Philippians 2: Humble Jesus; How to Have the Mindset of Jesus

How's everybody doing this morning? It's so good to have you guys join us. Of course, you know, we have those that are online and are other locations. So come on, let's welcome the rest of our family. Good to have you with us. And then it's a special weekend because it's Mother's Day. So come on, give it up for all the moms in the house. Happy Mother's Day. You know, happy Mother's Day. We honor and we celebrate and we are so thankful for every mom and mother figure in this room. And, you know, I was thinking about sometimes in this world, you know, we really celebrate the loud and the visible things. But our God, he often does his greatest work through the quiet, unseen faithfulness of people and especially women. You know, the prayers whispered late at night, the encouragement that you give even when you are so tired yourself, the sacrifices that no one else sees, and the faithfulness of showing up again and again and again. And while much of it go unnoticed by others, I just want to encourage you today that God, he sees every bit of it. You know, all throughout Scripture, we see women who changed generations, not because they were perfect, because none of us are, but because they were willing and obedient and faithful with what God had placed in their hands. I think of women like Ruth and Esther and Mary and Lydia and Hannah. Their faithfulness impacted families, it impacted cities, and it even impacted nations. And the same is still true today. Never underestimate what God can do through one surrendered woman. Never underestimate what God can do through one praying woman, through one faithful grandmother, for one mentor who is willing to help others, and for one

woman who keeps trusting God in the middle of the ordinary, everyday life. I think Psalms 46.5 is such a beautiful picture of women in this room today. And it says, God is within her, she will not fall. What a powerful reminder that our strength doesn't come from ourselves or from having it all together, it comes from the presence of God within us. He is the one who sustains us, who strengthens us, who carries us through every season. So today we celebrate you. Thank you for the way that you love others. Thank you for the way that you nurture your families. Thank you for the way that you encourage people in all that you do to reflect the heart of Jesus in countless ways. And I just want to say to every woman here today, know this, you are seen, you are valuable, you are needed in this world, and God is going to continue working through you in powerful ways. Happy Mother's Day, and we love you so much. Yes. Great word. Great word for all the moms. That's good for all of us. Yeah. How about we take a moment now and I would like to pray a blessing over all the moms and really the women of the house. So let's all, let's all pray. Would you, would you close your eyes for just a moment? God thank you so much for a day like today. We pray a special blessing over the women and over the moms of this church. Thank you Lord for the love that they give. Thank you Father for the sacrifices that they make, the prayers that they pray and the strength that they carry Lord, even in the hard days. So God, would you bless them and would you keep them?

May you smile upon them and fill their hearts with peace, fill their hearts with favor, with strength, with hope, joy, and love. Would you turn your face toward them and be gracious, gracious to them and Lord for every mom who is weary right now, I pray that you would strengthen her for every woman that is carrying burdens that no one else sees. Remind her Lord that you see her completely and God that you love her deeply. I pray for those moms who are longing to, or those women who are longing to become moms, hold them close today. God, would you tenderly care for them today as they're longing and they're waiting for that moment for those who are grieving the loss of their mother. God, would you bring comfort to our hearts today? And would you bring us to a place where you touch our aching hearts, God, and for every mother out there who has lost the child, God, would you wrap them in your kindness? Would you wrap them in your peace? And would you do what only you can do? Would you stay completely near them today? And God, for all of the moms of the house and all the women of the house today, I pray that they would know that you see them and that you are with them and that they are never alone. In Jesus name. Amen. Come on, give it up one more time for all the women, all the moms of the house. Yeah. They deserve some great applause. Come on. Give it up, church. Yes. Oh, good morning. Happy Mother's Day. How's everybody doing this morning?

Come on. Don't you love your pastors at all of our campuses? Can we give some honor to our pastors, Randy and Amy, we love you guys. Well, I'm so honored to be here with you on this beautiful Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to all our moms and those that serve as mother figures in the lives of so many people. I am honored to be able to open God's word. As I was preparing and praying this week, I came across a poem that is fitting for this Mother's Day Sunday and actually fits right along with some of the encouragement that Ms. Amy just shared with us. It goes like this. It says, there's a quiet hero in the home who moves around as people roam. She picks up Lego socks and pens and happily starts the process over and over and over again. She makes the lost items reappear by simply asking, did you look right here? She's the master of the mom look, and she reads you like a comic book. She finds the yogurt in the couch and gives a silent knowing how. She throws away the broken crafts and swears they're stored on your behalf. You know, you know, there's only so many papers you can keep. She disinfects the sticky spots and unties all those dreaded knots. Y'all know that's real. Seriously, this week, Charlotte, our daughter, handed me two beads wrapped up in a slinky. All right? Yeah, this is real. She feeds the dog and packs the lunch and juggles schedules all before brunch. She carries loads you cannot see that often look like piles of laundry. So if you see a mom, just know she likely runs a spectacular hidden show. Isn't that true? Isn't that true? All of our moms, there are so many things that go unseen, and actually, we have a way

to honor the mom or the mother figure in your life. As you came in today, you got a card that looks like this, and I want to encourage you to take some time this week, and maybe you could write a poem if you wanted to, or maybe just a letter of thanks for the unseen things that your mom or perhaps a mother figure has done for you in your life, maybe something she's still doing, and just share your heart of gratitude for her on this Mother's Day week. You know, there's so many things that moms do that go unseen, but the reality is it's not just moms. It's all of us. It's dads. It's friends. It's grandparents. There are things that we do that never get put on a highlight reel. They never get on a platform. They never get an applause, yet they make a way for someone else to live their very best life. When I think about that type of life, a life that is humble, a life that is sacrificial, a life that is focused on others, I'm reminded of the person who lived it the best, and that's Jesus. Today, we're going to look a little bit at the life of Jesus as we continue our series on our study of the book of Philippians. And we're going to actually be looking at one of my favorite passages in the Bible. It's a passage that shows the heart of our Savior. It's a passage that is full of love. It is full of grace. It is full of conviction, I will warn you. And it is full of hope. And I believe that it's going to speak to all of us today. So if you're ready, say, I'm ready. We're going to open up our Bibles.

Any Bibles in the house? at any of our campuses, I bet at Fruitville, we got lots of Bibles there. Let's get our Bibles out, and I'm gonna have you open to the book of Philippians. Philippians is written by Paul, and you know, growing up in children's shirts, I always had a hard time finding these small letters that Paul wrote. So I learned that giants eat peas and carrots. And so if you can't find them, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, so if you can find one of them, you can find them all, just remember giants eat peas and carrots. There's your tip on this Sunday. I still, to this day, when I go through the New Testament, I say giants eat peas and carrots. All right, Philippians chapter two. We are gonna read verses five through 11. It says this, you must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges. He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on the cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor

and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Amen. We're gonna take a deep dive in these few verses that we just read. And I believe we're gonna be challenged. I believe that God's gonna speak to each of us. I believe that he has you here on purpose and for a purpose today. And so if you're with me, would you join me in prayer? Let's open up our hearts and allow God to speak to us whatever it is that he wants to speak this morning. God, we thank you for your word. And we thank you that your word is alive and it is active. And Father, I step out of the way and Lord, I pray that you and you alone would speak today. And God, would you speak to us through the power of your word. May it become alive in us and may it become active in our life and may it shape us to be more like you in Jesus' name. And everybody said, amen. Amen, we're gonna start looking at verse five. It says, you must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Now in these few words, I wanna point out a couple things. The first one is this, that word attitude.

Some of your translations perhaps that you just read, it uses the word mindset. So what Paul is setting up is he's saying, I want you to have the same attitude, the same mindset, the same opinion of yourself that Christ Jesus had of himself. Now what I don't want you to miss in this very short verse is that this is not a verse where Paul invites us to admire Jesus from a distance. Paul's not saying, look how awesome he is. Look how he lived his life, oh, I'm so good. No. Also, Paul probably wouldn't say it like that. What Paul is saying, what he is inviting us into is not to admire the life of Jesus, but to imitate the life of Jesus. He's saying, I want you to do this. I want you to model your life like this. I want you to make this way of living your ultimate goal. So if this is how Paul sets up this portion of scripture, then our natural question should be, okay, well, what does the attitude of Christ look like? What does the mindset of Christ look like? How should my life look so that it models the life that Christ Jesus lived? We're gonna continue reading and we're gonna see exactly what that is. As we continue verses six through seven, it says this. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God. As something to cling to.

Instead, he gave up his divine privileges. He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God. and died a criminal's death on a cross. The first thing that I wanna point out about the attitude of Christ is that Jesus was humble. Jesus was humble. Now, I want to make sure that we're clear on what Paul is and isn't saying in these couple verses that we just read. As a matter of fact, these verses are full of so much. I would encourage you, you know, as we all embrace the word that God gave us as a church this year to come and abide as you are abiding this week in God's word that you would maybe even do a deeper dive into these few verses. Maybe use some of the resources that we've taught you like Blue Letter Bible and really see what Paul is saying and what Greek words he chose. You'll find it fascinating. And I wish I could go into all of it this morning, but I want to just give you a very clear and simple understanding so that we all have a clear understanding as we go into this passage more. But I want you to know that it's not that Jesus came to earth and he did not exchange

his deity for humanity when he came. He never stopped being God. It's important that we understand Jesus never started being God. He never stopped being God. He has always been and will always be fully God, okay? From the beginning, God is three in one. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. So what Paul is explaining when he's talking about this laying down and this exchange and this emptying, he's explaining that when Jesus came, he added human nature to his unchanging divine nature. He became fully man while remaining fully God. Now, the most powerful part of this to me is that he chose in this to not hold onto the privileges that came with being God. Because the mission that he was on, the mission of you and of me was so much greater to him than the benefits that he was entitled to. And so he laid them down and he chose to give up his divine privileges and take on the position as a slave and a servant. There is no greater picture of humility than that. And as we look at Jesus's life, his entire life was marked by this type of humility. Let's look for a minute. He was humble, think about it in his birth. Jesus, the Son of God, he was born in a stable. He wasn't born in a hotel. He wasn't born in a hospital room.

He wasn't born in a palace. He wasn't even born in a nice guest bedroom. He was born in a manger. And he came humbly as a child. I mean, he was God. He could have shown up on the scene as a full grown man, but he didn't. He chose to come humbly as a child. And he was humble all throughout his life. He didn't skip over the hard parts of being human. We read about his life in the gospels and we see that he endured weakness, he endured hunger, thirst, grief. Listen, he endured teenage years. If between years are not humbling, I don't know what is. There are pictures of me that I pray are never surfaced and never seen. He didn't just say he was a servant. He didn't just take on the form of a slave or a servant. No, he actually served. He washed feet. Jesus described himself. He said in Matthew 20, for even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many. He was humble in his birth. He was humble in his life. He was humble in his death. He lived 33 years so that he could die for you and I.

And it wasn't an honorable death. He didn't get his name on a wall somewhere. No, crucifixion was public humiliation. It was designed for the worst of the worst. Yet Jesus, who is the best of the best, who was the only perfect person to have ever lived, submitted to it without resistance. There wasn't a single season of his life that was not marked by humility. I've heard a lot of definitions of what humility is, but the one that has stuck with me the most is this. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less. And that's what Jesus modeled. Jesus wasn't a pushover. He wasn't insecure. He didn't like hang his head low and like, oh, thanks, sweet. No, Jesus knew who he was and what he was here for. And because of that, he was able to pour his life out for others. You know, a practical way that we can practice humility this week is this. Think of others as better and think of others more often. Think of others as better and think of others more often. You see, humility for Jesus wasn't just something he did, it was who he was. Now let's keep reading. In verse eight, it says, he humbled himself in obedience to God.

You see, Jesus wasn't just humble, but his humility led him to a life of obedience to his father. That's the second thing we see about the attitude of Christ is that Jesus was obedient. His posture of humility produced in him a life of complete alignment with his father's will. John five, Jesus explains it like this. He says, I tell you the truth. The son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the father doing. Whatever the father does, the son also does. Think about that for a minute. The most powerful person to have ever walked this earth said, I don't move on my own. Said, I don't make my own decisions. Said, I don't know best. If that is not convicting, it convicts me. Because sometimes I think I do know best. Has anybody ever been humbled by your child? A couple years ago, I had one of those experiences where I thought I knew best. It was in the days of hoverboards. Do you guys remember these hoverboards? You stood on them and there was like two wheels and everybody had them until they started blowing up in people's garages and then, y'all remember these, okay? So our son, I don't know, he was maybe 10 at the time. He had one and he would get on that thing and I mean he would cruise

and not just in like big wide open spaces, like around the house, like cutting corners, like weaving in and out of like end tables and sofas and dining room chairs and I mean would spin around in a circle and naturally as an older, wiser, more experienced person, I thought, well, if he can do it, I can do it. And so I decided to give it a whirl. And so I got on and you're kind of nervous and you get on and then you kind of like tipped your feet forward and you're like, oh, okay, I got this. All right, I got it. What I didn't realize was it wasn't the getting on and going part that was hard. It was the stopping and getting off. And so my son had warned me and told me very plainly, mom, there is one way to get off of this and this is what you have to do. Well, in my adultness or pride, I was going and I decided to get off a different way. I thought my way was better and I take one step the wrong way. And I'm telling you that hoverboard went this way. I went straight up in the air, came straight down on the ground on my hip. I am crying in pain. I look over, Jordan and Cohen are doubled over. for laughing at me. I was so mortified, so embarrassed. Thankfully, I was only left with a bruise

on my hip and my ego, but nonetheless, I learned my lesson. Cohen told me what to do, but in my pride, I didn't listen. Pride will do that to us. It will convince us that we've got it figured out, even when someone who knows better is standing right in front of us. You see, obedience requires humility. Think about it. You can't truly obey someone that you're not willing to humble yourself to. It's true with our kids. It's true in our marriages. It's absolutely true with God. Humility leads to obedience. I wanna give you one more thing that we see in Scripture as we continue reading verse eight. It's this, Jesus was surrendered. Verse eight finishes and says, he died a criminal's death on a cross. You see, the fullest expression of Jesus' humility and obedience was complete surrender, complete surrender. The night before his death, Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane, and we see him and he's crying out to his father. It says in Matthew 26, Jesus is crying out, my father, if it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me.

Yet, I want your will to be done, not mine. In his humanity, he felt all the pain, all the fear, all the suffering. He felt the weight of all of it. Yet, because of his humility and his obedience and his surrender, he chose the cross anyway. You see, he had his mind set on the cross. We started our study this morning on verse five. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. You see, we don't accidentally become humble people. We don't accidentally become obedient or surrendered. We have to choose it. And the enemy of this type of life is pride. The Bible says it plainly in Proverbs 16, verse 18, that pride goes before destruction and haughtiness before a fall. Sure wish I knew that before I got on the hoverboard. Pride has done some serious damage. Pride got Satan kicked out of heaven. Pride got Adam and Eve kicked out of the garden. Pride got Saul kicked out of the kingdom. Pride has ruined marriages. Pride has destroyed relationships. Pride has torn apart businesses. Pride left untreated will take us out. And the only cure for pride is to be humble. It's humility. The only cure is to have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had,

to live humble and obedient and surrendered. Now let's finish our passage. Full of so much hope says in verse nine, therefore, meaning therefore, because Jesus did all of this, because Jesus was born humbly and lived humbly and died humbly, because he lived a humble life, poured out in obedience and surrendered to his father because of all of this. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father. You see, Jesus laid himself down, but God brought him up. Matthew 23, Jesus teaches. And as he's teaching, he shares, the greatest among you must be a surrender. vent. But those who exalt themselves will be humbled. And those who humble themselves will be exalted. See, Jesus didn't just teach it. He lifted. He is the living proof that the way up is down. The kingdom of God runs completely upside down from the way that this world works. The world says climb and Jesus says kneel. The world says promote and Jesus says pour your life out and trust God with the promotion. Can I encourage you moms in here? If you've ever wondered if all the humble, unseen sacrifices that you make are worth it. All of the car

line drop offs in your PJs. All of the notes that you tuck in a lunchbox or a sports bag that you don't know if they ever get read. All of the prayers that you've prayed in secret. All of the late night conversations when all you want to do is just go to bed. All of the unseen. I believe that if Jesus were here right now, he would look you mom in the face and say, yes, it's worth it. Yes, keep going. Yes, the humble and unseen moments are what make you look like me. So don't stop. Keep going. I believe that he would stand and look at all of us and say, keep serving. Don't give up. Don't quit on the unseen. Keep serving your boss. Keep serving your coworker. Keep serving your friend. Keep serving your enemy. Because when you do, you look like me. Imagine what would happen if we church, if all of our campuses and those online, if we all did one thing and we practiced this word humility. If we didn't just a minute on a Sunday, but we actually let it affect our lives on Monday. What would change in our life? What would change in your marriage? What would change at your job? What would change with your kids? You see, Paul didn't give this description of Jesus to the church at Philippi simply for theological education. No, he gave it to them to unify them. He gave it to them to give them a picture and a pattern to follow. Let's look back at Philippians two, but this time we're going to go just above the passage that we read. We're going to gain some context into what we just studied. Paul writes, then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another and working together with one mind and purpose. Don't be selfish. Don't try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others too. You

see, humility leads us to unity. The more humble we are, the more we serve one another, the more united we become, the more we look like Jesus, and the more we show Jesus to the world. This is the life we are called to live. This is the attitude and the mindset that we should have. So in closing, I want to leave you with a couple questions. I believe that the Lord is speaking to you. And as I ask you these questions, I want you just to take a pause and ask the Holy Spirit how he would answer. The first question is this, where in your life do you need to humble yourself? Maybe it's in your marriage. Maybe it's in a working relationship with a boss. Maybe it's with a child. We probably all have an area or two. Where is pride causing damage? The enemy of pride that's come in, where is it causing damage? And probably the most important question that I could ask you to ponder this morning. Is that if Jesus humbled himself to accept death on a cross, would you humble yourself to accept his life? So in this room, would you bow your heads at our campuses, wherever you're watching or listening from, would you bow your heads? Close your eyes. You know, the most humble thing that any of us can do is admit that we need a savior. Salvation doesn't come in our own strength. It is not in the pride of doing all of the right things or doing anything.

We cannot do anything to earn salvation. Salvation is simply a gift. I believe on this Mother's Day weekend that there are many of you across our campuses and you said yes to coming to church because a mom asked you or a grandmother or an auntie or a friend. And you thought you were coming just to make them happy. But as I was praying for you this week, I felt like I got a glimpse of our Father's heart. He had such a bigger plan in play for you this Sunday. Because he wants to spend eternity with you. And he gave his son Jesus to live a humble life, to die a sinner's death on a cross for you. For you and I. And then he would be resurrected three days later and now he sits at the highest place of honor at God's right hand. And this morning, he wants nothing more than to have relationship with you. So if you came in here today not knowing Jesus, but you feel him tugging on your heart, I wanna pray for you. I'm gonna count to three and I'm just gonna ask you to slip your hand up. And then we're gonna pray a prayer together and we're gonna give our hearts to Jesus and we're gonna accept the free gift of salvation. So if that's you in here at one of our campuses, maybe online, on the count of three,

would you raise your hand? One, two, three. Thank you. I see your hands. God sees your hands, he sees your heart. Would you pray this prayer out loud with me? Let's all pray it together. Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus. Jesus, thank you for dying for me. Today, I humbly come and I say, I am a sinner in need of a savior. Would you forgive me of my sin? Would you cleanse me and make me right with you? Thank you for salvation. Thank you that today I have a fresh start in Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Come on, let's give it up for all those that made the best decision of their life.