Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable to you O Lord. Amen.
Introduction:
There is a country and western song which I love called “Lord, it is hard to be humble, when you are perfect in ever way”. I think the words are so funny because for me, humility is one of the strongest weapons in the Christian armoury; and this song suggests that humility is the exact opposite of perfection. Where in fact it is not; humility is the basis of perfection as Jesus was the most humble man who ever lived, and Jesus was the most perfect of men. I just love this subject on humility so much, that I ask you to bear with me this morning as I will probably get carried away.
It was Earnest Hemingway who said, "Only a bullfighter lives life all the way up", meaning that only a bullfighter lives his life to the full. I don’t agree, as I believe that Jesus lived his life to the full, and I also believe he wants us to do the same.
In John 10:10 the Pharisees tried to trick Jesus him by asking “if they were blind also”; meaning that Jesus was implying they were spupid; but Jesus replied, "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it abundantly" and the “they” that Jesus is referring to here are his followers, that is us, “that we may have life to the full”.
Now the start of that verse is interesting as it refers to the thief, the thief we know as Satan, “The thief comes only to kill, steal and destroy; however, I have come that they, may have life, and that they it abundantly”. What a contrast.
Those influenced by Satan are referred to as the thieves, and you know the kind of people he talks, those who just seam to draw the life right out of you; yet we as Christians are so full of life that we inject life into others.
Are you aware you did that; it is only recently I did, so become aware; because if we are in Christ, he is in us, and we cannot but help radiate life to others. We are not here to kill steal and destroy like the enemy, we are here emulate God, by loving others, giving to others, and looking after others; the best way we can.
Jesus wants us to live life to the full, and to try and explain that, Jesus uses this banquet scene to convey that message. This parable, dare I say, is a pathetic story of proud little men, (and women), running around trying to figure out where they fit in society; trying to find their place in the pecking order of things; so they can exult themselves with their hidden dastardly schemes.
In this parable Jesus warns of such behaviour by saying, "When … invited to a … banquet, do not sit down at the place of honour, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host … may say to you, `Give this person your place,' and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place”.
Now in our own way, we can all relate to that somewhere in our lives as this is a painful part of living, but that is what people do in society, in fact they become obsessed by it.
For example, look at the way many people are preoccupied with their appearance; trying and cover it up with expensive clothes thinking they will hide what’s beneath. Look at how some people choose their cars, not on practicality or by what they can afford, but on the image they want to project; and I must admit that I have even done this myself.
Look also at how some people pick their houses, their neighbourhoods, friends, the clubs they belong to, even their church, all in an attempt to say: Me Me Me; "look at me! I am somebody! I am important; and I want you to acknowledge this".
We have all seen it, (we have all probably done it), but you know what I am talking about; I am not trying to condemn, because we have Jesus to corrected us. Jesus is saying that our greatness is not in what we have, or wear, or drive or live or work; our greatness is deep inside of us; and it is so deep that we can sit at the back of any banquet, and the radiance of God will still shine through.
We as Christians do not have to sit at the head table trying to look important; we are important because he, who is greater than us, lives in us, and it is impossible to stop him from shining through.
Christine and myself are very wary of people trying to promote themselves, and a obvious sign is them us how good they are at something; and both know that, “If you have to tell someone how good you are, then you haven’t got it”. If you have the ability in something, it will shine through, regardless of your circumstances. People cannot help but see it.
1 Corinthians 2 verse 7, Paul talks about the wisdom of God that will never be understood by even the sharpest and most powerful of men. Verse 9 goes on to say, “But as it is written, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him. But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yes, and the deep things of God.”
The deep things of God are totally incomprehensible to the world because they come from the depths of God. God’s love and wisdom are like that; they are so deep, but the Holy Spirit allows us to see the deep things of God that the world will never see.
And that is what I am talking about this morning, humility is one of those deep things of God, and I personally feel that this is rarely taught; as much of what is preached is so shallow in its plausibility; and instead of going down into the deeper things of God, we just hang around at surface level and miss all the gems. I am now going to try and go deeper.
Luke 14:11 say, “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." It is in this humility that is the key to success.
Isaiah 6 says that humility is an admission of our sinfulness; and with that admission, through Christ we are cleansed and set free for our sins. Deuteronomy 8 says that humility is a pledge of obedience to God; and II Kings 22 declares that humility is a submission to God, and that he will protect all who submit to him.
Tell me who you admire in the bible, and I will tell you that every great man or woman in the bible was humble, all the way up to Jesus himself; the man above all men, was humble to God as we know; and it was of his humility and obedience unto death, that God raised him to the highest of the high; (and don’t miss this bit), God wants to raise us also, but we too must humble ourselves before we can be raised.
Now I am sure you have heard and read about humility and submitting ourselves, but what is rarely taught is what happens after we submit ourselves to God. Can you see, humility is the forerunner of power, power that God himself gives us? But before God gives is his power, he must know we can handle it, and to do that we must humble ourselves and be submit to him.
Humility is not about weakness, humility is about power and strength and life; but God will never give us such things unless we are under his control.
The prophet asks in us Micah 6:8, "And what does the Lord require of us? To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God." Humility is the secret of eternal living; it is the secret of peace with God; and this is the verse, which gives us the four consummate virtues of Christian living: Justice, Mercy, Humility and Faithfulness.
In Psalms 9:12 we read God protects those who are humble from their enemies, and In Psalm 149 it says, "He crowns the humble with salvation."
All of us know that to be a Christian, we have to humble ourselves before God, but even Non Christians know that, and this is one of the reason why we do not see more in our churches today; the fear of humbling themselves; and what stops people humbling themselves, (apart from those who take advantage), what stops people humbling themselves, PRIDE.
That is why God says in Psalms 10:4 that “The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts”. Pride is of the world, and not of God; in fact the bible tells us that God absolutely hates pride, as he sees it as the world’s greatest sin; the sin that man believes in himself as the centre of the world. In fact it was pride that got Satan expelled from heaven.
In contrast Proverbs 29:23 says “A man's pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit” and that is why Jesus in this parable is telling us that he is disturbed at all those little men and women; running around and arguing about who is greatest, and who should sit at the head table. This is nothing more than pride.
Have you ever watch someone who has been caught red handed doing something they shouldn’t, you know caught in the act; or somebody who has let you down badly; have you watched them, the do everything but admit they were in the wrong.
I personally don’t understand this, so I will sit and watch them trying to wriggle their way out. I let them dig their hole; especially when all they need to say is, “Sorry I got it wrong”. This may sound a bit harsh, but you cannot force someone to say sorry; it must come from the heart, or it is worthless.
For some reason, many people will simply not admit their guilt, and that is pride; and we all know Proverbs 16:18 which says, “Pride goes before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall”. You can actually watch people destroy themselves in front of you by not humbling themselves, and admitting they were wrong.
Of course we, are all used to admitting our sinfulness before God, we do so at the start of every service to make sure, and we find it easy, but the proud man says, “I have done nothing, and have nothing to apologise for. I run my own life and I do things “my way” like the Sinatra song; but if they only knew how to use the word sorry, their lives would not be so complex, with the world on their shoulders.
Look at the Sermon on the Mount, the beatitudes for instance are in a specific order; and the first one is foundational, for the rest. Matthew 5:3 says "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven". Think about it, you can never be in the kingdom of God as long as you think you are king. Humility is the secret key to entering this kingdom; and humility is the secret of restoring our lives.
When the temple was dedicated in 2 Chronicles 7, Solomon was alone with God; and you know that is when he does His best work. Verse 4: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land”. Now that is powerful.
Many years ago, I read a book on Humility by Andrew Murray, (the turn of the century preacher from South African); as I felt I better face up to this humility thing, now that I am a Christian, and boy, did I get a shock of what lay within. It was one of the best books I have ever read, and it totally transformed my life.
I started reading it with great trepidation as I associated humility with weakness, and I thought that was what us Christians were meant to be, after all the world sees us as weak, but I was so wrong, because by the time I got to the end of the book, I felt I was so full of power, and worth, energy, that life just seamed to flow from me. From that point, my life just opened up, and doors started opening. I now have that book in PDF format if you want a copy, but I will warn you, that although it is only 26 pages in PDF, it is very deep and heavy heavy going.
But in that book, you will find that humility is not only the secret of eternal life; humility is the secret of confident living. Humility is not a personal weakness, humility is confidence before God, and if we can be confident before God, we can be confident before anything.
Humility is confidence in God, and through God; rather than confidence in ourselves. Humility is the exact opposite of pride, and the way to perfection.
Humility is actually living a confident life. Paul’s second letter to Timothy was his last letter as he was in prison and was about to be killed for following Jesus and yet he wrote to Timothy, with words of confidence, assured that Christ will safely guard him until the day of his return.
… I read somewhere that Lazarus went around telling people that Christ had raised him from the dead. Well wouldn’t you; and then some officials came up to him and said, "Lazarus, you must stop telling that story, and if you don’t we’re going to kill you." Can you imagine Lazarus saying “Aye right”; because he living in confidence that Jesus is his Lord? And we too have died and were raised again; and this is best summed up in Romans 6 verses 3 and 4 “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
We were dead also, and living under sin, until God raised us and entered our lives, and changed us, he changed our whole nature because we humbled ourselves before him. Colossians 3 verse 3 says, “For ye are dead, and your life is now with Christ in God”. Our confidence is therefore in humbling ourselves before God, and by doing so, our confidence is in Christ who now lives in us. By humbling ourselves we allow God almighty to live within us. Now that is powerful, if we could only but understand and accept it.
Our Lord knows that if we make Him the most important person in our lives, we are going to know that we are loved. We are going to know that we are protected; and energised with life. We are going to know that we have nothing to fear in this world, or the world to come. We live with that confidence when we humble ourselves before God; as we know we will be exalted.
Amen. Let us pray.
Father we thank you for Jesus, we thank you that he died on the cross instead of us, and through his death we can approach you with confidence.
Father we submit to you, but you know we have submitted to you for some time now; but what we don’t understand is that you want us, … you want to give us your power and authority; … and that the enemy has kept this hidden from us, … kept us suppressed … letting us think that we are worthless in our humility; and that is the Christian way.
Free us this morning to be the people you want us to be; … the person we know we are deep within … struggling to get out. Let us see humility in a new light; … with confidence that leads to power … and truth … and life eternal.
Father let us understand that with this power, … you want us to display Justice …, and Mercy …, and Humility … and Faithfulness …; that others may see, … and be inspired.
Father we want to be ambassadors for you, … ambassadors for a King with real power, … ambassadors to represent you here on earth, and … ambassadors totally submitted to you.
We ask humbly, in Jesus name, Amen.
