We are starting a new series today. It's an Advent series, two weeks. And I've talked about this before, the word Advent has Latin roots. It means. Anybody remember what Advent means? It means coming. The word means coming. And so what's unique, where we're at in the history of God's redemptive plan is we're actually kind of in between two comings. We have the first coming of Jesus represented on the left of this graphic here with a lamb, that Jesus came as the Lamb of God. He came in gentle, humble fashion as our Savior. But we also know that Jesus is coming again. Amen. And the second time he comes, he's not coming as a gentle, humble lamb. He is coming as a righteous judge, as the Bible would portray the lion of the tribe of Judah. And he is not coming again to ultimately save, but to judge. And so today we get to look at week one, Jesus first coming and really just say, hey, what does it look like to follow a humble savior? And then next week we get to look at Revelation, which will be awesome, and Jesus coming as our just judge and coming as a lion, and say, what does that mean for us in the Christian faith? And if we truly desire to be a people that embrace Advent or Christmas, we should not just embrace a holiday season. We should embrace Christ himself. After all, to be a Christian, the word Christian implies the meaning follower of Jesus. It's not just like, you know, marking something on a census. It's to say, hey, if I call myself a Christian, what I am communicating, whether I like it or not, is that I am a follower of Jesus. So we want to look at this two week series and say, in light of who God is, his character, what he has done and what he's going to do, how should we live in light of it? And like I said, today we're looking at Jesus first coming and we should answer this question, how should we live in light of the fact that Jesus came? And I'm going to give you the answer right away. Our response should be humility. Today's big idea where we're going to go because Jesus came. Humility is our response. And we're going to look at a few texts together, namely Matthew 1 and I want to look at Philippians 2 together. So if you have a Bible, feel free to open up to Matthew 1. That's where we're going to start. But before we do that, I want to just kind of give you kind of a peek behind the curtain. Because what's important to note in planning this sermon series is we actually landed the plane on what we were going to teach for advent on May 13, right? I sat down with Jake Each, who's the lead pastor of Veritas Cedar Rapids, and we said, hey, we're going to take a break from Second Corinthians, kind of COVID Advent, cover the beginning of the new year. What do you think we should talk about? And I was like, man, I really want to talk about the distinction between the first coming and the second coming and how that should warrant our response. And the reason I tell you that is because if you didn't know that, you could think today's message is kind of a reactive sermon, one that kind of comes as a response. When you look at where we're at as a church, right? You look at the budget, you've probably gotten emails from me before on like, hey, let's be a church. That's generous. Or maybe you've received emails within the last month about serving, like, hey, we're going to two services. We need more volunteers. And you could look at this and be like, is this a hobby horse sermon? And the reality is it's not. But what we shouldn't be surprised by is that the God of heaven and earth knew what we needed to hear on December 15, long before May 13 ever happened. Right? And so it is kind of striking in the fact that it's like, man, this seems to be a very timely message for us as a church. And I think it means that more than maybe ever before, we should lean in and say, God, what do you want to say to us as a church family? What do you want to say to us individually about humility and service this Advent season? So, like I said, we're going to be in Matthew 1. I'm going to primarily teach through verses 18 through 25. But you might note, and the 17 verses before that is a genealogy. Anybody love genealogies in here? Okay, Couple people. Most people don't. They're like, okay, I'm going to just skim that, and then I'm going to figure out where the genealogy ends, and then I'm going to start reading. I would encourage you to actually, at some point, it doesn't have to be today or tomorrow to actually look at the first 17 verses of Matthew. This is the legal lineage of Jesus. And you would be shocked if you would slow down enough and actually look at the line of Jesus. Like, man, who all is in this legal lineage? What you would find is that Jesus came from a very unexpected people. He came from a line of people who had serious moral failures. In fact, you would even see a Moabite woman, which is shocking because most people would assume a straight Jewish line, and you would find one of the most wicked and godless kings in Israel's history in Manasseh. And so as you look at these first 17 verses, it's like, wow, Jesus came from these people. Like Tamar, like Bathsheba. Whoa, this is shocking. And the people who are, you know, coming to the Gospel of Matthew for the first time were not Americans in 2024, right? So imagine them reading that lineage and being like, wait a second. God used Judah and Tamar for the redemptive line of Jesus Christ is profound. But I want us to look at verses 18 through 25 today and look at the shocking story of Jesus birth. So verses will be up on the screen. Would love for you guys to follow along with me. Here's what the word of God says. It says, now, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son and he called his name Jesus. And I want to just peek ahead. Verse will be on the screen. You don't have to flip there. Luke 2. We see how this birth came to place in Luke 2. 7. She, Mary, gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the end. And I think as we read these verses and listen to this story, we are victims of big word here, desensitization. Okay? We have become desensitized to this story of the incarnation of Jesus. What that word means is that we have a reduced emotional response due to repeated exposure, right? Like, you've heard this story so much, You've sang these songs so much, and. Or you've listened to them on the radio so much that you're just like, of course Jesus came as a virgin. You know, of course Jesus was born as a baby. Of course Jesus was born in a manger. And it's like, what? Are you serious? Like, we've lost the emotional response that we ought to have because we've just seen and heard and read and sang about this so much. And when I think about desensitization, I think about the fact that Ellie and I, when we vacation in the winter, we like to go to this place called Florida. Can I get an amen to that? Okay. We go to Florida, and one of the places we sit down to eat at on their menu has an item called the Iowa Sirloin. And I'm just like, wait a second. Like, they don't understand steak in Florida, do they? Like, they really don't. So they need to get Iowa meat to figure out what real steak looks like. And it's like, man, we eat good steak all the time here, and we don't think anything of it. It's like, of course steak is good. It's like, I don't want to know what for Fort Lauderdale steak tastes like. I'm not interested. I like their beaches, but I don't like their food. And then you think about even just yesterday, it's like we've grown desensitized to the fact that we have insulated homes, we have central heating and cooling, we have indoor plumbing. It's like, not everybody everywhere has access to that. But it's just like, of course we can stay warm in the middle of an ice storm. And we've lost a sense of gratitude, a sense of amazement, even in the simple, quote unquote, simple things that we get to enjoy. And as you just place yourself in the real story of the Gospel of Matthew, which I love genealogies because it's evident that this is real history, right? These are real people in real time. This really happened. And this book was written primarily to a Jewish audience who is wrestling with all of these Old Testament prophecies. And when you look at the end of the Old Testament, you can flip two pages, you have the prophet of Malachi. But in between Malachi and Matthew is what they call the intertestamental period, which is over 400 years of no new prophetic message. Over 400 years. And over that time, Rome has risen to power. There is rampant Oppression, hopelessness is like growing amongst the people of God. And what they are longing for more than ever is a Messiah to come. And then you get Matthew, right, You get this great account of the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament. But what happens is the Messiah has come in a very unlikely fashion. He has not come as this political king as they might expect. Right? They wanted this Messiah to come and to crush the Roman Empire and to set them free from oppression. But that's not how we see Jesus come. We see Jesus born into extremely humble circumstances. He did not come as an earthly king to overturn the Roman Empire and he did not come to the world in royalty or wealth. No. Jesus came to a poor unwed teenager by the name of Mary. And as you look at kind of cultural norms of that day, she was likely 13 or 14 years old. She was betrothed, which means kind of this in between of engagement and marriage. And the fact that she would become pregnant in this time was extremely shaming. I mean, so much so that if Joseph was not a just man, what he could have done is publicly shamed. Mary enacted the Old Testament law and she could have been stoned to death. And so you think about, wow, Jesus was really born into a shameful circumstance. But more profound maybe is the fact that he was not born in a palace. No, he was not even born in an inn. Right. He didn't even get a private guest room, but he was born amongst animals and placed in a feeding trough. You know that old saying, like, what, were you born in a barn? Jesus is like, yeah, I actually was. But beyond these humble circumstances of Jesus birth, we should be shocked at the simple reality that Christ himself was born. I don't know if you've ever stopped to consider that, that Jesus came as a baby, right? This first struck me a couple years ago, Christmas 2022, because Ellie was like 35 or 36 weeks pregnant with Silas. And I know that the Bible doesn't actually say anywhere that Mary rode a donkey, but if you've ever watched the movies or the shows, it's like, oh, the trek to Bethlehem, like Mary's on a donkey. And I'm just imagining Ellie 36 weeks pregnant on a donkey. I'm like, this is insane, right? Or when you as a parent get to feel like your child kick, it's like Jesus was literally like dependent upon Mary, this 13, 14 year old girl, that he like placed himself in such a situation that the eternal, all sufficient and self sufficient God would come as a vulnerable and dependent baby. And then of course, obviously you have the baby like post birth and you're like, oh my goodness, they are so susceptible to illness. Like they are so dependent upon mom and dad to like keep them safe and to provide for them and to feed them and to change their diaper. Like everything is dependent and contingent upon the parents care. And it's like, wow, God chose for Jesus to come as a baby to a 13 or 14 year old girl. Whoa. Like, I mean, I've met some 13 and 14 year old girls and I'm like, I wouldn't trust you with like grown children, right? Let alone a baby that belongs to you. It's shocking. But what's crazy is that not just Jesus came as a baby, but that the holy, eternal and infinite God would put on flesh stepping out of heaven into a broken and fallen world. I don't know if you've ever just like stopped and thought about like Jesus, Son of God, the one who is receiving worship from spiritual beings like all of eternity. He is in a position of being worshiped, steps down out of heaven into a broken and fallen world. And he became, as Isaiah prophesied to us in Isaiah 7:14, Emmanuel God with us. And he did just this so that he could ultimately live out his God given name, Jesus, which means Yahweh saves, or Yahweh is salvation. In fact, the only way that we could be saved, the only way Yahweh could save us is if Jesus would come as Emmanuel God with us, that he was born of Mary to be fully human, because we require, you know, reconciliation to God. We require a perfect human life. But the only way that would be possible is if Jesus is not just fully human, but also is fully God. And so he was born of the Holy Spirit to be the Savior. We needed that he could live perfectly, that he could endure every temptation that we have endured, and yet be sinless to be the sufficient sacrifice for us. And when you look at the humility of Jesus coming of his birth, it really sets the stage for his entire life and ministry, which Paul lays out to the Church in Ephesus or the Church in Philippi and Philippians 2, whose verses will be on the screen as well. It says, who though he Jesus was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God as a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form. He humbled himself not just by becoming a baby, but by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. This is so counterculture, right? In a world that we live in today that is so focused on self, like climb the corporate ladder, achieve your dreams, promote yourself through social media. A self care driven stigma, right? Just take care of yourself. Or I would argue even worse, the live your own truth world. Just like everything is focused on self, and yet when you look at Jesus, it's the exact opposite. But what's comforting to know is that, you know, God is not shocked where we're at today culturally. You know, Ecclesiastes, like there's nothing new under the sun, right? We're reminded of this story in Mark 10 where Jesus interacts with these two men named James and John, these sons of Zebedee. And they came to Jesus. And ultimately what they're asking for is like, put us in positions of glory, like we want some of that. Like, give me some glory, sit me at your left and your right. And Jesus is like, you have no idea what you're asking for. They're like, yeah, we do. We want glory. He says, okay, you want to be great? Be a servant. You want to be the best, Be a slave to all. And then he says this in Mark 10:45, for even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom. For many, like, this is the God we serve. This is the Jesus who came more than 2,000 years ago. And if we are a people who have been saved by Jesus humble coming, if we understand that our right standing before God was only possible because Jesus became immanuel God with us, that he lived in such a way that he would deny himself, to become obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, and rise again so that we might receive the benefit of his perfect life and his substitutionary death. The only appropriate response is to say we should be shaped by humility. Not just saved because of Jesus humility, but shaped by Jesus humility. That's why Paul, in the verses that precede these few verses in Philippians, says this Philippians 2, beginning in verse 3, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus. Like, think about that. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. And nothing. The Greek word there means nothing. Like nothing, right? Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. Consider others more important or significant than yourself that you wouldn't think that you're such a big deal that you would say, wow, other people are more important than me. How can I look out for their interests? How can I look out for their well being? And humility, if we're honest, often looks like taking the role of a servant. One way you can find out how you're doing with humility is actually to be treated like a servant and feel like, wow, do I have it figured out? And I should have started this way. Does anybody feel like they have humility figured out? Right. I was thinking about saying, you know, I've been working really hard in the last four years and I've got it figured out. That's why I'm up here teaching on humility today. No, it's not one of those things that you can just come out and be like, I am the most humble person I know. It just doesn't work that way. We all have a lot to learn about humility. And one of the places that I love going is John 13. John 13. It's maybe the most famous story aside from the crucifixion of Jesus itself. The story of humility where Jesus washes his disciples feet. Jesus takes the role of what was normally done by a non Jewish slave. He stoops down and he washes his disciples. Disgusting dirt trodden feet, right? Washing feet back then looked a lot different than washing feet today. And I don't know many of you that are signing up to wash people's feet, let alone like marching through deserts in these like barely called sandals. Sandals. But Jesus takes on the form of a servant. He stoops down, literally takes the position of a slave and washes his disciples feet. And here's what he says in John 13 beginning in verse 14. If I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done to you. We are called to serve. That's part of what it means to be a Christian, is that you are called to serve. But it's important to Note in John 13 what Jesus did is he didn't just stand up and say y'all should just wash each other's feet. What did he do? He washed their feet. First they served each other out of the overflow of the profound reality that they had already been served by the God of heaven and earth, that Jesus came and served them and then said hey, as a recipient of being served, now go Serve one another. That should make it a bit easier for us when we pause and just say, okay, I know I'm not that big of a deal, but this person gets on my nerves or this situation is really inconvenient, should I serve them? And then you stop and say, hmm, have I ever been served? Who has ever served me? And then you think about the gospel and say, oh yeah, I have been served. I have been served to the point that God would step out of heaven, would become a baby born in a feeding trough, would live an obedient life for more than 30 years, would die a criminal's death, would rise victorious to serve me. Like what situation could you ever enter into that? It's like that's too much to ask of me. You can't. Not if you truly grasp the reality of Emmanuel. God with us, Jesus, Yahweh saves. But I think what's helpful for us, as you look at John 13 and the verses won't be on the screen, but if you were to flip to John 13, you would get a peek behind the curtain of what was going on in Jesus heart, in his mind, in his life, as he is preparing to stoop down and wash his disciples feet. Here's what John 13 tells us, is that Jesus, before he washes his disciples feet and says he knew where he came from and he knew where he was going. It's like, where did Jesus come from? He came from heaven, he's the Son of God. Where was Jesus going? Yeah, he was about to go to the cross, but where else was he going after that? He was going to ascend back into heaven. And so Jesus knew where he came from and he knew where he was heading. And that in essence frees him up to act as a slave, to be treated or regarded as a slave because he was secure in his identity. He wasn't wrapped up in what will they think of me? What's going to happen if they push back? What's going to happen if they take advantage of me? No, he knew who he was, he knew where he was going. And so when you truly grasp your gospel identity, man who made me God, where am I going? If you are in Christ, the reality is you are going to be with God forever. So in between your salvation and your death or Jesus return, you know where you've come from and you know where you're going. And now you're invited in everywhere in between to say, all right now I'm free to wash some feet, to be treated like a slave. And I don't have to worry about what people think of me. And I don't have to worry about what I think of me because I know what God says of me. I know it to be true. And what's awesome in Philippians 2 in that passage is that Paul says, have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus. Have this mind amongst yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus. When it comes to humility, we're not being called to something that we can't do. And we're not simply being commanded to go do something. We're being invited into the joyful reality of getting our eyes off ourselves. It's something we already have access to in Christ. You already, if you are filled with the spirit of God, you already have this mind. The same spirit that filled Jesus, that allowed him to live humbly, to die humbly, to rise victorious, now lives in you. And you're invited into the freedom that comes from I don't have to worry about myself. I don't have to think about myself all the time. It's exhausting, right? The late Tim Keller, pastor and author, said this. The essence of gospel humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself. It is thinking of myself less. And maybe you haven't thought about that before. I mean, even when you say the word pride, most often people think about, oh, pride means I have a really big head. I think I'm a big deal, like, I want to exert dominance over people. But pride can also rear its head on the other side, which is self demeaning. Tearing yourself down because what you're still doing is you're only thinking about yourself. Whether you think highly of yourself or you think lowly of yourself, that's still pride, because what you're thinking of is you. But what you're invited into in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as one who has repented and believed, as one who has been filled with the Holy Spirit, is to say, you don't have to do that anymore. You can forget yourself because your eyes are fixed on, number one, Jesus Christ, and number two, other people. So you don't have to worry about yourself. You don't have to think about yourself because you are free to live this life of humility, to get off the mental treadmill of always thinking about you. Be free from that. And so I want to talk briefly about four ways that we can grow in gospel humility in light of the fact that Jesus came, He lived, he died, he rose again, he set an example for us, and he's filled us with his spirit to actually be obedient to this call. Four ways that we can foster gospel humility and the first two start with humility before God and it must start there. So please do not jump to 3 and 4 without starting with 1 and 2. The only way that you can actually have gospel humility is to start with the first act, which is repentance. Repentance. Repentance is you coming before God and saying, I have fallen short of your glory. I have sinned, I have missed the mark of your holy standard. And not only that, I need you to change me. It's not just a I'm sorry, I'll try better next time. Again, that's pride. Repentance comes before God and doesn't say, look how hard I've tried, look how much I've done for you. It acknowledges your failure and says, jesus, I need you. I need you. I am vulnerable, I am dependent, I am needy. Would you please save me and change me? It starts there. To be someone who has been saved by the gospel and shaped by the gospel begins with repentance. And it gives you the gospel security that you actually need to be humble and to serve with humility towards other people. So first repentance, second prayer. Again, this is another, like humility before God. To be a person of prayer, to acknowledge your vulnerability and dependence and to seek God's guidance and strength that you can't just pull yourself up by your bootstraps and try harder. You can't just grasp for control in every area of your life. You actually have to surrender and say, God, I need you. I need your help, I need your direction, I need your discernment, I need your strength, I need your power, I need your provision. And to make that a regular pattern in your life, if you want to know how you're doing with pride, I would say, look at your prayer life. How often are you stopping to pray and to seek God's help? Or do you think that you've got it all figured out? So these first two, humility before God, repentance and prayer. But we can't stop there because humility before God ultimately, like, motivates us, pushes us out towards humility towards other people. So third, I would say serve. Consider other people more significant than yourselves. To be someone who says, I will take the position of a slave or servant, I will be regarded as the lowest, I will do the hard, I will do the mundane, I will do the diminishing task because that's how I get to experience Christ. And I would Say, maybe that's how you serve the church, right? Like, we have a huge opportunity in front of us, moving to two services. To be like, man, are you willing to serve the church? Are you willing to be obedient to John 13, which says, hey, serve one another. To step into a kid's classroom and let a baby puke on your shirt, Right? To step into a mundane task of like, sweeping a building during the week, to be willing to stick around, to stand out in an icy parking lot and help people feel welcome as they walk into a church building. It's like for God to look at you and say, well done, good and faithful servant. Way to take the low place. Way to serve your church. But again, I don't want this to just be perceived as a hobby horse of serve your church. It's important. Serve your church. But beyond that, serve your family, serve your kids, serve your spouse. Get your eyes off yourself. Serve your neighborhood, your community, your co workers. Consider your connection group, like, outdo one another. Like, serve one another. Well, it's not just, how do you serve on Sunday, it's how do you make serving a normal part of your life? Where, yes, it shows up at church, but does it show up in the home? Does it show up at work? Does it show up in the everyday patterns of your life? Serve. And lastly, I would say honor. I talked with our connection group leaders about this last week, a couple weeks ago, I'm losing track of time anymore. But Romans 12:10, one of my favorite verses says, love one another with brotherly affection and outdo one another in showing honor. And I am a competitive man to a fault, right? And when you look at Romans 12:10, it's the only command in the entire Bible that tells you to compete in something. And I'm like, wait a second, there's a good way to compete. Give me some of that. And it's like, yes, here's what you should do. Compete in showing other people honor. Like, make it your ambition to say, no one is going to encourage more people in the body of Christ more than me. No one will encourage and call out God's grace in the life of other people more than me. And to make that your ambition, to wake up in the morning and to be like, man, who can I encourage today? Who can I honor today? Who can I call out God's grace in their life today? You know what you're doing right there? You're considering other people more significant than yourself. You're not waking up saying, man, I wish someone would pat me on the back for doing a good job. I hope people recognize my hard work. No, you're saying I want to honor other people and I'm going to be competitive about it. And you will never meet a Christian who has been over encouraged. You just won't find it. So seek to honor other people and do it like you're competing. That's how you're obedient to Romans 12:10 outdo one another in showing honor. And I will say if we would take these four steps seriously, you would love the church you'd belong to. You love showing up here on a Sunday morning. You would adore your connection group. Because we would be a church that is filled with people that are willing to confess their sin to highlight God's grace, not just put forward their best picture their social media life. Be able to see the real them and be able to speak the real gospel and to see God show up in real incredible ways to put his power on display. You would belong to a church that is marked by peace as we are a people that would be much quicker to run to God in prayer than to anxiously grasp for control. You would belong to a church that is willing to submit its own preferences for the good of other people, full of members who are quick to serve with their time, with their talents and giftings, and yes, with their treasures to be able to say, man, what if my gifting isn't just for me? What if my Sunday morning isn't just for me? What if my money isn't just for me? How can I give and bless and serve other people? And of course that we would be full of a church that has people that are eager to encourage one another in the gospel rather than settling for small talk or self promotion. Imagine like showing up to church on a Sunday and instantly being met with encouragement. Or to say, man, this is how I've seen God at work in your life recently. I don't know if anyone's told you, but this is how I've seen him growing you in your patience. This is how I've seen God growing you as a parent. This is how I've seen God growing you as a worshiper on a Sunday morning. Rather than be like, how about that ice storm, right? And we're all guilty of that, right? Or to be like, hey, what were you up to? And then you know, or how's life been busy? And even in that busy response is like, man, I hope people know that I have a lot going on in my life. It gives us this feeling of significance. But to Be able to just strip it aside. To be able to be like man, to be able to respond in humility, to show each other humility, to shower each other with service and honor. And ultimately not. So that people would be like, wow, that's a really nice church. They've really grown in how nice they are to me. No, that we would be able to embody the person and work of Jesus. And that when people either come here on a Sunday morning or run into you throughout the week, that they would not just say, wow, they're really nice, but that even if they couldn't put language to it, we would know. No, you just encountered the living God. You encountered the living God. Because we are a people who have been served by a humble king and savior. And now our only appropriate response is to show people who our humble savior and king is. By the way, we humbly serve one another and those around us. And so I want to pray for us to that end. We know this is a task too great for us to again muster up the strength, for we need God to help us, to meet us here this morning, to empower us by his spirit, to, Lord willing, go from this place as a people who eagerly, joyfully serve. Let's pray together. God, I thank you for your profound wisdom, for your eternal plan before the foundations of the world, that you would set up this redemptive narrative where you would come to save your people from their sins not as a rich earthly ruler in a high position in a palace, but that you would come as a baby in a manger, that you would live as a servant and slave, that, Jesus, you would be obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, because you came not to be served, but to serve and to give your life as a ransom for many. God and I pray that every person in this room would believe that this morning that they would be met by mercy, that they would be quick to repent of their striving and selfishness, and that you would meet them there, that you would refresh them in a gospel identity. That they would be a people saved by grace and shaped by grace and God. We ask that you would empower us by your spirit to not just be a people who are saved by a humble king, but a people who are shaped by a humble king. That we would be much quicker to get our eyes off ourselves and to look at you, Jesus, and to look out, to consider others more significant than ourselves house and to serve and honor and encourage all for your glory. Jesus, we love you. We pray this in your name, amen.