The first Peter 5, and we're going to start at verse one.
So first Peter chapter 5, verse one.
All right. So before I read these verses, I
want to truly thank the Lord for granting me another opportunity
to preach a message in Mount Victory Baptist Church.
It is a great honor and privilege to be able to stand
behind the pulpit. In a church that stands for
God's Word, especially in a time like.
This. When there are so few churches
left willing to do so, I'd say that it's a privilege.
To even be able to attend a church like this today.
We ought to value this church as a precious gift from God dear to
our hearts, the same way we hold our Lord Jesus and the Bible
close to our hearts. The fact that our church stands
on the Bible. Has the presence of the Holy
Spirit and I've seen that over and over.
Again, in this church and is continuing the Lord's command to
spread the gospel faithfully should not only make us all.
Grateful. That God has given us such a
rare gift, but also humble us. And that is going to be the
subject of my message tonight. My.
Message is about. Humility.
Let's read our verses now, and then I will continue.
So we'll start at verse one of First Peter chapter 5.
The elders which are among you, I exhort, who am also an elder
and a. Witness.
Of the sufferings of Christ. And also.
Are partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.
Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight
thereof not by constraint but willingly.
Not for filthy lucre, but of a bready mind, neither as being
Lords over God's heritage, but being on samples.
To the flock. And when the chief Shepherd
shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not
away. Likewise, ye younger, submit
yourselves unto the elder. Yeah, all of you, be subject 1
to another and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the
proud and giveth grace to the humble.
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God,
that He may exalt. You in due time casting.
All your care upon him, for he careth for you.
Amen. Now, a few weeks ago, Pastor
asked me to preach while he was away in Belize, and soon after I
knew that the message was going to be about humility.
It was interesting how the Lord told me, because I was already.
Doing a Bible study. About God Himself.
I was researching through scripture about all the
attributes of God, about His ability as our Creator, about
His omnipotence, about the nature of the Godhead, which we
call the Trinity. I was writing all these thoughts
down in a document on my computer and organizing them.
I was doing it because. Honestly, looking back at my
past four years of being saved, I felt like I want to know you
even more. Lord.
I've read the Bible a few times all the way through now.
I've read the Old Test New Testament many times, but I
wanted to just read about God himself.
What does the Bible strictly say about God the Father, God the
Son, Jesus Christ, and about the Holy?
Spirit So The thing is, when I started studying this, I
started. To feel so small, so small
compared to God. And and God felt kept feeling
larger and larger. The more that I read and wrote
about him. It was this feeling that comes
and goes. Sometimes I think a.
Lot of us feel this as a Christian.
Sometimes we we read certain. Things in the Bible or we hear a
certain message and. We start to feel very.
Small as a created being next to our creator.
That feeling I got while doing this Bible study came to me
again after pastor asked me to preach and I knew what that
feeling was. It was that feeling of humility
before the Lord, in this case, that humility of thinking of the
infinite glory of God. Compared to me.
That's when I knew for certain that the.
Topic of my message would be about humility.
And so. The title of this message is
Humbled before God, so let's. Pray and ask our Lord.
For guidance. Heavenly Father, I pray to thee
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord, I come before. You as a wretched.
Soul saved by your grace, Lord. Saved by the blood that.
Your son, Jesus Christ shed for me, Lord, and I know many of us
can say in here can say the same thing, Lord, and we're just so
grateful for the the great salvation that you brought to
us, Lord, how much you loved. Us how you gave your son on the
cross for us, Lord and. It's so humbling.
To think that in a. World in a.
World where the majority reject. You.
They want nothing to do. With you as our.
Creator that you saved us, Lord that you.
Gave us the opportunity. To be saved when we put our
faith in Jesus Christ and. And it it's an opportunity the
world. Passes up over and over again.
Lord, it's, it's waiting there for them.
Do but call upon. The name of your son.
So let us be humbled. By the fact that we have a.
Gift, the gift of salvation that so few people do O.
Lord, and let us come. Before you with a humble.
Heart Lord, and and let this message touch all of us, our
hearts, or let it. Be you speaking to me.
Let it not be Matthew. Hammond up here, let it be your
Holy Spirit. Lord, please be with us this
night as I, as I, as I deliver the message in the name of Thy.
Son, Jesus Christ once again. I pray.
Amen. So.
Looking back at our. Verses from first Peter there is
a. Theme that runs through.
All 7 verses, but the theme is not named until verse.
Five. And the theme is humility, and
it's what I wanted to talk about tonight because the Lord.
Truly laid this on my. Heart How can one truly be
humbled before God? Peter says in verse 6.
To humble ourselves under the mighty hand of.
God. So therefore it is possible for
us to do this. It is possible for us to humble
ourselves before God. Well, thanks be to God.
In these very verses. Peter gives us 7 practical ways
to humble. Ourselves before the Lord.
It is such an important. Thing to be.
Humbled before the Lord because it is necessary to have humility
in your heart. To serve him, humility is
defined in Webster's dictionary. As.
A modest estimate of. One's own worth a.
Lowliness of mind, a deep sense of 1's own.
Unworthiness in the sight of God, A submission to the divine
will and read. When I read that definition,
some words jumped out at me. Modest lowliness, unworthiness,
submission. I think those 4 words sum up in
just those 4 words what humility before God is.
And as the scripture shows, the inverse of humility is.
Pride. And there are plenty of.
Verses that show us exactly what the Lord thinks about.
Pride. And I'll just choose one
example. You don't have to turn here, but
it's Proverbs 16. Five, everyone.
That is proud in heart is an abomination to the.
Lord. Though hand join in hand.
He shall not be unpunished. That's strong language.
An abomination. There are actually only certain
sins that the Lord calls an abomination, and pride is one of
them. So that means we need a lot.
Of humility and as little. Pride as possible if we want to
serve. The Lord in the best way that we
can. I want to quickly step through
these 7 verses from First Peter and see these seven ways that
are provided to be humbled. Before God.
And end with an. Example of this in action.
So let's start with verse 1. So.
We'll read that together again. The elders which are among you,
I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings
of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be
revealed so. Here we see Peter.
Giving encouragement to the elders.
To the leadership among the churches.
In the various cities he is writing to notice what Peter.
Does here that despite. Being an apostle and not.
Just an apostle with the. Chief apostle to the Jews, and
the fact that. He was one of the.
Closest disciples to Jesus Christ when he walked on the
earth that he simply refers to. Himself as an elder.
Now sure, if you go back to chapter 1, you will see that
Peter. Does mention that he is an
apostle of Jesus Christ. But now we see toward the end of
his epistle here, that Peter shows that though he is an
apostle, he is but one elder. 1. Pastor of the Lord's flock among
many. This is our first example of
humility because. Peter is important.
I mean, when you think about it, he is an instrument of.
God's will. As an apostle not only writing
2. Books of God's perfect.
Word. And I can't say that right.
I wrote down what I was going to say tonight, but this is not
God's perfect word. That's a very important deed
that Peter did. But he also saw thousands saved.
Through his own preaching, we've got the numbers recorded early
on in the book of Acts 5003 thousand.
That's amazing. I mean, it seems so important,
yet Peter allows himself to be put on equal footing with other
pastors that God has called. Showing him.
Showing that he does not. Think himself above correction
just because he is an apostle. If Peter can exhort his fellow.
Elders, then, so can his. Fellow elders exhort him, and if
he can, instruct his fellow elders.
So can his fellow elders. Instruct him So Peter shows us
the first practical step to humility and that's know your
place. Peter knew God called him to be
apostle, but he also knew he was working alongside other apostles
and many hundreds of pastors at the time.
So Peter demonstrated that he knew his place as one of many
elders rather than the chief elder, and.
Even though we're not apostles and none of us in here are
pastors. We should do the same.
This advice applies to us. Too, we should do the same and
all we strive to do our best in the role that God has called us
to serve in, but never think that maybe because we are the.
Best at our role. We are better than our peers.
I mean, seriously, outside of the Apostle Paul, when you read
about the apostles, you'd say, hey, Peter's neck and neck with
him. Now, that was a man of God.
Sure, we focus on his mistakes sometimes, and he had a lot of
them, but maybe that's why he was such a powerful apostle,
because he knew his mistakes. He knew his weaknesses.
So it would have been so easy for Peter and yes, for Paul too,
to let that go to their head and say, hey, look, I'm literally
writing Holy Scripture here. I'm important.
But they didn't. They made themselves equal and
said, you know what? I exhort you, you can encourage
me. I pray for you, Please pray for
me. And we need to do the same no
matter what a role is, whether you're a Deacon or you're
singing in the choir or you're serving in a ministry here,
whether it's the the the door knocking in the Bible.
Giveaway. Even if we're the best.
We need to need to still humble ourselves and allow.
Ourselves to be corrected or even encouraged by others, even
if we're we seem to be shining the brightest.
So that's the very first way to humble yourself before God know
your place. The second is here in verse 2.
So let's read that together. Feed the flock of God which is
among you, taking the oversight thereof not by constraint, but
willingly, not for filthy lucre. But of a ready mind.
Now here Peter instructs other pastors to feed their
congregations using the Word of God, and we see that he
specifically mentions to do it not out of necessity, but
because they are called by God simply.
Because they want to. He also states that there should
not be a pastor. Just for money's sake, but.
Because they have a mind ready to serve the Lord.
This is the second step of humility.
Know. His people.
So know. Your place and now know his
people. The people in the.
Congregation are your. Fellow heirs with Christ.
They have been washed. In that same blood that you
have, they know the same Lord Jesus that you do, and that
means they are important, because if they are important
enough to God that he has adopted them and made.
Them his children, when they called upon.
The name of his son, Jesus Christ.
Then they should. Be extremely important to you.
I mean, the Bible says that that that.
Christ loved the Church and gave his life for it.
So what does that mean we ought to do?
If we want to be like Christ, we need to love the Church too.
And and that is humbling because the Kingdom of God doesn't only
revolve around you. And your relationship with God.
It is important for us to have a relationship with God, Yes, but.
You have to have a desire to want to take care of others
around you, and you have. To want them to have a stronger
relationship with the Lord too. Even more than that, you need to
do it without any other motive other than love.
That is. It if you aren't motivated.
By love to see your brothers and sisters fed spiritually.
Then you will naturally. Humble yourself.
You will choose to help them over yourself, but if you are
doing it to gain something out of it.
Whether it is gifts or attention or favors or connections.
Then it is coming of pride and you're serving yourself and that
is. Not the humble love of God.
And sometimes. You might pretend like we don't
have another motive. That's why we have to be so
careful. And I'm going to talk more about
pride a little bit later, but that's why we have to be so
careful. It has to be out of selfless
love for each other. And that is not just instruction
once more for pastors. It is for those of us in the
flock too. Of course it's.
Important for a pastor, right? A pastor, when we read the
Bible, is held to a higher standard.
That that spoke. About many books, James.
Talks about it, you know, be not many masters.
But because they have to give account to God, I mean.
Pastor talks about that he's going to have to give account to
God for how he led this congregation.
But I don't doubt for a. 2nd That when we stand before the
Lord, he's. Going to ask account of us how
we treated the. Congregation that we were
members of too, and what we did to help them too.
It's not just the pastor's job. We've got to help each other
too, because there's only one pastor.
He he can't be there for. All of us, we've got to be there
for each other. And that's a.
Humbling thing when you. Want to know God's people?
When you want to be there for them, you're going to naturally
humble yourself so you can get to know them and show them the
same love that God showed you. So know your knowing your place
and knowing his people are two excellent ways so far that Peter
puts before. Us to teach us humility.
Now let's see the third one in verse 3.
Neither as being Lords over God's heritage, but being on
samples to the flock. So not lording your position in
the church over others is of course.
Important for remaining humble. But more important for our
lesson is the second-half being on samples to the flock.
You want to talk about a way to? Humble yourself, it's know your
path, knowing the path that the Lord has given you to walk.
The path that you take as a Christian doesn't only affect
you, it affects. Everyone around you, a lot of
times we get saved. We learn that lesson about sin.
I know I did before I got saved. I didn't realize how much my sin
hurt others before I got saved. I thought was just hurting me.
It's not really affecting anyone around, but it was.
But so does your walk with Christ.
So does your walk with Christ. Not only are your peers.
Watching but so. Are the children?
Of the church their. Eyes are on you to see how your
walk with Christ goes. You can either humble yourself
and choose the Lord's path He has given you, and many times
the Lord makes it. Obvious what you should do and
we just fail to do it. And and you can be a great
example to your brothers, your sisters and their children, or
you can let pride grab a hold of you, and you can value your time
over what the Lord has for you and allow your stumbling.
To pull down others after you. So be an ensemble to the flock
to follow after. Choose the path that the Lord
has given you. Choose the path.
Will you study God's word? Will you memorize verses?
Will you take notes on the sermons?
Will you stay in prayer for others?
And you do whatever the Lord commands you to do.
That is humility to choose always, 100% of the time.
What the Lord wants and we all fail but.
It is a tough thing to face, to face with our flesh and the
temptations of the world, but the.
Lord is stronger His holy. Spirit is stronger and if you
chose to choose to sow to His Spirit, He will humble you and
allow you to shine as an example of Christ's love and.
Holiness to those around you. So know your place, know his
people, know your path. That's the three so far, so.
Let's go to number. 4IN Verse. 4 of how?
We can humble ourselves. Before God.
So here's verse 4 and when the Chief Shepherd shall appear ye.
Shall receive. A crown of glory that fadeth not
away. So #4.
Is to know his. Prize Now the amazing thing
about humility before the Lord is that there is a reward for.
This. The Bible speaks much about that
the about the crowns that the Lord has laid up for us in
heaven. Not only does Peter here talk
about it, but so does the Apostle.
Paul and his epistles, as does Jesus.
He mentions it in the Book of Revelation.
There is that crown of life and the crown of righteousness, and
that crown of glory that the Lord has for many of us.
Peter here tells us that we if we humble ourselves to know our
place, to know his people and to know His path for us, that there
is a crown of. Glory waiting for us, that.
Should humble us. Not only has the Lord given us
the gift of eternal life and the power of His Holy Spirit.
To accomplish all that. He desires of us, but He also
promises us a prize. When we go to stand before him,
so there. Is encouragement to be.
Humble and to resist your pride and as I.
Said it is not always easy for us, we.
Are fallible men and women? I know in the past.
Pastor has said something interesting about humility that
stuck with me that when you. Finally, think you're humble?
Then you've lost it, and it got. Me thinking, you know, humility
has an evil. Brother named Pride and he's.
Similar when you think you finally.
Lost all your pride? Then he's back.
You've got it again. So it is not an easy fight to
humble ourselves before God. And to keep.
Cutting that root of pride every.
Time it springs up again and again and again.
But. The Lord has promised us a
crown. Of glory if we accomplish this
so. Let that light.
A fire in your heart and make you.
All the more passionate to be a humble servant of the Lord and
give your time to. Him, and not to the temporary
things of this world. Now let's look at the at verse
five of First Peter chapter 5. So I'll read that.
Likewise, you younger, submit yourselves unto the elder.
Yeah, all of you, be subject 1 to another, and be clothed with
humility. For God resisted the proud and
giveth grace to the humble. So here we have it, Peter.
Finally, mentions our subject humility.
Notice that being clothed with humility is associated.
With submission. I read that earlier from the
definition from Webster's dictionary.
The younger to the elder and in fact the whole congregation to
each other. That is humbling to know that
your actions are just not being watched by God, but by your
brothers and sisters, and that God has called you to keep your
actions subject to the rest of the congregation.
This keeps you humble. If you remember this and don't
try to think. Of yourself as better than
anyone else in the church. But more important about this
verse for our study. Excuse.
Me. Is the last section God?
Resisted the proud and giveth grace to the humble.
This. Is a famous part of this verse,
and I hear it. Quoted all the time.
That's because we have to constantly.
Remind ourselves of the danger of pride.
Because it literally gives us resistance from.
God when we act proud. And God gives us abundant access
to his grace when we. Humble ourselves before him.
So this. Is important for humbling
yourself. Before God know.
Your pride. You have to know the things that
cause pride to bubble up within yourself.
As I stated earlier, pride has a deep root in.
Us, we have to keep. Cutting and it keeps butting up
over and over again, if even a drop of our.
Ego falls on it, that's all. Pride needs is just a tiny drop
of water. And it will.
Spring up like the terrible. Weed it is.
So it is. Imperative that you know what
makes you prideful, whether it. Is your work your intellect?
Or your. Abilities or even your own
relationship with God. Any of those things can make you
prideful and think of yourself as better than others.
For example, if you're a great singer and you love to hear.
People praise your ability. And you give a nice little smile
when someone. Compliments you.
Oh, thank you. Very much.
And yet when someone corrects you or even said, oh, you hit a
wrong note and it actually causes you to be a little angry
on the inside. But how?
Dare they? Right then?
You. Found a source of pride for you,
and if you know what makes you proud, then you can fight it all
the more. It's a good.
Thing to know what makes you proud.
Because you can come before the Lord and say Lord, I know.
You have given me this. Talent to sing.
I am letting it get to my head. Please help me to be more
thankful to you for this ability and to take.
Criticism from others better. Many times it's earnest
criticism. They're trying to be nice, and
in fact, it helps you get even better.
I know many of the things that make me proud, and the Lord has
shown me more of them all. The time it's it's.
Kind of crazy when? You search your own heart and
you find how many things get to your ego, get to your pride.
And I'm glad for it because I've got.
God's Spirit on my. Side to help me fight those
things and to keep. Hacking away at it.
Not only with the Holy Spirit, but with God's.
Word. That's where the Spirit sends me
when I want. To cut down my pride, he sends
me. To this book so on our journey
to be humble before God, we. Know we must know our place,
Know His people, Know our path, know His prize and know our
pride. Now let us read to verse 6 to
see how we can be humbled by. Knowing his power.
And we're going to read verse 6. Humble yourselves.
Therefore, under the mighty hand.
Of God that he may. Exalt you in due.
Time. Now this goes hand in hand with
our previous. Point knowing your pride.
If you know your pride, then you know the exact person you need
to take it to God. He is the only one that can not
only destroy pride in your life, but give you the humility you
need to serve Him. It makes me think of the.
Study that I mentioned earlier. Where I was studying about the
characteristics. Of God it served.
Remind me of just how powerful our Creator is that there is
nothing in this creation that is beyond His reach.
He can form entire realities with His word.
He can shape galaxies, place stars and hang them upon
nothing. And on the Earth He controls the
destinies of entire nations and sets up and pulls down kings.
And He has not stopped doing that today.
If this is the Creator that I serve, that I can be more than
confident to bring every weed of pride that has overgrown my
heart and know that He can RIP them out with His.
Hand. So many times we think to
ourselves when someone slights our pride, no.
I can't. Let that go.
I can't let that person get the better of me.
Every time I see them, they probably think they really.
Are better than me. Maybe we can't let that go.
Maybe it's. Not in our power, our.
Flesh won't. Let us let that go.
But that's why we. Have to come before God.
We can't RIP that RIP out that pride with our hands.
With the Lord God Almighty. Can if we just come before him
and and admit to him that we can't do it, we can't handle
that beast called pride that is raging within us, He will tame
it for us. He will show us exactly how he
would do it using the scriptures.
He will point you to the verses you need and then you just tell
the Lord and. Sometimes this is the difficult
part. I.
Will listen to you, that is. Humbling yourself under the.
Mighty hand of God, as we are commanded to do in this verse,
because many times he'll show you a verse.
So I'll show you a whole passage from the Bible and you think,
Lord, I don't want to do it, I can't do it.
But if you just humble yourself and say Lord, I will, I will do
it. He can help.
You. He has the power to help you.
We need that reminder that God's hand is mighty, that no amount
of pride is beyond His ability to uproot.
This is what it means to know His power and is a key step to
being humble before God. Now, Speaking of steps we have
taken. 6 steps toward being. Humble before God this final.
Step is the most. Important one to attaining that.
Humility. We need to be proper servants of
God. Let's.
Read. Together verse 7, casting all
your care upon him. For He.
Careth for you now this is another.
Very famous verse and usually. It is used by other Christians
to comfort us when we are worrying about things.
In our life, well. When I read this.
Verse in the Light. Of seeking humility before God.
I see it as a way. To know his peace.
In order to be humble, you have to have peace with.
God. If you are struggling with
knowing your place, knowing His people, knowing how to handle
your pride, then you need to come before God and place it
before Him because you. Don't have peace with God if
you're struggling with these things and and they're giving
you such a hard. Time then you you do have a
problem with God and you need to come before him because the Lord
wants you to have humility and you know the only one who can
grant it to you is the Lord himself if the Lord.
Wants you to have something. You just have to ask.
Him for it and be willing to do whatever.
He asks you to do. He's the one that can show you
your place in His Kingdom and not let whatever position He
gives you get to your head. He's the one that can help you
have a heart that's interested in knowing your fellow
Christians and sharing with them in their struggles.
He's the only one that can show you how to walk as a Christian
and how to be a great example of those around you.
You must always remember that no matter what you are struggling
with when it comes to humility, you can come before Him and He
can give you the instructions. That you need.
Now let's turn to Matthew 11 and read a.
Few well known. Verses we're going to start.
With verse 28. So let's turn to Matthew 11,
verse 28. So give.
Me one moment to turn over there myself.
Let's see. All right, I'll start at verse
28. Come unto me, all ye that labor.
And are heavy laden and. I will give you rest, take my
yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in
heart, and ye shall find rest under your souls, for my yoke is
easy and my. Burden is light.
When you come to God. In the name of his Son, Jesus,
he. Can lighten that burden of.
Pride that weighs so heavily upon your shoulders.
And teach you to be meek and lowly.
Of heart as his son was. If we believe that God is
working in our life to conform. Us to the.
Image of his son as it says. In Romans 829 it says this for.
Whom He did for know, He also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son. Then we need to have absolute
trust in God that we can come to Him as we struggle constantly to
be like Christ. Humility is a key to being like
Jesus Christ because He. Is the ultimate example of
humility. And since we know that the
burden of pride will always be there, we need to be prepared to
bring it to him as. Often as necessary to.
Keep our yoke easy. And our burden.
Light, because that rest our souls need from our pride can
only be attained for being in Christ.
I mean, think carefully about this.
Brothers and sisters, our seven. Practical ways to be humbled
before God are all perfectly. Fulfilled in Christ.
Christ is the King of kings, yet He humbled himself and came in
the form. Of a servant as it.
Says in the book of Philippians, Christ is the holy One of
Israel, and yet he came and allowed to dwell in the middle.
Of an unholy world. Christ is the Creator of
mankind, and yet He bent down and washed the feet of His
disciples, which were His own creation.
Why did He do these things? Because He knows his place in
His Kingdom. He is the Messiah, the only one
that can save mankind. He has to be the ultimate
example to us because we have gone completely.
Astray. And thus he came to show us
exactly how we should live our lives.
He knew his place, He knew his people and what they needed.
And he knew the path he had to take in this life to be the
ultimate. Example to us.
He knew the prize he would receive of his Father, which is
all power in heaven and earth that he received upon his
resurrection from the dead. He had no pride at all, and yet
he knew how to deal with the source of all pride, the devil
himself, and destroy the works of the Prince of Pride in this
world. He knows the power of God
because he has been with the Father for all eternity and
knows that all the Father has, he has put into the hand of him
as his Son. And above all, he knows the
peace that God brings and sought his Father constantly in prayer,
taking everything to the Father in prayer, even the night before
he was crucified. Everything we imagine about
humility, about humbling ourselves before God so we can
serve Him, can be found in Jesus Christ.
If we study His life. If we study our Savior to see
how He conducted Himself in every situation, we can learn
that lowliness of mind that is so necessary to be successful as
a servant of God. This is a serious matter.
As I said at the beginning of this message, pride is an
abomination before the Lord. And God.
'S grace is given to the humble. As fallible men and women, we
need as much of God's grace as possible.
So we need to have as much humility as possible about who
we are and how unworthy we are on the sight of God once we see
ourselves as only having worth in Christ and Christ.
Alone our. Pride can be melted, and we can
serve him with a heart unbridled by the weight of pride.
So if we. Know our place.
Do God's will. For our life without lording it
over others. Know his people.
Care for God's people as our brothers and sisters.
Know our path. Walk in a way that is pleasing
to God rather than ourselves. Know his prize.
Keep our eyes on the. Ultimate reward of our.
Faith know our pride. Fight against these.
Things that make us stumble. Know his power.
Desire. God's power in this.
Life to change our hearts. And finally know his and and
know our peace, that peace that we can only have when we bring
all our pride to God our Father and lay it bare before Him.
Then we can finally live the humble lives that God desires
for us. And He will.
Do great and amazing things through us.
He will strengthen those around us and draw others the loss to
us. To hear the gospel.
Which is the only thing that can save the souls of mankind.
Humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God so that we
can share the good news of Jesus Christ without shame that our
sins have separated us from God and the only way to be
reconciled is to call upon the name of Jesus Christ.
That requires humility, the world.
Wants us to make us. Think this is a shameful thing
that we're weird that were strange don't bother these
people that's what the devil always tells us but if we're.
Humble. We won't care.
We know it's all a lie. We know it's the most.
Important thing we have to do in this life, I believe, Pastor
said before, if he didn't have. Anything for us to do?
He would have taken us already. But we have work to do and we
need humility to do it. So let us come to God and apply
these 7 principles to in our life.
And become humble before him. Now that's.
The end of my message but. There's something I wanted to
share. So it was a little.
While ago now, but Jim Ritchie, Jim Ritchie, sorry, I would say
Jim Ritch, Jim Sue's husband. We Ed, Gianna and and myself.
We went over their house to have dinner a while ago and Jim gave
me these small books about. Different Christians from the
past. Many of them are preachers.
Some of them had other roles as missionaries.
I know Fanny Crosby was one of them.
And. One of the books really touched
my heart when it. Comes to this subject of
humility. It was about Sam Jones.
He was a preacher that lived in the 1800s.
He was born in Alabama. He moved around between Texas,
Kentucky. I believe he finally settled in
Cartersville, GA. But just reading, reading about
his story, you know, when he was young.
His mother died, and you know her parting words were about
wanting to see him in heaven. And he took that to heart and
stayed. With him the rest of his life
and as he grew up, he seemed like a sharp young man.
His family, his father, end up serving in the Confederate Army
and they had to move. But eventually he became a
really, really good lawyer. But the problem was this.
That he had a very bad bout of nervousness.
He had a nervous disorder, and it led him to drinking.
And it was said when I read this book, it was said about him
that, you know, when he was sober, he was an amazing
attorney. But when he was drunk, he was
worthless. And eventually that drinking
cost him his career. You know his family had to move.
And he became a firestoker, working 12 hours a day.
And his wife was pleading. With him, his wife's name was
Laura. Laura was pleading with him.
Please, please stop it. But he wouldn't the alcohol.
Had control of him. And so eventually what happened
is he. Received a letter that his dad
was about to pass away so he went to go see him.
And I don't remember his dad's exact.
Words. But his dad basically told him,
You know, my poor wretched son, you know, you've, you've
basically disappointed me. You made your wife miserable.
But I hope that your mother and I will see you in heaven.
And those words broke his heart. It broke his heart.
And he promised him I will turn my life around.
I will. So what?
Happened is one day. He was at the bar and he saw his
own reflection in the mirror and he saw his clothes matted with
vomit. His hair all messed up and he
says this was become. Of the great Sam Jones and he
just fell to the ground, just saying over and over again for
God to help him. And the bartender thought he was
dying, but he said. Just leave me alone.
And he went out. And he spent more money he had.
To get a new. Suit he cleaned himself up and
he went home to see his wife. And when he got home, he walked.
In and he said to his wife. Honey God.
Has given you and the children a new husband.
And actually this isn't. About him, it's actually about
his wife, Laura, because in the testimony.
This is Sam Dunn's. Own testimony, he said.
He went home to his wife. Who he had.
Finished beating black and blue. And said that to her, you know
what she said to him? Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
This is what I've been praying for.
And, and there's not a lot in there about his wife, Laura.
But when I read that, I said how, you know, how could a woman
stay in that house, allowing a man to beat her black and blue
and destroy the future of his family with his drinking cost
him his career? How could she stay there with
that man and be praying for him? And I don't.
Have much more to. Say other than that's humility.
And I, I personally, I know today if, if we knew anybody, if
we knew a woman who was going before.
Through that we would say you have every right to leave and
please get somewhere safe. You can come stay with me for a
while until we figure out something, but she.
Chose to stay. And I don't have a doubt that.
She went to the Lord about it probably every day.
And her job was to stay, to stay to see Sam Jones get saved.
And that's the kind of humility we need to have as Christians.
I don't, I don't have it. I hope one day I have one tent,
that much humility. But that's the sort of humility
we need to have as Christians. So let's all pray together.
Heavenly Father, I pray to. Thee, in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Lord, I thank you so.
Much for allowing me to preach in this church tonight.
Lord, I'm humbled that I get to share your word, that I get to
preach from the words of the eternal God and, and, and get to
share this message with everybody.
Lord, please let this. Message work in our hearts.
Please humble all of us Lord. And I and I need it so much.
I need to be constantly humbled everyday Lord.
And I just pray that this message has helped everyone in
here, that it touches their hearts and that it encourages
them to serve you with all their hearts, to live their life for
you, my Lord Jesus Christ. And not for whatever.
Whatever things we might be. Wasting our time on.
So, Lord, thank you so. Much, Lord, for giving me this?
Privilege. I pray that everyone.
Here gets home tonight safely, Lord, and let us all just
continue to. Look to you for everything in
the name of. Thy son Jesus.
Christ do I pray. Amen.