“The Key to Christian Living” Conclusion
Broadcast #1625
November 26, 2023
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1625 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: We, as I say, have so little idea of the depth of what God is, what the Lord is up against to change people like us. We’re born into a world and what we learn absolutely bakes in a self -willed, proud spirit. And it operates in us without us thinking about it or even being aware of it.
Oh, isn’t it amazing the mercy that God has shown? I appreciate so much things that were said Wednesday night about mercy because that’s the only way we could possibly gain any favor with God. It’s His choice to show mercy to people who are helpless prisoners of a spirit that would bring us to an end. And here He is doing what He has done. Praise God!
So anyway, there is that admonition or instruction to the younger ones, but then he takes it out to involve everybody because the next statement says, “all of you,” all of you, all of us do what? “Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another.” Now that’s another thing here, this quality we call humility is not meant to be some private little thing where we go into a cave and, Lord, I’m just gonna humble myself before you. Isn’t this wonderful?
It certainly could be that, in your private relationship, but do you know how the humility that God seeks to bring out in us really comes out? It’s when we rub shoulders with one another because does not pride, if we’ll listen to it, human nature, doesn’t it drive us to seek for self and to constantly be bumping into somebody else’s self-seeking? And all it produces is just conflict.
I’ll tell you, if this quality the Lord is seeking in us doesn’t play out here, is it real? That’s a simple question. If I’m not humble in a genuine sense, and I can’t do this without the Lord, can I? (laughs) It’s not in me to do that. But if I’m having this conflict, this sense of resentment or any of these kinds of things between me and somebody else, am I really being humble?
You know, Paul instructed the people, after talking about all the glorious things and the resources that we have that are so limitless, says, In light of this, be completely humble and gentle. Bear one with one another, put up with one another in love, because we’re one body. And that’s Ephesians, chapter four, the beginning of it.
So, this is what the Lord is looking for, but this quality of humility doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It has everything to do with our relationships in the world. Am I sitting here trying to seek for my, am I trying to look good in your eyes? Ah, I’m stepping on a few toes now, and start, starting with mine. But I’ll tell you what, if God were to show us everything about ourselves, (exhales) it would blow our little ship right out of the water. We need Him. We need to understand some of these simple things about what He’s looking for.
I’m so glad he’s patient. I’m glad he knows what He’s doing. But anyway, “all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another,” that’s the key. This is not just, be humble when you come to me in prayer. We need to do that. We need to have a sense, not of trying to act humble and feel an emotion we call humility, but just, well, these are the facts. I come to you because I can’t do anything in myself. Without you, I can do nothing.
And I’m not gonna sit here and lose sleep over that fact. It’s a fact. Deal with it, move on. That’s one of the things that I see about the Lord that is so much where He has to focus on our need, but He never means for us to wallow in that. We have to recognize it, we have to be honest about it, but then He immediately wants us to turn to Him and realize that we don’t have to stay in that little pit of despair about what we are and aren’t.
If we do, is that not pride? Or can we just simply come to the place where we acknowledge the facts and recognize them as they are, and say, Truth Lord, but I’m so thankful that you love me anyway, and that You’ve made provision for me anyway. You’re not basing anything on what I’m not, and all of those things. Lord, I want to take that place willingly, knowingly, and even though I don’t know things right now, I realize You’re gonna bring me down a pathway that will show me things, (chuckles) things I’d rather not face, but Lord, You’re gonna do it because You love me.
Of course, I’m getting ahead a little bit here, but. And here’s the thing, God opposes the proud, but gives favor to the humble. You ever find the Lord kind of getting in your way sometime? You want to go this way and and it just doesn’t, you know, it’s just striving? We get in these places where we just strive.
You remember what Paul said in one of his recounting of his testimony where he recounts, well, the Lord revealed himself to him. In one of those he mentions where the Lord said. it’s hard for you to kick against the pricks or the goads. In other words, what he is saying is the Lord was really trying to maneuver his life into the path that God had chosen for him, and Saul didn’t want to go. The Lord said, Go this way, and he said, Uh, uh, I’m going this way.
And so, you know, he kept getting these things that would happen to try to get him to go the way the Lord wanted him to. And the Lord said, it’s hard, but I wonder how much we do that. Do we fight and fuss against the Lord many times, more than we might like to admit? The Lord wants to take us a way that’s smooth, smooth in the right sense. I don’t mean it’s easy, but I mean there’s a peace on the inside.
Didn’t Jesus say, My yoke is easy and my burden is light, and you’ll find rest for your souls. And Jesus was a perfect example of someone who was so lost in doing his Father’s will that do you think he went around anxious about this and worried about that, and what should I do, and I got my five-year plan and it’s not working out.
God, we need to get rid of our five year plans and our one day plans, and just say, Lord, You have called me to put my trust in You 100% and let You guide my steps.
You know, that’s what he’s getting into here. Jesus is the ultimate example. If Jesus came down and lived as a servant, and then humbled himself to the death of the cross, are we gonna get away with these little prideful things, prideful self-seekings that govern our lives? Or do you think maybe he wants us to follow his example more than we do and learn from it?
Oh, there’s so much strife and so much fear and anxiety and so many things going on in all of our lives that the Lord’s looking down and say, Boy, if they only knew what I had for ‘em, they wouldn’t have to live like that. I want to share my peace, my joy, my purpose with them, but they’re so full of their own ideas and their own self-will, I can’t get to ‘em, I guess I’m gonna have to work on it some more.
And here we are, and He’s still working on me, I can guarantee you. But I’m so thankful for Him. Then the key right here, this is the key to everything. “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time.” Now, you know, the carnal man would say, Okay I’ve got to take a low place, I’ve got to act humble, and then there’s gonna time be a time when God’s gonna lift me up and say, ‘And show them all of my wonderfulness.’
What he’s talking about, the lifting up in due time is the glory that’s coming. And it won’t be our glory, it’ll be His, but He’s be sharing it with us and we’ll be filled with it and filled with a sense of purpose that will go on forever and ever. That’s the season that we’re looking for, every one of us. That’s why God wants to take us, but oh, do we fight along the way. God wants to take that fight out of us and bring us to a place where we humble ourselves.
And humble, again, is not an emotion. I mean, I guess there are times you could feel that, but this is not primarily trying to work up an emotion. This is an action. This isn’t acting or pretending to be humble. This is living out your life in a way that demonstrates the same kind of humility that Jesus did, where we’re not seeking our own way. We’re not seeking our own purpose. We’re not living for self, but we’re able to be a light to others. We’re set free.
There’s so many chains that hold you and me to this world. And every one of them comes because our something and our nature is attached here. We want our comfort, our plans, our way, our desires to be fulfilled, whatever it may be. It’s my life, I’m gonna do it as I please. Oh God, help us to realize that He’s called us to hand over our lives to Him and to let him direct them.
Didn’t David say, “All of my days were written in your book before one of them came to be”? Wouldn’t it be nice to be in that place where we realize that’s our relate, that defines our life. God’s writing my story and I want to be so in harmony with it that I’m not constantly pulling this way, and pulling that way, and complaining, and all those kinds of things. There’s a genuine humbleness because I just want Your will Lord.
And so much of, you know, what we’ve said recently is the things the Lord has to do to us and allow to happen in our lives, to get our attention, to show us. Look, your nature was drawing you to this thing. It was attached in a way that you didn’t realize, even. You thought you were doing fine, but you were just living out your life and you were so caught up in the ways of the world around you, and here I am, I wanna transform your thinking. I don’t want you to be conformed to this world. I want you to be transformed. I want you to see yourself differently.
And I’m not showing you your nothingness to make you feel worthless. Because you’re not dirt in my sight, you’re not worthless in my sight. You’re worth the blood that Jesus shed on the cross. Oh, if we could ever get that through our minds and realize the value that God puts on your life, and your destiny and mine. My God, we bow down and worship him and say, Yes Lord, I worship you. You’re my Lord and I gladly humble myself.
But again, humbling is not some emotion we work up. It’s how we deal with life. Because you know, down below he talks about the sufferings that are common to our brothers throughout the world being part of this. What is he really talking about, sufferings? Doesn’t that mean that there’s something happening in my life, something I’m experiencing that my nature doesn’t like. And I want out of it, I want to do something about it to make it go away. And yet, the Lord will allow these things in my life, absolutely under His control, but He will allow them to show me the fact that I am attached in a certain way, that I need to let go.
The solution is not to follow my nature and try to satisfy it that way, or to get rid of the thing, or whatever it is that men would try to do. It’s just to come to God and say, Lord, show me the truth about myself that you are seeking to make real. Help me to acknowledge that and not to sit here and say, ‘Oh, boo hoo hoo, I should be better.’ No, you shouldn’t. Get over yourself. The Lord’s just showing us the facts.
And we can acknowledge the facts and then just throw ourselves on Him and say, Okay Lord, thank you for showing me that need. Thank you for showing me where I was attached here. And it was a bondage to me. And now I can let it go and it won’t hold me anymore.
God wants to cut these ties that we have, every one of us. Folks, if there is unrest on the inside, if there’s strife, if there’s fear, if there’s anxiety, all of these things that are so normal to people living in this world, you know, what about me, what about this, what about that? Where is that coming from? Is that coming from the Lord? Is that his Spirit in us feeling all those things, and no, all that’s doing is revealing that there’s stuff in here that He wants to set us free from.
And what does He want us, therefore, to do? Oh, Peter talks about that, doesn’t he? He says, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” Thank God that when I discover these things about me that my pride would not wanna face, I can just come and I can say, Lord, this thing has had a hold on me and You’re helping me to see it. Oh God, help me where I’ve done wrong, I just bring it to the cross.
But Lord, this thing that I was so worried about, it was just in control of my life more than I realized. And you’re calling on me to let go, and to experience your peace, to cast that upon you. I don’t have to carry that. I don’t have to live like that.
That’s a major deal, isn’t it? I mean, how many of you live in perfect peace? Not one of us. You think maybe we need to be asking the Lord to help us to learn this basic truth of just saying, Lord here is my life. I am not gonna try to figure it all out. I’m looking to you to guide me. I don’t have any five-year plan.
Now, if the Lord gives somebody a vision and they’re seeking God about that, that’s one thing, but even there, you don’t get a committee and say, Oh God, God’s given me a vision, let’s figure out how to do it. We just need to look to Him day by day and look and trust Him that He will order our steps. He’s the one that’s got to write the story of my life.
And the sooner I learn that and stop trying to figure it out and fight my way through, if I’m doing that, it’s one thing, if I’m resisting the Devil now and he’s coming at me and I know that’s the Devil, and I have every right to stand on the word of God, that’s one thing, but if it’s me being upset and anxious and at war with somebody and just carrying all this strife on the inside, where’s that coming from again? That’s coming from me.
That’s something the Lord wants me to let go and bring to him and hand it over and say, Lord, you’d never meant for me to carry this, and I bring it to you, and when I bring it to You, I can be confident that You’re not sitting there saying, Well what took you so long? I’m so disgusted with you. You just don’t get it, do you? No, He knows, He cares. He’s just been waiting and longing for that day when we’ll just come to Him and find that place of rest and peace.
Don’t ever forget the fundamental thing that’s going on here is a God who’s called you out of this world to learn and be changed, and the goal that He is going to accomplish, as we let Him do it, is to make us glorious beings who can share His love for eternity. I mean, just, isn’t that amazing? It’s so simple. But oh how we stumble over it.
You know, I thought of a scripture that I hadn’t thought of in a while, I guess, but it’s one that the Lord brought to my attention when I was young, I think, and it’s in Psalm 32. It kind of fits this ‘cause David is, apparently has had a problem in his life and he’s thankful that he’s got a place to go when he realizes he’s messed up. He said, I acknowledge, verse five, and “I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity,” didn’t cover it up didn’t pretend, said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave me the guilt of my sin.”
Praise God! Don’t ever carry that. “Therefore, let all the faithful pray to you while you may be found. Surely the rising of the mighty waters will not reach them. You are my hiding place. You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.”
And this is a couple of verses here. This should define our life. We’re not trying to figure out what to do in pursuing our goals. We’re saying, Lord, I need you to show me what to do. “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. Do not be like the horse or the mule.” This is the one that keeps coming to me from time to time. “Don’t be like the horse and the mule which have no understanding, but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.”
I wonder how many of us are like the horse and the mule! God’s gotta do something really spectacular to get our attention about things that we, you know, we would come a lot easier if we just would listen and seek the Lord and say, Lord, I know you love me. You’ve called me to hand my life over to You. You’ve told me to cast every care upon You, to trust You.
See, that’s the thing. If we’re trusting Him and He’s got to make these changes and those changes can sometimes involve suffering in this world, we’re gonna have to see everything in the light of that. Because if we are kicking against something that we’re experiencing and we’re upset about it, who are we upset with? (congregation response) - Ah, instead of humbling ourselves, we’re upset with Him. We’re kind of mad at him.
And we’re like that horse that says, I don’t wanna go this way. This is the way I want to go. There’s some good grass over here that appeals to me and that’s the way I want to go. And uh, uh, and the Lord has a different plan. Do you want your plan or do you want the Lord’s? I want His. To him be the glory! Praise God!
I don’t know, if the Lord was standing here, what would He be saying to you? Would He not be telling you how much He loves you? I love you. I gave my life for you. I gave you the ultimate example of what it means to humble yourself under His mighty hand. I didn’t come to seek my own will. I came to lay down my life and I did it for you. And I’ve called you to come and to learn from me because I’m humble and gentle in heart. And you will find rest for your souls.
I have plans for you that you cannot imagine. I know everything about you. I know things that need to be changed that you don’t know about. You go along with an ignorance that’s fashioned by this world and in harmony with this old nature.
And my job is to change that and to bring you into that place of rest and trust so that I can direct your steps. I can take you ways that you didn’t even know you were gonna go. But I’ll be with you in ‘em. I’ll never leave you, I’ll never forsake you. And one day we’re gonna stand before the throne of Heaven and you will share in my glory.
SYou know, I believe there will come a time, if you wanna call it time, we won’t even remember this. All the things that you think are such colossal things in your life, the hurts from years past, all the things that have weighed you and me down, we won’t even remember them. Those who put their trust in Him and He finishes this job He’s talking about, we won’t even remember the things that have gone on in this world. We will be set free completely to be all that God designed us from eternity to be.
And we’ll bow down to our elder brother because he is the one who has made it possible. 100% of the power and the virtue has come because of his faithfulness and his example in doing what he’s encouraging us to do. to humble ourselves to His plan, to let Him direct our steps, draw upon Him for the strength to do it. And I’ll tell you there’s a goal that’s worth everything to serve Him. To him be the glory forever and ever. Praise God!
