WorshipCentral

Humility:

The story of David and Goliath is perhaps one of the best-known stories around. Everyone loves it - the underdog overcoming all odds to win. Reading through this story I’m always struck by David’s amazing level of humility. When all the Israelites around were too scared to face Goliath, David approaches the king, Saul, and says, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” (1 Samuel 17:32) David heads out for battle with his trusted sling and as we all know defeats Goliath. With David standing victoriously over the dead mans body; Saul turns to his commander of the army and asks, “Abner, whose son is that man?” Abner replied, “As surely as you live, O king, I don’t know.” (1 Samuel 17:55) David had become the hero. He’d done the unthinkable and no one had a clue who he was. As he stepped out to battle, he wasn’t bothered about making a name for himself. He cared much more about honouring the name of the Lord. David was desperate to see God glorified whatever the cost. It would have been so easy to push his own name before he faced Goliath. Yet beforehand he kept referring to himself as ‘your servant.’

Leading worship is not about promoting our own name. It’s about promoting God’s name. Our heart cry must be that of John the Baptist, “He must become greater; I must become less.” (John 3:30) Joseph Tson said, “Ninety-five per cent of us can handle failure, but only five per cent can handle success.” It seems that one of the key pitfalls for many worship leaders, musicians and pastors is pride. We get carried away by our own success and become preoccupied about impressing people. Pride though breaks the heart of God. He cannot tolerate it. In the context of worship there can only be one star, and that is Jesus. He alone is the famous one. The bible is clear that God resists the proud, but draws near to the humble. “For whoever exalts themselves will be humbled, and whoever humbles themselves will be exalted.” (Matthew 23 v 12)

I used to think that people were either humble or not. It was like a characteristic or gift that certain people had - they were born humble. However looking at this verse from Matthew’s gospel, we see that it is based around active verbs. Humility is something we desire. It’s a precious jewel that we need to chase after. If we want to grow in humility then we need to make active choices to humble ourselves. If we don’t then God will humble us. It’s a challenge that confronts us all daily.

A while back, after a Sunday evening service, a lady approached me asking what the fourth song was. I racked my brains and threw out a few song titles - ‘Give thanks to the Lord,’ ‘Blessed be Your name.’ None of these were right. It then occurred to me that the song might be ‘Here I am to worship,’ a song that I wrote. With all the false humility that I could muster, I asked if it was indeed, ‘Here I am to worship.’ I even started to sing the chorus to prompt her memory. With great anticipation I awaited to receive glowing praise for the song. Her response though wasn’t as expected. “Oh no I hate that song. Whenever I sing it I want to puke! It’s so boring and dull and just goes on and on” Ouch! That night my pride took a battering. I was truly humbled.

It’s much easier to actively choose to humble ourselves before the Lord, than Him choosing to humble us. So how can we pursue humility?

1. Choose to serve:

I’m always challenged by the story of a well-known worship leader who as a young man was very keen to be involved in leading worship. He spoke to his pastor about his desire and this calling on his life and was offered a job as a cleaner for the church. He thought that he might as well take it, and assumed that it wouldn’t be long before he was up front leading the church in worship. As time went on and his main role continued to be cleaning the toilets and hoovering the carpets, he started to resent it. He couldn't understand why the pastor was overlooking his God given talents and using him to do a job that anyone could perform. Then one day as he was cleaning he found that in his heart he was worshipping the Lord. It dawned on him that what he was doing he could do to the glory of God - it was worship. It was in that place that he learnt the true heart of worship. It was also in that place that he learnt that it wasn't about being up on a stage. It was about serving people.

If we want to keep humble we need to learn how to serve. How good are you at doing those jobs behind the scenes? Are you ever the one to wash up after everyone has left? Do you ever arrive early at church to help put out the chairs? Quite a challenge - but if we know what it means to serve then humility will naturally follow. As we involve ourselves in acts of service, behind the scene chores, then God will develop a heart of humility. More and more we will begin to see that it’s all about glorifying Jesus. If we do this by leading people in song - great. If we can do this by serving coffee after church - great. One isn’t better than the other.

2. Choose to prefer others:

Jealousy is an ugly trait. It’s so sad to see people consumed by jealousy and resentment. It can be really hard to see our friends really thrive and prosper when it feels like we are not. By putting others first and by choosing to enjoy in others successes, we are choosing to humble ourselves. Recently I was involved in a worship conference in Australia. Throughout the week most of the worship was wonderfully led by Darlene Zschech. One afternoon I was down to lead with two other worship leaders from her team. We ran through a few songs when about ten minutes before the meeting Darlene turned up. The two guys went straight up to her and were saying, “Darlene you lead. It’s so great when you lead it. We’ll back you up.” She replied saying, “No no - you guys lead. It will be so amazing if you lead it.” I stood back watching as they argued amongst themselves, each trying to persuade the other to lead. I loved it. What a model of a team preferring one another. There was such community and life in that place. There were no egos. It was a group of people passionate about drawing all the attention to God. I’ve no doubt that the humlity of those involved has been formed and shaped by their desire to prefer one another. If you often find yourself thinking - “I should be leading there. I’m more gifted than her. I write better songs than him,” then choose to prefer others. Bless those that you struggle with. Talk highly of those that you feel envious of. It will lead to humility.

3. Choose to embrace people that will challenge you:

When things are going well it can be so easy to feed off the praises of other people. It become an unhealthy addiction. If we’re not careful we even find ourselves focusing more on pleaing the crowd, than on pleaing Jesus. I’m so grateful to those close friends and family around me who will tell me when I’m being an idiot. If they see an unhealthy attitude they will challenge it. If I’m getting too big for my boots, they will bring me down a peg or two. We need these people in our lives. Don’t just surround yourself with people that will go on about how amazing you are. Find those who love you enough to point out areas of weakness as well. Wthl these people around, it becomes very hard to act in an arrogant and selfsih way.

In Isaiah, the Lord says, “I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.” (Isa 42:8) We serve and believe in a mighty God who deserves all the attention and praise. There is no room for us to shout out our own greatness. Our lives are but a breath compared to God’s eternal ways. Let’s be a people that humble ourselves before a Holy God. Let’s actively seek genuine humility so that God can be most glorified.

Tim Hughes