Boldness and Humility [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. We are part of the redemptive story because we're telling the whole world about the love of Jesus.

I'm telling you, it's one story from Genesis all the way to Revelation, and it's all woven together by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I love the Word of God. 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 Word and Spirit, The Beauty of Balance, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. Now, 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. So, as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you this resource, today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org, or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. Then she writes, enter in, I'm just using her words, born again fundamentalist Christianity. She writes, again, just her way of seeing it's all I'm saying.

I'm not saying it's accurate, I'm saying the way she sees it. Fundamentalist Christianity says that one must not believe in himself and only in Jesus Christ. Fundamentalist Christianity has no room for self-esteem. You see her perception, requiring a believer to place his or her trust solely in Jesus Christ. So, her idea of when she accepted Christ, whatever got taught to her, it seemed like it was in conflict with the idea of having inward esteem. And she goes on and says, and then I entered what she calls Protestantism.

I don't really know what she means by that, but she said, and encountered a softer version of the same thing, solo Christo. This really refers to a theological belief of salvation, but it's the prescription of many Orthodox Christians when it comes to problems with self-esteem. And she continued, for a long time then, I believe self-esteem and self-confidence were wrong, because my soul worth should be found in God and not in myself.

I engaged in worm theology. Oh, I'm such an awful, terrible sinner. There's no righteousness in me. All righteousness is found in God and I'm a poor, pathetic, pitiful soul.

And I'm so lucky God saved me because I'm totally worthless otherwise. And then she shifted and she said, beginning last week, I started reading Jillian Michaels' book, Unlimited, How to Live an Exceptional Life. Just sort of a self-help self-confidence book.

And started seriously thinking, maybe it's time for me to walk away from Christianity because I like what Jillian is saying about reclaiming and recapturing my life. I want to have self-esteem. I want to have self-confidence.

I want to stop obsessing and feeling like a poor, pathetic, little blank all the time. The reason I share that, I think it's so, so poignant, is there's the conflict. If you don't get a hold of what we're going to see today, then it leaves you kind of in one of these two worlds. Either it's like, I can be humble but not have much self-esteem, or I can have all this self-confidence, but that doesn't seem to fit with the call to be surrendered to Christ. It's a missing of the gospel. Missing of the gospel.

It doesn't help when the whole media around us seems to parade those people that are just so puffed up. And so we have people like Kanye West saying, my greatest pain in life is that I'll never be able to see myself perform live. Or he said, I feel like I'm too busy writing history to read it. There's a paradox in the scripture, though. The apostle Paul, the one we're studying today, when he wrote, he often paired this boldness and humility right together. For example, 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26.

Consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful.

Not many were noble of birth. But God chose what's foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what's weak in the world to shame the strong. And God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are.

But he's saying, he's saying God chose people who might not have been able to demonstrate that they were highly ranked in the world's eyes, and then did something very powerful in and through them. He said in chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians, as he talked about how he received what he called a thorn, and it was something that kept him humble. And he said, with regard to this, so to keep me from becoming conceited, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations that he'd had, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, Paul writes, I'll boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For when I'm weak, then I'm strong.

It's a paradox. The thorn is very clear what it was. It was a spiritual battle. He's having to face spiritual demonic entities. Every Christian's in a spiritual battle.

And what Paul was asking the Lord is, who amongst us haven't asked for something like this? Lord, could I just get out of the battle? Could I just have a free ticket away from having to get up in the morning and put on the whole armor of God and pray in the Spirit and rejoice and live in accountable relationships and have fellowship with you? Could I just get out of it where I don't have to do that? And the Lord says, no, no, not in this world.

You don't get a ticket out of that, because it's that very thing that is making you be like a deer that pants at the water brook. It's that very spiritual battle that's making you hunger and draw upon my grace. It's that very thing that makes you powerful and very thing that makes you powerful because in that weakness in which you see that if you didn't have me, you would be vulnerable to the enemy, but in me you can do all things. That's the very thing that's causing you to trust me, to believe me, to stay with me, to hunger for me, to grow in me, and to do the mission that I've given you to do.

No, you don't get a ticket out of that. He's putting these things together. He says in Romans 8 26 says, likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for with groanings too deep for words. See, we think it's a bad thing when you get to that point you don't even know how to pray, and God says it's not a bad place. He said because I give you my Holy Spirit who will pray through you, who pray in you, who will lead you, and who will guide you. So it's just a paradox that is something that could be like Paul who's led by the hand, blinded for three days, starts out his ministry that way, astonishingly weak, and yet so incredibly empowered that he is absolutely in Christ convinced that there's nothing that's impossible.

So he's got absolute confidence. See, it feels like that there's an unresolvable conflict between boldness and humility, but actually in the gospel you'll see that these two things do not come into conflict, but they are joined and married together. Tim Keller said it exceedingly well. The gospel makes us neither self-confident nor self-disdaining, but both bold and humble at once. To the degree I'm still functionally earning my worth through performance, to the degree I'm still functioning in works righteousness, to that degree I'll either be operating out of superiority or inferiority.

Why? Because if I'm saved by my works, then I can either be confident but not humble if I'm living up to it, or I could be humble but not confident if I'm not living up to it. In other words, apart from the gospel, I'll be forced to be superior or inferior or to swing back and forth or to be one way with some people and another way with others.

I'm continually caught between these two ways because of the nature of my self-image. So the gospel humbles me before anyone telling me I'm a sinner saved only by grace, but also emboldens me before anyone telling me I'm loved and honored by the only eyes in the universe that really count. So the gospel gives a boldness and a humility that do not eat each other up but can increase together.

There it is. See, what happens with the gospel is that the shift of attention is taken off of you and your performance all together. You're just kind of taken out of the equation because now the attention is upon Jesus Christ and His performance and His righteousness. And what happens is that when all the attention gets centered upon Jesus and what He's done and what His finished work is, it just takes you out of this whole game of the ranking system. We're just not even in it anymore.

We're not in it. We're not in a ranking system with anybody. We're not morally superior to anybody, which means how could we judge other people? And as some sinner is now, so would we be but for the grace of God and what we once were. And we know that and we live with that. But that doesn't mean that we walk around saying, well, I'm just an old sinner and I'm just still ranked down here.

Not at all. Instead, what we're saying is that in Christ, we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing. We might have been like the prodigal son in a faraway land, but we've come back home and there are lamb chops on the grill. And it's beautiful here. And it's wonderful. And the kingdom of God is vast in its spiritual riches. And the glory of it is unspeakable. And we rejoice in it. And we're in the middle of a big giant kingdom party that's already started.

We're in the middle of a world that's got all kinds of trouble. We pay heed to that. And we don't judge people because we're not morally superior, but we don't walk around in condemnation as if we're somehow inferior.

Instead, we have shifted away from whether we have a lot of self-confidence or a little bit of self-confidence. It doesn't have to do with self anymore. It has to do with God.

And it's a real position. It's not just that we're saying, well, I'm a sinner and I'm weak, but sometimes God comes in and moves through me. That's not what we're saying. What we're saying is that I was lost, but I have been found. I was dead, but I'm alive again. And so I understand at every point that I'm not better than anybody. And I have no position to judge over anybody else, but my status has changed. And my position in the cosmos has changed because I have been so utterly forgiven. And so it changes everything.

It absolutely changes everything. And so the commission on our life then is filled up with a sense of destiny and purpose and authenticity and confidence and power. And yet joined with that is an incredible humility.

That's Alan Wright. We'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. If you've ever thought that being filled with the Holy Spirit meant shutting off your mind, you're in for a wonderful surprise. God's Word and God's Spirit were never meant to be separated. Embrace the fullness of God's Word and His Spirit and grow like never before.

With Word and Spirit, you'll grow up and you'll be helping someone else grow as well. And remember, when you partner with Alan Wright Ministries, you'll be broadcasting the love of God to thousands every day. Now we are in our final days of offering this special product. 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. Humility, C.S. Lewis said it best, is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less. That's where freedom comes into your life. When you're able to get off your own mind.

Wouldn't it be nice just to have a conversation with somebody where you could genuinely just be caring about them and thinking about them because you're not worried about what they're thinking about you because you've been taken out of the equation. You're already wrapped up in your identity in Christ Jesus. Well, how are you going to get this kind of humility? Well, I'll tell you what happens is this thing that comes in your life is this huge gift. And when you know that it's gift, then you treat it as gift rather than, and pride can't, pride doesn't get happy and proud and boastful about something that's just a gift because it's a gift, right? It's not something you earned, but there is something inside that just goes, wow, right? A buddy of mine, Kenny Thacker, preached a sermon a few weeks ago.

He texted me. He said, I'm preaching on humility. I got a great title for it.

I said, what is it? The title of the message was the best sermon on humility you've ever heard. But in it, I love something Kenny said. He talked about there are two kinds of people.

There are howers and wowers. And he used this illustration. He said, when these kids were little, they went to Disney World. He said, they didn't have much money because they couldn't afford to go. He said, he got there, he parked, couldn't believe the sea of cars. He said, never seen so many cars. And he first, he said, how are we going to find a parking place? And then once he parked, he said, how are we going to remember where the parking place is? And then he walked up and he saw the prices of the tickets and said, how are we going to afford to get these tickets? And they said, how are we going to manage to stand in these lines in the middle of the heat all day? And he's all filled with all these, how, how, how, how?

He said, but his kids are altogether different. They got up there and they looked at the Magic Kingdom and said, wow, we got to get in there right now, sell the car, whatever it takes. We're going in there right now because you eat life. You're either just going how, or you're going, wow. There's so many things we don't understand, but I tell you people who come into the gospel go, wow. You come into a kingdom, you go, wow. And your life gets filled with a sense of humility.

It's like this. When you come and look at the Grand Canyon and go, wow, part of the bliss of that is that you're forgetting about yourself, at least for a few minutes until you start taking selfies. But if you can just enjoy it, if you can just go, I can enjoy something so vast, so big, just the sight of it, it doesn't depend on me. It was here before I got here.

It'll be here when I leave. And I'm happy just to have seen it. Something like that happens inside the Christian's heart. It produces this kind of confidence.

C.S. Lewis said, you can know you've been in the presence of God. By this, you realize you have forgotten about yourself while you were. The gospel means you're not having to think about whether I'm better or whether I'm worse than other people. You're not having to think about whether I measured up.

I didn't measure up. Instead, the gospel's meditation is, I'm in Christ. He's paid it all. He's done it all.

He's bought me back. And the measure of my life now is not my righteousness, but His. And therefore, you can be humble, and you can be bold. What this means, if I were to put it into practical terms, beloved, you're no better than anybody else, but you are blessed and highly favored. You're not in competition with anyone ultimately, because you're already victorious in Christ, and you cannot lose. You're going to live with Him forever. How could we fall into petty divisions and competition when we are so victorious in Christ?

We're going to live with Him and reign with Him forever and forever. It means, thirdly, you're no more deserving of God's love than the most vile sinner, but because you do have the love of God, sin is no longer your master. It means, Christians, you don't have to downplay your strengths or gifts for fear of being proud. You don't have to walk around and just every time somebody pays you a compliment, go, oh, not me, not me.

It means if you were Joseph, and you're in the dungeon, and Pharaoh came and knocked on the door and said, I'd like you to be prime minister, you'd say, all righty. You don't have to always be downplaying your strengths and gifts. Get comfortable with yourself.

You've got some gifts. You have some strengths. You have some attributes that God has put into you. Be comfortable with that, because you know you're not a self-made person. It means this, also, you don't have to be ashamed of your weaknesses. You can laugh at your own failures.

I tell you, the person who really gets the gospel can laugh at their own inadequacies and failures, because your failures aren't final, and they aren't the measure of who you are. You can just become more like a toddler who's learning to walk. You fall down, you get back up. You fall down, you get back up.

Big deal. It means that the gospel has remained the same. It means that the gospel has removed the ranking system. It's not about work salvation, and you aren't measuring your life according to whether you're morally better than others. You're not above or below others in some ranking system, because you're in a whole new system called grace.

It's just a whole different way of being. The highest ranked person isn't good enough for salvation, and the lowest ranked person isn't low enough to be disqualified from salvation, because the gospel's not about you. It's about Jesus.

It means you're taken out of the equation. You're forgiven because of his sacrifice and made righteous by his perfection, and so you're measured by what he's done for you. That means you can say at the same time, I'm no better than anybody else, and I don't deserve any good thing, but I'm so loved, so accepted, and so filled with grace that no weapon formed against me shall prosper. Changes the way you pray. We're not the people who come and say, well, I'm just a sinner, and I hope, God, as I come today in prayer that there might be a crumb that would fall off of your table, and maybe I could just taste a little crumb. Is that the picture of the gospel?

Of course not. The Bible says to come to the throne of grace boldly in your time of need. God's not pleased by his children feeling inferior and groveling. He came and paid this full infinite price so that you could be his child and his heir, so that you could come into the fellowship of the king without fear.

You have no concern that he's going to turn his face away from you any more than a loving father wants to turn his face away from his own son, but what he delights in, like any good parent, is to see his children well fed. He delights in seeing his children full of joy and purpose, and he wants to see his children confident, and so it is that the humility that we have before God is constantly acknowledging that he and he alone is the giver of every good gift, so everything with him he wants to just worship him, but there's this other side of me that's so confident that what he's done has made me secure in Christ that I have a new position in the world, and therefore we pray with boldness, and Christians we must see ourselves though in this world we are humble. We are declared spiritually in the kingdom of God to be the head and not the tail, and so we have confidence in our prayer life. We have confidence in the way in which we come to the Lord. We come saying, God, you promised these things.

They're extraordinary. They're beyond what I could ask or imagine, but you said them, and so, Lord, I take you at your word. Let it be unto me according to your word, just like Mary said. How did David pray after God said, I'm going to put somebody from your family on the throne forever and forever? He came and sat down before the Lord, and he said, Lord, I don't deserve it.

Who am I? Who's my family that you would look upon, but since you said all these things, let it be just exactly like you have said. It'll change the way you pray. It'll change the way you live, and it'll change the way that you do missions in the world. It'll change the way in which your faith is at work in the world, because when you're bold and confident and yet humble at the same time, what the world will see is exactly opposite of what that young woman said in her blog, is to be a Christian doesn't mean to be a person wallowing around with a lack of confidence. It is a whole new level of confidence, and it is the greater confidence that has no connection whatsoever to my own personal merit, and therefore is short, and it's solid, and it's true, and it's eternal, and yet is linked together with this amazing humility that just keeps us in this constant awareness that we're not better than anybody else, and we don't judge anybody, but we love everybody. In other words, beloved, you can be bold and humble because of the power of Jesus Christ in your life, and that's the gospel. Alan Wright, and that gives me hope for today.

I hope it does as well for you. It's Boldness and Humility, today's teaching in the series, The Beauty of Balance. Please stay with us. Alan is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and today's final word. If you've ever thought that being filled with the Holy Spirit meant shutting off your mind, you're in for a wonderful surprise. God's word and God's spirit were never meant to be separated. As someone once said, all word, no spirit, you dry up. All spirit, no word, you blow up. Both word and spirit, you grow up. When you make a gift of support this month, we'll send you Alan Wright's newest audio album on CD or digital download titled, Word and Spirit.

It's about the beauty of balance. Embrace the fullness of God's word and His spirit and grow like never before. With word and spirit, you'll grow up and you'll be helping someone else grow as well. And remember, when you partner with Alan Wright Ministries, you'll be broadcasting the love of God to thousands every day. Now we are in our final days of offering this special product. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Alan, I know what you're talking about going into that worm theology. There's a part of that that may be okay to say, okay, I realize that I am a sinner and that I needed Christ. But then you have the finished work and that then enters the boldness that we can then live with that both humility and the boldness. And I think it's not taking either to extreme, right? Exactly.

Again, C.S. Lewis said, humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less. And what we're discovering here is that in that definition, when you become preoccupied with Christ, when you become filled with the Holy Spirit, when your life is absolutely enthralled by the wonder of the gospel, you're not thinking of yourself. But when it's time for you to speak, for you to act, for God to use you, there is a boldness that is there because you recognize what God has done for you. In other words, when we act humble in a false way, we are diminishing who we are in Christ. And that does God no honor. But when we are bold in Christ, it doesn't make us proud. It makes us instead a reflection of our preoccupation with how wonderful God really is. Very, very important. And so big in all Christian growth is to embrace boldness in Christ along with humility in Him. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.