Today is part three of our series of lowliness of mind.
I'm going to do a quick overview.
For those that maybe you weren't here last Sunday,
I'm going to do a quick overview.
We're going to pray and we're going to get into part three.
Last Sunday, Pastor already mentioned that we really...
It's like the Lord pulled the parking brake when it came to the cross.
And being us as we are worthless without the Lord.
That was something that I really hit last Sunday,
that I felt the Holy Spirit really just pause me on that and hold me on that
to really drill it in our heads, to really see it in our hearts,
to really have us understand that seriously without the Lord we are worthless.
If He doesn't come to our services, I don't want to do it.
I honestly, I don't want to do it.
I don't want to be up here just to waste your time,
nor do I want to be up here to waste my own time.
If God is not convincing us,
if God is not moving on our hearts,
if God's manifest presence and glory is not showing up on our Sunday services,
I don't want to keep doing this Sunday after Sunday after Sunday.
Just going to be honest with you. As a pastor, I don't want to do it.
That's my heart. That's my heart.
I want to maintain and hold the thoughts.
I want to hold the heart posture of Lord,
I am worthless without you.
I can't speak without you, Lord.
We also hit on having a vertical life over a horizontal life,
of how important it is for us to actually serve the Lord more than we're serving each other.
Our priority should be to serve Him, to seek Him,
to know Him over even serving each other.
I'm going to tell you a little secret.
As a pastor, as your pastor,
I am doing you no good if I am first serving you before I'm serving the Lord.
Everything that I do up here is, first of all, through obedience.
It's by obedience and through obedience.
And second of all, it's the overflow of what you guys don't see the rest of the days of the week.
And that's how our lives should be.
That's literally how our lives should be.
Our lives should be vertical.
One of the most common questions that are asked in Christian circles is this.
What is my calling? What is my destiny?
What has God called me to? What has God destined me to?
And you can go at that and you can answer that question in many different ways.
I have found the best way to answer that question when people ask is seek the Lord.
This is what I mean by that.
Seek the Lord and in the seeking and knowing who he is, it's like looking at a mirror.
You will actually discover who you are and you will actually find yourself.
Naturally, you will actually find yourself where the Lord wants you to be.
Seriously, that's literally, that's the vertical life.
That's me pursuing him and not worried about, okay, what should I do?
Should I be a drummer? Should I be a pianist?
Should I be a preacher? Should I be an usher? Stop worrying about that stuff.
Focus on the Lord. Lord, who are you?
Lord, what are you like? What do you talk like, Lord? What do you think like?
Father, show me, show me yourself.
And in doing that, friends, I guarantee you in doing that, you will actually discover the laying, the vein, whatever you want to call it, the call, the destiny that God has you to be.
It'll come so naturally to some of you, you won't even realize that you are actually in your destiny and you're in your vein because you're just caught up and looking at Jesus.
See, some of us, I just feel like I need to say this, some of us are troubled even in this season right now because some of you are feeling that one season is ending and God is transitioning you into a new season
and it's almost like you're losing your identity. I'm speaking to somebody here. I'm speaking prophetically to somebody here.
God is transitioning some of you from one season to another and you're so caught up and so afraid of this new season because your identity was actually found in this season.
What you need to do in this new season is not worry, okay, I let go of that. Now I got to go do this thing, but what do I got to do? What do I got to do? Here's what you got to do.
Seek Him. Seek the Lord. Seek His face. Live a vertical life. Don't worry about the horizontal. It'll come. I told this to somebody that was troubled.
This is years ago. Somebody was so troubled. They knew that there is a call on their life for the public ministry. They knew that they were called to preach, to prophesy.
They knew that they were called to that. And this is some years ago. My wife and I, we were talking to this person and you could tell as they were talking to us, they were troubled.
Well, how? How is the public ministry going to come? How is it going to come? I told this person, I said, listen, don't worry about the public ministry.
If that's the call on your life, don't worry about it. Seek God. He will bring you into the public when your time is right. You with me?
That's a quick overview from last week. And all of this, friends, again, this is all founded. The foundation to these series is that of Philippians chapter 2, verse 1 to 11.
This is where all, I mean, there is so much scripture I can bring into you. But again, I'm reminding you, this is the foundation to lowliness of mind is what the apostle Paul writes to the Philippians.
Okay, part three. Let us pray before we get into today's message. So Father, we thank you. We thank you for your word, God. We thank you that your word is a lamp unto our feet.
We thank you that your spirit, Holy Spirit, you make the word alive in us. Holy Spirit, you are the one that enlightens our eyes and our minds and our hearts to see the very scriptures for what they are.
As the very breath of God, the very breath of the Genesis one God. And Holy Spirit, I'm asking you today that as we step into the third part, Lord, that you would convince our hearts, that you would convince our minds, oh God, that you would enlighten our hearts, our eyes, Lord, to see the scriptures and what is being taught this morning.
Holy Spirit, I'm asking you that you would cut us deep, cause us to look at each other, cause us to measure ourselves to the word, that we would leave this place, that we would leave this place, not the same, Lord, but we would leave this place with a new revelation, with new knowledge, something, Lord, that we would chew on and get into a conversation with you about.
So Lord, we love you, we bless you in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm going to read you the definition, I told you I'm probably going to read this every Sunday, cause I want this definition of a lowliness of mind to really sear your hearts. I really do.
The definition in the Greek, this is what it is.
This virtue, a fruit of the gospel exists when a person through most genuine self-evaluation, pastor already touched on that a little bit today, Sarah touched on that last Sunday. How good was it what Sarah shared last Sunday, amen?
Wasn't that good? Sarah, thank you for sharing that last Sunday. It's... I just want to pause it for a second.
This is the time for us not to look at each other and say, okay, he or she is doing that wrong, look what they're doing, look what their family is involved in. Stop doing that and just look at yourself.
Do you know that doing that actually creates unity in the body? If I am looking at myself, I'm actually cultivating unity amongst us. Do you know that?
So if you can stop pointing fingers and saying, well, only if they correct that, then there will be unity. Stop looking at them.
Because actually looking at yourself will create a unity amongst our local body even more.
Most genuine self-evaluation. And then it continues to say, deems himself or herself worthless.
It involves evaluating ourselves as small because we are so. Amen.
The humble person is not stressing his sinfulness, but his creaturelessness of absolute dependence of possessing nothing and of receiving all things from God. Amen.
That's the Greek definition of what lowliness of mind is.
And reading that definition and coming out of Philippians 2, I'm going to read a few things here, a few different definitions of words, just quick little descriptions of these words.
But reading that definition and coming out of Philippians 2, I've said this before, but lowliness of mind is a blueprint to the end time revival. It is.
Seriously, think of it this way. I don't know how many of you are builders in this place, but coming from a carpenter background, when you're reading a blueprint at the top, you usually have the architect's name or the builder's name.
Well, lowliness of mind is like the architect's name of a blueprint. It's up there. And then when you keep reading the blueprint, you begin to understand, okay, the trusses, they go this way.
I need a king stud, a cripple, a header has to be X amount. And you go through all these things, there's details within a blueprint. So lowliness of mind, think of it this way. It's as if though it's the name of the architect.
And it's at the top. And then within that blueprint, we will begin to discover all the things that are actually the characteristics, the attributes and the ways it's the very natures of God within that blueprint.
Like listen to me, like seriously, listen, humility, what is humility? You will find all of these descriptions and many more within lowliness of mind.
Literally everything, all these other things that I'm about to read, you will find them in Philippians two, starting at verse one, all the way to verse 11, you will find these characteristics.
You will find these principles. You will find these attributes all within these few verses of Philippians two.
And then taking the definition of lowliness of mind is you will literally find all this. You following me?
So listen to this, humility, what is humility? A modest or low view of one's own importance. It's being, it's humbleness.
Now I actually want to open up Peter five, first Peter to be more exact. Let me read this to you here.
This is first Peter chapter five, verse five and six. So let me read that again. So humility, what is humility? A modest or low view of one's own importance.
See now, when we talk about, because I want to hit this again because a lot of people think that lowliness of mind is just being, is just being humble.
It's walking in humility. It is, but it's more than that. And I want you to understand that.
Lowliness of mind, yes, it's being humble. It's walking in humility, but it's more than that when we look at Philippians two and what the Apostle Paul covers there.
So again, humility, a modest or low view of one's importance. It's humbleness. And this is what the Apostle Peter writes in chapter five, verses five and six.
He says, likewise, you younger people submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility.
For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time.
And then verse seven, casting all your cares, casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. So humility is part of lowliness of mind.
But then you look at the definition of meekness. What is meekness? It's quiet. It's gentle, easily imposed. It's to be basically submissive.
All these different characteristics, all these different attributes that we can find of who God is, literally all fall under the camp of lowliness of mind.
Death to self, choosing to restrain, literally you'll find all these in Philippians chapter two starting at verse one.
Denying self or death to self, choosing to restrain or fargo personal desires, pleasures or needs often for a greater purpose or benefit.
You see, you read Philippians two and you read what Jesus did. It says that he was obedient on to death and even death on the cross.
It falls under lowliness. Pastor touched on that this morning. For us to live a lowly life, it's not just, okay, I'm going to be humble.
I'm going to be meek, but I have to choose to say no to this flesh.
If we want to live a life that is lowly, if we want to be a part of what Joel two talks about, if we want to be a part of what Acts two talks about,
the great outpouring, the great harvest, we as a church, friends, we as a church have to choose to say no to our flesh.
It's a choice. Can I be really honest with you? Doesn't come natural. It doesn't come natural.
I mean, just think about it. A baby is born, okay, a newborn baby comes. A baby is born. What does a parent do?
Everything the baby wants, it's given to it. The baby needs a diaper changed. We attend to it. The baby is hungry.
You go and you attend to it. We have grown up and we've been cultured. I'm not saying ignore your babies. Let me just pause there for a second.
I'm not saying ignore your babies. I'm trying to draw you a picture of we have literally been cultured of when we want something, we get it.
And when we don't get it, we cry about it. And when we cry about it and people don't notice our cry, we begin to kick and we begin to shout
and we begin to throw tantrums. Yes, adults, I've seen adults throw tantrums. Just saw it this week. Literally just saw it this week.
There was a situation that happened this week. I literally saw a grown adult throwing a tantrum because they didn't get something that they thought was the right thing to get.
But that's what our society has been cultured in. We have been so self-indulged with what I want, with what I get.
Everything is an emergency to us. I mean seriously, think about it. Everything is an emergency to us. If we don't get something when we need it right now, that's it.
It's the end of the world. I told my wife this literally just last night. Me and my wife were sitting and talking over our table.
I said, the things that people call an emergency, I don't know, maybe it's because I've been in the ministry for some years now that I maybe look at emergencies a little bit different.
But I'm like the things that people call emergencies are actually non-emergencies. Do you know what I call an emergency? You ready for this? This is an emergency for me.
Now I'm not saying that this has to be your definition. This is the emergency for me. If somebody's on the deathbed, now I'm coming from a minister's perspective.
If somebody's on the deathbed and they have not received Jesus, that to me is an emergency. That to me is an emergency.
That's how I look at emergencies. Now I'm not saying you have to look at it the same way I am. I'm just simply drawing you, I'm drawing you something.
If somebody is dying and they don't know the Lord Jesus, that to me is like, my God, give me some time, please Lord.
So that this precious soul would be saved and I'd have to be doomed to hell for eternity. But we've been cultured in it.
So do you see? I'm showing you these negatives so that you can recognize how much the church, not even talking about the world, let's talk about the church.
The world, let God deal with the world. God's dealing with them. God has given ministers and pastors to the church. He has set them.
This is Ephesians 4, to bring the church, the five-fold. So let me just talk about the church.
I'm trying to show you these negative things so that you can have like a notification that goes off in your head of, oh my goodness, I'm actually not living a lowly life.
I'm throwing a tantrum. I'm choosing not to deny this flesh. To live a life that's lowly is to say no to the things that you desire.
To the things that you feel entitled to. I was talking to somebody again this week. There's a lot that happened this week.
I was talking to somebody again this week. And the conversation I was having with this person, the response the person was giving me.
My wife is like, whoa, that person is really entitled to what they think they should have.
But I'm like, see, that's what we've been cultured in. And we think we're lowly. We think we're going low.
But in reality, we're up here where God is trying to bring us down here under the radar and to do things that only people that are lowly, dead to self and allowing the image of Christ to be conformed in them.
You still with me? Another aspect is righteousness or another characteristic, I'm sorry, is righteousness.
Righteousness is found in lowliness. Why? Because when you read the definition of what lowliness of mine is, it says we look at ourselves.
We're not even looking at our sinful nature. We're looking at ourselves that we are a created being, realizing I'm small.
And everything I have, everything I possess is because of him. My righteousness that I carry is because of him.
That's living a life of lowliness. It's recognizing that even when I stumble and I fall and I'm working through things, that doesn't mean that I've now become unrighteous.
That doesn't mean that. There's a process of sanctification. Just because the Lord is teaching me something, just because the Lord is leading me through something to overcome something does not mean that I am now an unrighteous person.
I am righteous because he is righteous. I'm going to say that again. I am righteous because he is righteous. And that's a life of lowliness. I'm dependent on him.
Jesus, if you become unrighteous, I'm done. Jesus, if you were not a righteous man, I would have no opportunity to be righteous.
But I'm righteous and that's a lowly life because he's righteous and because I'm depending on him and on his righteousness.
Watch this grace. This actually ties into what Peter writes. First Peter chapter five. God resists the proud. This is verse... where is it?
Verse five. The end of verse five. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.
What does that tell us? If I choose to go low, there is a sufficient amount of grace for me in this level. More than enough.
I said more than enough. If I choose to go low, God promises me grace in everything that I'm doing.
If I choose to go low, if I choose to put on and live by the characteristics and the principles of lowliness of mind, the Bible tells us, not what Igor tells us, the Bible tells us, God will give us grace in that.
Grace that's more than enough. He told that to the Apostle Paul. He said, listen, my grace is sufficient for you.
He says, when you are weak, you're actually strong.
Can I share something with you? That I've seen a lot of... and this is going to tie in, so just follow me here.
I've seen this amongst pastors and leaders. I've sat in groups and in meetings and other gatherings with other pastors and leaders of different places, of different types of backgrounds and on and so forth.
And one thing that I've learned is that when pastors get together, when pastors get together, no pastor ever wants to share his weakness.
No pastor ever wants to share the things that are challenging for them because people are afraid. See, now this is a lowly life.
Follow me here. People are afraid. If I share with you my weakness, that means that I'm going to become a lesser than.
We're afraid. We're afraid in our society to be a lesser than somebody else. But what if that's the way of lowliness of life?
What if that's the way that the Lord actually showed us?
What if that's the way that we actually, as a church, need to look at things? What if I look at you and esteem you greater than myself?
Even though I'm a pastor and I'm leading you, but isn't that what Jesus did?
Did not the Lord become lowly and stooped down and prefer the people, his disciples, over himself?
Did not Jesus say, I have come not to be served, but to serve?
It's a lowliness of mind.
What if I told you that the secret to unity is sharing our weakness with one another?
See, now some of you are thinking and you're saying, well, hold on pastor, hold on a second, man.
Pull them reins back on that horsey.
Some of you are thinking, well, I've shared my weakness with other people and it backfired and it exploded in my face.
Sure it has. I'm sure it has. But can I tell you a secret? God will deal with that person.
Again, I was talking to somebody this week. A lot happened this week, friends. A lot happened this week.
I was talking with somebody this week and they were, they were so, this is the person that felt very entitled.
And they were telling me somebody wronged them.
So they were telling me how, you know, this person needs to see justice right here.
Like, come on, like, come on, we got to show justice, you know, that's not what they said, but it was in that context is what they were saying.
And I told this person, I said, why are we always seeking?
Yes, God is just and justice will be shown. But why are we always seeking justice here on earth?
What if God's mercy is covering this person and they will see the full justice when they get to heaven?
This is what I mean by that. Follow me here. Follow me here.
Okay, follow me here. I'm going to touch on this because I feel the Lord is wanting me to park on something today.
This is what I mean by that.
What if the justice in fullness that God wants to show us is actually the mistakes that we've made here
that will actually, not saying that you're not going to make heaven, but it'll actually abrupt your closeness to the throne of God in heaven.
Did you know that we, when we get to heaven, we will have different proximities of how close we are going to be to heaven?
Did you know that? God, the Bible actually tells us that God will set people as governors over cities on and so forth.
So what if the full justice of God in some people's lives will be shown when they get to heaven?
Just food for thought. Think about that for a second.
Forgiveness is living a life of lowliness.
This is what it is. A gracious act of pardoning or remitting in offense, debt or obligation, and letting go of the resentment towards the offender.
It involves releasing the wrongdoer from a... I can't pronounce that word, but that's alright.
Legal consequences associated with the offense.
Excuse me. Forgiveness is a part of living lowly.
To live a life of lowliness, you have to. You have to. Listen, you have to be able to forgive people.
I'll even go further. Follow me here.
If we choose to not forgive people, we are actually closing the door, or let's put it this way.
We're shutting the forgiveness that we can actually receive from the Lord.
This is the Lord's prayer. This is what the Lord is teaching his disciples.
He says forgive us our debts as we forgive others.
So if I remove that part, if I remove the part of I don't want to forgive people, what I'm actually doing is not that the Lord doesn't want to forgive me.
I myself am actually shutting the door of forgiveness that he has for me.
These are all guys. These are all characteristics, principles of what it means to be lowly.
Go with me to Ephesians 4.
So see, lowliness of mind is more than just, okay, I'm going to be humble.
It's more than just, well, you know, I'm going to go unnoticed.
It's more than all these things. It is literally a blueprint to what God is trying to establish within the body of Christ in what's coming.
In what's coming.
Ephesians 4 verses 1 to 4.
This is, again, now talking about unity and how actually lowliness of mind produces unity.
Listen to what the apostle Paul writes. Verse 1 out of chapter 4.
I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the call with which you were called.
With all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
Verse 4, there is one body, one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling.
Verse 5, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Verse 6, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and is in all.
So what the apostle Paul is basically saying here, he said, hey, listen, if you can walk in lowliness, we can connect this with Philippians 2.
If you can walk in lowliness, you will actually cultivate such a unity among the brethren that you've never seen before.
Because what he writes in Philippians 2 of how unity even comes about in a body.
And I've touched on this before, so this is nothing new. I've touched on this before.
But if we would prefer one another, the word that he uses there is esteem.
If we can esteem one another greater than ourselves, we can create a level of unity like we've never before.
I had a question once for God. I've shared this with some of you, maybe some of you haven't heard this.
I had a question for the Lord once when he was teaching me this years ago.
When he was showing me Philippians 2 and he was talking to me about it.
I asked the Lord, I said, Lord, and I said this with all humility, so hear me correctly here.
I said, Lord, I said, how can I, how can I esteem somebody who is less in the kingdom?
What I mean by that, less in the kingdom, they're not as advanced in the things of God.
They're a baby Christian, so to say. I said, Lord, I said, how can I esteem this person greater than myself
when I clearly see that there's a lot of things they're not catching, they're not understanding on and so forth.
Do you know what the Lord told me? He said, son, you esteem them for the lane that they run.
Because the lane that they run, the vein that I have them set on, he said, you can't run it.
That's their lane to run.
I said, wow.
So even as a pastor, I have to abide by Philippians 2.
I have to prefer you, I have to esteem you as greater than myself.
Why? Because the lane that you're running, I can't run it.
I can't fulfill what God is asking you to fulfill.
I have my own task that I have to obey the Lord on and I have to run that lane.
See, so unity comes about is where we can recognize each other's lanes and we're not overstepping each other
and we're not trying to get in each other's lane, but I'm running next to you.
This is what the apostle Paul writes, running the race of faith together.
We're moving in our lanes, encouraging one another, esteeming one another,
recognizing what you're doing I can't do and what I'm doing you can't do.
And this is where a saying comes out of it, I need you and you need me.
This is the body of Christ. This is the members of the body of Christ.
Some are an arm, some are a finger, another is a leg, another is a toe.
I can't be a toe and an eye all at the same time.
I'm just going to be honest with you, you can't.
Do you see the importance of a church?
And oftentimes as a congregation, we put all this weight on pastors
and we say, you got this man, run with it.
And we're like, no man, we need you. I need you.
What God wants to fulfill this vision right here, what God wants to do
is going to require all of us and even more.
So there is a lane that you're running that I can't run.
And to live a life of lowliness, to live an abide by that
is to say, Lord, open my eyes so that I can recognize my brothers and my sisters' lanes
and I can esteem them greater than myself.
That should be a prayer that we should have.
That should be a prayer that we have, that we can recognize everybody that's sitting here
and even those watching online and those that are yet to come
that we can recognize each other's lanes and recognize and esteem and honor.
Honor them because I can't do what you're doing.
And vice versa, that person honors the other person and says, I can't do what you're doing.
So let's do this thing together.
And then we hold hands and we skip.
That's the day that they'll see me, you holding hands and skipping pastor.
That'll be great, man. Wouldn't that be great?
We can make a short out of it.
We got our whole social media team.
It'll be the pastor's special.
I'm sorry, I'm done. I'm done.
That's good. You got to have a good laugh.
So lowliness of mind is more, I'm just, I'm trying to pick at your brain.
I'm trying to have you go deeper and expand and stretch your thinking.
Lowliness of mind is more than just me being humble.
It's me choosing to die to myself.
It's me choosing to walk in unity.
It's me choosing to esteem others.
It's me choosing to receive the grace because I'm resisting the pride in my life.
I'm resisting the pride because I want grace.
I want to go low because I want to have the sufficiency of God's grace in my life.
Now watch this.
Lowliness of mind is a characteristic and a principle.
What is a characteristic?
A feature or quality belonging typically to a person, place or thing and serving to identify it.
That's a characteristic.
A characteristic is something that does not come natural to us. Can I be real with you?
Certain characteristics do not come natural to us.
We actually have to cultivate.
We actually have to work on ourselves to develop a certain character.
And let me be even more real with you.
We as a church, now when I say as a church, I'm not just regarding our local body right now.
I'm talking about as the bride of Christ as a whole.
We are so far from the characteristic of lowliness that it's going to take some work.
Faith without works is dead. We can believe all we want for it. I'm going to be lowly. I'm going to be lowly.
But if you're not putting the work to it, you're never going to live a life of lowliness.
And you will actually miss the outpour of the spirit.
A characteristic is something that we actually have to cultivate and work out in our life.
And we have plenty of scriptures. I'm going to shoot them out for you real quick here.
Matthew...actually let's open up to Matthew 5.
Because I want to show you some of these things here.
I'm jumping the gun here. Open up to Matthew chapter 5.
Oh man, time is against me today.
Matthew 5.
Now this is...this is the greatest sermon preached by the the greatest preacher.
This is the beatitudes. This is the sermon on the mount.
The greatest sermon preached by the the greatest preacher.
He's got Billy Graham schooled a hundredfold.
So before I start reading some of these verses here.
So lowliness of mind is a characteristic that we have to work out.
And it's also a principle that we can live by.
Watch this. What is a principle?
A fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior for a chain of reasoning.
In other words, there's principles that we have to abide by and we'll find it here in Matthew 5.
It's principles that then I believe will create and cultivate a characteristic of lowliness of mind within us.
So we choose both. So lowliness of mind, I'm sorry, is both a characteristic and there's principles to it.
You following me? Does that make any sense?
Okay, maybe it didn't. Let's go through some of these here quick.
Matthew chapter 5 starting at verse 1. These are the beatitudes.
I'm just going to read just a few of them.
And literally in these few verses, you will find both the characteristic and principles that we must live by to live a lowly life.
And seeing the multitudes, he went up on the mountain and when he was seated, his disciples came to him.
Then he opened his mouth and taught them saying...
Now I want to pause the rule quick.
We read the word multitude, right? In the scriptures in the first verse, we see the word multitude.
To me, what's amazing about the Lord is that he lived such a lowly life.
Usually, now I'm talking about modern-day preachers, usually.
When a multitude of crowds comes and a preacher begins to preach, do you know what oftentimes a preacher will talk about?
Something that's very encouraging, something that the crowd is going to accept them about.
He's not going to preach something usually, I said, usually.
He's not going to preach something that's going to make people feel uncomfortable.
And what I love about the Lord, that he didn't care if there was thousands of people listening to him,
or if there was only his disciples that listened to him.
He gave them what they needed to hear.
So here we got the multitudes and Jesus begins to teach a very hard teaching.
Verse three, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Pause for a second.
To be poor in spirit is to live a life of lowliness.
To be poor in spirit is, think of it this way,
is to understand that my spiritual life, my whole spiritual life is dependent on the Lord.
That's why we're poor in spirit.
Meaning that I can't gain any kind of spiritual wealth without the Lord.
So to be poor in spirit is to realize again that definition of being dependent on the Lord
and knowing that I'm poor without you God, I'm nothing without you Lord.
Verse four, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
For they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.
I'm just reading these off quick. I don't have time to get into pause on each one of them.
I'm just simply reading them for you, for you guys to understand both the characteristics and the principles that can be found in the be attitudes to live a life that's lowly.
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now here's one of my favorites.
Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.
Pause for a second.
To live a life that's lowly, the Lord makes it clear here.
He says you're going to be persecuted, but blessed are you because you're persecuted.
I've shared this. I think I share this at open heavens. I can't remember where or when I share this, but I know I've shared this off the pulpit.
I believe, I believe that when the church is going to go low and it's going to look like we're losing because persecution, accusation, all these other things are going to arise against the church.
It's going to say how the church is, is helpless. The church can't help you. There is no hope there. Their God is not alive. All these things will be brewing. All these things will be brewing.
And the church is going to go low. It's going to go low. I believe in that we're going to see one of the greatest revivals in this, in our time.
When we go low and we're actually being persecuted, the Bible says, or Jesus even says, he said, blessed are you because you're persecuted for my name's sake.
You still with me? Open up to Matthew six because I want to read something. This is where I want. This is where I wanted to park, but time might be against me.
So we'll see how we go into this. Matthew six, verse 19 to 21. Let me read it here quick and then I'll elaborate on this.
This is again, speaking about living a lowly life or yeah, living in lowliness of mind, living a lowly life. This is Matthew six, verse 19.
Jesus says, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal.
This is verse 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also to live a life that's lowly first and foremost is tucked away with God.
If you remember in the first message when I was talking about this is part one of the message I was talking about to be lowly is to go unnoticed, no reputation, even doing things that will bring of no benefit to you.
I was talking about all those things. To live a life that's lowly is first and foremost tucked away with God. That's where that's where it begins.
You know, oftentimes we look at people and we gauge people's ministry, we look at evangelists and we think, man, when that evangelist or when that preacher, when that pastor, when they get to heaven, they're probably going to be really close to the throne room and the proximity of God.
Is there something? I think we will be shocked when we get to heaven and who we actually see in the close proximity of the throne room. I think we will be utterly shocked when we get to heaven.
We're going to look and we're going to see a bunch of no names being the closest to Jesus and the throne.
So what if we were to live a life of lowliness where we would actually store up our treasures in heaven?
What if we lived a life of lowliness that we actually pursued the things that are in secret that nobody else saw, nobody else sees and we actually carry that treasure with us to heaven?
I believe we will be utterly shocked when we get to heaven and we see certain people in the close proximity of the throne room.
You know, we oftentimes, we talk about as this life being a test and it is so.
But what if the test is more than just, are you going to make heaven or are you not going to make heaven?
What if the test is how much of Jesus are you going to have here so that when you get to heaven, you know him in a way like nobody else knows him?
What if that's the life of lowliness that God is wanting us to live?
What if the Lord is actually wanting us to tend to his wounds? This is talking about serving him.
To actually tend to his wounds and not even share what we're doing in secret.
That's the treasure that will not rust, moth will not get to, none of these things will touch it.
He says, store up your treasures where in heaven. What is the treasure Lord? What is it? It's knowing you.
We oftentimes, we look at the pulpit and we think, wow, God is rewarding him. Do you know where my reward is? It's not up here.
My reward is when God visits me when nobody else sees me. That's my reward.
I said, that's my reward. That's what I get to carry with me to heaven.
I want to live a life. Listen to me here. Listen, I want to live a life.
So tucked away with the Lord to know him in such a degree that when I get to heaven, everybody else will see, wow,
Igor actually really did know the Lord. Look how close he is.
We're constantly, friends, listen to me. Listen, this literally applies to every human being and we have to renew our minds in this.
We are constantly looking for our exaltation here on earth.
We are looking. We say, well, the scripture says that, you know, those who humble themselves, God will exalt him.
My question is where? Where is God going to exalt you here on earth?
If so, then you've received your reward in full because when I read the scriptures, Jesus, the Son of God, did not receive his full exaltation here on earth.
The Lord received his full exaltation in heaven where every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord.
It wasn't when he was walking planet earth.
The Father did not exalt the Son until he was crucified, until he was buried, until he was raised from the dead. Then the exaltation came.
So why are we seeking our exaltation here? Why are we running to the platform? Why are we running to be noticed?
Why are we running for good reputations? Why are we chasing things that are not even the treasure? It's going to rust.
It's going to be like moth are going to eat at it.
What if I could be so tucked away with the Lord and live a life of loneliness that when the day comes that I get to be in eternity with the Lord, then God will exalt me.
Then God will lift you on high and say, that's my friend.
He or she was tucked away with me when nobody else wanted to be.
They were with me when nobody else wanted to be with me.
They woke up when nobody else wanted to wake up. They prayed when nobody else wanted to pray.
They sought me when nobody else was seeking me. They were too busy caught up in the eyes of man.
See, that's lowly. That's living a life of lowliness.
It starts with me being tucked away with the Lord and saying, God, that's where I want to be.
And I cannot allow this right here. This right here cannot allow and overrule what I have with him alone. It can't.
It can't. Friends, I've been there. I've been to a place in my life where this overruled what was happening then.
Trust me, when the dust settles, when the people stop looking at you, when the people stop clapping for you, when the people stop cheering for you, you feel empty inside.
You feel disappointed inside. You think, but God, look, the spirit of God moved and people were happy and da-da-da and this and this.
But then you go and you're alone and God's not there. Why?
Because you are only doing this. You are only doing this for the sake of this.
To live a life that's lowly is to be tucked away with the Lord and in due time, don't seek your exaltation here on earth.
Trust me, don't seek your exaltation here on earth. You will be disappointed when you get to eternity.
He will show you what you could have had.
And yes, you'll be happy that you made heaven, but can you imagine getting to heaven and seeing I could have that?
But because I chose to have my reward and full here on earth, I miss that?
Friends, all of this is good. Preaching is important. It's needed. Worship teams, all this, it's important.
All this stuff is good. The way that we run church is good.
But what's been happening over the years, what the church has adapted to, that if you're not up here, then you're not important.
If you're not serving, then you're not important.
If you're not doing, quote, unquote, what the pastor is asking you to do, you're not important.
Friends, listen, what's important in the life that God calls great is the life that's tucked away with him.
And trust me, listen to me, listen to me. Trust me on this. If you are actually tucked away with the Lord, the oil that's within you...
Oh my God, you cannot contain that oil. It's going to cause to affect the horizontal. You're going to want to serve.
But you're not going to step your way into serving to be noticed. It's going to come from a pure heart.
It's going to come from a place of, Lord, you showed me something and your people need to hear.
Lord, you showed me something. Let me go unnoticed. Let me tell somebody else. I don't even want to say it, Lord.
But your people need to hear it. That's a lowly life. That's living in lowliness. And that is what the Lord is trying to develop within the body of Christ.
This is what I mean, is that God is going to tuck away the church. It's going to be tucked away.
And when all chaos is breaking loose, remember when I say this, all chaos is going to break loose.
And it's going to look, it's going to look like the church is losing.
It's going to look like we're losing every battle. It's going to look like we're losing the war, so to say.
But in due time, God will begin to exalt the church and he will lift it on high and we'll see Jesus coming.
Friends, this is what God is trying to develop in us as individuals yet as a body.
Is to once again prioritize what is more important.
What is more important to us?
Jesus received his full exaltation in heaven, not here on earth.
Remember that.
Stop seeking your exaltation here. Stop seeking the approval of men here.
Stop seeking all of these things. I promise you.
And if you don't believe me, go ahead and try it. I promise you I've been there.
And when the dust settles, when the eyes stop looking at you, when people stop cheering and all this stuff,
you feel empty and it's gut wrenching.
Because when you're alone with him and he's not visiting you there, what's the point?
What's the point?
What's the point of all of this?
What's the point that I just preached to you a message if God is not visiting me when I'm alone with him?
This is not going to sustain you. Why do so many pastors and preachers burn out?
Why do they burn out?
Because they're running off of the fumes and the fuel that's coming off of their congregation.
I don't want to run off the fumes and the fuels of the congregation.
I want to be sustained by the Spirit of God when nobody else is watching me.
That will sustain us. It'll sustain you as a Christian. It'll sustain you as a disciple.
It'll sustain you as a follower of the Lord. Listen to me.
This public stuff will not sustain you.
It's the hidden life with Christ that is lowly, that our churches don't preach.
We have pastors always encouraging people, you got to go do something.
If you're not doing something in church, then you're not good enough. Why do we teach that?
Do we need people to serve in this house? Most definitely we do.
I'm talking as a pastor, but I want to make sure that you, to the measure that you know how,
are seeking the Lord in private before I can even allow you to get behind a pulpit and preach.
That's the life that God calls great.
That's the life and that's the characteristic that God is trying to bring into the body of Christ once again.
It's to be lowly, unnoticed, unrecognized.
The only one that's noticing and recognizing us is the Lord.
And he's saying, oh, you're doing good. Thank you. You're doing great.
Let me give you something. And he talks to us and he shares his heart with us.
Did I ever share this with you? Listen, I had this one time. Maybe I shared this with you.
I was with the Lord. This is some years ago. I was with the Lord one time.
I don't know how long it was. It was for a while because I started yawning and I was falling asleep.
And as I was closing my Bible, I was getting ready to leave and I heard the Lord just very briefly speak to me.
He said, stay with me for a little bit more.
So I said, okay. So I sat down. I already had my instrumental music off. Thank you so much.
I'm telling you, I got to get one of those. I actually looked on Amazon and I found some of those handkerchiefs.
Like Philip Anthony Mitchell has. I was like, I got to get me one of those.
I got to order that this week.
And just drop it or something.
I was with the Lord and I was very tired already.
And the Lord spoke to me. He said, just stay with me for a little bit more.
And I'm sharing this with you because I'm trying to stir your hearts to something.
Of how important that life tucked away. Of how important it is for us to go low in that measure.
This is why I'm sharing that story with you.
And the Lord said, stay with me for a little bit more.
So I sat down. My Bible was already closed. I had the instrumental music off.
And I just leaned back and I put my head back on the couch, on the seat of my couch at our home.
I don't know how long I was laying there.
But the Lord said something to me. He said, son.
He said, I show my heart publicly.
But he said, I share it privately.
I said, Lord, I said, what do you mean?
He said, look at the cross.
He said, I showed my love. The cross is me showing my heart.
But he said, now pay attention to how I spoke to the disciples.
Jesus would oftentimes in crowds, he would speak in parables.
Parables that were very hard to understand.
But behind the scenes, he would actually explain and share the parable to me.
In other words, Jesus was sharing his heart with his disciples.
Even more, you can take what happened on the mountain of transfiguration.
The Lord brought me there.
He said, son, he said, look, even out of the 12, I took three with me up to the mountain of transfiguration.
And they saw the Lord.
They saw the Lord in his resurrected body.
He was sharing his heart.
He was being vulnerable with them in the upper room, washing their feet.
The Lord was becoming vulnerable. He was sharing himself with his disciples.
He wasn't just showing them, hey, I love you, but he was actually sharing himself with them.
But where did it happen? That's the question. Where did it happen?
It was private.
So I'm stirring you to something that if we can live a life of lowliness,
the Lord will not only show his heart, but he will actually share his heart.
And can I be real with you? He will share things that you can't even share publicly.
I have things that the Lord has shared with me privately that I don't have grace to share publicly.
Why? Because it's an intimate relationship.
Husbands, you don't go and share the things that your wife shares with you privately.
If you do, you're probably sleeping outside, bro.
You're probably sleeping in a tent.
Or there's a divorce paper laying on your countertop.
It's the same way with the Lord. It's a relationship.
And he will share things with us privately, but it only happens privately.
There is things, I believe, there is things that God will only do privately with individuals.
That he won't even do corporately.
I believe that.
But I'm stirring you to something.
I'm stirring you to understand that a life that is lowly in the Lord is far more valuable to the eyes of God than man has made it known to be, that pastors have made it known to be.
Do you see how important it is to be lowly?
I'm saying that if you live a lowly life, God will share things with you.
He will share things with you that he's probably never shared with anybody else.
You still with me?
It's 1209.
God is trying.
And I said trying.
Like pastor said today.
I felt that by the way.
Right on.
God is wooing us.
Let me not say trying.
Wooing us.
He is wooing us to something that is greater.
I don't want us to miss it.
I don't want us to miss it as individuals.
Let me say it this way.
I don't want to miss it.
I am looking at myself before I'm looking at you as your pastor.
I am looking at myself and I'm dealing with things that God is asking me to deal with first and foremost.
There is things that God is asking of me.
And if I want to live a life that's lowly, I have to respond and I have to obey to those things.
God is wooing us to something and I don't want us to miss it as a church either.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you.
We thank you, Lord, for your word.
Father, we thank you for your son.
Jesus, we thank you that you have showed us the way, Lord.
You have set an example.
You have set a trail, a blaze for us to follow.
We thank you, Lord, that you lived a life of lowliness.
You chose to go low.
It's not something that came natural to you, but you chose to go low, Lord.
We thank you, Lord, that you have esteemed us, Lord.
You have looked at us, God.
And you have chosen.
You have counted us worthy.
You have counted the cost and you have found us worthy to die for, Lord.
We thank you for that.
Holy Spirit, I'm asking you that you would convince our hearts.
That you would convince our minds, Lord, of this.
Though it may feel like we are swimming against the current.
Though it may feel like we are going against all of church culture in this day and age.
Help us, Holy Spirit.
Give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation.
A spirit of knowledge, Lord, and understanding.
A spirit of the fear of the Lord, God, to walk this thing out.
We love you, Lord, and we bless you.
Holy Spirit, I'm asking you that you would...
that you would stir in the hearts of these people, Lord, as you've stirred in my heart.
Would you stir in their hearts, my God?
That they would live a life tucked away with you, Lord.
A life that you call great God.
You call this life great, Father, not just I, but you call this life great.
A life that is tucked away, unseen, for the human eye, but only you see God.
I'm asking you that you would stir our hearts to that.
May we pursue that.
May our hearts be stretched and our minds be stretched and lived by that God.
Help us in the places where there is weakness and things that we need to overcome
to be able to cultivate and develop this kind of lifestyle.
We love you and we bless you in Jesus' name. Amen.
Pastor, you want to say anything or can I dismiss him?
We'll give you a minute.
Usually you're not here, so I don't ask that.
But I'm esteeming you, brother.
I'm esteeming you, brother.
One minute.
I just want to give you something that he just gave me. I've never seen this before.
Let's talk about it.
Matthew 7, 21, he jumped me over here.
When you were in Matthew 5, he jumped me over here.
The big question is, and you touched it, so that cued this verse in my mind, so I went to read it.
Then I will declare to them, I never knew you.
Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.
Does he know us?
Well, the question is, how do we know if he knows us?
Well, an easy answer to that is, do you know him?
That would be, how do I know if Richard knows me?
Why know Richard?
And if I know Richard, Richard knows me.
But he pointed something out here. I never saw this before.
Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, verse 21, shall enter the kingdom of heaven,
but he who does the will of my father.
So there's a stipulation to getting to heaven, which is doing his will.
Then you've got the defense in verse 22, which doesn't amount to anything.
And then verse 23, and then he will, then I will declare to them, I never knew you.
So you're not going to get into heaven of verse 21.
I never knew you.
You who practice lawlessness.
Verse 21, the person who gets into heaven is the one who does his will.
The person he doesn't know, verse 23, is the one who is doing their own thing.
Lawlessness.
So if we're not obeying him, he doesn't know us.
I've never seen that before.
It's interesting.
Just food for thought.
Food for thought.
Which goes along with, while I was gone, the Lord asked me a question.
Did you make the right choice?
This was something I asked.
The word believe in John 3, where it says,
Nicodemus came and said, what must I do to have eternal life?
And Jesus said, you need to believe in me.
That word believe is the exact same Greek word used in James where he says the demons believe and tremble.
And I spoke on this a while back and I didn't touch that part because I didn't have an answer for that.
But why would God use the same word believe?
This is how you get to heaven, Nicodemus.
When the demons are doing that and they're not going.
Why wouldn't he, I expected James to have a different word, different Greek word for believe, not the same one.
That had bothered me the whole way through.
It's like, I don't get it.
Because if we get to heaven by believing, and of course that's what opens the door, is our believing.
If we get to heaven, but people are putting all their marbles in that basket saying, well I believe in God so I'm going to heaven.
Well, the demons believe in God, same Greek word, they're not going.
So why are you going and they're not going? Is God unjust? Is he unfair?
He answered that question.
This, when I was up north, thinking about being here in a good service.
But I'm up north being faithful to what he asked me to do.
That's why I'm never here.
Should we dismiss them?
He said, he asked me this question.
He said, do you know what the difference is between your belief, speaking to me, your belief and demons' belief?
I said, I don't.
He said, your belief produces submission and obedience.
There's does not.
Which is exactly what he just said in Matthew 7.
If you will obey me, do my will.
You'll go to heaven.
Verse 23, the people, I don't even know these people, are the ones who chose not to obey him.
They still could believe in him.
Verse 22, well, but we cast out demons and we prophesied and they believed in him.
He said, I don't even know who you are. I don't care how many demons you cast out.
The disqualifier was, you didn't do what I asked you to do. You lived your own law. You were lawless to me.
Would you then say that that happens when we're tucked away with him?
And not corporately and publicly? Because that's where it starts?
That's where it's decided is right there.