Pray, amen.
Amen.
Let's look back at verse one of the Bible read.
If there be there for any consolation in Christ,
if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit,
if any bowels and mercies,
fulfill ye my joy that ye be like-minded,
having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory,
but in lowliness of mind,
let each esteem other better than themselves.
Look not every man in his own things,
but every man also on the things of others.
Let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus,
who being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
but made himself of no reputation,
and took upon him the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of men.
And in this passage, we have the mention of the servant,
the fact that Jesus Christ, he became a servant for us,
he was in the form of a servant,
he didn't make himself a reputation.
But the emphasis in this chapter,
it says four different times
about having this type of a mindset.
Notice that it says in verse two,
that ye be like-minded, right?
It says at the end of that verse, one mind.
It says in verse three, but in lowliness of mind.
It says in verse five, let this mind be in you.
So four different times in this passage
is constantly bringing up,
this is the mindset that we need to have.
What mindset?
The mindset of a servant, the mindset of a servant.
And the title of the sermon is the mindset of a servant,
or a servant's mindset, however you wanna word that.
But we need to try and figure out
what is the mindset of a servant?
And I feel like in this passage,
we have three very clearly defined aspects
to what it means to be a servant.
What is the mindset of a servant?
Now, before I get there,
I wanna think, what is a servant in the dictionary?
It's one that serves others.
That's pretty, you know, eye-opening, right?
But that's really, I mean, even though it sounds silly,
I think a lot of people don't realize,
hey, a servant is one who's serving others,
not serving themselves,
not serving for some kind of personal gain
or personal recognition.
It's about other people.
That's the whole meaning of being a servant.
And that's what it means to be Christ-like.
You know, we say we're a Christian.
What is a Christian?
A Christian is one who's like Christ.
If we truly wanna be like Christ,
then we have to have the mindset of a servant.
We have to have the mindset that he had,
which was one of being a servant.
Now, notice what it said in verse three.
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory,
but in lowliness of mind,
let each esteem other better than themselves.
My first point that we have here in this passage
is that the mindset of a servant is one that is selfless.
Selfless.
In order to have the mindset of a servant,
you must be selfless.
What is that?
Esteeming other better than yourselves.
And notice that nothing you do
is through strife or vainglory.
What is strife?
Strife is contention.
Strife is fighting.
Strife is struggling.
Keep your finger here
because we'll be coming back throughout the sermon,
but go to 2 Timothy chapter number two.
2 Timothy chapter number two.
Striving with someone is trying to fight with them,
trying to contend with them,
doing things against them.
This would not be esteeming someone better than yourself.
This would not be looking,
oh, your idea's better,
or your thoughts are better,
or I want you to succeed.
It's about you succeeding or your ideas or what you want.
But look what the Bible says about a servant.
It says in 2 Timothy chapter number two, verse 24,
and the servant of the Lord,
notice this, must not strife,
but be gentle unto all men at the teach patience.
So what's the opposite of striving?
Being gentle.
Being gentle unto people.
Being kind unto people.
And notice it says in verse 25,
in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves,
if God, peradventure, will give them repentance
to the acknowledging of the truth,
and that they may recover themselves
out of the snare of the devil,
who are taken captive by him at his will.
And one thing I want you to understand is
we believe in hard preaching at this church.
We believe that the person getting up
and preaching the Bible should spare not, okay?
Lift up thy voice like a trumpet,
and show my people their transgression.
But I don't want to get you confused
to thinking that your lifestyle
should be that of preaching, okay?
Have you ever had somebody, you're talking with them,
they're like, hey, I don't really want you to preach at me.
You're not being gentle
when you're thundering forth God's word.
You know, when I stand behind this pulpit,
I'm supposed to be on God's behalf.
I'm supposed to just make things manifest and obvious,
and make them plain and clear,
and even sometimes even go a little over the top
just to emphasize the point that's being illustrated.
But this is not my example of how to treat your wife, okay?
This is not my example of how to treat your children.
You know, it shouldn't be a hard,
your lifestyle should not be just hard preaching.
That should be how you preach, okay?
The servant of the Lord's not gonna be gentle,
meaning outside the pulpit
when he's interacting with people.
Look, people come and ask me questions even in this room.
There's people in this room that come and ask me questions,
and mentally I'm just like, what?
I'm thinking, that's so stupid.
Why would you ask me that?
Are you serious?
But I'm not gonna sit there and just be like,
you're an idiot, you moron.
I say, oh yeah, let me show you a few verses.
Yeah, I think the Bible says something a little bit different.
But when I'm getting up and preaching the Bible,
I'm gonna just tell you how it is.
It's gonna be raw, unfiltered truth,
and I'm gonna make it manifest,
and that's what we believe in, and that's what we want.
And yeah, that turns some people away,
and some people don't really like that.
But at the end of the day, I'd rather go to a church
where I feel I can just thunder forth God's word
than be holding back.
I'm not gonna spare on the preaching of God's word.
But my daily interaction should be that of being gentle.
What's meekness?
When someone's wrong,
I'm not just gonna throw it in their face.
I'm gonna in meekness try to instruct them.
Say, hey, I think the Bible says something different.
Can I show you?
Or, yeah, I don't really agree with that.
Can I show you why?
Or, hey, you did something wrong here.
Just any of your interactions
where there's some kind of a controversy in meekness,
you're gonna instruct them.
And notice what it says in verse 26,
that they may recover themselves of the snare of the devil
who are taken captive by him at his will.
Now, when I think of this verse,
a lot of times we think of the application of soul winning.
And I think that that applies.
But I don't believe that this passage
is primarily about soul winning.
I think it's actually just to the safe.
Because go back to 1 Timothy chapter number three.
Go back to 1 Timothy chapter three.
Let's just compare spiritual to spiritual
because didn't it say it would take people
out of the snare of the devil?
Well, why don't we just look up
what the snare of the devil is
and see if it's a saved person or an unsaved person?
Look what it says in verse number seven.
Moreover, you must have a good report
of them which are without.
Now, who's he talking about?
He's talking about a pastor.
He's talking about a bishop or an elder.
He says, why lest he fall under approach
and the snare of the devil?
Notice the person here being mentioned
is not an unsaved person.
This is a saved person.
Saved people can get caught up in the snares of the devil.
What are those snares?
Bitterness, envy, strife, vainglory,
being puffed up, being full of pride.
And whenever people are in this snare of the devil,
it can end up destroying their life.
Maybe the love of money, that's a great snare
that even saved people can get very entrapped with
and pierce themselves through with many sorrows
as the Bible says.
It says, oh man of God, believe these things.
Why would he tell him to flee those things
if it wasn't a potential danger?
It's obviously a potential danger.
And so even when we're talking with saved people,
when they're screwing up their lives
and they're doing bad and wrong and neatness,
we need to go to them instructing them
so that we can help get them out of whatever snare
they could potentially be in.
Yeah, I think that applies to soul winning,
but it also applies to the saved.
I'll go to Galatians chapter five.
So we have to understand that we don't wanna go around
and just creating strife,
constantly contending with the brethren,
constantly contending with the saved.
No, and meekness, I wanna instruct those.
And meekness and gentleness and kindness
and being courteous and loving.
I want an atmosphere where when we come to church,
I don't feel like I'm gonna be constantly berated
for everything that I do wrong.
You know, there's some churches
where everything looks perfect.
Everybody's dressed exactly perfectly right.
Because if you're not, you're gonna hear about it.
They're gonna pick you apart.
They're so what you call judgmental, truly.
I mean, you go in and they're just picking people apart.
And if you're not dressed to the nines
and you're not holding your Bible exactly right,
and you're not showing up to service,
I mean, you're gonna get texts from every single person,
why you're not at church every single service
and what you're doing wrong.
And you saying off key in the choir
and you're late for choir practice.
And you see what your daughter's wearing.
I mean, just like a constant barrage of being judgmental.
I don't want that.
You say, well, from the pulpit,
you're constantly pointing out everything.
Yeah, we gotta understand preaching's
a little bit different, okay,
than how you interact with people on a daily basis.
Do I go around just hard preaching
every time I talk to you?
I mean, every time I talk to you
before and after this earth,
where were you last week?
You know, didn't see you at soul-winding time, did I?
You know, forsaken and assembling ourselves.
You know, let's turn to their Bibles.
I walk on you, let's turn our Bibles.
It's like, no, I'm just trying to love on people
and be kind to people, okay.
Another thing is vainglory.
It wraps strife with vainglory.
What's vainglory?
Well, Galatians 5, verse 26 says,
let us not be desirous of vainglory,
provoking one another, envying one another.
I looked in the dictionary.
Vainglory is excessive or ostentatious pride,
especially in one's achievements.
Now, immediately after reading that definition,
I had to look up what ostentatious is.
I was like, oh, okay.
Trying to make me really understand that one.
Ostentatious, okay.
Attracting or seeking to attract attention.
Admiration or envy, often by godliness or obviousness.
Overly elaborate or conspicuous.
So this is someone that's just going out of their way
for people to notice them.
They just want people, look at me.
I'm so, you know, handsome or beautiful,
or I'm so smart or I'm so wonderful.
Just going around, that's vainglory.
You think of the Catholic church.
I mean, the priests, I mean, the clothing
and the garb that these people wear,
it's just, look at me.
Look how godly and righteous.
I mean, they have like 18 gold chains,
and I mean, they're dressed in a way
that nobody would dress on purpose, you know.
You don't see people, look,
there's plenty of people wearing a suit today.
People aren't even saved.
Sometimes bums on the corner are wearing suits.
I mean, look, it's not like I'm trying
to just overly stand out, and in fact,
if we were just all sitting together and someone came in,
they wouldn't just be like, oh, there's the pastor.
There's a lot of men in here dressed very nice,
dressed like they could be the pastor.
Look, I'm not trying to get some kind of vainglory,
but at the end of the day, obviously I want to dress nice.
I think that we should dress, you know,
in a way that's pleasing unto God
and dress in a way that's gonna magnify and honor Him.
I'm not in skinny jeans up here, they're ripped.
I'm not dressing like an effeminate queer
or something like that.
That would, to me, be vainglory anyways.
What kind of recognition am I trying to get with that?
Oh, look how cool I am.
Look how studly I am, you know, with my new hairstyle
and my cool slim fit T-shirt
that says John 3.16 on it,
because I'm so godly.
There's a store.
I went, was it Baltimore?
I don't know, we're at like some mall
and there's a store called 3.16
and it's just like selling John 3.16 merchandise.
And I was just like, what in the world?
I'm so godly, look at my 3.16 T-shirt, you know.
I'm sure no one in that store even believes it, you know.
It's sad.
Go to Matthew chapter 16, go to Matthew chapter 16.
But we ought not want vainglory.
What's vainglory?
Vainglory is that in which man's day
is just looking at you
and wondering how wonderful you are.
This is what man is typically after, the vainglory,
getting their fathead poster, you know.
Do you have my fathead poster on the wall?
You know, do you want me to sign an autograph of my picture?
You know, do you want me to, you know,
have posters and pictures and my album and everything,
a T-shirt with my face on it?
Do you want a tattoo with my face on it?
You know, just weird stuff that people do and get.
And that's just all vainglory.
There's no real purpose to it.
It doesn't add anything.
And a lot of times the celebrities and the stars,
they're going out of their way for vainglory, you know.
Ochocinco.
I've changed my name to my jersey number
just because I just want extra glory, you know.
Ochocinco, you know, I'm just so great.
This is vainglory.
They're over the top and trying to get people to like them.
It's all about my number.
It's all about who I am as a football player
and it's me, me, me.
And I have a website, you know,
that's all dedicated to me and honoring me
and T-shirts about me.
I mean, at that point you need to just run away.
If I have, you know, Pastor Jonathan Shelley T-shirts,
you know, runaway screaming, okay.
I don't want that.
You rebuke me, okay.
That's, I'll give you an exception.
If I'm wearing a T-shirt that's like got my picture on it
and it's all about Jonathan Shelley, you know.
No.
And look, I'm not, I'm all for, you know,
giving other people praise and honor and glory, you know,
but I'm not gonna try and do that for myself.
You know, 1995, you can get your own Jonathan Shelley
T-shirts, see me afterwards, you know.
Like, who will buy 10, who will pledge to buy 20, you know.
Like, I'm not looking for this vainglory, okay.
Matthew chapter 16, look at what Jesus was like
because Jesus is our example, right.
Not one of strife and vainglory.
Says in verse 24, then Jesus said,
then said Jesus unto the disciples,
if any man will come after me, let him deny himself
and take up his cross and follow me.
So notice an aspect of following Jesus Christ
is denying yourself.
Saying no to yourself.
Not desiring the vainglory.
Not trying to strive and contend with other people,
thinking that you're better than other people.
Says in verse 25, for whosoever will save his life
shall lose it.
And whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world
and lose his own soul?
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
For the son of man shall come in the glory of his father
with his angels and then he shall reward every man
according to his works.
Now the thing about Jesus Christ,
there is gonna be a day when he comes in glory,
there is gonna become a time when he gets honored
and praised for who he is,
but his first coming was not so.
His first coming was not with a bunch of vainglory.
He was born in a manger.
He was born with the animals.
He was born unto poor parents.
He was just born of a small family,
of no one of reputation.
He wasn't born, obviously he was a son of David,
but even though he had that lineage,
there was nothing really extra special about Mary or Joseph.
He was just born into a carpenter's home.
He was born in a meek and humble life.
He just was born and raised in normal circumstances.
He wasn't going over the top.
He wasn't coming in.
Even when he entered into Jerusalem,
the triumphant entry of Jesus Christ,
he's riding on a colt, the foal of an ass.
He's not riding on chariots of fire
and with all the seraphim.
I mean, when he comes again, it's gonna be pretty glorious.
But the first coming was lowly and meek.
He wasn't there for all the vainglory.
He wasn't there for a show.
He wasn't there to just look at me.
They crucified him.
They weren't even that excited about it.
Go to Matthew chapter number 16.
Oh, you're here.
Look at verse 20.
Then charged he his disciples
that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.
Now, I've thought about these verses a lot,
but I wanna look at several.
Notice that Jesus Christ did not want people
to brag on him.
He was trying to conceal in many cases who he was, why.
He wasn't after vainglory.
He wasn't after some kind of a show.
He wasn't trying to go around bragging about himself.
And in fact, very humble people,
oftentimes if they do something good
or if they do something that's worthy of recognition,
oftentimes they'll encourage people,
hey, don't go around telling people this
or hey, I don't need you to brag about me
or don't make this public.
This is just between you and me.
I just wanna help you out.
They're not in it for people to just go around
and talking about how great they are.
After he'd heal people, after he did great miracles
and wonders and all these different things,
he's saying, hey, don't go around spreading this.
Don't tell anybody.
Just it's between you and me.
I healed you, who cares?
Move on.
He wasn't looking to just get a bunch of vainglory.
Go to Matthew chapter number eight, go backwards.
He was not attracting attention.
Jesus Christ was not trying to attract attention
while he was on this earth.
He was here to just minister.
He wasn't here to get a bunch of glory.
And if everybody's just going around bragging on Jesus,
then it's gonna attract a lot of vain people.
It's gonna attract a lot of light and vain fellows
and this type of a crowd.
He wasn't interested in just being worshiped
while he was on the earth.
He was interested in ministering
to as many people as he possibly could.
And a lot of times, the more glory and recognition
and fame that you're getting,
the harder it is to minister unto other people.
So he just wants to go as unnoticed as possible
around healing people.
But obviously, it's the word of God made flesh, okay?
Obviously, it's gonna attract people.
Obviously, people were being brought in,
but that wasn't his goal.
His goal was not to see how many people
he could just get to worship him while he's on this earth.
It was to see how many people he could minister to.
It was to go and find every single person that was lost
and try and preach them the gospel and get them saved.
That was his goal.
His goal is not about recognition,
but obviously, he's gonna get recognition from that.
Look at Matthew chapter eight, verse three.
And Jesus put forth his hand and touched him,
saying, I will.
Be thou clean, and immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
And Jesus saith unto him, see thou tell no man,
but go thy way, show thyself to the priest,
not for the gift that Moses commanded
for a testament unto them.
Jesus Christ is truly selfless.
He's not going around healing people to get recognition.
He's healing people because he loves them.
He's healing people because he cares for them.
Go to Mark chapter number eight.
Tell no man that they should tell no man.
Here's my question.
When you do something good,
are you hoping that somebody will go around
and brag on you?
Or are you hoping they won't tell anybody?
Because then we can figure out
what kind of mindset you have.
Do you have the mindset like Jesus Christ?
Why hope that nobody ever tells
any of the good things that I do?
Because I'm not interested in people bragging about me
and talking wonderfully.
Or are you just like, man, I really hope
that they just go around and brag about me.
I just really hope everybody gets to find out
how wonderful of a person I am and how much I do
and all the good things that I do unto people.
What's your mindset?
Is your mindset one of being selfless?
Or is your mindset of vainglory, one of strife?
Look at Mark chapter seven, look at verse 35.
I had you during eight, right?
Chapter eight, look at verse 26.
And he sent him away to his house,
saying, neither go into the town
nor tell it to any in the town.
Look at chapter seven, verse 35.
And straightway his ears were opened,
and the string of his tongue was loose,
and he spake plain.
And he charged them that they should tell no man.
But the more he charged them,
so much the more a great deal they published it.
So he's telling people, hey, don't tell anybody,
don't go around.
Obviously, he can't chain people to the ground
and put a lock on them.
But he's not wanting them to go around
and publish all the things he's doing.
Look at chapter eight, verse 30.
And he charged them that they should tell no man of him.
How many verses do I have to point to you?
What's the mindset of Jesus Christ?
Is it one of desiring a lot of glory?
Or is it one of concealing the good works that he's doing?
Not looking for some kind of extra recognition
of some kind of vainglory here.
Go to Matthew chapter number six,
go to Matthew chapter number six.
The mindset of a servant is one who just wants
to help people, he's not in it for himself.
And there's a lot of people today,
they only help people because it makes them look good.
They only wanna help people because of the recognition
that they might receive from it.
They don't actually care about the person
they're even helping, called the Democrats.
I mean, they don't actually care about the poor.
They don't actually care about the minority
and the women and all the people
that they claim to help, right?
They just love the minorities and they love women
and they love the children and they just love everybody
so much and they're just so wonderful
and they just wanna give all these handouts
and all these poor people, they don't love them.
They don't care about them.
They could care, they couldn't care less,
frankly speaking, they're just pawns.
They just wanna use them for votes.
They just wanna use them to push their agendas.
They just wanna take advantage of them,
get a bunch of recognition.
Well, look how caring we are.
You know, the conservatives, they don't care about the poor.
What would these people do
if we didn't have universal healthcare?
It seems like it's been working for a long time, you know.
You know, it's funny because, you know,
when they passed Obamacare,
I went from having insurance to not having insurance.
When Obamacare like fully came into effect,
I ended up not having insurance
because it was too expensive for me to afford it.
But then I made too much money
to qualify for all their programs.
So, you know, the derelict bum on the corner,
he gets healthcare but me and my pregnant wife and children,
we don't get healthcare
because we literally can't afford it
because they just care about people so much.
Well, it's just not fair.
That derelict on the bum shooting up with heroin,
he's gonna constantly need healthcare.
Okay, and you being healthy and responsible,
you don't need as much healthcare, you're right.
But then I get to pay the same premium, don't I?
And I mean, the premiums just skyrocket after that stuff.
Look, they don't care about people.
They don't love people.
They're not interested in helping our society as a whole.
They want that heroin addict to somehow get on a bus
and be shipped in and vote for them
because they're gonna also give them more needles too
and a safe place to go shoot up
and all kinds of other nonsense that's going on.
Look, these people are not selfless.
They wanna masquerade as selfless
and in a spiritual sense, it happens the same way.
There's plenty of people
that spiritually masquerade themselves.
You know, some people come to my church,
where's your food bank?
I don't have one.
I have a spiritual food bank.
It's called Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
And we go out and we feed the poor
when we go out and preach the gospel.
You wanna show up to one of our soul winning times?
That's the food that we're dishing out.
And look, I'm not against feeding people
but at the end of the day, that's not my ministry
and people do this to show how loving they are.
We gave a thousand turkeys away this Thanksgiving.
Hey, we gave a hundred King James Bibles out.
I'm not interested in all this recognition
about how charitable we are
because that's not even true charity.
That's a different sermon.
But let's read what we have here.
Mark, Matthew chapter six, verse two.
Therefore, when thou doest thine alms,
do not sound a trumpet before thee,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets,
that they may have glory of men.
That's that vainglory we're talking about.
So let's contrast for a second.
When Jesus Christ did something good,
did he sound a trumpet?
Hey everybody, look at me, I'm Jesus.
I just healed this guy.
Hey, see that you tell no one.
What does the Pharisee do?
Hey, I'm gonna give you some money.
Look everybody, I'm giving this guy some money over here.
Hey, did you see how big, this isn't a small,
you can't see the check?
Let me get a bigger check, all right?
And I put his name on it and we're gonna,
in fact, let's get a ribbon.
Let's cut the ribbon and then, you know,
and let's put it in the newspaper.
Vainglory, was that what Jesus was like?
Or was he saying, hey, don't tell anybody.
Hey, I wanna help, why?
Because he had the mind of a servant.
They have the mind of vainglory.
They have the mind of recognition.
They want the attention.
They want the focus to be upon them and they're hypocrites.
Why?
Because the good things that they're doing
are not to help that person.
The Pharisee doesn't care about
the person he's giving alms to.
The only reason he's even giving alms
is so that he can sound the trumpet.
And in fact, rich people today,
the only reason they give money
is so they get a tax write-off
and so that they can brag about them being charitable.
Oh, I'm so, you know, philanthropy.
I have so much philanthropy, you know.
No, you're just pathetic.
You're a hypocrite is what you are.
Jesus Christ, true Christianity is not one
that's trying to make a show of all their good works.
Look what it says in verse five.
And when thou pray'st, thou should not be
as the hypocrites are, for they love
the praise standing in the synagogues
and the corners of the streets
that they may be seen of men.
Very thyself, they have their reward.
I was trying to think, you know,
who just stands for a really long time praying?
Hm, hm, hm.
It's called vainglory.
You know, no one sees you praying
in your prayer closet this morning.
I don't know if you prayed or not.
But everybody wants to go and stand
before the wailing wall, don't they?
And for a show, that's why they're praying.
It's not, it's not they think that God,
I bet most of them, they don't even think
God exists probably.
You think Donald Trump is up there just like,
yeah, God, please help me.
He's just thinking like, how long do I have to do this?
You know, man, that girl over there looked pretty cute.
They're just up there for a show.
I can't wait to go to the golf course, you know.
They're not up there pouring out their heart to God.
They don't have the mind of a servant.
Hey, when Jesus Christ prayed, where'd he go?
Oh yeah, the wilderness, by himself, to pray in secret.
Oh, he went up into a mountain by himself
to pray unto God in secret.
What's the mindset of a servant?
It's one that's selfless.
He's not doing things for himself.
He's doing things for others.
When I pray, I'm not praying to be,
oh, look how spiritual I am.
If I pray, it's because I want God to bless other people.
And the majority of my prayer time
should be about other people.
You know, I ask God for things for myself.
I ask God, you know, to give me health.
And I ask God to give me wisdom.
And I ask for God to bless me and to give me strength
and to encourage me.
And I ask for those things.
But you know what?
The majority of my prayer time,
hopefully it's for other people.
Hey, help this person, you know, with their marriage
or with their family or with their kids
or bring more laborers in, you know.
These are the type of things.
And why do I pray those prayers?
Because to help other people.
And again, hopefully you don't know
what my prayer life is like.
Hopefully I don't know what your prayer life is like
because my goal is not to be seen of men.
My goal is not to get some kind of recognition or glory
for how much I pray for certain people.
You have no idea.
And I have no idea about you as well.
Praying's like a skit to them.
You know, the Bible says, let another man praise thee
not thine own mouth, a stranger and not thine own lips.
We should not be going around looking to brag on ourselves.
Did you know that I pray for an hour every day?
Hmm?
How much do you pray?
Look, you shouldn't even talk about it.
Hey, I'm fasting today.
I just wanna let you know.
Oh, you're eating?
I'm fasting.
Do you fast even?
Do you even fast?
Do you even read the Bible as much as I do?
I read it for three hours today
and I posted it on Facebook just to let you know about it.
You know, what was the point of you reading today?
Was it so you could brag about how much you read?
And they probably didn't.
They were probably thinking about other things.
They just thumbed through,
because obviously they didn't read Matthew chapter six.
Oh, you read a lot?
Read Matthew six again.
That's what you should tell them.
Why, pride.
Pride, what's pride?
Pleasure in one's own achievements.
You just think you're great.
You think you're wonderful.
That's what pride is.
You know, the reason why contention comes is pride.
Go to Colossians chapter three.
The Bible says, only by pride cometh contention,
but with a well-advised wisdom.
You know why you have strife and conflict?
Because of pride.
Because you think I'm better,
my idea is better,
things about me are more wonderful.
If you just get in my program,
if my husband,
great.
It's called pride.
That's why you have conflict in your marriage.
You know, the children look at the parents,
well, if mom and dad would just let me do what I want,
everything would go right.
It's pride.
Teenagers are full of pride today.
They think they know better than their parents, don't they?
Hey, let me wake you up.
Your parents know better than you.
It's by pride that you have that contention.
You know why teenagers are constantly conflicting
with their parents?
Pride.
You know why people are constantly conflicting at work?
Pride.
Well, I know better than the boss.
If he'd just do it the way I know,
if he'd just do what I want,
that's called pride.
Jesus Christ was not full of pride.
He was not full of strife.
He was not full of contention.
He wasn't thinking he was superior.
In fact, he just submitted everything
God the Father told him to do.
Hey, I'm just gonna do exactly what he told me to do.
Look at Colossians chapter three, verse 12.
Put on, therefore, as the elect of God,
holding beloved bows of mercy's kindness,
humbleness of mind.
Humbleness of mind means, you know,
I'm differing than this person on something.
Maybe they're right.
Maybe their way's better.
Humbleness.
Humbling yourself or even looking at someone saying,
you know what, I need this person's help.
I think one of the best ways to understand
what true humility is,
is when you look at another person and say,
I need this person.
I need this person's help.
This person is gonna do better.
This person can help me.
This type of an attitude.
One of pride is, they need me to be in charge.
They need me to tell them what to do.
If you're truly a humble person,
you're depending upon someone else.
That's why the true, you know, Christian spirit,
you want to humbling yourself
and looking to Jesus as your help.
Saying I can't do it without Jesus' strength.
I can't get someone saved without the Bible.
I can't get someone saved without these things.
Hey, I need church.
The person that says I don't need church
is not a humble person.
The person that says I don't need to read the Bible,
I'm good.
They're not a humble person.
The person that says I don't need to sing praise
unto God, they're not a humble person.
The person that says I don't need my spouse
or the teenager that says I don't need
my parents' instruction.
This is not a humble person.
A humble person looks to the authorities
and the things in their life as I need them.
I need my parents' instruction.
I need my husband.
I need my wife.
I need my church.
I need my Bible.
I need godly brothers and sisters in Christ.
I need encouragement.
I need these things.
That's what a truly humble person is.
And Jesus Christ knew that he needed the Father.
He needed strength from God the Father.
He needed that companion, that comfort, that rest.
He wasn't full of pride.
The Bible says that he made himself of no reputation
but took upon him the form of a servant
and was made in the likeness of men.
Pride will often desire a reputation.
Go to Matthew chapter 20, Matthew chapter 20.
When you're relying upon other people,
you don't look at the need for some kind of recognition,
some kind of title, some kind of position.
And truly, that's not the,
I mean, you're completely missing the point
when it comes to service.
A servant is not after a title.
A servant is selfless.
A servant is trying to help other people
and doing good unto other people.
When you decide to be a servant,
you're not desiring a reputation.
You're not desiring some kind of office.
You're not, hey, I just wanna help people,
whatever that looks like.
I'm not here to just be worshiped and honored.
A king is one who's worshiped and honored
and praised and glorified, and he's of reputation.
But someone that's seeking to be a servant,
they're not desiring that.
Now, it may happen by natural consequence, and that's great,
but the mindset should not be desiring the position.
Now, the disciples, they made an error in this category.
The disciples, they started desiring reputation.
Look what it says in Matthew 20, verse 21.
And he said unto her, and apparently they're mama's boys,
too, what wilt thou?
She saith unto him, grant that these my two sons may sit,
the one on thy right hand,
and the other on the left in my kingdom.
Now, if any of y'all wanna serve in the church,
you're gonna basically, I'm just gonna say no immediately
if your mom's asking for you then, okay?
If you have your mom come and ask me
if you can serve in the church, it's an automatic no,
all right?
But look, I mean, the disciples and the mother,
they're coming, what are they desiring?
To sit on the left hand and the right hand.
They want some kind of status, don't they?
They want some kind of recognition.
They didn't say, hey, Jesus, we just wanna be your left
and right hand to serve.
We wanna hold your hands up and just do as much as we can
to help you.
No, I just wanna be sitting there, you know, look at me.
I'm at Jesus' left hand, I'm at Jesus' right hand.
They want some kind of recognition,
they want some kind of position.
Verse 22 says, but Jesus answered and said,
ye know not what ye ask, are ye able to drink of the cup
that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism
that I am baptized with?
They say on him, we are able.
And he saith unto them, ye shall drink indeed of my cup
and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with,
but to sit on my right hand on my left is not mine to give,
but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared
to my Father.
Now, I think when they heard this, they were thinking,
can you really take all, you know, the recognition
and the praise and the fame?
And they're thinking, yeah, I can handle that.
You know, I'm sure that if Jesus Christ could've, you know,
spelled it out for them what that really looked like,
they might've been a little more hesitant.
It's kinda like if someone were to say,
hey, what's it like being a pastor?
You know, it's like, let me show you, you know,
if I were to manifest a lot of things that go with it,
maybe it would discourage some people, okay?
Some people would think, oh, I could take the honor
and the praise and the glory.
It's not worth it.
And you know, the reality is the one that wants
to be in leadership is usually not have the right spirit.
The right attitude.
They shouldn't be in leadership.
The person that should be in leadership is the one
that decided I just wanna serve.
I'm not in it for reputation.
I'm not in it to be in the left hand or the right hand.
I just wanna help people.
And eventually, they end up getting elevated in due time.
That's what God wants to do.
He says, and I noticed this, I mean,
oneness is destroyed in every verse in the Bible,
but how can he say it's not mine to give
if he's really the Father?
That's just bizarre, okay?
That's a bonus point.
Verse 24, and when the 10 heard it,
they were moved with indignation against the two brethren.
But Jesus called them unto him and said,
you know that the princes of the Gentiles
exercise dominion over them,
and they that are great exercise authority upon them.
But it shall not be so among you,
but whosoever will be great among you,
let him be your minister.
And whosoever will be chief among you,
let him be your servant.
Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto,
but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many.
Jesus Christ didn't even have anywhere to lay his head.
He was not going around looking to see
how many people could minister unto him.
He was looking to see how many people
he could minister unto.
He was going out and pouring out his life,
giving his life, laying down his life unto others,
not one of looking for some kind of reputation.
He already has the reputation.
He is the King of Kings.
He is the Son of God.
He is equal with God.
He's the Alpha and the Omega.
He's the Amen.
He's the beginning and the ending.
Everything about him, he has total reputation.
But he took upon in the form of a servant.
Why, because his desire, his mindset was not reputation.
His mindset was what service?
Being selfless, giving his life a ransom for many.
Hey, you want to be great in God's eyes?
Minister.
You want to be someone that God looks
with great reputation?
It's a servant.
You know, you say, oh, if I want to be great
in the kingdom of God, I have to be a pastor.
No, you just have to be a servant.
In fact, I think many of the people
that would be greatly rewarded in heaven,
you had no idea,
because their whole life was just being a servant.
Their whole life was just ministering
unto other people and doing good
unto other people.
Go back, if you would, to Philippians chapter two.
We need to esteem other better than ourselves,
and I think this is probably one of the most challenging
verses when I think about it,
because not only are you supposed
to put people ahead of you,
you're somehow supposed to believe it.
You're actually supposed to believe
that people are of more value than you,
that they're better than you,
that, hey, it's more important for this person
to succeed than for me to succeed.
And truly, I mean, when you think about this,
Jesus Christ had this mindset,
which to me is baffling,
because I mean, how can you say that Jesus
could think someone's more important than him in any way?
I mean, he's the son of God, right?
But let me read a verse for you.
Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me the works that I do
shall he do also, and greater works
than thee shall he do because I go unto my Father.
He said, hey, it's so important for me
ministering unto you guys,
because you're gonna end up doing greater works than me.
You know, I think about this, I think about my children,
I think about the fact that,
hey, sometimes my children,
they have the opportunity to do greater works than even I,
because they could get started for the Lord sooner.
Yeah.
They could know so much more Bible than I did
at my age when I started getting serious.
They could do so much more, they could do greater works.
So I need to esteem them of great value.
Hey, how about I have a conference
ministering unto the children,
and serving unto the children?
Not about all the recognition.
Why don't we just, you know, lift them up,
and esteem them better,
and pour unto them and do good unto them?
Not doing things to be seen,
not so we can get some kind of special recognition,
but improving others.
You know, when you look at other people
doing something you want,
whether that be Bible reading, or song leading,
or whatever, are you thinking,
man, I just wish that it'd been me that got to do that.
Or you think, wow, I'm really glad that this person
gets to do it, because they're so good at it.
You know, you should thank me, because being gone,
you got three great sermons while I was gone.
It's encouraging, it makes me wanna leave more
when I have people get behind the pulpit
and actually preach great sermons.
And in fact, you know, Brother Goodwin,
he's been preaching great sermons in the preaching class
for a long time, and I kept being like,
you need to preach a full length sermon for me,
because you just do a really good job.
And he hasn't disappointed, he's done a great job.
I enjoy his preaching, and it's way shorter,
so it's like a double bonus.
I keep trying to shorten my sermons,
I just can't, I have a lot to say.
I need to get better at saying it quicker, okay?
Pray for me, all right?
But my second point, let's move on, all right?
My second point is, if you have the mind of a servant,
you need to be one of stewarding.
Look at verse four, look not every man in his own things,
but every man also in the things of others.
A steward mindset, what's a steward?
A steward is one who takes care of
or manages possessions that are not theirs.
Do you look at your life as one as a steward?
Because whether you realize it or not, it is.
Every single possession that you have is God's.
Even your own self, you're just a steward.
And my question is, how good a steward are you?
Go to John chapter 17, let's look how Jesus was,
because Jesus is our example.
Jesus not only was a servant,
with the fact that he was selfless,
obviously he gave his own life for us, right?
But he's also one in being a great steward.
He was a great steward of the things that God gave unto him.
And in John chapter 17, he hammers this point.
Look at verse five.
And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self,
with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
I have manifested thy name unto the men
which thou gavest me out of the world, thine they were,
and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word.
So notice, in this verse, just three times alone,
he's saying, hey, these people that I have,
you gave them to me, and they were thine,
and thou gavest them me.
Verse seven, now they have known that all things
whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
Verse eight, for I have given unto them the words
which thou gavest me, and they have received them,
and have known surely that I came out from thee,
and they have believed that thou didst send me.
I pray for them, I pray not for the world,
but for them which thou hast given me.
For they are thine, and all mine are thine,
and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them.
And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world, and I come to thee.
Holy Father, keep thine own name those
whom thou hast given me, that they may be one,
as we are one, as we are.
While I was with them in the world,
I kept them in thy name.
Those thou gavest me I have kept,
and none of them is lost but the son of perdition
that the scripture might be fulfilled.
And now come I to thee, and these things I speak
in the world that they might have my joy fulfilled
in themselves.
I have given them thy word, and the world have hated them
because they are not of the world,
even as I am not of the world.
So over 10 times he's just saying,
hey, these people that you gave to me,
them that you gave to me, that are thine,
that you gave to me.
Notice, what was Jesus' mindset here?
One of a steward, he was stewarding.
Hey, these are the people that you gave unto me.
Do you really look at the opportunities you have
to work with other people as,
hey, God's given me these people.
Hey, God's given me a wife.
God's given me children.
How good a steward are you with the possession
that God has given unto you?
And you know, a lot of people,
I think unfortunately this is their mindset,
they always want more than they already have.
But my question is, how good are you at stewarding
what God's already given you?
How faithful are you with the wife God's already given you?
How faithful are you with the children
that God's already given you?
Why would God want to give a bad steward more things?
You know, as being, I have to manage
a lot of different things sometimes.
If I see someone doing a bad job,
I want to take away the responsibilities they have.
I don't want to give them more.
You want to give people more responsibilities,
the ones that are doing good.
The ones that are being a good steward
of the things that they have.
And hey, when there's a bad steward,
a bad shepherd, a bad pastor,
God might just take away everything that you have.
God could take me away tomorrow, today, if he sees fit.
God might say, hey, you're not doing good
with the people that I gave you.
You're not doing good with the things that I blessed you with.
You're not doing well with the children or the wife
or the things that you have.
I might just require them at your hand right now.
You know, instead of always having this mindset,
why, I just wish we had more.
I just want more.
Rather, you should have the mindset
of how good a steward am I with what I already have?
Can I improve in my stewardship?
Can I improve with what I got already?
Why would God want to start giving me more
when I can't even handle what I have right now?
When I'm not even doing good
with the things that I have right now?
Go to Titus chapter one.
You know, I work for a bank,
and I've worked for a couple of banks,
but there was this mantra that our boss would always give,
and his mantra was this.
He would just say, other people's money.
Other people's money.
And he just constantly would drill that in.
He'd say, look, when you're on the job,
you need to think other people's money.
When you're working hard,
or when you're working on something,
you need to think this is other people's money.
When you're making a decision,
you need to realize this is other people's money.
And while I don't really agree with banking in general,
that was still a right philosophy.
He was one of a steward.
He's saying, hey, people have come to us,
and they put their money with us.
They've given their money to us.
They've put deposits,
or maybe they're investors or whatever,
and they're entrusting us to do good things
with their money, to keep it safe,
to grow it, to handle it properly,
to not make bad decisions.
Do you really look at every single aspect of your life
as God has entrusted you as a steward?
How good a steward are you?
And honestly, I get convicted with this all the time, okay?
So don't feel like, you know, in the fact that,
hey, I always think I can do better.
I don't ever look at any of my areas in my life
and just think, oh, check mark on that one.
You know, I think, man, I need to improve in that area.
I need to get better in that area.
I need to give that area more attention
and more focus and more effort and more time.
And it's difficult sometimes.
You know, Jesus Christ himself, he had 12 disciples.
That's not a lot, if you think about it, 12 people.
But he was a great steward of those 12 people.
And obviously one was lost
because he was a devil from the beginning,
but that wasn't his fault.
He was a good steward unto him.
He still loved him.
He washed his own feet.
The Bible says in Titus 1, verse seven,
"'For a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God,
"'not self-willed, not soon angry,
"'not given to wine, no striker,
"'not given to fill his lucre.'"
The pastor is supposed to be one who's a steward.
He realizes, hey, I'm up here delivering God's doctrines.
God has ordained a man to stand here and preach the Bible,
to preach the gospel, to shepherd the flock.
And the reality is that he's standing there
as an under-shepherd to Jesus Christ
and he needs to take it seriously.
It's a job of being a steward.
And God's gonna look down and say,
hey, are you doing good with the people that you have?
Are you doing good with the doctrines that you have?
Are you doing good with the soul?
Are you doing good with all the things
that have been entrusted unto you?
That should be the mindset.
And look, it's not just the pastor, it's every one of us.
We're all stewards in this room.
You're a steward of many things.
Go to Luke chapter 16, Luke chapter number 16.
Are you a good steward of God's money?
You know, again, that's a thing
that we can constantly be convicted of.
At the end of the day,
God's in everything you have is from God.
Don't be so prideful and arrogant.
Even Jesus Christ, the son of God,
God manifest in the flesh.
He said, hey, these people are yours, God the Father.
You gave them to me.
And notice he said, hey, your people, your words.
Hey, this is God's words.
How good are you doing with God's words?
A lot of churches have thrown God's words in the trash
and they got an HIV Bible.
They're not a good steward.
We wanna be great stewards of everything
that God has given to us,
every single possession that we have.
Bible says in Luke 16, verse 10,
he that is faithful in that which is least
is faithful also in much,
and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.
If therefore you have not been faithful
in the unrighteous mammon,
who will commit to your trust the true riches?
And if you have not been faithful in that which is
another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?
I like this phrase because why?
We're talking about the stewarding mindset of a servant.
A servant is not thinking this is his possession.
He's realizing it's someone else's possession.
And a bad steward's gonna do what?
He's gonna go bury it in the ground, isn't he?
He can do nothing with it.
Let it rot and decay and rust
and just be completely unprofitable.
But a good steward's gonna put it to use
and multiply it and grow it and do good things with it.
So we as God's stewards need to be faithful
in that which is another man's.
And look, nothing I have is mine.
It's all Jesus Christ.
It's all his.
What about soul winning?
Are we being good stewards with our soul winning?
You know, and this kind of parlays with the self,
the selfless point that I had.
But you know, one thing that's really important
with soul winning is silent partners.
I can't emphasize, I mean, if you say,
hey, I don't really go soul winning, whatever,
you could be a silent partner.
And it's so important.
Why?
Because you're a servant.
Hey, what did Jesus say?
Did he say the greatest is the one
that gets all the recognition or the one who is a servant?
Hey, you could just serve somebody.
You know, there's a lot of great people in the Bible,
like Thura, who's that?
He was Gideon's friend.
But you know, Gideon didn't want to go down
to the host without Thura.
He was there to support him.
He was there to help him.
You know, some people won't want to go out soul winning
unless they have a partner.
And even though that partner might be silent,
it still just encourages them.
And they can do great things for God
just being by his servant.
You know, Jonathan's armor bearer.
He wanted to go up and fight the Philistines,
but hey, his armor bearer is right there behind him.
How about Elisha, pouring water on the hands of Elijah?
You know, Elijah was pretty down.
Elijah, the guy that called down fire from heaven.
You know, Elijah, who's doing great.
He killed 400 plus prophets of Baal.
He's afraid of Jezebel.
You know what, God provides him a servant.
His name's Elisha.
And then Elijah's strengthened again.
Elijah is going out and doing great things.
You know, we all need a companion.
We all need a helper.
And that silent partner is a great asset.
Go to Mark chapter six, go to Mark chapter six.
Be the Silas to Paul.
You know, not everybody can be Paul,
but I wouldn't mind being Silas.
I mean, you think Silas isn't gonna be
greatly rewarded in heaven?
I don't remember a lot of things he did
other than just being with Paul.
I mean, he wasn't there for all the recognition,
for all the honor.
But hey, he got to be there in the Philippian jails,
you know, singing praises at midnight.
He got to be there when things, you know, the earthquake.
And look, when you go out soul winning,
you get to experience some cool stuff.
It's a lot of fun, even when you're the silent partner.
Hey, silent partners are important.
And if we just had like 20 silent partners show up
for the Dallas thing, we'd do so much more for God.
Unfortunately, most of the people that show up
for soul winning are a talker.
We need silent partners.
We need people to just show up, warm bodies.
Why, well, biblical, first of all, but it's also a help me.
Look at what it says in Mark chapter six, verse seven.
And he called on him the 12 and began to send them forth
by two and two and gave them power between the spirits.
Jesus Christ said two are better than one in Ecclesiastes.
He said two are better.
Why, because we're gonna send out two and two.
We need to help me.
We want people to go out and have a companion
and have a servant to go out there with them.
He said, eh, being a silent partner,
it's like I'm just there to help the other person.
Yeah, it's called being a servant.
But are you being a good steward
with the gospel that God gave you?
I mean, at the bare minimum,
can you not just be a silent partner once a week?
I just a bare minimum.
You got three guys, brother Jason, brother Phillip
and brother Ellie go out in the regional areas.
You got so many times to meet here.
Anybody can be a silent partner.
Do you have a heartbeat?
I mean, that's basically the requirements, have a heartbeat.
I've even taken unsaved people out soul winning with me
as a silent partner.
I mean, at the end of the day,
my question is how good of a steward are you
with the things that God gave?
You know, we need to have a steward mindset
and say, this Bible that I have in my hands, not mine.
It's God's words.
You know, the gospel's not mine.
God gave it to me.
How am I doing with that?
What am I doing with that?
Do I really have the...
Hammering the fact that we need to be all of one like mind.
We need to be like minded.
We have to have one mind.
And you get the mind of Christ.
Cody Wood at John five, the last point that I have,
I'm gonna cover quickly.
The mindset of a servant is one who's submissive.
Jesus Christ was truly submissive
in his ministry on this earth.
And for all of eternity.
There's not a point in which he's not submissive
unto God the Father.
Says in Philippians 2 eight,
and being found in fashion as many humbled himself
and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross.
Jesus Christ was obedient.
Now let me help you understand what obedience is
for anybody that's still confused.
Obedience is doing something when you disagree.
It's not when you agree.
That is not obedience.
It's like, oh man, when my husband's right,
I like to do that.
That's not obedience.
Obedience is when you don't agree.
Children, obedience is when your parents
tell you to do something that you don't wanna do
when you do it.
The Bible says, children, obey your parents
and the Lord, for this is right.
You wanna be like Jesus Christ's children?
When your parents tell you to do something,
you just say, yes sir, and you do it.
Yes ma'am, and you do it.
That's what true submission is.
And Jesus Christ, did he pray in the garden of gifts
to the enemy, I can't wait to get on that cross.
Not my will.
Let dying be done.
It's called obedience.
Obedience, because he did not want to die on the cross.
If there was any other way, let's do something else.
We thought about it long enough.
Is there anything, the humanity of Christ,
I don't wanna go on the cross, and even worse, hell.
Remember screams in hell, that was pretty rough.
Look at what he says in John five verse 30.
I can of my own self do nothing, as I hear I judge,
my judgment is just, because I seek not mine own will,
but the will of the Father which has sent me.
Jesus Christ was submissive to the Father's will.
John chapter eight, how can he be his self
if he's not submissive to his own will,
but it's his own will, it's like.
Oneness is too easy to destroy, all right.
If you believe in oneness, just get out.
John chapter eight, look at verse 28.
Then said Jesus unto them, when you have lifted up
the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he,
and that I do nothing of myself.
But as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things,
and he that sent me is with me, the Father hath not
left me alone, for I do always those things that please him.
Hey, I have the mind of a servant,
what's the mind of a servant?
Doing everything that pleases the authority in your life.
Whoever's over you, in whatever capacity,
you're just always doing things that please him.
Well, I wish I was the pastor,
because then I could just do whatever I want.
No, I'm supposed to do all things that please him.
There's a lot of times I do have to do stuff
that I don't want to do, but I just say,
you know what, that's what the Bible says,
so I'm gonna do it.
That's what it means to be obedient.
It's not doing things you want.
It's doing things that your authority has told you to do,
whether that be your boss at work,
whether that be the pastor of the church,
whether that be the Bible, whether that be your mom,
your dad, whoever's in charge of you,
whether that be the sole winning team leader,
whether that be whoever it is at the church,
whenever they give you an order and you don't agree,
you just do it anyways,
because you had the mindset of a servant anyways.
It wasn't about you.
It was about, hey, I just want to do what they said.
My mindset is not what I want.
It's what they want.
I'm not thinking, what do I think I should do here?
I'm thinking, what do they want me to do here?
And then whatever they want,
then I'm gonna try and do that.
That's what the true mindset of a servant is, is submissive.
You know, the Bible says that Jesus Christ,
in Isaiah 42, I won't have you turn there,
but it says, behold my servant whom I hold mine elect.
I wonder why God chose Jesus Christ.
Maybe because he was completely selfless.
Maybe it was because he was completely submissive.
Maybe because he had a stewarding mindset.
Sounds like a pretty good person to pick.
Hey, I need someone to help me with something.
I want someone that's gonna not do it for themselves.
I want someone that's gonna think really importantly
of my goods and my assets,
and they're gonna do everything I want, exactly how I want.
That sounds like a great person.
It's called a servant.
You know, Philippians also says,
do all things without murmurings and disputings.
You know you're not submissive if you murmur.
Say, what's a murmur?
We're gonna go soul-wanting it too.
We're gonna have this conversation, September.
Some kind of unaudible, you know, inaudible utterance.
You just say, I didn't even say anything.
No, you murmured.
Murmured, murmured.
And you know what, it can ruin the whole attitude.
Someone gets up and is real excited.
Hey, we're gonna have soul-wanting on Saturday.
Five people in the room are just going, ugh.
You know what, it just destroys the atmosphere immediately.
It ruins it.
Hey, we're gonna move the building.
Murmur, you know the Bible says in Numbers chapter 11,
when the people complained, it displeased the Lord.
Yeah, but you don't understand.
My ideas are better.
That's because you're prideful.
That's because you have strife.
It's because of your vainglory.
It's not being submissive.
It's not having the right attitude.
You know, nobody in the Bible complains,
and it was positive.
There's no positive mention of complaining or murmuring.
Never.
You should immediately cut it out of your life.
When your boss at work tells you to do something, ugh,
you're not a servant at that point.
When your husband tells you to do something, ugh, why?
You know, the Bible says wives submit yourselves
into your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
So when your husband says something,
do you really look like, hey, if Jesus Christ came to me
in the flesh and was telling me something, ugh, Jesus.
I can't believe you'd tell me to do that.
I don't wanna do that.
That's murmuring.
It's not being submissive.
No matter how soft it is, you don't understand.
Just keep your mouth shut.
That's a true servant.
You know, the deacon and the pastor
are supposed to be grave, is what the Bible says.
You know, the opposite of grave, in my opinion, is humor.
You just have to joke about everything.
That's not being a good servant.
A good servant takes everything seriously.
You know, a lot of people disguise
their complaining with humor.
And you can see through it really quick.
Oh, you have to load all that on the truck?
Oh, I'm just kidding.
Oh, man, that's gonna be a lot of work for me.
Oh, I'm just kidding.
Oh, man, I'm sure you want me to do that.
Oh, I'm just kidding.
Complaining in disguise.
A grave person's just not always joking about everything.
If you can't just say, yes, sir, you're not grave.
If everything has to be a joke,
and everything's just a constant, just funny,
and just, you know, it gets tiring, it gets old.
If you just, you know, look,
I just wanna help you at your workplace.
If your boss is constantly giving you instruction
and you're just always making a joke out of it,
he's probably irritating with you.
He wants you to be sober, he wants you to be grave.
You know, taking things seriously.
Because when you joke, they can't tell if, A,
you're just hiding, you're complaining,
or you don't really understand it,
or you don't really get it,
or you're not taking it seriously.
He's not giving you instruction
for you to just make jokes out of it.
I have way too many verses for us to finish,
but go to Matthew 25, I'll just give you a sense, all right?
Ephesians 6, servants, be obedient to them
that are masters according to the flesh.
Colossians 3, servants, obey in all things
your masters according to the flesh.
First Timothy chapter number six says,
let as many servants who are on the yoke
count their own masters worthy of all honor.
Let the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.
And they that have believing masters,
let them not despise them because they are brethren,
but rather do them service.
Titus chapter two, verse nine,
exhort servants to be obedient under their own masters
and to please them well in all things.
Not answering again.
Well, that sounds exactly what we were talking about,
doesn't it?
Hey, obey, servants, obey.
Servants, obey.
I mean, how many verses do I need to have?
You say, oh, I obey Jesus.
Well, do you obey your masters in the flesh too?
As unto the Lord.
Not answering again.
I don't really like that.
I don't think so.
I don't know.
Hebrews 13, obey them that have the rule over you
and submit yourselves.
First Peter chapter two,
servants, be subject to your masters with all fear,
not only to the good and gentle,
but also to the froward.
For this is thank worthy.
Have a man for conscience toward God
and doer grief, suffering wrongfully.
You know, the Bible says about Jesus Christ,
when he was reviled, reviled not again,
when he suffered, he threatened not,
but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously,
who his own self bear our sins and his own body in the tree
that we being dead to sins should live under righteousness
by whose stripes you are healed.
Jesus didn't feel necessary to murmur and complain.
I don't remember God, the father,
giving Jesus a commandment and he's like, oh.
And in fact, he did ask the father
if he could do something different,
but notice his attitude.
Hey, is there any other way?
Not my will, but thine be done.
So he still said, hey, I'll do whatever you want.
Hey, whatever you want, we're gonna do.
I'm ready to submit to your will.
I just wanna know if there's another option here.
Oh, there's not?
Great, let's do it.
It's not to say that you can't offer some kind of suggestion
but what's your attitude about it?
Hey, I'm ready to do exactly what you said.
Is there another option?
There's not, great, I can't wait to do exactly
what you said.
Not answering again.
At the end of the day, we're all gonna stand
before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ
and my question is, what is he gonna say to you?
It's gonna happen.
There's gonna be a day when you stand before Jesus Christ,
your friends, your family, your wife,
your kids aren't gonna be there to answer for you.
It's gonna be you.
I want him to say this, Matthew 25 verse 23.
His Lord said to them, well done, good and faithful servant.
Thou has been faithful over a few things.
I will make thee rule over many things.
Enter down the joy of the Lord.
Hey, we have a mindset of a servant today
because at the end of the day,
that's how Jesus is gonna judge us.
How good a servant were you?
Were you selfless or were you in it for yourself?
Were you a good steward of the things
or were you thinking, oh, it's all about me?
Were you submissive to his will
or were you just trying to get your own thing going?
The Bible says, for though I be free from all men,
yet have I made myself servant unto all
that I might gain more.
The apostle Paul said, hey, there's not a single person
on this planet I have to answer to.
From a humanistic perspective,
the apostle Paul had nobody above him.
He said, hey, I'm free from all men.
I have nobody that has,
I don't have to submit to anybody if I don't want to.
But you know what he said?
I've made myself a servant unto all.
Hey, the child, I'm serving him.
The young baby, anybody that I can serve,
I'm just gonna serve him so I can gain more.
Is that really your mindset?
You have the mindset of Christ of being a servant
or are you in it for yourself?
Let's go to prayer.
Thank you, Father, so much for this great study
of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thank you so much for all the works that he did for us,
how selfless he was and the great steward he was
with his people and words.
Thank you so much for his example
of being submissive to your commandments.
I pray that we would take those examples
and you'd allow them to convict our hearts
of areas that we can improve in and do better
and that we could be faithful servants unto you,
not for recognition, but rather for your honor
and your glory.