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Two Sides of a Coin

socialmedia@cityrise.org January 15, 2021 Devotionals, sermons, baptist, church, cityrise, Crosspoint Church - Bellaire, houston, kathleen yarborough, romans, sermon, West U Baptist,

Each week we will be sharing a post from a staff member in response to the most recent sermon in our “Good News” series. Click to watch or listen to the sermon shared by Crosspoint Church – Bellaire Campus Pastor Chris DeArman on January 10, 2021.

Humility and Boldness. We often think those terms are opposites. We see them on far ends of the spectrum of behavior, mutually exclusive if you will. But, perhaps they are better thought of as two sides of a coin or like balances on a scale. When should we be humble and when should we be bold? Rather than seeing ourselves as either humble or bold, can we be humble in our boldness or bold in our humility?

This past Sunday’s message was the first in an extensive series on the book of Romans. To fully understand Paul’s letter to the Romans, we needed to focus on who Paul was as well as his message and his mission. And all three of these are wrapped in both humility and authority/boldness.

Paul, in introducing himself, shows both humility and boldness. He considers himself a slave or bond servant, totally committed to Jesus Christ. He had been committed to persecuting followers of Christ, but once he met Jesus on the road, his life radically changed, and he gave up his own way to be totally in the service of Christ.  He knew obeying Christ completely was better than anything or anyone else he could serve. He was all in, not following his own way, but humbling himself to be a servant of his Lord. This included sharing the message of the good news with all he encourntered.

In this message we also see humility and boldness. Jesus stepped out of heaven and was born a fragile human in a lowly manger to regular folks who lived in a simple town. How many times do we see Jesus’ humility on full display in the New Testament? From the manger to the cross he withstood all the injustices, both in word and deed. Without humbling himself in this way, he would not have been able to pay the debt we owed. Oh, and pay it he did! With power and might, boldness and authority, he conquered death so that we do not have to die. We will see the complete fulfillment of his authority when Jesus returns to conquer Satan once and for all. It’s easy to see that the descriptions of Jesus as both a lamb and lion are true at the same time. Humbling himself so we can know that he knows our burdens and unleashing all power for our salvation and reconciliation with God. It is so exciting we must, as the old song says, go tell it on the mountain!

That is the mission Paul had, going and telling, and it is our mission too. God has called us, the church, to tell this incredible story to ALL nations. That means ALL of the United States, ALL of Texas, ALL of Houston, ALL. The scope of the call must humble us. First that we are entrusted with such an important job and second the scope of ALL. To follow the call is to humble ourselves and let God work in us and through us. There is absolutely no way we can do it on our own. But, like Paul, the call comes with authority. The authority to call people to obedience that comes through faith in our Lord and Savior.

Humility. Boldness. Hold the coin in your hand. Which side needs to be up for you today?


Kathleen Yarborough is the Director of Community Ministries for the CityRise Network. She leads the English as a Second Language ministry and is the liaison between the church and its local ministry partners. She is married to Steve. Their basset hound is famous on the CityRise YouTube videos.