Pastor Jerry Dean: August 28, 2011 Weeding Your Spiritual Garden, Part IV, “Dealing with Dandelions and Crabgrass.” Thank you for letting me in the door with a warm welcome-especially with a Bears jersey on. While I’m talking, why don’t we go ahead and take the offering. I think about the Bears jersey; I’m talking about anger today, so there’s a reason I wore this. Remember all the way through the message as you look at me and think, “I don’t like that Bear jersey,” this is only a test. I actually thought about wearing my old college football jersey, but it had 47,000 tears in it. It had blood all over it, and it was ripped to shreds. It looked like something the cat dragged in. After I was looking at it, I thought that if I put it on, I might catch a disease or something, so I chose not to wear that. I guess you’ll have to put up with the Bears jersey. It is really good to have you here. About a month ago in a staff meeting, Pastor Jeff asked me if I’d preach this weekend; and I said sure. Then he said, “So we’re talking about Weeding Your Spiritual Garden. What’s the title of your message [going to be]?” I’m like, “Now?” He’s like, “Yes, now. We need it in the bulletin by tomorrow.” So I said, “Okay. Dandelions and Crabgrass.” It was a lot of fun finding something that actually fit into that. No, I’m only kidding. We think about Weeding Your Spiritual Garden and about the word crabgrass, the root word of which is-not grass-but crab, and we talk about anger and the issues that we have; sometimes in Christian circles, we deal with some of the big issues from immorality to murder. You know, nobody probably robbed a bank over the weekend, right? Anybody rob a bank? Raise your hand? No? Okay. The cops are looking for you outside. Anger doesn’t get talked about quite as often, and it’s really sad. Are you somebody that has supposedly been a Christian for 30 or 40 years; and rather than getting weaned on the milk of the Word or the meat of the Word, you look like you’ve been weaned on pickles and lemon juice? This morning, we want to talk about the issues of anger. We’re going to go through [this topic] because we want to let you out of here a little early so you can go tailgate with everybody. I can see that I’m already talking really, really fast, so we’ll just kind of race through some of these PowerPoints; and if I have a little bit of time, I’ll come back and elaborate on some a little bit more. The question today is this: do you have a spiritual crabgrass and dandelion problem? By crabgrass I’m referring to anger, and by dandelions I’m referring to your pride. We think about those issues and about anger, and some of you might ask what anger is and what the difference is. I’m reminded of a story I was reading not too long ago about a young girl who came home from school and said, “Daddy, can you help me? I have a homework assignment. I have to write a paper on the difference between being irritated, being angry and being exasperated.” The dad thought for a minute. He said okay and put his phone on speaker phone. He said, “Now you listen in and I’ll show you the difference between those three things.” He randomly dialed a number, knowing it was going to be a wrong number. The person on the other line picked up the phone and the dad said, “Hello, is Melvin there?” The guy said, “No, you must have the wrong number,” and he put the phone down. The dad said to his daughter, “Okay, now watch this,” and he called the same number back. The guy picked up the phone and the dad said, “Hello is Melvin there?” The guy said, “No, you idiot! Melvin’s not here. I just told you that! Why don’t you check your number before you call,” and he slammed the phone down. The father turned to his daughter and said, “Now that’s being irritated.” He waited a few seconds and dialed the same number back. The guy picked up the phone, and he said, “Hello is Melvin there?” This time the guy said, “You moron! Why do you keep calling me? Stop calling me!” He slammed the phone down. The father turned to his daughter and said, “Now that’s anger! Now, watch this.” He called the same number back for the fourth time. The guy picked up the phone and said, “Hello?” And the dad said, “Hi, this is Melvin; do you have any messages for me?” That’s exasperation. Well, we want to talk about anger today. It’s interesting to think about that and about our spiritual gardens. There was someone who was the poster child for this issue in his life, and he is not someone many of you would normally think of. This guy was a real man of God; he was a real leader; and he did amazing things for God, but his anger kept him from the one thing he desired most in life. That man is Moses. We won’t turn to the Passage to begin with, but if you look at Moses, it’s interesting that way back in his youth as Moses saw what the Egyptians were doing to his own people, even though he grew up in the palace, he was irritated. Irritation led to anger. At one point, Moses saw an Egyptian taskmaster beating a Hebrew slave; Moses’ anger kicked in and he [became] enraged. He looked one way, he looked the other way, and he didn’t see anybody; so he killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. That rage would follow Moses his whole life. He spent 40 years out in the desert as a result of that. He came back to lead God’s people out of Egypt. In the middle of the wilderness 40 years later as God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai, Moses came down from Mt. Sinai and saw that in the 40 days he’d been up there, the people had made themselves a golden calf. They were worshiping the calf, they were dancing around naked, and Moses was ticked. Now he should have been angry in some ways, but if you understand what was going on in Moses’ life and the struggles he was going through, you’d realize Moses reacted in an incredible way. He threw down the Ten Commandments and smashed them to pieces. He took the golden calf, melted it down, ground it into powder and threw it into the water. He then forced the people to drink it. You think he had some issues? Later on when God showed Moses His glory, one of the first things God said to Moses was, “The Lord is gracious and slow to anger.” Yes, God judges; He is the rightful Judge of the universe. Yet, God doesn’t judge capriciously. God’s whole nature is slow to anger and [quick to be] gracious. That led to 40 years of wandering in the wilderness in which Moses led the children of Israel. They refused to go into the land; and at one point during that journey, the children of Israel were thirsty and needed water. God told Moses to take the rod that was in his hand and walk out and smack the rock. When Moses did that, water came out of the rock. It was a picture of what Christ would do for us. He was struck for us. The blessings of salvation flowed out of Jesus, the living rock. Paul made that clear in the New Testament with that story and that picture being an illustration of what Christ would do for us. Sometime later, the children of Israel were again thirsty. God told Moses, “Go out to the rock with the Rod of God in your hand, and this time, don’t hit the rock.” Why? Because Jesus didn’t have to die for our sins multiple times. He died how many times? Once. The rest of the blessings that we get from Christ are the result of prayer. You’ve heard of talk to the hand? Well, God said to Moses, “Speak to the rock. You’ll go out with the rod, but don’t hit the rock, just talk to the rock. Speak to the rock. When you do that, water will flow out,” but Moses was ticked. He’s had a belly full of these people griping, complaining, and whining, the whole time. He walked out to the rock and rather than listen to God and just talk to the rock, Moses lost it. He said, “You bunch of stinking rebels! Do we have to get water out of this rock for you?” He takes the rod of God and smacks the rock again, and God is incredibly gracious. Water flowed out of the rock to give the people a drink, but God said to Moses because of that , “Because you failed to honor Me, because you lost your cool and you failed to honor Me and failed to listen to My commands as I told you to, guess what you lose? You lose the garden, the paradise; you lose the land flowing with milk and honey, that weed of your anger. That crabgrass that grew that you never weeded out-that is going to keep you out of the land that I promised everybody else; so you can walk up to the top of Mt. Nebo, and you can look across the Jordan River and see it, but you don’t get to go there.” That’s pretty sad. Few people have ever done as many amazing things for God as Moses did, but his temper kept him out of the Promiseland. We’re going to look at a few ideas in Proverbs. You know most of this Book was compiled by Solomon, the wisest man other than Christ who ever lived. [Let’s look at] what he has to say about anger. He says to begin with “The quick temper is the mark of a fool and of a weakling.” We don’t usually think about that, but repeatedly through the Book of Proverbs, Solomon says that having a quick temper is the mark of a fool. God is pretty blunt and pretty straight forward. One of the things I can’t figure out: did you ever notice that unfortunately, people who lose their temper quite often seem to find it again? I’ve always been confused at how they lost their temper, and I’m really saddened that it never stays lost. Apparently, they keep going back to dig it up. God says, “Look, a fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.” A fool. In psychology today in a lot of different avenues, you can hear people say, “Well there’s a time when you just have to vent.” How many of you have ever heard somebody say that? “Oh, I just have to vent.” Well, excuse me. Do you know what the Biblical admonition is or what God has to say about venting? I was going to say it is black and white, but [it’s more like] blue and white. “A fool gives full vent to his anger. A wise man keeps himself under control.” Venting is the mark of a fool. Venting destroys relationships. It destroys people. Solomon and Ecclesiastes say, “Control your temper for anger labels you a fool.” We chuckle sometimes about people that have the “loser” label on their forehead. If you want to have fool tattooed or stamped on your forehead, [you’ll have to get] yourself a reputation of somebody who loses their cool regularly. Then you can walk around with everyone knowing you’re a fool. God loves you and God cares; God is incredibly honest, and He calls a spade a spade. Solomon says, “A person without self control is like a city with broken down walls.” There’s no protection. You’re liable to any type of attack. On the other hand, self control is the mark of power. Self control [can be defined as] the ability to control your temper, and that is the mark of power. Listen to what Solomon says: “Better a patient man than a warrior; [better] a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city.” The fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 is self control. “Greater is the One who is in you than the one who is in the world.” God put His Spirit in you. You have that power. You have that ability to control your temper and your anger, which leads to the next slide and the next thought: Let’s get to the root of the whole problem. The root of the problem is that we believe lies. We believe Satan’s lies too often and fall prey to temptation. You see, friends, I’m here to tell you this: there are two things and only two things that will determine everything you do. You and I can open up the Word of God and show you from Genesis to Revelation that these two things are true. How you act and how you behave is based entirely on two things: what you believe about God and what you believe about yourself; and if you get those things wrong, your behavior will be incredibly messed up. I’m going to start with the first one. Do you believe the lies about God, who He is, and what He’s doing in your life, which often lead to anger? You see, we face difficulties, we face trials, or we face hardships; we face pain and suffering in our lives, and what do we tend to believe? “Why did this happen?” Or if we do think about God, too often we’re tempted to think, “Man, where is God? Why did He allow this to happen? God really messed up. He blew it with this one. This is too painful. He doesn’t know what He’s doing in my life.” Well, Paul assures us in Romans 8:28 (page 1119 of pew Bibles). He says, “We know that all things work together for good to those that love God.” How many things? Not just a few things, not some things, but all things. Why don’t you just turn to a neighbor and say, “All things?” There you go. Those kinds of things help you remember Scripture better. Somebody told me that once. All things work together for good. Not just a few, not just some, but all things. The next Verse goes on to tell us that God is allowing those things in our lives to make us more like His Son, Jesus Christ. Look at Joseph. His brothers wanted to kill him and then sell him into slavery and bondage in Egypt. He’s falsely accused of rape and he gets thrown into prison, all unjustly. He comes back 13 years later, and the brothers who put him there are bowing down before him. Joseph could have taken their heads off if he wanted to, but he forgave them and embraced them. Why? Because he said, “You meant it for evil.” He’s not ashamed to call a spade a spade. They did mean it for evil, but he said, “The God of the universe meant it for good.” And friends, that realization that God means-that pain, that heartache, and that adversity in your life-for good to make you more like Christ is the very thing that allows you to rise above that. Sitting here in [this] football jersey [makes me realize] one of the most difficult things that I ever went through in my life was playing college football. My junior high football coach was a 6’4” ex-marine drill sergeant. He was nasty. One time he gave me a spanking before a game even though I didn’t do anything. I played quarterback and middle linebacker. I threw three touchdown passes and intercepted two. After the game he walked up to me, and I thought maybe he was going to say, “Nice job.” Well, he did. He said, “Nice game, Dean. I ought to give ya a lickn’ before every game.” That was his attitude! My freshman football coach in high school was a Colonel in the Army Reserves. My college coach was worse than all of them. The pros complain about two practices a day; we had six a day. Four of them were full contact. It was the closest thing to hell on earth I’ve ever been through, and I grew up on a farm working hard. What he did was horrible! When the season was finally over after four years-my senior year-I was respectful, but I said, “You claim to be a Christian. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. You treat people like garbage, and your players lose respect for you. And you trash people -- rip people, destroy people. You don’t care about what you do to people, and you ruin their lives!” His response was, “Well, Jerry, what are you going to do with your life?” I said, “I’m going to be a pastor.” He said, “Well, someday you’re going to get out in a church and you’re going to have people mistreat you; and because you learned how to take it from me, you’ll be able to take it from them.” Now that’s wonderful logic and reasoning, isn’t it? But you know what? He was right. He is going to stand before God, and he’s going to have to give an account of how he behaved and how he treated people; and for that, he will be judged. On the other hand, did God mean that for good in my life? The answer is absolutely. I would not be who I am today if it were not for that man, so I thank God [for that]. Here’s a guy who treated me worse than any human being ever has; and at the same time, I can look back and say, “God used that man to probably teach me more in my life than almost anyone else.” Friends, faith and dealing with your anger become the realization that there is a God who is in control of your footsteps and my footsteps. What others may mean for evil or wrong, God uses to make you the person you’ve always dreamed about becoming; and that’s what allows you to deal with those situations and overcome them without giving into anger. The second thing I would have you notice is that Satan attacks you and tempts you in the area of your identity and who you really are. In fact, you can look at Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. This is the crux. You identify that Satan actually attacks your beliefs more often than he does your view and your vision of God. You know why? Because if Satan came to you- and you know God’s Word pretty well-and said, “God’s not eternal,” you’d go, “Wait a second. Yes He is.” Or if he whispered in your ear or put the thought in your mind, “God’s not very good,” you’d go, “Wait a second. It’s all over God’s Word. He died to pay for my sins. Of course, He’s good and I have his blessings every day! He might say, “God’s not honest; He’s not truthful.” You’d be like, “Wait a second. I know of God’s promises from Genesis to Revelation.” See, those are easier to deal with, but if he comes and lies his head off to you about who you are and who your real identity is, you’re not so sure about that. It’s much more likely that we buy into those things. It’s how he even attacked Jesus in the wilderness. Before every single one of the temptations, he said, “So if you’re the Son of God, do this. If you’re the Son of God, do that.” Or, “Since you’re the son of God, do this.” Every one of those temptations was an attack on His identity in some way, shape, or form. Friends, I have seen this area of temper for years, upon years, upon years. One of my favorite lies that I hear all the time is blaming our anger and temper problems on our nationality. “Oh, I’m Norwegian, so I have a bad temper.” Or, “I’m German, so I’m kind of stubborn.” “I’m Italian or I’m Irish.” You name it, fill in the country. What is it? It’s a lie out of the pit of hell. Embrace it for what it is. The God of the universe says when you trust Jesus Christ, guess what? You became a citizen of a different country with a different nationality. Amen? God says in CSI lingo, according to II Peter 1 (page 1200 of pew Bibles), “He made you a partaker of the Divine Nature” or in CSI lingo, he put inside you the very DNA of God. He has given you everything. Like the old Prego spaghetti sauce ad [said], everything necessary for a life of Godliness, “It’s in there.” This lie that you can’t control it or I just have to give in to it is balderdash-that wonderful English word. It’s a lie. It’s a lie out of the pit of hell. Admit it for what it is and embrace the truth of the Word of God. If you have the mind of Christ, which He says you do; if you have the love of God shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit who is given to you, which you do; if you are king and a priest and more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ, then guess what? You don’t have to give into the temper. You can control it. I see that in very practical ways in people’s lives all the time. You see people fighting-maybe with a spouse, maybe with a family member, maybe somebody at work-and they’re really going at it. They’re like Muttley in the old cartoons. They’re just foaming and fulminating and they’re just all wired. They tell themselves, “I can’t control my temper,” but right in the middle of that, all of a sudden the phone rings and then it’s, “Hello” [in a delightful voice]. Yeah, but you can’t control it [Pastor Jerry speaking sarcastically]. You can control it very well. God says, “Look, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.” That’s a real you if you’re a child of God. God said, “He put in you the Spirit of Christ,” that Spirit that says, “I like being gentle. I like being gracious with people. I like being slow to anger.” That’s the real you, so don’t buy the lie. Too often, we listen to those lies. I had a woman that doesn’t go to our church call me about a month and a half or two ago. She was dealing with some really serious family issues. I said, “So have you confronted your family members and talked to them about that?” And she said, “Oh, no. I hate confrontation.” I said, “So you’re a Christian, right?” “Oh, yeah, I’m a Christian-been a Christian for a long time.” And you know me; I have to make people say that like five or six times so they get the point. So I said, “So you’re a believer, right?” “Yeah, I trusted Christ.” “So you know the Lord, right?” “Yeah, I know the Lord.” “And so let’s see, you’re a Christian, right?” “Yeah, I’m a Christian.” I said, “Hmm. And how many times have you said to yourself, ‘I hate confrontation’?” And she said, and I quote, “Oh millions.” Now let me ask you a question. If you’ve bought the lie that you hate confrontation and you’ve told yourself that millions of times, what are the odds that you act like that? I tell people all the time that there’s a war in Christianity, but it’s not always where we think it is. So often we think it’s a struggle of the will. You can grit your teeth and make yourself act a certain way for a while, but if you don’t change what you believe in your mind, you know what’s going to happen? In a very short time, you’re going to be right back doing the same things. Jesus said that it’s what you believe that determines how you act as a man. “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” Faith produces works. Change what you believe and you’ll change your actions. God calls you to combat those lies with His truth. To say, “Wait a second. I’m a child of God,” means God put in me the heart of a peacemaker-a desire to be a mediator, to stand in the middle of warring factions like Jesus Christ did, and reconcile and unite people. In fact, He says I’m an ambassador for Jesus Christ. Sometimes ambassadors have to go into war zones to bring peace, right? But instead of embracing that Truth, we listen to the lies too often. “Oh, I hate confrontation.” I was just reading Leviticus this week. Paul talks about speaking the Truth and love. Paul in this area of love says [such as in Leviticus 19:17, page 116], “‘“Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt.”‘“ That doesn’t sound like great Sunday morning preaching, does it? Do you know what the very next verse says, “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” We don’t equate those too often in church, do we? “Let’s see. If I really love my neighbor, I’ll rebuke him when he does wrong,” but that is love. I’ll say, “Look, you shouldn’t have acted that way. You shouldn’t mistreat people that way.” You and I know that what tends to happen if we fail to confront people. If we fail to deal with people when they do what’s wrong, what tends to happen inside of us? We get madder and madder and madder and madder, and we let it go. We let it go and let it go and let it go because we think that we don’t have the courage to deal with it. We’ve told ourselves, “I’m kind of afraid or I don’t like confrontation.” Finally, after it happens to us the fiftieth time, we blow a gasket instead of dealing with it and addressing it the first time. I encourage you this morning: don’t buy the lies. The Spirit of God lives in you. His love has been shed abroad in your hearts. You can do anything through Christ who strengthens you. He’s given you the heart of a peacemaker, the mind of Christ, the Spirit-not of fear-but of power, of love and of a sound mind. Let’s look at the second weed in the garden that we need to pull out: dandelions, which are embolic or symbolic of pride. When I was six years old and we lived on two and a half acres, my dad came up with a brilliant idea that we should dig up all the dandelions in the place, so I have a very up close and personal relationship with dandelions. I remember the first day my two brothers and I dug them. We stopped counting somewhere around 27,000, and I remember at six years old I still had to make it fun. I would be out there with my dandelion digger going, “Sir Dandelion, I slay thee,” so I have a lot of experience with dandelions; but in the same way, dandelions or pride can ruin our spiritual life. They can ruin our walk with God, and they have horrible consequences sometimes. They can destroy you. We’ll look at Nebuchadnezzar in a second, but pride reminds me of one of my absolute favorite stories about the lion who was the king of the beasts in the jungle. This male lion woke up next to a watering hole one day and he was gazing at his reflection in his watering hole. He looked at himself and thought, kind of like Billy Crystal’s ode, “I looked in the water and I looked marvelous.” He thought, “I look really good,” and he was full of himself. He hopped up and started treading through the jungle and came upon a zebra. He looked at the zebra, walked up to him, and said, “Zebra, who’s the king of the beasts?” The zebra looked at him and said, “Oh, you are, mighty lion,” and the lion swelled up with pride. His chest swelled out and his mane stood on end. He lifted his head up and spoke with a little deeper voice. He went on a bit further, and he saw a giraffe lounging under a eucalyptus tree. He said to the giraffe, “Giraffe, who’s the king of the beasts?” The giraffe looked down at him and said, “Oh, you are, mighty lion,” and the lion was full of even more pride. His chest inflated even a little bit more. His head swelled magnificently, and his mane was glowing in the early morning sun. He continued to tread through the jungle, and he came to a clearing where a bunch of elephants were lounging. He walked up to the lead elephant in the heard; he stood in front of the elephant and said, “Elephant, who’s the king of the jungle?” The elephant looked down at him, turned his head quickly, snapped his trunk back, and whacked the lion up side of the head. The lion went rocketing across the clearing, rolled about a dozen times, and smacked into a palm tree. He woke up shaking his head. When the fog and cobwebs finally cleared, he looked across the clearing at the elephant and said, “Just cuz you didn’t know the answer doesn’t mean you gotta get upset.” So, you know, pride can lead not only to losing your mind, but devastating consequences as well. The classic example in the word of God is Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar built the greatest kingdom the world had seen up to that point. In his vision in Daniel, [his kingdom] is the head of gold; it’s the noblest of kingdoms that was to follow. The structures of battalion were magnificent, and Nebuchadnezzar was absolutely full of himself. He had a dream that God gives to him graciously, and that shows his fall; but he doesn’t realize that’s what it is. He calls for all of his magicians and finally Daniel came in and said, “I can’t figure out what this dream means.” Daniel heard the dream and he said, “The dream’s about you, and God’s trying to warn you that if you don’t give up your pride, you don’t humble yourself before Him, and stop treating people with cruelty, you’re going to lose your kingdom.” Of course, Nebuchadnezzar took that to heart and immediately quit and changed his ways. No, that’s not what happened. It didn’t faze him a bit, and he continued on in his path. It’s interesting that archeologists tell us that on every single brick in Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar had stamped, “I Nebuchadnezzar the Great” etcetera, etcetera, “proclaiming all his amazing”- every single brick; that’s some pride. Nebuchadnezzar walked out on his porch one day, over-looking the magnificent city of Babylon, and he said “Is not this the great Babylon that I have built as the royal palace by my mighty power and by the glory of my majesty?” No more were the words out of his mouth when God looked down from Heaven and said, “That’s it!” and Nebuchadnezzar lost his mind. God took his sanity from him. His nobles, leaders, and lords drove him out of the palace. He spent some time eating grass like an ox; his fingernails grew as long as claws; his hair grew long; his toenails grew long; and he lay down in the grass, ate, drank and slept out in the pasture like the cattle till God humbled him and he realized who the real King of the universe was. God then gave him his sanity back. His nobles came back to him, they brought him back to power, and his kingdom was restored. At the end of Verse 37, Nebuchadnezzar said [in Daniel 4:37, page 879], “Now I praise and exalt the God of Heaven. Those who walk in pride, He is able to abase.” Nebuchadnezzar’s pride literally made him lose his mind. The Bible has a lot to say about that. We’ll look at some Verses very quickly. Solomon in Proverbs says [in 11:2, page 634], “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” [Proverbs 16:18, page 641], “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” That ought to end all trash talking in sports arenas, right? [Proverbs 29:23, page 655], “Pride brings a person low, but a lowly spirit brings honor.” [Proverbs 15:25, page 640], “The Lord will destroy the house of the proud.” On the other hand, it’s very interesting that humility leads to exaltation. Look what Jesus said in Matthew 23 [in Verse 12, page 981], “Whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” I want to give you a little bit different definition of humility this morning. Sometimes even in Christian circles, we think humility is a low opinion of yourself. That’s not necessarily what God has in mind. Let me challenge you and encourage you this morning [to believe] that humility is a burning, unquenchable passion and thirst to exalt the God of the universe and to honor other people. Remember the story of Nebuchadnezzar? You know what happens at the end of Daniel 4:37? Nebuchadnezzar said [page 879], “Those who walk in pride, God is able to abase.” But the phase right before that. What does that mean? What was the upshot; what was the culmination? Nebuchadnezzar said, “Now I praise and exalt the God of Heaven.” That’s humility. You wake up every single morning and realize there’s somebody bigger, somebody grander, somebody mightier, somebody way more powerful, and someone way more incredible than you; and you give Him the honor and the glory and the praise that He deserves. You walk out the doors and you see His magnificence everywhere. I’ve been waiting about seven years to buy cannas for my wife, and I love landscaping and gardening. I’ve always wanted cannas, but I always thought they were too expensive. Well, it was the end of the season a week or so ago, and Menards had them on sale for five bucks; so we bought a few of them. I thought they were all dried up and done for the year, and when we walked out yesterday, there was this beautiful red bloom on one of the cannas. My wife and I walked by early in the morning at the exact same time, and I just starred at it thinking, “Wow, that’s cool. Didn’t God make some awesome things?” And while we were standing there looking at that beautiful flower, guess what showed up? The coolest bird we ever had. A little bitty hummingbird came up to the cannas, sat there sipping nectar out and we were just like, “Awesome. Isn’t this cool? Didn’t God make some amazing things?” You see, God’s children see His magnificence everywhere. It’s stamped on every flower and every tree. It’s why every single one of you is unbelievably valuable in the eyes of God. You’re all made in His image. You’re all unique, you’re all special, and you’re all treasures. The God of the universe looks out on you every morning and goes, “Those are my kids,” and when you treat other -when you exalt God and you treat and honor other people like you would Jesus Christ-that’s humility. The Psalmist says these words [Psalm 99:5], “Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His footstool.” When you come to the footstool at the throne room of God, do you come to the footstool at the throne room of God to grovel? Now, I’m not saying there’s not a time when you fall on your face before God. What I am saying is if you’re at the footstool of God and you’re sitting there thinking about, “Well I’m unworthy, I’m so low, and I’m a worm,” you’re there for all the wrong reasons, aren’t you? If I’m at the footstool of God’s thrown and you’re at the footstool of God’s thrown, what should be capturing your imagination? The unbelievable magnificence of God. We shouldn’t be thinking about ourselves, right? We’re overwhelmed, consumed with Him, all His Glory, all His beauty, and all of His incredible magnificence- splendor like you’ve never seen, and you can’t stop thinking about Him. You can’t get Him out of your head. You see His majesty everywhere you turn. That’s humility. Then you walk out the door of your house, out of your prayer closet, and you can’t wait to touch people’s lives or bless and encourage people. Why? Because they’re made in the same image of that incredible God. You walk into a room and you’re thinking, “Hey you’re looking good,” and “that’s a great shirt you have on,” and “I like your Packer jersey even if I’m a Bear fan.” I was blessed today. Somebody who is an ardent Packer fan shook hands with me and said, “How you doing?” and never said anything bad about my Bears jersey. That’s humility. I’m not saying you can’t have some fun, but the point is that humility takes other people’s feelings into account. It cares about them, cares about their reaction. It leaves you wondering how you can build them up. How you can honor them, right? That’s humility. As we think about this, it’s interesting what Paul said in Philippians [2:3], “Esteem others above yourselves.” We hear a lot about having good self-esteem, almost to the point that I’m about to choke on it. Now I know what they mean, and the issue of our identities in knowing who we are is absolutely crucial, but I’ve about had a belly full of hearing that we all need high self-esteem. There are a lot of studies that say some of the people that have the highest self-esteem in the world are convicts in federal penitentiaries. They have incredibly high self-esteem that borders on narcissism. They think they deserve everything. Amazingly, people with low self-esteem tend to work very hard and tend to be pretty driven because they want to make something of themselves, but we don’t tend to hear that. About 25 years ago, we heard that giving everybody wonderfully high self-esteem would solve all our problems. Interestingly, among 25 industrialized nations, the United States has the lowest test scores in math and science, yet we rank number one in one category: we have the highest self-esteem. Those studies by secular psychologists tell us that self-esteem doesn’t have a thing in the world to do with whether you act good or bad. Friends, our problem is not low self-esteem. Our problem is LGE and LOE: low God esteem and low other’s esteem. That’s really the core of the problem. Do you know what God says over and over from Genesis to Revelation [regarding self-esteem]? You reap what you sow. If you spend your life exalting God and living to honor others, guess what you get in return? If you can’t wait to exalt, bless, honor and encourage others, what happens? What do you get back? Exaltation, honor, blessing and encouragement, right? Let’s get to the root of the problem as we talk about that. Friends, pride comes from a failure to build your identification on anything other than what God says about who you really are. Arrogant and insecure people are focused on themselves. If an arrogant and proud person walks into a room, what-or who-does everybody know they are thinking about? Him or herself. A shy person walks into the room-and I can say this because I was one-and who are they thinking about? Him or herself. They walk into the room wondering if all the eyes in the room are on them. I wonder, and I’m so glad I don’t have to worry about this problem anymore (Pastor is whispering), how’s my hair? Does my hair look good? Are my clothes messed up? Do I have broccoli between my teeth. The focus is all on me. But the wonderful and amazing thing is that knowing and finding out who the God of the universe says you are solves both problems. There’s one of those guys in the Bible. The Apostle Paul excelled in the Jewish religion above everybody else his age and his equal. It’s interesting that God gave him a brand new identity. He took away the name Saul, named after the tallest king that Israel ever had, and gave him the new name Paul, which means little. If you’re here today and your name’s Paul, I’m sorry, but that’s what it means. He was given a lifelong reminder that he wasn’t such a big shot in God’s eyes. And Paul’s favorite name for himself that he begins every single one of his letters with, Paul, a bond slave of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, some of you that aren’t quite so self-confident or quite so secure that you’re that person who walks into the room and you’re wondering if every eye is on you-guess what? The God of the universe looks at you, and He says, “Guess what, you’re My kid. You’re a child of the living God. You’re My jewel. You’re My star. You’re living rocks. You are kings and priests.” Ladies you are His princesses. [It takes] one look at you from the God of the universe who wants to marry you, and you forever make His heart go pitter-patter. I love the line from the old movie, “Conspiracy Theory,” where Mel Gibson is talking about Julia Roberts in the movie. Somebody asks him about her, and Mel Gibson says, “Oh, she wrecks me.” And ladies, when the God of the universe who wants to marry you forever looks at you, that’s exactly what Psalm 45 says that He says, “She wrecks me.” The God of the universe says you’re beautiful, and you’re His star. You’re His princess. He says to guys, “You're a warrior; you’re a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” You’re literally super Nike, super winners. You can do everything though Christ who asks you. He hasn’t given you a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind. That’s who you are. And if we’re honest, we need that balance in our lives at various times, don’t we? Sometimes when we’re feeling full of ourselves, maybe we’ve accomplished some really cool things, we need to remember, “Okay Lord, that’s really cool. Thanks for allowing that to happen, but I’m just a bond slave of Jesus Christ.” Then there are other days when we’ve been trampled over and run over by the Mack trucks of circumstances that we need to hear, “You’re My kid. You’re a living rock. You’re a winner in My book. You’re a star and I’ll never leave you or forsake you.” That deals with the root of pride. It allows us to walk out of these doors into a world and touch people’s lives. We have that confidence and security because we can forget about ourselves, because we know who we are in connection with Him. We’re confident but humble people. As we put those things into practice, remember who we are. Remember what God’s done for us that allows us to yank those weeds out of our gardens, and I know that God wants all of you to become beautiful gardens for Him. Father, I thank You so much for Your Word. Thank You for Your example. I pray that You would help us to walk in Your ways. I thank You that You are the great gardener, and You are working in each one of our lives to make us beautiful gardens and bear fruit for You. Thank You that we can pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.