Trusting Jesus No Matter What - The Humble Servant, Part 1

I'd like to share a story with you today about my dad, a very, very interesting story and his background, how he grew up, the impact on my life. And it's a story I think that a lot of you identify with. And then there's something that I think will really help you. Stay with me.

You don't want to miss it. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We're a discipleship-driven ministry on a mission to encourage Christians everywhere to live like Christians. And thanks for being with us as we continue our newest series, Trusting Jesus No Matter What. And we pray you've been encouraged by Chip's teaching so far. And to help others experience that same encouragement, take a minute, if you would, after this message and share the series with someone.

Now, you can do that through the Chip Ingram app or by sending them the free MP3s that you'll find at livingontheedge.org. And thanks for spreading the word about how programs like this impact you. Well, if you have a Bible, go now to the book of Philippians chapter 2 for today's talk, The Humble Servant. You know, in our last time together, we talked about faith.

And it's not how much faith you have. It's the object of your faith. And so, we looked at Colossians chapter 1 and the majesty and the greatness of Jesus, that He's the Creator, the Sustainer, that everything that has been made, visible or invisible or angels, everything was made by Him and for Him. And so, we get this picture of the majestic, powerful, all-knowing, all-wise God.

And then the invitation, it still boggles my mind. He says to you and me, come, come unto me, all of you that labor, weary or heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Learn from me. I'm humble and gentle and you'll find rest for your soul.

He says that the yoke will fit. I've got a plan for you. Let's do this together. Here's the first of two questions I want to begin with. What is it that qualifies us to come to Jesus, the Creator, Sustainer, Ruler and Sovereign, all-powerful King of the universe? And the answer is our need, our struggle, our brokenness, our sin.

Jesus loves us just the way we are and He invites us, though He's so exalted. And for some of us, it's harder than others. We have different backgrounds.

Because of my background, my dad was a schoolteacher, but before that, Marine and a pretty tough guy and in a good way, but just you had to have your act together. I mean, you got up, your bed was made. You got, you know, four A's and a B.

We're going to talk about that B. And I carried that over and I'm sure some of you have your family of origin issues where somehow you get thinking God's like that. And so I always felt like I had to measure up and if I haven't read my Bible or prayed or if I'm struggling with the sin that somehow God's down on me.

Could I just pause? If there's one thing I wish I could really communicate to you and it's been, I mean, 40, 50 year journey for me to really believe just as you are, right where you are, that invitation is to come. You'll be greeted with love and tenderness and forgiveness.

Now, don't get me wrong. It's not that, you know, Jesus is sort of like open-ended, don't worry about how you live. Because in fact, after he says to come, he talks about the yoke. Biblical faith, the kind of faith where power and grace and life change occur in you and through you is when Jesus has the same place in your heart, in your life, in your priorities that he holds in the universe. Now let's go back to Colossians 1. What's his role in the universe? Ruler, sovereign, king, creator. What's his role in us? He is a part of the re-creation. He purchased us for himself and so he wants the same place in your heart and in my heart as he has in the universe.

And in Romans 12, he makes it very clear what this looks like. After 11 whole chapters of this is who I am, this is what I've done, this is how much I love you, this is what grace looks like. Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, here's my command. Offer your body as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God. This is your spiritual service of worship.

So here's what I want you to get. Faith is not simply trying to be a good person, having some religious activity. A faith that says, no matter what, trusting Jesus, the faith that builds, that changed the world, that you want to have and that I want to have is not a passive thing. There is a moment in time, that word in Romans chapter 12 where it says offer, it's an intense of the verb that means on a certain day, at a certain time, by faith you say, my life, my future, my family, my relationships, my money, all that I am, all that I have, I'll go wherever you want me to go, I'll do whatever you want me to do. I've kind of signed the bottom of a check, if you will, and I've said, you fill in the top, I'm yours.

Lock, stock, and barrel. And now that gets fearful, right? Because we just don't know how things are going to come out. See, faith always involves risk, but the confidence is not what you can conjure up, the confidence is who Jesus is. And the apostle Paul is going to give us another one of those classic passages, a picture of who Jesus really is like nowhere else in all the scripture about what did he actually do.

But you've got to get the context, okay? I want you to get your mind recalibrated about when I say faith and when the Bible says faith or trust in God, it may be quite different than we're used to because we've kind of created this, hey, you know, I believe in Jesus and he's my homeboy and we have this casualness. He is intimate, but he is exalted and he demands our worship and he is worthy of our worship. And our worship isn't singing songs alone.

It's not simply giving of our money. It's this living sacrifice life where I trust him, I have faith no matter what. And so in chapter one of Philippians, we have Paul writing a letter to a group that he really loves. It's a thank you letter because they sent some money to support his ministry. When he got writing the letter, he found out there's some conflict with the church in terms of interpersonal relationships between really good people, but they're not seeing things eye to eye, a little bit of disunity.

And so he writes them, he tells them in chapter one that I'm in prison. I don't know whether I'm going to live or die. And then he models for them this kind of faith. In chapter one at the end, he goes, I don't know whether I'm going to die or whether I'm going to live. And then he says this, he says, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. In other words, for me, trusting Jesus, no matter what, if I die, I die, I'll be with him.

And I'm living with that kind of perspective. And then toward the end, he wants them to understand that this isn't just him. This is for all Christians. There's a gift. We don't usually think about these two things as a gift, but notice toward the end of chapter one, what he says, chapter one, verse 29 and 30, for to you, Philippian church and to us, it's been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me and now here to be in me. You know, put a little line if you have your Bible open or in the notes, granted for Christ's sake, and then put a circle around the word believe and a circle around the word suffer. He's saying, I'm all in. I don't know if I'll live or die. I'm going to follow him.

And here's what you need to know. There is a gift. We get our same root word for grace. It's been granted for Christ's sake that you get to believe eternal life, trust, faith, and also you get to suffer because it is in suffering in the process of a fallen world that God often creates a dependency and a character development, and that's how he makes us more and more like Jesus.

Candidly, I don't like it. You probably don't either, but I can look back and realize some of the deepest things God has done in my life were times when I suffered. Some of it was brought on by myself, sometimes by other people, sometimes a fallen world, but then he goes on in Philippians chapter 2, and he's now going to instruct them about unity in their relationships, and then we'll get to the key passage. He says, Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there's any consolation of love, if there's any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by, one, being of the same mind, two, maintaining the same love, three, united in the Spirit, and four, intent on one purpose.

And that little word, if, if, if, grammatically it means since you have encouragement, and since there's consolation of love, and since you've obviously had great fellowship with the Spirit, and since you've experienced affection and compassion from Jesus, here's what I want you to do. I want you to live unified with one another. I want you to care about one another that is way above all the other cultural issues that you may agree or disagree on. I want you to care about one another above racial issues and political issues. I want you to care above one another beyond denominational issues and some minor things about doctrine. I want you to be united in love and one mind and one Spirit, so when the world sees these followers of mine, they realize Jesus really did come and save the world because of how we love one another. Hanging out with people that think the same way, that all look the same way, that have all the same values is no test of unity.

Unity is when people from different backgrounds with different opinions and different political persuasions and different experiences racially come together under the banner of the Lord Jesus Christ, who's the CEO of the universe and the creator and the sustainer and live in such a way that those things are secondary. And then in the very next line, he's going to teach us how do you do that. How do you ever pull that off? Look at the command in verses three and four. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mine, regard one another as more important than yourselves. Now think of that for just a minute.

Do nothing out of pride or conceit. I'm better than. My opinion is right.

Well, my view, this is it, and if people disagree with me, I'm going to post this or I'm going to say, wait, no, no, no, no, no. Consider others. I want you to think about some people you really disagree with. Okay. I mean, people on the other side of the aisle politically, maybe people who really look at the Bible differently on a secondary issue.

How about someone who's a family member or, you know, that you really got into it over some of the pandemic issues. Consider them as more important than yourself. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. The supreme example of the relational attitude and behavior that God wants us to follow him in. When he said, Peter, follow me, the apostle Paul says, this is what it looks like to follow me. I want you to follow this example of humility. We're going to see in this text, Jesus literally descends into greatness and he says, you know what faith is? You know, biblical faith, trusting Jesus no matter what, it's living like this in our relationships. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Before we hear the rest of Chip's message, let me remind you that we are a listener supported ministry and your regular consistent gifts help us create this program, develop new resources and encourage pastors globally. Prayerfully consider becoming a monthly partner today, then go to livingontheedge.org to give a gift.

Thanks so much for your help. Well, here again is Chip. Now let's walk through the passage because again, here's the grace side of it. Never miss this. Don't get so caught up of the cost and that's too high and I could never do that. I got news for you.

Of course you can't do it and I can't do it either. This is when the Spirit of God takes the Word of God and it births grace in us when? When we sit around and think about it and when we obey and take that step, then the grace of God allows us to love people that are hard to love, forgive people that have wounded us, accept people that left to ourselves. We think less of them.

In fact, we just don't even like them. But this is what God wants so that you get the very best and he gets the glory and the church has the testimony that he wants it to have. Following Jesus into God's best plan, Jesus had a very specific mindset of humility.

Notice what it says in verse five. Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus. This attitude of considering others more important. Humility is not thinking of yourself too low or too high.

It's an accurate view of yourself. This is who God made me and humility is this attitude I'm going to consider the needs of others and them as more important than my needs, my life, my agenda. Humility just flies in the face of what I call the big five P's. In our life and in our world, what makes you a somebody is power, possessions, position, prestige, and productivity.

And what you're going to see in this passage that Jesus' upside down kingdom is going to look at each one of those things differently than the world does and we tend to do it. And so power, okay, let me give you a quick definition, is who and what we can control. Possessions, what and how much we own. Position our rank in the pecking order.

What office you have or how much power and who reports to you or who doesn't. Prestige is who and how many look up to us or maybe it's a like or what they post or what they say about us. And productivity is what and how much we accomplish.

Those five P's by and large are how left to ourselves we say, I'm a somebody. And if you looked at your life and your time, your finances and your energy and your relationships and if I look at mine, an awful lot of it we've been brainwashed, brainwashed, brainwashed to say, you know what, you need to be a somebody. So you need to accomplish this. And you need to be by this age, you need to have this role.

And you need to own so much stuff and it needs to look like this, right? We're all in this. And I want you to watch when Jesus said to Peter, follow me. And when he says to you and me, he's going to cut across those five P's and show us a different way, a powerful way, a counterintuitive way to become great in God's eyes. To by faith experience the joy and the peace and the power where God changes us. And then to our shock and amazement and joy actually uses us to change the lives of other people as his grace flows through us. You see, grace always flows downhill.

God is gracious when he sees humility and he's opposed to the proud. And so the direct application here is to some women in the church that were having a fight. But the broader application is this is Jesus' example for all of us. Follow it.

So follow along if you will. We follow Jesus when we embrace his mindset toward power and possessions. Now think of this power. He's the ruler of the universe and possessions. He owns everything.

But what did he do? Who although he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. Key word here is the word form. In Greek it's morphe. We think a form is like an outward exterior or you kind of form up a building.

This word morphe means the actual essence or substance. In other words, although he existed in the form, the actual person of God, one with the Father, he didn't regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. Literally the phrase is he didn't regard it as something that he must not allow to slip out of his hands. It's a picture of humility. It's a picture of I don't have to be in control.

It's a picture of releasing those things, trusting that as I trust God, he'll work it out. I don't have to make everything happen. I don't have to manipulate.

I don't have to do the politicking. This is where Jesus says possessions, they don't make you a someone. How many hours and how much time and how much damage is done as we chase things that if I have this kind of car or this kind of house or it goes on and on and on and we're all guilty of it. But he's saying wherever you are, if you're going to follow me, you're going to have to look at power differently. You have to realize that as you trust my control and you trust me, that I have a lot more power and I will work things out better than you ever could. When we look at possessions, he goes, I promise you're always going to have what you need, but to work crazy hours and to invest your life and somehow think that the more you accumulate is going to bring you happiness, he says, it's a lie.

Don't buy it. Notice he goes on, following Jesus, we not only embrace his mindset about power and possessions, but we follow Jesus when we embrace his mindset toward position and prestige. Not only did he not think equality with God a thing to be grasped in terms of position, but he emptied himself taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men.

Put a circle around that word emptied. It's a big theological word. Some of you with Bible study backgrounds, it's kenosis. It means he veiled his deity, didn't lose it, but he veiled his deity and some of his voluntary access for a season so that he could be fully man and fully God. And so he's taking this position instead of all the angels worshiping him and the prestige and the honor that has come from time past, he didn't lose it, but he veiled his deity. And it says in the likeness of men, we get our word schematic.

It's the external picture. So he's fully God, but as he walked upon the earth, his likeness, the externals, he was as fully human as anybody, perfect humanity. And then notice we follow Jesus when we embrace his mindset toward productivity. The text goes on to say, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. So again, he emphasizes the humanity of Jesus, the deity of Jesus. And then when he looks at what did he do? He humbles himself. And this is how we humble ourselves, obeying God, obeying what the scripture says. This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and you've been listening to part one of Chip's message, The Humble Servant from our series, Trusting Jesus No Matter What. Chip will be back shortly to share some helpful application for us to think about.

In many cities around the world, there are buildings specifically engineered to withstand severe disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes. In this new 10-part series, Chip plays off that idea by helping us build an unshakable faith that can endure any challenge. Learn why the strength of our faith has nothing to do with our determination, but in getting an accurate view of God. Discover through various New Testament verses why we can completely trust in Jesus no matter what comes our way.

You're not going to want to miss a part of this series. Well, before we go any further, Chip's here in studio to share an important word with all of you. Thanks so much, Dave. You know, I want to pause today from the teaching and everything else just to say thank you. You just can't imagine how overwhelming in a really, really good way it is to have people who pray for the ministry. We get emails and people that have signed up and pray with us. To have people who give financially and generously. To have a whole group of people that every single month they support us.

I mean, some it's $25 a month or $15 a month or $50 or $100 or $500. It's people from all spectrums who give monthly. What that does is we now know kind of what's going to be coming in. It allows us to plan.

It allows us to strategize. I just want to pause and say thank you very, very much for giving so generously, allowing us to love and serve and help others, to help Christians live like Christians. If you're one of those people who think, wow, you mean so that's how you're able to reach a million people each week and create all those small groups and help all those pastors all around the world? If you want to get in on that, could I encourage you? Become a monthly partner. Just go to the website livingontheedge.org and join today. Well, as Chip said, if you're already a financial partner, thank you. With your help, Living on the Edge is ministering to more people than ever. But if you're benefiting from this ministry and haven't taken that step, now's a great time to join the team. Our vision is to see a movement of Christians living like Christians for the glory of God and the good of all.

And by becoming a monthly partner, you can help us do that. Visit livingontheedge.org or the Chip Ingram app to learn more. And thanks in advance for your generosity. Well, with that, here again is Chip to share a few final thoughts for us to think about. As we close today's program, I just want to sort of virtually sit across the table and ask you some questions that maybe most of your friends wouldn't.

And since I can't see you and you can't see me, it's really safe. I know you want to be great. I know you want your life to work. I know you want to be happy.

And chances are you also want to please God and be a follower of Jesus that reflects him. So let me ask you honestly, how much is power a part of your big agenda? You've got to be in control.

How much do possessions play, and how much does that really drive you? I've got to have this. I've got to buy that. And I've got to have a house or the latest, greatest gadget.

What about prestige? Are you number one? How do people see you? And what do you wear?

And what do you drive? And maybe position? Is the role that you're going to have in the company or among friends? Who's the coolest?

Who's the best? And finally, how much is your work your identity? Those are all things that we tend to find our value and our greatness in. And you know what? In and of themselves, if those things come our way as we walk with God and love people, they can be a blessing. But every one of those things can be the idols that will crush you, that will cause your relationships and your future and the real dreams you have instead of arriving.

They are destroyed. Because in the kingdom of God, the way up is down. Humility, considering others as more important than yourself, is the kind of person that we want to be our friends. It's the kind of person that we want to be our boss. It's the kind of person that we want to be married to.

It's the kind of person that is loving and caring. And in giving your life away, that's how you find it. And so right now I want you to pause and I want you to ask God, Lord, would you show me where I am selfish?

Let's just call it that. Where life is about me, what I say, what I do, what I drive. And I know you nap down on me, but I know what you really want me to do is consider others as more important.

And that happens by baby steps. So before your head hits the pillow, I want you to say and to act in some ways that say to someone else, they matter. It could be a call. It can buy them a cup of coffee. It can be giving them some money. It can be choosing to serve them. It's doing the dishes.

I don't know what it is. But if you ask God, show me how I can serve someone today, you do it. And then you watch two things, how they respond and how it makes you feel. And then you'll realize that's the path to greatness.

Great challenge, Chip. And as we close, I want you to know that as a staff, we ask the Lord to help you take whatever your next faith step is. If there's a way we can help, we'd love to do that. Give us a call at 888-333-6003 or connect with us at livingontheedge.org. And while you're there, take a moment and look through our resources on various topics, many of them absolutely free. Well, join us next time as Chip continues his new series, Trusting Jesus No Matter What. Until then, I'm Dave Drouie, thanking you for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.