Yesterday I spoke to some college students at the fall retreat at a breakout session entitled, “How to live in the victory of Christ when my mental health feels out of control.”
Originally I was asked to speak to the topic of “How to live in the victory of Christ when my mental health is out of control.”
I replied that I could not do that because I didn’t believe it…did you catch the difference?
The difference between “feels” and “is” is significant…in fact they are not remotely the same thing.
What you feel may or may not be true.
What is true, is that I have agency in my thoughts.
Short of brain injury or disease, I may “feel” like I have no agency in my thoughts, but the fact is…I do, I always do.
Agency means I have the ability to act.
It means there are no factors external to me that keep me from acting if I so choose.
Let me be more specific.
I don’t choose every thought that pops in my head, I do choose the ones that I allow to stay… and the ones I allow to stay or more proactively…the ones I go out and get…are the ones I am choosing to allow to shape my life.
I told the students I had two goals for our time:
1. That they would believe they have agency in the thoughts that shape their lives.
2. That they would take consistent action to choose thoughts that would shape their lives into the image of Christ…that they would train their minds for godliness.
The first is important because the consistent message out there is (explicit or implicit) …is you don’t have agency in many areas of your life, especially your mind…
…what has been done to you, your family structure, or any other number of external factors have essentially pre-determined who you will be and what you will do.
Of course, all those external factors matter…but they do not remove agency…choice.
We can be faithful…live in the right column…with what we have been given.
I gave science, story, and most importantly…Scripture to counter this prevailing, false narrative.
Because…if I have…
No agency, no hope
No hope, I will take no action
No action, no change.
So, the second is important, agency, then action…because what we “believe AND do over time…is who we become.”
We must act in line with what is true.
Jesus said, “Whoever has my words and obeys me, will experience freedom of the truth”…belief and behavior equal change.
I am going to read from Phil 2, this is Paul applying the words of Christ that we will look at today to the church.
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. 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 men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Phil. 2:3-8
We are to proactively have the mind of Christ…”have this mind among you, which is yours in Christ.”
It is yours…now, have it…engage it, choose it.
What does that mean to have the mind of Christ.
Well, Paul told us here what it means:
-don’t act with selfish ambition or conceit
-Do act with humility by putting the interests of others ahead of yours.
-Look to Jesus, God incarnate, who emptied himself, took the form of servant, humbled himself to death on a cross.
That is the mind we are to proactively go get…these thoughts are to shape our lives into the image of Christ.
Let’s go to John 13 and hear from the Lord himself.
Before the Passover Festival, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
“To the End” could mean to the fullest extent…or to the end of his life…all the way to cross.
John probably had both in mind…they are tied together.
2 Now when it was time for supper, the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son, to betray him.
Judas was culpable, he was not Satan’s puppet…until he gave himself over to him….it was a series of choices that lead to the one disastrous choice.
Just as we must collaborate with the Holy Spirit to become like Christ over time.
In a similar way, Judas was no helpless pawn, he chose to collaborate with Satan.
That is never going to end well.
3 Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into his hands, that he had come from God, and that he was going back to God.
I had an “ask Pastor Terry” question last week from the kids upstairs,
“What happens when God and Satan fight?”
My reply was, “plink”
There is no fight, it would be like calling an elephant stepping on ant, a fight between and elephant and an ant.
Now we are in a fight, and we have no chance on our own power…but Satan is nothing compared to God.
What is amazing here, and John points it out for us.
Jesus knew his power.(the Father had given everything into his hands)..he didn’t use it, at this point at least…to crush Satan, or Judas for that matter.
Instead, he washed even the feet of Judas and would go to the cross and be willingly humbled there.
4 So he got up from supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took a towel, and tied it around himself. 5 Next, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel tied around him.
Taking off his outer cloak and putting on a towel was adopting the dress of the most menial slave.
He became what was looked down on by both Jews and Gentiles.
This is symbolic of what Paul wrote…he emptied himself and became a servant.
He dresses like a slave, then acts like the lowest of them all.
Ironically, or tragically…Luke tells us that as Jesus was preparing to wash their feet, they were arguing amongst themselves about who would be the greatest in what they believed would be this coming earthly kingdom.
Think about that, the Lord of heaven and earth is about to stoop down and do what none of them would even consider doing.
Meanwhile, they are debating their own greatness.
No doubt they were all very embarrassed by what Jesus does next.
They would have gladly washed Jesus’ feet; he was their superior…but none of them would have ever washed each other’s feet.
So, it is beyond shocking, when Jesus…the master, starts doing what only the lowest of low would ever do.
They are all thinking it, but Peter, of course…says what he is thinking.
6 He came to Simon Peter, who asked him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I’m doing you don’t realize now, but afterward you will understand.” 8 “You will never wash my feet,” Peter said. Jesus replied, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” 10 “One who has bathed,” Jesus told him, “doesn’t need to wash anything except his feet, but he is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you.” 11 For he knew who would betray him. This is why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
Jesus said, you don’t now, but afterward, you will understand.
“Afterward” refers to his death on the cross.
If the foot washing by the master is shocking, just wait…the Messiah would soon die the terrible and shameful death of crucifixion.
This foot washing and the coming crucifixion are two events painting the same picture…the Lord Jesus took on the role of despised servant for the good of others.
12 When Jesus had washed their feet and put on his outer clothing, he reclined again and said to them, “Do you know what I have done for you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are speaking rightly, since that is what I am. 14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done for you. 16 “Truly I tell you, a servant is not greater than his master,, and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”
Some have turned foot washing into a kind of sacrament or an ongoing ordinance…like Baptism and the Lord’s supper.
That would be to miss the point there.
This foot washing points to a fuller expression on the cross, and Jesus said…it is an example…it sets the pace as to how they were to act among one another.
The example points to a heart of humility and service and practical acts of sacrifice.
The example being set is not hygiene…but it is to sacrificially serve others with your life.
Their feet were dirty from wearing sandals on first century roads…and they needed washing…to get the grime, sweat, animal excrement off their feet.
They were going to incline around a table on the floor and eat dinner…feet would be everywhere…no wants the smell of dirty man feet to go along with their food.
Jesus is meeting a practical need…there is no servant present at this private meal…and none of them was going to volunteer for the task…Jesus used the opportunity to set the pace.
Mo has this right when he does something kind and sacrificial for me or others and says, “It is a way I can wash your or their feet.”
This is a symbol of sacrificial, and practical service…that flows from a certain kind of transformed heart.
There are three different but connected applications of Jesus washing their feet.
1. It is a picture of Christ’s atonement on the cross…the suffering servant.
2. It describes the reality of complete forgiveness through belief in the gospel, but that does not negate the need for ongoing cleansing.
3. It shows us what having the mind of Christ looks like in actual practice.
We will look briefly at the first two, and land on the third.
First, it points to Christ’s ultimate display of love on the cross.
It is a picture of atonement.
Atonement is the suffering servant paying our sin penalty on the cross.
Verse 1: Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
Verse 8: Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.
Jesus has said over and over, “my time (hour) has not come” and now, as he stoops to wash their feet…he knows, his hour, time has come, and he will soon go to a cross
He is going to love his own to the end…symbolized in washing their feet and finalized in dying on the cross.
When Peter says, “No way that you are washing my feet!”
He was missing the larger spiritual point and was hung up on social convention.
Jesus replied, “If I don’t wash you (jumping to the spiritual implications that the water was a mere symbol of) you have no share (the word means, “inheritance”) with me.”
Second, it points to the reality that once we are reborn, we are declared clean, yet we will need ongoing forgiveneness.
Verse 9,10: Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.”
Peter, being Peter…gets carried away.
Jesus using the symbol at hand (washing with water) gives a powerful and wonderful reminder of what he has already said earlier…we spent a Sunday on it several weeks ago.
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.
John 10:28-30
You are clean, Peter, you are saved forever…you don’t need a bath, you just to have your feet washed.
Not all of them are clean…referring to Judas.
But being clean, saved…doesn’t mean you don’t need ongoing forgiveness.
John will say it like this in his letter,
“If we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive our sin as cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ” 1 John 1:9
We don’t need to be born again, again…we do need to be forgiven over and over again.
3. It shows us what having the mind of Christ looks like in actual practice.
Verses 12-16…he washed their feet, then asked…
“Do you understand what I have just done?”
“You call me Lord…and you are right about that.”
“Now, what have I just done?”
“Okay, now go live like that.”
Later in this chapter Jesus will say to them…
“Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” 13:34,35
Let’s go back to Phil. 2 and get personal in our application.
Phil 2
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who,
How is that we can actually have the mind of Christ in such a way that it shapes our lives into his image?
How would you have the “mind of math” or the “mind of a KC Chief fan?”
“Well, that’s not the same as the mind of Christ!”
No, and yes…very different things…but very similar process.
What you want to have a mind for…You would think about, study, actively go grab facts, information…you would do the work.
Now if you hate math and love football…one feels like work and one doesn’t…but there is still effort, work.
If you hate football and love math…same.
Let’s say you don’t like math…but want to learn it…what then?
You wouldn’t hope it happens to you…I hope I learn math…you would need to proactively make it happen.
Work…push your brain to learn the truth about math.
The way the mind works…the more we do the work…the more we tend to like the work…it feels less like work in time.
I’ve watched Christy teach kids piano for 40 years(listened)…it is excruciating at first, then as they do the work, the work becomes more “fun” “enjoyable”
They develop the “mind of piano”…and it shows up in the ability to make music.
Do you want to have the mind of Christ?
God has given you his word (you can actually know what this means)
He has given you his Spirit (power for transformation)
He has put you among his people (ongoing encouragement and correction).
What’s left?
Do the work.
Look at these Scriptures.
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:5
It’s fine to say the words as long as you do the work.
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Colossians 3:2
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
Philippians 4:8
It’s not magic and it’s certainly not accidental what thoughts we let shape our lives.
And if the thoughts that have shaped our brains and have formed neuro superhighways are not true, good, lovely…if they are self-first…then we have to do extra work…to go off road, to build by passes around these highways.
We are physical/spiritual hybrids…we have souls/minds, and we have bodies/brains.
If we fail to pay attention to the full reality of what we are…we will fail to experience the fullness who we are in Christ.
Pray, learn Scripture…and do the hard work of having the mind of Christ.
*I spoke to our youth last week at their retreat and I asked them, “What do you want?”
I will ask you the same thing…what do you want, what do most people want?
To be happy…many different ideas about what will make you happy.
God is a happy being…his joy, fulfillment, purpose…is unable to be diminished…he can be displeased with us…but nothing external to him can take from him all that is his.
He is utterly holy…and he is utterly happy.
Our happiness is tied to our holiness…living our purpose in Christ.
To live holy lives “out here”…we have to pursue holy thoughts in here.
Holy thoughts are not knowing big theological and philosophical ideas…they are “I am a servant; I exist for the glory of God and the good of others.”
That is holiness in our thinking.
“I want to bless not impress.”…that’s holy thoughts.
Let this mind be in you that was in Christ.
Am I making too much of “thinking”…under spiritualizing this?
No, we are not component parts…we are physical/spiritual beings.
Look at Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of live.”
“Heart” in the Bible is not mere emotions
When we hear heart we think, “Cute puppy” or “emoji”
In the Bible…it is the command post for our lives…our thinking, choosing, selves.
It the place from which life actions flow…wellspring springs
The mighty Mississippi starts in a small glacial lake in Minnesota.
The outcomes of our life start in the thoughts we choose to let shape us.
Peter, who was sitting there at the dinner with Jesus wrote this.
Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
1 Peter 1:13
Prepare your minds for action…would be a picture of Jesus, getting up, taking off his outer robe and putting on his towel.
Gird up your mind…put the truth there…that is where it begins.
Be self-controlled…do the truth…act.
Set your hope fully on the grace of Christ.
What would it look like for you to train your brain to have the mind of Christ?
1. You need to know the truth.
2. You need to do the truth.
3. You need to keep doing the truth…this takes time…endurance…help, community.
Training not trying.
**If you are a married man, here’s enough truth to keep you busy for the rest of your natural life…you can know more truth than this, but you can’t have less than this.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. Eph. 5:25
To have the mind of Christ in your marriage is to die to demanding and pettiness and to determine to bleed and lay down your life for your wife.
Peter writes, that if you don’t have the mind of Christ in your marriage, it doesn’t much matter if you have it elsewhere…he says our prayers are hindered if we don’t live with our wives with understanding and consideration.
“What about her submitting to me?”
What of it?…that’s a command for her…this is for you…lay down your life for your wife…have that mind in you…how would that change what you do, and say?
If you are to lay down your life…then certainly you should not be demanding, selfish, petty…”I’ll die for her, but I won’t put up with…”fill in the blank”…really?
What about wives?
You could stay busy with… submit, to your husbands as to the Lord
Biblically and practically, this means a lot…and it has been turned into something way less than it is.
But at the very least, it means that wives are to have the mind of Christ in regard to their husbands.
He washed the feet of his friends; he died on the cross for the sins of the world…as he submitted to them out of submission to his Father.
Put the interests of your husband above your own.
Whenever this is tried…both ways, in real life, by real people…who are not playing games…it always works beautifully…because this is how God has designed it to work.
It is not without challenge…because we live lives of direction not perfection…but it is a beautiful direction…that becomes more beautiful over time.
Let’s go beyond marriage…in your friendships, workplaces, in stores, playing sports, driving on Kellogg…what would it look like to have the mind of Christ there?
What would look to live putting the interests of others ahead of your own?
I love my wife heart and soul…she is by far my favorite person.
We are so much the same…and we see things so very differently.
Recently I was trying to be more attentive, less like the normal “me” and more of what would actually love her.
And even then…I thought and spoke from a selfish place…I wasn’t really seeing what was going on with her in that moment.
What then? Ah forget it, what’s the use? I’m me, she’s her.
No…Mess up, fess up, move on!
I usually get there…but it can take a while sometimes.
This night, it didn’t take as long…I was thinking about this passage…about Jesus washing feet and dying on the cross.
I pretty quickly…recognized the stinking thinking that is my own selfishness.
Like the stink of the disciple’s feet that Jesus washed.
As I sought to have his mind…my stinking thinking…stunk to me
As I sought to have his mind in me…he washed the stinking off my thinking.
The thing about smells…we become accustomed to them.
“Phew what is that?” “What is what?”
It’s true for our stinking thinking as well…we can get used to it.
Whenever I stew in thoughts of my own selfishness…it is never good, and I am never happy for it…never.
I’ve tried over and over…it has never worked yet.
“Why do you keep trying”…I’m foolish…but I’m changing.
Jesus invites us into his mind…or he invites us to invite him into ours.
In so doing, he is inviting us into his joy.
Jesus, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame.
Let’s die to playing the Christian game…which is to get as close to ground as we can without actually getting into the dirt.
To look dead to self to others…but we are actually just playing at it.
John 12: 23 Jesus replied to them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces much fruit. 25 The one who loves his life will lose it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
Die to playing games…get into the dirt.
When you make life about yourself…there is no life and no joy in it…repent.
Die to self again…let this mind be in you that was in Christ.
This is his invitation to his joy…selfishness is a universally failed method for happiness…it has never worked; it is outside how we are designed.
What do you want? I know you want, same thing every human wants.
The way to get there…is to be holy as he is holy…the way to get there…is to have the mind of Christ.
You will know you have the mind of Christ when you are seeking the good of others not self-first.
So, do you smell that?
Yeah, it is his kindness that leads us to repentance…first, he brings conviction…conviction is smelling the stink of our own selfishness.
Confess…let him wash that stink away.
Then train…to have the mind of Christ shaping your life into the image of Christ.