12 Steps – Dave W. – 12 Steps For The Recovering Pharisee – 2012

I'm going to continue tonight with our study on the 12 steps for a recovering Pharisee. And my general outline is taken, and a lot of the information that I'm using is taken from the book of that very title, 12 Steps for a Recovering Pharisee Like Me, written by John Fisher, just to give credit where credit is due. Um, we've already looked at the first two of those steps. The first step, and let me back up before I say that, we're talking about Pharisees. We're of course not insinuating that any of us are qualified to fulfill the role that the Pharisees played in the Old Testament or in Biblical times. We're using that phrase, Pharisee, to refer to any of us, probably all of us to some degree, who have a tendency. To go back and try to work at our salvation, try to earn God's favor, try to earn blessing, and at the same time sort of be the gatekeepers of who qualifies as righteous and who doesn't. Because that's another thing that the Pharisees were very good at. Uh, the first step that we saw, if we see those Pharisaical tendencies, is to believe in our own heart and decide, you know, I'm tired of that. I don't think that's what God has called me to as His child, as a believer in Christ. Um, where do I go from here? How do I shed this attitude, this mindset? Uh, the first step that we said that you need to do is, um, admit that our single most unmitigated pleasure is to judge other people. Um, and as we work through that, uh, I trust that you saw as much of that in you as I did in me. Um, I hope that I'm not alone in that, but that we, we tend to take some sort of perverse pleasure in judging other people. And then the second step that we looked at was, uh, we have come to believe that our means of obtaining greatness is to make everyone lower than ourselves in our own mind. So that judging people is not just for its own sake, but that in judging others, we are in essence exalting ourselves. Uh, you hear that in reference to, you know, bullies at school. There's a lot of other types of people that cause trouble and put other people down that they're simply trying to exalt themselves or make themselves feel important. And it's certainly that way, uh, with Pharisees. Tonight, we're going to look at the third step in this 12 step process. And the third step is this. We realize that we detest mercy being given to those who, unlike us, haven't worked for it and don't deserve it. Let me say that again. We realize. We realize that we detest mercy being given to those who, unlike us, haven't worked for it and don't deserve it. Uh, central. Let me, I'll say that one more time. If anybody's writing it down, we realize that we detest mercy being given to those who, unlike us, haven't worked for it and don't deserve it. Anybody else need that one more time or is everybody good? Okay. Uh, central to the heart and life of a Pharisee is working for things, uh, earning things, doing enough that you deserve some sort of reward or payment. Um, that idea of punishment and reward, that idea of merit is sort of the, the central pillar in the life of a Pharisee. And having grown up with the mindset of a Pharisee as, as a young man, and I'm not saying that everyone who grows up in the church is a Pharisee. I'm not saying that everyone who grows up in church has this attitude, but I certainly did, uh, as, as one who grew up not just in church, but being very good at church. Um, and I know that's maybe a weird way to say it, but that's, I was, I was good at church. Whatever expectations people had of me, I could meet those at least outwardly. Um, I could say my, my memory verses and I had my perfect attendance certificates and all the hoops that people had for me to be a good young man. I jumped through those and did very well. So I had this sort of, uh, exterior, um, image of the, the perfect church kid. Uh, and a lot of that, my mindset was based on earning things, on working for things, on being rewarded on merit, uh, that I had done all these things for people, for my parents, for the Lord. Therefore, God sort of owed me, um, uh, uh, a good life or his favor or blessing or something of that nature. Unfortunately, that mindset is in complete contradiction to how God gives his gifts. You hear that? You got the mindset of working, earning, deserving, reward, merit, where I do something and then in exchange for that, I get something that is in complete contradiction. That's the complete opposite of how God actually gives his gifts. So the tragedy is for, Pharisees that those who are willing to work and eager and ready to work for blessing are the ones who are really unable to enjoy and appreciate the blessing that God offers. That's, that's sort of ironic that there are people out there really striving and working to earn God's favor. And those are the people, those are the only people who aren't going to get what they're after. Those are the only people who aren't going to be able to enjoy and appreciate those blessings that God offers. I want you to turn to Matthew chapter 20. Tonight. We're going to look at a passage here. Wayne, I'm sure after the study you've done in your Sunday school class, you could probably interject some as we work our way through this tonight. Verses 1 through 16 is what we're going to look at. So let me read this for us. Matthew chapter 20. Verses 1 through 16. This is Jesus speaking. He says, For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace. And to them he said, You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you. So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. At about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, Why do you stand here idle all day? They said to him, Because no one has hired us. He said to them, You go into the vineyard too. And when the evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last up to the first. And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And receiving it, they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat. But he replied to one of them, Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity so the last will be first and the first last? You probably heard that last line in there. The last will be first and the first last. But there's the context of it. That's where Jesus is talking about that. So the situation, I think, the story is self-explanatory, right? You have a landowner who needs folks to work. He takes his vineyard and goes out and he hires people for an agreed upon price. Goes out again a few hours later, sees more people standing around, contracts with them, does it again, and then does it a fourth time when it comes time to pay. He pays those who have only worked an hour or two the same amount as those who have worked all day. And, of course, the ones who have worked all day, what's their response? We deserve more. They complain. They're obviously unhappy. It says they grumbled. Let me ask you, don't answer too quickly. Just think about this. Don't answer out loud. Do they have a justifiable complaint? If you say no, I agree that they don't, but now ask yourself this. If you were in their situation, would you be complaining? Was anyone cheated? No. Was the landowner unhappy? Was the landowner unjust to anyone? Did he agree with anyone and then not give them what they had agreed to? No. Everyone got the amount they had agreed to, and what anyone else got was the prerogative of the one giving the gift. He says at the very end, am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Say he had given the ones at the very end who had only worked an hour or two, what if he had given them double? Would that have been unjust? Maybe unfair. It's his prerogative, isn't it? It's his money to give what he will. The Pharisees in this story are the first workers. And he's saying this, I think, with them in mind, probably in his listening audience. The Pharisees, and I'm not trying to say that they're the first workers, I'm not talking about modern day Pharisees, but the actual Pharisees of that day were in the role of the first workers. These men had typically been working their whole lives to earn and work for some sort of reward from God. They prided themselves on their heritage, going all the way back to Moses and the law and the prophets and the temple. They prided themselves on their knowledge of the law and then also their keeping of the law, at least externally, they prided themselves on their religious significance, on the fact that they were in charge of holy things. And then they also prided themselves on the authority that they had to give approval to those who they felt deserved it and then also to withhold it from those who they felt didn't deserve it. So all their identity was sort of wrapped up in these things. The later workers, who might you compare those folks to? What kind of people did Jesus hang out with a lot? The poor, the lame, blind, lepers, tax collectors, sinners. Those were the people who surrounded Jesus. Those were the people who come up at the very end of the day. Now, this probably isn't surprising to you. The Pharisees were unable and unwilling to accept, that what they had worked so long for and so hard for and given so much effort to, somebody else could get for almost nothing. Now, let me ask again, examine our own hearts. Is there any Pharisee in you? Because there's a little Pharisee in me still. It's hanging on. It doesn't want to let go. So, um, Pharisees were, also very good at exercising step two. Remember what step two was? It's that we, uh, exalt ourselves by lowering or denigrating others. They exalted themselves. They detested others. And so what, what did Jesus come along and do? Jesus came along and made the ground level. Everybody gets a denarius. Everybody gets the agreed upon price. Um, if you look at their, their complaint in verse 12, what, what was their, what was the complaint of the first workers who are in the, the position of the Pharisees? We bore the burden. We bore the burden and you've done what? Right. Mine says, literally you have made them equal to us. You have made them equal to us. Now, what, what sort of the underlying sentiment there? What's the underlying sentiment there? We're not equal to them. We are superior to them because of the amount of work and the amount of effort that we have put in. Uh, Jesus was making all of them equal, not just in pay, but in terms of worth, in terms of personhood. You can imagine that a person who's a Pharisee, a religious leader, it was about who they were. It was about, about their identity at their very core. These Pharisees, their, their mindset, their thought is I'm, we're better than you. You know, I'm, can't help it. That's just how it is. I'm just better than you. Uh, and, and I, I hope that those words would never escape our lips, but I, I'm afraid that that attitude dwells in our heart far too much based on some sort of criteria that we set up, whether it's religious hoops that people have to jump through or something else, uh, something else that people have to do in order to meet our qualifications, uh, to be good enough that we, we tend to think of ourselves as superior and then look down on other people. They, these Pharisees could not seem to grasp the abundant, glorious, extravagant generosity of God. Again, going back to what I said at the beginning, for them, it was all about what you worked for, what you earned, what you deserved. And so they, they couldn't seem to wrap their head around the idea of a God who was abundantly, extravagantly generous. Um, now the irony in that is they could have had that grace and that generosity for themselves, but they were unwilling to see it. They were unwilling to acknowledge it. So they were unreal, unwilling to receive it. Uh, they could have had the abundance of God's grace and the riches of his mercy, but they were unwilling to, to see it. So they were unwilling to receive it. Grace starts with everybody on level ground. The whole idea, the whole concept of grace is that no one is, is any better than anyone else. No one is any more deserving than anyone else or else it wouldn't be grace, would it? Grace demands that everybody starts on level ground, but we also start on level ground because of, because of sin. The reason that grace is needed in the first place is because of sin. And because of sin, everybody starts equally desperate, equally needy, right? Equally dead in their trespasses and sins. So grace is no respecter of persons. Grace says, you're all starting out, you're all starting out on the same level. You'll, you're all starting out equally sinful, equally desperate, equally needy. So then anyone who repents, anyone who trusts in Christ, whether you're like a Pharisee who's been working at it their whole life, or whether you're, you're new to the dance and you just walked in the door and heard this message. Anybody who repents, anybody who trusts in Christ, Christ can have every spiritual thing. Those spiritual things, that people have been working for their whole lives and through their own effort have been trying to earn, but they haven't gotten it. If you just trust in Jesus, you can have that. And the guy who just came in and just heard the message for the first time right now, today, this moment, if you trust in Jesus, you can have the same thing that this guy has been working for his whole life. But, but everybody can have that, right? Um, by faith, immediately. It's not that if you've just started this idea, you have to work a little bit like these guys, have been working. Immediately, it can be yours by faith. And to those who have been working at it a while, that, that can seem unfair. I mean, does that make sense to you? It can seem unfair. Um, but ultimately, Pharisees aren't concerned as much with what they're paid. These guys weren't arguing. These first workers, they weren't upset as much with what they were paid. What were they upset with? What? What the other guy was paid. They're not, there's not, they're not as upset with what, about what they received. That's what they had agreed upon. They were upset that that guy got as much as I did. They were upset with what the other guy, uh, I, I, I tend to think that we are quick to receive mercy and often slow to show mercy. We are quick to receive forgiveness and very slow often to give forgiveness. That we want to be judged. Sometimes according to our intentions, but we're quick to judge other people by externals. What, what they do, their actions without any consideration for mitigating circumstances or any of those things. We want to be able to make a case to people and say, well, I didn't really mean that. Here's why I did that. We want to rationalize, explain, but for that other person, I don't want to hear it. I know what you did. Um, you see that in family conflicts, you see that in community conflicts, you see that, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, I don't want to hear your explanation. It's a shame to say that I saw that a little bit at some little Dribblers game this year that all we care about is what was done. We don't want to hear your explanation, and yet when it comes to us, I deserve the right to explain myself. So Pharisees aren't as much concerned about what they're paid. They're bothered by what the other guy, the undeserving, person is paid. So if everybody is paid the same, is that good news for a Pharisee? Is that good news for a Pharisee? is that good news for a Pharisee? that's the gospel, it's good news either that or he should come late to the park there you go he should give back a little bit you know well we know some places exactly, we were in Wisconsin we got into a little row about that but that's I think that gets to the tragedy of this whole thing is that the gospel good news for this group of people, it's not good news they refuse to let it be good news they refuse to rejoice in the good news of it because all they see is that guy didn't deserve didn't work for what I did no, I think the idea of grace, the idea that everybody starts on level ground regardless of how long you've been at it, how long you've worked for it, how long you've tried to earn and deserve it, that that guy that just is brand new, he gets the same gift that I get, I don't think they like that at all I don't think they like the fact that a person I mean it's the older son and prodigal son, the older son did not like the fact that that younger son received a party when he came home, he didn't like that, he left home, he hasn't been here, he hasn't been working he hasn't been loyal, he hasn't been faithful why does he get what I've had the whole time, and the father told him that, he goes, all this is yours, you've had this the whole time, so the problem with the older brother wasn't that he thought he had too little his problem was, he's getting some, right that's the heart that's step three that's the heart of a Pharisee now yeah, and yet and that's part of the hindrance for a Pharisee to receive grace is that he doesn't see himself as undeserving and in order to receive grace that's sort of a prerequisite, you have to see yourself as needy and undeserving but the Pharisee doesn't, he sees himself as fully qualified, fully deserving that he has earned and worked for this now another difference between the later workers and the first workers the later workers, those who might be described as poor wretched, pitiful sinners, they probably understood that they were undeserving they probably got that one denarius and thought holy smokes, did he make a mistake I'm not telling him if you don't, put it in my pocket I'm going to get out of here and not say a word they understood that they were undeserving they received that grace gladly and so they weren't concerned they didn't go around, hey what did you get I'm taking this and getting out of here I'm going home in case they go back through their books and realize that they made an accounting error and start to take some back they were not concerned with who else measured up they knew that they got better than they deserved and I think that's true for those of us who come to Christ recognizing our desperate need is that we realize that we've received better than we deserve I've known a handful of people in my life who when you ask them how are you doing they'll say I'm doing better than I deserve and that's the heart of grace right there how are you? I'm better than I deserve I'm better than I deserve and that's how I think these later workers were the opposite of course is true of the Pharisees they thought they had deserved more or earned more than they got and that's why they couldn't ultimately believe in Christ because it would have required them to give up all their measuring and all their evaluating and all their rankings and all their lists of hoops that you have to jump through Pharisees today let's move sort of to modern day Pharisees we have the same obstacles to accepting grace we might have different lists those Old Testament Pharisees had lists sort of based off of the Old Testament law we have different lists not necessarily Old Testament law we have a lot of lists comprised of traditions I know that's hard to accept in a Baptist church that we have some traditions that may not be all completely rooted in Scripture not saying they're they're not they're against the Bible but why do we do that? well I don't know why because that's the way we've always done it we've always done it that way we tend to make lists about doing or not doing certain cultural things engaging in certain activities and those seem to fluctuate and change over time depending on where you live and when you live most of the sins or offenses on earth on a Pharisee's list and I'm talking about back then and today tend to be those things that are avoidable only through effort and work if you work at it if you strive at it if you're really committed to it and you earn it you can do it but if you're lazy, unrighteous, selfish lower than me you're not going to be able to make it things that were they would tend to put on their list things that are impossible for most things that are impossible for most but possible for some who are able to work for it and so for the Pharisees it was not so much for them Pharisees back then it was not so much the big things adultery, murder, stealing because in general people don't do those things the majority of people I don't think commit adultery or murder or steal maybe some of that but they were more interested in the small detailed precise minute sins those laws look at Mark 7 verses 3 and 4 actually let me back up here I'll start in verse 1 Mark 7 verse 1 Mark 7 verse 1 Now when the Pharisees gathered to him with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled that is, unwashed heaven forbid for the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands holding to the tradition of the elders and when they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash and there are many other traditions that they observed such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches and the Pharisees and the scribes asked him why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands what were they concerned with? something major? something big? they were concerned about why don't you wash your hands now this wasn't a germaphobe thing this was a tradition thing this was this is what is right this is what we have been taught this is what you do is you wash your hands you wash your cups and pots and copper vessels dining couches all these things you have to do things properly in order to be considered proper in order to be considered righteous so Jesus comes along and he addresses both of these things the big things and the small things so the big things like adultery and murder and stealing he says this over in Matthew chapter 5 he says this over in Matthew chapter 5 verse 21 Matthew 5 21 you have heard that it was said to those of old you shall not murder and whoever murders will be liable to judgment but I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment for whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire look at verse 27 you have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart those two right there what is he doing he is reinterpreting the big issues to focus not just on external behavior but on the heart and so here are these people who take pride in the fact that they have kept that they have never committed adultery they have never murdered they have never stolen and in that way here is the point and they take pride in the fact that they have never murdered they have never done anything And Jesus takes the issue all the way to their heart and he says, well, okay, maybe you've never murdered. Have you ever hated anyone? You're liable to judgment. You're guilty. Have you ever lusted? You're liable to judgment. You're guilty. Have you ever coveted something that someone else had? You might not have taken it. You might not have stolen it, but did you want it? You're guilty. You're liable to judgment. So he deals with the big things and he says, it's not just a matter of have you done them, it's are the seeds of those things in your heart and then in regard to the small things, look at Matthew 23, verse 23. Matthew 23, verse 23. Again, this is Jesus speaking to the scribes and Pharisees. He says, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matter of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness, these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. What was his accusation? He says, you're real good at the small things. Tithing your mint. How small a thing is that? Your dill. I'm sure some of you ladies that cook have a little thing of dill seeds in there. And I'm sure they were in there counting out 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. God gets number 10. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. They were so meticulous about the small, seemingly insignificant things. And you have to imagine, they were probably holding other people to that as well. You only gave us 9% of your mint. Where's that 10%? And yet, at the same time, what were they doing? They were neglecting the big things. Justice. They had their mint and dill and cumin right, but they were being unjust. They weren't being, they weren't being merciful. They weren't being faithful. And so they were missing out on the big things. And so Jesus shows how their obsession with the small things led them to ignore the things that ultimately really matter. So again, a tragedy in this system. While they have set up this system to reward their effort and to reward their hard work, what does Jesus do? He's like the, it's like the Wizard of Oz where you have the man behind the curtain. Jesus pulls back the curtain and says, there's your wizard. Jesus exposes that their system is flawed and they are just as guilty, if not more guilty, than the people that they're condemning for not living up to, not jumping through their little hoops and not keeping their rules. So it's no wonder that these people hated Jesus. That shouldn't shock us that they plotted to kill him. Because here they had built this whole identity. They had control of this system. They had control of the people. And Jesus comes in and he threatens to knock the whole thing over, blow it over like a house of cards. He threatened their position. He threatened their identity. He threatened their control. Jesus comes along and instead of the Messiah coming and choosing the Pharisees, who does he choose? He chooses fishermen, tax collectors, prostitutes, Roman soldiers, women, children, blind, lame, demon-possessed. Shockingly, no Pharisees. No Pharisees. No Pharisees. He chooses the outcast, the marginalized. Jesus typically used those who knew that they were undeserving and that they had no spiritual status and the Pharisees never got past that. They never got over that. They took that as a personal offense and they held that tightly. God's mercy, God's grace jerks the rug out of everything that Pharisees work for. Because everything Pharisees work for is built on my efforts and my ability, my strength and when it comes to grace, what does all that count for? Nothing. Nothing. My earning, my deserving, my effort when it comes to God's grace, that has no significance. And to be told that all you've worked for your whole life is insignificant, that's enough to make you angry. And it made these folks angry. It made them unnecessary. The economy of grace made Pharisees unnecessary. There was no grace. There was no longer the need for anyone to have to measure and evaluate and rank and list. Everybody's on common ground because of sin and everybody gets the same opportunity because of grace. So for those of us with a little bit of Pharisee blood in us, what is required of us is that we relinquish that thing that is so valuable to us and that's control. That we relinquish control. Control of God. And when I say control of God, I mean putting God in your debt, saying, God, you owe me because look at all that I've done for you. That's an attempt to sort of control and manipulate God. God, I deserve these things. You owe me these things because look at all that I've done, look at all that I've accomplished, look at all that I've built. But then secondly, that we relinquish our control of others. The problem with the Pharisees was that they tried to control God and then they also tried to control others that you have to work as hard as you can. You have to work as hard as you can. You have to work as hard as you can. As I do to receive mercy, to receive grace, to receive blessing. And so it's only when we let go of that control that we can truly do three things I think that are necessary for us to walk in freedom. And that's worship, depend on God, and connect with others. And let me just hit on those real quick in these last couple minutes we've got. Number one, when we let go of control, we're fully able to worship. Unless, if only when we let go of control are we truly able to worship. Because what is worship? At its essence, worship is an admission that there's a God and I'm not Him. Right? It's an acknowledgement that He is God, therefore He alone is worthy of honor. He alone is worthy of praise and credit from His creation. That He is creator, we are creation. And so, when you worship is when you forget about your greatness. I know it's been a while since I showed this, there was a video that I showed, John Piper was speaking and he talked about standing out on a clear night and just looking at the sky blanketed with stars. Makes you feel small. Makes you feel insignificant. And yet, that's the time when you worship. Standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon. Makes you feel small. Makes you feel insignificant. And yet, what's the response of your heart? Praise God. Glory to God. He did this with his finger. Etched this canyon here. He increases when we decrease. And so, only when we let go of that control, let go of that self-exaltation, are we truly able to worship the way that God has commanded that we worship in spirit and truth. The second thing, only when we let go of control are we able to walk in dependence on God. Depending on God for any, for our work to have any eternal value. If I'm doing it in my effort, my energy, my ability, I'm going to end up like in a, what's it, in 1 Corinthians 3 where he talks about that our works will be tested by fire. Gold, silver, precious jewels, wood, hay, and stubble. It's going to be tested by fire. And when you put all that stuff in the fire, what comes out? Only the gold, silver, and precious jewels. The wood, hay, and stubble burns up. That's the stuff that is, that we've done in our own effort, our own ability, through our own fleshly strength, right? I had a saying that I'm an author of, and I'm thinking, when all that stuff is burned away, does God not be able to see me? Yeah. Well, and I think that's just a reminder to us to make sure that we're investing in things with a truly eternal purpose. Things that have an eternal value. But in order to do that, I have to depend on God. Because the truth is, and I guess I kind of grew up with this mindset of doing things for God. I'm going to do this for God, and I'm going to do that for God. I'm going to accomplish these great things for God. The truth is, you don't do anything for God. God works through you. He works in you and through you. It's His power. It's His strength. It's the empowering of the Spirit. But we accomplish nothing in our own strength. For anything that we've done to have any eternal value, it has to come from walking in dependence and reliance on God. Then the third thing, only when we let go of control can we truly enter into a sense of community. You have to imagine that the relationship between the Pharisees and the common people probably wasn't a real warm buddy-buddy relationship. It was probably a relationship of fear and intimidation and control, those sorts of things. And as long as you have these tiers of spirituality even modern day, if you have pastors here and below that is deacons and then Sunday school teachers and then everybody else, then there's not going to be that sense of community. Community is commonality. It's unity. It's a connection and camaraderie with others who are just as guilty as I am and just as forgiven as I am. That's what the common bond that we stand on is your sin isn't any worse than mine and my sin isn't any worse than yours. We were all on level ground to start with and then the grace that you received isn't any better or worse than the grace that I received because you worked for it and I didn't or I worked for it and you didn't. The grace that we received is equal as well and so we stand on common ground. There's a sense of unity there and when we have that true sense of unity when we've given up concern for image, when we've given up concern for reputation, when we've given up that need to compare to one another, that's when really you get that functioning sense of a body working together. In your own body, I don't know that the eye cares that the ear gets credit for hearing or that the hand gets credit for grabbing or that the feet get credit for walking. It's all part of the same body and it's the same thing for us that no one is any higher or lower better or worse than any other. We're a body. We're a family. We're a community of believers and only when we give up control and are willing to be honest about those things and let the gospel really work on us can we really function the way that we were intended to by God.