This morning’s sermon is on the topic of humility. Now, in order for me to judge in advance how this is all going to be received, would everyone who thinks there is value in hearing what the Bible says about humility please raise your hand? [Many hands raised] All right. Thank you. Now, would everyone who frequently finds themselves struggling with the sin of pride please raise your hand? [Few or no hands raised] Well, now I’m confused. You all indicated that you thought it would be worthwhile to hear a sermon on humility, and yet apparently this is an area of the Christian life which most of you already have well under control.
All right. I confess that wasn’t really fair. But the point I want to make is this: that although every one of us dislikes pride, we mostly find it objectionable when we detect it in others. Most of the time, we are disgusted and repelled, not by the pride we sense rising up in our own hearts, but by the arrogance we see displayed by our fellow creatures. It’s ironic, when you think about it. One of the main reasons we find pride in others so offensive is that their pride threatens our pride. We find an inflated sense of self-esteem to be extremely irritating, especially when it competes with our own self-esteem. It infuriates us when people look down on us, because it conflicts with our desire to look down on them. The nerve of some people! How arrogant of them not to recognize that we are superior! It’s really kind of humorous, isn’t it? But the humor is based on a truth, that what we perceive so clearly in others, we are often blind to in ourselves.
Why is that? Why is it that this sin is so easy to discern in others, and so difficult to discern in ourselves? Well, first of all, there’s our inherent tendency toward self-deception. We naturally make all kinds of allowances for our own shortcomings, even while we harshly judge the misdeeds of others. As the prophet Jeremiah put it, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9). That’s why it is so important that we make Bible reading a regular part of our daily routine. The Scriptures act as a mirror to the soul. In fact they’re better than a mirror; they’re like a spiritual X-ray, and MRI, and EKG, and CAT scan all rolled into one. They reveal what’s in our hearts, things that we would otherwise overlook and excuse.
"For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." -- Hebrews 4:12
"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like." -- James 1:22-24
When it comes to diagnosing our own sin, we are all guilty of blurred vision and fuzzy thinking. We are notoriously unreliable judges of our own spiritual condition. We can all too easily convince ourselves of our own innocence and righteousness. That’s why we need the Scriptures. The Bible helps us to us see ourselves as we truly are, instead of as we would like to imagine ourselves.
Here’s another reason we have difficulty recognizing in ourselves the sin of pride. We live in a day in which pride is not condemned as a vice, but is instead celebrated as a virtue. Consider the kind of people who are honored and respected in our culture -- professional athletes, movie actors, television personalities, musicians, influential politicians, wealthy business people. Do terms like "humble," and "modest" and "self-effacing" come to mind? There was a time in America when those who had been blessed with great talent or success were expected to at least maintain the pretense of humility. But today, by and large, those who make it to the top don’t even attempt to hide their immense sense of self-regard. They’re proud, and proud of it. And so, as pride is associated with all these images of happy, successful people, we begin to think of it less as a spiritual defect, and more as something to be desired and even encouraged. We don’t recognize the sin of pride in our hearts because we have stopped thinking of it as a sin at all.
Well, so what? Why does this matter? Because God doesn’t care for pride any more than we do. And God has a way of making his feelings known in a way that isn’t entirely pleasant. In fact, as long as your attitude is characterized by pride, rather than humility, you will find yourself at odds with God.
"The Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished." -- Proverbs 16:15
"For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." -- Matthew 23:12
"Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ’God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’" -- 1 Peter 5:5
Do you really want to have God "opposing" you? Of course not. You can’t walk with God if He’s opposed to you. You can’t have fellowship with Him if you and He are in conflict, you can’t receive his comfort, and peace, and joy. Pride is like a dam that stops up the flow of grace. It keeps us from repentance, it hinders prayer, it warps our relationships with other believers. It impedes our spiritual growth. And so it is very important that we learn to recognize the signs of pride in ourselves, and that when it appears, we strive to quench it, to send it back where it came from.
I’d like to examine this issue of humility through the lens of Psalm 131. This is a Psalm of Ascents, which means that it was one of the psalms which were sung by the people of ancient Israel, as they journeyed up to Jerusalem for the three annual festivals. Let’s begin with verse 1:
"My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me."
This psalm was written by David, king of Israel. Can you imagine the President of the United States uttering such words? Living in America in the 21st century, it’s almost unpatriotic to say that we have limits. We have greater freedom to choose the course of our lives than any other people in human history. At other times, if your father was a carpenter, then you knew you would make your living cutting and forming wood. Today, a carpenter’s son can be an engineer, or a gourmet chef, or a professional ice skater, or a chicken farmer. But even in America, there are limits. People have unequal intellectual gifts, unequal physical gifts, unequal opportunities, unequal family connections, unequal wealth. Contrary to what your mother told you, you can’t literally become anything you want, you can’t literally do anything you want. And the older you get, the more your sphere of possibilities becomes restricted. The proud man chafes against these limits. He refuses to accept that there are things he cannot have; things he cannot achieve. He refuses to accept gracefully the fact that he will probably never become cardiologist, or a National Geographic photographer, or a Pulitzer-prize-winner novelist. And so he may waste the opportunities and the resources God gives him, because instead of seeking after what he can achieve, he spends his time and energy mourning what he cannot do, lamenting lost opportunities and roads not taken, cursing bad luck and closed doors.
So one of the marks of humility is recognizing your limits, accepting the fact that there are matters beyond your ability and capacity. Now, we have to be careful here, because often we don’t know in advance what our limits are. So I don’t want to sound as if I’m counseling people to give up their dreams easily. Sometimes we have to test ourselves, we have to strive, and risk, and persevere, and make the attempt to find out what we’re made of. And so a humble woman may test her limits, she may seek to expand her limits, but fundamentally, she accepts the fact that she has limits. She may not know in advance what they are, but when she finds out -- when in her heart of hearts she comes to the conclusion that this is the boundary of her personal world -- she accepts that. She doesn’t agonize, or complain, or rail against the unfairness of life. She accepts those limits as the context within which she is to glorify God. She accepts her limits, whatever they may be, as the outline of the stage on which her devotion to Christ will be played out.
Another sign of pride, which is related to an unwillingness to accept limits, is an unwillingness to accept the life circumstances in which God has placed you. It may manifest itself as a grumbling, complaining attitude. It may reveal itself through a careless approach to your work, as if you think the kind of employment you’re engaged in is unworthy of you. Humility, on the other hand, says "I’m where I am right now because that’s where God wants me. And I’m going to do my best to honor him in the midst of this situation." Whether that "situation" is a marriage that’s turned out differently than you had hoped, or a job that you feel is below your abilities, or a career that seems stalled, the attitude of pride is -- "I don’t belong here. I deserve better than this. This is beneath me. And therefore, I’m not going to do my best. I’m not going to work hard; I’m not going to seek to follow Christ here. I’m just going to mark time until something better comes along." But humility says, "God has me here for a reason. My circumstances may change in the future; I may even be working to change my circumstances. But regardless of what the future holds, this is where I am now, and I’m going to give it my full effort. I’m going to be content, and I’m going to be thankful."
Sometimes pride consists of someone pretending to a level of academic, or social, or professional attainment that they do not possess. For example, the Cleveland Plain Dealer has been running a series of articles on the political appointments made by the former mayor. As it turns out, some of the people he hired were not well qualified. For instance, one woman was hired as an "accounts commissioner" for a salary of $80,000 a year. The problem is that she never went to college, and she has been accused of "misrepresenting the level of her education" on her job application. Well, actually, she does have a degree. She purchased it for $99.75 from the American College of Metaphysical Theology in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her purchase of that degree was an attempt to transcend her professional limits in an illegitimate way. Now what I want to know is why she didn’t shell out sixty dollars more for the Master’s degree. Or a hundred dollars more for a Ph.D. I mean, if you’re going to purchase a phony degree, you might as well get your money’s worth.
A variation on this theme is acting as if you know more than you do; giving the impression that you have experience, or wisdom, or insight, or understanding that you don’t really have. This is an unwillingness to accept your intellectual limits. The humble man is slow to express an opinion in matters about which he has little knowledge. The proud man, by contrast, is an expert on every subject. He can tell you the right way to grill a T-Bone steak, the best way to treat a migraine headache, the military strategy that we ought to be following in Afghanistan, and whether a Lexus is superior to a Mercedes (although he’s never owned, or even ridden in, either one). He is utterly confident of his own opinions, and utterly contemptuous of anyone who disagrees.
The most important thing to understand is that humbly accepting your limits is not simply a matter of coming to terms with reality. That’s nothing more than common sense. If that’s all there was to it, then there wouldn’t be anything uniquely Christian about it. And I’m not talking about fatalism, just learning to accept what you can’t change, trying to make the best of a bad situation. Again, there’s nothing distinctively Christian about that. What I’m talking about is humbly accepting your limits as an expression of faith in a sovereign God, as an act of trust in a loving Father who has ordered your circumstances for your good and His glory. It’s not fatalism, it’s faith.
Now, let me pause here to deal with a common misconception. Some people think that humility means having a low opinion of yourself. But that’s not true. Nor is it having a high opinion of yourself. Humility is having a right opinion of yourself, from God’s perspective. As Paul wrote,
"For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you." -- Romans 12:3
Paul goes on in Romans twelve, to develop the idea of spiritual gifts. These are abilities for ministry, given to all believers, which enable us to serve one another. One has a gift for teaching, another has a gift for serving, another has a gift for encouragement, another has a gift for leadership. Each one is to embrace and use the gifts God has given him. And so we see that humility does not consist in denying your gifts, or in pretending that your contribution has no value. Humility consists in making a sober assessment of how God has gifted you. And most important of all, humility involves the realization that everything you have -- all of your abilities, and accomplishments, as great or as modest they may be -- that they all come from God. God has designed and gifted you for a particular purpose in your specific circumstances. Humility lies in discerning and seeking that purpose. Not chasing after things which are beyond your grasp, nor settling for mediocrity that is below your ability. But striving to do the best you can, making full use of the abilities and opportunities you have been given, in the circumstances in which you’ve been placed, to the glory of God. That’s humility. Humility is not passive; it is an active faith in the love and wisdom of our sovereign Father.
There is such a thing as false humility, which is pretending to be less capable than you really are. Why would someone do that? Why would someone try to minimize their abilities? Laziness, perhaps. They don’t want to work hard, and they can do acceptably mediocre work with little effort. So a student capable of getting all A’s loafs and gets B’s and C’s. Or a person intellectually capable of teaching in the church never applies himself to study and so never acquires the necessary knowledge. Such a person may claim to be acting in humility by not seeking leadership, when in fact they just don’t want the responsibility, or the work involved. But that’s not humility, that’s sloth.
Another reason for false humility is fear. Fear of failure. It’s safer to live and work below your ability, never venturing into an arena where you’ll truly be tested. But that’s not humility; it’s disobedience. Because whatever God has gifted you to do and called you to do, that’s what you should do. To settle for less is to despise his gifts and shrink back from your responsibilities. Consider the example of Moses, when God spoke to him out of the burning bush:
"The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey--the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt." But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" And God said, "I will be with you. . . Moses said to the LORD, "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue." The LORD said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say." But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it." Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses." -- Genesis 3:7-12, 4:10-14
Was Moses being humble? Many people would think so. "Who am I," he says, "that I should go to Pharaoh?" Moses recognized his lack of personal authority over Pharaoh. How could a mere shepherd command the most powerful ruler on earth to do anything? Wasn’t that humility? And then, Moses acknowledged that he was not a skilled speaker. "O Lord, I have never been eloquent . . . I am slow of speech and tongue." That’s humble, right? And then, finally, he asked God to send someone else. Obviously, this was a very humble man. Wrong. This is a disobedient, self-willed man, and the Lord was not pleased, he was angry. This is not humility. Humility responds to God’s call. It’s pride that substitutes our judgment for God’s.
Do you understand what I’m saying? Humility is not a matter of seeking more, or being content with less. It’s not a matter of whether you aspire to leadership, or whether you’re content to follow. Humility is a matter of doing what God has gifted and called you to do, whatever that may be. Humility is a matter of conforming our desires to God’s will, rather than insisting that God give us what we want. And so for some, the most humble thing they could possibly do would be to lead. To prepare themselves, and study, and acquire the experience, and make the sacrifices necessary for leadership. For them, leadership is an act of humility, because it’s an act of faith and obedience. For others, humility means following someone else’s leadership, and serving in a support capacity. The position, the job, isn’t the issue. Obedience is the issue. Being willing to submit to God is the issue.
Is humility a virtue that comes easily to us? By no means. Look at verse 2 of Psalm 131:
"But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me."
"I have stilled and quieted my soul." In other words, this quietness of spirit called humility did not come naturally. It had to be earned. It had to be struggled for. It had to be labored for. As anyone with children knows, the process of weaning a child from the breast is not easy. The child wails, and screams, and weeps. It does not want the cup, the plate, the bottle, the strained vegetables and cream of wheat. It wants what it has always known. And yet, the mother who loves her child must withhold what it wants in order for that child to mature. And in the end, the child learns to be content. But that contentment is hard won. In the same way, Paul writes,
"I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want."
-- Philippians 4:11-12
Paul was a great man, a spiritual giant. Yet even for him, contentment didn’t come naturally. It had to be learned, and relearned in a whole variety of circumstances. That’s humility. Trusting and obeying God, whatever our circumstances may be. Trusting in his sovereign power and love, rather than trying to force the outcome that we desire. Trusting in his wisdom, rather than trying to substitute our idea of what should happen. Believing that our present circumstances, and the series of events and choices that brought us to this point, are God’s good plan for our life, and then going on to seek his will for the future, rather than bemoaning what might have been.
Humility isn’t a matter of big or small, rich or poor, leader or follower, strong or weak, well-known or anonymous, successful or unsuccessful, honored or despised, respected or rejected. Humility means seeking God’s glory with all our heart, soul, mind or strength, regardless of what that means for us. Humility means accepting God’s will with contentment and thanksgiving, trusting that it is indeed his best for us. As the final verse of Psalm 131 says,
"O Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore."
Are you doing that today? Are you humbly trusting in Christ, following Him, obeying Him? Or are you proudly going your own way, making your own plans, seeking your own goals? If so, why not turn to Christ, right now, today? Repent of your stubborn pride, your obstinate willfulness, your stiff-necked independence. Come to Christ, our most humble and gentle Savior. For he himself calls out to you and invites you:
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 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." -- Matthew 11:28-29
(For an .rtf file of this and other sermons, see www.journeychurchonline.org/messages.htm)
