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[0:00] I waited patiently for the Lord. He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire.

[0:13] He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.

[0:25] Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him. Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods.

[0:40] Many, Lord my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you. Were I to speak and tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare.

[0:56] Isn't that lovely, that last part? If I was to tell of your deeds, there would be too many. If we were to be here all night, we would never come close to speaking and telling of all the good things the Lord has done for us.

[1:08] Let's come to the Lord in prayer. O Lord our God, we never want to stop being amazed by your grace.

[1:23] We never want to consider your love and goodness to us as an ordinary thing, an everyday thing. We always want to think of Jesus, our Saviour, as extraordinary, marvellous, wonderful, glorious.

[1:42] O Lord, we pray that where perhaps our hearts have become accustomed and our thoughts are accustomed to being a Christian, where we take it as if it's just our right, our privilege, a common matter.

[1:58] O Lord, we pray that you would shake us from that, that you'd show us again just what you've done for us, just an amazing, tremendous salvation you've given us, which we do not deserve, which we cannot earn, when we who deserve hell, judgment, and eternal separation should receive love, forgiveness, and eternal life, all at your cost, all at your expense.

[2:26] O Lord, make us ever to be open-mouthed in wonder, awe, and praise. Amen. Amen. God's Word in the Bible.

[2:47] Please turn with me to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2, and we're going to read the first 13 verses.

[2:59] Philippians chapter 2. And if you have the church Bible, the Red Church Bible, that's page 1179.

[3:16] 1179. Let us hear the word of God. Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in Spirit and of one mind.

[3:53] Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves.

[4:06] Not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage.

[4:29] Rather, he made himself nothing. By taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.

[4:49] Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

[5:03] and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, my dear friends, as you've always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

[5:24] For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. We thank God for his faithful word.

[5:37] Verse 17. Thou who was rich beyond all splendor, all full of strength became as poor.

[6:08] Thou who was rich beyond all splendor, all full of strength became as poor.

[6:19] Thou who was rich beyond all splendor, all full of strength became as poor.

[6:36] Thou who was rich Thou who was rich beyond all praise all full of strength became as poor.

[6:51] Thou who was rich in sorrow and sinners in sorrow and sinners praising and hurt by thine eternal path.

[7:06] Thou who was rich Thou who was rich beyond all praise all full of strength all full of strength became as poor.

[7:20] Thou who was rich How new art, Lord, beyond all turning, Savior and King, we worship thee.

[7:36] In the new world, within us dwelling, make us what thou would rather see.

[7:51] How new art, Lord, beyond all turning, Savior and King, we worship thee.

[8:09] Well, we're actually going to be looking in 1 Peter chapter 5. 1 Peter and chapter 5, if you have the church Bible, that is page 1220.

[8:29] Page 1220 in the church Bible, 1 Peter chapter 5. We're coming to the close of our journey through this letter.

[8:40] It's a very practical letter, this very helpful letter. I hope that you found it so. It has been for me. And this week is our penultimate look, I think.

[8:52] Next week will be our closing thoughts on the letter and on Peter's words from verse 8. But I want us particularly this evening to consider verses 5 to 7 of 1 Peter chapter 5.

[9:06] So I'm going to read those briefly. 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 5, through to including verse 7. In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders, all of you.

[9:22] Clothe yourselves with humility towards one another, because God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble.

[9:32] Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.

[9:48] I don't know whether you are a reader of the classics, not classical Greek, but Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, and all those things. I'm not, but you probably have heard of a man called Uriah Heep.

[10:05] He is a notorious character in Charles Dickens' novel, David Copperfield. And in one part of the story, near the beginning, there's a conversation that goes on between the young David Copperfield and this man, Uriah Heep.

[10:19] And he tells David how he came by his humility, because he kept dropping the H. I'm going to keep the H. Humility. This is what he said.

[10:30] When I was quite a young boy, I got to know what humbleness did, and I took to it. I ate humble pie with an appetite. I stopped at the humble point of my learning, and says I, hard, hard.

[10:48] When you offered to teach me Latin, I knew better. People like to be above you, says Father. Keep yourself down. I am very humble to the present moment, Master Copperfield.

[11:03] Then he goes on to say this. I am well aware that I am the humblest person going, said Uriah Heep modestly. Let the other be where he may.

[11:15] My mother is likewise a very humble person. We live in a humble abode, Master Copperfield, but have much to be thankful for. My father's former calling was humble.

[11:27] He was a sexton. So concludes a quote from David Copperfield. Well, here's Peter speaking about humility. There in verse 5, clothe yourselves with humility towards one another.

[11:42] Verse 6, humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand. Is the humility and humbleness that Peter is speaking about the sort of thing that Uriah Heep was demonstrating in his words, where he kept on talking about his humbleness and his humble position?

[12:05] Well, we know that that is not humility. That cringing type of clearly hypocritical humility has no place in the Bible or in the life of the Christian.

[12:19] But what is humility then? If it's not that, what is it? And what is this humility which ultimately is to characterize Christians?

[12:30] You and I. People who Peter has told us all the way through his letter are people who are journeying through this world. Pilgrims in this world. Strangers in this world.

[12:42] Aliens in this world. People whose lives are to be set apart, wholly different to the people of the world. How are we to be humble?

[12:54] How are we to characterize and live out humility? Well, Peter clearly counts it as something important. Even earlier on, he's spoken to them in chapter 3 and verse 8 about this humility.

[13:08] As you remember, if you were here, then chapter 2 verses 11, right through to chapter 3 verse 8, is about the Christian being submissive to authority. Authority within civil government, authority in the workplace, authority within the home and in relationship, and particularly when we got to verse 8, in the church.

[13:32] And there we read, finally, in other words, in conclusion to all the things I've talked about in submission, all of you be like-minded, sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.

[13:46] And here we have him again, pressing home humility. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.

[13:57] So, we are recognizing that humility is something important. And if it's important, then it's important that we know what it is. And it's important that we not only know what it is, but as we find here, humility is something that we are to do to ourselves, humble yourselves, then we need to know, how do we do it?

[14:18] How do we do humility when we are to humble ourselves? And following on from that question must be, why? Why is humility important? And are there benefits to being humble?

[14:31] Are there blessings that are associated with it? Whenever we want to learn something, and this is not just true as Christians in the Bible, but whenever we want to learn something or teach something, it's always good to have an example, isn't it?

[14:47] Children learn by example. That's how they learn to speak. That's how they learn to behave. That's why naughty children have naughty parents, don't they? Because they learn from them or their peers or whatever.

[15:00] But humility, again, is something which is practical. It is not simply a state of mind, a state of attitude, as perhaps Mr. Heap thought it was.

[15:13] Humility is practical. We can't learn it from a book any more than we can learn to drive a car simply by reading the highway code. It's something that we have to learn from example.

[15:25] So what we need is an expert, an expert in humility. Humility. Now don't all rush forward. Sorry. We need someone who has a first class honors from the University of Humbleness.

[15:38] Who can that be? Well, perhaps somebody like Moses. In Numbers 12, verse 3, we're told this. Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.

[15:52] Who could be better than that to teach us humility? Well, of course, there is one person who is humility personified.

[16:06] There's one person who's written the whole encyclopedia on humility. Of course, our Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest example for life in everything.

[16:17] In everything about the Christian life, our supreme example is Jesus. Peter has made mention of that fact when talking about Jesus' attitude and action towards a suffering world.

[16:29] There in chapter 2 and verse 21, he speaks of Jesus, who has left us an example that we should follow in his steps. That's why, as a Christian, our whole purpose and goal in life is to become more like Jesus.

[16:46] Become more Christ-like. That's the reason that God saved us. Romans 8 tells us that God predestined us to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.

[16:56] The very purpose of our salvation, ultimately, is that Jesus should be seen in us and revealed in us. And so that's the reason why, earlier on in the service, I read from Philippians chapter 2.

[17:09] Because, as you're well aware, Philippians chapter 2 is a passage which speaks a great deal about humility, but also not only calling for humility, but showing us how, by example, it was lived out in the life of Jesus Christ.

[17:27] So there in verse 3, we have part of Paul's commandment, instruction to God's people, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, rather in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others.

[17:45] And then he says, if you want to know how to do it, here's the example. The same mindset, the same character as Jesus Christ. So I want us briefly to look at what true humility is.

[18:02] I want us to look at what true humility is in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we might understand it and that we might ourselves seek to imitate it in the way that we live.

[18:14] And for that, that will mean, for many of us, a reorientating of our thinking. Because as Christians, that's again what is going on, isn't it? Our lives and our minds are being changed.

[18:27] That's Romans and chapter 12, isn't it? Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds. So as you go through the Christian life, our whole pattern of thinking, a pattern of thinking which has been fashioned by the world, is being challenged and it's being changed.

[18:45] That's why Paul uses the phrase mindset. Have the same mindset. So I want us just to look briefly here and ask ourselves, what does true humility look like?

[18:59] The first thing may surprise you, but I think it's very important. True humility means an acceptance of myself. True humility begins with accepting myself for who I am.

[19:13] See, some people think a humble person is someone who hates themselves. A humble person is someone who dislikes themselves. Who thinks poorly of themselves.

[19:25] Who puts themselves down. But that is not humility. We'll come to that a little bit later on. Because if Jesus is the most humble person who ever lived and walked on the face of the earth, he was not somebody who hated himself.

[19:39] He was not somebody who thought little of himself. He's not somebody who put himself down. Rather, we're told, who being in very nature God. The Lord Jesus Christ knew who he was and delighted in the fact that he was the Son of God.

[19:57] And he is the most humble person who ever lived. Yes, we are to dislike sin within our hearts. Yes, we are to hate the sin which we commit in the actions and words we do.

[20:13] But dear friends, you and I are not sin. We are sinners. We are to hate the sin. But we are to love and accept and receive ourselves for who we are.

[20:28] Now for some of us, that can be very, very hard to do. Perhaps because of childhood experiences. Perhaps because of what has happened in life. We look at ourselves and we think, what a wretched person you are.

[20:41] What a waste of space you are. That is not how God views us. And we must not view ourselves in that way either. Dear friends, remember that if you are a believer, above the fact that you have been created in God's image, which is true of every human being, but if you are a believer, dear friends, you are redeemed.

[21:04] You are renewed. You are restored. You are a child of God. You are someone of the greatest and most marvelous value to God.

[21:17] One of my heroes of the past is Billy Bray, who was a Cornish miner. Very poor, very illiterate, but he used to go around shouting, I am the son of the king.

[21:30] I am the son of the king. It's true of you and I. So we have to begin with accepting ourselves for who we are. Accepting ourselves as we are.

[21:41] Jesus did that. Humility begins with that. But of course, that's not the whole of it. The second thing we see here in the life of the Lord Jesus, the second thing we understand about humility is, not only that I accept myself, but I put others before myself.

[22:02] Put others before myself. Look at Jesus, verse 6, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. I like that translation. It's very helpful.

[22:13] Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. Paul has already described exactly again what it is that humility is.

[22:28] In verse 3 and 4, do nothing out of selfish, ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves. Value others above yourselves.

[22:40] I like that translation. I think it's a very helpful translation. The older NIV and other translations put, consider others better than yourself. I don't think that's helpful.

[22:52] Because that goes back to the whole thing, everybody's better than me. Everybody's so much better at being a Christian than I am. But that isn't the case at all, is it? We all fail. We all fall.

[23:04] And again, if we're thinking about the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus did not think of us as better than himself, did he? He never thought that we were better than him. He's the Son of God. He knew us for who we are.

[23:15] But he did value us more highly than his own life. He valued our salvation. He valued our souls more than he valued his own life.

[23:26] It was his humility that took him to the cross for us. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death on the cross. It was his view of us through the eyes of love as valuable that motivated him to make such a sacrifice.

[23:45] It's because he saw you and I and he counted us as valuable, more valuable than his own life, that he came and lived and died on the cross.

[23:56] How can we value ourselves less than that? But there's another wonderful example, isn't there, in the life of Jesus of his valuing and of his humility.

[24:08] And of course, that's found in John and chapter 13. If you turn there just for a moment or two. John 13 is that episode in the upper room where the Lord Jesus Christ washes his disciples' feet.

[24:23] Notice how John explains what happened. I'm going to read from verse 3. John 13, verse 3. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God.

[24:41] In other words, he was fully aware of who he was and what was happening. Okay? Fully accepting of himself as the Son of God, returning to God. So, he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.

[24:58] After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. Now, notice there that we're told that Jesus clothes himself with a servant's apron.

[25:14] We've got towel, but it's not really a towel. It's like a big apron, like a big butcher's type of apron thing, which was long enough to reach down so that he could use it to dry their feet as well. It was the garment of a servant.

[25:30] And when Peter speaks, as he does here, sorry, I beg your pardon. Yes, when Peter speaks here to us in chapter 5, verse 5 of 1 Peter, he says, All of you, clothe yourselves with humility.

[25:45] Now, the word clothe yourselves is one word, and it's the same word that was used in its noun form for the apron that a servant wear.

[25:57] I think that Peter was thinking directly of this event, of Jesus clothing himself, taking to himself the apron of a servant. It was worn so that, one, the servant wouldn't get dirty, or his clothes underneath wouldn't be dirty, but it was actually, in one sense, the uniform of the servant.

[26:15] So, when the Lord Jesus Christ took to himself the apron, he was saying, I've come to serve. And so he washes the disciples' feet, as we know, that tremendous act of service, that act of valuing them.

[26:30] But when we are called here by Peter to clothe ourselves with humility, he's thinking of that same thing. We are to take to ourselves the servant-ness of Jesus.

[26:45] Putting others before myself. And that's where we come back to, again, this reality. Humility cannot be simply a state of mind or a state of heart. Humility cannot be simply saying, Oh, I feel humble, and I feel so lowly, and I feel this, and I feel that.

[27:03] Humility cannot live in the heart alone, just as it could not live in the life of Christ alone. It has to serve others. It has to be outworked. It has to be seen.

[27:13] It's the same as love, isn't it? Or any of the graces that God gives to us. It is not something that sort of exists in the vacuum of our hearts. To say that I am humble, or walking in humility, or clothing myself with humility towards others, cannot be something which simply withholds, or keeps back love, sharing, service, and so on.

[27:37] That's why I believe Peter has put this command right at the end of his teaching about church leaders. Remember, we looked at that last week. The elders, not just old people, but people who were mature in the faith, who had this role of eldership in the church.

[27:52] And he spoke to them about the qualities they are to have. Remember? They are to be those who serve, not because they must, but because they're willing. Who serve, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly.

[28:06] Not lording it over, but being examples. That's why, just an aside, in one sense, I prefer to be called a minister rather than a pastor.

[28:18] I am a pastor, and that's an incredible privilege, but I prefer a minister because it means servant. I am the servant of God, as you are as well. Each one of us.

[28:32] Serving one another. That's the quality. So the first two qualities are, one, that we accept ourselves, accept myself for who I am in Christ, and that I put others before myself.

[28:48] Put others before myself, as Jesus did. Now remember again that I picked up on this point that verse 6 tells us to humble ourselves. Humble yourselves.

[29:01] That's something that we are called to do. That means, dear friends, that none of us are naturally humble. Okay? There's not anybody who is naturally humble.

[29:12] It's not something that is normal. It's not something that you're born with. It's not something that you consciously, that you do unconsciously, if I can put it that way, in one sense. Jesus, we're told himself, had to humble himself.

[29:27] If I can put it that way, there is something in which he was, a decision of his will, a decision of his mind, a determination. And so we read again in Philippians 2, 7, made himself nothing, humbled himself.

[29:42] So humility has to begin with a desire. We have to want it. And we have to do it, if I can put it that way. But why is humility so important?

[29:55] Why should we, why must we humble ourselves? Why is it so intrinsically important? Well, this is where Peter sort of comes out with the big guns of the Old Testament, doesn't he?

[30:05] If you want something to be struck home, then you bring Scripture, you bring the Word of God to bear upon it. And so he does. He quotes from Proverbs 3, verse 34, Therefore, God opposes the proud.

[30:21] In other words, God is set against pride. God has set his face against, he is completely on the opposite side of pride. And those who are proud, he hates.

[30:33] Why? Pride is just a sin of the heart, surely. Pride is, to hate pride? Why does God hate it so much?

[30:44] Well, because pride is so hateful a sin. Pride is really, in one sense, the root of all sin. It's the exalting of self over everyone else.

[31:00] It's the deceitful thought that somehow I am above everyone else, and everyone else is beneath me. It's the root of every thought, word, and act of harm carried out against another person.

[31:15] Put it this way. You would only slander somebody, or rob somebody, or kill somebody that you view as beneath you, whose life is less worthy than yours.

[31:28] That's why pride is so evil. But worse than that, if I can put it that way, pride is not only the root of sin in our attitudes and our actions towards one another, but of course pride is the exalting of myself to the very first place in the universe, to God's place.

[31:47] It is idolatry. That's why pride is opposed by God, and why pride has no place in our lives.

[32:02] So if we are to serve one another in humility, it's vital that we begin by humbling ourselves before God.

[32:13] The two must go together. Humility prepares us to receive and accept God's gracious favor. Notice, God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.

[32:24] Why does he show favor to the humble? Because the humble are the only ones who are willing to see that they need God's favor and are able to receive God's favor. I'm sure you've heard it said many a time of a certain person or persons.

[32:38] Oh, they're too proud to accept any help from anyone. That's the problem, isn't it? That's why many people do not come to Christ for salvation and forgiveness because ultimately they say, I don't need forgiveness.

[32:52] I don't need God. I don't need eternal life. I don't need Jesus Christ. I can manage on my own. I'm quite good enough. Thank you very much. I'm sure that I'm good enough and the good things I've done will get me into heaven and God will accept me if there is a God.

[33:10] You know, God gives grace to the humble because they know that they need that grace and because it's only the humble that will come to God for grace. It's only the humble that will say, God, I need your grace.

[33:22] And so ultimately the third thing here is this. Not only that humility is accepting myself, putting others before myself, but it's also entrusting myself to God.

[33:34] It's entrusting myself to God. Verses 6 and 7. Humble yourselves therefore under God's mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

[33:47] To humble myself under God's mighty hand means to place all my faith, all my trust in him and not myself. To give him the responsibility of worrying about my life rather than me.

[34:04] You see, to be anxious, to be worried, fretful, to generally be fearful for myself, whether that's because of my health or my future or my finances or my good looks or whatever it may be.

[34:21] To be that sort of person is not humility of character. In fact, to be so anxious and concerned about myself, my health, my future, to be so worried and concerned about things concerning me, if we are not careful, will be evidence of self-worship and idolatry.

[34:43] If my thoughts and my concerns and my worries and my anxieties are all about me and the things that I pray for to God are all about me, how can there be any humility there?

[34:55] Haven't I become the center of my universe? Haven't I become the most important person so that I'm not putting others first? Not putting what God wants first?

[35:07] We're to humble ourselves under God's mighty hand. Why does he say that? Why doesn't Peter just say, humble yourselves before God? Why does he say under God's mighty hand?

[35:17] Well, again, surely that's an encouragement for us to humbly trust him with the power to provide for all that we need to meet our needs. God has a mighty hand and we are under that mighty hand of protection, under that mighty hand of shelter, under that mighty hand of provision and care.

[35:39] We are under his hand. He's not lacking in might. He's not lacking in strength. He's not lacking in power. There's nothing too hard for him. All the things that we get in a tizzy about, all the things that, easy peasy for him.

[35:53] No problem for him. He's got a mighty hand. There's a sense here, isn't there, verse 6, we are to humble ourselves under his mighty hand for a time.

[36:04] We're to wait upon him. Waiting upon God is faith, patient faith. that he may lift you in due time, the right time, his time.

[36:16] No matter how long we have to wait under the hand of God, we can trust him that at the right time, when he sees fit, he will lift us up. Now again, here that word is lift up, lift you up, but in many translations it's exalt.

[36:34] So in that sense, I'm going to say exalt is better. Because it isn't so much for a physical lifting up. We may think of it in that way. Oh, well I'm really down and low in health or whatever it may be.

[36:45] God's going to lift me out of that. That may be the case. But God does lift us out of that. But what he's talking about really here, it seems to me, is this sense of exalting, honoring, esteeming.

[36:59] The sense is that one day we will receive the honor that is denied us now. That's especially helpful, I think, to these Christians in the first century.

[37:10] Remember, these first century Christians were people who were being slandered from all sides. They were being treated with contempt by their peers. It comes out again and again in the letter.

[37:21] Chapter 2, verse 12. Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong. Chapter 3, in verse 16.

[37:33] Keep a clear conscience so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ. Chapter 4, in verse 4. They're surprised that you don't join them in their reckless world living.

[37:45] They heap abuse on you. Chapter 4, verse 14. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you see, for them, this is really important. It's very personal.

[37:56] Wherever they went, they're the Christians. They're scoffed, they're mocked, they're ridiculed. You may find that in your workplace. You might find that in your school a little bit as well. You may find that amongst your family.

[38:08] Well, he's the nutter. He's the Bible basher. He's the Christian, you know. A little bit soft in their heads or whatever it may be. And what Peter is assuring God's people here is this, that though we have to humble ourselves under God and we have to, in one sense, endure the contempt and the mocking and the ridicule and the way in which the world looks at the Christians and thinks, you're just a soft idiot.

[38:33] You know, fancy believing in those things. If only you were clever like us and could believe in science and evolution and that sort of thing, then you'd be so much better. He's saying, one day that's going to change.

[38:47] One day that's going to change. Those who belittle and slander us for following Christ are going to see that actually we are God's children, God's people, that we are privileged, that we've been exalted.

[39:01] That's going to come. There's a wonderful verse in Romans in chapter 8 in verse 19 where Paul speaks about, he says, the creation, that's all of God's creation, waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.

[39:16] At the moment, we're hidden. At the moment, the church is hidden. Nobody can see who we really are. Nobody can recognize that we are the sons and daughters of God. One day they will.

[39:27] One day the cloak's going to be taken. One day their eyes are going to see, oh, they're going to see Jesus for who he is, glorious and wonderful. And as we read in Philippians 2, they're going to bow the knee to him and acknowledge him as the living Lord.

[39:45] But in doing that, they're going to acknowledge us. They're going to see us for who we really are, who Christ has made us, how God sees us. They're going to see us as valuable to God as we surely are.

[40:03] And what should we do in the meantime as we wait under God's hand? What is it to humble ourselves under him? Well, again, as we've seen already, humility means that we will trust him with everything.

[40:14] And that means prayer, doesn't it? Faith leads to prayer. Prayer is faith on its knees. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

[40:27] We can pray with confidence, dear friends, that God hears our prayers. He hears our prayers not because we are humble, but he hears our prayers because he cares for us.

[40:41] Isn't that lovely? We don't have to be humble for God to hear our prayers because the reason that he hears our prayers is because he cares for us.

[40:53] Cast your anxiety on him. Why? Because he cares for you. Yes, yes, God seeks humble men and women. Yes, God gives favor to the humble.

[41:04] Yes, humility has its own rewards. A deliverance in one sense from seeing ourselves as rubbish. A deliverance from rushing around serving and seeking to please ourselves but never being satisfied.

[41:18] A worry and an anxiety and a fear for myself. Humility has the wonderful freedom from those things. But the only motivation, the only reason why God gives you grace and me, the only reason why God answers our prayers, the only reason why God promises to exalt us is because he loves us.

[41:39] No other reason than that. Grace humbles us. Because grace declares that no one deserves God's love.

[41:51] No one is worthy of his acceptance. No one deserves to be within heaven. Grace says we're all flatly leveled as sinners before a holy God.

[42:02] But grace wonderfully assures us that once we are loved of God, that love can never ever be removed. It can never ever be changed.

[42:12] He cares for you. Humility, like all qualities, only gets better with practice.

[42:27] Dear friends, let's determine to humble ourselves under God's hand. Let's determine to ask for grace from him that we might be clothed with humility towards one another.

[42:38] Let's put humility into action in serving one another. Let's make our prayer something of the prayer of John the Baptist that wasn't a prayer, it's his declaration in one sense.

[42:52] Another example to us of humility. When before the Lord Jesus he says, he must increase, I must decrease. John wasn't saying, I'm rubbish, I'm no good, I'm useless.

[43:03] but his desire was more than anything else that Jesus may be seen to be greater and greater and greater and greater even in his life. Clothe yourselves with humility and humble yourselves under God's mighty hand.

[43:20] One of us from above. Chor 15 , June CM Thank you.

[44:22] Thank you.

[44:52] Thank you. Thank you.

[45:52] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Amen. Amen.

[46:29] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[46:41]  Amen.