Humility

In case you didn't know, the Desiring God National Conference entitled Think: The Life of the Mind & the Love of God was held this past weekend in Minneapolis. I recently listened to Francis Chan's message on humility - Think Hard, Stay Humble: The Life of the Mind and the Peril of Pride - from the conference (also below). This was one of the best sermons I've listened to in awhile. Like I have said before, Francis Chan is a great speaker and motivator. His primary text was 1 Corinthians 8:1-3.


Here are some of my thoughts from his message:


LOVE PEOPLE! The most essential, and most often overlooked, aspect of humility is loving others. So often, even in a sincere pursuit of humility, we forget to love others and put them first. We may have great theology and a passion for truth but if we do not love others, it is all useless. Just as important as our passion for theology should be our passion for our fellow believers and the lost. I like how Francis put it: "Why did God gift you the way that he did? It’s for us, not for you. We should constantly be thinking, How can I build up other people?". Look at the way Jesus interacted with people. There is no way that any person with whom Jesus spent any amount of time could walk away thinking that Jesus did not care about him. Jesus gave his whole ministry to loving others. To quote Francis again, "Some of you have been studying Christ for years. But does your life look anything like his? Can you say like Paul, 'Imitate me as I imitate Christ?' Do you look like Jesus? Do you love like Jesus?". 


All of this hype recently about "incarnational evangelism" gets me a bit concerned at times, because often it can go overboard. Yes, I do agree that we should be living like we believe and showing people the Gospel through our lives, but we must be careful not to use that as an excuse. No one is going to come to Christ simply because you don't have sex, don't smoke weed, you pray before you eat, and go to church. And it won't even be because you raked leaves for an old lady and didn't get paid for it or opened a door for someone who didn't say thank you. Obviously, our lives should be different from the world and should lead those who know us to see that difference, but that is not enough. Transformation cannot come with out a knowledge of the truth. "How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?" (Romans 10:14 ESV). You must accompany your love with the truth of the Gospel. The "good news" is not good news to a person unless he hears it. I see far too often Christian missions and people who are so concerned about meeting people's physical and temporal needs that they forget that their most important need is spiritual. Love without the Gospel is not truly love at all. We must be "incarnational" in living the Gospel, but, just as important, we must speak the truth.


Humility comes, when we realize that we are hopeless. We are nothing on our own. We know nothing. The most amazing part, though, is the fact that not only do we know God, but that He know us! “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God...” (Gal. 4:9). Now that is something we should brag about. Chan summarizes humility in this way: "Do you want to brag about something? Brag about the fact that God knows you. Don’t boast about how much you know. Boast about the fact that the God of the universe calls you by name."