Let me show you this picture. If you can look up on the screen, somebody sent me this this week and I was like, man, I don't even need to explain it. It's self-explanatory.
Like that is that is beautiful. It says the branch that bears the most fruit bows the lowest.
I was like, man, I feel like I just need to share that and I don't need to preach. I just like boom right there. We're done.
Drop the mic. We're done. It's a picture of a million words, honestly. And I just wanted to share that with you this morning.
But thank you, gentlemen. Thank you, Nathan. Grant, thank you gentlemen so much. We are back to the phase two of lowliness of mind.
Last Sunday we talked about, I should say, we started talking about the Lord and how he even created the world and how we see his nature of being lowly in that and even his birth and on and so forth.
And some of that stuff I want to touch today again, because I want to go a little bit deeper in some things. And my beautiful wife pointed out some things.
She said, man, you said this really good thing, but she said, you should really go a little deeper in that.
I was like, all right, honey, thank you for the correction. I received it.
But I want to quickly just explain again so that you guys are hearing this, that it's repetitive. Sometimes repetition is good, amen?
Sometimes you need to hear things over and over and over and over again until you get it, honestly. Maybe that's just me. Maybe it's just me.
But I want to say this. Why are we walking through the life of the Lord?
And why are we doing this? Why am I bringing you from the time that he created the world all the way to his birth?
The Genesis 1 God coming in the flesh, then growing up, then stepping into it. Why are we doing this?
And there's a few reasons. I want to stress and show you the nature of our Lord and how lowly he is.
The very lowliness of mind that our Lord literally walked in as he was here on earth, and even his creation.
But I also want us to know him. That's why we're walking through the life of the Lord.
I want us to know the Lord as a church, as a body.
You know, there's a difference to know the things of God, which I will say majority of Christianity, majority of born again believers.
They know things of God, but there is very few that actually know God.
And to know him, you got to know the nature of who he is, and not even just know them.
But then you got to measure yourself to those things and begin to walk as he walked.
That's when you can say, yeah, I know the Lord. I don't just know of him. I don't just know the things that he does, but I actually know the Lord's characteristic.
So I truly believe that supernaturally, I just feel it in my spirit, supernaturally as we're walking through the life of the Lord for these next few Sundays,
as we're walking through his life, what ends up happening is we actually end up beholding him.
Do you know what it means to behold? I talked about this the first time we were here at Open Heavens.
I'll give you the short version of it. To behold something is to be captivated by it and unmoved.
Like my wife was saying this morning, when she locks her eyes with the Lord, I've seen this actually.
Not kidding you, I've seen this. She will lock her eyes with the Lord and she's in prayer and you see my wife, she's rocking.
When she's in it, she's rocking, man. She's going at it.
And the boys will be jumping all over her and unmoved, unwavered, doesn't even react.
And I'm like, come on kids, let's go. And I'm pulling them away.
So to behold the Lord is to literally be caught up with him.
It's to be captured by him in such a way where nothing else matters.
Literally nothing else matters.
And I am believing that by the grace of the Holy Spirit, where I as a man am limited,
I'm believing that by the grace of the Holy Spirit, he will go deeper and he will cause you to behold the Lamb of God
that takes away the sins of the world. That's why we're walking through his life.
I want you to know him. I want you to know the Lord. I don't want you to know things of him.
I want you as your pastor. I want you to know Jesus.
The very nature of who he is.
And after we begin to behold him, that which we behold, we become.
Let me say that again.
That which we behold, we actually become.
Why does our modern-day church look so much like the world?
Because it's not beholding the Lamb.
That which we behold, we become.
So if we can behold the Lord as we're walking through his life, if we can behold him,
supernaturally, what occurs is exactly what I prayed last Sunday, Romans 829,
to conform us into the image of Christ.
If we can behold the Lord in the series and see that he's a very lowly God,
I promise you, you will begin to measure yourself.
You're looking at him and you're saying,
man, that's what it means to be lowly.
I got to change some things in my life.
Three months will go by, six months will go by, a year will go by,
and people will actually come up to you and people will tell you,
man, why are you, why do you look so much like Jesus?
Why are you so lowly?
Why are you the way that you are?
You're not even going to notice it, but supernaturally,
the Holy Spirit is going to conform you into the image of Christ.
You with me this morning?
That's why we're walking through his life.
I want us to behold him, measure ourselves to him in a sense of,
okay, Lord, you are lowly.
Let me measure myself onto you, not to each other, okay?
We shouldn't measure ourselves to each other.
Should we learn and glean and receive correction from one another?
Yes, but to begin to compare ourselves with one another,
we can fall into a snare of the devil.
We can fall into a trap of the devil.
If we begin to compare, oh, man, I'm not like Igor.
Snap. Oh, man, I'm not like Pastor Vern.
Oh, snap. Don't compare yourselves to us.
Compare yourself to the Lord.
Compare yourself to Jesus.
Measure your lowliness.
Am I lowly the way that my Lord was lowly?
And can I tell you something here real quick?
I want to underline this.
Lowliness to be lowly or to be of a lowly mind
is not a one-time thing.
It's not all of a sudden a light bulb goes off in your head
and you're like, all right, that's it. I'm lowly. Whoo-hoo.
Don't work that way.
And if it works that way for you, please, please teach me.
Maybe I should be sitting down
and you should be preaching and teaching.
But to be lowly is a constant decision that we make
day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year,
decade after decade. It is a choice.
What is lowliness our mind or what does it look like?
I encourage you to go back to the series
because I spoke a lot about this.
I encourage you to go back and listen to some of this stuff.
But in a nutshell, what does it look like to be lowly?
It is to die to yourself.
It is to lay aside what you desire.
It is to... Let me give you another little facet.
I feel like I need to give this to you.
Oftentimes, I told this to my wife and she goes,
oh, that's real good.
I said, all right, if my wife approves, this is good.
Oftentimes, we look at death to self
as giving up things that we desire, which it is.
It is. It's giving up things that I want.
I'm giving them up.
But what if I told you even the deeper realm
of death to self is dying to things of anxiety?
It's dying to things of fear?
It's dying to things of condemnation?
Because all those things can literally become our identity.
We oftentimes look at death to self as like,
well, I have to lay down all these good things.
But what about all these other things
that you're still holding on to?
What about this anxiety that you're still holding on to?
What about this thing that you're still holding on to, this fear?
What if that's also death to self?
And it is. But I'm just testing you.
So what does it look like?
It's denying myself.
It's choosing, Lord, this is not of you.
So I will not conform to this.
I will not go to this.
What is also lowliness?
It's being submissive.
It's submitting yourself onto the Lord first and foremost.
And then if you're a part of a church
or you're part of a house,
you're submitting yourself under the leadership.
You're pastors or whoever is over you.
It's submitting yourself.
Lowliness is constantly submitting yourself.
Lowliness is repentance.
It's repentance.
Pastor Vern told me this,
and I'm probably misquoting it,
so if he hears me, he can re-quote it.
But Brother Caseman told him this.
He said, a humble heart is a quick to repent heart.
I think I'm saying it right, Pastor.
If you hear me, you can correct me later.
Lowliness is being merciful.
So these are literally...
Think of it this way.
These are the behaviors of what it means to be lowly.
It's to constantly walking these things.
It's righteousness.
It's grace.
It's showing grace where grace...
I don't want to show grace there,
but I'm going low, so I'm going to show grace.
It's servanthood.
It's serving others when they don't deserve to be served.
That's lowly.
It is humility.
Kneakness.
All these things and many, many, many more.
But I also want to point out something that...
To live, or let me put it this way.
To live out lowliness.
So the Lord did this.
That's why I'm getting to it.
I'm getting to it.
Follow me here.
To live out lowliness
is to do exactly what James writes.
Let me read it to you here.
So you're understanding that I can elaborate from there.
This is James chapter 1 verse 20.
Let's start at verse 21.
This is what he writes.
If you have your Bibles,
who here has their physical Bibles this morning?
Hallelujah.
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
If you don't have a Bible and you need one,
we have Bibles free of charge.
Won't even charge you for it.
Freely I've received, freely I shall give.
Listen to what James writes.
He says,
Therefore lay aside all filthiness
and overflow of wickedness.
It's a choice we make.
We lay it aside. We cast it to the wayside.
And receive with meekness
the implanted Word which is able to save your souls.
And verse 22.
But be doers of the Word
and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
For if anyone is a hearer of the Word
and not a doer,
he is like a man observing his natural face in the mirror.
For he observes himself. This is verse 24.
For he observes himself,
goes away and immediately forgets
what kind of man he was.
Listen.
To live a life of lowliness,
or if you may be asking the question,
how do I know if I'm living the life of lowliness,
is when you actually begin,
I like to say this phrase,
when you actually begin to embody the Scriptures.
That's what James is saying.
That's how you know that you're actually living.
That's how you can measure yourself to the Word,
which is Christ.
Is am I embodying submission?
Am I embodying death to self?
Am I embodying grace?
Am I embodying mercy?
Am I embodying meekness?
All these things,
all these things that we see that Jesus embodied.
This is again, the Gospel of John.
In the beginning was the Word.
And the Word was with God.
In verse 14, and the Word...
Or I'm sorry, say it again.
Somebody quoted it.
And the Word was God.
Jesus embodied the very Word that the Father spoke.
It's not just for the Lord,
it's for us too.
If we are co-heirs with Christ,
it is for us too to embody now the Scriptures
and to walk them out.
And you have many people that will sit in a service.
They will say, amen, amen, amen.
That was a good message.
But they leave the service looking like a man
who looked at himself in the mirror,
said, man, I look good.
That was great.
Walks away and completely forgets what he even looks like.
That is friends.
Listen to me, listen to me.
And I say this with all grace.
I say this with all grace.
That is the majority of the body of Christ in our day and age.
That is a majority of the body of Christ in our day and age.
We will look at ourselves in the mirror.
We will listen to a message.
We will say, yes, that was good,
but yet we leave not embodying that which was taught,
which was preached, which is gold.
This right here, this right here, this is gold.
This is precious.
This is right here.
This is not a chore.
I've said this plenty of times.
Let me say it again.
This is not a chore of picking up your room
and cleaning up after yourself.
This is gold.
And this is life and life in abundance.
So you can know that you are actually walking a lowly life
when you begin to recognize
or when others begin to recognize
that you're actually embodying what the scriptures say.
You following me still?
Praise God.
Open up your Bibles to Colossians chapter 1, verse 15, 16.
I'm going to do a quick overview.
Colossians chapter 1, starting at verse 15.
Let me pray and then I'll read this.
Father, we thank you.
Father, we thank you for your word.
And this morning, Lord, we are measuring ourselves
not to a man, but to the man whose name is Jesus.
Lord, we come before you.
Humble, Lord.
Pour in spirit.
A contrite spirit trembling at your word.
Father, we thank you that you have entrusted us
with the things of you.
Help us this morning as a body corporately.
Father, I'm asking you.
Help us this morning by the Holy Spirit
to handle that which was given to us with care.
Though we would not throw these jewels to swine, Lord,
but we would handle it with care this morning, Lord.
I'm asking you.
We thank you, Lord, that you have already prepared our hearts.
I'm asking as the seed is being sowed this morning, Lord,
may it go deep, deep into us, Lord, deep into our hearts,
that it would take deep root
and that it would produce, Lord,
that it would produce in its season.
We thank you, Holy Spirit.
Jesus, we thank you.
We thank you for the eye salve, Lord.
We thank you for it.
Let us see.
Let us see you as you are.
Let us behold you as you are.
Help us, Holy Spirit, in that.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Colossians chapter 1, verse 15.
I'm doing a quick overview,
and then I'll kind of be bouncing into a few things.
But last Sunday we talked about,
I started literally from Genesis 1.
And I was stressing the image
or the scripture of the same God
that created the heavens and the earth
is now the same God that stepped into creation.
This is in Genesis 1.
Let us, let us make, let us make.
And he's creating all these things in the Father
and the Son and the Spirit is there.
And I just want to quickly read Colossians 1, verse 15 to 17.
Listen to this.
This is the apostle Paul talking about the Lord.
He's talking about Jesus.
He says, he is the image of the invisible God.
The firstborn over all creation.
Now here, catch this, what verse 16 says.
For by him, this is Jesus,
for by him all things were created
that are in heaven and that are on earth
visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities
or powers, all things were created through him
and for him.
All things were created through him
and for him.
That means, listen to me, listen to me.
Don't listen to the lies of the devil.
Even the devil was created by God.
I say that to say that often times we believe the lies of the devil
that he is far bigger, that he is this giant guy.
Friends, even the devil was created by God.
It is for him and through him Jesus Christ
that all things were created.
So I'm stressing this thing that the Genesis 1 God
that created all things.
All through him, all for him they were created.
This same God is the God that now comes into earth.
This is now the God that steps into his own creation.
This is now the God that allows his creation to crucify him.
That's lowly.
Friends, that's lowly.
I had a conversation with somebody.
This is years ago.
They were telling me how well every religion and this and that
and they're trying to prove their point in something.
And I asked this person because they were talking about how Buddhism is right.
How Muslims and all that stuff.
And they're naming off these different religions.
And I simply asked this person one question.
I said, tell me what other religion has a king
that stood up from his throne, came and died for his people
and rose from the dead to save him?
There ain't no other religion.
There is no other religion that the God of that religion stood up
said, I'm going to die for these people to redeem them
and then rise from there.
There is no other religion in the world.
You can't find it.
That talks about the lowliness of our God.
Our God is not too lofty or too high
but he is willing to meet us in a place where we least expect to meet him.
You got to catch this.
And I'm going to be stressing this as I go with this series.
We got to catch the idea that oftentimes God goes over our head
because we think that we got to find him in these high places
where God is saying, no, I am lowly
and I will meet you in the place where everybody else is saying
I'm not going to meet you, but I'll meet you there.
God will meet you in your filthiness
and by his mercy and his grace, he won't leave you there.
He will actually take you and he will bring you to a place
to cleanse you, to forgive you.
He will bring you to a place that is a higher call.
Don't think that Jesus is going to come and bathe with you in your sin.
That's not what he's doing.
Even when the Lord came, I'm getting ahead of my notes here,
but that's okay, even when the Lord came to sit with the sinners,
with the tax collectors, with the prostitutes, with the harlots,
with the nobodies, even when the Lord came to sit and dine with them,
the Lord was not sitting and indulging with them in the sin.
No, the Lord met them where they were at,
but then he said, now you've got to come up higher.
The Lord will meet us in the places where we least expect it.
Listen to me. I'm going to share with you a story.
I have a friend of mine, a very close friend.
This blew my mind. I'm like, what?
This friend of mine, he listens to heavy metal music,
Christian heavy metal music.
All of you are like, whoa, dude, you want to hear something crazy?
This friend of mine that listens to this heavy metal music,
he was sharing with me recently.
He said, man, he turned on a song and I played it for him,
and I'm like, dude, how do you listen to that?
Honestly. And he goes, man, he goes, I weep.
He goes, I weep when I listen to that.
And I'm like, what?
He says, man, he goes, I weep.
He goes, the Lord meets me and he goes, I weep.
The Lord meets me where I'm at.
And I weep when I listen to this.
And if you actually take away the type of music that comes through,
it's like, whoa.
I'm like, dude, but if you actually take that part away
and you listen just to the lyrics, wow.
I don't understand anything they're saying because it's, whoa.
I'm like, dude, our Lord is lowly, man.
He's lowly. He'll meet you where you're at.
He'll meet you where you're at, man. He will.
He really will meet you where you're at.
So here we have the God that creates all things Jesus.
He creates all things through him and for him.
We're all things made. This is again, Genesis one God.
Now come into earth.
Now this same God that comes to earth, I said this last Sunday.
This same God that comes to earth, if you study the life of Jesus,
everything, everything, I said everything that the Lord did
progressively cause them to go lower.
Every decision he made, every choice, everything that Jesus did,
he constantly went lower.
And he makes the statement when they came to him,
I quoted this last Sunday where the teachers of the law,
the scribes, all these fancy schmancy people, they came to him
and they're like, show us a sign, Lord. Give us a miracle.
And this is, by the way, after the Lord already did a bunch of stuff.
It's like, you know what's funny for me sometimes is that
I feel like we fall into that category and we don't realize it.
We don't realize that we as Christians sometimes want to be entertained
when we come to church.
We want to be entertained when we come to church.
If something exciting and exploding doesn't happen,
ah, church was boring today. Nobody fell over.
Nobody prayed in tongues.
But this is truth, friends. This is truth. I'm preaching to you.
We want to come to church sometimes and we want to be entertained.
I'm sorry, I'm not somebody here that's to entertain you.
Though I can say a joke here and there,
I am not here to entertain you, nor is pastor, nor is the Lord.
We're not here to be entertained, to be tickled in our ears.
When something doesn't happen, that's exploding.
We're like, yeah, God wasn't there.
And that's when I say we miss him.
That's when I say we miss him.
That's the problem in our charismatic and Pentecostal circles.
If something doesn't happen, that's exploding and exciting.
Ah, God wasn't there, man. Nobody shouted.
Nobody fell over. Nobody prayed in tongues out loud.
Nobody prophesied. God wasn't there.
We missed him. We missed him.
Because when he talks about the gifts of the Spirit,
those are the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
That's not who the Holy Spirit is.
Those are his gifts. He gives them.
Who he actually is is Galatians 5.
Those are the characteristics and the attributes of the Holy Spirit.
That's who he is. The Holy Spirit is gentle,
long suffering, kind, patient.
That's the characteristics of the Holy Spirit.
Now the gifts are the things that he does.
You following me?
So the Lord is very lowly,
and he constantly, progressively, throughout his whole life,
continued to go low.
Open up your Bibles to Matthew.
Let's go Matthew 11.
And I'm going to pause on something here,
because this is where my wife chimed in last Sunday.
I'm going to read Matthew 11 here.
Matthew 11 verses 28 to 29.
Listen to what the Lord says.
This is Jesus speaking.
He says,
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden.
And I will give you rest.
Then verse 29,
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
For he says, I am gentle and lowly in heart.
The Lord makes a statement.
He says, Come to me.
You've been heavy laden.
You've been working.
You've been, you've been seeking up here.
You've been doing all these things.
You've been running this way and running that way,
from conference to conference,
from one minister casting devils out of you
to another minister casting devils out of you.
To do in this, to do in that.
The Lord says, Come to me.
Come to me.
I am gentle and I am lowly.
If we would find and realize
that the Lord is found in the low places,
I'm not talking about geographically,
where you've got to go to the basement of your house
to find the Lord.
I'm not saying it's a geographical place,
but it's the nature of God.
It's in a general sense.
If we would go to the places
where it's, it's, we're alone with Him.
It can be in your car.
It can be in your basement.
It can be at your mama's house.
I don't care.
But the Lord is actually found in the lowly places.
The lowly places where nobody else is seeing you.
The lowly places where, where eyes are not peeled at you.
It's just you and Him.
He says, Come to me there.
Come to me there.
I am gentle.
Which means if you come there,
I'm not going to rebuke you and cast you away.
I am gentle.
I can care for you.
I know what you've been through.
Did you know that the Lord knows what you've been through?
Let me say that again.
Did you know that the Lord knows what you've been through?
That is why the scripture says He is the great intercessor.
He can sympathize with us.
He can have compassion and understand us in ways that your wife,
your husband, your mom, your dad, your kids will never understand.
But God says I can.
Why?
Because I'm lowly.
I've been in every place.
The Lord had the highs.
The Lord had the mediums and the Lord went low.
He can meet us anywhere you're at.
You see, and some of us have lived a life and we're thinking,
No, man, I'm too far gone, bro.
You don't know my life.
I am way too far gone.
Do you know what I can tell you?
You are simply believing alive the devil.
That's all I can tell you.
Can I tell you something else?
If you're believing that lie of the devil,
you're actually trampling the truth of the word of God
underneath your feet.
You're trampling what the cross actually is.
You're trampling the blood of the Lamb.
You're trampling the crucified flesh of Jesus.
When you're believing in saying I'm too far gone,
nobody understands.
You're misunderstanding who the Lord is.
Some of you are saying I'm never going to get healed.
I'm never going to get delivered.
I'm never going to have a restored marriage.
I'm never going to have kids.
And we use this word never again.
My wife said this morning,
there is life and death in our tongue.
There is literally life and death.
I can confess and say, yep, never, never, never, never.
Where the Lord is saying,
you're misunderstanding who I am.
You're missing my nature.
I am lowly by nature.
It's not just something that I do.
It's who I am.
And he says, come to me.
All who are weary and heavy laden,
I'm gentle.
And he says, I'm lowly.
He says, I'm lowly in heart.
The Lord makes a statement and he says who he is.
Now watch this, Matthew 25.
This is where I want to park maybe for a little bit.
We'll see how far we get today.
This is Matthew 25 starting at verse 31.
And this is very interesting because when you read this scripture,
what you find is actually talking about the end times.
It's talking about the judgment.
But I want to point out something here to you.
Starting at verse 31.
When the Son of man comes in his glory,
in all the holy angels with him,
then he will sit on the throne of his glory.
Verse 32.
All the nations will gather before him.
This means every individual.
Every individual will gather before him.
All the nations will gather before him.
And he will separate them one from another.
Now I want you to pay attention to this,
and I'm going to park here for a little bit.
Let me read that again.
He will separate them one from another.
As a shepherd divides his sheep from his goats.
So the Lord's going to come.
He's going to sit on the throne of his glory.
And he's literally going to separate who's a sheep and who's a goat.
It's interesting.
You ever noticed that the scriptures talk
and refer to us as the saints as the sheep?
You guys ever noticed that?
It always refers to those believers as sheep.
So I was like, oh, this is interesting, Lord.
I said bring me summer with this.
So the Lord began to bring me summer with it.
So you know what I did?
I did a study on the behaviors of sheep and goats.
Now I don't want you to walk away this morning
and say I'm never buying a goat again.
Because goat milk is good.
But listen to this.
Where is it here?
So I literally, I just did a quick study.
I didn't spend hours in it.
But you know, I spent a good enough time
where I'm like, all right, this is a good way to look at it.
Goats are very independent and curious.
Do you know what I thought of when I was doing this?
When I read that goats are very independent and curious?
They're prideful and curiosity.
It's playing with sin.
When one is independent, there is a sense of pride
that comes with it.
Don't help me.
I'm going to do it by myself, man.
I'm going to figure this out.
But bro, you're struggling.
No, no, no, man, I got this.
Bro, you're struggling.
Let me help you.
No, I got this.
I had somebody once tell me this.
This was some time ago.
Somebody once told me.
They said they were in a very deep place in their life.
Very low and ministering to them.
And they said, hey, bro, I don't need your help anymore.
I'm going to do this all by myself.
Do you know what I told this person?
I said, you've been struggling by yourself.
And now you're telling me that you're going to do this all by yourself?
Oftentimes, oftentimes what we do in our independency is we say,
nope, I'm going to figure this out all by myself.
You got to come around a body of people and have people pray with you
and pray for you.
Seriously, that's what the body is meant for.
So goats are very independent and they're very curious.
Prideful, playing with sin, curiosity.
What's that one saying?
Curiosity can kill a cat or something like that?
Am I saying it right?
See, my English is still good.
Goats follow their own way.
Oftentimes, when you see a goat herder or somebody who herds goats,
the goats aren't following the herder.
The herder is actually behind the goats.
Goats follow their own way.
They make their own choices.
This is a lack of denying ourselves and a lack of dying the self.
We think that we can do this.
We think that we can figure this out.
I'll do this, God. Just wait.
Let me figure this portion out.
I'll give you this part of my life,
but don't touch this part of my life,
because in this part of my life,
it's going to cause much inconvenience for me.
It's going to cause me to pray more, Lord.
Don't touch this part.
You can have that part.
That part's good.
It's easy to give away.
Goats are mischievous.
I likened it to gossipers, slanderous,
unrepentant, untruthful.
To be mischievous is to get somebody else in trouble
and walk away from it.
I see my kids do it all the time.
And happen in my house, man.
Crucifier flesh.
Browsers.
They browse. They walk.
Think of it this way.
Goats are constantly there.
They're very adventurous.
They're constantly looking for a way out.
It reminds me how often us Christians
walk the fine line of sin.
But if I have one beer, it's not that bad.
But if I watch this one movie or this one show,
it's not that bad.
Though they just blaspheme the name of God in that movie.
But it's not that bad, Lord.
I mean, come on.
Like, did you see the other movie that this actor was in?
He was like in a Christian movie.
So like, it's not that bad, Lord.
We like to browse.
Or I should say this way.
A goat likes to browse and see how far it can get
before it hurts itself.
Seriously.
And we as Christians do the same thing.
Don't lie to yourself.
Come on, now.
We like to see how far we can push the line of sin
until we actually step into it.
You following me still?
Is this still good?
Okay.
Now let me give you some behaviors of the sheep
and why the Lord refers to us as sheep.
I could be mispronouncing this word, but that's okay.
You guys are used to that.
Sheep are very docile.
They're willing to accept control.
Sheep are very docile.
They will submit themselves to the shepherd.
They are willing to be led by a shepherd.
They're willing to be led by him.
This is what?
This is death to self.
This is choosing submission.
This is becoming a bond servant.
Friends, this is becoming a bond servant.
A bond slave.
When Jesus died on the cross,
you were set free.
Go do what you want.
Almost in a sense.
I'm not saying go do what you want.
He sets you free from sin.
But now you have a choice.
There isn't an in-between.
You now have a choice.
The Lord sets you free.
But now the choice is yours.
Who's going to be your master?
Either the Lord or sin.
Friends, there is no in-between.
There is no in-between.
There isn't.
If you are your own master,
can I tell you something?
News flash.
Sin is your master.
If you're saying I'm making my own decisions,
I am, you're living in sin.
I'm going to be straight upon us with you.
Because now you are actually feeding
off of your flesh.
You following me?
So sheep are docile.
Sheep are flock oriented.
First off, this is us depending
on God.
And also us depending on one another.
I depend on you.
Remember I said earlier that we have so many people
that make this place run.
If these people don't show up, man.
That's going to be wild.
If Jesse doesn't show up to play guitar,
trust me, there ain't going to be no worship.
It's going to be screeching in your ears
if I'm playing that thing.
If the ushers don't show up,
you're not going to see me preach
because I'm going to be running around
trying to make sure everybody's safe,
gathering your tides and offerings.
If security doesn't show up, oh snap.
I'll just land it there.
Oh snap.
Sheep are flock oriented.
We depend on our shepherd, on God,
first and foremost,
but then we depend on each other.
It is good to depend on each other.
It's good to depend on each other.
Sheep follow a leader.
They always, if you look at the way
that a shepherd leads,
the shepherd goes and the sheep are behind him.
It's not a goat herder
that's chasing around his goats,
but he's walking and the sheep follow.
The sheep follow the shepherd.
This is again, this is likening us
to taking up our cross.
This is denying ourselves daily.
It's what the Apostle Paul says.
Deny yourself.
Crucify that flesh.
Daily.
This is again, choosing to go low.
Daily.
It's what the Lord did, friends.
A sheep are easily stressed
when separated.
Sheep are easily stressed
when separated.
Do you know that?
When I read that,
this thought came to me right away.
It's like the Lord was talking to me.
And it's like,
when I begin to sense
that the Lord is not near me,
or when I begin to sense
like a distance of the Lord in my life.
Oh, my goodness, man.
Ask my wife how I act.
Is no bueno, señor.
When I begin to recognize,
whoa, Lord, where are you?
Why am I not hearing your voice?
Why am I not
experiencing your presence?
Why are you not talking to me, Lord?
What's going on?
I begin to be like,
okay, what's going on?
And I begin to backtrack.
How did I get to this place?
We have to listen.
We have to mature to a level
of where we can be aware
when the Lord is here
and when the Lord is not here.
We have to be able to be mature
to recognize, Lord,
let us experience you
and let us recognize that you are here.
And when you're not here, Lord,
let us understand why you're not here.
Let us backtrack out.
Where did we miss you?
So that we can figure it out and say,
okay, you actually wanted me to go this way
and not that way.
You following me?
See, in both of these animals,
the Lord shows us something.
And I'm going to continue reading Matthew 25
of why I'm saying we find the Lord
in the low places.
In these two animals,
a sheep and a goat,
the Lord shows us something.
He says, here's one animal
that the behaviors of this animal
are very lowly.
And that's the sheep.
They're very lowly like behaviors.
Depending on God, depending on the flock,
crucifying our flesh,
we're doing all these things.
Actually, goats even eat.
They feed off of the grass
that the shepherd brings them to.
Did you know that?
Where a goat, a goat will oftentimes
scatter somewhere.
It will go up on a tree
and it will eat from a twig or something.
But sheep eat where the shepherd
brings them to, to the pasture.
I said to the pasture
that the shepherd brings them to.
Know what that tells me?
We have food.
Just like Jesus said.
They said, Lord, when did you eat?
He said, I have food you do not know of.
We have food that the world
does not know of.
I said, we have food
that the world does not know of.
Amen.
I want to say something right now
and I feel like I need to say it.
Why do we starve ourselves?
Why do we starve ourselves, friends?
I'm saying this with complete love.
Why do we starve ourselves?
Why do we starve ourselves
from the word?
Why do we negligate?
Would you ask the Lord to renew
your mind to not look at this
as a chore anymore?
Would you ask the Lord this morning
and we'll have a time of prayer at the end?
But would you ask the Lord,
Lord, renew my mind that I would not
look at your scriptures as a chore?
But I would look at it
as food to my spiritual man.
That I would not starve myself.
That I would mature and I would grow
past the elementary things, Lord.
I want to go to the higher things.
If we believe this is food,
if we believe our shepherd
has led us to green pastures,
why are we starving ourselves?
Why?
Because we are filling our bellies
with other things not recognizing
that those things that we eat
are actually causing a greater void
within us.
Yes, we fill ourselves.
But it's like eating McDonald's
one way in, one way out real quick.
But when we feed ourselves
on the Word of God,
it sustains us.
It sustains us.
It nourishes us.
The nourishment comes by knowing
who he is.
That's how we're nourished.
When we are nourished
by the Word of God,
when we feed on the Word of God
and we nourish on it,
those small things that the devil
drips in our mind,
they will no longer stick
because we are nourished.
We have a Word of God just like David writes,
I hide the Word of the Lord
within me.
Why? Because it nourishes me.
Because it feeds me.
Because it sustains me.
Because it causes me to keep going.
It gives me strength
and the ability to keep going.
Somebody told me this once
and I feel like I need to say it.
Somebody told me this once.
Either a pastor or somebody else told them.
But this one pastor,
when he would go up to preach,
now I could be butchering this story
but just have grace on me, don't quote me on this.
When a pastor would go up to preach
this one guy,
he would constantly read so much Scripture.
He would just read. He would read.
He would read. He would read.
And somebody once asked him or someone like that,
he would read so much Scripture.
People get bored by what you read
and he said that could be the only Scripture
they read that week.
We have Christians
that the only time they actually hear
the Word of God is from pulpits.
They don't read it at home.
So you fasted
for six days.
You come on a seventh day.
God never asked us to fast
from our spirituality.
To fast from the Word. Let me say it that way.
God never...find it in the Scriptures.
I haven't found that verse yet.
Please find it and give it to me.
I have not seen the Lord when he asks
us to fast. That he says fast
from without reading my Word.
I don't know what God you serve.
I found that in the Scriptures.
So listen to this. Continuing down
in Matthew 25.
Verse 33.
So he talks about the separation of the goat
and the sheep. I explained to you the behaviors.
That's why the Lord separates
the sheep to his right
because they're lowly.
Remember I just showed you the behaviors. I explained to you.
Sheep are lowly. Goats
to say it nicely, they ain't so lowly.
So he says I will separate
the sheep to my right and I will separate
the goats to my left. And then he continues
to talk. Listen to this.
He says and he will set the sheep
on his right hand, but the goat
is on his left. Then the king.
So this is Jesus. Then
the king will say to those on his right
hand. So he's talking to the
sheep. He says come
come to me
come
you blessed by my father.
So if we're lowly
just think of this.
If we can live a lowly
life.
Jesus says you're blessed by the father.
If
we can live
lowly. If we can make
choices that would cause us to go
low. If we would live by behaviors
that actually are evidence
of lowliness. Jesus says
you are blessed
by my father.
Wow.
I said wow.
Blessed by my father
if we're lowly.
Inherit the kingdom.
So if we're lowly
we get what?
We get the kingdom.
Blessed by my father
you inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the
foundations of the world.
So again Jesus is saying listen
I was there. Genesis one I created this
and you get to inherit it.
Why? Because you're lowly.
I'm saying all this to say to get to
someone here. So follow me here.
For I was hungry
here's where the Lord begins to
really talk. And this is where
I want to stress the thought that
the Lord is found in the low places.
When we're seeking him
stop seeking him in these high places
begin to seek him in the low places
and you shall find him. Listen to this.
He says for I was hungry
and you gave me food.
I was thirsty
and you gave me drink.
I was a stranger
and you took me in.
I was
naked and you closed me. I was
sick and you visited me.
I was in prison and you
came to me.
I want you to pay attention to everything
that the Lord just stated there.
All those things are
attributes of being low.
I was hungry. You fed me.
You know
it's very inconvenient. Let me
just give you one example.
It's very inconvenient when you
go to a restaurant and you got little kids
that are running around and you see somebody that is hungry.
I'm just giving you one example. And you see somebody
that is hungry and you feel the Lord telling you
to go and pay for them.
But you're like, ah, but I got all these kids
and I'm doing all this. But in those moments
we can actually find the Lord. Listen, listen, listen.
We can actually
find the Lord
by stilling ourselves,
quieting the noise that's
around us, going
and paying for somebody.
In those moments
we can actually find the Lord.
Let me tell you a story.
A friend of mine
when he just came to the Lord years, years ago
when he just came to the Lord
he was on fire for God
and then there was a time in his life where everything
was chaotic. And he began
to recognize that he wasn't sensing the Lord.
Do you know what he did?
He backtracked all the way
to the place of every time he felt God
is when he would go to McDonald's
and he would pay for the people behind him.
That's where he found the Lord.
That's where he found
the Lord.
So when he was in all this chaos
and this noise and all these things happening
he backtracked. He stilled
everything. He backtracked and he
intentionally went to McDonald's.
I think he got into the drive-thru
and he paid for somebody behind him
because that's where he was finding
God. And he kept doing that.
Because he found the Lord there.
Very lowly.
You would think that's weird. Why would God be there?
That's what the Scripture says.
When I was hungry, you fed me.
Listen to this.
He says
when I was thirsty, you gave me a drink.
All these things are tying in.
When I was a stranger, you
took me in.
You took me in as a stranger.
Oh man, I'm gonna... yeah.
Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Lord, that you are found in the places.
Thank you, Lord, that you are found in these
low places.
Forgive us, Lord, that we
miss you.
Forgive us, Lord, that we miss you.
Draw our eyes, Lord, and our hearts
to the low places where you are at.
Where a people are desperate to be fed
by your word and people are thirsty
and longing for a drink
like the woman at the well, Lord.
Forgive us, Lord,
that we do not give drink
to those who are thirsty.
Forgive us, Lord, because we find
it inconvenient.
Forgive us, Lord.
Then the righteous
will answer him.
This is after Jesus says all these
things. And he says the righteous
will answer him saying, Lord,
when did we see you hungry
and feed you
or thirsty and give you
drink? When did we
see you a stranger
and take you in? Or
naked and close you?
Or when did we see
you sick or in prison
and come to you?
And the king will answer and say to
them, assuredly
I say to you, and as much
as you did
and as much as you did
it to one of the least of
these. Let me use another word for that.
Least of these into one of the
lowly of these
that society
counts a nobody
that their parents
have put a period on their life and said
they're done, man. They're done.
God said, if you do
it for one of these, he says
you've done it for me.
The Lord has found
in the lowly places, friends.
We think
that we need to be up at pulpits
to be accepted and
experience God. I'm
going to tell you the truth. I've said this before.
There's things of God
that I've experienced when I'm
tucked away with him that I don't think
I will ever experience at a pulpit.
It's in the lowly
places that God has found.
It's in the places that nobody sees.
You see, nobody sees you
when you go and you pay for somebody.
That's lowly.
Nobody sees you
or knows that you literally
just accepted a homeless guy
to live in your house for three days.
Nobody sees it
but only one and his name is God.
His name is Jesus.
And I guarantee
you, if you were to ask anybody
in this place, what did you
experience when you had a homeless
guy come and live with you?
What did you experience when you
paid for somebody? What did you
experience when you went to prison
and preached the gospel to somebody?
You know what these people would tell you?
They would say, we felt the Lord on it.
They would say
I felt the Lord on it.
I felt the pleasure of God
when I was doing what I was doing.
The Lord says
if you do it to the least of these
the scum of the world
the ones that nobody wants
to hang out with. They smell.
They're dirty. They look funny.
But God says if you do it to them
He says you've done it to me.
In other words, if you do it to them
there you will find me
in my nature of lowliness
and you will experience me
in ways that you may not experience me
when you're in high places.
The Lord is found
in the lowly places.
Maybe you walked in this morning
and you're thinking, oh man, the Lord does not see me.
Friend, I want to tell you something
this morning. The Lord sees you far
more than you even recognize.
The unfortunate part
is that his saints have disobeyed
over and over
and over again.
The Lord sees you far more
than you even recognize it.
Why? Because he's lowly.
He's lowly.
He is not too lofty
to overlook you. Oh, I don't see you.
God has been in places
that we have not yet been.
You know where that is? That's hell.
That's Sheol.
And you're trying to tell me
that God doesn't see you here?
Friends, you're believing a lie of the devil.
You're trying to tell me God doesn't notice
what you're going through?
Stop throwing yourself a pity party
and recognize that the God,
the Genesis 1 God, went
into every realm and down
to the depths of hell to Sheol.
That's why David writes
in the Psalms. He says
where can I go from your presence, oh God?
Where can I go, Lord?
Where can I flee? If I go west,
you're there. If I go east,
you're there. If I go up to the highest,
Lord, you're there. If I make
a bed in hell, he says, God, even
there you are.
Because he is filled all
in all. This is Jesus
we're talking about. This is the nature
of our Lord that has gone
so low to the depths that
no man, no God has ever
thought of going. But he says, I'm going.
Why? Because God
so loved the world that he gave
his one and only son that whoever
shall believe in him shall not
perish but have eternal life.
This is the God that we
serve.
This is the nature of Jesus.
He is lowly
in everything that he does.
The decisions, his
thinking, his motives, they're
lowly, not self-promoting
of let people see me.
I don't care. I'm doing
it for the least of these.
That's our God.
And he is found.
You've been seeking him in the wrong
places, friends. You've been
seeking him in the wrong places.
Start seeking the Lord in the
low places and I guarantee you
not because I said it but because
the scripture says it. If you
do it for the least of these, you've done
it for me. In other words
if you go there, you will find
me.
That's our Jesus.
Very lowly.
Of a lowly nature.
That's our Lord.
Even in his
youth days.
When the Lord was young, friends, the
very little, listen to this. I need
to draw your attention to something
before we come to a pause.
Even in the days
of our Lord being young, the
very little, the very little
that the scriptures tell us about
Jesus in his young adult
teenage years. Do you
know that when we read even the very little
that we have, do you know what we find there?
We find one characteristic of
the Lord. He was lowly.
Let me read it to you
here. Open up your Bibles
to Luke chapter
2. Let me read it to you here.
I'm trying to... I want us
to behold Jesus. And I
want us to see just how
lowly he is. And now measure
ourselves to him.
And now measure ourselves
to him. And if we don't find
ourselves yet meeting a standard, then
we ask and we say, Holy Spirit, conform
us. Conform
us into the image of Christ.
That I be lowly. Listen to this.
Luke chapter 2.
Let me open it up here quick.
This is Luke chapter 2
verses 39 and 40.
So when they
had performed all
things according
to the law of God,
they returned to
Galilee to their own city
Nazareth. And the
child, this is Jesus,
grew and became strong
in spirit, filled
with wisdom, and the grace
of God was upon
him. Listen, listen, listen, listen.
You're saying how was that lowly?
When you read James 4 and 6,
do you know what James writes?
For God
to grace us, we have
to be what?
Really?
James 4 and 6. For God
to grace us, we must be humble.
What is humility? What does
it mean to be humble? It is to go low.
It's to go low. So even
in the young age of Jesus
what we find the scriptures
telling us about him is that
the grace of God was upon him. Why?
Because he was humble.
And to be humble
you got to go low.
You got to be able to bite your tongue
on and so forth. Because in James 4
6 it says that God
gives grace to the humble
but does what? Oppose the proud.
He opposes the proud. He
gives grace to those who are
humble. Now follow me here. Luke
still Luke chapter 2
verse 46 and 49. I want
to show you something more.
Now it was
now so it was that after
three days they found
him in the temple. I'm trying to show you
these things that explain the nature
of our Lord even in his young age
that he was very lowly.
Let me read that again. Verse 46.
Now so it was that after three days
they found him in the temple
sitting in the midst
of the teachers both
listening to them and asking
them questions.
He was listening
and then asking questions
and all who heard him were astonished
at his understanding and answers.
So when
they saw him they were
amazed and his mother said to
him son why have you
done this to us? Look
your father and I sought
you anxiously. Verse
49. And he said to them
why did you seek me?
Did you not know that I must be about
my father's business?
Let me pause there.
Do you know what the father's business
is? Since
Genesis 1 it was to show
his lowliness by saving
a people. You following me?
Are you following me?
Since the Genesis 1
the father's business it was
always plan A
for God the father to send
his son. It wasn't plan B
in the book of God where he's like oh snap
Adam and Eve sin now
what do we do?
Oh snap.
Goats, bulls and
all these other things they're not
washing away the sins of the people now
what do we do? Well I guess Jesus
now you gotta go down.
That wasn't what God was about.
That wasn't God.
The father's business
has always been very lowly.
It was
it pleased. Actually the scripture says
it pleased the father
to bruise his own son.
Genesis 3
we find the first
in Genesis chapter 3 we find
the first few verses that talk
about the Lord and him dying on a cross. Did you know that?
Read Genesis 3
I'm not even gonna give you the answer. It's found
in Genesis 3. I'm not gonna tell you where it is
just in that chapter. You find your own verse.
But in Genesis 3
we find
that our Lord it was always
the plan A of God the father
for the Lord to die on a cross. Always.
So the father's
business he's saying why are you looking
for me? I'm about my father's business. In other words
I am to be lowly
as my father is.
I am the
I am the visible image
of the invisible God.
I am the very image
of my father. The disciple
said well show us the father. He says if you've seen
me you've seen the father. Everything
everything that
our Lord Jesus did was only
what the father does speaks
on and so forth.
And they did not understand
the statement. This is now verse 50.
But they did not understand
the statement which he spoke to them.
So in the
teen years of our Lord what we find
he was lowly.
Graced by God the father
why? Because he was humble.
Later in the scriptures it says how
Jesus went back to the
house of his father Joseph
and Mary and the scripture says
he submitted himself
onto them.
In the young
years of our Lord
we find that he's lowly.
He comes in. The Genesis
1 God comes in
into his creates the world
steps into his creation
birthed through a virgin Mary
stepfather Joseph. Birth is
a scandal. We talked about this last time.
Low status
Joseph was known as a carpenter
born in a manger
among animals
in a city of Bethlehem
sought to be killed
at an early age
and now we read our Lord is growing up
and even in his growing up
our Lord is going low.
Time is against me so maybe next Sunday
I want to talk a little bit about this.
We often times
let me just give you a little sneak peek
can I get somebody at the keys please?
We often times
picture Jesus
as this poor
weak man
that's what a lot of Christians picture Jesus has.
We think of him as well
he was this weak poor man look
he was born in a family that was
poor on and so forth
did you know that though Joseph
was a carpenter I'm not saying Joseph
was this huge wealthy guy
but he was known for his trade
I don't know about you
but for you to be known
for your trade that means
that you have a lot of work
and if you have a lot of work
that means that you got a lot of Benjamins coming in.
I had a business
and I was more focused
on building a reputation
than collecting the big check
and my nephews
that I've mentored in the business
and I brought them up in the business
I'm stressing this to my nephews
I said don't worry about making
all the money because you're never going to make all of them
what's important for you
is to build a reputation
because that reputation will shoot you
far longer
than the money coming in
so Joseph was known
as a carpenter which tells me
that they weren't this poor family
yes they were not of high
status but they had enough money
listen they traveled
They traveled from Nazareth before the birth of Jesus. They traveled from Nazareth all the way to Bethlehem.
Do you know how long that journey was? Anywhere from 70 to 90 miles.
It's about a four to five-day journey. Joseph, being a good man, as the Scripture says,
I'm sure Joseph came prepared with the money to feed them.
I'm sure Joseph had the money to pay for the inn.
And the Scripture tells us it's not that they couldn't afford the inn.
There was no room in the inn.
I'm sharing this to simply tell you, though the Lord had an opportunity
to be born in a nice room, in a nice comforting bed,
the Lord chose to go low and to be born in a manger
among cattle in the city of Bethlehem.
That's how lowly he is.
And then on top of that, let me just finish it off here. I'll make it quick.
And then on top of that, we got to pay attention to who came to visit our Lord.
When he was born, who was the first people that came to visit him?
Shepherds. Who are shepherds? Very lowly.
The Lord had an opportunity to choose the high people of society
to come visit him first when he was born.
But no, because he's lowly.
I said because he's lowly, he chose shepherds which are considered low of society
for them to have a privilege to come and visit him when he's born.
Don't you dare tell me our God is not lowly.
Don't you dare tell me that he doesn't see what you're going through.
He sees it far more than you even recognize it.
Why? Because he's lowly.
And then this God, the next people who come to visit him are wise men.
Did you ever pay attention to the gifts that they gave him?
Scholars said if you take all the gifts that were given to the Lord,
it is literally over four million dollars in our modern time.
So Jesus wasn't this poor, weak and broken person.
But yet even in the status of him having this wealth, so to say,
he chose to go low.
It's not that he couldn't. He chose. It's not that somebody made him.
He chose to go low.
Pontius Pilate tells him, he says, do you understand
that I have the authority to either crucify you or to set you free?
Do you know what the Lord tells him?
He says, listen to me, no authority would have been given to you
unless my Father gave it to you.
Ain't nobody forced the Lord to die. He chose to die.
He chose to go low in everything that he did
from the time of his creation to the time of his birth
to walking in life to even his death.
The Scripture says he died.
And he was obedient to death and even death on the cross.
Don't you sit here and tell me that God doesn't see me.
Don't you sit here and tell me God doesn't know what I'm going through.
You're missing him.
Don't you sit here and tell me God can't help me.
He hasn't been where I've been. Oh yes, he has my friends.
And he's been in places you've never been.
And he desires for you to never even go into those places.
Our God is lowly, so lowly that we miss him.
We miss him more often than we think.
And we're looking for him.
Oh God, why don't you hear me?
He says, come to me.
All who are weary and heavy laden.
Come gentle, lowly in heart.
If you would just pause for five minutes
and silence your mind that voices are in it.
Come to me.
And I will give you rest.
I will give you rest over the feeling of defeat.
I will give you rest over the anxiety.
I will give you rest over the fear.
I will give you rest over your problems.
Friends, our Jesus is very, very, very lowly.
And would we measure ourselves to him?
Would we measure ourselves to him
and recognize how prideful we are?
Would we measure ourselves to the Lord
and look at ourselves and say, my God,
this wretched flesh of mine, it's prideful.
Oh, he's lowly.