Getting in Your Place Session 4

Knowledge Objectives  Explain why a continual sense of dependence characterizes the Christlike believer.  Explain why humility is the hallmark of the believer’s sense of dependence upon God.  Identify several ways God humbles His children.

Application Objectives  Respond by being able to define “biblical humility.”  Respond by committing yourself to letting God teach you the dependency of your “creatureliness.”  Respond by more quickly recognizing when God is trying to teach you Christlike dependence and humility through the circumstances of life.

Getting in Your Place Session 4

Dependent by Design  God made man dependent.  Any attempt to live independently from God is doomed to failure.  Change must move man away from autonomy and toward dependence.  Creation demands dependency.  Nebuchadnezzar illustrates the destructive nature of self- sufficiency.

Humility—the Hallmark of Dependency  “Humility is simply [man’s]... yielding to God His place.”  No man who has been humbled before God is self-justifying, self- protective, or self-confident.

Live the Christian Life the Same Way You Got It  Humility is not only the start of the Christian life; It is the start of everything godly in the Christian life.  Be “clothed with humility.”  Our aversion to humility is testimony of the poverty of our understanding of god’s ways.

How Does God Humble Us?  He can send us a problem we can’t handle to expose our helplessness.  He can give us a command we won’t obey to expose our self-centeredness.  He can arrange an outcome we can’t control to expose our sinfulness.  He can show us a God we can’t comprehend to expose our finiteness.

PotentialPotential A man’s potential for God lies not in his ability, nor in his opportunity, but in his humility.