Preacher: Frosty Hansen, Josh White
You know Steve remember to dismiss the kids like oh yeah we how do we all do it and then Mike and I look at each other and we go No he’s not going to remember.
All this is this is only the second Sunday in October and can you believe how much rain we’ve had hasn’t been incredible so I’m sure maybe all of you probably know this is already the wettest October in the history of Arizona this is great it feels like we’re kind of getting fall and as a Pastor Mike mention our Western Night is coming up in just a couple Saturday nights away and this is the first time in the history that I’ve been here and I think this is the twelfth Western night that I’m actually wondering and can kind of concerned is it going to rain on Western. Before it’s just thinking like I hope it’s not scorching hot on Western nights so so we have something to look forward to well I am picking back up in our series on one another and see there we go we have the slides going and Originally when I kind of planned out my sermons I was going to do right after unity we’ve spent three Sundays talking about unity I was going to go straight to love and then to humility and then Anderson ended up being in town and whenever Ben is in town I think it’s great for us to have him here because they’re kind of he enjoys the kind of our missionaries and so it kind of changed a little bit of my sermon schedule and I was just thinking to myself this last week OK Should I just continue on the just do the love portion the thirty percent of the one or all the commands or on love and should I do that and I was just thinking you know we have about forty plus women who are gone from our church today they’re up up in Prescot at the women’s retreat and it would just feel kind of weird preaching a sermon on love without all the women here right and you’ve got your got you guys are like you know what anyway and so I was just thinking you know for the sake of every husband here who has his wife gone I’m going to preach on humility today all right.
So now you’re like oh I. I see what you’re doing because some of you for those of you who are married and your wife is gone you might not get any ribbing today and I can listen to what he’s saying about humility so so you’re welcome for that guys that might apply to but so far what we’ve been doing we’re in a new series on one another and it’s based on the Greek word all alone and it’s found a hundred times in the New Testament and you can break this down there seventy six times it’s translated one another we’ve gone through this slide a couple times and when you put this thing to do different groups we’ve noticed there’s a pattern thirty percent are on unity and we’ve already looked at all the unity passages or most of them thirty percent are about love which I was going to do last week but will do next week fifteen percent so a good portion of them are about humility and then there’s twenty five miscellaneous kind of random passages and when we look at the passages dealing with unity we can even kind of break those down into some subgroups there are passages that tell us things that we’re supposed to be if we want unity with each other there are things that were supposed to be things that were not supposed to do and things that we are to do and so that was our last sermon two weeks ago the things that we are supposed to do in order for us to experience unity with each other and the three points I know all of the hardy have it memorized and you can probably recycle these but the three things that were specifically to do to that unite us is when we live in obedience to God’s word and have that firm foundation upon which we all live when we wait for each other we endure suffering because sometimes we suffer with each other and then also when we forgive each other and now this morning we’re going to talk about humility and you probably notice up there about fifteen percent of these one hundred other commands deal with humility and that’s kind of a a big chunk it makes sense for when God is talking to us about one another in each other and and being one with each other that we were. Deal with love and issues of unity but when we deal with humility as I’ve spent all week thinking about this it sort of makes perfect sense that so many passages talk about having humility towards one another so that we are one with each other when Jesus prayed on the night before he was betrayed in the garden of guess somebody that all of the followers all of his followers would be one as he and the Father are one. Without practicing humility that would not even be possible even among the Trinity and so let’s talk about humility today and I guess all the different ways we can think about this what I want you to kind of get is the core of humility is this at the core of humility it is a having a proper understanding of our own value and worth. A truly humble person has the correct understanding of their worth and importance and value and the truth is that every soul that every soul that has ever been created in or on earth in human history alternately has the same worth to God.
Everyone is worth the same to God There is no human soul that is worth more or less to God and have to emphasize that to God obviously human beings from our perspective have more value and worth than others right some are more talented Some have more wealth some have more influence some are more intelligent so we can look at the value and worth from a human perspective but I think maybe one of the best ways for us to think about this from God’s perspective God’s perspective is this there’s an event that’s going to come up in the future where every human being is going to be judged by God and the criteria that every human being is going to be judged by is the exact same and here’s the criteria were you sinless and perfect. Or did you ever sin when you lived on the earth. Now. The two criteria the God is going to judge every single person and every sinner is going to get the exact same consequence and that’s eternal punishment and every perfect sinless follows human being that ever lived is going to get the exact same existence as well and that is an eternal everlasting existence Well fortunately we know that because all of us are sinners we all fall short of the glory of God that when we humble ourselves and we accept Christ sacrifice for our death then God will look at us as having Christ righteousness so that’s how we’re able to experience the Trinity with him but I want you all of us are just kind of think about this moment in our minds and in our hearts.
Two of the wealthiest people on Earth right now you probably know who they are Bill Gates who is number two right now and Jeff Bezos I think I’m pronouncing his last name correctly he is the founder of Amazon He is now the wealthiest person in the world and for those of you who paid attention to the news this last week was it Tuesday or Wednesday we had the huge market dip yes see that I read online there was an article that said that Jeff Bezos on that one market dip lost nine point one billion dollars of his net worth in one day can you can see it’s hard to even imagine what nine point one billion dollars is like but he lost it in one day I think almost would be like well take the point one hundred million dollars and I’d like to.
Be great to be able to lose that much money but Jeff Bezos Bill Gates they’re worth more than any of us specially from a financial standpoint even their contributions to the world and society Bill Gates founder of Microsoft it’s changed the way that the humans interact with computers Jeff Bezos the founder of Amazon How many of you shop on Amazon I mean all of us shop and it’s changed the way society is work another thing about Bill Gates and of course I don’t know either of these men personally but Bill Gates is known right now for being very philanthropic he gives a lot of his money away but when. They all stand before God it’s going to be the exact same for Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates as all the poorest little children in India in Africa who died of malnutrition they’re all worth all of us are worth the exact same amount in God’s eyes and the criteria used for all of us to determine our eternity is the exact same in Soul that is the basis for all of our humility that’s something that we really need to understand it begins with the right understanding of the value of our souls in God’s sight and that value is the price of his son there is nothing more valuable on earth to God than the soul of every human being all right we are the most valuable things that he has created and so for us to be one with God and one with each other it’s only possible when we are humble we practice humility with each other and I think everyone knows what the opposite of humility is right it’s pride I kind of I want to do this I was thinking about this you know one of the one of the first things that created disunity among the created order was when pride was introduced and some of you might know what I’m talking about and that’s when Lucifer the the most powerful and beautiful of all God’s creation became proud you have your Bibles I want you open your Bible so easy kill twenty eight it’s the passage is too long for us to put on the screen here but turn over to his Eagle twenty eight
and we’re going to look at the moment in time what is recorded when Lucifer or Satan fell and the relationship between him and God the Father was disrupted.
He’s equal twenty eight beginning in verse eleven.
You know this this passage is an interesting one the Bible talks a little bit about the Ain the angelic realm the principalities the powers the Dominion it’s all around us the things that we can’t see it’s really need to know that some day some day in the future we are going to see and understand the spiritual realms and everything the around us that we can’t see but here this is talking about events that probably happened even before Adam and Eve they were even created these equal twenty eight and so this is a description of Satan or Lucifer and here he is referred to as the King of Tire is equal twenty eight beginning in verse eleven.
Says moreover the word of the Lord came to me Son of Man raise a limitation over the king of tire and say to him thus says the Lord God You were the Signet of perfection full of wisdom and perfect in beauty you were in even the garden of God every precious stone was your covering Sardis Topaz and Diamond barrel on ICS Jasper south fire emerald and Carbuncle and crafted in gold where your settings in your engravings on the day that you were created they were prepared you were an anointed Guardian cherub I placed you you were on the holy mountain of God in the midst of the stones of fire you walked you were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till unrighteousness was found in you in the abundance of your church you were filled with violence in your midst and you sinned so I cast you as profane thing from the Mountain of God and I destroyed you old Guardian cherub from the midst of the stones of fire and look at verse seventeen this was Satan’s downfall your heart was proud because of your beauty you corrupted your wisdom. For the sake of your splendor I cast you to the ground I exposed you before kings to feast their eyes upon you know Satan became proud and this is something that we F. we can’t even comprehend this we have no idea what this talking about but among all the creative things among all the angels Satan or Lucifer saw that he was better than everyone else and so he elevated himself and that pride the lack of humility that separated him and destroyed his relationship with God the Father Well now let’s take a look at what the Bible teaches us about being humble towards one another and if I were to ask you to give a definition of humility I think all of us could probably have explained humility relatively easy there’s a couple different definitions let me just read a couple of these for you my definition for humility is Humility is the freedom from pride or arrogance and you kind of know that when you’re around somebody you can tell if their home will or prideful or arrogant This is probably my favorite definition of humility humility is so is the quality or condition of being humble but I like this definition here humility is having a modest opinion or estimate of one’s own importance or rank that’s what humility is having this modest idea of this is where I stand among everyone else and ultimately realizing I am the same in value and worth as every other human being and so we are told to be humble towards one another this passage is before we really get into our points in the message but here in first Peter this is kind of the key verse I want to kind of look at first Peter five five it says likewise you who are younger be subject to the elders and he uses this phrase which I think is wonderful he says clothe yourselves all of you with humility towards one another for God opposes the PROUD TO gives grace to the humble humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you. And I love how Peter uses this phrase he says clothe yourselves I mean literally we kind of kind of picture this on our own minds when we wake up in the morning what you have to do you have to close yourself so you can go out and spend the day outside Well we are literally to clothe ourselves with humility and it’s this idea of it’s something that we need to do or maybe a better way to think of this is this is a discipline that all of us need to practice a habit that we need to put in to our life humility is not just something in our minds usually say what makes a humble person what we talk about well maybe they’re they’re soft spoken or maybe they’re quiet or maybe they even think poorly of themselves but humility as we’re going to see throughout the rest of the sermon is that humility is an action it’s something that we actually do well there’s lots of verses throughout the New Testament the talk about showing humility towards one another but for this morning we’re going to focus on three Serina look at three verses the talk about us having the action of humility and the point number one in your sermon notes is this this is how we put action humility into action the first way is when we consider the needs of others to be humble It means that we need to consider the needs of others well squarehead Let’s take a look at Philippi inst Chapter two verses three and four and I have had most of these passages up on the screen Philippians Chapter two verses three and four this is what Paul writes to us about humility he says verse three Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but in humility count others more significant than yourselves let each of you not look look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others and in verse three dealing with humility notice for the first word in verse three least in the S.V. this is what it says it says Do do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit the work of the Greek were. For selfish ambition this is really interesting and as I looked this up this week you kind of brought a smile to my face because we live in America and we like to do this the Greek word for selfish ambition it’s not two words it’s one single word it’s the Greek word era Sia and it has to deal with running for public office.
There’s ambition is dealing with electioneering or intriguing for office it’s the desire to put oneself forward and so people with selfish ambition they’re trying to kind of promote themselves over and above somebody else and we’re seeing this right now here in Arizona are we how many of you are sick of all the ads from Martha make Sally and Kristen cinema right there or they are going ad each other they are really going out of each other and there’s two ways two main ways that people get elected to office here in the United States number one you’ve got to either make yourself look really good or the second way is you make someone else will really bad and we’re seeing both of those definitely right now but when it comes to having a healthy relationship you and I should not treat each other as if we’re trying to get elected to a position over each other we’re not in competition with each other so therefore we should not have selfish ambition I like how the English or the E.S.A. the translation translates this one word into two selfish ambition and I think this is perfect but I hope we don’t misunderstand this ambition not so much selfish ambition but ambition is a good thing listen nothing in the world gets done without someone having a little bit of ambition right parents when you see your children raising getting older you want them to have a little bit of ambition right because if they don’t have the ambition what happens they live in your basement forever right so you want to have them vision you know go get a job go get me go to these are live life outside of our house so so ambition can be a very good thing but selfish ambition is Usually it leads to another person getting taken advantage. The joy of. I thought about people with selfish ambition this week as I was kind of starting in preparing for this as I was driving in my car and I have a good example all of you can relate to this because especially if you drive I was driving down fifty nice to Bell a couple times this week and they were doing construction of course on fifty one thousand new and whenever they do construction in the road they usually shut one lane down and they make everyone go over to another lane if you might know where I’m going with this and so one of the proper rules and etiquette of driving when you see you’re supposed to merge you merge and you wait in line like everyone else right to go through the intersection and I gotta be careful what I say because I’ve broken this before and I know some of you probably have too but it doesn’t is drive you crazy when you’re in line there’s like twenty cars in front of you and someone thinks that they’re more important than everyone else and they drive on the right side all the way to the front of the line they cut in you just do would you like to just pull them over and think Who do you think you are. From you’re like yeah that’s me I do that all the time I’m I’m no fool but you know whatever is going through their mind they’re probably texting and they didn’t look up until they saw where they were but they were thinking what I have to do right now must certainly be more important than everyone else who’s waiting I am more important so I will get to the front of the line but that’s a great example of selfish ambition where you say I am more important my needs are more important than anyone else and so that’s what I’m going to do so as do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit now the Greek word for conceit because knocks a dig can no doxie it’s dealing with him for those of you are familiar with the word doxy means glory and so conceit is vain glory or self esteem or empty pride this is a person that can see that person is someone who likes to puff themselves up and make themselves look really important front of other people we all know people like that raw. Another another term to describe people that are full of conceit are storytellers have you ever come across a person and you have shared with them something positive in your life and they say well that’s nothing let me tell you what I’ve done in my life and they’re always trying to one up you that’s the person has conceded when you’re around a person that has a selfish ambition or they’re always trying to puff themselves up make themselves look better than you does that help your relationship or does it doesn’t harm it and so humility is when we do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.
Look at the whole passage again versus three and four says do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but in humility count others more significant than yourselves let each of you not look only to his own interests but also to the interests of all there’s we are given two ways to do this to not be self have selfish ambition or conceit in the two ways or that we think of others as housing having more value than ourselves and that we think about how to help others get their needs met It’s like how it says I like what it says Do not look only to your own interest so I got a pop quiz for those of you who have ever flown on a plane what does a stewardess tell you to do if in case of emergency the plane lose altitude and what happens.
The gas masks fall the oxygen masks fall and what are you supposed to do put gas mask away you hear you’re in a gas chamber the oxygen masks fall and they always tell you put yours on first and then help others we’re supposed to also look to the interests of others of course we have to help ourselves otherwise we’re not in a position to be able to help others well how do you do with this how do you deal with this one being being conscious of other people’s needs you know I think um one of the best things that helps humble a human being is when they become a parent as soon as you become a parent you realise that there are. Needs of others and it’s hard to be a pride full arrogant person when you have an infant with a poopy diaper you have to change right that’s the great humiliated that’s the great humbler changing poopy diapers Well that’s the first action considering the needs of others the second action is that we associate with the lowly the way that we can put humility into practice is when we associate with the lowly in the passage that teaches us this is Romans Chapter twelve verse sixteen Romans twelve sixteen says live in harmony with one another so how do we do that you answer the question Do not be haughty but associate with the lowly never be wise in your own sight.
The word for associate It simply means that we’re supposed to put ourselves in a situation where we’re actually experiencing life with another person so we’re supposed to associate with the lowly The Greek word for lowly Tappan us it literally means not not rising far from the ground a lowly thing is something that literally is right next to the ground and obviously when you’re talking about human beings who are the lowly I think we can kind of have an understanding of of what on this is referring to and we’re talking about people who can’t contribute much in life you know when you think of a person who is lowly what you know what comes to your mind usually we think of maybe those pictures that we see on T.V. in commercials of people in different countries I think the people that are lowly in this life are the poor or possibly maybe even the homeless the people who are weak physically weak they’re disabled or maybe they’re diseased and or maybe the lowly can be described as people who cannot repay you if you help them those are the lowly the people who cannot repay you if you help them why does God tell us to do this why does God tell us to associate with the low. I think there are several reasons but one reason that came to my mind was this when you are associating with the lowly it helps keep you humble and I’ve had this go through my mind maybe you have to if you are going around somebody when you’re around somebody who is lowly this thought comes to my mind quite often I realize that ultimately we’re the same we have the same value and but by the grace of God I’m not in the same situation that they’re in how many people in this life are lowly because of nothing that they did they were either maybe born with some kind of physical disability or maybe some kind of a disease is ravaged their body and they’re just not able to be that the productive person that most people are like and so someone who is lowly God tells us to associate with them. And why don’t we why are the reasons one of the reasons why we don’t make ourselves associate with the lowly what I came up with a couple different reasons one reason is because maybe we’re all still junior highers at heart and what I mean by that is when you go to the cafeteria in elementary school or junior high or senior high and a kid that looks a little bit different than everyone else he’s he’s sitting over at a table eating lunch all by himself and the other kids think someone is B.S. friend but it’s not me because if I go sit with him everyone’s going to think that I’m like him and I want to be popular in everyone else’s eyes so sometimes we don’t associate with the lowly because we’re afraid of what other people going to think about us that’s one of the benefits of getting older eventually you don’t care what other people think about you but that’s when one of the reasons another reason why we don’t associate with the lowly is because lowly people usually are needy people they have needs they have specific needs that need to be met and we think you know I just don’t have the time with the effort to really give to this person who is in need and also associating with the lowly.
You never really get a reward out of it meaning it can usually be a one sided relationship where you’re giving to them and they can’t really give anything back to you.
Got an example kind of a just a quiz to kind of test your heart let’s say who would you rather help who would you help first let’s say you work for a major corporation and there are two people in the parking lot that have a dead battery one is the C.E.O. of the company and the other is the person in charge of the grounds of maintenance Who are you going to jump the car first.
Everyone’s thinking well the C.E.O. right if I help the C.E.O. He might get to know me any might give me a raise or give me a promotion the good the groundskeeper can’t do anything for me.
That’s kind of a thought to me we should all think about who are we going to help God tells us to help people who are lowly sometimes it’s the people who can’t help us back. Well I think I’m as it comes to associating with the lowly You know how many people do you associate with and do I associate with that have I can absolutely do nothing to advance our self-worth if we think like that then I think all of us should be grateful that Jesus Christ did not think that way of us because there’s nothing really that we can give back to him suffer our love and our adoration but he associated with us well those are two of the ways that we can be humble to consider the other the needs of others to associate with the lowly and the third is to be a promoter of others to really build them up this is found in Romans Chapter twelve verse ten if you’re already in Romans you can just like a verse ten Romans twelve verse ten it says A love this verse that says love one another with brotherly affection outdo one another in showing on or now you might be thinking wait a second the word humility is it in there well you know I think you’re probably seeing just a second why I’m looking at this passage even though it doesn’t say to be humble it’s still part of humility because this is. Lying into another human being is worse there’s two words that are really need in this passage it says outdo one another the Greek word literally means to go before and to show the way so we are told to outdo each other in showing honor in other words we’re supposed to be the one set an example don’t wait for someone else to set the example for you be the one that’s out in front setting the example and the word for on or it literally means the price of something it means the price in the value that is affixed to something in another context this can actually mean the range of a person of a human being and so it’s saying treat everyone as if they out rank you that’s how we show humility and I think there’s a ton of applications especially with this verse some of you might be familiar with the book I think Gary Chapman wrote a book or Gary Small I want to shoot the five love languages so a lot of you are probably familiar with that book if it’s a really good book it kind of goes into the five main ways that we as human beings like to be told that we’re loved and valued and I was thinking one way that we can outdo each other in showing honor is with you know the love language of of a person that you’re whist and you can kind of feed them and kind of speak to them that way but maybe one of the the easiest ways the quickest and fastest ways that you and I can show or outdo each other in showing honor is to give compliments to each other. To find something about another person and just give them a compliment show them their value and their own or you know one thing I like to do from time to time is to give people nicknames I like to give nicknames and you know make sure you’re giving someone a good nickname right but I didn’t know he was going to be here today I point over there because he always has or whatever Rick Barton I’m going to I’m going to pick on Rick Barton today he’s not here for those of you who don’t know Rick Barton you should get to know Rick Barton he’s a great guy but Rick I think he gives nicknames to a lot of people and and he always says something to me maybe he says this to other people. But the first couple times he said it’s me ten twelve years ago when I first met him it kind of threw me off but he comes up to someone comes up to me maybe some of you and he says hey boss how you doing he uses the term boss and over the first couple times it kind of took me aback but then he says it was such affection that you know it’s an enduring nickname that he’s giving to you and so the first few times I was around Ricky said hey boss how you doing I was like I kind of like this guy you know he of the things that I’m someone that has value and importance you know this is the kind of guy I want to be around you know the way we speak to each other can do wonders for our unity with each other if you want to walk into a group of people and they all have nicknames for each other like Hey Champ Hey stud hey hey you know hey boss you want to be a part of that group right but if you walk into a group that’s just the opposite where they’re biting in devouring each other they’re gossiping about each other you think there’s no unity there I don’t want to be around those kinds of people you know when it comes to a sermon sometimes something is so clear that I like to give up a homework assignment so I kind of want to give a homework assignment with this and this is as easy as it gets.
If you wanted build unity with the people in your life if you want to have healthy relationships then look for a genuine way to complement the people that are in your life.
Outdo them in showing on or find something that they’re good at something that they did really well and compliment them about that that is one of the best ways that we can build unity with each other and when we do that we’re showing someone else their value and their worth and that is the way that we truly are practicing humility. While some people struggle with pride some people struggle with humility maybe you do maybe you don’t maybe you’re like I’m glad my wife is an error because she would definitely be reiterating everything you say but when it comes to our eternal future I want to hold understand this when it comes to our eternal future. We have won because Christ humbled Himself for our sake he humbled himself he sacrificed himself to show us the value that he sees in each and every one of us so what I want to do to close is look at the extended passage in Philip Ians to read just a couple verses out of there I want to read this passage and see the great example of humility that Christ sets for us and so maybe we can follow his example so you can read along here this is flippin Chopper two beginning in verse one
it says so if there is any encouragement in Christ any comfort from love any participation in the spirit any affection and sympathy complete my joy by being of the same mind having the same love being in full of cord 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 mine among yourselves which is Yours in Christ Jesus who though he was in the form of God did not County quality 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 the cross therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the same the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father is and Jesus died so that you and I can be united with him and even be united with each other and his humility was a huge part of that and without it we would still be responsible for our sins Well I hope that today by seeing the example of Christ here and by studying God’s word all of us will make this a priority in our lives we know that we need to be humble in north we know the North to be two one and have unity with each other we need to be humble So let’s wake up every morning and when we get dressed let’s make sure we clothe ourselves with humility in the schools of prayer.
Dear Lord I thank you so much for this passage that we read today all the passages in your word to teach us about how to one another each other and how to build relationships healthy relationships with each other and learn today as well as we’re dealing with the subject of humility I know for some people that might be a great struggle and for others maybe you just worked on them long enough in their lives that that it comes easily but Lord help us today to realize you gave enough verses on humility that we need to pay attention to them if we’re going to have healthy relationships with others with other members of the Body of Christ as other people that are that are just here on Earth we need to put on and clothe ourselves with the humility that you teach of so Lord I pray that will take all of this to heart that we will look for ways to meet the needs of others that we will look to build each other up and set the example in showing honor to one another Lord help us to do this and enjoy the healthy relationship that you’ve called us to have your present Christ name in.