Sermons tagged with Father

Well, good morning and Happy New Year. My name is Nate. I get to be one of the pastors here. Thanks so much for making grace a part of your New Year. For those for whom this represents a New Year's resolution to come to church with more consistency, I will try my best to not make you regret that while I'm preaching this morning. I've also, I feel like I should just address this, I've been told this morning that I look like I'm going on a ski trip, that I look snuggly, that I look like an author. And then Keith back there in the hat, he's wearing a hat in church. He's sacrilegious. He told me that the white balance was off and asked me if I could change my sweater. So this is, I'm going back to the quarter zips next week, but start off the year with a sweater. Here we are. Speaking of starting off the year, I wanted, I thought a lot in the fall about how to start 2024. What was the best way for us as a church to launch into a new year? And the passage that came to mind is maybe my favorite passage in the Bible. And I know that if you've been coming to Grace for any amount of time, you know that my favorites mean nothing. Because I play it pretty fast and loose with favorite. But this one is so favorite that when we moved into our house, we moved into a new house in July of 22. And I first time in my life, I had a committed space for my own office at home. The first thing I did is reach out to Jen, my wife, her cousin, who is a wedding calligrapher, or I guess just calligrapher in general. I got her to write this out for me. We framed it, and it's in my office. It's that favorite. It's a prayer that we find in the book of Ephesians. So if you have a Bible with you, I would love for you to open that up, turn to Ephesians chapter 3. If you don't, there's one in the seat back in front of you. Our worship pastor, Aaron Gibson, asked me if I could start to preach. Well, he said, can we buy new ESV Bibles for the church? Because you always preach from the ESV and it's confusing because you read from your Bible and it doesn't match anything anywhere. And I said, how about instead I'll just use my old NIV Bible and I'll preach from that. So you should be able to read along with me this year, which is a welcome change, I'm sure. So turn your Bible to Ephesians chapter three. What you'll find in verses 14 through 19 is a prayer. This is, this prayer has shaped almost everything about the way, and I'm tempted to say the way that I do ministry, but that's not really it. It's really the way I live life, the way I think about others, the way I pray for others. This prayer is what I pray over every new baby that's born to friends or to people at church. This is what I pray over people who are getting married, high school graduates, college graduates. This is what I pray over my children. It's what I pray over the church. It's what I pray over you when you're sick. It's what I pray over you when you are in times of plenty. It's what I pray over you when you are in times of need. This color is how I pray for everyone in my life. And so I wanted to start the year off by going through this prayer with you. So for the next four weeks, all the Sundays in January, we're just going to stay right here in Ephesians chapter 3, verses 14 through 19. It gives us a lot of time to pull it apart and look at it and understand it. Now one of the things that I think is really interesting about this prayer is you can find a prayer pretty similar to this in a lot of Paul's letters. This prayer is not dissimilar from what he prays for the rest of the churches. Now for those of you who don't know the Bible well enough to know Paul's letters, that's what I'm referring to, a significant part of the New Testament, two-thirds of it, is letters from Paul to churches. Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and 1 and 2 Corinthians. Those are letters to churches that Paul started on his missionary journeys, and then he writes a letter back to them for whatever reason, to admonish them, to encourage them, to convict them, to whatever, different purposes for different letters. And so in the middle of his letter to the church in Ephesus, he says, he prays this prayer. And what captures me, well there's a lot that captures me about the prayer, but one of the things I notice first when I read this prayer is the opening line. We're not going to read it just yet. But the opening line, we do read it, you'll notice. He says, for this reason, I bow my knees before the father from whom every family on heaven and on earth is named. So what he's saying in that first sentence is this. For this reason, I bow my knees. This is why I pray for you when I pray for you, which I do. This is what I pray. And if this is what Paul prays for all of the churches that he started, and if this prayer shows up in other letters, then isn't it worth examining the prayer and praying it over people in our lives? We're actually making this the prayer for grace in 2024. I believe there are some magnets involved. Are there magnets involved? Are we doing those? Yeah, yeah, we're going to do some magnets. In the next week or two, we'll have magnets with the verse printed on it so you can put it on your refrigerator, wherever you want to, so you can see it. And we would invite you to, along with us, make this your prayer for you and your family and the people you love and for grace in 2024. But when you think about what the prayer is, one of the things that stands out to me is what Paul does not pray for. I think almost as powerful as what he does pray for are the things that he leaves out. And this is what shapes the way I pray for people a lot. I want you to think with me, and I mean this. Do this exercise with me. Put yourself in Paul's shoes. The church in Ephesus is a church you started. You know the people there. You care about them. You spent time with them. You write them in other letters that you want to go there. But there's a wide door open for a great work where you are now. You can't go there now, but you long to be with them. And then you're writing them a letter. And you say, hey, when I pray for you, this is what I pray. What would you pray for them? We would probably pray for safety, right? Because persecution was rampant in the ancient world. So we'd pray for safety. We would probably pray for circumstances. I hope you heal up. I hope this works out. I hope God shores up your family. We'd pray for different situations going on in there. I think we would probably, if we're the leader of the church, pray for success. May God add to your numbers day by day, those who are being saved, that kind of prayer that we see in Acts. I think that we would pray for those things. And when we pray for people we know, what do we pray for them? Don't we pray those things for safety and for circumstances and for success for them? So it's interesting to me that Paul does not pray for safety, circumstances, or success in this prayer. You will not see those things in this prayer. And it stands out to me because I don't know if I have the right to call myself a history nerd, but I read a lot of it, and I listen to history podcasts, so do what you want with that. Thanks, I'm a nerd, Jeff says. But the ancient world knew what suffering was in a way that is totally anathema to us. Birth rates, infant mortality rates, most children, I mean a good number of children just dying in infancy or as really, really young kids. The average age is significantly down, suffering rampant across the board. And yet Paul does not pray for safety or for circumstances or for health. He's a church planter. He's ambitious, uniquely ambitious in the scope of human history. He wants this church in Ephesus to succeed. I know he does. I know he wants it to grow, but he does not pray for that. Look, look at what Paul prays for. And I think you'll understand why we're going to spend four weeks in it. I'm going to's the whole prayer. This morning, we're going to narrow down our focus to the first thing that he prays for. So there's a bit of an introduction. He says, this is when I pray for you, this is why I pray. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father from every family on heaven and on earth is named. And then the first thing that he prays is that according to the riches of his glory, that you would be strengthened with power through the spirit in your inner being, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. The first thing that Paul prays for is salvation. The first thing that he prays for, for his church, is that they would be what we would call saved. That they would know Jesus. And it's interesting to me theologically, it's not much of a point, but I thought it was worth pointing out, the threefold involvement in the salvation process of salvation, what happens in salvation and how the Trinity, the God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit, the Godhead are all three involved in the salvation process. If you're a note taker, this is down in your notes, but I've moved it up to this point in the sermon because I felt like it fit better here. But just notice in the salvation process that salvation is the result of the Father's riches, the Spirit's power, and the indwelling of Christ. We see all three parts of the Godhead involved in the salvation process according to the riches of His glory, God the Father. That you'd be given power through the Spirit. That you'd be indwelled with Christ the Son. So it's interesting to me that the Trinity shows up in the salvation process. And it's interesting to me that the first thing that Paul prays for is that they, church in Ephesus, you, global church, would be saved. Now, we're going to talk about why I believe it's so important that this is the first thing he prays for. But before we do that, I want to stop and I want us to understand what it is to be saved. Because I've been in church world literally my whole life. And I've been in ministry world for over 20 years, which is crazy to think about. And I've had enough conversations with enough people who I know are good church Bible-believing people who in that conversation betrayed to me a lack of understanding around salvation and what it is. So while I know that it could seem rather elementary to start the year with these two fundamental questions, how do I get saved and what happens when I am saved? I also know that if I were to talk to all of you and ask you those questions, that the answers would probably not be clear and concise and unilateral. So I think it's worth defining those things here. So what does someone have to do to be saved? And when I say saved, what I mean is to exist in right relationship with God. And actually, we're going to define this in a little bit, what happens when we are saved. So I'll leave it for that. But what does someone have to do to be saved? Well, Paul answers this in the book of Romans. Romans is the most thick theological, densely theological book in the Bible where he goes to great lengths to explain what salvation is. For the first eight chapters of Romans, he is building a systematic argument, an understanding of what it means to be saved. So if it takes Paul eight whole chapters to help a church arrive at a fluency with salvation, then certainly we can say what I'm going to give you this morning is the tip of the iceberg. There are a lot more questions around salvation than I'm going to answer today. And if you have those questions, I would highly encourage you, talk to your small group leader. Talk to a friend who knows scripture. Come talk to me. Talk to someone you trust. Ask those questions. These are good questions to ask. But if we look at Romans chapter 10, verses 9 through 10, we can let Paul tell us what we have to do to be saved. Look at this with me. If you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. So, what do we need to do to be saved? We are saved when we confess and believe. That's what it is. We are saved. We become a Christian when we confess with our mouth and we believe in our heart that Jesus is Lord. This is a more concise way of saying what I say often. Often, you can probably complete these sentences, I hope that you can by now, but I say often that to be a Christian is to believe that Jesus is who he says he is, that he did what he said he did, and that he's going to do what he says he's going to do. A shorter way to say that is Jesus is Lord. Just within that is all that context. So we are saved. We are a child of God when we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart that Jesus is Lord. It's that simple. It's also worth pointing out, because of conversations I've had, what doesn't save us. Because I've been around church people long enough to know that we're not always trusting in the right thing to save us. Some of us put our faith in things that are ancillary, auxiliary to the salvation process. I know if you grew up in my tradition, it was really, really important that you nailed the prayer. You had to get the prayer just right. Anybody grow up praying the prayers? Yeah. And then you look at that as my salvation moment. This is when I asked Jesus into my heart. And then I'm saved. And then if you have a background like me, you're in church all the time. And so multiple times, I prayed that prayer for the first time at four and a half. I was at Sunday school. They told me about hell. That place seemed pretty bad. I was like, what do I have to do? You got to pray this prayer. I'm like, I'll pray it. I'm in. Seems easy. And then I told my parents about it. And my dad, who graduated from a Bible college, quizzed me. I passed the test. We went out for Butterfinger Blizzard. I was way more excited about the blizzard than I was that I was an adopted son of the king of the universe. So it's actually useful to point out that our understanding of salvation changes over our lifetime. What salvation was really clicked with me when I was 17. And I have a fresh and new depth of understanding of what it means to be a child of God every year that I walk with him. I think that's why Paul tells us in Philippians that we should work out our salvation with fear and trembling. When you're walking with God, your understanding of what it means to be his child and a citizen of heaven evolves and grows along with your faith. But I can remember, subsequent to praying that prayer when I was four, I'd be in other gatherings and there'd be a speaker, a youth event or a kids event or whatever. And at the end, he would do this thing. It was always a he in those days. He would do this thing and he would say, everybody bow your heads. Every head bowed, every eye closed. And then he'd say, if you don't know Jesus, would you just slip up your hand? I heard somebody over here say slip up your hand. We know slip up your hand. We know that. I have PTSD from slip up your hand. And then you're down and then the speaker would be like, I see that hand. Bless you back there. I see you. Do all that stuff. And who knows if hands are really going up or not. Some guys, I know for a fact, some guys fake it. Nobody's raising their hand. They just do it anyways. But you can't look, because if you look to know nobody's raising their hand, then it's like double whammy. You just sinned too, so you've got just trust the guy. Slip up your hand, and then he says, repeat after. If you just raise your hand, repeat after me. And so you repeat this prayer. And I can remember sitting there, and I would hear elements of that prayer that I didn't pray in my prayer. And I'm like, oh no. I'm damned. Like literally. This is a problem. So then I would pray that prayer just to make sure I was good. I've prayed the salvation prayer a bunch of times. I've gotten all the elements. Now here's the funny thing. The power of what saves me is in my desire to get the prayer right. It's confessing with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and believing in my heart ardently, oh no, if he's not really my Lord, I need to say the prayer right. The belief and the confession is what God is working in to save my soul. I believe, I really do, my daughter Lily is almost eight. She's confessed with her mouth that Jesus is Lord. She believes in her heart, I know that she does, that Jesus is Lord. We've never sat down with her and prayed a prayer. I'm sure we will at some point. And that to her can be the marker of her salvation. That's fine. But Lily's as saved now as she can be because she's confessed and believed based on that passage in Romans. I'll tell you what else doesn't save you. And I don't say this lightly because I know that we have a lot of different traditions in here. And it's one of the things I love about our church, but baptism does not save you. It is not something that saves you is described as salvific. Baptism is not salvific. If,, and I say this very gently, if you are one who is sprinkled as a child, or you had your child sprinkled or baptized, and you're trusting that as what has saved them, I don't think you'll find that in Scripture. I don't think that's what we can cling to. We believe that baptism is actually, we teach that baptism is actually for people who have articulated a faith, who have articulated a confession and a belief, and that we baptize by immersion. I would stop here and say, if baptism is something that the Holy Spirit's been gnawing at you about, and you're hearing this at the beginning of the year right now, and you're going, oh shoot, he's talking to me. I am. I am talking to you. You should do it. Let's talk. But baptism doesn't save us. Baptism is a public profession of a private prayer. It simply declares that we're a child of God. Another thing that doesn't save us, and I bring this up specifically because I've been in conversations where parents have referred to this. And forgive me if I'm wrong on the wording. I did not grow up in a Presbyterian tradition or a tradition with this, but I believe somewhere around the age of 13, you take a confirmation class. Is that right, Lane? You nodded your head. Okay, good. You go through confirmation. And I've talked with parents before who are saying, how can my kids act like this? They went through confirmation. I know they're saved. And I had to say, to be saved, you confess with your mouth and you believe with your heart and isn't it possible as a 13 year old kid to be in a group of your peers going through class with the teacher that you respect and saying the things back to them that you're supposed to say and signing the papers that you're supposed to sign and being paraded up on stage like you're supposed to be paraded without ever actually believing what you're being taught. Doing it because this is what your peers are doing, this is what the teachers expect, this is what your parents expect. So that's not something I would cling to as evidence of salvation. We are saved by confessing and believing. That's what saves us. Now, what does it mean to be saved? When I say this word saved in right relationship with God, becoming a Christian, a believer, all the words, what do we mean? Well, Jesus tells us what he means in John chapter 5, verse 24. Look with me. These are the words of Christ. He tells us what it means to be saved. Very truly, I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged, but has crossed over from death to life. When we are saved, Jesus himself tells us we will not be judged and we will cross from death to life. What it means to be saved, the simple way to think about it is being saved means I am a citizen of heaven. That's what it means. Simple way to say it. And it's such an important concept. That's why I chose it, that we're a citizen of heaven. Once we are saved, we don't belong here anymore. Earth is not our home. We are aliens and sojourners in a foreign land. And one day, God will take us home. But right now, we are aliens here. And our job as aliens and sojourners is to take as many people as we can on our way home as humanly possible. That's what we're here for. But it means that this place isn't our place and it's a really important concept, but I'm going to get a chance to preach about this concept in the middle of March, so I'm not going to belabor it here. But that's what it means to be saved, that we are no longer judged. We are no longer judged for our sins. Scripture teaches us that when God looks at us, once we have confessed and believed, once we have become a Christian, that when God looks at us, we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. That when he looks at us, he does not see our unrighteous deeds. He sees us covered in the sacrificial righteousness of Christ. The way it's phrased in Isaiah, and we're going to be in Isaiah after Easter. We're going to do a series called The Treasury of Isaiah, and I get to preach out of Isaiah 1, verses 10 through 18, and surprise, surprise, one of my favorite passages. The way it's phrased there is God says, though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them white as snow. So when we are saved, we are no longer judged. We are no longer declared guilty for the things that we've done. And listen, this is, I know, I would say heady, but it's not, I don't know. I don't know how to describe it. This is esoteric. God does not exist in time. He exists outside of time. We think. Who knows? Because I don't even think anyone understands that sentence. But because that's true when we become Christians, when he brings us into the fold, he forgives us of our sins past, present, and future. He forgives you of all the dumb stuff he knows you're going to do 10 years from now. We act like it's just from this point back, and it's all points. He covers over you with his righteousness and does not judge you. And then it says we pass from death to life. Death, whenever we see it in scripture, is always descriptive of an eternity absent of God. Just being dead, being cut off from God. So we pass from death to life. This is the punishment and the curse in the Garden of Eden. In the first couple chapters of the Bible, in Genesis chapter 3, we see the fall of man. And because Adam and Eve chose to sin, God says, you will now experience death. You will now be cut off. I think of it this way. I think of a tree and our sin, we're a branch on the tree, and our sin cuts us off of the tree and we fall to the floor helpless and essentially lifeless. Because we might not be dead yet, but we're going to die pretty quick. And then when we're clothed in the righteousness of Christ, we confess and we believe God and His goodness picks that branch up off the ground, grafts it back onto the tree, connects us to our source of life. We pass from death to life. That's what it means to be saved. We are now citizens of heaven, children of the King of the universe. So, if you didn't know that, now you do. If you did know that, then you just got to check the boxes. I'm good. Okay, I understood. Either way, that's a good outcome. Now, where I want to press us as a church in 2024 is thinking through the reality of where Paul chooses to put this prayer. This portion, this particular petition within the prayer. It's the very first thing that he prays. He prays for other things. He prays that we would be along with all of the saints. He prays for community. We're going to spend a week on that. He prays that we would know the surpass, that we would feel the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. We're going to talk about that. He prays that we would be filled with the fullness of God. We're going to talk about that. But before he can pray for those things, he has to pray for this thing. He prays for their salvation. I pray that you would know Jesus. It's the first thing that he prayed. It's the most important thing that he prayed. And it's interesting to me that he prayed it to a church, to a church full of people who very presumptively know Christ already. You don't just casually go to a Christian church in ancient Ephesus. It's not what the cool kids were doing. You don't just wander in there to try to make a sale. Like you go because you mean it and yet he prays for their salvation. I am deeply convicted that salvation was Paul's first priority and prayer for all he encountered. Salvation, that they would simply know God, that they would know Jesus, that he would dwell in their hearts through faith, was his first priority and prayer for every person that he encountered in his life. And it makes sense, doesn't it? Why would I pray anything else for you if I'm not praying that you know Jesus? Nothing in your whole life matters if you don't know Jesus, and everything after that matters in a completely different way once you do know Jesus. So why would I ever pray anything for you except that you would know Christ? And I said, this prayer shapes the way I pray for people. It shapes it in this way. Now when I pray for people, and some of you probably have heard me pray this, whether it's success or difficulty, I pray that all the events and circumstances in that situation would conspire to bring you closer to God, would conspire to bring you to a depth of Christ that's more full than you have now, that everything in your life would be, would conspire to bring you closer to Jesus. That's how this prayer color is my prayers. And I think it's incredibly important that Paul's first priority in prayer for every person that he meets is that they would simply know Jesus. Convicted of this, after I wrote the sermon this week, I emailed the elders. Every week, I come up with a prayer schedule for the elders. A little while ago, last year, I think sometime, we agreed. It's the dumbest agreement ever, because it's right there in Scripture, that one of the purposes of elders is to serve the church through prayer. So we said, how can we better do this? And we decided that every week I would make a schedule Monday through Sunday of here's what we should all be praying for today. Here's the one thing to include in our prayers as we pray for grace this week. And I write those on Mondays. And so when I finished writing the sermon this week, I wrote to the elders and, and it was the, you elders don't know, sometimes I sit there and stare at my screen for like 30 minutes. There's a huge hassle, but they're important to do. I did this in five minutes. And I don't remember the exact order, but it was Monday. Pray for your children that they would know Jesus. Just pray for your children that they know Christ. If you're sure that they already know Christ, pray that they would know him more deeply. Tuesday, pray for your small group, by name if you can. Pray that everyone in your small group would know Christ. If they already know him, pray that they would know him more deeply. Wednesday, pray for your service teams, the people that you serve with, including other elders, by name if you can, that they would know Jesus, that those who know Jesus would know him more deeply. And then it was community and neighbors. And then it was extended family. And then it was the people of grace, as many people as you can by name. And then the staff on Tuesday came in here and we went through the church. And one of the things I like to do sometimes, I don't do it as much as I need to, is I just sit in seats and I pray for the people who come to mind. Because you guys are creatures of habit, although the Morgans, you all are messing me up today. You guys are creatures of habit. You sit in the right seats. And I sit in your seats and I pray for you. And I go over there and I pray for you. And we pray that you would know Jesus. That's the prayer. Now here's the conviction. If that's Paul's first prayer and priority for everyone that he meets, shouldn't that be ours too? Shouldn't our first prayer and priority for every person we encounter be that they would know Jesus? What else are we praying for them if we don't do that? And then I started to think about this. What would happen if I shifted my perspective to Paul's perspective, and every person I encountered, the first and primary focus I had for them was I hope you know Jesus. How would that change my countenance? How would that change my life? How would that change my day to day? How would that change how I parent my children as they interact with others? How would that change my level of frustration in traffic? Think about that. If your first prayer and priority for everyone that you met, I think it's we did that, that what we would find is that we would begin to see people as objects of God's affection and not obstacles to our progress. We would begin to see people as objects worthy of God's affection, worthy of that reckless love that chases people down that we just sang about. And we would quit seeing them as obstacles to our progress. Now, I wrote this point specifically for me. So if it's helpful to you too, great. But I don't do so good with that sometimes. I was going to tell you guys a story about an interaction I had over the Christmas break, but the sermon's gone long enough, and I don't really have time to, and I don't really need to give you all the details. Just if I give you the premise, you'll fill in the blanks from there, I promise. I went to an AT&T store over the break. That's fun. I didn't say anything. Like if you just looked at the script, if it was a court transaction, and you just saw the words that I used, you wouldn't think I was being a jerk and that I had totally lost my patience. But if you hear them in a certain tone with a certain look on my face, you would understand that I was less than kind. And as I thought about this, I just deeply regret that interaction. And interactions like that that happened in my life. Where this person that I'm seeing is not an object of the Father's affection. This person that I'm seeing is an obstacle in the way of what I need to do. They're an annoyance. They're an obligation. Whatever word you want to fit in there. And so here's my encouragement to you. Make that your goal in 2024. That everyone you encounter, you would first think of as an object of the Father's affection. That your first priority for them would be that they would come to know Jesus. Pray that for your children. If they know him, pray they would know him more. Pray that for your coworkers. Pray that for your neighbors. And consider what would happen in your life, how your year would look different than 2023. If every person you encountered, your prayer was, God, I hope they know you. And if there's a way to move them towards that right now, I pray that you would use me to do that. How would that change your year? How would that begin to change your heart for others? So that's the challenge to you in 2024. As we make this our prayer for our families and our church and ourselves, we'll talk about the rest of what it means. But as we think about others and as we encounter others, let's let Paul's priorities be our priorities and make our first prayer and only priority for them be that they would know Jesus. As I finish, I'm going to pray. But before I do that, I'm going to leave some space for you to pray as well. I would encourage you right now to pray for the people that God's been bringing to your mind. Pray for the people in your life who might not know Jesus, that they would come to know Jesus. Pray with boldness and with faith. I love that we opened up the service with the song, There's Nothing That Our God Can't Do. Because some of us need to be reminded of that if we're going to continue to pray for that person to know Jesus. I have people in my life that I go through, I go through droughts of praying for them. Because sometimes I just don't think it's possible. But that's a faithless thought. Take a minute. Pray for the people in your life who don't know Jesus that they would know Jesus. If you're a parent, pray at first for your children. And just go out from there. And after a minute or two, I'll pray to close us up and Kyle's going to come up and we're going to have communion together. Heavenly Father, we just want to know you. Lord, would you give us your heart for those who don't know you? Would you give us just a portion of the desire that you have for us that we might feel that desire for you? God, for all the names that just got lifted up to you, we pray with faith and hope that they would come to know you. Lord, if there's a way to use us to bring others into a saving faith in you, I pray that we would open ourselves up to that. That we would be courageous, sensitive, bold, and caring. And we would share you with others. God, if you have an opportunity to use grace to bring people closer to you, we pray that you would do it. We offer you this space in our lives and ask that you use us in your plan to bring people into a saving faith with you. God, we thank you that you make it possible for us to know you. And we pray that you would give us the heart that you have to reach the people who don't. In Jesus' name, amen.

Well, good morning, everybody. Welcome to Grace. My name is Nate. I get to be one of the pastors here. If I hadn't gotten the chance to meet you, I would love to do that in the lobby after the service, which would be easy to do because we've got the holiday hoot going on and it's probably going to be pouring down rain. So you may want to stay and wait that out. If you were like me and you looked out the window at like nine o'clock, you're like, oh, look at that, it's raining. And you didn't know it was going to torrentially downpour on us, then you don't get any bonus points. But if you knew the forecast and you came anyways, that's impressive. That's almost like holiday weekend attendance there. So good for you. Also here at the beginning of the service, I just want to give everyone in the room a chance to get your cough drop out and put it in your mouth right now so that we don't hack through the entire service because it's that time of year, right? Mike mentioned earlier in the announcements that we are in the third part of our series called Twas the Night. Well, we're looking at Christmas, the greatest story ever told, and we're looking at it through the lens or perspective of the different people in the story. This week, we arrive at Joseph. We're going to look at his example of humble and consistent obedience in the Christmas story and in the early years of the life of Jesus. And we're going to ask what we can learn from that example. Now you'll remember, some of you, that this series started on December the 3rd and I was supposed to preach about Joseph on December the 3rd, but on December the 2nd, after the kids went down, Jen looked at me, my wife, and she said, Hey, what's the sermon tomorrow? And I ran her through the sermon and she made a face and I went, you don't like this one very much. And she goes, it's not, it's not your best one. And I said, well, what do I do? Like, it's Saturday night, you know? Like, it's been shipped, you know? And she goes, well, that's not really good enough. So you should probably go to your office and write it again. You can nap tomorrow. And I was like, and I knew in my gut she was right. Like, darn it, she's right. Because the sermon was going to be Christmas season. It was the first one. Christmas season is a stressful season. We all have things going on. We all have family obligations. It's just event, event, event, event. It feels so busy. Everything's packed that it's super stressful. Well, Joseph had maybe the most stressful Christmas of all time. And what was at stake if he let the stress of Christmas win is that he would miss the Messiah. Gross. That's a gross. That's dumb. That's like, I just gave you the important parts of that sermon. To make that 28 minutes and make you sit through it would be a disservice to you. So Jen was right. And then I remembered, I've written all the sermons already. I'm just going to bump them up a week. And then that will give me two weeks to come up with something on Joseph. And what I'm going to tell you about Joseph today, I think, is way better than that. Now, you may leave and be like, should have done the last couple of weeks has developed within me a much deeper appreciation for Joseph. I think he's an underappreciated figure in the Bible and portion of the Christmas story. Now, Joseph is the earthly father of Jesus, and we've all probably heard of him before, I would guess. But what I find interesting about Joseph is that even though he was the earthly father of Jesus, he had a very important part to play in the story of Jesus. In scriptures, we have no recorded words of Joseph. We don't see a single thing that he said. We don't know a single thing that he thought. Well, those are lost to history. I'm sure Joseph did have words, but his words are lost to history. And he fades out of the gospel narrative relatively quickly. We see him in Matthew and we see him in Luke. We see him in Matthew and that's where we're going to be today, Matthew chapters 1 and 2. Having and being obedient each time. We see him in Luke as part of the Christmas narrative, but he's got no words that he uses except he just takes his family faithfully to Jerusalem. And then we see him interact with Jesus when they left him at the temple when Jesus was 12 years old and they have to go back and get him. But beyond that and these three interactions that we're going to read today, we don't have anything else about Joseph in the Bible. We just know that by the end of the story, he's faded out of the narrative and we don't know why or what happened, but everyone's best guess is that Joseph simply passed away. Culturally, he was probably older than Mary, and he probably died before his time, which would imply that Jesus grew up grieving the loss of an earthly father, which I think is interesting, but not the point here. But we have fleeting glimpses of Joseph in the gospel narratives. And because we don't have any of his words, we can only know Joseph by his actions. We can only know Joseph by what he did. He doesn't get an eternal press conference to explain himself. We can only know Joseph by his actions and by how he responded. And there's three different times that God comes to him and tells him to do something. And all three times, Joseph responds with obedience. And I want us to look at those times. So if you have a Bible with you, please turn to Matthew chapter one. We're going to be in chapters one and two. If you don't have a Bible with you, there's one in the seat back in front of you. But in Matthew chapter one, beginning in verse 19, I'm going to read through 24. Actually, I'm going to read through 25, but that won't be on the screen. Joseph has just found out that Mary is pregnant. And this is problematic because they have not yet biblically known each other. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke up from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded. He took his wife, in verse 25,. God has spoken to Mary through an angel. He said, you're going to conceive. You're going to have a son. His name is going to be Jesus. He's going to be the Savior of the world. And she's engaged to be married to Joseph. And that wasn't Joseph that did that. So this is problematic. So Joseph, because he was a just man and a righteous man, had resolved to leave her quietly. And that speaks a lot to the character of Joseph because he did not have to do that, especially in that day and age. It's gross how women were treated in that culture, but he could have just publicly walked away from her and shamed her, and he chose not to do that. He was going to do it quietly. And after he had made that decision, the Lord comes to him in a dream and says, hey, the baby that's inside Mary is from me. Stay with Mary. Now, a lot of pastors and a lot of pulpits and a lot of small group leaders have used this opportunity to make some jokey jokes about Joseph and staying with Mary. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. Not because I find it to be disrespectful. But because those jokes have been trodden. And there's no good material there. So we're just going to move right on. With marveling. At the faith of Joseph. That says. Okay. And stays with Mary. He did not have to do that. But he was a just man. And somehow, this is pure speculation, but it's hard for me to believe that this was the first time God had directed Joseph to do something. Because that's a pretty big something. The first time in your life God shows up and says, hey, I want you to do something for me. I've got this act of obedience. I've got this step of obedience I want you to take. That's a pretty big step to raise a son that's not your own, that is supposed to be the savior of the world. That's a pretty big step of obedience. And yet Joseph takes it. Joseph takes this step of obedience, sees it through. We know the story. They go to Jerusalem for the census and they end up in Bethlehem and Jesus is born in a manger and the angels and the shepherds show up to celebrate. And at that point, the narrative is kind of about Mary and what happens after that. But in Matthew chapter 2, we see Joseph pop up again. Verse 13 through 15. Now when they had departed, these are the wise men, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, rise, take a man with a one and a half to two year old son. And he says, Hey, I want you to take your family and I want you to flee to Egypt. Now this, and here's, here's what he does. He gets up the next day, that very morning. And he goes, this to me is a more remarkable step of obedience than choosing to remain with Mary. Do you understand this made him a refugee fleeing into a foreign nation? We have no reason to believe that Joseph was a man of means. We have no reason to believe that at all. He was from a small city called Nazareth. Tradition has it that he was a carpenter, although I've been taught that the word there can be interchanged with mason in the original language. And there's a lot more stone quarries around Nazareth than there are trees. So more than likely, Joseph was a mason. So if you've ever had that bumper sticker, my boss is a Jewish carpenter. If you were literally a carpenter who worked for a literal Jew, then that was true. Otherwise, I got bad news for you. Jesus was probably a Mason. Anyways. He had to uproot this family, leave his career and professional ties. He had to take a two-year-old across the border as a refugee. Y'all, I have a two-year-old. I won't take that kid to Wilmington. Like, I don't want to drive him to Greensboro and back. It's a hassle, those kids. He uproots him the very next day and takes him to Egypt, where we have no reason to believe he had ties in Egypt. He reestablishes himself, finds a way to provide, finds a way to protect, finds a way to make money, does what he has to do to care for his family. It's a remarkable step of obedience. And then the last one we see is a few verses down, chapter 2, verse 19. But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Rise, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead. And he rose, and he took, loads everything back up, cuts ties in Egypt, migrates back to Nazareth, reestablishes himself again. All three times, Joseph gets what are pretty tall orders. God didn't appear to him in a dream and be like, hey, read the Bible for 30 minutes a day. And then the next day, okay, I'll do it, Lord. He said, move your family to another country. That's hard. And he did it the next day. He didn't talk to the city elders about it. He didn't go counsel with his rabbi. He didn't throw a fleece out and say, God, I'm going to pray about this again, and if you want me to do it, make the fleece wet and the ground dry. He didn't do that. He got up and he went. The example of Joseph's simple, humble, consistent obedience is remarkable. And I do not believe that he gets enough credit in the Christmas story and in the way that we think about the figures in the Bible and in his value to the kingdom of God. To me, Joseph is the personification of this verse in James. You can turn with me James chapter 1 verses 22 through 24. I thought about doing this morning to get to James a sword drill with you guys. Raise your hand if you know what a sword drill is. A.k.a. raise your hand if you grew up Southern Baptist. So in Southern Baptist Sunday School, a sword drill is you would hold the Bible up by the spine. I've got my finger in the mark. But you would hold the Bible up by the spine, and the teacher would call out a verse, and you'd slam your Bible on your lap, and you'd scramble to find it as fast as you could. First person to find the verse stands up and starts to read it, and they're the winner. And they're the most spiritual person in the room and they're destined for greatness, right? That's how that went. So I thought about having a good old fashioned sword drill right here in the middle of church, but I didn't want to embarrass myself. So I didn't do it. But in James 1, 22 through 24 is this famous passage that many of us have probably heard before. And I believe that Joseph embodies and personifies this passage. Verse 22. Joseph was a doer of the word, not just a hearer. He was a man who received instructions from God, and he followed through with them. And so we know that Joseph was righteous because he obeyed. We don't have any words of Joseph, but we know that he was a righteous man because he was a man that obeyed God. And the disciple John wrote a whole book, the letter of 1 John, where the entire point of the book is, if you say you love God and you do not obey him, you're a liar. Joseph loved God. Joseph obeyed him. He was a doer of the word. And now it may sound simple to be a doer of the word and not a hearer. Simply act. Don't just listen to sermons. Don't just listen to small groups. Don't just listen to books, to messages, to different things that we picked up along the years, to the counsel of godly friends. Don't just listen to it, but employ it and do it. When you feel God nudging you to take a step of obedience, take it. That is a doer of the word. And if you're like me, if I could sit down with you individually over some coffee and ask you, what do you feel like God's been nudging you to do? What are the steps, what's the step or steps of obedience that you believe God would like you to take in your life? What have you heard him tell you to do but maybe you haven't done yet? I very seriously doubt that any of you would lack for answers there. And that's okay. We should all have that answer all the time. At Grace, we say that we're step-takers. We're always taking the next step of obedience. In this way, we're making disciples. It's okay to have that list of things that we ought to do. But let me ask you this. And I don't mean to step on toes, but just hear me out. If I could ask you that question six months ago, would your answers be pretty much the same as they would be today? If I could ask you that question a year ago, three years ago, five years ago, how long have your answers been the same to the question of God wants you to take a step of obedience, what is it? How many times has he reminded you of that? And yet we haven't been doers. So I don't say that to unduly convict or to guilt. But I do want us to see that being a doer of God's word is far more easily said than done. And here's why being a doer of God's word is so important. Here's why being an obedient servant is so important. Here's why humble, quiet, consistent, silent obedience is so important. Here's why being an obedient servant is so important. Here's why humble, quiet, consistent, silent obedience is so important because I am convinced that humble, quiet obedience is the brick and mortar with which God builds his church. I am absolutely convinced that that type of humble, quiet, day after day, relationship after relationship, step after step, task after task, season after season, that kind of life lived in obedience to God and fealty to him is the brick and mortar with which God builds his kingdom, the church. I'm absolutely convinced. And that's so important because we've talked about this before. Jesus came to live a perfect life and to die a perfect death, but that's not all he came for. If it was, then why did he waste three years letting the disciples follow him around being annoying, asking stupid questions? Because he was preparing them to lead the church that he was establishing. Because he didn't just come to live a perfect life and die a perfect death. He came to establish the church and equip us to build it. That's what he came to do. And when he left, he meant this so ardently that he spent three years of his life training everyone around him to do it. And then when he left, he looked at them and he gave them what we refer to them as the Great Commission that we find in Matthew 28 and in Acts chapter 1. Go into all the world, making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And then another way he says it is, take the gospel to the corner, to Jerusalem, Judea, to Samaria, even to the ends of the earth. Go tell my story. What he's telling them in not so many words is, I have equipped you and purposed you to go and build the church. And every generation of saints and believers after them, that is our sole biggest duty is to build God's church, to build his kingdom. At Grace, we have five traits, and I'm going to start talking about those traits more. But one of them, the one that we want to push everyone to, if you are a partner of grace, we want you to be a kingdom builder. Someone who realizes and understands that every gift you have, all of your time, all of your talent, and all of your resources have been given to you by God so that you might be used to build his kingdom. It's our purpose on earth to figure out how we marshal what we have to build God's kingdom, which is to add numbers to it and to strengthen those in it. And I am convinced that the Josephs, the unquoted, maybe misunderstood, maybe non-heroic. Figures in our church's history are the literal brick and mortar with which God builds his church. That obedience is how God builds his kingdom. And when I think about someone who personifies that, first of all, I would just say honestly, I can think of several people in this room that are that to me. But I didn't want to humiliate anyone, so I'm not going to use you as an example. When I think of someone who lived this life and was used in ways far beyond her expectations to build God's church. I think of my mama. And I've mentioned her before, and I think I've even expressed this before. But as I thought about the best example of this, I just couldn't get away from it because I think it's so powerful. My mama was born Linda Sandifer in Red Stick, Louisiana, Baton Rouge. Poor family. She has a brother named Doty. All right? That's his name. That's not his nickname. It's his name, Doty. And when she was 17 years old, she met my papa, Don Green, who grew up in South Georgia. And he said, he grew up on a literal dirt floor, and he told me when I was growing up that they were so poor that his family could only afford to buy one bean, and they would tie a string to it and take turns swallowing it for dinner. While we're here, he used to say, when I was growing up, we were so poor that when the family went to Kentucky Fried Chicken, we had to pay to lick other people's fingers. If you're too young to get that, just ask somebody who's chuckling. They'll explain it to you later. They were married at 18 and 19 years old. And at the end of Mama's life, she had four kids. She stayed with Don. I loved my Mama and Papa. She was widowed in her early 60s. And for the last about year and a half, two years of her life, I would have coffee with her every other Monday for Mama Mondays. And I got to know her better than I ever had. And what I learned about her is that she never, ever felt important. She felt important to her family. It wasn't anything bad. She's to the broader community. She didn't think she mattered. She never envisioned herself as having much impact. She grew up thinking her older sister, Ann, was prettier and smarter and more talented than she was. My pop, Aldon, had this big bombastic personality, and she was in the shadow of that, helping in the back. And so she never really thought she mattered. When she would hear sermons where the pastor would say things like, God has a purpose for your life, God has a plan, he's gifted you, and he's purposed you for great things in his kingdom. She would think, yeah, not me. I'm just a mom. I'm just doing my thing. Those sermons never really resonated with her. She never saw herself as important to God's kingdom or the church. When she was 72, she got diagnosed with ovarian cancer. And praise the Lord, she refused treatment. She said, no way. I'm going to spend the last months of my life seeing my family flying around not doing chemo. And I said, great. She had two bad days. She died. I got to do her funeral. When I got up on the stage to do my part in the funeral, I looked out, there's 400 people in the room. Now listen, I had done several funerals before that. I've done plenty since. The cold reality of life is the older you get, the fewer people who attend. That's just how it goes. For different reasons, and I will not enumerate because it's unnecessary, 400 people don't tend to show up for a 72-year-old's funeral, especially one who's been quietly widowed for over a decade, especially one who never led anything, who never felt important, and was never on the stage. But as I got up there, I looked out, and I saw the contingent of bank tellers that she worked with at First Union who loved her, who all had wonderful things to say about her, who told me how much they appreciated her and the deep impact that she made on their life with her faith and with her consistency. I saw the contingent of the deaf community. She had a daughter who was deaf, and so in learning sign language, she would always sign at the churches where she was to interpret for them. We had a whole contingent of the deaf community that came to honor Linda. I saw her family, 60 deep, that she spent the last six months of her life loving on and visiting, who showed up to honor Linda. All of her kids there loving her. I saw this contingent of girls from the youth group. They were in their 20s or 30s now, but a few years into being a widow, she's in her 60s, and she's like, God, what do you want me to do? And he felt like he wanted her to volunteer in the youth. So she starts showing up to mentor these teenage girls. And they love her. They love Grandma Linda. And they talk her into going unbelievably. She never did anything like this in her life. They talked her into going on a mission trip to Peru. So she's hiking around the Andes with high school girls. It makes no sense to us. But she's just loving on them, just being consistent in their life. And a decade later, they're there to celebrate her. She lived her life thinking she wasn't that important. And 400 people showed up to tell her that she was. Now, how did that happen? Because like Joseph, she lived a life of simple, humble, quiet, consistent obedience. And I'm convinced that is the brick and mortar that God uses to build his church. And I will say this too. If you can relate to Momo, that's how you feel sometimes. If you feel like if you were in the Bible narrative, you'd be a Joseph. No speaking parts for you. God's kingdom needs a lot more Josephs than it needs Pauls. It needs a lot more quiet, consistent obedience than it needs heroes. Do you understand? God's kingdom needs so many more Josephs than it needs Pauls. More people running their mouth, more mouthpieces, more people in leadership, all that stuff. And I know that this is funny for me to say because I'm the pastor of the church, but I don't think you realize how small potatoes I am in the community of pastors, so I'm not really bragging about anything here. To make this point, that God's kingdom needs a lot more Josephs than it needs Pauls to be built successfully. You can check me later on this. Years ago, I noticed it and found it so interesting. If you turn to Romans chapter 16, the last chapter of that letter, that letter was written to the church in Rome that Paul helped to start. And it's an amazing book. It's an amazing book. Jen asked me the other day, if you could preach anything, what would you preach? I said, I would take a year and go through Romans. I will not do that to you, but I would like to. And at the end of Romans, this incredibly technical, loving, wonderful book, all of chapter 16 is devoted to salutations. Greet so-and-so and so-and-so. Tell so-and-so I said hello. Tell so-and-so I love him. You know how many so-and-sos there are in Romans chapter 16? 26 different people are listed by name by Paul, plus two different families that he says to greet. Paul helped to start that church, but those people he listed are the ones that showed up every week and held babies and faithfully ministered and served as elders and small group leaders and made coffee and did the announcements and played the bass. Those 26 people are the ones on whom that church was built. Paul got to play a part in that church and it was an essential part, but make no mistake about it, all those people who are simply listed by name and then forgotten to history, they had so much more to do with the building of the church in Rome through quiet and consistent obedience than Paul ever did. The here's the thing. We never know the results, what the results of what quiet, humble obedience will be. We can never fathom what the results of our obedience will be. We do not know what chess pieces God is moving around the board. We do not know what he intends to do with the next step that he is asking us to take. But here's what we know from Joseph. If he doesn't obey God in the first place and stay with Mary, then she has to live in shame with her parents, likely for the rest of her life, and Jesus grows up a fatherless child. That's likely what happens if he doesn't obey God there. If he doesn't obey God the second time, what could happen is Herod could kill Jesus and the evil one wins early. If he doesn't obey God the third time and go back, then the prophecy that says God will call his son out of Egypt never takes place and isn't fulfilled and Jesus isn't who he says he is and the scriptures are proof false. There's no way Joseph could possibly know those things hinged on his obedience. He just knew that he was the man who did what God asked him to do, and so he did it. You don't know how God is building the kingdom through your faithful, quiet obedience, and you won't know this side of eternity. But I can promise you this. With every step you take of obedience in him, he's laying one more brick to build his kingdom. And it is pushed forward by the kind of faithful obedience that Joseph lived out and that my mom all lived out and that I see so many of you living out. So let's resolve in light of this to be like Joseph, to continue our humble, quiet, consistent, often unseen and unappreciated obedience, believing that God is using those things to build his very kingdom in ways that we cannot fathom. Let's pray. Father, thank you for Joseph. Thank you for what you tell us about him, for what we see in him and can learn from him. Thank you for his example. Lord, I pray that you would help us be doers of the word, not just hearers. But that when you ask us to take a step of obedience, we would have the courage and the faith and the discipline to wake up the next morning, the very next hour, and do it. And God, would you let us experience what it is to be used by you to build your kingdom as we simply do the next thing that you've placed in front of us. Father, we love you and we pray these things in your son's name. Amen.

Wow, that was awesome. Good morning, everyone. My name is Kyle. I'm the student pastor here. I'm very sorry. I don't understand how this mic thing works, so we're going to figure it out together. Like I said, my name is Kyle. I'm the student pastor here at Grace, and man, I'm really excited to be up here this morning. I'm really excited to have the opportunity to be a part of this series, a part of just getting to highlight different songs that we sing and maybe hopefully make them a little bit more valuable inside of our hearts when we sing them in the future. I think the only way I could be more excited is if instead of preaching, Aaron would have asked me to actually sing the song. But as Aaron continues to remind me, no one wants that, Kyle. And so until the Lord decides to change my singing voice, we'll settle with talking here. You know, as I began to prep and study and go through this song and these lyrics, a couple things came to mind. The first thing that came to mind is that, man, this song comes directly out of Philippians 2. I tell you that is the cue. If you want to go ahead and read with us, you can go ahead and find that and open up to Philippians 2. But I was really encouraged by that because we had been going through Philippians as great students not long before I was asked to preach through this. And so as I read these words, I'm like, man, there's something just supremely familiar about these words as I read them. The second thing that I oddly started to think about and be reminded of is of a time recently within the past, like it's been a month or two, when I had the opportunity to play a round of golf. To give a little background, Chris Latta, who's a partner here, had basically had, I guess, a card, the ability to bring three other players to play in this, like, best ball style golf tournament. And that was really exciting for me because I love and cherish my opportunity to spend time with Chris and then also with Nate, our pastor, and Aaron, our worship pastor, as that is who Chris reached out to. But there was a bit of trepidation that came with that as well because I don't play golf. And I've learned over the years as we talk and as I tell people I don't play golf and have them tell me, yeah, I don't play golf either, that normally when people say they don't play golf, what they mean is, yeah, I don't really play golf anymore. I used to play a lot, but now, you know, I just, I have so much going on and so I don't really get to play very much. Or it's like, you know, I only really get to play like once or twice a year, so I don't play often. And so their definition is then, yeah, I don't really play golf. What they're saying is, I don't play golf much, so don't expect too much. When I say I don't play golf, I mean I have no idea how to play golf. And I let Chris very candidly know that. Instead of like, you know what, I'm just going to do this. Northridge seems pretty awesome. I like those guys. Let's just roll it out. I made it very clear to him, I don't know what I'm doing out there, and you should find someone else, but he assured me it would be totally fine, and so we went out there. And I've got to be honest, as we went up to the first hole, knowing all of the things that I just told you, I still walked up with a driver and put that ball down and had in my head just this glorious moment of where, even though I have no idea what I'm doing, I'm about to absolutely launch this golf ball. And then I'm going to turn around and I'm going to like do something cool with the club and all the guys are going to like uproar us applause. And for some reason, everyone else out there is going to randomly be watching and they're going to go crazy. And so I get up and I do it. I take my practice swing, which probably looked incredible. And then I rear back and I absolutely, I mean, I smack that ball. I smack a good, maybe at maximum one centimeter of the top of that golf ball. And I launched that thing about three feet forwards on a slow roll. Like to give you a better understanding, if I hit my exact first shot right now, it would not have rolled to Harris's foot on the first row right here. Like it was ugly and it was terrible. And I have to be honest, it did not improve too much after that. I kept going and I kept trying and it kept, like that just kept happening. I kept swinging and feeling like, man, it really feels like I should be hitting more of this golf ball and it really feels like it should be doing more things that it's doing. But I just couldn't figure it out. And so shot after shot, a bit of frustration kind of came over me. And which sounds silly because why would you be frustrated that you're doing a bad job at something you don't know how to do? But truthfully, that was not my frustration. My frustration more came with the fact that as I continued to swing and as I continued to hit and as I continued to watch three guys who, like, I know they're not professional golfers, and some of you might be like, you're trying to do what they're doing. For me, they're hitting the ball, and when they hit it, it goes, like, up in the air, and that's awesome. And, like, it's times where it's going straight, or they're doing, like, these crazy turns, and it's going left or right. And I'm just mind-blown by the whole thing, and I'm just like, man, like, you know, I never knew how incredible it was to watch a ball go up in the air until you've never watched any of your balls go up in the air. And what frustrated me is I'm watching these guys and I have right in front of me, this is what I should, this is, this is what it looks like to do what I need to do. But I have no idea how to get there. I have this goal of looking and hitting like this person, swinging like Chris or like Aaron or like Nate to where I can put a ball in play and everyone goes, all right, that was good enough. That's all I wanted. But I had no understanding of how to do so, regardless of how much I racked my brain and how many times I tried to watch all of the, like every part of the swing, I just couldn't figure it out. And it was frustrating. I wasn't improving it at all. I was taking zero steps forward towards the goal of just being able to hit a golf ball okay. And I just couldn't figure it out. I had no idea how to get better. I had no idea how to improve, how to move forward, until the guys, as they watched, they do understand golf a little bit more, and they understand what I was having a hard time grasping, that to hit a golf ball well is broken down into fundamentals of different parts of a swing. That it's not about, hey, you have to be perfect at every single front or else nothing works. It's simply about, hey, there's steps that you have to take. There's fundamental properties of what you need to do when you're swinging. And so, at one point, when I went up, I was encouraged by one of them, hey, I see that you're lifting your head when you're swinging. When you're going through, you're lifting your head. And when you do, your club comes up and you hit the top of the ball and it rolls to Harris' foot. And that's not what we want. And so I said, okay. And so they said, look, Kyle, don't think about anything else. Don't try to do everything exactly perfect. Do everything natural and as natural as it can feel to you. Keep your head down the whole way and just see how that goes. And I did it. And then I was shooting under par golf for the rest of the round. Obviously, that's not true. It did not change and impact everything about whatever, but there was improvement. I hit the ball kind of somewhat where it was supposed to be hit on the club. It went forwards. It went a little bit farther. And so for the rest of the day, instead of me going like, well, here's this thing I'll never be able to do, so why am I, like, what's even the point? I'm just frustrated every time I swing. They're helping me out, and they're saying, hey, this time, just spend most of your time just focusing on this one simple step of holding your arm in this way, and swinging everything natural and normal, but do it this way. They broke something that was big and hard and difficult down into these fundamental aspects, because what they recognize and what they realize realize because they've learned how to play golf is it takes small steps forwards and understanding what it takes to take those small steps to be able to get to that ultimate goal. And so by the end of it, it wasn't great, but I hit a couple shots that like genuinely went up in the air and it was awesome. I do recommend, I do recommend the ability to hit a ball up in the air and forwards because it feels kind of cool. We didn't, it wasn't useful. I think the best shot I hit went right in the water, but man, it made my heart feel good. You know, I mean, there was a genuine Nate goes, Kyle, yes. I'm so sorry that went in the water, but awesome. You was a great day for me. But I think that probably all of us have had similar experiences to this. I don't know that all of us have had the same experience of golf. I hope that your experience with golf is better than mine was for most of it because that was rough. But we have the experiences of maybe it's starting a new job. and part of that is to shadow someone who's doing that job. And it's like, how in the world can I ever do any of the things that that person's doing? This is completely overwhelming. And so every day you show up to work in the shadow of how incredible this person is. And so every day you feel like a failure because even though you're trying your hardest, you have no idea how to get to where that person is. Maybe some of you, I've been here, have tried to get in shape. And so you go to classes or you watch workout videos and you're watching and you're like, I don't even understand why I'm classified as human and you're also classified as human, you know? Like, I look at you and you look nothing like I do and you're doing all these things and you're smiling and talking to me and I'm like throwing up over here and deciding if I should have like just stayed in bed this morning, you know? Like, I, there's no way to get there. And when we experience those experiences, there's a couple things I think that it's easy to feel. One is hopeless. Just feeling completely hopeless in the approach or in the pursuit of this goal that seems completely unattainable, and we don't even know how to even make strides towards it. So every day we just feel lesser than because we don't know what we're doing. Or we take the cynical approach, and we go, you know what? I don't see any possible way I could ever get there, so what's the point? I'm not even going to try, which is kind of maybe my approach to golf, but we'll see. But you've probably experienced one of those two feelings before in your life. And when we come to a song like this, and when we come to a sermon, when we come to a song that asks of us to be more like Jesus, sometimes my approach is like, yeah, okay, cool, awesome. I'll put it on the to-do list. Thanks, Kyle. Thanks, Nate. I'll definitely be more like Jesus. That's awesome. I think sometimes to be told or to be called to be more like Jesus feels like you're trying to tell me who has no idea what he's doing or how to be good at golf and saying, hey, the way that you'd be good at golf is by playing like Tiger Woods. That is completely foreign to me. I have no idea what that means or what that looks like. I couldn't play like Chris Latta. And he's awesome, but he's not Tiger. It's like one step down. But as any teacher or any coach or any supervisor has ever taught us before as we try to learn something new, it starts with taking that first step. It starts with understanding those fundamentals. And so, this morning, as we try to get a somewhat of an understanding of what it may look like or mean to look more like Jesus and to make our lives more like Jesus, I think what's important and what's vital is for us to break that down and go, okay, so who was Jesus? What is an attribute of Jesus that maybe I can take that step and pursue? Because I know that if I go, hey, here's all of the things that Jesus was, and I wake up every morning and say, all right, time to do this, that I'm going to finish the day probably doing very little, if any of it, and I'm just going to feel completely overwhelmed and completely hopeless for the next day. But maybe if we just grab hold of one attribute and say, what if we just clung to this one? What if this morning, what if this week we just thought about being more like Jesus in this way? I think we'd find that it's more approachable. And what's really cool about this song, and what makes this song so perfect for this series, a series where we're trying to grab songs and figure out where we can find them in scripture. When we look, that first verse that we sang, you guys will hear it again because we're going to sing it again. That first entire verse that we sang is almost a word-for-word version of something that we find in Philippians 2, verses 5 through 8. And so, if you will, if you have it open, you can read along with me, or otherwise you'll be able to read it on the, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. This is the first half of a passage of scripture that people somewhat commonly refer to as the hymn of Christ. It's this glorious passage that basically just outlines the sacrifices that Christ made on our behalf so that we could know God, so that we could know Christ, and we could have a relationship with the Father. It's a glorious depiction of the gospel and what we know is true about the gospel, but I would say more pointedly, the hymn of Christ highlights Jesus's radical humility for the glory of God and for the sake of humanity. If you take a closer look at those verses, it outlines Christ who is in heaven on the throne with God, who instead of clinging to that, instead of clinging to that glory, instead of clinging to that power, instead of clinging to that comfortability of being able to be in heaven as God, did not consider it something to be clung to, but instead he left heaven to come to earth and become a human, which is worse. And in doing so, did not do so so that he could take up the throne of Israel and be the king of the world to make Israel the most powerful nation and he could bring all of the power and all of the glory to himself, which is what he deserved and which is what he had every access to be able to do because as much as he was human, he was also God. Instead, as Paul writes, he became nothing. Living a life as a servant. Moving from place to place, basically homeless. Loving and serving every person he was possibly able to come into contact to. Not to heighten his power, not to grasp upon the power that was rightfully his, but in order to elevate and uplift the people that were around him, ultimately to the point of death. In humility, recognizing and understanding that he is the only person who's ever lived a life on this earth that was ever worthy of not experiencing death. The only person. And yet, being the person who gives his life so that every other human who does experience death and does experience eternal separation from God doesn't have to experience it and can have a relationship with the Father through Christ's sacrifice. It is this beautiful and incredible and amazingly powerful set of verses. But for those of you who've opened it up in your Bibles, what you see is that this is not a passage that just stands alone by itself. Even those who were able to just look at it on the screen, you see that it's verse 5, which means that there are verses before it. Some of you who are reading along with me also might have realized that we only use the last two words of verse 5. I tell you all of that to say that as beautiful and as powerful as these words are by themselves, they are placed in Philippians for a very specific reason, a very specific context. And when we understand that context and when we understand the reason why these words were written, I think it helps us to outline an attribute of Christ. The context for that beautiful depiction of Christ's humility in the gospel and throughout the story, entire story of the gospel, the context of that is so that Paul can say, hey, here's your example for how you should live your lives in humility. Here's your example for what this looks like. Not building up and gaining your own power or building up your own kingdom, not working and walking in selfishness, but instead looking to the needs of others above yourselves, elevating other people and serving other people above yourselves just as Christ did. Christ, who was also fully God, made himself lesser than to elevate everyone that he came in contact with, to serve and to love them as well as he possibly can. And in the same way, Paul says that's the way that we should live our lives as well, in that style, in that kind of humility. And so, because we have these verses that were pulled directly from to write this song that we sang this morning and that we're gonna sing again later, what I think that we're able to surmise is this, that when we sing, make me more like Jesus, we are asking God to replace our pride with the humility that defined the life of Christ. Lord, I've seen all of the ways that your son lived in humility while he was on earth to the point of death. And in the same way that Paul called the believers of the Philippians, I know he calls me to live in that style of humility. Not in selfish ambition or vain conceit, but elevating people and lifting them up. And as I went through this, I began to think about, okay, what are some examples of what that looks like? What are some things where I can go, hey, here's an awesome way to be humble. Here's an awesome way to do this. And the more I thought and pondered and processed, the more I came to realize that what I was thinking more about is people whose lives are marked and defined by this level of humility, whose lives look like Philippians 2, 3 through 5. And I thought of a friend, Ron Torrance, and I told him, be aware, be ready. I understand the position that I'm putting someone in by elevating them and uplifting them about how humble they are. And they probably are completely uninterested in hearing their voice or being lifted up. But I think it's valuable for the church. And so I'm asking him to allow me some grace. But Ron is someone who has given a lot of his life to this church and to the people of this church. And now he's retired and he has every right in the entire world to be able to show up to church and to just have people love him. To be able to go find his buddies, find his friends, find the people he's closest to, get here a couple minutes early, have some conversations with his friends, sit down and just enjoy his service. Maybe what he actually deserves is everyone to go and find him and to ask how he's doing and check in on him because he's the best and he's given so much to this church. He's completely entitled to be loved and served by everyone in this church the best that they can. But instead, instead of leaning on that entitlement, instead of leaning on what he deserves and what he has earned the right to do, instead, he comes here every Friday, every Friday morning. He clears out every trash can because he wants there to be a brand new trash bag in every trash can for Sunday morning. Then he goes around and he cleans the windows. Then, I was here this Friday morning trying to do something that I'm paid to do, and he's got a leaf blower, and he's blowing all of the leaves away from all of the sidewalks. His full intention when he comes on Friday morning is to say, you know what? I want to serve everyone the best I can, and what that looks like for me right now is to make this look as nice as it possibly can for whoever's going to walk up in here on Sunday morning. Ron's retired, and he has lived a good life for the Lord. He's earned the right to not have to do any of those things. He's earned the right for people to do that for him. And yet, come here on Friday morning, you'll see him every Friday morning. And then it comes Sunday. And he's already made the place as beautiful as it can be for you, for us, for me. And instead of going and finding his buddies and spending time hanging out and chatting it up with the people he's closest with, his goal and his purpose on a Sunday morning is to interact with as many people as he possibly can, to make sure that if you're here, that your hand is shaken and that you're told good morning and that you're asked about any detail of your life that he may know to make sure that you know that you are valued and that you are welcome and that he is happy that you're here. His goal is to serve you by making you know how valuable you are in this space. If by no one else, then by him. He has earned the right for all of us to just come find him in his seat where he has a recliner and we just sit, go and shake his hand. But that's not what he does. Almost to the chagrin, I would imagine, of his closest friends and his family, he's bouncing around to make sure that every single person is loved, is encouraged, is welcomed. I know Ron cares about me when I talk to Ron. Just this morning, I wasn't planning on saying this, but just this morning, Ron opened the door for me. He said, I don't know who the greeter is, but you know. I'm like, yeah, man, awesome. He's not on greeter. He's not supposed to be a greeter every week, but he basically is, so why not? And I think that that's valuable to us. I think that's valuable to this church. Those are small acts that go a really long way for us every single Sunday to uplift us, to encourage us, and to allow us to walk into a space that looks nice. And, you know, I wanted to figure out and put together a way to then go from, to transition from that into this impassioned plea to this is why you should not only be happy that there are people like Ron that exist, but why you should strive in your life to be someone whose life is marked by that same humility. That you can be someone like that that exists by simply allowing Christ to take over your heart and allowing your life to be defined by the humility that defined the life of Christ. And the more I tried to think about what that impassioned plea might be, I just came back instead to this simple thought that if I asked every one of you right now, if I had time, there's too many. I can't walk up to each one of you individually right now because there's kids that are going to go crazy in a second. But if I did, and I said, hey, who is that person or who are those people in your life that you have in your everyday life that you feel like their lives are defined by Christ-like humility? You probably all have them. You have people that you can think of. And so then my second question is this. As you think about that person or those people that you know, what kind of status do they hold in your mind and in your heart? Where do you find them in your heart? Who are they in your life to you? Who are those people to you? To me, they're the people that I know if I need help with something, if I need an extra set of hands, I know I can reach out to them. Not because I know that they've got nothing going on and they're sitting twiddling their thumbs being like, man, I really wish I could help Kyle move something right now. But knowing that their time is valuable and I'm sure there's plenty of ways they could be spending it, but knowing it that their life is marked by a Christ-like humility. And ultimately, they're looking for the joy of the opportunity to be able to help me out and serve me in whatever way I need. They're the people I know I can reach out to, and they're going to help me in whatever way they can. They're also the people that are the ones I want to reach out to, and I want to talk to or talk with when I've got something serious that I need to talk about. When it's more than simply just standing or sitting and hanging out and laughing and joking around and having fun. But instead when it's, I really need someone to listen to what I've got going on. I really need someone who I know when I walk into this conversation that they're only going to be locked in on what I have to say, knowing that they're not going to consistently just be frustrated, that they want to be able to say more and they want to get more words in and they want to be heard, but simply will be totally okay. Totally okay knowing, hey, you might not have a huge role in this conversation, but I'm going to sit here and I'm going to listen because I care and I want to hear what you have to say. Those are the people, the people whose lives are marked by humility, those are the people that I'm going to go to, that I'm going to reach out to because I know that they're going to be there for me in whatever way I need. Because I know that even though their time is precious, even though they're interesting and they have thoughts and they have things to say and they have all of that stuff, that when they weigh the two, when they weigh what they have versus what I need. Every time, they're going to do what they can to serve me, to put their needs aside, and to serve and to love me best. And so they play a pretty vital role in who I am. Do y'all have those people? If you do, if you have those people, you know the joy of having those people. If you have people like that, then you know that you get to understand something about humility that I don't know that we understand until we've experienced, and it's this, that humility is encouraging and life-giving to everyone it touches. It draws people in by lifting people up. I'm gonna read it again. Humility is encouraging and life-giving to everyone it touches. It draws people in by lifting people up. If we've experienced people whose lives are marked by humility at work, in our family, through friendships, then we know that this is true. We know the great and utter joy of what it means to have someone like that in our lives. And so if you do, if you nodded when I asked if you had those people, here comes my question. Why in the world would we not want to be the reason that someone else could experience that joy? Why wouldn't we want to be the reason why someone gets to understand and recognize that, hey, just because I know you, just because we are friends, that means that a lot of my goal in our friendship is my ability to encourage you and to give you life and to elevate you and uplift you and draw you in by lifting you up. Why wouldn't we want to provide that joy for someone else? To experience a Christ-like humility that blesses the hearts of the people around us and serves the hearts of the people around us. I think not only do we seek to live lives that are marked by this humility because it benefits them from a humanly approach, I also think that when we serve others in humility, that we reflect Christ. I'll say that again, when we serve others in humility, that we reflect Christ. I'll say that again. When we serve others in humility, we reflect Christ. I don't think that the only reason that Paul put an entire beautiful poem about Christ's humility next to a call to Christians to live lives of humility. I don't think he just does that to say, hey, here's the example. I think he also does so so that we can recognize and that we can realize that if we allow God to shape our hearts and when we allow Christ to move in and through us, to live more like him in humility, that when we do so, we are reflecting Christ to people who need to experience Christ. And I think that's significant. And finally, it's weird to talk about because it's like, why am I ending on something that's valuable for us more so than for other people in a humility sermon? But I'm going to. Not only is there so much joy to be given by living lives of humility, but man, there's so much joy to be gained. If you will, I want to close this morning by getting to read the entirety of the hymn of Christ. We started the first time at verse five and we went through eight. I want to read it in its entirety this morning. I realized that I only put the second half up for the words. And so if you do have your Bibles out, that might be the place to do it. But if you will, just hear this, because I want you to hear the joy that comes through living a life that is changed by the humility of Christ and that reflects the humility of Christ. So if you will, we're going to read verses 5 through 11 together. Here's the new part. gave him the name that is above every name, that the name of Jesus every knee should bow. In heaven and on earth and under the earth, in every tongue acknowledge that Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Christ's life of humility led to his exaltation that seated him at the right hand of God. And our humility, as it says, that we can get down on our knees and we can proclaim that Christ is Lord, that we can give our hearts and say, I know I am not enough, nor will I ever be enough, but because of Christ's humility, I will give my heart up to you, God. Take all of me for all of you. Allow me to live a life that in some small sliver of a way is marked by the humility of Christ. And when we do so, we are exalted. In Matthew, right out of the words, right out of God, of Christ's mouth, in Matthew 23, 12, it says this, for those who exalt themselves will be humbled. Get this, those who humble themselves will be exalted. When we humble ourselves before the Father, then we can be exalted with the Son. And man, when we're exalted, when we've experienced having a debt paid that we did not owe and recognizing and understanding how little that makes sense and how unbelievable the grace of God is, when we understand the humility of Christ and the sacrifice that he made in his humility for us, also that we could be exalted to where when God looks at us, he sees Christ, I think it becomes a lot easier to live a life that's marked by humility. So, as we sing again, we sing asking God to make us more like Jesus. Maybe as we sing, we can pray and asking God this week in humility, how might I be able to do that? Will you pray with me? Lord, we love you so much. We're thankful for your son, his ultimate humility and sacrifice, and that because of that, we are exalted for eternity. God, I just pray that that sinks into our hearts so much so that we live our lives with something that looks even close to similar to that type of humility. Lord, we love you so, so much, and we are so thankful for you. Amen.

Well, thank you very much to the band. You guys are doing a great job lifting your voices to the Father. I say it all the time, it's my favorite noise in the world to hear my church praising God together. In a few minutes, we're going to sing, the song is going to be sung over us and then we're going to have a chance to sing it together called The Blessing. The song is taken right out of Numbers chapter 6 and it reminds me of the cultural blessings that we have all over the world. A lot of different cultures have a lot of different traditional blessings. One of my favorite ones is the traditional Irish blessing. You guys may have heard this before, but it says, may the road rise to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of his hand. I like blessings like that. I like traditions like that. I like hopes and prayers for one another like that. And so when I came across this song and I opened the scripture to find where it was, I loved it so much. I was actually talking with a friend of mine this week and was saying that we were going to be talking about the blessing this Sunday and it comes out in Numbers chapter 6 and he's like, oh yeah, I know it. I know it. He used to go to a church where a pastor would finish every sermon with this blessing. And I think it's so great because if you look at Numbers chapter six and we're going to leave the lights down so you don't have to pull out a Bible or try to participate. We don't have any notes to take this morning. I just want us to understand this song that we're about to sing together. But if you look in Numbers chapter 6, there's really no context for this. In the preceding verses, we're talking about what to do in a Nazaritic vow. So I know that some of you guys were wondering about that. It's in Numbers 6, so you can read that later this afternoon. And then chapter 7 is offering at the tabernacle for consecration. But sandwiched in between those two topics, really germane to nothing, is just this wonderful priests. So he says, go and tell the leaders of the people. Go and tell the spiritual leaders that when my people are blessed, when you would bless them, here's how I want you to do it. It is the traditional blessing of all traditional blessings. This is the one. And so the first little part there is very simple. The Lord bless you. It's okay to wish blessing upon one another. It's probably better for me to desire your blessing over my blessing, but it's okay for me as your pastor to pray that the Lord would bless you and your families, and I do. And so when we say that the Lord bless you, what does it mean to be blessed? May you sit in the Lord's favor. May you be prosperous physically and emotionally and spiritually and relationally in all the ways. Will the Lord bless you with rich friendships, with good family. May the Lord bless you with good health or quick healing. May the Lord bless you with peace and emotional stability and a life of kind of simmering joy. Would the Lord bless you? Would the Lord see favor on you? See you favorably and move you forward. And so it's right and good to pray for one another that our families, that your families would be blessed and would be prosperous in all the ways that are good and holy. And I love that next part, the Lord bless you and keep you. What does that mean? Well, to me, it reminds me of Psalm chapter 21, verses seven and eight. And it reminds me of this Psalm because this is something that my wife, Jen, prays over Lily every day before she goes to school. She prays out of these verses. Let's look at Psalms. The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forevermore. So this idea of the Lord keeping us means he's got us. He's going to protect us. He's going to walk with us. His presence will always be with us. And we love that phrase in our house, and you're going and then you're coming. And you're going out and then you're coming back in. And everything that you do and everywhere that you go and every place you arrive and every place you arrive back to, would the Lord be with you? Would he be walking with you? Would you feel his presence? Would you never feel alone? Would the Lord bless you and keep you? Would he hold you tight? And then we have that great phrase back in Numbers. If we look at the verse again, we have that great phrase, make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you and then the Lord lift up his countenance to you. So I thought a lot about what does that mean and why is it significant for the Lord to make his face shine upon us, for him to lift his countenance to us. And the image that kept coming back to my mind is what my face does when I see my two-year-old son, John. My face does it with Lily too, but there's something about a toddler that just brightens everything. There's also something about a toddler that ruins everything. So you take the good with the bad, right? But if you've ever been talking with me in the lobby or in here, and I hear his voice say, Daddy, or I turn and I see him, you know you just ceased to exist to me. It just happened right there. There's no one else in the room. There's nothing else happening. I turn and I smile and I crouch. He's everything. Everything else fades. If you have children, you've looked at them like that too. Where your countenance turns to them. Where you raise it up to them, where everything fades and they're the only thing in your universe. I can only imagine what that feeling is like with grandbabies. If you don't have children, but you have grandparents that you love, you have a mom or a dad that you love, you have a friend that you don't get to see all the time, it's the thing that your face does when you see them. It lifts and it brightens and everything fades and you're the only thing in the world. This is what it means when God lifts his countenance to us. When God turns his face to us. Everything else to God fades and it it's just you and him, and he's right there. So the Lord bless you. May he prosper you in all the ways that are important, in all the ways that are holy. May he keep you, be with you, and you're coming, and you're going, and walk beside you. And you're actually going to see Psalms, that phrase, show up in the song that we sing, in the blessing. The blessing is not just numbers. It's like a compilation of blessings from numbers and from psalms and from Deuteronomy. The Lord keep you. He go with you. He protect you as you go in your comings and in your goings. And then we pray that God would shine his countenance on you. To take it a step further, I would pray that you would feel the warmth of his face. That you would feel the warmth of his love. That you would believe that he turns to you and that his countenance delights and raises when he sees you and when you're brought to mind. And then this interesting thing happens in the song. So the first two, I don't know what they're called, verses or stanzas or whatever, I don't know songs, but the first two parts you'll see are just this two times. We'll sing it through. And then we start to move into other portions of the song. And there's a portion of the song where we sing out of Psalm 21. And we say, the Lord bless you and keep you. May his face shine upon you. But we're also going to say, in your coming and in your going, in your presence, he is with you, he is with you, he is with you. And then we're going to sing, he is for you, he is for you. He is for you. And that's from Romans chapter 8. If God is for us, then who can be against us? And then we're going to get to this part that we pull out of Deuteronomy that it says, well, He blessed you for generation and generation for your children and their children and their children. And this blessing is prayed not only over you, but over all of your descendants and over your family. So it really becomes this beautiful, powerful blessing. So I want to invite the band back up. If you guys can come get in place. We're going to do something with this song that I hope can be special to us. As we start the song, I want you to hear this song as a blessing over you. And I want you to sing this song as a prayer over those you love. So for the first part of the song, we're going to invite you to just remain seated. Sit there and let this song be sung over you as a blessing in the mode of God through Moses to Aaron. The way it was supposed to be spoken over God's people. Let it be sung over you and receive it and personalize it. Let it be sung over you that the Lord wants to bless you, that he wants to keep you, that his countenance is shining on you, that he is with you, that he is for you in your comings and in your goings. Make it personal. And then you're going to be invited to stand and sing. And when you sing it, make it a prayer. And think about those who come after you. Think about those that you love. And pray that God, as you sing, would bless them and keep them, that his face would shine upon them, that he would be with them, that they would know that he is for them. So let's hear it as a blessing and then let's stand when Jordan tells us to and sing it as a prayer.

Good morning, and happy pumpkin spice latte season. It is truly the most wonderful time of the year. All the smells, all the fragrance. I'm even wearing my fall colors today. Maybe, I don't know. My wife was asleep when I left, so there's a very good possibility I don't match right now and have no clue. But I'm so glad that you decided to join us today. My name is Aaron, and I get to serve as the worship pastor out here, and I'm so excited to share with you, honestly, something that's been on my heart for the last couple of years. I think around the end of 2020, this really started to just burden me a little bit. And to kind of set up and get our mind going in the right direction, have you ever considered how to navigate the tension of opposing desires within yourself, right? Like, have you ever considered how to navigate a pull in a couple of different directions, specifically around this topic today of compassion? Because I don't think it's possible for anyone to really say, oh, you know what? I'm nailing the compassion game. I have the perfect amount of compassion, unless you don't like dogs. Then, clearly, you today is for you very specifically. Like, no one would say that. If you are, like, you would probably be the person who tries to convince me that, like, the devil didn't get to make cats. That's just not true. I'm joking. My goodness, it got serious. Like he doesn't like cats. It's better than not liking puppies, okay? That's a, no, like all of us would agree. I want to be a more compassionate person. I want to be a person who is kind. I want to be a person that whenever people see me, they see someone who loves well, who they can come to and will understand what it is that will meet the needs of the people who they love. All of us would want to do that. Even if you are a compassionate person, what that's going to do is push you further into compassion and say, you know what, I really could be a little bit more compassionate. And the tension that we feel is today, one of the things that our world really reiterates is this self-focused lifestyle, right? Like self-care, self-love, self-appreciation, self-forgiveness, self... And listen, that's not bad. I love all of those things. I think there's a time and place for all of... I had a membership at one point to a place on Falls. It's called the Float Spa Therapy. Have you ever heard of that? Me either, until I saw it, and I found out that what they do is they put you in a room, stick you in a dark bubble, and you float in salt water. I cannot tell you if it is either a spa or therapy, but I can tell you, you don't have to see the world for an hour, and it is wonderful, right? Like all of this idea, just this stuff, I don't do that anymore because I realized there's other ways to do that. But like there's this pull towards self, and that's a good thing. That's not bad until we become so focused on self-care. We become so focused on self-love that the people around us, the people that God has placed in our life for us to love well, well, they become the problem. They become a challenge. They become a hurdle in my route to taking care of me. And there's the tension. It's good to love yourself well, but we can't forget what Paul said to the church at Philippians. In Philippians 2, he said, do this, do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, consider yourselves more important than others. I'm sorry, consider others more important than yourselves. So I'm going to go back and start over because really what I want to talk about today, nobody else matters. It's all about you, right? So no, consider others more important. Reading's tough. So consider others as more important than yourselves. Next slide. Everyone should not look to his own interest, but rather to the interests of others. And that's the tension that we feel, that we want to live a life that cares for people. But what do you do when people become the problem? When people get in the way? And this is especially true if you're a Christian, right? Not because you're better than anyone else, not because you think you're better than anyone else, or because you're trying to be better than anyone else, but it's because of the example set by Jesus, by the guy who we've devoted our lives to, by the guy who we've said we want to try to become more and more like him. Jesus lived a life that was marked by compassion. I don't remember who's, I think maybe Andy Stanley said this. I can't quite remember. It sounds like something he would say. He said that people who were nothing like Jesus actually liked Jesus. And it's because he lived this life that they knew that he cared for them. It didn't matter their socioeconomic status. It didn't matter their religious beliefs, their political affiliation. It didn't matter if they did the right thing or the wrong thing. It didn't matter what the case was. There was even laws, religious laws set into place that would prevent you from reaching certain people. In Jesus, it didn't matter. Everyone felt cared for. Everyone felt loved. And if you're a Christian, the reason why you feel this tension so strong is because the Holy Spirit is inside prompting you, pushing you, urging you toward this Jesus type of compassion. So what do you do in those moments? Like, what do you do when you're being pulled in a couple of different directions? Like, one of the most remarkable moments that you can see about in Jesus, because he was a real man. He was fully God, but he was also fully man with real emotions, the same emotions that you and I feel, with the same temptations that you and I have. And one of the most remarkable examples that I could have read about with Jesus, we'll read about today in Mark 6. If you've been around the church very long at all, you've heard this story before. It's the story when Jesus fed the 5,000, the text says 5,000 men, but more likely it was 15,000, including women or children. But as I was studying for this, I noticed something in this text that I believe it changes everything. And it shows us in that moment, in that tension, it's what Jesus does to lift the value of others, to care for their needs. To kind of set up the scene, we're at about the third year of Jesus's ministry. He's been going pretty nonstop, him and his disciples, day after day. There's been a few breaks in between, but the mental and physical exhaustion had to be there, had to be present. And his disciples just got back from a ministry trip. And so what he said to them is, hey guys, let's go and let's rest for a while. Not just was he dealing with the mental and physical exhaustion, but he had also just learned about the death of his cousin, John the Baptist. And it wasn't just any death. He was murdered because of a girl's birthday wish. How awkward of a party would that be, right? Like blow out the candles, what you want? That guy. But that's what happened. And so we've dealt with grief before, but that's, can we just admit that's a different level of grief? And so Jesus is dealing with the murder of his cousin. And not only that, but his disciples, a lot of them had followed John the Baptist in the past. They all loved him. They were mentally and physically exhausted, and they were certainly grieving. And Jesus told his disciples, let's get away for a little bit. Let's just go. Let's rest, and we'll get back to work. But while they were en route, people saw where they were headed. And this is what happened. In Mark 6, verse 32, it says this. So they went away, that's Jesus and their disciples. So they went away in the boat by themselves to a remote place, but many saw them leaving and recognized them. They ran on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. When he went to shore, he saw a large crowd. Let me ask real quick, like, how would you respond in that moment? Right? Like, so Jesus, certainly grieving, likely exhausted, he just wants to get away for a little bit. And he has every right to do so. How would you respond? I know what I would say, but he's Jesus. He can't say stuff like that, right? I bet Peter right next to him said it though. Like, what would you do? So something I'm very aware of in my life that I'm trying to work on. On Sunday mornings, man, I can have a tendency to come across more rude than I am, right? It's because I'm focused. Like I'm focused on the Sunday morning, focused on worship. I'm trying to make sure all the volunteers have everything they need, and just really kind of focused on leading worship well. And sometimes I'm just unaware of people. And my sister came down for a visit a few years ago, and I remember she visited church on Sunday and went to my wife. She said, hey, did I make Aaron mad at me? Is he okay? And she's like, no, no, no, no. No, it's just Sunday morning. Just come back in the afternoon, which that wasn't true because I'm even more ferocious about my nap than Sunday afternoon. I'm like a toddler when it comes to nap time, right? Like Sunday morning, I'm just oblivious and unaware of people. Sunday afternoon, I will fight you if you interrupt Sunday. Like fall, best season. Sunday afternoon, best nap time, right? And so it's just one of those things. I'm unaware of people. And I'm talking about a Sunday morning stress, right? Very nominal, right? But Jesus, in this moment, he had every right to say, hey, guys, I just need a second. Like this is one of those head down moments like, okay, let me try to figure this out. Can I have just a couple of minutes, guys? Hey, just a couple of days. Hey, listen, I know you guys heard about what's happening to John. I know you need something from me. If I can have just a few minutes, we'll be back around through time. Like there's, he's certainly right to do that. But in this moment, he sees something different. He sees something that causes a different type of reaction. In a moment when Jesus is sitting in that tension, I need to take a moment for me. I need to take a moment for my guys. These people need something from me. He's face to face with the people he has been placed here to love well. And he sees something that gives him a different reaction. In verse 34, it says this. When he went ashore, he saw a large crowd and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then he began to teach them many things. They were like, Jesus, in a moment when he had every right to say, guys, just time out. Need a couple of days. He saw their from their perspective, and it moved him with compassion. Jesus looked at them and felt the pain that they were feeling because he saw life through their lens. Sharing in their perspective caused Jesus to share in their pain. That's what the word perspective, or I'm sorry, that's the word compassion means. It means to suffer with, to pain with, to feel the pain of someone. And it is not possible, it is not possible to feel the pain of someone else while viewing their circumstances through your perspective. Jesus stops. He sees life from their lens and it burdens his heart. I love the word that Mark uses here for the word compassion. It's only used of Jesus throughout the New Testament, but it refers to the internal organs, which was believed to be the seat of the emotions. And so what Mark says here is he saw these guys, and there was such a deep hurt. There was such a longing for them. He shared their passion, and he moved into action. If we can learn to see life through the lens of other people, it will soften your heart towards their circumstances. And circumstances doesn't just mean feeding the hungry. It doesn't just mean giving to the poor. Compassion changes the way you approach things. It changes the way you approach your husband. It changes the way you approach your wife. Compassion restrains your anger. Compassion offers forgiveness. Compassion gives gentleness. Compassion seeks mercy and understanding and walks with people. If we can learn to view life through the lens of other people, what we'll start to see happening is we don't see people as someone we have to walk around. We see people as someone we have to walk with because we share in their pain. Is there someone in your life that maybe we need to seek their perspective a little bit? Let's just admit Jesus had a bit of an advantage there, right? Like Jesus understands people the way, like you have never met someone new for the very first time and told them exactly where they were and what they were thinking two hours before, at least not without a restraining order soon following that, right? Jesus Jesus has an advantage. Like, we've got to go the old-fashioned way. We have to ask questions. We have to seek. We have to consider. Like, how much would it change the way you're feeling in a moment if we were to think about something through someone else's lens? I tried to think about a clever illustration here just to kind of illustrate this point. I thought of several, none of which I'm going to use. Because you've lived this illustration. Like every person in here, at some point in time, has said some variation of this sentence. If they only understood, if they only saw, what just happened? If they could only see how I'm feeling, if they only understood how I was thinking, if they only understood what kind of day I had at work, they would not approach me like, if they only saw this, then they wouldn't feel that like we have all at some point in time realized that if someone else could see through our perspective, it would change the way that they're approaching us. It would change the anger in the situation. It would change everything. It would offer compassion that leads to the things that we crave the most. Reconciliation, hope, peace, love. Because Jesus felt such a pain that it moved him into action. I love what St. Augustine said here. He says, what is compassion but a kind of fellow feeling in our hearts for another's misery which compels us to come to his help by every means in our power? Compassion, especially the compassion that we see in Jesus, is never just a feeling by itself. It's such an understanding and such a sharing of the pain that it moves us. Compassion, Christ-like compassion, is both a feeling and the appropriate action. The goal of compassion isn't to find agreeance that someone's right and someone's wrong, that they need this, and I just do whatever anybody wants me to do. That's not the goal of compassion. The goal of compassion is understanding. The goal of compassion is to sympathize with, to feel the pain of, because it changes everything. It burdens your heart to where sitting still just doesn't make sense. Is there someone in your life whose perspective we need to take a moment and seek? If you don't know where that may be, my suggestion and what I would encourage you to do is to lean into the tension. When you feel that tension again, when you feel the tension that says, I just don't have the capacity right now. I just don't have the energy. I just don't have the time. I just don't have the resources. Hey, I just need a minute. What I believe will happen is the Holy Spirit will tug and say, hey, well, is it possible that this is the moment you should ask a question? You should consider perspective because it burdens you. It burdens your heart and it leads you to a place of action. Let me pray for us. God, thank you. Thank you so much for all that you are, for your love, for your grace. Father, I thank you for how you have, I don't know, Lord, just met us with compassion. I thank you for how you have given us this example of how when we pursue you, it will lead us to pursuing life through the lens of other people, Lord. I just ask that your spirit would guide us, would help us, would move us to slow down, to stop and just consider, is there something I'm not seeing here? Is there something that I can do that will begin to ease the anger, ease the frustration, ease the apathy towards a situation. God, is there something that I can do here to more accurately reflect the compassion that you have shown us? We thank you, Lord. We trust you. In Jesus' name, amen.