Seek Humility

Wayne Matthews

June 15, 2024

Welcome, brethren.

We understand the opposite to pride, which is humility. One aspect of pride that we all have is that—often we don’t fully get into the details of pride—but one aspect that I want to cover today, which is about pride, is the fact that it’s about self-reliance, and humility (which there are two types), this humility is about God-reliance.

Now, we understand that pride, the author of pride is Satan, which is about having a different view contrary to God’s, which is a self-reliance, which we have. We know that by nature the way we were created we all have pride, we all have self-reliance. Pride is natural to us.

I remember thinking about this before saying we all know someone who has pride. Everybody. But we fail to look in the mirror because that’s the somebody who’s got pride because we all have a degree of self-reliance. It’s natural to us.

We understand that pride is sin, therefore, self-reliance is sin, being self-reliant. It’s one of those things we would think, “Well, I’m not too sure how self-reliant I really am.” But today one of the things I would like to cover is that I wanted to look at this aspect of self-reliance and coming from a background of what’s called KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).

Now, Key Performance Indicators are something that’s in business and it’s the way that a person is renumerated. So, if you said, for example, you were going to produce this, and that’s what it is, and therefore, you have to be measured, are you going to produce it? The connective of that is timing. So, it’s a Key Performance Indicator. It tells you how you are really doing in a business.

I grew up with that, and fortunately or unfortunately I’ve used that because there’s a positive and a negative to everything. That I’ve used that in my spiritual life as a positive to say, “Well, how am I going? How is Wayne really going on self-reliance?” It’s one of the things that it shocks you when you get into the details of it because by nature, I’m self-reliant, just like you’re self-reliant. It’s one of those things by nature.

So, we’re going to look at that and look at what is the contrary, the opposite to it, which is about being God-reliant. Now, we understand that God also cannot work with someone that practices pride, practices self-reliance. Now, if we look at that in a little more detail what that’s really saying is that by nature, we will form a view or an opinion based on our upbringing or what’s happened to us, and often we’ll rely on that view or opinion. But is it God’s? That’s the contrary. The contrary to being self-reliant is God-reliant.

Humans can be humble but not God-reliant. So, that’s what I was saying before about two forms of humility. There’s a natural human humility. Some people have a humility, but connected to it is pride. So, pride drives that humility. Someone will say in the world, “Ah, that person is a very humble person.” They’re riddled with pride. It’s natural.

What we’re going to look at today is we’re going to look at one aspect of humility, which is human humility, but there is another humility which is God-given, comes from the gift of God’s holy spirit. It requires God’s holy spirit to be truly humble as God requires someone to be humble. It’s not a human humility because a human humility is manipulative. It’s based on pride because that’s how the world works.

A proud person will not listen to God, but once humbled they might listen to God. I emphasized the word “might” in bold letters because not everybody that’s humbled will necessarily listen to God. It’s a choice they’re going to have to make. We know that God will soon humble this world, which is now full of pride, it’s full of self-reliance.

I’ve got a few scriptures today. I won’t be turning to all of them. But this is a very interesting topic because when we get into KPIs and measuring it, we’ll be able to see ourselves, where we stand individually. We know we have pride, but to what depth do we have it? What depth do we have self-reliance?

Proverbs 16:18— Pride… That’s the lifting up of self, which is in the thinking. Pride comes from the way we think, and therefore, we should be able to measure it in ourselves whether we’re giving an answer to something based on our own opinion, pride, versus God’s view of a matter, humility.

Pride, this lifting up in the thinking, goes before destruction. Because that’s what’s going to happen to this world. It is heading for destruction, and the main reason is pride is driving it, a self-reliance, “This is the way I see it.” “This is what we should do.” It’s not about what God thinks about what should be done. Now, that word “destruction” is “breaking.” It’s going to be broken, or “a ruin,” it’s going to come to ruin.

…a haughty, which is a “high or lofty” which means, really, someone who’s really, totally self-reliant. Someone with a haughty spirit before a fall, before ruin. If we hold on to pride we face a second death.

So, when we go through the Millennium, we come out to the Hundred Years, anybody that’s willing to hold on to self-reliance is going to face a second death. That’s the outcome, totally ruin, total destruction.

Verse 19—Better to be of a humble spirit, which is low in thinking, with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud, with the arrogant. So, what we can learn from that is that someone that has pride, one aspect of it is there’s an arrogance connected to it. In other words, they already know. There’s no use talking to them, no use telling them about what God thinks because they already know, so no point.

The title of today’s sermon is Seek Humility, and the purpose of the sermon is to look at how we must seek Godly humility, not just human humility.

Isaiah 66:1. We know this scripture quite well. It has a spiritual meaning behind it as well. Thus says the Eternal, Heaven is My throne, and earth My footstool. So, it’s looking at something and saying, “Well, I created all this and here you are you’re going to build something for Me? But everything exists because I God, created it.”

Heaven is My throne, the earth is My footstool. Where is the house/dwelling that you will build Me? So, where is it? Well, we know the answer to that. Here. We’re here. God is dwelling with us. So, it’s not physical, it’s something spiritual.

Where is the place of My rest? We know the answer to that too. It’s God can dwell in us. His rest is in the Temple, which we are part of that Temple.

We have been given the answer to the question, which is quite incredible when you look at it. The world knows nothing about it and will only look at this all on a physical level. We can look at it at a spiritual level. We have the potential now for God to dwell in us and then forever once we enter Elohim. That’s God’s resting place.

For all these things or all those things, all the physical things, My hand has made, and all those things exist, says the Eternal. Because God did it. God created it all.

But this is the one that I will look… So, here we have the creator of the universe will look at a certain person. God says, But on this one will I look, on him/her who is poor, which is “crushed; humble; needy.” Now, that word “needy” is very interesting because God will look on someone who needs Him, who realizes they need Him. Because without God we have nothing, we are nothing, we’re just physical human beings and we’re of the dust of the earth and can cease to exist.

But if the person with God’s spirit sees that they need God, that God dwelling in them is the answer to their life, that’s being needy. We need God’s word, we need to understand God’s word, we need to see God’s view of things; that’s being needy. Because of and by ourselves we have nothing. We’ve got pride.

So, God will look on the poor, someone that’s needy, and of a contrite spirit, which is “smitten or crushed.” In other words, their human nature, selfishness, the self that’s in us, is being crushed by us. We’ve made that choice. It’s someone that now relies on God. They become God-reliant.

…who trembles. That word “tremble” is “fear to go against God’s word.” It’s not like they’re in there shaking. But no, that person realizes from their mind, they think, “Ah, I’ve got a choice here. I can go against what God has said,” and it can be because it comes through the ministry, “This is what God says,” and yet “I’m going to do something different.” That’s not fearing God. That’s not trembling at God’s word, God’s government, to say something and do something opposite or contrary. No humility there. That’s a fair sign of no humility, really, because they’re not relying on God’s word. They’re relying on their own view, their own opinion, what they think.

…who trembles, which is to go against God’s or fear God’s word, fear to go against it, at My word. The person needs to be God-reliant. That’s what a person needs to be in God’s Church. We have to be God-reliant which is humble, submissive, teachable, obedient to God’s word. They’re all those things that have to be within us, that we have to be.

John 5:18—Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, talking about Christ. He had healed on the Sabbath, and therefore, they already wanted to get rid of him. Here they’re now justifying one of the reasons why they want to do it. …because he not only broke the Sabbath, in their view, their opinion, because he healed on the Sabbath, but also said God is his Father, making himself equal with God.

Now, we understand that, but we should understand the depth of that. Imagine if we turned around and said, “We are begotten sons of God.” Whew. It’s similar isn’t it? People will hate you. “You’re a what? A son of God? Making yourself equal to God?” But we’re begotten sons of God, that’s what we are, man or woman, begotten sons of God. We wouldn’t say it. Christ did say who he was. He was of God. So, he made himself equal to God.

What are we doing? We’re virtually doing something similar. Not the same but something similar by saying we’re begotten sons of God. So, we’re lifting ourselves up saying, “Oh, we know God,” in other words, indicating to the other person that they don’t.

Verse 19—Then Joshua answered and said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing — no self-reliance here at all, none. The Son can do nothing, nothing spiritual, of himself, but what he sees, which is in the mind… So, it’s the same for us, isn’t it, really? It’s what we see in the mind. Through the power of God’s holy spirit, we can read a scripture and we see something. But another person can’t see what we see. It’s the same thinking. …the Father do, what God instructs us. For whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner or the same way. It’s the same word.

Well, we’re begotten sons of God, we have a choice. Will we follow what God says about a matter or will we be self-reliant and choose to have a different view or a different opinion? Dangerous. Very dangerous.

Well, there’s the first measure. Now, talking about KPIs I wanted to go through just a couple of things that indicate whether or not we’re self-reliant. Now, the first thing is, we are, no matter what. If we think we’re not self-reliant we’re deluded and deceived. We really are because we’re all self-reliant.

Well, I thought I’d give you a couple of things that I can use, and I have used, and I do use as a measure. Firstly, we look to God’s word for our guide. Now, this would indicate, it would be the first thing. Do we? So, when we start a day are we self-reliant or God-reliant? Now, that’s virtually saying, do we when we wake up and start a day, do we ask God to intervene into our day and help us, to guide us, or think about God at all, or guide our thoughts, words, and actions, or ask for protection? Well, there’s an example of whether we’re self-reliant.

So, if we don’t in the mornings when we wake up, at some point in the morning ask God for guidance and direction in whatever we do or we’re going to do that day we are demonstrating self-reliance.

If we do ask God for intervention, to guide us, our thoughts, words, and actions that day, what are we demonstrating? God-reliance. We’re demonstrating humility, and if we don’t we’re demonstrating pride. That’s one measure that we could use.

Another one would be fasting. Scripture talks about “humble yourselves.” Humble yourselves. So, when was the last time we fasted? If it’s months (Atonement we should have), but since then if it’s months after Atonement, months, and months, what are we demonstrating? Self-reliance. We’re demonstrating pride because that’s one of the measures. “Humble yourselves before God.” It’s a choice. And if we don’t, what are we really saying to God? “It’s okay. I can manage it. I don’t need Your help.” That’s what we’re really demonstrating if we refuse to fast during the year other than the Day of Atonement.

Another measure: Are we examining ourselves? Are we examining ourselves every day? If we’re not, what are we demonstrating? Self-reliance. Because we’re not examining self, which is a problem. Self is a problem, we know it, and if we’re not willing to measure it in the sense of examine it to see what we’re doing compared to God’s word, what’s happening? That’s another measure.

If we’re not measuring ourselves and measuring self and what we say, what we do, what we think, if we’re not doing that on a regular basis what are we demonstrating? Self-reliance. We’re just letting the human nature run its course and we do whatever we want. We’re not God-reliant.

Another thing that often can happen is that we have the potential to plan things and think about things on a physical level and then after it’s all planned we might think, “Oh, I better see what the ministry thinks, what God thinks.” Or we might think, “Oh, I better check to see what God thinks about it.” That’s the first thing we should have done, not the last thing. That’s the first thing we should have done, which was we better check God’s word to see what God says about a matter. It’s called examining self. What does God say about it?

Well, there are a couple of key performance indicators to see how we’re doing. Now, if we are failing in some of those areas what choice do we have but to repent? We can repent quickly.

So, if you drop down to John 5:30—I can of myself do nothing. It’s like almost a throwaway thing for us; we’ve read it that many times, “I of myself can do nothing,” but do we really believe it? Because this is about humility. A humble person will seek what God thinks about a matter and a non-humble person, someone with pride, will not seek what God thinks about a matter. I’m talking about anything physical that we’re doing no matter what it is. We should think, “Well, what does God think about it?”

A classic example is clean and unclean foods. Last night we went out for a meal with people that were not converted, our son and some others, and it was interesting. So, we don’t eat prawns and bacon and so we wanted a special fried rice, and we thought, oh, we’ll have special fried rice. And he said, “Oh no, it’s got bacon and prawns and all that.” We said, “Oh, we don’t have that.” But there were others there that were quite happy. So, we turned around and said, “Well, we’ll have a separate bowl.” We’ll just have a separate fried rice with just vegetables in it. They did a favor and threw a few croutons in it.

Then the other bowl they had, of course, was full of bacon and prawns and it was devoured virtually, but ours sat there for a bit longer than normal. So, you realize these are little things. That’s a minor thing, pork and prawns are minor, in comparison to God’s word. But God says not to eat it so a humble person will say, “Well, no, I’ll follow God’s word.” A non-humble person will say, “Nah, don’t worry about it.” True? One is self-reliant. Rely on God. It’s just a small thing demonstrating that these things happen.

I of myself can do nothing. There is nothing spiritual that can happen in our lives at all without God. Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing. One of the things that often annoys me badly or my wife gets upset at me, but I hear people on the TV will say, “Oh, that person was so spiritual.” They know nothing about somebody being spiritual. It’s called false humility. That’s what it’s called. False humility. It’s not humility at all; it’s riddled with pride. It’s human pride demonstrated as humility. It’s incredible.

As I hear, I judge. That’s interesting. We’ve had sermons about this. So, we are to judge self to make sure that what Christ is saying, “As I hear,” it’s about what God thinks about a matter, “I judge.” So, we have to judge ourselves, but we are judging ourselves against God’s word. That’s what we’re doing.

…and My judgment is righteous. Isn’t that fantastic? Righteous! So, if we want our judgment to be righteous it has to be in tune with God who is righteous.

…because I do not seek my own… That’s the problem with us. We seek our own views and opinions. …will but the will of the Father who sent me.

So, we are to be Godly-reliant, not self-reliant. We are not to form our own opinions or views on a matter separate to what God thinks. And if there is anything in our life that we think, and we think we know God’s view on a matter, we should, and if we don’t know, we should ask. We should ask. That’s demonstrating humility. Asking, “Well, what’s God’s view on this?” That’s a demonstration of putting, wanting to know what God thinks of a matter. Because we automatically think, “Oh, we already know.” Well, not necessarily, not in this complicated world. It's not about “The way I see it.” This is about the way God sees it.

Isaiah 2:10. Now, we’re getting close to this coming to fruition, Isaiah 2:10. It’s talking about the Day of the Lord and it’s talking about God’s people as well as the world. But when you look at this and you realize the world is not expecting anything compared to what we know is happening. The Thunders are getting louder, things are getting closer and closer together, and at one point this is going to erupt.

You can see how the world is already aligned. Everyone is already aligned with somebody. If we think that, “Ah, maybe…” They’re already aligned. It’s already in place. Everything is there. The thinking is there, and this is about the way people think, different ways of thinking. That’s what it’s all about. And it’s heading to this outcome.

Isaiah 2:10—Enter into the rock and hide in the dust for the terror of the Eternal and the glory of His majesty. The lofty… Now, that word “lofty” is a form, it’s coming from pride, “the lofty; loftiness; haughtiness; self-reliant” looks of man shall be humbled. They’ll be brought low in thinking. So, anyone that is going to rely on something other than God’s word is going to be humbled.

Now, we understand that there are nations that are relying on military might. There are others that are relying on a nuclear weapon as their protection. “If I’ve got one, we’ve all got one, and I’m not going to be the first to let it go.” But that’s a reliance. It’s called self-reliance, protect self. We don’t need nuclear weapons; we need to rely on God.

Now, we’re in this position ourselves, brethren. The things that are coming, we’re going to have to be God-reliant every minute, every second of every day until Christ returns. Then the same thing applies. Because there is no way through this and it won’t really matter how big the stash is, it won’t really matter on the physical. We do what we’ve been told to do on a physical level, get ready. We may be able to use it for a little period of time, we may not. Who knows.

We’re going to have to be totally God-reliant. No self-reliance at all. It’s not going to make any difference. It’s just going to be whether God sees that we’re going to live through this period. God has made promises about certain things.

The haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Eternal alone shall be exalted in that day. So, to be exalted is an act of humility. God’s going to put things in order, put them in their right place. Mankind is riddled with pride and self-reliance.

For the day of the Eternal of hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty. Everything. There is no escape. So, anybody that thinks that they’re going to escape by having a nuclear bunker, that is delusional. This is about God-reliant versus self-reliant.

Upon everything lifted up—it shall be bowed low. Everything. So, what’s coming and what we’re heading towards, and we’re seeing part of it, and if we’re living in certain parts of certain countries at the moment it’s not a good place to be. But it’s going to come everywhere eventually when there is no food and there is no water, there’s nothing. There’s nothing. We’re going to have to be God-reliant. No self-reliant, not our view or opinion. No, it’s what God says.

So, we’ll be able to tell people what God says about a matter, and if the repercussions are negative, they’re negative. But we’ll stand with the truth. We have the truth. It’s what we believe. We have to be willing to give up our life for the truth if that’s what’s required. That’s being God-reliant whatever the outcome is.

Revelation 3:17. So, what is wrong with human thinking? The answer is pride. Everybody is born with pride. We all have pride. We all have a degree of self-reliance. It’s just natural.

Now, when we look at this we’re going to look at it slightly differently than where we had before. Revelation 3:17, of course, is about the Church that went to sleep. I was one of those, and to look at it through the eyes of God-reliant versus self-reliant. Because the Church that went to sleep went to what? Self-reliance. It didn’t really have God-reliance at all. It went to self-reliance.

Revelation 3:17—Because you say, I am rich, have become wealthy (spiritually), and have need of nothing. When we say we have “need of nothing,” what are we saying? We’ve got pride. That’s total self-reliance. “I’ve need of nothing. It’s okay, I’m doing well. I’ve got some truth. I’m in the Church of God. It’s fine.” No, it’s not. It’s a delusion. It’s not. It was about pride, and it was about self-reliance.

…and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, spiritually blind, can’t see spiritually, and naked spiritually. It’s incredible. So, one is saying, “I don’t need anything.” Self-reliant.

The truth is we are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked if we think that. The reality is that’s what we’re like. We need God. We need to be God-reliant. We need to do as God says to do things. We need to think the way God thinks about a matter.

The first point to recognize is that there is a humility that comes from human pride and then there is a Godly humility which comes from the gift of God’s holy spirit. There are two types of humility. There is a physical one and then there is a spiritual one. We want the spiritual one and we have the potential to have the spiritual one, whereas the world doesn’t. They can only have the human humility. That’s all they can have until God’s spirit is with them.

Human humility still relies on self. It still has its own views and its own opinions. It’s what the person thinks. But they still don’t have God’s spirit to give them the Godly humility. Godly humility comes from God. We rely on God and work toward obeying His word. Humility is about the way we think.

So, humility is in the mind, and it can be demonstrated because we can think a certain way but there are certain things that we would do, which I mentioned. Prayer, first thing in the morning or early in the morning which is a demonstration that we’re not going to rely on self to get through this day. We’re going to rely on God to help us get through this day. Doesn’t say we won’t sin, it just means that we look to God, we look to God’s view on a matter.

“We can deliver this to you on Saturday. Will you be there?” God-reliant/self-reliant. “Oh yeah, that’ll be fine,” get out there and help it, get all delivered and we do a transaction on the tap and go. Or God-reliant – no, it’s a day of rest and worship the Eternal God. “I don’t want the delivery on Saturday, and I can’t pay for it on Sabbath. I’m not going to. You can come Sunday if you want.” “We don’t work Sunday.” “Well, don’t come. See you Monday.”

We can see how things can work. Little things can creep into our life where before you know it we’re self-reliant and we’re not relying on God at all. So, humility is about the way we think.

Now, there are examples of pride, which we’re going to look at, which is in Exodus 10:3. This is about Pharoah, who demonstrated pride.

Exodus 10:3—So Moses and Aaron came into Pharaoh and said to him, Thus says the LORD God of the Hebrews, How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? God is the creator and here we have a human being that was asked certain questions, but Pharoah would not listen. Refused to listen to God, in other words.

Now, we have this same potential. We can refuse to listen to God and God’s word that comes through on a Sabbath. We can refuse to listen. No, this is a matter of life and death. Whether we are self-reliant or Godly-reliant is a matter of life and death. Not physical, spiritual.

Human humility is not Godly humility. They’re not the same. Because human humility is based on pride. Human humility is still selfish and the motive behind human humility is self-reliance. There is no involving God in every thought or word or action.

Without God’s holy spirit, one cannot see this fact. So, what I’m talking about today and what we’re tabling today, it can’t be understood by the natural carnal mind because a person can think, “Oh, I’m humbled.” No, it’s not what it’s about. This is about looking to God and God’s word.

Godly humility is only possible by the power of God’s holy spirit and is revealed by the willingness to sacrifice our self and listen to God. Now, that is a key statement in lots of ways because a demonstration of Godly humility means we’re going to be examining self and self-reliance. We’re going to examine it and go, “Ah…” I still think, and I know, I’ll admit, I am often self-reliant.

I might start off the morning the right way and ask God to be involved in everything but halfway through the morning, or less than halfway through it I’ll still have an aspect of self-reliance, the way I see it or the way it should be done or have an opinion or view. But it’s not what God says to do so we fight against God. But we’re blessed we can repent and move on and then I don’t want to do that anymore. I want to be the opposite. I want to be God-reliant. I want to listen to what God says about a manner and I’m going to implement it, what God says about it, not what I think. It’s not important. It’s what God thinks.

So, this willingness to sacrifice self, examine self, is very important, which we’ve heard about in sermons at the Feast about judgment as well. It’s the same thing. It’s about examining self and going, “Oh, how do I really respond? Am I self-reliant, really, or am I Godly-reliant?” And only the individual can answer that question.

Godly humility is revealed by the sacrificing of self as God desires us to do. It’s what God desires. We’re to give up. We’re to love the brethren. Well, that requires a sacrifice. It requires sacrificing of self to love the brethren. It’s not just something that, “Oh yeah,” with a magic wand, “I love the brethren now.” No, it requires looking at self, humbling self, and why we said it, humbling self, because “my” view, “my” opinion, what “I” wanted to do is not important. “I’m” happy to give it all up so that I can have someone else have their way. That’s humility. That’s a demonstration of humility.

So, if we’re examining our self and correcting our self and adjusting our thinking we’re demonstrating humility, we’re not demonstrating self-reliance, our view on a matter.

To be able to say, “I am not worthy,” which we’re not, a person must see God’s mercy, which requires humility, requires God’s holy spirit. So, if you look at that in a bit more detail when we say we’re not worthy, we’re not worthy because we see God and God’s greatness, God’s glory. We can see it and think, “Hang on a minute. God, who has eternally existed, created everything. Everything! And here we are in this little, short period of time and we have an opportunity to make a choice.”

That’s the measure. Will we be self-reliant or Godly-reliant? Choice. We make one every day, every minute. Every second of the day we’re making a decision, what are we going to do? The outcome is incredible outcome when you look at it. What an incredible outcome. Be in Elohim and live forever with Elohim in a Family that thinks a particular way, never to sin ever again, or have no life, darkness forever.

Now, just even on a human mind, you think, “Hang on a minute, life forever or darkness. Is there a choice?” That’s what you’d think with the natural mind. But no, the natural mind can work up things and justify things. Thousands have had the opportunity, but they’ve gone back to self-reliance, not Godly reliance.

Humility is all about the way we see ourselves compared to God. So, if we stop and think, “Now, hang on a minute. Who am I really? Well, I’m just a human being that God in His mercy has called.” If we don’t make the right choices, there’s nothing. We’ve got to see how great God is and the mercy that He has shown, that He has a plan that He wants a Family. How incredible is that? What potential we have. We’ve got to be able to see that. That’s actually going to generate a level of humility because it’s going to go, “Whoa, I’ve got to do better. I’ve got to fight harder,” because what’s been offered is incredible. This gift that God is offering us is incredible.

We must come to see our true state, our condition, and what we’re really like without God. Now, we should be able to see that. We can see what’s happening in the world. We can see how people are acting, how people are behaving.

Different things over here in Australia just of late, they’ve decided to put the rainbow on the bottom of a poppy, you know the Anzac. Australia and New Zealand alliance for war, Anzac day, they put a rainbow on it. And you think, why? Because it’s politically correct. That’s the only reason. And then, of course, we’ve got to have another flag with a different color, the First Nation flag. That’s going to be another issue. So, we’re going to have to have that on it. Oh, then we’ve got to have the Builders Union on it because they’re strong too. The poppy is going to disappear. You can see it. There’s going to be that many colors. The world is just going absolutely insane but it’s all politically motivated. Why? Self-reliance. Not what God says about a matter.

You know, God created something incredible in the sky to demonstrate something about Him. That’s God-reliant. When we see it, we look at it. I remember years ago gave a sermonette about the rainbow. And just the congregation that was there said there was two choices. What do you see when you see a rainbow? Well, that’s the same question. You look at it, what do we see when we see a rainbow?

Well, today if you went out there and said, “What do you see in the rainbow?” You know what they would say. Is it a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? Or this group. Don’t see God in any part of a rainbow, a promise that was made. That’s disappeared. That promise doesn’t exist in the world. They either see a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow or another group. It’s quite incredible what’s going on in the world.

So, we’re God-reliant, so when we see a rainbow, what should we think? What God says about the matter. It’s a promise that He will not flood the earth like He did in Noah’s day. Incredible.

We as God’s people in a state of humility should see and believe that we’re never going to be worthy of the gift. Because we’re not. It’s something being freely offered to us, but we know that there is nothing we can do physically. You can’t earn it, really. This is something that can be given to us if it’s God’s gift to give to us, which He’s offered.

Zephaniah 2:1. Now, we’re going to look at this from the point of view of the Church. Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together, O undesirable nation. Now, we know that’s about the called-out ones, the Church of God. So, we’re the undesirable nation. Nobody wants to really know us or the Church.

Before the appointed time brings forth, the day passes like chaff. Well, that’s talking about something that’s just ahead of us, Christ’s return. It’s a day that’s coming that’s going to be horrendous for mankind.

Before the Eternal’s fierce anger comes upon you, before the day of the LORD’s anger comes upon you! So, it’s coming. It’s not far to go.

Verse 3—Seek. Now, the word “seek” here is “to strive after.” It means it’s going to take action. “Ask; beg; beseech.” So, that’s what that word “seek” is. In other words, we’ve got to do something. It’s just not going to be automatic. It’s not just automatically going to be something that’s going to come down and be given to us, just “Oh, yeah, okay.” No, it says, Seek the Eternal. We’re going to have to ask, beg, seek a relationship with God, do something about it.

…all you meek or humble of the earth, which is true humility can only exist within the Church. God’s holy spirit. Where God’s holy spirit dwells that’s where it is. There are others that may be in the church as far as associated with the church, they may not be able to fulfill this because they don’t have God’s holy spirit or it’s gone completely, gone because a person will be part of the church or in the Church. Two different things.

“All the meek or humble of the earth,” those in the Body of Christ with God’s holy spirit. Who have upheld, which is “to work; exercise; to practice,” Who have upheld His justice. So, we’ve had sermons about judgment, which is about God’s way of thinking, the way God sees it. So, what we’re really saying here is humility is when we then use God’s word as our guide. That’s when we’re demonstrating humility. Because we see it as our guide, and we live it. It’s what God says about a matter.

Working on the Sabbath or not working on the Sabbath? What is the choice? Not to work on the Sabbath. We do it because God says that. That’s a humble person. It’s the beginning of humility. “Oh, that’s what God says? I’m going to do it.” That’s the consequence? Could lose your job, hundreds of other problems could arise. “That’s okay, I’m trusting God’s word. I’m going to do it. I don’t care what happens.” Because in the end, it’s all worthless anyway, isn’t it? What’s the point?

So, we are to uphold His justice, which means we’re going to do what God says in His word.

Then it goes on and says, Seek righteousness, seek humility. Isn’t that beautiful? We’re to seek it. In other words, we have to do something about it. It’s just not going to be given to us.

What is righteousness? Well, we know that righteousness is God, God’s word. It’s God. Righteousness is God. God is righteous. No one else is. Man isn’t, God is. Joshua the Messiah is because the same word. So, God’s word, God’s thinking is righteousness. So, that’s what we have to do, we have to seek it.

We’re to seek humility. That’s interesting that they’re separated. Because God can work with a humble person. Someone who is humble with God’s spirit can be worked with. Why? Because they listen to what God says. They will listen to what is given to the Church.

The reason we would do that, to seek righteousness, to seek humility? So that it may be that you will be hidden or concealed in the day of the Eternal’s anger. Judgment is coming on mankind. It’s going to be one of the most horrendous days of mankind’s life. It’s called the return of Joshua the Messiah, the Day of the Lord. It’s going to be horrendous for the majority of mankind that are left, absolutely horrendous.

So, what does it really mean to seek righteousness, to seek humility? The title of the sermon of course was Seek Humility. In other words, we’re going to have to do something about it.

Well, one measure if you like, of seeking righteousness, which is like a Key Performance Indicator is we would believe all 57 Truths because it’s from God. It’s God’s word so we’re demonstrating faith.

Now, righteousness is accounted to us like it was to Abraham, I think it was. I’ll get to that, maybe. Because it’s accounted to you as righteousness to believe God. So, for us to be believing God we’re going to have to believe 57 Truths, and therefore, it’ll be accounted to us as righteousness because we believe God.

So, if God advises us to then turn around and say we should do something, well, it’ll be accounted to us as righteousness if we did it. But if we didn’t do it, what would it be accounted to us as? Sin. It’s rebellion. It’s going against God’s word.

One of the key measures we can use – do we believe all 57 Truths? Do we get into them and look at them and overview them, you know, look at them, study them, pray about them? Well, there is a demonstration of whether or not God’s going to account righteousness to us, whether we believe what He’s telling us.

Matthew 7:7. Now, we’re going to go through this because I found this personally rather exciting based on the topic of humility because I know each one of us wants to seek humility. And I know personally, that’s what I would like and that I don’t always live humility by any means. But I would like to be more humble, listening to God, be open to that correction, be open to that guidance. So, I want to seek humility.

Well, that’s the opportunity we have. We’re told to seek righteousness and to seek humility. How? Well, this is the scripture where Christ has told us how to do it. These scriptures are about spiritual gifts. No matter what that gift is. For example, I can’t remember where it is, maybe James, it talks about if you want wisdom, what are you to do? Ask. Who’s got it? God. So, this really needs to be looking at the context of someone has got it, Yahweh Elohim has got it, Joshua the Messiah has it—they’re the only two with it—how do you receive it? How do we receive it? Asking for it. So, that’s what this is about.

Matthew 7:7—Ask, which is “beg; crave; call for.” That’s what that word really means. Call for it, ask and it will be given to you. Whew. There’s the number one action of someone who is humble. They’re going to have to identify that without God we’ve got nothing, and then after that, the next thing, we’re going to get before God and we’re going to ask for a spiritual gift that He has, and Joshua the Messiah has. All comes from God the Father. So, we know we’re going to ask for it.

What does God say, “Ask, and it will be given.” I think it’s an amazing scripture. All we’ve got to do is choose to ask.

…seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. So, if after another five years, ten years, whatever it is that we may or may not have life in, if we’re not more humble than today there is a reason. We didn’t ask, knock, or seek. Because God says if we ask for Godly humility He will give it to us. But we have to ask. The problem we have as humans is we don’t ask. We’re too self-reliant. We think we will manage; we’ll just get on with it.

So, this really says this requires an action on our part which is prayer. We need to ask. So, I’m not just looking at humility here, I’m looking at anything God the Father has as far as His character, and His word. We need to ask, and it will be given.

Now, I’m not asking about physical things – new car, new house, new this, new that. It’s this is about spiritual fruits to be borne. If we want peace of mind, ask. That’s what God is saying.

For everyone who asks, which is “to beg; crave; call for” receives. Everybody who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and he who knocks it will be opened. I think they’re just so encouraging, those words. Me, personally, I found them very motivating.

The problem is me. My past, I haven’t asked. I haven’t knocked. I haven’t sought it the way I should have. I’ve got to do it with a lot more zeal, with genuine emotion, you know, genuine thinking. “This is what I want. This is what I need from you, God, please give it to me.” Ask for it! God says He won’t hold it back. Because what are we asking for? His character. We want to be more like God. You’d think it’s straightforward, but we can live our lives not asking.

Verse 9— Or what man is there among you, man or woman, who, if the son or daughter asks for bread, which is physical, and gives them a stone? That’s just the natural carnal mind. If the natural carnal mind child asks for something, for bread because they’re hungry, you don’t go and pick up a stone and say, “There you go.” You wouldn’t do it, would you?

Here is God, Yahweh Elohim, who wants us in His Family, and He wants to give it to us. The problem is us. We don’t ask.

Verse 10—Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? Something that will hurt him? Of course not. God wants to give us something and all He requires of us is to ask. “Ask and it will be given.” I think that’s incredible!

I’m not too sure we’re going to get back to this scripture, but we hope to. Hold your place there. You may be holding it for no reason.  We may not get there. But we’ll see.

1 John 2:28. (Hold your place in Matthew 7.) And now, little children, which is children of God. We’re begotten sons and daughters of God. We’re begotten by God’s holy spirit. …abide, which is “dwell; remain; continue” in him, in Christ, that when he appears, we may have confidence, which is a boldness, and not be ashamed before Him at his coming, at his presence.

So, here what really is being said is that we need to be close to God. We really need to be close to God. We now have that potential because God’s called us to that, to have this relationship.

Verse 29—If you know that He is righteous, you know, you understand that everyone who practices righteousness is begotten of Him. So, this is really saying it’s all about the way we live. Now, we are the only ones who have this potential to fulfill the scripture, to practice righteousness. We’re the only ones out of the seven or eight billion, whatever it is now (I think it’s eight billion) people, we’re the only ones to have this potential, to practice righteousness. What is righteousness? We know what righteousness is. It’s God’s thinking. It’s God’s word. God is righteous.

So, we can practice it, we can put it into fact, into use, into facts into our life every day.

1 John 3:7—Little children, let no one deceive you. Now, that word “deceive” is “go astray; to go astray.” Let nobody lead us astray from what’s being said. He who practices, which means implements it into their life and does it, practices righteousness, practices the use of God’s word, is righteous, just as he is righteous, talking about Christ.

Righteousness is living faith. So, we are accounted as righteous because we believe God, which is we demonstrate faith. Faith is believing God, living what God says. So, we are righteous if we live our faith, which we do. By keeping the Sabbath we’re living righteousness. We’re following God’s word as our guide, living what God has given us to believe.

So, there are certain things that God has given us to believe, and we understand them as the Sabbath, tithing, Holy Days. God’s given us that ability to believe, and therefore, we can choose to believe. Now, if we choose to believe we can live it.

Now, one of the prayers that we can ask, there is a scripture that I can’t remember offhand, but it talks about “Give me the ability to believe, and help my unbelief,” [Mark 9:24] because there is an aspect of unbelief in all of us because we have a natural carnal mind. But “Help my unbelief.” Well, if we ask God to help our unbelief – anything that may be doubting or worried about, well, God says He will give it. We’re asking, we’re wanting to have stronger belief of what God says, well, God will do it. He says He will help us.

So, this is all about the way we live, what we choose to live in our life. We do that by tithing, Holy Days, Sabbath, all those things we do, we live them, we implement them. Giving offerings is an act of faith. We give an offering; God accounts it to us as righteousness.

1 John 3:7—Little children, let no one deceive you, which is to go astray. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. So, we understand what that’s about.

Now, righteousness was accounted to Abraham, which is (I’m going to refer to it), Genesis 15:6. It says, He believed the Eternal and He, God, accounted it to him, Abraham, as righteousness. So, we’re in the same position. We can’t be righteous of and by ourselves. We can’t do it. God is righteous, we’re not. So, it can be accounted to us as righteous as long as we believe God. Now, if we believe God, what do we do? We implement what we know, what God has given us into our life.

Philippians 3:9, which I’m going to refer to. I’ll read it quickly, we may not have time to turn there. Verse 9 says, and be found in him, talking about Christ, not having our own righteousness. So, there is an ability for us to have our own righteousness. Just like it can have our own humility, which is from the natural, carnal mind. …which is from the law. So, there is a righteousness. People can think, “Ah, well, I keep the Ten Commandments.” Well, it’s accounting to the self – self-righteousness. Self being right, righteous, which means give credit to self for its own efforts.

A person can keep a Sabbath, they can tithe, they can give offerings, and they can keep Holy Days, but it’s not necessarily because of faith. It’s their own effort. Because there are other nations that do it. They do those things. But God is not involved at all, it’s self-righteousness, which is giving credit to self, “I do all these things.”

So, it’s not the way we see it but the choosing of living God’s way of life. It’s the way God sees it. That’s what our life is about; it’s the way God sees it.

1 John 5:14—Now this is the confidence, which is the boldness that we have towards Him, toward God, that if we ask anything, which is anything spiritual, not anything physical, anything spiritual according to His will, which is about being in God’s Church for a purpose, to understand that, He hears us. So, when we go before God and ask for something like humility, to seek it, we go towards God to ask for it, God says He will give it according to His will and purpose. Well, we have to ask. So, we should ask for spiritual gifts.

Verse 15—If we know that He hears us, which He does, whatever we ask, talking about something spiritual, we know (we understand) that we have this petition(s), the things asked for that we have asked Him. So if, for example, we want to go before God and ask for the gift of humility, to seek it, well, we know that God has heard that request. But it is God’s choice as to whether or not He wants to give it and to what degree He wants to give it. But we should be there, we know, we’ve asked. That’s what that’s saying, we know we’ve asked.

So, if we ask for wisdom, which is the mind of God, we’ve asked. We want it. We desire it. Now, we can go our own life asking for something, God says He will give it, but He doesn’t tell you when. When will we have it? Well, we know when we’re going to have it finally.

So, whatever we ask we know that we’ve had this petition. In other words, we know we’ve asked. So, that’s the guarantee we have. Well, we’ve asked, and we’ll see what happens. God’s will be done.

James 1:5. That’s the one I was referring to, James 1:5—If any of you lacks wisdom, if any of us, brethren, lack wisdom, which is the mind of God, God’s way of thinking, let him ask God, who gives all to all liberally (bountifully) and without reproach, without fault. So, we can’t turn around and say, “Well, it’s God’s fault I’m not humble.” No, we want to really desire it, really want it, and really seek it. Then we have to implement what we know about humility into our life.

So, what are those? Well, we know we have to fast. It’s a sign of humility. We know we have to pray every day, put God into our life, seek God to be involved in every component of our life, seek God’s view on matters.

Now, there are lots of matters that come up in the Church that we never discuss, and sometimes an email might be sent about a matter, a topic. Well, what’s the logical thing you think someone with God’s spirit would do? Well, you go to the highest level of God’s government, and you ask. Isn’t that the way that we should think rather than just go off willy-nilly and do something and think, “Oh, this is all okay.” If we don’t know, we should ask. If I don’t know, I ask.

And when do you get the answer? When God’s timing is right you’ll get the answer. Some people ask and they think they’re going to get an answer that day. May not. Might be a week. Could be a month. Could be longer. Because why? We’re going to wait for God to reveal it, seek God’s word.

Now, there are lots of things that are not necessarily in scripture that we look for the guide and we might not know the answer. For example, the ordination of women. Now, you can search the scriptures to try to prove or disprove it, whichever way you want to look at it, and think, well, it’s not there. Well, what would we do? We ask God. How does God work? Through government. That’s the answer. What’s bound on earth is bound on earth, it’s bound in heaven. That’s the answer.

So, you can see there are things in life where we need not to just think, oh, we know. There are things in life where we need to turn around and say, “I don’t know and I need to find the answer,” and we need to be patient to wait for that answer because it may not be given necessarily in this life. May be later on; maybe when Christ returns.

Verse 6—But let him ask in faith, in other words, believing, with no doubting. There is no doubt. We know this is God’s Church and we will wait for the answer. …for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven, tossed to and fro, or tossed by the wind. In other words, it’s just going to go everywhere.

No, we wait. We believe this is God’s true Church. We’ll wait.

James 4:1. We’re not going to get back to Matthew 7 I’m sure. James 4:1, and it asks a question, Where do wars and fights, which is contentions or strife, come from among you? So why, brethren, do we have problems in the Church where people are fighting or arguing? From today’s sermon, what do we think is the biggest issue? Pride. Self-reliance. That’s the problem. That’s the real problem.

Do they not come from your desires for pleasure, selfishness, that war in your members? Now, we all have it and there’s always the potential for disagreement within God’s Church. Always! Why? Because we’ve got people involved. We’ve got people.

I think I might have said it before, once I worked for a company and the lady who owned it’s name was Anthea, and lots of things happened in that business. One thing was I was talking about business and how good it was, and I said, “Listen, Anthea, you have got a brilliant business. The only problem you’ve got is you’ve got humans.” She didn’t understand a word I was talking about. “You’ve got customers.” Like, they’re human, you’re dealing with humans who have selfishness, self-reliance, so it’s never going to go well.

So, anyway, that was a bit of a joke that I had with her. I don’t know that she got it. I got it because I’m in God’s Church. I know the problem. Me. I’m human. I’ve got self-reliance.

So, “Where do wars and fights,” which is contention or strife, “come from among you brethren?” Why is it? “Do they not come from your selfish desires? In other words, selfishness. That’s why people fight.

I remember once I was asked some advice about something and I’m not too sure, because I was applying spiritual principles at work, I’m not too sure that people understood it. But they were having some problems in a work environment, two people, and the person came to me, and I said, “Well, all I can tell you is take the low ground.” Of course she couldn’t demonstrate spiritual humility, but she could demonstrate physical humility. I said, “Just take the lowest ground.” I said, “You know, there’s a scripture that talks about when you walk into a room, you know, don’t go up the front, you know, sit at the back, and if they say you’re in the wrong place come up to the front.” “Okay, I got the front.”

In other words, demonstrate your humility sitting in the back row because that’s demonstrating humility. That’s what the scripture talks about. So, I said, “Take the low ground. Whatever you do when this person is going at you, just take the low ground, don’t say anything, and just take the low ground. Even if they’re right or wrong, doesn’t matter, just take the low ground.”

So anyway, the other person came in as well and I said, “Now, listen, whatever you do, take the low ground.” So, we solved that problem within about an hour because they both took the low ground. It was fantastic! Because that’s what it’s about.

“Why is there contentions?” Surely someone in God’s Church would demonstrate humility and take the low ground? Doesn’t matter whether the person is right or wrong, just take the low ground. Just take the low ground. It’s not hard. Just take it. Doesn’t really matter whether they’re right or wrong.

So, being in God’s Church at times has come in a great advantage to be able to manage situations because the spiritual principles about certain things that we can all apply in work.

Verse 2. So it says, virtually, they come from selfishness. That’s why there are fights in the Church. That’s why there are wars, which means arguments and disagreement in the Church. You lust, which means, “I want it done my way,” and you do not have. You murder, you kill, which is not physical, it’s spiritual. There’s an anger starting to build up in this matter. You covet, which means you desire to have it, you want it your way, and you cannot obtain; you can’t get it your way.

You fight and war. Yet you do not have it because you do not ask. So, it’s about God’s way. It’s not about the way we want it and arguing and fighting about it. It’s about we don’t ask God for it. We’re now being asked to seek humility. That’s what today's sermon is about.

Verse 3—You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss. What’s that all about? Well, that’s asking for something physical to happen rather than something spiritual. If we ask amiss we’re not asking for the fruits of God’s spirit. If we ask the right questions, seek God’s humility, seek Godly character, we’re not asking amiss. But if we ask amiss there is going to be problems because we want to consume those things physical.

…and you spend it on your pleasures. It’s the way “I” want it.

I’m going to just skip through a few there and drop down to verse 6—But He gives more grace, more mercy. Therefore He (God) says, God resists the proud. Because it’s not about righteousness or God’s thinking. God will resist a person that’s resisting Him. So, we need to turn around and think, “No, we don’t want to resist God.”

But gives grace/mercy to the humble. So, that’s what God will do. He will give us favor. God will give us favor, give us more mercy if we seek Him for the right matter.

Matthew 13:44, which is the parable about the hidden treasure. Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure… What’s our treasure? The truth, God’s word. We can see it, we understand it. One of the biggest treasures we have is the purpose for mankind. We know our purpose. It’s incredible. It’s a treasure.

Again, The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden, which means keep secret, in a field. So, what is “keep secret.” If we went out there, the secret we have is God’s truth, all 57 of them. That’s a secret to mankind. They know nothing about it.

So, it’s in a field, which a man found. Now, here I’m adding bits in. Well, we found it because we were called to find it. So, we’ve been called to find it, we found it, ah, so what… and hid it. So, we’ve sort of hidden it? True? We don’t go out there telling everyone about it. We know it’s ours, we know it’s about us, and we know what God has promised us.

…and for joy over it goes and sells all that he has and buys the field. So, what is that about? That’s about us. We are now going to go and sell everything we have. All self-reliance is going to be gotten rid of. We’re going to sell it, get rid of it all, and we’re going to buy the field. What are we going to do? We’re going to ask God to give us the fruits of God’s spirit. We’re going to ask for the gift of humility. We’re going to ask for righteousness because we’re going to seek it.

So, that parable really tells us what we need to do. We’ve got to put in effort. We’re going to have to sacrifice something. He sacrificed everything – sold it all so that he could gain it. Well, we’re the same. We have to be willing to get rid of everything in ourselves to gain it, and it’s a desire we have.

This same principle applies to us. To seek righteousness and to seek humility once called God requires us to give up everything natural in self to possess what He is offering, which is that treasure.

Verse 45—Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price… The pearl of great price we have is 57 Truths. They are an incredible thing that we’ve found. …went and sold all that he had and bought it. We're willing to give up every single thing for the treasure that God has offered us.

Deuteronomy 8:1. We’re going to look at this on a spiritual level because it’s about Israel and Moses here going over what had already been given, but just declaring certain things back to the Israelites. Well, we’re spiritual Israel and the spiritual principle of this should apply to us.

Deuteronomy 8:1—Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply. So, spiritual growth is going to come from this. That’s multiply. We’re going to grow spiritually. …and go in and possess the land of which the LORD, the Eternal swore, which is an oath or a promise, to your fathers. So, that’s the physical pointing to the spiritual. We’ve been promised something which is life in Elohim.

Verse 2—And you shall remember, which is “to be mindful of; to remember; to be very mindful of these things,” that the Eternal your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness. Why? So, why are we in the Church? Spiritual battles. Spiritual trials. Just like the Israelites had physical ones, we’ve got spiritual ones.

Why is that happening? …to humble you. So, we’re in the Church because we have to be humbled. We can’t continue with self-reliance; we have to be humbled. So, God’s placed us in the Church for the purposes of humbling us. Because what are we without God? Self-reliant. So, humility is God-reliant, so we’re in the Church to become God-reliant. That’s why we’re here.

…to test you. So, God’s going to test us, put us under the blow torch, so to speak, to see what we’re going to be. Self-reliant or God-reliant. It’s black and white. Pride or humility.

Why is He doing this? …to know what was in your thinking, in our heart. So, what is really going on in our lives is what God is asking. …to know what is in your thinking, whether you would keep all His instructions, His commandments or not. Straightforward, really, when you think of it.

We’re in the Church for one reason, to demonstrate humility. To come to know self, to examine self so that we then can rely on God more, to ask God for those spiritual gifts because we know what we want. The promised land. That’s what we want.

We cannot keep His commandments, His instructions in spirit and truth without His holy spirit. It’s absolutely impossible. So, that’s why it’s so important to seek God, to seek humility, seek righteousness now, and it may be that God will protect us in the Day of the Lord, what’s coming. Because it’s coming, and fast.

For this is the reason we were called. It’s about spiritual growth. From self-reliance to God-reliance.

Verse 3—So He humbled you, which is physical, whereas ours, we know, is spiritual. …allowed you to hunger. We know what that’s about. It’s about spiritual food. …and fed you manna, spiritual food, the truth, which you did not know, nor your fathers know. We know. We know what manna is. Spiritual food from God, instructions from God. So, we’ve been given it and we’re to consume it.

And what’s the principle? This is the very principle we live our life. …that man lives by every word of God that proceeds from God’s mouth. That’s how we live.

Because the opposite is we have to come to know that we can’t live by bread alone. We can’t live by the physical. Physical guidance from our own reasoning, our own thinking will lead us to a death, whereas we have to come to learn within God’s Church we’re being humbled now for one purpose, so that we’ll come to learn that we live by every word (Every word!) that proceeds from the mouth of the Eternal, which is God’s word.

So, the answer to all our questions in life are spiritual. They’re not physical, they’re spiritual.

I’m going to try to get back to Matthew 7, which you were holding your place. Matthew 7:12—Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. So, if we are going to live a physical life, we are to live one in humility. We’re to seek that humility, and therefore, that’s what we want others to do to us, don’t we? We want others to be humble with us. We don’t want them to be arrogant people and you know, boss us. We want a level of humility.

I’ve worked with bosses that demonstrated a human humility and I’ve lived with a boss that demonstrated human pride. I would much prefer to work for the person that demonstrated human humility because they can’t have God’s humility. But at least there was a level of pride, but it was nowhere near as bad as someone who was a know-all and knew everything. That was just a physical example of something that we can.

Well, within the Church we’re to seek humility.

Verse 13—Enter the narrow gate. Now, why is it narrow? It’s narrow because it’s difficult. So, it’s very narrow; so you can’t just walk through it. Now, what is the biggest obstacle of getting through this gate? Self. It’s blocking the way. Self is blocking the way.

…and wide is the gate and broad is the way, it’s called self-reliance. It’s easy. Self-reliance, “I know everything. I know everything about everything and I’m self-reliant. I’m going to go my whole day without God being involved. I’m going to rely on myself to get through this day.”

…that leads to destruction. That’s what’ll happen. Self-reliance will lead to destruction. Not willing to fight self is self-reliance. Not willing to fight self in any given day is a demonstration of self-reliance.

…and there are many who go in its way/by its way. Now, that’s something spiritual in the Church. Many. Many, many, many.

Verse 14—Because narrow is the gate and difficult… It is difficult. Examining self is difficult. Admitting we’re wrong is difficult. Not demonstrating humility is difficult because our natural wants to demonstrate pride. We already know everything. We can be self-reliant on everything. That’s just natural to us. We don’t need God to protect us, we can protect ourselves.

Verse 14—Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way that leads to life. It’s spiritual. It’s not physical. Spiritual. Spiritual life. …and there are few who find it. “Many are called, and few are chosen.”

So, we’re in the Church, and it doesn’t mean to say we’re going to go through the narrow gate. You know, we’re pushing our way through it, but we’ve got to get through it. Now, we’re pushing our way through it because we’re fighting self because it’s in the way. So, we can get through that gate.

When you look at this, it goes into the Millennium and the Last Great Day. It’s still the same principle. “Wide is the way.” Self-reliance is easy. “Narrow.” Godly humility, relying on God is narrow and difficult, and few that find it. Well, brethren, we’re few. We’re few in numbers. Few that find it.

Verse 15—Beware of false prophets. They speak against the truth. That’s a false prophet, someone who speaks against what is true. We’ve been blessed that we have the truth. …who come to you in sheep’s clothing. So, they look like they’re in the Church, they’re part of the Church, but they’re not inwardly are they because they’re not fighting self. They’re self-reliant. …but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. They’re ready to devour and destroy, which is “Why are there wars in the Church?” “Why are their arguments in the Church?” Well, it tells you. Ravenous wolves filled with pride. That’s where we’re heading.

Verse 16—You will know them by their fruits. They’re either demonstrating humility, taking the low ground, or not.

Verse 17—Even so, every good tree bears good fruit. So, in other words, it’s in unity with the truth; it’s demonstrating and living humility.

…but a bad tree bears bad fruit. It’s talking against the truth that God has placed in the Church and they’re self-reliant. They’re actually relying on themselves because they’re talking against God.

Now, when you think of it, if we were just taking it from even a natural environment, God the Creator of everything tells us something and we argue with Him. That is insanity. We have that potential because we’re not listening to God, what God’s telling us to do, and we think, no, we already know. So, a bad tree can only produce bad fruit. It’s not going to believe the truth.

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. So, this is about self-reliance versus Godly-reliant.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown in the fire. Whew. We understand what that means. It’s not about trees. This is about whether or not we’re self-reliant or God-reliant. And the choice is ours—that’s the incredible part—it is our choice whether we want to do that.

Therefore by their fruits, you will know them.

Psalm 51:6. This is something that God requires. Behold, You, talking about Yahweh Elohim, desire truth in the inward parts. Now, they will be reflected by the way we live. It’s the inward parts. It’s the mind. God is interested in whether or not we are demonstrating self-reliance or reliance on Him, and that’s the measure.

…and in the hidden part, You will make known to know wisdom. So, we have the potential, if we ask for it, that we can know wisdom. What’s wisdom? The mind of God. God’s offered us that. Mankind hasn’t been offered it yet, which is an incredible thing.

We’ll work toward a close here.

God is spirit, immortal, can never die, and is righteous. God. We are of the dust of the ground, created by God, mortal, can die and have a selfish nature, self-righteous, and self-reliant. Every human is self-reliant until they’re called by God and then turn to God to be God-reliant. But it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes years and years and years to become God-reliant.

God has existed forever. We are created and we’re temporary. The measure that God is looking once we’re called is whether we’re going to be one or the other. That’s why the sermons titled Seek Humility. We’ve got to seek it because by nature we’re self-reliant.

What God has promised us is an incredible future. But we can’t earn it. We’re going to have to ask God for His spirit. We’re going to have to ask God for this humility.

God has promised us spirit life if we yield to His thinking by fighting our selfishness in the mind. It’s what’s going to be required. The truth is we will never be worthy of God’s love, and God owes us nothing.

Now, that’s been a very difficult thing for people to fully understand. Just believing because we have human life, that we’re owed something. Really? Dogs and cats and all these others, are they owed anything? Seven years some of them? Five years? Ten years? Are they owed anything? They’re a creation. We’re a creation, but we have a potential they don’t have. But we have a potential. But God owes us nothing. It’s going to be His decision whether or not we’re going to have the gift of Elohim.

Pride is the opposite to Godly humility. Self-reliance is the opposite to Godly reliance. They’re the opposites. If anything, we take out of this is that self-reliance is natural; we’re just self-reliant by nature. We will rely on self.

Proverbs 22:4—By humility and the fear, which is the respect for God, God’s word, of the Eternal are riches, honor, and life, talking about something spiritual.

By humility, Godly humility, a gift from God, reliance on God, fear God’s word, what’s the outcome? Riches that we have no understanding about. None. They’re not physical, they’re spiritual. Honor that we have no understanding about, really, and life, life in Elohim.

1. Chapter 1