Crossing Nation, It is so good to be able to spend time with
you today before I jump into the sermon last week, I was
preaching through our state of the church and I was going
through our core values. And when I was talking about two
of our core values, in specific about our church being outward
and our church being downward, I was talking about how our church
has a heightened focus on those who don't have a relationship
with Jesus. And our church has a heightened
focus on people who are younger over those who are older.
The way I wrapped that terminology and trying to
express my passion and commitment to those core values
was hurtful. And I know that because I got an
incredibly kind e-mail from somebody who basically said the
way you did that stepped on my air hose and it was hurtful.
And as I read through it, I was like, you're right.
And I'm assuming she's not the only person who I hurt.
And so I owe you guys an apology because the gospel of Jesus
Christ requires me to care deeply and love deeply the
people of this church and to say the gospel message in a caring
and kind and compassionate way. And I'm There's going to be
times when I'm going to be offensive, because the gospel is
offensive, but I don't need to be needlessly offensive for the
purpose of a joke, a jab, or a sermon filler.
You guys deserve better. The gospel deserves better.
Jesus deserves better. And so I wanted you to know, I'm
sorry, I will do better. Some of you guys will write me a
permission slip, but I don't need one and I don't deserve
one. I'm a professional communicator,
and I can figure out ways to communicate my passion in a way
that isn't hurtful and offensive.
And so I'm sorry. That being said, yeah, I really
do. I I really do love you guys and
I'd hate for anything to get in the way of that.
So I'm going to do a really good job if I can, of preaching A
sermon today where I don't step in any mud holes.
So a woman had a young child, and she wanted him to be
mentored by a good teacher. And so she said, would you
please spend the day with my son?
And so the teacher showed up and took the young boy on a walk
through the forest. And as they're walking through
the forest, the teacher pointed out a small tree that was barely
a couple of days old. And he said, I want you to pull
up that tree. And so the boy reached down with
his finger and his thumb, and he plucked that small tree out of
the ground. He goes, good job.
They continue walking through the forest and he comes across
another tree that's several weeks old.
And he tells the young boy to pull that tree out.
And the boy reaches down and he puts his entire hand around the
trunk of the tree and he pulls it out of the ground.
They keep walking through the forest and they go a little bit
further and they find a tree that's well over six months old.
And he says, I want you to pull up that tree.
And so the boy grabs with both hands and he squats down and he
pulls and he pulls and he pulls and eventually he falls back and
the roots release from the ground and he pulls up that tree
and the teacher goes, good job. They keep walking through the
forest and they come across a full grown tree and he says, I
want you to pull that tree up. And the boy goes up and he wraps
his arm around the tree and his hands barely touching their
side. And he pulls and he pulls and he
pulls and eventually he cries out.
It's impossible to pull up this tree and the wise teacher turned
to the boy and he said, and so it is with your habits.
When your habits just begin to blossom, they are easy to
remove. But once they are full grown, it
is impossible to remove them by yourself.
We know this to be true. The good habits that you're
trying to form are so easily discarded, right?
Last night Jennifer said. Do you want anything from the
store? I said whatever you do, don't
get any more of those Hy Vee cookies because I'm going to try
and start dialing it in. And then today, after first
service, I said, are you still going to Hy Vee Right after
church? She goes, yeah, I go pick up
some of those cookies because there's a Chiefs game today,
right? You could.
It just doesn't take any time at all.
Here's what the teacher was trying to tell the young boy Get
control of your habits. Before your habits get control
of you, I want to welcome those of you joining at all of our
different locations, those of you watching online, and those
of you who are hanging out at the Crossing for the first time
or maybe the first time in a long time.
I got a special word to those of you who are gathering at one of
our physical locations. You have made a great decision
for your physical and your mental health.
Weekly church attendance. Weekly church attendance has
been scientifically proven to be good for you.
All this time you thought God was just being legalistic and
all this time you thought pastors were just trying to
boost their numbers. No, no, no, no, no.
When God made you, he knew what was good for you and he calls
you to things that are good for you.
And when you go to church regularly, it is good for you
mentally and it is good for you physically.
It boosts your immune system. Did you know that?
It's probably because there's people who aren't washing their
hands when they're coming out of the bathroom.
Then, like you're just get it decreases your blood pressure.
It adds much as two to three years to your life.
How many of you want to live longer if you didn't raise your
hand? You should really get right with
Jesus today. You don't.
I don't know how much time you got left.
Regular church attenders are less likely to be depressed and
anxious. Those who attend church
regularly have a greater sense of purpose, meaning, and
satisfaction. The survey also goes to get the
same level of satisfaction of going to church regularly, you
would need between a 17 and $25,000 raise.
So if you didn't get a $20,000 raise this year, keep coming to
church, OK? Because that's the only way
you're getting happy. At the very least, you being at
church is a gift to yourself and to those you love.
It's a habit worth keeping, but today we are starting A5 week
sermon series called Creatures of Habit Breaking the Habits
Holding you back from God's Best.
It's based on a book by Steve Poe who's a friend of Jerry and
Allison, and he will actually be here for week 5 of this sermon
series. He was a pastor of a large
church in Indianapolis and he has agreed to come and close out
this sermon series with us. Nobel Prize winning writer
Albert Camus said this life is a sum of all your choices, and to
be honest with you, it's pretty hard to argue with that.
It doesn't take a lot of time, if you're looking around at your
life, to realize that you ended up where you ended up because of
the decisions that you've been making along the way.
You made choices to get where you are right now.
Your financial situation more than likely is a result of
choices that you made. The haircut you have right now,
most of you weren't kidnapped. You made that decision sober.
You said, yeah, I want that, which is great.
Friends you have. How many of you have friends
that you don't really like? The fact that you still have
those people in your life, it's because you refuse to make the
decision to deal with it. The clothes you're wearing, you
decided that and how tight they are right now.
You you made that decision too. The scary part is that
neurobiologists and cognitive psychologists indicate, check
this out, that from 40 to 95% of human behavior, that is what we
think, what we say, and our overall behaviors are based on
habits. What that means is, if life is
based on our decisions, and our decisions are largely based on
our habits, then there are some unavoidable truths.
The first one is that we are creatures of habit, The second
truth, Our habits form us. But the good news is, if you
change your habits, you can change your life. 1st we make
our habits and then our habits make us.
And there is one habit, one single sin.
That is the most destructive habit when it comes to your
spiritual growth. If you're going in 2024, I want
to get closer to God than I've ever been.
This habit will keep you from it.
It is the single biggest destroyer of marriages and
parenting relationships that you desperately desire to have.
If you don't get this one figured out, it's going to hurt
your marriage. It's going to hurt your
parenting. This one habit limits your
ability to be the boss, manager, leader, employee that you want
to be. It keeps you from having deep
and meaningful relationships. This one habit is the headwaters
for so many other sins and vices and harmful habits.
It keeps you from experiencing the favor of God.
What is this devastating habit? What is this devastating sin?
It's the habit. It's the sin of pride.
Now some of you you might be going well, how would I know if
I have a pride problem? Let me give you some
descriptions. If you are super competitive,
you probably have a pride problem.
It's not enough for you to just bring your very best, you must
decimate somebody in the process.
That's why nobody plays Monopoly with me and my family, because I
don't stop until they cry and you put winning above all else.
It's one thing to take pride in your kids, your appearance, your
yard, because you want to bring your very best to the table.
But if the only way you get true satisfaction is if somebody is
defeated, somebody loses, You could have a pride problem.
If you are constantly comparing yourself to others, you might
have a pride problem. Here's what prideful people do.
They pick people to compare themselves to that they know
they will win against. They don't pick somebody that
will make them get better, become a better husband, become
a better wife to compare themselves to.
Oh no, no, no, no, no. They compare themselves to
somebody who's worse than them. So they can say, well, at least
I'm not as bad as fill in the blank.
You might struggle with pride if when you heard the topic of the
sermon, you went, oh, I wish so and so was here because they
could really use this sermon if the first thing that popped in
your mind was somebody else, OK, so far, everybody's surviving.
If you are controlling, you have a pride problem because nobody
can do it like you do it. No one is as good as you.
Your way is the best way to do it, and everyone else's way is
not as good as your way. Ladies, your husband doesn't
help fold the towels because your way is the only way to fold
a towel. And your kids don't help clean
up after dinner and wipe down the countertop, because nobody
cleans off a countertop as good as you.
And it's not that your family's lazy.
It's that you're prideful and controlling.
Fellas, I I took that one for you, and I want you to remember
that, OK? I also need a place to stay this
week. If you are threatened by people
who are smarter than you, more skilled than you, more talented
and gifted than you, you might have a pride problem as a boss.
As a leader, you push those people away because you're
insecure. You don't want them to be better
than you. You don't want to have to
compete against people that will push you and challenge you, and
so you push talented people away from your company, from your
business, from your team, Charlie Munger, who was kind of
the cohort of Warren Buffett, said.
If we only hire people smaller than us, we will become a
company of dwarves. And so your family, your
friendships, you push the people away who challenge you.
So that way you can be in charge.
If you are always talking and rarely listening.
I'm just raising my hand. So that way, you know, I know
that I have a pride problem. My wife during first service was
like speaking so loud at that point that we had to pause the
sermon. You probably have a pride
problem. If you don't ask for help, you
probably have a pride problem. It's not that you're
self-sufficient, it's that you don't want people to know the
real you. You would rather they like the
fake version of you, then love the real version of you.
It keeps you from being honest, and so your relationships don't
grow as deep. If you're a people pleaser, you
might struggle with pride because you are constantly
trying to figure out how to operate your life in a way that
will please everybody else. Because you want everybody else
to think really good about you. You, you, you, you, you.
You might have a pride problem. You have created a world in
which you are the center of the universe.
And hear me. If unchecked, pride will lead
you to dangerous places. It was because of pride that
Satan became Satan. And like Satan, pride will lead
to your destruction both in this world and in the world to come.
Proverbs chapter 16, verse 18 says this Pride goes before
destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.
It leads to your eternal destruction because a prideful
person will never recognize their need for a savior and will
continue to sit on the throne of their lives and their hearts.
The good news is it does not have to be this way.
If we keep reading in verse 20 it says this.
Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers and blessed
is the one who trusts in the Lord.
This year, 2024, how many of you want to prosper?
Those of you who didn't raise your hand, Prospering is a good
thing. How many of you would like a
good thing this year? And you would like to prosper?
Oh, there we go. We got smart people clued in.
How many of you would like God to bless you?
When you are prideful, you cannot heed instruction because
pride can't learn anything. But you allow the Lord to
instruct you. He says he will prosper you and
he will bless you. And the way to do that is we
have to get ourselves out of a position of pride.
A prideful person will never trust in the Lord.
They'll be too busy putting their trust in themselves.
So you might be going, But Clayton, how do I deal with
pride in my life? Well, Peter, one of the people
closest to Jesus, tells us in First Peter chapter 5.
All of you clothe yourselves with humility towards one
another because God opposes the proud but shows favor to the
humble. Hold on a second.
God opposes prideful people. You do not want God as an enemy.
You're going to have enough challenges in your life to have
God go. Nope.
But he shows favor to the humble.
God will take a person who walks in humility, clothes himself in
humility, and he will put them in a position to prosper.
Verse six, humble yourselves therefore, under God's mighty
hand that he may lift you up in due time.
If you want to fight pride, we need to walk in humility.
And here is the promise. As much as God hates pride, he
loves humility. If you want to spend all of your
energy and all of your effort trying to put yourself above
everybody else, God will oppose you.
But if you humble yourself, God gets so excited that when he
sees it, he runs to it and He lifts it up.
Those who humble themselves will be lifted up.
So how do I kill pride and live in humility?
Paul tells us this in Romans chapter 12, verse 3.
For by the grace given me, I say to everyone of you, do not think
of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of
yourself with sober judgement, in accordance with the faith
that God has distributed to each of you.
Think of yourself with sober judgement.
Now, I want you to pay close attention here.
Thinking about yourself with sober judgment is not thinking
about yourself poorly. It is not gone.
Boy, I'm just bad at everything. I'm not good at anything.
Everything about me is absolutely horrible.
There's no way God could ever use me.
I don't have anything good to say.
I don't have any value. That is not humility.
That is stupidity. Because when you are saying bad
things about you, you are saying bad things about God because God
made you and God makes good things.
Don't believe me? Look what it says right here in
Ephesians chapter 2. For we, that's you and me are
God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works.
Which God prepared in advance for us to do.
God made you, formed you, put you together, equipped you, put
gifts inside of you to be used. You are a gifted, qualified
person to accomplish good things with Christ's help.
And when we start going, well, I'm just not any good and I
can't do anything and I don't have anything to offer.
You're making a statement about something good that God made.
Imagine your kid were to make you like, you know, you would
just came out of the gingerbread season.
Your kid makes a gingerbread house and he brings it to you
and you go, oh, wow, that's trash, right?
You would be saying something about the maker.
And when you look at yourself in the mirror, or when you see
minister or opportunities to serve and to accomplish God's
mission and you go, well, I just can't.
I'm just not. You're making a claim about your
maker. This is about having a sober
judgment. When it comes to you thinking of
yourself honestly, it means that you're not perfect.
It means that you're not the smartest, most gifted person.
You're not the most important person in every room.
You recognize that God created you to be part of the body of
Christ, but you are not Christ. That's what you're supposed to
do. CS Lewis said it this way.
Humility is not thinking less of yourself.
It is thinking of yourself less. And if you stop thinking about
yourself as much as you presently think about yourself,
you will be amazed at how much time you have to think about God
and others. It moves you into a position to
accomplish the 2 greatest commandments.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and
strength. And love your neighbor as
yourself. You were created by God to love
Him and accomplish His mission, and to accomplish his mission by
loving others. Humility is not going.
I can't do anything right. Humility is going.
How can I make the lives of people around me better?
How can I be used by God and for God?
To get an example of what this would look like, look at Mark
chapter 10, verse 45. For even the Son of Man, that's
Jesus did not come to be served but to serve and to give his
life as a ransom. For many, a person who is
willing to defeat pride and win in humility sees themselves as a
servant. They see themselves as a
opportunity to be used by God, to make the lives of people
around them better. Instead of looking for ways to
compete and waiting to be celebrated, they're looking for
ways to help others, celebrate others and serve others.
A person who is humble is going to be asking questions like
this. How do I take my gifts that God
gave me and use them to make the lives of the people around me
better? Instead of making myself better,
how do I use my time, my talents, my money, my gifts, and
leverage them to love God and love others?
It's super easy to take the gift that you have and to use it for
you, and we see people doing it all the time, but we have
permission slips when we do it ourselves and condemnation when
we see it in others. A person who's humble takes what
God has given them and they use it to glorify God and to reach
and serve people. This week I want you to find a
way to serve your spouse. This week I want you to find a
way to serve your kids. Look for a way to serve your Co
workers. See yourself as an agent from
God to better their life to serve, and point them to Jesus.
This week, find a way to celebrate something in somebody
else. Instead of constantly trying to
put the spotlight on yourself, turn the spotlight on somebody
else. Man, when you did that, that was
really good. When I saw that, I really
appreciated it. When you are a grateful person,
it forces us to keep our pride in check and live in humility
because we are celebrating the greatness in others instead of
trying to get others to celebrate the greatness in US.
Jesus is our supreme example when it comes to this.
Look what it says in Philippians chapter 2.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.
That's pride. Rather in humility.
Value others above yourselves. It's not devalue yourself, but
see the value in others, not looking to your own interests.
That's prideful, but each of you to the interests of others.
How do I make the lives of people around me better keep
going? And your relationships with one
another have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.
If Jesus was married to my spouse, what would his mindset
be? If Jesus had my job, my
responsibilities, my relationships, how?
What would his mindset be? Instead of having a mindset that
is trying to worship yourself, have a mindset of Christ Jesus.
How did he live this out? Who being a very nature God, did
not consider equality with God something to be used to his own
advantage? Rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human
likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled
himself by becoming obedient to death, even death.
On a cross. Therefore God exalted him to the
highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on
earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that
Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
You see what happens? Jesus humbles himself and God
lifts him up and draws people to him.
That's why Jesus said if I be lifted up, I will draw all men
unto myself. If anybody has a right to be
prideful, don't you think it's Jesus?
Like, what's the thing that you're better at than him?
So you're like, I'm a pretty good counselor.
You think you're better than him.
So I mean, like, I mean, I'm a pretty good friend.
Think you're better than him? I'm a pretty good doctor.
Think you're better than him? Like, the only thing I'm better
at than Jesus is swimming. Because every time he tries to
get in the water, he just walks on it.
Like, I got a way better backstroke than he does.
What's the thing that you think you're better at than Jesus?
He shows up at a party. They run out of drinks.
He's like, I got you. He's walking by a funeral.
He's like, let's cancel it. Like, that's just how he
operates. You think you're better than
him, and Jesus takes all of that greatness, and what does he do?
He lays it all down so that you and I could have an intimate,
personal relationship with him and have the hope of heaven.
Jesus didn't come with all of that greatness and go serve me.
He brought all of that greatness to bear, to purchase something
that you and I could have never purchased on our own, our
salvation. And in doing so, he made a way
for you and I. We have the hope of heaven in
our hearts. And maybe, maybe if you and I
were to live in humility, God could use us to do the same.
That when we humble ourselves and leverage our lives for the
good of God and the good of others, maybe, just maybe, he
will use us to draw people into His Kingdom as well.
I hope you'll think about that as we move to this time.
A decision To those of you in here today that have never
started an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus and
those of you who are watching online, I'm going to say some
hard things. So I'm going to poke you for
just a little bit, but I'm poking you in love.
The reason you haven't started a relationship with Jesus Christ
today might be because you have a pride problem.
You think you don't need him, but the Bible clearly says that
the way to the Father is through the Son.
That Jesus is the way, the truth, the life.
You are not in that equation. The way to the Father is not
through you. It's not through your abilities.
It's not through your good works.
It's through him. And pride might be keeping you
thinking, I don't need God to be my savior.
I'll save myself. Good luck.
If you could fix you, God wouldn't have sent his son to
die for you. Some of you, you like the idea
of God being your savior. You just don't like the idea of
him being your Lord, him being in control of your life.
You having to take everything that you've amassed for yourself
and turn it over to him. And not wanting to turn your
life over to Jesus is a pride problem.
Some of you, deep down inside you, just still feel like you
got to earn it, that you got to fix it, that you got to somehow
make it happen on your own. That's pride.
The Bible tells us that salvation is a gift from God so
that no one can boast. When you and I get to heaven,
we're not going to be going. I'm here because I'm so awesome.
I got in here because I'm so good.
No, Christians don't boast in themselves.
Christians boast in the cross. If there's anything good in you
today, it is not from you. It comes from him.
Who's the one who puts the Holy Spirit inside of you, Who
produces things in you that you can never produce on your own?
If there's anything good in me, if I'm making a good parenting
decision, it's because of the cross.
If I'm navigating a marriage thing and I'm doing it the right
way, it's because of the cross. If there's anything that I'm
doing that's having a positive effect, it's because of him.
Christians glory in the cross. We don't boast in ourselves, we
boast in him doing the thing that we could never do and
giving us an opportunity to participate in a mission that we
don't deserve to participate in. Humility goes it's because of
Jesus. If pride goes, I don't need him.
And a prideful person will never enter into the Kingdom of
heaven. And so for some of you today,
for some reason, you've been putting it off for a really,
really long time. What I can tell you is life
without Jesus at the center only hurts you and those you love.
And maybe today you will answer the prayers that people have
been praying on your behalf for a really long time, and you'll
humble yourself and allow Jesus Christ to become Lord and Savior
of your life. And if that's where you are, in
just a few moments, when the people around you stand and
saying, I'm going to encourage you to go right over there by
that baptistry. Or maybe talk to somebody who
brought you about how you can start that relationship with
Jesus Christ. To the rest of you in here, the
Christians, we have a lot of work to do if we're going to
kill pride and live in humility. Some of you, you need to finally
admit that you have a problem. The relationships and the
blessing of the relationships that God wants to give you are
being hindered by your inability to be honest about the hurt and
the heartache and the struggles that you have.
And so you're stuck in shallow relationships and God's saying
if you'd humble yourself, if you'd kill the pride, I could
give you a relational gift that you cannot imagine.
The people around you are way more loving and way more caring
than you ever thought, and I have purpose built them and
equipped them to help you navigate the things that you're
navigating. You have no idea what it'll be
like when you can finally be real and known and loved.
But Satan keeps telling you that you'll be rejected.
Satan keeps telling you you handle this.
Some of you, there are people that you need to apologize to.
You've hurt them. You know you have.
But pride keeps you from saying you're sorry.
And so it infects your marriage. It infects your parenting.
It infects the relationships that you have at work, because
Pride doesn't want to admit when it's wrong.
But in humility, when we go to people and offer a genuine
apology, God can use that to open a door to reconciliation
and to the advancement of his mission.
Some of us, we haven't told some of our friends about Jesus
because we're worried about rejection, because in Pride
we're worried about what other people think of us more than
what he thinks of us. And pride is keeping us from
living on mission like he has called us to, like he has
rescued us to. And so there are people today
that don't know Jesus because the pride in our lives from
yesterday, this year, 2024. Would you humble yourself, ask
God to do a work in you that only he can do?
Would you stand with me, Heavenly Father?
I ask. That you would just shut out all
of the distractions and allow every person in this room and
online to be able to focus on exactly what it is that you want
them to do. God creating us a desire to be
humble, bring about changes in our hearts and our lives that
could be transformative. God, Satan is trying to destroy
us, but you have come that we may have life and life to the
full. And God pride wants us to keep
trusting in our own paths and our own ways.
But humility wants to lean on your ways and your understanding
and acknowledge you in all of our ways.
And so God, as we come to this moment right now, give us the
strength to humble ourselves. Use us, Lord, to advance your
mission, to reach the loss, and to live the life that you've
called us to. In your name I pray.
Amen.