Humility

The Passover pictures that very first step in God's Master Plan of Salvation. It's a plan to offer life—real life, spiritual life, never-ending life, eternal life—to all of mankind. Now, the Passover is the most solemn occasion of the year. It's solemn because we reflect on the painful suffering and death of our Savior Jesus Christ, but that evening is also very encouraging since that service also shows Christ's victory over sin and death in our place. Passover is a tremendous blessing. I think we all appreciate that. In this annual reminder, God has given to us to remember the unconditional love that Jesus Christ has shown to mankind and to His Church. Once again, a tremendous blessing.

As you come together on Passover evening, you're doing two things—well, more than two, but two things I want to mention right here. You are expressing your faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and His death. You're also renewing your commitment—each and every one of us—our commitment to allow Jesus Christ to live His life through each one of us. During the course of that evening, there are three major sections of the service that we go through. The first thing we're going to be doing is what is called the ordinance of foot washing.

Over the years, you've heard any number of sermons—and I've given any number of sermons—on the meaning of John 13 in the foot washing. Now, in that section—let's turn to John 13 for a moment. I'm not going to go through that whole section here and now, but there's one verse I think that I don't know that I've paid enough attention to myself in terms of my speaking, in terms of my study, and I thought, well, I should put an end to that. I need to take some time and take a look at this one verse and really flesh it out a whole lot more to really come to appreciate the richness and the fullness that is here. Every verse in the Bible has some meaning for us. God wants us to understand that. That's why each verse is there. Each verse is placed right where God wants it to be placed. But here in John 13, you've got a discussion about foot washing. In verse 17 is the verse I want to highlight today. John 13, 17. If you know these things—and again, the context is the foot washing—if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. Not blessed are you if you know them, but blessed are those who do them. You've got to know it before you can do it, so you know it, and then you do it. Now, I took a look at Expositor's Bible commentary for that verse. I want to read you what it says for John 13, 17, and I quote, Jesus portrayed for them the true nature of Christian living, serving one another, and those who would be willing to take this role on themselves, Jesus said there would be blessings. There would be blessings. And so today, brethren, as I started our march toward the Passover—I started last time—I have a sermon today for you, getting ready for the Passover. The next two sermons will be getting ready for the Passover. Today, we're going to take a look at humility. Today, we're going to look at humility in a very specific light. We're not going to look at how you get it or how you define it. We're going to look at humility from another angle. For those of you who like to take notes, here's the theme statement right here. The theme statement is this. Humility provides us the blessings.

Humility provides us the blessings of a deeper relationship with God and man. Humility provides us the blessings of a deeper relationship with God and man. You know what humility is. You know you've heard any number of sermons on that, any number of sermons on how to attain it, various points, and so forth. But today, we're going to take a look at the fact that humility is a blessing. Next time I'm with you, we'll take a look at how the bread is a blessing. The time after that, we're going to take a look at how the wine is a blessing. The whole of the Passover service is one tremendous blessing. Now, I appreciate very much the opening prayer by Mr. Stromer today because he made mention in his opening prayer that, you know, he was asking that God would give us information that discusses our blessings and discusses the positiveness of this way of life. And that's certainly what I want to do today. So we are very much in of the same spirit, the same mind. So let's take a look at the very first aspect here. Point number one, humility provides us with the blessings of a deeper relationship with God. Humility provides us with the blessings, and we're going to look at a number of them. And I'm not that this is not an exhaustive list of blessings that we have that gives us a deeper relationship with God. I hope that you take some time and think about other blessings from humility that give us a deeper relationship with God. Let's begin by going to Isaiah chapter 66. Isaiah chapter 66, verses 1 and 2. Isaiah 66, verse 1. Thus says the Lord, heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build me? Where is the place of my rest? For all those things my hand is made, and all those things exist, says the Lord. But on this one will I look, on him who is of a poor and contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word. So a tremendous blessing that you and I have is the God of the universe, the majestic, powerful, almighty God, looks our direction. The God who created everything. And when you think about the entirety of the universe, a universe that has no limits, our mind can't comprehend that. So many times we think about various attributes of God, we think about his love and so forth. But when you think about God as a designer who designed this universe from nothing, what have you designed in your mind from nothing? Everything we think about has something that came before. Something as a foundation, something that we can relate to. But God, when he designed it, there was nothing that came before. So he had a tremendous mind, tremendous ability to design and then to create and then to sustain. We have the blessing of having that being, God the Father and Jesus Christ, look to us. The blessing of God looking to us. And who does he look to? End of verse 2. But on this one will I look, on him who is of a poor and a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word. A blessing of humility is God looks at those who are humble. He regards with favor those who are humble. And certainly that's something that we hold very dear.

Humility, brethren, increases our appreciation for our great God. We respect his majesty. When we compare his majesty to us, it helps us to fully appreciate him. We realize that if we don't shower on a regular basis, if we don't brush our teeth on a regular basis, well, if we don't do those things, we come to services and people will know exactly where you're sitting.

I mean, we are just so much clay, and we've got to take care of ourselves, and yet our Father doesn't need to do any of that. You know, he is eternal. He is wonderful. He doesn't need to bathe. He is always beautiful and righteous and without spot or wrinkle or any of those sorts of things. So humility brings us back and keeps us in a place of reality, and that's a blessing. It's a tremendous blessing. During the course of this sermon, I'm going to quote several studies on the subject of humility. And what we're going to see as I was reading the various studies, these studies were done, generally speaking, for business people. Is humility good in the business world? And the answer to that is, yes. Now, we'll find out why that is, but those who study human behavior say there's a lot of very positive things about being humble in the business world. Now, people today are studying that like as though this is some new thing. And yet, those principles have been in the Bible ever since there was the Word of God. So humility keeps us grounded, and it's something that's beautiful, and it allows God to show us His favor. Let's take a look. Let's drill down on this a little bit. Let's go to Psalm chapter 8, the eighth Psalm. Psalm 8, verses 3 and 4. I'm going to drill down on Isaiah 66 a little bit, the thought there. Psalm 8, verses 3 and 4. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him and the Son of man that you visit him?

Interesting the way that the psalmist puts this here. Interesting way, David. David was a man who thought about the fact that God has created all the heavens, has named all the stars. I don't know if we could have a computer today that would be able to hold all that information for a limitless universe. Yet God has named all the stars. The blessing here, brethren, is that this tremendous, majestic, powerful God values you and I very highly. That's a blessing. He doesn't look at us as something that is just so much, you know, like little insects, insignificant, brush them away. No, in God's eyes, we are very highly valued. Very highly valued. How many people today question their worth? You know, this keeps an industry alive and flourishing. Whether we're talking about the psychiatrists or whoever, people have feelings of worthlessness, of inferiority. They feel they lack value, they lack direction. And yet, that's not how God views us. God understands that of Him by ourselves without His help, we're nothing. But God also realizes our potential. Our potential is to be a son or daughter of God. Our potential is to live forever as a God-being. So God sees we are not worthless, that we are not inferior, that we don't lack value, we have tremendous value, that we have direction. And this tremendous being who created everything, who values you so highly, answers your prayers. It's not as though He thinks to Himself, well, what is this little piece of clay here? And let's just brush this off my table. No. He looks at you and says, He listens to your prayers, He hears your concerns, He understands where you're coming from. And because of His tremendous love for you, because He answers your prayers. Tremendous blessing that we have in that, a tremendous blessing that we have in that. 2 Corinthians 12. Let's look at another one of the blessings that comes through humility. 2 Corinthians 12. It can be so easy as human beings to look at our strengths, to look at our personality, to look at our intellect, to look at all the things that make us what we are, and to lean on those things. Human beings around the world have done that, and that's why the world's in the shape it's in. We are blessed as we look to the humility God gives to us. We are blessed with humility to realize we don't rely on our strength. Humility tells us to get our spiritual bearings, to get our spiritual footing, to have a proper mindset. That's a blessing. It's a blessing not to look at ourselves as the sum total of worth, the sum total of expertise. No, it's a blessing to look to God's strength, to look to God's mind. 2 Corinthians 12. Verse 7. 2 And lest I should be exalted above measure, Paul says, unless I become arrogant and miss out on humility, by the abundance of the revelations, by all that he had written in the Scriptures, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan above me, lest I be exalted above measure. So here, one of the great Christians of all time says, God humbled me, and it was good for God to humble me. It was a blessing for God to humble me. Has God humbled you? Sure He has. Has God humbled me? Sure He has. Has God done humbling you and I? No, He's going to continue to do that, and that's a blessing for us. Concerning this thing, this thorn in the flesh, I pleaded. Notice, I pleaded. Didn't say He just asked. He pleaded with the Lord three times that I might depart. And He said to me, God answered His prayer. He did not answer the prayer. The prayer was answered. My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

Brethren, let's consider that. As you go through trials, you know, I was talking to somebody in our spokesman's club in Chicago just this last Wednesday evening. This particular man and his family have gone through tremendous amounts of trials. And he related to me this last Wednesday evening that there's a new trial now that's been added to what they're going through. And I thought, when does it end for that poor family? When does it end? And yet, who am I to say that? God's the one who's giving them that opportunity. God is the one who's humbling them by allowing them to go through another difficulty so that God's grace would be sufficient for them.

And you know, that particular family—and I'm not going to name the name, but you probably know who I'm talking about—but that particular family has been existing in God's grace. They are people of tremendous faith, tremendous courage. I just stand sometimes with deep respect for what I see them doing and going through for what they've had to endure. So just as Paul here was going through some physical difficulties, so was his family going through additional physical difficulties.

And yet, in faith, they rely upon God, and God has never left them. They're building holy, righteous character. And their humility in all of this is a tremendous blessing. Because without the humility, they might say, you know, forget this church. Why do I need this? No. In their humility, they look to God to have the sufficiency that we see there in verse 9.

Paul goes on in the middle of verse 9, Therefore, most gladly, I'd rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Through their humility, through Paul's humility, the power of Christ rested upon them. That's a blessing. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and needs and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake.

For when I am weak, then I am strong. When I am humble, when life is being brought down to the lowest common denominator, and I know all I can do is look to my great God, when I am weak, then I am strong. Because we've got the blessing of God to look to. The proper spiritual bearings, the proper spiritual mindset. Another blessing that deepens our relationship with the great God is found over in Joshua, chapter 7. Let's go over to Joshua, chapter 7. You know the story here. The children of Israel have come across the Jordan into the Holy Land. There was a city that they needed to conquer, the city of Ai.

They conquered the city, but one of the men of the troops had taken something that he shouldn't have taken. And he took it and he hid it in his tent. And because of that, the whole nation, or the army of Israel, let's put it that way, met with military defeat. And Joshua is scratching his head and he's wondering why in the world did this take place? You know, we know how great God is. Why did God allow us to be defeated by this little tiny town? Joshua, chapter 7, verse 6.

Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until evening. He and the elders of Israel put dust on their heads. And Joshua said, Alas, Lord God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us? Oh, that we have been content and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan. Oh, Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns us back before its enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear it and surround us and cut off our name from the earth.

Then what will you do with your great name? For your great name. And so what do we see here? We see a group of people who are being humbled and that humility did what for them? That humility gave them a more powerful, gave Joshua a more powerful prayer life. That is another blessing. The blessing that humility brings. A more powerful prayer life. When you and I hide our needs from God, we're ignoring the only one that can help us.

The only one that can come to our aid. When we go to God in deep humility, God welcomes our honest prayers. Now you might say, well, it sounds like Joshua was angry here. Well, Joshua had a very one-on-one kind of relationship with the great God, just like David did. There were times David was very loving. There were times David was very hot, very angry. And God enjoyed the fact that David and now here Joshua, they are living their lives and they're taking God into their confidence and they're expressing everything. God wants that because when they're showing God the right kind of respect, that's good.

And even when they're angry, God says, well, I can work with that. I can show them what they need to be doing that's different. But if they're going to run from me and hide from me, I can't help them. I mean, it's just like you with your kids or me with mine. If my kids have something to say that maybe I don't like to hear, I want them to spit it out. Then once they say it, then I can work with it one way or another. But if they're keeping it, you know, inside of them bottled up, there's nothing I can do.

But to spit it out many times takes some humility. And so here we see another blessing, the blessing of a more powerful prayer life as a result of being humbled. One last example here that I want to show in terms of humility, drawing us into a deeper relationship with God is found over in 2 Kings.

Let's go to 2 Kings chapter 5.

Here we're going to see another blessing that comes from humility, the blessing of learning to obey. That's a blessing. The blessing of learning to obey. 2 Kings chapter 5 verse 1. Now, Naaman, the 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. Notice, the Lord had given victory to Syria.

He was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. And Assyrians had gone out on raids and had brought back a captive, a young girl from the land of Israel, and she waited on Naaman's wife. Then she said to her mistress, this is the lady from Israel, if only my master, if only Naaman were with the prophet who was in Samaria, for he would heal him of his leprosy.

And Naaman went in and told his master, saying, Thus and thus said the girl who is from the land of Israel. And 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 talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, ten changes of clothing. I mean, the king of Syria really wanted to get the king of Israel's attention, because he wanted Naaman cured.

Naaman was a very valuable piece of the empire as a commander. Verse 6. Then he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which said, Now I'll 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, verse 7, when the king of Israel read the letter, they tore his clothes and said, Am I God to kill and make alive, that this man sends me a man to me to heal him of his leprosy? Therefore, please consider and see how he seeks a quarrel with me. So the king of Israel thought it was a trap. King of Israel realizes he can't heal this guy. He wonders, what's this all about? Verse 8. So it was when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, they sent to the king, saying, Why have you torn your clothes?

Please let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. The Naaman went with his horses and his chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha's house. Now, it doesn't say so here, but I don't know if this guy was traveling by himself. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, Go and wash into Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.

But Naaman became furious. When away and said, Indeed, I said to myself, He will surely come out to me, and stand and call in the name of the Lord as God, and wave his hands over the place, and heal the leprosy. So, like us so many times, we have it all figured out in our mind what God should do. And God wasn't doing that. And Naaman was a commander. He was a commander of army. He's used to telling people, Go and I go.

Come and they come. Kill and they kill. And yet, he says, this prophet in Israel didn't have the respect to come even and see me face to face. He just sent word for what I should be doing. And he goes on in verse 12. Are not the Abana and the fire power of the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? So, he's showing some loyalty to his country there.

Could I not wash and them and be clean? So, he turned and went away in a rage. And a servant came near. Now, the servant here has some wisdom. The servant 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? How much more than when he says to you, Wash and be clean? He said, It's really simple. He just told you to wash and you'd be clean. But you've got to wash in Israel's river. Verse 14. So he went down and dipped seven times into Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God. And his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child.

And he was clean. And he returned to the man of God, he and all of his aides. So he wasn't by himself. And came and stood before him. And he 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.

So here's a man who humbled himself, or God was humbling him, whichever way you want to look at that. And through that humility, he learned obedience. Learning obedience through humility is a blessing. Tremendous blessing. The great hero, the great warrior humbled himself. And he washed in, you know, be like somebody saying, Okay, we want you to, you know, go over to Russia and this thus and such river in Russia and bathe yourself seven times.

You say, What's wrong with the Ohio River? What's wrong with the Mississippi or the Missouri? Now you got to go over to Russia and go over there. Well, you know, so he learned, he humbled himself, he became obedient, he was healed.

So through these five different experiences I've gone through, that the God of the universe, the majestic God of the universe, looks to us, shows us his favor through humility. That's a blessing. The second thing we saw was that God values us greatly. In all of his creation, nothing is more valued than we as human beings. A third thing we saw, through humility, looking to God's strength, not our own. A fourth thing we saw is how humility gives us a more powerful prayer life. And the fifth thing we saw is through humility, we can learn obedience. All of those are tremendous blessings. And they come to us, they focus, these are blessings for us all year long, but through the Passover when it said, If you do these things, you will be blessed. God is telling us, he's teaching us a very powerful lesson. So point number one was humility provides us the blessing of a deeper relationship with God. Let's go to point number two. Humility provides us the blessings of a deeper relationship with our fellow man. With our fellow man. I'd like to quote you something from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary. I think Tom had done this last week in Chicago. This may be something you've not heard before, but I just wanted to quote this for you from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Greek philosophers. Now, why do I even bring up Greek philosophers? A great deal of our western culture is based upon Greek thought. A great deal of our western society, western culture, is based on Greek thought. The Greek, and I'm quoting now from Nelson's, the Greek philosophers despised humility because it implied inadequacy, lack of dignity, and worthlessness to them. So the Greek mind forget humility. We don't need that. They were the warrior kings. They valued their own strength. They were the people of Sparta and Athens. They were people who really viewed, you know, maybe more arrogance as being a virtue. There are a number of blessings here we want to take a look at, and here we're going to take a look at three different studies. Behavioral experts. And I'm only quoting those to show where human beings are beginning to catch up with God because God gave us the principles long, long ago. Let's go look at Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians chapter 2. Now, again, the point, point number two, is that humility provides the blessing of a deeper relationship with our fellow man. Let's take a look at Philippians chapter 2, starting here in verse 3. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit through arrogance, but in lowliness of mind, in humility, let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interests of others. And what is the basis for this? The basis for this is humility, as we see in verse 3, end of verse 3. In lowliness of mind, let that be the basis of our action. Verse 5. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. What mind? The mind of humility. The mind where he emptied himself and came as a flesh and blood human being. God in flesh, true, but he became in the flesh. So the first study I want to look at is a study by a the Stellan named Lebouf. What did he find in this study? He found that this was, you know, when you look at the larger aspect of the study, this was supposed to be done for business leaders. But understand, the business leaders were talking about how to best deal with people. Okay? The study said this, that humble people are, on average, more helpful than people who are conceited or egotistical. Participants who were more humble were more likely to offer help and offer more of their time to those in need. That's what the study showed. The study showed, it says, unsurprisingly, humble people have also been found to be more generous.

Humility also correlated positively with agreeableness. These findings support the notion that humble people engage in far less conflict with others as they are naturally less argumentative and more inclined to help those around them. Now, that's a study by behavioral experts, and yet God was saying that Paul said that 2,000 years ago. So, the bottom line is, humility brings the blessing of being helpful. Humility brings the blessing of being helpful. The more we are humble, the more helpful we can be.

The more generous we will be, because our minds are not on ourselves. We're not wasting a lot of time thinking about me, myself, and I. We're thinking about the other guys that says they're in Philippians 2.

Let's take a look at another study. Before we do that, let's go to the book of Ephesians 4.

Go back a couple pages.

So, human studies show, and certainly the scriptures, which is the most important thing, scripture shows that it's a blessing. Humility brings the blessing of being helpful. But we're going to see something else here. Ephesians 4, verse 32. Ephesians 4, 32. And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Another study by a fellow by the name of Kessibir showed there was a strong correlation between humility and a lower sense of entitlement. In other words, when people have a high sense of entitlement comes feelings of superiority. And with feelings of superiority, that ultimately comes to an animosity toward our fellow man. But humble people, the study was showing, are innately more kind as they will never hold themselves on a higher plane than others. So the blessing here is the blessing of being more kind through humility. The blessing of being more kind.

1 Corinthians 9.

1 Corinthians 9. We've read this section many times. But let's look at it from another point of view. That's the beauty of Scripture. There's always something more you can get from something that you've read so many times in the past. The Bible is a living book because it's written by a living God. And there's just so much depth here as we focus deeper and deeper. 1 Corinthians 9. I've started here in verse 19. 1 Corinthians 9.19. For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more. So here Paul's talking about humility. What does humility do for him here? And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win the Jews, to those who are under law as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law, to those who are without the law as without the law, not being without the law toward God, but under the law toward Christ, that I might win those who are without the law. To the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. A study by Davis showed that people who are humble have better relationships with other people. So humility brings better relationships among people because they accept the humble people, accept people for what they are. They accept people for what they are.

Humble people helped others to build rapport, to establish better relationships, to build stronger bonds. You know, arrogant people could care less about that. But humble people want to be a help to others. They want to be helpful, they want to be kind, they want to build better relationships. Those are blessings from being humble that we learn at Passover season and other times of the year. So three things there. The blessing of being helpful, the blessing of number two, the blessing of being kind, and blessing number three of better relationships.

But let's move on to yet a third and final point.

Humility facilitates personal growth. And that is a blessing. When we grow as individuals, humility facilitates personal growth. We are here to grow. God calls the weak of the world, but God doesn't expect us to stay weak. God expects us to grow. He expects us to take the five talents and build five more talents, or take the two talents and build two more. The one who took the one talent hit it will be to that person. So we don't want to be like the person that God gives a talent to, or whatever number of talents to, and then we just hide them, or don't develop them, don't work with them. We want to grow personally, and growth comes through being humble.

Let's look at Psalm 37.

Psalm 37.

Verse 11. Psalm 37 verse 11. But the meek, the lowly, the humble, shall inherit the earth. Well, we've seen some good reasons why that's going to be the case. Humility is a foundational characteristic of a Christian. We've seen all the blessings that come through humility. We see all that humility does in a person's life. The meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. The abundance of peace. So here's another blessing of humility. The blessing of peace. Peace of mind.

Living a humble existence keeps us away from the stresses and pressures of trying to do things we can't do on our own. Being humble allows us to realize we don't need to outperform others simply to gain a certain amount of popularity or power or respect. We're humble people. We don't think along those lines, those terms.

A humble person is relieved from the notion of trying to be more than they are. And a lot of people pay a good bit of money to those who are counselors because they are trying to be more than they should be. They're trying to do things with talents they don't have or power that they don't have because others tell them, well, this is what they should be doing. The bottom line is humility keeps us grounded. I mentioned that before. I'll mention it again. Humility keeps us grounded. Makes us feel comfortable with what God has given us. Paul talked about being content in the state we were in.

And that will facilitate personal growth because we won't flame out. How many people have I known over the course of my ministry and my being in God's church? I've been associated with God's church since 1967. Some of you are a lot longer than that. This coming trumpet's all been an ordained minister in the church 40 years. Forty years because coming trumpet's. Like the farmer's insurance commercial, I've seen a thing or two, so I've learned a thing or two in 40 years. And one of the things I've seen and learned over those 40 years is people who come into the church like a bright, flaming star, and they are serving all over the place, and they're doing wonderful things for two or three years. And then all of a sudden they're not there anymore. Well, where's so-and-so? Well, you know, they stopped coming. How many people like that have you known? How many people like that have I known? Humility keeps us grounded. Humility gives us peace of mind. Helps us to function properly. Philippians chapter 3.

Philippians chapter 3. Paul here was talking about people who thought they were something. Verse 4, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone thinks he has confidence in the flesh, I am more so. And then Paul goes through and starts talking about all the various things that he can be conceited about, be arrogant about. And verses 5 and 6. But notice what he says starting here in verse 7.

Again, he was grounded. He realized that he needed to be humble before God. Yet indeed I also found all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish. So again, humility was something that he prized, and that humility allowed him afforded him personal growth and be found in him not having my own righteousness, which was no law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. Again, he realized that in humility he had to look to God for all things.

Verse 13. Again, humble approach.

You know, we don't want to just be sitting on our laurels. We want to be thinking, I've done all these great things and be vain about it.

Again, he was well grounded due to his humility. Therefore, verse 15, let us as many as are mature have this mind. And if anything you think otherwise, God will reveal this, even this to you. So have the mind of Christ. Have the mind of humility. If you don't have that, God's going to reveal that to you as you stay close to him. Verse 16. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us be of the same mind. So what we see here, brethren, is the blessing of seeing opportunities to grow. Do you see opportunity? When you come here to the Deloitte Church, do you see opportunity to grow? Through conversation, through service, through listening to the messages, through the song service, through any number of things we've got going on. Do we see opportunities to grow? As we're back at home, as we're in the workplace, as we're dealing with our next-door neighbors, do we see the blessings of opportunities to grow? If we are humble and not arrogant, if we are humble, God will show us various ways we can be of service, various ways we can grow. Humility helps us to realize, as Paul said here, he hasn't arrived. Humility helps you and I to realize we've not arrived. No matter how much good you or I have done, we've not arrived. And so we've got to be open to the possibilities of further growth. I saw an article, and I should have written down where I saw this.

I didn't. I should have. Maybe I can go back and find it. But there was a little chart. There were seven points on the chart, and I thought they were... this is actually a sermon all to itself. But I want to give this to you. I don't know if you want to write this down. The chart showed humble strength versus arrogant weakness. And I thought I really encapsulated the two, being humble versus being arrogant. Number one, humility learns. Arrogance knows. Humility learns. Arrogance knows.

Number two, and all of us can ask ourselves, how are we doing with the humility side? Number two, humility listens. Arrogance talks.

Number three, humble people serve others.

Arrogant people serve themselves.

Number four, humble people are free to build up others.

Arrogant people build up themselves.

Number five, humility opens hearts.

Arrogance builds walls.

Number six, humility joins.

Arrogance stands aloof.

I can just look at it here, I can rephrase that. Humility joins. Arrogance makes for splits. I think we maybe can appreciate that along certain lines more. Number seven, lastly, humble people connect. Arrogant people disconnect.

Now to me, maybe next year at this time, I'll take those same seven points and that will be a sermon. Because there was a lot, there was a mouthful in there. There was a lot of wisdom in that section. So rather than today is the day I wanted to discuss John 13, foot washing, but in a little bit of a different way. I wanted to give the point that humility provides us with tremendous blessings. The blessings of a deeper relationship with God, the blessing of a deeper relationship with our fellow man, and certainly through all of that, the humility facilitates personal growth. We looked at 10 different blessings today. If I told you at the beginning we're going to go through 10 different blessings, you would have felt worn out before we started. It's one of those like those sermons where I said, today we got 12 points, I don't know, we're going to be here five hours. It's going to be one of those old-fashioned sermons where you fall out of your seat because you're falling asleep, or your legs fall asleep and you can't get up real fast after services because your legs are both asleep. But we went through five different blessings in terms of our deeper relationship with God, three different blessings, deeper relationship with our fellow man, two different blessings regarding personal growth. And it's all because of humility, washing feet, and having that frame of mind all year long.