Philippians 2:5-7

5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!

To say you are a Christian and act or live some other way is contrary to the definition of the word Christian. Your attitude should be that this is not a suggestion, it is a command in the imperative which means just do it. We need to develop the attitude of Christ to display the actions of Christ. By virtue of the word, Christian, meaning “like Christ,” we are to be like Christ. Are we making excuses and exceptions or do we have an eager expectation to be the example of Christ, to display His attitude and actions? We live in a world where we want Christ to save our lives but not to saturate them, but letting the mind of Christ be in us means that we are to think as Christ would think, resulting in behavior typical of Christ. Why are we afraid of a radical relationship with Jesus, why do we want to be inoculated with a shot of salvation but not to be infected with servanthood? Are we afraid that we might lose our minds? Yet isn’t that the point, isn’t that the command, to lose your mind and take on the mind of Christ to think like Christ would think so you will do what Christ would do.

In part one we started to look at how Christ’s attitude effected what He did, we discussed a life of humility and here in part two we will look at two other aspects of what Christ did that are so critical to servanthood. He:

3. Gave up His rights

There is no doubt that Jesus is God, He is co-equal with the Father, John 10:30 “I and my Father are one.” Yet Jesus gave up His rights to become a servant, to become human, serving us as He suffered to save. He gave up the right of praise, the right to be in the full presence of God. Think about this, He gave up the right to divine fullness, Jesus was confined to a human body and where a human body could go and dwell. Jesus had been able to be everywhere at all times but gave that up to become flesh. Christ Literally “emptied Himself” this describes His actions but does it describe ours? He emptied Himself of His divine privileges, but not of His divinity, He imposed upon Himself limitations so He could serve and identify with us. He gave up position, power, and praise to serve me, at the heart of servanthood is the attitude of selflessness. Does selflessness characterize your life or do you need to empty yourself of you so you can be filled with Him?

4. Surrendered His life

Jesus gave the ultimate act of service when He endured the horror and the humility of the cross, there has been no greater act of service than this. He not only gave up all of His rights and took on a physical body but He also gave up that body. Jesus willingly gave up the life that He humbled Himself to take for the chance of humanity finding freedom from the power of sin. There will never be surrender without submission. Besides submitting Himself to the worst demotion in history, Christ yielded Himself to ridicule, arrest, mockery, beatings, and finally death on the cross. If you want to know how much Jesus loves you, look at the cross. He gave up His throne in Heaven to submit Himself to the most excruciating and dehumanizing form of human punishment. So why is it so hard for us to surrender and submit our lives to service, is it because at the heart of surrender is sacrifice? Is it because at the heart of Christianity we have to give up our attitudes, aspirations, and actions so that Christ’s attitude and actions become ours?

Why did He do it? John 3:16 says it was for LOVE. What about us, how will we L.O.V.E. Love Others, Value Everyone?

Philippians 2:5-7

5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

Before we come to the end of our 30 days of serving we need to look to Jesus because there is no greater model of service, He is the ultimate example of servant hood. Jesus came to serve us by saving us so that we could follow Him.  But it’s not just about following Jesus it’s about becoming like Him taking on His:

1. Attitude

Servant hood starts in our thinking and is a reflected in our attitude and actions. Recently Felix Baumgartner stepped off the edge of a helium balloon on the edge of earth’s atmosphere, 24 miles up and plummeted at a top speed of 833.9 miles per hour. After just over nine minutes he landed in the New Mexico desert, his achievement was becoming the first man to break the speed of sound in a free-fall. Why did he do it? To break a record, to do something no one had ever done before. Jesus also stepped off the edge, and like Baumgartner his destination was earth, but it was not a drop of a mere 24 miles, no, Jesus stepped out of heaven. Why, what compelled Him to take that step? It wasn’t to break a record but to break the power of sin. It was His attitude to serve in which He took that very first step and every step after all the way to the cross.  Attitude always effects action, and Jesus possessed an amazing attitude, one that reached out to people even when they would not listen and would not believe. Jesus shared His attitude with the disciples even when they were absorbed with their own selfish agenda. Jesus believed in people when they did not believe in themselves, He saw Peter as the rock when he wasn’t even a pebble. Jesus saw potential in Matthew when he was a hated tax collector; He reached out to a legalistic like Niccodaemus and a social outcast like Zaccheaus. Jesus saw potential in the people around Him even when no one else did and even when they didn’t seem to change. The key to His servant attitude was that Jesus did not come for Himself but instead He came for us. His goal was not to set up an earthly kingdom but save a dying world. What attitude do you have, who are you serving and what kingdom am you focused on?

2. Humility

When Jesus stepped out of heaven He submitted His life to every facet of humility, the King became the commoner, the Savior became the servant, the creator became the criminal, the prince became the pauper. He humbled Himself to lift us up, Jesus became like us so we could become like Him. Jesus allowed Himself to endure hardship, frustrations and pain, so we could have healing, freedom and peace. Jesus came to give us something we could not gain on our own. He stepped into our world so we could step into His, so the finite could become infinite and the temporary eternal. Humility asks the question, how low can you go? Jesus answered that question in every possible way; physically, emotionally, spiritually, materially. He went from heaven to earth, from peace to pierced, from relationship to rejection, from power to poverty. Jesus came down to our level so we could see Him and experience the depth of God’s love and grace. Humility often looks weak but the power of humility was displayed in the power of redemption, what was cast low was lifted high. Pride is always the enemy of humility, because pride longs to promote self not servanthood. How low are we willing to go to serve? What high ledge does servanthood beckon you from, is it the ledge of position, power, pride or pettiness? Jesus came down to become part of the world He created and if we are to follow in His footsteps we to must step down in order to serve. Like Baumgartner’s jump to earth, serving can be scary and can feel like a turbulent, spinning out of control, downward decent. We may never break any records that will be recorded in history but through serving we can break through into other people’s lives as we step up by stepping down.  Are you ready to step off?