Hapy Are The Humble Series

Tim Keller, in his book The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness, talks about his high school days when his mother kept telling him, “You know, honey, you ought to join the chess club.”

He would say, “Mom, I hate chess.”

“Yes, I know,” she would say, “but it will look so good on your college application.” She would try again. “Don't they feed the homeless and hungry downtown, every Saturday morning? Why don't you volunteer for that?”

“Mom,” Tim would say, “I hate that kind of thing.”

He would get the same response, “I know, honey, but it will look so good on your college application.” So, at school, Tim said he did all kinds of things that he had absolutely no interest in doing. He was simply putting together a résumé. (Tim Keller, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness, 10 Publishing, 2012, pp. 19-20; www.PreachingToday.com)

That’s the way a lot of people live their lives, perhaps some of you. They do all kinds of things they don’t really enjoy to impress people they don’t really like. They try to make themselves look better than others, simply putting together a resume to fill their sense of inadequacy and emptiness. As a result, they live busy, boring lives with a lot of stress.

Here’s the good news. Even though a lot of people live that way, you don’t have to! 2,000 years ago, Jesus gave us a better way to live! He was speaking to an audience living under the stress of trying to impress others. Their leaders had all kinds of rules to follow, but Jesus was a different kind of leader. In a message on a hillside beside the sea of Galilee, He outlined the principles of living under His lead, and it was unlike anything they had ever heard before. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Matthew 5, Matthew 5, where Jesus describes a better, more fulfilling way to live under His lead.

Matthew 5:1-3 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (ESV)

O how happy are the spiritually poor. This must have shocked Jesus’ original audience, because their leaders kept telling them, “O how happy are the spiritually rich,” i.e., those who try to keep all the rules and live their lives according to the law.

Here, in stark contrast to that, Jesus says, “O how happy are the spiritually poor,” i.e., those who KNOW they cannot keep all the rules, those who KNOW they are morally bankrupt. These are the ones that are truly blessed. These are the ones that are truly fortunate as the privileged recipients of God’s favor. These are the ones who experience a fullness of life.

Do you want to be truly happy? Then stop trying to impress people and simply express your need for God’s intervention. That is to say, “Be poor in spirit.”

BE HUMBLE IN YOUR ATTITUDE TOWARDS YOURSELF.

Realize that you are morally and spiritually bankrupt without Christ. Acknowledge that you cannot keep the rules. Confess your sinfulness before God and your desperate need of His grace.

I like the way Dane Ortlund put it in his book Defiant Grace. He writes, “The ancient Greeks told us to be moderate by knowing our inclinations. The Romans told us to be strong by ordering our lives. Buddhism tells us to be disillusioned by annihilating our consciousness. Hinduism tells us to be absorbed by merging our souls. Islam tells us to be submissive by subjecting our wills. Agnosticism tells us to be at peace by ignoring our doubts. Moralism tells us to be good by discharging our obligations. Only the gospel tells us to be free by acknowledging our failure. Christianity is the un-religion, because it is the one faith whose founder tells us to bring not our doing, but our need.” (Dane Ortlund, Defiant Grace, EP Books, 2011, p. 38; www.PreachingToday.com)

Oh, my dear friends, just bring your need to God, and stop trying to impress Him with all that you’ve done.

In his book What Good Is God, Philip Yancey writes about speaking at a conference on ministry to women in prostitution. During one of the sessions, Yancey asked the women, “Did you know that Jesus referred to your profession? Let me read you what he said: ‘I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.’ He was speaking to the religious authorities of his day. What do you think Jesus meant? Why did he single out prostitutes?”

After several minutes of silence, a young woman from Eastern Europe spoke up in her broken English. “Everyone, she has someone to look down on. Not us. We are at the low. Our families, they feel shame for us. No mother nowhere looks at her little girl and says, ‘Honey, when you grow up I want you be good prostitute.’ Most places, we are breaking the law. Believe me, we know how people feel about us. People call us names: whore, slut, hooker, harlot. We feel it too. We are the bottom. And sometimes when you are at the low, you cry for help. So when Jesus comes, we respond. Maybe Jesus meant that.” (Philip Yanvry, What Good Is God?, p. 75; www.PreachingToday.com)