Humble yourselves
in the sight of the Lord,
and He will lift you up.
JAMES 4:10
This past Sunday morning, my pastor requested I fill the pulpit to speak on "The Source of Humility." It was a humble blessing to stand in God's Word in sharing my heart with my church family.
Be encouraged with this closing part of my sermon.
FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS
I count all things loss
for the excellence of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord...
...that I may know Him
and the power of His resurrection,
and the fellowship of His sufferings.
PHILIPPIANS 3:8, 10
In Philippians 3:10 Paul testified that he counted all of his personal achievements as loss in comparison to personally "knowing the Lord Jesus Christ in fellowship of His sufferings."
You can be in the presence of a person and not have communion with that person. That is not fellowship. However, fellowship with Christ is being in His presence AND having sweet communion with Him.
FELLOWSHIP IN THE GARDEN
In the Garden of Gethsemane
Jesus knelt down and prayed,
"Father, if it is your will,
take this cup away from Me.
Nevertheless not my will,
but Yours, be done."
Being in agony,
He prayed more earnestly.
His sweat became as drops of blood.
LUKE 22:41-44
I refer to some of my prayer times with Christ as "my personal Gethsemanes." It is one of my favorite places with Him. It's usually late at night when it's dark and I'm tired...when the enemy knows I'm most vulnerable.
It is during these times that life sometimes feels so overwhelming. I can fall into the sin of self-pity. I can over-think things. Dwell on the failures of yesterday. Wrestle with the hurts of today. Worry about tomorrow.
However, in the midst of these intense feelings, I sometimes am led to take a step of faith to "humble myself in the sight of the Lord," according to our Rest Stop verse from James 4:10. I simply kneel down, or lay down, and cry out to the Lord, usually something like "Lord, I'm so scared!" or "Lord, I'm not sure I can make it!"or "Why is this happening Lord?"
And when I take this step of faith aware of God's presence, immediately I sense a profound hope. There are no answers yet and my feelings are still unsettled. However, there is a hope deep within me. I know it's Christ in me.
The Lord Jesus Christ our hope.
1 TIMOTHY 1:1
And there is a profound sense of humility that I know I'm not working up but that is welling up in me as a fruit of the Spirit of Christ in me.
It is a humility that believes my Father has everything under control and that He will, as He surely promised in James 4:10, to lift me up...in His perfect timing, in His perfect ways, and for His glory.
When we, as God's children, are deceived to believe we are not in God's presence, we fall into all types of sinful strongholds.
As it was with Moses at the burning bush, our fellowship with Christ in our personal Gethsemanes is holy ground because of His presence.
A sure hope rooted in His resurrection after His Gethsemane prayers. Prayers He prayed for you and me. Prayers He leads us to pray now in fellowship with Him!
Personal Gethsemanes
