11/25/12 – James 4: Humility James shows us what the Gospel in someone’s life looks like in action, in real life. It answers the question, that if your life has been gripped by God and surrendered to Christ, what does it look like to live out that new reality. … James gives practical advice on how to get ‘unstuck’ Addresses: self centeredness/reliance/dependence, selfishness, idolatry with me at the center, pride "Ask not what your country can do for you ‐ ask what you can do for your country" ‐ John F. Kennedy Prevailing today "Ask not what I can do for my country ‐ ask what my country can do for me." Christians: many come with the perspective "Ask not what I can do for my church ‐ ask what my church can do for me." "Ask not what I can do for God ‐ ask what God can do for me?" VIDEO: soundtrack of your life “It’s All About Me” THE PROBLEM What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. [human wisdom vs. godly wisdom, approach to relationships "my life for me" instead of what Christ modeled "my life for you."] 4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? THE ANSWER: HUMILITY 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double‐
minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. Most people think of humility as low self‐esteem, self‐degradation. I’m no body, who am I, I’m nothing… we think what a humble person? A person who keeps saying they are a nobody is actually a self‐obsessed person and just as proud as the person who is constantly telling you how great he is. "Humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less. You'll know you've met a truly humble man not when you met a man who talks low about himself but when you met a man who doesn't talk about himself at all." –C.S. Lewis Illustration: picture of conduit flowing through a person connected to God and the world Ohm’s Law: I = V/R (current = voltage / resistance) current = the flow an electric charge voltage = technical name is electromotive force resistance = opposition to electron flow God’s Law: Ki = P / R Kingdom influence is the result of God's unlimited power limited only by the resistance in me. 5 WAYS TO FOSTER HUMILITY IN OUR LIVES What should we be doing and pursuing? 1. Submit yourselves to God. What areas of our life is Jesus not Lord in? Relationships, finances, future, marriage, dreams, etc. What areas are you depending on yourself instead of God? Recognizing your need and dependence on God draws you towards humility and aware from pride. 2. Resist the devil. You have a real spiritual enemy that wants to deceive and lie to you. He has no direct power of your but wants to do all he can to distract and keep you ineffective. Father of lies.... The devil wants to “bring you down, by building you up.” Think about the Garden of Eden, tried to convince Adam and Eve that they could become like God. That they didn’t need God. That in and of themselves they were sufficient. They did not need God’s grace, power and mercy… by themselves they were capable. They could be their own god. Promised Adam and Eve freedom… however, it produces only slavery. In so doing he enslaved the whole human race. It is enslaving and exhausting when we live our lives as if it all depends on us to make sure our kids turn out ok, that we can provide for our family, that I matter in life, that my spouse should do what he or she should do, that everything in the office goes ok… when it’s all up to us… tiring, exhausting, enslaving, overwhelming, deadly. Where in your life is the devil telling you that you don’t need God? TRUE FREEDOM IS NOT FOUND IN INDEPENDENCE, IT IS FOUND IN COMPLETE DEPENDENCE ON CHRIST 3. Draw near to God. Worship, time with God daily... one time a week on Sundays not enough. Develop an intimacy with God. Push deeper and further into what God has done for you through Christ. As you push further and your view of God and the work of Christ increases, you become smaller… and as God becomes bigger and you become smaller what happens? Humility happens. “When your estimation of God goes up, your estimation of yourself goes down. And when your estimation of yourself goes up, your estimation of God goes down.” ‐ J.I. Packer 4. Wash your hands of sin. What areas in your life are you tolerating sin? Ask God to show you. Ask God to make you hate your sin... get out of the "it's not that bad" trap. Greatest sin in our culture is to be 'self‐sufficient' and resist the 'all sufficiency' of Christ. 5. Purify your hearts…double minded. Are there toxic influences in your life? What do you watch and listen to? Relationships that are unhealthy? Wrong though patterns and routines. You confess Christ as your savior and he has saved you from your sins, in your daily life you have a series of “functional” saviors. on a daily basis you look to other things and depend on other things to provide your life with meaning, value, worth, protection, security that you long for and that can only come from Christ. … ask this question: 1. WHAT IN MY LIFE, IF IT WAS TAKEN AWAY, WOULD I FEEL LIKE LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING ANYMORE? Good thing has become an ultimate thing, a defining thing, a thing that you worship. For some: health, children, spouse, success, dream, other’s opinion, approval or acceptance of others, respect, money. What is it that apart from ______________ I don’t even know who I am? Life isn’t worth living without this. What is it that gives you your real sense of worth, purpose, identity, safety, security… if it’s anything other than Christ it’s what James is telling us we need to confront. HUMILITY IN OUR RELATIONSHIPS 11 Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor? Questions on Humility in Relationships ‐ how are you doing? (original list by Timothy Keller) 1. Are you more aware of the faults of others or your own faults? 2. Are you more offended by sins done against you or sins committed by you? 3. When you speak of others faults do you do so with an air of contempt and disdain, or grief and mercy? 4. Do you quickly separate from people who disagree with you or you disagree with, or do you give them the benefit of the doubt and stick it out in hard times? HUMILITY IN OUR PLANNING 13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. Questions on Humility in Your Plans ‐ how are you doing? (by Scott) 1. Do you make plans and ask God to bless them, or do you ask God what plans to make? 2. Are you quick to first see the impact of your accomplishments in a situation, or do you first see God's role in what has happened? 3. Do you not tithe because you don't trust God to provide for tomorrow, or do you tithe knowing God can better meet your needs tomorrow than you can? 4. Do you selfishly guard your calendar which quickly fills up with your plans, or do you create margin and space for God and others to interrupt? TRUE FREEDOM IS NOT FOUND IN INDEPENDENCE, IT IS FOUND IN COMPLETE DEPENDENCE ON CHRIST “Gospel‐humility is not needing to think about myself. Not needing to connect things with myself. It is an end to thoughts such as, ‘I’m in this room with these people, does that make me look good? Do I want to be here?’ True gospel‐humility means I stop connecting every experience, every conversation, with myself. In fact, I stop thinking about myself. The freedom of self‐forgetfulness. The blessed rest that only self‐forgetfulness brings.” –T. Keller “The Freedom of Self‐Foorgetfulness” ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ James addresses and instructs us on a wide range of topics that often times get us ‘stuck’ in life as we follow Christ. James gives practical advice on how to get ‘unstuck’… the actions James tells us to take doesn’t direct God’s love for us, it reflects God’s love and the reality we find ourselves in as God’s children, adopted into His family, born again as a new creation. Humility happens when we give up all our attempts to measure up, to do more, to try harder… it happens as we receive Christ’ words “It is finished” into the depths of our being smashing any attempts at narcissistic self justification. “Humility is blessed self‐forget‐fullness” –Tim Keller 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law [performance, efforts at self‐justification, self‐
validation, making your own meaning] have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. Galatians 5:4‐5 3
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. –Philippians 2:3 [The world tells you to watch out for yourself. To take care of yourself first. In, God’s Kingdom that’s turned upside down… when you are ‘recreated’ in Jesus Christ, your nature is now to lookout for others first.] “C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity makes a brilliant observation about gospel‐humility at the very end of his chapter on pride. If we were to meet a truly humble person, Lewis says, we would never come away from meeting them thinking they were humble. They would not be always telling us they were a nobody (because a person who keeps saying they are a nobody is actually a self‐obsessed person). The thing we would remember from meeting a truly gospel‐humble person is how much they seemed to be totally interested in us. Because the essence of gospel‐humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less.” 4. Are you dogmatic and sure of every point of belief so that every mole hill becomes a mountain to die, on or are you capable of distinguishing between essentials and non‐essentials of doctrine? 4. When talking to others do you primarily talk about your life and plans, or do you primarily show interest in the person you are talking to?