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Thank you for joining us for a sermon from Sojourn North. Well, as I reflected on today's passage, it led me to think about these two terms: observing versus beholding. Observing versus beholding. And we'll see it in this passage today, but I think sometimes in life we just walk and we observe something and be like, oh. And very often we do not even consider the opportunity to stop and behold something. So it led me to poetry imagination. So I wrote some poetry this week. And so I have some drafts, I'll share a couple through the sermon. But the first image I have for you is an image of the sun. And it's just like if I if you were just to observe the sun, uh, you would come up and say, Ah yeah, it's just a it's a ball of fire that's in the sky, and you could walk on. But if I said, hey, take some time to behold the sun, and maybe this picture, you probably wouldn't have this vantage point unless you were on a spaceship. But if I said, Behold the sun, there's so many things that can come to your mind and your imagination. How much is affected by the sun? And so my language was running out, so I wrote, here's uh some lines from a poem I wrote. So this is, I'll just read. You simply observe the sun above and say it's just a ball of fire. Slowly I behold its power and find deep waters rise within. I behold heaven's celestial lamp pouring out life upon the earth, burning without exhaustion, named by the one who holds the universe with the span of his hand. Day after day it pours forth speech. With warmth upon our faces and dawn's first light, in the silver glow borrowed by the moon, with countless siblings scattered through the night, each set in place, each betrothed the name by the sovereign of all things. They shine above us, tiny to our eyes, yet vast beyond imagining. Their purpose remains hidden, and that is our gift. For we are invited to wonder, invited to imagine, invited to stand beneath the sky, too large to master, and receive again the grace of mystery, to find room to breathe, room to be, room to become, room to behold. So observing, yeah, it's just a ball of gas up there, all right. But beholding, it might take your imagination, your heart in so many different places. With me in this poem, it took me thinking about the universe and the hundreds of billions of stars, some bigger than our sun, some smaller, and then our galaxy, uh, the Milky Way galaxy is one of 100 billion or a lot more than that. NASA keeps up in the numbers as we can see uh farther into space. But it's it's like, man, it's massive. Behold. And so as we get to today's message, we can always come to the scriptures, we can come on Sunday, you can come and read, and you can simply observe Jesus. I say, tell me about Jesus. Oh, yeah, he's our Savior, he died for our sins. Going to Qdoba for lunch. And honestly, I do that a lot of time. But we can observe Jesus died for our sin. True? Absolutely. Beautiful truth, absolutely. But if we can take the time to stop and behold, waters can stir within, and something deep can come from that. And as we come to Philippians chapter 2 and look at verses 1 through 11, beautiful passage. Paul has been saying all of these things, but at this time he doesn't say, hey, observe how Jesus acted. What he's saying is, behold the Christ. And as we behold him, we will be transformed. I love how we've been walking through Philippians, talking about, called into a bigger story. The first sermon, verses 1 through 11 of chapter 1, we were talking about remembering God's faithfulness. The second week, 12 through 18, trusting God's larger story. Last week we said, live with Christ at the center, and let's do that together. And this week, Paul is saying, Behold the Christ who is the center of all things. With that in mind, if you wish, you may stand for the reading of God's Word. Looking at Philippians 2, 1 through 11. Paul writes this. If then there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, make my joy complete by thinking the same way and having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look not to his own interest, but rather to the interest of others. And here we behold, adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead, he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity, and when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even to death on a cross. For this reason, God highly exalted and gave, highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that in the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. This is the word of the Lord. May be seated. So we hit the first point, the life Christ invites us into. And Paul has been saying, I'm inviting you into this life that Christ has for you. And he begins this passage by saying to the Philippians, and he says it to us by extension, if there's any encouragement in Christ, is there? Well, of course there is. So the answer is yes. Is there any comfort in love? Yeah. Any fellowship in the Spirit? Yes. Any affection and mercy? Paul's not questioning if these things exist. He's saying, because these things are, let this be true. And once again, we say it a lot that what we do must flow from who we are. We don't look at just checklists in the Christian life and just say, I've got to do this, this, this. God wants to form and shape our hearts so that we're transformed. And last week, the motivation, you remember his motivation for them to live a life worthy of the gospel, he said, because you are citizens of heaven, because you're God's, because you're his beloved child, because of all these things that are true. We just read it in liturgy. Because you took our sins and placed them upon yourself, Jesus, and your righteousness you placed on us, and our position is secure now and forevermore. Positionally, God sees us as he sees Christ. We are wholly free. And so we stand in the presence of God, at peace with God, not because of anything we've done, but because of the work of Christ. And we say, there is encouragement in Christ. There is comfort from his love. We do have fellowship with the Spirit, and there is affection and mercy. And because of these things, Paul says, live humbly. We are called always back to drift, just like we talked about in Galatians every week. And we talk about here in Philippians the smaller stories that draw us away instead of the bigger story of what we say, like who we are in Christ. And so the smaller stories say, protect yourself at all costs. It's up to you. The smaller stories say, promote yourself. You gotta make much of yourself. That's a smaller story. The smaller story says, compare yourself with everyone who's in here. But that's small. And we all will tend to do that at times. But as we drift, and as you even feel the grace of being discontent in your soul, that's a good reason for us to remember, like, okay, this isn't supposed to fill me up. Where am I supposed to be? Lord, help me. So the gospel says, as chosen citizens of heaven, you're already secure in Christ, and now you're free to love. Humility isn't thinking less of yourself, it's becoming so secure in who you are in Christ that you finally are able to give your life away and notice others. And that's exactly what Paul says in verse 3. He says, Do nothing out of selfish ambition. Will you do some things out of selfish ambition? You will at times. Will I? Well, I used to until I got out of the sixth grade, and now I'm pretty good. That's a total joke, guys. Of course I still struggle to do things. I'm still driven by selfish ambition at times. That should have landed stronger, but I was in such a serious mode that it was just like, just went right over. I did grow up with preachers who are like that when they always sinned in the past tense, and it's like, yes, I used to struggle with that until I turned 12 and committed my life to Christ and haven't sinned since. And it's like, man, that's a sin right there, dog. All right. He's saying this. He's saying, do nothing out of selfish ambition. Remember, when you drift, come back. In humility, consider others as more important than yourself. Okay? It says different translations term this a little different, but he says, look not only to your own interest. And so the assumption is like you're going to look to your own interest, but don't just look at your own interest, look to the interests of others. Where are you finding yourself in the story with this before we start just looking straight at Jesus? But the application is that you can look as the non-judgmental observer here this morning and just say, where am I with these things? Because every relationship asks one question: who's at the center? And if we're at the center, if if we're putting other things other than Christ at the center, that's where comparison grows in our hearts and it can be a sickness. Conflict can grow and it can just be a sickness. Offense grows, division grows, and all of those things. And that leads us to what Paul, it may be surprising to us. He doesn't say, okay, here's five steps to be humble. He stops us and says, Behold Christ. Now, verses six through eleven, there are different views that possibly this is a Christ hymn that they're already singing in the church because Paul uses a big shift in language, gets very poetic. So we don't know if it's a Christ hymn they're singing. It'd be a beautiful one if they were in the first century, or if he just goes full palm mode, I'm sure they sang afterwards. But this is this is beautiful. Because it has two movements. It looks at Christ's emptying himself, his humiliation, and then it looks at Christ's exaltation. So let's look at point two: the beauty of Christ we are called to behold. So the motivation again is who you are. And Paul says this adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus. And let's just slowly look at the verses again. Verse 6. Who existing in the form of God, and remember, from John 1, in the beginning was the Word. Word was with God, and the Word was God. Word became flesh and dwelt among us, tabernacled amongst us. All things were made in Him and through Him, and He holds all things together. This is Jesus Christ. Member of our triune God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. All one. I'm trying to think through like uh the verbiage so it's not heretical. It's like, ooh, don't say anything heretical about the Trinity today. Note to self. But it's like three, yet one. It's it's just amazing. It blows our minds. And so we want to adopt the same attitude of that of Christ Jesus. He is God, but he did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped. And that's what a lot of the translations we we grew up reading. And what it means is that something to be clung to, something to hold on to. In our translation today, it says, exploited. He releases those rights. He releases that power. And in verse 7, it tells us what he does. Instead, he emptied himself. He emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself. So once again, as we behold, as you look at some NASA pictures today, just look at the vastness of the universe. That those things weren't just, they're just not known by God. He can't just explain them. He can, but he created them, he thought them up. He can measure the universe with the span of his hand. He is beyond our imagination. There's so much mystery with it. That he's with us in this moment in time, but he is outside of time. So he sees us as we were, as we are, as we will be. We're seated with him in the heavenlies, but we're here. But this is our God, and Jesus releases those things to come and be born a weak, helpless baby in a family of poverty. Not even in a king's household. Grows up as a manual laborer. That is our Jesus. And if that weren't enough, verse 8 again, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. Even death on a cross. Why is that added in? Because it's the most shameful death. Cursed is he who is hung on a tree. It says that way back in Moses' day. The most shameful form of execution. Painful, shameful. And we know it wasn't just the pain of the physical death. The weight of the sin of the world was placed upon him as the sacrifice for you and for me. This was the plan. So once again, Paul doesn't say here's five ways to become humble. He says, look at Jesus. Behold Jesus. And as you do, you will be transformed. Behold the Christ. There's so much that God does in our hearts as we behold Jesus, as we imagine him. And there's so many, I mean, you can go all through the Gospels. My favorites that I that my mind goes to is him going to Zacchaeus, the wee little man. We're getting close to BBS. I probably talked about Zacchaeus more than any other person. But he was a wee little man, a wee little man was he. What'd he do? Climbed up in the sycamore tree because the Lord he wanted to see. And then I can't remember the rest of it, but Jesus comes walking by and says, Come on down, Zacchaeus. Go into your house today, go into your house today. The one who was despised by everyone because he was working for the Roman government as a Jewish person and taking more money and being wanted by Jesus changed Zacchaeus. Half my possessions I give to the poor. And if I've defrauded anyone, I pay back this many times on top of that. He was changed because he longed to belong. He's going to heal someone who's at risk of being just facing death. And someone touches him and he stops and says, The power has gone out of me. And what the disciples think they know what it's like, Jesus, everyone's bumping into you. And then it's the woman who'd been bleeding, gone to doctor after doctor. All her money's gone because she spent all her money. But the power, and he he blesses her. She's healed. Daughter, the woman at the well, it goes over. Look at Jesus. Look at his heart. Behold him. Because his heart for these is his heart for you. And as we see we belong, as we see that we don't have to prove anything, as we see we don't have to achieve status for Jesus to embrace us, to love us, to cherish us. It's from that place that we, ah, my ambitions soften. My need to be right softens. I look to Jesus, I behold Jesus, and I am transformed. Slowly, but truly. Let's look at the last point here. The Christ we behold becomes the life we learn. And so on this following thing, I'll read verses 9 through 11 again, because this is the king who empties himself and comes and lives amongst the poor, who marches to the cross, who could have called 10,000 angels to rescue him, fulfills what he was chosen to do, what he chose to do. And so for this reason, God highly exalted him and gave him the name of that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow. Why? Because he is King of the universe. He is creator and sustainer of the universe. He is the center of the universe, whether he is recognized as so or not. Every tongue will confess, every knee will bow. In heaven and on the earth, and if you want to have a little mystery trail today, think through what under the earth means. Do some research. Basically, it's saying everyone, every human who ever lived, every angelic being, whether they stayed faithful in the service of God or they rebelled and followed Satan, and now they are the demonic forces. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess. Everywhere. The humble king is revealed as the true king, and all of this is to the glory of God the Father. Amazing. The sentence to carry this week, as we behold. The beauty of Christ, we're transformed into a people who learn to live his way together. And we're going to continue to come back to the together week after week because it's we do this together. But as we behold the beauty of Christ, we are transformed into a people who learn to live his way together. So I felt very insufficient in words this week as I was preparing. And so I had written on my own time. I'm like, on Mondays are my days off. I was like, I'm going to write some poems because this is stuff stirring in me. I was like, I'm going to take that Son poem and make it about Jesus. Because I was like, how do I behold Jesus? And this is what came out. It's probably draft 2.1, but I'm going to read it to you and see what stirs in your heart. And I might invite you to do this. I always put a practice for you for the week. And this week's practice, you'll see in your bulletin is to behold Christ. What if you wrote a poem? You're like, I don't write good poems. So? You might hear this and say, neither do you, Chad. It doesn't matter. What I did, though, is I beheld Christ. So let me read this to you. Receive this. We have sought mastery instead of being mastered. We have traded mystery for simplistic certainty. You can merely observe Jesus and say, He's just our Savior. But if you slow and behold, behold his beauty and behold his grace, behold his posture, behold his face, deep waters begin to stir within. Behold, the word made flesh, the radiance of the Father's glory, the one through whom all things were made, yet who stooped to wash the feet of those he loved. Behold, mercy clothed in flesh, strength wrapped in gentleness, the lion who became the lamb, the king who wore a crown of thorns. Behold the one who speaks in storms grows still, who touches lepers without fear, who welcomes children as he kneels, who weeps beside the borrowed grave, who calls forth the dead by name. Behold boundless love, stretching out his hands upon the cross, bearing the weight of every sorrow, every sin, every shame. Behold the empty tomb. Behold the risen Christ, still bearing scars, not marks of defeat, but everlasting witnesses to redeeming love and unending grace. And every day he pours forth speech in every act of mercy, and every quiet kindness, and every forgiven sinner, and every table where grace is freely given, his beauty cannot be exhausted. The longer we behold him, the deeper the mystery grows. For every answer opens into greater wonder, for every door opened reveals a multitude more. Every glimpse reveals another horizon of glory, and that is our gift. For we are invited to wonder, invited to behold, invited to stand before a Savior, too beautiful to master, too glorious to contain, and receive again the grace of beholding. There we find room to breathe, room to be, room to become. There we are rightly ordered, both piny and precious, held and named by our God. And as we behold his glory, we are slowly changed into his likeness to shine with borrowed light and declare his eternal, all-consuming, unquenchable love. Behold our Christ. Thank you. Every week we come to the table to behold our Christ. His body broken for us, his blood shed for us. The gospel is this. It's the kingdom of God has come through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, freely given by his grace, so that we can live now and forevermore in his presence, following his way. And so if you're a Christian here today, whether you're visiting or a member of our church, I'd invite you to come and behold. And I don't want you to jump to application too soon. Just behold Jesus. Look at what he's done. Look at what he's doing and look what he promises to do. Our tradition here is you can take some bread and some juice back to your seat. And after everyone receives the elements, I'll come back up and uh lead us to partake together. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this amazing passage. Thank you that we can behold you, Christ. Holy Spirit, I pray that you would stir in us our desires to know and to slow down, to look and just see and Savior your beauty, Jesus. And in doing so, we would be comforted, Lord, that we'd be challenged, Lord, but that we would be transformed. Lord, it is hard for us to imagine a God who is humble and meek, who offers rest for our souls, but that is you. Thank you for all that you've done. May we remember and may it fuel our next steps forward this very day. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.