There's something about Mary.
No not the movie - Mary. Jesus Mum.
Mary – Mary has been treated strangely by history.
People pray to her – people make statues of her and pray to the statue – People get it wrong – Mary is a signpost who like the Prophets of old point to Jesus and then take their place worshiping at his footstool.
If we can get the idolised images of Mary out of our minds for a moment we might realise that there is something about Mary that we have to learn.
Mary was a woman who through incredible circumstances was chosen to bear God’s son, Jesus, and to give birth to him and to be his Mother. This morning I would like to suggest that there is something about Mary that we need to learn and that something is humility.
This morning we read Mary says “My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,48 for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.
What bought Mary to Christmas – Humility – What bought Christ to the cross – Humility – What bought the rich wise men to bow to the infant Jesus? Humility – What bought Shepherds to the infant Jesus – humility. What caused Joseph to take Mary to be his wife – Humility to God –
Jesus understood humility and he preached it to all. When he found the opposite – particularly among the religious leaders – Jesus rebuked their pride and arrogance.
Pride seeking to be something.
God resists the proud we read and gives grace to the humble.
It is these very words. That find expression in Mary’s song that we read this morning.
Don’t you think we need to be where Mary was?
What do you think Jesus meant when he called us to follow him?
I believe it was a call to humility. Yet this week I have found in my hearty pride and arrogance. You may protest Oh no – John you wouldn’t do that!!!Or the more astute among you will recognise it in e and sadly agree.
Dear friends Christ is yours – Christ as he comes by the Holy spirit is yours. Great power and love are yours – Great Holyness is yours but that must make us humble not proud.
Ruth Harms Calkin wrote a beautiful poem that concludes:
You know, Lord, How I serve You with great emotional fervor in the limelight.
You know how eagerly I speak for You at a Women’s Club.
You know my genuine enthusiasm at a Bible study.
But how would I react, I wonder, if You pointed to a basin of water
and asked me to wash the callused feet of a bent and wrinkled old woman
day after day, month after month, in a room where nobody saw and nobody knew?
This morning I would like to challenge you to explore with me some things God wants us to know about humility and some things that he wants us to do.
You might think well why should I learn about humility – I will tell you it is one of the keys to revival and I have that key in my pocket.
Charles G. Finney defined Revival as:
“Nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God. Just as in the case of a converted sinner, the first step is a deep repentance, a breaking down of heart, a getting down into the dust before God, with deep humility, and a forsaking of sin.”
Evangelist Gypsy Smith was once asked how to start a revival.
He answered: “Go home, lock yourself in your room, kneel down in the middle of your floor. Draw a chalk mark all around yourself and ask God to start the revival inside that chalk mark. When He has answered your prayer, the revival will be on.”
R.A. Torrey gave a prescription for revival:
“I can give a prescription that will bring a revival to any church or community or any city on earth.
“First, let a few Christians (they need not be many) get thoroughly right with God themselves. This is the prime essential. If this is not done, the rest that I am to say will come to nothing.
“Second, let them bind themselves together in a prayer group to pray for a revival until God opens the heavens and comes down.
“Third, let them put themselves at the disposal of God for Him to use as He sees fit in winning others to Christ. That is all!
“This is sure to bring a revival to any church or community. I have given this prescription around the world. It has been taken by many churches and many communities, and in no instance has it ever failed; and it cannot fail!”
Revival must begin with me… it must begin with you!
What then is the first key for humility? Well actually I think that there could be several answers to this question - but the first answer surely is knowing ourselves.
I mean what am I really like. I saw a great actor on the television he had won many awards but when I looked up his work on youtube it was foul and very very ungodly – what is needed?
Repentance it is turning back to Godly standards and Godly ways.
Solomon had just built the temple here is what he said
(Read 2 Chronicles 7:10-15
& Pray)
10On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their tents, joyful and glad of heart for the good that the LORD had done for David, for Solomon, and for His people Israel.
11Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the king’s house; and Solomon successfully accomplished all that came into his heart to make in the house of the LORD and in his own house.
12Then the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.
13When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people,
14if My people who are called by My name will 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 heal their land.
15Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place.
The Lord appears to Solomon and lets explore what he said.
If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves.
The first thing we need to do it seems to me is to humble ourselves which actually is recognising our true position before God.
How Other Men Of God Have Defined Humility:
“Humility is recognizing that God and others are responsible for the achievements in my life.” Bill Gothard
“Humility is perfect quietness of heart. It is to have no trouble. It is never to be fretted or irritated or sore or disappointed. It is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing that is done to me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me and when I am blamed or despised. It is to go in and shut the door and kneel to my Father in secret, and be at peace as in the deep sea of calmness when all around and above is trouble.” Andrew Murray (1828-1917)
“I used to think that God’s gifts were on shelves one above the other and that the taller we grew in Christian character the more easily we could reach them. I now find that God’s gifts are on shelves one beneath the other and that it is not a question of growing taller but of stooping lower.” F. B. Meyer (1847-1929)
“I’ve never known a person whom I thought was truly filled with the Holy Spirit who went out and bragged about it or sought to draw attention to himself.” Billy Graham
“Nothing sets a person so much out of the devil’s reach as humility.” Jonathan Edwards
I think the definition of humility is recognising that we are totally and utterly dependent of God. Pride struggles to survive in such an environment.
When humility is present it sucks the oxygen out of Prides breath.
Humility is the place of understanding and recognising the absolute truth about ourselves.
As it says in Philippians:
Philippians 2:3-5
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,
4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: read more »
THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.
tells us that Jesus is our example in this:
The first thing that God taught Solomon about coming into the blessing of God was – Humble yourself.
If you don’t do that you will crash.
Perhaps this story may illustrate the point.
In the summer of 1986, two ships collided in the Black Sea off the coast of Russia. Hundreds of passengers died as they were hurled into the icy waters below. News of the disaster was further darkened when an investigation revealed the cause of the accident. It wasn't a technology problem like radar malfunction--or even thick fog. The cause was human stubbornness. Each captain was aware of the other ship's presence nearby. Both could have steered clear, but according to news reports, neither captain wanted to give way to the other. Each was too proud to yield first. By the time they came to their senses, it was too late.
Closer Walk, December, 1991.
We don’t need to wait for God or others to humble us the scriptures encourage us to take our rightful position of humility ourselves that is what Mary did and we must do it too.
Humility is powerful
The second thing God told Solomon was pray.
To pray is vital – humble prayer is so important.
While very ill, John Knox, the founder of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, called to his wife and said, "Read me that Scripture where I first cast my anchor." After he listened to the beautiful prayer of Jesus recorded in John 17, he seemed to forget his weakness. He began to pray, interceding earnestly for his fellowmen. He prayed for the ungodly who had thus far rejected the gospel. He pleaded in behalf of people who had been recently converted. And he requested protection for the Lord's servants, many of whom were facing persecution. As Knox prayed, his spirit went Home to be with the Lord. The man of whom Queen Mary had said, "I fear his prayers more than I do the armies of my enemies," ministered through prayer until the moment of his death.
Our Daily Bread. April
The prayer of Jabez moved the heart of missionary John Hyde to pray with great faith, expecting answers to his prayers. As a result, he became known as Praying Hyde and the world still feels the impact of his powerful life.
Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman once wrote to a friend, telling of Praying Hyde's influence on him. He had been holding meetings in England, but the attendance had been disappointingly small. Then he received word that Praying Hyde was going to pray down God's blessing upon him and his work.As a result of Hyde's powerful praying, the tide soon turned and the meeting hall became packed with people. At Chapman's first public invitation, fifty men received Christ as their Savior.
Relating the story, Chapman said: As we were leaving I said, "Mr. Hyde, I want you to pray for me." He came to my room, turned the key in the door, and dropped to his knees, and waited five minutes without a single syllable coming from him lips. I could hear my own heart thumping, and his beating. I felt hot tears running down my face. I knew I was with God. Then with upturned face, down which the tears were streaming, he said, "O God." Then for five minutes at least he was still again; and then, when he knew that he was talking with God, there came from the depths of his heart such petitions for me as I had never heard before. I rose from my knees to know what real prayer was."
Roger F. Campbell, You Can Win!, SP Publications, 1985, pp. 17-18.
"At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
He called a little child and had him stand among them. And He said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
You see what Solomon was told was when God’s people will seek his face. It is god’s face that we need to seek like this story I have just shared.
And the final thing is to turn from our wicked ways,.
When Jonah comes into Ninevah and the people repent then God removes his hand of judgement from them.
Gypsey Smith says When I was in South Africa, a fine, Dutchman came into my service, and God laid His hand on him and convicted him of sin. The next morning he went to the beautiful home of another Dutchman and said to him, "Do you recognize that old watch?"
"Why, yes," answered the other. "Those are my initials; that is my watch. I lost it eight years ago. How did you get it, and how long have you had it?"
"I stole it," was the reply.
"What made you bring it back now?"
"I was converted last night," was the answer, "and I have brought it back first thing this morning. If you had been up, I would have brought it last night."
The result of doing these things is the blessing of God.
As God tells Solomon , then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
The long term blessing of God seems to follow those who honour him.
That honouring when really expressed from a genuine heart produces revivals and blessings
And history shows that "wrestling Revival prayer" can actually be TAUGHT to Christians. This comes through loud and clear in the book 'Anointed for Burial', which is Todd and DeAnn Burke's account of the mighty Revival in Cambodia in the 1970's. It occurred when God had already been moving there for some time. Todd wrote: "Referring to Genesis 32, I told them how Jacob WRESTLED with the Lord until He blessed him. 'If we expect power and blessing from the Lord, we are going to have to be willing to wrestle with Him in prayer and fasting, in self-denial, in taking up our cross,' I said. Then I shared with them from a devotional book by Hudson Taylor, "An easy-going, non-self- denying life will never be one of power." With that, everyone began to wrestle in prayer, and before long, the blessing came."
Mary was blessed because her life seems to follow this pattern and when your life follows this pattern it too will be blessed.
