Live Humbly
No Fighting in Church • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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We often tell kids to behave at church.
We rarely remember to tell the adults.
Can we fuss and fight less in our church?
What do the disciples need to learn to successfully lead Christ’s church?
Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something.
And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.”
Matthew 18:1 (ESV)
At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
Stop thinking about ourselves so much.
Matthew 18:2 (ESV)
And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them
“little child”: v. 2, 3, 4, 5
“little ones”: v. 6, 10, 14
Find a better (and surprising) role model.
Matthew 18:3–4 (ESV)
and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Humble our opinion of ourselves.
“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me,
but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
Elevate our opinion of others.
Matthew 18:7 (ESV)
“Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!
Stop being the cause of problems.
And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.
And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.
Cut off our own sins first.
To successfully lead the church, the disciples had to learn true humility.
To be a harmonious church, we must learn true humility.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Humiliation is not merely part of the gospel, it is the gospel.
Jonathan Edwards: “The first and worst cause of errors that abound in our day and age is spiritual pride. This is the main door by which the devil comes into the hearts of those who are zealous for the advancement of Christ. … Until this disease is cured, medicines are applied in vain to heal all other diseases.”
Pride is not merely a sin.
Pride is root of all sin.