07-27-08 #Disciple Bible Study titled: “A Life of Humility”

[Disciple]

“LIVING THE HD LIFE”
“A Life of Humility”
Philippians 2
Intro.
What kind of world would we have if everyone wore the garments of genuine humility?
Pride is one of the most natural passions within us. And pride has caused us numberless troubles. It is because of pride that we struggle with our motives. It is because of pride that we see the approval of others. It is because of pride that we will do anything to look good. I dare say that if other people were able to read our thoughts that we would be embarrassed at the amount of pride they would read and hear coming from within us.
Ill- Probably we can relate to the fellow who wrote the two best selling books, “Humility and How I Attained It” and “The Ten Most Humble Men In The World And How I Chose The Other Nine.”
This quote was in “Our Daily Bread” magazine, December 1986. “Pride is the only disease known to man that makes everyone sick except the one who has it.”
Probably for the most part we would rather try to fool the people around us and try to give the image of pride and confidence than to show the weaknesses and insecurities that are within all of us.
If you have struggled at times in your life with pride, you can perhaps be comforted in knowing that you are not the only one who has dealt with this problem. The church at Phillipi had a problem with pride also. And so Paul is urging them to a life of humility.
Let’s look at Philippians 2 and see how Paul talks about being humble and then let’s make some personal applications to our own lives.
I. The Elusive Prinicple
Consider some things the Bible says about pride and humility.
Matt 23:12
James 4:6
What the Bible tells us about how God deals with the proud and how God thinks about humility ought to be reason enough for us to see to be humble in our living, and yet we find that humility is hard to practice.
Ill- In a certain pond, there were two ducks and a frog who were neighbors and best friends. During the warm summer days they spent their time playing in the pond. When the cold weather moved in the ducks realized they had to move. That would be easy for them but what about their friend the frog? Finally it was decided that they would put a stick in the bill of each and the frog could hang on to the stick with his mouth and the ducks would fly him to another pond. Just as they were flying over the farmer looked up and saw the unusual sight. He said to his wife, “What a great idea! I wonder who thought of that?” And with great pride, the frog said, “I didddddddddddddddddddd!” And that illustrates the Proverb that says “Pride goes before a fall.”
Paul calls on the Philippians and on us to be humble.
Phil 2:3
This verse is going to be our memory verse for this week. We have already used Phil. 1:3, and Phil 1:21
There are four kinds of pride that keep us from being humble and applying this principle of verse 3 to our daily living.
Vainglory or Vanity- This is a preoccupation with appearance or image
Stubbornness- This is the attitude that shuns correction and cause you to continually defend yourself. You just can’t admit that you could be wrong.
Exclusiveness- This is the belief that other people are beneath you. You recall the parable Jesus taught in Luke 18 about the Pharisee and the tax collector in the temple. The Pharisee prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, even like this tax collector.” And the tax collector prayed, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” And Jesus said the tax collector was the one who was justified.
Approval addiction- This is the insatiable desire to be accepted by others. Why are we so concerned about what other people think of us?
Ill- Someone has said, “If we knew how seldom other people actually think about us, we would be disappointed about how seldom they actually do.”
We need to get our focus off ourselves and begin to focus on others and their needs.
Phil 2:4
A sign of Christian maturity is the ability to think of others as being better than ourselves. Most of us would have to admit that we struggle with this elusive principle of humility.
II. The Pefect Example
Paul paints the picture of Jesus being the perfect example of humility. Most Bible scholars agree that this next section of Scripture probably was a hymn of the early church that Paul inserts here to reinforce his call to humility.
Phil 2:5-8
Paul is showing that Jesus is essentially God but he made the choice to become a man. No one has more right to be proud than Jesus, but no one demonstrates humility like Jesus.
Someone has noted that the growing, healthy Christian is like a head of wheat. The riper is becomes, the more it bows. In a wheat field it is not the stalks that stand up straight that are of value. They are light headed and have little grain. The stalks that bend are the ones that are filled with the valuable grain and are of great worth.
Ill- You remember Muhammad Ali at the height of his boxing career. He was one who never suffered from a lack of pride. His constant boastful line was “I Am The Greatest!” He was on an airplane and the attendant told him buckle his seat belt. Ali said, “I’m Superman and Superman don’t need no seat belt”. The attendant quickly replied, “Superman don’t need no airplane either, so buckle up.”
Jesus humbled himself in order that he could die on the cross for your sins and my sins. Now because of Jesus’ humility to die for us, note what Paul says.
Phil 2:9-11
Someday every knee will bow before him. Every tongue will confess Jesus Christ is Lord.
Ill- You might remember the old television commercial for Fram Oil Filters. Of course, they were telling you their filter was better than all the other filters. The commercial would show junked cars that had not used Fram Oil Filters and the implication was if you wanted to protect your engine and keep it running you would spend the extra money for the Fram Oil Filter. The mechanic would say, “You can pay me now, or you can pay me later”.
This is the way it will be with Jesus. You can bow before him and confess him now, or you will bow and confess him later when it’s too late. When Jesus comes again, it will be too late for getting saved. Will you bow now or will you bow later? But make no mistake, you will bow.

III. The Practical Application
Because of who Jesus Christ is and what he has done for us and his example of humble living, there are some practical applications for us.
Phil 2:12
C.S. Lewis observes that verses 12-13 tie human effort and divine empowering together. These verses show us that salvation is not solely by human effort, but they also warn us against holding a view that says God’s grace is so overwhelming that we need not exert our greatest effort in God’s service. So we ‘continue to work our salvation’
Another application us is seen in Phil 2:14
One obvious sign of pride is complaining, grumbling, murmuring, arguing. Where there is pride and disunity, you can expect there is going to be complaining and arguing. So Paul urges these Christians to put away completely complaining and arguing. And do you notice that this application applies for all cir***stances. “Do everything without complaining or arguing”
Look at two results of humbling ourselves. 1. Expanded influence
Phil 2:15
In last week’s message we talked about our purpose being to advance the gospel of Christ. But if we are complaining and arguing our effectiveness in advancing the gospel is greatly hindered. Here the emphasis is on our becoming more and more like Jesus. And as we become more like Jesus our influence will become greater. We will be like stars that shine in the darkened universe.
The purpose of the light is to dispel the darkness. The time for our lights to be shining is when we leave this place and go out into the darkness of our world. Let your light shine before men… is what Jesus said.
If you feel like you’re not having much influence on others regarding the spiritual life, maybe it’s time you examine your pride and humility issues
2. Personal Joy
Phil 2:17-18
We can learn from Paul that suffering and service do not have to rob you of joy when humility is the foundation of your life.
Conc.
Linus and Charlie Brown were talking one day. Linus says, “When I grow up I’m going to become a humble little country doctor. I’ll live in the city. Every morning I’ll get into my expensive sports car and zoom into the country. I’ll start healing people. I’ll heal everybody for miles around. I’ll become a famous, humble, little country doctor.”
That’s pretty close to the way we think about ourselves. If our thoughts were broadcast we would be humbled.
If you are interested in living the High Definition life, I want you to ask yourself and answer this question today. “Am I here for me or am I here for Jesus Christ?”
Jesus humbled himself and died for you. Will you humble yourself and live for him?