The Model of Selflessness

Well, many years ago, a rider on horseback came across a squad of soldiers that was trying to move a tree out of a roadway so that this advanced group of soldiers could clear the way for a larger group of soldiers that were bringing cannons and other military armaments with them. And the rider on horseback noticed that there was one of the soldiers on horseback that was giving orders, just sitting there on his horse. Heave, he would say, and the other guys would push as hard as they could. And so the stranger on horseback said to the other soldier, why don't you help them? Looks like maybe one more man and they could do the job. And the guy quickly repeated, replied to the stranger, I'm a corporal. And so the stranger on horseback got down off his horse, took his place with the men, and said, okay, we're ready. The corporal said, heave, and they moved, they pushed, and the tree did begin to move, and they got it out of the way. All it took was one more man. The stranger got back up on his horse, removed his hat, and said to the corporal, the next time you need to move a tree, just call for your commander in chief. And to his horror, the corporal recognized that he was speaking to General George Washington. In a small room, Jesus Christ is with his twelve disciples. It's the evening he will be betrayed by one of them. It's the night before he will die. And Luke's gospel tells us that on this very occasion, the disciples are squabbling about who will be first, who will be the highest in Christ's kingdom. Nobody has thought to do what is always done for a group that gathers in a room like this. So Jesus rises from his seat. The Bible says in John 13, walks to the door, takes up the servants' towel, wraps it around his waist, takes his outer garment off, takes the basin of water, and begins to do the job of a servant. He begins to wash the feet of the disciples. It's an awkward moment. It's an embarrassing moment because the disciples are fighting over who's number one, and Jesus has taken the place of a servant. In fact, it's so awkward for Peter that he wants to stop Jesus and say, no, don't wash me, and if you're familiar with the story, Jesus says, if I don't wash you, you have no part with me. This is an act of fellowship, showing our fellowship with each other. And he went around and washed the feet of all of the disciples. That was a job of a servant in that day. A servant would normally be stationed at the door of a household. And anyone who would come in off the dusty roads and streets of a small town, or even a city, would have their feet washed by that servant. The disciples weren't thinking about that. They were thinking about honor, prestige, position, high places in the kingdom. Jesus demonstrated a servant spirit, a selfless spirit. And what John describes, by way of an illustration from Jesus' life, Paul describes in Philippians chapter 2, by way of more of a doctrinal theological treatise on what it meant for Jesus to become a servant, a selfless servant. Let's find that place in our Bibles in Philippians chapter 2, please, verses 5 through 11. We've already looked at the first four verses in this series in the book of Philippians. We have seen that Paul has talked about the unity of the church in Philippi, an issue which they seem to have some trouble with. And he has encouraged them. If there's anything to your relationship in Christ and there is, then you ought to be as one, you ought to have one mind, one heart, one purpose. And the way that you do that, the key to unity is through selflessness. And he's already warned them that they must deal with self-ambition and self-glory and self-importance and self-interest. And now he says, when it gives you the prime example, our model of selflessness. The model of selflessness is the Lord Jesus Christ. The introduces it in verse 5 by saying, your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. And then he describes how Christ demonstrated this attitude of selflessness that we ourselves are to follow, that model of selflessness. What did Jesus do? How did he demonstrate the model of selflessness? Well there are six qualities of selflessness seen in this description of Jesus. The first one is this. A selfless person is not defensive about his position. Not defensive about his position. Look at verse 6, if you will. Paul begins this description of Jesus. He says, who? Being in very nature, God, did not consider equality with God, something to be grasped. Now notice the description of Jesus. He was in very nature, God, or some translations say, who was in the form of God, the word literally is the word form, but it stresses the idea of the inner nature that then demonstrates itself outwardly. What is true on the inside is demonstrated for all to see. And what was true of Jesus on the inside was that he was God. This is talking about in heaven before he came to this earth. He existed in the very nature of God. He shared with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit the divine nature. He was God. And that inner nature was demonstrated in outward form in the glory that he showed in heaven. And so this very nature of God belonged to Jesus and it was demonstrated in heaven in such a glorious fashion that all the angels of heaven fall down at the throne and worship Jesus Christ and God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. God is worshiped and adored by the angels of heaven. Jesus has that outward glory, but the Bible says that very demonstration of that outward glory which demonstrated his inner nature, he did not consider that was something to be grasped. When it talks about equality with God, it's talking about that outward expression of the inner nature, the demonstration that everybody could see he's equal with God. He did not feel that that was something to be grasped or to be clutched with greedy fingers and hung on to at all costs. In other words, he was willing to give up that outward display of glory that caused all of heaven to fall at his feet, to live among men. And that was the first step in Jesus coming here to be our Savior, was his willingness, his willingness to give up that glorious position in heaven where he's worshiped and adored by the angels. And he's willing to give that up and come to this earth, take on human flesh to live among men. He is still God, but he becomes man and he veils that outward display of glory with a human body, a human body that covers that display of glory that would show to everyone that he is God. And so people who look at him do not instantly recognize that he is that glorious God who sits on the throne in heaven, they view him as another man because he has chosen to lay aside that outward glory and take on a body, a human body and a human nature. Now if Jesus felt that that outward display of glory was something that must be clutched, that must be held onto grasp at all costs, then when he was threatened about that very issue he would have become defensive, when his identity would have been questioned, he would have lashed out at others to prove who he was in a blast of glory that would dispel all doubt as to who he was. But Jesus, by his very coming to this world, is saying, I am not defensive about my position. Now don't mistake me, Jesus did claim to be God even while he was here on earth. And he did miracles to prove that he fulfilled the Old Testament descriptions of Messiah, God come to earth to be the king of the Jews. So he did all of that, yes. But he never defensively lashed out to prove to someone, this is who I am. I want you to know, beyond a shadow of doubt, who I am, you're questioning me, here I'll show you who I am. It was never that way. He was not defensive about his position. And there were plenty of cases where he could have been before Jesus began his public ministry. He was tempted by Satan for 40 days, out in the wilderness. He fasted for 40 days. At the end of that time he was extremely hungry. And Satan tempted him to turn stones into bread and Jesus said, you should not tempt the Lord your God. At the second temptation that Satan threw at the feet of Jesus was this, if you are the Son of God, then let's go up to the highest point of the temple. And you throw yourself off the pinnacle of the temple and angels will bear you up. The Old Testament says that. And you will buy a miraculous display of your glory, proved everyone that you really are the Son of God. And Jesus looks at him and says, you should not tempt the Lord your God. So Jesus resisted the opportunity and he could have done it. He could have done exactly what Satan was suggesting. He had the power to do that. He had the inner nature of being God and he could have displayed it so that nobody would ever question it and Jesus resisted that temptation. I think the greatest example of this is on the cross where Jesus is suffering for you and for me, for our sins as he dies on the cross. And the Bible says in Matthew's Gospel that there are people walking by the road at the foot of the cross and they're looking up at him. And they're saying, you claim to be able to raise the temple up in three days, come down from the cross if you really are the Son of God. The Bible also says the soldiers and even the two thieves at this point in Jesus suffering were mocking him and ridiculing him the same way. And saying, if you really are the Son of God, if you are who you claim to be, then come down from the cross, save yourself and save others. You said you could save others. You can't even save yourself. Come on, prove it that you're the Son of God. And there's a part of me every time I read that passage that says, come on Jesus, show them, show them, just show them who you are. And he could have done that with one brilliant display of his glory. He could have slain everybody there or he could have come down from that cross and he could have shown them who he was to spell any question about his identity. But he just took it and never said a word. Why? Because if Jesus had done what he was being challenged to do, you and I could never have been saved. And so he did it for us. He took all that mockery and ridicule for us. Jesus was not defensive about his position. He did not feel that everybody needs to see beyond a shadow of doubt that I am truly the God of glory. And if anybody questions that I'll give them a flash of brilliance and they'll know for sure, we'll remove all doubt. Jesus did not feel that his position was one that he needed to grasp onto at all costs. And whenever I see that, I ask myself the question, do I even begin to understand what that means? Do I even begin to grasp what it means to not be defensive about position? You see, it's very easy for us whenever we attain any kind of position or honor or certain things that are rightfully ours or any kind of skill is attained or knowledge is accumulated. It's very easy for us to think. If anybody challenges that, I'm going to let them know that I know, I can do. I am. It's very easy for me to do that. It's very easy for us to do that, to prove our qualifications, to defensively lash out and stake our claim and make sure they know that I do know this, I have done this, I can do this, I am whatever. We are so defensive about our position, to prove that we're smart, to prove that we're good, to prove that we deserve that position. Jesus gives us a model of a difference or it. Paul says, if you're going to be selfless, let this attitude be in you which was in Christ Jesus, not defensive about his position. But there's a second quality. A person who is selfless willingly gives up her rights, not only not defensive about his position, but a person who is selfless will willingly give up her rights. Look at verse 7. The next expression describing Jesus in His selflessness says this, but made Himself nothing. Some translations translate it very literally. He emptied Himself. Emptied Himself. Now what does that mean? Don't misunderstand that. Some have misunderstood that expression to mean that Jesus poured out His deity, emptied Himself of His deity, divested Himself of His equality with God. But that is not what this passage is saying. It is not saying that Jesus poured out His deity so that when He came to earth He was only a man. No, the Scriptures are very clear that while Jesus was here on this earth walking about us as fully human, He was also still fully God. So what does it mean? What did He divest Himself of? What did He pour out? What did He empty Himself of? The Paul is really quite clear on that. The next three phrases, if you'll look at them, you'll see that they all begin with words that end in I-N-G called a participle. Now look at these words. It says in verse 7, but made Himself nothing and then He's going to describe what that means, taking the very nature of a servant. Secondly, being made in human likeness, thirdly, and being found in appearance as a man. Those three expressions in the Greek they're called adverbial participles, in the this simply mean they describe the main verb and that is, He emptied Himself. How did He empty Himself? He emptied Himself by taking the very nature of a servant. He emptied Himself by saying, I will become, while I'm on this earth, I will become an obedient servant to my heavenly Father. I will only do what He says to do when He says to do it, how He says to do it, I will submissively be a servant to my Father. That's the way I will empty myself. Secondly, I will empty myself by being made in human likeness. I'm going to take on a human body which will cover that glow of deity, that outward expression of my glory. I'm going to take on a human body so that when people look at me, what they see is a human being. They would not instantly recognize just by my appearance that this truly is God. And in thirdly, I'm going to empty myself by being found in appearance as a man. I will not take on any special kind of appearance that would set me apart from other people. I will take on the appearance of a man. So Jesus empties Himself in this way. He laid aside the independent use of His divine attributes, of all of His deity, all of His glory, and He will not use that deity independently of the Father's will. He will restrain His deity so that He will get tired. He will get hungry. But God who made all the hinks get hungry, get tired? Yes, because He will not express His deity. He will not use His divine attributes unless it is in the perfect plan of the Father for that moment. So in that form He becomes a servant. He becomes like us. He is one of us. He willingly gives up His rights to demonstrate at all times that He is truly God, if He's hungry, boom, just make some bread. If He's starting to get tired, boom, a display of supernatural divine strength is automatically His. He decides to willingly give up that right and become like us. And when I see that again, I ask myself, what do I know about willingly giving up my rights? That's very hard for us to do, isn't it? My group was meeting in this room first. You'll have to go find somewhere else. We had this place scheduled first. You'll have to go somewhere else. I'm not going to clean up after this event. The last time I did that, I was all by myself. I've done my duty. It's somebody else's turn. I deserve to sit in the back. I got here first. I deserve to sit on the end of the row. That's my seat. Pity the poor visitor who tries to take. My seat. I was preaching about a month ago in the first church I passed in North Carolina. And we, Genean, I got there in time for Sunday School. And I didn't have any obligations for Sunday School. And so a man who was very close to us when we were there, he was chairman of the Deacons during the time of my ministry there. And he said, go to our class. And so it was a men's class. And I walked back and walk in the door. And it's kind of awkward when this was a new part of the building that built since I'd been there. I didn't know anything about it. I knew about half of the people in the class and half of them were new or I didn't know. So it's kind of awkward. It's kind of like first time you come to a church and you're not sure where to go and where to sit and what to do and all those kinds of things. And so I just kind of walked in and sat on the end of a little bench. They had kind of a pew-like row like benches in that little classroom. And I sat there. And I noticed an older gentleman walk in. And he kind of paused and looked around and then made his way to the seat in front of me. A couple of minutes passed and the man who was sitting beside him, I noticed, turned to him and said, would you like your Bible? Now that's kind of a strange question. But when the gentleman said, yes, I would like my Bible. The man reached over the back of the pew and pulled his Bible out from right in front of where I'm sitting. Now the fact that the guy had left his Bible there all week is another issue that probably needs to be dealt with by someone. But it kind of marked out his territory. I think that's my seat. And so I was sitting in his seat and I thought, oh, this is, how can I help it? I didn't know. So we went through the class and I apologized to him afterwards and we had a good laugh about it and it was fine and all. But I thought how graciously they handled that. The guy didn't say to me, move over, that's my seat. And the guy beside him recognized the awkwardness of the situation and just says, would you like your Bible and just gently reaches back and pulls it from in front of me and gives it to him. That's so wonderful. But pity the poor person who takes my seat, you know, we do not very willingly give up our rights. And sometimes we are very adamant that we want to have the last word about what we deserve or what we are going to say that people hear us even when we don't know what we are talking about. In one church they were having kind of a hot business meeting, highly contested issues were being discussed. And one of the proposals on the table was that the church by a chandelier and one of them stood up and began to forcefully argue against that motion. And he said, you know, this church does not need a chandelier. First of all, nobody knows how to spell it. Secondly, nobody knows how to play it. And third, what we really need around here anyway is more light. You know, it's easy for us to forcefully state our opinion about things and then we realize we don't really know what we are talking about. We want to push our way. Our rights, it's hard for us to give up our rights. Jesus willingly gave up his rights. Mark of a selfless servant. The third mark is in the next expression of Jesus and that is a selfless person willingly serves others. You see it there in the middle of verse 7, first expression but made himself, nothing or emptied himself. Second one is taking the very nature of a servant. That's one of the ways he emptied himself but it's a whole concept within itself and that is he willingly serves others. He takes on the form of the very nature of a servant. The same word we saw back in verse 6, very nature or form indicating that there is an inward reality that is demonstrated on the outside. So what this text is saying is not, it is not that Jesus looked like a servant or that he acted like a servant, did things that would make people think he was a servant, he was a servant on the inside and that just naturally demonstrated itself. It's not like Jesus was trying to impress anybody with the fact that look at me, look at me I'm a real servant. No, no. He just was a servant at heart and it just came out. He was in very nature a servant and it demonstrated itself in reality to others. Time and time again Jesus would do this. He would see someone who was a leper or who was sick who was blind and his heart would go out to them and in those instances he would display his divine power to prove who he was, to show people who got me, no, to serve others, to help others, to alleviate the needs of others. So Jesus understood what it was, he lived the life of willing servanthood. And again I look at that and I have to ask myself the question Paul said that this attitude be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, do I willingly serve others? You see if we are to be like Jesus we must recognize that we are here to serve others, others are not here to serve us. You know there's a wonderful beautiful thing that takes place in the body of Christ when everybody realizes that we all end up serving each other and everybody's needs get met but it's not because I'm clamoring for my needs to be met, it's because I want to meet your needs. You see that's the way servanthood works. So let's get practical about this. Servanthood means I will take the initiative to help you. I'm not going to wait for you to help me. Servanthood means I'm going to take the initiative to shake your hand whether or not you ever shake mine. I will not take the initiative to smile at you to greet you if you never ever smile at me or greet me. I will serve you. I'm not looking for service from you. I will serve you. I will take the initiative to forgive you even if you never ask for it, even if you never in turn forgive me. I will take the initiative to forgive you because I'm going to serve your needs first. I want to be a blessing to you. I'm not looking for blessing from you. I'm not looking for what you can do for me. That's what a servant says that I will willingly give myself to you. I'm not looking for something from you. Jesus did that. Live that way. His whole lifestyle was lived that way. And Paul says, we need to have that same attitude. Willingly serve others. I don't remember the year. It was sometime in the 80s that we had a leadership retreat from our church in Indiana. We would always, every year, take our deacons and we had the wives along and we would have a retreat and we would plan things for the year and so forth. We've done a lot of that here too. But we were staying at this particular retreat overnight in the old Winona Hotel at Winona Lake Indiana. Great Bible conference center there near Grace Cemetery. This was the old hotel, Dennis and Chris, the old hotel that was there when Billy Sunday was preaching camp meetings and so forth in Winona Lake. And so it was a really old building but they fixed it up real nice. And so we were staying overnight there and all of a sudden the middle of the night alarms go off. And you can tell you're woken up with the shrieking alarms. You can tell it's a fire alarm. So we're hustling to get out of the building and all not knowing what's happening. It's interesting what you think of in times like that. It's interesting what you think of to pick up and take with you. I think we had five deacons and their wives were there and after we got out of the building met on the lawn out front and I'll never forget one of them in elderly man, JC Draper, who's with the Lord now. JC had gotten his top coat, his hat, his, and his Bible but he had forgotten his teeth. You know he stayed out there with this big gummy grin, you know, and he's got his Bible under his arm. But he that's what he thought to get. And you know when that something like that happens you're thinking I just got to grab what's most important to me and get out with the exception of one person. One of our deacons wives, but I'm going to go with Lou Harvey. Before she left the building she knocked on the door of everybody in our party to make sure they were out and she went out last. That was a rebute to me because you know I kind of had to run back when I remember Jeannie. You know Jeannie's in her room. I'm very get hurt too. You know I'm, I think I got to save my skin and she's knocking on everybody's door to make sure everybody is out first and then she will get out. That is the heart of a servant. Willingly serves others, not looking for reward or anything out of it for yourself. Willingly serves others. Let this attitude be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Willingly serves others. The fourth mark of a selfless person. In verse 7, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man. What powerful expressions. This quality could be phrased in this way. A selfless person identifies with the weaknesses of others. Identifies with the weaknesses of others. Jesus took on the likeness of humanity which means he became a real man, wouldn't like he just appeared like a man. He became a real man but his appearance was that of a man because it says in the next phrase, being found in appearance as man. So to look at Jesus, there is nothing that would automatically by his physical appearance leap out at you and mark him as being someone other than man. Forget most of the pictures you've ever seen of artists who have tried to render Jesus. They usually picture him with some kind of glow about his face or halo. Even in the manger, you know, his little halo around his head and all. What they're trying to capture is the fact that this is someone special. This is God. But Jesus did not demonstrate his humanity in that way. He was found in appearance as a man. He took on a human body. He looked like a normal ordinary man and he was fully human while at the same time inside that robe of flesh. He was still fully God. But he was fully man and he was a real man. There was no exemption from human life with the exception he never sinned. He never sinned. But in every other way, he lived human life as we live it without any exemption. Jesus knows what it's like to be lonely because he spent an evening the most critical, crucial, if I can say it reverently, gut-wrenching evening of his life in a garden, praying alone. In three times, he goes back and he says to his three closest disciples, couldn't you even stay awake with me for one hour? He's lonely. Jesus knows what it's like to be lonely. In your opinion, lonely. Jesus knows what that feels like. Jesus knows what it's like to feel totally exhausted. Climb in a boat one evening after a long stretch of hard ministry, dealing with so many critical heartbreaking needs of people and he's exhausted. He crawls back in the back of the boat and he falls fast asleep, so fast asleep that even a storm of the magnitude that frightens experienced sailors on that boat. Jesus sleeps right through it. Jesus knows what it's like to come to the end of your strength and be exhausted. Jesus knows what it's like to be betrayed. He knows what it's like to be stabbed in the back because he had one who betrayed him, one who walked with him, who ate meals with him, who listened to him teach, who participated in his ministry, turned his back on him and denied him and betrayed him. Jesus knows what it's like. The writer of Hebrews says it this way. Hebrews chapter 2, verse 14, since the children that's speaking of us have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death. That is the devil. In other words, it was important for him to have a human body so that he could die. He could actually die and be a sacrifice for our sins. But it goes on to say this. For this reason, he had to be made like his brothers in every way. In other words, take on fullness of humanity in every way in order that he might become not notice a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God and that he might make a tonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. When we go through temptations and weaknesses and trials of life, Jesus knows what that's like. But the Bible says he is a merciful high priest, which means he feels with us. He understands. He knows our weaknesses. He knows what it's like. He's walked in our shoes. He knows what it's like to live human life. The writer of Hebrews will go on a couple chapters later in chapter 4 to say it this way, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. But we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet was without sin. Now, because of that, he says, let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. You know the reason why we can come to God with boldness and confidence knowing that whatever is on our hearts, he understands because Jesus has walked in our shoes. And he sympathizes with our weaknesses. He understands and identifies with the weaknesses. He would never sin. He was above sin, but he knows what it's like to live human life and he identifies with human weakness. And again, because the passage tells us to, I ask myself the question, do I have that attitude? Do I even begin to understand what it means to sympathize with the weaknesses of others, to identify with the weaknesses of others? Some of you know some people like this. None of you are like this, of course. But some of you know some people like this who just give this aura of being super spiritual. They want you to think that they've got it all together. They would never admit to any kind of weakness or problem in their lives. They can't really relate to us ordinary people because they've got it all together. Or at least that's the impression they give. And so if you're to share a burden with them, all they have is not, it's not an understanding and identification with a real heart longing and oneness with you to share that with you. It's just a quick answer as to how you ought to get over it, how you ought to deal with it because this is what I've learned. You know, I don't know about you. I don't want to be around a person like that when I'm really hurting. When stuff's not going right in my life and when I'm struggling with human weakness, I don't want to be around a person like that. I want to be with someone who understands what it's like, who will not grieve with me and self-pity, will share with me sources of strength and help. Yes, but we'll do so from a heart that sympathizes and understands and says, man, I've made a mess of things too. And I know how much that hurts. And I'm with you. I want to pray with you. I want to help you. I want to be beside you. I want to be your friend. That's the kind of person I want to be with. I found it very important to be with a special friend like that this past Friday. He's a friend that goes back well over 30 years. He was the first or the second actually youth pastor I ever had in a church that I've pastored back in North Carolina. And then he went on to seminary and a year, two later, I went to seminary and he was a youth pastor and at church there and they were looking for a pastor and so they ended up calling me as their pastor and we served together for four more years in a church's name, a Steve Putton. He's been here to preach some of you knowing. He's one of the closest friends I've had and we've walked through a lot of valleys together. He had two really tough ministries and we had a accountability relationship where we'd call each other every week and we'd talk about what was going on. There were some years, I mean there were years, not days or weeks, there were years where he was going through terrible, terrible things in a church that he was pastoring and he would just pour that out and I would talk with him about my own weaknesses and stuff. The last few weeks his dad had cancer and had a brain tumor and we've been known for some time as dad was going to die and so Tuesday night Steve called me Wednesday morning, at 11, 15, Tuesday night I said my dad died last night and I knew we had talked about this before Steve was going to preach the funeral on Friday and when I heard that a lot of stuff to do but in fact the reason you deacons don't have an agenda this week I simply forgot it because of this. A lot of stuff to do but I knew I had to be there because Steve was going to preach that pure and he needed to be able to see a friend out there that understood what he was going through. I want someone by my side like that, not someone who's so super pious that they've got all the answers and can't even begin to identify with the struggles you go through and I'm so thankful that I have a savior who identifies with the weaknesses we all go through and we can come to him with whatever is on our heart and whatever we're struggling with we can come to him because he knows he understands he's been here. I want to be more like that. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. willingly identified with the weaknesses of others. Fifth mark of a selfless person is in verse 8, a selfless person submissively obeys God. Having found an appearance as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to death even death on a cross. This is the very lowest part of his submission and yet the highest point of his obedience. Jesus is willingly submissive and obedient to the Father even if the Father's plan says, Jesus for you, this means going to a cross and dying. The most despicable humiliating, torturous kind of death devised in that time in that part of the world. But obedience to God's plan meant that he would go to the cross and die there for us and a selfless person says it's not about me. It's not about my plans, it's not about what feels good to me because that didn't feel good to Jesus. It's about willingly submitting myself in obedience to God. I ask myself, is that attitude in me? When God asks me to do something that's hard, it doesn't feel good that maybe people will not understand am I willing to be obedient to him or willing to do what he says because selflessness says I will obey God even if that does not go across well with me or with others. If nobody understands or nobody grasps it, I will obey God. Are we willing to do that? And then the last mark, a selfless person leaves any honor to God. Leaves any honor to God. Jesus is dying on the cross and then suddenly we're transported back to heaven in verse 9. Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 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. When Jesus is hanging on the cross, Peter says it in 1 Peter chapter 2, who when he was reviled, reviled not again when he was threatened, he threatened not, but committed himself to him who judges righteous. When Jesus is on the cross, how is it that he can stay there when people are saying, if you're really the son of God, show it, prove it, come down, save yourself, how could he stay there, how could he hang on that cross? Because in order to save us, he must die, but also he is willing to commit his own reputation into the hands of the Father and deliver himself up to the one who judges righteously. And there will come a day, it's what we just read, there will come a day when every knee will give Jesus Christ the honor that is rightly, he rightly deserves, that there will never be any more question about if you are the son of God. No, no, everyone will recognize who he is and bow at his feet, everyone, everyone in this room, someday will bow at the feet of Jesus. I hope you will do it because you know him as your Savior and you willingly, lovingly adore him and honor him for dying for you on the cross and paying for your sins. But even if you never receive his love gift, there will be a day when you will bow before him. Even if you do not know him, you will recognize who he is. The Bible says before you are then punished for your own sins because you did not receive the punishment he took for you. Everyone, everyone will recognize who he is and Jesus was willing on the cross to say, I leave that in your hands, Father, for your time, your way. He could have shown who he was, he could have gotten all the glory, he could have shown how much he could do, how much power he had and he didn't. He said, I'll leave that to God. God in his own time and his own way will honor me. That's not in my hands. When I look at that again, I go back to Paul's statement in verse 5, your attitude should be the same. And I ask myself, do I understand anything about that? Do I know what that's like? I will confess to you that there are deep parts of pride in me that I struggle with and I'm not proud of it. I'm ashamed of it. There are deep pockets of pride. It's so easy to try to manage our image. It's so easy to want to have the last word. Do I want everybody to know? I have experienced that or I have done that or I have seen that or I have been there to dominate the conversation, to draw the attraction to me. It's so easy, so easy to do that. And really when we're doing that, it's a form of pride. It's basically saying, I want you to know that I know everything about this topic or I know something about every topic. I'm going to weigh in and show what I know I can do. Terrible pride. Jesus says if there's going to be any honor, I'll just leave that for God to take care of. Have a good friend who's a director of the Word of Life Bible Institute in Hungary. His name is Alex Kanya. We went to seminary together at Grace and Alex back in the 80s. Alex was kind of like I was, at least in this regard. He was a fellow pastor, a pastor at church in South Bend while he was in seminary and I was pastoring a church in South Whitley when I was in seminary. So we had a lot in common. We became very good friends. Alex was a very brilliant student. He went through Grace seminary, God is Master of Divinity degree and Master of the Odyssey degree with a 4.0 average, straight age, never made anything lower than a day, just a brilliant God, but a very humble guy as well. And when he graduated, which was a couple of years before me, I went to the graduation ceremony. And as with most graduation ceremonies, they recognized people who graduated with honors and they'd list them in the book and sometimes they'll even call attention to them and say their names. And I knew that Alex had a 4.0 average and I knew, I knew we had a lot of classes together and I just knew. And there was no mention of him and no record in the book. And so after the graduation, I caught up with him as I was going to my car. He and his family were going to their car and I said, Alex, I said, I don't understand why your name wasn't in the program and why you weren't mentioned for your academic achievement. And he said, oh, well, last year I graduated with the MDiv and they kind of had it then. And I said, but wait a second, Alex, you went a whole other year to get this other degree and you still made aies all year. I know that. But you were not recognized. That's not right. And I'm making a real case for this. And he said, come on, calm down John, don't rev up. So it's okay. I don't care about that. God knows about that. And that's all that matters. And it hit me as I was talking with him, how selfless, how Christlike, how sickening I thought at the time that really is. But when I thought better of it, how selfless, how Christlike that really is, to not be so concerned about the honor that comes your way, to not feel like you have to make sure everybody knows about that. But like Jesus, dying on the cross, committing that to the Father. Saying if there's any honor to come, God will take care of that some of the time. Not worried about that. Paul says your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. What does it mean to be selfless? It means that we're not defensive about our position. It means that we willingly give up our rights. We willingly serve others. We identify with the weaknesses of others. We submissively obey God and we leave any honor up to him. Would you pray with me, please?