Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - Sit Down, Be Humble - Luke 9:46-56

God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for today.

We thank you for the beautiful sunshine. We thank you for the chance to

come together and learn from your word. God. We just open up our

hearts and minds to receive from you today. God, we allow your word

to conform us and confront us today, to make us more into the image

of Jesus. With every word that we read. God, I'm not concerned

about how I look. I'm concerned about how I handle your words. So

God, use me today, use all every word that I say. Make

it your words, not mine, and that it falls on good soil of

our hearts. And so God, we thank you that you've given us your

word, and we're so excited to jump into it right now. In Jesus

name, everybody said, Amen, Okay, we've been in a series call

Luke The Orderly Account of Truth. We're going verse by verse through this whole

book. It's been amazing. We've almost been in it for a year I

think now, which is crazy. Time flies and you're having fun. But

Luke wrote an orderly account. He investigated and wrote an orderly account for us,

so we can know the exact truth about who Jesus is and what he

taught, the things that he did, the life, burial and resurrection of

Jesus. It's amazing that we get that so because of his account. It

wasn't just for Theophilis who he wrote it for. It's also we benefit from

that because we have the Book of Luke to go back and read. And

today we're going to be in Luke chapter nine Versus forty six through fifty six.

So grab your bibles. You can start turning there. If you don't

have a Bible, we have some at the resource desk in the lobby,

so please grab it and keep it for you. It's our gift for you.

But we're gonna be in Luke chapter nine Versus forty six through fifty six.

Last week, Pastor Jordan yelled at us. I mean just kidding,

he challenged us. No, Pastor Jordan did awesome. He's in kids ministry

right now. But I got to listen to both the last week's messages,

which I hated missing them in person. I really hate missing church. I

love hanging out with you guys. But I got to listen to him and

it was awesome. He was preaching with some conviction, so I hopefully you

felt that in your hearts. But he was challenging us to have faith in

the one who is faithful, right to have faith in the one who is

faithful. There's no one more faithful than God. No one is more faithful

than him. There's no one more trustworthy than he is. There's no one

that we can take more confidence in than Jesus because he is faithful. No

one's got a better track record. It's perfect, by the way, in

case you're wondering, he is a perfect track record. Jesus had demonstrated over

and over again who he is. He continued to perform miracles in front of

all the people and the disciples. He did the things that only God can

do. And what does that announce or what does that tell everybody? Showing

that he is in fact God in the flesh, he is Emmanuel, he

is God with us. But also there was something that was going to change

the way that Jesus was with the people. That's what was going to change,

and he said it straight to their faces. There was two key things

that he said when he was casting the demon out of the boy from last

week's text. If you remember, he said, you unbelieving in perverse generation.

How long shall I stay with you or put up with you? It's

a little bit of a slap in the face. And then he also said

to his disciples, listen carefully to what I'm about to tell you. The

Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. Jesus

was telling him, I'm not going to be with you forever in the physical

sense, I'm not going to be here forever. And this led to a

little debate or a little competition, if you will, between the disciples.

We all like a little competition, right. We got our favorite sports teams.

That's why we watch in play sports. Right. We like the competition.

We root for our team. We want them to win. We buy

their hats, their jerseys, and he want a Raiders fans. For some

reason, every time talk about hats and jerseys, Rade your nation gets real

loud. See, so what I'm talking about. You wear the jerseys,

you buy the hats. It for your team. When they score a touchdown

or a goal, what do you do? You jump out of your seat

and you cheer. Right? What about when the ref makes a terrible call,

You're shouting and screaming or booing the ref? Right, we find ways

to turn basically everything into a competition. Here's a good example of some competition,

Team Edward or Team Jacob. Just kidding, I've directually seeing the movies.

I just figured someone would like that. No, the real example I

wanted to use was we're gonna take a pole. If your team Legalis or

Team Gimley. Okay, raise your hand, Team Legalis, you're breaking my

heart. Team Gimley. Obviously Team Gimley. Most of you are like,

I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm gonna keep it a secret.

Just kidding. It's Lord of the Rings. Come on, it's the

Elf and the Dwarf. They're fighting. They're fighting over who can who can

take out more enemies? Right, and Leglis takes down the big elephant thing

and has all the enemies on the top. And then what does Gimli say?

That still only counts as one right? Oh gosh, I'm a nerd.

Welcome to my life. But even our fictional characters find some way to

make competition in fake not real stories. We just love competition. Or maybe

you're not into sports or Lord of the Rings, unfortunately you should be,

But think about the games you play the board games. We're competitive, we

want to win. I'm not allowed to play Phase ten with most people.

My wife can attest to that. I get a little too competitive in that

particular game. But come on, we all race to get boardwalk in park

Place and Monopoly, don't we. And if you're sitting there and you're like

arguing for a different strategy, you got to get the red and the green

properties because that corner is like death row. If you got them all,

you're proving my point. You want to win, Like, that's why we

play the game. We're competitive, we want to win the game. But

why is that? Why is it that we want to win so badly?

Why do we want to win? What is driving this need in us to

beat others? At the root of it, it's our sinful flesh's desire to

be greater than others, to be greater than, to be better than someone

else, to be the first, to be more than a started when we

were kids who wanted to be the line leader in elementary school or every time

you went anywhere in the playground. I'm going to get there first. Let's

race. My dad can beat up your dad, right, He's like,

it was true, though, you gotta know my dad can beat up your

dad. It didn't start when we got older, it started when we were

young. But all of this is actually contrary to what Jesus tells us to

be. He doesn't tell us to fight and strive to be the greatest.

No, he says it's the least who is the greatest. That the first

shall be last, asked shall be first. That instead of competing to receive

honor, we're told to outdo one another in showing honor to others. That

we're supposed to actually compete to show honor. That's what we're supposed to be

doing. So it isn't the competitive spirit that's the actual problem. I think

God gave us that drive for competition on purpose. I know we did,

but we pervert that purpose into something that's sinful. So it's not as being

competitive as the problem. It's the goal that we're aiming at while being competitive

that is the problem. Our goal to be better than someone else or to

be greater than others. So the big idea that I want us to catch

today, I'm front loading a lot of this. The big idea I want

you to catch is also the title of today's message is sit down, be

humble. Kendrick fans for anyone who does know Kendrick is just don't worry about

it. You will still understand everything from today. Sit down, be humble.

It ain't about you. It's not about me. I hate to break

it to you, but we're not that big of a deal. Life isn't

about you being awesome. This life isn't about you getting the glory. This

isn't about showing everyone how cool you are. No matter what social media shows

and tells you, what's this life all about? It's a softball question.

It's about Jesus. It's all about Jesus. And in today's text, we're

going to see three moments where the disciples totally get it wrong, and all

three of the times Jesus corrects them. Where the goal of their competition was

set on the wrong thing. They were focused on their own value, their

own value over the value of others. But my challenge today is instead of

just sitting there and laughing at how they miss it, which is totally what

I want to do, I read it and I'm like, that's hilarious.

They missed it. Instead of just laughing at them, I want you to

stop and consider areas in your own life where you might have had the same

kinds of mindsets or the same kind of thoughts. Where have we missed it

to? Where are some of the things we've had the same kinds of mindset

the disciples did? Times where we have put ourselves in the place of being

greater than others, or maybe even sought off for the goal of being better

than others. You guys, ready to get into this. Finally you got

your mouth guards in. Listen. If you don't feel beat up after breeding

texts like this, you're not actually doing the hard work of trying to apply

the text to yourself, because it's impossible not to feel beat up when you

read it and try to apply it. Every time we open God's Word,

we should be praying that God, the Holy Spirit, who is in us

as blood. Believers say that three times fast, God the Holy Spirit would

use it to correct and conform us more into the images of Jesus. Okay

Luke chapter nine, Starting in verse forty six, an argument started among the

disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their

thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. Then he

said to them, whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me,

And who who ever welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me. For

it is the one who is leased among you all, who is the greatest

master. Said John, we saw someone driving out demons in your name,

and we try to stop him because he's not one of us. Do not

stop him, Jesus said, for whoever is not against you is for you.

As the time approached for him to be taken up into heaven or taken

up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem, and he sent messengers

on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him.

But the people there did not welcome him because he was heading for Jerusalem.

When the disciples James and John, saw this, they asked, Lord,

do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?

But Jesus turned and rebuked them. Then he and his disciples went to another

village eleven verses. There's a lot in there, and we're going to get

to it all. But you see those three different moments who were talking talking

about You see the disciples arguing over who's going to be the greatest. It's

the first one. The second one is you see them try to stop someone

from driving out demons in Jesus name, And that third one was you see

them trying to call down fire to destroy the Samaritans or some of the Samaritans.

All three times, Jesus corrects them, they were focused on their own

greatness, their own greatness over each other, over others who were on the

same exact mission they were on, and over others, over others that they

would have considered their own enemies, the Samaritans. But it all started with

them arguing over the first thing, which was who would be the greatest.

And this response is literally right after Jesus finished telling them, I'm not going

to be with you forever, He's like, I'm not going to be here

forever, and they start arguing over who would be the greatest. So let's

look at that. For those first couple verses, an argument started among the

disciples as to wish of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their

thoughts, he took a little child and had him stand beside him. Then

he said to them, whoever welcomes this little child in my name, welcomes

me, and whoever welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me, For

it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest.

So this is while they're walking on the road, the disciples start to argue

over who would be the greatest and the can you go back to the next

or the one before that? They were arguing which of them would be Those

are two very key words in this verse. Who would be the greatest?

They all knew Jesus was the greatest, that's obvious. Anyone who would say

otherwise is just flat out wrong. And none of them would agree, would

agree with that person. They knew that Jesus was the greatest. But if

Jesus was going to be taking off, who's the next greatest, who's next

in line? Maybe they're trying to figure out who the new leader was gonna

be, who's in charge when Jesus is gone, who's taken over, who's

leading this band of of brothers when Jesus is gone. Well, obviously to

them it would be whoever was the strongest, or not just the strongest,

the greatest. It was whoever's the greatest. And if you read the account

of this event in mark nine. We're not going to turn there. I'm

just going to reference it. Jesus asked them what they were arguing about on

the road, and they all kept quiet. Once they arrived with their destination,

they all kept quiet. They didn't say anything. Jesus like, what

are you guys arguing about? And none of them said anything, probably because

they were embarrassed. Knew they shouldn't have been arguing over something kind of silly

like that. But Jesus can read minds, and he knew their thoughts,

so he knew what they were arguing about. And he used it as a

teaching moment, and he brings a child to stand beside him and teaches them

a very important message. Let's look at verse forty eight again. Then he

said to them, whoever welcomes this little child in mind name, welcomes me,

And whoever welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me, For it

is the one who is least among you. All who is the greatest among

you? It's the one who's least among you. You're all fighting over who's

the greatest, But the greatest is the one who's least. It isn't a

race to the top. It's a race to the bottom. Jesus didn't use

a strong warrior to show who was the greatest. I'm thinking about the colisseum.

Still. He didn't use a confident leader. He didn't use a proud

politician. He didn't even use one of the religious leaders of the days of

the day, like a pharisee, a lawyer, or one of the experts

of the law. No, he used a child, someone they would have

viewed as the least or the weakest, or the most helpless. If you

want to be great, then be like this child, Jesus said. Now,

just to clear something up, I'm telling us this, be child like,

not childish. Be child like, not childish. I mean, what

does that mean. We all know what it means to be childish, throwing

fits, being selfish, being petty. That's something we don't usually ascribe to

children. We absolutely ascribe that to adults, and it is absolutely childish to

be petty. We need to be child like, to humble ourself to a

place of complete dependence and reliance on someone other than ourself. Complete dependence on

someone other than ourself. Is that the kind of faith that we have in

Jesus. Do we trust him like that. To be childlike or to have

childlike faith is to have total trust in God for everything, everything, in

the same way that we had trust in our parents or our guardians growing up.

I think about my boys. They're thirteen and eight. They never question

of Jesse and I care for them. They're concerned if their needs are gonna

be met. They trust us wholeheartedly. They don't wonder where their next meal

will come from. They're not worried if they're going to have a warm bed

to sleep in. They aren't stressing out over having clothes to wear. Those

are things that we might stress out about, but in the way that they

trust us wholeheartedly, not worrying about those things, the way we should trust

in the Lord to care for those things. The same exact way is that

the way I am with God, who says to seek first and his kingdom

and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. What

is all these things? What were they concerned about? Do you remember?

What am I gonna eat? Where am I gonna live? What am I

gonna wear? It's the bare necessities of life. Don't even worry about those

things. He will take care of him. If you seek His kingdom and

his righteousness. Am I childlike in that way that I humble myself and trust

in God for everything. To sit down and be humble, because that is

what it means to be great in the kingdom of God. The disciples are

arguing over who's the greatest, and Jesus says, none of you, None

of you you want to be the greatest? Be like this child. We're

in a race to the bottom, not a race to the top. Who

can be the most reliant on God? And then you continue in the verse

and Jesus says, in that race, rather than rejecting and competing for greatness

against each other, when we welcome and accept the least among us among us?

Okay, I, let's bring it to the present tents, when we

welcome and accept the least among us in Jesus name. We're welcoming Jesus.

But it's not only that. What else did he say? Who else is

he welcoming? Are we welcoming the one who sent Jesus, God the Father.

It's not just welcoming Jesus. We're also welcoming God the Father. So

don't do what the disciples did and fight over who would be the greatest among

each other. Instead, we need to humble ourselves and be childlike, not

childish. Amen, let's keep moving now. John's going to say something to

Jesus, and I thought maybe he's trying to take the pressure off of them

for their embarrassing argument they've been having. But John pipes up and he tries

to point Jesus' attention on something else. So let's look at verses forty nine

and fifty. Master said, John, we saw someone driving out demons in

your name, and we try to stop him. Because he's not one of

us. Kendrick fans, do not stop him. Jesus said, for whoever

is not against you is for you. John and the disciples tried to stop

someone who is casting out demons in Jesus name. But Jesus tells them not.

What's his point, though, What's he trying to get the disciples to

truly understand here by rebuking them in this way? And I'd kind of boil

it down this way that his point is not us does not equal against us.

Not us does not equal. I probably should have put that on the

screen, but I didn't. Not us does not equal against us. There

are only two teams when it comes to the Kingdom of God, those who

are a part of it and those who are not a part of it.

And I have a quote from John MacArthur. He says it this way.

There is no middle ground between truth and error. There is no middle ground

between truth and error. You are either right or you are wrong, there's

nothing in between. There are those who are in Christ and those who are

not in Christ. So if there are others out there doing the same work

the disciples are doing in Jesus' name, then they're on the same team.

There's no reason for them to be stopped, there's no reason to oppose them.

But I think what's actually going on right here in this moment is we're

seeing what's in the heart of the disciples at the time. And not only

that, but I think it actually reveals what sits in the heart of us

at times. The Disciples aren't an alien type of people. They're just dudes

like we are. So what they're struggling through are the things that we're finding

revealed in their hearts are the same kinds of things we can find revealed in

our own. The disciples had in us versus them mindset they viewed themselves as

the only ones who should be doing the Lord's work. How arrogant is that

to think that, to think that they were the only ones that God would

use. But let's bring it home where in our lives we fall on the

same type of mindset or the same type of thought process. Where do we

think, I put it this way, where we're the only ones who are

doing it right, or we're the only ones who've got it all figured out,

or where do we start to have this us versus them mindset? All

of your pastors get together and love to have good, deep theological conversations.

We love the Bible. We wrestle over what the Bible says, and we

wrestle over what God meant by what he said, and then we come to

some very strong conclusions. But if we aren't careful, we can easily fall

into the temptation of starting to view people who don't arrive at the same conclusion

differently that if they come to a different conclusion, we say, ah,

well they ain't got it figured out. We got it figured it out.

We start to view them differently. And I'm not just talking about other individuals.

Could be other churches, It could be entire denominations. We can start

to view them in the same way the Disciples viewed this other man driving out

demons as someone who is not with us. So what is why am I

saying all this? What is my point? Well, actually, I think

what is Jesus point in this is this, don't stop a battle buddy from

accomplishing the mission. Don't stop a battle buddy from accomplishing the mission. Jesus

straight up said, whoever is not against you is for you. So that's

how you know who your battle buddies are. They're the ones who are not

against you. We're all on the same team, We're all in the same

exact mission. We are trying to accomplish the same goals. So we shouldn't

be trying to oppose them or stop them. We shouldn't be viewing them as

the enemy. We shouldn't be viewing them as less than or someone who hasn't

got it figured out. We need to view them as our battle buddies.

And as a side note for the record, I'm not talking about open handed

issues. I'm talking about close handed issues. Open handed issue is something that

in scripture might be a little less clear cut. It's more open for debate.

But if someone comes to you saying there's another way to be right with

God other than putting faith in Jesus, that's a close handed issue. Or

as Paul puts it, if someone comes to you preaching another gospel, they

are not on the same team. Just throwing that out there. So we're

talking about open handed issues here, not close handed issues. Does that make

sense you, guys? Tracking with that? Cool? So far, we've

talked about how the disciples fought amongst themselves, arguing over who is the greatest,

So at the closest relationship level, because these guys are close, they

were pridefully trying to order themselves over each other. And then we saw how

they tried to elevate themselves above others who were on the same exact mission that

they were on. They acted like they were the only ones who should be

doing Jesus mission. And in both of these situations, Jesus corrects the disciples.

He corrects their prideful way of thinking and puts them on this path toward

humans or towards a humble way of thinking. So let's take a look at

the last section of scripture for today, and there's a little bit of history

that we're going to cover. But it's not a lot, but we're going

to see the disciples turn up the heat and how they want to deal with

people they view as enemy, as enemies or the opposition. And we've read

it so you know what's coming. Let's read the last chunk of scripture.

As the time approached for him to be taken up into or taken up to

Heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem, and he sent messengers on ahead

who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him. But the

people there did not welcome him because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the

disciples James and John saw this, they asked, Lord, do you want

us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them? But Jesus turned and

rebuked them. Then he and his disciples went to another village. Dang James

and John. They actually wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy a

Samaritan village because they wouldn't welcome Jesus. I mean, I love Jesus,

but maybe they I don't know. Their love turned into something a little bit

more than I would have ever imagined. I think about wipe someone else off

the face of the planet just because they didn't welcome Jesus. But James and

John are the sons of Zebedee. They were also called bow and air Jase.

Do you know what bowen air Jase means? Nailed it? Sons of

Thunder. Okay, so maybe the call down fire thing makes a little bit

more sense if these dudes are known as the sons of Thunder, and the

way this verse reads it almost kind of seems like they had the actual ability

to do it, which I think is crazy. Like, Jesus, you

want us to take care of those guys real quick for you, as if

they could do it, It's crazy to me. So they're trying to destroy

the Samaritans. But who are the Samaritans, the ones who weren't welcoming to

Jesus. Well, the Samaritans were part Jew but not full Jew. The

Jews and the Samaritans didn't get along because the Jews viewed Samaritans as less than

because they were mixed with other ethnicities, they weren't pure Jews. And because

they weren't pure, they didn't or they weren't allowed to worship in the same

temple. They weren't allowed to worship the Lord in the same temple. The

Samaritans didn't accept Jerusalem as the proper place for the Temple to worship God,

which meant that they rejected that temple and anyone who would worship there. Well,

Jesus resolutely set his face and his direction to Jerusalem, so it makes

sense why the Samaritans would reject him rather than welcome him. I mean,

it makes sense to me. Is that makes sense to you guys? Jesus

like, I'm gonna go to Jerusalem. They're assuming to go worship the Lord

at the Temple in Jerusalem, and the Samaritans are like, we reject you

because we reject that temple and everything. Basically there you own. There's your

super MANI history lesson. It wasn't painful, wasn't it. That's easy?

So Verse fifty one one tells us that during this time we have first fifty

one up there can we go back one slide as the time approached for him

to be taken up into heaven. So it's getting closer to the time of

jesus death, burial, and resurrection, and he is turning his journey toward

Jerusalem sends those messengers ahead of him. To get ready for everything, and

he was rejected by the Samaritans. James and John go a little crazy,

as they're sons of thunder Ways and they want to wipe the village off the

map, but Jesus rebukes them. God has been saying since the prophet's way

back in the Old Testaments, a really long time. He's been saying that

his salvation is not for the Jews alone, that it's also for the gentiles.

And that same message is echoed obviously all throughout the New Testament. We

read it and preached it and teach it all the time here. So where

the Disciples or most Jews might think that the Samaritans are nobody's someone that they

can just burn to a crisp, Jesus rebukes them because they're not a less

than people. No, they're not a less than group of people. They're

just like all of us. Jesus rebuking James and John for thinking that they're

better than the Samaritans and wanting to destroy them. They are not the enemy

who is the enemy, Satan. Satan is the enemy. He's the enemy

who roams about like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. That's who

our enemy is is Satan. I have the band come up, please.

And if we stop and take a look at the root of the disciples problem,

if we look at all three examples that we've kind of talked about in

the text today, at the root, we're gonna find a simple sinful thing,

and that's pride. Find pride at the root of all of it.

Pride is arrogance. It's thinking more of yourself than others. Pride is elevating

yourself, elevating yourself above everybody. Pride says I can meet my needs better

than you can God. Pride puts us in the position of power, puts

us in the position of authority. Pride says I would make a better God,

and I know better. Sometimes we don't think about it like that.

We just think pride's just like, oh, I'm proud of something. But

no, if it's an elevation of self. At the root of probably all

of our sin is pride. I can meet my needs better than you can

God. That's why we steal things. So we lie because we're impatient.

Oh, we don't think God's going to meet our needs, so we take

needs into our own hands. I think of Abraham and Sarah. God promised

them that their descendants will be numerous as what stars the sand on the shore,

that they would have un accountable descendants. Abraham and Sarah didn't have a

kid for a while, so what did they do? Sarah said to Abraham

or Abram, why don't you sleep with my maid servant? And they had

another child, not the child of the promise. They took matters into their

own hands, pridefully, thinking I can meet my needs better than you can.

God. You promises, But don't worry, God, I got it.

I can't think of a more prideful thing than thinking I don't trust you

God, I will take care of it. So with the root of pride,

it's I think I would make a better God. Pride is what caused

the disciples to argue over who would be the greatest. Pride is what caused

the disciples to think they were the only ones who should be casting out demons.

Pride is what caused James and John to think that the Samaritans should distroy.

Pride is not a virtue. Pride is not something to be celebrated.

Pride is a sin to be repented of, to turn away from, and

to just make pride worse. I have another quote from John MacArthur. Pride

promotes exclusivity, but humility promotes unity. So we're talking about this contrast between

pride and humility. Right, Pride, I think I'm better than everyone else,

which puts everything in competition, which pushes us farther apart. Well,

on the other side of that is humility. We are as Christians, we're

called to be unified. We're supposed to live in unity with one another.

Pride is just going to push us farther apart, causes separation and division,

but humility draws us closer together. If I can humble myself and start to

encourage you and build you up. We all want to be around people who

encourage us. It brings us closer together, to humble ourselves, realize it's

not about us, and to build somebody else up. So I think the

resounding point from the text today is sit down and be humble. I think

that's what Jesus was saying on repeat as he kept correcting the disciples. I

think it's the same message that we need to hear over and over again in

our own lives, to sit down, be humble. We're not that big

a deal. It ain't about us. God opposes the proud, he mocks

the mockers, but he shows favor to the humble and the oppressed. That's

first Peter five and Proverbs three. God opposes the proud, but shows favor

to the humble. And Jesus didn't only teach about humility, he also modeled

it. He is the perfect example of humility. No one went from a

higher place to a lower place than Jesus. Look at Philippians chapter two.

Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any

comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the spirit, if any

tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like minded, having

the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing

out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others

above yourself, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to

the interests of the others in relationships with one another. Have the same mindset

as Christ Jesus. And here we go see in the humility side that he

modeled who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to

be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking

the very nature of a servant, going from God to the flesh of man.

In contrast, in comparison, that is, to make yourself nothing by

taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being

found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself by being obedient to death,

even death on a cross. Humbling yourself to death is one thing.

The word excruciating comes from the word crucifixion. Death on a cross is a

whole different kind of dying. I make the kind of joke like, I'm

not afraid of death. I'm afraid of dying. That process doesn't sound very

cool. I can't wait to be face to face of Jesus. He humbled

himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore God

exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every

name, that at the name of Jesus, every niece should bow in heaven

and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue of knowledge that Jesus

Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. This is the model

that we're supposed to follow to end our own pride and humble ourselves, just

like Jesus, who humbled himself to the point of being un undeservingly crucified on

our behalf. He didn't deserve to die, and he chose to willingly lay

his life down for us that all who look to the sun, all who

look to Jesus and believe, will receive eternal life. That's because of the

sacrifice that he did. Without jesus sacrifice, our sin still rests on our

shoulders. Like the song We're Gonna sing anath not beneath, it's neath neath

a debt we could not bear. Is that how goes something like that?

It's we can never afford. We can never afford the debt that we are

under. That's the greg paraphrase of those lyrics. This debt we cannot pay.

Only Christ's blood can pay for it, and he willingly and undeservingly lay

down his life for us. But just like part of the rest of this

passage says, do I do things out of selfish ambition? Yeah? I

do? Should I know or do I value others above myself? Is it

all about me and what I want? It's a big challenge we drove up

to Seattle yesterday to go to some show for Jackson. I hate driving,

I hate traveling. I didn't nail it because I was grumpy a lot,

so I made it a little bit about me. Or do I look to

the interests of others? This is just a great chunk of texts just to

check on how you're doing on your own pride, Like am I elevating myself

above others? Or am I humbling myself like Christ humble to himself? So

we need to take a really close look at our life. Where do I

strive to be better than others? Or where do I just think I'm greater

than others, or I'm smarter than or I'm stronger than or I'm better than.

Where in my life do I need to remember that I'm just not that

big a deal. Where in my life do I need to humble myself and

serve others? So my challenge for you this week is when you catch yourself

thinking too highly of yourself or thinking that you're better than somebody else, I

want you to stop, collaborate and listen. I want you to stop,

and I want you to do something that serves someone else. And I think

this is how we actually fix the problem. It's not just stop the bad

behavior. It's stopped doing the bad thing, but do the good thing.

Don't do the wrong thing, but do the right thing. So stop in

that moment and think what could I do for someone that serves somebody else,

That could bless somebody else. Do something that shows them how awesome they are.

Do what Jesus did. He humbled himself and he served others. He

didn't come to be served, he came to serve. That's the model we

have. So we should humble ourselves and serve others. In other words,

sit down, be humble. Amen. Now I just told you to sit

down, Can you guys stand to your feet please,