How to Fight Back

00:00:02

- Hey, welcome to Crossroads. I'm Moriah.

00:00:05

- And my name is Andy Reider.

00:00:07

I'm community pastor for Crossroads Anywhere

00:00:09

and I'm Moriah's dad.

00:00:10

And we're so glad that you're here with us.

00:00:12

No matter who you are, Crossroads is a church

00:00:14

that's designed to help you grow.

00:00:16

Whether you're little, whether you're big,

00:00:18

whether you're young, whether you're old,

00:00:20

Crossroads is a church that's all about

00:00:22

helping you connect with God

00:00:23

and helping you connect with other people. Right?

00:00:26

And summer's like an amazing time for connection.

00:00:29

A lot of your normal routines sort of go out the window

00:00:32

where you can actually bring your daughter

00:00:33

to work with you like me today,

00:00:35

but you also have extra time with family,

00:00:37

extra time with friends,

00:00:38

you've got vacations, you've got road trips,

00:00:40

all kinds of opportunities,

00:00:42

grill out in the backyard, whatever it is.

00:00:44

Crossroads is a church that is a community.

00:00:47

We're not just a thing to watch,

00:00:48

although there is lots of stuff to watch.

00:00:50

We are a community that you can belong to.

00:00:51

We want to help you do that, but we're actually

00:00:53

in week two of a series. What's it called?

00:00:55

- We're in week two of a series called Stand Firm.

00:00:59

- Stand Firm is all about how we can push back

00:01:00

against the attacks of a real enemy

00:01:03

who wants to take us out, how we can stand firm.

00:01:05

But we're going to start off our time with singing, right?

00:01:07

What do we call this?

00:01:08

- We call it worship.

00:01:09

- Yes. So put in your AirPods, turn up your TV

00:01:12

and sing along and worship with us right now.

00:01:15

- Hey. Welcome in. Welcome in to Crossroads.

00:01:18

Hey, if you're in the room with us, I mean,

00:01:19

there's nothing like starting off with that song, right?

00:01:22

It takes you right back. I need a hero.

00:01:24

Hey, my name is Justin. Welcome into this thing.

00:01:27

Here's one thing I'll hit you with right from the start.

00:01:29

There's one thing that we believe.

00:01:31

We believe that you have a creator that wants life for you.

00:01:35

And we believe you have an enemy,

00:01:38

an enemy that wants death for you.

00:01:41

I know, kind of heavy right when you walk in.

00:01:44

But I don't want to lie to you. That's just truth.

00:01:46

We believe you have a creator who wants life for you

00:01:48

and an enemy who's against you.

00:01:49

And you're in a fight not with your neighbor

00:01:52

or with other people or circumstances,

00:01:53

but an actual spiritual battle.

00:01:56

And so one of the things that we're going to do

00:01:58

right now is turn towards what is true,

00:02:00

and we're going to do something that

00:02:02

for thousands of years people have done

00:02:04

when they've walked into battle or faced battle,

00:02:07

they've used music as a way to empower them

00:02:10

and unify them around what is true about themselves

00:02:13

and what they believe.

00:02:14

So that's what we're going to do right now with these songs.

00:02:18

So why don't you stand with me.

00:02:19

We're glad you're here.

00:02:21

We're going to sing a brand new song together.

00:02:25

You'll pick it up as we go. All right.

00:08:28

- Ain't that right?

00:14:21

- And we believe those words.

00:14:23

We don't just toss them on a screen,

00:14:26

and we don't just sing them with a pretty melody.

00:14:31

I'm trying with everything I have every single day

00:14:35

to just go, "You're worthy of it all.

00:14:37

I want to give You my heart.

00:14:38

I want to give You my desires, selfish, unselfish.

00:14:41

I want to give You my ego.

00:14:42

I want to give You everything I can

00:14:45

because You're worthy of it all."

00:14:47

Listen to Psalm 16, it says: Preserve me, O God,

00:14:52

for in You I take refuge.

00:14:55

I say to the Lord, You are my Lord,

00:14:59

and I have no good apart from You.

00:15:04

That prayer was written about 3000 years ago.

00:15:08

I'm not even sure that we can wrap our minds around that,

00:15:10

but an ancient prayer written by King David.

00:15:15

And whether you've been in church before

00:15:17

in your life or not, you've probably heard

00:15:19

the story of David and Goliath.

00:15:21

This King David was a warrior. He was a fighter.

00:15:25

He took down this giant Goliath and this warrior,

00:15:28

King David, says these words to us.

00:15:30

Now, I don't know about you,

00:15:31

but when I think about a fight, my fists go like this.

00:15:37

Or maybe because I was small, my head goes like this.

00:15:40

But maybe you think of picking up a weapon.

00:15:43

This warrior, David says, "Here's the weapon

00:15:46

you were made to pick up.

00:15:49

Give all thanks to the God above."

00:15:52

He says, instead of a clenched fist,

00:15:53

why don't you open your hands and give thanks to God

00:15:56

because you have no good apart from Him

00:15:59

and He can preserve you.

00:16:02

So I say we take the advice of a warrior.

00:16:06

So here's what I want you to do right now.

00:16:08

I want you to think of one good thing from today,

00:16:12

and I want you to open your hands before you,

00:16:15

hold that thing in your mind.

00:16:20

And I want you to think of the One

00:16:21

who is the giver of all good things.

00:23:00

- Look, I don't know what comes to your mind

00:23:02

when you think about being thankful.

00:23:05

But one thing I'm thankful for, my wife, Sarah,

00:23:11

and my 11 year old daughter.

00:23:13

Sorry. I got four kids.

00:23:15

I hesitated on her age, but she's 11.

00:23:18

They're headed out

00:23:19

to Mother/Daughter Camp this weekend together.

00:23:21

Yeah.

00:23:25

And so here's what I want to do.

00:23:26

Maybe you don't know about camps. Great, great.

00:23:28

We'll tell you about them at some time

00:23:29

or you can ask somebody around you.

00:23:31

But hundreds and hundreds of mothers and daughters

00:23:34

are headed out about an hour away from Cincinnati,

00:23:36

out to Mother/Daughter Camp this weekend

00:23:38

just to enjoy space, unplug together and be with God.

00:23:42

So I want us to pray a blessing over them

00:23:46

right here in this moment. Can we do that together?

00:23:48

Alright, alright. So I'm going to pray for us. Okay?

00:23:51

So Father, You are the giver of all good things

00:23:55

and so I praise you for your daughters.

00:24:01

And I thank you for my wife

00:24:04

and my sweet, sweet daughter, Elise.

00:24:09

And Lord, I want for all mothers and daughters

00:24:13

this weekend, I just want there to be,

00:24:15

like, a radical connection.

00:24:17

Maybe they've been missing each other.

00:24:19

Maybe the chaos of summer getting started

00:24:21

and all that stuff has just put some distance.

00:24:25

Bring them back together, like,

00:24:26

they're going to sweat and stank together this weekend.

00:24:29

You know? You're the God of joy and delight.

00:24:33

Would they feel Your joy and delight

00:24:36

and smile deeply and laugh hard

00:24:40

and be with You and be together this weekend.

00:24:43

We bless them in your name, Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen.

00:24:51

Great. Hey, why don't you turn to somebody next to you

00:24:53

and say, hey, glad to be here with you.

00:24:56

And then you can have a seat.

00:25:00

Hey, if you're joining us online,

00:25:03

I'm super glad you're here.

00:25:04

If it's your first time, really glad you're here joining us.

00:25:07

My name is Justin, and what you're about to hear

00:25:09

is from my friend Ali.

00:25:11

And she's going to talk about something really light

00:25:13

that I'm sure none of you struggle with,

00:25:15

it's called pride.

00:25:16

That's right. More from Ali coming up.

00:25:24

- Ring Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen.

00:25:28

- The fight isn't won out there in the spotlight.

00:25:33

It's in the shadows.

00:25:38

- Ring Announcer: The fight of our lives.

00:25:42

- When the time comes, you don't rise to the moment,

00:25:47

you fall to the level of your training.

00:25:49

- Ring Announcer: Six rounds, each different opponent.

00:25:55

- To defeat your opponent you need to know your opponent.

00:26:00

Your opponent wants you to sleep through the battle,

00:26:04

but you will stand firm.

00:26:11

Ring Announcer: Round two, stand firm against pride.

00:26:17

Let the fight begin!

00:26:22

- Doesn't that make you just want to go, (roars)?

00:26:25

Like, I'm serious.

00:26:26

I watch that and my heart starts beating fast.

00:26:28

My name is Alli Patterson.

00:26:29

I am one of the teaching pastors here at Crossroads.

00:26:32

It's great to be with you on this summer weekend,

00:26:34

and we're in week two on a series about

00:26:37

the context of our life really taking place

00:26:40

in the middle of a spiritual battle

00:26:43

with an enemy and everything.

00:26:45

And before we jump into the topic today,

00:26:47

I want to issue a special invitation

00:26:50

to all you Crossroads women out there.

00:26:53

Because I have an invitation for you to join me

00:26:56

for something that might just equip you a little bit better

00:26:59

for the battle that you're facing right now.

00:27:01

I want you to come to the Ignite Conference.

00:27:04

This is the Ignite Conference just for women,

00:27:06

and we created it as a place because we know that

00:27:10

the enemy is trying to take out, render your life meaningless,

00:27:14

drown you in the everyday, and we want you to have

00:27:17

a place where you can come get the connections,

00:27:19

the courage and the coaching to take a step forward

00:27:23

into a life of deeper purpose.

00:27:26

So I want you to join me at the Ignite Conference.

00:27:28

I could not be more excited about this year.

00:27:30

I've invited a couple of women that are just amazing

00:27:33

from different places, that are doing amazing things

00:27:36

in the Kingdom of God to come coach you and bless you.

00:27:39

It is going to take place on a Friday night, Saturday daytime.

00:27:43

So we tried to do as as good a time

00:27:46

to get as many people as possible.

00:27:48

So it's just a Friday evening and a Saturday daytime only,

00:27:51

June 27th and 28th.

00:27:53

I want you at the Ignite Conference.

00:27:55

Guys in here, if you have a friend, a sister, a mom,

00:27:58

a wife, a daughter, babysit the kid, buy her a ticket,

00:28:01

whatever you need to do to help her get to Ignite.

00:28:05

I think it could be a life changing weekend for you.

00:28:09

I'll be there. I want you with me.

00:28:10

So come to Ignite; take a step forward in this battle.

00:28:14

We are going to deal with the topic of our enemy again today.

00:28:18

And the most common tactic that he uses

00:28:22

against every single person here.

00:28:26

And before we jump into what that is,

00:28:28

I want you to know where we are in the Bible,

00:28:31

because there's a critical passage that

00:28:32

we're going to land on today that helps us to fight back.

00:28:36

Here's where we are in Scripture.

00:29:02

So I caught a glimpse of the tactic that's being used

00:29:07

against us in my own life just here recently.

00:29:10

The most common tactic is our pride.

00:29:13

That's what we're talking about today.

00:29:15

How the enemy that wants to come against your life

00:29:18

actually wants to trap you into your own pride.

00:29:22

And I caught a little glimpse of this,

00:29:23

made me very uncomfortable.

00:29:24

That's what happens

00:29:25

when you start planning a message about pride.

00:29:27

You're like, Eww, yikes, that was ugly.

00:29:31

So my husband and I have this, I call it our pickleball problem.

00:29:34

We've been learning how to play pickleball together.

00:29:37

He's a lot better than I am.

00:29:39

So, you know, I go out and we play pickleball.

00:29:41

And I don't know if you play, but one of the things

00:29:43

you need to remember, I guess, I'm told,

00:29:46

is that when you serve from the back line,

00:29:48

the return has to bounce.

00:29:50

So if you're on a court like this

00:29:52

and you're back here and you make the serve

00:29:56

and somebody returns it, you have to let it bounce.

00:29:58

But I'm always moving up.

00:30:00

And here's my husband. He's on the other side.

00:30:01

And he goes, "You're standing in the wrong place."

00:30:04

And here's me.

00:30:05

I'm standing exactly where I want to stand.

00:30:07

This is where I want to stand.

00:30:09

And he's like, "Well, it's the wrong place."

00:30:11

And then he'll, like, smash the ball at me

00:30:13

or put it at my feet or right in my face,

00:30:15

and I'll get mad and he'll go, "Well, that wouldn't happen

00:30:18

if you were standing in the right place."

00:30:22

And so we go back and forth all the time

00:30:23

about this pickleball problem.

00:30:25

And I'm like, "You know what?

00:30:26

I'm going to stop playing with you.

00:30:27

If you're just going to yell at me and try to boss me around,

00:30:30

tell me where to stand all the time.

00:30:31

Like, I'm done. I'm not going to play."

00:30:33

Now, there's one thing you should know about my husband.

00:30:38

He's really good with a racket.

00:30:40

He plays about every racket sport that's ever been.

00:30:43

Actually went to college on a tennis scholarship.

00:30:47

So it's possible he knows a couple of things

00:30:50

I don't know about ball placement and rackets.

00:30:53

But you know what?

00:30:54

Also, don't tell me where to stand. That's all I'm saying.

00:30:58

So we're out playing pickleball and he's like,

00:31:00

"You're still in the wrong spot."

00:31:01

And I'm like, "I said it.

00:31:02

Just stop, stop telling me where to--"

00:31:04

You know, it's one of those.

00:31:05

So I'm right in the middle of my little pickleball tantrum,

00:31:08

telling him not to tell me where to stand again.

00:31:11

And I just went, "Wait, why don't I just stand

00:31:17

where he tells me to stand? Why am I not doing that?

00:31:22

Why do we do this

00:31:23

every single time we come to play pickleball?"

00:31:27

And I caught myself, like, right in the middle

00:31:29

of what we're going to talk about today.

00:31:31

Because pride,

00:31:33

pride wants to push us up until we can't back down.

00:31:37

But Jesus tells us

00:31:38

to do something a little bit different.

00:31:41

Let me pray for us.

00:31:43

Lord, I ask that You would help us to see

00:31:46

all the small, sometimes even silly places

00:31:51

that pride is messing with us in our life,

00:31:54

and and the big ones too.

00:31:56

I just pray that You would reveal to us

00:31:58

where pride is at work and help us fight back today.

00:32:01

In Jesus's name, Amen.

00:32:04

Well, we spend a lot of time here at Crossroads,

00:32:08

a lot of different ways, a lot of different topics,

00:32:10

telling you how much you are worth to God.

00:32:13

And it's absolutely true, how much significance

00:32:16

that your life has in the Kingdom of God,

00:32:18

how much you were planned for inside your mother's womb,

00:32:21

how much value you have,

00:32:23

how God wants you to be with Him and connected to Him.

00:32:27

And we we spend a lot of time talking about stuff like that.

00:32:31

And if you were to go back and read in Genesis one and two,

00:32:34

you would see why we say that so loudly and so often.

00:32:38

Because in Genesis one and two, we get the story of creation.

00:32:41

And what you learn when you read that really simple story

00:32:45

of how God created is that human beings, you and I,

00:32:49

we were the best thing He made.

00:32:51

We had more value, more worth, more significance

00:32:55

than anything else that was created because

00:32:57

we were literally made to bear the image of God

00:33:00

on the face of the earth.

00:33:02

And so as we go about our lives, we carry with us this sense

00:33:06

that we're supposed to be worth something.

00:33:10

And it's true.

00:33:12

You have a significance verified by God

00:33:15

as an image bearer of God, and you have a job to do.

00:33:20

According to Genesis one, your job is

00:33:21

to represent Him to all of creation,

00:33:24

to not only bear His image, but to rule over,

00:33:27

to reign over the things that He gives you

00:33:29

the gifts and the opportunity to rule over.

00:33:33

Those are the words that are actually used,

00:33:35

the rest of his creation.

00:33:36

And so we carry that sense that we should be honored

00:33:41

and valuable and worthy of some things.

00:33:45

And we're right about that.

00:33:46

But it also opens us up

00:33:48

to a unique play in the enemy playbook.

00:33:52

Last week, Brian did an awesome job.

00:33:53

He talked about how our life is in a battle

00:33:56

and the enemy has specific and personal plans against you.

00:34:00

So pride may take shape a little bit differently,

00:34:03

but I'm telling you, it is the most common play

00:34:06

he runs against all of us because of this.

00:34:09

Because you are worth more, you are more valuable,

00:34:12

you are more significant and you kind of know it.

00:34:15

But Satan can't change that.

00:34:19

He can only lie to you

00:34:21

about how to hold it, get it, keep it, use it.

00:34:27

And so he does that by twisting our natural sense of who we are,

00:34:33

and he twists it into our pride.

00:34:36

And then he says, "You know what? You should go earn it.

00:34:38

Go earn your place. Go prove your value.

00:34:41

Go get your significance and go up higher.

00:34:44

Get more, get more honor,

00:34:45

get more significance, get more value."

00:34:48

And it's always pushing up, more, better. That's pride.

00:34:54

Pride is this need that we have within us

00:34:57

to hold ourselves above others

00:34:58

in order to prove that value, that worth.

00:35:01

And the truth is, we don't have to.

00:35:04

But we have this voice in our ear all the time saying,

00:35:07

"Yes you do, yes you do.

00:35:10

Go prove it. Go get it. Go earn it. Go do it."

00:35:14

And this is the voice of pride.

00:35:16

And if I asked you to think of someone in your life

00:35:18

that was prideful, I'm guessing you would think of

00:35:20

somebody that's like classic blowhard, right?

00:35:23

Like, talks too much, too loud, too much about himself,

00:35:26

looks in the mirror a lot. You know what I mean?

00:35:28

One of those kind of guys, everybody's got one.

00:35:30

But pride is actually super sneaky.

00:35:33

I mean, yeah, sure. Is that an example, an outward example?

00:35:36

Yeah. But pride is super sneaky.

00:35:38

Pride gets in our lives in all kinds of ways,

00:35:43

and the enemy is actually using it in your life right now.

00:35:46

I had to go through an exercise when I was in seminary.

00:35:49

It was a really interesting, it might be

00:35:51

the most interesting paper I ever wrote in seminary.

00:35:53

And we had to model the paper after a particular book

00:35:58

that we had read in the class.

00:35:59

And it's an old book fiction, but interesting,

00:36:02

like thought provoking fiction by C.S. Lewis

00:36:05

called The Screwtape Letters.

00:36:07

Now, The Screwtape Letters

00:36:08

is written in an interesting format.

00:36:10

And the format is a correspondence of letters

00:36:14

going back and forth between a guy called Uncle Screwtape

00:36:18

and his nephew, a younger guy called Wormwood.

00:36:21

And you quickly learned that these two are actually devils.

00:36:25

They're like underlings of Satan.

00:36:28

And Wormwood has a project, and he's just an average guy.

00:36:32

And Wormwood's project is to tempt this guy,

00:36:36

drive a wedge between him and God, and ultimately,

00:36:39

for that normal, everyday, average Joe

00:36:42

who has no idea what's going on, by the way,

00:36:44

to make sure that he ends up separated from God forever.

00:36:49

And so it's a little dark, it's a little comical.

00:36:53

And it's a lot disturbing.

00:36:55

You read it and you're like, "What?

00:36:59

Wait, what if this is happening in my life?

00:37:02

Is this real? Is this what's going on?

00:37:05

What if that's happening to me?"

00:37:07

And so that's what we had to do.

00:37:09

When I was in seminary,

00:37:10

this class where we were talking about

00:37:11

the theology behind Satan and devils and all the things

00:37:16

we had to write a letter as though two devils

00:37:20

were talking about us, to get on the other side of our life

00:37:25

and go, if there was a strategy against me, what would it be?

00:37:28

Do you want to hear part of mine?

00:37:30

I went back and found it.

00:37:33

It was like three pages.

00:37:34

Listen, I have no shortage of places where you could get in.

00:37:37

I'm just saying, but here's a little slice of

00:37:40

what one part of my letter said.

00:37:42

My dear little demon, use Ali's competence

00:37:45

in managing lots of tasks against her.

00:37:48

She feels pleased when she succeeds

00:37:50

at keeping all the balls in the air.

00:37:51

We've taken note that when she doesn't have a big problem,

00:37:55

it keeps her from seeking Jesus as much.

00:37:58

So big issues aren't always the way to go with her.

00:38:01

If she feels there's not much going on,

00:38:03

she won't ask for much of His power.

00:38:04

So just fill her day and let her succeed in her own strength,

00:38:08

because that will keep her away from His.

00:38:13

Creepy, right? It's a little creepy.

00:38:16

So we're going to do a little exercise together.

00:38:22

You're going to get a letter

00:38:24

as though two devils are talking about you.

00:38:28

I want you to get your phone out,

00:38:29

for real, get your phone out.

00:38:31

No one's moving. Let's do this. Come on.

00:38:35

I don't know why you're not excited. Come on.

00:38:40

I want you to scan the QR code that's going to appear,

00:38:43

and you're going to answer a couple of questions.

00:38:46

And after you answer five questions,

00:38:49

you're going to read a letter as though Uncle Screwtape

00:38:53

was giving Wormwood some advice about you

00:38:58

and about how pride specifically

00:39:01

may be at work right now in your life against you.

00:39:06

Let me just say, while you're filling this out,

00:39:09

no one's keeping this.

00:39:11

No one knows your phone, your email.

00:39:13

There's no way to track this.

00:39:14

We actually made a phone call earlier, and I said,

00:39:16

"I don't want to say that if that's not true.

00:39:18

Is this going in, like,

00:39:19

the recesses of our database somewhere?"

00:39:22

And they're like, "No, there's nothing like that happening."

00:39:24

So you can be as honest as you want.

00:39:26

And you're the only one who's going to see it.

00:39:28

And none of us are ever going to read it,

00:39:30

so don't worry about that.

00:39:34

As you're answering these five questions,

00:39:37

be as honest as possible and you'll get a quick glimpse

00:39:41

of how pride might be at work in your life.

00:39:44

Are you an expert about something?

00:39:48

Has someone wronged you?

00:39:51

What have you been successful at?

00:39:53

What are you good at?

00:39:56

What about something you're ashamed of, like a flaw,

00:39:59

an imperfection, something you'd rather not show everyone?

00:40:05

A dream or an accomplishment for your future.

00:40:07

These are the questions that you're answering right now.

00:40:10

And I'm just going to give you a moment

00:40:13

to answer those questions and read your letter.

00:40:30

Anyone reading theirs yet?

00:40:34

Still answering.

00:40:53

As you're answering and reading your letter,

00:40:56

I just want you to let it sink in,

00:41:00

what if, what if there's a personal, specific strategy

00:41:08

to deal with, to twist, to use, to speak,

00:41:14

to push your buttons all related to your pride.

00:41:22

I'll read you the section

00:41:24

that really took me specifically aback.

00:41:28

When I was reading the letter, I did my own,

00:41:31

I filled in all the blanks.

00:41:33

And the one that I kept coming back to

00:41:36

was the one about the future.

00:41:38

I've been following Jesus a long time now,

00:41:40

and I filled in that blank with writing more books.

00:41:45

I love to write. I've written a few books.

00:41:48

I have a Bible study coming out pretty soon,

00:41:50

and I really enjoy that. I love to write.

00:41:53

And the books are about Jesus. My goodness. Right?

00:41:58

But the words really got me.

00:41:59

It says: above all,

00:42:00

keep our eyes fixed on writing more books.

00:42:04

Dress up that ambition as a noble dream,

00:42:07

and soon her desire for more

00:42:09

will masquerade as devotion to God.

00:42:13

Ooh, that made me think.

00:42:17

Is there a way that maybe pride is at work in my life

00:42:20

that I'm not fully seeing?

00:42:22

That I feel like is there an opening there?

00:42:25

It's something that I'll talk to God about.

00:42:27

This isn't, you know, written in stone for you.

00:42:30

It's just possibilities about where and how

00:42:35

pride could be twisted in some of these ways.

00:42:37

There are five things in that letter,

00:42:39

and they are all about elevating yourself,

00:42:43

keeping yourself above, holding power over,

00:42:46

doing something that elevates you above others.

00:42:50

That's what pride always wants to do.

00:42:52

Pride has five moves and they are all apparent in that letter.

00:42:57

And you can also see them everywhere in the Bible.

00:43:00

But there's one specific guy, his name is Saul.

00:43:05

And his life was characterized by an ever deepening,

00:43:09

ever increasing pride.

00:43:11

And in his own description of his own life

00:43:14

before he met Jesus in Acts 22, I want you to see

00:43:18

if you can hear some of the echoes of what pride

00:43:21

may have been pushing him to do.

00:43:23

Here's how he wrote about his own life.

00:43:27

I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia,

00:43:29

but brought up in this city,

00:43:31

educated at the feet of Gamaliel

00:43:33

according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers,

00:43:36

being zealous for God, as all of you are this day.

00:43:40

I persecuted this way to the death,

00:43:43

binding and delivering to prison both men and women,

00:43:46

as the high priest and the whole council of elders

00:43:49

can bear me witness.

00:43:50

From there I received letters to the brothers,

00:43:54

and I journeyed toward Damascus

00:43:56

to take those also who were there,

00:43:57

and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished.

00:44:01

Now when you listen to him describe his power,

00:44:07

his position, his education, his self righteous anger,

00:44:15

all of these are different aspects of how pride

00:44:18

can show up in our life.

00:44:19

Not just one way, but five different ways.

00:44:24

Paul even wrote later in another letter called Philippians,

00:44:27

he wrote that he had great reason

00:44:29

for confidence in the flesh.

00:44:31

That was his phrase. That's how he put it.

00:44:33

What he meant was, "I can do a lot on my own."

00:44:37

And pride loves that.

00:44:39

The more you can accomplish, the more you can get higher,

00:44:43

the more you can do these five moves,

00:44:47

the more pride has a hold of your life.

00:44:49

And Saul had all of these working,

00:44:52

and pride was running his life.

00:44:55

What pride always does, every single move,

00:44:57

which I'm about to tell you what these five moves really are.

00:45:00

And they all go up.

00:45:03

This is the direction of pride in every single case,

00:45:06

every single time pride tells you go up.

00:45:11

The first move that pride classic does is say, power up.

00:45:15

This was Saul all the way.

00:45:17

You seek control. You seek dominance.

00:45:19

You seek power.

00:45:21

Maybe positions of power. Maybe physical power.

00:45:23

It's like you want to go?

00:45:26

You know, it's that kind of mentality.

00:45:28

Like, I'll win every day of the week.

00:45:31

Saul epitomized that aspect of pride.

00:45:34

The second one is climb up, climb up.

00:45:38

This is about being seen, being recognized,

00:45:42

having success, getting applause.

00:45:43

The more public, the better.

00:45:45

Jesus came against Pharisees like Saul for this all the time.

00:45:49

He says, "You go and take the best positions

00:45:51

at the banquets and in the temple,

00:45:53

and you just walk around and pray just to be seen."

00:45:57

This is another aspect of pride.

00:46:00

And again Saul exemplified this, climb up so everyone can see.

00:46:06

Have the name that everybody knows.

00:46:09

The third move that pride tells us to do is puff up.

00:46:14

That's literally a phrase that the Book of Proverbs used

00:46:17

for the collection of knowledge that doesn't do you any favors,

00:46:21

that just puffs you up.

00:46:22

Not knowledge you're using,

00:46:24

not knowledge you're putting into work as wisdom.

00:46:26

Just knowledge so that you can win the argument, you know?

00:46:30

You know, somebody like,

00:46:31

this always got to have the last word,

00:46:33

knows more than you about everything in the universe

00:46:37

and wants you to know it.

00:46:38

This is a puffing up.

00:46:41

Again, that's what pride tells us to do, go up.

00:46:44

And more and more knowledge. Go get it.

00:46:48

You're better than them if you know more. Puff up.

00:46:52

Fourth one, store up. Store up.

00:46:58

What I mean by store up is to harbor bitterness,

00:47:02

to harbor resentment, to harbor unforgiveness.

00:47:05

You're storing up the wrongs.

00:47:08

Did you hear in the verses that I read to you about Saul,

00:47:10

he said that, "I was persecuting the brothers

00:47:14

and the sisters that were preaching Jesus."

00:47:16

He called it the way, but he was storing up.

00:47:19

They're wrong. They're doing bad.

00:47:21

And I'm going to store all that up.

00:47:24

And soon it's sort of bubbling into this self-righteous anger.

00:47:28

Did the line in the letter, get anyone else when it said,

00:47:32

love how that I think it said grudge

00:47:35

or storing up that bitterness starts to spill over

00:47:39

into these private moments of self-righteousness

00:47:43

where you're like, "Yeah, they are. They're just like that.

00:47:47

I am better than them. They're always, you know,"

00:47:50

whatever, fill in the blank."

00:47:53

This is what pride tells us to do, hold yourself above.

00:47:57

Hold yourself over. Hold that grudge. Hold that anger.

00:48:01

That's what Saul was doing.

00:48:03

And the last one is cover up.

00:48:06

Pride tells us cover up the flaws.

00:48:09

Cover up the imperfections. Cover it up.

00:48:15

Look better, look stronger.

00:48:16

This is me on the pickleball court.

00:48:18

I'm like, "I'm athletic, I got this.

00:48:20

I'm good. I don't need your help. I'm solid here," you know?

00:48:25

Just cover up the fact that

00:48:26

you really don't know how to play pickleball

00:48:28

and you could actually use some help and advice. You know?

00:48:31

Just cover up where you're not good enough,

00:48:34

where you're flawed, where you're imperfect.

00:48:36

That's what pride always tells us to do.

00:48:38

Up, up up. Power up, climb up, store up, cover up.

00:48:41

All pointing up.

00:48:44

And Saul exemplified every single one of these qualities.

00:48:47

Have you ever heard the phrase: pride is the root of all sin?

00:48:52

That's actually not in the Bible,

00:48:53

but it was written by an early church father

00:48:56

who did a lot of theological writings,

00:48:58

and it was just a recognition that pride, once it takes root,

00:49:01

you can easily justify just about any manner of anything.

00:49:06

And that's exactly the state that we encounter Saul in.

00:49:10

He actually got to the point where he watched

00:49:12

the stoning of an innocent man, and he was happy about it.

00:49:16

Thought he was right. Thought it was good.

00:49:17

Thought it was a service to God.

00:49:19

That's how deeply rooted it was.

00:49:24

If you go back at some point and you reread the letter

00:49:27

that you got, you'll notice all five of these moves

00:49:30

are somehow represented.

00:49:31

And maybe there's one in there

00:49:32

that hits you a little bit different.

00:49:35

Maybe you are holding a grudge.

00:49:37

Maybe you do have a dream for the future

00:49:39

that you know is getting twisted a little bit.

00:49:41

Whatever the case might be,

00:49:43

I want to ask you parents a question.

00:49:44

I was thinking about this.

00:49:46

I have four teenagers myself, and I thought,

00:49:49

when is the last time you --

00:49:52

Actually, you don't have to even have kids in the home.

00:49:54

Everybody in here has a parent or is a parent

00:49:57

of somebody or something.

00:49:59

When's the last time you apologized down?

00:50:03

Apologized to your kids?

00:50:07

"I said that. I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry.

00:50:10

I was wrong. That came from a bad motive.

00:50:13

You didn't deserve that, I apologize."

00:50:17

Why isn't that commonplace? It's our pride.

00:50:20

We have the position. We're in authority.

00:50:24

We don't need to apologize below us.

00:50:26

That's beneath me.

00:50:30

And we listen to that voice all the time

00:50:32

because it kind of works.

00:50:34

There's lots of things that you're good at.

00:50:36

Back to the very beginning of Genesis,

00:50:38

you were made to do some things.

00:50:40

You have some gifts. You have some abilities.

00:50:43

You can probably go up in many different ways

00:50:46

and collect respect and honor in different ways

00:50:49

that your pride is holding on to that stuff.

00:50:52

And me too. I mean, that's, you know, we just --

00:50:55

We just tend toward that direction because it works

00:50:59

for some version of the honor that we think is due us,

00:51:03

or the respect that we want,

00:51:04

or the accomplishments we wish we had,

00:51:06

or whatever the case might be.

00:51:08

We do get a version of that when we operate out of pride.

00:51:13

But God says that it's not the real version.

00:51:16

It's a hollow version. It's a temporary version.

00:51:19

And worse yet, something --

00:51:23

It's setting you up for something.

00:51:25

Proverbs 16:18 says this.

00:51:27

It actually tells very succinctly a truth

00:51:30

that we see played out in the lives of many people

00:51:33

all throughout Scripture.

00:51:34

But this is just a short and sweet proverb

00:51:36

that gives us the principle. It says:

00:51:37

Pride goes before destruction,

00:51:42

a haughty spirit before a fall.

00:51:46

The witness of Scripture tells us over and over

00:51:48

and over again that when we operate in these things,

00:51:51

when you hold on to the bitterness,

00:51:52

when you power up over everything,

00:51:54

when all you want is the recognition, you know,

00:51:57

and you operate out of that all the time,

00:51:59

you're getting higher and higher and higher,

00:52:01

and it's going to make your fall bigger and bigger and bigger.

00:52:06

And the fall isn't a maybe.

00:52:09

James 4:6 tells us that,

00:52:11

actually, God gets into the ring.

00:52:14

He gets into the fight and not on our side.

00:52:19

He gets tagged in and He begins to oppose you.

00:52:22

That's what James writes. He says:

00:52:23

God opposes the proud.

00:52:26

In Obadiah 1, God Himself delivers these words

00:52:30

to a prideful people. Listen to what He tells them.

00:52:34

"The pride of your heart has deceived you.

00:52:37

You who live in the clefts of the rock

00:52:39

and make your home on the heights,

00:52:40

you who say to yourself,

00:52:41

'Who can bring me down to the ground?'

00:52:44

Though you soar like the eagle

00:52:45

and make your nest among the stars,

00:52:47

from there I will bring you down," says the Lord.

00:52:52

Like that should terrify us to our very soul.

00:52:56

The idea that the more we operate out of pride,

00:52:59

the higher and higher and higher we hold ourselves,

00:53:03

the more and more and more we go try to get our worth

00:53:06

and value through various things on our own,

00:53:10

the bigger the fight we're picking with God Himself.

00:53:15

Why would He do it?

00:53:17

Why is He looking to knock us out?

00:53:18

Why does He want to come in the ring against us? Why?

00:53:21

It's because He wants us to find the real version.

00:53:26

We're looking for something, right?

00:53:27

We're looking for the value and the honor

00:53:30

and the significance our lives are supposed to have.

00:53:33

And we know it. We know it.

00:53:36

And He wants us to find it.

00:53:38

He wants us to discover

00:53:39

the significance we're supposed to feel,

00:53:42

the worth in Him we're supposed to have.

00:53:45

And He did this to Saul,

00:53:47

this guy that was operating deeply in pride.

00:53:49

He came against him.

00:53:51

Saul has this crazy encounter.

00:53:53

You can read it for yourself in Acts 9.

00:53:55

Saul has this crazy encounter

00:53:57

where he's traveling on the road,

00:53:59

on the way, in his self righteous anger

00:54:01

to go persecute more followers of Jesus, and Bam!

00:54:05

God meets him on the road

00:54:07

and literally knocks him to the ground and blinds him.

00:54:12

And it's Jesus. And he says, "I'm Jesus. Nice to meet you."

00:54:19

He literally opposes Paul, right?

00:54:21

Well, he becomes Paul right in the middle of that moment

00:54:25

in the middle of the road

00:54:27

and Paul begins to get to know Jesus.

00:54:29

And the more he gets to know Him

00:54:31

and the more he embraces that Jesus is actually the truth,

00:54:34

is actually the way,

00:54:36

is actually the life that he was looking for,

00:54:38

the more he begins to embrace that,

00:54:41

his life begins to take a downward trajectory.

00:54:46

And he discovers that all these things

00:54:48

he was after as a Pharisee, up high,

00:54:52

are actually found somewhere completely different.

00:54:56

That in the Kingdom and following Jesus

00:54:58

they are actually found way down low,

00:55:02

to the point where Paul writes in Philippians

00:55:04

that everything he counted as gain,

00:55:07

everything he accomplished on his own,

00:55:10

everything his pride led him to collect,

00:55:13

power and position and knowledge and friends in high places,

00:55:17

and all the things that he had spent his life doing,

00:55:21

he said they're trash. They're literally trash to me,

00:55:25

compared to the value that I found in Christ.

00:55:28

The worth of knowing who I am in Christ.

00:55:31

This is a crazy statement from a guy who --

00:55:34

He had the world by the tail.

00:55:36

He could do it better than you and I ever will be able to.

00:55:39

And he says all of that, turns out, it was in my way.

00:55:45

The antidote to pride, the antidote to this is to go down.

00:55:51

Pride says, go up.

00:55:52

Jesus says, "None of that is real. Go down and meet Me."

00:55:58

There is an antidote to pride, but you have to choose it.

00:56:00

You have to choose it because we all get our pride, like, hurt,

00:56:03

kind of insulted sometimes.

00:56:05

I had this experience, um, about a year ago.

00:56:07

Called the repairman for my freezer.

00:56:10

We have a drawer, you know, on the bottom of the refrigerator,

00:56:13

the freezer, it, like, pulls out in a drawer.

00:56:15

And it wouldn't, it wouldn't sit right.

00:56:17

So it was like things were being thawed in the freezer

00:56:20

because it was letting in the warm air and stuff.

00:56:22

So I started duct taping it around the side

00:56:25

to keep the drawer closed.

00:56:27

And so I called the appliance repair guy.

00:56:30

And he comes out to the house about, like,

00:56:33

a week, ten days, you know, took me

00:56:34

to get somebody out to the house.

00:56:36

So every single day I'm, like, duct taping the freezer

00:56:39

every time I open it and close it again,

00:56:40

I'll duct tape it again, trying to keep it shut.

00:56:42

So I've been doing this for like a week or so.

00:56:44

And he comes in and he's looking, pulling out the drawer,

00:56:49

doing his thing, and he reaches behind on the track.

00:56:52

And he's like, messing with the track.

00:56:55

And he comes up with a bag of frozen peas.

00:56:59

And he goes, "Here you go. All fixed."

00:57:04

And I'm like, "Are you freaking kidding me right now?"

00:57:08

Like, and a bill for 125 bucks.

00:57:11

It's the most expensive bag of peas I've ever bought.

00:57:16

Was my pride hurt? Absolutely.

00:57:18

I felt like a total moron.

00:57:20

I was like, I don't know why I called.

00:57:22

I'd spent a week duct taping my freezer shut,

00:57:27

and then I paid him 125 bucks to grab the peas for me.

00:57:31

Like what? Not a great moment. Not a great moment.

00:57:35

But that's not what I'm talking about.

00:57:39

Those moments where you,

00:57:40

like, stumble into feeling like a jerk,

00:57:43

you kind of accidentally go like,

00:57:45

"Oh, yeah, I guess I'm not that great.

00:57:47

That was a really bozo move."

00:57:49

You know, that's not what I'm talking about.

00:57:52

I'm actually talking about surveying your life,

00:57:55

being honest with yourself about where pride is working.

00:57:59

You and God,

00:58:00

this can just be a conversation between you and God,

00:58:02

and being honest and watching for

00:58:05

an intentional move down in that very place.

00:58:10

And I'm going to give you some counter moves

00:58:12

to each of the five moves of pride,

00:58:14

because you, actually, God is watching to see

00:58:18

will you lower yourself?

00:58:22

And I would love to spare you the knockout.

00:58:26

I would love if you and I were so honest, so brutally honest

00:58:31

with God that we could look at our life and go, "You know what?

00:58:34

Yeah, okay. I don't want to forgive that person.

00:58:38

I'm definitely harboring some bitterness there, Lord.

00:58:42

Tell me how to move down.

00:58:44

How do I take my own pride and break it?"

00:58:48

That is the kind of blow that you can strike to the enemy.

00:58:52

That is the kind of thing that tags God in

00:58:55

to the fight on your side, because He's watching for that.

00:58:59

Will you do it?

00:59:01

If you do, you'll tag in

00:59:04

a pretty powerful partner in the fight.

00:59:08

So here's your counter moves. Are you ready for these?

00:59:12

Five counter moves of pride, one, if you are a power upper,

00:59:16

you're a you want to go type,

00:59:18

like, I got this, I'm going to win.

00:59:20

I want you to yield to someone else's authority.

00:59:24

You're going to submit.

00:59:27

You're going to hate it.

00:59:28

You're going to absolutely hate it.

00:59:30

Your pride is going to hate it.

00:59:32

Maybe you always take control.

00:59:34

My husband, I got a little of this in me.

00:59:35

My husband's like, "Oh, sure, you're fine with the rules,

00:59:38

the ones that you agree with, right?"

00:59:42

Maybe there's a work policy that you, like, purposely overlook.

00:59:46

Submit to it.

00:59:48

Maybe you're --

00:59:49

I know there's a mom in one of my kids classrooms,

00:59:51

and she volunteers for all the things.

00:59:54

And I asked her why one time.

00:59:55

I said, "It looks tiring. Aren't you tired?"

01:00:00

And she's like, "Well, if I do it all,

01:00:02

then I can work it out

01:00:04

exactly the way I need it for my family."

01:00:10

What if you didn't?

01:00:13

What if you let go of just trying to control things?

01:00:16

Maybe you're the big boss and you just need

01:00:18

to take some advice from the intern.

01:00:20

Ask for some correction.

01:00:21

What don't you like about our culture?

01:00:23

What do you think I could do better as a boss?

01:00:25

All of these are purposely taking this aspect of pride

01:00:28

and crashing it downward.

01:00:31

Second one, if you climb up, if you know

01:00:37

in your heart of hearts you're doing the things

01:00:39

because you really want to have

01:00:41

a sense of value from being recognized.

01:00:45

You always feel second best.

01:00:46

You never feel like you get any attention.

01:00:48

You want the applause.

01:00:49

I want you to disappear.

01:00:52

The counter moved to this move of pride is to disappear.

01:00:56

Put yourself in whatever situation that's occurring in

01:00:59

where you cannot be seen, where you're behind the scenes,

01:01:02

where you're gone. You know what?

01:01:04

God actually prescribes something like this for us,

01:01:06

it's called the Sabbath.

01:01:09

Once every seven days, you literally disappear.

01:01:13

And lo and behold, you build the trust that the world

01:01:16

and all the things that you're doing in it

01:01:18

can actually go on without you. Disappear.

01:01:25

Third one, if you puff up. Got a little of this in me too.

01:01:29

Love, to learn, love the knowledge,

01:01:31

love school, still do.

01:01:34

If you trend in a know it all direction, you like to puff up,

01:01:37

I want you to learn.

01:01:39

And as a matter of fact, learn something from the person

01:01:41

who's as far below you as you can possibly get.

01:01:47

I did this with my husband in pickleball. I did.

01:01:53

Swallowed my pride, literally.

01:01:56

And I went to him a couple days after my last little tantrum

01:01:59

on the court, and I said, "Babe, can we go out, just you and me,

01:02:04

and you can teach me where to stand? Will you do that?"

01:02:08

And he was like, "I thought you'd never ask." You know?

01:02:13

So we literally have, and I let him now when we're playing,

01:02:17

I'm like, if I start to move, just like coach me a little,

01:02:19

don't yell at me, please.

01:02:20

But just go like, "Hey, don't go up yet."

01:02:23

Willingly learning from somebody else.

01:02:28

You pride hates it.

01:02:30

Number four, whatever hurt you've stored up, forgive.

01:02:38

If you've been storing up, I want you to forgive.

01:02:40

Now I just want to acknowledge the fact that

01:02:43

if forgiveness was easy, we'd all snap our fingers

01:02:45

and go like, "I forgive you. It's all over."

01:02:47

That doesn't always happen, I understand that.

01:02:50

I've been there myself.

01:02:52

I'm sure I'll be back again shortly.

01:02:53

Forgiveness can be difficult. It can be a process.

01:02:56

But let me ask you, are you in the process,

01:03:01

or are you just storing up

01:03:04

all the things that you know were wrong?

01:03:09

A couple of ideas for you.

01:03:11

If this is you, you could pray a blessing over that person

01:03:16

every single day at the same time.

01:03:17

Maybe pick a time frame, a week, a month.

01:03:19

You could set a reminder on your phone.

01:03:21

I use Siri for this all the time.

01:03:23

Hey Siri, remind me at 10 a.m. tomorrow to pray for that jerk.

01:03:28

That's a good start, right? That's a fine start.

01:03:32

Pray a blessing.

01:03:33

The other thing you could do here is I know you have a story.

01:03:36

If you're a storer upper, you're grudge holder,

01:03:38

you got a story that goes with it.

01:03:41

You're never going to believe what he did. He always does.

01:03:44

And you tell the story.

01:03:47

You could commit, between you and God,

01:03:49

I'm never going to tell that story again.

01:03:52

I will never tell that story again.

01:03:55

Have you gotten all the way to forgiveness?

01:03:57

No. But my guess is you're going to get a lot closer

01:03:59

if you stop telling the story.

01:04:00

Are you in the process of forgiveness?

01:04:04

Okay. Last one. And I save this for last on purpose

01:04:08

because I want to tell you about a moment in my life.

01:04:11

If you've been covering up a flaw, a sin,

01:04:17

an imperfection of any kind, small, medium, large,

01:04:20

could be anything, I want you to purposely expose it.

01:04:26

It might just be telling a friend

01:04:27

the thing that you're ashamed of.

01:04:29

Or it may be confessing something that you swore

01:04:33

you were going to take to the grave.

01:04:37

Your pride is busy telling you that that confession

01:04:41

is going to ruin your life.

01:04:42

And I am telling you, it's the opposite. It is the opposite.

01:04:46

That cover up is going to ruin your life.

01:04:48

I had a moment that I look back on probably 25 years ago now.

01:04:53

And I hit my knees with God on a run, and I was, I was sobbing.

01:04:58

I had been covering up a massive sin in my life.

01:05:02

And I've talked about it here at Crossroads a couple of times.

01:05:05

I had covered up an affair that I had had, and I --

01:05:08

It's not -- I'm not going to tell you the whole story

01:05:10

and you can find that in other places.

01:05:13

But this moment, this moment changed my life.

01:05:16

And it was just between me and God.

01:05:19

And I was out on a run and He was pressing in on me,

01:05:22

"You can't cover this up. You cannot do this."

01:05:24

And I hit my knees and I just -- I just sat there.

01:05:28

And I said to Him, "Okay. I'll do it."

01:05:34

And I said, "Go ahead and break me,"

01:05:39

because that's what it felt like.

01:05:40

It felt like exposing that, purposely confessing it.

01:05:45

This is not waiting for somebody to figure it out

01:05:47

and confront you.

01:05:49

This is purposeful confession, purposeful exposure.

01:05:52

And when you do that, oh, if I had known

01:05:58

how much God would come roaring into the fight with me, I --

01:06:03

It's amazing. It's absolutely amazing.

01:06:06

And so I look back on that day now and I think

01:06:09

everything good about my life started right then.

01:06:13

I didn't know it.

01:06:15

And things got very, very bad and messy for a while.

01:06:17

But guess what? God is watching for that.

01:06:21

He's going, "Who wants Me in the fight with them?

01:06:24

I know you do. If you're willing to go there, I know you do.

01:06:27

You're willing to learn from your intern. I know you do.

01:06:29

You're willing to confess your sin. I know you do.

01:06:32

You're willing to forgive the person

01:06:34

that did the unforgivable to you. I know you want Me.

01:06:39

I know you want Me in the fight with you."

01:06:41

And that, that is what we are after.

01:06:43

We want God in the ring with us and that is the way in.

01:06:46

Because everything good in the Kingdom starts down here,

01:06:51

not up here.

01:06:52

Pride says, "Go get it. Go earn it. Cover it up.

01:06:54

Puff it up, climb it up, power it up, go up."

01:07:00

And God says, "You're never going to be convinced

01:07:02

of your worth that way. Let me show you.

01:07:04

Come down and meet Me here."

01:07:07

And I want you to see this story in the life of Jesus.

01:07:10

The life of Jesus shows us the truth that

01:07:12

when you do that, you guarantee your victory.

01:07:17

You absolutely guarantee that God is going to reach down

01:07:19

at just the right time, and He's going to pick you up again.

01:07:22

And you'll go higher than you ever thought you could,

01:07:25

and then you ever would have gone on your own.

01:07:27

Philippians 2 says this":

01:07:29

In your relationships with one another

01:07:31

have the same mindset as Christ Jesus,

01:07:34

who being in very nature God

01:07:37

did not consider equality with God

01:07:39

something to be used to his own advantage.

01:07:42

Rather, He made Himself nothing

01:07:47

by taking the very nature of a servant,

01:07:49

being made in human likeness

01:07:51

and being found in appearance as a man,

01:07:53

He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death,

01:07:57

even death on a cross.

01:08:01

This is the trajectory of the life that the Son of God chose.

01:08:05

Jesus, the Son of God, He comes down, down to earth

01:08:09

and He lives a human life. And what does he do?

01:08:11

Does He insist on His majesty and glory and honor?

01:08:14

Does He try to save His reputation

01:08:16

and convince people about who He is? No.

01:08:19

He came and He served me and He served you

01:08:21

as low as He could possibly get.

01:08:25

And the death He died

01:08:26

was the lowest death He could have possibly died.

01:08:28

They treated him like a criminal.

01:08:30

His friends left Him. They nailed Him to a cross.

01:08:33

And guess what? He went into the grave

01:08:35

and it looked like an absolute knockout.

01:08:38

Lights out. Knocked out. Fight over.

01:08:42

And then three days later, here's the end of the story.

01:08:46

Therefore, God exalted Him to the highest place.

01:08:49

He gave Him the name that is above every name,

01:08:52

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

01:08:54

in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

01:08:57

And every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

01:09:01

to the glory of the Father.

01:09:02

His worth, His position, His authority in heaven

01:09:06

is now clear for all to see.

01:09:08

And one day that's going to be

01:09:10

the reality that you and I live in.

01:09:12

The position he deserved was never up for debate.

01:09:15

He just lowered Himself and He waited three days

01:09:18

and He suffered the most low life

01:09:20

and death He possibly could.

01:09:22

And at the right time, God picked Him up

01:09:25

and exalted him to the name and the place

01:09:28

that is above everything else.

01:09:31

This is your story. This is your story.

01:09:36

This is your story, if you will humble yourself before Him,

01:09:41

there's a victory like that waiting for you.

01:09:44

And He's wondering, "Are you willing to go low to find Me?

01:09:48

Are you willing to go low so that I can reward you,

01:09:52

I can give you value, I can prove your honor?"

01:09:56

I want to invite you to do something with me right now.

01:10:00

We don't do stuff like this around here too often,

01:10:05

but it was just too much like the moment

01:10:09

that changed the trajectory of my whole life.

01:10:11

So I want to invite you to get on your knees with me.

01:10:17

Now, some of you who have been blessed by

01:10:19

this posture in the Catholic Church are like,

01:10:21

"I've been waiting for this. I'm really good at this."

01:10:26

If you're physically unable, totally fine.

01:10:31

Just bow your head. Lean forward.

01:10:33

But the rest of you, if you would like,

01:10:35

I'd love to invite you

01:10:36

to just join me on your knees before God.

01:10:42

And I just want you to take a minute

01:10:44

and tell Him the counter move that you need to make.

01:10:51

Just take a minute. What is it?

01:10:53

Is it forgiveness? Setting aside ambition?

01:10:58

Getting out of the spotlight for a while?

01:11:02

What is it? Just tell God what's that counter move.

01:11:08

This is a fighting posture.

01:12:23

- I just want to remind you that this is not

01:12:26

a let go and let God moment.

01:12:29

This is a moment where you're striking a blow

01:12:31

and you're going to do it on purpose.

01:12:34

And the pride is going to be in your ear

01:12:36

saying, "That little thing, that doesn't matter,

01:12:40

or you can't forgive that,

01:12:42

or it's so big, your whole life will explode."

01:12:45

And I'm telling you, whatever that voice is saying,

01:12:48

the opposite is true.

01:12:51

You get as low as you can go

01:12:53

and wait for God to lift you up again.

01:13:35

- I'm just going to pray over you.

01:13:36

We're going to finish our time together

01:13:38

right here in this lowly pasture.

01:13:42

Lord, we acknowledge that You oppose the proud,

01:13:45

but You give grace to the humble.

01:13:46

I want You to see us on our knees

01:13:49

asking for Your grace, Lord.

01:13:52

And we're going to do the thing,

01:13:55

the thing that pride is telling us not to do.

01:13:57

And, Father, have mercy on us and lift us up again.

01:14:02

It's in Jesus's name that we pray. Amen.

01:14:08

- Man, I hope you heard today that

01:14:10

there's something special that happens

01:14:11

when we're willing to go low and allow God to lift us up.

01:14:15

Like, there's just some access to power

01:14:17

and to God's ability to work and change in our lives

01:14:19

that only happens when we're willing

01:14:22

to take the low place, when we're willing to be humble.

01:14:24

And I just love how clearly Ali laid all of that out for us.

01:14:27

Now. this isn't something we have to do on our own,

01:14:29

and we'd love to pray for you.

01:14:31

If there's something you're processing

01:14:32

and something that this has implications for your life,

01:14:35

for your marriage, for your family,

01:14:36

for your career, whatever it is,

01:14:38

we'd love to pray for you.

01:14:39

You can email us at anywhere@crossroads.net

01:14:41

or just go to crossroads.net, click the chat button

01:14:45

and myself or one of the team would love to pray for you.

01:14:48

Now, we've got lots of different ways for you to grow.

01:14:50

Again, going low is a way to recognize

01:14:53

we have a place to go, that God has something

01:14:55

He wants to do in us.

01:14:56

And I know so many parents that I talk to need,

01:14:59

they feel this need and desire to level up as parents.

01:15:02

Well, we actually have some cohorts starting for parents.

01:15:05

It's three weeks, small daily challenges and weekly teaching.

01:15:09

It's really doable for any schedule,

01:15:11

designed to help you go to a new place as a parent,

01:15:13

and parent with more intentionality

01:15:15

and deeper connection with your kids.

01:15:18

Now, all the stuff that we do around here,

01:15:19

all the stuff that we do around here,

01:15:21

happens because people are faithful and generous,

01:15:23

and honestly, they're humble with their finances.

01:15:25

There's no, like, big corporate sponsor around here.

01:15:28

It's normal people like my wife Rachel and I

01:15:30

who just say, "God, we want You to do something

01:15:32

through us and we trust you with what we have."

01:15:34

If you've got questions around maybe, like,

01:15:37

what Crossroads as a church believes about money,

01:15:39

or if you're ready to go to that place

01:15:41

and want to join the team of faithful givers

01:15:42

who make so many good things possible around here,

01:15:45

you can do that at Crossroads.net/give

01:15:47

or in the Crossroads Anywhere app.

01:15:49

Guys, thank you so much for joining us.

01:15:51

We'll see you next week.

How to Fight Back

Welcome to the Weekend-Follow Up!

Bonus Questions

Recent Series