Infinite Glory Becoming Intimate Glory: Part 2
December 25, 2022 • Andy Hoot • Philippians 2:1–11
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Today we're thrilled to celebrate Christmas. Merry Christmas to you all. I forgot to say that at the beginning.
Merry Christmas.
Thank you. And we are going through a series, we started it last week, in the book of Philippians; Philippians 2:1-11. And this is not necessarily a traditional Admin or Christmas series, in that we're not going through the themes of hope, love, joy, peace. We're not walking very closely in the birth narrative of Jesus Christ. What we're doing is gleaning from this section of scripture that really consolidates the whole Christian message within a small, beautiful, concise statement. And we're pulling out themes around the realities, the spiritual, the historical realities of Christmas that you cannot quite dig into as much while going through the Christmas season in those more traditional methods. If you want to dig into the birth narrative of Jesus, want to go through hope, love, joy, peace as you go through this holiday week, feel free to go to our website and we have several years of those traditional series for you.
So this last week I painted a big picture about God, generally. We talked through how Jesus was in the form of God, but did not count equality with God to be grasped. I tried to draw unity around who is God, by talking about Isaiah 6:1-8 a lot. Today we're going to talk about God a little more specifically in the person of Jesus Christ, but there's going to be a lot of overlap because I think the overlap is really good. My mind has just been taking off. I think a lot of people really enjoyed the thorough description of God and his glory, but I don't think quite as many people took whom the idea that his infinite glory has become our intimate glory. And that's where the gold is. So I'm going to repeat that next week. Tyler Burns, our teens director and hospitality director here at Mosaic, will walk us through the infinite glory, the exalted glory that Christ has and what that means for us today. So please join me and listen as I read the word of God from Philippians 2:1-11.
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 chord 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. Have 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. 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 Christ, 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.
This is the word of our Lord. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you for who you are. We praise you that in the person of Jesus Christ, we can look upon him and know your glory, not just generally, but personally. We pray Holy Spirit, that you would enliven our eyes to see the heart of God more and more in the person of Jesus Christ today. We pray, Lord, that as we reflect upon the humility shown by him, that our hearts would in turn be changed, that as we live and go forward in his glory, we would reflect his humility and power to the world. Holy Spirit, just wake up our hearts. Let us grow our expectations for this season that we would not just expect a season, a moment, a period, couple days or weeks of good tidings, but a lifetime of comfort and joy in the Holy Spirit of God by our faith in Jesus Christ. Lord, awaken our hearts and fill us that we may go and serve and be your lights in the world from this day forward until eternity. I pray, Lord bless this, the reading, the preaching of your word, may you be glorified in all that we do. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Amen.
So if you weren't aware, last week, there was a big event in world history at 10:00 AM in Qatar. It was the World Cup final. Last week, I preached both services and I tried to ignore the fact that it was taking place because I didn't want any of you to pull out your phones and check the score. It fell perfectly in between both of our services. But what took place? Lionel Messi, who has statistically proven himself over the last 16 years to be perhaps the best soccer player in history, the most popular sport in the world, perhaps the best player in history. Lionel Messi got the crowning achievement. He led his country, his band of teammates; all guys who grew up just worshiping as their idol, to victory in his fifth World Cup. And he got player of the tournament and he just had moments of just holding that trophy.
I honestly just got chills thinking about it. I grew up with a coach from Argentina, played a lot of soccer myself. And praise God. I got home, I worked till 6:00 PM last week. I somehow got through the whole day without anyone telling me the result of the final. So I got to really enjoy the moment in the right way. Watched it with my son, didn't realize it went into extra time and he stayed up till about 10:00 PM, going into Monday. We felt that all week. But as I watched Messi, I just was rejoicing for him. I said, "Wow, look at the immortality that he has. The rest of his life, no one's going to doubt him. No one's going to question him. All of his critics are silenced. Look at the piece that he has. No one can count anything against him in his career."
And furthermore, that internal, that battle that he had, that question of his worthiness, his greatness is taken away. That voice in his own head. Look at the love that he has. Look at the adoration of the fans. Look at the adoration of his wife and three kids, sitting there, just snuggling the trophy together. Look at the joy, just the pure exuberant happiness in a guy who is generally very mild mannered. And honestly, I looked at him and I said, "I want that. I want that now." And the little boy inside of me said to my 34-year-old self, "It's not too late, Andy. Dig in, go out and train. Practice. You're 34 years old, but you can still get that with soccer." And I believed it for a moment and then I stood up and my back hurt, and baby number three started crying. And very quickly, that goal was put away.
But in all seriousness, for a moment, watching Messi just kiss that trophy, the most liked Instagram picture in history, watching him get paraded around the stadium in front of thousands of fans and then having that peaceful moment of just rest with his family, I really wanted what he had; the immortality, the peace, the love, the joy, the status, the guaranteed riches. This was even right after I preached last Sunday, which shows how quick we can stumble, how fickle we are as humans. I genuinely got caught up in the moment and really desired what Messi had, but after preaching my sermon from last week to myself, I realized that through Christ, I have what he has and so much more.
And why does this matter this week? To restate myself from last week, because Christmas is all about understanding that God's infinite glory has become our intimate glory. And last week I painted this picture of God's infinite glory and brought us pretty quickly, to the end, how... Sorry. How his infinite glory becomes our intimate glory. But this is really what happens at Christmas. Beneath the details of the birth narrative, beneath hope, love, joy, peace is the reality that upon Christmas, the infinite has become intimate. I want to build off this today. Our great God, in all of his exhausted holiness, who would be fully just to leave man in the predicament before him in his state of sin, faces his sin and sends a messenger from heaven.
And not just any messenger, God sends himself. Heaven itself reaches down, touches the sinner. The light of heaven breaks through the darkness caused by man sin. When the infinite glory becomes intimate for us, we realize that the greatest... There's actually an even greater glory than God's transcendent glory. It's God's transferred glory. Christmas is the season that should bring us to our knees in absolute awe as we reflect upon the holiness, glory and character of God and see that he is graciously reaching down from heaven to touch our lives and not just cancel our sin, but to graciously give us a right, a new nature in Jesus Christ.
And we talked about this last week. I sped through it, but too often churches preach a half gospel. It only talks about the removal of the debt of sin. They preach as if when someone's made right before God, that it's like going to a bank and paying a debt. And you get a zero sum balance between you and God. And when they preach that lives are not actually changed, it soothes people's conscience for a period of time.
But the true gospel says that when God saves people something greater than forgiveness of debt happens. God doesn't just forgive our sins when he saves us, he graciously gives us his own righteousness, his holiness, his glory, the power and presence of his Holy Spirit as we go forward through all of life and eternity. How is this possible? Our passage from Philippians 5 says, have 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. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
When the passage says, he, Christ was in the form of God, it traces Christ's preexistence before creation as the only holy begotten son of God, a member of the Holy Trinity of God, the Father, God the Son God the Holy Spirits. Christ existed with God in the heavenly of heavenlys. He was infinite, eternal, unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness justice, goodness and truth, just as much as God the Father and God, the Holy Spirit. He was fully satisfied within the Trinity, fully joyful, fully loved. He did not need worship from man. And yet he, Christ took on flesh that he might save man and give him the chance to worship him.
Scripture says of Jesus, in Hebrews 1:3, he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. And when he walked the earth, though truly tempted to sin, he retained his perfect righteousness throughout his life, walking blameless before God's law. But on the cross, he positioned himself intentionally to receive the wrath of God, due to man, for his sins, his unrighteousness, his imperfection before the law. The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches that because Jesus Christ, God himself, took on flesh and lived the sinless life before God that we could not live, when one turns away from their sin and turns to God once and for all, all sins of past, present and future or are forgiven. And once for all, the righteousness of Christ is applied to them by God the Father, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Once truly in Christ by faith, the Father promises to never leave or forsake his children and gives them esteemed status as heirs of his eternal glory, with his firstborn child. So 2 Corinthians 5:21 captures this gospel in a concise statement, for our sake, he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. So that's for our sake. He, God made him, Christ to be sin on the cross, who knew no sin in heaven and on earth, so that in him, Christ we might become the righteousness of God.
And so what I'm talking about is typically called double imputation, in the theological world. By faith, our filthy, sinful record is applied to Jesus and his perfect, right, holy record before God is applied to us by his Holy Spirit. If you just pause and take in what I said, this is a deal that works so much for our benefit and just is not very fair to God. This is something that you have to pause and meditate. If Christ came from infinite glory in heaven and took on flesh as a baby in Bethlehem, to live a life with the lowliest of people for the primary purpose of going to the cross, that should wow you. That should make you in awe of God. That should make you in awe of Christ.
And when you pause and think about who you are in your sin before a holy God, the only way you can justify why God would do such a thing, send his own son to go to the cross in your place, is you find that it's only love. There's no reason that he loves you in his holiness. He loves you because he loves you because he loves you. That is a freeing love and that's what we get offered to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ. But we want to see this. I want to press upon you and just keep building off of what I said last week, that Christmas offers us so much more than the chance of getting a right balance before God.
It's not just a chance to receive a shot of jolliness or nostalgia that powers us through a few days or a few weeks. Christmas is all about this transfer of glory. That light in the distance that we foresaw in the prophets, in the symbolism of the sacrifices and the temple and the tabernacle, that light far off, that's God's light coming into history and man are no longer left to toil. Peace on earth, goodwill to man, praise be to God. The gospel is now going to be transferred and offered to the world, not just a single people, the Israelites. That's the beginning of what is happening.
And so some verses that describe the transfer of glory from God's manic Christmas and scripture are Ephesians 1:3-1, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. 1 Peter 29, he says to Christians, Peter says, "But you are a chosen race." Christians, we are a chosen race. We're like a new form of immortal being, "a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."
Going further, scripture talks about God's gracious transfer of glory to his children in the church is something that angels, even in their present heavenly glory long to look at in wonder and amazement. And the Christmas story verses mention this. Luke 2:8-13, and in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. This is close to where Christ was born. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shown 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 people, for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for 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." This is legions of angels, lighting up the sky to look upon God's taking on of human flesh and they are brought to worship to see this taking place. 1 Peter 1:10-12 mentions how prophets of old and angels further long to look ahead to Christ's life on earth in this gracious salvation that it garnered. Concerning the salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, Christians, searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.
It was revealed to them, the prophets, that they were serving not themselves, but you in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. The angels, long to look at the gospel of Jesus Christ being played out, his taking on of the flesh, his righteous life, his going to the cross in our place, his rising from the dead, his ascension to the right hand of God the Father. And they're also waiting with us for his pending return.
And when you pause and think about the prophets who prophesied about this grace that was to be ours, that says the God of the Old Testament is not a mean God, who wants to punish us and hold his authority over his head. This is a common myth about Christianity. The God of the Old Testament and New Testament is the same. He's a God of grace. Going back to the Garden of Eden. All he wanted to do was to walk in the garden and enjoy life with man. This relationship where God is creator, man is the created one and man finds his ultimate joy and freedom walking with his father, with his creator. And man breaks that relationship. And so there's a few confusing things. But even in Genesis 3, the gospel is first preached. When it says the serpent will bruise the heel of the man, the seed of the woman will crush the serpent's head.
God all along has been planning for this gospel to come forward and we're seeing it take place at Christmas and Jesus Christ being born. This is the middle of history. This is why history's called his story. It's Jesus' story coming to this earth to be our savior. In Ephesians 3:7-10, the apostle Paul once said, of this gospel, as made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me though, I am the very least of all the saints. This grace was given to preach to the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring light for everyone. What is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities, and the heavenly places? Isn't that amazing?
The rulers and authorities in heaven, they already have access to God in all of his holiness, at least greater access than us. And they're even more excited to look into this gracious transfer of glory to man on earth through the Son of God. The gospel for them, it gives them a deeper understanding of God's heart, his heart of love for his created children. So at Christmas we celebrate the gracious heavenly glory becoming our intimate glory. And this should cause us to take a view of the life that Christians get to live.
At one point during the World Cup celebrations, while still on the field, there's a moment where a great Argentine soccer legend and world soccer legend who's retired, Sergio Aguero, lifted Lionel Messi onto his shoulders while he held the trophy and carried him around the stadium as Argentine fans cheered and sang and cried in celebration and worship. It's this beautiful picture, but the grand picture of our life as Christians is even greater than that of Messi being paraded around the stadium on another soccer legend's shoulders. The grand picture of our life is one of Jesus himself, the son of God, parading around with us, not with him on our shoulders, but with us on his shoulders.
That's the life we get to live and the power of the Holy Spirit of God, all thanks to faith. Scripture talks about life as a Christian, as a triumphal procession, like the parade taken by a victor of war who is then given dominion to reign in the conquered territory by his Lord. In 2 Corinthians 2:14-17, it says, but thanks be to God, who in Christ, always leads us in triumphal procession and through us, spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one, a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.
Do you view yourself, your life as a triumphal procession, as one commissioned by God, as a righteous victor over sin in Jesus Christ who God uses to call other people, living in the domain of darkness and death, into his kingdom of heavenly light and resurrection power? Do you? How many of you feel like you're just limping through life, feeling bad for yourself because you have to face the challenges that come with walking through life in this world as a Christian? Living in Boston, perhaps three or 4% evangelical Christian that's in four or five years old now? Being of the extreme minority? How many of you are just feeling bad for yourself? Are you forgetting that the very Holy Spirit who raised Jesus Christ from the dead is in you?
Some of you who just come here at Christmas and Easter, we are very glad you're here. But are you just ashamed of being Christian in a day where it's not popular or are you too busy? You're not understanding all that you have in Jesus Christ. Christians who know what a blessing it is to be saved and made righteous in Jesus Christ, to have his glory should look at Messi and realize that he has nothing on us. We know a greater glory in our salvation. We have a greater glory living within us. We have a greater joy, love, peace, and true eternal hope of victory. Do you know this?
Do you know that Christ's glory is already yours today if you're in him? Or that it can be yours today if you receive his invitation to follow him? Or are you stuck pursuing your own glory or watching other people pursue earthly glory, living vicariously through them while rotting away on the inside? Can you look upon earthly heroes, those athletes, artists, musicians, those people who live in the neighborhood next to you who have multi-million dollar houses... or if you have one, there's the ones who have bigger houses than you, and say that I have more in Jesus? Or are you caught living vicariously through people or trying to catch up with them?
I met this one guy. It was the weirdest thing. He tied his peaks and valleys and development in life to the peaks and valleys of the career of the famous tennis player, Roger Federer. It was just the weirdest thing. His whole Facebook, social... multiple social media profiles were him with, not Roger Federer, but pictures of Roger Federer; pictures of him with the TV, watching him. It sounds crazy, but a lot of us practice such functional ideology. One thing that I don't understand is America's obsession with the British royal family. Why does the media make millions and millions by telling us about this royal family? What's our fascination with them? Why are we living through life through their experience? Didn't we say goodbye to them a while ago?
But if you think about it, the Kardashians, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Hillary, Obama, anyone else who is known by only one name, your soccer team, football team, basketball team, baseball team, social media influencers, Jesus Christ took on flesh that we might take on an infinitely greater glory than any of those people or groups.
One of the things that Christians who really understand the glory that they have in Jesus can actually say with confidence is that life in Christ is just better. That's one of the things that I say in my evangelism. Just life... I've tasted some things of the world and I wish I never even tried to because life in Christ is that much better. A lot of us Christians are afraid to go too close to a prosperity gospel and say this, but even in suffering with Jesus, it's better. Life with Christ is better. It's the most rich and glorious life to live in this life and in eternity.
And so the apostle Paul, he knew this, that our writer of Philippians, and that he commented on his knowledge of his present glory with a really just powerful statement in Philippians 3:7-16. He said, "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. That by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I've already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Jesus Christ has made me his own.
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God and Christ Jesus. Let those of you who are mature think this way. And in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Paul, perhaps the most influential Christian, aside from Christ, renounce all spiritual, ethnic and professional privileges. And he had many, he was the Jew of Jew, the Pharisee of Pharisees, the top at the top PhD program in his course of study and he gave it all up for the sake of knowing Christ and becoming more and more conformed to his glory and likeness as his life went on.
Will you leave your vice grip on those things to which you desperately cling in order to conjure up your own glory, your own righteousness before God and man? Your own faux hope, fake hope, peace, love passing riches in order to receive something far better? That's the offer of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And so with all of this, I think I've made myself clearer in trying to get you to realize that the greatest glory of Christmas is realizing that God's infinite glory has become intimate glory. But I want to expand on what I've said to say how we make this glory our own today.
How can we continually increase our experience of this glory in our lives today? I had one sister say to me this week, "I'm really captivated by the idea of that infinite glory becoming my intimate glory. But what does that mean for my day-to-day life?" This is what Philippians 2 is all about. Have this mind among yourselves. This is an active thing. We're to take on this mind of Christ when he in humility, took on flesh. This is what the whole book of Philippians is about, if you want to explore it further in detail this week.
Paul, as he talks about in the quote that I just read, this making his identity in Christ's own, pressing on, holding true to what we have attained. Our lives as Christians should be marked by continual progression in making Christ glory our own. So how do we make Christ's infinite glory our own intimate glory on a day-to-day basis? And so first, we have to believe the gospel. We have to really want the glory of God, the righteousness of God in our life. Do you really want that? Then we repent of our sin, of living for our own glory and trying to conjure up our own righteousness, before our heavenly Father and see that it's only in Jesus that we can be made right before him and receive a new nature and glory.
And then we do this on repeat, every day, every hour, every time you begin to slip again. And if we cannot see, we ask God to help us see his glory and our sin before him. And then very quickly, the grace that he offers to us, the glory that he offers to us in Christ. And once we believe, the way that we make God's infinite glory, our intimate glory in a sense that it becomes personal to us and changes us, is by realizing that we're given such a gift of glory in order to live for God's infinite glory. And this is where I want to expand on my statement of the past two weeks.
The most glorious part of Christmas is understanding that God's infinite glory has become intimate glory for his infinite glory. God's infinite glory has become intimate glory for his infinite glory. And so it has become our intimate glory for his infinite glory. So we don't get saved and then continue to live for ourselves. We don't become Christians and then continue to live as Johns and Joes and Marys and Amys, trying to use God's power to get that better job or bigger house, or more friends or spouse or children, or retirement nest egg or whatever it is that we believe will make us happy. We become Christians.
What does Christian mean? Little Christ. We follow in his way. The original Christians are called the way because they lived like Jesus, for his glory. So how did Christ live? Philippians 2 says, being born in the likeness of men, he humbled himself to the point of death, even death on the cross. How did Christ live? He continually died to himself and ultimately, died on the cross. Christ showed great humility. The Christian life is the glorious life. But the paradox of Christianity is that the way we access that glory personally, and the way we bring more glory to God is by dying daily.
And that's something really hard. The world wants us to be firm, be proud, be strong in our own strength. The Christian life is one where we step out constantly to the ends of our own strength so that we get to see God's power at work in us and through us. It's a constant cycle of extending yourself, praying that God would work in you and through you and serving others beyond your capacity, stretching the limitation of your gifts and saying, "God, use me."
So how can you have the best Christmas? How can you have the best life from here on? Believe in Jesus, take up your cross daily and follow him. Live for his infinite glory, not your own. And this should not be a forced dying. It shouldn't be a drudgery to follow in the way of Christ, but a joy to do this. In Philippians, Paul calls the church of Philippi to rejoice over and over again. He says, "Live in this way and rejoice. I say, rejoice." And he says, "It will be the source of my rejoicing to see you live and die like this." That's what we should want to see when we do evangelism, when we make disciples and we invest in people. We want to see people who don't just adhere intellectually to the faith, but take that information, learn how to use it for wisdom and just in their daily dying.
We want the Lord... We can't feel bad, we can't nurture our babies, spiritual children in the faith. We can't nurture our own physical children. What do I want with my children? I want them to grow up and I want them to lay down their lives for Jesus. And I have to accept that that's going to be a life of risk taken, not following the way of the world, but standing on the word of Christ and laying themselves down to get his truth, get the lord's heart and character across to people. And as Christian, in living in this way, all of your life becomes a song that you sing with dally life.
A song that you sing by laying yourself down like Jesus, with the hope of being used by him to draw more and more people into his flock. And historically, this section of Philippians 2:5-11, it's been called the Hymn of Christ, the Song of Christ. And in the original language, there's some elements that would suggest that Paul wrote it to be a song. As you reflect on how great God's glory is, how amazing it is that he offers you glory, your life becomes a song, a form of worship as you joyfully lay yourself down for others as Christ did for you. That's the view we are to have of this life. Not sitting around feeling bad for ourselves.
Even in modern day Boston, our life can be this song. We can have joy to die to ourselves. Hebrews 12:1-2 says, let us lay aside every weight and sin which sings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith. Who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. In other words, Christ's joy and life song to take on flesh and endure the cross for us. It should be our joy and life song to take up our cross daily in this life so that others might get to experience the glory that we know.
And who do you lay yourself down for? That's a really important question that Christians need to ask. And it's more confusing than ever with just the amplification of social media, the existence of the internet, the way to engage in life in a variant, impersonal way, essentially without human, people incarnate in front of you. But who do you serve? Who do you lay yourself down for? The people that God has placed right in front of you. And that's probably the people that you are going to celebrate Christmas with today. And you know what? They're probably the hardest people to lay yourself down for in life because you know them. You know their sins, you know their shortcomings and their stubbornness, and it's really hard to love them sacrificially.
And I say this about my family. They're great, they're lovely, my wife is incredible, but every day I say, "Lord, fill me up. Give me your power to love her well, as Jesus Christ did, to lay myself down as Christ did for his bride, the church." So who do we lay ourselves down for? For your wife, your husband, your kids, your roommate, brothers and sisters in the church, physical neighbors, parents, in-laws, siblings, coworkers, friends. And probably that order, especially when you gather together at Christmas.
And I just want to close with a reading from Ephesians chapter 1. I actually don't have the verses in front of me. My Bible doesn't have verses here, but where do you get the power to keep loving? You look to the Lord. You look upon his infinite glory and see that in Christ, he has given you his infinite glory. That's how we continue to lay ourselves down. That's how his glory becomes more personal. That's how it grows in us, and we grow more into the likeness of Jesus Christ with our lives. So this Christmas, my prayer is that which the Apostle Paul has here for the Church of Ephesus, very much like he had for the Church of Philippi, just with grander language.
I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him. Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints? And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also into the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head, over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, I pray that you would give us your fullness. Give us the fullness of your joy. Give us the fullness of your love, your mercy, your grace, your humility. Lord, light a fire in our souls whose source is your heavenly glory so that when we just go out and spend time with our family, our neighbors, our friends, those people who are to believe, we can begin today properly serving you. Lord, we know that you want us to be your children. We know that your power is what truly saved us. Help us to know how we can walk in it. Let your joy, your light, your love just grow in us. And we pray that as we do so that other people would see you in us. Lord, let us go forward with confidence that we have greater glory than the greatest champions, the greatest icons, the most influential people of history. We have greater power than them. You have called us to be your ambassadors in this world and let us take to the world your love, hope, and grace today. I pray this in the name of Jesus' holy name, amen.
