Let This Mind Be in You

I mentioned to you last week that the theme of that workshop, the name of it, was, Let this mind be in you. Now, I know they went through that topic for a couple of days while they were there. The report that we had on this conference was, or this weekend, was it focused on the exemplary servant leadership of Jesus Christ. And that, of course, is what all of us are in the process of learning. We're learning not the type of leadership that you see in this world, a leadership that is, in many ways, pretty easily identified as being defective.

Being, in a sense, vying for position, competing with one another, this is, in a sense, the atmosphere that Satan creates, not only in this country, but around the world. And in many places around the world, you have tyrannical leadership. You have people deeply depressed and knocked down by whoever might be in charge, perhaps even forcefully, of a given country.

But, of course, Jesus said, That's not the way I want everyone to be. That's not the way I want my disciples to be. And, of course, that's why, whenever we have a leadership program like this, and whenever we have any kind of training in the Church, we have to focus on what Jesus tells us. We have to focus on what the Word of God tells us about how to lead. And, of course, you know, there are many different characteristics. And, as this report said, there was a study of the mindset and the character of what a servant is like. And some of the sessions where a leader has first got to be a disciple or beyond simply leading or speaking effectively or defending the faith.

Those were different topics that were addressed over an hour or two session. I want us to think about that theme, let this mind be in you, because all of you know where that is. I'll let you turn to it. I won't tell you where it is. I'll just let you turn to it.

It's a well-known verse. I'll tell you it's in Philippians chapter 2 verse 5. Philippians chapter... now how come all of you were not already there? I know some of you were going there and some of you Caleb was punching. I don't know if he was punching Philippians 2.5 or he was punching... let this mind be in you. Because I happen to know that I find stuff that way and it usually immediately tells me where to look. And so Philippians 2 is an extraordinary chapter and I'm not entirely wanting to focus on it today, but I do want to focus on that phrase, because that phrase is remarkably meaningful.

Here in Philippians chapter 2, and I'll read the first part of this, Paul of course is talking to the church in Philippi. He is familiar with them. He loves them. They have been in many ways a very extraordinary church. They have been helpful to him. They were very responsive to him. And yet he says, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete. So he wanted them to do the things that are going to not only help themselves and cause them to grow closer to God, but that would make him happy because he loved to see their spiritual development.

That's what he wanted. That was what was going to cause Paul, because as we know, there were times when he was imprisoned. There were times when he was certainly in shipwrecks and in beatings and in all types of difficulties. But as he would say, not only about this church but about other congregations, you are my joy.

Whenever you are growing spiritually, that's what he really wanted to see. And so he said, make my joy complete here. In verse 2, be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

So he was going to tell them what kind of mind that was. And he knew, dealing with the multiple number of people he talked to, he knew not everyone was able to think exactly the same way. I mean, all of us, 30 or 40 or 50 of us here today, you know, we've got 50 different minds. We're all, you know, grow up with different things that we have experienced in our background and in our training. And yet we have a commonness. We should have a sameness that Paul is talking about, where he says, I want you to come to have a same mind or a one mind, as he's going to point out in verse 5, let this same mind be in you that was in Jesus Christ.

Now he says a few things about how to do that. Verse 3 says, don't do anything out of selfish ambition or conceit. And so the more that we can get away from Satan's attitude, from his wavelength, from his mindset, which is one of, say, how would you describe the mindset of Satan? Well, it's independence, it's arrogance, it's vanity, it's hostility, it's anger. Ultimately, it's rebellion. Those would be all descriptions, you could say, that Satan projects into this world and as people we've all been deceived by that.

We've been deceived by that. That's why so many people around the globe are vying for position and vying for control or vying to take over different countries or to expand territories is because of that attitude. But he says, let this mind be in you that was in Jesus Christ.

That seems to be something that would be worth studying, be worth knowing about. Verse 3, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but in humility. Regard others is better than yourselves. See, that's helping us understand that, well, if we have an outlook of thinking of others needing to be supported, encouraged, uplifted, and not trying to uplift and overpower everyone with ourself, then we're seeking a humility like Jesus had.

Let each one of you look not to your own interests but to the interest of others. And so again, he is pointing out the need to look at what it is that is beneficial, what it is that would be helpful in encouraging and uplifting others. He goes on, and I want to read these verses, but I don't want to stay on them because they are an entire sermon in themselves, because after saying, let this mind be in you that was in Jesus Christ, he goes ahead to describe why Jesus was such a perfect example.

It says, who in verse 6, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be clung to something to be hung on to. You know, he was the Word. He had eternally existed with the one who would be called his father as he came as his son, but it says he was in the form of God and did not regard equality with God as something to be clung to, but he 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 the cross. Now, this is clearly describing the willingness, the willingness of the one that we know of as our Lord and Savior, Jesus, the one who came to the earth for us, the one who has a great deal of love for us. This is what he was willing to do. He was willing to take on a human form and he was willing to humble himself to serve and be obedient.

But I think there, you know, there's more to it whenever we think about, let this mind that Jesus had be in us. How do we do that? It's one thing to read that. I can read it and I can see, well, clearly his example is one of seeking, and not only he was seeking, that's what we have to do, but he was an example of humility.

He was an example of a willingness to give his life for all of us to come and be a physical servant and to live without sin and yet to die for mankind. Yeah, that was a part of God's plan. But see, whenever you think about Jesus growing up in the home of Mary and Joseph, he started out as a little baby, a little baby boy. He was a young boy running around that we have sometimes around here. And then he was a little older and it appears we don't have a lot of written information as far as his little life.

I'm sure that had to be exemplary. I would think Mary would probably have a pretty glowing report for this firstborn boy. I would think that he would be a standout in every way because of course growing up in Mary and Joseph's home and then being a teenager we have one insight of him going to the temple and them having to find him. But he said, well I've got to be about my father's business. It's obvious even at a age of 12, you know, that he was already aware of why I'm here and what I'm needing to do and how, as he interacted with the doctors of the law, how he could ask questions but how he could answer questions and they were pretty baffled.

But ultimately he would grow through his teen years and as a young adult and then eventually he didn't live to be 70, 80, 90 like some of us. He only lived 37 years, 33 and a half years, I believe. And yet what caused his mind, apart from being the Son of God, apart from being, we can say, well he had all God's help, he had every advantage.

Sure, that's true. Let's see, we also see some things that he was doing that caused him and allowed him to be the perfect example. And these are things that we can do. This is not going to be foreign stuff. This is going to be stuff that we can all do. And yet they are clearly an example of what the mind is that we are seeking. Now we have, you know, some men and some women here in our room. Men and women don't always think about the exact same things. And of course, you know, how is it that we all, male or female, how is it that we can seek the mind of Jesus?

Well, I want to point out five things that I think you'll find later. These are pretty obvious. But nonetheless, there are things we can do, things that we can do to let this mind be in us that was in Jesus Christ. And the first thing that I want to mention as far as how we can go about having the mind that Jesus had is simply that He had a mind that was nurtured by prayer.

He didn't just come to the earth. He didn't just appear as a little baby. He was in contact with His Father. He was very familiar with the Father even as we read about at age 12. He clearly knew what the Father's business was. He knew what He was needing to do. But I want us to look at a couple of examples, and these are examples that can directly be applicable to us here in the Book of Mark. And of course, much of what we'll go through today is here in the Gospels, because this is a record of what Jesus did and what He said and what He taught.

That's what John is writing about. He's writing about what Jesus taught, how He was the Son of God, how He had always existed, and yet what His purpose was in dealing with His disciples and ultimately dying for mankind. And you see in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, you see the accounts written from different viewpoints of similar things, often same things, sometimes different focus that Matthew or Luke has. And yet Mark is somewhat of an outline. It's almost, it's obviously the shortest of the Gospels, and it's a, it's a somewhat of a bulleted outline.

But here in chapter 1 of Mark, let's see what it is, how it is that the mind of Jesus was nurtured in prayer. Here in Mark 1, verse 35, it says in the morning, while it was still very dark, He got up and went out to a deserted place, and there He prayed. Now as the Son of God, wouldn't you think, you know, did He really need to do that?

Well, it's obvious that He did, because that's what He was doing. That was the example He was setting. So I don't know, you know, exactly what time this was, but it would appear to be before it started to get light. He was already up and alert and able, you know, to focus His attention and His thoughts on His Father.

And see that, of course, I think in many ways is something that we do, and yet sometimes we neglect that. Sometimes we ignore that. Sometimes we don't realize, well, my mind needs to be nurtured. If Jesus' mind needed to be nurtured in prayer, how much more does mine need to be guided in prayer? I want to go over a couple of pages here and mark the chapter 6, because again, I think praying in the morning is not something, and we see numerous examples, and biblically you can see that, well, praying morning, noon, and night, that's one thing you can see.

You can see praying seven times. You can read verses that talk about, you know, pray without ceasing or be instant in prayer. You know, there are a lot of times that we're encouraged and admonished to to pray, and yet Jesus' example certainly was in the morning to draw close to his Father, to know that he had that help, to know that he had that connection, to know that he had, because he would later say in John 11, he said, Father, I know that you always hear me.

I know that I am in complete communion with you. But here in Mark chapter 6, and this is at a time when Jesus has been feeding the thousands, and of course, you know, they had just a small amount of fish and a small amount of bread, but there were thousands of people, and Jesus was able to bless the bread and the fish, and then they were able to pick up, and verse 42, they all ate and were filled, took up 12 baskets full of broken pieces and the fish, and there had eaten the loaves.

There were 5,000 men, so there were more than 5,000 with women and children there. And this seems to be after a day of teaching, you know, they were hungry, they were getting hungry in the evening, and the disciples were wondering what to do, and Jesus said, well, have them sit down, and I'll feed them, which he did. But verse 45 and 46 is what I want to focus on, because it says, immediately he made his disciples get into the boat, and verse 45, and go on ahead to the other side of the seder, while he dismissed the crowd, and after saying farewell to the crowd, what did he do?

He went up on the mountain to pray. See, now, praying in the morning is something that I think many of us probably make a habit of doing, or we have learned to do that. Praying at night is something we should also do, but I have to say I tend to not put as much focus on that as I do in the morning, because I need stuff in the morning, and I'm half asleep at night, and so I'm not as focused as Jesus was to thank the Father. Doesn't say what he prayed about, but he knew my mind, my life, my success, depends on a connection to the Father.

And see, if we learned that, if we learned our success as a Christian, depends on a connection to the Father, a mind nurtured in prayer. Then I think we'll find that things might go even better than we could ever imagine. And of course, this is clearly the example that Jesus said. I also wanted to look at in John, John chapter 16. This was just shortly before I was read in our sermonette in John 17, because in John 17 Jesus was praying that the Father would help him and help his disciples and help those like us who would become believers after them.

And yet, in chapter 16 he tells us a lot about the Holy Spirit. He tells us how much we need it. He tells us how the Spirit of God is going to be helping us. He tells us, you know, that the Spirit of God has been made available to us in order to remind us of things. Now, that's something I need. I certainly need to be reminded. That's why I have my wife, so that she can help me remember what it is I need to do or what it is.

And, of course, the Holy Spirit is reminding us of things that we need to be remembering. He teaches us, He guides us, and He leads us. Those are all different descriptions of what the Holy Spirit is to do in helping us. But here in chapter 16, in chapter 16 verse 22, He was telling His disciples, I'm going to leave, and it's going to be painful on you because you've been around me for three and a half years, and I've been very protective of you.

I've tried to help you. I've needed to correct you. I've needed to guide you. And yet, I've always been here to encourage and to uplift you. But He has told them, I'm going to be put to death, and this isn't going to be pretty. This is going to be sad. You are going to be sad because I'm not going to be here. But He says in verse 22, you're going to have pain right now, but I'm going to see you again, and your heart is going to rejoice.

See, He was trying to prepare them for what was going to happen in the next few days, and now it is that they were going to need to be encouraged.

But He goes on to say, I'm going to see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. On that day or at that time, you will ask nothing of Me. Verily I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father, and so our prayers are to the Father in My name, in the name of Jesus. He gives us authority, He gives us prerogative to ask in the name of Jesus for the things that we need. On that day I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in My name, He will give it to you. And until now, you have not asked for anything in My name, but I want you now to ask, and you'll receive so that your joy may be complete. See, the joy that Jesus had, even facing the adversity that He was going to undergo, was what He wanted His disciples to come to learn. And so, as we can see, in the examples of Him praying in the morning and praying at night, and here in this case of telling His disciples, you need to pray in the name of Jesus. You need to pray by My authority and ask that the Father would bless you. That would be the first thing we can do in letting the mind be in you that was also in Jesus Christ. That's what we're asking for. That's what we need. Now, the second thing is also obvious from the life of Jesus and from His not only speaking and stating the things that are the words of God, His mind was filled with the Word of God. It's not only that that's what He spoke, but what do we recall? What did He say in Luke 7 or excuse me, Luke 4 and Matthew 4? Both of those accounts are in the chapter 4 of Luke and Matthew. Whenever He went out and was tempted by the devil and the devil wanted to try to get Him to yield, to fall down and worship Him, how did He respond? Well, He responded by quoting Scripture. That's what we read. He said, you know, man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And He came back with a retort that was, it was representative of the Word of God. And of course, He had inspired that to be written back in the Old Testament by Moses or by others in the Old Testament.

And yet, you see here in John 15, back up, I guess, just to the other side of the page here where we are, Jesus says in verse 5, I'm the vine and you're the branches. So He was talking to His disciples. He said, my father is the one who's the husbandman, but I'm the vine. And He was using this as an analogy. I'm the vine and you're the branch. And He says, those who abide in me, the branches who abide in me, and I abide in them, are going to bear much fruit because apart from me, you can do nothing. And so He was saying that, well, I'm the vine. You're a branch. If you stay attached to me, if you stay in line with me, or if you are abiding in me, and if we drop down to verse 7, if you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. And my father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and that you become my disciples.

See, now again, what He's saying is, you know, my words need to abide in you. The mind that Jesus had, that we seek, is one that's nurtured with prayer and connection with the Father, but one is also filled with the words of God, one that's filled with the words that we read here in the Old and in the New Testament. And so we can talk about Bible study, and that's something that I know everyone seated here knows and does to whatever degree we do that.

See, it's helpful to do that every day. It's helpful to have some kind of plan. It's helpful to be focused on achieving something, whether it's reading fully through the Bible. I mean, that's something I know some of you are doing. Others of you are studying other things.

But see, sometimes we can say, well, I've already read that. Well, I've already read most of it, or at least sometime I've read all of it. But I need to read it over and over and over again if I'm ever going to be able to remember. And that is, you know, how important is that to feed our mind with God's words every day?

See, I know I lay awake at night sometimes because I don't sleep near as well as I wish I... No, I guess I shouldn't even say this because this is not a complaint. I don't really care because I often just go back to sleep, but I wake up periodically through the night. But if I don't immediately just go back to sleep, I start trying to remember what are the things that I know are in the Word of God. You know, what are memory verses or what are chapters? And I want to try to go through a given chapter of the Bible and try to remember what I can about each of the chapters. Like, the book of John is one that's particularly of interest to me. So I want to try to remember everything that I can recall about the book of John, about the chapters of the book of John.

And not only that, but there are many other verses that you might pick out or that you would want to keep in mind. But see, I think you'd find that Jesus' mind, the mind that we want to have in us, was filled with the Word of God.

And if we look over in 1 John 2, 1 John 2, you see a little kind of an inset section here in 1 John 2. And 1 John was written by the Apostle John. It's not a part of the Gospel of John. It's part of an epistle or a letter that he would later write, a short letter. But he would write actually later even then when the Gospel was written. But he was directing the church as he was an older apostle and perhaps the last remaining apostle at the time, whenever he would be writing this particular little letter.

He was fighting Gnosticism. He was fighting those who were saying you didn't need to keep the law. He was fighting the numerous things that the church was facing, and he was trying to help people. But it's interesting here in a little inset in Chapter 2, it says in verse 12, I'm writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven on account of his name. He's actually, he makes three categories here. He says little children, he says fathers, and then he says young people. I know those are perhaps a little bit different than what might be in the New King James, but it's little children, fathers, or young people. That's kind of the categories of description that he is using. And he says little children understand it actually can be kind of a graduated growing from little to bigger to big to older, I guess. But he says I'm writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven on account of his name. I'm writing to you, fathers, because you fathers who are growing and are mature, you know him who is from the beginning. Who is that? Who is from the beginning? Well, we could say God was from the beginning, but you read in John 1 that the word was the one who was in the beginning with the father, and I think the reference here is to the word. And he says I'm writing to you, young people, because you have conquered the evil one. So he makes three statements there about being forgiven, about truly knowing the father and the son, and that you are struggling and fighting against sin.

You are achieving success in your spiritual lives. And then he actually goes back and then somewhat repeats some of the same thing. He says I know, in verse 14, I write to you, children, because you know the father, and I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. Again, he's kind of going over the same thing, but what I want to focus on, I write to you, young people, if you're going to be fighting against sin, if you are going to be winning the battle, the spiritual battle of growth and development, here in verse 14, I write to you, young people, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you.

See, that's what I'm mentioning about the mind of Jesus is focused on, it's filled with the words of God.

And then he says you have overcome the evil one. You're going to overcome. You are going to, with doing these things, you are going to overcome and grow and develop.

So the mind that we're seeking, if we let this mind be in us, is a mind that's nurtured by prayer, a mind that's filled with the words of God.

That's not an optional thing. It's not an occasional thing. It's something that we've got, however many years, God allows us to live to do.

The next thing I want to point out is the mind that Jesus had and that we seek is a mind that's filled with concern for other people.

Mind that is filled with concern. Now, it said this in Philippians 2 about looking after the interest of others, not solely after our own interest.

But I think it's interesting to see in the example of Jesus, how much concern he had.

Now, whenever he traveled around, not only in Judea and Jerusalem, but up north in Galilee and in Nazareth, or other Capernaum and other cities around the Sea of Galilee, or over on the Jordan, as he, you know, the description of kind of where he was throughout his ministry, as he interacted with people, you see he could obviously help them. He could heal the sick. He cast out demons. He was able to encourage and uplift.

Often there was a crowd that was easily drawn. You read numerous times where he seemed to be a popular dinner guest.

I would imagine he had something to say. It was probably that he was able to relate to people and to talk to them and discuss with them whatever's going on in their lives.

I know he was trained. At least it would seem as his father was, as Joseph was, as a carpenter or construction.

You know, he could probably talk construction. And yet, what do you see in John 11?

John 11 is the example of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Jesus interacting with Mary and Martha and ultimately Lazarus.

And, you know, there's one very short verse there that I'm going to focus on. You know, John 11.35 is where we'll eventually go, but...

See, what I want to point out is that when you read through John 11, you see Jesus being very familiar with Martha and Mary and Lazarus with their family.

He actually loved them whenever the girls called, told him, Lazarus was really sick. He's just about dead.

You know, they said, he who you love is sick. And, of course, you know, as he came eventually...

No, he didn't hustle over there immediately. He came, you know, later. He waited a few days. He waited till he died.

Waited till he was then buried and in the grave.

And yet, whenever he went over here and met Martha and then talked to her for a while and later would meet and talk to Mary...

You see here in chapter 11...

Mary, in verse 32, came where Jesus was and knelt down before him at his feet.

Said, Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died.

Now, that seemed to be a little more respectful expression of that same phrase that Martha had almost chided him about.

Look! If you'd have been here, Martha's tone appears different in the way it's written.

And yet, when Jesus saw her weeping...

And when he saw the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly moved in spirit and he was deeply moved.

It concerned him to see that these family members that he knew that he loved, that he enjoyed being around and that he had a lot of compassion for and concern for.

And, of course, he knew what he was going to do. He knew he had the answers. He knew he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead.

He knew he was going to ask the Father to do that and to help others come to believe who he was.

But whenever Jesus saw Mary crying and the others bemoaning the fact that Lazarus has now died, he said, where have they laid him? And they said, well, Lord, come and see.

Verse 35 is a memory verse that I remember memorizing many, many years ago.

Whenever I was probably less than 10 years old, because at the church I went to at that time, they encouraged us kids to memorize a verse.

And, of course, if you want to be able to remember it, you want to pick the very shortest verse you can possibly find.

I didn't want to pick some long verse out of Chronicles somewhere and try to remember all the names.

I wanted to simply remember Jesus wept. See, that's what the new King James says, I believe. That's what the King James says, I know.

Mine says Jesus began to weep. You know, they were dragging it out a little. But, see, the point is, making it a bigger verse.

And so the Jews even said, well, see how he loved him.

You know, his obvious concern for not only Lazarus, I mean, he knew what he was going to do.

He knew how he was going to help Mary and Martha.

But in a sense, he was concerned even about the grief and the anguish that the crowd was suffering because there was a whole funeral parlor full or, you know, moving around wherever they would go.

He had that kind of sympathy, that type of compassion, that type of concern.

And you see different statements where Jesus was moved with compassion.

And yet that's an example here. Another thing we might look at is in Mark chapter 10.

And this is an example that, again, is about something else.

But what I want to focus on is how Jesus was concerned.

Now this, in Mark chapter 10, starting in verse 17, it's about the young man or young ruler, rich young ruler, who came to Jesus and said, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

And of course he's going to say, well, you know what the commandments are. And then he enumerated many of the Ten Commandments.

And he told him, well, I've been doing those all my life.

I grew up in a Jewish household. I grew up in, you know, aware of the law.

I grew up obeying God.

And of course Jesus could see that he was not only a substantial leader or ruler, I think you call him, at least a young man, and yet he had a considerable amount of wealth.

He was very wealthy.

And he could see that, well, you know, he puts more emphasis on that wealth than he does on following me.

And that's not going to work.

And of course that whole example is about not only the need to obey, which he does say, yes, you should do, but there's probably more to it than you even thought.

And so what it says, after the young man says, teacher, I've kept all of these since my youth in verse 20, Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said, you like one thing, go and sell what you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come and take up your cross and follow me.

Now, there's a lot of things that he was telling him there.

He was telling him, you need to analyze your motives, you need to analyze what's important to you.

You ultimately need to understand if you want to have eternal life like you ask, you're going to have to follow me.

And yet what I'm pointing out is simply in verse 21, Jesus looked at this man who he knew was clearly flawed, whether he knew he was sinning or not, he was, and Jesus needed to point that out, but it says he did that out of love.

He had love for this man. And of course, he didn't know perhaps exactly what the response would be, but he had to tell him what the truth is.

Well, if you're going to be my disciple, then you're going to have to be willing to put me before everything, and that includes all your wealth.

And of course, the young man didn't want to do that, but what I want to focus on is just simply the fact that the mind that we want to have in us is a mind that's nurtured by prayer.

A mind that is filled with the Word of God, and a mind that is concerned about others.

The fourth thing I'll mention is the fact that Jesus' mind was focused on his mission.

It was focused on his mission. Now, clearly, he was here on a special mission. He was here on a remarkable project of redeeming mankind.

And yet, let's look, let's go back to Mark 1, as we were there to begin with here.

Mark 1, verse 35, in the morning, all of his dark, he went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.

So this is how he prepared to be close to the Father and to have the mind of Christ.

And Simon and companions hunted him down. They said, Where have you been? Everybody's been searching for you.

And he answered and said, Let us go on to neighboring... Oh, verse 38.

He answered, Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also, for that is what I came out to do.

See, his mind was focused on his mission. His mind was guided by an understanding of his purpose.

And see, all of us, if we're, you know, drawn into the Church of God in this age, if we are a part of the spiritual body of Christ, the Israel of God, as we see in Galatians 6, verse 16, if we're a part of that, then we have come to understand the purpose for our life.

The purpose of our life is to come to know God and to come to know Jesus Christ and to grow in his divine nature.

And we understand what the purpose of human life is.

Human life is not just to put in 60 or 70 or 80 years and die, and then there is nothing else.

There's more to it than that. God wants us to have eternal life.

And yet, we have to choose to do that. We have to be focused on that mission and purpose.

And so, even as Jesus here in verse 38 said, I need to go and proclaim the message, proclaim the message about the kingdom of God to the other towns, because that's why I came out here to do.

If we back up to John again, chapter 4, you see another example of, in essence, the same thing.

Jesus, you see him repeating this, and he actually was helping the disciples in understanding this, that you're going to be given a mission. That mission is going to be proclaiming the gospel throughout the world.

Go, therefore, into all the world and proclaim the gospel and teach and baptize and teach disciples.

That's going to be your marching order. You are going to have that as a purpose.

My purpose, though, he describes here in John, chapter 4. Now, he'd been talking to the Samaritan woman, and the disciples marveled at that, because that wasn't something that they would have done, and that wasn't something that the Jewish world would have done.

The Samaritans were viewed in a very negative light. They were viewed in a cast of ways.

They didn't have interaction with them. Certainly, he didn't have interaction with a woman. And yet, clearly, Jesus told the Samaritan woman, I have what you need. I have living water.

And, of course, she was trying to draw water out of the well.

And yet, we see, verse 31, after the disciples went to get something to eat, the disciples were urging him, rabbis, eat something.

And he said to them, I have food to eat that you don't even know about.

Now, they were hungry, and they had gone to get some food. That's why they were away, and that's why he was talking to the Samaritan woman, and they were startled when they came back and found him doing that.

But, he said, I have food to do that you don't know about.

And so the disciples said to one another, surely no one is brought something to eat.

And Jesus said, in verse 34, my food, what drives me, what fuels me, what gives me purpose, what my mission is, is to do the will of him who sent me, to do the will of God, and to complete his work.

Now, he told his disciples this numerous times, that we need to do the work that God has missioned us to do.

He has missioned me to do directly while they were with him, and then your mission is going to continue after I'm gone.

But clearly, he was saying the importance and the significance of the mind of Christ is that he is focused on his mission.

And see, all of us have to be focused. Whenever we get off focus, whenever we are not thinking about what God's purpose for our life is, then we're kind of off base. We're kind of spinning around in our own little world, and we are doing whatever things right to us, and they may not be directly wrong, but it's not focused on God's mission in our lives.

And so we want, if we're going to have the mind that Jesus had to be in us, we want to be focused on our mission.

And then lastly, the fifth thing that I'll mention is something that, again, is repeated several times in the Gospels here in Matthew, Chapter 20. We'll go to this account. Because you see, the mind that Jesus had and the mind that we are to have in us is based in humility, but is to be nurtured by prayer and to be filled with the Word of God and to be filled with concern for others, and to be continually reminded of our mission, focused on that mission. And finally, number five, here in Matthew 20, you see that Jesus had a mind that was willing to serve other people.

That was his driving desire, is to serve other people. Now, here in verse 20, in Matthew 20, you see, the mother of the sons of Zebedee came kneeling before Jesus and asked him, please declare that the two sons of mine will sit, one on the right hand, one on the left, in your kingdom.

And of course, Jesus says you don't know what you're asking for. You don't understand. You can't seek position and try to take something that God is not preparing you for.

And he said, are you able to drink the cup? In verse 22, are you able to drink the cup that I'm about to drink?

And they said, yes, we are. Now, they didn't understand what he was going to go through, but they wanted to do it. And he said to them, you indeed will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and to sit at my left, that's not mine to grant, but it is for those to whom it's been prepared by my Father.

See, the Father is preparing positions of rulership in the kingdom of God for those that He is preparing. I'm going to say I would assume from what we read in the Bible, He's prepared some people already.

People that we read about in the Old Testament and certainly some in the New.

And yet, He expands that to being teachers and kings and priests and rulers and judges in the kingdom to come. Verse 24, when everybody else heard what was going on, they were angry.

But Jesus called them all together. He says, I need to point out something to you.

Your mind is not focused on this, but my mind is.

And so He's going to explain something about the mind of Christ. He says, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them and their rulers, their great ones, are tyrants over them.

And so He was describing not only the Roman world that they were all familiar with, but even the Jewish society that many of them would have been very familiar with.

You know, they certainly saw a certain level of corruption.

And look to me when you read through this, that the high priest was above reproach.

You know, he had a lot of problems himself. He had a lot of shenanigans that would even ultimately lead to Jesus being castigated and eventually then crucified.

But see, he said in comparison, looking at the Gentile world, you know, the leaders are those who just are viper position, try to get an authority, do whatever seems right to them, put other people down.

And he says in verse 26, that will not be so among you.

Among my disciples, among the people of God, among the servants of God, it's not going to be that way among you. Whoever wishes to be great among you must learn to be your servant.

So here we get the term and the description and the outlook of a servant leadership.

Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.

See, that's the kind of mind that Jesus had, a mind that was willing to serve. He understood his purpose.

A part of that purpose was to set an example. He was going to wash the feet of the disciples. That was going to be a, you know, a significant example that would have happened right before he would die.

But he had been serving them all along. He had been teaching them and guiding them and showing them, I'm sure, you know, that he had shown many, many examples of how to serve other people, not just washing the feet of the disciples.

So here are five things that would help describe what the mind of Christ is like.

And whenever we go through the topic or think about the subject of, let this mind, this mind of Christ, be in you, and these are things that we not only can know that we can do. We can be focused. Now, we can ignore them.

We can be like we want to be, or we can be like Jesus Christ.

See, I want to conclude the sermon today by reading here in Colossians 1, what it is that Paul would tell the people in Colossae.

He had lived his life, and of course, he had been struck down by Jesus Christ.

He had been given the directive about you're not to be a killer of the church, you're going to be an apostle in the church.

So he had quite the remarkable transition to look back on.

See, also, I had three days of being blind to think about, because I imagine he never forgot that.

He always remembered that, well, I'm a servant of Jesus Christ, and I need to do what is required to let this mind be in you, because he's the one who wrote that, too, let this mind be in you, which was also in Jesus Christ.

Here in Colossians 1, the latter part of this chapter, I just want to read through this, and I think you'll find much of this to be very familiar.

Of what it is that it summarizes how it is.

You know, that we want to pray, and we want to study, and we want to have love for one another, and we want to be focused on our mission, and we want to have a desire to serve others, because that's the mind that Jesus had.

In verse 24, Paul says, I'm rejoicing in my suffering.

See, he was in jail.

He says, I'm rejoicing in my suffering for your sake, and in my flesh I'm completing what is lacking in Christ's affliction for the sake of his body, that is the church.

I became its servant, according to God's commission that was given to me for you to make the word of God fully known.

See, Paul understood his life had been turned upside down and been directed in the right way, had been given a knowledge of the purpose of God.

And he says, my life was turned around, and I was commissioned by God to proclaim the word of God, to make the word of God fully known.

And he says, I'm fully known in verse 26 to make the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations, but has now been revealed to his saints.

See, here he says there's a mystery of the ages. There's a mystery of the kingdom of God.

There's a mystery of God's purpose in dealing with human life.

And he says in verse 27, he's revealed that now to the saints and to them, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery.

He says how absolutely fabulous this mystery is, a mystery that he has revealed to the saints, to the church at this time.

He says to them God has chosen to make known this mystery, which he is. And so he says what the mystery is here in verse 27, and that mystery is simply Christ in you.

Christ in you, the hope of glory. Whenever we think about letting this mind be in you.

See, I want to seek that. I don't know that I have made a lot of progress toward that, but that's what I seek.

I seek the mind of Christ.

And I would say all of us are in the process of gaining or growing in that.

And yet the more I seek it, the more I see, that's what I ought to be seeking. That's what I ought to be emphasizing.

That's what I ought to be focused on. And all the other stuff is somewhat unimportant.

If I'm allowing Christ to live in me, as Paul would say in other places in other ways, but we'll focus on this, because he says the mystery of the ages is a mystery about what God is doing, and that is to allow Christ to live in you.

And if we allow, we have to allow. We have to want it. We have to desire to have the mind that Jesus exemplified, that he displayed.

That's why we read the Word of God, to know more about what his mind is about.

But he said that mystery is Christ in you, and that is, it gives us a hope. A hope of glory.

A hope of being glorified with Christ, a hope of having eternal life, a hope of being resurrected from the dead.

Should we die? A hope of life eternal with the Father and the Son.

But brethren, what we certainly have to focus on is letting the mind of Christ be in us, seeking that, yearning for that, desiring that.

And if we're doing that, then God is going to be transforming our minds so that we truly do have the hope of eternal life.