Gospel Paradigm (Philippians 2:5-11)

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You can go ahead grab your Bibles open up the Philippians chapter two, we in verses five to 11 this morning. I don’t know what it is about this side is it because we sit up front that no one sits on this side is that the thing is is just like way out of balance. I feel like I’m gonna tip here. So anyway, as you turn into Philippians chapter two, verses five to 11. It’s an Olympic season, I get that. I would say I’m boycotting the Olympics this year because of human rights abuses. But honestly, I don’t own a TV and there’s no soccer. So this didn’t change my watching habits in the slightest. But I feel like for the sake of those of you who are very much in the Olympic spirit, let’s start with an Olympic sort of illustration here. So at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Dick Fosbury won gold medal in the high jump. And in so doing completely shattered the whole high jump paradigm. You see, prior to this time, people had done like a scissors kick or a straddle kind of thing part of this, by the way, because they used to land in gravel, or sand. So you like wanted to land on your feet then. So that changed how you jump. They just invented this cool thing called foam. And so they had that at the base. And so you could be a little bit more adventurous and that’s what he did. And of course now the Fosbury flop is the standard approach. He set the the the pattern for really generations of high jumpers to come. And that’s what Christ Jesus does for us too. He sets the pattern for what’s to come, there’s a whole new paradigm that he establishes a new way of thinking about and doing something way more important than the flop, by the way, is paradigm shattering because Jesus flips the world on its head in this moment is much needed lesson for us humans and our selfishness. And here is the lesson here’s what Paul says this is actually verse five that I’m reading here at this point, but just that in our relationships with each other, we should have the same mindset as Jesus, He is to be our paradigm. That’s our main point. By the way, verse five is just the main point I can’t improve on it anything like that. So that’s our main point. But let’s let’s let’s look at Christ technique. Then again, in true Olympic style, we’re doing slow motion replay, we got the, you know, team of analysts, they’re they’re circling things in yellow and all that kind of stuff. But let’s look at what he did. And how he sets the pattern for us establishes that paradigm, especially considering the gold so to speak, that he wins at the end. So because verse five is the application, we can come back to it at the end or read it now. But we’re going to dig in first looking at Jesus, and then we’ll look at well how do we do what Jesus did then. So here it is, I’m gonna read verses five to eight. But as we look at Christ’s humiliation in verses six to eight, especially in your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus who being in very nature of 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. Let’s pause there. So if we’re to have his mindset, we better know his mindset. How did Jesus approach life, others his mission, all that kind of stuff. What we get here in these verses six to eight is to incredibly balanced haves and care incredibly balanced in part because they’re very poetic. You can even see if you’re looking at Bible it looks like poetry, the the words don’t go to the ends of the lines. That’s how you know it’s poetry, right? So it’s possible Paul’s quoting an older him at this point, it’s possible that he just broke into a hymn that he wrote himself because you know, he’s Paul, he can do that kind of thing. Doesn’t really matter. We don’t need to know that one way or the other. The important thing here is that Paul thought, These words were important for us at this moment, as he was writing under the inspiration of the spirits, we’ll just gonna treat this as part of the argument. What matters is the contrast in these two balanced halves, to contrast between Christ and His divine nature, and Christ in His human nature. And in each case, Paul gives us the mode of his existence, divine or earthly, what he did in that mode and how he did it. So let’s take a look at these two halves first than first half as to His divine nature. I mean, that’s how it begins, right? being in very nature, God, in that mode of his existence, what did he do? How did he do it? But before we get there, it is just probably important for us to note that this is an unquestionable statement of Christ’s divinity. Jesus is a man Yes, we will get there in a moment. But he is not a mere man. He is something more than just a man and we do have to read going with that point CS Lewis made decades ago, kind of the one thing you can’t do is say he was just a good teacher, he was just a nice guy, maybe a moral example. Jesus himself doesn’t give us that out because Jesus claimed divinity for himself. And the church claimed divinity for him within moments of his death and resurrection. And so we got to come at him as God. But what makes this so hard? And the reason why I think some of us stumble over that point is that because Jesus didn’t come as if I can put it this way, and all the caveats in place, he didn’t come as God. But He came as man. You’ll Christmas carol says it well, veiled in flesh, the God had see. And so there was a veil piece there. And that’s what can make this a little bit tricky. And in fact, that’s where Paul goes, isn’t it? So being in very nature, God, what did he do? What did he do in this mode of existence? Well, first, he didn’t do something. He didn’t act selfishly. He didn’t use his equality with God as something for his own advantage. The word there is the idea of grasping. In fact, some translations even have that he didn’t consider equality with God, something to be grasped. And it is that idea of using it for your own advantage. He didn’t if I could borrow our language from last week, he didn’t act with selfish ambition, the way we are prone to do back in verse three, that’s just how we often operate. What’s in it for me, Jesus did not operate that way. So he didn’t act like us. But maybe equally importantly, given the setting here in Philippi, and stuff, he didn’t act like the other gods around him, either. He didn’t act like the Greek or Roman Pantheon, you read Greek myths, you know that the gods were always using their power, or whatever it is they had for their own advantage. Like, that’s every story, like, oh, I can just take that woman, I can just grab this wealth, I can just, you know, whatever it is. And so Paul’s point here is not this God, not the one true God, because that is not the nature of the one true God. In fact, the reason why Greek myths sound like that is because we are fashioning gods in our own image. And so we make them act like us. And we grasp we grasp constantly, don’t we?
But in Christ’s humiliation, in His incarnation, is coming in the corne, in the flesh, right, and his incarnation and crucifixion, we see God’s true character, and the outlandish love at the center of it all. He was not grasping, using it for his own advantage, because he didn’t look to his own interests, but to ours instead, what wondrous love is this? John Flavel, one of my favorite Puritan writers, he pictures a divine drama, this is the father and son, speaking to one another, we read it for you, because I think it gives us this this idea exactly, he says, The Father speaking, my son here is a company of poor miserable souls that have utterly undone themselves and now lie open to my justice, justice demands satisfaction for them, are will satisfy itself and the eternal ruin of them. What shall be done for these souls? Oh, my father, such as my love and pity for them that rather than they shall perish eternally, I will be responsible for them as their guarantee. Bring all your bills that I may see what they owe you, Lord, bring them all in that there may be no after reckonings with them at my hand, you will require it, I would rather choose to suffer Your wrath than they suffer it upon Me, My Father upon me be all their debt. But my son, if you undertake for them, you must pay the last penalty. Expect no discounts. If I spare them, I will not spare you. I am willing Father, let it be so charged at all to me, I’m able to pay their debt and though it will undo me, though all impoverish all my riches and empty all my accounts, yet I am content to undertake it. There is Christ’s not grasping, pictured beautifully, and just with a reckless disregard to the cost he will bear that would impoverish me. I’m willing. So that’s what Christ didn’t do in the mode of his divinity. What did he do then? Says rather, he made himself nothing. Literally, it says He emptied Himself.
Emptied itself. This is important. We talked about this last week. Remember that vain conceit, the word there is literally empty glory. And so there’s the contrast between us we’re pursuing empty glory, whereas Jesus is leaving glory and emptying himself. For our sake again, there’s paradigm shattering. Now. Much needless ink has been spilled about this passage because the big question of course is he emptied himself of what? Precisely? In fact, we sang a hymn a moment ago and can it be the words that Charles Wesley wrote are he emptied himself of all but love the idea there being he emptied himself of mold, maybe we call it like his omnis, you know, the omnis is omnipotence is omniscience, things like that as omnipresence. And sure, to some extent, that’s true, he very definitely is no longer omnipresent once he closed himself in the flesh, Jesus can only be at one place at one time, but that’s not what the text says here at all. So I said this was needless saying, there is no object it does not say he emptied himself of and we’re left to fill in the blank just as He emptied Himself. And that’s an idiom that means he made himself nothing, aren’t you so glad they translated it that way for you. It just makes it all so much easier. He made Himself nothing. The background of this text actually probably helps us understand what exactly being said here. Here’s Isaiah 53, verse 12. We know that this is the background because it gets quoted throughout this passage in different ways. But it says, He poured out His life unto death, was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. Well, there it is, what does it mean that He emptied Himself, He poured himself out, for our sake, he made himself nothing. So that’s what he did in the mode of divinity. Then lastly, how did he do this? By taking the very nature of a servant really a slave being made in human likeness? I noticed that word nature shows up again, being a very nature of God, he took the very nature of a slave. So the one who is in very nature, God takes the very nature of humanity. This is breathtaking condescension, isn’t it? Now when it says that he being made in human likeness and likeness here doesn’t just mean that he appeared as a human, I want to be really careful about that. Like we’re in danger of denying Christ’s divinity. But we’re equally in danger of denying Christ humanity, as though he just made himself look like a human for a while. No, he truly became human. It says a likeness here because in one sense, he is like us and that he is human. And in another sense, he is unlike us, in that he is still God, and never ceases to be God in this process. But that just draws out again, the wonder of all this, here’s how Tom Wright says it. He says, The Real humiliation of the incarnation and the cross is that one who was himself God, and who never during the whole process, stop being God could embrace such a vocation, being a servant, a slave, a human for our sake. And that’s what transitioned us then to the second half, right? This this balanced half. So we got his as to His divine nature. Here’s what he did, how he did it now as to his human nature, being found in appearance as a man, there’s the human nature. So in this mode, what did he do and how did he do it? Well, what did he do? He humbled Himself as we are to do an imitation of him. We talked about this last week, right? Verse three, in humility, value others above yourselves. We said, humility, there is the key that unlocks gospel culture. Of course it is because it’s what we see in Christ Himself, He humbled Himself, He humbled Himself, that’s really important, isn’t it? He was not humbled by a fill in the blank. The powers of darkness or whatever he chose this willingly think that’s really important. Here’s the way Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard puts it. He says, The Infinite qualitative difference between Christ and every other man lies indeed in this, that in every humiliation which he suffers, it is absolutely necessary that he himself should assent and confirm that he is willing to submit to that kind of humiliation. This is infinite superiority over suffering, but at the same time, also suffering infinitely more intense in kind. He chose it, he walked into it willingly. And let’s not forget verse five. That’s to be our mindset. That’s to be our mindset, to come into these situations and go, I am willing to humble myself, I am willing to be trampled upon, to have my honor stolen to be made nothing to pour myself out for you. Whoever it is, that stands before us who is in need of our service.
That are how he humbled himself in this mode of existence, in being found in appearance as many humble himself by becoming obedient to death, and what sort of deaths death on a cross. And this is truly shocking, shocking enough that God should be in the womb. The incarnation is startling, right? But just it defies human wisdom that God should be in the tomb as well. There are words, and even the poetry of his passage drives that point home, this repetition of the word, death, we get the word even in between it in our English translation here, but just as death by becoming obedient to death, death, you can’t miss it by becoming obedient to death, death, even on a cross, just the ignominy in the sight of man. But remember, death on a cross means accursed in the sight of God, according to Deuteronomy. And this is how Paul concludes this stanza. This is how the poem wraps up, it opens being in very nature, God, and closes with his death on a cross in that juxtaposition. Well, it’ll be the subject of our contemplation and worship for all eternity. After all, what is it that we sing in glory worthy, worthy is the Lamb who was slain? There it is, again, he did this for you. He chose this quite willingly for you. When you consider that it just takes you to a place beyond words so quickly, doesn’t it? The only response is trust, and worship. And worship is where we had next. So let’s keep reading here, Christ’s exaltation in verses nine to 11. Therefore, in light of what we just read, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, the glory of God, the Father. So what results from Christ’s humiliation? Well, it’s exactly what you’d expect, or exactly the opposite of what you’d expect, kind of depending on your perspective here. If you’re reading this in light of the Old Testament, you think you know who Jesus says, Well, then, of course, this is what happened. But if you’re coming at this from another, you know, you’re like Pontius Pilate or kya fists in this situation or something like that the people who put Him to death, this was really surprising, that’s for sure. But it really does depend on our perspective, how we approach all of this and Kent Hughes’s memorable analogy. This whole passage is a little bit like a catapult because what happens in verses six to eight we just, you know, the gears are turning and slowly, Christ is being ratcheted ever lower debase until he’s eventually in the dust itself. But then, you know, catapults work, right? Just you pull the lever, you push the button, whatever it is. There’s the zoom. In these verses, Paul gives us the zoom, Christ, hyper exaltation, which is no less than he deserves. So I was exalted. First, he’s given the name that is above every name, we got to talk about this, because we got some misconceptions here. Okay. The name that is above every name is not Jesus. Okay. It’s not what Paul’s not saying here that all of a sudden, Jesus is now elevated to that position of this is the greatest name in the cosmos. Because the greatest name, the name that is above every name, we already know in Scripture, it’s yavi. It’s the divine name. It’s how God reveals himself first to Moses, and the burning bush, I am who I am. So what we have here is official recognition that Jesus is indeed the Lord Yahweh. Now, gotta be really clear here to Jesus was always y’all. Alright, that’s good. being in very nature, God, we got that part. So important to see that Jesus is not gaining glory here. Because you cannot gain when you already have infinite glory, you cannot improve upon perfection. So his essential glory is untouched, unchanged. Rather, it’s his official glory in the eyes of the cosmos. spiritual powers, the world, it’s a little bit like, honestly, what happens at the Olympics. If you’re the fastest person in the world. You already were the fastest person in the world, winning the Olympics just proves it.
It just shows I told you all I was the fastest now you know, okay, like that’s what it looks like. That’s what Jesus gets here. In light of His incarnation, his humiliation is crucifixion, His resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Father, we now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is yavi. He is the Lord. And the parallels with Isaiah make this quite clear in case we were confused about that. So here’s Isaiah 40. Five Verse 18. It says, I am the Lord. No, that’s not the right verse. Take that, right? Now you stole my thunder I can No, I am the Lord, and there is no other. And the Lord is in all caps. That means we’re translating yavi I am yavi and there is no other so it can’t be Jesus that right? Because this is God the Father speaking can’t be Jesus, right? Except that look, what happens is a few verses later, 45 Verse 23, to be up on the screen for you, before me before yavi Every knee will bow, and by me Every tongue will swear Well, that’s exactly what we have in our passage, right? It’s exactly what happens to Jesus. And so here we see it. That’s the name that he has been given yavi and there is no other because he has now acknowledged as Lord given the name above every name at His name, Jesus. Two things happen. Every knee boughs, every tongue confesses, we will all are the Lord of all. When Jesus comes again, and he will not be veiled the next time around, he will come as Lord of Lord and King of Kings, we will bow before Him and we will confess that Jesus Christ is not just in thy hand. He’s not a good teacher, not just a prophet, not just an example for us to follow or, by the way, don’t keep saying, Well, He’s a blasphemer seems a little bit culturally regressive, or whatever else it might be, we will confess that He is, Lord. The most important question you can ask yourself is simply who is Jesus? And he might be here today going? I don’t know the answer to that question. I’ll have some thoughts. You might see him as little culturally regressive bit out of date. You might see him as confusing. He was at points, there’s no doubt about that. You might see him as legend. And people wrote stories about him to console themselves, but one day, we will all know who he is. And we will all respond rightly whether willingly, we’re not willingly eager to give Him the glory we know he deserves or unwilling, where we begrudge him the glory that we still know he deserves. But look, we just seen who he is. In verses six to eight, we have seen the depths of his love for you. He did this for you, who would not be willing, who would not be willing to acknowledge Him as Lord today. If you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. In even in this moment, if you feel something stirring in you going, This is who Jesus says I Hitler’s to be true, respond, respond. Romans 10 is quite clear. If you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you will be saved. You will be rescued all that Jesus came to do for you will be yours. Respond even today. Those of us who already acknowledged that Jesus is Lord, we have a response as well. And that’s our invitation. Let’s look at this the last section then, again, we already read it chapter two, verse five, and your relationships with one another have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. But you can see why we had to do all of that before we can really talk about our response, or Imitation of Christ. So we’re supposed to have the same mindset as Jesus, we need to know what sort of mindset it is. And now we see what sort of mindset This is. It calls for a paradigm shift, though, doesn’t it? Yes, it does. And the words of the old him go, labor on spend and be spent by joy to do the Father’s will. It is the way the master went. Should not the servant tried it still? Of course, this is the way the master went. A servant should go in this way. Also, after all, this is our whole point of Philippians, isn’t it? Hang on, don’t put the slide up. Let’s see if you can remember it. To advance the gospel that was pretty weak. Good. Okay. I love it. We must imitate is good. It’s a synonym, emulate but you are so bold, I will count it. Okay.
We must imitate emulate Christ. And Paul, but we’re not talking Paul today, despite opposition for our joy and God’s glory. But let’s go back to that first part to advance the gospel. We must, you know, like actually emulate Jesus. We actually need to try to imitate him here. We got to adopt his mindset. And again, in light of all that we’ve seen in Philippians. This is especially towards each other doesn’t mean it doesn’t have bearing elsewhere. But we’re at Talking about the Community of Christ. We’re talking still about gospel culture within the church. This is the mindset we’re to have with each other. This is not in our human nature, though, is it? Put quite simply, we’re grasping a lot, aren’t we? We are self centered far more often than we are self forgetful. We are much more like our father, Adam. Adam, who considered equality with God, something to be grasped. He went after it didn t even though he was not in very nature, God, though human, he wanted to be like God, and so he rebelled against God, whereas Christ being God became like Adam, for our sakes. So we got to work towards that one. We want to be more like Jesus and less like Adam. So how are we going to do that looking to Christ, our paradigm helps us in three ways. Okay. This is the motivation for our change. This is what will move the heart which will then move the hands and feet helps us in three ways. First, his love motivates us. His love motivates us to imitate him, because in Him, we have all that we would seek to grasp. So everything that you’re trying to lay a hold of, we already possess in Christ. You want to be loved, right? We talked about this a lot last week. Did you see his love? We’ve got it already. You want wealth, the riches of glory are ours in Christ. Do you want honor, there is a crown coming for us everything we would seek we have already his love motivates us. Second thing, his example directs us. The dance steps are on the floor, we know the way we should go, we should do as he did. This is what Jesus himself says, John 13, where he quite literally takes the nature of a slave. And he dresses as a slave gets down on his knees and washes the feet, which is the loneliest task you could do in the household of his disciples washes the feet, even of Judas, by the way, whom he knows is about to betray him. And then Jesus says this. This one’s painful. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done. So that’s what we’re called to work towards example, direct sauce, this is what we should do. And then third is love motivates us. His example directs us third, his vindication encourages us. Because Jesus did all that right debased laid in the dust, but the story didn’t end there. We’re so often unwilling to humiliate ourselves, because we’re not sure how the story goes. We know how the story goes, friends, we are assured of it because we get verses nine to 11. Thankfully, we can suffer humiliation because we know what God will do with it. But so often, we don’t see the Zoom after the ratcheting down. We don’t see the gold after the flop. But God exalts those who humble themselves. Scripture says that over and over and over again, we can trust him to lift us up. And take the most extreme example, if you are murdered for your faith, killed for your faith. You know what the next moment is? Glory? That’s okay. Can we take it in the smaller examples? Untuk. We trust that if we repay insult with blessing,
that there is a glory that follows? Of course we can his vindication encourages us. So what does this look like? Practically? We’re gonna look at three areas pretty generally. Because I don’t know you and I’m not in your situation. And I can’t speak to everyone at the same time, you got to apply this personally. And that’s the whole point of community groups, by the way, is we get together and say, Okay, we heard it generally, what does this look like for you tomorrow. And that’s a really important work that we got to do. But here are the three general categories that I think we could talk about. So one thing this looks like practically is worship. Like, let’s start there. I know we’re talking about mindset toward each other. But let’s just let’s hit the vertical piece for a moment is the very last phrase of our texts. I didn’t actually talk about it yet. Every time now is that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. And that is our ultimate aim as well. Jesus is okay with being debased, knowing that he’ll be vindicated and given the name above every name because He wants His Father’s glory. And we should want it to, we are all seeking our own glory. That’s what we do over and over and over again, constantly asking the question, do I measure up Am I worthy? Do I have any significance Am I lovable? But now that we’ve got answers to all those questions in Christ, we don’t need to worry about that empty glory any longer. In light of this, well, we would rather his glory so this looks like worship first, second. This has got massive application for us nearly of leadership, because we cannot lead the way the world leads any longer. And especially so in the church, of course, that is we are in an upside down kingdom, whoever wants to be. First, it’s got to be last. So Chris, like I said, flips the world. on its head. This is what he says exactly. Matthew 20, verses 25 to 27. You know, that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, their high officials exercise authority over them, not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave, just as imitate right just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Any leadership that we have, we have, for the sake of those we lead. We are given it not to be used for our own advantage, but to be poured out for the sake of those God has entrusted to us again, see this, especially in the church. I’m a leader in this church. with you all the congregation, I am not here to build my platform, to build my ego, to build my 401 K. But to build you up. That’s what leadership is for. But it’s the same thing. You got employees underneath you, you got kids, you got whatever your leadership looks like you’re running the book club this week, I don’t care what it is. The leadership is not for your own enjoyment, or enrichment. But it is a stewardship to be spent the sake of those God has given you. So worship and leadership and then third, big areas service service, which is just the regular practice of a gospel shaped Christian, to stoop in love to wash the feet, even of the Judas is in our lives. What’s in it for me? Is not a Christian question. We can’t ask it any longer, the question becomes not what’s in it for me, but who needs me? And how has God equipped me to help and serve here so that we are constantly stepping into the gap stepping into the mess, rather than than turning away for our own sakes?
I want to close on that point, I’m gonna close a little differently than I normally do by just quoting a long chunk of Benjamin Warfield great Princeton theologian of right around the turn of the 19th 20th century. And he is from a sermon on this passage, and he just gets at that idea of stepping into the gap, stepping into the mess, so well. So you know, put your pens down, just listen, just let these words minister to now. Warfield writes, he was led by his love for others into the world, to forget himself and the needs of others, to sacrifice self once for all upon the altar of sympathy. Self sacrifice brought Christ into the world and self sacrifice will lead us His followers, not away from but into the midst of men. Wherever men suffer, there will we be to comfort whoever men strive there will we be to help wherever men fail, there will we be to uplift whether men succeed, there will we be to rejoice? Self sacrifice means not indifference to our times and our fellows. It means absorption in them. It means forgetfulness of self. In others, it means entering into every man’s hopes and fears, longings, and despairs means many sightedness of spirit multiform activity multiplicity of sympathies, it means richness of development. It means not that we should live one life but 1000 lives I love this by the way, it means not that we should live one life but 1000 lives binding ourselves to 1000 souls by the filaments of so loving a sympathy that their lives become ours. It means that all the experiences of men shall smite our souls, and shall beat and batter the stubborn hearts of ours into fitness for their heavenly home. It is after all, then the path to the highest possible development, by which alone we can be made truly men. Not that we shall undertake it with a send in view this word of dry up at springs at their source, we cannot be self consciously so forgetful, selfishly unselfish. Only when we humbly walk this path, seeking truly in it not our own things but those of others. We shall find the promise true, that he who loses his life shall find it only when like Christ and unloving obedience to His call and example we take no account of ourselves, but freely give ourselves to others we shall find each in his measure the same true of himself also. Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place. The path of self sacrifice is the path to glory. Let’s pray your way, Lord of all, to whom all Glory is do the one like no other. We worship you now, because we see the magnificence of your character, that you would stoop in love of you being in very nature God, Jesus would nevertheless clothe yourself in human frailty. Humble yourself, to serve us to empty yourself to pour yourself out for our sakes, even unto death, in that horrific death on a cross How can we respond to that Lord except to in our hearts, exalts you to the highest place, to worship your name, as the name above all names, to bow willingly and confess freely that you are Lord, and then to live? Like you are Lord, like you are indeed our master. And we are willing servants eager to tread the same path. Lord, by your love today, by the example you set for us, give us a willing hearts to have this mindset, your mindset, in all our interactions with each other, and with the world. And we pray this Lord not for our sakes but for your sake to the glory of God the Father, Amen.

Amen.