James Richards

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Sunday Morning Service

Jeremy Richards

Copalis Community Church

12 January 2025

Bible References

• Philippians 2:3-9

Audio MP3 PDF

So we're in Philippians 2, Philippians 2. Now we ended last time I shared in chapter 2, 3, 4. It says let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. But in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Would you unplug that?

Anna? The top one. Thank you so much. All right, so there is an attitude in you and I that is based on selfish ambition and conceit which prevents us from serving those individuals around us. We feel at times that our leisure is worth more than the time of our neighbors.

We value what we have. We feel that other people are of a degree or a station that they don't deserve to have the investment of our time in their lives based on selfish ambition and conceit. The valuing of ourself higher than others or putting our plans above that or other people. I would say that if you've been alive this week, if you existed and if you've been breathing, this has been something that you've had to encounter. There's been a pull on you by other people's that has not always been answered in a biblical way.

Amen.

But we're told here to modify our behavior based on a different scenario that we're encouraged to take a different perspective that might enable us to live more like Christ. It says in verse four, let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but the interests of others. The goal is for us to put on glasses that views the interests of others to the same degree that we view our own. Now there is some truth and there does need to be a little bit of carefulness that sometimes we end up valuing others interests more than our own. And that is also dangerous but is not exactly what we're talking about here.

In verse 5 we're told says let this mind be in you. Which was also in Christ Jesus. Our example or that standard were to attain to in serving other people should be based on the model that Jesus Christ gave. And so we're going to look at that model. To what degree did Jesus have to come to in order to serve humankind?

What did he have to put aside? What selflessness and what lack of ambition did he have to put aside in order to serve you and I? And what degree did he go to to serve us? So first of all we're going to have to in order to understand this in verse six, we're going to have to look at who Jesus is. Who Jesus is.

Some people consider him a good teacher, some people worse. But a biblical idea of who Jesus is gives us the correct perspective that we need to serve other people. In verse 6, it says of Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal to God. Oftentimes in a family there will be a father and a son. And people will say, you know, that he looks just like you.

He is the spitting image of you. And we'll see. Sometimes this young child want to be like their father. And so they'll dress up like their father. They'll put on his coat and his pants and his shoes and they walk around and their hands don't even come out of the end of the sleeves.

Right. The shoes are like skin and the pants don't even stay up. But they look and you realize the Son is not actually just like the Father. They're different here. But we see that it says, who, being in the form of God, just as the child is different than a father, but we see of Jesus that he fits the form of God.

It says in Hebrews that he is the expression image of his person. He says of himself, I and my Father are one.

In Colossians. I'm just going to turn there.

It says in verse 19, for it pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell. That here we see that Jesus Christ fully fills the form of God Almighty, that He exists, that when he wears the clothing of God, he fully fills it. He says, being in the form of God. It says continue in verse six. Did not consider it robbery.

To be equal with God. Did not consider it robbery. We had an interesting experience this week. We are turning over from a sole proprietorship to an llp. And so we're trying to gather all of our paperwork has been kind of a fiasco.

But we contacted the bank and we said, you know, with the bank, we would like all of our accounts to be on the same page. This llp, we want in with our other accounts. And so they did. But they also included a third account into it. It was wonderful.

So we had two accounts and we had a certain amount of money, but they gave us another account and it had 87, $7,000 in it. And it was great. And I said to myself, you know, I have been starting the fires for the Church lately. It's really that the Church and I are one. What the Church has is really mine, and what I have is the Church's.

And so I thought, you know, it's no problem to take what belongs to the church and bring it into my account. I have that authority right now. They gave it the church account is on my page with my mouse I can take $87,000 and put it into my account and it's not robbery for very long, right? Until someone begins a question. Wait a minute.

Cheryl says we used to have $87,000 but now we don't where to go. But Jesus did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. It would have been robbery for me to take the church's money. Just everyone knows the church's account is no longer on my page and I believe every cent is still there. Right?

But Jesus did not consider it robbery. There are things that are very important. The first thing that he has to be considered is, is, is it robbery for Jesus to use the same titles as God? Titles of God. In order for him to be equal with God, he would use the same titles of God.

I just want to ask you what are the titles that Jesus uses where it's not considered robbery for him to use them? If I came to you today and said I am President Trump, it would be a form of robbery taking a title that belonged to him and assuming it for myself when I am not him. But Jesus uses titles. So I just want to ask everyone because I probably wouldn't remember them all, what are the titles that Jesus uses for himself and is used about Jesus titles?

One of the big ones is I am. This was the covenant name of God. It was revealed to Moses at the burning bush. I am that I am. He not only says I am, but John is just chock full of examples of Jesus using titles for himself where he says I am the way, the truth and the life.

I am the good shepherd, I am the door and several other things. It's interesting after multitude of a few of those examples, when he says I am, what's the response of the Jewish leaders? They want to stone him. They says, you are robbing the title of God. But Jesus never apologized.

He does not consider it robbery to use the titles of God. What other titles do we have that Jesus is? What's that? King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the first and the Last, Prince of Peace, Wonderful counselor, Almighty God. It's just he does not consider it robbery to use the titles of God Almighty.

Other thing that he does not consider it robbery is to use the tools of God. Now my family has always traditionally been dewalt, right? And batteries and tools just kind of freely circulate among the family until some of my other kids started thinking that their tools belonged to them and they started writing their names on the batteries and I didn't quite understand this. And then it got even worse when Isaiah decided that he wanted to go red and started buying Milwaukee tools. And they don't work with mine anymore.

Right? And some of my children have gone so far to say that it's considered almost robbery to be using their batteries. But Jesus says he does not consider it robbery to use the tools of God. Those tools which only belong to God, which cannot be shared with anyone else, that only he has the power to use. It would be a wrong thing for me to give to, let's say, Othniel, one of my chainsaws.

Because it's dangerous for someone who can't. Isn't trained or old enough or skillful to use a tool. But Jesus says it's not robbery for him to use the tools of God. And so again, what are the tools of God that Jesus uses the tools of God.

Anyone know? What is it that only God can do that Jesus does? He heals. Right. What's that again?

Forgiveness of sin. That he is the judge, that he forgives sin, that gives life to whom he will. He calls those things which do not ex. Exist as though they did anything else.

Okay, the healer. Amen. That Jesus picks up these tools of God and uses them with no thought. He claims that they belong to him and does not ask forgiveness from. He does not consider it robbery to use the tools of the Godhead.

And by extension, Jesus also accepts the worship of God for himself. He does not consider it robbery to receive the worship of God on his own person. For any other being, no matter how high of an angel, no matter how well built or stature is, anything that is created by nature cannot receive worship.

It says, one of the strongest and first commandments of God is, you shall not worship any other God before me. And yet Jesus willingly receives worship from men and women and does not consider it robbery. Jesus being in the form of God, fully filling the space of God, the exact representation of his person being, not considering it robbery to use the titles and the tools of God and to receive worship as God. This individual made a decision to serve. But he had to go go a distance to do service.

He couldn't serve them in the way that was required. In the position that he held from all eternity. He became the firstborn of all creation. And it says in verse seven. But he made himself of no reputation.

Now, when you and I are babies, we think we are the center of the universe. It doesn't matter what kind of event there is, no matter how solemn or how professional a baby will declare Their right to be heard in the midst of whatever solemn assembly. They're hungry and they just scream. Could be a church service. It could be the swearing in of the president.

A child just says, no, I am number one. The solar system revolves around me.

But by the time you get to be older, you start to recognize and you wonder, do I have any significance at all? I feel like a mayfly. Born, live and die in the same day. We are that grass that grows upon the housetop which withers before it's grown. We are that vapor which is just gone when the heat rises.

We are nothing. The whole solar system goes on as if we never even existed. And Jesus came and made himself like you and I, which is described of no reputation. He took a step down in order that he might serve individuals. You and I may feel that we are of a certain amount more valuable than other people around you.

They may be below our station or not, raised up or not, be as clean or not be in the financial security or whatever reason that we sometimes choose to snub people. But Jesus Christ chose to take a step down and made himself of no reputation in order that he might serve. It says, not only did he make himself of no reputation like you and I, it says he took the form in verse seven, taking the form of a bondservant. There was nobody in the world's history that took it upon themselves to serve people like Jesus did. That man was harried and pressed and pushing from before light until afterwards that sick people and hungry people and diseased people and demon possessed people and all kinds of people were content continually pressing upon him to have their needs met.

And he continually took the role of a bondservant. His family came to him and said, we have got to get to this individual. The amount of service he is doing for other people is going to kill him. But Jesus said to him, these are my family, these are my mother, these are the people I am going to serve. He took on himself the form of a bondservant, so much more so that even at the time of his death, he was willing to wash the feet of the individuals who were going to flee and betray him that he chose to serve them.

No one has ever existed that has chosen to serve people so much as Jesus did. His clothing, everything he wore was for the express benefit of serving other people.

It says he came in the likeness of Men, verse 8. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death. Even the death of the cross that this individual, who by nature was God, had the glory of God, brought himself to a position of no reputation, being nothing more than a servant, he humbled himself and went so far in his service of the people he loved that he became even obedient to death in order to serve them. A death so gruesome and so wicked and so painful, so hurtful, that he was hung upon a cross in order to serve other people. In verse nine, we're going to see, therefore God has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name.

We're going to get that probably next time I get the chance to chair. But in closing, I would like to encourage you and I serving people. You and I have a tendency to have selfish ambition and conceit as the rules by which we regulate our behavior is service to other people. The foundation of our mental processing is founded on cassit and selfish ambition. In Philippians, Paul is trying to change that form of thinking into one that is modeled by the life of Jesus Christ, that there's no question that he went and stooped so much lower than we will ever be able to in our service of anyone.

The effort he exerted is more than we could ever come up with. And we are called to serve other people. Sometimes we're of the opinion that we would serve with Frazier in Newfoundland, across the icebergs, or we would penetrate the Congo with David Livingston, or be there in South America with Elliot, or all these other amazing examples of service which people have been called to by God. And I would just say, I hope so. You know, if God's preparing you for that, if that's your purpose in life, it's a beautiful thing.

It is to serve other people. But in the meantime, right, in the meantime, there is still a. A very real service that you and I are called to more than God calling us to go overseas. In the Bible, we are called to do a kind of service. In almost every epistle, we're called to do a kind of service.

We are called to serve those people around us. We are called over and over again to, you know, don't set your mind on such high things. Look, just look around you. There are people that God is calling you to serve. It says, husbands, love your wives.

Now, I know there's a few kind of people raising their hands and saying, yeah, but you don't know my wife. Yeah, I know. I know, right? It doesn't. No, it doesn't.

There's no caveat. It says, husbands, love your wives. If Jesus could love the church, then surely the distance between him and loving you is less than between you and loving her. If he could stoop so low, maybe you and I could serve our wives by loving them. It says, wives, respect your husbands.

Now, I know there's plenty of people here that are saying, you don't know my husband. Right? And I understand that. I understand that. Very good.

They don't deserve respect. But surely the degree or the amount that Christ had to humble Himself to respect this people that he came to serve is not so far as God is calling wives to respect their husband to even so far. Where it says that Sarah called her husband Lord in her desire to respect Him. We have around us examples. It says for parents to serve your children by giving them a foundation that is solid, by training them up in the ways of the Lord.

It is a difficult thing to train children, right? But we're called to serve our children by giving them a foundation that is real. Calling on children to honor their parents to serve them, even though God knows that every parent realizes they don't deserve it. He calls on employees to serve their masters and masters to serve their employees. For church members to serve each other, to serve our neighbors.

We're going to encounter situations faster than we realize where our selfish ambition and conceit push us out of positions of service.

But I want this time to be a remembrance that Jesus, being in the very form of God, possessing all the titles and tools of God, receiving the worship of all creation, continuously made Himself of no reputation. Coming like you and I, it's important to be in a posture where you're ready to serve.

I'm kind of a dirty guy, I know. But it's important that our clothes don't keep us from serving, that our cars don't keep us from serving, that what we surround ourselves doesn't keep us from serving people. That Jesus came made like you and I so he could serve us. And if we take that and remember in our hearts, it may put us in a posture that we might be able to serve. And when we serve like Christ, we partake what we're going to see in the exaltation of Christ that He received because he served.

So I just pray that you be encouraged. I know we're all failing. There's no guilt or shame here, but an encouragement to serve like Jesus. Let's pray. Oh, Father.

Lord, we do come to youo, Lord, first, just acknowledging our guilt that though we say we will walk with youh so oftentimes we deny youy by our actions. Lord, forgive us Lord, we thank youk for your blood, which cleanses and renews us, Lord, but also for the time going forward. Lord, encourage us this week to look upon Jesus, that we may also walk like Him. In Jesus name, amen.