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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Ken Kelln

Humility

How many of you can praise the Lord today?

Well, he's brought us plenty of good warmth today and we can be grateful for the air-conditioning I think and Gentlemen, let's make sure it stays on all during the service because I think it will help us all stay wider awake.

So well the Lord has blessed us abundantly and before we open his word let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Lord, I thank you for your wondrous grace.

I thank you for Jesus, who has shown us the way and has led us and continues to lead us, and has given everything that we may have salvation in him.

And I pray that Jesus, by your Holy Spirit, that you will be with us to lead our minds and our hearts and our thoughts and as we open your word may your spirit sink these truths deep into our hearts as we listen and partake and consume your word.

Bless the word and bless us each together in Jesus' name.

I invite you to open your Bibles to Philippians chapter 2, starting with verse 5.

Starting with verse 5, a passage which most of us have at least a speaking acquaintance with.

Philippians chapter 2 and verse 5, have this attitude in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

Some translations say have this mind in you, but your attitude determines the direction of your life.

And I like this word attitude because it says which direction I'm going, where am I headed.

Have this attitude which was also in Christ Jesus, who although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bond servant, and being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

For this reason also God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

Have this mind, this attitude in you which was in Christ Jesus.

Verse 6 says, He was the mighty God, the Creator of all, equal with the Father, all-powerful, all-wise, knowing and present everywhere at once.

Verse 7, He chose to empty Himself and you know Jesus chose to limit himself to 1 place for the rest of eternity.

There's only 1 place where Jesus can be now And he chose to be only a man, not a ruler or a rich man, but a poor peasant, weak, completely dependent on his father's wisdom and power.

Verse 8, he humbled himself even further, allowed himself to be executed, put to death by the most humiliating and painful method that was known at that time.

And further, he bore the guilt of us all, the weight of sin and rebellion that separated him fully from his father, upon whom he was totally dependent.

Paul says that's the way we ought to think.

Now empty ourselves of all personal power and charisma, Be totally dependent on the wisdom and power of God It says here Jesus humbled himself now Go back to verse 3 Paul actually uses verses 6 through 10 as an illustration of what he's trying to say in verses 3 and 4.

Verse 3 says, Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard 1 another as more important than yourselves.

Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others." And so he says, be like Jesus, this is the way he did it.

Matthew, we were in Mark 11 you know, but let's go to Matthew 11.

Matthew 11, the last 3 verses starting in verse 28 This is a verse that is a you know a comforting group of verses you're in trouble Here's what you ought to read you have a friend who's in trouble read Matthew 11 28 to 30 Isn't that right?

Not what you think of this is for people in trouble.

Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Well, that's nice.

Are you restless, burdened with care, frustrated, frightened, at your wit's end, angry, hopeless, depressed, exhausted?

Or maybe you're just looking for God to lead you in some important decisions.

I don't know if that's crossed anybody's mind here but what shall I do with my life?

Those are kind of important decisions, large implications indeed.

Well Jesus says, come take my yoke, learn of me.

Usually my mind skips over the you will find rest, pardon me, skips to you will find rest because my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

And I compare that with 1 John 5, 3 which says this is the love of God that you keep his commandments And they are not burdensome.

So you come to Jesus, that's the best way.

Jesus says, my ways, my instructions are the easy way.

Anyone who has tried the other way, eventually learns by hard experience, it's empty and self-defeating, however alluring it seems to be at the outset.

But Let's focus on the middle of Matthew 11, 29.

Now Webster says the definition Low is meek or gentle, modest, lowly, not proud or assertive.

Near the ground, not pretentious, unassuming, of low rank, little, powerless.

How many of us here, especially the men in this room, would really enjoy the prospect of being little, small, powerless.

And yet that's what the word humble means.

And that's probably why I skipped over that phrase there in the middle of Matthew 11 29.

It didn't seem to quite make sense to me, the prospect of being like that.

It says in Philippians 2.7, he emptied himself and became weak and helpless, totally dependent on his father.

Now humble, meek, Moses was the meekest man who ever lived.

It says over there in the Pentateuch, was Moses powerless?

The Lord had to teach him a few things, but was Moses powerless in the last 40 years of his life?

There were tremendous things that God did through Moses.

Whenever Moses had a problem, what did he do?

Went straight to the Lord with it, didn't he?

And the Lord gave him the strength for that situation.

He was powerless in and of himself because he chose to be powerless and depended upon his father.

Was there any time when the father let him down?

You can only name 1 time in which Jesus was powerless and that was when he chose to be powerless and allowed himself to be crucified and gone through all of those dreadful things that we've been studying about or will be studying about in our lesson here in the next 2 or 3 weeks.

Only voluntarily did Jesus become totally powerless.

But let's be realistic, How much spiritual power do I have without Jesus?

How much intellectual power do I have without Jesus?

So that was never any great temptation for me.

Let's look at John 15 verse 5 you could probably most of you can quote that verse for me.

John chapter 15 and verse 5, it's another text I've struggled with.

Jesus says, I am the vine and you are the branches.

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Humility

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