Ordinary Christianity (part 6)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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Well, let's open a prayer father in heaven we come before you this morning thankful for forgiveness of sin thankful that you would

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In your mercy and your love Send your son the Lord Jesus Christ To die a horrific death on our behalf

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We thank you that in him we have forgiveness of sins in him we have been

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Seated in the heavenlies with him Father that in him one day we will rule and reign

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Not because of anything that we have done, but because we are in Christ Jesus We would ask for your blessing on our time this morning as we look to your word as we

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Seek to emulate our Savior. We ask for your blessing on each one here in Jesus name.

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We pray. Amen well, I Guess there are a good many people here kicking off their new

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Christmas traditions by staying home. I don't know But I have some Christmas presents that I've been advised by Pastor Mike.

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I should open up during class this morning So I'm going to do that This seems appropriate

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Not at all. I don't I don't know And I'm sure you all are dying to know what

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I got. This is from a Listener we have she's actually part of the ministry and thankfully

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I have scissors so I can cut through anything I've got this nothing,

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I can't handle and The end result is oh, this is so sweet.

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I think it's a perfect Christmas ornament I don't know. You can't see this if we can get the camera camera three.

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This is Santa Claus Apparently holding the baby

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Jesus That's terrible Kind of present is that and of course we have here some

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Jesus promised seeds candy For I the Lord thy God will

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Hold by a right hand saying unto thee fear not I will help thee Scripture candy reaching the world one piece at a time.

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This is really terrible stuff. Where does she find this stuff? Erin Is also she hosts a podcast and has a website and this is just really terrible stuff

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Anyway, I can't I can't wait to find out what that is. We'll have to wait though. Okay now

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Let me ask you this If somebody calls you ambitious Yeah, well, it's kind of like the old

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Gordon Gekko Line from Wall Street a movie. I never saw by the way, but he says greed is good

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If I said to you ambition is good. What do you think? Ambition is good.

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Okay, not selfish ambition And I think that pretty much concludes our class no

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Well, what what does our society say about ambition? What does the world think about ambition if you say well, that's an ambitious young man or young woman.

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What do you think? They're out to get money. Okay Go get her.

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I was thinking about last night I thought you know what if I said if I walked in to Because I was in the army if I walked into my platoon sergeant's office and I said, you know what

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Sarge You're kind of old you're kind of tired. I think it's time for new blood. I think

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I'm going to take your job You'd probably laugh and physically throw me out of his office

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If I went into a corporate setting and I said the same thing then I become ambitious in One setting it's not acceptable why because we're going to understand that there's a rank structure

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There's a process for getting up to that level and the other Maybe I really am out for your job.

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And maybe that marks me as somebody who's not trustworthy But it's interesting and I think we'll see this this morning that ambition

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Up until relatively recently was not a good thing. It wasn't seen as being good in fact if we're to put it on the either the vice list or the virtue list

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It used to just fall on the vice list Well this new How Webster describes a vice

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Not a vice as in something to hold something else, but a vice as a negative quality says moral depravity or corruption wickedness a moral fault or failing a habitual and usually trivial defect or shortcoming sometimes not trivial

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What are some things that we tend to think of as vices that we think of as vices, but maybe the world doesn't

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Drinking I actually have that on my list drunkenness If you get drunk what you know, and you go into work on Monday and somebody says they got drunk over the weekend

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Does everybody go what do they do?

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Probably laugh it off What are some other vices that the world doesn't take very seriously?

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gambling Although you know depends on the amount if you walk into work and say you know

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I lost $10 on a poker game Friday, and everybody laughs you walk into work and say yeah, I lost $100 ,000

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What you did what you know so it's a matter of scale a million pride

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Pride I mean it is you know It's pride a sin or not is it a vice or virtue well if you're talking about what the

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Bible says Pride is a vice But what does the world say I mean

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I can as soon as I say the word or you know say the word pride I can hear my drill sergeant from the

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Sheriff's Academy say stand tall be proud Right it's good It's a good thing to be proud

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Well no, it's not other vices now virtue

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If we think biblically, what is a virtue? We've talked quite a bit about Galatians 5, but let's look at 1st

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Corinthians 13 1st Corinthians 13 and would somebody read verse 13, please?

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1st Corinthians 13 13 mark the greatest of these is

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Love so these are Virtues these are good things these are things that we ought to be striving for things that people ought to say you know when when

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I think of Filling your name because I don't want to fill in mine. I think of His faithfulness her faithfulness her hopefulness

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I Think of her as a very loving person now forgetting his name

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Horton talks about passion And you know,

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I think passion and ambition if we think about it, they can sort of overlap in our minds He says this about passion our passion for life and achievement and our desire to strive toward a daring goal

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Are essentially hardwired into us by God The author then goes on to note that something has changed and has altered our passions

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What he supposed has changed and altered our passions Taking something that might have been good and made it something bad sin.

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I mean our The way we are built we are built to do what to Essentially, we should be worshipers of God, but we don't do that.

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Why because of sin. What do we do instead of worshiping God? worship anything else it could be

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Idols carved of stone or wood could be ourselves Could be someone else but generally speaking.

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We are worshipers and unless we are Actively worshiping God unless our minds are focused upon that we tend to Do the opposite of what we're created for now getting back to ambition

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Again we tend to think of it nowadays as something good But Horton uses the example of Icarus how many are of you are familiar with the myth of Icarus?

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Okay, anybody want to tell me the myth of Icarus because I think We know some of the details, but we might not know all of them and all we need are some of the details

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Anybody Icarus it's really close, but most of that is right. Yeah Anybody else want to take a shot at it because the wax part is not quite right

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The wax was what was holding the wings on to his body the the wings were actually made out of feathers, but They were stuck and various versions of this the earlier stuck in a labyrinth he and his father

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Or they were stuck in the island of Crete and who would want to be stuck in the island of Crete? I mean, I mean, it's warm and Beautiful and oh, yeah, no it wouldn't be bad

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I guess but anyway, they're in prison on the island of Crete and they want to escape and so they make these wings and they affix them to their back with wax and they're flying around and things are great because they get off the island and then he gets too close to the

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Sun the wax melts off and he plunges into the sea and dies His father told him

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To avoid two things not to fly too close to the Sun And not to get too close to the sea because if he was too close to the sea the dampness would get into the feathers and he would sink and if he got too close to the

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Sun the wax would melt but He didn't listen and therefore he paid the ultimate price his life

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Ambition not knowing our limitations. I guess you could say Icarus was a man who did not know his limitations and the

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Reformers derided ambition They derided it because they associated it with a particular office and that office would be

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The Pope why would they associate the

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Pope with ambition? What about the papacy is

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Ambitious Authority what authority does the

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Pope claim for himself? All authority all authority has been invested in me the

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Pope the authority of Christ. He's Alleged to be the vicar of Christ or the representative of Christ on earth and because he allegedly has that authority

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What is he then able to do forgive sin

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I Actually had that and I think that's a fantastic answer not because I had it but what does scripture say about forgiving sin?

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Only God can do it. In fact, what are the Jews? How do they respond when Jesus forgives sin? They want to stone him

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For blasphemy because he made himself out to be God so if the

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Pope takes to himself the authority to forgive sin, that's Ambitious to say the least.

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I Think it's fair to say it's arrogance but the Reformers taught that limitations

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You know kind of now I always forget Not that it really matters. I think it was

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Josie Wales, maybe who said a man's got to know his limitations write that one down But it's true.

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I mean this and this was the position of the Reformers Calvin discouraged what he called wandering stars

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Those who were never satisfied and always longed for something more Why what's wrong with that?

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What's wrong with longing for something more? Well, if you could explain that we wouldn't have a rest of a

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Sunday school because that's what we're gonna be talking about Let's turn for a moment, let's just kind of leave that question hanging and let's go to Romans 12

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Romans 12 we've I Feel like I'm always talking about first Corinthians 12 and how the members of the body all fit together how they need to work together

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Well Romans 12 says much the same thing Paul and his letter to the Romans and I'm gonna be reading verses 3 to 16 3 to 16 and just think about ambition and Not being satisfied and wanting something more longing for more as I read this

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For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think

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But to think with sober judgments each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned for as in one body

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We have many members and the members do not all have the same function. So we though many are one body in Christ and Individually members of one of another having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.

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Let us use them If prophecy in proportion to our faith if service in our serving

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The one who teaches in his teaching the one who exhorts in his exhortation

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The one who contributes in generosity the one who leads with zeal

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The one who acts of mercy Who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness? Let love be genuine

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Abhor what is evil? Hold fast to what is good Love one another with brotherly affection.

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I do one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful and zeal Be fervent in spirit serve the

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Lord Rejoice in hope be patient in tribulation be constant in prayer

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Contribute to the needs of the Saints and seek to show hospitality Bless those who persecute you

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Bless and do not curse them Rejoice with those who rejoice weep with those who weep live in harmony with one another

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Do not be haughty But associate with the lowly Never be wise in your own sight

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What's the message in light of ambition? What's the message of that section there?

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Okay, it's about serving others and doing so Humbly and I mean,

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I think you know, there's certain words that pop up there zeal Fervent. I mean the idea is that what you do

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However, you're gifted that you ought to do it with zeal with verve with Alacrity as I like to say

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Look at down at verse 16 Live in harmony with one another do not be haughty. What does it mean to be haughty?

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And no, it's not haughty What does it mean to be haughty?

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To look down on somebody to look down your nose at them so to speak says but associate with the lowly

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And then back to this kind of Understand your your place in life never be wise in your own sights

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Be humble Exactly as Amelia said listen what? Leon Morris says about verse 10 love one another with brotherly affection.

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I do one another in showing honor says Following on the references to love within the

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Christian family There can be no doubt that Paul is telling the Romans not to push for first place for themselves

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They are to seek honor for one another rather than for themselves at the same time

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We must bear in mind that he has just condemned Love that is hypocritical

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So we must be aware or beware of interpretations which imply that the gifted believer affirms the less gifted as superior to himself

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Paul is not advocating hypocrisy But humility and that love which eagerly seeks out and rejoices in and honors the good qualities and other believers

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In other words, he's saying listen If you're more gifted than someone else don't walk up to them and say

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I mean not that you might even know You're more gifted than somebody else, but don't walk up to them and say

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Falsely, you know what? You're more gifted than I am. I'm not gonna walk up to John MacArthur and Expect him to say, you know what

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Steve you're better preacher than I am because I'd go Yeah, I start snorting like that Listen He's a don't do that.

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He says be sincere Be humble. Just remember who you are in Christ.

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Remember what Christ has done for you and in light of that Exalt others. Yes, don't but don't lie to them, you know, don't be false about it

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But look for others to be raised up above you, you know honor others And really getting back to that do not be haughty but associate with the lowly those who have lesser gifts

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Don't don't say, you know what? I'm above them because you're not above them. You need them And even as I think about 1st

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Corinthians 12, you know spiritual gifts in general They imply or actually they really state the idea of spiritual gifts in 1st

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Corinthians 12 You know, I Head cannot say to the foot. I have no need of you, etc, etc that implies that each person within the body of Christ is vital is

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Needful. I'd like you to turn to 1st

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Corinthians 12 for just a moment I want it because I want to highlight one particular verse verse 7 because as I did with the men a

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Couple of weeks ago. I want to just highlight this because I think it's something that we need to hear over and over again 1st

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Corinthians chapter 12 verse 7 To each that is to say to each believer is given the manifestation of the

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Spirit and that is by the way Not speaking in tongues necessarily

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For the common good you have a gift is what the overall passage would tell us each

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Individual Christian has a spiritual gift that is to be exercised for the common good

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Now after I say that Here's the challenge. Do you suppose do you think that it is acceptable?

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to have a spiritual gift and not exercise it in other words if The Bible commands something and you don't do it.

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What is it? Well, it's pride, but it's also sin, right so the

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Bible says that each person has a Gift from the Holy Spirit and that the proper exercising of that gift is for the mutual benefit of the entire body of Christ and Then somebody says well,

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I'm not going to function. I'm not going to exercise my gift. We admit that that's sin

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So then why do we do it? And I think the answer is pride, you know, we don't want to embarrass ourselves

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We don't want to step out of our comfort zone. We don't want to do that. So we just don't Think at the men's retreat.

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I said this, you know, it's like the Holy Spirit gives us a spiritual gift and we just say nope I'm not gonna do that.

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Thank you Holy Spirit. Thank you God, but no, let me just kind of flesh that out a little bit

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Imagine that how many are in here are parents? How many would like to be parents?

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How many regret being parents? Okay Now imagine you give your child and I'm going to you know,

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I'm just thinking about a little January I'm gonna give her a thousand dollars and I'm gonna tell her, you know, here's what

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I want you to do I want you to go buy me $1 ,000 worth of theological books

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Well, that was a bad move Steve And she comes back and she says, you know grandpa.

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I Got a thousand dollars for the candy bars instead and I give her a high -five.

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Good job, January or She comes back and she says well

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I didn't get those books but I Gave it to my friend Jimmy Jimmy now, how's your thousand dollars?

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Good job, January. Is that what we'd say? How much more when

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God gives us a holy a gift a spiritual gift and we say

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No, I know I'm supposed to exercise it for the good of the body, but I'm not gonna do that I I just don't think we let that weigh enough on us

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Now back to ambition when we think of ambition now in In regard to the church today, you know, really it comes down to a word that we've heard a few times pride

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Michael Horton noted that many hymnals have deleted or edited a verse of the hymn all things bright and beautiful Which included the verse listen these words the man or the rich man in his castle the poor man in his gate

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God made them high and lowly and ordered their estates. They cut that out. Why do you suppose they do that?

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No, I I'm not saying why did why are men like that? But why do you suppose churches would cut that lyric out?

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again, the rich man in his castle the poor man in his gates God made them high and lowly and Ordered their estates is

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That true. Does God place people? Does he give them wealth and He's the old also put them in circumstances of poverty.

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Is that true? Yes, so why would they cut that out of a song? Kathy it would be offensive to a lot of people.

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I mean first of all to think that somehow God plays favorites, right? I mean, it's good to be rich It's good to be king and to have your own castle and pity the poor man who

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Is just outside the castle and the gate Basically begging and for God to do that.

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Well, that's that's not fair It reminds me how many well many of you probably still remember the

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Crystal Cathedral and Reverend Bob Reverend Bob Shuler And you know

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He took amazing grace and what what line do you suppose they changed in that song

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Saved a wretch like me That's just terrible. You don't want to say that you're not a wretch.

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Come on, man. Where's your self -esteem? There is a pride

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In many many churches today, but is it shameful to be poor?

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Is it shameful to be lowly no, but I think so much of the church's kind of Theology when

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I say the church, I just mean generally speaking has been filled out by what the world says Let me put it in a slightly different way

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And we've asked this question before but let me ask you again, why do you suppose so many churches have Congregational rule or why do you suppose so many churches have women preachers, even though Paul says

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I wouldn't have a woman Teach or exercise authority over a man. Why do churches do that?

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They don't want to offend Right. I mean she's gifted.

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She's this she's that she could teach better than any guy here at the church Then why wouldn't we have her teach? Why wouldn't we have her preach?

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She's more interesting than anybody we have Why not one person one vote?

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It's only fair Well, is there a bigger question?

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Is there a bigger question about how the church should be run then what's fair? I think there is and what would that question be?

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What does the Bible say now?

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We're gonna turn to oh, well, we don't turn there. I can I can just read it Scripture speaks positively of ambition

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That is to seek something better than What you have it speaks positively of ambition one time in Romans 15 20 and listen to this

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Paul writing and he says and thus I make it my ambition To preach the gospel

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Now where Christ has already been Named lest I build on someone else's foundation.

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Here's My ambition my goal the thing I want To preach

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Christ. Well, I that's a good ambition Because it's not about him In fact, he makes it clear that it's not about him because he doesn't want to usurp somebody else's place

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He doesn't want to build on someone else's Foundation not because he wants to be the founder of the church

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But because he doesn't want to disrupt what's already taking place now let's look at 1st

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Thessalonians 4 verses 9 to 12 and here we're going to see the the verbal form of Ambition would somebody read 1st

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Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 9 to 12, please Okay, what do you suppose the verbal form of ambition is in that Paragraph we just read

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Aspire is correct. And in the NAS it says make it your ambition But look what it is

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Aspire make this your ambition to live quietly and to mind your own affairs Here here's your ambition

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Mind your own affairs take care of your own life live quietly don't cause trouble. I mean when we think of ambition

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That's not what we think of we think of somebody being ambitious. They're stirring it up That they're they're not satisfied they're gonna push on they're gonna reach up higher.

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I mean you could argue We understand Satan's fall rightly. What what was his sin?

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We could say pride, but what did he really want? He wanted a promotion

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I'm not satisfied with my place. I want to Be like the most high I want to I Want to step up so what's our call our call is to contentment

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Contentment, I mean this is so opposite the world's thinking I mean you can't even watch a

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Disney movie without Ambition creeping in because people are always supposed to be more

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I mean, I just right away start thinking about Disney songs like when you wish upon a star, you know

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I mean, what's that? What's that? It's not to be content with where I am. It's to want something more and again

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This is not a call to sloth far Far from it. We're to be zealous and whatever we find ourselves in But let's think about some passages first Let me just see if anybody knows this one because this is a pretty familiar verse

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Proverbs 16 9 Proverbs 16 9 anybody know that one?

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I'll start it and somebody else can finish it at the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord Determines his steps or establishes his steps

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What does that mean? What's the practical implication of that if you're here right now if you planned on Being a lawyer and You know your lot in life is to be a librarian

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What does that mean does that mean you failed I think if you look back at this and you just say

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I This was my plan, but this is where I wound up, but the Lord established my steps

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If you could say this what Romans 828 God causes a lot of things to work together

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For good It's all things and what we forget is that all things means

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All things I mean, there's a great book I mean it gets a little tiresome after a while written by a

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Puritan and I forget the name of it now But it's basically all things for good and he starts It's like chapter after chapter of what all things means and after a while you just kind of go, okay,

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I Think I understand this now, you know, it's pretty much all things But we don't think of it that way

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If you are any well you are somewhere wherever you are in life guess what it's exactly where you're supposed to be

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How do I know I married the right person because you're married to that person? How do I know I have the right job because you have that job?

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How do I know how do I know how do I know because it's where you are now? Does that mean that nothing should change?

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No But it means you should be content and that the

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Lord will take care of the rest Let's look at 1st Peter chapter 5 And I think again this principle is highlighted for us here 1st

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Peter chapter 5 verses 5 to 7 and Would someone volunteer to read that please

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Mark Arnold? That's some strong language there God opposes the proud

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How would you like to have God for your opponent stand tall be proud?

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No, don't Because you don't want

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God for your opponent, but look He says listen humble yourselves Except where you are.

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That doesn't mean stop. That doesn't mean cease working That means work hard at what you're doing and look what he says

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I mean the principle may be for church leadership, but it's really true in life, right?

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Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you

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He'll put you where you need to be you know, we often worry about things we fret about things as if we're gonna help

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God as If he needs our help the more faithful you are

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So the more faithful you are It doesn't necessarily mean that the more faithful you are then

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God will exalt you it says look at the appropriate time at the right time at the proper time

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In God's timing if he wills then he will put you someplace else But we worry about these things and verse 7 says don't do it

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Casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. We worry about where we are

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We worry about the direction of our life. We worry about where we're gonna wind up God says don't worry.

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God says he has exactly He has you exactly in the right place and he will get you to exactly the right place

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Be faithful and trust the Lord so one antidote for ambition

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Personal pride never being satisfied is to in fact be content.

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The other one is to Love others. Let's look at first John. I Mean ambition is inherently selfish.

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Let's look at first John Chapter 3 verses 14 is 16 and would somebody read that please?

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first John chapter 3 verses 14 to 16 Yeah, Charlie Yep, and one more

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If we just think about this in terms of you know, is it wrong for us to have ambition?

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well, it's wrong for us to be not content and So what's the answer? Well, the first is to Rest on the

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Lord Jesus Christ to trust that God will get us exactly to where he wants us and we ought to be satisfied with where he wants us

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Why wouldn't we be? Satisfied with that, but the other Antidote for ambitiousness for pride

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Is to love one another is to look at one another and to Says right there.

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We ought to lay down our lives for the brothers Ambition is concern for self concern for my own position because it concern for my own future

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This passage here says that we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers for others

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We ought to be serving one another we ought to be concerned about one another. I mean

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I tell people This is an amazing passage for another application. The other application is this, you know, well,

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I don't need to be at church You know the same old same old, you know, one of the arguments

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I have against that is well You need to use your spiritual giftedness, but look at this one, too. How do you love the brothers?

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How do you love other Christians by staying away from them? The answer is you don't we're to gather together yes to worship

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God, but also to love one another and We can't do that any other way You can't say well

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I was loving the body of Christ You know while I was up in the mountains today

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Were you Well, okay, maybe you're praying for us or whatever, but there's there's a sense in which

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There needs to be fellowship. There needs to be that sense of love Now Horton says this he says

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Christians should be some of the most conflicted people in the world You ever feel conflicted

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Why don't what do you suppose he says that you should be conflicted in Light of what we've just been reading.

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Yes Okay, if you think you're humble, you're not humble.

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I Remember I used to joke around with the kids, you know, whenever they'd start popping off about something I'd say

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I start singing great is thy humbleness, you know And what other yeah

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Charlie, yeah, we can have the wrong motivation the wrong You know kind of source for what we do and you

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I'd like to have a if I had a nickel, you know It's one of those things where if you said I had a nickel for every time

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I wish I had a nickel, you know, there'd be a lot of nickels. My wife says this a lot of times She says well that one just burned up When your motive is revealed right then what happens?

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Yeah, you got your reward now, which usually my wife is, you know, my reward is my wife saying

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Well, that one just burned up That's probably not too good

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Yeah, not the ideal reward But thinking of ourselves rightly

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Loving others putting their interests ahead of our own. Is that natural?

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Is that something that just comes naturally to us? No, so it is a conflict it's an inherent conflict because we are naturally

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Selfish we naturally want to do things for ourselves you know, my favorite person shot for is

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Me now there are a number of reasons for that one is You know Because I'm easy to shop for me to ask my wife for a

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Christmas list. What do I get? You know, I get the lint offering I get nothing went to her

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Amazon and wish list I mean, I have like 43 pages. I saw the stuff in there. I don't even remember wanting. I think somebody hacked my account

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She has like two items. It's like $12 total. Thanks for nothing, you know I'll go back to shopping for me.

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So I Wrap all my gifts put them under the tree, but it's our natural tendency

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Our natural tendency is to serve ourselves When it comes to serving others loving others to make excuses find other ways to Keep our priorities the way we like them to not get our feathers ruffled

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Well, let's look at one more passage here quickly. Let's look at Philippians Philippians 2 and I'm gonna read this it's rather Long and then we'll just kind of move quickly

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Philippians 2 starting in verse 1 so If there is any encouragement in Christ any comfort from love any participation in the spirit any affection and sympathy

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Complete my joy by being of the same mind having the same love being in full accord and of one mind

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Listen do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but in humility

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Count others more significant than yourselves Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others

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In other words, it's implied that you're gonna look at your own interests But look at the other the interests of others have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus Who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped

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But emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross

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Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and Under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is

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Lord to the glory of God the Father the that passage alone just puts a lie to everything else all this concept of well

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I deserve this or I deserve that Jesus Christ did not deserve anything that happened to him.

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In fact, really when it says humbling himself He humbled himself in the extreme we could even say he was willingly or he was willing to be humiliated when it says that he did not view

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Or did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped he didn't hang on to his station he willingly gave up that place so that he could come down to earth and suffer

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It's that kind of Sacrifice that really ought to make us all think well,

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I don't deserve anything Horton goes on and he compares them to The difference between the first Adam or the second

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Adam if you think about it again Eve's problem Adams problem Was pride arrogance disregarding what

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God said? ambition even Satan says, you know, you'll eat this and you'll be like God Sounds good to us but the ultimate example of Humility is

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Christ Jesus anti pride The person who had everything to You know from our standpoint had everything to be proud of in fact

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Horton talks about how Nietzsche just despised This view of Christianity and said that you know

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Jesus had it basically all wrong. It's really stunning

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Final thought and I'll just read this John 10 1718 For this reason the father loves me because I laid down my life that I may take it up again

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No one takes it from me But I lay it down of my own accord I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again this charge.

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I have received from my father Jesus was not a weak and passive victim.

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He willingly laid down his life he willingly

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Gave his life over we could look at other passages where he tells the people that he's on trial in front of he says look

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You would have no authority except God gave you that authority. You have nothing This is all him humbling himself and obeying the father

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We have no right to Ambition we have a right to be

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Content because we're in Christ and we ought to think of ourselves as being exactly where God wanted us in the light of the cross

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How should we think about our own place in life? Let's pray father Lord teach us to love as You have commanded us father will never love and will never love one another as You have loved us

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But let us strive for that let us seek to be a more

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Sacrificial less concerned about ourselves more concerned about employing our gifts for the benefit of the body of Christ That we all might function together in a way that glorifies you that pleases you that honors the gifts that you have granted us

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Father even as we this week will give gifts to one another physical gifts

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Just remind us of the greatest gift that we have been given Lord keep that our focus this week and always we pray in Jesus name.