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Imitating the Incarnation – Timothy Keller [Sermon] | Gospel in Life | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Imitating the Incarnation – Timothy Keller [Sermon]
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Summary
Core Theme
This teaching, based on Philippians 2:3-11, emphasizes adopting the "mind of Christ" by understanding Jesus' divine nature, his voluntary humanity and servanthood, and his ultimate exaltation. It calls for a transformation of our own attitudes and actions to reflect Christ's humility and selflessness.
the teaching this morning is
found uh it's based on the passage which
is printed in your bulletins and I'm
going to read it now it's Philippians chapter
chapter
3-1 Philippians chap 2:
3-1 do nothing out of selfish ambition
or vain conceit
but in humility consider others better than
than
yourselves each of you should look not
only to his own interests but also to
the interest of others your attitude
should be the same as that of Christ
Jesus who being in very nature God did
not consider equality with God something
to be grasped but made himself nothing
taking the very nature of a servant
being made in human likeness and being
found in appearance as a man he humbled
himself and became obedient to death
even death on a cross therefore God
exalted him to the highest place and
gave him the name that is above every
name 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 Christ is Lord to the
glory of God the
word
uh if if the if the Bible was a mountain
range this would be one of the two or
three highest
peaks uh there's there's an awful lot of
treasure in here it kind of overwhelms
me as I read it even just now uh too
much to say you say well that's that's
always true for you yeah I know I uh you
know ministers it's it's a it's a danger
of being a minister I'm always saying
this is the greatest passage this is the
greatest truth I know but this
is what do I do about that I don't know
why would you even believe me the word
inflation anyway
uh we live in a we live in a time of of
talk shows Revelations of people's inner
lives inner Secrets inmost thoughts uh
this is the ultimate Revelation because
we not only have in this passage maybe
the most complete picture of
all of who Jesus is and what he did this
is the most complete passage it's all
here he was God he was also God man he
was God he was incarnated as a human
being beyond that he became a servant
and went to death the death of the Cross
therefore God has highly exalted him it
tells us all about who Jesus is all
about what Jesus is done but here's
what's especially important this text
not only tells us about him but it tells
us his mind you know verse 5 says have
the same attitude your attitude should
be the same as that of Christ Jesus what
is that blow apart the real Freight
that's a bad translation it says have
the same mind in you that was in Christ
Jesus literally it's the word mind this
passage is not only about the fact that
Jesus was God about the fact that Jesus
became human about the fact that Jesus
became a servant emptied himself made
himself nothing it tells us also about
what Jesus thought about those things it
gives us his inmost motives Revelation
his inmost thought thoughts it tells us
why he did the things that he did it
shows us his inmost motives now when
talk shows do
it they only show you the inmost mind of
somebody else for the Just For Itself
just for the sake of doing it for the
pure salaciousness of it you
know but when God does it when the Bible
does it when the Bible would for the
Bible to take the curtain away and to
show you this kind of Revelation the
inmost thoughts of Jesus Christ the mind of
of
Christ it only will do
that in order to transmogrify your mind
it'll only do that to Electrify your
mind to melt your heart and to change
your life in other words verse 5 does
not say here's the mind of Christ it
says let this mind be in you
too God would never be well so willing
to share his inmost thoughts with
you just so you could say I saw
it he does it in order to to change you
he does it in order to change the way in
which you look at everything and think
about everything and act toward the
world let me show you the three things
that Philippians 2 tells us about Jesus
basically it says he was God secondly it
says he became human thirdly he said
Being Human he humbled himself and
became a servant even to the death of a
cross those three things and what he
thought about them but it's not enough
just to say oh that's interesting we
also have to say how does that change
change our
mind about the way in which we think
about the way in which we act how does
it change our mind there's so much here
let's go number one first of all this
passage tells us Jesus is God in fact
let me spend a little time on this there
is no passage in the Bible who that more
more powerfully dramatically
dramatically
intensely uh puts the fact that Jesus is
God God himself it does it in three ways
let me let me show you the first of all
in verse 6 it says being in very nature
God now let me descend to particulars
that is a very good translation the word
the Greek word here it says Paul uses
the Greek word morphe m o r pH
pH
morphe he was in the very morphe of God
now the trouble with this word is almost
always when we take that Greek word
morphe into into English uh you know we
do do have the word some places in our
English words like Metamorphosis or
morphology and so on it usually is
translated by the word
form morphe is usually translated into
the English word form there's a problem
with that though because the English
word form has to do with outside
appearances that's not what the Greek
word mean we had a Greek word for that
there's a Greek word
schema which means the outward fashion
the appearance the word morphe actually
means the essence of something it means
those qualities which make something
what it
is and that's the reason why the the the
translation we here The New
International Version translation that
we use each week gets it
better this is a much stronger statement
this is the strongest possible statement
about the deity and the Divinity of Jesus
Jesus
Christ it is much stronger than if Paul
came right out and said Jesus Is God
somebody says well that would have been
a little more clear oh no it wouldn't
have been because when you say Jesus is
God you can mean an awful lot of things
Shirley mlan says that about herself and
she says that about you too and there's
a whole lot of things you can read into
that this is much
different Paul is saying Jesus Christ
has the unique and very identical
qualities that make God
God Jesus Christ is the very substance
of God Jesus Christ is the very
characteristics of God Jesus Christ is
the very being of God this is incredibly
strong and
if you think is it really that strong a
statement being in very nature God the
second way this passage shows us this
the magnitude of this claim is the
second pass part of the verse it says
who being in very nature God did not
consider equality with God something to
be grasped now you know what that word
kept again this is a little bit it
doesn't say it's a little misleading it
doesn't say he did not count equality
with God a thing to go after by grasp he
means held on
to this verse means here that Jesus was
equal with God and he decided not to
hold on to it that gets us into our next
point but point is here though this is
saying it's in as strong a way as
possible Jesus Christ was not just a
demigod you know it's not like the
father gave his substance to a string of
lesser Gods Jesus Christ was as much God
as God Jesus Christ was God as much God
as the father he's equal with the Father
the same in substance and
being now there's one more way in which
this passage gets this point across and
I'll take a moment to say
it people have a tendency one of the
ways in which the average person today
gets out from under this the weight of
this the claim that Jesus is not just a
prophet not just a a founder of a
religion not just a great teacher but
God himself people people say well you
know that's probably not how
Christianity started that's probably not
how it started probably Jesus in the
beginning was a teacher of peace and
love and his followers understood that
too but you know as time went on and as
the stories about Jesus became more
distant geographically from the original
site as the the stories uh developed
they they got more generationally
distant in other words as the years went
by the the stories got embellished the
Legends got embellished and more and
more people began to talk about Jesus as
if he was divine and eventually God
himself it had happened over a long
period of time the original Jesus did
not claim to be God and His original
followers didn't make him claim to be
God and the original hearers didn't ever
hear him say he was God all those
thousands of people that listen to him
teach they never heard him say that he
never said that that developed much
later here's the problem with that
opinion and with that
theory Scholars now believe that this
passage look from verses 6 down to
almost 11 yeah to 11 was not written by
Paul but that Paul's quoting
this now we know this from about verses
6 7 8 9 10 11 it is either a poem or a
confession or a
hymn its lexical links its parallelism
it has the it has the uh its Rhythm it
has the features of Greek poetry and
either Paul had written it previously or
else somebody else had written
previously but this was a hym or a
confession that Paul was
quoting and that he knew his peers would
know about he's quoting it now actually
whether or not he he wrote it doesn't
make any difference here's the point
though Paul wrote his letters within 20
years of the death of Jesus Christ and
if he is quoting here which he obviously
is all Scholars conservative or not
believe this almost all Scholars that he
is quoting an earlier hym of confession
that the church used this means that
from the very earliest days of the Christian
Christian
Church the very earliest father
followers not only worshiped Jesus as
God but said Jesus was aware of his
divinity Jesus taught his
divinity now that you have to see that
this is a claim that would have been certainly
certainly
contradicted by the
hearers if Jesus had never claimed to be
God and within one or two years all
around the Mediterranean all the
churches were saying yes Jesus claimed
to be God it would have never gotten off
the ground the whole movement would have
gotten off the ground this essentially
proves only one thing that Jesus did
make these claims and I'll tell you
something of all the people on the face
of the Earth the last group of
people whose worldview would allow them
to believe that a human being could be
the Transcendent creator of the universe
were the
Jews the Greeks the Romans people in the
East they had different views of God
their views of God were more a matter of
God being part of Nature and so they
could understand this idea of somebody
being God the Jews could not the Jews
understood God as being the Transcendent
Creator infinitely Transcendent above the
the
creation they were the last people in the
the
world to believe that a human being
could be God and if there was a
man who made these
claims and got thousands of Jews to believe
believe
him imagine the quality of his life
imagine his moral character you see
imagine the scrutiny he would have been
under imagine the miraculous power he
must have had imagine the personal
presence H imagine the Sublimity
Sublimity of his teaching and his and of
his uh of his of his preaching and his
wisdom imagine he must have been
somebody don't you see what this passage
is teaching us Jesus Christ claimed to
be God Jesus Christ was of such power in
his moral be bearing and such power in
his ability
ities that he was able to substantiate
that claim with the people who lived with
with
him and those people said he is not a
demigod he is God he is not he is not
under the father he is equal with the
father he is not a he's not a created
but he's the uncreated Creator he is God
himself now before we move on we have to
ask ourselves something how should this
affect our mind see that's the whole
idea you have to let your mind be
impacted by these
things and this is what I would suggest
to you for a moment and this the here
here's a couple ways in which the fact
that Jesus is God should have an impact
on your mind first of all if Jesus is
start to get more optimistic about your own
own
future if this is Jesus Christ that's
come into your
life and who says I love you and I've
never I will never forsake you and if
he's committed to you why are you so
pessimistic about ever changing this
habit why are you so pessimistic about
ever having any kind of joy in life you
see Jesus was a loving teacher he was
the teacher of love he was the one
little children got up on his lap he was
the one you know who comes and says to
you come unto me all ye who are burdened
and heavy laden I will give you rest he
is this loving one but who is he is he
just a well-meaning person who is this
one who says I am committed to you this is
is
God this is the one who's come into your
life you read Romans
8 where Paul says I'm not afraid of
anything look at his Unsinkable buoyancy
he's not afraid of anything he has the
highest hopes for himself and his the
people he loves there's one place where
he says he's not afraid of death nor
life nor angels nor nor demonic
principalities or powers nor things
present nor things to come nor height
nor depth nor any other creature there's
another place in the same chapter he
says I'm not afraid of suffering or
hardship or persecution or nakedness or
Peril or sword
why if God is for us who can be against
us now if you are not as Unsinkable as as
as
Paul if you are not as buoyant as
Paul if you look at yourself and say
I'll never
change if you look at and say the great
things are never going to happen in my
life and yet you're a Christian and yet
you say you've received Christ as Savior
if he's
God and you're not
Unsinkable and buoyant like Paul in
Romans 8 you're not thinking there's
something wrong with your mind that's
what he's saying there's something wrong
with your mind here let me show you
something else if he's God that also
means that's joyful news but if he's God
that's also sobering news and here let
me speak to maybe a different slice of
our congregation or our audience here
this morning uh if Jesus Is God and if
he claimed to be God as this little hymn
pretty much proves that he
did you realize that the only only
possible way to respond to him is
extremely uh when I first recently I've
been thinking about what were the books
or the things that I read when I first
became a Christian over 25 years ago and
what were the most seminal things and I
know one of the most seminal and influen
IAL things I ever read was the was one
chapter in a little book by John stot
called basic Christianity and in that he
said if you read the Bible some of you
have heard echoes of this ever since you
know in my preaching for years because
they've always been there he says if you
read the Bible you'll see that nobody
who ever met Jesus Christ ever had a
moderate reaction to him there's only
three reactions to Jesus they either wanted
wanted
to they hated him and they wanted to
kill him they tried to kill him or they
were afraid of him and they tried to run
away or they absolutely were smitten
with him and they tried to give their
whole lives to him but nobody ever had a
moderate reaction to him now the average
person in America likes
Jesus you can't like
Jesus don't you see if he claimed to be
God then if he's not God he's a
megalomaniac you shouldn't respect him a
bit but if he is God everything about
your life needs to revolve around him
don't you see there isn't anything
else how can you like Jesus nobody ever
has liked Jesus who knew who he was and
knew who he claimed to be don't you see
see if Jesus Is God that's great news
it's also sobering news but here's one
more thing if Jesus Is God see your
mind's got to be changed by this if
God this gives us a whole new
you know what this is teaching us about
this is teaching us about the
Trinity the
Trinity uh you sing it by the way you
sang it very well this morning uh you
know we sing it in the
doxology let all things their creator
bless and worship him in humbleness h
Allelujah H Allelujah praise praise the
father praise the son and praise the
spirit three in one you you sing it well
some of you sing it every week you have
no idea what that mean what the heck is
that why you sing it well though uh and
I I can't get into that too much right
now but this is teaching that the Father
the Son and the Holy Spirit are equally
God they're three in one one God three
in one three persons equally God you say
well I don't understand that can you
explain that to me no not tonight not
today but here's what I will tell you
Augustine in his great work on the
Trinity makes an incredible point
he says OU know if you're a
non-trinitarian many people believe in
God but they're non- trinitarians they
saywell there's only one God one person
Jesus was a nice man or Jesus was a kind
of created being but there's only one
person one God Augustine says if you are
non-trinitarian in your view of God you
have got a defective God you have a God
who never loved anybody until he created
the world
God existed from all eternity but until
he created at least Angels or until he
created other human beings other persons
relationship and Augustine says
therefore not only do you have an
imperfect God but you have a God who
created to meet a love
need he created in order to have
love Augustine says that's not true of
the god of the Bible the god of the
Bible is
love and relationship is in internally
inherent in him he's always had love and relationship
relationship
beginningless and therefore when he
created the world and he created other
persons and angels and human beings he
created not to get love he created to
give love he created not that use us to
meet his needs he
created to just to let us take in the
richness and the spillover of the love
he had within himself Father Son and Holy
Holy
Spirit you know what that
means this is pretty interesting the
greatest temptation is to move out
toward other people we say we're being
creative we say we're serving God the
father created us not to use us not to
get love not to meet his needs but to
give Jesus Christ came to Earth and to
serve us not to meet his needs for love
but to to give us love it is extremely
seductive and absolutely a very very
strong temptation to move out into other
people's lives more to meet your needs
than to meet
theirs you get involved you serve you
listen you counsel you help you love you
say but you're using them you're not
loving them if you go out to more meet
their mind your own needs than their
needs now you're a human being you're
not God you're not the father son the
Holy Spirit and therefore of course
there's a fulfillment of course there's
a meeting of needs as you meet needs but
when you have more when you're more
meeting needs of yourself when you move
out to meet needs and others really to
meet your own needs more to meet your
needs than theirs you have got an imbalance
imbalance
here you are not you do not have the
same mind as
Christ and here's some of the ways you
can tell do you find when those people
who you're trying to love and meet their
needs do you find what if they don't
respond what if they're not grateful
what if they don't act the way you want
them to act
are you the kind of person who is
continually getting hurt
feelings are you the kind of person
continually feeling
snubbed are you the kind of person that
needs to control the people that you're
with to get them to do and act just the
way you want them
to you know what you got
there you have moved out into their
lives more to meet your needs than to
meet their
needs and there's going to be nothing
but destructiveness in that
relationship and in the end they're
going to to feel very empty and you're
going to feel empty too and you're going
to blame each other and you're
right both of you what can you do ah
have the same mind in you that was in Christ
Christ
Jesus Jesus
Christ was in the
Trinity before moving out so do you have
to do so do you have to be a Christian
is somebody who goes into the Trinity
before you move out
a we know I know we're human beings and
therefore there is a fulfillment of
needs as you meet needs but you
primarily have got to say is this loving
heavenly father my heavenly father does
he love me in Christ does he accept me
is there now no condemnation to those
who are in Christ
Jesus do I really belong to him that has
got to be settled and the bottom
line of your worth and your significance
in your life has got to be settled
before you move
out you've got to do what Jesus christed
or you're going to find yourself going
out not to give love but to get
it okay second major thing you see here
is not only that Jesus is God and if
he's God that should change our mind but
secondly he became the God man he's not
just Divine he's human in verse six
it tells us and verse 7 it tells us
something now again I'm I'm being
careful about the grammar because this
is one of the key verses in the
formation of a Biblical christology in
the whole Bible a Biblical view of
Christ in verse 6 and 7 look carefully
it says who being in very nature God did
not account equality with God something
to be kept but made himself nothing
taking on the very nature of a servant
being made in human like likeness it's
another word morphe
in other
words he took on a human nature but you
have to be careful because verse six the
word being in very nature God stays in the
the
imperfect and therefore the grammar does
not say having been God he instead
became human but it says being God he
also became human he didn't stop being
God but he became human as well he
became God man he became both at once
now what does it mean that God see
there's a lot of people who
believe that matter and the physical are
evil who could understand the
possibility that Jesus was God and
instead he became human he stop being
God to become human the one thing that
most philosophies could not stomach is
the idea of God continuing to be God and
still being human at the same time why
here's the Practical
difference two let me just give you two
practical impacts that this should have
on our minds the fact that God became
human first of all our God is a God in
fact AO so far say our God is a God is
the only God in the world religions to
matters in the west the Greco Roman
religions thought matter was impure and
kind of polluted God could never become
human in the East Eastern religions
don't see matter as being impure but
they see it as being unimportant they
see it as an
illusion so they could say oh of course
the idea of God becoming human is fine
at least temporarily I mean it's all an
illusion anyway but neither the West
neither the Greco Roman religions nor
the Eastern religions nor of course
Judaism or Islam would say what
Christianity has said God inhabited a body
body
permanently God took into himself the
physical it says in Colossians 2:9 in
him all the fullness of the godhead
dwells bodily nobody has ever had no
other religion has ever had the audacity
to say
that and that changes everything for us
you know
why here's what I want to press on you
we are the only religion that knows that
God does not think of the physical as
more important than the spiritual or the
spiritual is more important than the
physical and that changes the way in
which which we deal with things look at
the Bible itself the first picture you
have of God in the Bible is god with his
hands in the mud creating the world
God's not afraid to get his hands dirty
he's involved with matter the last
picture you have of God in the Bible is
God cleaning up the natural universe of
the toxic waste of evil and sin and
rehabbing a beautiful new Urban Home for
himself and in the very center of the
Bible you've got the two main [Music]
[Music]
P they're about the physical at
Christmas human God became human took on
a physical and at Easter god redeemed a
body see God created both the soul and
the body he redeemed both the soul and
the body and that
means that they're both important to him
can't then has kept body and soul apart
the whole purpose of Jesus Christ is to
do what it took to let Body and Soul
live in
Integrity now what does this mean it
means first of all in the gospel you can
keep these together but outside of the
Gospel they don't they're not together
if you don't understand Christianity you
can either be religious or irreligious
you can be religious meaning you're
trying to earn your salvation by being a
good person or you can be irreligious in
which you say I have to live my own life
the way I want to live my own life and
get this if you're religious
uncomfortable you'll feel like well I
need to get away from that I need to be
spiritual and I I don't know how many
times I've seen people who when they got
very religious were got kind of anti-
physical they don't they only worry
about the phys the spiritual now they
don't worry about their body they don't
worry about other people's bodies they
feel like well why should we help people
who are
hungry why should we rehab houses why
should we work on trying to make the
city a safer place to live after all
that's physical stuff that's all going
to burn up I'm concerned about the
spiritual religious people are almost
uncomfortable with the physical or they
think it's unimportant irreligious
people you see worship the physical
because that's all they have your body
says have sex you do it why I mean
because all there is to life is having a
nice body and having physical Comforts
and and having the pleasures of life
apart from the gospel you can't keep
Body and Soul together either the
physical will become your idol and it
will drive you you or the physical will
become something you're afraid of or or
or you consider unimportant or you're
only in Jesus Christ we alone as
Christians can say at the same time we
can talk about salvation of the
soul and cleaning up a neighborhood so
it's safe and people have a place a warm
place to to live and and food to eat why
we can do it with integrity that's what
Jesus is about he came in order to let
Body and Soul live in integrity and
that's your future too when you see
Jesus Christ you see your future a spiritual
spiritual
body you're not going to be a disembodied
disembodied
intelligence you know kind of hovering
around in heaven don't you know that
you're going to eat and drink you're
going to hug and be hugged we're going
to hug each other in heaven we're not
just going to have Vulcan mind
melts we're going to sing in heaven
there's going to be music there's going
to be food in heaven there's going to be
bodies in heaven there's going to be the
physical but it's going to be spiritual
they're going to dwell together in
Integrity only Christians can be just as
concerned about the poor and social
concern is there about evangelism and
saving somebody's Soul everybody else
without the gospel those things break
apart you're only concerned about one or
only concerned about together not
Christians not Christians who
understand that being God he also became
human I'll tell you something else it
tells us because he's human he understands
understands
you because he's human he knows what
you're going
through you can go to him have you are
you have you been betrayed he's been
betrayed have you been lonely he's been
lonely are you facing death he's faced
death he died have you died
no he had a prayer turned
down he has been here he knows what it's
like he knows all about our
troubles if you don't go to him as a
wonderful counselor if you don't take
your burdens off with him if you're
not able to see it's just as important
for us to be fighting as Christians
against disease and poverty as against
unbelief and heresy if you can't keep
those together you need to have a mind
change let this mind be also in you
which is in Christ Jesus now lastly got
to say one last
thing Jesus did not just become human he
was God but he didn't just become human
he became a servant and notice it's very
careful to point out that Jesus could
have come as a human being and become a
kind of powerful human being he could
have come as a king but it says he made himself
himself
nothing taking the nature of a servant
and being
found as a human being he humbled
himself and became obedient to death
even the death on a cross therefore God
has highly exalted him now I want you to
see how that is utterly different than
our career take a minute let me show you
how that is utterly different than our
career can I tell you if you know your
own history let me tell you about you
and me here's our history though we were
not equal with God we counted equality
with God something to be grasped see
that's totally the opposite of him
though he was
equal he let go of equality with God he
became a servant he took a lower
position though we were not equal with
God we do grasp after equality with God
and you say when do I do that friend
anytime you've ever said I know what the
Bible says but I've got to do what makes
me happy you have been gra you're
grasping equality with God though you're
not equal with God you hold on to it
though he was equal with God he let go
of it and we keep
going it says and he made himself
nothing and took the role of a servant
but you and I desperately want to become
something we want to be
somebody and we want to be Kings
Kings
therefore because he did that God hath
highly exalted him and given him the
name above every name here's the irony
we try desperately to be somebody we try
Des desperately to be our own God and
our own King and therefore God lets us
fall to the bottom and we don't even
this tells us that Jesus found his name
by losing it Jesus got up by going
down Jesus got his identity through
service Jesus became somebody because he
served something bigger than
himself believe it or not he became he
came and lived the life we should have
lived and died the death we should have
died he came and took and showed us what
it means to be a human being now what is
that does that mean for us it means this
the way to become saved is you've got to go
go
down if you say I'm trying very hard to
be a good person I i' I've started
coming to
Redeemer I'm I'm starting to read the
Bible and I'm hoping that if I really
turn over a new Leaf God will accept me
that's trying to go
up that's saying I've got a
righteousness of my
own you've got to say I have no
righteousness of my own that's to go
down and then what happens is only when
you say that when you say I deserve to
be lost and therefore I have no control
over my
life Lord save me for jesus'
sake I make you my Savior and Lord the
minute you go down we're told he adopts
us he gives us his name he accepts us he
brings us into his family we get the
name which is above every name if you
want to go up if you say I've got to do
well I got to do I got to find out what
makes me happy I got to find out who I
am if you go up you won't even know who
you are if you go down you will find out
who you are you'll get the name which is
name and one last thing the Christian
friends we're told here that Jesus
Christ became a servant the Bible
actually tells us that he emptied
himself right here of his prerogatives
and his power and His glory
he didn't stop being
God but he compl got became completely
dependent on God we're told he became a
servant only now somebody says wait a
minute how could he have emptied himself
look at the feeding of the 5000 look at
the uh walking on the water look at look
at how he preached and taught and they
said never man spake as he spake I mean
Jesus Christ how could he have emptied
himself and done all these great things
we're told in Acts chapter 10:38 God
anointed him with the Holy Spirit and he
did great Deeds because God was with him
he show us what we can do do you know
that all of his wisdom came from the
father remember that place where he's
asked when are you coming back and he
says I don't know that God hasn't told
me all that wisdom was because he was
dependent on the father he wasn't doing
in his own wisdom he was being the
perfect human being he was being a
servant all of his power all of his
healing all of his
miracles all of his
greatness there was not one thing he did
that you and I couldn't do
if we were as dependent on the father as he
he
was and that's an
indictment you
know this is we got to be careful here I
don't know all that means I do know this
Christian brothers and sisters this
means we've got to give up our small
Ambitions I don't know where humility
even comes into this exactly all I know
is by Jesus Christ giving up his power
and Glory he had far more power on Earth
than any of us who refused to don't you
see it's by giving up his prerogatives
by being saying I'm going to be a
servant that he had this incredible
power 6 years ago when Kathy and I came
to New York we just wanted to survive we
just hope we could get some little
church that would just not fold in 3 or 4
4
years and you know hum you know you want
to be humble and it's good to be humble
but I'll tell you something I never want
to dishonor God's power with such low
expectations ever
again and how many of you and how and
how am I continuing to do that by saying
well I don't have I'm nobody I'm of
course you're nobody Jesus by making him
nobody himself nobody got a power to do
things and he actually comes and says to
us you can do greater things than I
remember where he says
that there is nothing that he's done
that we couldn't do because he did it
servanthood he's God let that change
your mind he's human let that change
your mind he became the servant let that
change your mind go down to come up to
be saved go down to come up to become a powerful
servant let's pray Our Father we thank
you that you gave us so much in the
passage I pray that you would help us to
uh I I'm sure that everybody here
because there were so many uh little
vignettes in this sermon there's so many
different points so many tangents and
yet I know that all of us had one
probably that stuck out more than
others I pray that you would take these
sermons and preach them to our hearts by
your Holy Spirit just move away from my
mouth and from my notes and holy spirit
I pray that you would now take the very
sermons that you want us all to hear and
just screw them down into our hearts
till they catch fire until we have the
same mind as that which also is in
Christ Jesus in his name we pray amen
for more of this series and other
resources from Timothy Keller and
Redeemer Presbyterian Church please
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