WEBVTT 00:00:00.440 --> 00:00:06.960 Morning, friends. We're going to be opening God's Word now. It's going to be from the 00:00:06.960 --> 00:00:13.560 book of Philippians, chapter 2, verses 5 to 11. Sorry, 5 to 13. And that's what we're 00:00:13.560 --> 00:00:19.580 going to be looking at just before I have to get my stuff set up here on the table, 00:00:20.100 --> 00:00:29.480 my timer, which I've now started, my Bible, my other notes. Today's May 17th. I know 00:00:29.480 --> 00:00:35.399 some people will be watching this, and it's not Sunday, but today's May 17th. Friday was 00:00:35.399 --> 00:00:41.359 the 15th of May, and it was a significant day for me. Because it was on the 15th of May, 00:00:41.820 --> 00:00:47.960 39 years ago, that I asked my wife, I mean, she wasn't my wife then, I asked Louise to 00:00:47.960 --> 00:00:54.719 marry me. 39 years ago on the 15th of May, I asked her to marry me, got down on my knees, 00:00:54.719 --> 00:01:01.439 she said yes. We got married in October, we're still married. And so it's got me thinking about 00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:07.260 love. And, you know, I haven't been a perfect husband, far from it. There's been lots of times 00:01:07.260 --> 00:01:13.280 I've been a very bad husband. And if it wasn't for love, if it wasn't for a commitment to love, 00:01:13.799 --> 00:01:19.640 our marriage definitely would not have survived. Also, of course, from a Christian point of view, 00:01:19.640 --> 00:01:25.719 the fact that we have Jesus as our Savior and Lord is the reason our marriage has kept going. 00:01:26.359 --> 00:01:30.439 And I still love her. And I know that she still loves me. You know, it's really funny. 00:01:31.480 --> 00:01:37.120 I can think back to those early heady days, and other days, of course, since then, 00:01:37.599 --> 00:01:42.000 when it sort of dawned on me that she might love me back, that it wasn't just me loving her, 00:01:42.079 --> 00:01:45.439 but that she might love me back, and that maybe something like marriage would happen. 00:01:45.439 --> 00:01:50.599 And, you know, when you're in that time period of love, it can be a little bit, 00:01:50.959 --> 00:01:54.000 you can sort of lose sight of it a little bit when you've been married a long time. 00:01:54.959 --> 00:01:59.060 Then it comes back into sight. But, you know, in those early days of love, it's really true 00:01:59.060 --> 00:02:08.740 that you are both most free and most bound. You feel so alive. You feel so alive. And you feel so 00:02:08.740 --> 00:02:15.000 whole. And you feel so free. And at the same time, in a way that delights you, you feel bound. 00:02:15.439 --> 00:02:19.900 To the other person. Like, it's interesting, if you think about it, isn't it, that when there's 00:02:19.900 --> 00:02:27.319 that love, you both feel free and whole and bound all at the same time. And at the same time, 00:02:27.359 --> 00:02:35.159 if you think about it, that the more you love, and the more that that love is, you enter into it, 00:02:35.199 --> 00:02:43.439 the more you feel free. And you know that, and the more free you are, the more you're able to love. 00:02:43.439 --> 00:02:48.400 You know, for those of us who've struggled with maybe addictions, or those of us who've struggled 00:02:48.400 --> 00:02:53.740 with an, you know, an over-preoccupation with money, or some other type of thing that binds us, 00:02:54.199 --> 00:02:59.860 you know, these things get in the way of love. And they get, they bind your freedom, 00:02:59.919 --> 00:03:06.979 and they get in the way of love. And the more that love helps you to be free, the more free you are, 00:03:06.979 --> 00:03:12.500 the more you can love. And there's, there's, and this is like a human thing. It's not a Christian 00:03:12.500 --> 00:03:16.780 thing. It's not a Jewish thing, or Hindu, or Buddhist, or atheist thing. It just seems to be 00:03:16.780 --> 00:03:23.519 deeply human. And at the same time, if you think about it, that at the very, very heart of feeling 00:03:23.520 --> 00:03:29.540 in love and being loving, there's a humility that goes along with it at the same time. Like, 00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:34.580 both a type of a humility and amazement that somebody so amazing would love you, 00:03:34.980 --> 00:03:42.120 and, and also a type of humility whereby you willingly, in a sense, don't think about yourself 00:03:42.120 --> 00:03:50.120 for the sake of the other. And, and so love grows humility, and humility grows love. If a person is 00:03:50.120 --> 00:03:57.860 very, very selfish, or self-centered, narcissistic, proud, it gets in the way of love. It hurts love, 00:03:57.920 --> 00:04:04.980 it damages love, it sucks love away. So there really does seem to be something about a connection between 00:04:04.980 --> 00:04:11.759 humility and love. We're going to be looking at a passage in the Bible today, which is a very, 00:04:11.759 --> 00:04:16.920 very, very deep and profound passage. I think I shared last week, because sort of overlapping a 00:04:16.920 --> 00:04:21.039 little bit about what I looked at last week, and what we're looking at this week. If you look at an 00:04:21.039 --> 00:04:27.819 academic commentary on some of these verses, 60, 70 pages, 80 pages fly by as they try to unpack 00:04:27.819 --> 00:04:34.939 the depths of this text. And we're going to look at it because, you see, this text wonderfully 00:04:34.939 --> 00:04:50.240 illuminates and invites and grounds to go deeper into this type of mystery. So it would be a great help. 00:04:50.420 --> 00:04:57.060 Here, once again, I have my text set for my Revelation Bible studies, not this. But find the book of 00:04:57.060 --> 00:05:04.639 Philippians, it's chapter 2, and we're beginning at verse 5. And we're going to read through till verse 13. 00:05:05.439 --> 00:05:13.819 Philippians chapter 2, I'll eventually find it, beginning at verse 5. And it goes like this. 00:05:13.819 --> 00:05:25.839 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. And I shared with this last week, 00:05:26.019 --> 00:05:33.420 in the original language, there's this wonderful dual meaning, which can't be translated into English. 00:05:33.959 --> 00:05:41.100 And the dual meaning is that, in a sense, if you're in Christ, this is yours. But there's also this other 00:05:41.100 --> 00:05:51.700 meaning that what he's about to tell you is, in a sense, a model to shape you. So you can't capture it 00:05:51.700 --> 00:05:58.100 in the English language as you can in the original language. But there's this double sense that if 00:05:58.100 --> 00:06:03.760 you're in Christ, then what's about to follow is something that you're in and that will form you. 00:06:03.860 --> 00:06:09.879 At the same time, there's this idea that what you're about to hear is something that, if it grips 00:06:09.879 --> 00:06:14.339 your memory and if it grips your imagination, it's something that will shape you in a really, 00:06:14.480 --> 00:06:18.839 really good way, in a way that will allow you to live well with yourself, well with your God, 00:06:18.899 --> 00:06:24.659 and well with others. And so I'll read that verse again. It's verse 5. Have this mind among yourselves, 00:06:25.620 --> 00:06:33.159 which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God 00:06:33.160 --> 00:06:41.340 a thing to be grasped, or another way to put it as an advantage to cling to. But he emptied himself 00:06:41.340 --> 00:06:48.800 by taking the form of a servant and being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, 00:06:48.900 --> 00:06:55.720 he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, 00:06:55.720 --> 00:07:03.620 God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name 00:07:03.620 --> 00:07:09.580 of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess 00:07:09.580 --> 00:07:14.340 that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And we'll pause right there. We're going to 00:07:14.340 --> 00:07:22.740 look at verses 12 and 13 in a moment. And so, you know, on one level, you look at this text, and I'm not 00:07:22.740 --> 00:07:26.360 going to talk about one aspect of it. If you're curious about it, I talked about it last week. 00:07:27.840 --> 00:07:32.540 Basically, if you strip away some of the very technical language, which has been translated 00:07:32.540 --> 00:07:39.639 literally in the version which I just read, what it tells you is this, is that from all eternity, 00:07:40.280 --> 00:07:49.100 there was God the Son, as well as the God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. And God the Son, 00:07:49.100 --> 00:08:00.540 to save us, to fix us, to make us right with God, he sets aside his appearance as God, his divine 00:08:00.540 --> 00:08:08.160 prerogatives, his powers as God, everything that makes him look like God. He sets all of these things 00:08:08.160 --> 00:08:14.760 aside, and he, in a sense, empties himself. He still remains God, but he takes into himself what it means 00:08:14.759 --> 00:08:20.539 to be human, so that there's this perfect match of being fully God and fully human. And he humbles 00:08:20.539 --> 00:08:27.839 himself. He's obedient, in a sense, not only obedient to God the Father, but obedient, in a sense, to love 00:08:27.839 --> 00:08:33.580 and to goodness. And he's obedient. He humbles himself. He empties himself, becomes fully human. 00:08:34.179 --> 00:08:41.200 And he does this to serve. And his service takes him even to a deeper emptying and emptying and emptying 00:08:41.200 --> 00:08:58.920 and obedience and death. Then there's this great, in a sense, reversal, where God highly exalts him, 00:08:59.120 --> 00:09:05.020 and he now has the name that is above all names, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the question is, 00:09:05.019 --> 00:09:14.319 how on earth, how on earth can God be humble? Like, how on earth can God be humble? And how on earth can 00:09:14.319 --> 00:09:20.779 God be obedient? Like, how does that make even any sense? If you've talked to some of your Muslim 00:09:20.779 --> 00:09:25.799 friends, or if you're one of our Muslim friends watching this, you'll say, yes, George, that's the 00:09:25.799 --> 00:09:32.159 issue. Jesus can't be God if he's humble. Jesus can't be God if he's obedient. If you're one of our 00:09:32.159 --> 00:09:36.059 Jehovah Witness friends who are watching this right now, you'd say, yes, George, that's exactly 00:09:36.059 --> 00:09:42.459 the point. He can't be humble if he's God. He can't be obedient if he's God. And in fact, if we 00:09:42.459 --> 00:09:49.219 think about it, it doesn't, in a sense, make any sense to us. Like, God is humble? Like, what? Like, 00:09:49.240 --> 00:09:53.179 I thought you wanted to have him worshipped all the time. I thought the glory has to go to him. Like, 00:09:53.219 --> 00:10:00.480 how can he be humble? How can he be obedient? Well, remember our opening lines, this profound mystery 00:10:00.480 --> 00:10:07.820 that the more we love, the more we're free and the more we're bound. Think about it for a second 00:10:07.820 --> 00:10:16.300 and remember how love grows freedom and we need to be free to love. And remember how we talked a 00:10:16.300 --> 00:10:20.300 little bit about how there's this deep connection between humility and love. And if you think about 00:10:20.300 --> 00:10:25.279 it for a second, I could have added another line, that there's this deep connection between love and 00:10:25.279 --> 00:10:33.559 obedience. I mean, I can tell you right now, if one of our kids called us up at three o'clock in 00:10:33.559 --> 00:10:39.799 the morning and said, you know, mom or dad, we really need you to come over here. And even if it 00:10:39.799 --> 00:10:44.659 meant driving an hour, we would drop everything. My wife would drop everything. I would drop everything. 00:10:44.699 --> 00:10:50.919 We would do that drive. We would be obedient to that request out of love. I don't know. I'll just be 00:10:50.919 --> 00:10:54.559 honest. If the government called me up and told me to drive somewhere for an hour, I'd say, 00:10:54.559 --> 00:10:59.179 what right do you have to call me up and ask me to drive anywhere for an hour? I'm not going to do 00:10:59.179 --> 00:11:11.259 it. Love changes everything. And so the Bible reveals this picture of the fact that God, the Son of God, 00:11:11.759 --> 00:11:20.179 can be humble, that he can be obedient. And he does this out of goodness and out of love. 00:11:20.179 --> 00:11:26.019 And so, one moment. So on one hand, we sort of understand how there's a connection of love to 00:11:26.019 --> 00:11:31.199 all of these things. But see, here's the problem. The way that we fundamentally think of God is that 00:11:31.199 --> 00:11:37.439 the God is a solitary God. And if God is a solitary God, he can't be humble, or she can't be humble, 00:11:37.519 --> 00:11:45.539 or it can't be humble. And, but at the same time, that solitary God can't not only be humble, but you 00:11:45.539 --> 00:11:54.299 can't even wonder how on earth it, she, him, they, not they, him, can be good, and how they can even be 00:11:54.299 --> 00:12:04.059 love. Because you see, at the very, very, if I just, if I just lived off in a tower one day, I get some 00:12:04.059 --> 00:12:08.079 money, and I live off in a tower. I live on the top floor of the tower where I can't see anybody. 00:12:08.080 --> 00:12:15.139 And I don't know, I pay some, some Yahoo just to bring me food every week. And I live up there in 00:12:15.139 --> 00:12:20.520 complete and utter solitary isolation. And I make sure that there's no internet, no TV, no phone. 00:12:20.820 --> 00:12:29.120 I just live up there in complete and utter solitary isolation. Nobody hearing that story would think I 00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:35.020 was loving. And nobody hearing that story would think I was humble. And how on earth could I be 00:12:35.019 --> 00:12:40.539 obeying anybody when there's just me? I just do what I feel like doing. And if you think about it 00:12:40.539 --> 00:12:47.360 for a second, and I don't mean to offend my Muslim friends or my pantheist friends, but if God is just 00:12:47.360 --> 00:12:55.019 solitary, there's only God, well, how can he really be love? How can he really be good? 00:12:55.019 --> 00:13:06.059 And if everything is God, or God is everything, well, how on earth does that make any sense, 00:13:06.559 --> 00:13:12.059 that that type of God is any different than me or you being at the top of a tower, having our needs 00:13:12.059 --> 00:13:17.000 met, being completely and utterly solitary for decades and decades and decades and decades? 00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:25.200 You need another person to love. You need, in a sense, another person. You need something else, 00:13:25.279 --> 00:13:32.080 someone else to show that there's a goodness or that there's freedom or that there's love. You need 00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:37.980 that to happen. And you see, this is then the profound truth. It's only in texts like this, 00:13:38.120 --> 00:13:43.360 it's only, and this text comes out, why does this text come out? This text doesn't arise because Jesus 00:13:43.360 --> 00:13:49.200 was, because Paul was, I don't know, smoking some controlled substance, no longer controlled. You 00:13:49.200 --> 00:13:53.879 know, he'd been to the pot shop, he's smoking something, and one day he comes up and thinks, 00:13:53.940 --> 00:13:57.180 you know, I think this is a really cool idea. I think I'm going to write it down. No, that's not 00:13:57.180 --> 00:14:05.620 how it comes. Jesus changes everything. Jesus changes everything. You see, when it describes in this, 00:14:05.700 --> 00:14:13.159 this God, the Son of God, emptying himself, setting aside all of the privileges and advantages that he has, 00:14:13.360 --> 00:14:18.180 and he doesn't grasp them, he doesn't keep them. He's willing to let go of all of the advantages, 00:14:18.379 --> 00:14:24.080 all of the prerogatives. He's just willing to let it go. Why? Out of love, out of goodness, 00:14:24.440 --> 00:14:29.320 out of mercy. And he's willing to set it all aside and to take into himself our human nature 00:14:29.320 --> 00:14:33.860 and live a fully human life. He doesn't come as the emperor of Rome. He doesn't come as the most 00:14:33.860 --> 00:14:40.539 gorgeous man that's ever existed, the most athletic man, the most well-educated man, the richest man. 00:14:40.539 --> 00:14:46.500 He comes and has a lower working class existence amongst a conquered people. And he lives a normal 00:14:46.500 --> 00:14:51.179 human life. He works by his hands. He depends upon the generosity of others. He empties, he empties, 00:14:51.259 --> 00:14:57.639 he empties. His miracles are acts of grace and healing for others. His words of wisdom are words 00:14:57.639 --> 00:15:05.699 that free and make us whole. But he comes to die. He comes to die upon the cross. He continues to empty 00:15:05.700 --> 00:15:12.440 himself and to empty himself and to empty himself. And in so doing, he not just reveals the nature of 00:15:12.440 --> 00:15:20.700 the true God, but he also does it in such a way that he can save you and me. But the fact of the 00:15:20.700 --> 00:15:31.820 matter is, is you see that this emerges out of who God is. You see, from all eternity, the Father can love 00:15:31.820 --> 00:15:37.420 the Son, from all eternity, the Son can love the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit can love the Son and 00:15:37.420 --> 00:15:44.620 the Holy Spirit can love the Father. From all eternity, in a sense, the Son can give of himself 00:15:44.620 --> 00:15:50.500 to the Father and the Father can give of himself to the Son. From all eternity, the Father can, in a 00:15:50.500 --> 00:15:56.240 sense, desire the glory of the Son and put the Son first. And the Son can desire the glory of the 00:15:56.240 --> 00:16:02.799 father and put the father first and and from all eternity there can be this dynamic activity 00:16:02.799 --> 00:16:11.560 of giving and revealing and receiving and honoring and obeying all of the things that we see in love 00:16:11.560 --> 00:16:21.399 a freedom of humility you can from all eternity that is god you see there are many people who 00:16:21.399 --> 00:16:28.299 have this basic sense that despite the fact that there's war and terror and and cruelty in the world 00:16:28.299 --> 00:16:33.539 and and we look at the world and and i mean there's times when we think that must be the realist realist 00:16:33.539 --> 00:16:39.079 realist realist thing and that the things like love and goodness are just illusions that the realist 00:16:39.079 --> 00:16:45.360 thing is the strong eating the weak and the and the and the disease consuming that which is healthy 00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:52.259 and the strong is just something which is illusory and will come to an end but you know at a very very 00:16:52.259 --> 00:17:01.320 deeper level we all have a sense that that's not the most real that what is most real even if we can't 00:17:01.320 --> 00:17:07.720 articulate why it must be the case that there's many people who just hold it as an article of faith 00:17:07.720 --> 00:17:15.319 that before all things there was love when all else fades away there will be love at the very 00:17:15.319 --> 00:17:21.519 very uh farthest reaches of where you can go there is love at the deepest depths that you can go 00:17:21.519 --> 00:17:30.460 there is love that we dwell amidst love and that with that love comes this basic sense of goodness 00:17:30.460 --> 00:17:37.240 and freedom as somehow despite all of the appearances and all of the philosophies whether it's pantheism 00:17:37.240 --> 00:17:44.099 or whether it is our friends from islam that this is in fact the most fundamental and the most real 00:17:44.099 --> 00:17:51.319 and i just want to share with you friends what you are sensing is the reality of the triune god 00:17:51.319 --> 00:17:58.759 revealed in the life and death and resurrection of jesus that is what you are sensing you are not 00:17:58.759 --> 00:18:06.299 sensing that all is one when you sense this power and reality of love and of goodness and of freedom 00:18:06.299 --> 00:18:14.940 and the humility that has to go with it you see what we see here is that humility is in a sense 00:18:14.940 --> 00:18:25.019 um to be humble is to be self-effacing self-effacing means we uh we don't we're not putting ourselves 00:18:25.019 --> 00:18:29.639 first we're not thinking about ourselves in a sense what pride is is like it says it's a black hole 00:18:29.639 --> 00:18:35.599 right if you deal with somebody who's a very very selfish if you deal with somebody who's clinging to 00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:41.079 their advantages clinging to their roles clinging to their place if you're dealing with somebody 00:18:41.079 --> 00:18:46.079 who's narcissistic who's proud who's selfish who's self-centered who's all about me they're like a 00:18:46.079 --> 00:18:53.019 black hole wherever they go they suck everything into their orbit and the heart of pride is is that 00:18:53.019 --> 00:18:59.480 black wholeness that ruins marriages it ruins friendships it ruins the relationships of parents 00:18:59.480 --> 00:19:03.440 and children that ruins office places ruins countries 00:19:03.440 --> 00:19:10.240 and at the heart of humility isn't thinking bad things about yourself or 00:19:10.240 --> 00:19:20.539 thinking you're bad it's self-effacing it's the opposite of the black hole it's the child 00:19:20.539 --> 00:19:29.980 completely and utterly enraptured by the kitten so enraptured by the kitten or the butterfly or the 00:19:29.980 --> 00:19:34.579 bug that you almost have you have a sense that if you go inside of them they would forget that they 00:19:34.579 --> 00:19:42.599 exist but not in a bad way but in a good way it's that self-effacing this which is at the heart of love 00:19:42.599 --> 00:19:49.079 where it's almost as if you don't exist because you see the one that you love or you love the one that 00:19:49.079 --> 00:19:57.220 you love and that from all eternity the self-effaciness of the father to the son and the son to the father 00:19:57.220 --> 00:20:05.419 and that takes on action in this profound mystery which is described here and in a sense what obedience 00:20:05.419 --> 00:20:13.899 is is another is a is a as a giving of yourself is a self-giving is obedience that's that's what 00:20:13.900 --> 00:20:20.220 you know we we can see how this is all messed up you know uh when we give ourselves to somebody who's 00:20:20.220 --> 00:20:26.540 just going to hurt us who's just going to ruin us who's just going to wreck us but you know at the 00:20:26.540 --> 00:20:33.040 heart of the heart of obedience is you give yourself to the good for others and the heart of love is a 00:20:33.040 --> 00:20:39.460 self-surrender um i mean that's why when love is betrayed and love is broken it's so crushing 00:20:39.460 --> 00:20:47.940 because it's this deep self-surrender and all of this we see in jesus all of this we see at the 00:20:47.940 --> 00:20:55.620 very heart of reality in the trinity and out of this heart of reality in the trinity jesus comes 00:20:55.620 --> 00:21:05.059 and there's the miracles there's no advantages there's the miracles for others the prayer for others 00:21:05.059 --> 00:21:10.339 the teaching for others the death for others the goodness for others 00:21:10.339 --> 00:21:18.659 and you see the profound uh i shared with you last week that at a very literary level if you look at 00:21:18.659 --> 00:21:25.659 this um these verses six to eleven and it's a um it's a very very structured piece of writing in the 00:21:25.659 --> 00:21:31.919 original language uh with technical language and biblical language and balancing phrases etc but 00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:37.940 there's one part that that um you know you expect zig and a zag and a zig and a zag but then there's 00:21:37.940 --> 00:21:44.259 something goes whoa where'd that come from and that's the phrase uh even death on a cross that's 00:21:44.259 --> 00:21:48.900 the that's the heart of it that's the in a sense that the the thing which is discordant that makes 00:21:48.900 --> 00:21:56.460 everybody turn that puts a whole context to everything that all culminates in this perfect 00:21:56.460 --> 00:22:02.200 self-giving and humility that culminates in the death of jesus upon the cross and because it's 00:22:02.200 --> 00:22:07.240 god the son of god who is doing all of these things what we have described here is this wonderful 00:22:07.240 --> 00:22:13.440 mystery where it's both everything that happens is on one level eternal because it's god the son of god 00:22:13.440 --> 00:22:20.519 but on the other hand what happens is also in history it happens in history he lives in historic life 00:22:20.519 --> 00:22:27.740 he dies a death in history the grave is empty in history he resurrects in history and so this profound 00:22:27.740 --> 00:22:35.119 movement by god to save us in a sense if if we think of pride and selfishness and self-centeredness 00:22:35.119 --> 00:22:40.259 is something which affects every human being and that every human being has within themselves this black 00:22:40.259 --> 00:22:47.819 wholeness that um you know by the grace of god we resist sometimes we give into it and and our lives our 00:22:47.819 --> 00:22:55.559 thoughts our our paranoia our our then our desire for vengeance our desire for retribution our desire 00:22:55.559 --> 00:23:02.500 just to have our own way our desire just to be the princess or the king for this moment for this day 00:23:02.500 --> 00:23:08.139 that that wrecks and ruins this black wholeness in a sense what you see in this entire picture is 00:23:08.139 --> 00:23:14.019 is it god unraveling all of that and going in the complete opposite direction and he does it 00:23:14.019 --> 00:23:16.400 so that you and i can be in it 00:23:16.400 --> 00:23:24.059 it's history and it's real it's not just a story it's real it happens in history but because of who 00:23:24.059 --> 00:23:28.960 he is it's something that happens in eternity and being eternity means it's outside of time which 00:23:28.960 --> 00:23:33.980 means that it can be available at any time including your time and my time right now 00:23:33.980 --> 00:23:41.980 if we realize this we can realize a little bit about what it means to follow and live in light of it 00:23:41.980 --> 00:23:47.319 right and it begins by saying that there's this way that we can be in him and in the same way that 00:23:47.319 --> 00:23:52.140 there's something that as this story grips us it's something that can shape us and model us and draw us 00:23:52.140 --> 00:23:56.819 and be the ground in which we stand and we see that in verses 12 to 13 where if you just read them 00:23:56.819 --> 00:24:00.900 without the context of what's just gone on before they just sounds crazy what do you mean you have to 00:24:00.900 --> 00:24:05.099 be obedient you have to work hard you have to have fear and trembling like not what none of this 00:24:05.099 --> 00:24:09.839 stuff makes sense if you don't understand this stuff which follows from it look at verses 12 to 13 00:24:09.839 --> 00:24:18.740 therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed so now not only as in my presence but much more in 00:24:18.740 --> 00:24:27.159 my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling it's a it's a an image fear and 00:24:27.159 --> 00:24:33.339 trembling is an image of the solemnity the earth-shattering nature of it 00:24:33.339 --> 00:24:40.699 many of us before we get married were wrecks nervous wrecks 00:24:40.699 --> 00:24:47.179 in a sense that's describing fear and trembling because there's the momentousness 00:24:47.179 --> 00:24:57.439 of what we're engaged in and there's a type of a solemnity and a depth to what we're about to do 00:24:57.440 --> 00:25:03.840 i i remember uh the night before my marriage i i was fine but i i i could i like i was a wreck 00:25:03.840 --> 00:25:09.259 the morning of my marriage i was a wreck i remember trying to go for a run to try to calm my nerves 00:25:09.259 --> 00:25:14.519 and it it it worked while i was running and i guess if i could have run like 100 kilometers and just run 00:25:14.519 --> 00:25:19.160 went right from running and to be a sweaty wreck to actually exchanging the vows i wouldn't have been 00:25:19.160 --> 00:25:24.779 a wreck but all it was doing was just putting it aside i was a wreck fear and trembling 00:25:24.779 --> 00:25:32.759 fear and trembling you see that's what it's saying here look at it again not only as in my presence 00:25:32.759 --> 00:25:38.079 but much more in my advance it says obey right work out your own salvation with fear and trembling 00:25:38.079 --> 00:25:43.639 it makes it sounds like it's 100 yours but then in the very next breath the same breath it says for 00:25:43.639 --> 00:25:49.799 it is god who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure for it is god who is who 00:25:49.799 --> 00:25:54.639 works in you both to will and and um both to will and to work for his good pleasure it's a 00:25:54.640 --> 00:26:01.080 little bit like this uh last sunday was mother's day and if you had a little three-year-old you have 00:26:01.080 --> 00:26:06.640 to tell them that it's mother's day like somebody has to tell them that it's mother's day and somebody 00:26:06.640 --> 00:26:13.940 has to tell them that it's a really good thing to give mommy a present on mother's day and as well 00:26:13.940 --> 00:26:19.040 as that assuming that we weren't in shutdown if this was a different time so not only would you say 00:26:19.039 --> 00:26:24.579 it's mother's day don't you love mommy yes i love mommy we should you should draw her a picture yes 00:26:24.579 --> 00:26:31.759 i should draw her a picture here's some paper and pens and and crayons and markers oh i have these 00:26:31.759 --> 00:26:36.119 things i can do it and you should buy your mommy a gift wouldn't you like to buy your mommy a gift 00:26:36.119 --> 00:26:41.359 yes i'd love to buy mommy a gift well here's twenty dollars to buy your mommy a gift in fact it might 00:26:41.359 --> 00:26:47.799 even be the mom who gives the kid the twenty dollars all things come from the parents in that story 00:26:47.799 --> 00:26:57.039 and because the parents give the child in a sense the will and because the mom and the dad have been 00:26:57.039 --> 00:27:01.919 loving the child so there's a natural desire for the child to give something to the mom and the paper 00:27:01.919 --> 00:27:08.179 comes from the mom and dad the crayons from the mom and dad the fact that it's an event comes from mom 00:27:08.180 --> 00:27:13.759 and dad the money for the gift comes from mom and dad and if the little kid ends up giving their mommy 00:27:13.759 --> 00:27:18.799 something that obviously the little kid likes or that's something completely and utterly absurdly 00:27:18.799 --> 00:27:25.100 weird well the mom and dad just think it's hilarious and they make a note that they're going to tell that 00:27:25.100 --> 00:27:29.980 funny story when the child gets married uh far later on so that the whole room will laugh but that's 00:27:29.980 --> 00:27:35.820 another thing you see that's what this image is here it's not an image it's not a religious image it's 00:27:35.819 --> 00:27:41.279 not a religious image as if if i become more religious like that you know then uh you know 00:27:41.279 --> 00:27:45.740 then that that means i do this more and more and more and in a sense you know god it's it's more and 00:27:45.740 --> 00:27:50.299 more me and less and less god or you know maybe at first you need to have god's grace but then no no 00:27:50.299 --> 00:27:55.539 no what what this is an image of it says if you understand that to deal with the black hole within 00:27:55.539 --> 00:28:01.879 you that god the son of god in a sense has to do this profound act to deal with your black wholeness 00:28:01.880 --> 00:28:07.960 and in a sense there's the complete reversal the reverse engine the the reversing the unmaking the 00:28:07.960 --> 00:28:13.640 unmasking of the black hole within us and that god does what we can't do for ourselves and that when 00:28:13.640 --> 00:28:19.540 we put our faith and trust in him we're in him and that act that he does for us becomes ours and so it 00:28:19.540 --> 00:28:21.700 has to be a hundred percent from god 00:28:21.700 --> 00:28:31.279 and that's why it says to work and to will comes all from god but what happens is i go from my black 00:28:31.279 --> 00:28:38.860 wholeness as this as i'm in christ and christ is now in a sense with me and i am with him and he is 00:28:38.860 --> 00:28:46.319 in me and as this story shapes me then as he continues to to give and to form and as this eternal 00:28:46.319 --> 00:28:52.079 thing continues to become more real in me in history i go from zero percent to one percent to three percent 00:28:52.079 --> 00:28:58.819 at no time does god ever stop doing anything other than a hundred percent but the more i'm gripped and 00:28:58.819 --> 00:29:06.259 the more i'm in the more i can become free to obey the more i can become free to love the more i can 00:29:06.259 --> 00:29:09.679 become humble to love and to be free 00:29:09.680 --> 00:29:20.660 let's just sort of wrap this up with four takeaway points for you um i'm really sorry we really are 00:29:20.660 --> 00:29:25.560 going to be trying to work on getting the words here uh as soon as we can on the screen i know 00:29:25.560 --> 00:29:30.440 some of you really like this let me just tell you just go to info church of the messiah whatever that 00:29:30.440 --> 00:29:34.840 is email us we'll email you these things you can look in the little thing in the side which are about 00:29:34.840 --> 00:29:39.640 to come up uh or you can go online i think on monday it'll all go online when the audio version 00:29:39.640 --> 00:29:44.440 of this sermon goes online uh but here i'll just tell you them i'll they're sort of very obvious 00:29:44.440 --> 00:29:49.220 but there's four prayers that come out of this that helps us to know what it means to grow 00:29:49.220 --> 00:29:57.280 it's four four prayers that helps to shape you in your life in response to being in christ here here's 00:29:57.280 --> 00:30:06.680 the first one almighty god if the turning point of human history is the sacrificial death life death 00:30:06.680 --> 00:30:13.720 and resurrection of the lord jesus christ then in him may it be the turning point of my whole life 00:30:13.720 --> 00:30:15.200 and my life each day 00:30:15.200 --> 00:30:21.180 friends this is a conversion prayer if you have not given your life to jesus 00:30:21.180 --> 00:30:28.080 and those of us who have given our lives to jesus this is a day-to-day prayer it's the point of this whole 00:30:28.079 --> 00:30:36.599 beautiful story from verse 5 to verse 13 to see that god does something that changes all human history 00:30:36.599 --> 00:30:42.619 and the history potentially changes the history and the story of every human life including yours 00:30:42.619 --> 00:30:50.939 nobody's life is so consumed by the black hole that this story isn't for them that this prayer 00:30:50.940 --> 00:30:59.440 isn't for them that jesus isn't for them isn't for you almighty god if the turning point of human 00:30:59.440 --> 00:31:05.299 history is the sacrificial life death and resurrection of the lord jesus christ then in him 00:31:05.299 --> 00:31:13.559 may it be the turning point of my whole life and my life each day here's a second thing that comes 00:31:13.559 --> 00:31:21.240 from this a prayer that we can pray to god almighty god since for the good of others the lord did not 00:31:21.240 --> 00:31:25.919 cling to his advantages then in him neither will i 00:31:25.919 --> 00:31:34.299 you know you want to guys you're married to somebody you want to know how to kill your marriage 00:31:34.299 --> 00:31:39.639 you come home and you're with your wife and and she's been working hard all day maybe she's been 00:31:39.640 --> 00:31:44.820 with the kids and she's just frazzled or she's had her own job and she's doing some stuff around the 00:31:44.820 --> 00:31:50.140 house and cooking things and she says something to you and you think yourself one moment at my job 00:31:50.140 --> 00:31:57.580 i'm an important person like this isn't how people talk to me yeah yeah keep that attitude up and watch 00:31:57.580 --> 00:32:03.940 your marriage die let me just tell you i remember one day i was with this man true story he'd lived with 00:32:03.940 --> 00:32:08.980 several women all of the that those relationships had broken up he'd been married a couple of times 00:32:08.980 --> 00:32:13.500 those marriages had all ended uh we were having lunch i told him about i'd done something something 00:32:13.500 --> 00:32:19.279 had come up and i apologized to my wife and he said to me i would never apologize to my wife 00:32:19.279 --> 00:32:24.940 and i said to him and that's why you're divorced several times and all of your relationships have 00:32:24.940 --> 00:32:33.299 broken up and he was a neat middle eastern guy who can talk direct to and he paused for a second he 00:32:33.299 --> 00:32:38.579 said you're probably right but he didn't say it with a smile so this is an important prayer 00:32:38.579 --> 00:32:43.480 almighty god since for the good of others the lord did not cling to his advantages 00:32:43.480 --> 00:32:49.919 where his office or his role or his money or whatever then in him neither will i 00:32:49.919 --> 00:32:55.240 this will make a perfect to be gripped by the gospel and then gripped with this will make a 00:32:55.240 --> 00:32:58.859 difference in the church it will make a difference in your work it will make a difference with your 00:32:58.859 --> 00:33:03.240 kids it'll make a difference with your marriage it'll make a difference with your friends and with 00:33:03.240 --> 00:33:09.059 your neighbors third prayer from this text almighty god since for the good of others the lord humbled 00:33:09.059 --> 00:33:18.519 humbled himself then in him so will i just pray it again almighty god since for the good of others 00:33:18.519 --> 00:33:22.139 the Lord humbled himself, then in him so will I. 00:33:22.940 --> 00:33:23.720 Final prayer. 00:33:24.519 --> 00:33:26.879 Almighty God, since for the good of others 00:33:26.879 --> 00:33:28.859 the Lord was obedient to you, 00:33:29.460 --> 00:33:31.700 then in him so will I. 00:33:32.720 --> 00:33:34.440 See, it all flows from this. 00:33:34.980 --> 00:33:41.500 Remember, obedience, love, humility, freedom, 00:33:43.039 --> 00:33:45.259 that there's a deep connection between all of them. 00:33:45.259 --> 00:33:49.500 And in light of the gospel, in light of these other prayers, 00:33:49.740 --> 00:33:54.740 this is the context about learning how to obey your wife in the right things, 00:33:54.839 --> 00:33:56.440 obeying your kids in the right things, 00:33:57.920 --> 00:34:00.079 obey God in the right things, 00:34:00.599 --> 00:34:01.960 obey the government in the right things, 00:34:02.019 --> 00:34:04.579 and not obey them in the things that you shouldn't be obeying them in. 00:34:05.099 --> 00:34:10.239 This becomes the entranceway into an obedience and a wisdom 00:34:10.239 --> 00:34:14.059 and a sense of the right and wrongness of the world, 00:34:14.059 --> 00:34:15.920 a compass where the north is, 00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:20.079 an ability to see the things whereby you can be disobedient to evil 00:34:20.079 --> 00:34:22.219 because you should always disobey evil. 00:34:23.039 --> 00:34:23.480 Always. 00:34:23.960 --> 00:34:25.880 Always disobey the black hole. 00:34:27.360 --> 00:34:31.199 Almighty God, since for the good of others the Lord was obedient to you, 00:34:31.519 --> 00:34:33.360 then in him so will I. 00:34:34.039 --> 00:34:35.440 Friends, let's pray. 00:34:36.239 --> 00:34:42.699 Father, I come to you acknowledging that there is a black hole in me. 00:34:42.699 --> 00:34:48.719 And I, Father, I acknowledge that it wasn't because somehow I was very good 00:34:48.719 --> 00:34:53.699 at controlling my black hole or keeping my black hole away or destroying it 00:34:53.699 --> 00:34:56.559 that you said, well, I think George is a wonderful fellow. 00:34:56.679 --> 00:34:57.879 I think I'll have him as my child. 00:34:57.939 --> 00:34:59.639 Father, I know that wasn't the way. 00:35:00.259 --> 00:35:04.319 That in the midst of my black wholeness, you still loved me. 00:35:04.320 --> 00:35:08.160 And you, in the person of your Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit, 00:35:08.340 --> 00:35:14.700 you do this deep, powerful reversal of the black wholeness of the human race 00:35:14.700 --> 00:35:17.059 that has infected all of creation. 00:35:17.240 --> 00:35:20.019 And we thank you, Father, that you sent your Son, 00:35:20.140 --> 00:35:23.460 that he was willing to be set aside as advantages, 00:35:23.460 --> 00:35:26.200 to be humble, to be obedient in love. 00:35:26.240 --> 00:35:27.340 And he did this for me. 00:35:27.340 --> 00:35:31.360 And I thank you, Father, that he did for me what I could never do for myself, 00:35:31.559 --> 00:35:35.760 that it's all grace, all unmerited, all love, all goodness. 00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:39.960 Father, grip us, grip me, grip everyone who is here with the truth of this. 00:35:40.039 --> 00:35:44.940 And may these prayers be ours, that we will be gripped by him and be in him. 00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.640 And this will turn and change and be the turning point of our lives 00:35:49.640 --> 00:35:51.019 and the turning point of every day. 00:35:51.460 --> 00:35:53.260 Father, pour out the Holy Spirit upon us. 00:35:53.320 --> 00:35:54.579 We ask this in the name of Jesus. 00:35:55.120 --> 00:35:55.440 Amen. 00:35:55.440 --> 00:35:55.579 Amen.