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while number three and I'll end with this one number three he says exercise humility three is exercise humility and in the church we you've heard me talk about this and I'm going to continue to talk about it because what words mean are important hopefully we saw that when we were looking at Mary when we looked at Elizabeth when we looked at Zacharias when we looked at all these different characters that understanding theology is important understanding what God is doing is important when we read this we understand that we're reading a book and here's one of the issues that we have with this this book was not written in English it wasn't written in 1614 it wasn't written in 1611 King James didn't do it it was written thousand plus years before he was ever born it was written in Hebrew but mostly Hebrew mostly Korean a Greek and that means how we understand and define words matters because it teaches us what God is teaching us and what the word humility means matters because too many times in our churches we've defined this word as humility as thinking lowly as you're of yourself and that's not what humility means scripture never really says think lowly of yourselves it does teach view your sin and your self-righteousness correctly that before God are any goodness we have any righteousness we have but outside of Jesus outside of his grace outside of his mercy it's like a filthy rag before the Lord but that doesn't mean that you're not important that doesn't mean that you're not meaningful that doesn't mean if you were the only human being that ever existed on this planet Jesus would have still gone to the cross Jesus would have still suffered and he would have still died and he still would have rose again so that you could have the opportunity to be in a right relationship with him you matter to Jesus you matter to the Lord you are important you're important here we need you here I'm thankful for the people that get up here and play these instruments that sing in the choir because that is unless it's some kind of joke you're not gonna see me doing any of that stuff I'm thankful that they are talented and gifted in those things so that I can do my thing and together we can work together as the body of Christ to bring glory to Jesus your gifts your talent your skills matter I'm thankful for the people that spent their day on Friday coming in here and taking down all the Christmas decorations and making sure everything was clean and making sure everything was put back together for us to be able to have worship this morning I'm thankful for those people you are you are needed you're important humility doesn't think lowly of yourself here's what biblical humility means biblical humility means that even as important as you are you think of God and others before yourself that's what humility means that every single decision that you make how you use your resources how you use your time how you use your money how you every decision you make you filter it through the idea of is this best for the team is this best for the group that I'm a part of spent yesterday watching a bunch of ball games and there was one at the end of the day yesterday that got out of hand really really bad because one of the teams had almost 15 players opt out of 15 starters opt out of the game and not play that is unfathomable to me that grew up in the 80s and 90s that I viewed every single down every single opportunity to play the game as a privilege and an honor to think I'm gonna set this out regardless of what it does to my team it's hard I can't it's hard for me in my mind to grasp that you know what humility is humility is thinking I'm going to sacrifice I'm going to give I'm going to filter everything through what is best for the team that I'm a part of and ultimately as a church what brings glory to Jesus the most you see that's humility humility is not thinking about your preferences your desires your likes your wants it's about Jesus first and what can I sacrifice and give to make my team better so you don't think lowly of yourself in doing that you're just thinking about others and other people and it's the same thing with our families it's the same thing in our in our businesses it's the same thing in our communities and unfortunately it's contrary to what our our nature and sometimes our our culture teaches because our culture teaches look out for who first self look out for number one look out for me ah there's an old friend hey there's there's no I in team is there and I heard a guy yell yeah yeah back yeah but there's an I in win because we can always shift things to ah ah me me ah ah ah that's the opposite of Jesus that's the opposite of who Jesus is that's the opposite of what he accomplished on the cross that's the opposite of why he came to this planet it was never about Jesus it was about everybody else we experience it in our families we experience in our businesses and unfortunately hey we can we can experience in our churches as well that we often think about what's my preference what's my desire what do I like running joke I make all the time there's two things I never want to be in charge of in the church that's the music in the air conditioning I never want to be the person in charge of those two things even though technically I am because we have a real hard time and folks I am just as your pastor I love you I'm far more concerned about your holiness than your happiness we have in the American church and we have it in this church too by the way but especially in the American church we have a real hard time getting past our musical preferences don't we we do we have a real hard time looking past our musical preferences to what's best for the group and I'm not picking on one side or the other I'm just I'm picking on all of us as human beings and that's just one example you know what humility means humility says I'm willing to sing a couple of songs it's not my favorite if it's best for the body I'm willing to sing a couple of songs that's not my preferred style if it's best for the glory of Jesus the humility is it's not thinking lowly of self it's about thinking what's best for the group and ultimately what's best for the glory of Jesus you see that's what Micah is trying to teach us culture and it is what required of us as the church today our culture needs us to be people that care far more about them in their eternal state than our preferences and our comfort and doing things our way I love this church I'm thankful you will have to run me out on a rail at this church because I as a member of the State Board of Missions I see church after church that is closing their doors every single year FYI we won't know until about the end of the first quarter of 2020 2024 but it looks like in 2023 the state of Alabama closed a record number of Baptist churches and you want to know why it's real simple we become a culture in the church of consumers not producers we want to consume music we want to consume preaching we want to do we want to consume children's ministries we want to consume ministers we want to consume senior adult ministries we want to consume consume consume what can the church to be working the church said to me what can the church it was me consume consume consume instead of what Jesus said go out into the world and make what church cycles that's producing instead of consume consume consume the one that are thriving is what can I make what can I produce what can I disciple what can I multiply I'm not worried about the type of songs that we sing I'm not worried about the time of the worship service I'm worried about the fact that my neighbor don't know Jesus and he's gonna die and go to hell that's what matters that's humility humility is being willing to sacrifice what we like for the big picture and that's what the gospel requires of us to live righteously to live lives different than the world to extend the same mercy that Jesus showed us to the world to see number three let's think more about Jesus and more about the person sitting beside us than ourselves but and guys I promise you that will that will go far beyond a resolution that'll go far beyond anything that you decide to do on a Christmas Eve service Christmas Eve night I want you to have a prosperous 2024 I want you to have a blessed 2024 and scripture just laid out for us how we can have a prosperous 24 to be obedient to God's Word and to exemplify Jesus and our homes and in our culture this year now that begins with knowing Jesus if you're here this morning you're not sure what I'm talking about when I talk about the grace of Jesus when I talk about the mercy of Jesus when I talk about our sin being having to be accounted for and all our sin must be accounted for you're not sure what it is I'm talking about do not leave this place until you're sure what better day to come to faith in Christ than on New Year's Eve then to start a brand new year as a brand new creation in Jesus and don't leave this place until you know I'll stay right here I will talk to whoever I need to talk to but don't leave this place until you know that you and Jesus are on the same page for those of us that have man let's live righteously let's extend mercy let's think about everybody else before ourselves so that next year we exist to bring glory and honor to Jesus and Jesus alone let's pray father we thank you for the fact that you've given us your word we thank you for the fact that you loved us enough that you cared for us enough that you gave us the game plan you gave us the instructions to follow to live by we don't have to wonder what truth is we don't have to wonder what the objective reality of our world is you gave it to us in your word father may we be people of your word so that we can be people of worship living sacrifice of worship not in this room but out there in the world out there with a loss see us out there with a hurting see us where people that have been beat down by the church can see us extending mercy living with humility thinking about them before ourselves may we exist to bring glory and honor to Jesus in this community and around the world and I pray all these things