Love & Humility
To live a life that honors God, we must prioritize love, humility, and selflessness, recognizing our own frailty and weakness.
Frank Bartleman emphasizes the dangers of dictatorship and lawlessness in churches, highlighting the importance of organized fellowship and unity. He warns against the pitfalls of sects that start with good intentions but end in division. Bartleman stresses the need for churches to maintain their 'first love' to avoid decline. He calls believers to live like Jesus, embodying love, humility, and holiness, rather than being dominated by the human spirit. The sermon underscores the significance of humility, love, and faith over self-centeredness and radical movements.
Text
There are two errors to be avoided - dictatorship and lawlessness. Unorganized churches frequently have a tighter ring of fellowship than those organized. Sects generally begin with an honest effort to preserve and restore some long lost truth, but they end in division. History repeats itself. No religious body has ever recovered itself after loosing its "first love". To be like Jesus is the standard that God has set for us. If Heaven is real, we should live like it, this will produce "Pentecost". The human spirit too often dominates, while love and humility are clothed in rags and sit by the wayside begging. The gentle Jesus is often pushed aside and knocked down in church meetings. Sin and the "flesh" will kill any "Pentecost". The doctor looks at the tongue first.
Have you been speaking evil? Evil speaking denotes a bad heart and every radical movement for God has ultimately failed on the test of love.
We need holiness of heart. It is a vital error to substitute light for heat. "Knowledge puffeth up, but charity (love), edifieth." Read I Cor. 13 once more. Be not drawn away from "the simplicity that is in Christ." Faith gets the most, love works the most, humility keeps the most. God's vision comes to humble men. He who seeks to make footprints and do sublime things is a failure. A self-conscious poser is a loser. Let self intrude and the whole is spoiled. Excellency is proportioned to the oblivion of self. A fisher for compliments has lost God. Self-consciousness must go.
We are too conscious of the other fellow, we need a God-consciousness. Humility, not infallibility, becomes fallen creatures. Infallibility is the apex of Satan's proposition to man. The deepest repentance and humility and our own frailty and weakness must be realized before we can know God's strength. Receding guns vanish out of sight after firing and so must we, for safety. WE NEED TO BE BROKEN!
Sermon Outline
- The Dangers of Unhealthy Fellowship
- The Importance of Love and Humility
- The Consequences of Sin and Pride
- The Need for Holiness and Humility
- Substituting Light for Heat
- The Importance of Faith, Love, and Humility
Key Quotes
“WE NEED TO BE BROKEN!” — Frank Bartlemen
“Excellency is proportioned to the oblivion of self.” — Frank Bartlemen
“Knowledge puffeth up, but charity (love), edifieth.” — Frank Bartlemen
Application Points
- We must prioritize love and humility in our relationships with others and with God.
- We must avoid substituting light for heat in our spiritual lives, focusing on the simplicity of Christ.
- We must recognize our own frailty and weakness, making room for God's strength and power.