God's Word from Philippines this morning, so
I just want to give a warm welcome to Pastor
Ben. Well, good morning. Love that. You guys
respond. Well, it's great to be here with you.
I just want to give a little bit of an introduction
for myself just so you can get to know me a little
bit. I have a picture of my family, I believe,
from the slides. That is my wife and my 13 -year
-old daughter. My son just turned nine years
old. And I'd love to be able to say that that
picture was taken on the first try, but I hear
you guys have large families. And if you're like
my family, you're not perfect. And sometimes
to get a photo takes many times because your
kids are acting out of control. And when I was
at Radiant Juno last week, the thing I want to
encourage you in is that it's okay to actually
own the fact that we are a mess. And that's why
Jesus had to come down and save us. I want to
share another little bit of a story. I met Caleb.
17 years ago, up in Fairbanks, Alaska. This is
absolutely incredible, is that next year, Radiant
Fairbanks will be celebrating its 20th anniversary.
And I want you guys to hear that. We're circulating
right now as the lead elders amongst all the
Radiant churches. 20 years ago, this whole thing
started in a living room where God did a work.
And you guys are now the fruit of that work that
has begun. And one of the benefits I get to experience
as I'm going around to all these churches is
to step back and say, look what God has done.
This wasn't by any sort of plan or charisma or
anything that we could bring to the table. It
was Jesus doing a work through his people. So
I love that. And for me, it's special because
of the relationship that Caleb and I have to
finally come here to be able to preach. It's
just an incredible joy. Well, we've been in the
Radiant Basics. Maybe you grew up like I did.
I grew up in the church. I was homeschooled.
Some of the ways I would describe myself would
be I'm the Christian that everyone loves to hate
because I was the guy who did the right thing.
all the time. I was kind of annoying in one way.
And sometimes when you grow up with that, you've
read, you've been in the Bible your whole life,
and then you hear something like Radiant Basics,
where we're going to talk about things like the
gospel and talk about things like family and
being a servant. You can hear that and be like,
come on, can we like get into the meat? Can we
like go a little deeper than maybe the basics?
So what I was telling my church is I gave them
this example. from the coach Vince Lombardi.
Are there any Green Bay Packer fans? No? Okay.
All right. Fair enough. Maybe I shouldn't use
this example. So he was taking his team to the
championship. That's the point, right? Get your
team to the Super Bowl, win the Super Bowl. They
didn't make it. And so as they come into spring
training, I mean, these are guys who have spent
their entire life. playing football. So I imagine
if I were one of them, I'd hope my coach would
come in with some fantastic plan or play or something
to defeat the other teams. Instead, what he does,
and this has become infamous in many circles,
is he starts out training. He holds up a football.
He says, gentlemen, this is a football. Why would
he do it to these experienced players because
what he knew is if they were not experts in the
basics They wouldn't be able to do anything beyond
the basics The reason then that he became one
of the best coaches of all time wasn't because
of the fantastic plays that he did. It was because
he drilled the basics into his team, and that's
how they were able to win championship after
championship. You can study other coaches. You
can study other leaders. What's going to define
them is how well their teams know the basics.
And how much more should that be the case for
us as followers of Jesus? If you think you've
grown past the gospel, then you haven't grown
at all. The gospel is simple as believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, and
it is as deep as this entire book. Never give
up on going back to the basics, reminding yourself
who you are. And this is the thing that we say
at Radiant Churches. Because of who God is and
what God has done defines who I am and how I
live my life. So as we've gone into this series,
using that as kind of a framework, we start with
the gospel. We understand who God is. We understand
what God has done. We think about God as the
triune God, Trinity. God the Father, God the
Son, God the Holy Spirit. And from there... We
begin to understand our identity. So if you've
ever wondered, like, man, how do we get this
identity statement that we are a family of missionary
servants sent to be and make disciples? It's
based on the Trinity. Because God is Father,
I'm an adopted son and daughter of the King.
Because Jesus the Son came not to be served but
to serve, I then am a servant. Because the Holy
Spirit was sent into my life to empower me to
be on mission, I am then a missionary. So last
week, James Marchetti came here, and he preached
on this identity of being family. And I get the
privilege of being able to speak to you guys
on the identity of servant. So if you haven't
already, turn over to Philippians chapter 2.
And let me just pray for us before we jump into
the word. Father in heaven, God, I just beg you
right now, would you go right to the very deepest
parts of our being as we go into your word? Jesus,
I pray just over the people who are in front
of me right now, my brothers and sisters, for
any... visitor who is coming in, whatever walls
have been built up in their hearts over this
last weeks, maybe over their whole lifetime,
would you be loving enough to just crush those
walls down? Speak to us because we desperately
need it. Pray this in your name. Amen. We went
through the book of Philippians as a church last
year. There's three themes in the book. Paul's
writing for them to recenter themselves on the
gospel, to unify in Jesus, and to find joy in
every circumstance. And right at the center of
this book is the passage that we're looking at
today. So if you're wondering, like, man, how
do I... Understand the gospel. How do I find
unity in Jesus as a church? How do I find joy
in every circumstance? It comes right from this
passage, this beautiful hymn, as some expositors
have described this, a hymn describing Jesus
in the framework of a servant. Now, if you're
note -takers or you like to highlight, I just
want you to scroll down to verse 6. Look at verse
6 and 7. It says, 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. I want you to highlight in verse 6 the
word grasped. Grasped. And then I want you to
underline or highlight two words over, emptied.
The main point for today is simple. Empty yourself.
Empty yourself. Don't grasp. Instead, empty yourself.
When I was a young man, I liked to... read books
like Where the Red Fern Grows, and they all seem
to be set in the same time period, like the 50s
and 60s backwoods America. And I forget what
book or movie that I had watched, but it described
how you catch a raccoon, which growing up in
Alaska my whole life, I didn't really know what
a raccoon was, but I knew how to catch one. And
so you would have like some sort of a cylinder,
like a hollowed out stump or log or something
like that. And you'd put a shiny piece of glass,
some sort of trinket down at the bottom of it,
and then you have nails that are driven in at
an angle. The idea behind it is the raccoon reaches
its little paw down in there, and it's a scavenger.
And he grabs hold of that trinket, and the thing
with raccoons is they will not let go. They will
just hold on to that thing. The irony behind
it is... Because they're grasping onto it, they
can't pull their arm out without getting stuck.
If they only let go, they'd be able to escape.
Don't grasp. Instead, empty yourself. Spiritually,
we can be like little scavenger raccoons, ready
to grab what's shiny in front of us. And hold
on to it without realizing that it's causing
us harm. It's causing us to remain trapped. And
eventually it will kill us. Don't grasp. Empty
yourself. Jesus spoke to his disciples in Matthew.
And it's probably a verse that many of you are
well familiar with. It's easy to remember and
it's hard to live out. In Matthew 16, 25. Matthew
16, 25, Jesus would say, For whoever would save
his life will lose it, but whoever loses his
life for my sake will find it. Don't grasp. Empty
yourself. See, Paul sees a danger in the Philippian
church. Later on in the letter, he will describe
two women who are at odds with each other. They're
having arguments. There's dissension. When dissension
comes into a community, it begins to break people
apart. When we have issues with one another within
the church, our instinct is to grasp. It's to
pull back away because we don't want to... get
hurt anymore. We want to preserve ourselves.
The more you pull back, the more the fracturing
occurs. And before you know it, there's a church
split or the life that once was in the church
has now become death. So if we really want to
understand what it means to be a servant, how
we live out that identity, a servant doesn't
grasp, a servant empties themselves. So empty
yourself, Radiant Matsu. And we're going to look
at two aspects of this text. We're going to look,
first of all, at the destruction of grasping.
And then we're going to look at the power of
emptying. But if we're going to understand the
destruction of grasping and the power of emptying,
we have to understand what the stakes are. And
it fits right in with the family identity we
looked at last week. So if we just look at the
first two verses in Philippians 2. It says, so
if there's 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 full accord and of one mind. Simple way to
put this and what Paul is describing for them
is all that you have in Jesus. provides every
reason for unity. All that you have in Jesus
provides every reason for unity. And so Paul,
in many ways, he's using himself. He does this
throughout the whole letter. He uses himself
as an example to be able to encourage the church.
So he's like, man, if you have found any goodness
from a relationship with Jesus, complete my joy.
This isn't Him being self -centered. This is
him helping lead the church to understand where
they're going to find joy. They're going to find
joy in Jesus, and it's going to be found in how
they live that out in life together as they live
as a family. It almost be like me coming from
Radian Fairbanks, coming to you guys and saying,
Radian Matsu, complete my joy. By being unified
in Jesus Christ. Don't lose sight of Jesus. As
soon as you lose sight of Jesus, the cracks begin
to form within our family. Now, I imagine you've
been in organizations or you've been in churches,
let's say. Even this church, right? We have it
in our identity statement. We are family. I remember
talking to someone at one point describing this
identity of family. And they kind of looked at
me and just a smirk on their face like. Yeah,
sure. Everyone says that. Oh, we're a family.
Oh, yeah, we're so tight together. And it's like
this deep. Sure, we say we're family, but do
we actually live it? Do we actually live it?
This is the stakes, is our family unity that
Paul is talking about. If we're to go beyond
just this deep, saying we're family but not actually
living it, we have to walk in these other identities.
We have to actually walk as servants towards
one another. We have to be on mission together.
So just like Paul's joy is attached to the unity
of the church, so is our joy. When our unity
fractures, so does our joy fracture as well.
Jesus prayed over you. He prayed over the church
in his prayer in John 17. And he prayed for unity.
In John 17, 23, he said, I in them, and you in
me, that they may become perfectly one. so that
the world may know that you sent me and love
them even as you loved me. And what does that
perfect unity look like? Well, that's what Paul
describes. You're of the same mind. Our minds
are unified. We have a knowledge of the gospel
that's more than just head knowledge. It's more
than just facts about Jesus. It's a real knowledge
that penetrates down to the deepest parts of
who we are and it changes our life. You have
the same love. There's an ancient church father,
Marius Victorinus. He said this, what does he
mean by the same love? That you should have the
same love for one another that the other has
for you. Not a divided love, but a love embedded
in the life. In Christ. Paul emphasizing this
need for this kind of perfect unity then repeats
himself. He's like he's double underlining the
need for being of the same mind, of being of
the same love. So he says, be in full accord
and of one mind. He's repeating himself. He's
trying to help the church see what the stakes
are. When we understand what the stakes are,
then we can understand the destruction of grasping.
So let's look at the next two verses. Philippians
2 says, 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 to the interests
of others. One way I would sum up the danger
that Paul is looking at, our tendency to grasp,
is the danger of self -preservation. It's when
we put our preservation, our way of life, our
will, how we do things, the things we own, the
things we're responsible for, we see that as
our highest good. We see that as the ultimate
thing that needs to preserve and we'll preserve
it at any cost. So, Paul hits hard against this.
He's like, don't grasp for what's best for you.
That selfish ambition, that drive within us that
says, I'm the most important one. I have to get
ahead. And he's saying, no, no, no, no. Instead
of trying to get ahead, lower yourself. He speaks
against grasping for conceit. We're grasping
for your own status. We can be conceited with
how we rank. We can compare ourselves to those
who are in front of us or compare ourselves to
those who are behind us. It consumes us. It brings
anxiety into our life as we're constantly comparing
ourselves. This is why things like social media
is so destructive because it opens up the whole
world to us to be able to compare ourselves to
everyone. And Paul is saying, don't grasp for
status. He also says, don't grasp for your own
interests. He says, having your own interests
isn't a bad thing, but don't do it at the cost
of having an interest for other people. When
you become the top priority, you're walking the
road of death. And so he encourages them, instead
have interests for others. So like the church,
we can easily act like that raccoon, grasping
onto trinkets of this world that don't matter,
that will not last for eternity, thinking that's
our whole life, and we don't let go of it. Instead
of grasping onto Jesus, grasping onto what is
eternal. Let's move the example to something
a little more serious than a large rodent. The
destruction of grasping is seen in some of the
most awful events that we've seen in history.
Take the Holocaust. One of the major events that
started the Holocaust in Germany happened in
November of 1938. It was called Night of the
Broken Glass. Let me just read a description
of what happened. This was encouraged by the
Nazi party for people to go after Jews in their
local areas. From the Holocaust Encyclopedia,
it says this. They vandalized thousands of Jewish
-owned businesses. Thousands. They desecrated
Jewish cemeteries. They broke into homes, smashed
furniture, and terrorized Jewish families. Following
orders given by Nazi leaders, police forces and
fire brigades did not intervene to stop the destruction.
Policemen did not protect the Jews or their property.
Firemen did not put out fires in synagogues.
Hundreds would die. 30 ,000 men were arrested
and were sent to the death camps, to the concentration
camps. How could anyone stand by and let something
that awful happen in their community? Why didn't
anyone stop it? Self -preservation. My world,
my home, my family, my nation above anyone and
everything else. That seed of self -preservation,
of desiring that above anything else would lead
to... passively standing by, turning a blind
eye to the neighbor, allowing them to suffer
because I don't want to get in the way and I
want to preserve my own world. I tell my kids
sometimes when they're going at each other and
they're arguing, I'm like, just remember, arguments
start wars. Arguments ultimately lead to death.
It may seem small at the time, it's just them
going after each other, but you look at the seed.
And what sin does in our life, what happens when
we try to preserve our life above everything
else, it brings destruction, just like Jesus
said. If you try to save your life, you're going
to lose it. But if you lose your life for my
sake, you will save it. So I'm wondering what
you are grasping onto today. And maybe you're
coming in here. And you're wondering about this
relationship thing with Jesus. You are grasping
onto something, whether you like it or not. Or
as other people have put it better than me, you're
worshiping something. The question is, what is
it? And is it actually worth your worship? What
are you grasping onto that's keeping you from
a relationship with Jesus? What are you grasping
onto? If you're a follower of Jesus, I would
ask the question, what are you grasping onto
that's keeping you from serving others? What
are you grasping onto that maybe keeps you holding
your hand out to other people like, hey, you
can come this close, but no further. You can
be this much family to me, but no more. We've
got to be aware of the destruction of grasping.
And the way to solve that problem comes from
the power of emptying. So if we look at the next
few verses, in Philippians 2 verse 5, it says,
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours
in Christ Jesus, 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 and being born in the likeness
of men. And being found in human form, he humbled
himself by becoming obedient to the point of
death, even death on a cross. So Paul, he instructs
the church. He instructs them, have the mind
of Christ. If you're going to live as a church,
if you're going to be the church, you have to
have the mind of Christ. Let's just sit for a
moment and consider this incredible reality of
what Christ came to do for you. He didn't grasp.
what was rightfully his. You see, we grab onto
all sorts of things and we don't even deserve
it. Like, we're kind of arrogant in that way.
Jesus actually did deserve. He could actually
claim superiority. He could claim ultimate status.
He is the interest of the universe because he's
God. He has the right to this. But what does
he do? He empties himself. He came down into
our neighborhood. He stepped into human flesh.
Instead of grasping for equality, he became unequal
by stepping into a disadvantaged place for you
and for me. Instead of grasping onto the form
of God, he took the form of a servant and stepped
into our broken reality. Of a king, he humbled
himself and became obedient. Instead of grasping
onto life, he died. And why would he ever do
that? Because of love. Because of love. Because
he knows exactly where you're at. He knows the
broken mess that you're in. He knows the broken
mess that I was in. And he would care so much,
he would love so much to come and die the death
that we deserved. And he would rise again so
that we could have access to life for eternity.
A scholar, David Garland, put it this way. He
said, since he humbled himself, how can they,
the Philippians, be proud? Since he took the
form of a slave, how can they seek to dominate
others? Since he accepted the greatest dishonor,
death on a cross, how can they strive after honors?
This is the kind of power that will change the
world. Look, I grew up studying history for seven
years and there's this cute little phrase like
those who don't study history are doomed to repeat
it. It's complete garbage. Because of sin in
our world, we will keep repeating history no
matter what because we're that broken. Trust
me, if we haven't figured it out after thousands
of years of trying to hack it out on our own
and we just keep coming up with greater ways
to destroy ourselves. We're not going to figure
it out. It's because we're grasping on to that
self -preservation. But what Jesus does in emptying
himself and bringing his love directly to bear
on our lives, that is the kind of power to change
the world, living in our identity as servants.
So this is what Paul does. It's so brilliant.
If you move a couple of verses later. Down to
verse 17. Listen to this. He says, even if I
am to be poured out as a drink offering upon
the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am
glad and rejoice with you all. He's looking at
the church and he says, I will give it all for
you to see your faith increased. Are you guys
willing to do that for each other? The people
who are sitting next to you, the people you've
been going to church with for maybe years, are
you willing to pour out your life to see their
faith increase? This is what changes the world.
When you get a group of people who have this
kind of mind towards each other, this is why
the church is God's plan. Jesus emptied himself
so we could come back into a relationship. So
we respond by emptying ourselves to glorify God
and to love others. So then I have another question
for you. How is Jesus calling you to empty yourself
so you can serve others? If you answer the first
question about what you're grasping onto, what
you need to let go of, Then you need to ask the
question, well, how is God calling me to step
in and serve and lift up my brothers and sisters
in Christ? And this is where I want to speak
directly to the men in the church. You set the
tone. You set the tone for your families, and
you set the tone for the church. If you go all
the way back to Genesis. You remember what Adam
was doing when Eve was going for the fruit? He
was standing to the side. He wasn't stopping.
He wasn't stepping up to lead. Instead, he's
preserving himself. And too much in my life,
in other men's life, this is where Satan goes
after you, is that self -preservation. When you
start thinking about my wants, my desires. And
you pull into yourself instead of leading your
family, leading your marriage, and leading in
the church. And so I'm wondering what you're
grasping onto, maybe. It can be all sorts of
things. We have so much self -interest in this
state, it's sick. Because we're so independent.
And we think our way of life is the most important
thing and we've got to maintain it and have this
death grip on it. Men, we have to step out and
empty ourselves for the sake of the gospel. We
have to empty ourselves. And this is the thing
I would challenge you. Are you treating the church,
are you serving the church in such a way that's
worthy of what Jesus would call his bride? Meaning
this. If you aren't treating the church in a
way that you would treat your wife or you would
hope for someone else to treat your wife, maybe
you need to rethink about how you're living your
life. Maybe you need to think about what you're
grasping onto. Because what I've found in my
life and in the life of so many people who come
into the church is they're like, I'm going to
grasp onto the things of the world, and then
I'm going to try and grasp onto Jesus at the
same time. And it doesn't work. Best case scenario,
you're going to burn yourself out because you're
trying to do everything at once. But most likely
what's going to happen is the church, the bride
of Christ, gets a short end of the stick. And
we can't do that. God has called us to something
greater. He has called us not to grasp, but to
empty ourselves. And it can seem completely daunting.
There was one point where... Jesus called my
wife and I into a season where we had to serve
someone. We had to take in an infant unexpectedly,
and it was for someone who honestly didn't deserve
it. It would be someone that is more like an
enemy than a friend. And when you leverage yourself
that way, at first it seems impossible, but when
you do it with Christ at the center, while you're
holding on to Christ and finding your identity
and your purpose and your power in him, it can
be the absolute best thing in the world. It's
the only way you can do it. And where we see
the beauty and the power of emptying is in exaltation.
So look at verse 9. Therefore God has highly
exalted him and bestowed on him the name that
is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow in heaven and on earth
and under the earth, and every tongue confess
that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
In lowering himself, Jesus knew he would return
to the highest position. In giving up his status
as a king, he knew that every knee will bow and
confess him as Lord. In emptying himself, he
knew there would be joy set before him. And this
is why in Hebrews 12, Hebrews 12, we see a beautiful
passage. Where it says, looking to Jesus, the
founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the
joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is seated at the right
hand of the throne of God. If we grasp onto everything
in this world, we lose it all. We have nothing.
But if we... ourselves, we get all that God has
for us. Consider this, when we empty ourselves
for God and for others, we will also be exalted,
not as the king, but as friends of the king.
Our privilege and status are held in Jesus, and
it's worth everything. It's worth emptying yourself
for. So instead of grasping for everything, Empty
yourself for God, his glory, and for the sake
of his church. Let me close this out just pointing
us to communion. We take communion every week
at Radiant. They do it at Radiant Juneau. They
do it at Radiant Fairbanks. I know you guys do
it here. I don't want you guys to pass over it.
The reason we do it every week is because it
centers us. It reminds us of what Christ did
for us. And when we think about Jesus emptying
himself for us, it's pictured perfectly in communion.
So followers of Jesus will take that bread and
they'll break it because it reminds us that his
body was broken for us. We dip it into the juice
to remember his blood was shed for us. It's a
powerful moment for us to remember everything
that God has done for us in Jesus Christ. So
what I want to encourage you in before you go
to communion is just take a few moments. Take
more if necessary. Consider what am I really
grasping on to? And maybe there needs to be a
time for you to go before Jesus and to surrender.
Say, I'm done grasping onto that. And then ask
the question, how are you calling me to empty
myself to serve others, to serve this church?
And if you're in that place where you've been
running for Jesus, maybe you have been emptying
yourself, maybe you're weary, maybe you're tired,
use this time. to remind yourself of where the
real power lies, which is in a relationship with
the king. He is with you, and he does love you,
and I would encourage you, run to the communion
table and find peace with him. Let me pray. Jesus,
what a profound miracle that you would do for
us, that you would step in my place. when I was
grasping onto all these trinkets of the world.
Thank you that you would come and you would empty
yourself out for me. Jesus, I pray that this
would not sit lightly in our hearts, but that
it would change us. That the truth and reality
of who you are and what you've done would change
us. that it would radically change us and it
would be seen in how we live our life. I pray
that Radiant Matsu would be known as servants.
Servants who are emptying themselves out, bringing
a real change to this world because of your love.
Father, I'm excited to hear of the good news
of what you're going to do through this church.
And as they move into a new location, I just
pray a blessing over Radiant. Matsu, Jesus. I
pray they would be blessed in their identity
as family and of servants and as missionaries
sent by you to change the world. I pray these
things in your name, Jesus. Amen.