Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

William Stidger, the great preacher, was in France during World War I, and he visited the city of Marseilles where he saw the aqueduct that all visitors are guided to see.

The story of this source of water to the city goes back to the old man who became known as the miser of Marseilles.

He walked the streets saving every piece of junk he could find, and he hoarded his money.

He was hated, for he was considered the freak of the community.

He was so despised that when he died there was only one person at his funeral.

What a shock it was to all when his will was read and made public.

Let me share what it said.

"From my infancy I noticed that the poor people of Marseilles

had great difficulty in getting water.

I noticed that water the

gift of God, was very dear and difficult to obtain.

And when

they could get that water, it was not as pure and clean as God

intended it to be.

Therefore I vowed before God that I would live but for one purpose, for one end.

I would save money, money, money;that I might give it to the city on one condition: That an aqueduct be built to bring fresh, pure water from yonder lakein the hills to Marseilles.

That I now make possible by leavingall my hoarded wealth to this city.

This is my last will and

testament."

The people have now had pure water for decades because of a man who thought not only of his own interest, but of the interest of others.

Like Jesus, he became despised and rejected of men that he might provide for them the water of life.

Let's face it, there is not a lot of this going around, but Paul writes to the Philippian Christians and implies this is to be a part of the normal Christian life.

This is not for super-duper saints, but for every member of the body of Christ.

To be a Christian is to be Christlike, and that means to be self-sacrificing rather than self-centered.

This is not a popular message in a culture where self-centeredness is the essence of the cultural religion.

All through history Christianity has been corrupted by taking on the flavor of the popular religions in its environment, just as Israel did all through its history.

There is nothing new under the sun, and so the process continues, and all of us are affected by it.

Our Christian faith and values are always being flavored by the culture.

It is so subtle that we do not even realize it, and that is why the Bible often has to be so radical to jar us awake to the fact that we are to be different from the world.

The Christlike life is no easy mark to hit.

We have to go against the grain of culture, and our own natural tendencies to even get close.

It is no big deal to be religious.

You can do that with a minimum of effort and nearly no sacrifice.

Paul is not challenging anybody to be religious, but to be like Christ, and to do this we have to face up honestly to the problem and the solution.

First look at:

I. THE PROBLEM.

Verse 3 says, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit."

This is a good verse to illustrate how you can prove anything from the Bible by taking its words out of context.

Paul actually says, "Do nothing."

If you stop there and do not finish the sentence, that becomes the message, "Do nothing."

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

Yet Paul says, "Do nothing."

You can see how easy it is to pervert the Word of God, and anyone else's words if you take them out of context.

It is done all the time, and you have a responsibility to make sure of the context before you judge another's words.

This is especially true if you hear them from a critic, for critics love to quote out of context.

Paul is not saying that we are to do nothing.

He is saying that we are to do nothing with these two most popular motives of the world: Selfish ambition and vain conceit.

The word for selfish ambition refers to the strive and quarreling Christians go through because they want their own way.

In other words, it is fighting for my perspective without concern for the rest of the body.

This self-centered perspective, where the only goal is self-satisfaction, not the welfare of the body, is a major problem.

Where is exists Christ likeness does not exist.

When you read of Christians being terrible to each other, and splitting a church over the color of the carpet or some such minor issue, that is not a failure of Christianity, for there is no Christianity there.

That is not Christianity failing.

It is the lack of Christianity that is failing.

That is the problem that Christians can still function on a non-Christian level, and cling to their self-centered perspective regardless of who gets hurt.

Jesus was equal with the Father, but He did not cling to that equality, but gave up His right to be above all the folly and pain of a fallen world.

He came into it to suffer and die for us and all mankind.

If Jesus would have been self-centered, we never would have heard of the Gospel.

The incarnation would not even be in our imagination, for selfishness would have made it inconceivable.

Everything we have in Christ is due to His not having selfish ambition.

But unfortunately not all Christians have this selfless spirit, and no Christian has it always.

We fight a constant tendency to be self-centered.

That is why authentic Christianity is rare.

It is not that we don't all succeed daily, but the goal is a life time of being Christlike.

It is hard because Christians are in the same culture as the world that says success at any price.

This means that Christians too have to fight for success, and this often involved putting others down to raise self up.

There are Christian leaders who get their egos built up by tearing Billy Graham down.

I know some very godly men whom God has blessed who would not set on the same platform with Billy Graham.

They would not attend one of his crusades, nor pray for his success in leading people to Christ.

If these things were not possible for true Christians to do, Paul would not be wasting his time telling Christians not to do it.

Of course, Christians can be self-centered and fight other Christians for their share of fame, honor, and contributions.

It is part of the Christian world, but it is not Christlike.

When your non-Christian friends are critical of Christians, do not defend these brothers at that point, but admit that it is so that Christians are far short of the mark.

But point out that Christianity is not based on Christians, but on Christ, and He is the Savior and the giver of eternal life.

The church and Christians cannot save anyone, but only Christ can.

Christians are just saved sinners who are supposed to be working all their life at becoming sanctified sinners.

This means they are sinning less and less and learning more and more about how to be truly Christlike.

To reject Christ because of poor Christians is as foolish as not drinking good milk because some milk is sour.

It is to not eat good fruit because some fruit is rotten.

It is to not buy a car because some cars are lemons.

Imperfect examples never stop people from seeking for good examples of any product, and that is to be the same approach to the Christian faith.

Christians will fail everywhere, but Jesus does not, and neither do many of His mature disciples.

If people reject Jesus because of poor examples, it is like sitting in the dark because some light bulbs do not work.

It is folly.

Christian pride and selfishness is a problem, but it is never a valid excuse for anyone to reject Christ, for He is not a problem.

He is always the answer.

Nevertheless, if Christians were more Christlike and less selfish, it would eliminate a major excuse people have for rejecting the Christian faith.

Selfish ambition and vain conceit in Christians are major turn offs for the world.

The world thrives on these things, but they know they are inappropriate for Christians who profess to follow Jesus.

George Nathan represents the typical worldly perspective when he writes, "To me pleasure and my own personal happiness-only infrequently collaborating with that of others-are all I deem worth a hoot....As a matter of fact, the happiness and welfare of mankind are not my profession; I am perfectly willing to leave them to the care of the professional missionaries of one sort or another; I have all that I can do to look out for my own happiness and welfare...."

Nobody is shocked when a worldly person canveys this philosophy of life.

It is what should be expected.

But when a believer is this self-centered it becomes an offense even to the non-believer, for self-centeredness is a form of idolatry.

From a Jewish point of view Lawrence Kushner says that the essense of idolatry is thinking you are better than other people.

He quotes Menachem Mendl who says, "The great hazard is that one will be filled with himself or herself, with conceit, with self-satisfaction, feelings which are nothing less than idol-worship...." Then he adds, "The prohibition against idolatry, ineffect, also prohibits egotism, self-centeredness at the expense of someone else.

Self-centeredness at the expense of someone else is the root of being a mean person.

Therefore, the prohibition against worshiping idols is just a fancy theological way of saying, don't be self-centered."

A self-centered person cannot be a good Jew or a good Christian, or a good person in any religion, for self-centeredness is basically a denial of God, and a worship of the self as God.

Jesus was God, but He could not be a good God if He was self-centered.