Coronavirus: What’s Humility Got to Do With It?

Well, you can't ignore what we've all been going through. Not only in Orlando, but around the nation and around the world. You know, the world has been brought to a virtual halt here by this coronavirus that has been on the march. Starting in China back a few months ago, and we've watched it as it crept into Europe, and it's kind of like that horseman that rode through Europe and it's creating havoc over there, and now it's hit the United States. And here we are with a nation that is pretty much ground to a halt.

You know, as you watch the news, you see the number of cases rising dramatically every day, so now there's more cases documented of us coronavirus in America than there were in China. And so we have something that is unique to all of us that have been alive. None of us have seen anything like this before. It's uncharted waters. But it's a time, as I've mentioned in my letters, my congregational letters, that we should be learning a lot from it.

And we do learn a lot from it, you know, from these things that God puts us through because He certainly does send these things on us so that we learn, and as a warning to us as well, and to the world around us. And this coronavirus case is no different than that. You know, back at the time when God brought Israel out of Egypt, He told them and He commanded them to keep His commandments, and He set a few chapters that we have in the Bible where He talked about the blessings and cursings for keeping His commandments and what would happen if people didn't keep His commandments. And they applied, certainly, to ancient Israel back then, and we see their history that they indeed did lose the promised land that God had given them.

The things that God prophesied would happen to them did happen. But those prophecies that are there in Leviticus 26 and 28, Deuteronomy 28, apply to us today as well. Let's go back to Leviticus 26 and just recount a little bit of what God says here in some of His warnings. And I'm not going to read all of Leviticus 26, but as you read through it, the first few verses there in Chapter 26, talk about obeying God. And if you obey Me, He says, this and this and this, all good things will happen.

But if we begin down in verse 14 of Chapter 26, He says, But if you don't obey Me, and if you don't observe all these commandments, and if you despise My statues, and despise doesn't mean like I hate them. Despise can just be, I'm not paying that much attention to them. More of their things in life are more important to Me than obeying what you say. If you despise My statues, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, I will do this to you.

And then there are several verses that describe the things that God will bring upon a nation, and His people that don't obey Him, and that kind of dismiss or take for granted, or just ignore what He has said. Verse 16, He says, I'll appoint terror over you.

In verse 17, He says, I'll set My face against you. You'll be defeated by your enemies. In verse 19, He says, I'll break the pride of your power. We come down to verse 23, and He says, if by these things you're not reformed by Me, but walk contrary to Me, then I will also walk contrary to you, and I will punish you yet seven times more for your sins. And so we see as we go through this chapter, wave upon wave of destruction.

As God tries to get the attention of His people for a purpose, He brings it on, not just because He wants to see them suffer. When we go through trials, when we go through these waves and waves of trials, you know, as we have in the United States, back in, you know, 9-11, 2001, there was something that we experienced in this nation that never happened before.

Back in 2008, we went through a financial crisis that almost brought the country to ruin. Now we're going through a coronavirus, which is something the world has not seen. A virtual war against an unseen enemy. And you know, we can look at our lives, too.

If God, and if we're going through a wave after wave after wave of trial, if we have things that are continually working on us and continually going against us, we might want to stop and think about what God said to Israel because these words apply to us individually as well.

Maybe not necessarily terror and all the things that are in there, but God is looking to get our attention. If we continue to read down in verse 25, he says, Well, if we come down to the end of the chapter, we see what God wants His people to do. His people then and His people now. Verse 40, If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to me, and that they also have walked contrary to me, and that I've walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies, if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and my covenant with Isaac, and my covenant with Abraham, I will remember.

I will remember the land. What does God want? Why is He trying to get our attention? He wants us to turn back to Him. He wants us to acknowledge the things that we've done. He wants us to acknowledge that we've departed from Him, all for the purpose of turning back to Him, so that He can bless us. But we have to listen to what God says. We have to listen to these waves and waves that are upon us, and be thinking, what is God trying to tell us?

We can talk about that from a national aspect. If the United States would just listen, if they would just pay attention to what's going on. Now, we can bring that down to us, too. Are we listening? Are we paying attention? Because God is trying to get your and my attention, too. We may think that we're solidly in the church, but you know, we all have a wake-up call that we've been through.

As we've been through the last three weeks, there's things that we've learned about ourselves, and things that we have to build into our lives because we no longer have the schedule made for us. That we rise up on Sabbath morning and we go to a place. Now we have some things that we have to do. It's not tailor-made for us anymore. We have to be the ones keeping the Sabbath holy and building it all the time.

We have to be the ones that build into our lives prayer time, study time, even though we may be working at home. And I know how difficult it can be to set new schedules, set new schedules about what you're doing. Years ago, when I left employment and started my own business, it took a while for me to get my schedule together and realize, man, I have to pray before I get going. I have to check and read before I get going in the morning. I can't just let people and companies and clients dictate my time.

I have to dictate my time. And God needs to be first. God needs to be first. Well, as I look at what we're going through here in this country and in the world, you know, the lessons are so many. There's one I want to talk about today, because I think it's fitting that we're all going through this, and the nation is going through it before Passover, before the Days of Unleavened Bread.

Because there is a big lesson in the Days of Unleavened Bread and in Passover that we as a people need to know, and God wants all of us and those who He calls to know. You know, for those who are baptized and we keep the Passover, think about what is the very first thing we do. We read some Scriptures, and then we do the foot washing, we do the bread, we do the wine. The very first thing that we do is we keep the ordinances of Jesus Christ that He said in the Passover is we wash each other's feet. And why do we do that?

Well, it symbolizes our being willing to serve anyone, not just certain, but anyone. It symbolizes our humility that we have before God, that we recognize we owe everything to Him, and as we come before Him, we are committing to Him. We recognize Him as our Savior. And the very first thing He set for us to do is to do a menial service just like Jesus Christ did with His servants and with His disciples. There on that last Passover, He observed.

So humility is something we can talk about. I think we probably, a lot of us, take it for granted. I've heard people say, and I always, my antenna goes up when someone says, oh, I'm humble. But many people, we probably all think we're humble. But you know what? Humility is not a natural state of mankind. None of us, none of us are naturally humble. Some may be less naturally arrogant or presumptive than others, but none of us are naturally humble the way God wants us to be humble. And humility has to be there if we're ever going to be in God's kingdom. It's one of those requirements. Let's go forward to Proverbs 18. Look at a few verses here. Proverbs 18 and verse 12.

Proverbs 18 verse 12 says, Before destruction, the heart of a man is haughty. Before destruction, the heart of a man is haughty. He thinks pretty highly of himself. He thinks he's hot stuff. Got the world by the tail. And before honor, before honor is humility.

Before we will be in the kingdom of God, we must become humble people. Humble the way God defines humility. And as we're here in the last 10, 12 days before Passover, you know, we are examining ourselves, we're looking at ourselves. Maybe we want to look at the humility and what our state of mind is. Let's look at James 4, the New Testament verse that speaks to this as well. Among many, I could turn to the New Testament. James 4 and verse 6, he, James, is quoting from Proverbs 3 verse 34. And he says in verse 6, But he, God, but God gives more grace. Therefore, he said, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. You know, we've spoken about grace. We all want to be living in God's grace. We all want all the benefits of His grace if we are truly following Him. And we understand what we need to do to continue in that grace. God says He gives grace to the humble. There's a reason for us to be humble. There's a reason for us to be paying attention to what the state of our mind is, what our attitudes are. And as humility, one of the things that we are there, that we are cognizant of, and that we are examining in the light of the Bible and in the light of God's Spirit. So it's fitting that today we might examine humility nationally and individually. What is it? What does it look like? What does it sound like? Are there examples in the Bible that we can look to see what does the humble person look like? And sometimes what we can do is look in the Bible and see what doesn't the humble person sound like? What doesn't the humble nation sound like? And we can learn a lot from that. Let's go back to Isaiah. Isaiah 9, back at the time of the 9-11 crisis back in 2001, these verses were read in a number of places. And there was a book called The Harbinger that made its round. I don't know if it was a bestseller at that time, but many people read it.

And in Isaiah 9, we see what the words of a people who aren't humble do in a time of trial and in a time of crisis. Isaiah 9, verse 8. The Lord sent a word against Jacob, and it has fallen on Israel. All the people will know, Ephraim in the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in pride and arrogance of heart, this is what the proud and arrogant would do in a case where we have a 9-11 situation, where we have a coronavirus situation, where we have a financial situation like 2008. This is what the proud and arrogant say. The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with hewn stones. The sycamores are cut down, but we will replace them with cedars.

You know what? These things have come. But you know what? We can do it. We can overcome it. We will rise again. We will be better than we were before. Basically, who needs God? We can do it. And you know, sadly, as I listened to news this week, I heard words just like that, that were coming out of our national leaders. This is a crisis. This is a war. This is a time unlike we've seen before. The proud and arrogant response was, we'll rise above this.

We'll come back stronger than we were before. We'll win this battle. God says that's not the appropriate response of a humble person. We can take that down to our personal lives when we have a trial that comes around. Financial problem. And perhaps many will be experiencing some financial problems with the layoffs that have already occurred and may occur here down the road, because who knows what the financial effects of this crisis are going to bring. What do we respond to? Do we say, we can rise around this health crisis? I've got a way to do this. I can look here, and I can look there, and I look everywhere. I've got this financial crisis.

I'll do this. I'll do that. I'll go get a loan here. I'll ask people to help me here. I'll do all the things that I need to do. Do we think we can rise above it? If we think that, are we listening to God? Do we realize what He's trying to get us to do? Turn to Him. Rely on Him. Have that humbleness of heart that realizes we can do nothing without Him. We can do nothing without Him. Verse 11, God says what He will do to nations that have this response, and people who would have that personal response who look everywhere else, and maybe give God a token word here and there, but don't really look to Him.

Therefore the Lord shall set up the adversaries of resin against Him, and spur His enemies on. The Syrians before and the Philistines behind, and they shall devour Israel with an open mouth. If you don't listen to me, God says, I'll send something else on you. I want you to get my message. I want you to listen to what I have to say. Follow me. Turn to me. Develop humility. For all this, in verse 12, His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.

He's angry, but His hand is always there. I'll receive you if you come back. Get the message. Get the message. Turn to me. Develop the humble attitude. And my hand is still there. I don't want your demise. I want you to follow me. I want to give you life.

I don't want to give you death. That's not God's purpose at all. Verse 13, for the people who do not turn to Him who strikes them, nor do they seek the Lord of hosts. Therefore the Lord will cut off head and tail from Israel, palm branch and bulrush in one day. He will try and try and try. And so the message is there for us. That isn't. That response in verses 9 through 11 there, or 9 and 10, it's not the response of a humble person, not the response of a humble nation, not what God is looking for.

Yes, we do what we can do, but we have to come to the point where we're humble people looking to God and relying on Him. Well, you know, you can read through the books of the Bible. I don't have to recount everything. Think of the men who God says high words about. People like David, people like Moses, people like Peter, people like Paul, people like Job. They came to the point where they were humble people. They were humble people. They weren't automatically that way.

They weren't born that way. You know their stories as well as I do. But they followed God, and God made them humble men. And it's fitting, as He was leading His people out of Israel in the Old Testament, we turn over to Numbers 12, that He had a man leading Israel who had this characteristic, this trait about Him. Numbers 12 and verse 3. By this time, the plagues had passed.

Israel was out of Egypt. They'd been wandering in the desert. They'd crossed the Red Sea. Numbers 12 verse 3 says, Now the man Moses was very humble. He was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth. You remember Moses' history. Forty years, a child of privilege, I guess, in Egypt. May have had an attitude about him.

He was upper class, upper crust. God took him out of Egypt. Forty years as a shepherd. Now he's leading God's people. He'd been humbled. And he came before God with the proper attitude as God led him. More than anyone on the face of the earth, God says. Now in the Old King James, the word translated there humble in the New King James is meek. There's a big difference between humility and meekness. We're going to see here in a minute. And if you look at the Old, the Hebrew word that's translated humble there, in the New King James, it's more appropriately translated humble.

It's the Hebrew word anav, A-N-A-V. It literally means lowly, humble, and poor. And the fourth word they give is meek. But men of the world and the translators don't really understand what meek means. And there's a reason for that. And certainly in the world today, the word meek is one thing that's just bandied about and people don't have any clue what it is at all. But it's notable that God said here, this leader, Moses, he was a humble man. I chose a humble man, not a brash man, not one who was pride and arrogant.

That's who I was going to lead. One who looked to me, who knew I, that God had to be the one to lead. I wasn't looking to his own power, I wasn't looking to his own ideas. He was humble. In every sense of the word that God wants you and I to become humble. Deuteronomy 18, 18, you can mark it down, but God says, you know, I'm going to raise up a prophet like you, Moses. Like you, Moses, a humble prophet. And indeed, God did provide. While Moses was the leader of Israel in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ is the notable deliverer in the New Testament.

Let's turn over to Matthew, Matthew 11. And see what it says about Jesus Christ. He was the Logos. He was the God of the Old Testament. In many cases, we see that. But in Matthew 11, verse 29, Jesus Christ was born as flesh, something so much less than what he was before.

He did it for you and I. And in verse 29 of Matthew 11, he says this, In Christ's words, he says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

You know, that's one thing. Throughout our lives, we learn what we go through, what we hear, what we see. We are always learning. And if we ever think we don't need more learning, then we better check our humility barometer and see where it is. Because none of us have learned everything that God wants us to learn.

As long as we're breathing, there are things for us to learn.

Well, you don't see the word humble in that new King James Version. You don't see the word meek, but they're both there in that verse.

The word gentle, the word that's translated gentle there, is actually the Greek word praus, P-R-A-U-S. It means meek. It's the fruit of the Holy Spirit, the same word that's listed back there in Galatians 5 as one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

So Jesus Christ says, I am meek. I'm sorry, I am meek. There I did what the world would do.

They don't know how to...what does that mean? He's meek. For I am meek, he says.

Well, we've talked in sermons past about this word praus. It's a beautiful word. The world has lost its meaning, really.

If you remember praus, as you can translate it, it's like strength under the control of a master.

And you remember, probably for sermons past, about how when the Greeks used that word, you would have a wild stallion. We've all seen the pictures of wild stallions. Maybe we've seen them in real life, right?

Powerful beings, those horses. They run fast. They've got such power. They can do so many things. They're magnificent creatures.

But they're wild. They're wild. And mankind, to use those horses, those stallions, has to tame them.

They have to domesticate them. And you have to kind of work with them. And when you do, you still have this tremendous strength.

Tremendous personality of the horses. But now they're under the control of humans and used for the benefit that the humans need them and they are tremendous assets.

That's the same thing that God would look at us. We are all wild people. He's not looking. He's not looking, or he's looking to tame us, I guess, if you will, with his Holy Spirit. But he's not looking to make us weak and ineffective, lose our personalities. He wants to use those things and equip us with the power to do his will.

Strength. Strength under the control of the Master. And when we look at Jesus Christ, he'd find that perfectly.

He was a strong man. They translated gentle. Yes, he was gentle, but he was strong.

But he always said, I'm under the control of my Father in Heaven. I speak the words that he says. I do the things that he tells me to do.

Strength under the control of the Master. It only comes as a result of the Holy Spirit. It's a fruit of the Holy Spirit.

As we repent and as we're baptized and God have lands laid on us and the power of God he puts in us through his Holy Spirit, we develop one of the fruits, meekness.

That's strength under the control of the Master. That's why the world doesn't really understand what meekness is because you have to have God's Holy Spirit to really and fully understand what that word means and what God intended by it.

So, in verse 29, Christ says, I'm meek. I'm meek. Certainly he had God's Holy Spirit. He was a strong man.

And he goes on and he says, for I am gentle and I'm lowly in heart. Well, that's humble. That's the Greek word tappanos. It literally means base, lowly, humble.

So, Christ draws the distinction between those words, I'm meek and I'm humble. Jesus Christ, humble. Jesus Christ, meek.

There is a difference between meekness and humility. Jesus Christ was both. He wants us to be both.

Now, meekness is the fruit of God's Spirit. Humility is something we need to develop before we're even baptized.

Something that we can kind of keep a track on and a watch on and an examination on even as we go through life because the humility that might be there one year might be gone the next as things happen, as we maybe have reason to think, wow, aren't I something? Or look what I did to conquer this situation in my life or whatever it might be.

You know, humility precedes our commitment to God and humility precedes meekness. It precedes that.

So as we head toward Passover, and as we think about that first thing that we do, as we wash feet, humility is one of the things that God wants us to develop throughout our lives.

And it's a trait that is absolutely required of God's people if we hope to be in His kingdom. Absolutely required.

I know we read in James 4. Let's read about God resisting the proud. Let's look at 1 Peter 5 because He has something to say about the same verse in Proverbs 3.34 that James quoted in James 4.6.

1 Peter 5 and verse 5. He draws an analogy to authority that we're all under. He says, Likewise, you younger people, submit yourself to your elders. You know, no matter how old we are, we're all under authority. Everyone's under authority. We can just replace our name with whoever we're under the authority of.

Likewise, you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you, be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility.

Now that's the noun form of tapenos that we talked about, lowly heart, lowly in mind.

4. God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.

And then in verse 6 He says, Humble yourself before God.

You know, becoming humble is a process that we go through. A lifelong process.

It's something that we participate in. Meekness God gives us with His Holy Spirit as we live His life and as we use His Holy Spirit, but humility depends on us. We have things to do. We have to go through a process to become humble.

Moses went through a process before God said, He's more humble than all the men on earth. David went through a process before He became truly humble before God.

Peter went through a process before God would look at Him and say, He's humble. We know Peter, he was brash.

Paul went through a process before God would look at Him and say, He's humble.

You and I go through a process.

What is a process? A process is a series of actions or steps which, when taken, result in a particular end.

So as God works with us through our lives, through the various things that happen to us individually, that may happen to us as a church, that may happen to us as a nation, what's His desired end? He's looking for a humble people. He's looking for a humble Rick Shabie.

He's looking for a humble Dave Pramar, and whatever your name is, that's what He's looking for, the process that you and I go, based on whatever He writes for us.

That's what He's looking, that's His desired end, that's our lives. That's something we need to be cognizant of.

That's something we need to be looking at. That's something we need to be paying attention to, because God will bring us down from our lofty heights, whatever we think of ourselves.

You know, there's a verse back in Obadiah, the little book of Obadiah and the minor prophets, right after Amos and Obadiah, one chapter book. And notable verses about it, in verses 3 and 4 of Obadiah, says, The pride of your heart, the pride of your heart has deceived you. You know, that's one thing about pride. People don't see their pride in themselves. It takes others sometimes to point it out. It takes God sometimes to point it out and get our attention. And He doesn't always do it by Him. He will use others. He may use our spouses. He may use others in the church. He may use those that we work with. When people say, you know what, you kind of act like you've got all the answers and nothing else, you don't have to listen to anyone else. We all have to listen to someone else. We're supposed to be listening to God. The nation should be listening to God.

The pride of your heart has deceived you. You're not listening. You become dull of hearing. You shut your ears off. You're not listening to the words of the Bible. You're not listening to the words you hear. You who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high. You who say in your heart, who will bring me down to the ground. Who's going to bring me down to the ground? Hey, I'm me. What can happen to me? Kind of like Nebuchadnezzar thought. Kind of like some of the kings we read about in the Bible thought. Kind of like what some of the nations on earth today think. Who can bring us down? We're the greatest ever. We're the greatest military, the greatest economy, the greatest healthcare system. What can knock us down? And then we come to March of 2020 and we see a virus. A virus has brought us to our knees as a nation. Maybe in our own lives we've seen things happen to us that think, oh, that brought us to our knees. Maybe God is getting our attention. Verse 4, Though you ascend as high as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, From there I will bring you down, says the Eternal. I will, I will bring you down. Before destruction, there's pride. Honor goes to the humble. Over in Luke, Luke 1. Luke 1 and verse 52. Mary, as she learns that she's pregnant with Jesus Christ, and in verses 46 to 55, you can see what her prayer is. Verse 52, she says this, He, God, God has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted lowly. God's not going to exalt the proud of this world. He's not going to exalt us. If we are pride, and if we allow that pride to continue in us, He'll bring us down. He will exalt the lowly. Jesus Christ was lowly in heart. Moses was lowly in heart. You and I need to develop that same thing. But how do we do it? How do we do it? How do we go through this process when Peter says, and the Bible says, humble yourself? What does the Bible show as this process? Well, let's go back. Let's go back to Luke 26. I'm sorry, Leviticus 26.

Look at the words that God recorded again. For His people then, for His people now, individually, His church, and the nation that He richly blesses.

Leviticus 26, we were in verse 41. Let's look at that again. First, we'll begin with verse 40 and read those verses again. If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness, in which they were unfaithful to Me, that they've walked contrary to Me, and all of us, first times we've walked contrary to God by the attitudes that we have, and the way we present ourselves, or the way we think.

And then I've walked contrary to them, but brought them into their land of their enemies. If their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they accept their guilt, then I'll remember My covenant. If they accept their guilt. You know, you don't have to turn there, but you remember 2 Chronicles 7, verse 14, when Solomon is praying the prayer over the temple, God says, If My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, if they will humble themselves, if they'll go through this process, if they'll remember Me, if they'll look at this square in the eye, then I will heal their land.

Then I will heal their land. The verse that has meaning for us today nationally, for all of us, that sometimes in our lives when we're sick, a verse that we can go back to, if My people will humble themselves, I will heal their land.

But looking at verse 41 here, I guess, yeah, verse 41, the latter part, The humble person will accept their guilt. Will accept their guilt. Now we talked about repentance. We all know what repentance is. True repentance is recognizing the way you've lived, admitting before God you have not walked in concert with Him.

Sometimes it's out of ignorance, but when we learn something, God says, I call on all men now to repent, turn to Me. So sometimes we don't know, but when we know our job is repent, truly repent. And with our heart, turn to God and purpose and make a commitment in our minds, we're not going to do that anymore. The proper attitude. Accept their guilt. It's a hard thing to do, isn't it? It can be a hard thing to do sometimes, to accept our guilt.

And as I said before, and many of you who have supervised people, it's a tough thing when you have to call someone in and tell them, you haven't been handling this right. Maybe there's something they've done wrong, maybe there's something that isn't, maybe they're not performing up to par, maybe there's just something that's flat out wrong. It's not an easy thing to do, but you've got to do it.

And I would always brace myself when those times came, and I knew that one of two things were going to happen. Either the person was going to justify and explain and defend everything that they did, and it would go on and on and on, and it would just be kind of agony, and nothing would come of it, because they just wouldn't accept it. And it created a barrier there between employer or supervisor and employee, and it was always like, okay, I know you did it, just, I'm not looking to get rid of you, I want you to work, I just want you to kind of do the things the way they're supposed to be done.

But there's defense, defense, defensiveness, defensiveness, and, you know, I don't think it should be done, all the things that you go through, it becomes irritating, actually, after a while. But then there are those people who will readily admit it. I didn't understand that. From now on, I'll do it. I didn't realize I was coming across that way, okay, now I'll change.

I get it. I didn't understand that process, I didn't understand how it was. And you know those were such wonderful, wonderful times when people would do that. That's the same thing in the church, right? Matthew 18, 15 gives us a thing, because all of us have problems in our lives. Sometimes it's going to be someone from the church, someone in your family, sometimes the minister, sometimes from the outside that's going to bring something to you, and God is looking to see how are you going to handle it? Are you going to reject it? Are you going to defend? Are you going to justify? You're going to say, you know what the people in Isaiah 9 and 10 say?

That's me, I don't have to do anything else, blah, blah, blah, but you don't understand. It's me, dah, dah, dah, dah, or whatever it is. Are you going to accept it? There's a humility that has to come, and that's what we have to look at. We can all look at ourselves.

What is it that we do? Well, how do we respond to times when God is getting our attention? You know, Egypt, Egypt of Israel and Egypt, fame back then, God brought wave after wave after wave in the ten plagues upon Egypt. Write down the list. And in Exodus 10, I think it's in verse 3, God says to Pharaoh, How long will you not humble yourself before me? What is it going to take, Pharaoh? I'm going to prove to you that I'm greater than you, that I, the power, is with me, not you.

Pharaoh never got it. He never got it. We can't be like Pharaoh. We can't be, that's not who God has called us to be. David, what an example that David, when he's king of Israel, he could have thought, Who's going to challenge me? Who's going to ever challenge anything I say? Who would dare come to the king and indicate that he sinned? And yet when Nathan came to David and gave him the little story, David, when he saw himself in the story of Bathsheba and Uriah, he didn't defend, he didn't make excuses, he simply acknowledged it.

He simply acknowledged it and changed his life. Let's turn to Psalm, Psalm 51. Psalm 51. Doubtless, a psalm we'll be reviewing between now and Passover, a psalm of repentance, such a good example of the attitude that God is looking for. When we recognize our sins and we come before him, in Psalm 51, verse 3, David writes, he says, I acknowledge my transgressions. I admit it. I was that way. You know what? When we repent, there's joy in heaven.

What does it say? When we baptize someone. There's joy in heaven over the repentance of a sinner, when someone will acknowledge their faults. When you and I, when you and I acknowledge the God, man, I blew it. I didn't handle that situation right. I mishandled. I didn't behave properly in that situation. Yeah, I could see where pride was in my heart on that.

David said, I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me. I see who I am now and I know what I need to deal with. Down in verse 10, he says, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Don't cast me away from your presence and don't take your Holy Spirit from me. I'm sorry. I get it. I'm turning to you and I want to follow you and I want to be who you want me to be. Don't give up on me. God will never give up on you, right? We just read. His hand is there still.

His hand is there. He just wants us to pay attention. He just wants us to turn to Him. He wants us. He wants to give us eternal life. You know, we can look at, again, people in the New Testament, Peter and Paul, how did they handle the rebukes of Jesus Christ? They didn't run. They didn't get mad. They didn't sit there and say, you're wrong, you're wrong, da-da-da-da. They turned. They changed. You know, you can mark down Acts 8 there. We had a split sermon not too long ago where Simon Magus was discussed, and Simon Magus, when he was rebuked, he didn't handle it the right way.

He ran away. Didn't want to hear what he was told and started his own church because he wanted to be preeminent. Among them, he wanted people looking at him. Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12. Verse 5 says, Don't be discouraged. Be repentant. Acknowledge your sin. Acknowledge that attitude problem.

Acknowledge that weakness. No one's going to condemn you for that. People in church aren't going to judge you for it. We all want everyone to just become more and more like Christ. You know, I'll remind you that chastening there in verse 5 is that Greek word, pihadea, that we've spoken about before, as the process that God has in us to train us up into what he wants us to be. But as we go through the humbling process, you know what? It's going to happen to every single one of us. We have to accept our guilt. We have to listen.

We have to accept our guilt, the same thing that God told Israel to do. Now let's go back to Leviticus 26 and see what else God tells Israel, his people then, and you and I today. Luke 26. In verse 40, he says, if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, if they confess it, that is, if they acknowledge it, then he says that he will...

Well, in the New Testament he says he will forgive. And what he's indicating here is he'll forgive. I'll remember my covenant. I will remember the land.

God will forgive. In the New Testament in Matthew 6, Jesus Christ died, gave his life that our sins could be forgiven. But that's not automatic.

We have to do something. There's that process that we have to do in our part in it. Matthew 6, verse 14, it says, For if you forgive men, their trespasses, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you don't forgive men, their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

We have to ask for forgiveness. We have to practice forgiveness. We have our part. We might know that Jesus Christ forgave, but if we never ask for forgiveness, well, I don't know.

If God forgives or not, my guess is no. If we don't ask, he says, asking you will receive. Seek and you'll find. Not going to be open to you. You have to ask.

And even if we ask, if we've got someone out there that we think, you know what, I just don't like that person, what he did to me was wrong, I can never really forgive him.

God says, if you can't forgive someone else, if that's harbored in your heart, I'm not going to forgive you either.

What I do to you, I expect you to do others to others.

But Jesus Christ, what he's forgiven for us, there isn't anyone who has ever done to us what we've done in walking contrary to Jesus Christ.

It takes humility. It takes humility to ask forgiveness.

We have to humble ourselves when we come before God because we have to admit, I'm guilty. I did it.

If we've done something wrong to someone, or if they've come to us in the fashion of Matthew 18-15 and say, you've offended me, you've done this, you've done that, we have to ask for forgiveness.

That can be a humbling thing. They didn't come looking for you to be defensive and saying, I didn't do anything wrong, it's all in your head.

You know, I read something on the Internet about this, and the man who was writing it said, even if it's 1% you, if you think it's only 1% you that was at fault, your job is still to forgive and ask for forgiveness.

If it's only 1% that that's what you think, your job is still to forgive because people don't bring those things to you if there isn't a problem there.

God says you need, you need to forgive. I want to forgive you. But the humbling process is, you have to ask to be forgiven. You have to forgive others.

You might have to ask forgiveness of them and put yourself below them for a minute and say, I get it, I didn't understand it, I am sorry I did that, it won't happen again.

I get what I did wrong. I acknowledge my guilt. If we're not willing to do that, then what are we doing?

That we're holding ourselves up as superior. And that's not the attitude of God, that's not the attitude of Jesus Christ, that's not the attitude of His people, that's the attitude of the one who is the most proud of all, who simply will not acknowledge the supremacy of God or anything that He's done, and He'll be brought low.

Matthew 5, one chapter back in verse 23, we know as we approach Passover, there are some things we have to think about through the humbling process. What is it that's there? Matthew 5 verse 23.

If you bring your gift to the altar and there, remember that your brother has something against you, maybe you haven't dealt with it. Maybe you've heard something, maybe he sent you an email, a text, and, yes, I want to talk to you about this, and you haven't dealt with it yet. And there, remember, your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First, be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.

I would say the same thing. Before Passover, if there's something that is unresolved in your life, go there and resolve it. Be reconciled. Go through the process of humility. Go through the humbling process. Take the Passover with a clear conscience, having truly examined ourselves. Looking at our lives, the things that are left undone, perhaps that God wants us to do.

You can mark down Ephesians 4, verse 32, and then later on Paul says, you know, forgive one another. Part of who we put on. The new man is we're bearing with one another and we're forgiving one another.

Let's go back to Leviticus 26. We have to accept our guilt. We have to ask for forgiveness. We have to be willing to forgive. That's part of the humbling process.

Leviticus 26, we see another thing that's notable that God says here in chapter 26, the first 14 verses here, verse 13 verses.

Now, God says one thing. Verse 3 says, if you walk in my statutes and if you keep my commandments and perform them, then I will do all these good things for you.

You'll have plenty. You won't have enemies. You won't have wars. You won't have families. You won't have pestilences. I will be your God. You will be my people. I will shelter you. I will be your rock, your shield, as we sang in the first hymn this morning.

If you obey me. Let's turn over to Deuteronomy 28.

Deuteronomy 28, kind of the companion chapter to Leviticus 26, where God is enumerating his blessings and then enumerating what will happen if a country, if a nation, if a person, if a church doesn't obey him.

Let's just drop down because, boy, it's a long chapter, but let's drop all the way down to verse 58 in Deuteronomy 28.

And here in this section, God opens again with what we need to do. If you don't carefully—boy, pay attention to that word carefully. I've said it a lot.

Pay attention to the word diligently. God is looking for us to learn the details of his life and apply every word into our lives.

If you don't carefully observe all, all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear the glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, then he will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues, great and prolonged plagues, serious and prolonged sicknesses.

Moreover, he will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you.

Every sickness, every plague, which is not written in this book of the law, will the Lord bring upon you until you are destroyed.

You will be left few in number, whereas you were, as the stars of heaven and multitude. Why? Because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.

Wave after wave.

Going through the humbling process, we must learn to obey God carefully.

Paying attention to the details.

Obedience to God.

Heartfelt obedience to God is an act of humility.

He is our Master.

We are his slaves who become friends, who become sons and daughters, who become kings and priests as we develop our relationship with God.

We have to learn to obey Him in detail, building all those things into our lives.

Let's look at Romans 12.

Romans 12.

In verse 16.

Romans 12-16.

Be of the same mind toward one another, Paul writes.

Don't set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble.

Now, that tells us something there, too, right? What God wants us to, who we choose to associate with.

The old saying is birds of a feather flock together. Sometimes you can tell what our attitudes are by who we hang out with.

Associate with the humble. But notice the last verse there.

Don't be wise in your own eyes or in your own opinion, it says in the New King James.

Don't be wise in your own opinion.

You know, there's a danger to God's people that we think we know a lot.

We've been in the church for a long time.

We can do this and we can do that.

Sometimes we take the verses and the very clear directives of God and we have our own opinion on them.

Our own interpretation.

Well, this. God is okay with this.

Even though he says this, he's probably okay because in my mind and my opinion, I don't have to do that.

I've got an unusual situation.

I don't have to do everything that God said.

I don't have to pay attention to that detail.

In fact, I don't even want to hear that detail. I kind of close my eyes and my mind and my ears when I hear that being said in the sermon, or if I read it in an article, or if someone mentions it to me at church, I just kind of close my mind.

I don't want to hear that. That's being wise in your own opinion.

What have you done when you do that?

You put yourself above God.

I know more about his word and I know more about what God wants than what he says he wants.

Don't be wise in your own opinion.

Obey, obey, obey.

Know what he means when he says it.

Listen to the people around you.

Listen to your husband. Listen to your wife.

Listen to your church friends.

Listen to what people say if they say something.

And if you hear it, I always say if you hear it, once, boy, examine yourself and think, does that even be true? But when you hear it twice, know it probably is.

And you need to be paying real good attention to what's going on. You know, God talks about even obedience to authorities. Here we are, you know, basically an empty auditorium here in Orlando. Six people here today.

Well, we have well over 100 on another scene because we're obeying the authorities.

They say don't gather in large groups. We're not gathering in large groups.

The church has said no more than, no larger groups than nine.

And if there's a stay at home or a shelter in place, pay attention to it.

Obey. It's part of our life. It's part of what we do.

Luke 6, verse 46, I think sometimes we apply this verse to everyone else, and a lot of people on the outside world, excuse me, but we better at sometimes look at it and say, could this be me?

Could I be doing this? Could God say this to me one day? Luke 6, 46. Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and not do the things which I say?

It's very easy to say this and that about anyone else, but you know what?

Those are words to you and me, words that Christ wrote to his disciples, not to the outside world, but to us.

Why do you call me, and does anyone of us want God to say that? Why do you call me, Lord, Lord? You didn't do the things I say.

You did a lot of it. You didn't want to hear that.

You didn't want to pay attention to that. You kind of closed your ears.

Shut them up. I don't want to hear that. I've got an unusual circumstance.

It doesn't apply to me. Every single word applies to every single person God calls.

Remember, we've been read recently. God says the same law that applies to you, Israel, applies to the stranger and foreigner. It's all the same.

Regardless of our circumstance, God wants us to obey.

Philippians 2. Philippians 2.

In verse 8, we have the example of our Savior, who we are to be like. Philippians 2. In verse 8, Jesus Christ, who was the Logos, who is the Son of God, when he was human, see what it says written about him in verse 8, being found at appearance as a man, he humbled himself.

That's that Greek word topinos. He humbled himself.

He went through the process, that same process that you and I go through.

He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Before honor goes humility.

Verse 9, Jesus Christ humbled himself, obedient to the point of death, therefore God has esteemed him, exalted him, and given him the name, which is above every other name.

Before we can ever accede to what God has promised for us, we need to be going constantly, year by year, for the rest of our lives, through the humbling process.

Let's go back to the New Testament here.

Let me finish with a couple more points here. Luke 18.

And I'm not saying that I've got an exhaustive list here.

I hope that you will contemplate what we've talked about today. You'll think about examples in the Bible, other points that you could add to it, because no sermon can ever give you all the points in the Bible of a humbling process or anything else that we need to do.

We can kind of just set the pattern for you, and then you can take it from there, meditate, pray, study, run with it from there.

But in Luke 18—I'm sorry, I said Luke, let's—Matthew is what I meant, Matthew 18.

Matthew 18, verse 3, something that we rehearse every year, you know, the second Sabbath after the Feast of Tabernacles, we talk about becoming like children. Matthew 18, verse 3, Assuredly I say to you, Christ said in His words, Assuredly I say to you, unless you are converted and become His little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

Pretty clear words.

Therefore, whoever humbles himself—there's that process, there's our responsibility, there's that great word, topino—so whoever makes himself of a lowly nature, therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Let me just read to you here. We've talked about this, you know, many times.

I'm just going to read from some of the commentaries, what they say about this verse.

This is what the John Wesley commentary says.

He says, the first step toward entering into the kingdom of heaven is to become as little children, lowly in heart, knowing yourselves utterly ignorant and helpless, and hanging wholly on your Father who is in heaven for a supply of all your needs.

Those are pretty clear words, right? That's exactly what Christ is talking about.

Matthew then re-adds this. He says, children, when very young, they don't desire authority, they don't regard outward distinctions, they're free from malice, they're teachable, and they are willingly dependent on their parents.

They're not concerned about position, they're not concerned about who sees me.

They're dependent on their person. Christ said, be like them.

Humble yourself. Go through the process in life. Continually examine yourself.

Are you, am I, I ask myself, in the state that God would have us be?

We could talk about the publican who was there because he wanted to be seen by people.

That was his motivator, and what did Christ say about him? He's got his reward.

It wasn't the kingdom of heaven.

Mark down Philippians 2-3, where Christ says, Esteem others more highly than yourself. That means all others.

Not just ones that you might think in your mind are clearly above you, but everyone, everyone, esteem them more highly like Moses did.

Treat them with respect. Treat them the way God has done that.

Let's look at Psalm 113. Psalm 113 is an interesting psalm.

Let's look at verse 4 here in Psalm 113. It says, The Eternal. The Eternal is high above all nations.

None of us would argue about that, right? God is above all.

Every nation, everything on earth, He is high above all nations. His glory above the heavens.

Who is like Him who dwells on high? We'd all agree with that, but look what He does.

Who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth.

His position is so far above us. His mind, His thoughts are in His way are so far above us.

He's got the grand universe that we can't even measure. And yet, the Bible says in an av, He humbles Himself to look in.

Oh, what's going on with you and me? That's His attitude toward us. I'm concerned with what's going on with them.

I want them to inherit the things that I have for them. I want them to become. I want them to get it.

I'll do whatever it takes to get their attention. Because I want to give them eternal life. I want to give them the kingdom of heaven.

That's why they were created to begin. That's why I call them.

And I'll look in and I'll humble myself because I've got surely better things to do than worry about what Rick Shaby is doing about or you are doing about.

But He does it because He loves us. He raises the poor out of the dust. He lifts the needy out of the ash sheep, that He may seat Him with princes, with the princes of His people.

He grants the barren woman a home like a joyful mother of children.

Praise God! What a tremendous father! What a tremendous elder brother we have!

That He would humble Himself to look in on us and be that concerned about us.

That He bothers His day with us.

What about us? Is there anyone? Is there anyone that we consider so low that we wouldn't want anything to do with Him?

Looking at past others, is there anyone that we would say, Man, I just don't know if I could wash their feet.

If I happen to get paired off with them, I don't know what I'd do.

I have an issue with them. I don't really like them. I don't really consider them to be whatever it is we might not consider. Is there anyone that we would say we won't wash their feet?

Are we people who would say, I want to wash this person's feet?

When we were together as a group, what we do is just pair off and it's whoever you're with. There is no positioning ourselves. There's no positioning ourselves in line because I want to wash this person's feet. That's not what it's all about at all.

This year is going to be an interesting year because we don't have people. They're going to be together like that. It's going to be interesting when husbands wash the wives of their feet. When we realize what it means, what we're doing.

Wow! I esteemed that person highly. Maybe we're going to be someplace or whatever. Whose feet would we not be willing to wash?

If there's anyone like that, that you've had that thought, I wouldn't want to wash their feet, that might be a signal you want to examine yourself. It might want to be a signal that you want to look out of what this is because God says, got to be humble, He's concerned about everyone. What we might even seem the lowest person on earth, He's concerned. He'll keep knocking on the door.

What about us? Are we preparing it that way? Are we using this time, this coronavirus time, to really look at ourselves and the different situation we're in now?

You know, Isaiah 66, verse 2, you know the verse, you can mark it down. God says, to this one I will look, to the humble. This is the one I'll look to. Don't you want God to look to you? To this one I will look, who is humble and of a contrite heart.

God says, I'm giving grace to the humble.

Christ said, if you don't become humble as these little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Isn't humility something that we should be paying attention to and really examining? Now, maybe more than ever.

You know the first step to healing, physically and spiritually, is through developing humility, acknowledging, guilt, looking to God, preeminently looking to Him as the provider of all things.

As America and you and I go through this coronavirus situation, if America were to turn to God, if they would look at this and say, this is something that God has sent, what does He want us to learn?

God would hear. If it was done heartfelt, in a heartfelt manner. And He says, I would hear, and if they would turn to Me with their hearts, I would heal their nation.

But instead, we hear those arrogant words.

The same goes for you and me. You and I desire spiritual healing. We desire physical healing.

Turn to Him. Be humble to Him. The first step, the first step that God wants us to do, and one that we review every year, is being humble to Him. Let's examine our humility before God as we approach this past over-season.