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Jul 18, 2021

Humility

Humility

Speaker: Tyler Ferguson

Series: Sabbath 2021: Rhythm of Jesus

Category: Sunday Morning

Humility is only possible if we are secure in our identity.

Luke 14 Jesus is eating with the Pharisees and they were watching to see what Jesus would do and to see if they could catch Him breaking any Sabbath laws. Jesus addresses the situation and then changes the subject and notices how they were choosing the best seating for themselves.

Luke 14:7-11 He told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they would choose the best places for themselves: “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, don’t sit in the place of honor, because a more distinguished person than you may have been invited by your host. The one who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then in humiliation, you will proceed to take the lowest place. “But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when the one who invited you comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ You will then be honored in the presence of all the other guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Jesus tells a parable on humility. The culture of the day was about wanting to be viewed as honorable. The way the disciples picked seats showed their thinking. Jesus told them that honor comes from humility and reminded them to stay humble in everything they did.

Jesus exhorts us to be humble but He doesn't define it in this parable, so what is Biblical humility? 

1. Humility is only possible if we are secure in our identity. Jesus washing feet is a great example in John 13. John 13:3 Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into His hands, that He had come from God, and that He was going back to God. Jesus knowing who He was is one of the things that enabled Him to humbly serve as He did. Social media today is about building ourselves up to look amazing. Do we think people will think less of us if we wash others' feet? 

Knowing that the most important opinion about us has already been made and it has nothing to do with what we've done. Our creator loves us and excepts us without our earning it or trying to prove it. When we know how valued we are by Jesus, then we can go about serving others. 

2. Humility is obedience. Philippians 2:8 He humbled Himself. How? By becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross. Jesus' humility was tangible in His obedience to everything the Father told Him to do. 

God knows the big picture. When we operate in things that ignore what God has told us to do then we operate at a level of arrogance that says we know better than He does. Don't we act like it sometimes? What did God tell you to do? Are you doing it? Submit to the one who sees the whole picture!

3. Humility means recognizing our limitations and God's lack of limitations. We serve a limitless God who can do anything - even beyond our comprehension. When God sees my situation, He sees possibilities, not limits. Do we act like that is true? Sometimes we trust our own understanding rather than rely on God. Often we come face to face with a problem assuming in practice that we are the ones with all of the solutions, and we fail to engage the one who actually does have the ability. 

We can take all before God. 

Why is humility important? God moves when we have humility. 

Ezra is the story of God's people coming back to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon. Erza knows it hinged on one thing.

Ezra 8:21 I proclaimed a fast by the Ahava River, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask Him for a safe journey for us, our dependents, and all our possessions. They stopped and humbled themselves before God and entrusted their journey to God in His guidance and deliverance.

Are you in the middle of a wilderness? a difficulty? a hardship?

Is there something that you need to humble yourself by taking this thing to God?

Why is humility hard or how is it easy for you?

What do want clarity and wisdom for?