Humble Wisdom - Brendan Hurley - 28th June 2026

Well, if you can keep Proverbs 30 open in front

of you, that'd be really helpful. Let me pray

and let's ask God for help as we look at His

Word now. Gracious Heavenly Father, Your Word

tells us that there are those who are pure in

their own eyes and yet are not cleansed of their

filth. That there are those who are wise in their

own eyes. Please Father help us not to be like

that. Please humble us today as we listen to

your word and teach us how crucial and important

humility truly is. And we ask this in Jesus name.

Amen. Well years ago I came across the most fascinating

book. You know there's sometimes you find a book

that's You know, not just insightful, but it's

really well written. It's nice when you get that

rare combination of both, isn't it? And so I

came across this book. You might have heard of

it. It's called Good to Great by Jim Collins.

It's a book about empirical research, which I

know straight away turns a lot of people off

when you hear the words empirical research, but

it's actually really well written. It's a book

about exceptional businesses. So what Jim Collins

and his team did was they got together and they

looked at some businesses that vastly outperformed

other businesses and tried to work out what did

these businesses that vastly outperformed the

other ones have in common. These were the great

ones. Why were these ones great and just the

other ones good? They looked at businesses like

Gillette, Nacor Steel, Fannie Mae and others.

And after all this research and thinking that

they did, they came with seven principles. Some

of them were these businesses confronted the

brutal facts but still wouldn't lose hope. Some

of these businesses were very big on who then

what. They'd go, let's work out who's driving

the bus before we work out where to go. They

had a thing called a hedgehog concept, a big

sort of hairy, audacious goal. They'd use new

technology to accelerate what they were doing.

But one of the things that stuck with me in this

book, more than the rest actually, was when they

talked about level five leaders. These were the

best CEOs. And they were saying in this book

that the best CEOs were not the ... overflowing

with charisma types like you'd expect. They were

the ones who blended strong convictions with

deep humility. These were the leaders that were

great. And it's not what you'd expect. We think

greatness is that larger -than -life kind of

guy, the one who's got all the answers, who can

sell ice to Eskimos, who breaks all the norms.

But they found that the greatest businesses and

the greatest leaders were the ones who had unwavering

conviction blended with humility. Now Good to

Great is not a Christian book, but it's tapping

into something that the Bible is on about. It's

there trying to show that humility is incredibly

powerful and wise. So, what does it look like

to be humble? Is humility really the wisest path?

I mean, in our culture, humility is often overlooked,

isn't it? The big and the brash, they tend to

get ahead. That's how it seems to be. And the

humble, well, they tend to be the ones who get

hamstrung. Who needs humility? Well, Proverbs

30 reminds us that we do. Whether we're leaders,

whoever we are, we all need humility. Proverbs

30 is trying to show us what humility looks like.

Here's what it looks like. Listen humbly to God's

voice, live humbly in God's world, and learn

humbly from God's order. That's what humility

is about listen humbly to God's voice live humbly

in God's world and learn humbly from God's order

and There's one big thing that ties these three

things together that we're going to see today

Jesus humbled himself to save us from our self

exalting folly So that's what we're going to

look at today. So let's start with the first

thing that Proverbs 30 teaches us about humility

Listen humbly to God's voice. If you got prose

30 there, come with me to verses 1 to 6. It says,

the sayings of Agur son of Jakar and inspired

utterance, this man's utterance to Ithiel. I

am weary God, but I can prevail. Surely I am

only a brute, not a man. I do not have human

understanding. I have not learned wisdom, nor

have I attained to the knowledge of the Holy

One. Who has gone up to heaven and come down?

Whose hands have gathered up the wind? Who has

wrapped up the waters in a cloak? Who has established

all the ends of the earth? What is His name?

And what is the name of His Son? Surely you know.

Every word of God is flawless. He is a shield

to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to

his words or he will rebuke you and prove you

a liar. These verses are reminding us to listen

humbly to God's voice. Actually, it reminds me

of Dirty Harry. You remember Clint Eastwood's

Dirty Harry? A man's got to know his limitations.

That's what this is trying to tell us. One of

our limitations is we can't know as God knows.

He says here that he's weary and brutish because

he's feeling the limitations of human reason.

But he says he will prevail at the start because

he's able to listen to God's Word. And it lands

on that idea that God's Word is perfect and protective

because no one is like God. No one speaks like

God. And so, His word should be heeded and not

added to. And it takes humility to do that. Imagine

going to the Louvre at night with paint and paintbrush.

Because you're there and you're going, well,

I saw this painting Mona Lisa, and it just, it's

a bit subpar. And you're thinking, I'll go there

and I'm gonna just jazz it up a bit, I'm gonna

put some disco lights in the background, give

her a proper smile, it'll make it really good.

That'd be absurd, wouldn't it? Adding to the

Mona Lisa would be very damaging, and not just

to the Mona Lisa, but for your bank account too.

Adding is subtracting sometimes, isn't it? What

you should do is if you ever go to the Louvre

is admire the Mona Lisa, learn from it, be inspired

by it, let it move you. To add to it would be

a disaster. Well, God's Word is like that. It's

perfect and powerful as it is. It doesn't need

changing. It needs to be taken in, absorbed and

admired. We need to be humble before it. Now

there's a balance here that we need to get right.

We don't want to be cultish. We don't want to

say that there's no place for human reason. That

would be silly, wouldn't it? And even Proverbs

has actually Egyptian wisdom literature included

in it. So we know that there is great wisdom

to be gleaned from the world around us. The Bible

doesn't tell me about what to do when my head

gasket blows. My mechanic does that. You know,

it's good to go get wisdom from others. It's

not a bad thing. But there is a recognition here

that the scriptures are something else. They

are God speaking. And therefore we need to humbly

listen to them. I mean, have you ever thought

about when you're reading your Bible, It's just

the same as if you were there on Mount Sinai

like Moses listening to God speak audibly. It's

no different. The Bible is just as much God's

Word as it is when you stand on Mount Sinai hearing

God speak. We need to humbly listen to it. But

this highlights also the great error of Roman

Catholicism and some forms of charismatic theology.

Because in Roman Catholicism, what they do is

they say the Pope is equal to God's Word. He

gets to interpret God's Word, which really is

saying it's on the same level, isn't it? Well,

that to me, that's adding to God's Word, isn't

it? It's not a good place to be. And some charismatic

theology, it's about, oh, I've had a prophecy,

I've had a word from the Lord. Well, I mean,

that's something we've got to be very careful

with. Maybe you did, maybe you didn't. How do

you know it's actually from God? How do you know

it wasn't just the cheese that you ate last night?

I mean, I'm not trying to be too silly, but I'm

saying it is tricky, right? How do you know that

it's not the voice of the evil one? So we've

got to be careful. Are we adding to God's Word?

I mean, I think that's to go around saying God

spoke to me when he didn't is actually misrepresenting

God in a big way, isn't it? So there's some real

dangers there that we've got to be careful of.

But for us, if we want to be humble and wise,

we need to be teachable. I mean, this can be

the era that we fall into in our tribe is that

we don't let the Bible push us and unsettle us.

We can easily get into a point where we think

we know it all, don't we? That's equally a danger,

isn't it? So we need to keep letting the Bible

challenge us. That's the humble approach. You

might be thinking, well Brendan, what's that

look like? Well, if something in the Bible seems

wrong to you, it looks like this. You come across,

you're reading your Bible, something, you go,

that seems wrong. It might be really uncomfortable

and unsettling. It could be something like, hell

is real, or homosexuality is a sin, or whatever

it might be. You know, the genocides in the Old

Testament, something like that. And it's so easy

to go, okay, the Bible must be wrong here. That's

not how we should think. If something in the

Bible seems wrong to you, here's the humble approach.

You think, either I've interpreted this wrong,

or I'm wrong and I need to change. And I tell

you what, if you've been reading the Bible for

a long time, you'll see, you'll know, you'll

agree with me that the Bible is right. It is

perfect and flawless. It is powerful to protect

us. If you haven't been reading the Bible for

a while and you're saying, Brennan, that sounds

a bit crazy, can I encourage you to go read it?

Sit down and read one of the Gospels, Matthew,

Mark, Luke or John. Check it out for yourself.

See how powerful the Bible is. It's unlike anything

else. And that's why we need to humbly listen

to it. But humility is not just about listening.

It's also about living. And here's the second

thing we need to see from Proverbs 30. Secondly,

we live humbly in God's world. Have a look with

me at verses seven to nine. Otherwise I may have

too much and disown you and say, who is the Lord?

Or I may become poor and steal and so dishonour

the name of my God. Now in this section, it's

warning us about a wrong way to live, a distorted,

arrogant way to live. And it starts with a prayer

about two things. A petition for honesty. and

humble provision from God. So he's saying living

by deception, a lot of people think that's the

way to get ahead in the world, that's the wise

way. He's saying no, it's actually harmful because

getting ahead is not everything. And then he

goes on to say that really what we should be

thinking is that we need a balance in life. We

need to ask God to provide not too much and not

too little. because either has the potential

to damage our relationship with God, either will

become self -sufficient and dishonour God, think

it's all about me and myself and be arrogant,

or will go steal and dishonour God. And so he's

trying to walk this fine line. He's saying there's

a balance to life. It's a bit like packing on

a trip. The other day I went to Sydney for my

uncle's funeral. And, you know, now you've got

all these baggage limits. They seem to just go

a bit smaller every couple of years, don't they?

So, you know, I'm there and I'm trying to not

overpack. So I don't want to get, you know, half

my wardrobe in there and get all the heavy and

bulky things that'll exceed the baggage limits.

So that wouldn't be good. But I don't want to

underpack. because I don't want everyone to put

up with my smell from the unwashed clothes that

I'm wearing for the third time. You know, you're

trying to get the balance right. Packing well

means getting the balance right. And life is

like that. I mean, if this life is all there

is, it makes sense to hoard, doesn't it? I mean,

that's the most logical wise thing. If there

is no God and we all die and that's it and you're

just grey matter twitching, well then, hey, he

who dies with the most toys wins. But if there

is more to life, if there is a God who reigns

over everything, who loves us, who sent his son

to die for us, if there is eternity, well then...

We need to be wise in how we balance things.

This life is temporary. It's a trip to glory,

isn't it? And we need to pack right. We don't

want to overpack now. We don't want to underpack.

We want to make sure we get there to eternity.

That's the key. Now, I reckon this is a real

blind spot for us who live in the West. Are we

guarding ourselves against the dangers of lack

and excess? I mean, I think we all see the real

danger of lack, whether it's money or relationships

or whatever it might be. We go, lack is a bad

thing. We don't want to be missing out. And this

is pointing out the wisdom of that. You know,

we don't want to be lacking and then stop trusting

God and do things that dishonour him. But there

is also a danger of excess. That if you get way

more than you need, it can go to your head. And

you can forget God and stop thinking that you

need him. You know, you could imagine two people

and they're opening their mail. The person with

lack, they open another bill and they're there

and they're freaking out. How do I pay it? and

they come up with some way, some dodgy way to

take or do something wrong, that's dishonouring

to God. But it's just as much a danger for the

person who's there opening their mouth to find

out that their great aunt or something has given

them a large inheritance. And that, yeah, their

life's so much different now. There's a great

danger in that too, isn't there? Because both

lack and excess can threaten humility and threaten

our relationship with God. And so what does Proverbs

30 tell us to do? It tells us to pray. Pray we'd

live humble and content lives. Is that your prayer?

I was reflecting on this and I thought, it's

funny, we pray for so many things, don't we?

But we so often forget to pray for the state

of our hearts. It's easy to have our list of

things. Yes, God, I want that. Please do that.

Please deal with that. But where's the prayer

for humility and contentment? It's a great challenge,

isn't it? I feel challenged by it. To pray more

for humility and contentment. But thirdly, Proverbs

30 wants to tell us that we also need to do one

more thing. We need to learn humbly from God's

order. We need to learn humbly from God's order.

If you got your Bible there, come with me to

verses 15 to 23. It says, the leech has two daughters.

Give, give, they cry. There are three things

that are never satisfied four that never say

enough. The grave, the barren womb, land which

is never satisfied with water, and fire which

never says enough. The eye that mocks a father

that scorns an aged mother will be pecked out

by the ravens of the valley will be eaten by

the vultures. There are three things that are

too amazing for me. Four that I do not understand,

the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a

snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high

seas, and the way of a man with a young woman.

And this is the way of an adulterous woman. She

eats and wipes her mouth and says, I've done

nothing wrong. And we could go on there. But

here we have a bunch of numeric proverbs. They've

got a pattern of three and then four. Did you

see that there? There's these patterns of three

and then four. And they're trying to teach us

about the limits and boundaries of God's order

in creation. And the trick is to try and work

out what the three and four things have in common.

So verses 15 to 16, they're things that always

want more, they're never satisfied. And that

this is the nature of things. We live in a world

where these things are never satisfied. They're

always going to want more. In verses 18 to 20,

it's about effortless beauty. And you then get

the adulteress in verse, at the end there, she

corrupts that. She's the opposite of that, the

way of a man with a young woman. And she's there

saying, I've done nothing wrong. Or then in verses

21 to 23, it's the normal order gets broken and

things are not good. In verses 24 to 28, it's

things that are wee but wise. In verses 29 to

31, it's those that have a confident stride,

that they feel very secure. And then the conclusion.

In verses 32 to 33 is this, if you play the fool

and exalt yourself or if you plan evil, clap

your hand over your mouth. For as churning cream

produces butter and as twisting the nose produces

blood, so stirring up anger produces strife.

It's saying life has an order and it's important

that we humbly accept and respect that order.

We don't exalt ourselves and constantly have

endless ambition that we don't fight about everything

and try and keep climbing over everyone, but

that we humbly accept and be content with the

way that God has arranged things. Think of it

a bit like a playground. When we used to live

in Broken Hill, there was a great playground

called Sturt Park. Now, as a parent of five kids,

what makes a great playground? I can tell you.

A fence. A big fence so that the kids are contained

and they're safe. And hey, all the other stuff

is good too. You need the slides and the swings

and all the other things, but the fence, the

boundaries, the limits, that's a good thing.

And they had a safe time. They loved Sturt Park.

They had a flying fox as well. That was a good

thing too. But it was great because they could

enjoy themselves, but there was no risk of ...

them getting out onto the road or anything. But

I remember a church I worked at back in Geraldton,

they had no fence and every Sunday was so stressful

because kids would play out on the grass and

there was no fence and the kids could easily

run out onto the car park and even the road.

Actually, about 30 years before we started working

there, one kid actually did that and got hit

by a car. It was tragic. And it kept reminding

me, and we actually got a fence put in eventually,

which was good, but it reminded me just how important

boundaries and limits are. That we can actually

flourish and thrive when there are good boundaries

and limits in place. That there is an order to

things that boundaries and limits provide. I

mean, you can't have a good game of footy without

boundaries and limits, can you? Because no one

knows when the ball's gone out or anything like

that. Well, it's the same with life. This is

showing us that eroticism is bounded to marriage.

It's showing us that there's a hierarchy which

is a boundary for society. That there is all

sorts of things that create good order. And understanding

and accepting how the world works is humble and

wise. And this is a challenge to us because so

much of our modern society is built on hubris.

And on the assumption that we need to deconstruct

everything. That we need to remove boundaries

and hierarchies that existed for millennia because

they're damaging us all. And somehow, hey, you

know, today we're just so smart, we know better

than everybody. And don't mishear me, sometimes

it is a really good thing. Sometimes there are

things that need to be changed. challenge, there

are good innovations. But I think often what

we tend to do is use a hacksaw instead of a scalpel.

We tend to throw the baby out with the bathwater,

don't we? And when as a society or as individuals

we do that, we end up creating chaos, disorder

and anarchy instead of progress. This is a healthy

reminder that restrictions in boundaries and

limits can be good for us. I mean, think of the

sexual revolution. There was probably some really

unhealthy repression that needed to be challenged

there. But they threw the baby out with the bathwater,

didn't they? And it led to all sorts of hurt

and problems as a society. Feminism has done

some fantastic good. But sadly it seems like

it's gone from women can do anything to women

must do everything. That's really unfair on women.

There's a utilitarian ethic that just exists

in our society today that we need to be careful

of. That we know better and we'll work it out.

But again, it's built on arrogance, isn't it?

This is a great reminder that we need to be discerning

about things that have lasted for a while and

we need to try and work out what is the good

order that God has made and go that there is

some beautiful things there that actually things

that can feel restrictive may not be. They may

be the perfect environment. thriving and flourishing.

It's not that we accept everything but we need

to be wise and thoughtful and humble most of

all. So Proverbs presents a beautiful ideal of

humility yet none of us live up to this ideal

because all of us struggle to see this kind of

humility as wise. We want to throw off the shackles.

We want to be free. We want to do our own thing.

And so listen humbly to God's voice. Well, often

we read the Bible and it's easy to think we know

better, or we add to it, or we just don't absorb

it and treat it as God's word. And that's the

heart of sin, isn't it? Is to not listen humbly

to God and treat him as God. What a live humbly

in God's world. We don't trust God as we should.

We keep trying to keep up with the Joneses. Trying

to get more and more and more. Or we don't learn

humbly from God's order. We see the order that

exists as a straight jacket. Rather than trying

to understand how it truly works. Trying to understand

the balance and the harmony. Yes, being discerning.

Yes, seeing that some things need to change.

But realising that God has built the world in

a good way. and that we want to go back to how

he has made everything. But Jesus, he did meet

that ideal. We don't, but he did. He embodied

humility. He was humility personified. He listened

humbly to God's voice. He cherished God's word.

Where the Pharisees and religious heavies of

Jesus' day were adding to it and making rule

upon rule upon rule, Jesus humbly listened to

the Bible. He so humbly listened to God's word

that he even went and died on a cross. And he

lived humbly in God's world. He wasn't self -indulgent.

He wasn't a thief or a liar. He trusted God to

provide and he enjoyed and shared what he had

with others. And he learnt humbly from God's

order. He understood the created order. So he

didn't overthrow society. He didn't revolt and

rebel against everything in his day. But he went

around and changed lives. Humbly, caringly, wisely.

And because Jesus was like this, It led to him

going to the cross. But why? Why leave heaven

to be humble and humiliated? Why do that giant

bungee jump going all the way down to the cross?

Well, it's so that he could spring back up again

in glory. But not only that. It was so that he

could save us and serve us. Remember what we

said the big idea of today was? Jesus humbled

himself to save us from our self -exalting folly.

He was like a bodyguard. You know how a bodyguard

jumps out and dives in front and takes a bullet?

Well a good bodyguard does anyway. Well that's

what Jesus did for us at the cross. He humbly

leapt in front of us so that we could be saved

from our folly. So what's this mean for us? Well,

if you're not yet a Christian, can I suggest

you leave today taking a humble response? We've

got up the back for free. You can grab one of

these. They're Mark's Gospel. Grab one of Mark's

Gospel and have a read of it and I'd encourage

you to humbly read it. Look at it, check it out,

see if Jesus is as humble and awesome as what

I'm claiming today. If you've got questions,

you know, scribble them in the margins or get

a notepad and write all your questions down and

come and have a coffee with me. I'd love to have

a coffee with you and talk about what you found

in Mark's Gospel about Jesus and answer any questions

you might have. But if you're here today and

you're a Christian, I want to remind you because

we're saved, we need to strive to be humble.

Jesus saved us from our self -exalting folly.

It's not a good place to be. And so what's it

mean for us to be humble? Well, we've looked

at that today. It's to get deep into God's Word,

isn't it? It's to read, think and pray on God's

Word. And that's what we do at a church on a

Sunday. It's something we need to be doing individually.

It's something we do as well in a growth group

or a one -to -one. So please make sure you're

someone who's deep into God's Word, letting it

teach you and change you and move you. But also

we need to be people who pray for balance. Neither

poverty nor riches. That we'd be content and

generous and honest. And that we'd be people

who don't just jump on the latest bandwagon of

ideology or social norm. That we let God's Word

and our observations help us critique traditions

and movements. So that we can see what God's

order is and how to live in a way that is honoring

and pleasing to him and good for us Let me ask

you will you be teachable thoughtful and not

letting your ego run your life When I read good

to great it surprised me that humility was such

a powerful and effective aspect of great leaders.

But it shouldn't have. Because you can't be wise

without humility, can you? Not just leaders,

but anyone. It's an essential part of wisdom,

is that we be humble. So will you walk the path

of humility? Will you seek to be humble too?

Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you

so much that you sent Jesus to save us from our

self -exalting folly. And please, Father, help

us to be people who humbly receive His salvation,

who humbly receive Your Word implanted in us,

who humbly live a contented life, trusting you

to provide, who humbly respect and accept your

order for the world. Please, Father, give us

wisdom and help us to rejoice in you always.

And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.