Palm Sunday
“Delete the Gimme Monster”
Philippians 2:3-11
3
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider
others better than yourselves. 4 Each of
you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of
others. 5 Your attitude should be the
same as that of Christ Jesus:
6
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to
be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness. 8 And,
being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to
death – even death on a cross!
9
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is
above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven
and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Have you ever noticed that we
all have a monster living inside of us? I’m
serious – every single person in this room has a monster living inside of
them. It is the monster called “the
gimme monster.” The gimme monster says,
“Gimme my way!” Think of how the gimme
monster shows himself in all stages of life.
The young child will tell
you, “I don’t want to go to bed! I will
not eat broccoli for dinner! Gimme my
way!”
The young teenager will say,
“I want a cell phone, I want expensive clothes, I want to do everything except
my homework. Gimme my way!”
The senior in high school
demands, “I want to call the shots. I
want to do whatever I want without restrictions and without my parents. Gimme my way!”
Throughout adulthood, we all
find ourselves thinking, “I want a newer car.
I want a nicer house. I want plenty
of money. I want an easy life without
trials and tribulations. Gimme my way!”
Can you see how from birth to
death, the gimme monster lives inside of all of us and makes himself known to
everyone again and again? The gimme
monster basically says what? He
basically says, “You serve me.” That is
what the child declares to his parents.
That is what all of us declare to God.
And we kick and scream until we feels like we have been adequately
served – which is never.
It is a challenge to live our
lives with this monster inside calling the shots. It is no fun to live a selfish life. We all know the old adage, “Tis better to
give than to receive” and the gimme monster certainly prevents us from capturing
the joy of giving in our lives. But not
being able to enjoy life because we always want to receive and never give -
that is the least of our gimme monster issues.
What is the largest gimme monster issue we face? The largest issue we face is the
qualification God requires for entrance into heaven. The qualification is this: in order to go to
heaven you must be perfect. Let me say
that another way: in order to get to heaven you must never be a gimme monster in
your life. If you have acted, spoken or
thought like a gimme monster even once – you do not qualify. You are pulled away from heaven and pushed
directly into hell. Heaven is no place
for gimme monsters. They all go to hell.
The consequences of being a
gimme monster are terrible. Who is able
to avoid being a gimme monster their entire life and make it to heaven? Nobody.
We are all sinful gimme monsters.
And that is why we are so thankful Jesus entered into the world as our
substitute.
Look at what Jesus did as our
substitute on that first Palm Sunday.
Jesus was not a gimme monster. He
did not ride in a chariot to steamroll everyone into submission saying, “Gimme
power!” No, he rode on a gentle colt to
lay down his life. Jesus wasn’t after
the easy, trouble-free, life demanding, “Gimme my way!” No, he was willing to go through lots of
trouble – willing to be cursed and spit upon and mocked and rejected - so that
you and I could have a trouble-free eternity.
Jesus never felt the need to control everything for selfish convenience. He rode into
Verses 6-8 talk about how
Jesus was in the world to serve and not be served. 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not
consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And, being found in appearance as a man, he
humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! Jesus was equal to God. Jesus held the “I am God!” trophy in his
hands. He could create new stars if he
wanted to. Think of his awesome divine
power! Yet he did not feel it was
important to grasp the “I-am-God” trophy at all costs. He did not think that his divine power was
worth being a gimme monster for. Rather,
he emptied himself of his divine power and made himself nothing. Even the prospects of facing the terrible
death of crucifixion did not turn him into a gimme monster. When he was faced with the cross, he said, “I
am willing” not, “I need my ‘I-am-God’ trophy to get out of this!”
As we watch Jesus living as
our substitute, we are amazed. Isn’t it
something to watch a non-gimme monster in action? How could anyone be so loving? How could anyone be so selfless? How could anyone be so willing to give away
his very own life? How could anyone
think so highly of others and so little of himself? To watch a non-gimme monster blows us away. As we watch Jesus living as our substitute,
we are amazed.
We also are thankful. We are thankful because he was doing this on
our behalf. When Jesus was on the cross,
he traded places with us. We were the
gimme monsters; Jesus was perfect. But
on that cross God punished our gimme monster sins on Jesus, not us. And what is the second half of that
trade? God credits Christ’s perfect,
selfless life to us. When God looks at
our track record, he doesn’t see our “gimme my easy life” stuff. He sees Christ’s willingness to ride into
When we understand what Jesus
has done, we are so happy and thankful we are ready and motivated to delete the
gimme monster from invading our lives.
Instead of using our time and energy to demand, “You serve me” we say,
“Let me serve you” – no, we say, “I would love to serve you.” In Christ’s love, we are happy to serve one
another. This isn’t a job or a chore. This isn’t a task done while our teeth are
grinding. We are happy to serve one
another, just as Jesus was happy to serve us.
Listen to these words now
from Philippians 2 that help us look at our Lord so that we are able to serve
one another in love. (read v.3-8)
Isn’t that something, how
those verses from Philippians were exactly opposite the gimme monster? The gimme monster says, “Gimme my way! You serve me!” But Philippians says, “Do nothing out of selfish
ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than
yourselves.” The gimme monster
says, “I want to control everything!”
But Philippians says, 4 Each of you should look not only to your
own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Your attitude should be the same as that of
Christ Jesus.”
Take a minute or two to think
about how we accomplish this in our lives.
We are Christian friends and we lean upon one another. We carry one another’s burdens and listen to
one another during good times and bad.
We are happy to share plenty of time in prayer for one another. We have been enjoying a significant increase
in our building fund recently as we are saying in our hearts, “Jesus needs this
money more than I need it, and I am happy to give it to him.” We are able to find ways to serve one another
rather than find ways to be served. And
the gimme monster has nothing to do with this – he is successfully deleted.
God bless your lives as you
delete the gimme monster from your heart.
Amen.