Humility: If You're Not All That, What Are You? Series

Is There A H.E.R.O. in House Series

Humility: If You’re Not All That, What Are You?

February 1, 2009

First Baptist Church of Chester, Chester, IL * Dr. Mike Fogerson, Speaker

A This month, we will hearing a sermon series entitle, “Is There a H.E.R.O. In The House?”

1 I’ve invited one hero from our area to speak each & every week.

a Each week we’ll hear a real American hero give a real story of heroism.

b We’ll hear from our chief of police, fire chief, an Emergency Medical Technician, and this Sunday I’m proud to have a home grown hero with us.

aa Todd Cowen, the son of Mike & Ginger Cowen, has spent time in Afghanistan fighting on the front line in the war on terror.

bb Make Todd feel welcome as he comes & shares his story of heroism.

2 Thank you, Todd.

B The bad guys/ villains in Todd’s story is very recognizable, they are terrorists.

1 Hero’s always are up against a villain, enemy, nemesis, bad guy.

a Lex Luther, Harvey Dent, Dr. Doom, Dr. Octavious, Red Skull, Butch Cavendish, . . . etc.

b Our more real enemies like Al Queda & disasters.

2 The enemy that a Christian is up against an enemy, the devil.

a Our enemy has already been defeated, vanquished, head crushed.

aa 12 "How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations! 13 "But you said in your heart, ’I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. 14 ’I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ 15 "Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol,

To the recesses of the pit. Isaiah 14:12-15 (NASB)

bb Do you hear the pride? Arrogance?

cc The pit/Sheol is prophetic because it’s not until the 3rd to last page in my bible does it say Satan is bound and thrown into the lake of fire.

b The devil was kicked out of heaven, lost his position in the Kingdom.

3 Why did God sent the wicked one to this earth rather than the pit immediately?

a Consider: When a judge sends a man to prison, he is bound, punished, & put in prison as a place of torment

aa When God sent Satan to earth he wasn’t sending him to club med, vacation, not lenancy.

bb God didn’t say, “Go play, reek destruction/pail all you want on my people. When you’re done, I’ll come back like Superman, & rescue my people from you.”

C God sent Satan to this earth as a judge sends a man who has committed a crime to prison., to be tormented, goofed on.

1 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. Eph 3:10 (NASB)

a Through the church he brings authority, knowledge, and wisdom against the powers of darkness.

b It’s through you & me, the church, God has chosen to give misery to the enemy during his stay on earth.

2 Our enemy is the devil.

a He seeks to steal, kill, destroy, reek havoc, cause confusion.

b Has basically only two weapons: accusation & deception (a whole other sermon)

D Every hero has his/her own set of super powers or weapons

1 Superman (Faster than a speeding bullet)

a Wonder Woman (lasso of truth, super strength)

b Batman (World’s greatest detective)

c Flash (Fastest human on earth)

e Aqua Man (w/ the least useful mix of super powers)

2 I believe there are four weapons given to us by God to keep Satan from frustrating the grace of God in our lives.

a Humility, Endurance, Repentance, Obedience

b Let’s look at this first weapon.. Humility.

aa 6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE." 7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. James 4:6-8 (NASB)

bb Pray

I Humility is a powerful weapon against the enemy.

A In the vast majority of Greek pre-Christian writers, humility (tapeinos) was usually used in bad or inferior sense — denoting something evil or unworthy.

1 Humility was a characteristic of weakness, cowardice, to be tolerated only in slaves . . . everyone else hold your head high.

a The Greeks detested the eastern customs of bowing prostrate before rulers, they didn’t want to surrender their honor.

b But in God’s Kingdom, it’s like Bizzaro World, things are upside down.