What Does God Want: WALK Humbly (Sermon Audio)

This is the audio and outline from the October 31, 2021 sermon, “What Does God Want: WALK Humbly”, shared by Tom Lemler at the Goshen Christian Church.

Text: Micah 6:8, Matthew 23:23, Psalm 25:9
James 4:6-10

I suspect we have all had our share of conversations and questions about what God wants and how to know His will. Many of those discussions I have been involved with have often included an element of a person wanting to justify their own actions by either claiming they are doing what God wants or by saying what He wants is so elusive that it doesn’t matter. Many times we try to get so specific about the details of life that we miss the big picture that God has stated clearly in His Word. In fact, God said through the prophet Micah three things the Lord requires that ought to form the basis for our understanding of His will. Today we look at the third, and final, one of those three things, that we would walk humbly.

Humility in its truest form has to do with viewing our self accurately in relationship to God and one another. Learning to walk humbly with our God requires that we see Him as God in all aspects of our life. While the number of Christians who would claim to know more than God is probably rather small, the number that act like we know more than God is likely much greater. We grow in learning and doing what God wants when we . . .

Worship Humbly. James 4:7-8, Hebrews 12:28
- Worship is about attributing worth to something or someone. We read in scripture of an account of a woman who wanted to know who was right when it came to worshipping God. It seems we tend to have that same discussion in many church gatherings today. When we learn to worship humbly, we find that only God is right and our arguments about place, style, volume, or anything else simply reveal our own lack of humility. The answer Jesus gave in regard to worship was that a time was coming, and had indeed now arrived, when true worship was done in spirit and truth regardless of location or any other details. Learning to walk humbly with our God should lead us to continually grow in our worship of God that becomes completely about Him and not about us.
Act Humbly. James 4:8-9, James 3:13
- Perhaps the most easily recognizable trait of walking humbly, or not walking humbly, is found in the way we act. Our actions are what is visible to others most readily. When Jesus tells us that unless we change and become like little children we will never enter the kingdom of heaven, the need to humble our self ought to be very apparent. When we learn to act humbly, we find that the needs of others become more important than our own. Our words about Jesus are either strengthened by the humility in which we serve others or weakened by the pride which looks out for our own interests above that of others. Learning to walk humbly with our God should lead us to constantly evaluate our attitudes and motives behind the way we act.
Love Humbly. James 4:10, Ephesians 4:2
- In case you haven’t noticed, the world is pretty good at messing things up. Much of what is passed off as love in our society has no humility to it whatsoever and therefore isn’t really love at all. Godly love will always look for how we can lift up the object of our love, both in the way we lift up God and in the way we lift up the ones we love. Jesus made it clear that there is no greater love than the willingness for someone to lay down their life for someone else. We love humbly when we are not only willing to lay down our life, but we lay down our pride and selfish desires so that others can be encouraged and built up in faith. Learning to walk humbly with our God should lead us to continually live with an attitude of surrendering our will in order to show true love.
Know Humbly. James 4:6, 1 Corinthians 8:1-3
- As tough as it might be to worship, act, and love humbly, I believe learning to know humbly may be the greatest challenge faced by many of us in our efforts to walk humbly with our God. Very few people, if any, gain satisfaction from being wrong so we do everything in our power to believe we are right and to convince others we are right. God tells us that knowledge has a tendency to puff us up. In fact, without humility, the more knowledge we obtain, the more prideful we tend to become. God’s desire is that we would use whatever elements of knowledge that we have in ways that build up people without causing division and becoming a stumbling block to others. As knowledgeable as any of us might think we are, no one other than God has complete knowledge and learning to know humbly will help to keep our pride in check. Learning to walk humbly with our God should lead us to be always mindful that we do not know it all and that others have knowledge and information that can be useful to us when we filter all of it through the truth of God’s Word.