3/29/26 Phil. 2:1-11 “Bittersweet!”

26 Mar 3/29/26 Phil. 2:1-11 “Bittersweet!”

3/29/26   Phil. 2:1-11      “Bittersweet!”

Before I begin our Palm Sunday message, I would like to say something about your giving.  With all the different projects happening at different places, I hear a lot about this topic.  The first thing I would like us to remember is that nothing you have is yours.  It’s all a gift from God and He only asks for 10%, that is a tithe, in return.  You can keep 90% of what isn’t yours in the first place.  That is a pretty good deal.  If you say that you can’t afford to give, then I will say to you that you can’t afford not to give; think about it.  I know it’s hard to give 10% so here is an easy way to start.  I suggest you give by percentages and not $ amounts.  Figure your percentage of giving.  I would guess that for most it’s around 1% or less.  So for this year, kick it up to 1%, next year double your percentage; the year after double it again.  In 5 years’ time you should be at 10%, a tithe.  It is a very easy and painless way to give.  I have been tithing for almost 35 years and I have not missed one dollar of my giving and we were very poor when I started.  When you start giving in obedience to God, then the blessings will begin to flow.  This is just a reminder of what we have talked about before.  Now let’s turn our attention to the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem.  Paul talks to us today about Jesus coming to Jerusalem as a humble servant.  Let’s see what it takes to be like this.

I would like to begin with a true story from Jeff Strite about a soldier who had pulled guard duty on an overnight detail.  Have you ever tried to stay up all night when you’re not used to it?  I worked the midnight to 8:30 AM shift at the Post Office for several years.  It was really hard to stay up all night in the beginning and, to tell you the truth, my body never got used to it.  As far as I’m concerned we weren’t made to do this.  Anyway, I can sympathize with this soldier.  In the morning the soldier had to report to his commanding officer who demanded, “Did you sleep well while on duty?”  “What made you think that I was asleep?” replied the surprised soldier.  “Look in the mirror,” came the officer’s reply.  As the guard stood before the mirror he saw on his forehead the imprint of the Mercedes Benz logo from his truck’s steering wheel.  We should be much the same way.  People should be able to tell of our love for Jesus Christ by looking at us.  The imprint of Jesus should be in everything we do.

I expanded our reading today to include the first 4 verses because I think that it is important to see ourselves in Scripture before we move ahead.  Paul is trying to tell us that we have to get rid of selfish ambition and vain conceit.  Once again we have an ancient society which really mirrors our world today. They obviously had people who would stop at nothing to be able to feed their blind ambitions.  They also had people who walked around with crippling conceit which is a quick way to a fall.

I could launch into a tirade here and talk about someone who has just stomped on everyone on their way to the top of the corporate ladder.  When I worked at the Post Office I saw this type of behavior a lot.  There would be absolutely no moral conscience displayed by most of those climbers.  As long as they could hide behind the government or a corporate office, they had no morals.  I have stories about this that would shock most people.  And then when they got to the point that they considered to be good, they were so proud of themselves when they should have been totally ashamed.  There are countless examples of those who climb any kind of ladder and when they get to the top their conceit and arrogance takes over their personalities.  They think they got there by what they did.

They couldn’t be farther from the truth.  Whatever they did to achieve their success, they got because God allowed it to happen.  He probably didn’t encourage it but He didn’t stop it.  We have a God who will let us use our ‘free will’ even if it is against all things God stands for.  So how do you use your ‘free will?’  I mentioned a moment ago how we like to think that the money we get is ours.  We like to hoard it or I suppose a nicer way of saying that would be we save it.  We like to think that God can be in charge of things like love and helping others as long as it doesn’t affect my pocket book.  We are very ambitious about trying to make money.  Then we are very proud that we have some money.  In the end we keep as much as we can so that God can’t get His hands on it.  We cut our own throats by not giving God what God is due, thereby denying ourselves of the blessings from God, the many blessings.  If you don’t believe me, then try giving what you are supposed to give and see what happens to your life.

So these are a couple of attributes that we have that really need to be gone.  Now I know that Paul is the writer in this passage but he doesn’t take any of the credit for anything that he does.  All credit goes to Jesus Christ.  So first of all, Paul shows us his humility as he is about to explain the humility of Christ.  We also have to remember that Jesus is God but He sure isn’t going to tell us.  As a matter of fact, Jesus never tried to equate himself to God the Father.  He did just the opposite.  He knew that God the Father was the master and He was but a servant.  We don’t see Jesus with the rich rulers very often.  We don’t see him with the upper echelons of the church unless He is trying to make a point.  We see Jesus with the common people.  We see Him working with the people like you and me.  I hope that it isn’t too hard to see just how humble our great King was.

Jesus calls us to be the same way.  I was called to be a pastor.  I have found many pastors who became pastors because they wanted to and not because they were called.  They usually don’t work out very well.  He calls us to help the poor and how do we do?  Do we go out and engage people where they are or do we sit back and talk about it.  One of my pet peeves is studying a project and never doing the project.  At any point in time, there are a series of talks happening that talk about how to evangelize.  Why don’t these same people come out here this summer and we can do ‘evangelizing.’  Anyone can talk the talk but it takes the humble to walk the walk.  Personally, I have found that the more I give away, the more I get.  I don’t want or ask for more but we get it.

In 1863 President Lincoln designated April 30 as a national day of humiliation, fasting and prayer.  He told us that it’s our duty to submit to God in all things.  We are to confess our sins in humble sorrow.  It will be only then that we will gain mercy and pardon.  Lincoln wanted us to submit to God as individuals and as a nation.  He went on to tell the nation that they had become intoxicated by success.  They were so self-sufficient that they thought they needed no one outside themselves.  People of those days had become too proud to pray and they surely didn’t need the redeeming power of grace.  That sounds like us today.  I rarely get to meet someone who thinks they need grace and yet I rarely meet someone who would not benefit greatly or eternally from it.  We will surely regret the day that we kept Jesus Christ out of our society and I don’t care what the government says.  Jesus is needed everywhere!

But I digress.  Jesus came to us as a humble servant.  Here He was, the King of kings and Lord of lords, washing the feet of the disciples.  Jesus was homeless in this world.  He did all the healings and miracles because of the love He had for the people.  He would never send them away without satisfying their needs.  Jesus Christ is the model for a servant.  The blessing for us is that God didn’t throw out the pattern for servanthood when Jesus died.  God has planted in each and every one of us, the pattern of servanthood and all we have to do is read the Bible and study the life of Jesus to see how it is done.

Some of you may wonder why I keep on stressing God moments in your life.  Here lies the answer.  We have to be ready at all times for God to speak to us.  We need to be able to say that something was a definite God moment.  Jesus Christ is still the perfect servant today.  But He calls on you to help Him.  Only through Bible reading and study, prayer and worship will you be ready to hear Him call to you.  And when He does answer remember this; doing the will of God is always easy, going against the will of God is hard.  Remember that whenever you see someone who needs help.  I find it is always easier to start helping before it’s even asked.

Jesus Christ did something that no person has ever done before and no one has done it since.  To steal an old phrase, we will now separate the men from the boys as we see Jesus go willingly to the cross.  Don’t ever think that the Romans or the Jewish hierarchy or anyone else put Jesus to death.  He did this willingly.  He knew He was going to die and still He rides into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  Once again Jesus is setting the bar on being humble as He rides on a donkey and not a horse.  He did this in willing obedience to God, the Father.  Jesus set the example.

This means a lot to us because we to must bear our cross and die.  We must commit the ultimate sacrifice and allow our old selves to die so that our new beings in Christ can emerge.  We don’t think about this aspect very much.  It is much easier and safer to only think of Jesus going to the cross to die for your sins.  And that is exactly what He did but it doesn’t stop there.  Jesus has been telling us all along that we must rid ourselves of our old self and put on the new.  In John He tells us that we must be born again.  Hopefully, we have gotten passed the part where Satan has cast a negative image on this process because it’s so vital.  We all need to experience the spiritual death of our old selves so that we can be new in Christ.

Jesus showed us the way.  He not only died for our sins but He died so that you can be with Him spiritually in this life and the next.  We see this because Jesus didn’t die.  Spiritually He has always been and always will be.  His body died but that was even raised up on the third day.  There is no way anyone can ever beat Jesus.  He is God and we need to be obedient even to our own spiritual death.  When we finally die spiritually to our old selves is when we finally begin to live life to its fullest.

Many of you have already done this.  Many of you have slowly come to Jesus and it feels like you have been with Him your whole life.  Some of us have suddenly come to Jesus and we remember shedding our old self.  I have not only shed my old self but I don’t remember much of what he even did in that past life.  I became a new person in Christ and you can too.  All you have to do is confess your sins to Him, repent of your ways and make Jesus, Lord and Savior of your life.  It is that easy.

Jesus was obedient to God to the death and you need to be also, to your spiritual death and on to becoming a new being.  This is the building block of humility as we take on trying to be like Jesus in this world.  This is a great reading and here comes the best part.  Because Jesus did all this, God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above all other names.  That is where Jesus is right now.  He is in the highest place in heaven and you can be with Him if you are just obedient.

But God isn’t done because we have a God who is all-powerful and very extravagant.  At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.  I take this to read that every person who has ever lived in the past, those living now and those that will live in the future.  This includes all people in heaven and all in hell.  Every one of these people will bow down at the mention of His name because Jesus is above all others.

And finally, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.  People, Jesus didn’t just come for us Christians.  He came for every person in the world.  There are no exceptions.  Every person past, present and future will shout out for the glory of God.  This means that every Muslim will do this.  Every Hindu will do this.  Every atheist will do this.  This is the glory of God.  I can hardly contain myself talking about it because it is so exciting.  If you can’t get excited about his passage, you might want to make a doctor’s appointment for a checkup.

And it all starts this week with a parade for Jesus into Jerusalem.  This is going to be a hard week for Him but He also knows where He will end up.  He knows the millions and millions of people who will come to know Him because of what happens this week.  Jesus Christ was the obedient servant and He calls us to do the same.  He made it simple for us because we don’t have to physically die to come to know Him.

This had to be bittersweet for Jesus.  So much good would come from so much pain that He would go through.  Jesus Christ went ahead knowing what was coming.  He went ahead with your name on His mind.  Everything He did, He did for you.  You are the apple of His eye.  You are the most important person in the world to Him.  Take time this week and reflect on what He did for you so you can live.  Then join us again next week as we celebrate, not just Easter, but the love He has for you.  Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.