Love is All We Need
Love is Humble
July 24, 2005
A young woman went to her pastor and said, "Pastor, I have a terrible sin in my life, and I need your help. I come to church on Sunday and can’t help thinking I’m the prettiest girl in the congregation. I know I ought not think that, but I can’t help it. I want you to help me with it. "The pastor replied, "Mary, don’t worry about it. In your case it’s not a sin. It’s just a horrible mistake."
We will be focusing on humility today. Being humble is hard! It’s a challenge for all of us. I have a pastor buddy who said he had an awesome sermon on humility but was waiting for a large enough crowd before preaching it.
There was an old song that said, “Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble, but I’m doin’ the best that I can!” We can all do better.
I want to pick up where Pastor Jim left off last week. He and the youth are suffering for Jesus today in Panama City Beach. As we move though our series, “Love is All We Need” we’re studying a section of 1 Corinthians 13, commonly known as the Love Chapter, and we’re examining what love really is, according to the God’s design. We’ve previously studied that love is patient and kind, and last week Jim taught us that love is not envious, and in order to really love, we must choose to be satisfied, with our relationships and with Jesus himself.
We’re studying this portion of scripture in detail because our relationships crave love; we crave love. These verses have the power to strengthen and even repair our relationships, and they are the most valuable things in our lives.
This week we finally finish verse four.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
1 Cor. 13:4 (NIV)
“Love is not boastful or proud.” How are you doing on this one? Are you seeking more humility in your life or are you on a pride ride?
David Rhodes
Pride is the dandelion of the soul. Its root goes deep; only a little left behind sprouts again. Its seeds lodge in the tiniest encouraging cracks. And it flourishes in good soil: The danger of pride is that it feeds on goodness.
Pride and humility interact against one another, and they have a yin/yang relationship. The more pride you have, the less humility. The more humility you have, the less pride. This flux is constant, and one way or another the balance of the two adds up to 100%. You might be 65% proud in the moment, which means you can only be 35% humble right then. So, the more proud you are, the more you have diminished your humble spirit. When we can demonstrate more humility we have diminished our pride. So, it will take some work, but we can practice humility more often with those we love. John the Baptist spoke true humility.
He must increase, but I must decrease.
John 3:30 (KJV)
John was responding to his disciples griping about people going to Jesus for baptism rather than continuing to come to John. John had baptized Jesus, and now they were going to Him! John taught them that the most important thing was for Jesus to increase, and that would only happen if he decreased. That’s a central truth for us today as we seek to be more humble.
You can increase your humility through some shifts in your thoughts.
1. Decrease your desire to impress
Don’t be selfish; don’t live to make a good impression on others.
Philippians 2:3 (NLT)
That’s what pride does. Pride is all about impressions, making others think what you want them to think. The root of pride is selfishness; we think more about and are focused more on ourselves. You’ve heard about people who have an “I” problem. “I, I, I…” Humility is making a decision not to live to impress.
Pride creeps in- it’s a very effective tool of the Evil One. So we find ourselves thinking, “How will this look to others? Will this decision or will this purchase make me look good?” “What kind of clothes, what kind of car, what kind of home is good enough for me?” It’s hard to care about someone else and love them if we are always focused on how impressive we are. No one like to be around someone who is self centered. Love is to share, not to hold inward.
We all have our areas of susceptibility to pride. One of my areas is sports. I don’t want to play if I don’t think I can’t play well. So you don’t catch me out shooting hoops with the boys. I know they’ll beat me bad. You don’t find me playing volleyball anymore. I just can’t keep up. So I stick to softball, and my pride still gets in the way. The moment I’m wondering why the second baseman let a simple ground ball go through his legs, the next ball is hit to me in the outfield, and I bobble it, and then throw it wildly so the runners get extra bases. Or the minute I gripe about everybody popping the ball up instead of getting a hit, than I come up and hit a weak fly ball that anybody’s grandma could catch in her rocking chair. It’s true- be humble or you’ll stumble, whether it’s something trivial like a softball game or something much more important, like realizing the job is not to “save face” when you’re wrong.
What makes you better than anyone else? What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if all you have is from God, why boast as though you have accomplished something on your own?
1 Corinthians 4:7 (NLT)
Some of you say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to some city. We will stay there a year, do business, and make money." But you do not know what will happen tomorrow! Your life is like a mist. You can see it for a short time, but then it goes away. So you should say, "If the Lord wants, we will live and do this or that." But now you are proud and you brag. All of this bragging is wrong.
James 4:13-16 (NCV)
"Be not proud of race, face, place, or grace."
Charles Spurgeon
You can’t take credit for any of those things anyway. You’re not all that, even if people tell you that you are. Winston Churchill was once asked, "Doesn’t it thrill you to know that every time you make a speech, the hall is packed to overflowing?" "It’s quite flattering," replied Sir Winston. "But whenever I feel that way, I always remember that if instead of making a political speech I was being hanged, the crowd would be twice as big."
The beginning of humility is decreasing your desire to impress.
2. Increase your desire to empower God in your life
God loves us enough to let us decide to include Him in our lives or not. If we want Him to be in our lives, He loves us enough to step in. That’s a key to more humility- more of God in our lives. Remember the “God is my co-pilot” bumper sticker? Yeah right. That’s a cool idea when there’s no turbulence. You just fly that plane, God. Go God! I’m right here anytime I’m needed. Just watch how God gets pushed aside when things start getting a little rough. If you’re even in the co-pilot seat, you’re flying too much of the plane. Think about it- the God who hung the planets can run things, or I can step in when He doesn’t know what He’s doing.
Ego- Edging God Out
The more we are willing to get out of the way, the more God can work in a bigger way in us. The stronger our love will be, because we are empowered.
Each time he said, "My gracious favor is all you need. My power works best in your weakness." So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may work through me. Since I know it is all for Christ’s good, I am quite content with my weaknesses and with insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NLT)
John knew that the more Jesus increased, the better. Paul knew that the more Jesus increased, the better. For the people in our lives, the more Jesus increases in us, the better off they will be. The more we desire God’s power in our lives, the more humble we will be. The more humble you can be, the more loving you will be. Ask people you love, “Would you rather see more of the things of Jesus, like patience, kindness, no jealousy, humility in me, or would you rather see what I can dish up by my own little self?”
Humility is of God. Humility is powerful. In The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, based on Christian author J. R. R. Tolkien’s famous books, we see a picture of humility. The classic conflict between good and evil set in a mythical land called Middle Earth. After a great battle in ancient times, the Dark Lord Sauron was temporarily defeated and his most dreaded weapon, the Ring of Power, was lost for many ages.
A character named Bilbo Baggins- from a race of small beings called hobbits-found the ring and, unaware of its true identity, passed it on to his nephew Frodo as part of an inheritance. Frodo is an unlikely hero. Full of humility and hesitation, he embarks on an epic quest to destroy this most powerful tool of the Dark Lord.
At one point the rulers of the nations have gathered in a council to decide what to do with the ring, which sits before them on a stone pedestal. The fate of the world hangs on their decision.
“Lord of the Rings” clip
Frodo, the smallest, least powerful, and humblest of them all emerges as the greatest, because he’s willing to do what must be done, regardless of the sacrifice.
That’s a modern picture of Christ. Fodor did what he did to save a mythical world, and Christ did on the cross what He did to save the world.
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 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 2:6-11 (NIV)
He humbled Himself. That’s love. He gave us the power to love in the truest sense. Love does not boast; love is not proud. Love is humble.
You can never win the war against pride unless you know this Jesus. Unless the love of Christ is in you, your humility will be infrequent and ineffective. You need God in your life to be a humble, loving person. The more He increases, the more love you will have to give. That means desiring God’s power in your life. Selfish pride is not where power is. Power is in humility before the God of the Universe, who works in us a supernatural power of love, and that’s something the world cannot match. The power is not in us; it is God in us when we allow Him to. Is the source of your strength yourself or your Savior?
Decrease your desire to impress. Increase your desire to empower this God in your life.
