Humility – 5

Humility – 5

Subject – The Secret of Being Nothing

By Rick Welborne

Luke 22:25-27 (NLT2) ²⁵ Jesus told them, “In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’
²⁶  But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant.
²⁷  Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves.

--We have looked extensively at the humility of Jesus but today let’s look at His twelve apostles. We will see so much of what they lacked and what a difference Holy Spirit made in them.

--As you study the apostles in the NT you can see how they lacked humility. One time they were arguing about who should be the greatest. 

--Another time James, John, and their mother approached Jesus about being seated at Jesus’ right and left in glory. At the last supper, they had contention again about who would be the greatest.

--This is not to imply that they didn’t have moments of humility. In Luke 5 Peter told Jesus to go away from him because he was a sinful man.

--Another time the apostles fell down and worshiped Him after He calmed the sea. Because these moments of humility were few and far between, we should look at them more deeply.

1. You Can Be Enthusiastic About Serving Christ and Still Not Be Humble.

--The disciples were strongly connected to Jesus. They had forsaken all to follow Him. The Father had revealed to them He was Christ, the Son of God.

--They believed in Him, they loved Him, and they obeyed His commandments. When others turn away (teaching about His flesh and blood) they remained faithful. 

--They even said they were willing to die with Him and for Him. But there was a battle they were fighting on the inside of self and pride. What’s in it for me? At His Ascension: 

Acts 1:6-8 (NLT2) ⁶ So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?”
⁷  He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know.
⁸  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, 

--This pride and selfishness had to be dealt with before they could truly become His witnesses and see people saved. No judgment here because the same is true of us. 

--We see pastors, evangelist, teachers, missionaries who are extremely gifted and who are used by God to be a blessing to people all over the world. Yet humility is hard to find.

Martin Luther – God created the world out of nothing, and as long as we are nothing, He can make something out of us. 

--What this tells us and even warns us is that humility is one of the highest virtues to be attained but one of the most difficult because self is always getting in the way. 

--Therefore, humility should be our first and greatest desire and we should diligently pursue it. 

Andrew Murray – Humility is a virtue that only comes in power when the fullness of the Spirit makes us partakers of the indwelling Christ and He lives within us. 

2. External Learning and Personal Effort Are Powerless in Conquering Pride. 

--For three years the disciples had been taught by the greatest Teacher ever. His main lesson:

Matthew 11:29 (NLT2) ²⁹ Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart.

--Jesus had spoken to them and to the Pharisees, and to the multitudes about humility being the only path to the heart of God. He told them He didn’t come to be served but to serve. 

Luke 22:27 (NLT2) ²⁷ … For I am among you as one who serves. 

--Jesus had washed their feet and told them to follow His example but as has been mentioned, there was contention at the Last Supper about who was the greatest. This after 3 years.

--I am sure they had tried to learn His lessons and doubtless tried as hard as they could not to grieve Him again. But it was to no avail. They just couldn’t get it.

--No external or outward teaching not even from Jesus Himself could teach them this lesson of divine humility that we all need so much to be what God wants us to be.

--There is not enough personal effort that we can put out, not enough books we can read, not enough depth we can find in some magical way to obtain this wonderful humility.

--We fight, we judge, we draw lines in the sand at home, at work, at school, at church. We are so filled with pride that being right is more important than being righteous.

Isaiah 64:5-8 (NKJV)
⁵  You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, Who remembers You in Your ways. You are indeed angry, for we have sinned-- In these ways we continue; And we need to be saved.
⁶  But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.
⁷  And there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us, And have consumed us because of our iniquities.
⁸  But now, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand. 

--We must acknowledge that nothing works in us but receiving a new nature directly from Jesus Himself to take the place of the old nature.

2 Corinthians 5:17&21 (NKJV)
¹⁷  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
²¹  For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

3. Our Only Hope of Humility is the Indwelling Christ by His Spirit.

--We have our pride from Adam; we must have our humility from Christ. Pride rules in us with incredible power. If you don’t believe it, see what happens when we don’t get our way.

--We must see that just as easy as it has been to be filled with pride and arrogance, there has to be a way for us to become humble before God and man.

Romans 5:20 (NKJV) ²⁰ …But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,

--Three years of Christ teaching for His disciples and all their vain efforts to understand were just preparation for what God was preparing for them.

--Maybe what you have been going through, all the struggles, all the failures that you have had, the times of falling on your face, have been preparation for God to show up.

--In Christ’s death He destroyed the works of the devil, He put away sin and provided redemption that He purchased with His own blood.

--In His resurrection, Holy Spirit raised Him and now He, through that same Holy Spirit, can transform each one of us into what God intended for us to be. 

Romans 8:11 (NKJV)
¹¹  But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. 

--In Jesus’ ascension, there was available to Him the Spirit of God to accomplish what He did not accomplish while He was on earth, to make Himself one with them. How?

--Jesus was getting ready to do in the disciples what His teachings did not do in three years, what His modeling for them the humility of God, and what His death, burial, and resurrection did not do.

--On the Day of Pentecost Jesus came by Holy Spirit and took possession of His church. All the preparation, conviction, failures, and the desire they had to want more, finally came.

--When Jesus sent Holy Spirit to the 120 the transformation in the disciples was immediate and powerful. You shall receive power when the Spirit of God comes upon you.

--Peter, John, James and the others were changed by the Baptism of Holy Spirit. What about you? Have you struggled and failed over and over? Have you considered Pentecost.

--May I earnestly challenge you, if you struggle with sin, self, and pride, that you consider what may be lacking in your life is the indwelling presence of God…Holy Spirit power.

--Study the life of Peter before the baptism of Holy Spirit and after. Before, he had moments of being strong but we see a man who was proud and arrogant…big mouth. He rebuked Jesus.

--I believe you can study humility, you can read your Bible every day, you can attempt at humility every day but what you really need is eternal power of Holy Spirit. 

Ephesians 5:15-18 (NLT2) ¹⁵  So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.
¹⁶  Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.
¹⁷  Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.
¹⁸  Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, 

--My exhortation to you, the Bible says pray without ceasing, so as you are praying ask God over and over, fill me with Your Holy Spirit and change my life.

--Then, expect Him to fill you, baptize you, transform you. Once He does, pray every day, please, God fill me again with Your beautiful Holy Spirit.

--You will never find this amazing humility apart from the power of Holy Spirit. The disciples showed us that. But after they were baptized, they turned their world upside down.

Bearing the Fruit of Holy Spirit – 6

Bearing the Fruit of Holy Spirit – 6

Subject: Walking in the Fruit of the Spirit - Goodness

By Rick Welborne

Galatians 5:22-26 (NKJV)
²²  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
²³  gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
²⁴  And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
²⁵  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.  

²⁶  Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

--We have already looked at the fruit of the Spirit…love, joy, peace, longsuffering, and kindness…tonight we will be looking at The Fruit of the Spirit – Goodness.

Goodness – the state or quality of being good. Moral excellence, virtue. Kindness, generosity. Excellence of quality. The best part of anything. Essence or strength.

Biblical goodness - in man, goodness is not a mere passive quality, but the deliberate preference of right to wrong, the firm and persistent resistance of all moral evil, and the choosing and following of all moral good.

--From this Biblical definition of goodness I see three things I want us to look at. 

A Deliberate Preference of Right, A Persistent Resistance of all Moral Evil, and The Choosing and Following of that which is Good. 

1. A Deliberate Preference of Right. 

--It sounds like God expects us to make a willful choice to do what is right and what is virtuous in His sight…really what is in His Word. Paul says it like this. Look at the two translations.

Ephesians 5:7 (NKJV) ⁷ Therefore do not be partakers with them. 

Ephesians 5:7 (NCV) ⁷ So have nothing to do with them.

--If we will walk in righteousness and if we will have the fruit of the Spirit ‘goodness’ we will have to be deliberate in all of our ways and all of our choices. 

--As far as people who are choosing to do evil and to live contrary to God’s will and Word, we must not partake with them, we must have nothing to do with them. 

--Probably the thing that has been most difficult to understand as a pastor is seeing people who know better, partake, fellowship with, become partners with, participate with people walking in darkness. 

--If that is not enough, they try to convince me that God is okay with what they are doing because now is their time to be happy and to enjoy life. 

--Please show me in the Bible where God gives any of us a pass to live anyway we want to and have the audacity to think or believe God is okay with that. Come out from among them and be separate! 

Galatians 5:19-21 (NLT2) ¹⁹ When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures,
²⁰  idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division,
²¹  envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

--Maybe we should pause and ask this very important question…why or what would be our motivation to make a deliberate choice or to have a deliberate preference to do what is right?

Ephesians 5:7-8 (NKJV) ⁷ Therefore do not be partakers with them.
⁸ For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light…

--As a believer, do I really have to ask why I need to be deliberate about living for God. I did not go down a rebellious road, I didn’t smoke, drink, or do drugs. All of us are still in darkness until Jesus.

 Psalm 18:28 (NIV) ²⁸ You, O LORD, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light. 

--So because I was once darkness and because God has turned my darkness into light, I should make a deliberate choice or have a preference to do what is right.

--God deserves all the glory and deserves for me to want to or prefer to follow Him instead of the things of this world. One brought me liberty and freedom while the other held me in chains of darkness. 

Psalm 37:3 (NKJV) ³ Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.

2. A Persistent Resistance of all Moral Evil

Ephesians 5:11-12 (NLT2) ¹¹ Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them.
¹²  It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret.

Resistance - the refusal to accept or comply with something; the attempt to prevent something by action or argument. Synonyms: opposition to · hostility to · aversion to · refusal to accept. The ability not to be affected by something, especially adversely.

--Verse 11 says take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness. In other words, we refuse to accept them or comply with them. We oppose them…we refuse to accept them.

--I am so afraid that the Church has bought into this idea of tolerance and hate speech. We are not to confront anyone with their evil ways. Ridiculous! The Bible says to expose them.

--Resistance to evil is not just doing the evil but also talking about evil and sin with great affection…¹² It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret.

--We have all heard people talk about their past with such longing that they sound like Israel when God brought them out of Egypt…they complained so much that God killed some with fire. They continued.

Numbers 11:4-6 (NKJV) ⁴ Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: "Who will give us meat to eat?
⁵  We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic;
⁶  but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!"

--Careful, Christians, when you say that Jesus, the Bread of Life is not enough to satisfy the desires of your heart and you start looking back at the world desiring to go back. 

--It takes tenacity and fortitude to resist the evil of our day. We and our children, our grandchildren are being attacked from so many directions. Our advancement in technology has made us vulnerable. 

 James 4:4 (NLT2) ⁴ …Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. 

--Many seem not to understand this principle of God but nevertheless it is true…God will help us through whatever we are facing but we have to work with Him. 

--It takes us humbling ourselves, resisting the devil, drawing near to God, having clean hands, having pure hearts, being broken and repenting…this is our part!

--God’s part…to give favor to the humble, to come close to you, and to lift you up! See how we work with God at resisting evil and drawing near to Him. As we do, He comes running!

3. The Choosing and Following of that which is Good. 

--The choosing and following of that which is good leads us to a place where we need to just stop it.

--If you have been noticing we have referred back to the Apostle Paul in Eph. 5 again and again. Paul is showing us in these verses how to have the fruit of the Spirit…goodness!

--Goodness as a fruit of the Spirit is A Deliberate Preference of Right, A Persistent Resistance of all Moral Evil, and The Choosing and Following of that which is Good. 

Ephesians 5:14-18, 20 (NLT2) ¹⁴ for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said, “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”
¹⁵  So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.
¹⁶  Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.
¹⁷  Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.
¹⁸  Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,
²⁰  And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

--Paul is saying ‘Wake up!’ What a great message for the church! Christ will give you light that will lead you to goodness. Be careful how you live…don’t live like fools.

--Give thought to the will of God for you. Don’t be intoxicated by this world but be filled with Holy Spirit! Be a worshiper, Give thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! Find goodness!

--Choose to be filled with Holy Spirit and to walk in the fruit of the Spirit – goodness!

Humility – 4

Humility – 4

Subject – Humility According to Jesus

By Rick Welborne

Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV) ²⁸ "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
²⁹  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
³⁰  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Matthew 20:25-28 (NIV) ²⁵ Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.
²⁶  Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,
²⁷  and whoever wants to be first must be your slave--
²⁸  just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

--We obviously see the humility in the life of Christ as He revealed to us in His heart and the Word. He gives us an invitation to come and learn from Him. Why? He is gentle and humble in heart.

1. Jesus Teaches Us Humility.

--Notice how Jesus starts His ministry and how He starts His teaching in the sermon on the Mount. How significant is it that He starts the Beatitudes with this subject of humility?

Matthew 5:3-5 (NIV) ³ "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁴  Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
⁵  Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 

--Jesus’ very first words about the Kingdom of heaven reveal how you and I may enter His Kingdom. His kingdom comes to those who are poor, who have nothing in themselves. 

--The earth is for the meek who are not seeking anything for themselves. The blessings of heaven and earth are for those who are humble. Humility is the secret of these blessings.

Matthew 11:29 (NIV) ²⁹ …learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

--What a beautiful understanding that Jesus offers Himself as Teacher. Jesus and Holy Spirit come to teach us the humility of the Son of God so we can find perfect rest. Humility is our salvation.  

--Imagine the disciples arguing among themselves about who would be the greatest and then, going to Jesus for the answer. Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?

--Jesus 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. How that must have blown their minds and crushed their egos. Same story in Luke:

Luke 9:48 (NIV) ⁴⁸ Then he said to them, For he who is least among you all--he is the greatest." 

2. Jesus Confronts Pride.

--The mother of Zebedee's sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down (false humility), asked a favor of him. They had to get momma to speak up for them. Let them grow up.

--"What is it you want?" he asked. She said, "Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom." James and John are right there.

--Again Jesus defers to His Father, it is not for me to give. It will be given to the ones who it has been prepared for. Key: the humble would never ask for it or seek for it.

--But, Pastor, John was the disciple whom Jesus loved. That statement is mentioned four times in the New Testament and guess which book it was in…Book of John. Hmmm.

Matthew 20:24-28 (NIV) ²⁴  When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers.
²⁵  Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.
²⁶  Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,
²⁷  and whoever wants to be first must be your slave--
²⁸  just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

--Jesus was saying that the standard of heaven and the standard here on earth will be humility because the person who is the lowliest is the one who is nearest to God. 

--Luke 14 Jesus speaks about when you go to a special occasion like a wedding or a feast, don’t seek the best seat in the house. It’s deplorable in the Kingdom to seek out attention for yourself.

Luke 14:10-11 (NIV)
¹⁰  But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, 'Friend, move up to a better place.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests.
¹¹  For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

--If there was ever a parable that confronts us with our pride and self-righteousness, it is the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

--This story pulls the covers back on those in church who are self-seeking and who have an overly important value of themselves. We can all be guilty if we are not careful.

Luke 18:9-14 (NIV)
⁹  To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:
¹⁰  "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
¹¹  The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector.
¹²  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'
¹³  "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'
¹⁴  "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." 

--Church should never be a place where we look down on anyone else because it only by grace any of us are saved. We were all lost. Jesus looks for the humble and judges those who are prideful.

--I find it interesting they both were going to church (a good thing) and they were both going to church to pray. How many of you understand it matters how you pray?

--What arrogance and pride from the Pharisee. Prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector. 

--We may not ever say what this Pharisee said out loud but pride is a condition of the heart. Years ago we had a family of Pharisees in our church. One came in the office and was loud.

--She was calling names and putting down brothers and sisters in our church. I left my office and invited her to talk in private. Trying to do Mat. 18.

--No. Rebuke me openly! Come to my office. No, rebuke me in front of everyone. Please, come to my office. No! So I told her how self-righteous and judgmental she was. She left without a word.

--About a week later she came back. Here we go. She said I went home and told my husband everything you said about me and he told me, I have told you that for years. Pride is obvious.

--But the humble…"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' 

Luke 18:14 (NIV) ¹⁴ "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

3. The Last Supper and the Gethsemane – Humility.

--How lost and blind we are when it comes to humility before God and man. On the night Jesus would be betrayed, after three years of teaching, they are still arguing about who is the greatest.

--The One Who was humility personified is telling them about His death and burial and all they can think about is what is in it for me. Glory seekers are blind Pharisees.

Luke 22:26-27 (NIV) ²⁶ But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves.
²⁷  For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.

--I was sharing with someone the other day how Jesus in the garden praying was, to me, one of the greatest revelations in the Bible about the humility and relatability of Jesus.

Matthew 26:38-42 (NKJV)
³⁸  Then He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me."
³⁹  He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."
⁴⁰  Then He came to the disciples and found them asleep, and said to Peter, "What? Could you not watch with Me one hour?
⁴¹  Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
⁴²  Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done."

--Please see the humility and sincere honesty of Jesus right before they come to arrest Him. My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Extreme anxiety…sweating as drops of blood.

--His humility makes Him be honest about His sorrow and then, Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." I can relate to Him here.

--If Jesus struggled, we will struggle. If Jesus was able to humble Himself, before He went to the cross and impending death, surely we can find humility in our mess.

--Paul said, I die daily. Greatest prayer, Your will be done.