A Riches To Rags Story

“A Riches to Rags Story”

Philippians 2:1-13

You wouldn’t think it would be all that difficult.

As a matter of fact, you’d think it would just come naturally.

I mean, think about it.

We are all born as little babies who don’t know a thing and are completely dependent on our mothers.

We are all made of the same stuff—flesh, blood, bone.

We have arms, most of us.

We have legs.

We all have fears, flaws and insecurities.

We all get lonely.

We all hurt.

We all bleed red when we cut ourselves.

We all get sick.

We all die.

So…why is it so hard to be humble?

It makes no sense.

The story is told that one evening a man in a Dearborn, Michigan restaurant bumped into, no less, the man who was, at the time the CEO of Chrysler—Lee Iacocca.

“Oh, Mr. Iacocca,” the man exclaimed, “what an honor to meet you!

Say, my name is Jack and I’m having a business dinner with some colleagues over there at that corner table.

It would really impress my friends if you could come over in a few minutes and say, ‘Hi, Jack,’ like you know me!”

Iacocca good-naturedly agreed and so a few minutes later he went over to the table and said, “Hello Jack! How are you?”

Jack then looked up and snapped, “Not now, Lee. We’re busy!”

To say the least, the sin of Pride can lead us human beings to do some of the most awful things.

I think our culture tends to train us from childhood that life is all about ME, MINE, and MY WAY.

And that is so sad, is it not?

It’s a bondage.

It’s antithetical to the Way of Christ.

It’s Satanic, really.

Pride means we want to look more powerful and impressive than we really are.

Or at the very least, we want to take what we already have in life and use it as a pedestal from which to look down on as many people as we can.

Pride is all about self and trying to make ourselves look good or better than others in order to try and impress people.

The great irony and truth of our Christian faith is that the One Being in the universe Who really is more exalted, more lofty, and more powerful than anyone is the same Being Who, far from using His lofty position as a platform for pride, has stooped lower than low so as to humbly save us.

As Philippians Chapter 2 helps us to see, Jesus had to give up a lot in order to join us on this fallen planet.

At a minimum, He had to give up the glories and splendors of heaven in favor of a world of indigestion, stubbed toes, dirty fingernails, and backaches.

I sometimes forget what an enormous sacrifice Jesus Christ made, not only when He died, but every step along the way.

Day and night, and not only during those famous 40 days in the wilderness, the devil hounded Jesus with temptations, hoping against hope to derail God’s salvation before it was too late.

Day after day Jesus had to look into the eyes of people He had created only to see not even the faintest glint of recognition that their Sovereign Creator was standing right in front of them.

Day after day Jesus had to live on a planet He Himself had lovingly shaped at the dawn of time, only to see all around Him signs of decay, death, sorrow and sin.

“He made himself nothing,” Paul says in verse 7.

He not only was no longer living in exalted heights, He even ended up dying the worst, most public of all deaths: crucifixion.

And He did it all out of a humble love that goes beyond anything we can ever wrap our brains around.

“If you want to get the hang of the incarnation,” C.S. Lewis once wrote, “just imagine how you’d feel if you woke up one morning to discover you had turned into a garden slug.”

And it is in the face of all this that Paul says to us, “Ok, got the picture?

Good, now go and be like that!”

And, let’s face it, few challenges in life could top this.

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit,” Paul writes, “Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests 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 by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”