This recording is from Willow Creek Church in Winter Springs, Florida. We're Dr. Pete Owlinson as our senior pastor. Today, sermon is part one in a series called The Heart of the Matter. And this sermon is taken from Luke chapter 14 verses 7 through 11 and is entitled A Humble Heart. Now here's Pete with today's message. Yeah, the world really does scream at us that it's the external, doesn't it? But the Bible speaks to us about the internal as well. We talk so much about The Heart and today we begin a new series, a four week series on The Heart. And we've titled it The Heart of the Matter. Today we're going to talk about a humble heart. Next week we're going to talk about heart for people and then the next two weeks after that, a heart for God, we're going to talk a little bit more about prayer and so it's going to be good to talk about heart. It's going to be good to talk about The Heart. I love the story of Moshe who's driving in Jerusalem and he's looking for a parking place and he can't find one so he turns to the heavens and he says, God, if you find me a parking place, I'll promise to eat kosher, respect Shabbat and all of the holidays. And just then, a parking space opens up right in front of him. He turns his face to heaven and says, never mind, I just found one. It's terrible, I know, I know. But it reveals the heart of the matter for many people that really, you know, we kind of use God when it's convenient. We go to him as the cosmic genie, God do this for me and you know, we don't really have a heart for God. A couple of good quotes, a Muslim saying, pride comes on horseback and goes back on foot. A proud, the proud hate pride in others, Benjamin Franklin said, that's true. The reality is, is that when it comes to the heart and humility, we've got to talk about that. But first we've got to talk about what we mean by the heart. Now all down through history, all people have noticed the twofold dimension of the heart. They've noticed the physical dimension, the heart as the organ of the body and then as well, as well the spiritual dimension of the heart. And speaking as a doctor of ministry, not a doctor of medicine, let me tell you a little bit about the heart. The heart is, it's an incredible organ, muscle that pumps blood throughout your entire body. You know that. It takes the nutrients that you need everywhere. It takes the oxygen from the lungs that you need and gets it everywhere it's got to be. It also takes out the things like carbon dioxide and the other waste that you don't want there. You don't need there. Your heart is so important. It's about the size of a fist, it's about the size of your fist. Your heart represents about the size of your fist in the womb. The heart of a not yet born baby is nine times larger than it is at birth. Then it gets right sized. But your heart is about the size of your fist. And by 18 years of age it's fully developed. And it'll pump anywhere between 80 to 70 to 100 times a minute. And this is how you do it, right? Take your pulse. Everybody's done that before. You just put your fingers on there and you count to 10 times it by 6 and you got your heart being out. I know for the rest of the service, some of you guys are going to be going like this, the guys are going to be doing this again. I wonder what. Am I healthy? If you're between 80 and 100 heart beats a minute, you're probably healthy as a normal human being adult. From the minute your heart starts beating until the moment it starts, it stops, excuse me. It works tirelessly an average of 2.5 billion times in your lifetime, 2.0 and you better be glad that it doesn't stop and that it never rests because it's got to go on and on and on. You have about five liters of blood inside you and 100,000 miles of blood vessels. And the heart runs that whole thing, keeps it all going. Got you here this morning. The heart is an amazing organ and just like other organs of the body, it screams intelligent design. You can't look at the heart and say, oh, this just evolved. This just happened over billions and billions of years, there's intelligent design there. Monk, I love this what Robert Solinsky said, he said, has been said that a million monkeys banging on a million keyboards would eventually create a Shakespearean play, but now thanks to the internet, we know that is not true. Well said. Well said. Listen, things like this don't happen. The heart proves intelligent design. But also down through history, the heart has proven that to be seen by all, really all cultures as the center of your personality, of human personality. The Greeks saw this. The old and New Testament teach this, almost every culture under it, understood the heart is the center of your personality, of the center of your being. In the Bible as a matter of fact, the Bible tells us that the heart is the center of our emotions, joy, pain, peace, peace, anguish. The heart is really the center. Sometimes when you're upset, don't you feel that your heart hurts, that's why they said the heart is the center of our emotions, the heart is the center of our understanding. It's interesting. As you look in the New Testament, in particular, a lot of times the word heart and mind are side by side, heart and mind are side by side. Why? Because it's often believed that the heart is the place where the thinking goes on, where the reasoning goes on. From your heart comes wisdom or according to the Book of Proverbs, foolishness, right? That's why it says that in the Book of Proverbs, because sometimes we think up absolutely stupid things to do, comes from the heart, it says, it's a source of your emotions, your understanding. It's also the source and the center of your responsible action, we call that the will, the heart is the center of your will. In fact, what makes you different from animals, your intellect, your emotions, your will, the heart is the center of your humanity, made in the image of God. The heart is the center of you. It is the source of how you relate to God. That's why. That's why when the Bible talks about sin coming into a person's life, it comes into his heart. It comes into her heart. It is in the heart. It's in the heart where we have our problem with God because the very center who we are was made to relate to God. And not only affected part of your heart, but all of your heart, right? This is a vast reduction in the study of the human heart and the Bible, but the reality is sin is affected the way you think about God, the way you feel about God and the actions you take. So sin has really affected all of you. We call that total depravity. That doesn't mean you're as bad as you could be. That would be absolute depravity. It's just that sin is affected every area of our being. That's why sometimes we don't think right. We don't feel right. We don't make the right decisions. Our hearts need God. And so that's why God comes and speaks to our hearts, doesn't it? That's why when he sent Jesus to the cross, he died that our hearts could be made right that we could be renewed. Repentance is of the heart. Conversion takes place in the heart. It's all about the heart. The heart is crucial. Now, there are two words that I want you to know that you'll find in the Bible that you will not find in 1st century Greek literature. You know, the New Testament was written in Greek. You will not find these two words in the literature around of just everyday people. But they're found in the New Testament only and in Christian literature. The first one is Cardio Nostas. Cardio Nostas. Cardia means heart. Nostas comes from the Greek word for knowledge, Cardio Nostas, and it speaks of God. God is Cardio, Cardia Nostas. God is the knower of the heart. You've heard of the doctrine of the omniscience of God. He knows everything. God is the knower of your heart, by the way, is the lover of your heart, too. But he knows everything that you're going through and everything about you. And some of you say, yeah, but does he know what I just did or what I just thought? Yeah, he knows that, too. Does he know what I was feeling the other day when I wanted to strangle her or she wanted to strangle? Yeah, he knows. And he loves you because he is Cardio Nostas, the knower of your heart. He is also sclerocardia. Sclero comes from the Greek word, which means heart. And you may have heard of the disease, scleroderma, which is the hardening of the organs. And it's a very serious illness, a couple of people at Willa Creek are fighting that. Illness, sclerocardia means hardening of the heart, heart, heart. And it's not a physical disease that it's talking about. It's talking about a spiritual disease, isn't it? We can have hard, harsh toward God that keep him out here, that keep him from getting in to do in any work, to bringing us to any level of repentance. In fact, the person who is not a Christian usually has hard heart. They don't want God in there, stay out of here. And they won't turn to faith in Christ because of their hearts or heart. Your heart, okay, your physical heart is important. I'll grant you that, absolutely crucial, you wouldn't be here, being heaven if your heart wouldn't pump in a day. But your spiritual heart is so crucial. It is so important that problems 4.23 says this, watch over your heart with all diligence. For from it flow the springs of life. In other words, everything we do or don't do flows from the motivation that comes from our heart. If our heart is angry or bitter or upset, that marks what we do. That's why he says, watch your heart, I don't know if you've ever had anybody who's a real sensitive kind of person company and say, hey, how's your heart doing? We guys don't like that, you know, it's not the way we talk. How's my heart? Yeah, how's your liver? You know, we don't want to talk about that kind of stuff. You say, how are you doing? I can understand that. How am I doing? But really the idea is to say, how are you really doing on the inside? That's a valid and very important question. We got to know what's going on inside of us at all times. Watch over your heart because from your heart, from the center of who you are, the way you think, feel and act, boy, it determines what springs of life will come or won't come out of your life. Guys, this is a study for you, too, and me, it's a guy's study, too, not just for the ladies. This morning I just want you to know that as we talk about the heart. But well, you know, we guys don't tend to think this is a good male subject to talk about. But I love the time Stephen King, you know, the author of all those terror, horror novels, was criticized for being a guy with no heart. He said, I've got a lot of heart, I've got a heart of a child in a jar, on my desk. Guys, this is a subject for all of us, because guys, God is dealing with us. Today, we're going to talk about a humble heart. And what that means, the word humble is, we all think we know what it means, but it's a tough one for us. Listen to Jesus as he talks about developing a humble heart toward God and others. Luke 14, 7 through 11. And he, Jesus, began speaking a parable to the invited guests when he noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table. He said, when you're invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor. Less someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him, and he who invited you both shall come and say, do you give place to this man? And then in disgrace, you proceed to occupy, occupy the last place. But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to your friend, move a pyre, then you'll have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted, scrambling for position. Jesus, first of all, talks about that in verse 7, and he talks about how he's obviously at a banquet or some dinner party taking place, and he's kind of, Jesus has kind of just come inside the door and he's just kind of watching this whole dynamic that takes place. The scattering, scrambling for position. Now in the first century, in a Jewish feast, there was particular protocol for, you know, where you sat, picture a big U shape, a seeding arrangement. And at the very center of the U would be where the head guest was. Now they, they, they, many of you know this, but they, when they ate in the first century, they leaned, they laid down eating. I don't know how they did it. I couldn't eat near as much, maybe that'd be a good thing, but they laid on their left arm typically and ate with their right. So, so these, this U was formed by what are called trichliniums, three-fold a couch that could handle three people, a low couch, you can pillows, throw pillows, and so they would lay down on these things, and the very honored guest would be in the center, right? And the most honored after the, the main guest would be this guy over here because he was at his right. He was looking at him and that's next honored to be here because his back was to him. Then the next honored group was to, on the next trichlinium and the center of that one was the most honored and, and so on, and, and this side, same thing all the way back talking about a preoccupation with position. You went to dinner at one of these bankwits. You can imagine what people were doing, they were trying, trying to hustle for a position. Oh, what you need to also understand is that in the first century, the very honored people came fashionably late. You do that, don't you? Some of you. You come fashionably late to the event but that was almost the way it always was back then so that if you had scrambled for position and the really, really, really honored guests came late, then Jesus says this is going to happen all the time. Like I was in charge of the bank to, hey, Fred, could you move down a couple of couches and embarrassment? You get up, you take your glass and you're already sort of drinking out of, you know, okay, you're walking back and it's a little embarrassing. Jesus, Jesus talks about it. There was a real pecking order back then and there is today, too, in there. I mean, in certain social contexts don't we scramble for position? We do in different ways and Jesus addresses that and he says, don't pursue a self-scrambling for ego and position lifestyle. Look at what he says in verses 8 through 10, on the non-scrambling lifestyle. He says, don't scramble for position and honor verses 8 through 10, don't be all about that. Don't try to pursue your honor. Don't set your life in, construct your life in such a way that you are pursuing honor. Now, this was nothing new. This teaching of Jesus had been around for a thousand years. Solomon said it, Proverbs 256, do not claim honor in the presence of a king and do not stand in the presence of great men for it is better than it be said to you come up here than that you should be put lower in the presence of the prince whom your eyes have seen. Jesus gives it to a straight, the way to get to the top is to start at the bottom. Don't fight for your notoriety and yourself. Of course, there is pragmatism here. Someone said if a man chooses the lowest place, the only way he can go is just very pragmatic. So that makes sense on a purely human wisdom level. Don't pursue your position of prominence. But Jesus is not calling us to learn pragmatism, what works. He's calling us to pursue a humble life, a humble heart before him. What is humility? I think humility is having a proper understanding of yourself and relation to others. Humility is having a proper understanding of yourself in relation to others. It's having an accurate view of yourself. Romans 12.3 says, for through the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to have sound judgment as God has a lot into each measure of faith. And Paul says, you guys gauge your worth by so many things, you ought to say, who am I before other people? Who am I before God? And by the way, what's my faith level? Put it on that level and some of us wouldn't be so arrogant. You see, if you're humble, you're not constantly saying bad things about yourself, right? A humble person is not constantly spewing their insecurity all over the place. That's not humility. You do that. You're drawn attention to yourself. What he says is that humility is a lot more about not thinking about yourself much at all. But when you do, it's seeing yourself in relation to other people, balancing it out, seeing their strengths as well as their weaknesses. We're not as good at that. We are so good at seeing other people's weaknesses. Man, we can do that. It's hard to see their strengths, but humility is having an accurate view of yourself. And by the way, in relation to other people, that includes God, doesn't it? So that humble people understand God's greatness, His majesty, His perfections. And so before God, if we understand who we are in relation to Him, we're more likely to be humbled. The heart of the matter is verse 11. Here it is. Here's the very center of the whole thing. And this is a principle of success for life. Maybe whoever who exalts himself shall be humbled, he who humbles himself shall be exalted. That is a universal principle. We cannot defeat that because God is sovereign, right? That just always will be. That's in the very five fabric of the world in which we live because God is here. Many of you have read Jim Collins' book Good to Great in Business. You know, it's one of the books out. And he says, when he talks about the leadership of companies that went from Good to Great, he talks about level five leadership. He says, very few people ever get there, it's where the leader is a study in duality, modest and willful, humble, and fearless. Modest and willful, humble, and fearless. He cites Abraham Lincoln as an example of a guy who understood level five leadership. He was humble, but he was strong. Well, this is a way to success. Exalt yourself, you'll be deflated, humble yourself, you'll be exalted. God loves a humble heart. And the examples of pride are all around us, aren't they? I rented the movie about General Patton, that old movie, and how he was humbled. Richard Nixon was humbled in the White House, happens almost every day in politics. Tom Cruise was humbled a couple of weeks ago when he talked about psychology. Come on, Tom! I'll never forget going into it. I loved when he was in the news, it was so fun. I know more about psychology than he does, let me tell you that. I remember when I walked into a meeting once, I was a little late to, I got into it, and I started pontificating about all this stuff, found out when the meeting was over. They were talking about something different than I thought they were. Man, that was humbling. It has said that David had a whole heart for God, Solomon had a half heart for God, Saul had no heart for God. I think that's true, but here's the point, Saul did stuff for God. Saul did religious things, and you know what God doesn't care about religious stuff, if there's no heart for him. He doesn't care because the heart of the matter is that he loves a humble heart. That's why we're not into religion. Now, let me give you some of the logic of humility, real quick. The logic of humility, in view of the fact that God is, and God is sovereign, and he is here, it just makes sense to understand these things. These logically flow from God's omnipotence and his power. If you don't have humility, you cannot be considered mature. Right? I mean, if God calls us to maturity, He calls us to a wholeness, and that wholeness, that maturity is with reference to who He is, a person who is proud cannot be considered mature, because they don't take into consideration other people, and they don't take into consideration the God who created all this. Personal maturity has to take place in the context of humility. Secondly, atheists rarely exhibit humility. You notice that? Atheist rarely exhibit humility. Why? Because there's no God. So the measure of all things is them, themselves. If you believe there is no God, then you will constantly be trying to succeed to prove that you have any worth at all, and you will constantly be measuring yourself with other people. I may not sing like the angels, I may not preach like Paul. We still struggle with this as well, as we compare with one another. We don't have to. We don't need to. Third, humility breeds confidence, not pride. I love this. True humility breeds confidence, not pride, confidence. Why? You are truly humble. You will be a confident person, because you will know what you cannot do, and you will be constantly running to the God who can do all things, right? I love confidence. I love old people. I love people that are willing to step out of it. We had a whole bunch of people who just got back from Chile, never been on a mission trip before. I'm glad you guys went. I'm glad you're back. I like people who take risks for God, who do things that are outside their comfort zone. You can be bold and humble at the same time, because you understand who you are. To be manly doesn't mean you have to be arrogant. To be manly means you understand your strengths that God gave you, you understand your weaknesses, and you're constantly running to the Father for strength. It's the epitome of manhood there. Humility breeds confidence. Fourth, humility leads to great acts of sacrifice. You show me a truly humble person, and I will show you somebody who sacrifices for something that is worth suffering for, but that others may never know about. Never heard of the name Livingston, the missionary Livingston, yeah, Dr. Livingston, and the guy who found him was who, Stanley, and when Stanley found Livingston, he said, Dr. Livingston, I presume, I never knew about the guy until this week. Livingston was born in the early 1800s, and he was a missionary from Scotland, who he heard a message on missions, and the next week walked to the pier, got on a boat for South Africa. He was a medical doctor, and he began journeys in South Africa. Listen, guys, people didn't do that back then. You and I type people didn't do that back then, but he explored Africa. He explored places where no person of our colors ever been, and he took the gospel to these guys, and he took, he preached to people, I don't know how he got through them, but he found people would listen, and he preached the gospel, and he healed them as he could as a medical doctor. He explored on tone, untold miles and miles of Terry. He was always sick, always had malaria or something, he was always sick. He was always teaching preaching sick, traveling sick, lying down, saying he was sick for months and months and months, and nobody knew where he was, and that's why they sent Stanley from America to try to find the guy. Stanley said, I'm going to find him, and when he found him, and Livingston was a hero. He was a hero for loving, sacrificing, serving other people, he's a humble guy. He died, praying on his knees, that's how they found him, and the Africans loved him so much they kept his heart right there and buried it, because he was a man of heart, sent his body nine months across Africa, across the seas of England where it was buried in honor of our Westminster. At people who are truly humble will accomplish great things, because they don't care what people think, they don't care about the notoriety, and we get to heaven. We're going to see the people who were very public, and we're going to meet people that nobody has ever written a book about, God has used. Humble people, humble hearts, who accomplish great things. Humility is a human virtue alone. Humility is a human virtue alone. It is not a divine virtue. It is not a virtue of God, God is not humble, God doesn't need to be humble, does he? Last time I checked, he was sovereign. Last time I checked, he was in charge of everything. Last time I checked, he was holy and righteous, and last time I checked, the Bible says, worship me, God says, bow down in worship, Jesus says, follow me, give up everything else. That's why it's so, see God doesn't have to be humble, he just has to be who he is. But that's why it's so surprising when Jesus says, I am gentle and humble and hard. Why is absolutely amazing when we read Philippians 2 and Paul says, have this attitude in yourself who is also in Christ Jesus, who did not desire to be lifted up before people but went to the cross for us? That is surprising. That God loves us so much, that he did humble himself, though he didn't need to, he did. That's how much worth you are to him. Humility is such a big subject. Guys will never exhaust it in one sermon and we're only going to do one sermon on it. So get a concordance and look it up. Humility and study it. Because it may be something that God wants to teach you. Now I said finally and you never say finally until finally. I got one more major point, it's got about six other points. Nothing's happening in while anyway, you got 10 minutes, so let me give it to you. Some more teaching on humility because this could change your life, could change your life. Number one, the Father is drawn to the humble. The Father is drawn to the humble. First Peter 5, 5, you younger men likewise be subject to your elders. All of you clothe yourself with humility toward one another for God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Humility's teaching is this, your Father loves the humble. If you will pursue humility, his grace will come to you. He is drawn to humble people. He loves it. Second, the humble are drawn to God. Ziff and I are 312, but I will leave among you a humble and lowly people and they will take refuge in the name of the Lord. The humble are drawn to God. Listen, I have so much enjoyed reading Psalms in the last year and David is my favorite Psalm writer because here's a guy who could carry a sword, but who desperately needed God. He was a warrior, a warrior who wrote poetry. He was humbled toward God and so I know because I look at the life of David that a real man can be humble. A real woman can be humble. The Father is drawn to the humble and humble are drawn to God because they know he's the center of source of strength. David was an incredible guy, but he didn't do it all by himself. God filled him with his grace and power to do what he said, thank you God for being the God who trains my hands for battle. God made David a man, a warrior and made him a poet too. God humbles the proud. Same text for Speeder 555, God is opposed to the proud. God humbles the proud. We can be sure of that that there will come a time when he who is superior will show his superiority. Number four, you can trust a humble person. You can trust a humble person, Matthew 1129, take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and humble and heart and you shall find rest for your souls. Jesus says, I'm humble and with me, you can trust me. You can find rest. You want to find a good person for the position that you need and your company find a humble person. You can trust him. Find a person who's always touting themselves, always bragging about themselves, be wearing because even though they may be telling you what they can do, they're probably inflating it. So you can trust a humble person. By the way, I don't understand why people are so skeptical of Christians when at least all of us have some modicum of humility. First of all, by coming to Christ, we say, we need God's grace. We need His forgiveness. They may say we're proud and arrogant, but at least God's brought us to the point where we know we can earn our salvation. We need Him. And that's why Christians oftentimes in history have been in the most trusted positions of government and industry because they've been trustworthy because they've been humble. Fifth, notice that the humble will be rewarded. Isaiah 29.19, the afflicted also shall increase their gladness in the Lord and the needy of mankind shall rejoice in the holy one of Israel. And we are afflicted and humbled. God will reward us. God will take care of us. Sixth, we cannot humble ourselves, excuse me, we cannot humble others and shouldn't try. Did you catch that? This is good. This is so important because some of you are thinking, man, there's somebody I want to get. There is this guy, I'm going to humble him. There is this woman, we're going to take care of her. Job, in the midst of Job, you know, Job, the whole story of Job is this whole thing, that came down on him was awful and his friends were no help. And so Job is arguing with God about all of this stuff, about how bad they are, about how their counsel was no good. And so God at the end of the book says, okay, Job, look on everyone who is proud, you humble it and tread down the wicked, where they stand. Go ahead, you do it. And Job, thanks for a minute. And then he says, you know, I really don't have the ability. This is not in the original Arabic or Hebrew, but he's kind of saying, you know, I really can't do anything to anybody else's heart. And God says, of course, you can't. So give that up. Listen, if you give up trying to manipulate and control other people, won't that free you up? You can't humble anybody else, don't try. But we can humble ourselves, number seven, we can humble ourselves, Psalm 35, 13. But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackclothed, I humbled my soul with fasting, my prayer kept returning to me. You see, we can humble ourselves. What is humility? Humility is having an accurate view of yourself and relationship to other people. So as long as you are consciously going through having an accurate view of yourself in relationship to other people, you can get into the process of humility that draws God closer and closer to you and you to God. See, don't put yourself down. Don't ridicule yourself. Know the strengths that God has given you and be thankful for them. Don't say I can't teach Sunday school when everybody knows, you know the Bible and the Westminster Confession of Faith, frontwards and backwards. Of course, you can do that. Don't be overly humble. The aware of who you are, what your gifts are, because God gave them to you. On the other hand, recognize the gifts and talents of other people. Somebody said people with humility don't think less of themselves. They just think of themselves. That's good. Less. That's so good. I like that. Fred Smith, the head of Federal Express, said people with humility don't deny their power. They don't deny their power. They just recognize it passes through them, not from them. You catch that? I think we can be strong. We can be influencers. We can be really strong leaders when we recognize, well, that the power is coming through us and it's not from us. Muhammad Ali forgot that. Leaders tend to forget that, inflated by their position. We can humble ourselves. James 410, humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and He will exalt you. The Father ate and last, really last. The Father loves to produce this virtue in His children. He loves to produce humility in His people. The text I want to give for that is Psalm 6610. For thou hast tried us, O God, thou hast refined us as with silver is refined. Todd Goeson gave me the story of the two red necks and the old houndog we're sleeping on the front porch and the two red necks are sitting on the porch drinking, talking, every once in a while the houndog yelps, howls and then goes back to sleep and the one guy says what's wrong with your dog and the owner says he's sitting on a nail and he says well why didn't he get up? He hasn't done hurt him enough yet. Why does God bring trials and difficulties into your life? Because he's mad at you? No. If he was mad at you would he have sent Jesus for you? He said Jesus and he was angry at Jesus for you. He's not angry at you, but he will test you and he will test me. He will test our hearts. He will test what's really going on in the center of our being. And he wants to get us to the point where we don't just get comfortable in our semi-uncomfortable life. He'll put a nail under us, he'll poke us, he'll prod us, he'll test us, mostly so that we can grow in humility before him because then he can use us, then he can use us and I'm just getting to see it. The humility is a key heart attitude that keeps us from edging God out and putting ourselves on the throne of God. We're watching some of the worst dangerous things that happened to people who are watching that on TV the other day, I love those things. These balloonists were kind of cruising along and the sun got in their eye and they missed the high tension power lines, they didn't see them and the balloon lines caught right on the tension lines. We're just about a fraction of a second, then the whole thing exploded in the basket, shot to the ground and the balloon filled with hot air, shot up into the air, revealing what it was. Just an octopus, empty looking bit of nylon, beautiful piece of nylon, but just piece of nylon. When God humbles us, he gets rid of the hot air and he brings to a point where he can breathe his life into us. I invite you to get on this journey of a heart that seeks humility. It's not a weak heart, it's a strong heart, but it's a heart God uses. It's the greatest gift that He gave you from what Jesus did on the cross. So, you take that to heart, Father, as challenging as it is to pursue a humble heart, we ask you to enter in to our very lives this week, because your word teaches it, because it brings us such freedom and joy, because it's there, we ask you to build in us as women and men in this church, hearts that are humble, hearts that can rest in you, hearts that can continue to live without all of the answers to everything until we get home, hearts that know that you are good all the time. And I pray with my brothers and sisters for them that you would give them your grace right now for a new week, filled them with heart for you, as we pray together in the name of our risen Savior, Jesus. Willow Creek Church is associated with the Presbyterian Church in America. Our website is www.willowcreekchurch.org and our phone number is 407-699-8211. For more information, visit our website at www.willowcreekchurch.org.org