Ugly Christmas Sweater | Pride

Oh come let us adore him, Oh come let us adore him, Oh come let us adore him, Christ the Lord. Would you worship and say, Oh come let us adore him, Oh come let us adore him, Oh come let us adore him, Oh come let us adore him, Christ the Lord. Would you say, Oh come, say, Oh come let us adore him, Oh come let us adore him, Oh come let us adore him, Christ the Lord. Say we give you all, we give you all. We give you all the glory. We give you all. We give you all. We give you all. For He alone is worthy. For He alone is worthy. For He alone is worthy. He'll cry, we'll praise your name, we'll praise your name. For ever and ever, we'll praise your name. Say we'll praise. We'll praise. We'll praise your name. We'll praise your name. We'll praise your name. We'll praise. For ever. Christ the Lord. Come on, somebody lift up your praise. Hallelujah. Yeah.

Glory, glory. Holy, holy. Glory. Lying in Bethlehem. This baby boy is king. Trading his dire debt. Wearing humanity. From the holy of holies. To the dirt with the lowly. Our Savior stepped off his throne. To meet us in flesh and bone. Lift high the name of Jesus Christ. Let us exalt the treasure of heaven. Lift high the name of Jesus Christ. Let praises rise for Christ our Emmanuel. Following signs and stories. Shepherds and wise men came. To offer their gifts in love. ♪ Now we do the same ♪ ♪ Every tongue, every nation ♪ ♪ And the whole of creation ♪ ♪ Will join in the sacred song ♪ ♪ Our worship, our worship is His alone ♪ ♪ His alone ♪ ♪ Lift high the name of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ Let us exalt the treasure of heaven ♪ ♪ Lift high the name of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ Let praises rise for Christ the Lord ♪ ♪ Emmanuel, we praise you ♪ ♪ Hallelujah to the saving Son of heaven ♪

♪ To the Prince of Peace eternal, His name is Jesus ♪ ♪ Hallelujah to the glory light of Judah ♪ ♪ To the light of Judah, to the King of Kings forever ♪ ♪ His name is Jesus, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ To the saving Son of heaven, to the Prince of Peace eternal ♪ ♪ His name is Jesus, hallelujah, to the glory light of Judah ♪ ♪ To the King of Kings forever, His name is Jesus, hallelujah ♪ ♪ His name is Jesus, hallelujah, His name is Jesus, hallelujah ♪ ♪ His name is Jesus, hallelujah, His name is Jesus, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Lift high the name of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ Let us exalt the treasure of heaven ♪ ♪ Lift high the name of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ Let praises rise for Christ our immaculate Christ ♪ ♪ Let praises rise for Christ our immaculate Christ ♪ ♪ Let praises rise for Christ our immaculate Christ ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ You're God with us ♪ ♪ The King of kings ♪ ♪ You're God with us yeah ♪ ♪ Worthy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Worthy, worthy, worthy ♪ Would you sing? ♪ A thousand generations falling down in worship ♪ ♪ To sing the song of ages to the land ♪ ♪ And all who've gone before us and all who will believe ♪ ♪ To sing the song of ages to the land ♪ Somebody declare it. ♪ And the angels cry holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ O creation of God, holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ You are lifted high, holy, holy forever ♪

♪ Yeah yeah yeah ♪ ♪ If you've been forgiven ♪ ♪ And if you've been redeemed ♪ Sing the song. ♪ Sing the song forever to the land ♪ ♪ If you walk in freedom ♪ ♪ And if you've been redeemed ♪ Sing the song. ♪ Sing the song forever to the land ♪ ♪ And the angels cry, sing it out, holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Holy, to our Lord God Almighty ♪ ♪ Holy, holy forever ♪ ♪ Hear your people sing, hear your people sing oh ♪ ♪ Holy, to the King, to the King of kings, sing ♪ ♪ Holy, you will always be, holy, holy forever ♪ Say your name. ♪ Your name is the highest, your name is the greatest ♪ Come on, Grand Rapids first. Let's shout it like we made it today. See all thrones and dominions. Come on, right there at home. If you believe that, with all you have, with all your heart, what you worship Him, and say, stand above them all. Say your name. ♪ Your name is the highest, your name is the greatest ♪ Say your name. ♪ Your name stands above it all ♪ See all thrones and dominions, yeah. ♪ All thrones and dominions, all powers and positions ♪

Say your name. Your name stands above it all. Say your name. ♪ Your name is the highest, your name is the greatest ♪ ♪ Your name is the greatest, your name stands above it all ♪ Say all thrones and dominions. All thrones and dominions, all powers and positions. Somebody stir up His praise today. ♪ Your name stands above it all ♪ Say your name. Your name. Your name is the highest, your name is the greatest. ♪ Your name stands above it all ♪ All thrones and dominions. ♪ All thrones, all powers and positions ♪ Your name stands above it all. King of Heaven, we sing. Shout it, sir. ♪ Holy to the King of Heaven King of Heaven, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy ♪ Holy Father, hear your people sing, hear your people sing. Shout it, say. ♪ Holy to the King of Kings, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy ♪ Say it. ♪ You will always be, always be, holy forever ♪ ♪ You will always be, you will always be, you will always be, holy forever ♪ So I would you grab your Scripture, your Bible, I want you to turn to Proverbs 16, 18. I'm gonna use that as a part of my text today. Starting the series, Ugly Sweaters.

I noticed one in the altar area. Andrew, Drew, where are you? There you are. Stand up, my brother. Stand up. Listen. I just want, no, stand up. Stand up, Drew. Stand up. I just want you to know, this is a very confident man right here. I just want you to know that, right there. I love it, Drew. I love it. But Drew, let's not wear it the rest of the year, okay? Just this time. I know Dan and Jared, if they see this, they will cringe. It will definitely humble them. Because these kind of shirts and sweaters, okay, they come on ya. It gets people's attention. You probably would never notice, Drew, if you hadn't worn that. But it gets your attention. But they're not meant to wear perpetually. because they're ugly. It's called ugly sweater. But there are things that I believe that believers, the ugly things that sin puts on us, that we just want to keep wearing, but God wanted us to exchange them for a different garment. So when Jesus Christ came, here's what I know, he came wrapped in flesh because you and I, your pastor and you, were wrapped in sin and

headed for destruction. Without him, we are lost without hope. So God said, the only thing I can do is wrap myself, wrap my son in flesh to be a sinless sacrifice, to be born, only to be crucified, to free those that are wrapped in sin. And here's what I know, we, humanity, were wrapped in sin, but you also need to know that sin is always wrapped in pride and it is ugly. Ugly. So if you have sin in your life, or when sin enters my life, I want you to tell you what's wrapped around it every time. Pride. It is pride. So that's where my text comes, Proverbs 16, 18, because we're going to talk today about the ugly sweater of pride. Take it off. People don't like you wearing it all your life long. Proverbs 16, 18 says, pride goes before the destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall. How many of you know that's a pretty good thing to memorize right there? Now you say, now pastor, is all pride bad? Well, you know, if I could just kind of clarify, how many know there's a good pride and then there's just a nasty, ugly pride? Okay. Come on. How many know it's good pride to have self-respect of yourself? Okay. To have a sense of dignity about you and the other people. When you have a sense of self-respect, you have a sense of self-respect for other people. You don't berate them because of their body shape or their body size or their color or their socioeconomic level. When you have a sense of respecting yourself, it's a pride that I'm a creation made in the image of God and you start viewing other people as the same thing. There's nothing wrong with satisfaction and a job well done. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, I'm going to tell you what I really get. Brenda and I were having this conversation. She said, what is it that you get, that you really, really just get you excited and makes you happy, makes you leap? I said, I love it when I see that I help empower somebody else to become a success. I said, I just love that. I love that I get to have a part of that person's success and what they accomplished. The reason why I think more and more and more what the Holy Spirit's doing in you and me is that we start thanking God for things. Sometimes you take pride in your family, right? You take pride when they're following Jesus and you see them making smart decisions to follow Jesus Christ. You'll love that. Finally, you sit back and say, hey honey, I think we did something right here. They're following God. There's something inside of you that just kind of leaps within you, but it's not something that is for you. It's like when you do your work or you see somebody succeed or you see your kids following God or your

spouse accomplish something. It's this thing. It's like, Father, the reason I want to do this is I want to make you smile. The reason I want to do my best, Father, is I just want to please you. I want to get a cheesy grin on your face, God. Sam just did what I wanted done. That's what gets me stoked. When I see other people doing that, there's a sense of pride in my family doing that. The Apostle Paul did that. There's nothing wrong with a good pride. The Apostle Paul repeatedly told the early New Testament church how proud he was of them in God. He was proud of them because they were grown in Jesus. He was proud of the body of believers growing in Jesus Christ and overcoming sin and overcoming persecution and trials. He was proud of how they followed Jesus Christ. Don't think bad of me, but like the Apostle Paul, I'm proud of y'all. I get proud of this church. I love it when other people talk about the way this church behaves and what you do and the things at workplaces and people that are from this church and how they influence. I get proud of you. I'm not being jealous or boastful. I'm just proud when you behave like Jesus. It's just a really great thing. How many think Grand Rapids First is a place we can be proud of because we just want to follow him? Amen? There's nothing wrong with that. But there is a pride that is so nasty and ugly and it's a self-centered pride. It's a stubborn pride that won't let go of things when God says let go. It's a pride that holds the grudge and the bitterness and what happens is you start getting judgmental of other people instead of looking into yourself. You start, let me judge my attitude and let me judge the way I'm behaving instead of always, you know, you can't trust that person. It's a judgmental spirit. It's a proud spirit when you gossip to somebody and you don't have the guts to go to someone who has the power to actually change it so you go to people who can't so you can skew them to you and the way you want them to perceive you. How am I preaching? Quiet, it's quiet, it's quiet, it's quiet. Folks don't talk much during surgery but it's quiet. It's a pride that won't let you admit when you're wrong to say to your children I'm sorry dad was wrong. To say to your spouse I'm sorry I shouldn't have responded that way. To say I'm sorry to your husband when you say I'm sorry I didn't mean to make that a disrespect. I didn't see it. I'm so sorry. See pride will not allow a person because it's ego driven, ego, EGO and I like what one preacher said. He said EGO stands for edging God out. It edges God out a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more till my agenda and my purpose and and honestly the reason why I want to deal with pride this

first one is because it affected the Christmas story and pride is rooted in every single sin you or I have ever done. Pride has been at the center of it. I become a proud person, a selfish, stubborn, grudge-holding, judgmental, gossiping, won't admit it pride and it is at the root of every sin. In fact I'm going to tell you the worst sin in the Bible is not somebody in here committing adultery. So if you're trying to size up your sin and say well I'm committing adultery that's not the worst sin in my opinion. Well somebody murdered somebody that's not the worst sin. Let me tell you what the worst sin is. The worst sin is pride because it is the root of everything that now births out of that. That's the reason why you see God talking so strong on this in Proverbs 8 3 13. He says this to fear the Lord is to hate evil. Now say the next two words with me. I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior, and perverse speech and the reason why this is so important is Jesus came into this world to destroy sin but sin is always wrapped in pride. And one of the players that you see in this trying to stop the one who was going to break the curse of sin off of you and me and humanity was a man by the name of King Herod who wore the ugly sweater of pride to kill and destroy the very one that would unwrap us from our sin, unwrap us from our pride, and bring us in deliverance and put on robes of righteousness pure white and perfected before Jesus Christ. Let's look at the story Matthew chapter 2. Let's go there just for a moment. The beginning of the Christmas story Matthew 2 1 says Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from the eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem saying where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose and we have come to do what everybody? To do what everybody? Everybody home to do what? Worship him. King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this as was everyone in Jerusalem. Who's the everyone? First it was the political elites that wanted control over people and that was King Herod because he wanted to be worshiped and it was the religious elites that now wanted really the worship as well and the Bible says they were disturbed by this. Your worship of Jesus ought to disturb Satan and disturb the people around you. So if you think I'm a little too gregarious, if you think I need to calm down, I'm not going to calm down. I'm going to do like David. He said you think I've embarrassed myself? Watch me embarrass myself more in front of God. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm just going to worship him. How many know this is a free place? Because we know our worship antagonizes Satan because he really wants it. He really wants it. He's not going to get it. Not going to get it. But it says he had disturbed. That's, that's, that's some real

politically correct language in the Bible. Disturbed. No, no, no. This guy was beyond, Herod was beyond crazy. Herod made crazy look calm. This guy was so full of demons, he actually became a real nut job. Wanted power so hungry. I mean, listen, this guy gave a whole new meaning. a fruitcake, I promise you. He changed it. This guy was so demented, full of demons, and I'm going to tell you what started with was pride. Simple pride. Simple pride. Some of you, if you study, this is all true. This is absolutely accurate. So you go ask AI if you want. This guy was an absolute madman, a sadistic killer, trying to control God's people and even using and manipulating the religious elite of that day. They didn't want Jesus either. I mean, this guy, he had 10, they believe he had 10 to 11 wives, okay? And he suspected the only, he suspected one of the wives, which he loved the most of her own ambition, so he went and had her executed. That is no lie. That's absolutely truth. He loved her, but he executed her. He had, listen, he had his mother-in-law executed. Don't nod your head, sir. He had two of his brother-in-laws executed. Two of his own sons of his favorite wife. He had them executed because he was so concerned that somebody's going to take his power. Even Caesar himself, who knew that the Jews refused and abhorred pork, even Caesar himself says it would be better to be Herod's pig than to be his own son. When the world even saw that of this Jewish leader. And on Herod's death, do you know what he went and did? He had put in his will that a certain number of prominent Israelites would be killed and murdered within Israel in order that there would be weeping when he died. He wanted to make sure that someone was crying and lamenting his loss, even if it meant killing and destroying them. That is absolutely accurate what he did. This man was beyond disturbed. He was demon possessed. And let me tell you where it all started. It started when he wanted to be worshiped. And we're going to circle back around that. Because here come wise men and the wise men are coming to seek him. They're coming to worship him. They're on a seek and worship mission. But when Herod hears about Jesus, it's not seek and worship, it's seek and destroy mission. So much so, look what God told the wise men and told Joseph. Look at this, Matthew chapter 2 verse 13. You go read the whole story. It's just the story of how pride fits in. It's so ugly. It births sin and just leads people to the weirdest things in their life. Look at verse 13. He says, after the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph. Now God's already told the wise men, you guys hightailed

another way. Do not tell him where this child is. He appeared before Joseph in a dream. He said, get up, flee to Egypt with the child and his mother. The angel said, stay there until I tell you to return because Herod is going to search for your child, your son. He's going to kill him. In fact, he was so bent on this trying to find Christ's child that he had boys, little boys, two years of age and younger in Bethlehem killed because he was trying to destroy the one who they came to worship. Do you see the power of pride and how destructive and why God hates pride and arrogance because of what it leads to? Here's the issue with pride. I'm going to give you just two things and then I'm going to show you the cure for it. First of all, pride competes. It's competing. Not a good pride. I'm talking about the pride of I won't admit when I'm wrong. I don't like when people get ahead of me on the job. I don't like it when I'm not the one that gets the accolades. Pride competes because pride competes with God himself. It competes with God when selfish pride gets in my way. Look what Herod said to the wise men in Matthew 2.8. He said, then he told them, go to Bethlehem. Search carefully for the child. When you find him, come back and tell me so that I can worship him too. Check our driver's license. See if we were born yesterday. He had no intention of worshiping. Where did he get this? Where was he so obsessed that he would murder his wife? He'd murder his mother-in-law. He'd murder anybody that got in his way. He'd murder his own sons, his favorite wife. Some of you are going, this is a demented guy. This guy is really messed up. How did it get to this place? Pride. Where did he get that? I'll show you where he got it. It's from the author of sin and pride himself because that's exactly what destroyed an angel of light by the name of Lucifer was pride. He dwelled in the very presence of the holy God. Look what it says. He wanted to be worshiped. It's really what he wanted. He wanted to be God. I want to be worshiped. Watch this. Isaiah 14, 13. Look what it said. God said to him, you said in your heart, speaking to Lucifer, Satan. Himself you said in your heart you said it in your heart I Will Ascend to the heaven. I Look how many times underlining your and your notes. Okay, I will raise my throne above the stars of God I

Will sit enthroned on the mount of the assembly on the upmost heights of the sacred mountain I will ascend above the tops of the clouds I will make myself like the most high two verses. He's mentioned himself seven times Seven times I'm gonna go higher. I'm gonna go higher It's going up the ladder don't care who have to go over in the corporate room. I don't care who I have to walk over I don't care who I got to destroy or sit there and make their character look bad I'm gonna just go as high and higher and higher I go But I will show you that God sees every bit of her from loose for himself to the lowest person on the earth He sees it because pride never takes you up pride only takes you one way and it is always down Because the next verse says but you are brought down to the grave to the depths of the pit. I Want to be God I want to be justified. I I I I Now here's the question King Herod was sitting on the throne of his life. So what he did basically was I run my own show Nobody tells me what to do No one's gonna tell me how to run my life. I don't want to listen to any authority. I don't want to listen to God I want to get out of this service as fast as I can and My life and my desires. It's private. It's mine. I do what I want because I'm the most important Let me ask you a question Are there some I'm doing the King Herod things in your life That maybe I may not have said but the Holy Spirit is zeroing in and say is This really about you and what people's perception is of you or getting your way Is there a King Herod moment happening maybe in your marriage right now or in the workplace or even in this church? Is there a King Herod moment right now in your youth group and in In your high school and among among your group of people that I've got to do my thing Listen, that's when we that's when we are more like Satan and more like King Herod than we think When I want what I want I don't care what I have to go over and sometimes all you got to do is just look back at life and look how many relationships you've burnt through and And They were all the devil

They were all Satan How many relationships I've burned through how many friendships I've burnt through how many jobs and it's always that last Implorer that's always the problem. How many jobs have you maybe burnt through? How many churches have you been to and been to and been to and finally you found the spiritual one? Well, I'll tell you give me about three weeks and I'll mess you up Because your chances of getting your feelings hurt in this church is a hundred percent Hundred percent I Like being a realistic honest pastor about it Someone is going to tick you off and say that is the ugliest letter ever seen you're going. This is my favorite It's gonna happen but you got to ask yourself that I have to ask myself as a pastor What is the motive behind what you really want to do? What is the motive behind what you really want to do? Why do you want to see this area of ministry success? Why does it have to be this way? You've got to ask yourself the question even in the things that look spiritual. I want to go worship him, too Well, I really want God to be glorified But is it really that maybe you're afraid your child will shame you if people find out what they're really dealing with Or is it about God Help me to show my son and daughter how to glorify you. Let me live it Jesus Just let me live it and quit worrying about them. Oh Jesus The three of us will all go have a little prayer meeting over here in a minute Talk about all these other people that need to get right with God, right? Yeah The why why is this why is this so important because it not only is the root of sin But pride not only competes with God but then pride closes Pride closes our hearts toward God. In fact, what actually happens is it closes off revelation to us? It closes off us us discerning the path for our marriages our family our churches our nations our cities our neighborhoods our schools It closes it closes off our mind when pride begins to come in pride closes our heart I mean look at these religious leaders. They were the most well-taught well-versed in the scripture of the time of Christ and they knew scripture but when Jesus appears to him he's raising dead people he's driving out demons and they still

don't see it they're crying out for Messiah but when Messiah looks in front of them they don't even recognize him this is what's so dangerous you can come to know about God with ever coming to know him personally I have met countless individuals that can quote me scripture but are so far away in the relationship of knowing him see there comes a time I want you to be educated in the scripture but your education and your encounter with Jesus Christ both need to occur you just can't have experience but no education you can't just have education and no experience you need to intersect those two we're saying God this truth is what liberates me to know you more and now that I'm experiencing this God it says that your word is actually true how many of you believe we need to open our eyes because pride closes our hearts to revelation the discernment of the future they couldn't even see Jesus it closes them what pride actually does is pride keeps us unteachable and it keeps us unmovable so if we're not learning if we don't get revelation then we're unteachable and we're unmovable so we get stuck in a rut everybody else is the one that always offends it's always those people over there they always have and I always have not it's those people over there what does pride keeps us stuck in a rut so the question I have to ask your pastor himself and ask you is am I stuck in a rut somewhere because pride keeps me from asking for help or admitting that I am wrong and I need help that's what pride does it closes off God it closes off relationships it closes off getting freedom it closes it off like maybe this morning or you're watching online and your marriage is at a conflict and maybe it's one of the reasons why you don't want to come to church because it'll be addressed it will be challenged for God to help bring health and healing to you is it pride keeping you from letting us know that you need a marriage mentor in your life that I can fix this if I can just make a little bit more money if I can just get my kids what they want they'll like me if I can just if I can just turn the next sale can't you see what I'm providing for all of y'all and that's basically King Herod talk I'm God don't you see what I brought to the dinner table and the house and home and what I provide don't you see the meals I cook

and don't you see the clothes but pride would keep you away from a marriage mentor and just stay quiet because pride will keep you there it keeps you in a rut you can be going through financial problems that I just don't understand why we keep going broke I don't understand what you know pride would keep you from calling say do you have somebody that can help me work a budget here at the church and learn how to steward my money and my time and evaluate my budget to make sure I'm making wise decisions but it keeps you from going to a financial planner pride keeps you from going to a person saying hey listen I don't know what I did but what you did offended me and I just want you to know that whatever I did I'm sorry and I release you and I forgive you pride keeps you from that doesn't it keeps you in a rut relationship after relationship how many altar calls have been given maybe for being healed or asking for deliverance and freedom from something that Satan has a vice on you but we can't go we can't go to that altar he asked for people that are new converts people that never been saved I have been in this church for 57 years I'm not gonna go down to think that I'm lost and pride keeps you from coming to an altar for God to minister to you when people pray for you there are folks some of you are living in addiction some of you were saying I'm gonna get over this addiction I've done it once before you know you're back in it again I get rid of this addiction I get rid of the porn I can get rid of this habit that's destroying my body but but how about this how about letting pride not put you in a rut but letting humility liberates you and this January we're starting living restored again it's gonna be folks that'll help you walk right in there walk right in there with a smiling face and help you walk out every deliverance and every freedom in your life to live a life totally restored by the power of Jesus Christ see what happens is is that pride closes us off from freedom from relationships from God that's why Proverbs 11 to says when pride comes then disgrace then comes disgrace but with what everybody let's say the word with with humility comes what the wisdom of God the path and the strategy of how to get free how to be liberated from things but pride puts us

in a We can't get our marriages free. We can't overcome addictions We can't overcome our financial problems because pride says I want to do what I want to do It's the King Herod thing. It's a really ugly sweater So, how do we conquer this pride pastor pride can be conquered and the way that it's conquered is pride is conquered through humility Humility it just opens the door. You said well, give me something practical. How can I how can I do something right now? Here's what you want to do It'll help you Humility to serve Just start serving somebody Without expecting a pat on the back Boy we couldn't have made it without you I Know that's what you want to hear and how many know we're the kind of culture We want to say thank you and show gratitude all the time There's you should be in a you should be in a culture that loves to do that in the first place just simply because they're Grateful what God's given, right? But look at this Humility to serve actually liberates you let's go to Philippians 2 3 and we're gonna come in for a landing here Philippians 2 3 It says don't be selfish. So I underlined all the good parts for me Okay, so you underlined the good parts for you. Don't be selfish Don't try to impress others Be humble be humble Thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don't look out only for your own interest So God's not saying to ignore you, but he said just don't look out for your own interest But take interest in others, too You must have the same

Attitude that Christ Jesus had though. He was what everybody Jesus was God. He said though. Jesus was God. He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to instead He gave up his divine privileges He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being When he appeared in human form, I have a question. How many want to get healthy? How many really I mean, how many you have this goal? You want to be healthy and stay healthy just you really want to be stay healthy seriously So you want to stay healthy good. Can I tell you that serving is one of the greatest ways that you can stay healthy? This is actually there's science to this psychology today did this article called the helpers high and In this in their study, they saw that when people were either giving or serving No strings attached wanting to help people serve others and give generosity Endorphins would rush through their body rush through their brain while they were giving or while they were serving So who wants to get stoned today? You sit there trying to get it from your cognac You want to get high You want it you want you want to get high Start thinking of other people and start serving them Go back there and go pull a tag off that tree and go help somebody And say what can I do and he gets high in fact in that in the in that study They found that serving reduced depression. Some of you say pastor. I'm just going to depression. I'm going through grief I don't ignore the depression or the feelings of it or even the feelings of grief. They're very real They're there but can I tell you there's another thing that you can put in there with it It's called serving and what extra happens is is people who begin to serve depression reduced Significantly inside them especially through the holiday seasons while you're going through loss or pain or grief or a loss of a job Start serving other people and watch God release the endorphins in your body that makes you healthy In fact, they said that the people who serve and give actually live longer and lived healthier lives Who wants to live long who wants to live healthy? Come on, humble yourself and serve and be generous to other people

Amen be a hero be a hero. Well, I have nothing to give I don't have money. Well, I have solved your problem Go sign up and be a hero download that hero app We got things that we have over in the pod that you can be a hero go find a neighbor Just go there say hey, I was thinking of you one to wish you a Merry Christmas And if you ever need anything, here's my cell phone number. You need prayer. Here's see it's not easy This is not rocket science The way that you crush pride is Just simply be a servant like Jesus Christ had that attitude with no strings attached You don't need the thank you. I Just want to I want to have the attitude of Jesus is my goal Here's the last one Just the humility to surrender let's go on the next verse of that passage oh this is so good when he appeared in human form and look what the rest of it says he had the humility to surrender it looks as if he humbled himself we say those three words with me say that he humbled himself are everybody even way up there in the back let's say together he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross therefore so if you ever see a therefore you got to ask why is it therefore why do I need to serve like Jesus with attitude why do I need to surrender myself in humility to the will of God why do I need to be submitted to God's will when you do that here's what happens God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him a name above all other names that at the name of Jesus every knee every demon every sickness every disease every lie will bow in heaven and on earth and under and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father I know it sounds backward it's an inside-out upside-down Kingdom but when you come to humble yourself to serve and humble yourself to surrender God is the one that raises you up that's why I love what James 4 10 says it says he humbled what it is what did it say Jesus did he humbled what himself so I love what James 4 10 says humble yourself Sam before the Lord and then he starts raising you to levels you never

dreamed places of freedom relationships being whole freedom and deliverance to your life but but but but is there is there something saying oh no no no no don't respond to this today no no no no no no no no your boyfriends your boyfriends with you no no no no see I've been humiliated many times by other people some didn't mean to do it on purpose some people did it on purpose I've been humiliated how many have ever been humiliated can't control that people will humiliate you but there's nobody else that can humble Sam Ryfkovo but Sam Ryfkovo you can be humiliated but when it comes to humbling it says Jesus humbled himself James says you want to go up then this is not something God does this is something you and I have to do you have to say God here I am I am lost without you this sin will destroy my life this addiction will destroy who I am this attitude will destroy our marriage this constant bitterness toward my parents this constant bitterness I have toward this certain group of individuals or people God would you teach me how to humble myself and actually serve and surrender myself to you PC we don't like that word in this country we don't like the word submission we're Independence Day we love freedom we celebrate it but the word submission is not a bad word what it really it means to go under it means to go under think of a submarine to go under so what I'm saying to God is is God is wanting me to say Sam would you not put you yourself up here at the top doesn't matter what people have to think whether they say that it's nice when somebody says something nice but you don't have to have it and you don't need to blow your own whistle yeah just remember when that whale surfaces right after he blows then he gets harpooned you don't need to be the one to promote you but bring yourself and bring yourself Jesus I submarine underneath you to bring your mission in my life up and when he goes up guess what because you're under him you go right along with him and he brings you up submit yourself to him so what is it God wants you to

take off so how about we take off the ugly sweater of pride and let's put on the beautiful sweater of Christ attitude which is humility to serve its owner amen church i love that don't you i love that i love that