Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of loving God with all our soul, which he defines as loving God in humility. He highlights that the battleground for humility is often our speech, which can either enhance or diminish the Holy Spirit's work within us. Bickle encourages believers to bring their words under the Holy Spirit's control, as this is a reflection of our inner humility and love for Jesus. He draws from Philippians 2 to illustrate Jesus's humility and how it serves as a model for our own lives. Ultimately, Bickle calls for a commitment to humility, particularly in our speech, as a way to truly love God.

Father, we thank you in the name of Jesus for the Word of God, and we ask you for the Spirit of Inspiration, the Spirit of Revelation. We ask you for impartation of your heart, and we thank you in the name of Jesus. Amen and Amen. Well, tonight we're beginning our sixth session on our First Commandment course. We're looking at the First Commandment, the Great Commandment that Jesus called it, you shall love the Lord your God, and he lays out four different spheres of life in which we love the Lord our God with all of our heart, sorry, affections, all of our soul, that's what we're going to look at tonight, that's our personality. With all of our mind, we looked at that a time or two ago, and then all of our strength, we'll look at that probably in the next session. Paragraph B, this session, the point of it is to give some definition to what it means to love God with all of our soul or all of our personality. And the primary idea in the Bible for loving God with our soul is expressed by loving God in humility. And the number one battleground, so to speak, of humility in Philippians chapter 2, the grand chapter on humility, is our speech. That's the final giant to go down is our speech. That's the one that is the most difficult one to bring under the harness of the Holy Spirit. But as we do, the Holy Spirit releases an abounding love that Paul prayed for in Philippians chapter 1 verse 9. Because what the Scripture teaches is that what we say either enhances or diminishes the Holy Spirit's ministry in our inner man. It's not just an idea of, you know, staying away from wrong things or doing wrong things. When our speech begins to come under the restraint of the Holy Spirit, then there's a multiplying of love and power that touches our inner man. And there's no area in which humility is more tested and proven than in the area of speech. Now in the Gospel of John, which we're not going to look at tonight, we have such a graphic picture of Jesus's speech. Sometime you want to go on just a Holy Spirit treasure hunt in the Gospel of John on the words and the speech of Jesus. And it will give you insight into the quality of humility that He operated in. Paragraph C. Now tonight, though, you know, we, we all know that our speech is out of order. Most people know that. And most people are on a, are burdened by where the level of their, of the Holy Spirit's leadership in their life is in the area of their speech. I know that's the main area in my life. It has been for years. That's the one area. It's like, Oh Lord, I want to bring my inner man under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. And again, this is the area of which humility will be tried and proven and deepened in the most practical way. But our costly choices to choose humility because we love Jesus. I'm talking about humility now, not only because it's in itself valuable, but because it is a specific way of which Jesus is loved. When I speak different, Jesus is loved and honored and He takes it personal. And He takes it in a personal way. And so that's the connection I'm wanting to give you in this session tonight on the first commandment. I love you God with all of our heart. Paragraph D. Jesus loved us with all of His soul as expressed in humility. Now more than words, it's attitudes and words. But words is where we can capture the essence of where our humility is. Obviously it's an attitude, but words is the place it becomes obvious. In understanding Jesus's humility, it inspires us. We're going to look at Philippians 2, the grand chapter in the Word of God on the heart of Jesus. There's nothing like it in the Bible. Philippians chapter 2. It gives us a picture into God's heart. And it gives us a window into where we're going to be in the resurrection in fullness and the full glory of the meekness of Philippians chapter 2. But as I study and meditate upon Jesus's humility, it not only instructs me on what pleases Him and what the Holy Spirit will anoint, but it inspires me as to how much He loves me. There's nothing like the humility of Jesus to awaken revelation as to how God feels about you. Now humility and meekness is the same word. It's the same concept. And meekness is not weakness. You've heard that over the years I'm sure. But meekness, its definition is power under control. The idea of a horse that's out in the wild. That when the horse is trained and brought under the restraint of the bridle, it's described as being meek. When the power of the horse is brought under restraint, the horse doesn't lose its power, but it's called meek because the power is under control. And Jesus is the ultimate picture of power totally under the control of love. Under the control of love. He controlled his privileges under the standard of the banner of love. Paragraph E. The life of the Godhead flows forever out of meekness. The life of the Godhead flows forever out of meekness. The revelation of the meekness of God. We worship a humble God. God's humility is profound. I only know a little bit of it as I study the scripture. But I want to point you to the subject of the humility of God. Not his great power or his great wisdom. His profound humility. There's nothing like it in the universe. And it's eternal. And it's a self-replenishing fountain in his own personality. God exerts no effort to be humble. It's who he is. When it says God is love, you could put the word God is humble. Humble and love is really the same thing. He is a infinite in measure, eternal in duration. He is an infinite, eternal, self-replenishing fountain of humility. Everything that he does, he does in humility and from humility. Even his end-time judgments are profoundly rooted in the humility of his heart. That's why when the enemy raises up a complaint in the land against Jesus in the end times and his judgments, and even the, some of the church will buy into that complaint. It's because they have no revelation of the humility from which his own judgments, that he confronts evil in the end of the age, in the generation that he returns. They have no revelation of the fountain of humility from which his judgments flow. Jesus in Matthew chapter 11 verse 29, the only time with his own lips, he described his character. Never once did Jesus say, I am love. Now we, the Bible says he's love and he is love. Never once did he say, I am power. The only characteristic that he ever used with his own lips in the Bible to describe himself is meekness. Or in this translation, lowliness of heart. He said, come and learn from me because I'll train you in life. I'll train you how to be a king and priest on the earth. I'll train you how to enter into your full inheritance. Learn from me for I am gentle and meek or lowly in heart or humble at heart. Meekness is not just something that Jesus does, it's who he is in the very essence of his being. Now notice the phrase, he says he's lowly in heart, or the word lowly is humble or meek. Now you and I in this age, we reach for meekness by faith. Meaning when we don't feel it, we still choose it. We choose it because we know it pleases him. We reach for meekness and our meekness is more by faith. And over time it transforms our emotions and then we actually feel it and we have an overflow of meekness that happens automatically. Now I'm not there. I'm not really there. But Jesus is meekness. He was meek in heart. Meaning it was a, it was the automatic response, the overflow of how he felt. And he, as he looks at your life and takes leadership over your life, he, he has meekness and towards us in his leadership. But he's meek in heart and that's what we're going to look at from Philippians chapter 2. I mean the premier window into his soul is Philippians 2 verse 6 to 8. Three verses. Of course we're looking at a larger section of Philippians 2 tonight. But it's those three verses give us divine insight not only into Jesus' meekness but also because Jesus reveals the Father. Philippians chapter 2 verse 6 to 8 gives us a window into the Father's soul. Like very few passages in the Bible give us this kind of insight and we see what the Father's like through seeing what the Son is like. But in this age we are meek by faith which means we make the choice because we have confidence it pleases him but we don't feel, we don't feel the pleasure and meekness very often. We mostly feel the sting in meekness. We mostly feel the sting in it not the pleasure in it but it is good because we feel God's pleasure. So my pride gets stirred up. I choose because of love for Jesus to, to operate in meekness and there's a sting but I know that he has pleasure in the choice and that's what strengthens us. Lord I love you. I want to love you with all of my heart and you can't love him with all of your heart without loving him with all of your soul and that brings us to this vast reality of meekness and the reality of speech, words under the restraint of the Holy Spirit. Well I'm looking forward to the day where my humility by faith, a decision with confidence that it pleases him would actually touch my emotions and I've felt a little bit of, of it over the years where I felt more pleasure and emotion in the choice of humility. Not just the fact that he likes it. That's where mostly I get strengthened but every now and then I actually feel it. It's the work of God in the human soul but beloved one thing I'm confident of for billions of years we will overflow in meekness by feeling the power of it effortlessly like Jesus does. It's one of the ultimate statements of being conformed to his image. It says in Mark chapter 10, Jesus did not come to the earth, we all know it, to be served but to serve. Now Jesus did not put on servanthood as a task. It described his emotions and his mindset. Again in this age we put on servanthood as an outward task and the Lord's pleased with it. We feel the sting of it. We stay with it because we know he smiles and he takes it personal. Paragraph F, the Holy Spirit functions as the support ministry within the Godhead. I mean the Holy Spirit, it's remarkable. He's fully God but he chooses to stay behind the scenes and give all the glory to the Father and the Son. Now beloved, the Holy Spirit is as much God as the Father is. The Holy Spirit has as much right for honor in the public arena as the as the Father does but the Holy Spirit is completely happy forever in meekness, happy in hiddenness. As we grow in our relationship with the Holy Spirit especially in the age to come, Holy Spirit how do you feel about this role? Like when is it over? In a in a million years do you change roles? No. How about a billion years? No. How do you feel about it? I'm as happy in my role because I love meekness. It's who I am. It's how I feel. It's what my heart is like. Look at this in John 16. Jesus with confidence in the Holy Spirit's meekness. And, and what we're really talking about tonight is the humbleness, the humility of God. But we're focusing on Jesus because Jesus is the window into the soul of God, the Father, the Son and the Spirit. Whatever is true of Jesus in terms of character is true of the Spirit and the Father. But the vast subject is the humility of God because we want to love God in the way He loves us and He loves us with humility. I want to love Him with all of my soul because He loves me with all of His soul. And that's my inheritance and that's your inheritance to have this kind of reality. It's to have this kind of reality to love God in this way. Now look at John 16 verse 13. Jesus with the confidence of the Holy Spirit's happy humility. He will not speak on His own authority. Now we're kind of used to this passage so kind of like, well yeah of course. But think for a moment. The Holy Spirit is the one hovering over the earth in Genesis 1. With such power Jesus speaks and the Holy Spirit creates. The Holy Spirit is the active creative force released at the Word of Jesus under the authority of the Father. Now you would think that one with this kind of authority, you would think one with this kind of authority would not need to be restrained. But He doesn't need to be restrained because something's wrong. He's restrained because something's right. He lives to make known the Father and the Son. Though He's as much God as the Father and the Son. Paragraph G. Continuing on the humility of God. Jesus's humility. We get a picture into His heart. At the end of the, Jesus returns and then He sets up His kingdom on the earth for a thousand years. He sets up His kingdom for a thousand years on the earth. And for a thousand years He is bringing every sphere of every nation under the dominion of the Father. And then at the end of the millennium, then comes the end, the end of the thousand years. Then comes the end of the thousand years where Jesus delivers up the kingdom the thousand years. All the nations are obedient. Every area of every sphere of life of every nation is now been discipled. And Jesus takes the glory of the nations and He delivers it over to the Father. Most remarkable passage. Verse 28. Now when all things are made subject to Jesus, we're then Jesus will be, will subject Himself to God the Father and the reason Jesus wants the Father to be all in all. Jesus wants the Father to have all the credit for all of Jesus's labor. So at the end of the millennium when all the nations are fully discipled in the full sense of the absolute sense of the word and the nations are adoring Him and every knee is bowed in every area of life, Jesus says, now Father all of this I give it as my gift to you. And then He bows and submits to the Father. He said, I really only wanted it so I could give it to you. Top of page two. Now we're beginning the grand picture. Philippians chapter two. We'll start a verse or two before. It's really verse six to eight which is the window into God's heart, into Jesus's heart, which again is a window into the Father's heart, which is again a picture of what we're going to feel like when we're fully transformed in the resurrection. Humility isn't something we endure until the second coming. Humility is the way of God forever. Jesus isn't gritting His teeth and then finally at the second coming He gets to be who He truly is. Jesus has never done anything that was not truly Him. In the book of Revelation, they worship Him and they say that He's faithful and true. He is true to Himself and everything He's ever done and humility in this passage is one of the great examples. Well Paul is exhorting the Philippians to walk in love and so we'll just kind of get you the context, though we're really aiming at verse six to eight, but we'll kind of get you the flow of it. He says, let nothing be done, Philippians chapter two verse three, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem the others as better than himself. Now here's the phrase I want you to get this next sentence, let each one of you look out not for his own interests but the interests of others. That's the phrase. Jesus is consumed with the interests of others. Paul said, look out for the interest of others. Verse five, have this mindset in you that Jesus has. Beloved, this isn't something that Jesus did as an, as a task. From eternity past, Jesus has had the heart, even before the creation of Adam, before the human race. Jesus had the interest of others on His mind, though they were not yet created, and Jesus is a picture how the Father feels and how the Father thinks. It's this mind of Jesus. The most precious reality that we could think of is the mind of Jesus. The interest of others. Now in verse six to eight, Paul, in a rare way, is going to, it's very, uh, rare passage, he's going to draw back the window, so to speak, the veil, and we're going to have a, by the Spirit of Revelation, a look into the mind of Jesus. What motivated Him, what He was doing, and in that we, we look into the mind of the Father, and in that the Spirit, of course, and even our own destiny in the resurrection. This is how we will think and feel forever together, billions of us. And the reason we care about that now, that even now, I don't have the, the refreshing emotional feeling of overflow when I choose humility. I mostly feel the sting of it, because of the strength of pride that's naturally in my spirit. The sting of being humble is because our pride, our pride is so strong and it's so natural, so innate in us. And though we can make progress over the years, we're not going to really get done with the problem until the other side. But choosing humility, because it pleases Him, because He likes it, He takes it personally. When I choose it and feel the sting, I go, I'm only doing it for one reason. I'm not doing it so I look humble. I'm doing it because it makes you smile. It's the theater of which I show love to you. And He says, good, good, keep doing it. Reach for it, because there's nothing more like me than this. And when you reach for it, I mean, the, the, uh, statement that the highest form of flattery is imitation. I mean, the highest affirmation you can make towards somebody is to imitate them. And so the imitation of this, we so esteem this in you, and we so value that you love this, we're going for it, though our natural strength of pride stings us every step of the way. The Lord says, love me with all of your heart. Love me with all of your heart. Do this. Beloved, it's worth it. And in a minute, I don't want to get you ahead of, of where we're at. He's going to apply it in chapter 2, verse 14. We'll get there in a minute, where He says, make your speech, have no complaint in it, and no disputing, and bring your, bring your speech under the Holy Spirit's leadership, and you will be a blameless human being. He says in chapter, in verse 14, that's where this thing is going. That's what this means to us in applying it in the context of loving God with all of our soul. Verse 5. Let this mind be in you. Now he's going to give the three verses, 6, 7, and 8. Jesus being in the form of God. In other words, Jesus eternally possessed divine glory. There was never a time where Jesus was not fully God. Jesus is the uncreated God, like the Father and the Spirit. So when it talks about Jesus being in the form of God, it's a statement of His eternal, pre-existent deity. Before the Incarnation, He forever eternally was. He's fully God, like the Father. But here's what it says. He was equal to God, like the Father. Being in the form of God and being equal to God are parallel ideas. Being in the form of God speaks of the glory that He possesses, the privileges, the power, and all the attributes. And being equal to God is a parallel idea to that. But look what He did. Verse 6. That being in the form of God or equal to God, Jesus did not consider it something to be grasped. Now the new King James, the, the translation I use, has the King James word robbery. Jesus did not consider robbery to be equal to God. And almost all scholars and translators today are in agreement that is not the best word from the ancient King James. Almost every translation, modern translation, uses the word. Jesus did not consider it His equality to God, something that He grasped and held on to when He considered the reality of the Incarnation. When the, in the eternal councils of the Godhead, when the Father and the Son and the Spirit are talking over the Father's plan of Jesus' coming, He understood He would not be able to bring the privileges and the glory of Deity into the Incarnation at the first coming if He was to accomplish the plan of salvation and satisfy the justice of God in redeeming a fallen human race. So it's like the Father and the Son and the Spirit. I mean, they're all have perfect wisdom, so I don't know how their conversations go. But in the councils of the Godhead, it was Jesus. I'll just kind of put a human language on the conversation. I'm sure it didn't happen this way. For you to become a man, to become incarnate, to be conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, or Mary as a virgin. She was only a virgin at that time. She had, went on to have children after that. Jesus, if you're going to do this, though Jesus forever is God and He never lost His Deity at any point. But He had to lay aside the glory and the privilege that He was so accustomed to from eternity past in order to take up on the role of the Incarnation, of becoming man. So He didn't consider it, His equality in the glory of God, something to hang on to. He never, He never lost His Deity. But He lost the ability to operate in the prerogatives and the privileges of it while as a man, except when the Holy Spirit would anoint Him under the Father's authority. It's a brand new experience for Him. Verse 7. But He made Himself of no reputation. He took upon the form of a bondservant. He came in the likeness of humans. Now this is radical. Of course we know this. But we could never, ever grasp this enough by the Holy Spirit in this age. He came in the likeness of, of humanity. Verse 8. Being found in the appearance of a man. So, so that, that's point one. He humbles Himself. He takes, He's of no reputation. He takes upon Himself the form of a bondservant. He humbled Himself. But then He took it up a notch and He became obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. It was one thing to become human and not be able to draw on His divine privileges and glory as a man, except the Holy Spirit released them through Him as a man. But it was another thing in order to accomplish redemption, He had to take upon the death of the cross. The curse, the death of, of the cross was not just cruel. It was a form of a curse. It was humiliating beyond measure, anything that we can imagine. But because He did this, verse 9, therefore God highly exalted Him. Paragraph A. We'll just look at a few of these concepts. The humility of Jesus in the incarnation openly displayed His abandonment to us. Verse 6, 7 and 8 gives us insight into the level of the abandonment He has in love towards us and of course this gives us insight in the abandonment we want to answer back when we love Him in return. Because our abandonment in loving Him is also deeply rooted in humility as well. Jesus was in the form of God. Verse, I mean, paragraph B. That means that from all of eternity Jesus being in the form of God shared glory with the Father. Like what He said in the High Priestly Prayer. He said, Father glorify me with Yourself. Glorify me with the glory that I had back before, before the world was created, the privilege and the glory of deity. Give that back to me in the resurrection. Because for 33 years He did not operate in that privilege because He wanted us. He had our interest on His mind. Paragraph C. In the incarnation Jesus had two natures. He was fully God and fully man with no contradiction. First Timothy 3 says, great is the mystery of godliness. And here is the great mystery right here of how godliness operates in a fallen world. Here's the fountain of godliness. Here's where the source of it all comes. God is manifest in human flesh. Now Paul says it clearly in First Timothy 3 that this is a mystery that in this age, I'll add, we will never ever bring together those two realities, fully God and fully man in one person. It baffles our mind. It stretches us beyond what we can comprehend. But here's a little sentence I heard a preacher say many years ago and I've used it for over 30 years and I offer it to you. That although Jesus was never ever less than God, He lived as though, in the incarnation I mean, He lived as though He was never more than a man. I'm gonna say that again. I want you to think on this. I'd like you to learn this. Because you can get a whole lot in this one sentence. In the incarnation, after He became human, although He was never less than God, there was never a moment He had anything less than total deity. But He lived in a relationship of dependence on the Holy, on the anointing of the Holy Spirit. He lived as though He was never more than a man. In other words, you and I can only move in the power of God when the Spirit moves on us in answer to prayer. Jesus as a man had all the power of deity within His own command. But if He was going to offer Himself as a high priest for humans, He had to perfectly live His entire time on the earth as a human. If He ever stepped out of the sphere of the limitation of humanity, except with the Holy Spirit would anoint Him in answer to prayer. If He ever, He stepped out of it, He was disqualified as a high priest that could save us. So if He stepped out of it one time, one time ever, in the justice of God, He could not save us. I don't mean if He sinned. Obviously if He sinned, He couldn't redeem us. If He functioned on the earth as God, because in the justice of God, in the plan of God, and it's a big subject, He had to live fully in the constraints of humanity under the anointing of the Spirit. I mean, I can imagine what was in His mind. You know, after He's even anointed, or before He's anointed at age 30. Father, I remember, because memory is such a critical part of personality, and if it's a critical part of your personality and your humanity, how much more is Jesus's memory alive and clear? I can imagine Jesus. Father, oh, oh, Father, oh, this is different than, this is different. But I'm doing it because I want them. And if He stayed in the confines of human limitation, He could, and He did not sin. Both of them. Those are two different issues. He would qualify as a human high priest, and then He could make a way for you and I forever to be in the glory of God. So though Jesus was never ever less than God, He lived on the earth in the carnation as though He were never more than a man anointed by the Holy Spirit who had to wait on the move of the Spirit in his life through prayer, through believing prayer. It says that Jesus, in verse 6, did not consider it, robbery is the King James Word, but the, again, the common, the vast majority of all the translations, modern translations, use it the same term. He did not grasp the privilege of deity, though He had all the privilege of deity within His grasp. He didn't grab it. He didn't, He didn't take it. Because, verse 4, He was seeking our interests. That's what Paul told Him. He said, seek the interest of, the interest of other. Have this mind in you that was in Jesus. And then it describes, in verse 6 to 8, the, the dynamics of Him having our interest. Now the reason we're, I think it's a worthy subject in itself, the humility of Jesus. But I, I care about the subject, the humility of Jesus, and teach it in this context to inspire us to reach for it. Because we know how much it pleases Him, and it's part of the definition of loving God with all of our soul. I want to stand before Him one day, and I want to present to Him a heart of love and a heart of wisdom. And I want to say, I didn't just go to lively worship service, services and sing and kind of get caught up in the meeting, which I like that for sure. But I want to be able to say, after X amount of years, I offer to you a heart of love with all of my soul. Not just the fervor when the music was anointed, but far away when no one was looking. Far from the eye of any other. I wanted to reach for you with love with all my soul. That requires the reach of humility that, that extends even to our words. Now paragraph E. Now here's the glorious thing. Jesus didn't reach for His equality with God because of His humility. But Jesus never concluded that the Incarnation, in all of its humility, He never concluded it took anything from His core identity of who He was. He didn't get to operate in the power that He was so familiar with for eternity. He lived under constraints. But His core identity, He lost nothing. Because at the end of the day, when it's all said and done to understand Him, He was about love and humility in others, not just displaying power. Though it cost Him to restrain His power, He didn't lose anything in terms of His core identity with who He is. Because at the core, He is a servant filled with love. In the Incarnation, I'm still on paragraph E, He denied Himself, Himself operating in the privilege of deity, though He was always God. But He did not deny His core identity. Rather, He expressed it in that humility. So some would look at this and say, Jesus gave up the core of who He, who He was. And He didn't. His core identity as God, who is humble, was never affected in the great humility that He walked in. Matter of fact, His deity was expressed in that humility. A dimension of His deity was given open display because of His choices for humility. Paragraph F. He did not see the Incarnation as a scandal of injustice. I mean, if you and I, in our natural mindset, if we did not get, receive the honor that we think we deserve in the money and the privilege and the honor, it is a scandal of injustice. I mean, people are, believers as well as unbelievers, are quickly enraged if they come up just a little bit short of the honor or the possessions or the privilege that they rightfully deserve in their own mindset. But the, the stooping of Jesus, what He gave up to live as man, the privileges that He did not take hold of, it was not a scandal of injustice to Him at all. It was an expression of who He was. It gave Him opportunity to display openly before all the nations the truth of who He is. And that's the Jesus we love. Paragraph G. He did not empty Himself of deity. He was always God. But He couldn't use the power for His own ends. And He couldn't use the power independent of the Holy Spirit moving on Him. He could raise the dead, but only if the Holy Spirit moved on Him. But in reality, He had the power to raise the dead without waiting on the Holy Spirit. But He couldn't use it or He would be disqualified as a human high priest. And He did it for you and I. So He couldn't use the power for His own ends, nor could He initiate the use of the power. It had to be given Him by the inspiration of the Spirit under the authority of the Father through believing prayer. Now here's the remarkable thing, though if this is not remarkable enough. This is just beyond, all this is beyond my comprehension. But when Jesus chose to become human, He had to remain human forever. Billions of years from now, billions, He will still be human. The decision had such consequences and such duration it reached into the eternal ages. But that's not it. It's not only that He will be human for billions of years. Listen, for billions of years, Jesus as a man in His human leadership over the nations, because He rules the nations as the King of Kings at the second coming openly as a man, He will only be able to do it as a man anointed by the Holy Spirit. So when He took hold of this reality of the incarnation, it would be real forever. And He would live in terms of His human responsibility even in the age to come under the anointing of the Spirit like we do, rather than independent of waiting on the Spirit through believing prayer. He rules the nations in the age to come through intercession like we do. I mean, He's God. He created in Genesis 1. What is Jesus doing interceding forever to lose the power of God? He is God. Why are you doing this? This was the arrangement that justice demanded. If I was to redeem humans, I had to be human. If I was to be the human king forever, I had to live as humans did in relationship to God, though fully God forever. Jesus, how could you possibly have made this decision? It's, it's, we can't even calculate the implications of what this decision, what the implications of it, and His answer would be, I did it because I had the interest of others on my mind. Paragraph I. God's core identity is love expressed in humility. Now Jesus has all the power and He's totally unique, but His main identity is not in His display of power. His main core identity is in the manifestation of humility and love. He could restrain His power and never ever affect His core identity. Now the reason the devil came to Him to tempt Him in the garden, I'm, I'm, I mean in the wilderness, the devil came to tempt Him, and the devil tempted Him with power and with being unique, because those are the things that move the devil. When Lucifer fell in Isaiah 14, he, he clutched at power and he wanted to be the unique one. Jesus did not yield to that, because that's not what His being is about at the core reality. His core reality is to operate in love and humility before God and before us. So He was unaffected by this. Now in a culture that values gaining our identity from our uniqueness, we are, we are all unique. There's no question about it. But beloved, our identity, the reason we're valuable and the reason we are known by God or man according to the will of God is because we're loved of God and we're lovers of God. Not because we have a unique twist in our approach to life. Jesus was the most unique. But He came and it says that, verse 7, He came and He made Himself of no reputation. He took His uniqueness and His glory is God. God was hidden in the obscurity of humanity. When Jesus walked in a room at 25 years old, here He is fully God of Genesis 1 and not one person in the room knew He was anything more than an ordinary man. There was nothing unique about Him. He said He took on no reputation. Well Jesus, I mean you could have really, you could have dazzled the human race in so many ways without sinning. Because it was true to who you were. I mean He will dazzle the human race at the second coming. Every eye will see Him but they will be dazzled by Him. But in order for Him to win us in the Father's justice, He had to live perfectly as a man in all the restraints of it, to accomplish redemption. Jesus was God hiding in the obscurity of humanity. Paragraph K. It was precisely because Jesus was in the form of God that He sought to come and serve. Now some would say He was in the form of God. He laid that aside and therefore He served. No, it's because He's God that He wanted to serve. His serving was not a negation of His deity. It was an expression of the core reality of who He is. What expresses His glory most, more than power, more than dazzling nations, the thing that expresses Him most is humility. And that's what moves Him when we love Him in that way. That's what, that's what is most pleasing to Him. That is what is most like Him. When Jesus put the towel on in John 13 to wash the disciples feet, there was nothing ungodlike about that. That was strange to the apostles. They thought, wow this is intense. And Jesus could have said, it's only because you don't know what I am like and my father's like. This is so much who we are forever. This is not just an example. This is an expression of who I am. When Jesus comes back at the second coming as King over the nations, beloved, He will be as much the humble Jesus with all the power manifestations as He was with the power concealment, the power restraints. The manifestation of power at the second coming and through the Millennial Kingdom and the restraint of power at His first coming will not in any way change the full manifestation of His character of He is the exact same Jesus in manifestation. When all the kingdoms are His, He will only rule for the good of the nations. When all the power is His, He will only be thinking of the Father's glory and your good in the glory of God and in the will of God. This man, who is He? Who is this man? Let's go to page four, I mean page five if you would. It's going to go down just to the last point here. Roman numeral four, paragraph A. Now Paul, he's given this great insight into the heart of Jesus, which much of it we skipped. You can just read it on your own, but more than anything is this, I want to draw your attention to this goldmine of truth. Now Paul is going to apply it to them in a very personal and specific way. Chapter Philippians 2, verse 12. It's the next verse after the great passage of Jesus's humiliation and His exaltation. The very next verse, He says, therefore, therefore, now that I've shown you Jesus's humility, in verse 6 to 8, His exaltation, in verse 9 to 11, therefore, now that you see the picture of what God's like, therefore work out your own salvation. You in the Holy Spirit figure out how it works in your skin, with your schedule. You know people might come and say, how should I do this and that? And you can give general principles, but at the end of the day, every believer must work out the application of it in their own personality, in their own mandate with God. He says, work it out. But verse 14, He goes, He goes right to the point, work out this humility. He's talking about the humility. Because to work out the salvation in this context, with the therefore, it draws us back to the verses right before. He's saying, work out this, flesh out this humility in your own life with fear and trembling. In other words, don't do it casually. Much of the church knows nothing about fear and trembling, meaning they approach their salvation so casually. And any preacher they can hear that will get them off the hook from pressing into God, they'll take that preacher. Any voice they hear that says, hey, lighten up and go softer, pamper your flesh more, and they call it the grace of God, they'll take it. Many people will take anybody who quotes a Bible verse that gets them off the hook of pressing into God. So what Paul tells them, work out how humility works in your salvation, but do it with the fear of God. Do it with a trembling heart, knowing that the way you decide it will affect your eternity forever. Even as a believer. I mean, we'll be saved, but it will affect our eternal, place in the kingdom. Paul says, don't take this thing lightly. Don't look for a way to get off the hook. Look for a way to get into the spirit of truth and drink deep. Goes on in verse 14. He said, but here's the issue, the number one issue of humility. Do everything without complaining and disputing. That's his number one application of humility. Humility is an attitude, but the window into our heart, the clearest window in our heart is our words. Now this word is just, oh, it just tortures my flesh. The word all, A-L-L. Work out your salvation or work out your response of humility to Jesus, but in the working of it out, make sure that your speech, you do everything without any complaining. Bring your speech under the leadership of the Holy Spirit and it will release supernatural work in your heart. So no complaining about life in general and no disputing, which means complaining about each other. So complaining is just about circumstances. Disputing is about relationships. Same thing. Verse 15, and if you do this, you will be blameless and you will have no fault in your walk with God. Now, many believers are content with enjoying God at a worship service and kind of going along with the flow of what happens just in their life, and they don't approach their salvation with fear and tripling, and the leadership of the Holy Spirit never touches this issue of complaint and dispute in their spirit. But beloved, I want to, I want to walk faultless, blameless. I want to walk blameless in humility. I want to love God with all of my soul. Then he tells us the secret, verse 16, or the key. It's by feeding on the word, holding fast the word. You'll never do it without holding on the word, meditating on the word. A heart that is too busy to read and meditate on the word is a heart that will never be empowered to stay restrained in the arena of speech. And if we don't live restrained in speech, we end up quenching the spirit that we love. He still loves us, but he says, I'm not going to move on you until we're in agreement. I won't move on you in the deeper ways. And he wants agreement in the arena of our speech. I mean, that's the final frontier of everyone's life, as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure there might be an exception. Look what it says in James, chapter 1. It says, let every man be swift to hear. Let him be slow to speak, slow to get angry. That's his speech. And how do you do it? The same way, by receiving the Word of God implanted by meditating on the Word. Because there's, meditating on the Word exposes our spirit to inspiration. And that inspiration on regular installments of it, regular feeding of that inspiration, it empowers our spirit not to be loose in our speech. Let's go down to C. We'll end, uh, end with this. Ephesians 4. Look what he says in verse 29 to 30. We're talking about loving God with all of our soul. He says, let no corrupt speech. That's, that's the, uh, uh, complaining and disputing of Philippians 2, verse 14. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but only what's good for edification, that it would impart grace, not just to the hearer who hears you, but it imparts grace. Do you know who you listen to the most? You know the voice you pay most attention to your own, whether you know it or not. Your own voice determines the condition of your spirit, your own words, more than anybody else's. We think that one guy, when he says something, so it impacts me. Beloved, nobody impacts your spirit more than your words. So the hearers aren't only the ones out there, which that's what's on Paul's mind, but I'm just applying it because it is true. You are the primary hearer and benefactor, or you're the primary loser, if your speech is not under the Holy Spirit's leadership. Because look what he says in verse 30. He says, don't grieve the Spirit. And the way the Spirit is grieved is by casting off our agreement with His leadership in the area of speech. I mean there's other areas as well, but that's the final frontier. The area of speech is the window to the true state of our soul. We can get our eyes under control. We can get our money under control. We get our appetites under control. The final frontier of meekness is speech. That's why it's brought up over and over. I want the Holy Spirit's power to enable me to love Jesus. I want to love Him. I can't love Him just by willing. I want to love you. I want to love you. I need power. The Holy Spirit says, you can't get power if you're pushing me away. Your only chance is me. And I require that we agree with each other on speech. If we, if you don't want my leadership in speech, I still love you. You're still saved. But I won't help you near to the degree. You're quenching the spirit of inspiration that would release love in your spirit for Jesus. So I go, Lord, you know that seems like a lot of attentiveness to bring speech under control of the Holy Spirit, but I so want the full inspiration of loving Jesus. I want to love Him with all my soul. I'm willing to lay hold of this thing, Lord. And that's what many of you are saying as well. Let's stand. For more free downloads from Mike Bickle, please visit mikebickle.com.