Message for Akron Alliance Fellowship Church, Akron OH, Sunday, April 19, 2026.
The other day at work I had the unpleasant task of presenting a Performance Improvement Plan to one of my staff members. It’s not something that I enjoy because the process of reviewing the person’s poor performance is now a matter of record with Human Resources and is memorialized in black and white. It’s uncomfortable, to say the least, and perhaps even humiliating, to sit and listen to the areas of your performance that need to be fixed. Your emotions can get the best of you—especially when you are not expecting to see or hear critical remarks. It’s a humbling experience, for sure, and I have often seen where the recipients of these plans get defensive. In these meetings, the end result is to move the person to get better at their position, but there are now specific points that need to be completed within a selected timeframe in order to retain employment.
Here is what I’ve learned from meetings like this:
1.) No one likes admitting underperformance. To put it succinctly, no one likes to admit screwing up. The Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) is often unexpected. (You might be surprised how many PIP recipients think that they’re doing just fine with their work.)
2.) It creates a “moment of truth” for the recipient. After the questions, comments and rebuttals are completed, the truth remains in effect. A person who desires to improve, let alone maintain employment, will do whatever is necessary to increase their performance, or at the very least, show the effort in giving it their best shot. This is no time to be lazy or unmotivated.
The person on a PIP has to decide what to do next. Staying put and working through the issues is the best of both worlds for the employee and the company. The alternative is to blame someone else for what is happening and shrink under the pressure and eventually disappear. We now have the new terms of “quiet quitting” and “ghosting” from this present generation. When the going gets tough, they get going all right…in the other direction and out the door.
How good are you at receiving constructive criticism?
Are you humble enough to accept responsibility for your actions?
Are you teachable?
A humble person is one who recognizes opportunities to learn and grow. So when mistakes are made, it’s not the end of the world. You can’t go back and do it over again—you just learn your lessons from what happened and move forward in your life.
What are these lessons that we can learn in moving forward?
A. Be calm, cool and collected. The best decisions come from those who don’t lose their cool and get panicked. Notice in this passage where the true focus is:
Psalm 131:1-2 NIV
1 My heart is not proud, Lord,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
2 But I have calmed and quieted myself,
I am like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child I am content.
The person who is calm is able to focus on Jesus Christ in the midst of a difficult situation. We are to take solace in Christ.
B. Be patient. Your patience prevents you from making hasty decisions, and it also allows you to see how God is working in the situation. He does not want you to miss his presence and the comfort that He brings to you. He is trustworthy and praiseworthy, too!
Psalm 40:1-3 NIV
1 I waited patiently for the Lord;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the Lord
and put their trust in him.
Isaiah 30:18 NIV
Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!
He wants to help you through your tough moments, but you have to invite Him in your presence.
C. Be humble. Humility is the key to being open to good suggestions, wisdom and knowledge, and the realization that God may be speaking to you in your time of need.
Proverbs 11:2 NIV
When pride comes, then comes disgrace,
but with humility comes wisdom.
Philippians 2:3 NLT
Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.
Your exercise of calmness, patience and humility will help you to perform at the optimal level in all aspects of your life. These are all godly attributes. In order to exercise these godly attributes, you need to rely upon the One who provides each of these things for us—Jesus Christ. Without the Holy Spirit operating as the Helper for Jesus Christ, we will struggle in our own fleshliness trying to achieve success.
Are you ready to buckle down and get better in life? Call on Jesus!
It is rare when a person is seen taking responsibility for his or her actions. It actually is downright refreshing! In order to take responsibility, you have to check your pride at the door and humble yourself. This message is about the act of humility. Humility in action is the essence of godliness and the absence of pridefulness. Using the examples I have just provided, it takes little effort to exercise pride when claiming perfection or blaming others for your mistakes because both of these prideful actions are rooted in the flesh. Humility is a stark contrast to acting on the desires of the flesh.
Humility is a character trait that must be learned and developed over time. It must be learned and developed because we are not, in our own nature, capable of humility. As a child, you were only capable of communicating your basic needs and desires and depended on your parents to care for you. As you grew up, you had to learn about what was right and what was wrong, to say “please” and “thank you,” and how to be courteous to others. Assuming that you have learned all of these things (chuckle), humility is something that we continued to learn and practice as we got older, and prayerfully, we are now learning to master it.
There is grace in humility…both for you when you exercise it, and for the recipient who receives it. As we learn to master acts of humility, we are encouraged to grow in this area as it is a godly attribute.
James 4:6-8a, 10 NLT
6 And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say,
“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.”
7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.
The art of mastering humility will test six key areas of your life in your quest for godliness and living a Christlike existence. These are far from being inclusive of everything but these will say a lot about who you are and your growth in Christ:
- Your honesty (trustworthiness)
- Your kindness (generosity, compassion and forgiveness)
- Your patience
- Your perseverance
- Your respect (for others, your self-respect, self-esteem)
- Your self-control (contentment, temper)
You may have picked up that these virtues are fruits of the Holy Spirit:
Galatians 5:22-23 NIV
22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
Living a life of humility requires that a believer puts away the fleshly nature and allows the Holy Spirit to take control. It is an ongoing struggle, but the Spirit enables every single believer with the capability to overcome any fleshly influence or desires. By yielding to the Spirit, you will best be able to do the following:
1. Rely less on your own reasoning and rely more on the power and presence of the Spirit.
Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding.
6 Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take.
Humility has a positive effect on your thought process. You will invariably accept what goes beyond your own reasoning, logic and understanding, and think beyond the inherent barriers associated with human thought to those that can only come through the wisdom and knowledge of the Spirit:
Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
1 Samuel 16:7 NIV
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
2. You will trend less towards anger and more towards peacefulness.
In order to understand the nature of peace, you need to go beyond the obvious (for example: no war, no yelling or screaming, a quiet room—these are all applicable) and consider the influence of Christ in your efforts of humility. Jesus Christ’s influence will remind you of God’s grace to you and how that grace is extended to others. When you recognize God’s grace in your life, you will readily extend that grace to others—even during those times when you have every right to be angry.
Titus 2:11-14 NIV
11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
This is especially true in areas where forgiveness is necessary. True forgiveness is not on our own strength and ability. It comes only from God Himself through the Spirit. As God has forgiven our sins through grace and granted us an eternity of fellowship with Him, we are to extend the same grace to others and put aside our anger.
Ephesians 4:32 NIV
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Luke 17:3-4 NIV
3 So watch yourselves.
“If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. 4 Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”
Matthew 6:14-15 NIV
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
(Some of you may comment to yourself, “This is a really hard teaching!” My response in all circumstances will be, “Is it really?”)
Don’t let any harshness that comes from an unforgiving spirit ruin your testimony before Jesus Christ and others. Believers, at times, fail to grasp the immeasurable grace that God has bestowed upon them in forgiveness for their own sin. As you grow and learn more about God and this grace, you will be less resentful, less angry, and be more ready and willing to extend grace and forgiveness to others. Perhaps you need to repent from your sinful attitude and humble yourself before God and before others.
He already knows where your heart is. God assures us that we are made righteous before Him when we confess our sin and trust in Him:
1 John 1:9 NIV
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
3. Know that it is not about you and that it is more about Jesus.
Your relationship with Jesus Christ should be far more important than those things that would keep you from living a life of humility: your ego, your reputation, your adversarial relationships, your finances or anything that has an adverse effect on your relationship with Jesus. A humble person is a godly person who is secure and content in himself, in his relationships and acknowledges a dependence on Jesus Christ.
Philippians 4:12-13 NIV
12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
1 Peter 5:6 NIV
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.
Above all, humility is necessary for a person to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Acts 2:37-38 NIV
37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Relying upon Jesus Christ begins with the most important decision in your life—it’s where you spend eternity. If you haven’t made that decision yet, will you?
1 Corinthians 15:1-4 NLT
1 Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. 2 It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place.
3 I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.
Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
Don’t put it off. Humble yourself and call on the name of Jesus.
Romans 10:9-10 NIV
9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
Copyright © 2013, 2026 Melvin Gaines.
Melvin Gaines 