Keep This Mindset

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

Good morning. It's a really interesting time in our country right now. As we speak, businesses are in the process of reopening. Many churches are in the process of opening their doors again. I mean, we're going to be there opening up for outdoor services next Sunday. A lot of families, they're beginning to see relatives again. So things are kind of opening back up. We're not out of the woods yet, but we are in a place now where we can kind of look back at all it took to kind of get where we are. For our church in particular, I wanted to say, you know, we had to do a lot pretty quickly. We had to pivot fast. We had to invent online services out of nothing. We had to build a set right here in the church. We had to do our Good Friday service as a live chat. So we delivered bread and juice to everybody in our church, and then we did Good Friday communion together.

Our treasurer and our secretary have still been coming up and making things happen, paying bills, receiving money. You guys have still been giving, and giving has been strong and great. I want to encourage you to keep doing that. Our mowing team still came up and did everything they needed to do. We're still painting rooms. In fact, we should almost be complete by the time this is airing. I just wanted to say I'm really proud of how our church has come together. It's really amazing and I want to praise the Lord for it. And so it's really only fitting that we're going to be nearing the end of our series this week. Are we there yet? The last one is going to be next week during our open air service, but this week we're really going to be remembering where we've been in our series. So what have we talked about so far? We've discussed confident Christianity, how Jesus is going to bring our maturity and

bring everything that he's doing in us to completion. This is Jesus's record. We've discussed giving ourselves away in a lot of different contexts, but particularly the context of upheaval. How generosity, in fact, is stepping over our upheaval into the victory that Jesus gives us, into the encouragement. We looked at this in Philippians 2. The encouragement, the joy, the comfort, the love that Jesus gives to us, that we can swim in it, that we can step over our upheaval into victory. And And we discussed last week how that's not always easy. There are some traps along the way. We need to avoid becoming a fake Christian. We need to avoid taking something good, right? Like reading your Bible every day, or, you know, of saving from alcohol, like we talked about last week. Taking something good and then judging other people by it. We've got to resist that. We've got to resist those bear traps.

But in order to do that, and we discussed this last week, I want to hit on it one more time. In order to do that, we really need to keep following Jesus in the cross hairs of our lives. So it's in Philippians 3, 7 through 8 that we read, but whatever gain I had, I counted as lost for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, street trash, in order that I may gain Christ." So Christianity is nailing our lives to Jesus, not rules. It's nailing our lives to Jesus and not rules. This is a battle for us because, and we didn't really talk about this last week, it's a battle for us because rules are much simpler. Rules are much easier to follow than Jesus. Because with rules we can kind of quantify it and plan it and be in

control. Following Jesus, he's gonna ask us to do something that maybe we don't want to do or maybe we don't like. And so we strive after following Jesus, not rules, and and Philippians 3, 13 and 14 covered this really well. This is where we ended last week, it says, brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upper call of God in Christ Jesus. This is where we were last week and oftentimes when we talk about this being a battle, oftentimes This battle is very tiring.

You know, we have a couple of encouragement in scripture in Galatians 6, 9 and 2 Thessalonians 3, 13. They both have the refrain, do not grow weary in doing good. Don't grow weary in doing good. The reason it says that in the New Testament is because people grow weary in doing good. It's precisely because we get tired, right? Generosity, giving ourselves away is tiring. Staying confident. It's wearying. It drains us. And even in the letter to the Philippian church here, you can see the fatigue. You can see it in 128 where he's saying that you're going to be striving side by side in Philippians 2:12 that you're working out your salvation with fear and trembling. This is not easy stuff. This isn't just something that just kind of happens to you. And here in verses 13 and 14, it says that we strain toward the future. It says that we press on toward the goal of the upward call.

And so this is where we're going to pick it up today. We're going to be in Philippians 3, 15 through 21. We're going to go through all those verses. And what these verses do, it begins to drive home the fact that we need to stay focused on the fact that we are straining toward something. And so the way that these verses talk about it, it talks about a mindset, that we need to keep the mindset of straining toward the goal, of straining toward following Jesus. And we see it in the next verse in Philippians 3:15. And it says, Let those of us who are mature think this way. And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that to you also. Okay, so those of us who are immature, we're going to think this way. Again, we're talking about a mindset. We're keeping the mindset. Think about it this way, is a mindset. Throughout the letter, the refrain of a mindset, right, you can see it and it's Paul's chief concern for this

Philippian church in 1.7 he says it's right for me to have this mindset about you in chapter 2 verse 2 he says complete my joy by having the same mindset in three verses later chapter 2 verse 5 he says hold on to this mindset which is yours in Christ Jesus in chapter 3 verse 13 we just read it says I don't consider I don't have the mindset that I've obtained all of this later on in chapter before verse 8, he says, whatever's true, whatever's lovely, it says, think on these things. Have this mindset where you have it in front of you. Paul is very concerned with the Philippian Church's mindset, and he's explicit right here in verse 15 when he says everyone needs to have this mindset. If you're mature, you're definitely gonna have it. If you're not mature yet, look, look ahead. You will have this. You need to nail your life to Jesus. You need to focus on following Him, be vulnerable with Him, following Him and making disciples,

loving Him only, giving yourself away. This, this is what we need to keep in the crosshairs of our lives. And when we do, when we let it consume us, when we let every relationship hinge on following Jesus, you can bet the farm on it. You're You're not going to let everything distract you from following Jesus. South Burleson, South Burleson Baptist Church. Listen, I want to speak to you, and I really want you to hear me here. And I don't care if you've been here for 50 years or two weeks. I don't care if you've just tuned in. I don't care if you're a mature believer or immature. I don't care if you're 80. I don't care if you're 8. If you come, if we come to this mindset together, then I promise you we will feel the great joy of Jesus working in us. That we will see the fruit of our labor, both in ourselves and in the people around us. If together we work to plant gospel seeds in the relationships that are around us, then

we will not be ashamed. Those gospel seeds will bear fruit. They will grow to maturity because we aren't the ones who make it grow. We're just the ones who need to be faithful with planting the seeds. So we need to forget what lies behind. history as great as it is, it does not dictate our future. We need to strain forward to what lies ahead. The future is not going to just come to us. If we all of a sudden start doing some really cool things at our church, it doesn't just mean that a bunch of people are just going to flock to our building. the future is going to take severe effort. It's going to take a lot of work and sacrifice. It's going to take us pressing on toward the goal and so let's begin to pray now to make disciples. Let's begin to pray now. Let's ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers, us, into the harvest fields. If we sit here and wait

for things to happen, it's not going to happen. But let's go out there, let's pray, let's pray for a huge harvest, and let's go be a part of it. Now part of the problem with this and with speaking this way, with thinking this way, there is a problem. It's that people forget to approach this in a sustainable way. And we've seen it, we've seen people kind of ride the wave of Yeah, let's go take on hell with a water pistol. Yeah, let's go make disciples. Yeah, let's go, you know, let's not be encumbered by anything that encumbered us before. But what they don't do, they just ride that wave and it's a wave of dreams. And what happens is that because it's not sustainable, it crashes on the shore of reality. It crashes against the coral reef of pain and problems pain and problems and suffering and sacrifice and things that aren't things that people that aren't

holding up their end, right? That it always kind of falls apart. And so what I want to do today is I want to ask the question, what does it look like to consistently, to sustainably plant gospel seeds in our relationships? What does it look like to strain toward following Jesus. And these verses line out for us three ways to do that. The first is in verse 16. Philippians 3 16 says, only let us hold true to what we have attained. Only let us hold true to what we have what we have attained. That we we keep this mindset by rehearsing what is true. Now you've heard me talk about about this before, rehearsal, we need to rehearse what is true. So in rehearsal, this is why when we come together, we preach the word of God. It reinforces the mindset that we can trust the Lord, that we can go to Scripture, that we can hear from Him through Scripture. This is why we preach the Bible in an understandable way.

I mean, I know I'm not perfect at it, but I'm always aiming to help people understand how to read the Bible for themselves. And this is in our series, right? I hope there's some things that you've picked up in our series that Jesus brings you confident generosity, that Jesus will bring that to completion, that you can give your life away, that we're on this journey that has pain and sacrifice and suffering, but that that is going to be how we're going to walk in victory, is to generously give ourselves away. And it's not just preaching. memory also reinforces this, scripture reading reinforces this, right? That we rehearsed truth to combat lies. Now I don't know if you know this, but every day you hear hundreds if not thousands of lies every day. And if it's not your your friends or family lying to you, it's the news. If it's not the news then it's the ads. If it's not the ads then it's your own self. Somebody's lying to

you, right? We even tell lies to ourselves, right? You can be self-diluted, you can be self-condemned, you can be self-satisfied, all of that comes as you lie to yourself. Right? So this onslaught of lies that we're kind of buffeted by every day, it needs truth pushing against it. If not, if we don't have truth against it, then we just end up regurgitating what the culture says. So we end up saying things like, it's my money and I need it now. Or we end up saying something like, every kiss begins with K. I don't know. I'm just trying to repeat commercials here. What happens is we take on the world's mindset. We begin to believe that we are the center of the universe. We begin to believe that our happiness matters more than it should. We begin to believe that we shouldn't apologize whenever we've done something wrong unless they apologize to us first. We believe a lot

of different lies. A lie that I believe and it goes by a short sentence and my wife can attest, I've said this before, my lie is that I'm tired. I'm tired. And what that means when I say I'm tired, it means that expectations should be properly lowered. I'm tired. You can't expect that of me. And that's a lie, I believe. That's not true. My expectations, people's expectations of me should not be lowered. It's a lie I believe. And when I don't have the truth pushing on me, gnawing on me, I fall into it. I believe the lie. So I want to do two examples real fast of truth combating a lie. So Romans 1219 is some truth, right? It says beloved, never avenge yourselves but leave it to the wrath of God for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Listen, when we rehearse that truth and we believe that truth, we will hold back from vengeance. We will

hold back and trust that God will take care of us. We won't be perfect, that's not what I'm saying, but without that fuel of Romans 12-19, without the fuel of the truth that Jesus is going to avenge us, then there's no way we can hold back from vengeance. If we believe it though, we can, we will. Another example, Matthew 11, 28 through 30th, this is Jesus talking to the crowd that says, come to me all who labor in or heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. When we rehearse this truth and we believe it we will lean into Jesus's grace we will remember to follow him the one who is gentle and kind. We will learn not only to follow him but we will learn also to imitate him. A.W. Tozer says this, it says, what comes into your

mind when you think about God is the most important thing about us. It says, what comes into our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us. Because what that's trying to say is that we must rehearse what is true. You are what you meditate on. You become what you rehearse. Now to keep this mindset, right, we need to keep straining toward, following Jesus, we need to rehearse what is true. But second is in the next verse, Philippians 3 17, and it says brothers join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example that you have in us." Right? So the second way that we keep on straining toward the goal, we rehearse what's true, but also we imitate good examples. Now we just saw this at the end of chapter 2 whenever Paul was talking on and on about Timothy and Epaphroditus, how both of those guys are giving themselves away.

Both of those guys have your concern in a church at the forefront of their mind. They have the concerns of Jesus over their own concerns. These men are generously giving themselves away in their own way. And at the end of that chapter in 229, it says, to honor such men, if we're going to continue this this straining ahead we need others in front of us and beside us showing us how it's possible showing us how it's sustainable in everyday kind of ways right and this is why Jesus has given us pastors and deacons pastors and deacons are directed we're directed on how to recognize them in first Timothy 3 and for Deacon specifically these are leaders who care for the physical needs of the church. They are men of good reputation. They live holy lives. They love Jesus. They are vulnerable with Jesus and other people. And so if as I was saying all that somebody came to mind we are still

nominating Deacon's right now all the way through May 31st. So continue to email those in drewkapertin.com. So he gives us deacons, he also gives us pastors. Look, I know I'm the only pastor right now, but I hope for one day we will have multiple pastors, paid and unpaid, leading the church, guiding us together as a church family. Jesus gave us these leaders to show us that it's possible, to show us that it's sustainable, we can honor them by imitating them. And listen, I don't say this with my mouth full, or at least I'm not trying to. I work to live a life that is an example. I know I'm not perfect, but even when I'm not perfect, I hope to repent. And even in my repenting, I hope that that pushes you toward following Jesus more. That's the example I want to set is not perfection, but allegiance to Jesus. So we're imitating leaders but we're also avoiding other like false leaders and these are the opponents again so let's

read verses 18 and 19 of Philippians 3. It says, For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears they walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is their destruction, their God is their belly, and their glory, and they glory in their shame with mindset on earthly things. That is quite the description, right? Their end is their destruction, the God is their belly, they glory in their shame, and they have mindset on earthly things. And at the end, it's like this exclamation point. He's going back to the mindset. He says, look at their mindset. Their mindsets are earthly things. Now an earthly mindset, when he says that, he doesn't mean normal earthly concerns like what color to paint the kitchen or what movie to watch tonight or anything like that. Rather, it's to see those things, those earthly concerns, as final, as ultimate. In other words, if you

truly believe that this life is all you get, then you will take every opportunity you can to get as much as you can, as often as you can. You will be selfish and you will believe that you're right to be selfish. If you believe that this is all there is for this life, then you will choose yourself over other people every time. And this is what he's talking about. He's talking about leaders who are there, who have their mindset on earthly things, and it's just about themselves. Christians, on the other hand, Christian leaders, they give themselves away, not because they're nice, not because they're nice, but because Jesus has said, we will be rewarded. Until over and against having this earthly mindset, we look forward and upward. We look forward and upward. The next two verses, verses 20 and 21, talk about this. It says, but our citizenship is in heaven and

from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself." Looking forward and upward, he talks about our citizenship being in heaven. That word citizenship is similar, it's the same word really as the word in chapter 1 verse 27 where it says, live a manner worthy of the gospel. That living a manner worthy has to do with being a citizen. So in some ways, 127 is saying, hey, live as a gospel citizen. Live like you live in a city that is governed by the gospel. Live like your allegiance is to the gospel. And here, he says the same thing but with heaven. He says, live like your citizenship is in heaven, which takes on a different tone. It takes on a different tone because whenever our citizenship is in heaven, right? We are looking for a true home beyond this one. We're not looking around

for distractions. We're not looking around preoccupied with celebrity culture. Our mindset is forward and upward. We've got heaven on the brain and we're not too heavenly minded to be earthly good, right? We're not heavenly minded and no earthly good. We are heavenly minded and then that allows us to see what is going on around us in the proper perspective. We're not drowning in the upheaval of our lives. We're not without confidence. We're not without generosity. We look at our pain, sacrifice, suffering. We look at those things as opportunities. Right, we've been talking about this almost ad nauseam, but it's really important that we understand that our citizenship isn't here, our home isn't here. We have a true hope. We have a real grip on the future, and it's because Jesus has defeated death, and because he defeated death, so will we. Because he

He gives us hope beyond this earthly life. We can be generous. And this is what it means to have that mindset. So He's saying, keep this mindset. Rehearse what is true. Imitate the good examples that you have around you. All your leaders. And look forward and upward. Now what I want to do is I want to take a little extra time and I want to talk about what it looks like to do this. In an effort to be practical, I want to kind of come out with some case studies where in each case study we're going to rehearse the truth, we're going to imitate leaders and we're going to look forward and upward. And so the first case study I want to look at is a young mother. A young mother. If you're a young mother, then needs are popping up all the time. This thing's happening, this thing's happening, this thing's happening. You got your head on a swivel, right? You got kids, you know, some are in school, some aren't.

Some are, you know, learning this, some are learning that. I mean, you've got a lot of plates spinning and you can feel overwhelmed. You can feel out of control. Here's the truth to rehearse. I would encourage you, write this down. We're going to start with young mothers, but we have three other case settings to go. Here's, here's what I want you to rehearse. Second Corinthians 1, 3 through 5. It says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. Now listen, here's what you're going to hang your hat on. Who comforts us, verse 4, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. What a great truth to remember.

What a great truth. The God of all comfort is comforting you and He wants you to use that comfort to comfort other people. I just said comfort a lot, but so did the verse. So rehearse that truth. You need someone to imitate? Let me just say, of course you're going to imitate godly women at your church, but if you need some authors to start reading, and if you can't read a book, get it on audiobook. That's what my wife does. She swears by it. It's great. She's read so many books that way. some authors like Jenny Allen or Lisa Turkest, get after those ladies who are telling you here's what's true. They're rehearsing truth with you and for you. They're putting truth in front of you. Finally, looking forward and upward, you need to understand what you're doing now is making disciples for the future. You are investing in your children. You are setting them up to impact the world for Jesus. And that's what's going on right

now, but you can look forward and upward and know that as you, as you generously give yourself away to your children and the other, the other people around you that, that your father in heaven sees that and will reward you one day. Okay. Young mother. That was the first case. Second case study, retiree retiree. You know who you are. Retirees. It's easy just to let go. Right. Uh, you, You use my refrain, I'm tired a lot, right? Or I've done that, or I've been there, or what have you. You kind of have, you can give in to this fear of loss, or you can give in to this fatigue and just say, well, I'm just too old for that. I'm not gonna try that anymore. Here's what I wanna challenge you to rehearse. It's in 2 Timothy 1, 6 through 7. Here's your verse. It says, for this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

For God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power and of love and of self-control. Retirees, that gift you have, that flame, it might've cooled. It might've burned bright a long time ago, and it's kind of cooled off. Now that's not all of you, But it is to say that's a rut that a retiree can fall into. Second Timothy 1, 6 through 7, that is your verse. Fan into flame, that gift that God has given you. God has given you a spirit of power and love and self-control. Get after it, right? And imitate, and here's my, maybe you hadn't thought about this, imitate the younger generation. Take a look at somebody in their 20s or 30s and imitate them. Let their hope inspire you. Let their joy rub off on you, right? Build up the leaders that are younger than you. Me, right? Build me up. Encourage me, support me in front of them, right? You still got a plan for your life going on

and you can still look forward and look upward and know that Jesus, be confident. Jesus has prepared a place for you and you can be generous. Okay, retiree. Third, career track. If you are on a career track right now, it is easy to put the blinders on for the work and be rewarded for that. If you are on a career path of any kind and you are outworking everybody, you are smarter than everybody that you're working with. You're innovating, you're pushing forward, you're first in, last out. You're going to be rewarded. And it's really easy to kind of baptize that say, oh, I'm providing for my family. Okay, great. You're providing for your family. I don't want to discount that, but I want you to rehearse this. This is kind of a longer verse, but I want you to think about, I want you to just listen to it. It's 1 Timothy 6, verses 6 through 10.

It says, but godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing with these, we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. First, let's just take a break. How many people do you know that have gone after riches and been discontent with what they had and then plunged into ruin and destruction because of it? Let's keep reading. Verse 10, For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. Listen, that is a sobering thought that your legacy is not in your job. That's a sobering thought. There's a great book I want to recommend to you as far as people

to imitate. There's a great book by Tim Keller. It's called Every Good Endeavor. And it really does help you kind of put your work into what Jesus is doing in real life right now. And As far as looking forward and upward, I want to challenge you. Look beyond your legacy. Understand that your true legacy, your citizenship, is not at this job. It's not in this career. It's not with that company. It's in heaven. Okay. That's the career track. Lastly, but not leastly, the young 20-somethings, right? The 20-somethings, you've got a lot of pressure, 20-somethings. You've got to make it big. You've got to get things done. You've got to achieve. go, you got to experience all you can, right? And you have to, you know, you have to put on Instagram, you have to put on social media, you got to tell everybody what's going on. Here's your rehearsal. 2 Peter chapter 3 verses 8 through 9. But do not overlook this

one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Your life, I know you want to speed it up, I know you want to get things done, I know you want to enjoy, you know, get every drop out of it, but it's helpful for you to remember that the Lord has a plan for you and it's moving at the pace it needs to move at. You don't need to hurry up and get it done. You need to, in fact, you need to look around and say, who can I imitate? Who are the pastors and the deacons at my church? Who are the wives of the pastors and deacons at my church? How can I imitate them? How can I support them, love them, learn from them, glean things from them? How can I do that?

And you need to, as far as looking forward and upward, There are many temptations for you, especially the cut corners. Many temptations to kind of leapfrog ahead, but just be encouraged. Jesus has a slow work to be done in you. Jesus wants to bring that to completion. For many of you, I just wanna encourage you, we have life groups that are gonna be starting the week of August 23rd. Now that sounds like it's really far away and that's great. And if you want to be involved in a life group, you can always email me, drewk for 10 at gmail.com. But it's a great opportunity to find people that will invest in you and that you can invest in them. It's a, it's a great way to do that to begin to work together and point our lives for following, just following Jesus, making disciples and cutting off every sin that hinders and running the race.

Well, life groups are going to be starting then. Lastly, I want to say if any of this has spoken to you and you really want to respond in a way that's saying, I need some help. I don't have anybody to imitate. I don't have anything to look forward to and offer to. I have trouble with this. I don't know how to do this. Then I would just encourage you, click the link below for a connect card, click the link for a connect card and be able to fill that out and I will get that. I'll get that personally and I will reach out to you, either by email or by phone, whatever you wanna give me. And just let us know how we can help. Everybody needs a helping hand, and so help us know how to do that. Let me pray for us. Jesus, thanks so much for this great day. Thank you for your word. Thank you for all the situations that we're in, 20-somethings, 30-somethings, 40-somethings, 50-somethings, 60, 70, 80, 90-somethings.

You've got to plan for us, no matter what phase of life we're in. No matter where our careers are, no matter where we're going or where we've been, you have a path where you are calling us to confident generosity. You're calling us to count this pain and suffering and sacrifice as joy, as an opportunity to give ourselves away even more. Help us to do that, Jesus. Help us to fix our odds by rehearsing what's true and following after you by imitating the people that are around us. Jesus, it's in your precious name that we pray, amen.