verses. And what scholars and people who make their living studying these things say is that this text was a hymn, that Paul drew a hymn out. And he quoted it back to them to say, now this is what you already know about God. Don't forget it. This is what we already know. It was a hymn that was widely sung already 20 years at most after Jesus died. This hymn. Go to the next verse. Starting with verse 6. Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." It's probably the first verse of the psalm. It's the truth, all of the truth of Christianity is right there. You hear what he's saying, the apostle Paul, is saying that this man who walked the earth 20 years ago, this man dwelled in the very form of God. If you saw him, you'd say, that's God. He dwelled with all the glory, with all the trappings, with all the privileges of God. And yet he did not consider all those privileges something to be held on to tightly. And he let go of his hands and he let them go. And he covered up his godness. And he became a man. And as a man, he was found in human form, and he was obedient, and he suffered death. I want you to get that. If you're really questioning Christianity, what I want you to know is this. That is all you need to think about. You see, Most of us in our kind of culture, if we're examining, we're doubting Christianity, it's not because of the truths of the Bible, it's because of the truths that we've seen, right? And we want to get mad at the church and complain about the church. And I understand. I completely understand. The church has done a lot of things wrong and there's going to be a lot of distraction about that. The church, like every organization, I'm sorry, I just moved this and made everything louder. The church, like every organization that's 2,000 years old that covers six continents and that has over a billion members, every organization like that, which I can only think of one, has a lot of diversity and has done a lot of good things and a lot of bad things. And if you have a cynical spirit, you can find a lot of bad things to be mad about. And you'll never sort through them all. But the issue you need to honestly come to grips with is the person of Jesus Christ that 20 years after he died, people were widely singing that he dwelled before he lived. He was the form of God. And these were not Greeks who believed in Hercules and all these other kind of God men. And so, you know, they were all great gods. These were Jews. who believed in one God, the creator of heaven and earth, who would have never said of anybody that it was not a robbery to be in the very form of God, that would never said of anyone that equality with God was not something to be grasped. These were Jews who believed in one God. And they believed that God was Jesus who walked the earth. And that is a staggering fact. I mean, think of the most influential person you can think of who's died in the last 50 years. Think of John F. Kennedy. Think of Martin Luther King. Think of anybody. And as much as their memory and cause may be venerated, can you imagine anyone saying, you know, he used to dwell in the form of God. You know, he upholds the universe. No. And we tend to come with kind of a historical arrogance and say, yeah, but they believed things like that back then. They did not. But they did of Jesus. That's the entire truth of Christianity summed up in that one point that God himself took on the form of a man and lived and died with us and for us. But it's not just the truth of Christianity you find in this text. It's the beauty of Christianity you find in this text. It's all the beauty of it. It's not just the words to the song you find. It's the music. It's the part that draws out our hearts. It's the wonder. It's the splendor. It's the amazing part of it. That he did this. And let it focus, really soak in on you for a second. What does it mean that he lived in the form of God? He enjoyed absolute freedom. He was not constrained by anybody's expectations, by anything, not by body, not by space, not by time. He enjoyed absolute serenity. He was in perfect calmness at all times. He enjoyed the worship of angels. He enjoyed the blessed smile of his father. He was utterly immune to pain. And he gave all of that up. Why? Why would you give up utter serenity to be badgered and hounded, be badgered by those who wanted things from you, who called themselves your followers, and to be hounded by those who hated you and wanted to kill you? Why would you give up the worship of angels to be insulted and spit upon by men? Why would you give up the blessed smile of your father to be betrayed by your best friends? Why would you give up immunity to pain? So that you could be crucified. Why? Because that is the kind of God Jesus is, because he loved us and he wanted to come after us. And so in his freedom, he freely laid aside all those privileges. And because it is utterly consistent with his personality to do something loving. Is utterly consistent with deity to be humble. To humble himself. What I want you to believe tonight, what I want you, this morning, what I want you to think about is that becoming a poor human in suffering reveals the kind of God our God is. Many of us have never thought before about God being humble. I would dare say if any of us were to be challenged to make a list of God's attributes, give me some words that describe God, the word humble would not make the list. And that's kind of the nature of humility, right? It doesn't exert itself. But it might be the most obvious example. It might be the most obvious word. That God is humble. And I think that's gonna affect us. I think it's gonna get behind the angry way we view the world and the anger with which we wonder why we're not given the status that we're due. I just want, usually I kind of come with a lot of things I'm trying to do in a text. I'm trying to change your mind. I'm trying to change what you do. Today, I just want you to think a new thought. That God is humble. That God is humble. Let's look at that for a second. Is God humble? Let me prove it to you from the Bible first. Is God humble? in the Old Testament. Is God of the Old Testament humble? The God of fire and brimstone and smoke and ashes and lightning? Well, yeah, actually, he only showed up with smoke and ashes and lightning like once. Most of the time, how did he show up? Think about the stories that always make you go, what? You know, when Adam and Eve fell, when they sinned in the Garden of Eden, will they turn to ashes immediately? No. What did God do? He came walking in the garden, and He said, Adam, where are you? Every honest student of the Bible goes, why did God ask the question? Didn't He know? He doesn't show off. He's humble. When He wanted to talk to Sarah about her coming child, how did He show up? With sore feet and an empty stomach, and He asked for food. When he wanted to finally turn Jacob's arrogant heart, how did he show up? As a wrestler in the night who couldn't ever quite pin him. He doesn't drive people to fear and dust very often. Usually he's gracious and patient. And he always leaves people going like Jacob going, I saw the Lord face to face and I'm still alive. What? And the Holy Scripture teaches that. Think about the history of the Old Testament. The nation of Israel. This is God's home where God was going to put His throne in Jerusalem. I mean, honestly, when you're studying world history and the great empires of the ancient world, does Israel make the list? Egypt? Babylon? Persia? Greece, Rome, but the creator of heaven and earth, his city didn't make the list. He doesn't choose any of those great cities. He doesn't conquer the world. Just a little sliver of it. He's just not like that. He's conquering the world now in a completely different way. But that's a New Testament lesson for another day. What about those passages that he clearly teaches? He says to us, I dwell with a bowed down in spirit, with a contrite and broken hearted. That's the kind of God we have. He dwells with us. He dwells with us. Well, what about bringing on into the New Testament? I want to make this point to you. And I don't want you to get nervous about the outline because really it's all about introduction today. So we're going to preach on this text for three days. Don't get nervous. Not three days at one time. I'm going to let you out by Tuesday. Three weeks, three Sundays. Sorry. Let's look at the New Testament. When God chooses to come to earth. Okay, I mean, just let that phrase kind of soak in on you. God is going to come to earth. literally in chariots of fire, obviously with angels and lightning and ripping the sky open. Duh, that's how God would do it. Well, what does he actually do? He's born in a stable and nobody knows it. And it's almost as if the angels are just about to have a rebellion and they're going, you gotta let us tell somebody. And you can see God the Father going, all right, there's some shepherds out in this field, go tell them. I mean, nobody even knows. And then how does Jesus live his life? He's ready to do his first miracle. The apostle John says, it was the first miracle by which he revealed his glory. And you're thinking an atomic bomb in Rome. A decimation of the biggest empire in the world. He's going to set himself up. That's how he would start. What does he do? He makes wine for a wedding and nobody knows except the servants. When he does miracle after miracle, what does he say that drives you crazy? Every time I've ever taught children this, they always ask, what does he say that? What does he say after every miracle? Don't tell anybody I did this. That's humility. He keeps himself veiled. And he even bothered to go so far as to say it directly. Matthew 11, if anyone's tired, let him come to me and rest. Take my yoke upon you, for my burden is light, because I am meek and lowly of heart. And then there's this fascinating passage in John chapter 13. It's a passage where Jesus, it starts out with this. John says, Jesus, knowing that all things have been delivered into his hand, okay? In other words, knowing he is now king of the universe. And there's, what's going on there is there's a learning curve in Jesus's mind. He's actually kind of, as a man, he's learning what he's come to do. And he knows he's now done it. And his work is complete. And all things have been delivered into his hand, knowing that he's come from the father and that he's about to return to the father. That's how John 13 starts. In other words, Jesus absolutely convinced of his divinity. Therefore, he gets up and we're thinking and he's going to start glowing. He's going to do something to reveal to the world that he is God. What does he do? He takes off his clothes. and he wraps himself in a towel, and to display what God is like, he washes the disciples' feet. He chooses a chore that only the lowliest of slaves would do. That is what God is like. That's what God is like. You see, There's that beautiful phrase that we all learn and we all like to throw around and none of us bother to ask what it means. We all love to quote, God is love. God is love. The loving thing is the natural thing for him to do. Washing feet, dying to redeem his people. Those are the natural things for him to do. That's what he would naturally go out and do. For you, the loving thing is the most unnatural thing, right? At the end of the night, at the end of dinner, when my wife and I are both trying to ignore the dishes, and I'm ignoring the dishes, playing video games, and she's ignoring the dishes, reading a book, and we're both kind of wondering who's gonna do them, the natural thing for me is to ignore them. The unnatural, hard, difficult, putting myself to death thing to do is to get up and go clean them. The natural thing is for me to go to Lowe's, actually, but that's another issue. Just get out of the house completely so there's no possible way I can help. That's me, because Ricky is selfishness. He's not love. The natural, the perfectly consistent with his essence thing for God to do, is to serve and to do them. That's what it means that God is love. That's what separates us from the Muslims. It's what separates us from all other religions. That love is not something that he chooses to do. It is what he is. And so I will finish up by asking just a couple of questions. It won't take me long. First, do you want a humble God? There are stumbling blocks to that, aren't there? It would be easier to believe in an unhumbled God. It would be easier to believe in an arrogant God. I mean, if God were just to, you know, once a month write in letters of fire across the sky, I'm watching. Don't forget me. If he were just a little bit less of the retiring artists who wants to give us something beautiful, but never wants to stand up and take credit for it. If he were a little less of that, it'd be, you know, if he would just kind of, I don't know, once a year, just make an appearance, rip heaven open and go, hey, good to see y'all, close it up. If he would just do that once a year, it would be easier to believe in him, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it? What would belief look like? Would it be cowering fear? Would it be terror? Would there be any joy in it? The cross is foolishness to the Greeks and a stumbling block to Jews. God is the opposite of what we worship. We worship strength and hate weakness. God is humble. And in that humility, there's a graciousness. There's a humble God is winsome, a humble God gets our affection and makes us want to love him. I read a story, a book recently written by a newspaper editor who interviewed Secret Service personnel, the people who protected the president. And I'm about to tell a story that paints Bill Clinton in a good light. So just buckle your seat belts, okay? It's all right. I know he's the antichrist too, okay? All right, so there. But the people who actually knew him said he was a great guy. And as he was walking out of a New York hotel one night, You know, they would secure the entire floor and they would keep, you know, everything, keep everybody far away from him because it would make it hard for people to kill the president. That's what they do. And as they were kind of bringing him down out of his room and down through the exit, they noticed that all the staff at this hotel had gathered at the far end of the hall just to see him. They just wanted to see the president. And Bill Clinton, as he's always did, was turned away from him. And then he calls out a name. Charlie, is that you? And he drives the secret serviceman crazy because he walks over to the crowd. He does what he's not supposed to do. He starts talking to Charlie, who works at the hotel. And he says. How's your wife? And Charlie says, well, sir, I'm sorry to say she's not with us anymore. And President Clinton looked at his guard and he said she had cancer. How would it make you feel? If the president of the United States remembered your name. Remembered what was going on in your life. How would it make you feel if the Lord of the universe had you engraved on his hands? And knew you. And didn't try to force his way into your life and didn't rip heavens open and crush your house, but he just stood outside the door and knocked. and really, really wanted to be part of your life, really offered to say, I will come in and be part of your life if you'll just open the door. Does that win you? Does that make you want to worship without fear? That's the kind of God he is. That's the kind of God he is. Finally, I just want to say a couple words about following a humble God. If leaving glory to live a life of suffering is the kind of God he is, what kind of people ought we to be? Paul says this, it's beautiful and it's something we try to stress a lot in this church. He doesn't say, y'all cut it out. Stop being jerks and start being nice. But he says, have this mind, which is yours in Christ Jesus, which is a little bit confusing, right? He says, have what you have. He says, be what you are. It's a little bit like he's looking at the Wonder Twins and he's saying, activate. You have this. This is what you're like. I know you. You are in Christ Jesus. I know you. This is what you're really like. You are humble. You're in Christ. He has taken you into himself. He's changed you activated. You're different. You're not selfish anymore. You're not obsessed with your appearance or your reputation anymore. You don't care about any of those things anymore because you're in Christ. You're not obsessed with how you look or how other people are treating you anymore. You're in Christ. Activate that. Remember it. You have the ability. And then what does Paul do? He invites us to go out and play God. It's really funny when we think about even that phrase, you know, who let you play God? Who are you to play God? The quote I love, little insult I love actually, you know, when someone's trying to give orders and nobody wants to follow those orders and somebody says, I didn't know God went on vacation and left you in charge. Actually, he did. He ascended to heaven and He left you in charge and He invites you to play God. Play God. Go to the nursery and change diapers. Play God. Go to the poor and clean their bathrooms for them. Play God. Go and do the chore that nobody would do. That's what that's the kind of God he's like. And we don't do it. To try to impress him. We do it because that's where he already is. That's where he is. That's the kind of God he is. Please pray with me. Father in heaven, we confess that we don't we don't think of you as humble because we make you into the kind of God we want. We read in the Bible that you're making us like you, and so we want you to be what we want. We want you to be great. You are great, but we want you to be arrogant and proud and show off your strength and order people around. We don't want a humble God who washes feet and dies for sinners. And we pray that You would open our minds to let us receive the truth, and we pray that You would activate what's in us so that we would be more willing to play God. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.