Sermon Notes
Pastor Jeff Stanfill

"A Pastor's Confession"
June 18, 2006 - PM Service

A PASTOR'S CONFESSION
TEXT: ET AL
INTRO:
I listened to a very convicting sermon that further pressed me in an area in my heart and life that God has been talking to me about. It is an attitude or a stance of the heart that I was unaware of being so deeply ingrained in me.

I am going to be transparent with you, not just in confessing but in encouraging you with the same encouragement and growth that I am experiencing. I believe this is not only God speaking to me but to all of us for the deep stance of the heart of which I speak is pride.

And pride is present in every human heart. Pride is included in every list of deadly sins. Since the fall of mankind, pride is the natural state of humanity. Our society, our culture, our post-modern philosophy is all built with the building blocks of human pride. The idea that all claims of truth are equal is pride for how could you say that my view is less than yours. We school our children to see themselves in only glowing light. We excuse evil on the basis of a lack of pride; they do what they do for they lack good self-esteem. We inspire and motivate, even within churches, with appeals to human ego; you are wonderful, your efforts and works should be applauded.

But the pride I must confess before I condemn the pride of my world, is that of my own heart. My self-centeredness is the fruit of pride. Every motive I have should be suspected for, without the intervention of the Holy Spirit, it is pride that moves me as often as anything. The need to be right and never wrong is my pride. The lack of listening when someone speaks is my pride - reading MY book, finishing MY task - all say that what I am doing is more important than what you want to say. The desire to be faultless is my pride at work in me.

But few things have punctured my pride like the picture of true humility. Condemn my pride; castigate my arrogance; disdain and disparage my ego with sermons and confrontations. But seeing humility moves me more to destroy my pride more than having my pride publicly condemned.

So, tonight I am sharing with you seven points from the outline of a sermon preached by John Piper entitled Pride and Humility. The flesh on this skeleton is from what God is accomplishing in me.

A Definition of Humility (John Piper, Pride and Humility):
1. Humility begins with the fact and the sense of subordination to God in Christ. It is a fact and a feeling. The fact is expressed thusly, 1 Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. And in Jesus' words, Matt 10:24. "A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. He is mighty and I am under Him. The feeling is that He is up not me, He is exalted not me, He is supreme not me. Humility has learned that I am subordinate; He is supreme and sovereign.

2. Humility does not feel a right to better treatment than Jesus got. How dare I think that I will ever receive anything above Him. Jesus went on to say, Matt 10:25. It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household! Do you get out of shape when maligned? "My Lord was treated worse than any man. He said don't expect better." 1 Peter 2:21. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. Jesus suffered leaving us an example. When it comes to mistreatment allow me to share some evidence of pride.
· Anger is evidence of pride. "MY rights are ahead of anything else. How dare you treat ME this way?"
· Bitterness at mistreatment is evidence of pride. "I seethe in knowing what was done."
· Self-pity is evidence of pride. "I deserve better than this. MY life is undeserving of this sorrow."
· Impatience is evidence of pride. "MY needs come first. Just must be quick for you are talking about MY mistreatment."

3. Humility asserts truth not to bolster the ego or triumphant in debate but as a service to Christ. There is a sureness of pride and a sureness of humility. The difference between the two is motive. The sureness of pride has as its motive the bolstering of ego or triumphing over another. The sureness of humility is motivated for the promotion of Jesus Christ and Him as Truth. When I want to promote Jesus before men and women, I am not debating to win. I am debating to show Him. I can suffer insult, injury, the other's dishonesty without losing my cool for I want to promote Jesus. ILLU: It's the difference of public speakers of which one it is said how clever and gifted he is and the other whom no one remembers but acted on his words.

4. Humility knows it is dependent on grace for all knowing, believing, living and acting. Eph 2:8-10
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. I do not stand trumpeting my faith above another religion. Instead I stand and trumpet what has been revealed to me by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. But it is more than faith; it is life itself and existence itself. ILLU: Ronald Reagan's question, "What do you know when you see a turtle on a fence post? He had help!" As a younger man I sensed my need for God to be His effective minister. Then I became aware of my need for God to be His faithful servant. Now I am aware of my need for God to be - period. I don't pray just to see something great accomplished for God ( though prayer does that); I commune with God to be something other than emotionally depleted, overwhelmed with sadness, weakened by worry, weary with living. I draw daily from Him or else I be a heap of quivering flesh.

John Piper speaks of those who are truly born again as having the fragrance of sweet wonder that God saved them. They are stunned that they are saved and going to Heaven, forgiven of sins. Without that aroma, he questions their salvation.

Beyond being is doing anything in life. James 4:13-17. Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." 16 As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. That my body effectively resists disease; that I can draw nutrition from food; that I have fathered two sons; that I can learn, read, speak, love and be loved, hit at a golf ball, see CCC at the dedication service of the NT in the Pinyin language is all the grace of God and not the exertion of Jeff.

5. Humility is fallible and considers criticism and learns from it. It also knows God has made provision for unshakable human conviction. These are like two sides of a coin. On the first side, humility looks for the truth in its critics before it tosses the criticism. Deal with criticism honestly. Evaluate it. Ask others to be honest with you about it. Learn from what is true; toss from what is not. The second side recognizes that we can and do have strong convictions because it is God who convinces us. If it is my own insistence at what I believe, then it is my own prideful ego. But we can be convinced by the truth of God. 2 Cor 5:14. For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.

2 Tim 1:12
Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.

2 Tim 3:14-17. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Titus 2:11-15. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12 It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope-the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
15 These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.
Why? It is God's truth and not my own. It is He who has convicted, convinced, and converted me. Not me myself.

6. Humility realizes that humility itself is a gift beyond our reach. If I reach for humility to attain it, then I will boast in it. ILLU: "Humility and How I Attained It." I cannot cultivate it, grow it, assist it, step into it, or enhance it within my own life. Else it is back to me and what I have done.

7. Humility is, therefore, the gift of God that receives all things as a gift. While not written into the list of the fruit of the Spirit, it is a work of the Spirit within us. Gal 5:22-23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. We can only receive it yet we must pursue it. This is done indirectly. ILLU: Seeing in the dark. If I look directly at an object I cannot see it. But if I look near the object, I still cannot see it but can see it better.

CONCL:
Therefore humility comes as I pursue Christ. My running after Jesus Christ as the greatest treasure is not a means to humility. Rather humility is the by-product of my pursuit of Jesus Christ. So I will set my affections on Him and trust that He draws near the humble!