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  PSALM 131
  by Mack Tomlinson
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Summary: This sermon focuses on the importance of cultivating humility
and killing pride, using Psalms 131 as the main text. It emphasizes the
need to quiet prideful thoughts, avoid self-exaltation, and seek
humility as a daily choice. The speaker highlights how humility should
be the normative way of living for Christians, leading to a culture of
humility in the church. The ultimate example of humility is seen in
Jesus, who willingly submitted to the Father's will and rested in His
wisdom.

Topics: "Humility", "Overcoming Pride"
Scripture References: Proverbs 16:18, Psalms 131:1, Matthew 5:5, James 4:6, Philippians 2:3

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon focuses on the importance of cultivating humility and
killing pride, using Psalms 131 as the main text. It emphasizes the need
to quiet prideful thoughts, avoid self-exaltation, and seek humility as
a daily choice. The speaker highlights how humility should be the
normative way of living for Christians, leading to a culture of humility
in the church. The ultimate example of humility is seen in Jesus, who
willingly submitted to the Father's will and rested in His wisdom.

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CONTENT
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Well, it is good to be back Philip Neely and his wife Christa will be
here at Lord willing in three weeks and They send their greetings, and
they're looking forward to time with different ones and to worship with
you I Want to read a couple of passages you can turn with them to with
me to them ones in Proverbs 16 and then Psalm 131 Proverbs 16 You know
Proverbs always has these contrast the righteous and the wicked the fool
and the wise and Here's one Proverbs 16 18 and 19. I want you to hear
this this morning because What I'm going to speak about today a hundred
percent applies to you And if you don't know who you is it's you It's
The least among us though. They're not going to hear yet to the young
people to the oldest among us and I guess sadly That's me Seriously,
that's me probably but this hundred percent applies to you.

So I want you to hear as if God is speaking Specifically to you because
everything I'm going to say Does apply to us individually? Proverbs 16
18 and 19 Pride goes before Destruction And a haughty spirit a prideful
spirit before a fall Now destruction there doesn't mean just sudden
death it means Failure it means defeat it means bad consequences because
pride led a person to act in such a way and then it was not good the
outcome a broken relationship a Real consequences of wrong choices So
Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit and an arrogant
prideful spirit before a fall Better to be of a what? humble spirit with
the lowly Than to divide the spoil with the proud And Then Psalm 131
Which is really our our text today Psalm 131 the second shortest chapter
in the Bible who remembers what the shortest chapter is anybody 117 well
Psalm 131 three verses 61 words depending on your translation probably
Psalm 131 this is an Autobiography of David Now what's an autobiography?
First of all, what's a biography? Before we adults answer it. I want All
the young people at least have a chance to think if they get it, right a
biography is something written about somebody else What's an
autobiography? It's when you're writing about yourself Okay so this is
an Autobiographical psalm that David's writing about himself, but it's
also a prayer So, let's read it Psalm 131 Lord My heart is not haughty
Same thing is proud Nor are my eyes lofty What would be lofty eyes? It's
somebody thinking in their mind Look what I could become. I see
greatness I envision fame fortune My eyes being lofty David says my
heart is not haughty or my eyes lofty Neither do I exercise myself in
great matters or in things too high for me So the first half of the
verse is what he was.

He's not proud and arrogant and His eyes aren't lofty. The second half
is what he how he acted I'm not exercising myself in great matters or
things too high for me surely I Have behaved and quieted myself as a
child that is weaned from its mother My soul is even like a weaned child
Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and forever I Want to speak
to us this morning on attaining? cultivating and attaining humility and
killing pride It was pride that got Satan kicked out of heaven and It is
pride that will keep us out of heaven and it is pride that will put a
person ultimately in hell They can be a good citizen They can be
outwardly honest they can be a church member They can be a lot of things
but pride When it rules in a person's life will send them to hell so
Picture yourself saying to someone My heart's not proud. Well, doesn't
that make you proud automatically? Can you say before the Lord my heart
is not proud See every one of us are either Basically control control by
pride or we're controlled by humility We're either dominated by pride or
we're dominated basically by humility by God's grace if someone I Had to
characterize you would they say well, he's a humble person She's a
humble lady She's a humble girl or he's a proud Arrogant person.

She's a proud woman Beside this song I recently wrote in the margin of
my Bible these words It takes real grace to have what's in this psalm
short psalm that as Spurgeon said reaches great heights he said it's a
this psalm is a short ladder that reaches great heights a Person who
come to the place that they really are a humble person. They're not
acting, you know, you can't fake humility very long Because faking it
means You're a proud person and you're trying to act what is not really
true Imagine James Boyce James Montgomery Boyce who pastored in
Philadelphia for so long. He said imagine Living with Jesus for three
years the disciples, right? Imagine living with Jesus for three years
and still wanting to be important yourself Instead of just letting Jesus
be important Remember at the end of three years though.

He's heading toward Jerusalem. And what are they conversing about? Who's
going to be the greatest in the kingdom? They even get mad at each other
so see It's astounding that they were so clueless and not at all on the
same page Even after three years of walking with the Lord being with
with him Our being self-important or significant is of zero importance.
I Had a I had a guy criticizing my book on Leonard Ravenhill And he said
that it didn't talk near enough about the Holy Spirit Well, my mind
started going Did you really read it? you want to talk about it and Then
I realized my Thoughts and my responses were being driven by what? pride
Temptation to pride so I said it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter. I hope the book somehow helped him pride controls and
drives and motivates so much more in our lives than we realize and we
are increasingly either Only a true Christian has true humility If
you're not a Christian You're controlled by pride and that pride will
certainly for sure put you in hell Unless you come to Jesus Christ. Our
being significant and important is of zero importance, but Christ being
significantly Important is of supreme importance So that's what this
psalm is about three verses 61 words If you are a reader of the Psalms
Have you ever read this psalm and it struck you? What he's actually
saying here.

He's saying I'm not I don't have a proud heart and He's writing under
the inspiration of the Spirit. It wasn't false humility It was actually
true David had been brought to the place By God's grace and by the Holy
Spirit that whatever problems he had he had some didn't he? lust Anger
he was he was up and down emotionally he was quick to react at times
Whatever problems he had the more he grew in the years past He wasn't
controlled by pride So we're going to think about that a little more as
we as we go But I want you today and me to see ourselves in this psalm
And to honestly face our set to face the reality Lord, what do I take
pride in and I need to be honest about it and I need to repent of that
Pride is blinding And it's binding If pride in areas blinds us it will
bind us It'll put us in bondage in those areas and will deceive
ourselves And we won't even realize what's happening. This psalm is easy
to read But it has very deep reality to experience While it's one of the
simple simplest of all psalms Almost Insignificance you can read it and
you're done quickly and the the power of what's really there Has it has
it? Affected you it is an intimate personal present tense testimony of
David No psalm is more personal and deep as Far as inward Christian
experience because if You might not be in a public ministry You might
not be in a position of power or influence.

You might not Be well known You might not have outward gifts where
people say man They really are good at this or that there might not be
anything outward that marks a person's life as being something To be
proud of but if they have in their hearts a humble spirit And they just
walk with God That's in the sight of God most precious That's the most
important thing so let's kind of stroll through this psalm briefly stay
with me and Let's let it minister to us David is giving us a glimpse
into the state of his heart He's doing open-heart surgery on himself and
letting us look in and see actually what's in there This is a deep
experience That David has cultivated by God's grace Where he has become?
Where he's walking in freedom from pride as a pattern of his life And
does that mean he never? Battle pride anymore. No, does that mean he
didn't have hiccups and speed bumps where pride? obviously it did but
Sometimes we think even as a Christian You know we have this picture of
Christians Pride being the prevailing thing and They're always being
overcome by and then they have these moments of humility And then it's a
pattern of pride again. It ought to be the other way around our life
ought to be marked by humility and We have these moments of pride that
we repent of and then we're on the path of humility again And only the
Holy Spirit can produce this in you We can't work it up We can't fake it
and we're in great need of it so a Truly that's what's here a truly
humble believer now you look at the psalm before it psalm 130 That's a
psalm of forgiveness but psalm 131 is a psalm of humility and Think
about this when you compare Old and New Testament psalm 131 is a perfect
commentary on Matthew 5 6 which says blessed are the poor in spirit This
psalm is a commentary on what Jesus said the blessedness of the true
Christian is one Who is poor in spirit? Now here's a I want you to
picture this What if the truth of psalm 131 was truly in your life?
regularly Do you have this in your heart in life a humble spirit a
humble heart? You you don't glory in What you've accomplished you don't
glory and take pride in what you know You don't glory and who you know
I? Had somebody recently somewhere.

I met and they started talking about Lynn or Ravenhill they didn't know
me and Well, I could have I Could have made them impressed be impressed
with me. I said yeah, I Wrote the book But I wasn't going to do that So
I let it pass There's so much opportunity for us to give in to pride and
so Do we what are we glory in? Do we take pride in? Accomplishments do
we take pride in our children do we take pride in who we know? Who we've
met what we've done what we've accomplished And we we sing the song in
Christ alone, and we one stands in in it is no guilt in life No fear in
death How about no pride control in life? No, no pride control in me.
That'd be a good thing to add to it.

I don't think it'd work with the music, but Humility is rare It's
important. It's essential. It's attractive and it's fragrant What's in
these three brief verses it's marked by a tone of simplicity and even
childlike ness David says I Am like a weaned child When's the last time
you ever saw yourself that way? We don't I'm strong.

I'm I'm mature. I'm knowledgeable. I'm Intelligent, I'm this I'm that we
don't say I'm like a weaned child.

I'm just I've been weaned and I'm content and I'm satisfied So When did
you and I last say I? Am like a child spiritually and I don't have a
proud heart Here's David saying he has a consistent humble heart. That's
not proud and eyes What he sees that aren't ego driven So let's let's
think about this this psalm. I want you to notice Have it before you
says there are three things that were not Representative of David's life
as a rule or pattern in other words, whatever he was He's not like this
now number one a proud man Dominated by pride number two an ambitious
man dominated by carnal ambition lofty eyes number three an
intellectually high-minded arrogant person dominated by high thoughts
Strong opinions not not thinking we're a know-it-all, but sometimes
having that spirit about us and We want to one-up everybody that we
think is wrong and what they're saying He was not a proud man.

He was not an ambitious man. He was not in intellectually high-minded
arrogant man meaning David wasn't trying to be a big shot or trying to
be important That's What was in his heart? Remarkably the greatest king
in Israel's history could say this. That's that's unbelievable He didn't
think he was right all the time.

Do you? Do I he was not dogmatically opinionated about everything Am I?
Are you? There are three things in verse 1 Look at it there three things
in verse 1 My heart's not haughty. My eyes aren't lofty and I don't
exercise Myself in great matters or things too lofty three things in
verse 1. There's tooth. I'm sorry one thing in verse 2 I have behaved
and quieted myself like a weaned child and there's one exhortation and
Application in verse 3 let Israel let the child of God Hope in the Lord
and the context of pride and humility Let him who boasts boast in the
Lord Let him who has any glory or pride.

Let it be in the cross. Let it be alien outside of themselves Let Israel
hope in the Lord from this moment and Forever number one humility is
what David was inwardly verse 1 My heart is not lifted up. My eyes
aren't raised too high.

This is completely inward in the heart unseen invisible except to God
But it manifests itself outwardly in his life and conduct pride Makes a
person speak and act in a certain way. You can see pride in fact
Scripture says the wicked pride Is Around their life like a necklace
remember sometimes it says that so is humility Be clothed with what
humility? so It's completely in the in the heart as Psalm 51 says wisdom
in the in the secret heart This is an inner heart change what David is
actually claiming here and affirms By the Holy Spirit is amazing I'm not
a proud person anymore If pride ever dominated dominated in my life that
has been overcome by the work of God's Spirit and God's grace Pride
doesn't rule or control or drive my heart Anymore Deuteronomy chapter 8
says this God said to Israel so he humbled you That He might make known
to you that man shall not live by bread alone But by every word that
proceeds out of the mouth of God God humbles us He brings us through
hard things. He brings us through humiliating experiences He lets us
stump our toe Spiritually speaking and We realize we're not what we
thought And others realize we're not How we presented ourselves to be?
Now it's normal to think If you think you're humble If a person thinks
they're humble that means they're not But not according to this song if
it's real One time Muhammad Ali was flying on an airplane.

You may have heard this. I think it's a true story and The flight
attendant comes by and says sir, would you please buckle your your seat
belt? And he says Superman don't need no suit belt seat belt. She said
Superman doesn't need an airplane buckle your seat belt So if you think
you're great You're probably not But if God has worked humility in your
heart by God's grace We should recognize it and be thankful for it and
ask for more But to say it out loud like David said here isn't that in
that prideful? Seemed like it.

I mean, would you write a book humility and how I tamed it? And it's a
best-seller so you write another one the ten most humble people in the
world and how I trained the other nine I mean if you if you brag about
humility Are you even stated or you think? God's working humility in me.
Is that pride? No Not according to this song if a man is truly humble.
Can he recognize it? Can he acknowledge it? Well David did here.

He said my heart is present tense not being dominated by pride He didn't
say I'm Sinlessly perfect and I never battled pride but he said Pride is
not the dominant factor in my life anymore if pride has Dominated me in
the past. It's not doing so now if it has filled my eyes and my heart
and Driven my heart to ambition for self It's not doing that now
Humility was cultivated by David and it's to be cultivated by you and I
you and I as believers can progressively move Into becoming more and
more of a humble person Cultivating humility living that way it can
become a mark of our life the way it was David's life Um David was not
he was an unpretentious man. What is unpretentious mean? Alexander do
you know what that means? Yeah, he was not pretentious what does it mean
to be pretentious It's okay if you don't have it I had to look it up too
when I was meditating on this while back Unpretentious means you're not
attempting to impress others With the appearance of importance or Being
smart or being spiritual you're not trying to impress others Free from
motives to impress others to be great or to be known a Close reading of
David's life now track with me here because I'm not going to speak long
But I want this to settle in on us a close reading of David's life when
you read first Kings second Kings first Chronicles second Chronicles Is
that that is that the right chronology of David Samuel Jim Simmons? You
read his life and you see he wasn't dominated by self-importance in
pride as I said passionate times Anger at times impulsiveness.

Yeah, but not predominantly by pride In scripture, this is quite
significant. I Studied this out one time in scripture every time someone
Who was proud? humble themselves God acted in mercy toward them, but
every time a person would not Stop their pride and would not repent God
judged them every single time even Ahab and Nebuchadnezzar and I think
It was either Jeroboam or Rehoboam Wicked Kings when they humble
themselves God Extended mercy to him. He didn't do to him what he was
going to do to him evidence of David's active humility Just canvass this
with me remember.

He was a warring king But he did not greedily aspire to greatness by
attacking other nations All of his wars were defensive in nature to
protect Israel He was being a shepherd as the king of Israel all of his
wars Were to protect Israel when they were attacked Remember, he did not
kill Saul and seize the throne when he could have he waited how many
years? 20 years He waited even after Samuel anointed him he waited for
God to fulfill his promise to make him king And for Ten years he had to
run from Saul and didn't raise his hand against him when he could have
killed him twice remember He wouldn't do it When shimmy I little
pipsqueak shimmy I? Comes out throwing dirt at him and cursing him The
one of David's guys wants to take his head off David said no let him
alone. God's letting him do it When David fled before Absalom's young
gang who was chasing him David cared more for his son and his insulted
authority When David and anger was coming to wipe out wicked and able in
his house. He gained self-control through Abigail's intercession He
stopped himself from doing what he would have done And he humbled
himself not to do it when religious McCall his wife Got angry about
David dancing before the Lord with all his mind David said I'll think
I'll do it some more Now he showed a noble humility and Did not quench
the spirit rather than preserving his royal dignity She was embarrassed
because he was he was the king and she said you should not Act like that
you're the king Well he could have chosen his royal dignity for his
reputation or to worship God And he chose to worship God.

He showed a noble humility Now he had his faults, but those faults were
not primarily self-centeredness egotism and ambition Who among us can
say Lord my heart is not proud Hmm David could and it was true secondly
not only Humility he says no carnal ambition Beyond what I'm truly
supposed to be In the text he says my eyes are not lofty. I'm not
exercising myself in great matters, but things to offer me My parents
died by the time I was eight and my father owned a ranch And it was sold
and it was it was it was saved for my sister and I our future
educational so I had I was blessed to go to college and So I've often
thought I should have gone to Yale I Could have come out east No, I
wasn't smart enough. I Went to a Baptist University in Texas barely made
it through flunked college algebra one and had to take it over I saw I
saw a t-shirt in the Yale bookstore this week.

It said math is hard. So is life get over it Well David Did not have
carnal ambition to be great First no proud heart he came to place where
he did really have walk in humility And he was not dominated by pride
secondly, he was not motivated and dominated by carnal ambition I want
to be great. I can become great.

I'll make myself great. I'll I'll step over people. I'll climb the
ladder and I'll become great.

It doesn't matter who I heard it doesn't matter who I manipulate This
has to do with High-minded conceit. I think I'm great As somebody said
about one arrogant person He's a legend in his own mind. You've heard
that right? It's true self-importance in our own mind Scripture says I
think of Jeremiah seekest thou great things for thyself Seek them not
now David Didn't seek a high position God put him in high position and
that's a completely different thing But Here's the current view let no
one ever tell you you can't accomplish all your dreams You can be a
famous person go for fame run for The governor of Maine and then the
presidency the sky's the limit nothing Can ever hold you back from what
you can envision and you can work for and you can accomplish it.

Well No we can accomplish and become within the realm of our giftings
what God has gifted us for and We can become what God wants us to become
and Nothing, nothing else Nothing beyond that Lofty eyes David said I
don't have them anymore My eyes what I envision what I want what I want
to pursue Have been mortified have been changed have been sanctified.
I'm not now trying to be anybody important I'm content with who I am It
took me 20 years To become satisfied in the ministry to become content
with me and not wanting to preach like someone else and when God did
that for me and he set me free of comparing myself with others trying to
be like others It brought me into Liberty and freedom now that's
applicable in life to anything Not trying to be anybody important I'm a
human high-minded intellectual self-ambition being something great
accomplishing something big Having position so you you get your identity
from that position or that title or that job Hc loophole le you po LD
Wrote the best comment here. There is on the Psalms.

It's big but is it it's the best in my opinion. He said this About David
there may have been a time when great plans and ambitions Surged through
David's heart and drove him down the road of ambition But he exited that
road He never got on it again he came to see it was wrong to seek great
things for himself David stopped aiming for fame and this whole world is
insane with aiming for fame I Want to what do you want to do? I want to
be a Successful blogger. I want to be an actor.

I want to be a singer. I want to get on the voice I want to get on
American Idol aiming for fame rather than letting God Make you into what
he wants you to be Therein is real purpose and peace and joy and
fulfillment You and I don't have to be somebody God hadn't made us to be
Now consider the second half of verse 1 Neither do I exercise myself in
great matters or things too high for me You think anyone does that on
social media? ever in the 1980s soon after we moved to Denton I Decided
I would take a graduate level history of philosophy course And I thought
I can get through this Well, there are 80 in the class and after a week
there were eight in the class. I think it was tough going I said, I'm
not quitting.

I'm gonna I'm gonna make it through this course. I mean, you know The
professor would say tomorrow. I want you all to to be able if I call on
you to stand up and summarize Spinoza's Philosophy of God.

Oh Boy, I don't know if I can do this. I said I can I'm gonna learn I'm
gonna stick in this class or what? The professor was a very gracious
humanist And he said one time As he was going through the Middle Evil
times. He said Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation was the
greatest tragedy in all of history So he's lecturing along, you know, so
well, what if that professor had said to me? Mr. Tomlinson Listen, I've
had a death in the family and and all my graders are Filling in classes.

I don't have anyone to do tomorrow's lecture And I've got to look you're
older than these other kids, so would you lecture tomorrow on Aquinas's
philosophy Think that that's think I'd be smart thing to do for me to do
No It would have been foolish Several weeks ago a friend of mine called
me. He said Mac He wasn't in our church. He said could I come by and and
let you teach me Revelation chapter 8 and I said why he said because my
our Sunday school teacher Asked me to fill in and I've got to teach
Revelation 8 And I said no, I won't do it and we're real close.

We've been friends 35 years and He said huh? Why I said because you
don't need to do that. You don't you don't have a clue what revelations
about and if you want me to come by and give you the cliff notes You'll
make a fool yourself you'll be embarrassed and you'll be discouraged
they shouldn't have done that to you don't do it and He listened to me
He turned them down When we're not ready or equipped or have what it
takes To do something we should not have lofty ambitions David wasn't
ready to be king When Samuel anointed him was he he had to be prepared
He would have been trying to do what was beyond his experience beyond
his ability Beyond his calling in his giftedness. Now.

This is profound when he says I don't exercise myself and things too
high for me He had a real view of himself and he was saying I'm not
going to try to do what's beyond my experience beyond my ability beyond
my calling and my giftedness Proverbs 16 pride goes before destruction
and a haughty spirit before a fall better To be with the lowly Than to
even gain the riches and the spoils with the proud Well, let me hurry on
I I Don't exercise myself self and things too lofty What are things that
are really lofty to the Lord that we ought to exercise us ourself in?
Loving our wives and our children as men Loving the brethren being
faithful cultivating faithfulness Staying in the Scriptures walking with
God being a humble faithful servant in our church. That's the big stuff
in God's eyes That he wants us to cultivate and be about now it's not
simple to hold an a position in Ministry of Public Service, but God
should have put a God should put a person there and a person not seek it
themselves let each of us beware of Carnal ambition Self-control and
self Humility are great attainments and must be sought diligently and
earnestly Blessed is the one who has become a weaned child Somebody said
great men never think they're great and small men never think they're
small What do we think of ourselves He Lasha Cole said it's one of the
hardest matters under the Sun to become truly nothing in our eyes, and
I'm not talking about putting yourself down and and I'm only a wretched
person. That's all I am and I can't do anything.

No, I'm not talking about carnal Putting oneself down but but accurate
recognition That we are what we are by the grace of God now Let's hurry
on verse 2. How did this happen to David? How did he get from being a
proud? ambitious man possibly How did he get from A to B? How did he get
from being proud to humble verse 2 is the process? Notice the language
surely I have behaved and quieted myself This is language of him taking
himself in his mind and his heart by the collar and saying stop it fool
Calm down boy. You're not who you think you are Quit stop doing that. I
calmed myself Literally, I settled myself down He said things in his
mind like relax, let's just think about this more you're really not As
great as your ambition is driving you This reflects a possible long
conflict In a process of his having to mortify his thoughts about self-
greatness.

I'm not going to pursue that Verse 2 is how he grew to possess this
reality and achieve this humility. He said I I have Behaved myself. I've
quieted myself he stilled his soul and His he hushed himself Well, I
could do this I could be that no Not going to go there he put to death
selfish ambition It was a weaning process.

That's why I use this picture of a mother with the baby You know when a
baby starts getting weaned some of them will throw a fit right and It's
hard for them To stop nursing, but once they get weaned They're
contented then with their presence that they're not throwing fits.
They're not always know they Become more controlled. I've weaned myself
so we have to wean our hearts from Self-centeredness and desires for
greatness verse 3 then The humble man's exhortation look at this He says
let Israel hope in the Lord in the context of pride and ambition and
accomplishment or humility There's only one thing to hope in That's the
Lord himself not anything about us.

Our hope is alien Outside of ourselves. It's in Christ. So we saying
that Christ is sure and steady anchor.

He's not only the anchor He's the ship He's the sails he's the wind in
the sails he's the water that carries us it's he's everything and So we
must hope in him regardless of our view of ourselves our ambitions our
desires The battle with pride we must focus on him looking away to him.
This is an all-inclusive Exhortation pride Not before God let all your
glory be in him. He gets the credit for everything Without him we can do
nothing lofty Self-ambitions let our goals and our gifts and our
ministry and our future and our longings all be from him of Him through
him for him to him by him hope in The Lord now, I want you to let's
apply this as we close Think of the ambitious pride and desire this
world Pushes people to to be heard and noticed And what if every
Christian every preacher teacher every apologist every blogger ever
Facebook friend Every opinion expresser on social media would take this
psalm to heart and live it Be a lot less things posted a lot less things
said Prideful words not mortified Has destroyed relationships Destroyed
families I've seen Facebook stuff happen.

I'm not on Facebook, but Linda is and and She'll say I can't believe
this person posted this and then there's a family fight between them and
then they're alienated The words of a mouth snared by the words of a
mouth one of the most fearful verses in the Bible to me is I've said
this here before I think Every one of us will give account for every
idle word. We've spoken Makes me shudder The Internet would be far less
war of words if Christians would just believe in and apply psalm 131 far
less war of words far less contentious dialogue disagreements
relationships damaged Solomon says the fool utters all his heart if you
Have even the passing thought I probably shouldn't say this don't We
must learn to control and stand down with our drive to express our views
correct everybody Get angry at people we've never met Alistair Begg told
a story in last summer this past summer when I heard him preach About
how our words affect people around us, and we don't even realize it so
he he preaches his family's going home and his children in the backseat
and this guy cuts him off on the road and Alistair has a harsh word for
an idiot and Then the guy keeps driving driving bad. They're still
driving down the freeway together and so he keeps Commenting on the guys
driving and it gets stronger and Finally the person exits and now stress
one final strong Criticism of the driver and Then he hears a voice in
the backseat, and there's another kind word from our pastor and He
probably hung his head over the steering wheel Out-of-the-mouth of babes
now has perfected praise and wisdom Our words do more damage Because of
a prideful heart than anything else in our lives if we're marked by
anything we ought to be marked by humility and The ability to control
our words and not say everything It comes to our mind Final thought
humility like with David must be cultivated by daily choices Regularly
Quietly with wisdom in our hearts say no to prideful thoughts Say no to
lofty eyes high ambitions Stop calling attention to ourselves Stop
having self-exalting goals learn to hush our hearts regularly Humility
is not to be a momentary victory at times and a life governed normally
by pride humility is to be the normative way we live and As we walk in
humility, we mortify pride when it raises its ugly head.

We're not to be dominated by pride We're to be dominated by humility.
That's to mark the Christians life We must cultivate an atmosphere and
culture even of church humility When people know of our church, do they
think of? an attitude of superiority an attitude of High knowledge and
pride of being better. Do we give off the aroma of? better than Or do we
give off the aroma of? Humility and kindness and listening and caring or
Being argumentative a city set on a hill Cannot be hidden what we are
Shines forth and people see it So here's a testimony by David Psalm 131
of having a consistent humble heart.

That's not proud eyes that are not ego driven a a humble man
consistently contended to be he who he truly is with no more self
pursuit of self-exaltation It's amazing that David was truly changed. He
was not Now what verse 1 says? Proud he was truly stating what's true of
him now So is humility? Seen and heard among us or an attitude of pride
what shines forth The Lord Jesus is the supreme example of Psalm 131
Willing to be ignorant of some Things about his life as when he was here
as a man He didn't know the time of the hour of his coming only the
father. He was willing To make himself ignorant of truth in his
humiliation here He was content to rest his heart and one consideration
father.

I'd like to do your will father It seems good in your sight to reveal
truth to babes and to blind Human wisdom to what you're doing you and I
Can Progress can make progress and humility We can attain a godly
humility as a lifestyle and The reality worked in David's heart here Can
be is to be worked in every believers heart This is a powerful song it's
a Short one that is a tall ladder that reaches great heights as Spurgeon
said let's climb it By the by the work of the Holy Spirit daily he can
produce this in us love joy Peace long-suffering gentle gentleness
goodness faith meekness temperance meekness is humility in Spirit well
my god Work this in us. Let's pray Father we thank you for the word
which Challenges us which exposes us Which Stirs us which rebukes us
Which shows us truly what we are as we look in the mirror We just
acknowledge Lord. We're not What we think we are we are what we are by
the grace of God and We we just say today Lord We're thankful that you
have made us who we are and not someone else and we want our lives and
Our giftings and our calling to please you to glorify you The Lord a
humble lady a humble man a humble young person It just walks with God
Can be a powerful force in this world Even if we're unknown Bless this
psalm to our hearts in the name of our Savior.

We pray Amen Do we sing before the Lord's Supper go right in

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/auSSxl6Oixw.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/mack-tomlinson/psalm-131/
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