In this final sermon for the Political Distortions series, Greg Boyd addresses the heart posture of humility, calling us to the mindset of living in love to the point that we take on the mind of Christ on the cross instead of the prideful-ascent mindset that characterizes Satan and those who are always pursuing a life of “more.”
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A Clash of Mindsets
• Greg Boyd
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Our world is pervaded by a prideful-ascent mindset, which leads people to operate out of self-interests and to pursue “more” because we have been told it is our right to go after it. This is diametrically opposed to the humble-love descent mindset. This prideful-ascent mindset works against the reality of the way things really are because it deceives us to think that we are more than we are.
The introduction of the prideful-ascent mindset was first introduced into God’s creation and is described to us in Isaiah 14:12-15. It reads:
How you have fallen from heaven,
morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!
You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.
I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
But you are brought down to the realm of the dead,
to the depths of the pit.
This is a reference to the arrogance of Satan which led to his fall. He was the greatest of all of God’s angelic beings, but he sought to rise to the level of the most-high God. Satan sought to ascend to the heavens and occupy the throne of God. He determined that he needed to rise to the highest point, wanting more and more.
We read about this mindset in Proverbs 16:18:
Pride goes before destruction,
a haughty spirit before a fall.
There is an organic connection between pride and destruction and between arrogance and falling. Pride eventually harms individuals and destroys societies because it carries its own seeds of destruction.
Once Lucifer introduced the prideful-ascent mindset into creation—which we read about in Genesis 3—it spread like a virus in a pandemic. Adam and Eve believed the lies of the Serpent and got infected with the lie-based, prideful-ascent mindset. They bought into the idea that they could not trust God but could rise to God’s level. And this continues throughout the Bible. The stories of Cain and Abel, the Tower of Babel, and the rise and fall of kings are interwoven with the prideful-ascent mindset. The book of Revelation summarizes this quite well: “The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months” (Revelation 13:5).
Satan, depicted as the Ancient Serpent, causes a beast to rise out of the sea and it “utters proud and blasphemous words.” We learn later that the beast is Babylon, a city that metaphorically represented the demonic pursuit of glory. It was structured on the “I will ascend” mindset, always seeking to acquire more. As all empires have done throughout history, Babylon eventually self-imploded because pride always leads to destruction, and a haughty arrogant spirit always eventually falls.
In our current cultural situation, we must be honest about the reality that we are living in a modern version of Babylon. We’ve had a nonstop explosion of creative innovation and new technologies over the last 200 years that have allowed the Western world to ascend like no other culture. Ascent is the goal of everything. We live with a conviction that humans are so smart, we can rely on technology to create whatever world we want. Our culture relies on our own power and ingenuity to carry out our own will to bring about the heaven we want for ourselves.
In addition, all political rhetoric is based on a prideful-ascent mindset. As long as humanity is proudly ignoring God and arrogantly in a perpetual quest for more, it will always lead to further conflict, polarization, and violence. And it always eventually implodes.
In contrast, we are to embody the humble-decent mindset. This is the point of the focus scripture above. Jesus, though by nature God, didn’t use his status as God for self-serving purposes. Instead, he humbled himself and he divested himself of the use of any aspect of his divinity that was inconsistent with him becoming a full human. Then he humbled himself further by remaining obedient to God the Father, even to the point of going to the cross, out of love and on our behalf. This is the exact opposite of Lucifer’s prideful-ascent mindset. This is the mindset we are to adopt because this is the only thing that actually brings eternal life and God’s eternal kingdom. It is the only thing that lasts.
This mindset of Jesus is rooted in an accurate view of reality. It’s not about thinking too lowly of oneself. It’s about knowing the truth of who we are and embracing what God says about us. This is why it is important to know what the Bible says about our identity as being “in Christ.” We can only avoid political distortions by setting aside distorted views of ourselves.
Hide Extended SummaryTopics: Humility, Identity in Christ, Politics
Sermon Series: Political Distortions
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Focus Scripture:
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Philippians 2:3-11
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
4 thoughts on “A Clash of Mindsets”
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If security in God makes us truly invulnerable, won’t that make us more apathetic than active? Why bother doing the things God calls us to if He’s gonna set everything right in the end anyhow? Seems to me this worth posture can make anyone believe they can’t do anything wrong…
Hi Sarah,
Emily from the Communications Team here with a reply from Greg:
I don’t recall saying that God makes us “invulnerable,” but if I did, I could only have meant it in a spiritual sense – viz. invulnerable to the Dragon’s influence, or something like that. But I don’t see how that could make anyone “apathetic’ about changing the world.
You then ask, Why bother doing the things God calls us to if He’s gonna set everything right in the end anyhow? I don’t know where I’d be without that hope. But it doesn’t demotivate me to passionate seek God’s will in the present time, including all I can to help society and help the earth. Even if I knew Jesus was going to appear tomorrow, I’d keep doing the right things because it’s always the right time to do the right thing, and obeying God is always the right thing.
Hope that helps! Bless you, Greg
Sarah, my thoughts!
Jesus loves us while we are still sinners. Can not earn it. It a free gift.
So on that 1st part we can not do anything wrong however there is a second part how we one another.
Jesus calls us to follow Him on the narrow path of wisdom, our only part, dialed in on the fruit of the spirit. If we can get that part right, its difficult, God does the rest.
Interesting setting everything right in the end.
Isaiah 34:4-12 All the stars in the sky will be dissolved and the heavens rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree.
Revelation 21:23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.
2 Cor 5:1 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
The only thing we will take with us then is our relationships with one another, shriveled and healthy.
John 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you [follow], you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing [shriveled].
You can not take unhealthy relationships through the gate. They need to be left outside and I do not believe, though I used to, that God just plunks a magic twanger, [sorry dates me Andy’s Gang], and all is forgotten.
So I believe in the end death and hell (the patterns of this world) get thrown into the lake of fire and some of us until we come to the point of letting go (suffering loss) of works of the flesh [including shriveled relationships].
So why not deal with our planks, our only to do part, while we are still on the road?
If we don’t deal with our own [planks ] Matthew 7:3-5 we will take them into our future where they’ll go into the cellars of our soul and they will [pump iron], lift weights, playing havoc with our imagination of our future.
Ephesians 4:26-27 “In your anger do not sin” Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.
Other’s planks, their pieces, become our ongoing baggage. So why not work on closing the gym now?
Ephesians 4:31-32 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other [the 2nd our only part] , just as in Christ God forgave you [the free gift while you were yet a sinner 1st part] .
Sarah, my thoughts!
Jesus loves us while we are still sinners. Cannot earn it It’s a free gift.
So on that 1st part we cannot do anything wrong however there is a second part how we one another.
Jesus calls us to follow Him on the narrow path of wisdom, our only part, dialed in on the fruit of the spirit. If we can get that part right, its difficult, God does the rest.
Interesting “setting everything right in the end”.
Isaiah 34:4-12 All the stars in the sky will be dissolved and the heavens rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree.
Revelation 21:23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.
2 Cor 5:1 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
The only thing we will take with us then is our relationships with one another, shriveled and healthy.
John 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you [follow], you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing [shriveled].
You cannot take unhealthy relationships through the gate. They need to be left outside and I do not believe, though I used to, that God just plunks a magic twanger, [sorry dates me Andy’s Gang], and all is forgotten.
So I believe in the end death and hell (the patterns of this world) get thrown into the lake of fire and some of us until we come to the point of letting go (suffering loss) of works of the flesh [including shriveled relationships].
So why not deal with our planks, our only to do part, while we are still on the road?
If we don’t deal with our own [planks ] Matthew 7:3-5 we will take them into our future where they’ll go into the cellars of our soul and they will [pump iron], lift weights, playing havoc with our imagination of our future.
Ephesians 4:26-27 “In your anger do not sin” Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Other’s planks, their pieces, become our ongoing baggage.
So why not work on closing the gym now?
Ephesians 4:31-32 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other [the 2nd our only part], just as in Christ God forgave you [the free gift while you were yet a sinner 1st part].