Humility of Mind

Okay, so Roger and I are on the telephone one day, and we're going through, I think half of what we do is scheduled. Miles was scheduled today, but somebody took him in another class. What class was that? We're like two general managers on a professional football team. We're trades. He said, well, I don't have anybody for April 7th. He said, I'll do it. He got really excited. I don't know why.

So anyway, so in the order of things, I have verses three and four of Philippians 2. And Paul tells the Philippians, do nothing from selfish or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

So it's interesting that when you look at Paul's epistles, they're divided, they're usually in two sections. There's the doctrinal part, then there's the application part, behavior part, I call it, that he encourages you to live in accordance with what the position is. So in this case, the first section, the doctrinal part is the first 26 verses of chapter one. And then when you, the second part, the second part is from verse 27 through 321. And it's the conduct that's consistent with what he's told you in the first 26 verses. I thought it's important that we take a look at that.

So Philippians 1.26 says, so that I'll show you where the transition comes. So that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again. In the very next verse, he says, only conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. So right away from 26 to 27, Here comes the doctrine based on how we should live based on what is just presented.

And I know it's, this is a quote from J.B. Stoney. He said, the great difficulty in understanding this epistle is that it is the experience of a heavenly man living on the earth down here. Really important to think about that, because that's really who we are. We're heavenly people living here.

So the question is, can we expect Christians to see eye to eye on every detail of doctrine, opinions, function, answer, it's not to be expected, that all Christians see eye to eye in every detail. I don't think that's expected. Our thoughts and actions are largely influenced by our heredity, our environment, education. Therefore, it's nearly impossible to find a group of Christians who will see everything from the same point of view. Agree with that? Yes, church. But how then shall we dissolve our differences or solve our problems or disagreements?

Paul gives a satisfactory solution to this in just these two verses, I think. He says, let nothing, that does mean a couple of things, but nothing through self-ambition or conceit that nothing be done through self-ambition or conceit. Let's look at some of the words in the verses. This word, through, is a Greek word that indicates the relative state of mind.

It shows an impelling motive. So the impelling motive is that whatever I'm going to do, even though I may not even recognize it, is my own ambition. then it's going to be empty and vain. I love the word vain. King James, I remember when I first started reading King James, it just was vain glory. What the heck is that? I didn't realize it. By saying what the heck is that, I was demonstrating vain glory.

Anyway, it's made up of two words. The first word is empty, vain, used in a sense of to no purpose, it's futile. And the other meaning is opinion. So a lot of times, you know, I mean, our sin nature tells us that my opinion is probably the best one. Yours is second to mine. But your sin nature says to you, my opinion is the best. and yours should be second to mine. That's the way the sin nature works.

Being aware of that, I think, is helpful for us as believers. The desire to push oneself forward, partisan, from the Blue Letter Bible. It was interesting, the Blue Letter Bible, I just happened to sit in some place, Wait, I think I was at the doctor's office waiting for something. I went for the blue leather Bible over the phone. Eventually, they got their definitions. This is why people run for office. They want to impose their opinion on everybody else. They're not running from a service standpoint. They want to impose their opinion.

A self-seeking pursuit of political office by unfair means, according to Aristotle. He got it right. So, next word, selfish ambition, is conceit. Now this is kind of an interesting word. It has the idea of conflict. You get from these verses that there must have been splinter groups in the Philippian church. And this exhortation implies that there is.

But you know what? When's the last time you were in a group of four people that you didn't have four different attitudes or four different opinions? And in the body of Christ, it's interesting. Why do we have so many denominations? And why do we have grace-based people, law-based people, and on and on it goes? is because of this thing, selfish ambition, in my own opinion, conceit. It implies self-seeking, ambition, rivalry, that kind of thing. Self-will being an underlying idea of the word. So he's saying, let nothing be done through those two things. It is derived not from the word eros, I was surprised by this, because some of the translations use the word strife, but it really isn't the right word. The word is erathos, a hireling, hence the meaning, seeking to win followers, factions.

In other words, if I'm going to express my opinion and want to be relevant in an environment that I live in, I'm going to seek people to line up with me, aren't we? Unless you're super shy. But you do. You go around, you talk to people, and you have conversations, and you like to hang out with people who think you're right. They say you're right.

The exclusion in Paul's epistles is an indication of what is wrong and the situation which Paul wants to correct. The inclusion, exclusion. In other words, he's saying this shouldn't be But he wouldn't say that if it wasn't a problem. So, then he gives the opposite comparison. But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Lowliness of mind.

Plato defined it, the state of mind which submits to the divine order of the universe and does not impiously absolve itself. That's from a guy who played it. Interesting he saw that. In a culture that any sign of weakness was not acceptable. So here's Paul coming into the Greek society and he's telling people lowliness of mind is an asset. Greeks didn't think so. They despised it. But when it comes to the New Testament, its meaning has been unknowable. The word is used in a secular document like of the Nile River. It is a low stage and in a sentence it runs low. It's the same word. It's of little consequence. However, esteem others. Strong's usage notes as a reciprocal pronoun, preceded by a preposition meta, with and signifies with each other.

True unity will be destroyed where self-esteem prevails, rather than a higher esteem for others. I think, not to chase a rabbit, but I think that When you look at who are probably going to be the two presidential candidates, one of the issues is how much ego does each one of them have? And will they actually put their ego aside once in a while and help the people? It's a hard thing. It's really a hard thing, but it fits.

Whenever the dominant note in any Christian group is selfishness, or self-forgetfulness. I'm sorry, let me start. Whenever the dominant note in any group is selflessness and self-forgetfulness, unity will take the place of factions. And as I was studying that, I was thinking, it's interesting how the Spirit of God works in us along those lines.

He's not trying to beat us up, but he's trying to get us, by realizing the grace we live under, to begin to esteem others more than myself. More than myself. And every institution in the world system is designed with self-esteem. Right? Just watch TV for half an hour, listen to commercials, help yourself kind of thing. It's all about self-esteem. Now, better here is a translation of the word which means literally having above or to excel or to surpass.

Here's a quote from J.B. Stone. What a blessed thought to have such sweet and heavenly privileges in Christ and to be loved by him And yet to make such trivial returns as even our hearts know, to be together, unworthy of Him, is a bitter experience as to ourselves. Whereas when we look at another, we can readily feel not only how blessed Christ is for him, and how faithful is His goodness, but love leads us to proper failings. is failed, to see and to keep before us that which is lovely and of a good report in the sense. I don't know if you're a fan of J.D. Stone. He has a way sometimes of saying things that no one else says in that way. So how is the spirit of opposition and self-exaltation to be overcome? You recognize that it's there. loathing us and mine, but each one esteem others better than themselves.

Paul learned a hard experience. He had to bring his old self with its empty pride to the cross. There lies the answer. If you're a student of people like Miles Stanford, Every time Miles Stamford addressed a problem, including 100 dilemma papers that he wrote to other people, he took them every single time to the cross. That's what happens at the cross. Self dies at the cross. It's crucifixion. Yeah. And at the cross, The message of the cross isn't clear enough.

It allows the self-esteem to leak out. But at the cross of Christ, there is no place for self-esteem. And that's a hard concept to grab a hold of, because everything you've ever learned since you were old enough to respond to the English language is all built around self and self-esteem.

Paul said, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world was crucified unto me, and I unto the world. It's a very powerful statement in the sense that Paul the Apostle is the one that says to the people that he's sending those letters to, glory in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where the glory is, not in you, but in Christ. And the whole world is in his blood. Now, Paul gives us a final word in his plea before turning to the perfect pattern of genuine humility.

He says, look, not every man on his own things, but every man also hunt with things of rubbish. In other words, contemporary English, pay attention to somebody else's things before you pay attention to your own. Now, when you hear stuff like that, you think, well, gee, how can I feed my family here, man? How can I function in this world if I don't pay attention to my own things. So I would ask you, how do you balance this thing? How do you look at it? Not at every man's own things, but not look at your own things, but look at somebody else's things.

And in light of the fear that comes up in your mind, well, I can't do that because I'll go broke. a man say that, or I will not be able to feed my family, or I won't be a leader in my household. Yeah, and Mike, you know, defining what, in my translation, I have interests rather than things.

Are you going to get to that? Yeah, okay, good. No. Defining what things are is pretty critical here. Yeah, what are those things? That's a good question, Roger. When it says, every man in his own thing, in his own interest, what are you talking about? If I said to you, pick out your pencil, a piece of paper, and write down the five most important things in your life, what would you write down?

Well, hopefully for a Christian, that's pretty easy. At least the first one should be pretty easy. Well, it depends on whether a Christian is being honest. That's a good point. Good point. So what would you do? I think it's one of those things that is really important for us to understand when it comes to this admonition, look not to every man's, don't look at your own, look at the other guy first. Hard to do, right? Think about it.

You have a conversation, you come to church on Sunday mornings, and Jim and I run into each other in the hall. We spend five minutes talking. You know what we're talking about? You're talking about his stuff, and I'm talking about my stuff. Right? Talking about, well, we had a conversation a couple of weeks ago. We talked about diet, exercise, medications. And I gave you my opinion, you gave me yours. It's kind of great to help you out with.

Number one- Mike? Yeah. My translation here says, look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. So could you see it like you're not just thinking about yourself, but you're also taking other people into consideration? Yeah, that's good. That's really good. That is good, because we have to do the things for ourselves that our bodies need. Like it says here, we also need to look out for our brothers and sisters. It's not just all about us. We're not here to be served by everybody else. We're here to serve other people too. That's good.

Is it only when you have a physical ailment? When you're talking about also the things of others, what are some of those things? Things they're going through, maybe, I don't know, just things that are on their mind that are troubling them. I think one of the coolest phrases, and I'm paraphrasing because I don't have it in front of me, is out of Hebrews 12, where Metaphors set up, we're all running a race to glory, and the believer begins to slow down when you come beside him.

Not to walk in front of him or behind him, but to walk beside him. When you're walking beside somebody, there's interaction going on, and you're encouraging them. Before I was a Christian, Don and I, every Sunday we were running some 10K race someplace. And there was always, you know, she'd fall back, or I'd see somebody I knew, or I'd fall back.

One day at the tech center, that guy pulls up next to me. He said, how's it going? And I looked at him and I said, I didn't know he'd signed up for the trade. He said, oh, I didn't. He was on the other side of the reservoir. He ran all the way over there, ran the race, and ran home. So I'm not so sure that occurs.

So the thing is, is there's a sensitivity, without being nosy, of the needs of others. And sometimes they're emotional. Sometimes they're physical. Sometimes they're financial. A lot of times, they're just looking them in the eye. For example, in my event, there was a youth caravan. Somebody said to me, months ago, we were talking about the home and spirit.

And people don't look at them in the eye. They prefer to look down at them when they talk to them. I don't know if it was you or not, The point of the story was that when you meet a homeless person, look them right in the eye. You know why? It makes them feel important. Just look at them in the eye. Don't look down because you're ashamed to be around them. That's how they pick it up. Look them right in the eye. Somebody is having trouble. Look them in the eye. It makes a huge difference because they think, oh, wow. He or she does care about me. He's looking right at me. Look is from the Greek word, which means to fix the attention upon which desire for and interest in. So look is a really interesting word.

I sometimes think in my marriage, I don't look at my wife's needs enough. I ought to be paying better attention. things just go on around the house and we're living our life and something happens and I think, oh my goodness, I should have probably paid more attention to that.

I'm not the only one, Mike. I like for renters to consult one's own interests. The Greek sponsors say, no party having an eye for its own interests alone, but also for the rest. I think that, Marla, that fits with what you said. We have a lot of responsibility just living in one of them as the interest of others, especially in the body of Christ. So the exhortation here is to widen one circle of consideration. We must learn to think beyond ourselves and give serious consideration to others. Don't we always have a sense about, sometimes people come up to me and say, you see so-and-so this morning and say, yeah, I think they're really hurting. How do you know that? I don't know. I have a sense. Or so-and-so isn't doing so good today.

And I recognize that there are, You know, the gifted people within the body of Christ who are, I would call them exhorters. They're the kind of people that you can be in an environment and come to church and you're not having a good day. You bought a lottery ticket and didn't win it.

And they'll come up to you and spend five minutes with you and then they leave and think, wow, that was, I feel a lot better that that person just came up to me and talked to me. They have that thing, the Holy Spirit in them, that encourages you, just because they were there. There are a lot of people like that. I wish we could call them more like that.

Here's another quote from Stone. Failure in service. The failure in service is that people, very generally, do not come to it from God. but for all effectual service, we must come from God and therefore place our service after worship. Let me tell you what I think it means here. Part of it is John 20, 21.

As my father has sent me, even so I sent you. So where did the word Jesus come from? The father. He gave him his marching. I think that's true of all of us. One of the big mistakes I think we make in serving other people is that we see the need and we're going to fix the need without going to the Father and saying, would you have me be involved in this? What would you have me do? And the need is so great. I need to be involved in this.

Well, maybe you do, maybe you don't. So if you realize, when he says, worship is first, it means you go to the father and you say, look, I see this need, do you want me there? Now, I'll go or not go, whatever you want me to do, I'll do. And if he wants you to go, he'll send you.

So then you come prepared from this perspective. Does it make sense? I come from the joy of the Lord. He was sent into the world, so are we. But it's important to know where you came from. I'll give you a good example. When I first became a Christian, you know, I'm 35. I don't think I'm smarter than anybody in the world,

35. And through a young wife, which was is a parachristian organization that works with kids, high school kids primarily. And they had a Bible study at Cherry Hills Country Club. Well, of course, it had to be at Cherry Hills.

Couldn't pick somewhere else. And I had gone to this church a couple of times, and I didn't like suburban church, because my background was Catholic, and it was all, you know, At some point, I realized that Catholics like me got dressed up on Sunday, went to church, and got out of there as fast as they could. And they didn't really listen. They weren't.

And so I found that in the churches I started to go to as a new Christian. And so I ended up, I was complaining about it to the guy. And he said, well, we have a storefront mission down on 17th and Larimer. Why don't you come down there on Sunday and see if you like? So I went down there. Nothing. No hairspray. No deodorant. But if you came to the Lord in that environment, I was going to say, it was serious.

We had the same woman come every Sunday. But the point was, it wasn't phony. Those people were just surviving. I loved it there, but I noticed that some of the guys from Cherry Hills would come down there once or twice a year, and they helped support it financially. But then they go back to Cherry Hills and they spend the next three months bragging about the fact they spent 15 minutes at the mission.

That's not the same thing that's coming from the father. I mean, who wants to go to a mission on Sunday morning where it smells bad? Coffee's awful. Maybe there's a couple of drunks in the audience. I mean, you'd have loved it. We had a sermon, and we sang hymns. And then we passed out sandwiches. You didn't get the sandwich unless you lived through the sermon. And then we passed out clothes, and you didn't get the clothes unless you lived through the sermon. But it was just a fascinating place to me, and then it closed, and we couldn't reproduce it, so that's how I found my way here.

But I noticed that people have a tendency to want to be rubbed shoulders with something that's an identifiable Christian ministry for self-serving reasons. In other words, They didn't come from the Father to that ministry. You see that? And I think every one of us are called by the Lord to serve in some capacity. And a lot of them are not visible. They're just there in your everyday life.

So when it comes to serving, And J.B. Stoney said there are three kinds. There's the moral influence, there's any kind of act, you know, physical service, and then there are gifts. I thought, well, that's really right. Moral influence, I think, is the most important one.

So what is service? Service now consists of my being sent out as Christ's deputy to carry out in this world what Christ is. That's really what service is. I'm placed according to the divine grace in the same condition as Christ is in heaven at the right hand of God, and I'm sent into the world as he was.

It's interesting how position condition works. Position is always first. And from your position, you get your marching orders. You go into your condition. Next, what does service aim at? I hope this question is clear. It aims at a person's condition. I don't have to tell you about the doctrine of position and condition. You're all pretty aware of that.

Service has to do with condition, not position, condition. And a true servant is one who will care for your condition. whether you're a teacher, exhorter, whatever. He does not merely do a work for you to satisfy his own conscience, but as Paul says, that I may be of good comfort when I know your conditions. Well, I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your condition.

He uses the word state when it comes to 1920. The thought conveyed by the word naturally is that one who, like a relative, will care for your condition, like a mother with a child. They were of this mind, and the thing before them was their state and their condition. As I get older and watch people older than I am get to a point where they need help, Well, there's no help like family.

These places that people go, elderly people go, where there's no love, and they're just mechanical places. The body of Christ, we are called to take care of our own. Why? Because we're all relatives. We all belong to the same family. Now, maybe it is. in an environment or in a place where the living conditions are, but we're responsible. I just remember George Watson. We never got to visit him. What a place. Three, four people to a room. It was a Medicaid place. But God blessed George. You know how he blessed him? There was a woman in there, a black nurse that loved George. and took care of them. And she was a cool lady.

This gives an immense idea of what service is. It is of a new character, and the Lord opens it out in John 13, 12, and 18, and that's about the washing of the feet. This is the first time in which service comes out as a ministry of the word. The washing of water was the word.

It's not confined to gifts. It's entirely connected with the condition of the believers. It consists in removing the things that interfere with communion with the Lord. Do you understand that part? It's a really important part. When you come beside somebody, that's really what...

When the Lord Jesus washed the apostles' feet, what was he doing? He was taking the thing away. that kept them from contacting me and cleaning. What do we do when we counsel somebody who's hurting and sin? We're trying to get the thing that's in the way of their intimacy with Christ out of the way. If I wash your feet, it is to remove what interferes with your community. So if I do not know your condition, I cannot know what interferes with your community.

In other words, now that doesn't put the onus on you to confess to me, or confess to somebody who confessed to me, but the idea is that whatever is the block in God's word, you get it out of the way, so that they can have one-on-one intimacy with Christ himself.

This gives a new character, a service all together that's considering for the condition of others, David Stone. Service would be reflected in our perspective on one another if they loved him so much, the Lord Jesus. Why do they love each other more than they did? The selfish and self-seeking man looks out for himself. He's taken up with his own interests. What kind of a quick quote, Toby? Yeah. That's all right. You can go a little bit down. You're a yes.

But the Christian, for the sake of unity, is exhorted to look not onto his own interests, but onto the interests of others. It's a part of our fallen human nature to suppose that life's greatest happiness can be found in man satisfying his own desires. You ought to stick that up on a billboard someplace. Let no group or individual within the church have an eye for its own interest alone, but for the rest.

And lastly, may God save us from being so excessively occupied with our own interests that we are completely unconscious of others. For when we yield to selfishness, we lose the end. So this does a review. Do nothing. from selfishness or intricacy. But with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourself. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but for those interests of others. Well, Father Harley, thank you. So careful to instruct us and to put us in a position where we can be of service to others, where we can walk beside others, where we can encourage others, and we can remove barriers to a believer's interest, intimacy with your dear son, the Lord Jesus. And we pray in his name. Amen.