Humble

Transcript

Kyle Riley • We Are TPCC • Philippians 2:1-8

Welcome Traders Point. How are you doing? Are you doing okay today? Great. As Aaron said, my name is Kyle and I get to serve as one of the pastors here. I just want to take a moment and welcome anyone who is tuning in online, anyone in our p.m. services, everyone at all of our campuses. 

A special shout-out to all our people at the Midtown campus and the brand-new Northeast campus that just launched last week. We’ve heard some incredible stories in just a week’s time about what is going on there. We’re excited about what God is going to continue doing in the Fishers area. 

Today we are kicking off a brand-new series called We Are TPCC, and really what we want to do is provide some insight into who we are. We’re going to do a deep dive into who we are in our heart as a church, and who we want to be. So, whether this is your first time coming through the doors or you call this place home, we feel this is going to be a valuable series for you. 

As Aaron mentioned, we have three core distinctives around here: 

Humble, Hungry, and Healthy.

And, these are more than words that get put on a fancy sign and get thrown out in the hallway and hung up. These are gospel centered qualities—qualities that help us do everything to live out the mission of Jesus with the tenor, the tone, and the heart of Jesus. 

Today I have the wonderful pleasure of leading us through that first quality of humble. Let me start by saying how fun it is to prepare and preach a message on humility. The perception is that if I’m going to be talking about this, I should be qualified, which is a fair assumption to make. You’re probably sitting there thinking, “Well, if Kyle is going to talk to us about humility, he must be a pretty humble guy.” 

To which I would say, “You’re right.” I am. I’m probably the humblest guy you’re ever going to meet on the face of this planet. I think on the ladder of humility sits Jesus, then Mother Teresa, and then Kyle Riley. Obviously, I’m kidding. But that is the challenge. That’s the tension we live in. Humility isn’t something you can claim or even acknowledge for that matter, because the moment you do, you’re not being humble. 

You’ve never gone to that social gathering or event, you know, the one where you do the icebreaker we all love, and you’ve got to tell something about yourself. You’re like, “Hey, I’m John. I work in sales. I love to fish and I’m humble.” That doesn’t happen. One, because that is weird. Two, because you’d be lying. Because to claim yourself as a humble person is an oxymoron. 

What do we do with this? How do we live our humility? What does true humility look like? Why does it even matter? I think the Bible has a lot to say about humility. So, if you have a Bible or a Bible app, we’re going to be in Philippians 2 today. So, go ahead and turn there. If you don’t have a Bible, no worries, all the verses are going to be up here on the screen. 

What I want to do is I want to set us up a little bit, so we get a good comprehension of what’s getting ready to happen in Philippians. Philippians is actually a letter. It’s a letter written by the guy named Paul. Paul is an apostle and a missionary. What Paul would do is go from town to town telling people, primarily non-Jewish people, about Jesus. 

And he would start these churches in these towns he went to. And one of the towns he ended up going to is a city named Philippi. Philippi is in Macedonia, which today would be modern-day Greece. It’s a vibrant city. 

All of this can be found in Acts 16. We don’t have time to go there, so I’m going to give us like the 30-thousand-foot view of what takes place in Acts 16 because it really sets us up for what we’re going to dive into in Philippians 2. 

Paul gets this vision of a guy telling him: Come to Macedonia, come to Philippi and preach the gospel. Tell us about Jesus. So, Paul and his homey, Silas, get on a boat and they go to Philippi. When they get to Philippi, they encounter this group of women who are there praying. And within this group of women is a particular woman named Lydia. The Bible says Lydia was a merchant of purple cloth, and that means she would just sell purple cloth. 

Now purple cloth was worn as a sign of nobility during that time. A lot of kings and leaders would wear it. It was pretty expensive. That means Lydia was in a lucrative business, AKA Lydia was loaded. Lydia had some bread. 

So, Paul and Silas preached the gospel to Lydia. The Bible says that God opened up her heart, and she began following Jesus and she gets baptized. Not only does she get baptized, but her whole household gets baptized. 

Shortly after that, Paul and Silas are still in Philippi and they are walking through and they encounter this girl who was possessed by an evil spirit. This evil spirit enables her to tell fortunes. She begins yelling things after Paul and Silas, just acting crazy. 

I don’t know if you’ve ever had that younger sibling, or maybe even that child who would just like call your name nonstop for like 10 minutes straight trying to get your attention, only for you to turn around and say, “What?” only for them to show you something stupid like they can blink and turn around 10 times in three seconds.

Take that feeling of aggravation and multiply it times100. That’s how Paul and Silas are feeling right now, because the Bible says she follows them for days actually yelling after them. So much so that Paul gets frustrated, turns around, and casts the evil spirit out of her. This girl was actually a slave and her owners would use her abilities to make money by telling fortunes. 

So, the owners of this slave girl get upset, because now their cash cow is gone. So, they incite this mob against Paul and Silas. They drag them before the city officials. The city officials order the Paul and Silas be stripped of their clothes, beaten, and thrown in jail. It gets even crazier, because while in jail Paul and Silas, you think they would be discouraged, but they are actually singing hymns and praying. It’s crazy. 

And then this earthquake happens while they are in jail, and the stocks they are in, the shackles, get lose. And the jailer who is watching over Paul and Silas and the other prisoners thinks all the prisoners have escaped in the process. So, he draws his sword and gets ready to kill himself because if the city officials find out the prisoners escaped under his watch, he is as good as dead anyway. He was like, “I might as well get it over with.”

But Paul and Silas stop the jailer who is getting ready to kill himself: We’re still here. Calm down and put the sword away. They preach the gospel to the jailer. He gives his life to Jesus, gets baptized, and his whole family, his whole household actually get baptized because of that. 

I just want us to think about how wild that is, that three different people had three spiritual encounters with Jesus through Paul and Silas. And maybe we can even start to see ourselves in that narrative. Maybe we can take a moment to realize the moment that Jesus intercepted our life. 

Maybe, like Lydia, you were successful in your career. You were chasing after monetary gain and status, but then Jesus interrupted you and showed you that nothing you could ever chase after can fill your heart like he can. 

Maybe you’re like the slave girl who was in relationships where she was just being used for what she could offer. It caused some dysfunction in the relationships, and maybe it even created some trust issues within you. But then Jesus got ahold of you and showed you his love and his mercy and his grace. He showed you he offers a relationship that can actually be trusted. 

Or maybe you’re like the jailer. Life got so bad that you thought it would be okay to take your own life, but then God stopped you and showed you that you don’t have to die. He loves you so much that you are actually worth dying for. 

I just want to know if there is anybody here today who remembers what Jesus has saved them from? Is there anybody here today who realizes who they were before coming to Jesus? Anybody remember going down into that water and coming up being raised as a new person? Because God is good. 

And shortly after that what happens is crazy. The city officials realize they made a mistake. They let Paul and Silas go. That’s where I want us to pick up at real quick before we go into Philippians. 

In Acts 16 it says this in verse 40, “When Paul and Silas left the prison, they returned to the home of Lydia. There they met with the believers and encouraged them once more. Then they left town.”

So, we see here that there is now a group of believers Paul and Silas met with, these new followers of Jesus that exist in Philippi. This is the church. In Philippians Paul is writing a letter back to the church, to this group of people who likely include Lydia, the jailer, and possibly even the slave girl amongst others. And Paul is writing this letter from prison again. He is now in Rome in prison, but he is writing to them, giving them some words of council, some wisdom, some encouragement. 

And that’s what I want us to pick up on in Philippians 2. Did I give you guys enough time to get there? Are you ready? Starting in verse 1, “Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.”

So, let’s stop right there for a second. I want you to notice the language Paul is using here. It says, “Fellowship together, agreeing wholeheartedly, loving one another, working together, one mind and purpose.” Do you see what he is stressing? He is stressing unity. He says: Hey guys, I’m giving you this goal as a church to live with one another.

Now this would have been incredibly complex for the church to do, because Philippi was a diverse cosmopolitan city. There were people from all types of ethnicities, cultures, backgrounds, and social-economic status. It most likely means the Philippian church was diverse. I mean Lydia was a wealthy business woman. The jailer was a middle-class blue-collar worker. The slave girl was a servant.

Do you see how broad of a spectrum that is? Yet Paul was saying: I want you guys to live united. But there were some extreme differences within that church. It’s very much so like our church today, the church we are in right now. 

This wasn’t just unique to the Philippian church. This actually existed in Jesus’ ministry as well. He had disciples of all types of backgrounds and personalities, and personal agendas. He had people on opposite ends of the political spectrum. There was this disciple named Matthew, who was a tax collector contracted by the Roman government. But there was also this disciple named Simon. His nickname was the Zealot. And scholars believe he was part of a political movement called the Zealots who hated Rome. They actually would plot assassinations against Roman leaders.  

Could you imagine what conversations were like around the camp fire between Simon and Matthew? I could just see Simon be like, “Bro, are you just going to side with Rome? If Jesus didn’t have this whole foreknowledge thing going, I’d take you out right now.” 

And then I could see Matthew be like, “Oh, really Simon? According to my tax records you hate Rome so much that you owe quite a pretty penny in back taxes to the government, so it’s going to be pretty hard to take me out from a Roman jail cell. 

I could imagine Peter chiming in like, “Awkward.” 

They were different. Followers of Jesus have always been different, but the beautiful thing is that the gospel has a way of uniting us as believers like nothing else. Now here is the thing. Unity sounds great. I think a lot of us would be in favor of unity. 

Cue Michael Jackson “We are the World” let’s just hold hands and sing. Because conceptually unity sounds great, but it’s a lot harder to live out. It’s harder to live out because we live in a society that is so divided. You either associate yourself with this, or that. You’re either conservative, or you’re liberal. Suburbs, or inner city. IU, Purdue. Apple, Android. First class or coach. Netflix or Hulu. Chipotle or Qdoba. Drive thru or mobile orders. 

Can I get an amen for the mobile orders, for all of my introverts in the room? I mean, let me just say there is nothing more glorious that pulling up to Chick-fil-A, bypassing the mile-long line that somehow can wrap itself around the building eight times, pull into a curbside spot to hit a button on your phone so they can bring out your food. You can say, “Thank you,” only for them to say, “My pleasure.” Listen. Don’t judge me as a millennial for liking mobile orders. It’s great. It’s God’s gift. 

But division is the reality of the world we live in. Let me just get serious for a moment and ask you a question. When is the last time you intentionally stepped into a division? When is the last time you have sought out a conversation with someone who doesn’t look like you? When is the last time you invited someone over to your house who doesn’t think like you, vote like you, or come from where you come from? 

When is the last time that, instead of making an assumption about a group of people based on a media segment or a social media post, you actually sought out the perspective of somebody else? When is the last time you sat across the table from someone who is not like you and asked them this question?

What’s it like? 

What’s it like to be black in America, or white? What’s it like to be Latino or Asian? What’s it like to live where you live or do what you do? What’s it like to be a millennial or a baby-boomer? 

That’s one of the things I love about my Traders Point men’s group. We are a group of men who come from various backgrounds and occupations and marital statuses, and even age. The youngest guy in our group is 24, the oldest guy is 70. And there is a representation for every decade in between. 

And what we have the opportunity to do is gather on a weekly basis and learn from one another, our life experiences, our successes, our failures. And we get to ask questions like, “What is that like? What did you learn from that experience? What did Jesus teach you through that?’’

And then you know what we get to do after asking that question? Shut up and listen. And in the process Jesus begins to scrape away our pride and fill us with compassion and empathy, because one of the qualities of humility is a willingness to learn. 

We live in a society that is divided in more ways than we can count, but as followers of Jesus one thing rings true:

God is calling us to embrace our differences, through humility, for His glory and our good.

This is what he wants. This is what he died for. This is what he commanded his disciples to do, to love one another in spite of their differences. Because, let me tell you something—it is inconsistent with the gospel as believers for us to lift up the name of Jesus with one hand while holding on to divisive attitudes and beliefs with the other hand. That’s not the kind of church we want to be. 

We want to be the kind of church where, with both hands we are lifting up the name of Jesus. With both hands we are reaching out for diversity and unity. With both hands we are embracing each other’s differences while praising Jesus for dying for each and every one of us, no matter what we look like. That’s what the gospel calls us to do. 

So, as we look at Scripture Paul is saying: I want you guys to be of one mind, to be united. But Paul knew that if there was anything that was going to prevent them from doing this, it was one thing. 

Let’s look at verse 3 where he says this, “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others…”

Paul goes straight to it. He gets straight to the heart. He says: Hey guys, look. I know I just told you this thing about living as one, being united, working together, loving one another. But if there is something that’s deep within you that has the capability of messing all that up, it is this. It’s your pride. It’s your selfishness. It’s your inability to be humble. And what Paul is getting ready to do is teach them and tell them how to be humble. 

Now, I don’t know if any of you have had the luxury of trying to teach someone how to be humble, but it’s not the easiest of tasks. My wife and I, we are living in that world right now. We have two beautiful young daughters, Kyndall and Korynne. Kyndall is four and Korynne… They look cute up there on this screen, but they are probably tearing up the Kids’ Ministry right now as we speak. 

But our oldest daughter Kyndall is four, and she is super-competitive. Like, I’m pretty competitive as a former college athlete, but she is even more competitive than me. She does this thing, no matter what she is doing. She could be playing a game or a competition, it doesn’t matter if she is playing hopscotch or coloring a picture of Doc McStuffins. If she wins something, she throws her hands up in the air and as loud as she can she says, “I win. I’m the winner. Woohoo.” 

In that moment I’m like, “Hey Kyndall, be humble. I know you just beat your one-year-old sister at getting undressed to get in the bathtub first. Congratulations, but be humble.” 

It’s actually become quite funny in our house. My parents and my siblings, they think it is hilarious, so much so that we actually turned it into a meme. We caught her mid-pose doing her victory shout and we actually use it in our group chats. It’s great. She has this picture where she is throwing her hands up and she says, “I win!”

You know what that reminds me of? It reminds me of that Oprah segment where she is like, “You get a car. You get a car. Everybody gets a car.” 

I’ve actually thought about texting that picture to my wife before when I want to debate with her. And then wisdom kicked in, and I realized I like sleeping in my own bed. So, I didn’t send the picture. 

No, but I think for most of us, when we think about what pride is, we think about that. We think about arrogance, conceit. We think about that person who is full of themselves, who just needs to come off their high horse. We all have one of those people in our circle. If you don’t, chances are you are that person. 

Pride does include that. It does include arrogance, bragging, and being boastful. But I think we need to be careful because pride is not limited to that. Pride is a lot subtler than we tend to think. And it’s dangerous, because if we think of pride only as that we miss how it surfaces in our own lives, how it manifests itself in our own hearts. 

So, before you sit up here and say, “Kyle, that’s great and all, but I don’t really have that struggle. I don’t deal with that,” I think all of us need to do somewhat of a heart check because pride is the root of all sin. 

Pride can be found in the lies we tell and the comparisons we make. It can be found in the social media post we put up, the anger we express, the jealousy that we feel, the addictions we have, and even the gossip we engage in. 

Yes, pride can be found in gossip. I actually came across this quote by pastor and author Scott Sauls, who said this:  

“Gossip is pornography of the mouth. You undress somebody and you objectify them. You take a person and turn them into a thing in order to get a cheap thrill without making a commitment to them.”

If you can’t say amen, say ouch. 

Listen. We all wrestle with pride. It just looks differently in our lives. While we may not think we are prideful because we don’t brag and boast, it doesn’t mean we aren’t selfish. It doesn’t mean we don’t have these egos that transform their way into our hearts. Because pride is anchored in selfishness and self-centeredness. 

It often causes us to approach life decisions, responses, and all types of things by placing them through a filter where we ask this question: 

“What’s best for me?”

Have you ever asked that question? I have, probably more times that I care to admit. And for some of us, this question is hitting pretty close to home. We’ve become all too familiar with this question, this approach we have is probably what is tearing some of our relationships and friendships apart. It’s probably what is causing the tension or friction in our marriage. 

Asking this question and this approach is what is causing us to walk away from that commitment we made. It’s why the business deal went bad. It’s why you have yet to apologize to that person you hurt. It’s why you return to look at the thing you said you were going to stop looking at, only to be left empty again. What’s best for me? 

I need to be clear. I’m not talking about those situations where you have to ask that question for the emotional or physical safety of you or your family. That’s different. But what I am talking about are situations where we often ask this question out of sense of entitlement and where it causes us to place personal preference over purpose. 

I think Paul knew this existed. He knew this was a threat to the Philippian church. He knew if there was anything that was going to divide them, it was their selfish egos. But Paul is getting ready to show them and us that instead of asking, “What’s best for me,” there is a better approach that we can take, one that helps us model the lowly heart of Jesus. 

Let’s look at what he continues to say in verse 3. “….be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.”

I love this because Paul doesn’t just go Kendrick Lamar and tell them, “Sit down. Be humble.” Some of you are like, “Can we talk about Kendrick Lamar in church?” And there is a vast majority of you leaning over and asking, “Who is Kendrick Lamar? I don’t remember reading about him in the Bible.” 

But again, Paul doesn’t just say, “Be humble,” he actually tells them how to be humble. He says, “Thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interest, but take an interest in others too.” 

This is what it means to be humble. I have to say this. When he says, “Thinking of others as better than yourselves,” he is not talking about self-deprecation. He is not talking about putting yourself down or making yourself feel badly about yourself, because humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less. 

It’s doing everything you can to demonstrate and model the love of Jesus by putting other peoples’ needs before your own. And you’re probably sitting there thinking, “That doesn’t sound like much fun,” and I hear you. That’s because this is not natural. It’s not anything that society is telling us to do. 

And Jesus knew this. That is why he called his disciples to take a low position in a society that was marked by rank, and status, and prestige, not much different than society today, Jesus was telling them to be different. That’s why he went first and demonstrated this by doing things like washing his disciples’ feet. 

That’s why he would touch people who had leprosy, who society had marginalized and pushed to the fringes. It’s why he would do things like minister alongside women, who were considered second-class citizens during that time. Jesus went first in all of this. And he even said about himself that “the son of God came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” 

And honestly, this is why we encourage you guys to serve, all of us to join a serving team. Because in the process of serving you have an opportunity, not just to carry out the mission of Jesus, but to put other people before yourself. 

But I’ve got to be clear because it’s not just about serving. I don’t know if you know this, but you can serve and still have a prideful heart. You can serve, and still be filled with pride. Humility isn’t about serving itself; it’s about what God want to do through your heart as you serve. It’s about what he wants to do as he changes you from the inside out. 

This is what humility is:  

Humility is about the posture of your heart towards God and others.

It’s about a heart that’s been broken before God, and you begin to see yourself before him and you realize how messed up you actually are. That you’re not a good person who occasionally makes mistakes, but that our sin was so bad that Jesus had to die for us. But it’s a brokenness that is so beautiful, because God takes it, and he redeems it, and he uses it. He mends that broken heart back together and transforms it from the inside out. 

And it is with this changed, transformed heart that you now come to God and you say, “Alright God, whatever you want to do in my life, I’m willing to let you do it. However you want to use me, I will be used. However you want me to serve, I will do it. Because I understand it’s not about me and I know nothing or no one is beneath me.” 

Now, my question is, “How do we live this out?” What would it look like if we took that heart posture into our everyday lives? 

What would it look like if you took this heart posture into your marriage? It would change everything. I think a lot of us are willing to stand across the aisle from that person and say, “’til death do us part,” and we’d even be willing to say, “I would die for that person.” But it’s a lot different to say, “I’ll die to myself each and every day I wake up.” It’s a lot different to say, “I’ll put that other persons’ interest above my own.” If you wake up with that mentality, “How can I serve that other person?” it would change everything about your marriage, even if it’s not reciprocated. 

That’s the biggest thing. And I think that’s the hang up a lot of us have. When our own needs aren’t being met, are we still willing to meet that other persons’ needs? 

Fellows, I’m going to throw you a bone here. I’m going to help you out this week. Maybe you wake up Monday morning, and you go cook your wife breakfast or maybe warm her up a nice cup of coffee. Come back into the room, look at her, make sure you brush your teeth first, and look into her beautiful eyes and just ask this question, “How can I put your interests above mine this week? How can I serve you this week?” 

She’ll be like, “Who is this guy in front of me? Am I still dreaming? Am I awake?” 

What would it look like if we took this heart posture into the classroom or the workplace? Or we didn’t gossip about people, but instead ran toward them seeking to build a relationship with them? What would it look like if we served our classmates, coworkers, or neighbors with no strings attached, simply because we see them as people God created and Jesus died for? 

What would it look like if we had this heart posture within the church? We could change the world. It would give us this desire to live in unity with one another. We would have this willingness to lean into the difficult conversations. We would be willing to do everything we could to live in unity. It would birth within us this desire, not only to see this church, but to see the city look more and more like heaven. 

I don’t know about you, but that’s the kind of church I want to be a part of. One that says, “We don’t have this whole thing figured out. We can’t take credit for what God is doing here. The only thing we want to do is serve with compassion, put other people’s needs before our own, and we want to keep our hearts pure before God. That’s the kind of church that changes the world. 

If we ask a different type of question, it would change everything. If we had this heart posture toward God and others, it would change that selfish question that we often ask ourselves by adding one small but big word in the middle of it. It completely turns it around. Instead of asking, “What’s best for me?” we would ask this question: 

What’s God’s best for me?

That’s a radically different question. God’s best for you is not to give you all of your personal desires to help you meet your goals. It’s not to give you that job you’ve always wanted, the spouse you’ve always dreamed of, or even the house you’ve always imagined. Do you want to know what God’s best for you is? You know what he wants. 

Imitate Jesus.

He wants you to imitate Jesus in the way you love and serve others, because that’s when you’re being humbled. And he wants you to think and act like him. That’s exactly what Paul goes on to say in verse 5. 

Let’s look at it. “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.”

Do you want to know what God’s best for you is? See Jesus, imitate Jesus, surrender your heart to Jesus. Because he didn’t hold on to the entitlement or the privileges he had as God, he humbled himself. 

I love the way the Message translation paraphrases that Scripture, “He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death...”

And he died that selfless, obedient death for you. He humbled himself and left heaven and came to earth for you. He took the low position of a servant for you. He allowed himself to be arrested and tried unfairly for you, pushed in the face for you, spat on for you, mocked for you. He took those lashes on his back for you. He carried that cross up a hill for you. 

And in that moment, he had the opportunity to come down off that cross because he allowed himself to be nailed to it. But he had an opportunity to come down off that cross, and in humility he stayed there for you. And he rose again for you. 

Listen, nothing humbles us more that the realization that our sin is what nailed Jesus to that cross. But nothing makes us more grateful that realizing he allowed it to happen because he loves us. 

He wasn’t asking, “What’s best for me”” when he did that. He was asking, “What’s God’s best for me? What’s my Father’s best for me?” And his response to that question was one of the most selfless and humble responses known to man. He said, “Father, not my will, but your will.” That’s selfless and obedient. 

I mentioned my daughter Kyndall earlier and just how competitive she is. She is every bit of that, but she is also one of the sweetest people I know. I mean, she is smart, funny, wise, and observant. 

We do this thing where we’ll read her a story before bed. A lot of times I’ll read her children’s Bible. So, we sit down and we read the story of Jesus and the crucifixion, and it’s one we’ve read countless times before. But there was something different about this night. She was a little bit more intrigued this night. 

So, as I’m flipping through the pages, she sees the three crosses on the hill. She notices, “Daddy, there are three crosses there. There are three people on the cross. Who are those other people on the cross, daddy?”

I begin to tell her that in addition to Jesus there were these two thieves, these criminals who were on the cross, and they were being punished for stealing. And I begin to see the wheels turning in her head as she is pondering and thinking. She looks down. And about 10 to15 seconds go by, and I get ready to turn the page and go on. 

She stops me and she looks up. With curiosity all over her face she said, “What bad thing did Jesus do? Why was he being punished?” And in that moment the Holy Spirit reminded me of the selflessness, the humility of Jesus. I get down on one knee and look at her straight in the face with tears in my eyes. 

I said, “Jesus didn’t do anything wrong, babe. The only thing that he was guilty of was loving you.” I could see her just processing it. I don’t know if she fully got it or not, but I know what happened that night. God used a children’s Bible to remind me of the humility of Jesus and how we all have an opportunity to surrender our hearts to him. He went first by modeling it all, and that’s what we get to surrender our hearts to every single day. 

Let me pray for us. 

God, we thank you for who you are. God, we thank you for loving us, for dying for us. God, we thank you for modeling humility. That you could have stayed where you were in heaven, but you humbled yourself and came to this earth. You led the perfect life that none of us could live, and you died the death we deserved to die. That is humility. And that’s what we get to model and pattern ourselves after. 

So, I just pray, God. I pray we wouldn’t just see this as a message about being kind toward other people or letting people go first, because that’s not what this is about. This is about surrendering our hearts to you. This is about a heart posture that sees you for who you are, and just lives out obedience, and thankfulness, and selflessness. 

God, I pray for anybody across any of our campuses who is wrestling with pride, maybe to the point where it is destroying their relationships or their marriages. Would you just allow them to see who you are, and how you have so much better for them? 

And would you help us, as a church, to take that humility and to live united with one another as one church. God, we thank you. We love you. It’s in your Son Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen.

Kyle Riley • We Are TPCC • Philippians 2:1-8

Welcome Traders Point. How are you doing? Are you doing okay today? Great. As Aaron said, my name is Kyle and I get to serve as one of the pastors here. I just want to take a moment and welcome anyone who is tuning in online, anyone in our p.m. services, everyone at all of our campuses. 

A special shout-out to all our people at the Midtown campus and the brand-new Northeast campus that just launched last week. We’ve heard some incredible stories in just a week’s time about what is going on there. We’re excited about what God is going to continue doing in the Fishers area. 

Today we are kicking off a brand-new series called We Are TPCC, and really what we want to do is provide some insight into who we are. We’re going to do a deep dive into who we are in our heart as a church, and who we want to be. So, whether this is your first time coming through the doors or you call this place home, we feel this is going to be a valuable series for you. 

As Aaron mentioned, we have three core distinctives around here: 

Humble, Hungry, and Healthy.

And, these are more than words that get put on a fancy sign and get thrown out in the hallway and hung up. These are gospel centered qualities—qualities that help us do everything to live out the mission of Jesus with the tenor, the tone, and the heart of Jesus. 

Today I have the wonderful pleasure of leading us through that first quality of humble. Let me start by saying how fun it is to prepare and preach a message on humility. The perception is that if I’m going to be talking about this, I should be qualified, which is a fair assumption to make. You’re probably sitting there thinking, “Well, if Kyle is going to talk to us about humility, he must be a pretty humble guy.” 

To which I would say, “You’re right.” I am. I’m probably the humblest guy you’re ever going to meet on the face of this planet. I think on the ladder of humility sits Jesus, then Mother Teresa, and then Kyle Riley. Obviously, I’m kidding. But that is the challenge. That’s the tension we live in. Humility isn’t something you can claim or even acknowledge for that matter, because the moment you do, you’re not being humble. 

You’ve never gone to that social gathering or event, you know, the one where you do the icebreaker we all love, and you’ve got to tell something about yourself. You’re like, “Hey, I’m John. I work in sales. I love to fish and I’m humble.” That doesn’t happen. One, because that is weird. Two, because you’d be lying. Because to claim yourself as a humble person is an oxymoron. 

What do we do with this? How do we live our humility? What does true humility look like? Why does it even matter? I think the Bible has a lot to say about humility. So, if you have a Bible or a Bible app, we’re going to be in Philippians 2 today. So, go ahead and turn there. If you don’t have a Bible, no worries, all the verses are going to be up here on the screen. 

What I want to do is I want to set us up a little bit, so we get a good comprehension of what’s getting ready to happen in Philippians. Philippians is actually a letter. It’s a letter written by the guy named Paul. Paul is an apostle and a missionary. What Paul would do is go from town to town telling people, primarily non-Jewish people, about Jesus. 

And he would start these churches in these towns he went to. And one of the towns he ended up going to is a city named Philippi. Philippi is in Macedonia, which today would be modern-day Greece. It’s a vibrant city. 

All of this can be found in Acts 16. We don’t have time to go there, so I’m going to give us like the 30-thousand-foot view of what takes place in Acts 16 because it really sets us up for what we’re going to dive into in Philippians 2. 

Paul gets this vision of a guy telling him: Come to Macedonia, come to Philippi and preach the gospel. Tell us about Jesus. So, Paul and his homey, Silas, get on a boat and they go to Philippi. When they get to Philippi, they encounter this group of women who are there praying. And within this group of women is a particular woman named Lydia. The Bible says Lydia was a merchant of purple cloth, and that means she would just sell purple cloth. 

Now purple cloth was worn as a sign of nobility during that time. A lot of kings and leaders would wear it. It was pretty expensive. That means Lydia was in a lucrative business, AKA Lydia was loaded. Lydia had some bread. 

So, Paul and Silas preached the gospel to Lydia. The Bible says that God opened up her heart, and she began following Jesus and she gets baptized. Not only does she get baptized, but her whole household gets baptized. 

Shortly after that, Paul and Silas are still in Philippi and they are walking through and they encounter this girl who was possessed by an evil spirit. This evil spirit enables her to tell fortunes. She begins yelling things after Paul and Silas, just acting crazy. 

I don’t know if you’ve ever had that younger sibling, or maybe even that child who would just like call your name nonstop for like 10 minutes straight trying to get your attention, only for you to turn around and say, “What?” only for them to show you something stupid like they can blink and turn around 10 times in three seconds.

Take that feeling of aggravation and multiply it times100. That’s how Paul and Silas are feeling right now, because the Bible says she follows them for days actually yelling after them. So much so that Paul gets frustrated, turns around, and casts the evil spirit out of her. This girl was actually a slave and her owners would use her abilities to make money by telling fortunes. 

So, the owners of this slave girl get upset, because now their cash cow is gone. So, they incite this mob against Paul and Silas. They drag them before the city officials. The city officials order the Paul and Silas be stripped of their clothes, beaten, and thrown in jail. It gets even crazier, because while in jail Paul and Silas, you think they would be discouraged, but they are actually singing hymns and praying. It’s crazy. 

And then this earthquake happens while they are in jail, and the stocks they are in, the shackles, get lose. And the jailer who is watching over Paul and Silas and the other prisoners thinks all the prisoners have escaped in the process. So, he draws his sword and gets ready to kill himself because if the city officials find out the prisoners escaped under his watch, he is as good as dead anyway. He was like, “I might as well get it over with.”

But Paul and Silas stop the jailer who is getting ready to kill himself: We’re still here. Calm down and put the sword away. They preach the gospel to the jailer. He gives his life to Jesus, gets baptized, and his whole family, his whole household actually get baptized because of that. 

I just want us to think about how wild that is, that three different people had three spiritual encounters with Jesus through Paul and Silas. And maybe we can even start to see ourselves in that narrative. Maybe we can take a moment to realize the moment that Jesus intercepted our life. 

Maybe, like Lydia, you were successful in your career. You were chasing after monetary gain and status, but then Jesus interrupted you and showed you that nothing you could ever chase after can fill your heart like he can. 

Maybe you’re like the slave girl who was in relationships where she was just being used for what she could offer. It caused some dysfunction in the relationships, and maybe it even created some trust issues within you. But then Jesus got ahold of you and showed you his love and his mercy and his grace. He showed you he offers a relationship that can actually be trusted. 

Or maybe you’re like the jailer. Life got so bad that you thought it would be okay to take your own life, but then God stopped you and showed you that you don’t have to die. He loves you so much that you are actually worth dying for. 

I just want to know if there is anybody here today who remembers what Jesus has saved them from? Is there anybody here today who realizes who they were before coming to Jesus? Anybody remember going down into that water and coming up being raised as a new person? Because God is good. 

And shortly after that what happens is crazy. The city officials realize they made a mistake. They let Paul and Silas go. That’s where I want us to pick up at real quick before we go into Philippians. 

In Acts 16 it says this in verse 40, “When Paul and Silas left the prison, they returned to the home of Lydia. There they met with the believers and encouraged them once more. Then they left town.”

So, we see here that there is now a group of believers Paul and Silas met with, these new followers of Jesus that exist in Philippi. This is the church. In Philippians Paul is writing a letter back to the church, to this group of people who likely include Lydia, the jailer, and possibly even the slave girl amongst others. And Paul is writing this letter from prison again. He is now in Rome in prison, but he is writing to them, giving them some words of council, some wisdom, some encouragement. 

And that’s what I want us to pick up on in Philippians 2. Did I give you guys enough time to get there? Are you ready? Starting in verse 1, “Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.”

So, let’s stop right there for a second. I want you to notice the language Paul is using here. It says, “Fellowship together, agreeing wholeheartedly, loving one another, working together, one mind and purpose.” Do you see what he is stressing? He is stressing unity. He says: Hey guys, I’m giving you this goal as a church to live with one another.

Now this would have been incredibly complex for the church to do, because Philippi was a diverse cosmopolitan city. There were people from all types of ethnicities, cultures, backgrounds, and social-economic status. It most likely means the Philippian church was diverse. I mean Lydia was a wealthy business woman. The jailer was a middle-class blue-collar worker. The slave girl was a servant.

Do you see how broad of a spectrum that is? Yet Paul was saying: I want you guys to live united. But there were some extreme differences within that church. It’s very much so like our church today, the church we are in right now. 

This wasn’t just unique to the Philippian church. This actually existed in Jesus’ ministry as well. He had disciples of all types of backgrounds and personalities, and personal agendas. He had people on opposite ends of the political spectrum. There was this disciple named Matthew, who was a tax collector contracted by the Roman government. But there was also this disciple named Simon. His nickname was the Zealot. And scholars believe he was part of a political movement called the Zealots who hated Rome. They actually would plot assassinations against Roman leaders.  

Could you imagine what conversations were like around the camp fire between Simon and Matthew? I could just see Simon be like, “Bro, are you just going to side with Rome? If Jesus didn’t have this whole foreknowledge thing going, I’d take you out right now.” 

And then I could see Matthew be like, “Oh, really Simon? According to my tax records you hate Rome so much that you owe quite a pretty penny in back taxes to the government, so it’s going to be pretty hard to take me out from a Roman jail cell. 

I could imagine Peter chiming in like, “Awkward.” 

They were different. Followers of Jesus have always been different, but the beautiful thing is that the gospel has a way of uniting us as believers like nothing else. Now here is the thing. Unity sounds great. I think a lot of us would be in favor of unity. 

Cue Michael Jackson “We are the World” let’s just hold hands and sing. Because conceptually unity sounds great, but it’s a lot harder to live out. It’s harder to live out because we live in a society that is so divided. You either associate yourself with this, or that. You’re either conservative, or you’re liberal. Suburbs, or inner city. IU, Purdue. Apple, Android. First class or coach. Netflix or Hulu. Chipotle or Qdoba. Drive thru or mobile orders. 

Can I get an amen for the mobile orders, for all of my introverts in the room? I mean, let me just say there is nothing more glorious that pulling up to Chick-fil-A, bypassing the mile-long line that somehow can wrap itself around the building eight times, pull into a curbside spot to hit a button on your phone so they can bring out your food. You can say, “Thank you,” only for them to say, “My pleasure.” Listen. Don’t judge me as a millennial for liking mobile orders. It’s great. It’s God’s gift. 

But division is the reality of the world we live in. Let me just get serious for a moment and ask you a question. When is the last time you intentionally stepped into a division? When is the last time you have sought out a conversation with someone who doesn’t look like you? When is the last time you invited someone over to your house who doesn’t think like you, vote like you, or come from where you come from? 

When is the last time that, instead of making an assumption about a group of people based on a media segment or a social media post, you actually sought out the perspective of somebody else? When is the last time you sat across the table from someone who is not like you and asked them this question?

What’s it like? 

What’s it like to be black in America, or white? What’s it like to be Latino or Asian? What’s it like to live where you live or do what you do? What’s it like to be a millennial or a baby-boomer? 

That’s one of the things I love about my Traders Point men’s group. We are a group of men who come from various backgrounds and occupations and marital statuses, and even age. The youngest guy in our group is 24, the oldest guy is 70. And there is a representation for every decade in between. 

And what we have the opportunity to do is gather on a weekly basis and learn from one another, our life experiences, our successes, our failures. And we get to ask questions like, “What is that like? What did you learn from that experience? What did Jesus teach you through that?’’

And then you know what we get to do after asking that question? Shut up and listen. And in the process Jesus begins to scrape away our pride and fill us with compassion and empathy, because one of the qualities of humility is a willingness to learn. 

We live in a society that is divided in more ways than we can count, but as followers of Jesus one thing rings true:

God is calling us to embrace our differences, through humility, for His glory and our good.

This is what he wants. This is what he died for. This is what he commanded his disciples to do, to love one another in spite of their differences. Because, let me tell you something—it is inconsistent with the gospel as believers for us to lift up the name of Jesus with one hand while holding on to divisive attitudes and beliefs with the other hand. That’s not the kind of church we want to be. 

We want to be the kind of church where, with both hands we are lifting up the name of Jesus. With both hands we are reaching out for diversity and unity. With both hands we are embracing each other’s differences while praising Jesus for dying for each and every one of us, no matter what we look like. That’s what the gospel calls us to do. 

So, as we look at Scripture Paul is saying: I want you guys to be of one mind, to be united. But Paul knew that if there was anything that was going to prevent them from doing this, it was one thing. 

Let’s look at verse 3 where he says this, “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others…”

Paul goes straight to it. He gets straight to the heart. He says: Hey guys, look. I know I just told you this thing about living as one, being united, working together, loving one another. But if there is something that’s deep within you that has the capability of messing all that up, it is this. It’s your pride. It’s your selfishness. It’s your inability to be humble. And what Paul is getting ready to do is teach them and tell them how to be humble. 

Now, I don’t know if any of you have had the luxury of trying to teach someone how to be humble, but it’s not the easiest of tasks. My wife and I, we are living in that world right now. We have two beautiful young daughters, Kyndall and Korynne. Kyndall is four and Korynne… They look cute up there on this screen, but they are probably tearing up the Kids’ Ministry right now as we speak. 

But our oldest daughter Kyndall is four, and she is super-competitive. Like, I’m pretty competitive as a former college athlete, but she is even more competitive than me. She does this thing, no matter what she is doing. She could be playing a game or a competition, it doesn’t matter if she is playing hopscotch or coloring a picture of Doc McStuffins. If she wins something, she throws her hands up in the air and as loud as she can she says, “I win. I’m the winner. Woohoo.” 

In that moment I’m like, “Hey Kyndall, be humble. I know you just beat your one-year-old sister at getting undressed to get in the bathtub first. Congratulations, but be humble.” 

It’s actually become quite funny in our house. My parents and my siblings, they think it is hilarious, so much so that we actually turned it into a meme. We caught her mid-pose doing her victory shout and we actually use it in our group chats. It’s great. She has this picture where she is throwing her hands up and she says, “I win!”

You know what that reminds me of? It reminds me of that Oprah segment where she is like, “You get a car. You get a car. Everybody gets a car.” 

I’ve actually thought about texting that picture to my wife before when I want to debate with her. And then wisdom kicked in, and I realized I like sleeping in my own bed. So, I didn’t send the picture. 

No, but I think for most of us, when we think about what pride is, we think about that. We think about arrogance, conceit. We think about that person who is full of themselves, who just needs to come off their high horse. We all have one of those people in our circle. If you don’t, chances are you are that person. 

Pride does include that. It does include arrogance, bragging, and being boastful. But I think we need to be careful because pride is not limited to that. Pride is a lot subtler than we tend to think. And it’s dangerous, because if we think of pride only as that we miss how it surfaces in our own lives, how it manifests itself in our own hearts. 

So, before you sit up here and say, “Kyle, that’s great and all, but I don’t really have that struggle. I don’t deal with that,” I think all of us need to do somewhat of a heart check because pride is the root of all sin. 

Pride can be found in the lies we tell and the comparisons we make. It can be found in the social media post we put up, the anger we express, the jealousy that we feel, the addictions we have, and even the gossip we engage in. 

Yes, pride can be found in gossip. I actually came across this quote by pastor and author Scott Sauls, who said this:  

“Gossip is pornography of the mouth. You undress somebody and you objectify them. You take a person and turn them into a thing in order to get a cheap thrill without making a commitment to them.”

If you can’t say amen, say ouch. 

Listen. We all wrestle with pride. It just looks differently in our lives. While we may not think we are prideful because we don’t brag and boast, it doesn’t mean we aren’t selfish. It doesn’t mean we don’t have these egos that transform their way into our hearts. Because pride is anchored in selfishness and self-centeredness. 

It often causes us to approach life decisions, responses, and all types of things by placing them through a filter where we ask this question: 

“What’s best for me?”

Have you ever asked that question? I have, probably more times that I care to admit. And for some of us, this question is hitting pretty close to home. We’ve become all too familiar with this question, this approach we have is probably what is tearing some of our relationships and friendships apart. It’s probably what is causing the tension or friction in our marriage. 

Asking this question and this approach is what is causing us to walk away from that commitment we made. It’s why the business deal went bad. It’s why you have yet to apologize to that person you hurt. It’s why you return to look at the thing you said you were going to stop looking at, only to be left empty again. What’s best for me? 

I need to be clear. I’m not talking about those situations where you have to ask that question for the emotional or physical safety of you or your family. That’s different. But what I am talking about are situations where we often ask this question out of sense of entitlement and where it causes us to place personal preference over purpose. 

I think Paul knew this existed. He knew this was a threat to the Philippian church. He knew if there was anything that was going to divide them, it was their selfish egos. But Paul is getting ready to show them and us that instead of asking, “What’s best for me,” there is a better approach that we can take, one that helps us model the lowly heart of Jesus. 

Let’s look at what he continues to say in verse 3. “….be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.”

I love this because Paul doesn’t just go Kendrick Lamar and tell them, “Sit down. Be humble.” Some of you are like, “Can we talk about Kendrick Lamar in church?” And there is a vast majority of you leaning over and asking, “Who is Kendrick Lamar? I don’t remember reading about him in the Bible.” 

But again, Paul doesn’t just say, “Be humble,” he actually tells them how to be humble. He says, “Thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interest, but take an interest in others too.” 

This is what it means to be humble. I have to say this. When he says, “Thinking of others as better than yourselves,” he is not talking about self-deprecation. He is not talking about putting yourself down or making yourself feel badly about yourself, because humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less. 

It’s doing everything you can to demonstrate and model the love of Jesus by putting other peoples’ needs before your own. And you’re probably sitting there thinking, “That doesn’t sound like much fun,” and I hear you. That’s because this is not natural. It’s not anything that society is telling us to do. 

And Jesus knew this. That is why he called his disciples to take a low position in a society that was marked by rank, and status, and prestige, not much different than society today, Jesus was telling them to be different. That’s why he went first and demonstrated this by doing things like washing his disciples’ feet. 

That’s why he would touch people who had leprosy, who society had marginalized and pushed to the fringes. It’s why he would do things like minister alongside women, who were considered second-class citizens during that time. Jesus went first in all of this. And he even said about himself that “the son of God came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” 

And honestly, this is why we encourage you guys to serve, all of us to join a serving team. Because in the process of serving you have an opportunity, not just to carry out the mission of Jesus, but to put other people before yourself. 

But I’ve got to be clear because it’s not just about serving. I don’t know if you know this, but you can serve and still have a prideful heart. You can serve, and still be filled with pride. Humility isn’t about serving itself; it’s about what God want to do through your heart as you serve. It’s about what he wants to do as he changes you from the inside out. 

This is what humility is:  

Humility is about the posture of your heart towards God and others.

It’s about a heart that’s been broken before God, and you begin to see yourself before him and you realize how messed up you actually are. That you’re not a good person who occasionally makes mistakes, but that our sin was so bad that Jesus had to die for us. But it’s a brokenness that is so beautiful, because God takes it, and he redeems it, and he uses it. He mends that broken heart back together and transforms it from the inside out. 

And it is with this changed, transformed heart that you now come to God and you say, “Alright God, whatever you want to do in my life, I’m willing to let you do it. However you want to use me, I will be used. However you want me to serve, I will do it. Because I understand it’s not about me and I know nothing or no one is beneath me.” 

Now, my question is, “How do we live this out?” What would it look like if we took that heart posture into our everyday lives? 

What would it look like if you took this heart posture into your marriage? It would change everything. I think a lot of us are willing to stand across the aisle from that person and say, “’til death do us part,” and we’d even be willing to say, “I would die for that person.” But it’s a lot different to say, “I’ll die to myself each and every day I wake up.” It’s a lot different to say, “I’ll put that other persons’ interest above my own.” If you wake up with that mentality, “How can I serve that other person?” it would change everything about your marriage, even if it’s not reciprocated. 

That’s the biggest thing. And I think that’s the hang up a lot of us have. When our own needs aren’t being met, are we still willing to meet that other persons’ needs? 

Fellows, I’m going to throw you a bone here. I’m going to help you out this week. Maybe you wake up Monday morning, and you go cook your wife breakfast or maybe warm her up a nice cup of coffee. Come back into the room, look at her, make sure you brush your teeth first, and look into her beautiful eyes and just ask this question, “How can I put your interests above mine this week? How can I serve you this week?” 

She’ll be like, “Who is this guy in front of me? Am I still dreaming? Am I awake?” 

What would it look like if we took this heart posture into the classroom or the workplace? Or we didn’t gossip about people, but instead ran toward them seeking to build a relationship with them? What would it look like if we served our classmates, coworkers, or neighbors with no strings attached, simply because we see them as people God created and Jesus died for? 

What would it look like if we had this heart posture within the church? We could change the world. It would give us this desire to live in unity with one another. We would have this willingness to lean into the difficult conversations. We would be willing to do everything we could to live in unity. It would birth within us this desire, not only to see this church, but to see the city look more and more like heaven. 

I don’t know about you, but that’s the kind of church I want to be a part of. One that says, “We don’t have this whole thing figured out. We can’t take credit for what God is doing here. The only thing we want to do is serve with compassion, put other people’s needs before our own, and we want to keep our hearts pure before God. That’s the kind of church that changes the world. 

If we ask a different type of question, it would change everything. If we had this heart posture toward God and others, it would change that selfish question that we often ask ourselves by adding one small but big word in the middle of it. It completely turns it around. Instead of asking, “What’s best for me?” we would ask this question: 

What’s God’s best for me?

That’s a radically different question. God’s best for you is not to give you all of your personal desires to help you meet your goals. It’s not to give you that job you’ve always wanted, the spouse you’ve always dreamed of, or even the house you’ve always imagined. Do you want to know what God’s best for you is? You know what he wants. 

Imitate Jesus.

He wants you to imitate Jesus in the way you love and serve others, because that’s when you’re being humbled. And he wants you to think and act like him. That’s exactly what Paul goes on to say in verse 5. 

Let’s look at it. “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.”

Do you want to know what God’s best for you is? See Jesus, imitate Jesus, surrender your heart to Jesus. Because he didn’t hold on to the entitlement or the privileges he had as God, he humbled himself. 

I love the way the Message translation paraphrases that Scripture, “He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death...”

And he died that selfless, obedient death for you. He humbled himself and left heaven and came to earth for you. He took the low position of a servant for you. He allowed himself to be arrested and tried unfairly for you, pushed in the face for you, spat on for you, mocked for you. He took those lashes on his back for you. He carried that cross up a hill for you. 

And in that moment, he had the opportunity to come down off that cross because he allowed himself to be nailed to it. But he had an opportunity to come down off that cross, and in humility he stayed there for you. And he rose again for you. 

Listen, nothing humbles us more that the realization that our sin is what nailed Jesus to that cross. But nothing makes us more grateful that realizing he allowed it to happen because he loves us. 

He wasn’t asking, “What’s best for me”” when he did that. He was asking, “What’s God’s best for me? What’s my Father’s best for me?” And his response to that question was one of the most selfless and humble responses known to man. He said, “Father, not my will, but your will.” That’s selfless and obedient. 

I mentioned my daughter Kyndall earlier and just how competitive she is. She is every bit of that, but she is also one of the sweetest people I know. I mean, she is smart, funny, wise, and observant. 

We do this thing where we’ll read her a story before bed. A lot of times I’ll read her children’s Bible. So, we sit down and we read the story of Jesus and the crucifixion, and it’s one we’ve read countless times before. But there was something different about this night. She was a little bit more intrigued this night. 

So, as I’m flipping through the pages, she sees the three crosses on the hill. She notices, “Daddy, there are three crosses there. There are three people on the cross. Who are those other people on the cross, daddy?”

I begin to tell her that in addition to Jesus there were these two thieves, these criminals who were on the cross, and they were being punished for stealing. And I begin to see the wheels turning in her head as she is pondering and thinking. She looks down. And about 10 to15 seconds go by, and I get ready to turn the page and go on. 

She stops me and she looks up. With curiosity all over her face she said, “What bad thing did Jesus do? Why was he being punished?” And in that moment the Holy Spirit reminded me of the selflessness, the humility of Jesus. I get down on one knee and look at her straight in the face with tears in my eyes. 

I said, “Jesus didn’t do anything wrong, babe. The only thing that he was guilty of was loving you.” I could see her just processing it. I don’t know if she fully got it or not, but I know what happened that night. God used a children’s Bible to remind me of the humility of Jesus and how we all have an opportunity to surrender our hearts to him. He went first by modeling it all, and that’s what we get to surrender our hearts to every single day. 

Let me pray for us. 

God, we thank you for who you are. God, we thank you for loving us, for dying for us. God, we thank you for modeling humility. That you could have stayed where you were in heaven, but you humbled yourself and came to this earth. You led the perfect life that none of us could live, and you died the death we deserved to die. That is humility. And that’s what we get to model and pattern ourselves after. 

So, I just pray, God. I pray we wouldn’t just see this as a message about being kind toward other people or letting people go first, because that’s not what this is about. This is about surrendering our hearts to you. This is about a heart posture that sees you for who you are, and just lives out obedience, and thankfulness, and selflessness. 

God, I pray for anybody across any of our campuses who is wrestling with pride, maybe to the point where it is destroying their relationships or their marriages. Would you just allow them to see who you are, and how you have so much better for them? 

And would you help us, as a church, to take that humility and to live united with one another as one church. God, we thank you. We love you. It’s in your Son Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen.