All right, lights on the tree.

Have not checked all the lights. There’s always that one that turns off the whole thing. Uh, okay. I got apple cider for the crockpot. Cookies. One tray or two?

Three. Okay, got it. Uh, okay. Grocery store. Got to get nutmeg. Got to get eggnog. Do I like eggnog?

Does anybody like eggnog? What is eggnog?

Uh, okay. One more gift to get. I got that white elephant thing. I don’t even know what a white elephant is. Uh, got a couple more things to wrap. Okay. Used up all the wrapping paper. Oh, wait. No, I’ve got more. Okay. Wait, where did I put that uh that ugly Christmas sweater?

Uh, man. Okay. Did I water the tree? No. No. Artificial tree this year. I’m good.

Yep. Rainer on the roof. We’re good to go. Okay. Sorry, just uh making some preparations here. It’s Christmas time.

Anybody relate to all the preparations this time of year? You know, it’s amazing when you’re going through, you’re preparing for Christmas, you’re preparing for people to come over, all the details, all the things, all the lists that we make. And that doesn’t even scratch the surface, right? And yet, at the beginning of our service, we sang this song, Joy to the World. And in that song, there’s this line that says, “Let every heart prepare him room.” How prepared is your heart for Christmas?

Are the preparations that you’re making limited to just the physical rooms that you’re in?

Are you taking time to prepare your heart? Is there room in your heart for Jesus this season?

Is there room in your heart for what God might want to do in you this season?

So, I want to ask us this question today. How should we go about preparing our hearts?

What are we going to do to prepare our heart for Jesus and what he wants to do this Christmas season? And I think the answer to that question, how we can approach it is by looking at Christmas and looking at what Jesus did. We’re in this series called the descent.

Jesus descended. He came from heaven to earth, but not as a conquering king.

He came as a small child.

And so, we’re going to look at the example of the humility of Jesus because I think it’s in that place that we can prepare our hearts for what God wants to do. So, if you have your Bible with you, would you turn to Philippians chapter 2 and we’re going to take a look at the humility of Jesus and how we can really apply this to our own lives. And really, the key verse here is Philippians 2:7, which says that Jesus emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

What an example of humility for us.

And I think what we’re going to see, my my hope for us today is that we would see that humility is about living to lift others up. And that’s what Jesus calls us to. So, let me pray for us and we’re going to dive into God’s word together.

Father, we thank you because you have given us an incredible gift and that gift is your son and in him we find life and salvation and in him we find an incredible example of of what our lives are to look like.

So Lord, would you help us to pay close attention to the things that you have for us? Help us Lord to prepare our hearts to make room in our hearts for you. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

So Philippians chapter 2, we’re going to begin with verses 1-4. And it says this.

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others.

First thing I want to share this morning is as we look at humility. Humility brings unity.

It brings unity.

If you want to find the quickest way to drive a wedge between yourself and someone else is do everything your own way and don’t consider anyone else.

Humility produces unity. When you are humbly serving someone and caring for them and placing their needs above your own, it’s going to be pretty hard for them to be upset with you, right? And it goes the other way. If they are doing that to you, it’s going to be pretty hard for you to be upset with them. What if we as a church all did that and we looked out for the needs of each other and we cared for each other and loved each other and and approached each other in that kind of humility. Wouldn’t that bring unity?

He says being of the same mind.

There’s a link between having the same mind and having humility. They go hand in hand. And we see that theme come up again and again in scripture as Paul writes to the Ephesians in Ephesians chapter 4. He says, “Walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” And then listen with all humility and gentleness with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to what? To maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. So you see that link between humility and unity and Ephesians 4 gives us kind of this word picture and it’s like the idea of scales and on one side of the scales is the calling that we have received and on the other side of the scale is our walk and how we live our life. And we’re to live our life in a way that that matches the calling that God has put on our lives.

And it’s to walk in humility. It’s to walk in unity. Peter says it this way in 1 Peter 3:8. He says, “Finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.” You see, it boils down to caring for other people, to loving other people. And it’s a time of year right now when it’s so easy to get caught up in the consumerism of the holidays and to not really think about other people.

We can build our our checklist of not just all the things we have to do, but it could be all the things that that I want to make sure that I take care of so that I enjoy the holidays, all the traditions that I want to make sure I do, all the things I want to see, all the foods I want to eat, all the traditions I want to enjoy. and it can become about ourselves.

We get mad because we go out to drive in the evening and there’s all this extra traffic cuz everybody’s out shopping and it’s slowing me down.

Or we get upset because we find out Starbucks discontinued apple juice and I can’t get my hot apple cider anymore.

Real talk right there.

You can get mad when traditions change or you have to go somewhere different for Christmas this year.

Maybe you have new people in the family and you find out they have that weird tradition where they hide the pickle in the tree somewhere.

Maybe you find yourself overcommitted with that elf on the shelf.

What would it look like to slow down and to simply enjoy in all humility serving your family, serving others, serving those who are in need, being a blessing, and walking in humility? Don’t you think that would produce a unity in your family, a unity in the church, a unity in the body of Christ? Humility produces unity.

Again, live to lift others up. You can’t do that from above.

That leads us to the second thing is that humility descends low.

Humility descends low. And it’s mindblowing to consider the example of Jesus when it comes to humility because it’s not just that he was a humble person.

It’s not just that he had this humility as a a character trait, but it’s what he did. It’s how it impacted who he is, his actions. He came to earth. He descended from heaven. He left the glory of heaven and the throne room to come to earth.

That’s a humility we will never be able to wrap our minds around. Jesus descended low.

to look now at the example in verse five.

Having this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

He emptied himself He emptied himself. He left the glory of heaven and he came to earth being born in the likeness of men.

Think about how mind-blowing this is.

And we’re just going to, you know, get to the the tip of the iceberg here.

There’s so much more that you could spend time thinking about as it relates to the character of God and what it means for Jesus, the word, to take on flesh.

We’re just going to highlight a few things. But first, remember he is God. Jesus said, “I and the father are one.

He is God Almighty.” And yet, he didn’t walk among us in a way that he demanded for people to recognize him as as God. As you think about people in their day, and their culture and how they would have imagined a God to be in their presence, that’s not how Jesus was. He didn’t walk around demanding people to bow down and worship him. He didn’t walk up to the kings of the earth and demand them to pay their tribute.

Jesus walked among us as a simple man, as a carpenter, as a teacher.

2 Corinthians 8:9 says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor so that you by his poverty might become rich.”

He left the throne room of heaven. And he didn’t come to earth to be born in a palace.

He was born in a stable. He was worthy of so much more than that.

And yet he descended low.

And he didn’t go from there and work his way up to somehow become, you know, the the Jerusalem billionaire. No. What does he say? He says, “The Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Jesus remained in that place of meekness and mildness and humility. He descended low.

Not only is he God in the flesh, and remember 100% God and 100% man, but Jesus, he is the king of the armies of heaven.

He’s the king of the armies of heaven.

Jesus in Matthew 25:43 said, ‘ Do you think that I cannot appeal to my father and he will at once send me more than 12 legions of angels?

You recognize the power and the authority that Jesus has. And yet he descended from heaven. And when he came, he could have ripped the skies open and come down as a royal king with his armies of angels leading the way, their swords drawn, their shields out, blow, you know, blowing their trumpets and declaring he is king because that’s who he is. That’s not how he came.

He came as a child.

At any moment when he was on trial, he could have fought back. He could have summoned the armies of heaven to his defense. What did he do instead? 1 Peter 2:23 says, “When he was reviled, he did not revile it in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.” What an example of humility that Jesus, even though he could command the armies of heaven.

Instead, he went through everything he went through entrusting himself to God.

When you face hardship, when you face trials, how do you respond? Do you become defensive or do you in humility offer yourself up to the Lord?

recognizing that he sees what is true.

He sees what is real. He sees what’s happening. He knows your heart. He knows your mind. And God is in control. And God’s going to take care of it. Do you trust yourself to him?

That’s humility.

Remember this also Jesus in John 8:58.

He said, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” Here’s this moment where we remember Jesus who is God and is the commander of the armies of heaven. Jesus is eternal and he stepped into time. Jesus is the creator and yet he stepped into his creation.

And again, he could have shown up and done whatever he wanted to do and in whatever way he wanted to do it. But instead, what does he do in John 6:38?

He says, “For I’ve come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.”

You see, the ultimate act of humility is placing yourself beneath the authority and power of God.

Humility is about recognizing who God is and who we are and coming under that.

It’s living in reality. It’s not thinking more of ourselves. It’s seeing ourselves for who we actually are.

That’s what it means to be humble. Jesus took on the physical limitations of a human body.

I was talking to somebody last night. We were talking about how Jesus as a child made himself dependent on his mother.

Jesus could have just shown up as a 33-year-old man, but he was born as a child, dependent on others, completely dependent on them to care for him.

What humility? Jesus is a great example of humility.

Jesus descended low.

What would it look like for you to descend low this Christmas season to serve someone else?

to love someone else, to come alongside someone else who might need your help.

But our pride can so often get in the way. Jesus is calling us to humility.

The third thing is that humility glorifies God the Father.

Humility glorifies God. Look at the example further of Jesus in verse 8. It says, “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”

The example of Jesus in his humility is absolutely incredible. But the fact that he humbled himself by being obedient to the point of death.

He humbled himself to the point of death. He was completely obedient to God. Why? Because that brought the father glory. Jesus lived for the glory of God. And we also, we are here to give God glory. That’s why we exist. That’s why God created us. And so we need to live our lives for his glory. When we humble ourselves, we get the attention off of us and we put the attention on him. That’s where it belongs.

That’s the kind of humility that glorifies God.

Jesus was very critical of people that took all the glory for themselves. As he looked at the Pharisees and the way that they give and the way that they prayed and the way that they fasted, they made a big show out of it. And other people saw them and they they recognized what they were doing. And so Jesus said, “You know what? They got their reward. Their reward was the attention.

Their reward was the attabo and the comments from other people and and them feeling their pride out on display for everybody else.” He says they got their reward.

But he encourages us that’s not the kind of reward to go after. We’re to live our life before the father in a way that he sees us and he rewards us for the things that we do for him and him alone. We have an audience of one. We live our lives for him.

This is what God does in Psalm 147:6 says, “The Lord lifts up the humble. He casts the wicked to the ground.”

Now notice it. He doesn’t say he cast the prideful. He says the wicked. But you can draw the link. That’s who he’s talking about. The prideful will be cast to the ground. He says, “Pride is wicked, but the humble will be lifted up.

We don’t lift up ourselves. God is the one who lifts us up.” 1 Peter 5:6 says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you.”

Do you live your life for the praise of people or do you live your life for the praise of God?

Jesus modeled that as as Jesus started his ministry and he was baptized and he came out of the water, it was the father who said, “This is my son with whom I am well pleased.” How do you think Jesus felt to hear that coming from his father? Jesus didn’t care what other people said. He cared what the father said. That’s humility.

That’s what we need to do. Luke 14:11 says, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” We need to trust ourselves to the Lord that he will see and in his time he will give us what we’re owed. And guess what?

We’re actually not owed anything. It’s only by God’s grace that he rewards us for our faithfulness. It’s a gift of God.

But pride is so challenging.

CS Lewis wrote about pride in his book Mere Christianity. And he says that pride is not about being proud that I have a bunch of things or proud that I’ve done a bunch of things. He says, “No, pride’s about having more things than somebody else or having done more things than someone else. It’s about comparison.

And what a time of year it is for that.

Comparing your house lights to the lights of the neighbor down the street.

Comparing what your elf’s doing on Instagram versus your kids’ friends, parents.

Allow God to be the one who lifts you up.

Don’t compare yourselves to others. You want to learn humility? Compare yourself to him and there’s no comparison.

Compare yourself to him. Remember who he is and who we are. He is the creator. We are the creation. He made us from the dust. He says from the dust you were made into the dust you will return.

That’s who we are. We’re nothing.

And yet God loves us and he gave himself for us. And in this ultimate act of humility, he comes to earth. He descends low and he blesses us.

It’s amazing. Live to lift others up.

In the book of Isaiah, there’s a number of prophecies that that point to Jesus and point to this moment in time when he would come to earth. And one of them in Isaiah 40, it describes uh this this picture of the proud being brought low and the humble being lifted up.

Isaiah 40:3-5 says, “A voice cries in the wilderness, prepare a way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” And here’s this this phrase, this picture. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low. The uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And then don’t miss this. and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

That prophecy came true in in multiple places. We see John the Baptist as this person who came to prepare the way of the Lord. And he’s quoting from Isaiah.

And we see the humble being lifted up as Jesus in his ministry lifted up those who were outcasts, those who were looked down upon, those who were nobodies. And Jesus lifts them up and he sees them with value and loves them and cares for them. And those who are proud, those those mountaintops, those Pharisees, Jesus humbles and brings low.

Jesus flips everything on its head.

What about the glory of the Lord? Well, the glory of the Lord was revealed. And it was revealed in this way in Luke 2:9.

It says, “An angel of the Lord appeared to them, appeared to the shepherds, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.

And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.” The glory of God shone into the darkness of mankind.

And in this place as Jesus starts his earthly life in the most humble of ways, God is glorified. God is exalted. He is lifted up. And it’s all at the proper time.

Jesus goes on to live a life of absolute humility. And as Jesus’s earthly ministry comes to a close at the proper time, again, it comes to this moment that Jesus knows what’s about to take place. He spends time with the father and this is what he prays. In John 17:5, he says, “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence, with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”

The time had come for Jesus to be lifted up first on a cross.

But then to be lifted up high and exalted, seated at the right hand of the father.

Jesus glorified with the glory that he had before the world existed. Do you see what he laid down as he came to earth?

As he humbled himself and yet what was restored to him? the glory.

That’s who Jesus is. That’s what he has done for us.

We’re here to humble ourselves before him, to live lives of worship that exalt him and lift him up. Let’s take the spotlight off of ourselves. Let’s put it on Jesus.

Let’s make this Christmas season not about ourselves and making memories and the most fun and all the things that it can become. Let’s make it all about him.

And if we’re truly gonna see others as more important than ourselves, what’s the most important thing you have? The best gift you’ve ever been given is the gift of Jesus. So why would you hold it back from somebody else? Share the gift of Jesus.

But our pride gets in the way.

We could be walking out these exits and walk by those invite cards and think, “I’m not going to take it.

I don’t want to embarrass myself. I don’t want to be rejected.

Don’t hold it back. Humbly submit yourself to the Lord. Take one of those invites and give it to somebody. Ask them to come with you and to be your special guest to come and hear about the gift that Jesus has given in his life for us next week.

Invite them.

be humble before the Lord and invite them.

What would it look like for us as a church to be humble, to put our neighbors first, and to live to lift others up?

Joy to the world.

Let every heart prepare him room. Is there room in your heart for others?

Is there room in your heart for the Lord this season?

God wants to use you. You’re here for a purpose.

Will you humbly submit yourself to him to be used by him as a tool for his kingdom to bring others to know him?

Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you for the good gift that you’ve given in Jesus, your son.

Would you help us Lord to humbly submit ourselves to you not to look for a claim or fame or all the accolades of this world but help us Lord to be seen by you to be used by you to reach others for you. We pray this in Jesus name and all God’s family said amen.