Point of Grace Worship 2.12.26 Sermon Notes – Lent 1 - “Pursuing Humility”
“Pursuing Humility”
Our Lenten Journey
Who are your heroes of humility?
What is “biblical” humility?
Humility is the radical reliance on God as the animating center of our being.
Humility denies “self” that place of power and yields to God as the rightful holder of that position.
Philippians 2
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
“Humility, the place of entire dependence upon God, is from the very nature of things the first duty and the highest virtue of his creatures. And so pride, the loss of humility, is the root of every sin and evil.
… It was when the serpent breathed the poison of his pride, the desire to be as God, into the hearts of our first parents that they too fell from their highest estate into the wretchedness to which all humankind has sunk in heaven and on earth.
Pride, or self-exaltation, is the very gateway to hell and so Jesus came to bring humility back to earth to make us partakers of it and by it to save us. … He humbled himself and became obedient to death. His humility gave his death its value and so became our redemption and now the salvation he imparts is nothing less and nothing else than a communication of his own life and death, his own disposition and spirit, his own humility as the ground and root of his relationship with God and his redeeming work.
Jesus Christ took the place and fulfilled the destiny of man as a creature by his own life of perfect humility his humility became our salvation his salvation is our humility.
Without humility there can be no true abiding in God's presence or experience of his favor and the power of his spirit. Without this no abiding faith or love or joy or strength. Humility is the only soil in which a virtue takes root. A lack of humility is the explanation of every defect and failure. Humility is not so much a virtue along with others but it is the root of all because it alone takes the right attitude before God and allows him as God to do all.
Andrew Murray “Humility – The Journey Toward Holiness”
Humility is not:
- weakness but strength – God-empowered strength
- insecurity but confidence rooted in God, not self
- passivity but activity led and enabled by God’s Spirit
- lack of courage – but boldness born of union with Christ
- self-hatred or self-condemnation – but the positioning of self in a place of surrender to God.
Humility is:
- strength submitted to God
- confidence rooted in God not self
- power restrained and directed for the good of others
- willingness to serve rather than dominate
The Hope of Humility
The pursuit of humility leads us to become the best version of ourselves … to live the life we were meant for … making the contribution and having the relationships which enliven our truest selves… by living the meaningful life Christ intends.
All led and made possible by a God who says “Come to Me … I am gentle and humble in heart.”
Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”