Embrace Humility | Todd Jones

Like Kyle said, we get to hop into God's Word

now, we get to open the Word of God, we get to

together learn what God has for us this morning,

and I'm super, super excited about that. Recently,

my wife sent me to the store with a list of things

that I needed to get for her, and I don't understand

how this works, but every time I go to the store

to get a list of things for her, her phone stops

working. I don't know why, but it does. It stops

working completely. And so I was at the store

and I can't find this anywhere. I mean, I've

taken like 200 laps around the store. I'd looked

everywhere. I could not find the things that

she had sent me to the store to get. And so finally

her phone apparently started working again and

she called me back and she goes, what's going

on? You know, it's kind of taken a while. Like,

is everything okay? And I was like, yeah, I can't

find this stuff anywhere. I've looked everywhere.

And she said, well, have you asked anyone? I'm

like, of course I haven't asked anyone. Like

they're all working, they're busy. I'm not gonna

ask them, right? And here's the thing, if I were

to ask them where the thing is, then they might

think that I don't know where that thing is,

you know? And I'm like, I can't have that, right?

So I'm not gonna ask them. Some of you understand,

right? Because some of you, when you get new

furniture that you have to build, this is you,

right? You open it and the first thing you do

is you throw those instructions out because they

don't know what they're talking about. You got

it, right? And you're gonna put all 10 ,000 pieces

of that Ikea furniture together yourself. Like,

why do they do that? That's so overkill. They

don't need all those parts. I'm just saying,

right? Some of you, it's when you're cooking,

right? You make it and people start eating it

and they're like, this is interesting. Like,

did you, you know, was that in the recipe? And

you're like, there is no recipe. It's all up

here. It's all here. And they're like, oh, you

should have followed a recipe. You know what

I'm saying? Like, but here's the thing. I think

that many of us are limited by our inability

to embrace humility. I think many of us are limited

by our inability to embrace. I was coming back

from a trip recently with my family, and as we

were on the way back, you just got to know about

me. One of the things that I have is this incredible

sense of direction. If I go somewhere one time,

I can go there again no matter what. And so we're

headed back on the trip, and my wife goes, so

should I put it in the GPS to get back? And I

was like, I am the GPS. We got this. We start

driving, and all of a sudden as we're going,

things start looking a little different. I'm

like, I think we might have made a mistake here.

And I looked, and I missed the turn. That literally

added an hour and a half to our trip. I felt

so bad. I stopped at a store and told my kids,

I was like, you can pick out any candy you want.

Go for it, right? And I got a lot of kids. It

cost me like 10 grand. It was crazy. But listen,

here's the thing. With trivial things, our pride

gets in the way sometimes. Our inability to embrace

humility gets in the way. But even with real

things. I had a friend who sat down with me.

It's kind of like, hey, I want to point some

things out in your life that I think you need

to change. Maybe you're not aware of, and there's

things that you need to change. And right away,

I get defensive. I'm like, what are you going

to tell me? I'm a pastor. I know everything.

What are you talking about? I minimize the things

that are going on. I'm like, it's not that big

of a deal. You don't understand. It's not that

big of a deal. And what I do is I build a wall

against growth. My ego builds a wall against

growth. And I think yours does too. I think we

all find ourself in a place where without this

understanding of what humility is, we get stuck.

But I think that God has more for you. I think

God wants more for you. I think that you have

the potential to be a spiritual superstar. What

if God has this in you to be the spiritual superstar?

And what if, what if the way up is actually down?

We've been in this collection over the last couple

of weeks. We've been going through the book of

Galatians and Galatians is a letter from Paul

to the churches in Galatia. And what he's writing

to them, he's writing to them with a strict tone

of like, hey, you guys better get with it. You

guys got some issues going on. And the issues

that are going on that he's correcting is that

they are teaching to this church, you need to

be more Jewish than you need to be more like

Jesus. We understand that in this faith that

we call Christianity, we are following Jesus,

but they're saying, no, you need to start practicing

these Jewish practices in order to follow Jesus.

And Paul's going, I got to correct this. This

is not okay. And so he's writing this letter

with that tone to them. And as we see, he's going,

hey, I'm not just giving you this message out

of nowhere. It has a history to get to where

it's at right now. And so he starts walking through

the places that he's gone to learn this message

in order to give it. to them. And we saw that

last week. And then we pick it up here in chapter

two. We finally made it to chapter two. Here

we are in verse one. It says this, then 14 years

later, I went back to Jerusalem again, this time

with Barnabas and Titus came along too. I went

there because God revealed to me that I should

go. While I was there, I met privately with those

considered to be leaders of the church and I

shared with them the message I'd been preaching

to the Gentiles. He gets to them together and

goes, I wanna share with you the message that

I've been preaching. Why? Because it says this,

I want to make sure that we were in agreement

for fear that all my efforts had been wasted

and I was running the race for nothing. If the

message that I'm preaching is wrong, then I need

to know because there's not, for no, it doesn't

matter if I preach it if it's wrong. I need you

guys to help me here. And then he says in verse

three, and they supported me. and did not even

demand that my companion Titus be circumcised,

which is a Jewish tradition, even though he was

Gentile. You need to understand, Paul here is

a big deal. And we know that because we've read

the Bible and he's written most of the New Testament.

So we're like, yeah, he's a big deal. But even

back then, before the things that he had written

become canonized and became a part of the scriptures

that we read today, he was a big deal religiously

because Paul was born a full -blooded Jew. which

carries a lot of weight, not just a full -blooded

Jew, but he followed all the right things. He

was circumcised on the eighth day like they told

him he needed to be. He did the right things.

He was from the tribe of Benjamin. Israel had

different tribes and he was a very respected

tribe from the tribe of Benjamin and he followed

the law completely. In fact, not only did he

follow the law completely, he was a Pharisee,

which means that they didn't just follow the

law, they added more laws and followed those

too. He's like, I got it down, I've done it all.

So Paul, understanding who he is, this guy who's

done it all, Paul who has all these things, what

does he do? He goes to confirm that the message

he was preaching was right. He was seeking wise

counsel. Paul had enough humility to seek wise

counsel. Do you have enough humility to seek

wise counsel in your life? Paul goes in to submit

to these people to seek wise counsel. Years ago,

I was living in San Diego and I had an offer

to go pastor at a church in Washington State.

Now, if you don't know, San Diego is beautiful

and wonderful and the sun shines a lot. In Washington

State, they don't have a sun. I don't know if

you knew that or not. I don't know how they get

light, but it's not from the sun because they

don't have one. I'm just saying. And so when

I got this call, I was like, no, that's not going

to happen, God, because I like the sun and Washington

doesn't have one. So I'm not going. And I sat

down with a mentor of mine. His name is Brian

Berry. And I sat with Brian. And as I was talking

with him, I was telling him this offer that was

going on. And I said, but I'm not going to go

because I'm staying here. And he goes, well,

what if God is calling you there and God has

something for you there? And I'm like, God would

not do that because the sun is here in San Diego.

And I left. And he goes, no, no, seriously, I

think you need to think about this. And maybe

God is calling you to do that. And I said, I

don't like what you're saying. And I left. And

I went and met with him a couple of weeks later

after I'd been thinking about it and after God

had been working on my heart and I sat down with

him and I was like, maybe God is calling me to

this. Maybe I need to be open to this. And he

started challenging me. And I had to humble myself

enough to take wise counsel to know that that's

where God was calling me. And I had to follow

God's call even though it wasn't what I wanted

to do. And I had to listen to the people around

me. And I had to learn to humble myself when

it comes to the messages that I speak because

it's really easy for me to go, yeah, I got this.

I put this together and I've studied this and

I know it and I can speak it. And I had to humble

myself enough to know that I'm never gonna give

a message that I haven't sat down and ran past

a bunch of people. And I sit down with Pastor

David and go, hey, this is what I'm thinking.

Sit down with Pastor Bob or Pastor Ben and go,

hey, what do you guys think? This is where I'm

headed. I sit down with Pastor Noah and go, hey,

am I missing anything in here? What do I need

to know? I had to learn to be humble enough to

be able to go, hey. this is wise counsel that

I need to sit and that I need to listen to. See,

humility isn't just not taking credit for an

accomplishment. Sometimes we think humility is

just like, okay, well, I did something and someone

gave me acknowledgement and I was like, oh, no,

no, it's not a big deal. I'm good, I'm good.

And we present this humility. We think that that's

what humility is, but we need to understand what

humility actually is. If you're taking notes

today, write this down. Humility is acknowledging

dependence. Humility is acknowledging dependence.

It's dependence on God and dependence on others.

It's saying, God, I'm depending on you and I'm

depending on other people as well. And we don't

like that because we don't like to depend on

anyone because we are from America, the land

of the free and the home of the brave, and I'm

the brave and I don't need you. And that's inborn

in us where we're like, nope, I got this myself.

I don't need anyone. I don't like depending.

But humility is dependence on God. Someone else,

something else, God. This last couple of days,

I had the opportunity to go to someone's house.

There's a man in our church who's a very solid

man of God and he's facing some health issues

right now to where he has a really serious surgery

coming. And he called some people and said, hey,

I need you to come over and I need you to pray.

And it was so beautiful because this man who's

very successful, He's a man who can just go,

no, I got this myself. But instead he said, I

need full trust in God. I'm not gonna trust just

because I've got it right and I've spent enough

money on the right doctors and it's all gonna

happen. He said, no, no, no, my dependence is

on God. And it was a show of his dependence being

on God, not himself, but not just that, is he

called people together too to say, hey, I wanna

invite you in to walk with me because my dependence

is on God and my dependence is also on you. It's

not on me. I have the humility to be dependent

and to bring other people in to walk alongside

of me on this difficult journey. And I think

it's incredibly beautiful and it speaks directly

against a lie that has got into the church, specifically

the American church. And the lie is this, is

that people go, I don't need church, it's just

God and me. It's just me and God. I don't need

anyone else because my relationship is between

me and God and I don't need anyone else. And

listen, if you were to go to the first century

church and you were to tell them that, they would

be absolutely, completely, utterly confused.

It wouldn't make any sense to them because there's

no such thing as being a Christian without being

connected to the church. There is nowhere in

scripture that you see someone saying, oh, it's

just me and God. And they're separated from the

church and they're a Christian. In fact, the

only place in scripture that you can find somebody

They would say they are a Christian and they

are not plugged into the churches when they were

in jail because of being a Christian. So unless

you're in jail right now, you gotta be connected

to the church. That's what he's called us to.

He's saying, hey, listen, you need other people.

You need community. You need people around you

because what people around you do and when you

depend on other people is they make you the best

version of you. That's what it says in Proverbs

27, 17. As iron sharpens iron, so one person

sharpens another. You wanna be the sharpest you

can be? You wanna be the best you can be? Then

get around other people. They're gonna make you

the best you can be. It's not by being a lone

ranger. It's by bringing someone else in. You

are never gonna hear a message on this stage

that has not already gone through a room of people

that we invite in to say, hey, help us make it

better. Help us sharpen this. As iron sharpens

iron, we're gonna sit down and go, here's what

I'm thinking. What do you think? And we say,

speak into this. Help us, help us. We need community

and we have to live in community. Paul understood

that humility was going, hey, I wanna be dependent.

I wanna go to somebody else. All right, he goes

and he asks them, he goes, hey, is my message

okay? And they said, yeah, it's great. And it

says this in verse four. Even that question came

up only because some so -called believers there,

they're false ones really, who were secretly

brought in. They sneaked in to spy on us and

take away the freedom we have in Christ Jesus.

They wanted to enslave us and force us to follow

their Jewish regulations. They wanted them to

be more Jewish than they did follow Jesus. He's

going, but we refuse to give in to them for a

single moment. We wanted to preserve the truth

of the gospel message for you. See, Paul looked

into this. Paul's going, I need to figure out

this message that I'm preaching because fake

believers were not okay with their freedom in

Christ. You need to understand this. Haters gonna

hate. All right, there are people out there that

are not okay with the freedom that you found

in Jesus. And when you find peace and when you

find joy and when you find freedom in Jesus,

there's always people that wanna pull you back

into the misery that they're in. They don't like

the freedom that you found. And they go, you

know what? I'm glad that you found that. But

then all of a sudden they're not very glad because

now it means that you maybe stopped hanging out

with them and doing the things that they wanted

to do with you. Maybe your relationship has changed

a little bit and all of a sudden now they don't

like that you're spending so much time with this

church thing. Why do you gotta always be doing

church? Why do you always gotta be doing the

Bible? And they wanna pull you back because they

don't like the freedom that you found. And a

lot of times it's because people, friends in

our life get jealous of the freedom that we have

and they wanna pull us back into the misery that

they're in. And that's what's happening in this

church right here is that Paul is seeing that

they're going, I don't like that you guys have

all this freedom. You need to do this, this,

and that. And then they're trying to pull them

back into a place that they never should be.

But we have to understand that we don't need

to please people. We're not in it to please people.

We need to please God. And what Paul is saying

to this church here in Galatia, he's saying,

we're not here to please people. And I'm gonna

stand to my guns here because I don't want you

to be led astray. We're not here to please people.

We're here to cling to the truth. Don't back

down from what God has called you to do because

someone doesn't like it. Because a friend in

your life wants to pull you back into the misery

that they're in. Don't fall away from what God

has called you to do. Now, listen, I gotta be

very careful here. Church, I'm not giving you

permission to be a jerk though. Some of you are

like, I'm just standing on truth. Right, you

just wanna be a jerk for Jesus. There's no such

thing, doesn't exist. Don't do it. Right, in

love, stand on the truth. And what Paul is doing

is he's saying, hey, I'm gonna stand on this

truth right here. I'm gonna fight so that you

understand what matters and they're not gonna

lead you astray to a different gospel. And it

says this in verse six, it says, and the leaders

of the church, they had nothing to add to what

I was preaching. They said it was good, had nothing

to add to it. Then he says this, by the way,

their reputation as great leaders made no difference

to me for God has no. God has no favorites. He's

like, I could go to anyone for this, but I went

to these church leaders. And he said that they

had nothing to add to what I was preaching. Instead,

they saw that God had given me the responsibility

of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just

as he had given Peter the responsibility of preaching

to the Jews. The same God who worked through

Peter as an apostle to the Jews. also worked

through me as an apostle to the Gentiles. See,

Paul's call from God, what he'd been called to,

was to spread the gospel to the Gentiles. And

this was stirring people up because for them,

they were like, but Jews, that's the way to do

it. And he's like, no, no, no, the gospel is

for everyone and I'm gonna go to the Gentiles

just as Peter's call is to the Jews. And that's

good too. There's a different call for both of

them. I think that us in the church, all of us,

in the world actually, our biggest fear is to

become a floppy disk. How many of you guys remember

a floppy disk? How many of you have used a floppy

disk? Okay, if you have, this is your reminder.

You probably need to schedule that doctor's appointment

to get your blood work done. I'm just saying,

it's probably about time in your life to do that.

I'm just saying. Here's the thing, a floppy disk,

man, you'll see them around, right? You'll see

them around, but they have absolutely no purpose

anymore. And I think that's our biggest fear

is to just be floating around with no purpose,

to walk through life with absolutely no purpose.

purpose. To go through and go, man, I don't know

where I'm at. And so when we do that, we start

trying to find our purpose and we go, well, maybe

this is my purpose and I need to try this. And

then I need to try this. And we try all these

things looking for our purpose. And then we end

up settling for a light version of purpose. And

what I mean is this, we find our job, what we

do, and we say, this is my purpose. And this

is my purpose. This is my job. But then we have

to find fulfillment in something else. And we're

always living for the weekend or we're living

for that relationship or we're living for something

else because what we do does not give us the

fulfillment that we're craving and we have to

find those in two places. But what your calling

is, is the intersection of what you're, when

you get purpose and what you do intersects with

the fulfillment that comes through it. That is

your calling. That is what God has called you

to do. That is the thing that he has put you

on this earth to do. And you need to understand

that your job is what you do. Your calling is

the impact that you have while you do it. We

all have different skills. We all have different

things. We're all in different places. And the

job is what you do, but the impact that you have

while you're there, that's your calling. That's

why God put you there. I think it's incredible.

There's a man in our church who, he's a welder.

He does fabricating of steel and different things

that he makes gates. And that's what he does

for a job with landscaping. And he realized this,

this light bulb came on for him and it absolutely

changed his view in life. It changed his view

of how he wakes up every morning because he understands

that what he does is an opportunity to live his

calling. And it's incredible because almost every

other week, every couple of weeks, he'll come

to me and he'll tell me a different story of

a house that he was at with a client. And he's

just like, man, and I just shared my testimony

with them. He's like, it was incredible. And

then he'll tell me a couple of weeks later, he

goes, man, I was at this house this week and

I was installing this for them and I was doing

these things. And God just asked me if I asked

him, can I pray for you? He said, people just

stop and go, man, I didn't even tell you there

was anything going on, but here's the list of

things going on in my life. How did you know

that I needed prayer? And he's like, hey, I'm

just here to pray for you. And he's told me these

times where he's talking to someone and he just

feels like God's telling him, hey, I need to

tell him about Jesus. And he's in the middle

of work and he just goes, hey, can I just tell

you about Jesus? And they're like, yeah, sure.

And he understands that what he does is one thing,

but his calling is wrapped up in what he does

and he's found his purpose. That's what purpose

is. And I'm not gonna get into the weeds here

with calling because Tom literally preached an

entire sermon on it last week, but I think it

doesn't matter what your calling is if you don't

have the humility. to take it. Because we like

to hold the steering wheel so tight and say,

this is the direction I'm going. And God, you've

pointed, I'm pointed in this direction and you

can't stop me. And God's, no, no, I want you

to go here. I want you to turn here. I want you

to do this. And you're like, no, I got it. I'm

white knuckling this one, baby. God's like, no,

I got something more for you. I want you to go

this way. But a lot of times we won't let that

happen. I need you to write this down. Humility

is submitting to his will. Humility is submitting

to his will. It's not about you. It's submitting

to his will. Submitting, what submitting is,

is surrendering and surrendering is required

for embracing your calling. I think about a police

officer when they say, hey, surrender right now.

You're under arrest, surrender. And what that

means is I give up, I surrender. I think there's

too many Christians walking around that are resisting

arrest when it comes to God because God's saying,

hey, surrender. And you're going, no, I got this.

I'm not surrendering. And he's going, listen,

you need to go into the calling that I have for

you. And what that requires is it requires the

humility to submit to his will, because the truth

is that God has called every single one of us.

You have been called. If you are a follower of

Jesus, you've been called. I can tell you today

what your purpose is. It's not some wild scientific

experiment and equation and all these crazy stuff.

I'm going to tell you right now. Here it is.

Ready? Ready for this? This is why you are put

on this earth, to love people and tell them about

Jesus. That's it. That's why you're here. That

is your purpose. Oh, Todd, you're simplifying

it. Nope. I'm telling you exactly what it is.

Love God. Tell people about Jesus. Love others.

Tell people about Jesus. There it is. That's

why you're here on this earth. And for some of

you, you're like, I don't like that. I don't

think that's mine. I'm not saying it. He is.

Don't get mad at me. That's your call. That's

what you've been given. That is a general calling

for all of us who call ourselves a follower of

Jesus. That's why you're on this earth. Now,

each one of us also has a specific calling. We've

all been called to something specific, right?

Not all of you are gonna come stand on this stage

and preach, just like I'm not gonna go be a welder.

That would be real bad, okay, real bad. That's

not our calling. Well, you need to find out what

your specific calling is to enact your general

calling, which is what all of us are called to

do. But if we're going to figure that out, we

need to understand that God calls, community

confirms. God calls, community confirms. This

is why community is so important is because you

can't decipher what your calling is by yourself.

In fact, I would caution you. It is very, very

dangerous and very, very scary if you find somebody

who feels that God has called them to something

and nobody else in their life confirms that calling.

And it's just as dangerous when everyone in their

life confirms a calling and you're unwilling

to take that calling. When God calls you, it

is our job to, in humility, submit to his will.

All right, what Paul is doing here is he's saying,

my call is to go and to preach to the Gentiles.

And I'm so glad that he took that call. You know

why? Because most of us in here are Gentiles.

We get the gospel. The gospel is for everyone.

And he's going for that. And you need to understand

the gospel is for everyone. And we in the church,

a lot of times, the longer you've been in the

church, the more picky and choosy you are about

people that you want to let in the church too.

And you need to understand that the gospel is

for everyone. And it is not for us to decide

who gets to hear the good news. It is our job

to just tell the good news. We don't get to pick,

oh, well, that person, I know what they did last

night. They shouldn't be here. Neither should

you. Right? We want to get judgy. We want to

do that. It's not our job to pick and choose

who gets to hear it. It's our job to just tell

them. That's why at Heights, our doors are always

going to be open to anyone. Our doors are open

to anyone. You don't have to look a certain way.

You don't have to act a certain way. You don't

have to believe a certain thing. You don't have

to not do what you were doing last night in order

to be in here today. We don't care. The doors

are open to anyone because the gospel is for

everyone. Right, because if we were to stand

up here and we're gonna say we are for Jesus

and we're gonna plant this flag, that's who we're

for, then we need to understand that Jesus was

for people. So if we're for Jesus, we are also

for people. And if we're for people, we are for

all people, not just certain ones, not just select

ones, we're for all people. All right, and if

we're for all people, then we need to embrace

this idea of hospitality. We need to value hospitality.

We need to be hospitable enough to say, hey,

listen, you're welcome here and we love that

you're here. And we're gonna love you while you're

here. And we're gonna step into what God has

called us to do because humility is submitting

to his will. What he says here, Paul goes, you

know, they said that this is my calling and they

confirmed it and I'm gonna head out. And then

verse nine, he says this, in fact, James, Peter,

and John, who were known as pillars of the church,

they recognized the gift God had given me and

they accepted Barnabas and me as their coworkers.

They encouraged us to keep preaching to the Gentiles.

while they continued their work with the Jews.

Their only suggestion was that we keep on helping

the poor, which I've always been eager to do.

Listen, whatever your calling is, let love be

the driving force. Whatever the calling is, let

love be the driving force. You know why? Write

this down, because humility reflects Jesus. Humility

reflects Jesus. And sometimes what we do, why

they cautioned him here, sometimes what we do

is we get so focused on where we're going that

we miss the things that are quote unquote below

us. I'm looking here and I miss the thing that's

below me. And that's often the people that are

hurting. That's often the people that are poor.

That's often the people that are in a difficult

spot in their life. That's often the people that

we shove aside in order to just keep pushing

forward. And so what he's telling you is, hey,

don't miss the things that are around you. I

would caution you not to miss that because I

don't want you to get sideways with just being

right. Sometimes if we're just right, that's

all that matters. And then we miss the thing

that actually matters. If we just get caught

up in the success that we have, if we just get

caught up in all the things that we do, we lose

sight for what God wants for us. And he's saying,

no, no, no. You need to understand that humility

reflects Jesus. And what Jesus does is he cared

about the least of these. And if you're gonna

reflect him, it requires us to be driven by love.

Because humility, write this down, is the foundation

of true greatness. Humility is the foundation

of true greatness. I'm bringing it right back

around from what I said at the top when I said,

you could be a spiritual superstar, but what

if the way up was down? True greatness is found

in humility. It says this in Matthew 23. The

greatest among you will be your servant. The

greatest among you will be your servant. That

doesn't make any sense. For those who exalt themselves,

they'll be humbled. But those who humble themselves,

those who walk in with humility, themselves will

be exalted. It's an upside down kingdom. It doesn't

make any sense. Because we go, well, no, no,

no. The greatest is the one that's the greatest.

No, it says the greatest is the one that serves.

Greatest is the one that does all these things

in front of everyone. No, no, no. Greatest is

the one that humbles themselves. It's an upside

down kingdom to understand that humility is what

matters. So how do you live it out? What does

this look like? How do you live in humility?

It's relying on him, not on you. Relying on him,

not on you. You know what it is every time you

open the word of God, every time you open your

Bible, what you're doing is you're saying it's

a posture of humility to say this book has what

I need because I don't have what I need. You're

posturing your heart right there. Every time

you open God's word, if you build it into a rhythm

in your day, you have a rhythm in your day to

remind yourself that God is in charge and you

are not. When you pray, you know what you're

doing? You are literally saying, I can't do this

and I'm submitting to something that is higher

than me in order to get me through it. You are

posturing your heart in a place of humility to

say, God, I'm giving it to you. I would encourage

you to start your day in prayer and in God's

word because you're starting your day in a posture

of humility that'll carry to the rest of your

day. Putting yourself in a place where you're

already starting to realize I'm not relying on

me, I'm relying on him. What does humility look

like? It looks like practicing gratitude as an

attitude, as a constant attitude. But some of

you guys, you're negative Nellies out there,

right? All you see is the negative stuff everywhere.

Life's bad, this is bad, that's bad. And we miss

all the blessings that are around us. You know

how blessed we are? We get so used to the things

in our life that we miss the blessings. Yesterday

I had, Pastor Ben was at my house and he walked

by my kitchen counter and he put his hand on

it and he goes, man, it's really cool you get

to live here. This is a really nice counter.

I didn't know he had a thing for counters. I

was kind of caught off guard, but. It wasn't

until he left and I thought to myself, man, you

know how much I just walk past it and don't notice

it's just a counter? I don't care. I took that

granite for granted. You know what I'm saying?

That was dumb. Don't laugh at that. Come on.

That was dumb. But we take the things that we

see in our life over and over. We just take them

for granted. I just see that. I'm owed that.

That's who I am. Some of you, when you pick your

kids up today, just... Thank the kids worker

who's in there because sometimes we just overlook

them and we don't realize the blessing that they

are in our life. When you notice things in your

life, just tell someone, tell a friend, text

someone right now randomly today and just go,

hey, I'm so grateful for this. They're gonna

be like, where did that come from? And you're

like, I don't know, I'm just grateful. I just

start a gratitude journal where you just start

writing down the things that you're grateful

for because you know what I've realized? When

you're grateful for all the things, It breaks

that thing inside of you that thinks that you're

owed all those things. And what that is, is that's

enacting humility in your life. It's an attitude

of gratitude. It's just humility going, yeah,

I'm not owed this. God, I'm just grateful that

I got to breathe today. How many of you thank

God that you got to breathe today? How we take

things so much and we're just like, I just, I,

you know, like we're owed them instead of going,

no, no, no. I'm humbled that I even get to be.

in this place that I even get to do that. You

know what this looks like? It looks like serving

others without needing recognition. Because we

like to serve so other people see us serve. Did

you see how awesome I was? We like to serve so

that people see what we do. I remember when I

was in high school. I was in high school after

our service at church, we had to pick up all

the chairs and I hated picking up the chairs.

I'm telling you right now, I hated it. It was

the worst. But I would pick up chairs, and especially

when I saw somebody else pick up four chairs,

I would pick up six and make sure everyone saw

me picking up six. You know what I'm saying?

That was how I flirted as a high school boy.

I was like, come on, ladies. You see how many

chairs I got right now? I'm like, what up, baby

girl? I got all these chairs right now. I needed

them to see me. I was like a peacock. You know

when they put their feathers out? I did that

through stacking chairs. That was my game. You're

like, bro, it is a miracle you got married. I

know. I know. Listen, sometimes we serve just

because we want people to see who we are and

how awesome we are, but serving without needing

recognition is living out this idea of humility.

It's making a meal that no one knows you made.

It's showing up to clean when no one else is

even here just to say, hey, I'm here to serve.

It's mentoring someone that you would spend years

pouring your life into and they go on to get

the greatness and no one knows you even existed.

My uncle, he... He does this with corporations.

He does this with big CEOs as he's their advisors.

And the CEOs will stand in front of their company

and talk about big decisions or big directions

and things that they're doing. And the only reason

they're saying what they're saying is because

my uncle advised them to say that. No one even

knows my uncle exists. Hey, what if we took on

that posture of just going, listen, I don't need

any recognition. It's not about me. It's about

him. And I want to live in a way that humbles

myself enough to say that humility is the true

foundation. of greatness. See, none of this is

possible, though, unless you align your heart

with him. Because you and I don't have the capability

to do this on our own. We don't, man. We're just

broken inside. And so the only way that we even

achieve any of this humility is aligning our

heart with the most humble being of all time,

which is Jesus. Jesus himself, the king of the

universe, who came to this earth and was born

in a manger. the most humble place. And he lived

in a way where he said things like, listen, I'm

here to serve, not to be served. And when we

align our heart with his heart, we embrace the

humility that we were called to embrace. Come

back to Jesus. That's the challenge I have for

you is this, is come back to Jesus. Align your

heart with him. Don't allow the other things

to get you sideways, but bring it back to Jesus

and go, man, I'm aligning my heart with him because

apart from him, it is absolutely not. possible.

Let's pray. God, thank you so much, Lord, that

you gave us an example of what true humility

is through Jesus. God, I pray that we would not

allow ourself to get in the way of embracing

true humility that is only found in Jesus. God,

I pray for each one of us that we would align

our hearts with your heart. God, that we would

posture ourself in a place of humility that's

able to take wise counsel, that's able to understand,

man, this is what people have said, and I'm gonna

take this because I don't have this. I pray,

God, that you would give us the strength to submit

to your will and to say, God, I'm done holding

onto the steering wheel and I'm willing to go

where you wanna take me because you have called

me to greatness, God, and I don't wanna push

it on my own, but it is only under your power.

God, I pray for those of us in here that just

need to refocus and realign today Because we've

crept into the spotlight. And we need to push

you back into the spotlight and remove ourself.

God, I pray for anyone in here that needs to

come to you for the very first time. God, we

are so grateful that the gospel is for everyone.

I pray that you would push them to ask the right

questions, to lean into the conviction that you've

put on their heart. We love you, Jesus. We're

so grateful that you involve us into your story.

We praise you and we pray all of this in Jesus'

name. Amen.