Please turn with me in God's words to the book of Philippians, Paul's letter to the Philippians. I want to read to you from the third chapter and verses 7 through verse 1 of chapter 4. Philippians chapter 3 and verse 7. Paul says, Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and counted them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this, or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. only let us hold true to what we have attained. Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you, and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and their glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. but our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. We're continuing this evening our studies on this topic of humility. We began by setting the scene and looking at the problem of pride, a problem that irritates and affects each one of us, and a problem that we need to put to death that we might be clothed in humility. We looked at what humility is and observed how Christ displayed humility in his own life. We looked at the way that we are to display humility before God and the way that we should interact with one another in humility. Then we moved on to considering how we can develop humility in our own lives. We looked at the way that we are to develop humility by the renewal of our minds. The way that we think affects the way that we speak and the way that we behave. And so we are to think in a manner that cultivates humility in our lives. We looked at the way that God works in our lives and in his providences develops humility in our hearts. We're going to be looking today at the issue of discipline and the development of humility by our self-discipline. And then we will conclude, Lord willing, this study of humility next week as we look at the relationship between humility and honour. But this evening our thoughts are taken up with the importance of self-discipline. How do we develop humility by self-discipline? And it's important to realise that humility, while God uses circumstances, God uses the The experiences that we go through to help us to develop humility and external forces at work in our lives helps towards the development of humility. To a large degree, whether or not we develop humility, whether or not we put pride to death and clothe ourselves with humility, will depend upon our self-discipline in putting into practice the things that we have learned about humility. And that's really where we need to begin. We need to begin by being purposeful in our thought life. And that's where we start on this road to developing humility by self-discipline. Be purposeful in your thought life. We must, as we saw, renew our minds by the word of God. And as we looked at that subject a couple of weeks ago, the development of humility by the renewal of our minds, there were seven points that we covered based on Wayne Mack's material in his book, Humility, The Forgotten Virtue. we looked at the way that we are to think about God's greatness and holiness in contrast to ourselves. We thought about how God views the humble in contrast to the proud and we are to think the way that God thinks in regard to that. We considered the fact that we are to think about our imperfections and the judgement that we deserve as a cure to pride. We are to think too about the origin of our abilities, skills and accomplishments, recognising that we have received these as gifts from God. We are to think about how other men and women have exemplified humility, both in the scriptures and also in the history of this world. We find many examples of those who have shown us the way in displaying humility. We're to think about the humility of those who are in the presence of God. They've finished the course. They've run with endurance the race set before them. They've entered into the presence of our God and Saviour. What is their demeanour? How do they present themselves there? Well, they present themselves in humility. And then we are to think about the humility of Jesus Christ, our Saviour. He is the greatest example of humility and he is an example that we are to follow. And so we're to think about him and his humility. There are seven points with regard to the development of humility by the renewal of our minds. Now, we've thought about those things, I've presented them to you, and yet we can just let those things slip by, can't we? We can let them go, they've been in a study, and we'll remember from time to time, oh yes, I remember, we studied humility once upon a time, but has that become an ingrained feature of what you know about how you are to live before God. Well, that's not going to happen if you've just attended one study in which you thought about developing humility by the renewal of your mind. You need to return to that. You need to think those thoughts. You need to allow those things to become a part of your thought process. And that's not going to happen by accident. That's going to require purposeful planning and discipline of your thought life. I would suggest that one thing that you could do would be to take each of those seven points and to consider them as part of your daily routine each day of the week. Think about the greatness of God and his holiness in contrast to yours. Just spend a couple of moments as you've read your Bible and as you've prayed on a particular day to think about that, to remind yourself about that. And then the next day take a different aspect of those thoughts. There's a suggestion on being purposeful in your thought life. And as you remind yourself of those things, then they will become more a part of the way that you think day by day, week by week. Be purposeful in your thought life. A second way that we can develop humility by self-discipline is to be frequent in prayer. To be frequent in prayer. Now we are encouraged in the Scriptures to pray. We're commanded to pray. We're exhorted to pray. We've been given instructions by our Lord Jesus Christ on how we are to pray. And there's much that we have in the Bible that helps us towards a healthy prayer life. Now, all of that is very important. But what I'm thinking particularly here is the frequency of our prayers over against the regularity of our prayers. We come perhaps morning by morning personally before the Lord in prayer. If you're part of a family then perhaps as each day closes at the end of the day or around at the meal table, your family gathers to read the Word of God and to pray each day. And there you have a regularity in your personal prayer life, in your family prayer time. It's a regular rhythm of each day and that regular rhythm becomes like a heartbeat of prayer for you and for your family and that's so important. But I think we do need to go beyond that. I'm thinking about the kind of situation that Nehemiah found himself in. In Nehemiah chapter 2 and in verses 2 through 5. Nehemiah has heard news from Jerusalem. He himself is in Babylon. and he's a servant of the king, he's a cup-bearer to the king, so he has a position of trust, he's a high-ranking official in the king's palace. And Nehemiah is a Jew who lives in Babylon and he's heard news from Jerusalem that Jerusalem is still in a sad state. Even though Ezra had gone back, even though the temple had been rebuilt and the sacrificial worship of God had resumed in Jerusalem, Jerusalem was still a city in ruins. This concerned Nehemiah and he had prayed to God when he heard the news and mourned over that situation and asked for God to do something to change that, even as he prayed a prayer of repentance to God and sought his forgiveness and his blessing. And then in chapter two, and in this section, we're told that Nehemiah was serving the king, and he was in his presence, and he was sad in his presence because of this news that he had heard. And the king said to me, why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart. Then I was very much afraid. I said to the king, let the king live forever. Why should not my face be sad when the city, the place of my father's graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?' Then the king said to me, What are you requesting? So I prayed to the God of heaven, and I said to the king, If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favour in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father's graves, that I may rebuild it. There is Nehemiah before the king of Babylon and he makes this request to the king. Send me back to Jerusalem. Give me authority to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. But before he does that, he prays to God. No, he didn't get down on his knees there in the palace of the king and spend half an hour interceding, pleading with God for his favour, pleading that God would turn the heart of this king asking that he would have the king's approval and blessing. Now that was something that he must already have done. The king himself observed that he already had a desire in his heart. What are you requesting?' the king asks and Nehemiah's response is, so I prayed to the God of heaven and I said to the king. So this is a momentary prayer, it's an arrow prayer shot to heaven. It's a silent plea in the thoughts of Nehemiah, Lord Help me. This is the point. This is where I need your help. Now, help me. At this moment, help me. And it's that kind of attitude I'm saying that we need. throughout our daily lives. It is the kind of attitude that recognises, in the midst of the various situations that we find ourselves in, that we need the Lord's help, that we need his help. Lord, help me now. Lord, bless me now. Lord, give me favour now. Give me wisdom now. Assist me now. And that can be in all kinds of different situations that we find ourselves in, having to make a decision in our place of work, a difficult decision. Lord, help me now. As we grapple with problems, Lord, give me wisdom now. As we deal with fractious children, Lord, give me patience now. And so it is throughout the day that we cry out to God in frequent prayer. Now, how does this help us with humility? How does this help us to develop humility in our lives? Well, prayer expresses our dependence on God. Prayer is an expression of our weakness. It's an expression of our lack in some way. We lack wisdom. We lack understanding. We know that we are weak. We know that we're prone to impatience and to anger. And we're crying out to God. We're saying, I can't do this. I need your help. And that is humility. That is humility before God. That's a recognition that we, every day, we need God. And throughout the day's problems, we need God. You know, nothing is outside of God's interest for his children. And so everything can be a matter for prayer to God. arrow prayers in the moment of need to express our dependence upon God. That is to divest ourselves of an arrogant self-sufficiency. and to recognise our need for God to help us. And so we clothe ourselves in humility in the events of the day and whatever it may throw at us, we cast our cares upon the Lord in prayer. So we are to be frequent in prayer. Thirdly, we are to be self-disciplined in the way that we choose our friends. Spend time with the humble, not the arrogant. Spend time with the humble, not the arrogant. You know, we need to be careful. who we allow to become an influence in our lives. And we need to be disciplined about that. We need to be thinking people. We need to be careful people. The compiler of Proverbs in Proverbs chapter 13 and verse 20 wrote, whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. We become like those we spend time with. So we need to choose carefully who it is we're spending time with. What kind of an influence are they upon our lives? And so with regard to this issue of humility, then we need to spend time with the humble rather than with the arrogant, rather than with those who are proud. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 33, don't be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals. Well, that's become a proverb even in the world, and they don't know where it comes from. In fact, it may not even be original to Paul. He may himself be quoting a proverb of the day. Bad company ruins good morals. And that's the reality that we try to instill in our children, don't we? Be careful who you choose to be your friends. We recognize that influences, people influence our children. People influence us and we need to be careful then who we spend time with. The very first psalm in the book of Psalms gives us an important instruction in this regard. Psalm opens with these words, And there's a kind of a progression that's taking place there, isn't there? The one who walks just casually meets and begins to walk and enter into conversation and then the walking stops and they stand by the wayside and then they're tired of standing and they sit together and there's a progression there to the degree to which one life is influencing another. The time in which it's being spent with that other person. How much time do we spend in the company of those who are arrogant and self-sufficient and proud? Well, we need to guard against that and to choose out those who display humility in their lives so that their display of humility begins to rub off on us and we become we become more humble as we take on the example of their humility. Spend time with the humble, not the arrogant. In the fourth place, we should let others praise us. Let others praise you, don't praise yourself. One of the things that we have to do in our modern world when we are applying for the jobs is we have to sell ourselves, don't we? I don't know whether you've ever been in a situation like that. You have to display to the interviewer why it is they should choose you rather than anyone else. And you've got to present yourself as the best person possible for this particular role. Well, that is totally antithetical to what we're talking about here. And while there may be times when we have to go through the motions of selling ourselves in order to get a job, what I am saying is that this shouldn't be the way that we live our lives. We need to be disciplined about the way that we present ourselves. We need to be disciplined about the way that we praise ourselves. In other words, we are not to praise ourselves, we're to let others praise us. This is exactly what the writer of Proverbs says in chapter 27 and verse 2. Let another praise you, and not your own mouth. a stranger and not your own lips. Don't go singing your own praises. Let someone else. If you are worthy of praise, let someone else praise you. And if they're not praising you, well, just keep your mouth shut. Because it doesn't look good. It's not a pretty sight when someone blows their own trumpet and sings their own praises. When someone else does it, it's a noble thing. Let another praise you, not your own mouth. But you see, the words begin in the heart, as we observed a number of times already in these studies. The words that come from our mouths begin in our heart, and the danger sign of pride rather than humility in our hearts is when we want others to notice and we become disappointed when others don't notice and don't praise us and we feel that growing anxiety, that growing need to utter the praises ourselves because others aren't. There's a real warning sign that our heart isn't right within us when we think that we are worthy of praise, but people aren't noticing it. Jesus gave a warning in Matthew's Gospel in the Sermon on the Mount. In the sixth chapter, in the opening verses of that chapter, he warned those who were listening to him, beware of practising your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. For then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. There's the danger. We want other people to see us. We want other people to recognize us. We want other people to praise us, to honor us for our achievements, for our wisdom, for our skills, whatever it may be. We want to be noticed and we want to be praised. And Jesus is saying, don't look for the praise of men. Look to honour God. Seek to do what is right in God's eyes. And we've observed what God thinks of the proud. He is opposed to the proud. He is not on the side of the proud. He is against the proud. Well, if we want God to be on our side, then we don't want to clothe ourselves with pride. We want to clothe ourselves with humility. And if we're seeking the praise of men, then we are becoming proudful, and God will be opposed to us. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 6, nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ." Paul is saying that they had certain rights, they had a certain authority, they had a certain dignity, they had a certain role to play in the church as apostles, but they didn't seek the honour. and the praises of the people. That wasn't their goal. Paul was a servant of the church. He saw his role as being a servant of the church and he didn't seek the praises of the church, though he had a right to receive honour from them. Writing to the church in Ephesus, in Ephesians chapter 6, In verses 5-7, Paul wrote, "'Bond-servants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people pleases, but as bond-servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will, as to the Lord, and not to man. Don't Do what you do in order to please people, to gain the praises of people. Don't do it as eye service, to win their attention and their praise. So we're not to have an attitude in which we are seeking the praises of those around us. So it's going beyond praising ourself. We must not do that. But neither should we have within us that heart that longs for the praises of others. Let them praise you, certainly, if that is their desire. If they recognize something in you that is worthy of praise, then let them praise you. Don't praise yourself. But don't have a heart that longs and yearns for the praises of others. Now the fifth area in which we need to be disciplined is that we need to praise others and put them before ourselves. To praise others, to put them before ourselves. While we aren't to look for praise for ourselves, and we're not to praise ourselves, we should be observant of others, of the gifts and graces that God has given to others, and the way that they have used them, and the way that they have honoured the Lord Jesus Christ in their service of him, the good that they have done to those around them, and so on and so forth. They are praiseworthy things to observe in the lives of others and we must acknowledge that. Paul acknowledged that over and over again. Whole churches are acknowledged. and he gives thanks to God for what they have done and where they have come from and how God has blessed them. Individuals too receive his commendation and his praises. He writes to Philemon in verses 4 to 7 of that little book. And he says, I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints. And I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you. And here, you see, Paul knows what Philemon is doing because people are talking about what Philemon's doing. I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints. I've heard that the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you. And because he's hearing these things, then obviously people have noticed Philemon and they're praising Philemon to the Apostle Paul. We are to notice our brothers and sisters and their service for Christ and to commend them, to thank God for them and to praise them before others. John, similarly, in 3 John, he's writing to an individual, an elder of the church named Gaius. And he writes there, the elder, to the beloved Gaius whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. For I rejoice greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. Beloved, It is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. So here's another man, and again he's the object of, or the subject rather, of the praise of the Christians. And news has come to John of Gaius' love for the saints and his service to the saints. He's being praised for what he has done. And that is right. And that is good. Paul wrote to the church in Rome in Romans 12 and verse 10 and he said, Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honour. Outdo one another. In showing honour, you want to be the first to show honour, to give credit where credit is due. And that's the kind of attitude that we are to have. Not an attitude that is looking for praise to ourselves, but an attitude that is looking to praise others and to honour them and to put them first. Again, Paul writing, to the church in Philippi, Philippians chapter two and verse three, wrote, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. That's what humility does. When we have clothed ourselves with humility, when we, our minds have been renewed to think humbly before our God, and in relation to the world, we will see that we are insignificant, we will see that we are sinful, we will see that we fail and fall short of the glory of God. And as we see ourselves in the reality of that light, we will be more ready to see others as more significant than ourselves as the recipients of God's love and his grace and the fruit of the spirit that is being developed in their lives to give them honor that is due to them. And so we are to discipline ourselves to praise others and to put them first. And in relation to this then, sixthly, we are to serve others. Don't expect to be served. Serve others. Don't expect to be served. We have a tendency to want people to serve us, as well as to want people to notice us. This was a tendency that the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ had. How often they quarrelled among themselves about who was the greatest. But Jesus called them to him. and said, Matthew 20, verses 25 to 28, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave. even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. We're not to put ourselves forward for service, but to serve. We're not to think of ourselves as those who should be honoured by others, but those who should give honour to others. We're not to think of ourselves more highly than others, but we're to become a servant, even, Jesus uses the language of a slave, to others. We should not be offended to be at their beck and call. to run when summoned and to go about doing duties of service to those around us. And Jesus gives his own life as an example that we are to follow. The Son of Man came not to be served, though he deserved to be served. He deserved all of the glory and the honour and the praise of the world into which he came. And yet when he was in this world, he clothed himself in humility. He became a servant to sinners, even to the point of giving his life as a ransom for them. Did they deserve to be ransomed? Were they worthy of the sacrifice of his life, paid on their behalf to free them from their sins? They didn't deserve any of that. And yet the Son of Man, the Son of God, gave his life for them. And he is the model, he is the example that we are to follow. And we need to remember that our service is not to be done reluctantly, but willingly. It is not to be done on the basis that if I serve this person then they are duty bound to serve me at some other time. Our service is not to be tied to or dependent upon receiving something back. Or we say, I've done this so many times for other people, it's about time that other people did it for me. That is not the attitude of humility. That is not the attitude that Jesus desires that we cultivate in our lives. We are to give and give and give and give and give, just as Jesus did every day of his life. giving his life in service to those around him, even though he deserved all of their service, all of the honour and praise that they could give. And we deserve so little from those around us. Our service is to be done for the glory of God. We are to give our lives to others for the service of others. in service to our Lord Jesus Christ. This is what it is to walk worthy of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we are to serve others, discipline ourselves, to be a servant, not to be one who is served. And then seventhly and finally, we need to create routines of self-examination. Create routines of self-examination. In a sense, we're coming back to where we started, aren't we? There needs to be a purposefulness. There needs to be self-discipline. Because without a purposefulness to our lives, things will quickly deteriorate. We've all made New Year's resolutions, even if they weren't made at New Year. resolutions to do better. We're turning over a new leaf. We're starting a new chapter of our lives. We'll do things differently in future and we begin with a great zeal and a flourish. And the days pass. And so quickly those resolutions fall away. We become tired. We're distracted. other things come into our lives. We don't have the time, we don't have the energy. We need to create routines of self-examination that every now and again we take stock, we take inventory of our lives, we think about where we have come from, how far we have progressed. And admittedly, it may be that it's very difficult to see any progress in putting away pride and clothing ourselves with humility. Am I any more humble today than I was a year ago? Am I any more humble today than I was a decade ago? Am I any more humble now than I was when I started the Christian walk with Jesus Christ? And it's hard to measure those things But one thing we can measure is how well we have succeeded in following through with a self-disciplined approach to clothing ourselves with humility. We can think, for example, of the first point, to be purposeful in your thought life. Okay, so you decided that in order to be purposeful in your thought life, you were going to take One of those points of things to think about to develop humility each day of the week. And you can take stock after a month. How well have you done? Have you been able to maintain that purposefulness in your thought life? Take stock. Think about it. Create a routine of self-examination in which you're thinking about Have you been disciplined in humility? Perhaps it would be helpful to enlist the help of a friend or a mentor, someone who you trust, someone who you can ask their opinion and see what they think. But even here we need to be careful. Paul, writing to the church in Ephesus, in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 25 and 29, wrote, Having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbour, for we are members one of another. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And in applying this to the role of someone who is a mentor to you, someone helping you in a routine of self-examination to ensure that you're being self-disciplined, you need to ensure that the person is someone who's going to speak the truth. And that that truth is going to be designed to build up. You don't want someone who's always patting you on the back and saying how wonderful you are, even when you yourself know that you're not that wonderful. There's a ring of insincerity to the constant praises of someone who never sees anything wrong in what you do or what you say. That is not going to be helpful. But then again, neither is it helpful when The person is always critical. The person always sees room for improvement. Room for improvement. And they never put things in a positive way. Well, you've made progress here. I've been so encouraged to see how you've been handling these types of situations recently. And you've made progress in the way that you are able to deal with that. And that kind of encouragement is needful. We need the truth to be spoken that builds us up and doesn't cast us down. We need honesty that points out where we failed. but also is ready to encourage us in where we've made progress so that we make a realistic self-examination and are able to move forward from that point, put checks and balances in place. And in this way, we can help ourselves forward in putting pride to death and clothing ourselves with humility. Well, I want to conclude this session with a closing quote from Andrew Murray, who was a South African pastor in the 19th century, and wrote a little book on humility. The Beauty of Holiness was its title. And he writes in that book, the humble man seeks at all times to act on the rule in honor preferring one another. serving one another, each esteeming others better than himself, submitting yourselves one to another. Of course, he's just strung some quotations from the New Testament together in that. He goes on to say, the question is often asked, how we can count others better than ourselves when we see that they are far below us in wisdom and in holiness, in natural gifts or in grace, Received. The question proves at once how little we understand what real lowliness of mind is. True humility comes when, in the light of God, we have seen ourselves to be nothing. Having consented to part with and cast away self, to let God be all, The soul that has done this and can say, so have I lost myself in finding you, no longer compares itself with others. It has forever given up every thought of self in God's presence. It meets its fellow man as one who is nothing and seeks nothing for itself. It is a soul that serves God and for his sake serves all. A faithful servant may be wiser than the master and yet retrain the true spirit and posture of the servant. The humble man looks upon every child of God, even the feeblest and unworthiest, and honours him and prefers him in honour as the son of the king. May the Lord help us. to see ourselves in a right light, and to honour the King and all his sons. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for your word that broadcasts its light on the path before us so that we know how we are to walk, the way that we are to take. And we pray, our Father, that you would help us to be self-disciplined in applying the truth that we know to our lives, that we would be enabled to clothe ourselves in humility. We ask your help. In Jesus' name. Amen.