S1 E5: Not Against Us

Well, good morning, church.

You guys look great even with a lack of sleep last night.

Not only did our D now group lose some sleep over the weekend, we all lost a little sleep last night.

It is our all-favorite time of the year when we get to spring forward and lose that night of sleep, or lose that hour of sleep anyway.

Hey, if you would take out your copy of God's word, turn it on, open it up, join me this morning back in the Gospel of Mark.

We're going to be in Mark chapter 9, just a handful of verses this morning.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible with you, there's one in the pew back in front of you.

I want to encourage you to turn in that Bible to page 906.

906, Mark chapter 9.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

While you're finding that, let me just encourage you.

As you came in, you were probably handed one of these flyers.

It is an affirmation form for our new deacons.

Several months ago, we asked you as a church to nominate men that you see serving in the life of our church who fulfill the role of deacon and fulfill the qualifications of deacon.

You gave us many names and we went through those and talked to some folks.

And then there are three men that have gone through the process where they have met with myself and the chairman of deacons and the vice chairman of deacons.

And then they met this past Wednesday night with all of our deacons just to uh hear their testimony and hear what their story is.

And all three of these men that are on this list uh are actively serving in our church and have been for several years.

Uh they are good brothers in Christ, and they are just showing God's work in their lives and in their families.

Uh, and so uh it comes back to you as a church now to affirm them or to not affirm them to serve as deacons within the life of our church.

We understand deacons serve as ministers within the church.

They come alongside and help the ministerial staff to love you and support you and stay connected with you.

And that's one of their primary roles, if not their primary role, is just to serve the body of Christ.

And so these three men, Stephen, Brandon, and Scott, um, I highly recommend them to you.

They come to you, not only recommended uh by myself, but uh unanimously by our deacons uh to serve as deacons.

And so if you would take some time, if you haven't already done it and put it in the offering plate, uh, fill this out.

Uh if you're a church member, this is for church members, fill this out.

And then um, as you're leaving, just set it in one of the tithing boxes as you go out the doors and we'll collect them from there.

Or you can set it on the connection desk and we'll pick it up from there as well.

But please uh do that.

We are going to have an ordination service on March the 22nd.

That's in the evening, uh, not only for those three men, but we're also gonna be ordaining uh Ben as a gospel pastor that night.

And so it's gonna be a great night of service as we uh ordain some folks into gospel ministry and encourage you to be a part of that service as well.

Mark chapter 9 this morning.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

There are many benefits of being a part of a church that is gospel-minded, missional-minded, and kingdom-focused, not the least of which is that God allows us to look outside our immediate context.

It's quite easy for us to be creatures of habit, to fall into patterns where we go to the same places and do the same things.

We sometimes do that in church as well.

We go to the same church week after week, we talk to the same people, we hear the same songs, and we hear the same teachers and the preachers, and we do the same thing week after week.

There is much to be commended for faithfulness and consistency as we gather together in the house of God.

But the problem with it is that oftentimes, as we are gathered in that context, we lose the bigger context.

Sometimes when we gather together, we begin to think that our experience is all that God's kingdom is about.

That God's kingdom is only as big as what we experience of it.

And yet, being a part of a church that is kingdom-minded and active outside the walls of the church helps us to see that the kingdom of God is much bigger than just our experience of it.

God is at work all over the place.

God is at work among people who do not look like us.

God's at work among people who do not worship like us.

God is at work among people, dare I say, who don't vote like us.

God is at work among many different types of people.

God's at work amongst many different churches.

God's at work with other Southern Baptist churches, he's at work with Northern Baptists and Independent Baptists and Fundamentalist Baptists, and I might even think he might be part of the cooperative Baptists.

God's a part of Methodists and Lutherans and Nazarenes and Presbyterians and charismatics and even non-denoms.

God is involved in all of those groups.

God's kingdom is at work in North America and in South America, in Asia, and Africa.

He's at work in Europe, he's at work in Australia, he's at work wherever the people of God are gathered.

God is at work.

But oftentimes, all we see of it is our context.

And it is so good to be reminded that God's kingdom is bigger than my experience of it.

Familiarity often breeds a myopic point of view, meaning we can only see what's up close to us.

We can't see what's out there.

It also, by the way, tends to breed contempt, thinking we're the only ones who are right.

We're the only ones who are doing it right.

We're the only ones who God is working with and what God is working through.

There's the old joke of a group of believers who passed away and they were be given a tour of heaven by an angel, and they were walking around, just marveled, their mouths agape, while they were looking at the beauty of heaven, and they came by these double doors, these massive double doors, and the angel said, Shh, please be quiet.

Behind those doors are the Baptists, and they think they're the only ones here.

Put another way, if we're not careful, you don't have to be a Baptist to go to heaven, but it's the only way to know for sure.

Now, I am a Baptist, I am a Southern Baptist, I am a Baptist by conviction.

I'm a Baptist because I believe doctrinally we get it right.

I'm a Baptist because missionally I believe we get it right.

I was a Baptist born, I was a Baptist bred, I was a Baptist when I got wed, and I'll be a Baptist when I'm dead.

I've been a Baptist my whole life.

I think Baptists are pretty cool.

But I'm not arrogant enough to think that we are the only ones that God works through.

And if we're not careful, we can get this narrow-minded conviction that we're the only ones.

And that everybody has to do it our way.

This will all come together as we read Mark chapter 9 this morning.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

The theme of our text, the theme of our message this morning is this: if they're not against us, they're for us.

If they're not against us, then they're for us.

If you're willing and able, will you stand with me as we read God's word together?

Mark chapter 9, verses 38 through 41.

Mark 9:38–41

John said to Jesus, Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us.

But Jesus said, Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in my name, and be able to soon afterward to speak evil of me.

For he who is not against us is for us.

For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward.

Heavenly Father, I pray that you would open our hearts and our minds to your truth today.

Lord, thank you for your word.

Thank you that it is authoritative, that there is no other authority that we need to turn to or listen to, that you revealed yourself perfectly in Jesus Christ.

You have recorded your revelation to us in this word.

You have protected it and you have provided it.

And not only that, Lord, you give us the Holy Spirit to enlighten us to understand it.

And so, Father, thank you for all those things.

To that, let us add our obedience to it.

Lord, change what needs to be changed.

If it's an attitude that needs to be changed, Lord, change it.

If it's an action that needs to be changed, Father, let us be willing to change it.

God, make us more into the image of Christ today as we read your word and apply it to our hearts, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you.

As I read about the disciples of Jesus in the Bible, I have some empathy towards them.

I have empathy towards them because I can see myself in them in this regard.

As they are walking with Christ, it seems to me that every now and then they'll take a step forward and then they'll take a step back.

So often they they they take two steps forward.

They do really well, but then they they stumble and they stutter and they they take a step back.

Their walk with the Lord was just not a steady incline.

It was a stutter, it was a stammer, it was it was almost a Texas two-step, one step forward, two steps back.

And I can relate to that in my own walk with Christ.

There have been times in my own life where I trust in him and I obey him and I do what he's called me to do, and I step forward, and then there's times when I take a step backwards.

Maybe you can relate to this as well.

We see this pattern even in Mark's gospel as he's teaching us about these 12 men who Jesus is called and he's training.

We see them do amazing things.

He sent them out with authority to cast out demons, and they went out and they did amazing things.

They did those things, but then we see him feeding 5,000 people with just a few loaves and fish.

And the disciples being a part of that and seeing that miracle take place.

And then that very night they get in a boat and they go across the Sea of Galilee, and Jesus is joining them.

He's walking on water, but they think he's a ghost.

They don't realize who he is.

Jesus feeds 4,000.

And once again, they see this miracle of Jesus providing food for people, bread for people where there was hardly any bread at all, and then they get in a boat again.

This time they argue with themselves because somebody forgot to pack bread for lunch.

And they thought, where are we gonna get any bread?

They take one step forward and then they take one step back.

Jesus asked them, Who do you say that I am?

Simon Peter said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

You got it right, Peter.

But I'm gonna go and I'm gonna die and I'm gonna be crucified, and then they're gonna bury me.

Oh, God forbid, that will never happen to you.

Get behind me, Satan.

One step forward, one step back.

They've been up on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus, Simon and James and John, and they've seen these prophets that show up and talk to Jesus, and it's God revealing the glory of who Jesus is to them, and they're like, let's stay right here, forget everybody else down there.

They come down, and the disciples that are at the foot of the mountain haven't been able to cast out a demon.

And Jesus begins to tell them once again, I'm going to be publicly humiliated.

We're going to go to Jerusalem, and I'm going to be ill-treated, and they're going to arrest me, and they're going to beat me, and I'm going to die.

He's talking about humiliation.

He tells them, if you want to be my disciple, pick up your cross and follow me.

If you want to follow me, then you can't place yourself first.

You have to place yourself last.

He's talking about humiliation.

And while they're on the road traveling, you remember what they were talking about?

Hey, which one of us is going to be the greatest?

I think I'm going to be the greatest.

He let me go up on the Mount of Transfiguration with him.

And they're arguing with one another.

While he's talking about humiliation, they're talking about their own exaltation.

One step forward, two steps back.

Two steps forward, one step back.

Over and over again.

For two years, Jesus has spent time with these disciples.

He's been revealing to them his true identity.

He is helping them to understand he is the Messiah.

He is the Son of God.

They finally come to that realization.

Although they don't realize all the ramifications of it, they've come to realize he is the Christ, but now he has just a few months left.

Jesus has turned his face towards the cross.

They are heading physically, spiritually, towards Jerusalem, where he will be arrested and he will be crucified.

And in these last few months, Jesus has turned his attention from the crowds to these twelve men.

And he is teaching them lesson after lesson after lesson, trying to prepare them for what they are going to experience when they get there and what they will experience once he is gone and ascended into heaven.

One of the primary lessons he has to teach them is humility, to humble themselves.

He has to take their upside-down self-importance and right side up.

He has to teach them what it looks like to be great in his kingdom.

He doesn't push aside being great.

He simply redefines it.

Being great in the kingdom of God is different than being great in the kingdom of this world.

He's begun to turn that upside down.

As we come to our text for this morning, we see that he's still teaching them about humility.

It's a lesson that is hard to learn for a fallen heart.

Humility is a hard lesson for prideful people.

And pride is at the root of every sin.

And so he is teaching them, trying to root out this pride.

And in the passage that we've read this morning, we see that pride is unveiled.

He's going to talk to them also about unity.

And then humility.

First of all, let's talk about pride unveiled, verse 38.

Jesus has just taken a child in verse 37, just prior to this.

He's taken a child and he's placed it in front of the disciples.

And he said, If you receive a child like this in my name, then you will receive me and receive my father who sent me.

His point was if you receive somebody who does not have status in society, and if you receive someone who has nothing that they can return to you for being kind to them, there's no quid pro quo.

There's nothing that they will give you.

If you receive somebody in such a fashion, then you understand how it was that I received you, who had no standing and had nothing to swap for the grace that I give you.

And he said, if you receive somebody in my name, and when he talked about receiving somebody in his name, John, something triggered in his brain to say, I remember an incident.

And John thinks he did something right in this incident, so he brings it to Jesus' attention.

Hey, Jesus, you you just mentioned somebody being brought to you in their name.

And the other day, um the disciples and I were out and we saw this man, and he was casting out demons in your name, and so we tried to stop him because he wasn't following us.

John does not tell us when this happened, he doesn't tell us where it happened.

He doesn't tell us the name of the person involved, he doesn't even tell us the motivation of the person involved.

The only information he gives is the information he thinks Jesus needs.

There is a dude trying to cast out demons.

He was casting out demons, he was doing it in your name, and we tried to stop him.

Now there's some interesting stuff going on right there that we just need to unpack for a second.

First of all, there is a guy who is apparently successfully casting out demons.

Something which you just you remember the disciples were not able to do just a few days prior.

He's casting out demons, and according to what we read in this text, Jesus is saying, He is a follower of mine, and he is rightly casting out these demons.

This is Jesus' evaluation.

This man is casting them out.

He's able to do so.

He's able to do so by the name of Jesus.

Now, this isn't a charlatan.

This isn't a trickster.

This isn't somebody that is trying to make money off of it.

He's not like the ones in Acts chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

The disciples were going around at that point casting out demons, and there were people that saw that there was a profit to be made off of this.

So people decided that they would pretend like they could cast out demons for a charge.

And they began making money off of it.

People started giving them things as a result of it.

There were Jewish exorcists all over the place.

And in Acts chapter 19, we read about the sons of the high priest Seva, these seven men who are in the city of Ephesus.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

And there was a demon-possessed person there, and they went and they said, We adjure you by the name of Jesus, who Paul preaches, to come out of that man.

And the demon said to them, Jesus, we know.

We've heard of Paul.

Who are you?

We don't know you.

And the demons then beat those seven men, and they ran out of the building without their tunics.

Casting out demons, messing around with demons, and claiming to do it in Jesus' name is nothing to be trifled with.

It's not a game.

But this man was clearly able to do it.

John says he's able to do it.

Jesus says he was able to do it.

And the response of the disciples when they saw it was not to praise God.

Hey, God, you're winning this battle.

It was not to encourage this man.

Hey, good job.

It was not to edify this man.

It was not to come alongside and try to help this man.

Their response to seeing God at work in somebody else was to tell him to stop.

Now, I suppose if they were trying to protect the name of Jesus, we could understand it and we might even commend them for it.

But John, by his own recollection of the events, tells us that that was not his motivation.

He didn't say we tried to stop him because he was doing something wrong.

What does he say?

We tried to stop him.

Why?

Because he's not following us.

He didn't even say we tried to stop him because he's not following you, Jesus.

No.

No, no, no.

This guy.

Guy isn't one of us.

God, you can't use that guy.

Jesus, you you you certainly shouldn't be using that guy over there.

Now, we don't know who this man was.

We can eliminate that he wasn't one of the twelve apostles because they would have known him, they would have known him by name, and they wouldn't have stopped him from doing it.

You'll recall that Jesus gave the authority to cast out demons to a group of 70 disciples that he sent out in pairs.

This could be one of those, but it doesn't seem that way because I would think John would have known who those 70 people were, and it doesn't appear to be that.

Maybe it was somebody, and we have to speculate at this point, maybe this was somebody that Jesus has healed earlier or cast a demon out of before, and now he's going out in Jesus' name.

But regardless, John doesn't like it.

The disciples don't like it.

Why?

Because he's not part of them.

Not part of their group.

What lessons can we learn just from this reaction?

The first one I would say is this: that a spirit of unhealthy rivalry does not advance the kingdom.

A spirit of unhealthy rivalry does not go to advance the kingdom of God.

Within this group of twelve, there was rivalry.

They were already arguing with each other about who was going to be the greatest.

They were jostling for position on who would get to sit at Jesus' right hand and who would get to sit at his left hand.

There was already rivalry taking place within these disciples.

And Jesus was doing his best to root out this pride, to root out this rivalry within his own disciples.

We've just recently finished the Winter Olympics.

I'm more of a Summer Olympics guy, but every now and then I'll watch the Winter Olympics, and uh curling is fascinating to me.

Don't ask me why.

I enjoy curling.

Um I don't always like all the skiing things, but some of those are pretty cool.

But the one thing, the one event that I will watch all the time is Olympic ice hockey.

I I enjoy watching the hockey teams.

And both our men's and our women's team won the gold this year, so good job on them.

Uh but it reminded me of the last time the U.S.

won the men's gold medal in Lake Palace, New York in 1980.

The gentleman by the name of Herb Brooks was the head coach.

And he'd been assigned an impossible task to beat the Russians, who were just not beatable at that time.

And he assembled a group of the best college players in the United States to make up our team.

Back then we actually used amateur athletes, not professional millionaires and billionaires, to represent us.

I'm not bitter about it, but we still, it's different.

He collected all the best amateur college hockey players that he could get.

The problem at that tactic, however, was that these players were used to playing against one another and had formed rivalries with one another.

The two colleges that had the most players represented on the U.S.

team were the Minnesota and Boston.

Two bitter rivals who literally hated one another.

And it was Herb's job to take those men and turn them from being rivals into being teammates.

And he had to teach them to play for the name on the front of their jersey, not the name on the back of their jersey.

And it took time.

But ultimately, as we all know, they defeated the Russians and won Olympic gold.

I'm gonna try to get my microphone to work.

There we go.

The disciples had a rivalry with one another.

A rivalry within the group that's spilled out to others.

It's hard when you're seeing each other as competition to see anybody outside your group as not competition.

But this group of disciples were competing with one another.

They were not united together, they were competing with one another.

Therefore, when they saw somebody else doing the work of God, they continued.

A spirit of self-reliance does not advance the kingdom.

The disciples were enabled to stop him.

This is interesting to me because just before they had been enabled to cast out demons.

Remember, nine of them.

Father brought his child, please cast out the demon.

They were unable to do it.

Jesus shows up, casts the demon out.

They come to Jesus.

Why couldn't we do it?

Remember what his response was?

This kind can only be cast out by prayer and fasting.

Not that there is a stronger demon and a weaker demon, but you were trying to do the supernatural in your own abilities.

You couldn't cast them out because you caught you could do it on your own.

It's interesting.

They were unable to cast out a demon then.

Now they're not able to stop somebody from casting out a demon.

Now they're trying to stop the supernatural by their natural abilities.

They're saying, we can handle this.

We can do this.

And a spirit of self-reliance, a spirit of pride that says, we can do this.

We've got the resources.

We don't need God.

We don't need anybody else.

We can handle these things.

Does not advance the kingdom of God.

Certainly does not advance it past where we can take it.

There are many, many churches that are struggling, that are, that are withering, and they're dying.

And they will not ask for help.

They will not allow someone else to come in and help them.

They won't allow another church to come in and provide resources and encourage them.

And they do so, or they won't do so because of pride.

We can handle it.

We've got it.

We don't need your help.

Or we don't want to admit we need your help.

And if you guys come in and help, maybe we aren't gonna be what we've always been, and it's not just gonna be us, it's gonna be.

But there are also churches that are dying and withering because there are churches who can go help who refuse to go help unless they get something in return.

That does not expand the kingdom of God.

A spirit of rivalry does not advance the kingdom of God, a spirit of self-reliance does not advance the kingdom of God, and a spirit of jealousy does not advance the kingdom of God.

John and the disciples were saying, this guy's not one of us.

This is our territory, dude.

That's our gig, that's what we do.

You don't need to come in here and start that mess.

This is what we do.

There's no room for jealousy amongst Orthodox churches.

There is zero room for us to be jealous or covet what God is doing through another Bible-believing, Bible-teaching, faithful congregation.

We are not in competition with the churches that are in our area.

We are not in competition with like-minded believers.

There are more lost people in this city and in this world than we can ever reach, and we need as many Bible-believing, Bible-teaching churches as we can possibly get to go reach them.

Jealousy does not advance the kingdom of God.

We need to cooperate with one another.

Now we we there needs to be a standard by which we cooperate with one another.

There needs to be what is it that we will cooperate with and what is it that we won't cooperate with?

I'm not talking about ecumenicalism.

Ecumenicalism says we're just going to take the truth and lay it aside for the reason of cooperation.

We're going to cooperate with anybody we can, even if we don't agree with what they believe.

That's not at all what I'm talking about.

But there ought to be groups that believe as we believe about the Word of God, and we ought to cooperate with them.

Let me give you three levels of cooperation.

The first one is this.

I call this the just the common faith tier, tier one, common faith.

This is all believers in all places.

This is everybody who believes that salvation comes by faith, by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Period.

It is those who would call themselves Christ followers because they believe Jesus died for our sins and they've trusted in Him.

That can be anywhere at all times.

We ought to be able to cooperate with folks like that.

The second tier is what I would call a common doctrinal faith.

This is more of a denominational level, where we begin to start talking about secondary and tertiary issues.

Not issues of salvation, but issues of doctrine, such as baptism.

When should somebody be baptized?

How should somebody be baptized?

I've got good brothers and sisters in Presbyterian churches who hold a different position on baptism than I hold.

I believe they are genuine Christ followers.

I disagree with them on their interpretation of baptism.

But that does not mean we cannot cooperate together.

It probably means we're not going to worship together.

We're not going to baptize people together.

But it doesn't mean I don't believe they're Christ followers.

Ecclesiology.

Ecclesiology is a fancy word for church structure.

Who are the officers of the church?

What gender are they allowed to have?

These issues are denominational issues that might divide us amongst Methodists and Presbyterians and Lutherans and Baptists, but they don't divide us on the primary thing, the gospel.

The third tier I would call the fellowship, common fellowship.

This is the local church level.

This is more stuff that is that is personal preference, worship style.

The error that we often make, there's two errors we often make.

One is to say that there are no first-tier issues.

Someone would come along and say we ought to cooperate about everything.

If it's a church, we ought to cooperate with them.

Well, that would say that there's no first-tier issues.

What was the first-tier issue?

The gospel.

The other error is to say that everything is a first-tier issue.

And then we can't cooperate with anybody unless they agree with in step with every single thing that we believe or that we prefer.

Either one of those is an error.

You say, how can I know the difference?

Let me just give you something you can hold on to.

I may not get through the rest of the message, but I'm gonna give you this, alright?

How do I know who I should cooperate with and who I should?

I've taught some of you this before, I'm gonna give it to you again.

It's called um theological arithmetic or theological math.

All you have to know is addition, subtraction, multiplication.

You say I hated math, Bob.

I wasn't a math person.

It's okay.

This is easy, all right?

Addition.

Is this up there?

No.

If anybody adds to the authority of God's word, they're in error.

If they say it's the word of God plus anything else, there's a problem.

If they tell you, yes, the Bible is good, but you need so-and-so's interpretation of it, or if the Bible is good, but you also need the church, or the Bible's good, but you also need this person.

The Bible's good plus, that's a problem.

Don't let anybody add to the authority of God's word.

Subtraction, don't let anybody subtract something from Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is holy God and holy man.

He died a sacrificial death for our sins.

A bodily death, a bodily resurrection.

He has ascended into heaven.

One day he is returning.

If anybody subtracts anything from that, they are in error because that's what the Bible teaches.

If they say he was God but he wasn't man, it's a problem.

If they subtract and say he was man but he wasn't God, it's a problem.

If they subtract and say he died, but he doesn't, doesn't, he didn't physically resurrect, it was a spiritual resurrection, it's a problem.

Y'all good?

Addition, subtraction, multiplication.

If they multiply the requirements for salvation, if they say that salvation comes by anything, but salvation comes by grace through faith, not of works.

If they say it's grace plus, you have to do this.

If it's grace plus baptism, if it's grace plus works, if it's grace plus whatever it may be, they're multiplying the requirements for salvation.

You good?

Addition, subtraction, multiplication.

You forgot division, Bob.

No, I didn't.

If anybody adds to the authority of the word, subtracts something from Jesus Christ or multiplies the requirements for salvation, you know what you should do?

Divide yourself from them.

Pride is unveiled.

Unity is encouraged.

Verses 39 through 40.

I'm just going to give these real quick.

John's anticipating a positive response.

He's anticipating a pat on the back.

He's anticipating an attaboy.

Way to stand up for me, John.

He's anticipating the response that Simon Peter got.

Well done.

Is that what he gets?

No, the response is, why did you stop him?

Don't stop him.

In fact, he says, stop trying to stop him.

And then he gives him the reason.

Because anybody who does that in my name can't then turn around and say bad things against me.

He's saying essentially as this, John, you don't know that man, I do.

And that man represents me.

And he cannot do this in my name unless I gave him the ability to do so.

You have a common savior, you have a common enemy, and you have a common goal.

You need to unite with one another.

The story in the Old Testament, Numbers chapter 11.

Numbers 11 · chapter mention

Moses has called an assembly of leaders in the nation of Israel.

He sent Joshua out and they gather these 70 leaders into the tent of meeting.

And they're waiting for God to show up and talk to them.

And these guys run into the meeting and say, Hey, hey, Moses, hey Joshua, there's two guys, El Dad and Me Dad.

They're out in the assembly and they are prophesying in the name of the Lord.

There's always those tattletales, aren't there?

There's always those people that just come along and go, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, be, me, me.

And Moses said this.

Are you trying to protect my name?

Are you worried about me?

I love it that those guys are out there and they're prophesying in the name of the Lord.

Oh, that everyone would be doing that.

Remember John the Baptist?

He pointed to Jesus, said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

And all the crowd that followed him, you know what they started doing?

They started following Jesus.

John's own disciples came to him and said, John, this is a problem.

Everybody's leaving and going to him.

And John said, I told you I wasn't the Messiah.

I told you I was here to point them to the Messiah, and he must increase, and I must decrease.

Paul's sitting in a Roman prison.

He writes to the church in Philippi.

And he says, I recognize that while I'm in prison, there are some people who are trying to take advantage of the situation.

While I'm here, they are trying to fill that leadership gap and they are preaching.

And some are preaching out of envy and strife, others preaching out of goodwill.

But regardless what's happening, Jesus Christ is being proclaimed, and I'm okay with it.

He says we need to have a spirit of unity.

Church, whose name are we trying to protect?

Are we more worried about our own name or are we more worried about the name of Jesus Christ?

Finally, there is a humility that is rewarded.

He says, if somebody comes and gives you a drink of water because of your name, not your personal name, because your name in Christ, if they recognize that you're a Christ follower and they give you a drink of water, that's a good thing.

The disciples were thinking about rewards.

They had rewards on the mind.

Man, how are we going to be rewarded in heaven?

How are we going to get what's coming to us?

This is what we want.

And Jesus said, let's talk about rewards.

Here's how you're rewarded in heaven.

You're rewarded in heaven not by promoting yourself, but by caring for others.

You're rewarded in heaven by finding someone and equipping them and helping them and giving them a cup of water.

In this instance, he's talking about within the body of Christ.

If you see somebody doing good works, are you encouraging them?

Are you refreshing them?

Are you discouraging them?

The way to be promoted within the kingdom of God is to promote others.

To push them up.

To care for each one of them.

I'm frequently in meetings with other pastors in other churches.

Just this last week, I was in a meeting in Jacksonville with some other pastors from around our state.

And most of the time that I'm in meetings, I'm in meetings with people that doctrinally I'm going to agree with probably 99% of the time.

And I think that's a good thing.

I think it's good for our church.

I think it's good for the kingdom that we cooperate with others.

We cooperate with others right here in the city of Tampa with the Tampa Bay Baptist Association.

We cooperate with others right here in our state with the Florida Baptist Convention.

We cooperate nationally and internationally through the Southern Baptist Convention.

It is an important thing.

But I promise you, even in a room of 18 pastors, I didn't agree with every one of them on every single thing.

And they wouldn't agree with me on every single thing.

But we agreed on the main thing.

And we can lay down the other things in order to accomplish the main thing.

What's the main thing?

What's the core?

What's the thing we can't compromise on?

There is one God in his name is Jehovah.

He is a holy creator who created all things.

He created man in his image.

Man has sinned against that holy God.

We have brought sin into the world.

We are now separated from a holy God.

There's nothing we can do about it.

We can't be religious enough.

We can't be righteousness upon our own.

But God, who is also holy, is also just, merciful, and gracious.

And so he sent his son, Jesus Christ, to live a perfect life, to fulfill the law perfectly, to die a sacrificial death, taking our sin upon himself.

He rose bodily from the grave, Jesus being the sacrifice that the Father accepted in our place.

He is ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of his Father, and one day he is coming to make all things new.

That is the core.

That is the gospel.

If you can agree with that, let's get busy doing the work of God.

We have a tendency to think that the kingdom of God is no bigger than our own experience.

And yet, God Is at work.

He's at work all over the place.

He's at work with people that don't look like us, don't act like us, don't worship like us.

Some of them are sitting in churches that look like a box that there's no light anywhere.

There's smoke coming up and there's lights going everywhere.

Oh my goodness.

Are they preaching the gospel?

Then go get it.

It may not be for me.

There are others that are buttoned up as tight as they can.

And you don't say a peep.

You don't dare bring a cup of coffee into the sanctuary.

We're going to go through the liturgy and we're going to do it just this way and this way and this way and this way.

Are they preaching the gospel?

Then go get it.

There are people all over different denominations, all over doing the kingdom of God.

And what we need to do as a church is look and find the people who are preaching the gospel, and then we need to come alongside and say, stop it.

You're not one of us.

No.

We need to encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ.

We need to come alongside them.

We need to equip them and encourage them and give them a cup of water and say, let's do this together.

How do we respond to this?

Three things real quick and we're done, I promise.

This is the response, okay?

Number one, pride is a problem.

Pride is a problem.

It was a problem with the disciples, it is a problem today.

A pride of self-reliance that said, I can do it myself.

A pride that says I don't need anything to make myself right with God.

I've got news for you.

Yes, you do.

You need God.

You cannot do it on your own.

You cannot be religious enough.

You cannot be righteous on your own.

You need Jesus Christ to forgive your sins.

Lay your pride down, humble yourself, say I'm a sinner and I need Jesus Christ.

There's pride that says I can sanctify myself.

I can get better with Christ on my own.

I don't need God.

I don't need a pastor.

I don't need people coming alongside of me.

I don't need a brother or sister poking their nose into my life.

I can do it on my own.

No, you can't.

No, you cannot.

We all need the Holy Spirit and the brothers and sisters in Christ that He puts around us to sanctify us.

Pride is a problem.

Unity.

Whose name are you seeking to make much of?

Your name?

Your church's name?

Your pastor's name?

Or every day are you getting up saying, God, let me make much of your name today?

And if I see somebody else making much of your name, I'm gonna praise you for it.

Finally, humility.

Are you seeking to be served?

Are you seeking to serve?

When was the last time you saw somebody being used by God and you encouraged them with a cup of water?

It might be a physical cup of water, but I don't think that's really what I'm talking about.

When was the last time you saw somebody being used by God and you just walked up to them, you wrote them a note, you sent them a text, you sent them an email, and you said, you know what?

I was blessed by seeing God use you.

How can I encourage you?

How can I pray for you?

How can I help you?

All of us can do something with one of those things.

We can lay down our pride, we can lift up the right name, or we can see somebody else who's doing it and come alongside them and in some tangible way this week encourage them.