Joshua Boyd


When it comes to growing your family, what are the steps you take?

1.     Preparing the room/house

2.     Sowing the seed

What if you did all of the prep but never sowed the seed, you would be prepared to grow but wouldn’t grow.  What if you sowed the seed but didn’t prepare, you’d be struggling with room and organization and effort.  

It takes both.  This is not just what we are talking about as a message this morning, it is what we are doing as a work day today.  Preparing.  

When you have visitors over to your house, you clean up, put things away, make the place presentable and welcoming.  The Scriptures talk much about preparation.  God is a planner and a preparer.  

Isaiah 54:2-3 NLT

““Enlarge your house; build an addition. Spread out your home, and spare no expense! For you will soon be bursting at the seams. Your descendants will occupy other nations and resettle the ruined cities.

To the practical side of preparing, we are taking care of that lately, including today.  What about seed planting?

Jordon Gilmore

Rebuke without relationship leads to rebellion

Hebrews 12:5-11

“And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
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Joshua Boyd

Today we will come to realize that humility isn’t just a good quality to have, it is a requirement for our faith to work.  Let’s get right to our point for today:

True Humility requires Faith – and true Faith requires Humility

Andrew Murray puts it this way: “We can never have more of true faith than we have of true humility.”

Humility is the attitude that acknowledges the source. It is the position that prepares you for receiving.  It is the mindset that allows complete trust.  Your faith will never outweigh your humility.  

Jordon Gilmore

What would it be like if you said "amen" to God's Word for you in your life?

Joshua Boyd

Humility and Mercy

Up to this point in our series on humility, we’ve been diving into the detailed characteristics of humility to help us reach it and be aware when we’re missing it.  Humility is to pride as light is to darkness – the more light there is the less darkness.  The more humility we walk in, the less pride gets in our way.  

I agree with Andrew Murray’s statement: “I feel deeply that we have very little concept of what the church suffers as a result of its lack of humility – the self-abasement that makes room for God to prove His power.”  To put it more clearly:  more humility in the church results in more moves of God’s power in the church.  Get self out of the way.  

Let’s look at our context verse: 

Romans 12:3 KJV

“For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”

Jordon Gilmore

Matt 20:1-16
“So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.””

Joshua Boyd

An honest evaluation of yourself, with the proper measure, will cause you to see exactly how much more you need to grow and just how short of the mark we come regularly.  Getting to the mark, takes effort and dedication.  

Paul used 3 examples to explain the level of dedication it takes to get to our spiritual prize:  the soldier, the athlete and the farmer.  

2 Timothy 2:3-7

3 Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 Soldiers don’t get tied up in the affairs of civilian life, for then they cannot please the officer who enlisted them. 5 And athletes cannot win the prize unless they follow the rules. 6 And hardworking farmers should be the first to enjoy the fruit of their labor. 7 Think about what I am saying. The Lord will help you understand all these things.

The Character of Humility: Serving
Joshua Boyd

We continue on the topic of humility today and I assure you that as we talk about it, each of us will find areas of our lives that we need more work in this area.  If you think you have much humility, you are in need of even more. 

The word humility is only found 7 times in the King James Bible. Humble is found 56 times and  meek, or some derivation of meek 26 times.  By numbers isn’t the most discussed topic.   Faith and love are found hundreds of times throughout the Scriptures.  Yet humility is foundational.  It is the very character of God.  

Jordon Gilmore

Gratitude toward God
Gratitude towards others 
Gratitude towards yourself 

Gratitude begets humanity and 
Humility begets gratitude 

Joshua Boyd

Each of us has a course to finish. A race to win.  Getting up off the couch and doing something is imperative to finishing the race strong.  The enemy will take two main methods of attack to keep you from the finish line:  

1.     Stop you from getting started

2.     Work you so hard you can’t make the end

Christians everywhere find themselves in one of these two categories wondering why the struggle is so hard, why they have to suffer so much, why others don’t have it as hard as they do, why they don’t see the results others do.  They are burning out “for the Lord” or they are waiting around for God to push them into the race.  

Today, we are going to make sure we don’t stay in either of these two categories if we find ourselves there now.