One Month To Live Part 2 Series

Last Sunday I ask you to think about the following Question: If you knew you only had one month to live, would you live your life differently than you are presently living it? I also suggested that we should all be following Jesus’ example when it comes to living out our lives here on earth. Four basic principles guided everything that Jesus did while on earth. We looked at the first 2 principles last Sunday, which were: (1) Jesus lived passionately (2) Jesus loved completely.

This morning I want us to discuss the other two Principles that Jesus lived by: The Third Principle is:

PRINCIPLE 3: JESUS LEARNED HUMILITY. (Jesus modeled humility)

Luke 2:52 says, “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.”

Even though Jesus was the Son of God He knew the value of humility. He knew what the Jewish Scriptures said about humility. For instance He knew that Moses was praised for being the most humble man on the face of the earth, while King Amon, and King Zedekiah, were considered two of the most wicked Kings Israel ever had because they refused to humble themselves before God.

Jesus would have known and may have even quoted Psalm 25:9 which says, “He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.”

He would have also been familiar with Psalm 147:6 which says, “The Lord lifts up the humble; He casts the wicked down to the ground.”

The Apostle Paul certainly understood the importance of Humility, especially when it came to Jesus. Follow along with me as I read Philippians 2:5-8 (NIV). It says,

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!”

The phrase He humbled Himself and became obedient to death” is significant. You see humility and obedience go hand in hand.

The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus learned obedience from what He suffered. So even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. Hebrews 5:8 NLT

Jesus not only learned humility, but modeled it in every way. He once said, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.”

Paul reminds us of this when he says that Jesus took upon himself the very nature of a servant and became obedient unto death on a cross.

As Christians we are supposed to do our best to be like Christ. With this in mind, we must learn the importance of humbling ourselves before God. Humility is an important part of the kind of Character that God wants to develop in each one of us.

God builds or shapes our Character to match that of His Son Jesus Christ. He uses two main tools to accomplish this task.

(1) The First is His Word.

Reading and Studying God’s Word regularly will build your character. As His Disciples our main goal should be to become more like Him. In order to accomplish that goal we must take the time to read and study God’s Word and allow it to transform our lives. Unfortunately although the great majority of Americans would agree that reading the Bible is important to maintaining your spiritual health most Christians today neglect God’s Word as much as most of us neglect eating the fruits and vegetables that are essential to a balanced diet.

Have you ever noticed we have the tendency to become more like the people we hang out with? You catch yourself saying or doing the things that your friends say and do.

Well it’s the same way with the Lord. The more time you spend with Him, reading His Word, the more you will become like Him.

Illustration: Back in the 1800’s a young man was looking for a job and went to the local logging company to apply for a job. The foreman asked him if he could cut a tree down with an ax. The young man said yes, and proceeded to take his ax, walk over to a tree and drop it like an old pro.

The foreman was impressed and hired him. On Monday, the young man outperformed everyone else on the crew. But, each day after that, he got slower and slower and by Friday, he barely managed to cut down one tree.

He worked just as hard; swinging his ax, hitting the tree over and over again, but it just didn’t work as well as it did on Monday. Finally, the young man who was nearly exhausted laid down his ax, and sat down.