Topic: Humility, Jesus, and the Greatest Man Who Ever Lived– Discover the Book by Dr John Barnett 23 November 2021
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Humility, Jesus, and the Greatest Man Who Ever Lived
Are You HUMBLE?
Today I invite you to consider Jesus, humility—and the greatest man who ever lived up until Christ. That greatest man was also the humblest and his name was John the Baptist. John is the first character introduced in the Gospel by Mark. He is so vital that we need to examine his life closely.
The Lord declared we are sinners from birth and because of that we all want our own way (Isaiah 53:6). Wanting our own way is a simple definition of pride. All of us today share one thing in common and that is the sin of pride. Though most of us never may murder another human—we are proud.
Though we may never get involved in witchcraft or sodomy—we will have a life long involvement with pride.
No matter what else we do in your life, if humility is not ours then God will resist everything else we do. God is moment-by-moment in a personal warfare against pride in the life of believers.
PRIDE is the sin God hates most, sees first, and wants us to likewise hate.
If we are not consciously humbling ourselves daily, hourly, and moment-by-moment, then we are losing the battle with pride. That brings us to Christ’s messenger named… John The Baptist
When God wanted to introduce His Son, who did He send? John the Baptist—a messenger who displays the supreme character God seeks in His servants called humility.
The supreme lesson of John the Baptist’s life is humility. And there can be no more vital message that we all need to hear than that God HATES pride. God used John because he was willing to obey the Lord and by the power of the Holy Spirit in his life cultivate humility.
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Now look back in Matthew chapter 11. When Jesus describes John He calls him the greatest man who had ever lived until that time. Listen what Jesus said:
“Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist” (Matt. 11:11).
May I introduce you to the greatest saint who ever lived up until Christ’s time? Jesus called him that. Great saints are like giant markers that point the world to God. Before John were many incredible saints, but Jesus said none of them were greater than John.
John 3: 22-30: The key to God’s attention is humility. The pathway to being constantly showered with grace is humility. The heart attitude that leads to humility is summed up by John’s testimony, “Christ must increase and I must decrease“.
Have you come to the place in your life as a believer where you want to increase Christ’s attitude as yours decreases? Christ’s actions increase through you as your selfish actions decrease? Christ’s gracious words increase in your mouth as your words decrease? Christ’s desires and passions increase in you and your fleshly passions and desires decrease? “Christ must increase and I must decrease“. That is the essence of humility.
Humility produces spiritual blessing. Just as every sin starts in pride, every virtue begins in humility. Humility allows us to see ourselves as we are, because it shows us before God as He is.