Sermon — October 4, 2026

Jesus spoke these things. He had been teaching them, and he's about to pray for them. As he begins to pray, he's been teaching for probably three hours during the whole Passover meal. Now he starts to pray. Look at what he does. He lifts up his eyes. In other words, as the Lord prayed, he actually looked up and had a personal conversation, a personal communication with his Father. Sometimes I think one would be right, but publicly we're speaking to everyone and we're kind of ignoring that we're supposed to be praying to God. When Jesus prayed, he actually looked up, signifying he was thinking with his child.

When we sing, which is really a form of prayer, when we stand and sing in a few moments, Paul does say we're singing to one another and encouraging one another. But more than all of that, when you sing, you are communicating to the God of heaven. We are grateful this morning for the privilege to come before the throne of grace and to explain to you. We realize, though our voice may not reach heaven, your ear reaches. I'm praying that our singing would be music in your ears, and that you would be glorified by joyful hearts and reverent spirits. Thank you for this privilege. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

The Mediator Between God and Man

We see from the scriptures we read this morning that, Lord, you are absolutely pure and perfect. You're righteous and just. No man can see you and live. Why is that? It's because we're sinful. Because we have sinful natures and you are absolutely perfect.

We see here from the scripture what an amazing section where Moses is interceding for the people of his nation—your people. In the Old Testament, Moses is interceding on their behalf. What a wonderful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Like Pastor Paul went over this morning, he is the one mediator between God and men. He is the only intercessor in the presence of God. And the Lord Jesus Christ interceded on our behalf, mediated on our behalf by dying on that cross to pay for our sins. So that we as sinful people can be completely forgiven. He lived a perfect righteous life that we could never live, and we pray that he put his righteousness on our account all through the gift of faith that you've given us, all because of your grace alone.

We just sang about your grace where sin abounded, your grace abounded all the more. We were mighty sinners, but we have a mighty Savior who completely paid the penalty for our sins. And now we, one day when you call us home or when you return, Lord, we will see. Because we have the perfect righteousness of Christ credited to our account, and as far as you're concerned, we're forgiven. We have no more sin because Christ paid for one hundred percent, and we just praise you for that.

We thank you for the salvation you have in Christ. What an amazing, amazing gift for people who deserve the complete opposite. We deserve hell, but Christ suffered that hell on our behalf, and we praise you for it, Lord.

We pray that you continue to bless this church, Lord. Our souls are washed up and amazed at the work you are doing in this place. We see so many people coming to faith in Christ. We see people growing in their faith in Christ. We see you work in people's hearts and people's lives. And, Lord, that's all because of your grace. It's all because of your mercy. We are so undeserving, and we are so grateful for what you're doing here.

We pray that you continue to do a mighty work in this place. You would continue to sanctify us, Lord. Continue to grow us in our love for you and in our understanding and our love for the word. Lord, we pray that we would be doers. That you would give us victory over the sins that still beset us, Lord. That you would help us to live righteously, and that we would have a holy hatred for sin and a growing love for you, a growing love for the people, that would be growing in love for each other, God.

That it will be evident to anyone who sees us, Lord, that we know you and that the people here love each other. What an amazing thing we see—a picture of this place. People from all different walks of life, people who most likely would never be with each other or associate with each other had it not been for your grace, pulling us out of darkness and bringing us into your marvelous light. We are so grateful. We are so grateful. Lord, help us to be more grateful.

Lord, we pray that as we look back at the grace you've shown us in the past, as we can rejoice over it, Lord, we pray that our hearts would be lifted up to you this morning and we would sing praises to your name. That we would listen with open ears, Lord, and that we would praise you for what you've done and that we would trust in your future grace as well.

We know that we now stand in grace, and it's only grace toward us now, Father. So we just praise you for that, Lord. We trust in your future grace to finish the good work that you've started in us, Lord, to keep us—like Pastor Paul said before—until that day. Lord, you are so good. Nobody can pluck us out of your hand. Nothing in all of creation can ever separate us from your love, Lord. We are so grateful.

Lord, we lift up our missionaries, Tim and Claire Peterson, who are in Poland. Lord, we thank you for what they let us know about the church and some of the Bible clubs. Lord, how the Word is being proclaimed and people are coming. We pray that you would continue to bless them and help them to learn the Polish language. Lord, they have people in their church from Ukraine, people from Poland, more different languages. They need to really, really learn the Polish language so that everyone can worship together, Lord. So, Lord, we pray that you continue to pour your grace upon them to help them to do this. Lead more people in that place to his church, Lord, and that you bring them to faith in Christ. We pray that you would continue saving sinners in Poland, Lord. We pray that you continue to bless them and supply their needs, Lord, and just continue to encourage him and his wife, Lord, as they continue to seek your will in this place and continue to follow you as they trust in you.

Lord, we pray that we would receive our offering this morning. We give this to you because we are just so grateful for the work you've done. Lord, we know that you love us much more than we could ever imagine. Thank you for the unsearchable riches of Christ that you've revealed to us, Lord, and for the life you've given us. What a wonderful life this is. We look forward to seeing you one day, living together with you in eternity with a grateful heart and love obeying you. It's in Jesus' mighty name we pray. Amen.

Church Unity and Division

I'd like to tell you about a time when I went to visit my mom down in what I think was the Orlando area in Florida. And I was struck by the overwhelming number of Baptist churches that became closed just in her little town. I mean, it seemed like there was one on every corner. And coming from up north, I just wasn't used to that many Baptist churches.

One day I asked my mother-in-law why there were so many. And she responded with these sad words. She said, "You know, when I first moved down to this little town, many, many years ago, there were just two Baptist churches. But now we have so many because over the years, they have continued to split off one from another."

That reminds me of a fictional story I'd heard years ago. A man had become stranded all alone on an island for many years, but finally he was found. And when they came to the island to retrieve him, he said, "Let me take you around our island." And he brought him to this hut and he said, "This is the home I built with my own hands." And then he brought him to another building and he says, "This is the church that I built with my own hands." And then one of the rescuers pointed to a third building and said, "Well, what's that building over there?" And the man responded, "That's the church I used to go to."

I don't know how it is in other parts of the world, but it seems like this is the American way. Two cars, two kids, a job, and a half dozen churches or so that we used to go to.

Listen, I understand there are times within the circumstances of life when churches change, and that God would have us to move on to take our gifts, our talents, our resources somewhere else that we might serve another body. I get that. But far too often, selfishness, pride, unforgiveness—a mentality that exists that somehow the church is here to meet my felt emotional needs—that kind of sinful thinking prevails. Christians become disgruntled. They divide in their disunity for all the wrong reasons.

What I want you to know upfront is that disunity grieves the heart of God. Disunity dishonors the name of Christ. I have heard of churches that have divided because they couldn't decide which side of the sanctuary the piano should be on. They couldn't decide whether the Lord's Supper should be served from the front to the back or the back to the front. Churches that have split because they couldn't decide whether the church needed a kitchen or not. Churches have split over such trivial matters. Disunity is such a tragic condition in the life of the church, and the apostle Paul doesn't want his dear friends at Philippi to go any further down that road.

So when we come to chapter two, he provides what I believe is the richest and most practical instruction on church unity in all of the New Testament.

Now remember last time you looked at the first point, which was simply the foundation of unity. And I gave you four basic foundational pillars that call for unity among the people of God in the church of Jesus Christ. I'd like to get through two more points this morning. Number two, the heart of unity. Verse two. What does unity have to look like? What is unity? And then the beginning of verse three, the opponents of unity. The essence of unity.

I mean, what does it actually mean for a church to be united? Let's read verse two. Paul says, "Make my joy complete by being of the same mind." That's the main verb there. "Maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose."

Now you may remember Paul has already told the church of Philippi that they bring him joy. In chapter one, verse four, he told them in chapter one, verse eighteen that they fill up his joy—then despite his circumstances that he's sitting in a Roman prison chained to a Roman guard they bring him great joy. But here he tells them that they can make his joy complete. Being complete means to fill up to the brim—maybe a water pot—fill up so much to the brim that if there's any movement, it's spilling over. Paul says to these beloved believers, "Listen. I already have joy, but you can fill my joy to the brim. You could make it overflow."

How can we do that? By being of the same mind. Now this becomes the main point of the sentence. So the main point here is not that Paul says, "I need someone to make me happy." Instead, his chief concern is not for himself, but for the Philippians—that they would strive for unity. And Paul's joy, you might say, is just another motivation, another incentive for them to pursue unity with their entire being.

Now in this Greek expression, "make my joy complete by being of the same mind," the idea there is that this expression is one Greek word. It's an important word, by the way. Paul uses it twenty-six times in the New Testament. Ten of those times right here in the book of Philippians. Literally, it means to think the same. You can fill up my joy by thinking the same. The Philippians have a certain united disposition, a certain way of seeing things.

Now he's not talking about uniformity, that we're always gonna agree on the same color of carpet, the same paint of a room. We're not always gonna have the same opinion about everything that we just decide on.

The best way to translate this phrase is to set your minds in the same way of thinking, the same disposition. You see, turn over to chapter four. Kind of fills up practically. Now you may remember this. There are a couple living in the church and they are having some unity problem. And Paul's gonna bring this word up again in verse chapter four verse two. I urge Udaya, that's one of the ladies, and I urge Syntyche, that's one of the other ladies, to live in, and here's our word, in harmony. In other words, don't be of divided mind. Be of the same mind. Set your minds on the same disposition. By the way, it's an imperative. You could turn back to chapter two, which means it's a command, which means it's something that we can do and God expects us to do. We need to decide in the body of the church to have the same disposition. That's the essence of unity. Each of us agrees to have the same disposition on the various issues that we may have to tackle.

Now what is this mindset that we're supposed to have? Well, it's defined by the next three phrases grammatically. So the main verb is be of the same mind, the same disposition. Can you explain that further, Paul? Three phrases:

• Number one, maintain the same love.
• Number two, be united in spirit.
• Number three, be intent on one purpose.

Those three grammatical phrases, Paul means when he says to think the same thing. They kind of fill out our understanding of what unity actually is. So if we are gonna be united, if we're gonna experience the joys and the blessings of unity in our church, we must embrace these three principles.

A Common Commitment to Love One Another

We must have a common commitment to love one another. If there's any consolation of love, since we've been comforted in all of our troubles by our heavenly Father's love for us, Paul says we ought to maintain that same kind of love with one another. Now the word love is the familiar Greek word. It's the word agape. It's the love of choice. It's the love of the will. It's been defined, I think, clearly this way: it's an unselfish, self-sacrificing desire to meet the needs of another. Let me say it this way. True love begins when someone else's needs become more to me than even my own needs.

Well, I prayed that for the Philippians back in chapter one and verse nine that their love would abound more and more. Now it challenges them to let God answer that prayer through their common commitment to love one another.

Now you might say, well, why is this really important? That we make a common commitment to love one another? Well, I think at its most basic level, it's important because our Lord commanded us to. John chapter 13 in verse 34, Jesus tells the disciples a new commandment I give unto you that you love one another. So this is something that our Lord has commanded us. And then he sets the standard: even as I had loved you, with that same love, love one another. That's the standard.

A common commitment to love each other is the soil in which unity grows. It is impossible for us to experience unity as a church if we don't together make a common commitment to begin to abound in our love for one another.

Now Paul brings this up all over his writings. Let me give you a couple of examples. Colossians chapter two and verse two, he says to the church in Colossians, our hearts are knit together. I mean, you have to think about the beauty of that imagery. But how is it that their hearts are knit together? I mean, what is the needle that is stitching their hearts together? He says our hearts are knit together in love. They find unity in love. Colossians three fourteen: Beyond all of these things I've told you, beyond all of that, most importantly, put on love as a garment. Now why is it so important for us to come to church all wearing the same garment of love? Because it is the perfect bond, Paul says, of unity. It's the glue that unites us together.

If we are going to be united as a church, then we need to make a common commitment to love each other, preferring each other over ourselves and seeing the needs of others as even greater than my own need.

Now I wanna kinda get down to brass tacks here a little bit and help you flesh this out. So let's turn over to a familiar passage, First Corinthians 13. We'll start in verse four. This is a common wedding vow. I mean, we're all familiar with this. People recite this at their weddings on so many occasions. I want you to notice how love expresses itself.

So Paul begins to identify what love looks like. Verse four: love is patient. So if we're gonna love each other, we've got to be patient with each other. That's where it starts. We need to have a longer fuse. And then he says love is kind. We relate to each other in kindness as opposed to rudeness. Love is not jealous. Love doesn't begin to think sinfully when something good happens to somebody else instead of us, maybe when they get a position in the church that we don't get. Love doesn't respond with jealousy. Love does not brag. It is not arrogant. Love in the church isn't out to exalt itself or to demean others. If we are going to love others, it means we take the role of a servant. Our chief care is not our own concerns, but the concerns of others, that we serve them.

People go on to say, love does not act unbecomingly. This is an important one. It simply means love is not rude. Love is just not so abrupt that it hurts others every time it opens its mouth. Love does not seek its own. Love is not out in the church for what it can get. Love is out to give. That's the very definition of love. Why didn't they pick me? Why isn't the church doing more for me? Instead, love takes the opposite role. Love reaches out to others. Love does for others. Love is not easily provoked, Paul writes. In other words, at the first sign of personal offense, love doesn't become so hurt that it can't function or so angry that it functions in anger. Love is quick to overlook personal faults and insults towards us.

Love does not take into account wrongs suffered. So it means when we offend each other, and we will—right? We're sinners. When we offend each other, we don't put down another strike against that person. You know, that's two, three strikes, you're out of my mind. I'm done with you. And you don't keep a list of offenses. Boy, you know what I mean? Over the years, this person has offended me so many times. Love does not rejoice, Paul goes on to say, in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth. Love is never happy when another Christian falls into sin.

Notice verse seven: love bears all things. Literally, it covers all things. As many sins as we can cover, love covers. Sometimes you can't cover them, then you have to confront them. Love believes all things. In other words, if we love others, we will always be believing the best about them, at least until we have evidence to the contrary. We'd love to hear something, and it doesn't say, oh no, surprise. You know, I knew that person had issues. Instead, we respond by saying, I can't believe that's true. That's so hard to believe.

Then Paul says, love hopes all things. We are actually hoping the best for each other. Love endures all things. We're willing to put up with a lot from each other. That's what love looks like practically.

Look back at Philippians chapter two now. All of that is how love expresses itself. But that's not all. I mean, Paul speaks on this issue in every epistle that he writes. Let me give you a couple more samples. We are to serve one another through love. You could tell if you were acting in love if you are serving others in this body in some way.

In First John three seventeen and eighteen: Whoever has this world's goods and he sees his brother in need and closes his heart against it, how does the love of God abide in him? In other words, love doesn't stop. Somebody comes to you. They express a need or a need that somebody has, and you just kinda nod your head and say, I'll pray for you, brother. Don't we ought to do that? But if love could meet the need, love meets the need. It gets in the car and it goes there. It calls on the phone. It tries to meet whatever the need is.

First Peter four: Right, above all, Peter says, keep fervent, intense in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. We need to keep our love hot because our sinfulness is spilling over every time we get together with each other in some way, shape, or form. Love is quick to overlook personal affronts. And, again, I'm not talking about a pattern of sin. We need to be willing to confront one another to help that brother or sister so they could see their sinfulness and repent of it and have victory over it.

Now there's a warning here in all this as well, by the way, maintaining the same love. And that is if you and I failed to love other Christians in the same way Father loves us, then you may not be a Christian at all. Listen to the apostle John: We know that we have passed from death to life, First John 3:14, because we love the brethren. But he who does not love the brethren still abides in death.

So if we're gonna have true unity, we must have a commitment to love one another.

A Common Connection

Number two, we must have a common connection. Notice the phrase in verse two: united in spirit. One Greek word. You could translate it easily this way: together in soul. The same expression is used back in chapter one and verse 27 where Paul says, one soul. It means to act and to think like one person, to live in selfless harmony with one another.

The couple over the years have become so part of one another that it's actually hard to tell kind of where he leaves off and where she begins. I mean, they think similarly about most issues. And this could be annoying, I get it, but they finish each other's sentences sometime. They even act alike. They're together in soul. We like to use the term my soulmate. I found my soulmate. That's the idea of what the term is describing.

I was kinda researching it, and I found that it was commonly used in the first century on ancient tombs that a loving partner, loving couple would use of a deceased mate. So one tombstone reads this, speaking of his wife: We spoke the same things. We thought the same things. We go inseparably to the grave.

So not only are we to love one another, but we are to see ourselves as permanently and eternally united together as the people of God. And get this too. Although you and I will never agree on everything, if we are mature in the Lord, if we act and think spiritually minded, we will not allow unimportant differences to divide us, to create disunity, to hinder our service.

And then could I just stop and say this at this point? Do you realize that most differences in the church are relatively unimportant? The differences of thought, you know, blue carpet, red carpet, those are just completely unimportant. But the temptation is to think that what I think is important really is important. Seldom are issues that divide a church truly important. They're just important to the people who are dividing. Paul is saying if we're to experience true unity, we must not allow unimportant differences to divide us.

A Common Cause

Now there is a third way that Paul defines unity here. We're gonna be one soul. We're gonna have a common commitment to love. Number three, we're to have a common cause. We're all here for the same reason. Notice the final phrase: intent on one purpose. So the phrase speaks of being directed towards a singular goal. In other words, there is an aim, and we all must be focusing on that priority aim. It's common causes that cause people to unite together.

You remember, most of you, when Hurricane Sandy hit our island. I'd been seeing that there was damage in every neighborhood on the island, certainly in our neighborhood there was. And the amazing thing to see was how all the people in our neighborhood kind of pulled together and they united, and we were all determined to do whatever we could, use whatever tools, machinery we had, to clean up our neighborhood. And it happened in a way that I've never seen it happen before here. I mean, I met neighbors that I never met that I know to this day. Because we all united together around this common disaster, this common goal in this case.

The same should be true of the church. Which begs the question, what is our common purpose? What is our common focus? Well, if you remember anything from Philippians chapter one, Paul repeated it over and over again—verse five, verse seven, verse 12, verse 16, verse 17, verse 21, verse 27—our common goal is living for Christ. For me to live is Christ. Our common united purpose is the gospel. Over and over, live for Christ. Live for the gospel. Live for each other. Live to tell others about Christ. Our lives are to be focused on Christ and his gospel.

And when the church's unity is disturbed, it is almost always because someone has gotten their eyes off the goal, on some particular personal agenda, personal preference item.

So the essence of our unity is that we have the same mindset, same disposition. And that mindset includes these three things: a common commitment to love one another, a common connection—we are in Christ with each other—and a wholehearted pursuit of a common goal, living for Christ and his gospel. When those things are true, there is unity in the church.

We looked at the foundation of unity last week. We looked at the heart of unity, what unity is. So briefly, I wanna touch on the enemies, the opponents of unity.

The Enemies of Unity

Notice the beginning of verse three: Do nothing from selfishness and empty conceit. Now those are always the two loci behind disunity in the church. And there's a few interesting details here. In the Greek, it's what we call a double negative. We don't use double negatives in English. It doesn't sound right. But in the Greek, they use them on a regular basis for emphasis. So if I could read this to you in the Greek language, it would sound like this: Nothing. No. Nothing at all from selfishness or empty conceit. So this is a binding command for all Christians for all times. It's an imperative. Never under any circumstances are we ever to think or do anything in the church out of selfishness or empty conceit.

So let's kind of define these two vices so we know what we're talking about. Number one, selfishness. Same word used back in chapter one in verse 17, selfish ambition. You remember there, was used to describe the motives of certain paths.

Selfishness and Empty Conceit

in and around the city of Rome who are looking to build their congregations at Paul's expense, to Paul's pain. It's a self-serving attitude of those whose primary concern and why is themselves.

Now in the first century, this word was particularly used to denote the self-seeking pursuit of a politician for political office for one's own selfish desires as opposed to the good of the people he's supposed to be serving. It describes the selfish ambition of political office that has no real conception of serving others but solely as a means of pursuing one's own profit, position, and power—which happens, by the way, with politicians.

Now this attitude in the church tends to demonstrate itself in a couple of ways.

• Number one: kind of a personal jockeying for position—wanting to get that office, wanting to be lifted up, to be revered by others, to be advanced. That's in 3 John. Remember what John says? "He loves to be first among the brethren."
• A second way this vice manifests itself in the church is a divisive spirit. This is the person we all know. Sometimes you see them in the mirror. This is the person who's always looking to take a contrary position. They can't let anyone else be right. Again, think Diotrephes. Listen to what John writes about—it's almost comical. "He does not accept what others say." Just can't accept it.

And listen, this sin isn't always shown outwardly. Some or many don't even voice this sin. But it's a deep, settled anger in the heart, a resentment, a jealousy when one doesn't get their own way. We would describe a person like this as having a personal agenda. They always tend to act in their own self-interest. They are not concerned what their actions might do to others. They're only concerned about themselves.

The idea is the word of tearing other people down so you could build yourself up. People do this, and you know, they could do it sometimes very subtly. They use flattery or deceit or sometimes they'll just outright lie. They'll make false accusations. Anything they could do to bring this person down because in bringing that person down, you're exalting yourselves. It kind of sounds like a campaign ad for a politician—negative against the other guy. I mean, sadly, though, it happens in the church.

And I find this interesting. Notice that Paul does tell us what the issue is. So they're obviously having issues of charity in the church in Philippi. Paul brings it up a few times. He actually identifies some of the people involved in the fourth chapter. But he never brings up the specific issue of what it is they are battling over. Here's the reason why I believe: because it doesn't really matter what the issue is. It doesn't matter which side you're on. It doesn't even matter if blue matches the other colors in the room better than red, or the other group. You see, the real problem wasn't the issue. It was the spirit from which they were pursuing, fixing the issue, settling on the issue.

And we understand this because we see it in the earliest ages of children. And if they're not your children, it could be rather comical. You know, children always think they're right. Think three-year-old. Think toddler nursery. They always think they're right, and they can't see the other side of the issue. The only thing they could see is their own side. Now we always know when they're doing that because usually it's accompanied by a temper tantrum when they don't get their way. But as we get older, it gets a little more subtle. And sometimes a little ugly in here.

In fact, listen. If you struggle with this sin of selfish ambition, you're probably sitting there right now thinking I'm talking to somebody else in this sanctuary. Maybe even the person next to you. Or if you admit it, you say, "You know, I get it every once in a while. But, you know, there's a lot of commands in the Bible, pastor, and they're also hard to keep, and some of them are waiting. You know, this is such a small issue." This is no small thing, my friend. This sin is at the heart of all rebellion against God.

Paul writes in Romans 2:8: selfishness is characteristic of those who are perishing. This is how the world lives. They live for themselves. The fruit of the Spirit and the works of the flesh in Galatians 5. Interesting. Paul gives 15 marks or characteristics of the works of the flesh. Now get this: eight of them have to do with disunity. Eight of them have to do with sowing discord. The sin of selfishness, of selfish ambition, was part of the first sin of the universe. It was part of the sin of Satan in his heart when he was thrown out of heaven by God.

Let me tell you how serious this sin is in the church. James, the half-brother of our Lord, said this in James 3:16: that this sin, which he names in verse 14, is often accompanied by disorder. Well, let me give you the Greek word for disorder. It's the word "anarchy." Ambition produces anarchy in the church. In other words, people who struggle with the sin of selfishness, of selfish ambition, will eventually produce factions, divisions, disputes in the church—anarchy in the church.

In fact, if you were to look at the two places in the New Testament where this word "selfishness" is used in the plural—it's 2 Corinthians 12:20 and Galatians 5:20—in both cases, it's not translated "selfishness." It's translated "disputes." Because that's what selfishness always leads to if it's allowed to grow.

Empty Conceit

Notice the second opponent here of unity: you have selfishness, selfish ambition, but you also have empty conceit. That's the translation—empty glory.

Now for years, this was another message for another day. But for years, we have fed our culture with heavy doses of self-esteem. And I think you could see it pretty obvious: the chickens are finally coming home to roost. I mean, even the secular experts, the psychiatrists, the sociologists—they're seeing the terrible results of a couple of generations in our culture who have become drunk on empty conceit.

I read an article a while back where secular psychologists were seeing the dangers of parents teaching children now for about forty years that you always need to believe the best about yourself, you always need to see the good in yourself. Because now they're grown up and they think themselves to be great, and they're not. They think they're better than they really are.

There was a recent survey done on a poll of college students about various universities around the nation. They asked these individual students how they felt they were doing on the various majors and courses that they were taking in college. Then they were allowed to go back to the school and find out how students were actually doing. And in almost every case, they all thought they were doing better in class with their grades than what they were really doing.

Of course, everyone gets a trophy, right? Nothing is your fault. A teacher talks about the old days of teaching when she first started decades ago. She's recently somewhat retired and she tells stories of parent-teacher meetings. Back in the old days, the parents would come in and they would be earnest. I mean, they would want to know the truth about their child. "I want you to tell me how he really is because I want to be part of the solution. We can help you to help Johnny be a better student." But she goes on to say by the time she got to the end of her teaching years, decades later, you couldn't tell parents the truth about their children. They didn't want to hear the truth. They couldn't handle the truth. "Not my little Johnny." You see, the whole culture is built around empty glory.

Listen, I get so many stories here, but let me just give you one more because I don't think I've ever heard this before, but I was amazed. I was kind of researching. Do you realize that those who make clothing around the country—whoever those businesses are—they've actually altered the size of clothing so that now someone could buy a dress, a pair of pants, and it would be the size of what they used to wear twenty years ago? And it makes them feel that way not because they actually are the size they were twenty years ago, but it's because they just changed the sizes. I know. Unbelievable.

Now at least we would say this: this problem of empty conceit didn't start in our culture. The Greek word frequently occurs—you go all the way back to the first century in ancient literature—to describe those who just think too highly of themselves. They have an inflated sense of self-worth, of self-importance, which—and we're gonna see this next time—is the opposite of humility.

This person is conceited. They are ambitious for their own reputation. They tend to challenge others as a pattern of life because they always arrogantly believe that they are right and their opinion is right, and everybody else is clearly wrong if they disagree with that. So they expect everyone to agree with that. And when they don't, they're willing to fight to prove they're right. They remind us of the guy in Proverbs. He gets in a room with seven other guys. Paul said guys have a reason why he's wrong in his opinion. He discounts all of it and holds his opinion.

The sin of selfishness seeks personal goals, not group goals. The sin of empty conceit seeks personal glory, not God's glory.

Romans 11:25: Paul's words say, "Do not be wise in your own estimation."

Galatians 6:3: "If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he is self-deceived."

This sin in my nature is self-deceiving. We buy into our own press clippings. We really think we are who we think we are.

So how does this attitude show itself in the church? And we've talked about this kind of in the theoretical, but how can you diagnose your own heart to see if you are guilty of the sin of empty conceit?

Let me give you a test. If any one of these sins kind of pops up regularly in your life, you may be guilty of the sin of empty conceit:

• Do you often find yourself thinking that your convictions and your standards are more godly than others?
• Do you find yourself believing that your interpretation of the Bible is more right than others?
• That your personal preference about everything from style of music to the color of the curtains is more important than others?
• That your evangelical thinking about your views on life are more accurate than others?
• That your personality is more desirable than others?
• That your ideas are more practical than others?
• That your gifts and your abilities are more praiseworthy than others?
• That your heart is more spiritually mature than others?

If you find yourself thinking along any of those lines, then you're probably guilty of the sin of empty conceit.

By the way, the word in the Greek comes from two other Greek words. The word "empty" means empty, but the word "conceit" means glory. You translate it "empty glory." Now four other times in the book of Philippians, Paul uses this word "glory," and each of those times he uses it for God. Here's what he's saying when he says "empty glory": if you glory in yourself, if you take glory in who you are and what you accomplished and how you perceive yourself to be, first of all, it is empty glory. It's not true glory. That's God.

And behind these two sins of selfishness and empty conceit is pride. You see, pride ultimately is the origin of these sins. We're gonna see it next week. It is the great enemy of unity, and we'll see it next time.

Notice again, "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit." And then Paul's next concern down in verse four: "But instead, with humility of mind."

Why humility of mind? Because pride is the culprit behind these two sins and ultimately lies behind all division and all disunity in the church.

So if you find yourself sitting here this morning guilty of these sins, the answer is confess them to the Lord and pray that God gives you a spirit of humility. Again, we'll get to that next time.

So Philippians 2:2. We are to put on the same mind, be of the same mind. How? We are to make a common commitment to love one another. We are to remember we have a common connection with each other in Christ. We're soulmates. And then we are to choose to live for a common cause. So if you want to overcome this sense, you need to pursue that mindset.

Now I want to close with a quote. It's a rather lengthy quote. It is something I came across this week. It's by John MacArthur. But here's the shocking thing: he gave it forty years ago. So let me just give you this quote. MacArthur said to his church:

"I am deeply concerned about the evangelical church today because I believe that our society, the culture in which we live, has created monsters—selfish, self-indulgent, egotistical, introverted, self-consumed, material people who can only think of themselves and their own things. And the spillover of this is literally debilitating churches across our land. We are hostile. We are angry. We have so much of this 'do your own thing' philosophy embedded so deeply within us that we know very little of what it means to seek oneness and give ourselves up for one another.

The legacy of this warped, pagan, godless culture is producing monsters of self-indulgence. And it's very difficult for the church to stay separated from that. And the threat to the church is from within. Frightened. Beloved, we can only pray. We can only pray that God will somehow put a halt to this for the purity of the church and for the sake of his name. But I want you to know this: no matter how far the culture goes—and they are gonna go further than they are now—no matter that you and I were saved out of this culture, we have no excuse because we have new life in Christ. This isn't our culture anymore out there. We create a new culture in here. And the word of God still binds us. No matter how bad the culture gets, it still binds us to the responsibility of the truths that God has given us."

Let's pray together. What a heavy sweater we are for sinners such as us. We thank you that you have given us instruction and the means to pursue and attain unity. Lord, for any unity we do experience at this moment, we give you glory. We give you praise for you are behind us. But help us to abide in pursuing this unity with all of our minds, and we pray protect us from its enemies. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

One Body in Christ

Please turn with me to Romans chapter 12. I will read verses four and five.

"For just as we have many members in one body, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another."

What he's saying in verse four is how the human body works. Like, my vocal cords are saying something, and your ears are receiving them. You understand that. In the same way, verse five says, "So we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another."

As we come to the table, we remember that first thing that we are one body in Christ. Today, as we participate, there's a way for us to use this. This is not how it used to be on the day when the table was instituted. There was one loaf of bread. The Lord broke it and said, "This is my body." They all used to take part of one loaf of bread, and they would distribute it to as many people as there were. There are churches that do that even today. I've been in such churches. It reminds us of two things: that the body of the Lord was broken, and also that we have one body as a local church which participates together, remembering all that was taught to us.

So how are we going to participate this morning? Well, let's remember all that we heard. Verse five says, "We are one body in Christ." If you're a believer, and I'm a believer, you have membership into the body of Christ. It's something you did not deserve. It's something I did not deserve. It's something that God has done.

So as we come to this time of union, let us be careful with something wrong towards this membership. The second thing—"individually members of one another"—simply means this: as I stand here, I'm incomplete without the rest of the body. My eyes can't say I don't need the ears. That makes no sense. I'm incomplete without the rest of the members of the body. If you are a believer, you're incomplete without every single other believer. The others are not inconveniences. Romans chapter 14 actually says, "Who are you to judge another man's servant? He is his master's servant. My master is the Lord. Your master is the Lord. If I pick on you, I'm picking on your master."

Let us celebrate being part of one body. Let us celebrate whom God has put together in this body. As we pass it along, think of those whose names you remember who have been a blessing to you. "Lord, I thank you for that brother, for that sister. Lord, I thank you for those people who I know are praying for me, and they have not even told me they're praying for me." That is one body.

I also want to read verse three before we take communion. This is Romans 12:3: "I say to everyone among you, not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think."

Let us examine ourselves about this. How can I think more highly of myself? How can I think more highly than I ought? Well, today's sermon was perfect for that person. I'm going to send him a link after we're done. Let's not do that. When we come to the table, let's examine this for ourselves. How am I acting? Let's have sound judgment and think correctly about ourselves.

Later on, when they pass out the bread, continue to rejoice and worship. Just move out the food for the Lord.

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Let me pray.

Father, we bow before you and worship. For those of us who are born again, we rejoice in the fact that you made it possible for us to be part of one body in Christ. It is only your grace and your goodness that gave us membership into this one body.

As we participate, we worship you and thank you. Thank you also that there are others just like myself who are so undeserving of your grace, yet you extended that grace. As I look around this room, as I think of them, I'm worshiping you and thanking you. We worship you and thank you for this body that you have put together here locally.

We want to think correctly as we come to your table. Not to think highly of ourselves in an inappropriate way, Father. Recognizing that we are incomplete alone, that we are fruitful and sanctified according to your plan in the church, the body that you have put together here locally. Correct us in ways that we need to be corrected. May the way we participate in the Lord's table be pleasing to you. Be exalted in Jesus' name. Amen.

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One thing I forgot to mention: since you've been forgiven, if you are new, if you don't understand this, the best thing would be to pass it over to the next person. Because participating unworthily brings God's judgment. But if you are born again, if you're part of the body, I welcome you.

Lord Jesus, on the night you were betrayed, you took bread and broke it and said, "This is my body." After supper, you took the cup and said, "This is the new covenant in my blood. Do this in remembrance of me." And as often as we do this, we proclaim the Lord's death.