Thoughtful Contributions to Community

Romans chapter 12, we've been on a long hiatus from, this part of the book of Romans, I believe we left off at the end of verse 15 back in November. And today, we, we will come back to, Romans 12 and continue, working our way through, this rich section of the book of, Romans. And if you want to give a title. to the message this morning, it would be thoughtful contributions to community.

Thoughtful contributions to, community. We're going to learn in verse 16 today, some fantastically thoughtful things that you can do to contribute to enriching the community here at, at Cornerstone. just by way of recapping something we talked about, two weeks ago, we, we learned a couple of weeks ago, just thinking about our purpose here at Cornerstone. What are we doing here?

we are here to help people to journey from brokenness to wholeness through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ. That's what we're all about to come to people and to help them to see their brokenness, their need for a Savior, to point them to Jesus and to by the grace of God, get them launched in their journey toward wholeness. We also looked at different points, critical points on this journey from brokenness to wholeness.

There are 5 of them that we talked about. The first of these is conversion. if you want to go from the brokenness of sin all the way to wholeness, that journey begins with being born again, being converted, becoming a believer in Jesus Christ, and receiving the forgiveness of your sins and justification through him and being brought into right relationship with, with God. and then upon being converted to Christ in this way, there's a second critical point of this journey, and that is, orientation, gospel orientation, being grounded in the gospel, coming to understand how central the gospel role is to be in your life from day to day to where you come to understand the fullness of the gospel.

You learn to think gospel, and then to reason from gospel truth to the various ethical and theological and relational issues of your life. We also saw that there was a third critical point of this journey, and that is gospel community. if you are going to succeed in making the journey from brokenness to wholeness, then you will not be able to succeed in that journey alone. At some point, you have to enter into a community of brothers and sisters in a local church and, and do life and mission together with them.

They are also broken sinners being saved by Christ on their way to wholeness. And gospel community is one of the key prescriptions that Christ gives to you and to me. to aid us in our journey to wholeness. And then there's gospel mission and then ultimately gospel glory, as we stand before Christ completely whole body, soul, and, and spirit.

What I want to focus on, today is community, that third critical point of the journey. If we as a church, are wanting to be here by the grace of God to be a community that people can be brought into that can help them in their journey to wholeness, then we should ask ourselves all the time, are we here at Cornerstone a wholesome Community When people who are on their way from brokenness to wholeness pass through here. Are we a help? To them, or are we a hindrance to them on that journey?

Do we get in the way of what God is seeking to do in them in that journey from brokenness to wholeness? Do we contribute to their growth and flourishing in Christ? Or do we end up breaking them even more to where they are left more broken? than they were before they came our way.

We need to ask these kinds of questions. You all know that it's not enough to just be a community. There are good communities and there are bad communities of people. And it's not even enough to be a church community.

There are good church communities. And there are bad church communities. There are church communities that will chew you up and spit you out before you even know what happened. And so it's not enough to say we're a church and we're a community.

We need to ask, are we a wholesome, community? You think about Paul writing to the Galatian believers, and it's a group of believers that were a community, but they had moved away from, from the gospel. And as a result of that, they began turning on one another. And Paul makes an observation about what was going on in their midst.

Here's what he observes in Galatians 5:15. You are biting and devouring one another. Take care lest you be consumed by one another. You guys are ravaging one another like wild animals in in the wild.

The Galatian community was red in tooth and claw as they warred against one another. And so anyone who would have at this point of the Galatian church where they were at this point passing through that congregation on their way to wholeness would have likely been devoured. And chewed up and left more broken than they were when they came. This was a church.

So it's not enough for us to be a church or a community. We need to ask, are we a wholesome community? And also be asking, how can we become a more wholesome community that can help people on their way to complete and utter wholeness in Christ? And then all of us as individuals asking ourselves the question, what can I do?

What can I contribute? To the larger body, the larger community here. What contribution can I bring to the table that will help make Cornerstone, the community that God wants it to be? What we're going to learn, one of the things that stands out to me in Romans 12, that we'll be learning today is how that if, if we are going to be the community that God wants us to be, it, it starts in the mind.

It's interesting the role that the mind plays in Romans 12, in shaping the community that God wants us to be. In Romans chapter 12 verse 1, after laying out the glories of the gospel, Paul says, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present yourselves plural, all the way down to the physical part of who you are, your bodies, present yourselves as a sacrifice singular. Meaning if, if Paul was talking to Cornerstone, he would say, I don't want 450 sacrifices. I want one community sacrifice.

I want you all to come together. and link your arms and your hearts together and step forward together as a single community sacrifice to God. And then what flows from there. is what this community sacrifice is to look like.

And the role that the mind plays is very instructive for us. Look at verse 2. Paul says, And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Your minds are going to have to be renewed if this community thing is going to happen in a way that is truly shaped by the gospel.

Your mind needs to be renewed, OK. And having said that, we then should not be surprised in the very next verse to read these words from Paul. And this is a literal translation of verse 3. Paul says, for through the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to have sane thinking.

As God has allotted to each a measure. of faith. Paul says, your minds need to be renewed. And right here are some things you need to be thinking right away and renewing your mind if this gospel community is to become all that God wants it to be.

And then flowing from there are further detailed descriptions of what this community is to look like being shaped by the gospel. And he gives beautiful vivid descriptions of this community of love, as we have studied. in past months, but this list continues, and we come this morning to verse 16. And it's interesting again, the role that the mind plays in what we are to contribute to this community.

Look at verse 16, and here's a literal rendering of verse 16 and 17. Think the same toward one another. Do not think conceitedly. But associate with the lowly.

Do not become a wise thinker according to yourself. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Prethink. What is right in the sight of all men.

So again we're reminded of the prominent role that the mind plays in In us being the community that God wants us to be, wholesome community starts in the mind. And what, guys, if that is true, if that is true, then the flip side of that is also true. And that is church splits start in the mind. Splits in relationships begin in the mind, fractures in relationships begin in the mind.

If there is a church that is split in two with warring factions on both sides, you can be sure that at some point, that visible split began invisibly in somebody's mind. And what you're now witnessing is a vivid, tangible playing out of that fracture that occurred in the minds of people. The same is true when it comes to, to marriage. A husband and wife, their marriage may have dissolved and ended.

They've split, or maybe they're still married, but there is division. There is a wide chasm between the two of them. And the reason for that division and the conflict is because in the mind of one or both of the spouses there is already a fracture. that has been allowed to occur.

It's not that the husband and wife both just love each other, and they're always just thinking, loving, gracious, forgiving thoughts about the other. And yet in their actions, they just can't figure out a way to be unified. No, that doesn't happen that way. There's been a fracture that's been tolerated in their minds, and the conflict that ensues is just a manifestation of that mental fracture that's been allowed to take place.

The same is true in the church, and it's amazing how that even church conflicts begin with something so amazingly small. But then that small thing. is allowed to take root in somebody's mind. And division follows.

Dwight Pentecost in his book The Joy of Living talks about a church in Dallas a number of years ago that had a horrible split that was made the newspapers. People in the city of Dallas were reading about the details of this conflict between two warring factions in this church in the city of Dallas, and, they were fighting against one another. Both filed a lawsuit against the other to dispossess the other side of the church property because they wanted it for themselves. But interestingly enough, when they came to the civil court, The judge basically ruled saying it's not my place to settle this.

Reading your church constitution, you need to take this matter to your own denominational leaders and settle this amongst yourselves. So he threw it out and they took it to the denominational leaders and they convened a church court from the denomination to settle the matter and both sides made their case as compellingly as they could. And eventually the church court ruled in favor of one of the sides, and then the losing side left and formed their own church. What was interesting is that as a result of the hearings and the interviews, one of the interesting things that came out was that those on this church court, they did some investigation to try to trace back where this ugly conflict.

began They tried to trace it back as far as they could to the first cause. They interviewed people, talked to people, and And they ended up discovering what, where they believe the church split started, and they actually, that actually made the newspaper for all the people of Dallas to read. Listen to what Pentecost says as to where this all started. In the course of the proceedings, the church courts found that the conflict had begun at a church dinner when an elder received a smaller slice of ham than a child seated next to him.

And so some elder didn't get his hand. the size that he wanted, and began to judge the person serving, and a fracture began to form in his mind between him and that person, and whoever else may have been represented by that action. And little by little, one thing led to another, and this church is two warring factions fighting in front of the whole city. Suffering a terrible split.

What will Cornerstone look like in 5 years? If you want to know what Cornerstone will look like in 5 years, it's possible maybe to look inside the minds of the people of Cornerstone today. What do their minds look like? What fractures and divisions exist and are tolerated in our minds?

Because what our minds look like today may be the cornerstone of five years from now. I'm telling you guys, if you want to serve this church. Then win the battle for the mind. Paul in verse 16, gives us some very thoughtful things to do.

That's what we're calling them for thoughtful things that you can do to contribute to the enrichment of the Cornerstone culture to, to foster and to nourish and to help the unity of the body here. And to help make this community a place of spiritual growth and flourishing for many. And we're calling these thoughtful things because 3 out of the 4 are simply things you do with your mind. In fact, you'll like that.

3 of the 4 of these, you don't even have to lift a finger to do them. You can sit right where you're seated and do 3 of these 4 things. It's just what you think. That's it.

And then one of them is more, more active. And so let's break this down and look at these 4 thoughtful things that, that you can do to Contribute to the community here. By the way, in the first service, we only got to 3, so that's the likely outcome here. But number 1, let's word it this way, just trying to stay consistent with Paul's wording.

the first thing that you can do to contribute to wholesome community here is think about everyone, including yourself, in the same way. Think about everyone, including yourself, in the same way. Paul says, think the same. Toward one another.

Paul, in a sense is acting like a therapist, and he's getting us all together and he's like, I want you to look at each other. Everyone face each other, look at each other. And so we all look at each other. And then we're like, what do we do now?

And Paul says, now here's what I want you to do facing one another. I want you to think, OK, what do I think? Think the same toward one another. We're like, OK, but you're gonna have to help us out, Paul, what is, what does that mean when you tell us to think the same toward one another?

Well, there's a few ways to tease out what Paul is meaning here. for him to tell us to think the same toward one another means in part to think about everyone the same way. Without partiality, without making distinctions. it means that I look at Christian A and Christian B and C and D and E and F.

I look at all of them, and I may recognize that there are differences between them. Christian A may be wealthy, Christian B may be poor and be out of a job and have some pretty deep financial and material needs. Christian C may have been a believer for 40 years and is very mature in the Lord. And Christian D may have known the Lord for just a few weeks and is very needy and very immature.

And on and on, the differences can go. But Paul is saying, I want you to look at all of those Christians, and I want you to think towards them in the same way. Yeah, you recognize differences, but at the core of how you think about each one of them, I want you at the core to think of each of them in the same way. Does that make sense?

you can write down the reference James 4, where James is telling the believers, I want you to hold the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ that you all have without impartiality or without partiality. And he says, what's happening in your church is that someone who is wealthy and nice clothes is coming in, and you're giving him the highest seat, and then someone in shabby clothes is coming in. And you treat him very differently than you do the one with the nice clothes, and who has the wealth.

And he says in James chapter 2, verse 4, have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives?

He's saying, I see the way you act. And I know by the way you act that in your mind, The way that you think, you make this distinctions in the way that you see people. He's basically saying, I want you to think the same towards both the rich. And the poor believer, the nicely dressed believer, and the poorly dressed believer think the same at the core about all of your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Some commentators also suggest that Paul is counseling us here to think about everyone else the same way you would want them to think about you. That's part of thinking the same. It's like, how do I want people to think about me? Well, however, I would want them to think about me, that's the way that I want to think about them.

And one of the best ways that we would want people to think about ourselves is to see us for who we are in the context of the gospel. Amen. And so one of the best ways that we can think about our brothers and sisters is to think of them in the context of their gospel story. It's interesting, Paul could have never begun the book of Romans and Romans 1:1.

And said think the same towards each other. He could have never done that because we would have been left with, well, what do you mean? But after 300 plus verses of giving us gospel truth and telling us how to view ourselves and to view one another, Paul then on the other side of that can say, Hey, think the same towards each other. And if we all had just finished hearing Romans chapter 1 through 11 being read, And now we're being told to think the same towards one another, we would go, Oh, I know what you mean.

Think about each other in the context of the gospel, because that's what we have in common. You can go through the book of Romans, and you can make quite a list of all the things that are true of you in Christ and all the things that are true of your brothers and sisters in Christ. And then Paul would say, start thinking that way about yourself and about your brothers and sisters. You can honestly look at yourself and all of your brothers and sisters.

This is just a short list and say we are all sinners. I look at you and I look at myself and I can say we are all sinners who needed As Savior Jesus Christ, we are all loved by God. Jesus Christ died for each one of us, died for our sins. As a result of that, God has brought us into relationship with Himself.

He's given us His Holy Spirit, and God is for us, not against us. And God causes all things to work together for you and for me. And I can look at you and myself and see in the gospel that all of us are headed towards incredible glory. In Christ we saw that in Romans 8.

So when I look at you in your brokenness and you look at me in my present brokenness, we don't just see each other as we look right now, but when we look at one another, we also see what we will become. One day I'm going to look at you guys who know Jesus and be utterly blown away. By the incredible glory of your being. The glory of Jesus that emanates from you, and I'm going to say I got to be that person's pastor.

You will all be glorious specimens. And I can think that way about you. You can think that way about me, because we know that's true in the Gospel. In Romans chapter 12, we, we learned earlier in this chapter that all of us, by the grace of God, each of us has been gifted with unique capacities.

And also we all have been intentionally left with deficits. by the grace of God, it's the grace of God that determined to give you gifts and to leave you. With deficits so that you would need other people. The grace of God has determined that you would only receive a measure of the faith, a measure of the full package of all that you need, so that you would then be driven into community with other people who can then minister to you from their giftedness and address your needs, and you can address theirs.

And we also in the gospel can see that we're members of the same body and thus we need one another the way that the members of the body need one another. This is just a short list, but the point is, Paul is saying, here, here's how to operate in community with one another. Turn and face each other, and in the way that you think about one another, I want you to think the same. That leads to a second thoughtful contribution that Paul wants us to make to the community life of this church, and that is, do not think proudly.

Do not think proudly. Paul says in verse 16, think the same toward one another. Do not think conceitedly. If you want to serve this church body, then don't be proud and don't think in a conceited, prideful way.

you may be here this morning and you right now are thinking proudly, and no one knows you're thinking proudly. And I'm just wanting to let that even though that pride may not have manifested itself, yet, you are rendering to this church body a great disservice. And if that pride is allowed to run its full course, only strife will ensue. None of us likes to think of ourselves as proud people.

So let's unpack what it means to think proudly so that we'll then see that actually we're all guilty of this on many occasions. Understand that pride is a relational term just like humility is a relational term. If you're the only being in the universe, you could never be guilty of pride. Pride is, it's what you do in relationship with another person or other people, plural.

Pride essentially is you exalting yourself in relation to somebody else. And we can be guilty of doing this toward God and toward others. And to think proudly in relationship with others is essentially, guys, to elevate ourselves from other people that we're thinking about. And so do you see how already a separation is occurring.

It's a vertical separation. I think of myself and I think of you, and I am separating myself vertically from you and I'm thinking that I am in a more exalted position than you are, and I'm looking down upon you. As a result of that, a division, a fracture already has been allowed to occur in my mind. You are thinking pridefully, whenever you look at another person and think yourself better than them.

Whenever you look at a person, and, and at yourself, and you think yourself to be less sinful. than them. You're thinking pridefully when you look at another person, and then look at yourself, and you view yourself as more entitled to grace and understanding than you think that that other person is entitled to. You guys ever guilty of this?

I would submit that in any conflict situation, where you feel anger and bitterness, and you're withholding grace and forgiveness from another person, there is always pride, always pride in your heart at work. As you think about that person, you think in that moment you're better than them. You're like, no, I don't. Yes you do.

No, I don't. Yes, you do. You think in that moment that you're better than them. Why else would you withhold grace from them?

If you truly saw yourself as just as sinful as they are and that your sins against God are actually far greater than their sins against you, if you really saw yourself on equal footing with that other person, you would not be withholding grace and forgiveness and love from them and understanding from them. also, you see yourself as less sinful. That's the only reason you're withholding grace from them, because in that moment, you actually think that your sins are not as great as their sins are.

I can remember a number of, of counseling sessions.

It's not always marriage. It could be relationships between brothers and sisters in the church, but often, often it's in the context of marriage where a husband and wife will come into my office and, and I'll say what's going on? And they both sit there and do an absolutely excellent job of confessing the other person's sins. With the, with the skill and the precision of an attorney, and I've actually had husbands and wives come in with manila folders that, that chronicle, and they, they, here's the sins of my spouse, and they're actually quoting scripture as they're going through the list to give scriptural support for these sins that they're diagnosing and their spouse.

And as they speak of their spouse's sin, they, they use big words. It's a big deal on a scale of 1 to 10, my spouse's sins are a 10. And then there are times where I've asked this person speaking. How about you?

Have, have you sinned in this relationship? And I've literally gotten responses like, well, yeah, of course, who's perfect? No, no one's perfect. And it's very evident that they view their sin on a scale of 1 to 10 as maybe a 2, possibly a 2.5, but their spouse's sin is a 10.

And so they're sitting there. What's happening? They view themselves as morally superior to their spouse, and that's why they're angry. That's why they're angry.

They view themselves as less of a sinner. Than their spouse. They also view themselves as more entitled to grace and understanding. When pressed, they'll say, Well, yeah, I've sinned and I failed and no one's perfect.

But, hey, can you blame me? Look what I live with. And, and they have reasons for their sins. You see, they're complex beings.

They're three dimensional creatures, and there's reasons behind their, their sins, but their spouse, their spouse is just this flat two dimensional creature. And there's no excuse for their sins. But pastor, you got to understand, here's, here's why I did what I did and And you need to have understanding and grace as you look at my sins and failures. And so they, they, they feel like they're more entitled to understanding and grace than their spouse is entitled to.

So how many of you have ever been guilty of thinking pridefully? Raise your hand. OK, very good. not, that's bad.

That's, But I commend you for your for your honesty. Here's the deal, guys, as Timothy Keller says, it is impossible to grant true forgiveness to someone that you feel morally superior to. If, if you have allowed in your mind a separation to occur, and you see yourself in a position of superiority, it is impossible from that position to grant true forgiveness to a brother or sister or a husband or wife. It's impossible actually to render true, meaningful ministry to someone that you feel superior to.

In fact, when you do minister to someone that you feel superior to, it's obvious that you view yourself that way, and your ministry to that person reeks. of superiority. And they see it, they see right through it. And it's offensive to them.

And so what needs to happen is that we need to in our minds and the way that we think about ourselves and think about another person that maybe has wronged us is we need to allow the gospel and the grace of God to actually lower ourselves to the same position. The same level as this other person in our life. And it's only when we allow that lowering to occur that grace and forgiveness can begin to flow. If you want to stay up here in this position of superiority, grace, forgiveness does not flow this way.

You have to be humbled and allow God to lower you to where you look at this other person and say we're actually more alike than we are different, and we're on the same footing at the foot of the cross. And when you allow God to humble you in that way, grace, forgiveness actually becomes easier. In his book When Sinners Say I Do, Dave Harvey shares the story of a married couple, Cindy and Jeremy, and Jeremy had fallen into the sin of adultery and just brought enormous hurt to his wife Cindy when she received the news of his adultery.

She was She was devastated.

Her past, present, and future was just decimated. Her past that she thought she had doesn't even exist anymore. Her present was totally uncertain, the future that she always thought was there with this man she thought she knew, that was gone. Well, God did a work in Jeremy's heart in his life, and he began walking by God's grace on a road to repentance, and God did a deep work of repentance in his heart.

And God also did a work in Cindy. In bringing her to a place where she was able to forgive her husband. But it's interesting when she tells the story. how that journey took place.

There was something that needed to happen before grace and forgiveness could flow, and that is she needed to be lowered. Down to the level of her husband. And from that position forgiveness could flow. Listen to what she says.

Over time, I began to see my own sinfulness and God's grace and mercy for my sins. It was very hard to look at my own contribution to the breakdown of my marriage. I wanted to just focus on his, Jeremy's part, and leave the blame there, but God opened my eyes and helped me to see that even as a victim of my husband's sin, I could not claim innocence in my marriage and certainly not before a holy God. Listen to what she says.

The gospel gave me power to forgive my husband. Christ had died for both our sins, dying in our place, and drinking the full cup of God's wrath, we deserved for our sins. Through the revelation of this truth, I was humbled. In other words, I was lowered and disarmed.

We, my husband and I, were more alike. Then different We were more alike than different. And from this standing place. Forgiveness flowed.

You see what happened? God lowered her. To be side by side with her husband. There's no position of superiority.

And once that lowering occurred, She noticed that forgiveness and grace began to flow. That's why Paul says, if you want to contribute to the relationships in your life and contribute to the community here at Cornerstone, then think the same way about each other and also do not think proudly. If you do allow yourself to think proudly, What will result from that is strife and conflict. In fact, in Proverbs chapter 13 and verse 10, Solomon says these words.

He says, Through pride comes nothing but strife. Through pride comes nothing but strife. If we give way to pride, And allow the fracture to occur where we see ourselves as above other people. What inevitably comes is strife.

And so Paul says, don't think pridefully. There's a third contribution that we can make, a thoughtful contribution that we can and should make to enriching our experience of community here at Cornerstone, and that is embrace associating with the lowly. Embrace associating with the lowly. Look what he says in verse 16.

Think the same way toward one another. Do not think conceitedly, but associate with the lowly. Associate with the lowly. You say, Well, what is the lowly here?

Well, writers do different things with this, 3 different things with it, and I'm not even going to pick between the three because I like all three. I think all of them are included in Paul's thinking. There are some who would suggest that the lowly is a reference to lowly tasks and that Paul is actually delivering counsel against being selfishly ambitious here. One writer suggests translating this as accept humble task, accept lowly task.

And so don't come into the church and have your eye on these highly exalted visible ministries. That's what I want to do. And then there's other ministries that are more humble, more lowly, less esteemed by others, and you just shirk those. You don't want to be involved in those things because those are beneath you.

Paul is saying in the church. The way we all need to be is to gravitate towards the lowly ministry to accept the humble task. There's also some who would suggest that this is speaking of lowly circumstances and suggesting we can translate it this way adjust yourselves to humble situations. When there are lowering situations in your life that humble you, embrace those circumstances.

Maybe you've received a diagnosis. You've always prided yourself on being healthy. That's your reputation. And you've received some diagnosis that's embarrassing.

You don't want other people to know. Maybe you've always thought of yourself as a model parent with model children, and suddenly one of your children is behaving in a way that is not quite so model-like anymore, and other people in the church are are observing that maybe you've lost your job and And that's very painful, not just being without the job, but just to your psyche that hurts. Paul would say in such situations, embrace those humbling circumstances and whatever it is that God is doing in your life.

This also could be a reference to intentionally lowering your circumstances in order to increase your capacity to minister to other people, and be willing to do that for the good of ministering to other people.

However, most writers would suggest that the lowly is a reference to people. That when he says do not associate with or to associate with the lowly, he's talking about associating yourself in companionship with lowly people. You say, Well, who are the lowly people? well, it's referring to those that are lowly esteemed in the eyes of the world, those who are poor, those who are needy, that we associate ourselves with people that the world would say they're too broken.

Don't waste your time on them. And in the church, we reject that and associate ourselves with them. But I do want you guys to know that the lowly people Paul is talking about here goes way beyond that. And it may surprise you.

I think if you want to know who the lowly people are. ask yourself this question. If I allowed myself to think pridefully, Who would be the people beneath me? OK, if I was thinking pridefully, who would the lowly people be?

Well, it'd be the people that have wronged you, the people that you tend to esteem more lowly even than yourself when you're thinking pridefully. So it turns out you may be married to a lowly. P There's brothers and sisters in the church who financially may be just as well off as you are, or even more well off, but they are lowly in your esteem because of something that they have done that has offended or hurt you as they have sinned against you. Whoever those people are, that if you allowed yourself to think pridefully, would be lower than you, Paul would say, here's what I'm calling you to do.

Move towards those people and associate yourself with them in relationship with them. This is the way we all need to think and be in the church. And I don't want you guys to read this and go, My goodness. So, I got to add this to the list of things I got to do.

I got to start associating with the lowly. So who's the lowly people at Cornerstone? And I got to start being friends to the lowly people, and I'll go up to them after the service today and say, hey, I think you're a lowly person can Can we get a friendship going? guys, here's the first thing I want you to do with this, this instruction by Paul.

I want you to first take some time to praise your God for the fact that Jesus Christ has already lived this towards you. I want you to read this and realize that you are the lowly person. That Jesus Christ has moved towards and has associated himself with. You are the recipient of this very grace that you are now being called upon to mirror towards other people.

How did Christ do this? Well, he associated himself with lowly circumstances. He was born in the little town of Bethlehem. He was born in a stable for animals.

He was laid in a feeding trough for animals, and he was raised in the city of Nazareth. And we all know what some said about Nazareth. Can anything good come from Nazareth? And God knew that reputation.

So he said, what, I'm going to have my son be raised here. In the town, the village of Nazareth, and Christ went even beyond that, guys, and he was willing to have our sins placed upon himself and to be placed under the wrath of God. And he was willing to surrender himself to death, and not just any death, but the most humiliating death imaginable. He died as a common criminal.

With our sins upon Him, suspended upon a cross between heaven and earth, utterly abandoned by God and man, dying for our sins. This is Christ embracing the lowliest of circumstances so that we might be saved. He also associated himself with the lowliest of people, tax collectors and public sinners that other people didn't want anything to do with. They were beneath them, and people like us, most of us in this room are Gentiles, I would imagine.

We are in the company of the Gentile dogs. That the Jews would have referred to us as, and Jesus says, I want to be your savior too. And I'm willing to get crucified to be your savior, your friend, and your dearest treasure. To associate myself with you.

When Christ was on earth. He assumed the lowliest of tasks. He had every right to expect the disciples to wash his feet, and instead he girded himself with a towel in the shadow of his darkest hour. And he washed their feet and rendered to them the service of a slave.

You see, guys, we, we are the lowly people that Jesus Christ has moved towards and associated himself with. And it's only after Paul has given us The gospel for 300 plus verses in the book of Romans, that he now even feels like we're ready to hear him say to us in Romans 12, Here's what I want you to do. I want you to think the same toward one another. Think the same toward one another.

Don't think proudly. Don't exalt yourself, even in your own mind as you think about yourself and other people. Instead, I want you to embrace associating with the lowly. Especially moving towards those that you naturally would esteem to be lowly when you are thinking pridefully.

Let me ask you to bow your heads. This morning This passage cuts me deep because I even this week studying this passage. I found myself on one occasion this week actually literally thinking the exact opposite of what this passage says. And I was fuming inside and I did not want to be delivered from it.

I had the opportunity to cry out to God and say, God, deliver me from, from this pride. And I didn't even ask for deliverance. And so let's just cry out to God and ask Him to help us to Allow His grace to, through His Spirit to accomplish this change in the way that we think. Lord, I just, I pray for myself, and I pray for all of us that are here that you, you would do a work of grace in us.

That you would change and transform and renew the way that we think about ourselves and about one another. That you would deliver us from our pride. Lord, all the problems, all the strife, all the conflict that, that we experience in our life, generally, it lies somewhere downstream of prideful thinking. And we just confess to you our pride.

We confess to you that we often don't even recognize it for what it is. And then even when we do, we don't. Always even want to be delivered from it in the moment. So we just, we confess.

This mess to you, Lord, and ask that you would save us from ourselves, save us from sin day by day, and help us be the loving and caring. Gospel shaped thinkers and lovers that you call us to be towards one another. There are people in In our lives, Lord, that Our preference is to move away from right now, and I pray that you would do such a work of grace in us that we would move towards The ones that we might pridefully think lower than ourselves. That we would not only move towards them, but even the literal language of this text that we would get carried away in moving towards them and loving them.

Because we actually, when we look at them, even those that have wronged us, We know they're doing nothing against us. That is any worse than what we have done against you, God, and yet you have lavished your grace and forgiveness upon us. God deliver us, deliver us. If you could do nothing else for us but just today, you could just deliver us all from prideful thinking.

1000 giants would be slain instantly. So help us fight smart, recognize pride within us, declare war upon pride within us, and see ourselves on the same level with all of our brothers and sisters and our husbands and our wives, and that we from that position of equal footing. would experience grace and forgiveness flowing. We thank you also for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you, Lord.

We ask that you would receive these funds and do much with them for the glory of Jesus. In His name we pray, and all God's people said,