“Did you ever want to be all that you could be? Political
movements are all the time fighting for the rights of people to live up to
their full potential.
“Can I tell you that your capacity, your ability to be truly fully
human, is hindered by your sin. Jesus Christ
came to demonstrate, put on display, that real lasting life comes only in
obedience to God.
“The
idea is to make a difference by BEING different. It’s the opposite of pride,
independence, self-will, unbelief, which is where the flesh lives; where our
old life in Adam was centered.
“The
Bible doesn’t use clichés. When Paul says, ‘For to me to live is Christ and to
die is gain,’ that becomes a cliché. So does, ‘I’m crucified with Christ
nevertheless I live.’ We make clichés out of verses that are not clichés.
“So
the Bible comes along and details for you, ‘Okay, here’s what it looks like in
life.’ J. Vernon McGee used to say, ‘Here’s what it is in shoe leather.’
“Paul
starts Ephesians 4 with, [1] I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye
walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
[2] With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
[3] Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
[2] With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
[3] Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
‘Lowliness
and meekness are mental attitudes. The issue isn’t what I’m doing; it’s the
attitude I have while I’m doing it, because life comes out of my thinking.
*****
“In
Acts 20, Paul is describing his ministry to the Ephesian elders. He writes, [19]
Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and
temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews:
“The
first thing they knew about Paul is that his entire life was about serving the
Lord. Here’s a man whose life was about ‘walking worthy of the vocation
wherewith you are called.’ Notice how he describes it: ‘Serving the Lord with
all humility of mind.’
“Lowliness
is a thinking process out of humility, not out of pride. He says, ‘With many
tears and temptations.’ Paul understood the persecutions that went along with his
serving the Lord, his place with that humility of mind.
“He
says to the Corinthians, ‘The things that befall me daily, the care of the
churches.’ He understood what it was to have tears for people; to have a heart
concern for people. Temptation is the stuff from without; the lying in wait of
the Jews.
*****
“There’s
a point in the Book of Acts where a big group of guys got together and swore
they wouldn’t eat until they killed Paul. Paul’s nephew heard about it. I mean,
everywhere Paul went there were people trying to trick him, put him in jail, assassinate
him.
"He tells you about his journeyings ‘in perils of waters, in perils of
robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils
in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among
false brethren.’
“He
was in peril ALL the time. Paul wasn’t doing this stuff long distance; they
were aiming at HIM! With you, somebody just says something cross-eyed and you
get mad; you get all offended.
“He
says in II Timothy, ‘Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto
bonds.’ The dude’s a jailbird. The townspeople
said, ‘Well, you know who they’re following down there at Ephesus? That guy’s
got a record; a rap sheet.’
“
‘Oh, what he’d do?’ ‘He’s out there preaching this Jesus stuff about a
resurrection.’ ‘What happened?’ ‘Well, he caused a riot over there in
Thessalonica and they had to come in and get a peace bond and run him out of
town.’
“It
was an open assault, and Paul did it with humility of mind rather than, ‘Hey,
wait a minute, I’m the Apostle of the Gentiles; I’m God’s man!’ You know,
‘Touch not the Lord’s anointed.’ You’ve heard preachers say that, but do they
have any idea where that verse is? You ought to ask one sometime.
*****
“There’s
no outbreak of pride; no religion trying to make a fair show in the flesh.
Instead there’s what Paul writes in Philippians 3, ‘Let nothing be done through
strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than
themselves.’
“The
message is, ‘Don’t think of yourself above that which ye ought.’ Paul would
say, ‘By the grace of God I am what I am. It was only His grace that saved me
from where I was going.’
“Paul
knew that little poem, ‘In evil long I took delight, unawed by shame or fear,
until a new object caught my sight, and stopped my wild career.’ That was Paul.
By the way, that was you and me, if you remember.
“Paul
understood who he was and that’s the opposite of pride. So in your life and
ministry, it starts out with this lowliness of mind. This consciousness of who
we really are and the issue isn’t us; it’s Him.
“The
tricky thing about pride is that we usually don’t recognize it until it’s grown
into full-blown arrogance. It starts out with self-justification. We say, ‘Oh,
well, we’re just being assertive.’ Where did that come from? It didn’t come
from lowliness of mind.
*****
“Now,
that word meekness is interesting because people say, ‘Well, I’m not weak.’
Meek and weak aren’t spelled the same. He didn’t say mousy.
“Go
to Numbers 12: [1] And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of
the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
[2] And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard it.
[3] (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)
[2] And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard it.
[3] (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)
“Here’s
the problem there: ‘And the Lord heard it.’ Uh-oh. You know what they were
doing? They were dead wrong. The Lord’s going to tell them, ‘The only person I
stood face to face and talked to was Mo. Not you two; it was Moses.’ So they
were wrong. They were trying to ASSUME a position God didn’t give them.
“Notice
what he says about Moses: ‘He was very meek.’ Now, do you think Moses was a
Milquetoast? Do you think he was a back-bencher who didn’t do anything?!
“Listen,
a guy who could walk into Mr. Big, Pharaoh, and say, ‘Jehovah says to let my
people go,’ and Pharaoh responds, ‘Well, who is Jehovah?! I’ve got all these gods
over here; who’s that?!’
“Moses’
not a guy trembling in his boots and weak; he’s a man who has a characteristic
of meekness that tells you meekness is not weakness.
*****
“Jesus
says in Matthew 11:29, ‘[29] Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for
I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
“Do
you think the Lord Jesus Christ was weak? Caspar Milquetoast? Listen, people
have the idea, and I’ve heard this all my life, ‘Oh, that religious crowd; it’s
for women and children. Real men don’t go there!’
“Listen,
if you want to find men wearing lace britches, go out on the tennis court, or
the golf course in the business world. You want to find men who know how to
wear the armor, get involved in the work of the ministry; it’s no place for
weakness.
“Meekness
is the issue of power, but it’s under control. You’ve got the power but you’re
not using it independently on your own. It’s under control, and meekness is the
opposite of independence.
“When
Jesus said, ‘I’m meek and lowly,’ His voice was the voice that thundered on Mt.
Sinai. His voice was the voice that said, ‘And let there be,’ and spoke a
universe into existence. What is that? That’s power! The world came into existence
by the word of His power.
“But
when He said, ‘I’m meek and lowly,’ He was saying, ‘I’ve got that power under
control and I’m not using it just to demonstrate power. I got a plan and, by
the way, the plan is the plan of my Father.’
“Rather
than being independent, meekness is the idea of being dependent. Look at the
passage in John 4: [31] In the mean while his disciples prayed him,
saying, Master, eat.
[32] But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.
[33] Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat?
[34] Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
[32] But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.
[33] Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat?
[34] Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
“The
disciples don’t get it; they think He’s talking about bringing in some
McDonald’s hamburgers. When Jesus says, ‘My meat is to do His will,’ He’s
saying, ‘The thing that feeds my soul, that satisfies and nourishes me, is to
do the will of my Father.’
“Now,
Jesus is God. He’s as much God as the Father and the Holy Spirit are God.
Philippians 2 says, [6] Who, being in the form of God, thought it not
robbery to be equal with God:
[7] But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: that it was not robbery.
[7] But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: that it was not robbery.
“He
made Himself of no reputation because in the counsel of the godhead they had a
plan and Jesus Christ said, ‘I’ll go execute the plan of my Father.’ He chose
to take this power, put it under control, and submit it to the plan of His
Father.
“In
the shadow of the Cross, He says, ‘Not my will but thy will be done.’ As the
man Christ Jesus, He says, ‘The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is
weak. The flesh has got a problem but I’ll take my flesh and submit it by faith
to the Father’s plan.’ That’s why Paul talks seven times about ‘the faith of
Christ.’
“That’s
why Zachariah talks about His meek and lowly coming and His coming in power and
glory. That’s two sides of the same Messiah.
*****
“Paul
said, ‘You know what the unity of the Spirit is going to look like? You know
what walking worthy of the Lord is going to look like for you? It’s going to be
a life of humility of mind.’
“You’re
not going to be strutting your stuff. It’s going to be the opposite of pride.
It’s going to be a walk where the power that is yours--the identity that is
yours--is going to be DEPENDANT on the Father’s will. It’s going to be a life
of longsuffering where you put up with it for a long time. That’s the opposite
of self-will.
“When
something is longsuffering, what happens to it is that you don’t quit. If you
want another term for longsuffering, in my mind it would be the idea of
endurance.
“To
me, one of the most powerful passages on longsuffering anywhere in the Bible is
in Colossians 1:9-11:
[9] For this
cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to
desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and
spiritual understanding;
[10] That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
[11] Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
[10] That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
[11] Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
“That’s
just a shorthand version of the prayer at the end of Ephesians 3: [16] That he would grant you, according to the riches of his
glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
[17] That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
[18] May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
[19] And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
[20] Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
[21] Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
[17] That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
[18] May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
[19] And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
[20] Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
[21] Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
“It’s that your life would be under the control of the
knowledge of His will. It’s that the wisdom and spiritual understanding that
comes to you, when you understand what God’s doing today, would grip your life
and have it be fully under the control of the love and grace of God revealed
through the Word of God rightly divided.”
No comments:
Post a Comment