SPRING RETREAT – APRIL 14, 2007
HUMILITY
“Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self.” - C.S. Lewis
Pride.
Defined: Thinking of yourself differently than God thinks of you.
Rom.12:3 – Explain!!! (disagreeing with God, believing own opinion over His).
The truth about your identity without Christ (Phil.3:3):
Hitler, Stalin, Bin Laden, Enron, Ted Haggert all very much possible outcomes for my life.
The truth about your identity in Christ:
His son, Securely saved, loved eternally, accepted, being conformed to His character, huge purpose in life.
If you’ve ever thought…that’s pride.
Have to be right.
Satan and pride: Is.14:12-15
Jesus and Humility (our example): Phil.2:5-11
Why God hates it (James 4:6, 1Pet.5:5 – God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble)
Danger of it
What it will do to me
Prevents fellowship with God (God opposes the proud), it destroys relationships with others (divorce, loosing job, no friends).
What it will keep me from
Abundant life
Meaningful life
Your life purpose
What it will do to eternity
The Great Commission suffers
Greatest accusation against Christians.
Pride is our natural condition, humility is not.
Selfishness and pride.
Humility and selflessness
Fear and pride
Humility and courage
Laziness and Pride
Humility and hard work
Time management example:
Pride and video games!!!
Apathy and Pride
Humility and commitment
Stubbornness and pride
Humility and willingness
The Will
Will quote
Independence and pride
Humility and submission
James 4:7 – Submit to God
Eph.5:21 – Submit to one another
1 Peter 2:13 – Submit to the government
Heb. 13:17 – Submit to godly authority
Anger and pride
Humility and love
Having to be right vs. admitting wrong
Humility is God’s plan for us (Col.3:12 - So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience)
Humility is not natural and it is therefore the result of a process.
This process is God’s gift to you (Murray).
Many Christians fear and flee and seek deliverance from all that would humble them. At times they may pray for humility but in their heart of hearts they pray even more to be kept from the things that would bring them to that place. Andrew Murray
The process of humiliation
Not fun; death of self.
Lk.9:23-24 – “Then he said to them all, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.”
Also found in (Mt.10:38-39, 16:24-25, Mr.8:34-35, Lk.17:33).
Denying self
Taking up Cross Daily.
The daily cross, something which is to be the instrument of disgrace and execution is whatever gives occasion for ever deeper test of self surrender. L.E. Maxwell
Lose life to find it - The harder you try to hold on to your life the less of true life you’ll experience.
Jesus added in Jn.12:25 – “The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
Gal.2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
The cross is the instrument of your death.
It will take those around you to be truly crucified.
It is easy to think that we humble ourselves before God, but our humility toward others is the only sufficient proof that our humility before God is real. Andrew Murray
Eph.4:2 – “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
Practice dying to self. (Jer.4:4)Things you can surrender:
TV and other entertainment
Food (through fasting)
Sleeping in, negotiating with the alarm
Free time
Video games
Girlfriends/boyfriends for a time
GPA
Summer break
Your image
Your gifts and talents
Your hopes, dreams and desires (even good ones)
The rest of your life
In every Christians heart there is a cross and a throne and the Christian is on the throne till he puts himself on the cross; if he refuses the cross he remains on the throne. Perhaps this is at the bottom of the backsliding and worldliness among believers today. We want to be saved but insist Christ do all the dying. A.W. Tozer
Surrendering (yielding one’s self to the power of another) to that process yields humility:
As I surrender to what brings death to self, I am humbled.
It means giving up, admitting defeat, submitting, yielding, relinquishing control, handing over, parting with and conceding.
Surrender produces humility and it also results from humility.
We’ll call it “The upward cycle”:
Humility surrender humility surrender
Compartmentalization
Allowing God control of only a few parts (ex. Sunday morning).
Natural to human nature
Essence of religion
Of all bad men religious bad men are worst. C.S. Lewis
We should have no compartmentalized areas of control.
Entertainment
Free time
Avg. Christian spends < 10 minutes with God daily.
Relationships
Future
The Christian life is a surrendered life.
Mk.12:30 – “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
Put His good first in all your:
Heart – emotions and desires
Soul – image, attitudes and character
Mind – thoughts and intellect
Strength – Energy and labor
John 3:30 – “He must become greater, I must become less.”
Nothing can remain un-surrendered (Phil.2:21 – Everyone…)
Humility must be the focus of prayer and desire:
The process of humiliation alone won’t work.
We must seek humility – it is seeking Christ likeness.
Ask God for humility (my story).
A humble person has no rights.
You are not God’s greatest gift to humanity.
Rom.12:3 – “For by the grace given me I say to everyone of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.”
No rights in relationships with others:
1Jn.3:16 - We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Effect on everything: Marriage, kids, relationships, ministry, witness, etc.
He does not need you, your gifts or your abilities.
1 Cor.1:26-31 – The foolish, weak, lowly and despised!
God used Peter; look how “gifted” he was.
Phil.2:3 – “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”
In grace, he chooses to use you when you love Him and focus on glorifying Him in humility.
Your image does not matter.
James 4:4 – “…Friendship with the world is hatred toward God.”
Your will does not matter.
You can not demand your way.
Your point of view does not matter.
You won’t be liked. You’re promised that in Jn.15:18.
You will be persecuted. Promised that in 2 Tim.3:12.
You will experience the abundant life in ways you didn’t imagine were possible.
Your life purpose will be accomplished.
The Humble person has intimacy with God and experiences God’s working in their life mightily.
The upward cycle: Humility surrender humility surrender.
The humbling cycle makes you more Christ like.
This process is the foundation for
Relationship with God and
For the working of His power
James 4:8 – Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
A proud person cannot be close to Him.
A proud vessel cannot be a conduit of His power.
It must be emptied before it can be used.
Your weaknesses, inabilities and failures present no challenge to God’s plan for your life; your willingness does.
We must present ourselves as empty vessels in which God can dwell and manifest His power and goodness. Where God has come in His power and revealed Himself, the vessel becomes nothing.
Until a humility that rests on nothing less than the end and death of self and which gives up all honor of men, as Jesus did, to seek the honor that comes from God alone (which absolutely makes and counts itself nothing) that God may be all, that the Lord alone may be exalted – until such a humility is what we seek in Christ above our chief joy and welcome at any price, there is very little hope of a faith that will conquer the world.
True humility comes when before God we see ourselves as nothing, have put aside self and let God be all. The soul that has done this and can say, “I have lost myself in finding you,” no longer compares itself with others. It has given up forever any thought of self in God’s presence; it meets its fellow man as one who is nothing and seeks nothing for itself; who is a servant of God and for his sake is a servant of all.
There is no pride so dangerous, so subtle and insidious, as the pride of holiness. It is not that a man ever says, or even thinks, “Stay away. I am to sacred for you.” The thought would be considered ludicrous. But unconsciously there can develop a private habit of the soul that feels complacency in its attainments and cannot help but see how far it is ahead of others. It isn’t always seen is self-assertion or self-praise but in the absence of self denial and modesty that reveals a lack of the mark of the soul that has seen the glory of God. Andrew Murray
Discussion Questions
How have you thought more lowly of yourself than you ought in the past?
How have you thought more highly of yourself than you ought in the past?
How have those areas impacted your relationship with God?
How have those areas impacted your relationship with others?
How have they kept you from growing the way God intended?
