-
Well, it's a joy to be back here with you.
-
And I ask you to turn to Psalm 131.
-
I want to speak on something this morning
-
that if this is real in our life
-
and in the lives of our churches,
-
we will never go wrong.
-
We will not fall into deception.
-
We will not go astray and apostatize.
-
But this is one of the deepest realities
-
that can ever be produced
-
in a Christian's life
-
and in a church's life.
-
Cultivating and attaining humility.
-
Cultivating it and attaining it.
-
And you say, well, that sounds strange.
-
Can you attain humility?
-
Well, apparently so,
-
because this psalm says that it's true.
-
It doesn't mean you perfect it,
-
but the difference is
-
if you're living your life as a pattern,
-
and you're proud, arrogant, unteachable,
-
and then once in a while
-
you humble yourself and you have
-
a moment of humility
-
and then you start again,
-
that's not what's in view here.
-
The opposite is what's in view here.
-
Living a life that's marked by humility.
-
And then when you stumble
-
and you're proud, you're arrogant,
-
you repent and humility is engaged again.
-
A lifestyle of cultivating true humility.
-
I wrote beside this psalm
-
in my morning Bible that
I normally read from,
-
I wrote beside this psalm not long ago
-
these words:
-
"It takes great grace to have this."
-
So let's read the psalm.
-
And let's let the
implications of it sink in.
-
Because, brethren, every Christian here
-
can have a life of humility.
-
It's attainable.
-
It's doable by the work
of God in our hearts.
-
Psalm 131.
-
"Lord, my heart is not haughty..."
-
It means pride. Proud.
-
"My heart is not proud,
-
nor are my eyes lofty.
-
Neither do I exercise myself..."
-
That is, pursue; try to regularly do.
-
"Neither do I exercise
myself in great matters
-
or in things too high or lofty for me.
-
Surely, I have behaved..."
-
I have taken control of myself,
-
in other words.
-
"And quieted myself..."
-
The word is: I've hushed myself.
-
Self, just be quiet.
-
Just be quiet.
-
"I have quieted myself
-
as a child that is weaned of its mother.
-
My soul is even as a weaned child.
-
Let Israel hope in the Lord
-
from henceforth and forever."
-
Let's pray.
-
Father, this is Your Word.
-
We ask for Your speaking voice
-
to make it a living Word.
-
We give ourselves to You.
-
Give us Your Holy Spirit now to speak
-
and to hear and to receive
-
and to be changed
-
for the glory of the Lord Jesus,
-
Amen.
-
Cultivating and attaining humility.
-
Another title might be:
-
"The Truly Humble Man."
-
Or, another way you could say it is:
-
"Overcoming the Proud Heart."
-
Overcoming the proud heart.
-
James Montgomery Boice said this,
-
"It is hard to imagine anyone
-
living with Jesus for a full three years
-
and still wanting to be important himself
-
instead of just letting
Jesus be important."
-
But the disciples even at the last,
-
they hadn't gotten it.
-
He's on His way to Jerusalem,
-
and they're arguing about what?
-
Who's going to be the greatest.
-
"Being self-important,
-
or being someone significant
-
is of zero importance.
-
But Jesus Christ being supremely important
-
is of infinite importance."
-
That's what this psalm is about.
-
Three verses.
-
Sixty-one words.
-
The second shortest psalm.
-
Which is the shortest?
-
Psalm 117. Two verses.
-
Psalm 131 - three verses.
-
Spurgeon said, "Psalm 131
-
is a short letter that
reaches great heights."
-
And it really does.
-
It's a short, easy psalm to read,
-
but it's a very hard lesson to learn.
-
Going from having a proud heart
-
by nature and by practice
-
and by culture, influence,
-
and being shaped with human pride,
-
success,
-
be all that you can be,
-
dream your dreams,
-
nothing's impossible
-
for whoever will work hard -
-
the culture drips with self-driven pride.
-
This psalm is one of the
greatest gems in all the psalms.
-
And the irony is it's so small,
-
it's so seemingly insignificant,
-
it's easy to read through the Psalms
-
and you quickly read it and you finish it
-
and as I said earlier this morning,
-
you don't let it be a wake-up call.
-
Who among us can say today,
-
"Lord, my heart is not proud"?
-
The fact is, many of us can't say that,
-
should not say that.
-
But here's the real amazing thing:
-
Some of you could say it
-
and it would be true.
-
But you'd never say it.
-
But David says it.
-
Like Moses writing
-
that Moses was the
meekest man in the earth.
-
That's a hard one, isn't it?
-
It's a brief personal testimony
-
about something so deep,
-
so transforming,
-
in the depth of what it's teaching.
-
No psalm is more personal than this one.
-
It's a little autobiographical picture
-
of David's heart.
-
Now, if it is David,
-
and some Old Testament scholars
-
question whether David
is actually the author,
-
the best commentators really think
-
that it was him,
-
and certainly when you
peruse his whole life,
-
and you look at David's life,
-
and you look at what faults he had -
-
think about this -
-
was pride as a pattern one of them?
-
I would say no. It wasn't.
-
Pride did not mark
David's life continually
-
where his pride was a besetting sin.
-
No, he didn't.
-
We'll talk more about that in a minute.
-
But this psalm gives us a glimpse
-
into David's soul of deep experience
-
and genuine freedom
-
from pride and arrogance.
-
If you have had a problem with pride
-
all your life and it's a problem today,
-
this psalm gives you hope
-
that you can be changed
-
from a proud person
-
to a humble saint.
-
Now, how I wish every preacher and pastor
-
could say what David says here,
-
because many of them are
the worst bunch about this.
-
What if every elder, every deacon,
-
every church leader,
-
every Christian lady and Christian man,
-
every young Christian in every church
-
had the reality of what Psalm 131 says?
-
Not proud, not haughty,
-
not lofty eyes,
-
not trying to be what I'm not;
-
being what I am,
-
being a weaned child before the Lord
-
and hoping in Him.
-
What if we all lived that reality?
-
How amazing it would be!
-
Psalm 130, the one before,
-
is a psalm of forgiveness.
-
Psalm 131 is a psalm of humility.
-
Humility. How rare that often is!
-
How important it is!
How essential it is!
-
How beautiful it is!
-
How attractive and how fragrant it is!
-
Pride stinks.
-
But humility smells beautiful.
-
And if the first one's on you,
-
others smell it.
-
And if the second one's on you,
-
they smell that too.
-
And it's pleasant.
-
These three verses reveal
-
the blessedness of a man
-
with a meek and a quiet spirit.
-
And actually, this psalm is an
Old Testament commentary
-
on Jesus' words:
-
"Blessed are the..." who? The meek.
-
Blessed are the meek.
-
It's marked by a tone
of childlike simplicity.
-
David's just saying
-
my heart's not like this,
-
it's not like this.
-
Here's what I've experienced,
-
and I'm like this now.
-
Israel, hope in the Lord.
-
Childlike simplicity.
-
But the depth of the reality
-
of the experience is profound.
-
Answer this question:
-
When did you last say
-
about your Christian life,
-
"I have become more like a child"?
-
We don't talk like that.
We don't even think like that.
-
But didn't Jesus use that
picture about greatness?
-
Unless you become like a child
-
you won't even get in the kingdom.
-
But He went on and said true greatness -
-
He took up a child.
-
And here, David the king,
-
the greatest in Israel,
-
says I have become like a weaned child.
-
This is a testimony by David
-
that God has worked in him
-
a consistent, humble heart
-
that is not dominated by pride.
-
Eyes that are not lofty or haughty
-
or ego-driven.
-
He's not pursuing intellectual arrogance
-
about things that he
is not to meddle into;
-
things that are not to be pursued,
-
that are beyond him,
that he's not called to.
-
He's not pursuing them anymore.
-
A humble man consistently,
-
contented to be who he truly is.
-
Would to God every one of us
-
would be given the grace
-
to be contented with who God made us
-
and not try to be like anybody else.
-
You talk about getting free.
-
You talk about coming into usefulness
-
and fruitfulness,
-
when you become content
-
with who God made you
-
and you don't try to be like anybody else.
-
Genuine consistent humility.
-
Has this psalm ever become real to you
-
and really gripped you?
-
Have you ever read it
-
and suddenly, were stopped and gripped
-
with the power of what
David actually says here?
-
It's amazing.
-
David was truly changed,
-
and he was not what
verse 1 says about pride.
-
He had come to the place where pride
-
was not ruling his heart.
-
But he was truly stating
what is true of him now.
-
When we really see what he's saying,
-
it's remarkable and it's radical.
-
Because this psalm says
there's three things
-
that were not
representative of David's life
-
as a general rule.
-
Now was he ever proud?
-
Yeah, it tried to get him and he
would overcome it at times.
-
But there are three things
-
that were not representative
-
of David's life as a general rule.
-
In other words, whatever he was,
-
he was not like this normally.
-
Number one: A proud man.
-
Number two: An ambitious man.
-
Number three: An intellectually arrogant
-
high-minded man.
-
He wasn't those things.
-
Meaning, he didn't try
to be like a "brainiac,"
-
or a big shot.
-
That motive was eliminated from his heart.
-
So there's three things to see in verse 1.
-
There's one thing to see in verse 2.
-
And there's one exhortation in verse 3.
-
So let's just work our
way through this psalm.
-
You apply it.
-
And may God shape our lives with it
-
by His Spirit.
-
Number one: What David was inwardly.
-
Humble. Humility.
-
My heart is not proud.
-
My heart is not lifted up.
-
My eyes are not raised too high.
-
This is completely something
of the inner heart.
-
Something inward.
-
And Psalm 51 says,
-
"...wisdom in the secret heart."
-
Where no one sees but God.
-
An inner heart change.
-
What David actually
claims here and affirms
-
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
-
is that I am now not a proud man
-
in normally living out my life.
-
Now, if he says that,
is he instantly proud?
-
Has he lost his humility?
-
In claiming humility, do you lose it?
-
Apparently not here.
-
Or this wouldn't be in the Bible.
-
And we know that could be the case.
-
It's normal and it's popular to think,
-
if you think you're humble, you're not.
-
And if you say it out loud,
that's really proud.
-
And if you write in the Bible forever,
-
you're really prideful.
-
Like the guy who wrote a
two-volume autobiography.
-
Number one: "Humility
and How I Attained it."
-
And the second volume was:
-
"The Ten Most Humble People in the World
-
and How I Trained the Other Nine."
-
Well, you know that guy's probably proud.
-
Flaunting his humility.
-
But if a man is truly humble,
-
and God has worked that in him,
-
can a Christian see God has humbled him
-
and produced humble
dependence in his heart
-
where he's honest with himself,
-
and they see themselves accurately,
-
and thank God for humility
that He's worked in them?
-
Yes.
-
You can.
-
Can we acknowledge it in our lives?
-
Well, David did.
-
We think to claim
humility is to forfeit it,
-
but David with a humble heart says,
-
"my heart is not proud."
-
In other words, if pride has been
-
dominant in my past, in my life,
-
it's not now dominant.
-
A change has been brought.
-
That's not in my heart anymore.
-
If it has filled my heart and my eyes
-
and ambitions in the past,
-
it's not doing that now.
-
Humility was cultivated
-
and became a mark of David's life.
-
This means this:
-
We're to cultivate it.
-
And we'll talk more about that.
-
It's not something we don't
have responsibility in.
-
It was a reality that David possessed.
-
He was unpretentious.
-
What does that mean?
-
What does it mean to be pretentious?
-
Or unpretentious?
-
Here's a good definition:
-
Unpretentious means
-
you're not attempting to
impress others anymore
-
with an appearance of importance,
-
talent, knowledge, or spirituality.
-
You're not attempting to impress others
-
with your greatness.
-
You're unpretentious.
-
You're not trying to portray
an image that you're not.
-
You're not trying to make people
-
think more highly of you
-
than they really should.
-
Being free of motives
and desires to impress,
-
to be great, or to be known.
-
In 1996, the British author and preacher
-
Iain Murray came to Texas
-
and he came to my church
-
for five days to do a conference.
-
And they stayed in our home
-
and our children were - I don't remember -
-
10, 8, 6, and two of them were two?
-
I don't remember their age.
-
But anyway, he was there.
-
The first thing he did when
he came in our house,
-
he went out in the backyard
-
and he was playing
soccer with all of them.
-
Running around, kicking the ball,
-
playing soccer.
-
And I thought that's reality;
-
that's humility.
-
It was an example to me.
-
Free of motives and desires
to impress anyone.
-
Now think about it, when you
-
read the Old Testament,
-
a close reading of David's life
-
shows that his life was not dominated
-
by self-importance and pride.
-
Yes, passions at times.
-
Anger, impulsiveness at times.
-
But not arrogance and self-importance.
-
It did not dominate his life.
-
Pride blinds us
-
and then it binds us
-
and puts us in bondage.
-
A proud heart is a heart
-
that was in bondage,
-
that won't let you function in humility
-
and even respond rightly.
-
And remember this:
-
it's amazing when you read through
-
the Old Testament,
-
every single time, whether it was Ahab,
-
or wicked kings - every time
-
someone humbled themselves before God,
-
God had mercy on them.
-
He showed them mercy.
-
And every time someone who was proud
-
hardened their heart and
wouldn't humble themselves,
-
God judged them - every single time.
-
Because He always resists pride,
-
and He always gives grace to who?
-
To the humble.
-
The evidence of David's active humility -
-
just stay with me and think about this -
-
you read his life.
-
There was constant evidence
-
that David walked in humility.
-
Remember he was a warring king.
-
In fact, he was told,
-
you can't build Me a temple
-
because you're a bloody king.
-
So, God didn't let him do that.
-
But he did not greedily aspire
-
to attack nations
-
and pick fights with other kings.
-
His warring was always defensive.
-
Every time.
-
Every time, he was protecting Israel.
-
And that shows that he was not
-
just in pursuit in his arrogance
-
to try to unnecessarily conquer.
-
He didn't kill Saul when he could have
-
and seize the throne.
-
Even after Samuel anointed him,
-
David waited for God
to fulfill His promise
-
to make him king.
-
He didn't scheme or
manipulate like Jacob did.
-
And for ten years, he had to run from Saul
-
and did not once raise
his hand against him.
-
That is self-control.
-
That's humility to wait before God.
-
That's being spiritually minded
-
to wait on the Lord
-
and to not take matters into
your own hands carnally.
-
When Shemaiah came out cursing David,
-
remember when David was coming out
-
with his men?
-
Shemaiah comes throwing dust at him
-
and cursing him.
-
One of David's right hand men said
-
I'm going to go take his head off.
-
David said no, God's letting him curse me.
-
Let him do it.
-
Self-control.
-
Self-control.
-
When David's bringing the ark
-
back into Jerusalem,
-
and Saul's daughter, his wife Michal
-
sees him dancing, she gets embarrassed.
-
What does David say?
-
Well, I'll be yet more vile.
-
I'll keep doing it.
-
He was rejoicing before God
-
and he didn't care if people saw him
-
in his royal dignity
-
dancing before the
Lord with all his might.
-
He would rather rejoice.
-
He would have quenched the Holy Spirit
-
if he had listened to her
-
to save his royal face and his dignity.
-
He maintained humility.
-
When David in his anger was coming
-
to wipe out wicked Nabal,
-
he gained self-control
-
through Abigail's intercession,
-
and he humbled himself to not do
-
what his flesh would have done.
-
That's humility.
-
I'm not going to do it.
-
In summary, David showed
a nobility of humility.
-
A willingness to wait on God
and not exalt himself.
-
Now he had his faults,
-
but those were not self-centeredness
-
and egotism and ambition.
-
H.C. Leupold -the best commentator
-
in my opinion on all the Psalms.
-
If you can get his book on the Psalms,
-
it's incredible how good it is.
-
Leupold said this about David:
-
"There may have been a time
-
when great plans and ambitions
-
surged through David's heart
-
and drove him down the road of ambition,
-
but he exited that road
-
and he never got on it again."
-
Some of us need to exit the road
-
of self-ambition, and start driving
-
on Humility Boulevard.
-
Who can say, "Lord,
my heart is not proud"?
-
David could and it was true.
-
Now secondly, he says this:
-
Read on - verse 1.
-
"My eyes are not lofty
-
and I do not exercise
myself in great matters
-
or things too high for me."
-
How many of you think
I should run for president?
-
Think how people exercise themselves
-
in things too high for them.
-
Try to get on with some blogger
-
in some long discussion,
-
and you're going to
straighten them all out.
-
David said first, I
don't have a proud heart.
-
Secondly, I don't have lofty eyes
-
or carnal ambition.
-
That has to do with high-minded conceit
-
to pursue big self-goals and big plans
-
for self-exaltation.
-
I'm going to be somebody for Jesus.
-
Seekest thou great things for thyself?
-
Seek them not Scripture says.
-
But see, that's the
current view in this world.
-
Let no one tell you that
you can't accomplish
-
whatever you can dream.
-
The sky's the limit.
-
You should try to be the next Paul Washer,
-
the next Lebron James,
-
the next Texas governor,
-
the president.
-
Envision it. Pursue it.
-
Let nothing stop you from
your dream that you have.
-
You can live your dream.
You can be your dream.
-
You can have your dream.
-
So says schools and higher education
-
and the media and famous people.
-
Lofty eyes.
-
David says I don't have them anymore.
-
My eyes - what I envision,
-
what I want and what I want to pursue
-
has been mortified,
-
has been changed, has been sanctified.
-
I'm not trying to be someone
important anymore.
-
I'm not trying to accomplish something
-
that God really is not calling me to do.
-
I'm going to be who I am
-
and I'm going to do what
He's called me to do.
-
That's all that's important.
-
Human high-minded intellectual
-
self-ambition.
-
Be something great.
-
Accomplish something big.
-
Be famous. Be known. Be respected.
-
David would no longer aim for fame.
-
But how often in even a Christian's heart
-
is there an aim for fame?
-
I'd like to be in a real position.
-
I'd like to have a ministry.
-
I'd like to be this or do that.
-
And you want to do things
-
out of love for Christ,
-
and you want to be more fruitful,
-
but you see, the fine line
-
can become in what the true motives are.
-
Is it really because God
is shaping your life
-
and you see that He's
calling you to something
-
and others in the church
-
or in the body of Christ
-
see that and they recognize it?
-
If any man desires the office of an elder,
-
he desires a good thing, but then,
-
look out among you
-
and recognize those that God's hand is on.
-
You see the balance there.
-
David did not position himself,
-
thrust himself forward for self-greatness.
-
Rather, great position and leadership
-
was thrust upon him by God
-
in the purpose of God.
-
David's here saying
-
let high ambitions be abandoned.
-
Let them be gone from our hearts.
-
You and I don't have to be someone
that God hasn't made us.
-
And David came to the place
-
he's saying I don't want to be somebody
-
that God hasn't made me.
-
I don't want to pursue things
-
even that are too lofty
and too high for me.
-
Consider the second half of verse 1.
-
"I do not exercise myself in great matters
-
or things too high and beyond me."
-
Now just picture this.
-
A professor from the
University of North Texas -
-
I took a class in graduate
history of philosophy
-
there at the University of North Texas.
-
And the class started out with 80,
-
and in about two weeks,
there were about 10.
-
And I said I've got to stick with it.
-
I'm going to learn something.
-
So, it was advanced philosophy -
-
history of philosophy.
-
What if the professor had come to me,
-
and he said, "Mr. Tomlinson,
-
I see you're a lot older than
some of these students.
-
So, I've got to be gone tomorrow.
-
Would you do the lecture tomorrow
-
on the philosophy of Spinoza?"
-
What do you think I should choose to do?
-
What an opportunity!
-
No, what a fool I would be if I did it!
-
I'd be taking on
something too high for me,
-
too lofty, that I'm not equipped for,
-
that I couldn't do.
-
You have to say no.
-
I had a friend two weeks ago call me.
-
He's in another church in Denton County.
-
And he said brother, can I come by?
-
I need you to teach me Revelation 8
-
because the pastor is sick
-
and they've asked me to teach the class.
-
I said, no, I won't do that, brother.
-
Don't do it.
-
Do not do that.
-
You're not ready.
-
You're not equipped.
-
You're not a teacher.
-
You don't have what it takes.
-
They shouldn't have put that on you.
-
You would be trying to
do what's beyond you,
-
beyond your experience,
-
your ability, your calling,
and your giftedness.
-
Don't do it.
-
And he listened to me.
-
If he had done that,
-
too high, too lofty, beyond him,
-
he would have probably been embarrassed
-
and discouraged a long time in the future.
-
Exercising myself in great matters
-
or things too high for me.
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Causing myself to choose to not pursue
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and go after things that
I don't have the goods for
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intellectually,
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domestically,
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business-wise.
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Living in the armor that God's given me
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and not trying to put on Saul's armor.
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David said it won't work.
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Give me my sling and my stones
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and the power of God.
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Here's how some have
translated this phrase:
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"I do not seek out and try to walk
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in matters that are too high for me."
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"I do not let proud thoughts
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and lofty views cause me
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to try to be or do what's
truly beyond me."
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Matthew Poole - the commentator -
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said it this way:
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"It has not been my course to attempt
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to take on things beyond my capacity,
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beyond my abilities
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because of ambition for
selfish accomplishment."
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Edwards said it this way:
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"I do not have an ambitious heart
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to try to converse in
or function in things
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where I should not go."
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Now we must realize it's not sinful
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to hold an honored position
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in ministry or public service.
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But God should put a person there,
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and a person should not seek it.
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Let each of us be aware of ambition.
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It's foolish to meddle in matters
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and intellectual discussion
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beyond our capacity and beyond our growth.
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Self-control, self-discipline,
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self-humbling are great attainments
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and must be sought
diligently and earnestly.
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Blessed is the one who is a weaned child.
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Someone said, "Great men
never think they're great,
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and small men never think they're small."
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Elisha Cole said, "It is one of the
hardest matters under the sun
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to become nothing in ourselves."
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I wasn't ready for preach for 20 years
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when I started preaching.
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And half the time now,
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I don't even think I'm ready.
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If one wants to please the devil,
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let him begin to admire himself.
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Well, I've got gifts that they don't have.
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Why do they get to do that?
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Admiring ourselves.
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Let anyone, if he thinks
more highly of himself
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than he ought to think...
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Now how did this process happen in David?
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If verse 1 is true,
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that he doesn't have a proud heart;
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doesn't have lofty eyes,
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and he's not trying to exercise himself
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in things beyond him,
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how did this happen?
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How did he get from A to B?
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How did he go from
pride not being an issue
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to humility being real in his heart?
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The process is verse 2.
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"Surely I have behaved
and quieted myself."
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What does he mean?
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He means he took control
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of his heart and his thoughts and his mind
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and he says, "Calm down, boy.
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You're not great. Don't try to be great."
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He told himself.
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He hushed himself.
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Thoughts would come. Desires come.
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"Shhh... shhh... no, that's not right.
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That's not godly.
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I'm not going there.
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I'm not going to pursue that.
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I'm not going to put myself forward.
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I'm going to take the back seat,
and let them call me up to the front.
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I'm not going to take the front seat
and asked to move back."
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He calmed himself.
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He told himself, "Shut up."
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It's okay to tell yourself to shut up.
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You don't use that word in my house
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when my wife's around.
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The grandchildren never
say that to one another.
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Well, it's okay to tell yourself that.
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David did that.
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He calmed himself.
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He settled himself down.
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He evaluated the situation.
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(Incomplete thought)
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This was a battle.
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This was picturing a real battle
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and a real process.
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It was a possible long conflict
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where he reduced the temptation
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of self-exaltation -
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thinking more highly of
himself than he should -
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and he mortified his
thoughts of self-greatness.
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He stilled his soul.
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He took himself by the collar of his heart
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and he said, "no, I won't go there."
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"I refuse to put myself forward
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or engage myself in things I shouldn't."
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It was a weaning process.
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I guess some babies are harder
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to wean off the breast than others.
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And so, it's a fight.
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And it's hard.
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Once a baby truly gets weaned,
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there's contentment to sit in mom's lap
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and not have to demand it.
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David said I am like a weaned child.
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Contented.
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I have no desire to be great.
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I have no desire to traffic in things
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I'm not called to.
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I'll be me and I'll do what
God wants me to do.
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A contented heart is a blessed thing.
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Oh, the blessedness of
a weaned child of God.
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Brethren, we've got to
learn to wean our hearts
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from carnal ambition,
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from pride that tries to get us.
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We have to learn to desire
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only the Lord Jesus
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and not something great for ourselves.
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God can entrust great opportunity
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to those He can trust
with those opportunities.
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So, he weaned himself.
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And then, he says,
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my soul, right now,
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is a weaned, contented heart.
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Where these things that were issues
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aren't in my life anymore.
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And then he exhorts us.
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Look at verse three.
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The humble man's exhortation... to us.
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He takes it to the church.
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He takes his autobiographical,
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personal, intimate experience
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and he applies it pastorally
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to all of God's people.
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You know what he says?
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"Hope in the Lord."
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Just hope in Him.
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Hope in the Lord your God.
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This is an all-inclusive exhortation.
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Pride? Not before God, church.
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Let all your glory be in Him.
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Let all your glory be in the cross.
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Let all your glory be in what He's done.
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He gets the credit for everything.
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Without Him, we can do nothing.
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Lofty, selfish ambitions,
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your goals, your gifts, your ministry,
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your future, your longings -
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hope in the Lord.
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A man's gift makes room for him.
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It doesn't say a man
makes room for his gifts.
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A man's gift makes room for him
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and brings him before kings.
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Promotion is from who?
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The Lord.
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He brings up one. He puts down another.
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Hope in the Lord.
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Everything in the Christian life
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and in ministry and in fruitfulness
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and in usefulness and in service
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and in a life pleasing God -
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everything is from Him
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and of Him and through Him
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and for Him and by Him,
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so hope in the Lord alone.
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I love that old chorus they used to sing:
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"In the Lord; the Lord alone
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is righteousness and peace."
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Well, let me apply this a little bit.
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Number one,
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how does this really fit us?
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What are we to do?
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Number one: humility must be
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cultivated by daily choices.
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Paul said, "I die daily."
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Humility must be
cultivated by daily choices.
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Regularly, quietly, with wisdom
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down in the secret recesses of our heart
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saying no to prideful thoughts.
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Giving no place.
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Cutting out lofty eyes.
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Killing high ambitions,
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self-exalting goals.
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Learning to hush your heart regularly.
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That's mortifying the flesh.
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Self-important stinks,
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so don't be smelly to other people.
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Because they'll smell it.
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Humility - think of this -
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humility is not to be a momentary victory
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in the midst of a pattern
of a prideful life.
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Humility is the life that we're normally
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to be governed by
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and pride and ambition ought to be
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the little speed bumps
(incomplete thought),
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and then we repent
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and then we return to a lifestyle
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of humility.
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Humility is not to be a
once in a while occurrence.
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But it's to rule in our hearts continually
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as a reality in the Holy Spirit.
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So, we must cultivate this.
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Let ambitions be abandoned.
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Let lofty eyes be put out and blinded.
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Let high thoughts die.
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Be a weaned child because David was.
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Number two: we must continually
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cultivate within our church
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an atmosphere and a culture
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of church humility.
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I often think about this,
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about our church in Denton.
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Does our church have any appearance
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to the community, to others,
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to those who visit -
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does our church have any appearance
-
of superiority or pride?
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Do we give off any aroma of arrogance?
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Do we relate to the lost
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in our evangelism with kindness,
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humility, listening and caring,
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or, harshly, judgmentally,
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argumentatively?
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We are a city set on a hill
that cannot be hidden.
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So what's being seen and heard?
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What's sounding forth from us?
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Humility or superiority?
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What shines forth?
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How is our church known?
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What are we known for
among the world around us?
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And when you think about this, beloved,
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think about this -
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the Lord Jesus, He is the supreme example
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of Psalm 131.
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As a man, He was not proud.
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He didn't have lofty eyes.
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He could have cured hunger and poverty
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in the country totally.
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He could have healed everybody
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with a word.
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But He didn't exercise Himself
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in things the Father
had not called Him to.
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He was on a mission -
-
a singular mission -
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to do what the Father had called Him to do
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and to accomplish His work.
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And think about this:
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He was willing to be ignorant
-
in His humanity.
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Was the Lord Jesus
ignorant in His humanity?
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Yes, He was.
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Self-imposed choice of being ignorant
-
about things in His humanity.
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He said I don't know the day
or the hour of My coming.
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And you know what governed that?
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One consideration:
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"Even so, Father, it seemed
good in Your sight."
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So the Lord Jesus Christ emulates for us
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in His life and death and His example,
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and in His headship of the church,
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His being our Great High Priest,
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He evidences Psalm 131 to us.
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And He calls us and says,
-
hey, I want you to have
no pride in your heart.
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I don't want you to have lofty eyes.
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I don't want you to be about
-
what you're not supposed to be about.
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I want you to be a weaned
child on My breast.
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Hope in Me.
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Israel, hope in Me.
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Hope in Me.
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Cultivate and attain true humility.
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Go for it.
-
You can do it.
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It's life in the Spirit.
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It's our inheritance.
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What a blessedness if someone
-
can look at your life
or mine in the future
-
and they can read Psalm 131
-
and they can say, hey,
that's not just David,
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that's her; that's him.
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Do you want that?
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Blessed be God, the reality,
-
God can work it in our hearts.
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Never again read quickly past Psalm 131
-
without stopping and saying,
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"Lord, am I more this way
than I was last week?"
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My heart is not proud.
-
My eyes aren't lofty.
-
Make me a weaned child.
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Let's pray.
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Father, work in us a
heart that is not proud.
-
Remove from us lofty eyes.
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Remove from us the tendency
-
and temptation to exercise ourselves
-
in matters that are too high for us.
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Help us to quiet ourselves
-
as a child that is weaned from its mother.
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Cause our soul and our life, Lord,
-
to be a weaned child,
-
and cause us increasingly
-
to just hope in the Lord.
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Oh God, work these realities in us
-
that we would be more
and more like our Savior.
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Hear us, we ask.
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And work in us to will and to do
-
of Your good pleasure.
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In Jesus' name we pray,
-
Amen.