Humble, Humbling, or Hopeful

Introduction

Introduction

Dismiss Kids

Week 3 of our series in Mark. We’ve seen the humility it takes to follow Christ, the work He does and that we are apart of, and today we are going to examine our own hearts in light of Christ.

Written by John mark who is mentioned in Acts, the one that Paul and Barnabas separated over. They were the first two missionaries.

Believed to be a written record from Peters memory. Written around AD 50-60 AD to Roman/Gentile believers and portrays Christ as the suffering Servant.

My question for you today is simple. Is your heart humble, humbling, or hopeful?

I want you to answer that question and then I’m going to close out by helping you see how to go from humbling and hopeful, to humble.

We are in mark 2 today and we are going to be looking at the first 12 versees.

Follow along with me

Mark 2:1-5 “1 And again he entered into Capernaum, after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house. 2 And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them. 3 And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four. 4 And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.”

Exegete:

Alright, continuing where we left off last week. Jesus has healed a man and he went out and made him more viral than he was before. He is becoming a household name. So much so the religious elite are now starting to take notice.

He is now in Capernaum at a home and preaching. While preeaching four friends are bringing their 5th friend on a stretcher to Jesus but they can’t get it in. It’s a packed house, literally.

So they take him up to the roof, remove all of the stuff, and then lower him in.

Now think about this.

Jesus is in the middle of a sermon, the house probably wasn’t extravigantly large, and the roof is made of leaves, thatch, and other rough materials.

The men, are having to remove this stuff. There was most likely stuff falling on Jesus’ head while he was preaching. It would have been a major distraction.

You can ask our a/v team and staff, if there is one thing I hate while we are worshipping and I’m prreaching…it’s distractions.

So much o I’ve told them, don’t walk up to the platform or back here to some sound stuff unless it’s a dire emergency. Short of something on fire, I don’t want them to leave the sound booth. It can be distracting right? Anytime someone gets up and leaves it’s distrcating. Now I”M not telling you to never get up and go to the bathroom or leave early if you needd to, I do ask that we keep it to a minmum, especiually with our kids.

nonetheless, please don’t come through the roof to get in…we can open up anotherr door ook?

Now I don’t how I’d respond to something like this. I might get a little frustrated, but Jesus just kept going and rolled with the punches.

The men lowered their friend down to jesus and instead of healing his physical infirmities, Jesus forgave his sins...

Why? because of their faith.

They werent’ trying anything on their own, they werent’ questioning the abiblities of Jeesus, they jus tbelieve and put some action behind it.

Illustrate:

Apply:

The men were proactive in their faith. They were not waiting for someone to tell them to do something, they heard of Jesus, what He could do, and they brought their friend becuase they believed.

They had humble hearts toward the Lord. Becuase of their humility, they were proactive in their faith.

Being proactive, requires humility and faith. When the snow was coming on Monday and Tuiesday of last week I beleieve the report and made adjustments to our staff meeting.

When you have a humble heart towards the gospel, you believe it an the Word of God an take proactive action on iit. You don’t wait for someone to tell you you have to.

These frreinds were proactive in bringing someone to Jesus that needed him, are you? Do you believe in Jesus enough to bring people to Him?

They had a kingdom mindset as they brought theeir friend to jesus. They didn’t gripe and complain becuase he wasn’t healing people with the music they played, the clothes they wore, the bible they used, or they building they were in. They were supportive of the work of God taking place and came to be apart of it.

They had no pride, nothing to gain for themselves, they were humble servants serving the friend so he could get to the masterr.

and notice what we hear from them while God works....nothing.

Ever been praying for God to work and you opened your mouth when you shouldn’t have?

I can tell you the stories I’ve heard of people telling me “pastor, I prayed for God to do this but I lost my temper, I said something cross, I opened my mouth.”

James wrote and said

James 3:5-6 “5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.”

We can open our mouth before God works and really mess a situation up.

What if they had been up there aying “Jesus, you needd to lay hands on his forrehead. You neeed to say these words. You need to grab his right hand not his left.”

How crazy, right? Are we doing anything different when we say “God should do, God should have?”

Humble people don’t try and take the role of God on themselves. Humble hearts follow with faith

I. Humble Hearts follow by faith

This is the heart we should strive for. This is the heart of Christ.

We see this heart in the men that brought their friend, yet we find the enxt type of heart in the scribes

Mark 2:6-11 “6 But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, 7 Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only? 8 And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts? 9 Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? 10 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) 11 I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.”

Exegete:

The Scribes mentioned here in the passge are closely associated with the Pharisees and Saducees. they most likely recorded events and brought them back to them and were present at legal proceeedings to write what ahppened. They would have been experts in the law and have witnessed someone say they are forgiving someones sins.

They would have been outraged. This person is claiming to be God which is Blaspheme. Jesus recognized this and really looks at them and says…well..I can’t prove to you I did that…but I can prove to you I can do that becuase I can also do this.

Then he tells the lame man to get up and walk.

What do they say to that?

Illustrate:

All of us should have a goal of some sort right? We also understand that we can’t be something we’re not unless we change what we do but we won’t change what we do until we change how we feel about what we are doing. We won’t change how we are feeling if we don’t change how we think.

That’s why Paul wrote and said “Renew your mind...” Because it is from your thoughts that your emotions come and from your emotions your actions.

The men who brought the lame man to be healed believed Jesus could do it. The Scribes who sat and critized, didn’t think he was who He said He was.

They asked quests that were meant to be humbling to someone who wasn’t God.

You see, for someone to look at you and say “Your sins are forgiven” is easy. No one can prove or disprove whetheer or not I have taken your sins away.

So they can call him out on it or be reasoning within themselves “Who speaks like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can Forgive sins but God?”

They began thinking in their own hearts with cynicism. They closed their hearts and mind to the posiblitiy of what could be rather than being willing to try the spirits to discover what is.

Apply:

These types of Humbling hearts are ones that put up walls and defensive measures to the Lord.

They are the ones that say “I could never do that God.” When He calls them to something. They ar the ones who say “He’s talking to someone else” When in reality the message is for you.

If you have a humbling heart you criticize the Word of God and it’s truth by either dispobedience becuae you question the outccome or don’t like what you have to do becuase that’s “Not who you are”

For God to work in your life you have to have a humble heart towards what He says and desires for you to do.

You can’t hear the word preached or read the Word and think “Well, I’ll just work on that slowly...”Why? Why slowly? Why not make the radical change? Is it becuase you are rreasoning in your own heart why you should?

That’s really what the scribes were doing here. They were reasoning in their own hearts why they should believe in the one that said he forgave ins.

II. Humbling Hearts fight without faith

Becuase you don’t believe in either the one who wrote it, the reason you should do it, or the outccome that is promised, becuase you don’t have enough faith, you fight against Jesus and rather than be humble you seek to be humbling.

Here’s the problem, you can’t get more humble than Jesus. You can’t humble him with questions like “Can you really do that?” because He can and He will…but will you.

The men were humble, the scribes where humbling, and then we find the last typee of heeart here in this story

Mark 2:12 KJV 1900

12 And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.

Exegete:

This is pretty simple to explain. The man Jesus jut forgave and healed gets up, wallks out through the crowd and the people were amazed.

Ever read something and go…well yea…of course they were.

The way this is written here and in other versions, the “all” seems to include the scribes who were tryinng to humble Jesus before.

I guess when a lame man walks your attitude changes a bit.

Look at their journyes to getting to this place though.

You have the four friends, glorifying God- they belieived from the beginning, they were humble

The scribes-They were skeptical from the beginning and wanted to humble Jesus by asking “Who can do this”

And now the people- the ones that were uncertain but hopeful of what woudl take place.

Glorifying God is the end state of eacch of our lives.

Phil 2:9-11 “9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

It’s thee purpose of each of our lives. It’s why we were created

Rev 4:11 “11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”

For the pleasure of God, the glory of God, we exist beecuase, by, and for Him.

We have to choose how our hearts will be towards Him and this truth.

Illustrate:

I love personal growth. I love seeing people take steps of growth. It’s something that overwhelms me with joy and happiness.

To hear of someone taking a step of faith or changing how they are living based on God’s word.

I love it.

Have you ever grown personally or spiritually?

I hope so. We are supposed to be growing to be more like Christ.

That process of growth can be challenging. Maybe you are working at becoming a more patient person. So when something happens where yo would love your paatience you have to breathe and calm down…not easy

Maybe you are seeeking to be more kind like Christ and your being nice to people you don’t want to be nice to.

You can apply this to any area of Growth so insert your situation here and see this...

Your heart towards God determines how hard it is to grow…but growing is inevtivable.

Why?

Phil 1:6 “6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:”

Apply:

God will keep working in you and growing you, God will keep working in thi world and others, that’s not a question, that’s a promise.

The question is as you follow Jesus and He works, how is your heart towards Him?

You may be here today like the general crowd, they had hopeful hearts.

And

III. Hopeful Hearts seek faith

You are here hoping Christinaity i real. Your hoping that there i truth in the world, your hopeful for what God can do…but your unsure. You want to see proof.

You want to see the miracle before you choose to believe.

If that’s you, I present to you the miracle. Me. A mman from the hills of NE TN whose testiomny involves a decade away from God, drugs, alccohol, and all things of the world. God created in me a clean heart and gave me purpose.

I’m just one testimony of God’s mercy and goodness. Ask people around here about how Godd has worked in their lives.

They’lll tell you, they are a walking mircale. For God to save them becuase of faith, that’s a miraccle. Then to work in their hearts to grow them into who they are, that’s a miracle.

We give God glory for all the miracles he has performed.

One day everyone willl.

What’s your heart towards Him though while you are in the process?

Are you humble and trusting Him to work? Are you humblinng and questioning who He is and what He does?

Are you hopeful? desiring for it to be trut and possible but unsure?

How do you get from hopeful and humbling to humble?

One word…faith.

Choosing to believe God can…becuase He can and He will.

How is you heart towardd the work God does in your life and the life of others? How is thaat impacting how you live for Him?

Time of Response