SIGNAL CHURCH CAPE TOWN
Nathi Mbuyazi:- Jesus: Jesus' Humility Pt.25
(audience applauds) - Good morning. So, on our last Sunday, well, it wasn't our last Sunday, but when we were officially prayed for here, some of you made a note that I didn't say anything. My wife kind of hoarded the mic and I let her, because I knew this day would come, where I'll be the one with the mic. So, I'm back to say a few words, but I'm sure they will not be the last words you hear of me. I think part of the reason I didn't say anything is because I knew our journey is connected in one way or the other. So, saying goodbye was not a real goodbye in a way, but it's good to be back here. It feels like we haven't left. (audience laughs) But this is the thing about communities that are authentically following Jesus, because we left here to a community that's also authentically about Jesus, and so we come back here, it's the same Jesus, and so it's just incredible. And that's what we're talking about this morning, Jesus, and the attributes that make Jesus so special and so different, and that make it so interesting that one can move from one community to another, that looks very differently from the one, and yet feel like they're with the same people. Isn't that amazing? Anyways, I love telling stories. I don't know if this is a story or what, let me see, where is my daughter? I'm not gonna do it. She's gonna run. My wife is saying I'm innocent. Anyway, she was teaching me some, she was teaching me some new lingo yesterday. Wait, let me see, she's not here. And then she was teaching me some gen, what is it, gen Z lingo, I said I'm not gonna say, I'm not gonna say the word, because she's offering right now to pay me whatever amount I want for me never to use that word again. (audience laughs) And she doesn't even know why she trusted me with such. But anyways, she was teaching me how this new generation talks and speaks, and so I've been just annoying at every moment and saying, so I wish she was here as well, because she will be cringing right now. This is purely just for her. (audience laughs) But anyways, last Sunday, something about me. Last Sunday, we had such a wonderful service at World Spring community church, which is where we are now, where we are pastoring. And for the first time in the six weeks that we've been with them, worship was just incredibly amazing. We just felt the presence of Jesus. It was really, really incredible. So it was such a special service. Like tears were flowing out of my eyes, and it was just incredible. So afterwards, I send a message to the leadership team, and I say to them, wow, what an amazing service. And Jesus just came into the room, and it was just incredible. Do you guys often have worship like that? Of course, it was my first experience like that in the six weeks that I've been there. And let me tell you, the answer I was hoping for was a no. And so that I could say, yeah, now I'm here. Brod Jesus with me. But no, the answer was, it's fairly normal for us to have something like that. (audience laughs) It's probably because we've gotten over the excitement of a new pastor, and now we're worshiping for real. And that kind of chipped away from some of my pride. And I was hoping that I was gonna be the center of the reason why Jesus came into the room the way he came. But anyways, that story you might wonder, why is he telling us this? It's got everything to do with this morning's message. And I'm just gonna dive into it because we don't have that much time. I sent many my power points last night, and I said it's not much, it's just scriptures. Because I don't even have notes in front of me, I only have scripture. But today we are looking at Jesus' humility. Give it up for Taren for always giving me the easiest topics to come and do. Looking at Jesus' humility, and when I saw it, and normally what Taren does, he also sends you notes to kind of help you prepare. And before I open the document, I was hoping that the main scripture is gonna be Philippians two. And voila, it was Philippians two. Because if he had given me something else other than Philippians two, I would have still gone to Philippians two, and not just, and not listen to him at all. But so I'm glad, I'm glad Taren and I, are of one mind this morning, wherever he is. And I'm just gonna read it, and it's up here. Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain consent. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves. Not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of the others. If your relationships with one another have the same mindset as Christ, or in your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Amen. - We are looking at Jesus. Of course, this is part of the series on Jesus that as signal church, we, I can still say we, have been on, and when the year started, we had purposed that this was the one series we were gonna do in the year, but then at some point we felt, okay, let's take a break from Jesus, but now we are back on to Jesus. And we are looking at different aspects of Jesus. We've looked at his humility, it is humanity, we've looked at his baptism, we've looked at some, at different aspects, and there are many others that we will still look at, but today we are looking at his humility, and I wanted to, I was thinking about it, I think apart from just talking about Jesus' humility, kind of separate from us, I wanna make it applicable to us as a church, and I wanna make it applicable not just to this one church, I wanna make it applicable to the church as the body of Christ at large, okay, because this message I believe is for the body of Christ. This message gives some answers to what we've been longing for as the people of God. As the people of God I believe we are longing for, that thing that makes us unique in the world. We are longing for miracles, we are longing for true transformation, we are longing for true change. I happen to work with a lot of praying people in my other role as leader of 24/7 prayer here in South Africa, and I know we are longing for answered prayer. - You know, just last Sunday at World Spring, the person who was bringing the word, her name is Justin Benz, she is herself going through something that we are trusting God and we are hoping God will answer our prayers in her life, in her body, as she's going through chemo, she's got cancer, and we've been praying for her as the community to be healed. And not just her, her own mother is also going through chemo at the same time as her mother and daughter. And so we are trusting to see answered prayer, we are trusting for a miracle. And I know that there are people within this church community listening to me right now, and do you are trusting God for a miracle? There is a situation where you're trusting God for a miracle. And I'm asking, whatever happened to miracles in the body of Christ, where are they? Where are they? And so we want something that there is something that we are trusting, but we realize that church used to be this way, even for I, not as old as I could be, I can tell you that church today is different than what church or meetings or Christian meetings used to be in the 80s. And if you are a little bit older than me, you say, oh no, wait until you go back to the 70s. The stuff that was happening in the 70s was incredible. But I can tell you now that there is a lot that we have lost as a church. Yes, we are still gathering together, we are still worshiping. And we can say six weeks after going to Sunday meetings, like I said last Sunday, and be wowed and awed by the presence of God as if it's for the first time. And you've been going to the same place for six weeks, and you're like, is this the, is it always like this? Is it the first time you guys are experiencing it like this? It should be a daily experience. That Jesus is with us, is amongst us, lives with us. What is it then? What is missing? So here's Paul here, he opens up, he says, therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit, and of one mind, do nothing out of selfish. Okay, I'm gonna, let me not read all of it. Let me jump to verse nine. Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every name should bow in heaven and on earth, under the earth, and every tongue acknowledged that Jesus Christ is Lord, the glory of, to the glory of God, the Father. There is the miracle that we are looking for. We are longing for every need to bow at the name of Jesus. We are longing for the possibility and the ability to pray in the name of Jesus and see real change and see real transformation. But what is the key to that? It's humility. The key to that is found in the humility of Jesus Christ. Even for Jesus himself, there are things that he could not access until he had truly and fully humbled himself before God. In, I think it's one Peter chapter two, where it says, "Humble yourself, therefore, "under God's mighty hand, and in due time, "he will lift you up." You are longing for miracles amongst you. You are longing for miracles in your midst. You are longing for miracles in your city. You are longing for miracles in your nation. Humble yourself under God's mighty hand and let him work miracles amongst you. Let him do the thing that you are trusting him to do. Jesus' longing was you. Jesus longed for you. So his humility brought him, his reward was you and I. Was you and I. Every knee should bow and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord. His longing was for you and I. And what he got was you and I. Chet, what are you longing for this morning? And the way to that is through the kind of humility that we see in Jesus Christ. For Paul in these opening verses, he highlights and one of the Bible commentators kind of juxtaposes this because it says there, therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united in Christ. It's kind of like he's writing and he's saying, he's supposing that you are already united in Christ. But one Bible commentator asked a question, puts it up on his head and says, are you looking for unity in Christ? Are you looking for comfort from his love? Are you looking for the common sharing communion in the spirit? Is tenderness and compassion what you are looking for? Then let me tell you, here is the way. Here is the way to unity in Christ. Here is the way to comfort in Christ's love. Here is the way to the common sharing in the spirit. Here is the way to tenderness and compassion. Chet, what would you love to add to that list? As a family, as a married couple, as a single individual, as a professional, as a leader in the workplace. What would you like to add to that list? What are you looking for? Because here is the way. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to his own advantage. And rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness. Jesus emptied himself, he gave of himself. And he's saying he didn't just do that in a vacuum. He is saying in your relationships with one another, do this. Are we doing this in our relationships with one another? When last did you do something for a friend? That really that cost you everything. I mean everything. When last did you do that? This is a dangerous message I'm preaching because it's vastly impossible to do the kind of things I'm talking about. How do you do something for someone that costs you everything? And what is everything? Define everything. You know, I remember, you know, we always remember the good old days, right? I remember in the early 2000s, in fact it was the late 90s, friends of ours, a couple, they're actually, they happen to be here in Cape Town now. They still live a life of passionate faith that just doesn't make sense to me either. And here I am making an example about them, a good example. Because the things that we're talking about, that I'm talking about now, that we are reading about, are really impossible, they don't make sense. We were young students and they had bought this car. An old, it was an old city golf. And I remember before they bought their next car, they decided to give this car away to someone else. And they were, at the time, yeah, it was even before they were moving to job it. By the time they moved to job it, they gave their second car before they moved to job it. Their first car, they give it away, just like that. They give it to someone. And I remember just scratching my head, I'm like, guys, you need a car. You've just got it married. You work all over the city and you've just given the one thing that you need. And to them, they were leaving this lifestyle of they saw someone who needed the car more than they needed the car. And so they gave them the car. They did something that cost them everything for them. That was their everything. - Wow. - Three years later, they're about to move to Johannesburg and start new jobs. And they were gonna work, I mean, Johannesburg people, you know how you drive to get to your workplace. You drive far and wide. Before they moved to Johannesburg, again, before they buy a car in Johannesburg, they give away their second car to someone else who needed a car. She was a single lady and she used to have to, you know, travel back home at night and use taxes and there had been a few incidents of safety. And so she was just unsafe and they were like, "You know what, this is our sister. "We're gonna give her a car." And this was not their biological sister, by the way. They gave her their second car and then they moved to Johannesburg, a city where you need a car. They moved there without a car. And I've watched over the years, God just miraculously care for them. I've watched over the years, just miracle after miracle story that they share. I've watched over the years the miraculous joy that they carry. I mean, they could be in the hardest of situations, but they are just laughing and it's actually irritating to me sometimes. How they just laugh at everything. But that's what some two talks about. God loves it, you know, at, is it, you know, it's probably 31, where she loves at, what is it, at, yes. But also some two talks about that, about God, how he loves at danger as well. But this is the kind of attribute that you're not gonna be able to live like that unless your life is not attached to, attached to things that you shouldn't be attached to. When last did you do this? Empty yourself and give of yourself completely to your neighbor, to your friend, to a family member, to a fellow follower of Christ. Jesus gave everything. And in the message translation, you don't have time to go into it, but I put it on the slide as well. He says so much so that he even died a human, even in death, it was a humiliating death, the death of a criminal. So he went down to the lowest of lows and then God exalted him to the highest place. Maybe this morning we are saying, but Nachi, come on, you know, this does not mean it that literally. Can we go to Acts chapter two together this morning? Acts chapter two, and I'm gonna read it from the Passion translation. You can read from whatever translation you've got in front of you. He is a church that just, I'm jealous for this church. I wanna be this church. I wanna be part of this church. From verse 42, he says, "Every believer was faithfully devoted to following the teachings of the apostles. Their hearts were mutually linked to one another, sharing communion and coming together regularly for prayer." How did Paul open up in Philippians chapter two? If any encouragement, if any sharing, common sharing in the spirit, if any compassion. So here they are doing the things that Paul is talking about. And then guess what next they do? After coming together mutually and sharing in communion in the spirit and coming together to pray, a deep sense of holy all. Swept over everyone. And the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. All the believers were in fellowship as one body. And this is what the believers were doing. They shared with one another whatever they had, whatever they had. Out of generosity, they even sold their assets to distribute the proceeds to those who were in need among them. Daily they met together in the temple courts and in one another's homes to celebrate communion. They shed meals together with joyful hearts and tender humility. They were continually filled with praises to God, enjoying the favor of all the people and the Lord kept adding to their number. Daily those who were coming to life. Out of generosity, they even sold their assets to distribute the proceeds to those who were in need among them. This is the template that you and I are building upon. We call ourselves the church. This is the church and the first church recorded in scripture. This is how they lived. Out of generosity, they went further. First, they shared with one another whatever they had. And they went even further out of generosity. They even sold their assets to distribute the proceeds to those who were in need among them. Guys, the kind of church that we are longing for. The way there is going to cost us and it's going to cost us everything. Everything that we have. Everything that we have, not just everything that we have to share, but everything that we have even beyond. [ Pause ] I can appreciate how exhausting it is to talk about physical things. Like things that we own, cars, bank accounts, assets. But I think for us right now where it's going to start is us just, we've even forgotten just sharing our hearts with each other. Just being open and bringing just our hearts to the light of the spirit. In communion with each other. That's where it starts, you know? That's where it starts not protecting, not being overly protective of ourselves, but just sharing as families. Find a family in either nightclub where, and I know I'm guilty of this. I mean, I was in their nightclub for a while. And a few months ago they had something that had been happening in our lives for the first time almost a year after it had been happening. And why was that? Because I was just like, we were too careful about our hearts to bring them out, to share them completely with one another. And it wasn't until we opened ourselves up to open the box and bring it to the light and share it with someone else that we experience and miracle in our lives in that particular area. Does that make sense? What I'm saying? The invitation here is don't think too highly of yourself. In fact, that's how the message translation and the passion translation post it. Don't think too highly of yourself, humble yourself. In community, share your life. In community, share your life. We often think that some incredible thing must happen before a big miracle is experienced. And I'm here to tell you, that's not true. What is true is just the simplicity of just humbling yourself, not thinking of yourself too highly, taking the lowest of lows. By just taking that vulnerable step off, this is what's happening in my life right now. Whatever it might be. I'm not saying get up here and share someone. There are things that are appropriate to share, there are things that are not appropriate to share, but everything has got an appropriate place to share it. You can't hide behind, but this will not be appropriate for me to share. For me to talk about, there is an appropriate place for you to share your life, to bring your life to the light. I'm currently doing a spiritual direction course. And that's all we talk about. How to help people bring their life under the light of the Spirit. And that's all it takes. From the early hundreds, people have been writing about spiritual formation, and all they are writing about is how to help people to come out from darkness into the light. And that's where all of a sudden burdens are lifted. That's where all of a sudden sicknesses are healed. That's where all of a sudden needs are provided for. You can go and send your house right now upon a hill and give off all the proceeds, but if the change has not happened in your heart, if you have not given your heart away, you will still not be free. The invitation here is for us to give our hearts, to give of ourselves. Jesus gave off himself. Jesus came into this world with no mention. He came into this world with no asset. He came into this world with nothing, and he was born into a family that had nothing much to write home about, and yet he gave everything. And things happened because of that. Miracles were performed by Jesus Christ. And he left that kind of life for us, written out in Scripture as a template to say, "You want to live that kind of life? You want to transform the world? Be the kind of person that I had to become in order for you to become the person that I eventually became, and to do the things that I did in the world." It doesn't end there. Let's go to Acts chapter 11. I'm going to read from verse 20. I'm still on the passion translation. It's the same story, even whatever translation you've got in front of you. However, here's another church kind of formation. However, some of the believers from Cyprus and Cyrene who had come to Antioch in Syria pushed to the non-Jews, leaving the proclaiming the message of salvation in the Lord Jesus. The mighty power of the Lord was with them as they ministered, and a large number of people believed and turned their hearts to the Lord. Let me tell you, people will come when the story begins spreading of what's happening here at Signal. People will come to see for themselves. What's happening? We hear people with serious life problems. People get healed there. We hear true transformation, true change is happening. What's happening? It reminds me of the kind of revival meeting where I, myself, gave my life to the Lord, where I, myself, believed for the first time. As a young boy, I was probably eight or nine years old. I remember standing in this tent meeting. It was a large tent meeting filling up the whole playground, soccer field. It was, it was by this missionaries who had come to South Africa in the 80s. This was probably 1988 or so. Jesus for Africa. And I signed a school teacher who was taking me to these meetings every night. They happened for two weeks. But I remember every night standing there and seeing real transformation on stage. Seeing people throwing away their crutches. Like kids that I was growing up with, going to school with, who were crippled, seeing them being healed right in front of my eyes. And going to school with them the next day and someone who was on crutches the day before the next day walking normally. And I remember going, man, I want that for me too. And so I raised my hand. I said, I want this. That's the kind of environment where I got saved, as we call it. I gave my life to the Lord. When news about this starts spreading, people will come. People will come. It's Jesus that will attract people to a place like that. It's our programs. It's not our coffee. It's not our, it's miracles. Real transformation, real change, real life. The mighty power of the Lord was with them as they ministered. And a large number of people believed and sent their hearts to the Lord. They have no choice but to just turn their hearts to the Lord. Because they can see, this is attractive, they want it for themselves. News of what was happening in Antioch reached the church of Jerusalem. So the apostles sent Panapas to Antioch as their emissaries. When he got there and witnessed for himself, God's marvelous grace. And he witnessed for himself, God's marvelous grace. He was enthused and overjoyed. He encouraged the believers to remain faithful and cling to the Lord Jesus with passionate hearts. Now that church we read about in Acts chapter 2, he has often used of what's happening in that other church in Antioch. And they sent someone from this church who has known and lent what it is that makes them work as a church. They sent them there to do what, to go and see and also to teach them to live in this way. The way of Jesus. And he gets there and he's like wow, he's overjoyed, he's enthused by what he sees. And he encourages them to cling to the Lord, to keep on clinging to the Lord with passionate hearts. But then he realizes that is not going to be enough. He sees this and he's like but this is not going to be enough. Though people are coming and he's come from the original church and he's now here and miracles are happening and more people are added to the Lord. Butapas says no, no, no, no. This is not just going to take the gift and power of the Holy Spirit. I want, I don't want this thing to just be a passing wave. But I want this thing to be the norm in this place. I want it to be what these people experience day in day out. I want them to grow old in this, I want them to die in this, I don't want them to just taste. And then leave a life of who I remember the 80s or I remember the 70s. But I want them to live here and make it home. I want them to make a home in this. So what does he do? He goes,apas left for Tassos to find Saul, whom we later know as Paul, who wrote the Philippines chapter 2. And he brought him back to Antioch, together Saul and Panapas minister therefore a full year. I love how it's so specific, they minister for a full year, it took them a full year to change their mindset. Change their mindset to what? To Philippians chapter 2. You want these things, then in your relationships you have to be like Jesus, who being in very nature God. But he did not make that something to be grasped. He emptied himself completely. He shed his whole life, he shed his weaknesses. He shed when he was thirsty, he did not hide that from us. When he was hungry, he didn't hide it from us. When it was difficult for him, when he had questions for God, he didn't hide it from us. When he felt abandoned by God on the cross, he didn't hide it from us and say, what are they going to say? Am I failing? If I say it out loud, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? When he was angry, he didn't hide it from us. Where do we learn to hide these things from one another, from community? Hey, I've got anger issues. Hey, I'm drinking a little bit more wine than I should than I ought to. Hey, whatever it might be. Jesus did not hide it. Jesus did not hide his humanity. So we are called upon not to hide our humanity. That is the way to freedom. Together, Saul and Bonapace minister therefore fully attitching them this way of living, equipping the growing church and teaching the vast number of new converts. When people got convinced of this and they started doing it, it was in Antioch that the followers of Jesus were first revealed as anointed ones. The followers were revealed as anointed ones. Other translations would say "Little Christ" and so the NIV would say "Christians". And you call yourself a Christian? Do you walk around like an anointed one, like a little Christ? You see, Christ was the anointed one because Christ raised people from the dead. He was the anointed one because Christ healed people. Christ performed miracles, miraculous signs were happening all over where Christ was. And so Christ was the anointed ones, the anointed one. So after this believer spent a year learning the way of Christ, those that were watching and looking at them transformed and do all these things, they said, "Wow, these guys, they are like little Christ in the way that they are living." Their lives were mugged by humility, the kind, the Jesus kind of humility. Their lives were mugged by the Jesus kind of generosity. Their lives were mugged by the Jesus kind of giving of themselves. You can read on in Acts chapter 11 and see what they did as one of the first acts as little anointed ones. You can read from verse 27 onwards, we've run out of time, I'm not going to go into it. Let me end off the message this morning by, this message does not require too much, too much more than what I've just shared. Let me end off by, you know, in my new row at Wall Spring, I've been asking myself, "Mandy will be happy, I asked myself, what would Mandy do?" And so I got there and they also have a weekly newsletter, so I thought, what would Mandy do? Okay, Mandy would have an accept in the newsletter from one of the leaders. So one of the leaders writes and Mandy was in the habit of asking me to write for their signal newsletter, so I said, "Okay, there's going to be a word from personality." And the idea is, the word from Costenate is going to grow, it's going to be a word from one of the leaders, as you know, as we grow. But because no one is used to this, I'm using myself as a guinea pig, so I have to write every week for the newsletter. So I want to read you from the newsletter, the World Spring newsletter this week, as my conclusion this morning, because this kind of speaks to what this kind of life calls for. And at World Spring right now, we're going through a series based on Peter Caesarea's book called Emotionally Healthy Discipleship, which again is the kind of spiritual formation that Paul and, sorry, Barnabas and Paul took a whole year, a full year teaching the believers in Antioch about. And then when they began practicing this, they were named Christians for the first time. So I'm reading. Dear, I said, "World Spring community," so I'm reading it to you this morning. Dear Signal community. This week, two things caught my attention. First, a quote by Peter Caesarea saying, "An overscasured life leads to an undernourished life." And secondly, a story that continues to unfold on social media, narrated by one of our own unbrothers. I'm not going to mention his name. I was so moved by the story that I asked him to summarize it as part of this week's newsletter. I pray that as you read it, you will be encouraged to slow down enough to see all that's around you and find joy in doing whatever and however small thing to change the world as we know it. So in his words, he opens up with the scripture Genesis 1, verse 27, "So God created mankind in God's own image. In the image of God he created them, male and female, God created them." This verse was imprinted in my mind this week as I drove back from improv class in town on Tuesday evening. And so an elderly black man with a single crotch standing at the traffic lights with a sigh. But it was the sign that broke me as it read. The sign read like this will take any verbal assault for 20 rounds. I stopped at the nearest garage knowing that I had absolutely, I had to absolutely interrupt the story. And at the very least, remind this man that he is created in God's image. So I bought him something small to eat and drink and went and chatted to him. His name is Victor and his wife Latifa was working the diagonally opposite corner. They have a daughter with Down syndrome and another daughter. In two days, they are going to be kicked out of their house in depth and become homeless. If they cannot pay the 1,200 rounds, they need for rent. I asked Victor if I could pray for him, for the miracle he needs and spoke life to him. Reminding him that he is created in the image of God. As I drove away, I committed to offering my five loaves and two fish. Which is my social media connections and long story short. Within a few hours, I had two commitments to a month's rent and a number of other people offering money. People suggesting NGOs that might be able to help or the road accident fund to claim for his leg and more. Although we have struggled for two days to find Victor to try and pass on the help we have. The point is that communities showed up and largely charged people from all over. And we are hoping to find some long-term solutions than just getting rent paid for a few months. While realizing that creates a bit of a breather so we can hopefully figure things out together. Please pray the following for us to find Victor now that we have some help to offer. Two, for us as a people/community that would adopt a not on our watch commitment. Inspired by this story that refuses to let injustice pass by uninterrupted. Three, that we in whatever sphere we find ourselves would be able to do more than just offer a meal and maybe even challenge systems and structures that feed injustice. And it ends there. And then I conclude by saying this. Finally, I would like to encourage all of us to keep our eyes open for the prompting of God as to when there might be a victor needing you to pause and come alongside and listen and intervene with whatever your gifts and connections may be. This is just a simple how it might look like. From someone's kind of this is an unfolding story happening right now somewhere in the city. So what is Jesus humility speaking to you this morning as signal, as a family, as an individual? Who is God laying in your heart either for you to open yourself up to give of yourself to touch, a life to touch, like a victor? What is it? Is there a need that you've had of that you can do something about, but you have not. You hadn't. You thought maybe let me wait and see. Let me adopt a wait and see kind of attitude. Maybe someone else will come. And this morning we are hearing a prompting that no, you are actually the answer that is needed there. That's how miracles snowball. The snowball effect, it starts from small x of love. And then it grows, it grows before we know it. We've got a huge thing that's happening in our midst. Paul says do me this one favor, be like minded, follow in the way of Jesus. And this is the way of Jesus. He emptied himself. He gave of himself. He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. And in so doing he lost nothing, but he gained even more. He gained you and I. Amen? Can we stand and pray to God? Father God, I know that this is a hard word to hear. And this word is not just calling us or calling people to immediately look at their bank accounts and look at what they own and figure out how to give it. But this word is inviting us to look into our very own hearts and consider how we might give of our hearts to you completely. How we might share our hearts in community completely. And I pray, Father, that you give us the grace that your grace will be hovering over us in this room, Lord God, just leading us gently into that space and into that place of sharing of hearts and lives in the name of Jesus. That our world will not be the same, our lives will be transformed because we shared our lives together. Amen. - Sure.