Well, we want to welcome you here today, Father's
Day. Thank you, men, for being here. I said last
week, I challenged you last week to have this
place full because you know what most men want
to do on Father's Day? Not be in church. But
we are glad that we have men in this house that
love Jesus and that love the Lord with all of
their heart, with all of their soul, mind, and
strength. Can we give the men in this house a
big hand this morning? Praise God. And if you
would turn in your Bible with me to James chapter
1, we have five men that are going to be preaching
this morning. And so I'm going to ask them to
come and join Pastor Ben on the platform. If
you are a part of the preaching this morning,
come on up. Because I want you to just be able
to switch right away. And you need to time each
one of these men. And when they get to five minutes,
you can go ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. No,
I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. You what?
You're going to do that to me? Okay. But I believe
that God has called us to be men after God's
heart. And this message this morning is talking
about what we believe men of faith to be. And
so I've assigned each one of these men a portion
of that. But this applies to everybody. James
1, verse 17 is kind of our covering scripture.
And it says this, And every good gift and every
perfect gift is from above. And comes down from
the Father of lights. With whom there is no variation
or shadow of turning. Hallelujah. And so I just
want you to join me in prayer for a moment. And
then I'm going to come back up at the end. And
we're going to pray at the end. We're going to
pray over the men in this house. And we're going
to believe God to touch every one of our men
here. But I just want to pray right now. Father,
every good and every perfect gift comes from
you. And I thank you, God, for fathers. For some
in this room, this day is a difficult day. Because
of the fathers. That we have had here on earth.
God I pray. That today would be a healing day.
Because of our heavenly father. And we thank
you God. That you. Are a perfect father. And
we give you praise right now. Lord. We as men
in this room. We as fathers and grandfathers
in this room. We recognize our own failure. But
we recognize God. We want to be like you. And
so I ask God that you would take the words that
these men share this morning. And I ask God that
you would just apply them to our hearts and make
us like Jesus. Hallelujah. We thank you, Father.
And everybody said, Amen. Now, men of faith.
And so we've taken the word faith, F -A -I -T
-H. And we've given each one of these men a letter,
and they're going to share. I'm going to ask
Brian Rage to come, and he's going to begin.
Men of faith, can we welcome Brian as he comes?
Actually, before I start, we're going to take
a little detour. A detour already. So, when I
knew... I was going to have to be up here. The
Lord began to speak to me about an open heaven.
An open heaven. And what does Darren's breakfast
tables about an open heaven. So what I feel like
we need to do is just take a couple minutes.
A minute. I want us to still our minds. Close
our eyes. Still our minds. And turn your... Mind
to heaven. Turn your gaze to heaven. See. Yes,
Lord. See him. See him. See him standing in clouds
of glory with his hands outstretched. See him.
He's the lover of your soul. He's your ever -present
help. See him. We worship you, Lord. We see you
standing in the clouds of glory. And we worship
you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank
you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.
I think what the Lord is saying, some of you
are going to actually see things. And you may
think that's just my imagination, but it's not.
There is an open heaven that is available to
believers to see their Savior. It's not your
imagination. It's an open heaven. There's an
open heaven over this house in healings and miracles
and deliverances. See him. See him. Thank you,
Father. Thank you, Father. Well, what the Lord
gave me for Father's Day. and F being the first
word, of course, would be faith. And what the
Lord spoke to me is, faith is forward -looking.
What do I mean by that? What do I mean by forward
-looking? And he took me to, of course, the great
chapter of faith, Hebrews 11, and verse 7. By
faith, Noah, being divinely warned of things
not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared
an ark for the saving of his household, by which
he condemned the world and became heir of the
righteousness which is according to faith. The
vision that God gave Noah was a salvation for
his family. And we as fathers and mothers, we
make and prepare an ark. Church history, church
fathers would call the church kind of a type
of the ark of the covenant, the ark of Noah's
ark, that there's a door in the side. There's
one entrance. There's a window in the top. You
look up. It brought his family in for the saving.
And as we press into God as men of faith, we
make a way for God to do works in our families.
Amen. I know I didn't say come in when you want
to. Attend church when you want to, when it's
convenient. It is vitally important. When I got
saved, I knew that I knew that I knew I had to
be in the house of God. Now, I wasn't there every
time the doors opened, but when I was able, I
was there. It was a priority. And there's fruit
that comes from that priority. One of them is
sitting right back there today. Rachel. Now,
I've received provision, miracles, direction,
protection, strength, and comfort. Being part
of the body of Christ. And I've got a couple
examples. I told Rachel I was going to talk about
her today, and she didn't particularly like that.
But when she was in kindergarten, my mother stopped
across the road to pick her up, and she went
running right out of the school building in front
of a car. That was my aunt driving the car. And
two invisible hands. Grabbed her from behind
and yanked her back. And my mom saw that. It
was like on a rubber band. Back. Rachel, I don't
know if you still can feel those hands. You still
can feel those hands that pulled her back. Protection.
I didn't even know I needed protection that day.
But God was there. And then another thing that
was very important. That is part of my church
history. Was my granddaughter Kennedy. Now she
just turned 16. And when Holly was pregnant with
her. Her 20 week checkup. No amniotic fluid.
None. Maybe one. One out of six. I think it was
one out of six. But very low. Two weeks bed rest.
Drink all you can drink. Another checkup two
weeks later, no improvement. That was a Tuesday
night prayer meeting that I was part of. And
I told everybody, I have attended prayer meetings
all my Christian life. I need prayer. I need
prayer. And one by one, people had different
pieces and parts. Different pieces and parts.
I was the last one and put my spiritual authority
against the enemy. You'll not steal my first
grandchild. Holly had a checkup the next day.
Nothing wrong. I don't need to see you. Those
are the kinds of things that we as part of a
body of faith. part of a body of believers that
believe in miracles, that believe in healing,
that believe in provision. I could go on and
on, but my five minutes is up, but probably passed
up. But anyway, so men of faith, men of faith,
and you will receive the reward for your faith.
Question, did anybody see anything? When we're
in the presence of God. Did anybody have. Any
kind of. No. Okay. I did. Awesome. Praise God.
So I got letter A. For action. Action. Faith
requires action. As I was preparing this, God
reminded me of a time that my family and I, we
were moving from Illinois to San Diego for the
Navy. And on that trip, we mapped it out to hit
as many states as we could along the way. So
we cut up north and we started heading west and
then went west for quite a ways, cut south. And
we wanted to hit as many milestones as we could
because, hey, the Navy's paying for it, gas,
food, and lodging, everything to get us there,
right? Because they got to move me and my family.
And so one of the stops along the way was Mount
Rushmore. Isn't that a great picture of Mount
Rushmore? And so we're driving, and we're getting
closer, and we're getting closer to Mount Rushmore,
and it just starts looking like that. And we're
like, oh, my gosh, like, come on. The one time
that we're going to be in the area, and we're
not going to be able to see it. So we start,
like, looking up weather reports, and they're
like, yeah, this fog isn't clearing for two days
or three days or something like that, a couple
days. I looked at the radar, and you could just
see it, even on the map, like, all the way from
there to, like, almost to the west coast, which
is a pretty big area. And I'm like, ah. And so
we get there. We drive up, and the lady at the
gate, she's like, hey, it's going to be $10 to
come in. However, you can't see anything. She's
like, you can come in. You can look at the gift
shop. But other than that, you're not going to
see anything. And so we're like, well, I guess
we won't worry about it. And then we turn around,
and we park at the first little spot you can
pull off, and there's a sign that says, hey,
if you look up right here, you can see Abe Lincoln's
nose or something. And we look up, and we just
saw more of that. And so we talked to the kids,
and we're like, you know what? Like, we're already
here. We're going to pray, and we're going to
believe God, because if God can part the waters
of the Red Sea, God can clear a little bit of
fog. And so we prayed with the kids. We got in
the car, and we headed back to the gate again.
And so the whole time, Charlie and I are, like,
praying, you know, under our breath. We're driving.
We're praying the rest of the way there. We get
back to the gate. I got a different gate this
time, and this lady's like, hey, do you happen
to be military? I'm like, yes, I am. She's like,
oh, you're free. Come on in. I'm like, sweet.
See, I would have paid $10 if I had not turned
around and come back. And so anyways, we get
there. We're walking all the way up. We walk
all the way up, and you just, like, there's this
grand opening where you should see it. It looks
about like that. That's what we saw. And we're
like, okay, well, we're going to keep going.
We're going to start hiking the trail up to it.
And there's like three or four stops along the
way. It's like, okay, you can look up here and
you can see it. And fog and fog and fog every
time. And we got to the last spot and we're standing
there and we're all taking pictures of the fog
with another group of people taking pictures
of the fog. And within about, I don't know, 20
seconds of us hitting that final spot right underneath,
the fog went from looking like that. I've got
a couple more pictures to that. And within a
matter of 20 or 30 seconds, it went to that.
God can turn it around. And the way back, we
stopped at each one of those checkpoints again
and was able to get pictures at each stop. And
we got back to the Grand Expanse at the beginning,
and we could see it. And then we went in the
gift shop, and when we came back out, it was
covered again. We left, so did the favor of God.
But it was because we prayed. It was because
we did something about it, all right? So James
1, verse 17, which Pastor Darren kicked us off
with, right? Every good gift comes from above.
It comes from the Father. And God has blessed
us with a lot of things. And I believe that means
that as followers of Christ, we are called to
action because we are called to be good stewards
with what he has blessed us with, with those
good gifts. In fact, if you read a few verses
later, And then the next chapter, verse 14 and
17, says, My brothers and sisters, if someone
claims to have faith but has no deeds, can such
faith save them? In verse 17, in the same way,
faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by
action, is dead. It's dead. So yes, every good
gift comes from God. We are to steward those
gifts. We are called to be stewards, right? To
steward first and foremost our relationship with
him, to walk with him in the garden. than to
steward the good earth on which he placed us,
to tend the garden, to steward the relationships
of those he has entrusted to us, our children,
our families, our friends, our neighbors, to
be fruitful and multiply. And God's not just
talking about having physical children anymore,
but making disciples everywhere you go. As a
father, our children need to see that our faith
makes us men of action. Do not just come to church
when the doors are open, but be the church everywhere
that you go. Let your faith overflow into your
home, overflow into your car rides, into your
vacations, into your workplace. Let your faith
dictate the choices you make and the actions
you take. I'm going to close with one more story.
When God called me into the Navy, I was doing
a church plant up in the East Peoria, Peoria
area. And I felt God calling me out of that and
to join the Navy and to be a light in the dark
place of the Navy. I had no idea what it was
going to look like. I just knew that's what God
was telling me to do. And so I did it. I joined
the Navy. I get to my ship about a year and a
half after joining, after all my schooling and
everything. And the first thing my supervisor
says to me, she's like, hey, we snooped you out
on Facebook. I know that you're a religious guy.
Would you be a lay leader on board our ship?
I said, what's a lay leader? She's like, well,
we don't have a chaplain on board. So a lay leader
represents your faith group to the entire crew.
And when we go out to sea, you hold church services
and prayer meetings and whatever you do for your
faith group on board. And I had no idea that
was a thing in the Navy. I just assumed everybody
had a chaplain. And so here I was with a crew
of 320 people. And I was on deployment for seven
months. And every Sunday that we were out to
sea, we got to do a church service on board that
ship. And then every single evening that we were
out to sea, I got to pray over the entire crew
every night. And then we even had a chaplain
try and stop it because he was like, no, no,
no, you're not a chaplain. You can't do that.
But my captain was like. This is too good. This
is too good. What are we going to do? I said,
I'll stop saying amen at the end, and we'll call
it a motivational minute. But my message didn't
change. My message didn't change. I was saying
the same things, right? But God used me in ways
I didn't even know. I got a message from a guy
I served with on the ship just, I don't know,
two weeks ago. I hadn't thought about this dude
in a very long time. And to be honest, he wasn't
somebody I really thought of a lot when I was
there, but he sent me this long Facebook message,
and he said, Hey, I don't know if you remember
me. You would have known me as MA1 Jones on the
ship. But thank you. God saved me through you.
He said, I would come to work smelling like booze
and smelling like women, cheating on my wife,
doing all kinds of stuff. He said, I would come
to you, and I would ask you for prayer, saying
that, hey, somebody I know died. I need some
prayer. He said, that wasn't true. I just wanted
you to pray with me. He said, and you never said
no. You were always there. You always said yes.
Just by you showing up and doing what you did
every day because of the action that I took.
It's not about action in here. It's about action
out there in your home and in your workplace.
God has called you to be a man of action. I'm
not nearly as animated as Ben. In fact, I was
just thinking as I was sitting up here, I'm like,
man, these guys have a lot more microphone training
than I do. But so my word is, or my letter is
I, and the word is integrity. And I'm just sitting
there thinking, I'm like, it's kind of an interesting
topic to talk about integrity in front of people
that know a lot of your shortcomings. So kind
of reframes that a little bit. So I grew up knowing
kind of the definition of integrity as doing
the right thing when nobody's watching or whatever
it may be. And kind of an example I want to use,
pulling in my dad for a little bit, whenever
my brothers and I get together, we always say,
well, what would dad say? And that's kind of
a funny thing. So speaking on the topic of integrity,
whenever... My dad was somebody that if you needed
something done, he knew the person. But he also
knew the people not to choose. He would say,
oh, so -and -so, they're a liar. They'll cheat
you out or whatever, whatever. So I was like,
okay. But what was he basing that off of? He
was basing that off of what they knew, kind of
how they operated their character. Now, it may
not be a true intention of their heart, but based
on their actions. Going back to kind of the more
official version of integrity, it refers to the
quality of being honest, having strong moral
principles, and consistently adhering to ethical
standards. So it's kind of like, hmm, there's
a lot of action -based stuff in there, even like
what Ben was talking about. It's one thing to
say it, but it's another thing to do it. And
so kind of ever since Pastor Darren asked me
to do this, It hasn't left my head. And the hard
part about that is how do you bring it into something
that makes sense that you're going to share with
other people? So kind of where I've landed on
this is that the world that we live in is full
of half -truths, stress, anxiety, being overcommitted,
and being stretched thin. And all of these can
lead to cut corners and compromises. Sorry, I'm
not used to this. But here's the other part of
it. This world has no use for more shallow, more
phony. They are looking for depth and authenticity,
which is integrity. So when you operate out of
that place, it's something that becomes visible,
even though a lot of that happens, you know,
in what you do in secret. So we also have an
accuser, which is Satan, that will try to trap
you and then condemn you for being trapped. So
going back to that word, condemnation. And so
I thought of that when you said that. And so
I treat it this way. God sees it all anyway,
and there's no fooling him. So if we operate
out of a place of pleasing God, then we've set
the bar. Way higher than the standards of the
world around us. But it's also a very high bar
if you're not pursuing God's heart. By action
alone, it's kind of a trap to fail. Because we
do have those shortcomings. So here's the scripture
that I pulled out. Proverbs 20 verses 7. The
righteous man walks in his integrity and his
children are blessed after him. So when I saw
that, it's like, it's more than just about you.
It's about those that come after you. Now, whether
that means your actual children or people that
you've ministered to and were a light to, spiritual
children, it comes with a high accountability
for that, you know? And so... From that perspective,
leading your family should be the priority because
God has entrusted them to you. God has entrusted,
like when Ben was talking about, God has entrusted
those people to him. So we've got to operate
out of that place of doing that. And so the example
that I had, so probably last fall, I think it
was, I needed to order Carter a new headphone.
for his snare drum so he could use it in school
for band. And so I ordered one, and there was
a problem with the order through Amazon. Okay,
I canceled that one. I ordered another one, and
there was something wrong with it, so I canceled
both of them. One of them showed up on the porch.
I'm like, okay. So then the question in your
mind, well, what do you do? Well, I contacted
the support and I said, hey, look, I know I canceled
both of these things, but... One of them showed
up, so go ahead and whatever order you want to
pick, just charge because they were both the
same price. And the person said, no, don't worry
about it. It was our goof. You know, don't worry
about it. And I remember telling Carter about
that. He said, well, why did you say something?
I said, well, because that's just what you do.
Because there's no blessing in even though it
was like, well, it was a technical goof, but
yet I felt like. I need to still pay for something
because I received something. And so there's
blessing in that when you operate out of integrity.
And so, and I just wanted to encourage some people
in here that maybe kind of feel like I have in
the past a little bit where you don't feel like
you've hit the, where you feel like you measure
up to that bar. It doesn't matter how you started.
What matters is that you choose to be a man of
integrity. from there forward. And so there's
always going to be the people that remember the
things that you didn't do right. But again, what
are you pursuing? The heart of God. And he will
back you up every time. So I just wanted to close
with this. And again, going back to using my
dad as an example, he wasn't here to witness
this comment that I made because it was at his
memorial service. But even, I remember standing
up there. It's kind of like, again, what do you
say? And what came to me was at the very end
of that, because there was a lot of people that
prayed, a lot of people that stood and believed.
I mean, it's like, you know, Lord, heal them,
save them, whatever you got to do. But I made
this statement, is that for those on the outside,
they're watching us to see, do these people,
really believe what they say they believe. And
in a situation like that, it's kind of like,
you know, where are you going to go with that?
And so you stand on what you believe, and you
stand with God, and you say, all right. And that
oftentimes is a bigger witness to people than
the person getting healed or the person getting,
you know, whatever it may be. And so I just wanted
to share that encouragement. Be a man of integrity.
And, you know, it seems like a pretty high bar
even for me to share. But you know what? I'm
just leaning into God. And he's making it better
every single time. There we go. Amen. Men of
truth. Men of truth. That's my phrase that I
was asked to share on. You know, many times I've
made commitments and then later think, why did
I do that? I don't have time for this. But if
we're going to be men of truth, we have to swear
to our own hurt sometimes. And that's not always
easy to do. I know emergencies may come up or
different things like that, but day in and day
out. we need to swear to our own hurt. If we
make a commitment, we need to stay true to it.
This phrase, men of truth, is actually found
in Exodus 18, verse 21, and it's Jethro's advice
to Moses in choosing leaders and being judge
over Israel. And that advice carries about four
characteristics with it. Truth and faithfulness
means they are going to honor the word, act with
sincerity, and conduct themselves according to
God's standards. To fear the Lord, they recognize
God's sovereignty and have a reverential awe
for him that guides their actions. Hating unjust
gain, they reject bribery, corruption, and covetousness
and integrity as David shared on. They take responsibilities
for their duties and avoid deflecting blame when
mistakes are made. So those are the characteristics
of men of truth. And those characteristics are
hard to find today in our society. All you have
to do is turn on the news and you'll hear the
false narrative. People trying to make themselves
look good. or they're caused to look good. And
so many times, it's just contrary to the truth
of God's Word. And we have to be aware of that.
At the times and seasons that we're in, Paul
warns us. He says, the Spirit expressively says
in the last days, there will be seducing spirits
and doctrines of demons. And we're in the midst
of that right now. We're seeing that happen time
and time again in our society. And we have to
be aware of what's going on around us and stay
true to God's word and his principles and standards
that he sets forth in his word. And that's not
always easy to do because we're bombarded day
in and day out. Statistics say that we're bombarded
with 4 ,500 negatives every day. That's a lot.
That's not a lot of positive, is it? But we need
to be aware of what's going on around us and
heed God's word. But I think I found a solution.
And it's in John 1, verse 14. And it says, Jesus
Christ came full of grace and truth. He is the
way, the truth, and the life. Jesus was all grace.
He welcomed sinners and tax collectors and ate
with them. He had compassion on the crowds when
they were hungry and far from home. He welcomed
little children to sit on his lap, gentle and
kinder than most department store Santas. He
healed the leper, the lame, the blind. He saved
criminals on the cross. The one next to him confessed
that he was truly the Son of God. And Jesus was
all truth. He condemned many religious leaders
of that day, being liars and hypocrites. He talked
about hell more than he talked about heaven.
He called all those to be his disciples and take
up their cross and follow him daily. Jesus came
from the Father, full of grace and truth. All
grace, all truth, all the time. But it didn't
just come simply to give us an example of grace
and truth. He came to save us into grace and
truth. It's only after we've been saved and made
right with God that God says, all right now,
I have saved you, but I want you to look like
Jesus. We desperately need grace in our lives.
We need to hear from Jesus. Come to me, all you
who are weary. and heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. That's Matthew 11, 28. We need to know
that God doesn't just expect us to clean up our
act before we come to him. He implores us to
come now, today, just as we are, in pain and
in humility, and in repentance and faith. That's
Luke 15, 20. And we desperately need truth in
our lives. We need to hear from Jesus. The truth
will set you free. And we need to hear from Jesus
what this saying really means. I tell you the
truth. Whoever sins is a slave to sin. But if
the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
We need someone as gracious as Jesus to tell
us the truth. We need truth. We need grace. We
need Jesus. Only Jesus. lived the perfect grace
and truth. Only Jesus can save the hard -headed
sinners full of lies, deserving judgment. And
only with union to Jesus Christ can we grow in
that same truth and grace that walked among us.
We need to be people of truth. I told Pastor,
last time my tag team preached was here. It was
me and Benjamin. We were talking to Pastor David
Andreessen at the time. And Benjamin bent down
in the pulpit to get something out, and I tackled
him. Because that's what I think of when I think
of tag teams, wrestling or something. So I tackled
him on the stage, and the pastor said, oh, make
it happen again. And then I'm sitting up there
thinking, I'm sitting up there thinking, it's
four against one now. But they all left. They
all went back out there. So it's just me and
you. But Benjamin's a lot older now. He might
get hurt. I got my phone here. I got a timer.
It keeps going back to one hour and three minutes
every time I turn it on. So do I get that long?
No. Jesse said, how are you going to make it
in five minutes? Have you practiced? I said,
no. I have pondered and thought about it all
week. I listened to probably, I don't know, 30
sermons. I listened to a podcast. I listened
to all these things. So I had notes. I'd crumple
them up and throw them away. I'd write more notes.
I'd crumple up and throw them away. And last
night at like 8 .30, Jesse goes to bed, and I'm
picking up the rest of the stuff off the table
from what we'd been doing, paying bills, I think.
And I thought, oh, I need to write that down.
So I started writing again. And I write this,
and I'm going to push this right off there. I
write this down. And speaking of the five minutes,
my mind's going a million miles an hour. My dad
used to complain. You know, we had gross preacher
a lot on Sundays for lunch. And my dad would
complain that the preacher preached too long.
And he'd say, now I know he can get his point
across in seven minutes. Because that's how long
it is on the radio every day when he does his
radio program. And he gets a point across every
day in seven minutes. But yet at church, it's
how many ever minutes, you know. So, now I'm
down to four and a half minutes because I pushed.
I had to tell you that story. So, my final draft
you get today. Humility. H is for humility. The
second you say you're humble, you're not. It
is not a sign of weakness. But today, what I
come up with last night, and I know this has
to be God, Daniel 1 .8 says, but Daniel purposed
in his heart that he would not defile himself.
To purpose in your heart means to plan ahead,
decide before temptation comes. It's kind of
like when we go to a buffet. I purpose in my
heart that I'm only going to go up one time.
I don't purpose very well, I must tell you. But
when it comes to humility, we need to purpose
in our heart that we want to be humble. We want
to be a man of humility. C .S. Lewis says, humility
is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking
of yourself less. Talking about action, today
we got to choose. What first action we're going
to do is we're going to choose that we're going
to choose we're going to be humble. And I know
that this came from God because Jesse was watching
a real spiritual show last night called Monk.
And I walked in the bedroom as I wrote this.
I wrote... choose. Humility is a choice. I walk
in the bedroom and Monk, I think it was Monk,
I don't know, I didn't see it. She was walking
on her phone. I can't see that. But I hear these
words that somebody on that show said. It's a
choice. You can choose to be happy. Well, just
so much as you can choose to be happy, just so
much as I chose what hat to wear today, this
one says faith over fear. I thought that was
fitting for the day. It's basically the only
religious hat, Christian hat I have. And I need
to get more because I took a challenge at work.
One day they said, how many hats do you have?
Do you wear a different hat every day? I said,
challenge accepted. So for like a month and I
don't know how many days, I wore a different
hat every day. And there was a couple people
that would walk up to me and read my hat to see
what hat I had on today. So just as much as I
choose what hat I'm going to wear for the day,
we have to choose and make it of ourselves that
we are going to be humble. Oh man, I only got
a minute left. I'm going to have to reset my
timer. So, walk, choose, walk. Micah 6 .8 says
walk with God. James 4 .10 says humble yourself.
So this is something we got to do ourself. It's
not like God's going to just strike us with humility.
We have to choose it. We have to do it. We have
to put it on. Knowing who you are, lay aside
in John. Chapter 13. Verse 3, 4, and 5, I think.
It says, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given
him all things into his hands, and that he had
come from God and was going to God, rose from
supper and laid aside his garments, took a towel
and girded himself. So he took his garments and
he laid them aside. There might be some things
that we have to lay aside. Sometimes when I choose
which hat I'm going to wear, I have to lay the
other ones aside. And the good thing about wearing
a hat is you don't have to comb your hair. And
at work we did have to wear hats, but now we
don't have to, but I still do. But he took it
off. He took his garments and he laid it aside.
But then he picked up a towel. He picked up a
towel and he became a servant. If we want to
be humble, we have to choose to be a servant.
And a few months ago here, we had all kinds of
opportunities to choose service. And I think
there's probably still availability right here
in this building where we can choose to be of
service. And my timer's going off. And we can
choose. We have to choose to do it. After that,
he poured water into the basin and began to wash
his disciples' feet. I'll stop eventually. He'd
wash the disciples' feet. Sometimes, if we're
humble, we may have to wash some feet. Sometimes
we may have to simply change the way we think.
In Philippians 4, 8, it says, think on these
things and all those things it says to think
on. And humility, I'm reminded of humility every
time I'm driving and somebody in front of me
does something like they don't turn their turn
signal on. There was actually a police officer
in Lincoln the other day on the square, didn't
use a turn signal. But how many times have I
been looking at the person in front of me without
their turn signal on and realize, I don't have
mine on. So I've changed my wording. to where
you're a dumb driver, because I'm number one,
but I've changed it to where instead of saying,
why don't you have your turn signal on? I could
have went if I'd known you was turning. Instead
of that, I say, quit driving like me. There's
only room for one of us on the road. Choose today
to be humble. Wow. Wow, was that good? I want
to close this morning by reading from one of
the spiritual fathers in the Bible who in the
New Testament after Jesus' ascension probably
became more of a father, though he had no children
of his own, to the church than any other man.
And his name was John. And John knew that there
was warfare over men. Do you know there's spiritual
warfare over the men in our culture? The enemy
wants to turn the men away from God. Do you know
most sitcoms who the butt of the joke always
is? It is the men. The men are always the goofy
ones that have the strange ideas. And there is
war right now against men rising up to be who
God's called them to be. Men of faith. And he
wrote in... chapter 2 of 1 John, in verse 12.
I'm going to ask the worship team to come because
we're going to pray over men this morning. 1
John, chapter 2, verse 12. He says, I write to
you, little children, because your sins are forgiven
you for His name's sake. Good news. I write to
you, fathers, because you have known him who
is from the beginning. We need fathers that know
the Lord. Amen? And then he says, I write to
you, young men, because you have overcome the
wicked one. The wicked one. The wicked one is
after our young men. He goes on, says to the
little children again, I write to you, little
children, because you have known the Father.
Good. I write to you, fathers, because you have
known Him who is from the beginning. There he
says that again. I have written to you, young
men, because you are strong. And the word of
God abides in you. And you have overcome the
wicked one. You see, in this house, God wants
the men to be overcomers. God wants the young
men to be overcomers. But there is a spiritual
battle. There is a spiritual battle at war. against
the men in our culture. And I just want us to
pray right now. There's a battle for your soul.
There's a battle for who you are. There's a battle
to keep you suppressed from ever fulfilling God's
intention in your life. But God's got a calling
on your life. God's got his hand upon you. brand
new at this, you might be saying, you know, all
this feels like a tall task to me. I don't know
if I can live up to that or not. But God's wanting
you today to just take a step toward Him. You
know, the one that talking about humility, Pastor
Tim, Jesus said that two men went to church.
And one of them looked up in heaven and said,
God, I thank you that I am not like all the other
people. I tithe. I give what I have to the poor.
I thank you that I'm not like everybody else.
But there was another man that went to church.
And Jesus said, he just hit himself in the chest.
And he said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
And Jesus said, I tell you the truth. That man
went home justified before the Lord. How many
of you men would just freely admit, I'm not perfect.
I've got a long way to go. But I want, I want.
To walk in the footsteps that God has for me.
How many of you men would say that's me? I want
to walk in the footsteps that God has for me.
And the call today isn't to perfection. It isn't
to live up to every dotted I and cross T. But
the call today is for us as men to simply Say,
God, here I am. I'm yours. And I want to walk
after the heart of Jesus. I need your mercy.
I need your grace. I need your help. But here
I am. And if that's you, men of God, I just want
to ask you to stand around this room right now.
And we're going to pray over you. And we're going
to believe right now. Thank you, Lord. Thank
you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus.
I like it. Some of the young men are standing
up. They're not married or they don't have families
or children, but they're standing up before the
Lord right now. They're saying, God, that's how
I want to live. I want to overcome the evil one.
I want the word of God to live in me. Father,
I want to lift up these men right now because
it's only at the cross that we can overcome.
We just bring all of our failure, which we know
we have. We bring all of our stuff and we just
give it to you, Jesus. And we say, Lord, have
mercy on me. Help me. I want to. Have a heart
that is after the Lord. God, I pray grace over
these men. I pray your touch over these men.
Just stretch your hands towards the men right
now, those of you that are seated, and just stretch
your hands towards them. Father, just impart
grace to the men of this house. God, raise them
up strong. Raise them up, God, overcomers in
Jesus' name. Raise them up to be like Christ
day by day by day by day. God, to be men of faith,
to be men of action, to be men of integrity,
to be men of truth, to be men of humility. God,
I pray that these characteristics would belong
to us in Jesus' name. And we just want to declare.
want to declare, God, the victory that is in
Christ. Hallelujah.