WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.779 Like Kyle said, we get to hop into God's Word 00:00:02.779 --> 00:00:04.620 now, we get to open the Word of God, we get to 00:00:04.620 --> 00:00:08.199 together learn what God has for us this morning, 00:00:08.240 --> 00:00:10.839 and I'm super, super excited about that. Recently, 00:00:10.900 --> 00:00:13.480 my wife sent me to the store with a list of things 00:00:13.480 --> 00:00:16.500 that I needed to get for her, and I don't understand 00:00:16.500 --> 00:00:18.239 how this works, but every time I go to the store 00:00:18.239 --> 00:00:20.300 to get a list of things for her, her phone stops 00:00:20.300 --> 00:00:23.399 working. I don't know why, but it does. It stops 00:00:23.399 --> 00:00:24.920 working completely. And so I was at the store 00:00:24.920 --> 00:00:27.019 and I can't find this anywhere. I mean, I've 00:00:27.019 --> 00:00:29.179 taken like 200 laps around the store. I'd looked 00:00:29.179 --> 00:00:31.059 everywhere. I could not find the things that 00:00:31.059 --> 00:00:34.259 she had sent me to the store to get. And so finally 00:00:34.259 --> 00:00:35.979 her phone apparently started working again and 00:00:35.979 --> 00:00:38.840 she called me back and she goes, what's going 00:00:38.840 --> 00:00:40.740 on? You know, it's kind of taken a while. Like, 00:00:40.740 --> 00:00:42.679 is everything okay? And I was like, yeah, I can't 00:00:42.679 --> 00:00:44.460 find this stuff anywhere. I've looked everywhere. 00:00:45.020 --> 00:00:48.880 And she said, well, have you asked anyone? I'm 00:00:48.880 --> 00:00:51.179 like, of course I haven't asked anyone. Like 00:00:51.179 --> 00:00:52.679 they're all working, they're busy. I'm not gonna 00:00:52.679 --> 00:00:55.079 ask them, right? And here's the thing, if I were 00:00:55.079 --> 00:00:57.659 to ask them where the thing is, then they might 00:00:57.659 --> 00:00:59.340 think that I don't know where that thing is, 00:00:59.420 --> 00:01:01.179 you know? And I'm like, I can't have that, right? 00:01:01.299 --> 00:01:03.539 So I'm not gonna ask them. Some of you understand, 00:01:03.820 --> 00:01:05.640 right? Because some of you, when you get new 00:01:05.640 --> 00:01:07.500 furniture that you have to build, this is you, 00:01:07.540 --> 00:01:09.599 right? You open it and the first thing you do 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:11.260 is you throw those instructions out because they 00:01:11.260 --> 00:01:12.480 don't know what they're talking about. You got 00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:14.980 it, right? And you're gonna put all 10 ,000 pieces 00:01:14.980 --> 00:01:18.290 of that Ikea furniture together yourself. Like, 00:01:18.329 --> 00:01:19.909 why do they do that? That's so overkill. They 00:01:19.909 --> 00:01:21.469 don't need all those parts. I'm just saying, 00:01:21.569 --> 00:01:23.609 right? Some of you, it's when you're cooking, 00:01:23.730 --> 00:01:25.590 right? You make it and people start eating it 00:01:25.590 --> 00:01:27.650 and they're like, this is interesting. Like, 00:01:27.670 --> 00:01:30.030 did you, you know, was that in the recipe? And 00:01:30.030 --> 00:01:31.409 you're like, there is no recipe. It's all up 00:01:31.409 --> 00:01:33.829 here. It's all here. And they're like, oh, you 00:01:33.829 --> 00:01:35.310 should have followed a recipe. You know what 00:01:35.310 --> 00:01:37.750 I'm saying? Like, but here's the thing. I think 00:01:37.750 --> 00:01:40.129 that many of us are limited by our inability 00:01:40.129 --> 00:01:44.370 to embrace humility. I think many of us are limited 00:01:44.370 --> 00:01:50.060 by our inability to embrace. I was coming back 00:01:50.060 --> 00:01:53.120 from a trip recently with my family, and as we 00:01:53.120 --> 00:01:55.159 were on the way back, you just got to know about 00:01:55.159 --> 00:01:57.500 me. One of the things that I have is this incredible 00:01:57.500 --> 00:01:59.579 sense of direction. If I go somewhere one time, 00:01:59.700 --> 00:02:02.000 I can go there again no matter what. And so we're 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:04.040 headed back on the trip, and my wife goes, so 00:02:04.040 --> 00:02:06.780 should I put it in the GPS to get back? And I 00:02:06.780 --> 00:02:10.159 was like, I am the GPS. We got this. We start 00:02:10.159 --> 00:02:11.419 driving, and all of a sudden as we're going, 00:02:11.539 --> 00:02:12.939 things start looking a little different. I'm 00:02:12.939 --> 00:02:15.159 like, I think we might have made a mistake here. 00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:18.129 And I looked, and I missed the turn. That literally 00:02:18.129 --> 00:02:22.469 added an hour and a half to our trip. I felt 00:02:22.469 --> 00:02:24.930 so bad. I stopped at a store and told my kids, 00:02:25.009 --> 00:02:26.550 I was like, you can pick out any candy you want. 00:02:26.590 --> 00:02:28.909 Go for it, right? And I got a lot of kids. It 00:02:28.909 --> 00:02:32.909 cost me like 10 grand. It was crazy. But listen, 00:02:33.050 --> 00:02:35.430 here's the thing. With trivial things, our pride 00:02:35.430 --> 00:02:37.729 gets in the way sometimes. Our inability to embrace 00:02:37.729 --> 00:02:39.349 humility gets in the way. But even with real 00:02:39.349 --> 00:02:42.469 things. I had a friend who sat down with me. 00:02:42.990 --> 00:02:44.210 It's kind of like, hey, I want to point some 00:02:44.210 --> 00:02:45.610 things out in your life that I think you need 00:02:45.610 --> 00:02:47.210 to change. Maybe you're not aware of, and there's 00:02:47.210 --> 00:02:49.509 things that you need to change. And right away, 00:02:49.590 --> 00:02:50.909 I get defensive. I'm like, what are you going 00:02:50.909 --> 00:02:52.289 to tell me? I'm a pastor. I know everything. 00:02:52.490 --> 00:02:55.270 What are you talking about? I minimize the things 00:02:55.270 --> 00:02:56.409 that are going on. I'm like, it's not that big 00:02:56.409 --> 00:02:57.949 of a deal. You don't understand. It's not that 00:02:57.949 --> 00:03:01.990 big of a deal. And what I do is I build a wall 00:03:01.990 --> 00:03:07.030 against growth. My ego builds a wall against 00:03:07.030 --> 00:03:12.120 growth. And I think yours does too. I think we 00:03:12.120 --> 00:03:14.960 all find ourself in a place where without this 00:03:14.960 --> 00:03:18.159 understanding of what humility is, we get stuck. 00:03:18.259 --> 00:03:20.860 But I think that God has more for you. I think 00:03:20.860 --> 00:03:23.259 God wants more for you. I think that you have 00:03:23.259 --> 00:03:27.159 the potential to be a spiritual superstar. What 00:03:27.159 --> 00:03:29.939 if God has this in you to be the spiritual superstar? 00:03:30.020 --> 00:03:33.699 And what if, what if the way up is actually down? 00:03:34.779 --> 00:03:36.639 We've been in this collection over the last couple 00:03:36.639 --> 00:03:38.379 of weeks. We've been going through the book of 00:03:38.379 --> 00:03:40.520 Galatians and Galatians is a letter from Paul 00:03:40.520 --> 00:03:43.860 to the churches in Galatia. And what he's writing 00:03:43.860 --> 00:03:45.860 to them, he's writing to them with a strict tone 00:03:45.860 --> 00:03:47.879 of like, hey, you guys better get with it. You 00:03:47.879 --> 00:03:50.080 guys got some issues going on. And the issues 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:52.060 that are going on that he's correcting is that 00:03:52.060 --> 00:03:55.020 they are teaching to this church, you need to 00:03:55.020 --> 00:03:56.939 be more Jewish than you need to be more like 00:03:56.939 --> 00:03:59.729 Jesus. We understand that in this faith that 00:03:59.729 --> 00:04:02.370 we call Christianity, we are following Jesus, 00:04:02.490 --> 00:04:04.889 but they're saying, no, you need to start practicing 00:04:04.889 --> 00:04:07.909 these Jewish practices in order to follow Jesus. 00:04:07.990 --> 00:04:09.849 And Paul's going, I got to correct this. This 00:04:09.849 --> 00:04:13.150 is not okay. And so he's writing this letter 00:04:13.150 --> 00:04:15.650 with that tone to them. And as we see, he's going, 00:04:15.750 --> 00:04:17.850 hey, I'm not just giving you this message out 00:04:17.850 --> 00:04:20.269 of nowhere. It has a history to get to where 00:04:20.269 --> 00:04:22.490 it's at right now. And so he starts walking through 00:04:22.490 --> 00:04:24.670 the places that he's gone to learn this message 00:04:24.670 --> 00:04:27.129 in order to give it. to them. And we saw that 00:04:27.129 --> 00:04:28.889 last week. And then we pick it up here in chapter 00:04:28.889 --> 00:04:30.730 two. We finally made it to chapter two. Here 00:04:30.730 --> 00:04:34.209 we are in verse one. It says this, then 14 years 00:04:34.209 --> 00:04:38.230 later, I went back to Jerusalem again, this time 00:04:38.230 --> 00:04:41.350 with Barnabas and Titus came along too. I went 00:04:41.350 --> 00:04:43.290 there because God revealed to me that I should 00:04:43.290 --> 00:04:46.399 go. While I was there, I met privately with those 00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:48.540 considered to be leaders of the church and I 00:04:48.540 --> 00:04:50.819 shared with them the message I'd been preaching 00:04:50.819 --> 00:04:52.860 to the Gentiles. He gets to them together and 00:04:52.860 --> 00:04:54.540 goes, I wanna share with you the message that 00:04:54.540 --> 00:04:56.279 I've been preaching. Why? Because it says this, 00:04:56.360 --> 00:04:58.920 I want to make sure that we were in agreement 00:04:58.920 --> 00:05:01.839 for fear that all my efforts had been wasted 00:05:01.839 --> 00:05:03.660 and I was running the race for nothing. If the 00:05:03.660 --> 00:05:06.160 message that I'm preaching is wrong, then I need 00:05:06.160 --> 00:05:08.660 to know because there's not, for no, it doesn't 00:05:08.660 --> 00:05:10.259 matter if I preach it if it's wrong. I need you 00:05:10.259 --> 00:05:11.899 guys to help me here. And then he says in verse 00:05:11.899 --> 00:05:14.879 three, and they supported me. and did not even 00:05:14.879 --> 00:05:17.540 demand that my companion Titus be circumcised, 00:05:17.560 --> 00:05:19.860 which is a Jewish tradition, even though he was 00:05:19.860 --> 00:05:23.360 Gentile. You need to understand, Paul here is 00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:25.399 a big deal. And we know that because we've read 00:05:25.399 --> 00:05:27.519 the Bible and he's written most of the New Testament. 00:05:27.639 --> 00:05:29.560 So we're like, yeah, he's a big deal. But even 00:05:29.560 --> 00:05:31.480 back then, before the things that he had written 00:05:31.480 --> 00:05:33.399 become canonized and became a part of the scriptures 00:05:33.399 --> 00:05:36.120 that we read today, he was a big deal religiously 00:05:36.120 --> 00:05:39.569 because Paul was born a full -blooded Jew. which 00:05:39.569 --> 00:05:41.170 carries a lot of weight, not just a full -blooded 00:05:41.170 --> 00:05:43.129 Jew, but he followed all the right things. He 00:05:43.129 --> 00:05:44.910 was circumcised on the eighth day like they told 00:05:44.910 --> 00:05:46.689 him he needed to be. He did the right things. 00:05:46.750 --> 00:05:48.930 He was from the tribe of Benjamin. Israel had 00:05:48.930 --> 00:05:50.490 different tribes and he was a very respected 00:05:50.490 --> 00:05:52.829 tribe from the tribe of Benjamin and he followed 00:05:52.829 --> 00:05:55.410 the law completely. In fact, not only did he 00:05:55.410 --> 00:05:57.410 follow the law completely, he was a Pharisee, 00:05:57.410 --> 00:05:58.889 which means that they didn't just follow the 00:05:58.889 --> 00:06:00.529 law, they added more laws and followed those 00:06:00.529 --> 00:06:02.889 too. He's like, I got it down, I've done it all. 00:06:03.500 --> 00:06:06.480 So Paul, understanding who he is, this guy who's 00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:09.180 done it all, Paul who has all these things, what 00:06:09.180 --> 00:06:12.379 does he do? He goes to confirm that the message 00:06:12.379 --> 00:06:17.019 he was preaching was right. He was seeking wise 00:06:17.019 --> 00:06:20.480 counsel. Paul had enough humility to seek wise 00:06:20.480 --> 00:06:24.379 counsel. Do you have enough humility to seek 00:06:24.379 --> 00:06:28.240 wise counsel in your life? Paul goes in to submit 00:06:28.240 --> 00:06:32.019 to these people to seek wise counsel. Years ago, 00:06:32.100 --> 00:06:34.899 I was living in San Diego and I had an offer 00:06:34.899 --> 00:06:37.040 to go pastor at a church in Washington State. 00:06:37.579 --> 00:06:39.899 Now, if you don't know, San Diego is beautiful 00:06:39.899 --> 00:06:42.079 and wonderful and the sun shines a lot. In Washington 00:06:42.079 --> 00:06:45.100 State, they don't have a sun. I don't know if 00:06:45.100 --> 00:06:47.040 you knew that or not. I don't know how they get 00:06:47.040 --> 00:06:49.139 light, but it's not from the sun because they 00:06:49.139 --> 00:06:51.980 don't have one. I'm just saying. And so when 00:06:51.980 --> 00:06:53.860 I got this call, I was like, no, that's not going 00:06:53.860 --> 00:06:55.860 to happen, God, because I like the sun and Washington 00:06:55.860 --> 00:06:58.240 doesn't have one. So I'm not going. And I sat 00:06:58.240 --> 00:06:59.839 down with a mentor of mine. His name is Brian 00:06:59.839 --> 00:07:02.079 Berry. And I sat with Brian. And as I was talking 00:07:02.079 --> 00:07:04.180 with him, I was telling him this offer that was 00:07:04.180 --> 00:07:05.959 going on. And I said, but I'm not going to go 00:07:05.959 --> 00:07:07.920 because I'm staying here. And he goes, well, 00:07:07.959 --> 00:07:09.620 what if God is calling you there and God has 00:07:09.620 --> 00:07:11.699 something for you there? And I'm like, God would 00:07:11.699 --> 00:07:14.000 not do that because the sun is here in San Diego. 00:07:16.259 --> 00:07:18.120 And I left. And he goes, no, no, seriously, I 00:07:18.120 --> 00:07:20.120 think you need to think about this. And maybe 00:07:20.120 --> 00:07:21.560 God is calling you to do that. And I said, I 00:07:21.560 --> 00:07:24.240 don't like what you're saying. And I left. And 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:25.660 I went and met with him a couple of weeks later 00:07:25.660 --> 00:07:27.180 after I'd been thinking about it and after God 00:07:27.180 --> 00:07:28.839 had been working on my heart and I sat down with 00:07:28.839 --> 00:07:30.579 him and I was like, maybe God is calling me to 00:07:30.579 --> 00:07:32.079 this. Maybe I need to be open to this. And he 00:07:32.079 --> 00:07:34.980 started challenging me. And I had to humble myself 00:07:34.980 --> 00:07:37.339 enough to take wise counsel to know that that's 00:07:37.339 --> 00:07:38.680 where God was calling me. And I had to follow 00:07:38.680 --> 00:07:40.639 God's call even though it wasn't what I wanted 00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:43.259 to do. And I had to listen to the people around 00:07:43.259 --> 00:07:46.079 me. And I had to learn to humble myself when 00:07:46.079 --> 00:07:47.800 it comes to the messages that I speak because 00:07:47.800 --> 00:07:49.899 it's really easy for me to go, yeah, I got this. 00:07:49.939 --> 00:07:51.560 I put this together and I've studied this and 00:07:51.560 --> 00:07:54.279 I know it and I can speak it. And I had to humble 00:07:54.279 --> 00:07:56.839 myself enough to know that I'm never gonna give 00:07:56.839 --> 00:07:58.620 a message that I haven't sat down and ran past 00:07:58.620 --> 00:08:01.100 a bunch of people. And I sit down with Pastor 00:08:01.100 --> 00:08:03.199 David and go, hey, this is what I'm thinking. 00:08:03.319 --> 00:08:05.600 Sit down with Pastor Bob or Pastor Ben and go, 00:08:05.639 --> 00:08:06.980 hey, what do you guys think? This is where I'm 00:08:06.980 --> 00:08:08.939 headed. I sit down with Pastor Noah and go, hey, 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:10.879 am I missing anything in here? What do I need 00:08:10.879 --> 00:08:14.579 to know? I had to learn to be humble enough to 00:08:14.579 --> 00:08:18.019 be able to go, hey. this is wise counsel that 00:08:18.019 --> 00:08:20.180 I need to sit and that I need to listen to. See, 00:08:20.220 --> 00:08:22.660 humility isn't just not taking credit for an 00:08:22.660 --> 00:08:24.800 accomplishment. Sometimes we think humility is 00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:26.959 just like, okay, well, I did something and someone 00:08:26.959 --> 00:08:28.860 gave me acknowledgement and I was like, oh, no, 00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:30.319 no, it's not a big deal. I'm good, I'm good. 00:08:30.839 --> 00:08:33.059 And we present this humility. We think that that's 00:08:33.059 --> 00:08:34.600 what humility is, but we need to understand what 00:08:34.600 --> 00:08:36.940 humility actually is. If you're taking notes 00:08:36.940 --> 00:08:39.139 today, write this down. Humility is acknowledging 00:08:39.139 --> 00:08:43.820 dependence. Humility is acknowledging dependence. 00:08:45.129 --> 00:08:48.830 It's dependence on God and dependence on others. 00:08:49.629 --> 00:08:52.049 It's saying, God, I'm depending on you and I'm 00:08:52.049 --> 00:08:55.049 depending on other people as well. And we don't 00:08:55.049 --> 00:08:56.509 like that because we don't like to depend on 00:08:56.509 --> 00:08:58.710 anyone because we are from America, the land 00:08:58.710 --> 00:08:59.929 of the free and the home of the brave, and I'm 00:08:59.929 --> 00:09:02.950 the brave and I don't need you. And that's inborn 00:09:02.950 --> 00:09:04.870 in us where we're like, nope, I got this myself. 00:09:06.389 --> 00:09:08.669 I don't need anyone. I don't like depending. 00:09:10.149 --> 00:09:14.870 But humility is dependence on God. Someone else, 00:09:14.909 --> 00:09:19.269 something else, God. This last couple of days, 00:09:19.309 --> 00:09:21.870 I had the opportunity to go to someone's house. 00:09:21.889 --> 00:09:24.529 There's a man in our church who's a very solid 00:09:24.529 --> 00:09:27.110 man of God and he's facing some health issues 00:09:27.110 --> 00:09:28.889 right now to where he has a really serious surgery 00:09:28.889 --> 00:09:31.990 coming. And he called some people and said, hey, 00:09:32.009 --> 00:09:33.309 I need you to come over and I need you to pray. 00:09:33.929 --> 00:09:36.169 And it was so beautiful because this man who's 00:09:36.169 --> 00:09:39.399 very successful, He's a man who can just go, 00:09:39.460 --> 00:09:42.019 no, I got this myself. But instead he said, I 00:09:42.019 --> 00:09:44.340 need full trust in God. I'm not gonna trust just 00:09:44.340 --> 00:09:46.179 because I've got it right and I've spent enough 00:09:46.179 --> 00:09:47.759 money on the right doctors and it's all gonna 00:09:47.759 --> 00:09:49.740 happen. He said, no, no, no, my dependence is 00:09:49.740 --> 00:09:52.759 on God. And it was a show of his dependence being 00:09:52.759 --> 00:09:54.820 on God, not himself, but not just that, is he 00:09:54.820 --> 00:09:57.419 called people together too to say, hey, I wanna 00:09:57.419 --> 00:09:59.820 invite you in to walk with me because my dependence 00:09:59.820 --> 00:10:02.259 is on God and my dependence is also on you. It's 00:10:02.259 --> 00:10:06.259 not on me. I have the humility to be dependent 00:10:06.259 --> 00:10:08.320 and to bring other people in to walk alongside 00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:11.500 of me on this difficult journey. And I think 00:10:11.500 --> 00:10:13.220 it's incredibly beautiful and it speaks directly 00:10:13.220 --> 00:10:16.639 against a lie that has got into the church, specifically 00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:18.919 the American church. And the lie is this, is 00:10:18.919 --> 00:10:20.860 that people go, I don't need church, it's just 00:10:20.860 --> 00:10:23.700 God and me. It's just me and God. I don't need 00:10:23.700 --> 00:10:25.519 anyone else because my relationship is between 00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:27.139 me and God and I don't need anyone else. And 00:10:27.139 --> 00:10:28.580 listen, if you were to go to the first century 00:10:28.580 --> 00:10:30.220 church and you were to tell them that, they would 00:10:30.220 --> 00:10:32.360 be absolutely, completely, utterly confused. 00:10:32.460 --> 00:10:34.059 It wouldn't make any sense to them because there's 00:10:34.059 --> 00:10:36.019 no such thing as being a Christian without being 00:10:36.019 --> 00:10:39.000 connected to the church. There is nowhere in 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:41.080 scripture that you see someone saying, oh, it's 00:10:41.080 --> 00:10:42.779 just me and God. And they're separated from the 00:10:42.779 --> 00:10:44.039 church and they're a Christian. In fact, the 00:10:44.039 --> 00:10:47.000 only place in scripture that you can find somebody 00:10:47.639 --> 00:10:49.120 They would say they are a Christian and they 00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:50.899 are not plugged into the churches when they were 00:10:50.899 --> 00:10:53.919 in jail because of being a Christian. So unless 00:10:53.919 --> 00:10:57.299 you're in jail right now, you gotta be connected 00:10:57.299 --> 00:11:00.059 to the church. That's what he's called us to. 00:11:00.120 --> 00:11:01.980 He's saying, hey, listen, you need other people. 00:11:02.019 --> 00:11:04.639 You need community. You need people around you 00:11:04.639 --> 00:11:06.399 because what people around you do and when you 00:11:06.399 --> 00:11:08.419 depend on other people is they make you the best 00:11:08.419 --> 00:11:11.600 version of you. That's what it says in Proverbs 00:11:11.600 --> 00:11:16.379 27, 17. As iron sharpens iron, so one person 00:11:16.379 --> 00:11:19.580 sharpens another. You wanna be the sharpest you 00:11:19.580 --> 00:11:20.860 can be? You wanna be the best you can be? Then 00:11:20.860 --> 00:11:22.179 get around other people. They're gonna make you 00:11:22.179 --> 00:11:23.659 the best you can be. It's not by being a lone 00:11:23.659 --> 00:11:27.000 ranger. It's by bringing someone else in. You 00:11:27.000 --> 00:11:29.220 are never gonna hear a message on this stage 00:11:29.220 --> 00:11:31.299 that has not already gone through a room of people 00:11:31.299 --> 00:11:34.100 that we invite in to say, hey, help us make it 00:11:34.100 --> 00:11:36.639 better. Help us sharpen this. As iron sharpens 00:11:36.639 --> 00:11:38.120 iron, we're gonna sit down and go, here's what 00:11:38.120 --> 00:11:39.899 I'm thinking. What do you think? And we say, 00:11:39.960 --> 00:11:45.200 speak into this. Help us, help us. We need community 00:11:45.200 --> 00:11:47.679 and we have to live in community. Paul understood 00:11:47.679 --> 00:11:50.700 that humility was going, hey, I wanna be dependent. 00:11:51.519 --> 00:11:54.600 I wanna go to somebody else. All right, he goes 00:11:54.600 --> 00:11:55.980 and he asks them, he goes, hey, is my message 00:11:55.980 --> 00:11:57.899 okay? And they said, yeah, it's great. And it 00:11:57.899 --> 00:12:01.919 says this in verse four. Even that question came 00:12:01.919 --> 00:12:04.399 up only because some so -called believers there, 00:12:04.500 --> 00:12:07.639 they're false ones really, who were secretly 00:12:07.639 --> 00:12:10.970 brought in. They sneaked in to spy on us and 00:12:10.970 --> 00:12:13.049 take away the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. 00:12:13.409 --> 00:12:16.250 They wanted to enslave us and force us to follow 00:12:16.250 --> 00:12:18.190 their Jewish regulations. They wanted them to 00:12:18.190 --> 00:12:21.409 be more Jewish than they did follow Jesus. He's 00:12:21.409 --> 00:12:23.730 going, but we refuse to give in to them for a 00:12:23.730 --> 00:12:27.350 single moment. We wanted to preserve the truth 00:12:27.350 --> 00:12:30.759 of the gospel message for you. See, Paul looked 00:12:30.759 --> 00:12:32.679 into this. Paul's going, I need to figure out 00:12:32.679 --> 00:12:34.740 this message that I'm preaching because fake 00:12:34.740 --> 00:12:37.200 believers were not okay with their freedom in 00:12:37.200 --> 00:12:39.019 Christ. You need to understand this. Haters gonna 00:12:39.019 --> 00:12:41.620 hate. All right, there are people out there that 00:12:41.620 --> 00:12:43.759 are not okay with the freedom that you found 00:12:43.759 --> 00:12:45.620 in Jesus. And when you find peace and when you 00:12:45.620 --> 00:12:47.779 find joy and when you find freedom in Jesus, 00:12:47.860 --> 00:12:49.539 there's always people that wanna pull you back 00:12:49.539 --> 00:12:52.320 into the misery that they're in. They don't like 00:12:52.320 --> 00:12:53.940 the freedom that you found. And they go, you 00:12:53.940 --> 00:12:55.659 know what? I'm glad that you found that. But 00:12:55.659 --> 00:12:57.120 then all of a sudden they're not very glad because 00:12:57.120 --> 00:12:58.860 now it means that you maybe stopped hanging out 00:12:58.860 --> 00:13:00.139 with them and doing the things that they wanted 00:13:00.139 --> 00:13:03.639 to do with you. Maybe your relationship has changed 00:13:03.639 --> 00:13:05.379 a little bit and all of a sudden now they don't 00:13:05.379 --> 00:13:07.200 like that you're spending so much time with this 00:13:07.200 --> 00:13:09.320 church thing. Why do you gotta always be doing 00:13:09.320 --> 00:13:10.600 church? Why do you always gotta be doing the 00:13:10.600 --> 00:13:12.059 Bible? And they wanna pull you back because they 00:13:12.059 --> 00:13:13.480 don't like the freedom that you found. And a 00:13:13.480 --> 00:13:16.080 lot of times it's because people, friends in 00:13:16.080 --> 00:13:17.960 our life get jealous of the freedom that we have 00:13:17.960 --> 00:13:19.559 and they wanna pull us back into the misery that 00:13:19.559 --> 00:13:22.649 they're in. And that's what's happening in this 00:13:22.649 --> 00:13:24.610 church right here is that Paul is seeing that 00:13:24.610 --> 00:13:26.190 they're going, I don't like that you guys have 00:13:26.190 --> 00:13:27.470 all this freedom. You need to do this, this, 00:13:27.509 --> 00:13:28.830 and that. And then they're trying to pull them 00:13:28.830 --> 00:13:31.409 back into a place that they never should be. 00:13:32.070 --> 00:13:34.429 But we have to understand that we don't need 00:13:34.429 --> 00:13:37.309 to please people. We're not in it to please people. 00:13:37.429 --> 00:13:39.529 We need to please God. And what Paul is saying 00:13:39.529 --> 00:13:41.730 to this church here in Galatia, he's saying, 00:13:41.830 --> 00:13:44.970 we're not here to please people. And I'm gonna 00:13:44.970 --> 00:13:47.370 stand to my guns here because I don't want you 00:13:47.370 --> 00:13:49.720 to be led astray. We're not here to please people. 00:13:49.919 --> 00:13:52.580 We're here to cling to the truth. Don't back 00:13:52.580 --> 00:13:55.440 down from what God has called you to do because 00:13:55.440 --> 00:13:58.500 someone doesn't like it. Because a friend in 00:13:58.500 --> 00:14:00.200 your life wants to pull you back into the misery 00:14:00.200 --> 00:14:02.740 that they're in. Don't fall away from what God 00:14:02.740 --> 00:14:04.639 has called you to do. Now, listen, I gotta be 00:14:04.639 --> 00:14:06.539 very careful here. Church, I'm not giving you 00:14:06.539 --> 00:14:09.200 permission to be a jerk though. Some of you are 00:14:09.200 --> 00:14:11.620 like, I'm just standing on truth. Right, you 00:14:11.620 --> 00:14:14.220 just wanna be a jerk for Jesus. There's no such 00:14:14.220 --> 00:14:18.320 thing, doesn't exist. Don't do it. Right, in 00:14:18.320 --> 00:14:22.340 love, stand on the truth. And what Paul is doing 00:14:22.340 --> 00:14:24.340 is he's saying, hey, I'm gonna stand on this 00:14:24.340 --> 00:14:25.940 truth right here. I'm gonna fight so that you 00:14:25.940 --> 00:14:28.799 understand what matters and they're not gonna 00:14:28.799 --> 00:14:32.679 lead you astray to a different gospel. And it 00:14:32.679 --> 00:14:34.779 says this in verse six, it says, and the leaders 00:14:34.779 --> 00:14:36.700 of the church, they had nothing to add to what 00:14:36.700 --> 00:14:39.399 I was preaching. They said it was good, had nothing 00:14:39.399 --> 00:14:41.139 to add to it. Then he says this, by the way, 00:14:41.620 --> 00:14:44.559 their reputation as great leaders made no difference 00:14:44.559 --> 00:14:49.690 to me for God has no. God has no favorites. He's 00:14:49.690 --> 00:14:51.549 like, I could go to anyone for this, but I went 00:14:51.549 --> 00:14:53.710 to these church leaders. And he said that they 00:14:53.710 --> 00:14:55.389 had nothing to add to what I was preaching. Instead, 00:14:55.769 --> 00:14:58.409 they saw that God had given me the responsibility 00:14:58.409 --> 00:15:01.330 of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just 00:15:01.330 --> 00:15:03.470 as he had given Peter the responsibility of preaching 00:15:03.470 --> 00:15:06.509 to the Jews. The same God who worked through 00:15:06.509 --> 00:15:08.950 Peter as an apostle to the Jews. also worked 00:15:08.950 --> 00:15:10.629 through me as an apostle to the Gentiles. See, 00:15:10.649 --> 00:15:13.090 Paul's call from God, what he'd been called to, 00:15:13.210 --> 00:15:16.009 was to spread the gospel to the Gentiles. And 00:15:16.009 --> 00:15:17.669 this was stirring people up because for them, 00:15:17.669 --> 00:15:19.590 they were like, but Jews, that's the way to do 00:15:19.590 --> 00:15:21.350 it. And he's like, no, no, no, the gospel is 00:15:21.350 --> 00:15:23.549 for everyone and I'm gonna go to the Gentiles 00:15:23.549 --> 00:15:26.029 just as Peter's call is to the Jews. And that's 00:15:26.029 --> 00:15:29.950 good too. There's a different call for both of 00:15:29.950 --> 00:15:34.590 them. I think that us in the church, all of us, 00:15:34.610 --> 00:15:38.370 in the world actually, our biggest fear is to 00:15:38.370 --> 00:15:41.190 become a floppy disk. How many of you guys remember 00:15:41.190 --> 00:15:44.129 a floppy disk? How many of you have used a floppy 00:15:44.129 --> 00:15:47.070 disk? Okay, if you have, this is your reminder. 00:15:47.149 --> 00:15:48.690 You probably need to schedule that doctor's appointment 00:15:48.690 --> 00:15:50.230 to get your blood work done. I'm just saying, 00:15:50.250 --> 00:15:52.570 it's probably about time in your life to do that. 00:15:52.649 --> 00:15:55.730 I'm just saying. Here's the thing, a floppy disk, 00:15:55.809 --> 00:15:57.230 man, you'll see them around, right? You'll see 00:15:57.230 --> 00:15:59.049 them around, but they have absolutely no purpose 00:15:59.049 --> 00:16:01.049 anymore. And I think that's our biggest fear 00:16:01.049 --> 00:16:03.370 is to just be floating around with no purpose, 00:16:03.450 --> 00:16:06.309 to walk through life with absolutely no purpose. 00:16:06.269 --> 00:16:08.269 purpose. To go through and go, man, I don't know 00:16:08.269 --> 00:16:09.950 where I'm at. And so when we do that, we start 00:16:09.950 --> 00:16:11.809 trying to find our purpose and we go, well, maybe 00:16:11.809 --> 00:16:13.730 this is my purpose and I need to try this. And 00:16:13.730 --> 00:16:15.250 then I need to try this. And we try all these 00:16:15.250 --> 00:16:17.090 things looking for our purpose. And then we end 00:16:17.090 --> 00:16:20.690 up settling for a light version of purpose. And 00:16:20.690 --> 00:16:23.850 what I mean is this, we find our job, what we 00:16:23.850 --> 00:16:27.009 do, and we say, this is my purpose. And this 00:16:27.009 --> 00:16:28.889 is my purpose. This is my job. But then we have 00:16:28.889 --> 00:16:32.490 to find fulfillment in something else. And we're 00:16:32.490 --> 00:16:33.889 always living for the weekend or we're living 00:16:33.889 --> 00:16:35.490 for that relationship or we're living for something 00:16:35.490 --> 00:16:37.250 else because what we do does not give us the 00:16:37.250 --> 00:16:38.710 fulfillment that we're craving and we have to 00:16:38.710 --> 00:16:40.509 find those in two places. But what your calling 00:16:40.509 --> 00:16:43.009 is, is the intersection of what you're, when 00:16:43.009 --> 00:16:46.570 you get purpose and what you do intersects with 00:16:46.570 --> 00:16:48.750 the fulfillment that comes through it. That is 00:16:48.750 --> 00:16:51.309 your calling. That is what God has called you 00:16:51.309 --> 00:16:55.149 to do. That is the thing that he has put you 00:16:55.149 --> 00:16:57.110 on this earth to do. And you need to understand 00:16:57.110 --> 00:16:59.750 that your job is what you do. Your calling is 00:16:59.750 --> 00:17:03.990 the impact that you have while you do it. We 00:17:03.990 --> 00:17:05.269 all have different skills. We all have different 00:17:05.269 --> 00:17:06.589 things. We're all in different places. And the 00:17:06.589 --> 00:17:08.329 job is what you do, but the impact that you have 00:17:08.329 --> 00:17:10.849 while you're there, that's your calling. That's 00:17:10.849 --> 00:17:13.700 why God put you there. I think it's incredible. 00:17:13.799 --> 00:17:16.380 There's a man in our church who, he's a welder. 00:17:16.380 --> 00:17:18.720 He does fabricating of steel and different things 00:17:18.720 --> 00:17:21.279 that he makes gates. And that's what he does 00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:25.059 for a job with landscaping. And he realized this, 00:17:25.099 --> 00:17:27.759 this light bulb came on for him and it absolutely 00:17:27.759 --> 00:17:29.799 changed his view in life. It changed his view 00:17:29.799 --> 00:17:32.559 of how he wakes up every morning because he understands 00:17:32.559 --> 00:17:35.579 that what he does is an opportunity to live his 00:17:35.579 --> 00:17:38.099 calling. And it's incredible because almost every 00:17:38.099 --> 00:17:39.619 other week, every couple of weeks, he'll come 00:17:39.619 --> 00:17:41.180 to me and he'll tell me a different story of 00:17:41.180 --> 00:17:43.200 a house that he was at with a client. And he's 00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:44.720 just like, man, and I just shared my testimony 00:17:44.720 --> 00:17:47.779 with them. He's like, it was incredible. And 00:17:47.779 --> 00:17:48.900 then he'll tell me a couple of weeks later, he 00:17:48.900 --> 00:17:50.160 goes, man, I was at this house this week and 00:17:50.160 --> 00:17:52.380 I was installing this for them and I was doing 00:17:52.380 --> 00:17:54.859 these things. And God just asked me if I asked 00:17:54.859 --> 00:17:58.180 him, can I pray for you? He said, people just 00:17:58.180 --> 00:17:59.859 stop and go, man, I didn't even tell you there 00:17:59.859 --> 00:18:01.299 was anything going on, but here's the list of 00:18:01.299 --> 00:18:02.640 things going on in my life. How did you know 00:18:02.640 --> 00:18:04.200 that I needed prayer? And he's like, hey, I'm 00:18:04.200 --> 00:18:06.789 just here to pray for you. And he's told me these 00:18:06.789 --> 00:18:08.390 times where he's talking to someone and he just 00:18:08.390 --> 00:18:09.650 feels like God's telling him, hey, I need to 00:18:09.650 --> 00:18:11.049 tell him about Jesus. And he's in the middle 00:18:11.049 --> 00:18:12.829 of work and he just goes, hey, can I just tell 00:18:12.829 --> 00:18:14.569 you about Jesus? And they're like, yeah, sure. 00:18:15.890 --> 00:18:18.789 And he understands that what he does is one thing, 00:18:18.829 --> 00:18:20.809 but his calling is wrapped up in what he does 00:18:20.809 --> 00:18:23.210 and he's found his purpose. That's what purpose 00:18:23.210 --> 00:18:26.809 is. And I'm not gonna get into the weeds here 00:18:26.809 --> 00:18:29.329 with calling because Tom literally preached an 00:18:29.329 --> 00:18:31.230 entire sermon on it last week, but I think it 00:18:31.230 --> 00:18:33.650 doesn't matter what your calling is if you don't 00:18:33.650 --> 00:18:37.750 have the humility. to take it. Because we like 00:18:37.750 --> 00:18:40.430 to hold the steering wheel so tight and say, 00:18:40.490 --> 00:18:42.170 this is the direction I'm going. And God, you've 00:18:42.170 --> 00:18:43.789 pointed, I'm pointed in this direction and you 00:18:43.789 --> 00:18:45.170 can't stop me. And God's, no, no, I want you 00:18:45.170 --> 00:18:47.509 to go here. I want you to turn here. I want you 00:18:47.509 --> 00:18:49.730 to do this. And you're like, no, I got it. I'm 00:18:49.730 --> 00:18:52.410 white knuckling this one, baby. God's like, no, 00:18:52.430 --> 00:18:54.609 I got something more for you. I want you to go 00:18:54.609 --> 00:18:56.690 this way. But a lot of times we won't let that 00:18:56.690 --> 00:18:58.329 happen. I need you to write this down. Humility 00:18:58.329 --> 00:19:03.140 is submitting to his will. Humility is submitting 00:19:03.140 --> 00:19:05.980 to his will. It's not about you. It's submitting 00:19:05.980 --> 00:19:08.220 to his will. Submitting, what submitting is, 00:19:08.299 --> 00:19:10.059 is surrendering and surrendering is required 00:19:10.059 --> 00:19:13.900 for embracing your calling. I think about a police 00:19:13.900 --> 00:19:17.339 officer when they say, hey, surrender right now. 00:19:17.579 --> 00:19:19.359 You're under arrest, surrender. And what that 00:19:19.359 --> 00:19:23.420 means is I give up, I surrender. I think there's 00:19:23.420 --> 00:19:25.140 too many Christians walking around that are resisting 00:19:25.140 --> 00:19:27.380 arrest when it comes to God because God's saying, 00:19:27.460 --> 00:19:29.099 hey, surrender. And you're going, no, I got this. 00:19:29.140 --> 00:19:31.119 I'm not surrendering. And he's going, listen, 00:19:31.259 --> 00:19:33.599 you need to go into the calling that I have for 00:19:33.599 --> 00:19:35.380 you. And what that requires is it requires the 00:19:35.380 --> 00:19:38.640 humility to submit to his will, because the truth 00:19:38.640 --> 00:19:40.839 is that God has called every single one of us. 00:19:41.019 --> 00:19:42.640 You have been called. If you are a follower of 00:19:42.640 --> 00:19:46.079 Jesus, you've been called. I can tell you today 00:19:46.079 --> 00:19:48.539 what your purpose is. It's not some wild scientific 00:19:48.539 --> 00:19:51.720 experiment and equation and all these crazy stuff. 00:19:51.779 --> 00:19:52.680 I'm going to tell you right now. Here it is. 00:19:52.740 --> 00:19:54.819 Ready? Ready for this? This is why you are put 00:19:54.819 --> 00:19:57.279 on this earth, to love people and tell them about 00:19:57.279 --> 00:19:59.890 Jesus. That's it. That's why you're here. That 00:19:59.890 --> 00:20:02.390 is your purpose. Oh, Todd, you're simplifying 00:20:02.390 --> 00:20:04.549 it. Nope. I'm telling you exactly what it is. 00:20:04.990 --> 00:20:07.750 Love God. Tell people about Jesus. Love others. 00:20:07.869 --> 00:20:10.869 Tell people about Jesus. There it is. That's 00:20:10.869 --> 00:20:12.849 why you're here on this earth. And for some of 00:20:12.849 --> 00:20:14.089 you, you're like, I don't like that. I don't 00:20:14.089 --> 00:20:16.990 think that's mine. I'm not saying it. He is. 00:20:17.109 --> 00:20:20.720 Don't get mad at me. That's your call. That's 00:20:20.720 --> 00:20:22.920 what you've been given. That is a general calling 00:20:22.920 --> 00:20:24.519 for all of us who call ourselves a follower of 00:20:24.519 --> 00:20:26.000 Jesus. That's why you're on this earth. Now, 00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:30.420 each one of us also has a specific calling. We've 00:20:30.420 --> 00:20:32.839 all been called to something specific, right? 00:20:32.900 --> 00:20:35.019 Not all of you are gonna come stand on this stage 00:20:35.019 --> 00:20:38.619 and preach, just like I'm not gonna go be a welder. 00:20:38.660 --> 00:20:42.019 That would be real bad, okay, real bad. That's 00:20:42.019 --> 00:20:43.599 not our calling. Well, you need to find out what 00:20:43.599 --> 00:20:45.680 your specific calling is to enact your general 00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:47.240 calling, which is what all of us are called to 00:20:47.240 --> 00:20:50.769 do. But if we're going to figure that out, we 00:20:50.769 --> 00:20:52.849 need to understand that God calls, community 00:20:52.849 --> 00:20:56.410 confirms. God calls, community confirms. This 00:20:56.410 --> 00:20:58.170 is why community is so important is because you 00:20:58.170 --> 00:21:01.150 can't decipher what your calling is by yourself. 00:21:01.329 --> 00:21:04.970 In fact, I would caution you. It is very, very 00:21:04.970 --> 00:21:08.630 dangerous and very, very scary if you find somebody 00:21:08.630 --> 00:21:10.609 who feels that God has called them to something 00:21:10.609 --> 00:21:12.950 and nobody else in their life confirms that calling. 00:21:13.930 --> 00:21:15.950 And it's just as dangerous when everyone in their 00:21:15.950 --> 00:21:17.450 life confirms a calling and you're unwilling 00:21:17.450 --> 00:21:21.509 to take that calling. When God calls you, it 00:21:21.509 --> 00:21:25.230 is our job to, in humility, submit to his will. 00:21:25.750 --> 00:21:27.690 All right, what Paul is doing here is he's saying, 00:21:27.750 --> 00:21:30.529 my call is to go and to preach to the Gentiles. 00:21:31.230 --> 00:21:33.470 And I'm so glad that he took that call. You know 00:21:33.470 --> 00:21:36.089 why? Because most of us in here are Gentiles. 00:21:37.400 --> 00:21:39.740 We get the gospel. The gospel is for everyone. 00:21:39.819 --> 00:21:41.359 And he's going for that. And you need to understand 00:21:41.359 --> 00:21:44.099 the gospel is for everyone. And we in the church, 00:21:44.160 --> 00:21:45.680 a lot of times, the longer you've been in the 00:21:45.680 --> 00:21:48.279 church, the more picky and choosy you are about 00:21:48.279 --> 00:21:49.779 people that you want to let in the church too. 00:21:50.519 --> 00:21:52.279 And you need to understand that the gospel is 00:21:52.279 --> 00:21:54.400 for everyone. And it is not for us to decide 00:21:54.400 --> 00:21:56.779 who gets to hear the good news. It is our job 00:21:56.779 --> 00:21:59.940 to just tell the good news. We don't get to pick, 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:01.819 oh, well, that person, I know what they did last 00:22:01.819 --> 00:22:05.420 night. They shouldn't be here. Neither should 00:22:05.420 --> 00:22:09.170 you. Right? We want to get judgy. We want to 00:22:09.170 --> 00:22:10.569 do that. It's not our job to pick and choose 00:22:10.569 --> 00:22:12.269 who gets to hear it. It's our job to just tell 00:22:12.269 --> 00:22:15.150 them. That's why at Heights, our doors are always 00:22:15.150 --> 00:22:17.869 going to be open to anyone. Our doors are open 00:22:17.869 --> 00:22:19.170 to anyone. You don't have to look a certain way. 00:22:19.230 --> 00:22:20.369 You don't have to act a certain way. You don't 00:22:20.369 --> 00:22:22.029 have to believe a certain thing. You don't have 00:22:22.029 --> 00:22:23.710 to not do what you were doing last night in order 00:22:23.710 --> 00:22:26.089 to be in here today. We don't care. The doors 00:22:26.089 --> 00:22:27.990 are open to anyone because the gospel is for 00:22:27.990 --> 00:22:30.529 everyone. Right, because if we were to stand 00:22:30.529 --> 00:22:32.369 up here and we're gonna say we are for Jesus 00:22:32.369 --> 00:22:34.289 and we're gonna plant this flag, that's who we're 00:22:34.289 --> 00:22:36.309 for, then we need to understand that Jesus was 00:22:36.309 --> 00:22:38.369 for people. So if we're for Jesus, we are also 00:22:38.369 --> 00:22:41.650 for people. And if we're for people, we are for 00:22:41.650 --> 00:22:44.650 all people, not just certain ones, not just select 00:22:44.650 --> 00:22:47.250 ones, we're for all people. All right, and if 00:22:47.250 --> 00:22:49.569 we're for all people, then we need to embrace 00:22:49.569 --> 00:22:53.509 this idea of hospitality. We need to value hospitality. 00:22:53.809 --> 00:22:55.369 We need to be hospitable enough to say, hey, 00:22:55.369 --> 00:22:57.349 listen, you're welcome here and we love that 00:22:57.349 --> 00:22:59.599 you're here. And we're gonna love you while you're 00:22:59.599 --> 00:23:02.259 here. And we're gonna step into what God has 00:23:02.259 --> 00:23:04.200 called us to do because humility is submitting 00:23:04.200 --> 00:23:08.940 to his will. What he says here, Paul goes, you 00:23:08.940 --> 00:23:10.980 know, they said that this is my calling and they 00:23:10.980 --> 00:23:12.480 confirmed it and I'm gonna head out. And then 00:23:12.480 --> 00:23:14.680 verse nine, he says this, in fact, James, Peter, 00:23:14.740 --> 00:23:17.579 and John, who were known as pillars of the church, 00:23:17.779 --> 00:23:20.740 they recognized the gift God had given me and 00:23:20.740 --> 00:23:23.799 they accepted Barnabas and me as their coworkers. 00:23:24.740 --> 00:23:27.480 They encouraged us to keep preaching to the Gentiles. 00:23:27.849 --> 00:23:29.509 while they continued their work with the Jews. 00:23:30.470 --> 00:23:33.769 Their only suggestion was that we keep on helping 00:23:33.769 --> 00:23:36.089 the poor, which I've always been eager to do. 00:23:36.450 --> 00:23:40.170 Listen, whatever your calling is, let love be 00:23:40.170 --> 00:23:42.970 the driving force. Whatever the calling is, let 00:23:42.970 --> 00:23:46.190 love be the driving force. You know why? Write 00:23:46.190 --> 00:23:50.289 this down, because humility reflects Jesus. Humility 00:23:50.289 --> 00:23:54.599 reflects Jesus. And sometimes what we do, why 00:23:54.599 --> 00:23:56.660 they cautioned him here, sometimes what we do 00:23:56.660 --> 00:23:58.440 is we get so focused on where we're going that 00:23:58.440 --> 00:24:00.279 we miss the things that are quote unquote below 00:24:00.279 --> 00:24:03.259 us. I'm looking here and I miss the thing that's 00:24:03.259 --> 00:24:05.440 below me. And that's often the people that are 00:24:05.440 --> 00:24:06.980 hurting. That's often the people that are poor. 00:24:07.119 --> 00:24:08.960 That's often the people that are in a difficult 00:24:08.960 --> 00:24:10.799 spot in their life. That's often the people that 00:24:10.799 --> 00:24:12.519 we shove aside in order to just keep pushing 00:24:12.519 --> 00:24:14.900 forward. And so what he's telling you is, hey, 00:24:14.920 --> 00:24:17.559 don't miss the things that are around you. I 00:24:17.559 --> 00:24:19.259 would caution you not to miss that because I 00:24:19.259 --> 00:24:20.779 don't want you to get sideways with just being 00:24:20.779 --> 00:24:22.700 right. Sometimes if we're just right, that's 00:24:22.700 --> 00:24:23.839 all that matters. And then we miss the thing 00:24:23.839 --> 00:24:26.920 that actually matters. If we just get caught 00:24:26.920 --> 00:24:29.119 up in the success that we have, if we just get 00:24:29.119 --> 00:24:30.880 caught up in all the things that we do, we lose 00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:32.559 sight for what God wants for us. And he's saying, 00:24:32.599 --> 00:24:35.039 no, no, no. You need to understand that humility 00:24:35.039 --> 00:24:37.640 reflects Jesus. And what Jesus does is he cared 00:24:37.640 --> 00:24:39.099 about the least of these. And if you're gonna 00:24:39.099 --> 00:24:43.079 reflect him, it requires us to be driven by love. 00:24:45.339 --> 00:24:48.019 Because humility, write this down, is the foundation 00:24:48.019 --> 00:24:51.660 of true greatness. Humility is the foundation 00:24:51.660 --> 00:24:55.619 of true greatness. I'm bringing it right back 00:24:55.619 --> 00:24:57.740 around from what I said at the top when I said, 00:24:57.779 --> 00:25:01.299 you could be a spiritual superstar, but what 00:25:01.299 --> 00:25:07.779 if the way up was down? True greatness is found 00:25:07.779 --> 00:25:10.940 in humility. It says this in Matthew 23. The 00:25:10.940 --> 00:25:14.819 greatest among you will be your servant. The 00:25:14.819 --> 00:25:15.980 greatest among you will be your servant. That 00:25:15.980 --> 00:25:17.920 doesn't make any sense. For those who exalt themselves, 00:25:18.359 --> 00:25:20.720 they'll be humbled. But those who humble themselves, 00:25:20.859 --> 00:25:23.619 those who walk in with humility, themselves will 00:25:23.619 --> 00:25:29.180 be exalted. It's an upside down kingdom. It doesn't 00:25:29.180 --> 00:25:32.119 make any sense. Because we go, well, no, no, 00:25:32.140 --> 00:25:33.460 no. The greatest is the one that's the greatest. 00:25:33.619 --> 00:25:34.940 No, it says the greatest is the one that serves. 00:25:36.099 --> 00:25:37.380 Greatest is the one that does all these things 00:25:37.380 --> 00:25:39.119 in front of everyone. No, no, no. Greatest is 00:25:39.119 --> 00:25:42.299 the one that humbles themselves. It's an upside 00:25:42.299 --> 00:25:45.279 down kingdom to understand that humility is what 00:25:45.279 --> 00:25:48.740 matters. So how do you live it out? What does 00:25:48.740 --> 00:25:50.759 this look like? How do you live in humility? 00:25:51.700 --> 00:25:56.700 It's relying on him, not on you. Relying on him, 00:25:56.799 --> 00:25:59.920 not on you. You know what it is every time you 00:25:59.920 --> 00:26:01.460 open the word of God, every time you open your 00:26:01.460 --> 00:26:03.420 Bible, what you're doing is you're saying it's 00:26:03.420 --> 00:26:06.519 a posture of humility to say this book has what 00:26:06.519 --> 00:26:10.799 I need because I don't have what I need. You're 00:26:10.799 --> 00:26:12.339 posturing your heart right there. Every time 00:26:12.339 --> 00:26:14.279 you open God's word, if you build it into a rhythm 00:26:14.279 --> 00:26:17.599 in your day, you have a rhythm in your day to 00:26:17.599 --> 00:26:19.339 remind yourself that God is in charge and you 00:26:19.339 --> 00:26:21.640 are not. When you pray, you know what you're 00:26:21.640 --> 00:26:23.700 doing? You are literally saying, I can't do this 00:26:23.700 --> 00:26:25.220 and I'm submitting to something that is higher 00:26:25.220 --> 00:26:27.180 than me in order to get me through it. You are 00:26:27.180 --> 00:26:30.039 posturing your heart in a place of humility to 00:26:30.039 --> 00:26:34.119 say, God, I'm giving it to you. I would encourage 00:26:34.119 --> 00:26:36.920 you to start your day in prayer and in God's 00:26:36.920 --> 00:26:39.299 word because you're starting your day in a posture 00:26:39.299 --> 00:26:40.900 of humility that'll carry to the rest of your 00:26:40.900 --> 00:26:44.140 day. Putting yourself in a place where you're 00:26:44.140 --> 00:26:46.779 already starting to realize I'm not relying on 00:26:46.779 --> 00:26:50.539 me, I'm relying on him. What does humility look 00:26:50.539 --> 00:26:53.359 like? It looks like practicing gratitude as an 00:26:53.359 --> 00:26:58.500 attitude, as a constant attitude. But some of 00:26:58.500 --> 00:27:00.079 you guys, you're negative Nellies out there, 00:27:00.119 --> 00:27:01.599 right? All you see is the negative stuff everywhere. 00:27:01.859 --> 00:27:04.920 Life's bad, this is bad, that's bad. And we miss 00:27:04.920 --> 00:27:07.779 all the blessings that are around us. You know 00:27:07.779 --> 00:27:10.980 how blessed we are? We get so used to the things 00:27:10.980 --> 00:27:13.960 in our life that we miss the blessings. Yesterday 00:27:13.960 --> 00:27:17.059 I had, Pastor Ben was at my house and he walked 00:27:17.059 --> 00:27:18.819 by my kitchen counter and he put his hand on 00:27:18.819 --> 00:27:21.019 it and he goes, man, it's really cool you get 00:27:21.019 --> 00:27:22.400 to live here. This is a really nice counter. 00:27:23.259 --> 00:27:24.839 I didn't know he had a thing for counters. I 00:27:24.839 --> 00:27:27.579 was kind of caught off guard, but. It wasn't 00:27:27.579 --> 00:27:30.480 until he left and I thought to myself, man, you 00:27:30.480 --> 00:27:33.559 know how much I just walk past it and don't notice 00:27:33.559 --> 00:27:36.240 it's just a counter? I don't care. I took that 00:27:36.240 --> 00:27:37.500 granite for granted. You know what I'm saying? 00:27:38.859 --> 00:27:40.660 That was dumb. Don't laugh at that. Come on. 00:27:40.680 --> 00:27:43.859 That was dumb. But we take the things that we 00:27:43.859 --> 00:27:46.160 see in our life over and over. We just take them 00:27:46.160 --> 00:27:48.559 for granted. I just see that. I'm owed that. 00:27:48.640 --> 00:27:51.759 That's who I am. Some of you, when you pick your 00:27:51.759 --> 00:27:54.819 kids up today, just... Thank the kids worker 00:27:54.819 --> 00:27:56.480 who's in there because sometimes we just overlook 00:27:56.480 --> 00:27:57.940 them and we don't realize the blessing that they 00:27:57.940 --> 00:28:01.000 are in our life. When you notice things in your 00:28:01.000 --> 00:28:02.740 life, just tell someone, tell a friend, text 00:28:02.740 --> 00:28:04.900 someone right now randomly today and just go, 00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:07.819 hey, I'm so grateful for this. They're gonna 00:28:07.819 --> 00:28:08.859 be like, where did that come from? And you're 00:28:08.859 --> 00:28:11.720 like, I don't know, I'm just grateful. I just 00:28:11.720 --> 00:28:14.480 start a gratitude journal where you just start 00:28:14.480 --> 00:28:15.900 writing down the things that you're grateful 00:28:15.900 --> 00:28:18.740 for because you know what I've realized? When 00:28:18.740 --> 00:28:21.799 you're grateful for all the things, It breaks 00:28:21.799 --> 00:28:23.500 that thing inside of you that thinks that you're 00:28:23.500 --> 00:28:27.359 owed all those things. And what that is, is that's 00:28:27.359 --> 00:28:30.619 enacting humility in your life. It's an attitude 00:28:30.619 --> 00:28:32.900 of gratitude. It's just humility going, yeah, 00:28:32.920 --> 00:28:36.519 I'm not owed this. God, I'm just grateful that 00:28:36.519 --> 00:28:38.160 I got to breathe today. How many of you thank 00:28:38.160 --> 00:28:41.099 God that you got to breathe today? How we take 00:28:41.099 --> 00:28:42.940 things so much and we're just like, I just, I, 00:28:42.980 --> 00:28:45.799 you know, like we're owed them instead of going, 00:28:45.859 --> 00:28:49.619 no, no, no. I'm humbled that I even get to be. 00:28:50.079 --> 00:28:51.700 in this place that I even get to do that. You 00:28:51.700 --> 00:28:53.200 know what this looks like? It looks like serving 00:28:53.200 --> 00:28:58.539 others without needing recognition. Because we 00:28:58.539 --> 00:29:02.079 like to serve so other people see us serve. Did 00:29:02.079 --> 00:29:05.559 you see how awesome I was? We like to serve so 00:29:05.559 --> 00:29:07.460 that people see what we do. I remember when I 00:29:07.460 --> 00:29:09.619 was in high school. I was in high school after 00:29:09.619 --> 00:29:11.900 our service at church, we had to pick up all 00:29:11.900 --> 00:29:14.220 the chairs and I hated picking up the chairs. 00:29:14.259 --> 00:29:16.200 I'm telling you right now, I hated it. It was 00:29:16.200 --> 00:29:19.319 the worst. But I would pick up chairs, and especially 00:29:19.319 --> 00:29:21.319 when I saw somebody else pick up four chairs, 00:29:21.460 --> 00:29:23.839 I would pick up six and make sure everyone saw 00:29:23.839 --> 00:29:25.380 me picking up six. You know what I'm saying? 00:29:25.700 --> 00:29:27.440 That was how I flirted as a high school boy. 00:29:27.519 --> 00:29:29.099 I was like, come on, ladies. You see how many 00:29:29.099 --> 00:29:31.539 chairs I got right now? I'm like, what up, baby 00:29:31.539 --> 00:29:34.319 girl? I got all these chairs right now. I needed 00:29:34.319 --> 00:29:36.180 them to see me. I was like a peacock. You know 00:29:36.180 --> 00:29:37.500 when they put their feathers out? I did that 00:29:37.500 --> 00:29:41.420 through stacking chairs. That was my game. You're 00:29:41.420 --> 00:29:43.059 like, bro, it is a miracle you got married. I 00:29:43.059 --> 00:29:48.400 know. I know. Listen, sometimes we serve just 00:29:48.400 --> 00:29:50.099 because we want people to see who we are and 00:29:50.099 --> 00:29:53.200 how awesome we are, but serving without needing 00:29:53.200 --> 00:29:55.980 recognition is living out this idea of humility. 00:29:56.079 --> 00:29:57.839 It's making a meal that no one knows you made. 00:29:58.380 --> 00:29:59.980 It's showing up to clean when no one else is 00:29:59.980 --> 00:30:01.539 even here just to say, hey, I'm here to serve. 00:30:03.619 --> 00:30:05.859 It's mentoring someone that you would spend years 00:30:05.859 --> 00:30:07.740 pouring your life into and they go on to get 00:30:07.740 --> 00:30:09.400 the greatness and no one knows you even existed. 00:30:10.799 --> 00:30:14.450 My uncle, he... He does this with corporations. 00:30:14.509 --> 00:30:16.769 He does this with big CEOs as he's their advisors. 00:30:17.049 --> 00:30:19.509 And the CEOs will stand in front of their company 00:30:19.509 --> 00:30:21.269 and talk about big decisions or big directions 00:30:21.269 --> 00:30:22.829 and things that they're doing. And the only reason 00:30:22.829 --> 00:30:23.950 they're saying what they're saying is because 00:30:23.950 --> 00:30:25.890 my uncle advised them to say that. No one even 00:30:25.890 --> 00:30:29.769 knows my uncle exists. Hey, what if we took on 00:30:29.769 --> 00:30:31.390 that posture of just going, listen, I don't need 00:30:31.390 --> 00:30:35.589 any recognition. It's not about me. It's about 00:30:35.589 --> 00:30:37.710 him. And I want to live in a way that humbles 00:30:37.710 --> 00:30:41.029 myself enough to say that humility is the true 00:30:41.029 --> 00:30:46.089 foundation. of greatness. See, none of this is 00:30:46.089 --> 00:30:48.630 possible, though, unless you align your heart 00:30:48.630 --> 00:30:53.170 with him. Because you and I don't have the capability 00:30:53.170 --> 00:30:56.369 to do this on our own. We don't, man. We're just 00:30:56.369 --> 00:30:58.289 broken inside. And so the only way that we even 00:30:58.289 --> 00:31:00.230 achieve any of this humility is aligning our 00:31:00.230 --> 00:31:01.809 heart with the most humble being of all time, 00:31:01.869 --> 00:31:04.289 which is Jesus. Jesus himself, the king of the 00:31:04.289 --> 00:31:06.509 universe, who came to this earth and was born 00:31:06.509 --> 00:31:10.059 in a manger. the most humble place. And he lived 00:31:10.059 --> 00:31:12.200 in a way where he said things like, listen, I'm 00:31:12.200 --> 00:31:16.440 here to serve, not to be served. And when we 00:31:16.440 --> 00:31:19.680 align our heart with his heart, we embrace the 00:31:19.680 --> 00:31:23.920 humility that we were called to embrace. Come 00:31:23.920 --> 00:31:25.500 back to Jesus. That's the challenge I have for 00:31:25.500 --> 00:31:27.759 you is this, is come back to Jesus. Align your 00:31:27.759 --> 00:31:30.079 heart with him. Don't allow the other things 00:31:30.079 --> 00:31:32.420 to get you sideways, but bring it back to Jesus 00:31:32.420 --> 00:31:34.299 and go, man, I'm aligning my heart with him because 00:31:34.299 --> 00:31:39.079 apart from him, it is absolutely not. possible. 00:31:39.079 --> 00:31:44.220 Let's pray. God, thank you so much, Lord, that 00:31:44.220 --> 00:31:48.059 you gave us an example of what true humility 00:31:48.059 --> 00:31:52.500 is through Jesus. God, I pray that we would not 00:31:52.500 --> 00:31:54.420 allow ourself to get in the way of embracing 00:31:54.420 --> 00:31:56.859 true humility that is only found in Jesus. God, 00:31:56.920 --> 00:31:58.839 I pray for each one of us that we would align 00:31:58.839 --> 00:32:03.059 our hearts with your heart. God, that we would 00:32:03.059 --> 00:32:05.059 posture ourself in a place of humility that's 00:32:05.059 --> 00:32:07.819 able to take wise counsel, that's able to understand, 00:32:07.980 --> 00:32:10.759 man, this is what people have said, and I'm gonna 00:32:10.759 --> 00:32:13.500 take this because I don't have this. I pray, 00:32:13.539 --> 00:32:15.299 God, that you would give us the strength to submit 00:32:15.299 --> 00:32:17.359 to your will and to say, God, I'm done holding 00:32:17.359 --> 00:32:19.019 onto the steering wheel and I'm willing to go 00:32:19.019 --> 00:32:20.700 where you wanna take me because you have called 00:32:20.700 --> 00:32:23.039 me to greatness, God, and I don't wanna push 00:32:23.039 --> 00:32:25.819 it on my own, but it is only under your power. 00:32:26.740 --> 00:32:30.140 God, I pray for those of us in here that just 00:32:30.140 --> 00:32:33.609 need to refocus and realign today Because we've 00:32:33.609 --> 00:32:37.509 crept into the spotlight. And we need to push 00:32:37.509 --> 00:32:40.289 you back into the spotlight and remove ourself. 00:32:41.789 --> 00:32:44.049 God, I pray for anyone in here that needs to 00:32:44.049 --> 00:32:47.049 come to you for the very first time. God, we 00:32:47.049 --> 00:32:48.890 are so grateful that the gospel is for everyone. 00:32:50.109 --> 00:32:51.869 I pray that you would push them to ask the right 00:32:51.869 --> 00:32:55.269 questions, to lean into the conviction that you've 00:32:55.269 --> 00:32:58.769 put on their heart. We love you, Jesus. We're 00:32:58.769 --> 00:33:01.230 so grateful that you involve us into your story. 00:33:02.080 --> 00:33:03.900 We praise you and we pray all of this in Jesus' 00:33:03.980 --> 00:33:05.000 name. Amen.