← ArchiveSunday, December 8, 2013DateDecember 8, 2013SpeakerChris BurnsTextPhilippians 2Passages in this sermonMatthew 10:14Philippians 2:10:57Philippians 21:27Romans 128:58Leviticus 1624:502 Chronicles 3325:01Psalms 1025:15Proverbs 2925:26James 426:321 Peter 5:636:15TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00Wow. Thank you, Reggie. Thank you, choir. Thank you, Rick. Thank you, God. If you have your Bibles with you, I want you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 1. Matthew chapter 1. I want to preach a series of sermons between now and Christmas on Emmanuel. Emmanuel. God with us.0:29You have your Bibles. You hold that passage, Matthew 1, verses 18, and we'll read down through 25. And then I want you also, just put your finger there, flip over to this and put your finger there and then flip back to Matthew, okay? Philippians chapter 2, verse 1.0:57Philippians chapter 2, verse 1. Choir, I tell you, I don't know that I've ever heard you sing anything more powerfully. And I know you've sung songs so powerfully, but that was so beautiful. And I appreciate the preparation that it brings to this message this morning. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ, you've got Philippians 2, 1.1:27Philippians 2, 1. And you hold that, now flip back to Matthew chapter 1. So it shouldn't be Philippians 2, Matthew 1. Verse 18 begins, Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.1:55But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.2:25Now, all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel. Which translated means God with us.2:55And Joseph awoke from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife. But kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. Wow! Today I want to talk about Emmanuel, God with us. If you thought long and hard, and seriously, we think about Christmas, about what the true meaning of Christmas is,3:24and we talk about that true meaning of Christmas is Jesus. But, folks, I want to tell you, we can sometimes get caught up in Jesus and forget the true meaning of Christmas is God with us. That's Jesus. God with us. We live our lives promoting people around us and seeking to be around certain people. And oftentimes, we feel very prideful because certain people want to hang around us.3:51And we love the opportunity to be around famous people. And we love the opportunity to be around important people. And we love to be around popular people. And we love to be around people who want to be around that person. Joseph, right off the bat, is faced with one of the most humbling experiences that any man could ever imagine.4:16You're going to marry a young lady and she's going to have a baby and it's not yours. Now, wait a minute, preacher.4:45It's God's. Yes, it is. But the whole experience before that is to bring Joseph to an understanding because the Bible says in reading it that Joseph had contemplated this situation. He had thought about it. He loved Mary. He didn't want to embarrass her. He didn't want to embarrass his family. He didn't want to embarrass her family. And he had considered the fact of how he would devise a plan of action to put her away secretly so she could be pregnant and so she could have this baby.5:08And so nobody would know the better and everything would pass on. But God steps in and the angel of the Lord appeared unto Joseph. And Joseph hears these awesome words.5:38Hang in there, buddy. It's going to be all right. She's not pregnant by another man. But she's with child of the Holy Spirit. And she's going to give birth. Could you imagine if he'd have said this? She's going to give birth to a God-man. She's going to give birth to an incarnate God.6:06She's going to give birth. No, he said it far more simply. And sometimes simplicity just slips right off our tongues and we don't gather the importance of it. He said she's going to give birth to Emmanuel. And I've often wondered, have you, why didn't we call him Emmanuel? Well, we know Jesus has a different meaning, which means salvation.6:35God saves. Jesus is the Savior. So, you know, but the Bible says you shall call his name Emmanuel because it means God with us. And then he named him Jesus, which was what he was told to name him. But the whole reality, whole understanding of it is, is that sometimes we forget that God coming to this earth means that God came to be with us. God's purpose in sending Jesus Christ was for he himself to be with us.7:04It doesn't say he sends an emissary to be with us. It says that his name is Emmanuel. He'll be called Emmanuel, which translated means God with us. Well, what does that mean God with us? Well, we could take up the next 10 years and preach a series of sermons, but I just want to do it on a couple of Sundays and mean this is what it means.7:30Philippians chapter 2, verse 1. This is what it means. Paul gives us a commentary on Matthew 1. Therefore, if there's any encouragement in Christ, God with us, if there's any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion,7:49you make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose, do nothing from selfishness, God with us, or empty conceit, but with humility of mind.8:04Regard one another as more important than yourselves, and do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.8:24Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus. Now, stop right there. He is talking to the church in these first few verses, and he's saying to them, guys, if there's any encouragement, let your mind be changed.8:47You know, Paul talks about that a lot, and he uses Romans 12, you know, in about verse 3, where he talks about how we are to have our minds constantly being changed according to the Word of God and renewed over with truth, and truth renews us. So, Paul comes to the church at Philippi, and as loving and as caring as they are under the great hand of persecution and struggle of the hour of the day,9:16which is not unlike what many of you may feel like you're going through, even in this day and age. He says, therefore, if there's any encouragement in Christ, God with us, Emmanuel, if there's any encouragement in what the prophet spoke of in old Isaiah, in other words, if there's any encouragement in what the Lord told Joseph as he shared the truth with him,9:43if there's any encouragement in the life that has been lived before us in Christ Jesus through his death, burial, and resurrection, if there's any consolation, let your life be so filled with God that your affections and your compassions and your joys and your minds have a love that is united with one purpose. That means don't be splintered.10:13Don't be segmented, but be together. Don't be segregated, but be as one. And you get to think, what is the one gift that we could offer the Lord Jesus at this particular time of the year that he would understand is important to us? And that one thing, I think, is multiple things, but it begins here. And as Paul says to this church, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit with humility,10:43but of one mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves. Can you believe that we would look across the church today and think of someone else as being more important than us? Let's say to our wife or say to our husband, you know that what we were going to get for Christmas? Let's not get it for Christmas and let's pay so-and-so's power bill. Let's make somebody's house payment. Let's make somebody's day.11:12Let's look across the community and let's find somebody that we can be humble toward. Someone who's not expecting the love of God to knock on their door today. Someone who's not expecting God with us to tap on their door so that there can be love shared. So that someone walking down the street, not expecting it, will find somebody pulling alongside them to say, I love you.11:36Folks, it's time we quit talking about it and started doing it as a gift to the Lord. I want to tell you, the most disappointing Christmases that I ever had were those when I got what I didn't want and didn't get what I wanted. You ever got one of those? Nothing seemed to fit.12:06Most exciting Christmas that I ever had. Well, there are several exciting Christmases, but one of the most exciting Christmases that I ever had was after I had gotten in school and became an economist. And you're saying, what are you talking about? Everything I got didn't fit. I took it back, got the money that they had originally paid for it and went to the after Christmas sales and bought three times as much with what I had. And got what I wanted. Have this attitude.12:38Then Paul tells us, what does Emmanuel mean? What does God with us mean? Why am I challenging you to be humble? Why am I challenging you to love? Why am I challenging you to be united in spirit? Why am I challenging you to be of the same mind? Because he said, I want you to have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who although he existed in the form of God, I looked up that word form, morphe, and it's just like you have a form, God has a form.12:59And he had that God form. And Paul says, even though he had that God form, even though he was everything, that word means that he encompasses everything that is God. He didn't partially encompass God.13:28He didn't segmentally encompass God. Before he ever steps out of glory, and even after he steps out of glory, he encompasses everything about and that was God. And the thing that ought to bring us to our knees today, that ought to cause us to cry out in repentance today, that ought to cause us to seek the Lord as we've never sought him, is that God, the creator of the universe, who made all things for his explicit glory,13:54stepped out of heaven and stepped on earth where the most uncommon, sinful, degenerate human beings could ever exist, and said, I'm with you. Wow. And we gather here today like we own this place. We gather like we got a say-so in what's going on.14:23We gather as though we ought to have a say-so in what's going on. But here's what Paul says. Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men,14:51being found in the appearance as a man, same word, form, fully now, everything that a man is, Jesus was. He encompassed all of man, in man. He humbled himself.15:18And I think you ought to underline that, you ought to mark it, you ought to scrutinize it. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. For this reason also God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,15:43and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, how much more in my absence work out your salvation with fear and trembling? For it is God who is at work in you, God with us, God with us, at work in us,16:06both to will and to work his good pleasure. God with us, at work in us, to work his will and his pleasure. Do all things without grumbling. Why? Because God is at work in you. Do all things without disputing.16:35Why? Because God is at work in you. You do all things. You don't do things complainingly. You don't do things griping. You don't do things belligerently. You do it because God is in you working it out. My friend, I want to tell you something. That right there is Bible truth. That right there says, Chris, quit whining and preach.17:01Quit whining and teach. Quit whining and love. Quit whining so that you will prove yourself to be blameless and innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among who you appear as light in the world,17:30holding fast the word of life so that the day of Christ, I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice or service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.17:56What about God with us isn't awesome?18:18You know what? One of the most uncomfortable things in an auditorium when a speaker is speaking is a moment of silence when nobody says anything because you're sitting there going, well, why don't they keep talking? Because I want you to think about it for a minute. I want you to think about what does it mean? How awesome is it, God, with us? How awesome is it that in the midst of Gal and I raising our family,18:46we had a fetal demise and God was with us. That how awesome it was that when our three sons were born and standing there in the delivery room of three different hospitals, God was with us.19:13How awesome it is that in the morning when I get up and I make my way to the office and as I travel up 4-11 and I don't have the radio on, I don't have anything going on, and I think about God with me. And how I can go to the hospital and stand beside the bed of someone who's critically or seriously ill19:39and know that God is with us. I want you to think about it for just a minute. How awesome is it, God with us? But you know, it's not so much how awesome it is that God is with us.20:01Here's the part we miss. How humbling is it that God is with us?20:28Are we humbled by His presence? Paul says that because Jesus humbled Himself and became obedient, obedient even to death on the cross, that He has been given a name wherein every knee shall bow and every tongue confess.20:57because He humbled Himself. But how humbling is it for us that He is with us? How humbling is it? You know, we talk sometimes about people living a humble life. You know what we normally mean when someone lives a humble life? It means that they don't have much. You know, I can remember back up and living back up in Tennessee. I can remember living down in Tuscaloosa. I can remember at times here21:26and going out and there are people that just live a very humble, humble, humble, however you want to speak it, meager means of life. And they're fine. I'll never forget the first time Life Action Ministry, I shared this with my Sunday school class this morning, I'll never forget the first time Life Action Ministries came to our church and Steve Canfield came in and he came in and I don't want to believe, I'm not putting anybody down,21:55you know, hear me. Don't go out of here and go, I ain't talking about what I had on today. But I'll never forget how I had that real nice suits, several real nice suits, several real nice sport coats and old Steve Canfield had on a JCPenney baby blue sport coat with a skinny tie and a pair of polyester pants and some of them floppy wore out shoes and Steve, if you happen to be listening to this because you might,22:25I'm not making fun of you, but I said, I'm going to take this old boy down to the Parisians Outlet Mall store. I'm going to buy him a sport coat, I'm going to buy him some pants, I'm going to buy him some new shoes, I'm going to help him out and we got down there and I took him down there and we walked through that place and I don't ever, I never went to the Parisian Outlet store that I didn't spend something. I could buy a $500 sport coat for $25 down there. How many of y'all ever shopped there? I picked him out some stuff,22:54I said, what do you think about that? And he said, why do you think I need that?23:05Because that ugly baby blue sport coat you wear all the time. And that skinny tie that ain't in style no more. And them shoes you got that look white.23:22You know, I've never met anybody in any ministry more humble than I have those men that serve the Lord and their families in that ministry. Steve Canfield taught me a world about humility that day. But most of all, he taught me what it wasn't as much as what it was. So this year at Christmas, if we're going to truly live God with us, let's take on23:51the project of ourself and not someone else. And let's come into the presence of God with the desire that he would humble us. not that he would make us proud. Not that he would make us richer. Not that he would give us what we want and not give us what we don't want or give us what we don't want.24:21Let's take on the project of taking our lives and you say, well, what do you mean? How can we do that? Well, let me just share with you some passages of Scripture that I think are very important because they are challenging to us concerning the need for us to be focused on our need for humility and not just say, God, you humble me. That's a God thing, humbling. Listen to this. Leviticus 16, 29.24:50This shall be a permanent statute for you on the seventh day on the tenth day of the month. You shall humble your souls. You shall humble your souls. 2 Chronicles 33, 23. Moreover, he did not humble himself before the Lord as his father Manasseh had done. But Amnon multiplied his guilt. The guilt on Amnon was his lack of humbling himself. Psalm 10, 17. O Lord, you have heard the desire of the humble. You shall strengthen their heart.25:19You will incline your ear. God listens to those who are willing to humble themselves. Man, in Proverbs 29, 23. A man's pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor. Why don't you, have you thought about the possibility of maybe this year at Christmas instead of getting caught up in the arrogance of the world's Christmas to come together as a family25:49and humbly serve one another with the love that God has placed in you. Not being overruled by what you're getting or what you're going to give, but what God is doing in your life. Setting aside yourself that God may live in you. After all, it is about God with us. Again, in Leviticus 16, 29. You shall humble your souls.26:172 Chronicles, he did not humble. It is constant Zephaniah. Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth. James 4, 10. Humble yourselves in the presence of God. Peter, humble. To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind-hearted and humble in spirit.26:47in spirit. The challenge of God with us is that we may seek humility over all other things. What greater gift could be under the tree for us this year at Christmas than a box of humility? And we're the only ones that can do that. We will humble ourselves when we say, you know God, this year it's not about me. Somebody don't bring me some, let's give what we've got. Let's find what God27:16what God is doing and let's go invest where God is at. Let's invest in what God is doing. We don't need to try to bring the poor up to our standards. We need to make sure they're saved and they're redeemed because there are the rich as well as the poor. We set so many standards of need when really we need to be examining ourselves before a holy God. and let that God27:43lead us according to His humility to love those that He places in our midst. The essentials of humility according to Paul in Philippians chapter 2 is unity and love. We will show the humility of God when we truly love one another. we will show the humility of God when we are unified in spirit and in purpose.28:13Well, you say, I don't know how I can do that when I know so much is wrong over here and over there. Listen, the very understanding of forgiveness is the ability and the willingness and the desire of taking the pain of whatever someone has done upon yourself so that you can love and forgive them in return and not remember what they've done to you but humbly serve them. Jesus took His disciples and He washed28:42their feet. My wife was reading and studying that for a Sunday school lesson this morning and she said, did you know Judas was there long enough to get his feet washed by Jesus? I can't understand why Jesus would wash the feet of one whom the devil was soon to enter in and would do what he did but He exemplifies to us humility today. There's the essentials of humility, love,29:11love, unity of spirit, unity of purpose. There's the example of humility. Paul holds up the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ as an example of humility. One of the things that we don't want to do this time of year or any other time of year is to know pain or to show pain. The pain, even though He was God, He did not cling to His right as God. We don't understand this event that took place29:41God with us stepping out of glory, coming down to man and then on top of all that suffering allowing ourselves to place our sins on Him, allowing the burden and pain and anguish of a mad, dark world regurgitating all of its evil upon the God who stepped out of glory and came to earth that He might be with us so that He could30:11take away the most harmful effect in our life, our sins. my friend, we need a dose of humility today. Humility is seen in His laying aside His glory. I can't tell you how many times I've either been told or been reminded, do you know who that is or do you know who I am?30:40I don't want to sometimes, I want to say but it's pride in me and so I can't, I don't give a rip who you are. And I'm sure there are times that God says that when I say God, by the way, this is Chris and He probably says I don't give a rip. I love you anyway. He took upon Himself the nature of a human servant. He didn't just take upon Himself31:10the nature of a man which He did but He took upon Himself the service of a man. He became a servant that which was the King of glory that which was the Creator of all things now becomes a servant to the Creator to the created. That's what He did. He humbled Himself in verse 8. He became obedient and died on the cross31:38in verse 8. The bottom line is He stepped aside, He stepped up to step down. My friend, it's time that we as arrogant, glorified, wonderful patriots step aside, step down that we might be humbled before our God32:07today. The thing that breaks my heart is the pride that the church seems to possess thinking that for whatever reason God owes us something when what God really owes us is a good spanking. My kids are grown. Sometimes I still want to spank them. But I can't anymore. But I do32:41watch the attitude of their children. If you do that again, I'm going to spank you. Now, I don't understand this other than I did it. If you do this again, I'm going to spank you. What do you think they do? Sure, I'll never do that again, Daddy. I mean, it doesn't take but a matter of seconds and they've done it again. And then you step in and they33:10start crying before you ever grab them. And you're not going to whip them nearly as hard as they're already crying. I want to tell you something. It's time God moved upon his church and said, if you don't do this, I'm going to wear you out. Oh, you say, wait a minute, Brother Chris, I really don't want to hear that. Let me tell you something. I love hearing that because God says he disciplines33:40disciplines those in whom he loves. the gain of humility. God has exalted him to the highest place of all. The gain of humility by Jesus, the example is that he's been given a name above all names. The gain of humility by Jesus is someday all people will acknowledge that he is Lord. And then there's this, God with34:10God with us, exhortation. God exhorts us to humility. Let God perfect in you his salvation. Don't complain, Paul says in verse 14. Shine as beacons of light in a dark world, he says in verse 15. Hold to the word of life, he says in verse 16. Rejoice with Paul in his sacrifice. Paul says34:40Paul says rejoice in my suffering. I'll never forget hearing about this great preacher, John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church. Bethlehem Baptist Church is in Milwaukee. And John Piper's church is in a very transit part of town, has been for the last 25 years probably. People want to know why they haven't moved out. And John said God didn't plan them there to move out. But God35:10But God planted them there to reach the community for Christ. And one day John's son was out riding his bicycle in the community and he came running into the church. He came running into John's office. His nose was bleeding and he looked at his daddy and he said, Daddy, daddy, he said somebody took my bike and they beat me up and they took my bicycle. And you know what John Piper did? He didn't jump up and say let's go find out who those little hoodlums are and I'll beat the devil out of them. He didn't say hey don't worry I'll buy you35:39another bicycle. Let's clean the blood off your nose. He grabbed that little boy up and he said praise God. Let's thank God. God has given you the privilege for having obeyed your father by living in this community to suffer for his name's sake.36:00Wow. James says humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and he'll exalt you. James didn't just say it Peter said it too in 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 6 therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you at the proper time casting all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. You know what most people just36:30really want to know today is that somebody cares about him. I just want to know somebody cares about me. I don't have to know anybody cares but God's told me he cares about me. But there has to be a work of humility in the church. There has to be a work of humility in the life of believers. Paul's writing this letter to believers. Peter's writing his challenge to believers. James is writing his challenge to believers. My friend the problem with Christianity and the world37:00today is it's full of pride. We have such arrogance that we feel like God works for us instead of us serving him. We sometimes come into the church thinking I don't know but I know that you're going to have to give me this or give me that and in reality we ought to come into the family of God saying God whatever I have here it is take it use it. but folks if37:29we're not willing to work on humbling ourselves and you say work I'm not talking about your salvation I'm talking about getting on your face before God if you thought about what it would be like if at this altar on any given Sunday if there's something so sanctified glorious about this altar that we quit kneeling at it and we started laying on it and we quit praying at it and we started weeping over it. Why weeping? Because our friends are going to hell. Why weeping? Because our sins are upon37:58us. Why weeping? Because we've got things that are going on in our life that we can't control but we know there's a holy God in heaven and we need to weep before him that we may show him our humility and our love and desire for him to do a work in our life. Let me tell you I don't want a laughing revival like the one in Canada. I'd love to see a weeping revival where God's people said I'm38:28said I'm fed up enough's enough. And oh God I am so sorry that my pride and arrogance has stood between what you really want to do in my life and what you're doing in my life. My friend we need to humble ourselves.38:58ourselves. We need to pray God humble us. We need to get on our face. We need to cry out with tears. We need to moan. We need to groan. pray that God may move in us. We need to pray for our lost with tears because we know where they're going. We need to39:28pray. We need to pray for the Christmas store. I look at Greg back there. We need to pray for the Christmas store that God will save every family. Not just witness to them but save every family that's not saved. It comes in. We need to pray that whatever this church touches lost people will be won to the Lord Jesus Christ and God will receive glory. We need to humble ourselves. We need to be humble39:57be humble servants of God. Let's pray. Father, God, as we gather here today, Lord, I came for a humbling Lord, I came seeking you, but God, knowing that if you're here, we're going to be humbled. Isaiah was humbled in your presence, God. Moses was humbled in your presence. David was humbled in40:27humbled in your presence. Oh, Lord, Peter was humbled in your presence. God, how is it that every example in Scripture of anyone getting close to you, they were humbled? They humbled themselves and they were humbled by your presence and yet, God, today, arrogance, pride, flamboyance is the movement of the day. Oh, God, may we be humble. May we be40:58servants. May we follow the example of Jesus, God with us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.More sermons on Philippians →
