Investing in Your Future - Being Humble

Terrell Owens was in the sporting news a lot this past year. Why was that?

Terrell Owens is a great football player and decided that he was so great that he needed more money. So, he caused a great controversy in his team to try to force them to give him more money. His attempt failed and he ended up getting cut by his team because he was such a problem.

In memory of Terrell Owens, I would like to share with you all a few quotes that are quite eye opening as they reveal a lot about who he is.

T.O. Quotes:
"Anytime I am on the field I expect to have an impact. I just don't foresee myself being a decoy. That is just like putting Shaq on the court and not giving him the ball.”

"I'll watch the highlights every now and then, but as far as watching the game, I feel like I am the game."

"I love me some me, believe it!"

"Just ask yourself, 'self, would the Eagles have gone 0-2 last year if they had T.O.?'"

"Don’t hate me, cause you love me."

What do these quotes communicate to you about T.O.?

They communicate his arrogance. Sure, he is a great football player. However, no matter how good anyone is, no one wants to hear about how great you think you are.

As we continue our series on Investing in your Future, we are going to talk about having humility and how that humility can help you in life.

Before we begin, I want you to know that there is a difference between being arrogant and being confident. Being arrogant is to exaggerate one's own worth or importance in an overbearing manner. Being confident is the trust or faith that a person or thing is capable.

T.O. is confident in his ability but it leads to arrogance in which he over exaggerates his own worth.

Right now, I want to take a look at a story in the Bible the clearly highlights the difference and we will see how being humble will help you as you invest in your future.

Read Luke 18:9-14

1. Who are the 2 people involved?

2. What were they doing?

3. Why were they going to pray?

They were seeking justification from God. Both men came before God seeking Justification. Justification is the "process by which an individual is brought into an unmerited, right relationship with a person". Both the tax collector and the Pharisee were seeking to get into a right relationship with God.

4. What was different about the way they prayed?

The tax collector was humble and recognized that he was a sinner and needed God's help. He couldn’t "do" things to get right with God - for he had done so many wrong things. He simply had to seek God and ask Him for forgiveness. The Pharisee proclaimed how good he was by comparing himself to others. He might have thought that because he wasn't like others he was justified. When he came to pray, he didn't seek God - he didn't need too because he was already perfect and better than the rest.

5. The tax collector, not the Pharisee left their prayer time justified. Why is that?

Because he was humble and sought God's help. He recognized who he was and how he needed God's help.

Challenge

So, how does this example of humility help us in life and prepare us for the road ahead?
No matter how good we think we are, Christ says, "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted"

We all need to humbly seek God. We all need to be justified with God - to be made right.

Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death. We have all fallen short of God's desire for our life and are headed down the road towards destruction.

No matter how well life is going or even how crappy life is going, God can lead us through it. We need to come humbly before him and seek his plan for our life, not our own.

Being humble can also help you…
- gain more understanding of others and who they are. By listening and serving/helping others you let others know that you care about them
- learn more. When you are humble, you can be teachable as you seek to understand the best way to accomplish a task. You are admitting you don’t know it all and you want to learn the best way.

More importantly, thought, when we humble ourselves before God and seek His will and plan for our life, we will leave justified before Him and walk down the better path in life.

Right now, take a minute and jot down 1 thing you can do this week to
1. be humble in relation to others and
2. how you can humbly come before God and seek Him