Mind of Christ

Quick! What number am I thinking of?

You probably can’t answer that. Some of you may not have even tried. But what if I say, “I am thinking of a number that is between 1 and 10. What is it?” You have some clues so you can make an educated guess. What if I also added that, “the number that I am thinking of is the biblical number of completion, or the numbered day that God rested after creation.” Now most of you would be able to read my mind and say that I am thinking of the number “7”.

So when I say that we should have the mind of Christ, or a mind like Christ, it may be hard to immediately understand what that means. However, we have clues into what Christ was thinking while He was on Earth from reading the Gospels and studying what He did and what He said. We have the whole Bible to give us clues into the mind of God. We have the gift of the Holy Spirit that gives us the grace of sanctification, to live righteously. So we will define the meaning of having the mind of Christ, but I hope that we will also figure out what that means for us personally. What does it look like to have the mind of Christ?

Pray and Read Philippians 2:1-11

Philippians 2:1–11 NRSV

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

In order to have the mind of Christ, one must have unity with Christ. To have unity with Christ, we cannot be unified with anything of this world. Let me break this down for us living in today’s world. We need to ask ourselves some serious questions. What powers us? What influences us? What controls us, like our values, our family, our ethics? I know that being human means that we have a lot of things, our worldview is peppered by our family, our friends, our environment, and even our friends.

In some way, we all strive for success. We don’t want to be failures. We want our kids to succeed and will do anything and everything to ensure that they are successful, sometimes to the point of pushing them in directions that maybe they are not meant to go towards. Sometimes, even if we don’t admit it, we push people to do things or don’t do things because we have decided that it is bad for them. We may be right, but do we go about it the right way? Instead of praying for our friends, family, and the rest of the population live as we think they should, maybe we first should focus on what we can do or what we should do for our family, friends, and even ourselves that will do nothing but bring them closer to Jesus. What if our focus was strictly on leading our families and our friends to Jesus? What if our definition for success was Spiritual growth for ourselves first, and for others as well?

Maybe we need to be humbled. I am going to share with you a little about myself, which I worry about doing because I have been told multiple times that a preacher is not to expose to much of their struggles because it could cause those who hear to question their authority and integrity. However, I need to surrender my worry about pleasing people and show a little humility myself.

So my word for this year is “Abide”. Yes, you have heard that before. I have built this sermon series around the word that will lead us up to Lent which is in five and a half weeks. For far too long, I have been looking ahead at better days and hoping for more than what I have now. I have been pushing and striving and running in circles. I have failed at nearly every goal I have set for myself. Some of you have noticed and told me about it. Which then makes me feel worse. Let me tell you about feeling worse. It becomes more of a physical thing. We have cleaned and disinfected our house approximately three times now. This month has not been anything like how I have wanted it to be. I have barely gotten to do anything that I wanted to do or have planned to do. Between the snow and illnesses, rarely has there been a day in which my schedule and to-do lists have gone as I planned.

Finally on Friday, I told God that I surrender. So much that I have wanted to do was forfeited. It is risky, to give up your schedule, your plans, your hopes, even those things that God has promised to you. It doesn’t seem right to give up those hopes and dreams that God has told you are His will. But we have to remember, we are but Stewards on this earth. All things belong to Him. Our hopes and dreams, especially since they are His will, belong to Him who gave them to you.

Saying that you are a Christian or striving to be perfect does not give you a ticket out of your responsibilities to Christ! Selfish ambition and conceit is the downfall of humanity. We think we are great, we think we have it all together. And when things aren’t great or when things fall apart, we blame ourselves and strive harder and work harder and beat ourselves up until we are complacent with our lives and terrified of anything that threatens our way of life. We tell ourselves, “I know what l need. I know what is best for my family. I know what is best for my friends.” Not always. Look at Job’s friends. They had the right answers, but the wrong approach. They did not include God or consider what God was doing in the life of Job. They though that they were better than Job. Their lives were going so much better, Job just needed to be like them. Wrong! They needed to be humble enough to see that what was happening to Job, could very well happen to them. There is no way that Job would have gotten out of his situation any faster than he did. So what would it have been like for his friends to simply join him in his grief and mourning and pray with him maybe even praise God for Him?

If we are in union with Christ, then we are in union with each other as citizens in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus was humble and was still humiliated. The Son of God who literally had it all was humble. His focus was always to do the will of His Father and take everything that was happening to Him in a patient, kind and quite manner. His friends, stood and watched. They too would have to take up their cross and follow Him. It wasn’t easy and their were disagreements among the Apostles. But there message was the same. Jesus is the name above every name. He is above the name of Peter and Paul. He is above my name and yours. He is above the governments of this world, every religion, and every denomination that claims to believe in Him. We will all be humbled before Christ one day.

So maybe to have the mind of Christ is to have humility when it comes to the blessings you have. We are to be selfless in considering the gifts and talents God has given you. To be like Christ is to be obedient to God in according to His will and His laws. That means that there may be risks, but that knowing that God is in control and wills no harm for you. To be of the mind of Christ is to love others, and to be in unity with those who love Christ. We should all work to be in union with one another, for the gospel will spread when God’s people work together to promote its Good News. Besides, if we are all prayerful imitating Christ, then wouldn’t their be more agreement among the believers than arguments? Instead of living by your own standards and then saying that they are based on God’s standards, lets flip to to being we are living by God’s standards and loving others as is God’s standard.

So what can you do right now? What might you commit to working on for yourself? Maybe you could be more humble? Maybe you could be more selfless with your time and talents? Maybe you could be more obedient to the standards of God? Maybe you need to stop worrying if you measure up and instead live in the glory of God, praising His name and be pleased that God loves you and thinks you are wonderful. Maybe you need to share those praises and words of love with others. There is something beautiful when all of God’s people seek Him and praise Him together.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.