The Downward Path of Jesus

October 19, 2025 · John Hammond · Philippians

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Series · Philippians · Week 33 of 47

Scripture referenced 12 passages

The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.

1 Peter 5:7 read as an encouraging word to lead the congregation into worship

7 casting all your worries on him, because he cares for you.

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Philippians 2:5-11

the main text for the sermon, read aloud by Brad before John spoke

5 Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus,

6 who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,

7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.

8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.

9 Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name;

10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,

11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

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Luke 15

the parable of the two lost sons used to illustrate two ways people pursue glory apart from God

1 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming close to him to hear him.

2 The Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, “This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them.”

3 He told them this parable.

4 “Which of you men, if you had one hundred sheep, and lost one of them, wouldn’t leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one that was lost, until he found it?

5 When he has found it, he carries it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

6 When he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’

7 I tell you that even so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.

8 Or what woman, if she had ten drachma coins, if she lost one drachma coin, wouldn’t light a lamp, sweep the house, and seek diligently until she found it?

9 When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which I had lost.’

10 Even so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner repenting.”

11 He said, “A certain man had two sons.

12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ He divided his livelihood between them.

13 Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living.

14 When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need.

15 He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs.

16 He wanted to fill his belly with the husks that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any.

17 But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger!

18 I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight.

19 I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’

20 “He arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

21 The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe, and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.

23 Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat, and celebrate;

24 for this, my son, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’ They began to celebrate.

25 “Now his elder son was in the field. As he came near to the house, he heard music and dancing.

26 He called one of the servants to him, and asked what was going on.

27 He said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and healthy.’

28 But he was angry, and would not go in. Therefore his father came out, and begged him.

29 But he answered his father, ‘Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.

30 But when this your son came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’

31 “He said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.

32 But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’”

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John 1:1

quoted to establish that Jesus is eternally God, the Word who was with God and was God

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

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John 1:10

quoted to describe the antithesis of Christ entering the world he made but the world not knowing him

10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn’t recognize him.

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John 1:18

quoted in King James language about the only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father

18 No one has seen God at any time. The one and only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.

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Hebrews 1

cited to show Christ as the radiance of God's glory, the exact imprint of his nature, upholding the universe by the word of his power

1 God, having in the past spoken to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways,

2 has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.

3 His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, who, when he had by himself purified us of our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

4 having become so much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they have.

5 For to which of the angels did he say at any time, “You are my Son. Today I have become your father?” and again, “I will be to him a Father, and he will be to me a Son?”

6 When he again brings in the firstborn into the world he says, “Let all the angels of God worship him.”

7 Of the angels he says, “Who makes his angels winds, and his servants a flame of fire.”

8 But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your Kingdom.

9 You have loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.”

10 And, “You, Lord, in the beginning, laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the works of your hands.

11 They will perish, but you continue. They all will grow old like a garment does.

12 You will roll them up like a mantle, and they will be changed; but you are the same. Your years will not fail.”

13 But which of the angels has he told at any time, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet?”

14 Aren’t they all serving spirits, sent out to do service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?

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Galatians 4

cited to show that through faith believers are adopted as sons and daughters who can call God Abba

1 But I say that so long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a bondservant, though he is lord of all;

2 but is under guardians and stewards until the day appointed by the father.

3 So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental principles of the world.

4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law,

5 that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children.

6 And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!”

7 So you are no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

8 However at that time, not knowing God, you were in bondage to those who by nature are not gods.

9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, why do you turn back again to the weak and miserable elemental principles, to which you desire to be in bondage all over again?

10 You observe days, months, seasons, and years.

11 I am afraid for you, that I might have wasted my labor for you.

12 I beg you, brothers, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong,

13 but you know that because of weakness in the flesh I preached the Good News to you the first time.

14 That which was a temptation to you in my flesh, you didn’t despise nor reject; but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

15 What was the blessing you enjoyed? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me.

16 So then, have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?

17 They zealously seek you in no good way. No, they desire to alienate you, that you may seek them.

18 But it is always good to be zealous in a good cause, and not only when I am present with you.

19 My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you—

20 but I could wish to be present with you now, and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

21 Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, don’t you listen to the law?

22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the servant, and one by the free woman.

23 However, the son by the servant was born according to the flesh, but the son by the free woman was born through promise.

24 These things contain an allegory, for these are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children to bondage, which is Hagar.

25 For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to the Jerusalem that exists now, for she is in bondage with her children.

26 But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

27 For it is written, “Rejoice, you barren who don’t bear. Break out and shout, you that don’t travail. For more are the children of the desolate than of her who has a husband.”

28 Now we, brothers, as Isaac was, are children of promise.

29 But as then, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now.

30 However what does the Scripture say? “Throw out the servant and her son, for the son of the servant will not inherit with the son of the free woman.”

31 So then, brothers, we are not children of a servant, but of the free woman.

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Ephesians 1

cited to affirm that believers were chosen in love before the world began and predestined for his glorious grace

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus:

2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ;

4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love;

5 having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire,

6 to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved,

7 in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

8 which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,

9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him

10 to an administration of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things on the earth, in him;

11 in whom also we were assigned an inheritance, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who does all things after the counsel of his will;

12 to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ.

13 In him you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation—in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

14 who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.

15 For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which you have toward all the saints,

16 don’t cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers,

17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him;

18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

19 and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might

20 which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places,

21 far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.

22 He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the assembly,

23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

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2 Corinthians 8:9

quoted to describe how though Christ was rich he became poor so that by his poverty he could make believers rich

9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich.

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Isaiah 53

referenced to describe how Christ had no beauty or majesty to attract people, identifying him as a regular person

1 Who has believed our message? To whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?

2 For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no good looks or majesty. When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

3 He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him.

4 Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he didn’t open his mouth.

8 He was taken away by oppression and judgment; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people?

9 They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death; although he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days, and Yahweh’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.

11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore will I give him a portion with the great, and he will divide the plunder with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was counted with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

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Philippians 4:8

quoted as the benediction: whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, think on these things

8 Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there is any virtue, and if there is any praise, think about these things.

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Recap

The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.

John Hammond taught from Philippians 2:5-11, a passage he described as a hymn with three movements: Christ's eternity, his emptying of himself, and the Father's exaltation of him. The sermon pressed on a single question: what if the path to real glory runs downward rather than upward? Throughout, John returned to a phrase he used as a thread: "glory grows as we give it away."

What was said

John opened by naming something he sees in both New York, where he and Christy planted a church, and in Jackson: a hunger for more. Whether it shows up as a longer resume, more ski days, or a bigger truck, the drive is the same. He suggested this longing for glory is not wrong in itself but is aimed at the wrong target, and that we tend to operate with a scarcity mindset, grabbing and hoarding, when the spiritual physics of glory actually work the other way around.

To frame the problem, John drew on the parable of the two lost sons from Luke 15. The younger son chases freedom and ends up humiliated. The older son stays home and works faithfully but with a bitter, scorekeeping heart. John's point was that both are alienated from the father, and that both represent ways people in the room are likely living: either grasping for significance or grinding for approval. Grace, he said, offers a third path that is neither effort nor escape but encounter.

The first movement of the hymn, eternity, establishes who Jesus actually is. John walked through John 1 and Hebrews 1 to show that Christ is not a great moral teacher or a man who earned his way to godhood. He is eternally God, the radiance of the Father's glory, the exact imprint of his nature, and the one who upholds the universe by the word of his power. This is the scandal at the center of the faith, John said, the thing that believers and unbelievers alike trip over.

The second movement is the emptying. John explained the Greek word kenosis and was careful to say Jesus did not shed his divinity, but voluntarily veiled it. He took on the form of a doulos, a slave, which in Rome meant no agency, no autonomy, and utter powerlessness. This is the inversion at the heart of the gospel: the one through whom everything was made arrived unrecognized, limited by the same tiredness and grief the rest of us know. John quoted Tim Keller: Jesus lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died, and added that this was so we could have fullness of life in him.

John spent time on why the full humanity of Christ matters. Because no finite person can pay an infinite debt, Jesus had to be both fully God and fully man. His sinless human life carries divine merit that only God can carry. This means, John said, that when grief guts you or shame isolates you, you are not talking to someone looking down from a distance. You are talking to someone who stood outside a tomb and wept, who was abandoned by his closest friends, and who bore the full weight of what you carry.

The third movement is the Father's exaltation of Christ. Every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Messiah is Lord. John pointed out that Kurios, Lord, was Caesar's title in Philippi, making the confession politically loaded and subversive. The posture of kneeling in that culture meant total vulnerability and submission. What the hymn announces is that the one who descended all the way to a slave's death is the one to whom all of creation ultimately bends.

John closed the argument by circling back to the two sons. For those with the younger son's restless heart, the message was that they already have everything they need at home. For those with the older son's laboring heart, the message was that the kingdom has always been theirs and they can trade their scorekeeping for the kinship of Christ. The downward path of Jesus, giving glory away rather than hoarding it, is the shape of the life the church at Philippi was being called into, and the shape of the life John was inviting the room to consider.

Doing a Bible study?

Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.

John talked about a 'spiritual physics of glory' where glory grows as you give it away, which is the opposite of how we usually think. Where in your own life do you find yourself operating out of a scarcity mindset, grabbing or hoarding rather than giving?
John described both lost sons in Luke 15 as separated from their father, one through wild living and one through dutiful resentment. Which of those two postures do you find yourself falling into more often, and why?

and 3 more questions in the guide

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More more... Are you, like, in the throes of it or can I ask you some quest? More questions? Well, you're very kind. So normally, we start...

And then how long is it before we kinda get to the

message? So... Yep. The

the announcements. Right. Okay.

Uh-huh.

Think think Brad is going to because he's gonna read the text. But then... So that kinda gets you to what? 09:20? And then how long do people normally go?

Thirty five, thirty? My goal is not to... Right. Right. Leave them asking for more.

Stop. Stop. Okay. I just wanna kinda... In my mind, have a sense of pacing and all that to us.

Okay. I'm sorry. Aye. Thank you. Hey.

Yes. I am. I'll pray for you soon. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Thanks, honey. Thank you so much. Help me not forget my water bottle. Well, you won't be here, actually. I may throw up.

You know? I don't know. It's hard to say. And afterwards, I won't. Yes.

What?

It's Good morning, everybody. Welcome to First B in Jackson, Wyoming. You made it. We're here. Would you stand with us, and and we'll join together in in song I am sorry.

Praising our God. Here's an encouraging word from first Peter five seven to lead us into worship. It says, cast all your worries and cares on him because he cares for you. Would you join us in singing? We're gonna sing Fall Afresh.

Okay. Good morning. Have a seat, everybody. It's time for our morning announcements. Don't we feel fresh and lovely this morning?

There's a children's choir that's gonna start on November 16 downstairs in the basement. All the information on the website and in the email. Would you please sign your kids up in advance? It's super cute when they get up here and sing for Christmas, so we'd we'd love to have as many kids participate as possible. You can contact Warren at the information there.

Again, it is on the website. Iwana is off and running. It's been a blast. Tons of kids fill this space. It's super exciting.

05:45 to 07:30. Still time to sign your kids up to if you wanna participate. The JH Women's Bible Study is almost ready to wrap up. So if you haven't been before the ladies, make sure you show up on Wednesdays over at the Presbyterian Church. It's not here.

It's at the Presbyterian Church. More information, again, is on the website. Men's lunch study. If you haven't been to this, guys, it's a super wonderful way to connect with other guys in the church. Pick up a couple of verses through...

From the Bible, and we just discuss them openly. It fills up the time. An hour just goes by so fast, and there's a lot of guys coming too. So won't you add to our numbers and and and show up? Seeking truth in your twenties is a wonderful group that's meeting up at the McKuys tonight, actually, and we did have the time incorrect in the email, but it's correct up there on the slide.

I told you it was at 06:00 tonight.

Oh, it's at 06:00. See, I I worked hard to get it aligned so it's 06:30. You know what? Show up at 06:30. Be fashionably late.

It's fine. It's Jackson. Yeah. So 06:00. Actually, 06:00 is the real time, but 06:30, you know, it's fine too.

That's good. But if you have good questions about the faith, if you just wanna meet other people, young people, show up there. It's it's supposedly just been explosive and wonderful, so please please show up for that too. There will be a discovery class November 2, which is if you're seeking information about membership into the church, would you show up in pastor Ray's office between service for staff, drivers, and sponsors for children. If you've ever been part of one of those organizations that we can sponsor child every month, they have wonderful.

You get to connect with the kids. You can write them letters. And they have a school where they they help bless the kids. They give them food. They teach them about the gospel and educate them as well.

And it just... It sweeps through the whole community there. It's amazing the the stories that Dave sends out about people being saved, about gangs just laying down their fights. They're not doing those anymore. It's just...

It's changing the whole community there. So let's be praying for them. Actually, let's pray for them real quick too. God, would you be with Dave and Kim Hatfield and the rest of the mission at Maisha Mafia and that school there, Lord God? Would you bless those kids?

Would you help them to know that they are loved by you, Lord? Would you protect them? Would you save them? Lord, would your love radiate through that whole community and change them there, Lord? Give them hope, give them joy, and most importantly, Lord Jesus, give them you in your holy name.

Amen. For any more information, you can go to our website. And if you get a second, would you mind moving towards the front? We have plenty of seats up here. More people are gonna be coming in late.

Look. My brother's gonna be a perfect example. Look at this guy right here. There you go. You could do it too.

Yeah. And would you consider also moving towards the center, not leaving seats between you so that way more people have space? And would you stand up, greet one another, and we'll bring you back with some songs?

Yeah. Stand up and greet one another. We'll bring you back.

Morning. I'm John. I'm Josh. Did we

meet before? Have you met us both briefly? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You guys are trying to get here.

Yeah. Yeah. That's good.

Use to your name

Heavenly father, it's great to be here in your house, Lord, this morning. I am thankful that we have the privilege and freedom to be here and to worship you, Lord. I pray this morning that you will bless us and touch our hearts in such a way that, lord, we can feel your presence in this place. Lord, it's good to hear the church singing and worshiping you. Lord, may we be here because we wanna hear your voice this morning, lord.

I pray that your word would be straight to our hearts. I pray that we learn here in this wonderful gathering to be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit in such a way that we can go out and present the gospel to others, lord. It's a joy in my heart, lord, to be able to praise you just as we just sang the songs. We praise you, Lord. We praise you, Jesus.

We are thankful for all you have done for us, Lord. How beautiful it is to fill in our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit that we are saved. We belong to you, Lord. That's why we are here, Jesus. Now, Lord, train us.

Help us to become more like you in our everyday life. Lord, you know it's not easy. Definitely, it's not easy. But, Lord, touch our hearts and mind and transform us transform us by the renew of our mind. That's where the battle is, Lord.

And you know I need your help in this in this way, Lord. Transform my mind in such a way that I I will become more like you, that the light that comes from you will shine through me in my everyday life, Lord. In in the name of Jesus, I pray that you would continue to work in us and through us. And, Lord, I also wanna pray for the team that is in Guatemala right now with pastor Ray and the team. Please bless them to have a great time over there as they serve you, as they serve the people in Guatemala, but also bless them so they can receive something from you.

And then when they come back here to use that in this beautiful community, Lord. How great it is that we can serve you in many ways. And with this freedom that we have, we can be serving you here or in all parts of the world because you loved us and because we believe in you, Lord. In Jesus name I prayed, amen.

Amen. You can have a seat. We're gonna enter the time of worship through giving part of the service, and I'll invite the ushers ushers to come on forward. Brad, would you would you pray for us?

Father, we thank you for this awesome opportunity to participate in what you're doing. Lord, we recognize that we don't achieve anything of our own strength, and you don't you don't need our time, our talent, and our treasure. And yet, you ask us to give of that. And God, we recognize in this moment that it is a blessing to participate in what you're doing. So would you encourage us?

Would you enable us? Lord, would you spur us on towards love and good deeds? We pray a blessing on everything that goes in these plates and on the people that that provide it, that we may do the work of the ministry. But, Lord, we recognize that you're the one that does the work. We love you,

Lord. Amen. Amen.

We're gonna sing a song about gratitude from first Chronicles. It says, give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. And sing with us.

All my words fall short. I got nothing new. How could I express all my gratitude. I could sing these songs as I often do, but in every I've got one response

Time for children's church. Good morning, first b. So I'm not teaching today, but it is my privilege to read our scripture for this morning and introduce our speaker. So our speaker for today is gonna be John Hammond. If you have not met John and Christy, John is a very gifted teacher.

They're fairly new to our congregation, but have been in the valley for five, six years now, joining us from New York, where they were involved in the Redeemer network of churches, planting churches, leading churches, things like that. So we are very fortunate to have them there. So our text for today is gonna be Philippians two five through 11. So you can pull that up in your Bibles or on your phones if you wanna read with me. It might be on the screen, and I'll be reading it aloud.

This is how you should think among yourselves with the mind that you have because you belong to the Messiah Jesus, who though in God's form did not regard his equality with God as something he ought to exploit. Instead, he emptied himself and received the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of humans. And then having human appearance, he humbled himself and became obedient even to death, yes, even to the death of the cross. And so God has greatly exalted him, and to him in his favor has given the name which is over all names. That now at the name of Jesus, every knee within heaven shall bow, and on earth to and under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Messiah is Lord, to the glory of God the father.

It's the reading of God's word. Would you guys all welcome John Hammond?

Thanks, buddy. Appreciate it. Am I on now? Excellent. Let's start with this.

How about at this... How about we pray? Does that sound good? Bow your heads, please. Father in heaven, we come here today with expectation.

We wanna hear you, Lord. We wanna see you, Lord. We wanna experience you. We don't come to hear men and women sing and play, although that's beautiful, or a man teach, although that's that's a gifting that you give us. We come to encounter you, the living God.

So Lord, could you still our hearts? Could you still my heart as I seek to communicate your word? And Lord, may the light of Jesus shine through, and it's in his powerful name that we pray. Amen. Well, you heard who I am.

I was going for back and forth yesterday with Brad on text. He said, what do you want for an intro? And I said, I don't think about that. Married to Christie for thirty six years, three grandkids, lived in New York. And then somehow we crossed our wires and he sent me back another text and he said, I said, look, I'm looking at you brother.

What do think my intro should be? And he said, well, I think some place where God has really humbled you and you failed would be a great intro. And I was like, oh my God. This is the kickoff? This is how Brad's going to introduce me?

I thought, oh man, I'm in trouble now. And then, you know, last night I wrestled. I wrestled with God and I thought about what he'd said, because he explained to me this morning that's not what he was saying. He was telling me how to think about my intro of myself to you. But my story is a story.

I pray and hope like your story. A story of God redeeming unbelievable failures with glorious beauty. That's my story. And I pray that this text today would help us to draw closer into that beauty of who God is. I'm gonna put this down here.

So as Brad said before we came to the valley, Christy and I spent five years in Manhattan where we planted a church in the more, more, more city where everything is more and bigger and faster and bolder and brighter. And I remember thinking, how is this all gonna work? You know, it's just a lot going on here. We came from San Diego to this megalopolis. And my friend Dan said to me at the end of a Bible study pretty early on, he said, you know, in any given week in New York City, I give up the opportunity to do more cool things than you could do an entire year in some other place.

An entire year in some other place. And I thought, wow, this is just typical New York. Right? You're so arrogant. Everything's bigger, better, brighter in New York.

But you know what? I soon discovered he was right. There was so much stuff to do, so much happening. And And in the midst of all that, where everybody was coming, people are coming to New York, coming to make their name in the theater, coming to make their name in the law, coming to make their name as an academic, coming to achieve their financial success through being an investment banker. We were trying to teach people at our church to think not to consume, not just to consume, but to contribute.

To be givers and builders and self givers. But New York just embodied this spirit of acceleration. Everything was bigger, bolder, faster. I mean, if you've ever been to Times Square, if you've ever been in Grand Central Station at at at midday... At in the evening, it's it's just unbelievable.

And so, you know, efficiency there was a was a god. And downtime was a sin. You're just trying to figure out how to get things done faster. And here in Jackson, we're not moving at the same speed. But even though the pace is different, we still have a drive to consume.

We want more, more, more. It doesn't look quite the same, but it seems like, oh man, Pompe was amazing. You need to make that trip. I crossed it off my bucket list. Or I got one hundred ski days last year and I am definitely going to get it done again this year.

Or my new truck pulls the Airstream so well. By the way, it does. Although Christy thinks we need to go to a two fifty, so there you go. But but what I think is going on is we're all starved for glory. We we feel a pull towards something more.

It's this sense that there's some place for deeper fulfillment. And I'd ask you this. What if this longing, this desire for glory is absolutely God given, but in some way, shape or form corrupted by the way that we handle it? What if instead of going up into the right, glory is something different? I think there's a physics to glory, a spiritual physics to glory that we don't understand.

We tend to have a scarcity mindset. We want to grab, we want to get what we can, we want to can what we get, we want to poison the rest because it's ours and we got to hoard. But the spiritual physics of glory is that the more you give it away, the more it grows. And so where we seek the glory of in life through achievement and acquisition, deep down, we're made for something greater. And that upward steps often lead us to a sense of emptiness, of weariness because I think we mistake what glory is.

We we have a scarcity mindset, as I said, and we find fragility in our circumstances. Our glory is dependent on our circumstances. Paul will say later in this letter to the Philippians, he says, know how to abase and abound because it's in Christ. It's not the present circumstances, not having what I want, but wanting what is before me. So what if the true path to glory isn't more and more as our world tells us, as if you watch football like I do, that's all that ads are, right?

There's more to get. You'll be a better person when. You'll be cooler when. You'll be healthier when. There's more to ground.

We used to say it had a bumper sticker in San Diego back in the day. He who dies with the most toys wins. I think that just about epitomized it. But what if the creator chose glory chose humility over glory over raw power? And what if real glory is is not in getting but in giving?

That's the profound invitation of this Philippians hymn. Paul wrote it from a prison in Rome exactly where we ended last week in acts. It's kind of a thing that God does. Right? We got done with Paul getting to Rome and here's a letter that he wrote from from Roman about '62.

It was addressed to the Philippians who they brought him a ton of joy, but they were facing external pressures and internal strains. And his job was to address a need that they were feeling, how to deal with conflict. So Paul doesn't give commands, but he offers a new way to see the world. He doesn't call a foul or call a penalty on that team. He doesn't say, you've done this wrong.

He calls them to have a higher view of the world. He says, have this mind among yourselves. He doesn't behave differently, think differently, which is yours in Christ Jesus. And it's a revelation of who we are and how we can live. Without this understanding, we end up pursuing our own glory.

And a great way to think about this is the two sons, the two lost sons, I like to call them. Luke 15, we call it the prodigal son prodigal son, excuse me. But honestly, I think it's more accurate to call it the two lost sons because both of them are alienated from their father. The younger son, you know, he chases freedom to in excess. He he pretends that he chose his life, right?

Like, think about your own life. Did you choose your parents? Did you choose your height? Did you choose your hair color? Did you choose your athletic ability?

Well, he kind of does that. He says, dad, I'm going off on my own. I don't need you. I don't need anybody. I definitely don't need God.

And he ends up really humbled and he comes back. On the other hand, the older son, he works faithfully, dutifully and he resents the fact that his older brother is welcomed home. He says, look, I've earned my place. Why are we celebrating him? It's a kind of duty without delight.

It's a nearness without intimacy that he has with his father. But both of these guys are lost. They're separated from their dad, the real source of love. So Grace offers a third path, not effort, but encounter. It's not striving for glory, it's entering into Christ's glory in a union with Him.

So to take on Christ's mind is to receive a new self, to slip away from striving and into His rest. And this hymn turns worldly glory and power inside out. It's a guide to joy. It's a bridge to how we can be one and how we can enter into rest. So there's three movements in this, which we'll explore.

There's if you're a note taker and I didn't give you a lot of slides here, there's three there's three parts. There's eternity, emptying and exaltation. Christ's eternity, his place in eternity, Christ's emptying of himself, and then the father's exaltation of Christ. Eternity, emptying, exaltation. Let me put this slide up here.

Have I got this going? Yes. Okay. Can everybody read this clearly? Good to hear you laugh because it's supposed to be a joke.

But I wanted to show you something about this because this is poetry. This hymn was a poem. And I think prose types, I think about my believe it was eighth grade typing teacher, Mrs. Korea, F D S A J K L Sam, carriage return. But prose paints, it paints pictures.

It moves our hearts, not our heads. And it's hard to see because we read these Bibles that are in translation and everything. But I've laid this out just to show you because we'll go study the text work line by line, but there's a motion here where Christ starts in eternity, in joy, in glory, he becomes a man, he empties himself, He goes to the cross. And then the Father raises Him up back up to glory. So He starts in eternity, comes down into time and space, goes back up into eternity into glory.

And this is the exact opposite. That's the spiritual physics of God. Ours is one where we go up and down. You think about Icarus flying to the sun and he crashes down. You think about a great athlete, oh man, he was awesome in his day, but not so much anymore up and down, where she was a great beauty, not so much anymore.

So this is the exact opposite of the way that we as humans live. And so I just want to show that to you because it's in there and it's hard to see. So let's go to the first verse here. I got to take a sip of water. Sorry.

I'm super nervous.

Thanks.

Thanks, bro. Okay. Where is that? This is how you should think among yourselves with the mind that you have because you belong to the Messiah Jesus. That's the intro to the hymn.

The next one is verse six. Who though in God's form did not regard his equality with God as something to exploit. So Christ, who is he in eternity? That's what I said.

The

first part Paul wants us to see, this hymn shows us is who Christ is. And who he is is the scandal that's the very center of Christianity. It's what everybody trips over. Not just unbelievers guys, You and me too. What does it say?

It says that Christ is eternally God. He's he's not a great moral teacher who gives us precepts that we can live by, self improvement strategies. He's not a man who worked his way up by being obedient and kind of leveled up, got to level 57, 58, and then he got to godhood. Nor is he a guru who meditated his way into some sort of enlightenment. It's it's something quite different.

He's God himself. John one puts it this way, in the beginning was the word, that's Jesus. And the word was with God, and the word was God. There's no room in that. John makes it super simple.

By the way, John's what we're studying on Thursdays. Love to have you guys come. That's who he is, simple declarative. And John goes further in that same section talking about the oneness, the intimacy, the relationship between the Father and the Son in eternity. He says, if you have King James version bibles, it says, he's he's in the bosom of the father.

The only begotten son who is in the bosom of the father. And I picture this, I'm now a grandfather three times over, huge blessing. But have you had that moment? Well, I see that moment over there. A baby who who falls asleep on your chest, beat for beat, breath for breath, absolute peace, splendid.

It's a magical moment. Well, if you expand that by an infinite amount, that's the relationship between the father and the son. And Hebrews one goes further to tell us that He's the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature. And that He upholds the universe by the word of His power, three things there. He is the radiance.

He is a source of light. He's not a reflector. He's a source. He's the radiance of the glory of God. He's the exact imprint of his nature.

That in the Roman culture was a picture. That word is the word of character, character from what we should get character. But it's like when you have a coin stamped with the exact picture of a a of a Caesar on it. It's his image. And we might say that Jesus is the spitting image of the father.

He's the exact representation, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. He is the power source of all things. He's he's it. And so at Genesis' dawn... Genesis' dawn.

At the dawn of the creation, when God says, light be, he's there. When you look at the sky around you here today, when you saw the sunrise on the range, it was gorgeous this morning. That's his work. Every quantum cork dance, every pedal on every wildflower in the Garden of God up in the high country in the summer, all of it. All that he made, he...

Every child, 10 little fingers and 10 little toes, all perfect, he knit the child together. And yet, this eternal son, who is the radiance of the glory of God, who is God's form, he he doesn't... So secure in his equality with God. He doesn't think about it as something you ought to exploit it says. In the King James version, again, because some of you have those, it says he did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.

Have you ever puzzled over that one? I know I certainly did for a long time. I needed to study it to kind of wrap my mind around that what it means. Means this, he can leave home. He could leave heaven because he doesn't feel ripped off because he already has it all.

He's already got his glory. That's who Jesus is, who we are. Well, in the garden, Adam fell to the serpent's whisper, you can have your own personal glory. You can be like God. In one bite and paradise dissolves, exile, thorn, sweat and death, Adam grabbed and creation sank.

Well, we echo that story the way we live our daily lives seeking for glory. The younger son, he's grasping for glory in all sorts of ways. I got 147 likes. I know cool people. I've got a great resume because position whispers, status whispers, you matter.

The glory of God is the life I said, so you see on TV, all the stuff you can get. Or the older son is the gutting it out mindset, The the good boy who who does his duty and and works on winning God's favor. And the Pharisees lived it out. The... They paid their tithes.

They prayed so people could see them. Paul talks about this in Philippians four, you know, or three, excuse me, the next chapter after this one, he says, look, you want to look at resumes? Look at my LinkedIn. I was a super Jew. I was that guy.

And then he says something quite remarkable. He says, I'm telling you, it's garbage. The word he uses is actually quite a bit stronger than that, but we don't use it in church because we're good Christians. I'll just tell you, it's a we'd call it a dirty word, I think. That's the Greek.

Because what happens, what Paul knew, he came to understand is that so many of us, we confuse sweat with sanctity. It's the trap of proximity without intimacy. We're home with the father as the younger... As the older son was, then our hearts were a million miles away. And so we're bitter when grace flows to the freely to the undeserving.

We say, I've I've slaved away. Where's my barbecue? You laugh, but you know it's true. But grace shines. Jesus, is eternally secure, releases his privilege without regret.

It's it's it's no rupture when he leaves heaven because the father's love surrounds him. And he doesn't grasp tightly because glory isn't what we think. Think of the fish and the loaves. Glory, like the fish and the loaves, is multiplied out of his hands and into our hands as we give it away. So what about you and me?

How do we put this on? Well, Galatians four tells us that through faith we're adopted as sons and daughters. And we can say, Abba, Daddy, Father, that we're full heirs and that he's given us his glory and that we've been seized by grace. We don't have to claw for significance. Ephesians one tells you even more certainly who you are.

You were chosen in love before the world began, predestined for his glorious grace. We are adopted. When you get adopted, you can't get unadopted. It's not a choice that you make to be adopted, and we have been adopted. So what if we allow this truth to absolutely get to the center stage of our hearts?

What if we embrace this idea that we're absolutely loved every day? Then at work, we'd we'd make proposals that are pitched for provision, not for approval. If we transform our family lives, we put our cell phones down so we can have dinner together and look at each other and listen to one another because every moment of every day is a gift from God and we need to treasure that together. Or in church, unity becomes really natural. Your win is our win.

We'd enjoy our one another. And so did these folks at Philippi who were struggling with a fight. There's a fight between Euodia and Syntyche. We see it. He explains it later in the story.

The mind that we belong to Christ is the way to enter into his glory. We don't gin it up through grit. We don't... But we get stirred up by the spirit and surrender. Because God loves us not for performance, but because we're his children.

So we can let go and embrace his glory. And that's the downward path of Jesus, that glory grows as we give it away. Okay. Instead, he was he was in the form of God. Instead, he emptied himself and he received this form of a slave being born in the likeness of humans.

This is a thing that Jesus does. It's an active emptying. The Greek word is kenosis. But he's not divorced from his divinity. See, this is so important.

Starts as God, becomes a human. He he voluntarily veils his glory. He sets aside heaven's harmony for the limits that you and I know so well. We're tired. We're sick.

We're out of breath. We're out of energy. He steps into the shattered paradise that Adam left and takes takes on our world. He received the form of a slave. Most of your translations say he received the form of a servant, but I chose anti rights translation because it's the most accurate.

The word is doulos, slave. Slave, slave, slave. It's an ugly, dirty, horrible word to us in America because they are history. But Rome's economy ran on chains. One third of the one third of the Roman Empire were slaves.

And it's a life where he was in glory, the form of a slave in contrast to the form of God. Think about that. It's an absolute inversion. No agency, no autonomy, what to do, where to go, what to eat, who to marry, none of it. You don't get to choose any of it as a slave.

And it's utter powerlessness. And that's the antiflex, the antiflex that Christ makes. The king arrives cloaked in common. As John one says, he was in the world and the world was made through him, but the world did not know him. That's the Itaiflex.

And we love this story. It's because it's I tell you, because it's wired into creation. Think about this. Why do we love the prince and the pauper? Or why do people binge on undercover CEO?

Do we do that? It's because of something that J. R. R. Tolkien described as a you catastrophe.

It's the story of going from glory down to a basement back up to glory. And that story, all these little stories, the prince and the pauper or now we have CEOs who go and they'll spend a week or a day working at a fish... I don't know, whatever, Chick fil A, something like that. They go undercover so they can discover things. But this is what Jesus is doing.

This isn't like a one day wonder to stop by and see how things are going. He sheds himself of all his all his abilities to become a slave, of all his divinity, outward divinity. The second Corinthians puts it like this, though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor so that by his poverty, he could make you rich. It's like I said, it's not an influencer going to make a slum reel what it was like in Bangkok. This is him letting go of everything.

And from there, he emptied himself, becomes a slave. It says, and then having human appearance, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even became obedient even to death. Yes, the death of the cross. Now human... Having human appearances, the full reality, it's it's not God in a man's suit.

Isaiah describes this this way. He says, he had no beauty or majesty to attract us. He was Yeshua from Nazareth, a regular Joe. His glory still remained, but it was hidden. You remember at the transfiguration?

For a moment, for a brief moment, that glory was unveiled. And it had never gone. It was simply hidden. And the thing is, this idea that Christ is fully man and fully human, it's so... It's another fulcrum.

It's another hard part of our faith because he's the bridge from God to man. Why do we care? Well, if you sin, I sin. I've sinned in some really big ways. You could talk Christie if you'd have some time during the fellowship hour.

Sin does damage. Sin does damage to God. Sin does damage to our sin does damage to others. And it corrodes our own souls, it does damage to us. It makes us unacceptable before God.

It creates a chasm of human offense that we can't settle. No no finite payer can pay the debt. And so there's... Is why Jesus, the God and man become so important. Because his perfect sinless life as a human carries divine eternal merit that only God can carry.

And so his full humanity makes him our perfect substitute. So Jesus steps into our humanity, not as some aloof man upstairs, but as the man next door. He's a man acquainted with grief. Grief in your own life, grief's gut punch, the loss, the loss of somebody you love. He says, I've been there.

I stood outside Lazarus' tomb. He sees you and he says, your deepest wound, I was pierced too. Your isolation, oh, I've I've been abandoned by my my closest. And your shame, I've borne it all, not to pity, but to pull you through. Tim Keller said it like this, I know you've heard this one, most of you.

Jesus lived the life that we should have lived and he died the death that we should have died. And I would add, so that we could have the fullness of life in him. Jesus lived the life we should have lived. He died the death we should have died so that we can have fullness of life in him. He knows your every grind, your hidden struggles.

And so for those of us who have that younger brother mindset, the lie that we're self made, that we do things our way and that obedience would somehow like detract from our worth, that gets destroyed because Jesus leans into the father's call. He goes right to the cross with a love that sees our worth. And what we really crave, an anchor, freedom, unscarred by regret, the cross really affirms for us. And for the dutiful heart worn out by scorekeeping, well, the deepest lie is that your suspicion is you really don't deserve it. You really don't deserve his love and that affection must be earned.

Jesus demolishes that too because he's our older, truer brother and he folds our efforts into the grace that he's already received. So Paul's plea to the Philippians is a spot... Is to to understand who this Jesus is, this liberation of Jesus to both the cultural slaves, the the the slaves, the cast offs, and the wealthy. And his dive into loneliness, low... Loneliness dignifies every every one of us because now we're all brothers and sisters.

So in in our marriages, then we can empty ourselves of unmet expectations to serve our spouses. In parenting, we can model obedience like Jesus, not as something to be dreaded, not as a chore, but as a joy. And at work, we can pour ourselves into the greater good everybody. That's the downward path of Jesus that that glory grows as it gives itself away. And the last slide here.

And so God has greatly exalted him and to him his favor, given him the name which is over all names. That now at the name of Jesus, every knee within heaven shall bow on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Messiah is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The abysmal silence after the cross gives way to a resounding affirmation from the Father. Exaltation beyond imagining, not restoration, but a lifting higher than ever before. It's a divine endorsement.

It's not a payment. And the father's clear vindication is is is is to show that the the payment's made in full. It's not for his merit, but for love poured out. And now the suffering servant stands as the sovereign. At the heart of this exaltation is a gift of a name, Kurios, Lord, which is Caesar's title.

So now this is subversive in Philippi where they had to call this God, this man God who pretended he was God, Kurios. Now we call the God man, the true God, Kyrios. And the Lordship rests with the one who was nailed at the at the cross. It says that every knee within heaven shall bow and on earth and under the earth. What is the posture of kneeling?

We don't do it a lot anymore. But the posture of kneeling was in those times, you could dub me, you could knight me, or you could lop off my head. It's a position of absolute vulnerability, absolute submission. And that's what we're talking about here, that all of all of creation kneels recognizing who Jesus is. Tongues from every corner confess, Jesus Messiah is Lord.

He follows the parabola down and now back up. But Jesus is the true Lord. And this is the the story for those of us who are still struggling with the the younger son hearts who wrestle with this. We're welcomed home to share in the glory of this new world. And for older sons who are still laboring, who are trying to prove ourselves, the kingdom is yours.

It's always been yours. And you can trade in your claim chits of goodness for the kinship of Christ. To a watching world, we bear witness to a totally different kind of lordship, a lordship marked by service, not by subjugation, by invitation, not by imposition. And the hymn circles back, We are to share not as a burden, but as a union. Emptied with him, we're already seated in the heights, citizens of the heavenly kingdom.

Will you join that course? Will you call him Lord in your heart? Will you sense the grace that the reshaping that grace can do in your life? Paul's prison words carried the power to his tired church at Philippi. Joy endures beyond circumstance, forged in humility, and it's lifted in exaltation.

I'd like to ask the band to come back up. We've traced this hymn from the son's unshakable union with the father through his solidarity with our frailty, and then ultimately back to his place of... At the right hand of glory. And we've seen how there's there's two ways we miss the boat here. Our restless departure or our dutiful diligence as as sons who are trying to figure it out apart from him, apart from grace.

But in Christ's steady descent and ascent, we find the turning point, a love that that gathers our scattered efforts together and declares them complete in him and sets before us a wholeness that we could never make of our own. That's the downward path of Jesus, that glory grows as we give ourselves away. So to any of us who are drawn to the open road of escape, we've already got everything we need here at home. To those of us home laboring in expectation, let go, you're a child of the eternal one. To each of us, let's take up the mindset of the one who humbled himself.

Lives marked by gentle attention to others, by love that bears quiet fruit, and by bonds that hold us as one. If if this word stir stirs something deep and you speak his name in your heart and know his compassions renew with every dawn, And if this is your first time to to hear this invitation, his arms stand welcome open. Let's pray. Father, for the son's deep entry into our shadowed world and his soaring triumph, we offer our gratitude as a song. Loosen our tight hold on what we cannot keep and shape our lives to the song that spans the ages.

Let him be lifted high among us now and always. Amen.

Would you stand with us? Thanks for being here today. We're just gonna close with just singing that last verse.

Actually, if

you wanna say something,

that'd be great. No. I just wanted to say, first of all, thank you to the band for a credible rendition of that song. You know, for I am his and he is mine. But I wanted to read...

To to give the offer you this benediction, which is this, receive the benediction. Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think on these things. In the name of the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit, amen. Have a blessed day.

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Glory Humility Prodigal Son Self-Emptying Significance Striving

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