"Personal Humility"

“Personal Humility”

October 8, 2017

John Steger, Senior Pastor

Grace in the City Church, Minneapolis, MN

(Speaker Notes)

English Standard Version Chapter 18

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

5 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me,

English Standard Version Chapter 18

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom

As we witnessed last week with King Nebuchadnezzar, pride is at the root of all evil.

Pride is why the devil became the devil!

And we know that Pride is the anti-God state of mind.

So much so, we are all guilty of this sin in one form or another and to one degree or another, because we are all natural born sinners.

The one thing I find very interesting about pride, is that one who is proud can’t stand the pride of another.

Have you ever felt that way?

Meaning, pride has a horrible stench and even the proud hate the proud.

As we read in :

English Standard Version Chapter 16

Pride goes before destruction,

and a haughty spirit before a fall.

We know what’s coming when we see pride, but the prideful don’t think anything like that could possibly happen to them.

No one has the secret code to live in sin and get away with it.

“A life without Christ is never fixed” we must remember this at all times.

So in preparation for this message, I asked; “Lord, who is the character you want me to use as an example for humility, this week?”

He immediately said; “you John!” “I want you to share with people what I have done in your life.

How I brought you from proud to humble.

How you have surrendered everything to Me.

And how you currently live your life dedicated to serving Me.”

I said yes Father, I will become vulnerable for You, because I trust You!

So, the Lord took me to , so if you have your Bibles please turn them on or open them to our Scripture:

5 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me,

English Standard Version Chapter 18

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

5 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me,

This passage of Scripture resonated in my heart, because that's what I feel like when I’m before the Lord; a little boy!

So our big question of the day is this:

Why does Jesus address humility as it relates to little children?

When we open the chapter, we see a scene developing.

A scene complete with pride, arrogance and ego.

The testosterone is flowing and these dudes what to know who’s better then the next.

So without even looking in a mirror to check themselves, they come boldly to Jesus and ask in 18:1:

English Standard Version Chapter 18

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

Jesus see’s the pride walking toward Him.

He knows whats going on, and I could only imagine how much it must have pained Him, considering everything the disciples have witnessed and participated in up to this point.

They have seen miracle after miracle.

Peter was on the mount of transfiguration and saw Moses and Elijah standing with Jesus.

They have watched and witnessed the most humble example to ever walk the earth, but they are still full of pride!

Does this look familiar?

Can we see that even if we walk with Jesus, we can still be prideful?

So much so, that we have the nerve to ask Him who’s greatest in Your Kingdom Lord.

Who’s greatest?

Who do you think is greatest you knuckleheads: GOD!

I have to check myself here, because I have seen my feathers rise at certain times and humility goes right out the window.

But when I look at this question, which the disciples ask, I ask one myself; “Where is their faith in Jesus?”

Which is why I believe Jesus doesn't answer their stupid prideful question with a direct answer, but makes an illustration, so we would all understand what He wants.

He wants us to believe and have faith, and be innocent and pure.

Sold out for Him!

Hence His example in verse 18:2:

English Standard Version Chapter 18

And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them

He bi-passes them, being the disciples, and “calls” a “child” to Him.

He summoned a little child to come to Him, and the child did so. We don’t know if it was a little boy or girl, but what we do know is this: the little child felt the presence of Jesus and knew that it was secure.

He places the child in the center of them, and tells them in verse 18:3:

English Standard Version Chapter 18

and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

“Truly, Truly” or “Assuredly I say” are common terms that Jesus uses, but what do they means?

Amen, let it be so, truly amen!

Meaning this is how its going to be; Amen!

Unless we adopt the faith of a little child, the innocence of a little child, and the love like a little child, we will never see the kingdom of God.

Humility is at the core of these little people.

Unspoiled, innocence, purity are also character traits of the little child.

An unspoiled child usually displays humility not pride.

Which leads us into verse 18:4:

English Standard Version Chapter 18

Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Warren Wiersbe is 100% correct when He states:

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Fifteen: The King’s Rebuke (Matthew 18)

It seems that Jesus is, in these verses, blending two concepts: the human child as an example of humility, and the child of God no matter what his age might be.

He shows us the perfect example of human humility besides Himself.

One that we can relate to, and then make the point in verse 4 that whoever takes on the humility of a child, will be the greatest in heaven.

Humility honors God and invites God to be with us, but pride does the opposite.

Peter gives us a very clear depiction of this is :

English Standard Version Chapter 5

Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

The Lord Jesus loves us so much, that He wants us to cast our cares upon Him.

Proud people don’t cast their cares upon Him, because we believe we can take care of our own situations.

But humble people do, because they realize they don’t have the power to change anything, and Jesus does.

Jesus Christ is a game changer!

If we really believe for one minute we can get ourselves out of anything on our won power, we’re fooling ourselves and we are 100% deceived.

So God wants us to come to Him humble as a child, and at any age.

FYI: their are no age requirements for being a Christ Follower!

Folks, true humility thinks of others verse self.

which leads me to our last verse where Jesus states in verse 18:5:

English Standard Version Chapter 18

“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me,

When ministering to the brothers and sisters God has placed in your trust, we must not lead them astray.

We must minister to them with the love of Christ.

We must receive them with gladness, because that’s why they’re standing in front of our faces, God has entrusted them to us.

But if we look at them with other intentions then pure ministry, we have a problem.

There are many proud pastors in our world today.

The church revolves around them, they have fancy things, but they sprinkle enough Jesus in their speech and everyone believes there holy men of God.

Well, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Humility is what God wants.

He want’s us to have the faith of a child, which means we will effectively minister to our congregations, and we will not be prejudiced in who we minister too.

Which is why God wanted to use me as the character example of humility today.

God snatched me out of the world in which I lived.

I was a proud and arrogant man.

I loved the world and all it had to offer, and my goal was to accumulate as much as I can, which I did.

I abused relationships because I didn't care about people.

When God snatched by heart that day in January 2003, little did I know what was in store.

He began sifting me and widdled my heart like someone carving a piece of wood with a knife.

He began to sculpt me and mold me.

He was refining me, He rebuked me and sent me into a valley of healing and redemption.

God did all of this over a period of time, because He knew what I needed to become to minister to His sheep.

In :

English Standard Version Chapter 3

And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless.

We must be tested and refined.

Our pride must be squeezed out of us, at all costs for us to minister effectively.

I say all of this because we should all aspire to be in ministry in one capacity or another, but my main point is so you know who your pastor is and where he came from.

God called me to be the pastor of this church, and to love the His sheep.

What does that mean?

It means I must:

Pray by example

Lead by example

Love by example

Trust by example

Forgive by example

Repent by example

Confess by example

Give by example

All eyes are on me and I must respond accordingly.

Will I make mistakes? Yes!

I’m human and I’m a sinner just like you.

The only difference between you and I is that I have this job and you have your job, either way, we are both called to glorify God in all we do.

Today, I can honestly say I am the most humble I have ever been in my life.

I will also honestly say that pride sometimes likes to rear its ugly head in my life and I have to whack it like the whack a mole game.

I have no room for pride in my life!

Application:

Which leads me to ask:

What is God saying to us and how can we apply this message of humility in our lives today?

Our hearts desire should be to have a heart after God’s heart.

God’s heart is not a heart of stone, but of flesh.

God’s desire is that we have a heart just like this.

In the prophet states:

English Standard Version Chapter 36

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

We must have a desire to change; if not, we will be the same miserable person we have always been and have grown to dislike.

“John, that seems harsh!”

True, not harsh!

The fact of that matter is that if we don’t desire to have a heart after Jesus, we will continue down the path of destruction and desolation.

Humility is how we achieve this.

Proud people, even those that are not haughty people, but continue to make everything about them, will continue to live in turmoil.

We need to get out of our own way and acknowledge that Jesus is our Lord and follow Him.

There is a first day for everything.

On that first day we did drugs, or the first day of our new career, or the first day we walk with Jesus, its was different.

We need to build a foundation, but that takes work.

What does this take?

Great question, which leads me into our second point.

2. “God’s” plan should be our daily goal, not our plan.

English Standard Version Chapter 16

The heart of man plans his way,

but the LORD establishes his steps.

In all areas of our lives, we must desire God’s plan not our own.

I’m being transparent today, so I will admit, that my plans seem to sneak up and try to over take God’s plan’s.

And when they do, it never works out well.

Today, I walk in and live in humility that God is directing my steps.

Today, I ask that Plan G be the plan and not my plan.

Think about this; how many times have you sat in a church meeting, or were sitting alone, and you created plan a, b and c, and then you prayed to God, in hopes that by asking Him to validate and answer one of those plans, He would?

That is simply this: imposing our will on God!

This is not a good practice.

We need to come before God humble and honest, just as Jehoshaphat did in 2 Chronicles 20:12

English Standard Version Chapter 20

O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

Humility was in the kings heart. He knew the battle belonged to the Lord and not him or his people.

So he prayed!

That’s right, he prayed as we will be doing as a church family.

We will cry out to God and come together as a family, inviting the Holy Spirit to be with us and move in our hearts.

Breaking the heart of stone and making it a heart of flesh.

Desiring to follow His plan everyday of our lives.

Which leads m to our final point and how we can execute God humility in our lives.

3. Our humility will grow when we’re in the Word of God daily.

Look folks, if we are not in the Word of God everyday, how will we know what God has planned for our lives?

How will we know how to live?

How will we know how to act?

How will we know how to pray?

Most importantly, how will we know God?

How can you build an intimate relationship with someone if you never talk to them?

You can’t!

In reading on Friday, something in verse 3 struck me:

English Standard Version Chapter 6

Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

“They took offense at Him!”

So he healed the sick, cast our demons, fed the multitudes, miracle after miracle, but because they couldn't wrap their arms around who Jesus really was, instead, “They took offense at Him!”

This is what I would call “super pride!”

You don’t understand something, so you get angry and dismiss it, or worse yet, take offense to it.

Where’s the personal humility in that decision?

There isn’t, its 100% pride and arrogance, and as we discussed last week, this is totally dumb!

As Warren Wiersbe states: we have 4 choices we can make towards the little children and consequently towards true humility:

We can seek to become like the children in true humility, as to the Lord.

We can receive them because Jesus told us to.

If we’re not careful, we will cause them to stumble.

Last, we could even end up despising them.

When we welcome a child, or a Christian believer, we welcome Christ!

True humility is a learned habit and it comes from us growing closer and closer to God.

This happens by us dying to ourselves and living in the Spirit!

In closing:

Our message recap is this:

Our hearts desire should be to have a heart after God’s heart.

2. “God’s” plan should be our daily goal, not our plan.

3. Our humility will grow when we’re in the Word of God daily.

Our lives depend on “personal humility”

Remember, proud people don't even like to be around proud people. they stink.

Not to mention proud people are bothered and convicted when they see themselves in others.

God wants us to welcome each other as we would welcome a little child.

Here’s a question I will leave you with: “ Are we helping build up others or are we tearing them down?

A truly humble person is building people up, not destroying them and making “self” look better in the process!

God loves His flock, and He has personally entrusted you to me, and with that I stand before you a humble man ready to serve the needs of the community, until the day the Lord comes to take me home.