Walk in Humility

INTRODUCTION

A. Scripture (Read out loud)

Isaiah 57:15 ESV

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

Isaiah 66:1–2 ESV

Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.

B. Pray

C. Prelude

STORY: About Reading a Bible Verse

Have you ever read a verse and it felt like your read it for the first-time, some of you are like yeah Genesis 1:1 lol.

Often times that verse that you can’t stop thinking of can be indicative of the Lord trying to get your attention.

Highlighting what He may want you to see, Perhaps It is the Lord giving your an insight into the season you’re currently walking through.

PURPOSE: I want to share this morning a brief message that is not theological weighty, rather a refocusing on the simplicity of our faith; that is the centrality of walking with Christ.

I titled this message: A Walk In Humility

For lack a a proper title. (I’m not much a title guy)

If I could characterize the Christian life by one virtue it would be humility. Perhaps many of you were expecting me to say love. Yes, agape love and humility go hand-in-hand. I would say that Humility is the root and love is the finest fruit, the outcome of a life lived in humility

Jesus’s first Blessing or Beatitude is “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The poor in spirit is always associated with the posture of humility. This is the key to the rest of the beatitudes. Read the beatitudes without missing this point

Thesis: If you want a one liner takeaway from this morning, it is simply is: A life of humility ushers you into the presence of God where He will transform you into the image of Christ. The opposite is true. a life of pride hinders you from the presence of God.

It’s a virtue that so often gets overlook; yet It’s a foundational virtue that makes us more like Christ.

II. EXPOSITION:

Passage:

15For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

A. Fellowship with God

This verse comes out of an entire chapter where the prophet Isaiah uses this literary device of contrasting the wicked to the righteous.

In this verse, we see this beautiful Paradox of God. The highly and holy contrasted with, yet reaching towards the contrite and lowly

Tension of Truth:

The Transcendence of God

That is carries idea of how grand and vast God is, He exist beyond the temporal and is not confine to the material world.

The immanence of God

Carries the ideas of his closeness,

He is not in creations that creation and Him are indistinguishable .

This passage holds the very bedrock of covenant. and God’s purpose for humanity.

Only Christianity where we have a God who desires to dwells with His creation.

This isn’t a mere concept, it’s a reality in which God desires, and I think we can often times as Christians miss that the heart of the Gospel, is fellowship with a King in His Kingdom. Union with God and out of that union with God is genuine union with one another.

How is this fellowship possible?

The key to this paradox is humility.

This is a maybe section

Line: Him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit:

When scripture uses the phrase contrite and lowly, it is always referring to a person who is humble.

Contrite:

meaning: being crush and broken, Carrying the sense of recognizing the weight of our guilt,

The key to God’s presence is humility.

because the contrite and lowly of spirit recognize our need for Jesus. We see the world as it is and as it could be if we, as Christians, walk in the Kingdom of God

THE HEART OF THIS VERSE POINTS TO THIS TRUTH

to walk with Him , God desires for you and I to a continually walk in humility, He actually commands it from us.

Micah 6:8

He has told you, O man, what is good;

and what does the LORD require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

and to walk humbly with your God?

B. What is humility?

What is humility

The kind of humility he desires?

I want to define it first by what is not to gain of understanding of what is really is.

WHAT IT IS NOT?

This is by no means an exhaustive list.

False humility:

i. Humility is not Weakness:

The world tells us it means being weak-spirited or passive.

The world says be like Jesus, but to them it means a pot-smoking hippie Jesus, Love is love, Just be nice

As Christians, our weakness is our strength: Paul said in 2 Cor 12:10: “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong”

ii. Humility is not an actions:

Illustration:

Make an illustration of people who do nice deeds

Celebrity, or friend —anyone has that friend who is always quick to tell everyone how they help the less-fortunate? (raise hand)

maybe you’re sitting next to them. lol kidding, or am I haha

Humility will produce humble deeds, but humble deeds not produce or prove humility. Humility is not something you do but something you are.11 Hall, Sewell.

- its a virtue of character, it’s a posture of an inner life.

iii. Humility is not low-esteem

We think so lowly of ourselves even to the point of deprecation. Disparaging of yourself

Are you that kind of person?

You can’t receive a compliment. always putting yourself down.

The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations (Humility, False)

What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has settled on the organ of conviction; where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself but undoubting about the truth. This has been exactly reversed.

G.K. Chesterton

Jeremiah, Lord but i’m only a youth, oh you sweet baby boy. I know. it’s okay, The Lord say do not say “I’m only a youth. you shall go and Whatever I command you you, you shall speak.

iv. Humility is not despair

Despair: being a complete absence of hope “I am so unworthy and useless

Despair stops at “I can do nothing right, I’m just so useless” It’s not a proper way of viewing yourself or your situation. Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick”

We don’t hope in ourselves, but in Christ

Despair and pride both look internally. It put a microscopic focus on yourself.

Pride and despair puts the focus on self rather than on God.

WHAT IS IT TRULY?

To summarize the meaning of humility in one phrase it would be “Die to self, or as CS. Lewis stated “forgetting yourself”

CS. Lewis said in mere christianity

“The real test of being in the presence of God is, that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself altogether.”

-from Mere Christianity

To be in a place of detachment to to the things of this world and attached to Christ. Where nothing else truly matters, sickness, famine, all the accomplishments my soul may desire. It’s all vanity, (Fleeting).

It’s the we look outwardly at God even recognizing our imperfections.

Augustine Greatest The city of God, mentions that everyone belongs two one of the two cities. The City of God consist of people who love God at the despising of self, or the City of the World, all of those who love self at the despising of God.

Illustration:

2 Corinthians 3:4–5 ESV

Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God,

True humility is seeing yourself as you truly are,

Not thinking of self and p yet seeing God’s strength in you.

True humility doesn’t fall into the ditch of despair, nor the ditch of pride.

B. Illustration of Humility:

Isaiah 6:1–7 (ESV)

This whole passage reflects the response of humility

The part we miss is the deeper meaning of Isaiah’s encounter.

God touched his lips with the coals and said your guilt is taken away,

Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks,

In other words, the humility flows out of His heart.

KEY PRINCIPLE:

Quote:

The closer to God you get, the more aware you will be of your frailties..

“WOE IS ME” FOR I HAVE SEEN

More than seeing ourselves truly for who we are, rather it’s seeing less of ourselves and more of God.

What is the application of the dying to self?

TWO POINTS:

One: PRAYER: It starts with How we pray:

It’s not any prayer, but the specific prayers, I call dangerous prayers

Ask For God to search You: Psalm 139:23–24 (ESV) 23Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

We don’t like this prayer, maybe because if we are honest with ourselves, we are afraid of what He may show us about ourselves.

It is in prayer that we die to our will

To that which has a hold on our heart. That we want to be in control of.

”It is tough to evict the current occupants of our hearts, and Jesus acknowledges this difficulty by discussing it at length in a harsh manner and putting this beatitude first. We tend to identify with these tenants, and so when we let them go, we feel like a part of us is dying. Although we dislike the notion of dying, we must learn to let go and even eliminate these tenants."

SNEAKINESS OF PRIDE:

If the closer we get to God the more aware we are of our frailties , the oppose is true, If we’re not aware of our frailties perhaps we are living in pride

Illustration of Pride

2 Chronicles 26: The Story of Uzziah,

He was a king who did what was right the the eyes of the Lord, yet the the end of his life was in tragedy as His downfall was pride.

Verse 16: He was strong, He grew, proud. to his destruction and over confidence that he presumptuously try to presume the function of the priest.

God is moving, blessing are pouring out, and He may think it’s attribute to us in any way.

pride is the one thing that many don’t see

“There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people except Christians ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. . . . There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others”

CS. Lewis on pride”

Illustration:

I got saved at a mega church, and One thing I notices as I got further planted and involved over the years is this idea of striving to make a name for yourself, or to be seen”.

An idolization of the worship team or leadership.

It’s the corporate-climb-the-ladder-mentality.

So much of modern Christianity is inward focus, and we wonder why we struggle to rest in His presence, because this self-willed ambition that creep in keep us so focus on ourself that we end up missing God in the process.

Dying to Self

I want to be….fill in the blank, Rather, Lord, I want to be what you want me to be. Nothing gives me more joy than to Do your will.

Pride is the one thing we don’t see in ourselves, but it’s the one thing that hinders us walking in the presence of God.

I say one because all other sins/vices flow from it.

“ Augustine’s two Cities are the proud, who think they are humble, and the humble, who know they are proud. The only way to become humble is to admit you are proud.”

Story: Jordan peterson:

The team on behalf of lucid saw Jordan Peterson.

I want to preface, that I don’t know His heart. And I’m praying He will continue that He will have a radical experience with Jesus.

That the simplicity is found in humility

We all have to go through the door the same way, I don’t care about your economic status, how intellectual you are.

“Lord I surrender all to you, yet there is reservations in our hearts.

Wanting to stay in power and be in control,

Humility is the antidote to the vice called pride.

I’ve walked with God for 10 years and one thing i’ve learn and still learning is this:

I once heard a pastor said that God uses both devastation and desperation to draw the hearts of man.

I found that sometimes God will allow you to walk through a difficult season, in order to break the spirit of pride and arrogance so that in our humility and brokenness we may come to repentance and restoration.

Isaiah 57:15

He dwells with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit…TO REVIVE THEM. it’s part of the his process:

Restoration can only come from this place.

Where we could say to God “Your will be don”

Two: Look to Christ -

Christ as our Example:

Philippians 2:2–8 ESV

complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

This flows out of prayer, for again, our actions do not make us humble but through prayer God changes our desires,

Prayer: God For God to help you to

i. See Christ formed in others

i. See others more significant than yourself

When we forget ourselves, we put the focus of our esteem not on self but on others

Genuinely encouraging others into the things of God

Not feeling threaten by others gifts and talents.

A key to leadership is to find some

ii. To seek others interest over yourself

To love is to will the good of another (Aquinas)

III. APPLICATION: PRACTICING THE PRESENCE

How do we guard ourselves against a prideful spirit?

Seek God first in ALL things

continually having a grateful heart.

Ultimately, asking God that His will, will become our will

A friend once said: His plans our dreams

He will help you to walk this out. That is by His grace and our response.

A prayer earlier on in my walk I would pray that

Illustration: of being empty

Ask someone to pass you a walker bottle with your hand in a fist.

Insist he give you the bottle, beg.

The point: A silly illustration, but some of you are like this with God. You ask God, “Lord fill me, I need more of you, when you’re so full of your self. Your will, your desire

A walk in humility is to be empty of yourself. Not like the Buddhist or the purpose of tranquility of Nirvana, rather to empty of self, to be clothed in Christ.

an empty womb has the potentially to for life. God’s

“Less of me, so I could experience the fullness of you God”

To be empty of selfish desires so that it is replaces with unselfish desires.

Marriage: any married couple whose been married long enough will tell you.

There is a lot of dying to self for the sake putting the needs and care of your spouse above yours.

Marriage is a protest against selfishness.

We are to be spiritually poor only for the sake of becoming spiritually rich, detached from what we can own so that we can be attached in a different way to what we cannot own, detached from consuming so that we can be consumed by God.

For the below illustration, maybe replace it with a personal story highlighting your own attempts to seek God and to formed into the image of Christ - reading it now, the illustration doesn’t fit - this is practicing the presence, keep it in the positive. Think of when you used to do this. I remember doing this stuff with you. Prayer walks, just seeking God’s heart. Praying to die to self. the times you didn’t feel like it but pressed through… assuming God would answer a prayer one way, but he answered it a completely unexpected way. I remember times where as Christ as formed in you, you’ve been presumptuous… i remember far more times where you’ve come to God in humility just asking for His will, thanks be to God for the heart He has formed in you—Be you, God has done amazing things in and through you. Don’t be afraid to share the ups and downs. I love you brother, I believe in you and in Christ in you!)

III. THE CLOSE

God wants you know His heart, and His heart is for you to know Him. And the walk in Humility because it is in that place we walk in fellowship with God.

How do we get to know God?

(Potential illustration: Friend’s

voice John 10:27

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”)

we get know Him by repeat encounters; that is time spent with Him.

BAND CAN COME UP:

Illustration (There are people who love Taylor swift. My girl friend was a huge swifty. maybe not anymore lol

there are people who know every fact you can think of about her.

Her birthday,

who she dated, or is dating

What hospital she was born in,

But would you say that person really knows Taylor?

NO, of course not, why?

Because knowing a person is more than accumulation of facts.

Having a living experience of being in relationship matters

(illustration) like you marry couples, before marriage, maybe first date, you went through the list of questions about each other but you really didn’t know each other. Got to know one another though

now you guys are able to finish each others _____sentences”

God desires intimacy,

Intellect and Relation

The better we know God, the better we can relate to him, and the better we can relate to him the better we can know him

How we approach God is in humility, Isaiah 57:15, Isaiah 66:2,

a broken and honest heart, brought to a God who is perfect and in this place, God revives the heart.

We have a choice, it’s either: A posture of presumption or one of humility, the humble person brings his imperfections to God with a heart for God with a desire to know God. The presumptuous person brings his shabby attempts at perfection in self-righteousness thinking He already knows God

Psalm 51:17 (ESV)

17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

I’m personally growing in this, my deepest desire is to walk this message out in my own life.

When was the last time you spent resting in His presence?

Can you recall a moment where God has led you to spend time in His presence.

So what does a life of humility look like?

A life of humility is a life submitted unto the Lord’s will.

and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

True revival, that is that life of God flows in

To him

Repentance and

Be like child who never has to worry about try,