Humility vs. Worm Theology [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. The false humility acts like, look how humble I am, while inwardly there's a deep insecurity that is craving your approval. That's not true humility.

True humility also is not this wrong kind of thinking that someone labeled years ago worm theology based on how some have taken those few little scriptures that says I'm like a worm, and then just built their whole theology around me. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Unspeakable Joy as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastoralan.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Alan Wright. It was a young man. He wanted to become engaged to his girlfriend. So politely, he went to the girl's father to ask for her hand in marriage. And the father said, Well, do you have a job? And he said, No, sir. And the father said, Well, how are you going to provide? And he said, The Lord will provide. The father said, Well, how are you going to afford a place to stay? And the young man said, The Lord will provide a place to live.

He said, What about medical care and health care? The young man said, The Lord will provide. And this went on until finally the father went into the kitchen to speak to his wife.

And his wife said, Well, how did it go? He said, Well, he seems to be a fine enough young man, but the thing that concerns me is he seems to think I'm God. Are you ready for some good news? The Lord will provide. And it's really important to know that. The Lord has blessed you.

And it's really important to know that. But in no way does that change the necessity of your participation with God, nor does it change the fact that God has a great expectation of how it is that you're going to live your life. And so much of Philippians, Paul is speaking of how the gospel of Jesus Christ transforms everything in the way we live our lives. And today, as we turn to Philippians chapter 2, we're going to come into one of the most beautiful texts, not only in all of Philippians, but in all the New Testament, a portion of which many scholars think was an ancient hymn that would have been familiar to some of the early Christians. But in this, what you're going to see, and where we're going to zero in today, is what really does he mean by the call upon our lives to be like Jesus in the sense of being humble?

It's Philippians, it's chapter 2, and I'll begin reading at verse 1. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 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 made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being born in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Anyone who has been around my wife and I or heard me speak much will have heard us speak about the power of blessing. The authorized power that is inherent in us as Christians to speak with prophetic vision and confident faith according to God's word of the correct identity of others, whether it be in our case so often with our children to just speak a positive vision over their lives. And one of the most important things to me as a parent, one of the most important things, and one of my kids to love themselves, to accept themselves rather than reject themselves, to recognize who they are in Christ, to understand their giftedness so that then they live their life with confident hope.

It's very, very important. But I was remembering this week when our son Bennett was young, and one day I was affirming to Bennett just how pleased I was that he felt so good about himself. And I was telling him, I said, Bennett, I said, it's just a wonderful thing that you know who you are and you have confidence and you feel good about yourself. And the little guy responded.

He said, yeah. He said, I feel so good about myself that you often have to remind me the world doesn't revolve around me. Which meant that he was bringing up another common saying, evidently, that had come forth from my parental lips. And that was as much as I wanted to say to our kids, you are so special that there also was something that was the other side of that. And that is that whenever we see a self-centeredness and self-absorption, there needs to be a reminder, as special as you are, the world does not revolve around you. And sometimes there needed to be clarification that these blessings and affirmation that we lavish upon you are not designed to lead you into some kind of wrong mentality that thinks I'm special in the sense that everybody else ought to revolve their lives around mine and I should have self-centered goals in my life. In fact of the matter, what I want to show you today is that the humility of Christ works exactly the opposite. That in fact of matter, the humility that we see in Jesus is only possible because the utmost perfection of security that Jesus had in the love of the Father. And that in fact of matter, it's impossible to be humble unless you are confident in the love of God.

And these two things that people often tend to think are separate and distinct or even competing with one another are actually essential. I could put it this way and some would say, what is the big problem in our culture today? What's the big problem in our country? Is it that people don't have enough inward esteem? Is it that they don't know their worth? Is it that they have not been loved sufficiently and they do not know the radical acceptance of a father? Or is it that people are just stuck on themselves, self-centered, self-absorbed, and don't seem to care about anybody else?

Well the answer is yes, isn't it? Because where there is a lack of love and acceptance, there will be insecurity that leads us into a life of rebellious pride. Today we're going to see something different. We're going to discover what, in the first place, humility is not. And then I want to show you what humility, biblically speaking, is.

And then we'll simply talk about how did it work in the life of Christ and how does it work in the life of a believer? What humility is not, what humility is, how did it work in Jesus, and how does it work in our lives? It's all about what true humility really is.

Let's start with what it's not. And I'm just going to put this out here pretty quickly because this is not the primary place where I want to spend our time today, but it's very essential to start here because there's great confusion even in the body of Christ about this. And many people have thought of humility as something that it never was meant to be and not what it means biblically. Humility is not a sense of false religious humility. It's not what we sometimes call worm theology. Humility is not self-rejection and it is not codependency.

Let me briefly mention about those four things that it's not. False humility often uses religious language to give a religious appearance of humility while inwardly the heart is craving recognition. Sometimes people will often even act like they're deflecting a compliment and someone comes up and gives somebody a compliment and they say, oh no, it was nothing, you know, but yet inwardly in their heart they're just needing to be affirmed. We all need to be accepted and there's nothing wrong with being affirmed. We're so confused about this that so often somebody will come up to, have you ever been in a group and somebody gives somebody a compliment and then somebody else says, oh don't tell him that, it'll go to his head. So we don't we don't have a category for how it is we could receive deep compliment and yet not have it go to our head. And so a lot of people have a false humidity because they want to act like well nothing has ever gone to my head and so instead they're like denying even the good gifts that God has given them.

That's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Have you ever thought that joy is a delight reserved for those who have no problems? Or have you ever assumed that some people are just born with a joyful personality?

If so, get ready for some good news. Joy is a fruit of the spirit available to all in Christ no matter the circumstances of life. Though Paul was in jail when he wrote his epistle to the Philippians, he spoke of joy 16 times. No matter what you're going through, you too can discover the secret to unspeakable joy as Pastor Alan Wright leads you through a life-building exploration of Philippians. When you make a gift to Sharing the Light Ministries today, we'll send you the new CD album The Secret of Unspeakable Joy as our way of saying thank you for your partnership. Your gifts are the only way we are able to continue broadcasting the message of grace all over the nation. Happiness may rise and fall with happenstance but joy is ever present in the spirit.

So become a partner today and discover joy like never before. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860 or come to our website PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. The picture of false humility that we see in the scripture over and over is in the Pharisees. Jesus rebuked them often and it was for things like when they would fast which is a form of humbling oneself really. Fasting by the way is not something that you do and therefore God's so proud of you that He's going to give you a blessing in return. It's not something you do that impresses God or some religious thing but it is a form in which you can in moderation have a time where you are fasting from something and it humbles yourself. It reminds you of your dependence upon God and you can have a connection with God in that sense. But what the Pharisees did is that they would fast for long periods of time until they looked gaunt and they would go around and want everybody to see it.

See how much I'm fasting? See how humble I am? In other words the false humility acts like look how humble I am while inwardly there's a deep insecurity that is craving your approval. That's not true humility. True humility also is not this wrong kind of thinking that someone labeled years ago worm theology based on how some have taken those few little scriptures that says I'm like a worm and then just built their whole theology around this. And nothing irritates me more than this kind of thinking that in no way you can take this and line it up with the whole balance of the scripture that begins with God blessing Adam and Eve and giving them dominion and the earth and carrying all the way to Paul who says we're more than conquerors in Christ and that we're blessed with every spiritual blessing to the point in the end in which the vision of revelation is that we are wearing the very name of Christ and we are reigning with Him forever. How can that be the case if we are worms? It's an insult to the maker who made us a little lower than the angels and has crowned you with glory and honor.

C.S. Lewis once wrote that if we really knew who someone was as a human being how they are in the image of God how beautifully, wonderfully and fearfully we have been made. He said if you really could see a human being the way that God has made that human being there'd be something in you that would be almost prone to fall down in worship.

There is no mere mortal, Lewis says. We are made for eternity. We are made for God. We are made in as image.

We're as image bearers in this world. So we must reject any idea that says humility is us putting down our own humanity, putting ourselves down as if we're just constantly focused on what worthless sinners we are and never affirming the beauty and glory of which God has made us. It's not humility to have a worm theology and it's not humility to live with self-rejection.

This is one of the things I just I cannot I cannot emphasize this enough and I cannot seem to anywhere in the nation I go get people to see how important this is but the problem in so many many lives is self-rejection and self-hatred. If you love yourself you're not being selfish you are loving that which God has created and if you cannot accept yourself in Christ I'm not talking about accepting your sin I'm talking about accepting yourself if you can't do that then how are you ever going to let God love you or use you and so humility is not a rejection of self. John spoke about this in his little epistle in first John chapter three at verse 19 he said by this we shall know we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him for whenever our heart condemns us God is greater than our heart and he knows everything. What's John saying? He's saying that we condemn ourselves even though God has forgiven us and God knows everything. He knows the sin in your life that you don't even know. He knows the sin that you're still to commit that you don't even know.

He knows the problems in yesteryear that you can't even remember. He sees it all and yet he sees you through the blood of Jesus and does not condemn you and so John continues in first John 3 and he says beloved if our heart does not condemn us we have confidence before God. What does God want? Does he want us to have a lack of confidence in his presence?

Some people think that. They think that God would want us to be fearful in his presence. But the entirety of the New Testament is a tribute to the glorious plan of God that Jesus would come and we would find ourselves by faith through grace and grafted into Christ so that we would be seated with Christ in the heavenlies so that you could come into the presence of the father in the same way that Jesus is in the presence of the father so that there would be no impediment whatsoever to your relationship with God and that you could be assured that he would never turn his face away from you in disgust but instead he lifts up his countenance upon you and you can come into the throne room of grace boldly in your time of need. Let us not condemn ourselves when Jesus has set us free. It's not humility to reject yourself. And finally let me briefly mention it is not humility to simply be what psychologists have labeled codependent and by this I mean a form of self-giving that isn't giving really at all but instead is done out of an addictive type of need to be needed.

It is not humility when someone else takes from you what you didn't want to give and there is no invitation in the scripture and there's no invitation in this great hymn of Philippians 2 for us to let people simply use us as a doormat. Jesus laid down his life. Jesus humbled himself. Jesus emptied himself. Jesus emptied himself.

No one took his life from him and there's great confusion about this even in the body of Christ. You are of infinite worth and what you are to do and give and serve may be a call of God and it may be the most wonderful thing in your life to lay down your interests and serve someone else but if you're doing so because you feel like you have to or else you won't be accepted then something has gone greatly wrong. So let's not be confused and fall into a sense of false humility or a sense of self-rejection or any sense of codependency or any kind of bad theology that tells us that somehow we're just so low like worms. No, humility biblically is something much more wonderful than that and what we see on display in Philippians chapter 2 is something that is unique in the ancient world. In the Roman empire and in Greece humility was not considered a virtue.

That's interesting. It is something because of the influence of the gospel in our own culture we do have in many places a sense of great beauty and respect when we see humility and yet you can see it even in the crazy political race going on right now. Humility is not really honored is it?

I'm not even going there. But it wasn't valued in the world of Jesus or Paul. It's an exotic from heaven. It's something that's unique. It's something that is modeled in Jesus in a unique way and humility is something that you do not muster up but is something that you become aware of. It is in many ways walking in the truth of the perspective of just how at the same time your life is so wonderfully used by God and yet it's God who's doing the work. And so it is that there are many ways in which this humility just gets reminded in our lives and it's not something you necessarily try for. I was reading this week that in 1985 great baseball pitcher Tom Seaver was on the verge of winning his 300th game and a few pitchers have done this and right on the verge of it he went over to his nine-year-old daughter who was in the box seats and he said excitedly towards it, three more outs to go. And the classic response from the nine-year-old daughter, good then we can go home and go swimming. I just love it. Any parent knows this is one of the great things about having kids is how humble they keep you. If you ever love watching this like some great superstar athlete and he just won the masters you know a golfer it's just it's just one Wimbledon and then the kid comes out there and the kid could care less you know it's just my dad. I'll never forget really one of the first conferences that I and some members of our team went and did on the healing of shame and we went to Moultrie, Georgia and there was in this church at least 100 people had already read my writings about the healing of shame and they were so hungry in this church and it was just a wonderful time of renewal. We had a big conference we along with the team we led some of their leadership and big gatherings about how to implement this in a long time to implement this in the life of the church and on the Sunday morning that I preached I preached on the power of blessing and we invited people to come forward and receive a blessing that had never been spoken over their lives before and hundreds of people came and we laid hands on people and we blessed them and we spoke the word of God over their lives and God was just moving and we were going to get onto our private plane Bob was flying us we were so we just staked the church for a lunch that they prepared and as we were going to the car and they're going to go off to the head to the airport a young man came and he said my wife wasn't here for this blessing this morning and I know she needs it he said so I've driven around to every restaurant in Moultrie and I couldn't find you and I thought well maybe you're still at the church and now I found you do you have a moment that you could speak a blessing to my wife and we gathered around this young couple and we laid hands on them and we blessed them and tears were just flowing down our face and could just see the impartation of the Holy Spirit and we got into the car and it was just quiet for a moment and we just we just sat there and wept all right and what a story there Moultrie Georgia I know that place well it's today's teaching true humility versus worm theology and the conclusion coming on our next broadcast and Allen is back here in a moment with additional insight on this in the unspeakable joy series for our lives in today's final word CS Lewis said no soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it in other words joy isn't an elusive dream reserved for a select few who have no problems or for those who were born with a joyful disposition actually joy is a fruit of the spirit available to all in Christ no matter what you're facing you can have the joy of the Lord in the midst of it the apostle Paul did though he wrote his epistle to the Philippians while imprisoned he spoke of joy 16 times Allen Wright's newest CD album the secret of unspeakable joy takes you chapter by chapter through Paul's explanation of the secret of joy in Philippians when you make a gift today to sharing the light we'll be delighted to send you the new CD album as our way of saying thanks for your partnership become a partner today and discover the secrets of unspeakable joy we are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Allen Wright ministries call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastorallen.org Allen would it be fair to say with a with a title like this true humility versus worm theology that you probably are not walking in joy if you are practicing worm theology probably are not walking in joy if you are practicing worm theology that is correct you can have joy in the midst of your deepest humility yeah and but if you are in worm theology which is saying i'm not worth anything and uh i'm just a sinner and you can't acknowledge uh the magnitude of what God's done for you and the greatness of his purposes in your life it'll be very difficult to have joy so it's very important Daniel to know the difference between what true humility is from biblical perspective versus this kind of uh self disparaging and um well in many ways uh self-absorbed obsession with how low we are that's not the biblical picture of humility if you only caught part of today's teaching not only can you listen again online but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free find out more about these and other resources at pastorallen.org that's pastorallen.org today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.