The sermon series we’re preaching this month… is called “ONE THING”. We’re looking at ONE word that points to something important for us Christians. Scott began with the word GRACE; last week I preached on “UNITY”; and todays word is “HUMILITY.”
HUMILITY - Back in the 1980s a singer named Mac Davis wrote a song that became an international favorite, and the chorus started out with these words: “Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in every way. I can’t wait to look in the mirror, cause I get better looking each day.”
And everybody who heard that song smiled (they may even have sung along). But the reason everyone smiled was: If someone tells me how humble they are… they probably aren’t .
God LOVES humble people… but He despises the proud. James 4:6 says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." In fact, God tells us: Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18
So, if I want to please God I’ll need to learn how to be humble; and I’ll need to learn how NOT to be proud. This morning we’re going to start out by learning how to avoid being proud.
Isaiah 2:17 tells us that “… the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.” LOFTY PRIDE! That’s a pride that says – I have power and authority; and I can do what I want! And you can’t stop me.
ILLUS: Several yrs ago, the Governor of Massachusetts was running for reelection. One of the events that he went to was a barbecue, but he’d arrived late and had had no breakfast or lunch, and he was famished. So, as he moved down the serving line, he held out his plate and received ONLY one piece of chicken. The governor said to the serving lady, “Excuse me, do you mind if I get another piece of chicken? I’m very hungry.” “Sorry" the lady said, "I’m only supposed to give one piece to each person,” “But I’m starved,” he repeated. And again she replied: “Only one to a customer.” Now, they say that this governor was normally a modest man, but he decided this was a time… to use the weight of his office, and said, “Madam, do you know who I am? I am the governor of this state.” And she looked him right in the eyes, she replied: “Do you know who I am? I’m the lady in charge of chicken. Now, move along, mister.” (Preaching, March-April, 1986 speaking of Governor Christian Herter)
Now, obviously that’s didn’t work out real well for him. He had used “LOFTY PRIDE” to try to get his way.
There’s a much more serious example of this kind of pride from the Bible. In 2 Chronicles 26:4 we read about a King by the name of Uzziah. King Uzziah “did what was right in the eyes of the LORD…”. Uzziah was a faithful king;, and God rewarded him for his faithfulness… BUT THEN: 2 Chronicles 26:16 says that “when he was strong, he grew PROUD, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the LORD his God and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.”
Uzziah had become a powerful man, and (in his LOFTY pride) he tried to use his power to do something he shouldn’t have done. 2 Chronicles 26:17-21 continues by telling us that “Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty priests of the LORD who were men of valor, and they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong, and it will bring you no honor from the LORD God.” Then Uzziah was angry. Now he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and when he became angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of the LORD, by the altar of incense. And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead! And they rushed him out quickly, and he himself hurried to go out, because the LORD had struck him. And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death…”
LOFTY PRIDE is a pride that says – I have power and authority and I can do what I want! And you can’t stop me. But it never works out real well. I’ve seen preachers who’ve done this, and I’ve seen who’ve Elders done this, and I’ve seen church members who had money or influence who’ve done it. And it never ends well.
So, the Bible warns us “God opposes the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.”
Now, one of the clues that pride might be rearing its ugly head in our lives is when we begin to mistreat other people. PRIDE tells me that I deserve to be treated better… with more respect to our opinions and decisions.
James 4:1-6 “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore, it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
We fight & quarrel when pride takes hold in our lives. And God opposes that type of pride I’d never seen that teaching in this passage before! I’d never made the connection in that passage between fights & quarrels we have with others and my own person pride. But there it is… right at the end of that paragraph. God opposes the proud/gives grace to the humble.”
ILLUS: Just this past week I “experienced” this kind of PRIDE described in James. I’d gotten a couple calls from a woman who was “mentally challenged”. I barely knew the woman… but she needed a ride NOW! Now, I was tired and I wasn’t feeling well, and I had just sat down to eat. I’m annoyed. But I tell her as soon as I’m done eating, I’d come get her. So, (after eat) I call her back and get the address, and I go looking… and I can’t find it. I found the street… but I just couldn’t find house number. It doesn’t exist. So, I call her back telling her I can’t find the house.
“IT’S A BLUE HOUSE” she says. I explain that that doesn’t help … I need the address. And she goes on about what the house looks like. I’m getting frustrated so I ask if there’s someone else there I can talk to, and a man picks up the phone and he tells me that the house has motorcycles in front. THAT DOEN’T HELP - I still can’t find the house! Finally, he understands and gives me the house number. Now, remember – I’m tired, I’m not feeling good… and I’m feeling PUT OUT! And so, I am rude to her! I explain I can’t do this again. I can’t be her personal taxi service… and I take her home. About 30 minutes later… my conscience bothers me. She’s mentally challenged and she hadn’t meant to offend me. But I had been rude to her.
My PRIDE said – I didn’t deserve to be taken advantage of this way, and it made me angry. And so… I treated her badly. I was wrong… I had sinned against her. And so I called her back again and asked her forgiveness. I explained I still couldn’t be her taxi service, but I promised to help her out a couple more times.
APPLICATION: My point is this: MY PRIDE and led me to be rude and disrespectful. I’d mistreated a mentally challenged woman who hadn’t meant to offend me. And that’s what James 4 is saying – pride will lead me to mistreat people. And so… God opposes pride. And that’s why Philippians 2:3-4 tells us “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in HUMILITY count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
Now, there one more aspect of pride that James addresses: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you… Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you." James 4:6-10
There’s something about pride that focused ON ME … rather than on GOD. Pride says “I can do everything myself. I DON’T NEED God. In fact, I’m so convinced in my skill and wisdom, and connections that I don’t need God’s help in anything. And IF I DON’T NEED GOD! why bother to pray, I’ve got everything all figured out. So, I don’t submit to God, and I don’t draw near to God. I hardly pay any attention to Him.
Becoming humble before God is the key to fighting off pride, because if we DO NOT draw close to God, we can be tempted to believe WE (instead of God) deserve to be praised.
ILLUS: Corrie Ten Boom survived being a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp during WWII. She and her sister endured years of mistreatment by their guards, and their parents and brother had died in other camps. When she was finally released - she was a bitter woman, and she struggled with the idea that she should forgive the evil men who’d devastated their family and ruined their home. But she eventually learned how to forgive even these people. And she became a popular speaker throughout Europe because so many others struggled with hatred, and she helped them to be freed from those chains of bitterness. One of the dangers, she discovered as she became more and more popular was that she began to feel PRIDE. People would praise her for her work… and she found she liked being praised. And then she felt guilty because - the only reason she could teach others how to forgive was because God had helped her to learn to forgive.
SHE REALIZED SHE WAS ROBBING GOD OF THE PRAISE HE DESERVED! So, what she did was - she began to collect those compliments like flowers. “Thank you,’ I’d say. ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’ Then at the end of the day I’d kneel down and I’d say, ‘Here You are Jesus, they’re all Yours.’”
She once compared her view, of this desire to give God praise, to the day when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. “Everyone was waving palm branches and throwing garments onto the road, and singing praises, Do you think that … for one moment that it EVER entered the head of that donkey that any of that was for him? She said: “If I can be the donkey on which Jesus Christ rides in His glory, I give him all the praise and all the honor.”
Corrie Ten Boom drew near to God, and then she gave God ALL THE CREDIT for what she’d accomplished. That is called… humility.
Now, this brings me to WHO Philippians says I should imitate to be humble. “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:5-11
Jesus is our example of what it looks like to be humble. Jesus WAS GOD IN THE FLESH. He didn’t need us (He didn’t need YOU and I) but we needed Him. And because we needed Him… Jesus emptied Himself. He was “born in the likeness of men, and became a mortal (just like us) so that He could be obedient to the point of death on cross. That’s what Philippians 2 is saying. Jesus humbled Himself so that could die to pay the debt for our sins. Jesus taught us that we’re supposed to be humble like that!
In Matthew 20… Jesus’ disciples began to argue over which of them was greater than the others, and Jesus took them aside and said: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Matthew 20:25-28
Jesus is our example of what it’s like to be a humble servant of God. We must be willing to serve others… even be their slaves, so that (maybe) THEIR lives will be changed like ours were when Jesus gave His life as a ransom for our sins.
CLOSE: Now, one last thought. When we became Christians, we became servants of Christ, And as His servants… we should literally carry Christ with us wherever we go.
Do you remember the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem, a week before He was crucified? What was Jesus riding? What carried him into the city? It was a donkey. So, here was this donkey carrying Jesus into the city … and everyone was waving palm branches and throwing garments onto the road, and singing praises. And…at the center of all that attention is Jesus… and the donkey! Did you realize that the donkey not only carried Jesus. The donkey also carried the message of the cross ON ITS BACK.
There’s a legend that says that the donkey not only carried Jesus into Jerusalem, but he also followed him to Calvary. Appalled by the sight of Jesus on the cross, the donkey turned away… but could not leave. It is said that the shadow of the cross fell upon the shoulders and back of the donkey. And the legend says that the cross marks the backs of many donkeys today are a testimony to the love and devotion of a humble, little donkey.
My point is this – when we humble ourselves and become servants of others for His sake - we carry Christ around with us. And when we do it right, we carry the sign of the cross on which Jesus died around with us.
INVITATION
