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Teaching podcast from the Eagle Community Church of Christ in Mont Belvieu, TX.
Well, good morning. We Katie and I have had discussions about the bucket because we did. We had that at Mineral Springs, and it was a show just like it is here. I had to watch all the kids, and I was the first person to suggest it. But I did so in an elders meeting and it didn't go anywhere.
John Gunter:Katie mentioned it, I think, with the ladies bible class or ladies something, and it got done immediately. So for this thing, we give Katie credit for the change. You missed it. I appreciate Valentin talking about bible class this morning. We we did have a good class, we always do.
John Gunter:We were talking about we were bringing up this can because this bucket because sometimes people will say things, not with any backing, but just to say things to attack. And one of the things that has been said about me is that I have an agenda. And I look around and I go, well, the only thing that's changed since I've been here is this metal bucket as far as the way we do anything. Right? But I do want to admit this morning that I do have an agenda, and that is to lead this church closer to God and closer to each other.
John Gunter:And if we can't do that, let's quit calling ourselves a church, shall we? For the next couple of weeks, we're gonna be in this short series. I'm gonna be gone we're gonna have two two sermons on this, and then I'll be gone the thirtieth where Tyler is actually going to preach, and so I know you'll be blessed blessed by that. But we're talking about being made to serve, and we're coming off of the series being prepared, and that is, prepared is teaching us to prepare ahead of time for all the things life is going to throw our way, and so we do that. We grow through trials, obedience, and perseverance, and we even talked about prayer last week.
John Gunter:And so, being made to serve shows what all of that produces, that we aren't here just to call ourselves Christians and go about our business. Right? As we talked last week, we I hope that every single person here wants to be authentically a follower of Jesus, not just in name a follower of Jesus. And I've said before, from Arkansas, where I'm from, there's a lot of farms, lot of chicken houses. Anybody where's the closest chicken house in here?
John Gunter:Is there one around here? I'm just not used to it. H E B. That's right. Prepackaged and everything.
John Gunter:Yeah. But we would have sayings like, you know, calling yourself a Christian, you know, and not living it is no different than, you know, in a chicken house and calling yourself a chicken. Right? It doesn't make you a chicken just because of where you go on a Sunday. And so, we want to encourage each of us to allow God's word to change us.
John Gunter:Again, it's not about just claiming something, it's that my life reflects the light of Jesus, the love of Jesus. Right? And hopefully, that's who we are. Now, we're not gonna do that perfectly, and if you are an imperfect person, welcome. I am too.
John Gunter:And I'm thankful you're here because we're gonna walk through this life together, as we try to grow closer, to God. And so last week, we learned that a prepared life is a praying life because prayer keeps us connected to God, it anchors us in His peace that scripture says surpasses all understanding, and empowers us to persevere, to praise, to confess even to each other, to restore and to even walk in unity, with a community of faith. And that's hard to do because we all understand that we are different. Right? But today, we're going to learn how we can stand together in unity and humility.
John Gunter:So any team can fall apart if every person, every player focuses only on themselves. Have you been a part of a team? Have you ever been I hope you haven't been this person. You ever been around someone who is only focused on their stats or what they're getting? This year, I've told you, I don't want to bore you to death about my soccer team, but I love those kids.
John Gunter:But this is the first year where I have we had tryouts, we selected them, and so when you select all the good kids from different teams and put them on a team together, it's a very difficult thing because what they experience previous to that is, I'm the best, I can take anyone on because the competition's less, and I'm good, and I can do whatever I want, and I I get mine, it's a great day. And what they experience on a competitive team is, okay, I'm not playing the position I want, we're not winning as much, we're not everything's off. And so you have some kids who get it and fall in and just want the team to be the best. You have others that it is all about me and why am I not getting all the wants and desires filled. Right?
John Gunter:And we can be like that in a church, and churches struggle when pride replaces partnership and togetherness. When it's just about me and how good I am, or having my needs and desires filled, we're all gonna come up wanting and lacking. But when we partner together, we can produce something that is fantastic. I don't want to embarrass Clint, I don't think I can embarrass Clint, so I think it's fine. One of the things Clint has said recently is that one of the things that kind of drew him to this congregation was he just felt like God was moving here, that God was doing something here.
John Gunter:And that's a testament. I agree. I think when I met you guys, said, something's going on. We're about we're about to grow, and I just feel it. Because we we've gone from I I have felt we have gone from sitting in a room claiming unity and claiming we're we're all about Jesus to starting to see people live it out.
John Gunter:We're gonna we're gonna actually love each other. We're gonna come together, even when we don't agree all the time because the main thing is, again, loving God and loving each other. And so I love hearing things like that, and that motivates me, like, those days where you're kinda down, remember, oh, but it's going it's going well. And thank you God for the blessings. I appreciate that that prayer this morning.
John Gunter:And so what I want to encourage us to do is to stand firm together, and what I want to talk about is having a gospel shaped life. That's what we're talking about this morning. And so our our text is gonna begin in Philippians one. We're gonna go from verse 27 through two eleven, if you're taking notes this morning. And so Paul begins this way.
John Gunter:He says, only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you, that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake, engage in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. And so Paul commands believers to live worthy of the gospel, not claim something worthy of the gospel, but to actually live a life worthy of the gospel. And when he's talking to people here in Philippi, he is talking to people that would be very similar to us.
John Gunter:They had a great pride in where they were from. They loved them some Philippi like we love some America or Texas. Right? And so he's talking to people who would have had a great pride and they were all about, I am a Philippian. Or we might sing something like, I'm proud to be an American.
John Gunter:Right? And we feel those feelings. We love where we're from, and we have you know, maybe we're we're patriotic in in the different times of the year where we really some of you show up in in red, white, blue shirts and all of those things, that's great. But what we can do is end up with that patriotism sneaking up into, am I a Christian or am I an American? Am I a Christian or am I a Philippian?
John Gunter:And that's what Paul is talking about here. When he's when he's talking about this, he said, only let your manner of life be worthy of, not where you're from, not who you are as in where you live, but the gospel of Christ. So that whether I come or see you or am absent, I may hear of you, that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. And so that that is the prayer for the church. Right?
John Gunter:That we strive together. Do you think we're better together? Yes or no? Yeah. Absolutely.
John Gunter:Do you think when we come together, everybody agrees on everything? Anybody that, disillusioned this morning, we think, yeah, I agree with everything. Let me throw a little wrench in the in the system this morning. First Corinthians one ten, I appeal to you brothers, again, Paul writing here, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. And if I just took that as literally as I could take it this morning, we'd say Paul is crazy a person if he thinks anybody can agree with someone else.
John Gunter:Right? Those of you who are married, you know this. Yes? How am I going to agree with everyone else when the person I live with, we we struggle at times. Yes?
John Gunter:And that's not what he's talking about. He's not talking about agreeing on everything, what he is talking about is agreeing on the big thing. Right? I am a follower of Jesus. I'm going to agree with that.
John Gunter:Okay? Let all of you agree, and there'll be no divisions among you because the context of this is what the Corinthians were doing. Do you remember this? I am of Paul. I am of Apollos.
John Gunter:That's who I follow. That's my teacher because that's what brought this honor to them. I am a disciple of Paul. Well, I am of Apollo's. Well, great.
John Gunter:All that is doing is creating divisions within the church, and that's what Paul is against here. And so, when you hear those things, and we hear them in our church. Right? Don't listen to John, or don't listen to whoever, because they believe this, or whatever. And Paul says, I appeal to you, you all agree and there will be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment, that we come together to love and to serve, and that's going to take humility.
John Gunter:And I know that is, that is hard at times. Romans five three and four, not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings. We just read about that you're going to suffer for the cause of Christ. We rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And let me tell you right now that if you go through those things with someone else, the bond between you is going to be much, much greater.
John Gunter:I am thankful again for all these new guys who have come in and gotten involved, and now we have things like a men's bible study, and we've got a big men's group text going on, and that we knew about Blake this morning. Because that's what we're we're called to do, is go through things with each other. And I I see you differently when I sit across the table from you and we share life together. Right? We I don't see you as just a just a face, but now I know your story, and you know me.
John Gunter:And so we go through these things together, and these things produce character and hope. And that's what we want to do in this church, is to come together. And so, a life worthy of the gospel stands together when the world pulls us apart. And I believe, and I've said it over and over, I think the church should be the example for everything, and unity is top of the list. Because if we can't show the world that we can be unified, my goodness, don't they have some things to point and tell us about.
John Gunter:Right? Because that's what I I don't experience throughout life is any kind of unity in other places. Back to Philippians two verse one. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, and this is rhetorical. Paul is using rhetoric here.
John Gunter:He's saying or using a rhetorical device. If there is any of course, there is, is what he's saying. If there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in a full accord, and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
John Gunter:Boy, isn't that easy to read. How about live out? Are you a selfish person? How much of your day is spent thinking about what you want or how your day is going? How about someone else's?
John Gunter:We know how much we think about our own needs and desires. It is very easy to read a scripture like this and go, yeah, that sounds like a great idea. But to live it out sometimes is a is a completely different thing because in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. How many problems will be solved today if we lived this? But boy, is it hard.
John Gunter:Count others more significant than yourself. And what I want you to do this morning is is think about someone with whom you don't have the greatest relationship. Because it works in theory when I say, alright, I'm gonna pick on somebody in the back, you know, I see their face, I'm going to count them more significant than myself. It doesn't change anything about how I live life, it's just a mental exercise. But then if I start thinking about someone with whom I don't have the greatest relationship right now, then it starts hurting.
John Gunter:Then it starts pulling at me. Alright. Now there's work to be done because I don't want to think about that. Then I realize, okay, this is gonna take some work. Count others as more significant than yourselves.
John Gunter:Can you imagine that person that cut you off in traffic this week if you knew all of their backstory? Now maybe they were a crazy maniac, I don't know. But what if what if you knew the whole story, and there was a legitimate story behind where they were going and why they were getting there, and their life would have been a chaotic mess all morning. But we judge them in the in the immediate instant that they wrong us. Right?
John Gunter:In humility, count others more significant than yourself. What we are prone to do is lift our above everyone else and tell everybody how great we are. Here is what I have done and here is why you should respect me for it. Right? I'd like to get the honor from that, but to be able to have the humility to lift others up is a different mindset.
John Gunter:In Colossians three verses 12 through 14, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you. Boy, I hate that part, don't you? Again, it's great in theory until, you know, Paul throws in, oh, yeah, by the way, you needed forgiveness too. You remember that? You remember that thing?
John Gunter:You remember all those things? You needed forgiveness too? You better forgive, and and and you can't, you know, forgive with gritted teeth. Right? You need to do all the things before this.
John Gunter:Compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. How hard is it to go to someone and say, I was wrong? Anybody need to elbow anybody this morning? To go to someone and say, I was wrong, you need all of this. Because anybody just enjoys being wrong, I just do it just to make a man.
John Gunter:Yeah, just love it. No, but but it takes humility to go back and say, okay, I'm sorry. I need to be compassionate, I need to be kind, I need to have a meekness and a patience, because they might need to say, yeah, you're wrong and here's why. Bearing with one another, and if one had a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you because, praise God, he has. Amen?
John Gunter:Praise God for his forgiveness. You must also forgive because God has forgiven you. And if you are not a forgiving person, I've got some news for you this morning. You better go to the Lord and ask for his forgiveness because you're not receiving it if you are not a forgiving person, because your heart is not right. Do you understand?
John Gunter:Verse 14, and above all these, put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony. You know, I don't think I'm breaking any new ground this morning, but Jesus was pretty smart when he said, love God and love your neighbor. Y'all can quote me on that. John agrees with Jesus. Above all these, put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony, because if you don't have love, none of this is gonna work.
John Gunter:You can walk through the motions, you can know what to do and just make yourself do it, but it's not gonna look the same as if a person has love and has the right heart towards God, is it? You know the difference, and we don't want to be a a people or a church that is just going through the motions. So looking to the interests of others reflects the very character of Christ. What I love about scripture is that God just didn't give us a bunch of rules. Sometimes we have that mindset, before I started studying the Bible, the way we had sermons and things, I thought I was gonna open up, and it's gonna be rule rule rule rule instead of, you know, story and things like that.
John Gunter:But what God does not do is say, here are all your rules, John. What God does is he sends his one and only son to say, here's how to live. Let me give you an example. I'm gonna show you what real love looks like, this gospel shaped love. And so Christ provides a perfect we used to use the word a lot, pattern for humility and for the gospel shaped, life.
John Gunter:So, in verse five, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of man, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Amen. What kind of humility does it take to live this way?
John Gunter:I'll tell you, just to be honest, the thing that gets me and the thing that gets Logan as well, he's not in here so I can pick on him, is when I feel like things are not fair. How many of you just live life and you think everything just works out in a fair way? Right? Not not not gonna happen. And so when Logan has struggled when he thinks things are not fair, that's when the meltdown happens.
John Gunter:And and he could be right, but I've got to teach him the meltdown can't happen. Right? Because that's what this is talking about with Jesus, that Jesus came and even humbled himself to the point of death on a cross, the most ruthless and shameful way that he could have died. And was it fair? Absolutely not.
John Gunter:Jesus hung on a cross, looking down at the very people who put him there, and he says, God, strike them down now. Now is your chance. Take the shot. He says, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And I strive every single day to be this kind of person because that's hard when things aren't fair, when I've done nothing wrong, when it's not my fault, when I I don't know what to do here.
John Gunter:But Jesus showed us that even in those times, what we can do is we can humble ourselves. We can consider that other people are as important or even more important than ourselves, and that changes the way we view the situation. Because if I love you enough to pray for you, even when you persecute me, then we've got somewhere. And so that's what we need to be working on, that's what we need to be praying to God about, that even when we disagree or even when something's between us, that we love each other so much that I'm not happy with you and you're not happy with me, but what we're doing when we lay our head down at night is we're praying for each other. What kind of church do you think we would have then?
John Gunter:And again, let's go back to not just your church people here, Maybe it is your church person here, but think about that person with whom you don't have a great relationship. Are you praying for that person? I love it. Clint pointed out Emily this morning, said he's here because she prayed for him. Lord, thank you for our ladies praying for us.
John Gunter:We have got an overabundance of godly women who pray, who love God, and want to just see this church flourish, and for them, for all of you, we are thankful. Romans twelve two, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. And that's going to take work, that's going to take prayer, that's going to take submission and humility all of your life. But I want the will of God to work out. In James four ten, Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.
John Gunter:Just read that a couple of weeks ago. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. Quit trying to lift yourself up. You lower yourself, he will exalt. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord.
John Gunter:And so the cross of Jesus must shape how we live, not just how we're saved. It's easy to think about the cross saving me, but what the cross also does is shape the way that I live every single day of my life. Again, in humility, in the way I love, in the way I show grace and mercy, in the way I judge, in the way I forgive. That has to be front and center in John's life. And so don't let the cross just define how you were saved, but how you also live.
John Gunter:So Paul's call to unity and humility becomes powerful when believers put the mindset of Christ into practice. A church that chooses humility becomes a powerful witness to the world. And that's what I want to show everyone that comes in these doors. I am so thankful for all the new members that we have mentioned, I'm thankful for so many of you that have been here for years, that what they found when they got here was loving people. Clint said so many people come to him that night, we were talking about having, you know, a thing where he could meet more people, he said, I think I've met them all, because you all found them in the back.
John Gunter:And praise God for that. Right? But let's not stop there at pleasantries. Right? Let's be a people who love each other so much that we're willing to dig into each other's life, to be there for one another in sickness and in health, in the good times and the bad.
John Gunter:I'll finish with this, Mark ten forty five, for even the son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. And so, pride has gotten you down this morning, or you're so overcome with pride that you think, not me, I don't know if anybody else in your life has the claim that Jesus does, for the son of man, for the son of God came not to be served, but to serve. He is our example And if I wanna claim that I am a Christian, we follow him into that and all the things that we have read and talked about this morning. We're gonna offer an invitation. We'd love to pray with you.
John Gunter:If if something's going on in your life, it doesn't matter if it's related to this or not, we wanna be a praying church. But if you're not comfortable coming down, Scott talked about it, grab someone. Grab an elder, grab me later, grab someone who will hold you accountable and walk beside you and check on you. Because we don't want anyone coming in contact with the word of God and and feeling alone. We want and desire to walk with you.
John Gunter:If you've not begun that walk with Jesus, one day is better than today. Be baptized into his name. Pledge allegiance to to Christ as king and to live a life following him. Would you come as we stand and as we sing.