Sunday message · The Heart Matters series
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Message Summary
In the first message of The Heart Matters series, preached during Lent 2020, Pastor Phillip Santillan begins with Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:10–14). The Pharisee thanks God he is not like other people, while the tax collector stands far off, begging for mercy, and goes home justified. Something in us senses that is right, Phil says, because when it comes to living a meaningful life, the heart matters.
Phil did not grow up observing Lent, but he explains that at its best the season asks believers to face the stark reality that without Christ we would all be marked for death because of sin. The series shares that spirit: a journey toward Easter that takes a solemn look at our sin and need for repentance while looking to the price Jesus paid for our redemption. Today’s culture treats guilt as unhealthy, but as one commentary puts it, God’s grace cannot be found without humility.
Phil defines humility as having a right view of ourselves and what we have done in light of who God is and what he has done. In his first five chapters, Isaiah keeps pointing out others’ faults: woe to those who call evil good (Isaiah 5). Then he sees the Lord on a high and lofty throne while seraphim cry, “Holy, holy, holy” (Isaiah 6:1–5), a Hebrew repetition declaring that no one is like God. Isaiah answers, “Woe is me, for I am ruined.” Before he is ever sent, his focus turns from others’ failures to his own.
Comparing ourselves with others is foolish, Phil says. He recalls easily beating his nephew at one-on-one when the boy was eight, then imagines LeBron James pulling up in a limo to challenge him. Next to the real deal, woe is me. To embrace humility, he says, “I have to see clearly that God is great and I am not.” That means remembering all God has done, is doing and has promised, and actively confessing his greatness, which is why Jesus taught his disciples to begin prayer by addressing God as Father and honoring his name. Phil asks when our prayers last helped us grow in humility.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus blesses the poor in spirit, which Phil defines as acknowledging spiritual bankruptcy and depending utterly on God. The gospel, he adds, starts not at the cross or the manger but in the beginning, and Scripture tells God’s story in four movements: creation, separation, promise, and rescue and restoration. It is tempting to focus only on rescue, but our culture offers little encouragement to lean into separation and promise, which show how deprived we are without God.
Phil argues that much of why we miss the victorious Christian life we long for is that we spend too little time embracing that poverty of spirit, so we never fully grasp what it means to be forgiven and set free. He ends with a commentator’s reminder that we never outgrow poverty of spirit; the more mature we become, the deeper it grows.
Questions about humility
Humility is having a right view of yourself and what you have done in light of who God is and what he has done. That is Pastor Phil’s definition, and Isaiah shows it: after five chapters of pointing out others’ faults, he saw the Lord’s holiness and cried, “Woe is me, for I am ruined” (Isaiah 6:5). In Phil’s words, “I have to see clearly that God is great and I am not.”
It means acknowledging your spiritual bankruptcy and depending utterly on God. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). Pastor Phil warns that much of why we miss the victorious Christian life is that we spend too little time embracing that poverty of spirit, and, as one commentator puts it, we never outgrow it: the more mature we become, the deeper it grows.
It shows that God welcomes the humble, not the self-righteous. Jesus told it to some who trusted in their own righteousness and viewed others with contempt (Luke 18:9). The Pharisee thanked God he was not like other men; the tax collector stood at a distance and prayed, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” Jesus said the tax collector, not the Pharisee, went home justified (18:10–14).
Isaiah saw the Lord seated on a high and exalted throne while seraphim called out, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts” (Isaiah 6:1–3). Undone, he confessed he was a man of unclean lips; a seraph touched his mouth with a glowing coal, and his sin was atoned for. Only then did God send him: “Here am I. Send me!” (6:5–8). Pastor Phil notes the threefold “holy” declares that no one is like God.