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Good morning. Yeah, I think I'm good.

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Pastor Greg wasn't planning to be here today,

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but there was some rain which cancelled some of his plans,

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so he's able to be here, and he booed me when I just came up.

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So he's here to heckle.

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Apparently if he doesn't have to be, you know, holding the microphone,

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he can harass others.

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But he knows I can take it, and he knows I would love to do the same.

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So that's okay. Well, good morning. It's good to see you.

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My name is Scott. I usually start with a little bit of an intro.

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I had a spinal cord injury several years ago,

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so I use a power wheelchair that you'll probably see moving back and forth during this service.

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I do get thirsty a lot from dry mouth, so I'll stop and take lots of drink breaks.

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I do have a hard time staying warm. My temperature is really low,

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so that's why I stay with all the layers on. It's not a fashion statement.

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And my blood pressure also does tend to run pretty low,

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so I say tilted back in my chair so that I stay conscious.

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So just a little bit about me. As I was getting ready to come up here,

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I was looking through, and sometimes I just kind of notice who's here and what's going on with that.

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And by my rough count, we have 17 people, and this isn't including, like, one-time visitors.

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We have some of the Armstrong's family visiting us today and some of my family visiting us.

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So it's not including those guests.

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I think we have about 17 people here that have been here for less than a year.

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That is awesome. And I think we have another 18 that aren't all here today

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but are regularly attending that have been here for less than three years.

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And I've been a part of churches. Of course you're excited whenever you have a guest,

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but I've been at churches where having 18 people there that have been there for less than a year

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is just so exciting because it doesn't happen.

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Have you ever gone into a church, and you might not have experienced this,

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but you've gone into a church and they're so happy to see somebody new, all their eyes turned to you,

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and they're so excited to see you.

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And if you're visiting and know you won't be back, you just automatically feel bad.

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It's like if they're that one car that slows down and looks at the yard sale that no one's at,

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and they perk up and they want you to stop so bad, but their stuff is not that good,

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and that's why no one's there.

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And so you just keep going and kind of do the little wave.

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But it's so good to be a part of a church that has so many fresh faces.

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And so I want those of you that are fresh faces to know that you're not alone.

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There are lots of other folks here that are in a similar boat.

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And part of the reason that we're so happy to have you is because we love to share what God is doing here with others.

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And that also speaks to those of you who've been around a little bit longer, that we're a welcoming church,

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and we're excited to see new faces.

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So yeah, those are just really good things, so I wanted to share that.

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So to the pet peeves, does anyone have a pet peeve that they would like to share?

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Something casual, of course.

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Chewing with your mouth open.

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Chewing with your mouth open, yes.

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That's one for me, too.

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Wet towels on the floor.

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Oh, wet towels on the floor, especially if you step on it, right?

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Especially cabinet doors are open.

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Yes, especially because sometimes I run into them, and if I run into an open cabinet door,

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there's a good chance I'm going to take it off the hinges.

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So speaking of wet towels on the floor, the other day, Pastor Greg was at our house,

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and we had just fed Zayla, and he stepped on a banana.

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And that is not a good feeling to step on a smushed banana.

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You weren't wearing shoes.

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Because there's a sign on the door that says, please take off your shoes.

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So what's better than what banana is on your socks?

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Because there's not really a good way to clean it off.

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So yes, little things.

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But those little things are examples of things that get us maybe overly involved in our story.

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They get us sucked into whatever's bothering us at that moment.

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I remember shortly after we were married, my wife and I, you know,

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you have this narrative in your mind of what it's going to be like when you get married.

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And we waited until we were married to move in together.

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So it was a new thing for us.

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And I was just convinced before we had been together that nothing she was going to do would ever bother me,

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because we were so in love and I loved her so much that I just appreciated everything about her.

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Until one day I opened the silverware drawer and the forks were where the spoons go

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and the knives were where the forks go.

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And some of them were upside down.

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And it actually looked like someone had just dumped them in there from the dishwasher silverware tray.

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And immediately I thought, there's no way the person that I love so much could have done this on purpose.

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No sane person would do this.

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It must have been a one-time thing.

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But then I saw it happen again.

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And I thought, oh man, we have a problem.

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So I brought this up to her and her response was, do you empty the dishwasher?

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Well, no, I guess not.

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Do you help wash dishes or prepare the food?

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Well, now this is just getting unfair.

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We were talking about putting away silverware.

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Now we're bringing all this other stuff into it.

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Hold on a minute.

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And so she brought up some good points quickly and I shut up about the silverware drawer.

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I wanted to tell her how I thought it should be done.

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Then she started including me into it.

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So we laugh about it.

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I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's a good example.

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It's a good example of how we can use it to help us get out of the dark.

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So we have a lot of examples, but they bring us into a conversation about pride.

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And how sometimes when we're focused on our story, it can be from a place of pride or it can lead us into a place of pride.

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It can be from us or what we're proud of.

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Humility focuses on the stories of others.

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It's really hard to be prideful when you're invested in and listening to someone else's story.

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Because you have to set your story, your pride aside to be able to do that.

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So pride and humility, those are the focuses of this morning.

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We're going through in the next seven weeks seven examples of a sin that can bring us down

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and the virtue that is the opposite of that, that can bring us up.

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That can help us to be more Christ-like.

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And we're also following this theme of the radical.

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It sprouts from the seed something new in our life that comes out of something old or something dead.

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So as you can imagine, pride is the thing that we want to die in our lives.

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And humility is the thing that we want to grow up from that.

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We together so far?

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Okay, very good.

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I'd like to read a verse now.

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It's from Philippians chapter two verses three through five.

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And I'll follow our custom if you would stand as you are able or raise your chair or whatever it is

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to read from Philippians chapter two verses three and five.

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Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.

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Rather in humility, value others above yourselves.

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Not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others.

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In your relationship with one another, have the same mindset as Christ.

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Thank you. Go ahead and be seated.

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Now looking again a little bit to the silverware example.

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It's a funny example in a lot of ways, but it also highlighted how much I was focused on my story

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and how much I was overlooking the larger story or in this case my wife's story.

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I wasn't shopping for groceries.

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I wasn't preparing the food.

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I wasn't washing the dishes.

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I wasn't putting the dishes away.

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In fact, I even remember one day very clearly it was one of those moments where you realize

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I'm not as good of a spouse as I thought I was going to be.

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I'm not the partner I thought I was.

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I told her I'd be home at a certain time for dinner and I was playing basketball

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and then some more people showed up and then some more people showed up.

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So I stayed at the park and kept playing basketball.

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And I was late for dinner when we'd set a specific time.

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And I came in and a hot dinner was sitting cold on the table with the silverware set.

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And my wife was, I don't remember if she was in her room or if she'd gone for a walk or something,

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but she was not there.

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And that was one of those moments where I realized I'm that guy right now.

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I'm that person who came home late for dinner and it's sitting cold on the table

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and I didn't keep my word.

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Not a proud moment.

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But it highlighted something that I wasn't fully participating.

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I was not fully engaged in that part of our relationship.

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And the greater part of our relationship, not really out of a place of,

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hey, she should have to do these things.

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I just hadn't done those things before.

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I didn't cook for myself.

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Going to the stores for like pizza rolls.

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Cleaning up was wiping down a plastic plate or throwing away a paper plate.

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So the idea of having to do these other things didn't occur to me.

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I was paying attention to my story and not paying attention to the bigger story.

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And it wasn't until I shared my own pet peeve, my own prideful thing,

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that I started to get a bigger picture.

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And so I started making enchiladas and that was like my thing that I made.

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But at least it was something.

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There is a television program that takes place in an office

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that reminded me of a humorous example of this as well,

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but that shows something bigger.

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There's a boss on this show who comes into work and it's his birthday.

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And he is excited because it gives him a chance to highlight himself and his ego.

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And he has a whole party planned for himself.

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He has a special outing planned.

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But he realizes that people aren't paying attention to him.

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They're paying attention to someone else.

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This person is waiting for a call from the doctor about a medical test.

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And so rather than celebrating the birthday,

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everyone is focused in on this other person comforting them and paying attention to them.

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The boss's response is one of being upset, not for his friend, not for his coworker,

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because this is a distraction from him, from him getting to celebrate his birthday,

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from him being able to be the center of attention.

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Again, a more lighthearted example from a TV show,

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but an example that draws us into he was invested in his story.

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He was worried about what was happening with him,

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and he was ignoring what was happening with those around him,

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which was much more important.

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Sometimes we can even hear echoes of pride from the pulpit or from when we hear others.

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Have you ever left a sermon and thought to yourself or said to someone else,

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I feel like that was more about him than it was everybody else.

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Sometimes we can get caught up in our own stories.

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Hopefully this isn't one of those Sundays.

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We compare our stories to others at times.

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We can get caught up in that sometimes when we hear someone else's story

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and what they're going through, our focus moves to how it relates to our story.

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And that can seem like a nice thing, and it can be a nice thing,

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but sometimes we're more worried about comparing our stories to them

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and sharing our story that we overlook their story and what they are sharing.

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Now, Paul points out to an example of humility being that of Christ,

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and there's no better example, and I'd like to just list off a couple things

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that help remind us of his story and the humility that he exhibited.

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First of all, Christ submitted to the Father and how he came and how his story was told.

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We know that he was born in a humble place.

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He then became a refugee, his family did, when he was persecuted and had to go to Egypt.

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Then he came back and they lived in a city called Nazareth.

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Not a happy place as far as popularity goes.

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Considered a place where outcasts come from.

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When someone heard that Jesus was from Nazareth,

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the response was, can anything good come from there?

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He also allowed himself to be announced by John the Baptist, his cousin.

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That was who some of his disciples came from,

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but John the Baptist was someone who ate bugs and wore animal hide

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and lived in the desert and had as many people, or probably more than hated him, than liked him.

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That's who announced Jesus' ministry. It came from a humble place.

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Even when he began his ministry, around the age of 30, took a great deal of patience.

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He took his time before he burst on the scene.

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He learned to trade. He did these things.

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Then when the devil came and tempted him to do some things that were great demonstrations of power

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would make it clear to everyone who he was, he resisted that.

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When he went to gather his followers, his followers were not the most educated,

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they did not have high pedigrees, they were people of very humble means.

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The examples go on and on, even all the way to his death.

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It was a humble death to put it lightly.

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So that his story could intersect with ours in a way that it couldn't in any other way.

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He brought our story with his through the cross.

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We go through these examples of humility and see how Christ demonstrates his care for us, his humility,

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and it brings you back again.

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How do we follow the example that Paul points us to, the words that Paul points us to, and then to Christ,

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of investing in other stories and wanting to value theirs over our own?

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I was working and there was someone here in the Quad Cities and there was someone from Chicago coming.

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It was the head of our company, someone important.

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He always had impeccable suits, I mean impeccable.

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He had great style, which kind of added to the allure.

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His voice was a deep voice that caught the attention of everyone in the room.

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We wanted to impress him with our Quad Cities operation, our smaller branch of that bigger branch.

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So we had several meetings set up through the day.

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He was going to visit each of our locations.

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He dropped in on the program that I was a part of, and it was a program that helped students who dropped out

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get their GED and do some life skills planning.

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So we had some interesting characters, to say the least.

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One youth that we had, Jeffrey, was particularly interesting.

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He was really bright, but he kind of lived in his own version of reality.

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We decided through our attempts to help him identify a career that he was going to be a modern-day treasure hunter.

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That there was a lot of treasure out there that was yet undiscovered in the jungles and in shipwrecks

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that he was going to go and discover.

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And so when our big company CEO asked him, what do you, you know, what career interests do you have?

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His response was, I want to be a treasure hunter.

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And I think some of us in the room were a little embarrassed.

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We were looking for something a little more down-to-earth, more practical, that we were guiding this young man toward

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that could show what a good job we were doing in preparing youth for future careers.

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But then he went a step further.

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He figured that when he asked that question, when our CEO asked that question, he wanted the full story.

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So he went and got a book about treasure hunting.

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It began to go with him through it page by page.

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And I was waiting for him to cut him off.

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I was waiting for him to say, hey, I have another meeting to get to, or to politely dismiss the whole treasure hunter idea.

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But instead, he stopped what he was doing and he listened to him patiently until he was finished.

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He demonstrated that day, even though that kid didn't have any idea who he was or how important he was,

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that he was going to take a position of humility and hear someone else's story

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rather than focusing on his own of who he was and what he had to do.

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I saw a doctor recently for a physical health issue that I've had for a while now,

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and that I just accepted, hey, this is part of my life is dealing with this issue.

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And I went and saw a doctor.

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And when I saw a doctor, I tend to talk to doctors really fast because I have the impression that they don't have a lot of time.

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They want to hear the basic facts, give their basic response, and then go on,

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especially when you're dealing with specialists, which this was.

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And so I went on and I listed my symptoms.

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I listed the situation and I said, I really don't know what else can be done about this.

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And I said, I think this is as good as it's going to get.

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And he stopped me and he said, that's not good enough.

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I think that there's more that we can do for you.

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There's more options.

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We need to explore those.

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The way that you're living right now, I think we can do better.

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And there was something in my spirit that was so humbled because instead of just dismissing me,

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instead of moving forward with something else, he took a moment to step into my story and understand where I was coming from.

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And instead of just another patient with another symptom, he saw it as something more.

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He saw a quality of life that his heart reached out for and thought there's got to be a way that we can do something better.

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And so he made some references for me.

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And actually, I talked to another doctor the other day that had another idea for those symptoms.

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And I was so pleasantly surprised and so excited with.

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And actually, Pastor Greg took me.

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And the way while I was riding home, I kept saying, I just feel so good.

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I just feel so good.

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I'm so happy.

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Even though nothing's changed yet, the fact that someone listened to me and heard me and was suggesting something different meant so much to me.

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I want to encourage us to enter into other people's stories, to be aware that sometimes pride leads us automatically

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without trying to or being egotistical to focus on what's happening with us in our story.

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But Paul points, Paul uses these words.

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He says, Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit and humility value others above yourselves.

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Not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others and your relationship with one another.

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Have the same mindset as Christ.

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So as I'm wrapping up here, I want to mention something simple, asking someone three questions.

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And it doesn't really matter that much.

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I don't think what those questions are, but it shows that person that you're interested in their story, what's happening with them.

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The reason I say three questions is this.

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We usually start with one question.

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How are you?

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And that's fine.

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But if we plan to follow that up with another question, how was your week?

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And then one of my favorite questions is, what was a highlight of your week?

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And then usually you get a few more words and a few more words, and it lets you hear a little bit of that person's story.

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Or even if they're not open to sharing that, they know that you are more interested in hearing

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than just a couple words that they have to say.

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So just asking three questions as simple as they might be.

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Let's go ahead and pray.

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And as we pray, I want to ask each of you three questions.

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Please bow your heads with me.

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Father, we pray right now that you would guide us as we look to hear the stories of others.

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To step into a place of humility.

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To follow the example of Christ.

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To focus outside of ourselves.

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And I pray that you would guide our hearts right now as we ask three questions.

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Is there a place in my life I've allowed my story to be more important than others?

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And now Father, we ask, where in my life can I demonstrate humility toward others and hear their story?

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It might be with a friend, it might be with their family, it might be at work or somewhere else.

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Just help us to identify that place.

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And finally, please prompt us to be obedient and give us the strength to carry it out.

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It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.