Men of Faith - Father's Day | Pastor Darren Palmer | Faith Church

Well, we want to welcome you here today, Father's

Day. Thank you, men, for being here. I said last

week, I challenged you last week to have this

place full because you know what most men want

to do on Father's Day? Not be in church. But

we are glad that we have men in this house that

love Jesus and that love the Lord with all of

their heart, with all of their soul, mind, and

strength. Can we give the men in this house a

big hand this morning? Praise God. And if you

would turn in your Bible with me to James chapter

James 1 · chapter mention

1, we have five men that are going to be preaching

this morning. And so I'm going to ask them to

come and join Pastor Ben on the platform. If

you are a part of the preaching this morning,

come on up. Because I want you to just be able

to switch right away. And you need to time each

one of these men. And when they get to five minutes,

you can go ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. No,

I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. You what?

You're going to do that to me? Okay. But I believe

that God has called us to be men after God's

heart. And this message this morning is talking

about what we believe men of faith to be. And

so I've assigned each one of these men a portion

of that. But this applies to everybody. James

James 1:17

1, verse 17 is kind of our covering scripture.

And it says this, And every good gift and every

perfect gift is from above. And comes down from

the Father of lights. With whom there is no variation

or shadow of turning. Hallelujah. And so I just

want you to join me in prayer for a moment. And

then I'm going to come back up at the end. And

we're going to pray at the end. We're going to

pray over the men in this house. And we're going

to believe God to touch every one of our men

here. But I just want to pray right now. Father,

every good and every perfect gift comes from

you. And I thank you, God, for fathers. For some

in this room, this day is a difficult day. Because

of the fathers. That we have had here on earth.

God I pray. That today would be a healing day.

Because of our heavenly father. And we thank

you God. That you. Are a perfect father. And

we give you praise right now. Lord. We as men

in this room. We as fathers and grandfathers

in this room. We recognize our own failure. But

we recognize God. We want to be like you. And

so I ask God that you would take the words that

these men share this morning. And I ask God that

you would just apply them to our hearts and make

us like Jesus. Hallelujah. We thank you, Father.

And everybody said, Amen. Now, men of faith.

And so we've taken the word faith, F -A -I -T

-H. And we've given each one of these men a letter,

and they're going to share. I'm going to ask

Brian Rage to come, and he's going to begin.

Men of faith, can we welcome Brian as he comes?

Actually, before I start, we're going to take

a little detour. A detour already. So, when I

knew... I was going to have to be up here. The

Lord began to speak to me about an open heaven.

An open heaven. And what does Darren's breakfast

tables about an open heaven. So what I feel like

we need to do is just take a couple minutes.

A minute. I want us to still our minds. Close

our eyes. Still our minds. And turn your... Mind

to heaven. Turn your gaze to heaven. See. Yes,

Lord. See him. See him. See him standing in clouds

of glory with his hands outstretched. See him.

He's the lover of your soul. He's your ever -present

help. See him. We worship you, Lord. We see you

standing in the clouds of glory. And we worship

you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank

you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.

I think what the Lord is saying, some of you

are going to actually see things. And you may

think that's just my imagination, but it's not.

There is an open heaven that is available to

believers to see their Savior. It's not your

imagination. It's an open heaven. There's an

open heaven over this house in healings and miracles

and deliverances. See him. See him. Thank you,

Father. Thank you, Father. Well, what the Lord

gave me for Father's Day. and F being the first

word, of course, would be faith. And what the

Lord spoke to me is, faith is forward -looking.

What do I mean by that? What do I mean by forward

-looking? And he took me to, of course, the great

chapter of faith, Hebrews 11, and verse 7. By

faith, Noah, being divinely warned of things

not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared

an ark for the saving of his household, by which

he condemned the world and became heir of the

righteousness which is according to faith. The

vision that God gave Noah was a salvation for

his family. And we as fathers and mothers, we

make and prepare an ark. Church history, church

fathers would call the church kind of a type

of the ark of the covenant, the ark of Noah's

ark, that there's a door in the side. There's

one entrance. There's a window in the top. You

look up. It brought his family in for the saving.

And as we press into God as men of faith, we

make a way for God to do works in our families.

Amen. I know I didn't say come in when you want

to. Attend church when you want to, when it's

convenient. It is vitally important. When I got

saved, I knew that I knew that I knew I had to

be in the house of God. Now, I wasn't there every

time the doors opened, but when I was able, I

was there. It was a priority. And there's fruit

that comes from that priority. One of them is

sitting right back there today. Rachel. Now,

I've received provision, miracles, direction,

protection, strength, and comfort. Being part

of the body of Christ. And I've got a couple

examples. I told Rachel I was going to talk about

her today, and she didn't particularly like that.

But when she was in kindergarten, my mother stopped

across the road to pick her up, and she went

running right out of the school building in front

of a car. That was my aunt driving the car. And

two invisible hands. Grabbed her from behind

and yanked her back. And my mom saw that. It

was like on a rubber band. Back. Rachel, I don't

know if you still can feel those hands. You still

can feel those hands that pulled her back. Protection.

I didn't even know I needed protection that day.

But God was there. And then another thing that

was very important. That is part of my church

history. Was my granddaughter Kennedy. Now she

just turned 16. And when Holly was pregnant with

her. Her 20 week checkup. No amniotic fluid.

None. Maybe one. One out of six. I think it was

one out of six. But very low. Two weeks bed rest.

Drink all you can drink. Another checkup two

weeks later, no improvement. That was a Tuesday

night prayer meeting that I was part of. And

I told everybody, I have attended prayer meetings

all my Christian life. I need prayer. I need

prayer. And one by one, people had different

pieces and parts. Different pieces and parts.

I was the last one and put my spiritual authority

against the enemy. You'll not steal my first

grandchild. Holly had a checkup the next day.

Nothing wrong. I don't need to see you. Those

are the kinds of things that we as part of a

body of faith. part of a body of believers that

believe in miracles, that believe in healing,

that believe in provision. I could go on and

on, but my five minutes is up, but probably passed

up. But anyway, so men of faith, men of faith,

and you will receive the reward for your faith.

Question, did anybody see anything? When we're

in the presence of God. Did anybody have. Any

kind of. No. Okay. I did. Awesome. Praise God.

So I got letter A. For action. Action. Faith

requires action. As I was preparing this, God

reminded me of a time that my family and I, we

were moving from Illinois to San Diego for the

Navy. And on that trip, we mapped it out to hit

as many states as we could along the way. So

we cut up north and we started heading west and

then went west for quite a ways, cut south. And

we wanted to hit as many milestones as we could

because, hey, the Navy's paying for it, gas,

food, and lodging, everything to get us there,

right? Because they got to move me and my family.

And so one of the stops along the way was Mount

Rushmore. Isn't that a great picture of Mount

Rushmore? And so we're driving, and we're getting

closer, and we're getting closer to Mount Rushmore,

and it just starts looking like that. And we're

like, oh, my gosh, like, come on. The one time

that we're going to be in the area, and we're

not going to be able to see it. So we start,

like, looking up weather reports, and they're

like, yeah, this fog isn't clearing for two days

or three days or something like that, a couple

days. I looked at the radar, and you could just

see it, even on the map, like, all the way from

there to, like, almost to the west coast, which

is a pretty big area. And I'm like, ah. And so

we get there. We drive up, and the lady at the

gate, she's like, hey, it's going to be $10 to

come in. However, you can't see anything. She's

like, you can come in. You can look at the gift

shop. But other than that, you're not going to

see anything. And so we're like, well, I guess

we won't worry about it. And then we turn around,

and we park at the first little spot you can

pull off, and there's a sign that says, hey,

if you look up right here, you can see Abe Lincoln's

nose or something. And we look up, and we just

saw more of that. And so we talked to the kids,

and we're like, you know what? Like, we're already

here. We're going to pray, and we're going to

believe God, because if God can part the waters

of the Red Sea, God can clear a little bit of

fog. And so we prayed with the kids. We got in

the car, and we headed back to the gate again.

And so the whole time, Charlie and I are, like,

praying, you know, under our breath. We're driving.

We're praying the rest of the way there. We get

back to the gate. I got a different gate this

time, and this lady's like, hey, do you happen

to be military? I'm like, yes, I am. She's like,

oh, you're free. Come on in. I'm like, sweet.

See, I would have paid $10 if I had not turned

around and come back. And so anyways, we get

there. We're walking all the way up. We walk

all the way up, and you just, like, there's this

grand opening where you should see it. It looks

about like that. That's what we saw. And we're

like, okay, well, we're going to keep going.

We're going to start hiking the trail up to it.

And there's like three or four stops along the

way. It's like, okay, you can look up here and

you can see it. And fog and fog and fog every

time. And we got to the last spot and we're standing

there and we're all taking pictures of the fog

with another group of people taking pictures

of the fog. And within about, I don't know, 20

seconds of us hitting that final spot right underneath,

the fog went from looking like that. I've got

a couple more pictures to that. And within a

matter of 20 or 30 seconds, it went to that.

God can turn it around. And the way back, we

stopped at each one of those checkpoints again

and was able to get pictures at each stop. And

we got back to the Grand Expanse at the beginning,

and we could see it. And then we went in the

gift shop, and when we came back out, it was

covered again. We left, so did the favor of God.

But it was because we prayed. It was because

we did something about it, all right? So James

James 1:17

1, verse 17, which Pastor Darren kicked us off

with, right? Every good gift comes from above.

It comes from the Father. And God has blessed

us with a lot of things. And I believe that means

that as followers of Christ, we are called to

action because we are called to be good stewards

with what he has blessed us with, with those

good gifts. In fact, if you read a few verses

later, And then the next chapter, verse 14 and

17, says, My brothers and sisters, if someone

claims to have faith but has no deeds, can such

faith save them? In verse 17, in the same way,

faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by

action, is dead. It's dead. So yes, every good

gift comes from God. We are to steward those

gifts. We are called to be stewards, right? To

steward first and foremost our relationship with

him, to walk with him in the garden. than to

steward the good earth on which he placed us,

to tend the garden, to steward the relationships

of those he has entrusted to us, our children,

our families, our friends, our neighbors, to

be fruitful and multiply. And God's not just

talking about having physical children anymore,

but making disciples everywhere you go. As a

father, our children need to see that our faith

makes us men of action. Do not just come to church

when the doors are open, but be the church everywhere

that you go. Let your faith overflow into your

home, overflow into your car rides, into your

vacations, into your workplace. Let your faith

dictate the choices you make and the actions

you take. I'm going to close with one more story.

When God called me into the Navy, I was doing

a church plant up in the East Peoria, Peoria

area. And I felt God calling me out of that and

to join the Navy and to be a light in the dark

place of the Navy. I had no idea what it was

going to look like. I just knew that's what God

was telling me to do. And so I did it. I joined

the Navy. I get to my ship about a year and a

half after joining, after all my schooling and

everything. And the first thing my supervisor

says to me, she's like, hey, we snooped you out

on Facebook. I know that you're a religious guy.

Would you be a lay leader on board our ship?

I said, what's a lay leader? She's like, well,

we don't have a chaplain on board. So a lay leader

represents your faith group to the entire crew.

And when we go out to sea, you hold church services

and prayer meetings and whatever you do for your

faith group on board. And I had no idea that

was a thing in the Navy. I just assumed everybody

had a chaplain. And so here I was with a crew

of 320 people. And I was on deployment for seven

months. And every Sunday that we were out to

sea, we got to do a church service on board that

ship. And then every single evening that we were

out to sea, I got to pray over the entire crew

every night. And then we even had a chaplain

try and stop it because he was like, no, no,

no, you're not a chaplain. You can't do that.

But my captain was like. This is too good. This

is too good. What are we going to do? I said,

I'll stop saying amen at the end, and we'll call

it a motivational minute. But my message didn't

change. My message didn't change. I was saying

the same things, right? But God used me in ways

I didn't even know. I got a message from a guy

I served with on the ship just, I don't know,

two weeks ago. I hadn't thought about this dude

in a very long time. And to be honest, he wasn't

somebody I really thought of a lot when I was

there, but he sent me this long Facebook message,

and he said, Hey, I don't know if you remember

me. You would have known me as MA1 Jones on the

ship. But thank you. God saved me through you.

He said, I would come to work smelling like booze

and smelling like women, cheating on my wife,

doing all kinds of stuff. He said, I would come

to you, and I would ask you for prayer, saying

that, hey, somebody I know died. I need some

prayer. He said, that wasn't true. I just wanted

you to pray with me. He said, and you never said

no. You were always there. You always said yes.

Just by you showing up and doing what you did

every day because of the action that I took.

It's not about action in here. It's about action

out there in your home and in your workplace.

God has called you to be a man of action. I'm

not nearly as animated as Ben. In fact, I was

just thinking as I was sitting up here, I'm like,

man, these guys have a lot more microphone training

than I do. But so my word is, or my letter is

I, and the word is integrity. And I'm just sitting

there thinking, I'm like, it's kind of an interesting

topic to talk about integrity in front of people

that know a lot of your shortcomings. So kind

of reframes that a little bit. So I grew up knowing

kind of the definition of integrity as doing

the right thing when nobody's watching or whatever

it may be. And kind of an example I want to use,

pulling in my dad for a little bit, whenever

my brothers and I get together, we always say,

well, what would dad say? And that's kind of

a funny thing. So speaking on the topic of integrity,

whenever... My dad was somebody that if you needed

something done, he knew the person. But he also

knew the people not to choose. He would say,

oh, so -and -so, they're a liar. They'll cheat

you out or whatever, whatever. So I was like,

okay. But what was he basing that off of? He

was basing that off of what they knew, kind of

how they operated their character. Now, it may

not be a true intention of their heart, but based

on their actions. Going back to kind of the more

official version of integrity, it refers to the

quality of being honest, having strong moral

principles, and consistently adhering to ethical

standards. So it's kind of like, hmm, there's

a lot of action -based stuff in there, even like

what Ben was talking about. It's one thing to

say it, but it's another thing to do it. And

so kind of ever since Pastor Darren asked me

to do this, It hasn't left my head. And the hard

part about that is how do you bring it into something

that makes sense that you're going to share with

other people? So kind of where I've landed on

this is that the world that we live in is full

of half -truths, stress, anxiety, being overcommitted,

and being stretched thin. And all of these can

lead to cut corners and compromises. Sorry, I'm

not used to this. But here's the other part of

it. This world has no use for more shallow, more

phony. They are looking for depth and authenticity,

which is integrity. So when you operate out of

that place, it's something that becomes visible,

even though a lot of that happens, you know,

in what you do in secret. So we also have an

accuser, which is Satan, that will try to trap

you and then condemn you for being trapped. So

going back to that word, condemnation. And so

I thought of that when you said that. And so

I treat it this way. God sees it all anyway,

and there's no fooling him. So if we operate

out of a place of pleasing God, then we've set

the bar. Way higher than the standards of the

world around us. But it's also a very high bar

if you're not pursuing God's heart. By action

alone, it's kind of a trap to fail. Because we

do have those shortcomings. So here's the scripture

that I pulled out. Proverbs 20 verses 7. The

Proverbs 20:7

righteous man walks in his integrity and his

children are blessed after him. So when I saw

that, it's like, it's more than just about you.

It's about those that come after you. Now, whether

that means your actual children or people that

you've ministered to and were a light to, spiritual

children, it comes with a high accountability

for that, you know? And so... From that perspective,

leading your family should be the priority because

God has entrusted them to you. God has entrusted,

like when Ben was talking about, God has entrusted

those people to him. So we've got to operate

out of that place of doing that. And so the example

that I had, so probably last fall, I think it

was, I needed to order Carter a new headphone.

for his snare drum so he could use it in school

for band. And so I ordered one, and there was

a problem with the order through Amazon. Okay,

I canceled that one. I ordered another one, and

there was something wrong with it, so I canceled

both of them. One of them showed up on the porch.

I'm like, okay. So then the question in your

mind, well, what do you do? Well, I contacted

the support and I said, hey, look, I know I canceled

both of these things, but... One of them showed

up, so go ahead and whatever order you want to

pick, just charge because they were both the

same price. And the person said, no, don't worry

about it. It was our goof. You know, don't worry

about it. And I remember telling Carter about

that. He said, well, why did you say something?

I said, well, because that's just what you do.

Because there's no blessing in even though it

was like, well, it was a technical goof, but

yet I felt like. I need to still pay for something

because I received something. And so there's

blessing in that when you operate out of integrity.

And so, and I just wanted to encourage some people

in here that maybe kind of feel like I have in

the past a little bit where you don't feel like

you've hit the, where you feel like you measure

up to that bar. It doesn't matter how you started.

What matters is that you choose to be a man of

integrity. from there forward. And so there's

always going to be the people that remember the

things that you didn't do right. But again, what

are you pursuing? The heart of God. And he will

back you up every time. So I just wanted to close

with this. And again, going back to using my

dad as an example, he wasn't here to witness

this comment that I made because it was at his

memorial service. But even, I remember standing

up there. It's kind of like, again, what do you

say? And what came to me was at the very end

of that, because there was a lot of people that

prayed, a lot of people that stood and believed.

I mean, it's like, you know, Lord, heal them,

save them, whatever you got to do. But I made

this statement, is that for those on the outside,

they're watching us to see, do these people,

really believe what they say they believe. And

in a situation like that, it's kind of like,

you know, where are you going to go with that?

And so you stand on what you believe, and you

stand with God, and you say, all right. And that

oftentimes is a bigger witness to people than

the person getting healed or the person getting,

you know, whatever it may be. And so I just wanted

to share that encouragement. Be a man of integrity.

And, you know, it seems like a pretty high bar

even for me to share. But you know what? I'm

just leaning into God. And he's making it better

every single time. There we go. Amen. Men of

truth. Men of truth. That's my phrase that I

was asked to share on. You know, many times I've

made commitments and then later think, why did

I do that? I don't have time for this. But if

we're going to be men of truth, we have to swear

to our own hurt sometimes. And that's not always

easy to do. I know emergencies may come up or

different things like that, but day in and day

out. we need to swear to our own hurt. If we

make a commitment, we need to stay true to it.

This phrase, men of truth, is actually found

in Exodus 18, verse 21, and it's Jethro's advice

Exodus 18:21

to Moses in choosing leaders and being judge

over Israel. And that advice carries about four

characteristics with it. Truth and faithfulness

means they are going to honor the word, act with

sincerity, and conduct themselves according to

God's standards. To fear the Lord, they recognize

God's sovereignty and have a reverential awe

for him that guides their actions. Hating unjust

gain, they reject bribery, corruption, and covetousness

and integrity as David shared on. They take responsibilities

for their duties and avoid deflecting blame when

mistakes are made. So those are the characteristics

of men of truth. And those characteristics are

hard to find today in our society. All you have

to do is turn on the news and you'll hear the

false narrative. People trying to make themselves

look good. or they're caused to look good. And

so many times, it's just contrary to the truth

of God's Word. And we have to be aware of that.

At the times and seasons that we're in, Paul

warns us. He says, the Spirit expressively says

in the last days, there will be seducing spirits

and doctrines of demons. And we're in the midst

of that right now. We're seeing that happen time

and time again in our society. And we have to

be aware of what's going on around us and stay

true to God's word and his principles and standards

that he sets forth in his word. And that's not

always easy to do because we're bombarded day

in and day out. Statistics say that we're bombarded

with 4 ,500 negatives every day. That's a lot.

That's not a lot of positive, is it? But we need

to be aware of what's going on around us and

heed God's word. But I think I found a solution.

And it's in John 1, verse 14. And it says, Jesus

John 1:14

Christ came full of grace and truth. He is the

way, the truth, and the life. Jesus was all grace.

He welcomed sinners and tax collectors and ate

with them. He had compassion on the crowds when

they were hungry and far from home. He welcomed

little children to sit on his lap, gentle and

kinder than most department store Santas. He

healed the leper, the lame, the blind. He saved

criminals on the cross. The one next to him confessed

that he was truly the Son of God. And Jesus was

all truth. He condemned many religious leaders

of that day, being liars and hypocrites. He talked

about hell more than he talked about heaven.

He called all those to be his disciples and take

up their cross and follow him daily. Jesus came

from the Father, full of grace and truth. All

grace, all truth, all the time. But it didn't

just come simply to give us an example of grace

and truth. He came to save us into grace and

truth. It's only after we've been saved and made

right with God that God says, all right now,

I have saved you, but I want you to look like

Jesus. We desperately need grace in our lives.

We need to hear from Jesus. Come to me, all you

who are weary. and heavy laden, and I will give

you rest. That's Matthew 11, 28. We need to know

that God doesn't just expect us to clean up our

act before we come to him. He implores us to

come now, today, just as we are, in pain and

in humility, and in repentance and faith. That's

Luke 15, 20. And we desperately need truth in

our lives. We need to hear from Jesus. The truth

will set you free. And we need to hear from Jesus

what this saying really means. I tell you the

truth. Whoever sins is a slave to sin. But if

the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

We need someone as gracious as Jesus to tell

us the truth. We need truth. We need grace. We

need Jesus. Only Jesus. lived the perfect grace

and truth. Only Jesus can save the hard -headed

sinners full of lies, deserving judgment. And

only with union to Jesus Christ can we grow in

that same truth and grace that walked among us.

We need to be people of truth. I told Pastor,

last time my tag team preached was here. It was

me and Benjamin. We were talking to Pastor David

Andreessen at the time. And Benjamin bent down

in the pulpit to get something out, and I tackled

him. Because that's what I think of when I think

of tag teams, wrestling or something. So I tackled

him on the stage, and the pastor said, oh, make

it happen again. And then I'm sitting up there

thinking, I'm sitting up there thinking, it's

four against one now. But they all left. They

all went back out there. So it's just me and

you. But Benjamin's a lot older now. He might

get hurt. I got my phone here. I got a timer.

It keeps going back to one hour and three minutes

every time I turn it on. So do I get that long?

No. Jesse said, how are you going to make it

in five minutes? Have you practiced? I said,

no. I have pondered and thought about it all

week. I listened to probably, I don't know, 30

sermons. I listened to a podcast. I listened

to all these things. So I had notes. I'd crumple

them up and throw them away. I'd write more notes.

I'd crumple up and throw them away. And last

night at like 8 .30, Jesse goes to bed, and I'm

picking up the rest of the stuff off the table

from what we'd been doing, paying bills, I think.

And I thought, oh, I need to write that down.

So I started writing again. And I write this,

and I'm going to push this right off there. I

write this down. And speaking of the five minutes,

my mind's going a million miles an hour. My dad

used to complain. You know, we had gross preacher

a lot on Sundays for lunch. And my dad would

complain that the preacher preached too long.

And he'd say, now I know he can get his point

across in seven minutes. Because that's how long

it is on the radio every day when he does his

radio program. And he gets a point across every

day in seven minutes. But yet at church, it's

how many ever minutes, you know. So, now I'm

down to four and a half minutes because I pushed.

I had to tell you that story. So, my final draft

you get today. Humility. H is for humility. The

second you say you're humble, you're not. It

is not a sign of weakness. But today, what I

come up with last night, and I know this has

to be God, Daniel 1 .8 says, but Daniel purposed

in his heart that he would not defile himself.

To purpose in your heart means to plan ahead,

decide before temptation comes. It's kind of

like when we go to a buffet. I purpose in my

heart that I'm only going to go up one time.

I don't purpose very well, I must tell you. But

when it comes to humility, we need to purpose

in our heart that we want to be humble. We want

to be a man of humility. C .S. Lewis says, humility

is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking

of yourself less. Talking about action, today

we got to choose. What first action we're going

to do is we're going to choose that we're going

to choose we're going to be humble. And I know

that this came from God because Jesse was watching

a real spiritual show last night called Monk.

And I walked in the bedroom as I wrote this.

I wrote... choose. Humility is a choice. I walk

in the bedroom and Monk, I think it was Monk,

I don't know, I didn't see it. She was walking

on her phone. I can't see that. But I hear these

words that somebody on that show said. It's a

choice. You can choose to be happy. Well, just

so much as you can choose to be happy, just so

much as I chose what hat to wear today, this

one says faith over fear. I thought that was

fitting for the day. It's basically the only

religious hat, Christian hat I have. And I need

to get more because I took a challenge at work.

One day they said, how many hats do you have?

Do you wear a different hat every day? I said,

challenge accepted. So for like a month and I

don't know how many days, I wore a different

hat every day. And there was a couple people

that would walk up to me and read my hat to see

what hat I had on today. So just as much as I

choose what hat I'm going to wear for the day,

we have to choose and make it of ourselves that

we are going to be humble. Oh man, I only got

a minute left. I'm going to have to reset my

timer. So, walk, choose, walk. Micah 6 .8 says

walk with God. James 4 .10 says humble yourself.

So this is something we got to do ourself. It's

not like God's going to just strike us with humility.

We have to choose it. We have to do it. We have

to put it on. Knowing who you are, lay aside

in John. Chapter 13. Verse 3, 4, and 5, I think.

John 13 · chapter mention

It says, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given

him all things into his hands, and that he had

come from God and was going to God, rose from

supper and laid aside his garments, took a towel

and girded himself. So he took his garments and

he laid them aside. There might be some things

that we have to lay aside. Sometimes when I choose

which hat I'm going to wear, I have to lay the

other ones aside. And the good thing about wearing

a hat is you don't have to comb your hair. And

at work we did have to wear hats, but now we

don't have to, but I still do. But he took it

off. He took his garments and he laid it aside.

But then he picked up a towel. He picked up a

towel and he became a servant. If we want to

be humble, we have to choose to be a servant.

And a few months ago here, we had all kinds of

opportunities to choose service. And I think

there's probably still availability right here

in this building where we can choose to be of

service. And my timer's going off. And we can

choose. We have to choose to do it. After that,

he poured water into the basin and began to wash

his disciples' feet. I'll stop eventually. He'd

wash the disciples' feet. Sometimes, if we're

humble, we may have to wash some feet. Sometimes

we may have to simply change the way we think.

In Philippians 4, 8, it says, think on these

things and all those things it says to think

on. And humility, I'm reminded of humility every

time I'm driving and somebody in front of me

does something like they don't turn their turn

signal on. There was actually a police officer

in Lincoln the other day on the square, didn't

use a turn signal. But how many times have I

been looking at the person in front of me without

their turn signal on and realize, I don't have

mine on. So I've changed my wording. to where

you're a dumb driver, because I'm number one,

but I've changed it to where instead of saying,

why don't you have your turn signal on? I could

have went if I'd known you was turning. Instead

of that, I say, quit driving like me. There's

only room for one of us on the road. Choose today

to be humble. Wow. Wow, was that good? I want

to close this morning by reading from one of

the spiritual fathers in the Bible who in the

New Testament after Jesus' ascension probably

became more of a father, though he had no children

of his own, to the church than any other man.

And his name was John. And John knew that there

was warfare over men. Do you know there's spiritual

warfare over the men in our culture? The enemy

wants to turn the men away from God. Do you know

most sitcoms who the butt of the joke always

is? It is the men. The men are always the goofy

ones that have the strange ideas. And there is

war right now against men rising up to be who

God's called them to be. Men of faith. And he

wrote in... chapter 2 of 1 John, in verse 12.

I'm going to ask the worship team to come because

we're going to pray over men this morning. 1

1 John 2:12

John, chapter 2, verse 12. He says, I write to

you, little children, because your sins are forgiven

you for His name's sake. Good news. I write to

you, fathers, because you have known him who

is from the beginning. We need fathers that know

the Lord. Amen? And then he says, I write to

you, young men, because you have overcome the

wicked one. The wicked one. The wicked one is

after our young men. He goes on, says to the

little children again, I write to you, little

children, because you have known the Father.

Good. I write to you, fathers, because you have

known Him who is from the beginning. There he

says that again. I have written to you, young

men, because you are strong. And the word of

God abides in you. And you have overcome the

wicked one. You see, in this house, God wants

the men to be overcomers. God wants the young

men to be overcomers. But there is a spiritual

battle. There is a spiritual battle at war. against

the men in our culture. And I just want us to

pray right now. There's a battle for your soul.

There's a battle for who you are. There's a battle

to keep you suppressed from ever fulfilling God's

intention in your life. But God's got a calling

on your life. God's got his hand upon you. brand

new at this, you might be saying, you know, all

this feels like a tall task to me. I don't know

if I can live up to that or not. But God's wanting

you today to just take a step toward Him. You

know, the one that talking about humility, Pastor

Tim, Jesus said that two men went to church.

And one of them looked up in heaven and said,

God, I thank you that I am not like all the other

people. I tithe. I give what I have to the poor.

I thank you that I'm not like everybody else.

But there was another man that went to church.

And Jesus said, he just hit himself in the chest.

And he said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

And Jesus said, I tell you the truth. That man

went home justified before the Lord. How many

of you men would just freely admit, I'm not perfect.

I've got a long way to go. But I want, I want.

To walk in the footsteps that God has for me.

How many of you men would say that's me? I want

to walk in the footsteps that God has for me.

And the call today isn't to perfection. It isn't

to live up to every dotted I and cross T. But

the call today is for us as men to simply Say,

God, here I am. I'm yours. And I want to walk

after the heart of Jesus. I need your mercy.

I need your grace. I need your help. But here

I am. And if that's you, men of God, I just want

to ask you to stand around this room right now.

And we're going to pray over you. And we're going

to believe right now. Thank you, Lord. Thank

you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus.

I like it. Some of the young men are standing

up. They're not married or they don't have families

or children, but they're standing up before the

Lord right now. They're saying, God, that's how

I want to live. I want to overcome the evil one.

I want the word of God to live in me. Father,

I want to lift up these men right now because

it's only at the cross that we can overcome.

We just bring all of our failure, which we know

we have. We bring all of our stuff and we just

give it to you, Jesus. And we say, Lord, have

mercy on me. Help me. I want to. Have a heart

that is after the Lord. God, I pray grace over

these men. I pray your touch over these men.

Just stretch your hands towards the men right

now, those of you that are seated, and just stretch

your hands towards them. Father, just impart

grace to the men of this house. God, raise them

up strong. Raise them up, God, overcomers in

Jesus' name. Raise them up to be like Christ

day by day by day by day. God, to be men of faith,

to be men of action, to be men of integrity,

to be men of truth, to be men of humility. God,

I pray that these characteristics would belong

to us in Jesus' name. And we just want to declare.

want to declare, God, the victory that is in

Christ. Hallelujah.