more topical things, dealing
with areas of Scripture where we have not been in a while. And today I'm going to talk about
something that's become a buzzword for busybodies. But before I
get there, Many of you may not know this,
but I play competitive eight and nine ball, and I have been
for a little bit over a year. I played for a long, long time,
then didn't play for 20 years, and then I've started back. And
so our team did very, very well, and we played in a world qualifier
yesterday and got knocked out in the third round, but that's
okay. So no Vegas for me this year. That's all right. That's
all right. But there's something that I
was reminded of yesterday as I spent those bajillion hours standing
there watching people shoot, is that we're an arrogant bunch
of folks. There are some humble players,
there are some humble athletes, there are some humble experts
in a lot of fields, but if you really listen carefully, you'll
see that there's this centerpiece of pride amongst us that Sometimes
we know, we know, we know we're good, right? We know that we're
good in some things. And a lot of times we might not
even notice it. And that doesn't just go for athleticism. I mean,
I'm a chess player. I've walked around with chess
players before who bump their foreheads on a 10-foot ceiling
because, I mean, they just, you know, can play in their minds.
I mean, these are smart people. I've known people who are able
to recall things Words just listening to them, hundreds of characters,
hundreds of phrases, hundreds of numbers perfectly hearing
them for the first time and never forget them. And in the midst
of that, I'm like, why am I here? I forgot why I came, you know.
But yet there have been things in my life that I have been extremely
prideful about, and there have been many things in my life that
I've been proud of. And there's a huge difference
between the two. A huge difference. We often in our Christian circles
contemplate humility as not being good or not having skills or
not, you know, being honest about the fact that we are doing well
in some areas because we're self-deprecating to, I believe, toward poor mental
health. I believe toward fear. I believe
we're self-deprecating so much in Christian culture that we
walk around just a day away from flogging ourselves to make us
feel better. And the Bible doesn't teach that.
The New Testament does not instruct us for that. The New Testament
gives us a healthy dose of knowing the difference between good pride
and bad pride and how humility and pride go
hand in hand. It is okay to say, you know what, I excel at that.
And as a believer, thanks be to God. Just like the book of
James, he says, listen, don't say that you're gonna go here
and do that and make a business and make a profit, even though
you're good enough to do it and you probably will, don't dare
say, I will go do, say, if the Lord wills. So even when you're
good, even if you are able to take it home, like I told my
team last night, it wasn't meant to be. I get home, I go in. I'm glad I don't have to go now.
You know, you're excited, but you're thinking, oh, gosh, do
we really want to spend five days in the West? Seventeen dollar
hamburgers. I mean, you know, you just don't.
There's always a trade off, but it wasn't meant to be. It's not
meant to be, even if we're good enough sometimes. And so what
I want to do is I walk through like a 20 point idea about what
the scripture teaches. regarding pride. And I'll start
off with several passages of scripture in 2 Corinthians and
in the book of James, and I'm going to end up going into Proverbs
and some other places. But I want you to get the essence
of this, because I want you to understand it's okay to be proud
of things. It's okay to have personal self-worth.
It's okay to say, I am a child of the king. It's okay to say,
I'm part of a royal priesthood. It's okay to say, I'm a forgiven
saint, not I'm a sinner. Are you sinners? Yes. According
to the scripture, absolutely. Forever and always. Are we counted
as such? No. Then why do we call ourselves
that? Because we look at what we do in life and we look at
the intrinsic reality of our nature and we know that even
when we're doing good, sometimes we're a little bit arrogant over
it. We know that even when we're trying our best, we want credit.
Sometimes when we do a whole lot of service for others, we
get a little bitter and resentful because people aren't noticing
it. Sometimes when we have needs that aren't being met, instead
of saying, hey, I need something, we just get all upset because
nobody can read our minds. But there's a difference in pride
that is rooted in self-exaltation and arrogance and haughtiness,
which I believe stands as a hindrance to our spiritual growth. and
our ability to experience the fullness of grace given to us
by the Lord. But there is a type of pride
also that is healthy for the believer.
So let's look at some of these passages. 2 Corinthians 12. I'm
not going to linger here. You can go there. I'm not going
to linger here long. 2 Corinthians 12, verse 5 and 9. Verse 5 says,
On behalf of this man I will boast. but on my own behalf I will not
boast, except for my weaknesses. And he continues there in verse
nine, he says, but he said to me, this is Jesus, he says, I
pray that the Lord would remove the thorn in my flesh, but he
said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. For my power, Christ
speaking, is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, Paul speaking
now, I will boast all the more, I will have pride all the more
gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest
upon me. earlier in this text, he even
uses the word pride. He says, I'm acting with great
boldness toward you in chapter 7, verse 4. I have great pride
in you. I'm filled with comfort. In all
of our affliction, I am overwhelming with joy. The book of James, chapter 1,
verse 9 and 10, this is a text a lot of people don't understand,
but it's one of these gospel nuggets of the Apostle
James. This is the gospel perfectly
stated in the instruction. He says, let the lowly brother
boast in his exaltation and the rich boast in his humiliation. Now think about that for a second. And I know we started that several
years ago, midweek, and one day I will finish the teaching of
the letter of James. But here we see that there are
two types of pride, just in these little examples. There's the
pride and the allure and the deceptiveness of pride. The deceptiveness
of pride that the proverb says, pride goes before destruction.
And haughtiness, a haughty spirit before a fall. I published an
article this week about that. Some of you have heard the story
when I was restoring my house. The door frames are not all straight.
It's 120 plus years old. Nothing fits anywhere. Nothing's
square. The word square, the house just
shakes. Nothing's plumb. And so I was
setting my back door, squeak, bind, squeak, bind, shave, shimmy,
jimmy, jimmy. And I had like two hours. And
I'm going, I just step away from it, and I leave, and I come back,
and I get it. And I push the door to with my left hand, and
it swings so perfectly balanced. It goes click. I'm like, oh. It shut. I mean, it's like exhilarating.
I feel it now. Like my spine's tingling. It's
so amazing. And I shut it again, and it clicked.
And I stepped back to look at my awesome work, and I stepped
right through the HVAC open hole all the way to my thigh. Pride
comes before the fall. You know, look at my work. I mean, you know. So I have firsthand
experience and an object lesson to that. So read it, if you will,
on Friday. Pride comes before the fall.
It's deceptive. Pride seduces us. It's like a magician. It's
always promising something. Look over here. Oh, it's not
there. Psych, it's in your ear. I mean, you know, it's always
trying to get something for us to look at something in a different
way. Pride seduces us with the illusion
of self-sufficiency and the illusion of superiority. So now we're
seeing the negative side of pride. Pride that is self-sufficient.
Pride that is superior. Pride that is haughty. It blinds
us to our need for grace. It blinds us to our need for
interdependence, for healthy relationships. It blinds us for
our need for the Lord. It leads us then to prioritize
our desires and our passions and our goals and our achievements
above the Lord and above others, distorting our perspective and
causing us to fall into holes, to stumble, to hurt. The scripture says that it's
deceptive and it's alluring. But the scripture then teaches
also the humbling message. James says in chapter four, verse
six, but he gives more grace. Therefore, it says, and he quotes,
God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Now, have
you ever thought about that? Have you ever thought about really
in our own lives, in your own mind, what it means to be humble
before the Lord? I think it has everything to
do with recognizing our station and recognizing His love. But yet, and I'll get there toward
the end of this message as an application, there is a very
easy opportunity for us to feel haughty and prideful even in
our spiritual humility. So just because we exude spiritual
humility, just because we have an opportunity to be present
with the Lord in our spiritual growth and understanding sound
doctrine, which is extremely vital and of utmost importance. It does not give us the opportunity,
nor does it give us the license, nor the credibility, nor the
authority, let me think of anything else I can bring there, to stand
in a place of haughtiness and pride. We are no better than
anyone else because we have understood the truth. Because beloved, like
I've said many times over, no matter what truth we've come
to, no matter what truth the Bible actually teaches us, our
inferences, our application, and our logical conclusions,
even if valid, can often be misleading. And even if they are absolutely
accurate, prudent, and profitable, we cannot bind one another's
conscience to these things. Because the word of God says
this, therefore this, therefore that, therefore this, and then
all of a sudden, ta-da, illusion. And I'm not knocking it, that's
part of the Christian life. We are to walk through life contemplating
and thinking and growing and understanding, okay, so if this
is true according to the scripture, then this implication is also
good and true. That's great, but we test those
things and we don't ever stand so arrogantly to think that we
couldn't be wrong. You see the point? And it's very
rampant in our world today. It's very rampant in my life.
Things that I've always had disdain for, that I've subtly and unconsciously
looked at and like turned my proverbial nose up going, oh,
I'm glad I don't do that. I'm glad I'm not like that. I'm glad I don't think that.
Never has my mind spoken it to my consciousness. But yet I've
discovered it, being more mindful, having my mind renewed by the
word of God over and over again and fighting the flesh and learning
to be in the present with the gospel has allowed me to hear
things that my mind never let loose. And that's the spiritual side
of living in the flesh. It's part of it. That's one of the reasons that
we are so enamored with experience as a culture. It's why we're
so enamored with emotions, because our emotions rule us and they
drive us to feel something that's bigger than us. We think they're
spiritual, but all it is is really the chemical reactions of our
mind flowing with the innate sinfulness of our being and then
giving us all sorts of outcomes. These are not accurate. outcomes. These are not accurate
conclusions. And that's why it's very easy
for people to have charisma, and to set the mood, and to set
the atmosphere, and to present an argument in such a way that
literally has no teeth whatsoever, just draws us into a place, to
the precipice of this emotional tension, and then all it takes
is just the touch. You ever seen a bubble like blow,
get bigger and bigger on the top of a thing of water, A child
blowing bubbles and it just gets bigger and bigger. And then,
you know, that jerk kid comes up and pops it. And runs you
like, I want to kick you in the hiney. I mean, that's where we
are sometimes in our lives. We just have this bubble and
all it takes is somebody to pop it. All it takes is the right
charismatic person to come along and push you right over the edge.
And then, you know what? You've gone there. We go there. And then we're done. And then
we'll believe all manner of instruction that flows from that. And then
we begin to become prideful in it. The message of scripture
says God opposes the proud. Part of the grace that comes
of the humble is that we recognize our insufficiency in recognizing
our pride. Scripture reminds us that through it, through the
Word, we find wisdom and guidance to resist the allure of pride
and embrace the virtue of humility. And we know the model of our
humility. We know the example of Christ. Philippians 2, have
this mind among yourselves. You know it. Have this mind among
you, which Paul then says is yours, is yours, it belongs to
you. It is yours in Christ Jesus,
it is ours. Though Christ, who though he
was in the form of God, he did not count. Equality with God,
something to be made much of, something to be grasped, something
to be presented. Jesus did not present himself and posture himself
as the divine God of the cosmos. He postured himself as a son
of a man. And really, he was the son of
a virgin, a human being. But he was the God of the cosmos.
He created his own body. Boy, what would we do differently
if we could create our own bodies? Do a little tummy tuck here,
a little bit of some, you know, whatever. I mean, it's crazy,
right? But Jesus, emptied Himself. This is the
example. This is the mind we're supposed
to have. Emptied Himself. But Jesus didn't empty Himself
to self-deprecation. You see the difference? Jesus
never lost the pride of His station. He was not just the Son of Man,
He was the Son of God. And if we are the sons and daughters
of God, if we are the brothers and sisters of Christ and we
are to share in His glory, there needs to be a heaviness that
carries on our shoulders related to that truth. That I think because
of the grace of God that bestows upon us His righteousness and
that position, we walk in a proud humility. There's a positive side of pride. So we can let go of prideful
ambitions and embrace the mindset of selflessness and service. What did Jesus do? Being found
in human form, perishable form. He humbled himself by becoming
obedient to the point of death on a cross. It wasn't just dying. It wasn't
just being martyred and murdered. It was being the innocent, perfect
son of God and being subjected to the claim of being a common
maggot, a criminal worthy to die like that. Sometimes it took days to die. So we need to discern this type
of pride. We need to figure out the differences in the good and
the bad. Paul says in Romans 12, we stopped
here last week in Romans 12, 2, but Romans 12, 3 gives us
the understanding of what renewing our mind in the gospel and what
being transformed by the truth and by the spirit and by being
mindful will do for us. The instruction comes, for by
the grace of God given to me, I say to everyone among you,
now listen to this, everyone among you, not to think of himself more
highly than he ought to think. Now see, I've just told you,
church, that we ought to think of ourselves fairly highly in
the spiritual sense. Because of whose we are, because
of what we've been granted, because of what we've been given, because
of the power of God and His love for us, we are special people. But isn't that what it ... Isn't
that the bad side of pride too? Oh, I'm special. Who are you talking to? I won't
eat pool food." I mean, you know, stuff like that for those who
get the reference. There's always this haughtiness even when we
are in a place of height. Yet Jesus would say to his disciples
when the mothers of these boys, and I emphasize boys, came and
said, Can my sons sit at your left and right? Can our sons
sit? Oh, dearly beloved, your sons
cannot sit except they take and drink of the cup that I shall
drink and carry the burden that I shall carry. And indeed they
will. But let me tell you this, that
the greatest in the kingdom of heaven is the least and the least
is the greatest. So our bad pride would say, I'm
going to be the least. I'm going to show them how great
I am. You can't escape it. It's like, golly, you just put
on one roller skate and a rubber boot and just spin around. Because
that's what we do when we're trying to effectuate this stuff
in our own lives. We're trying to make our spiritual
lives nourishing, perfecting it on our own. What a funny video
that would be. if our exterior bodies mimic
the internal chaos. It would make Picasso look in
order. Do not think of himself more
highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment,
with discernment, with discrimination concerning oneself to the measure
of faith that God has assigned. Good pride can be referred to
as healthy self-esteem or healthy self-worth. I remember the first
time I said that, when some older men in the room pulled me aside
later, you know, that self-esteem stuff is satanic. If it's selfish, self-worth, you need to back
up with that stuff. You know what I did? I listened
to them. I listened to them. And I fought. I fought. Not pride. Living. Existing. Freedom of thought,
freedom of speech, freedom of engagement. What do you do? For how long? My entire adult
life, until this year, has been encompassed, sealed, surrendered,
fueled, channeled, directed by some sense of unconscious fear And as I said to myself just
about six days ago, James, you have been pathetic, worthy of
pity. Beloved, don't go there. And people that want to rob you
of the joy and the fulfilled life that Christ has promised
you, that's your choice. It's your choice. to read the
Bible in its context. Or to go out and find someone
who agrees with something that you want to know for truth and
then find every debate and argument that makes it work. Welcome to
the PhD program, that's what we do. And then you go and you
do whatever you can to stick to that until the day you die. Statisticians. Right? You can create a stat for anything
for the common man. And I can change your entire
worldview with a four inch by four inch square on Facebook. In 2027, or in 1927, Jingerheimer
Schmitz was born into Chicago and Ever since that year, it's been
wrought with violence. That's stupid. That has nothing
to do with the violence there. You know, Armenians and Calvinism
and all these other things and all this debate. This is false
correlations. But we fall for it. There's nothing
like numbers. Have you ever played Boulder
Dash at my house? It's a game we love to play, but we haven't
played it in years. Robin can always tell when I'm lying because
I have really good stats or numbers or figures. The kid's like, yeah,
that's the answer. I win, but she doesn't vote for
my answer. Then I have to play differently. Listen to the word. Judge my
words by what you read, not by what you search out. Judge my
truth. by what God has revealed to you,
not because of someone else who's passionate and zealous and a
little bit angry and a little bit pressuring. You know one
good way to know you're being manipulated? When you're pressured to believe anything. I've gotten back on Twitter in
the last six weeks. Sort of a nightmare of sorts. And I've lost like 3,000 followers
in three weeks. It's awesome. Because I'm pushing back on this,
if you're a Christian, then you'll fill in the blank. Only Christians
wouldn't. Only a heretic will. Okay. I
don't know what mall you shop in, but I don't even like the
parking lot. I'm not even driving by that
thing. shut it down like the rest of malls. Not doing it. That's not how
we live free in the Christian life. That's not how we come
about understanding joy and love and freedom. We have to have
hard conversations sometimes as a people and realize that
while we may be focusing on something that is good to us, it may be
damaging a whole lot of other people. And anything we do that
damages somebody, we need to take inventory. If you want that inventory, update. I don't have time to give it
to you. A good reflection of good pride
would be found in the context of the psalmist in Psalm 139
verse 14, who says, I praise you. Not a. from an exaggerated sense of
self-worth and importance and arrogance and selfishness and
disregard for others. See, that's, you see where I'm
going, right? But the psalmist says, I praise
you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works,
my soul knows it very well. We reflect the image of God.
We reflect, especially as believers, the image of Christ, the mind
of Christ that we've already seen in Philippians 2. We are
to understand, just as Brother Queller prayed this morning,
we are to love one another and be known by that. And the Bible
doesn't say that loving one another is keeping it real and telling
it like it is. That's not love. There's nowhere
in the good report that says, if you don't change your life,
you're going to burn in hell. That's not there. Even Jack's
in agreement, look at him. It's just not there, and I loathe
the fact that I have stated stuff like that in my younger days,
and I loathe the fact that I've been pressed into some of those
things, because no matter what you do to change your life, it
will not grant you righteousness. Nothing you do will grant you
righteousness, but because by the mercy of God we have been
counted righteous in the death and the resurrection of Christ,
by God we ought to love somebody. Especially those that don't look
like us or act like us or think like us or feel like us. We've gotten it wrong, haven't
we? And then we've turned our nose up at the non-gospel, false
gospel people. Okay, fair enough. That's not
the truth. We mark it as it is. Let it go.
It's not our problem. But you know what a lot of these
people get right? Living like Christ lives in the culture,
but they're devoid of the basics of God's glory, the revelation
of God as a savior, as a redeemer, as a lover. Read Ecclesiastes
and put your Christological glasses on and then go, ooh. The right side of pride involves
recognizing and appreciating the qualities and talents that
we've been given that enable us to serve and to love and to
glorify God effectively. I am fearfully and wonderfully
made. And at the same time, I hate this about me. I'm a nothing. I'm a piece of trash. No, you're
not. You're not a piece of trash. And I was taught differently
in my youth. But yeah, somewhere along the
line, that changed. Because I listened to the world that I thought was
the church and didn't even know I was listening. And my family in the room, they
can tell you. We were taught in our early days, you're a child
of the king, stand up. You don't have to have that attitude.
You don't have to do those things. You're not bound to that. Stand
up, stand tall, bow before the throne of grace. We heard that
stuff regularly. How do you come to that place
when you recognize just how duped you've been? And yes, you've
been hearing this for a while now, but it is important to me
because it is important Let me say that again, it is
important to me because it is important. And I think we need
to keep what is most important, important to us. You know what
else is important to me? My family. You know what else?
You. You know what else? The people
in our community. You know whose responsibility
it is to make them all happy? Not mine. But it is my responsibility to
not add to their shame. It is my responsibility not to
add to their brokenness. It is my responsibility not to
create a culture or an environment or an essence or presence. And
man, I'm fighting this right now personally. Just because
of what I am. Pastor. It elicits all sorts
of walls. I don't want what I am as a believer. to be a stumbling block. Pride that is self-exalting is
not good, and it creates a pitfall of self-exaltation. Everyone who is arrogant, Proverbs
16, 5, in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Be assured he will
not go unpunished. I don't like the Proverbs sometimes
because there's no context there to really say, okay, let's parse
this out. The next thing says, tie your shoes so you don't trip
and break your teeth. I mean, you know, you just don't know. It's
not like there's a lot of explanation, but we have the New Testament
letters. We understand the essence of this humility. We understand
the essence of what self-centeredness is and contempt for others versus
contentedness and care. and comfort. Bad pride emerges
when we prioritize our own desires, our own accomplishments, and
our own status above God and above others. It leads to self-centeredness,
contempt for others, and inflated sense of superiority, which are
contrary to, honestly, everything the Spirit says He is. Humility,
love, gentleness, kindness, patience, and I added one with my kids,
quietness, calmness, sweetness. but genuine,
authentic Christian living. So how do we cultivate this?
How do we cultivate it? Well, if we cultivate this in
our life, we have to take note that what I've talked about,
we are often misled by. We are in this crazy whirlwind,
this one-legged roller skate type thing. But Galatians, Paul
says, let each one test his own work. You notice when the ensign
says, test yourselves, see if you're in the faith, test your
own. These are not things that help you know that you have been
born of God. These are not things that give
you assurance that Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for your righteousness.
These are things that help you live free and authentic in the
world that we live in. which every turn tells us that
there's something else wrong, some other problem, some other
disease, some other disaster, some other thing. And beloved,
what's crazy about it is that we are focusing on so many really
important or bad things that we are missing the most important
bad things. We are missing the fact that
people are treated with disdain and marginalized and hated. In
the name of Christ, We are missing the fact that we have formed
a cultural arrogance in the name of Christ, who is the epitome
of humility. And this is gonna be hard for
us. Some of you may decide, you know what, I can't walk with
Tippins anymore. I'm fine with that, because I'm not changing.
I will not be forced to be quiet about the truth of God's love. by any imposition except the
full context of something in the Bible. You don't give me
15 pretexts and tell me that's an argument worth following.
Not going to do it. It's an argument worth listening
to and maybe even saying, yes, that's good. But the application
needs to be slow. Before we bind one another's
conscience and bind the culture to a way of living and a way
of loving that is hate. The example of Jesus in the New
Testament, the gospel accounts. That's why I just tell people
constantly, just read the gospels, especially the gospel. John,
just read it over and over and over again. Read it every day. Read it as
often as you can. Keep reading it. And I'll get to this in a minute,
but I have to say it now. Nowhere in Jesus' ministry did
we ever see him act the way that Christians in the culture act
toward people who are definitely living a life that is unpleasing
or sinful. I want to just be plain and simple
here. I was about to be funny. Jesus
just simply put his foot down with religious people. Sorry, I don't want to give much
flair. He just put his foot down. He's like, you know what, all
you self-righteous people, you're a brood of vipers. You're a bunch of dogs. And he
didn't say it spitting and snarling and spitting his finger in their
face and kicking dirt. He said, you're just a bunch of dogs.
You're whitewashed tombs. You eaten in a bowl with bugs
in it, but you washed the outside so it looked clean. You are workers of iniquity.
Now that's tough. So if Jesus in like manner were
in America, and that would be the time of fulfillment that
he would come into the world and start his ministry, he'd
be talking to people in my position who would be standing together
with a coalition who'd be standing together as evangelicals, who'd
be standing together as Baptists, who'd be standing together as
Reformers. And I'm not throwing all of those labels under the
bus. I'm just saying that would be from the people that Jesus
would put his foot down with would come from those groups
and many, many more. And then we point the long finger
of judgment into the face of sin. Thus saith God." You know,
when God has five syllables, you know it's authoritative.
I used to do that as a joke, and
then it became almost habitual every time I'd say God. Pitfall of self-exaltation, an
abomination to the Lord. I said, beloved, I don't want
us just to fight the idea of like self-pride. I want us to
fight the idea of spiritual pride. I want us as a family, as a spiritual
family, as a church, as a congregation to fight spiritual pride in every
avenue. I want us to pause and swallow
and breathe and think. I don't want us to take six days
before we say something about anything that flusters us. And
I don't want us to take six more days before we think about thinking
about it. I don't want us to take six more
days before we put anything on social media, and then another
six days before we even investigate on what we need to do, if anything,
and then by that time we'll be on something else. And we'll
be constantly in this perpetual six-day evaluation of doing nothing
with it. Like I said, that bad pride leads
to self-centeredness and contempt, an inflated sense of superiority. So we cultivate it by testing
our own work. Then his reason to boast will
be in himself alone and not his neighbor. Galatians 6, 4, and
5, for each will have to bear his own load. Now there's a context
there and we know what it is for those of us who have read
it, but we're not to be worried about all the works and doings
of each other as much as we are all the works and doings of ourselves.
Let's look and see if we're serving effectively, if we're living
effectively. And then we can say, okay, you
know what? I'm carrying my load. Husbands, love your wife as Christ
loved the church, as he gave himself up to present her blameless
and spotless. Love your wives, for no one hates
his own body. Love your wives as your own body.
You keep your body healthy, you keep your body clean, you keep
your body loved, you keep your body tender. We've got to learn what this
looks like and that the picture of Christ in the church is paramount
and it's manifold. It's displayed in every relationship
to some degree. And we need to look to what we're
carrying and what we're doing. Healthy pride involves acknowledging
and celebrating our achievements, but with humility, recognizing
that our abilities and accomplishments come from God. Jesus even says
that in Nickelodeon. To Nicodemus, that's so funny,
to Nicodemus in John 3, because I've made the joke, Nick at night,
for so many years, it just came out. And he says, no one comes to
the light because they love the darkness. And you know what this
means. You've heard me teach it. The
darkness that Jesus is speaking of is the superiority of the
spiritual piety of the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin. The religious
fervor and their theological attunement. And he says that you all, people
like you, love this darkness, love your prayers and your piety
and your pompousness and you love it and you love to hold
it over other people. And he's talking to probably
the kindest man walking in that circle, Nicodemus. He was the
only one there. There were 70 of those guys in
the ruling circle, plus more rabbis, and yet he's the only
one coming. But he speaks for them all, right?
We know that you are the one come from God. And Jesus says,
you can't see me nor enter into me unless you're born from above. No one comes to the light because
their deeds are evil. And when they come to the light,
it exposes their deeds. Beloved, oh my goodness, don't
let this argument catch you by the ankle and pull you into this
confessional regeneration garbage that if you haven't come to the
understanding of all your unbelieving false things, then you've never
been born into the truth. That's not the point of what
Jesus is saying there. Jesus is saying your spiritual
pride in any sense, Nicodemus, is exposed when you come to the
simplicity of this ugly Nazarene who is not much to talk about.
He says, but all who do come to
the light, and here's the kick, do so that it may be clearly
seen. What's clearly seen? Their spiritual
passion, their study, their doctrinal perfection, that their works
have been carried out by God. So what we are and what we accomplish
is to be given credit to God. By attributing our successes
and spiritual growth to God's grace by using
our talents to serve others, we strike a balance between self-assurance
and humility. Beloved, I can play an instrument
and I can play a saxophone very, very, very, very well. Could have had a career in it.
No hand, no argument there. But I didn't play it for decades
because I felt like that's just prideful. And some of you share that sentiment.
Some of you are guitarists, some of you are vocalists, some of
you dance. It's not sinful to embrace something
that God has gifted you with and serve others with it. How
do we serve them? I'm a dancer, how do I serve
others? If you've never seen the beauty of a dancing body,
you haven't opened your eyes. I weep when I watch dancing. I'm not talking about, you know,
club dancing and stuff. I mean, you know, I'm talking about dancing. But
even some of that is very impressive. I mean, I'm not going to knock
it. It's like, okay, I can't do that. Touche. Skills, mad skills, praise be
to God. I mean, but isn't being entertained, isn't enjoying things,
is it wrong to hear Bach? Is it wrong to hear Beethoven? Is it wrong to hear country?
Absolutely. That's for me and my house. We
will serve the Lord anyway. We can embrace what God has given
us in our talents and our passions and we can use them to serve.
What if it's just that we have a shared interest and we spend
time together? Is that not service? See how
bad it's been? See how backward we've been? The humility of Jesus is the
model for our lives. In several ways we see the humility of Christ.
We've already seen it. He emptied Himself, the Incarnation. Here's
the God of the cosmos coming into the world and becoming an infant. What is more
pathetic than an infant? Nothing. It can do nothing. It will die
if you leave it alone. Nothing. It's like a one day
old bird. It's just nothing. And I've always argued jokingly
that they're so cute so we don't dispose of them. I've got to
send this somewhere else. Can they get a refund? Babies
and children were ugly. Man, we'd be packing them up. Jesus set aside his divine privileges,
his divine prerogative set aside his. Glory to embrace the limitations
of his humanity. He willingly became a slave and
a servant. So that he would identify with
us. Not just in the experience of life, in every way, Jesus
has felt every, listen to this, every emotion that's ever crossed
your mind, he has had. Every fear, every doubt, every
frustration, every opportunity for rage, but yet he sinned not. And this identity then also carried
him to the cross, that he could die and he died in the place
of his people. And this is profound humility.
He also led and served by example. Even as the Son of Man came not
to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom
for many, Matthew 20, 28. Jesus demonstrated continually a heart
to serve, to prioritize other people's needs, as important as His own. The Christian culture says your
needs aren't important. The Word of God says your needs
are important, but not more important than other people's needs. So,
tend to other people's needs as equally important as your
own. You know what's crazy? We can't
meet every need that each other has. That's why we have to be
many. Christ meets our needs through
the plurality of the assembly. Somebody among us has what we
need. Jesus washed the feet of his
disciples. Why? Because they needed it. This
wasn't some random, okay guys, now we're going to stop for a
second, do something we've never done. We're going to do something
that's completely counter-cultural. I want you to take off your shoes.
of your sandals. We just slide them off. You see
that nasty, gnarly feet? I want us all lined up. I want
to take off all my clothes, and I'm going to cover up my privates
with a towel, and I'm going to get down here, and I'm going
to wash all of your feet." They weren't like, oh no, feet washing,
eww. That would be what we do, because
it's not something we do. Most of you don't wash your hands
before you eat anyway, so why would you wash your feet? Well,
you'd wash your feet in the first century because you sat on the
floor and your feet were there. I've eaten in homes that still
practice that and you definitely, not only do you not bring your
shoes into the house because it tracks onto the dinner table,
but you don't want your nasty feet sitting next to the food
that someone else is eating. So washing feet was normal. What
wasn't normal about that is that it was Jesus going to do the
washing. You see? Matter of fact, a Jewish
person could not wash the feet of another person. It was forbidden
that even a slave or a criminal, if they were Jewish, was not
allowed to wash feet. So he does it for them, and it
blows their minds. Peter refuses, and he says, if
I don't wash your feet, You have no place with me. That's why a lot of churches,
a lot of congregations, a lot of denominations look at foot
washing as a third ordinance, like the Lord's table in baptism,
something that they do on a regular basis. More power to them. I'm not going to say whether
it's right or wrong. I'm just going to say, not right for me. But Jesus washed their feet,
something that he wasn't even allowed legally to do. Jesus
ministered to the marginalized. Jesus reached out to the hated. Jesus spoke to who was culturally,
he was unable to speak to. Jesus surrounded himself, listen
to this, Jesus surrounded himself with people that the religious
society went, look at these terrible people. Jesus obeyed the Father. For I have come down from heaven,
not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. He submitted
himself to the will of the Father completely, to the point of enduring
the cross. Take this cup, not my will, but
yours be done. He stood up, wiped the blood from his face. Behold,
my accuser comes, betrayed with a kiss. This humility of Christ, but
yet, not only that, but when He interacted with others, the
Son of Man, as we've seen, came to be served. He had compassion
and humility. Listen to this word. He had respect,
regardless of people's social status or their sinfulness. He didn't tell Zacchaeus, you
thieving piece of trash. dare you climb a tree to look,
what do you think you're looking at?" He said, come on down, I'm going
to your house. We don't want to be caught driving
through the liquor store drive-through, much less being at the house
of somebody like Zacchaeus. Isn't that weird? Who cares? You go by the bottle of wine,
you walk around the grocery store four times because you saw somebody from
the church in there. You've done it. I've caught you. Look at
that. Two bottles of wine. Wow. I'll
put them on the prayer list. Pray for brother John. Unspoken. You know what that does? John,
what's going on? What's going on? I don't know.
The pastor saw you at the liquor store. I mean, I hang out at the Lickister.
Did y'all know that? You see my truck down there? It's because
he's a real good friend of mine. And I grew up in there. I grew up there. That's where
I started shooting pool, at his house. It's just downhill from there. And every now and then you might
see him hand me a gun through the window. I mean, there's a whole lot of
crazy stuff going on. Because he can't fix it himself, he needs
me to fix it. Who cares? Here's what you do, and I'm really
destroying this message, but it's funny. See somebody in there
that's going to give you a hard time for what's in your buggy,
go put 40 of them in your buggy and follow them. Hey, what are
you talking about? I'm thirsty. I mean, just put
like 50 tubs of ice cream in there. I mean, whatever it is,
something crazy. I've got friends that don't think we should eat
bacon. Put a bunch of bacon in there. I'm joking. That would be prideful. It'd be funny, but it'd be prideful. We don't want to hurt other people's
conscience with our liberties. It's a serious thing. But Jesus
had respect. That's the point I'm getting
to. But the religious world didn't have respect. And so Jesus, in
his interaction with all these outcasts, with all these wicked
people, with women and with children, demonstrated his genuine love
and humility. How dare he hang out with these
people? How dare he hang out with a Samaritan woman? What was he thinking? Does he
not know what could happen to him? They'll kill him for this.
Yes, absolutely. And beloved, they'll kill us
too. And it won't be physically, but it'll come close. When we
don't fit the mold of the culture, of the religion that we live
among, they will try to do everything they can to destroy us. So we must embrace humility as
a core value in our relationship with other people, serving others
selflessly without seeking personal recognition or praise. We need
to surrender our will to the Lord's purposes and seek His
wisdom in these matters while we treat everyone with respect
dignity and love, regardless of who they are, how they live. Because ultimately, what we see
in the gospel is that Christ personifies humility. He became
the sacrifice. He was oppressed and it was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. Isaiah 53, 7, like a lamb that
is led to the slaughter, like a sheep that is before its shearers
is silent. So he opened not his mouth. He willfully endured. unimaginable suffering, unimaginable
humiliation, offering Himself as the Lamb of God. He is the
perfect Lamb. John the Baptist, John 1.29,
and the next day, he saw Jesus coming toward him and he said,
"'Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.'" Jesus referred to Himself as
the Lamb of God. He was blameless and sinless, but he was going
to be a sacrifice. Think about God's lamb. If God
made the rules of an unblemished sacrifice, and we all never came
close, we took the best we had, and if we didn't have that, we
gave flour. You understand that, right? Flour was a substitute
for a lamb if you couldn't afford a lamb. It's a symbol. There's no perfect lamb. But
if God were to bring a lamb to you, it'd be perfect. He did.
His name is Jesus. That's humility. And now we are His. That's a
reason for pride. He's a mediator of grace. Hebrews
2.17, therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every
respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high
priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the
sins of the people. He took on human flesh and mediates
between God and man. He atoned for us. For by grace
you have been saved through faith and this is not of your own doing,
it is the gift of God, not as a result of work so that no one
may boost. Ephesians 2.8 and 9. Beloved,
as we hear these words, as we take this very calm and focused
teaching on pride and humility, let us learn those two lessons.
Let us learn these two lessons. We have a reason to stand and
be proud of who we are in Christ, because it's not of our own doing.
It's His Word. And because He humbled Himself,
we then also can humble ourselves in service to one another. And
it is not easy. So we need each other in that
venture. We need each other. Anyone that
is an island unto themselves is dead. But we need to make sure that
we are also resting in the work. We're resting. We're not trying
to get it right. We're not trying to be perfectly, humbly proud
and proudfully humble. We're not trying to get it all
correct. We're not trying to get all the love right and the service
right. Just do what you can today, and if you can't do tomorrow,
pick up the meal from where you left it. Take snack-sized bites
every moment you can to live in the faith. and quit trying
to hoard an entire pantry full of good living, and loving, and
service. It doesn't work. You know what
it makes me do? Forget it, I can't do it. It's gonna bah humbug
my way to nowhere. Self-deprecate, passive aggressiveness,
frustration, no prayers. And if they are, they're all
imprecatory. Your prayer list is real long when you start praying
like that. It's like your block list on Facebook. It's your imprecatory
prayer list. You want to be humble about it?
God bless them. Bless their souls. Stop! We aren't going to get
it right. But can we get it right for five minutes? Can we do it
right Thursday? Can we get it right Saturday
morning? Can we get the presentation where, oh, oh man, I could have
served there. Let me just go do it. Don't let
me cower and grovel. fame, let me just do it. Let me just say to myself, I
can serve them. Because you might not be able
to tomorrow. Beloved, when you are loved truly and when you
are served truly, thank God for it. And thank those who do it
because the next day it might not be there. Marriage, hey,
you know how that works. Children, oh my gosh, that's
a one-way street sometimes. for a long time. But because of Christ, it was
a one-way street, and it's still a one-way street. Christ came
for us, He died for us, He rose for us, He lives for us. Let
us live for Him. Let's pray. Father, may You erase
the error that might have come from my mouth this morning. Would
You make it clear? that as I even debate presently
that implications must be guarded, guard my own. Father, do not let pride stand
in the way of truth and patience and love. We thank You for softening us.
We thank You for teaching us. We thank You for giving us caring
hearts that don't jump with emotion, but Lord that we arrest those
things that we might serve intentionally and actively, loving each other
as Christ loved. And even when we feel deeply
things that we don't even understand, Lord we are not bound to be controlled,
but we are free to live and to love and to express thankfulness because
of your grace. So as we take this table today,
Lord, I pray that we will be reminded of the humility of Christ
and knowing that we are able to stand bold before your throne
because of who he is and what he's done for us. In his name,
amen.