Dear Lord, thank you for this day. And Lord, we pray that you'll be with us here this morning, that your Spirit, Lord, will give us eyes to see and ears to hear to a greater degree what needs to be said here today. And dear Lord, we're so thankful that we actually can do this, as Brother Verne said. that Lord, it's a privilege just to be here. We should recognize what a privilege it is to be able to do this. It is a true blessing. And Lord, would you please be with me this morning? I truly need your help today. And dear Lord, I pray that what's preached, Lord, is edifying to everyone, including myself, and most importantly, glorifying to you. And Lord, we ask this in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. As so often happens when I get up here, it seems like someone has stolen my sermon the night before, whether it's Blair or Chris or Jason, using Philippians 2. I'm like, OK, am I ever going to get up here and say something with that original? Probably not. That's OK. I had to say that because it's interesting how that always works out. I'm going to be pretty much. There you go, yeah. OK, but that actually is comforting, believe it or not, providentially. So go figure that one But seriously that you know yesterday was was Christmas and The Lord laid on my heart to talk about this thinking about knowing what Blair has been preaching in Matthew being the beginning of Matthew and then of course the Christmas season I I thought that this would be a fitting thing to talk about, to continue to glorify Christ and what He's done for us at this time. And I'm thankful that the prayers and the teaching of the Psalms had to do with what I'm talking about. It helps us all to get primed with it spiritually and ready to hear this. So let's get to it Humility. All right. We hear that word all the time different places, right and I believe it's fitting to talk about it at this time, especially in our culture climate You hear the word all over the place and politics sports entertainment And the church books are written about it Famous people philosophers have quotes about it. Right songs are written about it and We have so-called world leaders claiming to be doing something for the good of humanity. That sounds so humble, doesn't it? It's funny how people love to tell you how humble they are, too, right? They get the accolades, they tell you how humble they are by them. Like how many times have we heard famous people say they are quote-unquote humbled by an award? Right? An election or a victory. We're told today that humility is tolerance. It's treating everyone equally. It's not about not having standards or absolutes or, God forbid, telling people they're actually wrong about something. Notice today everyone has an opinion about something. There's really no right or wrong when you get in discussions. It's one opinion versus another opinion. Let me be the first to break it to you. Being wrong about something is not having another opinion, it's being wrong, okay? Right? There's a difference, okay? Like if we watch a movie and I can say, well, you know, I can have an opinion about a movie and someone else can have a different opinion about a movie, that's fine. But if there's a rock over there that weighs 500 pounds, and I say that rock weighs 500 pounds, you say, well, I have a different opinion. I say, well, go pick it up then, right? Or you're by the stove, and you know the stove is hot. And your child says, well, father, I have a different opinion about that. I say, well, go touch the stove then, right? There's a right and wrong. It's not a different opinion. The stove is hot. Right? It doesn't matter. It's his opinion. The fact is, it's hot. So, and humility is no different. There's not really differing opinions on humility, okay? But for the sake of discussion, we will say there is a fallen or a false humility and a divine, a perfect or true humility. And the former has to do with self-promotion and the latter with self-sacrifice. You look around, you see all these efforts to push a false humility. It's not Christian in our schools, universities, the public arena, and sadly in the church. And you see what happens when people succumb to these deceptions, whether personally or institutions, things like that. You get this meshing of the world and Christianity. They start using these Christian terms and it gets a lot of people confused. So they think they're being humble. They think they're being Christian and not really or at least not as much as they should be When churches play footsie with secularism and they say they're somehow being humble about it, right That's not that's not being humble with all this stuff going on in the church. I'm at all. I just hold this thing the whole time Okay Now how do we keep from getting confused and not begin to compromise? Well we're gonna get into that. Humility is a hallmark, it's a foundation of Christianity. And we don't hear about it too much anymore in a Christian context. But we do hear about it as a humility that doesn't really cost anything, the kind that gets one noticed or showered with accolades. So listen to some quotes concerning humility from some people you may or may not know. Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real. By Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk. I don't even know what that means. Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world. Miyamoto Musashi. He was a ronin. Perfection is impossible without humility. Why should I strive for perfection if I'm already good enough? Leo Tolstoy, wow. Humility will open more doors than arrogance ever will. Zig Ziglar. OK, that's all that business stuff, right? Humility is the solid foundation of all virtues. Confucius. I thought Christ is actually the solid foundation of all virtues. If you are humble, nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are. Good old Mother Teresa. Pride is the problem. Humility is the answer. None other than thee, Joyce Meyer. I thought sin is the problem, and Christ is the answer. Again, we're seeing all this deception going on, right? We are all stumblers, and the beauty and meaning of life are in the stumbling, by the author David Brooks. So the meaning of life is not in our sin. I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance. That's Diogenes, okay? That's a pretty good one, but the last one I saved is very interesting, I'm gonna toy around with it a little bit. True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing. Socrates. Kind of sounds like something the Buddha might say, right? But I have a little comeback for old Socrates, because I've been known to wax a little philosophic myself, because I used to actually live in that world. Now, knowing you know nothing is, in fact, knowing something, which is impossible if you know nothing. Right? So you see, you can go on and on with this. I know Simier liked that. That's why I did that for you, Simier. Because he can do that, too. So I knew he'd like it. All right. But you see, the point is these people who think they're smart and they have all this, the answers for everything, and all these little sayings, they're really meaningless. They're empty and meaningless. They sound great, but people just use that to hide behind the fact that they're ignorant. So what do these have in common? Well, three things, at least. They're all man-centered, because all this is about, if you do something, you will get rewarded for your humility, which kind of works against it. They're temporal, has nothing to do with God or glorifying God or anything after our life. It's all about what you can get in this life. I mean, I went through tons of these things. I didn't put them all on here. I'm not going to waste time reading all this stuff. But just a few of them so you can get the idea. And another thing is they're all perfectly fine with that. It doesn't bother them that everyone has a different idea of what humility is, and a different reason why they think they need to be humble. It doesn't bother them that there's no consensus. It doesn't bother them. It should, but it doesn't. Now, if we go back to the text, we'll see a couple of things. I'm going to jump back, go back to verse 1, and read on through, and then we'll pick out a few things from it. Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfish or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus. So Christ had that attitude in himself, which is a picture of humility, okay? So that is markedly different from these things I just read, and there's a couple of more things I'm gonna read further on. and you can see how it's literally night and day. There should be no meshing of these two things. There's a clear distinction, and it should be that way in the church, and unfortunately, a lot of times it's not. So move on to verse six. Who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. There's nothing in there and nothing in those other quotes that I went through the last few days about obedience. The only thing they had about obedience is about being obedient just to get somewhere. But nothing about obedience to the one who created you. They don't talk about that at all, because that's not in their mindset. So for this reason also, God highly exalted him, bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that in the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of the glory of God the Father. So if you look at that, what are some of the characteristics and the attitude that Christ has that we would have? Thank you. Oh, I didn't have enough slack. Look at that. Technical difficulties. See? Humiliation. Tumbling. Providence. Can't get away from it. Wow. Fixed up. All right. How many people does it take to put a microphone on somebody, right? Like the light bulb joke. At least two. At least two. That's right. At least two. So if you look at a few things there back in the text, do nothing from selfish or empty conceit. So it's a selfless attitude, and an attitude of not being arrogant in your mind, like you're better than someone else, or you're more important than someone else. So with the humility of mind, because remember, knowledge puffs up. So we have to remember that we can have knowledge and still be humble, but you've got to know that it can puff you up. in regard to another is more important than yourselves, that's a servant attitude, right? And your humility. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. So you're not completely self-centered. And we need to look out for our own interests because you can't help someone or be a help to someone if you're destitute, right? So there's nothing wrong with looking out for yourself and trying to keep yourself provided for. or to have more than enough to give to others, so that's not a bad thing at all. So there's nothing wrong with looking out for yourself and also the interests of others. And what did Christ do? He said He humbled Himself by becoming obedient. So part of humility is obedience, and sometimes we don't always put those two things together. In the world they'll say, just put others in front of you, and they stop. Well, that's kind of what was said there, but not really. It's very shallow. That's not, well, why would you do that, right? They have nothing about the obedience in there. And where does that come from? That comes from the fact, humility does, it comes from the fact that you recognize that you are the created being, and that there's a Lord over you, right? that you will bow the knee to one day. That's the beginning of your humility, to recognize that. Recognize the fact that you are not the one calling the shots. Recognize the fact that you're not on the earth for merely your own gain, that you're not doing all this stuff for a temporal benefit, because we're talking about being in Christ and what Christ did. He's the hallmark, he's the cornerstone, he's the foundation of what humility should really look like. Not what the world says is humility. I mean, he humbled himself. We shouldn't have to? I mean, we should. If we want to be Christ-like, we have to have a Christ-like humility. And where do we find that? We find that in the Scriptures. right there in verses 3 and 4. There's plenty of other verses that talk about it, but I wanted to pick this one today. So those things, do nothing from selfish or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also the interests of others. Well, didn't Christ do that? He didn't do anything out of selfish or empty conceit. With humility of mind, he regarded others as more important than himself. Not the humans. The glory of God was more important than what he had to go through. Does that make sense? There's somewhat of a parallel, but not exactly. So he did that, didn't he? So if he did that, then that's how we should try to live as well. And it's not an easy thing to do. Because we go around, and you see that, And what most people miss, too, is that when Paul is saying this through the Holy Spirit, given those commands, right, the do-nothings, and do not merely look out, all those are commands, and we have to do those things perfectly all the time. That's still the requirement. Just because we're saved doesn't mean, ah, you're saved, so you just try kind of hard and it's good enough. No. That's the whole point of the salvation, that Jesus did this 100% of the time. He never had a selfish attitude, never did anything out of empty conceit. He always did these commands. That's still required of us, and most Christians forget that. They think it's a pass, and they don't even try. They could care less. So the fact that these requirements are 100% need to be maintained all the time. Think about how in the world could Christ exist in this sinful world and be that way all of the time? Everything He did, He had that attitude when He did it. Everything. Even when He got righteously angry, he still had that attitude. We can't do that, ever. So what do we do? You say, God, how can I do this? How can I have this attitude? What can I do to be more humble? What can I do? God says, you can't do anything. I do it. I do it. You can't do it. Because this humility is from God. The rewards that the Bible talks about for the humble is because God is making you humble to get that. He's not giving you a goal to shoot for. If you humble yourself, you can't read it that way. Yes, you're humbling yourself, you're asking for it, right? And then God will humble you. But you don't have the power to do the humbling. You can do an artificial humbling, like the world talks about. It may get you somewhere in this life. Sure, you get some accolades, have some success. People will love you. That's as good as it's going to get. But that's not really good enough, is it? It's really not good enough at all. And we also have to recognize that not only is humility tied in with obedience, it's tied in to the fact that we're slaves as well. So a slave needs to be obedient to his master, to the one who owns him, the one who provides for him, right? So that's part of having an attitude of humility, is recognizing not only that we need to be obedient, that we're also slaves. Because we're either slaves of sin or slaves of righteousness, we're a slave of something. We've all heard that before, but it's true. We'll pass over that. You've got to tie that in to being obedient, right? And we have to also have a recognition of Lordship and judgment. You can't truly be humble unless you know you have a Lord to be humble to, right? And a judgment coming that keeps you on your face. These people that we read about before, they know no such thing. They could care less about it. There is no afterlife to them. There's no judgment to them. Their goal, I'll tell you what their goal is, is to make life on Earth better for everybody. Okay. Good luck. Good luck. And again, why do that? If that's all there is, why even do that? If they say we're just another species that are trying to make life better, then why even worry about that? If it's purely an evolutionary process, then where does morality or any of the humility, where does this fit in? It doesn't, does it? I mean, who cares? It should just be survival of the fittest, best man win, at all costs, because that's evolution. So why are you telling everybody about humility and all these morals? That has no place in your worldview. So stop borrowing from ours, because that's what you're doing. Everybody should just, every man for himself. That's consistent, right? I mean if all these people and species and animals are just trying to survive and get stronger and better and faster and smarter, well that's all there is to it. Then this other stuff doesn't make any sense in their worldview. But they have to borrow from it because they're made in the image of God and they want to admit it, and they're still trying to mesh everything, right? Trying to feel good about it. Have you all ever seen the movie Sound of Music? Well, you've probably seen it, right? Well, there's a scene in there where the Reverend Mother is talking to, what are the characters, I can't remember, I've seen it a million times, I can't remember, Julie Andrews' character, right? Maria. and she's talking about how she wants to always, you know, she sees this other nun, and she's always getting in trouble with her, so she wants to kiss the ground before she sees her coming, and she wants to ask for forgiveness for all this stuff, and even the good Reverend Mother, the Roman Catholic Reverend Mother knew enough theology to look at her and say, you know, you don't really have to ask forgiveness for that, but if it makes you feel better, right? So these people, you can keep doing this if it makes you feel better, okay? That's kind of their attitude about it. Now one contrast that we need to look at is, where does this really come from? When it's describing Christ's attitude about Him not thinking equality with God a thing to be grasped, that gives you a clue about something. And you can find it, believe it or not, in Genesis 3. Okay? We're going to see the contrast of that. In Genesis 3, verse 1, the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, indeed, as God said, you shall not eat from the tree of the garden. The woman said to the serpent, from the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat. But from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat of it, nor touch it, or you will die. The serpent said to the woman, you surely will not die. For God knows in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. When the woman saw the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate." Interesting. What are we seeing there? Adam, unlike Christ, did what? He regarded equality with God a thing to be grasped, didn't he? You see that? And he didn't empty himself, he filled himself with pride. He didn't take the form of a bondservant, he wanted to take the form of a God, didn't he? And he didn't humble himself by becoming obedient at all, did he? He rebelled by becoming disobedient. That's why Christ is the last Adam. So if you read these things, when it describes Christ, it's a good thing to go back to what we know about Adam and human nature, because God is contrasting these things. So he's describing this, and you go, wait a minute, that's right. Jesus did everything Adam was supposed to do and didn't, and didn't do the stuff that Adam did do and wasn't supposed to. Does that make sense? So that's where you're getting that from. That's the passage that goes along with that. And it's not always easily seen. Why is that so important? Why is all that description in there? he's contrasting, and he's glorifying Christ, that Christ has a, he's the personification of perfect humility. He's the personification of perfect obedience. That's why he's to be glorified, because he is doing what Adam was supposed to and could never do. Only God can be God-like, right? So we have to remember that, that only God can be God-like. So Adam's desire was for what? Autonomy, wasn't it? And that's what these people re-read, and we're going to read a couple more things momentarily. That's what their desire is for. Autonomy. So it's still alive and well. That same sin is the root of everything else that's happening, right? It just took one sin. That's all it took. And it's the same thing going on. It just looks different from generation to generation, doesn't it? So man's desire for autonomy produces statements like this. You may know one, both of these, or at least one. Most of humankind no longer lives in the environment for which we evolved. We have adapted somewhat, But we are, as it were, always fish out of water. Our attempts to understand the cosmos have run up against the fact that the cosmos, if it has any meaning or purpose at all, has no meaning or purpose comprehensible to human beings. Humanists are not terrified or even worried about this. However, and we certainly don't have the big head about it. I beg to differ. It is rather a source of awe and wonder. That was from an article in Humanist Humility by David Breeden. irony in that, okay? That's just...it does have meaning. You need to pray for that man, that God will show him the meaning and the purpose of the cosmos. So how can someone like that be humble? That's a contradiction. You can't have humility without the knowledge of God. That's a false humility. It's not an opinion. It's wrong, right? Second, when our posturings, our self-imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe are challenged by this point of pale light. Talking about our planet. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity and all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. None other than Carl Sagan from his book, Cosmos. What a miserable person to write something like that. You're going to think that all this vastness and all this beauty is meaningless, and you know there's a problem with humanity, and there's no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. Do you see that? What the sin of Adam has done to the mind of man? Things that should be so obvious, are not obvious at all. They're trying to find purpose in meaningless. You can't do that. So we as Christians need to rejoice and be encouraged that we know what the cosmos is here for. We know that there is someone from elsewhere to come and save us from ourselves and our sins, right? There's a big distinction, and this is where our joy comes from. In the midst of all this stuff we're suffering, God knows we're suffering. We have to remind ourselves of that, that there's a bigger picture here. that what we do here has temporal value, yes, but also eternal value and meaning. And it starts with humility, a Christ-like humility, to live in such a way to have that attitude, to not be conceited, because we know what we know, it's easy to get puffed up, I can get puffed up, and we can't do that. And it's very difficult to live when we know what we know, and see all this, and other people don't, and not get puffed up, and not get conceited, and not get a little selfish when we're doing things. It's very tough, isn't it? So we have to ask God to continue to humble us, remind us that He, that we're here for Him, and because of Him. And all these things we're going through, emotionally, physically, a lot of it's just the fall, and things are breaking down. And there's times where it's part of Him breaking us. But you've got to remember, the hand that's breaking you is the hand that's putting you back together, but you're never out of that hand. So you may be in a place of getting broken to pieces right now, but you're still in His hand. Nothing takes us out of His hand, and when the breaking is done, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. When they're broken, That's judgment. They don't get that. They don't get peace at the end of their... when they're breaking. Their breaking will never end unless they repent. Okay? Our breaking has an end point to it. In this life, sometimes, but definitely in the next. Definitely in the next. Now why would people say things like those two quotes? How can they glory in the fact that they know nothing, and somehow that makes them humble? To them, there's no real definition of humility. They proclaim to be scientists and thinkers, but they're nothing more than the blind leading the blind. No God, no Christ, no spirit, no hope, no true humility. It's impossible, because there is no true humility without God. And the magnificence of Christ is that He actually humbled Himself. He gave us the picture of that, and He also told us in Matthew 18 about coming to Him humbled as a child. So our children are there not only to be cute and cuddly and drive us crazy, but to give us an example of humility, right? Our young children, they don't question anything about us, do they? They 100% without question, without wavering, without any distractions, look to us for everything they need. They trust us 100%. Why? Because they have no reason not to. So we should have no reason not to trust God. But the hard thing is, when we're adults, how do you have a childlike humbleness to God after we've lived decades and we've done things on our own, we've figured out problems on our own, we have all these abilities and things in our disposal, how in the world do we get to being like a child and trust God without even getting distracted? Yeah, but that's difficult, isn't it? That's where prayer comes in. But that's the attitude that we should have. that kind of trust. Sometimes we need to sit back in our chair and just let out a deep breath or fall on our face or down in the bed and say, I'm done. Does that make sense? Do what you will, right? Because you know it's for your best and for God's glory. I don't know any way to say it. I have no secret formula, no hidden verse, magic button, nothing. But that's how we're supposed to be. He says that. Christ was like that with the Father. How in the world are we supposed to be like that? Only by the power of the Spirit in us. And remember, we haven't read it yet, but in Daniel chapter 4, we've been there before, right? Remember Nebuchadnezzar? He was humbled, wasn't he? And he didn't do it to himself. God humbled him. God broke him, brought him to nothing, didn't He? And what did He say at the end? He said, but at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raise my eyes toward heaven, and my reason return to me." Interesting, his reason returned to him. Did he set it aside? No, God took his reason away from him. So don't tell me that God can't do things like that to people. Go sell that somewhere else. I bless the Most High and praise and honor Him who lives forever, for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation. all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. But he does according to his will in the hosts of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And no one can ward off his hand or say to him, what have you done? Now at that time, my reason returned to me and my majesty and splendor were restored to me for the glory of my kingdom. And my counselors and my nobles began seeking me out. So I was reestablished in my sovereignty and surpassing greatness was added to me. He says, now, I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and honor the King of Heaven, for all His works are true, and His ways are just. Everything He does in our life is just, and it's right, and sometimes it hurts. It really hurts. And He is able to humble those who walk in pride. He will humble His children some way. We will be humbled. If we're not growing in humility, even if it's a little bit at a time, it should scare you. That's a hallmark of being a Christian, right there in Philippians. That attitude that Christ had concerning ourselves and others in the glory of God is tied up into that. And what's sad is you have this teaching in the church, been there for so long, and you just get weary dealing with it, of this human autonomy mixed in with Christianity, and they don't realize that they're a stumbling block to true humility. They're not recognizing the fact that they have a Lord. They say they do. Oh yeah, Jesus is Lord. You don't act like it. You're not teaching like it. There's a problem there, a big problem there. And I have a question for them. Why do you promote and defend the very sin that caused the fall of the human race, which led to the need for the salvation that you profess to have? I'll say that again. Why do you promote and defend the very sin that caused the fall of the human race, which led to the need for the salvation that you claim to have? How can you do that? How can you not recognize that in your teaching? You know, I don't play and will not ever play footsie with teaching like that, and it's all over the place, and there's plenty of people that I know in it. I don't like it. I don't play footsie with it, and I let them know. Not in an arrogant way, I know I'm sounding arrogant, forgive me, I don't mean to be arrogant, but you can't. Do you think Jesus or the apostles would be okay sitting in most churches hearing what they hear about free will, and oh my gosh, Paul wouldn't live long enough to correct all the churches. And I asked that pastor, would you say that if Jesus was sitting right there? Would you teach that? I mean, how do you do that? I mean, I'm not saying they're not Christian, I'm just saying that's a serious problem. Again, that's not another opinion, right? The stove's hot. I agree with the fact that the stove is hot, okay? If you have a different opinion about it, go touch the stove. See if it isn't hot. You're wrong. And they need to be told they're wrong. It's not okay. There's too much at stake, too much damage has been done about that in the church. I know we've talked about stuff outside the church, but the stuff inside the church is the most heinous. And so many people buddy up and buddy up. I understand that. Yes, we're children of God, but there's some things that are just too far apart, that just can't exist in the same universe. They can't. I'm not telling you go and beat people up about it, but you need to let people know, challenge them to some things. I don't know what else to tell you than that. You can't beat them up about it though, because we have to have what? Even in this, even in our correction, we have to have the Christ-like attitude. Wow. How do we do that? I don't know. Other than through prayer. I don't have a formula for it. but it needs to be done, because they would do it, and they did it. They confronted that type of teaching. It's done much damage to people. It's caused a lot of false conversions, hasn't it? And the people who promote it, and defend it, and have shows about it, write books about it, have podcasts about it, have debates about it, do you realize you're fighting God? You're trying to fight what the Scripture clearly says, and you say, I'm a Christian, I love God. How do you do that? And most of these people that are more or less well-named, part of big institutions, they've been confronted with what we're talking about on a deep level. They know, but they're still hanging on to the sin of Adam. Why are you doing that? That should be the most obvious thing to you. I don't get it. I don't understand that. I don't understand that at all. So we who have a glimpse of this Christ-like humility, and are fortunate enough to agree with what the Bible says about these important issues, that should be something that does humble us, because God has given that to us. And the fact that many people don't have it, it should really break you. Because yes, it's obvious to us, and in one sense it should be to people who have their eyes opened. So we need to pray for these people in addition to challenging them, but in a Christ-like way. Okay? So when is the last time any of us examined our own humility, or better yet, prayed for it? There's a bunch of talk out here in the church about puffing up our spiritual chest, you know, take on the world, right? Well maybe humility might be a good place to start. So we need to keep that in mind, I think, turn everything off, and re-examine what a Christian attitude of humility really looks like, and ask God to help us cultivate that on a daily basis. Like Brother Jason said, He gives you the grace to do these things. Yes, there's a saving grace, but also a grace, an ongoing grace and a power to keep changing us, right? And believe it or not, that's where our joy is supposed to be, in the fact that we see God is maybe breaking us right now, because there's something better down the road. We have to truly believe that. We truly, truly believe that. It will change our attitude. And we all need it, me included. I grovel way too much. With the things I know and we know, I grovel way too much. It's embarrassing. And if we're all honest with ourselves, we probably all do too. And other things. And that shouldn't be either. So we can't get puffed up just because we know something. We need to also live out what we know. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for this morning and for your word. And Lord, I pray for every one of us here that you would bring us to a place of Christ-like humility. Lord, let us begin to see that through the pages of Scripture as we read. when we read how you were with people and how you change the people you use to write the Scriptures. Let us pay attention, Lord, to the differences between the world and the heavenlies. And God, we ask that you would continue to change us. And Lord, sometimes that means breaking us for a while, Lord. We need to accept that and trust, Lord, that we are in your hand. And Lord, that you will change us in time. And it's worth the struggle. And it teaches us patience. It teaches us trust. And we learn obedience through suffering, Lord. So dear Lord, please be with us for this next week and then the rest of our lives. In Jesus' name, amen.