The Key to humility: A Quiet Life
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Pray:
Peace
Strength
Distraction free
One thing I love about Student’s and Student ministry is that you guys are hungry!
You want to serve, you want to matter
You want to make a difference in your world, with the people around you
You want to have people helped and see the world change
It honestly gets me fired up because I know that what the Lord has laid on my heart today for you is so impactful
If you strive to make a difference in this world
If you strive to help people, to be different I heed these words
I want to jump right into the message today — I believe this is a powerful one
11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
Aspire to lead a quiet life
Other translations says “make it your ambition to lead a quiet life”
How many of you came in here today, woke up today, served at the serve partner today and said — it’s my ambition, my goal, my number one priority to live quietly
How many of you want to live a life that is quiet — that no one knows?
Nobody
We want to be people that are loud — we brag about our social media presence
We brag about our Instagram followers, our Tik Tok followers
If you don’t have at least 50 unread snapchats right now you’re not making a difference
The whole world is screaming at you — live a loud life
Make a name for yourself
Even in Christian spheres we have the loud screaming — we must have a bigger stage
More people coming on a Sunday, more people coming on a Wednesday
As Students you feel like you must go to a youth group that is popular — that everyone knows
We only listen to people who are famous
The world is screaming — at us
To be loud
Then we have Paul
He tells us to live a quiet life
To ASPIRE for a quiet life
We should be craving to do nothing but live a quiet life
Fleeing the spotlight and instead seeking Jesus
Jesus’ example
Jesus’ example
Think about Jesus for a minute
What do we know about Him
When He was a kid we know him and his family left for Egypt
We know that His parents lost Him, and then found Him in the temple listening and studying and teaching
We know that he was a carpenter like His father Joseph
Then we know he started His ministry around the age of 30.
That’s it!
We are talking about Jesus — and we don’t even know much about Him
I mean what was He doing when he was 20
We know He was a carpenter
What about when he was 23
Well we know He was a carpenter
27?
Probably a better carpenter
We don’t know about Jesus’
It’s almost as if He made it His ambition to live a quiet life, to work with His hands, to mind his own business
To live a life of humility
The culture today is constantly telling you to chase a bigger crowd and a bigger stage
To go and get as many people as you can to follow you
Yet we never see that with Jesus
There is not a single verse in the Bible that talks about how Jesus sought after a crowd of people to listen to Him
Yet there is a ton of verses that talk about Jesus fleeing crowds and people
30 But he passed through the crowd and went on his way.
36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him.
Over and over again we see Jesus fleeing from crowds
Fleeing from the spotlight
The culture around you is telling you to get a bigger and bigger following, more and more subscribers, more and more people around you
Yet Paul warns us to strive after a QUIET life
In secret
In secret
There is a set of verses that I think about often
3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Jesus is teaching telling his disciples that when you do things, do them in secret
How often do we do this?
We served at ______ today
We took pictures, and that’s fine, we will post about it on socials and that’s fine, but how often do you personally serve in secret?
Better question: When is the last time you did anything good in secret?
My buddy Greyson works at a church and he asked me the question: does anyone do anything in secret any more?
We were talking about how he had a friend that was posting about doing their Bible study and it was driving him up a wall
I told him yeah there is things that are done in secret — sinful things
We do sinful things that go against the very nature of God — things that are terrible and awful in the sight of the Almighty, and then we post for the world to see all the good and great things
We want people to see how we do our Bible studies and serve at church
Jesus says that should not be so!
Don’t let your right hand know what your left hand is doing
We need to instead be serving the Lord in secret — Jesus said that our Father who is in secret will then reward us!
We should be striving after a quiet life that is chasing God in secret
Students something that pains me so often is when someone dies and all these bad things start coming out about them
About how they did these terrible things in secret — which always come out:
2 Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 3 Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.
What would happen instead if when we were gone everyone looked and was like “I didn’t realize they were like this”
I didn’t know they were generous like that
I didn’t know they served the church like that
I didn’t know they helped the poor like that
What would happen when we made living a quiet life a priority to the point where everyone looked and saw how we were seeking Jesus
Serving others
Serving others
Living a quiet life isn’t just about giving in secret
If you want to live a quiet life it’s about how you view yourself
There is not a single quiet person that believes they are better than others
Every single person I have ever met that would be classified as “cocky” or “arrogant” is seeking to build themselves up
They are chasing platforms and numbers and crowds and things
Paul tells us to do something different if we want to truly strive to make a difference:
3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
What if instead of believing we are greater than someone else, we seek to live a quiet life, and seek to help others
We make it our ambition to help and treat others as more important
That’s what Jesus did
4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Jesus humbled himself to serve the lowly, the lost, the broken
Jesus who is God in flesh — fully perfect — took on the form of a slave and died a sinners death on a cross for us
He humbled himself
Students when is the last time we stepped back and considered someone else better than us?
When is the last time you thought about someone else over yourself?
Paul told us that we should strive to live a quiet life
Quiet means we are considering others as greater than us
It means we aren’t gathering crowds and making a name, it means we are seeking to do what Jesus did
Conclusion
Conclusion
This whole extended weekend is about challenging you to be a different maker
It’s your move!
Quite literally its your move!
I can’t make you different
I can’t have you live different or do things differently
It’s your move!
11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
If you want to make a difference in this world
If you want to be a difference maker if your move!
Aspire to live a quiet life
Aspire to serve others without seeking the recognition
Aspire to humble yourself by considering others as greater than you
Flee from crowds like Jesus did
If you want to be a difference maker strive after quiet and let God be the one that does extraordinary things with the quiet
Stop chasing crowds and numbers
I want to pray over you