Learn of Me

Amen. Lord bless you. Praise the Lord everybody. A very good morning to you. It's a pleasure to be here and thank you for asking me to come again and be with this congregation. I'm glad my friend Sal came and I'm grateful for reminding while we were pausing between songs and this. All the things I'm thankful for. I'm thankful for the blessings that God has given me through people, God's people. Through complete strangers, people who've gone before me. I'm really grateful this morning. Glad to be with you all. If you'd open your Bibles to the Gospel of St. Matthew chapter 11 and I'm going to read one verse, verse 29. And then we'll have a couple of verses from Proverbs. Matthew 11 and 29. Jesus said, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. What follows meekness

and lowliness of heart? Jesus said, rest. It's not necessarily the way you might map it out or I might map it out. Power gives us rest. Authority gives us peace of mind, the ability to direct people's lives, to control everything around us. And there we think rest lies. Take my yoke upon me and learn of me. I'm lowly in heart and you shall find rest. I want to use this phrase from the words of our Lord, learn of me. And my subject today is humility. Pray Lord for your precious word to settle upon our hearts, the teaching from your own lips to our hearts. I pray you would teach us by your example vividly today that we would find the rest that you spoke of. The rest that you so clearly enjoyed. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Be seated. Thank you for standing. I'm reading from a few other verses of Scripture. The Bible has a lot to say about humility, a

lot to say about its opposite pride. Proverbs 13 and 10 only by pride comes contention. So where you find contention you can be sure pride is somewhere. But with the well advised is wisdom. Proverbs 15 and 25. The Lord tears down the house of the proud but maintains the widow's boundaries. So the eyes of the Lord or upon his favor is upon those who are humbled by life. The widow didn't choose to be a widow, but she is not without help. For the Lord is watching over her property. Proverbs 16 and 18 pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than to defy the spoil with the proud. We use the terminology quite a bit, the terminology of relationship. I'd say I don't know exactly when this happened in my lifetime, but somewhere imperceptibly at some threshold we started talking a lot about relationships. I don't know, maybe it's

vocabulary borrowed from the therapeutic culture or psychoanalysis. I'm not sure, I don't know. It has its usefulness, it's the term relationship. And we even speak of having a relationship with God. I'm okay with it, I'm okay with that terminology. But I think it is a little less helpful than the terminology that Scripture uses for the exact same thing. Having a walk with God or walking with God. It's very concrete, it isn't abstract like relationship is. The word relationship where I have a problem with it is when I speak of, when anyone speaks of having a relationship with the Lord, I think I know what they're saying, but here's the thing, everybody has a relationship with the Lord. Everybody. Even the devil has a relationship with the Lord. It's just not a good one. You can't help but have a relationship. And one of the things with using the terminology of the relationship, of having a relationship with the Lord is, oftentimes I see

it being used to allow people to define the terms. Now think about walking with God, that terminology for a moment. When you walk with somebody, it's active, it's not passive. It's something that you have to keep up with. It takes moment by moment adjustment. I've also noticed that when I like to take long walks, sometimes I walk with someone. One of my favorite things to do in life is become walking with somebody. And I have a friend who sometimes I happen to be going somewhere with, and he has the habit of always walking in front of everyone who's with him. He's out 15, 20 feet in front of you before you know it. He's up there. He doesn't really want to walk and talk, he just wants to get there. And then we can talk. So trying to talk to somebody is 15 feet in front of you. He's obviously, his mind is elsewhere. But generally, when you walk with somebody, one of

the ways you keep up with them is you talk. You talk a lot. When we're called to a walk with the Lord, it implies a conversation. And humility is, I would contend, one of the key ways in which we walk with the Lord. It requires moment by moment adjustments. And it requires talking to the Lord and hearing the Lord. It requires a kind of conversation. The prophet Micah said, with what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with 10,000 rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? And then here's the answer. He has told you, oh man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you. It's not burnt offerings. It's not thousands of rams. It's not rivers of oil.

It's not even something so drastic as a firstborn child. The Lord requires of you to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly. Walk humbly with God. That's what he requires. What is the will of the Lord for my life? Don't worry about what the will of the Lord is for your life as far as externals. Shall I go here? Shall I go there? Shall I minister here? Shall I minister there? Should I take this job? Should I take that job? I need to find the will of the Lord. And you probably ought to find the will of the Lord. But first ask yourself a question. Am I doing the will of the Lord as I already know what the will of the Lord is? Am I already taking care of the known will of God before I start worrying about the unknown will of God? And we know that the will of God, what he requires is that you walk humbly

with him. Humility is the Christian's single greatest characteristic to live in perfect humility before God in man. Humility is the supreme evidence that you are a Christian. It's not speaking in tongues. Anybody can fake that. It can even become habitual. Humility though, true humility. It's hard to fake that. You've heard of false humility, but you can see right through it, can't you? There are three reasons why humility should be the supreme goal of the Christian. First, we are created. It is he who has made us and not we ourselves. The second reason is we are sinners. The third reason for humility is that we are saints. Contrary to the passions of our flesh, it's perfectly natural for such creatures as we are. Created, redeemed, and made holy by the blood of the Lamb of God to seek perfect humility in this life. Humility is not merely a shame born of the sins we've committed. There's another side of humility. Humility is the heart

of the saint, a beautiful robe of many colors. It's the very character of our God who forgives those who yesterday spit upon him, who today showers blessings upon the grateful and the ungrateful, who some tomorrow will resurrect all the millions of pardoned rebels he saved. Heaven looks upon humility and cherishes it. What Christmas is to the child. What the wedding is to the bride. What a quiet night with a book is to the studious. What a championship is to the athlete. Humility is to heaven. God exalts the humble. He sends His grace to the humble. He saved the world with humility. Jesus said whoever will be the first among you must be the servant of everyone. Why? Because in heaven's eyes, humility is the truest form of leadership. Humility isn't just being sorry for our sins. It's sharing in the life of Jesus. It's the highest purpose. It's the truest joy of the servant to see his services please the master. It is

in the words of our text that we read while we were standing, what the Lord requires of you. But to judge from the life of the average Christian, humility is not among the prized virtues. It isn't really seen as essential to a walk with Jesus. But it was a failure of humility that compelled Adam and Eve to disobey God's clear instruction. It was a failure of humility that led Cain to kill his brother. It was a failure of humility that compelled man to build babble. It was a failure of humility that stirred up envy in Joseph's brothers. A failure of humility or pride is the root cause of all sin. It's the systemic cause of all unhappiness. The voice of our enemy took hold of our hearts. He injected pride into our souls. And pride is satanic. It's the unmistakable presence of the devil. If humility is the necessary evidence of Christ living within, then pride is the evidence of Satan's leadership. And

while your imagination tells you that Satan's presence will look something like levitating off of the ground or a child tearing herself and cursing and blaspheming, a scene out of the exorcist or a voice whispering in the darkness, all of this is just child's play compared to the real presence of the demonic in this world. Pride is the fallen angel in you. Several years ago, I remember finishing a service with closing it with prayer in our home church in Bremerton. I remember seeing a man walk in the back into the lobby and then up the center aisle. I'd never seen him before. He was wearing a leather vest over a denim shirt and a bolo tie. And he was probably in his 50s or 60s, I'd say. And he came straight for the pulpit while I was standing there and he took something out of his pocket and then a couple people were on high alert then, but it was a rock and a

rock that had a pentagram on the front of it. And he held it up and then placed it on his forehead and then took his final steps towards the altar and then bowed himself down and began to call out upon the name of Satan. I don't know what he was trying to do. I have no idea. But while he was on his knees, got tackled by the usher staff, which by that time it was quite unnecessary. And, you know, there were people spooked out, creeped out by this whole thing and there were some people who came up to me afterwards and asked me, should we do an exorcism here over the sanctuary? Should we anoint? Should we just flood this place with holy oil and pray and walk around the building ten times? I forget what we did. I don't remember. It's irrelevant. But I saw the congregation's reaction to something Satanic walking in and trying to claim sacred territory to child's play

compared to Satan. Entering through our pride into our domain, ruining our relationships with each other, ruining our walk with God. That's the real Satanic presence that needs tackled. Great desperation. There maybe you might pour gallons of holy oil. Pride is a prayer you pray to the devil. When you act in pride, you might as well be holding a prayer meeting for Satan. Pride makes you vulnerable to Satanic attack. It's the portal through which he enters your life and troubles your mind and sows chaos into your family and brings division. Pride turns this beautiful world that God made into a prison you want to escape. Pride can turn all that was meant for your joy and happiness into a source of misery. Pride will ruin. It can ruin any place, no matter how beautiful. Pride is what turned heaven into hell for Satan. Pride will darken your brightest day. It will turn your best friend into your hated enemy. Pride will turn your marriage

into a battlefield. It will turn a church into a cult of personality. It will dim your life and disappear your blessings. Pride is a thief that tiptoes into your future and steals your joy. It takes what should have been warm memories that give comfort and blessing in your old age and turns them into memorials of grief and sorrow. God hates pride and God, the Bible says, resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. If pride was our downfall, then in humility was our salvation. In fact, it was humility that saved us. The incarnation of God in Christ was an act of supreme humility. I'm not talking about right now our humility. I'm talking about God's. That's what the incarnation was. Though he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited or held on to. But he emptied himself and took the form of a slave born in human likeness and found in

human form he humbled himself, the Scripture says, and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Obedient to the point of death. Pride can defeat and ruin an angel of God and make him a devil. But humility can take flesh and blood, fallen in sin and exalt him to the highest of angels. This has been the purpose of God in raising a new kingdom out of the kingdom of the fallen angels. The kingdom of God exists in a conflict between the fire and pride of the fallen spirits and the humility of the Lamb of God. God is destroying the pride of hell through the humility of the Son of God and His saints. He's going to make pride end in hell and humility end in heaven. And at the last trumpet, the mission will be accomplished. You might almost say that the whole purpose of history is to demonstrate the futility and foolishness of pride and the glory

and the honor of humility. Friends, if you could see what pride does to your soul. If you could have the eyes to witness in the present what you will plainly see on the other side of life that each thought and act of pride adds another habit of hell to your character. If you could see that you're adding to your life something that God is using all of history and trained all of Calvary and the whole weight of heaven to destroy, you would with your whole heart in every waking moment plead with God to tear that viper out of your life. You would spare nothing to get rid of it. You wouldn't play with pride. You wouldn't live with it for one moment. When you sense its presence the hair on the back of your neck would stand on end and you would take extreme measures to exorcise it from your heart. And if you could see on the other hand what humility does

to your soul. If you could have the eyes to witness in the present what will be plain as day on the other side of eternity that each act and thought in humility brings the joys of heaven and the golden light of the Lamb of God into your character. If you could see that you're adding something to your life that God is using all of history and has trained Calvary and all the hosts of heaven to uphold you would with your whole heart in every waking moment plead with God to take whatever means necessary to fill your heart with humility. If anyone in history had something to be proud of it was Jesus the Son of God. He'd made the very world upon which he walked. He'd formed the very stars that twinkled in the distant reaches of space over his head. It was he who formed the seas that roared. It was his face that every body of water on earth was waiting

to reflect. It was his feet that every road in the world waited for the tread of his step. It was he who made the mother who bore him. It was he who called the Syrian out of Ur. It was he who delivered Israel out of Egypt. It was he who had jewels in his crown named Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It was he who made the hills and made that hill upon which he was crucified. It was he who formed the tree that held him fast. We, on the other hand, we have all the reasons in the world to be humble. Everything we have was given to us but he had every reason to be proud but look at who the Son of God was when he walked this earth. The prophet Zechariah foretold of him and said the Messiah would come in the following manner. Behold, your king is coming to you humble and mounted on a donkey on a colt, the foal

of a beast, a burden. Humility is why Calvary is the focal point of our faith. It's the place where the Son of God reached the point of ultimate humiliation. Here he was crucified by his own creation. He was made subject to silly kings and princes. Here he was crucified by his own creation. He didn't even get to say that he was slain on a field of battle amongst noble warriors. No, Jesus was he was crucified between two criminals numbered among the transgressors. But they weren't even great criminals. They weren't serial killers or evil geniuses that he was crucified between. They were hardly threats to anyone except to old ladies' purses. Deposit boxes. The Son of God died in the same lineup as petty pickpockets. Instead of a crown of gold a crown of thorns instead of a robe of royalty he was given utter nakedness. Instead of loyal friends he was betrayed. Instead of a royal court around him hanging on his every

word he had mockers and taunters. And when he cried out, they thought he was calling for Elijah. Why all this humiliation? Biblically the cross accomplished the undoing of what pride had built between us. Paul said in Colossians too, you who were dead in your trespasses God made alive together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses by cancelling the record of death that stood against us with its legal demands. This he sets aside nailing to the cross. And in so doing he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them. He's not talking about Caesar. He's not talking about Herod. He's not talking about the Sanhedrin. The rulers and authorities he's talking about are the fallen angels, the principalities, the powers of darkness. He stripped them of their power by his humility on the cross. If pride is what ruined this world it was humility that recreates it. The humility of the cross. Think of the Pharisee

who prayed so that he could be seen and heard of men. Pride will make God seem less real to you. God was so unreal to this Pharisee that when he prayed his prayers were really directed at men who could hear him. God was so unreal to him that his prayers were really only requests made to other men to give him honor. A tree can only grow, I've heard it said, from its own roots, not another tree's roots. And so pride also is the root of the tree of Adam. But the root of the tree of Christ is humility. The Apostle Paul said I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Do you hear that? Not I, but Christ. If Christ lives in me, how did Christ

live? Does my life look like that? I just want you to consider for a few moments some of the sayings of Christ. He said in the Gospel of John, I'm just going to go through the Gospel of John, I want you to hear how he regards himself. I want you to hear his humility. Listen to what he said in John's Gospel. My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. People are coming around and look at this teaching. Listen to this teacher. And what does he say at the end of it? It's not mine. The word that you hear is not mine, but the fathers who sent me. In another place. He said the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father do. In another place, he says, I do nothing of my own authority. Just as the Father taught me, that's what I do. In another place. I have not spoken on my own

authority, but the Father gave me a commandment on what to say, and I speak as the Father has told me. In another place, in his high priestly prayer, Jesus prays to the Father. He says, I have given them the words that you gave me. And they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you. Listen to his humility. If that is living, if that is living the life of your life, our lives must reflect that. In our text, learn from me. I'm gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. In another place, he says, whoever exalts himself will be humbled. Whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Whoever humbles himself like this child he holds in his arms. It's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Can he make it any clear? Jesus walked with his disciples for three years, teaching them in word and deed, yet at the end of the three

years, two of his disciples jostled over which one would be the greatest in the kingdom. We can know, but getting it down here. Jesus had been unable, while walking beside them in the flesh, to teach them true humility. But what he was unable to do while he walked with them, he was able to do when he ascended into heaven, so that he could dwell in us in the form of the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. And you see what the apostles became after they received the Holy Ghost. We have that same spirit. As water seeks the lowest point, so must we seek the lowest position at the table, and there at the lowest point God pours His grace out. First, when God is set to make the best of Christians, we notice in Scripture that he seemed to have taken the worst of the sinners. It wasn't sin that made the apostle humble. You could make that mistake and say, well, we're sin

of balance, grace much more. Sin makes me humble. God loves humility, so sin helps me be humble. No. It isn't sin that makes man humble. It's grace that makes him humble. Paul said, by the grace of God, I am what I am. But the past record of sin reminded him that he was completely relying upon the grace of God. Apart from the grace of God, he was nothing. He was less than nothing. Paul was only a Christian because of grace. He was only a good man because it wasn't Paul that was living his life. It was Christ living and through him. The life I live now is not I. So it was with all the apostles. You remember that Paul at one point in one of his letters wrote that that he was the least of the apostles. He said that to the Corinthians somewhere around the year 50 after Christ. And then if you turn to the letter to the Ephesians which

is written maybe a decade later he classified himself differently. He said he didn't say I'm the least of the apostles now. He said, I'm the least of the saints. Ten years walking close to God, that's what will happen. I'm not the least of the apostles. I'm the least of the saints. But he's not done. A few more years go by and he writes a letter right at the end of his life to Timothy and he says this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ died for sinners of whom I am chief. You see what's happened least of the apostles least of the saints and now in the closing year of his life least the worst of sinners. But each time he reclassifies himself lower in his own eyes you can see that God is higher. God is magnified in inverse proportion to our de-magnification. The lower Paul went in his own eyes the higher God was. The greater and

the more glorious he was and so when he said that he was the chief of not long after that he writes these beautiful words of praise now to the king eternal invisible, the only God be all the glory and honor forever. Do you remember when you were a child do you remember being surrounded by giants and legends everyone was quite literally three times bigger than you or four long ago I got a phone call from my uncle and he asked if he could meet with me I hadn't spoken with him in a very very long time I asked him where he was he said I met the old church building last time I had been in that old church building I was and it seemed like when you walked in the back double doors it was a football fields length up to the altar the ceiling seemed to be 50, 60, 70 feet tall last I was in there it was a congregation

of giants of people two and three and four times my height they knew everything I thought they were wise counsel of the sons of God this particular day day before Christmas December 24th my uncle asked me let's go into that old sanctuary I need to talk to you I went there and I pulled up 40 some odd years had passed I had in my mind's eye it was going to be this I remembered it was the memory of a child I walked in those double doors into this little tiny box ceilings just a couple inches over my head four steps and I was at the altar the place was empty and the man that I had called pastor and put right next to God was frail and I wondered which one of us me or my six year old self saw this place right and I missed being a child I missed the wonder of it and I wanted all of that joy

of childhood but truth be told I didn't want any of its humility that required it our childhoods were special in part because they were humble and God still gives grace to the humble and if you're to enter into the kingdom of heaven the kingdom of heaven is made up of people who are like children so let's humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God walk humbly with each other walk humbly with our God Paul said live in harmony with one another don't be haughty associate with the lowly and never be wise in your own sight James said let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble Peter said likewise you who are younger be subject to the elders clothe yourselves all of you with humility toward one another Lord everything that is not Jesus take it out of me Lord I've seen bitterness and anger and comparisons and covetousness and defensiveness and pride divide

I've asked I've asked you Lord one by one take these from me until all that's left is you I say this lasts there is great joy in humility the joy of humility one of my favorite scriptures in the Bible is the scene in which John sees the throne of God he sees four living creatures cherubim seven flaming lamps a rainbow around the throne and a crystal sea speaking of the calmness the peace and tranquility of God's rule but then one more thing you need to see that around the throne of God there are 24 elders they're clothed with thunder and lightning but when the beasts finish their song holy holy holy it's the Lord God almighty who was and is and is to come those great kings and princes come off of their 24 thrones and they take the crown upon their head and they throw it at the throne of God they cast their crowns before him and say blessing and glory

and honor and power and might and wisdom be unto him look at the humility the lightness the lightness around the throne of God not the heaviness the lightness things that fly fire and things that take heavy crowns off of their heads say it's too too much for this glory all the glory be unto you the closer you get to God the more the more the weight that you throw aside all of the heavy burdens of pride throw them all down all of the positions and achievements and all of those things throw them down at the throne of God the currency of heaven it's humility in humility there's true joy when you're humbled the delight of God can be the very essence of your everything learn from me Jesus says I'm lowly of heart and you'll find rest for your souls Paul said we dare not classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commanding themselves but when they measure themselves by

one another and compare themselves with one another they're without understanding you don't know what you're doing when you're comparing yourself to someone else people's misery comes down to that comparison in more empty a man lies before God both of you are to God true holiness lies in humility how great is God how small am I and you will find here in that statement how great is our God how small am I a deep and secret spring of grace that will nourish your soul for the rest of your life until you're humbled before God your prayers will always feel like monologues lions recited by an actor but even if your prayers and songs don't seem to rise up from within you don't stop saying them don't stop singing them instead when the prayers and songs seem so much loftier than your heart is feeling take this as a lesson in humility an indication that you need to go lower the sinful public in sorrow

for his life lowered himself in prayer and asked be merciful to me a sinner the one who asked for mercy knows that he lives above what he deserves make this the posture of your heart and it will give life to every prayer you utter even the words or songs seem too lofty for you use it as an occasion for greater humility and you can begin to taste the sweetness of the prayers of Jesus and the prayers of King David and nothing could ever be wasted on the humble heart of us Lord be merciful be merciful to sinners thank you for your example thank you for your words would you stand with me really just stand so that you can pray if you'd like to come and pray I'm here at the altar I pray where you are I think we should pray pray and ask the Lord for humility now you might say hey wait a minute I don't want to ask for

humility I'll do it myself getting humbled is painful no no no don't let the Lord humble you he loves you more than you love yourself he knows exactly where to take you trust him take everything that's not humility out of me let's pray that prayer seek after God Jesus name let there be a revival of humility in your people Lord Jesus name teach me your ways Lord search me oh God see if there be any wicked way in me take not your Holy Spirit from me restore to me the joy of your salvation cleanse me oh God renew a right spirit within me bless your people