Make my joy complete
Philippians 2
Packaging
The more impressive and expensive the gift, the more lavish the packaging.
Perfume
Compare / contrast
Most expensive perfume in the world
Grapefruit spritz
Compare different packages?
People come in packaging
The more important the person, the more impressive their packaging
PRESIDENT TRUMP
Wrapped in entourage
Wrapped in bomb-proof packaging
You can tell alot about status and power and wealth by what people come wrapped in.
When God, the all-powerful came to earth, wrapped in ultimate humility.
Not fame, fortune and success
KENOSIS - most basic principle of Christianity - the U
Kenotic U - topsy turvy kingdom
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Here's the joy of the Christian faith - we need to take off our packaging
Not nudist/naturist etc
Freedom of letting go
Generation of 'i' technology
iphone, ipad, imac, itunes etc
Make my joy complete
Be one in spirit
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit
Value others above yourselves
Not looking to your own interests but rather those of others
In your relationships with one another have the same mindset as Christ Jesus
Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage
Rather, he made himself nothing
God exalted him to the highest place
The more we let God take over, the more truly we become ourselves - he made us, he knows us more intimately than we know ourselves.
Followers of Christ? - or wandering around to our own agenda expecting God to trot along behind us blessing our agenda
Trapeze artists
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“One day, I was sitting with Rodleigh, the leader of the troupe, in his caravan, talking about flying. He said, ‘As a flyer, I must have complete trust in my catcher. The public might think that I am the great star of the trapeze, but the real star is Joe, my catcher. He has to be there for me with split-second precision and grab me out of the air as I come to him in the long jump.’
‘How does it work?’ I asked.
‘The secret,’ Rodleigh said, ‘is that the flyer does nothing and the catcher does everything. When I fly to Joe, I have simply to stretch out my arms and hands and wait for him to catch me and pull me safely over the apron behind the catchbar.’
‘You do nothing!’ I said, surprised.
‘Nothing,’ Rodleigh repeated. ‘The worst thing the flyer can do is to try to catch the catcher. I am not supposed to catch Joe. It’s Joe’s task to catch me. If I grabbed Joe’s wrists, I might break them, or he might break mine, and that would be the end for both of us. A flyer must fly, and a catcher must catch, and the flyer must trust, with outstretched arms, that his catcher will be there for him.’
“When Rodleigh said this with so much conviction, the words of Jesus flashed through my mind: ‘Father into your hands I commend my Spirit.’ Dying is trusting in the catcher. To care for the dying is to say, ‘Don’t be afraid. Remember that you are the beloved child of God. He will be there when you make your long jump. Don’t try to grab him; he will grab you. Just stretch out your arms and hands and trust, trust, trust.’ “
My prayer this week is to trust, trust, trust. Trust the Catcher!
This is how I fight my battles etc - not our battle
Woke up with something on my mind - me!
Attitudes - one in spirit and purpose
Repair wrong ones
Build right ones
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Selfish ambition
Self importance
Self centredness
Wrong attitudes destroy unity
Imitate Christ who let go
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His legal status
His natural status
His social status
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Jesus climbed down the social ladder to reach us
King of Kings and Lord of Lords made himself nothing to serve us
Opposite of vain conceit and self-importance
He climbed down the ladder of achievement to reach us
He was ambitious and determined for our sakes and not for himself
Utterly humbled himself - to the point of letting go his life
Suffered injustice and died as a criminal
The next day, I returned to the circus to see them again and introduced myself to them as one of their great fans. They invited me to attend their practice sessions, gave me free tickets, asked me to dinner, and suggested I travel with them for a week in the near future. I did, and we became good friends.
Not who we are - whose we are
Story of Ruth and John Prescott?
