Well, good morning. We girls. Hey, thank you. I appreciate that. I gotta tell you. It is really good to be here. Now, when I say it's good to be here. I don't mean it's good to be up here. That's downright scary. What it is good is, uh uh it's been a tremendous blessing for my wife and I joy to be part of the Mission Girl family really love this church. Four years ago, we were in the process of relocating from Minnesota, which only makes sense. We got somebody from Minnesota, got any Minnesotans. Yeah. Got any Wisconsin's. Uh, if you go to Wisconsin, yes, usher them out. They're from like they have cheese heads. Um Anyway, so we were, we needed to, we needed to find uh a home church and uh a little look online and we discovered uh Mission Grove and um about one visit was all it took it, it was pretty much game over that we could tell that this was the place for us. It's a friendly church. Um I wanna thank those of you who have reached out and embraced and made this feel home for joining me. This is also a place where there's a, a very unusual vision which by the way comes primarily but not only from uh our, our pastor, uh John Cradle, it's a vision for multiplication. And by that, I mean, a vision to start more churches, to give people away, to send people away and start more churches. Now, do you realize how incredibly uncommon that is, there's only 4% of all churches in the United States who have ever given birth to another church and there's less than 1% who regularly do it. And so, uh joy and I, we were, um, we were a part of a church who uh uh over a space of 20 years had started 30 other churches and was constantly sending people away. And so when I saw the vision that uh John Cragle had, I thought this is a place for us. But then speaking of John Cradle, uh, do we have a good pasture or what? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he's a little too tall. I'm not gonna hold that against him. I mean, you know, you come to church and you go looking like this. He's a little too tall, but he's got a lot of vision. He has a great heart and he's really uh an extremely capable communicator and a bible teacher, which is what made it hard for me when a couple of weeks ago I, uh, I got a phone call from John and he asked me if uh, I would uh speak in his absence. And when I got that request, I had a mixture of feelings. On the one hand, I felt really honored because I knew that he doesn't, uh just let anybody uh stand up here and talk to you. But on the other hand, I felt really intimidated because he's got really big shoes to fill. Uh, this is not a comfortable place to be when the guy who's up here normally is John Riggle. Now you add to that, that I've got a personal problem that maybe you can relate to. I'm telling you about me because I'm really, I'm thinking it may relate to you as well. I don't like to be second best. No, I'm not talking about, uh, preaching here on Sunday morning. Um, I like to be best. I prefer to be best, which is a problem because I never am. Uh, I've been, God has blessed me to be good at, you know, a little bit good at a number of things in life and it's always frustrating that I can never be best. It's not good enough for me to be, to do my best. I want to be the best. And so early on in life when I was a guitar player, I was really quite good, but I was not the best. Any of, you know, Phil Keggie. Phil Ky. Yeah, I'd go to a concert by Phil Ky and just walk away instead of inspired, I walk away, depressed because I knew I might as well just give up. Uh, and then, and then I got into, uh, well, and then it was, then it was a pastor and, and when pastors get together at pastor gatherings, they always, they evaluate each other. Yeah, we pretend that we don't, but we do. And what I knew was that, you know, I was, you know. Yes. OK. And, and then I took up being, this was in a different lifetime, uh, being a marathon runner got anybody here who's ever run a marathon. Yeah, I heard the chuckle. I know. It doesn't look like, um, different lifetime anybody here ever run a marathon. Come on, let me see. Yes, I see that. Hand anybody else, what's your name? Damon? Da da Damon D am on? Ok, Damon. Now, here's what's gonna happen because Damon knows that I've run a marathon and I know that he's running a marathon. There's a really good chance. Not because I'm telling him to, there's a really good chance that we're gonna get together following the service. Ok. That's just what happens among marathon runner. Um, and then we'll, you know, make smallpox and whatnot. And eventually one of us is gonna ask the other what your pr is pr, is runner, talk for personal record, the fastest that you've ever done a marathon. And so I'm just gonna skip to the end and Damon, what is your pr, for running a marathon. Did you not gonna tell we'll talk later? It's what marathon runners do. We, we get together and we, we, we're subtle about it but we evaluate each other based on the fastest that we've ever run a 26 mile race. Ok. And do on it. I want to be the best, but I've never been any place close to the best. And so, you know, I hate some of you are going, oh, that guy's got a problem and, and you'd be, you'd be right. I, I do have a problem and I'm not unique in that. Some of the disciples of Jesus had the same problem that I do. Now, most of you know that the um the disciples of Jesus, the 12 were not um the cream of the crop. None of them were politicians. None of them were theologians, none of them had money. They were all pretty average guys. Now, I want you to remember how average they were when you read what we're gonna read from Mark chapter nine. These average guys get together, it says in Mark 933. And so they came to caper, which by the way is the hometown of a number of them. And he, Jesus was in the house and he asked them, hey guys. So uh what were you arguing about on the road? I thought I heard some uh some unhappiness going on and all of a sudden quietness fell over the room because it was a major embarrassment. They were quiet because on the way these Joe averages had argued about who was the greatest. And the answer is none of them were, but they were arguing about it. Now, the only difference between them and us is they are more overt about it. And sitting down, Jesus said, ok, guys, we, we gotta talk and so he called the 12 and he said, if any of you wants to be first, you wanna be the greatest, you wanna be the best. That's good. That's fine. But he must first be, he must be the very last. And the servant of all. And they all felt really bad. OK. OK. OK. Now you would think that that would be the end of the story. It took exactly one chapter. If you got a Bible skip from chapter nine to chapter 10, chapter 10, verse 35. Same guys, one chapter later. Then James and John, two of the disciples, the sons of Zeba and they, they came to him, teacher, they said um hey, um we got a request we would like you to do for us whatever we ask. Um some of you moms may recognize that question, you know. Uh well, would you do me a favor? Uh I'll tell you what it is after you say yes. What do you want me to do for you? He asked and they replied, well, nothing big. Just let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory. You know, you're, you're the messiah big things are gonna be happening. You're gonna be the guy and all we'd like to do is to be on your right. We'd like to be number two and number three, Jesus responses, you guys are clueless. You have no idea what you're asking. And when the other 10 heard about this little episode, they became indignant with James and John. And the reason why is because they didn't think about it first and Jesus called them together and said, didn't we talk about this a chapter ago? Jesus said, you know, that those who are regarded as rulers of the gentiles lorded over them and their high officials exercise authority over them, not you, not my guys. Instead whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Must be slave of everybody else for even the son of man, Jesus most common uh uh way of referring to himself. Even the son of man didn't come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom. For many, I've been reading recently about narcissism, um specifically narcissistic personality disorder. Um It's a, it's a bad thing. Um It's uh somebody who has NPD has an inflated sense of self importance, a deep need for admiration and a lack of empathy for anybody but themselves. You got any uh narcissists in your life, I mean, don't point but got II, I see a couple of hands and the pain that is behind those hands. I it's not, it's not a fun thing to live with a, uh, with a narcissist. Uh I read those three things that I just mentioned, inflated sense of self importance, deep need for admiration and lack of empathy for other people. And I began to go. Whoa, that sounds scarily like me sometimes. Um Jesus might have called it instead of narcissistic Personality disorder. He might have called it Narcissistic Spirituality disorder. Nsd the conviction, the conviction that it's all about me when it's not all about me, it's all about him. The conviction that it's all about me. Now, this narcissistic Personality disorder or Narcissistic Spirituality disorder is the only disease where once you get it, it makes everybody else sick. You don't want to have it. Some of you are going boy. That sounds an awful lot like pride, pride, pride. Yes. Pride is something that is really hard to recognize in ourselves and really hard to do anything about it. If I asked, you know, how many of you, how many prideful people we have in this room? Uh You would maybe point fingers, but most of us don't think of ourselves as prideful people. It's very hard to recognize pride in ourselves. And if we do, it's very hard to do anything about it. We have some misconceptions about pride and about humility. Some misconceptions about pride and humility, specifically about humility. Um Maybe you're like me. I grew up with the idea that humility uh is thinking that you're worthless and have new abilities. Um It's having a poor self esteem. If I think that I'm a nothing, then I must be humble, not. So Jesus, Jesus was the, let's see, light of the world, son of God, son of uh man, bread of life. And the list could go on and on and on and on and on. He was all of these things. Did he know he was those things? Yes, he did. He told us about them. Was he prideful? No, you see, humility is not thinking badly about ourselves and pride is not thinking that we are greater than we are. That's, that's not called pride, that's called stupidity. You see both humility and pride. He, you got against this. Don't have anything to do with how we feel about ourselves and it has everything to do with how we treat other people. Now, remember those verses that we just read from uh Mark chapter nine and Mark chapter 10, Jesus said, I'm gonna paraphrase. He says, you guys, you want to be the best. You wanna be the greatest, fastest marathon runner uh Damon uh you, that's great. Go for it. He didn't reprove them because they wanted to be the best. He just went on to tell them how you wanna be the best. Great. Let me tell you how do it like I'm doing be the servant of all humility has everything to do with how we treat other people. So this morning, I want to talk to you about dressing for uh success. Uh First Peter chapter five verse five says the part that I want to read is all of you clothe yourselves with humility towards one another. Humility is a decision. This morning, you got up, you showered, I hope brushed your teeth and you took a look at the clothes that you had available and you made a decision, you made a decision about what you would put on, that would make you look the best by the way. Uh Watching you come in this morning, I gotta say, I think you made some, some really good choices. Um You're, you're looking really good. Uh Peter who was one of those 12 who had this narcissistic spirituality disorder finally got it under control. And he's telling us I want you to choose a different wardrobe, a wardrobe that is about humility. Um And so we're gonna talk about what it looks like to dress for success. Jesus wants you to be great. He wants you to do so by how you act towards other people and that humility leads to success. Um Proverbs chapter 22 verse four, humility and the fear of the Lord bring wealth and honor and life. Um That a lot of times we are under the misconception that if you're humble, you're gonna get stepped on, trampled on and end up at the bottom of the pile. Exactly. The opposite is true. God says, oh, there's somebody who's doing it right. I like his wardrobe, her wardrobe and he smiles on us and blesses us. So let me tell you three things that I wanna suggest that you wear going forward. The first three things to wear. Number four, number one is blue jeans, blue jeans. Romans chapter 12 verse 16 says, do not be proud but be willing to associate with people of low position. Don't be conceded. Ok? He says, be willing to hang out with people of low position. OK? Who is that in every social setting that you're in? Whether it's in work school, family church, you all know who that is and if you can't figure it out, then it's probably you but you know who it is. Um Forli Eba kind of a name is that 1921 was studying chickens. Some of you have heard this before. He was studying chickens and he noticed something fascinating, put uh 10 chickens together um that there was one chicken that would peck on every other chicken and they would just take it. And then there was a second chicken that would peck on every other chicken except that first chicken. And then there was a third chicken that would peck on every other chicken except number one and number two. That was chicken number three. And then there was chicken number four, who would pick on everybody else except for number 12 and three, et cetera, et cetera down the road. Until finally, there was chicken number 10 and check out number 10, didn't peck on anybody, not if it wanted to live. And thus was coined the um uh the expression and the concept pecking order. And in every social setting, including by the way, and this is the sad part, including a church. There's a pecking order of who's important, who's not as important and who's not particularly important. It's a disturbing and sad truth. And Jesus says, OK, followers of mine, I want you to associate with chicken number 10, which is exactly what Jesus did when he called the 12. There wasn't a politician, there wasn't a rich person, there wasn't a theologian, there wasn't anybody that you'd call chicken. Number one, maybe some of them were chickens. Number five and there were some six eights and tens among them. And he taught them by his example. Who did he associate with, did Jesus spend his time with theologians or politicians or rich people? No, he spent his time with prostitutes, tax collectors, sinners, Children. Boy, this is dicey women, which in his time and his culture uh automatically made you chicken number six through 10. I'm sorry. I'm not saying that that's true. I'm saying in his culture, in his time. And Jesus said, that's just not OK, that's just not OK. So he spent his time with, among other people, women and with lepers. I'm not trying to equate women, lepers. I'm trying to say that by his example to his 12. He says, guys, here's what I want you to do. I want you to do exactly the opposite of what is natural to do. I want you to put on blue jeans and associate with people who are comfortable in blue jeans. I want you to tomorrow tomorrow, wherever you're at tomorrow, wherever the social setting is tomorrow, I want you to look for chicken number 10 and associate with them and talk to them and love them and care about them. You will not score any points with chickens. Number 12 and three. In fact, chickens number 12 and three will be busy ignoring chicken number 10 and in the process probably ignoring you, but God will smile. Number one, put on blue jeans, associate with the lowly. Secondly, second piece of the wardrobe, put on work cloths, work gloves, Jesus John chapter 13, a story that if you've been around church a little while, you're probably pretty familiar with the last supper. The guys got together uh just before Jesus was going to be crucified the next day and they were going to celebrate the Passover. They got together in the upper room to, to uh have the Passover dinner and now there was something, there was an elephant in the room because every time that people would gather in that culture together for, uh, dinner or something else like that, um, there would be somebody check number 10 who was supposed to, who was supposed to wash everybody else's feet. Now, this was not a spiritual thing. It wasn't a religious thing. It wasn't a symbolism. We're gonna have a foot washing service at church. No, this was an entirely practical thing. Uh, everybody got here by walking through the muck and the dirt and the mud and the manure. And before we gathered together into this, this reasonably nice room, your feet need to be, need to be washed. And it was something that chicken number 10 was supposed to do. And so there was mixing my metaphors. It was an elephant in the room because nobody wanted to do it. Nobody brought it up. Nobody said anything. Everybody just kind of looked around the room. 00, it's a really nice day we're having in here. Oh, who cooked this? Oh, good food. And meanwhile, everybody knew that everybody was sitting there with 30 ft. And so finally Jesus broke the ice and you know what he did. And he, he, uh, wrapped himself and wore clothes and washed everybody else's feet and he said, and that's what I want you to do and that's what I want you to do. I want you to be chicken number 10, put on work gloves and wash each other's feet. So, tomorrow in whatever setting you're in, maybe it's home, uh, maybe it's in the home setting. Uh, there's, there's a, uh, there's, there's always something that nobody wants to do. Uh, those of you who got, got any parents here with young Children. Uh, you remember when they, uh, uh, they, they woke up in the middle of the night and your baby's crying? And what did you do when I woke up in the middle of the night, I'll tell you what you do. You pretended that you were asleep and, and desperately waited and wished the other person would finally wake up and move and go take care of the baby that's sleeping is now crying joy and I are long past the baby that's, that's crying. But we have two Labradors, two wonderful Labradors who sleep in our bed and in the middle of the night, usually about two or three in the morning. Uh One or the other of them wakes up and comes along the side of the bed and uh and starts going, oh, and it's pathetic. And so, and so both of us proceed to pretend like we don't hear it. Uh And Jesus said, no, that's not what I want you to do. There's a job in everybody's home, in everybody's workplace, in your workplace. It may be, it may be uh uh addressing envelopes, it may be cleaning up after a lunch break. It may be bringing uh snacks. It may be, I don't know what it is, but there is something, there is something that nobody wants to do including you. And Jesus said, hey, you wanna be first? Fantastic. Let me tell you how, find that thing and repeat these four words. Let me do it. Let's try that together. Let me do it. And that was pretty quiet because I, I sense the lack of enthusiasm in the run. Ok, let's try one more time. Right here we go. Let me do it. Ok, tomorrow I wanna hear in your homes, let me do it and in your workplace, let me do it and in school let me do it, whatever the it is that nobody else wants to do. Jesus said you wanna be first. That's what you do. Ok. Genes work class. Let me do it. And thirdly a hearing aid, hearing aid, I know that may sound a little bit strange for a um for a, a wardrobe but a hearing aid, a hearing aid is that which helps us uh to listen. Uh You've heard before that God gave us God gave us one mouth and two ears because he for a reason because he wants us to do far more, far more listening than he wants us to do talking. Um uh James chapter one verse 19. Every one of us should be quick to listen and slow to speak. Proverbs chapter 1310 wisdom is found in those who take advice. Ok, so a hearing aid so that you can listen better to two things. Number one, number one, the advice of others, the advice or what I'm really talking about is the criticism of others. And the, the reality is that when people give us advice, we think it's criticism. Ok. That's, yeah, we're just sensitive people. And my question to you is are you somebody that others can give advice to uh or are you somebody who, who just go? Yeah. No. Um Do you get a lot of advice or a lot of criticism? And if, and if you don't, one of two things is true either y uh you don't get a lot of advice or criticism because number one, you are uh you're approaching perfection and there's really no advice to be given. Uh And some of you going, yeah, that's it. Secondly, the other possibility is that everybody knows that you're gonna reject it anyway and you're gonna blow them out of the water in the process. Advice. It is the hardest or criticism and we confuse the two. It is the hardest thing for us to hear. We don't want to hear, especially if it comes from a spouse, a roommate, a parent, those of you who are grown and you have grown parents and you're going iiii I don't wanna hear from that anymore. Uh a boss, a friend, your child, they're not supposed to be criticizing me. Oh, really? It is really tough to take advice or criticism from others. Um Any of you here ever been um uh fired, laid off or downsized? Let me see. The fired laid off and downsized. Raise your hand. Come on, be proud about it. Yeah, I did. OK. Most of you, all right. And in the process you may have gotten some criticism. Uh a number of years back, I went through uh a really painful experience where I was. Um I'll say it nicely. I was let go um uh from the church that I was serving and I would like to say, I'd like to tell you today that my attitude at the time was Oh, really? Tell me more. Ah Thank you. Tell me more. Sorry, thank you. Tell me more. Let's try those 454 words, five words, five words. Thank you. Tell me more. Here we go. This is your words for when your spouse, your roommate, your parents, your child has some advice for you. Ready? Thank you. Tell me more. Let's try it again. Thank you. Tell me more by the way, that doesn't feel good. Um But it is the action of humility and it is listening and it is a way that God can get our attention. Listen to the advice of others really humbling thing to do. And secondly, listen to the feelings of others, the feelings of others. Um, listening to people's feelings is not something that's done with the ears. It's something that is done with the heart. You know, who the most attractive person in the room is the most attractive person in the room to you. Is anybody who cares enough about you to listen to you. If you just had the best week, imaginable, you got a promotion and a raise and you, uh, you won the lottery. if that was your week and you were here this morning, what would you be wanting to do? You'd be wanting to tell somebody and you'd be wanting them to Lasana. Now, if the opposite happened and you had an absolutely horrible week and you got fired and your dog died, it would be harder for you to say anything. But inside you would be desperately hoping and waiting, wanting somebody to care about how your week sucked. The biggest gift we can ever give to somebody is to ask them honestly seriously about their life and then listen, kill this. Um, not not long ago. Uh, I got a call from AAA friend of mine from a long time ago and, and he said, you know, why don't we get together? And I thought, oh, ok, let's get together. And I thought we're gonna get together for, you know, an hour or two. And it turned into all day and in the course of the all day, um, 85% of what was said in those six hours, uh, came out of his mouth and at first I was, I was disturbed by that, you know, I'd start to say something and he jumping over me and then it dawned on me, it dawned on me and I heard a little voice that said Dave and, and not a voice from him, from him that just said, shut up and listen. He just needs you to shut up and listen to about his life and about his wife and about his kids and about his staff. The biggest gift we can ever give to somebody is to listen to them about their joys, about their struggles, about their disappointments, about their discouragements. We need a hearing aid to help us to listen to the feelings of others. Remember Jesus wants you to be great. He didn't reprove the disciples for wanting to be great. He said, you wanna be great. Fantastic. Let me tell you how here's how you treat other people. If you wanna be great, it wasn't easy, but he lauded them for wanting to be great. But you gotta treat other people these ways. Once upon a time, once upon a time, there was a little donkey, a young donkey, a small donkey uh by the name of Uber. Uber, the donkey. And in his little town, Uber was the uh he was the youngest, he was the inexperienced. He was the smallest. And so whenever anybody needed a ride nobody called Uber because after all, there were older donkeys, there were ones with more experience and there were bigger donkeys available. And so time after time, Uber would get passed over until one day, a stranger came to town, a stranger who needed a ride and who picked you guessed it. Uber and Uber was excited. This is my day. This is my chance. And the stranger climbed on to Uber for the ride and the stranger was not rich. He wasn't gonna make a lot of money. There was not gonna be a big tip and it wasn't even gonna be a long ride just from this town to the one immediately adjacent to down this little hill through this gate into the main uh part of the town and next door. But it was his chance. And so he started to walk into his amazement. Something strange happened. A crowd started to gather to watch Uber and he went a little bit farther and the crowd started to clap and Uber thought, oh, I'm doing a great job. And as he went a little bit farther, people started to go, oh, poor Uber's feet. And they would start to throw their clothes down in front of Uber to protect his hoofs. And then they broke out into applause and finally a standing ovation and Uber's tail was just wagging up a storm. I am doing such an incredible job and he was walking faster and faster and faster and faster until finally the ride was over and to the applause of the crowd, he took his vow, his rider dismounted and left and so did the crowd. And then he realized, oh, it's not about me. It never was about me. Would you stand with me for a closing prayer? Lord Jesus, it is not about us. And that is so hard for us and particularly just us to remember. Lord I pray that you would help us to serve others. The way you served us. May may our lives be lived in a way that makes a smile break out on your face. We want to please you in Jesus name. We pray amen.