Good to see you all here, glad you showed up. Hopefully by the end of it you'll be glad you showed up too. We're continuing our study on humility. We started that up last Sunday. We've been hitting it pretty hard and heavy and that's good because we need it. But so far we looked at the heavenly origin of humility and the satanic roots of pride. We looked at Jesus' example of humility in His life. We saw Him coming to earth with humility, living as a servant, washing the disciples' feet, dying for His creation. These are all acts of humility because Jesus Christ was humility personified. Last time we looked at Jesus' teachings on humility. We saw how we need to be poor in spirit and how to rule our own spirit. We looked about how humility determines our specific place in heaven. We found out the more humble we are, the closer we get to the Lord. We found out especially, read it several passages, Jesus taught that God humbles all the proud and He exalts all the humble. We also saw that humility breeds happiness in the life of a believer. So we've already went through a lot of benefits and cautions about humility. Tonight, we're gonna be looking at some of the lessons that we could learn in the life of the apostles, okay? The apostles' lessons in humility. That's what we're looking at tonight. We're gonna start off in Matthew chapter 26, starting in verse 31. Matthew 26, verse number 31. The Bible says this, Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night. For it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered. But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee. Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never Be offended. Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, that this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples. Let's pray, amen. So it goes without saying that no one was closer to Jesus than His disciples, right? Part of the disciples' experience was living with Jesus, seeing His miracles, watching His examples, and hearing His teachings. They got to learn everything firsthand for three and a half years. What a wonderful time that must have been. All the apostles including Peter, knew what humility looked like in the flesh. They met humility in the flesh, and that is Jesus Christ. They saw his example. They saw him being lowly and meek, and they experienced it firsthand and every day. Jesus was humble all the time, okay? They never saw pride in Jesus Christ. It wasn't there, because that pride is a sin and it's demonic, and we've talked about that. Yet we have these instances of high pride like this in the life of every apostle. We just read here a passage that shows Peter arguing with Jesus Christ. Jesus gives him scripture, verse 31, then saith Jesus unto them, all ye shall be offended of me this night. Jesus said, listen, Peter, you and everybody else, you're going to deny me, you're gonna flee from me, you're gonna be offended because of me this night. Why? For it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee. Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. So Peter's going back and forth, arguing with Jesus Christ, who gave him scripture to back up his argument that, Peter, you're going to be offended, you're going to run away from me. Why? Because the Bible says, scripture says, I'm going to smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. And even after the Lord Jesus Christ gives Peter this argument, Peter says, no, no, all of them might be offended because of you, but I will never be offended. Jesus said, okay, big boy, listen there. Tonight, before the cock crows in the morning, you're gonna deny me three times. And Peter's still arguing. Verse 35, Peter said unto him, though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples. Boy, Peter's just proud as he can be right here, arguing with God manifest in the flesh and denying scripture that Jesus is quoting to him. He was with him for three and a half years. He knows who he's arguing with, yet Peter's sitting there saying, I know more. No, no, no, I'm right, Lord, and you're wrong. It's just a moment of pride. How can someone who spent so much time with Jesus Christ, heard his teachings on pride, experienced Jesus' humility on a daily basis, how can someone like that not learn that humility? How can he still have such arrogant times of pride like this? Well, because Peter, like all of us, get proud. As a matter of fact, all of the apostles, including Peter, have their times whenever they are full of pride, even in the presence of Jesus. Peter's pride gets him to argue with God manifest in the flesh, and you can't get less humble than that. But see, Peter was not the only one of the Apostles who lost all humility before the perfect example of Jesus Christ. Turn to Mark chapter number 9, next book over to your right, Mark chapter number 9. We're going to look at another instance where some more of the 12, actually this time it's all of the 12 Apostles, are showing signs of great pride and a complete lack of humility in any way, shape, or fashion. Mark 9, look at verse 33. Mark 9, 33. And it came to Capernaum, and being in the house, he asked them, what was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? So they just got done with the road trip, Jesus walking around with the disciples. They come into the town of Capernaum, and Jesus, once they got nice and comfortable, they get situated in the house, Jesus says, okay, fellas, what was it that you guys were arguing about the whole way over there? They weren't saying, are we there yet, are we there yet? They were sitting there arguing about something, but they were doing it kind of secret, so Jesus wouldn't hear them, even though I'm sure Jesus knew what it was. But now he's asking them straightforward, hey, what is it that you guys were arguing about on the way over here? Verse 34, but they held their peace, they're ashamed here, because they knew they were doing something wrong, but they held their peace, for by the way they had disputed among themselves who should be the greatest. And he sat down and called the 12 and saith unto them, if any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all and servant of all. So here we have all 12 of the apostles are arguing their case among themselves. Who's gonna be the greatest one? Who's the best one? Okay, guys, where do you think we rank right now? I think I'm in the top two for sure. I've gotta be. No, no, no, no, no, no. See, Peter's probably up there, but then I'm next. You know, and they're arguing back and forth. No, no, no, I'm pretty sure I'm the greatest. You know, I'm the greatest. So they're sitting there arguing the whole way over there. And what it is, is these 12 apostles, it's a contest of pride and articulation. Who can be the most proud and be persuasive enough to convince others that, yeah, I'm the greatest. You guys just need to agree with it. Here's why I'm awesome, and here's why you stink. That's what they're doing here. What's this? Another instance of extreme pride among the apostles, even though these are the guys that spent the most time with Jesus Christ, who is humility. Look at Mark chapter 10. Next chapter over, Mark 10, look, verse 35. Mark 10, verse 35. And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto him, Jesus, saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire. And he said unto them, what would ye that I should do for you? They said unto him, grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory. We're not asking for much, we wanna be in thrones right next to you up in heaven, Lord, that's all we want. Simple, meek, little, humble request there. Verse 38, but Jesus said unto them, ye know not what ye ask. Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? That seat comes with a price, fellas. And be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? There's a lot of suffering that earns you that spot. Verse 39, and they said unto him, we can. Oh yeah, nope, no problem. Yeah, yeah, I mean, who's better qualified to sit next to you than me and my brother, Lord? I mean, come on, who else you gonna pick, Peter? You know, Simeon, come on, be real. Where are we at? Verse 39, 40. But to sit on my right hand and to sit on my left hand is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared. Verse 41, and when the 10 heard of it, and there's the other 10 guys, they began to be much displeased with James and John. I can't say that I blame them there. So we have James and John, these are the other two of the three inner circle of Jesus' disciples. We've got Peter, James, and John, they do the most with Him. They're asking Jesus, James and John are, they're asking Jesus for a high position in His kingdom. They are selfishly seeking a personal favor for their own advancement and their own honor and their own glorification. You know what this is? Complete pride and arrogance. There's not a stitch of humility there in those two. Not surprisingly, the other 10 apostles get mad at them about it. Verse 41, and when the 10 heard it, they began to be much displeased with James and John. Why do you guys think you're better than us? Because obviously I'm better than you guys. What is it? It's a circle of pride going on here. It's more arrogancy. Why were the ten angry? They wanted the high positions. Don't sneak around back and ask Jesus for them. You know, you can't just call that seat. Okay, I call shotgun. You can't do that with a throne next to the Lord. Okay, that doesn't work. Here again, we see all 12 apostles selfish and proud. There's no humility. But these are only three examples. There's plenty more in the Gospels that we could look at, but I wanna show you some lessons that we can learn from the total lack of humility at times of the closest people to Jesus Christ. There's some lessons we can learn about pride and humility from the apostles, and in particular, tonight, we're gonna learn it as lessons, warnings in pride, lessons in humility, about whenever we decide, as followers of Jesus Christ, as disciples of Jesus Christ, whenever we decide to thank ourselves more highly than we ought to thank. Here's the lessons that we can learn. There might be more, I'm gonna give you three. Number one, you can follow Jesus, you can love Jesus, and you can be used by Jesus, even when you have times of fleeing humility. Say, what do you mean? Listen, just, we've talked about how humility is needed to see more of the power of God in your life, and that's true. But remember, God uses imperfect people. Don't think that you have to completely conquer your pride before God can use you to do anything. Don't use your flaws as an excuse to keep you from serving Jesus. There's some people that'll sit there and say, well, you know, I know I've got an issue with pride and I'm lacking humility. And you said, you know, we got to be empty of self in order for God to fill us and God to be the power behind what we do. I'm just having a hard time fighting that pride. So I guess God can't use me at all until I'm totally empty of self. No, he absolutely can use you. Okay, he can use you more the less of you that you're putting in his way, but he can reuse you in spite of yourself, but he will use you more with less of you there. These disciples, Though proud at times, God still allowed them, Jesus Christ still allowed them to cast out devils, heal the sick, they sacrificed a lot to follow Him, they followed Jesus faithfully, and all but Judas completely followed the Lord, because Judas is the only one that forsook Him completely. You need to understand the more humble you become, the more God can and will use you, but God can still use a pretty proud person. Peter was one of the most proud disciples. He was one of the most outspoken disciples and he puts his foot in his mouth more than anybody else. And he was one of the most used disciples. Why? Even though he was proud and he thought himself pretty great and he argues with the Lord Jesus Christ even when given scripture, there's still times that he can use that boldness and that brashness for the Lord and to get out there and witness boldly for him. There's times that God can sit there and use your pride, arrogance, and confidence in a way that's good for him and beneficial to him. So don't think that just because I've got an issue with pride and I lack humility that God won't use you at all. God used all the apostles. Do you realize Judas cast out devils? Do you realize Judas did some healings? Judas preached Jesus Christ? He can use people with flaws, okay? Don't limit Jesus with your inabilities and your insufficiencies. So number one, you can follow Jesus, love Jesus, and be used by Jesus even when you have times of fleeing humility. Number two, what else we can learn from the life of the apostles concerning humility? External teaching and personal experience are powerless to conquer pride or create humility. So what do you mean by that? See, the disciples spent more time around Jesus than anyone else, correct? We talked about that. And Jesus was the perfect example of humility and he's the greatest teacher of humility. That did not protect the disciples from personal pride. They had the best lessons, they had the best teacher, they had the best example of humility in Jesus Christ. That did not keep them from being proud at times. That did not ensure that they were the most humble people around. I'm sure there were people, especially when they're arguing with Jesus, when Peter's arguing there with Jesus, there's more humble people around him that didn't follow Jesus as closely as Peter did. Okay, so don't think that just because I know some Bible and because, you know, well, let me put it this way. I don't wanna get ahead of myself too much. Don't think that because of your behavior or knowledge that that means that you're a humble person and that you're not proud. Reading your Bible can humble you, but it does not guarantee that you will be humble. You can't say, oh, I must be a humble person because I read my Bible. Not if you don't let those words sink into your heart and change you. If you're just going through reading them to say, I read my Bible, I read my Bible this many times in the year, and I read this many pages every day, and I, and I, and I, none of it's getting through. It's not gonna do you any good. Doesn't matter the humbling power of the Bible if none of it ever gets to your heart. Listen, going to church should equip you to battle your pride. It should. If you go to the right church, they should preach against pride and they shouldn't help build up your self-esteem so you think you're better than everybody else. Going to church should equip you to battle your pride, but that doesn't mean that you will even fight against it. Don't think that just because, okay, I've got some knowledge about how to fight against my pride, that doesn't mean that you're going to enter that battle. Having the resources doesn't mean you're going to fight the fight. Okay, you can have an arsenal at home, but if you never fire a shot, what good does it do? If you don't know how to use your weapons, what good is it? Listening to a series on humility, like we've been going over, should give you plenty of knowledge about humility and pride. But that doesn't mean that you'll have the mind of Christ in you just by coming and listening to some sermons. The fight against pride and the desire to obtain humility is a personal, internal decision. It's a decision that you make for yourself. It's not a decision someone else makes for you. It's not a desire of somebody else that they can force upon you and say, you're too proud, you need to be more humble, so just be that way. They can't do anything to make you humble. They can't do anything to rob yourself of your pride. You have to make the determination, the decision. I am tired of my pride. I see damaging evidence in my life because of pride. I need to get rid of that. I've seen benefits of humility. I want more humility. You have to make that decision. No amount of external circumstances can change your opinion about yourself. Humility does not come by hearing about Jesus's humility. It comes when you determine within yourself to live like Christ. Look at Philippians chapter two. Philippians chapter two. We've read these passages before and we'll read them again. They're some of the best ones on humility. Philippians 2, starting in verse number 1, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians. Philippians chapter 2, verse number 1. The Bible says, If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. It's mental. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Jesus humbled Himself, the Bible says. If we desire Christ-like humility, we need to humble ourselves. We're not waiting for someone else to humble us. We don't go and take a seminar to have somebody else humble us. We make the decision to see Christ's example, follow His example, ask Him and search Him Ask Him to give us the humility that we need. Notice what it says here, how do we humble ourselves? Verse three, how about in the, through your action towards others? Verse three, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. You're the one letting it happen. You're letting nothing be done through strife or vain glory, okay? You're making for sure that your motives behind what you do is not something proud, it's not something arrogant, it's not to start a fight, it's not for vain glory, it's not for you to puff yourself up, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. You are getting your mind set on and you are letting yourself esteem others better than yourself. It's a decision that you're making. So you can have this humility. You'll notice it through our actions towards other people. Number two, through the proper mindset. You're allowing it, right? You're the one that's humbling yourself. Verse five, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. We get to find out from this passages and other sections in the Bible what is the mind of Christ, his examples of humility, and we have to let this mind be in you. God does not force the mind of Christ in us. We have to let this mind of Christ be in us. We have to read it, we have to observe it, we have to make an effort to live like Christ and have that humility like Christ. We're asking the Lord to help us be humble. So the point is, external teachings and personal experience are powerless to conquer pride or create humility in your life. Don't think that just because I know a lot about a subject that that means I have that. You can know a ton about humility and not have any of it. Third lesson we learn from the life of the apostles here in regards to humility. Number three, it is only through Christ that we can become truly humble. We humble ourselves, but it's through the power of Christ that we obtain Christ-like humility. Remember, humility is heavenly. Jesus was the embodiment of humility. And that same Jesus now resides in you if you're saved. Pride is a work of your flesh. Humility is a work of the spirit. Okay, let's turn to Galatians. Two books to your left, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians. So two books to your left, Galatians chapter five. Galatians chapter five. I've mentioned it before, but pride versus humility is flesh versus the spirit. We're going to see that here in Galatians 5, starting in verse 16. Galatians 5, 16. The Bible says, This I say then, walk in the Spirit, that is a command, but it's something that you allow to do, there's no force here. This I say then, walk in the Spirit, that's a choice, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary, the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, you're not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, in case you're wondering what is natural, what comes from your flesh, it's these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, that's the act of attempting to equal or excel, okay, that's a rivalry, a desire of superiority, I wanna be better than everybody else, that's emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, verse 21, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. Of the witch I tell you before, as I have told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But, here's a contrast, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. and they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." Notice the let again, it's our decision. You can be saved and not walk after the Spirit. Okay, so the works of the flesh are all these things that your body desires for itself. We saw the list of that in verse 19 through 21. These are things that your body desires that it doesn't have. This is fulfilling desires of self-satisfaction. That's pride. I want, I see it, I want it, I deserve it, I should have it. Okay, it's all about me and it's all about what I want, doesn't matter what anybody else wants, it doesn't matter anybody else, it's all about me. This is natural to all people who have flesh. If there's somebody out there that doesn't have flesh, they don't have to worry about it. Everybody I know has flesh. You got a body, this is a problem you got in your body. This is natural, you were born with this body. It was part of this body, these natural desires of the flesh. It's all just filled up with pride. What about me? I want to get mine. This is what I want, this is my desire. It's all me, it's all flesh, it's all pride. But if you've been born again, you have the Holy Spirit living within you, and you have access to the fruit of the Spirit. All right? Because we've all got this flesh, but if you're born again, you've got the Holy Spirit of God living within you. Now you've got two enemies within the same body. You've got this flesh, which you've been used to, that does natural things of humanity and wants the same natural desires and lusts and tendencies that everybody has, lost people in particular. But now you get saved, Jesus resides within, the Holy Spirit lives within you, and he goes, I don't want you fulfilling the lust of these flesh. I don't like this pride and all this you talk and all this what you want. So now once you get saved you have access to the fruit of the Spirit, one of which is meekness. We saw that in verse 23. Meekness, temperance against such there is no law. Okay, that's the fruit of the Spirit. That means you have to have the Spirit, capitalized as the Holy Spirit, living within you to have this meekness. Meekness, remember we talked about, I gave you the definition before, That's mild of temper, soft, gentle, not easily provoked or irritated, yielding, given to forbearance under injuries, and appropriately, it's humble. Meekness, humility, they're very closely related there. You can't be meek without having some humility. Meekness and humility are internal changes that comes from a supernatural source with the willingness of the person involved. Okay, you can't have Christ-like humility without Christ living within you. No lost person, no matter how they appear on the outside, no matter how humble they seem to be, without Jesus Christ living inside of them, they cannot have Christ-like humility. They might have something that looks like it, and they might be humble at times, but you can't have that Christ-like humility without Christ residing within. You need that Holy Spirit of God. Lost people cannot have Christ-like humility because they don't have the Spirit that comes from living inside of them. Saved people can only have Christ-like humility when they submit to the Holy Spirit of God and let Him change them from the inside out. See, we're studying humility, we want to grasp this, we're seeing benefits of it, we know some damaging consequences of having pride, and so we wanna have this humility. You're not gonna get it by following the flesh. You're going to get this humility by yielding to the Spirit, by going through Christ's power, not your power, that's what we're trying to get, how we're trying to obtain this humility. I want you to understand this. Humility is not a coat that we put on. It's a creature that we become. Okay, don't think that, oh, I can just, I can throw on humility and appear to be humble around some people, and then I get home and I hang up my humility coat, and I can be as proud and arrogant as I wanna be. You know, that's not Christ-like humility. Christ didn't flip on and off his humility. He didn't say, oh, there's a crowd around. Look how humble I am, and look how meek I am, and everything. Oh, it's all about you guys, you know. And then they're gone. Now it's like, I want, I want, give me, give me, give me. That's not Christ-like humility, OK? Humility is not a coat that we put on, it's a creature we become. How can we become this creature? The Bible says, 2 Corinthians 5, 17, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. That's 2 Corinthians 5, 17. We need Jesus Christ to make us a new creature through salvation, so that we can be able to war against this flesh that we're attached to for the time being. I want you to understand humility is the result of a victory over the flesh. Still in Galatians 5, look at verse 24. Galatians 5, 24. And they that are Christ's, okay, those that belong to Jesus Christ, that's you and me, if you're saved here tonight, that's us. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. Galatians, Christian humility, should be sought after, it should be desired, and it should be obtained more and more over time. See that this flesh is wanting us to sin, it wants us to focus on self, it's all full of pride and what I want for me. That doesn't go away overnight. that if we wanna make any advancement there, if we want to decrease our pride and obtain more Christ-like humility, it comes from one victory after another. It's one battle after another. The war's not over till you're dead. We're in this body until the Lord separates us from it, okay? So as long as we're in this flesh, the battle rages. Spirit against the flesh, flesh against the spirit, okay? We want to increase our humility, we want to decrease our pride. That comes from individual victories over the life of a Christian. All disciples of Christ have times where pride wells up within us, selfishness is seen, and humility flees. There's times when you lose that battle. There's times whenever you just get stuck on yourself, and you say, I don't care. I want to have my way. Or I don't care about them. It's all about me. And so what? This is for me. It's not for them. I deserve this every now and then, or whatever it is. And we justify our actions, even though it might be just once a month for some of us. It might be three or four times a day for some of us. I don't know. However proud you are, I don't know how proud you are, but you do. But as we grow in Christ and we walk more after the Spirit and less after the flesh, humility will grow and pride will lessen. Okay? Peter, remember he was bold and brash and proud and arrogant when he was walking alongside Jesus for three and a half years. But after living for Jesus for a longer period, Peter's attitude and mindset begin to change over time. Look at Acts chapter number 3. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts chapter number 3. Let's see Peter here. Jesus has already been called up to heaven. The Holy Ghost, the baptism of the Holy Ghost came down in Acts chapter number 2. Here we have Peter in Acts chapter number 3. He's been baptized by the Holy Ghost. Now he has Jesus Christ living inside instead of walking beside. And we're already seeing a Christ-like change in his demeanor. because right before Jesus Christ got crucified, on the night He was going to be taken, Peter is arguing with God, right? He's arguing with Jesus Christ, I don't care what the scripture says, I'm not gonna deny it, I'm not gonna deny it. Here we are, months later, Jesus has called him to glory, He's up in heaven, and now we have, now Peter has God, Jesus Christ living inside of him, look at how his attitude changed. Acts chapter three, verse number six. Well, let's start in verse 1. Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man, lame from his mother's womb, was carried, who they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple. Who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked Asked in alms. Verse 4, And Peter fastened his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. So Peter and John, they're going into the temple, they're going to teach the Jews more about Jesus Christ. There's a poor guy that can't walk out there in front of the temple. He's asking for food or money or whatever he wants and everything. Peter says, Okay, look here, buddy. Verse number 5, And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none. But such as I have, give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength, and he, leaping up, stood and walked, and entered with him into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him. So Peter and John, they said, listen, in the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk. That's what they did to heal the guy. They used Jesus's name, okay? Guy got healed. He hops up, walking, leaping, praising God, goes in the temple. He's all hooting and hollering. He's happy about getting the use of his legs. Verse 11, And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's Greatly Wondering. Verse 12, And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? Why are you guys acting like we did something? Why do you guys think, yeah, listen, I know this guy was lame on his feet and I know now he's walking and leaping and praising God and he's kind of pointing everybody this direction. Why do you guys think I did anything? I didn't do anything here. You know what that is? Humility. There's not a bit of pride in this. Look at this, verse 13. The God of Abraham, and Isaac, and of Jacob, and the God of our fathers, hath glorified his son Jesus, whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. But ye denied the Holy One, and the just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses. And His name, through faith in His name, hath made this man strong. Whom ye see and know, yea, the faith which is by Him hath given Him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. Where's Peter taking any glory for this? Where's Peter saying, ha, look at what I did. Look at the healing I performed. Look at my power, look at my might. He doesn't take a bit of credit. What's this, humility. Where's Peter's glorying in himself? Where's his pride? It's gone. Isn't it interesting that when Jesus was physically present with Peter, Peter was more proud and was able to do less? But when Jesus was physically absent, but spiritually residing within, Peter was more humble and God was able to do more through Peter. Most of Peter's healings were done in the book of Acts, not in the Gospels. Why is that? Because now Jesus Christ is present inside Peter, changing him on the inside, instead of being present with him physically, being the example on the outside. What do we need if we want to have that Christ-like humility, if we want to have victory over this pride? Well, you have to have Jesus Christ residing within, you've got to be saved, and you've got to let him have his way inside of you. You've got to yield your body and your mind and your spirit to him, because they're his anyway. Humility increases the power of God in your life. God can use you now in spite of the pride that you have, but God can use you more if you humble yourself and toss out more of that nasty pride. I wanna end tonight with this quote from Martin Luther. I like this one. He said, God made the world out of nothing, and as long as we are nothing, he can make something out of us. Isn't that good? I'll read it again. God made the world out of nothing, and as long as we are nothing, he can make something out of us. God didn't need anybody else's help creating the stars and the planets and the solar system, creation, animals, oxygen, everything. He didn't need anybody's help. Nobody was in his way. God can really do a lot with nothing. And it's once we become nothing, God can do a lot with us. That's why we're doing this. But remember, it's a journey. It's not a light switch flip. Okay, now I'm humble, now I'm proud. No, it's a day by day, yielding to the spirit, walking in the spirit, not fulfilling the lust of the flesh. It's not, I've gotta have lifelong humility and never have pride. It's that, I wanna be humble today. I want to get victory over my proud flesh today. That's what we're trying to learn here. And that's what we can gain from looking at the life experience of these disciples. Let God have his way with you. So we're going to stop there tonight.