Humbled and Changed Hearts

Amen. Uh good morning, ohana. I love that song. Holy, holy, holy. As I've been learning more and more and getting better and better with the original Greek and Hebrew, um I appreciate some of these songs a little bit more. Holy not only has the aspect of purity, but also has the aspect of separation from that which is not holy. And so three times holy is not only three times pure, but three times separated from what is unholy. And it's the Lord Jesus Christ that makes that bridge between us who are unholy to this God who is three times holy above us. And so it's a beautiful song. Love that song.

Well, if you're new, um, welcome to Ohana. Uh, I am not the lead pastor. Uh, I'm one of the associate pastors here at Ohana. Pastor Wayne, our lead pastor, is uh, currently traveling on the on the mainland. So, if you are new, uh, be sure to come back next week. He uh loves visitors um and would love to meet you and uh give you an opportunity to him hear him speak as well too. But I also wanted to note that that I feel a little out of my element. I have been assigned by Pastor Wayne to uh be the pastor for downstairs, the overflow room, the the teen room. And so we usually watch on the monitor.

And so aloha to my brothers and sisters downstairs. Um you are very much a part of what's going on. And I want to tell my brothers and sisters downstairs that it does sound better up here than it does down there when everybody's singing. And so, um, could some of you be willing periodically to go downstairs and offer up your seat and go downstairs and find somebody downstairs and say, "Hey, would you take my seat?" And give them an opportunity to come up and enjoy that fullness of singing. There we sing good downstairs. We just have fewer numbers. And in the fullness here with all these people, it sounded beautiful and it lifted up my heart.

So, um, up downstairs, you guys got to come up. Um, upstairs, we'll make room for you. Um, appreciate that. You know, several weeks ago, um, pastor and I were talking and he had, um, had it laid upon his heart by the Lord to encourage us, uh, with making intentional efforts in living out our Christian walk. Making intentional efforts. His desire was that the congregation would plan out how we live. And I don't don't mean the events but but the manner in which we live and make those as planned uh decisions instead of just being in the spur of the moment or or making decisions and our behavior based on our fleshly desires.

And when we were talking about that, I told him that's that's great. Um but shouldn't we also speak to the motivation of where that comes from as well too? And he said, "Yeah, you're right. Why don't you teach on that?" And uh which I was happy to do. And so, uh, in the evening for several weeks, Pastor Wayne spoke, um, to try to motivate us to make an intentional effort to live out our faith. And then I had one week, two weeks ago, uh, Sunday evening to speak on the motivation aspect of it. Um, and to be honest, one week wasn't enough. I was thinking about it a lot and I wanted to get more into it.

And pastor asked me to cover this morning. And so, I'm going to cover more on that aspect. And I'm kind of going to do a part two for what I did two weeks ago. Now, if you weren't here in the Sunday evening service, it's not a problem. I'm going to do review. So, we'll go along, but if you were there, you'll you'll pick up on the fact that I'm I'm trying to build on what we had before. But there's motivation in how we live. In fact, it's not unique to Christians. The fact that we have motivation, it's just a a particular uniqueness in our motivation. You see, we all make decisions. All our behaviors are based on internal desires.

We we act according to what we want, what we're desiring. And and that's normal. I'm a engineer by trade and when I went to school um to learn engineering being a good engineer I'd always get to class early and uh there was a period of time where our engineering building was was undergoing construction so we had to take our classes uh where they had the psychology um type classes and so um counseling type classes stuff like that and so we were in this building where they're talking about those kind of things and we would hear the discussions from the professors prior to us going into the class and I remember one time one of the professors was introducing this idea to a bunch of students students in his class that um all their decisions are based out of some want that they want.

And of course the the kids in the class are like, "No, that can't be." And and it was fun to kind of listen to them kind of think it through and realize, "Oh, wait, the professor is right on." That is how we act. And and that's normal. That's how God has wired us. But but there's a problem in all of that. And that is because that our motivations, what drives us uh in our humanity is broken. It's broken. It doesn't work right. It doesn't work the way we were created to act. And that's because of sin. And so take take your Bibles and turn to Genesis chapter 3 and we're going to look at how this change to our desires occurred and where it started because in understanding that we'll understand how it continues to play out in our lives today.

And in Genesis chapters 3, I'm going to read the first three first six verses there. It says, "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, "Yeah, hath God said, 'Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden.'" And the woman said unto the servant, "We may eat of the tr fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden. God hath said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest you die." And the serpent said unto the woman, "You shall not surely die. Uh, for God doth know that in the day that you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be open, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."

And when the women saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and and the tree to be desired to make one wise, she took the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. Now, the picture here is Eve's in the garden, and she's without sin, an idea that you and me can't really grasp, but she's without sin. And the serpent comes to her and challenges God. He challenges God's word. And he tells her, basically, Eve, you know, God's not being completely honest with you, Eve. You're not going to die if you eat that fruit. In fact, you're going to be better off.

God's holding back things that are good for you. Eat the fruit. Your eyes will be opened and you'll be as a god. And the serpent, what he's done is he's created doubt regarding God's word towards Eve. And Eve has a few ways to address this. But notice what she does. She goes and she makes her decision based on her desire. The fruit looks good. It's good for food. it's going to open her eyes and this is all a benefit to her and and Eve as she's she's there weighing the two ideas what what the serpent has said and what God has said. What Eve does is she puts herself in a position of authority and says, "I'm the one who's going to decide now.

I'm going to decide what is right and wrong between what God has said and what this serpent has said." And she chooses to go with her desires because her desires choose to want to go after what the serpent has said. And she denies God's authority over her. And God has every right to his authority over her. He is her creator. But not only is his she his create. He is her creator, but he is a good creator who desires good for her and wants to lead her in goodness. And yet what she does is out of her own desire, she turns from that. And she denies God's authority over her and goes against God's word, goes against God's command.

takes the fruit and acts against God. And so sin enters into the world. And this is this is at the core. This is at the heart of every sin that we commit. Now, it's the it's the core of every wicked act is based in this mindset. It is the mindset that denies the creator's authority over it and does as it wishes. Now, this can be a an intentional denial of the authority as Eve did here who knows God. But it but it holds true for people who don't even know of God and they deny the authority over God even though God has borne witness of his existence within creation. And the result of this is where we get all of our conflict.

James 4:es 1-3 says, "From whence forth come wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence even of your desires or I'm sorry even of your lust or your desires that war in your members ye lust or desire and have not. Ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. Ye fight and war yet you have not because you ask not. Ye ask and receive not because you ask a miss that you may consume it upon your lust. Human conflict all of it comes from these fleshly desires to have what we want to satisfy those desires within us. And they can be for a myriad of different things. The problem is is that we have raised oursel up to authority and say my way I want this and then I'm not getting it or the other person wants something different and then we get that that conflict that starts building up between each other.

And this plays out in every single way. This desire for self rule even corrupts the good that men and women seek to do. Earlier in my faith, I used to struggle with this idea. Why does God not credit the good works of those who aren't saved? They're doing good works. They're helping other people. Why is that not credited to them? Why is that still considered considered evil? And the reason why it's still considered evil is because it's coming out of that rebellious heart. It is God who has created them. It is God who has given them life. It is God who has given them mind and bodies to be able to respond.

It is God who has given them the resources within his created world to use. And they go and they do that. And they do it according to their own desire. and they don't give thanks to the one who has provided every single ounce of it. And even though to you and I it looks good and it benefits society and you know, praise God for that. I do think that's a common grace that God allows upon humanity. But that aspect though is still coming from a heart that is in with rebellion against the creator. And God's wrath is is is is what comes upon this in Romans chapter 1 18. It says that it's it's coming now and has already come.

I'm not going to read the verse, but but God's wrath is revealed from heaven. The purpose being because men and women are are unthankful. Really, humanity is is ultimately a a rebel force within a good king's kingdom. We're fighting against the king's authority, taking what he has given and using it and giving it away and treating it like it's ours and even taking credit for it. You know, if this was in a if this was in a nation that had a group of rebels that were in there that were doing this, that were stealing the oil from the government and then giving it away and and selling it for their own profit and even using it, you know, to support, you know, orphanages or something like that, and they're stealing it from the government.

The government's going to come in and say, "Hey, no, stop. That's theft." That's exactly what humanity is doing with God. And God is patient. He he lets some of his wrath out now. and and Romans speaks to that. But but the fullness of his wrath against this rebellion of all humanity will come. But as I mentioned, this this king of ours is also good. And this king of ours is desirous that we we don't fall under this wrath. And so he provided a way for us to break free of these desires of self-ruule that that well up in our heart and govern our actions. And he promised this in a beautiful way in the Old Testament in Ezekiel chapter 36.

In Ezekiel 36, starting at verse uh 26. It says, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments and do them." This is this is utterly astonishing when you when you think through what's going on here, what's being said. God promises to change the heart to change the desires for self-ruule where we want to do what we want to do. Uh we want to satisfy those desires that well up in us.

And he changes those desires so that those desires are now desires that want to walk in his statutes. And to walk in his statutes, not to gain a blessing or a benefit, but to walk in his statutes simply because there's God. simply because they're gods. To simply be obedient because we want to be obedient because he is our God. What a beautiful change of heart he's willing to do within men and women. And for those that believe that Jesus has has died for their sins and has risen from the dead and now reigns in heaven, um for them, they have this this new heart and this new desire. And the old part of them, that old man that seeks after that that self-ruule is then connected with Jesus's death.

so that the power of it to rule is destroyed and they can be made free of those old desires. Romans 6 6-8 says this, "Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin." By faith, Jesus Christ, we are given that new heart that has a desire to submit to the authority of the Lord Jesus. And we see that for those of us who have been saved. Prior to me coming to faith in Christ, I did not want to come to church. And I know a lot of you guys were the same way prior to faith. It was a place that was not inviting.

Personally, I saw church as being like stale. I thought thought that Christians were like the most unfun people I'd ever met. And and why I didn't have any, you know, they didn't want to hurt them or I didn't want nothing to do with them either. I just want to stay away. And then one day as I'm as I'm as I'm sitting in my in my vehicle and I'm I'm just thinking about the gospel because I'd been told the gospel since I was a kid. I knew the truth of the gospel. And as I as I as I thought that through and I thought I need to repent and I changed and my heart changed. I started to feel comfortable in the church and I started enjoying believers and I started to want to be around believers and I started to be around those that were more mature in the faith because I saw how they were walking in the statutes of the Lord and I wanted to walk in the statutes of the Lord and I wanted to seek after that.

He creates those new desires. And so faith in Jesus, it brings new life and it gives a heart that desires to follow after God. And it and and it and it puts to death what used to rain. Romans 6:11 says, "Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey the lust of." Now, if you be Now, if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. And so, we have this for those of those of us that have come to faith in Christ, we have this new heart. But Romans speaks to how we should live with this new heart.

Because while we are given this new heart, we still live within the flesh. And there's that aspect of our flesh that still seeks after that self rule. And the falleness of our bodies, we still have desires that are contrary to God's way. And so because of that, there is real conflict in us. But the fallen desires of our bodies, that desire for self-ruule no longer reigns. That means we don't have to follow them. Instead of believe, instead as believers in Jesus Christ, we can live according to the desires that want to submit to his authority simply because he's our God. And the beautiful thing I like about this is that we do this by faith.

It's neat. Our salvation, we come to Christ. We come to the saving knowledge of of Jesus Christ through faith, but then we also live by faith. And this passage in Romans speaks to it. Look back at verse 11. It says, "Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." The command here is for those who are in the faith to reckon. It means to consider or to think in this manner that we are actually dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ. We are to believe or have faith in the truth that we are dead to sin and alive to God. And so that conflict that we have within us is not a battle between two equal powers.

It's not a battle. I mean, it is between good and bad, but it's not how the world pictures a battle of good and bad with equal strength battling against each other. Which one you feed is the one that lives. It's it's not. It's a it's an issue where the old nature is there. It's trying, but it's dying. And to bring it to death requires faith uh in its power that it no longer rules. And so the command here is to believe that it has died and lost the power and then live intentionally in those statutes that God has laid out before us in those desires of the new nature. This means we are not to have a mindset of defeat with sin.

In fact, being defeated with sin is not actually a reality for a believer. But the lack of faith that since power has been defeated will a believer. it will their spiritual walk. And so we are to believe that sin is dead and the fact that it has lost its power. It doesn't sit on the throne and reign over us anymore. That that old nature that we had, we don't have to follow. And then we are to seek to live out according to the new nature that we've been given in our Lord Jesus Christ. And so we are saved through faith. And in being saved through faith, then we we reap the reality of this new life.

But then we live according to faith as well. And by living according to faith, we also reap the reality of a life that wants to walk spiritually into God's statutes. Now, just because we have faith in this statement and we have faith in this reality and this power that we have as believers, doesn't mean that it takes away the struggle that we have with the old nature. Though, you know, when Israel when it came into the land of Canaan, it came in and God had judged the nations that were there. They were wicked and God was going to remove them from the land and move Israel into the land and and he brings Israel into the land and Israel battles against those nations and and expels the nations and it comes to a point where scripture says that that all the things that God had promised for regarding them coming into the land have been fulfilled.

And what that means is that they were the uh the dominant power within the land. They were the nation that now ruled the land. Uh but the reality is within the nation still there were pockets of resistance that Israel just couldn't get out. In fact, sometimes they gave up and they didn't keep fighting. But but there's these pockets of resistance that were in there. And in Judges chapter 3, God tells us why he did that. You can go back and look at it later, but in Judges chapter 3, uh God says that he did that for the purpose of of keeping the allowing the Israelites to how should I say this? They don't want the Israelites to forget how to fight.

He left enemies in the land so that the people would not forget how to fight. And then he goes on and says that in addition to that, he did that so that they would continue to be able to prove their faithfulness to God. Our God left pockets of resistance within the land of Canaan so that if the Jews were faithful, they would continue to seek to remove those influences. But since they were strong and stronger than the Jews, they would have to do it out of faith that God would keep his promise and move them out. Now, the Jews didn't do this and they have a have that history and and they didn't, you know, we know the issues of of what happened there.

But but the picture here is is with us as well, too. And that that while we struggle against these sins, while we struggle against this old nature, the struggle is there. And the struggle is there that that we may continue to learn to fight. I mean, aren't we given the descriptions of of the armor we're to put on to battle? We're to be warriors. We're to fight the sin. Pastor Wayne was right on when he said there needs to be an intentionality with how we live. We need to put the the the armor on. We need to go to battle. And those sins that are that that a lot of we a lot of of us struggle with that are difficult and we we can't get them out of our life.

We have to keep fighting against them and they keep coming in. Uh don't be discouraged by that because they're there so that you know how to fight. They're there so that you will be faithful in that fight and not give up. And in your faithful uhness of fighting against that sin that that you just seem to can't beat. In your faithfulness of fighting against that, you're glorifying God because you're remaining faithful and you're proving yourself to be faithful and you're and you're coming back for forgiveness again and again, trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for your righteousness. And you're you're you're proving your faith.

And so the struggle doesn't go away. But within the struggle, realize the benefit that's in within that struggle. It glorifies God. It keeps you as strong in your faith as you battle against that. And God matures you through that. Now, one of the things I noted a couple Sundays, a couple Sunday nights ago when I got to speak on this subject is that scripture also presents kind of two ways how to live. Not I shouldn't say two ways to live, but but but presents how to live in two phases. Throughout scripture, what we see is that that that prior to the application passages that tell us how to live, um, it speaks about doctrine.

And doctrine basically is just a group of biblical truths. Scripture gives biblical truths for us to know prior to ever calling us actually into action. And a couple weeks ago, I went through a number of the the verses in the New Testament that are those transitional verses where the authors move from the aspect of speaking mainly about doctrine. It's not not not completely about doctrine, but mainly about doctrine into application to show that that occurs throughout the New Testament. And I want to go to one of those because I think one of them I think helps us to walk according to this new nature that we have been given.

So if you would turn to Ephesians chapter 4, look at verses 1 through three. Ephesians chapter 4 and look at the first three verses. It says, 'I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of your vocation or of your calling, wherein you are called with all loneliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There's a lot here, but if I could just sum up the idea of the requirements that walking worthy of our salvation is, it would be the word humility. Loneliness, meekness, longsuffering are all aspects of being humble.

And they're all for the purpose here uh as noted in this passage of keeping the unity of the spirit within peace. While our old nature fostered conflict and division, the the new humility uh or sorry, the new nature uh in humility now fosters unity. This was wild because in Paul's day uh when this letter was written, humility wasn't considered a good trait. I know here locally in Hawaii, we we we talk, you know, be humble, right? We have bumper stickers that we put on our cars for that. And it's a type of humility. It's not not really what scripture talking about, but but it wasn't wasn't offensive.

But in Paul's day, it was different because in Greek and Roman thinking, um, being humble wasn't seen as a virtue. In fact, Aristotle, who lived a couple hundred years after Paul, he he wrote some really good things about being meekness. He understood exactly what that meant. Uh, but in his writings, you notice that he calls it a defect. In fact, he calls it a defect because those who are meek are prone to forgive instead of seeking justice for wrongs that have been done to them. And Aristotle's mindset said the that the wrong had to be corrected and so justice needed to get played out. And this idea of humility or of meekness specifically was was a defect.

He saw it. But what Aristotle saw as a a defect is actually exactly what our Lord Jesus Christ was. In Matthew 11:es 28-29, Christ says this, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. Our Lord Jesus was meek and lowly. And he set the example of how we are to strive with within these new natures that we we have. We're we're to seek out being humble and being meek and lowly. And yet, it doesn't mean being weak. It means actually to be under self-control.

Because the idea of humility, sometimes in our common way of thinking, we think of it as a weakness. But it's not. It's simply the self-control and the strength that you have is is is under control and appropriately uh measured out to whatever the situation is so that you remain a mild manner, men and women of the Lord uh to promote the unity of the spirit. In Jesus's day, the word for meekness was often used to describe animals that were gentle or or tame. And and and as I was studying this, I was thinking about something that had happened recently with our dog. We our our dog's relatively young and and um a couple years old and and it's a it's a it's a bully so it's got lots of muscles, right?

And and uh you know it's it's a dog that will charge after another animal should that other animal try to um challenge it and so we have to be a little careful with it. But but around people uh that dog is very very friendly. And one of the things I enjoyed is we had pastor's granddaughter over um Kena and uh Clint actually knows our dog Clint um would come over before Caleb and um Jensen moved to the mainland and and and she'd hung out with the dog before she so she knows the dog. But but but Clenna came over to play with the dog and and and Kena is the exact opposite actually of my granddaughter.

Um our granddaughters, pastors and mine are the same age and used to play together when both their parents lived here on the island. But but my granddaughter's built like a tank and could probably battle our dog. Kena's on the opposite side of the scale and she's very very small and you guys that that know her know that. Well, Kena starts playing with our dog who outweighs Kena. And Kena's pulling on a rag that the dog has and she's crawling over the dog's head and she's leaning on the dog's back and the dog doesn't run. The dog just kind of walks around her and he nudges her with her head and he plays with her gently.

Now, that's the picture of what we've been called to with this humility that we live out within our new nature. It's that undercontrol aspect where we're mildmannered and we're gentle and we're willing to take a wrong upon us uh for the sake of unity. And yet, at the same time, there's there's also that that strength because uh when there's wrong or there's evil or there's wickedness or there's falsehood that arises, we arise appropriately uh to the level that's necessary to address those issues. And so within that new nature, we seek to live like Christ and we seek to do that to uh bring unity.

But when we fail to live according to our new nature and we let our flesh take over, what happens is we go back to the self-ruule and we fail to be truly humble, uh we develop the conflict and we break the unity that God has set within place. We see this happen in families as as husbands who have been called to spiritually lead their wives. They don't do that because they're focused on their own selfish desires and they're focused on their career or or their hobbies or whatever it may be. And they and they don't live out what they're supposed to do and then they're then they have conflicts in their marriage and they wonder, "Well, what's happening?

What's wrong with her?" Well, the problem is is that you have a self-desire that is not in line with your creators and you've stepped out of your lane. Wives do the same thing on their side. They they fail to submit to the leadership of their husbands and they excuse their rebellion by highlighting their husband's shortcomings and faults. and they too living according to their own desire not according to the call that the Lord has given them and conflicts develop in similar ways we revert back to our old nature that is not humble and we create conflicts with our children and our co-workers and even those within the church and it's this lack of humility within our in our actions that bears

testimony to the nature that we're now following and with this I wanted to spend just a couple minutes before I close and how this works out within the church because I think as a church body here it would be helpful for us to think about this a little bit because within our church I have noticed that there is a consistent pattern where some folks will turn to their old ways abandon humility and create disunityity I've only been a pastor for a couple years here but I've been a deacon for quite a few years prior to that and so I have a a feel for the inner workings of the church and and that has been a pattern where People time and time again have come and often left uh because they've wanted to do something their way instead of submitting to what is right.

It happened during COVID while some thought the church was too strict in its response and others thought it was not strict enough and people would leave fully convinced that what they are doing is right but in reality tearing down the unity because they're living after their own selfish desires. They are saying my way is right. My way needs to be followed. It's not being followed. Therefore, I'm going to break the unity. I'm going to walk away. I'm going to break from the group. That's a tearing down of the unity. This is about 15 years ago that God taught me a very good lesson about this in far as far as how it plays out with the church.

We were part of a church that we used to meet on the beach and sometimes um actually more times than not actually at one of the um elementary schools and uh we finally grew and had enough money where we could move into a more permanent place and we uh were the first church that started renting uh over there above Teddy's in the Cocoa Marina Center. used to be a a children's uh daycare center there and we took over and they left and we took over the daycare center and then we started to turn that area into what would look more like a church. And when we got into that space, our church started to grow uh which was good.

And we we quickly filled up that space and we needed more room. And the pastor came to the men of the church and he and he said, "Brothers, I want to tell you that that we uh we need more space and there is the snorkel shop next door that's gone out of business and there's nobody in the snorkel shop right there and I'd like to get that space uh for us as well, but but we're not bringing in enough money to cover our current rent." So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to go to the management over there. I'm gonna I'm going to tell the management, "Hey, we want our rent reduced and we want that snorkel shop added into our space for free.

And you know, being a businessman and hearing that I thought that's a horrible idea. There's a financial planner who was another man that was in that group. He looked at that and he was like, "Ah, I don't know about that." And then we started talking and say, "No, pastor, you know, we have reputations. We we do business in this community as well." In fact, for me personally, if you don't know, I have an engineering firm that I run as well. Uh but but you know, my engineering firm, we actually work for Coco Marina. Sometimes there's actually a bridge. I don't know if you've ever seen it. There's a bridge that goes from the upper parking lot in the back uh to the the medical center over where the Taco Bell is.

And about every 3 years, somebody runs into that bridge. And so we get called out to do an analysis on the bridge. And so we got we got a relationship with these guys and and and and I don't want to look shameful in front of these owners, but fortunately God had us keep our mouth shut. We talked a little bit amongst ourselves, but we kept our mouth shuts. And the pastor went and spoke to the management over there. And the management at Coco Marina gave us that extra space for free and reduced our rent. And sometimes I think God did that just to teach the men in that church to be submissive to the leadership that he's placed within his church.

Because why? We saw that as unwise. We did not take into consideration that God builds his church and God will build his church in the manner that he desires. And God has put the men in authority uh that he wants in authority and and we in our roles are to support that authority. God has put checks and balances in the in in in place in case that authority goes goes haywire. There's deacons that that'll step up should there be a sin issue or something like that. And so so there's checks and balances in there. But but but for us at that period of time, our role was to submit to that authority and to support our pastor in prayer and in any other way that we could and and we learned that lesson.

Well, it would have been horrible if we had acted like Eve and said, "No, our way is better." And move our way and brought conflict and disunityity within the church when God was planning on blessing the church and building the church and giving an example to the church that would glorify or bring glory to him. And so I got a huge lesson to seek to remain faithful to the statutes of God, my creator, and to be humble and to follow, as Philippians 2:3 says, to esteem others better than myself within that humility, knowing where my role is. And so humility is one of the best ways to check to see where you're where you're acting or out of what motive, what what nature you're acting out of.

Because when you're seeking to uh build the others up, when you have that uh uh mindset where you'll stay in the position that God has given you and and and build up the others that are around you, then you're working out of that that new nature that God has given you. But when you uh don't have that humility and you're seeking to do it your own way, you have slipped back into the flesh and that simply creates disunityity. I'll show you this last example and then I'll close. My wife and I, I was I was just recently sharing this with a friend and it was on my mind and my wife and I, we uh we were helping Klehi Union.

They have a big Christmas um outreach over there um every December. And uh for a couple years, we would go down there and volunteer and help. And we were down there and we were helping them with their outreach. And and there's this older couple that that we knew that was down there. We were spending time with them. It was John and Charlane. And um after we had finished the the serving the church over there, we were cleaning up and we were getting ready to go and John and Charlene are are older. They're almost old enough to be our folks. And and and and Charlene looks at John and and she's standing there and and and she goes, "John, I lost my purse."

And John looks at her and instead of saying, "Oh, woman, where'd you put it? Why'd you do it? Why'd you lose it? You're always losing your purse." He he looks at her and and the purse is on her shoulder. and he doesn't say anything and he just looks at it and he goes like this and he smiles and she looks down and she sees the purse on her shoulder and she turns back and looks at him and oblivious to Pearl and I and we're standing right there with them they look at each other they smile they open their hands to each other and there's this there's this thing of joy and I thought that is the heart that I want that is a new heart that comes only from God where the the potential potential for conflict there.

The potential for for frustration is there, but instead it's joy and it's love. And God has given all of those who come to faith in Jesus Christ that kind of heart. But we but we make that real by living it out in faith and realizing that the old nature is dead and seek to accelerate that death of that old nature by believing what we have in Jesus Christ and living according to the new. Brothers and sisters, may we always seek to live after that new heart that we've been given for our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's close in prayer. Our father in heaven, through your son Jesus Christ, you have given us a blessing that is beyond words.