Well, we are almost done with a series that we started early August called Breakthrough. And if you're just joining us, I can catch up real quick. We're trying to have breakthroughs. We want to have breakthroughs because we want to live the life that we've been promised. Jesus has promised us an incredible life. In John 10, 10, the Bible says that this is Jesus talking, I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full. We've been promised a full life by Jesus Himself, and full life does not mean easy. There's a big difference between easy and good. We want the good, full life that Jesus has promised us. And in order to actually live that life, we need to experience a few breakthroughs. We need some things to change in the way we think, in the way that we live. I want to be really clear, we're not saying that we need to do things to earn the life that Jesus offers us. He's already given us that. He won that for us on the cross, but we still have to learn how to live this life. Think about it this way: if someone bought you a really nice car and they just gave it to you as a gift, that would be amazing. That would be awesome. You have this car, it's been provided to you, but you would still need to learn how to drive it. You would still need to learn how it handles. And the truth is, the life that we have been given and called to live by God, it's a different kind of life. It's a different kind of life than we see in the world around us. It's a different kind of life than maybe the life that we're used to living. And so we have to sort of learn how to live again. We have to learn how to live out the life that we've been given. And that's why we get together every Sunday morning to dive into the Bible, to dive into God's words and say, hey, God, teach us how to live this life that you've given us. Because we want it all. We want to experience everything you have for us. So teach us. So we're we're hoping to have breakthroughs, we're hoping to see things change so that we can move forward into that full life that we've been offered. I want us to look at a couple of scriptures really quickly. It's very important that we start with God's word. It's very important that everything we teach is based off his word because we really have a choice when it comes to learning in life. We can either settle for man's observations about life or we can have God's revelations about life. And I would much rather have God's perspective than my own or just some other person. That's why we we make sure that we we jump into the Bible. And I want to look at this specific passage today where Jesus uses this phrase. And it's a phrase that we actually see often in Scripture. It's probably one of the most repeated phrases in the Bible, in some variation or another. And the context for this phrase that Jesus says happens to be Jesus going on a rant. You ever know someone that goes on a rant, you say one thing, and maybe they're really into politics or something, and you say a word and they just go off, and then like ten minutes later you're just like, is that it? Are you you got more? Well, Jesus actually goes on a rant in Matthew chapter 23. It's a very interesting chapter because uh he goes on a rant against religion and against the religious leaders of his day. And seven different times in Matthew chapter 23, Jesus calls the religious leaders of his day hypocrites. Like he's not pulling any punches. This is Jesus going on a rant, and we're gonna pick it up in verse 5 of Matthew chapter 23. Jesus says, everything they do is for show. On their arms, they wear extra wide prayer boxes with scripture verses inside, and they wear robes with extra long tassels. That was kind of the spiritual garb of the day. And they love to sit at the head of the table at banquets and in seats of honor in the synagogues. They love to receive respectful greetings as they walk into the marketplaces to be called rabbi. And then Jesus says, Don't let anyone call you rabbi, for you only have one teacher, and all of you are equals as brothers and sisters. And don't address anyone here on earth as father, for only God in heaven is your father. And don't let anyone call you teacher, for you have only one teacher, the Messiah. The greatest among you must be a servant, but those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. That's that phrase that's going to be the foundation for the breakthrough that we're going to talk about today. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, but those who humble themselves will be exalted. This is a phrase that, like I said a minute ago, we see often in Scripture and in many different forms. Psalm 138.6 says, Though the Lord is great, he cares for the humble, but he keeps his distance from the proud. Proverbs 334 says, The Lord mocks the mockers, but is gracious to the humble. Proverbs 29, 23 says, Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor. 1 Peter 5.5 says, In the same way, you who are younger must accept the authority of the elders, and all the parents cheer. And all of you, all of you, dress yourselves in humility as you relate to one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. In other words, God is a big fan of humility. Pride, eh, not so much. If you want to have a breakthrough in life, if you want to see some part of your life change, some part of your life surge forward, humility is required. Because God honors humility. God honors humility, He blesses humility, but pride, pride gets in our way. So as we're talking about having breakthroughs today, we're gonna hone in on that idea of humility. And I actually want to use a word that encapsulates humility. It's a word that I've had different people in my life use, it's a word that's very meaningful to me, and it's the word coachability, and I'm not sure if it's actually a word or not. So if you look this up in the dictionary and it's not there, it it's on the internet, all right? I found it online, so it that counts for something. But it's the ability to be coached, the ability to be corrected, the ability to have someone tell you, this needs to change. You're off course, you're wrong. And you receive that. I I hate being wrong. Anyone else just hate being wrong? Can you like show some support you hate to be wrong? Does anyone love to be wrong? I mean, is there is that a is there a person that's like, I love it when I am just way off? No? Okay. One thing I hate more than being wrong is being proven wrong. I I dislike being proven wrong way more than I dislike actually being wrong, and even more than that, if I'm proven wrong by a few specific people in my life, that's the worst. Like, like there's people who, if they prove me wrong, if they show me a mistake, I'm like, no big deal. But then there's part of me that's like, God, anyone but this small number of people, let anyone else correct me but them. And ironically, they're the ones who correct me the most. That's how God works sometimes. He's very funny. Like one of those people is my wife. And, you know, Megan and I, we live together, we work together, we both work here, we drive almost everywhere together, and so just through sheer proximity alone, she happens to be nearby when I make most of my mistakes, and so she's just the one that's the most convenient person to correct me. And she is good at that. She's very good at that. It's a honed skill at this point in our lives. And then there's these specific situations sometimes where I'll be proven wrong by Megan, and I can't, I just can't stand it. Like at all. Like we'll be watching TV. This happens all the time. We'll be watching TV, and Megan has this uncanny ability to see some actor or actress. I'm not talking about a big-named Hollywood star, just some obscure actor or actress, and go, oh, oh, I recognize them. They were in that that other show that we watched a few years ago. Which is a very general thing to say. Like that could be true about, you know, oh, that person that was in that one thing that one time? Like, what does that even mean? You know? And I'll be like, I don't recognize them at all, I don't think you're right. And she's like, no, no, no, it'll come to me. And then a few minutes later, she'll be like, oh, oh, they were this person and this show that we watched like three years ago. And I'll be like, no, honey, I remember that show, it's not that person. And then she will say, Well, look it up. Look it up. I'm like, all right. I look it up and it's them. She's right, she's good at it, and it bothers me so much because then I'm like, yeah, you're right. And then there's just this silence. You know, this satisfaction. And I know, I know she savors it. I know, and it just it annoys me to the to the core of me because for a few different reasons. Number one, I just want to watch TV, I just want to watch a show. That's all I want to do. I don't want to wanna do research, I don't want to have an argument, I just want to watch TV, and I don't need to be told, and and I guess I should just be quiet when she says that. I shouldn't try to challenge it. I haven't learned because when I'm watching a show, enjoying myself, relaxing, and she says, that's that one person from that one thing, I should just go, you're absolutely right, and keep watching. But something in me goes, like, no, I don't think that's true. And I can't. So that I just want to watch a show. Number two, when we first got together, we were in high school, and and movies were like my thing back then. I was a movie guy, I was kind of like this movie buff. That was something that I took pride in. I worked at Blockbuster Video. It's my first job, 16 years old. I drove to Blockbuster Video, and I was fired three months later. And if you're asking yourself, man, seems like the standards at Blockbuster Video should would probably be pretty low, what must someone do to be fired? I would just say that you are accurate, and the standards are very low, and I still deserve to be fired. So just take that for what it is. I was 16, but I got rehired by Blockbuster in another state and redeemed myself. You know, I left off that I had worked there previously. I I I loved movies and I watched a lot of movies, and and I was really, like, really into movies, and I was that guy that knew all the movie stuff. That was my thing. That's long gone. I now I just watch children's television shows for the most part. But like back before that time, I was the movie person. I was the one who would sit in movies and go, that's so-and-so, they were in this other movie. That was me, and she's it's like she's stolen that from me. It's my thing. Like, like, okay, there's an actor named Kevin Bacon. Does everyone know Kevin Bacon? This is Kevin Bacon, he's holding up his own name. Does everyone recognize Kevin Bacon? He's been in a lot of things. If you're of a certain age, you might be like, Who's Kevin Bacon? Well, way, way back in the day, Kevin Bacon was in a ton of movies, and there was this game called the Six Degrees of Separation with Kevin Bacon. Have you heard of this?

Yes.

Okay, cool. So the idea was, if you haven't, that Kevin Bacon was in so many movies that if you just name any actor or actress, you can trace them back to Kevin Bacon in six steps or less by saying, This person played with so-and-so, who played with this person and so-and-so and so on and so forth. And that was like my jam. I would play the Kevin Bacon game at gatherings and parties. Did not impress many girls. Because it's sort of creepy to walk up to a girl at a party and be like, Ever heard of Kevin Bacon? Name any actor or actress. I can link him to Kevin Bacon. It's my thing. You know, not very good. But but I but I did that, it was like, it was my thing, and people sort of knew that, and they would be like, hey, what about this person? I'd be like, blah, blah, blah. I did this at the first gathering and it worked okay. I'm super out of practice. But I just thought, why the heck not? And so, like, here's what here's what I need you to do, because I want to test this, I want to see if I still have it. Um I'm gonna ask for some specific parameters though. Okay, number one, I have not seen a movie that isn't animated in like 10 years. Okay? I like, except for very few, I'm serious. We just watched children's stuff at my house. And so if you say some actor or actress that's really famous today and they're like 24 years old, I don't know who they are. I'm sorry. If they were in Twilight, I don't know. I have no idea. Just don't, I don't, so don't say one of those people. Think about someone who was famous 10 years ago. Maybe they still are, but they were in movies 10 years ago, okay, relatively no name. And don't be like someone from the 1920s. You know, don't do that. Like, I'm sure you can link Fred Esther to Kevin Bacon, and I'm pretty sure that was not the 1920s, but either way, okay? So just seriously, any actor or actors from like 10 years ago. Samuel L. Jackson, Sean Connery, we'll do a couple, we'll do a couple. Hold on, okay, hold on, okay, hold on, hold on. I should have, I did not provide any order, I just asked you, and you were, oh you did great. Someone said Kevin Costner. Who was that? Kevin Costner played with Kevin Bacon and JFK, that's one step, so we got that. Um somebody said, uh, you said Sean Connery. Okay, we'll get to we'll get to Mr. Sean.

Drew Barrymore!

Drew Barrymore played with Chris O'Donnell in Batman Forever. Uh and Chris actually oh, okay, here we go. Even faster. Drew Barrymore played in Batman Forever with Tommy Lee Jones, who also played with Kevin Bacon in JFK. So boom, there you go. Someone said, someone said Julia Roberts. Does someone say that? Okay, Julia Roberts played with Kevin Bacon in Flatliners. That's also one step. Okay.

John Stamos.

Ah! Okay.

John Stamos.

John Stamos is not a real actor, and I will stand by that statement for the rest of my life. Okay? He's a pretty face, and that's it. And that's it. I'm just playing. I love how this is really just people yelling out their celebrity crushes. That's really what this has become. Stacey Walls said, she said Sean Connery, and she's literally fanning herself in the front row. And I'm just gonna assume that those are not related. Okay, okay, hold on. Hold on. Sean Connery played with Catherine Zeta Jones in a movie called Entrapment. Catherine Zeta Jones played with Antonio Banderas in uh Zorro. You have to say his name like that. Zorro, okay, movie. Antonio Banderas played with Tom Hanks in Philadelphia, and Tom Hanks played with Kevin Bacon in Apollo 13. So there's that. And that's all we have time for. If you were to make a list of useless abilities, that's number one. That's it. Because there's no situation in life where there's an emergency and someone's saying, Kevin Bacon movies, go. And you're like, I got this, I've trained for this, I'm ready. But that was that was my thing. And so I say all of that just to tell you that when we sit down and we watch a movie, and Megan goes, Do you recognize that person? They were in this with this. I'm sitting there going, that's supposed to be me. You've stolen my thing. Nothing is sacred in marriage. By the way, if you're not married, it's awesome. You should totally get married. It's the best. It's the absolute best thing in the world. And it really is. I don't like being wrong. And I don't like being proven wrong, and I don't like being proven wrong by my wife, and I don't like being proven wrong by my wife. It's something that's supposed to be my thing. But the problem with life is that I'm wrong a lot. And we all are. And we might hate being wrong, and we might hate being proven wrong, but we're people. We mess up, and we are often wrong. And the reality is when we are proven wrong, in those moments in life where our wrongness, our mistakes are brought to the forefront and we are confronted with our mistakes, the way we respond, the way we respond to those correcting moments is vital. You know, if you respond incorrectly when someone shows you that you're wrong, you just compound your problem. But if you can have humility and you can respond with humility and be coachable, then sometimes your biggest mistakes become the very thing that teaches you how to move forward in life, if you're coachable. We see this in scripture, by the way. Maybe the classic example would be King Saul and King David. Saul and David are the very first kings in Israel's history. Saul was the first king in Israel's history up to that point. They were they were what's called a theocracy. Literally, God would just speak to a prophet or a person that was called a judge, and that person would just relay what God wanted the nation to do directly to them, and that's the way it had worked for a long time. But the people saw these other nations around them and they're like, We want a king. And God was like, No, you don't. No, you don't. Trust me, there will be a day when no one will want a king. But they wanted a king. That was the thing to have at that time. They wanted, you know, a king with a crown and the authority. They just wanted that. And so God gave them what they wanted, and Saul was the first king, and he looked apart, he was taller than everyone else in Israel. The Bible said he stood head and shoulders above all the other men. He looked like the right fit to be the king. And he starts out at a very difficult time. The nation of Israel is being attacked by the Philistines, and the Philistines are actually gathering nearby, and in Saul's kind of first big moment, as a king, he's gathering an army to go fight the Philistines. And Samuel, the prophet who chose Saul to be the king, has given Saul very specific instructions about what he's supposed to do. He's supposed to wait for Samuel to come and offer a sacrifice to God. And once that sacrifice to God has been made by Samuel, then Saul is supposed to take out the army and go do their thing. And that's where we pick up whenever we get to 1 Kings, rather, 1 Samuel chapter 13. 1 Samuel 13, starting in verse 7, says, Meanwhile, Saul stayed at Gilgal, and his men were trembling with fear. Saul waited there seven days for Samuel, as Samuel had instructed him earlier, but Samuel still didn't come. Saul realized that his troops were rapidly slipping away, so he demanded, Bring me the burnt offering and the peace offerings, and Saul sacrificed the burnt offering himself. Just as Saul was finishing with the burnt offering, Samuel arrived. Saul went out to meet and welcome him, but Samuel said, What is this you have done? And Saul replied, I saw my men scattering from me, and you didn't arrive when you said you would. And the Philistines are at Mi'kmash, ready for battle. So I said, The Philistines are ready to march against us at Gilgal, and I haven't even asked for the Lord's help, so I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering myself before you came. And Samuel says, How foolish! You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. Had you kept it, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever, but now your kingdom must end, for the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. The Lord has already appointed him to be the leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord's commandment. That's a pretty major consequence for what seems like a pretty small misstep. But Samuel's saying, look, if you can't if you can't obey the most simple instructions that God gives you, how are you going to lead this people? How are you fit to be king if you can't if you can't practice just a small amount of patience to obey the Lord? And Samuel has, or Saul rather has his excuses, and he says, Well, I did it for this reason, and really it's your fault, Samuel. Had you been on time, this wouldn't have happened, so really you're the one that should be to blame. And I only did this because I was afraid of what my men were thinking, and it's always a problem when you care more about the opinions of men than of God. And he has all these excuses. This is kind of a trend in Saul's life. Later, there's another situation. We see it in 1 Samuel chapter 15. There's another battle against a different group of people that are attacking and oppressing Israel, and God tells Saul to go and literally wipe out the army, and he says, Don't take any of the cattle, don't take any of the sheep as plunder. That was that was normal at that time in history. He says, Look, don't even take that stuff, just slaughter the animals too. It was bloody. And here's what happens. Early the next morning, Samuel went to find Saul, because someone told him Saul went to the town of Carmel to set up a monument to himself, and then he went on to Gilgal. When Samuel finally found him, Saul greeted him cheerfully. May the Lord bless you, he said. I have carried out the Lord's command. Then what is all the bleeding of sheep and goats and the lowing of cattle that I hear? Samuel demanded. It's true that the army spared the best of the sheep, goats, and cattle, Saul admitted, but they're going to sacrifice them to the Lord your God. We have destroyed everything else. So basically he says, No, no, no. We disobeyed God so that we could honor him. Right? We disobeyed God so that we could offer sacrifices to God. Again, Saul has excuses. That's just what, that's what Saul does. Basically, Saul has this thing about his thinking that a lot of people have, and this is something that I heard a pastor say years ago, and it's always stuck with me. Saul believed that there were good reasons to make bad decisions. And that's actually never the truth. Sometimes we find ourselves in tough spots and we're forced to make what a decision we maybe know is right, but it's hard, and it may require sacrifice. Then we have another decision that we know is not the right decision, but it just kind of makes sense, and there's a bunch of reasons why, and we convince ourselves that there's actually a good reason to make a bad decision. And that is not true. There's no such thing as a good reason to make a bad decision. But Saul thinks that way, and so he just has excuses. When Samuel corrects him, he doesn't say, You're right, I've messed up, I don't know what I was thinking, I'm sorry, this will never happen again. He just says, Well, it's really not my fault. Because here are all the other circumstances that were happening, and you don't understand how I was feeling and thinking, and this is why I did it, and it wasn't that big of a deal. In fact, he goes so far as to say, I think I did the right thing at both times. And God looks at Saul and says, This isn't gonna do. And so he finds David. A man that the Bible describes, just like Samuel said, after God's own heart. He desired what God desired. And David becomes the king and he's an awesome king, and then he messes up because we all mess up. But David, David went for it, okay? Like when David decided to make a mistake, he said, I'm going all out. In fact, from our perspective, in the world's eyes, David's sin, David's mistake, way worse than Saul's. Way worse. Because here's what David did, if you don't know the story. David sees this woman, he's king at this point, he's been king for a while, things have gone really well for him, and he sees this woman named Bathsheba, and he thinks she looks very attractive. And so he asks about her, and someone says, Oh, that is Bathsheba, that's Uriah's wife. Uriah is is one of the premier soldiers in your army. And he goes, Oh, okay. Well, I'm the king. And so he has Bathsheba summoned to him and he sleeps with her, and she becomes pregnant, and then he freaks out because he realizes everyone's gonna know Uriah. Was off to war at this point in time. David's actually supposed to be off at war. That's what kings did in those days. They led their armies. He was supposed to be there. He decided to stay back. He's gonna, he's like, everyone's gonna know. And so he has Uriah brought back from the battle. He just gives Uriah leave and he says, Hey, Uriah, I mean, I've heard how great of a soldier you are. Why don't you come back? Why don't you hang out? Why don't you spend some time with your wife? You know, have a good time. And Uriah says, you know, my Lord, the king, I I could not live with myself. If I enjoyed the comfort of my home and the comfort of my wife while all of my brothers are fighting a battle. And so he wouldn't even go into his own house. And David is frustrated. David's like, please go sleep with your wife. And he won't. So David finally relents and he says, Okay. Go back to the battle. And he gets a hold of the commander of Israel's army, a man named Joab, and he tells Joab, here's what I want you to do. I want you to put Uriah on the front lines, and I want you to take Uriah and his group out to a place where the battle is at its fiercest, and then whenever they're in the thick of the battle, I want you to abandon them. And that's what happens, and Uriah dies. And then David takes Bathsheba as his wife, and in his mind it's all good. And then God sends a prophet. Nathan, at this point in time, is the prophet. He sends Nathan to correct David. And this is such a cool story for me because God's also put a Nathan in my life that corrects me. And so it's fun. It's fun whenever I realize I have things in common with David. We see what happens in 2 Samuel chapter 12. So the Lord sent Nathan the prophet to tell David this story. There were two men in a certain town, one was rich, one was poor. The rich man owned a great many sheep and cattle. The poor man owned nothing but one little lamb he had bought. He raised that little lamb, and it grew up with his children. It ate from the man's own plate and drank from his cup. He cuddled it in his arms like a baby daughter. And one day a guest arrived at the home of the rich man, but instead of killing an animal from his own flock or herd, he took the poor man's lamb and killed it and prepared it for his guest. David was furious. As surely as the Lord lives, he vowed, any man who would do such a thing deserves to die. He must repay four lambs for the poor man to the one for the one he stole and for having no pity. And then Nathan said to David, You are that man. And then he dropped his microphone and walked out of the room. No, seriously, though, think about the guts it would take to look at the king and be like, It's you. Please don't kill me. The Lord, the God of Israel, says, I anointed you, King of Israel, I saved you from the power of Saul. I gave you your master's house and his wives and the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. And if that had not been enough, I would have given you much, much more. Why then have you despised the word of the Lord and done this horrible deed? For you have murdered Uriah the Hittite with the sword of the Ammonites and stolen his wife. From this time on your family will live by the sword, because you have despised me by taking Uriah's wife to be your own. So he's rebuked pretty hard. Just like Saul was rebuked by Samuel, but David's response is very, very different. And this does not justify what David did. One of the beauties of the Bible, by the way, one of the things that makes the Bible so unique when it comes to all other books about faith is that the Bible does not put a PR spin on the people in it. The Bible does not record the triumphs of the people who have followed God while whitewashing all of the failures. In fact, in the Bible, you can go to Barnes and Noble and try to buy an autobiography of any famous person now, and what you will see is that, wow, apparently this person is just amazing all the time. Yet the Bible gives us the real picture, the real story. We get to see their biggest failures. Because the Bible, I've said this before, but it's so important for us to remember, the Bible is not the story of great men and women doing things for God. It's a story of a great God who uses broken people to do the things he does in this world. And that's good news for us, okay? So this doesn't excuse what David did. The Bible records it all. But this is David's response to Nathan to being corrected. Psalm chapter 51, and I love how God works because Matt actually shared from this exact psalm when he was doing Lord's Supper. I did not know that he was going to do that. He did not know that this was in the message today. It's just cool how this all works out. If you have a Bible, Psalm 51 begins by saying, for the choir director, a psalm of David regarding the time Nathan the prophet came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba. Listen to David's heart. Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins, wash me clean from my guilt, purify me from my sin. For I recognize my rebellion, it haunts me day and night. Against you and you alone have I sinned. I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just. For I was born a sinner. Yes, from the moment my mother conceived me, but you desire honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there. Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean, wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Oh, give me back my joy again. You have broken me, now let me rejoice. Don't keep looking at my sins, remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don't take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. And then I will teach your ways to rebels, and they will return to you. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. Look with favor on Zion and help her. Rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will be pleased with sacrifices offered in the right spirit, with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings, then bulls will again be sacrificed on your altar. Obviously, you know, David's describing a describing a very ancient time when they worshipped in a very different way. But you can see, you can see in him how broken, how convicted. He actually is. And unlike Saul, who had excuses, unlike Saul who said, Well, it wasn't my fault. I really did the right thing. I did what seemed best to me. And yeah, maybe it was the wrong decision in retrospect, but I had a lot of good reasons to do it. David just says, What have I done? I have sinned against God, I am broken, God forgive me. He responds in humility. He responds in humility. And it just so happens to be his saving grace. The consequences that he has for this mistake, they're real. And they were intense. But his relationship with God, it was not broken that day. It was not he was not done away with, he was not discarded because he responded in humility to God and God honored that. Why? Because God honors the humble, but he opposes the proud. Saul was unwilling to admit that he was wrong, and that was that was pride, pure and simple. David was coachable. He was coachable. He was humble, he was coachable. I found a definition of coachability on the internet, so it's super reliable. It says that coachability is the willingness to be corrected and to act on that correction. When we are coachable, we are prepared to be wrong. And so I ask this morning, are we prepared to be wrong? Like, what part of life do you want to experience a breakthrough in? What area of life right now do you want to break through, to move forward? And if there is one part of life that you're thinking to yourself, man, I want to see something happen in this part of my life, I want to see me break through, I want something to change. God, change this part of my life. Are you willing for the change to be a change in you? Are you prepared for God to look at you and say, Yes, I want to break through for you as well. I want that so badly for you. But I need to show you what you're doing wrong. So that you can correct it and move in the right direction. See, if that's the posture of our heart, if we can say to God, hey, correct me, challenge me, rebuke me, tell me what I'm doing wrong, and I'll change, if that's the posture of our heart, that is humility, that is coachability, and you better prepare for a breakthrough if that's the way you feel and think. Because you will have one. Because God honors the humble. He opposes the proud, but he honors the humble. We need to be willing to be wrong. We need to be prepared to be wrong. We need to be okay, even if certain people that we don't like to tell us that we're wrong tell us that we're wrong, even when we're watching television. Just trying to relax. Again, Megan, if you're in the room, please stop. But we're gonna wrap up and do one more worship song like we like we do. But I do want to leave us with a few practical steps because it's so important that we walk away with something that we can actually do. I don't want us just to walk out of here being like, I am prepared to be wrong. Now what? So if you want to be coachable, if you want to live in that humility so that you experience the breakthroughs God has for you, I just want to give you a couple quick pieces of advice. These are things that have been helpful for me. Number one, get a coach. It's really hard to be coachable if you have no one to coach you. Like, get a coach. I have a very specific but kind of hard question to ask you. Is there anyone in your life you have given explicit permission to to correct you? Is there any person in your life that knows they have permission to tell you when you're wrong? One of the best parts of my life, one of the hardest, but one of the best parts of my life has been that God has always put someone in my life, it seems, for like the sole purpose of challenging me in different stages of life. He's always given me a coach, and I've learned to really love it. I didn't always, but I've learned to. I I've had a coach in every major season of my life, and I still do today. And God has used those people to change me in very important ways. Susan Craig, who started his hands with Steve back in the day, Susan used to coach me. It was so fun. Because Susan has this, she had this way of just right between the eyes. She didn't waste a lot of time. And so the very first time I ever spoke in here, um, I was like 24 years old, and I felt like I did a pretty good job. I was young, and I gave a message at a church, you know. I walked off the stage and I was like, man, I did it. And Susan walked up to me and she said, That was really good. And I said, Thank you. She said, You are such a good speaker. And I was like, you know, thank you. And she said, and one day you're gonna learn how to be a good communicator, too. I was like, is it I don't know if this is a compliment anymore. And I actually asked her to clarify that. I said, hey, what what do you mean? She said, well, you're a really good speaker, and I can tell that it's very important to you, that the the message is delivered well and all of that. That's that's that's good, that's really important, but you need to care just as much that you hear from God and that you have the right thing to say. Not just that you say it well, but that you have the right thing to say. That's what will make you a great communicator. And I was like, Yeah. That's that's good. And I mean, seriously, it changed, it changed me. It changed the way I thought about things, it changed the way that I thought about messages and prepared, and and I care so I just I care so much more now about actually hearing something from God than I care about it being delivered well. But I needed Susan to teach me that. I needed a coach. I I had a coach in college, his name was Roy, he was my pastor, and Roy seemed to really enjoy coaching me, like strangely. He just he loved to invite me into his office to give me some advice. And he had this way, kind of like Susan, of making you feel like you were being given a compliment, and then there was a turn. So once Roy brought me into his office and he said, Justin, you're like a speedboat. I was like, I like the sound of this, you know? Speedboat. Hmm. He said, No, you're like a speedboat. You go fast, you get things done. You just you go, man, you go. And I'm thinking I'm sitting there going, like, well, I appreciate you noticing, Roy. And he said, the problem though with speedboats, that's when I knew it was turning. He said, the problem with speedboats is that if you're ever in the water and a speedboat goes by, you can find yourself very easily drowning in its wake. He said, you go so fast that if you could just stop and look behind you, you would realize how many people in your life are struggling in the wake that you're leaving. And I was like, so it's bad to be a speedboat then. You know? Do I need to become a different kind of boat? Or should I still be a speedboat that just goes a little slower? I don't, you know, I need to know. But I need, I needed that at that point in time. I needed it desperately. I still do. I still think about that piece of advice often because I got coaching. Do you have a coach? Is there someone in your life that you have have literally given express permission? If you see anything in me that is wrong, please point it out. Because I want to be better. And if the answer is no, then either you are like the wisest, smartest, most talented, most godly spiritual person alive, and you don't need a coach, or you're wrong. And you need one really badly. And I do. That's one of the beauties of having church, of having a family of people that we're together with, because I'm telling you, there is someone in this room right now who would be a great coach for you in your life. Who would be someone you could go to, maybe even in just one area of life. Maybe it's one specific part of your life that you want help in, and you can go to that person and say, hey, will you help me? That's why it's so important that we join teams and home groups so that this is not just something we attend, but we get to know the people around us because if you do that, you will find someone who will coach you, who will help you get better. It's hard to be coachable if you don't have a coach. Number two, and then we're gonna wrap up, I do see the time. Number two, two words that are in the Bible. Like at least the concepts are, and they're like the least favorite words of all Christians in the world. Confession and accountability. Yeah. No one ever claps for confession. Unless they used to be Catholic. And then most still don't. So we're not gonna build a booth or anything that you're gonna walk into and start telling me all your stuff, right? Because actually the Bible doesn't say you should confess your sins to your pastor. Just so you know. You don't have to tell me your stuff. Here's what the Bible does say, though. 1 John 1 8 says, if we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to Him, to God, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all wickedness. I have had personal breakthroughs just by confessing to God out loud my stuff. And actually calling it what it is and not putting a spin on it, not trying to make it sound better than it is, just saying, God, I keep thinking this and doing this. And when I say it, when it just comes out, there's breakthroughs. Confession's powerful. James 5.16 takes it a step further. Confess your sins to each other. Woo! And pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. You know, find a coach, find someone that you look up to, someone that can, even in one part of life, one area of life that can help you. But make regular confession and accountability a part of the way you live. And you will you will live a humble life and you will experience the breakthroughs that come along with humility. I'm telling you. I have a great friend. The worship team, you guys can come on out. I have a great friend. And he and I really shared nothing in common. Like we're we're not into the same things, we don't have the same talents and likes, but the one thing we have in common is we both love Jesus very much, and we've had some of the same struggles. So our struggles have kind of united us, and we get together on a regular basis just to pray for each other. Just to talk to each other about what's going on, to confess to each other. And it's powerful. You know, sometimes we'll we'll text each other and say, hey man, pray for me. I'm struggling with this, or hey man, I've had a rough start to the day. Can you pray that this changes and that my mindset changes? And I'm telling you, sometimes it's those texts, sometimes it's those those moments of discussion and prayer, as small as they might be, that just get me through my day. Sometimes they lead to really intense breakthroughs in life, confession and accountability, having someone that you're willing to share with. That's so vital. And again, that's part of what a church is. It's a group of people that we can grow and trust. It's a group of people that we can come to and find those people that we can trust enough to share with. Do you have not only a coach in your life, but do you have someone that can hold you accountable? Those can be the same person, they don't have to be. You know, maybe maybe it's your wife. You know, Megan is an incredible accountability partner for me. The Bible says that in marriage we're supposed to submit to one another. Men love to talk about the verses that say that women should submit to men. Don't like to talk about the submit to one another verse as much, but it's in there. We're supposed to submit to one another. That's part of why God gives us marriage, so that we have someone to hold us accountable. And if we're not married, to have to have friends, friends who hear from God, friends who know Jesus, friends who can who can help us see the forest from the trees and hold us accountable. That's so vital. It's vital, it's valuable, it will lead to breakthroughs because it's part of humble living. We'll wrap up and just say this. Do you want to have a breakthrough today? Alright. Alright. Then, you know, just be humble, dang it. Come on. I don't know. I don't ever plan how things should end. I just realized that. I should probably do that. Let's pray. Jesus. It's amazing to think about the fact that you lived a humble life. Because you're God, you have all the power in the world. There's nothing that you don't know, there's nothing you can't do, and you lived humbly. I mean, just right now, Lord, I'm reminded of a time I was listening to a message and I'd never thought about this before, but the pastor was talking about how you rode into town on a donkey, not on a stallion. Because you took a position of humility. And so, Lord, if if you can be humble, if if as the creator of the universe you can walk in humility, then we need to walk in humility too. This is an amazing group of people. This is an amazing church, Lord. And we all we all have a knowledge of our own issues, God. We all know that we make mistakes, and this is not a place where we pretend like we don't. But Lord, help us be people that not only make mistakes and experience grace, but help us be people that make mistakes and learn from them. Help us be people that make mistakes and grow. Give us the humility that we need to be coachable, God. Give us the humility we need to be corrected, to respond to that correction. Give us the ability to admit that we're wrong, and give us, God, I pray, even a hunger to be coached, a hunger to be led, a hunger to be corrected if we need to be, because we want to grow, we want to move forward, we want to break through. So give us that, Lord, and we ask for this in your name, Jesus. And as we worship you right now, we're just saying that we will humble ourselves before you. That we will humble ourselves in your presence because you are God. And in your presence, all things must bow. So we humble ourselves before you now, and we ask that you bless us. And we ask this in your name, Jesus. Amen. Love you guys.