In our prior sessions, as we looked at
the nature of Jesus as found in his
greatest-in-the-kingdom teachings, and also in
the passage we will continue in tonight in
Philippians chapter 2, where Paul speaks of the
mind of Christ, we've developed a rather interesting
list so far, and I'm sure you have
memorized it.
Well, let's go through it.
Just to make sure, the first one was
servant.
He that is greatest must be servant of
all, and Jesus begins to teach about himself
as he says this.
The second thing was not lorded over others.
Very good.
And the third thing was example.
You have to live and lead by example.
And the fourth item was humble.
You guys are doing great.
Humble, living honestly, being honest about ourselves, living
without pretense, without hypocrisy.
And the fifth item was as a child.
A child being humble, a child being unable
to deceive, a child being unthreatening.
And the sixth item was as the younger,
exactly, which means understanding that we'll always be
the disadvantaged ones, and also it means traveling
light.
Number seven and eight were last and least,
which of course are quite similar.
And that completed the eight parts of his
greatest in the kingdom teaching, and then that
brought us to the passage we're in tonight,
where in Philippians chapter 2, beginning with verse
5, Paul says to us, let this mind
be in you that was also in Christ
Jesus, or the same set of attitudes be
in you that were in Jesus, or let
the same sinful core of motivating being be
in you that was also in Christ Jesus.
And we've looked at three items, I believe,
so far.
Number nine was no force.
He used no force on us.
He left us free to make a genuine
choice.
Number ten was no blind ambition.
He was not driven by blind ambition.
His heavenly goal he achieved only by heavenly
means.
And then, number eleven, I think we ended
on this one last week, it got rather
wild and woolly, didn't it?
He made himself of no reputation.
Now that brings us back to the passage
that we were discussing.
In Philippians chapter 2, let this mind be
in you that was also in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to
be grasped, or he thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, but made himself
of no reputation, taking the form of a
bondservant.
Now we've already talked about servant, so we
don't need to repeat it tonight.
And then it says, and coming in the
likeness of men, and being found in appearance
as a man.
Now, Paul isn't trying to tell us here
that Jesus was a facsimile of God, nor
that he was a hologram of God, nor
that he favored God, or was as much
like him as you were going to find
here.
No, he's trying to tell us that he
was exactly like God, and exactly like man.
He wasn't a facsimile of man, but he
was exactly like us.
So I want to put as number twelve
here, human.
Now for some reason or other, that's a
very difficult thing for a lot of people
to consider, that he was fully human.
In fact, centuries ago, the church struggled with
that very question.
Who was he, back in the council of
Chalcedon?
Who was he?
Was he God, acting like a man?
Was he man, acting like a God?
Was he half God, half man?
Who was he?
And they came to what I think was
the proper conclusion, that he was fully God,
and fully man.
How can that be?
I don't know.
But I like it.
Now the fully God side, we seem to
be able to handle that fairly well, but
fully man, we still struggle with that.
I'm amazed at how often people want to
say, now wait a minute.
But the fact is, folks, the Bible tells
us, right in the very opening chapter of
John, the word became flesh, and dwelt among
us.
Flesh.
What does that mean to you?
Flesh.
Well, I know what it means to me.
I am amazed at this thing called flesh.
I have an ample supply of it.
Some years ago, I was in Bhubaneswar in
India, the state of Orissa, which is the
poorest state of India.
And I happened to be walking around part
of the city early in the morning.
I like to do that when I'm in
a foreign country.
And I came upon a dead cow, head
in the ditch, body in the dusty road.
It was bloated.
Maggots were crawling.
Isn't this wonderful?
And I don't know why, but I walked
over to see it.
Now, I don't have much of a need
to see a dead cow.
But I did.
It did not take long before I had
seen all of it I needed to see.
The odor overwhelming, as I walked away from
it, I thought, oh, man.
And then the Lord spoke to my heart
and said, Gail, that's a picture of your
flesh.
Flesh.
And the word was made flesh and dwelt
among us.
This is amazing.
In fact, it goes so far as to
say that God made him in the likeness
of sinful flesh.
Romans 8, 3, you can read it.
Like us.
Can that be?
I think so.
How?
I don't know.
But I like it.
In fact, just to prove it, the Bible
tells us in Hebrews that he was tempted
in all points like we are.
You ever thought you had any original temptations?
Have you ever thought, oh, no, Jesus, you
wouldn't be tempted this way.
Not you.
But he was.
In all points.
Now, think of that, folks.
He was tempted in all points.
Not most points, not a good number of
points, but all points.
Oh, yet without sin.
Isn't that marvelous?
That just overwhelms me.
Now, here is where you have to fasten
your seatbelts.
James tells us that we are tempted when
we are drawn away of our own lusts.
What?
You mean Jesus was built like us?
That's exactly what I mean.
That's why he's touched with a feeling of
our infirmities.
That's why we can come boldly before the
throne of grace.
That's why, as we heard that song tonight,
we can come within the veil because of
what he did.
Amazing.
Now, that means he had a pretty well
developed desire structure, didn't he?
I don't know why, but I do not
like peanut butter because I love peanuts.
So you can place a peanut butter sandwich
by my bed tonight.
It will be there tomorrow.
I just don't have a desire for it.
But there are certain other things that would
tempt me.
Jesus was tempted in all points like we
are, yet without sin.
Awesome.
How could God take sinful flesh?
How could he take that likeness and take
the purity of himself and weld them together?
It is impossible.
It can't be done.
I know, but he did it.
How?
I don't know, but I like it.
I like it.
That's why he can plead our case before
the Father.
Do you realize that?
He understands us.
Marvelous.
Now that brings up one of the marvelous
benefits of his being truly human.
When you are truly in touch with your
humanity, you are in touch with the rest
of the world.
Did you know that?
The Bible also tells us there is no
temptation taken us, but such as is common
to man.
So if you know yourself, if you're in
touch with your humanity, you are in touch
with the entire world.
That's why Jesus, I believe, knew the heart
of man.
Long before I ever went to India, I
knew what Indians were like.
They're greedy and lustful, just like me.
Long before I ever went to Africa, I
knew what Africans were like.
Greedy and lustful, just like me.
Long before I came to Costa Mesa.
See, I know what's going through your minds,
and you'd better quit it.
We're all alike, aren't we?
In fact, some years ago, I was teaching
in Zimbabwe, an African country.
A couple of thousand pastors and their wives,
different culture entirely.
And I got off on to family relationships,
which is a dangerous thing to do in
another culture.
But fools rush in where angels fear to
tread, so there I was.
And at one point, I said to them,
it could be that you men woke up
this morning, and the first thing you said
to your wives was, And I quoted something,
and then you wives answered back.
And I quoted something, and then you husbands
answered back.
And I quoted something, and then you wives
answered back.
And I quoted something, and I noticed that
they were looking at each other, and punching
and pointing at me.
When I finished, they rushed down to the
front and said, You were listening at our
bedroom window this morning, weren't you?
I said, No, I wouldn't do that.
They said, Then you're a prophet.
I said, Well, what can I say?
But then I had to get honest with
them and admit, Well, actually, I was just
sharing words my wife and I have used
with each other in the past.
And we're all the same, we're just alike.
If you're really in touch with your humanity,
you know what everybody else is like.
There's another distinct advantage of being in touch
with your humanity, being truly human.
If you understand that we are in the
flesh, you're not very impressed with yourself.
You really aren't.
You understand, I'm just a ball of mud.
I am amazed, though, at how much attention
we give this mud.
You know what I'm saying?
All over this state, there are mud houses
designed to help you redesign your mud.
It's amazing.
It costs a lot of money, of course.
But they make certain promises as to what
you can look like when they get through
with your mud.
And we do it, we go there, we
spend money on it.
So we can say, Do you like my
mud?
I was watching one of these, I don't
know, what would you call it?
A bodybuilding thing on television?
I'd never seen anything like that before.
I couldn't believe it.
These guys, as they walked out on stage,
they didn't really walk out, they just sort
of slunk out.
Rats and mice, it seemed, were running up
and down under their skin.
They went through their paces.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
And then something dawned on me.
As I watched, I realized, there's not a
single person on that program my age.
Not a one.
I wanted to shout at them, Hey fellas,
guess what's going to happen to you?
There is a very powerful force in this
world called gravity.
It is going to win, believe me.
These muscles that are up here, I know
where they're going.
You get up in the morning, make a
serious mistake.
You go look in the mirror.
I look and I think, I have met
the enemy.
And do you realize we immediately set about
changing everything we see, don't we?
Oh boy, my nose doesn't belong up there,
let me bring it back down.
And we powder and we...
Behind our ears and so on.
Now why do we do that?
Why do we do that?
It's because we know the flesh rots.
The flesh is dying.
Remember the cow?
Ha ha ha ha.
I want you to understand, as you look
in the mirror and as you spray, the
job you have ahead of you.
If we truly understand that we are flesh,
we're not going to be very impressed with
ourselves.
We'll understand.
We won't get proud.
It's hard to get proud when you understand
that it's just mud.
Now you may say, but I'm anointed.
Why?
You're a greasy ball of mud, big deal.
I am convinced that some of the major
failures we have seen on the public religious
scene have come because individuals lost sight of
their muddiness.
They began to think that maybe they were
a step or two above mere humanity.
But folks, I've learned that if I am
in touch with the reality of my muddiness,
I know how to protect myself a whole
lot more.
I'm more likely to pray, oh and lead
me not into temptation, but deliver me from
evil.
And I'll understand what I'm praying about when
I do that.
Truly human.
And then it tells us that he humbled
himself.
Well, we've already talked about that up here
in number four.
We don't need to repeat it.
And was obedient.
That'll be number 13 in our list.
Obedient even unto death.
The death on the cross, number 14.
That will complete our list, by the way,
but let's talk about this.
Obedient.
This that you see here on the chalkboard,
these 14 points that we've gone over, are
not only the nature of Jesus, but they
have to also be the nature of the
Father.
Because Jesus said, when you've seen me, you've
seen the Father.
Now later on in our series, I'm going
to go through the nature of the Father,
and you'll see how it fuels this very
thing.
But this has to be the nature of
the Father also.
And Jesus, who came and walked in the
flesh, lived out this that was the nature
of the Father.
He was obedient to this.
In fact, there's some interesting statements in Scripture
relative to Jesus.
Some he made himself.
He says, I only do what I see
the Father do.
I'm paraphrasing this slightly.
I only do what I see the Father
do.
I only say what I hear the Father
say.
My meat, my food, is to do the
will of him that sent me.
I delight to do his will.
In fact, I have come, in the volume
of the book it is said of me,
that this is why I came, to do
your will.
Marvelous.
As he faced what probably was his final
and greatest struggling moment in that garden, you
know what his ultimate statement was.
Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou
will.
He was obedient completely to the nature of
the Father.
I'm in awe of this.
Even to the point of death.
The death on the cross.
Now, I think his greatest temptation, personally I
believe this, was to escape death.
They say there is no one single drive
within us quite as strong as the drive
to stay alive.
So the opportunities that he had to stay
alive were probably his greatest temptations.
That's why when Peter recognized in Matthew 16
who he was, when Jesus said, Who do
you say I am?
And Peter says, You're the Messiah, the Son
of the Living God.
Jesus says, Way to go, Peter.
I'm paraphrasing here, too.
Flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you.
Your brain bone had nothing to do with
this.
The Father has revealed this to you.
And Peter now is basking in the glory
of his revelation.
But now that they know who he is,
Jesus begins to teach about the difficult things
that he's going to have to go through
and suffer death.
And Peter becomes an advisor to God.
Remember that?
He rebukes Jesus.
Can you see it?
Come here, God.
You quit talking like that.
You're not going to have to go through
that.
You're God, remember?
I told you.
And anyway, I'm on your side, remember?
And I get revelations, remember?
And it was then that Jesus said, Get
behind me, Satan.
You don't know the things of God, just
the things of men.
I think Peter's attempt to rescue Jesus, which
he was good at doing.
He did it again, remember?
He had a sword in his hand.
And attempts to rescue Jesus.
I believe that was a great temptation on
the part of Jesus.
If I were him, I would think, Now,
let me see.
I'll just empower his arm, and there will
be heads all over the place.
I can understand that temptation.
But Jesus resisted it once again.
I think when Jesus stood before all of
the courts he was in, opportunity was given
to him to escape.
And he resisted.
He resisted.
He would not let anything keep him from
fulfilling his call to come and rescue us
and die for us.
Death.
Sort of the ultimate test of our servanthood,
isn't it?
For what am I willing to die?
That's a scary question, but it's a very
real one.
And one I guess in some way we
have to face.
Now, we live rather easy lives as far
as that's concerned.
We don't tend to be in constant threat
of death because we are here this time
of the week.
Death.
Is there anything for which I'm willing to
die?
A person?
A people?
A place?
Things?
A belief?
A set of beliefs?
Is there any place where I say, Here
I stand, and here I stake my life.
It's a good question.
It's a scary question.
Especially for those of us here in California,
the center of commitment.
For what am I willing to die?
Well, Jesus was obedient even unto death.
Death on the cross.
Well, when I saw this, folks, I had
two reactions.
My first one was, once again, I was
absolutely overwhelmed with this man, Jesus.
Absolutely overwhelmed.
I loved him more than I had ever
loved him before.
I said, Jesus, there is no one I
have ever met that comes anywhere near this.
I gladly, I gladly give myself to you.
I will follow you.
I will gladly follow you.
But then I had another reaction.
Do you remember that past you once had
and the carnal nature that used to guide
your life?
Remember that?
You don't remember?
Remember the thought patterns it laid down and
the habitual thought patterns that have sort of
zinged through every once in a while in
your life now?
It doesn't happen?
Well, it sort of zinged through to me.
And I began to think, Now, come on,
Lord.
You expect us to win the world being
servants?
Come on.
You expect us to win the world being
humble and as children and the last and
the least?
Come on.
You expect us to win the world being
of no reputation?
You expect us to win the world using
no force?
Come on, God.
Give us guns.
We can do it with guns, you know.
Give us money, we'll buy the world.
You know we can do that.
Give us influence, we'll vote the sinners out.
That's what we'll do.
Then the Lord let me see that it's
not over when it stops with death.
It's not over.
Because the next words in that passage in
Philippians, the next words in Scripture say, Therefore,
God has raised him up and given him
the name that is above every name.
At whose name every knee shall bow in
heaven and earth and under the earth.
And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Do you see what's going on here?
When you walk the Jesus pathway, you get
God's results.
When you do it God's way, then you
hear, Therefore, God.
Oh, man.
I'm excited by that.
Now you folks know that you don't have
to do it this way to succeed in
life.
You really don't.
You don't have to do it God's way
to succeed.
God, help us.
Sometimes you don't even have to do it
this way to succeed in church.
But when I see someone who really tries
to live this out, usually, you know what
I observe?
They're going, Wow, God.
How did you do that, God?
Wow.
Beautiful, God.
Way to go, God.
And you ask them, What's the secret of
your success?
And they'll say, I don't know.
Wow, God.
Way to go, God.
I found out when I figured it out,
my success is usually over.
Indeed, I can do it my way, and
usually I do.
But I found this out, that if I
do it my way, first of all, I
succeed only to the limit of my ability.
Second, I damage people.
Third, my fruit does not remain.
But if I walk the Jesus pathway, first
of all, I succeed only to the limit
of God's ability.
I don't damage people, and my fruit remains.
Now, I would much rather hear, Therefore, God,
than Therefore, Gale, any day of the week.
In fact, I am convinced that the only
way we will succeed, God's rather jealous about
Himself.
You know, He's rather jealous about His glory.
And I am convinced that the only way
we will truly succeed, with the promises that
He has laid out for us, is when
we do it His way, when we lean
so totally on Him, when we discover, When
I am weak, then am I strong.
His strength is made perfect in my weakness.
But now I need to confess something else
to you.
I am convinced that I am so corrupt
from my nature and my culture, that I
really don't have a clue as to what
true success actually is.
I tend to think that success is a
body count.
How many did we have?
Or cash flow, how much did we get?
Or media attention, how many cameras are there?
But I don't think God's quite as impressed
with that as I am.
In fact, He seems to give honor to,
as Paul said, the most unseemly part of
the body.
That makes no sense to me.
But God does it that way.
In fact, He doesn't call the mighty or
the noble, or at least He rarely does.
In fact, He takes the weak and the
foolish to confound the strong and the wise.
I don't understand why He does that.
But He does.
It just doesn't fit my logic.
I don't have a clue as to what
true success is.
Do you ever try to imagine what heaven
is like?
Do you ever think that the biggest mansion
up there is going to go to the
most successful Christian that ever lived, and when
we get there we go rushing up to
number one Glory Road to see whose name
is on the mailbox?
And we discover that it's Spifflehoofer Husky Wow
Wow.
And we say, Never heard of him.
I have an idea.
It'll probably be that way.
Some years ago, in a magazine, I saw
an ad by a Christian organization.
It showed this fellow who had just forded
a jungle stream.
He had what appeared to be everything he
owned on his back.
He was heading off into what appeared to
be obscurity.
You got the thought, You'll never see him
again.
That's it.
It's over.
And the caption beneath the picture said, But
Bob was voted most likely to succeed.
That's the way the world doesn't understand that.
They view that and they say, Oh, how
sad.
He could have made a name for himself.
He could have put his mark on this
world.
But here he is with a PhD traipsing
off into the jungle to translate for some
God forsaken tribe.
How sad.
The world doesn't understand.
And sometimes we don't.
Let me tell you another story.
And this is very personal.
And if you'll forgive me, I'm going to
brag just a little bit.
But when I was in high school and
college, I cut a rather wide path.
I was not for physical reasons.
But I was president of every student body
that I was part of.
You know, what can I say?
Big man on campus.
I planned to be a medical doctor, a
surgeon actually.
But there was no way I could do
that.
My parents invented poverty and it was hopeless.
The Lord blessed me.
And I managed to win a scholarship that
was so good.
It paid for every dime of my undergraduate
work, even gave me spending money.
It was an awesome scholarship.
And because I was sort of the town
favorite, the boy from across the tracks who
had made good, I'd become kind of the
town favorite, the fair-haired boy of town.
And one of the banks in town did
a most uncharacteristic thing.
Their board informed me that they had decided
that when I reached medical school, they would
pay for my medical school expenses.
I had it made.
I went off to college.
And during those days, God began to deal
with me.
And he said, Gale, I like doctors, but
I have something else I want you to
do.
I said, really, what?
I want you to preach.
He said, okay.
I wish you could have been there when
I made the announcement.
You're going to what?
The city fathers came the hundred miles to
that university to try to talk me out
of this dumb decision.
The bank president sent word to me that
I was no longer their friend, which is
kind of the way banks deal with me
anyway.
Some years later, I went back to that
town for a reunion of my graduating high
school class.
In high school, I had a teacher who
was the best academic teacher I've ever had.
He was really awesome.
They ought to make a movie of his
life.
He was so good as a teacher.
He was at that reunion.
I will never forget when he saw me.
Disappointment clouded his face.
He looked at me and he said, Gale,
I just don't understand.
He said, I had such hopes for you.
He said, I looked into your eyes and
saw the answer to cancer.
But this, this seems like such a waste.
I just don't understand, Gale.
You could have been something.
Well, I tried to get him to understand,
but I couldn't.
I tried to get him to understand that
I had seen more cancer disappear or be
prevented this way than ever had I wielded
the knife.
But he was in a different ballpark.
He just couldn't understand.
Folks, most of the world's in another ballpark,
aren't they?
They are not going to understand your relationship
with Jesus Christ.
Don't expect them to.
But, oh, please don't be fooled by the
world's view of success.
We do not have enough time left for
us to be fooled by the world's view
of success.
Now, some of your friends and relatives will
put you under great pressure about this.
They will not understand your relationship with Jesus.
I know that some of you, your parents
or your friends, wish you'd go back on
drugs so they'd understand you.
They don't understand this Jesus thing.
Well, that's okay, actually.
Just don't be fooled by it.
Don't be fooled by it.
If God has called you to work in
some ministry that is obscure and we never
hear from you again, your name virtually disappears
because of the obscurity of your ministry, but
you're doing it obediently and faithfully and joyfully,
you are the most successful Christian on the
face of this earth.
If God chooses you to work in some
ministry where your name is up in lights
and you're famous, and that's very dangerous, but
you do it faithfully and joyfully and obediently,
then you are the most successful Christian on
the face of this earth.
But you're not one bit more successful than
the person who worked in obscurity.
You look in the 11th chapter of Hebrews,
that great chapter of faith, and you discover
individuals who by their faith wrought such mighty
deeds that they would end on the front
page of everybody's newspaper because of their faith.
But in that same chapter, you discover individuals
who by their faith lived in caves, were
fugitives, starved, were tormented, gave themselves up to
die.
Failures, every one of them in the world's
eyes because of their faith.
But what did God think of them?
He said the world wasn't even worthy of
them.
Oh, folks.
I'd much rather hear, therefore, God, than anything
else.
Than anything else.
Please don't be fooled by the world.
I guess what I'm really ultimately trying to
say is this.
If God has chosen you to be a
slave, and I suspect he has, don't lower
yourself and try to be president.
Let us now go forward and follow him
and watch while we hear, therefore, God in
our lives.
Oh, thank you, Father, for your kindness to
us.
Thank you, Lord, for these people who have
come because their hearts are turned toward you.
Fill them with yourself.
Overwhelm them with your goodness, Lord.
Walk with them each step of tomorrow and
tonight and the rest of this week so
that they sense that you are there.
Lord, give them opportunity after opportunity to see
your hand working in their lives.
May joy overtake them and surprise them.
May your power be evident in their lives.
May your word be so present that their
lives will be filled with fruit, will never
return void.
I pray this in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
God bless you.
Have a great week.
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For a complete listing of these resources, please
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