Unlikely (week 3) What The Unlikely All Have In Common" If you missed the sermon, you'll find the podcast at

Transcription

1 Unlikely (week 3) What The Unlikely All Have In Common" If you missed the sermon, you'll find the podcast at Bottom line - Humility is the common shared characteristic in those God uses. Scriptures - Numbers 12:1-8 1Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. 2And they said, Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also? And the Lord heard it. 3Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. 4And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting. And the three of them came out. 5And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud

2 and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward. 6And he said, Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. 7Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. 8With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? Icebreaker Who is someone you know who walks in humility? How have you seen them exhibit humility in their life? Are you receiving the 40 Days Of Prayer daily texts? You and your group can text PRAYER to to receive daily prayer prompts. Questions: 1. The one thing the kind of folks God uses all have in common is humility. 1 Peter 5:5b-7 says: 5 Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Considering the story of Moses, as well as this verse, what can we learn about how God places a higher value on our humility than our ability?

3 2. Our natural tendency is to make it about us Pastor David talked about several ways that we can make it about ourselves. In good times we can be arrogant, unteachable and stubborn. In bad times we can feel like we re a failure, that we can t do anything right and things will never get better. In what ways do all of these types of thinking put the focus on us and our ability instead of God and his ability and sovereignty? Proverbs 23:7 says. 7 For as he thinks within himself, so is he. According to this verse, how can we steer our hearts by how we think about ourselves and how awe think about God? 3. Our unnatural tendency Pastor David listed a few unnatural tendencies that come by faith in trusting Christ s work and ability above our own: Intimacy with God, Faith, Meekness (teachable, secure, compassionate and courageous) and Resilience. In our own power, these are not natural tendencies. Which of these characteristics have you seen at work in your life as you increasingly trust in Christ s finished work and power in your life?

4 4. Read 1 Peter 5:5b-7 again 5 Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Wrapping up this discussion, what are some ways you can choose to clothe yourself with humility toward one another in your daily life? CLOSER: Prayer Time Idea - Pray and thank God for how he empowers and equips each of us to accomplish exactly what he has called us to. Ask him to give you opportunities to exercise and develop greater humility, laying down your own ability and view of yourself and taking up HIS ability and a greater view of him. Pray specifically for group members, for the ways they shared they could exercise more humility in their daily lives.

5 FOR THE LEADER: Sermon outline Intro Sir Edmund Hillary We are more attracted to the great who are humble than to the great who know they are great and want us to know about it. It has become a virtue in western thought thanks to Christianity (John Dickson; Humilitas) But even though we find it attractive, it is not our natural tendency. Turn in your Bible to Numbers 12 and grab your next step card and pen and keep handy Stand and read Numbers 12 Moses has a pretty impressive resume. Consider: Wrote the first 5 books of the Bible, (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) as well as Psalm 90. He wrote a total of 5,869 verses of the OT (Total of 23,145 verses in the OT.) That's 1/4 or 25% of the OT. And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel. (Deut 34:10-12) Jesus said, For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. (John 5:46) Moses is recognized as the law giver by all of the "Abrahamic" religions, including Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

6 But what sets him apart from a Biblical perspective is his humility. Let s review: 1) We ve been talking in this series about Moses how God loves to do the most unlikely things in and through the most unlikely people for His glory and the advancement of His Kingdom. 2) We ve said God is not looking really for ability, but for availability. Don t get me wrong, He uses our ability and how we ve been designed by Him but it s not His starting point. 3) And there are no small assignments for God because they are for His glory and the advancement of His Kingdom and that s always BIG 4) Plus what He calls us to do He will equip us to do. 5) Last week, we were reminded that He won t show it all to us ahead of time but will ask us to step out in faith and leave our comfort zones. Faith is what propels us Faith is demonstrated by obedience. When God calls us to do something, the outcome isn't the issue. Obedience is. Tim Miller (Plasma) As we study our Bibles carefully, the one thing that the kind of folks God uses all have in common is humility It s a high value of the Kingdom of God modeled for us most clearly by our Lord Jesus (Phil 2). Moses is singled out here for his meekness or humility. In Life we re always faced with this battle with ourselves. As Christ followers we have died to our old self, old way, but the residual effects still linger. We submit to a Galatians 2:20 mind set/heart attitude daily in our walk of faith.

7 When it becomes about us, God chooses not to use us for His Glory because He won t share the platform with us. That may seem inappropriate for us, but not for God because He is the only one worthy Taking a lot for granted as we survey his life today I ll try and fill in the blanks as we go, let s look at Moses example of humility. I. The Humility Continuum (1 Peter 5:5b-7) 1 Peter 5:5b-7 (ESV) 5 Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. II. The Natural Tendency Is To Make It About Us (I m right-handed - basketball, etc.) A. Up (In good times or bad Moses had both) 1. Arrogance, self-importance, inflated view of yourself. 2. Un-teachable, know it all, know what s best, or don t want to hear the truth (leads to huge blind spots) 3. Stiff-necked (Biblical Term), rigid, unwilling to be guided by God. God resists the proud B. Down (In challenging times think again of Moses) {Death spiral by Henry Cloud} 1. Personal I m a failure, people don t like me, I m no good

8 2. Pervasive Everything is bad, I can t do anything right, everybody hates me, I don t have anyone who loves or cares about me 3. Permanent It will always be bad, nothing will ever change, nothing will get better Illus. Names for Satan are the accuser of the brethren, slanderer, liar, etc. Illus. John Wesley s wife The battle is won or lost between your ears (Board) For as he thinks within himself, so he is. (Prov 23:7) III. The Unnatural Tendency (I m right-handed remember?) A. Close with God (Ex 33:11a) Exodus 33:11a (ESV) 11 Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend B. Faith (Last week Heb 11 By faith ) C. Meekness Illus. Misunderstood quality. Syn. with humility in many ways. But viewed as weakness often times (Harland Howard picture of Jesus on screen). Jesus was meek but anything but weak right? Remember the temple? Description in Revelation 1. Teachable (Cloud, pillar of fire, manna,) 2. Secure (Others prophesying ) 3. Compassionate (Interceding constantly Golden calf, Miriam s leprosy, etc.)

9 4. Courageous (Ex 5:1; survey his life) D. Resilience 1. Bouyancy 2. Bounce-back ability. 3. Take it as it comes mindset. Dt 34:1-4 is hard verse 4 And the Lord said to him, This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, I will give it to your offspring. I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there. The people cost him the first time, then he hit that rock and God said He wasn t going in. What would your reaction be? Conclusion So we have to choose Is it about Him or us? If it s all about us He won t use us. Consider again: 1 Peter 5:5b-7 (ESV - plasma) Let Go and let God (Plasma) Stay low and lift Him high (Plasma) Do people see you or Jesus in you? (Plasma) He must increase but I must decrease Jn 3:30 (Plas) THE GOERGE S TESTIMONY (Card) So what s God saying to you?