Chris Durso, Fall to Your Knees

Chris Durso | December 10, 2023

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Transcription

Let's give Jesus, a standing ovation. Yeah, nothing like our Jesus. Nothing like our Jesus. Hey, remain standing just for two more seconds. Two more seconds. I'm excited. I'm excited to be back. I am home here and if we've not met before, we're going to get to know each other over the course of the next few minutes. But here's something you need to know about me. I have loved this church since the inception and I love your pastors a whole lot. Anyone grateful for the river family? Come on, can we thank God for them right now? Can we thank God for Dr. Timothy Rivers and Janice, come on, let's put our hands together. They're probably watching right now. Let's let them feel all the love, just incredible friends and incredible family. I'm honored, honored to be able to do life with you all. You could go on ahead and grab a seat, but anytime I get the opportunity to preach, I'm going to honor God and I'm going to honor the pastors.

Amen. My name is Chris. I am born and raised in New York City. Let's go New York. Which part? The Bronx. The Bronx. Let's go. Thank you for hip hop. It's 50 years like that has nothing to do with anything, but I'm born and raised in New York. I was born and raised in Queens. My wife was born and raised in Brooklyn. We currently live in Long Island and we just celebrated 18 years of marriage, by the way, just a few weeks ago. And we have two beautiful children, Dylan and Chloe, and they are simply the best and we love them. We actually get to serve that city. We've been in full-time ministry all of our adult lives and this season, this season, I do this full-time. I travel the world teaching and preaching the gospel for different churches. There are a handful of churches that I get to come back to pretty frequent and often like this one.

I'll be with you guys a handful of times next year and I'm excited about that. I love what I get to do. It's amazing though because in the last few months God has opened New York to us in a new way. I just recently became the chaplain for the Brooklyn Nets, which is amazing because I now get to pastor these incredible players and athletes. And what's cool about this setup is that we actually do joint chapel. So both teams show up and we get to pray and open up the word 60 minutes before tip off. And what I love is when they come into that media room that would later be used for post interviews in that moment we're praying and we're chopping up the word and there's no talk about competition, but only worshiping Jesus. So it's an absolute honor. And then just recently a few months ago, friends of mine who own a salon in Soho.

Now if you know New York that Soho is a pretty prominent area in, and they offered offered us their second story loft to be used for a Bible study. So we said, all right, let's do it. And tomorrow night at 7:00 PM will be our third gathering. So if you remember us beyond this, would you pray for us? Because we have a few hundred people RSVP'd to be in the room tomorrow. And the last two gatherings we've seen people saved. The first one we saw a dozen people saved. The last one we saw 14 people saved. Tomorrow I am praying for multiple, multiple salvations and it's just incredible to be able to preach the good news on a Monday night in Soho. First off, church culture Monday night, it don't make sense in soho does not make sense at all. In fact, I was trying to figure out, I don't think there's ever been a spirit filled gathering in soho ever.

I think the only religious presence that there's ever been is the Catholic church. And so we now get to do this and we're blown away by it and we're just laying it all before Jesus saying, Hey, just do what you do. So if you remember me after the service, would you just pray? Just pray that God moves tomorrow night. Is that fair? Is that okay? Amen. Amen. I want to take the next few moments and I want to speak to you. I want to speak to you from this thought, fall on your knees. If you're taking notes, I want you to write that down, fall on your knees and I just got to be honest with you, the title is setting us up for how we're going to end this moment. If you've not knelt in prayer in a long time, just start doing the stretches.

Now while I'm preaching to you, because this is where we're going to end up in this posture of praise and submission, and in a few seconds I want to read to you Matthew two verses one through three. But before I open that up to you, can I just pray for us Holy Spirit, speak, move, and do what only you can do in the precious and ma name of Jesus. And I pray, God, wherever pastors Tim and Jenny saw right now, I pray that you bless them. I pray that you encourage them. I pray that they have a great time as their resting in you. We say all of this in the beautiful and ous name of Jesus. If you agree, can you shout Amen, amen, amen, amen. Matthew two is where we pick up the birth of Jesus. It's also known as the Christmas narrative.

Matthew two verses one through three. And I got to be honest with you, I have studied these verses. I have preached this text quite a bit, especially when I was pastoring. Come on, when December rolls around, this is where you live. But the Holy Spirit made me go back and read it and he started to show me things that I had not paid attention to before. And my prayer, my prayer is that you catch the same revelation today. Matthew two verses one through three. It says this, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in Judea, which would be a part of Israel during the time of King Herod Magi from the east, also known as the wise men, the three wise men, magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.

When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed and all Jerusalem with him. When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed and all Jerusalem with him. When King Herod heard this, somebody shout this this first off, what is this? This that Matthew two three is referring to is that the king of the Jews has been born this fact disturbed King Herod. He's not disturbed that Jesus was born, but his disturbance derives from the fact that Jesus the king was born. The reason why this disturbed King Herod is because King Herod wanted to be king with no other king in his vicinity. He considered any king as a threat. He wanted no rival. He wanted no equal. He wanted no authority. He wanted to reign supreme. Therefore, this disturbance of King Herod comes from the fact that he is now not the only king, nor will he be considered the highest kings, which means he would need a new nickname. His nickname is Herod the Great.

This nickname was given to him because of his ruthless behavior like a Thanos of sorts. His mission was to wipe out any known competition or anyone in the foreseeable future that could one day be his competition. See, he's famous for killing his rivals and anyone that appeared as such so much so that he even murdered his own family. He murdered one of his wives, he murdered his own wife because he felt threatened that she would want to take his place. Not only did he murder his wife, he murdered three of his sons, two of which he had with that wife, and then the other son was his eldest son, which in those days it was actually considered the closest son to him. So who would've been the closest son to him? He actually saw as competition. His sons who should have been viewed as a blessing were seen as a threat to him because one day they would sit on his throne, them becoming the king after him would've created legacy and generational blessing, but he was too concerned with himself to care about them and there it is. He was too concerned with himself to worry about them. He was so worried with himself that he justified his decisions to murder them.

This is why Augustus had this to say about Herod. He says, it is better to be one of his pigs than one of his sons. It is better to be one of his pigs than one of his sons. And yet in the midst of this, it is in the midst of this that king Jesus is born. See, Herod had to contrive and kill artificially to generate his nickname and yet that nickname would now be a question because the son of God has now been born on earth. Jesus the king. And what a difference between the two kings. What a difference between Jesus and Herod. Jesus didn't have to force or fight for his praise. He did not have to beg to be honored. Why? Because since always since always the angels and the elders have worshiped him and will continually worship him without any disturbance or interruption his name nor his nickname will ever be at question. Jesus is king. Not only is he king, his nickname is king of kings and Lord of lords and regardless of who thinks highly of themselves, they will never reach the altitude of praise that is do our king. He has no true competitor. He has no equal, he has no rival nor will he ever have a rival that will serve as a threat. He is Jesus and he's deserving of all praise, all glory and all honor. And if you believe that, would you put a shout on it?

If you spend any time around church, you know that Jesus is Lord. If you spend any time around church, the language would not be foreign that he is king and needs to reign supreme in our lives. So it would be fair to say that you know this and to know this is to know better. That's the part that got me because I've read this story so many times and I've painted the picture in my mind that Herod is just this proud evil king and he is all that. But he wasn't a proud ignorant king. He was not ignorant. He knew better. See, he was an Arab who was practicing as a Jew. Not only is he practicing as a Jew, he's the king of the Jews. To be the king of the Jews would to know the history of the Jews, to know the history of the Jews would say that I agree with the beliefs of the Jews, which would believe that God is God and his king and reigned supreme and there would be a messiah that would come one day. And now that the Messiah has come and he understands all of the prophecies, the prophecies for him was not enough. So what was now supposed to be seen as good news was seen as a threat to him, which tells me that just because someone receives good news, they will not necessarily interpret it as good news.

If your spirit is in the wrong place, you could hear the good thing and make it sound wrong. You will look at it as a threat to who you are. You will look at it as a threat to your disposition and that is the exact space and that is the exact place that Herod is in. He knew better but he wanted what he wanted. Isn't it amazing how we could know what we know and still allow what we want to trump what we know.

We know what we know, but we want what we want. We know what we know, but we want what we want. If you are in the room, if you've never given your life to Jesus nor heard about this, Jesus nor been in church, I'm so excited for you. I want to pray for you. I hope that you give your life to Jesus today, but I want to take a second and I want to pivot towards the one that knows better. I want to pivot towards the saint. I want to talk to the believer. I want to talk to the practicing Christian. I want to talk to the one that you've been saved your entire life. I want to talk to the one that has grown up in church. I want to talk to the one that maybe this is your first church or your fifth church. And I'm not hating why you would go through different churches, different seasons, different moments. I only want to point out to the fact that you know better.

So you have spent time with God, you know God as God and yet you still have this tension of what you know and what you want, what you know and what you want, what you know and what you want. And if you allow what you want to be your greatest desire, what you know will go out the window and see. We will take scripture and we will misconstrue it in hopes that it serves us. We will misquote scriptures all day like God will give me the desire of my heart, but just suggest that he'll give you whatever your heart desire is, is to be a poor steward of what the verse is actually saying. What the verse is actually saying is that when you desire God's heart, he will give you what his heart desires for you. It is not to suggest that if I desire what I desire, I get what I want.

You are confusing God with a genie. He is not a genie here to give you what you wish. He is God and deserves to be followed. He is God and deserves to be listened to. He is God. And as opposed to you submitting your dreams to him, you allow his dream to become your dream. So instead of saying God, I got three wishes that the position becomes God, what's your wish for me? I'll go where you call me to go. I'll do what you call me to do. I'll be your follower. You are God and I am not. You are king and I am not because here's what happens. When what you want is unattainable or unnatural, it will become unsustainable. Trying to handle what is unsustainable will lead you to a perpetual place of paranoia. Herod the great is actually known as being anxious all the time. He is known as living in a place of paranoia. So his real nickname should have been Herod the anxious. But it makes sense because look at Galatians five, 19 through 21, what a perfect character description of Herod. Enough

It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all of the time. Repetitive loveless, cheap sex, a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage, frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness. Trinket, God's magic show, religion, paranoid, loneliness, cutthroat competition, all consuming yet never satisfied, wants all consuming yet never satisfied once all consuming yet never satisfied once. It doesn't say it three times, but the Holy Spirit told me to repeat it three times because somebody needs to know that that's them right there. All consuming yet never satisfied. Once a brutal temper and a potence to love or be loved divided homes and divided lives, small-minded and lopsided pursuits, the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into arrival, uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions, ugly parodies of community. He says, I could go on. And then he says, this isn't the first time I have warmed you.

This is not the first time you've heard this type of talk, the answer, you know what you should be doing. You know how you should be living. You know how you should be abiding, but you are allowing what you want to overwhelm what you know. And the reason why you find yourself in a state of anxiety is not because the world is out of whack. It's because your spirit is not in line with the one that created the world. And the reason why you are in this place is because you will not submit to what it is that God has called you to do. Because when you make the wrong decisions, you'll get the wrong results. And when you get the wrong results, you're not going to have a solid spirit, you're not going to have a stable spirit. I would like to suggest to you that the reason why you are dealing with some of the anxiety that you are dealing with is because of your refusal to obey. And anytime you take matters into your own hands, you will live as paranoid.

But to take matters into my own hands and be paranoid is to tell myself that I just have to keep on holding on and it'll eventually get better. And the truth is it does not work that way. It will never get better. You know why? Because you will never find peace where God is not. So if you are making decisions that you want outside of the will of God, you will not get the peace of God. If you are not in the will of God, the peace of God abides in the will of God. So that means you could be in the middle of the toughest season, but if you are in the will of God, you will have the peace of God. But when you are outside of the will of God, you could have money flowing in. You could be coming home to a beautiful home, but you don't understand why you don't have any peace at all. The reason why you don't have any peace at all is because you are operating on your own will and your own accord because you are doing solely what you want. Write it this way, paranoia. Paranoia is produced by pride or pride produces paranoia.

This is the state that Herod was in. He was in a state of paranoia because he had to remain in control. He wasn't even concerned about leaving a legacy because he wanted to be the center of attention. Woo, let's go.

If there was ever a day and age where everybody wants to be the center of attention, my goodness, we live in a day and age where everybody wants to be seen, everybody wants to be heard, everybody wants to be famous. Famous for what? Just famous because I exist. You just want to be known, want to be listened to, want to be followed. You just looking for reasons to find fame as opposed to doing something well and success finding you. You're trying to manipulate the system and that is the problem because really what you are dealing with is a God complex. You want people to see you and you want people to praise you, but no man or nor woman was created to be the center of attention, nor are we deserving of it. See, what's amazing to me is that the name of Herod actually translates to son of a hero and that wasn't enough because he wanted to be the hero. But the sooner you learn that you are not the main character in this story called life, the sooner you will find purpose and joy. We are supporting cast members at best.

The fact that we even get a role in this production called the life is a blessing and a gift. And the issue is the sooner you understand it is not about people seeing you. It is not about people hearing you. It is about people seeing Jesus and it is about people hearing Jesus. It's about you seeing Jesus and it's about you hearing Jesus like the person in the room that's thinking, oh, I want to live for God, I want to do for God. And if I could just get that opportunity to preach on that stage and when they hear my story, then they will be blessed my friends. The issue that no one talks about is that we have made platforms, prizes when in actuality platforms are not prizes, platforms are opportunities to point to the prize and the prize, Jesus. But if you don't prepare yourself and handle yourself, you'll start treating a platform in the wrong way. It's why we see so many pastors fall. It's why so many pastors give a black eye to the kingdom or worship leaders give a black eye to the kingdom because they think the sooner I get the platform, the better off position I'll be in. But what you don't understand about a platform is that platforms don't necessarily elevate, but they do expose.

And if you are not spending time with Jesus, and if you're not making it about Jesus, I don't care how high your hands are lifted up and how hard your eyes are closed, we could tell when your spirit is off. We could tell that you're calling it worship, but you're only leveraging worship so that somebody could hear your voice. And I am telling you, you are making a great mistake. This is not about being heard. This is about pointing to Jesus. He is king, he is Lord. He deserves all praise, all glory and all honor.

This is why whatever news the Holy Spirit gives you about your life, about your home, about your income, about your children, you need to receive it with great humility and stop looking at direction as a threat. The only reason why the good news was interpreted as bad news is because it hurt his ego. I just think all of our egos need to be hurt from time to time. In fact, when you're really about, it hurt my ego every day, God, you could pick apart my ego. I don't want any of this to ever get to my head. I don't want any of this to make me think that I am better or that I am cooler or I am somehow more favored or blessed. That's not it. That's not it. That's this westernized theology that we have taught and it has got good reactions and it has got good praise. But what's amazing is just because the people are shouting does not mean that God is smiling. The good news was a threat to him, therefore he was disturbed. Then it says he was disturbed and all of Israel with him, he was disturbed and all of Israel with him. Why would all of Israel be disturbed with him? You ready? Not because they agreed with him, but because they knew him.

They knew that if he was disturbed, their lives would be affected. If they knew that if Herod did not get his way, there was going to be some type of outbursts. There was going to be some type of decision, there was going to be some type of move that would affect them. And that's exactly it. That's exactly what, when Herod found out that there was this king, he tried to manipulate the magi or the three wise men to tell him where Jesus was being born so that he could go murder him, but through a dream which we'll touch on in a little bit, they never go back to him. And because they don't go back to him, he's offended. And now because he's offended, he says, I got to kill this king because if this king is going to take my spot, then that's going to mean that I'm going to be out of a job and I have to remain authority.

I have to be the one that leads this deal. So you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to murder every child two years and younger, what should have been interpreted as good news turned into genocide because his heart was off. Oh, be careful what pride does to you because what you think you are so right in you are affecting the people around you. And this is the part we really have to sit down and talk about. Your decisions don't just affect you, they affect everybody else. Pride tells you it's all about you and you got to get your way. But what you don't realize is that your way is going to affect my way and my way is going to affect your way. And when I make things about me and when I make things about what I want, if as a husband I make it about how I want to be served and what my wife does for me as a opposed to looking at my wife as the greatest opportunity to serve, to serve her and love her and to bless her and to encourage her and not joke on her and not put her down and not be tongue in cheek just because she asked me to do something that I don't necessarily want to do.

I came to serve, not be served. And if that was the example that Jesus gave us and he says, if you want to honor me, then you honor your spouse and by honoring your spouse, you honor me. But yet there are people that think if they could honor God on stage, they could behave however they want off stage. And what we don't talk about is that your behavior off stage is affecting me as well.

All of Israel was disturbed. They knew that their king was going to get upset and he was going to throw a tantrum and as a result of him throwing a tantrum, their lives were going to be affected. Their lives were going to be impacted. You ever been a part of a family system? You ever been a part of an organization that when the boss was having a bad day, when the manager was having a bad day, that meant no fun in the break room. That meant we couldn't really talk the way we would typically talk because so-and-so has an attitude or do you ever live in a home because one parent was upset, nobody else was able to enjoy the luxuries of that home. We weren't able to watch TV the way that we wanted to because mom had a bad day or dad had a bad day.

And it could be for reasons that have nothing to do with us, but they have everything to do with us because it now affects us because of a decision that they made at work that went wrong because they couldn't take it out on their boss. They now take it out on their children. And now the children who should be looking at their home as a safe haven, as they should be looking as an opportunity to celebrate their parents and be with their parents. They're scared to out of their room and they're asking questions like, can I go downstairs and can I get a snack or are we going to eat tonight or is mom too upset? Therefore I have to figure it out on my own. Be careful because your decisions don't just affect you. Pride tells you it's all about you. But what pride doesn't tell you is that pride affects everyone connected to you. If you do not start to deal with the things, if you do not start to deal with the emotions and the behaviors and you just justify it, that's just the way I am.

Just the way you are. How old are you? Just the way you are? Well, you don't know how I grew up. You don't know where I come from. You don't know my culture. You don't know what happened to me, man. I remember this one time counseling this family and it was a mother and her daughter and the daughter was just doing what she wanted. She was messing around with boys, she was cutting school, she was getting high, she was doing drugs. It was a mess. And I was trying to encourage her and the daughter stopped talking to me and she started talking to her mother and she said, mom, you need to tell him that I don't like when people talk to me like this. And I'm looking at her, I'm going, sweetie, I'm right in front of you. You can tell me you are self.

But you know what you get in that moment. You get a broken family system that the mother starts enabling the daughter and the daughter thinks it's okay to behave like this because she has never been corrected. Therefore, she justifies her behavior saying, well, this is just who I am. And she started clapping for some reason. Are we about to play patty cake? You know what I mean? I think she was from the Bronx by the way. That's not it. No shade. No shade. But she was no shade. I love the Bronx. You know what I mean? Hip hop Yankees, I love y'all. She did. I don't like being spoken to like that. I expect that from a 13-year-old. But you're grown.

Your parents, your children have to parent the parents and cater to the father because when the dad's upset and he doesn't have a good day at work, you know him. He has to come home and he has to sit in his chair and he has to get him a cold one and he's going to sit back and watch sports and don't you dare try to talk to him or don't you try to talk to your dad this weekend. He got to preach on Sunday and if he has to preach on Sunday, you can't make eye contact with him. You can't have any conversation. He has to hear from the Holy of Holies. And it is amazing to me. He has to hear from the holy of Holies, but he's being cut off and rude. I thought the most time you spend with Jesus, you become like Jesus.

What happens in your world? And what happens is in these broken family systems, the children have to start catering to the parent because God forbid the mother had a bad day. I asked you to take the chicken out of the fridge from me when I got home, but now I got home and that chicken is still frozen, therefore we ain't eating dinner tonight. And what should have been a nice family dinner was ruined because a child was simply a child and a parent was acting more childish than the child because as opposed to just figuring it out, they made it about cold chicken. And now cold chicken is a trauma trigger for any child that grew up in a home because they couldn't get dinner because simply they were being a kid. And it's okay when the kid forgets to bring the chicken out of the fridge. It is not okay when the parents are weak is ruined because the child forgot to bring the chicken out of the fridge. And what happens is your children are all disturbed because you are disturbed. And now the one that is supposed to be leading the home is crumbling the home because they've made their home their kingdom as opposed their home. A safe haven.

All of Israel was disturbed because the king was throwing a temper tantrum. The king was frustrated. Wives be careful talking about, well, if you're the husband, I'm the neck. If the husband's the head, then I'm the neck and I tell him where to turn and what to do. Y'all got real quiet, okay? You don't want to talk about it.

Be careful. Be careful. Why don't they want to come over Christmas? Because last Christmas was horrible. Why don't they want to come home on the holidays? It's not a holiday in your home. It's supposed to be Christmas, it's supposed to be New Year's Eve, but really what it is is you judging. What it is is you complaining. What it is is you ain't never get nothing what you want for Christmas. And even though we asked you what you want and you said No, I don't want anything, and then you woke up and got nothing and were frustrated about it, you're an adult. Use your words if you want it, say it. If you don't, don't. But it is not anyone's job just to know you. I know you by talking to you, you talk to me, I talk to you, I talk to you, you talk to me. But what you are not going to do is hold me responsible for what you didn't say because if I could predict the behaviors of your outcome, simply be your cause of what you did not get your issue here, it's not that everyone else is off. The issue is is that you are off and what you are trying to do is dominate a home and treat it like you were king, which makes this story so interesting because it is easily to judge Herod until I realize I could be Herod.

And there is a spirit of Herod that is out to get you. There is a spirit of Herod that wants to destroy you. There is a spirit of Herod. I want you to write this down. I broke it down into an acronym, a Herod. Let's break it down this way. Hating every righteous obedient decision. Hating every righteous, obedient decision. So just because God tells you to do something and you do not like it, it does not mean that his spirit is off. It means that your spirit is what is God asking you to do that you have a hard time responding to? Let's take a moment of self-reflection. What news has God given you that you've not agreed with? This isn't for your neighbor, this is for you. This isn't for your spouse, it's for you. It's not for your child, it's for you. What has he told you to do that you refuse to obey? We're going to be honest. You ain't going to talk. Okay, alright, let's play a game. Let's play a game called What about when God told you to walk away from the relationship and you said no.

What about when God told you not to take the job, but you said I need the money. What about when God told you to tithe and you said not yet. What about when the Holy Spirit just spoke to you because Pastor Tim was on the screen and he was talking to you about the offering coming up and you were trying to figure out what you were going to give even though the Holy Spirit already gave you a number, but you started to do the math in your head because you thought to yourself, if I give this number, I'm not going to be able to buy this gift for Christmas. What about that? What about that, or what about when the Holy Spirit said it's time to start serving a ministry again? But your response is that you keep using your previous experience as an excuse not to help you have pain from other churches that you have allowed to keep you from serving in this church. You need to get the help to work through whatever it is that you went through, but it does not mean that you should not be able to help in the community that you are a part of. Or what about when he told you to forgive that person that hasn't even apologized and you said, I'll do anything but that.

What about when he told you, go over for Thanksgiving but don't bring up your grievance, and your response was, well, you don't get it. I'm too real. What about when he spoke to you about that addiction?

Even though you can't break it on your own, you keep telling yourself that you can't work through, but he says, I need you to talk to someone. I need you to get help. I need you to get support. I need you to find a pastor. I need you to find a leader. I need you to find a counselor. But you keep telling yourself, you keep telling yourself that you're able to do it and I want you to know the very things that you are not willing to give up. The things that you are choosing to allow Herod to run in your life, the areas where you are choosing to be Herod in your life. Let me say it that way because you're not going to start blaming the spirit of Herod. What you're going to do is understand that you could be Herod and you will make decisions that are wrong decisions simply because you want what you want.

And the anxiety you're dealing with, the paranoia that you're struggling with simply comes from your pride. See, the seed of disobedience produces a harvest of anxiety. A seed of disobedience will always produce a harvest of anxiety. The wrong decisions will always lead to the wrong emotions, feelings and outcome. This is why it's important to note the decisions you're making. They may not cause you to go to hell, but disobedience is always the first step towards hell. And I'm not saying you'll spend eternity in hell, but earth will be held for you when you make the decisions that you want over what God says. This is why we kneel in humility before our king as much as possible, we fall on our knees. I love how the song says a fall on your knees and hear the angel's voices fall on your knees and realize I'm not God. He is. I'm not the captain of the ship he is. I'm the priest of my home. Yes, we love that title, but the priest is submitted to the Father. So you don't just get to be the priest of your home walking around with a title. If you are not listening to your superior.

Herod refused to fall, which is why eventually he fell. If you don't fall on your knees, you will fall on your face. If you do not choose to submit to God and allow him to be king over your life, I promise you, you will live you in a place of brokenness, paranoia, and discomfort, all because of your unwillingness to submit. Humility is one of the greatest keys of the kingdom. It simply acknowledges you are God and I am not. But here's the thing about humility. Humility is royalty without a crown. Humility is royalty without a crown. You think doing what you do is going to get you to where you want to go. I promise you, you will never get to the heights that you actually want to accomplish. If you do not learn how to bend your knees, we'll never get it. I want to prove this to you. Can you put up one Peter chapter five verses five through seven.

Okay, I want you to take note of this. Is there a way to put the whole thing on the screen? And if not, no worries, but I want you to see it this way because so often these three verses are quoted separately, but it's actually one fluid statement. It says, God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble God opposes the proud. You got that? Yes. Yes. Okay, let's do a little call and response. Y'all got that? Yes. Okay, great. Great. Then it says, humble yourselves, therefore under God's mighty hands that he may lift you up in due time. Look at the next one. Cast all your anxiety on him because he caress for you. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. God opposes the proud cast, all your anxiety on him because he caress for you. It almost sounds like two separate conversations until you realize that your pride is the reason for your anxiety. If you are not careful and if you are not paying attention, you'll blame everyone else for your anxiety not realizing that the problem is you. I'm the problem. It's me that confession that changes everything that will change in your world. You know why? Because favor follows humility but pride, it only leads to anxiety. And what the writer is trying to get us to understand is that God opposes the proud. He stands against the proud. And I just hate the fact that we live in a day and age that is so Bible illiterate and they will quote verses out of the context and which he is written and they will allow themselves to seem justified because they put a verse on it. But friends, let me tell you, just because you put God's name on it does not mean that God is in it. God opposes the proud. You could tell me what God told you all day, but he's looking at you going, I ain't say that.

That's not the context in which I said it. I never told you to do that. I told you to run from that relationship, but you wanted what you wanted so you found a way to get what you want, but you have to get to the place that what I have is greater than what you want. That what I've given you is greater than what you desire for. You have to get to the place that you desire me over what you request. Because if you are not paying attention, if you are not paying attention, you'll live in a constant state of anxiety.

Cast all your anxiety on him because he caress for you. I talk very openly. A few years ago now, I had a mental breakdown. I had these repressed memories. I was abused as a child. 7, 11, 13, 14. I married 18 years. I met my wife when I was 16. I told her a little bit. I didn't tell her everything. She would ask me and I would say, we ain't talking about it. A lot of things I didn't remember, but every time she would ask me, I would say, we ain't talking about it. And over the 18 years there'd be different moments where she'd say, Hey Chris, you mentioned this but I want to ask you this.

We ain't talking about it. And it's amazing because in this situation, I'm the victim. I was abused and yet and yet, although I was the victim, it did not justify my actions in not talking about it. Now you could say, talk about it when you're ready. That's true. Talk about it when you're ready. But as you take the time to get ready, there is going to be all this stored up anxiety and it is going to mess with you and it's going to tell you that it is more prominent in your hands as opposed to being in someone else's. And the issue is when I am 36 years of age and I finally get out what happened to me when I was a child? I'm 40 now, so it's only four years ago when I finally get out, what happened to me as a child?

It put me in this place of tailspin and whirlwind and breakdown. Had I just shared it when I should have shared it years ago, but I kept telling myself that I could handle it on my own. And so when I read this verse, I read it in a different way because it is rare that you look at the victim as the proud one, but victims could be very proud because they think because they had the experience that they are the expert and the two are not the same. Just because you had an experience, it does not make you an expert. You need to allow experts to come in and help you to walk you through it. You are not just modeling what you see. You are getting tools for what you need. So practically get to your pastor, get to a therapist, get to a counselor. But even above that or included with that, get the Holy Spirit. Allow the Holy Spirit to work in your life and lead you and guide you and walk you through it. Because here's the deal, God opposes the proud,

And Herod doesn't just look like a king that says, I want you dead. Herod could be, I don't want to do that. God, I'm not comfortable with it. So you're telling me, Chris, from the last time you were abused at 14 to 36 years old, what's the math on that by the way? It took you all that time to finally get it out. What is it? 22, 23 years, you are holding onto it because you're saying you're not ready. And what nobody admits in your you are not ready. It starts to eat away at you and it starts to hurt you. So without even realizing it, I justified my hurt as a means to handling it on my own. And when I finally cast my cares on Jesus, when I finally say, God, this is the part of my life I ain't never want to talk about. I was embarrassed. You got to understand, man, it wasn't easy. I had everything working against me. I was the chubby white boy, pastor's son living in Queens, New York, going to high school in Jamaica, Queens. You didn't want to share that stuff in the nineties, early two thousands. Are you kidding me?

Everything was working against me. I gave myself every excuse why I couldn't talk about it, and yet no excuse was justifiable enough as to why I shouldn't be talking about it, why I shouldn't be bringing it to God. Cast your cares on God because they're going to do you no good. My abuse happened in church, by the way. So the very place, the very place that I was supposed to be going to so I could cast those carrots, everybody was talking about how beautiful it is. It wasn't that beautiful to me. It said something else. It felt like something else, but that wasn't an excuse.

And the thing that I'm trying to get to is that pride that rises up and says, you got to handle it, sir. You got to handle it on your own girl. You got to handle it on your own. It's not true. It's not true. You got to cast your cares because if you don't cast your cares, what you're saying is your cares are better in your hands than they are in God's. And God opposes that. God opposes that theory. He says, I will oppose the proud and I will tell them that they have to work through it and they have to get it to me. Would you stand Now, I want to point out two things. I didn't get to it, but there are two groups that I want to point out that three Wisemen married Joseph and Jesus, the wise men go to Herod. Herod says, Herod says, tell me where this king is because I want to come worship him. When you find them, you have to understand that when Herod takes the magi into his kingdom, they don't just come for a visit and leave. He's whining and dining them. He's giving them the best of the best. All of it is manipulative tactics by the way, so that he can get what he wants. But then they get visited by an angel in a dream and the angel says, do not go back to Herod. So they obey. They don't go back to the evil, they go away from it.

Mary Joseph and Jesus never even meet herd. Ah. It's a different group. They never meet him. And yet they obey. Why? Because the angel shows up in a dream to Joseph shows up in a dream to Joseph and says, do not go back. In fact, leave the land and go to Egypt. And then I found this album, this was so interesting to me. When they were in Egypt, they actually moved between 20 to 26 times.

They stayed there until Herod died, until they had a release to go back to their homes. Someone could hear that and go, man, they had to run from there. They had to run for their lives. They had to move around 20 to 26 times and you could read it that way or you can go, they weren't running from their lives, they were running in life. They were taking heed to the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit said, go here and go there and go here and go there. And what we all want is set it and forget it. But the Holy Spirit says, I don't only set it and forget it. I move you and I prepare you and I move you and I prepare you and I move you and I prepare you and what you are calling a disappointing season is actually a season of preparation. I move you and I prepare you, I move you and I prepare you and I am with you. And now the difference, the difference between Herod, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus and the three wise men is simply this one knew how to listen and the other refused to listen.

Herod was of the same belief as Mary and Joseph. Joseph, you could have enemies on the inside. Lemme say it this way. Just because you're in this place does not suggest to me in any way that you're in the right place. You could be in this place behaving like a herd. I don't want that. I don't want to submit to that. Not apologize. I ain't going back. I'm not going to serve her. I'm the man I deserve to be served. He doesn't know how good he's got. I could be with so many other men better than him. You play these games, he's killing you. The Holy Spirit told me to tell you, you're looking to the wrong place for the wrong advice. It's time to look down. Just earlier this morning at the hotel, as I was preparing to come here, I ordered breakfast to my room and it never comes. And as AB who travels with me knocked on my door so that we could get here, he said, pastor Chris, why didn't you get your food? And I said, because I didn't know it came. They put it in a bag and they put it on the side of the door. See what's funnier is 20 minutes prior I thought I heard a knock. And when I went to the door, I looked straight, but no one was there.

Had I looked down, I would've found what I needed. I would've found my provision. I would've would've found the nutrients that I needed in the moment that I was operating in. The issue is so many of you are looking the wrong place. You're looking at celebrity, you're looking at comparison as to what other people have. You're looking at other people your age and you're thinking, how come they have it? And I don't. You are looking in the wrong place. Holy Spirit says, I want you to start looking down because this kingdom is not the same as the world. The world tells you look up and have everyone look up at you. But in the kingdom, in order to go up, you got to look down. Now, look down on yourself. Uhuh, you got to look lowly. You got to start looking at humility. You have to start placing yourself under the mighty hand of God and say, God, I submit to you. I honor you. I will follow you. I will go where you have called me to go. There's this verse that Jesus says, Matthew five, three, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Because I grew up with a poverty mindset and I grew up around people with a poverty mindset. Now, I wasn't poor. I also wasn't rich. I wasn't poor by any means. I was not rich by any means, and I grew up with a poverty mindset and the people around me, poverty mindset. But if I'm just talking about me, I would read that verse and think, blessed are the people that are poor. That ain't it because it says poor in spirit. Somebody heard that and said, amen.

Listen, my prayer is that you all be rich, that God would favor you, send you money that you would steward what he gives you. It's my prayer. But the word picture here that Jesus says, it says, blessed are the poor in spirit. And the word picture of poor in spirit is literally a beggar on the ground that as God would pass by or as the Holy Spirit would pass by saying, holy Spirit fill me. I don't want me. I want you. I want to rid me of my spirit and I want your spirit. I have so much of me in me that I'm poor of your spirit, but if you would just fill me with your spirit, if you would just bless me your spirit, if you would just grant me your spirit, then I'll be strong. And the Bible says, blessed is the one that learns how to get down low. The one that learns how to kneel, the one that knows how to get lowly and say, God, it's not you. It is not about me. It's about you. I'm sorry that I've gotten in the way on those decisions on what you've called me to do. I'm asking you to fill me right now. I'm asking you to overwhelm me. I don't want me anymore. I got me in trouble. I do stupid things when it's me, but when I listen to your spirit, God, would you fill me?

And here's how I want to pray. If you know you know that this is the Holy Spirit challenging you in your own life, it's not for your neighbor, it's for you. I want you to come to this altar and if possible, I want you to kneel. Come on. If you can't physically kneel, that's okay. Just step out of your seat a little bit in a second. I'm going to pray for you. But as you come and kneel, I want you to self-reflect. They're going to sing this over us as they sing this over us. I want you to lift up your hands, and I just want you to just reflect and think of the goodness of God. Go for it. Come on, Jesus. Jesus, would it be fair to say that Jesus is seated at the highest place

So we can't lift him any higher than he is, but we say we lift you high, right? Yes. I learned that if you want Jesus to be higher in your life, come on, you have to figure out a way to change the distance. If he's already the highest he'll ever be, I can't push him any higher. But if I want to change the distance so he's a bit higher, it changes when I get lower. The lower I get, the more distance there is between us, which allows me, which allows me to admit that there is nothing higher. There is no one greater. He is king and he is Lord. I submit all my decisions. I submit all my frustrations. I submit all my confusions. I submit all the restoration. I submit, I submit. I submit the finances, and I say, God, you reign supreme. You are Lord and you are God.

You will be highest and be seen at highest in my life. Therefore, I worship you. Therefore, I honor you. I will not allow the rocks to cry out. I won't allow my spirit to get in the way. I willfully submit to you today. And I say, I am blessed because I get to worship you. I am blessed because I get to listen to you. Who are we that you would allow us to represent you? Who are we that you would visit us and speak to us? Forgive us forever? Ever taking that relationship and that line of communication for granted, that we would think that we get a say in the matter. Who are we that you would even want to talk to us and walk with us and be with us? Therefore, when I think of the goodness of God, it leads me, like Paul says, it leads me to my knees.

I get overwhelmed by your mercy. I get overwhelmed by your grace. And I say, thank you for not casting me out. Thank you for not throwing us out. Thank you for not treating us as our sins deserve. Thank you for allowing us to go through it and to be able to come out of it. Father, as a body and as a family, we kneel in your presence and we give you all praise, all glory and all honor in the matchless name of Jesus Embassy. If you agree with that, would you take the next 30 seconds and which our hands lifted up? Would you give Jesus your loudest shout of praise in this place? Come on.

If you want to remain kneeling, you can remain kneeling.

We still got time. Listen, if you're in the room, you've never given your life to Jesus, this is your moment. You want to recommit your life to Jesus. This is your moment. Would you close your eyes, please? Yes. You want to recommit your life. This is it. You need to repent. This is it. You want to give your life to Jesus. This is it. I'm a count of three, and if that's you, you want to give your life to Jesus, I want you to shoot up your hand on three. One. Jesus loves you and he died specifically for you two. Tomorrow's not promised to any one of us, to any man or any woman, but today is the day of salvation. Therefore, we won't wait any longer. If that's you, lift up your hand now. Three. Lift it up. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. I see you, sir. Yep, yep, yep. Jesus. Jesus. Yep. I want you to repeat this with me. Yep. I see you back there. Let's all repeat it together. Say, Jesus. Jesus, you are king. You are king. You are Lord, you are. Forgive me of all my sins. Forgive me of all my sins and all my wrongdoing. I give you my life. Give you my life. Have your way, your king Jesus. Amen.