Redeeming Grace Church Pahrump NV

Philippians 2:1-4

“Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn and you will.” ~ Vernon Howard

If you go to school or college but you don’t enroll in the class they call that auditing.  You may have the benefit of hearing and learning but you don’t get the credit for the time you spend.  

Now let’s say you do enroll in the class you go to the lectures, buy and read the books, participate in the class discussions, do the assignments and take the tests.  But you just miss the meanings of the assignments, you seem to have a different view that is askew during the class discussions and the answers you give for the tests use all the right terms but they miss the point of the answers you are supposed to give.  Although you worked hard to be in the presence of the instructor and went through all the motions, if you miss the point of the class, you fail. 

You may have worked harder than everyone else in the class but if you were stuck at chapter one because it lit a certain passion in you and spend the rest of the class giving your heart and soul to chapter one you might as well have not taken the class; you should have audited because you will fail the class.  

You unfortunately stay a beginner so to speak because you never get to the meat.  Like a baby you can repeat all the words but you never grasp the meaning.  Where you wind up is what 1 Timothy speaks of and that’s like a new convert, it prevents you from growing and worse… Well 1 Timothy 3 says; 6 He must not be a new convert, or he might become conceited and fall into the condemnation of the Devil.  [1 Timothy 3:6]  Time spent has nothing to do with it, it’s what you learn.

Too many Christians today wonder why we aren’t bringing new young believers to the faith.  Part of the reason is the millennial generation believes that anything that differs from one’s own belief is being critical and sometimes we need to temper our approach, not our belief or faith, our approach.  

Too often we approach non-believers in an attitude of arrogance and by doing so we fail the class.  We get stuck on Chapter one: “Sinners are going to hell!”  We never grasp the rest of the teachings: but there is salvation on repentance and acceptance of the Lord.  We become arrogant in our faith.  We don’t look to understand who they are because we are too busy puffing our own selves up in our faith.  There’s a scripture that speaks to that; 2 Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone considers himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.  [Galatians 6:2-3]  

Arrogance-feeling or showing self-importance and contempt or disregard for others: pride, conceit, haughtiness, egotism, superiority, overconfidence, superciliousness-(full of contempt and arrogance), self-importance, condescension.   You know what isn’t in this list,?  Humility.  Our main scripture today says; 3 Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves.  [Philippians 2:3]  

We need to approach unbelievers as Christ would have: in love not pride.  “Pride . . . closes our minds to learning, makes us selfish, and jeopardizes our roles as leaders . . . But putting pride aside can help us in our endeavors to be better. . .” ~ Shea Drake

If you want to help unbelievers become believers, stop approaching them as enemies.  Learn that Satan is your true enemy, not other sinners and take what Christ says in Matthew as your model for your attitude to help them come to Christ.

5 Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus, 6 who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage. 7 Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men. And when He had come as a man in His external form, 8 He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross. 9 For this reason God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow—of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth—11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  [Philippians 2:5-11]  

Let’s not audit, let’s not get stuck on Chapter 1, let’s get rid of faith driven arrogance and let’s pass the class.

~ Pastor Floyd