Humility Brings to Bear Powerful Healing for the Christian

On Passover evening, which is going to be Tuesday, April 7, we'll be partaking of some unleavened bread, we'll be partaking of some wine, and we'll be also doing something else. We'll be doing a foot washing that evening. Each man will pair up with another man, each lady will pair up with another lady, and we will wash one another's feet. It's a simple act. It only takes a few minutes of our time.

But according to Jesus Christ, it's a very important part. There's a lot of lessons in the act of the foot washing. Profound lessons. We know that in ancient times, it was one of the lowliest jobs to wash someone's feet. We understand that there's a lesson there for us regarding lowly service, regarding humility. Today, I want to begin a series for the next three times, concluding today, today and the next two times. I've been going through a series talking about the three main sections of our Passover service. The foot washing, the bread, and the wine. Today, we'll be talking about the foot washing. We understand, as I've said, that the attribute of humility we see from foot washing. But is there something else? What are some of the other lessons that we learn from the foot washing? In the Greek culture, a lot of Western civilization is formed by the thought of the ancient Greeks. The ancient Greeks had no use at all for humility. They thought it was useless. They thought it was worthless. They thought it made people inadequate. They simply thought nothing good about humility. That's the ancient Greeks. You certainly can see the difference between their thought and God's thought. Today, what I want to emphasize with special focus is that there is power in humility. Tremendous power in humility. The key statement is, humility brings to bear powerful healing for the Christian. Humility brings to bear powerful healing for the Christian. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, the rest of the sermon will be going through and discussing that. Let's begin by turning over to 2 Chronicles 7.

2 Chronicles 7 and verse 14. 2 Chronicles 7, 14.

One of my favorite scriptures, perhaps for some of you as well.

2 Chronicles 7, 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 I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and heal their land. Heal their land. There is a connection. We're going to see this more and more as we go through the material today. There is a connection between humility and healing. Now, what are those connections? How does humility bring to bear powerful healing? What kinds of healing? Let's take a look at a number of ways that I, as I was preparing this message, things that I saw and things that I'm sure you would see as well. Number one. Number one. Humility brings about the healing powers of rest. The healing powers of rest. If you're sick, if you've been sick, and there's been a lot of flu and other things happening here locally, and a lot of other places, and of course we're talking about the virus that some people are saying is, you know, going to be sweeping the earth, and sometimes you wonder if people in news are just trying to feather their nest by talking more and more about this. But, you know, I think something like just under 3,000 people worldwide have died and so forth. But when you're sick, you want rest. If you're physically sick, if you're in a hospital, of course when you're in a hospital, it's hard to get rest. I've done my share of being in a hospital with various operations, and it's hard to get rest when every two hours they're trying to take your blood pressure or sticky with this or that, telling you, you know, you really need to sleep, you really need to rest. Yeah, right. Well, if you get away from me, I can do those things. But also, there is a need for us spiritually to rest as well. Let's take a look at Matthew chapter 11.

You know, talking about the coronavirus, I don't know if any of you have taken a peek at your 401k in the last week or so. I think I'll be going even bolder as I look at...

Mary was looking at hers and the amount and thousands upon thousands of dollars lost. Wow.

Matthew chapter 8 verse 28.

Matthew chapter 11 verse 28.

Come to me all you who are labor and are heavily laden, and I will give you rest.

Come to me all you who labor. Strong says that this is regarding people who are exhausted.

You know, we can be exhausted physically, but we also can be exhausted spiritually. As we're fighting the currents of this world, as we're fighting Satan, our human nature, all we see and hear on in the media and TV and what have you, Jesus says, come to me and I'll you who labor. You are being exhausted and I'll give you rest. Heavily laden from Thayer's Greek lexicon talks about heavily laden being with the consequences of sin. So there's a spiritual aspect here to the rest that Christ is offering us. And the word rest, again from the Thayer's Greek lexicon, to cause or permit one to cease from any movement or labor in order to recover and collect his strength to give rest to refresh.

So we want very much the spirit of humility so that we can come to Jesus Christ, not be so vain that we think we can handle everything on our own, take everything on our own shoulders. But he says, come to me, all you who labor, and I have a laden, and I will give you refreshment. I will help you to recover. I'll help you to collect your strength. Verse 29, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you'll find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So here Jesus Christ is saying, learn from me. Be humble. There's power in humility.

Be humble. Jesus says, from him we would get rest. We will find refreshment in our renewal with our relationship with the great God as we look to him, as we humble ourselves before him and look to him. We will find freedom, as we see and we quote every year and pass over service. In Hebrews 9, we will find freedom from guilt as we repent, as we draw closer and become more at one with God.

Those burdens can be lifted and we can have rest. We can have deliverance from feelings of despair, of what's happening in our life, how we don't always measure up. We want to measure up, but we can find rest as we realize God's going to be there to help us. Surely we're not perfect, and we hate that we're not perfect, but God realizes our condition and so do we. Mark 6, talking about the healing power of rest in its relationship to humility. Mark 6, Jesus Christ and his men were working very hard. God is a worker. Christ was a worker and is a worker. And they expect us to work, to labor, to labor diligently, to labor hard. Notice here in Mark 6, verse 31, Christ says to them, Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place, and rest awhile, for there are many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. They didn't even have time to eat.

The word rest here is the same one we found in Matthew chapter 11. And here we're talking about resting from an unrelenting schedule. Some of you have an unrelenting schedule.

It just seems to wear you down. Do you have a schedule that's so unrelenting that at times you have a hard time finding yourself in prayer, or in study, or in meditation? Is your unrelenting schedule such that you don't fast as often as you would like? I think, brethren, in my years in the ministry, it is not unusual for me to talk with people who've been in a church decades, and they still haven't gotten to the place where they are regular in either their prayer or their study, or they're not regular in terms of how many times they fast. That is not an uncommon situation. We're human. And sometimes we're like the little animal on a treadmill in life.

And so Jesus Christ says here, you know, let's take some time aside here, because we don't even have time to eat. They needed rest. They needed to be rejuvenated. And of course, as we are humble, we realize we can do it all. You know, sometimes at work, I've got to be there. If I'm not there, things just aren't going to go well. Well, let's be a little more humble. You know, if you were to die tomorrow, or I'm to die tomorrow, somebody else is going to be here pastoring the church. That's just the way it is. We are all replaceable. So again, humility comes into practice here. Isaiah chapter 57. Isaiah chapter 57 and verse 15.

Isaiah chapter 57 and verse 15.

For thus says, the high and a lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with him who as a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

So notice what God is saying in terms of the connection of humility and rest.

Humility and being able to be revived. You know, Barnes' note says, to revive literally means to make alive. The sense is he imparts spiritual life and comfort. He is to them what refreshing rains and gentle sun is and do's are to a drooping plant. And so again, we take on this humility. And by taking on humility and looking to God in a proper way, we can be refreshed.

The word contrite here in verse 15, again from Barnes, means properly that which is broken, crushed, beaten small, trodden down. Here denotes a soul that is borne down with a sense of sin and unworthiness, a heart that is, as it were, crushed under the weight of guilt.

So again, you know, every year at Passover, there's always somebody somewhere who says, should I take the Passover? Should I go?

I'm not what I should be. I'm kind of, because I'm not what I should be, people think, well, I'm just such a bad hypocrite, I shouldn't be going there. Well, we don't want to be hypocrites. We all understand that. We also understand that there's provision been made for us, and we want to be there. We're sinners. We need to be there. That's why we have the Passover. Now again, we want to make sure that we are people who are developing the heart and mind of God, that we are people who believe in and work at repenting of our sins and not staying where we're at. Those things all need to be said. That's why we got Passover and then the days of unleavened bread. We want a heart like Isaiah's. I'm not going to turn there, but Isaiah 6, verse 5, where Isaiah said, Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips and dwell among a people of unclean lips. There was a man who knew humility. There was a man who wanted rest spiritually. We want a heart not only like Isaiah's, but like Jeremiah's. Again, I won't turn there, but I'll quote Jeremiah, chapter 9, verse 1. Old in my head were waters, and my eyes were fountains of tears. Again, there's a man who had a heart of humility, and he needed rest. He saw his sins. He saw his needs.

We want a heart like Daniel's when he confessed in Daniel, chapter 9.

Daniel, chapter 9, verses 7 and 8, where Daniel was confessing before God not only the nation's sins, but his own. Now, he was a very righteous man, but he also realized he wasn't perfect, and he wanted rest. And that rest came through the aspect of humility. So, point number one, humility brings about the healing powers of rest. Do you need rest? I know that I need rest.

Number two. Number two. Humility brings about the healing powers of cleansing.

Humility brings about the healing powers of cleansing. Let's turn to 2 Kings, chapter 5.

Well-known story. You may not have covered this in a while here, but we're going to cover it today. Second Kings, chapter 5. Humility brings about the healing powers of cleansing. We want to be cleansed, don't we? Not only physically. We want to be cleansed spiritually. That's why we look forward to the Passover. And humility has a big part to play in this. We see a story here in Second Kings, chapter 5. It really illustrates this point. Let's get some context here. Chapter 5, of 2 Kings, verse 1. Now, Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but a leper. Let's interject something here. It says here, the LORD gave victory to him for Syria. Could it be that God was working all this out in this man's life, who some commentators say may have been the second in the land in terms of power?

Could it be that God was working in this man's life to teach us a lesson?

It's right here in the Scripture. So here's this tremendous man and a man of valor, a mighty man, a man who got victory for his king as a general. Verse 2, And the Syrians had gone out on raids, and had brought back a captive, a young girl from the land of Israel. She waited on Naaman's wife. Notice how God works these things out. This is not an accident that God is putting these people like chess pieces on a playing field, putting them together. Verse 3, And she said to her mistress, If only my master with the prophet who was in Samaria, for he would heal him of his leprosy. And Naaman went in and told his master, told the king, saying, Thus and thus said the girl who was from the land of Israel. Then the king of Syria said, Go now, I will send a letter to the king of Israel. So he departed and took with him ten towns of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, ten changes of clothing. The king viewed this man as being very valuable to him. He wanted him to have an opportunity to go to this righteous man in Israel. Then he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which said, Now be advised when this letter comes to you that I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may heal him of his leprosy.

And it happened when the king of Israel read the letter that he tore his clothes and said, Am I God to kill a man and make alive? That this man sends a man to me to heal him of his leprosy? Therefore, please consider how he seeks a quarrel with me.

So the king of Israel was saying, You know, this is a setup. I can't do what this says here.

So it was when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes. And he sent to the king, saying, Why have you torn your clothes? Please let him come to me, and he shall know there is a prophet in Israel. He shall have a cleansing when he comes to a man of God. The Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha's house.

Now, consider what that probably will look like. Here is a mighty general, a mighty commander.

He probably had who knows how many troops with him backing him up.

You know, when you're that kind of a personage, you don't go out to places by yourself for fear somebody's going to attack you, assassinate you, kill you. So he probably had his large entourage, and he finds himself there at the door of Elisha's house.

First in, Elisha sent a message to him, saying, Go and wash and enjoy it seven times, and your flesh will be restored to you, and you shall be clean. This commander didn't like that.

Elisha didn't even come out to see him. Great personage. First name basis may be with the king.

Verse 11, But Naaman became furious, and went away, and said, Indeed, I said to myself, He will surely come out to me. Now, we're seeing a man right now who doesn't know the meaning of humility. Surely he'll come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord as God and wave his hand over the place, and he'll heal a leprosy. Naaman was really guilty of something sometimes we're guilty of. Here's what God should do. I've seen it in my mind. God does this, and everything will go well. We're basically telling God how to do his business. And then he says, Are not the Abana and the fire fire, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?

Again, no humility at this point. Could I not wash and then be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. But God's working with this man. And the servants came near and spoke to him and said, My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it?

You know, go slay 500 men or whatever with your army? And how much more then when he says to you, Wash and be clean?

And so that got Naaman to thinking. I want to be cleansed of this humility, cleansed of leprosy, by humility. And so he begins to think, I should do this. So he begins to soften his approach. He begins to be more humble in his approach. Verse 14.

So he went down and dipped seven times into Jordan according to the sayings of the man of God. His flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. He was clean.

So God was working with this man. God was working with the servants of this man.

Humility was key. When he humbled himself, it was key to his being cleansed.

I'm not going to turn there, but we know we read John chapter 13. We talk about physically washing feet, but we also see that in John chapter 13 there's a spiritual aspect of that.

That we need to be washed. The dirt needs to come out of our lives, right? And God does that for us as we are humble.

Verse 15. And he returned to the man of God, he and all of his aides, and came and stood before him, and said, Indeed, now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel. Now therefore, please take a gift from your servant. But he said, As the Lord lives before my stamp, I will receive nothing. And he urged him to take it, but he refused. You know, in your notes you might want to jot down Matthew chapter 10 and verse 8.

Freely you have been given, freely give. That has been the way we've conducted the work since the early days of Mr. Armstrong's verses being called.

Freely you have been given, freely give. Salvation, both deliverance and healing, is free.

It's always free. By God's grace. God's grace is not cheap, but God's grace is free.

But notice now something else in verse 17.

So Naaman said, Then if not, please let your servant be given two mule-loads of earth, for your servant will no longer offer either burnt offerings or sacrifices to other gods, but to the Lord. So this commander, general, whatever we want to call him, wanted enough earth to take back home and build an altar so he could worship the true God. So there could be more spiritual cleansing, more in tune with the great God.

So point number two, humility brings about the healing powers of cleansing.

Again, there's power in humility. Despite what the Greeks may have thought, to be humble, to be meek, doesn't mean to be weak.

Humility is a powerful tool in the hands of a Christian.

Number three.

Number three, humility brings about the healing power that overcomes the forces of evil.

Humility brings about the healing power that overcomes the forces of evil.

Let's turn to an interesting story we'll find over here in Matthew chapter 15.

Matthew chapter 15.

Starting here in verse 21.

Matthew 15, 21. Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan, a Gentile woman, behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David. My daughter is severely demon-possessed. You know, here's a woman she had probably undoubtedly heard about Jesus Christ, the healings that have been performed by his hand, and she knew what state her daughter was in.

And, you know, all of us in this room have relatives. All of us in this room have family we deeply love. And so, you know, we have a family that we love. And here she comes and says, she's crying out. You know, when you've had a sick kid or a sick grandchild, that does something to you.

I remember my first grandson lived six hours. I remember holding him, realizing he didn't have long to live. He basically was born without very much of a way of lung capacity. And the doctors came to my son and I. You could see the exasperation I had. The doctors' face. There was nothing they could do for that little guy. He was lucky to live six hours. And yet you want, with all of your being, to take that on yourself. Just like Jesus Christ took it on himself because of the tremendous love. We can understand that as parents and grandparents.

That we would gladly take it on ourselves, as opposed to these little ones being caught up in this awful situation. And that's where this woman was. She cried out. Have mercy on me. Now that's an interesting thing. Her daughter was the one who was demon-possessed. But because she was so in tune, she loved her daughter so much. She said, have mercy on me. She and her daughter were one. And she wanted healing in the worst way for her daughter. From demon possession.

You know, she didn't have the flu. There was a spirit influence here. So what is the word? So what is Christ do? Verse 23. But he answered her, not a word. Have you ever gone to God with deep prayer? Talking about prayer in the first sermon today. You go to God in deep, heartfelt, meaningful, zealous prayer. And you don't get a word. You don't get an answer. Does that mean God doesn't love you?

No? Not necessarily. Maybe God's got something else in his mind for you at that point. Just like Paul went and asked three times, besieged him, God three times for healing. And God says no. His prayer was answered. You know, prayers don't have to be answered, yes, to be answered. The answer was no. The answer was, you know, you're going to walk through life, and you're going to walk through life daily by my grace.

I can heal you right now, and that's a matter of grace. But you also can walk through life every day needing to rely on me, and that is also needful of her grace. So here we see, but Christ answered her not a word. Now, does she get so upset with Christ that she just walk away? No. But he answered her not a word, and the disciples came and urged him, saying, send her away, for she cries out after us.

So not only is Christ mum here, but he's also a man. And he's also a man. So not only is Christ mum here, but the disciples say, you know, she's really a piece of work. Let's get rid of her. Send her away. So this poor, gentle lady is really not getting too much of a reception here in her mind.

Verse 24, but he answered and said, I was not set except for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That's a statement of fact. That's true. Christ said it. It's obviously going to be true. But notice her. She came and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. Now, earlier, verse 22, what did she say? She called him son of David. She didn't fully recognize who this man was. Maybe God was helping her through the course of this situation, that he was more than just a rabbi. He was just more than a person whose prayers were healed.

He was on a whole different level. She said, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, it is not good to take the children's bread and throw them to the little dogs. Again, she could have been so discouraged, she could have simply walked away. But she was following the example of someone she probably never heard of, who wrestled with Christ. She wasn't going to give up. She loved her daughter. She wasn't about to walk away. She wanted results. She was persistent in her prayers.

She said, verse 27, Yes, Lord, even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master's table. Then Jesus said to her, O woman, great is your faith. Let it be to you as you desire. And her daughter was healed from that very hour. From that very hour. So you see here, humility at work. You see persistence in prayer and humility. And you see how Jesus Christ responded. See, Jesus Christ is a teacher. And he was wanting to teach this lady more of who and what he was. He saw something in her heart. And there was some information she needed to deepen a relationship that he knew she could have with him. And so he was going through this step by step by step to bring her to a better relationship with him. And all through this, you see her humility. You know, she didn't back down. She wasn't uppity or anything like that. But she simply would talk to Jesus Christ. And want answers. And of course, there's nothing wrong with us, brethren, as you go through life, and there are things that are really hurting you. And you want answers. And you're going to stick with God until you get those answers. Whether it be yes or no, or not yet. Sometimes the answer is not yet. It's not always yes and no. You know, my kids, you know, I'm enjoying, I can't get to Michigan that often. So I contact my son and daughter-in-law. We get on Skype. Actually, it's called Google Duo. Get on there, and you know, I see the two little girls and the little guy, and of course, it just melts your heart when you see your little grandchildren. And it's interesting, when they see Mary, they always call her baby. I don't know what the deal is there. But, you know, one time we called, and Mary was a little bit late getting to the phone call, and they all were saying, Where's baby? Where's baby? I don't know where baby is. Baby's where baby's gone when baby is. Baby eventually showed up. But, you know, our hearts melt with our little ones. Same thing was true with this lady, and it showed us the beauty of humility and the power of humility. Last point, number four. Point number three to reiterate. Humility brings about the healing power that overcomes the forces of evil. Overcome demon possession through going to God's throne. Number four, and lastly, humility brings about the healing power of the resurrection to glory. Humility brings about the healing power of the resurrection to glory. Philippians 2. Philippians 2, starting in verse 5. Let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. Humility. Taking the form of a bondservant and coming into likeness of men. Humility. And being found in the appearance as a man, he humbled himself, became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God has also highly exalted him. There is power in humility. Therefore, God also highly exalted him and gave him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, those in heaven and those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Jesus Christ, his humility, led to his exaltation. Of course, there were other things, but this is certainly one of the things. Matthew 5, the area of the beautiful attitudes, the beatitudes, one of the first attitudes that's talked about here, Matthew 5, verse 3.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Poor in spirit. To be poor in spirit is to acknowledge our utter helplessness before God. We're just flesh. We're just so much red clay. Our spiritual poverty, to acknowledge our spiritual poverty, without God, we don't know anything. We don't have anything. We are nothing. To acknowledge our spiritual need, to acknowledge that we are truly dependent upon God and his grace for everything in our life. That's what it means to be poor in spirit.

And as you and I are poor in spirit, as we sit at the feet of Jesus Christ, so to speak, and we are taught, and we learn, and we take what we learn and use it, and repent and grow in the grace of God, then we will be resurrected. Romans 8.

Romans 8, verses 16 and 17.

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children and heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs of Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, we also may be glorified together. As we are humbled together, we will be glorified together. Humility brings about the healing power of the resurrection. So, brethren, today we want to take a look at the first thing we'll be doing on Passover evening. You know, there'll be some introductory comments. Then after we've made those introductory comments, we'll conduct a foot washing. Something you've done many, many times in the past. But the power of that is never lost on any of us. And today I just wanted to approach this from maybe a little different perspective, that humility is powerful. Let's not be like the Greeks who thought it was worthless or showed that we were inadequate. Well, we are inadequate. That's why we need humility. That's why we need God in our life. So four things today. Let me just review very carefully. The main thought was this. Humility brings to bear powerful healing for the Christian. Point one. Humility brings about healing powers of rest. Number two. Humility brings about the healing powers of cleansing. Number three. Humility brings about the healing powers that overcomes the forces of evil. And lastly, number four. Humility brings about the healing power of the resurrection to glory.