Hidden Treasure | Part 6

I want to start off with a story that happened in the American Revolution. And and and because I think it'll it'll kind of tie into what we're going to talk about today. But it it happened back in 1776.

There was a group of continental soldiers, privates. They were trying to build this defense thing. And they were struggling getting a beam, this heavy beam into place. And their corporal, who's just one rank above them, but he's their commander. He's like barking encouragement at him to do it and just sitting there on his horse. And along comes a civilian, a guy dressed in civilian clothes. He kind of comes across. He goes, you guys have a problem? And he goes, yeah, they're they're they're struggling getting that up there. And and he just simply says to the corporal, well, why don't you help them?

And the guy proceeds, sir, I don't if you noticed, but I'm a corporal. I'm their superior officer. That's not what I do. It's their job. I'm just gonna sit here and do this. He goes, okay. Well, I'm sorry, mister corporal. I didn't realize, but I'll I'll go ahead and help them then. So he hops off his horse, gets down, helps them get it done. He gets done. He gets back on his horse and he says, hey, if you guys need any more help,

just send word to the command headquarters and ask for General Washington and I'll come back and help you. Which George Washington proceeded to ride down the street. Cause he was showing up to take command as the general. And then and then imagine what it was to felt like to be that corporal in that moment.

He was acting so prideful and he just got humbled. He got humbled. And that's really what they say was one of the greatest characteristics about George Washington that made him a good leader.

Was was was he didn't let pride prevent the mission from happening. He he didn't care. So, hey, we just need to get this done. Where that corporal was preventing things from getting done because of pride, Washington shows humility

which which got it done. It it it it provided the way to get it done. And that's really what we want to talk about today in the story. We're gonna look at where Jesus is teaching. And we're in this little parable series. The parable he tells today is is is all about humility versus pride. And and the big idea is simply this. What we're going see scripturally today is this. In our lives, we're going to be challenged to face the fact that,

pride prevents, but humility provides.

Pride prevents, but humility prevents. What does it prevent and what does it provide? We'll see as we go through here. So I wanna do is we're gonna be in Luke chapter 14.

And what I'm gonna do here, David, normally when I teach the parable, I read the whole parable and do the teaching of that. I'm do something different. I'm just gonna read the parable.

Because I think the big idea, what really he's gonna learn is what he says in the context of what leads to him telling the story. So we're gonna kinda Tarantino this. I'm gonna tell the story. I'm gonna just read the parable, flat out just read it. And then I'm gonna go back to the whole context of what got him to this story. And then it'll make sense as we walk through it. Make sense? Then we're actually going to jump to the Old Testament and look at a story. Then we're going to come back to a story in the New Testament. And it's all going to tie together really nice and awesome. So buckle up and and keep your arms in the car at all times. So here we go. So

we're starting in Luke 14 starting in verse 16. Here it goes. Jesus replied with this story. A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations.

When the banquet was ready, he sent a servant to tell his guests, come, the banquet is ready. But they all began making excuses. One said, I've just bought a field and must inspect it. Please excuse me. Another said, I bought five pairs of oxen. I want to try it out. Please excuse me. Another said, I just got married so I can't come.

And funny, he didn't even say, please excuse me. He's just like, I got married. I got enough on my mind. Know? The servant returned and told his master what they had said. His master was furious and said, go quickly into the streets and alleys in the town. Invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. After the servant had done this, he reported there's still room for more. So his master said, go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find that comes so that the house will be full.

For none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet. That's a pretty harsh statement. So he tells a story about a guy that had a feast and those who were originally invited, the ones who who should know better,

All said no because they thought they were better. That's the context. They all those excuses are just flat out the way their culture runs. There is no way any of those excuses would be a valid excuse.

They're just lies. And it was really he's insinuating

that the people that he invited thought they were better than the host, so they didn't want to go to his party. And so he's saying, okay. Well, you know who's gonna come? The people you really think you're better than. The broken people. The far. And then I'm gonna go way off into the foreign country. I'm gonna go way off into people that are practically foreigners, and they're gonna come. This whole story is talking about the kingdom of God.

And he says, it says, Jesus replied, this is in response to what he just had happen. And so back in verse seven, what's happening is it's it's Passover

feast. And he got invited to the house of the head Pharisee. Now you think, not because they love him. The Pharisees didn't like Jesus. You know why? Guess who he chose to eat with? The heart hurt, the broken, the far from God, foreigners, all these people that they thought they were better than. And they think they've got the inside track to God. They think they know what's going on, so they don't trust Jesus.

So they invited him so they can keep an eye on him and try to catch him. And so that's the context. So here we go. He shows up at this and it says, when Jesus noticed, he's at the this feast,

that all who had come to the dinner were trying to sit in the seats of honor near the head of the table. He gave them this advice. So there you go. It's still like it is today. You have a big party. You have the table set up. There's there's the important seats.

And then you get further away and you end up at the kids table. Right? Where where you know the obnoxious little cousins and and and

and your uncle Cletus is all sitting over there. That's kind of, you know how it is? You gotta kinda have that deal. So that's what's happening. So what's happening is he's watching this. He gets invited. And here's the weird thing. You know that if they wanted to keep an eye on Jesus,

in a mocking way, they would have put him at the head table. They always did that. They wanted to keep him close. That's why they invited him. So he's sitting there. He actually got invited to sit. He's just watching. And they're all just jockeying for position. And what he notices

is when you jockey for position, you miss the mission. You're gonna miss what's going on. And and and so basically what he's about to give advice is is, hey, you know what? Those who should know better, when they think they are better, nothing actually gets better. If you're a person that should know better,

but you just think you are better, nothing gets better.

Meaning he's sitting with these religious elites of Israel, who God has gifted Israel to be his chosen people. But what did he mean by chosen people? Did he choose them because they are better? No. He choose them because they're a bunch of nobodies. And he poured out his truth in them. He called them to make them into a people to show the world that there is one God. And he took these nobodies and did something with them. And really, they were given the inside track. They should know better. They had the prophets. They had God talk to them. They got the law. They got the 10 commandments. They got the Old Testament. They they had all of this stuff to help them know God. And instead of just knowing better, they took it as we are better. We're better than the other kind. We're better. We're God's chosen. We're just better people than they are. And and and and here's the problem.

When you overestimate yourself, you undervalue everyone else, including Jesus himself. So that's kind of what he's noticing. They're trying to jockey. They're all it's all about how important you are and where you sit. And so he gives them this advice.

He says, when you're invited to a wedding feast, don't sit in the seat of honor. What if someone who is more distinguished than you has also been invited? The host will come and say, give this person your seat.

Then you will be embarrassed and you'll have to take whatever seat is left at the foot of the table. Meaning everyone's already sat down. You're gonna get kicked out. You're gonna do the walk of shame over to join, you know, cousin Cletus and the nephews at the kid's table. And that's gonna be embarrassing.

You will be humbled by that. He says, instead, take the lowest place at the foot of the table. Then when your host sees you, he'll come and say, friend, we have a better place for you. Then you'll be honored in front of all the other guests.

For those and here's the whole point. The teaching of it, verse 11. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. So so what he's saying is you have choice in your life. You can be humbled or you can be humble. You realize those are drastically different.

They both are hard. Both involve swallowing pride. Both both involve doing something with the pride in your life. But one happens to you and it is way worse. It is utter defeat and it is painful. The other you choose

to be a humble person. And what he's really implying in that story where it says at the end, those who should have known better aren't gonna get one bite from my feast. What he's really saying is these think they're the religious elite. They're sitting here jockeying for position. They're filled with pride and they're going to miss the whole thing. He's really implying

that at the end of time, when we all stand before God, there's going to be people that because of their pride, always rejected Jesus.

Even religious people that just I will not trust Jesus. I won't listen. Even church people that will not do it. And it says though, at the end of time when Jesus stands there in all his glory and it says that every knee will what?

Bow and every tongue will confess. Does that mean everyone truly put their faith in Jesus? No. What it means is like every other time in scripture, when when they see a little bit of the glory of God. I mean, not even the full presence of God. When when you see a little bit of glory of God, you fall to your knees.

And it says, you are gonna fall to your knees. One group, if you've been humble and you know God, you fall to your knees in praise that my king has arrived. But the rest of the group, the people that will not humble themselves, you're going to fall to your knees in absolute fear, terror, and defeat. You will be humbled.

That's what he's saying.

And he's trying to tell them, you don't get it. You don't get it. Why is he saying that? Because here, I I said pride prevents, but humility provides. What does pride prevent? Pride prevents connection. Pride prevents connection. What do I mean by that? Pride will prevent us from connecting to God.

It'll prevent us from connecting to his grace, prevent us from having a relationship with us. Like, they are the ones that have the Old Testament and the prophet. They had the truth of God's word, but they had no relationship with God. They wouldn't trust Jesus. They thought they were better than Jesus because of who he chose to eat with. Because he goes because they only overestimated themselves. They undervalue everyone else. They undervalue Jesus. And he said, because you're doing that, you might be showing up and doing the church thing, But you have disconnected from a relationship with Jesus, your savior. And that's what pride will do. Pride will prevent us from truly connecting to God. And by extension, it prevents us from connecting to others.

Because that's what he says next. Look what he says next. He goes on and he says, then he turned to his host and says, when you put on a luncheon or banquet, he said, don't invite your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors, for they will invite you back. And that'll be your only reward. Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, the people you get mad that I meet with.

And he says, then at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you. You see, so he's he's saying pride not only prevents a connection with God, it really prevents me to truly connect with others. Pride, I can't really love God back with pride.

And my ability to know God's love and love him back directly affects my ability to love others. That's what he's saying. Which is kind of funny because verse 15

is what finally has him just tell the the parable that you guys you're gonna miss the whole banquet. You're gonna miss out on the kingdom of God because of your pride. And

what is the comment that makes him do it? Verse 15. Hearing this, a man sitting at the table with Jesus. So this guy jockeyed for position and he's up in the main table. This man sitting at the table with Jesus exclaimed, what a blessing it'll be to attend a banquet in the kingdom of God. Now that sounds

innocuous, but you don't understand in the context and the language actually used, that is incredibly arrogant.

What he's saying is you just told the story. You just talked about how you need to look out for the less and you need to not try to jockey for the position. You need to sit. And then, you know, that's where you have the seat of honor. You need to choose to be humble. And a guy that jockeyed for position and got himself basically goes, well, I'm glad I don't have to worry about that. That's what he's saying. I'm glad I don't have to worry about that. I know I'm gonna be at the right seat. I know I'm gonna be in the kingdom of God. I know I'm all good. You're not talking to me. And then he tells this story.

And the story is, no. I'm talking exactly to you and you're gonna miss out because of pride. Pride is preventing you from a connection to me and to others. It prevents real relationship. It it it does. It affects my ability to to to love the people around me. Because like I said, when I overestimate myself,

I undervalue those around me. And when I have pride, you know, when instead of someone who should know better, especially us that come to church. You've grown up at church. You know the word of God. You say you're Christian. I should know better. But if I transition from knowing better to just thinking I am better,

nothing gets better. And it's not only affects my relationship with God, it affects my relationship with those who are around me. I mean, it it affects a marriage.

I mean, some of us were sitting and you're struggling in a relationship right now. You're you're struggling in a friendship or or like I said, a marriage. Maybe a lot of there's people in this room that right now, your marriage has been struggling. You've tried counseling. You do this. You don't know what's going on. You're trying to hang in there, but you constantly have a struggle.

You know what? If I just stopped and prayed right now and said, if you could put aside pride and choose humility,

I'd be guessing that seven out of ten struggling marriages in this room would get better. Maybe not perfect, but they would start improving. If you just did that. If you just did that. Because you know what pride truly is.

We're talking about pride. And I think we all think we know the definition. But when we hear pride, most of time you hear pride and you think bragging. It's a boastful person. It's that obnoxious, pompous, boastful

person like this guy at the end of the story. But that's not necessarily true. Bragging and boasting is a symptom of pride. It's not the source. It's not what pride really is. Scripturally, the definition of pride is really to overestimate yourself to the point of you trust you even more than you trust God.

I believe what I think even more than what God says. Does that make sense? So you can be hate yourself and be filled with pride.

Because you can sit there and God says, I I love you. I know you. I've gifted you. I've blessed you. And if you trust me, I have a purpose for your life. You're like, no, my life stinks. I'm terrible. I'm all this. You realize that's pride from a biblical perspective. Cause what you're saying is God, nope, you're not right. I do not believe what you say about me. Good or bad. You you you reject the good or the bad. That is pride. Cause what you're doing is you're putting yourself as the judge over God's wisdom.

I believe myself

more than I believe God. That's pride. That's the source. It says, how did Satan fall? He was an angel and he said, hey, I want God's job. I think I should have the throne. I could do better. The Bible says pride comes before the fall. He fell. He comes in and he wants to ruin God's plan. So he goes to Adam and Eve. What lie did he get them to believe? You know what? God's holding out on you. You know you'd be better off if you ignored God. Then you'd be just as smart as God. You will be better off not listening to God. Listen to yourself.

Pride. You realize that every sin we have, sin is this brokenness where we run from God. It's all these things. But at its heart, there's a lot of different kind of sins. But they all come back to the same thing. Pride. I trust me more than I trust God. Pride prevents connection because pride breaks trust.

And I won't trust God when I have pride. And that's why if if if in a marriage I mean, I'm telling you, used to do marriage counseling. Now don't call everyone says, do you still do it? No. No, I don't. And and here's the deal.

But when I've done it, I've had training and all this. It's interesting. I can I I got to where I could predict if the counseling is gonna do anything by just how people act within the first ten minutes of walking in to the session?

Because here's the deal. When we walk into the session, people will both people carry a mirror with them. And it's all determined on what you do with that mirror. You come and you sit down. So what's the issue? Well, you know what? I think the issue is this. You take that mirror

and the people I know, this is going nowhere, is when they take their mirror and they hold it up in front of the other person. Then they go, all I want them to do is see this.

They need to see this. And the other person go, yep. And you need to see this. Here's the problem. When you're both holding the mirror up to the other person's face, guess what you see? All you really see is the back of your mirror. You don't really pay attention. You're looking past years into theirs, and that's all you care about. And that's what I can simplify what most marriage counseling is. Some of you, that's what you've done. You go to marriage counseling and your goal is, I sure hope they get it.

I'm just gonna tell you, I'll save you money right now. If you're in marriage counseling and that's what you're doing, stop paying the money. The only one that's benefiting is the counselor. You're gonna get nowhere. Pride. But you know what humility is? You sit down and all you do is turn the mirror around.

If two people come in and say we're here to see what we need to work on, I guarantee, guarantee, it'll get better. Pride. You see, pride and humility is like a lawn. You know what I'm really good at growing? I'm a master expert at growing weeds. Anybody else? Look at how good I you know why I'm so good at growing weeds? You

don't have to do anything to grow weeds, do you? It's weird. They're a plant. They photosynthesize. They take water. How come they'll grow when you try to kill them? And then the thing you want to grow dies. I'm like, what is the deal with weeds? Pride is a weed. You don't have to try. It'll start popping up. Humility

is the other. Whatever you're growing. Grass, maybe roses, whatever whatever you're growing. That needs cultivation. You need to have it. It needs to be fertilized. It needs to be watered. It needs to get the right amount of sun. It needs to be cared for.

Humility is something you have to cultivate. That's why he says, if you exalt yourself, you'll be humbled. But if you humble yourself, you realize you can choose to be humble. You can choose humble. It's an it's an actual choice.

And it's a choice that takes work. And it takes focus. And it's just like that lawn. You gotta be out there. If you ignore it, weeds start popping up. And you gotta root out the weeds. You gotta go after the pride and try to cultivate humility. And that's what Jesus is saying here. He's saying that pride prevents

the connection. Pride hurts our relationships. Pride hurts our ability to love God because we end up trusting ourselves more. Pride prevents trust. And then that bleeds into every other relationship we have. Pride distorts. It it it prevents. But what does humility do? What pride prevents, humility provides for.

Humility provides correction. Humility provides correction. And you hear correction, you go, what does that mean? Correction? That sounds brutal. No. Think of correction like a course correction. Like if you're driving down the freeway on a long trip, and everyone's asleep in the car including you and you're driving,

and all of sudden you wake up and you realize you're going off the highway, are you gonna sit there and go, you know what? No. In my pride, I'm not gonna admit this. I'm not gonna admit I'm going the wrong way. I'm committing to this path.

And just tube it? No. You know what you're gonna do? You're gonna grab the wheel, and you're gonna freak out. And sometimes you might grab it so hard you over correct and flip. Because you are really quick to wanna course correct, aren't you? You see that that that's the correction I'm talking about. Humility realizes,

chooses to go, this is not the right way. I have got to change course. And I will never truly change course to trust God unless I choose humility.

The reason I love sharing this this week is everything we've talked about, especially the last couple weeks. Repentance, serving, going after what God really wants for your life. I'm just here to tell you, if you don't go after pride and choose to be humble, you will never do what we talked about the last few weeks.

Because you can't repent unless you're humble.

Because if you're not humble, you think you know more than God. You don't think you have a problem. You think it's gonna be so great in the kingdom of God because I've already earned my spot. I'm so good. So that if you think you're you're all good, when you hear there's something wrong and you need to course correct through pride, you won't admit it.

You'll argue. You'll make a distractionary argument. You'll you'll you'll let pride distract you from going after what needs to happen to heal a relationship. Let me go back again to the example of being married.

Now I say this in regards to men, but women you do this too. I'm just going to talk because I'm a guy. So I know from my perspective what I do. So men or women, if you're each. But a matter of fact, like when we have a problem in a marriage.

You know what happens? Like say, you're the guy. You're working. Your wife's struggling. She goes, I need help with the kids. Happens a lot when the kids are little. I'm struggling with them. But you have a problem. You struggle with the kids. You're fighting with the wife. She's mad at you all the time. So what do you do? You become more of a workaholic. You stay at work all the time and you work harder. And there is a little bit of truth, but your pride lets you distort it. You say, I'm providing for the family. I'm doing this. But you know what you're really doing. You're working harder because providing gives you more money, but it also gives you an excuse to not be around. It's a defense. Why aren't you around? Well, I'm the one that's providing. And you're getting mad because the reality is that's pride.

You know why? You know what pride likes to do? Pride likes to hang out in the game. It's winning. Pride likes to be the hero.

And if you're good at work, you get told you're good at work. You're not fighting. You're not getting told you're failing. You're not getting told I'm struggling. You're not in all this. Guess where you're gonna go hang out? At work,

or in a hobby, or with your friends, or or whatever you're doing. Pride makes you hide out in your area of strength. Because pride and ego is very fragile. And when you hear something wrong, you have to fight that. So it's a lot easier to say, I'm providing. I'm doing And it's a distraction. It really is. It really is.

Because that's what pride causes you to do. Stay in the safe zone. Because if I have pride, I can't admit that I'm on the wrong path. It takes humility to go, I need to change course. So I need to root it out. And that's what humility does. Humility provides that correction.

Here's what I mean. We're gonna go to an old testament passage here. I'll show it. And I'm gonna come back in Luke and you'll see that this is a foreshadowing

of of what's happening in the New Testament. That's and then really quickly, if you're new to the Bible, the Old Testament has a very much already not yetness. Meaning these stories actually happened. The prophecies had a realization there. This story actually happened in this moment. But all of these stories are also foreshadowing of God's greater story of his grace, his love, his plan for us. Everyone that we now look in the New Testament and realize, oh, this is a foreshadowing of this ultimate fulfillment. And that I'm gonna show you then. There is a verse that mentions this exact story in the book of Luke that puts this in the context that I'm sharing it. And this is the context of Jesus is talking about pride and how pride prevents you from actually receiving the healing of God's grace. That God can heal you if you'll trust. And it's in context of there is a soldier from Syria. Aram, it's called back then. They were kind of always battling with Israel at this time.

And what happens is he's going to have a chance to be healed. Because he's going to have to choose to set pride aside. It's because he has a disease called leprosy. Leprosy is a hideous disease that kills you from the inside out. It works and then his appendages fall off. You just fall apart.

It says he's a great soldier. He's a good guy, but he's dying from the inside out. What you have to understand about leprosy, it literally is a disease, but it's used as a symbolism. It's symbolic of sin.

Meaning, we all have a leprosy in our heart called sin. A brokenness that doesn't matter how good we try to be. It doesn't matter how good of a person we try to be. We're dying from this disconnect from God. And the only way back is through his grace and his healing. And the only way we'll receive that is if we are humble.

Makes sense? There is a deeper meaning. So then now let me read the story. So here it goes. The king of Aram had a great admiration for Naaman, the commander of his army. Because through him, the Lord had given Aram great victories. But though Naaman was a mighty warrior, he suffered from leprosy.

At this time, Aramian raiders had invaded the land of Israel. And among their captives was a young girl who had been given Naaman's wife as a maid. So this is an Israelite girl that gets taken as a captive. And yet she either they were cool enough to her or she was loving enough to people,

even though they're her captors or a little bit of both. She actually tells her mistress, I wish my master would go to see the prophet in Samaria. He's talking about Elisha. Cause he would heal him of leprosy. So she has this faith and she wants him to get well.

So Naaman told the king what the young girl of Israel had said. Go and visit the prophet, the king of Aram told him. I will send a letter of introduction for you to take to the king. So Naaman started out carrying gifts, 750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold, and 10 sets of clothing.

I don't get why they ended it with 10 sets of clothing. That sounds very unimpressive. That list ended poorly in my mind. But, you know, anyways, sorry. I'm distracting as that's how my brain thinks.

And then the letter of the king of Israel said this, which I think the king of Aram could have been a little bit more clear. But he writes, with this letter I present my servant Naaman, I want you to heal him of his leprosy. So now you got the king of Israel who's distracted.

He's not. That's the whole story. The kings of Israel lost their faith all the time. They got distracted. They got worried. They didn't trust God. So look what he does. He hears that instead of thinking, you know what? He's right. Go get Elisha, our prophet. He can do something. Maybe God's working in this? No. What he says is, he reads a letter. He tears his clothes in verse seven to dismay and said, am I God that I can give life and take it away? Why is this man asking me to heal someone with leprosy? And then he goes all Admiral Akbar. It's a trap. He goes, I can see that he's trying, just trying to pick a fight with me. So he's thinking this guy's asking the impossible so he has grounds to come attack.

Well it says, but Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes in dismay and he sent a message to him. Why are you so upset?

Send Naaman to me and look what he says. And he'll learn there's a true prophet here in Israel. He doesn't just say I'm gonna heal him. He says, he's gonna learn about God. He's gonna have a relationship with God. That's what's gonna happen in this moment.

And so it says, so Naaman went with his horses and chariots and waited the door. He's doing it with his gold, his silver, his 10 sets of clothes, and his entourage.

And he goes to Elijah. And Elisha's house would have been a very simple house. So he shows up. He's this big wig. He goes to this guy's house in a country that he's always fighting with and thinks he's better than anyways.

And because he's wanting to get healing. Right? He's he's seeking healing. So he shows up. And it says, but Elijah sent a messenger out to him with this message. Go and wash yourself seven times in Jordan River, then your skin will be restored and you'll be healed of your leprosy.

So Elisha doesn't even answer the door himself. This guy comes rolling in and he just says, hey, here, go give him this message. Elisha said, go do this. You'll be fine. Closed the door. Probably, you still here? Go. Well, look what happens. Naaman became angry and stalked away. Wait. Wait. Wasn't he seeking healing?

Didn't he get an answer on how he could get healing? He has an opportunity for healing and he gets angry. Why? Pride. See, pride builds expectation. Pride not only wants the answer, it wants not only the what, it wants the how. It's like I have an expectation of how this is supposed to go down because of who I am.

And so he has this this anger fit. He has this this pride. He has this this thing that's because look what he says next. He goes, I thought he would certainly come out to meet me.

He's like, aren't I important enough? Wouldn't the guy at least come and meet me? Then he had this idea in his head of how he's supposed to get healed. I expect him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the Lord his God and heal me.

Aren't the rivers of Damascus and Abena and Far Par better than any of the rivers in Israel? Have you ever been to anybody ever been to the the the Jordan River? I have. It's a canal. In truth, these rivers are much better rivers. I've been baptized in it. It's murky brown water that fish bite you. So

he's not wrong on how those are better. He's like but that's pride. He's like, why would I go dip in this dumpy river? My rivers in my town are better. If it's about dipping in a river, it should be in my home where I'm from. It's better. It's better.

The guy didn't even come out and meet me? Why wouldn't he meet me? Why wouldn't he do it my way? I get it. I this all the time. It's like, it's like you have people come to you. I'm struggling pastor. I'm struggling. Oh, here. Let me help you out. Here's the answer. And then they get mad.

Because they didn't like the answer. Why I expected you to do this and do that and go zippity zappity bam. And and and then you said I need to, like, turn the mirror around when I'm in counseling? How does that help me?

Earlier on, I said there's a bunch of you in this room that are probably struggling in a relationship, primarily maybe in a marriage. And I said seven out of 10 of you, if you just chose humility, it'd get better. And when I said that, I guarantee somebody in this room got mad.

You're like, he doesn't know what's really going on. How dare him stand up there and say that I just need to do that.

Gotcha.

Pride will sometimes make me upset when I hear an answer that I just need to trust. When it's an issue of humbling yourself and trust, pride doesn't want to hear that answer. Pride

struggles with that answer. Pride doesn't want to have anything to do with that answer. Because you're going to have to choose humility. You're going to have to trust. You're going to have to really, really just buy into that. But does pride stopping you? Because you're not hearing what you wanna hear?

You're not getting it in your way?

Where is pride in your heart that there is an answer? And an answer is trust. Humble yourself, but you won't. And you're getting angry. You're getting mad when you hear the answer you don't want to hear. So he gets mad. He wants to walk away. He says, so Naaman turned and went away in a rage.

You realize he he in this moment that pride is about to cause him, prevent him from having healing. Prevent him from getting what he desperately wants because he's filled with pride. He has to make a choice. You and I are gonna have to make choices.

We're gonna come to these moments where I gotta decide in my heart, am I letting some weeds of pride pop up and it's preventing me from really trusting God? From really listening to God?

Instead, I want it to be the other way around. I want to do something about this. How how do you know if you're letting this weed pop up? Here's what I know. It

just might be you. As if as I've talked about this pride and how relationships can get fixed and how you all this. If you're sitting there and this whole time, what's popped in your mind is the three to four people you know that really need to hear this message. If

you're sitting there next to that person you're struggling with in a marriage and you're just praying, dear God, I hope they're paying attention. If you're like, man, my kids really need to hear this because they're idiots. I'm not saying that that's not true. That doesn't need to happen.

But if you have focused solely on please God, please God, please God, let them hear, let them hear, let them hear, without actually looking in the mirror yourself,

you're struggling with pride.

It's just the truth. And that's the sad thing. The hardest part about a message like this

is people that are struggling with pride. Just like the one in the first story where Jesus told this whole thing, was talking about the guy and the guy says, I'm so glad that's not me. Is the hardest part about a message like this is people that have so many weeds of pride in their heart, you don't think it's you.

But here's what I do know. If you should know better, but you just think you are better, nothing's ever gonna get better.

And that's probably why you're having the same fight over and over again in that marriage. It's why you have the same meltdown and your career doesn't get where it wants. It's why you're always frustrated with your walk with God. And you're always feeling like God's out to get you and it's not working right. And poor me and poor that and poor this.

Pride. Because you don't have to be braggadocious to be prideful. You just have to think, I know better than God. So Naaman has this moment. He's filled with pride. But fortunately, he had some officers around him that were good men. It says, but his officers tried to reason with him and said, sir,

if the prophet had told you to do something very difficult, wouldn't you have done it? That's why he brought all the money. If he had said, this is what you do, you would have said, I'm going for it. Because pride says, I'll go earn it. Tell me to go climb Mount Kilimanjaro. Tell me to do this. Tell me to do all that. You know, tell me to eat keto, then I'll finally be healthy. You know, whatever it is. I'll go do the stupid hard thing.

You would have done that. So you should certainly obey him when he says simply go down and wash and be cured. You realize this is the visual of God's grace.

That we are saved by grace through faith. And the faith is the humility to say, you know what? I am dying. I have leprosy. I'm so far from God. I need healing in my life. And Jesus says, well then turn to me. Just wash in a relationship of trust in me. Well, I don't like that idea. That's that sounds too simple. Yeah.

Because you don't save yourself. You need God's grace. And he almost walked away from it because of pride.

So then verse 14. You want to how to humble yourself? You want to know the definition how to do it? Verse 14. Naaman shows us right here. So Naaman went down to the Jordan River and dipped himself seven times as the man of God had instructed him.

Humility provides correction.

Do you think in that moment he just stopped being mad when his offer said, you know, you do something hard, why wouldn't you just go do it? Do you think he's like, you're right. I suddenly feel great about this idea. You are so so right. When you humble yourself, it's not like it feels great right away. You when you choose humility, you go, you know what? I don't want to believe you. I want to trust me more than you, but I'm gonna do it anyways.

We think feelings have to lead the way. That's part of our problem. And when you just gotta do the truth. He was not happy about it all. I guarantee he probably said, alright. Fine. And he did it.

But he he chose to humble himself and not be so fixated on why I would have done it if he would have come out and talked to me. I wouldn't. No. He just said, I'm gonna do it. And he goes.

And it says right there. And his skin became as healthy as the skin of a young child. He was healed. This is this is a metaphor of the sin in our lives. Now we are washed white as snow. We are washed pure in the blood of Jesus when we trust him. And when we have that kind of relation with God, that enables us to fix the relationships with those around us.

It says, then Naaman and his entire party went back to find the man of God. They stood before him and Naaman said, what did he say? Now I know there is no God in all the world except in Israel.

He didn't just get a healing from a skin disease. He found a real relationship with the one and only God.

And he was the foreigner. He was the one far away that chose to humble himself and listen. What about those who should know better? What about these insiders that Jesus was talking to?

You know, Jesus is talking about Israel. They should have known better. They were waiting for their Messiah. And though so many of them missed it. Because they got so religious and filled with pride, they thought they knew better. And then they when they should have known better, they thought they knew better. They thought they were better. And nothing got better.

And that's why in Luke chapter four. Let me close this up and show you this in the New Testament. Luke chapter four. Jesus had just walked in. He started to administer.

It was his time to declare I'm the Messiah. He went into his hometown synagogue. Pulled out a scripture because they'd read scripture and he read a prophecy in the Old Testament about the Messiah.

And then he rolled it up about when the Messiah came. He says, this prophecy has just been fulfilled in front of you right now. He basically said, it's me. And you know how his hometown crowd acted? Like, isn't that Joseph's kid? That's the carpenter. That's little Jesus from down the street.

Yeah. I don't think so. And they refused to trust him. They thought they were better than him. They're like, there's no way the carpenter's kid from down the street is God and our Messiah. No way.

So they've been waiting for the God to show up. He shows up and they don't see it. They think they're better than him. So he performs no miracles, nothing. And then when he says about that, look at verse 27 of Luke four. It says, he's he's

pulling in the Old Testament to say this was already foreshadowed. I already knew this was gonna happen. It says, and many in Israel had leprosy in the time of the prophet Elisha. Many had leprosy. But the only one healed was Naaman, Assyrian.

You notice what he's saying is? Leprosy meant do you trust God. It wasn't just about the physical heal. He says in that whole time of Elisha, there was tons of Israelites with with with leprosy and not one of them got the idea to say maybe we should go to the prophet and trust God for healing. He's also indicating what's going on now is there are so many of you that are dying of leprosy of the heart. Sin. And you need me, the Messiah,

but you won't come to me. You know who's gonna come to me? The Syrians. You know who the Syrians are today? It's us. It's the people that aren't the Jews. Jesus, I'm gonna go out and my kingdom's gonna spread all over the place. And the sad truth is the ones that should have known better thought they were better and they missed the whole thing. How about you?

Are you sitting in church week after week thinking that you're just a better person than everyone out there? And you're just so happy that you're gonna get to be in the kingdom of God because you profess Jesus and you just know how to sin less?

And you have the right list of theology and the right ideas? Or do you know that we sit here by the very grace of God? And when I humble myself for him, he heals me. And that enables me to find healing in all my other relationships. And maybe when all my other relationships are messed up, it shows me that I have a messed up relationship with God.

But pride will prevent me from seeing it. Humility will provide the correction to get there. Humility is simply letting God do what God does and getting out of his way. What about you? You know, this is something, like I said, it's like that lawn. You have to constantly look for the weeds. It's a battle. It's difficult.

Because Lord, it's hard to be humble when you're perfect in every way. Right, Mac Davis? If you understood that reference, you old like me. Let me tell you example to shut this down.

This just happened not too long ago. We went on a lead team retreat. The lead team of the high the lead directors. And we go on this retreat. We envision. We talk about I've learned a long time ago in leadership. You know what? If

you have the island of misfit toys, which we call ourselves, and you learn to like and work well together, you can get a lot more accomplished together and you need relationships. So we work really hard on that. And I believe in letting leaders lead. So I like like like, hey, you know what? You got this. Let's go. Let's be really eclectic. Let's talk. So we go away to envision. But one of things I know to help that relationship work is we fight pride even working in a church. And and so there, you know how you get in your company or your home, there's little issues that pop up. There's pride. And even though you're generally getting along, there's probably some things you need to talk out. And and you get to that moment where you go, okay, you gotta air this out. So you have a fight. You finally air it out. What I've noticed in most of those moments, we will share 90%.

But we won't share the last 10%. And that's one of the statements we have around Rock Point with our with our staff is, did we say the last 10%?

Because I hate to have a really tough meeting where we had to get really honest and then we walked away and that last 10% is usually the thing that's causing the problem in the first place. The thing that really is preventing us from the breakthrough. So we have this long meeting. There's emotions. There's hugging. We all feel great and confident in the end. But somebody walked away holding in the 10%. And we end up right back in the same place over and over again. I might have just described your marriage.

And the last 10% takes humility.

Because you gotta be willing to share, I do have this problem with you and here's why. And as you share that, you also gotta be willing to have the humility to let someone else say stuff to you. And you gotta own the real stuff. So a lot of times in our homes, we don't share the last 10 because we're having all these fights and we talk about the symptoms. We'll own the symptoms, but we won't own the source. I mean, a lot times the guy like, know the struggle is you're looking at porn.

And you'll go everywhere and admit everything except that. The one thing you're holding at back is the actual source of the problem.

So I knew we had to share. So I wanted every and I heard a few things where some people are getting a little frustrated and I hear a little bit like, okay, they're it's kinda going inside. They're they're not mad, but I've heard this. You know what? It's starting. We have that last. So we're going to have what I call the airing of the grievances. Let's just talk it out. And I said, but you know what? I'm the leader. I got to go first. So I go, I just want to know if anyone has any issues with me. I want full honest disclosure. I want to get this out. I want to know

what I don't know about how maybe I've related to you guys in a bad way. And see, isn't that great leadership on my part? I'm so humble. I've got to be honest. I knew I needed to go first to get everyone else to share. But can I be honest with you guys? I was very confident, about 99.9%

sure, that nobody was going to say anything. I go, I got nothing. I'm great. I didn't even finish the words. Somebody goes, I got something. What?

And I go, what? And they go, hey, it relates to how you've already own the fact that years ago, I took a leadership personality test. So it's not your it's like, what kind of leader are you? And they give you just one word to say, here's your greatest strength. And mine was battleship captain.

And what that meant was, when a battleship's a time of peace, you let the crew in like really great crew and all that. But what makes you good in leadership is when there is a combat zone. When you end up when the shells are flying and it's crazy, I have a tendency to stay very calm

and I can see right through it and be very tactical and know what we need to do. That's the strength of the battleship captain. The weakness of the battleship captain is, what if I think we're in a battle and we're in a combat and we're not? What if I go, there is an enemy sub out there and everyone on the crew says,

that's a dolphin. I start barking out orders. I take over. I start issuing commands. I go, nope. That is a sub. Get the 50 caliber rolled around. But sir, we're gonna kill Flipper. Fire or you're fired. You know, I get really mad. And then we

blow up Flipper and there's dolphin guts all over. People are like, who's next Lassie? You know, and it's like it's it's it's sad. And and my strength became a huge weakness. And he goes, sometimes we love when you're the battleship captain. Have saved the day. We love how you just

when it's really scary, some guys don't want to make a decision. You'll be like, here we go. It's great. But when you think there's a battle and there's not, you change. And the guy that normally encourages the discussion shuts it down. And basically starts acting like, you're all idiots. Just shut up and do it this way.

And it's frustrating. And I go, wow. Does anyone else agree? Yes. Everyone. I mean, one person got up. Yes. Hallelujah. Preach it. I got 42 more examples. That person was my wife. I'm like, wow. Wow. And in that moment, I didn't expect to hear something and I heard it. I was caught off guard. I was like,

I had to make a choice. Was I gonna be humble? Well, I'm currently looking for a new lead team. So if I you guys know anyone that can shoot a 50 caliber without asking questions? No. No. No. No. I had to own it. It was hard. It was painful,

but I did. But you know what? It opened up. And we actually spent the whole first day and part of the next morning just sharing.

And some of that last 10% is one person was getting frustrated with how one of the staff people was relating, and it opened up that they had been struggling with some issues that was making them really, really scared. And that was just a byproduct of their fear. And then everyone goes, really? I thought you're just and bam, there was prayers and tears and hugs. And it really, really got us somewhere.

It made the last day. We got further in one day because we did that first than we ever would have got focusing on the other stuff the whole time.

You had to focus. And and and you know what? And it doesn't stop there because what I told them in that room, I said, okay, here. Can I invite you guys to be Naaman's officers in my life? I said, if you see me doing it, can you guys have the courage to just call me out when it happens? They said yes. The very next day,

we got into a discussion. I thought this discussion is stupid. They're going the wrong direction. And I misread the room, and I started barking on orders, and I see this hand go up in the corner of my eye. I go what? I go, remember when you said to tell you that if you're doing that thing that you do? I go, yeah. You're doing that thing that you do right now.

I didn't even make it twenty four hours.

But I can choose humility. So can you. What are you gonna choose? Father God, I just thank you, Lord. I thank you that our our greatest example of humility is Jesus. He humbled himself to the point of a servant, came to this world, and died for the very people that yelled crucify him.

So Lord, I I I just pray that we would see that. And Lord, I pray a simple prayer for myself and everyone in this room. That we would choose to be humble, so we don't have to be humbled. That we will not let pride prevent us from connecting to you and to others. But we will let humility provide the path of correction.

Speak to us on where we have those weeds and help us to root it out. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.