We live in world where every person has feelings of insecurity and inadequacies that plague us day in and day out. These insecurities are a result of the fact that we have turned our back and rebelled against our creator, God. We were made for the purpose of reflecting God. When Adam sinned that relationship was destroyed. Feelings of inadequacy and inferiority are because of the choices that we have made, the choice to turn away from God, the choice to be in control of our own life, the choice to become like God.

People have been trying to recreate those feeling of acceptance, value, and importance ever since. The attempts take various forms and sometimes look totally different. Some will attempt to take control of their own life by doing whatever they want to do and taking advantage of people to get what they want in an attempt to fill that void that they have. Others will attempt to follow all of God’s rules so that they will be able to stand before God and say “I have kept all of your rules now you have to accept me.” Either path that a person takes is an attempt gain control over their life and their destiny, this is the same ugly path that we have been on since Adam ate the fruit in the garden.

The problem is that the only thing we know how to do is continue on this path of self-esteem, self-help, self-justification, and self-exaltation leaving us empty and feeling totally inadequate because the truth is we are. We are totally inadequate and never able to fix this on our own. Every religion in the world is based on a man-centered power from within. No one possesses this and no one is able to fix this from within themselves because the thing that is missing is not from within. The thing that is wrong, the thing that our sin has destroyed, and the thing that we need most of all is a relationship with God. This is what is missing and the very thing that we were created for.

2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us that Jesus took our sin and gave us his righteousness. This is nothing that we have done but it is based on what Jesus has done. Anytime that we are looking to our own strength to save us we can never have the confidence that our standing before God is secure because it is not. It is only through Jesus that we have confidence that our standing before God is right because He gave us His righteousness. The perfect Son of God took our sin and gave us His righteousness and in that alone is where we can find confidence.

This gives us confidence that we have been accepted, that we are loved, and that we have been justified. From this comes the confidence that we have the truth and that we can speak the truth. From this comes the confidence that we have value and worth and frees us from attempting to gain this one our own. From this comes the confidence to stop trying to gain favor from men because we have the favor of God. From this comes the confidence and the freedom that we have been liberated from slavery to sin and we don’t have to sin anymore. This results in the seemingly paradoxical person who is both humble and confident.

All Creatures of Our God and King – Brent Milligan, David Crowder, St. Francis of Assisi, William Henry Draper - 2002 worshiptogether.com songs (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) sixsteps Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) Moon & Musky Music

Rock Of Ages – Doc Harris – 2006 One Tree Ministries

You Bled – Rend Collective Experiment - 2009 Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

I Stand Amazed – Charles Hutchison Gabriel – Public Domain

O Help My Unbelief – Issac Watts, Music by Justin Smith – © 2007 Justin Smith Music

I Love You Lord – Laurie Klein - 1978, 1980 House Of Mercy Music (Admin. by Maranatha! Music)

On Jordan’s Stormy Banks – ©1997 Christopher Miner Music. Words: Samuel Stennett. Music: Christopher Miner

I’ll Fly Away – Albert E. Brumley – 1932 Hartford Music Company. Renewed 1960 Albert E. Brumley And Sons (Admin. by ClearBox Rights, LLC)

What A Savior – Devon Kauflin, Philip Bliss – 2007 Sovereign Grace Praise (c/o Integrity Music, Inc.)

The Glories of Calvary – Steve and Vikki Cook – 2003 Sovereign Grace Worship (Admin. by Integrity’s Hosanna! Music)

The First Place – Matthew Westerholm – 1999 Matthew Westerholm

You Alone Can Rescue -Jonas Myrin, Matt Redman – 2008 Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) sixsteps Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) Said And Done Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) SHOUT! Publishing (Admin. by Integrity Music, Inc.)

Jesus told us that the least will be the greatest. People quote this a lot in Christians circles but sometimes I don’t think that we fully grasp the gravity of this statement and what Jesus was really saying.

So what does Jesus mean by these words? In Luke 9 Jesus takes a little child and says that if anyone receives this little child then he receives Jesus himself. In Matthew 18 he says that if we don’t become like little children we will never inherit eternal life. So what is Jesus telling us? Little children depend on their fathers for everything, for their daily bread, clothes, and direction in life. They depend on their fathers to tell them what they should and should not be doing. They depend on their fathers for their basic needs for survival. They depend on their fathers for protection. They depend on their fathers for everything.

Jesus is telling us that we need to trust the Father for everything. We need to know and trust that He is good and that He cares for us. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden they made a decision that they were not going to trust in the Father anymore but they were going to trust in their own abilities. They made the decision that they would be in control of their own destiny. This has been the overarching problem with all humanity since that time, we want to be in control and we want to do things our way.

This desire for control has manifested itself in two completely opposite ways but at the core is the same underlying motivation. People try to gain control over their lives by either breaking God’s rules or by keeping them. The person who breaks all of God’s commandments is making the statement that he doesn’t need God and all of his rules and that he can do it on his own. This one is obvious and we can easily spot it. We look at him and say, “Yep there is a sinner look at want he did”. Then there is the person that keeps all of God rules to be able to control God himself. We have this idea that if we keep his rules then he has to be good to us. This type of person believes that God actually has to accept him because of how good he has been. This mind set is much harder to identify both within others and within ourselves, especially within ourselves. This person appears to know Jesus because they tend to look like a good Christian when in fact their heart is in total rebellion to God.

If we look back to the Old Testament one thing that we see is God always takes the initiative.  In 2 Samuel 7 David decides that he is going to do God a favor.  He thinks that God’s living conditions are pretty pathetic while his are pretty good so he decides that he must be the guy to build God a temple.  God speaks through the prophet Nathan and tells David that he isn’t going to build a house for him and in fact it is God who was going to build a house for David, and it was God that had done and initiated everything on David’s behalf up until this point.

When we see Jesus on the cross we need to understand that He died for our sins. For us to be saved it took God himself to leave Heaven, come to earth, and die the death that we should have died, he took the initiative and we aren’t the ones who can. No other sacrifice would do. This is how bad we are. To think that we could actually do something to merit the favor of God and gain eternal life is anti-gospel thinking. Yet we do it a lot. Have you ever looked at another person and thought “Well I would never do that”. Essentially what we are saying is that I am good enough because I would never commit a sin bad enough that God would reject me. In reality we have all committed sin and as a result we all deserve to live for all eternity apart from God in everlasting torment, Hell.

What the gospel does is tell us that we are a sinner and it points to how bad we really are. I love the hymn text,

Ye who think of sin but likely.
Nor suppose the evil great.
Here may view it’s nature rightly.
Here it’s guilt may estimate.
Mark the sacrifice appointed.
See who bears the awful.
Tis the one the Lord anointed.
Son of Man and Son of God.

When we are able to fully understand the nature of the gospel and see how bad our sin truly is it is a very humbling experience. No longer can we look at people and think I am better then they are. No longer can we think that if we could just be good enough then we can demand that God look at us and listen to our demands. No longer can we think that I deserve anything. We then at that point become like little children, depending on the Father for everything and understanding that it is only by His goodness that we are even allowed to breath. Until we come to that point we have no hope of eternal life.

Humility is not something we can achieve on our own, if we do then we will be proud of the fact that we are humble and that is not humility. Humility is something that God grants to us through Jesus and His death on the cross. Jesus is the true humble servant that not only gave up His position as King but gave up His very life so that a retched sinner like me may be saved.

Better Is One Day – Matt Redman – Copyright 2005 Survivor Records

We Fall Down – Chris Tomlin – 1998 worshiptogether.com songs (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

O For a Thousand Tongues – Charles Wesley – Public Domain

Completely Done – Jonathan Baird, Rich Gunderlock, Ryan Baird – 2009 Sovereign Grace Worship (Admin. by Integrity’s Hosanna! Music)

Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder -John Newton – Public Domain

Just As I Am – Words: Charlotte Elliott Music: Bobby Guy and Craig Brown – 1998 Nomella Music (ASCAP) / Bobby Guy Music (ASCAP)

Raise Up the Crown – Chris Tomlin, Edward Perronet, Oliver Holden – 2004 worshiptogether.com songs (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)
sixsteps Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

Famous One – Chris Tomlin and Jesse Reeves – 2002 worshiptogether.com songs (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) sixsteps Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

It Is Well – There is not a recorded copy of the version we did on Sunday but here is a good one from Kutless.  Copyright 2009 BEC Recordings

Blesssed Be Your Name – Matt and Beth Redman – 2002 Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

Once Again – Matt Redman – 1995 Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

Let Your Kingdom Come – Copyright 2007 Sovereign Grace Music

The Solid Rock – Charlie Hall, Edward Mote, Kendall Combs, Trent Austin, William B. Bradbury – 2004 worshiptogether.com songs (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) sixsteps Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

By This We Know Love – Judah Groveman - 2009 Sovereign Grace Worship (ASCAP). Sovereign Grace Music, a division of Sovereign Grace Ministries

Hallelujah, What a Savior – Bob Kauflin, Philip Paul Bliss – 1998 Sovereign Grace Praise (c/o Integrity Music, Inc.)

Cling to the Crucified – Kevin Twit – Kevin Twit Music (ASCAP)

All I Have is Christ – Jordan Kauflin – 2008 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI). Sovereign Grace Music, a division of Sovereign Grace Ministries.

Thank You Jesus For The Cross – Andi Rozier and Matthew Westerholm – Copyright 2008 Harvestsongs

Lord Most High – Don Harris, Gary Sadler – 1996 Integrity’s Hosanna! Music

Give Us Clean Hands – Charlie Hall – Recorded by Chris Tomlin – Copyright 2003 Worship Together

O The Deep Deep Love of Jesus – Samuel Trevor Francis and Thomas J. Williams – Public Domain

Nothing But the Blood – Matt Redman – Copyright © 2004 Thankyou Music/PRS (adm. worldwide by worshiptogether.com Songs except for the UK and Europe which is adm. by Kingsway Music)

Open Your Eyes – Jon Egan – 2007 Vertical Worship Songs (Admin. by Integrity Music, Inc.)

I Stand Amazed – Charles Hutchison Gabriel – Public Domain

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing – David Crowder, John Wyeth, Robert Robinson – 2002 worshiptogether.com songs (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)
sixsteps Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

Hunger and Thirst – David Moffitt and Sue C. Smith – 2004 New Spring (Admin. by Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing, Inc.)CCTB Music (Admin. by Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing, Inc., 741 Cool Springs Blvd., Franklin TN 37067)

Joyous Light – Lyrics: Unknown Arrangement and Chorus: Chris Tomlin and David Crowder – Copyright 2004 worsthiptogether.com Songs/sixstep Music/ASCAP Admin. by EMI CMG Publishing

Nails in Your Hands – Richard Cimino – 1995 Richard Cimino (Admin. by Worshipsong.com)

O Come and Mourn – Eric Ashley, Frederick Faber – © 1999 Eric Ashley Music

Lord Most High – Don Harris, Gary Sadler – 1996 Integrity’s Hosanna! Music

Awesome Is The Lord Most High – Jon Abel, Cary Pierce, Chris Tomlin, and Jesse Reeves – © 2006 Bridge Building (BMI) / 45 Degrees Music (BMI) / foreverything music (BMI).  All rights for the world on behalf of 45 Degrees Music and foreverything music administered by Bridge Building.  Sixsteps Music (Admin by EMI CMG Publishing) / worshiptogether.com Songs (admin by EMI CMG Publishing) (ASCAP)

How Deep the Father’s Love for Us – Stuart Townsend – 1995 Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

The Solid Rock – Charlie Hall, Edward Mote, Kendall Combs, Trent Austin, William B. Bradbury – 2004 worshiptogether.com songs (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) sixsteps Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

Jesus Paid It All – Alex Nifong, Elvina M. Hall, John Thomas Grape – 2006 worshiptogether.com songs (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)
sixsteps Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

Center – Charlie Hall, Matt Redman – 2006 worshiptogether.com songs (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) sixsteps Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

How Great is Your Faithfulness – Jonas Myrin, Matt Redman – 2009 Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) sixsteps Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) Said And Done Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) SHOUT! Publishing (Admin. by Integrity Music, Inc.)