How to Be Humble | The Book Of Philippians Week 2 | Anywhere Service

Are you tired of all of the grumbling in the world today? Maybe you’ve been grumbling too. The secret to experiencing more joy and less grumbling is humility. Humility is the quality of being humble. Some confuse humility with low self-esteem when really it’s simply the act of thinking about yourself less. In this message, you’ll learn how to be humble, and how it leads to a life filled with joy.

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    Today is all about how joy is possible,
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    even when it feels like it's not.
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    All types of things are going to get in the way
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    of your joy and my joy,
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    situations at home, at work, your relationships.
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    But the thing I want to address today
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    is the thing that you can control,
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    that is your grumbling.
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    Life is like a never ending pursuit of happiness.
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    We're always looking for something
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    better than what we have.
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    The problems, trouble, pain,
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    life, death all get in the way.
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    Just when we think we're almost there,
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    we get knocked back down.
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    What if joy didn't mean what you thought it meant?
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    What if you could have joy
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    no matter what circumstances you're facing or will face?
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    In this series of videos we're exploring
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    five keys to chasing joy.
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    Today, we're going to own the truth that
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    the humble don't grumble.
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    I'll tell you what I like grumbling about
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    this birdfeeder right here.
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    My wife has this bird feeder hanging over our porch
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    and there's a little couch, outdoor furniture underneath it.
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    And she just loves looking at the birds come up.
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    There's birds come up.
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    It's not just birds, it's squirrels come up.
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    You can see them gnawing all over this
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    and they come up and they spew seed all over the place.
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    Because why not?
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    You're giving the entire neighborhood a free buffet.
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    Hey, I'm buying you food.
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    Come over here
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    and spray your food all over the furniture.
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    And while you're there, just poop all over the place too.
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    Just -- just poop down.
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    And we're back and forth.
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    She loves seeing the critters.
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    Critters are fine by me,
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    but I don't like their leave behind.
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    And it's been this thing back and forth, back and forth.
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    And the problem is me, because I'm grumbling about this.
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    I can't control what she wants to do with critters.
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    And I guess I could just try to power up
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    and just take it and steal it.
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    I actually might just leave this in my garage.
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    Hopefully she'll forget about it.
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    But I can't. I can't control that.
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    But I can control my attitude
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    and not having a grumbling spirit where I'm grumbling.
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    Today we're going to start with the end in mind.
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    We're looking at a section out of
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    the book of Philippians.
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    And the end of the section that we're going to see today
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    is Philippians 2:14. Here's what it says:
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    Who wants to be blameless and innocent?
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    Who wants to be? I do.
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    Who wants to be a child of God without blemish?
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    I want to be.
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    I want to be a child of God without blemish.
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    Who wants to be crooked and twisted?
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    Who wants to be?
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    Hopefully, none of us are raising our hands,
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    although that does sound like an amazing new 8% beer
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    that some microbrewery somewhere should come out with.
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    Crooked and Twisted.
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    Yeah, I'm gonna have me a Crooked and Twisted.
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    What separates crooked and twisted people
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    from blameless and innocent people?
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    What separates crooked and twisted people
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    from children of God who don't have blemish?
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    One word, humility.
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    How do you know someone who isn't humble?
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    They grumble. They are in disputes.
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    That's what it means to not have humility.
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    You're grumbling.
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    Humility isn't thinking --
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    having low self esteem about yourself.
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    It's just thinking about yourself less.
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    A few years ago, our board went through an exercise
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    in the scriptures, just meditating and talking about
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    the concept of humility.
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    It's how we opened up every meeting for about six months.
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    And one board member thought this was
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    a really great idea, Jim Bechtold,
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    great, great man of God.
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    And to be quite honest with you, about month four,
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    where I felt we were spinning our wheels,
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    I wasn't sure what this exercise was doing.
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    Was anybody learning anything about humility?
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    What are we seeing? What are we feeling?
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    What are we thinking?
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    And finally, I think
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    I said something one meeting, it's like,
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    "I'm not I'm not sure where we're going with this."
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    And then we we stopped after like a half a year
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    looking at that intensely.
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    Now, I know looking back at it,
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    now I know that Jim was hearing from God
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    because humility is the exact thing
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    that we have needed over this last couple of years.
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    The exact thing.
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    I'll tell you this right now, next time,
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    next time we have a global pandemic
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    sandwiched with a contentious presidential election,
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    followed by a run on the Capitol,
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    followed by social unrest on every social issue,
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    ending with inflation and recession,
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    next time all that happens, we're going to be ready.
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    We're going to nail it. We got we got it.
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    We've got you covered because we did a lot,
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    a lot of things wrong over the last couple of years.
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    And I can just -- I have enough humility
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    to be able to recognize that.
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    And sometimes we make mistakes because
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    we don't have the humility to admit
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    that I don't have all the answers.
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    The Apostle Paul is writing this letter,
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    the letter of Philippians from a prison cell.
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    His teaching is that
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    we should have the same attitude of Jesus.
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    And what was that attitude? It was one of humility.
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    Paul's literally practicing what he preached here.
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    He's in prison for following Jesus,
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    and he had every reason to grumble.
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    But instead he chose humility,
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    because the humble don't grumble
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    and because that was his choice.
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    He was choosing that and therefore he experienced joy.
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    Lib and I, we got married 33 years ago or so,
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    something like that.
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    We had a banner in our wedding
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    and we chose the heading and the theme of joy
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    and said, "Choose joy."
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    Joy is a choice.
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    Happiness is what happens to you
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    when everything happens that you want to have happened.
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    It's all happening the way I want it to happen,
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    therefore, I can be happy.
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    But joy is a choice. You choose. You choose that.
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    And you can choose it because you're choosing humility.
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    Humility isn't thinking less of yourself,
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    it's thinking about yourself less.
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    You don't think about yourself as a loser.
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    It's not a thing of low self esteem.
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    You just spend less time thinking about yourself
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    because you want to spend more time thinking about God.
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    The more you think about yourself,
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    the less you could think about God.
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    The more you think about yourself,
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    the less you can think about others.
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    Humble people think more about God
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    and more about others.
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    And when we think about others, we're less prone
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    to fight with others and grumble with others.
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    Let's keep going in Philippians chapter two,
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    the very beginning, verse one, it says this:
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    The Bible tells us we're supposed
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    to look after our own interests.
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    It's not bad looking after your own interest.
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    You've got to look -- You've got to look after
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    your own physical interest.
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    "Am I healthy and my eating right?"
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    You have to look after your own interests and say,
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    "Am I saving and making enough money, saving enough money?"
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    It's good to look after your own interests.
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    You need to do that.
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    But the Scriptures teach us to not only do that,
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    that's a no-brainer thing everybody does.
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    Even crooked and twisted people
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    look after their own interests.
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    But it says look after the interests of others.
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    I think we do a pretty good job with that as a church.
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    And our last data point with that was our response
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    and is our response still right now to the flooding
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    that's happening in eastern Kentucky.
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    Man, rough, rough, rough stuff.
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    And here's a little piece of us, how we as a church
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    are looking after the interest of others.
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    - Hi, I'm Darin Kroger. I'm with Crossroads Church.
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    We're down here with our disaster cleanup teams
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    in Hazard, Kentucky.
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    We're responding to the flooding event
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    that happened last week.
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    And we are down here trying to help people
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    clean up their homes, dry out their homes
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    so they can save their homes.
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    - It's so traumatic to walk or drive down that road
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    and see what used to be a home,
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    to see somebody's Social Security card, literally,
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    like see an identity of a person
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    who you don't know where they are and where they've gone.
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    - When you think about flood, you don't think about --
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    you think about, " Oh, there's water in my basement."
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    This was so destructive, so unbelievably destructive.
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    And it happened so quickly that people just
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    did not have a chance to get out of its way.
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    Once you have areas that are flooded,
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    you can't get in a car and drive out, you know?
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    Or you're going to be trapped in your vehicle and drown.
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    It just blows your mind.
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    - Never in my life have I seen
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    such a vast opportunity to come together,
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    where there is county's wide need for people.
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    - I see God in the face of every one of those volunteers.
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    Every time they pick up something,
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    every time they pick up a piece of wet carpet
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    or pull out a cabinet or throw a door on a burn pile
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    or whatever it is, all the little acts of service
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    that they do, that's where I see --
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    that's where I see God, where I see Jesus.
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    - Being the hands and feet of Jesus
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    is cleaning out people's homes.
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    It is serving meals.
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    But it's so much more than that.
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    It's welcoming people into your heart,
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    it is having compassion.
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    - So many of you gave
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    and so many of you have volunteered your time
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    and you are making a difference.
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    You might not be here and you're watching this video
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    and you might not be able to be in Hazard,
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    but your entire church is bringing hope.
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    So on behalf of all of Eastern Kentucky,
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    I just want to say thank you to Crossroads.
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    - That is heart wrenching,
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    while at the same time being heart warming.
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    Looking after the needs of others in humility
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    is an incredibly godly characteristic.
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    Jesus did this.
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    This was His entire life.
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    And in this passage,
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    we see some of the signs of humility that He had
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    that we are told to have.
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    You know you are experiencing humility
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    when there's a couple of things.
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    One, when there is oneness.
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    That's what it said, he is being one with God
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    and we are to be one with one another.
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    Paul encourages the people in Philippi
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    to have the same mindset and love, the same thing.
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    If there's any, if there's any,
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    then make my joy complete by doing this.
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    God is Jesus, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
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    There are one. There are one in the same.
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    And this oneness enables them
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    to interact with humility with one another.
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    We have so much grumbling and so much anger
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    that's happening in our culture because
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    we don't have any oneness.
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    If America ever changes its constitution
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    and we become an autocracy, I want to be king,
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    at least just for one day. Just one day.
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    If I was king of America for one day, one day,
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    I'll tell you exactly what I would do.
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    I would do something that would give
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    every American a common experience.
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    I would do something where everybody had to be one.
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    Coming out of high school, everybody, pick your poison.
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    You're either got to go to the military for 2 years
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    or you've got to go to the Peace Corps for 2 years.
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    And that 2 years,
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    you're going have to dress like other people.
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    You're going have to have your head shaved like other people.
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    You're going to be like other people for 2 years.
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    You're going to interact with people
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    who have more money than you, less money than you,
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    who have different political opinions than you.
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    There's not a common experience in America anymore.
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    It's why we're always fighting all the time,
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    because we're not humble,
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    because we can't serve other people,
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    because we can't understand other people.
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    And why aren't we doing these things?
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    Because we're not humble.
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    Grumblers, and we are a nation of grumblers,
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    will always have a hard time with oneness and unity,
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    because humility is a prerequisite
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    for oneness and unity.
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    Verse five says:
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    Have this mind, this mind of oneness.
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    And then verse six:
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    Oneness.
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    Oneness is critical for humanity.
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    The other thing that's critical is obedience. Obedience.
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    How many people would say,
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    "I want to be an obedient person?
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    Obedience is great. It's great to obey."
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    Oh, my goodness.
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    Obey is the worst four letter word in our language.
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    It's the thing that nobody wants to do.
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    Maybe that's why very few people are actually like God,
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    because Jesus obeys, He obeyed God even to death.
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    This means that there's going to be things in your life,
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    in my life that we're going to have to do
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    that we don't want to do,
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    even maybe to the point of death.
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    When you find a life that's willing to lay its life down,
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    out of obedience, out of honoring God,
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    you're going to find a person who's humble
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    and on the way to a great life.
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    - Hey, I'm Hannah. - And I'm Andy.
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    - And we're in the Book of Philippians today
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    talking about joy.
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    And, you know, here around Crossroads,
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    we believe that giving can actually be a joy.
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    - Yeah, we believe that giving allows us to show our hearts
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    and can help us continue to stumble towards God together.
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    - That's right.
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    And if you want to give right now,
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    you can go to Crossroads.net/gift.
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    Now let's get back to the message.
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    - Philippians 2:6 says:
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    It says Jesus there,
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    His way of humility was to empty himself.
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    Jesus existed before the earth was created.
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    He existed before Christmas took place.
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    And He comes down to this earth to live a sinless life
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    that you and I can't live,
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    to die a brutal death that you and I deserve.
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    He does that out of humility.
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    And it says he doesn't grasp onto it,
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    meaning He had interests and perks up in heaven,
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    whatever those are, we don't know.
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    Whatever angels were fanning Him and feeding Him grapes,
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    the life He had there.
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    And He came down and led a difficult life
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    and He had splinters in His hands
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    and other difficult things.
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    But He didn't cling to all those things.
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    He released them.
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    He didn't cling to His interests.
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    He didn't cling to His preferences.
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    He didn't cling to His wants, His desires.
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    He released them out of humility.
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    It's the core to who He was and what He did.
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    He was lucid about His mission and who He really was.
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    I've started taking up golf again.
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    I haven't really golfed consistently since,
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    you know, a long, long time ago.
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    I stopped golfing for the most part when I got married.
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    I had my first weekend after our honeymoon,
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    I went golfing with my buddies.
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    I told Lib, "Hey, I'm going golfing."
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    And she said, "Okay, great, that's fine, hun."
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    The problem was her dad didn't golf
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    and she'd never date anybody who golfed,
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    so she didn't have any perspective for it,
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    how long it took.
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    So after nine holes at the turn, I give her a call,
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    my new bride to call and say, "How's it going?
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    I'll be home in a couple of hours." Whatever.
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    And she says, "Where are you?"
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    I said, "I'm golfing." "You're golfing?"
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    She had no idea it'd take, like,
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    four and a half hours the whole thing. Right?
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    My friends talk about how that back nine
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    how I would hit my ball and run to my ball.
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    Run and run and run.
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    And I just stopped golfing after that.
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    It wasn't because she told me not to.
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    It was just time and money didn't make sense.
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    I recently just this last summer
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    I've golfed more in the last summer
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    than I have in the last ten years,
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    probably four or five times this last summer.
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    And I was golfing with my son.
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    My son said, "Man, when were you at your best, dad?"
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    And I said, "22. I was pretty good back then."
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    And then when I said that I thought 22,
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    it dawned on me, that was 34 years ago.
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    Now other than thinner gray hair,
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    I'm exactly the same as I was physically at 22.
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    My measurements are the same.
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    My endurance is the same. All that's the same.
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    But I haven't been golfing, so no wonder
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    every time I go out in golf, I get frustrated
  • 00:18:12
    because I can't hit 250 yard straight drives consistently.
  • 00:18:17
    My identity is one that I am a golfer,
  • 00:18:20
    even though I'm not.
  • 00:18:22
    I haven't been for 34 years.
  • 00:18:24
    And I get frustrated because I keep thinking
  • 00:18:26
    I'm a golfer, but I'm not.
  • 00:18:29
    See, a lot of us think that we're humble, but you're not.
  • 00:18:33
    You have the identity, but you're not.
  • 00:18:37
    Like, when did you not do something you wanted to do
  • 00:18:41
    and voluntarily look out for somebody else?
  • 00:18:43
    When was -- when would that have been?
  • 00:18:45
    Many of us identify as a Christian.
  • 00:18:48
    That was a long time ago.
  • 00:18:50
    A long time ago that you got baptized,
  • 00:18:51
    a long time ago you read the Bible on a daily basis.
  • 00:18:54
    A long time ago you would actually have prayer requests
  • 00:18:56
    and you would actually pray.
  • 00:18:58
    A long time ago when you would tell somebody
  • 00:19:00
    about who Christ was.
  • 00:19:01
    That was a long, long time ago.
  • 00:19:03
    Yet we say I'm a Christian.
  • 00:19:04
    I'm not saying you're going to heaven or not.
  • 00:19:06
    I'm just saying, "Hey, man,
  • 00:19:07
    if your game isn't one of Jesus,
  • 00:19:10
    stop calling yourself that."
  • 00:19:12
    You may identify with Jesus,
  • 00:19:14
    but unless you're living the way He lived,
  • 00:19:16
    which we're seeing here in Philippians 2, you're not.
  • 00:19:19
    We can't get upset about it.
  • 00:19:20
    I've got to take an accurate assessment of where I am.
  • 00:19:22
    "Okay, this is where I am right now.
  • 00:19:24
    So let's build from there."
  • 00:19:25
    I'm a crappy golfer now. Let's built from there.
  • 00:19:27
    I'm a selfish, prideful person who grumbles. Good.
  • 00:19:30
    Look where we are there, and now let's let's build from there.
  • 00:19:34
    I might have just hurt your feelings with what I said.
  • 00:19:38
    I don't know why.
  • 00:19:39
    Why would what I just said hurt your feelings?
  • 00:19:41
    It's really weird, like I could say.
  • 00:19:43
    How does somebody else
  • 00:19:44
    say something that hurts our feelings?
  • 00:19:46
    Feelings don't have feelings.
  • 00:19:48
    Our feelings are never hurt.
  • 00:19:50
    Feelings just express what our ego is feeling.
  • 00:19:53
    It's my pride that's hurt. It's my ego that's hurt.
  • 00:19:57
    People aren't ignoring or intentionally dissing us
  • 00:20:00
    or saying things to offend us, but we feel that
  • 00:20:03
    because we're exalting ourselves,
  • 00:20:05
    we're looking out after our interests,
  • 00:20:07
    our views, our opinions.
  • 00:20:09
    They're just living their life, not thinking about us,
  • 00:20:11
    just like we live our lives
  • 00:20:12
    and don't think about other people.
  • 00:20:13
    And when we say things like,
  • 00:20:15
    "You made me feel like a piece of garbage,"
  • 00:20:17
    that's really not true.
  • 00:20:18
    No one can make us feel like a piece of garbage.
  • 00:20:21
    We're making ourself feel like a piece of garbage
  • 00:20:25
    because we have too much pride and too much ego.
  • 00:20:28
    They don't have power over our emotions,
  • 00:20:32
    our ego does, our pride does.
  • 00:20:34
    There's something wrong with me,
  • 00:20:37
    and therefore we grumble
  • 00:20:39
    and we become a nation of grumblers.
  • 00:20:42
    Paul Tripp says this:
  • 00:20:55
    One of the greatest words
  • 00:20:56
    in the English language, onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia.
  • 00:20:59
    It does, grumble, the word grumble is what it is.
  • 00:21:02
    Grumble, grumble.
  • 00:21:03
    If you're with anybody right now,
  • 00:21:05
    let's do a little exercise.
  • 00:21:06
    Let's in 3 seconds, let's all say
  • 00:21:09
    the word grumble three times together. Okay?
  • 00:21:12
    Grumble, grumble, grumble.
  • 00:21:14
    Let's do it again.
  • 00:21:15
    Grumble, grumble, grumble,
  • 00:21:17
    grumble, grumble, grumble,
  • 00:21:18
    grumble, grumble, grumble.
  • 00:21:20
    You're hear that murmur?
  • 00:21:21
    That's what the normal American population is like.
  • 00:21:26
    It's a bunch of prideful grumblers
  • 00:21:28
    who don't get their way
  • 00:21:30
    and just want to spew and spout wherever.
  • 00:21:32
    And even if we're not saying it, we're feeling it,
  • 00:21:35
    and internally there's just no joy, there's no life.
  • 00:21:39
    We're bearing it.
  • 00:21:40
    We're grumbling internally
  • 00:21:41
    because we're only looking after our own interests.
  • 00:21:44
    I think as a church we have
  • 00:21:46
    signs of doing pretty good with this.
  • 00:21:48
    We have campuses that celebrate when other campuses
  • 00:21:52
    get a new building or get some upgrades.
  • 00:21:54
    Instead of just saying, "How come we're not getting it?"
  • 00:21:57
    We celebrate one another's victories
  • 00:22:00
    because we are one as a church one.
  • 00:22:03
    No matter what state we're in or where we're going,
  • 00:22:05
    we are one.
  • 00:22:07
    Therefore, we're celebrating with Dayton right now,
  • 00:22:09
    our Dayton community that's been in rented facilities
  • 00:22:12
    and has been helping other people get buildings.
  • 00:22:15
    Our Dayton community has just gotten its own building,
  • 00:22:17
    an old Sears up in Dayton.
  • 00:22:19
    It's awesome.
  • 00:22:20
    I think it was 3.1 something million dollars.
  • 00:22:23
    Great. We're celebrating with that.
  • 00:22:26
    We are looking out after
  • 00:22:27
    the interests of our Dayton community.
  • 00:22:29
    It's amazing. We're excited for you, Dayton.
  • 00:22:31
    Now, we have no idea how we're going to find
  • 00:22:34
    the millions and millions of dollars
  • 00:22:35
    of construction costs that are going to go into that.
  • 00:22:37
    That's another problem for another day.
  • 00:22:39
    But right now we're just celebrating
  • 00:22:41
    and we are excited for Dayton because we are one.
  • 00:22:47
    Some of us have evolved our grumbling
  • 00:22:51
    into what's known as the humblebrag.
  • 00:22:53
    And there's different versions of the humblebrag.
  • 00:22:55
    I'm looking like I'm humble,
  • 00:22:57
    but really I'm just bragging. I'm building up my ego.
  • 00:22:59
    Like Biggie. Biggie was right.
  • 00:23:00
    He said, "Hey, just filed my taxes.
  • 00:23:02
    Mo money, mo problems."
  • 00:23:05
    Kind of a humblebrag, or maybe not.
  • 00:23:07
    Mo money, mo problems.
  • 00:23:08
    Or you ever hear this one?
  • 00:23:09
    "I hate when I go into a store to get something to eat
  • 00:23:12
    and the staff are too busy hitting on me
  • 00:23:14
    to get my order right. So annoying."
  • 00:23:17
    Yeah. You're so attractive, aren't you?
  • 00:23:19
    Those are humble brags.
  • 00:23:21
    It's just a new school version of false humility.
  • 00:23:26
    Tim Keller said on Twitter:
  • 00:23:38
    Stop spending time on my interests, on my desires.
  • 00:23:42
    I spend time on Jesus, His interests, His desires,
  • 00:23:46
    which is other people;
  • 00:23:48
    His lifestyle,
  • 00:23:49
    which is about foregoing His own interests many times,
  • 00:23:53
    which is about taking a road of sacrifice,
  • 00:23:56
    of default difficulty.
  • 00:23:57
    And when He doesn't get His way, He doesn't grumble.
  • 00:23:59
    It's one thing we never see Jesus do,
  • 00:24:00
    we never see Him grumble, even though He had
  • 00:24:02
    more than enough opportunity to grumble.
  • 00:24:04
    When people who were close to Him were letting Him down,
  • 00:24:06
    He didn't grumble.
  • 00:24:07
    Now, here's the good news here.
  • 00:24:10
    This life of humility, this life that brings us joy
  • 00:24:16
    isn't a life where all our life
  • 00:24:19
    we get the short end of the stick.
  • 00:24:21
    It actually is the path for God to reward us
  • 00:24:23
    and God to honor us, for God to do that.
  • 00:24:27
    The next little section of Philippians, verse 9 says this:
  • 00:24:52
    Jesus, the name of Jesus is recognized
  • 00:24:55
    as all supreme here in this earth,
  • 00:24:57
    here above the earth, which is heaven,
  • 00:24:58
    and even below the earth, which is hell.
  • 00:25:01
    That's what's represented there.
  • 00:25:02
    God has hyper exalted him, that's what's meant there.
  • 00:25:06
    Hooper -- Hyper, hyper exalted Him.
  • 00:25:08
    He's elevated him.
  • 00:25:09
    When's the last time you heard someone say, "Buddha"?
  • 00:25:14
    You might've heard someone talk about Buddha.
  • 00:25:16
    Have you ever heard someone use Buddha as a swear word
  • 00:25:20
    or an expression?
  • 00:25:21
    Ever hear somebody say, "Gandhi"?
  • 00:25:25
    No. You never.
  • 00:25:27
    You ever heard someone say, "Richard Dawkins"?
  • 00:25:31
    You haven't heard that because
  • 00:25:33
    Buddha, Ghandi and Richard Dawkins don't have
  • 00:25:35
    a highly exalted name that means much,
  • 00:25:37
    at least not as much as the name Jesus.
  • 00:25:41
    No one's going to say Richard Dawkins' name
  • 00:25:44
    in ten years or 100 years.
  • 00:25:46
    He'll be long forgotten.
  • 00:25:49
    It'll never be an expression that people use
  • 00:25:51
    for millennia afterward,
  • 00:25:52
    because there's no power to that name.
  • 00:25:55
    But there is power to the name of Jesus
  • 00:25:58
    because the humble people who find joy in the path
  • 00:26:04
    of looking out after the interests of others,
  • 00:26:07
    of being humble and pure instead of crooked and twisted,
  • 00:26:11
    will eventually be exalted.
  • 00:26:13
    Maybe in your next job interview it will be.
  • 00:26:16
    Maybe it'll be next year, maybe next decade,
  • 00:26:18
    for sure, in the next life.
  • 00:26:21
    Jesus says this in Matthew 23:12:
  • 00:26:28
    So if we want to elevate our interest,
  • 00:26:30
    elevate our desires, elevate our opinions,
  • 00:26:32
    elevate ourselves, always think of myself,
  • 00:26:34
    we want to elevate, eventually God goes,
  • 00:26:36
    "Huh? I'm going to need to bring you down.
  • 00:26:39
    You will be humbled. You will be brought low."
  • 00:26:41
    Maybe America is having the problems we're having right now
  • 00:26:44
    because we've been too prideful
  • 00:26:45
    and God's brought us down.
  • 00:26:47
    Whoever exalts himself will be humbled.
  • 00:26:49
    But here's a cool thing, and whoever humbles himself,
  • 00:26:51
    whoever chooses the low place,
  • 00:26:53
    whoever chooses to look out after the interests of others
  • 00:26:57
    and to serve others as Jesus served us,
  • 00:26:59
    and do not insist on always getting their way,
  • 00:27:02
    getting their opinion, their views out across,
  • 00:27:05
    whoever humbles themselves will be exalted.
  • 00:27:08
    God says, "That's a life I can work with.
  • 00:27:12
    That's a life I want to build upon.
  • 00:27:14
    That's a life that can take more responsibility.
  • 00:27:17
    That's a life that can take more perks.
  • 00:27:18
    That's a life that can take more rewards.
  • 00:27:20
    That's a life that can take more blessings."
  • 00:27:22
    And He elevates us.
  • 00:27:25
    You make the choice, friends.
  • 00:27:26
    You want to exalt yourself
  • 00:27:27
    and grumble about everything else that isn't right
  • 00:27:29
    according to your own interests and views and desires,
  • 00:27:33
    and then watch how your life
  • 00:27:34
    actually goes on a downward trajectory?
  • 00:27:37
    Or do you want to humble yourself to the place of Jesus
  • 00:27:41
    and watch and wait for Him to exalt you and elevate you?
  • 00:27:46
    When you get this right,
  • 00:27:48
    there is a joy that permeates your life,
  • 00:27:51
    that transcends circumstances.
  • 00:27:53
    It's a beautiful thing. It's a great thing.
  • 00:27:55
    Go get that this week.
  • 00:27:59
    - Hey, we hope you enjoyed the message today
  • 00:28:01
    and you were able to get a clear picture
  • 00:28:02
    of chasing joy through the Book of Philippians.
  • 00:28:04
    - That's right.
  • 00:28:05
    This series is tied to an entire church initiative
  • 00:28:08
    called the Bible Challenge,
  • 00:28:10
    and we've been doing that throughout the past year.
  • 00:28:12
    -Yes, we as a community
  • 00:28:14
    are in the Crossroads app all through the week,
  • 00:28:16
    reading and diving deeper into scripture.
  • 00:28:18
    - And you know what?
  • 00:28:19
    Maybe you've made it this far in the Crossroads App.
  • 00:28:21
    You've been with us all year, but if you haven't,
  • 00:28:23
    you can join right now.
  • 00:28:24
    All you have to do is download the app and you are set.
  • 00:28:28
    - Hey, that's all we got today.
  • 00:28:29
    We'll see you next time on Crossroads.
  • 00:28:32
    - What do Jolly Ranchers, diamonds,
  • 00:28:34
    plants and people have in common?
  • 00:28:37
    Well, at first glance, maybe nothing.
  • 00:28:39
    But at second glance we see that all of those things
  • 00:28:42
    go through a little thing I like to call process.
  • 00:28:45
    Today on Crossroads, we're talking about
  • 00:28:46
    how process might just be the link
  • 00:28:48
    to the joy that we've been missing.
  • 00:28:51
    We're going to look at Philippians 3
  • 00:28:52
    to see what a man named Paul has to say
  • 00:28:54
    about pressing, process, and poop,
  • 00:28:58
    you know, alliteration.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend-Follow Up This is the group part of the Bible Challenge, so your questions are based on specific Bible passages from the weekend message. Each week, your group will discover what God might be saying to you, and how you can respond through a group discussion.

  1. Who is the most grumbly movie or TV character you’ve ever watched?

  2. What stood out to you most from this week’s message?

  3. Do you think the people around you would describe you as humble? Why might they pick one way or the other?

  4. How do you find yourself grumbling day-to-day? What circumstances (or people) seem to trigger grumbling the most?

  5. Which of the ways to lean into humility do you think comes most naturally to you — oneness, obedience or honor? Which is the hardest?

  6. What’s one way you can lean into oneness, obedience or honor this week?

  7. What is one way you can pursue oneness with others this week?

  8. Let’s end with prayer. You can say something like, “Jesus, thank you for showing us what true humility looks like. Give us a heart that is open to others and the desire to obey you out of love. Help us model humility for others the same you modeled it for us. Amen.

More from the Weekend

Bonus Questions! Check these out if you’re on a roll and want to go a little deeper.

  • Where have you seen the “humblebrag” appear in your life? Why do you think we are prone to inserting those moments into our conversations?
  • Where might there be some areas of pride in your life?
  • How would your view of others change if you embraced the kind of humility Jesus modeled for us?

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(This stuff helps us figure out how many fruitcakes to make come December)

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Aug 12, 2022 29 mins 4 sec

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