Good morning. Baptism Sunday. About that no, that was forced. It was forced. Gets real excited. It's a fun day. We're glad that you're here. We are in a series on humility for Advent. We're taking, counting Christmas Eve, five weeks to take a closer look at humility. The reason we're talking about humility around Christmas time is because the greatest act of humility in human history is when God put on flesh and came to this broken world to rescue us. Not just rescue us, but to die on a cross to rescue us. And he is just the example of humility that we're called to live in our lives as we follow him. So we're taking a closer look at that. We started last week by saying, hey, let's begin by looking at the opposite of humility. We looked at pride, and you came back after that message, so I appreciate that. And we said pride wasn't just wrong. It's dangerous. It comes before. What the fault? Some of you like destruction, because that's what the verse says. We've kind of modified it for a fall. But yes, you know, it's a dangerous path. It's not just wrong. It leads to destruction. It leads to a fault, leads to bad things. We've said it was the mother of sins. Like, the reason that you lie, the reason that you steal, the reason that you covet, the reason that you conceal it's because of pride. Like, pride is underneath all of those other sins. And I'm convinced that one of the biggest problems that we're dealing with today is just this prideful obsession with ourselves, and it's enforced in our culture, all around us like, that we're just consumed with ourselves. And it's pride. You got to love yourself. You got to treat yourself. You got to listen to yourself because nobody knows you more than you, right? You got to work on yourself, and you're going to post about yourself, and you got to promote yourself. And when you take a picture that you're in, guess who? You're going to look at yourself, right? And if you go to counseling, guess who? You got to talk about yourself. And there's a sense that say, like, well, what if that's just part of the problem, that we're just so consumed with ourselves that we're always just kind of looking at our situation and our problems and our issues and our goals when we weren't made to be about ourselves. And it's pride, and it's not like this kind of glaring obvious pride that we tend to deal with of just like, I'm a big deal, and I just think that I'm awesome all the time. It's more of, like, trying to turn every conversation back to myself, really thinking about myself, consumed with my own problems, projecting myself, worried about what other people think of me needing people's approval. Like, it's much more covert than that, and that's just as dangerous. And I know it's like it's Christmas time and last week was heavy and this week's gonna be heavy. And you guys think like, Jake just enjoys this. I kind of do. But I really care about you. I want us to avoid this danger that I see, and I see it in my own heart. I want us to take this seriously. Pride comes before destruction. Let's be aware of that. Let's kind of avoid destruction. We don't want to be prideful, people. We want to be humble. And even if you're not a Christian, to be called humble today in our culture is still considered a compliment. We aspire to that. It's a good thing. We want to be considered humble. But what exactly does that mean? How do we do it? How do we grow in it? We want it. We should have it. We admire it like it's a compliment. But if you're a Christian, it's not just a compliment. It's also a command. Like, we're commanded to be humble. Let me show you a few, because I feel like some of you are like, are we? You're doubting me? I felt we had trust, but we don't. Let's read some passages. One. Peter. Three. Eight. Finally, all of you. So how many of us does that include? All. We'll start with the tough questions. Finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart and a humble mind. Still some doubters. Let's read another one. Colossians. Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness what? Humility. Meekness and patience. Let me give you one more. I don't know if the balcony is with us yet. I therefore a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all what? Humility. With gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another. When you guys say humility, it's kind of like begrudging. Like humility. Let's give one more. We'll see if we can do better. Do nothing from selfish, ambition or conceit, but in humility. I love that. Yes. Count others more significant than yourselves. Like, we're called to be humble people. It's a clear command in Scripture. Humility is a good thing. What is it? And just like we've said, pride is the mother of sins. Like, if you're prideful, it's going to produce all kinds of other sins in your life. Humility is the mother of virtue. If you're a humble person, other good things are going to come from that. Like, you're going to be more loving. You're going to be quicker to forgive. You're going to be a better friend. Like when you're not consumed with yourself, you're going to be more content not thinking you deserve more than you have. You're going to be more grateful. You're not going to conceal sin. You're going to be more open about your struggles. You're going to be able to laugh at yourself. You're going to be more thankful. It produces good things in us. I'm telling you guys, humility is a virtue that's going to make a real difference in all of our lives. Like a major difference. And we should desire it, we should crave it. We should pursue it. We want to have humility. What exactly is it? What exactly is it? We know it's good, but I don't think we always know what it is. Sometimes we know it when we see it, but oftentimes there's misunderstandings about humility and there's kind of counterfeit expressions of humility in our culture. Sometimes people think humility is weakness. In fact, the kind of Christianity I say that very loosely that the Nazis promoted in Germany before the war was a Christianity that despised humility. In fact, they wouldn't even like displaying images of the cross because that's a sign of weakness. Like you take humility out of Christianity, you don't get Christianity. That's a myth there. But there's this idea that it's weakness. It's not weakness. In fact, humility is often a part of courage because you're not worried about consequences. You're not worried about what people think of you. Humility. Sometimes people think think is hiding. Like if you're really good at something you probably shouldn't do it because that would bring attention to yourself. Like if I'm really good at the guitar, I probably shouldn't play it because then you would think I'm really good at the guitar and to bring attention to myself. But that's not humility. That's just another way of kind of being over conscious about yourself. Like if you're good at something you can do it without even thinking about how people perceive you or how it comes across. You're just kind of free from that. Humility is not hiding. It's something different than that. Sometimes people think humility is self deprecating. It's that person that always kind of insults themselves and always kind of down on themselves and always kind of ridicules themselves. But that's not humility. That's just another form of self centeredness. It's not that you're just thinking highly of yourself. You're thinking lowly of yourself. But guess what? You're still thinking of who yourself. That's not humility. So what is humility? Or let me put it this way. What is biblical humility? What does the Bible tell us that humility is? That's what we want to better understand if we know what humility is not if we're going to pursue it, we need to know what it is. And not only know what it is, but how do we grow in it. How do you become a more humble person? How do you become better at humility? And I think if we knew how to grow in it, we would better understand it. So I want to start there. Let's learn how do we become more humble? How do we grow in humility? And once we get that, then we're going to try to provide a definition that you can take home with you that you could hold on and be like, okay, that's humility. But that's where we want to get to a good definition of humility. And just for clarity, I'm not talking about humiliation like you're going to leave here feeling just awful about yourself. I'm talking about joy producing, freeing humility. That's what we're going for. Okay. All right. Grab your bibles. First. Peter is where we're going. First peter, chapter five is going to be our main text. I'll tell you again, we got a lot of text that we're going to look at. We're going to go to different places, but this is our main text. We're going to start here. We're going to eventually end here. We're going to come back here. There's something in here I want us to see, but we'll take a little biblical field trip along the way as well to see it in other places. But first peter chapter five. Let me read verse six. You guys ready? All right. Humble yourselves, therefore under the mighty hand of God so that the proper time he may exalt you. Now, if you are the sinner that I think you are, here's what we see in that text. Exalt you. I want to talk about that. That sounds great. Let's talk about getting exalted because that's when I first read that. I'm like, that sounds awesome. Let's figure out being exalted by God because that's what I want to be. And we're going to get there because it's in the text and it's a beautiful truth in scripture. We're not going to get there this week. I want to focus on what's being said right away. At the beginning of this text, it says, humble yourselves like you humble you. This is a command for you to be responsible for your humility. You humble you. You humble yourself. How do you do that? How do you humble yourself? Because there's a fruit of humility, like the good things it produces in our life. But I want to get to the root of humility. Where does it come from? What causes it? How do you lay hold of it? How do you grow in it? How do you get better at it? So we want to go there. There are a lot of places that we're going to point out along the way, but I want us to see it in this text. Let's look at it again. Humble yourselves, therefore under the mighty hand of God. All right, so you get this command, humble yourselves. But then we get some instructions. Then we get some clues. Then we get some direction here. How are we to humble ourselves? We're to do it under the mighty hand of God. There's like a location where we find ourselves. If we want to humble ourselves. If we're going to be obedient to what Peter's calling us to do here, then we need to do it under the mighty hand of God. There's a location for us to humble ourselves there. Now, every one of us is under the mighty hand of God. Whether you realize it or not, this is his world. He made it, and he controls it. He rules it. So what's Peter saying? What does he mean? That we are to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God? We're all under the mighty hand of God. Well, what Peter is saying is to humble yourselves, you need to recognize that you are under the mighty hand of God. You need to realize that God is God. You're not. That God is mighty, not you. That God is in control, not you. There's a realization that Peter's calling us to that is helpful in us humbling ourselves. Like, you need to get this about God. He's mighty. He's big. You lying on yourself underneath him. Like, this is the act that you need to grasp in order to humble yourself. You humble yourself. Put it this way. You're humbling yourself comes from acknowledging the greatness of God. So there's a therefore in verse six, and we've read enough Bible that we know anytime we see a therefore, we ask what what's it therefore, right? So it says, humble yourselves therefore. What's he talking about? Right before that, the verse before that, he says, clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility towards one another, for because God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. He's like, do you know who you're dealing with? Do you want to be on the opposite side of God? I don't think you do, right? But he gives grace to the humble. So therefore humble yourselves. Like, you need to know who you're dealing with. This is God. He has a mighty hand. You put yourself under that. Like, you humble yourself when you realize God's might. Now, humility is not a natural disposition for us sinners, naturally. It's like, we want to promote ourselves. We want to project ourselves. We want to protect ourselves. We want to defend ourselves. We have kind of that disposition. Humility is kind of not natural for us. Humility is a reactionary virtue or it's a responsive virtue, like something humbles us or someone humbles us. Put it this way. Let's say you go to the Y to play hoops. You're going to the Y to play basketball. Big court at the Y. In fact, there's several courts that go the width, and then they put down that big curtain to divide the courts. You guys know what I'm talking about, okay? You go into the first court, and you're there, hooping it up, and it's you and a group of fifth graders, and you're balling. In fact, you are better than you thought you were. Like, you're killing it, blocking shots, leading the scoring. You would lead an assist, but you don't need to, right? And all of the fifth graders are like, wow, did you play in the NBA? And you're like, no, 7th grade B team. But I've grown since then, right? And you're starting to feel good about yourself. You're starting to like, your confidence is rising. You're like, I'm the real thing here, right? You're feeling good. And then one of the Y workers comes in and they put that little funny looking key in the wall and turn it. And then the curtain starts to race. And you are oblivious to the game going on next to you. And the game next to you is like some professional ballers playing. And now all those fifth graders that were looking at you like you're a big deal start looking at you in light of what they're now seeing, and they no longer see you as a big deal. In fact, you're looking at you through the lens of seeing them, and they play basketball, and you don't see yourself as quite a big deal. Like, you've been, what, humbled? Like, there was a reaction to that. I thought I was a big deal here, but there was something behind the curtain that I didn't see, I wasn't aware of, like it existed, but I wasn't grasping it. And then when it became aware, it was exposed to me. I'm now seeing myself differently. And guys, so many people go through life like, this is my game. I do things the way I want to do things. I have my ambitions. I make the rules for me. I run this show. And they're oblivious to a God behind the curtain. They're oblivious to it's. Like, this isn't your world. You don't run this. It doesn't exist for you. You're not as big a deal as you think you are. And there's going to come a time when somebody turns a funny looking key on the wall and the curtain starts to race and you're going to see yourself in light of a holy God. Humility is a reactionary virtue. Humility is the response to the might and size and holiness of God. And I didn't say it's some people's response. It's everybody's response. And you either see it now or you'll see it someday when the curtain's raised, but it is the response. When you stand next to a holy God, do you see it now like before that day? Are you seeing the greatness of God, the size of God, the holiness of God, because it will humble you? We showed this text last week, but it's worth going back to Isaiah six. It says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated upon the throne. King Uzziah was the king, and the nation was doing well under King Uzziah. But when he died, there was all kinds of fear and panic. We're vulnerable now. We're going to get invaded by other nations. They're concerned about their safety, their protection, what's going to happen to our country. There's all kinds of anxiety and worry. And what God does to Isaiah is like, let me turn the funny looking key on the wall and I'm going to raise the curtain for you. Let me show you what's behind the curtain. You thought Uzziah was on the throne? No, I'm on the throne. Let me show you my game. High and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings. With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And he called. One called to the other and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called. And the house was filled with smoke. He's like, oh, you think King Uziah's got game? Do you know what's going on in this court? You thought his throne was powerful. Do you want to see my throne? Like, let me show you this Isaiah. And what happens to Isaiah? Woe is me, for I am lost. For I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. He was humbled. It was the response to the holiness of God. God's holiness fuels our humility. But do you see it? Like pre curtain going up, pre day of the Lord? Like, do you see it now by faith? Do you see it that God is the prize, that he is holy, that it's his world? Do you get it now? You'll get it someday. Let me show you psalm eight. This is another picture of this. Psalm Eight says, when I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of Him and the Son of man that you care for Him. When I look at your world, oh, you hung the moon, you hung the stars, you made this place. When they see the work of your fingertips, what does it do? Well, who am I? It humbles the person. When they look at God, as in, if you're struggling with pride, whether that's an expression of kind of an inflated ego or just anxiety and worry and depression, does that mean what he's saying is it's because you ain't looking, you ain't looking at God? You're not looking at the works of his fingers and his handiwork and his size and his holiness and his power? You're navel gazing. You're like, this is my issues, my problems, my goals, my ambitions. This is my world. Like, you're just trapped in that need to look up and guys, depression, anxiety, worry, it's a form of pride, and it often is the window into the sin of our own self centeredness. And I'm telling you that often the most helpful, loving counsel we can get or give in those moments is you need to stop thinking about yourself like you're consumed with your problems, you're consumed with your worries, you're consumed with your fears, you're consumed with whatever it is you got going. You're consumed with you. It's what you think about, it's what you talk about. It's just everything in your life. There's got to be a shift. And I'm not against understanding our problems, but there's eventually got to be a shift. And that's the problem with secular counseling. We're going to try to understand you, we're going to try to understand your problems, we're going to try to understand your sources, but there's no shift to something more glorious than yourself. And there's got to be this shift off yourself to the holiness of God. You got to turn your eyes away from your problem, away from your struggles, away from your hurts, away from your pain, away from how you've been wronged, and eventually get it to God. There's got to be something more glorious than yourself to pull you out of that. I'm sure I'll get emails for that. Just let Michael know if we want to grow in humility, like, if you're with me on that, of like, that's an admirable trait I want to grow in. We got to look up like Psalm eight. When I look, it's your heavens, the work of your fingers, like, seriously, look up. You can't look with an intentionality of like, this is God. You can't look at the sunset, you can't look at the stars in the sky, you can't look at the mountains and o, you can't look at those things. Understanding this is God's handiwork and at the same time, be consumed with yourself. You can't do it. Like, seek the scriptures, get to know God, his character, his attributes, his promises. Like, be overwhelmed with who he is and what he's done. It's life changing because when you are under the mighty hand of God, we see ourselves more accurately. We're in our proper place. And I know pride wants to get us in a higher place, but joy and contentment and fulfillment is found in our proper place and our proper place is under the mighty hand of God. Now, there are different ways to be under the mighty hand of God, because like we said before, all of us are under the mighty hand of God. Whether you realize it or not, you are under the mighty hand of God. This is his world. He made it, he rules it. And there are different ways to be under the mighty hand of God. You can be under the mighty hand of God in judgment. He's about to squash you. You could be under the mighty hand of God, of protection, like, he's a refuge. Like, it could be life ending humiliation or it could be life giving humility. So which one is it for you? And how do you know? Because there's going to come a day when the curtain rises and we see ourselves before a holy God. Are you prepared for that day? How do you prepare? What does it look like to be ready for that day? But there's going to come a day where everybody's reaction to God is humility. It's just what's going to happen when we stand before a holy God and that day is coming. In fact, let's look at a passage that speaks of that day. This is Isaiah, chapter two, verse twelve. He says this for the Lord of host has a day. So he's got a calendar, he's got a plan, he's got a timeline, he's got a day. It's circled. You don't know it, he knows it, but it's coming. For the Lord of Host. Lord of Hosts means like Lord of armies or angel armies if that cues you into what he's about to talk about. For the Lord who commands an angel army has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up, it shall be brought low. Against the cedars of Lebanon lofty and lifted up, against all the oaks of Bashan, against all the lofty mountains and against all the uplifted hills, against every high tower, against every fortified wall, against all the ships of Tarshish, against all the beautiful craft. And you're like, what has God got against trees like these cedars of Lebanon? What has he got against the oaks of Bashan and the ships of Tarshish and the fortified sea? Like all these things that you thought were awesome and that you gloried in more than me all these things that you thought that gave you security and value and you were just really proud of. I'm going to show you what those are like in light of me. I'm going to lift the curtain. And that what you thought was awesome. You're not going to see as awesome anymore because something more awesome is in the court next to you. That's what he's saying. There's going to come a day when you see these things that you have loved in light of something so much better. God and the haughtiness of man shall be humbled and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low. And the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. The Lord alone will be exalted in that day. What's this day he's talking about? Well, Paul talks about it as well. In fact, it was in the passage that we read earlier. And I know you're thinking like, well if we're going to talk about humility, we're going to look at the first part of that passage in Philippians two. But actually we're going to go to the end because this is what Paul's talking about that day that Isaiah was talking about, verse nine. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him, just like you say that there's going to be a day where God is exalted and God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. So the name of Jesus every knee should bow and in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That's the day. And on that day, everybody's confessing that Jesus is Lord and everybody's bowing to Jesus as king, like everybody's put in their place. But here's my question. If everybody is bowing to Jesus and everybody's confessing that Jesus is Lord, who's saved because it's a day of judgment and it's clear that not everybody is saved. And if everybody's bowing and everybody's confessing who's saved, it's the ones who know Jesus is Lord before they know Jesus is Lord. You tracking with me. It's the ones who bow before they bow. Because you can bow or you can bow. That's what's happening. And it's the ones who it's like I've been saying jesus is Lord before it was cool. Before everybody was confessing it. I was confessing it. I was bowing before everybody was bowing. Or put it this way, it's those that are glad about it. It's when the curtain lifts or the people are like, yes, King Jesus, I love it. Or if it's like, oh, whoa, I better get low, like, how is your reality? Are you looking forward to that day? Are you excited about King Jesus? Are you glad about it? Let's go back to our passage from last week. This is Psalm 34. My soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be what glad. I'm boasting about Jesus now because in humility I see that he's great, not me. I see that it's his world, not mine. I see that it's about him, not me. And I'm glad about it. I'm glad about I'm excited about biblical humility is a gladness and boasting the Lord. Now, how do you get that? How do you get eyes to see that? This is in two corinthians four. We've referred to this passage quite a bit. I'd love for you to know it. Starting in verse three, it says, and even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves, as your servants for Jesus'sake. That's humility being expressed there for God who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So here's what he's saying. Unbelievers. They can't see it. The curtains down. It's like they can't see what? They can't see the beauty of Jesus. They don't get it. They think everything going on in their court is what life is all about. They don't see it. So what do believers. See how awesome Jesus is. They see it. They have the eyes to get it. They understand that this life is about God, not ourselves. But what exactly are they seeing that makes them gladly bow down, makes them gladly put themselves under the mighty hand of God? It's the light of the gospel and the glory of Christ. What is he talking about there? What is the light of the gospel? What is the glory of Christ? It's the good news of what Jesus has done. He has come to our rescue, died on the cross for our sins. That's what they see. That's what they're getting. Like, I see the gospel. I see Jesus Christ, who he is and what he's done and what he's accomplished. Or I want us to see it in our text. So go back to First Peter, chapter five. He says this humble yourselves, therefore under the mighty hand of God. So at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties or your cares on Him because he cares for you. Peter knew it like, he loves you. He cares for you like there's a joyful coming under the God's mighty hand because we know he cares for us. And church, hear me now, you have to know both the might of God and the love of God. To find real humility, you got to know Him both. And if you only know one of them, it doesn't do it. If you only know the might of God, he's just a God you're trying to appease and you'd probably like to keep your distance. And if you only know the love of God, then you probably think he exists for you. But when you know the might of God and the love of God, you gladly put yourself under his mighty hand. Where else would I rather be? You mean the God that hung the stars and made the moon all that loves me? I want to be with him. I want him. There's no better place to be. Like I will gladly put myself under his mighty hand. Now it says under, not on, not next to, but under. Or that word means beneath, as in I'm not in the spotlight anymore. My life is hidden. It's underneath him. Like, life stops being about me and what I want and who I am. And my life starts becoming about God, who he is and what he's up to. I gladly put my life under Him. Like, I want to be there. I want to be there. Guys, knowing God's might and love frees you from yourself. It frees you from yourself when you know God's might. You don't have to be in control because he's mighty. He's got this you don't have to fight for control like you understand the might of God. When you understand the might of God, you don't have to be afraid what's going to happen in the future. He's mighty. Like, he's got this when you understand the love of God, you don't have to work to continue to kind of prove yourself to other people. He loves you, he cares about you. You can let go of this comparison game of am I better than this person and I got to get ahead of this person and I got to have value here. Like, no, he already cares for you. He already loves you. You can kind of stop with the self assessments, how they come across. Do you think they like me? Do you think they don't like me? Do you think I need to do this? And it's kind of over. Examine yourself all the time. No, he already likes you. He already loves you. He already expresses that he cares for you. You're like, well, how do we know that? Great question. Romans five eight. God declares his love for us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You know how you be confident that you are loved? Christmas easter coming of Jesus Christ the light of the gospel the glory of Christ But He didn't stay in the grave, he rose again. And what do we see in Jesus Christ? We see both the love of God and his compassion to die for us. And we see the might of God that he came and slain. Sin, Satan and death. You got to see both. He is mighty to save. It's not just that he cares you and he will save. He is mighty to save. He can accomplish your salvation. And it's not just that he can save you he wants to save. He is a caring, loving God. And when you get that aspect of God, you gladly put yourself under his mighty hand because you know he cares for you. There's no other better place to be. And then you're free from trying to prove yourself and project yourself, making life about yourself. You can just gladly make your life about God. So let me give you a definition here. Biblical humility is being gladly preoccupied by the power and love of God. It's being gladly preoccupied by the power and love of God. Now I want you to hold on to this definition. I want you to remember it. So I'm going to shorten it for you. Say Biblical humility is being gladly preoccupied with God. Because when we think of God, we know big, powerful, loving, merciful, graceful, like we know who God is. But Biblical humility, it's gladly preoccupied with God. I'm not thinking too highly of myself. I'm not thinking too lowly of myself. In fact, I'm not thinking of myself. I am so captivated by God and who he is and what he's accomplished. I'm just taken by God. I'm so in love with God. I'm so consumed with God. That's where you find humility. Like Psalm eight, when we look to God in his heavens and the work of his fingers, that's where we see ourselves in the right place. And when you stop looking to God, you grow in pride. And when you look to God, you grow in humility. Church. I'm telling you, you don't become more humble by trying to become more humble. Like this is important. Like if you listen to this message and you think has a good message on humility, I really need to work on humility, I'm going to try to become more humble. You are going to be frustrated and it's not going to go well. You do not grow in humility by seeking humility. You grow in humility by seeking God. You get that that is a game changer. You do not grow in humility by seeking humility. You grow in humility by seeking God. And when you are absolutely taken by his greatness and his power and his love and his mercy, you will find yourself free from being consumed by yourself. Wouldn't that be true? Wouldn't that be awesome if that was true of us? That when people think of the people of eritas, it's like they're just a bunch of people who are gladly preoccupied by God. It's like, yeah, there's a lot going on in this world. Yeah, but we're not afraid. Our god is mighty. In fact, we can take every care and we can cast it on Him. Why do we know that? Because he cares for us. How awesome is that? That if we could be free from just being absorbed with ourselves. And the only thing that's going to do that says when you become aware of something and someone way more glorious than yourself, that is the glory of God in Jesus Christ. And guys, that's what's being expressed in baptism. That's what's being told in baptism. These are people who are gladly coming under the mighty hand of God and they're casting all their anxieties and their fears and their worries and their sins on Christ. Do you know why? Because they know he cares for them. He is their savior. And it's an act of humility because they're saying, like, my life isn't about me, it's about God. I'm putting myself under. And some people are like, I don't want to get baptized. That's kind of weird. I want to get wet in front of adults. It's like, then you don't get it. You're still thinking about how you look to other people. This isn't about how you look to other people. This is about how you make God look to other people. It's a public proclamation of what God has done in their lives. And when they get in the tank and we hear their stories, we're going to listen to some videos, we cheer. We're not cheering for them. They're not celebrating them. They're celebrating god. They're putting themselves under the mighty hand of God and saying, look at God, not me. But put your attention on God. He is mighty to save and he has a compassionate heart that does save. How awesome is our God. Isn't that what we want to say every week? Church. So you're going to hear some videos. You're going to hear some stories of God's impact in people's lives. You're going to see a group of people get in the tank to get baptized. And it's not the moon and the stars, but it is Psalm Eight. It is the work of God's fingers. It's God reaching into a human heart and bringing change. It's God to an individual, putting the funny looking key in the wall and lifting up the curtain and saying, I'm helping you see the glory of Jesus Christ before you see the glory of Jesus Christ, you track with me. And when that happens, guys, we cheer, we celebrate. We have a God who saves, I hope for us. Not for them, but for us. It's a soulmate moment. Like God. I see you. I see you alive. I see you at work. I see you changing. This is the work of Your hands, and I love it. You are an awesome God and we worship Him as we should. Amen. All right, let's pray. Father, you first loved us and you are a God who saves and you are a God who still saves. And we need saved from ourselves. We make life about ourselves when life is clearly about you. Rescue us from our self centeredness. Help us see you as king, you as lord, you as ruler. Help us to die to ourselves. Help us become small in light of you and help us find the freedom of worshipping you as we were made to do. Pray this in your name. Amen.