Meekness amid Mistreatment

Listen Online:

Watch Online:

Transcript:

Well, very early Wednesday morning, I got an email and happened to see it. I was talking to Charla about the time my phone dinged, and it was an email from McAllister’s, the restaurant, which my family and I love. And they had sent me an email that they were doing a special that day, that the first 20 orders that were fulfilled at each of their stores would get a free tumbler, one of those little plastic deals, which I didn’t care about so much, except for the fact that with that tumbler, which they’re normally like about $12, I think, with that tumbler, you can get 99 cent tea refills for the life of as long as that tumbler lasts.

I was like, that’s a pretty good deal. So I said, Charla, it’s a sign from God we’re supposed to have McAllister’s for lunch. I said, we can place an order. And she said, well, but you can’t go get it.

I said, well, no, because I had a meeting on my calendar at like 10 o’clock. She said, you’re going to have to get there when they open at 1030. I said, well, I can get there probably by 11.

She said, they’re going to be all out. And I said, you think that many people are going to be, it’s 530 in the morning. You think that many people are going to be up making lunch plans?

She said, you’d be surprised for free stuff. Okay. So I placed the order.

I went to my meeting. She went to go pick it up. And I get a text when I’m leaving my meeting saying, call me.

I just left McAllister’s. The short version of it is she got there. She was one of the earliest people there, but she said, adults do not know how to stand in line.

Adults thought they could just come in another door and cut around everybody else and make another line. I said, why didn’t the employee stop them? She said, there was so much going on.

The employees didn’t know what was going on. She said, but these other people came and they got their tumblers and they showed up. They broke the rules.

They got two tumblers for their group. She said, and I was the first one to get my order filled to not get one. She said, and I was so mad.

She said, and I just wanted, I wanted to let them know. I want, she said, but I couldn’t. And I know why she couldn’t because sometimes the Holy Spirit does this to us.

I said, well, dear, your reward is in heaven. And that was little consolation to her as we sat there and ate our McAllister’s at home. And she fumed over the whole reason why we went and got this today is for this tumbler.

And I didn’t even get the tumbler. I was cheated out of the tumbler. It’s like, no, the whole reason we went and got it today is because it’s delicious.

But the tumbler would have been just icing on the cake. But sometimes we have those moments where we are mistreated, right? Our rights are absolutely trampled on and we just want to lash out.

It’s the normal reaction. I certainly understand her instinct to let somebody know because I come from a long line of people who I’m pretty laid back most of the time, but I think our family motto, you know, under the coat of arms is, I want to see a manager. It’s just a fist on the coat of arms saying, I want to see a manager.

That’s the stock I come from. I totally understand that impulse. Most of the time I fight that.

I have a pet peeve myself about that kind of thing, that I have every right, hear me on this because I’ll get fired up about this every time, I have every right to use my tribal ID as ID anywhere that I’m not required by law to give a driver’s license. So unless I’m being pulled over, usually, I’m going to give a tribal ID. And the reason I prefer that is because it doesn’t say what my weight is, all right?

But they take it at the bank. They take it when I vote. I can get on a plane with it.

I can do all sorts of things with it. I was at Goodwill a while back, trying to spend $3 or $4 on a shirt with my debit card, and the little girl wouldn’t take my tribal ID with my debit card. And everything within me wanted to launch into a rant to educate her.

She said, I need ID. This is ID. No, I need government ID.

Do you see the name and the seal on there? That’s government ID. No, no, I need a driver’s license.

No, you don’t. You need photo ID. Anyway, I argued with her a little bit, and I was about to get ugly.

I’ll be honest. I was about to get ugly, and then I just felt the Holy Spirit go, knock it off. Knock it off. See, we all have moments, and I mean, those are pretty mild.

I know. Those are pretty mild instances, but we all have moments where we feel like, but I have the right, and I’m right here, and it’s about the principle. And we just kind of feel trampled on.

We feel mistreated. We feel like somebody’s stomping all over us. And again, like I said, I know those are very mild instances.

Those are just the two that came to mind as I was getting ready for this message. But we all have those moments. And whenever somebody mistreats us in that way, anytime somebody deprives us of what we think is our right or what we’re entitled to, There’s something within us that rolls up and wants to argue back and wants to fight back.

It’s human nature, but it’s also who we are as Americans, all right? It’s been bred into us. And I want to preface all of this by saying I understand the importance of our rights and defending them.

As I was getting ready this morning, I was looking at my little box of lapel pins and thinking, which one am I going to wear this morning? And I wore the American flag pin that belonged to my grandfather, who volunteered in 1941 as a teenager. Left home, he was so young, he had to have his mother’s permission.

He had to have a permission slip for war. But he volunteered to go and fight, and he fought in Germany, and he fought in the Philippines to defend our rights. I’ve never gone and fought myself, but I understand from his stories the importance of defending our rights.

I understand from history the importance as Americans, as free people of defending our rights. I get that. And nothing I say this morning is intended to put that down.

But let me tell you something about the founding of our country as well. Our founding fathers said that they shouldn’t start a revolution for light and transient reasons. They said that in the Declaration of Independence.

They listed the most famous breakup letter in history. The Declaration of Independence listed dozens of reasons over many, many years that led them to this point. And all the steps they had taken to redress this.

Please understand, what I tell you from God’s word this morning about not being quick to fight back and argue back over our rights or the times we’re mistreated is not to tell you that we are supposed to just lay back and surrender our rights all the time. But I’m telling you, we as Christians should not be quick to fight back. We should not be quick.

We should not necessarily be quick to defend ourselves. Because we represent Christ first and foremost. And so we as Christians have a responsibility even greater than that of representing Jesus Christ. Now the reason I’m bringing this up to you this morning is because I started a series last week about navigating difficult times, navigating the chaos around us in a way that glorifies Jesus Christ. And I told you that when I sat down to start working on this series, I thought about what are some of the things that people in our community and people in our country are feeling right now. That as we look at the chaos around us with the coronavirus, with the protests, with the murder hornets, somebody was talking yesterday about they figured out they miscalculated the Mayan calendar and the world was supposed to end this week.

We’re not bringing that nonsense up again, are we? As we look at just total uncertainty around us, there’s all sorts of things that we as Americans all over the country that we are feeling, that we are experiencing, and how do we navigate those things as Christians? And how do we do it in a way that honors Jesus Christ?

Last week I talked to you about fear and how we deal with the fear that we often feel when we don’t know what’s going to happen or how to handle it. Today, I want to talk to you about how we handle it when we feel mistreated, when we feel like somebody’s trampling on us. This has gone on.

There have been people protesting the last few weeks because they feel mistreated. You may understand their point. You may not, but they feel mistreated.

Before that, there were people protesting because their businesses were being forced to remain closed, and they felt like they were being mistreated. You may understand their point. You may not, but they felt mistreated.

My point is we’re in a world right now where so many things are going on and it’s all moving so fast that a lot of people feel mistreated. Now, how do we as Christians deal with that? Turn with me to Philippians chapter two.

Philippians chapter two this morning. The Bible shows us how we’re supposed to react when we feel mistreated or deprived. Philippians chapter two.

And we’re going to start this morning in verse 5. Philippians chapter 2, starting in verse 5, says, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Now this morning I really want to focus in in particular on on verses five through 8. But I do want to make sure we understand that as Christians, our response to every situation ought to be glorifying Jesus Christ. That ought to be our goal in every situation.

At the end of this, in verses 9 through 11, it says, all of this occurred so that Jesus would be glorified, so that every knee would bow and every tongue would confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father, so that the Father would be glorified in the Son as the Son was lifted and as the son was confessed as Lord. So all of this, for us as Christians, the end result is not just, well, I’ve got to defend myself. I’ve got to stand up for myself.

The goal that we are ultimately shooting for is for Jesus Christ to be glorified. And if we keep that in perspective, this will be a lot easier. But we’ve got to start with the situation in Philippi.

Paul, when he was writing this letter, he was dealing with a church in Philippi, which is part of Greece. It’s the earliest church in Europe. the first church that he started in Europe.

And Paul was dealing with the threat of disunity in the church at Philippi. Now, as much as this was a great church, and this is basically a thank you letter in a lot of ways, the church at Philippi was great. He praised them for a lot of things.

He praised their generosity, their love.

And yet, as he writes to them, he’s dealing with the threat of disunity because there are two women, two selfish women, named Euodia and Syntyche that we see mentioned in chapter 4 verse 2 who are fighting we don’t know about what but they’re fighting and you know how it is people jump in on on both sides and it grows and it threatens to tear the whole group of people apart so as much as this was a positive letter from Paul overall he spent a lot of time begging people to come together and not let their individual concerns tear up the church hey when you understand that as part of the context of this letter then this little passage that is really, we think, one of the earliest Christian hymns, and he incorporated these verses from this hymn into his letter, then that begins to make more sense when you realize that he’s dealing with this dispute between these two women.

And which of them was right? Who was right? You know, if it’s all about the principle, or you don’t know what they did, then who was right, Euodia or Syntyche?

We don’t know. Because it doesn’t matter. Paul doesn’t address it.

He didn’t pick one side or the other. He told them both to get on God’s side. In chapter 4 verse 2, he called them to be of the same mind in the Lord.

That’s the most important thing, which he’s already explained what it means to be in the same mind of the Lord here in chapter 2 in the passage that we’ve just read. Jesus, ladies and gentlemen, is the cure for whataboutism. Now, if you don’t know what I mean by whataboutism, it’s so prevalent in our politics and in our national discussions these days.

Somebody brings up a point, and instead of dealing with that point, somebody says, oh, yeah, well, what about, okay? So if there’s a complaint about Trump, for example, somebody says, oh, yeah, well, what about Obama? Somebody complains about Obama, oh, yeah, well, what about Bush?

And it just never ends. Instead of ever dealing with an issue, instead of ever discussing an issue, we say, well, what about your side? And we throw out another issue, and that’s why we end up screaming at each other on TV or on Facebook.

They could have easily launched into whataboutism. Paul could have easily launched into whataboutism, dealing with Euodia. Euodia, you said this, well, what about Syntyche, or vice versa?

Jesus is the cure to that because it doesn’t matter what anyone else has done in this little dispute. Well, you don’t know what she’s done. You don’t know what that side’s done.

It didn’t matter what anybody else had done. It only matters who Jesus is. For us as Christians, it doesn’t really matter what anybody else has done.

It matters who Jesus is and what he’s called us to do as a result. And so in verses two through four, before what we read, Paul tells them that they’re supposed to unite around Christ, that they are supposed to love each other, that they’re not supposed to be out there advocating for their own case, their own side all the time. They’re supposed to instead be humble, and they’re supposed to, as Christians, do battle for each other.

Instead of arguing your own side, go out there and be for the other one, be for your brother, be for your sister. Do battle for them. And that brings us back to verses 5 through 8 that we’ve already read, where Paul shows them that all of that that he’s just described is really just a part of following Jesus.

That’s not even advanced Christianity, if you want to say such a thing. This is Christianity 101. This is part of following Jesus, is to relate to one another in this way.

To follow Jesus, we have to look at these unjust situations. There’s no doubt in my mind, both Euodia and Syntyche felt like they’d been mistreated, like they’d been deprived of something they were entitled to other. They both, I’m sure, had a valid case, at least in their minds.

But they were looking at it from their perspective when they should have been looking at an unjust situation from the perspective of Christ. How did he deal with these unjust situations? Paul gives us the ultimate example here in verses 5 through 8. We see in verse 6 that Jesus was God.

Jesus was God, and that he He was God equal to the Father in every way. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, verse 6, who being in the form of God, being in the form of God doesn’t mean he was just kind of like God, but it means he was God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. That’s talking about him being equal with the Father.

So understand that. Paul is telling them Jesus was God and he was equal to the Father. He’s not a lesser God.

He is God in every sense of the word. But nevertheless, when he says, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, he’s talking about clinging to all the rights and privileges that he deserved. Think about what God would deserve and think about what Jesus experienced.

In contrast, are they the same thing at all? Think about the kinds of things that God deserves. God deserves to be worshipped, right?

Y’all awake this morning? God deserves to be obeyed, right? God deserves to be glorified.

He deserves to reign from the splendor of heaven. He deserves all of that, right? What did Jesus get instead?

He came down here. He came down here for starters. He had to be one of us.

We don’t even like each other, but he had to be one of us. And he experienced all the aches and pains and all the trials and tribulations that it means to be human. And then he started his earthly ministry.

And so you’ve already said about the things that happened to him. He was disrespected. He was mocked.

He was mistreated. He was schemed against. And then you get to the cross and he was beaten and he was bruised. He was nailed on the cross and he was mocked some more and he was murdered.

Here’s what God deserved. and Jesus if he was all about defending his rights in this unjust situation think about what he got instead Jesus could have said you know what rain on you I’m out of here rain on you is a phrase my grandfather used when he’s just done with somebody didn’t realize he was going to figure so prominently in the message this morning but Jesus could have said you know what forget you people I’m out of here I don’t need this but Jesus didn’t cling to the rights and privileges he didn’t stop being God when he became a man, all right? But he also didn’t cling to the rights and privileges that he deserved as God.

He humbled himself, the Bible says. Instead of demanding to be treated as a king, he came to be a servant. Verse 7 tells us that he made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men.

I remember being fairly young. I want to say early 20s, and being at a political meeting at the Capitol and a man walking up to me and saying, hey, I need 50 copies of this. And me looking at him saying, I don’t work for you.

And he said, you’re not a page? No, I’m not a page. I’m a voter.

All right? You need to pay attention to who you’re talking to. That would bother a lot of us.

The suggestion that, boy, you work for me. We don’t like to be treated like that. Jesus willingly came to be a servant.

He willingly came to be a servant. He humbled himself and made himself of no reputation. He is the king of the universe, and yet he came to be a servant.

He volunteered to be treated in a way that he did not deserve. Instead of showing up with all the glory that he deserves, he came as a man, I already talked about that a little bit. He could have come to earth on a cloud.

All right, he could have just floated down, golden beams of light surrounding him, all the angels singing in chorus, and demanded a golden throne. He could have done all of those things, but instead he came and became a man. Instead of insisting on his own glory, he humbled himself.

He humbled himself, that he was willing to obey his father’s plans, even though it meant suffering in dignity and agony that he did not deserve. It says he humbled himself in verse 8. He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

He humbled himself, even though it meant dying. How many of us would sign up for that assignment? Are you kidding me?

You can’t treat me like this. He signed up for it. He not only signed up to come down here for death, but death on the cross in the most excruciating.

As a matter of fact, we get that word excruciating from Latin words, meaning ex and crucis, meaning from the cross. He came to die in the most excruciating and the most humiliating way the Romans had dreamed up. But he was willing to do that, even though he didn’t deserve it because of the Father’s plans.

Even though it meant sacrificing his life for us. See, for Jesus, it wasn’t about quickly coming in and demanding his rights. Make no mistake, he will get the glory he deserves.

This is not over. Jesus will be glorified as he deserves. But he was willing to put that aside for a while and sacrifice himself for us.

And Paul tells us as Christians that that’s the example. He looks at this church in Philippi where some of the people are starting to get worked up over what they deserve and how they’ve been treated. And he says, oh, no, no, no, no. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Think about this the way Jesus did. React to this the way Jesus did. I’m not telling you it’s easy.

I’m not telling you it’s easy. I’m not even telling you that I always do this really well. I’m just telling you it’s what God’s word says, and it’s what we’re supposed to do.

We should be willing to make sacrifices for the sake of those who need to be reconciled to God. What success am I going to have in leading people to Christ if I go around town arguing with everybody every time I feel slighted? Not a lot.

Not a lot. And when I do have those moments where I stick up for myself a little more than I probably should, I have to make myself go back and apologize. That’s a lot less fun than just taking it in the first place.

That we as Christians should be willing to make sacrifices, be willing to sometimes let things go. Yes, we’re going to be mistreated. Yes, I understand it’s unjust. I understand it’s not fun.

But at times we as Christians are called to endure those things for the sake of those who need to be reconciled to Christ. Because what’s going to impress them more about our faith? The fact that we can stand up for ourselves and prove that we’re right or the fact that we respond to those tough situations in the way that Jesus would. Again, none of this means that there’s never a time to stand up for our rights.

It doesn’t mean that there’s never a time to speak up when you see something wrong. But it’s more about the attitude that we do these things and how quick we are to rush to our own defense. Is that our first instinct is to fight because, by golly, I’m right and they need to know it?

Or is our first instinct to say, hey, as a Christian, I’m going to let this go for a purpose, for a purpose so I can point these people to Jesus. When we feel mistreated, when we feel like we’re not getting what we deserve, we know that our flesh leads us to jump to our own defense. It leads us to fight, but God’s word calls us to something else.

It calls us to be more like Jesus. It calls us to be willing to suffer, to be willing to suffer things that we don’t deserve if it points people to Jesus Christ. We don’t get extra credit for suffering things we do deserve. Sometimes we make mistakes and we suffer the consequences.

But as Christians, sometimes we’ve got to be willing to suffer things we don’t deserve if it points people to Jesus. Somebody mistreats you at the store. Somebody’s rude to you in line.

Somebody jumps the line and takes your tumbler for your 99 cent tea. Sometimes we’ve just got to tell the flesh to cool it and try to be more like Jesus. Because our most important calling is to represent Jesus Christ to a watching world.

It’s not about winning personal victories. It’s not about winning political arguments. It’s about winning people to Christ. Our whole reason for being here, fellow believers, our whole reason for being here, church, is to win others to Jesus Christ. And that’s hard to do if we let ourselves get swept up in every earthly battle there is.

Again, I’m not saying there aren’t some battles worth fighting. But I’m saying we cannot let ourselves get swept up in every single earthly battle there is.

as my mother told me early on in parenting sometimes you’ve got to pick your battles but mom I do I pick every one of them that worked out great let me tell you no I learned there’s some wisdom in having to pick your battles christ was glorified as a result of his suffering and I believe he’s also glorified in our times of suffering if we respond in a christ-like way none of this is to say that your mistreatment doesn’t matter not to say that those times that you feel deprived of your rights or those times you feel trampled on those times you feel pushed around I’m not saying they don’t matter you know what if they hurt your heart I believe they matter to god god knows every hurt none of this is to say they don’t matter just saying they’re not what matters most in eternity what matters more that people heard our side or that people heard about Jesus.

What matters more that we got what we deserved or that Jesus is glorified in us, that he got what he deserved? What matters more that we won the argument or that we won somebody to him? Sometimes we have to suffer what we don’t deserve so others can know Jesus.

Sometimes we have to let some earthly battles go so we can focus on the spiritual battle that’s right in front of us. Sometimes we as Christians are called to sacrifice our interests because what matters in the end is that people know how He sacrificed Himself for them.