We are getting back into the series of lowliness of mind.
How many of you were here for the first five parts of the series?
So a majority of you. Okay, excellent.
If you were not, I would strongly encourage you to go and listen to the series again for many reasons.
For many, many reasons. And you'll hear just a few of them today.
But we're gonna get back into it, but I'm gonna...
We're getting back into the series, but I'm taking a slightly different...
I'd call it like the phase two of the series.
What I want to do here for the next few Sundays that we have until Thanksgiving comes up,
until Christmas comes up, for the next few Sundays,
Pastor has allowed me to get back into it.
And I'm gonna call it like the phase two.
You don't guys don't have to quote that on the...
How are you gonna document it for the...
Our online stuff? It can just still be lowly.
This is more for Kevin than for anybody.
But anyway, sorry about that, wow.
But I'm gonna call this more of like the phase two of the series.
And the reason why I'm calling it more so of the phase two of the series,
is I actually for the next few Sundays,
I want to walk through the life of Jesus with you guys, through the scriptures.
And I want to show you, I want to stress the fact that lowliness of mind
is not something that Jesus did or does.
But lowliness of mind or to be lowly is actually the nature of our God.
It's not just something that he does.
The Lord doesn't just choose, well, I'm gonna be lowly here,
but I'm not gonna be lowly there.
In everything, in everything that the Lord does,
it's his nature to be lowly.
And so for these next few Sundays,
we're literally gonna start from the incarnation of God.
And we're gonna walk through his life to the point of even death
and even his resurrection.
So, I hope you're as excited as I am,
because I'm super excited.
I want to give you just a quick overview of what the first five parts were.
This whole series is based out of Philippians 2, starting at verse 1 to 11.
That's where it's literally, this is the foundational scripture
to the series of lowliness of mind.
Because in those 11 verses, we see the apostle Paul
just writing some magnificent depth in so many aspects.
I mean, it's just, it's wonderful.
I've been sitting on Philippians 2 for a long time.
For a long, long time.
So, a few things that we covered in the first five parts
was that lowliness of mind is actually the blueprint of the end time revival.
Do you guys remember that?
I talked about that in one of the parts.
To be lowly is literally think of it as like the blueprint.
That's like the architect's name
or that's like the contractor's name.
And everything within it falls under being lowly.
So, lowliness of mind is literally the blueprint of the end time revival.
And I will even say this with confidence.
That you're going to see this topic of lowliness
actually expand, listen to me, okay?
You're actually going to see this topic
and this theme of lowliness of mind
actually expand in other churches.
Those that are living churches, those that are spirit filled,
Holy Ghost, Jesus, loving churches,
you're going to see this theme begin to unravel as the days go ahead.
Just mark my words. Seriously.
You guys are going to watch it as I've been watching it unfold.
Lowliness of mind has to do more with the inner man
than it does with the outer man.
It has to do with the way that we perceive things.
It has to do with the way that we posture our hearts.
It has to do with our inner man rather than our outer man.
And I even gave this example and this is literally a true story.
Some of the lowliest people that I know in life
that are very dear and very close to me
that I call my friends, they're dear to me.
Some of the most lowliest people are multi-millionaires.
It has nothing to do with the car you drive,
the house you live in, the clothes you wear.
It has nothing to do with that.
It has, I should say, very little to do with that.
But you can be such a lowly person,
yet make millions, yet have a successful business,
yet have all these things, because they don't rule you,
because Jesus is your king.
Lowliness of mind actually brings us into a friendship with the Lord.
That's huge.
Lowliness to be of a lowly mind and to live a lowly life
naturally brings us into a friendship with the Lord.
It just naturally does.
Because there's many people that claim,
well, Jesus is my friend,
but the question I always like to ask,
well, does the Lord call you his friend?
And automatically people say, well, yeah, the scriptures do,
but it's like, you got to really look at the scriptures
and you got to really understand who the Lord calls his friends.
And the greatest example we have is John the Baptist.
John the Baptist models to us what it means
to be a friend of the Lord.
To be lowly is to catch the attention of the Lord.
The scriptures say, this is what Mary said,
the mother of Jesus, that you regard the lowly Lord.
And she's singing her song and she says,
you regard the lowly.
So living a life of lowliness or walking in a lowly mind,
we actually attract the Lord.
We capture his attention.
And this is out of Isaiah 66-2.
I talked about that as well.
And then the last thing I just want to say,
oh, I already said that, that the Lord regards the lowly.
See, you get ahead of your notes.
Can you put up the slide that I asked you guys to?
This is the definition, the Greek definition of lowliness of mind.
And I've been hammering at this and basically read it almost there.
I think there's only one Sunday I did not read this definition,
the Greek definition of what lowliness is.
And I'm going to read it here again.
And then we're going to have Miss Sally come up here.
And Miss Sally is going to preach a little bit to us here.
I'm telling you, a woman of God.
Let me read this.
This virtue, a fruit of the gospel,
exists when a person through most genuine self-evaluation
deems himself worthless.
It involves evaluating ourselves as small because we are so.
The humble person is not stressing his sinfulness,
but his creaturelessness of absolute dependence
of possessing nothing and of receiving all things from God.
That is the definition, the Greek definition of lowliness.
And I share this, Miss Sally, you can come up here.
While you're coming up here, I'll share this.
I share this in one of the parts.
I think it was towards the beginning of the series.
I said, we are worthless without Christ.
We are literally worthless without Christ.
And I even said this, I said, if we can...
Let me just say this real quick.
There is some revelations of the Lord that you cannot teach,
but you have to catch them.
There is literally some things of God that you cannot teach.
You have to catch them by the Spirit.
And if we could catch the revelation that Jesus found me worthy
to die for, that should be enough for us.
If we can catch that, your life will change.
I promise you, it will change.
Miss Sally, do you want the pulpit?
Or are you good here?
Yeah, why don't you come up here?
You sure can.
I would love to.
I will help you get down.
Is your husband okay?
Tell me.
Your husband is watching. Is that okay?
Okay.
I'm older than you.
I know, but still, you know, I don't want Ken to be jealous
that I just held your hand.
Here you go.
I'll move this. I'll move my notes.
Why was going to read those?
Pretty good.
He endures me.
I didn't say adore. I said endure.
Okay, I didn't say adore. I said endure.
Just in case they missed it.
You know, this was during my quiet time, October 22nd.
My quiet time with the Lord is never quiet actually,
but you should, you know, say that so people know what happened.
But it was basically a dialogue.
I was asking, and then he'd answer, which is how it's, you know, back and forth.
But these are things. This is what the Lord said to me.
And I got so excited that I contacted my pastor.
My pastor.
Can I tell him that?
I call him Pastor Honey Igor.
But he...
Like, now why I'm up here.
These are the things. And this is serious.
I'm all kidding aside.
And here it was what he said.
There are things that cannot be understood or comprehended except by the Holy Spirit.
He moves and works supernaturally.
He works from the inside, from within,
building a foundation of godly character,
which must be in place to be able you to handle
and to be entrusted with the plans and purposes of God for you.
So then I had some dialogue.
Then this is what...
A lot of this isn't new to you. I know that.
But it's a good reminder.
There are gifts and there is the fruit of the Spirit.
Gifts can be instant.
And even if your life is not a hundred percent,
the gift is still there.
The fruit, however, must be developed.
As it is not an instant trait,
you must be and you must stay connected to the vine
if you're going to bring forth godly fruit.
Only the life being lived going low
will have the strength and the necessary gifts of the Spirit
to be able to function in and walk in
the protection, the power, and the anointing needed
to endure the pressure of the things that will be coming.
Without it.
This is why Jesus always went low.
To go low, we need godly character
and the leading of the Holy Spirit
within to freely follow in his footsteps
unafraid and prepared.
Don't be nervous. There's only two pages.
We know this.
God is love.
And love is the main fruit of the Spirit.
To walk in the Spirit is to live the love lifestyle.
When you have the...
Now this was both Igor and I picked up on this
because this is what he said.
When you have the royal law of love
operating unconditionally in your life,
when this is the governing factor
upon which your life is based,
you will not need a long list of do's and don'ts.
Love always goes low.
All the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit
is supernatural.
Everything man makes, this I thought was very interesting.
Everything man makes is made from things that are dead.
Everything that man makes
is made from things that are dead.
This is referring to works.
Seeking to produce the fruit in your own life
by works leads only to dead works and dead things.
When God, by His Holy Spirit, builds within you His fruit,
there is always life.
Fruit is developed only as you are connected to the vine
surrounded and submitted.
These gifts manifest in those who are strong
spiritually with no compromise.
There is a compelling love that takes us out of our own safe zone,
safe zone, and causes us to move out into the will of God
on assignment that He is leading us to be involved in.
The end-time church will show this love
and walk in the supernatural.
Faith works by love, by God's character,
when we manifest the fruit of the Spirit,
we manifest God's life within us.
And this was very encouraging to me this last part.
It says, you will find going low is not just something that you do,
but you will find yourself becoming a follower of the one
who always chose to grow low.
So we talked about that for a while,
and, you know, he reminded me.
He said, read Isaiah 14 about Lucifer and the five,
I will, I will, I will, I will, I will.
And then I thought, you know, God has such a wonderful sense of humor.
He said, I have my own strategy.
I know how to deal with him.
And he said, that's why I called everyone that is mine,
our mind, to go low.
Hold the mic real quick. Yeah, we can give her a...
Yeah, that was wonderful. Yeah.
That's fine.
We're not honoring her, or I should say,
we're not just giving her the glory,
we're honoring her by giving God the glory.
It's okay to clap in churches, just letting you guys know.
But stay up here just for a second,
because when you and I were on the phone,
this is what I really wanted the people to catch
when you were talking to me on Friday, right?
We talked on Thursday. It's the 22nd,
because I called you right after I got it.
I was wired. Yeah.
You said something, you said something
that caught the attention of my spirit.
You said, because I feel like our people need to hear this,
you said that going low is actually
for our protection. It is.
Can you elaborate just a little bit on that,
of what the Lord was dropping in you
as he was talking to you about that?
We will need that, we will need that,
because God does know the strategy of the enemy.
And not to want to sound doom and gloom,
but we are going to go into some pretty hard times.
And so you are saying...
Go ahead.
It's like when he showed me the blood of Jesus.
We plead the blood of Jesus.
We apply the blood of Jesus to our families and this.
That is our...
That's our battle equipment.
That is our armor.
And it looks just like
we are covered with him,
but to the enemy when he looks at us,
he sees shining armor.
He sees the reflection.
He doesn't want to mess with it.
So this going low
is where our protection will be.
When we try to seek the high place,
we encounter all kinds of opposition.
Unless you are...
You've got to be spiritually strong.
You've got to know God's word, first of all.
You've got to know it. You've got to know him.
He is the word.
But it is the protection.
For the church in the days ahead.
Now and even in the days ahead.
Well, it's starting right now.
And anybody who isn't aware
that we are in a time of transition,
things are not as they used to be.
Only he knows...
He has a timeline.
Only God has the timeline.
We can have our suppositions and our ideas
and talk about them.
We've got to shut up the media.
Don't listen to them.
They're walking around in circles.
They're the blind leading the blind.
But you don't want to go,
ooh, this is awful. We're going to perish.
No. For such a time as this, we're here.
Why do you think we're here?
Why do you think God's let me live
to be this age? I love it.
25, right?
Well, and a few more.
Okay. But we'll keep it at 25.
My youngest great-grandchild is that age.
Oh, wow.
So you must have had him really young.
Oh, I got married at 13.
I didn't really.
Thank you. Thank you.
Anything else you want to say before I help you down the stairs?
Oh, yeah, you told me. Otherwise, I'll be up here with you.
I can go sit down. I can go sit down.
Thank you. Let me help you out here.
I will let you...
He endures. He does.
Isn't Sally and Ken just wonderful?
And don't we love him in our church?
Here, let me hold this for you.
See? Look at that.
Praise the Lord. Multi-tasking.
Ken, there is an adult moment at home, is there?
I want to... I want to pray
before we get into today's message.
But I want to...
I want to do something a little bit different.
And honestly, it's even a little bit uncomfortable for me.
But as a few weeks ago, my wife and I,
we went with our family down to Florida
and we had our family vacation, which was wonderful.
And it's amazing. As soon as we left Minnesota,
it's like being in a different state.
I don't even know if it was maybe just like full rest,
but God just started dropping things in my spirit.
I wasn't even like, you know, pressing in or anything.
The Lord just boop, just dropping things.
And I'm like, wow, that's what happens when you leave.
But the Lord dropped something in my spirit
that I was like, Lord, I don't feel as comfortable doing this
because I just... I don't know.
Maybe it's my background of coming from a religious church
and they would do this a lot.
But I really felt like in it, the Lord wants us to do something.
Now, this is completely voluntary.
I'm not telling you you have to do this.
But the Lord spoke this to me.
And it was out of Romans 829.
And I'm going to read it.
In Romans 829, it says this.
For whom he foreknew, this is who God,
for whom he foreknew, he also predestined
to be conformed to the image of his son
that he might be the first born among many brethren.
And what the Lord dropped in my spirit,
he said, I want you to do this.
And he said, you make it voluntary.
And you don't have to do it right now.
I'll let you know when.
But he said, I want you to invite anybody who wants to stand up.
And he said, as you're in the second phase
of the lowliness of mind,
he said, I want you to pray this scripture
over us as a congregation
that the Holy Spirit would supernaturally conform us
into the image of Christ.
And here's where I really got uncomfortable.
And this is why, because the religious church
that years, years, years ago
is that the Lord said,
I want you to ask them to repeat after you.
He said, you pray and let them repeat after you.
I said, Lord, they can pray on their own, God.
So I'm going to ask you,
if that bears witness with you,
if you want to truly,
truly, if you want to be conformed
into the image of Christ
as the bride that takes up the name of a husband
and loses her identity
and takes the identity of her bridegroom,
I'm going to ask you if you can stand this morning
and don't feel, if it doesn't bear witness with you,
it doesn't bear witness with you.
There's absolutely no judgment in this place, honestly.
And I want to pray, and I would just like for you guys
as a congregation to pray with me
as I lead us in prayer.
Can we do that?
Father, we thank you.
For your son,
we thank you
that your son died for us.
Father, we thank you
for your precious Holy Spirit
that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit
and he moves in us
and he dwells in us
and he does as he pleases.
And Father, we're asking you
that as we walk through the life of your son Jesus
and we see the very nature
of our lowly king
that you would conform us
that you would conform us, Lord
into the image of your son Jesus
that we would be a bride
that would take the identity
of her husband, of her bridegroom,
Jesus Christ. Amen.
Thank you. Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord. If you have your scriptures
open up to Genesis 1.
Genesis 1.
I'm going to be doing some reading. I may stop here and there.
But I really believe that supernaturally
I don't even have an answer
of how he's going to do it.
But I just first thing that comes to me
is going to be supernatural. The Lord is going to do something.
It seems like such a cliche thing to say. Let me reword that.
The Lord is already doing something
special in this house.
I can recognize it and I've recognized it
since my wife and I have come here
which was exactly a year ago
that we officially started coming here
regularly.
We recognize then that the Lord is doing something
very special in this house.
But I really believe that as we
behold the Lord in these next few Sundays
as we walk through the life of the Lord
and we behold him
I just believe that he's going to do something
very special in us internally.
He's going to do something special in us.
Individually, individually
yet when we come corporately
we're going to see it too.
Genesis 1
is a chapter that we all know
in the Bible so well.
But I'm reading it here for a reason
and we'll see how many verses I read.
There's technically 31 verses here.
But I'm just going to read through it
because I'm trying to emphasize something to you here
because I want to show you
the life of the Lord
and I want to show you something
that we oftentimes overlook
or take for granted.
We don't give enough attention to it
because we've been taught since we just came
to church, since we just came to the Lord
in Sunday school growing up
our parents taught us in the beginning
the earth was out void
and we go down it.
So when I read it, please don't take it monotone
or don't take it like, oh man, this again.
But I'm trying to draw your attention
to something here.
But here in Genesis it says,
in the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth.
Let me pause there.
See, I'm already pausing.
I want you to pay attention to God.
How many of you know
that God is three in one?
God the Father
God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
Okay.
In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth
and the earth was without form
and void.
And darkness was over the face
of the deep
and the spirit of God
was hovering over the face
of the waters.
Then God said, let there be light
and there was light
and God saw the light
that it was good
and God divided the light from the darkness
and God called the light day
and the darkness he called night.
So the evening and the morning
were the first day.
Then God said, let there be
if somebody help me with that word.
Firmament.
See, firmament.
In the midst of the waters
I should give somebody else the mic to read this.
And let it divide
the waters from the waters.
Thus God made the firmament
and divided the waters
which were under the firmament
from the waters
which was above
the firmament.
And God called
the heaven
so the evening and the morning
were the second day. Then God said,
let the waters under the heavens
be gathered together
into one place
and let the dry land appear
and it was so. And God
called the dry land earth
and the gathering together of the waters
he called the seas. And God
saw that it was good. Then God said,
let the earth bring forth
then God said, let the earth
bring forth
grass and herb that yield
seed and the fruit
tree that yields fruit
according to its kind. Let me go down here
a little bit to verse 14.
Then God said, let there be lights
in the firmament of the heavens
and divide the day from the night.
I'm going to go to jump to verse 16. I'm just trying to
catch some things here for you. Verse 16.
Then God made two great
lights. Let's jump down
to verse 20. I just kind of want to skim through this
because I want to stress something to you here.
Verse 20. Then God
then God said,
let the waters abound
in abundance of living creatures
and let birds fly
above the earth across the face
of the firmament.
So God
created the great sea creatures and living
things that move about.
Verse 24.
Then God said, let the earth bring forth
the living creatures.
Verse 25. And God
made the beast of the earth
according to its kind.
Verse 26.
Then God said, let us make
man.
Then God said, let
us make man
in our own image
according
to our likeness.
I want you to pay attention
to a few words here.
It says, then God said, let us
it's plural.
It's plural.
That means that in the
that in the process
of our God, the Genesis
one God, in the process
of our God creating
earth and creating humanity,
creating creatures,
creating all things that we see, trees,
waters, everything. It's plural.
There was more than just one God
or when I'm saying one God, it was
more than just God the Father.
I want you to catch that.
I want you to understand that.
Then God said, let
us make
man in our own image
according to
our likeness.
Let them have dominion over the fish
of the sea, over the birds of the air
and over the cattle, over all the earth
and over every creeping thing
that creeps on the earth.
So God created man.
God created
man.
In his own image, in the image
of God, he created him.
Male and female.
No in between. Did you hear me? No in between.
Male and female, he created them.
Then God
blessed them and God said to them
be fruitful and multiply.
Here's what I want to stress.
Go back to verse 26 and just leave it up there
of where God creates man. Let us.
Here's what I want to stress.
Because we've so often
heard the creation
of the world.
Because we've so often
read it. An autopilot.
Because we've so often heard
our parents talk about it. Our Sunday
school teachers teaching us on
and so forth. We miss
a thing that I believe
a lot of people are missing
in the church is that
the God,
the Genesis one God
that created
earth
is actually the same God
that then was
incarnated
and came down
into his own creation.
You need to catch this.
The God that
spoke all things
into existence. This is the same God.
God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit.
This is the same God
that had the authority, had the ability.
This is the ancient of days
friends. This is
the God that was before
time is. This
is the God that creates
all things and then
the same God decides
to go low
and be incarnated
and step into his creation.
That's
the God we serve.
I said that's the God that we serve.
Hell, yeah.
He is not a God that is
too good. He is not a God
that is so high
that he's unreachable. But
in this, in this, the
loneliness, the nature of our
God, since Genesis,
since the first
few words we read in the
scriptures, we find out
that the God that actually spoke
and created me, that gave
me breath, now
chose. You need to understand
this. He chose
because of his lowly nature.
He chose now to step
in to the creation that he created.
And
more than that, I'm going to go ahead on my notes a little
bit, more than that, this
God right here, the Genesis
one God that we oftentimes read about
and we're like, oh, that's cool. This
God right here, the Genesis one God
not only does he step
in to his creation as
a lowly nature that he is
or of the lowly nature that he is, but
this is the same God that actually
allowed the creation
that he created. He allowed them
to crucify him.
Yeah.
Imagine creating something.
Imagine having the ability. Yes, we have the ability
to procreate and have children. Praise
the Lord. Praise the Lord.
But imagine creating something
and then allowing
that creation to
crucify you.
Yeah.
Now that's lowly.
I said, no, that's
lowly.
We're talking about a God
that sits high above
space. We're talking about a God
that knows the name of every star.
This is the God I'm talking about friends.
This is the Genesis one God.
We're talking about a God
that has the ability in the
lap of a finger to take the breath
that you have in your lungs to literally
take it away from you. Why? Because he has the right
to do it. We're talking
about that God.
We're talking about a God
that saw everything.
He saw the waters as they split.
He saw the day. He saw the night.
He was there. He was in the participation
of creating it and
now this God by his
lowly nature and his lowly character
comes down into it.
See now
that's lowly.
We have kings.
We have priests.
We have presidents.
Let me even just say this. We have pastors
and churches that don't even approach
their own congregation because they
feel they are better than.
But we have
a God
that makes all these things
higher than the heavens.
He could have anything he wants.
He's God.
He could have chose to do
something else. But because he's lowly.
Because he's lowly.
He said I'm going to step into my creation
that I made.
Friends, this is the God that I'm talking
about to you today. This is Jesus.
This is our Lord.
This is our Bridegroom.
This is our Savior.
You see as
studying the life of Jesus for
a few years now as studying the life
of the Lord. There is a pattern
that I noticed
and I noticed that even more
after I began to really hone in
and study the lowly, the nature
of God that is lowly.
And I saw this pattern.
I saw this pattern
in the Lord's life. And pay attention
to it when you're reading the Gospel
and you're reading about the life of Jesus.
Pay attention to this.
Everything that the Lord did.
He constantly was going low.
Constantly.
Every decision that
Jesus was making was of a lowly
mind. He was going low with everything
he was doing. From the way that he came
into creation, the way that
he stepped into his own creation was
the beginning of him literally
expressing and
showing his lowly nature.
From that moment,
from the time that Jesus was
incarnated, that God was
incarnated, a man among us.
The word becoming flesh
in the beginning was the word
and the word was with God and the word
was God. The word
Jesus. From the moment
that he came into the world
every decision he made
was to go low.
And in the scriptures
it says that they came to the Lord
the Greeks, the Pharisees, all these
people, they came to the Lord and they said
give us a sign. Show us a
miracle, oh God. Show us
rabbi. Show us something
that would entertain us.
Show us something that would flatter us.
Do you know what the Lord replied to them?
He said
you're a wicked and evil generation.
He said you're a
wicked and evil generation.
And he says the only sign that you will
get is the sign of Jonah.
Now
in that statement
the Lord makes
a very deep statement if you
actually know the life of Jonah.
I heard somebody
say this
and it expanded my revelation. I said
wow!
But if you look at the life of Jonah
this is why Jesus makes that statement.
This is why Jesus says no miracle
no sign. The only sign
you'll get is the sign of Jonah.
Because if you actually look and study the life
of Jonah everything that
Jonah did was going
down. Let me give you an example.
A great prophet
God speaks to him and says go
and talk to Nineveh
and tell them it's time to repent.
What does Jonah do?
He goes from the town. The Scripture
says if you don't believe me open up Jonah
and just start reading from chapter 1.
What does Jonah do? It says he goes from the town
down to the
dock. Listen. Down
to the dock.
From the dock down
to the boat.
In the boat down
to the depths of the boat.
A storm
arises. They cast
him off. What happens? Jonah
falls into the deep
sea and he goes down.
More than that
the Scripture says a great fish
God commands a great fish
to swallow Jonah.
And what does the fish do?
The Scripture says the fish goes
down to the depths
of Sheol.
And some Jewish
let's just call them this. Some Jewish
scholars actually argue
and say that Jonah actually
died.
They say that Jonah actually died
and when the fish vomited him out
that was the resurrection of Jonah.
So the Lord makes
a statement because here these people
are crowding him and they're coming around
him and they're saying give us a sign.
If you really are the Messiah, give us
a sign. Are you really the one that
the Father spoke about? Give us
a sign. Come on. Do a miracle.
Heal somebody. Give us this. Give us that.
And Jesus says you are a cruel
and wicked generation.
He says the only sign I will give you
is the sign of Jonah.
Can I tell you something?
We oftentimes
miss the Lord.
Because we're looking for
him up here where the Lord
is actually down here.
You didn't hear me.
I said you didn't hear me.
We have people
that are battling sicknesses.
People that have problems in their marriages.
People that have issues in their families.
We have people with all sorts
of baggage. And we think
if I go to the right
conference. And if the right
person prays for me. If the right
person lays his hands on me
then I'll be healed where the Lord
is saying hold on a second.
But I'm right here.
Come to me. All who are weary.
Come to me.
I'm in the low places.
I'm not saying that God doesn't
come to conferences. And I'm not
bashing conferences. I
want you to understand how
evil and cruel our
generation is.
We are
looking for things. And we are
looking for the Lord in these
realms. Where our Lord is
lowly.
He's very lowly.
And he's
so lowly that he would all
he would make is the statement. He says
I'm not going to give you anything but the sign of Jonah.
That's it. You want to find
me? That's where I am.
I'm low.
And we have church services.
And we have lives friends. I'm talking
to us. I'm making this personal.
Because I fall into the same
category. We
miss the Lord more often
than we actually think we don't.
I said we miss the Lord on a
day to day basis in a 24
hour time span. We
actually miss the Lord
more than we think we don't.
We miss him.
He goes over our head.
His voice goes over us.
His presence goes over
us. And then we scream and we
shout and we pout. God
why aren't you here? Why aren't
you hearing me? God says you're
missing me. You don't know my nature.
I'm a very lowly God.
I'm very
lowly. And you will find
me in the low places.
You will find me in places
where nobody wants to
seek me in.
You will see my
face in places that nobody
is even looking.
Oh, he's lowly.
We have a generation of
people.
Hear me here. Hear me here
correctly because I'm not against
these things. I'm not against these things.
But we have people in our
generation. Not just my
generation, but in the older generation.
We run to conferences
and we run for pastors to lay
hands on us before we go
and tuck ourselves away to be with the Lord.
We have a generation that
has become so cultured
of them being fed from a
pulpit when it comes to actually
seeking him.
That's tough.
You're telling me that I have to go
and I got to actually go study the scriptures?
Yes.
You know it's not just
a pastor's job to study the scriptures
and feed you from a spoon.
I've shared this. Let me share this again because it just falls into this.
I've shared this before if you remember.
Years ago
I had like this image
and the Lord gave us in our ministry
some years ago. The Lord gave us a sneak peek of this.
But years ago
let me say it this way.
I long to see the day
that every
every individual that comes
on a Sunday service
comes with oil. It can be very little
but comes with oil and breaks
stellar basher jars and ministers
onto the Lord.
Listen to me. Listen to me.
Do you know why I long to see that day?
Because the type of presence that will come
when every individual in every church
does that, the Lord's going to come in a way
that we've never even imagined.
We saw a sneak peek of it.
Nobody even had to pray for one another.
The Lord was doing everything.
Nobody had to lay hands on people
when people were being delivered.
It was so easy.
It was so wonderful.
So we have a generation that's been so
cultured in being fed
with a spoon from the pulpit.
And if you look at it,
it's not bad. Us pastors are supposed
to teach, equip.
It's scriptural. It is scriptural.
But we can go
deeper.
We can go some places
corporately
if we seek him
individually.
Did you hear me?
We can go
some places very deep
in the Lord. And when I say deep
I'm saying lowly.
We can go
to some deep things in the Lord
if we
actually seek the Lord
individually.
But it's
inconvenient.
Igor, you don't understand my schedule.
You don't understand what I've been
through, Igor. I don't understand.
But you know who does? Jesus does.
Igor, you don't
you just, you don't know
what I've been through.
You grew up in a family and da-da-da.
I didn't have a mom and dad. Hey, I understand.
But the Lord understands you.
How long
are we going to make excuses of our traumas?
Let me go somewhere
here. Because follow me here. Let me go somewhere here.
How long
are we going to hold the crutch
underneath us?
How long are we going to do that?
Does not the Scripture says
that his blood paid for all of it?
Does not the Bible tell
us that he paid for everything?
Yes.
You don't have to hold
the crutch underneath you anymore. You don't.
But Igor, I'm going to fall. That's okay.
Proverbs says a righteous man falls
and he gets back up.
That's okay if you fall.
Can I be real with you?
For you to actually move forward,
you're going to find yourself falling flat
on your face.
Ever seen a child learn to walk?
Boom!
Mom runs up.
Get up.
That's the truth.
And we're afraid to let go of a crutch
because I'm going to fall.
But that's okay. You can get back up.
And the Lord is going to help you get back up.
Luke chapter 1
verse 26.
Is this good for you so far?
Luke chapter 1
verse 26.
We're starting.
So we talked about the incarnation of God.
The Lord, the Genesis 1 God
who literally
came to earth.
We already see his lowliness.
Do we not?
Do we not already see the lowliness of God?
That the God that actually created the heavens
and the earth is the same God
that now steps into his creation.
Now listen to this.
Luke chapter 1 verse 26.
Let me find my place here.
Now in the sixth month
an angel Gabriel was sent
by God to the city of Galilee.
We're going to read all the way up to verse 38.
Was sent by God to a city
of Galilee named Nazareth
to a virgin betrothed
to a man whose name was Joseph
of the house of David.
The virgin's name was Mary
and having come in
the angel said to her
rejoice
highly favored one.
Rejoice
highly favored one.
Do you remember from the
man I'm sweating. Do you remember
from the series I talked about
what the favor of the Lord is?
You guys remember that? That's how Isaiah 66.2
Mary a young
teenage girl
catches the attention of God
the Lord is with you
blessed are you among
young women. But when she
saw him she was troubled
at his saying and considered
what manner of greeting this was
then the angel said to her
do not be afraid Mary for
you have found favor with God
and behold you will conceive
in your womb and
bring forth a son
and shall call his name
Jesus. He will be great
and he will be called the son
of the highest and the Lord God
will give him the throne of
his father David and he
will reign over the house of Jacob
forever and of his kingdom
there will be no end and Mary
said to the angel how can this
be since I do not know a man
and the angel answered and said
to her the Holy Spirit will
come upon you and
the power of the highest
will overshadow you therefore
also that holy one
who is to be born will be called
Now, indeed, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age.
And this is now the sixth month of her who was called Barron.
For with God, nothing will be impossible.
And Mary said, Behold the maid servant of the Lord.
Let it be to me according to your word, and the angel departed from her.
Friends, not only did the Lord come lowly into his creation,
but again, we're going to see this pattern as we walk through the life of Jesus.
He continues to go low.
Now, pay attention to this.
A God that created that heavens and the earth had all the power.
This God could have chosen to have himself be born into a high royal family.
A family of a high status in society.
A family that is very wealthy.
A family that is very well known on and so forth.
But yet this God, in his lowliness, chooses a young...
Let's say she's 14.
The scholar says that she was a young teenager.
Let's just say she's 14.
He chooses a 14-year-old girl to be the mother of God.
Ah, you didn't catch it.
You didn't catch it.
Are you still with me?
Yes.
You're still with me?
Yes.
God could have chose a high and royal family.
He could have chose a woman in society that many looked at,
that many aspired to be, that many wanted to be like.
Yet God chooses out of all the women that he had to choose from.
He chooses a 14-year-old girl who's of a low status society.
She is basically a nobody.
And God chooses that young girl.
And he says, you're going to be the mother of my son.
You're going to hold him in your room for nine months.
You're going to carry him.
You're going to love him.
You're going to watch him grow.
You're going to watch him be hung on the cross.
You're going to watch him race from the dead.
And to that, the Lord doesn't even wait until Joseph and Mary get married.
The birth of Jesus was basically a scandal, if you really look at it.
The Lord didn't even wait for Joseph.
The scripture says they were betrothed.
They weren't even married yet.
They were streaming towards marriage.
It's the lowly nature of God.
To show his character.
To show his nature.
So he chooses Mary that is betrothed to Joseph.
Doesn't even wait for them to get married.
Joseph doesn't even partake in this act.
Sorry, Joseph.
By the Holy Spirit, conceived the Son of God.
That's lowly.
Joseph is technically a stepfather, is who he is to Jesus.
But you would think, you're God.
You're ancient of days.
You're the great I am.
You are before time is.
And you would have your son, not even have, you know, he has a stepfather.
There's any stepfathers in this house?
Props to you, man.
Props to you for raising a child that maybe was abandoned by somebody else.
By another father.
Seriously.
If you're a stepfather in this place, I honor you.
I really do.
Because you're raising somebody else's child.
That's Godly.
More than that, the Lord continues to go low.
Jesus is born from the tribe of Judah, is what the scriptures say.
In Hebrews, we read and we write that no high priest, because remember Jesus refers to himself,
or I should say the scriptures refer to Jesus as the high priest.
The scriptures tell us that no high priest came from the tribe of Judah.
Jesus could have been born from a tribe, you know, where all the priests were coming.
But because the Lord is lowly, the scriptures say,
did not the son of God come from the tribe of Judah?
Were technically, according to the Old Testament, no high priest ever came from.
In everything that he does, literally from the creation of the world,
of entering into the world, the birth of Jesus, everything he does is lowly.
The arrival of Jesus, though to some extent it was grand,
there was a huge star, people recognized it, they went and did it,
you know, they went and found it and they went and they worshiped Jesus.
Even in that, you would think, well that, you know, that really wasn't lowly, but it was.
But it was.
Because out of all places that the Lord could have been born, he was born in a manger.
And more than that, he was born among animals.
So you got to watch this, you got to, let me map this out, let me map this out.
God the Creator is lowly, creates the world.
That same God now steps into his creation.
And in the birth of his creation is born to a woman that is a virgin of a low status in society,
she's a nobody.
Betrothed to a man that is not even really royal, he's a carpenter.
He's a carpenter, he's a tradesman.
He's a tradesman.
He just built wood, he wasn't, he wasn't somebody that was a lawyer.
He wasn't somebody that sat high in the places where other men sat.
He is a carpenter.
His stepfather is a carpenter.
So the Lord, so the Lord comes in, Mary, the virgin, betrothed to Joseph, goes even lower.
Born in a manger among animals.
He wasn't in a fancy schmancy hospital that we have.
And if you don't think our hospitals are fancy here, you have not given birth back in the Soviet Union.
I'm going to be honest with you.
If you're like, our hospitals aren't that good here, go to Russia.
They'll slap you down on a metal table and say, push woman, push.
You ain't getting no epidural, you ain't getting nothing.
Woman, you better push.
And if you ain't pushing, you dying and the baby's dying with you.
The Lord goes low, born in a manger among the animals.
Now listen to this.
In a city of Bethlehem.
Has anybody ever done a study of the city of Bethlehem?
Let me tell you what it was because I did.
I'm glad I did because then I wouldn't know what I'm talking about.
Born in a manger amongst cattle, amongst animals.
Yet in the city of Bethlehem, that is a very small village.
It's actually a village that's not even known for like high people.
It's mostly populated by shepherds.
Which again, you look in their society at that time.
A shepherd, that was your bottom of the food chain, man.
Your bottom of the food chain, you're a shepherd, you're a farmer.
You're down here.
So our Lord wasn't even born in Jerusalem, so to say.
The capital, the high place.
Our Lord was born in a small city, very modest, ruled basically by shepherds.
It's low.
The Lord comes in and is born in that city.
Our Lord is lowly.
And everything he does is lowly.
And he continues.
He continues to go low and low and low.
You want to hear something else?
And we'll come to a close here.
Amongst all of this that we just saw.
At a young age, at the birth of Jesus.
He was sought to be murdered.
Now that's lowly.
You would think, well, maybe not until he grows up.
But even in his birth, the scriptures tell us he was sought to be killed.
He was sought to be killed.
The destiny that God the Father had was sought to be cut off by the enemy.
But the Lord went so low.
Listen to me.
We're going to come to an end here.
But the Lord went so low that the devil missed him.
I said, our Lord went so low that the devil missed him.
And the trap that the enemy set up ended up being the trap that the enemy himself stepped into.
And we see that in the life of Herod.
The guy that...
My goodness, my word, it's not coming to me.
The king at that time that tried to seek and kill Jesus.
The trap that he set up is basically the trap of death.
He stepped into and he died.
Friends, our Lord is lowly.
In everything he does.
And I'm just starting.
I'm just starting.
In everything he does, he goes low.
And he continues to go low.
And as the series progress, I'm going to show you more and more.
I'm going to stop there.
I don't want to go further than that because we're going to be here until one o'clock.
But friends, the nature of our Lord is very low.
And let me tell you this before we close with prayer.
If you want to find him, the scripture says,
Seek me with all of your heart and you shall find me.
If you want to find the Lord, stop looking for him in these high places.
If you want to find the Lord, if you want to seek him and you want to find him,
start looking for him where he actually is.
Do what nobody else is doing.
And can I tell you what nobody is doing right now?
Nobody is closing themselves and seeking the Lord on their own.
Nobody is doing it.
It's too inconvenient for us to close the door behind us and seek the Lord.
You want to find him?
Do what he says in Matthew 6.
Go to your room, close the door and pray to the Father in secret.
And you will find a lowly king.
You will find a God that is not too good for his creation.
You will find a God that is sympathetic with his creation.
A God that actually intercedes because he's been in our shoes before.
There is nothing that you have lived through that the Lord cannot understand.
Why? Because he's lowly.
He's been to places that we have not yet been.
Did you hear me?
I said he's been to places that we have not yet been.
Let me pray and then we can be dismissed.
Father, we thank you.
We thank you for your scriptures.
We thank you for who you are.
We thank you that you are a mighty counselor, a wonderful king, a lowly king.
Lord, we thank you that as we seek the scriptures, we will find you in places that we least expected we would.
And Father, I'm asking you that you would sear our hearts to recognize that the Genesis 1 God is the same God that stepped into his creation.
Sear our hearts with that, oh God.
Change our perspective.
Change our view.
Renew our minds, Lord, in the nature of who you are.
Let us see you, Lord.
Let us see you as the Holy Spirit sees you.
And enlighten our hearts, Holy Spirit.
Enlighten our hearts.
Put on the eye salve on our eyes that we would see rightly.
That we would see rightly.
Our lowly king.
Lord, we thank you.
We love you and we bless you.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.