Worship at Highland 9-19-21 11am

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] good morning uh i want to tell you a couple of things as we get started this morning first of all if you didn't get a ribbon when you came in you're going to need a ribbon during our service today so where communion normally is today there's a little stack of ribbons so shane will explain what the ribbon is for a little bit further in our service you know that we've been putting a colored ribbon on here for you each week and today you get to participate yourself so you'll get those instructions a little bit later which is also why you didn't find communion where you normally do when you come in you will be invited to come forward to take communion today as part of our uh experiencing philippians 2 verses 5 through 11 where we get to the end of that passage where it says every knee will bow and every tongue confess that jesus christ is lord so all of our service today is just built around honoring those words so let's stand and engage in those words by offering bowing our knees and confessing jesus christ as our lord as we worship together [Music] let our praise be your welcome let our songs be a sigh we are here for you [Music] we are here for you [Music] [Applause] let your breath [Music] come from heaven fill our hearts with your life we are here for you we are here for you we open up our hearts this morning to you our hearts are open nothing here is hidden in you our one desired threat you alone are holy only you are worthy god let your fire fall down [Music] better shout then i shall yes we are here for you oh [Music] let what's dead come to life oh we are here for you only you god we are here for you [Music] you alone are holy only you are worthy god let your fire fall down whoa to you our hearts are open nothing [Music] desire and you alone are holy only you are worthy [Music] oh we open up our hearts to you lord we're here for you lord come and fall down yeah we welcome you in praise we welcome you with praise almighty god of love be welcome in this place we welcome you and pray we welcome you in praise [Music] you welcome in the voice and sayings we welcome you with praise we welcome you with praise almighty god of love be welcome in this place [Music] you're welcome lord and as i rise the strength of god and go before lift me up and as i wake the eyes of god look upon be my side i just want to continue to encourage you wherever you are whatever distractions you've had this week just trying center right now just trying to open up your heart as i wake the heart of god satisfied and sustained as i hear the voice of god lead me on to be mine [Applause] be my [Music] in every eye that sees me christ be all around [Music] in every eye that sees me cries me all around me [Music] [Applause] my defense [Music] breath of god fall you upon me peace don't bring me [Music] peace above and below me before and behind me in every eye that sees me christ be all around me above and blow me before it behind me in every eyeless together [Music] christ be all around me [Music] it's your life you're dead your blood was shed for every moment every moment in your life you were dead your blood was shed [Music] [Applause] [Music] every moment [Music] [Music] in every eye that sees me christ be all around me above and below me and four and behind me in every eye that sees me just let the cry of your heart christ be all around me yes [Music] [Applause] christ be all around me yes so as we wait heart of god won't you satisfy and sustain and as we hear the voice of god need a sign and be our guide yes pray with me our father who art in heaven [Music] on earth as it is [Music] [Music] [Music] be seated please good morning there i am good morning hyland it is good to be here with you this morning if you are a member here i want them to go ahead and put up the slide for the different ways that you can give to the things that god is doing here at highland there are three ways to give and you can look up on there for those uh i want to talk to us a little bit about maybe some of the things that you've seen out of atrium or up over here some things we talk about quite a bit called the pathway pathway and the things along the pathway are not anything that hyland came up with they are the things that from the beginning of time god has used to draw human beings into the life-saving world ending always and forever good news of jesus and so there's these things that that happened and they are those things like worship but there's so much more we gather here for worship but really worship is when god's people celebrate all their lives the life-saving work of jesus it's in everything that we do and and table you know we we're going to celebrate communion and that is that thing and it is that thing fully but it's so much more table is when the body of christ comes together and when the body of christ comes together the people the members of that body we are edified we are lifted up we realize that we can do hard things and we've had some hard things to do but also we are the hope of the world when we come together because we are the body of christ on earth for the world and and then there's communion again community baptism baptism is one thing but baptism is so much more than just that one thing baptism is a life of discipleship that the community of god leads people towards and from that moment and after that moment a person is continually reflecting on and living life out of saying yes to god god i'm yours and tomorrow morning when i wake up i'm yours and tomorrow morning when i wake up you're i'm yours baptism communion table worship and cross these are all things that from the beginning of time god has used to bring people into the life-saving mysteries of god and i want to talk a little bit more just about table because over the last 18 months while they're all important and whether all things that god puts out in front of us it has been so important to me lately and i'm wondering if you're the same way to be in communion with other people of god and we maybe didn't know what we had until it was taken away and being connected was so difficult but at highland we're listening and we're responding to uh this deep need that god has put inside of us for us and for the world to be together and so this is just a really long way to say connection at highland is so important but it's not just important because it feels good to be together it is important because it is part of god's plan and mission for the salvation of the world and so we want you to be connected to this church because we think it is part of god's big purposes so there are connect cards in front of you if you are a visitor or if you want to just get connected more at highland and this is a good opportunity for you to say i want to get contacted by a minister or an elder and learn how to be more part of this church church please do that there's also if you leave here and you forget there is a digital connect card you can go onto our website highlandchurch.org and fill that out and next sunday after second service in the atrium there is a connection lunch this is for anybody who's a visitor or has been visiting or like i said has been visiting for a long time but just wants to get more deeply connected into what god is doing here in this place that's for you and uh that is um something that we really hope that you can make it to okay i want to ask everyone to stand because our people who are going to be going to his kids go ahead and stand up because uh those of us who are going to be taking little people to his kids ages three through five can go exit out through that way now the rest of you are standing because we are about to hear from god's word so please uh hear the word of the lord let the same mind be in you that was in christ jesus who though he was in the form of god did not regard equality with god as something to be exploited but emptied himself taking the form of a slave being born in human likeness and being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death even death on a cross even death on a cross even death on a cross therefore god also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name so that at the name of jesus every knee should bend in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue should confess that jesus christ is lord to the glory of god the father to the glory of god the father to the glory of god the father to the glory of god the father [Music] the word of the lord thanks be to god please be seated so what where our sermon text today is going to be the text that you just heard it's the text that we've heard read for the last four weeks by the members of our own community it's it's probably most scholars agree that that this part of philippians is an ancient hymn in fact it might be one of the earliest parts of the new testament ever created not because philippians was written first that's probably not the case it was probably thessalonians but but because this is a hymn that paul at least believes that the philippian church knows already it might have been a song that they sung together um in in their service and and some of the uh scholars think that it was this antiphonal thing where half of the church said one part or a leader said one part and the other church the other half responded with the other part of the hymn it could have been something they they sang or chanted together we don't know exactly the the details of that but what we do know is that paul is using this part of philippians as his key foundation to the theological argument that he's going to make and i loved what mike said last week that philippians is the kind of this series of layered stories and of examples of what it means to be like-minded with christ paul's going to use himself as an example and then timothy and epaphroditus but at the bedrock of those stories i love that term he used the bedrock of those stories is jesus and most of us would agree that there really isn't another meaningful thing than that bedrock story of jesus that anything can be built on that's lasting and this this hymn is a story of of jesus who does not grasp and what's in the mind of the people that are singing this original hymn is is a more ancient story of of adam the first adam paul would say in romans that jesus is the second adam but the first adam who reached and grasped and took the fruit it was the one thing that god said don't do it but adam took it and ate it and this is not what was his to take jesus does not grasp he does not exploit he does not take but rather he gives himself up let me be clear about this the central confession of our faith the reason that you're here today whether you know it or not and maybe you're growing into this truth maybe it's something that you haven't quite articulated yet but it is is present in everything that we say and that we do is that jesus is god and throughout christian history there have been those kind of on the periphery on the fringe those outliers that have tried to take that central mystery of who jesus is and and pulled it apart stretched it apart there were some that said uh particularly in the third fourth second centuries right around there they could not believe that jesus was human they couldn't believe jesus was human because because humans were made of matter humans were made of flesh and that was dirty and sinful stuff and so if you looked really closely at jesus if you look paid careful attention you would see that his feet just do not quite touch the ground i mean you might have been able to touch him but really you had to be careful that may not have been flesh jesus was god not filthy matter and the orthodox spirit of the church said no you can't you can't take jesus humanity out of the picture we're going to hold the mystery i think in our own time it's much more common for us to not doubt the humanity of jesus but to doubt the divinity of jesus there would there be those who would say well jesus is great and all i mean he's an amazing teacher a very wise person had a lot of amazing things to do and his his willingness to suffer and die that's that's remarkable and notable but jesus wasn't god and now the orthodox part of the church is still trying to hold the tension of the mystery where some tried to pull it apart and say he wasn't really human others are trying to pull it apart and say he really isn't god we're trying to hold that together the center of our orthodoxy has always pushed against these to hold the mystery that jesus christ was fully human and fully god and the way that that is best expressed in scripture in my opinion is in the text that we have today it's jesus who gives up who demonstrates what it means to be god by giving up he abandons divinity he clothes himself in human form it's like the king who sets aside his signet ring to do something else it's the story of the son of a clothing merchant in a town called a and his father was very wealthy very successful and one day this son found himself on the second floor of his father's warehouse just taking clothes and throwing them out in the street because he saw the poor in his city had nothing to wear and he's throwing his father's merchandise out the door giving it to anyone that will take it and his father comes to him and says what are you doing and francis turns to his father and said naked i came into this world and naked i will leave it and he gave it up he gave up his father's legacy he gave up the the the business that his father was had established he gave up his inheritance and everything for it and he spent the rest of his life serving the poor his legacy continues in the the mastic order of the franciscans and to this day their priority is serving the poor and living without so that others can have some it's kind of like that story of that rock climber who had gotten about halfway up the run he was on this ledge and his he kind of panicked and his legs gave out he couldn't go up he couldn't go down he was just trying to he was just stuck there and so they sent the helicopter to get him but because of the winds and the way that the rock was shaped the helicopter just couldn't get in close enough to to rescue him to help him and so the the the first responder that was on the helicopter he just made the decision he jumped from the helicopter and he landed on the ridge but in the process of doing that the rope that he was attached to came loose and the rock heimer looked at him and said what'd you do that for now we're both stuck here and the first responder looked at him and said yeah but at least we're in it together jesus gives up divinity not only becomes human but becomes a slave a servant and you can't miss that word in this text without thinking of the suffering servant from the second isaiah of of the one that would come to be messiah that would save god's people but it wasn't going to be the conquering hero it wasn't going to be the general that rides in to the city to take over it was going to be the one that suffers for the sake of the people and that would be how god saves the world and we can't keep that out of our head that when jesus becomes a slave or even a servant to become obedient to death even death on a cross the worst possible most humiliating death you could possibly imagine in the first century crucifixion wasn't mean it wasn't just a means of torture it was a means of humiliation a way for rome to show i have the power and you don't i can kill you however i want this is the clearest picture of jesus humanity and divinity in one ancient hymn luke norrisworthy had this great line about this text i love it he said we serve a god who stoops a god who comes down a god who seeks to reconcile and make it right because love stoops love forces you to bend down because love makes you vulnerable to things like grief and loss love means that they might not love you back love means that they might sell you out love means that they might never understand who you really are just what they want out of you but this is who god was from the beginning where adam and eve saw seized and took god responds by clothing them in mercy where in the story of babel the the people say we're going to organize ourselves to make a name for ourselves so that everybody's going to know who we are by building a tower god comes down he has to come down to even see the tower but what he does is he starts a new people who instead of seizing a name for themselves would learn to show who god's true nature is through love and when that very nation organized to demonstrate love demands a king because they refuse to have god as their king god gives them saul and then david this hymn tells us who god has been from the very beginning if you ever want a picture of who god is or how god acts or how god cares about you then hear this story this is who god is you need to understand that jesus didn't become human so that god might have pity jesus became human so that we might understand god it's not as if some vengeful furious god was up in heaven angry and ready to smite us and jesus steps in the way that's not what the incarnation is the incarnation is god's fullest attempt to show us how much he desperately loves us and who he is jesus this loss this step of god jesus giving up divinity becoming a human being not only human but to become a servant not only a servant but to die not only to die but a death on the cross is responded with god's exaltation god raises him up and god gives him a name do you see kind of the slope of the song it starts high it leaves you in the middle and then it exalts you somewhere else it's kind of like some wings but at the center of the hymn at the center of the story is two things tied together the cross and the resurrection and this emptying this pouring out this giving up of self the fancy theological term for that is kenosis it's it's it's the giving up it's the refusing to seize jesus empties himself so that god can do the resurrecting and if we follow jesus then we do the same thing in fact most of us would admit that this is true in our lives if we spend any time thinking about it the the times in our lives that are the most freeing and the most fulfilling were the times when we gave up it's the time when you gave up an afternoon of important work to play with a child it's the time when you gave up flattery for honesty it's the time when you gave up the stressful or prestigious job for one with more meaning and purpose it's the time when you gave up the pressure of being popular liked or in the cool crowd for your true loves when we follow jesus we begin to loosen our grasp on the comforts and securities or the outcomes and we trust ourselves to god we find ourselves being resurrected and in the text it looks like god lifting up and god-giving and it doesn't just happen to us we see it all around god is doing resurrection all over the place the other key point in this text is that we can't miss all of the everys you can't miss them it's impossible to miss them it is possible to imagine that some sort of like kind of escalator it's impossible it is possible to imagine some sort of eschatological end time event where god forces every knee to bow god forces every tongue to confess but that doesn't line up with who we know about the character of god that just simply does not look like whose scripture paints god to be god risks self god sins god pours himself out god offers god risks love and because jesus is obedient because jesus is faithful god gives jesus the name that is above every other name that at the name of jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that jesus is lord do you hear the everys every a name above every other name every knee and every tongue confess and this is what our mission is this is why we have church the point of our church is to just to lean into the mission that god is calling us to do because each one of us has a sermon that everyone needs to hear every person we acknowledge the truth every person is fully loved by god every knee regardless of color or tribe is welcome under the lord's table and into the presence of god every gift given by the spirit has this place expressed in this body whether you are male or female whether you are rich or poor regardless of your nation or culture every young adult has a journey in this church to go anywhere the spirit leads every young child is loved and cared for whether ours by blood or the blood of christ every prodigal a second chance because every day is a first fresh start god's mercy is new every morning every disciple is a pilgrim searching for that new home every expression of highland who we are whether that's here in the building or with the college students of the acre at five a.m on fridays at breakfast at beech street or a small group in a living room or two friends opening their hearts to one another over a beer is an opportunity for jesus to be glorified and together we stand in hopeful expectation that god's promised future that we lean into that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that jesus christ is lord and i want to invite you into the promise of this text because the truth is is that most of us have been spending way too much energy grasping for things that are out of place and we need to repent the promise here is that when you take jesus story is our bedrock story when it becomes the place where we build our lives on we stop grasping and we commit to do what jesus did and i don't want to mislead you my friends jesus path is going to take you to a place of service it's going to take you to a vulnerable place called love but the promise of this text is that the story doesn't end with a cross rather that's where our lives begin and we get to be a part of the vast and riotous cloud crowd of the every and i hoped you grabbed a ribbon as you came in today i hope you have one with you there are a few left in the atrium if you want to grab one real quick what i what i hope what we've been doing for the last four weeks five weeks is we've been leaving you with a question a question for you to think about each week and for every person that's been in this room we've tied a ribbon of a different color uh on the mural behind us well today is your turn to put your ribbon on and so what i want you to do is in just a minute you're gonna have a chance to think there should be some pins in front of you or around you but what i want you to do is write a word or a phrase i want you to reflect on this text with me the the question i want you to consider is where can you pour yourself out this week to be a part of god's kingdom breaking through everywhere when we make jesus christ the foundation the bedrock story of what we do we cannot help but to see god's work everywhere and the question i want you to ask is how can you pour yourself out how can you release your hand to receive the blessing of god now i want to give you a couple of instructions about how that's going to happen be thinking about the question rewriting it down as i tell you in just a minute we're going to receive communion up here at the front from uh from some servers and they'll have a basket they will offer you the blood and and the body of christ and after you receive that what i want to invite you to do is come up here on the platform and take your ribbon and place it just like first service on those wings and then as you exit kind of exit out the sides now if if these risers look a little scary to you we're going to have some people there to help you step up but if that's not what you're physically capable of or it's not what you want to do just hand that ribbon to the the people standing around and we'll make sure it gets up there uh by the end of the service and so what i want you to do is come forward receive communion and then come up here and make that commitment that thing that you need to let go of the way that you can pour yourself out the way that you can serve one another in our city name your every name the holy ground where you can join gods unfolding command kingdom it's a commitment that you're going to make to yourself but it's also a commitment that we make together take just a moment and consider this question and then we're going to pray for communion now if the communion servers will come forward when we come to this table we meet the god who stoops the god who comes down to meet you and me as we take this bread and take this cup we celebrate the victory of god's love let's pray together father god through your infinite mercy and wisdom you demonstrated your love through us to us through your son jesus christ who released his grasp of all things of everything to become a servant give us the courage to do the same through christ we pray amen [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] the wrong way [Music] foreign [Music] do [Music] jesus lord to set thy people free from our fears [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] joy [Music] thy people to [Music] born to reign in us forever now thy grace [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] my all suffering [Music] raise us to thy glorious [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] ascribe unto the lord the glory to his name ascribe unto the lord [Music] [Applause] [Music] and he is [Music] [Applause] [Music] if you're comfortable you stand and just worship with us [Music] the glory to his name ascribe unto the lord [Music] is [Music] [Music] are you [Music] they're true [Music] again [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] cool graceless [Music] [Music] stand true [Music] [Applause] the beginning forever [Music] time [Music] so [Music] your presence is all i need it's all i want and lol i see everything [Music] your presence is the air i read the song [Music] without it i'm not leaving your presence is all i need is all i want and all i see care without it without me your presence is [Music] [Music] you lord there is [Music] [Music] [Applause] lifted your presence is all i need it's all i want and lord [Laughter] [Music] the without it [Music] there is no [Music] [Music] [Applause] lifted [Music] there will be no one like you and no one besides you you alone [Music] no one besides you you alone are worthy of more there will be [Music] worthy of [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] your praises is all i need it's all i want [Music] me [Music] [Music] what gift of grace is jesus my redeemer there is no more for heaven now to give he is my joy my righteousness and freedom my steadfast love my deep and boundless peace to this i hold my hope is only jesus for my life is holy [Music] but through christ [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] through the deepest [Music] [Applause] [Music] the future [Music] he was raised [Music] has been [Music] [Applause] defeated is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] with every breath i love to follow jesus for he has said that he will bring me home and day by day [Music] [Applause] [Applause] is [Applause] [Music] [Music] jesus [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] but through christ in me [Music] you know this image wasn't complete until the full body of christ here had gathered to put their mark i love the beauty of this because it began with all of these different colors we're not a mixing pot we're a fruit bowl we don't lose our distinctiveness when we come to christ but rather christ exponentially bolsters our gifts but we all serve the same purpose because we all serve the same risen christ and so what we see is a beauty of color and jesus mixed together and so just imagine with me for a moment what abilene is going to look like this week imagine with me for a moment what the elementary schools and diocese and every place that we work is going to look like when we commit ourselves not living for i but christ that is through me as we let go of the grasping and we open our arms and our hearts to the possibility of what jesus can do in our lives church be jesus in our city and together let's join god as he redeems the world may you be filled with god's goodness may you have the courage of the spirit within you may you follow christ wherever he takes you go in peace [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: HighlandAbilene

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Id: gwXRg3pHnz8

Length: 73min 20sec (4400 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021