Service, Slavery, Death
Transcript
It's good to see you all this morning. My name is Matt. I'm one of the pastors here with Mill City. And I'm excited to get to celebrate Christmas with you guys. As you can't tell, we kind of like Christmas around here. And I'm a Christmas person.
So don't get me wrong, I like the other holidays. Like I like Thanksgiving, the 3F celebration of family and football and food. But like I'm a Christmas person. Give me Christmas. The lights and the trees and the Christmas carols and everything like that. I just love it.
And the truth is I grew up in a family that was like that too. So it's kind of ingrained in me from the very beginning. We were the family that as soon as Thanksgiving was over and as soon as like the last leftover was tucked into the fridge, like the attic door just swung open on its own and all the Christmas decorations just came pouring out. And the rest of Thanksgiving Day was spent putting up Christmas decorations and they stayed up until after the new year, depending on when we wanted to take them down. But I love Christmas.
I mean, take a look at this little guy right here. I mean, that's jubilation. There's like sleigh bells going in the background. It's funny, people tell me, Oh, Emmy looks just like you. I'm like, only mostly. Only mostly she looks just like me.
But I'm a Christmas person. Our family kind of went crazy for Christmas. And the church that I grew up in was pretty crazy about Christmas too. In fact, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, our church would have this like very formal ceremonial service called the Hanging of the Greens, which literally meant we're going to decorate the church. I mean, it was like this big service where families would walk up together and they would hang wreaths and people would hold candles and we would sing songs by a candlelight. And if it sounds crazy, that's kind of because it was.
But really, that was just the tip of the iceberg to my church's crazy experiment with Christmas. We had children's plays. I don't know if you're familiar with children's plays, but you had to have a children's play and you had to have the costumes. You had to memorize your lines and you had to learn the songs and all this kind of stuff. You had to dress up. You always had to look really good.
And of course, I'm going to try to set the standard for when you're looking good. So obviously, a hand-me-down sweater because you can't even see my hands, rocking khakis, and a tie that's for some reason missing, like missing part of it. I don't, like they're supposed to go to a point. I don't know. But I tried to look good.
And every once in a while, we do like, we do Christmas plays that had a theme. It's like metaphorically to talk about Christmas. I mean, because you could do cowboy Christmas. And of course, you wanted to look the part if you were doing that. Even if you didn't have two front teeth. Like you just whistled the music out.
But you couldn't just do a children's Christmas thing. You had to have like an adult choir cantata. And if you don't know what a cantata is, you're one of the lucky ones. We're going to spare you. We're not even going to tell you what that is. But there was just all this stuff going on.
There were practices and dress rehearsals. And it was Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night. And then extra practices during the week. And you also had the Christmas card swap. And you had the candy cane tree. You had children's storybook Christmas.
And then you had the church Christmas party. And a lot of times you got to January and you were just kind of exhausted. And the truth is, I look back on all of those things that we did and I really enjoy them. Like some of my fondest memories are from some of those times. But I have to ask myself the question, like was all the time and energy we put into that stuff worth it?
Like were we actually celebrating Christmas as we were putting on those plays? Because the point of all the stuff we were doing was for our friends to like invite people to come. Like the people that were part of our church family to invite their friends to come and to maybe get plugged in with our church. And as I think back on that, I'm like, I don't know. I don't know if the energy and time we put into it allowed people to actually hop in with us. See, the church that I grew up in kind of had a come to us mentality at Christmas.
We'll put on these great plays or we'll have these parties if you'll just come. And as I think about Christmas, as I think about the fact that God came to us at Christmas, is the correct response to then get people to come to us? Or is Jesus came on a mission for us? Are we then to turn out and go on mission for others? Should we be going to them? And really all of this and more is why we as a church from the very beginning have done our give series at Christmas.
All we're doing is we're looking at our culture and say, no, no, let's flip what our culture values at Christmas and focus on what's really important. At a time of year where it's all about me and what I can get and that kind of stuff, we just want to remember what Christmas actually is all about. It's that Jesus came for us. And the way that we do that is that we're generous to people who are in need as we do our gift project. So when our culture says, you know, get all you can, get the new Samsung virtual reality goggles or maybe some new jewelry or the new PlayStation 8, we say as a church, no, no, no, give more away.
Be generous because he who is rich became poor so that we by his poverty might be rich. That at a time of year where it's all about what you can get and all about the memories and stuff you can make, we say let's make it about others. Let's put others' interests in front of our own. Let's sacrifice so that we can do that. And so today as we kind of tie a bow, so to speak, on our Give series, I just want to continue to echo that as we follow Jesus, what we're called to is sacrificing. What we're called to is to be generous.
And my hope is that by the end of this morning, we have a clearer picture of not only what that looks like at Christmastime, but hopefully what that looks like for all of our lives. So let me pray for us and we'll jump into the Bible. God, I'm so thankful that this time of the year we get the opportunity to just stop and press pause and remember what Christmas actually is all about. To not buy into what our culture says and to remember, to reflect, and then to actually get the opportunity to see change in our lives. So God, I pray that you would just encourage us this morning.
I pray that you would help us see the joy that it is to follow Jesus. God, that we would respond by being radically generous and sacrificial with our lives. I pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Grab a Bible. Go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 20.
If you're grabbing one of the Bibles that we have on the seats, it's going to be on page 482. If you don't have a Bible, Merry Christmas. Take that one with you today. We want you to have it. If you're looking at it going, ooh, sweet, new white Bible to go with my collection of three blue and white Bibles at home, that one can just be your Glen Forest Bible. Just leave that one here.
But the passage that we're looking at today is not your stereotypical Christmas passage. There's no baby, no shepherds, no angels bursting into robust chorus. In fact, this passage is recorded in all the Gospels the week before Jesus would go to the cross and rise from the grave. And so this is really kind of at the end of everything. And here's what we're looking for. This is what I want us to see today.
What does it look like to follow Jesus in his kingdom? So if we're going to be kingdom people, if we've decided to follow Jesus, what does it look like for us to follow him with our lives? And how does his example motivate our actions? And ultimately, how does that even like change our entire approach to life? So what does it look like to follow Jesus in his kingdom?
So Matthew chapter 20, and we'll be starting in verse 20. It says this, Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons. And kneeling before him, she asked him for something. And he said to her, What do you want? She said to him, Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom. So just to kind of set the scene, James and John come with their mom and they bow before Jesus.
And apparently their mother basically says, Can I ask you a question? Can I make a request of you? And Jesus allows her to. And she says, Grant that these sons of mine can sit in the positions of power and authority in your coming kingdom. Let them sit at your right hand and at your left hand. And it's kind of funny because the Gospels are filled with stories about James and John.
I mean, they even have nicknames. Their nicknames in the Gospels are the sons of thunder. And so we kind of see it throughout. But this one's particularly funny to me because they got their mama to go ask Jesus if they could be at his right hand and left hand. I mean, sons of thunder, more like mama's boys. Like, this is, I mean, you've got to imagine how this played out, right?
Hey, James, you know, you know who Jesus really, Jesus says a lot of hard stuff, but you know who he doesn't say hard stuff to all the time? Older women. Like, what if we got our mom to go and talk to Jesus? I mean, for real, that's how that played, that's how it played out. And what we know from the other Gospels is this question didn't originate from James and John. They put their mom up to this.
But regardless, they come before Jesus and say, the mom says, grant that my sons can sit at your right hand and at your left hand in your coming kingdom because these were positions of power. Let them have power and authority and influence in the coming kingdom. Seeing an opportunity to rise up in the ranks and have some power, they jumped on it. An opportunity to kind of get to the top. And the truth is, regardless of motivation, we're all kind of doing this in our lives if you think about it. Whether it's the opportunity to get like a promotion at work or to get a raise or maybe to get a better car or to get a better house or live in a different neighborhood.
And again, those things aren't bad in and of themselves, but I think intrinsically all of us kind of want to keep moving forward, keep achieving, keep having success is one of the things that Chet mentioned earlier in the announcements. Like, I think that's intrinsic to us because we live in a society that highly values those things. That's kind of what capitalism actually is. It's all about. It's getting to the top. It's climb the ladder of success, make the most money you can, get into the best school and get the most sought after degrees.
And in a lot of cases, regardless of what you have to do to get there. And I think that's part of the mystique behind Donald Trump being elected president. I think there were a lot of people that looked at Donald Trump and said, if he can grow this huge company and have business ventures across the world and have a last name that's synonymous with wealth and status, then of course, he can run the greatest nation in the free world. Because they look at that and they see that as kind of the pinnacle of human existence. Like, he's made it to the top. And the truth is when it comes to looking at power and authority, another term that you can throw up there that goes right along with it is wealth.
A lot of times, power and authority just kind of follow the money. And you can see that on a big scale. You can see it in the macro. So if you look at this last political cycle, you've had lots of conversations about how Wall Street and politics kind of played out. Like, what were the relationships between CEOs and the people who were running for president? Any business, the waitstaff makes less money, has less authority than the shift manager, than the manager, than the owner, than the regional vice president, than someone who's on the board, than the CEO.
It just kind of, it's a, you follow the money and you kind of find where the power and authority are. And even, and even that can be true in our lives. Like, even on the small scale. So if you've, if you've got maybe a little bit more money and a little bit more standing, maybe you can live in a different neighborhood. Maybe you can get a better Job and have more authority. And so even, even on the small scale, you can see how that affords you a little bit more opportunity.
And while James and John live in a completely different culture than ours, their, their question is still at the, at the heart of what we're going after too. James and John seeing an opportunity to kind of rise up in the ranks, to, to move their way to the top, to have more authority, more influence, seeing that opportunity, they jumped on it. So let's, let's see how Jesus responds. Verse 22. Jesus answered, you do not know what you are asking. Which is, which is actually a very gracious response from Jesus because he, he does know what they're asking.
And he's simply just pointing out that they don't, they don't know. They don't know what he knows. That there's obviously a disconnect between what power and authority look like in Jesus's kingdom and what his disciples actually expect it to be. He continues on. He says, you don't know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?
And they said to him, we are able. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? Now that's not like a, a turn of phrase that we would use nowadays. So we have to unpack that just a little bit. All throughout the Bible, the cup is basically used to represent someone's like God-ordained destiny. What God had for their lives.
And so if you look in the Psalms, you'll see the cup representative of like blessing or salvation. And then other times you'll see it has more of a negative connotation where it's like God's wrath or disaster. And more often than not, the cup is going to have some connotation along with it that deals with like suffering and trial and hardship. And Jesus, Jesus asked him, he says, are you able to drink from the cup? And they said, they said we are. So regardless of what James and John know at this point, so regardless of, of, of what they understand the cup to be, they respond that they're able to.
That whatever it takes to get to the top, whatever it takes to be Jesus's right-hand men, James and John are saying, we're in, we'll do this. Whatever path we have to walk, whatever we have to do, we are in. Jesus responds to him, verse 23. He said to them, you will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father. He says to them, you will drink my cup. Whatever that cup means, you're going to drink that cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left hand is not mine to decide.
My Father is going to decide that. And so, hang on to that little bit about James and John drinking the cup, but you've got to imagine at this point, they're disappointed. So they come with this expectation of, of maybe getting elevated to this position and it just doesn't work out for them. Jesus says that it's, it's not, it's not for them. It's not going to work out. It's not as they plan.
And then verse 24 adds to it, it says this, and when the 10 heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. The 10 being the other disciples. Okay, James and John were two of the 12 disciples and when the 10 heard it, it says they were indignant. These guys were ticked. And rightly so, I mean, think about this. Think about all that James and John and the rest of the disciples have gone through.
A lot of these guys even knew James and John before they became disciples. And so, I mean, they've walked with Jesus. They've, they've heard him teach. They've, they've gotten to be a part of these miracles and experiencing all this together. And now they're trying to jump ahead of them, trying to get to a place where even maybe they're ruling over the other 10 disciples. And they're ticked.
I mean, I would be, and I think there's a little bit of us when we read that, it's kind of like, for real? That's what you guys are doing? And the passage doesn't tell us like that they became friends immediately after that, like it wasn't all okay when Jesus stepped in. I mean, there's probably some time. But honestly, I hope, they made up.
But honestly, I hope that the disciples, the rest of the disciples never let them live that down. Like, never. James looks at Peter and says, where's Jesus off to? I don't know. Why don't you ask your mama? I mean, like, the appropriate amount of forgiveness and the appropriate level of mockery.
I feel like that probably embodies Mill City. Pretty good bit there. But regardless, Jesus saw an opportunity to teach. He saw an opportunity to correct an understanding of what it meant to be a disciple in his kingdom, what it meant to be a follower in his kingdom. And even more than that, what does it mean to be a leader and have power and authority in his kingdom? He says this in verse 25.
But Jesus called them to him and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles Lord it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. Jesus says, you know, I.e. I don't really have to explain this to you. You know how the rulers treat the people who are underneath them. See, Israel was occupied by Rome at the time.
So whether it's governors or administrators or maybe it was people that were in charge of the Roman military, they constantly had their authority lorded over them. It was forced on them. Like it was for shameful gain. It was oppressive misuse. Most of the leaders were just trying to, again, climb the ladder of success or just make the person who's above them happy. And he said, it shall not be so among you.
And the truth is, in a lot of ways, our culture is like this too. That's why most of us are kind of wary of politicians or people who are in like places of authority and leadership and really don't want to do it. They say, because we've seen this all too regularly. We've seen deceit and manipulation and lies and corruption, which is why we're kind of wary of people who are in leadership. And what's interesting is, even though we know that's true, what we just admitted earlier is that all of us are trying to claw our way to the top to get there. To get to that place where we know that there's abuse and misuse of authority.
But Jesus says, no, no, no, no, no. It shall not be so among you. Jesus isn't against all types of authority and influence. He's just exposing what oppressive misuse looks like. And he says, no, no, there's another way. There's another way that my disciples are to act.
He's got a different definition of what it looks like. Pick it back up, beginning of verse 26. He says, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant. And whoever would be first among you must be your slave. Here's what Jesus says. He says, greatness in his kingdom isn't measured by dollar bills or the number of people who call you boss.
He begins by saying it's about being a servant. servant. Not like a server at a restaurant. He says, servant of the servant class where your life is leveraged for whoever is above you. And to clarify, he takes it a step further. He says, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave. I mean, that's picturesque.
That's service and slavery. And if you're putting it in terms of their day, he's saying that authority and power in his kingdom look way more like working long hours in the field or washing a visitor's feet when they come in from a long journey. It's way more like taking garbage out to the dung heap or cleaning a cattle stall. And you've got to imagine at this point, James and John are listening to Jesus talk. They come to Jesus with this expectation of we want to be in power and authority. And they're kind of like raising their hands at this point going, um, excuse me, I, when, when we came to you and we're talking about this, we, we, we just thought that you would be on a really big cushy seat and we, we would, we would also get cushy seats, not as big as your cushy seat because you'd be in the middle, but we'd be on the right and left and maybe, maybe the things you're saying would be what people do for us.
And Jesus says, no, you've, you've got it backwards. It's as if he's looking at them and saying, hey guys, remember, remember when you were a fisherman? Before I called you, remember when you were a fisherman? Greatness in my kingdom doesn't look like the person who owns the boat, looks way more like the peon who carries the nets off the boat and then goes back and scrubs fish guts off the deck. See, here's the problem. It's the, it's the same problem for them as it is for us.
While we read this passage and see exactly what Jesus is talking about, while we understand that a life of serving others and putting others first is, is noble and it's good and it's what Jesus did for us, we're bombarded on a regular basis with thousands of other messages that say the complete opposite. Our, our culture says, you do you, do whatever makes you happy. Whoever you've got to push down to get to the top, do that. It's all about you. It's all about autonomy. That's what Chet was talking about just a little bit ago.
It's about self. We, we use this metaphor a lot and I think it's helpful here that if our culture and what our culture values is like a driving, pouring rain and you as a Christian have an umbrella, you can't help but get wet. There are going to be times when we're so overwhelmed by what our, our culture teaches that even though we understand what Jesus is saying that it's about others, it's about serving them and putting their interests first and sacrificing for them, we can't help but let this little bit just kind of trickle into our lives while we're all going, no, no, no, serve and give our lives for others. It can trickle in.
Let me give you an example of how it does this. If you're a part of a community group, I want you to think about your group for a second. Has the thought ever popped in your mind, I wish I was in another group or maybe this, I wish I was a part of my old group maybe something like this. I would go hang out with my group but they're just not really meeting my needs. I would be open and honest but that person monopolizes all the time with all the problems they have going on. It's subtle but deadly.
At the time that we're looking at what Jesus says about serving and putting others first and that's what Raz and Josh have articulated so well the last two weeks about putting others first. It can creep in. Even though we understand what Jesus is calling us to, it can creep in. So the question becomes, how do we do that? What's our motivation? How do we begin to approach life in the same way that Jesus does and what he's calling us to?
Verse 28. In fact, we'll back it all the way up to 26 and just read the whole chunk. He said, It shall not be so among you but whoever would be great among you must be your servant and whoever would be first among you you must be your, you must, sorry, you must be your slave even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus said, Even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus, the one who the disciples realized was worthy of all honor and all praise and all glory who would one day sit on a throne said he came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom.
Like he sets the example. He puts others first. He is the one who is generous and he would do so by giving his life as a ransom for many. And in that statement, Jesus sets out and shows us what his mission has been from the very beginning. He didn't come to set up an earthly throne. He's going to have a throne but it's by way of a cross and it's an eternal throne.
It wasn't to be set up here. The reason that Jesus had to go to a cross is because we had a debt that we could not pay. That we could not overcome outside of his sacrifice for us. that when Jesus is talking about that cup in a couple of verses up, he's talking about the cup of God's wrath. When Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, God, he said, Father, if this cup can be taken from me, let it be. But if not, your will be done and not mine.
Jesus went to the cross because he had put, he put us first. It was about sacrificing himself for us. And so when he says he came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom, we're beginning to understand that Jesus is the king of an upside down kingdom where our culture says that moving up is where greatness is. Jesus says, no, no, no. Greatness is by moving down from service to slavery and even to death. Greatness, success, and wealth, and prominence isn't measured the same way.
It's not about sitting beside him but following behind him. And the essence of what Jesus is saying this morning, this is what I want us to walk away with and realize. We could not get to God. We couldn't. We could not get to God not by our morals, not by behaving, not by anything. We could not get to God so God came to us.
It was a rescue mission. That's what we're celebrating at Christmas is that God came to us. He came as a missionary. Think about that for a minute that Jesus who spoke everything that is into existence is now in the form of a baby staring at sheep and cows in a manger in the backwoods middle of nowhere. The king of the universe humbled himself and came but he didn't stay a baby forever. He would go to a cross where he would die.
He would die for us. He would die for our sins so that we could follow after him. So the question becomes how do you respond to that? Like how do you respond to what Jesus says in these verses? We follow after him. We respond by following after Jesus in the same way that he did for us because Jesus came on a mission for us we go on a mission for others.
That rather than buying into the it's all about me nonsense that we get from our culture especially at Christmas we get to make it about others. Jesus looked at James and John and he told them you are you're going to drink the cup that I'm going to and what we know that after Jesus ascends into heaven that James and John are some of the leaders of the early church and they went out they went out from Jerusalem pursuing people spreading the gospel and for the people that were followers of Jesus it didn't always go well there were persecutions and beatings and there was jail time and some of them ended up murdered. James would be murdered for his faith and John they tried to kill John church history tells us and it didn't work and so they exiled him to an island where he would die. Service slavery and death but what James and John realized is all that Jesus had done for them and so the rest of their lives got to be this humble grateful response to what Jesus had done.
Here's the deal I want you to think about this for a second. The reason that you're sitting here this morning is because Jesus came on a mission for us and then somebody responded to Jesus' call to be on mission for others. Think about the person who told you about Jesus. If you're not a Christian think about who has invited you to hang out with our church because Jesus came on a mission and others have responded to that mission since. That's why you're sitting in this room. That's what Christmas is all about is that God came for us because we could not get to him.
So our response is not to make it all about us but to turn our eyes outward and to go and to pursue others. Our response is to have the same posture as our king. And this is so freeing. This is so freeing when we don't have to buy into everything that our culture tells us. That rising to the top that having the most money or being successful that everything else that our culture tells us to chase after isn't going to isn't going to fill us up. Isn't going to bring us joy.
And if it brings us happiness it's only temporary. But Jesus calls you into a relationship with him where he served and sacrificed and died for you. And so our response gets to be that we approach life in the same way. We're all mission to see more and more people become Christians and we go to them. Which means that your entire approach to life changes. It means you're a missionary at work.
It means when your boss asks you to do something that's degrading or menial or below your pay grade you do it. Because you're just there to serve. That when you notice someone skipping work for the second day in a row you go to them and say hey can I treat you to lunch? And instead of going to McDonald's to the value menu like you take them to Moe's. Or if you're really rolling you take them to Chipotle where they can pay more and get worse food. But you treat them.
When you realize that a co-worker's been sick all week you leave work and you go get some soup and you drive it to their house. That's going to people. It means you're a missionary in your neighborhood. If you've got a crabby neighbor that always is yelling at you about your dog using the bathroom on their lawn even though your dog's in a fence and never comes out of the fence. Can't be your dog. If you look out the window on a Saturday and see them working on their shed it means that maybe you sacrifice some of your time and you go help them.
Maybe you realize that there's a lady that's in her late 80s who can't drive that's down the street but just needs someone to come sit and to talk with her. It means we give up some of our time and we go to them. It means we're missionaries in our city especially to those that are less fortunate than us because that's who Jesus went to. Jesus went to the people who needed help that were kind of outcasts from the society. That's why we spend time trying to help people that are often just kind of neglected and forgotten. That's why we spend time at Gentle Pines because it's a part of our city that has kind of just been forgotten and overlooked and we want to go in there and tell them that we love them and that Jesus loves them and that we want them to be a part of our family.
It's why we've partnered with Samaritans well this year. We want the women and the children there to know that we love them and care about them and Jesus loves them and we're willing to leverage time and resources so that they know that. I've been so encouraged. I've had two separate group leaders in the last couple of weeks tell me that they kind of want to be in line to partner with Samaritans well long term. That's so encouraging. Man, that is so encouraging to see our church family turning our eyes outward and looking at the people that God has placed us around.
But it's all of life, guys. It's every second of every day realizing that you exist for the benefit of others. That you don't have to find your worth and your joy and your value in meeting all of your needs and making it all about you because it's ultimately bankrupt and you have everything you will ever need in Jesus which means that we get to turn our eyes out and like everything we do as a church family we get to do it together. We get to do it with our community groups that our friends and our neighbors and our coworkers we're trying to reach them for Jesus and build relationships but we get to invite our community groups into that.
And so here's I've got two ways I want us to respond this morning. Two ways that we can respond to Jesus' call to go out and to see more people become Christians and as we do it to meet people's needs. Two ways we can do that. The first one is that we do. We actually meet people's physical needs. Jesus went and he healed the sick and he spent time with those who were in poverty like Jesus met real needs and so his church meets real needs.
You can meet real needs today by giving to Samaritan's Well. I've been so proud of our church family so far and I know that we can continue to give. We've got the envelope set up over there. You can write a check. You can put cash. You can drop it in the gift box.
The Sacrifice of Jesus
Transcript
Good morning. As Matt said, I am Josh Pabone. I am the current community group leader of our Seven Oaks group, and I'm glad I get to talk to you guys this morning. So we're in our annual give series. So each year around Christmas, we spend some time to intentionally look at generosity.
We want our Christmas to not only just be about what we get, but what we can give to others. So we take the time to look at Jesus' sacrifice for us and try to intentionally follow him in that sacrifice with generosity towards others. So this year, we're focusing on Samaritan's Well. It is a transition home for women and children in the Lexington area. They help them find jobs. They help them get housing, and they even help them pay off a little bit of their debt.
Last week, we had little stockings on a tree, and currently, we have $50 gift cards for the women and children at the shelter, so they get to kind of relax around Christmas and enjoy spending time with each other without worrying about being able to get gifts. So at the end of the sermon today, Chet's going to give us a... That was phase one. So at the end of the sermon today, Chet's going to give us a look at what phase two will be. So go ahead and grab your Bibles.
We're going to be in Philippians. If you don't have a Bible, grab one of the white ones around you. If you don't own a Bible, it's yours to keep. We'll be on page 570, and we're going to be in Philippians 2, 1 through 8. But before we get into the text, I want to take a couple minutes to talk about sacrifice.
Like, culturally, we love sacrifice. Like, we love to watch it play out in movies, we love to read it in books, and we just love to hear it in any sort of story. So it's kind of like Russell in Independence Day, who gave his life by flying that jet into the spaceship and blew it up. Or Tony Stark, Iron Man at the end of the first Avengers, who took that nuclear weapon that was set to destroy the city and flew it into that weird wormhole thing and blew it up and closed it, because apparently that's how science works. Or Noah in the notebook, who sacrificed his freedom. Who sacrificed his...
It's a great transition. Who sacrificed his freedom to be with his wife in a nursing home, because she had Alzheimer's. Or when people intentionally take time out of their holiday to serve others on Thanksgiving. Like, culturally, we just love it. We see worth and value in it. Whether it's true love, Acts of valor and courage, or the villain at the end of the movie who sees good is worth fighting for and gives his life to stop whatever doomsday device he has set.
Like, we eat it up. But only if it's not us. If my wife Nadine and I were in the never-let-go scene of Titanic, I would look at that door, I would grab her hands lovingly and gingerly, and I would look her in the eyes and I'd say, Baby, you're going to have to scoot over. Like, I love my wife dearly. I do. But I can only be so heroically sacrificial in freezing cold waters.
Like, maybe I could get behind it, and I could paddle you somewhere, and you could snatch up some other doors or debris. Like, maybe use one of these acceptable positions on the screen behind me. I don't know. Maybe we could figure out something. On one hand, we love sacrifice. We see that it is this selfless, for-the-greater-good thing.
That when someone else puts the needs of others before their own, we love it, we praise it, we worship it. We see that it's a value. But on the other hand, we're also told to do you. We're told to do what makes you happy and to achieve your goals no matter what. Like, we're told that we need to do what's best for us. Like, I love sacrifice, but the truth is I love when I don't have to do it.
Oh, well, you need something for me? No, I'm good. I don't think that's going to work out for me. It's just not in my best interest. No, I've got things to do. No thanks.
But when I see someone else sacrificing, wow, look how amazing they are. I wish I could be like that. You know, we're told by culture to both jump on a live hand grenade to save other people, while at the same time being told to do what's best for us. So today we're looking at sacrifice. We're going to spend some time seeing what Paul says about us, coming second and putting others first. Like, we're going to see a picture of how whether you or someone else is doing it, we're going to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of Jesus' sacrifice for us.
Like, we'll get to see that our capacity to even sacrifice comes from the much more massive sacrifice that Jesus made for us. So I'm going to pray. Thank you, God, for this time to talk about sacrifice. Thank you, God, for this time to talk about putting the needs of others before our own in a time where culture tells us that we need to put our needs first. God, I pray that your Holy Spirit move and give us hearts and minds to listen and just be willing to sacrifice for others. I thank you for everything you've given us, God.
In your name I pray. Amen. All right. We're going to be in verse 1. So Paul wrote the book of Philippians.
He was the most prolific missionary in the New Testament. He traveled all over. He was imprisoned. He was beaten. And he was even put to death for spreading the gospel. However, unlike some of his other letters in the New Testament where he's reacting to some form of crisis or some form of sin issue, Philippians is a bit different because he's talking about how much he appreciates them.
So in chapter 4, he talks about how they were the only church at one time to provide for him financially in his ministry. Or he also talks about how thankful he was that they provided for him multiple times in his ministry. So it's way less confrontational like some of his other letters and way more like encouraging. Verse 1. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in a full accord or official agreement, and of one mind.
Okay. Paul has a good relationship with his church. He's highlighting some of the wonderful things that they're doing while also saying, hey, do these things that I'm about to say and do it together. All right. Verse 3. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, which is excessive pride, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Let each of you look to not only his interests, but also the interests of others. Okay. So Paul has two points here. The first is do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. One way to say this would be don't place your pride, your well-being, your ego, your comfort above others. Another way to say it is don't act like the world revolves around just you.
I think Jesus says it best in Matthew 22, 39, where he says, love your neighbor like you love yourself. But what he's not saying is that you shouldn't have ambitions. He's not saying that you shouldn't have goals. He's not saying that those are bad things. He's just saying that our goals don't end on us. So wanting a promotion at work, training to win a marathon, saving a certain amount of money in your bank account, or just finishing a whole pizza in one sitting.
Like goals aren't innately bad things. They're good things. He's just telling us that our ambitions and goals, they just don't end on us. So our bank accounts, like we don't save so we can get that sleek new car we've been eyeing. Like we save so we can help our coworker who's been biking five miles to work every day. He's saying that we work for that promotion to help someone pay their electric bill in the winter so they don't freeze.
He's saying that what drives you and pushes you shouldn't drive other people away, push them down, or just have them be left behind. All right. So that's what he said not to do. He said not to let your ambition center on you. So let's look at what he says to do.
Back in verse three. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also the interests of others. So don't do anything from selfish ambition and conceit, but count others more significant. Don't look to just your interest. Look to the interests of others.
The second point here is in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. All right. So what are we supposed to do? Okay. We're supposed to count others more significant than ourselves. Okay.
How do we do that? In humility. And that is a beautiful thing. You see, humility is often equated to weakness or just being walked all over. But that's not real humility.
It is, however, the opposite of like arrogance, boastfulness, vanity, and aggressiveness. Like you're, you're also not like, Oh, woe is me. I'm just a big fat nobody. I'm the worst person in the world. Like you're not Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. Like you're just not focused on yourself.
You're not self-focused. You're not looking at your own interests. Rather than me first, humility allows us to say you first. It is the quality that lets us go more than halfway to meet the needs of others. And it allows us to sacrifice our comforts and desires in order to value others more. Okay.
So in humility, count others more significant, more significant than yourselves. Look not only to your own interests, but also the interests of others. Now, if you're a parent, you're married, or you just have friends, you're kind of already doing this. Like most cases, it's much easier to love someone that you know than you don't. Like it's easier for me as a parent to count my kids more significant when it comes in terms of food and finances than it is the guy who's holding a cardboard sign at the Bush River Walmart. Like my kids are significant to me.
Their interests matter to me. My wife is significant to me. Her interests matter to me. And it's easier for me to approach my friends in humility than a person I've never met. It's easier because I actually care about them. And because of that, I approach them differently.
I approach their needs differently. Like somehow I deem them more worth it because they matter more to me. Like, yeah, man, I'll definitely help you pay your bills. I know you lost your job. I know you got laid off. I know you've been applying places.
I know no one's called you back. I'll help you buy groceries, man. Here's my money. Here's what I have. Take it. It's yours.
Like, for the most part, when people I know and care about are hurting, I tend to hurt alongside them. And I disarm my pride. I disarm my lack of desire. And I disarm any sort of pushback that I may have a lot easier with someone I care about than someone I don't. But Paul says to not just count the people that I care about or that I love or that I think matter more.
No, he says count anyone other than you. So anyone other than me, not just my family, not just my kids, not just my wife, not just my friends. It's anyone other than me. Jesus made similar statements. Love God with your whole heart and love others. Love your neighbor.
Love your enemy. Paul says count anyone other than you more significant. And when we're counting others more significant, like without pride or ego, we're not going to do things the same. Like, I just, I sit and wonder how that would look in our lives if we 100% believed this. And we 100% acted this out all the time. So I started thinking about this.
Like, what if I did this? What if I genuinely began to treat others like they mattered more to me? Like, what if I cared about their interests more than mine? I think that I would be looking at my budget a little bit differently. Like, I'd be looking at where my money went after all my bills were paid. Going out to eat one or two times a week.
I probably could not go out to eat one time and save that money and give it to someone who needed more. Or, I could use that meal that I was going to eat myself and pay for someone else to eat with me and get to build with them. Like, arguments all of a sudden wouldn't be about winning. They wouldn't be about proving that I was right. Like, heavy traffic would just get to be traffic. Like, I wouldn't be getting mad at the guy who waited the last second to merge in front of me.
I would let him in, and I wouldn't be wishing him bodily harm when I did it. Like, if I 100% believed that my wife mattered more to me, I think I would press pause more on video games, and I would mute the TV more. How much more would I do around the house? Like, if she came up to me and was like, hey, Josh, can you just do, insert whatever she asks here for me, that'd be great. I think I realized I'd say yes a lot more. Like, when she gets home late from work, I'd have the kids fed, and I'd have dinner ready for her, so she could sit down and relax.
I would treat her less like a parent picking up their kid from daycare, and more like someone else who's also had a long day, and needs to relax a little bit more than I do. Like, when I showed it to my group, and if I valued their interest more than mine, I'd bring food because I cared about them eating. I wouldn't have an attitude of imposition when I was asked to take someone home. Like, I wouldn't leave group in a bad mood, because I couldn't share something that was going on in my life, because we had to spend some time helping someone go through a struggle that they're going through. Like, I would put my phone down more.
When someone started talking, I would count them more significant than my Facebook account, or whatever random text message conversation I had. I'd be listening more. If someone comes up to me with a struggle, and we're sitting down talking, and it's just something that is sucking the life out of them, I wouldn't be counting down the minutes on the clock. I wouldn't be counting down the seconds. I'd actually be paying attention, be willing to give some of my time, some of my life, to help encourage them. I just, I really think a lot of things that I get frustrated about, hurt over, upset about, which is genuinely, stop making me upset and hurt.
Like, if I acted like I was less important more often, I believe my life would get better. So what if we did this? What if, what if this is what all Christians look like? What if you began to treat others like they were more important than you? Like, what if their interests began to matter more than yours? Like, somebody in your group has an unexpected medical emergency.
Like, people would be sacrificing time to watch kids, to make meals, maybe even give them money for gas to go back and forth to the hospital, or pick up some of their bills. Like, what if a part of the money in your savings account was set aside to give to someone else when in time of need? What if, what if Christians all across South Carolina who got government assistance for their food, used their snap and wick benefits to help someone? What if they shared a jug of milk, or, or some vegetables, or just part of a meal? Like, they would begin to do, be able to do so much. What if all employers knew that Christians were willing to kind of come in early, to sacrifice some time from Netflix, to sacrifice sleeping in, to come in early?
What if they knew that when they were asked, that they would stay late, or they would cover a shift? Okay. So, have you ever gone out somewhere, and been grabbing some lunch with some friends, and, and someone just starts talking to you from the next table over? Like, they're just, they're yelling at you, basically, trying to get into your conversation. Like, they're at another table, and they just intrude themselves into your conversation. Like, your first thought wouldn't be, wow, this person's super annoying.
I wish that they would just stop. No, you would realize that this person's probably lonely. Like, maybe this guy at the next table over, who did intrude into my conversation, maybe he got an invite at the table. Even though, I know that he will talk to the point that I wouldn't get a word in edgewise, and he'll probably talk up until the point that we have to leave. He gets his seat at the table, and he doesn't get brushed off, he wouldn't get ignored, he wouldn't be made fun of when he left, or when my friends and I had to leave. Like, instead of treating him like he was annoying, and an enemy, he'd be treated like a friend.
Like, we would be free from being held back, and thinking in terms of what we couldn't do, and actually be looking at what we could and would do. So this all seems nearly impossible to do, and honestly super uncomfortable to think about. So who are you not counting more significant? Like, in what areas of your life are you the most important person in the room? Like, anybody you know fit into this category? Spouse?
Parent? Child? Coworker? Neighbor? Guy you passed by on the street? Person behind you in the checkout line?
Single mother in front of you in the checkout line who got her car declined trying to buy food? Or maybe it's someone in our community group. See, I have a lot of pushback when it comes to this stuff, and it's because I naturally put myself first. Like, I matter more than anyone else, and the thought of someone cutting me off in traffic, in line at Chick-fil-A, or in mid-sentence, infuriates me, because my time, my desire to be first, and my ability to be heard matters more than anyone else's. Like, I matter more to me than anyone else on the planet. Like, I'm more significant to me because my interests matter more, and honestly, because I think they're better.
Like, like, seriously, you have no idea how highly I think of myself. Like, in my mind, I am pretty much the best thing since sliced bread. And if I'm being honest, I kind of rank sliced bread second. I'm just trying to look humble. Like, Paul says, don't act like this. He says to treat others like they matter more than me.
And truthfully, I can see how beautiful counting others more significant than me is, while at the same time, feel how impossible it can be to do this all the time. But the amazing thing is, it's not just left at that. Like, we're told not to make it happen. We're not told to make it happen on our own. Paul goes on, starting back in verse 5. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.
Okay, have this mind among yourselves. What mind? So it's what we just talked about in verses 3 and 4. Which is yours in Christ Jesus. Okay, what does that look like? It's a mind where you're not motivated by selfish desire or pride.
It's one where you're elevating the values of others. While taking care of the responsibilities God has entrusted you, and also looking to see how you can be actively involved in helping others. Verse 6. Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. That was a loaded sentence. So, okay, so to make this a little bit more digestible, we're going to walk right back through it.
Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. Okay, so Jesus becomes a man. He doesn't demand his own way. He doesn't demand his own rights. He just doesn't. He humbles himself.
He's in the form of God, but he doesn't cling to it. He submits, and he lays down his rights. Like, we get a breathtaking example of humility and sacrifice, and we get to see what it looks like to place others above ourselves without conceit or selfish ambition. Like, Paul isn't saying that Jesus just emptied out a little bit of himself. He's not saying that he just poured out a little bit of his godness. He's not saying that.
His actual point is that Christ emptied himself by becoming something that he was not previously ever. He became something that required humility and ultimately his own humiliation. Like, Christ intentionally limited himself and left his throne to become a breathing, sweaty, physically dirty human being. He traded glory for grime. He was fully God and fully man. And in his decision to take the likeness of men, he did not look to his own position or status.
He did not count that position or status that is something he should protect and maintain, but instead he saw others lower than him. He saw us. He saw that in no way could we reach a right relationship with God without him. So he chose to lower himself to our status. Jesus emptied himself. Like, that's what we celebrate this time each year.
That's what we see when we see the precious moments nativity scenes where for some reason all the adults look like babies and we're like, oh, look how cute that is. But in all actuality we should be like, what? Jesus became that? Lord of all creation, king above kings became this? Jesus' humiliation gets to become a humble and joyful reminder of grace unfettered. It is less an ornament or display and more of a reminder of how Jesus' grace is boundless, matchless, and without limits.
Verse 8. In being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. This is what the gospel is. that in order to restore our relationship with God that we severed with sin, Jesus had to humble himself, humiliate himself, die on a cross for our sins, and rise from the dead three days later to show that he conquered sin and death on our behalf. Jesus did it for us because we can't do it on our own. We can't earn it and we don't achieve it. We never have and we never will.
Jesus was able to humble himself because he saw a need we had. He saw that our need required great cost to himself and he willfully paid it. And I think we take that for granted. Like I don't believe we realize the amount of humiliation he went through for us or how it was in response to our neediness. but he didn't focus on the cost for himself. He was focused on the need. He was focused on us.
And when we begin to focus on the needs of others above what it would cost us, we begin to have the same mind that Christ had. Because Jesus was not looking to hold or improve his position even though he was in a higher place of authority, power, and position than we were. He wasn't looking to improve that. Instead, he looked at our position of depravity without a sense of pride. Without a sense of, what's in it for me? And because he was able to look at us in humility, he was able to count us more significant than his position in glory.
He was able to look at our best interest, which was to be made right with God through himself to the point of death. Okay. So, a couple of weekends ago, I was going to get Chinese food for dinner. And the way the door is positioned, it's on a strip mall, and so there's a door here and there's a set of stairs right in front of the door, or right beside the door. And as I'm walking up, there's a man who appeared to be homeless with a crutch sitting on those steps. And I'm walking up and I look at him and say, hey, what's up, man?
And he goes, nothing much, what about you? I'm like, I'm good, I'm good, thanks. And I walk through the door and as it closes behind me, I think, you did a great high to that guy. I'm pretty sure no one else said hi to that guy. Look how selfless you are. Wow.
Gave myself one of these. And I kept going. There were two guys in front of me who were, over here in their conversation, were a part of a traveling gospel band. And so they were talking about the rigors of their schedule and how busy it was and how many shows they had to do in one night. And in front of them appeared to be a single mother and her child, and she was ordering her food. And as she's about to pay for it, one of the guys walks up and he takes out his card and he puts it and he hands it to the cashier.
And he says, no, you're good, I got this. And I thought, that was nice. Look at him. He did a great job. Like, I probably could have done that. I just didn't want to spend more money than I had to.
I didn't want to have to explain to Nadine why it was like $30 more than what it was supposed to be. I thought that. And so I ordered my food and then I sat down and I pulled out my little Nintendo DS and I started playing Pokemon and I was trying to catch them all and I started to think. That guy only did that because she was a single mom. Had that been anyone else, he would have done that. Had that been some old guy, he would not even care.
He would have made that man pay for his own meal. And as I'm smugly catching them all, I'm looking at this guy and he's looking at his phone and he goes, oh, and he walks to the door, opens it, looks at the man and says, hey, have you eaten today? And I was like, great. Way to prove me wrong, God. And overhearing their conversation, found out the man who was sitting out there hadn't eaten in two days. things. And I thought, this guy's going to run for his money.
He's going to look at that menu and he's just going to order everything he can get. Whatever form of prime rib and lobster tails is on a Chinese food restaurant, this guy's going to order like seven of them. And as I'm thinking this, the man crutches himself, that's a term, he crutches himself up into the counter and he orders a small wonton soup and a small pork lumi. He ordered the two cheapest things on the menu in the smallest quantity and I was crushed. Because in that moment, I realized something. I smugly judge people when they're being sacrificial.
I also realized that I didn't get it. because I was in the middle of writing this sermon about being sacrificial. I saw it happen before me. I judged it and I still didn't get it. That night, I got to see two things. One, I got to see how beautiful the church can actually be when we do this. I got to see it unfold before my eyes.
Not only was that man and that woman her child ministered to, who I was. I got to see how much the value of someone else eating mattered more than the value of a dollar sign. Like, I got a small picture of what it could be if Christians treated other people like they were more significant than themselves. themselves. I also got to see that I won't do this on my own and that I can't. That the most I get to bring to the table are a few empty words and a self-high five. Like, some false sense of humility and honestly, it's really all about me.
Because if I'm being truthful, I didn't say hi to that guy so he would feel better. Like, I said hi to that guy so I would feel better. that is my absolute best. That's what I bring. But Jesus had his interest in mind, Jesus had our interest in mind when he lowered himself to our level. He had our interest in mind when he went to the cross. Like, he gave up everything, sacrificed himself because he saw that we had a need that we couldn't fill, but he could.
Like, I got to understand that even though all I bring to the table are selfishness and false humility and self-high fives, that Jesus wipes the table clean and replaces it with his selflessness and his death and resurrection for me on the cross. So Paul says be like this. Think like this. See the world like this. Have this mind. Be this way.
And that's impossible except for the fact that that mind is already ours in Christ. Jesus took my place on the cross for the moments in life where I'm doing this exactly as Paul laid it out and for the moments when I'm barely even trying. He does it for us because he did it for us. And that's how we have this mind given to us. That is what this mind is. It's filling a need regardless of how thankful you think someone will be.
Like we get to be a people that knows when you're willing to put others before you their praise and adoration pales in comparison to the work of Jesus who came before us. It's like if you're a Christian you have this mind in Christ Jesus. And thank God he gives it to us because it is overwhelming. And it is so beautiful to see in practice. this is who we get to be. And this is us. Like it means that you count others more significant in your community group.
Like their interests are they become your interests. Like the way you see your spouse, your kids, the people in your neighborhood or the people in your apartment complex changes. Like the whole lens that we view life through changes. changes. And so as we have this mind among ourselves this year we get to take some of our time, some of our money, and we get to put in practice that those around us matter more than we do. We get to be a people who respond by treating the women of Samaritans well as more significant than ourselves because we have a God who treated us like we mattered more than he did.
So I'm going to pray and then Chet's going to come up and he's going to introduce us to what phase two looks like. Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you that because of you, God, because of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, because of Jesus' humility, that we get to be humble and we get to sacrifice for others. Thank you, God, that we are not told to do this on our own because left on our own we won't. Thank you for doing it for us. God, I pray that as we continue to talk about give, as we continue to talk about this series, Lord, that your Holy Spirit move in people to give to others around them, to not to look at their own needs for Christmas, God, but to intentionally look at others because of your sacrifice for them.
In your name I pray, God. Amen. Amen.
The Generosity of Jesus
Transcript
Well, it's Christmas season. I hope you're as excited as I am. And I'm not talking about just like the Hobby Lobby Christmas season, like 11 months of the year. I'm talking about actual post-Thanksgiving, none of that setting up early stuff, Christmas season. My favorite transition of the year, because more than anything else, pumpkin spice disappears and peppermint enters in. Can I get an amen?
For real. What is it that for you, when you think of the Christmas season, what is it for you that really kind of piques your interest? Is it cold weather, cozy nights by the fire? Or maybe it's Santa Claus and, you know, his Christmas cheer and the ho-ho-hos and all the little kids who get exactly what they want. Or maybe it's when you try to take a photo of your kids with Santa and everything falls apart. Maybe it's the stress of buying the perfect gift so that everyone's happy on Christmas.
That's kind of hard to represent in a photo, but I stole this from a segment from Jimmy Kimmel, where they deliberately give hopeless presents to their kids. And she got a half-eaten sandwich. And her brother turns to her and says, can't you just be thankful for what you got? And she was like, no. Maybe Christmas season is your opportunity to let people know exactly what you want, either subtly or not so subtly from a stage. Maybe drop a hint here and there.
Maybe you're the type of person who goes completely overboard with your decorations. That's not us. I found it on the Googles. I promise. Maybe you're the kind of person who navigates seasons based off of what Starbucks is selling at the time. So you will know that, of course, the pumpkin spice latte disappears and the peppermint mocha comes out, which is perfect because there's nothing better than peppermint and chocolate combined into one thing.
I love it. Maybe for you, it's all about getting your entire awkward family together, regardless of whether or not you get matching pajamas or matching shirts or whatever. I particularly like in this photo all the kids who are like, seriously, we have to do this again. Maybe for you, Christmas is all about nostalgia, getting nostalgic about your favorite movies, the old school ones, the comedies, the kids' movies. Maybe you're being paranoid about being left alone by your parents. Maybe you're one of the type who actually thinks Will Ferrell's funny and you like Elf.
Shame on you. Maybe your name is Chet Phillips. And the only thing you think of at Christmas is sugar cookie eggnog and how it's been discontinued since 2011. And you blame Walmart, you blame Kroger, you blame Hood, you blame everyone. It's the Grinch's fault, Chet. Maybe you love Christmas because it's the only time of year that you get to legitimately pull out your Mariah Carey CD.
There is no other time. You cannot do it. It's fun to sit up. I'm actually going to take this off. It's melting my head right now. It's fun to sit up here and make fun of Christmas.
And I think we all get it and we all think it's funny because part of us knows, right? Part of us knows that even though it's fun, even though it's funny, even though we do all these crazy things, we've kind of collectively lost our minds. What in the world is any of that stuff about? It's fun. Don't get me wrong. I buy into it.
I love Christmas. But seriously, how did all of those things develop? Where did they come from? And yet still, even though we know we're insane, we break out the ugly Christmas sweater, we pump up the Mariah Carey, we decorate our trees, and we stress over gifts for no reason. And hey, I buy into it. I buy into any season where I can be in a foreign country and they take off their red, white, and blue glasses and put on red, white, and green glasses and have fun for an entire month.
Excellent. But here's the thing. In all the hype, in all the Christmas cheer, it's pretty easy to miss the point. And I know that there's plenty of people who will go around, be it in real life, kind of like on the streets, and on Facebook, being the Facebook warriors that they are, who will remind you that Jesus is the reason for the season. And it's true, and we know that, but the reminder doesn't really help. It doesn't do anything tangible.
And so we have all these people who say, Jesus is the reason for the season, and they share passive things on their Facebook wall, like, you know, random a cappella covers of songs by pentatonics that they come out with every year, like, Mary, did you know? Yes, she did, by the way. Mary knew. An angel of God came to her while she was a virgin and said, you're going to have a baby. His name will be Emmanuel, and that is God with us. Mary knew.
So maybe the song, this is just a suggestion, maybe the song should be, Mary, do you remember what the angel said when she came to you as a virgin and told you that you were going to give birth to Emmanuel, which means God with us? It needs a little work. I haven't fixed the timing of it yet, but at least it's true, guys. Every year at Mill City, we take time during this season, and we try to cut through the white noise. Culture gives a whole lot of messages about, this is what you need to do, this is what Christmas is all about, this is what you need to achieve this Christmas, this is where you've got to shop, that kind of stuff.
And we try to focus on what actually matters. What can we, how can we, during the mayhem of Christmas, during all the craziness that goes on, actually point people towards the gospel in a tangible way? What can we do to love our friends, neighbors, and our city like Jesus did? How can we, rather than buying into the Christmastime cultural consumerism, instead buy into Christmas, the kingdom message of Christmas? That's where our Give series, that's where our Give series comes from. Because Jesus, who was in very nature God, humbled himself and was born as a human baby.
That's Philippians chapter 2. He was rich and for our sake he became poor. That's 2 Corinthians 8. He gave himself up for us to deliver us from sin. That's Galatians chapter 1. The king of the universe, he had everything that is.
He sacrificed that in order to become a poor human baby. That's what we celebrate at Christmas. So, during our annual Give series, we remind ourselves that the season doesn't have to be about bells, doesn't have to be about ornaments, isn't all I want for Christmas is you, but instead we align ourselves with Jesus and we sacrifice what we have to show kindness to others. That's what our Give series is all about. We want to replace the material expectation of the culture with open-handed generosity. Let's pray for that.
Amen. Amen. Amen. God, we pray this morning that you'll be showing, you'll be diagnosing in our hearts where we believe a cultural narrative about Christmas. That it's all about us, that it's all about gifts, that it's all about decorations and good cheer. God, I pray that throughout our Give series, you'll be showing us ways where we can be sacrificial like Jesus and that we can be seeking after Him in the way that we love each other and love our world.
It's in His name we pray. Amen. You can grab a Bible, open up to 2 Corinthians 8, chapter 9. If you're in one of the blue pew Bibles that we've got, that's going to be on page 628. We're going to be sticking mainly to 2 Corinthians 8, verse 9 today. It's going to be our main verse.
We're going to read all the way up into it, but just to kick us off, I'm going to read chapter 8, verse 9. It says, Throughout our entire Give series, we're going to talk about generosity. How do we be generous? How do we sacrifice? What is generosity in serving? And how can we use that for mission?
Today, though, we're really going to get at the core of why. Why be generous at all? What motivates our generosity? Now, I have a pretty rational brain. I tend to see the relationships between all of life's elements somewhat like equations, like A plus B equals C. I'm typically very black and white, and I don't have a lot of wiggle room for the gray areas, and that can get you in trouble.
But I think, for the most part, it helps me see clearly where relationships kind of occur. And I'm going to use that a little later on to point out a very clear relationship in this verse to explain our motivation for generosity. But first, let's take a look at the immediate context, everything that comes up immediately before that in this chapter so far. So we're going to jump up to chapter 8, verse 1, and make our way up to chapter 9. So let's read from 8, verse 1.
We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, and I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. Here's what's going on. Paul, the Apostle Paul, was taking up an offering for all of the churches, the poor churches down in Jerusalem. So if you've got the Mediterranean here, Israel's down here.
All the poor churches in Jerusalem down here really need some financial support. And all the way up around the coast is Macedonia. And the churches up here, who themselves are quite poor, answer the call and start funneling money through Paul down to the churches in Jerusalem. What's interesting is that he describes their giving as, he explains their state as being extremely poor. Out of their extreme poverty flowed a wealth of generosity on their part. They gave according to their means, and he says, beyond their means.
And they begged earnestly for the right to do it. And by generosity, notice also, just real quick, notice that he means money. It's talking about financial generosity. And even though they were poor, they gave over and above what anyone could possibly have expected from them. All the way to the point that Paul labels it as the grace of God that has been given among the church of Macedonia. That's huge.
He calls their extreme giving, out of their poverty, God's grace. There's a direct relationship between financial, generous financial giving and God's grace. Now oftentimes, and I'm guilty of this as well, oftentimes we convince ourselves, I'm just, I'm too poor to give money. Money is not a thing that I have a lot of, and so I'm going to give lots of time instead. Time is something that I'm rich in, so whether it's volunteer work or even if it's in the church, in ministry, that kind of thing, we tell ourselves, I don't have any money, so I can't give money, but I can give my time, so I'm going to give that instead.
And we kind of pat ourselves on the back and we think, I've done a good job of giving to the church. Notice that that's not really at all what's going on here, but I can understand it. In fact, I've been there and I've done that and every now and then I continue to do that as well. But when I first moved here, a lot of you will know I moved here from Australia just over four years ago. When I first moved here, I went jobless for three years. I was studying in seminary, no Job, no income, no anything, for three whole years, which meant that my ballot sheet was blood red for three years.
And you know what you make friends with, you know how to make friends at that time, you go to Walmart. Walmart became my best friend for three years. And you know what, guys? Walmart gets a hard time. But as a student from another country who's never seen anything like it, there is nothing better than doing your groceries while picking up a new pair of jeans and a microwave and a shower curtain and a pack of Sharpies at 4 a.m. in the morning.
Nowhere else in the world gives you that freedom. And America is all about freedom, right? Somehow, Walmart is both the best and the worst thing about America all combined into one thing. And I say that to say that I know what it means to be hurting financially and to kind of have to aim at that level of shopping. And for the longest time, I just, I couldn't give regularly. It wasn't a thing that I was able to do.
I literally had no income. And so all that time, I was serving in the church, this church, convincing myself that was enough. I'm doing the best I can. And what I didn't realize is that after what Paul says in verse 2, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. I was missing out on that abundance of joy. I was missing out on that because I'd convinced myself I need the money.
It's all mine. I couldn't, I couldn't give it away. An abundance of joy sounds pretty great to me. And yet, I robbed myself of it over money. Now I get it.
If you don't have a whole lot of money to spare, if you have already cut expenses where you think you can, if you're living kind of at the line, not below the line, but at the line already, and you're just doing what you can to keep the family safe and keep the family fed and that kind of stuff, giving financially is tough. It is. My guess though, is that there's probably some room, probably some room for all of us to cut something out, even if it's for a month or two, in order to make some room for generosity around Christmas. Now, there is a possibility that perhaps if you truly, truly are hurting, if you truly, truly cannot give, and in fact, you need the help yourself, I don't want you to hear from the message this morning that you need to give even though you need help.
Because actually, oops, actually, as the church, our response to people who need help is to help them. And so, in Acts chapter 2, which is kind of how we have designed our church, in Acts chapter 2, it talks about how they all sold their positions and distributed the money to those in need. And we still function like that as a church. So, if you're truly hurting, our response to you isn't, cut something out, give money away. Our response to you is, how can we help? So anyway, I don't know your circumstances.
I don't think anyone knows your circumstances except for you. But, I'm saying all of this to say, I don't want money. We don't want money to rob you of being God's grace to other people. Don't want your love of money and the ability to buy stuff for yourself to rob you of the ability of helping other people who need it. The church that Paul writes about, the churches of Macedonia, they gave more than they could really afford. But it also says that they begged for the privilege to do so.
That's kind of crazy. They wanted so badly to help others even when they couldn't really afford to. They didn't just scrape off the excess, they dug into their savings account. Now for us, I don't really know how to, it's hard to say what it would look like today, but it would be almost like if a homeless person gets $10, could probably get themselves food for two days if they chose wisely. But instead of doing that, they chose to take another homeless maid of theirs out and go get McDonald's and they share a meal together off of the $10 that he made rather than feeding himself for a couple days.
It's the family that literally survives on food stamps who invite their neighbor over to share a meal with them anyway, even though they need the food themselves. Now most of us, I think, are in a pretty different place to that, so I don't want to be a super downer, but most of us are in a pretty different place to that. And self-sacrifice is going to look different. It's not going to be so ambitious. But it can take some pretty obvious and easy steps.
Let's take just one pretty easy example and kind of walk down a ladder. Let's say you are the direct TV fully loaded package kind of family. Sacrifice for your family if you're already at that level may look like let's cut direct TV for a year and go to Time Warner Cable because it's cheaper even though the service is kind of lame. Let's just go down there. That way we save 30 or 40 bucks a month and we can set that aside and give that away. We're sacrificing as a family.
We're not going to deal with all that good stuff anymore. We're going to set that aside and go to something more basic. Maybe you're already at that second level and you think maybe we'll cut out our cable subscription and go to the internet only package pick up a Netflix account or something like that and just survive on that for a while. And then you can save another 30 bucks a month and distribute that however you feel is working for you. Maybe you're already at that level the Netflix level and you think maybe I should start reading my books that I've been saving for seven years and I don't know maybe learn to read again and just cut the Netflix subscription and then you've at least got what is it now nine dollars a month that can be given away to something.
Whatever it is for you we don't know your circumstances I don't know your circumstances I can't tell you what you should do or what's the right level of whatever whatever it is what does it look like for self-sacrifice to come for you because as Paul said in chapter 8 they did it out of their extreme poverty and an abundance of joy flowed out of it. Let's keep reading verse 5 he says and this when he says this he's talking about that abundance of joy coming from extreme poverty and sacrificially giving and this not as we expected but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. Their primary allegiance was to God they were completely devoted to him and as a result through that relationship they were generous to the other churches just down the road who were struggling. Verse 6 Accordingly we urged Titus that as he had started so he should complete among you this act of grace but as you excel in everything in faith in speech in knowledge in all earnestness and in our love for you see that you excel in this act of grace also.
And in our love for you see that you excel in this act of grace also. Paul's saying good Job guys you're crushing it you've got this you've got the faith down you're excelling in faith you're excelling in speech you're excelling in knowledge you're saying good things you're doing good things you know some good stuff
Just don't forget to be a part of this act of grace as well. Don't forget to be a part of this sacrificial giving thing as well. and then look again at actually let's go to verse 8 he says I say this not as a command but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine Paul says
I'm not forcing you to give your money away nobody's telling you that this is a command and that you absolutely have to do it to earn God's favor you don't have to give your money away but when you do that sincere love reflects Jesus it shows how much you love Jesus
In your ability to give to others now let's look at today's verse which is verse 9 for you know by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for our sake he became poor so that you by his poverty might become rich
Christ's grace that is the grace of Christ defines motivates and puts into perspective our generosity grace is an undeserved gift the gift that we did not deserve that he gave us anyway and Christ's grace to us is that
Even though we turned away from God even though we chose sin as our life direction even though we chose to reject a relationship with him he humbled himself to be born as a human baby so that we might pay attention to him
He became a human a perfect human one who was completely without fault so that in his death in his sacrifice he could atone for our sin that's the message of the gospel that while we were still sinners Christ died for us he took a step away from his
Throne came into our world and gave up his life in order to restore our relationship to the father that's what it's talking about when it says Christ's grace so let me say this again the grace of Christ defines motivates and puts
Into perspective a generosity that's a big statement that even though he was rich he became poor so that by us his poverty might become rich he had everything he gave up to be chilling in heaven where time space distance
Hunger pain none of that even exists and he gave up that completely full completely holy completely powerful he gave all of that up to become a human to be born as a baby which is
Basically a crying potato he gave up all of that to become a baby so that he could be bound to a place bound to a time feel pain feel hunger feel temptation to become
A traveling homeless unpopular preacher who would eventually be killed by the people that he was trying to save when he was killed he had one item of clothing that was worth fighting over that's all
That he had to his name was one item of clothing that people gambled over so they could have something that was left over from him and he did it all he did all of that left the throne came down
To earth born as a human baby so that we could know the father that's our God our God became a nobody so that nobodies could find God no other story talks about a God like that our God became a nobody so that
Nobodies could find God so I talked earlier about how I've got a logical brain I think this is where it kicks in as a result of what he said in chapter 8 verse 9 our generosity the way that we're open handed with our money our generosity is a reflexive response
To God's grace in our lives our generosity our giving sacrificially of ourselves is a response to what God has already done for us we don't give because we're good people we don't give because we're really into philanthropy we don't give because the Bible rule book tells me I
Have to in fact it says this is not a command we don't give because we're altruistic do-gooders we give as a response to God's grace so to put it in mathematical terms or physics terms God's grace is the action and our giving
Is the reaction God's grace is the action our giving is the reaction let me say that one more time God's grace is the action our giving is a reaction now the physics nerds in the room they're probably going to really like that because it
Sounds a whole lot like Newton's third law of motion and then you think about it a little harder and you remember that Newton's third law of motion says that for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction emphasis on equal for every action
There's an equal and opposite reaction meaning that if we apply it to what we just said God's grace is the action our giving is the equal reaction go ponder that one you physics nerds but seriously the point is that we give
Because he gave first and we give in reaction to what he's already given to us it's not about us it's never been about us in fact our generosity is an act of grace and we're doing it in order to glorify Jesus
Not ourselves Christians they don't give to glorify themselves we don't give so that others will see us we give because we've seen Jesus our motivation isn't selfish our motivation cannot
Be selfish our motivation is that Christ gave up a lot for me so I'm going to give up a lot for Christ so what does that actually mean for us I actually think that at Christmas time that actually
Becomes an easier question to answer mainly because we're really hyper exposed to materialism at Christmas time and everyone kind of knows it even outside of the church
Outside of believers everyone knows that Christmas time is a really materialistic time so I think it becomes an easier question to answer now the best
Answer is just to pass on the cultural narrative to pass on the cultural narrative that Christmas is all about the perfect gift the
Ornaments the decorating the cheer the happy family the mariah carey album the starbucks whatever it is or complaining about the starbucks cup or whatever
It is Christmas isn't about all of that now those things can be fun no problem with enjoying them they're just not the point
And I think that's where typically we get it twisted as a church we don't just say don't get involved in the cultural narrative
We actually try to redirect so it's not just don't get involved in the cultural mess we actually say here's something better to get
Involved in and that's why we have a give series because we say instead of getting involved in that open up your wallets and
Give financially to something that's actually going to make an Christmas time is a time when a lot of people in our city who are already
In need feel it the most they feel the need year round but there's a certain pressure that comes along with just the Christmas
Time to buy the perfect stuff to be the happy family to have it all together that sting of being unable to provide is
Particularly harsh at Christmas time so as a church every year around this time we get really excited to give away all of our money we
Commit to giving at Christmas we see Christmas for what it actually is which is a time when we remember that Christ has done a lot for us and
So we can do a lot for him at Christmas we thank Jesus for his generosity to us and we give generously as a response and
If you're new around here part of what we do every year is we host the give series and then we pick a give
Project throughout the years we pick a give project and collectively as a church we commit to funding pulling off whatever we've chosen as
A project throughout the years we've done a couple things we've grown as a church so it's kind of progressively gotten bigger each year
We started off with what we called love bombs which is where we picked particular families who were in need around the city and
Each of our community groups raised support for whatever that family needed the next year we did we bought presents for over 100 kids
Families they otherwise probably wouldn't have got Christmas presents that year and on either side of this stage we set up boards with all
Of their names and a little cutout and people swarmed up to grab a name so they could go home and buy gifts for
Those people last year we were involved in flood recovery both in financially supporting it and in actually pulling off the work involved in
Flood it's been pretty exciting throughout the years to be involved in all of these different gift projects and so we're incredibly excited this year
To be partnering with a sub ministry of Christ Central Ministries called Samaritan's Well it's actually in Lexington Samaritan's Well is a shelter and a transition home
For women often with children who have come out of a variety of rough situations be it abusive or neglectful or homelessness and it's
A ministry that tries to help these women in those tough situations get back on their feet now usually what happens as we introduce a
Give series is we'll talk about generosity giving financially and we'll introduce the series on week one and then we'll just start collecting money until the end and
Then we'll deal with the money kind of at the end of the end of the series we're not doing it like that this
Year at all in fact today there's going to be an opportunity to respond financially this year we're shaking it up and we're going to
Respond in phases so if you're a position where responding financially immediately is a thing you can do then today is a great day for you if
You're in a position where responding financially immediately isn't necessarily something you can do you there are currently six women and they're combined seven children
At Samaritan's Well as a church we want to provide the opportunity for these families to celebrate at Christmas so this week as a church we're going
To commit to these six women and seven children each down here on our little janky old school pallet Christmas tree you'll see that
There's 13 little stockings that look like this each one of those represents one of the women or one of the seven children we
Want to provide a $50 gift card for each and every one of those stockings each and every one of those women and children
At Samaritan's Well as a church that's a total commitment of $650 and given the support that we've raised for previous give series I'm pretty
Handled that now remember you actually I know it's over here and you guys have a long way to go but you don't have to
Fight over it because there is subsequent phases and series weeks we're also going to be collecting money for other things as well now here
Are the rules slash guidelines for this week's phase one of our give project which is for Samaritan's Well rule number one only commit
To this give project as a response to Jesus' generosity to you do not commit for any other reason we don't want your money
We want a generous heart in our church that's rule number one rule number two this is more of a guideline let's take guideline
Number two I'm gonna swap it up halfway through if fifty dollars is a huge commitment but you still want to give and you
Have permission to pick someone and organize as a two or three or four or five if you need to break out your phone
Or text someone who's not here because you really want to give and you can't afford the fifty but you want to split it
Some way you have permission go ahead team up organize ways to get the Job done in and amongst yourselves That's guideline number two. Guideline number three. Do not push each other to the ground in a mad frenzy to come and claim one.
I realize I shouldn't have to say that, but I've seen you all respond to give projects before. And when 120 names disappeared in 17 seconds flat a couple years ago, I figured that given there's only 13 things over there, we just might have to make an announcement on that. Remember, if you miss out today because you chose to sit all the way over here and you didn't know that the Give Project was going to have stuff down the front and you didn't realize that those things weren't just decorations and you really want to do it, but someone else beats you there, you can sit in this front row next week. It's always empty. Rule number four. Once you've claimed a gift card, once you've claimed a stocking and you've committed to getting a gift card, we want you to be prepared to bring that back next week. There's going to be a table set up somewhere over there.
There's a Give table. And we're going to collect all of those next week so that we can actually make some moves on this Give, on phase one of the Give Project. So if you're going to pick one up this week, be prepared to come back next week to deliver on that. We're suggesting for gift cards kind of like a Walmart or a Target or a Visa card, that kind of thing. That way our families have some flexibility on whether they want to get clothes or toys or that kind of thing. We kind of want them to have a good opportunity to get whatever they need. Let's steer away from restaurants and that kind of stuff because we really want them to be able to buy some stuff that they might need. Rule number five. In order to give some time for the people
Who need help getting together and grouping up and stuff, in order to give them some time, we're actually going to wait. We're not going to respond immediately. We're not going to jump up right now. We're going to wait until the gathering today is kind of concluded. There's going to be songs. Chet's going to give some announcements, that kind of stuff. We're going to wait until it's concluded and when everything's over, that's when we're going to make a move and grab a stocking and respond to it then. Those are the five rules. We really want to aim to have all of those stockings gone today. That's phase one of our gift project. We're going to raise $650 to support these women and their kids celebrating Christmas together and we want to get that done today.
Once all of these have been claimed, this is still tentative. This is not necessarily happening but we want our groups particularly to be open to the possibility that if and when these women and their kids need help to go out and get the shopping done, like they may not, we don't know all of their situations, if they need a ride, if they want to go out and get dinner, like maybe your group could sponsor to take them out to dinner and then go to Walmart or go to Target or whatever to help them out when it comes time to actually using the gift cards. That's a great opportunity for us if we can make it happen to not just be a faceless church that sponsors them but actually to invest in them personally,
To begin a relationship, to invite them into our groups, to invite them into our lives and to make sure that they're actually building hearing the gospel as well. We want to make ourselves available to them so that gospel conversations can happen as best we can. Guys, I think we are, I think we have an exciting and incredible opportunity today to serve these women and since Christ loved us first, we get to respond with glad, sincere, and generous hearts. Let's pray for that. God, I want to thank you for the generosity of the Macedonian church and how they can be an example thousands of years later to us of what it looks like
To sacrifice so that others can have their needs provided for. Thank you for the Christmas season and that it's a joyful time where friends and family can get together. But I pray that that we will keep our eyes focused on you, that we will respond, that we will respond to the Christmas season as those who have been saved by your grace. I pray that you will work through us in this season to not buy into the cultural consumerism, to not buy into the cultural narrative that tells us that Christmas is
All about us, all about joy, all about Santa, all about gifts, but instead that it's about making Jesus known. It's in his name that we pray. Amen.
I realize I shouldn't have to say that, but I've seen you all respond to give projects before. And when 120 names disappeared in 17 seconds flat a couple years ago, I figured that given there's only 13 things over there, we just might have to make an announcement on that. Remember, if you miss out today because you chose to sit all the way over here and you didn't know that the Give Project was going to have stuff down the front and you didn't realize that those things weren't just decorations and you really want to do it, but someone else beats you there, you can sit in this front row next week. It's always empty.
Rule number four. Once you've claimed a gift card, once you've claimed a stocking and you've committed to getting a gift card, we want you to be prepared to bring that back next week. There's going to be a table set up somewhere over there. There's a Give table. And we're going to collect all of those next week so that we can actually make some moves on this Give, on phase one of the Give Project. So if you're going to pick one up this week, be prepared to come back next week to deliver on that.
We're suggesting for gift cards kind of like a Walmart or a Target or a Visa card, that kind of thing. That way our families have some flexibility on whether they want to get clothes or toys or that kind of thing. We kind of want them to have a good opportunity to get whatever they need. Let's steer away from restaurants and that kind of stuff because we really want them to be able to buy some stuff that they might need. Rule number five. In order to give some time for the people who need help getting together and grouping up and stuff, in order to give them some time, we're actually going to wait.
We're not going to respond immediately. We're not going to jump up right now. We're going to wait until the gathering today is kind of concluded. There's going to be songs. Chet's going to give some announcements, that kind of stuff. We're going to wait until it's concluded and when everything's over, that's when we're going to make a move and grab a stocking and respond to it then.
Those are the five rules. We really want to aim to have all of those stockings gone today. That's phase one of our gift project. We're going to raise $650 to support these women and their kids celebrating Christmas together and we want to get that done today. Once all of these have been claimed, this is still tentative. This is not necessarily happening but we want our groups particularly to be open to the possibility that if and when these women and their kids need help to go out and get the shopping done, like they may not, we don't know all of their situations, if they need a ride, if they want to go out and get dinner, like maybe your group could sponsor to take them out to dinner and then go to Walmart or go to Target or whatever to help them out when it comes time to actually using the gift cards.
That's a great opportunity for us if we can make it happen to not just be a faceless church that sponsors them but actually to invest in them personally, to begin a relationship, to invite them into our groups, to invite them into our lives and to make sure that they're actually building hearing the gospel as well. We want to make ourselves available to them so that gospel conversations can happen as best we can. Guys, I think we are, I think we have an exciting and incredible opportunity today to serve these women and since Christ loved us first, we get to respond with glad, sincere, and generous hearts. Let's pray for that.
God, I want to thank you for the generosity of the Macedonian church and how they can be an example thousands of years later to us of what it looks like to sacrifice so that others can have their needs provided for. Thank you for the Christmas season and that it's a joyful time where friends and family can get together. But I pray that that we will keep our eyes focused on you, that we will respond, that we will respond to the Christmas season as those who have been saved by your grace. I pray that you will work through us in this season to not buy into the cultural consumerism, to not buy into the cultural narrative that tells us that Christmas is all about us, all about joy, all about Santa, all about gifts, but instead that it's about making Jesus known.
It's in his name that we pray. Amen.