Deep in the heart of every human being is a desire
to be great. We're made in the image of God.
We want to be and do something significant. Here's
the question. What's the path? How do you get
there? Today we'll learn from the Apostle Paul
how to become great in God's eyes. Welcome to
this edition of Living on the Edge with Chip
Ingram. Our mission is to inspire Christians
to be genuine followers of Jesus. to empower
them to be active disciple makers in our world.
Today we're continuing our series, I Choose Love,
with Chip's message, Love Serves. And you may
be wondering, what does service have to do with
the idea of being great? Well, stay with us as
Chip explores that meaningful connection as he
picks up where he left off in Philippians chapter
2. Well, there's so much to discover together,
so grab your notes and Bible and settle in for
Chip's insightful talk. We tend to think about
love as, you know, a romantic feeling or an emotion,
and I'm all for those. But the kind of love we're
talking about requires a choice. And there's
some things that work against us being loving
people. And they're not necessarily bad, but
they can distract us. And I'd like you to think
just right now, when was the first time, just
as back far as you can go, when you really thought
to yourself, I want to be great at something?
I mean, something clicked, and you just said,
you know, I want to be a great musician, or I
want to be great in ballet, or I want to be a
great student. I remember I was, I think, 11
or 12 years old, sixth grade going into seventh
grade, and I went to a sports banquet, and this
coach was speaking, and he kept talking about
this one five -foot -nine guard in a small school
that led the nation in scoring, and he talked
about his work ethic. And all I can tell you
is something got birthed inside, and I thought,
I want to be a great basketball player. And I
was so motivated because this guy's only 5 '9",
and as I went into seventh grade, I was 4 '11".
And I went out for the team, and the coach said,
why don't you go out for wrestling? We need someone
in the 85 -pound class weight. And basically,
you're too short, you'll never be a basketball
player anyway. Well, to my personality, that's
like, you know. pouring gasoline on the fire.
And I remember just going absolute kind of nutso
and starting, you know, I started doing a bunch
of drills. And I started this ladder in my mind
of first I'm going to make the team. Then I'll
get some playing time. And then after I'll be
a starter. And then I'll get prepared. And then
I'll be a starter in the high school at Gahanna
Lincoln Lion. And the whole town comes out. And
then I'll get a scholarship to college. And,
I mean, I had this just blazing in my mind. I
started playing seven, eight, nine hours a day.
No exaggeration. It just dominated my life. See,
here's what I want you to know. Open your notes.
The quest for greatness is universal. Everybody
wants to be great. Everyone wants to be successful,
esteemed, valued, admired, significant, known,
appreciated, accomplished, right? We want to
look our best, do our best. We want to achieve.
And by the way, I don't think that's wrong. I
think we want to be great because we're made
in the image of God. When you look at the galaxies,
they're great. When you look at the earth, it's
great. When you look at beauty, it's great. We're
the pinnacle of God's creation. But desiring
to be great is one thing, but then sort of in
our humanness, we start deciding, well, how are
we going to measure greatness? How do you know
if you're really great? And whether it's, you
know, like basketball, climbing the ladder of
success, business, music, relationships, Historically,
about five ways, I've put them on your notes,
we tend to say, this is what makes you great.
First is power. Who and how many people do you
control? And I, of course, mean control in the
best sense of the word. But it's that idea that
you have the final say, that you have either
formal or influence, that just you're a somebody.
The second way is possessions. Possessions provide
freedom. Buy what you want, go where you want
to, do what you want. And we just kind of tend
to think the people with the most possessions
are really great. In fact, sometimes we buy things
we don't even need so that other people understand
how great we are. Third is position, our rank
kind of in the pecking order. you know, your
rights and your privileges. And, you know, they
say, okay, well, all the business class passengers,
well, the VIPs, you know, there's just this,
there's this pecking order. And, you know, you
start out as an intern and then you get a job
and then here and then here. And we all have
this little pattern of, you know, power, possessions,
position, and then prestige. How many people
look up to you? You know, that inner security
that these people admire me. I'm a somebody.
I have this many followers on Instagram. I have
this many likes on Facebook. I'm a star. I have
three million followers. I have a bazillion followers,
right? You're great because of what other people
think of you. And then finally, productivity.
What do you produce? How good is it and how much
of it? And no matter how much, it can be better
and it can be more. And new and innovative. See,
what productivity provides is a visible proof
of your greatness. It's games won, buildings
built, children raised, deals done, work accomplished,
companies developed, accolades and awards. Now,
just before you start feeling like... I'm going
to give you the left -hand hook and smash you
and say, how terrible of you to measure your
greatness that way. I don't think any of those
things, any of those are bad. They're often perverted.
But if God would choose as you walk with him
to give you power, position, prestige, and you
saw it as a stewardship in order to honor him,
and use your position and your power and your
possessions and the people that look up to you
to fulfill the will of God, here's what I want.
I want you to get more position, more possessions,
more power, and more prestige than anybody in
the world and love God with it. But the problem
is there's a way that we become great in God's
eyes and there's a way that we become great in
the world's eyes. And what we're talking about
is genuine love. And so, notice, how do you obtain
greatness? I'm going to suggest there's two pathways,
and they're very distinct. Pathway number one
is ascending, right? You climb the ladder of
success. And no matter where you are, there's
one more rung. That's the world's mode. And you
can love God with all your heart, and He can
bless, and you can go up that ladder. You just
have to remember who got you there. I love the
little picture of the post. Have you seen this?
There's a fence post and there's a turtle on
top of it. And the byline is, I didn't get here
on my own. And you know, being great and having
some of all these things that if you can really
recognize you're that turtle on the fence post,
more power to you. But we live in a world where
there's a lot of pressure to ascend in the world's
mode. The second way we become great is by descending.
This is what we're going to see is that the Apostle
Paul is going to be speaking to a group of people.
And when you want to be great, you tend to compare.
And when you compare, you try and get better
than other people. And when you compare and want
to get better with other people, you kind of
put them down and put yourself up. And what we
learned last week is the me -set mindset, the
only way to really be great in God's eyes and
to have unity in relationships, you have to declare
war on selfishness and you have to attack image
management. Because a lot of all this greatness,
you know what, at the end of the day, it wasn't
about a scholarship. It wasn't about how many
points per game. It wasn't being a great basketball
player. It was about Chip's ego wanting to be
a somebody. It was about I'm going to prove I'm
okay, probably mostly to me and maybe more to
my dad. And Jesus is going to say true greatness
comes with humility. And the way as you descend
into greatness, we're going to find that Jesus,
will be the supreme ruler of all creation and
the creator, and then he's going to take on human
flesh, and then he's going to become a servant,
and then he's going to sacrifice his life, and
then he's actually going to die, and then he's
going to have the death on a cross of absolute
humiliation and shame. And because he descends
into greatness, then God will highly exalt him.
Mark it down. God blesses and rewards humility.
And humility is the pathway to deep abiding relationships.
True greatness is defined by do not think only
on your own things, but also on the things of
others. Does that sound familiar? Do nothing
from selfishness or pride or vain glory, but
with humility of mind, consider others more important
than yourself. Here's the acid test of greatness.
Are you ready? It's how well do you love? The
greatest people in the world are the people who
love others the best. I have a unique part of
my job. I bury a lot of people. Someone has to
do it. And I've never sat around a graveside
or gone to a house afterwards and had any group
of people talk about, wow, man, did that guy
have a great house? Or man, her jewelry was off
the charts. Or did you ever hear, what do they
talk about? They talk about relationship and
they talk about, you know what, whether she had
a lot or had a little, she was the kindest woman
I ever knew. You know, he was the man that stayed
after work even though he was busy when I was
going through a big marital problem. And every
Tuesday night, he met with me and talked with
me and kind of privately shared this new thing
about faith I didn't know about. And he was a
vice president in the company. He was someone
that when my husband walked out on me, he and
his family had me over for Thanksgiving. They
met me at church. They made me feel loved. At
the end of the day, the greatest people on earth,
the greatest people you'll ever know will not
have anything to do with how famous they are,
how much money they have, how much power they
have, how many likes they have on Facebook. It
will be love. Now open your notes because I want
to walk with you Through how God is going to
teach us to achieve true greatness. How do you
get there? How do you experience true greatness?
One word. You got it, don't you? Can you write
it down? Humility. By the way, humility is not
thinking too high of yourself. It's not thinking
too low of yourself. It's kind of self -forgetfulness.
It's not thinking of yourself at all. There's
a focus on God and there's a focus on others.
The most humble people in the world actually
don't think they're humble. Because they're not
focused on themselves. Humility is the channel,
underline the word channel, through which the
supernatural power of God's love flows to heal
our deepest hurts and restore our most important
relationships. Can you think of anything more
important than your hurts or the hurts of someone
else? I mean, we all have dysfunctions. We all
have struggles. We've all been betrayed. We've
all hurt, right? But someone, humility is someone
who cared enough to get off of thinking about
themselves to invest in us and love us. And as
they did that, the Spirit of God, His love came
through them and wholeness occurred so that what?
We could do the same. Humility is the channel
by which grace flows downhill into our hearts
and it restores us and it restores relationships.
Have you ever seen what happens in a group or
in a marriage or in a family when people forgive
one another? I mean, it's pride that keeps relationships
apart. And it's the other person, they should
apologize first. Do you know what happens in
a marriage or in a family or in a small group
or a business when there's someone that has genuine
humility and lets go of their rights and their
positions, their prestige, and said, this relationship
matters more than? That's what Jesus did. And
he changed your world and my world and the whole
world. You're listening to Living on the Edge
with Chip Ingram. And he'll be right back to
finish today's message. But first, is all the
uncertainty in our world causing you to feel
discouraged and anxious? Then listen in after
the teaching to hear about Chip's newest book,
I Choose Joy. This tool will help you experience
deep, lasting joy no matter what. Stick around
to learn more. Well, for now, here's Chip with
the remainder of his talk. So I want to take
you on a journey following Jesus into greatness.
And as we do, I have to tell you that all of
Scripture is God -inspired. All of Scripture
is very important. But there are some passages
that I think rise up to the pinnacle of the truth,
the majesty. We're going to go to a holy, holy
place where what we will see about the second
person of the Trinity. is so mind -boggling,
so counterintuitive. And for those of you that
have been Christians for a long time, my prayer
is that you would see this with fresh eyes. We're
going to talk about one... Who is in the pinnacle
of glory and myriads of angels are worshiping
him. And he sits on the throne. God the Father.
God the Holy Spirit. He owns everything. He controls
everything. He has the utmost position. Colossians
1, he spoke and the galaxies came into existence.
By the word of his power, he holds everything.
And he will take on human flesh. And then he'll
become a servant. And then he'll sacrifice his
life. And then he'll die. And then he'll actually
die on a cross, which was the most shameful,
humiliating way. A Roman citizen could never
be crucified because it was so lowly. And it
will be out of that humility that you and I and
whosoever would believe could have life. And
what he's going to say is, Here's the path. Paul's
going to say, there's bickering between you all
and there's persecution and pressure without.
You have to, are you ready? You have to become
humble so there's healing and there's life. I'll
walk through the model rather briefly because
then I want to get to the end and apply it for
all of us. Notice, humility flows from a specific
mindset. Hear the command. Have this attitude
in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus.
Circle the word attitude, if you will. Literally,
it's let this mind be among you. You know, I
talk about reading the scriptures. I talk about
meditating. I talk about putting good things
in your mind. We are the product of our thought
life. This passage literally is your mindset,
how you think, how you view yourself, how you
view money and position and power and prestige,
how you think. Have this mindset in you all that
was in Jesus. And now he's going to tell us what
the mindset is. We achieve true greatness when
we embrace, not just agree with, when we embrace
Christ's mindset toward power and possessions.
How did Jesus view power? I mean, he had all
the power. He was the ruler. How did he view
possessions? He owned everything. Notice what
the text says. Who, although he existed in the
form of God, did not regard equality with God
a thing to be grasped. Put a box around the word
form and then put a line under did not regard
equality with God a thing to be grasped. Literally,
that phrase is as something that must not slip
out of his hands. The word form here is morphe.
We get our English word morphed. The meaning
of the word is the inner essential quality of
a thing or a person. In other words, when it
says that although in the form of God, we think
a form of something exterior, he's going to use
a different word for exterior in a minute. Form
of God is the essential inner nature. In other
words, although he and the Father and the Holy
Spirit all have the same morphe, He didn't regard
his equality with God something that he had to
hang on to. In other words, he was going to take
his power, he's going to take his rulership over
positions, and he's going to let them go and
start descending downwardly out of his love for
you and his love for me. Notice next, we must
become truly great when we embrace Christ's mindset
toward positions. And prestige. But he emptied
himself. So instead of holding on to this position,
he emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant
and being made in the likeness of a man. Underline
the word emptied. Put a box around formed. It's
the same word. And then underline bondservant
and a circle around likeness of men. And if you're
here thinking, my gosh, I didn't even bring a
pen, we'll bring one next time. What I want you
to see, these words, the theology is so rich,
it's so mind -boggling. In other words, he was
equal with God. When it says he emptied himself
for Bible students, the word is kenosis. Literally,
it means he made himself nothing. What that means
is about two or three things. Number one, he
had pre -incarnate glory. If you would have met
the pre -incarnate Christ, the light emanating
from him, you'd be gone. And so he veils his
glory by putting on human flesh. Then he limits
the independent use of his attributes. See, sometimes
we think of Jesus like Superman. He had this
toga on, but when it got really hard, he just
ripped off the toga. Instead of an S, there's
a G. I am God. I'll overcome this. He didn't
do it that way. He limited the independent use
of his attributes, and he took on a body. Are
you ready? Permanently. Have you thought about
that? Jesus is at the right hand of the Father.
He has a resurrected body. When you see Jesus,
you can see a bit later, those of you that are
followers of Christ, you want to see the holes
in his hands? I mean, it's a sacrifice that's
unbelievable. And what he's doing is, he's saying,
I was in the form, the very essence of God. I
make myself nothing, never ceasing in any way,
relieving himself of any deity. He's fully God,
fully man. And then notice what it says. Taking
the form, not just the acting, the form, the
essential nature, not just of a servant, but
of a bondservant. A bondservant in Jewish and
in Roman culture had no rights. You might have
a number of servants in the house. The bondservant
is the guy that picks up the doo -doo. He's the
guy that empties the trash. He's the guy that
has zero rights, no anything, anywhere, at any
time. Could you just pause for a moment? Could
you imagine? I mean, when you think of how we
cling to our rights, how come they didn't do
that for me? Don't they know who I am? Can you
imagine the creator of the universe taking the
form of a bondservant? And it says he's made
in the likeness of a man. The word likeness is
our word schema. This is the word that means
just the outward fashion of, the appearance of.
And he was fully human except He wasn't like
all other men. There's no sin nature. Jesus,
everything he did, he said, follow me, model
this. I can do nothing apart from him. His entire
life was I'm dependent on the Father and in the
power of the Holy Spirit to live this life so
you can follow behind me and you be dependent
on the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit.
And he did that because he loves you. He did
that to rescue mankind. He descended into greatness.
This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram,
and you've been listening to Part 1 of his message,
Love Serves, from our series, I Choose Love.
Chip will be back shortly to share some helpful
application for us to think about. One of the
greatest delights of God's heart is to witness
His children, those of us who call Him Lord,
loving one another. Yet, we all know this isn't
always easy and often doesn't come naturally
to us. In this short study, Chip walks through
the four characteristics of love laid out for
us in Philippians chapter 2. Discover how to
apply these truths to your relationships with
others and God so you can love more and love
better. To listen to this entire series, visit
livingontheedge .org or the Chip Ingram app.
Well, our Bible teacher Chip Ingram is with me
in studio now to share a quick word with all
of you. Thanks, Dave. You know, we're living
in very uncertain and at times volatile times.
The stock market goes up crazy and then down.
We got social issues, political issues, a lot
of division. And then you have an enemy who has
darts of fear and uncertainty that he brings
to people's mind. There's an antidote to that.
Regardless of where you are and what you've been
through or what the people you love have been
through, you can choose joy. You don't have to
wait for it to happen. We're not a victim of
our circumstances, but we need to understand
how do you really experience joy even when all
the external things are challenging? How do you
combat anxiety and depression and you don't measure
up and life's not worth living? Let me encourage
you. I just wrote a brand new book called I Choose
Joy. It's based on Philippians chapter one. And
if you know someone that's hurting, let me encourage
you to get it. Good word, Chip. To get your copy
of the new I Choose Joy book, visit livingontheedge
.org or call us at 888 -333 -6003. I'm excited
for all of you to experience the life -changing
power of this work. Again, go to livingontheedge
.org or call 888 -333 -6003 for complete details
about the new book, I Choose Joy. App listeners
tap special offers. Well, here again is Chip
to share some application for us to think about.
As we finish up today's broadcast, I was reminded
of a verse that I reviewed this morning. I write
down little verses on cards, and I memorize them,
and then I review them as often as possible.
And candidly, I need to do it a bit more. But
Psalm 113, 5 and 6, I reviewed today, and it
just struck me so powerfully. It says, Who is
like the Lord our God, who humbles himself? to
behold the things that are in heaven and on earth.
Now think of that. The God that we serve is so
great, so powerful, so pure, so holy, he humbles
himself to even look into heaven, which is an
absolutely perfect environment, let alone the
things on earth. And then imagine that this God,
God the Son, came and humbled himself to the
point of death. He allowed himself to be separated
from the Father. that he paid the ultimate price
so that you and I could have relationship with
him. Jesus is the greatest, the first, the foremost.
Everything in heaven and earth has been created
by him and for him and through him, and yet he
descended into greatness. He humbled himself.
He was willing to give up his rights. He thought
of us instead of himself. Instead of convenience
or comfort, he left the pleasures of heaven,
of being worshipped by myriads of angels, and
was treated like a common thief, was stripped,
embarrassed, humiliated, and then died upon the
cross to say to you and to say to me, I love
you. And that is our motto. He says, have this
attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ
Jesus. You know, you talk about humility. You
talk about what love really is about. I will
tell you this, love serves. You know, for years
and years, I recognized that I was arrogant and
proud, and I tried really hard. I don't want
to be proud. I don't want to be arrogant. And,
you know, as soon as I got pride to go out the
window, it came in the door, and I put it out
the door, and it came through a crack in the
floor. And finally, I had a dear older brother
say, Chip, quit thinking about trying to be humble.
You want to be humble? You just serve people.
Just choose to go to the back of the line. Choose
to let other people go first. Choose to not hurry
to get on the plane. Choose to look at the two
pieces of meat at dinner and let someone else
have the best one. You just start choosing to
serve, and over time, God will make you humble.
Jesus came to serve. Here's my question. What
are you going to do? You want to really see the
world change? In fact, you want to see your relationships
change? You want to see yourself change? Today,
say to the Lord, help me become a servant like
Jesus. The power of the Holy Spirit living in
you will give you all that you need if you make
that choice and take that step. Let's be servants
of the living God. That's a great challenge,
Chip. Hey, before we close, I want to thank those
who support us financially. Your generosity helps
us create programs like this one. But if you
haven't partnered with us, there's never been
a better time. Between now and June 30th, every
gift we receive will be matched dollar for dollar.
And making a donation is easy. Just go to livingontheedge
.org or call 888 -333 -6003. That's 888 -333
-6003 or visit livingontheedge .org. App listeners
tap donate. For Chip and everyone here, thank
you in advance for your generosity. We'll listen
in next time as Chip picks up in his series,
I Choose Love. Until then, this is Dave Drewy
saying thanks for joining us for this edition
of Living on the Edge.