No Crown (Robert Madu)

of God in here? Y'all? To just look at your neighbor that you're kind of socially distanced from, and even right there on the e fam wherever you're watching us from, just look at your neighbor right in their face. Say, neighbor, I'm ready to receive everything that God's got for me. Oh come on, find you another neighbor. Find you another neighbor. Look at that other neighbor. Tell them I'm ready to

receive everything that God's got for me. Whoo. See, you have to be expected to receive what he has because sometimes you don't even know what it is. That's why I like the o's in that saw, because the o's just articulate. I don't even know what you got for me, But I'm ready to receive. So whatever it is, I'm ready to receive it. Father. We honor you today. They say, have your way in this place. Do whatever you want to do, Shake whatever you want to shake, Move whatever

you want to move. We do have great anticipation. Even in spite of what we've been through, We're still anticipating you to move because we know that you work all things, all things the good of those that love you, and are called according to your purpose. Speak to our hearts in Jesus' name. Everybody said, come on. Everybody said, amen, you may be seated in the presence of the Lord. How you're doing elevation, Oh, come on, you can do better than that. Are you glad to be in the

House of God this morning? I tell you what. It is always a privilege to be an elevation church, but it's a special privilege to be invited back, be invited. Fact, this is like my sixth time here, and man, I never take it for granted. I am truly honored and humbled to be here, especially to be here this week. This week. You know, time is measured in minutes, but

life is measured in moments. And I'll never forget this time last year, we were right here in this room, and the pandemic was upon us, and we didn't know what the future was gonna look like. But isn't it awesome to see that we're still here and we're still standing. Oh come on, don't act like you weren't scared this time last year. You didn't know what was gonna happen. But look at you. You're still standing. Come on, you still got a pulse. That's the beauty of our God.

You didn't know this moment was hit on a comeback then, but look at you, you're still here. So I'm just thankful for God's goodness. I'm thankful for his grace, and I'm excited to preach the word to you. I want to, first of all, really and truly give honor to where honor is due. I'm so thankful for the life and really just the leadership pastor Stephen and Holly Ferdick. Come.

You know, y'all are crazy blessed. See y'all know them as great pastors, y'all know them as great leaders, But my wife and I just know them as great friends. And you can try to be better friends to the than they are to you. But it's impossible. It's impossible because they're incredibly loyal. They're just always there. They will show up when you need them. And I don't want you to ever take the gift that they are for granted.

In fact, one more time, would you let them know how much you love them, how much you appreciate them. Come on, y'all, you're blessed, You're blessed. That's who I listen to to feed my soul. I listened to your pastor, Pastor Stephen Ferdick, and try not to steal his stuff while I'm listening to him. And then during the pandemic, I realize it's two verdicts in that house that can preach because Pastor Holly have me shouting and throwing stuff at the TV screen. So I thank God for her.

My wife and my family sends her love. I still live in the great country of Texas, still married to the finest woman on the planet, Taylor to do. We still have three little humans and they're doing good. But I guess there is one update. There is one update. My wife and I we started this gathering in Dallas called Social Dallas in twenty nineteen, just once a month gathering and I've told God. I told God, you have to tell God something. I told him this. I'm not

a church planner, I'm not a pastor. That is just the gathering that I told him, that specifically told him. This is not a church plan I'm just having a gathering. Oh but surprise. I mean, you know, you can tell God your plan is, but he'll laugh at him. And man, I'm excited to announce. I guess for the first time on this stage that Social Dallas is now Social Church and we're gonna have our opening Sunday this Easter. Come on, somebody, so you're ever in the Dallas area, come check us

out and Social Dallas. And man, we are excited and scared to death for all that God is gonna do. But man, I'm ready to preach the Word today, all ready to hear it. I got some good back up here to help me. Say Amen, So to turn with me to the Gospel of John today. John chapter three. I'm gonna look at verses twenty two through thirty. Well, also look at the Book of Revelation or somebody else say Revelations, even though that's not in the Bible. And

we'll look at chapter four, verses nine through eleven. John Chapter three. We'll start at verse number twenty two. When you're ready to read it, say yeah. If you ain't ready to say hold up, come on, somebody that's on the screen. Look at what it says. It says. After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judaan countryside, where he spent some time with them and baptized. Now,

John also was baptizing at Anne near Seline. Because there was plenty of water, people were coming and being baptized. This was before John was put in prison. An argument developed between some of John's disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. And came to John and said to him, Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan talking about Jesus, the one you testified about. Look, he is baptizing and everyone is going to him. Isn't it crazy the news

that some people will bring to you like that. These are John's disciples talking about U. John, hold on, like people are actually focusing on Jesus more than you. This is a problem. That's what they came to say to John. And look at what John said. A person can only receive what is given to them from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said it. I told you I'm not the Messiah, but I'm sent ahead of him. The

bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegrooms voice that joy is mine and it is now complete. He must become greater, and I must become less. Show that is good. Go

to Revelation chapter four. Just a few verses here, starting in verse number nine, and it says, whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to Him who sits on the throne and who lives forever and ever, the twenty four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives forever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say, you are worthy, o, Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power. You created all things, and by your

will they were created and have their being. Can you say amen? John says he must become greater, I must become less, and the elders throw down their crowns before the throne. Oh God, I want to preach today, not long, about six and a half hours, just using this as a title, No crown, no crown. Would you help me preach and look at your neighbor one last time and say, neighbor, I know you think you cute, but no crowd, father, thank you for your word today speak to us a

bad elevation. Fam. Before the service started, we had a pre service production meeting, little mini production meeting, And in the production meeting, they asked me a question that I'm actually often asked. Matter of fact, I've been preaching sixteen years now, and I am always asked this question before I preach, either through texts, through email, through facts on person. I asked this question. The question is, Pastor Robert, do you have any props or illustrations that you'll be using

in your message today? Do you have any props or illustrations that you'll be using? And I think it's my familiarity with this question that's actually made me unaware of how nuanced that is to what I'm called to do. Some you know, preachers, we will use some props to prove a point. I mean, we will use some if you don't believe it, just scroll down your timeline tomorrow. Look at some preachers pages. You will see all kinds of pictures with foreign objects of them trying to illustrate

some point. We will use some props. Preachers might be the only people that will call you up before service, call you for a service, say real quick, real quick, I need some dynamite, some matches, a bull horn, and a fire extinguisher, and nobody will question why in the world do you need these items. They'll be like, yeah, pastor Nesa, you're probably preaching on how you need to be a dynamite witness for Jesus. Don't let the devil extinguish your fire. I mean, people will just go get

the stuff and not ask you a question. Because preachers, we use props. We love to use props to illustrate what God is saying to us. And it's funny the props that we use to illustrate what God is saying. And the reason we do it is not just to be cute. It's not just to be cute. It's because

we have been given the task, the daunting task. If I might add, to articulate the gospel, the good news about Jesus, we have been given the task to express that which is inexpressible, to talk about the intangible, to talk about a kingdom that is so transcended, the Kingdom of God, a kingdom whose ways are above your ways, and whose thoughts are above your thoughts. How in the world can you aulate something that really your mind can't comprehend,

but your spirit has to comprehend it. Oh, it is a difficult task to try to articulate the ideas of the Kingdom of God. Even Jesus, when he preached the Bible says, every time he preached to a crowd, he told stories. He told stories. He had to use things in the earth that you could understand to express a kingdom that you could never understand. Jesus use parables, and we use props. And so I'm just having fun with this. I actually made a list of all the props that

I've used, like in my sixteen years of preaching. This is fun. This is not a comprehensive list, but all these props have been used in some shape or form.

A ladder, toy train, basketball, barbies, barbells, hammer, nails and built sword, seeds, trolls, plants, dirt mannequins, buckspring, violin, cliometric boxes, cardboard boxes, gift boxes, brooms, shovel trees, dog bull, toilet, rug flowers, mirrors, magnifying glass, oversize sunglasses, candles, salt, dollar bill, dimes, tiger pulls, inflatables, oils, extension cords, bunge of cords, ropes, keys, Christmas tree, a cow tongue, cow tongk It's a long story.

I'll tell you about it later. I'll tell you about it now. I was a O was school. I was school. I was preaching like a junior high camp, preaching like a junior high camp, and you know, you gotta do whatever you can a junior high And I brought in a cow tongue and I say, young people, sit up, said, in this bag, I have the most lethal weapon that you have ever seen. What is it? Oh, I'm gonna tell you what it is in this bag. It's something that is deadly, It is poisonous, and it will kill you.

This bag has destroyed lives. What is it? Oh, I'm gonna show you what it is. I pull out the cow tongue, put it everywhere, almost sudden like eh oh. I'm like, oh, that's nasty. That's gross. Not as gross as the things that come out of your mouth and the cafeteria every second time. Whatever it takes to get them to the altar that els use props, and I'm adding to my list today. I'm adding to my list of props today. I haven't used this one before. Anybody

know what This is a smoke detector. Yeah, I'm so glad you said smoke detector. It looks like it's a smoke detector. Smoke detectors are good, but the reality is you can see smoke. Now, you can smell smoke. The beep is a little extra. You can see a fire. This is a This is a carbon monoxide detector. Carbon dioxide detectors are vital. They are critical. As matter of fact, you cannot build the building without having carbon monoxide detectors.

Every building, by code has to have a carbon monoxide detector because carbon monoxide is lethally dangerous, always a lethally dangerous. I don't want to start off morbid, but you have to understand that almost twenty thousand people a year found themselves in the emergency room because of carbon monoxide. Four hundred people a year die because of carbon monoxide. And what makes carbon monoxide so lethally dangerous is because it

is colorless and it is odorless. So it could be in the room right now and you wouldn't even know it. It could be in the room right now, seeping throughout this room, and it would slowly start to affect your body. All of a sudden, you just get nauseous, and you would have a headache, and you would start feeling the symptoms, and before you know it, you would die from motoxin that you couldn't even see. The CDC calls carbon monoxide

the silent killer. Obviously, I didn't come all the way to Charlotte today to talk to you about carbon monoxide, but I do want to talk about a silent killer. The silent killer is pride. Pride is the carbon monoxide of sin. Pride is the carbon monoxide slowly and secretly and subtly seeping into your spirit, suffocating the plans and the purposes of God. I'm telling you, Pride is the

silent killer. Pride will destroy your life. Pride will stop God from doing exceedingly abundantly above all you may ask, think, or imagine. It is nothing like pride that will shut down the plan of God for your life. Pride is what destroys marriages. Pride is what ruins relationships. Pride is what tears apart families. Pride is what makes you hold on to bitterness and refuse to forgive. Pride is the reason why family members have been talked for years. Pride

destroys churches, It shuts down ministries, It kills companies. Pride is the silent killer ood. There's nothing like pride that will stop God from doing what he wants to do in you and through you. Pride has always been the problem. Who can I go there? But pride is America's stronghold. You know, we got EFAM people watching all over the world right now. But how many know different regions and different nations, Sometimes different states and cities have particular strongholds.

And you ain't got to be prophetic or have a sociology degree to know that pride is America's biggest stronghold. Oh, it is our stronghold. We read the Bible and think the Bible just talking about us. Pride is a stronghold. Don't mess with me. I'm from Texas. You know, Texas really got some pride. It's just we're our own country. We think, how do you deal with pride? See, pride is interesting because pride is the sin beneath the sin. Can I just take my time real quick, let me

pause for a water break. Pride is the sin beneath the sin. That's what Augustine said. In other words, there can be issues in your life that on the surface it looks like it's one thing, but at the bottom it's really just pride. Give us some examples, Robert, Okay, I give you some examples. So like, on the surface of your life, you think the issue is anxiety or worry, but at the root, it's pride. Because you told God, didn't you tell me so? God? I specifically told you

that I had to be married by twenty eight. I told you that he had to be six four. Did not tell you God that we had to live in the suburbs. I specifically that we prayed about this. Our house had to be mid century modern. I told you the car had to be a BMW, nothing less than a five series. Didn't I tell you? That was my plan?

And now you anxious and you're upset cause you're thirty eight and you're not married, or you are, but he's five to two and you don't got the house or the career that you wanted, and you're driving the Prius and you're like, God, what is woman? You're trying to understand what is not happening? And it's not anxiety, is just it was fried pride trying to tell God the way you thought your life. Shit, Oh, I should have preached something that will make you shall so so on

the surface, on the surface, it looks like indecisiveness. The root is pride. Because if I actually take a step of faith and do what God has called me to do, what if I fail? What if I mess up? What are people gonna think about me? If I don't show up the way I'm supposed to show up. So I'd rather stay at the bay of procrastination and never step into what God has for me, because if I do, I might fall flat on my face and I got a reputation. It's always pride is always at the root

of it. Oh, that's what's at the root of every fride fight in your life. It's pride. That's why you're bitter because of pride, Because you're only bitter because you think you're better than that person. Because it's pride. Yeah, that's why you're angry talking about I cannot believe that she would do that to me. I would never do that to anybody. I would never treat anybody like that girl. I would never talk behind anybody's back as you're telling

your friend. I would never ever do that. How could she do something like that? The root it is pride. Pride is the sin beneath the sin. What do we do with the pride? Pride preceded the fall of man. Pride is what turned an angel into a devil. It made its way into heaven. Satan Lucifer, you know, it used to be the praise and worship leader of heaven. But pride was found in his heart. And not only did he fall, two thirds of the angels, sixty six

percent of the angels fail because of pride. I came to tell you that pride, hear me, is the dead bolt that will block your access into the presence of God. But humility. Humility is the hinge upon which the heavens open up in your life. Humility is the hinge upon which the heavens open up in your life. If you ever want to see the heavens open up in your life. You gotta start saying, God, let me be humble, let me have humility. That's how the heavens will open up

in your life. If you really want to see a miracle and a move of God, you start with humility. Begin your day, every single day, getting down on your knees and saying, God, I cannot do life without you. God. I need you. God. I don't know how to run this company without you. God. I don't know how to raise these kids without you. God. I don't know how to be a father. I don't know how to be a mom. God, you gotta help me. I need you. You're not in addition to my life, you are my life.

I need you. Oh. When you begin your life like that, your day like that, That's what gets God's attention. He is attracted to humility. He has to show up when you get humble, because humility is the hinge upon which the heavens open up. God is attracted to the fragrance of humility. Who come here, James? Chapter four? What does it say? It says that God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. He resists the proud,

but gives grace to the humble. Later John James will also say that who resists the devil and he will flee. So wait a minute. I gotta resist the devil for him to flee. But if I got pride, God will resist me. I gotta resist the devil for him to flee. But if I have pride, God will resist me. So I wonder what the enemy is gonna constantly hit me with pride? Pride? I think that's what the enemy will always tell you. Do you boo? Do you Pride is the silent killer? God told me to preach this message.

I don't know who this is for today. Because I love the core value, I love the ethos of Elevation Church, and see what God can do through you, See what God can do through you. I just came to tell you the thing that will stop what God can do through you. It's pride. So quick question, it's just us stopping and y'all at home etham, quick question and be honest. How many would just say by showing up hands that like you're super prideful. See your hand up, You're like prideful.

Come on, you be honest, like raise your hand said like I'm I'm prideful, raising real high ephan raising high. Okay, let me see. Okay, if you didn't lift up your hand, I'm worried about you. I'm worried about you. I got some serious questions because the problem with pride is it hides. See, the people that struggle with pride the most will be the last one to lift up the hand because the pride stops them from saying that they have it. See,

pride is like bad breath. You're generally the last one to know that you have it, but yet it's affecting everybody. Oh so you didn't lift up the hand. I'm worried about you because because because pride hides. Okay, I'm trying another question. How many of you say that like you're super humble? Like you're humble? I mean, come on, lift up your hand. Come on, like you're really, really humble. Now you don't lift up your hand. Come on, y'all don't want how many need to write the book on

how I became humble? Come on, start your website. I'm the epitome of humility dot com. You see the challenge? What does humility look like? See, pride hides and humility is hidden. Generally when you come across a person that is humble, you don't walk away going, oh, they were really humble. You actually don't walk away thinking about them at all. You think about yourself going, man, they really made me feel seen and loved. So humility is hidden, but pride hide. So how do you know which one

is it? I'm confused. I came here to ask y'all, how do you know that there's actually some things on the outside that looked like humility, but it's really just pride and costume. And there's some things on the outside that look like pride, but it's really confidence in the fact that God can do something through you. Okay, let

me go to the Bible. You remember David. You remember David when he's showed up on the battlefield and he just came to drop the ham and cheese sandwich, and he heard the giant defy the armies of the Living God. And he's like, hold up, y'all, gonna let this giant talk about my God like this? He's like, no, no, no, is there not a cause? And remember David's brother accused him of pride. He said, what what are those sheep? You're supposed to be with the sheep? I know your heart.

Pride is in your heart. But David didn't have pride. He just had confidence in his God. He had confidence that God could do something through him. He said, wait a minute, I know it's not me. I know it's God in me because I know I couldn't have killed that bear, but God showed up. I know I couldn't defeated that lion, but God showed up. And the same God that helped me defeat the lion and the bear is the same God that will help me knock this giant down. Somebody needs to take ten seconds and give

God some praise. If you know that God can do great things through you when you trust him. Oh that's a cute golf clap. Give him a real praise in this place to you gotta be careful what you call pride, because godly confidence sometimes looks like arrogance, because there's something about stepping out saying I know God can do this through me. They accused him of pride, and it wasn't pride or remember another moment in David's life. Goliath was long gone. Now he's the king, now he's in the palace.

The Bible says that one day he counted. He counted his Instagram followers. My bad, he counted his military He counted, and I looked at that from the outside, I said, he just counted. That's a military census. That's good stewardship. God know how many people in my army. That's not pride, not in the eyes of God. Seventy thousand men died that day because the David counted, because God could see

what nobody else could say. The David, you forgotten when you're just a little shepherd boy and all you had was a sling shot and a big God, and your confidence was in me. But now you got an army, now you're in the palace, You've lost your humility. How do you find this out? I'm telling you this is difficult because pride hides and humility is hidden. I wish I wish there was like a pride monoxide detector. Don't you wish You're like, push it and it will let

you know. I wish, because you can't tell see some of y'all even have the image of pride, and somebody who's inside with sunglasses on, that's your image of somebody to prove for like, oh, they think they all that, so you only see pride is superiority, but there's another level of pride that manifest an inferiority. That person is like, yeah,

nobody ever cares about me, nobody ever thinks about me. Yes, nobody even calls on me, nobody ever checks on me, like the whole pandemic, Like nobody even called me, nobody even asked me how it was today. I got walk in to church and nobody even waved at me today. Man. I know they's social distancing, but I mean, can you at least wave and say hi to me? Nobody asks me how my they were? Me Me, Me, It's inferiority, but it's still pride because all pride cares about is

that you are in the center of your world. So I'm trying to tell you you don't know what it looks like. You need a detector. How do I I wish this was a pride monoxide detector. Actually, I'm gonna give you the promele monoxide detector because I think humility and pride manifest and how you respond to situations in your life. How you respond. You want to test whether you got pride, whether you have humility? Number one, how do you respond to criticism. How do you respond to

criticism when somebody criticizes you? What is your initial response? Is it to deflect, to immediately deny it? Up? Here goes another hater. Do you immediately deflect? How do you respond to criticism? That's a good test. Do you immediately go but no, that's nothing, that's something you get defensive? That's a good way to test. Or are you completely deflated when somebody criticizes you? Now your whole year is ruined because somebody talked about you one morning in five minutes,

Now your whole year is over. That's the inferiority version. How do you respond to criticism? It's a good test of your pride and humility. See, humble people are able to laugh at themselves, like they're able to laugh at everything. They're able to get somebody of everything. You go to a person that's humble, you're like, man, your breast things. You're like, oh man, my bad bro. You know I switched toothpaste. I don't even realize that, man, Thank you,

thank you, thank you for letting me know. And that's why humble people grow. Yeah, because they're open to hear. They don't deflect, and they're not completely deflated. They're open to see. What can I learn from this? I don't know if my brother was thinking, how do you respond to criticism? Here's another one? How do you respond to rejection? Who don't you hate to be rejected? Don't you hate especially from stuck up people? Come on, don't you hate

stuck up people? Just stuck up people? Oh? I can't stand to be rejected by stuck up people. You don't know people don't just walk in act like they can't speak to anybody? Like? Really, you that's special? Okay, you floated in the room today, all right here? You can't speak to people, don't you? Oh, stuck up people. Don't you hate to be rejected by stuck up people? Oh? Who does he think he is? Don't even speak to anybody? Oh, you ain't better than me. I fact, I'm better than you. Like,

you ain't gonna speak to me? Okay, I ain't gonna speak to you. You see the hypocrisy. You end up being stuck up to stuck up people. You'll end up rejected people that rejected you because you thought that they thought they ever better than you. You're like, no, I'm better than you. Can see, how do you respond to rejection. Humble people will talk to everybody, even the stuck up persons, like, ay, how you doing. I guess you didn't see me since you didn't speak. Yeah, oh, are you like your glasses

that you're wearing inside? Are those very bad? How do you respond to rejection? Here's another test. How do you respond to advice? How do you respond to it? Advice people are funny people, especially church people. Church people will go around and ask people for advice, but they really don't want advice. They just want you to confirm what

they already want to do. They just want to hear their opinion in somebody else's voice, So they go around to ask and like as soon as they say, well, I've been praying about something, what do you think about this? And this person says what you want to say, Yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah, i'mnna keep praying. I'm gonna keep praying. But the minute somebody gives them advice that's contradictory to the thing that they want to do, Oh, that's a

good revealer of pride. As soon as somebody says, oh no, no, no, no, no, I wouldn't marry him, no, Like, did you see a driver's license. Like his first name is Freddie, his last name is Krueger, Like I wouldn't I wouldn't marry it, Like I don't know that that might not be. Oh no, well you don't know him. You don't know him like I know him. How do you respond to advice? It's a good test for pride or humility. Here's another one.

How do you respond to praise? To praise, to the handclap, to the cheer, epham, it's just us talking, elevation, it's just us talking. Can I tell you what I don't like? I don't like how much I like to be liked. I can't stand it, how much I love approval. I have to have conversations with me, Chris, I have to have a conversation with myself before I step on any

stage to preach. I have to talk to myself still to this day, before I get up and say, you have nothing to prove and nothing to lose, nothing to prove, because if I'm not careful, I get on stage and I'll be trying to prove to you that I'm funny, and I'll be trying to make you laugh, like I'm caring hard or something. I'll be trying to prove that I'm brilliant. I'll be trying to use a big word, be like super confunctionalistic, HBI. Do shit suck? Like, Oh

my goodness, see it as doctor degree. That's because the praise the praise. And I think this is an issue now more than ever, because even psychologists are scrambling to do the research of what social media is literally doing to our brains, to the pleasure part of our brains, this incessant, unhealthy need to be noticed by other people, to get the validation and affirmation from other people, not in a healthy way, just from a community, but no,

we need likes from strangers. They're saying that the pleasure principle in our brain, the pleasure part the dopamine when you get a like, when you get a notification. It's not as close to cocaine, but it's close. The thrill that you get, like they said, we couple goals, but the thrill that you get from that. Oh, you don't believe it. Put it to the test. I dare you post something today and don't look at it till next week.

Just let us sit there. Oh, you ever had a conversation with somebody that posted something and they're waiting for the notification to come through. You talk about somebody that just will start twitching it like, yeah, you can't even listen to the conversation. Yeah you went to the monist. Excuse me one second. Let me see what they say that. How do you respond to praise? How do you respond to criticism? How do you respond to rejection? How do you respond to advice? How do you respond to praise?

How do you respond to the crap in your life? That is a good test. That is a good test to see whether you got humility or prop That's all it is anyway, it's just crap. God wants to know how you respond to the crap of life. Oh I wish I had a church that would help me preach in here today. How do you respond? Because that's all it is anyway, That's all it is. Anyway, it's just crap, that's all it is. And that what Paul said, I'm landing on the plane. Isn't that what Paul said? In Philippians.

You remember in Philppius chapter three, we quote this verse all the time. Paul says, one thing I do forgetting what's behind a press on to what's ahead? And how do we quote that verse? We quote that verse for like twenty twenty. You gotta forget twenty twenty, like that was in the past. Press on to what's ahead. Have you ever read the context of that verse? If you go up in that verse. In Philippians chapter three, Paul starts flexing. He starts naming all his accolades. He's like, oh,

y'all want somebody to flex in the flesh. I'll let you know about what I did, Like I had a blue check before y'all were on the ground. He said, I'm of the tribe of Benjamin. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. I speak all kinds of languages. He starts telling you all his accomplishments and his pedigree, but then he says, I treat all that as a loss, as dune for one thing that I may know him. He said, all of that I counted as a loss. It's all crap.

Why so that I may know who? Jesus says. So when he gets to that verse and he says, one thing I do forgetting what's behind, he's not talking about sin, he's not talking about pain. He said, I gotta forget all my successes. I gotta forget all of my likes, he said. I gotta forget all those notifications, he said, because those are the things my pedigree is going to produce a pride that'll stop me from receiving what God has to me. He said, I gotta forget my wins.

If I keep reflecting on my winds, I'm going to lose the power that comes from humility, because it's in humility that I know Him. That's what he's said. Can you forget what's behind you? All the successes for one thing to say, God, I want to know you, the fellowship of your suffering, the power of your resurrection. It's all crap. What I love about my text today is that John the Baptist was able to forget the crap. It came to him with news trying to get him

to be upset that people were noticing Jesus. John said, no, I'm not upset. Quite the contrary. My joy is complete in him. I have to decrease so that he may increase. I have to die because the heavens open up on the hinge of humility. Give me some of that water. I notice saying a shouting message. I notice saying the message that makes you want to run around. You knew the Holy Ghost two step and I'm telling you the heavens open up on the hinge of humility. Pride blocks

the access. I'm just in a season of life where I'm like God, I just want to know you. That's the wind. It's him, not even what he does through me, but that I may know him. Don't let me get caught up in the crap that pride shuts me out from knowing you. Don't let me get intoxicated by the approval of men, and I miss out on the greatest treasure, which is knowing you. It's interesting in the days of caesars in Rome, they had what they called a triumph.

It was after a victory, huge parade, people cheering and screaming, and the caesar would stand on his chariot and all his regal attire going throughout the towns as people were clapping and cheering, and behind the caesar you would see a servant, and the servant's job was number one to hold the crown of the caesar. Some of these triumphs would last several days. It's hard to have that crown on your head for that long, So the servant's job was to hold the crown. Servant also had another job.

Servant was to whisper in the ear of the caesar while the crown is cheering, momentomorrey, momentomorrey. People would be shouting at the top of the lungs, but the servant is holding the crown, whispering in the caesar's ear. Momentomorray, mamentomorray, which means, remember you are mortal, Remember you die. You are just a man. Do not let the praise of this crowd go to your hand. Do not become intoxicated with the cheers of the crowd, because how you know.

We were not created to receive glory. You cannot handle glory. I'm telling you, glory will crush you. We were created to reflect glory, to give it back to God. You cannot handle the weight of glory on your life. You were created to give it back to the one who made you, who created you, who farmed you. You can't handle the way it will crush you. The service job was to say, remember you irem mortal, so he wouldn't get intoxicated with the cheers of the crowd, because you

can't handle the crowd. Then I remember John the Disciple who wrote about John the Baptist. He gets a vision of heaven and revelation. And as soon as it gets to heaven, what does he say? He sees a throne, and God is on the throne, and surrounded by the throne are the twenty four elders. Twenty four elders. Who are these elders? This is the church. Every time you see elders in the Bible, it's talking about you and I, the Church of the Living God. That's why it's twenty four.

Come on, twelve tribes of the Old Testament, twelve disciples, and the New Testament twenty four. This is the church that is surrounded the throne of God. And all of the elders have a crown, and the crown represents the reward you receive for being faithful on earth. And I'm gonna pause right there and thank God that there is a reward for being faithful, that there is a reward even in the midst of your suffering. That God is a great record keeper. That's why you don't ever have

to defend yourself. You don't never have to fight your battle. Please let the Lord fight your battle. He is a great record keeper. Come, you know, he will reward you for being nice to nasty people. He will reward you for loving your enemies and blessing them that curse you. There is a reward for being faithful. Oh when nobody else sees, Thank God that you see there is a crown. That is a reward. Thank God that he sees. Did

I get a crown? But what did John see? He said that the elders take their crowns off in the presence of God because even though they got the reward, when then the presence of God, they realize, wait a minute, this isn't a reward. You are the reward. They realize in heaven what you should realize in the earth, that the greatest reward is His presence. The greatest reward is Him. So they cast down their crowds before Him for the greatest reward, which is just to be in this present.

They just take it off, and they say, I thought this was something, but man, to be here with you, this is the greatest choice. Can I just imagine what a church would look like with no crowns, no crowns, or church that knows the greatest reward It's him greatest reward, not how he uses you, not how much you've known. You have the reward. It's his presence. No crown. Why do I need a crown when I have you? Why do I need a crown? But I'm in your presence?

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