Can Humility Be Taught?

Eliezer Roque Cisneros / General

First Palisade communion in the district

>>main thought: Humility is proactive, it sees the best in others, and it acknowledges God<<

Prov 16:19

prov 16:19 “It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud.”

Examples of Humility

• Abraham and Lot - Gen 13

• Jacob meeting Esau - Gen 32

• Joseph with Pharaoh - Gen 41:15-16

Genesis 41:15–16 ESV

And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.” Joseph answered Pharaoh, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.”

• Moses final address to the poeple - Deut 9

English Standard Version (Chapter 9) Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you.

The term say in your heart is important in the Bible becuase it was an understanding that the most inward secret thoughts and intentions were in the heart. It’s why the weaping prophet cries out, The heart is deceitful above all things and desperatly sick, who can understand it?

Oh how clear the gospel is from the earliest pages of scripture. God’s not fulfiling promises because we’re good!

• God gives the land, yes, but he does not drive out becuase of any virtue in israel.

• This is a call to humility to us, because none of us are immune to wickedness. do you think the adventist church and its leadership is immune to wickedness? Then you are fool.

Humility recognizes personal fallibility and that it’s not all about me.

• 1 Sam 24

• Humility assumes the best in others

• Humility is proactive

English Standard Version Chapter 24

Afterward David also arose and went out of the cave, and called after Saul, “My lord the king!” And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and paid homage

David didn’t stop believing in Saul, because he couldn’t stop believing in God. Humility sees the best people, becuase it acknowledges God in their life.

NT proof: Phil 2:3 “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”

English Standard Version Chapter 24

And afterward David’s heart struck him, because he had cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.

2 Samuel 24:10 ESV

But David’s heart struck him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”

This note in the story is important because this phrase: David’s heart struck him, apears in one other place. 2 Sam tells of the time King David made the mistake of -- Against God’s will -- numbering the people of israel. David wasn’t just sorry. David was hurt by what he did. His on concious reacted to what he did. That’s teh difference between David and Saul. Saul didn’t have a concious. not like David’s. Humility doesn’t wait for the mistake to be noticed. Humility is proactive.

NT proof: Matt 27:3 “Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders,”

But can Humility be Taught?

What God cares about: Psalm 14:2 “The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.”

What God sees: Psalm 14:3 “They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.”

What God does:

English Standard Version Chapter 13

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God,

Jesus knew his time was up. But before he started on the way of suffering for the Salvation of the whole world he did one last thing for his friends. In storytelling a scene were the author shows the characters engaged in a task that doesn’t further the plot is called, the Character at Rest. This storytelling device is valubale because it reminds the reader who the character is, and what matters to the character beyond what the plot demands.

In other words. This type of scene peers into what matters most to a character

English Standard Version (Chapter 13) He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

So what matters to the protagonist in the space between plot points? The disciples matter.

As if to say, let me do one last thing befor I go. And he taught them humility

Can humility be taught? Yes. You’ll be teaching it today.

NOTE: outer garment is in greek ἱμάτιον. this word apears notably in Mt 9:21, and Mt 17:2. the significance of this has enough potential for its own message, but suffice it to say that the outer garments of jesus were closesly associated with his power, sinlessness, and divinity