2017 The year to forget ... yourself

morning. It's good to be in church with you this morning. I'm not sure if you're one of those

people who sets New Year's resolutions, but the top 10 New Year's resolutions for 2017

are improve fitness, eat better, quit smoking, quit drinking, learn something new, travel more,

volunteer, meet someone that is like a partner, sleep more, and get out of debt.

And as of this morning, a New Year's resolution for me is to check with Sam what he's wearing

for church on Sunday. Couple dressing is not appropriate, in my opinion, at any time,

let alone if it's one of your work colleagues. Another goal for me for the next couple of years

is in fact to run the city to surf before I turn 50 and to do it in personal best time.

Given that I've never run it before, I should be able to hit the second goal, providing I get the

first goal. And so far it's going okay. I've been seeing a physio, an exercise physiologist,

and a masseur to deal with the injuries that I've already created in my body.

I was doing a little bit of reading on New Year's resolutions, and one of the articles that I read

said this, the New Year is when you think about the past and most importantly, reflect on how you

can improve yourself for the upcoming year. Self-improvement, or at least the desire for it,

is a goal shared by all Australians, which is why so many of us make New Year's resolutions in the

first place. Unfortunately, only a fraction of us keep to our resolution, which experts estimate

only about 8% commit to the very end. 8%. There is something in all of us that loves this

idea of a fresh start, improve things that we don't like about ourselves. And I'm certainly

committed to those things myself. I want to change. I want to grow. I cannot compute with an individual

who's settled and comfortable. I want to see change and transformation. I think that that is,

in fact, one of the key elements about the journey of the Christian life. Even as we've sung this

morning, oh, for a closer walk with my God. That is, I desire to change from where I am at the moment.

What is intriguing about today's passage is that it gives us a way of seeing ourselves and how we

change that is absolutely, totally different than traditional cultures or even contemporary Western

culture. See, up until the 20th century, traditional cultures believed that a too high a view of yourself

was the main reason that you had personal problems and the reason why there was so much evil between

people. The Greek word for it was hubris or is hubris. It's an excessive pride. It's an arrogance.

It's an overconfidence of yourself. And so in our modern culture, we have developed a total opposite

cultural consensus. Our belief today, which is deeply embedded into everything in our culture,

is that people feel bad about themselves and do bad things to other people because of low self-esteem,

not high self-esteem. Low self-esteem is the reason why there is drug addiction and domestic violence

and our jails are full and so on and so forth. It's an attractive theory because you don't have to

make any form of moral judgment on another individual in order to deal, or society, in order to deal with

society's problems. All you have to do is put people on a path of self-improvement. That's how you fix

society's problems, which is why our prison system aren't called prison system. It's called a

corrective services. So in the most part, we believe that we can correct people. There's a bunch we don't

think we can correct and so they never get released, but some others we think we believe that we can

correct people, put them on a path of self-improvement. On the other hand, the way you dealt with these

problems in traditional society is that you would clamp down on people, you'd convict them and call them

really bad, nasty people. You'd make a judgment on them. And so do we fix our issues and the ones that

we have between people and the ones we have between nations by everyone having a higher view of

themselves or everyone having a lower view of themselves? That is, by high self-esteem or low self-esteem?

1 Corinthians gives us an approach to the way of seeing ourselves that is absolutely different

than both the traditional and the contemporary way. A way to see ourselves in 1 Corinthians is,

in fact, to forget ourselves, which is why I've titled this sermon, 2017, The Year to Forget Yourself.

It's, I've got the title of it from Tim Keller's little book, which is where I get most of my ideas

from in this book, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness. The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness. So maybe 2017

would be the year to find true freedom, freedom by forgetting yourself. The Corinthian church was full of

divisions. Different people had connections with different prominent leaders. One person was

mentored and discipled by the apostle Paul. Another was mentored and discipled by another leader in the

church, like Apollos, for instance. And these relationships became the basis of power plays

between groups within the church. Paul shows that the real core issue is pride.

It's boasting. Chapter 3, verse 21 starts off with, no more boasting. That's the very first

verse that Sam read. And then in chapter 4, verse 7, it says, why do you boast? And in chapter 3,

verse 6, he urges them not to take pride in one man over against another. Verse 6 gives us a glimpse

into the natural condition of the human ego. The word Paul uses here for pride is an unusual word.

It's not hubris. The word literally means to be overinflated, to be swollen, to be beyond its proper

size. And so what he does in using this word, he invokes a painful image of an organ in the human body

that is bloated because so much air has been pumped into it. It's swollen, it's inflamed, and it's ready to burst.

That is the natural human condition.

And he uses that word about seven times in the New Testament to refer to the natural human condition.

The ego is empty. It's full of air. The ego is puffed up and overinflated and there's nothing in the middle of it.

So spiritual pride is the illusion that we are competent to run our own lives, to achieve our own sense of self-worth,

and to find a purpose that's big enough to give us meaning in life without God.

And it can't do it. And so the ego is painful.

We do not notice our body. I don't know if you've noticed this,

but you don't notice your body until there's something wrong with it.

I never knew that I had a hip flex until it started to play up and started to cost me money to fix.

It would be pretty rare for us to think how, you know, I walked down into Chatswood yesterday,

and I was walking down there. I wasn't thinking how brilliantly my elbows are working today.

There's just no problems there at all. I didn't even think about my elbows.

Until, unless of course there was something previously wrong with my elbows,

or something became a problem with my elbows.

Parts of our body draw attention to themselves if there is something wrong with them.

And the ego often hurts because there is something unbelievably wrong with our ego.

It is always making us think about how we look and how we're treated.

It is very hard to get through a whole day without feeling snubbed, ignored, feeling stupid,

getting down on ourselves, thinking about how someone else has done it to us in the past.

That's because there is something incredibly wrong with our egos.

There is something wrong with our sense of self.

Therefore, the ego is busy trying to feel the emptiness, to deal with the pain.

It's busy comparing and boasting.

There's no full stop.

In verse 6, there's no full stop after the word pride.

It says,

And that's the very essence of the human ego.

It tries to feel its emptiness, to deal with its pain by comparing itself with other people.

In his chapter on pride in mere Christianity,

C.S. Lewis points out that pride is by its nature competitive.

Pride, he says, gets no pleasure out of having something,

only out of having more of it than the next person.

It's competitive.

In other words, we are only proud of being more successful, more intelligent,

more good-looking than the person that we're hanging with,

which is why we tend to hang with people who make us feel good.

In other words, that means they're people who are lower than us.

When we are in the presence of someone who is more successful,

more intelligent, more good-looking,

then we lose all pleasure in what we had.

That's because we really had no pleasure in it at all.

We were proud of it.

We were proud of it.

Which means the ego is always fragile.

It's like a balloon full of air, ready to pop at any moment.

Anything that's over-inflated is in imminent danger of being deflated.

Painful, empty, busy, fragile.

That's the normal state of the human self.

Paul wants the Corinthian church and us gathered here today to know the difference that Jesus makes

and how the Christian gospel transformed things for him and how they could do it for us too.

In verses 3 and 4, Paul shows them how the Christian gospel has transformed his sense of self-worth.

He says,

The word translated judged here is the same meaning as the word verdict.

It's referring to that elusive stamp of approval that we all crave.

We all crave that elusive stamp of approval.

And Paul does not look to the Corinthians or to any human court for the verdict that he is a somebody.

It's as if he says here,

I don't care what you think.

I don't care what anyone thinks.

Paul's self-worth, his identity is not tied up with other people's evaluation of him.

Now that doesn't seem terribly unusual, does it?

Really.

Most parents would say to their child at some point,

especially when that child is having problems with other kids or other people,

we would say to them,

It doesn't matter what your friends think of you.

You hear yourself saying that, parents?

It doesn't matter what your friends think of you.

In our modern world,

there seems to be only one answer for the issue of low self-esteem,

and that is fix it with high self-esteem.

We tell someone that they need to see that they're a great person.

We need to help them to see that they are wonderful,

who they are.

We tell them that they need to set their own standards

and accomplish their own standards

and then make their own evaluation of themselves.

Paul's approach could not be more radically different.

He cares very little if he's judged by the Corinthians or any human court,

but he says he will not even judge himself.

It's as if he's saying,

I don't care what your opinion of me is,

but then again, I don't care what my opinion of me is.

That's radically different.

I have a low opinion of your opinion of me,

and I have a low opinion of my opinion of me.

I don't care what I think either.

He says that about his own opinion,

even though he declares himself in this passage

of having a clear conscience.

Look at verse 4.

He says,

My conscience is clear,

but that does not make me innocent.

He knows that even if he does have a clear conscience,

that doesn't necessarily mean he's innocent.

You know, Hitler may well have had a clear conscience.

It doesn't make him innocent.

And I'm pretty confident that Paul would say

that it is a trap for us as we do today

in the modern Western society

set your own standards.

Pretty sure Paul would say that's a trap.

That's not the answer.

You see, we feel rotten

when we can't meet our parents' expectations

or our friends' expectations.

We feel rotten

when we can't meet society's expectations.

And so the answer in the individualistic West

is to boost your self-esteem

by setting your own standards.

And it can't deliver either.

We can't keep it around.

Only 8% of people

follow through with their new year's resolutions.

So maybe the answer then is to set incredibly low standards.

And then we feel rotten

because we know we're someone

who's set incredibly low standards.

Boosting our self-esteem

by trying to live up to our own standards

or someone else's standards

is in fact a trap.

But Paul does not look to the Corinthians

for the verdict that he is a somebody

but he also does not get it from himself.

And so now we start to discover

where Paul finds that sense of self

and he moves into territory

that is...

we frankly don't know anything about.

Paul was a man of incredible stature.

I'd be happy to argue

that he is one of the most influential people

in history.

Given that he wrote

one third of the New Testament

and something like

two billion people in this world

say that they're followers of Jesus.

I'd make that make Paul pretty influential.

And yet in 1 Timothy

he says Christ Jesus came into the world

to save sinners of whom

I am the worst.

Not I was the worst

of whom I am the worst.

We're not used to someone

who has incredible poise

and confidence

volunteering

to give us that kind of an opinion

of themselves.

Someone who is totally honest

and aware of all sorts of moral flaws

and yet who has incredible poise

and confidence.

When he says that he does not let

the Corinthians judge him

nor does he judge himself

what he's saying there

he says that he knows

about his sins

he knows about his flaws

he knows about his failures

but he does not connect

those things to his sense

of worth and identity and self.

He does not see sin

and let it destroy

his sense of self.

Neither does he see

an accomplishment

and congratulate himself.

He sees all kinds of sins

in himself

and all kinds of accomplishments

in himself

but he refuses to connect

those to who he is

his identity

his sense of worth.

Worth.

And what Paul is saying here

is something that's terribly astounding.

He's saying that his ego

ego is not puffed up

it is filled up.

Not puffed up

it's filled up.

It's like he has reached a place

where his ego draws

no more attention to itself

than any other part

of his body.

It's not constantly hurting.

When he does something wrong

or something good

he does not connect it

to his sense of worth.

C.S. Lewis

in Me Christianity

makes a brilliant observation

about gospel humility

at the very end

of his chapter on pride.

He says

if we were to meet

a truly humble person

we would never come away

from that meeting

thinking

that they were humble.

They would not be telling us

about

that they were a nobody

a humble person

would not be telling us

that they were a nobody

because a person

who keeps saying

that they were a nobody

is a self-obsessed person.

The person with low self-esteem

is just as self-obsessed

as a person with high self-esteem.

The thing that we would remember

for that meeting

Lewis says

is how much

they seem to be

totally interested in us

and how happy

and at peace

they are

with themselves.

You see

the essence

of Christian humility

is not thinking

more

of myself

or thinking

less

of myself

it's thinking

of myself

less.

Thinking

of myself

less.

It means

I stop connecting

every experience

and every conversation

and every interaction

with another individual

to me.

It's somehow

a reflection

on me.

It's the freedom

of self-forgetfulness.

It's the ego

that's not puffed up

it's the ego

which is

filled up.

It's not high self-esteem

it's not low self-esteem

it's not even about

self-esteem.

A truly

gospel

humble

person

is not

a self-hating

person

nor a

self-loving

person

they are

a self-forgetful

person.

An example

of what this

might look like

for instance

the self-forgetful

person

would never

be devastated

by criticism.

A person

who's devastated

by criticism

is putting

too much value

on someone

else's opinion.

Our society

tells the person

who is thin-skinned

and devastated

by criticism

to deal

with it

by saying

to themselves

who cares

what other

people think?

People are

either devastated

by criticism

on the one

hand

or they are

not devastated

by criticism

because they

do not listen

to it

which is the

opposite problem.

They will not

listen to it

or learn from it

because they

don't care

what other

people think.

In other

words,

our only

solution

to low

self-esteem

is pride

and arrogance.

The person

who is

self-forgetful

is the

complete

opposite.

When someone

whose ego

is filled

up

gets criticized,

they're not

devastated.

They can

hear it.

They can

see it

as an

opportunity

to change.

As we

launch

into 2017,

don't you

want to

be like

that?

Wouldn't

you want

to be a

person who

does not

need

honor,

nor be

afraid of

honor?

Don't you

want to be

a person

who does

not last

for recognition,

nor on the

other hand

to be frightened

to death

of recognition?

Don't you

want to be

a kind of

person who

does not

admire what

they see

in the

mirror,

but also

doesn't cringe

at what

they see

in the

mirror?

Wouldn't

you like

to be the

type of

person who

in your

imaginary

life does

not sit

around daydreaming

about the

successes that

would give

them the

edge over

other people?

If only I

did this,

I could

finally beat

my brother.

Or perhaps

you tend to

beat yourself

up and to

be tormented

by regrets.

wouldn't

you like

to be free

from that?

Wouldn't

you like

to be the

athlete who

wins the

bronze and

he's so

thrilled to

celebrate the

gold medal

winner because

you just

happen to be

there when

they did

this brilliant

run and

you experienced

it?

Don't you

want to be

free to do

that?

This is a

possibility for

you and for

me if we

keep on going

where Paul is

going here.

we can

start to

enjoy things

that are

not about

me.

That is my

work's not

about me,

my sport's not

about me,

my siblings are

not about me,

my friendships

are not about

me.

You can

actually enjoy

things for

what they

are.

That is they

don't exist to

fill my ego,

to puff up

my ego.

Don't you

want to be

like that?

this is

gospel humility

because it's

the place of

blessed self

forgetfulness and

peace and rest.

Our society

doesn't know

what category

to put this

stuff in.

Simply just

thinking of

myself less.

It's the key

to people

like us

getting on

and solving

differences and

treating each

other as we

ought to be

treating each

other.

So Paul

tells us

how he

got to

this place

of self

forgetfulness.

He says

my conscience

is clear

but that

does not

make me

innocent.

The word

translated

innocent

comes from

the word

justify.

It's the

same word

he uses

right throughout

Romans,

right throughout

Galatians.

Here Paul

is saying

that even

if his

conscience

is clear,

it does

not justify

him,

it does

not give

him that

stamp of

approval.

What Paul

is looking

for is what

we are all

looking for

and that

is that

ultimate

verdict.

That ultimate

verdict that

we are

important,

that we are

valuable.

We look for

that ultimate

verdict every

day in all

kinds of

situations

with everyone

around us.

every single

day,

every single

day,

every single

day,

every day,

we put

ourselves in

the courtroom,

so to

speak.

Notice what

Paul says,

he says,

I care very

little if I'm

judged by

you or

by any

human court

in verse

three.

And I

think he's

speaking

metaphorically

there,

I don't

think he's

actually in

a courtroom

on trial.

However,

the problem

of self-esteem,

whether it's

high or low,

is that

every single

day you're

on trial.

There's the

prosecution,

there's the

defense.

Everything we

do is

providing

evidence for

the prosecution

or the

defense.

Some days

we feel like

we're winning

the trial,

some days

we feel like

we're losing

it,

and Paul

says,

for me,

the trial's

over.

He's out

of the

courtroom

because the

ultimate

verdict is

in,

and he

knows that

the Corinthian

church can't

justify him.

He knows

that he

cannot justify

himself.

He says,

it's the

Lord who

judges him.

It is only

God's opinion

that counts.

It's only in

the gospel of

the Lord

Jesus that

Paul and

us get

the final

verdict,

the ultimate

verdict that we

all crave

for.

And

crucially,

it comes,

the final

ultimate

verdict comes

before the

performance.

Most get

their self-image

from being a

good person

and hope that

eventually they

will get a

verdict that

confirms that

they're a good

person.

That is,

my performance

leads to the

ultimate

verdict.

verdict.

All the

great religions

and philosophy

of the world

work like that.

Performance

leads to the

verdict.

Follow this

set of rules,

follow this

guidance,

this wisdom,

and you'll

get maybe

the verdict

that you're

looking for.

Every day

you're in the

courtroom hoping

the verdict

swings your way.

In Christianity

the verdict

leads to

performance.

In

Christianity

the moment

we believe

that God

says,

this is

my son

in whom

I am well

pleased.

Or Romans

8.1

Therefore

there is now

no condemnation

for those

who are in

Christ Jesus.

The moment

we trust

in Jesus

God

credits

Jesus'

perfect

performance

to us

as if it

was our

perfect

performance.

And he

adopts us

into his

family.

We get

the ultimate

verdict

of

approval.

God

can say

to us

just as

he once

said to

Jesus

you are

my son

whom I

love

with you

I am

well

pleased.

The

verdict

is in.

And now

we perform

on the

basis of

that

verdict.

Because

he loves

us and

accepts us

we don't

have to

do

things that

build up

my

reputation.

Free

now to

do

things

for the

joy of

doing

them.

Free

to actually

help

people in

order to

help

people.

And to

do it

with a

sense of

joy.

Not

because it

makes me

feel better

about

myself.

Not

because I've

got a

New Year's

resolution to

volunteer.

And

self-improve.

Not so

that I can

fill up the

emptiness

of a

consumeristic

culture.

In

Christianity

Jesus

Christ went

on trial

instead of

us.

Jesus

went to

the

courtroom.

It was

an unjust

trial.

It was

a kangaroo

court as

we say

in Australia

but he

did not

complain.

He faced

the trial

that should

be ours

so that we

do not

have to

face that

trial

anymore.

He took

the condemnation

that we

deserve for

our lack

of performance

to give

us his

perfect

performance.

performance.

And we

simply need

to ask

God to

accept us

because of

what Jesus

has done.

And when

you do,

the only

person whose

opinion counts

looks at

us and he

sees us as

being more

valuable,

of much

more worth

than all

the jewels

of the

world.

Now,

perhaps for

those of you

who are here

today,

some of you,

this is

totally new.

Can I say

don't let

this pass

you by?

This is

revolutionary.

2017,

make it the

year to forget

yourself and

to embrace

Jesus.

Set us a

New Year's

resolution.

Keep digging,

keep looking,

keep asking

questions.

There is so

much to

discover.

I've had

maybe 30

minutes on

this so far

and I have

covered a

whole bunch

of ground

in a really

short space

of time.

There are

lots of

pieces of

the jigsaws

to put

together.

Why did

Jesus have

to die?

Why did

he rise

from the

dead?

Is he

really the

son of

God?

Keep

looking until

you understand

the whole

picture and

you find this

place of

peace and

rest in

him.

Make this

a matter of

central importance

this year.

But maybe

you're in a

different position.

Maybe you

trust in

Jesus.

You might have

been trusting

in Jesus for

so many years

but every

day you're

finding yourself

just sucked

back again

and again

and again

into that

courtroom.

You do not

feel that you're

living like Paul

says here.

You're getting

sucked back in

and all I can

say is that

you have to

relive the

gospel

every day.

you have to

relive the

gospel every

time you

pray,

every time

you come to

church and

interact with

someone else,

every time

you feel

rejected,

every time

someone changes

something that

you had a

hand in

building or

creating,

forgetting

self and

remembering the

gospel is the

key to

treasuring

Jesus.

It's the key

for us as a

church to

embracing

diversity and

discomfort as a

church.

It's the key

to letting go

and finding

rest.

We have to

relive the

gospel in the

supermarket.

We have to

relive the

gospel when we're

doing the

dishes.

We have to

relive the

gospel when

we're raising

our kids.

We have to

relive the

gospel in our

marriages.

Everything.

Everything.

Asking myself,

am I constantly

being drawn back

into the

courtroom?

Where's my

identity?

Where's my

security?

Where's my

sense of

worth?

And like

Paul, we can

say, I don't

care what you

think.

I don't care

what I think.

I only care

what the Lord

thinks.

And he's the

one who says,

therefore, there

is now no

condemnation for

those who are in

Christ Jesus, and

you are my

beloved child.

With you, I am

well pleased.

Embrace Jesus and

all his work

more each

day this

year.

Make it the

year to

forget self.

Put self-forgetfulness

to the top of your

New Year's Eve

resolutions, or

forget New Year's

Eve, just make a New

Year's resolution.

And pray for the

help to remember

Jesus moment by

moment and what

he's achieved for

you.

relive the

gospel every time

you're in the

courtroom.

Amen.