Andy Stanley - Chasing Humility
So I wanna begin today with something that's common to all of us. This is actually something that we all, and this is gonna be kind of a strange way to start, something that we all have in common, not just with each other. This is something we all have in common with God, and we don't have much in common with God, but this is one thing that we all have in common with God. And if you don't believe in God, you might be shocked that Christians believe this is true of God because in your experience with Christians, maybe you don't necessarily think this is true of us, but this is true of all of us, whether you believe in God or not.
So this is something we all have in common with each other and with God. "God resists the proud". I just thought I would get a response. I mean, isn't that true? I mean, the proud or like the arrogant people, the people who are never wrong. I mean, they're never wrong. No matter what you say and how you confront 'em, they're never wrong. You're the one that's always wrong. God resists the proud, and we all do too. There's just something in me, and there's something in you that when you bump up against an arrogant person, you just kind of internally resist them. You may have to work with them. You may have to sell to them. You may even have to live with them.
But even though there's a width, there's an internal resistance because it's so offensive. You may live and work and sell to them, but you don't enjoy them. Nobody enjoys a proud, arrogant, always-gotta-be-right person. And the reason is because you always feel distant. And the reason you feel distant is because they're not self-aware. So they're not able to empathize. They're never able to get on board with the emotion you're feeling because it's all about them. They aren't self-aware because they're so self-absorbed, which is kind of scary to me because since we know arrogant people and proud people don't know they're arrogant or proud, how do we know if we're not one of them? How do we know we're not one of those people that we don't like and can't connect with?
So I'll just leave that with you. And if you're wondering the person you live with, they know. But that's not for now, that's for later. Okay, Peter, who wrote this, Peter, who knew Jesus, Peter, who's like one of the first people Jesus called to follow Him, famous Peter. He who wrote this and he wrote this many years after the resurrection of Jesus. And this is what else he says, because this is something else we can all agree with. "God resists the proud, but He shows favor to the humble". I'm like, me too, right? You too. Or like, I'm far more prone to say yes to a humble request.
Aren't you far more prone to say yes to a humble request, even if it causes you to go outta your way or you kinda have to bend a rule or you have to do something for one person that you don't normally do for everybody else? But a humble request, my goodness, I'm more inclined to say yes to a humble request than I am somebody who's demanding and has to have their way. So this is something we have in common with each other for the most part. And according to Peter, and according to the New Testament, and according to Jesus, God, our heavenly Father is the same way. Which brings us kind of to the topic of the thing we're gonna talk about today, is this word, humble or humility. Humility. I mean, we all know this. We've experienced it is so powerful.
In fact, if you are having a conflict with someone, whether it's family or work, or neighborhood, or whatever it might be, when you're having a conflict with someone, and you're coming in hot, like you got your thing all lined up, and you've had this imaginary conversation 20 times, you know what you're gonna say. And you're gonna show 'em you're wrong. I mean, that they're wrong, and you're right, and you come in hot. In a difficult conversation or difficult environment, when you bump into humility, it's so off-putting. It just puts you off balance because you're expecting them to be defensive, and they're not defensive. You're expecting pushback.
And the thing is about humility, humility doesn't push back. Humility absorbs. And sometimes you don't even know what to do with it. It's so powerful. And when two people, when humility meets humility, just about anything can be resolved. And this isn't new information. You don't need to write this down. We know this. So I wanna ask you just the strangest question, okay? There's no good answer to this 'cause it's not even a good question. But to kind of get us on the same page of where we're going today.
Are you ever tempted by humility? I mean, you know what it means to be tempted, right? Something that appeals to a desire. Are you ever tempted by humility? How about this? Are you ever tempted to be humble? No. Right? 'Cause we don't think of this as a temptation. Are you ever tempted to be humble, but you resist? I rebuke you, humility. I will not give in to you. You shall not pass. I mean, do we ever have that internal conversation with humility? No, because humility isn't really a temptation we resist, but it's definitely a posture that we should all adopt. After all, we like it when we see it. We like it when we're confronted with it. So why would we not pursue it? It's kind of odd, isn't it?
Today, we're in part three of a four-part series entitled, "Icon, The Empowering Invitation of The Cross". As you know, before you tuned in or before you got here, the cross is the icon of Christianity. We all know that. The icon for Christianity is not a checkered flag. It's not a gold medal. And believe it or not, it's not a sword, it's a cross. But the cross is more than just an icon that represents Christianity. The cross is an invitation and not an invitation merely to a way of believing. It's an alternative way of living. It's a lifestyle. It's alternative, but it is not intuitive.
In fact, on the surface, when first approached with this, and if you've been listening to any of this series, or if you follow Jesus through the gospels, when you're first confronted with the way of the cross or the way of Jesus on the surface, it kind of seems a little bit crazy. It might strike you as lazy. And the apostle Paul who wrote, you know, almost half the New Testament, he admits, he's like, "Yeah, on the surface, the whole thing seems kind of foolish, like a fool's errand".
So consequently, when it comes to the invitation of the cross, we're all inclined not to accept the invitation. Last time we were together, we talked about the fact that it's not just an invitation, but as the subtitle of the series says, "It's an empowering invitation". It empowers us to express and experience the power of God. It positions us to experience the power of God. So last time we were together, I asked you a question and I said, do you want to experience the power of God in your life? And I was shocked because it was like dead quiet. Like four people said, "Yes". I'm like, "Well, there's four," you know? Okay. But the question was, if you're a Jesus follower, if you're a Christian, would you want to experience the power of God?
So we talked about what does the power of God look like, and why is it that getting in sync with the way of Jesus or the way of the cross positions us to experience and to manifest the other's first power of God? And we said as well throughout the series, that a lot of Christians don't even know the invitation to the way of the cross even exists. For so many Christians, faith is just kind of a one and done. Like, I prayed a prayer and I got baptized, and now Jesus is my Savior. And the cross is basically just a good luck charm.
Now, back to the real world, where we grade ourselves by comparing ourselves, where we chase the wind and live to win. So for the past two times we were together, I gave you an assignment, and I promise I'm gonna give you a different assignment. I'm not gonna leave you with this one, but I wanted you to sit in this a little bit, and I've gotten some really interesting feedback. For those of you who've really attempted this or thought about this, I ask you to during the week that when you find yourself in conflict with somebody, whenever there's tension in a relationship, at home, or at work, or at school, or wherever you are, to at least ask yourself, ask yourself whether you act on it or not.
What would choosing to lose look like in this situation? What would it look like if somehow I figured out, how can I lose in this discussion? How can I lose in dissension? How can I lose in this argument? What would it look like to let somebody else go first, even though I got here first? What would it look like to let somebody take the idea, even though it was my idea? What would it look like to let somebody else pull ahead and get the credit to have their way? What would that look like? So we've been sitting in that for a couple of weeks, I hope. So, moving on. It's interesting, and I don't know why this is the case, and nobody really knows, but the only miracle of Jesus that Jesus performed, the only miracle that Jesus performed that's recorded for us in all four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, is "The Feeding of The 5,000" or "The Feeding of The Multitude" as some Bibles refer to it.
Now, I don't know why that's the only one that showed up in all four gospels. Each gospel has its own unique perspective and a take on the life of Jesus because of who wrote it. They were all written early, but one comes from the lips of Peter, one's Matthew, an eye witness, John, an eye witness, Luke, who interviewed people. So "The Feeding of the 5,000," which was a spectacular, very public miracle, right? This wasn't done in the dark of night. You know, we're healing somebody and can you prove it? I mean, out in the open, all these people are fed.
And what happens right after Jesus feeds this multitude of people, these 5,000 men plus women and children, what happens right after it is not miraculous, but it's extremely instructive as we think about the way of the cross. Because right after Jesus feeds this multitude of people, he is offered once again a crown. He's offered once again a kingdom. He's tempted maybe, or at least, He's certainly offered the opportunity to become the King of Israel.
So here's how it happened. John the Baptist had just been beheaded. John the Baptist is a folk hero during that time in Judea, but especially in Galilee, people, all the masses, the normal people love John the Baptist because he called out the corruption in the temple. He called out the corruption of the politicians. He was fearless. He did not care what anybody thought about him. He just said it like it was. And it got on Herod's nerve because it got personal for Herod. So Herod has John the Baptist arrested, and then he has John the Baptist beheaded. So there's all this uproar in Galilee and Judea, and just if you have a visual of the map, you know, way up high, the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River, Dead Sea, and over here is Jerusalem. So you got this sort of north, south thing.
So from Galilee to Judea, people are disturbed and Passover is coming. It's just a few weeks away. And during Passover, in this region of the world, the nationalistic spirit, the patriotism of the people, it was at an all-time high because Passover was the celebration of God delivering the nation of Israel from Egyptian bondage and taking them to their land. But now, they're in their land and once again, they're in bondage to Rome. So during Passover, I mean the whole sense of, hey, we need to throw off our oppressors, it ran at an all-time high. Governor Pilate would triple the guard around the temple, send more shock troops into the city of Jerusalem during Passover. It was so extraordinarily tense.
So Jesus senses all this. And now that John the Baptist has been killed, I mean, it just heightens the emotion. And he knows, now everybody is gonna look to him because John the Baptist said Jesus is the one, He's the Messiah. He's God's final King. So Jesus does what Jesus does instead of heading to Jerusalem, He heads the other way. He goes north. He goes all the way to the Sea of Galilee. And the text says, "He went to a solitary place, He and His 12 apostles to get away from the crowd". But they spot Him and dozens come, and then hundreds come, and then thousands come. And he looks at this group of people, and they're like a flock of sheep, but they're like a flock of sheep without a leader, without a shepherd. And His apostles are like, "Let's get back in the boat and go to the other side. We need a break".
You know, one of the things we can't imagine, wherever you are in our modern world, you can always get away from a crowd. You just drop, jump in your tricked out SUV. You know, and you just motorcade away, right? Back then, what can you do? You walk and everybody just walks with you like, "We're leaving". "We're going with you. Where are we going"? So, "No, we're leaving". We'll just go the, so you can't jump on a donkey and just walk along, so it's impossible. This is why Jesus spent so much time at the Sea of Galilee. You could get in a boat. So the disciples are like, "Hey, could we take a break"? And Jesus is like, "No". So Jesus stays because this is what Jesus does. He looks at this crowd. He has compassion on them, and He begins healing. And the disciples are like, "Oh, I thought we're gonna get a break".
So this goes on and on, maybe for two or three days, we don't know. But on one particular day, they've been there, He's healed all day long. The sun is setting and nobody's leaving. They're just staying, and you remember this part. So the disciples come to Jesus and they say, "Hey, Jesus, look, send the crowds away," and here's their cover for what they really want. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food, and we can get a break. Send them away to buy some food because they're gonna starve out here. They've been here all day and Jesus stares out at the crowd, and He feels compassion. Then He smiles and I love this. And He turns to the apostles, His disciples, and He says, "I got an idea. You give them something to eat".
Love this, and you know the story. And they did. They fed these thousands of people and the crowd goes wild. And for them, it is not just a miracle, it's a sign. A sign is something that points to something. In fact, all of Jesus' miracles, they weren't just standalone miracles, they were all signs pointing to something. And they realized this is a sign. The time has come. John the Baptist was right. This is the prophet sent by God. He is the one. He just did what kings do, He fed His people. He's the Messiah. And the text says this, "That after the people saw the sign that Jesus performed, they began to say, 'Surely this is the Prophet who is coming to the world.'" This is God's final King. He is the Messiah. This is Jesus' big moment 'cause it's a big crowd, and the text is so specific.
This is why the text says, "There were over 5,000 men". Why that number? Because 5,000 was the number of a Roman legion. This is the equivalent of a Roman legion, and they are way up north in Galilee. And if they decide to march on Jerusalem to make Him King, by the time they get from Galilee four or five days later all the way to the gates of Jerusalem, they would have 20, 30, 40, maybe 50,000 men. So this whole thing turns political and "Jesus knowing that they intended to come and make Him king by force".
He knows what's in their heart. It's another test. Maybe it was a temptation. Jesus, take it. Take it. They will follow you to the gates of Jerusalem. It will be epic. It will be glorious. It will be an answer to prayer. It will be what the prophets prophesied. You are in the lineage of David, King David. Just take it, blood will be shed, but that's just the way of things. Blood will be shed, but that's the way of kings. That's the way of kingdoms. That's the way of the kingdoms of this world. It's the way of the sword. The end justifies the means. Jesus, take it. And Matthew who was there says the most interesting thing at this point, he uses this word, he says, "Immediately, immediately, immediately," Jesus says to His guys, "Come on, let's go. Come on, follow me. We're going". And they're like, "No, but now we wanna stay".
I mean this is epic. This is gonna be amazing. I mean, Jesus is like, "Come with me". Takes him down to the edge of the lake. Get in the boat, puts him in the boat. "Peter, help me". Peter and Jesus pushed the boat off. Peter gets in. Jesus shoves it off. They're like, "Wait, wait, wait, what about you"? He's like, "Go". Why? We find out later. They were with the crowd. This is our moment. This is when we take what is ours. This is when you, Jesus, this is when you get what you deserve. And the text tells us that Jesus, your King, with all that handed to him, all that available, I love this, withdrew again to a mountain by Himself. Not because He didn't deserve a crown and not because He wasn't a king. He didn't want that crown. He didn't want to be that king. He didn't want that kingdom. It wasn't His way, and that wasn't the way He was gonna do it.
So instead of marching on Jerusalem, some days later, Jesus and His apostles march to Jerusalem, not to take life, but to give His life away, modeling the way, the way of the cross. And when He gets there, He tries to kind of sneak in with the crowd and they're not having it. And they recognize Him again. And then He buries himself in the depths of the city for a week. And He wants to celebrate a private Passover with His guys. And so He secretly arranges where they're gonna do Passover, so they can just be away from the crowds. And the gospel, all the gospel writers tell us through the gospel writers tell us that the Pharisees and the teachers of the law have spies out everywhere looking for this guy, looking for Jesus.
And Jesus has this private room and only a few people know where it is. It's such interesting detail. Jesus works it out himself behind the scenes, and He gathers the 12, and they have their final Passover together. And it gets lost on us because again, the way we read the Bible, we don't think historically and sequentially, we just drop in looking for devotional thoughts. And God speak to me. And and I get that. I think, I mean, that's a fine way to read the Bible, except you miss the epic nature of especially these narratives around Jesus. So they're gathered together and the apostles, we know what they're thinking. They're thinking, well, maybe this is it. We're in the city. I mean, we're here now, and they've just celebrated Passover.
I mean, all you gotta do is just a spark. It's a powder keg waiting to happen. And it gets lost on us that in this moment, after they celebrate the Passover meal, the next thing Jesus does, Jesus' last act before He's arrested, His last act before He's arrested is He washes His disciples' feet. Now, just to put this in perspective, rabbis don't wash anybody's feet. In fact, rabbis wouldn't even allow their disciples to wash their feet. The only people that wash feet were slaves, the lowest of the low. And Jesus works out this whole environment where there's not anybody to wash feet on purpose.
So when Jesus stands up and removes His rabbinical robe and lays it on a stool and then puts a towel around His waist, they're all thinking, Uh-uh, no, no, no, no, no. We have seen what those hands can do and you are not about to wash our dirty feet. And Peter says what the rest of them are thinking. And Jesus is like, "Peter, sit back down". The pictures have everybody sitting at a table. That's not the arrangement. The gospels are clear, they're reclining. I don't know how to describe this.
I was gonna show you a picture, but it doesn't do it justice. So just imagine you're leaning on an elbow. You're on your left elbow, you're eating with your right hand. The person next to you is here, they're kind of in your chest and somebody's in theirs. And it goes all the way around the table. Everybody's legs are extended behind them. They're all facing each other, and Jesus is behind them. They can all make eye contact with each other. Jesus is behind them, and this takes a lot of time. And during all of that time, look up here. Your Savior is on His knees at the feet of men who would abandon him that very night. One of them, Peter, would deny that he even knew who Jesus was that very night or early that next morning. One of them had already betrayed him. Judas Iscariot was responsible for making sure Jesus was arrested that very night, and Jesus washed Judas' feet.
Let that sink in. This is the way of Jesus. This is the way of the cross. This is what eventually rocked an empire, and shaped the world. When Jesus talked about enemy love, love your enemy, He was not kidding. That night, they didn't know it. That night, He showed them how it was done. And when that most humiliating moment of their life finally passed, Jesus stands up, puts His rabbinic robe back on. And He asked them this question, and they knew better than to answer out loud. Guys, "Do you understand what I have just done for you"? To which they're thinking, other than humiliate us completely? No. What have you done for us? He says, "You call me and rightly so, you call me 'Teacher' and you call me 'Lord', and you're correct".
That is what I am. Guys, I am a big deal. You are not wrong about that. You've seen what I'm capable of. You know what I can do? We were just in Bethany and I let Lazarus be dead for three and a half to four days. So you guys would know who you're dealing with. I am a big deal. And what he knew that they didn't know was in a few weeks, they were gonna be a big deal as well. And here's what I know about some of you. You're a big deal. You are. People look to some of you. You're a big deal in your community. You're a big deal as a coach. You're a big deal on the golf course. You're a big deal in that ladies group that you lead, and they just think you're the smartest person they've ever seen. And you've changed their lives, and they're so grateful for you. You're a big deal in your business. You're a big deal in the boardroom.
Many, many, many of you, you're a big deal. You have leverage. You have authority. When you speak, people are a little bit quieter. People write down what you say. You're a big deal. And Jesus says to this group, hey, you're right. I'm a big deal. One day you're gonna be a big deal. Let's talk about what all the big deals should do. Here's what you do when you have a little extra authority, a little extra resource, a little extra power, a little extra influence. Guys, he says, "Do you know what I've just done for you"? You ready for this? If say, something real quick, if you're not a Jesus follower, you're not a Christian. I'm so sorry, the church hasn't gotten this consistently right. He says, I, the big deal, "I have set for you an example" that you should think about, nope.
Write down, nope. Agree with, nope. Consider, nope. "that you should do as I have done". And they don't know it in the moment. He just washed Judas' feet "that you should do as I have done for You," that you should do for others what I have done for you, which is what? Well, here's what He did. Here's what He did throughout His ministry. This is what it means to follow Jesus. This is what it means to get in sync with the way of the cross. He says, I want you guys for the rest of your life, and they did it. I want you guys for the rest of your life, and even if He was here and He was looking at those of us who claim to be Christians, He would say, "And this is for you too. Do you know what I've done for you"?
I want you for the rest of your life to choose because it is always a choice. It is an invitation. You do not have to accept it. But I'm inviting you to accept it. For the rest of your life, I want you to choose because it's a choice. And I want you to chance because it is risky. And I want you to chase. I want you to be intentional. I want you to choose. I want you to chance. I want you to chase humility. I want you to give into the temptation to go second or last, or maybe you just don't even go at all. I want you to proactively every day and in every environment, do for others. And this is for those of you who are a big deal. In my world, I'm a big deal. I'm the boss. My jokes are so funny. I mean, when you're the boss, you say, I have an idea and the next thing you know, people are acting on it. I'm like, no, no, no. It was just an idea.
Come on back. I didn't that matter. We thought we wouldn't want to, you know? Some of you live in that world, right? Jesus says, okay, here's what I want you to do. I want you to look for opportunity. Don't wait for it to come along. I want you to proactively. I want you to do for others what others expect others to do for you. I want you to do for others what those others expect some other people to do. I don't want you to just do for others what you want done for you. I want you to do, actually do for others what is generally done for you.
Now there's more. To me, this is the most amazing part. It's so subtle. When this was going on, there was something else going on that nobody in the room knew about, and later after the resurrection, Jesus talked to John and Jesus tells John about the other thing going on in the room that night that nobody knew was going on. Jesus, when he washed their feet, look up here, He wasn't just illustrating something, "I've set for you an example," and He said, "I've set for you an example," okay? You illustrating. Jesus wasn't simply illustrating something when he washed their feet. He was responding to something.
Remember last time we talked about the fruit of the spirit? And I said the fruit of the spirit, all these love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, general self-control. Those are responses. You don't get up in the morning and say, today I'm gonna be so patient. No, you wait, and then you respond with patience. You respond with self-control. You respond with kindness. Their responses. When Jesus got up to wash their feet, He wasn't simply setting an example, He was responding to something. Here's what Jesus told John later that John puts in His account of the gospel. This is amazing. This is in the upper room. "Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things," complete control, everything as He would say later in His great commission, everything in heaven and on earth, Jesus recognizes that the Father had given all things into His hands and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God.
This is so amazing. In that moment during Passover, Jesus is overwhelmed with some renewed or heightened sense of who He was, of the power He had. He was overwhelmed. He knew He had all the cards. It was like, in this moment, I'm just kind of guessing a little bit 'cause that's all we got to go on. It's like in this moment He realized, His heavenly Father had said, "Son, there are the keys". Hands off. All power in heaven and on earth, it's in your hands. Now what are you gonna do with it? What do you do when it dawns on you that you're the most powerful person in the room? What do you do when it dawns on you, everybody's looking to you? What do you do when you realize I got more resources and more influence than everybody else? What do you do in that moment?
This is so amazing. In that moment, John says, when it dawns on Jesus or there's this renewed realization of who He is and the power, and it says, "Immediately, that's when He got up from the supper and laid aside His garments and taking a towel, He girded himself and He washed their feet". He's immediate. What if we lived like this? Dads, what if you led your family like this? Moms, what if you led your family like this? What if we loved like this? What if we served like this? What if, imagine if this was the reputation of the Christian community. "His immediate response was to wash the feet of cowards, deniers, and traitors".
Jesus, you got all the power in the world. What are you gonna do? I'm gonna give it away. Hours later, they abandoned Him. He's arrested. He's flogged. And Jesus, Jesus to whom all authority had been given, refused once again, to leverage any of that power for his own sake, for His own benefit. He chose instead to leverage it for our sake. For your sake, by every human estimation is, we said last time Jesus lost. But what they didn't understand until after the resurrection, it wasn't that Jesus was against winning. Jesus wasn't against winning. He was just doing, He was just involved in an entirely different competition.
He was competing for an entirely different prize. He was competing against pride. He was competing against arrogance. He was competing against self-sufficiency. He was competing against self-absorption, against do it my way, against, I don't need self-control because self is the middle. I'm number one, all for one, one for all. I'm number one. He was competing against all of that. And He had every right in the world as the Son of God to claim it for Himself. He said, no, that's not my way. And it's not the way of my people. And it's not the way of those who choose to follow me. He was competing for others. He was competing for you.
Come, His humility is what brought you your salvation. He was competing for me and He won. And when He won, this is so always, always so emotional for me. When He won, His Father stood and applauded because as Paul would remind us later, Jesus, this is amazing. "Jesus being in very nature God never considered equality with God something to be used to His own advantage". He was a big deal. He just never acted like a big deal. He never played the God card. I'm God. I'll have that, please. He never leveraged it for His own advantage.
Imagine if we live like that. Rather, He went the opposite way, very proactive. Rather, "He made himself nothing. He made Himself a nobody by taking the status and the role of a servant who washed their feet". "And being found," Paul says, "And being found in appearance as a man," here's our word, "He humbled himself". He chose it. He chased it. He lived it. And to what degree did he humble himself for you and me? "By becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross".
Good news. You will never have to do this, I'm imagining. But if you're wondering, how far do you go, how low do you go? That's how far He went. That's how low He went. He lived this out to the bitter, "Crucify him. Crucify him". And so the cross became the icon for Christianity, for your faith and mine because the king flipped the script. That's why I love the lyrics to this song that our writers wrote some years ago that we sing all the time. "No other king," come on, no other. It's not just song lyrics. "No other king would kneel to wash my feet. Prepare a table," literally who was at that table? The men who would abandon Him, deny Him, and turn traitor on Him.
"Prepare a table for His enemies, Lay down His glory for the least of these". Lay down His glory. He never played the God card. He leveraged His power for you and for me, and for the people of this world. That's why it was good news of great joy for all people. "No other king would withstand or stand for that mockery to be led to slaughter," and to stand in front of Governor Pilate. and Governor Pilate's like, "Okay, defend yourself. Would you? I mean, I've heard the accusations. Come on, gimme the other side of this. No. Well, you don't you realize I have the power to set you free or crucify you"? Jesus is like, "Well, you think you do, but you don't". But I understand. "Take up a cross and choose to die with thieves. Take up His cross and give His life for me".
And, my friends, He invites me every day, every single day. And invites you every single day to say yes to the invitation, to follow Him, to embrace His way, the empowering way of the cross. And if you say yes, lemme tell you what's gonna happen. If you say yes, you'll discover some feet to wash that don't deserve to be washed, and you will wash them anyway. Not so you'll get credit because you won't even tell anyone. Because in that moment, you're doing it for the One, not for everyone. And in those moments, our lives are changed.
So I wanna leave you with a new question this week. What would it look like? What would it look like to chase humility? What would chasing humility look like for you? Look up here. Not simply responding humbly. That's good. What does it look like to proactively chase humility like your Savior? Instead of marching on Jerusalem 'cause you're all powered up and bowed up, and you're right, and you're the boss, and you got the right argument. And I've worked it all out. Instead of marching on Jerusalem to march to Jerusalem, to give your life away, to lay down a little bit of your life for them, for her, from him, for that group in light of what's happened in your community or maybe in your family, maybe with one of your kids.
And I can't answer this question for you, but here's what I can almost guarantee you, if you'll ask it, you'll know. If you'll allow yourself to be tempted by humility, you'll see, and perhaps you'll be changed. And when the church, if the church ever rediscovers the way of the cross, perhaps the world could change once again. So choose it this week, chance it. It's risky. There's not necessarily a bow. And chase it like your Savior because that is the way. It's the way of the cross. We'll pick it up right there next time when we wrap up our series, "Icon, The Empowering Invitation of The Cross".