Sub-to-the-Mission

If you are new, if this is your first time here, I'm so

glad that you decided to be here today. Before we get started, I

just wanted to give a brief little personal life update. My wife and I

celebrated the birth of our son, Shepherd a few weeks ago. He's doing

well, he's growing, he's healthy, so we're really happy to have him

here. And Lauren is doing well. Also. Shepherd got to meet two

of his grandparents last weekend. They got to hold him. And if you're

wondering how am I doing with having a baby, well this picture just tells

it all right there. But it's going really well. And I want to

say thank you so much to our church for your support and your encouragement and

your love and your prayers. If you're new here, or if you're visiting

or looking at churches, checking out a church, let me tell you something

about this church. This is a church where people love each other with the

love of God. And I have felt that in meaningful ways, just even

in these last few weeks. This is a church that looks out for each

other, that cares about each other, that supports, I mean the meals

that people have brought over the encouragement, the cards like this is a church

that loves each other. And so as we get started today, that makes

me think about we have a vision here. Our vision is that we want

to be a better church, not just a bigger church. We want to

be a better church, better disciples, better followers of Jesus, people who

love Jesus more today than we did yesterday. That we want to honor and

obey Jesus more tomorrow than we do today. We want to be a better

church. That's our vision. And we have a mission here. Our mission

is to share the love and the gospel of Jesus with our community. That's

our mission is to show our neighbors, to show our community the love of

Jesus. And we're gonna be talking about the mission today. I'm curious if

anyone here has remembered that or seen that teav show, that old TV show

mcguiver. Have you ever seen that old TV show mcguiver? Now, this

is a picture of mcguiver, and I'm curious even if you haven't seen the

TV show, I'm curious to hear from you who wore the hair better mcguiver

or this guy about twelve years ago. You can take that down. Let

me tell you about mcguiver. Mcguiver was sent on missions. Every episode,

he goes on a mission all around the world's maybe to recover government secrets,

maybe to rescue a hostage. He's got a mission, and mcgiver often finds

himself in situations where he doesn't have the right tools to solve the problem,

maybe starting a car without the keys, or diffusing a bomb with just thirty

seconds left, and he doesn't have the tools. But the one thing he

always carries is his small Swiss Army pocket knife, just like this one.

This is the one that I own, and mcgiver uses this to solve the

problems to complete the mission. And maybe you've seen one of these before,

but this one has a couple of blades. I think this one even has

a pair of scissors. There's a screwdriver. Now there's one really strange thing

on this one. It's this little hook. And if anybody knows what this

little hook is after service, I'd love to know, because I haven't found

a use for this. But this tool can be used in a lot of

variety of ways. And as I was thinking about this message today, I

think about the Swiss Army knife as a metaphor for a church at the crossing

and for our mission to share the gospel of Jesus. Our visions be a

better church, not just a bigger church. I think about this tool because

this tool has a lot of different functions. There's a lot of different parts.

There's screwdrivers, there's tools, there's scissors, there's a handsaw, there's

all sorts of things, just like our church is made up of a variety

of people with gifts, skills, and abilities. You have abilities that God

has given you to fulfill the mission God has for us. You have skills

and experiences that I don't have that can be used in the mission of God.

Just think about it this way. There are many of us who have

been gifted with the ability to help repair broken lives. That makes me think

of these tools that can help repair Some of us can build things. You

can build ministry, you can build programs, you can build efficiency. Just

like a screwdriver on here can be used to build things. Some of these

Swiss army knives come with little flashlights so you can light up the darkness.

There are some of you called and gifted by God to shine a light in

a dark place, to lead other people on the path of Jesus. You

know, right here there's a bottle opener and a can opener on this tool,

which makes me think about our church's ministry, our neighborhood market, where

we are literally bringing food and groceries to our community into our neighbors. You

see, we all have a part to play in fulfilling the mission. And

so today, as we talk about our mission, I want to introduce you

to two passages in the Bible. Things are going to be a little bit

different today. Typically, when I I'm preaching or speaking, we look at

one Bible passage and kind of walk through that Bible text. But today we're

gonna look at two Bible passages and they're very similar. We're gonna look at

one from the Book of First Peter and one from the Book of James.

And as we read these, I'm gonna read both in sequence. Here in

a moment, I want to invite you, as you read these, notice

the similarities between the passage and one Peter and the passage in James. Take

a look at the similarities here. Let's start with the First Peter passage in

chapter five. In the same way you who are younger submit yourselves to your

elders. All of you close yourselves with humility toward one another. Because God

opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble. Humble yourselves. Therefore,

under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in doe time.

Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be

alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil prowls around like a

roaring line, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in

the faith. Now that was the first Peter passage. Now let's turn over

to the passage from James chapter four and notice the similarities between James and one

Peter. Verse six reads, he gives us more grace. That is why

scripture says God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble. Submit

yourselves then to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Come near to God and he will come near to you. Humble yourselves before

the Lord, and he will lift you up. Now I want to draw

some parallels between these two passages, and the first similarity that we see in

these passages is they both speak about the idea of submission. Notice here in

one Peter, we read submit yourselves to your elders James four, submit yourselves

to God. Submission is the theme here now here in the United States,

the idea of submission really rubs against a lot of the things that we Americans

value and celebrate. It rubs against autonomy, It rubs against independence and personal

freedom. We don't really think of submission in the United States. I mean,

just think about it. The United States was birthed out of a rebellion

against tyranny. We didn't want to submit to England's tyranny for good reason.

But biblical submission, godly submission is a good thing. It's a Christian thing.

And here's how I define submission. Here's when I think of submission.

I think of submission as being sub to the mission, sub to the mission.

The mission comes first because we have a mission here at Church at the

Crossing to share the Gospel of Jesus with our community and our neighbors. We

have a vision here. We want to be a better church, not just

a bigger church. So everything we do comes sub to that mission. Our

attitude is sub to the mission, our preference is sub to the mission.

Our work, our effort, our resources are sub to the mission. The

mission comes first in all that we do. That's what it means to be

sub submission, submission to Jesus, sub to the mission. Now notice the

next parallel in our passage. We read in first Peter five, verse five,

clothe yourselves with humility toward one another because God opposes the proud, but

shows favor to the humble. And then James four to six says the same

thing. God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble. Humble

people are sub to the mission. Being sub to the mission of God requires

humility. And what does our text say, God shows favor to the humble.

God shows favor to people who are sub to the mission. I want

to pick up this Swiss army and again. These little knives are produced in

Switzerland by a company called Victoria Knox, and Victoria Knox over the decades and

decades has refined how they build these tools. See, they come in different

shapes and sizes. You can get largers, you can get small ones,

you can get some with multitools, with scissors or without a certain blade.

They're all very diverse. But all of these tools, no matter how big,

no matter what shape or size it is. They're all made with the

same steel alloy. It's a Martin Sidic steel that the company has refined to

be strong, durable, tough and resilient to make the perfect little tool.

In fact, the recipe for this steel alloy is so complex. I listed

up some of the ingredients that I found in my research. I can't even

pronounce some of these chemicals and compounds, but it's a really detailed recipe that

goes into making this tool perfectly useful for its mission. Similarly, we need

to have the right material if we're gonna fulfill the mission that God has for

us. We need the right spiritual material, the spiritual alloy, to fulfill

the mission that God has given us. And I want to suggest today that

that material, that spiritual alloy, is humility. Humility. Just as steel

is forged in the furnace, God is forging Church at the crossing to be

a humble church, to be a people resilient with the quality of humility.

And so here's the big idea today, the main point today. If you

forget everything else, if you forget about mcgiv or, if you forget that

I used to have long hair, if you remember one thing. Remember,

choose humility. That's the big idea today. Choose humility, because humility is

always a choice. What I've learned is that humility is not a talent.

It's not a gift. Humility is not something you're born with. Fact,

humility is not a spiritual gift. Humility is always a choice. It's always

a choice. Choose humility. I want to share with you a little idiosyncrasy

of mine. It's kind of a little bit embarrassing, but one of my

idiosyncrasies is that I am very picky and choosy about the clothes that I wear.

Every day, before I leave the house, I pick out my outfit

and I look at the weather because I want to make sure that I'm clothed

for the weather. For example, today there's snow on the ground, there's

salt on the ground. So I wore these shoes because I'm okay with wearing

these shoes in the snow. There's some shoes that I would not wear in

the snow. Those are spring shoes or summer shoes. I look at my

schedule. I'm gonna be outside and I'm gonna be inside. How many layers

do I need? I'm choosy about what I wear. I'm also picky about

what I wear when I'm on the platform and when i'm speaking, because a

number of years ago, I was at a different church and I was speaking

on the platform and the video producer made me go home and change my shirt

because I was wearing a plaid patterned shirt that was disruptive to the video recording.

So I'm very picky about what I wear. Notice our text in one

Peter five to five. It says, all of you close yourselves with humility

toward one another. You can put on humility. Just as you choose what

clothes to wear, we can choose humility. Now. You may not put

as much thought into what you wear, but we always make a choice about

the clothes that we're wearing. Even if you decide that you can get one

more day out of those pair of jeans that you've been wearing all week,

you make a choice. Humility is similar. We can choose humility, we

can choose to wear humility. Now today's message, as we talk about humility,

a couple things I want to say. First, this is a learning

experience for all of us, including me, because I am not proficient in

humility. A few years ago, I was really interested in learning about welding.

I've never done welding before, I've never used welding tools. So I

signed up for an introductory welding class at the Indianapolis Art Center, and the

instructor showed us how to put on the face shield, how to use the

tools. We had a safety demonstration, and then our little class was released

into the wild of the scrap yard to pick out scrap steel and scrap metal

and create something with it. People that were in this class were super talented

at welding, and they had art and flowers and butterflies, and I was

just trying to get two rectangles welded together. And at the end of the

class, I took my face shield off, and I took my gloves off,

and I looked at my hands and I was so grateful that I had

all ten fingers. And now I'm not proficient at welding, but it's something

I wanted to try, something I wanted to learn. I'm not proficient in

humility, and I'm learning. I'm learning about humility right alongside all of us

today. And I'll tell you, I have this fear, I have this

insecurity that I'm gonna teach you about humility. That I'm going to preach about

humility, and then I'm not going to live a perfectly humble example, and

then somebody will throw this sermon back in my face. And I don't want

to be a hypocrite. And when I read these scriptures clothe yourself with humility,

man, I'm tempted to kind of hang my head and defeat and and

shame because I know I'm not humble. I know my flesh, I know

my pride, I know my selfishness. But today I want to break off

a spirit of shame in the name of Jesus. I want to break off

a spirit of defeat in the name of Jesus. Because humility is always a

choice, and so I want to choose humility, choose humility. And so

today I want to share three principles that we can learn to choose humility.

These three principles will help humility grow in your life. These three principles will

make our church a tough, resilient, durable church to fulfill the mission of

God. Those three principles today are very simply concentrate on Jesus. Cut the

devil off at the knees and create more capacity. We're gonna talk about each

these today, but these are our principles today. I want us to note

the next parallel in the passage in Peter and James. Look at Peter five,

verse six, humble yourselves therefore under God's mighty hand, that he may

lift you up. And then look at James four ten. Humble yourselves before

the Lord, and he will what lift you up. Notice both of these

verses say that God lifts up humble people. If you humble yourself, God's

gonna lift you up. This phrase lift up is a Greek phrase that means

raise, lift up, or to elevate, and in my research I found

Jesus uses this exact same phrase several times, lift up, lift up.

But you know what's interesting about when Jesus says lift up. He doesn't talk

about glory, he doesn't talk about recognition, he doesn't talk about being exhausted.

When Jesus says this phrase lift up, he's talking about when he's lifted

up on the cross. Notice this. In John chapter three, Jesus says,

just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the son

a man must be lifted up that everyone who believes in him may have eternal

life. So Jesus says, just as Moses lifted the snake up in the

wilderness. What in the world is Jesus talking about Moses, snakes, wilderness?

What is this? Well, Jesus is referring to a little known story

about Moses and the Israelite nation. In numbers twenty one, we read about

the Israelites leaving Egypt and they're in the desert on their way to the Promised

Land. And there's about three million or so Israelite people camped out in the

desert and then a toxic, venomous snake population invades the camp and they start

biting the Israelites and people start dying, and you're like, people desperately cry

out to Moses to do something. And in the story we read that the

Lord said to Moses, make a snake and put it on a pole.

Anyone who is bitten can look at it and live. So Moses made a

bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then anyone bitten by the

snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived. Now this is actually

where we get that modern symbol from medicine and healthcare with the snake wrapped around

pulls from this story, and so all they had to do is look at

that snake on the bronze pole and they would be healed from the poison.

Now, don't be deceived at how simple that sounds. It's not as if,

oh, I got bit by a snake, I'll just look out the

window and I'll be healed. It wasn't that easy because there was about three

million people living together, camped out, spread out over miles. I mean

three million people, men, women, children, their possessions, their tents,

their carts, animals and live starle let me just spread up. So

what happens if you get bit by one of these poisonous snakes and you live

on the edge of the camp, and that bronze pole is way over there,

it might be a mile away. You can't even see it. What

would you do. Well, I'd be running through the camp, I'd be

running through tents, I'd be jumping over clothes lines, I'd be pushing people

away, desperate to get my eyes on that pole with the bronze snake,

the only thing that would heal me. And so I imagine people were desperate,

and Jesus says, just as that bronze pole was lifted up, he

is lifted up on the cross, so that anyone who believes in him will

be saved. Concentrate on Jesus, Look to Jesus, get your eyes fixed

on Jesus. Now, we don't need heal it from a snake by,

but we need healed from some spiritual things, don't we. We need to

heal it from our pride, from our ego, from our selfishness. These

things are like spiritual snake by, spiritual poison in our lives, our insecurity,

our anxiety. We gotta look to Jesus. We gotta get our eyes

on Jesus. We gotta concentrate on Jesus, because you see, there are

a few things that want to distract us from embodying humility in our lives.

And one of the things in life that will block you from seeing Jesus clearly

is internal anxiety. Internal anxiety and insecurity are like spiritual snake bites that paralyze

our humility. Look again in our texts one Peter five, verse six.

Humble yourselves therefore under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in

due time, cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.

Now, this was written in the ancient Greek language, and in many

Greek texts the sentences will run together without punctuation. There's no comma, or

there might not be a period there. Now, notice in this passage here

in our English translation, right here at the end of verse six. However,

in Greek, there is not a period here. It is one continuous

thought. So verse seven is a part of the same sentence as verse six.

So one way to read this is to read humble yourselves by casting your

anxiety on Jesus. You see, anxiety will rob your humility. Anxiety and

insecurity are like a spiritual snake bite, poisoning and paralyzing your humility. You

see. We often think that pride is the main enemy of humility, and

it is. But there's another enemy, and that is insecurity, and that

is anxiety. See, pride wants to distract you by saying, look at

how awesome you are, and insecurity and anxiety wants to distract you by saying,

look at how bad you are or look at how much you lack.

Both of those are distractions. What we got to do is get our eyes

on Jesus. We gotta get our eyes on Jesus. Just think about any

time that you've acted without humility, where you've overreacted, where you were incensed,

or you said something or did something you wish you could change back.

Maybe under the surface, it was a motivation of some anxiety or some insecurity.

Let me explain this with like a hypothetical situation. So you got two

coworkers who are just arguing and disagreeing and there and they're fighting, and one

of these coworkers just has this outburst of anger. In fact, I mean,

maybe it's a teammate. We saw this in the Super Bowl where an

NFL player loses their mind on their coach and anger and rage. And some

people look at that and say, wow, ego pride. But I wonder

if we dig under the surface, maybe there's an insecurity of failing or that

coworker that lashes out in anger. There's an anxiety of I'm not being taken

serious or I'm gonna get taken advantage of if I don't, if I don't

bully my way or make my voice heard, it might be really anxiety.

Or imagine if you've got a boss who's just demanding, putting all this pressure

on you, overbearing, and it's just overwhelming. You're always checking up on

you, and it just feels like you're being pressed and squeezed because of their

demands, and you think, Wow, this person's a narcissist egomaniac, Like

I can't take this pressure. But what if we dig a little deeper.

What if there's some anxiety there, fear of losing respect from the company owner,

or losing the trust of the shareholders, or fear about downsizing and losing

money. And maybe there's some anxiety or insecurity that fleshes out in self preservation.

Internal anxiety and internal insecurity wants to get her eyes off Jesus and onto

these insecurities. That's why we got to get our eyes on Jesus. Just

like those Israelites desperate to be healed from those snake rights had to look at

that poll with the bronze snake. We got to concentrate, We got to

look at Jesus. Just this week, somebody asked me if I could provide

a clear definition of humility that they ask for a sentence on what humility is.

And Man, I thought about this so much. I thought, well,

humility has to do with sacrifice and serving, so we need to include

that. Humility is also confidence and curse. We got to include that.

And so I'm trying to craft this definition. And as I thought more about

it, I really can't give you a definition for humility because the only definition

I know for humility is a person. It's Jesus. It's Jesus. And

so if we want to know what humility is like, we got to concentrate

on Jesus. We gotta look to Jesus, the one who gave up divine

privilege to become a human, the one who chose to serve instead of being

exalted. Just in those last hours of his life, when Jesus was with

his disciples, he washed their feet, even the feet of Judas, the

one who would betray him in the garden. When they came to arrest him,

Jesus didn't give into anxiety to defend himself. When they accused him.

He was silent. When they spit on him, stripped him, flogged him,

he did not defend himself and give into the pressure. And when those

nails he pierced his hands and feet, he cried out, Father, forgive

them. He chose to be lifted up on the cross in humility. He

chose the path of sacrifice. He chose humility. And what came after the

cross, what came after his death, what came after all that suffering,

the resurrection. So when you choose humility, there is new life. When

you choose the path of sacrifice, there is a new beginning. When you

follow the way of Jesus, there is a new start. There's a resurrection.

So choose humility, concentrate on Jesus. And so when you feel that

insecurity leaking out, that anxiety bubbling up, motivating you to overreact and overperform

and exert yourself, cast all your anxieties on Jesus, because he cares for

you. He cares about your fears, he cares about your worries, he

cares about what keeps you up at night, and he wants to provide for

you. He wants to heal you, and he can protect you. Cast

your anxieties on him. Look to him, Look to him. Let's notice

the next parallel in our passage. In one Peter five eight, we read

your enemy the devil prows around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to

devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith. And then look at

James four verse seven, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Both of these verses tell us that we have an enemy, the devil.

He's looking to sabotage our mission, sabotage our humility. And one Peter,

the devil is compared to a lion in many places to throughout the Bible,

the devil is also described as a serpent or a snake, just like that

snake and that story about the Israelites. He wants to bite us, he

wants to attack us. And so that's why this next point is cut the

devil off at the knees. And I was just preparing this phrase is kept

coming to mind, cut the devil off at the knees. When I read

this verse it says resist the devil and he will flee. I just think,

cut the devil off at the knees. And then that made me think

about that famous scene in the original Karate Kid movie, the last scene,

the big showdown between Daniel and Johnny from Cobra Kai and Johnny is the bully

and Daniel is suffering, he's injured, he's struggling, and Johnny he represents.

He's embodying all of Daniel's insecurity and his fear and his self doubt,

and Daniel's facing him. And then Johnny's coach gives that famous line, sweep

the leg, sweep the leg, and he tells him to inflict the devastating

blow on Daniel, but Daniel doesn't back down. Daniel mounts up in one

leg on that famous crane pose, and then when Johnny comes to stripe,

Daniel delivers a crushing kick, ending the match, winning and he's a victory.

That makes me think about cut the devil off at the knees. Because

the devil doesn't play fair. The devil will do whatever it takes, and

the devil will try to sabotage your humility, so you gotta cut him off

at the knees. See. Humility is not weakness. Humility is not timidity.

Humility is boldness. But it's knowing when to stand up and who to

stand up to. And our fight is not with other humans. Our fight

is against the spiritual enemy. We have to cut them off at the knees

because he wants to get pride in your life. He wants to get insecurity

in your life. See Pride is sneaky. Pride hides in our lives in

the shadow places. Pride can sometimes sound like I'm not proud, I'm just

stubborn. Pride can hide behind false humility. Oh it was nothing, I'm

not that talented. Anybody could do that, you know, No, you're

too much. I'm just lucky. But maybe that's really phishing for a compliment,

you know, feed my ego, appease my insecurity. Pride can also

hide in spiritual superiority. Just imagine if someone comes to faith in Jesus and

they want to grow, and they're looking for a small group or a community

to grow their faith. But what if that small group leader says, you

know what, our group's been together for a really long time. We know

each other really well, and we don't want to disrupt this good unity that

we have by introducing a new person. See, pride can be sneaky.

You gotta cut the devil off at the knees. Resist him and he will

flee from you. Resisting pride in our lives is a skill that we develop.

James four h says, come near to God and he will come nearer

to you. We got to come near to God and The third principle today

is create more capacity. See we don't become humble with a one time choice.

Humility is not just a one time decision. Humility is formed in us.

The capacity is formed in us by daily, regular choices and practices.

Just as steel is forged into furnace, humility is forged in our souls through

practice. Andrew Murray was a theologian in the nineteenth century, and he wrote,

humility is not something that come of itself. It must be made the

object of special desire, prayer, faith, and practice. Choosing humility comes

from practice, daily regular practice. During the Civil Rights Movement of the United

States, there was a military veteran who emerged as a passionate leader in the

movement. In his name was Robert Williams. And Robert Williams advocated for using

weapons and violence to advance the civil rights mission, and it all kind of

came to a head in nineteen fifty seven when Williams and his followers were engaged

in a standoff with law enforcement, and it ended with Williams fleeing the country

and living in exile for many many years. Ironically, that exact same year,

in nineteen fifty seven, another young leader emerged who started a brand new

organization for the civil rights movement, and his name was doctor Martin Luther King,

Junior. And doctor King had a different approach to the mission. He

advocated a non violent protest, the way of humility, the way of love.

But doctor King also knew that his team, his volunteers, his members,

would need to operate differently because he knew that in human nature, we

always default to our training. Do you notice that when you meet a crisis,

when you meet a problem, you don't just rise to the occasion.

You default your training. And so doctor King knew that his team would result

to meeting violence if they were met with violence, and so he knew we

had to train differently. And so doctor King set up workshops and trainings,

and in these workshops, volunteers were trained by the instructors. They would verbally

abuse them, they would physically threaten them to prepare them, to condition them

for what they would encounter at demonstrations and marches. And so because of that

training, they were prepared that in the chaos and in the abuse, in

the aggression, they could remain calm, they could stay the course, they

could stay on mission, and everybody who joined his organization made a commitment to

several practices. This picture is the picture of a commitment card, a pledge

card, and it says, I hereby pledge myself, my person, in

my body to the nonviolent movement. Therefore I will keep the following ten commandments

and these next ten points. These are daily practices to build the capacity,

to build the capacity to fulfill their mission. The very first one says,

meditate daily on the teachings in life of Jesus. Number two, Remember the

nonviolent movement seeks justice and reconciliation, not victory. Walk and talk in the

manner of love, pray daily, refrain from the violence of fist, tongue

in heart, strive to be good, spiritual and bodily health. And then

look at number ten. Follow the directions of the movement and of the captain

on the demonstration. That's submission, submitting to their leaders, sub to the

mission. These practices built the capacity. And then the last line and says,

I sign this pledge having seriously considered what I do, and with the

determination and will to persevere. These practices gave them the capacity to persevere.

These practices gave them the capacity to stay subed to the mission. To complete

the mission, you and I need to have practices that build our capacity for

humility. We need daily, regular personal practices that create the capacity to be

subed to the mission. And you have to determine what those practices are for

you. I mean, it might simply start with a daily time of prayer

where you're meeting with God and letting God search your soul. Or it's before

going into that contentious, tense meeting, you pause and you submit yourself to

the Lord in prayer. Or it might be you're gonna receive feedback no matter

how harsh it is without getting defensive. That's a practice that you embody.

Or if you're a leader or you're a boss, you may develop a practice

of listening to everyone else's input before it's worth speaking yourself. That might be

your practice. It might be a practice of generosity, of giving away,

of buying someone else's meal, of taking out the trash. Can be a

practice of discipline. It might be the practice you're gonna volunteer for the next

ministry need, or your small group is gonna practice inviting new people into your

group. Whatever it is, you have to form these practices to build the

capacity of humility. I'll tell you one practice that I've tried for quite a

while now is I carry this wooden circle in my pocket on most days,

not every day. But on one side of this circle it says humility,

and on the other side it says honor, because Proverbs fifteen and Proverbs eighteen

both say humility comes before honor. And so I keep this in my pocket,

and when I feel it, when I touch it, it's a reminder.

It's a practice to choose humility, because humility is always a choice.

We started this message today talking about the mission that God has a mission for

us to share the Gospel of Jesus with our community, a vision to be

a better church, not just a bigger church. It's gonna take people of

humility, people who are subed to the mission. I think we can all

agree that nobody had a greater mission on earth than Jesus. Jesus had the

greatest mission. Nobody had more pressure on them than Jesus. Nobody had more

to accomplish than Jesus. But we never never read about Jesus rushing to fulfill

an obligation. We never read about Jesus hurrying and being late for an appointment.

We never read about Jesus feeling pressure and giving into anxiety and security accomplish

all these things. Jesus accomplished everything. He fulfilled his mission by being subed

to the mission and walking in humility. A while ago, I learned something

that is teaching me how to choose humility. I've learned that the most important

person is the person right in front of you. I learned this from another

pastor in another country, working with some of the poorest to the poor.

And this pastor says, the most important person is the person right in front

of you. And this comes straight from Jesus. Nobody had more to accomplished

than Jesus. Nobody had a greater mission than Jesus. But when he was

preaching and they lowered that sick man down through the roof, interrupting his sermon,

Jesus gave that man his attention. When that woman who needed heal tugged

on his garment and the crowd, Jesus stopped the crowd to find her.

When his followers tried to keep the little children from interrupting him, Jesus welcomed

them. When they walked past the blind man on the road, who was

crying out to Jesus and the crowd tried to silence him. Jesus said,

bring him here, because the most important person is the person right in front

of you. Friends, That's where humility begins. Humility begins with the most

important person is the person right in front of you. Begins with the person

right in front of you. At home, begins with the person right in

front of you, at school, in the classroom. It begins with your

roommate. It begins with your coworker, your boss, it begins with your

clients. It's the person right in front of you. That's where humility starts.

How will you form the practices and the capacity to show humility to the

person right in front of you? Because when we start to do that,

then our church can meet the needs that are right in front of us here

in Indianapolis, here in Washington Township, here on Haverstick Road. Then we

can fulfill the mission that God's given us. I want to invite you to

respond to what we've heard today. As we close, would you bow your

head and close your eyes with me? And today you may be hearing this

and you've identified in your life there is stubbornness there is pride, there is

sin, and maybe today you are living far from God, even living in

rebellion, and you are not right with God. Well, the first step

of humility for you is then to surrender your life to Jesus. If you

have not done that, and so today, if you want to humble yourself

before God and put your faith in Him, then I would just ask you

to repeat this prayer after me, say, Dear God, I admit that

I'm a sinner and I need your forgiveness. I confess that Jesus died for

me, and I believe he rose from the dead to save me. Today

I humbly ask Jesus to be the lord of my life. And now I

want to invite all of us, whether we just prayed that prayer to trust

Jesus or we have been following him for a long time. Would you take

a moment in this quiet space to allow God to speak to you. Is

he instructing you? Is is there a part of your life you need to

trust him with? Is there something you need to confess to him? Is

there something you've been holding on too tight, or that you've been holding onto

Jesus that you need to let go of. Let him speak to you in

this moment. Let me pray for us. Father, God, we thank

you for your grace, and we thank you for your presence. And God,

we thank you that you humble yourself to come to rescue us, to

save us, that you have not given up on us. And so God,

I pray that as we leave here today, that you give us the

courage and the confidence to trust you even more to follow you. And God,

may we submit ourselves. May we submit our lives to you as we

walk with you. And I pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen,