HUMBLE SERVANTS
GAL. 5:16; PHIL. 2:3-4
I. Intro. There was once a lion who was very proud of his mastery over the rest of the animal kingdom. One day he decided to make sure that the other animals knew that he was king of the jungle. He was so sure of himself that he by passed the smaller animals and went right to the bear. “Who is king of the jungle?” the lion asked. “Why of course you are.” replied the bear.
The lion then found the tiger and asked him, “Who is king of jungle?” The tiger quickly responded, “Why everyone knows that you are.”
Next on the lion’s list was the elephant. “Who is king of the jungle?” the lion demanded. The elephant immediately grabbed the lion with his trunk spun him a round a few times. Threw him to the grown stepped on him a few times, picked him up again dunked him in the water, and then threw him up against a tree. The lion, who was beaten bruised and battered struggled to his feet. and replied, “Look just because you don’t know the answer is no reason to get upset.” What was the lion problem? He was blinded by pride. Blinded by thoughts of himself.
II. Pride will destroy us!
A. There is no greater sin. Satan’s fall; pride. Adam and Eve pride. Every sin after, pride. We do not often think of ourselves as being prideful. We equate it with braggarts, conceited. But anytime we put ourselves ahead of God or ahead of others. That is pride. It is a sin that every person in this room is guilty of.
B. At school the theme this year is “pride”.
1. Do we really believer that children need more pride?
2. Do we really believe that they need to think more of themselves.
3. That they need to think more highly of themselves.
4. Let us wake up! Children do not need more pride, they need more humility. They need to think more about others then they do themselves.
C. If you look at the problems people have, most come from pride.
1. $$ problems, can’t say no to self, need to buy stuff.
2. Emotional problems, think to much on self. Self pity. Focus on self.
3. Children problems. Taught them to think about self. That they are the most important person in the world, rather then thinking about others. Self.
4. Marriage problems. Think about self rather then spouse.
D. I have been battling depression, anger, lack of faith, etc.
1. Praying for God to reveal to Me something, I wasn’t sure what.
2. We want the “secret to a full spiritual life”.
3. God seeks to reveal these things but many times, we do not want to discover them.
We want the easy way, “Poof” it is done. I was asking God for a sign, a vision. Then I read Matthew 16:4; "A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah." And He left them and departed.”
4. But then God did reveal to me a “secret” to a fuller spiritual life. Actually it was no secret is was right there the whole time. It’s called humility. It’s called being a servant, it is called putting others, (everybody) first.
E. There are two enemies to humility. Mentioned in Phil. 2:3-4. “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”
1. Vanity, selfish ambition, empty conceit. Remember the lion. Think two highly of yourself.
2. Think of yourself over others.
3. These will destroy humility, you cannot have these things and be humble.
F. There is a secret to humbling ourselves contained in Phil. 2:4.
1. Verse 4 from the KJV (Closet to the Greek), “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” Quit focusing on ourselves! Never mind how you feel, how does the other guy feel. Never mind what you want, what does the other guy want. Never mind your needs what about the other persons needs. “Look not on your things but on the things of others.”
2. Pride is when our eyes are on ourselves, humility is when our eyes are on God and others.
3. Humility comes when we make others great. Both in our perspective of them, and in our pursuits. How do we make others great?
a. We make them great in perspective by valuing them more then ourselves. Ever see homeless person (DC), (remember the man in Oneonta), the feeling you had when you saw him. Dirty etc. Think of them as better then yourself. That is humility. That man more value then me, that man is one of God’s creation.
b. We make them great in pursuit when by making their needs, their wants, their desires of a greater priority then our own needs, our own wants, our own desires. That is hard to do, but it is what the Lord wants from us. Most of our life we live in pursuit of what we want. What if that we not so? Most of our waking hours. What will help me, what will get me what I want. If we step on a few people along the way, that’s OK, part of the game. But that is not humility. That’s Pride. Pride that keeps us away from the “Spiritual secret” that we desire.
C. Getting ahead of myself here. Back-up a little.
II. Servants that walk in the Spirit.
A. A few weeks ago in SS talking about How do walk in the Spirit. We know we should, we talk about it, but for some reason we do not.
B. Some ask “Well how do I walk in the Spirit?”
1. Spiritual question.
2. We get spiritual answers. Answer we do not understand. Answers that may be correct, but are hard for us to grab hold of.
3. I like practical answers. Something I can put in effect. Something I can understand like I understand 2+2=4. I can see how that is.
C. Go to Gal. 5:16 “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”
1. Paul writes “I say then: walk in the Spirit.” The words “I say then” refer back to something. He refers back to verses 13-15; “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!”
2. You ask, “How do I walk in the Spirit?” Right there! I have read this numerous times and finally God got it to sink in my head. “How do I walk in the Spirit. Serving one another. Place others first. Love others as you love yourself. HUMILITY!
3. How do I walk in the Spirit? Obey Phil 2:3, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.”
4. It is all about Humility. All about being servants. All about placing others before ourselves, doing away with pride.
D. Look again at Gal. chapter 5. If you look at 13-17 we seen two attitudes;
1. One is of the flesh. Verse 15 speaks of “biting and devouring” one another. It speaks of strive, and pride, and selfishness. Those are the things of the flesh.
a. By it’s very nature the flesh is not interested in serving.
b. The flesh is selfish, the flesh is prideful. No not humility.
c. We see in ver. 17 the war that goes on in us; “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”
d. If I yield to the flesh then it will control my life. If I think of myself over God and others, then the flesh will win.
2. The other attitude we see is of the Holy Spirit. We see that attitude in 13-14.
a. In love serve one another
b. Love your neighbor like yourself.
c. If I do these things I yield to the Spirit, I walk in the Spirit. The Spirit is in control of my life.
3. These are basically the only two attitudes available;
a. Live by the flesh, and provoke one another
b. Live by the Spirit and love and serve one another.
III. How to be Humble Servants
A. Being a servant is hard. To willfully think of others on a continual basis is hard to do.
1. It is hard because most of the time our minds a preoccupied with the thought of “What satisfies me”?
a. The most difficult part of becoming a servant is overcoming the fleshes compelling desire that each one as to do what we want to do.
b. “In our minds we justify that desire by assuring ourselves that we only want what is good and right for us, and therefore that should be good for everyone else as well.”
c. There is a problem with that; and this is that that assumption is nowhere near the truth. So when we insist on having things our way, we almost always impose our will on someone else.
d. Shakespeare once said “All the worlds a stage”. And to a certain point that is true. Our problem with pride lies in that fact that we think we are the star. Our flesh has us convinced that we are center stage. We get that way because we look at everything from our own vantage point. We look out at everything. We need to stop that.
B. There are some keys to doing this. Keys to becoming a humble servant.
1. We need to get over our own interest. I am not the star.
a. Get over the idea that my interests, my needs are somehow more important then the interests and needs of others.
b. Note Phil 2:3 once more. “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.” A more literal way of putting that is “think of others as surpassing yourselves”.
c. Is this a tough verse to understand. NO!! It means just what it says, that you should look at everyone else, EVERYONE ELSE, as being better then yourself. The homeless, those who may not dress nice, those who may not be to smart, those may be a different color, or different religion. It means that who perhaps are living in a sin that you find offensive. Or whatever. You are to look at everyone else as being better then yourself. As surpassing yourself.
d. That is not a hard verse to understand, but it is perhaps the hardest verse in all of Scripture to obey.
2. Another thing we need to do is give up our own prerogatives.
a. What we need to do is give up on the idea that we should be considered first, and that what we want is a priority. When we get over that, then we are free to give up our rights, give up our prerogatives.
b. What happens when we do that is that we no longer frustrate ourselves and others by clinging onto what we think is our inalienable right to have like go the way we want it to go.
c. What is interesting about this aspect of being a humble servant is that we have the greatest example to follow in regards to giving up our own rights and looking to the rights of others.
1) Our example to course is Christ. Two verses I want to share.
a) Phil. 2:5-8 - NAS (In studying this passage found that NAS was closest to the Greek), “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
b) What that verse tell us is that although Jesus Christ was God, He did not hold on to that, or cling to that. But that he emptied himself, (The reason I like NAS is because it uses “emptied” as does the Greek, and the other translation do not). But Christ emptied himself, He humble Himself, He relinquished all rights that He had as being God, to become a bond-servant. That my friends is what you need to do.
c) What are you clinging to today. What is it in you that make you believe that your way is best. What are you clinging to that has you convinced that your way is the best way, maybe the only way. What are you clinging to that has you believing that you are better then any man or women walking this planet. What ever is, let it go. Empty yourself of it. Follow Christ’s example. Become a servant.
d) A second verse I want to share is Mark 10:45; "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
e) Christ came not to be served, but to serve. He came not to be Lord over all, but to be a servant to all. He came not to have things His own way, but to give His life for the ransom of many. He came not to take all things, but to give all things.
f) That’s our example. I you do not want to follow that example, (willing to give up everything, even live), then you have no right to call yourself a Christian, no right to bear the name of Christ. You are following the wrong religion if you will give up all things, to be servant to all!
2) A good shot of humility will go a long way in leading us to consider how
much of what we want and of what fulfills us, does not come from a Christ like attitude, but from egocentric outlook of live.
C. As servants we need to look at what Pleases other.
1. If we have strive to live our lives like Christ, to be Christ like.
2. We must treat others as Christ did and does. We need to show them love. Look at the gospel, see the Christ was always thinking of God’s will, or others. Showed love, compassion, grace, and mercy.
3. So what please others?
a. Granting honor to others. This falls under Phil 2:3, “considering other more important then yourself.
b. There is Greek word that comes up over and over again in the NT, although it is a single word we translate it into English using two words “One another”.
1) Submit to one another Eph. 5:21. That is yielding to one another for the sake of Christ. Place the other persons way before your own.
2) Preferring one another. Rom. 12:10. This means doing what the other person prefers to do. Showing kindness. Try this with your spouse.
3) Love one another. 1 Peter 1:22 tell is to “fervently love one another.” When I fervently love others it means I that I find joy in findings ways to bring joy to others. Finding joy in being a servant to others. If you really love someone, you want what is best for that person.
4) Serving one another. Gal. 5:13. Paul writes that through love we are to serve one another. What a different society this would be if people learned to be servants rather the wanting to be served. What a different church this would be if we could learn to love one another, to the point of wanting to serve one another.
c. One thing that the Bible makes abundantly clear. The focus is not on us, but on others.
IV. Benefits of Humility and servanthood.
A. This is where humility gets tricky. Because we need to make sure that our acts of humility are done not for our benefit, (our motive), but for the benefit of others, and most importantly for the Glory of Christ!
B. Now even though our motive cannot be the benefits to ourselves, there are benefits;
1. Joy (I have this to be true)
2. Peace
3. Greater faith in God
4. Closer walk with God.
5. All come from focus being off self and on God and others.
C. The greatest Benefit. 1 Cor. 9:19; “For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more;”
1. Greatest blessing to being a humble servant to others, God will us it win souls to Christ.
2. The gospel is one of humility (Christ incarnation), and servanthood, (crucifixion and resurrection).
3. We preach the gospel by living as humble servants. Reflect incarnation, reflect death and resurrection of Christ.
V. Closing
A. Most of you will not be moved by this message. You may think it is a good message but it will not move you to action. (In reality it cannot only the Spirit of God can, but you must obey).
B. It will not change your life.
C. You will continuing being the star of your live.
D. My prayer is that perhaps one or two will begin to look at live differently.
E. Begin to strive to be servant. Begin at home with your wife, or husband, (make the bed, do the dishes, whatever). Move on to mother or father. Move out to your friends, then your enemies. Be a servant. Take your eyes off of self. Place them on Christ. and see Christ in every person that you meet . Feel the peace and freedom you will have wen you begin to place others first.
F. My prayer is that perhaps just one or two will begin to this. Will you be that one?
G. It is hard. It is something that is unnatural to you. It is something you must think about doing. But God will be glorified by it.
H. Accept the work of the suffering servant. The one who is King of Kings and Lord of lords. Yet died on cross for your sins. Believer in His blood for forgiveness. Trust in Him for your salvation.
