The Mind of Christ and the Glory of the Father

Hear the word of the Lord.

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, 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 the cross.

Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.

So that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

This is the word of the Lord.

For your love that is shown throughout the scriptures, Lord, and for this time, Lord, that we can hear your word, Lord.

I just pray that it resonate in our hearts and minds, Lord, in a place where we are truly changed, Lord, that we are uh spirit on toward the mission that you have for us, Lord, and that we examine our lives, Lord, in a way that we would honor you, Lord, and bring glory to you in all that we do.

I pray that you help Brother Dylan today, Lord, as you use him as a vessel to bring this word, God, that you would just bless the time that he is prepared over this, Lord, and that as he speaks, you speak, Lord, and we hear your word.

Pray all this in your Son Jesus in Christ's name.

Amen.

Amen.

Good morning.

Please have a seat.

If you haven't already, you can turn to Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

This is the first time I've haven't said 1 Philippians.

Philippians chapter 2, verses 5 through 11.

Philippians 2:5–11

While you're turning there, excuse me, and before I even get to my intro, I didn't intend to, this isn't in my manuscript, and I didn't plan to do so, but I've spent all morning uh just feeling grateful and and uh frankly a bit emotional.

This is I this is the second week in a row that I've preached, and I I don't recall the last time I've done that.

Um the this this uh just been a tough year, yeah.

If you've been around, you've you've heard the the to the degree that I've spoken to it, it's been a tough year.

I had to take a sabbatical to to deal with some some burnouts.

And uh the last time I preached before sabbatical, I got out of the pulpit.

Uh and and I told my wife and Rick Crawford this.

I got out of the pulpit and and thought to myself, I wonder if that was the last time.

Um and and uh here I stand.

Um this isn't about me, this is about you and the grace and the mercy of the Father uh through you, my church family, truly.

Truly.

I I want as a pastor for you to hear uh that the Lord has carried me on y'all's backs this year.

Thank you.

Thank you, truly.

Um as I as I read through, thank you.

Let me uh way to start.

Uh but I I felt the need to I I was I was like this this morning.

I was here at 6 45 this morning, couldn't sort out what was so strange in me.

I think that was it.

So let me, before I begin in earnest, let's just back up a bit.

I'm gonna just read Paul's word.

I'm gonna echo it from as a pastor reading a pastor's words from verse 3 of chapter 1.

Uh this is I thank my God and all my remembrance of you, Heartland Church.

Always in every prayer of mine for you, all making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

Thank you.

I love you guys.

Uh turning to my manuscripts.

I I haven't told her this yet.

So Mandy's hearing this for the first time along with all of you.

Not that part.

She knows that part.

But what I'm about to say, she is her, she is hearing for the first time along with all of you.

A few weeks ago, maybe a month now, she was traveling for work.

She does a couple times a year.

Sometimes one of our parents comes uh to help the other when one of us is gone, but this time it was just me and the kids.

It's like a day or two before she was gonna come back.

And I'm looking around at the house.

I don't know if you've ever had a five and a seven-year-old live in your home.

It is uh I don't where did all this stuff come from?

And why does it hear?

And where does it go?

And and I had a desire to have the house so nice and clean and organized for her when she walked in the door.

When she travels, she's it's a red eye back, it's it's exhausting travel, she's been gone.

And who doesn't like to come home to a nice clean home?

Problem is on on the in terms of the list of chores, put cleaning the house at the bottom of mine in terms of natural desire.

I get no satisfaction out of it.

I'm not saying that anyone does necessarily or that they enjoy the act of cleaning, but I know people who like the results and can I don't even care.

So I want to do this, I want to do this for Mandy, and it is my least, I just there's nothing in me that naturally pushes me in that direction.

I want to serve my wife, and I'm selfish.

So that's that's where my head's at.

I've dropped the kids off at school, and I thought before I sit down at my desk, I'm gonna try and get this place under control.

Uh uh, woe is me.

I'm ruminating on how miserable this is gonna be.

In the middle of all this, I'm I'm walking through our home, into our room, through our room, into our bathroom, because I need to uh I need to replace this.

You may have noticed I always got that thing on me.

It's the it's um this is for since elementary school, I kid you not, since elementary school, I've had a stick of chapstick brand's original black label in my pocket.

And I I run them down to empty and then I throw it away and I get a new one.

Um about the time I got married, these just started showing up in my drawer, in my bathroom.

I I haven't bought it for myself in nine and a half years.

Uh and in that moment, this this this thought, this little tube right here, I'm in my house like bemoaning to myself how much work I have ahead of me to do something nice for my wife.

And and the Lord confronts me in the moment of not just this, but this took my brain through a highlight reel of all the ways that she serves me.

Uh, and in that moment, you couldn't have stopped me from cleaning that house with an entire army.

Because the Lord gave me a clear picture of her humble and sacrificial and servant-minded love.

And I was compelled to respond in joy.

Not oh, I have to pay her back.

It was a it was a joyful time.

Still difficult.

I don't do a wonderful job, but it changed my mentality in the moment.

And I think at some level, that's what we have in view this morning with our text.

Last week, if you'll remember, we looked at verses one through five.

Paul is calling for radical unity within the church, unity that expresses itself through members who are thinking first of one another, who are considering others to be more important than themselves.

He was instructing us to unify around the humble consideration of one another.

And we are motivated towards that by our unchanging and eternal circumstances that are found in our identity through Christ, that we are encouraged by Christ, that we are comforted by his love, that we participate with God Himself in the person of the Spirit, that we receive affection and sympathy from the Lord of the universe.

And so we can turn those things back outward towards one another.

Paul wraps that thought into a bit of a summary statement, or at least it's the hinge into the rest of the passage in verse 5.

He wrote, Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

This mind, unified, shared, and already given.

We have it in Christ.

It says it is yours in Christ Jesus.

Have this mind, one of humble submission to one another for each other's good and for the glory of God.

That is to be our identity and the scent and the culture of the local body of believers.

And in verses 5 through 11, Paul draws out one of the most famous word pictures of Christ's humility as an example to further drive us forward, to remind us of what Christ has done for us, to slow us down, to saturate and marinate ourselves upon the humble God who stepped down into servanthood for us.

We're to emulate Jesus.

And so he describes him, his humble incarnation, his obedience, his humiliation, ultimately his exaltation.

And in the same way that in that moment I was reminded of Mandy's sacrificial love for me, and it compelled me in joy to respond.

We we have this opportunity here to read of the God of the universe, not considering equality with God as something to be held on to, but instead he emptied himself and he came to us in the in the ultimate act of undeserved and unmerited grace expressed towards us in servant-minded humility.

Spoiler, that's the application.

It's the application this week.

Be like Jesus.

When you ask your kids what they talked about, you guys can give the same answer.

Be like Jesus.

Be like Jesus in our humility.

And we lean into humility to achieve unity.

Unity is not, first and foremost, uh, the the the lining and aligning of preferences.

Unity is humble submission to one another under the banner of Christ and the blood of the gospel.

Be like Jesus, considering others as more important than yourself, looking out for their interests.

Be like Jesus, who had who had a divine right to insist upon his internal position.

And yet he condescended himself.

He relinquished it for a time to the glory of the Father and to rescue sinners.

Us.

What greater love than this?

What what what expression of humility than the God of the universe, sinless and blameless, coming to us and not waiting for us to deserve it, and not waiting for us to do what he is expecting us.

He is meeting us in our mess through humility and a mind fixated on glorifying the Father.

And Paul throughout chapter two says, Be like this in your expression of love to one another.

We want the body of Christ to have the mind of Christ, that we may live with the heart of Christ, sacrificial love for one another and to the world around us.

So this morning, that's that's the application.

You can settle in and just listen for the take that and go.

But normally you have to wait to the end.

But here it is right at the beginning.

So I'm gonna spend the rest of the sermon looking through this beautiful hymn of praise as we consider what Jesus has done for us.

Sit in it, take what notes that you find helpful.

But but as I describe and give some sense of what Paul is saying here, take a moment, as we do with the songs and the prayer and the whole scope of the service, to turn our eyes upon Jesus, to exalt his name that is above all names.

So let's start in verse six.

Walk our way through this beautiful description of Jesus' humility.

It says, Who though he was in the form of God?

He was in the form of God.

Our Messiah is God.

Our Redeemer is God Himself, the one who humbled himself unto death, says this passage, is God.

The one who loves us, who rescued us, the one who sacrificed himself for us, is God.

We will miss just that bit.

We rebelled against him.

We continue to, and he comes and gets us.

The term form here does not merely mean that he doesn't mean that he just looked like God, or that he only appeared to be God.

The sense of the original word is that Jesus was in the essence of God, God Himself.

The part of where we develop this idea of the Trinity.

Jesus is God.

We see that affirmed in other parts of Scripture, just as an example, the Gospel of John chapter one, read those first 14 or so verses.

Basic summary in the beginning was the word.

The word was with God, the word was God, and then later in the thought, John affirms, and the word is Jesus.

It is God Himself and the person of Jesus who are who we are to emulate, and whose servant-minded humility provided the moral framework for gospel living.

We are saved out uh in spite of our works.

We are saved beyond what we can earn for ourselves.

It is unmerited grace, and yet we are saved unto something, a lifestyle, to live and obey and to learn the commands of Jesus.

And at the core of what is it that develops a gospel moral framework for living as a church, it is his servant-minded humility.

There's specific details.

We read of the gospel, the Sermon on the Mount, there's a lot of prescription and imperatives.

Go do these things from Jesus.

But at the core of it, it emanates out of his humility.

Humility.

If we can do all the things that Jesus has done, and and then taking humility out of it, we have missed the point.

He surrendered himself.

The God of the universe, who did not insist upon his status.

We keep reading.

In other words, although Jesus was and is God, he did not insist upon his rights and privileges as God.

The divine rights and privileges of a sinless, blameless, eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing God, he did not insist upon them, but instead emptied himself.

We are called to humble and sacrificial love towards one another that is modeled after this mindset, this mind of Christ.

And we are called to that love by the God of the universe who loved us while we were yet still sinners, through the surrender of what was rightfully his, through through the will, the willing giving up of what he could have insisted upon as a member of the Godhead.

Later in this passage, we read that Jesus has been highly exalted, that every knee will bow to him, that he is Lord, the name above all names, and that God used his positions and rights to give rather than to receive.

How incredibly different than our natural disposition.

If we are entering not just this room on a Sunday morning, but the life of the church and saying, I'm bringing my natural disposition and personality to this body, there is no greater source of disunity than a bunch of individualistic uh uh ideas of what should happen here.

But but within this context of the Lord has given what was rightfully his to our benefit, it changes the way we approach this the existence among the family of God through the life of the church.

We as humans inherit a sinful nature from Adam.

We we read of that in Romans 5, uh, as well as other places in Scripture.

You can just observe the world around you and see the inherent sinfulness that pours out of us.

But that same passage records that Jesus is the solution, the new and better Adam, as we have sung about this morning.

Adam, made only in the image of God, took and he disobeyed, and he hid from God, and sin entered the world.

Scripture tells us that Jesus came as the new and better Adam to restore what we broke.

And Jesus, God himself, gave rather than took, obeyed the Father rather than disobeyed, and rather than hiding, he was the revelation of God Himself.

And in doing so, he conquered the sin that kept us from Him.

Have this mind amongst yourselves, brothers and sisters.

Sacrificial, outward looking.

We looked at verse 7, but he emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant and being found in human form.

Historically, heresies, kind of a churchy word for wrong thinking that threatens the gospel.

If you get sucked into a heresy, you may lose the the salv the saving knowledge of the gospel.

It distorts it such that it is no longer that from Jesus.

Historic heresies have at various times suggested that this passage might mean that Jesus surrendered his divinity, or that he became just human, or that he only looked human, all manner of misunderstandings.

But the better exegesis of the passage reads from the broader context rather than grasping his equality with God, he empties himself.

Rather than insist uponing uh assisting insisting upon his position and rights as Jesus, he empties himself of his regalia and he and he and his seat at the right hand of the Father, and he humbles himself and he condescends himself, and he is born incarnate in that beautiful moment in Bethlehem.

And even then you may think, to be a king, right?

To be glorious, to be dominant, to be the the to to to put Israel back on the map.

But instead we read that while in the form of God himself, Jesus took on the form of a human servant, not just in appearance, but in reality.

In the great mystery that we theologically called the hippostatic union.

Don't worry about memorizing that, but it's good trivia.

The hippostatic union, this mysterious uh confluence where Jesus is fully God and fully man.

And how is that to be understood?

And how does that play out in our lives?

We are uh uh Jesus emptied himself to fulfill the law as a human on our behalf, sinless because he was God, in order that his sacrifice and that his righteousness would satisfy the wrath of the Father against our sin.

And his humility, he was working for the glory of the Father, but to our good, for something we did not deserve, the something that even now can make me uncomfortable.

Father, how could you love me so much as to as to surrender all that with me in mind, with all my brothers and sisters, from from here and now, from eternity past to eternity future, whoever the Lord calls to himself in belief and faith, why, Lord, why would you be so merciful?

This is the mentality that we are called to as a body of believers, saved by Jesus, and therefore sharing his mind.

Considering one another as more significant than ourselves, radical humility, indeference to the good of those around us.

Let me try and press on our buttons a little bit.

Uh I'm gonna throw out a couple of hypothetical thought sequences.

Maybe they'll hit you throughout the week at any given moment.

These are just some uh, I think some ways that maybe it'll this is difficult for us and and and some various situations where it expresses itself.

Why in the world should I help them?

I've never seen them around here when I've needed help.

It's tough, huh?

I'm not doing that.

I didn't spend years of my life getting these qualifications and climbing this ladder to still be doing stuff like that.

I cannot believe he or she at small group wants to read that book next.

I've already read that book.

I need to be fed.

Give me more.

Too bad that they're they're lagging behind.

Something has gone sour at church or in my small group or from the pulpit.

It's not my problem.

I'm headed on to the next church next week, and I'm gonna start over.

I no longer need to show humble patience to this person in my life because they didn't show it to me, and I need to protect my peace.

The list goes on.

And part of what they teach you to do in sermon prep, little look look under the hood, anticipate questions and objections.

Here's my effort at anticipating questions and objections here.

I anticipate that my list, especially as I made it further down that list, started to press on some modern sensibilities.

Well, Pastor, we have to have boundaries, and we can't pour from an empty cup, and there's nuance, and and of course, amen.

Amen.

I agree.

The Bible gives us those definitions and prescribes rest for the purpose of enjoying and glorifying God.

There is obviously nuance to this discussion about the specifics of the degree to which we're pouring ourselves out.

But I'm afraid that we are in this cultural moment where servant minded, radical Christianity is now.

Defined more in cultural terms than in scriptural ones.

Or at least it's diminished by our worldly expressions of I don't have to take it that far because of these other things according to the world around me.

Thank God, literally, that Jesus did not insist upon his peace or his boundaries or his right to respect and on and on and on.

Rather, he did not account, he did not count his equality with God as something to be held on to, but rather as something to be emptied of for our good and for the glory of the Father.

And we are asked to emulate that mentality amongst ourselves.

I'm not trying to be bombastic, not trying to elicit a response just to get one, but I'm afraid that the cultural moment has uh afforded us all kinds of flowery language that nuances radical Christian living so much that it's no longer not all that radical.

We've got a lot of secular cultural pop psychology ways of excusing ourselves from living radically and humbly towards one another.

There's nuance, don't email me.

There's nuance even to what I'm saying here.

But where this description of Jesus' humility, excuse me, that Paul says we are to emulate is actually in view.

This humble love holds nothing back.

We saw Jesus walk away.

And we saw Jesus call for repentance and be resisted, and he says, fine, and he removes himself.

There's this obvious discussion for don't fall on the sword every time thinking that that is inherently what we have in mind here.

But we we have to be careful about giving our permission or giving ourselves permission to do something less than humble servanthood and call it Christ-likeness.

Look on in verse 8.

He, Jesus, humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Michael referenced that passage this morning.

If you've been here for a while, you you may have noticed that when I administer communion, I reference that line almost every time in the prayer.

And he's obedient even to the point of death.

It's funny we we didn't talk about this, but Michael also referenced this passage, a little doubling up.

I think back to Jesus in the garden, Matthew 26, for example.

It reads, and Jesus going a little further, he fell on his face.

This is before he's arrested.

He knows what's coming.

He falls on his face and he says, My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.

Cup symbolic of the wrath that he that is about to be poured out on but the passion that he is about to experience through the humiliation and the torture and the crucifixion.

I want to be careful here.

I'm not asserting that Jesus didn't want to obey, but his divinity, his divinity afforded him the foreknowledge of what he was about to experience.

The fully God part of Jesus knew full well what was ahead of him.

And he says to the Father, if it's possible, is there another option?

But nevertheless, nevertheless, your will be done.

Humble submission, even knowing what was coming, knowing the pain and the suffering, and ultimately the wrath that the Father would pour out on him.

He says, I will humbly walk to the cross, obedient even unto death.

And man, there are times it is difficult for me to want to clean the house for my wife.

It is difficult for us to surrender our pride and our rights and our privileges for the sake of squashing a little silly argument here amongst the body.

And then we get in here and we read of what Jesus has done for us.

And frankly, I think there's an appropriateness to feeling this big sometimes.

In the right way, don't stay there, but in the right way.

Be made to feel small when we compare our selfishness against the selflessness of the God of the universe who emptied himself for sinners like us.

And he asks us to have this mind amongst ourselves towards one another as a proclamation of glory to the Father of the watching world.

What a beautiful, beautiful encouragement and comfort and love and a motivator to move and to act with the mind of Jesus.

Jesus knew the physical torment that was to come, sure.

But I would guess his divine nature would have helped him see beyond that momentary uh affliction.

Rather, Jesus looked ahead to the moment that the Father would pour out his wrath for our sins on Jesus.

And for the first time from eternity past, something was going to happen at that moment on the cross that momentarily affected the fellowship of the Father and of the Son.

Unbroken and unmarred from eternity past, Jesus knew that whatever mystery and the details of what happened when the Father poured out his wrath on Jesus, there was some disruption in their fellowship.

And Jesus grieved the anticipation of it.

And even so walked willingly towards that punishment on our behalf.

And Paul says, just remember what has been done for you as you consider what you do unto others.

Have this mind amongst yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

He did not count equality with God as something to be grasped.

Instead, he humbled himself.

He served us, he took on the curse of the tree for us and bore the wrath of the Father on our behalf in obedience and in servant-minded love for us and to the glory of the Father.

And again, his mind, his mentality, according to Scripture, here and in other places, is ours.

We possess it.

For those covered in the blood of Jesus, you have the mind of Christ.

We are called to express this kind of humility towards one another.

Why?

Same reason, to the glory of the Father, to the exaltation of the Son, and to the good of one another, to the good of one another.

It is likely, to be fair, that us here now, this moment in Christian history, we will we will likely never be asked to die for one another.

And obviously, even if we were to be asked to die for one another, it's not, we're not counting ourselves the same as Jesus, but to be like him.

A willingness to take our humble consideration of one another to the ultimate end.

No, listen, we we probably won't be asked for that.

But we are given opportunities to actually love like Jesus.

To be fair, it's become popular for people to express that in broad, undefined, frankly, scripturally deficient ways.

Let me name a couple of them.

Maybe they'll sound familiar.

They're convicting to you.

Good.

Kind uh uh the love like Jesus, accept everyone.

Kinda, but scripture is more specific than that.

Love like Jesus, live and let live, sorta, not really at all.

Love like Jesus, just be loving.

And what do you mean by that?

Well, be kind.

Yeah, kinda.

That's like trailing.

Give me the heart of what do we mean by love?

We don't get to decide what love like Jesus means.

Jesus does.

And Paul tells us we are seemingly obsessed with the idea of distilling the commands of Christ into a bumper sticker.

And as unwise as that is, we take it a step further and we're not even biblically accurate about the one-liner.

Paul gives us correction here.

Love like Jesus, humble yourselves towards one another.

Now that one feels less good, doesn't it?

That feels less good.

To love like Jesus at its core is to be humble towards one another, concerned first with the glory of the Father, second with the good of another.

We don't even make the list.

All right, for me and mine, I don't make my own list of what it means to love like Jesus.

Enjoy the love of Jesus by turning it out towards the people around me.

I'm not good at it.

I'm not even good at remembering to try to do it.

But but I am most compelled to be humble and sacrificial towards Mandy in the moments that I'm most aware of how she does that for me.

I'm not saying that's fair or right, but I just observationally, I'm most likely to respond in joyful humility towards my wife when I have those moments of clarity where I can remember all the ways that she does that for me.

This takes it even further.

I am called to humble service to her because of what Jesus did for me and for her.

I'm not called to humble service to her because of what she does for me.

I'm called to humble service to her because of what Christ has done for her and for me.

It helps that we love each other and we enjoy each other.

But I am called to this because of this passage of what Jesus did for me.

And while I I have an extra measure of responsibility towards her because of our marriage covenant, I am also called to show that humble deference to each of you, as my brothers and sisters in Christ, and you to me, and you to each other, all of us purchased by Jesus, all of us redeemed by Christ, and all of us having his mind, which Paul calls us to unity of mind and of love and to the glory of the Father.

And the one who humbled himself to serve us through obedience to the Father, even death on a tree, is now exalted and glorified, Lord of all, Christ Jesus.

We look at the kind of closing thought of this section here in verse 9 and following.

Paul wrote, Therefore, it's the connection, therefore, what's that therefore?

God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Consider the contrast.

The first several verses of this passage describe Jesus' incarnation and humiliation, the surrender of his divine rights and identity and the throne of the Godhead.

He obeyed the Father by taking on the form of a servant, obedience even unto death.

And in his death he was mocked and beaten and given a crown of thorns meant to scorn and to humiliate.

He bled for us.

He took on the curse of sin for us.

He bore the wrath of the Father for us.

He glorified the Father by serving the creation.

And therefore, think of in Christ alone, bursting forth in glorious day up from the grave, he rose again.

In his servanthood, in response to his humility, Jesus, or Paul says, therefore, God exalted him.

The one who was ridiculed and accused of blasphemy, who was accused and condemned, God has now bestowed on him the name that is above every name, Jesus, Lord, Savior and King, Lion and the Lamb, the one whose clothes were torn and his body was beaten, he endured the denial of those closest to him, the outright betrayal of Judas.

And now at his name every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

The one who was passed over in favor of Barabbas, to the one who we esteemed stricken, to the one who labored under our debt.

Now every tongue will confess that he is Jesus and he is Lord.

God himself, who humbled himself by taking on the form of a servant, the lowliest position in all of creation, every tongue will confess that he, Jesus, is Lord to the glory of the Father.

In response to his humility.

Jesus is exalted and glorified, Scripture says, because of his obedience, because of his servant-minded humility, his condescension of himself, the surrender of his rights and privileges, are therefore why God has exalted him and given him the name above all names worthy of our praise.

Not because he was the conquering, battle-ready, white stallion, dominant force into Jerusalem, retaking the temple, all the things that they thought he was going to be.

Instead, he is exalted because he was none of those, because he was humbled and he was a servant, that he did it for the glory of the Father and to our good.

And we are God's creation.

And we in our pride and our sinful nature rebel against him.

And in our rebellion, God allows us to choose that for ourselves.

He gives us the agency to follow the desires of our flesh, should we choose, and in disobedience.

But what we see over and over is that selection process comes up selfish and sinful every time.

And so Jesus humbled himself, did not insist upon himself, did not wait for us to deserve it, but he moved towards us in humble love.

And now he encourages us to show that same deference and humble service to one another.

For those who are in the room who do not know this Jesus, I hope that I have been able to at some level introduce you to the to the glory of the one who, through his humility, is now exalted above all names, who, according to Scripture, at the end of all things, even those who deny and curse his name now will one day confess that he is Lord.

He will not be their Savior, but he will confess, or they will confess that he is Lord.

We are offered the opportunity to respond to the Lord's grace, to respond to his humble offering of forgiveness through faith and repentance, through belief and the covering in Jesus' righteousness.

That's on offer to you.

You're invited.

The book here tells us that we can invite you.

And we'd love to have that conversation.

I'm available, but there's a lot of people in the room who are too, maybe the one who brought you.

But for the believers, for those of us who have tasted this humble forgiveness that pours out on us as a result of Jesus' humility, here Paul says, you now have the same mind among you.

May that be the testimony of Heartland Church, not automatons, not robots, not we all like the same things, that we are unified, that we are all the recipients, undeservedly so, of the humble, sacrificial servant Christ Jesus, who is now exalted above all names.

Every one of us owes our literal eternal futures to him.

Perhaps then, as we can get that most centered in our minds day to day, we can surrender ourselves to one another, to count one another more significant than ourselves, to think not only of our own interests, but to the interests of each other.

And in that way we proclaim to the watching world, Jesus is enough for a room full of people to set aside that human bit of us that makes us bitter and selfish and unwilling to compromise because we are rallied around Christ Jesus.

May that be our testimony.

May that be to the glory of the Father, and may it be to the good of this church.

Let me pray for us as we continue on in remembrance here of what Christ has done for us, humble and sacrificial through the Lord's Supper.

Father, thank you for sending the Son and Jesus, thank you for your obedience even to death on a cross.

Father, as we reflect this morning, help us to reflect into the week on your humility, that you were and are God.

With all the divine rights and privileges that come along with being God.

And instead of insisting upon those, you you you you opened your hand towards us.

You humbled yourself and came towards us.

That you obeyed the Father to his glory and to your temporary suffering, but ultimately to your glorification.

And then you offer that to us.

Thank you.

May that press deeply into us in joy in the peace that comes from being forgiven and in the freedom that it provides for us to get outside of ourselves, to put on the mind of Christ instead of our own, and to look towards one another in Christ-like servanthood, humble love, sacrificial, considering others as more important than ourselves.

Father, may that bring you honor, may that bring unity to Heartland Church.

And may the gospel of Christ go forth out of our obedience and in response to what you have done for us.

We thank you and we love you.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.