18 April 2010
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to 2 Chronicles 7
11. When Solomon had finished the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the LORD and in his own palace,
12. the LORD appeared to him at night and said: "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.
13. "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people,
14. if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
-- this morning we are going to be continuing in the series that we started last week which we began by asking the question, "Yes, but how?"
-- "Yes, we want all that God has to offer" -- "Yes, we want to become the people who God uses" -- "Yes, we want more of God in our lives"
-- all of us are painfully aware that we need a revival in our land and in our homes and in our churches like never before
-- just this week, we saw a federal judge rule that the National Day of Prayer was unconstitutional -- the message that is being broadcast from the halls of Congress to the White House to the courts of justice is that we should look to the Government for answers and for life rather than the God of our forefathers
-- every decision -- every new Government program -- every new restriction on our religious freedom is making us more and more dependent on man and encouraging us to trust in the Government instead of the God who created us -- the answer is obvious -- now, more than ever, we need God again
-- in this familiar passage in 2 Chronicles, King Solomon has just completed building the temple in Jerusalem -- his father, David, had originally desired to build a home for God in Jerusalem, but God had refused because David had been a man of war -- instead, God chose to gift Solomon and to build the temple through him
-- and after years of toil and labor, the temple has finally been finished and consecrated as a holy place in Jerusalem -- as the place where the people of Israel could meet God and offer their sacrifices and themselves in service to Him -- as the place that declared to the world that this nation followed God and no one else
-- that very night, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a vision and gave him this promise that stands for all of God's people -- God told him that there would be times when disasters would come on the people -- that there would be times of trouble and trial -- of plague and pestilence -- that would come because the people had turned away from Him
-- "but," God said, "the people may have left Me, but I have not left them -- the people may have turned from Me, but I have not turned from them
-- and when all of this happens -- when the trials and troubles become too much to bear -- when My people -- the people who are called by My name -- are ready to return to me -- if they will do these four things -- if they will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land
-- so, if our desire is to see our nation healed -- if our desire is to see America restored -- if our desire is to see God glorify Himself and His people in this country once again -- if our answer is "Yes" -- then these four things are the "how" -- these four things are the path to revival -- the path to restoring life -- the path back to God
-- regardless of what the courts say, the National Day of Prayer is still scheduled for the first Thursday in May -- May 6 -- the Government can do a lot of things, but they can't stop prayer -- and they can't stop God -- and they can't stop us from doing what God has called us to do
and, so, for the next three Sundays leading up to May 6th, we are going to prepare ourselves to return to God -- I am going to lead you in three sermons through these steps to revival so that on this National Day of Prayer we might fulfill the fourth requirement as we join with the rest of God's people in this land -- in defiance of the court decision but in obedience to the God who created us -- and cry out in prayer for His hand to move and to hear our prayers, to forgive our sins, and to heal our land
-- but, first, we have to prepare ourselves -- so let's begin this morning by seeing what it means to humble ourselves before our God -- if you would, turn over to Philippians 2 and let's start our study there
II. Humbleness
-- as you're turning there, let me ask you a question -- what does it mean to be humble? -- what does a humble person look like?
-- the dictionary defines humbleness as not proud or arrogant -- as being submissive or lower ranking than another person -- and both of those definitions are right on the mark -- those are exactly the attributes that God wants us to seek in our lives
-- look at verse 5 in this passage in Philippians 2
5. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
-- your attitude -- your mind -- should be the same as Christ Jesus
-- humbleness starts in our minds -- it starts with our attitude -- it starts with a choice on our part -- if we are to be humble people -- if are to humble ourselves before God as He tells us to do in 2 Chronicles 7:14, then we have to choose to do so -- we have to choose to humble ourselves so that God might be exalted
-- but, this goes against our very nature -- our natural tendency is not to be humble, but instead to be filled with pride -- in fact, we are encouraged to be prideful from the moment we're born -- we're told to take pride in our accomplishments -- to be proud of our work -- proud of our heritage -- proud of our country -- proud of everything that we do -- and for those kids who don't quite get it, we even have self-esteem classes so that they can learn how to become prideful in their own lives
-- to be proud means that we exalt ourselves and our accomplishments and our lives -- to be proud means that we put ourselves on the throne of our lives -- to be proud means that we can make it on our own without anyone else's help
-- did you know that the very first sins recorded in the Bible were pride?
-- in Isaiah 14, we read how pride was Satan's downfall -- Satan started out as Lucifer, God's anointed cherub -- ordained with every precious stone -- beautiful in all his ways
-- but in his heart, he was prideful -- he desired more than he had -- and he said, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High."
-- Lucifer's pride led him to try to become higher than God -- to take God's place -- and so God cast him down from heaven and he became Satan
-- and, then, in the Garden of Eden, it was Adam and Eve's pride that made them take the forbidden fruit and disobey God -- just like Lucifer, they desired to become like God -- to know what God knew -- to be equal to Him -- and they took the fruit and ate it and brought sin into the world
-- it has been said that pride is the root of all other sins because pride makes us want to be God in our own lives -- that's why we read in the Bible that God hates pride so much -- in Proverbs 8:13, we read, "I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech" and in James 4:6, we read that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble
-- God's desire is for us to be humble -- to have the attitude and mind of Christ and to choose to humble ourselves so that God might be exalted
-- verse 6
6. Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7. but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
-- if any one person had a right to be prideful, then it was Jesus -- we can never forget that Jesus was not just a man, but He was God incarnate -- God in the flesh -- if any person had a right to exalt Himself on earth, then Jesus was the one -- but He didn't
-- these verses tell us that Jesus made Himself nothing -- in other words, the God of all the universe -- endowed with all glory and majesty and honor -- put all that aside and humbled Himself and came to earth for us
-- even though He was God, Paul writes, He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped -- He willingly stepped down and took on the role of a servant and became one of us
-- when Jesus walked among us, He showed us what it meant to live a humble life -- born in a manger to a poor Jewish carpenter's family -- He never had any position of honor in life -- He didn't have fame or fortune -- in Luke 9:58, Jesus said, ""Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." -- the God who created all things didn't even have a home
-- He lived as one of us -- He ate and slept as one of us -- He lived life as one of us so that we might learn what it meant to humble ourselves before God and submit to Him in all our ways
-- from Jesus, we learn that to be humble is not to pretend that we have no gifts or talents -- from Jesus, we learn that to be humble is not to pretend that we are nothing or that we have nothing -- from Jesus, we learn that to be humble is not to walk through this life saying, "Woe is me"
-- no, to be humble means that we are making a choice -- we are choosing to step down from the throne of our life -- we are choosing to not be in charge but to let God be in charge -- and we are choosing to use the gifts and talents that He gave us for His glory and not our own
-- verse 8
8. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!
-- in this verse we read of the ultimate act of submission -- Paul tells us that Jesus humbled Himself and was obedient to God and willingly went to the cross
-- Jesus did not do what He wanted to do -- in the Garden of Gethsemane, it was clear that Jesus did not want to go to the cross -- who would? -- what man would willingly go and suffer such a painful, excruciating punishment as that and die for something that they had not done? -- you can see in His prayers and in His actions that night that Jesus did not want to go to the cross, but yet He prayed, "Not my will, but thine be done" -- and He humbled Himself and accepted God's will for His life and His death and went to the cross and died for us
-- to be humble means that you put aside your own wants and wishes -- your own goals and plans -- and you submit your will to God's -- you step off the throne and put God on the throne -- and you do what He wants you to do and not what you want to do
-- to be humble means that we are letting God be God in our lives -- "humility is an honest and objective reflection of our real relationship to God" -- by choosing to live as Christ and to humble ourselves before God, we are demonstrating the truth of the fact that we are dependent on God -- our life -- our being -- our very existence depends on Him
-- as someone once said, "All that we have comes from God -- our lives, our salvation, our hope, our Christ. God has given all; nothing is our own. God gives; God will take away; God will give again."
-- when we recognize that we are not and cannot be in control of our own lives and we live in that understanding, then we are finally submitting ourselves to God and paving the way for Him to work in our lives -- that is why humbleness is the first step towards revival
III. Closing
-- The story is told of two ducks and a frog who lived happily together in a farm pond -- these three animals were the best of friends -- they would spend the whole day playing together in their waterhole -- but, when summer rolled around, the pond started to dry up -- and as it got smaller and smaller, it soon became apparent that the three friends would have to move.
-- This was no problem for the ducks, who could easily fly to another pond -- But the frog was stuck -- he had no way to leave this drying waterhole and go to another place to live -- so they thought and thought and finally, the frog came up with a brilliant idea -- he told the ducks to find a stick and put one end in each of their mouths so the frog could hang on to the middle with his mouth as they flew to another pond -- they tried it and the plan worked well--so well, in fact, that as they were flying along a farmer looked up in admiration and saw the frog suspended on the stick between the two ducks and said in amazement, "Well, isn't that a clever idea! I wonder who thought of it?" -- The frog said, "I did..." -- and that was then end of that
-- that's the way of pride -- the Bible tells us that pride goes before the fall -- and as soon as you open your mouth and exalt yourself, you find yourself falling flat on your face before God and everyone else
-- pride is insidious -- it is so hard to get rid of -- as Mac Davis put it, "Oh, Lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way" -- but, if we are going to follow God -- if we are going to live for Him -- if we are going to see revival in our lives and in our homes and in our country, then we are going to have to put our pride aside and submit ourselves in humility to God
-- humbleness is the essence of Christianity -- it is following the example of Christ -- it is letting God be God and recognizing that we are not in control and He is
-- as I close this message and leave you with the first answer to the question, "Yes, but how?" may we join together to pray in the words of Thomas Merton -- "Give me humility, in which alone is rest, and deliver me from pride, which is the heaviest of burdens."
-- for, as James tells us in James 4:10, "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."
-- let us pray
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