Episode Transcript
[00:00:09] But anyway, happy New Year, everybody. It is good to see you. And if we kind of turn to Revelation, chapter four, I've got a New Year's message, a kind of standalone message for this morning for us. And we'll see what the Lord wants to do this morning. But yeah. Heavenly Father, we thank you for a new year. We thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness last year.
[00:00:33] And so, Lord, as we start a brand new year, Father, we want to start it right. We want to start it, Lord, in your presence.
[00:00:40] We want, Lord, to invite you here, Lord, to be part of our lives and our church and our families and our communities, Lord. And we just ask you, Father, to continue to be the head of this church, to be the head of our lives.
[00:00:54] In Jesus name, Amen. And Amen.
[00:00:57] Okay, so this New year's message for 2026, I imagine for most of us here in this room, we have a common aim, if you like.
[00:01:10] All right? And I know I can't speak on behalf of you, but I believe us here in this room this morning, those who are in Christ, we have this common aim for our lives, our homes, our families this year, our schools, our workplaces.
[00:01:24] And it is that we would be filled and keep being filled with God himself.
[00:01:33] Surely that is a common aim amongst us that we would keep being filled with. And one of our vision statements here as a rediscovered church, that we would be filled with the glory of God.
[00:01:46] That's his goodness, his character, all right? Because we are all carriers of his glory wherever we go.
[00:01:55] How do people see Jesus? They see him through you and me.
[00:02:00] We reflect the beauty of Christ, or sometimes we don't too well.
[00:02:08] But the aim is this year that we have this common goal, that actually we want to be filled, filled with more of Christ this year, we want to be filled with his glory more and more. And part of that happening is that we need to empty ourselves of ourselves in order for God to come in and fill us with more of Him.
[00:02:33] Does everybody understand that?
[00:02:36] We've got to empty ourselves in order to allow God to fill that space that normally is filled by ourselves.
[00:02:49] And it's a challenge. And this New Year's message that I want to bring to us this morning is to awaken us and encourage us in our journey this year that actually it is all about emptying us in order to allow him to come and fill us. We turn to Revelation, chapter four, if you haven't already.
[00:03:07] And I want to read. I'm just going to read one verse, and it's verse 11 if you want to kind of put a ring around that. The Book of Revelation really quickly. It tells us a lot about events that have either happened already in history or things that are going to happen, but it also specifically talks about what's going to happen at the end of the ages. That is the Book of Revelation. And this is this morning, not a study on the Book of Revelation, but in this chapter particularly, it highlights two important things.
[00:03:40] And one is the importance of worship.
[00:03:44] The importance of worship. Now, worship in its simplest form is we. Whatever we deem worthy, whatever we put our worth into, whatever we think is worth something, whether that's somebody or someone, is ultimately our worship in life.
[00:04:01] If we think that some kind of material thing has worth and value and we deem that as the highest thing in our lives, that is us worshiping that thing.
[00:04:13] If we deem a celebrity or footballer, whoever, is just so worth so much to us, that is who we are worshiping in life.
[00:04:23] So this passage is about what's important most of all in is who we are worshiping, who we deem worthy of our worship.
[00:04:37] And the other important thing is this is the importance of having a big view of who God is, a big view of who he is.
[00:04:50] Because when we have a big view, a big picture of who God is, it will depend on how successful we will be in navigating life's challenges this year.
[00:05:04] Those two things, worth and worship and having a big view of who God is, those two things will decide how we navigate all that 2026 will bring to us this year. And I believe in our churches today, I sense so passionately that we have got to come back to seeing, believing, and trusting in the God of the Scriptures passionately about this, not the God that everybody else thinks about or wants to preach about.
[00:05:38] I want us as a church to focus back on the God of the Scriptures and who he is. And so John was the original surviving of the 12 disciples, the apostles. He was left at this point of writing, and he was actually in exile. The Romans had exiled him onto the island of Patmos, all right? And because he was spreading the word of God, and they didn't want him to spread the word of God, so they decided they would contain him. How many of us know that the Word of God cannot be contained?
[00:06:10] You cannot contain the word of God. You can put somebody in prison and they can write the most phenomenal letter to churches that. That 2,000 years later, churches are still preaching about and working things out, okay? You cannot contain the words of God. And so John, on the island of Patmos is writing the Book of Revelation.
[00:06:31] But this is what happens to him on this occasion. One day, he hears a voice.
[00:06:37] It is the sound of a trumpet.
[00:06:40] Wow. You imagine hearing the voice.
[00:06:44] You're caught up in the presence of God and you hear a voice that sounds like a trumpet.
[00:06:51] Anybody play the trumpet? I'd love a trumpet player in the church. Get learning this year. There you go. There's your. There's your goal for 2026. And the voice said this. It said, come up here.
[00:07:03] Come up here.
[00:07:06] John had received this invitation not to leave his physical space, but to go in the spirit to a higher place, to leave the earthly, to leave his room and what he was looking at and the people there and the material things around him. And the invitation was, I want you to come up here. I want you to go higher because I want to reveal to you the realities of. Of heaven.
[00:07:38] Some of you are reading beyond the Veil. That book won't go into it because I haven't got time. So I've got to get through it. But you know what I'm talking about.
[00:07:46] And John had the invitation and he took it to go up here to see the realities of heaven. How many of us remember Jesus words to us? He says, my kingdom is not of this world.
[00:07:57] My kingdom is not of this world.
[00:08:00] It is not of this world.
[00:08:03] And so the spiritual realities that John saw, that we can see, that God, I believe, wants to reveal certain things to us this year. These spiritual realities are lasting. They are eternal. They are more real than the earthly world that we see on a daily basis. There is a spiritual reality that trumps all that we see in the natural on earth. It's revealed in scripture.
[00:08:33] Sometimes eternal realities can be revealed in our times of worship. Ever had those times where you just get lost completely in the presence of God? And it's as if everybody has left the room and you are standing there with the Lord.
[00:08:49] We've got to be careful that this year, and we've got to be careful that this world.
[00:08:58] Instagram, TikTok reels other people's opinions. AI okay. Careful that it doesn't throw us off course this year from keeping our eyes fixed on spiritual realities, on the spiritual realities.
[00:09:16] We've got to be grounded as disciples in the biblical truth of what has happened, the cross and what is yet to come. And so John takes hold of the invitation to go up. Wouldn't it be wonderful for us as a church this year in 2026, if there are reports and testimonies and stories of People going up higher spiritually and say, esther, you know what? I had this dream.
[00:09:42] Or I was seeing things in my prayer time. Visions of just God revealing certain things to me. I believe God wants to reveal things to his church so desperately.
[00:09:55] And the invitation is for all of us to go up higher this year.
[00:10:00] To go up higher. You still with me?
[00:10:02] So what does John see? John sees a throne in heaven.
[00:10:06] I'm not going to spend too much time on this, but John sees a throne in heaven. He sees someone sitting on that throne, the appearance of Jasper and ruby. He sees a rainbow that shone around like. Sorry, shone like emerald.
[00:10:20] Encircling the throne, surrounding the throne, he saw 24 other thrones. And on those 24 thrones were 24 elders dressed in white, wearing gold crowns. Now, many scholars believe that those 24 elders, they represent God's faithful, redeemed people throughout history.
[00:10:43] Wow. All right. The white robes represent being dressed in the righteousness of Christ.
[00:10:50] The crowns on our head for running the race, and the 24 elders are there. And the crown also represents being united with Christ, reigning with Christ.
[00:11:04] Okay. You know, we're going to reign with Christ.
[00:11:07] Beautiful.
[00:11:09] Beautiful.
[00:11:12] But what is significant about these people, the redeemed people, the symbolic redeemed people, is that they lay their crowns down.
[00:11:22] If you hear nothing else this morning, hear that. That they lay their crowns down. It says they fall down and they lay their crowns down. They take them off their heads and they lay them down before the throne, the throne of God.
[00:11:41] And this is what they say. Are you ready? They say, you are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor. It will come up. I think there's a slide that comes up. You will receive to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things and by your will they were created and have their being. Let me just read that again. They say, you are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and. And power.
[00:12:13] For you created all things.
[00:12:20] That's what they said. You are worthy. What an anthem of worship, Church. What an anthem of worship. What if Rediscover Church in 2026, that every single day when we woke up and every single night that we before we went to sleep, our anthem was, you know, you are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive honour and glory and power.
[00:12:50] Can you imagine? Every single day out of our minds, we get up and we say, you, Lord, are worthy.
[00:12:57] We go to sleep and we say, you, Lord, are worthy.
[00:13:03] You, Lord, are worthy.
[00:13:06] The point that I want to bring to us this morning is the Reason that he is so worthy.
[00:13:12] And he is so worthy. You do know that he's the worthy one. He's so worthy. The reason why he's so worthy is because of one thing, one thing that I'm going to talk about this morning, his humility.
[00:13:30] And my message this morning is about humility.
[00:13:37] Humility, I believe, is where we need to start this new year, all of us, not just as a church, but as individuals.
[00:13:46] And I want to spend a few moments talking about the humility of Christ.
[00:13:51] I believe it's central to our discipleship journey. I believe it's central to every aspects of our lives as we live for him in 2026.
[00:14:01] You know, I love New Year messages that talk about breakthrough, going for your miracle, seeing transformation. Let's see a region one for Christ. I love those. And you're going to hear a lot about that in the coming weeks.
[00:14:16] I love sermons that say all things are possible. We're going for it. And I'm all for it.
[00:14:23] I'm all for it. But I am convinced in my life, especially in the culture and society and the world that we live in today, I am convinced more than anything that we're going to see radical transformation in a world that is full of pride and self, that we're going to see the greatest radical transformation across our nation. And it's going to start with radical disciples walking in the humility of Christ.
[00:14:54] And that seems totally skew if.
[00:14:58] It seems totally weird if you are not a Christian.
[00:15:03] But I believe there is a call, a radical call to this church, to the church of this nation and the nations, to a life of humility, like Christ. Luke 22 is going to come up on screen.
[00:15:17] I'm going to go through this really quick this morning.
[00:15:21] Oh, the disciples, they were always disputing about, lord, am I going to be the greatest? Like, can I? Can I have the closest seat to you in the kingdom of heaven? Like, can I be the greatest? And Jesus turns around and he says, look, so many people, they try. They, you know their positions. In their positions, they try and Lord their authority over people.
[00:15:43] And Jesus says, I'm going to try and really cut this short.
[00:15:46] He says, but look, verse 26, you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, like the one who rules, like the one who serves for who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves. Now, if you ask that question to the world, come on, who's the greatest? The one who has the seat at the table. Or the one who serves. What are they going to answer?
[00:16:12] They're going to say, oh, the one at this table, the one who serves is just the servant. Like they're nothing.
[00:16:18] They're just like, necessary because we need the food bringing out and we need feeding. All right? And Jesus asks them this question. He said, come on, who is it? Who is it? And he says, is it not the one who is at the table? Of course it is.
[00:16:32] But Jesus says, I am among you as one who serves.
[00:16:38] That must have absolutely shocked their world because they thought Jesus was going to come as this warrior king with his sword and wipe out.
[00:16:46] Wipe out people on his big horse and put them in place, right? But he says, I am one among you who serves.
[00:16:54] You are those who have stood by me in my trials. I love this. He says, I confer on you a kingdom just as my Father conferred one on me.
[00:17:05] Proof that because we're going to come back to that in a moment. Jesus did everything that the Father told him to do.
[00:17:12] Jesus was obedient.
[00:17:13] Talk about a laid down life. Talk about a life empty in himself. And I'm going to come round to that. But he says, I confer on you a kingdom that the Father has conferred on me. He said, do you know why we have to take a position of service?
[00:17:29] Because of what's coming.
[00:17:33] Because of what's coming. He says, so that you may eat and drink at my table in the kingdom. Wow, that's in the eternal kingdom and sit on thrones and judge the 12 tribes of Israel. Don't find that incredible?
[00:17:47] And so Jesus says, the greatest among you is the one who serves.
[00:17:52] And I believe this is the spirit that Christ wants for his church.
[00:17:57] A church that says, you know what? I don't need to be applauded.
[00:18:00] I don't need to be even noticed.
[00:18:04] Maybe it'd take a year for somebody to notice your talent.
[00:18:08] And you just sit here every week and you go, well, I could actually preach better than Esther, and maybe you can, but I haven't been recognized lately. Let me tell you, if God's got that gift on your life, you won't need anyone to put. You won't need to push yourself.
[00:18:22] God will push. God will promote you at the right time.
[00:18:26] But you see, God's not looking for a church that says, oh, you know, we need to be honored and we need the applause of men. We need the attention in rediscover church.
[00:18:38] If you are part of this church, you will hear us a lot talk about servant leadership.
[00:18:44] And it's not that our leadership team have to get down and clean toilets. I'm not saying that, but servant leadership. God puts people in positions, I believe, because they are servants first and foremost.
[00:18:57] They lay their lives down.
[00:19:00] Humility. What is humility? Very quickly, it is simply emptying yourself.
[00:19:07] Right? I don't want to use the word nothing to become nothing because I think we can misunderstand. Oh, I'm nothing. I don't like that expression, oh, I'm nothing in Christ. Okay, I understand what it means, but I'm not so sure it's helpful. All right. But humility is that we empty everything out of self, of ourselves, and we fully rely on God.
[00:19:32] We're relying totally on Him.
[00:19:35] We're empty. We're becoming empty. In other words, we don't have this self agenda.
[00:19:41] We don't have this ego and this pride.
[00:19:46] We willingly submit to God and his ways because we know we see the big picture, the big view that God's ways are better than ours. You know, over Christmas, I was reading through Mark's gospel in, I think it's chapter, I'm not sure, the last couple of chapters. Anyway, 15, 16, you know, the part before Jesus gets crucified.
[00:20:08] And in Mark's, I've never really noticed it before, but in Mark's Gospel there is some real interesting language used to describe how Jesus was tortured. All right, let me go through some of it.
[00:20:22] If you had any doubts this morning, does God love me?
[00:20:27] If you have any doubts this morning, let me tell you.
[00:20:31] What I'm about to tell you is proof alone that he absolutely loves you.
[00:20:36] He was flogged. This is the end of his three years ministries. Okay? Jesus was flogged in front of a whole company of soldiers. That's what Mark tells us. He was dragged in right before he was led to the cross. He was dragged in in front of a whole company of soldiers. Some of you have worked in the military, you've worked with the army. You know how brutal that environment can be with a load of men in the military.
[00:21:06] A company of soldiers. They stripped him and put this purple robe, because it signified some kind of royalty, stripped him of his own clothes.
[00:21:17] They twisted together a crown of thorns, a crown of thorns, and set it on his head.
[00:21:26] They shouted Hail King Jesus to him. They struck him on his head with a staff.
[00:21:34] They spat on him.
[00:21:37] They all fell to their knees. You can read this in Mark. They came on their knees, pretending and mocking to worship him.
[00:21:44] And then they led him off to be crucified.
[00:21:48] This is the humility of Christ.
[00:21:51] This is the humility of Christ. And we even know that Jesus, he said right at the, in that garden as he was praying, he said, lord, if this could be passed by from me, if this cup could go, but if not your will, not mine.
[00:22:09] These are powerful words.
[00:22:12] Not my will, but yours. You know, some of us are so sincere. I remember every time a new year would come round when I was a young person, I'd be so sincere and I'd say, oh Lord, this year I, I'm going to be better. I'm going to give you everything, all right? Like I'm going to be that vessel for you to use this year. And I'm going to do that. But you know what I failed to do?
[00:22:35] You see, if something's going to be filled, it has to be emptied first.
[00:22:42] And I failed. My prayer was sincere, but I failed to empty myself of myself.
[00:22:53] So my prayer was sincere. I'm like, lord, do use me. I want you to use me.
[00:22:57] But the problem was I was not an empty vessel. I was still full of myself. You see, we have to die to self. I know it's not a pretty message for 2026, but I believe if we run with this, the humility of Christ, we're going to see incredible things happen. This year. It's not popular.
[00:23:17] You see, the opposite of humility is pride.
[00:23:21] It's pride. It's stinky pride. Pride is the self life, it's the self righteousness.
[00:23:28] It acts as though we don't need God.
[00:23:31] It kind of carries on in life in a self rule way. I can rule myself, I can make my own decisions.
[00:23:40] I can get on with life fine without God.
[00:23:47] I can replace God. You see, that's what happened in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. You know, Adam and Eve were having this wonderful relationship with God. They were receiving his comfort, his guidance, his love, his friendship.
[00:24:03] He was watching out for them. He was looking out for them. Until one day Satan comes along and they take hold of the lie.
[00:24:13] They take hold of the lie. Satan says, you don't need God. You can do things on your own just fine. You don't need to rely on God. You've got all this world and you can do this and this and this. And you can achieve things yourself. You don't need to submit, you don't need to bring your life under a God. You can be a God yourself.
[00:24:35] And what happens is they receive the lie.
[00:24:38] They replaced God, they stopped worshipping him.
[00:24:42] And what happens? They fell into this massive trap.
[00:24:46] How many of us know it's a trap. How many of us have experienced in life, it's a trap.
[00:24:51] And what happens in the trap is that the trap leads to sin and then sin leads to death. And then you're a goner.
[00:25:01] You're an absolute goner.
[00:25:03] You are, because you self implode.
[00:25:07] You self destruct. And that's Satan's plan.
[00:25:11] And that is his massive plan. That's why there is tensions of people coming to know Christ.
[00:25:17] People have got to really die to self. And that's a hard message.
[00:25:23] And so Adam and Eve, they believed the lie. But you see, we've got to have a big view of God this year. The big view that says, lord, I you are worthy, not me.
[00:25:36] You are worthy to receive honor, glory, power. You receive it, Lord, not me. You know, when Jesus was humbled, can you imagine the humiliation of the cross?
[00:25:50] When Jesus was humiliated at the cross, he came to serve. He came to give his life.
[00:25:56] Matthew's Gospel. We're going around the gospels today. Matthew, Mark, Matthew's gospel. That's what Matthew's gospel says. Are you ready to hear what happened when he was humiliated at the cross?
[00:26:05] Okay, the temple, the big temple, near the temple curtain that divides the holy of holies, right? And it was huge. I mean, we're talking huge.
[00:26:15] Proportionately. The moment Jesus went to the cross, the temple curtain from top to bottom tore in two. It's not the only thing. Do you know what else happened? The earth shook.
[00:26:32] There was a violent earthquake across the land. When Jesus went to the cross, it went dark for a while. On the face of the earth, rocks split open, tombs broke open.
[00:26:51] Not just the tomb of Jesus, but people who had died previously, righteous people who had died previously got up out of the tombs. This is when Jesus went to the cross, got up out of those tombs and they started walking around the holy city telling people about Christ.
[00:27:12] This is what happened because of Christ's humiliation.
[00:27:17] I'm wrapping up. We're coming to the end, all right?
[00:27:20] This is the humiliation that laid down his life to do the Father's will. The earth shook, the rock split, the tombs broke open.
[00:27:29] People were raised to life. An angelic visitation sitting on Jesus stone. And the women that day go to the tomb and they find the stone has been rolled away.
[00:27:43] And the angel says, jesus is not here. He has risen. He is alive.
[00:27:52] Incredible. What a turnaround from humiliation to exaltation. And if you read in Philippians 2, and I haven't got time this morning, but you can read how Jesus, he emptied Himself. He took on the form of a servant. He became so low that God. God gave him the highest place that is above all names and all powers. Gave him the name that is above all names. Why? Because he took on the form of a servant. He humbly came.
[00:28:27] The most glorious happenings on the face of the earth started in a humble stable.
[00:28:36] That's what we heard about Christmas.
[00:28:38] A humble stable. A humble little virgin girl.
[00:28:42] Talk about humiliation for a virgin girl who wanted to live right and do the right thing. And she found herself pregnant.
[00:28:49] Can you imagine what people would have thrown at her?
[00:28:52] But the most glorious happenings happened from a humble beginning.
[00:28:57] Some of the greatest moments of breakthrough are going to happen in our surrender to God this year.
[00:29:05] I believe the Lord likes moments when we go. I don't know what to do.
[00:29:09] Lord help me. I don't know which direction to go in. But I tell you what, I am not going to rule myself. I'm not going to try and figure it out myself. I'm going to lay my life down and submit myself to the lordship of Christ.
[00:29:23] See, the world will tell you it's a ridiculous thing to sell your money and possessions and give to the poor. They will tell you it's ridiculous.
[00:29:32] Look, you don't have enough already to do that. It's ridiculous. You keep the money for yourself. They will tell you it's ridiculous. The world will tell you that you can't afford to rely on God because, like, where is he?
[00:29:44] The world will tell you that you need to master your own world. You need to look after you and sort you out. Forget everybody else. The world will tell you to look after your own interests.
[00:29:59] The world will point you to lies and more lies and more lies and more lies to the point that you will get.
[00:30:10] And you will not know the difference between what is right and wrong because it will be one chaotic muddle.
[00:30:18] And that's what's happening with our world.
[00:30:20] Can you see why we've got a heart for the lost yet? One of my prayers this year is that a whole deception would be lifted off our nation.
[00:30:29] That the enemy would get his claws off our nation and the hand of God would come back. We need deception and lies to go so people come back to the truth of knowing what's right and what is wrong.
[00:30:43] But it starts in the humility of Christ. You see, in God's kingdom we lose nothing by dying to self. Young people, I want to tell you I've been trying to die to self with the help of the Holy spirit for like 40 odd years and I have never lost out.
[00:31:03] In fact I have been given more back than I have ever deserved.
[00:31:09] But one thing I know, I know, I know that God exalts where we have walked humbly before Him.
[00:31:18] See in the kingdom we lose nothing by dying to self we gain everything.
[00:31:23] Sure, it will be costly at times. Sure the bank balance won't look too great at times. Sure, your credibility and reputation might take a bit of a knock in.
[00:31:34] Sure, you will have to sacrifice certain relationships.
[00:31:41] You'll have to say no to the wrong relationships.
[00:31:45] But God promises a laid down life. When we humble ourselves, when we yield, when we surrender, when we set aside our own pride and self righteousness under his mighty hand, he will exalt us at the right time.
[00:32:02] In other words, he will put a place of honour on our lives as we serve Him.
[00:32:10] God responds to places of weakness.
[00:32:14] When we're weak he is strong.
[00:32:16] Matt, will you come up?
[00:32:18] Not sure how we're going to do the next bit.
[00:32:20] I forgot my phone. Just grab my phone.
[00:32:30] Death, death, death to self is when life really starts.
[00:32:37] Who wants to die again some more this year?
[00:32:42] Yeah, I want to die to self. Lord, those things in my life that just need cutting off, that need cutting away, you know, how will we really know. How will we really know that we have died to self and I haven't got time to. And this is. This is a massive aspect of life. We will know that we have died to self by truly loving one another.
[00:33:09] I've seen a lot of mess in church over decades of being in the church I've seen people fall out with people.
[00:33:17] I've seen physical punches. Yes in church.
[00:33:25] I've seen people, their pride and ego rise up.
[00:33:32] Silly emails being sent, silly text messages.
[00:33:40] But how would we know we are walking in the humility of Christ by loving one another?
[00:33:47] We just throw up those. John. We've got some verses from John's one John Gordon. I'm going to quickly go through these.
[00:33:57] Have we got any? Don't worry if we haven't.
[00:34:00] This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
[00:34:09] This is his command to believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and to love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps God's commands lives in him and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us. We know it by the spirit he gave us. It's the spirit of humility of Christ in our lives. Then We've got one more. This is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
[00:34:38] The evidence, the measure of us living in the humility of Christ is that we will love one another.
[00:34:44] There will be times this year when we've got to keep our mouth shut for the sake of unity.
[00:34:51] Let me tell you, as a leadership team, we don't always agree and sometimes we have to prefer one another in a room and just go, you know what?
[00:35:00] For the greater cause, for unity's sake, my voice doesn't need to be heard right now.
[00:35:06] I want to hear your voice.
[00:35:08] Sometimes we're going to have to act like that. Sometimes people are going to offend us. And I actually think they don't mean to offend. We don't mean to offend. It just happens somebody's offended we said the wrong thing in the wrong way.
[00:35:20] Well, how will we know if we're walking in? The humility of Christ says love covers a multitude of sins.
[00:35:30] Andrew Murray says, this great theologian, he's not alive now. Well, he is alive. He's in glory. But Andrew Murray says this. He says, humility before God is nothing if not proved in humility before men.
[00:35:44] I love that.
[00:35:47] To lay down our lives for one another.
[00:35:49] I remember I led a life group and I was one of the senior team up north in the church. And this guy had come to church and I was in this life group and I was leading the life group and in my own living room, he sat there and I prepared a lovely cheese board.
[00:36:07] And I said, please help yourself. And he turns around in my living room and he said, no, you. You serve me right. And I was on the leadership team of this church. And he said, no, you serve me, like, in a really condescending way. And so I got up out my seat and I had to kneel down to get to the thing. And I'm kneeling down before him and I'm putting this food on the plate, and he's smirking at me in my own home. I'll never forget it.
[00:36:40] And he was smirking and I got back up and I just sensed the presence of God saying, this is what my life did.
[00:36:51] This is what I did.
[00:36:53] You've got to be able to take it, too.
[00:36:57] If you want to be a leader in my church, you've got to take the knocks when people knock you.
[00:37:08] But everything within me in that moment wanted to rise up and go, you horrible man.
[00:37:17] But I am one amongst you who has come to serve.
[00:37:21] I am one amongst you who has come to lay down my life. How will we know it'll be how we love one another? Doesn't the world need to see that kind of love?
[00:37:30] Do we want to be a church that is like that, Lord, that you may increase this year, that I, I would decrease?
[00:37:41] You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honour and power.
[00:37:48] You, you.
[00:37:51] I want the breakthroughs, I want the miracles. I want to see salvations in the house.
[00:37:56] But more than anything, I believe God is looking for a church that doesn't know how to do it by itself, doesn't know parents in this room, you know, we've got some challenges, don't need to go into them, but we just. Our prayer over the holiday season is, lord, forgive us if we've done bad parenting. But also we need your help.
[00:38:18] We need your help desperately.
[00:38:20] Will you help us? We can't do this. We need your help.
[00:38:26] Will you just stand with me this morning? We're going to close up.
[00:38:31] Time has passed, but I want us just to reflect on all that has been said today, on the humility of Christ.
[00:38:41] Can our prayer this year be. Lord, I desperately need to walk in the humility of Christ.
[00:38:52] In my business, in my work, in my family, in my ministry, Lord, I want to be a person that throws down the crown, throws down, lays it down to say, you are worthy. Oh, Lord, our God, Jesus, you laid down your life.
