Looking In, Looking Out

Announcements

Next Sunday, we’re having a pool party at Dave & Becky Shupe’s house from 6:00-8:00 pm.

The following Sunday we’re going to have an “Ask Anything” with Ice Cream night, talking about the recent sermon series.

I’ll be on Colorado for a bit, but I’ll plan on seeing you guys on August 18th at least.

Looking In

I want to recite a poem by T.S. Eliot called “Introspection.”

The mind was six feet deep in a

cistern and a brown snake with a tri-

angular head having swallowed his

tail was struggling like two fists

interlocked.

When I was in high-school, my sophmore year was miserable. In one of my classes, our gym coach told us to take a look around the room. He said that virtually, none of the friendships we had would last outside of high-school. As a kid struggling for purpose and identity, I took that to heart. I grew my hair long, put on my headphones, walked the hallways, and attempted to dissolve all of my friendships. Why put time into people who I wouldn’t see after high-school?

I isolated. I went within. My thoughts became inward focused. I tended to myself.

I was still recovering from my parent’s divorce, a move from Washington to Colorado, having difficult friends who didn’t love Jesus and wanted to draw me into their circles, a lack of a father, I didn’t know where to turn so I turned inward.

When we become worried, or anxious, we have a tendency to look inward for answers.

As Christians we’re told to examine ourselves.

2 Corinthians 13:5 ESV

5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

The problem lies when we only examine ourselves and not consider Jesus Christ.

It takes away the windows of life. When we withdraw, we don’t allow anyone to know us because we know ourselves best and fully. We hide our guilt and shame and pretend that we can manage it. We avoid the pain that naturally comes with relationships.

What are some common ways that you guys feel that inward pull?

Anything from guilt, shame, distrust, fear of not fitting in, unacceptance, etc.

Two ways of looking In

Thinking too highly of ourselves looks like two things

It looks like being proud and thinking we’re the best. It’s shown in pride, vanity, negligence (we’re above that and don’t need to think about it), and self-importance. We don’t need a greater self-esteem. To only focus on how we feel is to only focus on ourselves.

THinking you are worthless is also a form of pride though. You are the determiner of your value. You give value and meaning to your life even if someone tells you you are worth more than you can imagine. To place a value judgment, even a negative one on yourself, promotes false guilt, and false punishment. Both come from pride.

We don’t get to determine what we are on our own initiative.

Looking Out

I know of a dear friend of mine who helped me out of that inward pull when I was younger. His name is Peter and he’s the kind of person that I could call after years of not talking and pickup our conversation where we left off. One of the greatest things to happen to me was my first summer job. I worked with a group of somewhat older Christian guys who showed me that life isn’t meant to be lived alone, and only from within. We will never satisfy ourselves with ourself.

Instead, they helped me appreciate new interests: Doing a good job at work, being outside and hiking, taking a dip in the lake nearby after a hot day, and rolling me down a excavator tire found at the top of a hill. Life is meant to be lived outside of ourselves.

Similarly, Christ lived outside of himself. When He was persecuted, he never looked within. He didn’t live by his flesh and appease it. He lived by the Spirit.

Philippians 2:1–11 ESV

1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Christ didn’t have selfish ambition, or conceit, that is, thinking too highly of Himself. He considered the lives of others. That isn’t to say He never examined himself, but He knew who He was: the Son of God.

To give us some confidence, let me read Romans 8:1-11. Here, we should reflect on how we think about ourselves. Do we feed the flesh by retreating within? Do we serve the Spirit, and thereby, living a healthy life by living out our faith?

Let’s look at Romans 8:1-11

Romans 8:1–11 ESV

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.