SPEAKER_00: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: Can we thank our worship team for leading us this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning.
SPEAKER_00: It's good to be with you.
SPEAKER_00: My name's Mac.
SPEAKER_00: I'm one of the pastors on our team.
SPEAKER_00: Also, want to welcome all of you who are joining us from home.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for tuning in.
SPEAKER_00: Today marks the first Sunday in the season of Lent.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not familiar with it, here's one way to think about it what Advent is to Christmas, Lent is to Easter.
SPEAKER_00: So Lent is this 40-day period of time leading up to Easter each year that's marked really by a deeper spiritual engagement.
SPEAKER_00: We really buckle down and engage in Jesus and with Jesus in a deeper way in preparation for the joy that Easter brings.
SPEAKER_00: I often get asked the question isn't Lent just a Catholic thing?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer to that is no, it's a Christian thing.
SPEAKER_00: Christians from all denominations and affiliations lean into Lent each year.
SPEAKER_00: Now to help us do that, to lean into Lent, we're going to be getting, we're beginning a new series that we started last week and we're picking up with it today called Practicing Resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: One of the most common misunderstandings about resurrection among Christians is that it's just a future thing.
SPEAKER_00: That one day in the new heavens and the new earth you'll be given a new resurrected body.
SPEAKER_00: And that is definitely true.
SPEAKER_00: That is part of it.
SPEAKER_00: And I will tell you, as someone who's nearing his mid-40s, I can see the gift of that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm at that age where you can pull a hammy just putting on your socks in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: So I get it, and I hear it only gets worse.
SPEAKER_00: So for those of you who are older, I get it.
SPEAKER_00: There's gonna be a great day ahead.
SPEAKER_00: But when the New Testament talks about resurrection, it's not just talking about our resurrected bodies that we'll receive in the future.
SPEAKER_00: Because resurrection is not only something we wait for, it's something that we're invited to live into here and now.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, resurrection is not just a future promise, it's to be a present reality.
SPEAKER_00: It's something we're living into now because in Jesus Christ we've already been given new life.
SPEAKER_00: One of the ways that Scripture talks about this is by inviting and even challenging us to take off the old self and put on the new self.
SPEAKER_00: So Cameron walked through this last week in Colossians, but Paul uses this metaphor in quite a few places.
SPEAKER_00: In Ephesians 4, he says this you were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, and to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
SPEAKER_00: By God's grace, God invites us to practice resurrection in the here and now by taking off the old self and then putting on the new self, the new self that is in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to be clear, this isn't optional.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't an optional extra to following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This is a non-negotiable part of following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't just for super Christians or people who take their faith really seriously.
SPEAKER_00: This is for everyone.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone who claims to follow Jesus is to be leaning into this ongoing process of taking off the old, what doesn't belong, and putting on the new, our new identity in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Rebecca D.
SPEAKER_00: Young puts it this way.
SPEAKER_00: She says the moral project for a Christian, and by a Christian she means every Christian, is to die to the old self and rise to new life in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we're exploring in this series.
SPEAKER_00: How do we take off the old self and put on the new self by cooperating with God's grace at work in our lives, such that God actually transforms us from the inside out, and we're no longer held captive by vice, but actually live into virtue.
SPEAKER_00: We sort of shift from old ways of living to new ways of being.
SPEAKER_00: This is the goal of the Christian life, you guys.
SPEAKER_00: Repentance is not a one-time thing you do when you pray a prayer to receive Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's an ongoing thing that should characterize every day of our lives as followers of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This dying and rising is to be the rhythm of discipleship to Jesus, where we die to this and we to rise to this, this new life.
SPEAKER_00: I want to offer two quick preliminary words that will anchor us through the rest of this series.
SPEAKER_00: Cameron set this up last week, but they're worth hovering over, highlighting because it's so easy for us to forget these.
SPEAKER_00: The first is this that transformation is about attending to God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so transformation in the way of Jesus happens as we attend to God's grace at work in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: You all need to hear this because I've been a pastor for a while, and when I've encouraged and challenged some of you about an area of your life to grow into, the default is to try harder.
SPEAKER_00: The default is to think, okay, this is on me.
SPEAKER_00: I need to improve myself, I need to hustle a little bit more, I need to put a little bit more effort in.
SPEAKER_00: But transformation is not a self-help project.
SPEAKER_00: We actually need to jump off the treadmill of self-improvement right into the arms of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Grace is not opposed to effort, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Grace is opposed to earning.
SPEAKER_00: You're not trying to earn anything here, but rather your effort is to cooperate.
SPEAKER_00: Keep your heart open and attentive to the grace that God is bringing into your life so that you can receive it and surrender to it and be transformed by it.
SPEAKER_00: You guys following this?
SPEAKER_00: Most of you live your lives on the treadmill of self-improvement.
SPEAKER_00: That is not what we're talking about in this series.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about opening up to God's grace at work in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, transformation is about who we are, not just what we do.
SPEAKER_00: Transformation is about our character, not just external conformity to certain standards or behaviors.
SPEAKER_00: Aristotle, the famous philosopher, put it like this: He said there's a difference between living from something and living according to something.
SPEAKER_00: When you live from something, you're living from what's true about you.
SPEAKER_00: When you live according to something, you're living according to an external standard that you're trying to reach.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what got the Pharisees in trouble in the New Testament all the time, because Jesus would point out, yeah, you're living according to this external standard.
SPEAKER_00: You're modifying your behavior, but man, um on the inside, so the outside looks good, but on the inside, man, there's a major gap.
SPEAKER_00: Who you pretend to be on the outside is inconsistent with who you are on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to name that the project, the goal of transformation is an inside-out kind of thing, where we experience a renovation of our hearts, a reshaping of our character.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's about the who, not just the do.
SPEAKER_00: The entire thing is saturated in grace.
SPEAKER_00: We experience transformation to the degree we're open to God's grace, and when we respond to God's grace, he transforms who we are, not just what we do.
SPEAKER_00: So each week in this series, we're going to be naming something that God invites us to take off and something that God invites us to put on.
SPEAKER_00: Again, this is all by God's grace, not by our self-help or effort.
SPEAKER_00: This is about practicing resurrection, and let's remember you can't resurrect yourself.
SPEAKER_00: This is God's work in you.
SPEAKER_00: Today I want to talk about practicing humility.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, we need to take off pride and we need to put on humility.
SPEAKER_00: Growing up, uh, when it came to athletics, I was never big, still not a big individual, but I was very fast.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't big, but I was very fast.
SPEAKER_00: And do you guys remember like those presidential fitness tests?
SPEAKER_00: Do you guys remember?
SPEAKER_00: Do they still do those?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Um I, admittedly, I sucked at the sit and reach.
SPEAKER_00: Do you guys remember the sit and reach?
SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I was very inflexible.
SPEAKER_00: I basically got to like my knees, and that was about it.
SPEAKER_00: But everything else I crushed, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Especially the mile-long run.
SPEAKER_00: I came in first every year.
SPEAKER_00: I was very fast.
SPEAKER_00: And this was in like maybe the fifth grade.
SPEAKER_00: A group of friends were hanging out.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we were at a friend's house and they had a treadmill in the basement.
SPEAKER_00: And at some point, someone said, we should figure out who can run the fastest.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know if I went first, but at some point I jumped up really confidently, because I'm fast, right?
SPEAKER_00: And I start cranking the up arrows.
SPEAKER_00: I'm running pretty fast, like all out.
SPEAKER_00: And at one point I'm like, you know, I bet I could go a little bit faster.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00: Like maybe a notch or two, and I reach while I'm running full speed to hit the up arrow and I trip and I fall.
SPEAKER_00: And I hit that treadmill belt going like I don't know, a million miles per hour, and it shoots me out the back.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever seen one of those gym fail videos?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that was me in the fifth grade, and nobody asked if I was okay because they were all laughing hysterically.
SPEAKER_00: I'm pretty sure one person wet their pants, they were laughing so hard.
SPEAKER_00: Um, if you were to try to explain what happened in that moment, uh, here's how Proverbs 16, 18 would describe it.
SPEAKER_00: Pride goes before destruction.
SPEAKER_00: A haughty spirit before a fall, right?
SPEAKER_00: Pride goes before a fall, and for me, that fall happened on a treadmill in front of a bunch of people.
SPEAKER_00: It was embarrassing.
SPEAKER_00: I imagine most of us have had embarrassing moments in life, right?
SPEAKER_00: And these can happen on a spectrum from like really, really embarrassing to minor embarrassment, but it sort of hits your pride a little bit, right?
SPEAKER_00: You need to know this though, that when the Bible talks about pride, it's not talking about just an embarrassing moment.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually not what the Bible is talking about.
SPEAKER_00: It can include it.
SPEAKER_00: But pride is a pernicious habit of the heart that is at work whenever sin is present.
SPEAKER_00: It's much more sinister and destructive than we often give uh credit for.
SPEAKER_00: It's why many theologians uh see pride as the sin behind every pride, or the sin behind every sin.
SPEAKER_00: It's a posture of the heart that drives all sin.
SPEAKER_00: Wherever sin is present, pride is usually there.
SPEAKER_00: That's the point.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what I want to do today is I want to name or define what pride is.
SPEAKER_00: Then I want to talk about why it's so destructive.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the work it does, and then in light of that, I want to talk about how we can take it off and actually put on this virtue of humility, how we can practice humility as a way of living into resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: So let me uh first, what is pride?
SPEAKER_00: And I want to name what it is not, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Um here's what I don't mean by pride.
SPEAKER_00: Pride is not about being proud of something or someone.
SPEAKER_00: As I started to think about this um word pride, I realized I actually use the word pride or proud quite a bit, and not in a negative way.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so for instance, um the all three times I uh uh welcomed a child into the world when my boys were born, I was like filled with incredible pride.
SPEAKER_00: They hadn't done anything, um, they were truly helpless, but I was so proud of like being a dad and that this is a new life and and so on.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: That that is like a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's a natural delight, a good delight in someone or something.
SPEAKER_00: Um I regularly tell you guys as a pastor when I see you responding to something God is doing in your life, especially when it requires courage or vulnerability, that I'm proud of you.
SPEAKER_00: I tell my boys all the time, I'm proud of you.
SPEAKER_00: Um that is not what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: That is a natural delight.
SPEAKER_00: It's a good thing to delight in someone or something else.
SPEAKER_00: In the Bible, pride has to do with an overinflated view of oneself.
SPEAKER_00: An overinflated view of oneself.
SPEAKER_00: When the Bible talks about pride, it's about having an overinflated, exaggerated view of yourself, a grandiose sense of your importance and or your abilities.
SPEAKER_00: And what's really important is that pride often shows up in overstepping the boundaries or limits of who we are.
SPEAKER_00: It's trying to be something more than God created us to be.
SPEAKER_00: And this kind of pride, you guys, predates human beings.
SPEAKER_00: Um it's the kind of pride that shows up in the fall in Genesis 3, but it's also present and what drove the fall before the fall.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So the Bible doesn't give us a ton of detail about this.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna make that aware, about the fall before the fall, but it's clear that something happened before the fall in Genesis 3.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, how do you explain Satan showing up as a serpent to tempt Adam and Eve?
SPEAKER_00: Clearly, something happened before this moment.
SPEAKER_00: And most theologians would say, yes, some sort of uh fall happened in the angelic realm before it happened in the human one.
SPEAKER_00: Is this making sense?
SPEAKER_00: And we don't get a lot of details about it.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know exactly what happened.
SPEAKER_00: But one passage that seems to give us some insight is Isaiah 14.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a cryptic passage.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so there's some um scholarly debate about whether that's what this is actually describing.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but most commentators, and certainly this has been the majority of opinion throughout church history, the traditional view is that this is describing the fall of Satan.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what makes it tricky is that the first 11 verses are clearly about the king of Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar.
SPEAKER_00: And what it's talking about is his pride that is going to lead to his destruction.
SPEAKER_00: So it's sort of foretelling King Nebuchadnezzar's fall from glory.
SPEAKER_00: But then in verse 12, things shift a little bit, and many commentators think, oh, we're no longer just talking about um the King of Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: We're we're sort of describing a bigger reality of which he is going to be a part.
SPEAKER_00: So here it is, Isaiah 14, 12 through 15 says this.
SPEAKER_00: How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of dawn.
SPEAKER_00: You have been cast down to earth, you who once laid low the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Now watch this.
SPEAKER_00: You said in your heart, I will ascend to the heavens, I will raise my throne above the stars of God.
SPEAKER_00: I will sit enthroned on the Mount of Assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.
SPEAKER_00: I will ascend above the tops of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High.
SPEAKER_00: But you were brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit.
SPEAKER_00: Notice how verse 12 starts.
SPEAKER_00: It says, You have fallen from heaven, which is the first indicator that we're no longer dealing with King Nebuchadnezzar, but perhaps an angelic being, because uh King Nebuchadnezzar never was in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And then notice the phrase morning star.
SPEAKER_00: Um this refers to the planet Venus.
SPEAKER_00: Venus is the brightest star in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: It shines the brightest the longest, and then it quickly goes out.
SPEAKER_00: And in the ancient Near Eastern world, this became a metaphor for overreaching pride, a deity shining bright, but then being brought low.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh throughout church history, this passage has been, it's been believed, is referring to Satan's fall.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: In fact, uh just a fun fact for you the the the word morning, that phrase morning star, when this was first translated into Latin for the Latin Vulgate in 404 A.D.
SPEAKER_00: by Jerome, it it the word used there in Latin was Lucifer.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where um Lucifer became associated as a name for Satan.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so it's part of that translation process.
SPEAKER_00: Um that's my conviction.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that this passage gives us some detail about Satan's fall from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And the basic idea is that Satan was created to be good because God is good, and God cannot be the author of evil.
SPEAKER_00: So he had angels that were there to cooperate in his gracious activity in ruling creation.
SPEAKER_00: And Satan appeared to be pretty high up, pretty important, and at some point pride entered his heart.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what the passage says.
SPEAKER_00: He said in his heart, I will raise my throne.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna raise my throne.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ascend.
SPEAKER_00: I will make myself like the Most High.
SPEAKER_00: So Satan, in pride enters Satan's heart, and in that pride, he wants to be more than God created him to be.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to improve his standing, he wants to take God's place.
SPEAKER_00: And that pride leads to an inflated sense of significance and it leads to his destruction.
SPEAKER_00: You guys following this?
SPEAKER_00: Some of you?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Notice that this, you guys, is the exact same temptation Adam and Eve are presented with in Genesis 3.
SPEAKER_00: Adam and Eve were created in God's image with infinite value and worth, right?
SPEAKER_00: And the serpent shows up, which Revelation tells us is Satan.
SPEAKER_00: So Satan shows up and whispers in Adam and Eve's ear, you're not enough.
SPEAKER_00: You are not enough.
SPEAKER_00: You can be more.
SPEAKER_00: The lie is identical to the one that Satan bought into that led to his fall.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not enough.
SPEAKER_00: I don't like my current standing.
SPEAKER_00: I want to improve it, so I'm gonna reach for more.
SPEAKER_00: Adam and Eve, of course, buy into this lie.
SPEAKER_00: They try to become like God, they eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, something God told them not to do.
SPEAKER_00: They violate the limits, the boundaries God had put in place, and it leads to their destruction.
SPEAKER_00: This is what's ironic, so notice this.
SPEAKER_00: This is so important.
SPEAKER_00: Notice that at the root of pride is actually insecurity.
SPEAKER_00: At the root of pride is actually insecurity.
SPEAKER_00: God created us with infinite value and worth that we receive for free.
SPEAKER_00: We can't add to it, we can't subtract to it, all we can do is open our hands and receive it.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: But pride distorts that truth.
SPEAKER_00: It starts with the lie that I'm not enough as I am.
SPEAKER_00: I need to become something more, and out of that lie, what ends up happening is we reach, we grasp, we hustle, we want to try to become more.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Satan did.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not satisfied with my current standing, I need to become more.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he convinces Adam and Eve to do.
SPEAKER_00: So in both cases, they step beyond the limits and boundaries that God had put in place, and they reach for more value, worth, and significance despite the fact that they have all they need right now for free.
SPEAKER_00: At the root of pride is actually insecurity, a fragile and flimsy identity that needs to be improved upon by achieving or performing or becoming something more.
SPEAKER_00: It's why the most arrogant people you will encounter in life are actually the most insecure.
SPEAKER_00: When you get underneath the bravado and the grandiosity, all what you'll see is fragility, an insecure identity that's ultimately compensating through a whole lot of hustle.
SPEAKER_00: To compensate for an inner ache, an inner sense of worthlessness, a disconnection from the value and worth that's already available to them in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: A desperate attempt to make myself bigger and better and greater, but underneath it is a misunderstanding, a disconnection from the worth I already have.
SPEAKER_00: This is why you guys, scripture, consistently.
SPEAKER_00: I already mentioned Proverbs 16, 18, but this is a huge theme in the book of Proverbs.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it says in Proverbs 18:12.
SPEAKER_00: Before a downfall, the heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.
SPEAKER_00: 11 2.
SPEAKER_00: When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 29, 23, pride brings a person low.
SPEAKER_00: Exact opposite of what it wants.
SPEAKER_00: But the lowly in spirit gain honor.
SPEAKER_00: What's more is that in numerous places in Scripture, God actually sides with the humble and opposes the proud.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you just a couple examples of this.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 57, 25.
SPEAKER_00: God dwells with the contrite and the lowly.
SPEAKER_00: Dwells with, he's present to, but not the proud.
SPEAKER_00: In James 4, 6, it says, God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble.
SPEAKER_00: So central to practicing resurrection, living into this new way of life, rooted in your identity in Christ, is practicing humility by taking off pride and putting on humility.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what 1 Peter 5 invites us to step into.
SPEAKER_00: In 1 Peter 5, he says, Peter says, all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble.
SPEAKER_00: Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.
SPEAKER_00: Did you catch that metaphor?
SPEAKER_00: Clothe yourselves with humility.
SPEAKER_00: Every day you have to put on clothes, unless you want to embarrass yourself, right?
SPEAKER_00: You put on clothes.
SPEAKER_00: You got to put on the right ones.
SPEAKER_00: And so Peter says, don't put on pride.
SPEAKER_00: Take pride off.
SPEAKER_00: Throw those garments away, and instead clothe yourselves with humility.
SPEAKER_00: But remember that the root of pride is not an inflated sense of self.
SPEAKER_00: It's the opposite.
SPEAKER_00: It's an insecure self.
SPEAKER_00: It appears to be an inflated sense of self, but underneath it is actually the opposite.
SPEAKER_00: It's an insecure self.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is why, if we're going to put on humility and take off pride, it doesn't start with trying harder.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't start with hustling.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about performing, it's about receiving.
SPEAKER_00: It's about receiving your identity in Christ and learning how to rest in it securely.
SPEAKER_00: So here's our bottom line for today.
SPEAKER_00: Practicing humility involves receiving our identity in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And I might even add the word resting.
SPEAKER_00: Practicing humility involves receiving and resting in our identity in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Pride is driven by insecurity, an attempt to add to my worth because I don't feel like I'm enough as I am.
SPEAKER_00: Humility is the opposite.
SPEAKER_00: It's driven by a deep security, a deep knowing of who and whose I am, such that I don't need to hustle, I don't need to try harder, because I'm already at rest in who I am.
SPEAKER_00: Those who know who they are and whose they belong to, those who live from their identity in Christ have nothing to hide, nothing to prove, and nothing to lose.
SPEAKER_00: They have nothing to hide because they know that God knows everything about them, including all their junk.
SPEAKER_00: God knows them completely and still loves them perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: So they've got nothing to hide.
SPEAKER_00: I can be completely honest with God, even about my faults and failures, the warts and the blemishes.
SPEAKER_00: I've got nothing to prove because whatever I can do, whatever accomplishments that may accompany my effort, don't add to my significance at all.
SPEAKER_00: I can't, in fact, prove or improve my standing at all.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, I also can't lose anything.
SPEAKER_00: Because no matter how I fall short or how I mess up, it doesn't take away from my inherent value as God's beloved child.
SPEAKER_00: Are you guys seeing this?
SPEAKER_00: And so the key to practicing humility is to know your identity, to know who you are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And then you don't have to hustle anymore.
SPEAKER_00: You can rest.
SPEAKER_00: The ultimate example of this kind of humility is, of course, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Just think about it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' entire life was marked by and characterized by humility.
SPEAKER_00: It's how he enters the world.
SPEAKER_00: He's born to a Jewish peasant couple from a no-name town in the middle of nowhere.
SPEAKER_00: His bed is a feeding trough for animals.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't get more humble than that.
SPEAKER_00: You look at Jesus' ministry, the entire thing was characterized by unbelievable humility.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't have a home.
SPEAKER_00: He lived in poverty.
SPEAKER_00: He moved towards those on the margins, the overlooked.
SPEAKER_00: He cared for the sick and the hurting.
SPEAKER_00: And then ultimately he dies in the most humiliating way you could possibly die, buck naked on a cross.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Now remember that the foundation of humility is a secure identity.
SPEAKER_00: The foundation to humility is a secure identity.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing who you are and whose you are.
SPEAKER_00: And this is why, friends, Jesus throughout the Gospels resists every temptation he faces to prove himself.
SPEAKER_00: The people around him wanted to do things and become things to gain momentum.
SPEAKER_00: He consistently refused to do so.
SPEAKER_00: The best example of this is in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: After Jesus' baptism, he goes into the wilderness to fast and pray for 40 days.
SPEAKER_00: And at his weakest moment, Satan comes to tempt him.
SPEAKER_00: And he tempts Jesus with the same lie that he bought into.
SPEAKER_00: If you're really the Son of God, prove it.
SPEAKER_00: Turn the stone into bread.
SPEAKER_00: Jump from the high place so everybody can see it.
SPEAKER_00: Bow down and worship me, all this could be yours.
SPEAKER_00: If you're really God's son, prove it.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus consistently refuses to do so.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he knew who he was, and he knew whose he was.
SPEAKER_00: He had just come from his baptism, where before he did anything, a voice spoke over him.
SPEAKER_00: This is my son, the one whom I love, and am well pleased.
SPEAKER_00: That's all that Jesus needed.
SPEAKER_00: I'm God's son, I'm dearly loved, and God is pleased in me as I am.
SPEAKER_00: I have nothing to prove at all.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm going to refuse to do so.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, as followers of Jesus, you guys, our life's work in cooperating with God's grace is to become like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Your life project is to surrender to God's grace such that you become more like Jesus and you live your life in a Jesus-looking way.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're about as a church community.
SPEAKER_00: We follow a Jesus-looking God.
SPEAKER_00: We're seeking to become a Jesus-looking community, and we want to engage the world in a Jesus-looking way.
SPEAKER_00: So the same kind of humility that Jesus embodied, rooted in a secure identity, is the same kind of humility we're to practice and live out.
SPEAKER_00: We're to live like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now, sometimes Jesus can feel out of reach, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because he was fully God and fully human.
SPEAKER_00: So let me give you an example of a human being that I think embodied this kind of humility that wasn't also God, all right?
SPEAKER_00: And that is John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: I want to close by talking about John the Baptist for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that John the Baptist was a forerunner to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So he launched his public ministry before Jesus launched his, and his primary purpose was to prepare the way for Jesus, to prepare the people of Israel to encounter the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: And as he does that, what ends up happening is he gains a following.
SPEAKER_00: He ends up having his own disciples who are following him.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: In John chapter 3, something really interesting happens.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to read to you starting in verse 26.
SPEAKER_00: It says, they, referring to John the Baptist's disciples here.
SPEAKER_00: So John's disciples come to John and they say to him, This, Rabbi, referring to John the Baptist, that man, referring to Jesus, was with you on the other side of the Jordan, the one you testified about.
SPEAKER_00: Look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.
SPEAKER_00: To this John replied, A person can receive only what is given them from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: You yourselves can testify that I said, I'm not the Messiah, but I'm sent ahead of him.
SPEAKER_00: The bride belongs to the bridegroom.
SPEAKER_00: The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice.
SPEAKER_00: That joy is mine, and it is now complete.
SPEAKER_00: He must become greater, I must become less.
SPEAKER_00: So John's disciples see everyone now beginning to follow Jesus, and they bring this to John's attention with a certain degree of alarm.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, the people that were once following you are now following him.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't this concerning to you?
SPEAKER_00: People are no longer focused on you, they're focused on him.
SPEAKER_00: And notice how John responds.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I can only receive what has been given to me from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, Look, I can only live into what God has asked me to do.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to reach for more.
SPEAKER_00: I'm content with the assignment that God has given to me to prepare the way for him.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I've already told you and been very clear from the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not your guy.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: My role is to point to the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: So he's don't look at me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the wrong person to be looking at.
SPEAKER_00: And then he uses this analogy.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, look, I'm like a groomsman.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not the groom.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the groomsman.
SPEAKER_00: My job is to wait on and delight in the groom.
SPEAKER_00: That's the groom.
SPEAKER_00: He must become greater.
SPEAKER_00: He must increase.
SPEAKER_00: I must decrease.
SPEAKER_00: You guys seeing this?
SPEAKER_00: John resists the temptation to try to make something more of himself.
SPEAKER_00: He actually instructs his disciples as they're alarmed about a shift of focus from him to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And he's able to do this because he knows exactly who he is and whose he is.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I've been asked to do.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need to do anything more, and so I'm going to resist your pressure to do so.
SPEAKER_00: My job is to point to the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus must increase.
SPEAKER_00: I must decrease.
SPEAKER_00: You guys, if you're going to give witness to Jesus in your life, that's the posture.
SPEAKER_00: It's not making yourself more impressive, achieving or accomplishing more.
SPEAKER_00: It's resting secure in who you are, being faithful to what God's called you to do, and pointing to Him.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a world dominated, you guys, by Satan's lie that we need to add to our worth.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a world where just like John's disciples, there's all these messages we encounter every single day in loud ways and little whispers that says, oh my goodness, you need to do something here.
SPEAKER_00: Look, they're getting all the attention.
SPEAKER_00: They're the ones who are getting notice.
SPEAKER_00: They're getting applauded and celebrated.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you think that should be you?
SPEAKER_00: And then we treat value and worth and significance like a zero-sum game.
SPEAKER_00: Like if they have it, then that must mean I have less of it.
SPEAKER_00: And so we hustle and we try to compete and we try to outdo one another for a little bit more honor.
SPEAKER_00: It's like this hamster wheel of hustle, of trying to improve our worth, which never works.
SPEAKER_00: And so eventually, like me on the treadmill, we fall off completely exhausted and humiliated, going, How do I live life?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is sitting there going, I never asked you to jump on a hamster wheel.
SPEAKER_00: I never asked you to run as fast as you can.
SPEAKER_00: All the value, worth, and significance you need has been available all the time, this entire time, by virtue of the fact that I created you and you belong to me.
SPEAKER_00: Rest in it.
SPEAKER_00: Receive in it.
SPEAKER_00: You've got nothing to hide, nothing to prove, and nothing to lose.
SPEAKER_00: Rest in it.
SPEAKER_00: You want to take off pride, you got to deal with and reckon with your insecurity.
SPEAKER_00: And the only way you're going to reckon with that insecurity is by knowing who you are and whose you are.
SPEAKER_00: In terms of action steps this week, here are some prayer prompts for you.
SPEAKER_00: Create some space to be with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Pray through the following very slowly and carefully.
SPEAKER_00: Where have I believed the lie that I'm not enough as I am?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Where do you think you're not enough in your life?
SPEAKER_00: That you somehow need to prove it, do something more?
SPEAKER_00: And what areas of my life am I trying to reach or grasp for more?
SPEAKER_00: Is it through work?
SPEAKER_00: Is it through your physique?
SPEAKER_00: The clothes you wear?
SPEAKER_00: How smart you are, how successful you are?
SPEAKER_00: What would it look like to receive my identity in Christ rather than try to prove it?
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned this exercise on the podcast a while back, but when I was in my 20s, maybe even late teens, I went through every verse that talked about my identity in Christ and just sat with those verses like one description for a week.
SPEAKER_00: It took me over a year.
SPEAKER_00: But that might be a helpful exercise for you to go, to say, what is my identity in Christ?
SPEAKER_00: And spend a week in each passage that describes who you are.
SPEAKER_00: Here's some practices for you this week.
SPEAKER_00: Receive before you achieve.
SPEAKER_00: Begin each day by sitting quietly and receiving Jesus' love for you.
SPEAKER_00: Receive it and rest in it before you set out to make a big difference in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Choose hidden service.
SPEAKER_00: Do one act of service that no one sees and no one applauds.
SPEAKER_00: Become that kind of person that humbly serves others, doesn't need other people to recognize it or feel like it matters.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, put someone else first.
SPEAKER_00: Intentionally put someone else's interests before your own this week.
SPEAKER_00: If you're married, there's lots of opportunities to do this.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I see some of you married couples kind of nudging each other.
SPEAKER_00: What if you both did this?
SPEAKER_00: Imagine how that would improve your marriage if you both were trying to put each other's interests before your own.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: Talk about an intimacy igniter.
SPEAKER_00: Whew.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Um we have the uh soup and chili cook-off uh after the second service.
SPEAKER_00: And I really want to encourage you to be present for it.
SPEAKER_00: It is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Um just some instructions in case you come back.
SPEAKER_00: I've been instructed to give some instructions.
SPEAKER_00: So um we don't have one line.
SPEAKER_00: So when you get down there, just find a table and then jump right in because it's kind of like you can try anything on the tables where there's soup and chili.
SPEAKER_00: Be intentional about connecting with other people.
SPEAKER_00: The entire point of this is not to see whose chillier soup is the best, it's to connect together as a community.
SPEAKER_00: So go out of your way to sit with other people, don't let anybody be sitting at a table by themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Let's lean in and connect as a community.
SPEAKER_00: And then also, we have a scoring system that's somewhat similar to our Electoral College, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So uh if if you try one super chili and vote, well you get one vote.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: But your vote doesn't count as much as someone who tried like nine.
SPEAKER_00: Their vote counts as nine.
SPEAKER_00: See how that works?
SPEAKER_00: So the person who tries nine soups or chilies is sort of like the city of Chicago.
SPEAKER_00: Their vote matters a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Our attempt to keep it fair.
SPEAKER_00: And it's consistent with the Constitution, isn't it, Randy?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're all right.
SPEAKER_00: Um, let me pray for us as we leave today.
SPEAKER_00: And you guys can stand.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Jesus, we thank you for creating us with infinite value and worth simply by the virtue of the fact that we're your beloved children.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, how we've bought into this lie, that we need to improve upon that in order to really matter.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that we would do the opposite this week, that we'd learn how to rest in and receive our value, worth, and significance that we have in you.
SPEAKER_00: Take us deeper into your love, that we might live from a place of security and humility.
SPEAKER_00: We ask it in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.