OMTL Sermon 4: Learn Humbly

Do we have a teachable spirit? Photo--theweek.com

We now look at learning humbly. It may sound easy, but perhaps this is the most difficult of the principles to live by. We know passion. We know love. We have had a taste of those and can begin to get our hearts and minds around living passionately and loving completely. They are no walk in the park but surely worth the effort.

Learning humbly is different. We want to know what we know and know what we know because we know what we know. There is still some teenager in all of us. We want to know everything, or at least believe we do, and we want to believe that we got there ourselves.

C’mon, this is One Month to Live! This is about my life! I am setting the course here!

Sadly, if we hold to this belief, that is all it will be about. We are called to be so much more than we can imagine. Getting there seems to be a perplexing paradox where loss seems to be gain, and gain loss. What in the world does that mean?

Let’s answer this with three key phrases. We must learn from our losses, surrender to God’s strength, and pursue God’s path.

Learn from our losses. If we are human, we are going to fail. We can string together days, months, and even years of what we might call success; but eventually, all of us come up short somewhere. When we fail, when we crash, when we fall; we have a choice. We can place blame or we can accept responsibility.

We are very good at placing blame in this country. Spin doctoring is both art and science and even profitable in the short term. It seems if we can deflect the blame from ourselves, we feel better. We feel like we have power over the situation or the people that we choose to blame. Actually, the opposite is true. So long as we believe others are responsible for our failures; only others can be responsible for our success. Truly, to blame is to give up our power, to be powerless.

Stephen Covey likes to break this one syllable word into two syllables. How? Separate the B from the rest of the word. What do you get? B – lame. To blame is to be lame. To blame is to say that we are powerless in our lives.

If you are reading the One Month to Live book, the Shooks give an illustration of pushing a motorcycle around the track. Here is this 250 cc engine, but they never tap into it. We are powerless when we try to live this life with only our own resources. All of life will be a struggle, just like pushing this motorcycle around the track and never tapping into its power. To insist on doing this over and over in our lives is insanity.

A man who refuses to admit his mistakes can never be successful. But if he confesses and forsakes them, he gets another chance.

Proverb 28:13 TLB

We must accept our failures in order to learn. The person who always has someone to blame for his mistakes, short comings, and failures, has no reason to learn. They live in a fantasy world where they believe they are not responsible for their choices.

Acceptance is the first step towards real learning. If we can admit that we don’t know everything, then we make a window into our very being and move a little closer to what we might call a teachable spirit.

At the other end of this learning from our losses spectrum, we find guilt. As we learn from our losses, we must also let go of guilt. We are not going to learn anything carrying around a load of guilt. What’s the point? It’s hopless. It’s always my fault. What’s the point?

Sticking with the motorcycle and motocross metaphor, we look at goggles. This is a dirty, muddy sport. Dirt gets kicked up all over the place. At one time, some of these goggles for this sport were made with different layers that you just peel off. You get mud all over your goggles, you peel off a layer. Get more mud, peel another layer. These guys are driving and leaning and jumping and landing, and they think that vision is important. I would have to agree. If I am going to be propelled around a track with a bunch of other crazy people who are leaning and jumping and landing—some better than others—then I want to see what’s in front of me.

Today, there are film screens. You just push a button and the dirty film is pulled of one side and the clean film rolls out of the other. In any case, you get rid of the muck on your goggles.

Perhaps, we can see the same thing in sports we are more familiar with—football and baseball. Both the quarterback and the pitcher must have very short memories. The quarterback that throws an interception cannot be thinking about that the next time he is on the field taking a snap. He must learn from his mistake and dump the guilt that goes with it. A pitcher that gets dinged for a two run homer must have a shorter memory. He must drop all of the emotional junk that goes with what just happened and focus entirely upon his next pitch while the batter's homerun trot is both visual and kinesthetic reminder of the error.

We can’t learn if we insist on carrying our guilt around with us.

There is one man who certainly had to let go of his guilt. That man was Peter. Peter, who said he would die with Jesus, wimped out under pressure. I am sure that he felt like crawling into hole and hiding for the rest of his life. How could anyone get over this?

"Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.'"

Mark 16:6-7 NIV

Why single out Peter in these instructions? Surely because he was overwhelmed with guilt, probably wondering where he could hide. He was probably ashamed to face the other disciples. Peter was most likely a man who felt as alone and ashamed as a man can get.

But the angel, said: “Don’t forget Peter. He’s included too. He doesn’t have to carry this burden with him the rest of his life.”

To have the vision to learn, we must set aside our guilt like a major league pitcher moves past the dinger.

Next, we must surrender to God’s strength. More paradox! For me to learn, I have to accept that God does know best. He knows what is best for my life. It seems like, it’s my life and I should know what’s best, but God knows what’s best.

Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?”

Luke 9:23-26 NIV

What does it mean to deny ourselves and take up our crosses? That we die to our selfish desires every day. Remember Peter. He denied Christ and crashed. Having just denied Jesus two times, consider how Peter felt in this passage.

About an hour later another asserted, "Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean."

Peter replied, "Man, I don't know what you're talking about!" Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: "Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times." And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Luke 22:59-62 NIV

When we deny Christ, we crash. We are called to deny ourselves. God waits for us daily to come to him and say, “I can’t do this alone.”

I want to be a great father.

I want to be a great mother.

I want to be a great husband.

I want to be a great wife.

I want to be a great teacher.

I want to be a great counselor.

I want to be a great leader.

I want to be a great helper.

I want to be a great comforter.

I want to be a great listener.

I want to quit smoking.

I want to quit drinking.

I want to quit gambling.

I want to quit cussing.

I want to quit complaining.

I want to quit belittling others.

I want to quit second guessing others.

I want to give up my contempt.

I want to give up gossiping.

I want to give up giving up.

God, I have read all the books, listened to all the expert advice, tried everything I heard on Oprah, and I can’t do it alone!

I think God’s reply might be, “You took the long way around, but I am glad you are here. I wanted you to come to me as your first choice. I have been longing to teach you, to give you wisdom, to give you blessings, and to show you the path I have set for you. Are you ready?”

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 NIV

When we can finally say:

· Thank you Lord for the thorns and difficulties in my life.

· Thank you for my weaknesses.

· Thank you for all the stuff that I want to do on my own and discover I can’t.

· Thank you that I can surrender to you and receive your strength.

· Lord, teach me.

Then we are ready to walk in the way God has made for us. Are we ready to pursue God’s path for our lives?

Or do we ask:

· What if God asks me to do something I don’t want to do? He will.

· What if he wants me to do something I don’t like? Count on it.

· Won’t my life become boring? Expect that your life will be so far from boring that you will forget that you ever knew what boring meant!

Hold your horses! I’m not so sure that I want to walk God’s path! I want my own miserable path. I don’t like my path, but I am comfortable with it! He is asking too much. He is asking me to put all of my trust in him.

Yes, He is.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV

Learning humbly comes down to trust. We have trusted our own ways so long, that we are afraid to trust the only One who can help us. But to learn and grow and thrive, we must trust.

Consider this counsel from the Psalmist. I think the language of The Message will hit home with us better today.

32 I'll run the course you lay out for me if you'll just show me how.

33 God, teach me lessons for living so I can stay the course.

34 Give me insight so I can do what you tell me — my whole life one long, obedient response.

35 Guide me down the road of your commandments; I love traveling this freeway!

36 Give me a bent for your words of wisdom, and not for piling up loot.

37 Divert my eyes from toys and trinkets, invigorate me on the pilgrim way.

38 Affirm your promises to me — promises made to all who fear you.

39 Deflect the harsh words of my critics — but what you say is always so good.

40 See how hungry I am for your counsel; preserve my life through your righteous ways!

Psalm 119:32-40 (The Message)

Think of Peter once again. Think of him when he finally “got it”. When he finally stopped telling Jesus how to do things, or how loyal he was, or that he wouldn’t let him be killed—when he finally decided to do things the way Jesus would show him, when he was finally ready to learn humbly with a teachable spirit, what happened?

On the day of Pentecost, 3000 come to know Christ. In a previous life, Peter would have rather rallied 3000 men with swords to defend his Master. But now, a humble Peter is about to lead the greatest revolution on this planet. A humble Peter will be a thousand times bolder than the one who already knew everything. A humble Peter will heal by the power of God. A humble Peter—a fisherman, not an orator—will be given words by the Holy Spirit when called before the high priests.

If only, we could have the same teachable spirit. If only God would give us knowledge, and wisdom, and power today.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

James 1:2-8 NIV

We are told that if we ask God for wisdom, He will give it to us and give it generously. He doesn’t disqualify us from receiving wisdom because of our faults.

If we only had a month to live, could we then fully trust God to teach us what we need to know? Would we stop doubting his ways? Would we lean fully on God and not our own understanding? Would we finally have an appetite for what God wants to teach us?

May prayer is that we are not only hungry for his wisdom and his ways in our last days, but hungry for them from this day forward. Lord we desire a teachable spirit. Lord we desire your wisdom. Lord, we desire to walk in your ways.

Let us take this One Month to Live challenge as the spark we need to be true lifelong learners, having humble, teachable spirits that long for God’s wisdom and that hunger to walk in the way He has made for us.