The Jewel of Humility — 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, EFRA, PA 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. What an inspiration to hear you sing that song with confidence that God used you to do just that.

Living With Purpose in Christ

Wherever you live, wherever you go, wherever you find yourself, as your life unfolds before you, if your heart is not beating with that purpose, you have lost your way. You have lost your way. If your heart is not beating with that purpose, you have lost your way.

Because that's why we're here. And that's the only reason why we're here. There is no other reason. You know, there are so many ways to look at the Sermon on the Mount. And I found it interesting to study the words of the Lord Jesus that He spoke when there were multitudes around Him.

The Sermon on the Mount and Effective Ministry

And it's interesting that the Sermon on the Mount flowed out of His heart in the midst of a multitude. And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain. And when He was set, His disciples came unto Him.

And He opened His mouth and He taught them, saying, And could we say this morning, these are the keys to an effective ministry? I think we could. We could turn the whole subject of the Beatitudes into the keys of an effective ministry.

How to be an effective minister of Jesus Christ? I believe that Christ was giving those secrets to those men who would be ministering to the multitudes in the days ahead. And you will be, too. I hope you'll grasp these keys with all of your heart.

Thank God this morning that you're able to hear the things that you're hearing. I thought about the message that Brother Roman gave to you this morning. You're rich. You have heard that when I was 18 years old.

I didn't hear some of those things in Bible school. Where are you supposed to train for the ministry? And here you sit. God bless you young people. You sit in a wealthy place. The Lord has led you into pleasant places.

But you know what the danger is as you sit here? Not all of you, but most of you, are second generation Christians. And the danger is for you to sit and hear the most powerful, awesome, life-changing sermons.

And they're just going to go by you. The danger is there. Don't miss it. Don't miss it. Well, as we said yesterday, we're going to speak about humility. Today and the rest of the week. But we want to speak about it specifically this morning.

So let's have prayer and then we'll get into our subject. Our Father and our God, we bow to you again. We come in the name and through the blood of your Son, Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we come looking away from ourself and looking unto thee.

We lift up our eyes unto the hills from whence cometh our help. Our help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. Yes, Father. Come, let us bow down before the Lord, our Maker. We do. Lord, we bow to thee.

You're our God, our Maker. As we heard yesterday, before we were even formed in our mother's womb, you knew every one of us. You planned every little part of us. You oversaw every little cell of us. And you saw them come together.

Here we are now, God. We're sitting in this room this morning and you're our God and you made us. You made us for a reason. Oh, God, we want to fulfill that purpose for which you so carefully made every one of us.

Lord, we yield our hearts to you this morning. All of us here, fill us with your Spirit. Oh, God, we might fulfill your purposes on the earth. We pray in Jesus' name. Thank you, Brother Aaron. You'll get a reward for that, brother.

He's no dummy. Oh, jewel of humility. Oh, jewel of humility. How beautiful you are. How selfless. How otherworldly. How unlike this world. You are a humility. I want you. I want you in my life. More than anything else.

More than anything in this world. More than any amount of money. More than any other attainment. Oh, jewel of humility. I want you in my life. God said through the prophet Isaiah, speaking in the Old Testament, in Isaiah 57 .11 and 57 .15, Thus saith the High and Lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy.

Thus saith the High and Lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy. I dwell in a high and a holy place. I'm God. I'm the only God. There is no other God beside me. Oh, there are many little gods.

But there is only one God. And I am He. I'm the High and Lofty One. Heaven is my throne, says God. The earth is my footstool. Heaven is where I sit. That's how big I am. That's how high I am. That's how great I am.

That's how awesome I am. I'm so big that there's only one place for me to dwell. I dwell in eternity. And when I sit down, I sit down in heaven. And if I need a place to set my foot, I put it on the earth.

That's my footstool. That's who I am. That's how big I am. That's what an awesome God I am. And then God says this to us, little men and women upon the earth. Where is the house that ye will build unto me?

And where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath my hand made. And all those things have been. Oh, you think you're going to build me a house? You think you're going to offer me a sacrifice?

You think there's something that you can do to get my attention? Where is a house that you can build for me, that I can fit into? All these things have my hand made. All these things. You want to impress me?

You want to get my attention? There is a way, God says, that you can get my attention. He says this. But to this man will I look. To this man will I look. Not to the one that's done great things. Not to the one that's built great things.

Not to the one that dreams great things. Where I look, God says, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. Oh, God says, when I find one of those. You know, Brother Aaron spoke last night.

He used that verse about the Lord going to and fro throughout all the earth. You know, what is He looking for? He's looking for a heart. A heart that is going like this. On the inside. Has your heart ever done that?

On the inside. You know, when a heart is doing this on the inside, and looking up like this, God looks. Oh, God's attention is immediately drawn to a heart that is going like this. That's what God says.

God Dwells With the Humble and Contrite

Oh, jewel of humility, to this you are. Thus saith the Lord. Thus saith the high and lofty one that dwelleth in eternity, whose name is Holy. I dwell in a high and holy place. Because I am high, and because I am holy.

But there's one other place where I also have chosen to dwell. There's another place where I feel at home. There is a place that I, in all my highness, in all my holiness, in all my greatness, in all my awesomeness, there is one place where I condescend to dwell.

One place. I dwell with Him also, that is, of a contrite and a humble spirit. I like to go there, God says. I dwell there. I condescend. I humble myself, says God. I humble myself to meet that humble heart.

Now, I don't even know what I'm saying to you when I say it. These words are too high and lofty. Somehow our hearts need to rise up and say, God, I want to understand what that is. Because God wrote the rules.

Amen? God wrote the rules. And why does God do that? Why does He look? Why does He condescend to those hearts, to those places where the heart is just like this? To revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones, God says.

The Beatitudes as a Portrait of Humility

Which God delights in. Our Lord Jesus, after having walked with His Father for many years by now, by the time that He speaks through His words on the Sermon on the Mount, after having known the reality of these verses that we are speaking of, knowing them in the depths, the Lord Jesus comes onto the scene and there's a great multitude of people and there are His disciples and He gets to the place where He can minister to them and speak to them and now the reality of knowing these things, He says to them, Blessed, blessed are the poor in spirit.

Blessed are they that mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers. And blessed are the persecuted, for my name's sake.

The reality of the living God in your heart shall be yours, Jesus said. That's how He began His earthly ministry of teaching. Isn't that lovely? Many times people come and ask me, and it's often young people, but not always, they will say, What is humility?

And, Brother Denny, how do you humble yourself? Okay, you spoke about humility, but how do you humble yourself? You know, it's way up here and I can't relate to it and I'm not sure what you're saying.

What an awesome thing to know nothing about, amen? What an awesome thing. As we begin to see that it's the very foundation of reality in any Christian life. Yet, it seems so far away. It seems to me that we can't prosper without it, so we must become a student of humility.

I hope that these few sessions will whet your appetite enough that you will become a student of humility. I like what Andrew Murray said at the end of his book on humility, and I would recommend that book to you.

You won't sit down and read it in an hour. You will read a page and stop. You will wonder what you read, and you will go back and read that page again and stop. And you will wonder, What is he saying?

It's just a little book about like this, but it will probably take you a month to get through it. I don't know how many people I've heard say these words, I read Andrew Murray's book on humility, and I wept my way from page to page.

But at the end of the book he says this, he leaves a beautiful challenge, and I like that when a preacher makes things practical, but at the end of the book he says, I want you now to take one month, and do nothing for one month, but focus on humility.

Find all the verses in the Bible on humility, and just bring them before your heart, over and over and over and over again, until the flames of desire rise up in your heart, and the longing begins to rise up, that you can't hardly have it, until this jewel, this beautiful jewel, begins to settle down upon your heart, and your heart begins to go like this, before God.

Humility as Submission and Dependence on God

Students of humility, what does the word humility mean? As we look at it in the Old Testament, it means to bring low, to bow down, to bend the knee. I know that those can be just religious things, you know, but there's something very beautiful, there's something very awesome, about needing to talk to God, and just to find yourself down on your knees, not because it's the thing to do, but because your heart just draws you there.

That's what humility means. It is a heart that drops down to its knees, to bring low in subjection. In the New Testament, Christianity has given new definition to the Greek word for humility. In fact, there was no Greek word for humility.

The Greeks didn't believe in it. And I know that might sound a little funny, but it's pretty typical of the darkened heart of man, isn't it? They didn't have a word for it. The closest thing that the Greeks had for it was, you're bad.

You're evil. You know, the Greek word for humility would be, I'm bad, I'm evil. And that's not what humility is, but that's the word that was drawn by God to use. But then, the New Testament Christians has made it a beautiful word.

A beautiful word. Humility. The jewel of humility, you know. There's something very becoming about a young person who is clothed with humility. Like Peter said in 1 Peter chapter 5, there's something very becoming about a young person who is clothed in humility.

I'm not sure how many of you have ever seen the little book, Let Her Be Veiled. How many of you have seen that book? Let me see your hands. Well, good. Do you know the picture on the face of those two women on that book?

That's humility. There's something very beautifying about that. And that kind of a look, that expression, which expresses a heart that is bowed low, that is submitted, kind of a look is not just for ladies, brothers.

It's not just for ladies. A meek and quiet spirit is becoming to a young man also. Did you know that? Even though we don't find a verse for that in the New Testament, I don't believe that God expects for the young ladies to have a meek and quiet spirit and all the young men aggressive and a bold spirit.

But that spirit of humility, that spirit of meekness, something very beautiful. To find that on a young person, especially in this day that we live in, yes, it becomes an ornament. A beautiful ornament.

Something that beautifies your life more than you can know. What is humility? A few definitions this morning. Humility is the beauty of being nothing so that the Almighty God can be all. The beauty of being nothing so that Almighty God can be who He is.

All. Everything. Humility is the root from which all other graces grow. Gendry Murray said that. It is the root from which all other graces grow. Humility is the place of entire dependence upon God. The place of entire dependence upon God.

Did you ever consider this verse? A Bible says of the Lord Jesus, in Hebrews chapter 1, that He holds all things together by the word of His power. Jesus. By whom He made all things. And He holds all things together by the word of His power.

Now, you are sitting here today and you are together. You are a being that God made. And as you sit here today, you are together. All the cells in your body are together, they are functioning, they are moving, they are working, and guess what?

The Lord Jesus is holding them together today by the word of His power. And you sit here, that far away from total disintegration. Just like that. That's mind-boggling. Somehow I think we ought to learn to lean on this God who is holding us together by the word of His power.

Total dependence upon God. What is humility? It is our participation in the life of Jesus. Our participation in the life of Jesus, humility, is Isaiah's response to seeing the Lord high and lifted up.

And, you know, when you see the Lord high and lifted up, immediately you know your place. When you see God in His place, we immediately know where our place is, don't we? And Isaiah quickly found his place when he saw the Lord high and lifted up.

Immediately he felt very uncomfortable. He felt very convicted. He said, Woe is me. Woe is me. Isaiah said those kind of words. And Job, Job, he said, I abhor myself in sackcloth and ashes. Job? Job said that?

The one in whom God said, Hast thou considered my servant Job? There is none like him in all the earth. But when Job got a glimpse of God, humility overwhelmed him. And he got in his place. That's humility.

Humility is the seraphims covering their faces. Did you know there's humility in heaven? That's not just something here on the earth. There's humility in heaven. And even the angels, they get in the presence of the glory of God.

Cover their faces. Humility is man's response to God's redeeming love. Remember? Remember that day? Remember the day of your salvation? Remember that day when God redeemed you? When He snatched you out of the prison house of sin?

And the forgiveness of sin flooded your soul? And the glory of God flooded your soul? And the load came off of your back? Remember that day? That's humility. Humility is not necessarily a sad face. Sometimes people think that.

If you go around with a sad face all the time, you're humble. Don't believe that. That's not true. Now, sometimes, if you walk in humility, you will have a sad face. But humility is not a sad face. It is not to live in continual examination and self-condemnation.

That is not humility. Sometimes young people and young Christians, you know, they run amok on that one out of sincerity. They spend all their time looking inward. Oh, am I doing okay? Did I do alright in that?

And what about this? And they're constantly introspecting and looking in and questioning and examining. That's not humility. That's a false humility. It's an overemphasis. It's an extreme. Know this of a surety.

The Spirit of God will tell you when you have done something wrong. You don't have to be always looking, looking, looking, looking. I know people who have repented of some pretty crazy things, you know, because they didn't set the picture straight on the wall when they saw that it was a little crooked and they just went on through.

And they had to go back and get on their knees and repent for not straightening the picture. Hogwash. That's not humility. Humility is not the mark of shame that comes because I have sinned. And whether you understand it or not, God is not allowing you to sin and sin and sin again and sin again and sin again to keep you humble.

Now, there are times when we fail and we commit a sin and it does humble us if we open our heart and respond to God in it. Yes, it's humbling and it has a humbling effect upon us. But humility is not walking in the shame of all the failures of all of my sins.

That's not humility. It's not the mark of shame because of sin. Humility is the very beauty of heaven. The beauty of heaven and one of the most noble things that you can ever reach out after and have in your life is humility.

If wisdom is deep insight into the true nature of a thing and it is, if wisdom, true wisdom is insight into the true nature of something, then, oh God, would you please teach us the wisdom of humility.

Would you show us all that is hidden down in there inside that beautiful principle of humility. May God give us the wisdom that is hidden in the command, humble yourselves. Because it is a command. Humble yourselves.

Biblical Pictures of Humility

Some pictures of humility this morning. Humility is a man or a woman laying on his deathbed. I will soon be face to face with my Creator. That heart, that heart attitude at that moment, that man, that woman laying on that bed, staring up at the ceiling, realizing, I'm going to die.

I'm going to die. When I die, I will be in the presence of my Creator. That's humility. Humility. Pictures of humility is Adam in the day that he was formed. Picture it. Just picture it there. Go back with me to the garden.

Go back with me to the creation, to the beginning of the creation of the world. Go back with me to the sixth day. We have already gone through the first and the second, and all those things have been made.

And here we are. We are on the scene. God is there. There is some dust there. And God reaches down from the dust of the earth and He makes a form. He makes the form of a man. And that's all it is, by the way.

It's just a bunch of dust. Amen? He makes the form of a man out of just a bunch of dust. And there it is. There it is, laying there. Adam. Not very significant, is he? Just a big pile of dust. Formed.

Oh, yes. Formed, but it's still just a bunch of dust. Then God steps up to that bunch of dust and He goes. And all of a sudden, Adam wakes up. And God is there. And Adam is there. And God is there. And that's humility.

And the opposite of that is the greatest tragedy that ever happened. The greatest tragedy that ever happened. Along comes a serpent to Adam and Eve and breathes into them the poison of His pride. The poison of His pride.

And He says to them who are so dependent upon God, who are looking to God for their every breath, for their every move, for their every blessing, for their everything, they're nothing. And Satan comes along and says, you will be as God.

Be as God. You will have your own wisdom. If you eat that fruit, you will have your own wisdom. God is keeping something from you, you know. You think you have it made, but you don't. God is keeping something from you.

You will be as God if you eat that. And the poison of those words, and the spirit of those words, and the pride of those words, Adam and Eve opened their heart to them. And they died. And don't you think for a minute that there was some mysterious something in that piece of fruit that killed them.

It was deeper than a piece of fruit. Humility. What is humility? It's doing a task that you can't do. Young men, you just picture for a moment, you put yourself in this place. You're called upon to give a 30-minute sermon tonight.

We're going to have you do the preaching tonight. Humility is how you feel when you stand up there to do that. That's humility. Humility. Pictures of humility. We had one here on Sunday morning. Some of you missed it.

But the Africa team that just got back from Africa, they were called upon to share on Sunday morning. They were sick. They were tired. Some of them hardly could stand. And they were called upon to get up and give an enthusiastic testimony of all the wonderful things that God did for them in Africa.

That was humility. I don't know. Did you see it? I saw it. I saw it. They're just standing there and they're all skinny. They've been sick for a couple of weeks and they're standing up there. And God's grace was all over them.

Wasn't it? And I looked at them and I just wept. I wept for joy as I looked at them standing up there shaking. Because you know what? I knew God's going to dump grace all over them because they're standing up here.

That's the way it is. That's how it works. Man's extremities are God's opportunities. We live in America. We don't face very many extremities. You thrust yourself over there on the other side of the ocean and all of a sudden you find yourself in many extremities.

And in those extremities, you're like this. And when you're like this, God looks. Oh, He looks. It doesn't matter to Him. He is no respecter of persons. He looks. Though you be 18 years old, though you be a handmaiden of the Lord, He looks.

God looks. Whenever there's a heart that is standing there away from themselves and looking unto God, saying, God, I don't know what to do. I don't know how to do it. But I'm going to do it. Oh, God looks.

That's humility. What is humility? Humility is Jesus. Humility is Jesus. And that's not a trite statement this morning. Dear brothers and sisters, that is the most profound thing that I could say. We can just go home on that one.

Humility is the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the incarnation of divine humility. He is the visible image of the invisible God. That's who Jesus is. He is the express image of the Father. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, Blessed are the poor in spirit.

And He said in the Psalms on two different occasions, I am poor and needy. I am poor and needy. Jesus said, Blessed are they that mourn. And Isaiah 53 says, He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

Jesus said, Blessed are the meek. And He said it Himself, describing His character, I am meek and lowly in heart. I am meek and lowly in heart. Jesus said, Blessed, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.

It was said of the Lord Jesus in Hebrews chapter 1, that He loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. He loved righteousness.

He hated iniquity. It only seems right that these words that the Lord Jesus would speak to His disciples and would speak to us, He will also be living them out in His very life, because His message and His life always were the same.

Jesus said, Blessed are the merciful. We can see all the way through His earthly ministry that He was a man of compassion and full of mercy. Woman, where are these thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?

No man, Lord, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. He said to the woman taken in adultery, Blessed are the merciful. Jesus said, Blessed are the pure in heart. And He said of His own life and testimony, He said, I do always behold the face of my Father.

Blessed are the pure in heart. They shall see God. And Jesus said, I do always behold the face of my Father. Why, Jesus? Because I have a pure heart and I see the face of my Father. Blessed are the peacemakers.

Jesus reconciled the world unto God through His death. And lastly, He said, Blessed are the persecuted. And His death on the cross was the greatest example of being persecuted anyone ever saw. Blessed they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake.

And if you want to study on humility and the depths of humility, you study Psalm 22 as Jesus hung on that cross. He was the clearest example, the most beautiful of the incarnation of humility and all of its many facets that you can see.

It's all there in Psalm 22. Jesus was the Lamb of God. The Bible says, John said, Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. He was the Lamb of God. He was not the Ram of God. He was the Lamb of God.

There's a lot of difference between a lamb and a ram, isn't there? Do you know what the difference is? Meekness and gentleness is the difference between a lamb and a ram. And He was the Lamb of God. Am I supposed to be done?

What time is this session over? Jesus. The express image of the Father. You want to see what God is like? You will see what God is like in the face of Jesus Christ. You want to see what God is like? The light of the glory of God is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 4. You want to see what God is like? Did you know that God is a humble God? Did you know that God is humility? The psalmist said, David said of God, Thy gentleness hath made me great. Do you know what that word gentle means?

Thy condescending goodness has made me great. The Bible says that God humbles Himself to look into the affairs of man. God is with us this week. The reason why God can be here with us this week is not just because of the blood of the Lord Jesus, but because God is a humble God.

And He humbles Himself to be in the midst of humankind, to look into our affairs and see what we are doing. Jesus is humility. And I think we will stop there. We are not near done. But, praise God, we have tomorrow.

And we'll keep going from there. Let's bow our heads for prayer. Yea, every one of you, be closed with humility, for it is written, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Our Father, we thank You for the holy words that You put in the Bible.

We thank You for the holy example that You have given to us. O God, may we follow after His beautiful life and study humility in all kinds of ways. Father, would You take these sessions and create a stirring in our hearts, a hungering, a thirsting, dear Father, for what it means to be humble.

What it means to humble ourselves. Father, will You teach us about this beautiful grace, this jewel of humility. And somehow, Father, may we be closed with it and thus beautiful. We pray in Jesus Christ's name.

Amen. Alright, we'll turn the time over to Brother David. Thank you.