We are wrapping up our advent series on humility. Next Sunday is Christmas Eve. We're looking forward to that. But we've spent four weeks kind of looking at this issue of humility, and why is it so important? We didn't do peace, love, joy, a lot of other things. We said, no, this one virtue, we're gonna. We're gonna spend four weeks talking about this thing, single virtue, because it's that important. We started with defining the opposite of humility. We looked at pride. We said that pride isn't just wrong, that it's dangerous. Because pride comes before what? For all destruction. If you know the passage right, it's destruction. Culturally. It's kind of the saying, as pride comes before the fall. We tried to define humility biblically. We looked at some false, counterfeit displays of humility. And what is it biblically? And they were saying, this is being gladly preoccupied with God, that real humility is. There's this freedom. You're not thinking too much of yourself, and you're not thinking too little of yourself. You're just not thinking of yourself. You're just so captivated by God, and there's freedom in that. Last week, Michael talked to us about the promise of humility. That never underestimate the power of humility, because God gives grace to the humble and he exalts the humble, and there is power in that humility. But today, as we kind of tie a bow on this, I want to help us to get a little bit more practical or tangible, like, how do we have humility day in and day out? What does that look like? And maybe how do we foster more of that in our lives? And I strongly believe that humility is like a key life changing ingredient. If you have humility, things are going to be better off. There's advantages in life, practical advantages in life, of having humility. And if you don't have humility, you're just going to take yourself far too seriously and be tripped up in so many ways in frustration that it is. Whether you believe in God or not, humility is a benefit to us. But we don't want you just to have humility. We want you to have a captivation with our God that breeds humility. But it's not just if I believe humility is important, don't just take my word for it. Does the Bible teach it? Does the Bible reinforce the value of humility? And I'll say yes, hopefully. We've been showing you that for the past several weeks. But we're going to do some more today, and I want to just kind of give this statement to get us going that humility is necessary for a right relationship with God. It is necessary for a right relationship with God. Now, anybody can have a wrong relationship with God. In fact, that's where we all start. We are separated because of our sin from a holy God, and we're at ods in that. So it's like, okay, well, how do you have a right relationship with God? What do you mean by a right relationship with God? Well, two things. One, when I say a right relationship with God, I mean a saving one. One where Christ is our savior, that we're redeemed, that we have new life because of Christ, that his spirit lives in us and we've been adopted. We're his family, his child. That's a right relationship with God that we can look at Jesus say, my savior. He's my king. I'm in his family. And I bet if I asked this room, you're at church, that a lot of you would say, check, I'm a sinner. Jesus is my savior. That would be one aspect. What I'd say is a right relationship with God, that it is a saving one, but it's also a growing one, that we are becoming conformed to the image of his son, that we're becoming more christ like in our life. And if I asked you how many of you people would say, like, yes, Christ is my savior, I think we would get a lot of positive responses. But if I said, how many of you feel like you're growing as a Christian, that you feel like you're conformed more to the image of Christ now than you were a few years ago, I wonder if there would be less confidence in that. Like, we're not seeing godliness kind of thrive in our life. And if not, could it be that pride is stunting your spiritual growth? And you're like, no, it's not pride. I'm just busy. Okay, but maybe underneath busy, if you just keep digging, could there be pride under there? And what do we need to grow more spiritually? And I'm not going to surprise you with the answer. Humility. There's a famous parable that Jesus gave. I don't know which parables jesus gave that aren't famous. They're all pretty famous. But one called the sower, it's in Matthew 13, and it's a story about different types of soil, and ultimately it's about how different types of people receive the word of God. And we know that because it's one parable that Jesus gives us the explanation of it. So after he says the parable, his disciples were like, what does that mean? And I wish they would have asked that after every parable. But this one was helpful because he explains it to us. And you can go read it sometime. You don't have to turn there now. But Matthew 13, let me give you the gist of it. There's a man who is sowing seeds. He's casting seeds that it lands on different types of soil. The first type of soil is it lands on the path. It's just a worn out, hardened path, and it doesn't take at all. In fact, birds come and take it away, and some seed falls on rocky ground. There's soil there, but it's rocky, so it takes root, but it doesn't go very deep, and it sprouts up quick. You're like, wow, fast growth. This is awesome. But the sun comes and scorches it and withers and dies because it doesn't have roots. And then some fall on soil that has a lot of thorns in it, and it grows, but the thorns choke it out. It takes its nutrients, it needs it, blocks its sunlight, and the thorns win, and the plant eventually dies. But some seed falls on what's called good soil, and when it falls on good soil, it produces a harvest 30, 61 hundredfold. Now, when you hear that parable, it's not confusing in the way of, like, I wonder which soil we want to be. Like, thorns, rocky ground. What is it we want? It's like, no, the answer is clear. What type of soil do we want to be? Good soil. Some of you are like, I'm confident, but not confident enough to say it out loud, but you just risked it, right? Good soil. We want to be good soil. That's true. But what is that exactly? And you're like, it's good soil. I know that in the story, but what is that pointing to? What does it mean to be good soil? What is that, this good soil? What is it that it is? It's humility. Here's how James puts it, you guys. We've studied this one already. But he says, therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness or humility. The implanted. So you got that imagery of even Jesus'parable, the implanted word, which is able to save your soul. You need to receive God's word with humility, like, it's the good soil. It's what receives God's word of saying, I need this. This is good for me. I want it. That's humility. There is a connection between humility and this book, the Bible, or there is a connection between humility and our obedience to the Bible. Now let me show this to you. Kind of flushed out. We're going to go a little tabloid this morning and follow a bit of the royal family and see this played out in their life. So two chronicles 29. If you want to turn there, you're like, no, this royal family, not like in Britain. You're like, oh, shoot. It'll feel a little tabloid like, though. I promise you'll scratch that itch. Okay, we're going to start out with Hezekiah. Hezekiah was a good king. His dad was not a good king, set up all kind of idolatrous worship. So Hezekiah comes on the scene and he wants to bring reform. Let me read a section of scripture that gives you an insight into his rule in the first year of his reign. In the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. He repaired them because they've been destroyed. He brought in the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east and said to them, hear me, Levites, now consecrate yourselves and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry out the filth from the holy place, because they brought in like pagan images to worship into the temple. For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what is evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They have forsaken him and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord and turned their backs. They also shut the doors of the vestibule and put out the lamps and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. Therefore, the wrath of the Lord came upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he has made them an object of horror, of astonishment and of hissing. That's a bad thing. Okay. As you see with your own eyes. For behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, in order that his fierce anger may turn away from us. My sons, do not now be negligent, for the Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him and to be his ministers and make offerings to him. So Hezekiah is bringing about reform to the land. So the first thing that he does is he gathers all the Levites and the priests and as the king, he kind of takes a head coach type of role and he gives a pep talk. You're the priest and you're the Levites and you got a job to do and we're going to do it. We're going to lead these people back to worshipping the one true God. Let's go. Let's get cranked up. Let's do this. And then he's going to send out messengers or carriers to give the message across the land. Come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. Because this pagan worship day is over. We got a new day of faithfulness to our king. So he's going to send out messengers to do that. And here's how that goes. This is chapter 30, verse ten. So the carriers went from city to city through the country of Ephraim and of Manassa and as far as Zebulon. But they laughed them to scorn and mock them. However, some men of Asher, of Manessa and of Zebulon. What is it behind? Okay, there's going to be several more of those. Okay? I just want you to be ready for them when they come. Humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. So the reaction of going into a pagan culture, even though it's Israel, it's Judah they're bringing reform is like, okay, the day of pagan worship is over. We're calling you to worship the one true God, the God of Israel, the God who set us free. We're going to do this. Some people heard that and they mocked him. They laughed at them, but other people did what humbled themselves and they obeyed. Now they do celebrate the Passover. Hezekiah has a good run. Kind of has a trip up towards the end of his life. This isn't on the screen, but just for context. In those days, Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And he prayed to the Lord and he answered him and gave him a sign. But Hezekiah did not make return according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was proud. Therefore, wrath came upon him and Judah and Jerusalem. But Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah. So there you see, like pride not going well. Humility going well. You see how important humility is getting flushed out there. Now his son takes over and his name is Manessa. He took over being king when he was twelve. Years old. Now, I don't know how many. Well, let's just ask how many of in here have a 1211, 1213 year old boy? Okay. Few of you. How many of you would put them in charge of your family? Point taken. Right. He starts ruling at twelve, and he rules like a twelve year old. And he rules for 50 years. And he is terrible. You can refer to this king as nasty massey if you want to remember him. He was awful. Pagan king. Set up back idol worship, started into human sacrifices. This was an awful king. So here's what happens to him. I know you're in suspense. Here we go. The Lord spoke to Manessa and to his people, but they paid no attention. Pride, kind of shut it down. We're not listening. Therefore, the Lord brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks. What hooks means they would, like, put a hook in your nose to kind of drag you away as prisoners. What do you think might happen to somebody that gets a hook in their nose and is prideful? Let's keep reading. Bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon. And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord, his God. And what humbled himself so much better greatly. He humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manesse knew that the Lord was God. He got humbled. What are you doing disobeying me? What are you doing leading people astray? He kind of showed him who's God. Manessa got humbled, entreated the Lord, and the Lord heard him full of compassion. As nasty as massey was right. He found grace in the Lord. But there was kind of a half hearted reform in Jude at the time. He comes back, and if you keep reading, it lists the things he's trying to do. In fact, I don't know if this is on the screen or not, but he restored the altar of the Lord and offered its sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving. And he commanded JudAH to serve the Lord, the God of Israel. Nevertheless, the people still sacrifice at the high places, but only to the Lord their God. So the high places refer to, like, pagan temples that he set up. So it's like, yeah, we're worshiping God in kind of a pagan way. And you kind of get this mix of a pagan culture and Yahweh, and it's just kind of a mess. So it's not really full reform. So Manesse dies and his son takes over. His name is Amon, first Jamaican king in Israel. Okay, now, if you didn't get it, just let it go. Say it later. Amen was 22 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in JeRuSalem, and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as Manessa, his father, had done. Amen sacrificed to all the images that Manessa, his father, had made and served them, and he did not. What? Humble himself before the Lord, as Manessa, his father, had humbled himself. But this amen incurred guilt more and more, and eventually his servants plot to kill him, and his servants kill him. So his son Josiah takes over, and his son Josiah takes over at the age of eight. Now, if you're asking me, I'd go with the eight year old over the twelve year old, just kind of development, things like, let's take the risk with the eight year old on that. And it was good because Josiah, even at the age of eight, sought God. And at age 20, he started to bring national reform. So in his development of seeing who God is and wanting to lead people back to God, change takes time. At age 20, he started bringing national reform, which involved construction, because it's like we're tearing down idolatrous images that have been built. We're remodeling the temple back to having the right vestibules of worship in the temple. Like, they're kind of doing this remodel there. It takes construction and another six years. They found the book of the law, and when they found the book of the law, they read it. And when they read it, the king learned just how disobedient they had been as a people. It's like we weren't doing what we ought to do, but I had no idea. We were supposed to do this, and we haven't been. We were supposed to do this, and we haven't been, and we've been more awful than our real. And he tore his clothes, like, he was just so upset. And he said, inquire of the Lord for what? What's the cost to this rebellion? And they went after Holda, the prophetess, and she tells him, judgment is coming, like, yes, you are in trouble as a nation, God is not okay with this. But here's what she says. But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, regarding the words that you have heard, because your heart was tender. And you, what, humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and its inhabitants? And you have, what, humbled yourself before me and have torn your clothes and wept before me? I also have heard you, declares the Lord. Behold, I will gather you to your fathers and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see the disaster that I will bring upon this place and its inhabitants. And they brought back word to the king. So it's like, okay, yeah, destruction is coming, but you get a pass, I'll let you live your life. And when you're done, it's still coming. And Josiah gathered the leaders and they kind of made this covenant, this promise, like, hey, we're going to obey the word of the Lord. We're going to be committed to his commandments. Now, the nation does celebrate Passover. Josiah eventually dies in battle. It's a story for another time. His son takes over, but the king of Egypt comes in and makes a change, takes that kid away, puts his brother in charge. His brother does evil. And soon the king of Babylon comes and takes him away. And then his son takes over and he does evil, and he only reigns for, like, three months. And the king of Babylon came and got him, too. So his brother takes over. You can see the drama, kind of tabloid action going on here. But his name was Zedddh. Now, Zedekiah was 21 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, his God. And he did not what? Humble himself before Jeremiah, the prophet who spoke from the mouth of the Lord. You see a pattern. There's this connection between humility and obedience and not having humility and disobedience. There's a connection between being humble and obeying God. Humility is the soil of our heart that receives the word of God that says, oh, you're smarter than me. You know more than I do. Your ways are higher than my ways. I need to follow you, not me. It's that kind of posture that just like, yes, I want the word of God in my life now. It can seem, and I'm just going to say, as a pastor, it can seem. I don't have stats to back this up, but just interacting with people and being involved in ministry, it can seem sometimes like church going folks express a greater identity to the bad types of soil in that parable than the good type of soil. You can interact with people that it's like in the midst of a struggle, and it's like, we just talked about that last week. We just covered that. And there's like, blank look, like nothing's landing, nothing's sinking in. I don't get it. Or you can see people that come, and for a season, three to six months, they're excited, they're passionate for the Lord, but there's no roots. And it's like, okay, you're coming. Guns ablazing, but we're probably not going to see you next year. Like, you're going to be here for a while. You're going to be gun ho. But as soon as the sun rises or there is any kind of heat on your life, any kind of trial that you have to go through, any kind of discomfort of following Jesus Christ, you don't make it. Or we have people that come Sunday in and Sunday out and they just. Yes, I'm a Christian, but they have so much thorns, so many other plants. I mean, you wouldn't say it that way. That's kind of weird. In a parable like form, you might say it like, we're just really busy. I just got a lot going on. I'm just overwhelmed at work. I'm just overwhelmed with the kids. I'm just overwhelmed with this. Like, there's so much just choking out the word of God in your life. There's too much going on. What we want to see is good soil. We want to see people that's like, I get the word of God, and it changes the way I parent, it changes the way that I'm married, it changes the way that I handle money, it changes the way I work. It changes the way I live. Like, it's producing in me 30, 6100 fold. It's doing a work in my life. So in the honesty of your own head, what kind of soil do you think you are? Do you feel like you hear the word of God a lot, but nothing's clicking? Do you feel like you can get excited for a while, but it doesn't ever last through any kind of discomfort? Do you feel like you have a passion for God's word? It's just getting choked out by everything else you have going on in your life. Like, how is the soil of your heart when it comes to the word of God? Well, humility is needed to see the priority of it, to see the need of it, to take it in, to follow it. And I don't want to just say, be more humble when it comes to the word of God. Well, I don't think a lot of you in here would disagree with that or push back on that. But I hope to be a little bit more helpful than that. Let's try to break it down a little bit. What are the components? What are the pieces? What are the parts of humility when it comes to God's word that would actually help us cultivate the soil of our heart for God's word. So that does take root and it does produce in our life. Because if you were going to start a garden and you went to your backyard and you just kind of had hard soil, you saw it, you wouldn't just throw a bunch of seeds on it and just be like, hope it works out. But that is so how so many people treat the word of God. It. If you go to your backyard and you really want to plant a garden and you see the hard soil, what do you do? You get a tiller. You till the ground. You get some compost in, you get some fertilizer in there. You work the ground so that when the seed goes down, it will grow. So can we do the same thing with our own heart? How do we cultivate a heart that is more receptive to the word of God? That's where we were going to go. So I want to show you four aspects of humility to God's word. And just be honest. This is less of a sermon, more of a pastoral plea. And if you're just visiting because it's close to Christmas and somebody invited you, I'm glad you're here. This plea applies to you. Like, listen in, lean in. But if you call Veritas home, like, this is your church, I'm especially talking to you. Let's make this true of us as a church. So four aspects to humility to God's word. First one, humility to God's word. Admits you need it. Admits you need it. Let me show you some passages for this. You guys are familiar with this? Proverbs three, five, and seven. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all of your ways, acknowledge him and he will make straight your path. Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. There's this admitting. Like, I can't lean on my own understanding. I need the wisdom of God. Like, God, you are smarter than me. Your ways are higher than my ways. You know more than I do. Like, lean not on your own understanding. Don't trust. Like, this is the opposite of everything you're going to hear on the Disney Channel. Okay? I'm just telling you, like, don't trust your own heart. Your heart is deceitful above all else. It's an idle factory. Like it'll lead you astray in all different kinds of ways. You can't trust yourself. You can't lean on your own understanding. And there's an understanding, it's like, no, I get it. And it's still folly. Like, you can't lean on you as your highest authority of truth. You have to go to the word of God. You have to admit that you need it. Here's another passage, Matthew four. Four. This is Jesus in the wilderness being tempted by Satan, he says, but he answered, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Even Jesus in the midst of his temptation is like, I need God's word. I live by it. I stay close to him by it. It's precious to me. Here's another way of putting that. This is psalm 119. How can a young man keep his way pure? Great question. By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. If I don't want to sin against you, what do I need? Your word. Like there's this humble admission of, like I need the word of God. I can't stay pure. I can't stay close to God. I can't not sin without the help of God's word. Let me give you one more. The law of the Lord is perfect. Reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right. Rejoicing the heart, the commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening the eyes and saying, if I want to revive soul, if I want to become wise, if I want joy in my heart if I want to have enlightened eyes, I need what? The word of God. It just takes humility to admit that you need it. Here's another one. Humility to God's word embraces the discomfort of it. It embraces the discomfort of it. There's a story that you're familiar with. In John, chapter six. Jesus is feeding the 5000 a miraculous event where he takes some fish and some loaves, multiplies it to feed the 5000. Well, after that, his disciples get into a boat to go to the other side. Jesus doesn't get in with them. This is the time he walks on the water. But when the crowd wakes up and they see that Jesus is gone. And they know they didn't get in a boat. They kind of make this conclusion. What happens? And they go looking for him again. When they find him, they want more. More entertainment, more bread. Do it again. Well, he starts preaching them about himself. I'm the bread of life, right? And they're like, well, if we want to believe in you, show us a sign. A sign? Like, how about yesterday? Was that not good, right? How about walking on the water like, you don't need a sign. You need some humility. You need some faith here. And then he says something really uncomfortable and challenging. He's like, okay, you want bread? I'll give you bread. Me. Eat me. He says, eat my flesh and drink my blood. Now, how many people are comfortable with that statement? In fact, they're really uncomfortable with that statement. And they leave. This is where it picks up John six, verse 66. After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. Disciples, church folk. They're like, the teaching of Jesus got too Jesus for me. I just wanted some bread. And Jesus got a little bit too crazy. So disciples no longer walked with him. Church folk no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, do you want to go away as well? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, now it's interesting. He doesn't say no. What does he say? Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and come to know that you are the holy one of God. So it's like, hey, do you guys want to go too? Yeah, because that's crazy. But where are we going to go? Like, we've come to know that you have the words of eternal life. So did that freak me out too, what you said? You bet it did. Super uncomfortable. Not sure if I understand what it means, but where am I going to go? You have the words of eternal life and even the uncomfortable words that you give us. I know who you are, and I'm with you even when it gets awkward. You guys have seen this in two Timothy 316, all scriptures breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training and righteousness. The word of God will push you out of your comfort zone. It will correct you. It will rebuke you. And it takes humility to say, yes, please, like, I want that. Even the uncomfortable parts shape me. Here's another one. Humility to God's word honors it. Honors it. Michael pointed this passage out last week. And I love says Isaiah, says, thus says the Lord, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. What is the house that you would build for me? And what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made. And so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look, he who is what, humble and contrite in spirit. And then this next part that trembles at my word. You know what humble people do? Feel the weightiness of God's word. Like there's a trembling, like, oh, boy, this is from God. And they see the weight of it, the reverence of it. There's a respect and honor of the word of God. Takes humility for that. Or let me show you some in psalm 119 again. How sweet are your words to my taste. Sweeter than honey to my mouth. Here's another one, same chapter. The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. Like there is an honoring of God's word. Last week, Michael shared some survey finding where a group of people said their favorite Bible passage is, God helps those who help themselves, which isn't in the Bible. That doesn't honor it. You don't honor God's word by not knowing it, not reading it, not studying it. And what happens is we elevate ourselves as the highest authority. And if I think it should be in there, then let's just put it in there. Or we go to connection group. And all the people talk about is, well, I think this and I think this and I think this. And everybody wants to give their opinions instead of going to the word of God. What does God say to us? It doesn't honor that, guys. The Bible is more precious than gold and silver and sweeter than honey because they're the words of God. Their value comes from their source. It's from God, therefore it's precious, therefore it's sweet. They're his words. Like, for example, to feel the weightiness. If you have kids and it's dinner time, and one of the kids up in his room playing, and you send another kid, like, go get your brother for dinner. And they go up and the message that they communicate is, it's dinner time, come to eat, and they come back down. But the brother stays in his room and he doesn't come down because he doesn't want to, because he thinks his sibling just told him to come to dinner. So you send that sibling back up and say, no, tell them dad said it's time to eat, right? What does that communicate? There's some weightiness there. There's an authority behind this. You don't get to just pick and choose it. Like dad said, you got to come and eat. So there's consequences if you don't. And this isn't just your brother telling you need to do this. Like, this has some authority to it. This Book is. Dad said it should carry that kind of weight, that kind of authority in our lives. But it takes humility to see that humility to God's word obeys it. Let's show you a few passages for this. James one. Again, we looked at the first part of this. Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness or humility, the implanted word, which is able to save your souls, but be doers of the word and not hearers, only deceiving yourselves. So you need to receive the word with humility. And what does that lead to? Obedience. That you actually do it. That you actually obey it. Here's another one first. John five, three. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. It's not this burdensome obligation. His commandments are good for us. They're wisdom from God. They're more precious than gold. They're sweeter than honey. They enhance life. They guide us with the wisdom of God. They're not burdensome and they're obeyed out of love. But it takes humility to do that. So how's your attitude towards God's word? Do you know that you need it? Do you honor it? Do you obey it? Even the uncomfortable parts? Here's the application for us. I want to just say, read your Bible. I probably want to shout it. I want to shake somebody and just say, read it. Like, let's go. Read your bibles. Here's my problem. If you read your Bible every day, but you're not good soil, what good is that going to do? What good is that going to do? So is there a way that we can kind of back up our application a little further and say, is there a way to cultivate the heart so that we could be more receptive to the word of God? How do we do that? If you're a parent of a couple of kids, and let's say one kid sins against his brother, punches his brother, steals friends, whatever happened, like, there is a clear wrong as a parent, you've been in that situation where you take the two kids and you sit them down and you make one kid apologize to the other kid, and they may not want to, right? They may be like, no, I don't want to apologize, but they're like three. So it's like, here's what you're going to do. Say you're sorry. You need to say you're sorry. You need to say you're sorry to your mom if you don't stop. You ready? You need to say you're sorry. Right? And it's like, I don't want to. I don't want to do that. But it's like, oh, you don't, as a parent, be like, oh, well, I guess you don't want to. What do you do? No. Look them in the eye. Tell them you're sorry because you're cultivating something in that child's heart. It's good for you. Like, you need to learn this. You need to know, like, you need to apologize. You need to own this. They may not mean it. It doesn't matter at that point. You're training, you're cultivating. You need to apologize. Now, I'm not saying we're a bunch of, like, childish kids here. Now, maybe we are. But what I am saying is it's good for us to reinforce godly truths. You need to say it. You need to admit it. You need to write it down. I need the word of God. I need the word of God. Even the uncomfortable parts. God, your word is more precious than money. It's sweeter than affirmation and recognition. I will obey it. Just saying it, like, proclaiming it, it cultivates your heart. And we know what kind of soil. We want to be like God. We want to be like, produce something in us, do something. And we need a heart that receives the word of God. Like, we don't want to be a church that just teaches the Bible. We want to be a church who receives the Bible. Right? You don't want people to talk about Veritas and just say, like, oh, they teach the Bible. You want to say, oh, those guys live the Bible. They love the Lord, it affects their life, and it can be soil that God produces some amazing stuff through us. Now, if I just stop here, I don't think that I do justice to the scriptures or help to you. The word of God is ultimately about the person of God. Don't miss this. The word of God is ultimately about the person of God. In John, chapter five, verse 39, Jesus is confronting the Pharisees. Like, you search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life, but it's they that bear witness about me. Yet you refuse to come to me that you would have eternal life, it's me. These scriptures point to me. Or what's Christmas? John 114. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. The word of God is always about the person of God. So let's tweak those humility statements. Humility to God's word, admits you needs God's son. Humility to God's word, admits you need God's son. Whoever has the son has life. Whoever doesn't have the son doesn't have life. He's the way, the truth and life. No one comes to the father except through him. Humility to God's word embraces the discomfort of God's son. Take up your cross and follow me. Like it may get uncomfortable and awkward, but are you going to follow me? Humility to God's word, honors God's son. Who do you say that I am? When he asks his disciples, who do you say that I am? Do you look at Jesus as to be my king, my savior, my lord? When every knee will bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord, are you there? Humility to God's word, obeys God's son. He says, whoever loves me will keep my commandments. Obedience is an act of love. But guys, Christianity is not ultimately a book. It's not ultimately rules. It's not ultimately rituals. God is a person. So how is your attitude towards God? How is your attitude towards God's son? Do you know that you need Jesus Christ? Do you know that you need a savior? Do you see him as your savior? Are you willing to follow him even when it gets uncomfortable? Do you honor him and worship him? Do you love him? Do you obey him? And if we could proclaim our need for him, if we can confess his value, if we can sing praises to his name, might that be a work that cultivates our heart to receive his words? Because when you confess how precious he is, then how much more valuable is anything that he says? And when you confess how precious he is, how much more willing are you to follow him even when it's uncomfortable? Because you want to know what really cultivates humility in our heart? Worship. Worship. When you sing and you confess, I need you. You're awesome. I adore you. You're worthy. That's like taking the tiller to the ground of our heart and cultivate it so when his word comes out, it's ready to take root. And if it takes root in our life, it will produce 30, 61 hundredfold for his glory. And that's the type of church we want to be. Amen. Let's pray. Father, as we move into a time of communion, where we remember your sacrifice on our behalf, I pray that we would practice humility, knowing that when we come and we remember something that represents your body that went to the cross, that your blood that was shed, we would admit, we need this. We need you. We need your sacrifice. Would we embrace the uncomfortable truth that it communicates, that we are sinners in need of a savior? And you call us to pick up our cross and follow you. Would we honor you because in it we proclaim not just that we need you, but we want you. You are our king and our savior. And would we be obedient to not take this lightly and just go through the emotions? But as you tell us in one corinthians eleven to examine ourselves before we partake, that we'd be obedient. That every time we do this, we do it in remembrance of you. And we wouldn't just eat a cracker and drink some juice, but we would truly remember you and your sacrifice. And we would worship you, our savior. Pray this in your name. Amen.