In Philippians 2:1-11, the message centers on the humility and mind of christ. Explore Philippians 2:1–11 and the humility of Jesus, discovering how unity, selflessness, and the mind of Christ reshape Christian community. Rather than treating the passage as abstract theology, the sermon traces what these truths reveal about God, the gospel, and the way followers of Jesus are called to live.
The sermon applies the text to relationships and Christian community, showing that spiritual maturity becomes visible in the way we love, honor, serve, forgive, and take responsibility for one another. Biblical conviction is connected to everyday choices rather than left at the level of ideas. The result is a call to build relationships that reflect the character of Christ and strengthen the people God has placed around us.
Along the way, the message engages themes including Philippians 2:1-11, the humility and mind of christ, philippians 2, 111 humility of jesus. These ideas help place the primary passage within the larger story of Scripture and show how its theology speaks to real spiritual formation. At its heart, the sermon helps answer questions such as: What does Philippians 2:1-11 teach about the humility and mind of christ? It also considers how should the humility and mind of christ shape the way Christians live?
For someone studying this passage, exploring the Christian faith, or looking for practical biblical teaching, this sermon offers a clear path from the text to everyday discipleship. The invitation is to hear what Scripture says, receive it with humility, and take the next faithful step in following Jesus.
What does Philippians 2:1-11 teach about the humility and mind of christ? | How should the humility and mind of christ shape the way Christians live? | How can believers apply Philippians 2:1-11 in everyday life?
Philippians 2:1-11, the humility and mind of Christ, philippians 2, 111 humility of Jesus, discovering unity, the humility, mind of Christ
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Um, well, I just want to say um before I jump into the word here this morning that um uh your pastor has said some really incredible nice things about me and I just want you to know um that uh man, I've loved this couple. I've loved uh your pastor. We've spent a lot of time together. We've worked on stuff together and I've seen him at his highs. I've seen him at his lows. Um but um I I want you to know that uh you have ministry um and leadership here that is of the highest caliber and you're you're a blessed church and and so when I come here I I come here not really expecting anything because honestly I would come here for free just to be near this guy and and and spend some time with him. And so, um, I'm so grateful to to be here and honored always when a pastor allows me to come and and speak and, um, and I get the honor of jumping into your series and you guys have been talking, uh, about the, uh, letter that Paul wrote to the church in Philippi. And I want to jump into that this morning, but I want to kind of start off with a little bit of a what what would you do scenario and um, uh, we travel a lot internationally. We do a lot of flying and recently I was on a redeye flight which if you don't know is a flight you know it's overnight. I was I was tired. I was coming back from a trip. I was headed somewhere where I needed to be fresh and I'm I'm preparing you for my choices here. I'm I'm just want you to know I'm preparing you for my choices. I was tired. I got on this plane and how many of you know when you fly um uh if you're like me, you you want to choose the seat well. um you want to choose the right seat and I had my ideal seat that I had in my mind. And so I had chosen my seat, the seat that I thought would be uh the most advantageous for me to get some rest and get some sleep. And so I boarded the plane. I sat in my seat. I thought, "God, this is good. I've got I've got space. I'm going to lean here on the window and I'm going to sleep." And suddenly as the plane was being boarded, uh, some guy comes right next to me and he taps me on the shoulder and he says, "Hey, um, would you mind switching seats? Would you mind switching seats?" Because, um, I really want to sit next to my wife. And and I I just I'll be honest and vulnerable here this morning. That was that part of me that was like my brain was like, "Uh, you need to sleep." My heart was like, "Be kind." And my mouth just said, "No." And I was, do you ever like say something you're like, what was that? Like you DIDN'T EVEN THINK. THERE WASN'T EVEN A PART OF YOU THAT hesitated and thought, well, Jesus would say yes, you know, and I just said no BEFORE I EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT IT. And so he kind of looked a little dejected, but his wife sat down next to me and she's like, she's like, listen, listen, it's his fault. He always books our tickets late. He never he never books them on time. And and and so it was fine, BUT I BUT I felt bad afterwards. I felt bad. BUT I SAID, "DO YOU EVER FEEL like I made the wrong choice?" Like I just had a moment where I should have reached out more. I should have said some different things. I should have gone the extra mile. I should have just, you know, sacrificed something and I should have been Jesus. And I wasn't. And I felt the the failure of that moment. And if we're all honest, um I think none of us would stand here this morning and in the conversation around uh this this idea of what's good for me, none of us would say that my ideal day or my ideal character would be that I would be self-seeking and would elevate myself to the most important thing in my life. And yet we do it all the time. We do it all the time. If it's not for plain seats, it's for our preferences. It's for our needs. We do it in church. We do it at work. We do it at school. We do it in our relationships where we seem to elevate ourself to the highest level of importance in our life. And it is just the tendency that we have when we look around us at culture. What we see is people fighting for promotions. We see people fighting for influence online. and everybody is sort of fighting to see who can be the most important. And I I'll just tell you when we're all fighting for that, um somebody if not all of us are going to lose. >> We're going to lose. And and so um so Paul is sort of uh writing to this church in Philippi. And when Paul writes this letter, he is he is speaking and writing to a church that is facing a lot of pressures theologically, socially, politically, internally, externally. all these pressures are coming around. And what Paul does is he writes this letter and I think really in Paul's mind, he's got some great concerns about the church that when we look back at what the what Paul was concerned about over the church, um you know, it's remarkable that the same concerns that Paul had are the same concerns that we might say that we share today about the church. >> Isn't that remarkable? and a little bit sad because we thought, man, shouldn't we have evolved past some of the issues that Paul was dealing with back then? Shouldn't we have learned from some things? And so Paul writes this letter and what we find out throughout this letter is that uh the same things that Paul might have been frustrated over that sometimes we get frustrated over when we see it present within the church. And so what I want to do is I want to jump back into Philippians and we're going to look at chapter 2 today and we're going to start out in verse one. And if I were just to title this this morning, I would say that um it's titled live like less. Live like less. Um what what if um the thing that is standing in the way of you becoming everything that God has called you to become is actually you? What if it's me? I mean, isn't that the nightmare? you know, isn't it isn't it that what if what if it's actually me that is standing and is the obstacle in my growth and in my evolving to be like Jesus? And so here's what Paul says in in verse one. He says, "Therefore, if any of you have encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind." Paul is saying, 'Look, if any of this is true, if Christ has changed you, and it is, if any of this is true, then let that shape how you relate to other people. >> In other words, that um if I'm a follower of Jesus, that that following Jesus thing that has happened in my life should evoke behaviors of mine towards other people. >> It should just cause some change towards other people and toward the world around me. And if it doesn't, then it says something about my relationship with Jesus. And so Paul, he's giving this not a lesson in etiquette, but Paul is saying, how do we have a church that can withstand the external and the internal pressures? A church that is immovable and immutable in the face of current culture that is flowing in a direction that we don't like. How can we have a church that withstands all of that pressure? And Paul understands something that we as the church need to understand that the best response to a divided world is a united church. >> The best response that we can give to a world that is divided over so many issues is a united church. And so Paul lays this foundation. He talks about unity. And then he goes on in the next verses and what Paul does is he says, "Here's some things that destroy unity." And so if you want unity in your marriage, you want unity in your household, you want unity in your relationships, God help us. Do we want unity in the church? >> We need to pay attention to what Paul says next. Because Paul says, here are some things that are going to destroy that which we are seeking. Here's what he says in verse three. He says, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others." I want to stop there for a second. Um because uh Paul says, "Hey, uh self and lack of humility are things that are destroying our unity." And and if we're honest, we often do a lot of stuff out of selfish ambition. We we might not even say it. Um but we have this tendency to look at other people as less important than us. And the the the the thing in you know even as Christians sometimes the thing we do is you ever play that game where you're like you feel bad about yourself? you feel like, man, I'm not the greatest person in the world, but thank God that I can look over there and see that person because they're so much worse than I am. Like, I mean, let's be honest. LIKE, SOMETIMES WE PLAY THAT GAME because that helps us sleep at night. That helps us have a little bit of peace because if I can not feel like I'm the worst of the worst, but I can look across the room and say, "God, thank you that I'm not that mess. >> Wow. >> THANK YOU THAT I'M NOT THAT PERSON." AND SO ALREADY you can see how within ourselves we have started to try to play the game of bringing ourselves and our status up, >> right? And so it's like, man, I just want to be able to sleep at night, so I have to feel like not the worst person in the world because that's what my sin makes me feel like. >> Yeah. >> And so Paul says in humility, value others above yourselves. Above yourselves. He goes on in verse 5. He says, "In your relationships with one another," it's important for us to know Paul's not talking about your relationship with God. He's talking about your relationship with who you're sitting next to. He's talking about relationship with people that you come across, that you meet, that you go to the grocery store with in the cafe. Paul's talking about relationships in our life, in relationships with one another. He says, "Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Here's Paul's here's Paul's if we could just kind of distill what Paul is saying. Paul's solution here. Um, his goal for all of us, his goal is unity, >> unified church, unified body of Christ. We get a one mind, one spirit, one soul. We've got this goal that we have. Does that mean that we all dress the same and we're all walking around like Christian robots? No. That's not what Paul is saying. But there is a focus that we share and we're going to talk about that a little bit more. But Paul's saying the goal that we have is unity. The solution to get there is humility. Say humility with me. >> Humility. >> The solution is humility. The example he gives is Jesus. So his goal is unity. His solution is humility. And his example is Jesus. I want to us to think of unity not as uh all sameness, meaning that you think the same way as I think and you say the same things as I say, but like an orchestra. We're all sometimes playing different instruments and different notes, but somehow they come together into a unified synchronized piece of music that is so beautiful and it's being conducted by God, our heavenly father. And it comes down to that you're different and I'm different and we think a little bit different and we can have diversity in the midst of unity. >> We can have diversity in the midst of unity. That we value others above ourselves. That's what we are unified over. We look to the interests of others. That as the church, as the body of Christ, when it comes to our position towards the world and our position towards each other, that we think about we more than me. that it's Jesus over self. >> Jesus over self. Jesus over self. And we we admire humility. We admire it when we look at other people, when we when we raise our kids, when we talk to our kids. Don't we admire humility when they exemplify it, >> but we resist it in ourselves sometimes. We resist it in ourselves sometimes. We admire it when we see it in the world, but we resist it in ourselves because it sounds great until it starts to cost you something. >> When I have to give up something. And I was thinking about this and and thinking about this idea of what it means for us to position ourselves and position our lives in a certain way. And I remember a specific occasion when there was a guy named John the Baptist. And maybe you've heard of him if you've been in church for a while. John the Baptist, he was kind of called by what he did. But John could be considered the opening act for Jesus. Okay? John was like the entrance uh ceremony to all of the things that Jesus came to represent and be. And John was a guy that began to do some things that Jesus also did. John would preach and he would talk about repentance and he would call people to life change and John started to baptize people and people's lives started to be changed by John. John's ministry was great. John uh had not only a great ministry, but John began to develop a following. John began to develop people that that began to uh connect their life to him and and their way of life to him and and the the ministry ethos that that John exemplified. People just begin to attract themselves to John. And so John had this following and and his movement was good, his message was good, everything that John was doing was good. But suddenly Jesus shows up on the scene and and Jesus SHOWS UP AND AND JOHN'S FOLLOWERS, they come to John and they say, "John, we've got a problem. We've got a problem. U THIS GUY JESUS HAS shown up AND HE'S STARTING TO TALK LIKE you and he's starting to do the same things that you're doing. And guess what? He's getting results. Jesus is starting to get results." and John were concerned because Jesus is starting to gain followers just like you. And in fact, he's baptizing and he's starting to do some things like you. And John, we're just concerned because Jesus is taking your thing, John. It's your thing. And so, they're concerned. And and I think um for a lot of us, we would have probably been concerned, too. and and and WE PROBABLY WOULD HAVE GOTTEN A LITTLE BIT UPSET by what what John's followers said. If it was your thing and somebody started to step on it and come into your territory of expertise or your territory of influence, we might say, "Man, you're stepping on what I'm doing over here." And so that might have been John's response, but John's response is so so illuminating to us. And honestly, it may be one of my favorite passages of scripture because look what John says in John 3:30. Here's John's response to the concern. He says, "Jesus must become greater and greater and I must become less and less." The ESV says, "He must increase, I must decrease. More of Jesus, less of me. We need more of Jesus, not more of us. Our world needs more of Jesus. And the first part of that for a lot of us is easier to swallow. Jesus increase. Jesus increase. Be more Jesus. I get more of Jesus and the world gets more of Jesus. I can celebrate, clap to that, raise my hands to that. But the next part is so much harder to swallow. That decrease part. that part where something of me is lost, something of me loses, something of me diminishes, something of me gives up something that I care about. And that part is a little bit more challenging to us. And Paul uh John says, "I've got to be less so Jesus can be greater." In order for there to be more of Jesus, there just has to be less of me. And if there is more of me, then there will be less of Jesus. There will be less of Jesus. And John could have taken a different approach. He could have said, "You're, you know what? YOU'RE RIGHT. YOU'RE RIGHT. HOW DARE THIS JESUS. How dare this guy try to infringe upon my rights? How dare this guy try to come into my territory, in my house, in my ministry, in my area of expertise? How dare he?" Um, and and John even could have come to the place where he said, "Well, Jesus is doing some good things. So, I know what we'll do. I'll build my own sub kingdom with him, and I'll let Jesus do his thing as long as he stays over there. But I'm going to come over here and build my subkingdom where I also get influence and importance, >> where I also get accolades, and I also get people applauding over me. I know what I'll do. More of Jesus and more of me. Yeah, >> that could HAVE BEEN THE THAT HONESTLY IN OUR CULTURE, YOU WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED if anybody had said that. YOU WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY HAD GOTTEN ON SOCIAL media and they tried to build their following along with somebody else's. >> We wouldn't have been surprised that that at all. And so John, but he takes a different approach. He says, I'm willing to sacrifice my preference, my fame, my followers so Jesus can be number one. I want to be like that. I don't know about you, but in your life, in your marriage, in your relationships, in your heart, are you ready to live like less? Are you ready to live like less in a world that only wants more? And so, how do we do it? I want to give you a couple things this morning to think about. And I recognize that, um, jumping into this series, um, I could come here and I could preach a lot of easy to hear things. This is not an easy to hear thing, but I want you to know that um I preach this to myself first because I was the guy on the plane not willing to give it up my seat. I'm the guy that sometimes fails at this. I'm the guy that sometimes misses the mark when it comes to this. And and all of us are. I think you know this because that's why even as we talk about things like this, we kind of get quiet a little bit because there's part of us that knows that me is so important to me. And so, how do we live like less? Two things, if you're taking notes this morning. The first thing is we put people before preferences. We put people before preferences. More of Jesus sounds really good until you have to give up something you like. It just sounds really good until you have to get some give up something you like. Letting go is not easy because it feels like a loss. And I don't know if you uh uh uh can identify with this, but we have a tendency to elevate our preferences to essentials, >> right? >> We have a a tendency to elevate our our preferences to a place of requirement, essential requirement. And then what we do in the Christian world and the world of church is we add sanctity to them. Come on, think about this. What we do is we start to holy we add holy things to our preferences. >> We start to add sanctity to them to where they're no longer just preferences, but there's something that that that when somebody steps on, they're stepping on our rights. And it and it begins to be something in us that we have elevated to the point that we cannot let go of. >> And we see this all the time. We see it. We see it in our relationships, right? When you're in that relationship with somebody and it's like, you know, okay, the the way this relationship is going to work is that you come 90 and I go 10, right? It's like that's going to be the percentage that this relationship is going to work off of is like, you know, 90% of the time I choose the restaurant, 10% of the time we'll go where you want to go, right? It's like like that's just the preference that I have for for this relationship because I lead things and that's that's the way things going to be. We do it in relationships. We do it in church. And I've seen churches divided over seats and color of the carpet and paint on the walls and all kinds of things because we have taken our preferences and we have deified them. WE'VE WE'VE ADDED SANCTITY TO THEM to some point where we nail them on the wall like the cross that we have and we said that my church can't exist without my preferences. >> Wow. And so when we can't make the church fit our preferences, well, we just go find another church because somewhere DOWN THE ROAD, SOMEBODY'S GOT TO BE DOING things the way that I prefer. And along the way, something happens that we don't even see is that the main thing doesn't become the main thing anymore. And somehow we we totally miss the mark on what Jesus came to do in our life and what he came to do through you. And people somehow get sidelined for something that in the scope of eternity won't matter. >> It's so forgettable. It's so forgettable. And so sometimes we do it. We do it over people. We do it over politics. Sometimes it's politics over people. I'm, you know, we've got people that are willing to prove a point at the loss of their witness. And so decreasing sometimes means giving up your rights and it feels like a loss. But I've got to come to a place in my life and imagine if we had a whole church that stopped treating their preferences like it was the only thing that mattered in the room. What if I walked in here and it just felt different because I wasn't walking in here only thinking about what I could get and how how it came delivered to me. >> That maybe it's not about that. And it's a decision. I have to come in the doors of the church. I have to go out of the doors of of the church with the decision in my heart that I have choose. I have to choose to become less because if I'm not less, then Jesus will not be more. And so I've got to be less. John said, "I've got to be less. He's got to be more. I've got to lose the seat. I've got to lose the argument, but I win the person. I've got to think we more than me." Jesus over self. People matter more than preferences. People matter more than preferences. Jesus is our example. Jesus is our example. The second thing I want to give you this morning, if you're taking notes, is we put service before status. We always, we have to, as the church, as the body of Christ, we want to look like Jesus. We've got to put service before status. Um, culture has taught us to celebrate talent above character and celebrate status over servantthood. And I want you to know this morning, the greatest thing that you can bring to God is not your talent, is not your character, is probably not something that will land you on a stage somewhere. It's probably not something that will gain you a bunch of followers or cause a bunch of people to applaud for you. Uh, the greatest thing that you can bring to God is probably and likely the posture that you take in your life. And this is what Paul is driving home. He starts the conversation at unity, but he takes us on a story and a pathway leading us to Jesus. And this is where Paul lands in Philippians 2:7. What did he say? He said, "Jesus made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant." He's the only person in history where the reason for his arrival was his departure. He's the only person in history that came alive to die. Instead of grasping for what he deserved, he made himself nothing. He emptied himself. Everybody is trying to become somebody. Jesus is the only one that was somebody and chose the path nobody would take. >> He was already somebody. And so he walked the path first that he calls us to. And because he did that, look what look what God's response is to the character and nature that Jesus took on. Look what his response to it. Paul says it in verse 9. He says, "Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every other name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledged that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." >> Amen. when it wasn't about status, it was about serving because pleasing God is not more about taking myself higher but rather lower. That's the pattern that Jesus modeled. He lowered himself and God exalted him. And sometimes what that means is I surrender my preferences. I surrender my rights. I surrender my status for his glory. That's the pattern that Jesus modeled in my marriage. That means that sometimes I don't have to win every argument because what is winning? Winning is not winning if someone is losing. Sometimes I don't have to win every argument. Sometimes I don't need credit for everything that I do. I can serve if nobody sees. I don't need a title to serve. I don't need a platform to make a difference. I don't need a microphone to have a ministry. Amen. >> What we do is that we have to come to a place where I have to say, can I do things for God that nobody might ever notice? Can I live like that? Am I willing to live like that? Am I only willing to do things that people will acknowledge me for? Or can I come to a place where I'm ready to serve even if nobody sees it but him? Can I come to the place where that I step into the background so Jesus can be seen in the foreground? God is calling us to a life where we live like less. It is not just about being a nicer person. It's not about having better relationships. There is way more at stake than that. Every time my life becomes more about me, it's a loss of potential because I limit what God can do through me. my own level of importance has been elevated to the point that it becomes the ceiling for me. >> Wow. >> And we do it all the time. We see it all the time in our culture. And at some point that that attitude, that approach to life, it has divided marriages. It has divided families. It has divided churches. It has divided over and over again. And it is the status quo of the cult culture that we see around us. And Paul is suggesting that all of us come to a place where we say that's not acceptable here. That's not acceptable here. That this is the body of Christ. And as the body of Christ, we need to look like Jesus. And so to look like Jesus, there has to be less of me. There has to be less of me. There has to be more of him. The world says make yourself more. Jesus says make yourself less so I can be more in you. Yeah. >> As the worship team comes, I want to pray for you this morning. John understood something that we need to understand this morning and take on ourselves. That life was never really really about making much about myself. It's about making much of him. It's about making much of Jesus. I must become less so that he can become more and more. The question for us today and and honestly for you is in your life, in your situation, in your relationships, in your marriage, with your kids, work, where do you need to decrease? Where is it that you need to take a step back and let Jesus win? So, and honestly, that might mean you lose at something. You might lose the thing that you want. You might lose doing it the way that you want. You might surrender your rights to something. And and guess what? Jesus had all the rights to do whatever he wanted to do because it was his right. But he surrendered it. He surrendered it for you. He surrendered it. He took what he did not deserve. And it looked like a loss so that you could win. And maybe there's a place in your life right now that even right now you feel conflict. Conflict over your rights. Conflict over your preferences. conflict in a relationship where you just you want to get your point across so much that you're willing to lose the person just to win the argument. Pastor Nick said something really important this morning and I want to bring us back to that. I was going to end a little differently but I want to end on this. Um, I think as followers of Jesus, a lot of us can celebrate and get excited about and even come to the place of putting our past on the altar. We sang it. We'll probably sing it. Sing it in a minute. We're like, "Yes, past on the altar. I want to forget that." And really, your past often we sing about it. We talk about it to represent this. Your worst. Your worst. Who wouldn't want to surrender their worst on the altar and know that the blood of Jesus covers it? Man, I could sing about that all day because I need it and I love it and I want it. The thing that we rarely sing about or the ra the thing we rarely celebrate or even talk about is are we willing to bring our best to the altar? You're like, man, yeah, surrender the worst, forget the worst. Are we willing to put the best thing that we think is about us, the best thing that we have to offer, the greatest thing that we can bring to this world and to the people around us, the greatest thing that we deserve the praise and accolades over? Are we willing to bring that thing and place it on the altar? Are we willing to live as the Bible says like a living sacrifice that I am wholly not just partially wholly devoted to you? Jesus said it like this. He said he said that um the humble will receive grace. See, God one day those that are prideful and exalting themselves, they will be humbled. That's what Jesus said. He said at some point it's going to happen. It's going to happen. But those who humble themselves, God will exalt. We know this. Peter wrote about it. He said, "God opposes the proud. He gives grace to the humble." Living like less is challenging because to be honest, like we love ourselves a lot. Like at times we we and we don't say it out loud because that would sound terrible, but we say it in our heart by the choices that we make. We're like, I I'd rather go this way and I'd rather do it this way and if you don't do it my way then, well, we can't do life together. There's no way that in the body of Christ that we could live in a united way where we can't do life with people that don't do it the way that we want to. We have to come together into a unified place. And the unified place is not that we think about the same things and we think the same ways and we talk the same ways and we dress the same ways. That is not the unity that Paul is pushing us towards. It's the unity over Jesus over self. that as a body of Christ that we can come here and have the all kinds of differences, but when it comes to this part of our life and this thing that we're about, >> this thing is immovable. This thing doesn't change. That when I walk in the doors and when I walk out of the doors that it is me second, me less, Jesus more. And what does that look like? What does that look like in your marriage? Dads, what does that look like to exemplify and demonstrate that for your wife and your kids to be Jesus? Less of me, man. I hope my kids see that. Less of me, God, more of you. More you, Jesus. I want to pray for you this morning. And you may say, I don't even know what God is asking me to do with this yet. But sometimes a posture shift in us needs to start here before it comes out here. And and this just may be a place where you come to a a a decision today that this is the way this is the ethos for our household. This is the this is the nature of the house and the culture that we're going to have in our home. This is the culture that we want to have in our marriage. This is the culture that we want to have in our church. And it's got to start with somebody. Why not me? And so I'm going to come to a place of decision right now where I am going to posture myself differently than the world would tell me to posture myself because that's the greatest thing I can do for my marriage. That's the greatest thing I can do for my kids. That's the greatest thing I can do to show Jesus to this world. And I wonder if we could come into unity together about this that Jesus is over me. It's Jesus over herself. Can we pray together this morning? Would you bow your heads? Close your eyes this morning. Father, I thank you Lord for this word that is a challenge and yet at at the same time. Jesus, you have not asked us to do something that you were not willing to do yourself. You made yourself nothing. That's a difficult sermon even for us to say out loud. God, I make myself nothing. But am I willing to do that? right now, Lord. We surrender our preferences, our status, Lord, the way that we want things done, the way that we expect them to be done. Lord, we surrender, Lord, how we have held our relationships hostage, Lord, by saying, "We're going to withhold the best of us because until somebody gives us what we want." No, we're going to come to a place where I live my life and my my choices by Jesus over self. I choose to be less so Jesus, you can be more. If that's if that's you, you want to say that this morning to him, I just encourage you to say that to him. Jesus, I choose me less, you more. Less of me, more of you. I make the decision just like John did. I didn't I'm not going to grasp for what I feel like I deserve. I'm not going to grasp for what I feel like my rights are. But less of me, more of
