— Welcome & Introduction — Good morning, everybody. Lillian, thanks for singing for us. So beautiful. If you have a Bible in your pocket or on your lap, find 1 Peter chapter 5. As we prepare for communion, I have a quote and I have a confession. The Bible tells us to search our hearts and to prepare for communion in that way, so I have a little bit of confession.
But here's the quote. Humility is the virtue, the one virtue, that no one can claim and still keep. The one virtue no one can claim and still keep. Let me tell you a little story of confession.
Judy and I celebrated our 45th anniversary of knowing each other last month. Later this year, we will celebrate 40 years of marriage. In those 40 years, we will celebrate 40 years of marriage. 45 some odd years, especially the last 40 of marriage, I can only count maybe a handful of what I would call serious disagreements or arguments. Only a handful. I think we did most of our fighting while we were dating. So when we decided to just be in love and marry, we just decided to get along. Except for a handful, three or four, that I can remember. But there has been a smaller problem that we have had in a recurring fashion. And it has to do with that word, fashion. And it shows up with particular regularity on Sunday morning. When she looks at me and says, you're wearing that? One of the reasons that you almost never see me wearing shorts here at chapel, like the rest of you, has to do with this conversation.
As a matter of fact, one of the worst encounters that Judy and I have had in 40 years was when I was about to preach my first Easter sermon at our church in McKinney, and she said, you're wearing that? The opportunity of this conversation actually presented itself again on Tuesday. I was going to eat with her and a couple of friends. We were going to go have a pizza together. And I had been at work, and I was wearing much of what I am wearing right now. Might have been exactly this pair of slacks, except I had on sandals. And she said, that's not a good look. I'm not wearing any shoes. I'm not wearing any shoes. I'm not wearing any shoes.
I didn't say a word. I just went to the closet and found some other shoes. I didn't say a word. I just went to the closet and found some other shoes. I didn't say a word. I just went to the closet and found some other shoes. I didn't say a word. I just went to the closet and found some other shoes.
I didn't say a word. I just went to the closet and found some other shoes. to say about how you dress now we know that there's a connection not just for Christians but for a lot of people of different kinds of faith if you've seen— Visible signs of faith — as a Sikh you know them perhaps instantly because of the turban that they wear if you have friends that are members of the Church of Latter-day Saints you know that they are known for their hidden temple garment if you have friends that are Jewish you know that the men are always identified by the yarmulke when it comes to the time of of worship and holy days that skull cap that small cap that sits on their head and of course our Muslim friends that we see all around the world are particularly the ladies anyway known for wearing what is called a job as a matter of fact this particular garment of faith has become a worldwide controversy in the last few years particularly because of a young Muslim woman back in 2023 who was killed because she refused in her home country in the Middle East to wear the traditional headdress a job in her country you may have followed this conversation a little bit Muslim women around the world in Europe and in America are fighting for the right to wear a hijab in Western countries but in Arab countries where many of them originate from they're fighting to not have to wear a hijab and so the conversation goes no particular thing at least outwardly that God says that you and I must wear but there is something he wants us to put on that will be seen everywhere so out of reverence and justice let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let's not let— Scripture passage on humility — would have you, not out of greed for money, but eagerly, not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. In the same way, you who are younger be subject to the elders. Now listen to this next verse. All of you, all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another because God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all of your cares on him because he cares about you. May God bless the reading of his word. Would you have a seat?
— The garment of humility — God cares about what we wear, especially this garment called humility, the crown of glory. God cares about what we wear, especially this garment called humility, the core essence of our faith, really a synonym for what we would call holiness. That this garment of humility is the uniform for every Christian in the kingdom of God. And every day, Jesus says, put this on. Clothe yourself with this spirit. So as we prepare to take on communion, which reminds us of the humility and the humility of God, we're going to take on the spirit of humility. And the humiliation of Jesus for us. I want you to think about what it means to wear the garment, the holy uniform of humility every single day. The first thing you need to know about it is that it is both a commitment and a choice. The commitment is God's. The choice is yours and mine. Because God has wired the universe according to the quote that is found in this passage, from Proverbs chapter 3. Really rare, not very many quotes of the book of Proverbs in the New Testament, but both James and Peter focus on this particular verse out of chapter 3, verse 34, in the book of Proverbs. God resists. God is opposed, the way James phrases it. God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. You follow that thread from the book of James, Genesis to the book of Revelation. This is not just an idea. It's not just a principle. It is the law of how God has ordered the universe of all things. He has dead set himself against arrogance and pride that tries to separate itself from him as the author, sustainer, and redeemer of all life. That's why the Bible and theologians for centuries, have said that arrogance, pride, is the greatest core vice, and humility is the core virtue of what it means to follow after God in faith. We saw this begin in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve.
It is their arrogance buying into a deception that Satan offered to them that ultimately leads them to reject the leadership and authority of God in their lives. And God has been about for thousands of years now, unfolding his plan of redemption that can only be accessed when you and I choose to clothe our lives in humility. The law of God is this.
We either choose in faith and in love to humble ourselves toward God, or he has ordered the universe that we will be humiliated by his universe. So the commitment is his, unwavering in its depth and its breath. But the choice is ours. A very clear command, clothe yourself. The tense of this language means continually, regularly, daily. When you get up in the morning, you decide that you're going to put on this robe, this garment, this uniform, and you're going to wear humility in every place, every situation, every decision that you go, that you are going to look to depend upon God and live your life out of a healthy relationship of trust, dependence, and courage.
It's kind of ironic that Peter is writing this. Peter is known historically, and even jokingly, as the disciple of Jesus who was good at opening his mouth so he could insert his foot. And if you follow this message, you're going to be a little bit more confident. the journey of Jesus and Peter and their relationship, you know that it goes to incredible pinnacles. Jesus takes Peter and the twelve to the far north of Israel, to a beautiful place that you can still visit today, and he asks them, who do the people say that I am? And the disciples are offering different suggestions, but then Jesus says, who do you say I am? And God gives Peter a revelation that is in the heart of all of them except for Judas. You are the Christ, you are the Messiah, you are the Savior, you're the promised one. And in that very moment, some would say Peter is singled out for special position in leadership. But do you know that within just a few minutes, within just a few statements, Peter challenges the authority and the direction that Jesus is going toward the cross and tries to stop him so that the next thing that Jesus says to him is, get behind me, Satan, because you're not thinking my thoughts. You are not thinking in the humility that God would want you to live out. It's not long after that, that Jesus has Peter and the disciples in the upper room, and he inaugurates the very first last supper as a way of commemorating what he is about to do on the cross. After they have that supper, they walk down the Kidron Valley back into the Garden of Gethsemane, and you remember the story as Judas and the soldiers approach, Peter draws out one of the swords and slashes off a man's ear, intending obviously to kill him, only again to be rebuked by Jesus for not humbly trusting what Jesus knows is supposed to happen. Peter is famous, of course, for what will unfold in the hours of that late night. Where he follows the arresting party back into Jerusalem, and three different times he denies that he even knows who Jesus is. You could imagine that for the rest of his life, when the rooster alarm clock went off, Peter was reminded of his greatest failure the night that Jesus was arrested.
But then we read this beautiful story in John 21, where Jesus is resurrected from life and is taken to the tomb of Jesus. And he is taken to the tomb of Jesus, and he is taken to the tomb of Jesus. And he is taken to the tomb of Jesus. And he is taken to the tomb of Jesus. And he appears to them on the side of the Sea of Galilee. He cooks breakfast for them and has an extended conversation with Peter, saying to him three times, echoing his three denials, do you love me? And he restores him to a place of service, to a place of effectiveness. And he becomes the spokesman for the gospel when the church is formally born, and the Holy Spirit comes on the day of Pentecost. What an incredible story of learning what it means to choose to wrap yourself in humility every single day. Peter is a walking, living example of what he is talking about here. So today and tomorrow and every day for the rest of your life, if you hear the Capital One commercial echoing in your ear, what's in your heart? What's in your heart? What's in your wallet? Remember that that's a question from the world. The world wants to know what's in your wallet. Jesus wants to know what's in your closet, what's in your sock drawer, what's in your dresser. And every morning that you get up and decide to walk with him, he wants to know, will you put on the uniform, the royal robe of humility, and depend on him, live your life with him, for him, and through him every single day?
Because that's what God is committed to. The second thing you need to know about this garment is that it never goes out of style. I don't know how many different looks it may have, but it never goes out of style. And it almost feels to me like the statement, the very last statement I read to you out of verse 7, is out of place.
Cast all of your anxiety upon him. What a word for our generation. Casting all of your anxiety upon him. Cast all of your anxiety upon him because he cares for you. How in the world does that fit in Peter's thinking at this moment about humility? Well, he seems to take us back.
That it is our fear, it is our anxiety that leads us to not be humble. Do you ever hear this phrase? You know, I'm trying to get over my FOMO. That acronym is the fear of missing out. Do you know that that's not something that today's teenagers or young adults invented? It goes all the way back again to the Garden of Eden.
One of the reasons, perhaps, that Adam and Eve chose to rebel and not be humble before God is because they bought into the lie from Satan that they would miss out on something, that they would miss out on the opportunity to be equal to or even greater than God, and they needed to follow.
They needed to follow his line of worship rather than the worship that they had known with God. Perhaps they were afraid that they would miss out. Perhaps they were afraid that this God who had created them and cared for them and created this perfect environment for them was actually not a good God. And that cycle of fear and pride began to grow. And it's been spinning ever since.
It's run over every one of our lives. The end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end gospel just invades the early church and the early believers, fills them with amazing courage and boldness. They are not afraid to be thrown in jail. They are not afraid to be whipped with rods and lashes. They are living out this bold testimony that grows from humility of, we cannot stop talking about this resurrected Jesus. But then the story has a few wrinkles in it.
— Peter's hypocrisy revealed in Galatians — You read further in your Bible and you get down to the letter to the Galatians. And Paul is inspired to write that this group of churches in Galatia who are struggling to stay loyal, to stay humble before God, needs to grow in their appreciation of Jesus and in their humble dependence upon him. They don't need to hedge their bet and base their life on anything other than what Jesus did for them on the cross. And then he's led, ironically, to include this story about his brother in Christ, Peter. And so in Galatians chapter 1, he says that when he came to the churches of Galatia, he bumped into Peter. But when they were worshiping together and fellowshipping together around meals, there were some people that came from Jerusalem, some of Peter's old Jewish friends, and Peter decides, oh, I don't want them to see Peter. I don't want Peter. I don't want Peter. I don't want Peter. me hanging out with the Gentiles. And a really interesting encounter takes place. Paul says, I stood up to him face to face in front of everybody. I called out Peter as a hypocrite.
The same Peter that had declared Jesus to be the Messiah, the same Peter that had preached on the day the Holy Spirit came and 3,000 or more people were saved, that same Peter slipped back into his old clothes of being a people pleaser, of being a hypocrite, of not wearing the royal uniform of humility. It can happen to any of us. That's why we need to know that this is a regular choice to make, and we also need to remember the promise that God has attached to it. It's like Peter is so caught up with what God is teaching, teaching him here, that he has to repeat both the command and the promise twice. So he quotes from Proverbs, God resists the proud, but here's the promise, he gives grace to the humble. And in the very next verse, he repeats the same idea. Humble yourself under God's mighty hand so that he can exalt you, he can lift you up at the proper time. Now that's an interesting idea. That if we will learn to live our lives in proper dependence upon God, recognizing his presence always, asking for his help consistently, bringing our weaknesses, our needs, our failures, our hopes, our dreams, bring that to God consistently over and over again, we can trust his timing. Because that's where a lot of our problem comes from. We call it being impatient. Do you know that it is fear that drives your sense of impatience?
That we want what we want, and we want it right now. But one of the marks of true, increasing, maturing faith is that we are trusting in God's timing and in God's power. That he will do what he said, that he will lift us up because he is for us, not against us. And that at the right time, the timing that only he properly understands, he will lift us up to the greatest and highest of blessings.
I think I may have told you a couple of weeks ago, but let me remind you. I was sitting in church in McKinney a few weeks ago with Judy, and the pastor told a story about a friend of his who always had the same answer when somebody would ask him, hey, how can I pray for you? I was so taken by that story I took it and then I've adapted it to be my own prayer.
I just find myself bumping back into this prayer over and over and over again. It might be one that you want to pray. Every day, every situation, every problem, every hope, every opportunity, God would you make me humble? Would you make me wise? And would you make me brave? Would you make me humble enough to acknowledge you? To depend upon you? would you teach me the wisdom to discern and to understand what is right and what is wrong what is the thing you want me to do or not do in this situation and god would you make me brave enough to actually do what you say that's the kind of uniform that god wants you to wear every day and you know where you get to start you get to start right here in this thing called the church i'm betting that when i got to the second verse of this passage you were like this is not for me because it's talking about the dance between leaders and followers in the church and i don't imagine too many of you especially the guys in here spend a whole lot of time watching any of the shows on television that have to do with fashion but i bet most of you at least have a working knowledge of what is right and what is wrong and what is wrong and what is wrong and of what a runway is at least in the sense of a fashion not a airport runway but a fashion runway the place where every year people get together from big brands and they roll out their latest garments they show them off like this couple on the screen on a runway and in a way Peter is saying that our lives together in the church that's the runway the place where we first get to show the fashion of humility to each other and then hopefully to the world outside we learned a lot of things about the church in this passage one thing we learned is is that all legitimate authority is created by God whether it's in the family whether it's in the community whether it's in the government whether it's in business whether it's in legal professions whether it's in the church God is the one who creates all authority to the people of the world and to the people of the world and to the authority and authority becomes the runway over which humility is demonstrated and it's happening right here in the church so peter starts talking about how those that god raises up in a congregation are to lead and how those who are following those leaders are supposed to both wear humility and if you think that the application of this is well this is how the church runs but then the world runs on a different schedule in a different way you'd be making a critical categorical error at that point i don't think that this just applies to the way people are to be leading and following showing authority and following authority in the church i think it belongs everywhere because there's no place where humility is not in style and we see very glaring examples of that in the church in our world of the opposite but notice what he says if god raises you up calls you out and says that you are to help shepherd guide oversee a congregation and he does that with every congregation including the chapel that there's a certain way that you're supposed to do this because shepherds are known for how they lead how they feed and if necessary bleed on behalf of the sheep in their care so peter calls it out very clearly what this kind of humble leadership should look like that you should be somebody that serves as a leader eagerly not begrudgingly not under compulsion not for money and for selfish gain not for power and authority to be able to push people around but rather in maturity and humility seeking what is best and most pleasing to god and most beneficial to the people and then a simple word to those who are younger either chronologically or spiritually those of you who are younger clothe yourselves with humility as well because that's the way the dance gets done and when we learn to practice that here in the congregation when we learn how to wear the robe of humility how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to wear the robe of humility how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom of god and how to dress for success with this kingdom a certain style of it that you wear when you go to something formal. There's another style of it that you wear when you go to work or go to school. But there's almost certainly a utility form that you're supposed to wear every single day.
So I've learned. I've learned that Judy and Jesus can dress me better than I can dress myself. Or I should say, I am learning it. But do you know, do you know,— Eden and the first garments — that since the Garden of Eden, we've been obsessed with our dress? I saw something in Scripture this week I've never seen before. In the Garden of Eden, after Adam and Eve choose to not be humble, when God comes to find them, he starts calling their name. And they realize that they cannot hide. And so it says that they step out to where God can see them, but they have fashioned for themselves the very first clothes.
And they were made of leaves. And God has a conversation with them about how they came to understand vulnerability. And exposure. That's in the seventh verse of Genesis 3.
But as the conversation goes forward and God talks to them about consequences for their choice, how they have now lost the opportunity to live in Eden, the 21st verse of Genesis says this, And the Lord God made for Adam and Eve, for Adam and his wife, garments of skin and clothed them. And God says, God basically says, Your attempt at dressing yourself won't do.
And it never does. And we can presume at this moment that this is the first time that something alive had to be sacrificed for someone who had sinned.
A very early foreshadowing, perhaps, of what this meal is intended to remind us of. That God was committed to grace. He was committed to mercy, even when they didn't know they needed it. So I don't know what's in your closet. It might be fashion from Dior or Prada or Gucci. Even Ross will do.
But make sure your closet is filled with humility because it never goes out of fashion. At least not inентively. At least not inентively.
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— Communion and reflection — May I never May I never Lose the wonder Of your gospel Of your death for me May I never Take it lightly How you rose again Won the victory I'll remember My youth I'll remember The body and the blood Sweet communion To remind me of The cross you took for us Let me always Hold it closely Your perfect life Exchange for mine I'm a sinner I'm unholy But you made me right In the face of sin I'm a sinner What you've done A simple token of reminder of a perfect life, perfectly lived, perfectly offered. An example for us and a saving power.
All of you, all of you, all of you, clothe yourselves with humility because God resists the proud but he has given grace to the humble.
Take and eat, all of you. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand so that he may exalt you, lift you up at the proper time. God, we trust you. We trust you.
Jesus, we love you. We can never say it enough, but we say it again today. Thank you for loving us enough to come after us, to humble yourself, and to become a man, to become one of us, and not just a person, but a person willing, joyfully, for the joy set before you to die for us, even on a cross. Lord, as we taste this bread and this juice, they are simple reminders of the most profound truth the world will ever know, that you are a God of love, of power, of mercy, of grace to those who are humble.
Lord, we are joyful to be a part of that. In Jesus' name we pray, and everyone said together,