So it's great to be back here with all of you again tonight appreciate the opportunity once more to get up and to preach
the word of God to you and
Just I'm always encouraged when I come up here
Just to see you guys being faithful sticking by the stuff and continuing on and just continue to work
That is so important that we're doing just going out and preaching the gospel. So again, it's always
My privilege really to come up here and just see all of you once again and tonight I want to preach a sermon on
Esteeming others better, you know
We need to in our lives make sure that we're not thinking too highly of ourselves or not think that
There isn't opportunity for us to do better and to grow and often
The people that the way that we're going to grow is by looking to the people that are in fact doing better than us
now if you look here in
Philippians chapter number two it says in verse one if there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love
If any fellowship the spirit of any bowels of mercies fulfill you my joy that you be like-minded
Having the same love being of one accord of one mind let nothing be done through strife or vainglory
But in loneliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves, so this is a command in Scripture
This isn't just a philosophy or suggestion, but we are told here in the epistles that we are to esteem others
Better than ourselves. You know we should look at other people and care more about their benefit how we can help them
And of course you know we could kind of just apply this to common courtesy and the way I'm gonna kind of take this tonight
Though also is the fact that you know we need to
Rather than being envious and rather than striving and having strife among ourselves and comparing ourselves to other people
You know we should look at other people that perhaps are in some ways better than us in some area and rather than you know
Being envious about that or having strife about that just accept that fact and actually
Esteem them and say hey, you know this person is better than me in this area. How can I improve right?
How can I you know what can I learn from them? What can I take from them, but this is not that you know human tendency
Often people when they see someone doing better than them their tendency is to become envious
And they don't want to have to actually do the hard work of getting better now
I'm gonna come back to Philippians, but if you would just go over with me to first Corinthians first Corinthians chapter number one
First Corinthians chapter number one, let me you know, I made the statement that in fact some people are
Better, you know, some people are just gonna be and that's not you know, just inherent
You know, they're just inherently better just by virtue of who they are
Often the people that are better than us in some area
It's because they put in a lot of diligence and hard work
they put a lot of effort to improve themselves and
really that's something that we should look at in other people and actually
Esteem them that they're better and live and say hey, you know this person has you know, give them some credit really
It's just say, you know
They've done a lot of hard work to get where they're at and not just be bitter and envious and and and have strife among ourselves
Again people that are truly better. It's again not because they're just inherently better
It's because they've done the hard work to become so and so I'm kind of just clarifying this the statement that you know
People are some people are better than others, right?
I don't want to get the wrong idea out there. The fact is, you know, we're all equal in God's eyes
We're all the same level right? We're all we compare ourselves to Christ
You know, we're all pretty low
In fact, if you look here in first Corinthians chapter number one verse 26
It says for you see your calling brethren how not many wise men after the flesh
Not many mighty not many noble are called and then he goes on here
We'll read it here in a second and this is just a very blunt statement from Paul
You know, we talked about this morning, you know how how this is kind of one of those harsh letters and Paul here
Just right out of the gate is basically just saying hey you guys aren't none of us are noble
You guys aren't there's nothing really inherently special about you
Look at verse 27
God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the
Things that are mighty and the base things of the world to confound
Excuse me
the base things of the world and the things which are despised have God chosen ye things which are not to bring to not the
Things that are so when you kind of think about this basically Paul at the beginning of the epistle is just saying hey
You know not many are noble meaning you guys aren't noble. Hey, God has chosen the foolish things
You know you guys right us right? He's chosen foolish things. He has chosen the weak things
He's not you're not strong. You're weak. He's saying he's chosen the base
He's basically calling them these things and and you know, honestly, that's what we are
You know if we just took an honest inventory of ourselves and who we are, you know before God
We would agree with all this we would say, you know what? I have done foolish things. I am weak
I am base. I am despised those things which are despised have got chosen
Yeah, which things are are not to bring the things that not that are not bring to not the things that are so basically
You know, we need to understand first of all that we are all of these things
And so when I'm saying that other people are better
I'm not saying it's just some kind of inherent, you know thing that where they're just better just by default
It's because they've recognized these things about themselves and have gone about doing the hard work of improving and he's saying well
Why would God use people like this?
Why would God use the weak and the foolish and the things that are based and despised?
Well, it's because of verse 29 that no flesh should glory in his presence
You know, there are a lot of other you know
There's many other people that are probably better speakers than myself and that that's a given fact
That's not even a maybe right there are people are much better speakers than me
Much better leaders than me much better past could be potentially be much better pastors than me
There's people that are you know, much better you in a lot of different areas
But really when it comes down to it, where are those people? What are they doing?
They're using a lot of their skills and abilities
Not for the things of Christ, but the things to both just you know, and you know edify themselves and to gratify themselves
They're using those things to go out and get worldly gain and you know that God's fine with that God doesn't need
You know the most stellar people with the most talented people to accomplish a great work
In fact what we're reading here God
Prefers and God fact has chosen
The weak and the despised and God has used in the things which are in base
the things which are just noble the ordinary common person in order to
Accomplish his will and so that he would receive all the glory and of course he ends it here in verse 30 and says
but if he of him are he in Christ who of God is made unto his wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and
Redemption that according as it is written he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord
So he's not just trying to cut us down here and what he's trying to just remind us that who we are
You know, we what we what what matters about us is who we are in Christ. Okay, so I'm just saying here
Look, we're all equal. You know, that's the good news, right? Yeah, some people are better because they've done the work
But really we're all equal
It's just you might not want to get too excited about that because we're all on a pretty lowly plane here
We're all in a pretty lowly position now if you would go over to 2nd Corinthians chapter number 10 2nd Corinthians
chapter number 10
Now the title of sermon again is that we need to what esteem others better esteem others better and just think about how much a
You know better world this would be how much better your church would be how much better your marriage would be how much you know
Just every relationship you have would be how much better would be if you would just learn to esteem the other person better
You know if you just put their needs first you put what they needed and you you know you look to them and what you
Could do for them rather than just trying to get everything for yourself rather than trying to see what you can get out of
Your church or what you can get out of a relationship. You know it's better to esteem others better
And say what can I do for them right now he says here in verse 12
We dare not to make ourselves with the number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves
But they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise
So what he's saying is you know we're not we do want to be the people that compare ourselves with some that commend themselves
When we esteem others better what we're doing is where you we have to have humility
We have to be willing to say this person is better than me
But the tendency again is for people to compare themselves with them that commend themselves your people that in general
They like to lift themselves up and and how do people do this they do this by bringing other people down, right?
It's a lot easier to bring somebody else down to tear somebody else down in your mind or nitpick or be critical of somebody else
Rather than to find somebody that's actually better than you and lift yourself up, right?
It's real easy to go find someone who's doing worse than you right when we compare ourselves among ourselves
You know we what we tend to do rather than you know looking to somebody who's actually better and trying to get better ourselves
What we tend to do is we go find somebody who's doing worse than us and say well
I'm not as bad as this person you know and that's what people typically do they say well
You know I'm not everything I should be or could be but I'm not this guy right you know
I'll pick on myself a little bit this evening
You know I'm sure this might come as a shock to some of you you know
But I've got a little weight to lose you know that's one of my new year's resolutions right, so I'm not you say how much well
That's my business all right, so you know somebody with the side angle over here. You're like we can tell all right
We know exactly we have a pretty good idea on what you need to lose buddy
You know and it'd be really easy. Let's let's just throw a number out there. Let's just say oh, I don't know 60 pounds
Okay, so you know we'll just throw that out there. You know that's your goal. You know you know that's a lot of hard work
Okay, and here's the thing it'd be real easy for me to say and say well instead of doing all that hard work of losing
That weight that I need to lose it'd be a lot easier to just go find somebody who has to lose a hundred pounds
And say well yeah, maybe I got to lose some weight, but I don't have to lose a hundred pounds
I mean look at this guy over here right, and this is what people typically do they commend themselves how by comparing themselves to other people
Typically comparing themselves to people that are not that are worse off, right?
We might have some problem that we need to fix you know our marriages is not what it should be and it's like well
Hey, my marriage might be bad, but it's not as bad as so-and-so's over there
I mean look at their marriage their marriage is terrible right we might you know you can apply this in so many areas
you could just take you know just apply this in so many different areas of life where we just look at other people and
Just say well. Yeah, I've got some areas for improvement, but you know what I'm doing
Okay, because I'm doing a lot better than somebody that's worse off. That's a pretty poor standard look
We run into this all the time out soul winning right. This is what people do they commend themselves by saying well
Yeah, I'm going to heaven because I'm not a murderer. I'm not a rapist. You know I it's like well good for you man pat on the back
Here's your gold star. You know wow you know what it what a righteous individual right obviously I'm being very sarcastic about that
But this is just human nature. This is how what we do
We like to compare ourselves to other people that are doing worse off and then say well
You know what maybe I have work to do, but that guy's got a lot more than me
But they measuring themselves by themselves comparing themselves the Bible says among themselves are not wise
This is not a wise way to live your life
You're not gonna make the improvements that you need to make you're not going to get any better if all you do is go
Around in life and just find people that are worse off than you and say well, it could be worse
I could be them. I could be doing you know, we're there at
The only way we're really gonna improve is when we esteem others better than ourselves, right?
When we look actually find somebody that's succeeding and doing better than us and rather than being envious
Actually looking at those individuals say what can I learn from them and how can I improve you know?
This is something that we should be doing in all areas of our life
You know when we're first starting out, you know, it may be in marriage, you know
It might be helpful to kind of pay attention to people around you who have a good marriage and take notes
And now I'm not saying you need to walk up and you know get a full, you know
5,000 word essay from from somebody is like, how do you have a good marriage, you know?
That's something that you kind of learn as you go
But it's you know, watch the people around you watch the people that are, you know raising good kids
What are they doing? Right and and here's a great thing is he had a pastor that's you know
Teaching you all those things and has demonstrated those things and is living those things and that's a great example right there
Not just behind the pulpit. I mean this church is full of good families that love God that have good kids and
There's people that you could look to in this church and improve in different areas. They're like what's marriage?
How about you know the topic of soul winning, you know
We don't want to get all puffed up and think that you know
We're the greatest soul winner ever or we're just better than somebody else
You know
We want to make sure that we're having a humble attitude about that and being always willing to learn from other people
And you know in their different soul winning methods, you know, I remember years ago
You know, I'd been soul winning in this church for several years, you know
I'd already been at I won many souls to Christ and then pastor Anderson got up and preached a couple of sermons called soul winning
Instructions one and two and you know, I heard those I said, you know what?
I know I feel like I could improve in this area
So I just literally scrapped everything that I was doing my whole soul winning presentation
Which really wasn't that much different and said I'm just gonna do it just like he laid it out
I'm gonna do it just like he instructed, you know use the same verses, you know
And make a lot of the same applications as they go and that that really helped me that really improved my soul winning
You know and that that's just another you know
That's the example of something that we could all to do all could do we could always be looking to other people
That are you know successful have have done well have improved in certain areas
I put in that hard work and say how can I improve what can I do?
How can I follow their example and look at he's saying it's not wise right obviously
It's not wise to compare ourselves among ourselves because you know that at the end of the day
You know your neighbor isn't the standard by which you need to measure your life. You know that would be Jesus right now again
It's not there's no problem in looking to somebody for an example
You know a path to follow or you know, just some kind of guidance, but it's not it's not like well
Hey, I'm finally doing better than so-and-so. I've arrived, right? I finally you know, I did everything they're doing and in fact
I'm doing it better. You know, I'm king of the hill now. Well, no, you still have another example to look to it's called the Lord
It's called Jesus and you're gonna have to strive for that one
You know every day now if you would go over to Galatians chapter number six Galatians chapter number six
You look at verse one. I'll just begin reading there
It says brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault you which are spiritual restore such a one the spirit of meekness
Considering thyself lest thou also be tempted
Bury one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ verse 3 for if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing
He deceived it himself. You know, this is one of I really love this verse because of the way it ends
It doesn't say he's he's hoodwinked everybody else, right? He's buffaloed everyone else
It says the only person that he's deceiving is himself because here's the thing if we're going to esteem others better if we're gonna
Look at other people and say you know what that person's better than me that in this area
How can I improve you know, that's gonna take his humility and and and pride is just probably one of the biggest struggles
I think that we have and it's it's so subtle and it just creeps into our lives and
What we end up doing is thinking that we're something that we're not you start to think that hey, you know
We're really something here and the only person we're really deceiving is ourselves
You know a lot of times people can just look at us and say, you know that that guy thinks he's something
I mean, he's really nothing and and you know
This is applied our pride just has this blinding effect on our lives and he's saying look
You're the only person you're fooling when you think you're something and you're nothing is yourself
He goes on and says but every man prove his own work and then he shall rejoicing in himself alone and not another
For every man shall bear his own burden let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth and all things be
Not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap for he that sowed through his flesh shall
Of the flesh reap corruption and he that soweth the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting and let us not be weary and well-doing
For in due season we shall reap if we faint not now
What's great about this verse and typically a lot of times the way you hear this this verse preach is hey
You're gonna reap what you sow so don't go sowing bad seeds, right?
Which is obviously very applicable great application and that's definitely, you know something we need to take heed to
But another way you can look at this is that you have you know, if you have some improvement to do
You know you have opportunity to improve basically, you know
What this is also a promise right because he says he that sows to the flesh all the flesh we corruption
But he that sows the spiritual of the spirit reap like everlasting
So this law of sowing and reaping it can work for you or against you
and all I'm saying tonight is that we need to look at ourselves look at errors in our lives that we can improve and
Make sure that we're making those improvements
We need to make sure that we're sowing the seeds that we need to be sowing those good things, right?
We have this opportunity to improve go over to
We're in Galatians go over to Philippians chapter number two Philippians chapter number two where we started there Philippians chapter number two again
He says in verse 1 if there be any consolation in Christ if any
Any comfort of love any fellowship the spirit if any bowels and mercies fulfill you my joy
That should be like-minded having the same love being of one of court of one mind
let nothing be do it done through strife or vainglory but lowliness of mind and
Let each esteem other better than themselves
so, you know, that's the thrust of my message tonight is that we need to look at other people and and and rather than trying to
Tear them down or you know, just be envious and have stuff we need to we need to look at people that truly are doing better
Than us and see how we can improve and look if you're sitting there thinking I can't think of anybody that's doing better than me
You have a problem, right?
I you know you have you have pride, right?
And that's why he says with but in lowliness of mind, right?
It takes a lowliness of mind, you know
And the point of going cutting over to first Corinthians is to remind us that we don't have anything to be puffed up over
We should all have lowliness of mind, you know, who are any of us, you know who you know
We we don't want to think too highly. We're without Christ. We're nothing without Christ. We're just a bunch of base foolish, you know
despised weak people
That's the truth of us, you know, you know, we might not like to hear that but really that is the case and anybody that's
You know gone beyond that it's through the grace of God and you know
And it didn't just happen automagically right, you know, they put in a lot of work often to make that happen and people might be thinking
Well, you know, I've made a lot of improvements. I really don't know what it is
I need to work on you're not being very specific tonight pastor Russell
Well my recommendation would be to go home and pray about it, you know
Go home and take you know, find a quiet space and just ask God, you know to bring to your mind
You know, what is you know some area you need to work on I bet you that prayer gets answered real quick
I bet you you you you will you probably won't even have to get down on your knees got already see you coming to be
Like it's this
Right, you're probably in fact you're thinking about doing it and it's already come to your mind. You've already thought hey, you know what?
He's making you know, this is making a lot of sense. There's some things I need to work on
I mean, it's the new year. We're kind of already thinking that way that's you know, that we that's something
We all need to just continue to prove on is is making sure that we don't get to this place where we think well
I've arrived. I'm I'm already doing everything I need to do
We need to have lowliness of mind me to steam others better than themselves
He goes on and says in verse 4 look down every man in his own things
But every man on the things of others let this mind be which in you which is also in Christ who being the form of
God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation
And took upon him the form of a servant, you know that not having or he took upon
You know, he took made himself of no reputation and obviously that that applies to not having pride, right?
But I've already touched on that. Well, we don't want to go to this other extreme either where we start to think, you know
Well, you saw you read, you know, you heard what Paul said there in 1st Corinthians
I'm nobody and I'm nothing and you know
I'm just this lowly person and just start having this, you know sense of self-loathing right people
We don't we're saying we want to steam others better than themselves and and acknowledge people that have you know exceeded us in certain areas
We don't want to also fall into this trap of just self-pity or just like oh
I'll never be as good as them. I'll never be able to achieve what they achieved
I'll never go be able to do what they do. But here's the thing, you know
If we're all starting at the same from the same place, you know, what what makes that person differ from another?
What do they have that they did not receive? Right? So the good news is is that you know
We can all achieve great things now look obviously we're not all gonna have the same opportunities
You know just because of our positions in life, right?
Because the different jobs and the duties and the roles that we play but we can all do well in those roles
We can all improve in those roles. We can all exceed excel in those roles and we should just have this idea
Well, you know, I'll never be as good as so-and-so because I'm dirt
You know, I'm just this worthless, you know person and I can never do it
You know, we need to you know, it's great that you have you know, so little pride I guess but you know
we also don't want to just use as an excuse to not improve and again the reason why people come up these excuses is because
Improving is hard. It's difficult. It takes a lot of work
It takes a lot of consistency and people don't want to do hard work
They want to take the easy way and sometimes the easy way is
people just you know
Being you know overly self-deprecating. You know, they just want to you know
Think too little of themselves and just think that there there's no potential for them at all. That's not true
You know, we could all do great works in whatever role we play in life
But again, it's gonna require lowliness of mind. It's gonna require looking to other people that have
Excelled and exceeded, you know what we've done and and to actually learn from them, you know
I really didn't want to use this quote, but now I have to because I brought it up
You know, there's a saying called it goes up
Success leaves clues who's ever heard that one. All right
So I'm dropping a real gem right now because only a few hands went up, right and it's a Tony Robbins quote
I'm sorry, you know, but hey the guy was right about that, you know
I don't listen to a lot of Tony Robbins, but you know, he did say that and you know, that's true
You know if we want to do better we want to exceed if we want to improve
You know, we should look at people that have done what we're trying to achieve and say well, what did they do?
How did they improve?
Right you say, you know, maybe you're a guy out there who wants to get better at preaching. Don't look to me. Okay
You know, you got a great pastor though, right? You got a great preacher, you know, you could you could look you say
Hey, what did what did he do? Right? What did he how did he get better? Right?
Or maybe there's another guy in the preaching class who's doing really well, you know
And rather than sitting there and being envious and being angry and and and you know, just thinking well
You know, is it was it really that good or whatever, you know, you could say well, what what did I like about that sermon?
What can I take it for? We know how did they present it? You know, what what is it about?
I like how can I make that my own? How can I do the same thing, right?
Because anyone who's achieved anything, right?
They'll tell you it's possible for anybody if they're willing to do the work
that they're willing to put in the hard work, they will succeed.
And we all have an opportunity to improve.
Anyway, I was kind of a rambly sermon and it's going to be a little bit of a short one.
But, you know, I felt like that was an important message.
You know, it's it's it's a pretty basic thought, right?
But it's an important one.
You know, we need to be people who, you know, are willing to be humble enough
to look at other people who are succeeding and and say, you know, if we want that,
rather than trying to tear them down, say, well, what are they doing?
That's right. What are they doing?
That's, you know, causing them to have the success they're having.
How can I emulate that?
How can I, you know, follow in their footsteps?
Go ahead and close the word of prayer, Lord.
I pray that something that was said tonight would would be beneficial to your people,
Lord, that you would use the word of God to stir our hearts and, Lord, that you would
just challenge us, Lord, to to to see ourselves for what we are.
Lord, help us to understand that without you, Lord, we we can do nothing.
And, Lord, I pray that you'd help us to just improve as Christians
in whatever capacity we serve on all the different roles that we play, Lord.
You'd help us to to get better and, Lord, that you'd help us to look to other people around us
who are succeeding in the Christian life, who are who are accomplishing great things.
Lord, help us look to them as examples, help us to not be bitter or envious or angry or upset,
but actually, Lord, to help us to to to follow in their footsteps.
And Lord, we we just thank you that we have an opportunity to be used by you
in whatever capacity we are used in this life. It's in your name we pray amen.