RED: Radical Every Day: Humility

Transcript

great great song great communion thank you andrew worship team thanks as always that that is in the heart of what we're talking about this morning humility humble yourself in the sight of the lord and he will lift you up that's it's one of the greatest concepts ever and it's right in the heart of our series that we're entitling red radical every day i first got introduced to this concept of the the red letters of jesus being put in an acrostic for radical every day a few years ago in our campus ministry our campus ministry staff put that together as a theme for their tuesday night live midweeks and i remember going there i was there frequently and saw the impact that it had so on so many of our students but also on so many people that were guests and visiting with us and then to see dozens of people that that semester make jesus christ the lord of their life humble themselves be baptized into christ and for for god to be able to lift them up it was really really pretty inspiring and jordan in some side conversations mentioned something to me almost as an aside that stuck with you know with me in in a very personal way and he said you know there are a lot of great people who have a lot of great insight and a lot of great wisdom and can offer a lot of words but only jesus's words are in red and of course what he's referring to is that in many versions of the bible all of the the normal scriptures are you know in in black text and the words of jesus are you know are in red i think it's probably a really good idea we've talked about this in our curriculum committee meeting to remind all of us that all of the scripture is inspired the black letters and the red letters and with this passage that i think many of us are familiar with it lets us know that all scripture is inspired by god and it's useful and notice how he phrases this they're useful for what for for correction for teaching for rebuking even and for training so that all god's men and women can be perfectly equipped and and mature for every good work that's a pretty amazing thing when you think about it and we're gonna we're gonna be focusing on this concept of humility it was so funny this morning i was reading in isaiah and just going through you know just in my own personal quiet time and i mentioned to kelly kelly you got to come look at this verse and it was in isaiah chapter my throne and where do i reside and then he goes on to say i reside in the heart of the humble and with those who tremble at my word wow is that important to be able to remember that god is our heavenly father jesus unveiled for that for us so clearly but he is also lord he's yahweh he has things to say and his word is to be revered it's not to me to collect it it's not to be viewed in a casual way and that's important and why the entire scope of the scriptures will help us have this you know this this kind of focus you know but this morning we're talking specifically on radical every day on humility or as we kind of said lowered because jesus lowered himself you know um when he became a human being and emptied himself to become one of us and to die on the cross for us we'll get to that that towering passage in in in philippians chapter two in just a minute and you definitely will not want to leave the service early today there are some really special things going on you know in the middle of this and also at the end of the lesson that you're going to want to be a part of and you're going to want to see the there is however something about just the straight up red letters words of jesus that all the bible is inspired but the words of jesus just cut to our heart and they penetrate and they lift us up and they inspire inspire us and we first hit this oh i remember our first memory scripture that we had months ago when we started memorizing the scripture together with all of us here in the auditorium it was from a passage in luke as as the the a couple of disciples were reflecting on the red letter words of jesus that he was speaking to them after the resurrection and and we memorize this first we're not our hearts can you fill in that blank if you remember it we're not our hearts burning within us when he talked with us on the road and he opened the scriptures to us there's something about the words of jesus you've heard it before they've heard jesus say those things before illustrated with parables but there was something when the light went on and they truly got it and their hearts became ablaze with the words of jesus and that's what we're hoping at the beginning part of this sermon or this lesson to to help us feel the same now jesus first of all he starts on this this theme of you know of humility in in the very first beatitude sermon on the mount blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of god and this word you know humility and different words that are translated humility occurs 100 times in the bible and it's it's companion or its antithesis pride occurs in the same way a hundred or more times in the scriptures particularly in great places like the book of proverbs etc we'll look at a couple of those this morning but jesus starts off by saying blessed are happy are those who are poor in spirit or humble for theirs is the kingdom of heaven now we do know this upside down lifestyle that jesus taught gives us blessedness or happiness and that's what that word means blessed are happy but they're greater stakes than just our own personal happiness here jesus said blessed are the poor spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven we're actually talking about heaven being a part of god's kingdom i remember as a young campus minister i was in colorado kelly and i and you know when i was on campus a lot and being challenged in different ways by what i believed and what i taught not just from a kind of nominal christian point of view but from a very intellectual you know academic you know point of view and and i decided i've got to really zero in on what is absolutely essential because a couple of times in bible study somebody would ask me well tom okay bottom line it you know tell me not just what i have to do to get into god's kingdom or to be right with god but but lay it out for me what absolutely i cannot do in order to make it into the kingdom of heaven and so i dug into the red letters of jesus and let me just highlight a couple of them the last one of which is exactly what andrew opened up and opened our hearts on with communion a little bit earlier here's what jesus says he goes for i tell you the truth unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of god that should get our attention and help us to realize there's way more than just being religious and even knowing the bible and being you know orthodox or conservative or however you want to put it you know fastidious you know if there's a lot more than just knowing and trying to put the bible into practice there's got to there's a heart that's really essential to be able to have or you know it's not just we're going to be a weak christian or might have a struggle in our life but we're just not going to make it now there's another very familiar one using exactly the same language in john chapter 3 and verse 5. jesus says truly truly i say to you nobody can enter the kingdom of god or the kingdom of heaven your translation may say unless they are born of the water and the spirit it's an absolute essential you must be born again in a the right way in the biblical way with the water and the spirit and then there's this this one that andrew did such a great job introducing it's it's an interesting passage because it starts off in verse one where the people come up to jesus and they go well you're talking about this kingdom who is the greatest in the kingdom and then the the scriptures tell us as andrew read this morning he he got a little child and he sat them right down in the middle of them and and he said some very interesting things he said i'm going to tell you the truth unless you change it's the word metanoia for repent unless you do a 180 unless you change guys you guys who are listening here and and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of god you can't even fully get into it much less enjoy it eternally without in some way whether you use this phraseology or not in your mind but this heart you know of continuing to change or to grow or to learn and and become like a little child and andrew mentioned a lot of things that that you kind of get from this that we can learn from little children but jesus makes it really clear in verse quality he's talking about therefore whoever takes the humble some of your translations will say whoever humbles himself like his little child or takes the lowly position of this child their greatest in the kingdom of heaven i just think it's very important church and our friends who are with us to let this one sink in they're going to be a lot of people in your life and a lot of voices some internal most external that are going to lay out to you what you need to do what you must do what's important what's priority to make it to heaven are to be in enter and remain in god's kingdom here's what jesus said we've got to keep changing and becoming like little children are we're never going to to make that you know related to that you know if you haven't taught in children's ministry in a while or you haven't been around kids for a while maybe we need to sign on up as things get rolling again and spend some time thinking about this and observing that in our in our own life we're going to go to now a passage it's in the black letters of of the bible from philippians chapter 2. i want to tell you something this is such a towering passage of christ and on humility a lot of scholars will call it the mount everest the highest peak of understanding jesus and then taking from jesus and pulling it into our own life what is most important for me and you and our family and our friends to focus on and i really would like to invite you to open up your bible here because i'm going to keep on reading beyond just what we could get on this slide all the way down through verse 11. and i want to if you don't get anything if you don't remember anything from you know from this service or from this this lesson other than the fact philippians chapter 2 the first 11 verses read it over and over again put it on a card or a notepad or your you know your desktop or however you do it where you can look at it repeatedly study it almost each word it will be transformative to your own heart to your family to your church any organization that you're a part of and and you god will then work in your life just that he did in jesus to exalt you and to lift you up let's let's start reading this is amazing if there is any encouragement from being united in christ is there any comfort from being in his loving grace any tenderness and compassion do you have a heart he's seen he goes on and he says then make my joy complete by being because this flows from this attitude being like-minded being of the same mind being one in spirit and mind focusing on jesus and having humility causes us to resolve issues in our life and to not be you know polarized and to not be able to be in a continual conflict or un resolved content you be of one mind because how well you gotta keep going and get to jesus to be able to see how we do this but here's the essence of it what a passage i mean who among us can say wow i have arrived here here it comes do nothing out of selfishness wow do nothing out of selfish ambition or vanity or vain conceit in other words just thinking about yourself looking in the mirror how everything appeals to you rather in what humility here it is rather in humility value others above yourself and he says not looking to your own interests but to the interest of others this is the essence of jesus and that's why if you if you've got your bible open and you're reading along in the very next verse he says now what i just said have this mind in you that was also in christ jesus and he explains it in detail it says that christ although he was equal with god get that equal with god in heaven he did not consider equality with god something to be grasped or held on to because the next verse is going to say he emptied himself he poured out all of that privilege all of those rights all of those things that were were his by nature and he made himself what nothing the bible says by becoming a human and by taking the nature not of an earthly king or a political figure or a great general or a terrific businessman or just a you know a great preacher or pharisee but he did it by taking on the form of a servant a common servant and slave and he was made in human likeness and being made in such appearances man he would he did what he humbled himself please read this passage please circle it i try to read it almost every sunday at communion it just puts me you know it just informs my thinking and helps me get sorted out it says because he became obedient to death even death on a cross and therefore god exalted him because of jesus's humility and we're called to have that same mind that same heart jesus you know here's how he did it in his day your worth your value your status in your society even in your religious group it was by how many people served you how many people deferred to you and jesus completely turns it on its head upside down and he says no the greatest among you is like a little child who humbles himself and the greatest among you will follow my example and will lower himself will take off his privileges and rights and get down and meet the needs around me i won't be just focused on what i want what i need or what is screaming out in my hormones or in my brain or in my you know body but i'm gonna do my best but you can see why you need the holy spirit in here right guys i will do my best okay to follow in that footsteps of jesus and have this mind of christ the radical crazy thing about this is it actually makes you happier and in more peace and more productive you know a lot of people worry about something like does this mean i'm a doormat people walk all over me i could have no opinions no it just means you have the attitude of jesus he clearly had opinions and he clearly had confidence but truly you can't figure this out in a 25-minute sermon but you do have to wrestle with this you got to spend time with this really it takes a lifetime and this one passage this is so important because god has an approach on this basically peter reminds us and he needed these own admonitions in his own life god opposes the proud but he gives grace to the humble then we want some grace a lot of it well we've got to crucify you know pride it's so interesting how he starts off he says okay in the church because god organized us into families and he organized spiritually into church bodies and fellowships and he says you you that are younger straight from the scripture you that are younger submit to your elders that's an important elders in the church are important older disciples are important and no we're not supposed to just be wandering off doing our own thing with two or three other of our peers we we're meant to be in and learn and grow from older people i had to really learn this because it was radically different than how i thought about life and when i became a christian but i'm so grateful i did i want to tell a story here from you know from the old testament it's in it's in second second kings chapter five and it illustrates this great point about pride versus humility it's actually one of the more entertaining chapters in the whole bible this would be great for for parents you can you can get this have a little devotional with your kids you can act it out you it will be eye-opening to many people you're studying the bible with because it starts off with this commander he's a general in the armies of of syria now syria is a thorn in the flesh to israel and judah all through this this period of history and there's this general his name is naaman and the bible actually says that god had blessed him with victory what we have to remember god does not just bless our our kind of group and even people that are right with god and the right god can bless anybody he chooses to and he he blessed this man and he blessed his efforts he had leprosy though i mean leprosy is so incredibly debilitating it's a death sentence it ostracizes people talk about having put on face mask i mean it was way more severe you know than that but something happened you know on one of these raiding parties and the syrians went in and and and terrorized israel they they brought back some servants and one was a young woman and she was in the household of you know of naaman and talked to his wife and said listen there's a prophet in in israel i think he could he could actually heal your husband and so what happens naaman goes to the king there siri and says hey listen i hear about this what do you think and so it said this is this is so great you got to read the whole chapter and so the he goes and he talks to the king and the king says all right i'm going to write a letter to the king of israel and i'm just going to tell him hey listen i'm sending my general naaman he's got leprosy i'm going to give you some money and heal him and it's hilarious the king of israel gets it and he goes what what is this i mean this guy is coming with the equivalent of a million dollars and he's going to give it to me and then this this rival king says heal him of leprosy and the king is going he's just playing with me he's trying to pick a fight you know with me but then somebody says you know to him you know what wait a minute there's that guy elisha maybe you should send him to him and he does in fact and naaman and his whole entourage goes to the household of elijah and we take up and we read beginning in this in this verse so naaman met went with his horses and stopped at eliza's house and elijah sent a messenger out to him go wash yourself seven times in the in the jordan and you'll be you'll be cleansed he didn't even go outside to to see him he just sent a servant out to tell him that and naaman though he went away angry and he said i thought he would surely come out here stand up here call on the name of his god wave his hand around have a big miracle we'll instagram it around you know everywhere and i'm offended he says are not abana and far far you know the rivers of damascus better this backwater little stream you know here in israel i'm paraphrasing could not wash in them and be clean cleansed and he turned and he went off in a rage now why would he do that pride pride instead of humbling yourself this is this is something we you know we've got to really deal with it has to do honestly with with being corrected you know that's that's that's what we're dealing with naaman's name and name his companions finally talk some sense into him and he got washed we would call it getting baptized and guess what he was he was healed a major part of humility is allowing ourselves to get corrected and often to get corrected by people that are lower status or less iq or whatever than than we are the whole act of baptism itself is a very is a very humbling thing in fact the scriptures teach on the very first sermon peter preached he says when they ask what do we do they were cut to the heart they were humbled you know he said repent and be baptized we're going to see one right now lynette was baptized on saturday yesterday let's take a look jesus you know lead that it's that's so encouraging and also sam from west cop smyrna looks like he's going to be baptized this afternoon later on this afternoon okay here we go repent and be baptized every one of you humble yourself in the name of jesus christ you will receive the holy spirit and the forgiveness of your sins religious pride is some of the most intense the pharisees missed jesus even though they were quite religious but they weren't humble talk about i mean they're they're great examples of this we got one in our own church i believe douglas jacoby douglas and vicki are leaving next next week in about eight or nine days he's going to be with us next sunday here we want to be able to honor him i appreciate douglas because he's he he's he's so wide he's so smart he's got a great iq amazingly red you know brilliant guy and yet has humbled himself and has submitted to the scripture and to the body of christ and i'm glad we'll be able to honor him next week apollos same kind of heart there in the book of acts great charismatic speaker and leader but he humbled himself and and got more accurately taught on baptism saul himself i mean what a prideful arrogant you know guy kicking against the goads maybe he other than the pharaoh of egypt he may have been one of one of the most you know prideful but he humbled himself and at some point moses really did too he went ahead and took an assignment he did not want and he went ahead and provided leadership for god's people isn't that part of humility when we're called to be able to serve and to lead and to give and we really maybe don't really want to but we go ahead and do it anyway simply because we feel like it's god's got god's plan and god's will i want to just you know end here with some some practicals and then a kind of a cool announcement let's see if i can get to those practicals all right pray to be more humble can we do that it's got to be the holy spirit that does it in you as well as god's scripture make it a goal to be the most humble person you know that is possible because it says in numbers course not the most humble person in your eyes but in god's eyes okay and that's a goal we set goals all the time how about a goal god i want to be the most humble i have ever ever ever been and make up make it a list what what humility is what it's not practice the ultimate vaccine gratitude you know which really is will vaccinate us from pride be able to really focus on being a learner spirit that's what a disciple means and that's why i put this kind of humorous yoda quote you know yeah here we go let's back it up you must unlearn what you've learned and as an older people we got to unlearn some stuff and go back and embrace you know being like being like a little child i um practice joy jesus first others of the second i i wanna close out here by by by telling you something that had a had a great impact you know on you know on me it's a story that i read it's years and years ago there were two friends one was an artist and one was a sculptor and the artist had been asking this sculptor for years to do a sculpture of christ and he hesitated he hesitated because he felt like i'm just not worthy to do that but finally on the persistence of his friend he decided okay i'll tackle that i'll try to do a sculpture of of christ that could be could be worthy he worked on it months and months and finally you know his friend was always trying to get a preview and get an early look at it but he resisted finally he let him in and say okay i'm ready for you to look at it and so his friend the artist came in and he was immediately struck by the proportion and the grace and the beauty there's certain works of art they just draw draw out you know the best in you and he he was he was really impressed he talked about the detail and the symmetry and and and but he finally asked his friend the sculptor he said you know there's just one thing that that i don't understand i can't see the face of christ because the sculptor himself in humility had had done the work with christ's head bowed in prayer and with his arms sort of wrapped around it and the the friend said i can't see the face of christ and the sculptor in his wisdom and in his humility said no no no no you can see the face of christ but to see the face of christ you must get on your knees and he captured in his art what every man woman and child needs to capture and that is we humble ourself before the lord and he will lift us up humble yourself in the sight of the lord and he will lift you up you me all of us i want to call up now to the states some really humble brothers and sisters and also some inspiring you know brothers and sisters if they can if they can come up and and join us you know right now um i got a an email from sean this morning he said so far six have landed in istanbul and what he was referring to was the fact that revive ee has now been launched and this is an exciting plan we're part of the european missions you know society had a big board meeting you know yesterday and sean and lena wooten are are leading this effort that it's going to be several years and this first year the focus is going to be on budapest hungary that is as soon as this group is going to be able to get there and you're going to see it's it's it's made up by six caleb couples or older we might call them shepherding type type couples six missionaries or people that will be you know supported you know full-time working along with sean and linda and then 10 globe you know changers and so you're looking at on the stage you know some globe changers here and some you know caleb's you know back here and these guys are jumping on a plane you know tonight most of them atlos are gonna wait a couple more weeks to finish up her job and they are off to land in istanbul and then to be able to move on to odessa ukraine as they wait for the border of hungary to open up this is a book of acts move you know i mean it's it's it's working it as we go along because um there are a lot of things that are being worked out this has been worked on for well over a year it's exciting it's going to be explosive and we want to recognize you know mark and christie and you know mark and anne marie here and be able to really have a prayer for them that bob and harold are going to be able to lead it's humbling to be around people that have humbled themselves to say hey here am i send me anywhere i can be used amen i'm going to i'm going to hand this over to mark he's going to share a couple of thoughts thanks tom hello church family we are so honored to to be a part of this i want to speak on behalf of of the whole team but especially the team leaving from atlanta and like tom said this is definitely an act sort of moment you know because originally the plan was we're going to get together in july at the conference and all and get to know each other and then head out in august to to get to budapest well january february hit and all that change because of covet 19 and and just so then we had to kind of do everything on a fly and go from there so we were parts of the world getting to learn each other's name getting to know each other via zoom so we actually sat every saturday morning and had a meeting with each other got to know each other and learned about each other and just saw god work tremendously one of the things that i think i've taken away from this particular time was a lot of times when we kind of have a a plan that we and just kind of goes the way we think it does you know we can get ourselves in the way we can we can see oh wow we did that but i really think god allowed it when things kind of go up in the air we have a little bumps in the roads we really humble ourselves and see god work in the amazing things he does so from the team please keep us in your prayers we do want to thank everybody who's given to to not only us and to get help us get there but to the rest of the world and the rest of the team so god continue to pray for us watch for us and just watch us on instagram and social on the social medias of what we be posting so thanks a lot let's go to god in prayer father god we are truly humble to be in your sight to be able to serve in this capacity father i pray god that you will watch over the team going to eastern europe father as you know in that region of the world it is there's a lot of strife there's a lot of confusion there's a lot of conflict but lord you are the the the peacemaker father you will put the spirit that you've put from the very beginning of time through the splitting of the red sea through jesus on the cross through each one of us getting baptized father that same spirit you will continue to put in the team going to eastern europe father god i pray god that you will bless them father i pray god that you will help them to be a unified spiritual minded focused group father father when the trials come father god that they will dig deeper father god i pray that they will rely on your spirit they will rely on the roots of your spirit to help them father through that through the time that they're there father i pray god that we are we are virtually putting our hands on them father right now and father as time goes we will continue to put our hands on them father and pray for them father god helping them to to see to give them the strength to move father we thank you so much for their hearts they're so inspiring to us father god i pray you will help us all to have that mission mindset as we live our lives for you is in jesus precious name we pray amen father we do thank you so much for the hearts of these men and women hearts of mission hearts of sacrifice and just a love for you and on behalf of all the leaders in the church on behalf of all the members of the church i know we're all praying together you will bless them you will you'll get them there safely father when they get there they'll adapt to the cultures quickly they'll develop deep friendships you'll make them fruitful and effective and father when the times of loneliness hit you'll strengthen them in their spirits father that you will work through them and it will be evident to all that you father are working father on a different note we do pray for the family of nelson davis who was tragically killed on wednesday night father walking across the street carrying his groceries going home in a hit-and-run father leaves behind two sons and two daughters and father extended family we pray for the family father we pray that you give them comfort at this time and we pray that your your work will be evident to all and father we pray it's just so thankful that nelson was a disciple but father it is mindful it makes us mindful of how quickly things can turn in the lives of all of us and how constantly we need to be serving and loving you father lastly as we are getting ready to make our offering we pray that you bless the offering that we give today thank you so much for the hearts of the disciples in this church during a pandemic and not being able to see each other since march have been faithfully and continually giving and it just shows how much they love you we pray in jesus name amen you