Just Us: Walk Humbly | Part 3

Welcome to the Awakening Church Podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

We've been jumping into a series.

Today we conclude it of a sermon series that you've entitled Just Us.

Just Us.

This quote from Dr.

Ephraim Smith says, When Jesus returns, there will be ultimate justice.

But until then, it's just us.

Isn't that good?

Come on.

Until Jesus returns, there will be ultimate justice, right?

You and I are the hands and feet of Jesus.

But when he returns, he's gonna wipe this, uh, put everything uh that was wrong right and make all the wrongs in the world right, including the creation, including the crown of his creation.

But until then, y'all is just us.

And we get the honor and privilege to be a part of the reconciliation and restoration of the gospel and reconciling heaven to earth here.

And uh that was uh launched with us, courtesy of Micah 6.8.

The scripture says, Oh mortarman, what is good and what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.

And today, as we conclude this series, uh I want to hover around uh this last part of that verse that is walk humbly with your God.

Walk humbly with your God.

Would you look at your neighbor and would you tell him this?

There's power in confession.

Come on, there's power in confession.

Not for the people in the back.

Come on, there's power in confession.

Um, as I've been listening to this series, uh, if you've been tracking with us the past couple weeks, uh, this uh quote that's been so clear and that thread throughout the whole series that pastor share with us that is this idea of God's will for our life is clear.

All right.

Uh in fact, we dream about the 1% that we're unknown about, but the 99% of what God's told us to do, He's commanded us to do, found in Scripture, it's clear.

But oftentimes, what do we do?

We complicate it so that we don't have to obey it.

And today, uh, I believe God's calling us not just to act justly and to love mercy, but to listen, walk humbly with our God.

And so, how do we do that in a way that's appropriate, life-giving, refreshing as we part of this reconciliation and bringing justice to the world, the reconciliation that God has planned in store for all of us?

Um, uh, the word there in uh Micah 6.8 that says humbly, in the Hebrew, I'm not even gonna dare try and pronounce it, okay?

Uh, I'm not that brave, I'm not gonna insult my Jewish brothers and sisters.

Uh, but the word uh in the Hebrew uh has this idea of this meaning making a humble walk or to showing a humble walk with God.

Walking humbly to making it has this idea of it's it's a do-it-yourself kind of a project.

Do you know what I mean?

Like walking humbly, showing humility, walking with God.

And can we all just be honest before we jump into this?

Like practicing humility, it's easier said than done.

Am I right?

Right?

Practicing humility, walking humbly, it's easier said than done.

Uh, in fact, you know, um, I remember uh I actually have a picture of my wife.

Uh I believe it's on the screen for you.

Um, she's she's you can you might can't see, but she, y'all, she's beautiful, okay.

Um she also she also leads worship at Storyline.

So when she walks off the stage, I have to like keep my composure.

Do you know what I mean?

I gotta be a good steward, right?

And so she she she walks off the stage.

She's just gorgeous.

I I love her.

She is my my partner and in ministry and life, and I get to do this with her, and I'm so grateful for her.

Um, but uh she brings door to my life.

Now, now there's another component though in that picture you don't see to fully get a comprehension of our family, and it's my five-year-old.

Right?

Uh his name's he's on the screen, I believe.

Right?

Uh I was waiting for that.

There was a delay there.

I was like, Chad, his name's Chad.

He's just he's he's he's handsome, isn't he?

Like German Shepherd Lab, he's about 88 pounds, uh, just tall, dark, and handsome.

Come on, somebody, right?

He's he's a total frat, I'm telling you.

Uh um, why chat?

I mean, like, I I you'll never experience the joys for those of you who have dogs and you don't you don't give him a human name, you won't experience the joy that I experienced.

Do you know what I mean?

Like, like having to take him to the dog park and then yelling out, Chad, come here, boy.

And you look over and there's this dog galloping towards you, like you won't experience that joy.

And uh, I mean, I just love my family.

And and I remember when Jamie and I were dating, I was flying from Pensacola, Florida when I was getting my master's to come see her in the Bay Area.

And uh, travel can come with this fair share of surprises.

Do you know what I mean?

And I remember getting on that plane from Pensacola uh to the Bay Area, and I experienced just difficulty.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

Like getting on the plane and expecting to get a good seat, praying and hoping, but knowing that, like, for me at least, I check in because I'm a procrastinator by by nature, and I check in and I'm the last person to board the plane.

Do you know what I mean?

Anyone else with me out there, right?

No, but okay, uh, maybe a try over this side.

Anybody else with me?

Right.

I see, I see.

Okay, so I get on the plane and I'm sitting, I get to my seat, and all the seats are for sure fails.

It doesn't every time all the seats are just packed.

Making my way to the back, hoping that there's an extra seat, right?

Hoping there's a seat somewhere that's not in purgatory.

Do you know what I mean?

And so I get there, and sure enough, like some of you you don't know this, but there is a seat on the plane.

Like, what the bet where's the best seat on the plane?

Best seat on the plane, where is it at?

It's the aisle.

Come on, it's a smart man, okay?

It's the aisle seat because it's easy access, okay?

And then the second best seat is the window seat, right?

Uh, because if you want to leave the two people that are doing whatever they're doing, you can kind of turn towards them, your back, and you can just kind of fall asleep, look out the window.

There's great views, right?

That's the second best seat.

The third, the worst seat on the plane, okay.

Some of you walked in here, you grew up in Catholic.

Let me explain to you, right?

Purgatory is the middle seat.

It's the play, you're stuck, you're not sure if you're like, it's the worst seat on the plane.

And sure enough, like the worst seat on the plane I got sitting in the middle section, and man, I did not want to do it.

And of course, I'm a student at this time, and so I want to work on my projects, but you know, I have to put stuff my stuff in the in the back.

And I was starting to work on it, and then the flight attendant came by.

She said, Hey, uh, sir, I need you to put your stuff.

We're about to get ready to take off.

I need you to put your bag underneath the chair.

I was like, Okay, fine.

I close my laptop, I put it underneath, and she's like, Well, it's too big.

I need you to go put it in an overhead bin.

I'm like, okay, great.

Now I gotta get up, right, with this guy that's coughing the entire time on the plane, right?

And I gotta go over him, and sure enough, I open the bin and it's full, and so I gotta walk up and down this plane trying to find an overhead bin, right?

And I stuff my stuff in the an overhead bin.

I come all the way back to my seating and squeeze through again, and I'm sitting down, and I'm just like, and so you know, I'm just gonna ignore this.

I'm gonna go to sleep.

Do you know what I mean?

I try to recline my seat just a little bit, and as I recline it, she comes by again.

She's like, hey, sir, sir, sir.

And if she was polite, do you know what I mean?

If she was nice about it, it'd be easy to respond.

But but she's a little bit rude, and I'm like, inside of me, the temperature is rising, and I'm like, okay, okay.

What I wanted to say, what I wanted to say was like, okay, do you gonna put my seat?

Okay, how's that working out?

Is that is that better?

Like, it doesn't make a difference, you know what I mean?

Like, oh, okay, is that gonna make a difference?

Like, what is that gonna do?

That's what I wanted to say, but you know what?

In my humility, I gotta remember I'm training for the ministry here.

I'm gonna be kind and polite, and I'm gonna humble myself, and I'm gonna acquiesce.

You know, it's a lot easier said than being done, right?

This idea of showing and walking in humility.

Proverbs says, when arrogance comes, disgrace follows.

Right?

But with humility comes wisdom, right?

It's in my favor for me to acquiesce, it's in my favor for me to be humble, right?

Aren't you proud of me, right?

I didn't get arrested, y'all, like ended up on somebody's TikTok, right?

But humility comes with wisdom.

And uh this idea of uh walking humbly with our God, I believe, uh, will help us follow in the things we've been learning in the past couple weeks of act justly, love mercy, and compassion.

And then how do we live that out?

We walk humbly with our God.

And in this story that I believe is gonna help articulate this idea of walk humbly, we're gonna find in Luke chapter 18 and verse number 9 through 14.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

And this story that Jesus tells us, it's a story of this Pharisee and a tax collector, and they go up in the temple to pray.

And the Pharisee, thank God that he's not like this sinner, while the tax collector in humility and his shame doesn't look his eyes toward heaven, but in all grace and humility leaves that temple justified before God because of his humility.

And number one, we're gonna see the importance of it.

The import would you look at your neighbor say the importance of humility?

Verse number nine says this.

He also tells this parable to some who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else.

He said this.

Jesus telling the story.

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself.

God, I thank you that I'm not like the other people, greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this man here, this tax collector.

Then he says, I fast twice a week, and I give a tenth of everything I get.

Now, uh, sometimes we look at this, you know, Pharisee and we uh uh uh kind of despise the Pharisees because we know we have a love for Jesus, and every time Jesus has an encounter with the Pharisees, it's never good, you know what I mean?

And so we despise them by nature.

Now, uh I don't want to take that away from them.

We should despise the Pharisees, but in this particular story, he says, I fast twice a week and I give a tenth of everything I get.

Like that's that's pretty impressive.

Do you know what I mean?

Like, y'all, I'm a church planner, so like if there's someone that walks into our church and they're like, hey, uh, I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of all that I have, I'm like, that's great.

How can we duplicate you?

Like, how can we copy and paste?

Like, come on, like, put you up on stage.

This guy's fasting twice a week, he's giving a tenth.

Look, y'all, it's a struggle up in Oakland, right?

This is awesome.

Like, this guy's great.

See, but this is the uh the temptation, right?

The pride is the temptation that comes with obedience, right?

We can, as we read the scriptures, you can kind of just smell off the pages this pompous uh spirit and haughty, smug, holier than thou, spirit on this Pharisee.

And we see here in scripture, but it it's a it's a temptation that comes with obedience.

And here's what I believe.

This past two weeks, we've been talking about acting justly and loving mercy and being compassionate to one another.

I believe that this church is a church, a community of people that will walk it out, that will be uh uh uh uh the just and the hands and feet of Jesus in their community, right?

I believe this is the kind of church that will walk it out, that will be compassionate, that will be loving.

But listen, like the Pharisee, we too can come with a pride that comes from obedience.

So let's be careful that we too do not become an accidental Pharisee.

You see, this Pharisee mistakenly missed the mark, didn't he?

Right?

He missed the mark thinking, watch this, that his relationship with God consisted only of his vertical.

Right?

He mistakenly missed the mark thinking that I'm right with God only because of what I do vertically, right?

I'm fasting twice a week.

That's between me and God, right?

I'm giving a tenth of what I have, that's between me and God.

And so he he mistakenly missed the mark, thinking that my relationship with God only consisted of the vertical, and he neglected the horizontal.

Sometimes, come on, we all struggle with unloving generalizations that allow us to elevate ourselves above other people.

And this is what he's guilty of.

His relationship with God was only vertical.

It was what's going on between me and God, but it's clearly in scripture, as uh uh Philippians 2 tells us, do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more, what does that say?

Significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interest of others.

You see, his relationship with God was not only consisted of the vertical, it was consisted also of the horizontal, of the people that was around him.

See, the measuring stick for our relationship with God is also not just vertical, but it's horizontal.

I wrote it like this the scope of our relationship with God is not just limited to our submission to him, but to our submission to one another.

It's really easy for you to listen to this sermon that's between you and God and leave this tent and leave this comfy place and think that you're right with God and treat your brothers and sisters poorly.

And think, oh, I have a good relationship with Jesus.

When Jesus clearly commands us in scripture and his uh followers clearly commands us in scripture that your relationship with God isn't just what you do vertically, isn't just personal.

No, no, no, it's horizontal, it's how you treat and love the you beside you.

In fact, this is what Micah is trying to communicate, right?

That this is why God told Micah to open up his mouth because the children of Israel, this is what they were doing.

Is it not?

If you read Micah and the history and the context, the children of Israel, what were they doing?

They were burning incense to God, they were worshiping, they were going to the temple, they were showing up weekend after weekend and lighting incense and the sweet smells going up to God, and they were giving a tenth of what in fact 23% of what they had, 10%, y'all.

23%, that's a lot.

Come on, right?

They're worshiping God, but Micah says, What you're doing is it's not suffice because your brothers and sisters are being oppressed, and in fact to God, you're not right with him.

Over here, personally, it looks good, but here horizontally.

You see, our relationship with God is not just measured with him, it's measured person to person.

He says, You cannot worship me and neglect the oppressed.

They're not mutually exclusive.

So he says, Paul tells us, lead each of you.

Look not to your own interest, but also to the interest of others.

Your relationship, my relationship with God is measured not just in the vertical, but it's measured from person to person to person.

God calls us to do this in our everyday story.

He calls us to do this in our workplace, he calls us to do this with your spouse, he calls us to do this with your girlfriend or your boyfriend, he calls us to do this in our everyday life, to measure it not just in the vertical, but measure it in the horizontal.

For what?

That's the cross of Jesus Christ that he came to reconcile you with God, but also came to reconcile you with man.

This is the importance of it.

But but what really what is humility?

Well, we can start with the example found in the tax collector.

What really is it?

In verse number 13 it says, but that the tax collector, standing far off, will not even raise his eyes to heaven, but kept striking his chest, saying, God have mercy on me, a sinner.

Would you say that aloud with me, that last part of the verse?

God have mercy on me, a sinner.

What really is humility?

You ever been to uh the Grand Canyon?

It's beautiful.

I'm from Las Vegas originally.

And uh every now and then we'll go up to the house, right?

So we'll go for a day trip with my friends or with the guys, and we'll just go, you know, stupidly try to hike the Grand Canyon.

And I'm telling you, like when you stand there and you just like think about it, like we don't like you, like even here, you can walk out of this place, and there's no other place that we'll go to and look at a hole in the ground.

Do you know what I mean?

That's what it is.

It's a hole in the ground, like, and when you go to the Grand Canyon, you stand there and you kind of take a step back and look at the the majesty and the the the the uh the the greatness of these rocks and this it's it's not just ordinary hole in the ground.

For some reason, you take a step back and you feel small.

But here's the thing in that moment of feeling small, of feeling insignificant, it's a feeling of I'm kind of happy about it.

I'm kind of grateful that I'm I get to observe this beauty, this magnificence.

I get to observe, and in this moment, you feel small, but it's a good small.

It's like I'm happy that I'm not the center of the universe, and I'm grateful for it.

That's humility, and humility can only be matched when you see the majesty of God, when you see the majesty of Jesus, right?

When we see the greatness of who He is.

In that moment, we feel small, we feel insignificant, but not just because we feel small.

It's a good small.

It's like, man, I am not the center of the universe.

There's someone else who is bigger, there's someone else who in this moment I feel small and I'm thankful for it.

And that's his tax collector.

He's like striking, he's striking his chest, like wow.

I'm so unworthy to lift my eyes to heaven.

I'm so unworthy to let my lips bring praise to God.

I'm so unworthy of this moment that I need to stand afar off.

In the Old Testament, we see this all the time of the Old Testament followers of Jesus.

They stand afar off.

Because it's this idea of majesty, of greatness.

And they can't observe it.

It's too great.

Elijah Moses standing afar off, watching God as he passes by.

It's I'm small in this moment, and they have a humble understanding of who they are in the lights of God.

It's been said, humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.

Which is, by the way, a sharp contrast to the Pharisee, right?

It is entirely possible for us to address uh your words to God, but actually be praying to yourself, right?

Because your focus is on yourself, not on God.

Your passion is your own agenda, right?

Uh, not God's, your attitude is not is my will be done, not not your will be done, right?

The man was full of praise.

The Pharisee was full of praise, but he rejoiced not for who God was, but rather for who he was.

It's a stark contrast of humility.

He saw himself as the center versus God.

C.S.

Lewis, I love what he says.

A proud man is always looking down on things and people.

And of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.

And the Pharisee standing low, looking up and seeing the greatness of God, it says, Man, me, I'm just a poor man.

He cried as a psalmist tells us, Lord, and he heard my prayers and he saved me.

Why?

Because of his posture in his heart of humility.

He was showing us as a perfect description of what it could look like as an example of how to walk with God.

That's what humility is.

So we're seeing the importance of it and what it really is, but so how do we, as Michael tells us, walk it out?

How do we walk humbly?

So lastly, the power to do it, the power to do it.

Uh, verse number 14, it says, I tell you, this one went down to his house, Jesus says, talking about the Pharisee, justified rather than the other.

Because everyone who exalts himself, what does that say?

Will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

You see, the word uh Micah uses for us about God is this word uh Eloh Elohim.

It's a it's a construct of Elohim.

It's the idea of he is powerful, right?

He is almighty, he is great, he is a powerful God.

And listen, to the power to walk humbly comes from a greater discovery of our life of the life of Jesus.

Right?

We understand the importance of humility, and we've seen kind of the uh what it really is.

It's a small view of who we are in light of a great view of who God is, but if we're gonna walk it out, and and the power to do it doesn't come from what we can muster up or conjure up, but it comes really as Jesus is gonna walk for us right now, it comes from this idea of understanding there's a greater discovery of a life found in Jesus.

When we humble ourselves and see that God is really the one that's great, that's really bigger, then we can see how small we are.

And the more we discover about Jesus, about God, we're now equipped to walk humbly with him.

And in Matthew 26, uh, Jesus going a little farther, just before the last days up until his crucifixion, he fell face down and prayed, My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not as I will, but as you will.

Jesus, in all of humility, expresses his emotions, expresses what he's feeling in the moment, says, God, if any, if it's another option, God, would you let this cup pass from me?

But what does he say?

He says, Lord, it's not my will, but yours be done.

And this confession should should, our confession should be like that of Jesus.

Not my will, Lord, but yours be done.

Right?

Humility means nothing for God in his essence.

I love what this church father said, to whom God the Almighty ever subject himself.

Yet by the incarnation, God the Son has assumed a human nature to himself.

And through this nature, Christ can live a humble life.

Thus, our Lord leaves us a striking model for humility.

Think about that.

God who is all powerful, Elohim, who is omnipotent, who is the mighty one, to what can he subject himself?

He did it in a sense to become like one of us, to become human.

He subjected himself, as Philippians tells us, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, not even to the death of the cross.

For this reason, God highly exalted him and gave him a name that is above every other name.

Jesus humble himself, subject himself towards humility.

To reconcile the human race with God, but to reconcile the human race with one another.

This is the power of confession, the power of a humble confession, Jesus reconciling us to himself by first making himself a base and becoming like that of a man so that he could stretch his arms out on the cross to die for your sin and to die for mine.

And in doing so, he reconciled all of humanity with one another, and therefore we get the power to walk it out through the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Come on, this is how we get the power to do it.

It's a greater discovery of the life and resurrection of Jesus.

It's not by your might, it's not by my power, but by his spirit.

Have you heard of the Emperor's New Clothes?

The Emperor's New Clothes.

Some swindlers came to the Emperor's capital city.

And they showed up, uh essentially told him, Hey, if you uh wear these clothes that I'm gonna fashion and make for you, uh, then everyone else, uh I promise you, these clothes that I make for you, uh, and anybody who sees and doesn't see clothes and just sees you as naked, they're inept or stupid.

And the emperor says to him, Well, I mean, of course, of course, yeah, quickly fashion the fashion the new clothes and uh uh quickly, and and you know, here, take this room and gather some looms and and fashion the clothes for me.

And sure enough, I'll and what happened as they fashioned these clothes, these swindlers, uh uh, the emperor uh uh poked his head in to see the clothes, and remembering what the swindlers told him, if anyone looks upon these clothes and they see nothing, they're inept and stupid.

And so the emperor pokes his head uh in this room as they're fashioning these clothes, and and he remembers these words and he looks at this garment, and afraid of being inept or incompetent or stupid, he looks at the swindlers and says, Oh yeah, they're they're those are great.

I cannot wait to wear them.

And he sends some other men in, and them two walk in, and remembering the words of the emperor told to him by the swindlers, they say, Oh man, those are some uh great threads.

Yeah, the emperor will look great in these.

And so they throw a big parade and for for the emperor to make this procession before all the town folk, and as he puts on these new threads, he walks out and uh, you know, they're carrying his garments, really nothing is there, and he's parading with people and both sides of him, and a parade of horses and chariots in front and behind.

And as he parades through the town in this procession, the town folks stand by, and they too remembering the words of the swindler and the emperor, and they're applauding and praising the emperor.

Oh wow, those threads are amazing.

And then one little boy pokes his head out from the crowd, and he looks at them, and he looks at the emperor, and he says, The emperor is naked, and the emperor and the whole town realizes that they've been duped by this town of swindlers, and they look down, and the emperor looks down at his clothes, and guess what he does?

He just carries along with his head held high, parading through the streets, denying the fact that he is in his chonies, y'all.

Arrogance follows his grace.

But with humility becomes wisdom, and it behooves all of us to take stock of what God is commanding us to do.

It's clear.

Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.

You see, this strangely good news of the parable that is the role of the tax collector is available to all of us through the power and humble confession found in the life and resurrection of Jesus.

See, God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the hupatasa, to the humble.

Can I pray for you this morning?

Because the temptation that comes in walking in obedience is to puff up our chests as we act justly and love mercy and to become prideful.

But as we walk out this command clear in for us in scripture to be humble with our God.

Let me pray for you.

Jesus, we're so grateful.

One, for the example, in this tax collector that comes courtesy of this parable.

But Lord, we're so overwhelmed and in awe, honestly, of the power of where we get to do it.

And it's found in the life and resurrection of your son.

And so help us today and throughout our week as we wake up on Monday morning to put on humility and to walk humbly with our God.

For Lord, you've commanded us in scripture to do just that.

And so I pray for my brothers and sisters and for myself, God, as we go about our week, as we report to our direct reports, as we report to our boss, as we report to those that we love, God, we would walk in humility.

For there is power in a humble confession, knowing, God, that we are not the center of the universe, but ultimately, God, you have put yourself in that spot and let us be in awe of that.

For through that recognition, we can walk humbly with you.

And that's this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

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