Be Humble

Be Humble

Intro: In the Lynyrd Skynyrd Song “Simple man the Lyric starts off with the mother asking her son to sit beside her as she passes on some advice.

Take your time, don’t live. Too fast, troubles will come and they will pass don’t forget there is someone up above. Overall the advice or at least part of it that the mom gives her son is to be humble. Be a simple man. Being humble is something that seems to be in some respects with the against our culture, but in the business world humility is making a comeback because people know that if you are not humble you tend to lead people in what people refer to as Toxic leadership. Where you create more problems than you solve. This is nothing new there have always been toxic leaders and so Paul wants to make sure Timothy is taught how to lead well and that Timothy can know what to look for in other leaders.

Paul moves on to the next building block in constructing the church or shoring up the church as it is. Why is this important? Because he is instructing, both in his word and actions was what we call a servant leader. He was in turn passing along the last bit of advice to Timothy on how to serve His church.

Read Verses:

MP: God builds his church with Humble people

TS:Being humble or saying to you to be humble is kind of broad and sort of general. We need a few specifics to help narrow the situation down. Paul gives three examples in this chapter about how he and more importantly how God, wants to see our humility demonstrated.

I. God Builds His Church with people who Pray Humbly (1-2)

Explanation: Praying for people who lead you is a noble endeavor. Especially when they are trying to persecute you. Christianity was at a minimum tolerated and was outright illegal depending on the Cesar that was ruling. By the reaction in and 20, Paul was not welcomed into Ephesus with open arms and was accused.

Putting yourself under the rule of others is not easy. Especially if you do not agree with them on how to do things,or what their beliefs are. Sometimes just going to work everyday is difficult. Let alone thinking about praying for someone you really don’t like. But the question is do you submit yourself to God’s authority with the people he has placed in various positions. Your boss, your boss’ boss, themayor, your county, state and federal representatives, the judges, the president. All of these people throughout time have been placed there by God, not just one candidate over another. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, General Eisenhower, George Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump have all been placed in their seats by God for a purpose.

When the Scripture says that the “king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water” (), it means that a Sovereign God can turn the heart of a king at any time and in any way. If there are policies and platforms that don’t conform to biblical ethics, the intercession of Christians can be used in a powerful, transforming way.

Application: All of us must submit to the leaders God appoints when we do this we are submitting to God.

I don’t know about you, but I have never had dinner with a president or even a mayor. I am most likely not going o have that kind of influence over people in those positions. But what I can do is pray for them daily. Paul is giving Timothy the best tool he has at his disposal.

One pastor gives us encourage to “View each day as an opportunity to forget yourself and serve others.“ As Abraham Booth writes, “Forget not, that the whole of your work is ministerial; not legislative—that you are not a lord in the church, but a servant.” The act of service is innately humbling. Both is earthing toothy pastors, but we are all servants of the Lord and e are to minister to those people that God puts in our path.

The best way to serve people is pray for them. The hard part is that we don’t get credit for the praying. Some people who do not believe in prayer say that it does not do. Anything and going to actually help someone who is impacted by floods or hunger or some other problem. Go and do, because I can see it and people can see me.

But prayer is altogether different.It is behind the scenes.It is quiet. It is simple. It may seem like weakness going to ask for help or directions,But God is strong in our weakness. It is the strength of God that we are harnessing and more importantly witnessing.

Now do we get everything we want? No. Why, because the world is bigger than you and me. Putting it into the local church context and building churches, each of us are living stones in the building. The stones play different roles and are placed where they need to be. Some are made To go in more prominent places or hold more of the wall, or act as a keystone.

But when we pray, we are asking God to act, and we are also expecting God to act. But as John Calvin says “Our prayer must not be self-centered. It must arise not only because we feel our own need as a burden we must lay upon God, but also because we are so bound up in love for our fellow men that we feel their need as acutely as our own. To make intercession for men is the most powerful and practical way in which we can express our love for them. ” ― John Calvin

When you pray,

Pray for others,

Pray for yourself,

Pray confidently because being humble is not having low self esteem or thinking less of yourself. It is just thinking of yourself a little less.

TS: We can pray to God for our leaders and others because we can also believe humbly.

II. God Builds His Church with people who Believe Humbly (3-7)

(ESV): 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. 7 For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth

Paul brings in the Gospel whenever he can in his letters or sermons he gives a problem or some bad news and then he gives the audience the good news. Paul explains that his purpose or the reason he was appointed was to

Paul gives Timothy the reason behind his belief and why he is so confident in his actions. Paul is tenacious and zealous for the good news that God wishes all men to be saved, in verse 4, That there is One God contrary to popular belief of his day and ours. and there is one mediator,between God and man. There is only one way to get to God. And that is through Jesus Christ. Who gave himself a ransom for all.

In a prayer meeting sermon, Charles Spurgeon asks rather abruptly, Are you saved or are you not? Are you a believer or are you a non-believer?

This is the question that we will be asked in front of God and unfortunately we cannot change our minds once he asks the question.

When we are sinners we are far from God. God cannot keep you around. He banished Adam and Eve from the garden because they had sinned and could no longer be near Him. They did not humble themselves and wanted to eat the fruit to be like God.

Jonathan Edwards said “A truly humble man is sensible of his natural distance from God; of his dependence on Him; of the insufficiency of his own power and wisdom; and that it is by God's power that he is upheld and provided for, and that he needs God's wisdom to lead and guide him, and His might to enable him to do what he ought to do for Him.”

But when you humble yourself and come before the cross, you are putting yourself aside. You re admitting you are a sinner and that you believe that Jesus is the only road back to God.

The road back to God begins with completely trusting God, but that ability to do so is given to us by God. The Holy Spirit to understand that God the Son ,Jesus was the one who made it possible for us to be saved.Jesus paid our ransom as Paul says. This ensures we can come before God the father. One God htreedistint persons that are all one God. God gives us the faith that allows us to believe in Him.

And that should be the source of our humility. That we had no part in our salvation. In fact Jonathan Edwards said

You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary.”

We are justified our faith. And when. Kepthat in our mind, when we look to God, we remain God-centered. The universe creator is the one we put our faith in, the one we believe in. It doesn’t mean we don’t believe in ourselves, but we believe, as Paul points out, that we are appointed for something. Paul was a pointed to teach the Gospel. You are appointed to do the same, but you are appointed to do that in a specific way.

But you have to be all in. God does not ant halfway believers. He wants people to Love him with all their mind, heart, soul and strength.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says blessed are the meek and poor in spirit. This is not the weak and down on their luck people. It really means that the people who are humble enough to put God first in their lives and then put others before themselves are emulating God.

A church must be made up of believers, those who confess Christ individually. This is what caused a decline in Early America. But you must have A personal conversion. In , Luke Records that He that believes on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. So guess what, you can have a personal testimony about the work did in you.

TS: if you are a believer, or a Christian you are commanded to be more Christlike in our thoughts and and actions. Christ humbled himself to the point of death and we are to be like Jesus and act humbly.

III. God builds His Church with people who Act Humbly (8-15)

Paul returns and addresses both men and women in this next paragraph. He addresses outward actions, but Paul uses the internal actions to fix or quiet the external noise. For men it is their actions of always wanting to fight and argue and be right and in charge. For women, Paul encourages them to leave their fancy clothes and jewelry at home and become modest. Ephesus was a rich city with lots of wealthy merchants. But it was also a city with a lot of poor people. So the differences between the classes were uncomfortable. It was not likely causing problems when people are overdressed or church becomes a fashion show when other people only have one or two sets of clothes.

Women are instructed they should not teach men. This is most likely meaning that they cannot be senior pastors or the teachers of the church. It is not that they are not capable, but they are not responsible. Remember a few invites ago I said there were lots of money in the city and in the church.Well people were trying to use their money to influence the church

Illustration In the Military as you obtain rank, you are expected to act in ways that match with your rank. If you are the ranking person of a unit, then you are responsible for everything that happens. Many times, there are more capable people who can lead better for various reasons. But the next higher ranking person, the boss’ boss, will expect the leader to do the leading.

You don’t always get to be in charge and you must serve and follow well.

Application: When we act humbly it shows that we trust God with our lives.

The one in the song that troubles will come and they will pass. This describes Paul’s life to a “T.” It also illustrates how Jesus lived his life. He knew that he was headed for the cross, but along the way he also was mobbed and almost stoned several times throughout His ministry. But He trusted the father

He explains to men first to return to prayer. He encourages men to pray instead of fighting. (ESV): I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.

Instead of fighting with your hands, lift your holy hands in prayer. I remember the popular saying as a kid “put up your dukes”. It’s like saying enguard when you you see someone sword fighting or fencing. You get in your fighting stance, ready to protect yourself and als do someone harm. But instead Paul is saying pray, because this changes your posture. Instead of being defensive you become open, you put your hands down or in the position of prayer. Acting humbly is completely different than acting proudly.

It is as says be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger.

Guys when you are in a situation are you more likely to put up your hands to fight or to pray? Do you automatically get angry or want to argue or do you try to bring about a godly approach and bring God into your disagreement?

Guys what we are doing when we act humbly, we are setting an example for our wives and children to follow. We operate under a monkey see, monkey do mentality. So as leaders we need to demonstrate the behavior we want from our spouses and our children. We have to give them an example to follow. If we are praying for our leaders, then hopefully or wives are submitting themselves to prayer on our behalf.

This makes it easier for the women to follow us.

Women don’t try to teach then the right way by trying to wield authority over the men in the church or in your marriage. God cursed Eve with the striving to be the leader of the family and we see this happening today.

TS: Pray for the men in your lives to lead well. We need all the help we can get. And men serve your wives today and everyday. It should not be a once a year event.

Conclusion:

Paul is encouraging Timothy to be humble and also teach others to be humble. And they are true today as it was for the first century church. We should strive to be a simple man or woman. When you read the stories about jesus he was not overly complicated in some regards. It is quite simple, believe on him and you will be saved.

You are commanded to pray humbly for the leaders set over you.

To be saved You must believe that Jesus is your savior and that should humble you

And we are to act accordingly. That we are humble because Jesus paid our ransom to get us out of hell and into the Kingdom of God.

The question is are you doing these things?

How are do we act humbly?

By putting others first but not neglecting yourself. By knowing that you had help along the way.

We will close with this story:

Alex Haley, the author of Roots, has a picture in his office, showing a turtle sitting atop a fence. The picture is there to remind him of a lesson he learned long ago: “If you see a turtle on a fence post, you know he had some help.”

Says Alex, “Any time I start thinking, Wow, isn’t this marvelous what I’ve done! I look at that picture and remember how this turtle—me—got up on that post.”

Think about how much help God has given you over your life. Are you humbled by that idea when you look around and wonder, How did I get here?

Craig Brian Larson, 750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers & Writers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2002), 256.