A Season To Be Selfless Series

On Dec. 7, 1682 the Great Law of Pennsylvania was passed which

became the basis for governing the state for 94 years. It represented

William Penn's ideal of a Christian state. It provided for religious

freedom and the protection of individual rights. It provided for the

care of poor and orphans. It gave work to prisoners in contrast to

England where they were merely locked up. William Penn was a

man concerned about the interests of others. He made just treaties

with the Indians, and the Delaware chief-Tammany and he were

great personal friends. As long as they lived there was peace and

harmony between their peoples.

Penn arranged the famous "Walking Purchase" by which he

bought from the Indians all the land North along the Delaware

River that a man could cover in a three day walk. He walked off the

first day himself in leisurely fashion. After his death his son

Governor Thomas Penn hired three back woodsmen to complete the

purchase. The fastest of them ran, and did not walk, more than 60

miles in 36 hours. He defrauded the Indians of valuable hunting

grounds. This selfish act lead to wars on the Pennsylvania frontier

in which hundreds of lives were lost. The beautiful harmony

became ugly discord.

Selfishness has thrown a money wrench into every smooth

operation in history. We see it in the New Testament. The church

at Philippi was the best church in the New Testament. Paul's letter

to them is almost totally positive, and it is filled with praise and joy.

They were not trouble makers like the Corinthians, nor emotional

infants like the Thessalonians. They were well-balanced mature

Christians, but they still had the flaw, that universal flaw of every

church because it is the flaw of all men-selfishness.

Selfishness is that sin we can hardly stand in others, or hardly see

in ourselves. It is so hard to forgive in others, and so hard to forsake

in ourselves. It was the one weakness of the Philippian church, and

it led to strife and disunity. No group of people, not even God's

people can agree on everything, and this is not all bad, for God loves

variety. We do also, but it so often leads to conflict in human

relations. Paul tells the Philippians there is only one cure for the

flaw of selfishness, and it is not the blood of Christ. His blood

atoned for this sin, but His death did not eliminate it in believers.

He is writing to men who are already saved, but they are still selfish,

and they still face all the potential evils of selfishness. Paul says the

answer is not the blood of Christ, but the mind of Christ. He says,

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus."

You can be saved by the blood of Christ, but still be selfish

because you are not controlled by the mind of Christ. Only the mind

of Christ in us can enable us to be selfless rather than selfish. It was

the mind of Christ that thought of Christmas, and made all that

Christmas means a reality. It didn't just happen, it was planned and

carried out by that unique mind of the Master as the most selfless

act of love in all of history. The only way we can properly prepare

for Christmas, and enter into the Christmas spirit is to let the mind

of Christ dwell in us. Only as we have His mind can we be selfless

rather than selfish.

This passage of Paul's is one of the most profound in all the New

Testament, and yet it is so simple. It deals with the basic realities of

life and God's plan. It consists of a simple exhortation, and a

sublime example, and we want to examine each of them.

I. THE SIMPLE EXHORTATION.

Paul says in verse 4, "Don't look only at your own interests, but

consider the interests of others also." There is nothing profound

about that, but giving heed to it can profoundly change your life.

The fact is, we must be perpetually freeing ourselves from the jail of

self-imprisonment. Millions whom seem free are in the solitary

confinement of their own self-interest. Someone said, "You can pick

out entertainers by the glazed look that comes into their eyes when

the conversation wonders away from themselves." We don't have to

look to famous people to find selfishness, however, for we need only

look at our own lives to discover that even the good things we do are

selfish in part.

I have given money to Bethel College and Seminary, not just

because I think it is a great school deserving of support, but also

because I wanted to be on the list of loyal alumni. I have given to