Nothingness

We are still on the topic of the community of the spirit.

Wayne, am I good to go?

Am I loud enough?

And the battery is good, yeah.

So, today we talk about nothingness.

So here's how we start this, guys.

Any community that is forged by the spirit,

any community that is forged by the spirit

must cultivate, must cultivate humility as its garden soil.

You know, every time I walk on my balcony,

there's this old lady about three apartments away

who comes with her husband onto her balcony.

And man, it's a small balcony,

but they've created this amazing garden in that balcony.

And they'll sit there for hours,

mushing up the soil,

and I'll see them taking spoons and putting something into the soil.

And they make the soil the kind of soil that allows things to grow.

And so any community that is forged by the spirit

has to cultivate humility as its garden soil.

And so that's what we'll be talking about.

I mentioned some of these points about two years ago,

but it's time to go over them again.

Guys, here's the thing, guys.

If you're a community of the spirit,

one of the things we need to realize is that the spirit himself is humble.

In his very nature, the Holy Spirit is humble.

I mean, when you read John chapter 16,

John 16 · chapter mention

you'll see him saying stuff like Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit,

and he'll say things about the Holy Spirit like

the Holy Spirit will not speak on his own.

The Holy Spirit will only speak what he hears.

The Holy Spirit will not take from what is his,

but will take from what is mine.

The Holy Spirit will not glorify himself.

These are not strict orders given to the Holy Spirit,

saying you should not do this.

It's not like that. The Holy Spirit is God.

And yet, the Holy Spirit in his nature is humble.

Therefore, if the Holy Spirit in his nature is humble,

then a community that is forged or created by him

has to have humility as the garden soil in which everything grows.

So it's his very nature.

So just keep that in the back of your mind, that it's his very nature.

The Holy Spirit is humble.

And that's why when Jesus operates by the Spirit,

you can see why he walks humbly.

And it also shows us then that God is humble.

Because the Spirit is the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of Christ.

John 4.24 essentially says God is Spirit.

So the Father is humble.

All day that the Father is humble,

but not necessarily the community he has created.

In his very essence, the Spirit of God is humble.

So humility endears a man to God.

And what happens then is that the work of the Spirit accelerates in your life

when humility is your ground soil.

Hey, Heidi, can you just try plugging that plug-in again?

Because the fan went off.

Can you just?

Just try it again.

Thanks.

Wayne will handle that.

So humility endears a man to God

and accelerates the work of the Spirit in his life.

Just think of that, guys, for a second.

If humility is becoming first nature to you,

then the works of God will be accelerated faster in your life.

And if humility is not first nature to you,

then what will happen is the pride that encases us

will become resistant to the works of the Spirit.

So it's one or the other, eh?

Let me say that again.

Humility endears a man to God

and accelerates the work of the Spirit in his life.

Pride encases a man with armor

which is increasingly resistant to the works of the Spirit

or is increasingly resistant to anybody the Spirit sends to you.

This is why, can you see now why God said,

listen, I will give grace to the humble?

Guys, just think of what's being said here.

I will give grace to the humble.

I will give grace to the humble.

That's what the Bible says.

I will give grace to the humble.

Imagine these are speakers, eh? Not fans.

So here's the thing, guys.

We are sons of God, but we are often,

even though we are sons of God, we are children of pride.

Job 41.34 says that Leviathan, which is the Spirit,

is the ruler over the sons of pride.

Over the children of pride.

So it's possible for Jacob at once to be a son of God

and at the same time a child of pride.

It's possible.

What harmony can be there, guys?

So you say this is not you,

then here are the questions you need to ask yourself.

Is there self-centeredness?

My answer is yes.

I'm talking about myself.

Is there superiority?

My answer is yes.

Is there self-justification?

My answer is yes.

Is there self-promotion?

My answer is yes.

Is there self-preservation,

where I preserve myself and things around me first before anybody else?

Yes.

Is there envy?

Occasionally, yes.

Is there independence?

Oh, yeah.

So every now and then, on almost a daily basis,

I'm on both sides of the equation.

I'm a son of God, but often I'm a child of pride,

and pride begins to encase me.

And whenever pride encases me,

I'm resistant to the work of the Spirit.

Because it is humility that endears me to God

and allows the Spirit of God to work with me,

because God gives grace to the humble,

but he resists, as in stands up in battle against,

are they that God would do that?

Two places in the New Testament, 1 Peter 5, 5 and James 4,

two places God says, and in the Old Testament,

that I resist, as in I stand up and take a battle position against.

I resist you, Jacob, when you are pride,

but I give, as in pour out grace to the humble.

Which means when we talk about the community of the Spirit,

if you want the work of the Spirit to prosper in your life,

then it's required that I cultivate this quality called humility.

There's another interesting verse in James 3, 13,

it says, where envy and self-seeking exist,

confusion and every evil thing exists.

Where envy and self-seeking exist,

there is confusion and in some versions it says,

every demonic thing that exists.

So I'm hoping that we will be delivered from the Spirit,

because we are influenced by it to varying degrees,

and I'm praying that the sent word that is spoken today has the power,

it does have the power, but I pray that it will fall on meek hearts.

If you're sitting there with a proud heart, then it won't help you,

but if you're sitting here with a meek heart,

then the sent word can set you into a place where you don't have to labor under this.

So how do we resist the Spirit of pride,

or the Leviathan who is king over the children of pride as it says in Job 41, 34,

we resist the Spirit obviously by preferring humility,

by preferring humility,

and here's the first definition for humility,

nothingness, nothingness.

Humility in its essence is nothingness, nothingness.

1 Corinthians 4, 7 says this,

what do you have that you didn't receive?

What do you have that you didn't receive?

What do you have that you didn't receive?

Your ability to speak, oops, too bad, your tongue was given by God.

Your ability to hear, the air you breathe, the children you have, the dogs you have,

the cats you have, the shelter over your head.

What is it that you have that you did not receive?

What is it that you have that you did not receive?

And if you did receive everything, why do you Jacob, act as if you hadn't received it?

Why do you act as if you didn't receive it?

I mean if you ran an audit of my life,

would you discover in me anything that I could take credit for?

Anything.

Even when I do good, Philippians 3 says that God wills me and gives me the desire to do good.

So what is it that you, if you did an audit of me, could find that Jacob could take credit for?

Nothing, man.

There's not an iota of information that I know about the Canucks or that I know about aircrafts

that actually comes because I learned it myself.

I have a memory, I have a brain, who gave that?

There's nothing.

So isn't everything you have received a sheer gift from God?

And this is why Jesus said in John 5 19,

Assuredly I say to you, the son can do nothing by himself.

The son can do nothing by himself.

Guys, practice this.

Forget the word humility and begin to use the word nothingness.

This is the attitude man should have before God.

Nothingness.

Because once I have this attitude of nothingness, God can be all and do all.

Why?

Because we go back to what we've been saying for the last few weeks.

The flesh profits nothing.

The spirit gives life.

At the end of the day, guys,

nothingness, if I can begin to understand humility in terms of nothingness,

now God can be all and do all because this is the attitude that man should have before God.

This is why God could be all and do all through Jesus

because Jesus very clearly said, Assuredly I say to you, the son can do nothing for himself.

In a sense, guys, redemption is the restoration of humility.

As in, it brings us back to a place of entire dependence on God.

Redemption is the restoration of lost humility.

How did man lose his place in God? Pride.

How did Lucifer lose his place in God? Pride.

Why do people still find it difficult to accept Jesus? Pride.

So redemption is the restoration of lost humility where people are once again dependent on a savior.

You don't need a savior if you think you are self-made or able to do things on your own.

So let this attitude be now found in you, just as it was found in Christ.

So here are the basic equations. I possess nothing. I possess nothing.

I possess nothing. There is nothing I possess. Everything has been given to me.

So my car, my house, my wife, my children, my job, my bank account, my church, my this, my that.

It's the first thing a child learns. My toy, my mama, my papa, my house.

I possess nothing. I possess nothing.

I possess nothing. The second thing is what I presently have was not obtained but bestowed.

What I presently have was not obtained but bestowed.

It's so hard to think like this, guys. You know, it's fine to hear a sermon like this in a church

and nod saying, hmm, good point. But man, when you are out there on a daily basis to practice,

this is a whole different ballgame because every time it comes up, nothingness has to come in.

And thirdly, my nothingness must be filled.

See, here's where we are different from so many religions in the world.

In other religions, they love nothingness. So they'll go sit on the top of the Himalaya

or resign themselves to a monastery where they'll take a vow of silence and live in poverty.

And so to bring themselves to nothingness in many of the main religions of the world is a great thing.

But here's the difference, guys. With us, our nothingness must be filled.

And it must be filled with God. And it can be only filled with God through unceasing dependence.

This is a huge difference between us and the other religions.

All other religions talk about disowning things. Bede, what's his name? The guy from Tibet.

The Dalai Lama, a beat, a monk somewhere, a beat guru or whatever.

All of them keep talking about, oh, become nothing, become poor of everything. That's good.

But that ain't the end. Because we as humans were not meant to be nothings.

We are now supposed to come to a place where once you get to a place of nothingness,

your nothingness needs to be filled. And it must be filled with God.

And it can only be filled with God through unceasing dependence. Awesome God, man.

Marvelous master planner he is. That's how he works.

So guys, it also applies then that to the extent that I resist nothingness,

to the extent that I resist nothingness,

to the extent that I resist nothingness,

I am filled with substance not sourced from God,

but the flesh.

To the extent that I resist nothingness,

to that extent I am filled with substance not sourced from God, but from the flesh.

And we know from John 6 63, which we'll repeat throughout this year,

The flesh profits nothing. The spirit gives life.

My nothingness must be filled with God.

To the extent that I resist nothingness.

So every time Jacob thinks that his ability or his prowess or his caliber is something,

Jacob has some of God and some of his own flesh.

And because of that, what is produced won't be pure God.

It'll always be a mixture.

And others will get diarrhea if they eat it.

Because it's always mixed with Jacob's sweat.

And that ain't tasty.

Can't put it cruder than that.

Did anyone throw up? No.

Any questions before we go on?

Just on the side guys,

always remember loving kindness that we sang about today.

Try loving kindness on people.

And two, whenever you correct somebody,

make sure that kindness and honor are the framework that you use to correct somebody.

Because I can correct somebody and it can be solid correction.

But if honor and kindness are not there, the correction is seen as criticism and hardness.

So when honor and loving kindness are the framework you use to correct somebody,

it probably will have greater results.

So at least it will be received well.

What happens after that is a person's choice.

That's just on the side.

Okay, let's go on to the next thing.

Next definition.

Humility is not devaluation.

Humility is not devaluation.

But this is the next one.

Self-forgetfulness.

This is a C.S. Lewis term.

Self-forgetfulness.

Humility is not devaluation, but self-forgetfulness.

So one, it's nothingness.

Two, it's self-forgetfulness.

So self-forgetfulness is basically the opposite of self-engrossment, self-indulgence, self-importance.

The opposite of self-importance is self-forgetfulness.

That's the best way to define it.

Because all of us understand self-importance.

So what do we mean by self-forgetfulness?

It's the opposite of self-importance.

So how do you define what Vancouver is?

Vancouver is what Toronto is not.

Immediately you understand what it means.

That's what it means.

So self-forgetfulness, that was supposed to be slightly funny, but let's move on.

Self-forgetfulness is the opposite of self-importance.

Guys, here's what self-forgetfulness does.

Self-forgetfulness recognizes the value of your abilities.

Self-forgetfulness recognizes the value of your abilities.

And yet, so if I say I am someone who is practicing self-forgetfulness,

I recognize the value of my abilities, and yet I forget about myself.

Self-forgetfulness recognizes the value of my given abilities, as in God-given abilities,

and yet I forget about myself.

That's self-forgetfulness.

Where, okay, Jacob, you teach well.

Yeah, that's a God-given ability sponsored entirely by the Spirit of God,

because teaching is one of the gifts that the Spirit of God gives.

So it's a gift.

So it's a given ability, but having recognized the value that this ability may have in doing what I do,

I then have to learn how to forget about myself without devaluing the ability.

What sometimes happens with us Christians is we devalue the ability also.

Oh, you cook well. Ah, no, I'm just an average cook. I'm just useless.

If it tasted good, it must be the Lord or a sprinkle of salt that fell in by mistake.

No. That's devaluation.

So you recognize the value of your ability, but you forget about yourself.

I mean, I love what C.S. Lewis writes.

He says, it's the state of mind, and then from there on I change the words, but this is basically his idea.

It is the state of mind where you can, Jacob, write a song that is sung in every church of the world.

That you can publish a book, Jacob, that influences millions.

That you can raise the dead.

That you can receive a million dollars from a donor for your ministry.

And yet, you would be no less glad had someone else received the money or done the same.

That is self-forgetfulness.

You know, I was talking with Derek last week, and I was asking myself this question.

That last week, had Eric raised that dead boy,

would I have been as happy for him as I would have been for myself?

If I had gone and raised a boy, and if Eric had gone and raised a boy, would I have been happy that the boy was raised?

Yeah. But would I have been more happy if it was me?

Or would I have been equally happy if it was Eric?

Very often, guys, you'll find out that you would be very happy if it was you,

but if it happens to someone else, the happiness is little, less.

Sometimes when someone else gets a house, you think to yourself,

hmm, maybe, how come they got it? They don't deserve it.

If someone else gets rich, hmm, how come they're rich? I work harder.

Surely they must have got it through some underhand method.

If someone else gets something better, hmm, how come they got it?

I have prayed more. Surely there must be some tax evasion here.

We come up with all kinds of reasons to envy those that are doing well.

Had it happened to you, you would be fine.

We don't like it when you're standing in a shop for three hours taking care of everything,

and the boss comes in at five o'clock, and from two to four thirty, four forty-five, you've been working hard.

And your helper isn't there. But the helper comes fifteen minutes before closing,

and he stands there, and he gets all the credit while you feel rotten that you should have deserved it, but he gets it.

It's amazing the things we envy.

Nothingness and self-forgetfulness is not natural for us.

You saw that in the parable where the servants came up and said,

We have worked the whole day. They have worked for fifteen minutes.

Why are you giving them a dinari and giving us the same?

And the master had to reply, What is it to you?

Every time a preacher has six planes that he's giving away and flying around, it's immediately, hmm, he must be doing something wrong.

Perhaps he is, perhaps he's not, but immediately what happens is envy and stuff like that comes in.

Nothingness and self-forgetfulness, you may think you, see here's the strange thing about both pride and humility.

You never know that you have it, but others who see you know that you have it.

Both pride and humility exist in a person, and you won't know you have it, but others who see you will know it.

So if you have pride in your life, you will walk oblivious to it because you don't think you're a proud person, but everybody else sees it.

And if you have humility in your life, it's the same thing.

You don't know that you have humility in your life, but everybody else sees it.

You're the only one who doesn't know whether you are proud or whether you are humble, but it shows on the outside.

So I'd really suggest that you go examine this self-forgetfulness, because as I'm talking, I can see some of you thinking, I don't have this.

Oh man, if I could only speak my heart and tell you.

I could point out areas in your life, specific instances where I've seen you display this.

Yeah.

CS Lewis then goes on to put it this way.

The strongest, most beautiful of vices is pride.

It's when I'm proud of something Christian for reasons other than Christ.

The strongest, most beautiful vice is pride.

CS Lewis writes this book called Screw Troubles.

Which is a letter from a big demon to a small demon as to, hey, let me teach you how to get this Christian or these Christians.

And so the big demon is telling the little demon, listen, the strongest and the most beautiful of sins is pride.

So try to get these Christians to become very happy about something Christian without Christ being at the center.

If you can get them to do that, you've got them.

Because that's what through Satan and Adam, out of their positions.

Any questions before we go on?

Others will.

Others will.

I wish I could say categorically that I will be like, you know, I'm a Christian.

I wish I could say categorically that I will be like Moses and then like Jesus one day because they said of Moses that he's the meekest man on earth.

And Jesus obviously was not proud.

I wish I could say that that's how I'm going to be in the next one year.

But that would be, then I would have to preach on lying and self flattery.

Because this is a process.

I'm finding so many areas of nothingness absent and self forgetfulness absent in my life.

So many.

We'll talk about that when we get to how we relate to each other and how humility is involved in it.

We'll get to that.

But remember guys, envy and self seeking are caused by pride.

Many failures and defects in my life are caused by pride.

When there's envy, it comes because I see you having something that I want.

When there's, I mean, you throw humility out of the equation.

You throw it out of the equation.

You throw it out of the equation.

When there's, I mean, you throw humility out of the equation and love becomes dominance or ownership.

Resources become security.

Wants become covetousness.

It's amazing how you take out this thing called humility out of life and everything morphs.

Everything changes.

And yet if it's a community forged by the spirit, this is supposed to be something that we have.

I don't know why this incident comes to mind, but I was flying from Dubai to Jakarta.

And I'd gotten an upgrade to business class.

I'm sitting in business class and an Indonesian man who doesn't seem to speak much English,

doesn't have much of an education from the way he looked and I could be completely wrong,

had an economy seat and the flight was delayed.

So he quietly came up and sat in business class.

And there were a lot of empty seats, tons of empty seats and he sat in the business class.

I was surprised at how people reacted.

First they tried to look at him and shame him.

He couldn't care less.

He put the blanket around him and he closed his eyes because he was enjoying it.

And I was thinking to myself, you paid the same cost.

You got an upgrade.

So you're sitting here.

Let him enjoy it.

Don't you think any other way?

And there was no question of thinking any other way because I was actually beginning to enjoy the boldest message he was doing.

Finally guys, two people got up and went to the steward.

And they went and told the person, this fellow should not be here.

And they came, caught him and took him back.

Now perhaps what he did was wrong.

But I was surprised at the motivations and the conversations and the thing that was rising up in people because someone had taken up a place.

Guys, pride will always seek equality.

Humility will confer equality.

Pride will seek equality.

As in, we are all equal if we have paid this price.

So we can be equal.

If you haven't paid it, you cannot come here.

Pride seeks equality.

Humility confers equality.

Adam sought equality in Eden.

The first Adam sought equality in Eden.

The last Adam conferred equality in Gethsemane.

That's the difference.

Pride seeks equality.

That's why covetousness begins to come in.

That's why envy begins to come in.

You begin to seek while humility confers it.

Where you confer to others what is yours and you confer it freely.

Oh, how we get our, as the Brits say, knickers in a knot when these things happen.

So let me read that again.

May you ponder on it.

Self-forgetfulness is the state of mind where you can write a song that is sung in every church in the world.

Publish a book that influences millions.

Raise the dead.

Receive a million dollars from a donor for your ministry.

And yet, you would be no less glad had someone else received and done the same.

This was Saul's problem, because the ladies started singing.

Saul has slain his thousands, but David has slain his ten thousands.

Boom!

I am a king.

He's a harpist who I promoted to go in my army.

And now the ladies who have been singing about me are singing about him.

I have spent years.

He has hardly spent some time.

I deserve this. I worked for this.

He just comes on the scene.

This is the same thing that makes us older people resist the younger ones.

You haven't paid the price.

How dare you?

This is the same thing that arises in us as parents when our kids rebel.

It's surprising how as parents and uncles, because I can only speak as an uncle,

how parents and uncles, when a young kid does something that's defiant,

the first thing that comes up in us is pride and anger.

Pride and anger come up.

And yet those two things don't come up in the heart of God.

Pride and anger rise up first.

It's the cause behind so many things. Let's move on.

Guys, in any circumstance, when the soil of my heart is proud,

the grace that God has for me in that circumstance is resisted.

Whenever the soil of my heart is proud, in any circumstance that I am in,

in that area, the grace that God wants to pour is resisted

because God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.

So in any circumstance you're in, the first thing you have to do is walk humbly.

Today is the day of confessions.

I was thinking that there were certain jobs below my standard that I wouldn't do.

And I got poorer and poorer and greater and greater into debt

until I remember one day going to the Greyhound bus station

and taking up a job that someone had offered to clean buses when they come back from a long haul.

It is surprising. The day I did that, the next day, this was 20 years ago,

the next day I started working at Emmanuel Baptist.

But there was a need for a step down.

Because in the circumstance or the situation that you are in,

when God wants to pour in grace, the first thing that happens is one needs to take on a humble heart.

Otherwise, grace is resisted.

And it's not that God is not pouring out grace.

It's that you're not able to receive it.

Like I said earlier, pride resists the Savior. Pride resists the Savior.

Many are not getting saved because they're too proud to accept the Savior.

You've got to be bankrupt.

It's not that they are not bankrupt, but they're not willing to admit their bankruptcy.

It's also key to receiving the Word, guys.

It's also key to receiving the Word.

This is one of Eddie's favorite lines, James 1.21.

It says there,

In humility, receive the Word implanted, which is able to save your souls.

So it's impossible to even change.

I mean, didn't we say this?

That the Spirit, the words that I speak to you are Spirit and life.

So even for those words to affect you, the words will not affect you when my heart is proud

because it will be resisted because the Bible says it is only in meekness and humility that you can receive the Word.

So there's a, the quality of your hearing and your teachability has a direct correlation to humility.

The quality of your hearing and your teachability has a direct correlation to humility.

Because pride will even resist the Word of God.

Wow!

What do we have left then?

Pride resists the Spirit of God.

Pride resists grace.

And pride resists the Word of God.

What do we have left then?

Scary, eh?

And yet we've taken this as a regular part of life.

1 Corinthians 8.3 in the message puts it this way.

Sometimes, I love the way he phrases it.

Sometimes our humble hearts can help us more than our proud minds.

Sometimes our humble hearts can help us more than our proud minds.

Any questions before we go on to humility in interpersonal relationships?

Any questions?

In Matthew 13.15 Jesus very well said,

In Matthew 13.15 Jesus very clearly said,

that dullness of hearing comes when one walks in, does not walk in humility.

Okay, let's talk about relationships.

Like I said earlier guys, pride and humility are similar.

Both hide themselves in the mind and in the heart.

So that's the kind of humility that we have.

So that's the kind of humility that we have.

They hide themselves in the person so that the person does not see he has them.

Pride and humility are similar.

Both hide in a person so that he does not know he has them.

He has them. But others do.

This is the crazy part, but others do.

A humble person will never go around like I do, telling people that I'm the humblest man on earth.

But others will see that you know a humble person when you meet the person.

You know a humble person.

Oh by the way, just so you know,

Sue's mom always thought I was one of the humblest guys on earth.

I'm laughing because every time she used to say it, I used to think, wow, if only she knew.

But maybe she's right. You don't know.

But anyways, pride and humility are similar in that both hide in a person

so that he does not know he has them.

But others do.

So you will know a proud person because it's obvious.

It spills out and you will know a humble person too.

Guys, here's another thing about humility in interpersonal relationship,

be it husband, wife, be it pastor, church, friends.

Without humility, I can't accept my weaknesses.

Without humility, I can't accept my weaknesses.

I can state my weaknesses, but I can't accept them.

I don't own or say that...

Let's put it this way.

Without humility, anything that a person says to me, I will see as criticism and I'll cringe from it.

I'll cringe from it.

Oh man, how my defenses go up when people criticize.

The first response whenever I face criticism, perhaps a little less now, but still present, is defense.

I'm already thinking of how to defend this instead of thinking of,

is there any truth in this that perhaps I can receive?

Why is that pride again, man?

Because humility allows me to perhaps deal with weaknesses that you may point out, but pride won't. Pride won't.

And like I said earlier, regardless of whether the spirit of God points it out

or whether someone who's sent by the spirit of God points it out, pride will always resist it.

Humility prevents me from getting terribly unsettled when I'm exploited or taken advantage of

or when I'm ignored or when someone else is preferred before me.

Humility prevents me from getting terribly unsettled when I'm exploited or taken advantage of

or when I'm ignored or when someone else is preferred before me.

Humility prevents me from getting terribly unsettled.

It's still unsettling when people exploit.

The initial feeling when you're exploited is, how could they do it?

But humility will help you come to a place where you won't be terribly unsettled.

You can work with being exploited. You can work with someone else being preferred.

It's okay. Because what do you do?

You go back to the understanding that there is this thing called nothingness that you walk in,

that you live in self-forgetfulness.

You recognize the value that has been given to you by the abilities God has given you,

but you work in self-forgetfulness.

Philippians 2.3, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit.

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit.

Just if you could practice that one.

This is that one.

That I will not do anything out of selfishness as in self-centeredness or empty conceit,

but with humility of mind, let each of you regard one another as more important than himself.

This is why I said the line I said, pride seeks equality, humility confers equality.

The first Adam sought it in Eden, the last Adam conferred it at Gethsemane.

I love this line. I've read it to you before.

As long as I set myself up as a little God to which you must be loyal.

We do this, man. Husbands do it with their wives, wives with their husbands,

teachers with their students, pastors with the church.

As long as I set myself up as a little God.

You know those smiling Buddhas that you see in restaurants?

If you don't know what I'm talking about, go to the bakery right at the end of the street.

He's right behind you, always smiling.

So the point is, as long as I set myself up as a little God that you must be loyal to,

there will be those who I will demand their deference from then

and there will be those who will deliberately come and offend me.

So as a pastor, if I set myself up as a little idol in this church that you must be loyal to,

I can guarantee you that I'll spend every month agitated

because not everyone is giving me deference, respect and loyalty that I as this little idol deserves.

So every time you do anything that agitates me, it bothers me.

Why? Because I've set myself up as a little idol that you have to be loyal to,

that you have to give deference to.

And whenever you set yourself up as a little idol, be it in a marriage, be it in a church,

remember that there will be people who will come to offend you.

And you've got to get off that idol pedestal because otherwise you won't be able to live.

If it's not people, it will be circumstances

because little idols want to control everything guys.

Little idols like controlling everything.

A little thing goes out of here, you get agitated.

You think it's just what you learn from your mother.

Let me tell you what you learn from your mother then.

It's called pride.

So let me read it as it is.

As long as I set myself up as a little god to which you must be loyal,

there will be those who I will demand deference from

and there will be those who will delight in offending my idol.

Always.

Let me end.

Remove humility from the equation and love morphs into ownership.

How can that be true, Jacob?

The scripture to back it up.

Husbands, love your wives.

Wives, submit to your husbands.

That's one place.

Another place, husbands, submit your heart and your body to your wives.

Wives, submit your heart and body to your husbands.

Be mutually submissive.

Where does mutual submission come from?

From a willingness to prefer my spouse over myself.

And what happens when humility goes out of the equation?

Love becomes ownership.

So love morphs into ownership.

Faith becomes competitive.

Faith becomes competitive.

It's like, I remember in the first three years of my Christianity,

I used to always want to go and share a testimony

and oftentimes I would find that I was sharing the testimony

because I wanted to be known as one who had a story to tell.

Faith became competitive.

Need becomes covetousness.

Need becomes covetousness.

Resources become security.

Spiritual increase becomes elitist.

Self-worth becomes superiority.

Mutual dependence is replaced by dominance in relationships.

Can happen with you guys.

I mean, I'm talking about me with you.

Instead of being mutually dependent as a pastor, I begin to dominate.

That's when humility is missing.

Privileges become entitlement.

Privileges become entitlement.

So this week guys, sometimes I think to myself,

we've got to just keep repeating a message for four weeks

because how do we handle all these things, man?

It's almost like, stop, let's go over what we already have to do first.

Because every week I'm telling you this week,

what about what happened last week?

We've hardly finished practicing that.

So I would suggest to you that take some of the things

that were important in the last two months and stick with it.

I've got an acronym right now that I'm using.

I don't know if that's the word.

It's called STAND.

That's all I'm practicing.

That and two other things.

That's all I'm practicing for the last many weeks

because I can't practice everything every week.

So out of this, this is self-forgetfulness.

And this is nothingness.

The rest you don't need to know.

Because if I tell you, I'll have to kill you.

But that's all I can practice at one time, man.

So if you so sense and if the Spirit of God is,

no, not if the Spirit of God is prompting you

because he's always prompting you,

practice this because this is behind so many of our defects and failures.

And this is so resistant to grace, the Word of God and the Spirit of God.

If you are proud, you are missing out on the grace of God,

the Spirit of God and the Word of God.

Now you may think you have an intimate relationship with God.

Not true.

Do not be proud, guys.

Grace, the Spirit of God and the Word of God is what you're resisting.

So practice self-forgetfulness and nothingness

and his everythingness this week.

And Tuesday Bible study, you're good?

Yeah.

Pardon?

Okay.

So Tuesday Bible study,

and if anyone needs prayer or anyone has any questions,

any questions with regard to this?

Wayne, you can answer this.

Yeah, go ahead.

How do we encourage each other in this?

I would say one of the ways to encourage each other,

at least in the Bible, is to encourage each other.

And that's the way to do it.

So, I would say,

I would say,

I would say,

I would say,

I would say,

I would say,

I would say,

I would say,