The Humble Draw near to God

The following video transcript has been lightly edited

Hi. We're starting a new series called Drawing Near to God, and it's based off of a conversation that Jesus has with someone in the book of Mark, in which, after answering correctly, he says, you've answered rightly. You are near the kingdom of God. I really like that idea that somehow, if we live certain ways, we draw near to the kingdom of God, and in other ways, we're far away or disconnected from it.

And so for the next month or so, we're going to engage and look at different ways in which we can align our lives with the Kingdom of God. What is the Kingdom of God? Well, the Kingdom of God is the reality that I think exists and we can experience here and now, but it's an eternal reality of peace and joy and transcendence.

It's the moments for you in which you feel like you're a part of something beyond what you could imagine. You're crystal clear aware of your own consciousness and part of the beauty and mystery of life. That's the kingdom of God. Today, what we're going to look at is a passage in Mark in which Jesus is teaching about humility.

And what's true is that humility, and to be a humble people, is going to be something that helps us draw near to God. The humble draw near to God is the one idea I want you to have. I think we have all kinds of misconceptions sometimes on what humility is, and I think that hurts us. But I want to give an honest picture

of humility that's, I think, helpful that we can structure in our day to day lives. So essentially what happens is Jesus is having this conversation. And these two brothers, two of the twelve disciples, come, John and James, and they engage Jesus and say, Hey, Jesus, we want you to give us whatever we want.

And Jesus says, Well, what do you want? And they say, We want to be at your left and right hand of you, in glory. Now, basically, John and James are trying to be special. And They want to be special. And I think that's true for all of us, right? Like, I remember watching my kids and videos of my kids when they were little.

And in front of the camera, they're each clamoring to be the star. They want to be special. Well, here's the thing that I think could be really helpful for us. Is to realize, we're actually not that special. I don't mean that in a harsh way, because I think each of us are unique. And loved, but we're actually part of something bigger than ourselves.

And when we think about ourselves being special, it's actually a problem because we live in this place of like, look at me, look at me, look at all that I've done. Another way, and this is a different way of thinking we're special, but it's in the negative, is a woe is me. So it's, oh, why does this always happen to me?

How come they can't do this so that I can have, oh, all the challenges and problems. And so if we want to draw near to the kingdom of God, if we want to experience peace and love and joy, we want to be humble people. Who know that we're not all that special. We want to take our look at me and our woe is me and transform it to let me dot, dot, dot.

Here's the thing. When you and I are caught in either look at me or woe is me, we're trapped. Look at me means we can't really enjoy and experience whatever it is we're doing, because we need someone else to validate it. To tell us it was good enough, so that we're popular enough, that we performed well enough, whatever that is.

And so it destroys the activity, the being itself. On the other side, the woe is me gets us trapped. Because we become trapped in resentment, and we ruminate, and we just feel like we are prisoners. And our egos sort of feed either one of those. But we want to do is we want to cultivate humility.

And so we want to ask ourselves the question based on whatever it is we're experiencing or feeling. It's a question of, well, how might I act right now? So let me do this. If I'm angry, let me engage this topic, not in a unhealthy way, but in a healthy way. If I am feeling disconnected, let me engage. Let me maybe just reflect and say, you know what? This is actually a you thing, Kyle. So just reshape the way you think or see about life. Because when we can cultivate that kind of humility in our life, in which we recognize that we're not as special as we think, we're loved and unique, but not special, not up and over anyone else, we can draw near to the kingdom of God and find joy in the act of living and being.

The second thing we want to do is we want to recognize that humility connects us to God and one another. So, John and James have this conversation with Jesus, and it actually angers the other disciples. Because they're like, hey, why are you separating yourself from us? Why do you think you're better than us, that you two deserve to be at the left and right hand of Jesus?

And Jesus says, oh, time out, and he pulls them all together. He says, listen, everybody else in the world, their rulers are tyrants. And they lord over them. Not so among you. If you want to be a ruler or a leader, you've got to serve. Why does Jesus say that? Well, if you think about it, when we are humble, it means that we have a sense of need. We have an ability to admit wrong. When we're humble, we can ask for help. When we are humble, we can see the need and respond to others. And so humility is such a key piece because it keeps us connected to our need for God, one another, and our ability to even voice that and receive that help.

And so if we can't cultivate that in our lives, we will be disconnected from the kingdom of God. In fact, Peter, writes in 1 Peter 5 he says clothe yourselves in humility as you deal with one another because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble that grace that transforming experience that allows us to grow and live and love and admit our mistakes and our wrongdoings and ask for forgiveness and offer it up. That's what we're looking for.

So we want to cultivate that humility in our life And so let me just ask you like how maybe are you trapped in yourself right now? That your pride, your ego, is preventing you from growing, connecting to others. Spend a little time on that, because I think if you're feeling far from the kingdom of God, that joy, that peace, that patience, that might be one of the things that's standing in your way.

Lastly, Jesus sketches out, and he says that the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. So here's the thing, when we hear that, we instantly think about Jesus death on the cross, and no question, that was an, that's an incredible reality that happened, that the Son of God came in human form and died on the cross for all of us. Amazing.

Then when you and I think like, okay, well, we're gonna serve the way Jesus served, and we're gonna go give our lives away, we're just gonna serve relentlessly. If we're honest about it, we're like, yeah, I'm probably not going to do it at Jesus level, and so maybe I'm not going to really do anything at all.

I think that some of that is because we think that in serving others, we have to erase ourselves. And when we consider Jesus ministry in his own life, we realize Jesus was serving others, but he also had really great boundaries for himself. He was happy to take a nap on the boat while the other disciples were panicked about the storm.

At times he was in villages and people were like, no, stay. And Jesus was like, nope, got to go. And at times he even snuck off by himself to get some time to recharge. And so it's not that Jesus didn't think about himself or care for himself at all. So what is it? Here's the difference, I think, is that Jesus believed that his good was tied to the good of everyone.

And he sought the good of the whole. without being solely committed to the good of himself. And I think that's the difference. A prideful person will take what they can get. They will seek their own good at the cost of anyone else. A servant will recognize that their good is tied up in the good of everyone else.

And there will be times where sacrifice and service are required, but there's also times where asking for help and resting are required. But all of that can be done humbly as we strive towards seeking the good of all and believing that our good is tied to that. And when you think about it in your family, that's true.

The good of your spouse and your children has an impact on what's good for you at work or here at church or out in school. When it's good for everyone, then it's good for you too. And so you want to operate with that mindset. How might you take the gifts you have, power you have, the authority you have, and use that in such a way to serve the good of all, knowing that your good is tied up there.

And as you can imagine, as you do that, you get to bump into, you become near the kingdom of God. That joy and peace and patience and transcendence that we're all looking for in our life. The humble drawn near to God. So go this week and cultivate that humility. Remind yourself that you're loved and unique, but you're not that special.

Remind yourself that humility is going to help you stay connected to God, to your family and friends, to the world, to yourself. Remember to serve because your good is tied up into the good of everyone. Have a great week. I'm excited for the rest of this series