How Do I Humble Myself? (Part 2) — Denny Kenaston

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold.

You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www .charityministries .org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1 -800 -227 -7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, AFPA, 17522.

These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Greetings in Jesus' name. Let's bow for prayer. Lord, come quickly from above.

Write Thy new name upon my heart. Thy new best name of love. Lord, we come this morning and we bow down to Thee. You are the King, You are the Lord. We acknowledge, we need You. We pray that You will come and help us.

Mourning as a Path to Humility

And God, I pray that this morning You will show us how we can humble ourselves. God, show us deeply in our heart these things. I pray in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Blessed are they that mourn. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted, the Bible says.

Now, in this day that we live in, a lot of people don't understand a verse like that. Because everything is supposed to be happy and light and silly and jokes and all kinds of laughter. But God says, blessed are they that mourn.

And I think we need to believe God and look away from our own opinions and our own ideas. And look away from man's opinions and just take God's opinion. God says, it is a blessing for those that mourn.

What does it mean to mourn? To mourn, it means this. It is grief manifested too deeply for concealment. It is grief that is manifested too deeply that you can conceal it. It is grief that is manifested sometimes, oft times to the point of weeping.

What does it mean to mourn? It is the broken, it is the broken contrite spirit of one who grieves over failure and wrong. It is those who see their nothingness and are moved by it. Blessed are the poor in spirit who see that they are nothing.

But then as they see that they are nothing, they are moved by that. By the seeing of that. Blessed are they that mourn. That grieve to the point of weeping. To the point where you can't conceal how you are feeling.

One who grieves over the needs and the failures of their own life or the failures in the lives of others. Both of these come together in this word mourning. Both of these. The failures in my own life shall bring me to a place of mourning.

And the failures in someone else's life will also bring me to a place of mourning. But let's look first of all at the failures in my own life. Blessed are they that mourn. How can I humble myself? Number one, we can have godly sorrow.

Godly Sorrow and Repentance

And I'd like to turn to 2 Corinthians and read a bit here. Brother Denny, how can I humble myself? You can have a season of sorrow over the failures in your own life. And you may not have to wait very long for an opportunity to practice humility.

Maybe before this day is out, you will have an opportunity to grieve over the failure in your own life. And take a season of sorrow over a failure in your life. Paul writing to the Corinthians, he says in verse 8, 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 8.

And he's referring to the fact that he wrote 1 Corinthians to them and reproved them. He spoke to them and they were wise enough to take the opportunity to humble themselves by the reproof that he sent to them.

They were a bit lighthearted, the Corinthian church. They were glorying and shouting and rejoicing when they should have been weeping. And they didn't know it and Paul wrote them a letter of reproof and they responded right to it.

They're a beautiful example of what we're speaking about this week, he says in verse 8. For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent. Though I did repent, for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season.

Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, oh no, but that ye sorrowed to repentance. Oh I'm not happy that you were sad, I'm not happy that you were grieving, I'm not happy that you were weeping. But I'm happy because you grieved and you wept unto repentance and to change of life.

That's what Paul is saying, it's beautiful. For ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in no thing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of.

But the sorrow of the world worketh death. How can I humble myself? You can take a season of sorrow the next time you fail. You can, instead of doing the normal, which people tend to do, you know, just a quick 1 John 1 .9 it.

Oh Lord, you know that was wrong, please forgive me, amen. And on the way you go, instead of that, stop. Set aside some time. Take responsibility for what you have done. Get alone somewhere and think about what you did.

Ponder its effects. Think about what it did to God. Think of maybe what it did to someone else. And just stay there for a while. And just look at it. And look at it. Father, what kind of morbid stuff are you talking about?

I know, but this is exactly what Paul is talking about. They sorrowed for a season. How long is a season? Two minutes? How many think it was two minutes? I didn't get one vote. Not one vote. They sorrowed for a season.

You can do that, young people. You can go and you can get alone. Take a long look at your need. And while you're taking a long look at it, go into the Bible. Take a concordance with you into that closet.

And open up the Bible and find some verses that speak to the very need. That failure. That sin. You look at it for a while. Lament over what you did. Until your heart is feeling grief over what you did.

You know, working in counseling rooms. Working with people who respond at an invitation. Do you know what we do when we're working with people? Sometimes someone will come in and they'll say, I've done such and so and I want to get right about it.

And, you know, we as counselors, we look at him and we think whether they're not even sorry for what they did. You know what? What are you doing here? Why? I want to get right. You're not sorry. Oh, you know what we do?

We send them home. We send them home. Go home. Come back in a day and see if you're sorry for what you did. We don't just say, oh, oh, sure. Quick. Get on your knees. First John one nine it and go home.

No. Stay there long enough that you look and can see what you did. Blessed are they that mourn. And I want to say something here. There's a difference between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow. And I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about godly sorrow. We're not talking about worldly sorrow. You may sit here and say, well, I mourn. I mourn a lot. But I'm not talking about the sorrow of discontentment. We're not talking about the sorrow of disappointments.

We're not talking about the sorrow of our wounded pride or the soaking in our self-pity. We're not talking about the sorrow over what a mess I made out of things. We're talking about grieving over my need, over what I have done.

And we're talking about doing this before the Lord with a motivation in mind. See, your motivation will sanctify your sorrow. I'm not here to be discouraged and in despair. Worldly sorrow leads to suicide.

But godly sorrow leads to repentance unto salvation or the reality of salvation and open heaven over your life again. And oh, if you go in your closet with that kind of a motivation, you will not fall into the sorrow that worketh death that Paul mentions here.

You will not. Your sorrow will be sanctified by your desire. To be clean and pure before God. You can do that. We're talking about sanctified sorrow. And that's something you can do anytime you want. Make an appointment with God.

Grieving for the Needs of Others

Number two, how can I humble myself? You can grieve over the needs of those that are around you. Grief manifested too deeply for concealment over the needs of those that are around you. You can mourn for your brother.

You can mourn for your sister. You can mourn for the church. You can mourn for a lost and dying world. You can mourn over the needs of those that are around you. Now, I don't believe in TV. I don't know if you know that, but I'm just telling you.

TV is one of the most dangerous, deadly things around today. Do you know there's one man that he used his TV right, if you can use a TV right. And that was Leonard Ravenhill. How many know who that is?

Leonard Ravenhill used his television for one half an hour every day. From 10 o 'clock to 10 .30. He sat and watched what was happening in the world around him. And then he turned off the TV and he went in his closet.

And there he mourned. There he mourned. He wept. It was an intercessor. Leonard Ravenhill was an intercessor. Intercessor. You can grieve over the needs of those that are around you. You can go in your closet and with sanctified meditation, you can think about the needs of those that are around you.

No gossip will flow out of your heart if you will do it that way. Or you'll find yourself talking, but you won't be talking to people. You'll be talking to God. And that's what we need to do with the needs that are around us.

And oh, if we would grieve over the needs that are around us, this godly sorrow that we've been looking at here this morning, how beautiful it would be if we could do that for a season before we go to admonish somebody about a need in their life.

You know, it's right to admonish somebody about a need in their life. But oh, how beautiful when we can come out of a closet and there's been tears running down our cheeks over the need in my brother's life or my sister's life.

And then out of that I come to minister to them. Jesus wept over Jerusalem. He wept over Jerusalem because he knew the condition that Jerusalem was in. And he knew the judgment that was going to come.

And he knew that they were absolutely going their own way. And they didn't have any idea of all that is going to fall upon them. He wept over Jerusalem. How can I humble myself, Brother Denny? Jeremiah said these words, My eyes have affected my heart.

My eyes have affected my heart, says Jeremiah, walking through the streets of Jerusalem. How can I humble myself? How can I grieve over the needs of those that are around me? Oh, you could go to a prison.

That would be a good place to go. Or maybe get involved in some work in a ghetto somewhere. Or maybe a rest home. That's a good place for you to start. And after you've been there in that ghetto, go get in your closet and think about those people and how they live and what they're going through.

Years ago, I used to work in the ghettos of North Chicago. I was on my bus route. That's what we called it. My bus route where we picked up all the children and brought them to church on Sunday. I started visiting at 10 o 'clock on Saturday morning.

But I had a practice that I did often on Saturday morning. Before I would start knocking doors, going from house to house, I just kind of walked down the street on my bus route. Amazing, amazing the wisdom that cried in the streets as I walked down Kenmore Street in North Chicago on 10 o 'clock Saturday morning.

Now, if you don't know what a ghetto is, you don't know what happens at 10 o 'clock on Saturday morning. But on 10 o 'clock on Saturday morning in a ghetto, the little children have been awake since 7.

They scrounge for their own little scrap of food. Their mother is sleeping in because she was out late last night and she was drunk. And she wakes up about 10 o 'clock and you can hear the screaming, the yelling, the fights.

You can hear the little children yelling and screaming. You can hear a mother beating her child in a fit of rage because the child has a dirty diaper and it needs to be changed and she doesn't want to mess with it.

And on and on and on I could tell you. But I used to walk down the street like that and just listen and pray while I walked. And you can hear it coming out of the apartments, you know. Little children screaming, men yelling at women, cursing, fighting going on, things smashing inside of houses.

Those are things you hear all the time, 10 o 'clock Saturday morning in a ghetto. Blessed are those who mourn. You want to humble yourself? Go do that for a while. There are hurting people everywhere.

And we walk right past them. Number three. How can I humble myself? Under the category of mourning, under the category of mourning, let's turn to Matthew. Matthew chapter 9. How can I humble myself? You can fast.

Fasting as Mourning and Self-Denial

You can fast. Matthew 9, verses 14 and 15. Then came to him the disciples of John saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not? And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bride chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?

Notice that word mourn. But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them and then shall they fast. Now, I chose that text because God uses those two words synonymously. Jesus used the word mourn the first time and used the word fast the second time.

And the disciples came and asked Him about fasting. And He answered back, Shall they mourn when the bridegroom is with them? And Jesus is connecting these two together. And God connects them together, young people.

Fasting and mourning. Sometimes people will come to me and say, Brother Denny, I'm not broken. What do I do? I'm not broken. I see a need in my life. I heard the sermon. I agree with you. But I'm not broken about it.

What do I do? You know what I tell them? Go on a three-day fast. Go on a three-day fast. Fasting will guide your mourning into godly sorrow. I personally believe that fasting is one of the best kept secrets that the devil keeps from the people of God.

You can fast. You say, but I feel like I'm going to die when I fast. You won't die. You will not die. You might lose a few pounds, but you could use to lose a few pounds. Amen? I mean, you know, we live in America.

You have all the food you want. Whenever you want, you can fast. I don't know if you've ever fasted. Maybe you fasted a day, or maybe you fasted a meal. You know how some people fast. They say, I'm fasting tomorrow, and it's midnight the day before, you know.

And he's in front of the refrigerator because he's going to fast tomorrow. No, that's not fasting, my friend. If you tank up because you're going to fast tomorrow, that's not fasting. Fasting is when you keep food out of your stomach, and your stomach gets empty.

And it feels like it's pushing at your back. And you say, I know that feeling, Brother Denny, and that's when I think I'm going to die. Well, you won't die. You won't die. Stay there. Because once you get beyond that, that next day, that second day, all of a sudden, there will be a sense, a sensing of humility that will come over you.

You will feel yourself being brought low. And all I can do is throw it out here and hope maybe you'll take a test. A taste. But I tell you, I know what I'm talking about. It is one of the best kept secrets that the devil has kept from the church of God for so long.

You can fast. Blessed are they that mourn. And by the way, we talked a little bit yesterday about poverty of spirit and what you can do and how you can humble yourself. And Brother Roman mentioned some more today.

You just take your Bible reading and your prayer and you bring fasting right into the middle of that thing, and I tell you, it will change your devotional life. It will change your devotional life. There was a reason why the Apostle James ate the way that he ate.

Don't forget that. He wasn't just some weird fanatic. He was James the Apostle. And there was a reason why the early church fasted two days a week. They were not some weird fanatics who were off on asceticism.

They were the early church who took the words of our Lord Jesus Christ seriously when He said,.

When ye fast.

When ye fast. And they were the early church who walked with the Lord Jesus for three and a half years and then He was gone. And then they fasted. For what? For Him? To draw nigh to God. To humble their heart that they might draw nigh to God.

To break their heart that they might get close to God. They fasted to seek Him. You can do that. Blessed are the meek, the Bible says, for they shall inherit the earth. Like one translation said, Blessed are they that have given up everything, for they shall have everything.

Meekness as Yielded Power

What does it mean to be meek? Meekness is the submissive attitude of one who has given up. It's the submissive attitude of one that has given up. Have you given up? Or is God still wrestling with you like He did with Jacob?

The submissive attitude of one who has given up, who has yielded themselves to God and to others. A person who is meek is one who has given up the rights of his life to God and to others. Meekness. I'm just giving you a few definitions, and then we'll get down to the practical again.

It is one who is easily managed. I wonder what your mom and dad would say on that one. Ah, my son. My daughter. They are so easily manageable. They are so easy to direct. Meekness is power under control.

Meekness is not weakness in the sense that the world would look and say, but meekness is power under control. And I use the illustration of a wild horse and a tame horse. Both are horses. Both are powerful animals.

Full of energy. Full of strength. Muscles just bulging in their legs and their shoulders. A horse. It's a powerful animal. But I think it wouldn't be hard at all for any of you to decide which one you would want if I had two of them up here today and one was tame and one was wild.

Which one would you choose? Ah, maybe somebody might like the challenge of taming one and you might take it for that. But for the most part, you would look at it and say, yep, both are horses. Both of them are full of energy.

Both of them are full of power. Both of them, my, they really have a lot. But that one over there that's been tamed, he's useful to me. But that other one, I don't even want to get near him. He'll stomp all over me.

The horse that has yielded its powers, its abilities and its strength to its master is the horse that you want. And that's what meekness is all about. It is a person who has yielded their powers, their abilities, their strengths to their master.

They have allowed themselves to be tamed by their master and they're under control. Oh, what a beautiful thing when God gets some young people that are in the harness. They're full of energy. Full of zeal.

They're like a horse, you know, that's got the reins on them and they're there and it's just bubbling inside of them. But the horse is under control. He's under control. And there he is. But you can just see it bubbling inside of him.

But he's still under control. And all of a sudden, when the rider says, Go! Boom! There he goes. That's what God wants. That's what God wants out of you young people. Remember now, thy Creator in the days of thy youth.

Get Him. Give Him your life, your strength, your energy, your zeal, your visions, your purposes. Give them to Him. Give them to Him now while you're young. Surely, the God of Heaven deserves that. He deserves that.

Don't give them to Him when you're old and worn out and stumbling around and you've got a few years yet to go and you can give a little here and there. Do it now. Can you bow your heart to the will of another?

Can you bow your heart to the will of another? All you strong young men. Can you do that? Looking in the Scriptures on this subject, I found in a couple of places this phrase, the spirit of meekness. The spirit of meekness.

Ye which are spiritual, restore such in one in the spirit of meekness. How beautiful. A disposition of yieldedness. A disposition of yieldedness. That's what meekness is. You say, well, how does this work?

Is meekness humility? Or is humility meekness? Well, I found as I studied the Scriptures, those two words cross over many times and sometimes the translators translated it humility and other times they translated it meekness, but as I have been meditating upon it in preparation for these teachings, may I say it this way, meekness is humility with its shoes on.

It's humility with its shoes on. I am nothing and God is all and I have seen God's glory and I am undone and my natural response is meekness. I have given up everything to God and to His cause. That's meekness.

And you know, it's interesting to me, and I said it earlier in the week, but I want to bring it out again here today, that, you know, these principles that we're talking about, dear young people, these are the principles of the entrance into the Kingdom of God.

Meekness, Conversion, and Self-Emptying

This is how you get born again. This way. This is the way to get it. You get saved. I'm undone. There's no hope for me. There's no help for me. I can't do it. I'm totally given up. And God comes in. And what do you do?

You totally give up to Him. And salvation has come to your house. That's what we're talking about. Oh, blessed is that man or that woman who comes into the Kingdom this way. Maybe all those things were not emphasized in your life when you were born again, but I guarantee you, if they were not, you had struggles in your Christian life and there were times when you were complacent and up and down and all of that.

That's not the will of God. It's God's will that you come through to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ out of your poverty and your undoneness, out of the grief of your soul, over the sin of your life, and out of a trust to this God who is wanting to save you.

That's God's will. And you say, oh, but Brother Denny, I didn't get that. Don't worry about it. We're supposed to live like that. We're supposed to live like that. And so if you're here today and you say, well, I didn't get that.

Nobody told me those things. That's all right. That's all right. If it's not that way in your heart, don't you stop seeking God until it is that way in your heart. And that's what Bible school is all about.

Don't you stop seeking God. Don't you let go until God is in your life until you can say, God is a living God to me. And what else can I do but give my life completely to this God who loves me? That's meekness.

Don't people? That's meekness. Say, Brother Denny, what can I do to humble myself? Start there. Start there. How do I humble myself? You can have your own personal kenosis. You can have your own personal kenosis.

If you have not, did you get that theological word? The self-emptying of Christ. Kenosis. You can have your own personal self-emptying. You can get up on the altar. You can build an altar as an altar in your heart.

You can get up on that altar. You can leave everything on that altar. You can lay your life down on that altar. You can leave your future plans on that altar. You can sacrifice everything on that altar.

You can give up all your dreams and leave them on that altar. You can begin. If you want to humble yourself, you can have your own personal kenosis. And I tell you, you'll never be the same. You'll never be the same.

You may be here today, some of you dear young people, and I know there's a lot of you, maybe you just came, and some of you, you may be thinking, whoa, what is all of this? I tell you, this is what God wants for every one of you.

It is the will of God for every one of you that your life be so vibrantly full of God and love for God and all those things that you are so excited that all you want to do is live for Jesus one more day.

That's God's will for every one of you. And some of you, some of you in your hearts, even now, you're holding back. You're holding back. You know what's holding you back? Your pride. Your self-assertive pride.

Your independent attitude that just goes like this. Well, I'll play around over here at this whole thing, but I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to have a personal kenosis where I empty my whole self out and when I'm done, there's none of me left and it's only whatever God wants for me.

I'm not doing that. I've got a few plans. I've got a few things that I want to do yet. And you're just like this. Well, I guarantee you that God is just like this with you also. See? I mean, this thing works two ways.

You're doing this to the God of Heaven and He knows you are far off. Number two, what can I do to humble myself? You can enroll in God's school of meekness. You can enroll in God's school of meekness.

Submitting to God’s Providence

I call it Meekness 101. And you may not know what that means if you never went to college, but I went to college and that's the first course in any subject. They call it 101. You know? Psychology 101.

Business 101. When you get in God's school of meekness, you sign on the bottom of the register for Meekness 101. God's first school. God's first level of meekness. And you say, well, what do you mean by that?

I do humble myself under the mighty hand of God and acknowledge Him to be my Sovereign Lord, the Ruler over every little area of my life. And now, God, I want You to teach me meekness. Everything You bring my way, I'm going to bow to it.

Everything You bring my way, I'm going to accept it. Every trial that comes my way, I'm not going to wrestle for five or six days or ten days or two months. You mean you would miss all the beautiful things that God wanted to do in your life for two months because you wouldn't?

You will enroll in Meekness 101 and say, okay, Lord, whatever comes my way, whatever circumstances You allow into my life, I'm going to say, it's God. And Roman already said some of this, didn't he? Romans 8 .28.

Here it comes. Here comes some person who rubs you the wrong way and they come into your life. And in the flesh, you know, we run. You know, I don't like this person. I'm going to get away from them. I'm going to stay away and I'll go this way when they're coming around this way and all that stuff.

No, if you get in this class, you won't do that anymore. You'll see God bringing them your way and you will say, Lord, I humble myself under Your mighty hand and I acknowledge that You and Your hand is guiding every one of the affairs of my life.

In Your wisdom and Your love, You are moving all these things around and into my life. And you say, well, how will that humble me? Well, you just try it. You just try it. When the things come, instead of kicking and fussing and carrying on, you just bow.

I tell you, a sweet humility will come over your heart.

A sweet humility, as you just say.

Kind of like the Lord Jesus, you know, going to the cross. Going to the cross. He committed Himself unto Him who judges righteously and just bore it all. That's what He did. Meekness 101. Number three, Father Denny, how can I humble myself?

Becoming a Servant of Others

You can become a servant of men. We already talked about becoming a servant of God. And that one, lots of people, they like that one. They'll take that. Oh yeah, I'll be a servant of God. God can tell me what to do.

And I tell you, it's kind of a misnomer in their minds, but everybody wants to be a servant of God. But what about being a servant of men? Do you know that if you are not willing to be a servant of men, you are not a servant of God?

If you are not willing to be a servant of men, you are not a servant of God. You are living in a delusion. Because this whole life has to do with people. Amen? It has to do with people. You can become a servant of men.

Somewhere in my readings, I read this definition of humility. Humility is secret service. Secret service. Serving without anybody knowing it. Praying for an hour and not telling anybody about it. Fasting for some need in somebody's life and never saying a word to anyone.

Reaching into your back pocket and pulling out your money and giving it to a need, but making sure that they don't even know that you gave it. That's secret service. Amen? How can I humble myself to become a servant of men?

You can take on this exercise. I'm going to give you something you can do. You just say in your heart, okay, Lord, today or tomorrow or next week, I'm going to become a slave for a day. A slave for a day.

And I'm going to start the beginning of the day. And I'm going to walk through the day with the heart of a slave. And I'm just going to walk through the day and do nothing but look for ways that I can serve other human beings.

Brother, Danny, that doesn't sit too well with me. I'm nobody's slave. You are. You are somebody's slave.

But you just don't know it. A slave for a day. Now we're talking about little insignificant things here, you know.

You come to church and you see a busy mom with two babies and you run quickly and grab the one to help her. You see a mother who's intently involved in the service and the baby starts to fuss and you quickly jump up and grab the baby and I'll take it and out you go.

You see the preacher up there preaching and instead of just sitting back and enjoying everything that he's saying, instead you get under the burden of the whole thing. Nobody knows it, but you're there just praying for him, just lifting your heart in prayer to God as he's preaching his sermon.

Just a hidden light. Just a slave. The Bible says if you'll do that, you'll live that way, you've got the highest place in God's kingdom. And the thing that's so exciting about it, this principle is no respecter of persons.

Did you know that? You don't have to be, quote, the greatest. You don't have to be the smartest. You don't have to be the most spiritual. You don't have to be the deepest. You don't have to be from the best home.

You don't have to be any of those things to do this. And God says, if you'll do this, you are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Oh my! You know if you'd grab this thing, it would so change your life like probably nothing else ever.

You can become a servant of men. And number four, Brother Denny, how can I humble myself? You can submit to your authorities. You can submit to your mom and dad, your boss, your elders. Well, how do I humble myself?

Submission to Parents, Employers, and Elders

You just go and tell them. Mom, Dad, I want you to know, I submit. Whatever you want, I'll do. Whatever you say, I'll listen. You go and tell them that. And then, just start walking through life and see what happens.

Just start walking through life and see what happens. Blessing, the meek, the given up one. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst for righteousness. Third and last point for the day.

Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. What does this mean? It means an intense craving for righteousness. A holy dissatisfaction for where I am in my Christian life. A holy dissatisfaction.

Not a discouraged dissatisfaction. Not a dissatisfaction that makes you want to give up. Not a dissatisfaction that makes you say, I want to quit. But a holy, sanctified dissatisfaction that says, praise God for where I am, but God, I'm not happy where I am.

I want more, dear God. I want more in my life. I want to be more holy. A deep desire to be right with God and right with others. This is what it means to hunger and thirst after righteousness. I want to be right with God.