Humble Hearts (Teachable Spirit)

Hey everyone, this is Charlie 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. How we doing today, Church? If you don't

know me, my name is Angus. I'm part of the team

here at Encounter Henley. Some people call me

Goose. You're welcome to do that as well. That's

fine with me. If you want the story, everyone

thinks it's a story, it's not that big of a deal,

but Angus became Gus, which became Goose. That's

all it is. No Top Gun reference, just, yeah.

I've just come off a youth camp So if I'm a bit

tired, that's why Hopefully I stick to script

We'll see where my brain takes me But it is the

spirit is moving just on that, you know it was

such a privilege to be on this youth camp and

Just seeing how God is moving in the young people

of South Australia There is something going on,

you know There, God is moving and he's speaking

to the next generation of young people, which

I think is absolutely incredible. You know, there

is a hunger there. And there is revival happening.

You know, we've just finished a series on revival.

There is revival coming in South Australia and

what a privilege it is to be a part of that,

right? All right. Before I jump into it, I need

to pray. So loving God. We thank you for the

miracle it is that your word has been preserved.

Father, I pray that as I speak tonight that it

would just be your spirit and your wisdom. Father,

I pray that each of us here tonight would just

have such an experience of you and your love

and your grace tonight. We thank you for who

you are, what you're doing. When we say spirit

come, move in this place. Invade our hearts.

Teach us your truth. Teach us who you are. Your

name. Amen. Does anyone here watch maths, married

at first sight? I do. I think I saw one other

hand. This is a great start for me. I've just

full on exposed myself in front of all of you.

If you don't watch maths, I'll... Married at

First Sight is its full name. And even though

I do watch it, I'll admit that it is utter trash.

And it is... Yeah, yeah. It's garbage and part

of me hates it. But if you are unfamiliar with

the show, if you don't know what it is, how it

works, let me run it down for you. So every year,

thousands of singles You'd hope they're single.

Singles, thousands of people from across Australia

apply to be on this reality TV show called Married

at First Sight. And what they do is they are

matched with a stranger whom they marry in a

social experiment to see if they can make the

marriage last over a period of about two months,

I think it is. And in this experiment, they undergo

various challenges, a few tasks, and they get

some counselling from experts. To try and strengthen

and deepen their relationships and they essentially

fast -track these relationships So there is no

dating stage. It's just straight to full -time

marriage living together doing everything together

like you would in an ordinary marriage as You

might imagine the rate at which these couples

walk away from the experiment still together

is not very high and If they do walk away together

the statistic drops even more once they return

to their normal lives. So yeah, not a great hit

rate, but somehow they still get thousands of

people saying that I'm here for love. Sorry,

I'm cynical. But after a few seasons, you start

to pick up on the various types of characters

and archetypes that you get on the show. And

every year without fail, there are people that

get on it and they just think they're perfect.

They think the other person is the problem. They

have nothing to learn. You know, in all their

previous relationships, they're the psycho. They're

the crazy one. It's not me. I have nothing to

learn. I'm never the one making mistakes or doing

the wrong thing. And if you're watching the show,

you usually either sit there and laugh at these

people and how ridiculous they sound, or you

sit there and scream at them in anger because

in them we see arrogance, narcissistic tendencies

and a complete lack of awareness. And these people,

they struggle to see how their behaviour is impacting

the other person or how their patterns of behaviour

are self -sabotaging. And then they have these

experts come into the group sessions and they

try and counsel them and they give them pieces

of advice and things they need to work on and

they don't take any of it on board. And they

just go, actually, nah. I had no best and, you

know, it's not me, it's them. And they're stuck

in this world of I can do no wrong. But we don't

just see this on TV, right? We see this everywhere

in life. I have the privilege of working as a

school chaplain in a school full of teenagers

and toddlers, or not toddlers, sorry, children.

And, you know, I get... On the daily, I get students

come in and say, Angus, this teacher knows absolutely

nothing. I'm like, well, they kind of have a

degree. Where's yours, little boy? I don't say

that. But I know there's a few people here that

might work in schools or you go to school and

you might see these people around the place and,

you know, you might laugh at them, you might

be angry at them, you might think nothing of

them. But we see them everywhere in schools and

in our own life. as well. We live in an age where

all of human knowledge is accessible through

a few taps on our phone screen and so now everyone

is an expert on everything. You read a few articles

online and you might as well have a PhD. This

became more apparent than ever during COVID,

right? And at the risk of becoming political,

people with no medical background at all suddenly

became experts on vaccines. regardless of whether

they were good for you or bad for you, everyone

had something to say, everyone was an expert.

And every now and again, you find that no matter

how superficial their arguments were, or how

logical and thought out and comprehensive yours

were, they would still remain adamant that they

were right. And it very well could be the case

that you have been this person as well, because

I know I have. And if you have never been this

person, good on you, I'd say that you definitely

know someone who is. This week, we are starting

a brand new series called Sort It Out. And the

heart of this series or the idea of it is to

help all of us sort ourselves out, sort out our

hearts so that we can become people who can manage

conflict with humility, grace, and understanding.

We are almost a year into this church. Can I

get a round of applause for that? How amazing

is that? Almost a whole year of Encounter Henley.

We're having a birthday party, so come along

to that. But we've seen God moving in this space,

and we want to stay in line with how God is working.

But in order to do that, we have to make sure

that we are a church that is emotionally and

spiritually healthy. a church that is unafraid

of having the hard conversations, not because

we enjoy it, but because we have a heart to see

our brothers and sisters and our friends becoming

all that God created us to be. While we're emotionally

and spiritually immature, straight away we're

putting a cap and a limit on ourselves and our

growth. By encouraging each other and having

critical conversations with each other, building

each other up and helping each other sort it

out, we'll start to see more and more growth

in ourselves, in our church, and in every part

of our lives. Because conflict is inevitable

no matter where we are. In our workplaces, our

schools, our families, our friendships, conflict

is inescapable. And so the goal for this series

is to challenge and equip us so that when we

come into conflict, we're able to navigate it

in a mature and healthy way. That is our heart

for this series. And so regardless of whether

you call this church home or not, there's something

in here for you. We'd love to have you stick

around for the whole series. It's only three

weeks long, which isn't that long. So come back

next week, the week after. We'd love to see you.

And this isn't just a series for followers of

Jesus either. This series will be filled with

important lessons for everyone, regardless of

whether you call yourself a Christian or not,

whether you have a faith background or not. And

so, let's jump into it, shall we? We are kicking

off this week by looking at having a humble heart

and a teachable spirit. Our teaching text today,

as Caden's read out for us, is from Proverbs

Proverbs 12:1

chapter 12, verse 1, and it says this, to learn,

you must love discipline. It is stupid to hate

correction. And that's pretty brutal, isn't it?

It is stupid to hate correction. Now, the Book

of Proverbs falls under the banner of wisdom

literature. Most of the book was written by King

Solomon, who in the Book of First Kings is regarded

as the wisest man in the ancient world. But as

I'm sure we're all aware, there is a difference

between wisdom and knowledge. Knowledge is all

about what we understand, what we recognize as

truth or as fact. Wisdom, on the other hand,

is how we apply that knowledge. In the original

Hebrew, it's the word chokmah. Can you say that

for me? Chokmah. Chokmah. I think I'm saying

it right. I actually don't know if that's how

you say it. But yeah This chokma is all about

what we do with our knowledge and practical outworking

For example, some of you might be familiar with

the saying that knowledge is recognizing a tomato

is a fruit But wisdom is knowing not to put it

in a fruit salad Knowledge is recognizing that

you have the right of way when you're driving

wisdom is knowing that not everyone knows the

road rules and still choosing to look both ways

before entering an intersection. So when we're

reading wisdom literature, like the proverbs,

these aren't just nice little platitudes and

sayings. These are ideas and concepts that will

help us to live our life well. They aren't just

phrases to whip out in a debate, but these are

verses that we can apply to our life and will

help us grow. and help us live our lives in a

way that honors both God and the people around

us. This book isn't just about listening to good

advice, but it's an invitation from God for us

to learn wisdom from previous generations. Does

that kind of make sense? Am I making sense? I'm

seeing some nods, so that's good. Where am I?

I'm lost. There it is. And so when we're reading

proverbs, it's common for us to see verses that

kind of follow a bit of a formula where it says

X is good, but Y is bad. They often encourage

us towards something good and discourage us from

something that's not so good. And this is exactly

the kind of formula that we see in the passage

today. Can I get it back up on the screen, please?

So we see to learn, you must love discipline.

So we're encouraged to be disciplined and we're

encouraged to seek knowledge. We're encouraged

to learn. On the other hand, it's stupid to hate

correction. So we're warned against hating correction.

We're warned against thinking that we already

know everything. But realistically, who actually

enjoys being corrected? I know I don't. It can

be excruciatingly difficult for us to admit we're

no wrong, especially when it comes to something

that we're passionate about or knowledgeable

about. And on the flip side, who loves discipline?

Again, I don't. I know I would much rather enjoy

eating what I want when I want, rather than going

on a strict diet to get shredded. And there's

a few people fasting in here for Lent at the

moment. which is amazing. I'm kind of doing my

own fast, but I'm not eating McDonald's. And

a few other things as well, but you guys are

much more disciplined than me, so yeah. Also,

I enjoy staying up late to play video games.

I feel I'm just exposing myself this whole segment.

Yeah, I stay up late sometimes and I wake up

super tired and I'm like, why did I do that?

So yeah, but generally speaking, discipline can

be hard for us to love and correction is easy

for us to hate. Discipline is hard for us to

love and correction is easy for us to hate. And

yet this proverb tells us that in order to live

our lives well and become people of wisdom, we

have to flip the script. We have to rewire our

brains and our behavior to do what is more difficult.

We have to love discipline and we have to welcome

correction. And this is often the challenge that

lies in being a Christian. Following God isn't

always an easy thing and will often ask us to

do what is difficult. It's about going against

our natural and default tendencies. Against what

society says against the cultural norms and making

the choice to say actually This path is better

for me. I know this path is easy But this is

the one that will ultimately lead me to life

Like getting a good phone case This is the way

that leads to life And this is what it means

to have a teachable spirit as well in order to

foster a teachable spirit we have to come to

the recognition that we don't actually know everything

and we don't always know what's best. We must

cast out the spirit of pride that each of us

carry and humble ourselves. Of all the things

that can prevent us and stop us from having a

teachable spirit, pride is the most insidious.

Pride tells us that whenever someone has something

to offer us, it's a personal attack. Sometimes

we even flip the script and think, who do they

think they are? Do they really think they know

better than me? And suddenly we're not the ones

with the pride issue, but they are. Pride is

what causes us to hate correction. That's exactly

what the proverb warns us against. This means

we have to deal with that pride inside of us.

And C .S. Lewis, who is one of the 20th century's

most prolific theologians, has a lot to say about

pride. This is a quote from his book, Mere Christianity.

It says, according to Christian teachers, the

essential vice and the utmost evil is pride.

The essential vice and the utmost evil is pride.

He goes on to say that unchastity anger, greed,

drunkenness or all that are mere flea bites in

comparison. It was through pride that the devil

became the devil. Pride leads to every other

vice. It is the complete anti -god state of mind.

It is pride which has been the chief cause of

misery in every nation and every family since

the world began. And this isn't just C .S. Lewis

coming to this conclusion on his own. Constantly

throughout scripture we're warned against pride

and we see story after story of people falling

victim to their own pride. At its root, pride

is about exalting ourselves. It's about saying,

look at me. Look how great I am. Look what I

can do. Look what talents I have. Look what gifts

God has given me. Look how blessed I am. It's

stuff like nine -year -olds ignoring their parents'

instruction to use the brakes when riding their

bike down a hill and stacking it. It's 12 -year

-old boys trying to impress girls at school by

playing soccer and taking on the whole team to

try and score a goal, but then tripping over

and face planting. It's teenagers thinking, I

don't need a recipe when they're starting to

cook and serving undercooked chicken and nearly

food poisoning everyone that ate the dish. It's

20 -something -year -old men thinking they don't

need help mounting a speaker and nearly dropping

and breaking it. Sometimes 40 -year -old men,

too. And, yeah, really, I'm just exposing myself

completely today. I'm feeling very vulnerable

right now. These are all things that I've done.

These are all... times where I've been stubborn

and prideful in my own life and I've paid for

it later. And this happens to all of us. In all

seriousness, when we have a spirit of pride,

when we're exalting ourselves, when we're looking

for spaces where we can put ourselves on a pedestal,

not only do we take God out of the equation and

say, I don't need you, I don't need you God,

I don't want you God, but we actually run the

risk of hurting ourselves and hurting the people

around us. It says in Proverbs chapter 16 verse

Proverbs 16:18

18, that pride goes before destruction. And we

see this all the time in and out of scripture.

In the book of Exodus, we read about Moses appealing

to Pharaoh to let his Hebrew brothers and sisters

out of slavery. But Pharaoh in his pride, he

forces them to stay. And because of that choice,

because of his pride, thousands died in the plagues

that God wrote on Egypt, including Pharaoh's

own son. Pharaoh was given opportunities for

correction. He was given chances to change his

ways, but his pride ultimately proved to be too

strong. His spirit wasn't teachable. He chose

to stand his ground, which we're able to look

back now and realize was stupid. No, Pharaoh

hated correction and now we think Pharaoh is

stupid. But even outside of the Bible, I know

for myself that I've been hurt by my own pride,

as I've shared, and I've been hurt by the pride

of others as well. I've looked up to people that

have inflicted pain on so many others because

of their own pride, because of their inability

to own up to their own mistakes, because that's

another thing that pride does. It makes it really

hard to own up when we've done the wrong thing.

Like it says in the teaching texts about hating

correction, this comes from pride. Hating correction

comes from pride. We hate correction and hearing

what could be done better because we think that

we already know the best. And this cannot exist

in our lives as followers of Jesus. The whole

premise of Christianity is that we can't do it

ourselves. We need community. We need counsel

from other Christians and other people. Proverbs

Proverbs 19:20

chapter 19 verse 20 says get all the advice and

instruction you can so you will be wise the rest

of your life It's true that we need God to help

guide us and give us the wisdom we need But we

also need to be willing to take on board correction

instruction and teaching from others God puts

people in our lives to help us. We are relational

beings after all But most importantly, as I've

already kind of touched on, we need God. As Christians,

we declare God as King and Savior of our lives

because we can't save ourselves. The pride says,

no, I'm the King of my life. I know best and

I don't need you God. We can come to church and

we can sing songs declaring God's truth. We can

declare God as sovereign. We can listen to messages.

We can even preach messages. We can lead ministries.

We can do the right things. We can say the right

things. And we can still be fostering a sense

of pride. We can still be fostering a spirit

of pride within ourselves. Where deep down we

resent God. and we resent the call of Christianity

to humble ourselves at the foot of the cross.

Sometimes it's not a big grandiose display. Sometimes

it's not a massive fall from grace. Sometimes

it's the deep, dark, hidden parts of our lives

where we rebel against God. We see this in Genesis

when the serpent appeals to the pride in Adam

and Eve and deceives them into eating the fruit.

Sometimes it's not even something we're aware

that's happening. Pride has a way of wriggling

itself into us slowly and telling us that we

know best, that we are the authority. And this

just isn't compatible with a healthy spiritual

life. In order to be all that God created us

to be, in order to sort ourselves out, we need

to cast out pride completely from our lives.

This is a non -negotiable for Jesus followers.

If you call yourself a follower of Jesus in this

place today, there is a call for you tonight

to lay to death your pride. Search yourselves,

search your hearts, and honestly ask yourself,

where is there pride in my life? As I've been

preparing this message, God has definitely pulled

me up on some areas of my life where I'm carrying

pride. We're called not just to stop being prideful,

but to put it to death completely, nail it to

the cross. Because a teachable spirit cannot

coexist with a prideful spirit. We cannot be

teachable while we don't think we need to be

taught. How can we expect God to move and work

in and through us if we don't recognize the need

that we have for Him? We must put pride to death

and pursue humility. But the thing about humility

is that it's incredibly difficult sometimes,

and it isn't always overly appealing. Recognizing

our own faults and shortcomings is hard and can

sometimes come at our own expense. Being humble

can sometimes come with a cost as we think about

ourselves less and our own needs and desires

fall to the side. But with that, also come a

lot of benefits as well. It's not all bad. People

that display humility are often proven to have

stronger connections with others, a greater awareness

of themselves and their place in the world, and

greater happiness and life satisfaction. And

it goes hand in hand with having a teachable

spirit. When we're humble, it becomes easier

for us to love discipline and welcome correction.

Because ultimately, This is the type of person

we all want to become, right? Someone who's able

to take on feedback and improve. Someone who

in the face of conflict is able to pause before

becoming defensive and handle the situation with

care, gentleness, and understanding. How are

we going? Are we tracking with me? No one's asleep

yet, so I must be doing something, right? Here

are a few practical things. to help us foster

our hearts to be humble and our spirits to be

teachable. The first is to serve others. Serving

others is something that Jesus did all the time

in his ministry. We see him helping men with

their fishing, healing people. He turned water

into wine in a fantastic act of service that

I'm sure made many people very happy. So I ask

you what you can do to serve someone in your

daily life. If you live with your family, maybe

you could serve them in some way. Get up a few

minutes earlier and make them a coffee, make

them breakfast perhaps. If you work or go to

school, can you do something for your peers or

for your colleagues? Serving others and putting

their needs above our own is a powerful way for

us to humble ourselves. The second is to practice

gratitude. Practice gratitude. The third one

is to reflect on yourself. Practicing self -reflection

is a powerful, albeit confronting, way to foster

humility. Reflecting on our flaws and shortcomings,

recognizing our own areas for improvement, and

then if you want to take it a step further, you

can seek out people that will help you improve

in those areas. Rather than inflating our own

egos by deluding ourselves that we're perfect,

take the time to be humble and will help us manage

the conflict that arises because we don't think

that we're better than anyone else anymore. At

the end of the day we're all flawed and imperfect

beings. We all have things we need to do better

and we all have things that we can learn from

each other. Foster a teachable spirit by becoming

proactive in seeking out feedback rather than

simply waiting for it to come to you. Ask people

what they thought of whatever it is you want

feedback for. How am I doing, Isaac? Thank you.

The last one is prayer. It always comes back

to prayer. It's almost like spending time with

God is good for us. And as we pray, we need to

invite God to search us and reveal to us the

areas of our life where we're resisting correction.

Places that we're reluctant to hand over to God

and then to hand it over. Because ultimately

it's pride that stops us from stepping into all

that God created us to be. It's pride that tells

us we shouldn't be corrected and no we can't

hand this to God. It's pride that says I don't

need God. Having a humble heart means to have

open hands and being ready for God to shake up

our lives completely. to finish. Humility and

having a teachable spirit is vital for our spiritual

lives. The 18th century theologian Jonathan Edwards,

he said, we must view humility as one of the

most essential things that characterizes true

Christianity. And we see this better through

none other than the man himself, Jesus Christ.

Jesus left heaven and he came to earth as a man

in an act that embodies humility in a way that

nobody else could ever emulate. And he preached

humility to his disciples and the people. He

said that he came not to be served, but to serve.

On the night of the last supper with his disciples,

he washed their feet. And this was supposed to

be a king. This was God made flesh. And he was

washing people's feet like a servant. I'm not

sure I could wash my friend's feet. Josh has

a manky toe right now. Sorry, man. But he humbled

himself. He became a servant from being God to

a servant. What an incredible act of humility.

In Philippians, the Apostle Paul says this, Jesus

didn't come as God. But he made himself nothing.

taking the form of a servant, being born in the

likeness of man, and being found in human form,

he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the

point of death, even death on a cross. Jesus

showed us what it means to be humble, and he

now invites us to be humble in our lives as well.

He came and he died on a cross to save us from

our sin and darkness and now invites us into

something brand new How will you respond? It

takes a humble heart to be able to reflect and

recognize that it was Jesus who came to save

us It takes a humble heart to be able to say

God not my will not my way but yours Like Jesus

in the garden as he's about to die He says this

prayer, he says, God, take this cup from me.

If there is another way, God, please show me

this other way. But then he finishes this prayer

by saying, not my will, but yours be done. And

this act of humility from Jesus has now gone

down in history as the single greatest act of

love this world has ever seen. God is calling

each of us here today and I was like, you can

come on, give me some spirit keys. God is calling

each of us here today. He's speaking to everyone

here and inviting us all to step into everything

that He wants us to be. Will you respond with

pride and say, no, I know what's best. I am the

author, I am the captain, I am the rider of my

fate. Will you respond with humility and like

Jesus say, not my will, but yours be done, God.

Thanks so much for tuning into this week's message.

If you felt challenged or need prayer, we'd love

to hear from you on Instagram, at EncounterHendley.

Or if you're interested in how you can support

this ministry, please go to our website, EncounterAdelaide

.com .au. Thanks again for listening. God bless

you.