In this sermon, the speaker recounts a personal encounter with a woman who appears to be struggling and in need of help. Despite her appearance, she identifies herself as a missionary and expresses her desire to share the message of Jesus. The speaker is moved by her story and realizes the importance of having a "beautiful mind" like Christ, free from pride and judgment. The speaker urges the congregation to cultivate this mindset and fight against negative thoughts and influences. The sermon emphasizes the value of each individual's soul and the need to see the beauty in others rather than focusing on their faults.

The title of the message this morning is A Beautiful Mind. A beautiful mind. What is it? And our pastor at the beginning of this year said the motto for us, the God of second chances. And for us to have that second chance, we need to open up our minds to receive a beautiful mind and to receive that beautiful mind of Christ. And so I'm going to ask you to turn with me to the book of Philippians chapter 2. And I will read 11 verses because pastor has given me lots of time. We will read 11 verses from Philippians chapter 2 because this talks about a beautiful mind, a beautiful mind for Christians. And then it talks about a beautiful mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I'm going to commence reading with verse 1 of Philippians chapter 2. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind. Let each esteem others better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. To the glory of God the Father you may be seated. Thank you. Heavenly Father, we are so humbled to come into your holy presence through your blessed Son Jesus. We thank you so much for his life, his exaltment for the scripture. Now Father, we ask that you would open up our blind minds, Lord, that you would open up our physical eyes, and let them become spiritual eyes, that you may be glorified, and that Jesus Christ may be seen, and that we as a result might be changed, and attain that beautiful mind of Christ. We thank you that you will do it, Lord. Don't let me speak. You speak, Lord, that your Holy Spirit might be heard, not me, Father. I thank you so much, in Jesus' name. So as we look at verse 1 of chapter 2, we have some wonderful principles. The principle of love. We have the principle of fellowship of the Spirit. The principle of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. We have a principle of mercy. And then the Apostle Paul goes on to say, and says, Let us fulfill my joy that ye be like-minded, that you get along, that you don't fight. Having the same love, being agreeable in what you talk about and how you deal with it. And it's alright to have a different viewpoint, but don't fight over it. Let the other person be, have their mind, and you follow the Word the best way you know how. But don't start a fight. Let nothing be done through strife. In other words, don't fight. Obey in glory. Don't look for your own glory. Let the Lord glorify you, not yourself. And then it says, in lowliness of mind, and that's a hard one. For me too, let each esteem others better than themselves. Well, in lowliness of mind, what is that? Let each esteem others better than themselves. When I first came to this church in 2004, I came by way of a miracle of God. I came from big business. And big business includes power, it includes money, it includes respect. Because here, a person says he needs to be respected because he owns all of these things. And so that's how I was brought up in the world. That I would respect people based on money, power, wealth, status, importance, and education. And so that is what I had foremost in my mind when I first came to this church. And so I was privileged to meet many of you and to fall in love with many of your gentle minds. With many of your kind spirits. With many of your humble spirits. Because when you pray, you thank God first that he let you get up this day. That he opened up your mind. That he kept your mind straight for the day. That he gave you enough money for that food on the table. And so I was privileged to learn from you. And you didn't know who I was. And you were a little suspicious at first. Maybe you're still a little suspicious now. And it's alright. You see, I have a fellow brother at the office where I used to work. And his name was Brad Cook. And Brad Cook, he said, you know, when a white man used to come to our house, it meant trouble. He either came to collect the rent or he had an eviction notice. And so when a white man comes, you don't always know what he's all about. And what is his heart all about. And you also look at people with your physical eyes. Because you've been trained and you've been heard in the world. So I know what that feeling is. And I have been heard deeply as a 10-year-old. And I was misused. And so I was very, very distrustful of you as well. And I was distrustful in business. I decided I would trust no one in my life. I would love no one. I would not let anyone get close enough to me that I could love or that they would love me. And so I built this white castle inside of me where I could hide not to get hurt. Any person that got too close to me came up to my wall. People knew there was a barrier. I could neither love them nor accept them. I thought I had built a castle, but it was a building. It was a prison from Satan. Because as long as I was inside that prison alone, I could not love. I could not reach out to others. I could not reach out to my family. I could not hug my daughters after the age of 10. So the Lord sent me a pastor who God had given my understanding. And he said to me, when you got hurt at the age of 10, you made a decision. And I said, how do you know? And he said, well, I know. And he said, the decision you made was that it must never happen again. And then I remembered that, yes, that was the decision I made. I was amazed because it was the truth. And at the age of 61, I was still a 10-year-old because I had been hurt. And I was not willing to trust anyone. And so I was all alone. No one was with me. No one loved me. I fought, and Satan took advantage of me. You see, when you are alone, that's when Satan deals with you in your little prison on the inside. That's when you have no sister or brother. You don't trust. You don't reach out to anyone. You have no one to help you. And so Satan wants to do that. And so I studied Philippians. And one day I said, now, Lord, this looks like a beautiful mine here in the book of Philippians. Could I have that beautiful mine, Lord? How do I get there? What do I do? And then the Lord Jesus brought me to Philippians 2, verse 5. And it says, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. A beautiful mind. A beautiful mind of Christ. And it said, Let. Now, Let is an action word. Let this mind of Christ come into you. You see, I have to give you a little example. Many of you have been in hospital recently. And when you get admission to the hospital, there's a form that you have to sign. And on the form you sign, I let you, doctor, operate on me. I let you, doctor, come into me and fix what is wrong. And so I needed to sign a form for the doctor Jesus. And I said, Jesus, I let you come into my mind. But why do you need my permission, Lord? You see, we still have our free will, even after we're Christian. We have a free will to be me. Or we can follow the Lord Jesus Christ in his beautiful mind. And so I decided to sign that form. And I said, Lord Jesus, let this mind, put this mind into me. Come and operate on me. Take off that top part of my soul. Open up my brain. Take out that old brain and put in that new brain of you, Lord Jesus Christ. You see, Satan came to me. You can fix it. You're a big man. Circumstances of riches and so on. You can fix this. You've done everything in your life. So now fix yourself. We're going to fix ourselves. And then he took his two legs. And he shaped them. And he put two new legs on him. So to see you. Bless you, Pastor. And so you see, so I had to give up the old self and the right that you put in your mind. Because you say in Philippians chapter 2, verse 5, let this mind be in you. You see, I can say no to that mind of Christ. So let it happen. Let it happen. Now, let me share with you some of the things that happened. You know, I started to look around. And I said, well, Lord, if you've given me a new mind, and if you're giving me a new mind, what does that look like? What does that look like? And at that time point, I was supporting a missionary couple in the Middle East. And they had witnessed about Christ in a number of the Middle Eastern countries. And they were expelled by the authorities. Then they went to Spain to share the gospel with Muslims in Spain. Took a truck once in a while with hidden compartments full of Bibles all the way into North Africa. I don't know what happened, but perhaps the strain on the family became too big. And one day called me from the eastern coast down south in America. And he said, you know, dear brother, we are bad. We can't stay on the mission field. I got to take a job. And I said, how much money do you have? And he said, I have none. And I said, what about medical insurance? And he said, well, I have none. And he had two small daughters, one age seven and one age nine. And so I said to him, would it be all right if I supported you a little bit further until you got back on your feet? And he said, yes, thank you. But then two weeks later, I got a letter in the mail. And he said that he and his wife knelt before God. And they prayed about my offer. And they said, you know, dear brother, America is a rich country. Everyone here can find a meal. And we will find a meal. And so the money you offered us, we don't want it. We want you to send it back to the mission field for the other missionaries to reach out to give the message of the Lord Jesus Christ to Muslims for them to have eternal life. And I was speechless. I didn't know what to say when I got that. And they could have easily said, God is taking care of us. Instead, they thought about it and said, let us think of Muslims better than ourselves. Let us look out for the interests of Muslims that I don't know. So Jesus had given them a, what did he give them? A beautiful mind. He had given them a beautiful mind of Christ. And they put their fellow man first. And you see, then the Lord started to work on me. And it says here in verse three, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than themselves. Not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. So you see, that's the beautiful mind of Christ. That is what they did. Another missionary couple wrote me. They are in the Middle East. They're still there now. They give out gospel tracts on the street. Now, that's not unusual. But what is unusual is that he puts his name and home address on the back of the tract and invites people to come to their home for Bible study. How does he know that he isn't giving the tract to an extreme Muslim who's going to come and kill him at night? You see, but he says, I look out for your interests. It doesn't matter if it costs me my life. I'm going to give you that gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you see, after I realized that they had such a beautiful mind, I said, well, let me look around in this church now. Let me practice what the scripture is teaching me. How can I esteem you better? And I looked around and I noticed Brother Paul. And Brother Paul, whenever there's a testimony asked for, he's the first man to jump up. And he says, I want to give glory to my God because he got me up today. And he got me food today. And he got me a bed to sleep in. And I realized that I could esteem Brother Paul better than myself because of his commitment for testimony. I don't want to testify like that. So I can esteem him better. And then I noticed Deacon Favor. And Deacon Favor walks to the church very often. And he walks there on Wednesday nights. He walks there on Saturday. He walks there on Sunday, sometimes two times. Now, that's not so unusual to walk to church. But he's got a way two miles each way. And you see, it doesn't matter whether it rains. It doesn't matter whether there's a blizzard. It doesn't matter if there's a snowstorm. It doesn't matter if there's hail and lightning. This man walks. So I can esteem him better than myself. Can't I? Can't I? Can't I? You see? And then our pastor, Reverend Dr. Curry. Now, he's easy to look up to because God has blessed him with such mighty commitment, such mighty faith, such power in preaching, such consistency of his walk before the Lord. So it's easy for me to esteem him better. I esteem him better and I love him because that's what the Word says. I ought to esteem everyone better than myself. That's the beautiful line of Christ. I ought to esteem you better. And then I noticed Sister Peel and her driving the bus and running the choir and giving glory with so much joy. And then Deacon Durham and his patience reaching out to many of you difficult people. You give him a hard time. And he's down sometimes. Okay? But I esteem him better because of his patience and because of his love. And then I esteem Sister Shirley better because she prays better than I can. She's a much better servant than I am. And Reverend Pearson Collins and her tireless work for the church. She works with the children. She has an incredible gift of preaching. She has a gift of administration to do all of this work. And I esteem the First Lady of the church better with her deep convictions and expressing them in powerful ways. And I esteem my friend Reverend Collins better than me because he has such a wonderful personality. I esteem you all better. I esteem the mother of the church better. And Deacon Moultrie still is taking care of everything. To me, dear brothers and sisters, when I need you, I look for your beauty. I don't look for your ugliness. I look for your strength. I don't look for your weakness. And now, God has given me four things to help me esteem others better than myself. Number one is now when I meet a person, I see God in them. Because I don't see their sin. I don't see all the trouble that they might cause. But you remain in the image of an almighty God. So when I look at you, I see God. And now, when I look at your soul, I realize that your soul is priceless. You see, Scripture says, What shall profit a man if he gains the whole world? The whole world. But loses his own soul. So your soul is worth more than all the diamonds in this world. Your soul is worth more than all money in this world. Your soul is worth more than all the gold in this world. You are specially for God. Now, I know that there are some passages, like Isaiah 64, and he talks about filthy rags. But when I read that passage, it says, My own righteousness is like filthy rags. Okay? So it's the old self in me that's worth nothing. The old self in me is filthy. That's right. But now, I am a son of God. I am a child of the Most High. God raises me. So now, I will not say I'm a child of God. But I will act. I will act as a child of God. And I will esteem you better than myself. Than myself. Now, I'm trying hard to work on this. This is not easy here, sisters and brothers. And the Lord, of course, tests us right away to see if we're on the level and if we're real. So, I went to the Jersey Shores. God gave me a three-day vacation. And after the church service on a Sunday morning, I was standing with other three Christians. The four of us were standing and talking. And all of a sudden, I see a little bit far off, a lady looking about seven years old. A little small lady, not too tall. And her legs aren't quite right. And she's walking like this. And she's heading for the group of four of us, you know. And I look at her, and her clothes is a little bit dirty. And there's a rip in her shawl, and she's trying to hide it. And her lipstick is a little bit over her lips. And I said, what does she want, you know? And then she comes close, and she's heading right straight for me. What are you doing, lady? Give me a break now. She stops right in front of me, and she points a finger at me. I don't know you, lady. And she says, you look like a good Christian. And I said, would it be all right if I talk with you? And I thought, well, what does a good Christian know about Jesus? And so she hollered next to me, and I was walking with her to the squat bench. And we sat down. And she sat close to me, and I was a little bit more. And as the woman walked by, all of a sudden, she shouted out. She said, Paul, Paul, Paul, you know I told you about this son of God, Jesus? He loves you. Don't forget. Paul, oh, oh, he never turned his head. He kept on shuffling. And then she shouted after him, and she said, Paul, I'll meet you later tonight. I'll tell you. I'll tell you about Jesus. And I was shocked. I didn't know what to say. You know, here I thought I was this good Christian. It wasn't me who had shouted out to them all, okay? It was this little lady next to me with dirty clothes and a dirty shawl. And so I looked at her in amazement. And then she said to me, don't look at me so amazed. She said, I'm a missionary. And I said, what are you a missionary? And then I came back, and I went on stage, and I looked at her. Mark, Mark, Mark, I want you to know about Jesus. He can save your soul. It's not too late. There's an answer. There's a future and a hope. And Paul, Mark, oh, oh, I never turned his head. And then she started to tell me her story. And, you know, tears were coming to my eyes, and tears were streaming down my face. Because here I saw the beautiful mind of Christ sitting next to me. I saw the beautiful mind of a Christian. And she told me about all these stories of people she was helping. And here this woman, she's sloshing down with the hose. And I said, well, why do you have to do that? And she said, well, she detests herself so much. She hates herself so much she won't touch herself. She won't let anyone touch her. And I said, why is that? Well, her father has misused her all of her life. So she cannot touch herself no more. And she said, but she commits me to come and take a hose and hose her down once in a while. You see, that's my ministry. And she said to me, and then she said, well, I don't have time to talk with you anymore. I've got a job to do. And she said, do you see that hoe sitting a hundred yards way on the other side of the street there? And I said, yeah, I see him. And she said, well, she said, I haven't got much money, but I see him in the park every day. And his head is burning like crazy. The sun is hurting his head. And she said, I bought this little cat for $1.50, and I've got to take it over to him. You see, and I was sitting there and weeping and wondering when is the last time I had bought the $1.50 cat for someone. So you see, God, God then puts our pride right away into perspective, you see. He puts it right away into perspective. And so he says, I want you to have that beautiful mind, Edgar Reich, but keep pride out. Keep out anything that would hurt your brother or sister in church. You see, if this church is to grow and to be filled, then each person here needs this beautiful mind of Christ. And so we fight demons in our mind. We fight Satan. We fight the self. We fight the old flesh. But brothers and sisters, won't you do the same in the family of God that you're in, as I will with you? Because I pledge to you, when I see you, I see God in you. Your soul is worth more than all the wealth in this world. I see your beauty and not your faults. You can do at least one thing better than me. And I noticed all the things you do better than me. And so I esteem you highly. I esteem you better than myself. God in heaven someday will give out rewards. And I know this little lady with her dirty clothes and her torn shawl and her torn clothes, she will sit on the front row. And I pray to God that I'll make it into the back door in the last row. I'll be happy. Okay? But I ask you to open up your mind and to sign a certificate to the Lord Jesus Christ. To say, let this mind be in you. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. A beautiful mind. A beautiful mind in Christ Jesus. The Lord bless you and help you. When you walk in this place and you have a mind, remember to attain that beautiful mind of Christ Jesus. Thank you, Lord.