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message here and the verses that I want to focus on in this chapter in Philippians chapter 4 is starting there in verse 10 through 13 and the title of my message today is going to be going down to level up going down to level up and you may think that doesn't make any sense as a Christian we don't want to go down right we go up right but it'll make sense as we get into it but going down to level up it says there in verse 10 but I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again wherein you were also careful but you lacked opportunity not that I speak in respect of want for I have learned in whatsoever state I am there with to be content I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me and so here the apostle Paul he's saying that he is not speaking about them giving to him or providing his needs in respect of want that he's learned that no matter what state he's in no matter what law he's given in life he's learned to be content and that's the first thing we need to see there is that contentment is a learned behavior you know that's not something that we're all just born with right it's something that we must learn he says he knows how both to be abased and he knows how to abound so he knows how when he's being abased when he's maybe in a low point in life he's in a valley things are not working out like he should his health's not going the way he that it should his finances are not going the way that he planned that he learns to still praise God and to thank God and to rejoice and to be happy and to have the joy of God just as if he were abounding right but he's also learned to abound that when things are going right that when things are going his way when maybe the finances are doing well that he's learned to still be hungry and to seek after God as if he was in the valley to still get on his knees and beg God for things and ask God for things and to pray and to read his Bible you know learning contentment is very important in our Christian life a fundamental in fact you know we have to learn to be content the Bible teaches contentment when you think about in scripture in Timothy when it talks about commit contentment right that there's some that think gain is godliness but he said godliness with contentment is great gain and it always baffles me when he talks about what we should have in this world that and having food and raiment let us be there with content it's like wait a minute where's shelter right you kind of wonder that it's like we shouldn't even be we should be content even if we don't have a roof over our head the Bible says just having food and raiment let us be there with content but this is something that we have to learn and when we're talking about leveling up as a Christian what I want to focus on is knowing how to abase ourselves not knowing how to abase ourselves we're talking about going down to level up you know everybody likes to abound right everybody the the world view is is that we want to abound right that in the world view if we want to level up right we got to scratch and claw our way to the top shoot for the stars aim for the highest right you don't go down to go up you just go up and just step on anybody and everybody to get you there right you know our world view right is that you don't want to be the one serving you want to be the one served right you don't want to be the one serving you want to be the one ruling right and that's what you got to aim for if you want to be successful in this life right you aim for the top but see our view is not the world view right our view is completely opposite of the world view because the world view is really satan's view right right and what was satan's view satan being an angel of god the the covering chair the anointed cherubeth that covereth the bible says he was not content with his position right he was not content with his position as a cherub of god in heaven no he wanted the position of god we see our world view is really satan's view and that's the view of the world right is you not contentment right you can't be satisfied with your position your lot in life you you want to shoot above that and get yourself in a place where you don't belong right and that's when you can get yourself into trouble and so i want to focus today on how we can level up as christians by learning to abase ourselves learning to abase ourselves you say what what is a basing ourselves you know to abase yourself is to to lower yourself in rank to lower yourself in office in prestige or in esteem right it's in essence it's to humble yourself right and i don't i can't think of any more fundamental teaching of how to live the christian life that jesus pounds over and over and over again in the new testament than humility humility uh this may not be fundamental in practice it's not easy in practice uh but there's nothing that's taught more in the scripture by jesus himself than humility we talk about the sermon on the mouth that starts with the what we call the beatitudes that's all about humility every bit of it and so if we want to level up as christians we we need to learn to be humble we need to learn to abase ourselves we need to go down so we can level up and what better place to start to learn that than our ultimate example jesus christ jesus christ he came to give us this example he's not asking us to do something that he didn't do himself perfectly and so he is our ultimate example of how to abase ourselves in order to level up in our christian life go with me just uh back a few chapters to philippians chapter two philippians chapter two so the first point first thing i want you to consider is consider our ultimate example jesus first we need to consider jesus and learning how to abase ourselves to go so that we can level up look in philippians chapter two starting in verse three philippians two verse three it says let nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others let this mind be in you which was also in christ jesus we're going to continue here but we'll stop for a second we see again how this is just completely opposed to the world view the world view is i'm going to take care of me and mine right uh i'm doing what i can to survive i'm going to take care of me and you take care of you i don't have time to mess with you because i got to take care of my business right i'm not going to climb my way to the top if i'm not laser focused in on me right that's the world view that's the view of satan but see the mind of christ is completely opposite that if we don't want to do anything through strife then we need to make sure we're not trying to do things in vain glory what leads to a lot of strife is having the world view on this thing is trying to promote ourselves our own pride that's what leads and genders strife you know the bible says only by pride cometh contention but with the well advised is wisdom do you realize when you have two parties that are in conflict it only takes one person who would just humble themselves and there would be no contention only by pride cometh contention you know where does the strife come it comes from our pride it comes from us uh esteeming ourselves better than others but that's not the mind of christ he says in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves that's hard to do but that's humility esteeming someone else better than you look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others you know we ought to be looking to the needs of other people uh you think well then how am i going to go up in my christian life if i'm looking out for other people all the time well again because we don't think like the world we don't lift ourselves up god does the lifting and so when we're doing what he says to do and we're looking on the needs of the others guess who's looking on our needs well god is and he will lift us up but see this is the mind of jesus christ uh and he gave us an example when he came here and abasing himself look what it says there in verse uh seven or six who being in 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 and was made in the likeness of men and being found in the fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross where for god also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of jesus every knee should bow of the things in heaven and the things in earth and the things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that jesus christ is lord to the glory of god the father you see jesus as god he humbled himself in becoming a man took on the form of a servant you think if you're god you created everything you spoke it to existence uh you're all powerful uh i mean is this what we would do become what we created uh no reputation you know no difference between us and between him god the creator and those he created uh that that he didn't stand out at all when he came the first time right that's why judas had to betray him with a kiss because he looked no different than any of the other man you know he he wasn't the most uh the best looking guy in the room he didn't have the uh biggest muscles and uh i heard a preacher and i mentioned this recently one time that he said well jesus you know nobody would have followed him listen to him if he wasn't really muscular or good-looking i'm like what kind of a stupid teaching is that and what bible are you reading right he had no form or comeliness that he would be desired right he he humbled himself and and became a man uh just so he could die jesus our ultimate example and we see that he is exalted above all but he first he he humbled himself to save us to secure our salvation uh jesus humbled himself just so he could die for us because his mind was not on his exaltation when he did that right he was thinking on our knee what we needed how we could have life how we could live forever how how we could have an inheritance with him right his mind was on us what are we that god would be mindful of us but see this is the mind of christ and this is the mind that we need if you want to level up in your christian life look it's not measured uh by how many uh facebook friends you have how many views you get on youtube uh you know the spirituality of a church is not measured and uh the size of the church or how good the building looks right the measuring bar is jesus you know uh the the measuring bar of a church is its likeness to jesus christ and the measuring bar of you as a christian and if you're leveling up is in your likeness to jesus christ and so if you want to level up and be like christ well then you've got to go down first and that's what we're going to see next is that jesus he went down to secure our salvation he went down in weakness in order to give us our gifts and to give us our eternal salvation that we have before he ascended he first descended go with me to the book of ephesians ephesians chapter four ephesians chapter four we'll start in verse one to get a little bit of context of this chapter but it says i therefore the prisoner of the lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation where with you are called like pastor uh jimenez was talking about last night we don't get saved by our works but when we get saved it's unto good works right we have a vocation we have a job to do now and he's saying i want you to walk worthy of that job that you have been given in verse two it says with all lowliness now how do we do this job do we do this job ruling over other people and putting them under our thumb and just having the preeminence no he says with all lowliness and meekness with long suffering forbearing one another in love endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace see our humility keeps peace you want to strife well then just you guys just keep fighting for the top we you just saying yesterday jockeying for position all right we're talking about in the marriage relationship when people are out of their roles when the husband's out of his role and the wife is out of her role it doesn't work because then they're both just jockeying for position right and that's what happens when we don't esteem others better than ourselves or we're trying to promote ourselves we're all just jockeying for position and there's going to be strife and there's going to be no peace no unity so this is you see what he's saying here this isn't unity but let's keep reading he says in verse four there is one body one spirit even as you're called in the hope of your calling one lord one faith one baptism one god and father of all who is above all and through all and in you all but unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of gift of christ whereforth he saith when he ascended up on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men but look at verse nine he says now that he ascended what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth he that it descended is the same also that ascended up far above all the heavens that he might fill all things you know when we read these verses sometimes we just take that little section by itself we don't read it in context when he's talking about unity within the church walking worthy of the vocation with your being called in the mind of christ in lowliness right sometimes we skip to verse nine and i have done and it's a good proof another good proof that jesus went to hell right that he descended in the lower parts of the earth it's scriptural it's all over the scripture but that's not the the primary application you know that parentheses there is given to us to show that before jesus ascended before he conquered death hell and the grave for us and gave us eternal life and gave us gifts of the holy spirit before he secured all that and was exalted in his resurrection he first ascended he first abased himself all the way to hell the son of the living god god manifested in flesh abased himself all the way to hell for us that's how far down he went before he ascended he said he went all the way to hell for us right some a place that nobody here who's been saved because of jesus will ever have to experience we will never our nose will never smell the flames of hell because of jesus christ amen but you see he descended he abased himself all the way to hell before he gave he secured our salvation before he ascended before he gave us the gifts that we now have you know before jesus comes again to rule and reign in righteousness as the king he first came to suffer to be mocked to be ridiculed to be spat upon to die and for his soul to go to hell before he comes back as king he first came as a suffering savior and that's the order of things before we ascend before we level up as christians we must abase ourselves when we get that out of order you know then we're just we're just trying to exalt ourselves and guess what the bible promises then we're going to be abased then god's going to have to take us down and i'd rather go down first so god can lift me up than to try to go up into a place where i don't belong and just like satan god had to kick him out of hell that god has to kick us down put us in our place and that's exactly what some of these next scriptures are about but i'm getting a little bit ahead in the message i want one more example of jesus christ and him abasing himself when he came as our savior go with me to john chapter 13. john chapter 13 and this is uh if you know the scripture uh jesus before he is about to be crucified uh in the upper room there with his disciples they have the last supper here and jesus again giving us an example shows himself again not ruling over his disciples but serving his disciples in a way again which no one here who would ever if we were in the position of god would ever do as god uh look what it says there in john 13 verse 12 says so after he had well let's uh yeah let's go up a little bit further jesus is actually actually we'll start there but we'll just kind of get to give it some context many of you know this is when jesus girded a towel after the supper and began to wash each and every one of his disciples feet and so let's pick up there in verse 12 it says so after he had washed their feet and had taken his garments and was set down again he said unto them know ye what i have done to you you call me master and lord and you say well for so i am if i then your lord and master have washed your feet you also ought to wash one another's feet for i have given you an example that you should do as i have done to you verily verily i say unto you the servant is not greater than his lord neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him if you know these things happy are ye if you do them i speak not of you all i know whom i have chosen but that the scripture may be filled he that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me let's stop right there so we see jesus the son of god here doing something that you know many of us probably wouldn't even do now right as as lord and savior as master he girded a towel got on his hands and knees and washed his disciples feet and this is in a day where they wore sandals everywhere right in a day where uh they were walking through the wilderness through the desert with their feet open and uncovered and so their feet would actually get pretty disgusting right uh we have shoes and socks and at the end of the day i'll tell you what yesterday at the end of the day when i took off my shoes after all the soul and everything uh it was a little ripe a little gross okay but that was with socks and shoes on protecting me from all the dirt and the filth and the gross stuff that's on the ground right they had sandals open toes you know all that stuff getting in there right nasty disgusting uh one of the most disgusting thing i think on the human body is the feet right i don't get these people who have what they call foot fetishes how does well that's disgusting how can you be obsessed with the with a foot right and mine's like ugly bony it's just gross right and uh so this is really he's really humbling himself here to to get down before his disciples disgusting feet and to wash them but yet some of us think we're too good to even pick up pick up a piece of trash when we see it in church right that's just janitor or somebody else you know i'm i'm here to preach the gospel that's all i'm going to do right and yes we should be preachers of the gospel but that's not all we should do right we need to be willing to humble ourselves you know there's a lot of other things that go on in the work of god that need to be done than just coming and plopping your carcass and a seat and hearing preaching and then going home edified and acting like i'm serving god right right that's not serving that's you're being filled right this is the filling tank when you go to church you're not serving god you're being filled up so you can go out and serve god right and i know you god i'm preaching to the choir you guys are here on a weekend a holiday weekend you take your time to come out here and you're preaching the word of god i'm preaching to the choir i know that and so don't don't feel like i'm getting on you too bad there all right but you know that's what some people think right is that that just coming and you know i went to church this week i'm serving god no you're not right humbling yourself and being willing to do those things you know there's trash that needs to be taken out there's there's trash that's on the floor there's there's menial jobs that that need to be done and you know what those are the people that god's lifting up you know it's not the without the guys that are up there tooting their own horns and and telling everybody about how how great of a soul winner they are how great of their preacher they are and they they've all these fancy stories and everything and they want to have the preeminence uh it's the guys behind the scenes who who are doing the work that nobody else wants to do doing the stuff that they're not going to get recognized for that they're not going to get praised for uh that that nobody's going to know that they did it but maybe the pastor who's paying attention to that stuff and god himself and and the people do that and they can joyfully do that because they know that god's the one that's going to exalt them in the end you know but if you're exalting yourself you're going to be a based you know we have the ultimate example in jesus christ our lord and savior we need to consider jesus if we want to learn how to go down to level up we need to consider jesus but we need to also stop considering men amen and and again i preach that we ought to esteem others better themselves it's not in that regard we ought to consider others to provoke unto love and good works i'm not meaning in that sense we need to stop considering what other people think about us we need to stop considering men and stop trying to consider how we can impress other men we need to remember who we serve and that will help keep our minds right in abasing ourselves because we don't care what others think oh man it guys he's just he's doing all this other stuff why don't he no we don't care what other people think right we're worried about what god thinks we need to consider jesus but stop considering what other people think about us matthew 23 matthew chapter 23 we'll start in verse one it says then spake jesus to the multitude and to his disciples saying the scribes and the pharisees sit in moses seat all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do but do not ye after their works for they say and do not for they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born and lay them on men's shoulders but they themselves will not move them with one finger you know pastor reyes here was just talking about not just being a hearer but a doer these guys were they they were saying the right things but they weren't doing them right they were trying to tell all these people to do all these things that they themselves wouldn't even attempt to try to lift with a finger right they're hypocrites like jesus called them uh look what it says there in verse four it says for they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born and lay them on men's shoulders but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers but all their works they do for to be seen of men they make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the border of their garments now what are phylacteries a phylactery is something that by that they would wear it was like a little leather box that they put on their arm or their forehead with some scripture in it you know because in the old testament they were told to bind those scriptures on their arm and their forehead so they had little leather boxes that they would do that with and so they would these hypocrites would make these boxes real broad they would make them big so that when they would go to prayer things so that they would be seen so that they could see so they would look like super spiritual people like they were actually trying to live by the words of god they said they they make broad the uh enlarge the borders of their garments again and the you know you see some of these folks who think they're hebrew israelites now they wear the little tassels right and it's because in the old testament you know after they they stoned somebody uh because he uh i think it was uh what he it wasn't blaspheming the lord he was gathering sticks that's right he was gathering sticks on the sabbath day and they stoned him and then after that god told him in the book of numbers that they would make those tassels to put on the border of their garments so that when they saw them it would remind them of the commandments of the laws of god and so they're making them real broad right they're making them real big so that not only they could see them but everybody else could see them because they wanted to look super spiritual because they want everybody to know hey i'm a good person right look at me it's all what they do to be seen of men and you know only god really sees our heart right again pastor min has touched on that last night as well that we are supposed to let our light so shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our father in heaven you see because men only see on the outside you know our good works ought to be on display so that they can see them and glorify our father in heaven but they ought to be manifest from within first you know our good works should just be a reflection of what's inside of us but see these guys are the opposite inside they're they're full of dead bones right inside they're dead and so on the outside they're trying to sensationalize looking godly looking the part so so that they will people will think of them more highly than what they really are right so exalting themselves on the outside but not taking care of business on the inside just doing what they do for the praise of men and see we need to stop considering just the praise of men we ought to be after the praise of god you know that will help us to humble ourselves we won't have any problem of basing ourselves before other men when we realize that god he he sees the intentions with why we do what we do god sees on the heart he sees beyond just the physical and so we we don't have to make ourselves a spectacle we don't have to try to promote ourselves before other men we should stop doing that because that's going to keep us from growing in our christian life because a lot of times when we do that another thing that we do is we compare ourselves amongst ourselves which the bible says is not wise let's go to another parable jesus taught in luke 18 luke 18 starting verse 9 luke 18 verse 9 he says and he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others again that's not the mind of christ they despised others and they they were took and turning to their own self-righteousness in verse 10 it says two men went up into the temple to pray the one a Pharisee and the other a publican the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself god i thank thee that i am not as other men are extortioners unjust adulterers or even as this publican i fast twice in the week i give tithes of all that i possess and the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven but smote upon his breast saying god be merciful to me a sinner i tell you that this man went down to his house justified rather than the other for everyone that exalted himself shall be abased and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted you see we need to stop comparing ourselves to others we need to stop considering other men and comparing ourselves to other men right jesus gives this example of a guy who's praying and he's saying glad i'm not like this guy thank you god that you've made me so great that i'm not like him and start listing off all of his good deeds now let's let's put that in terms for us you know i go to church three times a week i go to church sunday morning sunday night and wednesday night i give my tithes of all that i make i go soul winning twice a week i've won x amount of souls the lord i've read my bible this many times but look at that person right they don't come to church as much as i do they don't come so they come so in in like once a month right uh i don't even think they've read through their bible once we can all find somebody that we're doing better than you look hard enough you keep comparing yourselves and we never are going to find we're never going to compare ourselves as somebody that's doing better than us right our carnal flesh we always want to find somebody who's doing worse than we are just to make ourselves feel good and guess what you're never going to level up as a christian if you're doing that your flesh is naturally you're just going to find somebody that's doing worse than you to make yourself feel good and guess what's going to happen to you you're going to stay in the same spot you're going to stay in the same exact spot that you were comparing yourselves among yourselves which is not wise as i said before what's the measuring part jesus is the measuring bar and guess what we're all going to fall short of that and so guess what that means we're going to level up until the day we're with jesus if you've got a heart to want to know the lord and to want to grow in your christian faith you're going to be leveling up all the way to the day you go home you'll never stop leveling up you're never going to get to the point where you have arrived you know the apostle paul never got to that point while he was here on earth he says brethren i count not myself to have apprehended but this one thing i do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth under those things which are before i press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of god in christ jesus right who's the mark jesus is the mark and you know what we're going to keep pressing to that mark until the day that we're with him you know if you want to level up you got to stop considering other men stop comparing yourselves among yourselves which is not wise when we compare ourselves to lord jesus christ we all fall short even the godly man isaiah when he was in his vision in heaven when he saw god he said woe is me for i'm undone for i'm a man of unclean lips and i dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king the lord of hosts look when we look at the king the lord of hosts that will immediately abase us we'll say woe is me for i'm undone that's why the importance of the word of god as as the pastor was preaching this morning when we look into the perfect law of liberty oh we say woe is me for i am undone i'm a man of unclean lips we abase ourselves so then we can level up and you know save yourself the embarrassment right you lift up yourself in pride you're just going to embarrass yourself you're going to be abased you know i'd rather be jesus call me up than to be abased go with me to luke 14 back a few chapters another parable of jesus luke 14 verse 7 it says and he put forth a parable to those which were bidden when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms saying unto them when thou art bidden of any man to a wedding sit not down in the highest room lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden of him and he that bade thee and him come and say to thee give this man place give this man place and now begin with shame to take the lowest room but when thou art bidden go and sit down in the lowest room that when he that bade thee cometh he may say unto the friend go up higher then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meet and with thee for whosoever exalted themselves shall be abased and he that humblest himself shall be exalted look don't try to exalt yourself in the eyes of men save yourself the embarrassment because if you try to get out of line and and try to get put yourself in a place where you don't belong you're going to be abased and it's going to be embarrassing right uh don't don't don't learn how to go out someone in the first week and think you're going to be a talker you're going to be abased you're going to get to that door and you're and uh it's like okay well this guy doesn't know nothing right people at the door looking at you all funny right don't try to promote yourself and put yourself in a position you don't belong start at the lowest and then be called up save yourself the embarrassment we need to stop considering men if we want to level up as a christian we need to go down we need to consider jesus we need to stop considering other men and the last point that i'll go to is that if we want to uh we've stopped considering jesus or stop considering men consider jesus stop considering men uh and consider our cause we need to consider our cause if you want to be all that you can for christ if you want to uh reach that full potential and bear the fruit that he wants you to bear well then you need to die you need to go down in order to bear fruit in order to level up go with me one last scripture to the book of john john chapter 12 verse 23 and jesus said and jesus answered them saying the hours come that the son of man should be glorified verily verily i say unto you accept a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit he that loveth his life shall lose it and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal now jesus is he's one talking about himself you know uh he had the first die uh so that he could bear much fruit so that we could live but he's also talking to us as his disciples that just like as he died he he died in the flesh that we too also should die in the flesh that that we ought to die daily as the apostle paul said that we ought to kill the old man that we ought to wake up and purpose in our heart that we're going to kill that old guy right that we're not going to feed him we're going to let him die and when we do when we love not our life in this world uh then we're going to keep our life onto life eternal i'm not talking about earning your salvation i'm talking about laying up treasures for yourself in heaven look if you spend this life just living for this life and the things of this world and how much you can gain from this world uh how the biggest house that you can get the best car you can get that that ferrari that you know brother reyes is driving around right if you try to aim for the top like that guy uh right you're gonna lose all that it's gonna burn up in the end only those things that you die to yourself and do for the lord jesus christ are going to remain those are the only things that you're going to keep unto life eternal right but you gotta die to yourself in this world you gotta base yourself in this world that means you might miss out on some of the things that the rest of the world uh is is enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season right that means uh you know on a holiday weekend you're going out soul winning and you're listening to preaching and you're fellowshiping with brothers in christ you're not out getting drunk on a boat on the lake right that means you're going to church on sunday mornings you're getting your carcass out of bed on time and getting to church while everybody else is sleeping in or sleeping off their hangover or whatever they did the night before you're sacrificing that sleep so that you can lay up yourself treasure in heaven you're dying to yourself you're abasing yourself you're basing the old man right so that you can level up so that you can be exalted for all of eternity and we need to keep our eyes on the eternal glory uh not just the here and now we're here and now we need to die if you want to bear much fruit if you want to reach your potential for jesus christ in this life here and now you need to die you need to go down you need to abase yourself in the flesh and you're going to bear much fruit but you got to die first we got to go down before you go up and so when we consider this theme leveling up as a christian you know don't think it's all just about jockeying for a position and just you know trying to have the preeminence no the first mind that we need to have is the mind of christ we need to go down to level up he must increase but i must decrease let's look to the lord in prayer