The Right Attitude Pt 1

Would you all stand here for this Sunday morning, Lord, that we've gathered to worship in song and to study your word. If you would just speak to us by your Holy Spirit, Lord. Just guide us by your Holy Spirit. Be glorified in our service. Just order and bless this day, we ask. We just thank you. You're here this morning to Calvary Chapel and those who are joining us online, we come to

worship our Lord God by feeling necessarily. The feelings may come along. That's what they do. We truly want to just worship you, express the fact that you are worthy. Thank you for what you did on the cross, Lord, and how you rose from the dead and ascended up to the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us. We want to thank you for that this morning as we enter into

this time of worship and study in Jesus' name. We ask you into our hearts to forgive our sins and to just make us those people, Lord, where we're born again. You begin to transform us. The renewal of our hearts, the renewal of our hearts, the renewal of our hearts, the renewal of our hearts, as we commit our bodies, living sacrifice, present them unto you, which is your reasonable service or act of worship. And we ask that we would do that. We would just keep in mind that

we presented ourselves to you, and you're working in our hearts, Lord. You're doing a work. You saved us, but it was love. For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever would believe in him would not perish, but have eternal life. And we thank you for that this morning. In our hearts, as we are living out this salvation, we thank you, Lord. We love you. We praise you.

This is particularly John 15. To do is to abide in you. Just put our trust in you. Let's consider that, Lord. Would you all stand? But it's too late. Our hearts will bow our knee to you right now and give you prayer. The universe who loved us, saved us as he rose from the dead. And again, as I said earlier, he's up at the right hand of the Father, making intercession. We thank you for

that, Lord, in Jesus' name. Bless our service as we continue to anoint Pastor Ryan by the power of your Holy Spirit to teach your word, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's have some fellowship. The process of locating your seat. Grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements. Welcome to Calvary. Glad you joined us this morning. A few things to take note of, as always,

on the left-hand side of the things going on throughout the week. So take note of those. Middle section, just a reminder that Grief Share begins here in a couple of weeks, if you're interested in that. We also have a couple of spots left on the missions trip. And then the Family Life Services Banquet is coming up on March the 9th at 530 at the Brown Center. And Calvary always purchases a couple of tables for that. So if you are interested,

which I think is like 16 places, if you're interested in attending, please talk to me afterwards. And I'll get you set up with some tickets. And the only thing we ask is that since Calvary's sponsoring the table, if you are able to please make a donation to Family Life Services. So take note of that. Again, if you're interested, you can talk to me afterwards. And then just a reminder,

hopefully everybody's doing okay with keeping up with the reading plan or doing what you can on the reading plan. Just a reminder that that's on the back page of your bulletin. And if you're watching online, it's also posted on our Facebook page. So those are the things going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And for our responsive reading this

morning, we are going to be in Psalm 138. Psalm 138. Looking at the new American standards so we sound the same. If you need one, should be one around you. And while you are turning to Psalm 138, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's word. I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Glenn and the even verses. Psalm 138.

Psalm 138. A Psalm of David. I will give you thanks with all my heart. I will sing praises to you before the gods. I will bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your loving kindness and your truth. For you have magnified your word according to all your name. On the day I called, you answered me. You made me bold with strength in my soul.

All the kings of the earth will give thanks to you, O Lord, when they have heard the words of your mouth. And they will sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. For though the Lord is exalted, yet he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you will revive me. You will stretch forth your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand will save me.

The Lord will accomplish what concerns me. And kindness, O Lord, is everlasting. Do not forsake the works of your hands. And Father, we do thank you, Lord, that you are the God who accomplishes that which concerns us. And so, Lord, we just ask right now that you would use your word, that you magnify with your name, Lord, that you would use your word in our hearts and lives in the way that you see fit

through the power of your Holy Spirit. Father, we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. As we come to Philippians chapter 2, we come to a new section on joy. We had said that in chapter 1, joy is found through having the right perspective. Well, as we come to chapter 2, we find that joy comes through having the right attitude.

Having the right attitude. And so, the first thing that we'll look at is, we'll break down three different ways, but the first one that we'll look at with having the right attitude is having an attitude of humility. And so, we pick up in chapter 2, verse 1, and it says this. Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. But he emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men.

Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name. So that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and those who are on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So, we take a look at the right attitude, and the right attitude, first of all, is to have an attitude of humility.

Before we get into the points on humility, though, in verse 1, he gives us sort of a hinge verse, a motivational verse, if you will. It says, Therefore, if there is any encouragement, Now, the word therefore always links us back to whatever we've studied up to this point in time. It links us back to what came before. And so, when we see therefore, we are reminded that in light of the fact that Jesus and his gospel create the right perspective in our lives, in light of the fact that Jesus and his gospel are the very thing that center our lives on the correct things, in light of that, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, and if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, and if any affection and compassion.

Now, when we see that word if, you and I see that as a conditional thing. If there is, then this. But really, the way that it should be stated in the Greek is, we should instead translate the word if with the word since. So, let's read it that way. Therefore, since there is encouragement in Christ, since there is consolation of love, since there is fellowship of the Spirit,

and since there is affection, and compassion. In other words, since we have all of these things, then this is why we should live in this right attitude of humility. And so, we are reminded that we have the encouragement that comes from Christ, the encouragement that comes from our knowledge of him, the encouragement that comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ, which led us into truth. We are, since we have the consolation of love, and since we have the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, and since we have the love of Christ, and since we have that affection and compassion flowing through our hearts because of Jesus Christ, then we should live with an attitude of humility.

Now, when we look at this attitude of humility, there's four things he's going to teach us about having an attitude of humility. Four things about having the correct attitude. And they're given to us in verses 2 through 11. Number one, if we are to have the right attitude of humility, number one, we are to be, we are to be unified. We are to be unified. Notice what it says in verse 2.

He says, I'll point out to you the first thing that he says there. He says, Literally, what that says in the Greek is, fill my joy full. Fill my joy. Isn't that great? Because what Paul's greatest desire for the people of Philippi was, was to see them be in this attitude of unity. To see them be in this attitude of oneness. I mean, that was his greatest joy.

It would fill his joy to the absolute fullest. Do you know why it would fill his joy to the absolute fullest? Because he served Jesus Christ. And if you remember from John chapter 17, in John 17, Jesus gives his high priestly prayer for the church. His high priestly prayer for all the disciples throughout all of the centuries that would follow him. And one of the greatest things that Jesus prayed

before going to the cross, one of the greatest things that he prayed in this high priestly prayer for all who would come after him is that we would be one as he and his father are one. And so Paul, with that same kind of heart, because he had the same heart that Jesus had because of the time he'd spent with his savior, he said, the greatest way that you can make my joy, joy full, that you can make my joy complete, that you can fill it up to the fullest is by being a, first of all, the same mind. He tells them four things he wants them to be, be of the same mind, to have a, be of the same love, to be united in spirit and to be intent on one purpose. Now, I think it's kind of interesting that in this short of an amount of time,

Paul has now for the second time told them that they should be people who work together. If you remember, one of our points at the very end of chapter one was that they would strive together for the gospel. And now he is calling them to be unified. That should cause us to think something. Was there potentially some division in the church in Philippi? Because if you state it that often,

it means that there was potentially some division. You know what we'll find out in chapter four, I think, it's either chapter three or chapter four, we'll find out that there were two ladies, two ladies that had a dispute, two ladies. It had a dispute that was beginning to affect the rest of the church. Because whether you know it or not, when you have a dispute with somebody else in the church, it affects everybody else in the church.

Because whether you intend to or not, you end up forming cliques. You end up forming groups, people that will agree with you in the dispute. And then pretty soon, you have a certain group of people that agree with you and a certain group of people that agree with the other person. And now we don't have unity. Now we have lost that unity of spirit. We have lost that like-mindedness.

We have lost that unity of love. We have lost that unity of purpose because no longer is Jesus Christ my purpose, my dispute is my purpose. And so Paul says, if there is any consolation, since there is consolation in the spirit, encouragement in Christ, since we have the, the fellowship of love, and since we have affection and compassion, make my joyful by being like-minded. Well, as I thought about this, these four things that he says about being unified, I thought, what is the central theme of all of those things?

Well, he says, first of all, that we are to be of the same mind. Well, how can we all be of the same mind when we all think differently, right? Because one of the things about us as human beings is that we can be unified, but we'll never be uniform. So if we all think very differently on a good number of topics, how can we have the same mind? Well, we put Christ in the center of it.

How do we have the same mind? We have the mind of Christ. Well, how do we have a unity of love? How do we have the same kind of love? After all, in the world that we live in today, love is defined in a lot of different ways. Could we all agree with that? Could we all agree that right now we can't figure out what love really is because we have put all kinds of different definitions on it?

So if there's all kinds of different definitions of love, how do we come to a place where we can be united in love? Well, we are united in the love of Christ. The love of Christ that confronts sin and yet offers grace. So we find ourselves united in the love of Christ. We find ourselves united in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, right? Because he said,

if I leave, I won't leave you as orphans, I will leave you with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, dwelling among us. And how do we united in purpose? Well, we are united in the purpose of not only knowing, but serving the Holy Spirit. We are united in the purpose of not only knowing, but serving the Holy Spirit. We are united on the love of Christ. You see, I find that if we will keep putting

Jesus at the center of everything that we do, we can't help, but be unified. Because if the very center of your life is Jesus Christ and the very center of my life is Jesus Christ, then we can be unified around Jesus Christ. Because while we may not see eye to eye on a good number of things, we can always see eye to eye on that. And if we've got that one thing as our central theme, then we can always see that.

be unified. But you see, that will require humility. Because humility is what causes me to say, my desires aren't first, Jesus is first. And we will be united under that. So if we are to have the right attitude, the attitude of humility, number one, we must be unified. Number two, we must do nothing from selfishness. We must do nothing from selfishness. Notice what it says in

verse three, I didn't get overly creative with my titles here. Do nothing from selfishness. See what I did there? Just pulled it directly out. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard another as more important than yourselves. Well, now that's hard. Right? Can we all agree that what he just said there was hard? Well, let's explain that. Let's explain that. Let's explain that. Let's explain that. Let's explain

what he means, and we'll see that it doesn't get any easier. He says, first of all, do nothing from selfishness. Well, the word selfishness can be defined really simple as putting one's self forward. I mean, that's just the most basic definition of the word selfishness. Well, what does the world tell us you should do right now? You should put yourself forward. After all,

if you don't promote you, who will? Right? Isn't that sort of the big thing right now, is if you don't stand up for your rights, who's going? And the Bible says, do nothing out of selfishness. In other words, stop putting yourself first. Stop putting yourself forward. But there's actually a deeper meaning and a deeper understanding to the word selfishness here. It can also be translated a spirit of factions, a spirit of factions.

I was curious what the word faction, I've used it all the time, but I was curious what the word faction actually meant. The word faction actually means a small dissenting group that, that disagrees with the majority. That's what a faction is. Well, my gosh, that's the exact opposite of unity, isn't it? He says, therefore, do nothing out of faction. Do nothing out of

dissenting against the majority simply because you want to be heard, simply because you want to put yourself forward. In other words, don't do things that cause division. Do nothing from selfishness. The second thing he says to do nothing from, is to do nothing from empty conceit. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit. Literally translated, it means empty pride. Empty pride. I preferred the New Living translation on this

because I thought it was fascinating the way that they put it. They said, don't try to impress others. Oh, now that, that sticks out to me. I understand that. Isn't it amazing that that's what we try to do in our lives right now? That's, that's, that's what our world is built on right now, is constantly trying to impress others. There's social media, there's social media,

got platforms completely dedicated to impressing other people so that we impress them with our vacations and we impress them with our clothes and we impress them with our jobs and we impress them with our kids and our kids' sporting events and how great our kids did in their sporting events. We impress them with our kids' grades. We impress them with the new card that we just bought. We just want to impress people, right? And we want to make sure that all the things that we

have are the greatest things ever so that we can impress people. Or we do the opposite. We're so proud of the car that we've held on to that we have 350,000 miles on that we tell everybody, I never spend money on cars. I only drive old beaters and you should be impressed with my humility, right? Because that's the other end of it is people try to do that all the time. They're

like, yeah, well, my car's older than yours. Yeah, well, my vacation was less than yours because I'm humble. They'll never add the part about saying they're humble, but that's what they mean, right? Then we try to impress each other. He says, don't do anything out of selfishness, a desire to cause division or empty conceit, a desire to impress other people. Brothers and sisters, my hope here

is not to condemn. My hope is to cause us all to reflect and say, where do these things take place in my life so that I can seek God's help in overcoming them? The great thing about God's word is it never tells us. What we've done wrong without telling us how to be right. It says, do nothing, verse three, from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind. Humility of mind.

Now he starts telling us how we should think with humility of mind. Literally translated, the word humility just simply means lowliness. With lowliness of mind and honest estimation of my littleness. Actually, that was one of the translations that I read. I thought that was really good, especially for a guy of my stature, but that's not the point. The idea is who

you are really, right? An honest estimation of how little we really are. It takes me back to the lyrics of that Rich Mullins song. We must be awfully small and not as strong as we think we are. You see, that's beginning to think with lowliness of mind. It's not just putting myself down. It's just an honest estimation of who I am. It's just who I really am in desperate need of a savior. He says, but with humility of mind.

Again, I think it was the Amplified Bible that said this, with neither arrogance nor self-righteousness. It's a good definition too, isn't it? It's a good little translation of that idea of lowliness of mind. With no arrogance or self-righteousness. So with humility of mind, we are to regard, another as more important than yourselves. Regard another as more important than yourselves. Now,

this phrase can get taken to a place it should not be taken to, if you're not careful, if we don't really understand what he's saying here. Because what this can end up doing, if we don't take it in the correct context with the understanding of what's intended, is that we can then begin to devalue ourselves. We can say, you know, I'm really not that important. I'm, I'm really not that great. And just look down on yourself all the time. And, and that's a perversion

of this idea of what's being said. We're not to devalue ourselves. I mean, you need to understand the great value that you have. You've been created in the image of God. And though fallen in sin, loved so much by God that he gave his life for you. That he, that he laid down his life so that you could be saved. Your life is of great value. The idea is not devaluing who you are. There's

too much of that that goes on in our culture. And that can, can almost become a pride in and of itself. That self-deprecation can almost become a look at me looking for a compliment sort of a thing. No, we don't devalue ourselves. Instead, we have an attitude of putting others before myself. We have the attitude of putting someone else before myself. Notice what it says. Let me read it again. It says,

In other words, I put others first and me second. I've heard this over and over again as a kid growing up. There's a wonderful word, joy, which is kind of interesting because that's the theme of our book, right? And to have joy, we need to have the right attitude, which is an attitude of humility. There's this great song that we used to sing when I was a little kid and it went like

this. I won't sing it because every time I do, one of my daughters looks at me and says, dad, don't do that. It goes like this, J-O-Y, J-O-Y, this is what it means. Jesus first, yourself last, and others in between, right? And that's genuinely the idea that Paul is putting across here. That's why some of the best theology you'll ever learn are some of those old little kid songs that you'll sing because we put it in a way that

a five-year-old can understand it. And if a five-year-old can understand it, then by golly, I ought to be able to get it too, right? And that's what it means. It means think of others as more important than yourself. In other words, put other people before you. Put other people before you. If I do that, then there's not going to be division because if everybody's putting someone else first, if everybody's putting

everyone else first and everybody's needs are going to get met, you're never worried about whether your needs are going to get met or not because after all, you're putting someone before yourself. Your needs are not as important as someone else's. And if somebody else is living that way too, then they're taking care of you. And if we all live that way, we all live that way.

We all live as Christ has called us to live. Well, then you have a healthy, happy, functioning church. Amen? And so he says, first of all, if we want to live in humility, we number one, need to be unified. Number two, we need to do nothing from selfish ambition. And number three, we need to look out for the interests of others. Look out for the interests of others. He says,

do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Now, I'm going to put that in some Ryan speak here. I tried to look at some other translations on this. And so I pulled from some of them and I kind of came up with my own kind of version of this, especially that first part. Don't merely look out for your own interests. Don't just pay attention to what's good for you, right? Don't

just pay attention to what's good for you. You know what one of the big problems again that we're having in our culture is? All anybody can think about is what's good for them. And if it's good for you, then it must be okay, right? Sheryl Crow sort of spread this idea in the 90s with that song. If it makes you happy, it can't be that bad, right? It's the worst theology I've ever heard in my life. That's

the worst philosophy I've ever heard in my life. If it makes you happy, it actually, in fact, can be that bad, right? Actually, in fact, it can be terrible for you because happiness and joy are two different things. But we are not to just look out for others. We are not to just look out for what's good for me. Because when I only look out for what's good for me, then it affects everybody

else around me. Because if it's just good for me, but not good for my neighbor, then I'm not being very loving and not putting my neighbor above myself, right? I'm not loving my neighbor like I love myself. But right now, everybody's saying, no, no, these are my rights. This is my space. I do what I do. I need to make me happy. And you know what the I need to make me happy idea has

done to our culture? It's made nobody happy. And now everybody's unhappy. Because we have taught generations of people that you should do what makes you happy. Because what's good for you is the most important thing in the world. Now, I don't want you to get me wrong. We have to take care of ourselves. That's part of being a responsible human being. But when taking care of me puts me above everybody else,

that's when we have a problem. That's when things get out of whack. Instead, what does he say to do? He says, do not merely look out for your own interests, but also for the interests of others. In other words, pay attention to what the people around you need. Pay attention to what's going on with the people around you and how what you're doing affects them.

I'm fast. I'm fascinated by how much people don't realize that the things that they do affect people around them. And that's not good. We are so convinced in our culture of our rights. We're so convinced in our culture that we need our rights, our right to you name the thing, that we forget that it affects all of the people around us, right? I'm sitting in a waiting room.

Was it yesterday? I think it was Friday. I was sitting in a waiting room on Friday. There's a show on the TV and I don't really care about the show on the TV. It's not really the point of the story. There's a show on the TV in there and I'm kind of watching it. And I'm like not being able to figure out what I'm listening to because what's happening on the TV

doesn't match what I'm hearing. I'm like, that is really strange. What is going on? I realized that there was a young man on his phone sitting just underneath of the TV playing videos so loud that I couldn't hear him. And I'm like, what's going on? I'm like, what's going on? I'm like, that it overpowered anything going on on the TV. And I thought to myself, how selfish can one person

be? I don't necessarily care what's on that TV. That's not the point. You're in a waiting room in public with lots of other people and you're listening to a video so loud that everybody in the world can hear what's going on in your video. You know what everybody in the world does not want to hear? What's going on on your video? But he didn't care because that's what was in front of

him. After all, that's his right to listen to his phone, however loud he wants to. And I will guarantee that if I looked at him and said, hey, bro, your phone's really, really loud. The potential was there that he would have said, deal with it. Now, before we give him too hard of a time because he's a young man, I want to tell you a story. So the other day I was walking through

the halls of a school. And as I've mentioned, I'm an auditory person. I hear conversations going on around me all the time. Biggest problem. I have is not joining in. I did not let that stop me the other day. So I'm walking down the hallway and I hear this kid go, my teacher said if she sees my phone out, I think this is a junior high kid. My teacher said if she sees my phone out one more time, she's going to take it from me. And I

looked at her and I said, but that's my privacy. You can't do that. And I was like, ooh, that burns my biscuits right there, right? This attitude thing is really important to me because I can handle a whole lot of things. I can handle kids' being loud. I can handle kids' being disruptive. I can handle roughhousing. I can handle all that stuff, but I can't handle bad attitudes. That's when I get upset. That's when I get angry, right?

People have bad attitudes. And so I keep listening. We're still walking down the hall and I keep listening. And she goes, and you know what? I went home and told my mom about it. You know what my mom said? You're right. So before we get upset with kids that have that attitude, we need to understand they were taught that by their parents. Now I need us to understand something else. I

overheard another similar conversation. I heard another similar conversation. I heard another conversation quite some time back now. And you know who the person was that absolutely empowered their kid to have that attitude? It was their grandparent. We need to understand bad attitudes are not encapsulated with the kids that are under the age of 25 in our world. They're encapsulated

in all of us. We all look out only for our own interests and sometimes completely disregard the interests of the people that are around us. And when it comes to the body of Christ, it ought not to be this way. It says if we want to have the right kind of attitude, if we want to have an attitude of humility, then we need to look out for the interests of others. As a matter of fact, there's an amazing book. It really will go with this

next section that we'll look at about following Christ's example. But it's called The Jesus Style. Has anybody in here ever read The Jesus Style by Gail Irwin? Oh my gosh, it's a great book. Because it's all about putting others first. Because that's what Jesus did. I actually have about 15 copies of it in my office if anybody wants to borrow it and read it. It's going to

very much go along with what I'm about to talk about next. So if we want to have the right attitude, the attitude of humility, number one, we need to be unified. Number two, we need to do nothing from selfish ambition or from selfishness. Number three, we need to look out for the interests of others. But then number four, we need to follow Christ's. Example. Follow Christ's example. I'm going to read all of verses five through eight really

quickly and then we'll go back and break them down. It says, have this attitude in yourselves, verse five, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God, a thing to be grasped. But he emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made. In the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death on a cross.

He starts off by saying, have this attitude in you. I believe it's the New King James. It says, have this mind in you. That word is the same word that's used for like-mindedness up in the verses. In other words, be like-minded with Christ. Have the same attitude as Christ. Now, that right there should cause us all to stop and say, oh Lord, help, right? We need to stop and say,

Lord, I need your help. Because the only way that I can have the attitude of Christ is if I am in fellowship with Christ and if the spirit of Christ is at work in my body, is at work in my mind, in my heart, in everything. Have the same attitude as Jesus Christ. Therefore, if I want to live a life of humility, I need to look at the example of how Jesus lived his life. Don't just look at the example of how Paul lived his life. Don't just look at the example

of how the disciples lived their lives. If I want to understand what it looks like to live as Christ has called me to live, the best thing I can do is look at Christ. You ever found it interesting that there are four gospel accounts? As a matter of fact, we got into Mark this week, right? Was it yesterday that was our first reading in Mark? I'm actually a little ahead in the New Testament. I'm

behind in the Old Testament. Full disclosure. But I'm ahead in the New Testament. I'm kicking rear end with that, right? I am just cruising. And so it's kind of interesting because you started Mark and you're like, didn't I just read this? Do you ever feel that way? You're going to feel that way by the time you get to John. You're going to be like, didn't I just read this? I mean, did my fourth go around

with some of these stories? You ever wonder why some of their stories are repeated four times? It's because you are to have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And the best way to learn is through repetition. It's the absolute best way to learn. It's called muscle memory. And pretty soon after you've read it four times, you're going to go, I get it. This is how Jesus

would act. This is what Jesus would do. And Jesus goes, good. Let's do it again next year. Maybe you'll start to learn. It says, have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, verse six, existed in the form of God. Now, I'm going to be honest. When we get to verses seven and eight, this is some of the deeper theology of Christology in the New Testament.

This is, Chuck Smith just stopped and prayed, actually, when I was listening to him and said, we're walking in holy ground right now. Because it paints the absolute picture of the deity of Christ and the humanity of Christ. And so he says, but he emptied, or excuse me, although he existed in the form of God. That word form means the outward expression of an inner reality. The outward expression of an inner reality. In other words,

he was in the form. He already existed in the form of God. In other words, he is God. This is actually, according to Kenneth Weiss, one of the strongest statements for the deity of Christ in the entire New Testament. Because his inner reality, was God, and it showed in his outward reality. Because although he existed, past tense, in the form of God, because he is himself deity, he went on to say, although he existed

in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God, a thing to be grasped. Equality with God, a thing to be grasped. So what does that mean? Well, the term equality, we need to understand what it means. It doesn't mean equal in personhood. It means equal in, what's the correct word I want to look for here? Equal in, not even power. It means equal in privilege. Although he existed in the form of God, he was himself God, he did not regard

equality equal in privilege with God, a thing to be grasped. So what does that mean? Well, that word grasped is really interesting. It means a treasure to be clutched and retained at all costs. In other words, he did not regard his, oh, I just forgot the word that I used right there, his privilege with God, something to be held on to so tightly that he could

never, that he could never lose. Although he existed in the form of God, he did not regard his equality of privilege with God, something to be held on to at all costs. Instead, what did he do? He emptied himself. He emptied himself. Now, here's the question. What did he empty himself was, what did he empty himself of? Now, there's been some really bad theology that's been given based on this verse. There's actually a form of theology

that goes around that says when Jesus came to the earth, he emptied himself of his deity. That he emptied himself of being completely God, and they use it based on the fact that this verse, that's not what this verse is saying. He did not empty himself of his deity because it wasn't his deity that he held in such high regard. He emptied himself of his privilege. He emptied himself of his glory. He emptied himself of his glory. And as he

emptied himself of his glory, I want you to notice what it says. It says he took the form of a bondservant. That word took or taking, as it says right there, carries with it the idea of adding to. He added to himself the form, the outward expression of an inward reality of a bondservant. That's what Jesus did for us. How do we follow the example of humility? Well, we follow the

example of Christ, who being in the form of God, God himself, deity himself, did not regard equality, the privilege that he had of holding on to his glory as something that he was unwilling to let go of. Instead, what he did is he emptied himself of his deity. He emptied himself of his glory. And he took on the form of a bondservant. As a matter of fact, when he took on the form

of a bondservant, he was made in the likeness of men. In other words, he put on the clothes of a man. And when he put on the clothes of a man, what did he do? Verse 8, and being found in appearance as a man, he hung himself of his glory. He emptied himself of his glory. He emptied himself of his glory. And when he took on the form of a bondservant, he was made in the

humble of himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death of my cross. There's three statements in there I want you to pay attention to. It says that he, being found in appearance as a man, he did three things. Number one, he humbled himself. He humbled himself. That word humbled is the verb form of humility. It means to make oneself low. He made himself

low. He brought himself low. Even though he was, was high in the form of God, he brought himself low because he was found in appearance as a man. The second thing I want you to take note of is it says that he was obedient to the point of death because the humility of Christ kind of builds until we get to this last part. He became obedient to the point of death. In his form of a bondservant, he became obedient to the, to the point of death.

And then the third thing it says that it says is even to the extent of the death, on the cross. Now again, you and I are somewhat sanitized to the cross because we've heard about it for so long. We've read about it and we know about it, but we didn't live amongst it. We didn't live in the culture that faced it. When he said he became obedient to the point of death, even the

death on the cross, as this was being read in Philippi, there still would have been a moment of silence right there because everybody knew what the cross was. The cross was first of all, a curse to the Gentiles. It was a curse to the Gentile world. After all, a Roman citizen was not allowed to be crucified because it was such a horrific way to be put to death. So for Jesus to

become obedient to the point of death meant that he was willing to endure a curse to the Gentiles. But do you know what else? The cross was a curse to the Jews because we're told in the book of Deuteronomy that cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. So what does this mean? It means that Jesus humbled himself. And he humbled himself to the point of death, but not just any death, not a noble death, not the

death of a hero, not the death of one who was standing for what was right and everybody looked at and said, now there's a man. No, it was the death of a cross. It was the death of something that was considered a curse to the Gentile world, a curse to the Jewish world. It was considered the death that nobody wanted to die, fit only for slaves, fit only for insurrectionists, fit only for the worst of the worst.

You aren't even human. That's how far he humbled himself. Therefore, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. I think that there's one story in scripture that paints this picture better than anything else. And again, if you were to read the book that I referenced earlier, The Jesus Style by Gail Irwin, this is one of the things that he points out. I want you to go one place with me in scripture.

Go over to John chapter 13.

John 13 begins the last supper, that last time that Jesus will meet with his disciples. He's within 24 hours of the cross and they're eating the Passover meal together. Now, typically what would happen before one of these meals is the first thing that they would do is that there would be a ceremonial washing that they would do, usually in some sort of a public bathhouse kind of a thing, because that's what they had at that point in time. And they would make sure that they were clean for the meal. It was kind of a public bathhouse kind of a thing. And they would make sure

that they were part of their ceremony, a part of their tradition. And then once they were ceremonially clean, they would walk to wherever it was that they were going to go to eat the meal. And you know as well as I do that it was dirt roads and they wore sandals. And even though you're clean, your feet get a little bit sweaty. So by the time you show up, your feet are a little

bit funky. Well, usually what would happen is they would provide a servant, a servant who was of the lowest class that would meet all of the guests at the door. And they would wash their feet. Even though they were totally clean, ceremonially clean and ready for the meal, in order to truly prepare for the meal, they would provide a servant who would wash their feet. Well, Jesus was eating the meal with his disciples. And we know that the thing

that the disciples argued about the most was not who could be the lowest servant, but who would be the greatest in the kingdom. And so, of course, nobody washed anyone's feet. So we come to chapter 13, verse 1, and it says this. In the midst of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come, that he would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During the

supper, the devil, having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray him. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hand and that he had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from the supper, and he, take note of the verbiage, because I think it's really important, laid aside his garments, and he took a towel, he added to himself a towel, and he girded himself, and then he poured water into a basin, began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. Now, I want you to pay attention to what took place right there. He laid aside his outer garment, he girded himself, and he took a towel, and he added to himself a towel, and he girded himself,

and he washed their feet. Jesus, although he was in the form of God, didn't consider that privilege something to hold on to. Instead, he emptied himself, and he took on the form of a bondservant, and then he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death. Do you see how that's an example of what Paul just told us in the book of Philippians? Now, listen, there was a whole lot that

went on with the super, there's a whole lot that went on with the Super Bowl, but there was a whole lot that went on with the commercials in the Super Bowl, that he gets us commercials, right? Which, I don't disagree with everything in the commercial, but I disagree with some of the things in the commercial, because it was Jesus without context. But it showed Jesus washing all of, or it showed individuals washing all of these different people's feet. My big problem is that it felt more like a liberal push than a push for Jesus.

It felt more like a push for a liberal ideology than a real Jesus. That being said, we cannot escape what Jesus actually did here. Because what Jesus did here is he washed feet. It was what the lowest form of a servant was supposed to do. It wasn't what the creator of the heavens and the earth was supposed to do. It wasn't what the savior of the world was supposed to do. It wasn't what

the one who would come at one point in time and rule and reign and create a new heavens and a new earth. It's not what he was supposed to do, but he did. Because he emptied himself of his glory, and he took on the form of a bondservant, and he humbled himself. He humbled himself because not only did he wash the feet of his disciples, but he also washed the feet of his disciples. What's the difference? Because they weren't his disciples,

they were the guys that would flee the minute that he was arrested. He not only washed the feet of his disciples, he washed the feet of Peter. Peter, who had a tendency to stick that clean foot in his mouth. Peter, who would deny that he even knew Jesus three times to the point of calling down curses upon himself. No, I didn't know him. Not only did he wash the feet of his disciples,

all the ones who would run from him, not only did he wash the feet of Peter, the one who would deny him, but he washed the feet of Judas, who would betray him. Friends, the one thing that was true about that commercial is we can't pick and choose who we serve. We can't pick and choose who we love. We can't pick and choose who we show the grace of Jesus Christ to. Because if I didn't deserve the grace of Jesus Christ, then who am I to withhold

it from someone else who doesn't deserve the grace of Jesus Christ? The biggest difference is Jesus does not affirm us in our sin. Jesus saves us. From our sin. Because the washing of the feet was not the last thing that he did. The last thing that he did was die for our sins. Washing the feet just gave us the example to follow. So my friends, if you want to have the mind of Christ, if you want to live in humility,

you need to follow the example of Jesus. Follow Christ's example, who was willing to, lay aside all of his privilege and glory, who was willing to take on the form of a bond servant, and who was willing to humble himself and become obedient unto death. I have a question for you. What do you need to lay aside? What form of pride is in you that keeps you from serving people,

that keeps you from living in humility? What privilege do you think that you have that keeps you from serving people? I would tell you, if you want to have the mind of Christ, if you want to follow Christ's example, if you want true joy in your life, it's time to lay that aside. Because the life of pride is not the life of joy. It's time to lay that aside, and it's time to take up the form of a bond

servant, and humble ourselves. Because I want you to go back to Philippians, because I want you to take note of what happens next. It says, for this reason, because of what Jesus was willing to do, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven, and of those who are on earth, and those who are under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. For this reason, why?

Because Jesus humbled himself. For this reason, God has highly exalted him. Now, before we get to how this applies to you and me, let's follow this out, because it's really cool. God has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. Because there is no form of deity, there is no form of idolatry, there is no form of anything of this world that

matches the name of Jesus Christ, because he is above every name. And that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. What does that mean? It means everybody is going to bow down to Jesus. You will either do it on this side of eternity as your savior, or you will do it on the

other side of eternity as your judge. But everybody will bow down to Jesus. That's when I see, that's why when I see these arrogant, atheistic people who are like, I will never bow down to God. I'll never admit that God is real. It's like, fine, you don't have to now, but you will have to one day. Because when you stand in his presence, the truth will be known. The truth will be known.

Now, there is a truth there for us to pay attention to. God has highly exalted Christ because he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death on the cross. Now, I forgot to have Nick put this up there, or Tammy or whoever it is that's doing the things back there right now. They do a fantastic job, and I love them. I do not give the video crew

enough credit back there, but they do an amazing job of keeping up with it. But there's a verse that I want you to pay attention to. It's 1 Peter 5, verse 6. Matter of fact, just go there with me real quick. 1 Peter, go to your right, 1 Peter 5, verse 6. If you hit 2 Peter, you went too far because we need first. Notice what it says, 1 Peter 5, verse 6. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you at the

proper time. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you at the proper time. And if we were to read just above there, it says, because God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. What does that mean? It means live like Christ and let

God handle the results. Ryan, you don't understand. If I live in humility, I will get walked all over. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, and he will exalt you in due time. Humble yourself and let God handle all of the results. Because when we let God handle all of the results, he handles it so much better than we can ever imagine. So much better than we can ever fathom. Because God takes such good care of us.

Brothers and sisters, if we are to walk in joy, then we are to walk in the right attitude. And walking in the right attitude, first of all, means to have an attitude of humility, to be united, to do nothing from selfishness, to look out for the interests of others, and to follow Christ's example. Christ's example of humbling himself and taking on the form of a servant. Amen? Let's all stand.

And if you'd bow with me. Father, we come before you. And Lord, I thank you for the time that we've had in your word this morning. Lord, I thank you for the example of Jesus. And Lord, as we desire to have that same mind in us, which was in Christ Jesus, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the only way that that can happen is if that power of the Holy Spirit flows through us. As if your Holy Spirit produces in us the fruit

that is necessary to live as you've called for us to live. And so, Father, I ask right now for a fresh filling of your Holy Spirit for you. And I ask that you would give us a fresh filling of your Holy Spirit for you. And I ask that you would give us a fresh filling of your Holy Spirit for you. And I ask that you would give us a fresh filling of your Holy Spirit for each person that's in here

this morning. Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit would fall afresh on us and that we would see you and know you in an even deeper way. Father, move in our hearts, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. And continuing to love us, loving us so much that you would send your son. We thank you for that in Jesus' name. Amen. Lord bless y'all. Have a great week.