Like Kyle said, we get to hop into God's Word
now, we get to open the Word of God, we get to
together learn what God has for us this morning,
and I'm super, super excited about that. Recently,
my wife sent me to the store with a list of things
that I needed to get for her, and I don't understand
how this works, but every time I go to the store
to get a list of things for her, her phone stops
working. I don't know why, but it does. It stops
working completely. And so I was at the store
and I can't find this anywhere. I mean, I've
taken like 200 laps around the store. I'd looked
everywhere. I could not find the things that
she had sent me to the store to get. And so finally
her phone apparently started working again and
she called me back and she goes, what's going
on? You know, it's kind of taken a while. Like,
is everything okay? And I was like, yeah, I can't
find this stuff anywhere. I've looked everywhere.
And she said, well, have you asked anyone? I'm
like, of course I haven't asked anyone. Like
they're all working, they're busy. I'm not gonna
ask them, right? And here's the thing, if I were
to ask them where the thing is, then they might
think that I don't know where that thing is,
you know? And I'm like, I can't have that, right?
So I'm not gonna ask them. Some of you understand,
right? Because some of you, when you get new
furniture that you have to build, this is you,
right? You open it and the first thing you do
is you throw those instructions out because they
don't know what they're talking about. You got
it, right? And you're gonna put all 10 ,000 pieces
of that Ikea furniture together yourself. Like,
why do they do that? That's so overkill. They
don't need all those parts. I'm just saying,
right? Some of you, it's when you're cooking,
right? You make it and people start eating it
and they're like, this is interesting. Like,
did you, you know, was that in the recipe? And
you're like, there is no recipe. It's all up
here. It's all here. And they're like, oh, you
should have followed a recipe. You know what
I'm saying? Like, but here's the thing. I think
that many of us are limited by our inability
to embrace humility. I think many of us are limited
by our inability to embrace. I was coming back
from a trip recently with my family, and as we
were on the way back, you just got to know about
me. One of the things that I have is this incredible
sense of direction. If I go somewhere one time,
I can go there again no matter what. And so we're
headed back on the trip, and my wife goes, so
should I put it in the GPS to get back? And I
was like, I am the GPS. We got this. We start
driving, and all of a sudden as we're going,
things start looking a little different. I'm
like, I think we might have made a mistake here.
And I looked, and I missed the turn. That literally
added an hour and a half to our trip. I felt
so bad. I stopped at a store and told my kids,
I was like, you can pick out any candy you want.
Go for it, right? And I got a lot of kids. It
cost me like 10 grand. It was crazy. But listen,
here's the thing. With trivial things, our pride
gets in the way sometimes. Our inability to embrace
humility gets in the way. But even with real
things. I had a friend who sat down with me.
It's kind of like, hey, I want to point some
things out in your life that I think you need
to change. Maybe you're not aware of, and there's
things that you need to change. And right away,
I get defensive. I'm like, what are you going
to tell me? I'm a pastor. I know everything.
What are you talking about? I minimize the things
that are going on. I'm like, it's not that big
of a deal. You don't understand. It's not that
big of a deal. And what I do is I build a wall
against growth. My ego builds a wall against
growth. And I think yours does too. I think we
all find ourself in a place where without this
understanding of what humility is, we get stuck.
But I think that God has more for you. I think
God wants more for you. I think that you have
the potential to be a spiritual superstar. What
if God has this in you to be the spiritual superstar?
And what if, what if the way up is actually down?
We've been in this collection over the last couple
of weeks. We've been going through the book of
Galatians and Galatians is a letter from Paul
to the churches in Galatia. And what he's writing
to them, he's writing to them with a strict tone
of like, hey, you guys better get with it. You
guys got some issues going on. And the issues
that are going on that he's correcting is that
they are teaching to this church, you need to
be more Jewish than you need to be more like
Jesus. We understand that in this faith that
we call Christianity, we are following Jesus,
but they're saying, no, you need to start practicing
these Jewish practices in order to follow Jesus.
And Paul's going, I got to correct this. This
is not okay. And so he's writing this letter
with that tone to them. And as we see, he's going,
hey, I'm not just giving you this message out
of nowhere. It has a history to get to where
it's at right now. And so he starts walking through
the places that he's gone to learn this message
in order to give it. to them. And we saw that
last week. And then we pick it up here in chapter
two. We finally made it to chapter two. Here
we are in verse one. It says this, then 14 years
later, I went back to Jerusalem again, this time
with Barnabas and Titus came along too. I went
there because God revealed to me that I should
go. While I was there, I met privately with those
considered to be leaders of the church and I
shared with them the message I'd been preaching
to the Gentiles. He gets to them together and
goes, I wanna share with you the message that
I've been preaching. Why? Because it says this,
I want to make sure that we were in agreement
for fear that all my efforts had been wasted
and I was running the race for nothing. If the
message that I'm preaching is wrong, then I need
to know because there's not, for no, it doesn't
matter if I preach it if it's wrong. I need you
guys to help me here. And then he says in verse
three, and they supported me. and did not even
demand that my companion Titus be circumcised,
which is a Jewish tradition, even though he was
Gentile. You need to understand, Paul here is
a big deal. And we know that because we've read
the Bible and he's written most of the New Testament.
So we're like, yeah, he's a big deal. But even
back then, before the things that he had written
become canonized and became a part of the scriptures
that we read today, he was a big deal religiously
because Paul was born a full -blooded Jew. which
carries a lot of weight, not just a full -blooded
Jew, but he followed all the right things. He
was circumcised on the eighth day like they told
him he needed to be. He did the right things.
He was from the tribe of Benjamin. Israel had
different tribes and he was a very respected
tribe from the tribe of Benjamin and he followed
the law completely. In fact, not only did he
follow the law completely, he was a Pharisee,
which means that they didn't just follow the
law, they added more laws and followed those
too. He's like, I got it down, I've done it all.
So Paul, understanding who he is, this guy who's
done it all, Paul who has all these things, what
does he do? He goes to confirm that the message
he was preaching was right. He was seeking wise
counsel. Paul had enough humility to seek wise
counsel. Do you have enough humility to seek
wise counsel in your life? Paul goes in to submit
to these people to seek wise counsel. Years ago,
I was living in San Diego and I had an offer
to go pastor at a church in Washington State.
Now, if you don't know, San Diego is beautiful
and wonderful and the sun shines a lot. In Washington
State, they don't have a sun. I don't know if
you knew that or not. I don't know how they get
light, but it's not from the sun because they
don't have one. I'm just saying. And so when
I got this call, I was like, no, that's not going
to happen, God, because I like the sun and Washington
doesn't have one. So I'm not going. And I sat
down with a mentor of mine. His name is Brian
Berry. And I sat with Brian. And as I was talking
with him, I was telling him this offer that was
going on. And I said, but I'm not going to go
because I'm staying here. And he goes, well,
what if God is calling you there and God has
something for you there? And I'm like, God would
not do that because the sun is here in San Diego.
And I left. And he goes, no, no, seriously, I
think you need to think about this. And maybe
God is calling you to do that. And I said, I
don't like what you're saying. And I left. And
I went and met with him a couple of weeks later
after I'd been thinking about it and after God
had been working on my heart and I sat down with
him and I was like, maybe God is calling me to
this. Maybe I need to be open to this. And he
started challenging me. And I had to humble myself
enough to take wise counsel to know that that's
where God was calling me. And I had to follow
God's call even though it wasn't what I wanted
to do. And I had to listen to the people around
me. And I had to learn to humble myself when
it comes to the messages that I speak because
it's really easy for me to go, yeah, I got this.
I put this together and I've studied this and
I know it and I can speak it. And I had to humble
myself enough to know that I'm never gonna give
a message that I haven't sat down and ran past
a bunch of people. And I sit down with Pastor
David and go, hey, this is what I'm thinking.
Sit down with Pastor Bob or Pastor Ben and go,
hey, what do you guys think? This is where I'm
headed. I sit down with Pastor Noah and go, hey,
am I missing anything in here? What do I need
to know? I had to learn to be humble enough to
be able to go, hey. this is wise counsel that
I need to sit and that I need to listen to. See,
humility isn't just not taking credit for an
accomplishment. Sometimes we think humility is
just like, okay, well, I did something and someone
gave me acknowledgement and I was like, oh, no,
no, it's not a big deal. I'm good, I'm good.
And we present this humility. We think that that's
what humility is, but we need to understand what
humility actually is. If you're taking notes
today, write this down. Humility is acknowledging
dependence. Humility is acknowledging dependence.
It's dependence on God and dependence on others.
It's saying, God, I'm depending on you and I'm
depending on other people as well. And we don't
like that because we don't like to depend on
anyone because we are from America, the land
of the free and the home of the brave, and I'm
the brave and I don't need you. And that's inborn
in us where we're like, nope, I got this myself.
I don't need anyone. I don't like depending.
But humility is dependence on God. Someone else,
something else, God. This last couple of days,
I had the opportunity to go to someone's house.
There's a man in our church who's a very solid
man of God and he's facing some health issues
right now to where he has a really serious surgery
coming. And he called some people and said, hey,
I need you to come over and I need you to pray.
And it was so beautiful because this man who's
very successful, He's a man who can just go,
no, I got this myself. But instead he said, I
need full trust in God. I'm not gonna trust just
because I've got it right and I've spent enough
money on the right doctors and it's all gonna
happen. He said, no, no, no, my dependence is
on God. And it was a show of his dependence being
on God, not himself, but not just that, is he
called people together too to say, hey, I wanna
invite you in to walk with me because my dependence
is on God and my dependence is also on you. It's
not on me. I have the humility to be dependent
and to bring other people in to walk alongside
of me on this difficult journey. And I think
it's incredibly beautiful and it speaks directly
against a lie that has got into the church, specifically
the American church. And the lie is this, is
that people go, I don't need church, it's just
God and me. It's just me and God. I don't need
anyone else because my relationship is between
me and God and I don't need anyone else. And
listen, if you were to go to the first century
church and you were to tell them that, they would
be absolutely, completely, utterly confused.
It wouldn't make any sense to them because there's
no such thing as being a Christian without being
connected to the church. There is nowhere in
scripture that you see someone saying, oh, it's
just me and God. And they're separated from the
church and they're a Christian. In fact, the
only place in scripture that you can find somebody
They would say they are a Christian and they
are not plugged into the churches when they were
in jail because of being a Christian. So unless
you're in jail right now, you gotta be connected
to the church. That's what he's called us to.
He's saying, hey, listen, you need other people.
You need community. You need people around you
because what people around you do and when you
depend on other people is they make you the best
version of you. That's what it says in Proverbs
27, 17. As iron sharpens iron, so one person
sharpens another. You wanna be the sharpest you
can be? You wanna be the best you can be? Then
get around other people. They're gonna make you
the best you can be. It's not by being a lone
ranger. It's by bringing someone else in. You
are never gonna hear a message on this stage
that has not already gone through a room of people
that we invite in to say, hey, help us make it
better. Help us sharpen this. As iron sharpens
iron, we're gonna sit down and go, here's what
I'm thinking. What do you think? And we say,
speak into this. Help us, help us. We need community
and we have to live in community. Paul understood
that humility was going, hey, I wanna be dependent.
I wanna go to somebody else. All right, he goes
and he asks them, he goes, hey, is my message
okay? And they said, yeah, it's great. And it
says this in verse four. Even that question came
up only because some so -called believers there,
they're false ones really, who were secretly
brought in. They sneaked in to spy on us and
take away the freedom we have in Christ Jesus.
They wanted to enslave us and force us to follow
their Jewish regulations. They wanted them to
be more Jewish than they did follow Jesus. He's
going, but we refuse to give in to them for a
single moment. We wanted to preserve the truth
of the gospel message for you. See, Paul looked
into this. Paul's going, I need to figure out
this message that I'm preaching because fake
believers were not okay with their freedom in
Christ. You need to understand this. Haters gonna
hate. All right, there are people out there that
are not okay with the freedom that you found
in Jesus. And when you find peace and when you
find joy and when you find freedom in Jesus,
there's always people that wanna pull you back
into the misery that they're in. They don't like
the freedom that you found. And they go, you
know what? I'm glad that you found that. But
then all of a sudden they're not very glad because
now it means that you maybe stopped hanging out
with them and doing the things that they wanted
to do with you. Maybe your relationship has changed
a little bit and all of a sudden now they don't
like that you're spending so much time with this
church thing. Why do you gotta always be doing
church? Why do you always gotta be doing the
Bible? And they wanna pull you back because they
don't like the freedom that you found. And a
lot of times it's because people, friends in
our life get jealous of the freedom that we have
and they wanna pull us back into the misery that
they're in. And that's what's happening in this
church right here is that Paul is seeing that
they're going, I don't like that you guys have
all this freedom. You need to do this, this,
and that. And then they're trying to pull them
back into a place that they never should be.
But we have to understand that we don't need
to please people. We're not in it to please people.
We need to please God. And what Paul is saying
to this church here in Galatia, he's saying,
we're not here to please people. And I'm gonna
stand to my guns here because I don't want you
to be led astray. We're not here to please people.
We're here to cling to the truth. Don't back
down from what God has called you to do because
someone doesn't like it. Because a friend in
your life wants to pull you back into the misery
that they're in. Don't fall away from what God
has called you to do. Now, listen, I gotta be
very careful here. Church, I'm not giving you
permission to be a jerk though. Some of you are
like, I'm just standing on truth. Right, you
just wanna be a jerk for Jesus. There's no such
thing, doesn't exist. Don't do it. Right, in
love, stand on the truth. And what Paul is doing
is he's saying, hey, I'm gonna stand on this
truth right here. I'm gonna fight so that you
understand what matters and they're not gonna
lead you astray to a different gospel. And it
says this in verse six, it says, and the leaders
of the church, they had nothing to add to what
I was preaching. They said it was good, had nothing
to add to it. Then he says this, by the way,
their reputation as great leaders made no difference
to me for God has no. God has no favorites. He's
like, I could go to anyone for this, but I went
to these church leaders. And he said that they
had nothing to add to what I was preaching. Instead,
they saw that God had given me the responsibility
of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just
as he had given Peter the responsibility of preaching
to the Jews. The same God who worked through
Peter as an apostle to the Jews. also worked
through me as an apostle to the Gentiles. See,
Paul's call from God, what he'd been called to,
was to spread the gospel to the Gentiles. And
this was stirring people up because for them,
they were like, but Jews, that's the way to do
it. And he's like, no, no, no, the gospel is
for everyone and I'm gonna go to the Gentiles
just as Peter's call is to the Jews. And that's
good too. There's a different call for both of
them. I think that us in the church, all of us,
in the world actually, our biggest fear is to
become a floppy disk. How many of you guys remember
a floppy disk? How many of you have used a floppy
disk? Okay, if you have, this is your reminder.
You probably need to schedule that doctor's appointment
to get your blood work done. I'm just saying,
it's probably about time in your life to do that.
I'm just saying. Here's the thing, a floppy disk,
man, you'll see them around, right? You'll see
them around, but they have absolutely no purpose
anymore. And I think that's our biggest fear
is to just be floating around with no purpose,
to walk through life with absolutely no purpose.
purpose. To go through and go, man, I don't know
where I'm at. And so when we do that, we start
trying to find our purpose and we go, well, maybe
this is my purpose and I need to try this. And
then I need to try this. And we try all these
things looking for our purpose. And then we end
up settling for a light version of purpose. And
what I mean is this, we find our job, what we
do, and we say, this is my purpose. And this
is my purpose. This is my job. But then we have
to find fulfillment in something else. And we're
always living for the weekend or we're living
for that relationship or we're living for something
else because what we do does not give us the
fulfillment that we're craving and we have to
find those in two places. But what your calling
is, is the intersection of what you're, when
you get purpose and what you do intersects with
the fulfillment that comes through it. That is
your calling. That is what God has called you
to do. That is the thing that he has put you
on this earth to do. And you need to understand
that your job is what you do. Your calling is
the impact that you have while you do it. We
all have different skills. We all have different
things. We're all in different places. And the
job is what you do, but the impact that you have
while you're there, that's your calling. That's
why God put you there. I think it's incredible.
There's a man in our church who, he's a welder.
He does fabricating of steel and different things
that he makes gates. And that's what he does
for a job with landscaping. And he realized this,
this light bulb came on for him and it absolutely
changed his view in life. It changed his view
of how he wakes up every morning because he understands
that what he does is an opportunity to live his
calling. And it's incredible because almost every
other week, every couple of weeks, he'll come
to me and he'll tell me a different story of
a house that he was at with a client. And he's
just like, man, and I just shared my testimony
with them. He's like, it was incredible. And
then he'll tell me a couple of weeks later, he
goes, man, I was at this house this week and
I was installing this for them and I was doing
these things. And God just asked me if I asked
him, can I pray for you? He said, people just
stop and go, man, I didn't even tell you there
was anything going on, but here's the list of
things going on in my life. How did you know
that I needed prayer? And he's like, hey, I'm
just here to pray for you. And he's told me these
times where he's talking to someone and he just
feels like God's telling him, hey, I need to
tell him about Jesus. And he's in the middle
of work and he just goes, hey, can I just tell
you about Jesus? And they're like, yeah, sure.
And he understands that what he does is one thing,
but his calling is wrapped up in what he does
and he's found his purpose. That's what purpose
is. And I'm not gonna get into the weeds here
with calling because Tom literally preached an
entire sermon on it last week, but I think it
doesn't matter what your calling is if you don't
have the humility. to take it. Because we like
to hold the steering wheel so tight and say,
this is the direction I'm going. And God, you've
pointed, I'm pointed in this direction and you
can't stop me. And God's, no, no, I want you
to go here. I want you to turn here. I want you
to do this. And you're like, no, I got it. I'm
white knuckling this one, baby. God's like, no,
I got something more for you. I want you to go
this way. But a lot of times we won't let that
happen. I need you to write this down. Humility
is submitting to his will. Humility is submitting
to his will. It's not about you. It's submitting
to his will. Submitting, what submitting is,
is surrendering and surrendering is required
for embracing your calling. I think about a police
officer when they say, hey, surrender right now.
You're under arrest, surrender. And what that
means is I give up, I surrender. I think there's
too many Christians walking around that are resisting
arrest when it comes to God because God's saying,
hey, surrender. And you're going, no, I got this.
I'm not surrendering. And he's going, listen,
you need to go into the calling that I have for
you. And what that requires is it requires the
humility to submit to his will, because the truth
is that God has called every single one of us.
You have been called. If you are a follower of
Jesus, you've been called. I can tell you today
what your purpose is. It's not some wild scientific
experiment and equation and all these crazy stuff.
I'm going to tell you right now. Here it is.
Ready? Ready for this? This is why you are put
on this earth, to love people and tell them about
Jesus. That's it. That's why you're here. That
is your purpose. Oh, Todd, you're simplifying
it. Nope. I'm telling you exactly what it is.
Love God. Tell people about Jesus. Love others.
Tell people about Jesus. There it is. That's
why you're here on this earth. And for some of
you, you're like, I don't like that. I don't
think that's mine. I'm not saying it. He is.
Don't get mad at me. That's your call. That's
what you've been given. That is a general calling
for all of us who call ourselves a follower of
Jesus. That's why you're on this earth. Now,
each one of us also has a specific calling. We've
all been called to something specific, right?
Not all of you are gonna come stand on this stage
and preach, just like I'm not gonna go be a welder.
That would be real bad, okay, real bad. That's
not our calling. Well, you need to find out what
your specific calling is to enact your general
calling, which is what all of us are called to
do. But if we're going to figure that out, we
need to understand that God calls, community
confirms. God calls, community confirms. This
is why community is so important is because you
can't decipher what your calling is by yourself.
In fact, I would caution you. It is very, very
dangerous and very, very scary if you find somebody
who feels that God has called them to something
and nobody else in their life confirms that calling.
And it's just as dangerous when everyone in their
life confirms a calling and you're unwilling
to take that calling. When God calls you, it
is our job to, in humility, submit to his will.
All right, what Paul is doing here is he's saying,
my call is to go and to preach to the Gentiles.
And I'm so glad that he took that call. You know
why? Because most of us in here are Gentiles.
We get the gospel. The gospel is for everyone.
And he's going for that. And you need to understand
the gospel is for everyone. And we in the church,
a lot of times, the longer you've been in the
church, the more picky and choosy you are about
people that you want to let in the church too.
And you need to understand that the gospel is
for everyone. And it is not for us to decide
who gets to hear the good news. It is our job
to just tell the good news. We don't get to pick,
oh, well, that person, I know what they did last
night. They shouldn't be here. Neither should
you. Right? We want to get judgy. We want to
do that. It's not our job to pick and choose
who gets to hear it. It's our job to just tell
them. That's why at Heights, our doors are always
going to be open to anyone. Our doors are open
to anyone. You don't have to look a certain way.
You don't have to act a certain way. You don't
have to believe a certain thing. You don't have
to not do what you were doing last night in order
to be in here today. We don't care. The doors
are open to anyone because the gospel is for
everyone. Right, because if we were to stand
up here and we're gonna say we are for Jesus
and we're gonna plant this flag, that's who we're
for, then we need to understand that Jesus was
for people. So if we're for Jesus, we are also
for people. And if we're for people, we are for
all people, not just certain ones, not just select
ones, we're for all people. All right, and if
we're for all people, then we need to embrace
this idea of hospitality. We need to value hospitality.
We need to be hospitable enough to say, hey,
listen, you're welcome here and we love that
you're here. And we're gonna love you while you're
here. And we're gonna step into what God has
called us to do because humility is submitting
to his will. What he says here, Paul goes, you
know, they said that this is my calling and they
confirmed it and I'm gonna head out. And then
verse nine, he says this, in fact, James, Peter,
and John, who were known as pillars of the church,
they recognized the gift God had given me and
they accepted Barnabas and me as their coworkers.
They encouraged us to keep preaching to the Gentiles.
while they continued their work with the Jews.
Their only suggestion was that we keep on helping
the poor, which I've always been eager to do.
Listen, whatever your calling is, let love be
the driving force. Whatever the calling is, let
love be the driving force. You know why? Write
this down, because humility reflects Jesus. Humility
reflects Jesus. And sometimes what we do, why
they cautioned him here, sometimes what we do
is we get so focused on where we're going that
we miss the things that are quote unquote below
us. I'm looking here and I miss the thing that's
below me. And that's often the people that are
hurting. That's often the people that are poor.
That's often the people that are in a difficult
spot in their life. That's often the people that
we shove aside in order to just keep pushing
forward. And so what he's telling you is, hey,
don't miss the things that are around you. I
would caution you not to miss that because I
don't want you to get sideways with just being
right. Sometimes if we're just right, that's
all that matters. And then we miss the thing
that actually matters. If we just get caught
up in the success that we have, if we just get
caught up in all the things that we do, we lose
sight for what God wants for us. And he's saying,
no, no, no. You need to understand that humility
reflects Jesus. And what Jesus does is he cared
about the least of these. And if you're gonna
reflect him, it requires us to be driven by love.
Because humility, write this down, is the foundation
of true greatness. Humility is the foundation
of true greatness. I'm bringing it right back
around from what I said at the top when I said,
you could be a spiritual superstar, but what
if the way up was down? True greatness is found
in humility. It says this in Matthew 23. The
greatest among you will be your servant. The
greatest among you will be your servant. That
doesn't make any sense. For those who exalt themselves,
they'll be humbled. But those who humble themselves,
those who walk in with humility, themselves will
be exalted. It's an upside down kingdom. It doesn't
make any sense. Because we go, well, no, no,
no. The greatest is the one that's the greatest.
No, it says the greatest is the one that serves.
Greatest is the one that does all these things
in front of everyone. No, no, no. Greatest is
the one that humbles themselves. It's an upside
down kingdom to understand that humility is what
matters. So how do you live it out? What does
this look like? How do you live in humility?
It's relying on him, not on you. Relying on him,
not on you. You know what it is every time you
open the word of God, every time you open your
Bible, what you're doing is you're saying it's
a posture of humility to say this book has what
I need because I don't have what I need. You're
posturing your heart right there. Every time
you open God's word, if you build it into a rhythm
in your day, you have a rhythm in your day to
remind yourself that God is in charge and you
are not. When you pray, you know what you're
doing? You are literally saying, I can't do this
and I'm submitting to something that is higher
than me in order to get me through it. You are
posturing your heart in a place of humility to
say, God, I'm giving it to you. I would encourage
you to start your day in prayer and in God's
word because you're starting your day in a posture
of humility that'll carry to the rest of your
day. Putting yourself in a place where you're
already starting to realize I'm not relying on
me, I'm relying on him. What does humility look
like? It looks like practicing gratitude as an
attitude, as a constant attitude. But some of
you guys, you're negative Nellies out there,
right? All you see is the negative stuff everywhere.
Life's bad, this is bad, that's bad. And we miss
all the blessings that are around us. You know
how blessed we are? We get so used to the things
in our life that we miss the blessings. Yesterday
I had, Pastor Ben was at my house and he walked
by my kitchen counter and he put his hand on
it and he goes, man, it's really cool you get
to live here. This is a really nice counter.
I didn't know he had a thing for counters. I
was kind of caught off guard, but. It wasn't
until he left and I thought to myself, man, you
know how much I just walk past it and don't notice
it's just a counter? I don't care. I took that
granite for granted. You know what I'm saying?
That was dumb. Don't laugh at that. Come on.
That was dumb. But we take the things that we
see in our life over and over. We just take them
for granted. I just see that. I'm owed that.
That's who I am. Some of you, when you pick your
kids up today, just... Thank the kids worker
who's in there because sometimes we just overlook
them and we don't realize the blessing that they
are in our life. When you notice things in your
life, just tell someone, tell a friend, text
someone right now randomly today and just go,
hey, I'm so grateful for this. They're gonna
be like, where did that come from? And you're
like, I don't know, I'm just grateful. I just
start a gratitude journal where you just start
writing down the things that you're grateful
for because you know what I've realized? When
you're grateful for all the things, It breaks
that thing inside of you that thinks that you're
owed all those things. And what that is, is that's
enacting humility in your life. It's an attitude
of gratitude. It's just humility going, yeah,
I'm not owed this. God, I'm just grateful that
I got to breathe today. How many of you thank
God that you got to breathe today? How we take
things so much and we're just like, I just, I,
you know, like we're owed them instead of going,
no, no, no. I'm humbled that I even get to be.
in this place that I even get to do that. You
know what this looks like? It looks like serving
others without needing recognition. Because we
like to serve so other people see us serve. Did
you see how awesome I was? We like to serve so
that people see what we do. I remember when I
was in high school. I was in high school after
our service at church, we had to pick up all
the chairs and I hated picking up the chairs.
I'm telling you right now, I hated it. It was
the worst. But I would pick up chairs, and especially
when I saw somebody else pick up four chairs,
I would pick up six and make sure everyone saw
me picking up six. You know what I'm saying?
That was how I flirted as a high school boy.
I was like, come on, ladies. You see how many
chairs I got right now? I'm like, what up, baby
girl? I got all these chairs right now. I needed
them to see me. I was like a peacock. You know
when they put their feathers out? I did that
through stacking chairs. That was my game. You're
like, bro, it is a miracle you got married. I
know. I know. Listen, sometimes we serve just
because we want people to see who we are and
how awesome we are, but serving without needing
recognition is living out this idea of humility.
It's making a meal that no one knows you made.
It's showing up to clean when no one else is
even here just to say, hey, I'm here to serve.
It's mentoring someone that you would spend years
pouring your life into and they go on to get
the greatness and no one knows you even existed.
My uncle, he... He does this with corporations.
He does this with big CEOs as he's their advisors.
And the CEOs will stand in front of their company
and talk about big decisions or big directions
and things that they're doing. And the only reason
they're saying what they're saying is because
my uncle advised them to say that. No one even
knows my uncle exists. Hey, what if we took on
that posture of just going, listen, I don't need
any recognition. It's not about me. It's about
him. And I want to live in a way that humbles
myself enough to say that humility is the true
foundation. of greatness. See, none of this is
possible, though, unless you align your heart
with him. Because you and I don't have the capability
to do this on our own. We don't, man. We're just
broken inside. And so the only way that we even
achieve any of this humility is aligning our
heart with the most humble being of all time,
which is Jesus. Jesus himself, the king of the
universe, who came to this earth and was born
in a manger. the most humble place. And he lived
in a way where he said things like, listen, I'm
here to serve, not to be served. And when we
align our heart with his heart, we embrace the
humility that we were called to embrace. Come
back to Jesus. That's the challenge I have for
you is this, is come back to Jesus. Align your
heart with him. Don't allow the other things
to get you sideways, but bring it back to Jesus
and go, man, I'm aligning my heart with him because
apart from him, it is absolutely not. possible.
Let's pray. God, thank you so much, Lord, that
you gave us an example of what true humility
is through Jesus. God, I pray that we would not
allow ourself to get in the way of embracing
true humility that is only found in Jesus. God,
I pray for each one of us that we would align
our hearts with your heart. God, that we would
posture ourself in a place of humility that's
able to take wise counsel, that's able to understand,
man, this is what people have said, and I'm gonna
take this because I don't have this. I pray,
God, that you would give us the strength to submit
to your will and to say, God, I'm done holding
onto the steering wheel and I'm willing to go
where you wanna take me because you have called
me to greatness, God, and I don't wanna push
it on my own, but it is only under your power.
God, I pray for those of us in here that just
need to refocus and realign today Because we've
crept into the spotlight. And we need to push
you back into the spotlight and remove ourself.
God, I pray for anyone in here that needs to
come to you for the very first time. God, we
are so grateful that the gospel is for everyone.
I pray that you would push them to ask the right
questions, to lean into the conviction that you've
put on their heart. We love you, Jesus. We're
so grateful that you involve us into your story.
We praise you and we pray all of this in Jesus'
name. Amen.