How to Think of Yourself (Romans 12) | 4/19/2026

You for jumping back in and hey, welcome if you're watching

online, welcome to North Life Church this morning.

If you're watching online, know that we want to invite you to

come be with us in church. We are located at 115 E Main St.

which is the historical part of downtown Gaylord and the old

movie theater. And you can park right on the

Main St. in the side streets and find us.

Our services are 9 and 10:30 on Sunday mornings.

You're invited. We'd love to have you in worship

with us sometime soon. All right, if you have your

Bibles this morning or online, please take and turn them to

Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention Romans 12 · chapter mention

And know that notes are available on the back table.

If you'd like to grab those now or on your way out, they will

assist you in navigating through the message with me this

morning. Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

And while you're turning there, I'll let you know that again,

Jason, I and a few others from the church were in Dallas for

conference, had a really great time.

And then we were able to go visit some churches in the

Dallas area. And we're very inspired.

And one of the churches we went to, I want to tell you about and

encourage you towards his teaching.

The pastor of the church, we went to Lake Point Church, which

is outside of Dallas East in Rockwall, TX.

And the pastor's name there at Lake Point, his name is Josh

Howerton. And we were able to to be in

their service last Saturday evening, late afternoon.

It was really, I was very inspired.

But just check him out. Josh Howerton, Lake Point.

He has a podcast and I think his teaching is really admirable and

might inspire you. So we were great and inspired

last week being there. And then we went to a church in

Wiley on Saturday evening. And out of curiosity, how many

of you have heard of Anthony Evans?

Does anybody know Anthony Evans? Anthony Evans.

OK, good. I'm just curious how many of you

heard of Tony Evans? Tony Evans is a teacher, OK?

This is his son who's a singer, and him and I were in a band

together years ago, but he was on The Voice and some other

stuff. But we got to go see him in the

concert on Saturday night. And then how many of you have

heard of Priscilla Shear? Anyone heard of Priscilla Shear?

So that would be his sister. Interesting enough.

So Tony Evans daughter is Priscilla Shear.

OK, so we went and got to be in worship there and then we went

to Gateway Church on Sunday morning in in South Lake, which

is north of Dallas and had a very inspiring time there.

Also Chris Hodges spoke if you know who he is.

So I encourage you towards what's happening at those

churches and grateful that they poured into our team from North

Life last weekend. All right, if you have your

Bibles, Romans chapter 12 and Ben, I'm not going to read as

Romans 12 · chapter mention

much as I've read. I'll just read the first part of

this and then I'll get back to it later in the message.

But we're going to start with verse 3.

So Romans chapter 12, verse three.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

I have more. I have 3 through 6 on your

notes, but I'm just going to read the first part and we'll

come back to it later in the talk.

So starting in verse 3, the apostle Paul writes to the

church at Rome and he says, For by the grace given to me, saying

I have grace, the grace that I got.

I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly

than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each

according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

Paul is saying, do not think of yourself more highly than you

should or ought. So this morning I want to talk

to you about how to think of self, how to think of yourself,

how to think of self. Let me pray for us, Goddess, We

look to your word this morning. We do it as an act of worship.

We come with a Worshipful heart and a posture of reverence and

appreciation for the truth that you revealed to us through

Scripture. And now our hearts are open, our

minds are open. We're eager and ready to learn

how to grow in our in our view of self and in the culture that

we live God. So many people have just a

twisted view of themselves, some good, some bad.

And so help us as followers of Jesus to get how to view

ourselves in Jesus name. And everyone loudly together

said Amen. Now often, every so often, I

will kind of pivot from something that I was going to

teach and something will happen in the news in our country,

sometimes in another country. And as your pastor, sometimes

when there's something glaring that's going on in the week,

then I feel like for me to ignore it and not address it,

you know, because we don't live, I feel like for me not to

address it as a disservice to you as a, as a church.

So we don't live in a, in a vacuum, so to speak.

We don't live with our head buried in the sand.

We're aware of what's happening in the world around us.

OK, so this week there was a current event and some of you

will be unaware, some of you will be aware, but this current

event throughout the week maybe go, OK, I, I need to figure out

how to address this. OK, now this morning our worship

team and teams that are here volunteering, serving on Sunday

mornings. We always pray kind of right up

here on the stage in a circle at 8:00 AM on Sunday mornings.

Those who are serving from the coffee shop and sometimes

setting up the ushers and those who are in up in the tech booth

with video and lighting and and video with audio and other

things live streaming, then the musicians and the singer.

So, so we're here this morning. Maybe there were, I don't know,

12 or 15 of us at 8:00 and we were praying.

And I said, OK, how many of you knew this happened this week?

And there were a few were like, I didn't hear anything about

this. OK, so I'm aware that some of

you, you're going to hear about this for the first time from me.

OK, But let me explain to you what happened.

And I thought about having a picture of it, but I didn't want

to do that. And I'll tell you why in a

second. So this past week, President

Trump posted an AI generated photo of himself.

How many of you saw it? Anybody.

OK, How many of you did not see it?

Wave at me if you did not. OK, good.

Very good. Some of you didn't see it.

OK, so and good for you because right, You're, you're, you're

you, you missed it, right? So what was the what was the AI

photo? The AI photo was President Trump

in like this white robe with kind of this red sash and he was

in a, in a kind of a collage of like people that were around him

on his side, like nurses and soldiers and others.

And then behind him, I think it was like the White House.

And there was a sky with initially understand the this AI

generated photo initially had like like soldiers in the sky

and like jets and stuff. But somebody, whether it was

President Trump or someone else, altered it to where it looked

like they were heavenly beings, almost demonic characters behind

him in the sky and in front of President Trump in the AI

generated photo was a man who appeared to be sick, like in a

stick bed. And President Trump was like had

his hand on him. And then in his hand it was like

these rays of light coming out and it was glowing.

Okay, so that paints the image for you.

I don't want to put it in church this morning or in your notes.

So, so I mean, there was outcry and ironically, often you have

like the right conservative side and they get mad about something

and they get loud. And then often you get the left

liberal side and they get loud about something.

But rarely do you ever have an instance where both sides are

upset. And I must say this week both

sides were upset. It was a curious thing.

It was like a rare occasion, man, the left and right are

together on this right. And so people those who some

people are like, this is heresy. And right now President Trump is

kind of in a bit of a spat with the Pope.

I don't want to go into that. This is in fact, this is not

going to be a political message. This is all going to go

somewhere. But so he's in a spat of it with

the Pope. And so people were like, this is

heresy. This is wrong.

And so you had religious leaders crying out for him to remove the

post and he did. Then ironically, you had some

who were like, well, you know, it's, it's just tacky.

It's incredibly tacky. And I think it was tacky.

Was it heresy? I don't know, but then some over

here thought, you know, look how he views himself.

Is he a Messiah? He views himself as the Messiah.

He views himself as Jesus. People on the left and the right

were upset about it. I will tell you my take on it is

that 79 year old people should not be online posting AI photos,

right? No offense if you're 79, OK, if

you're 79 years old, but there should be a limit right at a

certain like they should take your driver's license away,

right at a certain age, driving AI generated photos on the

Internet. So he's too old to be doing

this, in my opinion. OK, so it just raised the hubbub

and people are upset and and you can think what you think.

Again, this is not a a message about politically what you know,

is he right? Is he wrong?

But what happened to me this week is that to me, the biggest

towel and President Trump posting this and he's the

ultimate troll. I understand that.

And he's got a sense of humor. I understand that.

But my question this week was the bigger issue is insight into

how President Trump thinks of himself.

How does he view himself? And maybe he and you know, he

was by the way, he was asked about it by reporters, you know,

why are you posting yourself as Jesus in this image?

And he said, well, he didn't think it was Jesus.

He thought was a physician, right?

And he said I like, you know, I want to see people healed.

So he thought himself a physician in it.

I don't know. I don't maybe I don't know.

I don't I, I didn't pay enough attention to really ever get to

the bottom of it. I just paid attention enough to

go. This could be his view of

himself. So then what's interesting to me

is it begs the question then how do I think of myself?

How do I view myself? Paul says do not think of

yourself too highly. And we're going to look at a lot

of other things this morning in Scripture when it comes to

viewing ourselves. But if it enraged you or enraged

somebody else that President Trump thinks this of himself, I

just wonder sometimes I think people can tend to project anger

that they have it themselves onto others.

And what do I mean by that? There's a principle in

psychology where sometimes when you have anger at yourself for a

certain flaw or inadequacy, when you see it in others, then you

become very upset and enraged. Parents have to be very careful

about this because often we give our flaws to our kids, right?

Right. They have the same hanging UPS

often that we have. And maybe you've not dealt with

it in your own life. So then when you see it in your

kids, if you're not careful, you can become really upset at your

kids for the same flaw that you have, right?

You know, this is a thing, right?

Projection. So when it I was not that

bothered, I mean, I was like, you know, it's tacky.

And again, he's age 60 or 79, probably not a good idea to be

doing this at 79, but because your filter, you know, his

filter gets a little, I think cloudy at that age when it comes

to these types of things. So, but my, my question was if

it really bothered people, then is it because maybe they have

kind of a, an odd view of themselves and I kind of want to

wade in with that. So that's the premise this

morning. I just begged the question, how

do I think of myself? And how should you think of

yourself? How should you view yourself

when it comes to being a follower of Jesus and living in

light of the crucifixion, the death, the burial, the

resurrection of Jesus and now grace that comes from God?

Paul says in light of the grace that I've been given, he's

saying to people, don't think of yourself too highly.

And so I want to unpack what Paul means by that.

And I want to connect it to a whole bunch of other scriptures

this morning to to then again. So the issue to me is not him

posting this. The issue to me is like it begs

the question in my own life and in your life, how should we view

ourselves in light of our relationship with Jesus?

Now, another thing that happened in the news this week, maybe you

saw this, is that some people came out and like, look at

Trump, President Trump. He's comparing himself to Jesus.

You know, he's looking like Jesus.

And people got talking heads on TVI saw some people said Jesus

would never even claim to be the Messiah.

Jesus didn't. He didn't say he was God.

Jesus was humble. Jesus was humble and he would

have never promoted himself. And I'm like, you're full of

something because it's not true. Jesus certainly, certainly,

certainly over and over and over again said that he was the

Messiah. And he walked in humility, yes,

but the humility in Jesus did not look like, well, he didn't

know who he was. Jesus knew who he was and that's

what got him killed. And it was his plan all along.

That was his plan to boldly proclaim who he was.

Now, early on in this ministry, when he would do miracles, He

would tell people, don't go tell anybody about this yet because

it wasn't time yet. But eventually the time is going

to come for him to sacrifice himself for us, and he's going

to sacrifice himself for us as the reason they're going to take

him out is because he knew who he was.

So let me show you because if you heard people this week say

Jesus was humble, he never said he was God.

He never said he was the Messiah.

They're wrong. OK, so watch Jesus John chapter

5 verses 52 to 59. Jesus is having a bit of a spat

with the religious leaders. And Jesus did have spats with

those who were prideful and had a wrong view of themselves.

They thought themselves better than others.

They viewed themselves too highly.

And how does Jesus respond to people that view themselves more

highly than they should? Watch this 52 The Jews said to

him. Now we know that you have a

demon. Why?

Because he healed people, the only people.

And watch what he's going to say.

He's talking about Abraham. And they said the people said

Abraham died, as did the prophets.

Yet you say if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.

Right now Abraham died. Abraham died, but Jesus is

talking about the resurrected Abraham.

He will live eternally. And they don't like it.

And they said to Jesus, are you greater than our father Abraham

who died and the prophets died? Who do you make yourself out to

be? They're upset about who he

thinks he is. And Jesus answered, If I glorify

myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies

me, of whom you say He is our God.

But you who have not known him, I know him.

But you who have not known him, he says, I know Him.

If I were to say that I do not know Him, I would be a liar like

you. But I do know him, and I keep

his word. Watch this.

You might think that Jesus was nice all the time.

No, he wasn't in this occasion. He's like, you're a liar.

If I said I'd if I said I'm not God, then I'd be lying.

If I said I didn't know the father, I'd be lying.

I'd be like you liar. And that's how he's talking to

them, right? So if you think Jesus was humble

and never said he was God, you're wrong and you think Jesus

was always nice, you're wrong because he was often very

pointed. Verse 56, he says your father

Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day.

He saw it and was glad. It's like Jesus saying Abraham's

been viewing this from that holding place where people were

and they could view what's happening.

That's another story. But but he's like Abraham's

seeing this and he said, I will glorify myself and my glory is

nothing. It is my Father who glorifies

me. I'm going to go down verse 57.

So the Jew said to him, you were not 50 years old.

And have you have you seen Abraham?

He's like they're saying Abraham lived thousands of years ago.

How can you claim to have seen him and watch what Jesus says

blessed you think that he wasn't proclaiming himself to be God on

the side? Jesus said to them truly, truly.

Whenever Jesus says truly, truly, it means this is

especially true. Everything Jesus says is true,

but this truly, truly means pay attention.

It's especially true. He says, I say to you before

Abraham was I am, before Abraham was I am.

And watch when he says this, when he says this.

So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid

himself and went out of the temple.

Jesus is saying, listen, before Abraham was I was, I am.

And why are they so enraged? Well, for one, he's saying I was

alive before Abraham. I was in existence before

Abraham. But also when Jesus says I am,

it's a nod. It's it's pointing back to

Exodus where God called himself, I am right.

The story is in Exodus chapter 3.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

It's the story of Moses when he's been in the wilderness for

40 years. Remember the first 40 years of

his life, he grows up in the court of Pharaoh and he is

royalty of sorts. But then he kills a Egyptian

soldier who is mistreating Jewish slaves, Hebrew slaves.

And so he, you know, he goes away in exile for 40 years.

And after 40 years of wandering in a wilderness like mountain

desert area, God comes to him. He's been a shepherd of goats

and the likes, and God comes from in a burning Bush and he's

going to tell Moses, go back to Pharaoh and tell him to let my

people go, Let the Hebrew slaves go free, right?

Watch. So that this is the story.

That's the context. So verse 14, then Moses said to

God, after God has said go back to Egypt, Moses said, if I come

to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your

father's has sent me to you. And they asked me, what is his

name? What shall I say to them?

And God said to Moses, I am who I am that great.

So what God says, what is my name?

We would say Yahweh. God saying my name is I am, I'm

everything, I'm all things, all I am, all powerful.

I am that I am. So when Jesus says I am, he's

giving himself the same name. That's why they stone him.

They're not, they're they're angry at him when he says he's

before Abraham. But when he says I am, they

become really enraged and they want to take him out.

They want to stone him. He's claiming to be deity.

Now, there's another occasion where there's kind of a similar

thing happens. This is when Jesus is in the

temple before the death of Lazarus.

OK, so if you remember the story in John, Jesus is in the temple.

Then Lazarus dies. He read.

He, you know, brings it back to life.

Then Jesus goes on to Jerusalem as crucified, buried,

resurrected, and then is with his disciples afterwards.

OK, so this is the context of that.

So John chapter 10, Jesus says I and the Father are one those who

John 10 · chapter mention

said Jesus didn't save us, God, they're wrong.

The Jews, when Jesus said I and the Father one the Jews picked

up stones to again stone him and Jesus answered them.

I've shown you many good works from the Father.

For which of them are you going to stone me, right?

I've healed this person, I've healed this person.

I've did this good teaching. I've done all these good things.

What are you stoning me for? The good works.

Well, they're stoning him because he says he's God.

I'm one with the Father. The Father and I are one.

Jesus knew who he was in Mark 1460 through 65.

Here's a story that says and the high priesthood.

This is after Jesus has been arrested, the night that he had

communion, the night he had community with his disciples, He

goes to pray, and while he's praying in the garden,

Gethsemane, they come and arrest him and they take him and he's

before a council or before trial.

And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, have

you no answer to make? What is it that these men

testify against you? They were testifying that he

claimed to be deity and they thought it was blasphemous, but

he remained silent and made no answer.

Again the high priest asked him, Are you the Christ, the Son of

the blessed? Are you the Messiah?

Are you God is what they're saying?

And Jesus said I am. And when he says I am, again

it's the same language that God used at the burning Bush with

Moses. He said, I am, and you will see

the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming

with the clouds of heaven. And the high priest tore his

garments and said, What further witnesses do we need, right?

He thinks Jesus is blasphemy. He says, you've heard his

blasphemy, blasphemy. What is your decision?

And they all condemned him as deserving death.

And some began to spit on him and to cover his face and to

strike him, saying and prophecy. And the guards received him with

blows. So those who want to adopt Jesus

as their example of humility and say he never claimed to be God,

they're totally wrong. They're totally wrong.

Jesus knew who he was and his plan all along was to sacrifice

himself for our forgiveness. But he knows who he is and him

proclaiming who he is is what leads to his death.

That's the story of Jesus. So as followers of Jesus, if

Jesus knew who he was, then it's beneficial for us to know who we

are also. So that with that in mind, let's

go back to Romans where we started, to Romans chapter 12,

Romans 12 · chapter mention

where Paul is giving to them instructions, the Church of Rome

on how they should view themselves.

Verse 3 For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among

you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to

think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the

measure of faith that God has assigned.

Now you should give thought to who you are and but he's saying

don't think too highly of yourself.

Don't inflate yourself. Don't make yourself more

important or more glorious than you actually are.

And when he's saying give sober judgement, it's it's it's it's

him saying, listen, give like understanding, grow in your

understanding of who you are. It's beneficial.

OK, Now this is not promoting low self esteem, but an

accurate, realistic view of your talents and your skills.

We know that the world around us is totally flawed in this,

right? So many people are just because

many people grew up getting like participation trophies, right?

Just because you participated, somebody inflated your view of

your skills or your talents. And you know, the old American

Idol, if you go back like 10 or 15 years ago, I mean, sadly,

like in a mean spirit, much of that show was people coming on

that actually thought they could sing.

Their view of themselves was inaccurate, right?

And so, I mean, the show, in my opinion, back then was kind of

mean spirited because you would put these people on who were

just terrible and their mother or their grandmother or somebody

convinced them that they could sing and they were terrible.

And you'd watch it mock and laugh.

It was mean spirited. OK, I appreciate that now that

the show seems different than that.

I don't I don't we don't have TV reception, so we don't get

American out. But I watch the highlights, you

know, so he they're not promoting a low self esteem, but

we're just promoting an accurate Paul is saying an accurate view

of who you are. And in our culture now, people

often have these inflated views of their importance because the

world around you will try to inflate your view of yourself

and you can miss it right terribly now.

But it's but also you're not intended to like think of

yourself as lowly and undeserving and scum.

And there's a wonderful hymn. I do it every year at Good

Friday. I try to do it at Good Friday.

The original version of it has a word that I've changed.

And this morning when we were in our circle, our prayer circle, I

asked the worship team if they knew the song.

And what I found out is that they were singing it with the

new evolution of words. So the song is at the cross.

Do you know the song at the cross?

It's like, alas. And did my Savior bleed?

And did my sovereign die? Do you know, sing it with me

that he would give himself away for such a worm.

Somebody said it right. The original version was for

such a worm as I right. So every year I like I update

that, you know, and it's one of there were some others.

There was a variety of updated evolutions of that song.

So I love that song at the cross, at the cross where I

first saw the light and the burden of my souls rolled away.

It was there by faith. I received my sight and now I am

happy all the day. I love the whole song.

I just don't like the worm part, right?

So I take the worm part out because that's not also to be

the view of ourselves. Not too highly, but not too

lowly. Not a worm, am I?

So you're wanting to find that sweet spot of where I am

accurately. What am I really like?

And that's where it takes being in relationship with others.

And my question to you, has anyone ever told you that maybe

you thought too highly of yourself?

When I was 30 years old, I'd been serving at Res Life, our

mothership church down in Grand Rapids for like 5 or 6 years.

And I was recruited to go serve at this church called Willow

Creek in the Chicago area as a worship leader, worship

director. And when I when I was, so I was

being recruited for a couple months and then basically I've

been offered the job and mostly said yes.

And we were just kind of in the process of tying up things at

the end. And then some somehow the, the,

the, the staff and the leaders of the church had forgotten

that. Oh yeah, we forgot.

There's another part of the process that we didn't do.

And that was that I was supposed to have an elder interview.

So with the board of directors or the board of the church,

there was, I was supposed to have an interview with two of

the people on the board. And so by then it already been

like 3 months. And the leaders that were

recruiting me, if you will, they just forgot.

OK. But I think the, I think the,

some on the board were like, hey, we're supposed to be part

of this process, right? And so kind of last minute I was

like, oh, they said, oh, we want you to have an interview.

And interesting enough, it was two women and one was an

attorney and they love the Lord, I'm sure.

And whether the other was, I don't remember.

But but what was interesting is that I, I didn't realize that

they were a little bit put off because they've been left out of

the process. OK, so I went into the interview

and I was pretty confident by this point.

I mean, it looked like that I was going to be offered this

job. So I'd go into the interview and

somehow I must have come across as viewing myself more highly

than I ought. So one of the women who's

probably in her 50s, I was 30 at the time, she kind of leaned

forward and she was like, you think too highly of yourself.

And when she said it, like part of me was like, OK.

And I thought, well, maybe maybe I do.

Or, or maybe you're, maybe you're upset that the process

went awry. But I'll tell you, it messed

with me for a while and it but it, but it made me look and go.

I mean, I'm 30 years old and I'm still growing.

And I was aware that even in my younger years, sometimes when I

was insecure. And maybe you're like this when

you're insecure and you're unsure of who you are, then

maybe you could try to mask it with, with an air of confidence.

And so maybe in this interview, in my attempt at covering things

that I was insecure about, maybe I maybe I like an animal that

will kind of swell itself up, right, right.

An animal. So maybe I swelled myself up a

little bit. And in doing so, maybe I did

come across thinking of myself more highly than I ought to.

And I must tell you, my parents are probably watching now and my

parents are wonderful and they might remember this.

And this is compared to that. This is kind of light hearted.

But I had this in my background when I was like 15, man, when I

was 15, my poor parents, I wasn't on drugs and I wasn't

like getting arrested or anything, but I was just

difficult. And I was mad at some things in

the world and, and my family and, and I love Jesus and I was

involved in youth group and I was as a worship leader already

at 15 years old. But, but I was just mad at some

things in my parents lives. And, and we'd moved a couple

times and, and I was unhappy about that.

And so I was just an ornery 15 year old.

And I remember my parents would say to me sometimes they were

like, we don't know who you think you are, but you're not

who you think you are, right? Because at 15, I was on, I was

rebellious and I was, I was, you know, just fighting against my

parents, right? And so I kind of had that in my

history. So when these women said to me,

you think too highly of yourself, I had to really

wrestle and go, well, maybe I do or or maybe I and covering my

insecurity and my feeling of inadequacy with a false sense of

confidence. And so my question for you, that

is, where are some areas in your life where maybe you do think

too high of yourself? Or maybe there are areas where

you really don't and you're insecure.

But if you're not careful and unaware, maybe you'll put this

air of confidence on that is a false sense of who you really

are. So this is when Paul saying,

don't think too high of yourself.

It really, I mean, this is a big issue in our lives because it

can inhibit your relationships and your success in so many

areas of your life. So that means you want to get a

good view of yourself, right? So watch this, I have this, I

came up with this idea some years ago when I was teaching

worship leaders years ago, I would teach workshops and teach

worship leaders and I would say, hey, when you leave worship,

there's this fine sweet spot that you're looking for.

On the one hand, you don't want to get up in front of people

insecure and you don't want to get up in front of people and

have this air about yourself where people will root for you.

And what do I mean by that? Parents, those of you who had

kids in sports, let's say you have a 7 or 8 or 10 year old or,

or a high school student, when you go to their games, there's a

part of you're leaning forward when your kids are little and

they're playing sports and you're, this is what you're

saying, even though you might not know you're saying this,

you're saying I hope they do good.

I hope they do good. Oh, I hope they do good.

I hope they do good. Right, Right.

You can relate this. You're leaning forward.

It's like, oh, I'm hoping they do good.

And they're up there and they're awkward, right?

And they're at a funny age. I hope they do good.

OK, That's you rooting for them. When I get up to teach the Bible

or to lead worship, I don't want you to be sitting there going,

oh, I hope he does good. I hope he does good.

I hope, I hope he does good. No, I want to get up and I want

to have confidence and I want to like, I want to lead with such

confidence that you're not even thinking about those who are

leading, right? Like you don't even notice us.

It's like we want you to just get lost in worship and it's you

and God and you're connected, right?

But then on there's another side.

And sometimes I call it the dig me vibe.

OK, and what is the dig me vibe? I think sometimes worship

leaders or pastors or teachers, they can get up in front of

people and when they play and when they sing, there's this

kind of this thing. It's like, check me out, dig me,

dig me. And I'm like, oh, that's not

good either. That's worse than root for me,

right? So what you want to do in this,

apply this in your own life. It's like, OK, in your job, in

your parenting, whatever your roles are, if you come with a,

if you come with a lack of confidence and you haven't

thought of yourself highly enough, right?

Maybe you think of yourself as a worm.

So you come and you're like, oh, man, I'm just so unsure of

myself. People will sense that.

And it's hard to follow someone that's terribly unsure of

themselves. So you want to have enough

confidence where people aren't rooting for you.

And then you want to then to be humble at the same time where

it's not like dig me, right? Because that's icky and gross,

right? So you want to find the balance.

So when Paul says don't think of yourself too highly of yourself,

he's like, you should think of yourself.

You should ponder who you are. And now I'm going to go into

scriptures that give you like what you should think, right?

So if you should not think too highly of yourself, well, what

should you think of yourself? Well, I want to, I want to get

there right now because you want to focus on being and not not

being. I want to focus on not thinking

of myself about it. I don't think I want to think,

OK, what should I be thinking when I think of myself?

And what I want to tell you is that like there's a recipe for

what I should think of myself. It's not one verse.

You don't take one verse and make a doctrine of it.

Instead, I'm going to give you several verses and, and the

mixture of them is what's going to make it right.

And this is like any recipe, right?

You need this spice in it. They need this, this over here.

And when you put it all together, you get get the right

flavor that you're looking for and you're thinking about

yourself. I'm going to give you several

that you want to put into how you think about yourself.

All of them together, I think will lead you to a healthy view

of self. OK, you ready?

Here we go. 2nd Corinthians 517. Here we start.

Paul writes to the Church of Corinth.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The oldest passed away. Behold, the new has come.

When you think of yourself, if you're a follower of Jesus, then

you should think of yourself as a new creation, and you should

think of yourself as being in Christ.

This is the biggest theme that the apostle Paul writes about.

In fact, he mentions it 143 times.

He uses the term in Christ over and over and over again in

letter after letter. It's his like you can't miss it.

So when you read like Romans and Galatians, Ephesians,

Philippians, Colossians, the writings of Paul, Timothy, all

of those writings just understand Paul over and over

and over. He's just trying.

You can't miss it. He wants you to have your

identity most from being in Christ.

And identity is really an interesting thing because in the

culture in which we live, people are chasing after identity.

So This is why you might be drawn to a certain brand, right?

If you have this certain brand of purse or certain brand of

shoes. And often it's like, yeah, I

want to have, you know, certain shoes, like these shoes, man,

I'm in the orthopedic stage of life, right?

I need comfortable shoes, right? So these aren't necessarily

cool. It's like this guitar I'm

playing, right? It's no longer about looking

cool, right? Hopefully it never was.

But but it's like, I've got this really light little guitar.

I'm calling it my orthopedic guitar, right?

I don't have to get my arms out like this.

It's just all I have to do is light, just move my wrist.

I'm hoping. OK, so so but you can maybe you

chase your identities in shoes or clothes or a neighborhood

that you live in or a sports team, right?

The sports team that you follow some people and great to have

your sports jerseys, yes. But if it becomes your identity,

if you ever met someone that seems like man, the biggest

thing about their life is a sports team that they follow

brands or clubs. Maybe you join a certain club or

career, see people we have a God has designed us with a hunger

for identity, but it needs to be filled with us identifying as

being in Christ. It's the most important part of

our lives, more important than anything being in Christ.

So Paul goes after this over and over and over again.

So when you think of yourself, you should think of yourself as

being buried, resurrected and in Christ.

He says this in Galatians 2 verse 20.

Galatians 2:20

He says I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me and the

life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith and the Son of

God who loved me and gave himself for me.

The most important thing in your life is your faith in Jesus.

What you should think about most is your identity being found in

Christ. We've died to self.

We've been risen in Christ already.

That's the sign of baptism. Baptism is an outward

expression, what's already happened in us.

We have been buried and resurrected.

Now we identify as being in Christ.

OK, Now, if I'm going to build upon this recipe, then as I'm,

I'm in Christ. I'm a new creation.

Look at me. Yes, go.

So the thing you do is it'll taste.

The taste won't be quite right unless you add something like

this to the equation. Jeremiah 17, nine.

Now when I think about myself, what else do I think about

myself? Well, I think what Jeremiah

says. The hardest.

Deceitful above all things, and desperately sick.

Who can understand it? I live my life in Christ

understanding. I've been buried, resurrected in

Him. I look at myself.

I'm a new creation in Christ. But then also, I realized that

what I have to view myself as with an awareness that I have a

propensity for a heart that wants to deceive.

And the heart is deceitful. And so when we follow after our

passions, when we follow after our, you know, unfettered

desires and selfishness, then, yeah, we can miss our identity

of being in Christ. I'm in Christ, but aware that my

heart can go dark. And this is really important in

the life of Christians because I will tell you, like even in Nazi

Germany in the 1930s and 40s, a lot of the Nazis, interesting

enough were prior Christians and look how dark their hearts went.

I mean, the, the most horrible evil I've been to the Holocaust

Museum in Jerusalem. And it's man, I was offended a

bit by it when I went into the first time.

You kind of snake through it, so to speak, at the way you go

through it. And right at the beginning of

the Holocaust Museum, it was like pictures of Martin Luther

and the Crusades. And it kind of presented that

the Germans that were Nazis were Christians.

I'm like, I wouldn't think of them as Christians.

And yet when I only kind of studied it out, it's like a lot

of Lutheran's became Nazis. Why?

Because the heart is deceitful. And if you're not aware of it,

you'd be shocked at the evil that you can do within a lack of

an awareness of how deceitful the heart can be.

Now I don't want to just ponder right there.

I want to be aware of it. Now I want to tell you what else

about when I think about myself, what do I want to think?

Genesis 126 to 27. This is early in the story of

the Bible. This is at creation.

It says, then God said, let us make man in our image after our

likeness. He's talking about the Trinity

of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And he says, and let them have dominion over the fish of the

sea and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock,

and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps

on the earth. So God created man in his own

image, in the image of God. He created him.

Male and female, he created them, male and female, He

created them. Now this is what we call the

Imago day in ancient tradition and doctrine that we are.

Imago day is Latin for image of God.

When you think of yourself, it's it's healthy and right that you

think of yourself. I'm created in the image of God.

I'm created to be God like this is how God wired me and made me.

Why is this important? Because if you fall for the lie

that you evolved out of some slime in a pond somewhere 100

billion years ago, then you'll miss how you are created.

You didn't evolve from some monkey type of creature.

No, God crafted and created us in his image.

Created in his image. So when you think of yourself

and view yourself, you go, OK, I'm Imago day.

You can start your day saying Imago day.

I'm created to be like God. I also have that bend and that

propensity. And it's not just a positive

confession, but it's a sense of importance and value.

Now also I want to view others in light of this.

When I think of myself, I'm thinking, yes, I'm a created in

the image of God, but also I want to see others the same way.

And if you don't see others as creating an image of God, then

maybe you'll think too little of other people.

But would you value those who are the least of these created

in God's image? It will increase within you

mercy and love and generosity and compassion for others.

Now in light of this, in the same way in the New Testament in

Ephesians chapter 2, the apostle Paul says in verse 10, for we

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

are his workmanship like we're crafted artistically.

I even think and we're created in Christ Jesus.

Again here Paul, it says overriding theme in Christ Jesus

for what are we created for? For good works which God has

prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

When you think of yourself, you say I'm crafted by God

creatively, I'm his workmanship and I'm creating for good works.

Think of yourself in that way. I'm created to do good.

God lead me to good works. It's part of what my life should

look like. And when you think about your

the things that you work at, maybe you're proud of your work.

Maybe when you think of your work, you're like, this is my

workmanship and you're proud of it.

Or maybe you have a hobby or something.

But sometimes you create something, you step back and you

look at it and go, this is good. That's how God views us.

When you think of yourself, you can think of yourself in that

way. But to get a rounded view of

yourself, you also need to look at Romans chapter 3.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

Paul writes for all of sins and fall short of the glory of God

and are justified by grace as a gift.

So through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

When you think of yourself, it's okay and right that you are

aware that you are a Sinner, but some traditions will, in fact,

some traditions will have you pray over and over and over and

over again. Have mercy on me, Lord Jesus, a

Sinner. Have mercy on me Lord, a Sinner.

You pray that prayer over and over.

If you only view yourself as a Sinner, then it will be

incomplete. You say yes, I'm a Sinner and I

struggle with failure sometimes, but I'm justified through Christ

because if you just stick in that center part, you'll miss of

the right view of yourself. You yes, when you sin there's a

forgiveness of God and you're justified on both of those.

But be aware that you have ongoing things in your life that

you are going to need to lean into God until you take your

last breath. Be aware, but realize that

there's justification through Jesus.

All right, Also, when you think of yourself, look at this

Philippians chapter one, verse 6.

It says, and I am sure of this. It's like Jesus saying truly,

truly Paul's like I'm I'm writing all this.

But really I'm especially sure of this that he who began a good

work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus

Christ. When you fail, when your heart,

when you're aware, it's like, man, my heart can sometimes trip

me up. I'm a Sinner, I'm justified.

And then when you look at yourself, you go, but I'm in

process. God is like continuing the work.

And when you became a Christian, I mean, that was that was that's

a part of it. When I pray to lead people to

the Lord, I'm like God now show me.

And for some of you, it's like God is going to reveal things to

you lifelong that you were unaware of and he's going to

bring you to new levels in his process.

Some years ago I wrote a song and the idea of the song was

finished the work and the lyric was.

Someday in the twinkling of an eye will all be changed.

But for now, the change in us is day by day.

We won't sit and wait for you to appear when there's so much more

to do in us while we're here. And so my course was like finish

the work that you begun said it's obvious you're not quite

done, O Lord, finish the work in us.

The idea was like when I look at myself, God, it's obvious you're

still working. There's still a lot to do when

you got it's glaring, it's glaring.

So God finished the work. It's a prayer, but know that

you're in process and he, if you allow him to, he will keep

working you. And if you won't allow him to,

he'll still keep working you. It will just be more painful to

be aware of it and to welcome it is, I assure you, better adding

to the recipe. How should you think of

yourself? John 15 Jesus says this, Abide

in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit

by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless

you abide in me. I am the vine, and you are the

branches. Whoever abides in me and I in

him, He is He. It is that bears much fruit, for

apart from me you can do nothing.

This is a curious thought for Christians to have because

around you there are people who are not following Jesus and

they're breathing and they're doing things and sometimes

they're successful. Often they can be successful and

it can appear that that everything is going right, you

know, in their lives. But she's just a saying.

I think that apart from me, if you're not in the vine attached

to me, then the things that you accomplish eternally will end up

being pretty empty. But in me, when you when you

abide in me, it's like we're connected.

We're connected. Then things that are eternal,

yes, you can do things that have eternal Kingdom purpose and

eternally it will make a difference.

So when you live your life like it's a prayer, Jesus, here's how

I think about myself. Apart from you, I can do nothing

of value, nothing that has eternity in mind, no purposes

that will have Kingdom, eternal lasting impact.

So it's a prayer, Jesus, apart from you, this is how I view

myself. I can do nothing that is of

great value. Then Mark 10, here's another

part of the recipe. And Jesus called them to him and

said to them, you know, that those who are considered rulers

of the Gentiles lorded over them.

He's talking to his disciples. And here he's talking about

those who are ruling over them, who would have been the Romans.

They were lording over the the Jews.

OK. And he says this and they're and

they're great ones exercise authority over them.

So the the lower ranking ones have authority over us.

And then the ones that are really high-ranking will they

have authority over their own. But it shall not be so among

you. But whoever would be great among

you must be your servant. So Jesus is painting is like,

hey, look, you've got these Roman all the way up to the

Caesar. They're important.

They rule, they they dictate they they, they hover over Jesus

like, but not you. You're not going to be that way.

Whoever would be great among you must be your servant.

See, he's turned it upside down. Their view is like for us to get

power and throw the Romans out, we're going to have to do it

with authority and and world systems.

But Jesus is like the world systems are not going to work in

the system of the Kingdom. The economy of his Kingdom that

he's building is going to be that the servants are going to

be the ones that have the greatest eternal impact.

Verse 44 And whoever would be first among you must be slave of

all for even the Son of man cannot came not to be served,

but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

When you think of yourself, you should learn to think of

yourself as a servant, a slave to all.

I mean a slave has bad connotation.

It's unlike when Jesus was talking and the Roman system

slaves was not they were not treated as we as it has been the

last couple 100 years, which is of course horrible.

It was horrible in Jesus's day, but not as horrible.

OK, so Jesus it's OK for him to use slave of all.

It was different. So we look at his servants of

all Jesus is like you want to be the greatest in the Kingdom.

Think of yourself itself as a servant and the culture in which

we live. People want to be served.

We go to the restaurant that has the best service.

We go to the resort that has the best service.

We're all about being served. So when you go someplace, it can

be easy in our psyche in the Western, you know, the United

States in the West where we live, it's easy to get so

obsessed with being served that you forget that Jesus said, how

should you think of yourself? You should think about yourself

as a servant. How can you serve those around

you and your family and your church and your community and

your job? Even if your job is excelling

and your business is excelling, it's still from this man instead

of how can I serve others? That's how we should think of

ourselves. Philippians 2 Paul gives us

another thing to go on. He says in verse two, complete

my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, full

being in full accord. This is the little song I sing

to my kids all over. Make my joy complete by being

like minded. You know, I used it to raise my

sons particularly. And then he says this in verse

3. Do nothing from selfish ambition

or conceit, but in humility count others more significant

than yourselves in the Kingdom. How do you think of yourself?

Well, you think of others as more significant, more

important. I'm not.

I'm not the center of the universe.

It's not about me. And then Paul says, let each of

you look not only to his own interests, but also to the

interests of others. When your conversations are, are

you the center of the universe or are you, are you leaning in

and do you want to know more about others and their

interests? Paul's like man, you should be

about the interests of others, their needs, their wants.

Think of the interests of others, and then he goes on.

Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus,

who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality

with God a thing to be grasped. Instead, Jesus emptied himself

for seven by taking the form of a servant.

Being born in the likeness of man, Jesus emptied himself to

become a servant. If we want to be Christ like

that, our thinking should be the same.

In verse 8. And being found in human form,

he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,

even death on the cross. Therefore, God has highly

exalted him. And we stored on him the name

that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus, every

knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and

every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is the Lord.

For the glory of God the Father. Jesus is our ultimate example of

how we should view and think of ourselves.

He emptied himself for the sake of others.

He became a servant. And because of that, God lifted

him up. The Father exalted him and the

Father will do the same in our lives.

So let me give you application and tie this up.

This week's current events with President Trump.

You can get sucked into like the talking heads on TV and hear

people argue about it, but I wouldn't waste your time.

But it is I, I think it is a little nudge for us to look at

our own lives and self reflect on how I think about myself.

What's my view of myself. Jesus knew who he was.

He did, He was, he knew he was, got it, got him killed, and he

is our example. Ask yourself, how do you view

yourself? Too high, too low?

Do you? Do you understand that you are

in Christ? When you think of yourself, the

most important thing is that you are in Christ and that you're

made in the image of God. Yes, you're a Sinner, but you're

justified and God is in the process of working on you.

Welcome it and strive more than anything else to be a servant

for others as Jesus was. Let me pray for us, God, Thank

you for these truths, and thank you that we can lean into

Scripture to ready ourselves to just be more and more like you.

Jesus, That's our hope. And so for some of us, our view

of ourselves is too high. For some of us, it's too low.

So I pray that you would help us to find that sweet spot right

there in the middle where we can live our lives viewing ourselves

in a way that is glorifying to you.

Our spouses, our children, our church, our workplace, our view

of ourselves impacts all of those places.

God. So help us give us revelation.

I pray in Jesus name. And everyone said, hey man, hey,

before we leave, I do want to give just a quick moment to say,

if you've never accepted Christ as your Savior, I want to just

give you a moment to do that. You've never made the decision

to become a Christian. What does it take?

You believe in your heart and you confess with your mouth that

Jesus is Lord and then you shall be saved.

That's all it takes and some want to complicate and all you

got to do is to do No, no, the Bible says that believe in your

heart that Jesus is Lord and you shall be saved and then confess

it with your mouth. And then from there you want to

grow in the ways of God. And we as a church would love to

help you do that. But the first step to becoming a

follower of Jesus is surrendering your life and

saying, Jesus, become my Lord and Savior and grow me in your

ways. And with that, you get the

forgiveness, the mercy of God in your life.

And then our hope for you is that lifelong you chase after

him and eternity is born in you now.

So I'm going to pray, and I want to encourage you to pray with me

if you'd like to receive Christ as your Savior.

And then I want to encourage you to tell somebody, a family

member, you can e-mail me, say I've made the decision to follow

Jesus, and we'll talk to you about next steps.

Let me pray and you can echo this prayer.

Jesus, I come to you with an understanding that you are God,

you are Lord, and I welcome you to be the Lord of my life.

And I want to turn from my own sinful ways and I want to go

your way. So teach me your ways and come

and be the Lord of my life. So I want to die to myself

metaphorically, and I want to be resurrected in you.

And then I thank you that eternity.

I will have eternity with you. And you put eternity and purpose

in me. Now I receive it, and I receive

your Holy Spirit, Spirit of God, come and dwell in me.

Show me your ways as I grow in you in Jesus name and everyone

said Amen, Amen. Let's all stand together again.

If you made that decision to become a follower of Jesus, I

encourage you to tell somebody, tell me, reach out to someone

and we want to encourage you and your next steps and where you

could go from here. Before you go now, I want to say

a blessing over you. So if you'll prepare your heart

to receive this blessing, and now I may the Lord bless you and

keep you, and may he make his face to shine upon you.

And may the joy of the Lord that is unspeakable and full of

glory, may it abound to you. And may the peace of God that

passes all understanding, may it surprise you in the midst of all

of the challenges that life brings.

And then may the mercies of the Lord, in other words, the

forgiveness of God, that is new every morning.

May it be especially new to you now and your mornings to come.

And now may the Lord Jesus Christ guard your heart and your

mind. You are salt and you are light.

Go now and be salt and light into the world.

You are blessed. We hope to see you again soon.