Dwayne Lemon: True Humility 8/16/19

now testing one two testing testing can you all hear me you could hear me on the mic oh yes I could hear myself alright good morning to everyone on this beautiful crisp New England morning we want to thank God for our privilege to be here with you all and the Lord has something very special he wants to share with us as we continue in our study and in our theme of dealing with our great need for the humility of Christ the meekness of Christ as we are preparing for the final crisis and this is a very very relevant subject because as we have been studying all of us are impacted with this thing called pride it affects all classes and it is something that must and thank God can and by God's grace will be overcome through the merits of our Savior and so as we prepare our hearts now to go into some very practical points in our study I'd like to go ahead and begin with a word of Prayer I'm gonna kneel to do that you can of course bow your heads with me but let us all pray as we seek the Lord and ask for his grace to be with us during this time our Father in Heaven we are very grateful for the blessing to be able to rise this morning and to press together and come together here at camp meeting that we can receive more and still more of your Holy Spirit and father there's more about Jesus that we desire to learn more of this love that we desire within our heart and so we just simply come before you with heads bowed and upon our knees and we're asking for the forgiveness of our sins we're praying for the enlightenment of your Holy Spirit that he may come and open our eyes and show us wonderful things from your word and I pray that your words might be made so plain that both children and adults may not only hear and understand but apply it in our lives this is our prayer that we do ask and the worthy and mighty name of Jesus that everyone say Amen well I'm very grateful once again that we get some time to study and it's something that I want to show you from the book of Matthew chapter 8 I want you to go to Matthew the eighth chapter I remember one time years ago someone asked me brother lemon what is faith and my answer was faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen and the person says what does that mean and I said I have no idea in other words I have learned a long time ago that God did not create you and I to be parrots he created us to be people there's a difference between a parrot and people a parrot knows how to repeat what it heard but God has given people the ability not only to repeat but to understand a parrot can repeat things it doesn't understand but a person is supposed to be able to repeat things that they do understand for the Bible says with all thy getting get understanding and so it is that many of times we have learned how to repeat things but we don't necessarily understand what we're repeating and so I want to remind you that you're not a parrot you're a person and people should know not only how to repeat but to understand what they are repeating therefore I want to take you to another text of Scripture to answer that question when we talk about what is faith I want you to consider Matthew chapter eight in Matthew the eighth chapter I'm going to show you what faith is and I'm gonna let Jesus tell us what faith is it is in Matthew the eighth chapter right there in verse 5 that we will begin our study and so it is in Matthew chapter 8 and verse 5 this is what it says and when Jesus was entered into Capernaum there came unto Him a Centurion beseeching him and saying Lord my servant life at home sick of the palsy grievously tormented and jesus saith unto him I will come and heal him verse 8 the turian answered and said lord I am not worthy that thou should has come under my roof but Speak the word only and my servant shall be healed for I am a man under Authority having soldiers under me and I say that this man go and he goeth and to another come and he cometh and to my servant do this and he doeth it verse 10 when Jesus heard it he marvelled and said to them that followed verily I say unto you I have not found so what so great faith no not in Israel there is something that this man did that Jesus himself the master teacher Jesus himself said it was not just faith he said what he did was great faith the question is what did he do it was that writing in verse 8 it was right there in verse 8 that we see what he did that Jesus said that's great faith you know what Jesus was showing us when Jesus told that man I'll come to your house and heal him I will do what you want you want me to heal him he said I'll come to your house and I'll do it the man said Lord it's not even necessary for you to do that he said just speak the word only and my servant gonna be healed jesus said that's great faith let me make it a simple plain language what is faith faith is trusting the Word of God only to do what the word said it's gonna do you think a child can repeat that I guarantee you teach that to children they're gonna get it what is faith trusting the Word of God only that it's gonna do what it said it's gonna do that's faith don't ever forget that everything you read from Abraham onward Noah everybody all the great people in the Hall of faith in Hebrews the eleventh chapter what were those men and women doing they were simply trusting the Word of God only to do what the word said it's gonna do that's faith that's faith but I want you to see what preceded his faith look again at verse II in verse eight it said the Centurion answered and said Lord I'm not something What did he say he said I'm not worthy in other words what we find with the Centurion is that he was a humble man he possessed the humility of Christ and it was as a result of having this humility of Christ within his heart that he was able to demonstrate great faith my brothers and my sisters God wants you and I to understand that we are to demonstrate these last moments in Earth's history great faith in God and one of the things that's going to help us to reflect this type of faith of Jesus is we must have the humility of Jesus you see if you were to take this same story in Matthew 8 and go into Luke 7 you don't have to turn there now but when you read this same story in Luke 7 it brings out some more detail in Luke 7 this is where the Jews came to Jesus and they said Lord you should go and heal his servant because he's worthy oh man that's so powerful they lived he came to Christ and said he is worthy to be blessed and then here it is later on that brother comes along and he says I'm not worthy Jesus marveled at this man it seemed as if this man had both the humility of Christ and the faith of Christ and my brothers and sisters that man that Centurion should be a type of you and me people who had the hue of Christ and people who demonstrate the faith of Christ the Bible tells us very clearly something about humility that we need to understand in James chapter 5 let's turn there in James the fifth chapter now I want us to see what the Bible says here because this is another point that we would do well to consider James we're looking at the fifth chapter and I want you to see what the Bible says because when we talk about humility being humble there's something very important that God wants us to get in this context of being humble James were in chapter 5 I'm so sorry 1st Peter 5 said James 5 I'm in first Peter 5 verse Peter chapter 5 and I want you to see what the Bible says here in 1st Peter the fifth chapter Peter says something very beautiful yes it is true that he's highlighting the younger people but he also is very inclusive of the adults as well in 1st Peter 5 and verse 5 here's what the Bible says it says likewise ye younger submit yourselves unto the elder yay how many all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with what be clothed with humility for God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble then it says in verse 6 therefore humble yourselves therefore humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time now when God calls us to humility clothing ourselves with it you know clothing can reveal a lot about a man clothing can reveal a lot about a woman our characters are largely defined by how we dress and so it is that when we clothe ourselves with humility that alone should cause people to say you must have been walking with Jesus because we are a different people in a world filled with pride in a world that is going the route of pride in a church that's going in the route of pride God is calling for his people who are really listening to his voice closed yourself with humility and then it says humble yourself now this is the part that I want us to consider humility is not merely that which comes from Christ but it is also something that you and I must work out in our own lives humble yourself in the side of the Lord now the reason why Peter says that is because God can humble you if you'd like you have a choice you know I think of two characters in the Bible one character was humbled by God the other character humbled themselves before God one character's name is Nebuchadnezzar the other character's name is Mary Nebuchadnezzar was a hard-headed man no matter how many times the appeals of God in both spiritual and human form came to him he would not respond and humble himself so as a result of that God loved him so much that God said well Nebuchadnezzar needs some help and so God decided I'm gonna help Nebuchadnezzar enter into my humility and so God humbled him and God put him in a situation where he had no escape he had to face it that's what happened to me a few years ago you know I have never resonated with Jeremiah's account when he says our hearts by deceitful above all things and desperately wicked I honestly thought I was a fairly humble guy I never went around like you know I'm a humble guy hey folks I'm humble hey you know I never did that I never advertised myself but I thought I was demonstrating the humility of Christ but it was in 2016 that when I began to start losing my mind I started going through things that I never went through before I found my mind going in places of depression and anxiety that I never experienced in my life and I was like why am I going through this I don't even understand what I'm going through this but it was prior to that that I demonstrated some pretty serious things of self exaltation I found myself at a ministry one day and I heard the voice of God it was like God was saying I I saw some things that I wasn't pleased with and I remember that it was bothering me bothered me quite a bit and I remember it got to a point that I started to get really agitated God spiritually was letting me know Dwayne you need to calm down and you need to pray and I said I don't want to pray I'm tired of this obviously you're not stopping this issue so I think I need to go ahead and try to stop it myself these were some problems that was going on for a period of years that I just kept dealing with over and over again and then I found myself at a place that the anger just started building up the frustration started building up my wife God used my wife honey you know you getting a little too upset about this the observations that I made were correct the observations that I made one point but the problem was was how I was handling it it was the manner of how I was addressing it and so one day I found myself with another brother in ministry that I got so upset that for a moment you know when you read the book ministry of healing I think it's page 172 and it it's it's talking about you see the 7201 7203 intemperate and one of the things that it says is that when you're dealing with an intemperate person she says we must remember that for the time oh man those words is so powerful she says when working for the intemperate we must remember that for the time you are not dealing with a sane person but you are dealing with somebody who is under the control of a demon so when I allowed Satan to have control over my mind I began to yell and to express my anger towards a brother in Christ and it was so bad that my wife my children and a small little group of people all saw me in a form that they said we have not seen you like this this is why it's so dangerous to bottle up anger it's so dangerous you gotta let Jesus be that Lamb of God that takes away the sin you gotta let him take away the anger but when you bottle it up that stuff sooner or later pops and I popped and I exalted myself and I pointed out all of his sins in his eros while indirectly I was exalting myself that I'm not doing what he did and God visited me with a judgment because it was right after that that I went out for my morning walk and it felt like a dark cloud was following me and I just started saying what is going on and before you know it I realized what I was going through it took me a while to realize it I literally was sensing as if God was not with me let me tell you something when you're serious about God and when you love him and when you walk with Him and then one day as a result of us indulging in sin God begins to distancing himself from us you sense it you will pick it up that abiding peace gone before you know a family I couldn't even go past the graveyard without trembling in my heart because all I just kept feeling like was I was gonna die and he cast away not really from the earth not merely for my family but from God himself I have come out of there sound my I have never cherished having a sound mind as much as I do now and you know what I realized what God did he humbled me family I'm telling you you can either let God humble you like he did Nebuchadnezzar you're not listening you're hard-headed and you just insist I'm gonna do what I want to do and nobody's gonna tell me what to do you keep living like that God might love on you so much that he will humble you himself he'll put you in a situation where you cannot out talk it and you cannot out walk it and God will hold you until you finally realize how much you need him but you can humble yourself like Mary you know first Corinthians 11 tells us a woman's hair is her glory Mary came unto the Lord and man she took her hair and laid her glory right there in the dust and wiped his feet she humbled herself before Jesus and what a powerful demonstration it was you see God is making it very clear what he wants is humble yourself in the sight of the Lord recognize who he is submit unto Him but if we won't listen can you imagine he's so desperate to save us he says well they won't humble themselves I will now humble them and there are some people that didn't even response to God's humbling like Pharaoh and hand I've lost any are being lost is a very tragic thing it just doesn't have to happen but it weighs in the balance of that war between humility and pride and so it is that when we talk about humbling ourselves in the side of the Lord four points of humility I want us to consider as we go to our study this morning four points of humility number one humble ourselves towards God when we talk about where do we find humility being represented in our lives number one humble ourselves towards God number two humble ourselves in our perception of ourselves that's number two number three humble ourselves in our relationships with other people number four humble ourselves in regards to the circumstances of life whether good or bad these are four areas of humility that must become our reality as we are preparing for the final crisis to take place in Earth's history we must be clothed with the humility of Christ we must teach this and impart this to our children and when we think about humbling ourselves in the sight of the Lord we're humbling ourselves towards God we're humbling ourselves and our perception of ourselves we're humbling ourselves in our relationship with other people and we humble ourselves in regards to the circumstances of life whether good or bad if good things happen unto you submitting to God when bad things happen unto you submit unto God this teaching is actually in the first angels message when you consider the first angels message take a closer look John the Revelator made it very clear didn't he he said then I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell upon the earth to every nation and kindred and tongue and people what was he saying he said with a loud voice fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has come and do what worship Him that made heaven and earth the sea and the fountains of waters what we need to understand is in the first angels message we see at least four instructions right fear God give glory to him the reason why is because we're under the hour of judgment and then worship Him those four things we need to understand right four things we need to understand what does it mean to fear God what does it mean to give glory to him what constitutes the hour of judgment and what is worship it now my focus for this study is worship when it tells us worship Him there's a way it works and there's a way it doesn't work there's a reason why there's true worshipers and false worshipers now what I want to do is I want to show you the context of the true worshiper are you ready let's consider some Bible verses in the wonderful book of Revelation chapter 22 verses 8 and 9 let's notice something and you're going to see this connecting thread in revelation 22 8 and 9 it says this and I John saw these things and heard them and when I had heard and seen I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things then saith he unto me see thou do it not for I am thy fellow-servant and of thy brethren the prophets and of them which keep the sayings of this book worship God pay attention to this verse next verse the next verse we're going to consider his 1st Corinthians 14 24 and 25 the Apostle Paul was making it very clear that while people were speaking in a confusion of tongues in the church of Qarth that he began to talk about how prophesying is better it is preferable would to God that all his people were prophets we read in the Old Testament now look at what it says here in 1st Corinthians 14 24 and 25 it says but if all prophesy and there come in one that believeth not or let me qualify this the word prophesy means two things you can prophesy by foretelling that's the kind of way we understand prophesy for telling telling something before it comes to well that's one way of understanding prophesy the other way of understanding prophesy in the Greek same thing it means to tell fourth to proclaim you understand that that's the part where every single one of us can play we cannot foretell that's a very special gift that God gives but we all can tell fourth we can all proclaim you understand that Paul here is talking about the proclaiming aspect of prophesy amen all right so again but if all prophesy and there come in one that believeth not or one unlearned he is convinced of all he is judged of all and thus are the one secrets of his heart made manifest and then what happens to him and so falling down on his face he will do what worship God and report that God is in you of a truth continuing next verse Joshua 5 13 through 15 notice what the Bible says and it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand and Joshua went unto him and said unto Him art thou for us or for our adversaries and he said nay but as captain of the hosts of the Lord am I now come and Joshua did what fell on his face to the earth and did do what worship and said unto him what say it my Lord unto his servant we can continue to go throughout these stories you remember Isaiah chapters one through five eight times Isaiah says woe to Israel woe to Israel but Isaiah 6 Isaiah sees the glory of the Lord and when Isaiah sees the glory of the Lord Isaiah has no time to woe Israel anymore Isaiah now says woe is me and now he's in a position well he's ready to worship God and to now be a full faithful servant of God because now his sins have been pardoned he is forgiven and he's been empowered for ministry what God wants us to understand is no man or no woman can fulfill the first angels message none of us can worship God until we've seen him and heard him and beheld his glory and when we see the character of God for who he is that's why we did the study last night that study last night when we see Christ lifted up when we see one who is willing to take everything of our wickedness so that he can give us everything of his righteousness when we behold what Jesus went through just for me when we watch how he was misunderstood rejected hated montt killed beaten brutally and the list goes on and to know that I did that and he would have been 100% righteous if he would have struck all of us down and turned us into pillars of dust right there but instead he takes our punishment rather than distributing punishment he takes our punishment and then gives us his reward in return if we accepted my faith that was supposed to do something to the mind that was supposed to make us say Lord I worship you you see when you look up the word worship in the Hebrew the word worship means to prostrate to make someone stoop even more deep in the Greek the word worship means to kiss like a dog licking his master's hand to kiss like a dog licking his master's hands to prostrate oneself in homage have you ever studied why dogs lick their master's hands I did the research there was no way when I read this when I studied this out in the Greek I said to kiss like a dog looking his master so it made me immediately going to the animal professionals here's what I found when a dog licks its master's him if a dog nervously licks your hands it may just be his way of communicating that he is obedient and what else subordinate to you this doggy doesn't feel dominant over you and acknowledges that you're the leader in his world hand licking is often a modest act in the realm of canine body language worship is a statement or a demonstration of humility so there's no way that you can teach the first angels message faithfully without calling the people to the humility of Christ and the relinquishing into the surrendering of pride can't happen and so what God is saying to us is as we studied last night we need to behold his character we need to see the man and the more that we behold Christ the easier it is for us to humble ourselves before him and pay unto him that homage that worship that he deserves this is why that brother was able to demonstrate such great faith because he already saw he was unworthy sometimes God blesses us and some of us say that's right I work hard for that God says your best righteous works is a filthy rag and I study the details of that filthy rag a filthy rag is like when a woman goes through administration and when everything is discharged onto that napkin imagine taking that napkin and sticking it before the people are saying this is how God sees our best efforts without him that makes it crystal clear that's that's how much that that's what that's how God is saying that's how offended I am because that's offensive God says that's how offended I am when you think you did that when I think look at what I accomplished remember pride is misplaced credit to someone or to something the credit belongs to God and so what the Lord wants us to understand is that this is this is a teaching we must get by His grace we're told in mine character and personality book to page 456 those who have not humbled their souls before God in act knowledge ngilgi have not experienced that repentance which is not to be repented of and have not confessed our sins with true humiliation of soul and brokenness of spirit of whoring our iniquity we have never saw truly for the forgiveness of sin and if we have never sought we have never found the peace of God the only reason why we may not have remission of sins that are past is that we are not willing to humble our proud hearts and comply with the conditions of the word of truth there is explicit instruction given concerning this matter confession of sin where the public or private should be heartfelt and freely expressed it is not to be urged from the sinner it is not to be made in a flippant and careless way of force from those who have no realizing sense of the abhorrent character of sin the confession that is mingled with tears and sorrow that is the outpouring of the inmost soul finds its way to the god of infinite pity says the psalmist the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and save it such as be of a contrite spirit God wants us to understand that we need to have a right estimate of ourselves the Bible is very clear there is a way that seems right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death proverbs 14 in verse 12 the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it Jeremiah 17 and verse 9 the Bible is very clear but the carnal mind is at enmity with God and it cannot either love God or obey God or his law Romans 8 and verse 7 the Bible is clear that we are carnal sold under sin there's nothing about us that we can boast we must have a right estimation of ourselves we have to understand that outside of Christ I'm dangerous outside of Christ I'm dangerous and I'm not talking about outside of Christ meeting don't you know if you profess him you're in Christ that's not what I'm saying what I'm saying is that every moment of the day you're gonna have temptations to walk outside of Christ a husband can be a nice guy for most of the afternoon but it's that one moment in the evening that can cancel out all of the nicety that he showed earlier in the day at every moment there must be a submission unto God and the first place that God calls us to submit to is his word that's the first place man should not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God so let's go ahead and talk about it what are some difficulties of humility go to Galatians chapter 2 the first thing that I want us to talk about is accept correction without retaliation let's take a look at that in galatians chapter 2 when we talk about experiencing the humility of christ being intentional humbling ourselves rather than God humbling us God wants us to understand who we are the reality of our condition we are sold under sin we are carnal we have an extremely wicked and deceitful heart and even our best efforts are offensive to God outside of him therefore there's no need to trust ourselves in him therefore we must trust his words now I want you to watch this because these are practical examples of where you know people in the Bible times went through some of these very battles in Galatians chapter 2 verses 11 to 14 notice what the Bible says when you get there please say Amen in Galatians 2 starting at verse 11 it says but when Peter was come to Antioch hi this is Paul withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed for before that certain came from James he did eat with the Gentiles but when they were come he withdrew and separated himself fearing them which were of the circumcision and the other Jews dissembled likewise with him in so much that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel I said unto Peter before them all if thou being a jew liveth after the manner of gentiles and not as do the jews why compel us doubt the gentiles to live as do the jews Paul actually rebuked Peter to his face Paul rebuked him I mean that that had to be a tough situation how do you how well do you handle it when somebody rebukes you to your face some of us don't handle that too well you know we're ready to retaliate but do you know what I read in Galatians Peter never retaliated Peter totally received what Paul said what do you think was the reason why Peter received what Paul said say again he learned early humility he did but let's take it a little bit further that's true why do you really think Peter submitted ok the Spirit of God was in him and he knew that it was the spirit speaking through Paul that is very close to the thought that I'm thinking also anybody else want to add I'll take one more comment yes he had learned to distrust himself all right agreed with everything I'm gonna even try to make it more simple Peter knew that what Paul's saying was according to God's Word you see Peter made a decision I am gonna take Jesus seriously when Jesus said man should not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God when Peter heard it I'm sure Peters heart was cut like most of our hearts would be listen nobody gets rebuked to their face and says wow that was a great experience I think that's a little bit superhuman when we get rebuked it cuts that's the natural human response it cuts we say to ourselves oh I didn't like that just now but what causes us not to retaliate because what we do is we think before we respond and what Peter demonstrated was that everything Paul said is true because Peter said look I went under the vision I remember when the blanket was thrown out I remember when God says eat now Peter and Peter said Lord I've never ate anything that was common to unclean Peter remembered that God says do not call that common or unclean of which I had cleansed Peter remembered that whole vision series experience in in Acts chapter 10 and Peter remembered that it was the Gentiles that God says I've cleansed and for a moment Peter suffered a blind spot and he allowed that bigotry to still come out when he was sitting with the Gentiles so the Jews coming to say oh let me get away and then he began to do what he did and Paul came to him not in anger not with a super-high opinion Paul came to him and corrected him with the word and Peter submitted to the word as spoken through the mouth of Paul and that's why Peter did not retaliate my brothers and my sisters the first lesson I want you to understand it's even when somebody has to rebuke you to your face before you get angry before you respond and say who do you think you are how dare you or we do that great equalizing moment you know we're amazing with this equalizing thing this thing is almost holy of Satan I'm discovering especially how we do it somebody rebukes you for what you're doing wrong and we say back to them but what about you do you know what we're doing with deflecting the word the council and the correction from the Word of God we're deflecting that we push that away and we're now just trying to justify ourselves in the midst of this person declaring us guilty of something and we could miss some of the greatest blessings that way you may need to correct that person and say okay but what about you there may be some things the person correcting you there may be some areas where they need correcting too but at that moment what you need to do is you need to pause and you need to be able to say wait a minute is what they're saying according to the word this is how all things can work together for good because even when I'm getting rebuked to my face if I can assess the rebuke and say is this according to the word and if the answer is yes then I can receive that rebuke and I could actually walk away with the blessing while my accuser might walk away with a curse because maybe they won't see from the Word of God where they need to change while they were so incredibly instrumental in helping me see where I need to change it's like Paul said sometimes you could preach to others while you yourself are cast away so pause Peter did that he knew what Paul said was according to the word and therefore he submitted and that was a statement of humility oh but it goes deeper than that we got another one Luke 19 1 through 10 making wrongs right regardless of the cost Luke 19 let's turn there now in Luke 19 is chapter again I love practical practical studies Luke 19 watch this in Luke 19 verses 1 to 10 now because these are several verses I'll do the first one you'll do verse 2 I'll do three you do four we'll take it down to verse 10 in Luke the nineteenth chapter another way Bible evidence of humility is again not only accepting correction without retaliation but also making wrongs right regardless of the cost now let's go ahead and let's consider it Luke 19 1 through 10 verse 1 and Jesus entered and passed through Jericho and he sought to see Jesus who he was and could not for the press because he was little a stature and when Jesus came to the place he looked up and saw him and said unto him Zacchaeus make haste and come down for today I must abide at thy house and when they saw it they all murmured saying that he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner and Jesus said unto him this day is salvation come to this house for as much as he also is a son of Abraham Zacchaeus again submitted unto the word Zacchaeus noon I have done wrong by people I have taken things I should not have taken and as a result of that Zacchaeus now sees himself in a place of necessary correction Zacchaeus was gonna lose out on a lot yes he was rich but by time he paid everybody back maybe he wasn't gonna be in that situation anymore but Zacchaeus did not count any of that because he knew my God shall supply all of my needs according to his riches and glory and so Zacchaeus did not calculate what he would suffer he simply knew what the word required and he submitted unto the word and he was willing to correct the wrong regardless of the cost that's another statement of humility brothers and sisters when God shows you that you've been doing something wrong even if it's for a long time and I like to tell this to preachers especially because sometimes we can preach things that we were wrong we can leave out certain elements of the gospel that can mess up the truth that we were trying to teach and sometimes God is gonna say correct that you did it publicly correct it publicly some of us say but I might lose prestige I might lose popularity I might lose some of my following I might lose for some people they'll think even money God says I didn't ask you to calculate any of that God says what does my word tell you to do then go make the wrong right I might lose my credentials as a minister well you may lose your earthly credentials but maybe not your heavenly God wants us to understand family what are some things that you have done wrong that needs to be corrected and you've been slow to correcting it because you're too busy calculating the cost of it God gives us the story of Zacchaeus to help us remember don't calculate the cost if you know what my word says do it lead the consequences with me that is again a statement of humility so again when we think about humility it's accepting correction without retaliation submitting to the word no matter how stinging the review comes also it is making wrongs right regardless of the cause whatever it may cost I remember that I went to the Netherlands and somebody came to me and said brother lemon I committed a crime many years ago and got away with it I found out as a Christian now that I see it my duty to confess the crime that I got away with and to turn myself in to the police we studied the Word of God together and I showed him and I said you need to go to the police and you need to acknowledge what you've done and you need to make that room right coz the investigation was still out he was scared he needed to make the wrong right but he understood the cause might be you got to go to jail do you know that that young man went and he told the police what he did and he was pardoned kind of reminds you is just that story of Jesus Lord we come to you guilty and we deserve punishment and then here goes God saying where are that accusers none Lord well neither do i condemn you just go and sin no more you got to be prepared to accept the cost for making a wrong right but when you do that I promise you that is a demonstration of humility finally following the truth no matter how far you've gone in error galatians chapter 1 let's turn there in galatians the fifth chapter and in galatians chapter 1 our next event is at 10:30 is that right 10:30 okay good galatians chapter 1 in galatians chapter 1 i just want you to see what the bible says here when you look at Galatians 1 11 through 17 because it's quite a few verses less again go ahead and interchangeably read so I'll do verse 1 and you'll go to verse 11 and you do 12 and so on so in Galatians 1 we're looking at verses 11 to 17 if you're there please say Amen well the Bible says in Galatians 1 starting at verse 11 but I certify you brethren that the gospel which was preached of me is not after men for ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews religion how that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God and wasted it but when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me but I went into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus now verse 23 but they had heard only that he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed yea no idea how much of the humility of Christ it took for Saul to walk away from everything that he established I mean it takes a humble man to do that that he was there persecuted the Christians he used Scripture to show that the Christians were wrong he used scripture to show the Christians need to be killed but one day when he came in contact with Jesus and when Jesus showed him clear as they went Christ arrested that brother's attention that he could not walk away from it Saul truly became Paul and now the very faith he once destroyed he became as the book education says next to the man who never speak as another man speak the most illustrious teacher the world has ever known the Apostle Paul it took human T to the words of Christ for him to make such a change he knew I'm gonna die because of this we're not talking about losing possessions we're not just talking about losing property in and things of that nature tangibles Paul knew I'm gonna lose my life of this but because of the humility of Christ submitting to the word he said I count my life but dumb my brothers and sisters whenever you want to study truth humility please remember these words implicit belief in Christ's word is true humility true self surrender I used to think humility is how soft your voice is when you talk I used to think humility was how plain your clothes were if you drove a car that was at least 10 15 20 30 years old when you walk in the house it has to have a few creaks on the floor you know when you walk I mean I used to think that that's humility I realized that you can have cheap clothes a brokedown car and a creaking house and you can be as prideful as Satan himself oh by the way I've learned you can have a new car have very nice clothes and live in a house without a single Creek in it and be a walking representation of the humility of Christ my point is very simple that stuff does not make you humble and that stuff does not make you proud if you really want to know what a humble person is it is someone who exercises implicit trust in the words of Christ and that's how we opened our study didn't we that brother with you want to know what faith is I wonder if anybody in this room could tell me what faith is does anybody remember what faith is who remembers little faith you stick your hand up if you remember if you remember what faith is stand up and tell us what faith is please who would do that for you hey then now is that true yes it's true right but what we did was we took that that discussion on faith and we we said we're gonna simplify it a little bit more and we allow Jesus to tell us what not only faith was but what great faith was who remembers the lesson of what Jesus taught us on what great faith is all right go ahead and tell us amen that is faith totally trusting the Word of God only I need no other evidence and I depend on that word only to do what the word said is gonna do the only reason that brother was able to say that is because of that attitude he demonstrated I'm not worthy Lord I'm not worthy and so I want to leave this with you my brothers and my sisters I want you to understand that the humility of Christ is an absolute must for you as it is a must for me God wants us to understand that in these closing moments of Earth's history we must clothe ourselves with the humility of Christ that we may truly demonstrate the faith of Christ and what is true humility it is implicit belief in the Word of God only beyond your feelings beyond the calculating of consequences what does the word say well if the word says it by God's grace I will do it any man or any woman that says the word says it by God's grace I will do it and I will live it behold a humble man behold a humble woman let us lose this idea that our clothing in our this than these things in and of themselves speak of humility that is way too shallow judgment don't don't allow that to consume your mind and I've seen people do that I've seen people do both extremes somebody drives up in a nice vehicle we say must not must be proud that is so ridiculous I mean that's so shallow somebody drives a good car you think they're proud and both what kind of where do you get that from that just makes no sense somebody drives up in a clunker and dugu chuka chuka chuka and you know it sleeping oil tracks on the road we say oh look at that humble guy that's nonsense I mean really that I I really hope nobody is under this tent that things like that but it if you do I pray that Christ makes you free from that it's like those things in and of themselves did not make you neither proud of humble okay yeah I mean really shouldn't judge even in our hearts but the key is is that God wants us to understand true humility is implicit belief in the Word of God that's it I mean that is it if you're living by the word that is humility I want to give you some practical steps to experiencing the humility of Christ where you can be intentional this is gonna be so much that you might want to get a camera out us I'm gonna take a picture of it or what happy I'm gonna give you something that you can actually do for the next 30 days I actually am going to challenge you on this again you know we cannot make ourselves humble we know that humility comes from Christ is called the humility of Christ but humble yourselves there are some things that we can call in cooperation with God there are some things that we can do that God will accomplish producing or reproducing his humility and yours in my heart so I do want to give this to you before we go so for the next 30 days I'd like to recommend that you give some of these things a true try and I believe that if you do it with sincerity of heart it is gonna produce good fruit in your life so here we go number one every day study something about the closing scenes of Jesus's life references that you can look at these are some awesome references volume 2 of the testimonies to the church page 202 215 if you've never read that you need to read it it is dealing with the cost of the cross that thing brick it will break the heart and bring you to your knees before God when I understand what my Savior went through for my sins and vol 2 of the testimonies paid 200 a to 15 man it spells it out so beautifully so you can read that Calvary go over that chapter in desire of Ages continue to look at especially those closing scenes of the life of Christ take as many lessons from the cross that you can possibly get I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not i but Christ liveth within me If any man will come after me let him deny himself take up his cross every lesson you can pull from the cross of Calvary as taught in Scripture start studying it out be intentional make notes write it in your journal you will find many blessed lessons number 2 take time for communion with God in prayer three times a day the Bible teaches us in psalm 55:17 evening morning and at noon many of us know how to quote it very few of us do it and we wonder why we like we like power in our witness and in our personal lives we're not doing what Christ told us to do I just was that asi a week or so ago and I did a whole message on the secret to a life of power you just got uploaded on audio verse if you haven't heard it check it out we literally talked about the reality that a lot of us are doing a lot of gospel work but we don't have a lot of power which is lacking power and here it is Jesus literally in his communion life with God in nature he literally taught us the secret to a life of power that's ministry of healing page 51 and so at least three times a day don't just know it family your blessing is never in your knowing your blessing is in your doing if the Bible says three times a day you map it out sometime in the morning sometime in the evening sometime in noon there's several hours in all of it pick a time guard it jealously every quiet moment you have sing a sacred song or repeat favorite victory verses my dear brother and my friend Randy skeet you know when he's in a house with you you know brother ski does that brother is just repeating verses I mean literally you know that big Beijing voice that he has I mean he just he literally just walks through the house and the Bible says and you know he's just he's he's making his breakfast but he's just repeating verses when you're get those quiet moments have a song in your heart you washing dishes we praise the old God for the son of thy love for Jesus who died and is now gone above hallelujah thank the glory hallelujah Amen hallelujah find the glory revive us again that's why you're watching those dishes sitting down always have a song in your heart what else can help us create practical barriers from going into indulging habits if there's one thing that keeps us from the humility of Christ is the indulgence in sin the book Galatians chapter 6 and verse 1 teaches us hey be careful remember consider yourself you know if you know that there are certain things that you do that leads you back into sin well create the barriers do what you can to say let me create some barriers that helps me to not go back into these various indulgences Psalms 119 and verse 60 I cannot stress this enough immediately act on what God says to you without hesitation I made haste the Bible says and I delayed not to keep my Commandments once God makes it clear to you what to do do it don't sit there and think about it too long if you do that you'll find yourself talking yourself into disobedience that's humility remember implicit belief in the words of God and doing it so submit the intentional in sharing Christ with those who know him not always remembered he that waters shall be watered also proverbs 11 in verse 25 be intentional be intentional be intentional in sharing Christ I challenge anybody do this for the next 30 days tell me if you walk with God gets worse or better I'll give you my email you can send it to me I challenge any of you do this just for the next thirty days make a covenant Lord by your grace for the next thirty days all of it I won't compromise on one point by your grace I'm gonna plan my day for the next 30 days do it and you tell me if you walk with God gets worse or better and I can already guarantee you because of the precious promises that I know it will only get better family my closing thought to you is pride and self esteem cannot flourish in the hearts that keep fresh in memory the scenes of Calvary pride and self esteem they can't flourish they can't survive in the hearts that keeps fresh the scenes of Calvary and it's mines please God oh yes the devil will fight us but greater is He that's in us than he that is in this world and so my question to you is do we understand our study this morning if we understand what God is calling us to do we have a clearer picture of some practical steps of how we can experience the humility of Christ in our day to day life do we do we see some gems did we see that this morning and by the grace of God how many of you are willing to make the covenant with the Lord to say so let it be done in my life if you wanted to make that covenant let's stand to our feet together we're gonna have a closing prayer we're gonna trust that God is gonna do something special in our hearts and he's gonna give us some new clothing he's gonna close us with his precious humility and it will be a key to help us make it through the final scenes reverse history let us pray together our loving father we are so grateful we thank you for your wonderful words of life we thank you for the truth as it is in Jesus we thank you to God for the way that you are calling us into a deeper experience of the humility of Christ that helps us better to exercise the faith of Christ and Lord I pray that as we cooperate with you pour out your most choicest blessings upon us as your people draw our hearts even closer and higher upon Jacob's Ladder that ultimately we find ourselves in the arms of Jesus this is our prayer that we do ask in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Caribou Seventh-day Adventist Fellowship

Views: 10,000

Rating: 4.8648648 out of 5

Keywords: humility, Isaiah, worship, bow down, see Christ, correction, retaliation, true humility, Dwayne Lemon, closing scenes, wrongs right, Practical steps

Id: YgVmv_o3ucg

Length: 65min 36sec (3936 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 27 2019