Only let your manner of life
be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see
you or am absent, I may hear of you, that you are standing
firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for
the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by
your opponents. This is a clear sign to them
of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from
God. For it has been granted to you
that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in
him, but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict
that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. So if there
is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort in love, any participation
in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy
by being of the same mind, having the same love, being of full
accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition
or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than
yourselves. Let each of you look not only
to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves,
which is yours in Christ Jesus. Let's continue. Who, though he
was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing
to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a
servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human
form. He humbled himself by becoming
obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore,
God has highly exalted. Him and bestowed on him the name
that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee
should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every
tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God, the
father. Let me pray. Lord, would your will be done
Through your word. God, we pray that you would break
our hearts. That you would open our eyes.
That you would help us to see the beauty of your glory in the
face of Jesus Christ as our greatest treasure, as our only hope. As our sole passion and as our
single drive. Father, would you bring to life
those who are dead among us? Would you help them see that
there is a day where there will be all humanity bowing before
Jesus? And there is yet but two groups
among them. Those who are the redeemed who
bow before a king that they love with all affection, with all
passion, with all their heart and soul and mind and strength. And then the others who bow because
it is their position. As they stand in judgment. Oh,
Lord, let us reckon ourselves to one of those today that we
see that we are not in the third line. of waiting and wondering
what may be, we are either in one or the other. And by your
mercy, through the hearing of the words of Christ, Father,
I pray you would save all who hear the gospel today. Father,
we say these things so that you would be made much of. Help us
to humble ourselves. Help us to be lowly for the sake
of our brothers as we learn these things in Jesus name. Amen. Well, there's a lot to try to
prepare here, let me see if I can do this. In chapter two. Paul begins to, it is a begin.
He's continuing in what he said. Paul didn't set this chapter
up this way. It just happened to be how we
did it when we set numbers to the scripture. Paul is continuing
in his thoughts with the word. So in chapter one, chapter two,
verse one. So it's a continuation. It's
a causation because of this. So, so if there is, if there
is something that I've already said, if there's something that
I've already taught, if there's something that you've already
experienced about the grace of God and about the power of Christ
and the and the amazing just majesty of the gospel, then there
is any encouragement in Christ. If there's any comfort from love,
if there's any participation in the Spirit, if there's any
affection and sympathy, then complete my joy by being of the
same mind. Here we have a continuation that
shows what gives Paul the greatest joy, which is seeing God's work
fulfilled. Now let me talk about that for
a minute, and then I'll try to come back to this without tearing
everything apart. God's work fulfilled is not us
getting right that which God has called us to do. Number one,
we cannot do that which God has called us to do with great success
or completeness. But what happens in the sense
of our calling to so well, I'm not called. Yes, you are. You're
called to repent, believe the gospel. Number one, you're not
called. You're commanded to. And then when that is effective
in your life, you are called to live according to the spirit,
not according to the flesh, that you may give honor and glory
and praise and wonder and majesty and everything to Christ because
his work is complete in you. There's a terrible mistake in
Christendom today in our country that teaches people that now
that you're saved, you have to do the work and get things right
so that you'd be successful for the sake of God's name. Now,
it does not mean what I'm about to say, that we are off the hook
and we just float around. If we're sinning, it's God's
problem for not sinning and hallelujah. That's not the point. The point
is this. We don't measure. We don't measure the fullness
of joy and the success of ministry and the success of our lives
for the sake of the glory of God by what we've accomplished. But
what Paul has taught us already is that these Philippian Christians,
because of their affection for him, because of their partnership
and ministry, because of their continued praying, because of
their because of their activeness in the spirit and their push
and their and their and their and their and their passion for
the advancement of the gospel because they are burdened by
Paul's suffering. It is the fact it proves to him
that God is at work among them. It proves to Paul that the Holy
Spirit of God is actively at work and he has rebirthed these
Christians in Philippi who are willing to continue to suffer,
to go to the chains and to go to their death for the sake of
the gospel. This is what Paul is showing. And so when we talk
about the joy being complete in ministry, it is not, it is
not about having a good time or looking back on our tables
or seeing our charts. It's interesting as we were in
the hospital every day last week, there's, you get to looking at
stuff that you'd never look at. You know, the first few times
you're in there, you're just like, I got to go see about the person that I'm here to see
and I've got to care for people. And then after a while and things
are getting better, you just are looking at the pictures. You're
looking at the walls. Well, the hospital over there
has this big spread about the size of that wall right there
of all the good progress they've had in the last few years. And
it shows charts. You know, charts are easy for
us to understand and we follow. There's a chart here where they
used to have this much money. Now they have this much money.
They used to have this type of doctor. Now they have this type
of doctor. And, you know, they used to have, you know, nasty
coffee. Now they've got better coffee and they show charts of
how the growth and the very last one says growth. The title of
the chart was growth. And it says this many patients
now this many patients. And I'm thinking, is that really growth?
More people are sick now. Maybe that's not something you
should be putting on as an accolade for your success. But that's
how we look at it. We just, well, we got more, we
got doing this. We measure success in our Christian life by how
well we're doing in the day-to-day operations of the things that
we think God has called us to. And when we're walking perfectly,
we seem to be thinking successfully. And Paul had a plan and a vision
and a purpose and he had it laid out and he knew what he was going
to do. He calculated the risk. He calculated the cost. He built
himself a team. And he went into all these cities
and he preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. There was no tomorrow.
And through the preaching of the gospel, God saved many. And the reason they knew that
God saved many is because their lives were radically changed,
just like we saw in chapter seven of Corinthians just a moment
ago, is that there are new creations from the very beginning of their
new life. If they were in the middle of a drunken stupor, they
stopped it. If they were in the middle of sexual immorality,
they quit it. If they were in the middle of crooked business,
they walked away. And they changed immediately.
Christian life, the new birth, is not something that grows progressively
in you and then all of a sudden you're a Christian. When you're
changed, your heart and your mind and your soul and your actions
all follow. And it doesn't mean that you live in perfection.
And it doesn't mean that you're not going to fall into sin or
that you could not fall into sin. But what it does mean is
that your most important thing in life is to give glory to God
through the heart and the mind and the soul of your existence.
That the very core of your being lives for the sake of the glory
of Christ. And when sin enters our lives as Christians, we hate
it with a passion. We hate it with a zeal. To the
point where we wish we would just be struck down dead rather
than live another day, that we might disappoint the Holy Spirit
of God that lives within us. That's what it means to be a
Christian. Anybody that teaches you anything else is a liar,
and the truth is not in them. See, that's dogma. Why do you
say such polarizing things? Because I care more about your
eternal salvation than I do about how you think about me. And you
can hate me, get in line. There's a lot of people that
do. And what I've found is that they don't hate me really, because
I'm not that hateable of a guy. I'm like a pretty good dog. I
can do a lot of tricks and entertain people for a long time. But what
they hate is the gospel of Jesus because it fights against the
very core of what we call success in this country. It fights against
the very core of what we call liberties and rights in our country.
It fights the very thing that puts man at the crowning achievement
of his own salvation. And that's wicked because that's
the same thing that Satan, that Lucifer said to God when he says,
I will become like you and I will sit next to you. Lucifer thought
that his beauty, was as was equivalent to the glory of God's beauty
when all he was was a reflection of God. He's just a mirror, a
dimly lit one at that, and he felt it necessary to then come
and say, I want to be so God hurled him out of heaven and
he has eternal judgment awaiting him with two thirds of the multitude
of the heavenly host. And then yet now we also see
most of humanity is in that same boat. All of humanity at time
of conception is corrupt to the core. We do what we do. You might
ask the question, why in the world is the world this way?
You might not say that, why? Why is the world this way? Because
human beings live in it. And if you and I begin to think
that we wouldn't do those things, we've forgotten the very core
of the gospel. If it weren't for the grace of God, we would
be just like everybody else. And quite honestly, the sins
of our mind and the core of our heart are just as wicked as the
sins that are exposed in the actions of men. So none of us
without excuse. When we talk about success in
ministry, when we look at what it really means, here's the way
I gauge it as a pastor. And for the almost last two decades
in ministry, here's what I look at. Here's the thing that I go
home and pray about every day. I said, Oh God, number one, if
it is up to me, it's just going to be a miserable failure. If
my understanding of your word and my preaching of your word
is going to be effective, then this people who you've put before
me are doomed. If my righteousness is supposed
to be the pattern for someone to follow, then they're going
to walk right into the pit of hell. You see the points. Thirdly, father, let me show
them the picture, the purity and the absolute presence of
your joy. When I measure whether or not ministry is successful,
I measure it individually and collectively by how our joy is. Don't you see that? Why? Because when we have joy, it
means we're satisfied. When we have joy, it means we're
fed. When we have joy, it means that
we have obtained everything that we desire. Get it? And if the church does not have
joy, one of two things is the problem. Either they're not being
shepherded by the gospel and by the word of God as it was
written, or they are not Christ's. Which is it for you? So Paul measures his success
not about how much he preached, not about how many people heard
it. It's interesting. I love to hear history. I love
to read the biographies and the writings of George Whitefield
and Jonathan Edwards and Charles Spurgeon and these men that God
used has used in great ways. I love to see. how the Reformation
began and I love to see the zeal of Martin Luther even as he was
very quirky with some doctrinal stuff. I'd love to see these
things and it's amazing because people who write these books,
they exalt these men in such a way. Oh and he preached to
50,000 people, George Whitefield did. One sermon. And I'm thinking
to myself, how did they know that, number one. Number two,
who cares? Who cares? But that's how we
met and it's nothing, no malice in the history of it. It's an
interesting fact. But is that what makes him successful? No,
what makes him successful is they lived and died in the gospel
because God did a work that he couldn't do. God will do a work
in our lives that we can't accomplish. And that is what makes us successful
in ministry. That is what makes us successful,
that we endure in the Christian faith. Not to just dispose of
that word and start looking at it in this way. What gives us
the most joy? Paul, of course, had not planned
on paper to go and get locked up in Philippi. And Paul did
not plan on paper when he got out of jail in Philippi, he and
Silas, you know that story. He did not plan then when he
went to Rome to be locked up for two years. He had a plan,
let's preach here, let's train this guy, let's get some people
in the streets, let's preach the gospel, let's see the church grow, let's
get into these homes, let's disciple people, let's attend to the teaching
of the word, and let's pray together, and let's engage in life. He
used one another a whole lot, koinonia, all things in common,
all ownership of the same God, the same faith, the same spirit,
the same mind, the same stuff. And yet, that wasn't his plan
to get locked up. But he did. And yet he was still
successful in ministry because his joy was complete in seeing
that even while he was arrested, even while he was detained, that
the gospel continued to grow and expand throughout all of
Asia Minor and all of all of Palestine, that the gospel grew,
that the church grew greater in his incarceration than it
did when he was free. And He says that my joy is complete
when I see you, the church of God, with one mind because what
it does is it proves that God indeed has rebirthed a people
called the church of Jesus. We put it in the wrong direction
when we try to get a people to walk in a certain way out of
their own disciplines rather than preach to them that the
gospel is the power to actually help them live their Christian
life. No, we need discipline. We need direction, we need boundaries,
those are good. Otherwise our children would
be in the streets. Our homes would be, someone else would
be living in them right now. But that has no effectiveness to
righteousness or salvation. Is your joy complete? Let my
joy be full. Paul said. Then he goes, so. So if there is any encouragement
in Christ, what is he doing here? He's about to tie what he just
talked about in the suffering of the church. Because you know
where his joy comes from? That they suffer together with
one mind. That they work together in suffering
with one spirit. That they are unified with mission.
Go back and listen to the last two weeks sermons if you've forgotten
those things. We spent two weeks on those verses. Paul is thrilled
and successful and satisfied and absolutely not desiring anything
else except to have his head cut off. He does desire that,
but he desires then more, though that is his greatest desire.
How do you have a greatest desire? Go back three weeks ago. How
do you have the greatest desires to have your head removed from
your body for the sake of the gospel? And yet it is the great
a greater desire. He desires more than to stay
with the Philippians so that they would grow. that they would
have joy. That was what he wanted. So his
ministry is greatly successful because it is the ministry of
God through the preaching of the gospel. God does the work
and we as God's people just look and behold it. Wow. Behold, St. Corinthians. The new has come. See that it's come, not come
on, I want to I want you to be new. Paul says you are new. Are
you new? Is your joy complete? So this ties this previous teaching
to the continued exposition bound up in this experience that Paul
has had and this experience that the church of Jesus Christ suffers
together in all of the world. This suffering, as a reminder,
is because people hate the gospel. They hate Jesus Christ. Now,
a lot of people say, well, I don't hate Jesus. I love Jesus. It's
not the Jesus of the Bible. Most of the people that we know
in America that live in these churches and go to these churches,
many pastors who stand in pulpits and preach this ridiculous stuff
and call it exposition and say that they're feeding the church
by giving them two or three points to live on and walk by. This
is not going to show you the glory of God. Where is Christ
in the midst of all this stuff? Where is something majestic?
That's not flushing your toilet and saying, look at Niagara Falls. You want to go to the Grand Canyon
or you want to you want to get a hoe and go in the backyard?
Why would you why would you want to go see somebody plow one row
when you could stand and behold the vastness of a Grand Canyon?
That's the comparison I see sometimes of what we call ministry, preaching
the gospel, the church in comparison to what the Bible actually gives
us. There are there are people all over the world who would
say that they are in the faith, that they love Christ. But when
you start to confront them with the gospel, they get angry. Have
you ever noticed that? We are called to always give
a reason for the hope that we have. That means anybody who
is born of God, anybody who by faith is saved through Christ
alone, these people are always ready and eager, like a child
on the last day of school watching the bell. They've all synchronized
their watches and they're waiting. And at the last 10 seconds, you
can hear it throughout all the halls. You ever been in the halls
of a school with the last 10 seconds? 10! If I were the principal,
I'd delay the darn thing by five seconds. I just hold it. Could I have your attention,
please? We've got an announcement here. We need to take. I would
just just for the fun of this 10 9 8 7. Well, Christians who are born
of God are always on the edge of their seats at the precipice
of the bell, waiting for the opportunity for someone to walk
up to them or to confront them in some way where they would
be willing and able to say, how do you know that you have eternal
life? I love it when people ask me that question. Why? That is
a home run. You don't have to bother folks.
You ain't got to bang on doors. You're not interrupting somebody's
meal at Shoney's or wherever it is you like to poke around
and evangelize. You're not bothering anybody.
They're coming to you and saying, how do you... And it's always
these good-meaning evangelists, usually. I don't know if y'all
have experienced them. They come up and, hey, brother,
or hey, sir, how are you today? Could I talk to you for a few
minutes? You seem like a person, I see you've got a Bible there.
How do you know that you have eternal life? Or even worse,
this is the one that people get really angry over. Are you sure
you're a Christian? And I know Socratically, you
know how I operate. Well, I'm not sure. How can I
know that I'm a Christian? And they just walk right into
it. How do you know that you're a Christian? That angers people. Well, don't question my salvation.
I'm not. I'm asking you to give testimony of it. Why would you
not, if I ask you about your grandkids, you'd pull out the
wallet. Tablet, whatever. Hey, look, you're on Facebook.
Let me show you the 7,000 pictures I have on my cat. I love my cat. You want me to
show you? Look at my cat with a mouse, my cat with a hat, my
cat with a Christmas tree. Look at all this. What about
Jesus Christ? Hey, you keep that to yourself.
That's none of your business. Well, I don't believe people
like that are born again. Because we don't. We will. expressly
share everything that's most precious to us is our joy in
Christ. Most people don't like the Christ
of Scripture because they don't know him, they've never heard
him. They've never seen him. They've never understood what
he meant when he says, don't labor for the bread that perishes,
but for the food that perishes, but for the bread that endures
to eternal life. I am the bread that comes down from heaven to
give life to all men. Eat of my flesh and drink of
my blood and be satisfied. They don't understand what he
means when he says, I'm the living water. That means there's no other reason
for me to ever drink of anything else because Christ has satisfied
every quench of every desire of my soul. So do you have other
things that are more precious to you than Christ? Well, I'm
the director of such and such at my church. Well, good. I sharpen
pencils in the bathroom. And I eat bananas on Wednesday
and sometimes I polish my shoes. And I'm the Terminator on Saturdays
when I'm sprinkling ant poison in the yard. I don't mean to
be condescending, but what does that have to do with it? Paul is clearly experiencing
the hatred of the gospel, the hatred of Christ, and the church
in Philippi are suffering with him in like manner. They're being
arrested, but also in the fact that they're burdened because
Paul is suffering. Do you see that? Because this
is where he's going. This is where he's going. He's
going to go from any kind of practical thing to a spiritual
focus of suffering together is not just not also not just experiencing
the same type of persecution, but also the heart and the mind
of the Christians. We as the family. Suffer when
people who are part of our family suffer, we suffer and labor for
them in a great way. Listen to this. He says, so if
there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort in love,
any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, let's
talk about these things for a moment. Encouragement in Christ, there's
several ways to look at what this means to be encouragement.
Now, Paul is not trying to say if there is any, as if there
might not be any. What he's doing is he's telling
the church, look, if you are indeed the church, you will have
encouragement in Christ. So if you have this, you see
how he's doing that. It's a rhetorical way of expressly
showing that if you have encouragement from Christ, it will remind people,
wow, I have been encouraged in Christ. Or some people, no, I
haven't been encouraged in Christ, then they'll start to realize,
wow, I'm not in Christ. So it's a two-fold effort for
Paul to argue the points. So if we have had an encouragement,
well, what does it mean? Is Christ's encouragement attaboys? Hey, you're doing great, Paul.
Hold in there. Is that really what encouragement
in Christ is? Encouragement in Christ, is it the Philippians
4.13 error? Oh, you can do it all in Jesus.
We'll get there soon, but it has nothing to do with anything
but suffering. Only suffering. Only suffering,
not winning, not exceeding, not succeeding, but suffering. We
can suffer in Christ because he's sufficient. I have no long
and have no need. That's not what encouragement
in Christ is. Encouragement in Christ isn't the cheerleader
at the end of the line saying, come on, one more step, just
keep going. Encouragement in Christ is comfort. The word there in context relates
to the comfort. So if you have had any, if there
is any, not even have you had, but if there is any comfort in
Christ and being united with Christ, if you are in Christ
and there is comfort. If you are in Christ and there
is love. If you are in Christ and you
have seen the power of the spirit. If you've seen affection and
you've seen sympathy in Christ, then have one mind. This is review. He says, complete my joy. Complete
my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in
full accord and of one mind, this we get it. Move on. Well, are we ready to move on? Because if we're ready to move
on, that means that all of a sudden there's a solidarity and a unification
of our thoughts and our attitudes and our purpose. And that we
as the people of God, no matter whether we're part of Grace Truth
Church or we're visiting with Grace Truth Church or whether
we're just a bystander wandering through town and we're part of
the family of God, whether or not we are in covenant with each
other as a local church, this sermon and this letter and this
New Testament speaks to us exactly the same every second. So if
we are indeed in one accord, then that means our attitudes
toward things are unified. That our mind toward things are
unified, but what things? Where do we, where is the practical
outlay of this? Well, friends, I wish I could
sit down and tell you that. And I'll tell you, I mean, I
could come up with about 10 points off the top of my head to give you
great insight on me. But what does that got to do
with you? You don't want the list that I'm working on. You
need to make a list of your own. How do you see yourself unified
in the body of Christ? Well, friends, first of all,
we see it in the word. We see it in the fellowship, we see
it in the practice and the application, what I call the applied theology
of life. Are we walking in a manner worthy
of the calling of Christ? Are we walking in a manner worthy
of the power of the gospel? Do our lives, individually and
collectively, reflect the nature of God's power through Jesus?
If they don't, it's not about getting them done, it's about
repenting and believing in the gospel. Many conversations through
the years, even recently, people looking for assurance of salvation.
I want you to tell me that I am saved. How about this? in the minute that you see that
your joy is not full in Christ, or the minute you see an idol
in your life that takes away the glory of Christ, or the minute
you see yourself in anger, or frustration, or disappointment,
or fear, or doubt, or sin of any kind, then you stop at that
moment and you submit to the realization that you, without
the gospel of Jesus, are condemned to an eternal judgment, and that
the only hope you have is God's absolute and infinite mercy on
you through the life, the death, the burial and the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. And if that is not your hope
at that moment, you are not born again. People don't like that. No, I
want the certificate. Let me tell you what certificates
are. Certificates are issued the day you're most vulnerable
and least deserving. It's like when I first ranked
in Chinese Kung Fu and my Sifu gave me the certificate, I thought,
I have arrived. I want my sash and I want my
certificate. And he reminded me, he says, you are the worst
ranked student in our system. You are the lowest. You have
completed the minimal requirements. See the difference in how we
look at ourselves. Only when you master this, are
you worthy to carry this. Christ has mastered it for us.
Christ has mastered righteousness. Christ has mastered love. Christ
has mastered comfort. Christ has mastered encouragement.
Christ is our only hope. So now we see him come to a place
of telling us what we are or what they are, what we are. And
he says, in order to be of one accord, you've got to do You've
got to not do something and then do something. This is how Paul
writes most of the time. He gives some negatives and positives.
He gives two negatives that we don't do and one positive that
we do. Here they are. Do nothing out
of selfish ambition or conceit. I should have just started there
and preached an hour on that. Those are the things we don't
do, but in humility, We count others more significant than
ourselves. And then we look out not only for our own interest,
but the interest of others. Now, let's unpack that for a
minute. Do nothing. Well, if we're to do nothing
out of selfish ambition or conceit, what is that list of nothing?
That means anything that we could do selfishly, we should not do. Anything that we could be engaged
in, selfishly, we should not be engaged in. What does that
mean? You mean I'm not supposed to
brush my teeth? See, my kids would argue that when they're
younger. See, I'm not supposed to be selfish. I'm not worried
about my teeth, I'm worried about my teeth, Daddy. Kids can argue pretty well. No. Because in reality, it's
more about an attitude than it is about an action, because as
we learned through the scripture in the last year, that right
doctrine produces right living. So if we understand the gospel,
if we understand Paul's instruction here, we then will by nature
produce a life that shows we understand it. And not just understand
it, but that it grasps us, that the Spirit of God is giving us
the power to do this. Are we in comfort with Christ?
Do we have comfort from the love of Christ through his body? Are
we unified in this comfort? Are we unified in this love?
Are we unified in the spirit? Do we have a unified sympathy
and affection for each other? And friends, if this is so, then
do nothing out of selfish ambition. What does it mean? Well, because
we have one mind, think about it. If we are thinking in a different
way than the body of Christ should be thinking, then we're double
minded. If we're contemplating. Mission ministry actions. Focus vision. Whatever, if we're
focused theologically with a different mindset, we're double minded.
Are we not to have one mind as a church? So if we are at odds
with things, then we're not of the same mind. And that starts
with an attitude. Now, let me tell you what it
typically looks like in a church. It typically looks like when
you have polity that is unbiblical, like you have a board who operates
to run the church and it's the board of slaves. Deacons is usually
what you have them called. And people say, well, that's
semantics. No, it's not. It's a biblical error. You have, and then they
decide that this is what's got, these people are no more qualified
to be deacons or elders or whatever you want to call the only two
offices in the church, deacon and elder. And there are people
who get put in these positions because they're good businessmen. And
let me tell you, let me tell you the difference in business
and the church. I can't because there's no comparison.
That's not saying what's the difference in a shoelace and
the towel, the Eiffel tower. I don't, I don't know. Maybe,
maybe we need to get you some help. There's no comparison. So someone being a good business
owner or being a good leader, what is a leader? A leader is
one who dies for those who follow him. If a man is a leader in
a position and he's walking around and nobody's behind him, like
a mentor told me, he said, you're just a man taking a walk. Being a leader is being first
to do. Being a leader is the one who sets the pace and the
example. Being the leader is not the one who says do this,
but who shows it. And what happens in our churches,
so-called churches, is that the American governmental system
has invaded it. The 1950s corporatism has invaded
the polity, the governing authority of the church. The Bible has
been pushed out and replaced with Robert's Rules of Order.
The pastoral authority of the apostles and then the shepherds
of the flock who are dying to see the joy of the church have
been replaced by a board of deacons or a board of trustees or a board
of leaders or a leadership team. And the mission of the church
has gone from preaching the Bible, learning the Bible, teaching
the Bible, praying the Bible, living the Bible together as
one body to what are we going to do this week? How are we going
to manage this? Where's this ministry? We've got to get somebody to
be the head of this because this ministry, we've got to fill this
position. What what is a ministry if there's no one doing it? It's
a word on a piece of paper. And so a lot of times in that
typical structure, what happens is you get these these people
who like what they have in front of them and they want to keep
it. And when someone comes up and says, you know what I think
we should do, I think we should be very careful not to mix nationalism
with the worship of God. And so let's take the American
flag off the cross. Let's take the American flag
away from the pulpit. because it's a distraction. Let's
put the drums up because they offend half our congregation.
Their hearing aids are aggravated or they feel like they're at
a dance club because they used to be rockers. There ain't nothing
wrong with a flag. There ain't nothing wrong with
a drum. You're right. But give it up for the sake of
your brothers. Well, I'm just not doing it.
Then you're going to hell. Because the Spirit of God within
us has the mind of Christ who gave His glory up to become a
human being to suffer and die for the sake of His enemies. Can you see Jesus acting in divisiveness
like most church members act? There's no way I'm getting on
that cross. You're not going to beat me. Well, yes, we will.
Blows them away. Ha, ha, ha. Told you it wasn't
going to touch me. Touch not thine anointing. He'd
have had the right to say that. Jesus would have. But he did it. Oh man, he's tearing up church
history. I'm only tearing up about 128
years. I'm really only tearing up about
72 years. Maybe 80. It's not church history,
it's church horror. It's gospel, anti-gospel. Do nothing out of selfish ambition. What does that look like? It's
promoting one's own desire. It is desiring something and
some sense of promoting one's own passions, one's own ability. All I want is people to see how
good I can sing. Let me worship God so people can see how good
I sing. Rather than letting the person
that can't even hardly carry a tune in a dump truck stand
up there and give praise to God. And I've had that. People go,
that person shouldn't be. That's not their gift. Oh, yes,
it is their gift. They sound like a cat in a blender
that, oh, my God, they're gifted in worship. Let them howl to
the praise of his glorious grace. If you don't like it, plug up
your ears and worship. I'll hand out your plugs at the
door. Do nothing. Selfish ambition. Don't do things
selfishly for your own ministry. You know, these little federations
of ministries that we see amongst the churches in America. Well,
this cat, he's just talking because he doesn't like big church. Let
me tell you something. I've been on staff and pastor
of the church for 1,200, 600 people in Sunday school, 300
people baptized in one year. Did church planning training
and saddleback under Rick Warren. I know what big church looks
like. That's all I ever did until I came here, until I came to
California. It's not because I don't like
that. It's because I've been in it and I see the errors of
it. I'm not saying big is bad, I'm saying bad is bad. Wrong
is wrong. Bad is bad. Right is right. Biblical
is biblical. And if we're trying to mix anything
else, it becomes unbiblical. Just like if you want that roach
crawling across your plate at lunch in the back of the restaurant
just because they fleek it off, don't mean it wasn't on there.
You want a new plate or you want a new restaurant? I want a new
restaurant. Do nothing out of selfless ambition.
We don't do anything selfishly to promote our own ministry,
to promote our own wisdom, to promote our own preaching. See,
that's the that's the that's the valuable lesson for the for
the pastor, for the teacher. Oh, that was the greatest sermon.
You know, I'm glad. But something you know what you're
saying there, that what was taught to me was good for me. That's
what I hope that's what you're saying there. But how preachers
like to take it is, boy, I got it together. I swear. I just man, the eloquence slipping
off my lips just moves people to all sorts of things. That's
how pastors think. It's wicked. Pastors need to
pay attention to do nothing out of selfish ambition. Promoting
our own preaching. Unable to see anything but our
own problems. Well, I know so and so is hurting,
but they don't know how bad I'm hurting. OK. Well. Will endear with you,
but don't tell us we haven't tried. But that's selfish ambition,
our concerns being consumed with our own attitudes. Even the attitude
of I need to receive prayer. I need to receive ministry. Selfish ambition. But most importantly,
selfish ambition. Is caring more about your own
joy and righteousness than the joy and righteousness of the
person next to you. That's what it looks like. Don't you hear? Let me say that again. Selfish
ambition is truly caring more about your joy and righteousness
than you do about the joy and the righteousness of the person
sitting next to you. You know what's real easy to
do to be selfless when we help other people out in physical
ways? It's good. But are we selfless when we need
to grow in Christ and when we need the ministry of peace, but
we give it to someone else because they are suffering in their joy?
We are laboring for their growth in Christ. Romans 2 says, but for those
who are self-seeking. Listen, for those who are self-seeking
and do not obey the truth, but they obey unrighteousness to
these, there will be fury and wrath. Now, I want you to hear
what Paul says there. People who have selfish ambition,
are obeying unrighteousness even when what they're ambitious for
seems righteous. Like the Pharisees. Like the religious leaders of
today. Like these big high-profile pastors who we see fall like
dominoes in the last six months. Three of them. New York Best
Time Sellers and, you know, 100 million followers. Falling like
flies. And I think those that falling
is grace. I think it's God's grace in them.
If nothing else, it's God's grace for the church that we would
quit idolizing the teaching of men and we would focus on those
who exposit the gospel so that the word of God is above it all.
So the scripture is not just a bunch of words that we hold
out of history, it's the essence of our hope. The foundation for
which we know God, the foundation through which we find salvation,
the foundation through which we worship in truth by the Spirit. And it says from selfish ambition,
do nothing. Do nothing out of selfish ambition. Do not establish
a cause in a selfish way that would take you away from the
ministry of your brethren and do nothing from vain conceit.
Conceit, that's really redundant. What is conceitedness? Well,
conceitedness is driven by selfish ambition. When we when we drive
ourselves out of our for ourselves for the sake of ourselves, when
we're driven that way, we become conceited. It's better understood
as vain glory. You want to hear that again?
Conceit is vain glory. What is vain? Worthless. Empty. What is glory? Being esteemed
and made much of and being looked at and being all over and being
Google out over much like every celebrity that we call a celebrity.
I like to remind my children that they wipe their butt the
same way. And there's not a single person
in this world that I would stand in line to visit and see because
of their fame. But yet for the Church of Jesus
Christ, we cross an ocean and die for the ministry to each
other. Unknown, unnamed people. Conceit. This is vain glory. It's pride. It's power. It's look at me attitudes. It's it's vain, empty glory for
that things that we have. Look at our building. Look at
our house. Look at our stuff. Look at the way that the world
has blessed us. Look at how many people we have
in our church. Look how many baptisms we did last year. That's
the that's the run at the convention. Everybody, how many baptisms
you have last year? I don't know. How many upset stomachs did you
have? Maybe that's why people get aggravated with me. I don't
really say that to people, I just say that in passing when we're
doing things in public. Positions, prestige, this is
empty, vain, worthless glory. Well, what's the harm in it?
Well, Paul mentioned these over in chapter one, these people
that preach from the wrong motives, they were looking for glory.
They had an opportunity. Here's the king of preachers
during the day of the first century. Paul arrested. And now they're
thinking, man, I can preach a better gospel than Paul. I could preach
it in a better way than Paul. Let me show these people how
good I can preach. So they preach a good gospel
with a bad heart. And guess what? Paul says in
Romans 2 that those who are self-seeking are not obeying the truth, but
they're obeying unrighteousness, and all that they have to look
forward to is judgment. So now I have to change my position
on maybe these preachers over here were saved and just had
to stick up their toe. I don't think they were saved.
I think they were just knowledgeable and effective in public speaking. And God can use a lost man to
bring people to faith, just like he can use a donkey, just like
he can use a child. Because whoever yields the word
of God, if the devil himself would read the word of God correctly,
people will come to faith. But he doesn't, does he? He twists
it. And the devil has the ear of
many pastors. who preach a false gospel, who
prepare a false Christ. Let me tell you something. When
we labor over people whose lives are not changing, whose hearts
are not changing, and we think we can do anything more effective
than pray and teach them the Word of God, we have lost our
minds. We have lost our minds. You know,
we ought to be able to go to bed at night with burden on our
heart, leave it at the doorstep with our slippers, if you wear
slippers, whatever, and go to sleep knowing that God's got
it. Why is it so? Who cares that
people have vainglory? Well, number one, their souls
are at risk. But most importantly, probably about ten things. Let me give you six. Seeking
vainglory is a direct affront against the glory of God. Seeking
glory Seeking pride, seeking prestige, seeking power, having
selfish ambition is a direct attack against God. Why? Well, because number one, it's
an idol. It says that we love ourselves
and what we have and what we're becoming and what we vision,
what we envision with our own minds as to what our ministry
is going to look like. Even I'm just going to keep it
in the church. I don't even talk about the world because it's
written to the church, not the world. We're not talking about sin and greed
and though it's here, we're talking about mainly ministry, mainly
some sense of righteousness, some sense of glory, some sense
of pride. This is an idol. We put it above Christ. Look
at our ministry. Look at what we're doing. Look
how many people we fed. Look how many lives we say. And I'm not saying we don't celebrate.
I mean, three thousand people came to faith at the first sermon
that Peter preached. How do we know that? Because
the next day houses were busting at the seams. People were looking
for somebody to teach them the Bible. I don't think they showed
up to work that day. I think they shut down their
businesses because people were crowding into their homes. Hey,
there's John. I think he was there. I think
he's a follower of the way. Let's go to John's house. Boom!
And they bust in there. Hey, what's going on? I'm not
even dressed. Let me put my slippers on. Hey, we want to learn the Bible. When spiritual conversations
come... I even said this last night with our family. I said,
I believe that one of the greatest things is when people have a
spiritual interest. It doesn't prove they're born
again, but it definitely scares me when people have no spiritual
interest. If people don't care about learning the Bible, the
spirit of God isn't in them. I'm not saying you don't have
season. Oh, God, I just don't want to go to Bible study. I
mean, that happens to all of us sometimes, but the spirit
of God within us gives us a purpose to know that our only hope comes
from the word. As I've said three times already
this morning, And to be selfish and conceited and seek glory
is idolatry. Thirdly, it's a heart of wickedness. It's really evil. It's not just
misappropriated. It's not just misapplied. It's
not just immature. Seeking self glory is not immature. It's evil. There's no way around
it. It's it's wicked. So that when
we see people in any part of life, listen to this, any aspect
of life, but especially the church of Jesus Christ, we see people
seeking glory and fame and want to be known and trying to get
followers on their blog and books sold and worried about all this
kind of stuff. One of my mentors told me years
ago, and a matter of fact, it was 98. He says that a man ain't
worth paying what he won't do for free. And you see a lot of these guys,
these theologians, they're making hand over fist with the money
and they're upgrading their homes, they're upgrading their yards,
they're upgrading everything and it's just, it burns me to
think, wow, why do these people do it? And then it reminds me,
I might too if God weren't with me. It's an easy road to follow. It means we don't seek after
glory. And I'm not saying writing books
is wrong and making money off of things like that, but there's
a difference in seeking that and it just happening. And you
can tell the difference. You can tell the difference with
people who make it happen. And then they still won't give
you a free book. And you got Crossway Publishing, this isn't
a plug, but they give everything they got away for free. If you
can't afford it, they'll give you a case. Just call. And their authors, all their
books are free to download. Why? Because they're in the ministry,
not the money. And they're doing very well.
And giving away more than anybody I've ever seen in the context
of. Ministry, Slava, grace to Russia, same thing, publishing
books, publishing books, not making a name for himself, but
just so that the word of God and good theology can get out
free of charge or just about nothing, just about nothing to
the people of the world. Conceit, selfish ambition, vainglory. It's because of a heart of wickedness.
It is idolatry. It is attack against the glory
of God. And it is seen, as I've already said, among many preachers. Fifthly, it is robbing God of
what belongs to him. It robs God of His glory. It belongs to God and God alone.
God alone should receive all glory and all that. We sang two
songs this morning about it. Holy, holy, holy glory. Worthy is the lamb. Not worthy
is the man. Not worthy is the preacher, not
worthy is the child, not worthy is the church. Worthy is the
lamb. to receive all glory and honor
and power and wealth. It's all due Him. So when we seek glory, we are
robbing God. We are doing exactly what Lucifer
did at the fall of the angels. And we're doing exactly what
Adam and Eve did at the fall of humanity. We're the enemy
of God who had fallen because of vain glory. tempted humanity
to succumb to the same thing. Do you know why God doesn't want
you to take that fruit and eat of it? Because you will be like
God. That's what God Adam and Eve
to take that fruit. Empty glory, robbing God of his
glory. It's important because it's actually
the point that Paul goes into in verse five. But we're not
there yet. And this is not just an action,
but it's also in thought. But what should we do? Well,
you spend a lot of time on that. Well, let's go with it. We should
act in humility. We should act in humility, not
in self-glory, not to become something we should act humbly. We should walk humbly in humility. Think of others greater than
ourselves. So let's unpack that. What does
it mean to be humble? Well, let's just rip them out
real quick. It means that we are to become nothing. We are
to step in line into a unified place with others that we do
not stick out to be noticed, but we are seen as the whole.
It means that we are as small a part as we can be of the massive
largeness of that which we comprise. It's like I say, a lot of times
nobody wants to be a bag of toenails and eyeballs in the body of Christ,
but they're essential. And scripture says that those
less honorable parts have greater glory. Jesus, when confronted
by the sons of thunder. Which of my sons will sit at
your right? Can my son sit at your right and your left? And
Jesus says that's not for me to decide, but for the father
to decide. But I'll tell you this, and here's
a paraphrase. Anyone who seeks to find his
life in this life will lose it. Anyone seeks to gain his life
will lose it. Anyone who loses his life for
the sake of the gospel will find it. The first must become last
and the last shall become first. Humility is that. And humility
isn't I'm going to be last so I can be first. Humility is I'm
going to be last so I can be last. You can't fool God. And you can't
lie to yourself long enough. Humility reveals the mind of
Christ. Humility puts others first, and
that's where it goes, counting others more significant. And
this is where this is where we could really get bogged down
in a bunch of details. But friends, everything we think
and do, everything we feel, let's evaluate it that way. Am I putting
myself and my needs and my thoughts? And I'm not saying we don't tend
to ourselves and we don't tend to our needs, but we know the
difference. We know the difference when our
heart gets frustrated, when someone interjects themselves into our
lives at the most inopportune time. What do we need to do is
to say every Thursday between 305 and 412 is when you can have
a crisis. And if you need me, there I am. You you hold that crisis. Don't
get sick. Don't get the flu. I mean, couldn't
that be great if our kids did that? You know, I've got a little
bit of free time. Tomorrow's a good day to get
the virus. Let's just schedule it." No, when do they do that?
At bedtime? When you're leaving to go out
of town? When company just came over? When you decide to plan
a fellowship or a barbecue and there's 30 people there and they're
all eating and the kid goes, blah, all over the patio? Isn't that just fantastic? Why
couldn't you get... You see what I mean? That's just
temporal, physical things. How are we thinking of others
greater than ourselves, just in our time and plans? But that's
not even what Paul's talking about. It applies, but it's not
what he's talking about. How about our needs and our hurts
and our pain? I think we're getting more to
the core there in that we ought to consider other people's needs
and pains more important than ours. And the person who's humble that
counts someone more significant than themselves never says, No
one's putting my needs first. They don't say that. Because
it's not the truth of the person who's humble. Someone else is
putting their needs first. But it puts others first place
in our ministry. Not ourselves. It puts others
first place in our spiritual growth, not ourselves. If we
want to learn some theological stuff, but it'd be better suited
for us to teach what we do know already to someone else for the
sake of their joy, then that's what we do. Friends, it would
be easy for me to go find a cave and read. But by God's grace,
I can't stand not teaching. I love to share. And for those
of you who are with us on Tuesdays, you can see that I can run way
wide into the wrong direction on things. But it's just it's
so amazing to see. Something about Christ, about
his word, about the gospel that I didn't see quite clearly before,
I just want you to see it. Do you want others to see? Looking out for the interests
of others. Means that there are many interests
that other people have other interests besides our interests.
It means that their interests may be different than our interests.
Or they would be our interests. See, if someone is interested
and has an interest in something that's our interest and it's
not their interest, it's our interest of a confusion yet. These interests of others may
seem trivial and they may seem not important, but they do matter. We are to look out for them,
we are to look out for them, look out for them means this. Intensely watch over. We are
to watch over the interests of others, and this is where I think
we need to land our plane on understanding this text could
have done this whole sermon in 10 minutes. We need to be concerned
and carefully watching each other's spiritual growth. We need to
be watching each other's spiritual maturity. We need to be watching
how each other worships. We need to be watching how each
other fail. We need to be watching out for
the interest of each other's joy. Now, there's a difference
in watching over and intently looking into and policing like
some kind of overlord. That's not the point. The point
is, as we are spiritual, we run to them. We pray for them, we
suffer with them, we plead with them, we preach to them, we weep
with them. We rejoice with them. That's
the point. There's no such thing as none
your business in the body of Christ. Even though sometimes
some business needs to stay within a small group of people. And
certainly gossip is wicked. But Paul here is making a point
that we are to have an interest in an active ministry of concerning
ourselves with the spiritual growth, maturity, joy of each
other. What's that look like? What's
up next week? We'll see exactly how we're empowered
to do that, because Christ, though he was equal with God, place
of highest glory, did not come to earth. To for people to behold
that. Look here, I'm God, the most
glorious thing in the world, look at me, what did he say?
I am not receiving glory, but my father receives the glory.
And then when he was raised to life, he even makes the comment,
now I'm going to receive the glory. And he was anticipating,
he was greatly excited about that. But his purpose was to
not just satisfy God's judgment, not just satisfy God's holy command,
but to model who we are in him for his mind is ours. And that's
what we'll look at next week. Today. Are you? interested. It's not just the
doing. I guess the ultimate question
is, do you have a heart and an attitude for being interested
in the lives of others spiritually? We're quick to run to people's
aid when they're sick. Good. That's that's the product
of this. We're quick to always be there
for a physical need. That's awesome. If it wasn't
there, there'd be a problem. But are we quick daily, constantly
concerned with the spiritual growth of each person in the
flock of Christ, not just among, well, specifically here as Grace
Truth, but also those that we know who are in Christ in our
lives and other congregations. People who confess a wrong theology,
people who are hopeless, And they don't understand how they're
supposed to trust Christ in a time of peril. And they're being told
by their Christian brothers and sisters of other places, of other
communities, of other cultures, you just got to hold on. You
got to let go and let God help. We hold on or we let go. If God
carried you to it, he'll carry you through it. Well, why did
God bring me to this in the first place? Is he dragging me through
it, kicking and screaming? Is he walking with me? See how
these little cliches, they're not ministry. The word of God
is ministry. We must be intimately concerned
with our spiritual growth and the growth of others. Paramount,
it is paramount at the cost, listen, of everything else, even
our food. Even our health. Even our homes. And it's not easy to do, but
it happens when Christ is at work in us. It happens because it gives the
glory to the one to whom it's due. God. Christ. Is your joy full? Is your joy
full in seeing that type of ministry in your life? Is your joy full
in seeing God grow you so that you may grow others? Is your
joy full? This is what Paul is teaching.
This is what Christ has done so that we would have the fullness
of joy when we see the fullness of Christ. Let's pray. Father, we could go on and on
and on and on. Your word does not return to
you empty, vain, void, worthless. It does all that it was intended
to do. And so in that we rejoice, God,
your word has burrowed into our hearts and into our physical
ears. And only through your spirit
would it produce a. A growth with the seed sprout
and produce fruit. So, God, produce fruit. Produce
fruit among the flock of grace truth as we live as a family,
as we grow, as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling,
as we have the mind of Christ, as we put to death our flesh,
as we walk in a manner worthy of the gospel. Produce this fruit. Father, produce this fruit among
the leaders and the students of the youth home as they've
sat under this teaching today. not as observers, but as participants. For they are participants of
the word and the hearing of your gospel. That your only. That their only hope is your
grace toward them in Christ Jesus. Would you continue to do great
things with that ministry? Would you just lift the leadership Would you give vision and clarity
and focus and prayerfulness? To Glenda and the others who
give oversight. And father, would you bring every
young man to faith in Christ? That their life would be marked
with a legacy. Of tending to the needs of others
rather than to the needs of their themselves. That is the prayer
for us all, father. We thank you that you are working
this in us through your word and by your spirit and for the
sake of your name in Christ, we pray. Amen.