You for jumping back in and hey, welcome if you're watching
online, welcome to North Life Church this morning.
If you're watching online, know that we want to invite you to
come be with us in church. We are located at 115 E Main St.
which is the historical part of downtown Gaylord and the old
movie theater. And you can park right on the
Main St. in the side streets and find us.
Our services are 9 and 10:30 on Sunday mornings.
You're invited. We'd love to have you in worship
with us sometime soon. All right, if you have your
Bibles this morning or online, please take and turn them to
Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12.
And know that notes are available on the back table.
If you'd like to grab those now or on your way out, they will
assist you in navigating through the message with me this
morning. Romans chapter 12.
And while you're turning there, I'll let you know that again,
Jason, I and a few others from the church were in Dallas for
conference, had a really great time.
And then we were able to go visit some churches in the
Dallas area. And we're very inspired.
And one of the churches we went to, I want to tell you about and
encourage you towards his teaching.
The pastor of the church, we went to Lake Point Church, which
is outside of Dallas East in Rockwall, TX.
And the pastor's name there at Lake Point, his name is Josh
Howerton. And we were able to to be in
their service last Saturday evening, late afternoon.
It was really, I was very inspired.
But just check him out. Josh Howerton, Lake Point.
He has a podcast and I think his teaching is really admirable and
might inspire you. So we were great and inspired
last week being there. And then we went to a church in
Wiley on Saturday evening. And out of curiosity, how many
of you have heard of Anthony Evans?
Does anybody know Anthony Evans? Anthony Evans.
OK, good. I'm just curious how many of you
heard of Tony Evans? Tony Evans is a teacher, OK?
This is his son who's a singer, and him and I were in a band
together years ago, but he was on The Voice and some other
stuff. But we got to go see him in the
concert on Saturday night. And then how many of you have
heard of Priscilla Shear? Anyone heard of Priscilla Shear?
So that would be his sister. Interesting enough.
So Tony Evans daughter is Priscilla Shear.
OK, so we went and got to be in worship there and then we went
to Gateway Church on Sunday morning in in South Lake, which
is north of Dallas and had a very inspiring time there.
Also Chris Hodges spoke if you know who he is.
So I encourage you towards what's happening at those
churches and grateful that they poured into our team from North
Life last weekend. All right, if you have your
Bibles, Romans chapter 12 and Ben, I'm not going to read as
much as I've read. I'll just read the first part of
this and then I'll get back to it later in the message.
But we're going to start with verse 3.
So Romans chapter 12, verse three.
I have more. I have 3 through 6 on your
notes, but I'm just going to read the first part and we'll
come back to it later in the talk.
So starting in verse 3, the apostle Paul writes to the
church at Rome and he says, For by the grace given to me, saying
I have grace, the grace that I got.
I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly
than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each
according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
Paul is saying, do not think of yourself more highly than you
should or ought. So this morning I want to talk
to you about how to think of self, how to think of yourself,
how to think of self. Let me pray for us, Goddess, We
look to your word this morning. We do it as an act of worship.
We come with a Worshipful heart and a posture of reverence and
appreciation for the truth that you revealed to us through
Scripture. And now our hearts are open, our
minds are open. We're eager and ready to learn
how to grow in our in our view of self and in the culture that
we live God. So many people have just a
twisted view of themselves, some good, some bad.
And so help us as followers of Jesus to get how to view
ourselves in Jesus name. And everyone loudly together
said Amen. Now often, every so often, I
will kind of pivot from something that I was going to
teach and something will happen in the news in our country,
sometimes in another country. And as your pastor, sometimes
when there's something glaring that's going on in the week,
then I feel like for me to ignore it and not address it,
you know, because we don't live, I feel like for me not to
address it as a disservice to you as a, as a church.
So we don't live in a, in a vacuum, so to speak.
We don't live with our head buried in the sand.
We're aware of what's happening in the world around us.
OK, so this week there was a current event and some of you
will be unaware, some of you will be aware, but this current
event throughout the week maybe go, OK, I, I need to figure out
how to address this. OK, now this morning our worship
team and teams that are here volunteering, serving on Sunday
mornings. We always pray kind of right up
here on the stage in a circle at 8:00 AM on Sunday mornings.
Those who are serving from the coffee shop and sometimes
setting up the ushers and those who are in up in the tech booth
with video and lighting and and video with audio and other
things live streaming, then the musicians and the singer.
So, so we're here this morning. Maybe there were, I don't know,
12 or 15 of us at 8:00 and we were praying.
And I said, OK, how many of you knew this happened this week?
And there were a few were like, I didn't hear anything about
this. OK, so I'm aware that some of
you, you're going to hear about this for the first time from me.
OK, But let me explain to you what happened.
And I thought about having a picture of it, but I didn't want
to do that. And I'll tell you why in a
second. So this past week, President
Trump posted an AI generated photo of himself.
How many of you saw it? Anybody.
OK, How many of you did not see it?
Wave at me if you did not. OK, good.
Very good. Some of you didn't see it.
OK, so and good for you because right, You're, you're, you're
you, you missed it, right? So what was the what was the AI
photo? The AI photo was President Trump
in like this white robe with kind of this red sash and he was
in a, in a kind of a collage of like people that were around him
on his side, like nurses and soldiers and others.
And then behind him, I think it was like the White House.
And there was a sky with initially understand the this AI
generated photo initially had like like soldiers in the sky
and like jets and stuff. But somebody, whether it was
President Trump or someone else, altered it to where it looked
like they were heavenly beings, almost demonic characters behind
him in the sky and in front of President Trump in the AI
generated photo was a man who appeared to be sick, like in a
stick bed. And President Trump was like had
his hand on him. And then in his hand it was like
these rays of light coming out and it was glowing.
Okay, so that paints the image for you.
I don't want to put it in church this morning or in your notes.
So, so I mean, there was outcry and ironically, often you have
like the right conservative side and they get mad about something
and they get loud. And then often you get the left
liberal side and they get loud about something.
But rarely do you ever have an instance where both sides are
upset. And I must say this week both
sides were upset. It was a curious thing.
It was like a rare occasion, man, the left and right are
together on this right. And so people those who some
people are like, this is heresy. And right now President Trump is
kind of in a bit of a spat with the Pope.
I don't want to go into that. This is in fact, this is not
going to be a political message. This is all going to go
somewhere. But so he's in a spat of it with
the Pope. And so people were like, this is
heresy. This is wrong.
And so you had religious leaders crying out for him to remove the
post and he did. Then ironically, you had some
who were like, well, you know, it's, it's just tacky.
It's incredibly tacky. And I think it was tacky.
Was it heresy? I don't know, but then some over
here thought, you know, look how he views himself.
Is he a Messiah? He views himself as the Messiah.
He views himself as Jesus. People on the left and the right
were upset about it. I will tell you my take on it is
that 79 year old people should not be online posting AI photos,
right? No offense if you're 79, OK, if
you're 79 years old, but there should be a limit right at a
certain like they should take your driver's license away,
right at a certain age, driving AI generated photos on the
Internet. So he's too old to be doing
this, in my opinion. OK, so it just raised the hubbub
and people are upset and and you can think what you think.
Again, this is not a a message about politically what you know,
is he right? Is he wrong?
But what happened to me this week is that to me, the biggest
towel and President Trump posting this and he's the
ultimate troll. I understand that.
And he's got a sense of humor. I understand that.
But my question this week was the bigger issue is insight into
how President Trump thinks of himself.
How does he view himself? And maybe he and you know, he
was by the way, he was asked about it by reporters, you know,
why are you posting yourself as Jesus in this image?
And he said, well, he didn't think it was Jesus.
He thought was a physician, right?
And he said I like, you know, I want to see people healed.
So he thought himself a physician in it.
I don't know. I don't maybe I don't know.
I don't I, I didn't pay enough attention to really ever get to
the bottom of it. I just paid attention enough to
go. This could be his view of
himself. So then what's interesting to me
is it begs the question then how do I think of myself?
How do I view myself? Paul says do not think of
yourself too highly. And we're going to look at a lot
of other things this morning in Scripture when it comes to
viewing ourselves. But if it enraged you or enraged
somebody else that President Trump thinks this of himself, I
just wonder sometimes I think people can tend to project anger
that they have it themselves onto others.
And what do I mean by that? There's a principle in
psychology where sometimes when you have anger at yourself for a
certain flaw or inadequacy, when you see it in others, then you
become very upset and enraged. Parents have to be very careful
about this because often we give our flaws to our kids, right?
Right. They have the same hanging UPS
often that we have. And maybe you've not dealt with
it in your own life. So then when you see it in your
kids, if you're not careful, you can become really upset at your
kids for the same flaw that you have, right?
You know, this is a thing, right?
Projection. So when it I was not that
bothered, I mean, I was like, you know, it's tacky.
And again, he's age 60 or 79, probably not a good idea to be
doing this at 79, but because your filter, you know, his
filter gets a little, I think cloudy at that age when it comes
to these types of things. So, but my, my question was if
it really bothered people, then is it because maybe they have
kind of a, an odd view of themselves and I kind of want to
wade in with that. So that's the premise this
morning. I just begged the question, how
do I think of myself? And how should you think of
yourself? How should you view yourself
when it comes to being a follower of Jesus and living in
light of the crucifixion, the death, the burial, the
resurrection of Jesus and now grace that comes from God?
Paul says in light of the grace that I've been given, he's
saying to people, don't think of yourself too highly.
And so I want to unpack what Paul means by that.
And I want to connect it to a whole bunch of other scriptures
this morning to to then again. So the issue to me is not him
posting this. The issue to me is like it begs
the question in my own life and in your life, how should we view
ourselves in light of our relationship with Jesus?
Now, another thing that happened in the news this week, maybe you
saw this, is that some people came out and like, look at
Trump, President Trump. He's comparing himself to Jesus.
You know, he's looking like Jesus.
And people got talking heads on TVI saw some people said Jesus
would never even claim to be the Messiah.
Jesus didn't. He didn't say he was God.
Jesus was humble. Jesus was humble and he would
have never promoted himself. And I'm like, you're full of
something because it's not true. Jesus certainly, certainly,
certainly over and over and over again said that he was the
Messiah. And he walked in humility, yes,
but the humility in Jesus did not look like, well, he didn't
know who he was. Jesus knew who he was and that's
what got him killed. And it was his plan all along.
That was his plan to boldly proclaim who he was.
Now, early on in this ministry, when he would do miracles, He
would tell people, don't go tell anybody about this yet because
it wasn't time yet. But eventually the time is going
to come for him to sacrifice himself for us, and he's going
to sacrifice himself for us as the reason they're going to take
him out is because he knew who he was.
So let me show you because if you heard people this week say
Jesus was humble, he never said he was God.
He never said he was the Messiah.
They're wrong. OK, so watch Jesus John chapter
5 verses 52 to 59. Jesus is having a bit of a spat
with the religious leaders. And Jesus did have spats with
those who were prideful and had a wrong view of themselves.
They thought themselves better than others.
They viewed themselves too highly.
And how does Jesus respond to people that view themselves more
highly than they should? Watch this 52 The Jews said to
him. Now we know that you have a
demon. Why?
Because he healed people, the only people.
And watch what he's going to say.
He's talking about Abraham. And they said the people said
Abraham died, as did the prophets.
Yet you say if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.
Right now Abraham died. Abraham died, but Jesus is
talking about the resurrected Abraham.
He will live eternally. And they don't like it.
And they said to Jesus, are you greater than our father Abraham
who died and the prophets died? Who do you make yourself out to
be? They're upset about who he
thinks he is. And Jesus answered, If I glorify
myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies
me, of whom you say He is our God.
But you who have not known him, I know him.
But you who have not known him, he says, I know Him.
If I were to say that I do not know Him, I would be a liar like
you. But I do know him, and I keep
his word. Watch this.
You might think that Jesus was nice all the time.
No, he wasn't in this occasion. He's like, you're a liar.
If I said I'd if I said I'm not God, then I'd be lying.
If I said I didn't know the father, I'd be lying.
I'd be like you liar. And that's how he's talking to
them, right? So if you think Jesus was humble
and never said he was God, you're wrong and you think Jesus
was always nice, you're wrong because he was often very
pointed. Verse 56, he says your father
Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day.
He saw it and was glad. It's like Jesus saying Abraham's
been viewing this from that holding place where people were
and they could view what's happening.
That's another story. But but he's like Abraham's
seeing this and he said, I will glorify myself and my glory is
nothing. It is my Father who glorifies
me. I'm going to go down verse 57.
So the Jew said to him, you were not 50 years old.
And have you have you seen Abraham?
He's like they're saying Abraham lived thousands of years ago.
How can you claim to have seen him and watch what Jesus says
blessed you think that he wasn't proclaiming himself to be God on
the side? Jesus said to them truly, truly.
Whenever Jesus says truly, truly, it means this is
especially true. Everything Jesus says is true,
but this truly, truly means pay attention.
It's especially true. He says, I say to you before
Abraham was I am, before Abraham was I am.
And watch when he says this, when he says this.
So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid
himself and went out of the temple.
Jesus is saying, listen, before Abraham was I was, I am.
And why are they so enraged? Well, for one, he's saying I was
alive before Abraham. I was in existence before
Abraham. But also when Jesus says I am,
it's a nod. It's it's pointing back to
Exodus where God called himself, I am right.
The story is in Exodus chapter 3.
It's the story of Moses when he's been in the wilderness for
40 years. Remember the first 40 years of
his life, he grows up in the court of Pharaoh and he is
royalty of sorts. But then he kills a Egyptian
soldier who is mistreating Jewish slaves, Hebrew slaves.
And so he, you know, he goes away in exile for 40 years.
And after 40 years of wandering in a wilderness like mountain
desert area, God comes to him. He's been a shepherd of goats
and the likes, and God comes from in a burning Bush and he's
going to tell Moses, go back to Pharaoh and tell him to let my
people go, Let the Hebrew slaves go free, right?
Watch. So that this is the story.
That's the context. So verse 14, then Moses said to
God, after God has said go back to Egypt, Moses said, if I come
to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your
father's has sent me to you. And they asked me, what is his
name? What shall I say to them?
And God said to Moses, I am who I am that great.
So what God says, what is my name?
We would say Yahweh. God saying my name is I am, I'm
everything, I'm all things, all I am, all powerful.
I am that I am. So when Jesus says I am, he's
giving himself the same name. That's why they stone him.
They're not, they're they're angry at him when he says he's
before Abraham. But when he says I am, they
become really enraged and they want to take him out.
They want to stone him. He's claiming to be deity.
Now, there's another occasion where there's kind of a similar
thing happens. This is when Jesus is in the
temple before the death of Lazarus.
OK, so if you remember the story in John, Jesus is in the temple.
Then Lazarus dies. He read.
He, you know, brings it back to life.
Then Jesus goes on to Jerusalem as crucified, buried,
resurrected, and then is with his disciples afterwards.
OK, so this is the context of that.
So John chapter 10, Jesus says I and the Father are one those who
said Jesus didn't save us, God, they're wrong.
The Jews, when Jesus said I and the Father one the Jews picked
up stones to again stone him and Jesus answered them.
I've shown you many good works from the Father.
For which of them are you going to stone me, right?
I've healed this person, I've healed this person.
I've did this good teaching. I've done all these good things.
What are you stoning me for? The good works.
Well, they're stoning him because he says he's God.
I'm one with the Father. The Father and I are one.
Jesus knew who he was in Mark 1460 through 65.
Here's a story that says and the high priesthood.
This is after Jesus has been arrested, the night that he had
communion, the night he had community with his disciples, He
goes to pray, and while he's praying in the garden,
Gethsemane, they come and arrest him and they take him and he's
before a council or before trial.
And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, have
you no answer to make? What is it that these men
testify against you? They were testifying that he
claimed to be deity and they thought it was blasphemous, but
he remained silent and made no answer.
Again the high priest asked him, Are you the Christ, the Son of
the blessed? Are you the Messiah?
Are you God is what they're saying?
And Jesus said I am. And when he says I am, again
it's the same language that God used at the burning Bush with
Moses. He said, I am, and you will see
the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming
with the clouds of heaven. And the high priest tore his
garments and said, What further witnesses do we need, right?
He thinks Jesus is blasphemy. He says, you've heard his
blasphemy, blasphemy. What is your decision?
And they all condemned him as deserving death.
And some began to spit on him and to cover his face and to
strike him, saying and prophecy. And the guards received him with
blows. So those who want to adopt Jesus
as their example of humility and say he never claimed to be God,
they're totally wrong. They're totally wrong.
Jesus knew who he was and his plan all along was to sacrifice
himself for our forgiveness. But he knows who he is and him
proclaiming who he is is what leads to his death.
That's the story of Jesus. So as followers of Jesus, if
Jesus knew who he was, then it's beneficial for us to know who we
are also. So that with that in mind, let's
go back to Romans where we started, to Romans chapter 12,
where Paul is giving to them instructions, the Church of Rome
on how they should view themselves.
Verse 3 For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among
you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to
think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the
measure of faith that God has assigned.
Now you should give thought to who you are and but he's saying
don't think too highly of yourself.
Don't inflate yourself. Don't make yourself more
important or more glorious than you actually are.
And when he's saying give sober judgement, it's it's it's it's
him saying, listen, give like understanding, grow in your
understanding of who you are. It's beneficial.
OK, Now this is not promoting low self esteem, but an
accurate, realistic view of your talents and your skills.
We know that the world around us is totally flawed in this,
right? So many people are just because
many people grew up getting like participation trophies, right?
Just because you participated, somebody inflated your view of
your skills or your talents. And you know, the old American
Idol, if you go back like 10 or 15 years ago, I mean, sadly,
like in a mean spirit, much of that show was people coming on
that actually thought they could sing.
Their view of themselves was inaccurate, right?
And so, I mean, the show, in my opinion, back then was kind of
mean spirited because you would put these people on who were
just terrible and their mother or their grandmother or somebody
convinced them that they could sing and they were terrible.
And you'd watch it mock and laugh.
It was mean spirited. OK, I appreciate that now that
the show seems different than that.
I don't I don't we don't have TV reception, so we don't get
American out. But I watch the highlights, you
know, so he they're not promoting a low self esteem, but
we're just promoting an accurate Paul is saying an accurate view
of who you are. And in our culture now, people
often have these inflated views of their importance because the
world around you will try to inflate your view of yourself
and you can miss it right terribly now.
But it's but also you're not intended to like think of
yourself as lowly and undeserving and scum.
And there's a wonderful hymn. I do it every year at Good
Friday. I try to do it at Good Friday.
The original version of it has a word that I've changed.
And this morning when we were in our circle, our prayer circle, I
asked the worship team if they knew the song.
And what I found out is that they were singing it with the
new evolution of words. So the song is at the cross.
Do you know the song at the cross?
It's like, alas. And did my Savior bleed?
And did my sovereign die? Do you know, sing it with me
that he would give himself away for such a worm.
Somebody said it right. The original version was for
such a worm as I right. So every year I like I update
that, you know, and it's one of there were some others.
There was a variety of updated evolutions of that song.
So I love that song at the cross, at the cross where I
first saw the light and the burden of my souls rolled away.
It was there by faith. I received my sight and now I am
happy all the day. I love the whole song.
I just don't like the worm part, right?
So I take the worm part out because that's not also to be
the view of ourselves. Not too highly, but not too
lowly. Not a worm, am I?
So you're wanting to find that sweet spot of where I am
accurately. What am I really like?
And that's where it takes being in relationship with others.
And my question to you, has anyone ever told you that maybe
you thought too highly of yourself?
When I was 30 years old, I'd been serving at Res Life, our
mothership church down in Grand Rapids for like 5 or 6 years.
And I was recruited to go serve at this church called Willow
Creek in the Chicago area as a worship leader, worship
director. And when I when I was, so I was
being recruited for a couple months and then basically I've
been offered the job and mostly said yes.
And we were just kind of in the process of tying up things at
the end. And then some somehow the, the,
the, the staff and the leaders of the church had forgotten
that. Oh yeah, we forgot.
There's another part of the process that we didn't do.
And that was that I was supposed to have an elder interview.
So with the board of directors or the board of the church,
there was, I was supposed to have an interview with two of
the people on the board. And so by then it already been
like 3 months. And the leaders that were
recruiting me, if you will, they just forgot.
OK. But I think the, I think the,
some on the board were like, hey, we're supposed to be part
of this process, right? And so kind of last minute I was
like, oh, they said, oh, we want you to have an interview.
And interesting enough, it was two women and one was an
attorney and they love the Lord, I'm sure.
And whether the other was, I don't remember.
But but what was interesting is that I, I didn't realize that
they were a little bit put off because they've been left out of
the process. OK, so I went into the interview
and I was pretty confident by this point.
I mean, it looked like that I was going to be offered this
job. So I'd go into the interview and
somehow I must have come across as viewing myself more highly
than I ought. So one of the women who's
probably in her 50s, I was 30 at the time, she kind of leaned
forward and she was like, you think too highly of yourself.
And when she said it, like part of me was like, OK.
And I thought, well, maybe maybe I do.
Or, or maybe you're, maybe you're upset that the process
went awry. But I'll tell you, it messed
with me for a while and it but it, but it made me look and go.
I mean, I'm 30 years old and I'm still growing.
And I was aware that even in my younger years, sometimes when I
was insecure. And maybe you're like this when
you're insecure and you're unsure of who you are, then
maybe you could try to mask it with, with an air of confidence.
And so maybe in this interview, in my attempt at covering things
that I was insecure about, maybe I maybe I like an animal that
will kind of swell itself up, right, right.
An animal. So maybe I swelled myself up a
little bit. And in doing so, maybe I did
come across thinking of myself more highly than I ought to.
And I must tell you, my parents are probably watching now and my
parents are wonderful and they might remember this.
And this is compared to that. This is kind of light hearted.
But I had this in my background when I was like 15, man, when I
was 15, my poor parents, I wasn't on drugs and I wasn't
like getting arrested or anything, but I was just
difficult. And I was mad at some things in
the world and, and my family and, and I love Jesus and I was
involved in youth group and I was as a worship leader already
at 15 years old. But, but I was just mad at some
things in my parents lives. And, and we'd moved a couple
times and, and I was unhappy about that.
And so I was just an ornery 15 year old.
And I remember my parents would say to me sometimes they were
like, we don't know who you think you are, but you're not
who you think you are, right? Because at 15, I was on, I was
rebellious and I was, I was, you know, just fighting against my
parents, right? And so I kind of had that in my
history. So when these women said to me,
you think too highly of yourself, I had to really
wrestle and go, well, maybe I do or or maybe I and covering my
insecurity and my feeling of inadequacy with a false sense of
confidence. And so my question for you, that
is, where are some areas in your life where maybe you do think
too high of yourself? Or maybe there are areas where
you really don't and you're insecure.
But if you're not careful and unaware, maybe you'll put this
air of confidence on that is a false sense of who you really
are. So this is when Paul saying,
don't think too high of yourself.
It really, I mean, this is a big issue in our lives because it
can inhibit your relationships and your success in so many
areas of your life. So that means you want to get a
good view of yourself, right? So watch this, I have this, I
came up with this idea some years ago when I was teaching
worship leaders years ago, I would teach workshops and teach
worship leaders and I would say, hey, when you leave worship,
there's this fine sweet spot that you're looking for.
On the one hand, you don't want to get up in front of people
insecure and you don't want to get up in front of people and
have this air about yourself where people will root for you.
And what do I mean by that? Parents, those of you who had
kids in sports, let's say you have a 7 or 8 or 10 year old or,
or a high school student, when you go to their games, there's a
part of you're leaning forward when your kids are little and
they're playing sports and you're, this is what you're
saying, even though you might not know you're saying this,
you're saying I hope they do good.
I hope they do good. Oh, I hope they do good.
I hope they do good. Right, Right.
You can relate this. You're leaning forward.
It's like, oh, I'm hoping they do good.
And they're up there and they're awkward, right?
And they're at a funny age. I hope they do good.
OK, That's you rooting for them. When I get up to teach the Bible
or to lead worship, I don't want you to be sitting there going,
oh, I hope he does good. I hope he does good.
I hope, I hope he does good. No, I want to get up and I want
to have confidence and I want to like, I want to lead with such
confidence that you're not even thinking about those who are
leading, right? Like you don't even notice us.
It's like we want you to just get lost in worship and it's you
and God and you're connected, right?
But then on there's another side.
And sometimes I call it the dig me vibe.
OK, and what is the dig me vibe? I think sometimes worship
leaders or pastors or teachers, they can get up in front of
people and when they play and when they sing, there's this
kind of this thing. It's like, check me out, dig me,
dig me. And I'm like, oh, that's not
good either. That's worse than root for me,
right? So what you want to do in this,
apply this in your own life. It's like, OK, in your job, in
your parenting, whatever your roles are, if you come with a,
if you come with a lack of confidence and you haven't
thought of yourself highly enough, right?
Maybe you think of yourself as a worm.
So you come and you're like, oh, man, I'm just so unsure of
myself. People will sense that.
And it's hard to follow someone that's terribly unsure of
themselves. So you want to have enough
confidence where people aren't rooting for you.
And then you want to then to be humble at the same time where
it's not like dig me, right? Because that's icky and gross,
right? So you want to find the balance.
So when Paul says don't think of yourself too highly of yourself,
he's like, you should think of yourself.
You should ponder who you are. And now I'm going to go into
scriptures that give you like what you should think, right?
So if you should not think too highly of yourself, well, what
should you think of yourself? Well, I want to, I want to get
there right now because you want to focus on being and not not
being. I want to focus on not thinking
of myself about it. I don't think I want to think,
OK, what should I be thinking when I think of myself?
And what I want to tell you is that like there's a recipe for
what I should think of myself. It's not one verse.
You don't take one verse and make a doctrine of it.
Instead, I'm going to give you several verses and, and the
mixture of them is what's going to make it right.
And this is like any recipe, right?
You need this spice in it. They need this, this over here.
And when you put it all together, you get get the right
flavor that you're looking for and you're thinking about
yourself. I'm going to give you several
that you want to put into how you think about yourself.
All of them together, I think will lead you to a healthy view
of self. OK, you ready?
Here we go. 2nd Corinthians 517. Here we start.
Paul writes to the Church of Corinth.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
The oldest passed away. Behold, the new has come.
When you think of yourself, if you're a follower of Jesus, then
you should think of yourself as a new creation, and you should
think of yourself as being in Christ.
This is the biggest theme that the apostle Paul writes about.
In fact, he mentions it 143 times.
He uses the term in Christ over and over and over again in
letter after letter. It's his like you can't miss it.
So when you read like Romans and Galatians, Ephesians,
Philippians, Colossians, the writings of Paul, Timothy, all
of those writings just understand Paul over and over
and over. He's just trying.
You can't miss it. He wants you to have your
identity most from being in Christ.
And identity is really an interesting thing because in the
culture in which we live, people are chasing after identity.
So This is why you might be drawn to a certain brand, right?
If you have this certain brand of purse or certain brand of
shoes. And often it's like, yeah, I
want to have, you know, certain shoes, like these shoes, man,
I'm in the orthopedic stage of life, right?
I need comfortable shoes, right? So these aren't necessarily
cool. It's like this guitar I'm
playing, right? It's no longer about looking
cool, right? Hopefully it never was.
But but it's like, I've got this really light little guitar.
I'm calling it my orthopedic guitar, right?
I don't have to get my arms out like this.
It's just all I have to do is light, just move my wrist.
I'm hoping. OK, so so but you can maybe you
chase your identities in shoes or clothes or a neighborhood
that you live in or a sports team, right?
The sports team that you follow some people and great to have
your sports jerseys, yes. But if it becomes your identity,
if you ever met someone that seems like man, the biggest
thing about their life is a sports team that they follow
brands or clubs. Maybe you join a certain club or
career, see people we have a God has designed us with a hunger
for identity, but it needs to be filled with us identifying as
being in Christ. It's the most important part of
our lives, more important than anything being in Christ.
So Paul goes after this over and over and over again.
So when you think of yourself, you should think of yourself as
being buried, resurrected and in Christ.
He says this in Galatians 2 verse 20.
He says I have been crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me and the
life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith and the Son of
God who loved me and gave himself for me.
The most important thing in your life is your faith in Jesus.
What you should think about most is your identity being found in
Christ. We've died to self.
We've been risen in Christ already.
That's the sign of baptism. Baptism is an outward
expression, what's already happened in us.
We have been buried and resurrected.
Now we identify as being in Christ.
OK, Now, if I'm going to build upon this recipe, then as I'm,
I'm in Christ. I'm a new creation.
Look at me. Yes, go.
So the thing you do is it'll taste.
The taste won't be quite right unless you add something like
this to the equation. Jeremiah 17, nine.
Now when I think about myself, what else do I think about
myself? Well, I think what Jeremiah
says. The hardest.
Deceitful above all things, and desperately sick.
Who can understand it? I live my life in Christ
understanding. I've been buried, resurrected in
Him. I look at myself.
I'm a new creation in Christ. But then also, I realized that
what I have to view myself as with an awareness that I have a
propensity for a heart that wants to deceive.
And the heart is deceitful. And so when we follow after our
passions, when we follow after our, you know, unfettered
desires and selfishness, then, yeah, we can miss our identity
of being in Christ. I'm in Christ, but aware that my
heart can go dark. And this is really important in
the life of Christians because I will tell you, like even in Nazi
Germany in the 1930s and 40s, a lot of the Nazis, interesting
enough were prior Christians and look how dark their hearts went.
I mean, the, the most horrible evil I've been to the Holocaust
Museum in Jerusalem. And it's man, I was offended a
bit by it when I went into the first time.
You kind of snake through it, so to speak, at the way you go
through it. And right at the beginning of
the Holocaust Museum, it was like pictures of Martin Luther
and the Crusades. And it kind of presented that
the Germans that were Nazis were Christians.
I'm like, I wouldn't think of them as Christians.
And yet when I only kind of studied it out, it's like a lot
of Lutheran's became Nazis. Why?
Because the heart is deceitful. And if you're not aware of it,
you'd be shocked at the evil that you can do within a lack of
an awareness of how deceitful the heart can be.
Now I don't want to just ponder right there.
I want to be aware of it. Now I want to tell you what else
about when I think about myself, what do I want to think?
Genesis 126 to 27. This is early in the story of
the Bible. This is at creation.
It says, then God said, let us make man in our image after our
likeness. He's talking about the Trinity
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And he says, and let them have dominion over the fish of the
sea and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock,
and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps
on the earth. So God created man in his own
image, in the image of God. He created him.
Male and female, he created them, male and female, He
created them. Now this is what we call the
Imago day in ancient tradition and doctrine that we are.
Imago day is Latin for image of God.
When you think of yourself, it's it's healthy and right that you
think of yourself. I'm created in the image of God.
I'm created to be God like this is how God wired me and made me.
Why is this important? Because if you fall for the lie
that you evolved out of some slime in a pond somewhere 100
billion years ago, then you'll miss how you are created.
You didn't evolve from some monkey type of creature.
No, God crafted and created us in his image.
Created in his image. So when you think of yourself
and view yourself, you go, OK, I'm Imago day.
You can start your day saying Imago day.
I'm created to be like God. I also have that bend and that
propensity. And it's not just a positive
confession, but it's a sense of importance and value.
Now also I want to view others in light of this.
When I think of myself, I'm thinking, yes, I'm a created in
the image of God, but also I want to see others the same way.
And if you don't see others as creating an image of God, then
maybe you'll think too little of other people.
But would you value those who are the least of these created
in God's image? It will increase within you
mercy and love and generosity and compassion for others.
Now in light of this, in the same way in the New Testament in
Ephesians chapter 2, the apostle Paul says in verse 10, for we
are his workmanship like we're crafted artistically.
I even think and we're created in Christ Jesus.
Again here Paul, it says overriding theme in Christ Jesus
for what are we created for? For good works which God has
prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
When you think of yourself, you say I'm crafted by God
creatively, I'm his workmanship and I'm creating for good works.
Think of yourself in that way. I'm created to do good.
God lead me to good works. It's part of what my life should
look like. And when you think about your
the things that you work at, maybe you're proud of your work.
Maybe when you think of your work, you're like, this is my
workmanship and you're proud of it.
Or maybe you have a hobby or something.
But sometimes you create something, you step back and you
look at it and go, this is good. That's how God views us.
When you think of yourself, you can think of yourself in that
way. But to get a rounded view of
yourself, you also need to look at Romans chapter 3.
Paul writes for all of sins and fall short of the glory of God
and are justified by grace as a gift.
So through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
When you think of yourself, it's okay and right that you are
aware that you are a Sinner, but some traditions will, in fact,
some traditions will have you pray over and over and over and
over again. Have mercy on me, Lord Jesus, a
Sinner. Have mercy on me Lord, a Sinner.
You pray that prayer over and over.
If you only view yourself as a Sinner, then it will be
incomplete. You say yes, I'm a Sinner and I
struggle with failure sometimes, but I'm justified through Christ
because if you just stick in that center part, you'll miss of
the right view of yourself. You yes, when you sin there's a
forgiveness of God and you're justified on both of those.
But be aware that you have ongoing things in your life that
you are going to need to lean into God until you take your
last breath. Be aware, but realize that
there's justification through Jesus.
All right, Also, when you think of yourself, look at this
Philippians chapter one, verse 6.
It says, and I am sure of this. It's like Jesus saying truly,
truly Paul's like I'm I'm writing all this.
But really I'm especially sure of this that he who began a good
work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus
Christ. When you fail, when your heart,
when you're aware, it's like, man, my heart can sometimes trip
me up. I'm a Sinner, I'm justified.
And then when you look at yourself, you go, but I'm in
process. God is like continuing the work.
And when you became a Christian, I mean, that was that was that's
a part of it. When I pray to lead people to
the Lord, I'm like God now show me.
And for some of you, it's like God is going to reveal things to
you lifelong that you were unaware of and he's going to
bring you to new levels in his process.
Some years ago I wrote a song and the idea of the song was
finished the work and the lyric was.
Someday in the twinkling of an eye will all be changed.
But for now, the change in us is day by day.
We won't sit and wait for you to appear when there's so much more
to do in us while we're here. And so my course was like finish
the work that you begun said it's obvious you're not quite
done, O Lord, finish the work in us.
The idea was like when I look at myself, God, it's obvious you're
still working. There's still a lot to do when
you got it's glaring, it's glaring.
So God finished the work. It's a prayer, but know that
you're in process and he, if you allow him to, he will keep
working you. And if you won't allow him to,
he'll still keep working you. It will just be more painful to
be aware of it and to welcome it is, I assure you, better adding
to the recipe. How should you think of
yourself? John 15 Jesus says this, Abide
in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless
you abide in me. I am the vine, and you are the
branches. Whoever abides in me and I in
him, He is He. It is that bears much fruit, for
apart from me you can do nothing.
This is a curious thought for Christians to have because
around you there are people who are not following Jesus and
they're breathing and they're doing things and sometimes
they're successful. Often they can be successful and
it can appear that that everything is going right, you
know, in their lives. But she's just a saying.
I think that apart from me, if you're not in the vine attached
to me, then the things that you accomplish eternally will end up
being pretty empty. But in me, when you when you
abide in me, it's like we're connected.
We're connected. Then things that are eternal,
yes, you can do things that have eternal Kingdom purpose and
eternally it will make a difference.
So when you live your life like it's a prayer, Jesus, here's how
I think about myself. Apart from you, I can do nothing
of value, nothing that has eternity in mind, no purposes
that will have Kingdom, eternal lasting impact.
So it's a prayer, Jesus, apart from you, this is how I view
myself. I can do nothing that is of
great value. Then Mark 10, here's another
part of the recipe. And Jesus called them to him and
said to them, you know, that those who are considered rulers
of the Gentiles lorded over them.
He's talking to his disciples. And here he's talking about
those who are ruling over them, who would have been the Romans.
They were lording over the the Jews.
OK. And he says this and they're and
they're great ones exercise authority over them.
So the the lower ranking ones have authority over us.
And then the ones that are really high-ranking will they
have authority over their own. But it shall not be so among
you. But whoever would be great among
you must be your servant. So Jesus is painting is like,
hey, look, you've got these Roman all the way up to the
Caesar. They're important.
They rule, they they dictate they they, they hover over Jesus
like, but not you. You're not going to be that way.
Whoever would be great among you must be your servant.
See, he's turned it upside down. Their view is like for us to get
power and throw the Romans out, we're going to have to do it
with authority and and world systems.
But Jesus is like the world systems are not going to work in
the system of the Kingdom. The economy of his Kingdom that
he's building is going to be that the servants are going to
be the ones that have the greatest eternal impact.
Verse 44 And whoever would be first among you must be slave of
all for even the Son of man cannot came not to be served,
but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
When you think of yourself, you should learn to think of
yourself as a servant, a slave to all.
I mean a slave has bad connotation.
It's unlike when Jesus was talking and the Roman system
slaves was not they were not treated as we as it has been the
last couple 100 years, which is of course horrible.
It was horrible in Jesus's day, but not as horrible.
OK, so Jesus it's OK for him to use slave of all.
It was different. So we look at his servants of
all Jesus is like you want to be the greatest in the Kingdom.
Think of yourself itself as a servant and the culture in which
we live. People want to be served.
We go to the restaurant that has the best service.
We go to the resort that has the best service.
We're all about being served. So when you go someplace, it can
be easy in our psyche in the Western, you know, the United
States in the West where we live, it's easy to get so
obsessed with being served that you forget that Jesus said, how
should you think of yourself? You should think about yourself
as a servant. How can you serve those around
you and your family and your church and your community and
your job? Even if your job is excelling
and your business is excelling, it's still from this man instead
of how can I serve others? That's how we should think of
ourselves. Philippians 2 Paul gives us
another thing to go on. He says in verse two, complete
my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, full
being in full accord. This is the little song I sing
to my kids all over. Make my joy complete by being
like minded. You know, I used it to raise my
sons particularly. And then he says this in verse
3. Do nothing from selfish ambition
or conceit, but in humility count others more significant
than yourselves in the Kingdom. How do you think of yourself?
Well, you think of others as more significant, more
important. I'm not.
I'm not the center of the universe.
It's not about me. And then Paul says, let each of
you look not only to his own interests, but also to the
interests of others. When your conversations are, are
you the center of the universe or are you, are you leaning in
and do you want to know more about others and their
interests? Paul's like man, you should be
about the interests of others, their needs, their wants.
Think of the interests of others, and then he goes on.
Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality
with God a thing to be grasped. Instead, Jesus emptied himself
for seven by taking the form of a servant.
Being born in the likeness of man, Jesus emptied himself to
become a servant. If we want to be Christ like
that, our thinking should be the same.
In verse 8. And being found in human form,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on the cross. Therefore, God has highly
exalted him. And we stored on him the name
that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus, every
knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and
every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is the Lord.
For the glory of God the Father. Jesus is our ultimate example of
how we should view and think of ourselves.
He emptied himself for the sake of others.
He became a servant. And because of that, God lifted
him up. The Father exalted him and the
Father will do the same in our lives.
So let me give you application and tie this up.
This week's current events with President Trump.
You can get sucked into like the talking heads on TV and hear
people argue about it, but I wouldn't waste your time.
But it is I, I think it is a little nudge for us to look at
our own lives and self reflect on how I think about myself.
What's my view of myself. Jesus knew who he was.
He did, He was, he knew he was, got it, got him killed, and he
is our example. Ask yourself, how do you view
yourself? Too high, too low?
Do you? Do you understand that you are
in Christ? When you think of yourself, the
most important thing is that you are in Christ and that you're
made in the image of God. Yes, you're a Sinner, but you're
justified and God is in the process of working on you.
Welcome it and strive more than anything else to be a servant
for others as Jesus was. Let me pray for us, God, Thank
you for these truths, and thank you that we can lean into
Scripture to ready ourselves to just be more and more like you.
Jesus, That's our hope. And so for some of us, our view
of ourselves is too high. For some of us, it's too low.
So I pray that you would help us to find that sweet spot right
there in the middle where we can live our lives viewing ourselves
in a way that is glorifying to you.
Our spouses, our children, our church, our workplace, our view
of ourselves impacts all of those places.
God. So help us give us revelation.
I pray in Jesus name. And everyone said, hey man, hey,
before we leave, I do want to give just a quick moment to say,
if you've never accepted Christ as your Savior, I want to just
give you a moment to do that. You've never made the decision
to become a Christian. What does it take?
You believe in your heart and you confess with your mouth that
Jesus is Lord and then you shall be saved.
That's all it takes and some want to complicate and all you
got to do is to do No, no, the Bible says that believe in your
heart that Jesus is Lord and you shall be saved and then confess
it with your mouth. And then from there you want to
grow in the ways of God. And we as a church would love to
help you do that. But the first step to becoming a
follower of Jesus is surrendering your life and
saying, Jesus, become my Lord and Savior and grow me in your
ways. And with that, you get the
forgiveness, the mercy of God in your life.
And then our hope for you is that lifelong you chase after
him and eternity is born in you now.
So I'm going to pray, and I want to encourage you to pray with me
if you'd like to receive Christ as your Savior.
And then I want to encourage you to tell somebody, a family
member, you can e-mail me, say I've made the decision to follow
Jesus, and we'll talk to you about next steps.
Let me pray and you can echo this prayer.
Jesus, I come to you with an understanding that you are God,
you are Lord, and I welcome you to be the Lord of my life.
And I want to turn from my own sinful ways and I want to go
your way. So teach me your ways and come
and be the Lord of my life. So I want to die to myself
metaphorically, and I want to be resurrected in you.
And then I thank you that eternity.
I will have eternity with you. And you put eternity and purpose
in me. Now I receive it, and I receive
your Holy Spirit, Spirit of God, come and dwell in me.
Show me your ways as I grow in you in Jesus name and everyone
said Amen, Amen. Let's all stand together again.
If you made that decision to become a follower of Jesus, I
encourage you to tell somebody, tell me, reach out to someone
and we want to encourage you and your next steps and where you
could go from here. Before you go now, I want to say
a blessing over you. So if you'll prepare your heart
to receive this blessing, and now I may the Lord bless you and
keep you, and may he make his face to shine upon you.
And may the joy of the Lord that is unspeakable and full of
glory, may it abound to you. And may the peace of God that
passes all understanding, may it surprise you in the midst of all
of the challenges that life brings.
And then may the mercies of the Lord, in other words, the
forgiveness of God, that is new every morning.
May it be especially new to you now and your mornings to come.
And now may the Lord Jesus Christ guard your heart and your
mind. You are salt and you are light.
Go now and be salt and light into the world.
You are blessed. We hope to see you again soon.