Pixels – Under Attack

Posted on July 20, 2015 by dkoop

God on Film RidgeThe movie Pixel’s comes out Friday.  Here’s a brief description: When aliens intercept video feeds of classic arcade games and misinterpret them as a declaration of war, they attack Earth, using the games as models. Knowing that he must employ a similar strategy, President Will Cooper (Kevin James) recruits his childhood pal, former video-game champ and home-theater installer Sam Brenner (Adam Sandler), to lead a team of old-school arcade players (Peter Dinklage, Josh Gad) and a military specialist (Michelle Monaghan) to save the planet.

While we may not be under attack from aliens using 80’s video game characters the bible says we are under attack from a spiritual enemy.  What do we do?   Like the president in the movie (Kevin James) that uses what many would consider a different strategy in dealing with the attack, in our scripture today Jesus lays out a different strategy in what to do when we are under attack.    It comes from a parable that Jesus told in Matthew 13: 24-30

24 Jesus then told them this story:

The kingdom of heaven is like what happened when a farmer scattered good seed in a field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, an enemy came and scattered weed seeds in the field and then left.

26 When the plants came up and began to ripen, the farmer’s servants could see the weeds. 27 The servants came and asked, “Sir, didn’t you scatter good seed in your field? Where did these weeds come from?”

28 “An enemy did this,” he replied.

His servants then asked, “Do you want us to go out and pull up the weeds?”

29 “No!” he answered. “You might also pull up the wheat. 30 Leave the weeds alone until harvest time. Then I’ll tell my workers to gather the weeds and tie them up and burn them. But I’ll have them store the wheat in my barn.”  Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Most of us are familiar with the problem of weeds: in your lawn or in your flower beds.

Even those of you who now have weeds taken care of by a grounds crew have still had to fight the problem of weeks, now your paying for it.  You may remember when you were a child and you had to pull the weeds in the garden.  I do.

And we’re still fighting those nasty weeds. They are a problem any time of the year.  Name the month and there will be a weed that is prevalent at that time.

That was pretty much the point that Jesus was making about the weeds in his parable.  In other words, we’re stuck with weeds until the harvest. And that’s the key point of not only Jesus’ parable but also this post. We’re stuck with weeds until harvest time.

Now, as I see it, this is information worth having. First of all, here is a word of encouragement to the perplexed and anguished.

George Barna wrote a book called,  “If Things Are So Good, Why Do I Feel So Bad? This is really one of those basic questions of life which has numerous variations – “If I’ve done all the right things why did my kids still turn out wrong?”

“Why do bad things happen to good people?”

“If I take care of my garden so well how come I keep getting weeds? If God is in charge, why do bad things happen?”

“If Jesus died for the sins of the world and rose victoriously over death – why do people still sin and die?”

“Why are there still grumpy people in the church?”

“Why are my neighbors inconsiderate when I go out of my way to be kind?”

“Why? Why? Why?”

QUESTIONS ABOUT OPPOSITION

 Who brings about opposition?

 “‘An enemy did this”  (vs. 28a)

Later when the disciples ask Jesus to explain the parable he tell them clearly: “The enemy who sows them is the devil.” Matthew 13:39

“After a thousand volumes are written on the origin of evil, we know as much of it as Christ has told us here, ‘An enemy has done it, and this enemy is the devil.”  GEORGE BARNA

  • Why does God allow evil on earth?

 God created us with a free will.  Love allows choices.

God is a God of relationship and good relationships are built on choices and free will.  When I fell in love with my wife Niki I didn’t chain her to a wall and demand that she love me.  No, she has a choice to love me back or break my heart.  God is the same way, we cna love him back or break His heart.  Even at the dawn of creation, Adam and Eve in Genesis 1-3 we read that they had a choice of good and evil and were told not to eat from one tree.    All through the bible we are told to choose good, choose life, not death.     “Turn from evil and do good” Psalm 37:27

 Why doesn’t God remove all evil?

‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them.” (vs. 29) 

Because the wheat and the weeds are almost indistinguishable, they look alike!
We are a mixture of wheat and weeds.   “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor classes, nor between political parties… but right through every human heart and through all human hearts” Alexander Solzhenitsyn

 If God started controlling things- we’d be the first to complain ‘hey, I thought you gave me free will!’  God comes back and starts wiping out murderers, rapists.. (fine by me!)… adulterers… ok, those who don’t handle anger rightly, who lust, or gossip,  woops! We all start sweating! None of us would stand a chance!

            If God removed evil I would have been gone a long time ago.           

“Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”  Psalm 51:5

Jesus is saying to us – “Hey, I don’t want you to be discouraged and to think that the dismal state of the world (or the church) is the final word. Don’t be troubled. You trust God now trust in me. I’m in charge – really I am. I may not be working this thing out the way you want it, in your preferred time frame. But my kingdom is coming into power. Its already up and functioning in some places – in the hearts and lives of some people. And on harvest day when I’m done implementing my plan all of the loose ends will be wrapped up. You won’t have to put up with this nonsense any longer.

 Jesus doesn’t want us to be discouraged but to be aware.

            The kingdom of heaven is like…(vs. 24)

Of course, this isn’t really a lesson in agricultural practice. It’s about the kingdom or reign or rule of God.

The Jewish people of Jesus’ day were anxiously awaiting the coming kingdom of God – that which the prophets had predicted – the time of the Messiah – the reestablishment of Jewish independence and power.

This, at least according to their thinking, would mean purifying the land of all foreign influences. And everyone was trying to figure out the best way to make this happen.

The Essenes were trying to bring the kingdom about by living purified lives out in the desert. If they could avoid all impurity they figured that they could become the pure starting point for a new Israel.  Have your heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls?  This group had a community near the dead sea and stored their scrolls in nearby caves which were discovered in the 1940’s.

The Pharisees, on the other hand, thought that they could bring in the kingdom with an organized and structured revival of Jewish practices.

The Zealots were trying to bring about the kingdom through revolutionary and guerillas tactics directed at the occupying Roman forces.

They were all pretty much shooting for the same thing – the coming of the kingdom of God or heaven.

So Jesus comes along and starts talking about the arrival of this kingdom – which got everyone all excited. “We’ll be freed from the Roman yoke. Once again Israel will be the light on a hill.”

But leave it to Jesus to throw a monkey wrench into their plan or perception. He tells them; indeed the kingdom is coming into power but not exactly in the way that you’re expecting. We’re going to be stuck with a few weeds for a while.  We will have evil and opposition all around.  Count on it!  Like them we can respond to evil in an inappropriate way.

In the next post, we’ll look at the four ways we tend to respond to evil.  Which one is your natural tendency?

Darrell

www.RidgeFellowship.com

Posted in God On Film | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Humility in Four Key Areas (Part 2)

Posted on July 18, 2015 by dkoop

God on Film RidgeThe next area that we need to learn humility is in our desire to compare ourselves to others.

3.   Humilty and Comparison. 

We often look at the people around us and think, “How do compare to them?  At least I do, “How is my house, my job, my kids, my life compared to others?'” Nothing will kill your joy like competition and comparison.  Jesus saw this going on and he teaches his disciples (and now us) a lesson in humility.   He was at this dinner party and He sees the head table.  They usually sit in a U shape with a head table up in front and a chair that would be next to the guest of honor.  If you wanted to be greatest at the party you’d be sitting in this chair.  That’s where you’d be.  As the “U” went around and went down toward the end there would also be a seat.  If you were sitting down there you were the least at the party.  So people when they walk in, what do they do?  They’re milling around up near the place of honor.  “I’m better than he, and smarter than he is…  I deserve that spot.”  So they’re hanging around close to that spot, like musical chairs.

So He said to them, in Luke 14:10-11 “When you’re invited, take the lowest place so that when the host comes he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’  For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”  So here’s the test.  A lesson in greatness.  Jesus said, Exalt yourself – that’s getting the upper hand, take the top spot.  Or humble yourself – take the lowest spot.

The amazing thing to me is that Jesus didn’t just say, “Be satisfied with the lowest seat.”  Notice what He said.  He said take the lowest place.  Not just be satisfied if you get stuck there and say it’s ok.  He says take the lowest place.  For me, I’d be more than happy to take the lowest place, to sit in that spot if I knew that someone was going to come and tap me on the shoulder and say, “Come on up here and sit in the highest spot.”  I’d be glad to take the lowest place every time.  But what if I take the lowest place and I get stuck there.  And I see somebody sitting up there who I know is a lot worse off than I am.  What in the world am I doing down here and they’re up there?  How did that work out?

In our maturity, as we grow in this area of comparing and competing with one another, there are some steps that we all go through.

Step one is striving for what we perceive is the top place.  “I’m milling around with the top dogs, the movers and shakers.  Who’s popular, that’s where I’m going to be!  I’m at the top because that’s where I want to be because that’s what’s going to make me feel important.

Step two in this growth to humility in my life is I take the lowest place.  I’ll talk to that person who is not as popular but hoping that it’s going to get me to the to the top.  I’ll do some things I don’t want to do hoping someone will see and I’ll get a raise or promotion!  Maybe it’s just my way to the top spot.

Step three, being equally comfortable in the lowest place or the top place  Because it doesn’t really matter.  It doesn’t really matter who we think is first.  Step three is realizing if I’m here, God may just want to be here.  There may be somebody sitting next to me that I can talk to that I wouldn’t be talking to if I were not there.  There maybe somebody that I’m sitting next to who’ll talk to me, that can impact my life, make a difference in my life.  I may not have to be such a phony if I’m at this place.  I may be able to be more myself.  God can use me at the place I’m at.

Equally satisfied wherever God happens to put me.  I’m not there yet.  I don’t know about you but I’m not there yet.  But I hope to get there.  I want to be there.  I want to live that kind of a life.  I don’t want to live my life so concerned about comparing and competing that it eats up my life.

Greatness is not a matter of winning a competition.  That’s what Jesus taught about it.  It’s a matter of living the life that God gave you to live.  And your life is unique.  No one else can live your life.  Jesus is a lot more concerned about how you’re helping other people run the race of life than whether you’re ahead of other people in the race of life.

Philippians 2:3 says “Be humble and consider others more important than yourself.”  That’s upside down.  That’s not the way most of us think – consider other people more important that ourselves?

Take the lowest place.  What does that mean in every day life?  It means this: don’t waste one more minute of your life worrying about who’s first, who’s more important, who has more.  It’s a waste of time.  Don’t waste another second of your life worrying about that.

Because competition, and we are really into competition especially in America.  In the end all this competition it doesn’t matter.  Your favorite sports team.  The one you live and die with, whether they’re on a winning streak or losing streak.  In the end it doesn’t matter.

The big business deal you just made.  You beat everybody else out.  You know you did it.  You have that feeling of that.  In the end it doesn’t matter.

Or this feeling of, “My kids are better than your kids.”  In the end it doesn’t matter.

Why? Because in the end God is first, he’s best.  And in the end we’re all going to love that because that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

Those of you who live for competition. If you’re wired for competition, God wired you that way.  I’m not telling you deny the way you were made.  If you’re wired for competition, be competitive.  But be competitive about something different than you’re competitive about right now.  Be competitive about something different than you being first.  Because in the end that’s a pretty small goal.

God wired you to be competitive, be competitive about feeding people who are starving.  Be competitive about leading people to Christ, giving larger sums of your income and time away. That’s a goal worth of that wiring that God gave you.

If you’re wired to be competitive, be competitive about taking the good news that Jesus Christ loves us to places in the world that no one else would take it to.

If God wired you to be competitive, be competitive about being the best husband, the best wife, the best mom, the best dad you can possibly be.

God gave you that wiring but He didn’t give it to you just so you could use it so you could use it selfishly.  He gave it to you and me so that we could be competitive about things that are truly important.

Use the way God made you, enjoy the way God made you, to fulfill His purposes for your life.  Instead of comparing and deciding what seat am I sitting in, just wipe all that out and say, “God, whatever seat You put me in, I’m going to, in that seat, do something that makes a difference for your sake in the world today.”  That’s Jesus’ path to greatness.

Jesus taught us a fourth key area where we need humily.

  1. Humility and Our relationship with God

Jesus told the story at the dinner party.  He starts out, in Luke 18:10, Two men went to the temple to pray.  It’s like, “Did you hear about the two guys that went into a bar (an Aggie and a Longhorn) .  He has their attention now.  And He tells this story.  But it’s not a joke.  He tells this story about two men – a proud Pharisee and a sinful tax collector.  We may not like tax gathers today because they gather our taxes.  But in that day they hated tax collectors because there was nothing good about them.  These guys not only gathered their taxes, they stole from people extra money to make themselves rich when they gathered taxes.  They served the Roman government, the hated government in order to gather taxes.  They were totally hated.  So Jesus says these two guys come in.  The Pharisee…  Yeah!  The tax collector…  Boo!  They both pray a prayer.  The Pharisee prays, “God, thank You for all the good things you’ve given me.  Thank You that I’m not like other guys, especially that tax collector over there.  Thank You, thank You, thank You for me, me, me.”  Then Jesus says the tax collector prayed.  He wouldn’t even look up to heaven.  He bowed his head and beat his chest and he prayed, “God, be merciful to me!  I’m a sinner.”

He asked the crowd, “Which of those guys prayed a prayer that was heard by God?”  Here’s the punch line.  The Bible says in Luke 18:14 Jesus said, “When the two men went home it was the tax collector not the Pharisee who was pleasing to God.”

If you put yourself above others, you’ll be put down.  But if you humble yourself, you will be honored.  Here’s the greatness test when it comes to our relationship with God.  When you exalt yourself, that’s a decision to do it yourself, “I’m going to make this relationship with God work on my own energy, my own strength, my own good works.  I’ll do it myself.”  But the decision to humble yourself is a decision to trust God.  Do it yourself or trust God.  Do it yourself religion is all on your shoulders.  It’s all what you have to do.  In the end all you have is what this Pharisee had – “Thank You, God, that I’m better than so and so.”  It’s not much.  That’s all you get.  In this prayer, one guy prayed “Look at me!”  The other guy prayed, “Forgive me.”  One guy prayed “I have God’s blessing.”  The other guy prayed, “I need God’s mercy.”

 

Let me ask you a question.  As you grow in faith, as you get to know Christ better and better, what should be happening in your life?  How should you grow?  There should always be a huge part of you that feels– “I need God’s mercy.  I need His mercy every day of my life.  There’s not a day of my life that I don’t need God’s forgiveness, for sins that I know I committed and a bunch of them I’m not even aware of because I’m an imperfect human being.  I need God’s mercy.”  If you want to live a great life, never get over that.

The apostle Paul certainly lived a great life.  Look at the lives that he impacted.  Even at the end of his life he was still saying, I’m the chief of sinners.  I’m the greatest sinner that I know.  Never get over God’s mercy in your life.  That’s one of the secrets to greatness.

So Jesus says do you want to be great, be aware of how much God loves you and how much mercy He has for you.  Make a decision to trust Him.  1 Peter 5:5-6 “God is opposed to the proud but He gives grace to the humble.  Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you at the proper time.”  That’s trust.  Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God.

Humility is not putting myself down.  It’s lifting God up.  Humility is being honest about who I am, my strengths and weaknesses.  And humility is being honest about who God is, His strengths, His goodness, and what He can do in our life.  That’s what humility really is.

Jesus talked about what this kind of trust in God should do in our lives in Matthew 11:29 when He said “Take My yoke [My plan, My direction, My leadership] …Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me.  For I am gentle and humble in heart [Jesus was humble] and you’ll find rest for your souls.” 

 Do it yourself or trust God.  Jesus said if you’re doing this the right way, trying to get to know God, trying to get closer to Him, you’ll find rest for your souls.  If you’re trying to get closer to God and it’s making you feel more and more burdened, more and more pressures on your life trying to get closer to God, something is wrong.  It’s not meant to work that way.  Jesus said as you get closer to God, you’re supposed to find rest for your souls.  Are you doing it yourself?  Or are you trusting Him?

 

Let me pray for us…

Father, we do want to trust You.  You know us.  It’s hard for us to be humble.  We get caught up in ourselves so easily.  But I pray that these words of Jesus would be an encouragement to us, would be a strength to us, would help us to see that God You can do something in our lives we can never do on our own.  God, this next week we do pray that you’d help us to give our ambitions to You.  We do pray that You help us notice the needs of those around us.  We pray God that this next week you help us honor You with whatever seat we happen to be sitting in as we trust You, as we live in Your rest.  We ask this in Your name, Jesus, Amen.

Darrell

www.RidgeFellowship.com

Next time we’ll look at the movie Pixel’s and talk about what to do when we’re under attack.

 

Posted in God On Film | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Humility in Four Key Areas (Part 1)

Posted on July 16, 2015 by dkoop

God on Film RidgeThere are four specific times when Jesus talks about the need to humble ourselves.  Let’s look together at what Jesus had to say about humility.  It will make you greater.

 1. Humility in our Ambitions.

The disciples of Jesus would often argue about which one of them was the greatest.  Its really humorous when you think about it.  Here’s Jesus,  God in human flesh a few steps ahead of them and they’re a few steps behind saying“I’m the greatest…  No I’m the greatest…  I’m greater than you are.”  God is right in front of them and they’re arguing about who’s the greatest.  It’s  human nature.  Jesus hears this happening and He turns around and He teaches them an incredibly important lesson.  He said in Matthew 18 “Therefore whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” 

Notice what Jesus said there.  He didn’t say don’t want to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  Notice that?  He didn’t say deny you’re ambition or your desires for greatness.  He said, “You want to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?  Fine.  I understand that, that’s how you’re wired.  Here’s how it can happen.  You’re going to have to humble yourself like this little child.  That is how it happens.”  He said let humility manage your ambitions.  If you want to be great here’s how.  Be like a child.

We all face this daily greatness test of humility.  Exalt yourself – Be demanding.  Be like the disciples were demand your way, demand to be first, demand to be best, demand to be greatest.

Or you can make the choice to humble yourself and depend more on God.  Demanding or depending.  That’s a choice you and I are facing everyday throughout our lives.

When it comes to being demanding, it’s easy to do.  It’s very easy to do because it looks like it works.  In fact in a lot of circumstances of life it does work to be demanding.  Have you noticed that?  You can go into a restaurant and not get the order that you want and you can demand the order that you want and most of the time people will rush to your aide and they’ll bring you what you wanted.  You got what you wanted by being demanding.  You can go into a store and demand something and get what you want.

But here’s the problem.  You can’t demand the most important things in life.  You cannot demand a relationship to work.  Some of you have tried.  You can’t do it.  You can’t demand yourself to be happy.  You cannot demand that you’re never going to get sick, that you’re never going to die.  You can’t demand the most important things in life.  Demanding is tricky.  It will get you the little things but it’ll keep you from the most important things in life.  What happens for those of you who have learned to be demanding is all we have in life, you demand this, you demand that, you get this, you get that.  All of a sudden you’re trying to demand something important like a relationship to work that’s falling apart and it’s not working so what do you do?  You demand harder and it pushes you further apart and you wonder what’s wrong.  Did the rules change?  The rules didn’t change, you can demand the little things but you cannot demand the most important things in life.  It just doesn’t work.

There is a different way to live.  Jesus taught His disciples in order to be great you need to be humble.

These guys arguing, demanding, that they be recognized as the greatest amongst the disciples.  Jesus says, “Guys!  Look at this little child right here.  Be like this child.”

What are children best at?  Children depend on their parents.  The good thing about children is they don’t worry about whether they should depend on their parents or not.  They just do it.  They see you as a friendly ATM.  God wants you and I to realize “I’ve wired you to depend on Me.  I’m the creator.  I’ve made you to depend on Me.  It’s all right.”

It really is the secret to greatness is to learn to depend.  Unless you’re constantly asking God to meet your needs – financial needs, emotional needs, physical needs, relationship needs – you’re obviously depending on yourself and not depending on Him.  Jesus says if you want greatness, learn to be like this child.  Learn to recognize the truth, be honest about it.  You do depend on God.  I depend on God for everything in my life.

Depending on God doesn’t mean to let go of your ambitions.  Far from it.  A lot of people think depending on God it means I sit back in my easy chair and lean back and say, “Ok God, whatever You want to do, do it to me.  Here I am.”  That’s not depending on God.  That’s laziness.  It’s a very different thing.

Look at the people in the Bible, did they have ambitions?  Moses had an ambition to lead millions of people out of Egypt into the promised land.  That was ambitious.  Paul had an ambition to take the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, to the entire known world of his day.  That is ambitious.  Jesus had an ambition.  He had an ambition to go to the cross and give His life for us.  That’s ambition.  So humility does not mean you throw away your ambition.  In fact, I believe every one of us should have huge ambitions in our life.  We need more God given ambition in this world.

The incredible thing about a person who lives in dependence upon God, they don’t have to be demanding.  They’re secure.  They know God loves them.  They know God has a plan for their life.  They don’t have to demand their way through life.  They can live in the security of knowing God has this plan for my life.   Humility does not mean that you have to let go of your ambition.  Humility means that you give your life to a greater ambition of God’s plan for your life.  That’s what Jesus taught about humility.

The second key area Jesus taught us to have humility is this.

  1. Humility and our Desire for Recognition.

We all have a need we all have to be recognized or noticed.  Jesus said  in Matthew 23:11-12 “The greatest among you will be your servant.  For whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”  In this case Jesus is teaching us about humility and recognition in this crowd of people who are striving for recognition.

He knows we all like to be noticed.  I do.  We all like that.  You see this in your family.  Do your kids ever fight for notice?  We have three kids.  We can’t have one tell a story without the other two trying to interrupt or but in and tell their story.  They want to be noticed.  That’s the way it is in life.  Do you ever play the game in your house, “It’s my turn to be noticed today.  You got noticed yesterday, I get noticed today.”  We all fight for this.  We all have this as part of our lives.  We all want to be noticed.

There’s this daily greatness test about this that Jesus talks about.  Here’s the test: Exalt yourself – that’s when you need other’s notice.  Not only like it but you begin to need it.   It’s easy to need to be noticed everyday of your life, every circumstance of life in order to feel important.  If you walk down that road that’s exalting yourself.  Jesus says if you exalt yourself eventually you’ll be humbled.

In this case when He said this phrase He was talking to a specific group of guys called the Pharisees.  They were in this crowd.  They were trying to be recognized.  Jesus noticed that they were trying to be noticed.  He has some things to say about them.  They were using religion as a cover for getting their need recognition met.  Jesus reserved His harshest words for these guys.  Not because they’re so different from you and I. But because everyone looked at them as a model.

Jesus is saying,  “Don’t want to be like them.”  Why?  Matthew 23:5-7 “Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide… they love the place of honor at banquets… and they love to have men call them ‘Rabbi.’”  Jesus says everything they do is for men to see and then He gives some examples.  Some examples that fit what we do to be noticed.

First of all He says, “They make their phylacteries wide.”  What in the world is that?  A Phylactery was this little tiny box that they wore on their heads.  And they had scripture verses in it.  They were trying to do what the Old Testament says, Carry God’s word with you throughout the day.  But what the Pharisees did they would make their box a little bit bigger than the other guy’s box.  So they had more of the Bible in their mind that this other guy.  The next guy would make their box bigger than the next guy’s box.  So they’re walking around with refrigerator sized boxes on their head because they’re so spiritual.

Phylactery – It’s the love of symbols.  That’s what happens when you need notice.  You begin to love symbols.  Things that everybody looks at and goes, “They’re important because they have this symbol.”  These Pharisees were ridiculous.  They wore boxes on their head.

We’re not anything like that today.  We wouldn’t do anything about symbols in our life to try to feel important would we?  No. We walk around with little logos on our shirts to make us feel important.  Not boxes on our heads.  We are much more sophisticated than they are.  We walk around thinking, we wouldn’t say it to anybody, but I hope somebody notices because I’ve got this.  Look at me, world!

Or we buy a car for the first time with the symbol we’ve been looking for all of our lives on that car.  We’re driving around thinking everybody in the world is noticing us because we’re driving around with that symbol on our cars.  They’re wanting to be like us.  It’s the love of symbols. I don’t think if God cares that much about what kind of car you drive.  You don’t have to drive a Hundyai to be a Christian.  That’s not what I’m saying.  But He does care about why you drive the kind of car you drive.  He does care if you and I get so in love with symbols that we have to have them all throughout our lives in order to be noticed.  Some of you haven’t even noticed how much you need to be noticed.  It’s made its way into every part of your life.  Jesus says watch out for that.  Because in the end you’re going to be humbled if you go that direction.  “They make their phylacteries wide.”

He also said, “They love the places of honor at banquets.”  That’s the love of recognition.  If everywhere you go you have to be recognized, you have to be up on the front table, you have to have people say your name, you have to have the recognition of the fact that you are there, you have to be in the program.  If everywhere you go you have to be recognized its a sign of pride not humility.

He also says that “They love to have men call them ‘Rabbi.’”  That is the love of titles.  Some of you have titles that you’ve worked ten, fifteen, twenty years for.  Those titles that you have – “Doctor” or whatever are titles that mean you can serve other people.  I think some titles are important.  But when you start to love titles.  When you start to live for titles, when everyone has to say your title to make you feel important, something is wrong.

You can live life needing other’s notice or you can make the humble yourself choice.  How do we stop?  The only way to cure yourself of this need that we all have to be noticed is to start noticing other people’s needs.  That’s the only way.  Not live a life just for yourself.

Let’s just get real practical about noticing other people’s needs.  Let me give you a practical homework assignment.  Notice other people’s needs at work or at home.  What if this week you decided to notice the fact that the people you work with or live with they had some needs?  What if this next week when you went to get a coffee or a snack. You bought them one too?  Start to treat them like a human being.  I think it would do some good to them.  But that’s not why I’m saying this. I’m saying it for the good it will do for you.  When you start to treat them like a person, start to notice their needs, you’ll see the stress level go down in your life and that one small thing may have more impact than you can possibly imagine.

Mother Teresa’s famous quote, “God doesn’t ask us to do great things.  He asks us to do small things with great love.”  Where can you do that this week?  What would your little world be like if you just did that this next week?  Because a life that is focused on yourself, meeting your needs, will never be a great life.  It’s only you.  Every great life is focused on meeting other people’s needs.  Jesus said that one of the secrets to greatness.  

In the next post we’ll look at 2 more key areas where we need to have humility.

Darrell

www.RidgeFellowship.com

 

Posted in God On Film | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Ant Man – Greater when Smaller (Humility)

Posted on July 14, 2015 by dkoop

God on Film RidgeWe’re beginning our brand new series, God on Film.  This week we are looking at “Ant Man” that comes out this Friday.  Are you going to see it?  From what I have read so far, the reviews have been good with most suggesting it’s a must see. The premise of the movie is: Thief Scott Lang must aid his mentor Dr. Hank Pym in safeguarding the mystery of the Ant-Man technology – which allows its user to decrease in size but increase in strength – from various new threats, and plot a heist that will save the Earth.

“Decrease in size to increase in strength” – that sounds a lot like what Jesus taught.

If you want to be great be humble.

The truth of the matter for most of us is we don’t want to decrease unless it’s our weight.  We want to increase in power, in strength, in popularity, in followers on Instagram.  But to increase you must be humble.

Jesus said – His total counter-cultural teaching is – the only way to true greatness is through humility.  Some people think that humility is denying your desires for greatness.  But Jesus didn’t talk that way.  Jesus says, I know you desire greatness.  I understand that.  I want to teach you to translate your desire for greatness into actions of humility and watch what that does for your life and for the world how it changes everyone.

Look at what Jesus says about humility “Whoever humbles himself…is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”  Matthew 18:4  Jesus taught a lot about humility. In the next post we’ll look at four specific He talked about this decision in our lives to humble ourselves.

First let’s discuss what humility is and what it isn’t.

Humility may be the most misunderstood character quality that God ever invented.  So before we begin looking at what it is, let me explain to you what humility is not.

  • Humility is not shyness.
  • Humility not being timid or bashful.
  • Humility is not being a weak or spineless wimp.
  • Humility is not a lack of confidence.
  • Humility is not insecurity.
  • Humility is definitely not having a low opinion of yourself. Jesus was very humble and yet He did not have a low opinion of Himself.
  • Humility is not being a passive doormat.
  • Humility is not having poor self-esteem.
  • Humility is not putting yourself down all the time saying, “I’m no good. I’m nothing.  I’m worthless.  I’m junk.”  Jesus never put Himself down, and yet He was the most humble person whoever lived.  He never degraded Himself.

Here’s a great definition: “HUMILITY: Not thinking less of yourself.  It’s thinking of others instead and acting in their best interest, instead of your own.”

Humility takes enormous amounts of courage.  Humility takes self-confidence.  It takes a high self-esteem.  It takes a personal security.  In fact, insecure people cannot be humble.  They have a very hard time being humble.  Insecurity produces the exact opposite in our lives.  It produces pride.  Whenever you find somebody who is arrogant, prideful, boastful, egotistical or self-concerned, you can know that they are masking deep insecurity.

Pride is always a cover-up for insecurity.  When you see the person who acts like he runs the world, he has it all together, he knows enough, inside he or she is masking deep insecurity.  Insecurity causes us to brag.  Insecurity causes us to boast.  Insecurity causes us to exaggerate.  It causes us to worry about what other people think of us.  It is insecurity that causes us to be hypercritical and judgmental of other people.  So rather than pride being a matter of confidence, humility – the exact opposite – is a matter of confidence.  Jesus was able to be humble because He knew exactly who He was.

Remember how Jesus washed the feet of His disciples.  That’s the ultimate act of humility.  He was only able to do that because He was very secure in His position.  He knew who He was, whose He was and what He was here on earth to do.  So He was able to take a humble role and a humble position.

God loves humility.  In fact the Bible says this in Isaiah 66:2: “The people I treasure most are the humble.  They depend on Me.”

Humility leads to greatness, in the eyes of God and the eyes of others.

What is humility?  It’s not thinking less of yourself.  It’s thinking of others instead of yourself and acting in their best interest instead of your own.  Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s not thinking about yourself at all.  Humility means to be other person-centered.  It means to think about others and forget yourself.  Humility is self-forgetfulness.  You’re so concerned about other people you’re not even thinking about yourself at all.

Humility means to become smaller in your eyes because you see others bigger.

In the next post we’ll look at four life situations where Jesus teaches us to choose humility.

Darrell

Sources:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant-Man

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Ant-Man-Reactions-Here-What-Critics-Saying-72250.html

50 Days of Love, Love is Humble, Rick Warren November 2001

www.BibleGateway.com

 

Posted in God On Film | Tagged , , | Leave a comment