ADVENT: Humility

Welcome to the celebration podcast.

We are so fucking joined us, and we hope you are encouraged by today's message.

We're gonna jump right into the message.

I'm excited about what I believe God wants us to hear today.

So if you do have your Bibles, I want to invite you to join me in the Gospel of John chapter three.

The Gospel of John chapter three.

We're in week three of our Advent series.

And Advent simply means coming, arrival, preparing.

And it's really a season of reflection.

It's a season of pausing to acknowledge the goodness of God, the fact that he did allow Jesus to come, but that he's also coming back.

So it's a great season for us to call to kind of pause and reflect on it.

So for the past couple of weeks, we've we hit on some key themes, thankfulness, and and last week we we talked about patience.

And this week I believe that God wants us to continue in that in that theme, those things that we can reflect on, even in the season of waiting.

Because I believe all of us are probably waiting for God to do something in our lives, and I'm hoping that this could be an encouragement for us.

In John chapter 3, let me give you some context as to what's going on before we jump into the passage.

John 3 · chapter mention

Um many of us are probably familiar, if you've been around church for any period of time, with this man named John the Baptist.

Um he was the one who was kind of like, he set the tone for Jesus to come.

Leading up uh to John, there was like what they call 400 years of silence.

So after the book of Malachi kind of ends, that prophetic season ends, there's 400 years where God really just wasn't talking to people individually, as we've seen in the Old Testament.

Those are called the intertestamental period.

Y'all didn't know y'all were coming to get some theology right now, but y'all stick with me.

We're gonna have some fun in a moment.

So in that 400 years of silence, there's a lot of things that kind of branched off with people doing their best to bridge the gap to hear from God.

So John was the first prophet that kind of emerged after that 400 years.

So you can imagine, like, there was a lot of excitement because all of them were anticipating the Messiah.

All of them were waiting for the Messiah to come.

So anytime somebody rose up and they were sharing a word that seemed to inspire the people, everybody's attention went on them because it was like, man, like, is this the Messiah?

Is this the one that's gonna come and finally put everything right?

So you can understand that if as John is now in this place where he's having the masses to come and travel to hear him speak, he's he's baptizing people, he's doing some incredible things that, but he he understood that I'm I'm not I'm not Jesus, I'm not the Messiah.

So there's this moment when Jesus does show up, and so people are a little confused about that because Jesus begins to steal a little bit of the spotlight, and John now has to make some adjustments in his life because everything that he had done and that he was called to do was leading to the moment that he was in.

How is he gonna handle this transition of power, so to speak, now that Jesus was on the scene?

I believe that this passage will serve as some encouragement for us.

So, starting at verse number 22 in John's gospel in chapter 3, it says this.

And Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing.

John was also baptizing in the Anon near Salem because the water there was plentiful, and the people were coming and they were being baptized, for John had not yet been put in prison.

Now a discussion arose between John's disciples and a Jew over purification or baptism.

And when he came to John, they said to him, Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to him you bore witness.

Look, he is baptizing, and people are going to him.

Let me pause there for a moment.

Let me let me translate that for us.

John, what's what's up with this new dude across the across the street?

We we had baptism on lock.

Baptism was our thing.

Now, this dude that you were talking about, this guy that you said was all awesome, that's all good, but baptism's our thing.

Why why is he over there doing our thing?

He's competing against us.

We we got this on lock.

Let's see what John's response is.

Again, your translation of the Bible may not say that, but mine is an Ebonic, so I'm just helping y'all to understand how I see scripture.

John answered and said, A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given to him from heaven.

You yourselves have bore me witness.

I've said that I am not the Christ, but I've seen but I've been sent before him.

The one who is the bride and is the bridegroom, the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice.

Therefore, the joy is mine and is now complete.

He must increase, but I must decrease.

What an incredible response.

And a moment where a man's entire identity was built around preparing the way for Jesus, is now at a moment in his life where he has to now get out of the way.

What a what a provocative thought.

I want to talk to us for a few moments around this idea of just getting out the way and being humble.

And if you're writing this down, I hope that you are.

Why don't you simply write this message title down?

Be humble.

If if if you want to add this to it, you can say it this way sit down, be humble.

Don't put the stuff that's all going on in the background because that wouldn't be appropriate in the house of God.

But sit down, be humble, as said by Puller Surprise winning poet Extraordinaire Killer Lamar.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you.

I thank you so much, Lord, for your word.

I thank you, God, for what you're doing in this environment, God.

Lord, I pray over the next few moments that I get out the way, that I decrease so that you can increase in this place.

So, Lord, we we pray for open eyes so that we can see you.

God, we pray for open ears that we can hear you, Lord, and I I pray for open hearts that we can receive the truth of what it is that you want to speak in this place today.

God, we we dedicate this space to you and invite you to do what only you can do.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

You know, when I can I'm I'm thinking back, and as and as long as I can remember, I had I've always been, I've always been like a fan of like gadgets and and technology.

I don't I don't know when it kind of birthed to me as a as a young man or as even as a child, but I've always been fascinated with it.

And it it may have been because I I grew up when I grew up that I was I I absolutely love the Jetsons.

There was something about watching the Jetsons and getting on a treadmill and not actually even having to like take a shower on my own and like having clothes already laid out for me and food waiting for me.

I I felt like that's that's the world that I want to live in.

Like I really did.

So even there were times when I was young, I was like, well, maybe I'm maybe I'm called to be an engineer that can help advance us as a as a people so that we can get to a point where you can just wake up and everything be done for you.

And so I actually had begun to consider it.

And then I I looked and I saw like how much math was required in order to be an engineer.

And I said, Well, that ain't God.

And so I'm I moved on.

Well, then I was like, okay, well, if I can't actually build the stuff to do it, well, maybe I can be a person that gets involved in creating the software that does it.

So I began again down this road of saying, you know what, maybe I could be a software engineer.

I'm just trying to find my way to contribute to society to make all of our lives better.

Who wouldn't want to do that?

So I considered being a software engineer.

And then I learned how much math was required in order to be a software engineer, and I said, Well, that ain't God.

And I and I landed in ministry.

This is my third option, guys.

Um I kid, I kid, but I'm not.

Um, so so that yeah, so but here's the thing, but I've always been a person who loved to engage that stuff.

I love um the simplification of things, I love the technology that goes with it.

And here's the thing: one of the things that I've really gravitated to, um, and and I don't want you guys to judge me, is I'm I stand here before you, and this is my confession, as a 44-year-old man with three children and and and um and leading an incredible church.

I love video games.

It felt good just to say it out loud.

It did.

It did.

Like it really did.

I felt like there was like a man, we can call worship back out here, we can wrap this service up.

Like, I just feel like I got it off my chest.

I I really do.

Ever since I was small, I did, and and I think it's just because of all the the detail and the work that get into it.

Like, so even to this day, I love to play video games, and it's so much more than just me being a grown man, like eating Doritos and playing a video game.

Like, it's it's not that extreme.

Like, I don't get a chance to do it as much as as much as I used to, but I I do like the escape that it provides.

I mean, like, can your pastor, after preaching three services on a Sunday, just go home and play a little bit of NBA 2K20 and dunk on somebody because I can't do it in real life.

Can can I can I have that?

Can I can I get that?

And here's the thing, it's it's been a it's been a cool thing for our family ever since like online gaming came on uh became a thing.

Like, I would play online with my son when he was away at college.

It was a great way for us to stay connected.

It's a it's a great way.

Even now, like my daughter, she plays Call of Duty, she be putting in work, y'all.

Don't don't add her.

She might she might put you down.

Like, like it's a it's a family thing.

My wife and I, we first started dating.

We actually played video games, Spiral the Dragon.

I'm just trying to let y'all know, like we were, we were we were all into it, like man, like that was a way of life for us.

That's how we got down.

True story.

My son, he's really good, my my youngest son Caleb, like he's really good at gaming.

So, like he he beats he beat me in NBA 2K20.

So he literally, he literally thinks because he can beat me in 2K20 that he can beat me in real life.

That's when video games goes wrong.

Like he really thought, because he knows how to like cross over on a video game that he can do it in real life.

I bullied him and won the game every time we played.

Anyway, um, but here's the thing I love about games, it's how detailed they are.

The amount of detail that they put into them, it's just mind-blowing.

So, as I said, like I love to do things that I ordinarily couldn't do, didn't play football, couldn't play basketball, but when I do play those games, I put myself in a game and I'm fully in it.

So on my character, on my NBA game, I'm like six foot five, six-pack, dunking on people's hairlines intact, like everything, it's like the way that I see myself when I look in the mirror.

Okay?

That's exactly what I see.

So I created this character, but it wasn't like it's just you create this character and you play the game.

It's so immersive that you actually have to like make decisions.

And the decisions that you make, it really affects everything.

Let me let me give you an example.

So I finally work my way to actually getting on the NBA team.

I had to play overseas, I had to work my way up.

Like you really have to work hard to get in it.

So I finally make it to the NBA, but I'm riding the bench right now, guys.

I'm frustrated, I'm disappointed, I'm aggravated, I'm mad, I'm sitting on my couch, breathing heavy, as if I did one thing, but you're fully in it.

But then my big break came.

They finally put me into a game, and my first time out there, I'm like shooting the ball from everywhere.

Like I'm like Kobe times 10.

I'm shooting it from out in the parking lot, I'm doing everything I can, missing most of my shots, and I watch this.

I saw how it affected my team.

Like as I was being more and more selfish, it was affecting the morale on the team.

Well, they finally gave me a couple of games and they put me back in the game again.

So I said, you know what?

I want to get some other players involved.

Passing the ball, distributing the rock, letting the game come to me, all the things that the pros say.

And you know what happened?

Like, I was the player of the game.

Yes, you're a pastor.

In the NBA, was a player of the game.

So it's the end of the game, right?

And like the commentator comes up and they literally interview you.

So my character's there, he's sweating, breathing heavy.

I'm sitting upstairs in my loft, I'm breathing heavy, I'm sweating, like, where's the Gatorade at?

Like, man, we had to come back, and they asked this question.

They asked the question, they said, Chopsticks, because that's my street name.

Um that's my street name.

Y'all don't know about that.

Here I'm Pastor Keith.

You see me in the street, like, what's up, chopsticks?

I'm like, yo, what's up?

Anyway, Chopsticks.

They said, like, man, like you had your breakout game, bro.

Like you killed it, man.

Like, what what do you think contributed to your success?

And so the question was posed, and two answers were provided.

I could either go with option A and say, it's about time.

It's my time now.

Or I could have gone the other route and simply said, I'm just grateful that I could contribute to helping my team win today.

Everything in me wanted to say, it's about time.

It's about time.

You know how much practice I've been putting in?

But but somehow, something inside of me, even though it's a fictitious game, I wanted to respond in a Christ-like manner.

So I was like, I'm so grateful that I could just contribute to helping our team to win today.

And this is the crazy thing that happens.

There was like this massive morale boost on our team.

The coach acknowledged my humility and they promoted me to a starter.

Yes, I'm not the sixth man anymore.

I am now starting.

Now, here's the thing.

I know what some of y'all are thinking.

Y'all are saying, Keith, did you just spend eight minutes and 48 seconds talking to us about a video game to say that somehow this video game had a life lesson about how when we're humble we get promoted?

And my answer to that is exactly.

Who would have thought that life lessons can come from a video game console?

But don't let the vehicle confuse you.

I think that message is something that can change our lives.

That somehow, when I made a decision to get other people involved, when I made the decision to humble myself, it actually allowed me to be promoted.

It it reminds me of something that is oddly enough in the Bible that that Jesus says to his disciples, he says this, he says, Whoever exalts himself will be humble, but whoever humbles himself, they're the ones who are going to be exalted.

That seems so, that seems so contradictory in the world that we currently live in.

That the economy of the kingdom, it seems to be the opposite of what we would expect it to be.

Like it seems as if when we look at scripture, that when we give, that's when we actually receive.

That don't make any sense that somehow when we serve, we're going to be refreshed and be served.

That that doesn't make any sense that somehow when I surrender, I still win.

That doesn't make any sense that somehow that when I am meek, that I will inherit the earth.

That that doesn't seem to make any sense that somehow that when I humble myself, that that translates to me being exalted.

Imagine the world that we live in and how much we wrestle with this idea of humbling ourselves because if we're honest, we we're saturated in a world that's obsessed with self-promotion and compromise and desiring to get likes and followers.

We live in a world that that strives and we all want to be influencers.

And I believe that that's all powerful, but but if it's in the wrong context, if we have the wrong focus, if there's a wrong filter that we have, it can lead us down a road that leads to self-exaltation.

See, James chapter 4, he says it this way.

James 4 · chapter mention

He says that God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.

I mean, God opposes the proud?

Like, I want y'all to think about this for a moment.

Like, God opposes, like, stiff arms.

The language, when you look at the original language in the Greek, that word oppose, it actually has war language.

It actually insinuates that we are on separate sides of this issue.

So it's literally saying that if I am filled with pride, that if I am filled with self-exaltation, that God is literally saying, Man, I have nothing to do with you.

That's that's some heavy language because if I can be honest with you guys, there's a lot of things in our society that I believe that I could say God should oppose hatred, racism, oppression.

Those are things that I feel like God could, like, man, like I don't have any part of that.

But it seems that while those things are expressions of pride, it seems that the one thing, the root of it all that that the scriptures show us is that God is saying that if you operate with pride, you or I are on opposite side.

Like literally, we are enemies.

That's a that's a scary thought to believe that there's something that I could say, a behavior that I could have, that could literally make me an enemy of God.

That's that's such a that's such a challenging thing.

But here's the thing about that word exalt.

That word exalt, it means to lift up, to elevate above, to rise above, to put into a position.

So ultimately, if we can put it all together, what God is saying, if you lift up anything above me, I'm on the other side of that issue.

If you exalt anything above me, I'm on the other side of it.

Ultimately, anything that we exalt, it becomes an altar that we worship at.

So when we understand the context of that, what God is simply saying is I don't want you to have any idols in your life that are taking the attention away from me.

Because ultimately, whenever we're filled with pride and we begin to exalt things, those things turn into idols.

And titles and idols are just the expression of pride that is made into a form that we can connect to.

That is such a that is such a challenging thought when we think about it.

Because there's many things in our lives that if we're if we're honest with ourselves, we can make altars to them.

We can make altars of our families, we elevate that above God.

We can make altars of our jobs, our careers, we elevate it above God.

That instead of instead of us allowing God to move through it, we we do it in our own strength and just invite God to be the bow on top that blesses it.

One of the biggest challenges that I found as I got into ministry is how do I how do I actively tell the story of what God is doing without using God to tell my story?

How do I make sure that that I'm not saying all glory to God, but I'm actually showing that it's all because of my own skill set.

It's a it's a tension that sometimes that we have to wrestle with and that we sometimes have to manage.

See, I I believe that the reason why God feels some type of way about pride is because pride, it's the original sin.

Like Lucifer, the the angel that we now know as the devil, our adversary.

Like when he was originally created, he was created as an angel to bring glory to God.

But what it says in the book of Isaiah is that pride was found in his heart, and you know what he said?

I am going to elevate myself above God.

I I think if I can if I can impose those feelings onto God, I believe that when God sees pride, he sees the enemy at work.

And he says, I'm on the opposite side of that issue.

Here's what pride is pride is giving something more weight than you give to God.

What are the things in our lives that maybe we're giving more weight to than we're giving to God?

I've shared this with you before, but the scripture tells us that God says it this way I am the Lord, and I will not share my glory with another.

That word glory means weight, honor.

So literally what it's saying is it's simply saying this don't allow anything to have more weight in your life than I do.

Is there is there anything that you give more weight to?

So we have relationships, we have people, we all understand what it feels like when you have people that are in proximity to us that we give weight to.

My wife, obviously, when she comes to me and we have a conversation, I give weight to her words.

Why?

Because there's this there's this intimate relationship and I trust her, and so I want to hear from her.

So when she tells me something, I give weight to those words.

That's all healthy, but what God is saying, make sure you don't give weight to anybody that belongs to him.

There's times that we allow society to have more weight in the way that we see God than we should.

There's times where we allow certain things and certain thresholds to have more weight than what God's word says about us, and what ultimately that is, even though it seems subtle, is that is an expression of pride.

You see, we have to understand that the antidote to that is humility.

That we that we have to have humility.

Now, does that mean that we can't celebrate?

Does that mean that we can't have goals?

Does that mean that we can't work hard to accomplish these burdens and dreams that God has put on our heart?

Absolutely not.

Please, by all means, set your goals, set your strategies.

You can do a touchdown dance once you move into your new home.

Do all of that stuff.

But here's the thing don't allow that to replace the worship and praise that you give to God.

Don't allow that to be a thing.

When my wife and I, we had built our dream home.

You guys heard me tell the story.

We lived in it for one year.

And then God began to stir us up and say, okay, I want you to move to Washington, D.C.

You know my first filter was?

Man, but what about that house?

Like, Lord, we prayed about that house.

We we wrote the scriptures on the beams.

Lord, like you blessed us with this house.

And God said, like, so is is the house going to become an altar now?

Like, is is is that the thing that that that communicates my blessing and my favor on your life, or do you believe that I gave you that house or that you can build it for somebody else, but I'm building another house for you if you can just focus on building my house?

It's it's it's it's all about having that proper perspective.

So since then, we've recognized that, man, we we're not owners of anything, we're simply called to be stewards, but humility drives us to a place where we have to understand that we have to give it to God.

Here's the best way for me to define what humility is humility is power under restraint.

It's it's it's power under restraint.

It's mean that I that I can that I can do something, but I'm I'm choosing to restrain myself.

I'm choosing not to.

I'm I'm choosing, I'm choosing to not respond to every ignorant comment on social media.

I'm gonna function with humility.

I'm choose, I'm choosing not to engage in some of this stuff that really doesn't help me move my life or the needle forward.

I'm just choosing not to.

That's what humility is.

Humility is not being a rug for someone to wipe their feet on, but humility is recognizing like, is this really gonna advance the kingdom?

Is this something that really is advantageous for what God has called me to do?

If not, I'm just not gonna give weight to it and get put any energy into it.

Humility understands God's economy.

Humility understands the big picture, humility understands what this all is.

This is why Jesus is literally the picture perfect image of what humility is.

Remember the Last Supper, as we call it?

Like he literally gets down on his hands and his feet and he washes his disciples' dirty, funky feet, including Judas', the one who would betray him.

He said, I want this to be an example of what it means when you're operating.

In the kingdom, of having the power and saying, I don't have to do this because I'm a king, but choosing to serve others.

Humility allows you to prefer others above yourself if it's going to advance the kingdom of God.

This is why I believe that John the Baptist is such a beautiful example for us as modern-day believers.

Because when you really look at John's assignment, we literally have the exact same job description.

You know what John's job description was?

Was to prepare the world for Jesus to come.

Do you know what our job assignment is?

To prepare the world for when Jesus to come.

There's a lot that we can learn by looking at John because we have the exact same job description.

So when we look at John, like let me tell y'all something.

John, he wasn't somebody to sleep on.

John was a dude who had massive amounts of influence and impact.

Let me let me give you a couple things that's on John's resume.

First and foremost, John was prophesied about in the book of Isaiah.

So he's literally in the Bible that he was going to be born.

I don't got that.

John, his parents were visited by an angel to proclaim his birth.

My mom didn't tell me that story.

So John has these things on his resume.

John, while he was still in his mother's womb, was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Nope, it didn't happen to me.

Like we have all these things that happened in John's life that he was that he was destined to do.

Now he's born, and I can imagine, because I just know the human condition, that his parents are encouraging him and saying, John, you're meant to be different.

You set apart.

There's certain places you can't go.

Do you see this passage of scripture right here?

That's talking about you.

There's certain things that you just can't do.

And John being led and raised in a right family and having vision and clarity for his life.

So when he steps out into ministry, he's killing the game.

People from all around are traveling to see John.

He's booking out stadiums, he got a million followers, he's an influencer.

They want to put ads on his page.

Like John, John is crushing it.

So you can imagine that when Jesus comes on the scene, that man, what happens to me now?

Because my entire life has been built around preparing for the king to come.

My entire life, my entire assignment has been preparing for this day, and now that this day is here, what do I do now?

If I was, if I'm honest with you, if I'm John, I'm I'm trying to strategize what's next for me.

What happens now?

Like Jesus is here, and and and some of John's followers start following Jesus, and and the crowds are now following Jesus, and Jesus and his camp are baptizing people.

So John's over here, and he can probably get caught up feeling some type of way.

So when his disciples come to him and say, John, like, what do you want to do about this?

He he says, Man, like, listen, I've I've made it very clear from the beginning that it's not about me.

Here's one point that I want to give you guys, and it doesn't rhyme, but here's what I believe.

If you can put this into your soul and allow it to be the rhythm in which you move by, I believe that you will be in pace with grace.

Here's a statement.

Humility is a choice.

Humility is a choice.

It's not this thing that radically takes over our lives.

It's not this thing that we just wake up and man, I was predestined to be humble.

No, it's it's a it's a choice that we have to make every single day.

I have to choose to be humble.

Watch what it says here in First Peter chapter 5, verse 6.

1 Peter 5:6

Humble yourselves, therefore, before the mighty hand of God.

Second Chronicles 7, 14.

If my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray.

We see these moments in scripture where we're being led to saying, like, this is something that you actually can do in your own strength.

Humble yourself.

Humble like you can do it.

Find a way to decrease so that God can increase.

Because here's the thing, I'm certain that there's probably some of us in here that would say there's areas that we want to see God increase in our lives.

But could it be that the reason we can't see an increase of God is because we're not willing to decrease ourselves?

See, I I my wife and I, we've been together now for about 25 years.

And so you can imagine, in those, in those 25 years, there's there's a lot of there's a lot of growing pains.

There's a lot of things that you learn about one another, there's a lot of nuances that you have to work through.

Like when it says that the two shall become one, it's not like finished when you say I do.

Like it's a it's a it's a process that we are still doing.

Like it's it's one of those things that you just have to consistently work through.

And so I remember like learning each other's idiosyncrasies and preferences and and and and why do you leave the socks out and and all that's like you're just you're just learning how to navigate through each other's differences and find common ground.

So we we get all that.

But I I remember I remember this one time where we're we're we're learning one another and everything is good.

All of the big stuff we're on the same page, but we had this one argument that literally lasted for two days, and it was about toothpaste.

Toothpaste.

I'm talking about toothpaste, y'all.

Something as simple as a toothpaste.

Because here's what you have my wife, she always thinks she's right.

And me, I'm never wrong.

Notice what I said, it wasn't by mistake.

She thinks she's right, I'm never wrong.

So you know what happens when you have someone who thinks they're right and someone who's never wrong?

Everything becomes a debate.

So here we are, there's this one day, so she's she's we're in the bathroom, and she says, Oh, you you got this different toothpaste um that I don't like.

Now, I've told you guys um before that I'm the one that primarily does all the shopping in our house um because I'm better at it.

Um so I don't know what was going on in my life, why I got offended at that.

Maybe I was thinking about me standing in line, all the work that I had to go through to get said items.

So now she's critiquing a choice that I made.

It became very personal.

So I'm like, this is not new toothpaste.

We've had it for the past two months, you just didn't notice it.

So she's on like I'm just trying to illustrate to y'all, like, we have two sinks, so I'm over here, she's over there.

I'm not crazy, I didn't say it up close because I had to wash the hook.

So, like, I'm over, I'm over here, she's over there.

And she's like, This is not the same toothpaste I would have noticed.

Yes, it is.

I bought it, I know it's the same toothpaste.

I have not been using this toothpaste for the past two months.

Well, you haven't been brushing your teeth.

I slept in the guest room that night, guys.

Real talk.

I'm I'm I'm sleeping in the guest room and I begin to pray.

I'm like, Lord, you gotta do something about her.

Because we all know those times where we're like praying, but we're really not praying, we're complaining, and we're saying, God, you need to do something about it.

Lord, you need to do something about her.

I'm like looking up receipts and proving to her that this is the toothpaste that we've had for the past two months, you just didn't notice.

Let me bring some resolve to all this stuff.

Turns out we both were right.

She had a secret stash of her preferred toothpaste for the past two months, so she didn't have to dip into my stash.

But when hers ran out, and then she's dipped into my stash, then she noticed it was a different toothpaste.

It was buy one, get one at public.

What am I supposed to do?

So, truth of the matter is we both were right, which means I wasn't wrong.

Anyway, I'm I'm I'm sleeping, I'm sleeping in a guest room like real talk, and I'm frustrated.

I'm like, Lord, you gotta you gotta do something, you gotta do something about her.

And God literally, as I'm talking to you right now, he said, I'm trying to do something about you.

Relax.

Relax, okay.

You'll you'll have your time.

Security can, we got hecklers in here.

How did they, Nate?

How did this happen?

Get her out of here.

Okay, so listen, God, God genuinely says to me, I'm I'm trying to do something about you.

And I was like, But Lord, I'm right.

He's like, Jesus, do you do you have to be right about everything?

Do you do you do you have to say something about everything?

Do you do you have do you have to debate everything?

Do you do you have to prove yourself every time?

He said, You you've prayed prayers that you want to see an increase of me in your marriage, but maybe there needs to be a decrease of you in your marriage.

He gave me this image, he said, I'm trying to show up, but you're like a bouncer at the door and you're not letting me in.

But if you can decrease and get out of the way, then I can increase in every area of your life that you believe there's a deficit.

But it takes humility to recognize that maybe I don't need to speak out about this.

Maybe I don't need to argue about this, maybe I don't need to make this a big deal, maybe, maybe I don't need to go back and forth about this.

Is it is it worth it?

It's it's getting to the point where you recognize that that if I want to see an increase of God in any area of my life, then maybe there needs to be a decrease of me, a decrease of my opinions, a decrease of my frustrations, a decrease of my anger, a decrease in those things.

Because when I get out of the way, somehow God shows up, and when he shows up, he begins to expand.

So my prayer has been, God, let less of me and more of you.

Let less of me and my marriage and more of you.

Because when you're there, then there's joy, then there's peace, then there's freedom, then there's miracles.

But if I'm if I'm standing in the way, God, maybe I'm not getting everything that you have for me.

My my question for you today is this, church, what are the areas in your life that you want to see an increase of Jesus?

And asking yourself honestly, does there need to be a decrease of me?

Are some things in my life that I need to that I need to get out of the way of?

Because here's the thing.

Even when you have success, even even when you know that you're right, you have to recognize that at some point, at some point, it's just building an altar to your own wisdom.

It's building an altar to your own experience, it's building an altar to your own genius.

And and at some point, whatever, whatever we exalt, it becomes an idol that we begin to to worship at.

You see, when we when we decrease, it actually allows us to have sympathy towards other people.

Let me let me tell you what I mean by that.

When when I live my life, and and I truly believe that that everything that I have is as a result of my hard work, as a result of everything that I did in my own strength, that means I have ignored a very strong fundamental fact that Jesus is the source.

That Jesus is the source of all of it.

And when I recognize that Jesus is the source, that no matter what my success is, I acknowledge that I'm only where I am as a result of Jesus.

Now, here's a tension that we often will wrestle with.

We know what we've done to get to where we are.

There are some of us in here that are that are successful, and you know the classes that you had to take, you know the decisions that you had to make, you know the sacrifices that you had to make.

Some of us can pinpoint exactly what we've done in our lives to get to where we are.

So, so how do I acknowledge the hard work that I've done, but also make sure that God gets appropriate glory?

Here's what scripture says.

Scripture says this in John 15, 5.

It says this, I am the vine and you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, it is him that bears much fruit.

For apart from me, you could do nothing.

Don't don't get it twisted.

Apart from me, you could do nothing.

Deuteronomy 8.18 says this it is the Lord thy God that gives you the ability to get wealth.

That means that even when I went to school and even when I studied, that it was God that gave me the ability to retain what I needed to retain to get to where I am.

It allows me to have this constant awareness that no matter what decisions I've made, it was simply me cooperating with the grace that was already on my life, which then allows me to be sympathetic when I look out at people that may not have made those same decisions or people who are struggling, and I can honestly, with my heart, understand where they're coming from because I'm not looking at them through a filter of my success and my choices, because no matter how successful I've been, I recognize that God is the source of everything that I have.

It changes the way that we see everything, it changes the way that we see people when we recognize that God is our source.

See, John, he he consistently said, Man, I I'm not the light.

I want us to I want us to think about that for a moment.

He says, I'm not, I'm not the light.

It's it's not about me.

I'm it's it's never been about me.

I am not the light.

Here's why that's so important, because that language, it connects itself to uh an earlier thought that's found in creation.

See, the Bible says that God created two great lights: a greater light to rule the day, a lesser light to rule the night.

We're talking about the sun and the moon.

So when John makes this phrase, he makes this statement, it's something that people were familiar with and understanding that there is the sun and that there is the moon.

Now, here's the thing that I've learned about moons.

Moons don't have light on their own, they are merely a reflection of the sun.

So the moon, it appears at night.

Greater light to rule the day, the lesser light, the humble light, it rules the night.

Church, we work the night shift, but God has called us to rule the night.

We're dealing in a dark world, but God has equipped us to rule the night.

You may be going through a dark season right now, but guess what?

You rule the night.

You may be having a dark season at work, but God has equipped you to rule the night.

The lesser light shall rule the night.

But here's the thing about suns and moons as long as there's no obstructions, there is not an eclipse.

Because whenever there's an eclipse, that light is no longer being seen.

And unfortunately, what happens a lot of times with us is that we are the lesser light, but we think that we're the greater light.

And we allow our pride and our ego to eclipse the light from the sun, and we're no longer effective moons.

But what God is saying, if I can recognize my place in his kingdom, that I am the lesser light, that means that I can walk around and say that I am not the light, that God is the source of everything that I have, and I am simply gonna shine in the midst of darkness.

But I'm not gonna allow my ego, I'm not gonna allow my pride, I'm not gonna allow my success to make me think that I am the greater light, that God is the source of my success, that God is the source of my anointing, that God is the source of everything that I have.

I am not the light.

I know that we may have some things that I can think about, the classes I took, the time that I've studied, the time that I've prayed, and even at the end of this service, Pastor Keith, great message.

Thank you so much.

I'm encouraged by your words, but in my mind I am saying, But I am not the light.

Apart from him, I can do nothing.

Oh my goodness, Pastor Keith, that outfit that you have on is so dope.

I know, I agree, but I am not the light.

God is my provider.

When you can get to a place where you understand that I am the lesser life, that allows me to be promoted to having dominion everywhere that I am at.

So maybe there's an area of your life where you don't have dominion.

Maybe that's an area where you need to understand that I am the lesser life, that Jesus is the one that gets all the glory, the honor, and the praise.

He's the one that gets all the credit.

I could not have done this in my own strength.

Apart from him, I can do nothing.

See, humility allows us to recognize and understand that I'm not the source.

It's not about me.

I'm I'm just merely a vessel, I'm an instrument that's in the hands of the great musician who's playing notes and and tunes for us to nod our heads to, but at the end of the day, I've just yielded myself.

But but here's the thing: humility is a choice that we have to make every single day.

Because even for a man who is as powerful, anointed, and predestined like John was, he still had a moment where he got weak.

See, scripture tells us that that John eventually gets arrested.

And while he's sitting in jail, this the same man who had this profound revelation about who Jesus was behold, the Lamb of God that comes to take away the sins of the world.

That's a that is such a deep theological revelation that no one else had in in John's era because they were all waiting for the Messiah to come to set up his earthly reign.

But John recognized that this man he's actually here to save the entire world.

Nobody was thinking that way then.

But when we fast forward just a little bit further, and John is sitting in a prison cell, frustrated, he poses this question Jesus, are you the one or should I find another?

What has happened in his life that got him from saying, Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, too?

Are you the one or should I find another?

Nothing changed on Jesus in John was now in a place where he had to truly be humble.

And what I found more often than not, there are seasons that we all go through where we're fired up about what God is doing as long as He's doing it through us.

But when we see something happening outside of us, Lord, is this the one or should I find another?

Lord, is I used I used to sing on a worship team, but they they asked me to sit down so I can get healthy.

So is this the church or should I find another?

Lord, I I really I really loved I love what's going on at celebration, but we had a lead pastor transition, so I don't know how I feel about the new guy.

So so is this the church or should I find another?

Lord, I know that I prayed about it and this is the spouse that you brought to me, but we're arguing about toothpaste.

So so is this is this the one or should I find another?

It's so interesting how we can begin to question what God has brought us when we are no longer the primary characters in the story.

Are you the one or should I find another?

What scripture tells us is that Jesus responds and says, Man, I'm still doing the work that I said I was gonna do.

Eyes are being opened, the lame is walking.

I'm doing the work.

Tell John to hold tight and to be encouraged.

Here's this here's the thing about John, he never gets out of jail.

He he literally dies in jail, he gets decapitated.

There is there is nothing provocative about that.

There's there's nothing that makes us stand on our feet and say, Yes, I want to be decapitated for Jesus.

Like, there's nothing exciting about that, but I truly believe that if we can look beyond the surface, there's a revelation in there that could be an encouragement to us.

John had to literally lose his head.

But when I think about head, that my eyes are attached to my head, my my ears are attached to my head, my my mouth is attached to my head, the way that I see things, the way that I hear things, the way that I say things, my mind is attached to my head, the way that I think about things.

John had to lose his head.

John had to literally lose his mind.

Now I didn't say mind M-I-N-D.

I said mind M-I-N-E.

That humility is when we lose our mind.

This ministry, it's mine.

This platform, it's mine.

This microphone, it's mine.

Where I live, it's mine.

These boots I got on, it's mine.

My children, they're mine.

This marriage, it's mine.

Let me carve out this territory and make sure y'all all know what is mine.

Let me create an altar to myself because it's all mine.

But when you renew your mind, you lose your mind.

It's not mine, it's his.

This church isn't mine, it's his.

This microphone's not mine, it's his.

My family, it's not mine, it's his.

This this everything I see God's doing, it's it's not because of me.

It's his.

When I when I look at how God is moving in our church, it's it's not me, it's it's him.

When I look at how God is moving in your lives, and and I get encouragement from your words, praise be to God, but it's it's not me, it's him.

We begin to recognize the power of God when we can say, it is not mine, it is his.

So, church, let that be the posture of our hearts.

My family, it's not mine, it's his.

My finances are not mine, they're his.

This breakthrough is not mine, it's his.

This joy that I have is not mine, it's his.

These kids that I got, they're not mine, they're his.

This healing in my body, it's not mine, it's his.

The fact that I can finish on the goodness of God, it's not from an old platform to everyone.

It's understanding that it's unto him, none of ourselves, doing our glory, and all that.

It's all about him.

So maybe you're with us today.

And here's the ultimate question.

What is the one area that you want to see an increase of Jesus in?

What is the one area that you need to grow in humility?

As you guys know, each week we provide these cards for you to simply write that down.

We're believing in this Advent season that as you declare that an area of your life where you simply want to see an increase of Jesus, we believe he's going to meet you exactly where you are.

With every head bowed and every eye closed, we're going to go back into worship in just a moment.

But I do want to pray for some people in here today.

If you're in here right now and you know there's an area of your life where you simply want to see an increase of Jesus, would you be bold enough to lift your hand where you are so I can pray for you?

One, two, three, hands up.

Amen.

Just I need to see an increase of Jesus.

More of him, more of him in my mind, more of him in my calling, more of him in my gifts, more of him in my marriage, more of him in my resources.

I just need to see more Jesus.

Hands up everywhere.

You can go ahead and put those hands down.

Here's my my next question, and we're going to go back into worship.

Maybe you're in here right now, and where you need to see Jesus the most is in your very own salvation.

Scripture tells us that in Philippians 2 that Jesus took upon the form of a servant and he humbled himself and became obedient even unto death.

So if an obedience was good enough for Jesus, it's an expectation for us and just simply being humble.

If you're in here with us today and you know that your very next step is to simply humble yourself and recognize that Jesus, that he is your Savior, and you want to commit or recommit your life to Christ, I would love to pray with you.

On account of three, would you mind boldly lifting your hands up amongst a community of people that want to celebrate with you?

One, two, three, hands up.

Amen.

God bless you.

Amen.

Amen.

You can be bold about it.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Come on, church.

Can we dig deeper and celebrate with those who are saying yes to Jesus?

Amen.

I want to pray for us.

And the pastor Mike's going to come out and give us some instructions at the end of the service, but I want us all to stay in here.

Let's just seal in what God is doing.

Humility.

Humility is a choice.

And I believe if we could choose to be humble, we could begin to see an increase of Jesus in every area of our lives.

Lord, I thank you.

I thank you for your goodness and I thank you for the sacrifice of Christ.

So, Father, we we yield ourselves right now, God.

Understanding that it's a choice.

Father, your spirit gives us the ability to walk in that choice.

So in the name of Jesus, I pray that we can decrease so that you can increase.

A decrease in our preferences, a decrease in our mindsets, a decrease in everything that maybe we do that puts us in opposition with you.

A decrease in the way that we engage in culture, God, that that doesn't allow us to be effective witnesses, God.

A decrease in the way that we see one another, God, and so that we can see each other the way that you see us, Father.

So Lord, in the name of Jesus, I pray for an increase of joy, an increase of peace, an increase of you.

And if there's any areas of our lives where we're standing in the way, reveal it to us.

Allow us to decrease so that you can increase.

And it's in Jesus' name that we pray, Amen and Amen.

Church, let's worship together.

Thank you for tuning in to today's podcast.

For more information about Celebration Orlando or to get in touch with us, please visit celebrationorlando.org.