Be Strong - Stand Firm & Act Like Men: Wk 4

(audience cheering) Amen, and amen, and amen. Hey, if you got your Bible, so I hope you do, we're gonna be in Matthew, chapter 20, in just a second. And what an incredible video. And at the end of this service, I think we oughta take up an offering and get Rick, extra large T-shirt, anything. If you got bigger arms in mind, you gotta wear a hoodie around here. All right, actually Rick is serving right now at our newest campus in Palatka. Would you welcome the Church of 1122 in Palatka. Welcome, welcome, welcome. That's happening, praise God. (audience applauding) We're in week four of this series, San Fernando Act like men, and it really turns a corner on this week, okay? We've been talking about what it means to be a man, and you don't have to guess, because the Bible tells us how men are to act like men. Week one, we talked about the reality that manhood was God's idea, so we don't have to apologize for it. But something has gone terribly wrong, and what has gone wrong is sin. And we would never be able to stand up and act like men until we bend our knee to the God-man Jesus, and say, God, there's the only way I can do this is you living through me. Then week two, we said that we gotta be watchful or be on watch, be on guard, because we have an enemy that wants to steal, kill, and destroy, and if we are supposed to provide and protect, if we are taken out by the enemy, then those that we were sent here to defend will by definition be defenses. Then last week, we talked about the reality that we've gotta fight, that our battle is not against flesh and blood, that we were called to be in a fight. This week, we're gonna talk about what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 16, 13, be strong. Says, be watchful, stand firm to the faith, act like men, be strong, let all that you do be done in love. And by the way, if you're new here, if you've gotta miss the first three weeks, we've got these Sanfer and Brakeslets that we're inviting men to put on, so we can identify one another. We've also got these pledges, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, we asking for God to help us be the kind of man that God has called us to be, and I'm an airport to weigh too much, and I have seen these Brakeslets all over the place, and Atlanta and Dallas all over the place, so we would encourage you to get one, slap that thing on and say, God, there's no way I can do this without you, but by your power in me, his divine presence has given us everything we need to do everything that he has called us to. And today, we're gonna talk about what it means to be strong, 'cause if you're gonna fight, you better be strong. It certainly helps. And part of what this means is don't be weak. Don't be a weak man. Don't be a weak Christian. Don't be weak in prayer. Don't be a weak church member. Don't be a weak dad. Don't be a weak husband, but be strong. But what Jesus is going to do is he's gonna redefine what strength is. There are two definitions in the dictionary, the defined strength. One is having the power to move heavy weights or perform other physically demanding tasks. Okay, Paul says that's of some value, but not of eternal value. The second definition matters a lot. The second definition in the dictionary about strength is able to withstand great force or pressure. And if you're gonna be a man, you better learn how to be able to withstand great force or pressure. My friends, both Kyle Thompson and Chad Robeshoe talk on their podcast about the word resilience. That resilience may be more important than strength, because strength is waning, okay? Like if you're over 50, you're not getting stronger. It's just true, right fellas? And all you 18, 25 year olds in your strength, enjoy it and your hair and your flexibility and your eyesight, the ability to sleep at night without getting up three times a pee, enjoy it all. But what you need more than just being able to move weights and I can move some weights, is you gotta be resilient. This is strength under pressure over time. You gotta have the ability to bounce back, to be the man that God has called you to be. In fact, the Bible says in Luke 11, 21, when a strong man, say strong man, well done, when a strong man fully armed guards his own palace, his goods are safe. So the Bible's calling us to be strong, but what we're gonna see in Matthew, chapter 20, beginning in verse 17, is you're going to see Jesus redefine what strength that is. You see, we live in a world that defines strength by position and possession and power. It defines strength by what I can achieve, what I can own, what I can take. Jesus is going to turn this thing upside down, that we have been given strength, it's just not for our benefit. Verse 17, this is very important. If you miss this, you'll miss the whole point, okay? This is the context in which Jesus to redefine power strength greatness. Verse 17, and as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, if you ever come to Israel with me, which I hope you do, everything's up, because Jerusalem is the highest point in all of Israel. And so as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the 12 disciples to side, and on the way, he said to them, verse 18, "See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man will be delivered over to the chief priest and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him over to the Gentiles, to be mocked and flawed and crucified." And he will be raised on the third day. If you're new to Bible study, this is called the gospel. This is the point of Jesus' life. He did not come primarily as a teacher, even though he taught all kinds of things. He did not come primarily as a miracle worker, even though he walked on a water in 5,000 and did all kind of stuff. He did not come primarily to like take care of poor people, even though that's what he did. He did a little bit of that. He primarily came to lay his life down, as they ran some permitting. This is what he's talking about. Now what's interesting is there were a group of religious leaders in his day known as the Pharisees. The word Pharisee just means separated one. And these juggers were the Bible scholars. They read the Bible way more than any of us. They had the whole thing from Genesis to Malachi memorized, forward and backwards. And what they thought they were going to do, is they were gonna live such pure lives. They were gonna obey the 613 laws of the Old Testament. And not only that, in order to make sure they obeyed them, they added some of their own laws, just to make sure they didn't break any of the actual laws. And they were gonna be so pure and not tainted by this filthy world that when the Son of God, when the Messiah showed up on the scene, that they were gonna be the first ones to be able to identify. And what happened is, as they took their eye off of the author of the word, and they just lost themselves in their own rules, to check this out. They were three feet away from the Son of God. They could smell his breath, and they were not filled up with the breath of God. And one of the biggest reasons why is because Jesus did not fit in the religious box that they had created for him to fit. Because they thought, when the Messiah comes, he was gonna come to serve us by kicking out the Romans and making Israel a great nation again. And when Jesus came, not flexing his power, but being submitted to the ultimate plan of God, they just completely missed it, completely missed it. Now that is the context. Get this. Jesus right here shares the gospel, and his true strength is gonna be demonstrated, not by flexing raw power, but by strength through obedience, even to death on the cross. That he says, "I have come to lay my life down." Now, it's amazing that you can, if you're not paying attention, if you walk into a conversation, you never do this, you do this all the time, I know you do it. I do it too. Somebody else is talking, and you're just waiting for your turn. You know what I mean? Like you're not listening to understand, you're just about to respond. Right after Jesus says, "All right, everybody pay attention. We're going up to Jerusalem, and I ain't coming back." Like this is a one way ticket for me. I'm going to be arrested, tried, beaten, fog, crucified, deadberry. Somebody should write this one down, but only third day I'm going to be resurrected from the grave. Next verse, verse 20, then the mother of the son's deputy came up to Jesus with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked him for something. That's not a good time to ask for something. Okay, another about you and your whole dying on the cross, but hey, I got a couple things I'd like to talk about. And we laugh at her, but you realize that's how most of us come to church. Like it's supposed to be about the glory of God, the honor of God, the fear of the Lord, the magnificence of God Almighty. And you're like, "Yeah, but I didn't like that song." What? Hey, I got a request. Okay, I mean, you can bring your request to him, but sometimes we get these things out of order. She is thinking about her. The mother of the son's deputy came up to him with her sons and this part's important. Kneeling before him, that's the appropriate posture. She asked him for something. And he said her, "What you want?" Athena said, "I ask it because he knows the heart of every person." He says, "What do you want?" And she said to him, "Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, "Why don't you write hand "and why don't you left in your kingdom." Okay, what she wants for her boys is greatness, power, strength. You see this? Now, what I need you to understand is this, Jesus never scolds her for warning that. He's just gonna redefine what it means to have power, to have success, to be great, to be strong. There's nothing wrong with warning to be strong, warning to be great, warning to be powerful. We are created as image bears of God. We just don't get that strength and power the way the world defines it. You see, she was thinking like a Pharisee. She was thinking, "All right, Jesus, when you take over, it'd be really cool if my boys are a senior VP "of Jesus incorporating it, "because if they are, then it'll be cash, catlac, "and candy for the rest of their life." That's what she's thinking, all right? So Jesus is not going to scold her for looking for her boys to have strength and power. She's the original helicopter mom right here. There it is in the body. She's just, he is just going to completely redefine it. If you're a note-taker, you're going to love this because I'm going to tell you the right and these four things down. Jesus is going to tell us what a strong man is, but not the way the world defines strength. He's going to redefine what it means to be great, what it means to be powerful, what it means to be strong. Number one, a strong man is a Sabbath man. I may that word up, but it'll make sense in a second. A strong man is a Sabbath man. A strong man is a man who rightly has his life in order where Jesus is before all things that he doesn't just have his life in order like a list of priorities, but God is the page on which he would write his priorities. He said, "Why do you say that? Here's why I say that." This woman knows two things. One, she kneels at the feet of Jesus and she also understands that it is proximity to Jesus, not what her voice produce that equals success. That's what she understands. And that's why I use the word Sabbath. Sabbath is not just taking one day off a week. That's not what it is. Sabbath is a gift from God. Sabbath was given to us before fall, before sin ever entered the world. To think about this, when God creates everything, He created humankind to live in rhythm. I don't know if you've ever thought about this. I in the world did God take six days to create everything. Why? Why not just go everything? He could have done it in one word. But He doesn't. In the first three days, He creates the environment that He fills in the subsequent days. And then on the sixth day, the book of Genesis, the creation account says that God creates mankind in His image. And so God breathes the rule of life, the breath of life into the very first man. Adam, He opens his eyes. He's faced the face with His Creator. That's what He was created for. Then you get the first not good thing in the Bible. He says, "It's not good for man to be alone." So He gives them a nap, and wakes up. There's His wife. And the two are one, and they have been given the cultural mandate to subdue and cultivate. This is what they're to do. Imagine this is how my brain works. Imagine the conversation that Adam and Eve have with the Almighty God on the afternoon of the first half of the day that they've been created the sixth day. Imagine Adam going, "Hey, boss, what are we going to do tomorrow?" Because I got a lot of work to do. I mean, I've got to subdue and cultivate this whole garden, you know? I got to be fruitful and multiply them before it to that command. So God, what are we doing tomorrow? What time we need to go? And God says, "All right, tomorrow, on the first full day of your life, here's what I want you to do. We're going to rest." And Adam's like, "For what?" I didn't do anything. I just got created. I'm not even tired. What are we resting? And essentially, what God is saying? No, no, no, no, no. See what you got to do. You don't rest from work. You rest for work. And I want you to orient your life in such a way that on the. One day, the first full day of your life, I want you to fix your eyes on me. I want you to rest. I want you to refuel. I want you to be connected to me so that you can accomplish all of the things that I have called you to accomplish. You see, a godly man is a man that has his life rightly ordered where Jesus is before all things. When I was in seminary, the only professor I got along with said this when I graduated. He said, "If the devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy. If the devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy." Because if you think success is all about what you can produce, then what's going to happen is you're going to run yourself dry. But what the Sabbath does is it reorient our life where we say, "No, no, no, no. I'm going to take the most valuable commodity that I have, which is my time. And I am going to set it aside to focus on you and rest and replenishment and reconnecting with the people that mean most. If the devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy." Think about this. We make terrible decisions when we're busy, don't we? You break bad decisions because you're tired, because you're exhausted, because you're busy, and you just take your eye off the prize. In our culture, we value busy above all things. It's actually a greeting. Like men will see other men be like, "Stay in busy." And what you better go, "Uh-huh." Up to my eyeballs can barely keep up. You can't talk about you. We have that in a slip of six days. Well done, Ted. That's what we thought. Can you imagine if somebody said, "Uh, no. Actually I live in Sabbath rhythm with the Lord, and I feel really rested." You'd be like, "Are you going to cult? What do you even talk about?" Yeah. It's a devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy. I make terrible decisions. Terrible decisions when we're busy. In fact, a few years ago, I got arrested because I was busy. Let me tell you about it. It was awesome. Okay. I didn't mean to. That's the thing. I was preaching, on a Sunday I was preaching from my friend down in a Lachua County near Gainesville because if anybody needs Jesus, it's those people. And so I'm happy to go down to the gates of hell and share the good news of the gospel with those people. And so I went down and I preached three services. And when I got there, I took my glaucoma out and put it in a backpack. And if some of you are like, "Pastor, why would you carry a glaucoma?" Because I'm an American phrase God. All right. And our founders knew that our rights were given by God, not the government. And if you'd like, "Well, why would you do that? Listen God is good, but people are crazy." All right. So anyway, I put it in my backpack, I preached three services, and then we got to go. And when I get home, it's like an hour and a half away or something like that, I get home and there's a team of people waiting on me because I've got to hop on a plane and I've got to go to, I don't know where we were going. And I've got to speak at a conference that night. And so, Gretchen was traveling with me, a couple of other folks that worked with us and we're all getting on a plane. So I immediately get out of one truck and just hop in another truck to go to the airport and I travel way too much. So I have pre-check, you can see where this is going. So I've got my backpack. I don't have to open anything. I throw it on the pre-check line. It is going through and I get up there and I'm so busy. I'm like, "Why is this taking so long? I'm why this is taking so long." As I'm looking at them, call over the supervisor and look at the screen, I think. Uh-oh. They walk up to me and they say, "Is this pistol your pistol?" Do you want to say, "The one with joby etched into the barrel and 1122 on the other side and a cross on the top." I figured if I'm going to send somebody to the judge, I might as well send them with love. So, yes it is. I'm sorry. Now guess what? If I went, I didn't mean to. They don't forgive you at the airport. They don't. If you didn't mean to, it's fine because I know you're busy. That's not what happens. What happens is a police officer with handcuffs comes walking up and says, "You have the right to remain silent and begins to handcuff me in front of everybody." Then he leans over and goes, "I watched your podcast." Well, thanks. Have you seen the one on forgiveness? Okay. It just happens. Meanwhile, my wife Gretchen is with me and she went in front of me and she is looking back. I mean, she is convinced. I'm going to put me in front of the firing squad that night and it's over. You know? Pastor Britt is also traveling with us and I love me some pastor Britt, but that joke is worried about everything so I don't have to. He looks at Gretchen and says, "This is the worst day of my life." That's what he said. I got handcuffs home. He's having a bad day. Yeah, okay. Thanks. Did you know there's a jail in the basement of the airport? There is. There's an actual jail down there. All right? I'm not going to ask who's been there. I've been there. Here's the thing. I was busy and I just overlooked something that I normally don't miss. Now the good news is you can just pay a fine and you don't get to be pre-checked for a little while, all right? And you can work that thing out. But I had no intentions. I wasn't trying to take over the airport. I just forgot to think. Well, it's one thing if you forget something in your backpack or in the airport. But fellow, some of you are so busy. And your family is hanging on by a thread. Your faith is hanging on by a thread. But you're busy at all the wrong things. The devil can't make you bad. He'll make you busy. Think about the parable of the talents in Matthew chapter 25. The master who's going to go away for a long time, he gives one guy five talents. That's five million bucks. He gives another guy two million bucks. He gives another guy one million dollars. And then he goes away. And when he comes back, the two talent guy and the five talent guy, by faith, have risk everything and accordance with what the master would have him do. But the one talent guy digs the hole and hides everything away because he's afraid. And here's what the master tells him, you wicked and swaffle servant. And yet if you were just looking, the one talent guy looks like he's the busiest. He's just busy chasing his own comfort based in fear. And the other guys were fateful with what the master have given. So let me ask you, are you busy? Are you doing the kinds of things that reorient your life to say, Jesus, I'm going to give you first and best in finances for sure, in talents for sure. But also in my time, I want to orient my day and my life in such a way that you are before all things because I don't care how I reorder my life. If you're not first and my whole life will be out of order. The fourth commandment, which is the Sabbath, remember the Sabbath, keep it holy. The rabbis call this the hinge commandment. The hinge commandment. What this means is the first three commandments are about how, because God loves us, we are to love God and commandments five through ten are about how we're supposed to love our neighbor as ourself. Jesus says, the greatest of laws can be summed up like this. Love God and love people. The rabbi say it's the fourth commandment that allows you to be in right relationship with God so that we can write it down. I have a theory. When you hear about all these people in ministry blowing up their lives and failing morally, I think sometimes it's not actually about morality. I think it's often times about exhaustion. And here's what I mean. If you think you are primarily a tool in the hand of God and not a son in the family of God, then you will always think it's about your performance. And you will get to the place where you make terrible decisions because you are not living in right rhythm with God. Are you Sabbath? Do you find your rest in him? There's a lot of Brit talk in this one. I love that man so much. He's incredible. He's a gift to this church. You only get to hear him preach about eight or ten times a year. You should clap loud. We have this discussion on the deepening focus. We record these things on Thursdays. Both of our daughters are teenagers. He was talking about when it gets to the place in his life, in their life where in a few years or whatever, and some guy is like courting his daughter in hopes to marry her, he says, "I want to see three things from this guy. I want to see his phone. I want to see his bank account. I want to see his calendar. I want to see his phone because we ain't going to let nobody, I'm not going to let a pervert date my daughter." And your phone will tell you if you're pervert or not. It's straight up, some of you guys are pervert. Stop. Repent. Flee. Throw that thing in the ocean. I want to see his finances. Why? Because I'm not letting my daughter date a thief. And if you don't bring God, his, then you rob God. So I'm not trusting my daughter with a thief. And the third thing is, if you can't manage your calendar, there's no way you can lead a home. Because time is your most valuable commodity. If you don't know how to rightly manage it, then how in the world are you going to love a woman like Christ loves a church and raise kids? Because that's a man. You not out of money. You get some more money. You run out of time. You're done. So a godly man is a Sabbath's man. Not trying to prove himself to the world, but in right relationship with God. Number two, right this now. A strong man is a persevering man. This woman, this mom comes up and says, "Hey, can you say that my son can sit at your right and your left?" Verse 22. And Jesus answered, "You don't know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?" And they said to him, "So the boys are right there listening to their mom trying to run their life." And they said to him, "We are able." And he said to them, "You will drink my cup." A strong man is a persevering man. Another way to say it is a strong man can endure pain. The cup that Jesus is talking about is the cup of the wrath of God. We know this because we have the whole Bible that when Jesus was crucified, there was somebody on his right and on his left. That the cup, based on Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah, the Old Testament says, that God is storing up a cup of wrath in judgment against sinners and sin. And when Jesus goes to the Garden of Gethsemane the night and he would be arrested, he goes before God and he prays this, "Father, if there be any other way, let this cup pass from me." The cup that he's talking about is the cup of the wrath of God. Listen, because of God's justice, all sin must be paid for. God cannot overlook sin because it would be outside of the character and nature of his holiness and justice. Just like if somebody sinned against you, if somebody murdered your child, you would not want the judge to be like, "You don't want no way it's perfect, don't worry about it." You would say, "That's an unjust judge." And so because of God's justice, all sin must be paid for. So Jesus in the Garden, he's actually asking the theological question that gets asked about Christianity more than any other question these days. Are you sure Jesus is the only way? This is what Jesus is saying, "Father, if there be any other way, let this cup of the wrath of God, let this cup of the judgment of your wrath pass away." Here's what Jesus is saying. "Father, if Oprah is right and all roads lead to heaven, why don't we just use another road?" I mean, if all I've got to do is align my shocker or obey the five pillars or obey the Ten Commandments or just be good enough or be spiritual, or if good people get to get in, seems like an awful waste of my blood tomorrow on the cross. "Father, if there be any other way, let this cup pass from me, not my will yet, your will be done." And when Jesus goes to the cross, the full wrath of a perfect just judge is poured out on his son Jesus. And because of his justice, all sin must be paid for. But because of God's grace, Jesus is the just and the justifier that he pays the full price. And when he pushes up on his nail pierced feet and he says, "It is finished." That means paid in full and he drinks the full payment of the wrath of God down that you and I get to drink of the cup of the grace of God offered at the Lord's table. You see, what he's saying is, "If you are going to stand up and act like a man, you will endure pain." And that flies in the face of a culture that pursues comfort as its greatest priority. So, man, if you're going to be a man, you have to be willing to endure pain on other people's behalf. Why? Because you're going to take responsibility for things that are not your fault. Men don't talk about fault. We talk about responsibility. Boys say, "That's not my fault." Men say, "I'll handle it." In your life, you can make a difference or you can make an excuse. You'll never get to make both. So here's what I mean, man. If you're going to stand firm and act like a man, then you will endure pain. You will take responsibility for things that are not even your fault. I'll just give you one example. Ephesians chapter 5. The Bible says, "Husbands, love your wife as Christ will love the church and gave Himself up for her." "Gate, she does not exist for you. You exist to serve her." This is what this means. So later today, when you're having a little robust dialogue at the house, you know what I mean? When you're trying to make up for the fight that you had on the way here, because they ain't no fight like a good Sunday morning on a way to church fight. I know. Some of you are trying to be here at 9 and here you are at 11.22. So, welcome. So when you get sideways at home, married men, you got one of two options. You can be right or you can be married. It's true. Some of you know some guys and they were right. They were right. They ain't married anymore. It's just true. You're like, "Where do you get that? Here's where I get it, husbands. We're supposed to love her like Christ, love the church." When Jesus showed up on this earth and He was sent to the cross, whose fault was that? He went to the cross to pay for our sin. Did He sin? No. Never one time ever. And what if Jesus says, "You know what? That's not my fault. That's your fault. I ain't going to the cross. You go to the cross." I'll see you later. Actually, I'll never see you again because I'm going back to heaven and you all going to hell. That's not what He did. The God made Him who was without sin to be sin for us that we would be made the righteousness of God. You see, we must ask men to be willing to endure pain. Proverbs 24, 17 says, "The righteous man falls down seven times and gets up every time." A godly man is a persevering man. The level at which a man is useful to God is directly related to the pain he can endure. Look at every hero in the Bible. God called them not to easy, but to hard. Ultimately, look at Jesus. Jesus Himself says, "Oh, you want to follow me? Take up your cross daily. Died of yourself and follow me." A.W. Tozer says, "It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he's hurt him deeply." Chuck Swindall says, "When God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible man and he crushes him." Leave room for the crushing. These boys say, "We want to be great." He's like, "There's a cup of pain that you have to drink if you want greatness in the kingdom of heaven." And the thing is, not just can you experience pain, but can you endure and persevere through the pain in accordance with the call of God in your life for the benefit of other people. So you want to be a strong man, you be a Sabbath man, you be a persevering man. The third thing is this, that Jesus redefines. It's a strong man, it's a humble man. He says, "Can you sit at my right, you want to sit at my right and left, can you drink of the cup of which I am to drink?" And they say, "We can." And he goes, "Well, you will drink my cup, but check this out." But to sit at my right hand and my left is not mine to grant. It is for those for whom it has been prepared by my father. Please see the humility of Jesus here. Jesus is so humble. I mean, think about this. God opposes the proud. Do you know why God is rooting for the Jaguar today? Have you ever met anything more proud than a Texan in your entire life? Right. He don't like them, he likes us. So, Jesus, when they say, "Hey, can we sit at your right and left?" He goes, "That's above my pay grade." Wait, what? If you've been around a left for 22, for a while, you know we have a very high Christology. In other words, there's no higher view of Jesus than we could have. Because the Bible says that he is before all things. That all things are made by him, for him, through him, into him. That by the power of Christ, everything is held together. The Bible says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." The Bible says that when Jesus came the first time, he came meek and loathing, but currently, he is sitting on his throne at the right hand of God the Father as the King of kings and the Lord of Lords. He's just waiting for his dad to tap him on the shoulder and say, "All right, boy, go get the money." get my kids and bring them home. And when he returns, he's coming in greatness. The trumpet will blast. The heavens will be rinded. And he's gonna show up with eyes like fire and a sword coming out of his mouth and tattoos on his quads. And he's on a horse and he's wearing, I love this, my favorite part. And he's wearing a robe of white. Who wears white to a fight? Somebody knows they go wind and angle, take very long. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords is coming. That is this Jesus. (congregation applauding) And this exalted, resurrected, stronger than you Christ. He says, "No, it is not up to me, but only up to my father who gets to sit at my right and left." He is so humble. Jesus, the great man, knows how to submit to authority. Let me ask you, do you know how to submit to authority? Or are you just grabbing for power? I mean, when Jesus was standing before a pilot and pilot was flexing on Jesus, Jesus says to him, "You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above." You see, Jesus demonstrates his strength and security through humility. On time we ran a staff meeting and Pastor Britt said this, he says, "No one can keep you from what God has for you and no one can give you what God has not. Are you pursuing the approval of God or the approval of man? Are you constantly trying to do whatever you have to do to get you elevated to where you wanna be or do you trust God?" You see, you should never expect God to ever trust you within the authority until you learn how to live under authority. God will not bless a rebellious spirit. And listen, I have been so blessed in my life and in my ministry to see the best example of this. Listen, I have a lot of ideas, okay? A lot of ideas. And they all have Bible verses attached with them. So you don't wanna argue with me on these things. And for a long time I was a youth pastor and a youth pastor with a lot of ideas is a dangerous thing. Sitting in the back of services, just kinda being critical of what everybody's doing. Thinking, I don't think I'd do it that way. And then one day the Lord was like, all right, Scooter, why don't you give it a try? But God knew and is gracious. And listen, my lead foot is not humility. Don't laugh, I have a feeling, okay? Don't laugh at me. And for 10 years I get to sit under the authority and be discipled by the most humble, godly man. I've ever met my entire life. His name's Jerry Sweep. He's the pastor at Beech's Church. In fact, Ryan, who did our baptism is his son, okay? Who was on staff here as our student pastor. And for 10 years I was a student pastor at Beech's Church. And pastor Jerry Sweep, he's the best Christian I've ever met. And listen, I've worked at church for 33 years. So all you people I work with, he's better than you. Seriously, you read the Bible every day and he acts like it. Those of you that know him know exactly what I'm talking about. Just loves his wife, loves his family, preaches the gospel, serves his people. And years ago when we started 1122, he let me be in charge of it. Pretty gracious, let me be in charge of it. And then I don't, I can't even explain what happened. God just breathed on it, okay? He just breathed on it. And it went from one service to two services, the three services to four services. And it got to the point where it just got huge. And pastor Jerry, you know what he could have done? You know, you know, somebody that was all hung up in their own ego, you know what they would do? The senior pastor would come to the little youth pastor and pat him on the head and be like, "That's adorable, I'll take that now." It's not what he did. He came and he said, "I think we should plant you as a church." So reason that we get to do this 1122 is 'cause we have the blessing of my pastor, Pastor Jerry Swift. And God always works in and through authority and you should never expect God to trust you with authority until you learn how to submit to the authority that you're under. And he could have. And here's why. Here's why he blessed it. 'Cause he was more concerned about the name of Jesus than the name of Jerry. I hope you hear that. It reminds me of a conversation John the Baptist has with his disciples. In John chapter three, the disciples of John the Baptist come up to him and be like, "Hey boss, we're losing market share. Everybody's following Jesus instead of us." And John the Baptist is like, "That's the point. The point of our life is the point of Jesus." And then he says, "I must decrease and he must increase." A strong man does not have to beat his chest and make much of himself. A strong man makes much of Jesus because he is a humble man. So are you constantly self-promoting? Or can you say what John the Baptist said? I must decrease and he must increase. A strong man endures pain. He's a persevering man. A strong man is a humble man. Then he demonstrates it. Look at verse 24. And when the 10 heard it, that's the like 10 of the disciples hear it, it says, "They were indignant at the two brothers." I think they're mad because they're like, "We should have sent our mom." That's what they're thinking. But Jesus called them and said, "You ready for this?" You know that the rulers of the Gentiles Lord it over them. And only means here is like, people that don't know God, they put their trust in their position and in their power. He says, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles Lord it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you." This is very challenging to me. It shall not be." He's like, "If you follow me, you don't act like that." Well, let me ask you, is it so among you? Like, what do you do when you realize you have all the authority in a room? Like some of you are in the Seasweet, okay? You're the boss. Says, "You know, you got the card." It's like, "There it is, I'm the boss." But every single one of us, several times during a week, you are the most powerful person in the room. And some of you are like, "Well, not me." Dude, you could be driving the minivan in Carpool Line and you look around and you're like, "All right, I'm the boss." I decide where we go, what the temperature is, I decide what the radio is. I get to unilaterally decide if we go to Chick-fil-A or not, okay? And if you people don't shut up, you know that, right? What do you do when you realize people have to answer to me? It could be you coach a little league team. Everybody's three feet tall, you're six feet tall. You're, (laughs) Finally, you know? What do you do? What do you do? Jesus is gonna talk about humility. I'm just gonna confess, by nature and nurture, my flesh flexes. Because I'm the lead pastor of the thing here, okay? Most of the meetings I'm in here unless I'm with the elders, I'm the boss. I'm the boss. And our people are so good. You are so sweet, our team is so sweet. I get respected and you know how easy it is to be respectful when you're respected. You know how easy it is to honor when you're being honored? But man, confession times, you let somebody flex on me and I will begin to like, do you know who you're talking to? You see this badge right here? It says assistant to the general manager. (audience laughs) Or maybe it plays out this way. Just as long as you live in my house, you're gonna live in my rules, you ever do that? You ever do that? Remember when your dad did it, when you were 14, you were like, what an idiot. I'm never doing that. Anybody else turning into their dad? Anybody want to admit that? Me too. The spirit of Perry Martin has manifested himself in me. I'm just walking around my house, turning off lights. Anybody in this room? Guess we want air conditioning, all the Jacksonville. I'm like, oh my gosh, it's happening. Jesus says, "Strowman, don't act that way." It's crazy, man. It flies in the, here's what's crazy. It flies in the face of what got you in that position in the first place oftentimes. 'Cause you knew how to get it right and get the most out of people, right? And Jesus says, "It shall not be so among you." But whoever would be great among you must be your servant. And whoever would be first among you must be your slave or do less. Now here's how sick and twisted we are, okay? What we do with this word, "servant," Jesus says, you need to be a servant. You want to be great, be a servant. And then we twist that and we make it an adjective to the kind of leader we want to be. Well, I'm a servant leader. Well, that's cute cupcake. Jesus didn't say be a leader. He said be a servant. Everybody's cool with being a servant 'til you get treated like one. You see the twist there? Jesus says, "All right, you want to be first?" You go last, you want to get lifted up, huh? You get really, really low. He says, "Whoever would be great among you must be your servant and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the son of man came, not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many." A strong man is a serving man. And not just when it's convenient. I mean, follow me on a mission trip, dude. I'm so good. Follow me home from work, not as good. A serving man is kind of man that leverages your strength for others, okay? This is what Jesus does. Paul in Philippians chapter two has the audacity to say this, "Men, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Everything you were taught in school was to do everything out of selfish ambition and vain conceit. If I were to look at your Instagram, I'm guessing it screams selfish ambition and vain conceit." And Jesus is like, "Hey, in the kingdom of God, we're going to find this thing. differently. Do nothing at a selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility I want you to consider others as better than yourself. Now it's easy to consider somebody better than you. It's actually better than you. Like you have no problem when you go to a wedding being like, okay, this is all about the bride, no problem, at least for today. But I want you to think about Kathy that works next to you in the cubicle and she's terrible. You know who I'm talking about. She smells like cats, she's got bad ideas, she complains about everything. And if your name's Kathy, God loves you and I do too. I'm just so Kathy. I don't know Kathy. The Bible would have the audacity to say that if you're going to be like Christ, you're going to be the man, you got to treat her like she's the CEO of the whole company. Can I get you a coffee, Kathy? And then you're like, well, that's okay. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Well, how far should we take this Paul? Paul goes, I'm glad that you asked. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God, something to be grasped, but humbled himself and became obedient by wrapping himself in flesh as a baby living a perfect obedient life and then being obedient to death on a cross. You take it to the point where it kills you. That's what you do. You see, in John chapter 13, Jesus gives this incredible example of what a strong man looks like. The Bible says this, John 13, this is like right after the Lord's supper, this is right before the Garden of Gethsemane, where he prays to prayer, I'll talk about earlier. And the Bible says, "And Jesus, knowing all authority and heaven and all the earth, have been given unto him, and knowing that his hour has come, he demonstrated for his disciples the full extent of his love." You get that? So he knows he's the boss of the universe. And he knows that he's about to go to the cross for the salvation of all mankind. And with those things in mind, he is about to demonstrate his love for his disciples. And so, wonder what he does. What would you do? You know what he could have done? He could have said, "You all open the windows and watch this." And he could have spelled the disciples' names with the stars. Ta-da, the Cal Powerful I am. He could have reached the sermon. He could have started a political party. He doesn't do any of these things. The way he demonstrates the full extent of his love to his disciples, it is he gets up from the table. And the Bible says, "He wraps a towel around his waist. He takes the basin of water and he washes his disciples' feet." And none of you are surprised. Because we don't know what it means to wash feet. Okay? Now, washing feet has become like a symbolic Christian thing, but not an actual thing like the first century. Like, when I used to do weddings all the time, and the couples would be like, "We just want to wash each other's feet." I'm like, "We're not doing that." Because feet are gross. Okay? Feet are gross in general. I know some of you psychos are into it. Let your psycho. But we're removing for all people. And I know what you mean, but that's not what that is, dude. If you wash your wife's feet in your wedding, those are the cleanest feet you've ever touched in the history of feet. Do you understand? She's had a NASCAR pit crew working on these things for 48 hours. They've been lotioned and scuffed and buffed and toenail painted. And I mean, bro, you could eat off that foot. You understand? In the first century, you ever wash the chosen? You ever notice everybody's walking around in flip-flops? Ain't one sidewall. You see a sidewall? Ain't a sidewall. They're walking around with dirt everywhere. Also, it was an agricultural society. You know what? You don't see on the chosen? Some poor guy back there with a pooper scooper and a hefty bag cleaning up after the mules. So where is all of that? It's all people's feet. So when you would get to dinner, they had a slave, the lowest of the servants, and that person's job was to wash feet. Why? Because they got donkey crap all over them. And in fact, there were there were ritualistic rules about washing your hands. So you would go into the place and you'd like dip your hands on these big things and you'd wash them off six times so that it would be ready. Why? Because they also didn't have any forks or knives and everybody doubled dipped. So George Costanza would starve to death. That's what happened. All right. And they doubled it. But you didn't wash your feet yourself because you didn't want to get on your hands and get on your feet and bragging, your hummus and getting your mouth. All right. So what they would do, and if you've seen the last supper of the DaVinci painting, he got it completely wrong. They didn't sit at a high top. Everybody on one side, like they're about to judge the diving competition. That's so dumb. They would sit in this big circle. And the table was like this high off the ground and they didn't have chairs. It was just pillows. And everybody would stick their face towards the food and they put their stinky donkey crap feet way back here. That's how they did it to keep it far away from the food. And the lowest of low servants would go around and it wasn't like a little ceremony. I'm just pet those little putt. That's not what they were doing. He would have to scrub, crap, and dirt off their feet. And Jesus is like, I'm going to show you how much I love you. He gets up, the king of kings, the sovereign ruler of the universe. There's not one square inch in all of the cosmos where Jesus doesn't rightly declare mine. And he does not stand up and be like, you see this name tag says son of God, you'll do what I say. It's not what he does. It dresses himself as a servant. And he takes the lowest role and he washes his feet. And nobody even tries to take it from him. Nobody's even like, let me do this. He sits back down at the table and he says, you realize what I've done for you? And he says, I have set for you an example and you will be blessed, blessed if you do likewise. Even as the son of man came, not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. Okay. There is not a one to one correlation in the 21st century of washing feet. Like, I don't know what it was the worst job at your house. That's this job. So husbands, do you voluntarily do it without being asked, do you take out the trash? Do you clean the toilet? Do you change the diaper? This is what he does. And this is what he calls us to do. And listen, I mean, let's be honest, most of us are the worst. We think we get a pass. Why provide and I protect. You know the possums do that for their family. You might want to raise the bar there, cowboy. Listen, I admit, I am not good at this. I need to get way better. There's no doubt about it. In fact, Gretchen does 99.9% of all the chores at our house. I mean, she does everything. I mean, I would like a fraternity house. If it's just me and the kids, it's terrible. All right. It's my fault. And then I'll do one little thing and try to take so much credit for it. You know I'm talking about guys like she's doing laundry and she mopping and she cleaned up and then I changed the toilet paper roll and I come by. Like, baby, that toilet paper roll got it. Yeah, did it right to give it a beer? Not a mullet. So it's going to come off right. So you don't want to come look? You know, okay. I'm going to take a nap. So that's how we do. And the driver behind this is because Jesus was demonstrating his love. It was motivated by love. It wasn't obligation. It wasn't manipulation. There was no strings attached. It wasn't trying to win a fight. You know, you ever put the dishes away loud trying to prove a point? What did any of that fellas? He served. So a strong man is a Sabbath man. His rightly ordered life. Jesus year before all things. He can endure pain for somebody else. He's not making much of his name, but the name of Jesus. And a strong man is a serving man because Jesus served us all the way to the cross. Here's the point. True strength is not found in possession, possession, or power, but in the person and work of Jesus. And here's how I want to close. I've said this over and over and over. If men would be these kind of men, we'd change the world, right? If husbands really love their wives like Christ, love the church, if dads would be responsible fathers and serve their kids, everything would change. God has blessed our church like crazy. There's no doubt. The higher attendance, more campuses, we baptize more people in every other state. These things are wonderful. If we want to change a community and a city and a nation, you let men stand firm and act like men, but not in the kind of way that the world says, but the kind of way Jesus says. Let me prove it. I want you to bring to mind the most influential man in your life. Not the person you love the most, but the person who has influenced you most. For most of us, that'll be our dad, for some of you, it's like your dad and your husband. The person that has impacted your life the most. And the reality is there's a bunch of us in the room and we think of that person and we smile. There's a bunch of people in this room and you think of that person and your heart skips a beat, not in a good way. And I want you to imagine if that man, that uncle, that granddad, that coach, that teacher, somebody that impacted you in a really, really significant way, what if that man was this kind of man? Like what if that man had a rightly ordered life that Jesus was before all things in his life, that his golf game was not the most important, that getting the raise was not the most important, that making money was not the most important, but he lived in such a rhythm that he had time for the Lord and he had time for his family. And what if that man was a persevering man and he never stopped fighting for you? He didn't give up on his marriage. He didn't give up on his kids, and when things got hard, he didn't run to the bottle, he didn't run to drugs, he ran to Jesus, and he was willing to endure whatever this world threw at him for your sake. Imagine if that kind of thing. And imagine if that man was a humble man, a humble man. He didn't think less of himself, he just didn't think of himself that much. No matter how low you felt, that he would go just a little bit lower just to pick you up. And imagine if that man was a serving man, that he demonstrated his love all the time, not by yelling at you, just as long as you're a ma, but instead he wrapped a towel around his waist, and he served you. Can you imagine how your life would be different today? Now imagine this. Now imagine you're that man, 'cause every man in here has the potential to be that kind of man. I mean, imagine if 10 years from now, I just redo this sermon. And 10 years from now, I say, all your kids are 10 years older, right? Your colleagues, you got 10 more years with them. The people you're own teams with, they got 10 more years with you. And then I ask the question, imagine the most influential man in your life, and you popped into their mind. What kind of man are you gonna be? You see, the reality is, man, is one day, one day, every single one of us are gonna die. If Jesus said in return before we die, every single one of us are gonna die. We're gonna breathe our last here. And what's gonna happen, I know there's a morbid way to end this sermon, but what's gonna happen is we're gonna dress you up, we're gonna put you in a box, we're gonna dig a hole, put you in a thodirt in your face, come back to the church, he'd pay to Sal and we're gonna talk about you. What you want people to say about you? Well, he was a good golfer. Man, see the sun's not buckishot. Man, he could really demand his own way, couldn't he? I mean, he walked in the room and everybody puckered up. Is that what you want? Or do you want him to say, "Oh, his life was rightly ordered." And he would be willing to lay down his life for me. He didn't make much of himself, and he just served. You see, all I want people to say about me, honestly, I don't care if anybody says anything about preaching or any of that stuff, I want him to be able to say he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. That's Acts 1124. I want him to be able to say he was a good man, he was a good husband and a good dad. You know how many pastors this church is gonna have over its life? Dozens and dozens and dozens. You know how many dads my kid gets? One, how many husbands my wife get? If I do it right, one. I'm gonna be a good man, the way God describes goodness. I'm gonna be full of the Holy Spirit. That means I'm gonna be so dialed into him that like a well-trained horse, all the Spirit of God's gotta do is go and just nudge a little bit and I'll go in that direction. And I'm gonna be full of faith, not fear. I'm not doing this for the approval of man, but I'm gonna be so dialed into God that only his opinion matters. And I won't got to use my life in such a way that a great number of people are about to the Lord. And a great number is not the 30 or 40,000 people that are attending right now. A great number is just one. So what about you? What about you? You wanna be great? You wanna be great? Great! You should wanna be great. 'Cause God is great and we're created in His image. You just gotta reject the way the world does. And a great man sings to God, you know why? 'Cause it's an act of humility. Who ain't singing to me? We're singing to you. And a great man brings his first and best because Jesus is first and best in his life. And a great man prays 'cause in humility, you get down here and you get on your face and you say, "God, there's no way I can do this without you." And in fact, some of you have never come down here and prayed because you're not humble. And pride is not just keeping you from being great in God's eyes, pride is keeping a blessing and the power of God is the power of God. And so, God is the power of God. Amen and women, let's be strong. Hey church family, this is Darian. And Pastor Jovi talks a lot about some of his one mores that he meets at the gym. And Darian is one of those guys that Pastor Jovi met the gym earlier this year. And Darian wanted to go public with his faith, that saturated. But he really wanted to make sure certain friends and family could be a part of witnessing him going public with his faith. And it's just a reminder, baptism is not just about us and God. It's also about the testimony to the people around us, the testimony to your neighbors, your coworkers, your friends, your family. And what God has done in your life. And so, Darian is going to go public with his faith today. Darian, we got two questions. The first is this. Do you renounce the ways of this world, the past sins that you've lived in, anything darker demonic, and valuable allegiance to Christ and Christ alone? I do. And who is Jesus to you? My Lord and Savior. Based on that proclamation of faith, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.