November 8,2026 | The God who Serves

The God Who Serves | Phil. 2:5-11

Philippians 2:5–11

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 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. (ESV)

In "The God Who Serves," Jed Gillis walks through Philippians 2:5-11 and invites you to consider how your view of God shapes your relationship with him. Jesus has always been fully God, yet he freely gives himself in service. His humility, obedience to the cross, and exaltation reveal the generous character of the Father, Son, and Spirit.

Because God delights to give, you can bring him your need and respond with worship, wonder, and gratitude. Paul calls you to adopt the same mindset as Christ. Remembering that you are deeply loved and full in him frees you to serve others with humility and endurance.

Transcript of The God Who Serves | Phil. 2:5-11

What Comes to Mind When You Think of God

This morning I want you to think of a couple different people or categories of people, and I want you just to think of what comes to your mind first. So when I say your grandma, what do you think of? And you don't have to tell me, just think of it yourself. What do you think of when, like reflexively, not just what do you know about her?

I could list here's where my grandmother was born, here's how old she was when she passed away. I could list all these things about her. I don't mean that. I just mean when you think of her, what do you think of that person? Or try it with a few other people. Think of your father and reflexively what comes to your mind? Or your mother? Or maybe your best friend?

As I name people, immediately something comes to your mind, and whatever your response is, it shapes the way you interact with that person. Whatever you think of immediately, if you've already established in your mind that that person genuinely cares for you, then you would probably open up more easily. If you know they love you, if you're confident that they approve of you, you might be a lot faster to share your weakness with them than if I were to say, like, "What comes to your mind when you think of your coworker or a competitor?"

If you think that person's always critical of others, you're probably more on your guard. If you think they're perfectionistic, then you don't wanna share anything about yourself that you think isn't perfect. If you think they're gracious and loving and helpful, then you might be quick to share things that are difficult.

You see, what you think of when you think of that person, it colors your entire relationship with that person.

A. W. Tozer in his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, said this quote, "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us." That's not the th- same thing as saying what you know about God. Probably many of us could take a theology quiz or a Bible test and could name a lot of things about God.

You may know many things about God that don't really come into your mind when you first think of him. But what comes into your mind when you first think of him colors everything about your relationship to him.

So I want to ask you, just pause and think about that: when you think of God, what comes to your mind first? Is God a subject to be learned and studied, maybe mastered? Is God a perfectionistic judge? Does he look at you with pity or disgust or confusion? "Why on earth would they do that?" Anger, love, joy, delight?

What comes to your mind when you first think about God? Because whatever that is, is gonna color your whole relationship with him. Is he busy like he's crafting this wonderful thing in the world and he's too busy for you? Is he a taskmaster to be served?

There's a million things that are true of God, but what comes to your mind first and the way it shapes the way you interact with him has a huge impact on your life.

The Mindset of Christ

I'm gonna read from Philippians 2, famous passage that describes Jesus and what he's done for us. I'm gonna read out of a different translation than I normally do, if you're following along, just partly because it words a few things a little bit differently.

I want you to listen to the way it describes Jesus. Beginning in verse five:

"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 him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at 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."

Paul starts this whole section with a command, "Adopt this attitude," is the way it's read there, or, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus," may be a familiar way we've heard it said. Adopt this same attitude, which we could pause there and that would probably be enough to say, how on earth am I supposed to do that?

You want me to have the mindset, the attitude that Jesus Christ had? Or maybe you say, "Wait, what exactly is this mindset? I'm not really sure. What do you mean, Paul?" So after this initial command, he goes on to describe it, and he gives you this incredible poetic description of Christ. This is likely a very early hymn that was sung by believers within 20 to 30 years of Jesus's death.

By the way, you'll see occasionally online, you'll see people talk about like, "Well, they didn't worship Jesus as God right away. They didn't do that until, you know, 100 years later," or something crazy like that. No, songs like this were being sung about Jesus within 20 years. We know at least that. And I don't think Paul wrote it, so it was some time before that.

The God Who Willingly Serves

Here's this poem, this hymn, this song, which is sung... You can think of it in three stanzas. The, the first one we'll label this way, the God who willingly serves.

He starts with this statement, "Jesus was existing in the form of God." The word form here is really important, and it can be confusing because in English, we use form a couple different ways.

We can use form in a way that says this thing has the shape of or looks like something else. For example, I could say, "The moon has the form of a basketball." You would know what I meant. It's round. It, it, it's spherical, something like that. But none of you think I'm saying the moon is a basketball. And the same use, but the other direction, if we had a basketball that was all flat and twisted and it wasn't round anymore, I could say, "It doesn't have the form of a basketball," even though you know it is a basketball, right?

We can use form to say nothing about what it is and only say what does it look like in English. But if you do that here, when it says Jesus was in the form of God, if you use that use of form, you land in, in heresies. That's really just the ancient heresies of Arianism or Docetism, or the modern versions like Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons.

That's really the same thing, wh- where they would say Jesus looked kinda like God, but he wasn't, in some way. That's not what this use of form is. And the Greek word, there's not confusion there in the Greek word. The Greek word, this word for form, is not used to say like the moon has the form of a basketball.

Instead, it's used more like when I, if I said, "This piece of literature has the form of a poem." I don't mean it looks like one, but it isn't a poem. I don't mean it looks like one, but it really is, it, it, it just kind of appears like it, really something totally different. I don't mean that. I mean this is in the form of it, has the essential characteristics of a poem that make it a poem.

That's how we use this word form in this case. That's what Paul's doing. That's what this Greek word means. He's saying Jesus had, from eternity past, infinite existence. He never didn't exist. He had total independence. He didn't need anything else. He had all power. He had limitless knowledge and infinite love.

All the things that you could put together and say, "That's what God is," Paul's saying, "That's what Jesus is." He had the essential characteristics of being God because He was. He had always existed as equal, as divine. But He didn't grasp that equality. Now, depending on your translation, what you're reading, you'll see some different things there.

Didn't consider it a thing to be grasped is one way it's worded. The one I read said He didn't consider it as something to be exploited.

See, Jesus, as truly God, He had privilege. He deserved worship. He had all the authority that you could imagine. He had all the rights. He had all the glory. He had all the status.

But He didn't grab onto these things like they were something to be used for His advantage. Instead, He poured them out.

We can talk about human examples of this, too, by the way. Think of George Washington. As you go through the Revolutionary War, George Washington, you know, rises up in America in status, in, in authority.

He becomes president. He's president. And if you lived in England before that, you probably thought, "George Washington's gonna be the king." In fact, if you lived in America, you might have thought that. But what did he do? With all that authority, with all that power and rights, he, he did not grasp it. He said, "No, I'm going to step aside so the next person can come in so that there's a good transition of power."

That, that's a human example of saying, "can you take something to benefit yourself?" He could have, in theory, tried to becoming a, a ruling dynasty. You know, King Washington I or something. He could have done that, but he didn't. Instead, he didn't grasp it. It wasn't something to be exploited for himself. It was something to be used for the good of the country.

Negative example, you might know the name Bernie Madoff. Some of you do. He was a, a well-known, respected, uh, Wall Street kind of banker, NASDAQ chairman, and he set up this big Ponzi scheme where people would come and invest, and then he'd get more people to invest and more people to invest, and then he'd use their money to pay off the first people.

And then he kept going down the line, and he kept getting richer and richer and richer, but they weren't actually investing in anything.

See, he had a reputation of being respected as a financial advisor, and he thought, "I'm gonna use this. I'm gonna grasp this reputation and use it for my advantage." That's the negative example.

But Jesus, as God, though he deserved the highest glory and had the best reputation and the best status, though he deserved worship, he didn't grab it to say, "I'm gonna use it for myself." He wasn't demanding and entitled. Instead, as God, he pours himself out.

Where this text continues, "He emptied himself by taking the form of a servant."

That doesn't just mean he looks like a servant. This is the same word. And by the way, it's the last time this word is used in this passage. Depending on your translation, you may see the English word form used later, but the Greek word's not used again in this passage.

This first stanza of this song is telling you that Jesus, who had all the essential characteristics of being God because he was God, also had the essential characteristics of being a servant. Not he looked like a servant, not he sort of did some servant-like things. He was in every way serving.

And when you read this, by assuming the form of a servant, here's what I want you to do that I'm g- I'm gonna guess this, at least for some of you, depending on how you've read through this before, this may strain you a little bit.

Don't immediately run to the incarnation. So Paul goes there. But hold yourself back just a second because here's what Paul doesn't say. He doesn't say, "Jesus, being in the form of God, took on himself the form of a human." Now, that's true. He did take on himself the form of human. He became truly human, but that's not the first thing he says.

In other words, this first stanza of the hymn isn't really about God becoming human first. He gets there, but it's about the essence of God is one who also serves, one who gives, the God who willingly serves.

I'm gonna come back to that in just a minute. But sit with it, and does that feel strange to you? The God of the universe isn't just one who sits on His throne, tells everybody where to go, grasps that authority and power to exploit it for His own purposes? That the God of the universe is one who serves. One who doesn't grasp, but instead empties.

Fullness That Gives Instead of Grasps

So take the picture of your hands. He doesn't grasp it, "I'm gonna use this for me." He gives. He empties himself.

This is an interesting word too, because back in verse three, we looked at it last week, Paul says, "Do nothing from selfish ambition and conceit." The word conceit there literally could be empty glory, and the word used there for empty is the same word that Paul uses here to say Jesus emptied himself.

In other words, here's the contrast. In our experience, we feel certain kinds of emptiness in ourselves. We long for success or approval or status, and we try to fill ourselves up. Have you known people like that? They're always trying to prove themselves in some way. They feel empty and they're like, "Oh, you gotta know how good I am. Oh, you have to know my status. Oh, you have to know how many people approve of me. Oh, you have to..." They're always grasping to try and fill something up inside of them. And when we feel empty and try to fill ourselves up like that, what comes out of it? Fighting, division, pride, all kinds of bad things.

But Jesus was not empty. He was perfectly full. He was truly God. And instead of grasping and clinging to that fullness, He emptied himself.

That's the mindset. That's the attitude Paul's talking about here. He's saying, "Have this attitude, adopt this attitude," not of "I am empty and I have to grab something to fill me," but of "I am full and I can pour myself out for others."

The Messiah Who Obediently Died

The first stanza of the song is the God who willingly serves. The second one, now we get to the incarnation, the Messiah who obediently died.

This is the perfect illustration of who he is as a servant. It's not that it's unrelated. I said at the beginning, when he's a servant, that doesn't go straight to the incarnation. But when he becomes human, he's demonstrating to you his service. When he became human, his character did not change. He was always a God who gives. He was always a God who pours himself out. He was always a God who serves. But when he became human, he took on himself humanity to demonstrate that service in a way that we could see with our own eyes.

Paul says, "He was born in the likeness of men." Depending on your translation, there or in verse eight, you might find, "And being found in human form." Again, that doesn't mean form the same way that it did before. In this case, form means when you're looking around and you see him, you would see he looked like a human.

He was human. And, and you wouldn't know immediately he was the God who serves. You know, if we were sitting in Jerusalem before Jesus begins his ministry, if he's, you know, 20 years old, and if he walked into a room like this, you wouldn't go, "Oh, there's God." He was found in human form. He walked in and you'd say, "Oh, there's Jesus. Good to see him back."

He was found in human appearance, in the likeness of humanity. And he served that way.

As God, Jesus emptied himself. His character was to give and not grasp. As man, he humbled himself all the way to death. You think about how hard it is for you when you feel like people treat you in a way you don't deserve. It's hard for all of us.

Now think about the picture that he gives us here of Jesus truly, fully God in every possible way, deserving all the honor and worship.

Jesus humbled himself long before the cross. Jesus humbled himself just by coming and being human. And he didn't stop there, he continued. He didn't come and be, like, the most powerful human or the most respected human. Instead of that, he continues all the way down the path of obedience, perfectly following his Father to the cross.

Never sinning in his thoughts, in his actions, in his words. We're told in 1 Peter, though he was, he was cursed, he was attacked, he was beaten, he didn't revile. He didn't argue back. He didn't lash out. He perfectly continued all the way to the cross. The one who was perfectly full, Jesus, emptied himself by saying, "Not my will, but yours."

Not just in the Garden of Gethsemane, by the way, but all the way through his life, all the way to death. As God, he emptied himself by giving, loving, serving, not grasping. As man, he humbled himself all the way to death.

This is a perfect illustration of the character of God as one who serves, of one who gives, Of one who loves.

Think about the only reason Jesus even could die is that he took on himself humanity. He had to take humanity in order to be mortal, to be able to die. And he did that knowing while in his earthly life, while he's going to the cross, he knew. What did he say about angels? He said, "I could call 10,000 angels." He knew he had every right, every authority to call the angels to protect him. But instead of grabbing that right and authority and saying, "You're not gonna t- touch me," gifts. He serves.

The King Who Supremely Reigns

Jesus is the God who willingly serves and the Messiah who obediently dies, and therefore he's the King who supremely reigns. We get to verse nine. "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."

What does this look like, this glory that Jesus has? First, it's physical submission. Every knee will bow. And it's not just every knee, right? That's representative of every, every person, every being. Every mind that is now corrupt, every bully and wicked abuser, every body that runs to evil, and every fist that's raised in defiance to God will one day bow before Him.

Not only that, it's physical, it's verbal. Every mouth. We live in an age where people say things all the time, don't they? And you can find them all online, and you can listen to them at three times speed if you wanna hear more words. Words are all over the place. And there's a lot of tongues that speak lies. There's a lot of tongues that deceive others and harm others. There's a lot of tongues that poison relationships intentionally or unintentionally.

But every tongue will one day confess Jesus is Lord. Every single one of them, no matter how bad it looks right now, no matter how bad their words seem to affect others right now, one day every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord because the glory the Father gives Him is comprehensive worship. Every knee and every tongue. We'll confess to the glory of God the Father, to the glory, so that He is worshiped by everyone.

Jesus Reveals the Father's Heart

Now perhaps earlier as I spoke, maybe this question comes to your mind: Jesus serves in the incarnation. But can I really trust the heart of God the Father to be one who serves? I see it in Jesus. I see him going to the cross. I see him loving on people who didn't understand him. I see him loving people who were hurt, and lepers, and lame, and blind. I see all that. I see him caring for Nicodemus. I see him caring for Zacchaeus. I see him talking to all these people. I see all that, sure. Jesus serves in the incarnation. We can get there.

But do you always feel that way about God the Father? Or about His Spirit dwelling with us? Remember, what comes into your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you, and it colors the whole relationship.

That's why it's so important that verse nine starts with the word therefore, or for this reason, depending on your translation. God is telling us, Paul is telling us by the inspiration of God, that the reason Jesus receives all of this worship is because He has perfectly lived out who God is. He's lived the character of God, demonstrated in a certain way, because God doesn't exalt somebody who's not God, not in an ultimate sense.

We know that. Isaiah 45, Yahweh speaks and says, "By myself I have sworn, from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: To me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear allegiance." Yahweh speaks like that. So now when He says Jesus is here, every knee's gonna bow to Him, and every tongue's gonna confess.

God doesn't give His glory to another. The only way that works is that Jesus is fully God.

Jesus has perfectly shown you who your heavenly Father is by serving. There's no disconnect between who the Father, Son, and Spirit are for you and what Jesus accomplished. If you wanna know who God the Father is like, look at Jesus. That's what Jesus said. He said, "I'm with you. You've seen me. Haven't you seen the Father?"

By giving this glory to Jesus here, the Father is affirming in the strongest terms that not only is God highly exalted, but He is a giving, loving, serving God.

God's Generosity Throughout Scripture

Just in case you're not convinced yet, read a couple other texts. Acts 17 tells us God served in creation. "The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything."

Before sin came into the world, before Jesus came and became human, before all of that, God was already a serving, loving, giving God because he made it. He made everything.

Psalm 145 says similarly, "The Lord helps all who fall. He raises up all who are oppressed. All eyes look to you, God, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and you satisfy the desire of every living thing." God doesn't grasp, he gives. That's the character of your Father.

God served not only in creation, he serves in cr- in our salvation. Romans 11 says, "Who has given a gift to God that he might be repaid? Or who has served so that he'd be in their debt instead? For from him and through him and to him are all things." He gives. And what's the result? Comprehensive worship. To him be glory forever.

1 Corinthians 4 says, "What do you have that you did not receive? What service can you give God when He has not already served you so you can give it?"

Psalm 50, God says, "I don't want your sacrifices. I don't want your service in that way." Rather, here's the text, "God will not accept a bull from their house or goats from their folds, for every beast of the forest is his, the cattle on a thousand hills." God says, "If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine."

God's not sitting there going, "I must have your service." He says, "It's all mine and I give." So what does he want? Right after that he says, "Instead, give thanksgiving." Recognize God is a giving God. That's what being thankful is, right? Someone has to have given to you, and then you're thankful.

Or Jesus in Luke 12 gives a parable. The end of it, after talking about the servants, he said, "Blessed are the servants whom the master finds on watch when he returns. The master will dress himself for service, and he will come and serve them."

What comes to your mind when you think of God? Not just Jesus in the incarnation. He's the God who serves. Paul does not want you to think that Jesus did something that wasn't like God when he came to Earth, when he served, when he gave himself, when he washed the disciples' feet. When he did all of these things, that wasn't Jesus acting in a way that wasn't like God.

That was Jesus perfectly showing you who God is In that moment.

This is huge for us because if Jesus in coming and dying for you was acting in a way that wasn't like God, then you are gonna have some huge problems. You might feel very loved in salvation. He did this amazing thing for me. You might feel very grateful. I don't have to face hell. I can have eternal life. But if you don't think of your Father in Heaven as a giving, loving God, you're likely to feel very distant and isolated from Him now. Because what you, comes to your mind when you think of God shapes everything about that relationship.

Probably none of us would say this directly, but ask yourself this question: Do you think of the Father as majestic and distant and powerful, and then think of the Son as becoming human and serving us? Do you separate those two?

That's bad theology that separates you from delight in your God.

Or do you think of the Father, Son, and Spirit as a God who loves to give to you, loves to serve his people because that's who he is?

Responding With Worship

That's what Paul was pointing you to. So what do we do with this in our lives?

I'm gonna put it in two categories. The first is a response of worship in your heart. Do you come to God expecting him to serve you?

I know that sounds weird. And it sounds weird because God is not a servant for you to command. He doesn't serve you by giving you authority over Him. But He is the infinitely high King who still serves you. That should bring a response of worship. Again, what comes into your mind when you think about God is so important 'cause it shapes everything.

If you come to God thinking He's, He's distant, you've gotta get His attention, you've gotta make Him happy with you, you're gonna come one way. If you come to God saying, "He delights in me. He shouldn't. It doesn't make any sense. He delights to serve you." No god shouldn't even be interested in me.

That's who he is. He delights to serve us. If you don't come to a God as a God who serves, then you won't bring him your desperate need. You'll bring him your good stuff. "Hey God, I did a pretty good job today. I've been doing pretty well. Can you help me out a little?"

You'll bring your attempts to serve Him, not your desperate need for Him to serve you. And remember when Jesus washes the feet of His disciples, and Peter is like, "No, Lord, you won't serve me." And Jesus says, "If I don't serve you, you're not mine."

If you don't come to God as a God who serves, if you don't come with that response of just wonder and awe that the God of the universe is a giving God, then you won't come with wholehearted worship and treasuring Him. You'll come with uncertainty and fear.

A few years ago, I preached through this text here. Some of you might remember. I said something like this: It feels like I'm just scratching at the surface of something I can barely grasp. Like, there's such incredible power for transformation in this view of who God is, and I'm not sure what all that means.

I said then and I'll say again today, if that's where you are this morning, that's okay. you don't need every answer right now. But I invite you to lean in and sit where you sense that power, where you sense that worship, that awe of God would serve His people.

He would serve me. And guess what, by the way? I still feel like I'm barely scratching the surface of it. But I love him more than I did then. I'm not remotely mastered everything that means for my life. But that relationship is deeper than it was three years ago. And that shouldn't surprise us, 'cause we're gonna spend all eternity knowing more and more and more, and worshiping more and more and more, but never mastering God. God made you to be the kind of being who is served by him and responds with worship and wonder and thankfulness.

God made you for that. So that's the first thing you do with this. The first thing you do is just respond in love and wonder.

Imitating the God Who Serves

And the second thing is you're called to imitate it. Remember how we started, "adopt this same attitude." "Let this mindset be in you which was also in Christ Jesus."

This whole theological goldmine that we could sit here and talk about Jesus and incarnation and the Trinity, and we could do all of these things, this whole thing is a foundation for one command, "adopt that attitude." Imitate Him. At the core of who you are, in the mindset that impacts all of your life, what are you supposed to imitate about Jesus? One thing, you're supposed to imitate Him as the God who serves.

Just this past week, I talked with... I, I thought of three conversations from this past week with people in the body who were thinking about others within the body taking initiative to show love to their brothers and sisters, some of them through church activities, some through relationships outside of church. And they were thinking, "How can I care for those other people? How can I show love?"

And I know those three are just a small slice of what God is doing to produce love within the body here at Berean. And in, in every one of those cases, they were people who are imitating the God who serves. They could be taking their time and their energy and their words and grasping it and trying to use it for themselves, but they're not. They're giving. They're serving. Just like Jesus. When you imitate him, you're not just imitating something he does, because Jesus doesn't just serve, it's who he is. He has the form, the essential characteristics, the real fact that he is a servant.

When you serve in a way that imitates Jesus, it's not just about checking the box that you did all the things, it's about saying, "This is who I am. God has transformed me so that I can give."

Serving From Fullness in Christ

For you to have the mind of Christ, you need to know the fullness you have in him and not grasp for yourself. You won't have the endurance and humility to serve if you start from the idea of like, "Well, I'm just kind of a miserable, worthless person, but maybe I can help somebody else." That's not the mind of Christ.

Jesus knew he absolutely deserved all the glory in the universe. We just read from Jude 25, "To him be glory and dominion and authority and majesty." And Jesus knew all of those things when he walked. He didn't serve 'cause he thought he was worthless. He had perfect fullness, and so he served out of that. There's a famous quote, uh, attributed to Spurgeon and a whole bunch of other people.

It said, "I'm just a beggar showing another beggar where to find bread." There's a really great sentiment to that, but don't forget, as that first beggar, you eat, too, and you're not hungry.

When you serve other people, you're not a beggar going, "Well, there's bread over there, but I'm still empty and starving over here."

No. If your trust is in Jesus, you don't have to be hungry. You can be full. You're a child of the King. He delights over you. He sings over you. Just like Jesus, and because of Jesus, you're called to love and serve others out of your fullness, not out of your emptiness. You're called to say, "I am full in Jesus. I am deeply loved and more valuable than I could have imagined." Jesus says that. "Aren't you of more value than the birds or the flowers?" I'm deeply loved, and because I'm deeply loved, because I'm transformed, because He keeps me, I don't need to exploit those things for my benefit. I can be just like Jesus and give. I can serve.

I wanna encourage you, let this mind be in you. Remember your fullness in Christ. Rejoice in worship that He gives, and then you do the same.

God's Character Empowers Our Service

I wanna conclude by drawing as straight a line as I can from God's character to our service.

The more accurately we see the character of God as one who gives, as one who serves, the more that fills my soul with worship, with love, with awe, with wonder. The more I can serve because I know God gives to me. That means I have endurance when I serve because my fullness isn't in me grasping things.

It's in God who pours himself out for me. That means I can have humility to serve because His mindset was one who deserved everything but gives.

Throughout this book, that's what Paul's been calling you to, a mindset of intentional, joyful, thankful unity. He's calling you to take initiative, to have love that abounds more and more and more and more for God's people around you.

And the reason all of that is possible, some of you have tried. You're like, "I've tried to love people. I've tried to love people. It's hard." True. The whole reason it's possible is because of this theology that sits underneath it and empowers it, because your ultimate allegiance is to a king who serves, to a king who loves you.

May God continue that work in our body. I invite you to take a moment and respond to God. Just take a moment and bow. Bow in your heart. Worship Him.

Ask Him to show you His character as one who loves to serve. If you need to repent of some of your view of God, if you need to change it to match what scripture teaches, then ask God to work in that. If you need to ask Him to help you pour yourself out in service, in your family, in your relationships, in your work, in your church, wherever it is, ask Him to do that within you.

At the very least, take a moment and think on the God who serves and worship Him. And then we'll sing together.