The Mind of Christ — Bill McLeod

Unity as the Setting for Revival

You might have your Bibles open at Philippians chapter 2. Occasionally pastors have asked the question like this, is there some sort of very simple uncomplicated plan that we could adopt and follow as a church that would guarantee that we would have a time of reviving and awakening and blessing that would go on and on and on and on?

My answer is yes there is a very simple uncomplicated plan and it's outlined in the Word of God. First of all in Psalm 133 there are just three verses in the Psalm and it goes like this, how good to God and how pleasant to men, behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.

He said it's like the precious ointment on the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, and went down to the skirts of his garment. And it goes on to say it's like the Jew of Hermon and like the Jew that descended on the mountains of Zion and then he says this very significant thing, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore.

Where does God command his blessing? God commands his blessing where brethren dwell together in unity. Did you ever carefully read John chapter 17? I'm sure many of you have. I wonder if you've noticed something there.

We usually think of John 17 as a prayer of Christ for unity in the church down through the ages. That's really not exactly what he prayed for. There are over 40 references to the 12 apostles. Most of his prayer was towards the 12 apostles.

He prayed for those that God had given him. If you study the context carefully, Jesus was praying that there would be unity between the 12 apostles. And he moved slightly beyond that, but slightly only when he prayed.

He said, neither do I pray for these alone, that is for the 12 alone, but for them also who shall believe on me through their word, that is the apostolic churches, that they all may be one. But the burden of the prayer of Christ was for unity between the 12 apostles.

You know, there are enemies of God who pick this thing up in John 17 and say, look, the supposed Son of God prayed for unity in the church, and what have we got today? Over 6 ,000 evangelical groups in Africa alone, 120 Pentecostal groups, different Pentecostal groups in the country of Chile, and I'm not running the Pentecostals down.

We have all these various groups, Baptist and all the rest of it, divided this way, divided that way. And by the way, that's not all bad. I heard it put this way. Somebody said, you know, if we get all the churches into one group, that's just exactly what God wants.

I'm not so sure. I heard Hyman Appelman say, yes, if you got them all into one church, the devil could get them all at one snap. We had a monolithic church structure for 1 ,000 years, and it was known, dear people, as the Dark Ages.

And Dr. Carroll, who did a study on this, felt that perhaps 50 million believers were martyred for their faith by the church claiming to be the church, the only church of God. And I don't want to get into that.

But there is a simple plan. When brethren dwell together in unity, look at the book of Acts, Acts 1, verse 14. The eleven apostles, Judas Iscariot was gone now, had committed suicide, was gone. It says, these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren, a small group just praying with one accord, calling on God, preceding the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

Acts chapter 2, verse 1, it says, when the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled, they were all with one accord in one place, and the Spirit came. And do you know what happened? The church of God was born.

Later on in the second chapter, we read about these people, it says they were in the temple with one accord, that unity. In chapter 4, when the apostles were threatened about preaching the gospel, they went back to the church and I told them what had happened, and it said the whole company, they lifted up their voices to God with one accord, and they called on God, and there was a second time of spiritual power and awakening, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

And all, I believe, were together, it says, they had all things common, and with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. Stop and think.

Supposing there had been disunity between the twelve apostles, do you know what that would have meant? It would have been the most serious blow to the cause of God that could ever have happened. And the prayer of Jesus was most marvelously fulfilled, and we notice in the book of Galatians chapter 2, when there could have been a serious cleavage between Peter and Paul, when Paul called Peter up in the carpet in the church at Antioch and faced him up with his sin, Peter humbled himself and accepted that, and the prayer of Jesus was literally fulfilled.

And they did not have in those days as we have now, this large, large number of evangelical groups. Again, the second part of the prayer of Jesus was wonderfully answered. And that's as far as you can take John 17 without doing violence to what it says.

So much for the ecumaniacs who are using John 17 to base their ideas on. You can't do that. Now when Paul wrote to the church at Corinth chapter 1, verse 10, he said, I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

And then when he wrote the second letter, in the last chapter of the second letter, he said, Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect. He said, Be of one mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace shall be with you.

Be of one mind and God will be with you. He's saying again what we read already in Psalm 133. In Philippians chapter 1, verse 27, he said, Only let your conduct be as it becomes the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, and in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of damnation, but to you of salvation, and that of God.

Now in many churches there's what you might call a mindless unity based on a common agreement to fall asleep. And we have all kinds of that sort of mindless unity in churches today. They couldn't have a fight if they wanted to.

There's not enough fire there. I'm talking about what Paul said in Philippians chapter 1. That you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. Stand together as one man of church to get the gospel out.

From you sounded out the word of the Lord, Paul said in running to a church at Thessalonica. And we exist, dear people, for that purpose, to get the gospel out to our community, our country, and as far to the ends of the earth as we possibly can.

And we have no justification for existence apart from this. Be of one mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace shall be with you. That's the promise of God. So whether it's the Old Testament or the New, we find it's exactly the same.

You want constant blessing in your assemblies? Then you must come to the place where you have unity and accord and love. He talks in Romans 15 about the God of patience and consolation. And he's praying that we might with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Then what does he say? He says, Wherefore, if this is your goal, wherefore receive you one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God. Is there anybody in your assembly that you do not receive into your heart as Christ received us into His heart?

If there's somebody like that in your experience, then you're standing in the way of the blessing of God. You're holding up reviving, preventing God from doing what He wants to do in your particular assembly.

Humility as the Cure for Division

But if a problem of division is there, how do you deal with it? Philippians chapter 2, in my opinion, gives us the clearest possible teaching. And I believe were these verses to be applied, especially the first ten or twelve verses, we would have constant, constant reviving and blessing with people being saved and the work of God prospered.

Let's look at it. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, and there is. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 says, As our sufferings abound, our consolation abounds by Christ. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, it says in the psalm, but the Lord delivers them out of them all.

If there be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love and awe there is, if any fellowship or communion of the Spirit, and there is, if any inward compassion, and there is, fulfill you my joy. That is, make me joyful.

Let me hear what you're doing that will make my heart sing for joy. Let you be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. There it is again. Then he says, Let nothing be done through strife or vain, that empty glory.

Strife. Let nothing be done through strife. In most churches there are certain people that unless they get patted on the back regularly, they sulk. They hand in their resignation because they have not been recognized properly for the work they're doing in the church.

Vain, empty glory. They're not willing to wait until Jesus comes back and to wait and hear him say, Well done thou good and faithful servant. They want the pastor to say that from the pulpit. So they get some glory now.

Let nothing be done through strife and vain glory. In Galatians 5, Paul said, Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. That's what happens when you have a glory seeker in an assembly.

He provokes other people to follow his bad example. He provokes. And envy is the result in the assembly, and division comes. That's the way that Satan works. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

And the preceding verse says, They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with a passion and lust. Now in the book of James it says, If you have bitter envying and strife, there's that word again, and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth.

This wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, sensual, that is carnal, natural, coming from the world system controlled by Satan. And then he uses the word demonic. It comes from demons. A spirit of strife and division, it comes from demons.

This wisdom is not from God. It's earthly, sensual, and demonic. For where confusion and strife is, there is every evil work, he tells us. Where you have this kind of problem, strife and envy. Then he says, The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, it's gentle, it's easy to be entreated, it's full of mercy and good fruits, it's without partiality, it's without hypocrisy, and the fruit of righteousness is so in peace of them that make peace.

Which kind of wisdom do you have in your heart? From God or from demons? And in many churches there are people that have wisdom from demons. Their envy, strife, self-seeking, glory-seeking. You know what it says in Proverbs about this particular problem?

He that is of a proud heart stirs up strife. And if the devil can get a couple of people like this in your assembly, that's all he needs. He that's of a proud heart stirs up strife in the assembly. And there's a very strong statement in the book of Proverbs about contention.

Here are two people who don't get along. Here's trouble in a family, or maybe two families don't get along. Or there's division in the church, and there's two groups in the church. What causes this? God tells us there's only one root cause for contention.

Here's what he says. Contention comes only, only by pride. Back of it all is human pride. Always, God said, only. Do you remember it says also in the book of Proverbs that he that sows discord among brethren is an abomination to God?

Be very careful you do not become a tool of the devil. He that sows discord among God's people, he is an abomination to God. Some people think they're sent from God to create a division in an assembly.

Ah, be very careful. Abomination to God. He goes on here to say, Then let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind. In Ephesians chapter 4, Paul spoke about us endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

And a little later on in the same chapter, he talks about coming in the unity of the faith. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.

Endeavoring to keep the unity of the blessed Holy Spirit in the bond of peace, which means each of us have a contribution to make in this particular area. All of us should be working towards this. I heard of a pastor that had a fantastic method of dealing with problems of this kind.

You know, somebody would come and they'd say, Pastor, I have to talk to you. So they'd get talking to the pastor and they would say, You know, Brother, so and so has been doing on the pastor. Just a minute, I'll call him on the telephone.

We'll call him and we'll discuss it while he's here. He said it was simply amazing how people quit coming to him. If you've got something to say about somebody, say it to their face. Or not at all. I mean, a coward can say it about them when they're not there.

Endeavoring to keep, to guard the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Blessed are the peacemakers, Christ said. Now, this does not mean that if there's immorality in a church or there's some form of doctrinal heresy that we should not take a stand.

I think we should take a stand, but always in a spirit of love. Not as if I had all the answers. Let's pursue this a little further. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind.

In Ephesians chapter 4, again, the Apostle Paul said, Brethren, he said, walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love.

Pushing the other person out in front, not yourself. Forbearing one another in love. And then comes the verse, Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The problem is we're not meek, we're not humble, we're not lowly.

We're proud and starchy and stiff. That's the problem, you see. Do you remember what Christ said, one of the things in Matthew chapter 11? You know, you see this in a wall text quite often. Come unto me and I will give you rest.

We used to have that, and there's a big statue of the Virgin Mary in the city of Santiago in Chile. It's a city of five million or so, and there's this high hill, I forget how high it is, 1 ,500 feet or something in the city, and on top of that hill is a statue of the Virgin Mary, 90 feet tall, a gleaming white statue.

And there's a, I suppose the statue at the base is as wide as from here to the wall or wider, and there's an entrance, a door, you can't go in without special permission, but you can look through the grill on the door, and there was a picture of the Virgin Mary, and underneath her picture were these words, come unto me and I will give you rest.

Well, of course, that's wrong. It's Christ who gives rest. But what I want to say about that text is this. Christ said, come unto me and I will give you rest, but that's not all He said. And that's the unfortunate part that we take it out of its context and we lose the force of what He's really saying.

Here's what He said. He said, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, that's the cross, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. What does He want us to learn?

Doctrine? Well, that's all right, but that's not what He's talking about there. He said, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest into your soul. You see, the proud person will never know rest.

It's the meek, humble, lowly person that finds perfect rest in his heart. The proud person is always in trouble, always full of unrest, afraid somebody will find him out or afraid somebody will get more glory than he's getting and so on.

Learn of me, Christ said, I am meek and lowly in heart. When Christ was reviled, the Bible says He did not revile again. 1 Peter 2, when He suffered, He didn't threaten. He committed Himself to Him that judges righteously.

And we're supposed to, it says in the context there in 1 Peter 2, we're to follow His steps. I am meek, learn of me, I'm meek and lowly in heart. Are you a meek, lowly, humble person? The Bible says humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.

Become nothing before God, that God may lift you up and exalt you, it says, in due time. So let nothing be done through strife or empty glory, but in lowliness of mind. Oh, before we leave that, here's a thought in Isaiah chapter 66.

God said, the heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Have you ever stopped to think that if we could build a temple big enough to reach clean around the world, the Lord would have trouble getting His feet in?

Think of it. The heaven is God's throne and the earth is God's footstool. You know, the Bible talks about God stretching out the heavens as a curtain or a tent to dwell in. And the scientists tell us we live in what they call an expanding universe.

And objects are moving away, flying away from some central point of speed of up to 60 ,000 miles a second. Indeed, they think there are objects flying beyond the speed of sound and of light, particularly of light, not of sound, of light.

And the telescopes may never pick them up as a consequence. And of course, the Bible says God is stretching out the heavens. They're still not big enough, you see. And they'll never be big enough for God because He's infinite.

And if 10 million years went by, God would still be stretching the heavens out because they're not big enough, you see. The heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you build unto me?

And where is the place of my rest? For all these things has my hand made, and all these things have been. But to this man will I look. Now, the word man is not in the original Hebrew language at all. What he really said was, but to this will I look.

I won't look at your ornate, costly temples. I've been in buildings costing $3 .5 million or more. But God says, I don't look at buildings like that. He says, but to this will I look. Or to put it differently, here's where I will look.

To him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and that trembles at my word. Just think of it, this infinite God of the universe, He doesn't look at any of our great ornamental works. But He's looking for people who are meek and humble and lowly in heart.

To this will I look. To him that is poor, and Christ said, blessed are the poor in spirit. That is, the lowly in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. To this will I look. To him that is poor and of a contrite, that's a broken spirit, a repentant heart, and that trembles at my word.

We sing in one of our songs, then I trembled at the law I'd spurned. Then my guilty soul imploring turned to Calvary. Do you qualify? Is God looking at you? There's a lot of us God can't bother looking at because we're so full of pride in Him.

To him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and that trembles at my word. That's what God's here to revive in your heart. This is the kind of person you have to become. Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity, whose name is holy.

I dwell in a high and holy place with him also. That is, of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite, the repentant one. Those are the people God revives.

The meek and the lowly in heart. Do you remember, there's one thing only that I'm aware of in the Bible concerning which it says that to God, this one thing is of great price. What is it? 1 Peter chapter 3.

He says, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God, of great price. Do you have a meek, quiet spirit? Are you a self-effacing person? Or one that's constantly pushing himself out so people would look at you?

You want the blessing of God, the full blessing of God in your heart, like you have to become nothing? It says in the Bible, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Likewise, you younger, submit yourselves unto the elderly.

Yes, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Surely he scorns the scorned, but gives grace to the lowly. You find this to your people all through the word of God.

How have we missed it so long? We're praying and praying for the power of the spirit in our life, in our churches, and we're so proud God can't do that. There's a verse in the Psalms that says, Psalm 84, that the rain also fills the pools.

Now, you know, when it rains, the rain runs off the hills, it runs off the high places, and it gathers in the low places. A ditch is no tourist attraction, but at least it holds water. And if you're willing to be a ditch for God's glory, He'll fill the ditch with water.

But most of us are so proud. The rain also fills the pools, it says, and they go from strength to strength, that as the pool gets larger and larger. If you're humble enough, there's no problem with God, He'll fill your life with Himself.

But it's our pride that keeps God from filling us with Himself in esteem. In lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. And sometimes people have said, Bill, it's not very practical.

How can I esteem brother so-and-so better than myself when I know he's not? Well, that's a problem, isn't it? But when people say that, you know what they're really saying? This is what they're really saying.

They're saying, I have never seen my own heart. If you ever get a look at that dark cavern of your own heart, you will have not the slightest problem in the world esteeming other people better than yourself.

The Bible says in the book of Job that the stars aren't clean, the heavens are not pure, and God had to charge His very angels with falling. And then He said, How much more abominable and filthy is man who drinks iniquity like water?

Your heart's no different than the heart of that fellow that ran his car over that professor a while ago. We have the same potential for evil, every last one of us has. And we ought to be always saying, but for the grace of God, that would have been me.

Don't congratulate yourself that you're better than anybody else. The moment you do, you identify yourself with a Pharisee in the gospel book who said, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men. That's the problem.

So then, let each, that's you and I, esteem anybody better, not just equal to, but better. Forbearing one another in love, it says, in another context. How about this, my dear friend? Do you really live that way in your assembly?

Do you esteem everybody else in your assembly better than yourself? Listen, if you're not doing that, you're a first-class hindrance to revival. You're standing in the way of the spirit of God. We have to come to this place, and we can, by the grace of God.

Let me give you an illustration from real life. Howard Gardner was a conference pastor for years with this particular conference, and that God touched his life in revival in Winnipeg. Here's what happened.

I was coming to Winnipeg from Saskatoon, that's 515 miles or so, with five men from my church in Saskatoon who just experienced a reviving in their heart. And boy, that was the longest prayer meeting I was ever in.

10 hours long, that prayer meeting was. I mean, we started in Saskatoon, we're still praying and praising God, and we got to Winnipeg 10 hours later. You know, they never saw that beautiful herd of black Angus cattle out in the field or some beautiful home or something else.

It was, hey, let's pray for this church. Let's pray for this mission. Let's pray for this pastor. Let's pray for this backslider. Hey, I know a sinner that needs God. And it went on and on for 10 solid hours.

And we got to Winnipeg, and guess what happened? We get into a motel, and the brethren said, now let's have a prayer meeting. That's what happened. Well, Howard Gardner, I've known him since he was eight years old.

They called him, of course now he's six foot four, they called him Happy Howard, he was the life of every party. And he heard about this thing, and he thought to himself, he said, I said to myself, this revival thing, that's usually emotionalism, but if Bill McCloud's connected with it, it won't be very emotional, so I'll check it out.

So he came to this meeting in the church in St. Paul, Winnipeg, was packed. And he listened to the testimonies, and he said to himself, he told me afterwards, I said to myself, well, yeah, God's done something for those members, no doubt.

But he wasn't overly impressed. Sitting about to fourth pew down to my right, then in my discourse, in my sharing, I quoted this verse that we're talking about right now, let each esteem other better than himself.

And he said at that moment, the action began. He said the congregation just seemed to fade away, and there was nobody there but God and I. And God said to me, do you live this way? And he said, I said to God, yes, God, I think I do.

And God said, what about, and he mentioned a certain pastor who was sitting about four over in the same pew. And he said, I said to God, Lord, I don't know how you can bless him the way you do. He's such a big windbag.

I think I know what the real problem was. This particular brother he was talking about that he had this bad attitude to was a tremendous soul winner. When all kinds of people to Christ started new churches, and this was not happening in Howard's life, and he resented it, you see.

So he thought he was just a big windbag. I never ever had that impression of this particular brother, but that's how he felt. That's what he told God. And he said, when I said that to God, God said to me, I want you to get up out of your seat and walk down that aisle and kneel at the altar of the church.

Now I'm still up here preaching. I don't know what's going through his mind down here. God said, I have something I want to teach you. I wish Howard was here to tell a story himself. I've heard him give it many times because he worked with me as a song leader for a year and a half before he had a stroke and some other problems and had to leave that kind of work.

He said, as I was walking down the aisle, he said, Jesus met me in the aisle and put his hand on my head and reduced me to zero. He said, when I got to the front, I knelt down and I looked around and I couldn't even find myself.

I can't explain it. He said, it was a strange thing. I was no longer there. Just the Lord. And then the Lord said to me, now can you esteem brother so-and-so better than yourself? And he said, through my tears, I said to God, better?

Oh God, he's a thousand times better than I am. God said, that's right. Let each, that's you, esteem other. Husbands, do you esteem your wife better than yourself? Or do you sometimes wish you were married to somebody else?

There's seven things we're told not to covet in the word of God. And the first thing is, you're not to covet your neighbor's wife. Listen, if you live with your neighbor's wife, as long as you've lived with yours, you probably have the same problems you've got with your wife now.

Wives, do you esteem your husband better than yourself? Or do you wish you'd married somebody else? Be very careful. Let each esteem other. Young people, do you think you're better and smarter than your parents are?

Watch it. You'll be in trouble with God. Parents, do you think you're a lot smarter than your children are? You better watch that too. Let each esteem other better than themselves. Pastors must esteem their people better than themselves.

People must esteem their pastor better than themselves. I mean, right from the top in the church, right down to the bottom. If there's such a thing, we have to, each of us, esteem other people better than ourselves.

And when you get that kind of a situation, you can't have a church fight. You can't have disunity. And there, the Lord commands the blessing. And if you don't have that, you can preach and pray. You can have the best evangelistic team in the countryside.

And nothing will happen. I think of a church, a Baptist church down in Texas. I had meetings there. But before I got there, the pastor, he was a very aggressive fellow. And he arranged for a real hot evangelistic team to come.

Then he arranged for a singing group to come. And they rented a high school auditorium seating 2 ,000 or more. And they popped it to the doors for a solid week. And they set a record for their denomination.

And you gotta go some to do that because their denomination has 40 ,000 churches. And they had 1 ,760 professions of faith in Jesus Christ in seven days of meetings. And he phoned me long distance to tell me what God was doing.

Well, we were there five weeks later. Do you know what had happened? He had not baptized one convert out of 1 ,760 people. And five weeks later, he never had one of those people attending the church. You call that a work of God?

Oh, no. That's the work of men. And it says in the book of Ecclesiastes, whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it. And God does it that men should fear before Him.

I am sick and tired of the work of men. Oh, how we long and pray in our fellowship for another outpouring of the Spirit of God, deeper, more widespread, more powerful than anything we've seen. And we believe it's coming.

We've dedicated ourselves to this cause. But it's going to come, dear people, when we start lining up with the Word of God. And each Christian has a personal responsibility to be the kind of person that we're reading about in Philippians 2.

Let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Do you live that way? You're not supposed to be concerned about your little cabbage patch.

Get concerned about other people's cabbage patch. Help them. Can I help you, my brother, my sister? Can I pray for you? Is there anything I can do to help you in your Christian life and war? Job was in awful trouble.

He talked about possessing wearisome months of vanity. Do you remember when he got out of his problems? The Bible says in the last chapter of the book of Job that the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.

Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. You see in that same chapter 2, verse 21, he said, all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ. And if you look at the context, he's talking about believers.

Because in the preceding verse, he says, I have no man like mine and who will naturally care for your state, for all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ. And that's the problem. You know, the Lord uses some pretty strong and striking language in the Bible sometimes.

Greed and Self-Seeking in the Church

Here's a thought from the book of Isaiah. God was speaking about the shepherds and whatnot. And he said, they're greedy dogs, which can never have enough. They all look to their own way. Everyone for his gain, from his quarter.

What's in it for me? Greedy dogs, God said. Have you ever seen two or three dogs eating from the same dog dish? Have you ever in all your experience seen the dogs line up politely, bow to each other, fighting you go first, no rover, you go first.