Humility

Hi everyone, this is Emma from Encounter Church,

Henley, and thanks so much for tuning into our

podcast. Our prayer is that through this podcast,

you can have an encounter with Jesus that will

change your life. And now get ready for an inspiring

message from our preaching team. When he had

finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes

and returned to his place. Do you understand

what I have done for you? He asked them. You

call me teacher and Lord and rightly so for that

is what I am. Now that I your Lord and teacher

have washed your feet you also should wash one

another's feet. I have set you an example that

you should do as I have done for you. Very truly

I tell you no servant is greater than his master

nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent

him. This is the word of the Lord. Awesome, thank

you. I'm just gonna get myself situated. Really,

my name's Ashley, I'm one of the pastors here.

It is a pleasure to be in worship with you today.

Just so you know, I am one of the parents of

the noisy children up the back. I am not bothered

by them. I understand the anxiety that comes.

having a noisy child, but just so you know, I

welcome it. So, so should you. That is my commandment.

All right, let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank

you for the joy that children are to have in

the service. Lord, we pray for their minds and

their ears that are listening. Lord, we pray

that although they might be doing things back

there, we know that they are listening. And we

just pray that you speak into their hearts just

as you want to speak to ours Lord. For every

single person in this room you have a closeness

that you want to draw near today Lord. Lord we

pray for breakthrough Lord. We know that there

are people in our community here today and those

that are not here today that need breakthrough

in their lives. Lord I think of Carly with with

the pain in her neck, Lord. I pray for healing

over her right now, Lord. Lord, we know that

there are more people who need healing and breakthrough

in their lives. And we just hand all of that

over to you, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

So we're starting our new series today called

The Power of Encounter. We do this series every

year in winter. As it cools down out there, we

like to heat things up in here. Maybe that's

just because I get told off for turning the heater

on too high. But I want to name something that

a lot of us might feel and almost never never

say that we come to a series like this one, you

know, the Holy Spirit series, the power of encounter,

and a part of us leans in because we want it.

We don't just want more information about God.

We want to actually meet Him. We want the Holy

Spirit to move in us and in this room. The way

we read about, the way we hear about on Sundays,

the way that we have tasted once and maybe haven't

forgotten. We are hungry for an encounter. But

if we're honest, for a lot of us, it isn't happening

the way we had hoped. Not really or not lately.

You know, there was a season in my life in 2018.

I was a new mom. That speaks for itself. But

I was also trying to church plant a house church.

And I was doing everything I knew to do. I was

praying, getting up early, showing up, serving,

reading the Word, saying the right things in

the right rooms. And if you'd asked me, I would

have said I was desperate to see God move. And

nothing happened. Just quiet. And you know, and

this is the part that probably got under my skin

a little bit. It wasn't that I had wandered off

and away from God. I hadn't. I was standing exactly

where I was supposed to stand. And doing everything,

the imaginary handbook, but also kind of like

the literal handbook. says to do. And I still

walk away and go to bed feeling dry. You know,

we say we want to encounter God's Spirit and

we are doing everything we know to do. So why

do so many of us keep walking away dry? You know,

I want to tell you upfront the answer. You don't

have to wait half an hour. The answer is not

that you haven't tried enough. And it's not that

God is distant or stingy or playing hard to get.

You know what I've come to believe is the reason

we come away dry is it's not mainly a you problem

or a me problem. No, it's this culture, it's

this water, this atmosphere that we're swimming

in. We are being formed constantly and quietly

and perhaps even expertly By a culture that has

one word carved over every door up Think about

it for a second every message aimed at you all

day points in the same direction Build your personal

brand. Can you believe that's actually something

we say? Like without flinching Like you are a

brand. A product with a logo and a launch. And

a brand has one non -negotiable. It can never

be seen going down. A brand is always up and

to the right. I love a good graph. Grow your

platform. Grow your following. Grow your reach.

You know, we live in an attention economy. And

in attention economy, the currency is being looked

at. So the algorithm rewards you with likes,

with reach, with like a little chemical dopamine

here. Every time you make yourself bigger, it

rewards you. And it gives you silence every time

you make yourself small. As individuals, as companies,

as church Instagram pages. Think about what this

means. Humility in the economy we actually live

in is unrewarded behavior. The algorithm has

no category for it. It has no category for the

person who chooses the low place. You can't see

them. You know, back in 2011, two researchers,

Yada Oles and Patricia Greenfield ran a study.

They took two of the most popular children's

TV shows from each decade, going back to 1967.

They measured which values those shows were actually

teaching kids. And for 40 years, the number one

value taught to children was community feeling,

belonging, being a part of something bigger than

yourself. Number one in 67, number one in 77,

number one in 97, then they got to 2007. and

the top value had changed. It was now fame. Just

fame. Being known, being seen. And community

feeling, the value that had led the list for

four straight decades had fallen to number 11.

Being kind to others had fallen to number 12.

In 2019, Lego... Asked 3 ,000 children asked

8 to 12 what they wanted to be when they grew

up In China the top answer was astronaut Here

in the West in the US in the UK the number one

dream job was youtuber Kids here were three times

more likely to want to be a youtuber than an

astronaut Not to do a particular thing Not to

build, to explore, to heal. Just be seen. Now

I'm not here to like rag on children or the internet.

I love the both of them. But the kids, they're

just breathing the air that we've created. You

know, they're telling us with total honesty what

culture has been quietly teaching every single

one of us. That the point of human life in our

culture is to go up. Be seen, be known, be on

top. And you might assume that's how humans have

always been, but it isn't. There's an Australian

historian named John Dixon, who wrote a book

called Humilitis. It's about humility, as you

can imagine. And Dixon points out something that...

Humility has not always been considered a virtue.

For most of human history, most of the world,

it was the opposite of a virtue. In the ancient

Greek and human world, which is the world that

Jesus was born into, humility was held in contempt.

The very words for it in Hebrew and in Greek

and in Latin literally mean low to the ground.

In the ancient mind, low was the very last thing

you ever wanted to be. Humility was for slaves

and losers. The honorable person climbed. The

Honorable Person made sure everyone knew their

rank. Doesn't that sound familiar? These are

the values that we've just seen our culture swing

back to. Status, self -promotion being seen.

Those that aren't new, they are the old default.

They are the water that the entire human race

was swimming in before something interrupted

it. Dickson argues that the West only came to

see humility as beautiful because of one event.

Something happened that took the lowest, most

shameful place a human could occupy and turned

it into the highest place of honor. Dickson calls

it the humility revolution. The revolution, the

single event that rewrote what our whole civilization

calls greatness. It is exactly what Carly read

out. It didn't start in a palace, it was in a

room with a bowl of water on the floor. You know,

we are so desperate to encounter God, but our

whole culture has trained us to do the one thing

that guarantees we'll miss Him. We keep reaching

up for God, whose grace only ever runs down.

in the passage that we read out. It was the last

night. Jesus knows what was coming. The betrayal,

the cross, all of it. John tells us just a few

verses earlier that Jesus knew the Father had

put everything in His hands. He knew where He'd

come from and He knew where He was going. That's

the moment with full authority, full clarity

about His own identity. And what does he do with

everything in his hands? He picks up a towel.

You know, we've probably heard Jesus washed feet.

Maybe if you were at church the other Easter,

you maybe got your feet washed, but we've heard

it so many times, it might have gone soft on

us. But like, those roads were dirty. People

walked those roads with open sandals and those

roads themselves carried everything. Dust, mud,

animal poo, the whole filth of the town. I needed

to throw poo in there for Emma. By the time you

arrived anywhere, your feet were genuinely disgusting.

So in any decent household, There was a basin

of water by the door. And there was a servant

whose job it was to kneel down and wash the muck

off the guest's feet. And it wasn't just any

servant's job. It was the lowest task assigned

to the lowest slave in the house. It was the

bottom of the bottom. No one with any status

would touch it. Thirteen men walk into the upper

room. and that basin is sitting there by the

door. Everybody can see it and nobody moves.

Twelve grown men sit down with dirty feet rather

than be the one who stoops down to the basin.

In Luke it tells us that this is the same night

that they were arguing about who was the greatest.

In one room, everybody wants the high place.

So the basin just sits there, full of water,

untouched, like a little monument to everybody's

pride. And then while still everyone's, well,

they're still not looking at it, Jesus gets up

from the table, ties a towel around his waist,

and picks up the basin that nobody else would

touch. The basin is the low place and it is always

sitting there right by the door. In every home,

in every marriage, in every friendship, in every

church, there is a basin. The humble thing, the

thankless thing, the serving thing that everybody

can see and nobody wants to pick up. And notice

what the basin does. The water gets dirty. That's

the point of it. The basin does its work by taking

on the filth that is not its own. That's not

a failure of the basin. That's the basin doing

its job. That is what love looks like when it

actually touches people. It gets its hands dirty.

It takes on what is not its own to carry. The

whole question of the life of the spirit turns

out comes down to a very simple question. When

you walk into a room, Will you be the one who

reaches for the basin? The God of the universe

kneels down on the floor, washes the road filth

off the feet of twelve men, including the man

who is that very night about to sell him for

silver. And Jesus takes it willingly, deliberately,

all the way down. Then he sits back and he asks

him the question at the start of that passage

that Carly read out, do you understand what I

have done for you? You call me teacher and Lord

and you're right and that's exactly who I am

and because that's who I am, he says, I've just

shown you the way. I've given you an example,

do what I did. The servant isn't greater than

the muster. The messenger isn't greater than

the one who sent him. He is not laying aside

his authority to wash their feet. He is exercising

his authority by washing their feet. This is

what it looks like when God is fully in charge.

Down is not the absence of his power, it is the

direction of his power. This is the revolution

that John Dixon was pointing at. He defines real

humility not as thinking badly of yourself but

as the noble choice to hold your power, your

status and your resources and spend it on other

people first. John tells us that Jesus knew everything

had been placed in his hands and it's right then

at the peak of his power that he reaches for

the tower. Not a man with nothing to lose groveling

on the floor the king of the universe with all

authority choosing the basin And when Jesus does

that in that honor and shame world where the

low place was pure disgrace Where he blows up

the whole system? He takes the most shameful

spot in the room and makes it a throne The low

point becomes the high point You know, some of

us hear humility and we flinch because we think

it means thinking less of yourself. Put yourself

down, be a doormat. But that is not what is happening.

He doesn't wash his feet because he's forgotten

who he is. He washes their feet because he knows

exactly who he is. Humility isn't a low opinion

of yourself. It's being so secure in who God

says you are that you're free to stop performing

and start serving. And this tells us about the

entire nature of God. God is consistent in Scripture

with this. He says in James, God opposes the

proud but gives grace to the humble. He not overlooks

the proud, He opposes them. Not tolerates the

humble but gives grace to them Isaiah says the

high and holy God the one who lives in eternity

chooses to also live with the lowly and contrite

in spirit James again says humble yourselves

before the Lord and he will lift you up You know,

there's this picture that I can't get out of

my head grace is like water Water never ever

runs uphill Water always finds the lowest place

in the room and pools there. And Jesus deliberately

uses this imagery for the Holy Spirit. He stood

up in the middle of a festival and cried out

that anyone who was thirsty should come to Him

and drink. And out of them would flow rivers

of living water. Jesus was talking about the

Spirit from whom those believed would receive.

You know, this encounter that we're aching for,

the Spirit moving, that living water in our lives,

Jesus pictures it as water. And water only ever

goes in one direction. So the low place isn't

the place where you get stuck or stranded. The

low place is the exact place the river of the

Spirit is already flowing. Grace runs downhill.

So why do we do everything right and still walk

away dry? It was never that God stopped pouring.

The Spirit has been poured out this entire time.

It's that we've been standing on high ground.

Pride, even nice church -going, hard -working

pride is high ground. And living water hits high

ground and runs straight off. Humility. Humility

isn't earning the water. Humility is getting

just low enough to be standing where the river

is already flowing. And the basin on the floor

of the upper room is not a picture of Jesus lowering

himself beneath his glory. It's a picture of

where his glory was always flowing. Humility

is never a feeling. It's a tower and a basin.

It's something that you do with your hands. Jesus

didn't tell his disciples to feel humble. He

told them to wash feet. So to be clear when I

say get low, some of you immediately hear put

yourself down. Beat yourself up. Think of yourself

as nothing. Especially if you're the kind of

person who's already hard on yourself. And I

know that some of you are unbelievably hard on

yourselves. You hear a sermon on humility is

one more stick to hit yourself with. So let me

be clear, this is not humility. That's just pride

pointed inward. Constantly running yourself down

is being fixated on yourself. Remember Jesus

in that room. He served from a place of knowing

exactly who he was, not from self -hatred. Dixon's

definition is this, humility is the choice to

take the power and worth you do have and spend

it on someone else first. So the question is

not how small can I make myself? The question

is where do I have power and who could I spend

it on this week? You have more power than you

think. You have knowledge someone else needs.

You have platform, even a small one. You have

money, time, a vote in the room, the ability

to make a decision go your way, the strength

to win an argument. Humility isn't pretending

you don't have those things. It's holding them

loosely in an open hand on behalf of someone

else. So what does this look like? Well at home,

which is really where our real selves are, Maybe

it's... Maybe there's a spouse whose day you'd

carry without keeping score. Or a child who you

could kneel next to and listen to instead of

just managing their emotions. You know, these

are the people who see the unedited version of

yourselves and they most often get the leftover

of your humility. Maybe start there. In your

conflicts. Is there an apology you've been rehearsing

reasons to avoid? That is a basin. That is an

opportunity. Is there a conversation where you

could choose to be reconciled over being right?

You can win the argument and lose the person

Humility would rather keep the person What about

towards the person who's beneath you because

let's be honest there's someone whose feet you

feel are below yours The one who's wronged you,

the one who's hard to love, the one who you've

quietly ridden off. And let me just say, Judas

was in that room. Like Judas. Jesus knew what

Judas was about to do and he washed his feet

anyway. What about with your credit? Is there

recognition that you're owed that you could quietly

let someone else have? when everyone's being

celebrated, a win that you could hand off to

someone else, how much of your life is spent

managing how you're seen, making sure you get

the credit that you feel you deserve. That management

is the high ground and the water is running off

of it. But here's one we forget. We need to let

people wash your feet. Two verses earlier in

the same chapter, we'll find Peter refusing to

let Jesus near his feet. You'll never wash my

feet. And it sounds humble, but it isn't. It

is pride in disguise. It's I will serve, but

I will not be served. I'll give, but I am too

proud to receive. Some of you are brilliant at

washing feet and will not. under any circumstances,

let anyone help you. Just let me say gently,

receiving help you can't repay is one of the

most humbling things a strong person ever does.

If that's your growing edge, your base in this

week, maybe letting someone carry something for

you. You know, going low can often feel like

losing. Like every instinct within you, trained

by every screen that you've looked at, screens

that it's a step down. But you're not stepping

down. You're stepping into the living rivers

of water of the Spirit. You're getting to where

God is moving. You keep asking God to lift you

and Scripture's answer to this is so simple.

If we want God to lift us, then we have to get

low. Humble yourself before the Lord and then

He will lift you up. We don't have to manufacture

an encounter. We just have to step off the patch

of high ground that we've been keeping us out

of the water. So here's the one thing. Grace

runs downhill. So this week, go downhill on purpose.

This is your Henley homework, and if you're new

here, sometimes we give out homework. This is

your Henley homework. Pick one basin, one set

of feet, one place you will deliberately specifically

choose the low ground. And maybe you already

know whose face just came to mind. That is not

an accident. That is the Spirit showing you where

it's headed. Invite the band back up. You could

leave thinking, right, humble myself and then

God will show up. Get low enough, serve hard

enough, wash enough feet and I'll finally earn

that encounter. And if that's what you've heard,

then I've just handed you one more ladder to

climb, except it's pointed down instead of up.

You'll spend your week exhausted, measuring your

own humility, wondering if you've gotten low

enough yet. But that is not the gospel. That

is just religion with better manners. So let's

look at the basin one more time. Before you wash

a single foot, before you do anything, you need

to see whose hands are already on that basin.

They are not yours, they are his. And that foot

washing in the upper room was a rehearsal. Because

within 24 hours those hands that held the towel

would be stretched and nailed to a cross. The

basin was a preview of the cross. In that room

he was knelt to wash the road dust off their

feet. And on that cross he went lower still.

All the way to the bottom. Lower than any of

us will ever be asked to go. To wash off something

no bowl of water could ever reach. He didn't

only wash their feet, he washed them. He washed

us. He washed you. The dirt we cannot reach.

the pride that keeps water running off, the sin

we could not scrub. He carried it all the way

down to the grave. Remember Peter a few verses

back when he yanks his feet back, you will never

wash my feet. And it sounded so humble until

Jesus says the hardest thing in the chapter,

unless I wash you, You have no part with me.

There it is. The life of the Spirit does not

begin with you washing. It begins with you being

washed. You don't walk in and grab the basin

as the servant. You sit down with dirty feet

and let Him kneel in front of you first. Here

is why we can do everything right and still walk

away dry. On the day of the Pentecost when the

Spirit finally fell like a flood, Peter stood

up and explained where the river came from. He

said, Jesus who was crucified had been lifted

to the high place. From that high he poured out

the Spirit that they could now see and hear.

The one who went lowest down through the manger

down through the servant's tower, down through

the cross, down into the grave is the exact one

God raised the highest. And it is from the height,

won by that descent, that the Spirit comes pouring

down. The river of the Spirit flows from the

cross. Grace ran downhill all the way to the

grave so that living water could come rushing

out of the empty tomb and pour over every single

one of you. Could come pour over any one who

was thirsty enough to get low enough to drink

We do not humble ourselves to earn the encounter

We never could We go low because the humbled

God already came all the way down to us and Going

low is simply how we get to where the river has

been running the whole time First you are washed

And then you pour. Imagine a room full of people

who have been washed by him and know it. So secure

that they have nothing left to protect. People

who have quit competing, quit keeping score,

quit guarding their turf and have gotten low

together. Do you know what that is? That's not

a weak church. That is the lowest place in Henley

Beach. If grace runs downhill, if the Spirit

is a river seeking the lowest ground, then a

washed and humble church is the exact place that

flood collects. That is why we begin this series

here. On the floor, at the basin, and everything

else that we're going to explore for the rest

of the series grows out of this ground. None

of it can be built on high ground. Now I'm not

a pessimist. So don't tell me that culture can't

turn around. Those researchers that were tracking

children's values, when they ran the study again,

they found that in seasons when people actually

had to need one another, the hunger for fame

fell. community feeling started to climb back

up the list. A world addicted to up can be turned

but we go there first because our God went there

first for us and when we become the room where

the living water pools and the thirsty people

come looking because we are where the water is.

So we're not gonna climb our way up to God. We're

going to remember that God has already come all

the way down to us. And we're gonna step down

to the river that is already running. Because

grace runs downhill. So let's get low together.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, it is a dangerous

prayer to be asked to be humbled. If we are courageous

enough, may we do so. We thank you that you go

before us. That you wash us clean. Lord, bring

us to our mind the places where we stand on high

ground. where we step down to the low places

so that we can have an encounter of Your Spirit,

Lord. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen. please go

to our website encounteradelaide .com .au Thanks

again for listening. God bless you.