Gospel Shaped Minds, Hearts, and Lives
Summary
In this conversation, Mark Oshman discusses the concept of Third Culture Kids (TCKs) and their unique experiences of belonging and identity. He draws parallels between TCKs and Christians, emphasizing that believers are citizens of heaven and must live in a manner worthy of their citizenship. The conversation explores the importance of orthodoxy (right belief), orthopathy (right feelings), and orthopraxy (right actions) in achieving spiritual maturity and unity within the church. Oshman highlights that knowledge alone is insufficient for spiritual growth and that true maturity involves a holistic approach that includes love, unity, and practical application of faith.
Transcript
Many of you know that my my daughters weren't born here. They were born in Japan and we were serving as missionaries in Okinawa, Japan. And so they are known as TC case. Anyone ever hear that term? TCK. OK, we got it. Yeah, we have some TC case. We had some in the last TC came in third culture kid. And what it means is that they have a third culture, meaning they don't share the host culture of their.
their parents because they weren't born or raised in that culture in our case here in Denver Colorado and they don't really share the culture of the place they were born Japanese culture because they're not really from there and so that they exist in this third space and that that develops them in certain ways and it gives them opportunities and challenges and so my daughters are all very ⁓ culturally aware that they're aware.
They're observant, they're able to fit in in different places. They're very, they're hyper aware of Americans and their bad behavior overseas and how they're acting. Cause they're like, you don't do that. ⁓ And so that's a third culture kid, but that it's also challenging because they never really feel home anywhere. this America doesn't really feel like home for them. They lived in check. That doesn't really feel like home. They lived in Japan. That doesn't really feel like home.
There is something in TCKs that longs for something of home, but they don't know where to point to that. And so it reveals itself in different ways. It's just ⁓ kind of some funny ways. ⁓ My daughter, Hannah, she loves American commercials. Like no joke, like we have YouTube TV, we're watching a show and a commercial come on and she'll just.
And I'll start fast forward and she's like, dad, no, no, no, stop. The commercials are on. Like, yeah, that's why I'm fast forwarding. Everyone, no one likes the commercials. Like they're entertainment for her. I'm like, where did this come from? Like, wow, who watches commercials? Well, I thought about it when growing up in Japan, we had one channel, one English channel by AFN, Armed Forces Networks. And AFN has all these shows from all the different networks.
in the states that they'll show and they'll have sporting events, but they don't show commercials that they just have this, but they still have this gap in space that they got to fill where a commercial would be. And so they fill it basically with, ⁓ it feels like homemade public service announcements. They're so bad. So we learned all about ⁓ cholesterol levels and ⁓ we learned about how you need to drink a lot of water because you're in Okinawa, it's hot, you got to be hydrated. We learned about
All the different ways that the ocean is going to kill you. And so consequently, none of my daughters love the ocean, even though we grew up there. Like it's trying to get you at all times. ⁓ Learned about, ⁓ what other things we learned? ⁓ yeah, this term OPSEC. Anyone know OPSEC? It means operational security. So there's ⁓ all these commercials with the bad acting where ⁓ this, you know, ⁓ airman is walking home and.
and someone in the shadows is following him and ⁓ you need to watch your operational security, what's going on. And never take the same way home from work as you do. Like who does that, right? Like take a different way home every day, like you can't do it. But we still use that term in our family. Like if we're traveling and it's kind of a dangerous place, say like Marseille, France, and we're like, hey, watch your opsec. And we all know, like don't be on your phone, don't have the earbuds in, like watch what's going on.
There's that, but there's one other commercial that would come up in different ways time and time and time again. And it was basically this, you Americans who are living in this host countries would be Japan, Germany, Italy, Korea, you Americans understand who you are. Understand that you represent America. You represent your citizenship. And as such, you either give a good name to America or you give a bad name and we see this.
all the time. And so the commercial was, hey, represent America well. Paul is getting out here at this point in his letter. Last week, he said something. He basically said, we're all TCKs now. We're all third culture kids. If you are in Christ, have Colossians 1.16, you have been delivered from the dominion of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the sun.
God loves you have a new citizenship in Philippians three you'll say we are our citizenship is in heaven therefore we never are fully comfortable where we're at. This isn't really our home. Don't get settled in so much. And then Philippians chapter one last week Ryan preached on this but in verse twenty seven it said this only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. And as Ryan said
Paul's not contradicting the gospel. He's not saying earn your salvation. There's one word, manner of life, and we get the word politics from. ⁓ It's a word you might have a footnote, citizenship. He's basically saying, listen, Christians in Philippi, you understand Philippi. Philippi is this Roman colony on the outskirts of the Roman Empire, but they are thoroughly Roman, and they have as such obligations and responsibilities as Romans.
to represent Rome well. And Paul is saying to these people in Philippi, you understand how they do it, but you are citizens of heaven. Therefore, live in a manner worthy of your citizenship in heaven. You represent a different king and a different kingdom. He says, well, what does that look? It looks like ⁓ spiritual maturity manifests itself in spiritual unity. So he says, so that whether I come to you and see you or in absent, I may hear of you.
that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the one gospel. So we are citizens. Chapter two, where we're at today, answers the question, well, how do we actually do that? How do we pursue a spiritual maturity that leads to spiritual unity that reflects the kingdom values in the world? And Paul's going to show us there's actually three things that are necessary. The three things that...
have to be in our lives if we're going to be those kind of people that live in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus. And so if you have your Bible ⁓ Philippians chapter two ⁓ we'll pick it up. Actually I'm to pick it up in verse five. I'll read this passage. It's known by some as the Christ hymn. Some some theologians think this is not unique to Paul but rather one of the oldest Christian hymns to teach Christians about Jesus.
that is in existence and Paul is quoting it. You'll see some rhythm to it, but we'll jump off from there. Paul writes this. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours and Christ's, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form. He humbled himself.
by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Amen. Well, this passage, what you just heard,
is one of the most important ⁓ passages in all the Bible in this area of theology called Christology. What is the truth about Christ? And libraries have been written about this. so Paul pointing to this is showing this first essential that we must have as Christians to reach some level of spiritual maturity. And that's orthodoxy. It's right belief. But like we are ⁓
We are unified on a truth, on the truth. And so it is incumbent on citizens of the kingdom to know the truth, to believe the truth, to tell the truth. And this passage ⁓ tells the truth about who Jesus is. Again, it'd be very hard to overstate every single word and line of this Christ hymn. I'm going to just show you quickly what I mean by this. So I don't normally do this.
But ⁓ I want you to lock in for like three minutes because I want to give you a grammar lesson. You're like great grammar. That's going to be an awesome sermon Mark. ⁓ I know I know but just stick with me for three minutes. I've got my mother-in-law here who's a lifelong English teacher. So this was for her. ⁓ I'm just kidding. But this is important. I just want to show you like how important every word in this Christ him is for our understanding.
and our orthodoxy, our right belief. And so in verse six, it says, though he was in the form of God, those words, though he was, in the Greek it's just one word. it normally gets translated being. It's a participle, know, a verbal adjective, a verb that describes a noun. You're like, yeah, okay, we got that. I was like third grade or something.
Well, here's the deal. In the Greek language, ⁓ that word ⁓ gets translated differently based on circumstances. So it's what's called a circumstantial participle. So depending on the context and the circumstance, you use different words in the English to describe. Does that make sense so far? So let me give you some examples. So the first example I have up here, can we get to ⁓ the example? Okay, so if we have a blank here and it says the baby was crying.
the mother fed the baby. What do you think you would put in that blank? Because, there. So this is what's called a causal participle. Because the baby was crying, the mother fed the baby. Next example. Now don't give it away too quickly here. We'll see if they get here. So this one is blank, the baby was crying, the mother went to bed. What would you put there?
What? Okay, could be in spite. In spite of the fact that the baby was crying, the mother was exhausted. So this is called a concessive. So you might put although, although the baby was crying, like mom's like, I'm done. And so the context would be although. Same exact word in the Greek, but in English, it's context. And there's like five or six more based on circumstances. I just wanted to show you two, causal and concessive. Now, you're like, okay, great.
What does that have to do with this passage? It blows my mind. I hope it'll blow your mind. So in the ESVs, what I'm saying, it says this, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. what is that? Is that concessive or causal? Concessive. It'd be although he was God. And this makes sense. And this could be right. Many scholars land there. And obviously the
ESV scholars land there. It's concessive. Although he was God, he did not consider equality with God something to be clung onto or grasped onto. Totally makes sense. If I'm God, I don't have to serve anybody. Everyone could serve me that that would make sense. And if I choose to, I'm not that that could be true. However, ⁓ one scholar I was reading, Dr. Hawthorne, he spent his life as a Greek professor at Wheaton College.
He says this, listen to this, says if you understand the context, if you understand the flow of Paul's argument and what he's saying about God, it's exactly the opposite. In other words, this ought to be translated. Your attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus, who precisely because he was in very nature God, precisely because he did not consider equality with God to be grounds for grasping. So do you see what it's saying?
He's saying, listen, if Jesus, when he came and took on flesh as God in the flesh, he didn't come to conceal who God is, but to reveal who God is. And because precisely because he is God, he is a God who serves. He's a God who gets low. This is an amazing, mind blowing truth about who our God is. Like we read stories of CEOs and up and comers and Forbes and Wall Street Journal and
And the whole aim of this world is to climb the ladder, climb the ladder, climb the ladder, climb the ladder, get to the top. But what we see here in Christ is that that he is coming down the ladder, coming down the ladder, coming down the ladder, even to the point of death, even death on the cross. And when you hit death on the cross, you hit rock bottom. So some quick application for us in our striving and our striving to get to the top.
and are striving to get ahead of others as we climb, climb, climb, climb, climb. The biggest problem with that is that as we're climbing to the top, we'll miss Jesus because he's on his way to get low. I mean, this is this is cool theology, right? Like this is what we we start to see. That's just one example that I wanted to show. But but ⁓ I want I want to say that there should be a warning attached to this.
There should be a warning because orthodoxy alone isn't sufficient for your maturity. In fact, it's actually kind of dangerous. We're all children of the Enlightenment. That means we value ⁓ rational thinking and thought. And we've in some circles boiled down Christianity to ⁓ what do you know about God? And if you know a lot about God and you know a lot about the Bible and you know a lot of scriptures that are memorized, then you must be spiritually
Mature and if you have a platform and if you have books then then we want to be like you we boil down Maturity to knowing things about God now. It is not less than knowing But it is certainly more than knowing We know this right there are plenty of things that you know that have no impact on your life. You know, you should eat better You know, should sleep more, you know, you should
Exercise, you know, you know you should spend more time with your family. Like we could go on and on. My daughters, my teenage daughters, always know the UV levels outside. Yeah. They also know that it's not great for their long-term health. But it does not change their behavior whatsoever. It's actually the opposite. They are always tanning.
I'm sending them reels from doctors thinking if I get more knowledge into them they will change but knowledge doesn't necessarily change us it should like we should read this passage about Christ and be like wow that's going to change me but knowledge alone is actually kind of dangerous ⁓ it's not sufficient it's actually the easiest easiest one of the three that Paul is going to say we need to get ⁓ so for example
We were living in the Czech Republic and in Czech culture it's pretty hostile to the gospel. And so a ministry we were partnering with was like hey we need to we need to bring someone American over here that's going to just be very clear on the gospel. And so they found had this relationship with this guy very large ministry ⁓ strong ministry. ⁓ He's a professor ⁓ in California at a ministry at a seminary. He is a pastor in.
Texas, he's written many books, has his own ministry, like just known for like truth, truth, truth, truth, truth, this guy. So they bring him over there and they say, hey, we need someone to speak to the wives. And so they asked my wife to talk to the wives there. And he does it. He stands up and he proclaims the truth. And everyone's like, yeah, this guy, I want to be like this guy when I'm older. He's 72. And that's what I want my life to be because he is bold for the truth.
Well, nine months ago, it was discovered that this man that's 72 has been in a five-year relationship with one of his seminary students for five years.
that there's some sort of disconnect. I don't know many people that know orthodoxy better than this man and have such a massive disconnect to his life. Listen, every week I can stand up and open up God's Word and say, this is what God says and you should test me in light of scripture to see if I'm orthodox. you can't know my heart. You can't know what's going on in my thought life, how I steward my affections.
I could be a fraud for all you know.
Again orthodoxy without anything else is actually dangerous because we think I must be spiritually mature because I know things about God. That's not true and we have to push back against that. So Paul gives us the second thing that we must have in order to be mature that leads to unity that leads to mission that leads to joy. Verse one says so if there's any encouragement in Christ have any comfort from his love any participation in the spirit any affection.
and sympathy complete my joy. Paul is appealing. Notice the words encouragement, comfort, love, affection, sympathy, joy. These are words of the heart and the soul. So we need orthodoxy but we also need orthopathy. We need right feeling. We need to feel things right. We are to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Our whole body. We live in a culture that ⁓
that we think we're victims to our hearts. We're victims to whatever we feel. Like, well, I, you know, the heart wants what the heart wants. Follow your heart. Like that's paganism. That's not Christianity. Christianity is, hey, you can control your heart. Your heart doesn't have to control you. You can shepherd and steward what you love, what you set your affections on. This is what we're called to. This is good news because you don't have to be a victim of your feelings.
You can recognize that your feelings are not in line with the truth and that there are patterns and pathways to change them. The Puritans got this. They got orthodoxy, but they never disconnected it from orthopathy. Right feeling. Thomas Watson, I'll put it on the screen, this. Knowledge without love inflames pride. The devil has knowledge but no love, and so is a devil still. Knowledge is for the eyes, but love...
is for the heart. So we must cultivate our hearts carefully. Well, how do do that? I just I feel what I want. I want what I want. I love what I want. No, you can you can lead your heart. We see this all over the place in the Psalms. The psalmist are having conversations with their hearts and their soul. Why are you downcast on my soul? Trust in God. The psalmist is reminding. I will remind myself of the
deeds of the Lord. Every song that we sing is not just for our mind, it's for our hearts. Sometimes you come in a room like this and the words, you're not feeling anything, but you are singing to your heart saying, this is what's true. This is what we feel. This is what we love. We've got to understand, as the Puritan said, what stirs our affections for the Lord and what robs our affections from the Lord.
What stirs your affection? Prayer, worship, reminding each other, fellowship, like these things will stir your affection. What robs your affection? Certainly sin robs your affections, but a thousand other things do as well. Like I can give myself to, I can give my emotion and passions to what a 20 year old does with a football more than who Jesus is. I need to give an account for that. I need orthopathy. need right.
feeling but but even that is not sufficient because some of some of us here are more emotional than other more in tune with that but but if you have orthopathy without orthodoxy then you're just going to affirm everything that the world affirms you're say love who you love love what you want follow your heart and and the Bible is gonna say that no that's a terrible path in fact if you have orthodoxy and orthopathy it's still not sufficient there's one more thing that we must have
here we see it beginning in verse two. says complete my joy being of the same mind have the same love being in full of cord and one of mine. He's calling them to unity or or we could say ortho proxy right action. We are called to love God with our minds our hearts and our hands like we shouldn't be satisfied just like well I love God and my mind and my heart and it's personal and private.
No, Christianity is not a personal and private religion. It's a personal religion. Yes, it's not private. We are meant to love God with our actions, with unity in this case. Unity is a huge deal in the Bible. It's not a huge deal in most of our circles, but Jesus, on the night that he was betrayed in the upper room, gathered his disciples and he says, the world will know that you're my followers as you love one another in unity.
Jesus said that. And then in John chapter 17, he begins to pray for his disciples. He says, but I don't only pray for them, I pray for all that will believe after them. So he prayed for you. You know what he prayed for you? Father, make them one as you and I are one. And then he went to the cross and with his blood purchased the unity of his bride, the church. It's a huge deal in the mind of Christ. Christ died for the unity of his church.
And so we should fight for unity, but unity is not easy. Like unity is easy when we all agree and everyone's happy and we sing kumbaya, but when there are legitimate differences of opinion and ideas, then what do we do? Well, usually we just go to a different church. I don't like that. That's not what Jesus is saying. that there is a fighting for unity and orthoproxy that's here.
And so Paul shows us, here's the path. Here's how you get unity. He says, nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Paul appeals to humility. Again, that's why he gives this whole Christology.
not to give you theology, to show Christ has humility. Like until the time of Christ, humility was not seen in the ancient world as a virtue. It was seen as weakness. Rome valued power and dominance and control and pride. And then Jesus came along full of humility. And Jesus followers saw Jesus' humility and they memorized this Christ hymn and they're like, this is the way, the way up is down, the way to glory is...
down. And so humility, but humility is hard, right? It's hard to just generate in yourself, right? I love what Chuck Swindoll says about humility. says, we appreciate humility in others, but rarely want it for ourselves. The price is too high. Humility is not what gets us ahead. And let's be completely honest, we like humble people around us because they don't threaten our position.
They're safe people with that quaint little virtue that keeps them on the sideline during the scramble to the top of the hill. We can afford to be humble after we're king. Church, live in a manner worthy of the gospel. That means humility. We are a humble people. How do we do this? Well, the best book that I know,
that I regularly reread. It's this tiny little book by Tim Keller called The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness. You can read it in 45 minutes. The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness. He actually takes a passage from 1 Corinthians, but it's an echo of Philippians 2. And he shows the path to joy is simply taking your eyes off yourself. Here's what he, I'll put a quote on the screen here. says, humility.
is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself. It's thinking of myself less. humility is not like, I'm so bad. I'm so, no, it's just like, take your eyes off yourself. True gospel humility means I stopped connecting every experience, every conversation with myself. In fact, I stopped thinking about myself altogether.
C.S. Lewis would say, you ever met a truly humble person, you probably wouldn't think that's a humble person. You'd just think, that person was a happy chap, I think he said. That person ⁓ really was interested in me. Like there's just this freedom of lifting our eyes and this is what Paul is calling us to, consider others above yourself. So there it is, orthodoxy, orthopathy, orthoproxy.
How will we pursue spiritual maturity that leads to unity, that leads to joy as a church? Again, if we only value the first one, we'll think, okay, I took notes, it's good sermon, don't really need to do anything. But if we value all three, then we'll consider all three. Orthodoxy, do you know the truth about the gospel? Do you love the truth? Do you proclaim the truth to one another and to others?
Without the truth, we have no common basis for our belief and our mission as a church. We pursue orthodoxy, but not alone. We go to orthopathy. What captures your heart, your imagination, your feelings when you're alone, when your head hits the pillow at night, where's your heart at? So how are you going to lead your heart rather than be led by your heart this week?
What truths of the gospel are you going to rehearse to your heart this week? Maybe in prayer, maybe in scripture reading, maybe in song. What stirs your affections for God and what robs your affections for God? Without right affections, we may be puffed up with pride and not love God or love people. And then finally, orthopraxy. Have you become comfortable with a faith that is merely personal and private? In what ways will you...
Let your knowledge and your passion work itself out in your life this week. How will you use your life to build up, encourage the unity of this church this week? Without orthopraxy, there's no evidence that we are citizens of the kingdom of God. And the whole point of Paul's letter is for our joy. Our mission and our joy are tied together to unity.
Paul knows that enjoying Jesus is tied to one another. Like every organization knows this. Like every sports team knows we must have unity if we're going to win the championship. Like go to a musical performance in the orchestra. There's no unity there. That's a terrible performance, right? Every business knows this. Why wouldn't we know this as the church? Why wouldn't we value what Christ values? Unity for our mission and our joy. There's just too much at stake here to ignore.
these truths. So let's love the gospel in our minds, our hearts, our hands in unity together for the glory of God, the joy of all people. Amen. Let me pray for us to that end.