Manger Mind

1. Three facts about the Baby

a. What the Baby came from

b. What the Baby came to be

c. What the Baby came to do

2. Three responses to the Baby

a. The Father’s response

b. Creation’s response

c. What is your response?

Do you realize that it’s only a little over a week till Christmas? It seems like we just got finished with Thanksgiving leftovers and it’s time for Christmas already. You have to be in the right mindset to celebrate Christmas, don’t you? As soon as we hit the first Sunday of this month, that’s when it started to happen. The decorations came out in the church. Ladies, you began to all wear your Christmas sweaters. Men, we all started to dread Christmas shopping. But the kids—it seems like they’re the first ones to get in that Christmas mindset. A week before Christmas, there were two little boys who were spending the night at their grandparents’ house. They spend the day playing in the snow and wrestling around the house. Then in the evening, they came in and helped Grandma with some of her baking. Finally, after a long day, it was time for bed. When they got settled down, they both knelt beside their bed to say their prayers. The youngest one started first. At the top of his lungs, he shouted, “I pray for a new bicycle.” “I pray for a new video game.” “I pray for a new BB gun.” The way he was shouting, it nearly scared his older brother to death. Finally, he elbowed him and said, “Why are you shouting, God isn’t deaf!” The little brother opened up one eye and looked at him and said, “I know—but Grandma is!” There isn’t much better than seeing the joy of a child when they’re opening their presents is there? Of course, that quickly gets overshadowed by cleaning everything up and putting everything together. If the joy of getting and giving gifts is all there is about Christmas, it sure wouldn’t last long would it? Tonight, we’re having our Christmas play that Debbie and Jessie and everybody has worked so hard on. And you’ll notice that with tonight’s play, just like every Christmas play, the focus is on the Baby Jesus in the manger. Any time you see a manger scene like the one we have on the Lord’s Table this morning, what’s the focus? The same as the focus of our play tonight. The focus is on the Baby Jesus in the manger. That’s where our focus will be this morning. In our passage this morning, Paul is encouraging the Philippian church to be unified. And then he gives them the only way that is possible. The only way it is possible for them to be truly unified is for each of them to have the mind of Christ. But what is the mind of Christ? Paul uses that word “mind” throughout the first two chapters of Philippians. In each case, he’s not using it like we typically would. When we use the word mind, we usually are only talking about some sort of mental exercise. Some type of study or brain power. The way it’s used here is much deeper. Here it goes beyond just a mental exercise and includes your whole attitude, your demeanor, your mindset—the whole way you live your life. It includes both your internal thoughts and attitude as well as your external actions. It involves how you think, feel, and act. In a nutshell, it’s your attitude that effects your actions. And our passage this morning is telling us that we need to fix our attitudes. We need to fix our mindsets. We need to fix our attitudes by having the same attitude that Jesus did. We need to have His mind. That sounds good in church, but what does it mean in our day-to-day lives? If Jesus is God, how can we as mere people be expected to have His attitude—His mind? Because Jesus came as a person just like we are. And because He came as a person just like we are, we know that we can strive to have the same attitude that He did. That’s what I want for us this morning. As we look at the Baby Jesus in the manger this morning, I want each of us to see the kind of mind He has. But I not only want us to see that kind of mind, I want each of us to have that kind of mind this morning. The kind of mind that it took for the Son of God to come into this world as a Baby. In order to do that, we’re going to look at two things. First, we’re going to look at three facts about the Baby that came. And second we’re going to look at three responses to the Baby that came. First, let’s look at the facts. What did this Baby come from? Look with me at verse 6: