This would be interesting. Let's suppose that this happened on the way into church, today. You were handed a slip of paper. Every single person was handed a slip of paper, with two fill-in the blank statements. You all were asked to fill in those two blanks and then to hand you answers in to the usher.

Here are the two fill-in the blank statements. What if, on that piece of paper, first of all, was this statement?

✔ My purpose, here on this earth is to _______.

How would you answer that?

The second fill-in the blank statement is:

✔ In order to carry out my purpose, here on this earth, I will need a spirit of _______.

How would you fill that out?

✔ My purpose here on earth is to _______.

✔ And, in order to carry out that purpose, here on earth, I will need a spirit of _______.

Let's imagine they have all been gathered together, now. And, all of those slips of paper are brought up here. I, as the pastor, unfold them. I am about to read them all to you. Do you know, the Bible tells us, as I unfold those statements of paper, every single one of us should have the exact same answer to those fill-in the blank statements? In fact, the Bible says in Philippians, chapter two, verse two, (right before our scripture reading for today),

"Make my joy complete

by being like-minded,

being one in purpose

and one in spirit."

There the Bible tells us that every single one of us should have the same purpose. We have one purpose. We should be like-minded and we should have the same spirit in accomplishing that purpose. In fact, the Bible goes so far as to answer that fill-in the blank statement,

✔ My purpose here on earth is to _______.

✔ And, in order to carry out that purpose, here on earth, I will need a spirit of _______.

If Jesus were also to fill in one of those slips of paper, our slip of paper should agree with His slip of paper. The Bible says,

"Your attitude

should be the same

as that of Christ Jesus."

So, as we look at Jesus, while He was here, during His earthly ministry, if Jesus filled out one of those slips of paper, how do you think He would answer it?

✔ My purpose here on earth is to _______.

Our scripture reading tells us, He humbled Himself,

"taking the very nature of a servant."

✔ Jesus' purpose here on this earth was to be a servant. His purpose was to be your servant.

My purpose here on earth, (in order to be like-minded, to be like Christ), is to serve. That is why I am here.

✔ My purpose here on this earth is to serve.

How did Christ carry that out? He carried it out with an attitude or a spirit of _______.

Scripture says,

"He humbled Himself,

and became obedient to death -

even death on a cross!"

He carried it out with a spirit of humility. And so, all of us, as like-minded Christians, should have one purpose and it is a Christ-like purpose.

✔ My purpose here on earth is to serve.

✔ And, in order to carry out that purpose, here on earth, I will need a spirit of humility.

So, what does that mean to serve? The greatest service that you could render anyone, of course, it to serve their spiritual needs. There are people who have very, very profound spiritual needs. There are people who do not know their Savior, yet.

I am here on this earth to serve.

➢ Do I go about my life, serving the spiritual needs of those who don't know their Savior, yet? Do I see that as my purpose here on this earth?

➢ Do I go about my life, serving those who do know Christ, and seeing to it that their spiritual needs are fed?

➢ Do I go about this life, taking care of the physical needs of those around me?

Oh, it is easy for all of us to say, "Of course that is my purpose! I am here to serve. And I am here to do it, with a spirit of humility." But, what if we assigned someone to follow you around all week, this week? And so, they follow you around, everywhere you went. They watched everything you did and they listened to everything you said. They watched how you spent your time, what you did with your money, who you talked to. If they were to come back and fill out that statement, for you, by observing you, what would they say? After following you around for a week, what would they put down?

Would they say, "Well, it looked like that person's purpose in life this week was to get everything done, as quickly as they could so they could watch their favorite TV shows and play game cube, as much as they could." Or, "It looks like this person's purpose in life this week, was to get as much shopping done, as they possibly could." Or, "It looks like this person's purpose in life this week was to talk on the phone, as much at they possibly could."

Or, would it be that they would say, "It looked like this person's purpose was, (it appears your purpose in life was) to serve the spiritual needs of those who don't know Christ, or do know Christ."

Would they say that your purpose was to serve? Would they look at you and say, "Well, it looks like your purpose was really to serve the members in your family, in a spirit of humility."

Or, would we discover that as people watch us in our homes, we, as husbands and wives, are more interested in how "I want to spend the money." "I am more interested in what I want to do with our free time." "I am more interested in making sure that I shift the chores off on somebody else, so I have more time to do what I want to do."

As parents, are we more interested in seeing to it that "the kids don't get in the way of me living my life." "I hope they don't bother me, when I am watching this important sport's program."

Are we more interested, as children, rather than obeying our parents and serving them, complaining when parents ask us to do something, and trying to avoid serving them in whatever way we can?

When the neighbor next door needs help, are we so caught up in the things of this world, and have brought so much stress on ourselves by all the things we have brought into our lives that we don't have time to serve those in need?

Our sinful nature, by nature, is not a servant. It is not our sinful nature's goal to be humble. That is not our nature. In fact, our nature is just the opposite.

Our sinful nature is

selfish.

Our sinful nature does not want to put other people above ourselves, but it wants to be the most important. At church, our sinful nature says, "Oh sure, I will serve, but I would rather have somebody do more of the service." "I will give, but I would rather have somebody else do more of the giving."

Oh sure, we will do all of those things, but our sinful nature is very concerned about looking out for itself. Our sinful nature wants to be the most important. And we all have to admit that when it really comes down to it, we are rotten servants.

We are rotten servants.

We often do not set it as our goal to serve the spiritual needs of others, to see to it that 'the lost' who do not know Christ, come to Christ. That is why we are here. That is how we should devote all of our time, all of our talents, all of our treasures. However, we don't see that as our spiritual goal.

We may want to meet the needs, those spiritual needs, of those around us, who are already Christian, however do we sacrifice to serve those around us?

We all stand condemned. And, we would be condemned, were it not for our Savior. Our scripture turns us to Christ, and it tells us that our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, our Lord. Jesus shows us what it really, truly means to serve, what it truly means to be humble, and serve in humility. And only those who know Christ and believe in Christ can truly go forward, with a heart of service and a heart of humility.

What do we see, when we look at Jesus? My sinful nature is self-centered and wants to be the most important. If there is anybody who really is the most important, anyone who is the most superior, it is not me. And, it is not you. When you 'bump into God,' you 'bump into somebody' who is so far more superior, so far more important that we cannot even begin to imagine. Your wisdom is nothing compared to the wisdom in Christ's little finger tip. Your power is nothing, compared to the power in Christ's little finger tip. Our scripture reading says, He is "in very nature God."

Your glory is nothing compared to the absolute glory of Christ. He is so far superior, so far more important. Our righteousness, our goodness is nothing but filthy rags and darkness, compared to the holiness of Christ. There, we run into the Person who is truly far superior, infinitely superior, infinitely more important.

And yet, what do we hear about Him? He came to be your servant.

He came to be your servant!

"He humbled Himself," the scripture says.

And what is humility? Sometimes I think we have the false notion that humility means I walk around and say, "I am nobody. I am nothing. I am no good at anything." That is not the Biblical definition of humility. Maybe one of the most interesting passages about humility is found in the book of Numbers. (This was before Christ's time.) There it says the most humble person on the face of the earth was Moses. (Moses wrote that about himself, under divine inspiration. He wrote that he was the most humble person on the face of the whole earth.) And so, I want to look at something Moses did that shows real humility. You remember when the Children of Israel built the golden calf, when Moses was up on Mount Sinai, receiving the Ten Commandments from God? God, in His anger, threatened to destroy the Children of Israel. Do you remember what Moses said, when he interceded for the Children of Israel, before God? Moses went so far as to say to God, to plead with God, not to destroy the Children of Israel and even said, "Blot me, blot me out of your Book of Life."

Do you understand what Moses was saying there? He was interceding for the Children of Israel, those sinners who had turned against God. He was asking God not to destroy them, and he was even saying, "God if you have to, blot me out of the Book of Life. Send me to Hell. I would rather go to Hell, than have them condemned."

Brothers and Sisters, that is humility. That is humility. That is putting others above yourself.

Now, of course, Moses could not go to Hell to save anybody. But, that is what your Savior did for you. Jesus did that. He is the only one who could do that. He humbled Himself. God became your servant and He humbled Himself. He put your needs so far above His own that He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.

God died for you!

God was tortured on the cross, for your sins. He suffered for you, beyond what you can imagine. And, He endured the torments of Hell for you, so that all your sins are gone! They are washed away. They are forgiven. God does not hold them against you! You are saved, because of what Jesus did for you.

Scripture tells us that our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, our Lord. Jesus became a servant. That was His purpose. His purpose was to serve you. He did it with a spirit of absolute humility. He humbled Himself. He held back on the full power of His divine nature, even though He could have used it in His human nature. But, He held back on that so He could suffer and die for you.

We are to be like-minded. May we be motivated by what our Savior has done for us - His awesome forgiveness of our sins. May we be like-minded. May we go forward and say, "I do have a purpose here on this earth. My purpose here on earth is to serve. And, I will carry out that purpose by having a spirit of humility, considering others more important than myself."

Let's take a look at our lives and ask ourselves, "Do I live my life in a way that I serve the spiritual needs of those around me, 'the lost' who don't know Christ, and those who do know Christ? Do I serve my family members as best I can?"

May that be our goal in life, to be humble servants of Christ, our Savior. And, may your attitude be the same as that of Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Amen.