John 13:1-5 (NKJV)

1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.2 And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him,

John 13:1-5 (NKJV)

3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, 4 rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. 5 After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.

I SURRENDER MY PRIDEJohn 13:1-5

I Surrender My Pride Who doesn’t struggle with pride? Who couldn’t use a little more

humility in their life? Just because we don’t brag

about ourselves or walk around patting ourselves on the back, doesn’t mean that we do not struggle with pride

I Surrender My Pride Our theme in 2013 has been “I

Surrender All” If we truly want to serve Christ in

the way that He desires, we must surrender our pride

That means that we are never too good to do anything for anyone

I Surrender My Pride Humility is a quality that is

spoken of over and over again throughout the Bible

That is one reason why we should pay special attention to the dose of humility we have

Let’s test ourselves to see where we stand with the issue of surrendering our pride…

The Mind of Christ In previous years, we have studied

together the mind of Christ from Phil. 2

The mind of Christ is a mind of humility (vs. 7-8)

Could you imagine being superior to everyone around you in every way thinkable?

The Mind of Christ Then imagine those same people,

who you are clearly superior to, mistreating you

They denied Him, spoke falsely against Him, spit on Him, struck Him, mocked Him and crucified Him

Yet He did nothing in return

The Mind of Christ That is the epitome of humility Could we do the same if we were

in that situation? How many times have we said,

“I’m not going to let him/her talk to me like that!” or “I’m not going to let them do that to me!”

The Mind of Christ Christ had to humble Himself to come

to earth and endure all that He did, even His death

If Jesus could humble Himself enough to do all of this, what should that say about our willingness to do the same?

Life actually becomes easier with humility

Submitting Ourselves A large showing of humility

comes through being willing to submit ourselves to others

Submit actually means to put under, subject to or to obey

It’s the showing of our humility, when we put ourselves underneath someone else in this life

Submitting Ourselves The Bible speaks of submitting

ourselves to God “Therefore submit to God” (Js.

4:7) We are also to submit to Christ,

the head of the church (Eph. 5:24)

For the most part, we fall in line with that

Submitting Ourselves The Bible also tells us that we

are to submit ourselves to the elders

“Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account” (Heb. 13:17)

Does pride make this difficult to do?

Submitting Ourselves Let’s take it a step further… “Likewise you younger people,

submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another…” (I Pet. 5:5a)

How many of us are willing to submit to the person sitting 3 rows behind us?

Submitting Ourselves We are to put ourselves under

one another; to be in subjection to one another

Perhaps this is where pride takes over and keeps us from following God’s command

What excuses do we use?

Submitting Ourselves “I’m much more faithful than

him!” “I’ve been a Christian for a lot

longer!” “My granddaddy helped start

this church!” “…and be clothed with humility,

for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (I Pet. 5:5b)

Submitting Ourselves Jesus set forth the perfect example

in John 13 Was He not above those apostles? Christ did the unthinkable, He

washed the dirty feet of the apostles If He was willing to do that, what will

we not do?

Test of Humility So what is the test of humility? How can I test myself to see if I

am where I need to be? Jesus commands a couple of

things that could be the proper test

Matthew 5:41-42

Test of Humility Basically, this service was forced

upon them A Roman soldier could force a

civilian to carry his load as he passed through town

The Jews hated this practice because they hated the Romans and the fact that they ruled over them

Test of Humility Jesus wasn’t asking them just to

do this for a loved one or close friend

He isn’t just asking us to do this for the people that we care the most about

The true test of humility comes in going out of our way for people who aren’t kind to us

Test of Humility Matthew 5:43-48 It’s one thing to humble

ourselves to help out an enemy It’s quite another thing to love

our enemies, to bless those who curse you, to do good to those who hate you and pray for those who use you and persecute you

Test of Humility For those who say they simply

cannot do this, here is something to consider…

If we do not submit to those around us (our fellow man), then we are not submitting to God either

To submit to God is to submit to His complete will, in all things!