Craig Smith - The Secret Weapon for Your Spiritual Battle
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I know we’re three weeks into the series, but that still gets me. Like, I love that. You know, why would he fail now? He won’t. Right? Amen. Absolutely. Hey, if you’re just joining us, let me get you caught up real quick. We’re in a series called Unshakable, right? If that’s not clear to you already, actually, you might want to take a big breath, sip your coffee, and wake up a little bit.
What we’re talking about in this series is kind of a deep dive into what Jesus said. I think it’s one of my favorite stories that he told. He talked about a man building his house on the rock, which was God’s word. He said, Jesus said, «If you hear my word and you put it into practice,» that’s a key piece of it, «then the rains can come down, the waters can rise up, the wind can blow in, but the house is going to be okay because it’s built on a firm foundation.» And we’re talking about how to do that. Last week, we talked about the importance of winning a war that a lot of us don’t even know we’re fighting: The worship war. And the worship war is not how we worship; it’s who we worship. It’s what we worship-what we trust in to make a way from where we are to where we need to go.
And today, what I want to talk to you about is the secret weapon for winning that war. Last week, we discussed how important it is that we win it. Today, I want to talk to you about the secret weapon for winning that war. If you want to follow along, we’re going to be in Mark chapter 7. While you’re making your way there, let me tell you something. When God laid this passage on my heart, honestly, my first thought was a little bit of fear because this is a passage I’ve read a number of times. I’m just going to be really real with you and tell you it has always confused me. Is that okay to say? Like, I know you might be thinking, «My pastor’s sometimes confused by the Bible.» I am. Like, you’re going to have to decide whether or not you can trust me as your pastor, but I’m also always going to keep it real with you.
And there are parts of God’s word that I read and I’m like, «I have no idea what you’re talking about, God.» Anybody else, by the way? Okay, good, good. But it’s interesting as I follow Jesus longer and as some of these passages that were confusing start to get clear, I’m often surprised by what they say. I had kind of an idea of what this passage was really about, and as we got deeper into it, as I began to study it and pray more about it, I began to realize that what’s going on here was not what I thought it was. It’s a different conversation we’re going to have today.
Has anybody ever had that experience where you kind of were going into something and thought it was going to be one thing, and it turned out to be something entirely different? Anybody else ever had that experience? I had it this week, actually. I had a guy in my office on Wednesday, and I knew why we were meeting. We were meeting to talk about a particular thing, and we talked about it. Then at the end of it, he said, «Hey, I talked to your assistant and found out that you have the next half hour free, so there’s something else I want to do.» I was like, «Oh yeah, oh boy.» I was like, «Okay.»
Honestly, I thought he was upset about either what I said or what I didn’t say last week. And he goes, «No, no, no.» He said, «I’ve heard you say in your message a couple of times you’d like to drive a Maserati.» I was like, «Oh, you’re going to tell me that I’m a little too materialistic.» And he goes, «No, no, no; I have one, and I brought it today, and I thought I’d let you drive it.» And I was like, «You want to let me drive your Maserati?»
Well, I want to let you let me drive your Maserati. So, let’s go do it. And so, I got to do it. It was awesome, super exciting. I did not drive it as well as I should have, and I knew that because he kept telling me, " No, like give it some gas,» right? And I was like, «This is a very expensive car, and there are speed limit laws.» And so, I apparently did not really give it, you know, as much headway as I was supposed to because we drove for a while, and he’s like, «Why don’t you pull over, and then we’ll switch drivers, and I’ll take you back.»
And the reason he wanted to drive was he wanted to show me what it could really do. Terrifying, by the way. Absolutely terrifying. I mean, that thing had so much get-up-and-go. And I was like, «How are your reaction times? Because this road is kind of curvy, and it was a wild ride.» Okay? And it’s not what I thought I was going into. And I tell you that to tell you this passage is going to be a little bit like that. Okay? In fact, why don’t you tell somebody next to you, " Buckle up.» Okay?
This is not what you might think we’re going to get into, and it’s a little bit of a wild ride. Okay? It starts out this way: We’re in Mark 7:24. Now Jesus left that place, and he went to the vicinity of Tyre, and he entered a house and did not want anyone to know it. And yet, he could not keep his presence secret because he says he left that place. What place is that? Well, it was Capernaum. Capernaum was a town on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was kind of Jesus' home base. Most of his ministry was here. Right before this particular passage, Jesus had gotten into some conflict with the religious leaders around Capernaum, a group of them called the Pharisees.
And basically, they had a conflict over something called ritual purity. So the Jews had all kinds of rules about things you could eat or not eat and things you could do or not do. And those were biblical rules, but the Pharisees had added some more on to make sure that we’re really, really, really, really pure, right? And so they had rules about, like, even before you eat, you have to go through these ritual handwashing procedures, and they noticed Jesus' disciples didn’t do those things.
They’re like, «John’s got dirt under his fingernails, and Jesus is just letting him eat. What’s he doing?» Right? And so they confronted him. They’re like, «Hey, why don’t your disciples follow these purity rules?» And essentially, what Jesus said was, «Hey, guys, I’m a lot more interested in what’s in the heart than what’s on the hands. It’s really a lot more about what’s going on in you that comes out of you in your relationships than it is about particular rituals you follow and those kinds of things.» And here’s the thing. The Pharisees didn’t go like, «Oh, that’s a really good point. Wow, you are so right, and we are convinced, and we’re going to change.»
By the way, has anybody ever had a conflict with someone where you were right and they just wouldn’t admit it? Don’t look around -just look right at me. Okay? But you know what that’s like when you’re like, «There’s no question that I’m right; I have all the facts. They have all the evidence. I’m right; you’re wrong.» And they’re just so stubborn. Has anybody ever had a conflict like that? Yeah, that’s kind of what happens. They don’t give in. And so Jesus leaves. Okay? It says that he went to the vicinity of Ty. Let me tell you a couple of things about Ty; it’s an interesting place to go. First off, it’s way out of the way. It’s not on the way to anything; it’s in the opposite direction of almost everything. For a good Jewish person, it’s about 50 to 60 miles away, and typically in a day, you could walk 15 to 16 miles.
Clint and I went for a long walk in Ireland this summer for vacation, and we walked about 16 miles every day. I can tell you from experience, 16 miles a day is about all the miles you want to walk in a day. It’s a lot of miles. And so they would walk 15 or 16 miles, which means Ty was about 4 to 5 days' travel away. Okay? So it’s very intentional. It’s clearly not like they just went for a walk to blow off some steam and ended up here. No, no-very intentional, a long way away. It’s also a strange place for Jewish people to go because it was Gentile territory. It was almost all non-Jewish people. There might have been a handful of Jewish people, but almost all of them were non-Jewish, what they would call Gentile people.
And what’s interesting about that is they had just had this conversation about staying pure by rituals-what’s going on around you rather than what’s going on in you. And good Jewish people who were really concerned about being pure didn’t hang out with Gentiles. In fact, there were some Jewish leaders who said that Gentiles were so unclean that even if the shadow of a Gentile falls on you as a Jewish person, you’re unclean and you have to go through ritual purification. Okay?
So going into Gentile territory was really uncomfortable for the disciples, and honestly, they were probably worried about, like, " Jesus, what are you doing?» Day by day, as they get deeper and deeper, they’re like, «Okay, I get it. We got the point. You’re going way out of your way to prove the point, though,» and they’re probably really uncomfortable with the whole thing. On some level, they’re starting to worry about what Jesus’s decision to go to Ty means for their reputation. I mean, it’s one thing to have an argument about the ritual purity of the hands, but like, you’re going so deep into Gentile territory. What are they going to think about you, Jesus? What are they going to think about us? Right?
And it’s uncomfortable, and honestly, it’s a little bit humiliating. By the way, also, the people of Ty were thought of by the Jews as their bitterest enemies. The Jewish historian Josephus actually calls the people of Ty our bitterest enemies. And the disciples are incredibly uncomfortable, and Jesus just keeps going deeper and deeper. It’s not just uncomfortable. Honestly, for a good Jewish person, what Jesus has led the disciples to do is humiliating. Do you hear me? It’s humiliating. It ruins their reputation and makes all kinds of people go, «What kind of guy is this Jesus? And what kind of guys are these people that are following him?» It’s humiliating.
And I want to tell you something about humiliating. Humiliating and humble are actually two very similar words. They’re both rooted in the Latin word, which basically means to be grounded, to be brought low down to the ground. And the only difference between being humiliated and being humble is whether or not you’re forced into it or you freely choose it. You with me? You can be forced into humility, being brought low, which is kind of what the disciples are going through, or you can choose to be humble. But it’s the same basic thing. And here’s the reason I’m telling you this: because what the disciples are experiencing is something that I think we often forget. And that is that you can’t follow Jesus without a lot of humility. You hear me, church?
You cannot follow Jesus without a lot of humility. Jesus didn’t say, «Come follow me; I’ve booked some rooms in the nicest hotels in the area. We’re going to hang out, and everybody else is going to be jealous of how good we have it.» No, no, no. Jesus says, «You come follow me, and I’m going to take you places that, honestly, you’re going to be worried about your reputation. I’m going to take you places that are going to be uncomfortable. I’m going to take you places that you don’t quite know why you’re there and you’re not sure what to do, but that’s where I’m going. If you want to follow me, you’re going to have to come with me, and that’s going to require some humility.»
And I think we sometimes forget about that. And I think part of the reason that humility is hard for us is partly because we don’t really understand what it means to be humble. You might say, «Yeah, it’s to be brought low. It’s not to be above everybody.» But when we think about what that means in practice, I think we’re often confused. We often think about humility in what I call the 3Ds: doormat, downplay, and deny. That’s what it means to be humble. It means being a doormat. It means I just take abuse whenever it comes, right? I never stand up for myself. That’s not what it means. We go, «No, no, it means I have to deny.» If anybody says, «Oh, you’re good at this,» I say, «No, I’m not. Other people are so much better at that.»
People come to me and they say, «That was a great sermon. You’re a great preacher.» I say, «No, no, no. Have you heard Steven Furtick? Have you heard this guy or that guy?» I’m like, «That’s what it means to be humble, right?» Or we have to downplay. «Hey, you did a good job with that.» «No, I didn’t. I just did this last couple of weeks ago.» There was a pastor that was visiting, and after the Saturday service, he said, «Hey, that was a really great message. You did a good job.» And I was like, «No, I left out this point, and I didn’t make this moment what I wanted it to be.» And like I’m glad God used it, but yeah, I have to downplay it because I’m still, honestly, wrestling with this kind of groove that was rutted out in my life early on-that I thought being humble meant you’d be a doormat, you’d downplay your gifts, you’d deny you have any skill or anything like that.
And by the way, if I just described humility in those ways, and you’re like, «I thought that was humility. I thought that’s what it is. Isn’t that what it requires?» Can I add another D for you? Deceived. You’ve been deceived. The devil has deceived you about what humility is. And the reason the devil has deceived you and works so hard to deceive us is because he is horrified at what will happen if we get hold of some actual humility. Okay? The devil can’t handle the thought that you and I would actually embrace this humility that allows us to follow Jesus. So they’re so uncomfortable, and they actually go into a house. By the way, it’s in Gentile territory.
So the best guess is it’s a Gentile house, and that’s humiliating for the disciples to be brought into this house. And Jesus, maybe because he’s given them a little bit of a break, tries to keep it secret so not many people will know that his disciples have been humiliated to be in the Gentile house. But you can’t keep Jesus’s presence secret. And so it gets out. In fact, it says as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
And here’s the thing: when I first understood that this was the passage God wanted us to talk about today, my first thought when I read it was, «Oh yeah, because it’s about spiritual warfare.» And that makes sense to me because, you know, we want to win the worship war. We want to make sure we’re worshiping God, but it doesn’t happen in neutral territory. There is an enemy, right? We have a spiritual enemy, the devil. There are demonic forces that are trying to force us, to tempt us, to worship something else. It’s like, «Oh yeah, we’re going to talk about spiritual warfare.» That makes sense to me.
But it’s interesting; I mean, a demon is actually mentioned here, but he’s certainly not emphasized here. I mean, yeah, there’s a demon that was afflicting this woman’s daughter, but there are a lot of details left out, right? All the like the exciting details that we kind of expect when we’re going to talk about spiritual warfare. Like what exactly was the demon doing, right? Was it making her float above her bed? Did her head spin around? You know, like this is the Hollywood stuff, right? But none of those details are there. We’re just told that there was this demonic spirit, which, by the way, the Bible says were angels that rebelled with Satan, and they fell and became either what we call demons or impure or unclean spirits. It’s all synonyms for the same thing, these entities, these spiritual forces.
And one of them has attached itself to her daughter and is doing some kind of oppression, some kind of torment. But we’re not given any of the details. The details we’re given aren’t about the demon; they’re about the woman. Did you catch that? He tells us three things about the woman. First, she was a woman. By the way, ladies, just hold on for a second. But I need you to understand that for Jewish people, women often made them uncomfortable because there were purity laws in scripture that, when a woman is going through her monthly period, she’s considered unclean until she’s ended it and purified.
And the problem is, for a lot of Jewish men, they’re like, «Well, we don’t actually know if she’s going through it or not, so we should just treat all women as unclean all the time.» I mean, that’s what happened culturally. So a woman who comes, that’s uncomfortable. And Mark says she was a Greek. She’s a Gentile; she’s a non-Jewish person. And to make it even worse, he says she was a Syrian Phoenician. We don’t need to know that, except that for the Jews, they’re like, «Oh yeah, that’s our bitterest enemy.» And she comes and she falls at Jesus’s feet.
By the way, that’s an expression of humility. She comes to a Jewish rabbi who’s surrounded by Jewish men, and she fully expects to be rejected, but she falls, and she explains her need. That’s an incredible display of humility. And what do you expect Jesus to do? Come on! You know Jesus; he’s grace incarnate. He’s the compassion of God in physical form. He hugs lepers; he touches people that nobody else wants anything to do with, right? What do you expect him to do? This woman who comes and falls at his feet, he says, «First, let the children eat all they want.» He told her, «For it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.»
Anybody uncomfortable with that? You should be! And this is part of the reason I’ve never preached this passage. I was like, «That doesn’t even sound like my Jesus! I don’t get that. What are you doing?» By the way, I mean just so you know, that language was common Jewish language when talking about Gentiles. They used the language, «We’re the children of God,» and all the rest of the peoples of the earth, all the Gentiles-they’re dogs. And if you’re wondering, yes, it was an insult. And Jesus picks up this language that the Jews used to talk about this woman. He calls her a dog. And there’s a part of me that wonders if maybe some of this was a lesson for the disciples because I don’t know if you know this about the disciples, but you need to-Jesus didn’t pick the best and the brightest, okay? He didn’t pick the perfect and the pure.
And that’s good news and bad news for us. It’s good news because it means you can be chosen even if you’re not that impressive. It also means if you got chosen, you’re probably not that impressive. And I promise you, his disciples, they had used this language. They honestly might have used this language as they were going deeper and deeper into Gentile territory, whispering to each other, «We’re surrounded by dogs. We’re in dog territory. Look at these dogs.» And I wonder if maybe some of what Jesus is doing is he’s maybe rebuking his disciples a little bit. Have you ever had a situation where you used some language in private and then it accidentally went public? Anybody ever had that? Yeah, that’s horrifying, isn’t it? It’s humiliating; it’s humbling.
I remember when my girls were really little, my dad-who’s not a redneck-but he bought what I would call a redneck truck. It’s this big massive vehicle with the double wheels in the back. And it was so out of keeping with who he was; that’s not negative, it’s not bad, it just was weird. It wasn’t what my dad did normally.
And so in private, Claud and I talked about it, and we called it his Bubba truck. He bought a Bubba truck, and my daughters thought we were saying Bubba’s truck, like that was his name. But they couldn’t say Bubba for whatever reason, so they said Bobo. They started calling my dad Bobo, and he’s like, «What? I’m a clown?» And we were like, «No, but we called it your Bubba truck.» And that’s what he was known as until the day he died. He wasn’t grandpa; he was Bobo. And it was all because we had this little private conversation that went public. And I wonder if some of that’s happening here, right? Jesus calls this woman what the disciples were likely to call this woman, and they were like, «Jesus, what are you doing? That’s what we say about them; we don’t say it to them.»
So maybe there’s a little bit of that. Maybe there’s some humility being brought to the disciples. But here’s the thing: even if that is part of what’s happening, it’s an expensive lesson for the woman, isn’t it? I mean, maybe it’s an important lesson for the disciples, but he could have pulled them aside and said something. He says this to her in front of them; he calls her a dog.
By the way, it’s so uncomfortable that some people want to get out from under it. They’re like, «Well, actually in the Greek, he uses the diminutive form.» Some of you may have heard that. So basically, you know, he calls her a little dog, and that’s better, right? Right? It’s not. I remember when I was in middle school; once, I had to go to the high school for something, and I bumped into a high school senior. I remember looking up at him, and he said, «Watch where you’re going, little man.» Can I just tell you, «little» did not make it better. «Little dog» actually may even be more insulting. I don’t think it’s endearing; I don’t think it was intended that way.
But here’s the really interesting question: not only why would Jesus say this, but here’s maybe an even more interesting question: how do you think she’s going to respond? How would you respond if somebody called you a dog? How would you respond if somebody called you a name that you knew they said about you, but now they’ve said it to your face? Tell me you wouldn’t respond with indignation. Tell me you wouldn’t get up and walk away. What do you think she’s going to do?
«Lord,» she replied, «how dare you!» Oh no, sorry, that’s not what it says. «Lord,» she replied, «even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.» Wait a minute. You’re going to let him call you a dog? You’re going to go, «Fine, I’m a dog!» But you know what? Even dogs! I mean, that’s such a remarkable thing. Rather than responding with indignity, rather than responding with anger, rather than walking away, she goes, «You want to call me a dog? Fine, I’m a dog. But I still need what only you have to offer. And if I have to be called a dog to get that, if I have to be embarrassed in front of all these people to get it, fine. I don’t care. I’m a dog, but I’m still desperate for what only you have to offer.»
And then he told her, «For such a reply, you may go. The demon has left your daughter.» And she went home and found her child lying on the bed with the demon gone. Again, when I first read this, I was like, «Okay, that’s where you want me to focus, Jesus?» Right? On the power, because this is an incredible demonstration of the power of Jesus. He says a word, and demons leave, even when he’s not in front of them, right? I mean, Hollywood has taught us that dealing with demons is a fight, right? You think you’ve got to have certain prayers and rituals, and you’ve got to be sure to bring a cross. By the way, because they can’t handle two sticks like that! Demons don’t care about you. Put them like that, demons are like, «I don’t know what to do now; we’ve got to get out of here.»
Right? You’ve got to have your stuff; you’ve got to have your tools. And by the way, in the ancient world, that was what you needed. You needed the tools. Jewish exorcisms lasted between seven and twelve days. They brought certain items from the temple, holy items, and then they prayed certain prayers and read certain scrolls and fought against the demons. And they said at the end of it, «This might help. We can’t promise that it’s not going to come back, but maybe you’ll get some freedom.»
Jesus shows up, and demons appear to try to disrupt what he’s saying. He’s like, «Just get out of here!» And the people are like, «Yeah, that doesn’t work.» «Oh, that worked! How did you do that?» They said, «What is this? A new teaching with authority,» which doesn’t mean Jesus had a deep James Earl Jones kind of voice. It means you say «go,» and demons go, and you don’t fight with them. You don’t battle with them; they just go. And here it’s even better, isn’t it? He’s not even there. He’s not in the presence of this demonic force. He says a word, and at a distance, the demon departs.
That is a tremendous statement of the power of Jesus. And I thought that’s where we were supposed to go. But then I started studying the passage, and I realized the real question here isn’t how powerful Jesus is. The real question is, what unleashed the power? What unleashed this incredible power of Jesus in her life, in her family’s life, and in her home? And the answer, Jesus is very clear. He says, «For such a reply.» Her reply unleashed the power. Okay, what was it about the reply? I mean, you want to go-it was about faith, right? It was about how much faith she had.
Do you see faith mentioned here? Sometimes Jesus did say to people-even a Gentile once-he said, «For I have not seen such great faith, even among the children of Israel.» But there’s no statement here about how much faith she had. There’s no statement here about Jesus being so impressed by her faith. He just says, «For such a reply.» What is it about her reply? I mean, what was her reply? «Fine, I’m a dog; that’s how I’m known. I’m okay with that, but here’s what I need.» And this is so powerful.
Listen, this is what God said to me: she was humble enough to care more about what she needed than how she was known. Do you see that, church? She was humble enough not only to come and to fall at his feet, but she was humble enough to care more about what she needed than how she was known. «I’m a dog-fine, I’m a dog; you can know me that way. I don’t care, but this is what I need.» And he goes, «For such a reply, my power is unleashed in your life.» And I realized that humility is the key to victory. That humility is the key to winning the war against the spiritual forces that we face in the world. And there’s this long-standing biblical tradition that associates spiritual warfare with the dual concepts, the opposite concepts, of humility and pride.
But by the way, there’s another thing about the city of Tyre I didn’t tell you yet. Not only was it Gentile and their bitterest enemies, but in Hebrew scripture, it was associated with Satan. In fact, there’s a prophecy. The prophet Ezekiel was told, «Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Ty and say to him, 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says.'»
Now what’s interesting is as he goes on and he pronounces this prophecy against the king of Ty-same, same place, same city-it becomes very clear that he’s not just talking about a human king; he’s talking about the devil. Tell him, «You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, in the garden of God.» Oh, hang on a second: no human king was in the garden! So clearly, where the king is, there’s a force behind him operating through him. He says, «Every precious stone adorned you: Cornelian, crystallite, emerald, topaz, onyx, and jasper, lapis lazuli, turquoise, and beryl. Your settings and mountains were made of gold; the day you were created, they were prepared. You were anointed as a guardian cherub.»
«Cherub» is a Hebrew word for angel. «For I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God. You walked among the fiery stones.» Clearly, this is not just a human king; there’s a spiritual entity. But this is a good entity, right? He was in the Garden of Eden; he was created with beauty and power and ordained. And yet verse 17 says, «And yet your heart became-» anybody see it? Can you say it with me? «Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. And so I threw you to the earth and I made a spectacle of you before kings.»
How many of us have heard that pride goes before the fall? How many of us have heard that the devil’s first sin was the sin of pride? Yet this is where it comes from; that’s what Scripture teaches. That’s what God’s Word says: pride was the devil’s first sin. It’s also his greatest weapon, and it is the weapon that he uses to keep us enslaved and to keep the power of God from moving in our lives. He is looking for an opportunity to get into your life and to hold on to you, to shackle you and chain you where you are.
And pride is what does it, which is why the Apostle Peter-by the way, Peter says this: He says, «Humble yourselves therefore under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kinds of sufferings.»
It’s not coincidence, and it’s not two random thoughts that just happen to be connected that he says, «Humble yourself» and «watch out for the devil.» The reason the two are connected is that the lack of humility is the devil’s most powerful weapon. It’s the world in which he lives and moves, and it is the way in which he gets hold of us and keeps us from winning the war that we have to win. And so God says, «Humble yourselves.» He says, «Resist the devil,» and then he says, «standing firm in the faith.» And we love that. Yeah, standing firm in the faith-that means fighting against the forces of secularism and fighting against the people in the world and fighting against the sin of the world.
That we’ve got to stand firm, that we’ve got to fight against all the people that don’t believe and think like we do. And then he says, «No, no, no, no. Standing firm in the faith is humbling yourself.» That’s how you stand firm in the faith. That’s how you get grounded. You get down on the ground and you say, «This is the only place that I can go.»
Humbling yourself is how you stand firm. Because can I tell you something about Christianity? There is no gospel without humility; it doesn’t exist. Because Christianity is not religion; it’s something else. Religion says work at it. Work hard enough, and eventually, maybe you’ll convince God to bless you. Work hard enough. Be good enough. Be consistent enough with the rules and the regulations and the rituals, and maybe you’ll convince God to forgive you. Work your way into it.
And Christianity says you can’t work your way into it. You can’t earn it. All you can do is receive it. It’s grace. It’s all grace every day. And if it’s not grace, it’s not the gospel. But the thing about grace is it can only be received, and you can’t receive anything without humility. To receive the grace of God, you have to say, «Hey God, I’m a sinner.» You’ve got to care more about what you need forgiveness for than how you’re known. And I know there are people listening to this message right now. The reason that you have never said yes to following Jesus is you can’t quite bring yourself to say, «I’m a sinner.» Oh yeah, I’ve messed up and I’ve made mistakes -of course we all have-but I’m a sinner. I don’t want to be known as a sinner.
Listen, you’ve got to make a decision. What’s more important? What you need forgiveness for, or how you’re known? Standing firm and resisting the enemy is all about humility. It’s why the Apostle Paul, to the church at Ephesus, says, «In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.» He says, «You let the sun go down while you’re angry, and you give the devil a foothold.» And you’re like, «Yeah, but there’s nothing about humility there. It’s just about anger.»
Can I tell you something? The only reason that we let the sun go down in our anger, which is to say the only reason that we allow the conflict to persist, is because we lack humility. Or maybe that’s just me; I don’t know. But I can tell you that the worst fights Clet and I have ever had-and yes, we have had and still sometimes have fights — are right before I have to get up the next morning and preach. And I’ve come to realize that there’s a spiritual reality to that. I’m not saying there’s a demon in the room, but there’s something about the spiritual forces that, like, they get into those places.
And we’re committed; we don’t let the sun go down in our anger, which we understand to mean that you don’t go to bed still in conflict. And so we’re like, we got to fight our way to reconciliation and restoration and all that. And sometimes, not only has the sun gone down, but the sun has come back up. There are times I have gone to preach and we have not slept that night because we’re so committed to this. But can I tell you that the only thing that has ever led to a breakthrough in those moments has been a breakdown of our pride? It’s when somebody says, «You know what? I was wrong. I was wrong to say that. I was wrong to think that. I was wrong to need that.»
Being right is not more important than being righteous. And I’m sorry. And I’m just going to be real with you and tell you it’s usually Clet who does that first. And then immediately I’m like, «No, no, no, no. You’re not going to beat me at humility. I was wrong here and I was wrong there.» But it’s amazing that once somebody makes the move, the ice begins to break. And I say the ice breaks because I have friends in Alaska in KSK on the Kuskoim River, and they tell me that every spring there’s a moment when the rivers that are frozen solid, you start to hear a crack. And everybody runs out; school lets out, and everybody runs out, and they watch because within a few minutes, once the ice breaks, the river is free and clear. It just breaks up and it rushes down, and suddenly there’s free-flowing water; the power of the river is revealed.
And I’ve seen it over and over again when we choose humility. When we say I’m wrong, when we say I’m broken, when we say I’m sinful, when we say I’m addicted, when we say I’m struggling, when we say I’m lost, when we say I’m afraid — things we don’t want to say because we don’t want to be known for that. But here’s the thing: your victory might be waiting on your humility. In fact, I want to say this to somebody because I believe God wants to say this to someone today: your victory is just waiting on some humility.
What is humility? What this woman teaches us is that humility is the choice to care more about what is needed than how you’re known. It’s a new thought about humility that God showed me, and I hope it’s as powerful for you as it is for me. And I’m still wrestling to understand exactly what that means in my life. That’s what humility is. It’s not to be the doormat; it’s not to deny you have a gift; it’s not to downplay that you’ve had some success. It’s just a choice — a choice to care more about what’s needed than how you’re known.
James says, «But he gives us more grace.» God wants to give grace; he wants to pour grace; he wants to pour power into your life. And scripture says God opposes the proud, but he shows favor to the humble. Do you know why God opposes the proud? It’s because he loves them. And with pride, you cannot receive what only God can offer. And so he opposes; he works to break the pride because of his deep and abiding love for you. But here’s what you need to understand: what God opposes, the devil applauds. What God opposes, the devil applauds.
You’re not ready to admit your marriage is a mess and get signed up for re-engage? Good job! You don’t want them thinking that you’re not a great husband. You don’t want them to think you don’t have it all figured out. Oh, you’re not ready to go to Regen, because then people will know that you’re addicted to something? Yes, of course. You got to guard your reputation, man. You’re not willing to tell somebody that you’re anxious and consumed by fear? Absolutely! You keep that to yourself. What, you want people to think you’re weak? No, no, no! You’re doing exactly the right thing. Go! Go!
But here’s the thing: God applauds what the devil opposes. And we go, «You know what? I don’t have this marriage thing figured out, and I need help.» And God goes, «Yes, you do.» «I’m stuck, and I don’t know how to move forward from here.» «Yes, you are.» «I’m lost, and I don’t know what’s going on in my life, and I don’t know what’s next, and I need to get a group of people around me that can help me.» «And God responds, yes, you do.»
So here’s my question: Who’s applauding you? Who’s applauding you in your life right now? Is it God, or is it the devil? Which weapon are you fighting? Listen, your victory is just waiting on some humility. There’s a breakthrough that God wants to bring into your life and into your relationships, but it’s going to take some humility.
So we all have to ask ourselves: Do I care more about what I need or how I’m known? And God, I don’t know that we all have the humility to make the right choice, but we recognize that if we’re going to put our feet on a firm foundation and build an unshakable life, this is what’s required. And so we ask that by your Spirit, you would move among us right now and convict us of those places where pride has a foothold.
And because of that pride, where the enemy has a foothold, we ask that you would supernaturally provide us with the humility to get embarrassed-to get embarrassed when we tell somebody, «I need help,» to set aside our reputation of having it all figured out, and to have the humility to say, «I’m a sinner, and I can only be saved by the grace that I receive in humility.»
God, I pray that you would break some chains right now. I pray that you would set some people free right now. I pray that you would bring power moving in their lives right now, as a response of humility in this very moment, unleashing a power that is greater than we can imagine. Lord, I genuinely believe the reason Jesus’s words to this woman were so hard is that it was an illustration of how hard this truth is to receive: that we must humble ourselves or else be powerless. And I pray that you do that work in this moment. Amen.