The Pursuit - Part 2

Welcome to this weekend's In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley. The first and most important act of humility is to acknowledge your need for Jesus Christ.

In today's podcast, we learn how to encourage the lifelong pursuit of humility. I want to talk to you about the wealth that every single believer possesses, most of whom they don't even know it's there. And it's like somebody places $10 million in your account the day you were born, never tells you about it. Your name is on it.

You live in the same town all of your life. It's then to the bank, your name on it. You come at the age of 75, 80 years of age and somebody comes to you in the hospital in your death bed and says, did you realize that for all these years there's been $10 million in the bank and you could have drawn on it any time you wanted to? You know what would happen?

You'd have a heart attack and die right there. Be damn better right there. Lord, I can't handle that. I can tell you something better than that. God has deposited to your account wealth that will never be able to be diminished. It will never disappear. Nobody can take it away. And listen to this, you can't outlive it and you're going to live for eternity. Now, what in the world is that? Listen to this. Here we go. Beginning in verse 3 of Ephesians 1.

The wealth of every single believer. Now watch this. Now don't sit there and think, well, that's somebody else. No, we're talking about you. If you're saved, we're talking about you. Here's what you possess. Verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has, past tense, already blessed us, deposited to our account every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. That is, you have absolutely no needs. You have no needs that you'll never have a need that God has not already, listen, provided for that need to be met no matter who you are. And likewise, it isn't just needs that God has deposited to your account. He's deposited many privileges to your account. He's deposited many good things to your account if you will position yourself by faith to claim them. So first of all, He says every spiritual blessing, then notice what He says.

Verse 4. Just as He chose you in Christ, that is, God chose you in Christ Jesus when? Before the foundation of the world, Almighty God chose you, chose to save you.

Listen to this. That we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined, He drew a circle around you, set you off. He chose you in Him before the foundation of the world. He predestined us to adoption. That is, He chose, made a decision that when you trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, He put you in the family. You became a member of the family of God. And when you became a member of the family of God, you inherited, listen, you inherited all that belongs to the members of that family. And so you have been chosen, predestined. He says predestined unto adoption. And He says according to the kind intention of His will.

Now listen to that. He did it not on the basis of what you did, what you didn't do. He says, I chose you because it was the kind intention of my will to do so. It was a decision that He made.

Look at this. To the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us, the beloved. He says He has freely bestowed His grace on us.

Listen, God isn't inching out grace an ounce at a time. He has poured out His grace upon us. Then if you'll notice He says, in Him we have redemption. He saved us. He paid the price for our sins through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. He has forgiven us of all of our sins. According to the riches of His grace, which He lavished on us. He said He not only poured out His grace upon us, He lavished it upon us.

That is, there's always more than enough. He said He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His kind intention, which He purposed in us. Then if you'll notice He says in verse 11, also we have obtained an inheritance.

We have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to His purpose, who works all things after the counsel of His will. Do you realize how blessed you are that God chose to save you? That He chose to give you an inheritance? That He chose to lavish His grace upon you? He chose to be good to you. He chose to be merciful to you.

He chose, chose, chose, chose, chose to adopt you into His family and let you inherit all that belongs to the family. Look in verse 13, in Him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in Christ with the Holy Spirit of promise who has given us a pledge of our inheritance. That is, when you trusted Christ as your Savior, He redeemed you, forgave you of your sins, He sealed you forever as a child of God. You may disobey Him and get disciplined, whatever the sin calls for, God disciplines, but you once forever a child of the living God because you've placed your faith and your trust in Him, received Him as your Savior, sealed with the Holy Spirit, not sealed until you sin, sealed until you make a mistake, sealed until you fall, to seal until you fall, but He says, sealed unto the day of redemption, a child of God. Let me tell you something, when you trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you became a very significant somebody in the eyes of God and the moment you trusted Him as your Savior, all the wealth we have just mentioned became yours.

It was, listen, deposited to your account, God working in your life. And the reason so many are unhappy, discontented, frustrated, anxious, can't get along, things don't work in life is because you're trying to live outside of the will and the wealth and the purpose and the plan of God for your life and it won't work. And it may be that you're too prideful and arrogant and egotistical to bow your knee before God and say, Lord, it's not working, I've tried, I've done everything I know to do, God, it's not working, I give up, I quit, I surrender. The ultimate expression of humility, I surrender. That's one battle you want to lose every single time. You want Him to win that one every single time. You win, God, because every time He wins, you win. What is the motivation for humbling ourselves before the Lord? What's the motivation? It's the grace of God.

It's the goodness and love of God. You say, well, I'm not experiencing all of that. Well, let me say this now. I never want to be critical. God knows I don't. Because you know what?

Criticizing somebody doesn't help anything and I would not be critical. A lot of time it's just ignorance. Now we've all been ignorant. And I look back in years and years ago and think about what I used to think, what I used to believe and think, Lord, thank You, thank You, thank You. You didn't leave me where I was in my ignorance because I didn't understand all this. I didn't understand what God had provided for me.

When you and I recognize the grace and goodness and love and mercy of God, there's nothing to be proud about but something to be grateful for. You think about this. I don't know who you are and what you have and how much you're worth and who knows you and who doesn't know you and how many people accept you, love you or reject you, what else, but I do know this. There's no such thing as an unimportant person.

Nobody. Secondly, pride and arrogance, self-sufficiency and selfishness will get you nowhere. And while in the eyes of the world you may get to the top, in the eyes of God, you're still hanging on the bottom. Because you see, think about this. People who have reached some pinnacle in their life and think they have it all, when they lie down at night, cut the light out and look on the inside, it's very, very dark on the inside. You know why? Because it's totally a spiritual vacuum.

They don't have it. The spirit of humility says, God, I need you. I yield to you. Whatever you want is what I want. Wherever the need is, God, I'm a servant. Whatever you choose for me, dear Lord, that's where I want to be. Doing what you want me to do. Thinking, Lord, first of all of you, then others, then myself last. That's the motivation. Now the issue is this.

What's the price? What's the price of pursuing the spirit of humility? You see, if he said put it on and clothe yourself, it means I have a responsibility.

You have a responsibility. Listen, allow, watch how I'm saying this, allowing God to develop the spirit of humility in you. I didn't say if you do the following seven things, you got it.

It is allowing Him to develop in you. If I'm going to allow Him to develop the spirit of humility within me, there's certain things I need to do. So I want to give you seven words, single words, if you jot them all down. I had them all start with a D so you won't forget them. Seven words. Number one, and you may just want to jot these down and I'll just say one or two words about them and very little if I can here.

Just a couple of words that I want to say about each one. First of all, the first phrase is death to self. If I'm going to pursue the spirit of humility, which is so significant, death to self. What does that mean?

It means I refuse to put myself first in a situation. I want to ask what is the desire of God? What's His will? What's His purpose?

What am I to do in response to what He wants? Death to self because all of us have that self. That's number one. Number two is devotion. A devotion toward others, devoted to helping other people, devoted to helping meet their needs, their desires, and to meet their hurts and their pain and their suffering and their heartache. Devoted to giving ourselves away to other people who need us because think about what a reservoir of truth you are. What a reservoir of comfort and assurance and confidence and encouragement you can be.

Number three, delight. What do I mean by that? Listen, delighting ourselves in the good things and the good fortune that comes to other people. Being delighted when we say we see good things come to others.

Listen to this now. Being delighted when good things come to others, even though I thought I should have gotten it. I'm delighted to see the Lord blessing someone else. Even though I see someone else who is moving along and getting ahead and maybe has more or reached some stage, delighted that God has blessed them.

Delighted in what's happening in their life. If you begrudge, watch this, since, listen to this, since all good and perfect gifts come from the Father and He chooses to see fit to bless somebody, if I begrudge and covet and criticize what God is doing in somebody else's life, you know what I'm doing? I'm saying, God, you blew it. You made a mistake.

I should have gotten that. That is not the spirit of humility. Can I delight in someone else's good fortune?

I don't mean by fortune chance, but God's blessing in someone else's life. The spirit of humility, if I'm going to pursue that, I must be willing to do that. Then dependence, and that is genuine humility. If I really want to see that in my life, I must learn, listen, to depend upon Him in every circumstance for every situation, no matter what.

So, we're to be dependent upon Him in every circumstance of life. The next word is direct. Direct what? Direct our thoughts. Listen, direct our thoughts continually upon the grace of God, the goodness of God, the kindnesses of God, and all the good things that God has in our life, rather than directing our thoughts primarily on our failures and our weaknesses and what we don't have and what's not happening in our life. The next word is distance.

What do I mean by that? Distance yourself from those things that you know will appeal to your pride, whether it's lots of wealth, lots of prestige, lots of honor, lots of applause, in other words, lots of relationships, whatever it might be. That is, distance yourself from those things that you know will not contribute to the spirit of humility. Then there's one last word, and that's simply this, determine. Now watch this one. Determine to obey God no matter what the consequences. Now here's the reason.

Let me go a little bit further. Determine, watch this now, we're talking about humility. Determine to obey God when obedience to Him will bring about humiliation to you personally. If you obey God in some circumstances, people criticize you, they'll tear you apart, they'll make all kinds of accusations, you name it.

The world is very quick to be critical and judgmental. But if you and I want the spirit of humility, we will obey Him no matter how much humiliation it may bring upon us. Now nobody can make you humble. God can send some things in your life and my life that will cause us to recognize our dependence upon Him. But you know what I think, and there's a lot of things about God I don't know naturally, and I do love studying the ways of God, and I certainly believe this is one of them. One of the ways of God is this, He blesses us. He blesses us with ways we could never do for ourselves in order to get our attention, to help us to understand how good He is, how gracious He is, that He has the best for us, He wants the best for us, He's planned the best for us, He has the power to give us His best if we will just but listen. And humility, the way of humility, the life of humility, the spirit of humility, that's God's way. It was the way in the life of Jesus, and it's His way for you and for me. The only thing that really matters is He has His way.

When He has His way, we will be blessed beyond all measure. Now if you're one of those persons who's never trusted Jesus as your Savior, and you say, well now, how does that apply to me? Listen carefully. If you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, it may be because nobody ever explained it to you. It may be because you just don't understand it. It may be that you've known that something was wrong in your life, but you didn't know what to do.

Or it may be that you've heard it over and over and over again. You don't want it, you don't think you need it, and away with it. I don't know what it might be, this much I know. The wisest thing you can do is to humble yourself before Him and say, Lord, I've had it my way, and the truth is, it's dark on the inside of my soul. I've had it my way, God, and the real truth is, I know that I'm empty. I have all these things, oh God, I have nothing.

I have these relationships, oh God, I have none. Father, I need you. I'm asking you to forgive me of my sins, because I do believe that when Jesus went to the cross, His death paid my debt of sin and guilt and shame once and for all. And I'm asking you to forgive me of my sins. And I'm trusting you today as my Savior, my Lord and my Master. That is the spirit of humility. And that is the spirit of humility that, listen, that will get you from this life to eternal life.

No other way is possible. And I want to encourage you to humble yourself before Him and tell Him that whatever He wants, that's what you want. And you know what?

You'll mark this day as the beginning of the best part of your life. Father, how grateful we are of your patience and kindness and gentleness. When I think about how you have put up with all of us through these years, we've not always done what we've known is the right thing to do. We've faltered and stumbled and failed.

We've been frail and weak. And yet by your grace and goodness and love and mercy, you keep picking us up, standing us up, keeping us on the right path, moving in the right direction. I pray for those who will get on the path, step on it the first time this very day, that you will demonstrate to them what a wonderful Father you are. And I know that you will. I pray, Father, for those who've stumbled in their own life, thinking of how insignificant and unworthy, full of anger and bitterness and resentment at what life has done to them, would you show them, Father, that they can find out what you'll do for them, if they will simply humble themselves before you and say, God, Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus, I need you. For we ask it in His name. Amen.