Humility Over Pride

Hey everyone, this is Josh 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'll

change your life.

And now get ready for an inspiring message from our preaching team.

If you don't know me, my name is Tim, I'm one of the pastors at Encounter Henley.

And at 21 years old, I became the pastor of a little church in the mid north.

I was 21, 21 years old.

My friends were partying out the dog and duck somewhere in the city.

I don't know, I never really went.

Three years out of high school when I was in vocational ministry.

When I would have, and I was leading a church and I would never set it out loud to anyone.

I would have hidden behind a veil of false humility.

But I thought that this was a pretty big deal.

This was a pretty big deal.

I was leading a church at 21.

Where could I be by the age of 30, 40, 50?

It wasn't all hubris.

I genuinely hope that because of how early I had started, I could get to the point where

I could be a helpful pastor for people.

For Jesus and for his kingdom.

But a lot of it was hubris.

And there was one particular situation early on that started to crash me down to earth.

My dad, my wife, and my best mate all got invited to lead a workshop or sit on a panel

at a conference and I didn't.

It's like, all these guys but not me?

Well, on the one hand, the fact that I was doing significant ministry at such a young

age puffed me up.

It gave my ego a little boost.

This event caused me to realize how fragile my ego actually was.

I was floored by this.

What was wrong with me?

Why was I excluded?

And where my pride had led me to believe that I belonged and that I was something.

Being excluded made me question where I fit and whether I was anything at all.

We all want to know where we fit in because it tells us whether we are okay.

There is safety and security in knowing where you fit.

But it's a fraud exercise in order to work out where we fit.

Our ego, our sense of self, of who we are inside is constantly trying to work out where

we would position ourselves relative to other people around us based on what we value.

Inside we are constantly comparing ourselves to others and building up or tearing down

people to feel a sense of security in where we fit in.

If I got 10 people to stand up in a line in the front, which I won't do, where would I

rank in those 10 people?

Who is more important than me?

Who has more than me?

Who is more than me?

And who am I more important than?

Who do I have more than?

Who am I more than?

And depending on those 10 people you may feel a real sense of pride that you're really

up there with the best.

But you find a different 10 and you might feel that destroyed because you are nowhere near

those people.

It all depends what you value and what you see is important.

If I got 10 people up here and I valued more than anything else, a lush, full-bodied head

of hair, more than anything else and I had to rank myself against these 10 people, I

would look at my very thin hair, which is, I have a hairline that's remarkably looking

like my father at 30, which is terrifying to me.

If anyone tells you they've got their grandfather's hair line and he had hair, they're feeling

a bit self-conscious about their hair.

So I had to look at my hair and then I looked at Tom Brown's very luscious locks.

I would feel absolutely depressed.

Such beautiful hair, thick.

But then I would look at Tex and I would still feel depressed because this man's hair is

a choice and mine is not.

C.S. Lewis says this in the wonderful book, Meer Christianity, how much do I dislike it

when people snub me or refuse to take any notice of me or shove their ore in or patronise

me or show off?

The point is that each person's pride is in competition with everyone else's pride.

It is because I wanted to be the big noise at the party that I am so annoyed that someone

else was the big noise.

Two of a trade never agrees and what you want to get clear on pride is that it's essentially

competitive.

It is competitive by its very nature.

While the other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident, pride gets no pleasure

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

We say that people are proud of being rich or clever or good looking but they are not.

They are proud of being richer or cleverer or better looking than others.

If everyone else became equally rich or clever or good looking, there would be nothing to

be proud about.

It is a comparison that makes you proud.

The pleasure of being above the rest.

Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone and that's why I say that pride

is essentially competitive in a way that other vices are not.

Tim Keller sums this up by saying this, pride is the pleasure of having more than the next

person.

Pride is the pleasure of being more than the next person.

What an exhausting process of jostling and competing and comparing ourselves with others

to work out where we fit and for all our troubles, all we get is a sense of pleasure because

we think we're better than others or a sense of despair because we feel we're worse than

others.

Depending on what we do and who's around us and what we value, we're either crushed

or puffed up with pride.

In order to lift ourselves up and to feel better about ourselves, we have to put others

down.

We have to say, I am more than you.

Surely there's a better way than this.

Surely there's a better way.

Surely there's a way off this exhausting jostling and competing for position.

Surely the constant comparisons are stealing our joy.

Surely Jesus has a better way for us.

This dynamic of jostling for position that goes on internally for us was very much out

there and in the open for Jesus in the culture he was immersed in.

It's difficult for us in the Western world to understand the differences in our culture

with the culture that was present in the time and place where Jesus walked the earth because

in Australia, generally speaking, our Western values, even the most secular atheist, anti-Christian

movements of our time are so deeply rooted and heavily rooted in the teachings of Jesus

that we miss how radical and subversive Jesus actually was.

Jesus lived in, like most societies in his time and some societies still to this day,

in an honour, shame culture.

Now ancient historian John Dixon says this about honour, shame, culture.

Honour was universally regarded as the ultimate asset for human beings and shame was the ultimate

deficit.

Much of life revolved around ensuring you and your family received public honour and

avoided public shame.

Honour was a kind of social currency that determined your place in the social hierarchy.

The more honour you had, the more social currency you had in society and if shame was brought

to you, it wasn't just your shame, it was upon your entire family and your whole family

descended the social hierarchy.

To give you an example of just how significant honour is in honour, shame cultures, well let's

talk about honour killings.

Honour killings which still happen in some cultures in the world today are when members

of a family will murder one of their family members and it's usually a woman for bringing

shame upon their family.

It's hard for us to understand in the West how could you murder anyone, especially a

member of your own family.

But that's because we have a different, far more individualistic culture and our culture

turns on different principles.

Within the framework of an honour, shame culture honour killings make logical sense because

when one of the family does something shameful, your whole family is ashamed and they just,

your whole family descends the social hierarchy, they face ostracisation from the community.

A loss of friendships, loss of business deals, one person's actions negatively impact the

entire family.

And so to restore the honour of the family, they put the shame bringing family member

to death and the logic is sacrifice one for the good of the many.

And this makes very little sense in our culture.

If someone within our families brings shame upon themselves, they bring shame upon themselves

and we're like, you do you, boo boo.

Doesn't affect their ability to get a job or friendships or a reputation.

To be humiliated and publicly shamed is the greatest fear a person has in an honour, shame

culture.

John Dixon in his great book Humilitus uses this, an example of an affair to illustrate

that.

So in an honour, shame culture, the public shame of having a partner that's been mixed

up in an affair would do you more injury than the private heartbreak of a partner who's

betrayed you.

The public shame would hurt more than the private betrayal.

So in the sense of competitive pride and comparisons that we make internally, they existed externally

for Jesus.

There was a social hierarchy and everybody knew it.

And we have to keep this in mind when we come to our teaching text today.

The hierarchy was clear.

We haven't had the teaching text today.

Our teaching text today comes from is John 13, 1 to 17.

Thank you, my lovely wife.

All right, John 13, 1 to 17.

Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world

and returned to his father.

He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth and now he loved them to the very

end.

It was time for supper and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon, is correct to

betray Jesus.

Jesus knew that the father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from

God and would return to God.

So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist and

poured water into a basin.

Then he began to wash the disciples' feet, drying them with a towel he had around him.

When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet?

Jesus replied, you don't understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.

No, Peter protested.

You never, ever wash my feet.

Jesus replied, unless I wash you, you won't belong to me.

Simon Peter exclaimed, then wash my hands and head as well, Lord, not just my feet.

Jesus replied, a person who is bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the

feet, to be entirely clean.

And new disciples are clean, but not all of you.

For Jesus knew who would betray him.

That is what he meant when he said, not all of you are clean.

After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, do you understand

what I was doing?

You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, because that is what I am.

And since I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other's

feet.

I have given you an example to follow.

Do as I have done to you.

I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their masters, nor is the messenger more

important than the one who sends the message.

Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

All right.

We're back.

So we have to keep in mind, as we think about our teaching text, that the hierarchy, the

social hierarchy is clear.

Jesus is the famous traveling rabbi.

And although he did things that sort of flirted with him, bringing shame on himself, like

eating with tax collectors and prostitutes, great was his honour because of his teachings

and displays of power in healings and miracles.

So Jesus was at the top of the hierarchy at this meal.

And next was Peter as the leader and spokesperson of Jesus' disciples.

And then James and John were next as the other members of Jesus' inner circle with Peter.

And then there's the other eight that we always forget their names, the make up, the other,

the 12 disciples.

And then there was anyone else who was following Jesus and who happened to be present.

In the room, the hierarchy was clear to everyone, and Jesus does something radical.

He inverts the social hierarchy, and he does it by humiliating himself.

He takes off his outer clothes, ties a towel around his waist, and he stoopes low and begins

to wash his disciples' feet.

And in our culture understanding, we look at what Jesus does here by washing his disciples'

feet and going, oh, Jesus is really nice.

He's a great guy, great leadership Jesus, serving, washing their feet.

I mean, feet are gross, but it's beautiful.

It's a beautiful sentiment.

Good job, Jesus.

You've invented servant leadership.

Someone's going to write a book about it one day.

Like, great job.

But to the culture of the time, they would look at what Jesus does here and be absolutely

stunned.

Absolutely stunned.

Why are you doing this, Jesus?

You are utterly humiliating yourself.

It would be like Prime Minister Anthony Albanese doing a naked song and dance number on the

steps of parliament house in front of foreign dignitaries.

But that's the kind of humiliation that would be going on, but maybe not that humiliating,

but close.

Washing of the feet was necessary as anyone who's worn sandals for a day knows.

Your feet get dirty.

The rest of you might be clean, but your feet are not.

And it was custom to wash your own feet, but washing another person's feet was what slaves

did.

And not just any slave.

To wash another's feet was considered so demeaning that Jewish slaves were not required.

They were forbidden from washing another's feet.

Only Gentile slaves, only foreign non-Jewish slaves were required to wash another person's

feet.

For Jesus, the leader, the master, the teacher, to strip down stoop low and wash the feet

of his followers of those below him was an utterly humiliating thing to do.

He was demeaning himself, doing a job only reserved for foreign slave beneath him.

And he does it for those beneath him in the social hierarchy.

Peter is shocked and confused.

He does not understand what Jesus is doing.

So Jesus explains, verse 12, when he had finished washing their feet, he put on his

clothes and he returned to his place, do you understand what I have done for you?

Who asked?

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 should wash one another's feet.

I have set you this 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.

Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Jesus has inverted the social hierarchy and even though he's the master, he has served

the servants.

But then he invokes the social hierarchy to call them to do the same.

I am your Lord and master and you're not better than me, you're not greater than me, so you

should do as I have done.

In Matthew 20, Jesus says this, you know what the rulers of the world do?

They lord it over people and officials flaunt their authority over those under them, but

among you it will be different.

Whoever wants to be a leader amongst you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first

among you must become your slave.

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as

a ransom for many.

Jesus here in the washing of the feet and indeed through his whole ministry and teaching

he does something astounding, something world changing.

Invents humility.

Jesus invents humility.

Today we see someone stooping low, serving, even humiliating themselves with the good

of another and we see that as honourable.

We see that as a good thing.

But John Dixon in his book Humilitus argues that we think this way because their entire

Western worldview is rooting the life, teachings and example of Jesus.

Before Jesus' humility was basically just humiliation.

The root Latin word for humility is humilitus which is why the book is called that and it

means low.

To stoop low to the ground.

There's a sense of lowering yourself which Jesus does as he washes his disciples feet.

And Dixon defines humility as this, the noble choice to forgo your status, deploy your resources

or use your influence for the good of others before yourself.

Humility is lowering yourself but it's for the good of another.

There are three things that Dixon highlights and we need to know about humility.

The first one is this, humility presupposes dignity.

For one to be loaded they must come from our height.

To show humility one must have the strength and dignity that is then put aside for the

good of another.

Acts of lowering yourself without holding your worth or dignity are not acts of humility,

they are acts of low self-esteem.

Humility presupposes dignity.

Humility is willing.

The Latin word humilitus in a negative sense means to be put low which is where we get

the word humiliation from.

If humility is not a choice it is humiliation.

The third thing is this, humility is social.

Humility must be for the sake of others.

To lower yourself privately or internally is simply just modesty.

Humility must benefit the other.

In the midst of our jostling and competing for position to build up our sense of self

and sense of pride of lowering others in order to elevate ourselves, Jesus here takes a radical

path and invents and takes the path of humility.

He lowers himself in order to elevate others.

It would be easy to finish the sermon here and just say, well Jesus, he lowered himself

to elevate others.

So to deal with the pride that we have in our lives and get off this rat race of comparison,

we just need to do the same.

We need to lower ourselves to elevate others.

But how do we even do that?

Maybe we could declare from now on, I'm going to elevate others both internally and how

I think about others and externally and how I treat others even if it costs me.

That would be a noble declaration.

Maybe that would even help us if we weren't so proud as people.

If we are honest, most of us are very proud people.

Even those who try really hard not to be proud, hi, hello, that's me.

I'm very proud and I'd hate you to know that.

So can we just cut that from the pod?

No, it's live streamed.

Oh yeah, okay.

I'm proud.

You might be proud too.

And we are proud because we are insecure in who we are.

At the heart of a prideful person is an insecure person.

We don't have security at the core of who we are.

We don't know where we fit in.

We don't know if we are okay so we compare ourselves to others.

We judge ourselves against others in order to find that security.

But it is not true security.

We are proud because we are insecure.

So how then do we find the security to walk the path of humility?

The greatest act of humility the world has ever seen or will ever see is a son of God

hung on a cross like a criminal.

There's a great hymn in Philippians 2.5-8 which says this, Christ Jesus, who being in

very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own

advantage rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being

made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man.

He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.

Jesus who had equality with God, he had all the dignity in the world.

He was top of the universal hierarchy with the Father and the Holy Spirit did not use

his power and authority for his own good but he made the choice to lower himself.

Take the nature of a servant, God in human flesh, God who chose to hunger, thirst and

experience suffering and pain, God lowered himself even to death on a cross.

The most barbaric and humiliating and inhumane way to murder a person humanity has ever come

up with.

The most barbaric and inhumane way.

You're strung up on a tree for hours with no bathroom available, hung by the nails in

your wrists with your knees bent at an angle and your feet were nailed together so to take

a breath you had to pull yourself up by the nails in your wrists which was agony because

of all the nerves in your hands and feet to pull yourself up just to breathe.

After days or hours or days, probably more like days you died not from loss of blood

but from a lack of oxygen.

It's ironic the one who breathed life into the clay to create humanity was strung up

by humanity until the breath of life could breathe no more and the life that gave us

breath and life left the body of the Incarnate God.

Hebrews 12 says this because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross disregarding its

shame and now he is seated at the place of honour beside God's throne.

What was the joy awaiting him?

A universe restored and healed from the destruction of sin and death and you and me.

We are the joy awaiting Jesus.

Jesus went to the cross so that our sin could be dealt with and God raised him from the

dead so that we could be raised with him and come home to God forever.

Jesus, with all the dignity of God made a willing choice to be humiliated for our sake.

It's this act of humility from Jesus, this completed work on the cross that ultimately

deals with our pride and here's how.

The work of Jesus on the cross is complete.

Paul says in Ephesians 2, for his by grace you have been saved through faith.

This is not from yourselves.

It is a gift of God not by works so that no one can boast.

We are saved from sin and death and we have a seat at the party at the end of the universe

by the grace of God because God has treated us better than we deserve.

We have been saved.

It's a gift from God.

You haven't had to work for it.

If you did then you would be proud about it wouldn't you?

All it requires is faith.

All it requires is to accept the gift of God.

You know what this means?

The reward comes before any behavior on your behalf.

The gift has been bought and paid for.

You actually can't earn it.

You can't pay it back.

That's not how a gift works.

The work of Jesus is complete.

So to think that we earn salvation by God's love, or God's love by our behavior is just

straight heresy.

It's just not true.

And it's pride.

If salvation had to do with what we did or do or don't do then we would just be ranking

ourselves against everyone else all over again.

But it's God's gift to you and to me.

When we really get this not just in our heads but in our hearts that we've been loved, chosen,

stopped, and saved before we even did a thing.

Good or bad, honoring of God or not.

We can settle the insecurity in our heart that leads to the rat race of comparison and pride

and judging others.

We can settle it and we can walk the path of true humility.

Knowing that we have this priceless gift that we didn't earn and that we don't deserve,

it gives us two things.

First one is this, an honest soboness about ourselves.

Yeah, I ain't that great.

Yeah, I'm boarding and it's not a choice.

Yeah, like I lose my cool at my kids sometimes.

And yeah, I probably wouldn't have been very high on the list of people that I'd asked to

speak at something.

Gives us an honest soboness about ourselves.

That's okay.

But it also gives us this, a confidence.

These things might be true about me, but I am beloved by God.

And he has done all of this so that I can come home to him.

I have a seat at the party at the end of the universe and nothing, no one can take that

away from me.

Even if I die, I live.

I don't have to worry or care about where I fit in or if I'm good enough or if I have

enough or if someone is better than me or they have more or less hair than me.

I don't have to lower others in order to elevate myself.

God has settled where I fit in.

I fit in with him.

I'm with him.

I'm loved and I am okay.

I am safe.

Friends, understanding the gospel makes you truly humble.

Truly humble.

Believe yourself for the good of others because you can step out of the comparison game of

pride.

You are secure.

You don't need to compare yourself to others.

You don't need to worry about how things look on you.

You don't have to worry if this makes you better or worse than anyone else.

You can just wash someone's feet, serve, love, give, follow Jesus, walk the path of

humility for the sake of the kingdom of God and for the life of the world.

Yes, Lewis writes this about humility.

Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble person, they will be what most people call

humble.

He will not be a sort of greasy, swarmy person who is always telling you that of course he

is nobody.

Probably all of you will think about him is that he seemed cheerful, intelligent chap

who took a real interest in what you had to say to him.

If you do this like him, it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems

to enjoy life so easily.

He will not be thinking about humility.

He will not be thinking about himself at all.

If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step.

The first step is to realize that one is proud and a big ish step two, at least nothing

whatever can be done before it.

If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.

When you understand the gospel, it's no big thing to admit that you are proud.

You are proud and yet you are deeply, deeply loved by God.

People who are overtly boastful and proud and those people who try really hard not to admit

that they're proud and give off false humility are all still focused on themselves and ultimately

just as proud.

I know.

I'm that person.

I'm that greasy, swarmy person that insists that they are a nobody.

People will sometimes tell me that they think that I'm a humble person, but I'm not humble.

I just really don't want to be seen as proud.

And so I try really hard to respond in certain ways that people will think that I'm humble.

But I think very highly of myself, if I'm honest.

And I compare myself and judge myself against others and I'm still mostly thinking about

myself and I am exhausted.

I am exhausted.

Maybe you're like me and you're exhausted too.

Tim Keller summarizes humility in this way.

The essence of gospel humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself.

It's thinking of myself less.

And it's the solution to pride, how to truly walk the path of humility is to know the security

of the gospel and to forget yourself.

Jesus forgot himself, thought only of his disciples and all of us.

And he stooped down to the disciples and washed his disciples feet.

And he took up his cross and laid down his life and he commands us to do the same.

Maybe you know the security of the gospel and it's settled in your heart, but you're

still running the rat race of comparison, still comparing yourself to others and you

need to take a step out of that race and walk the path of humility.

At Encounter Henley we have a very popular sermon segment which is called Henley Homework.

And Henley Homework is one thing you can do to put the word into action this week.

So our Henley Homework this week, offer you prospect people, your prospect project.

Or perhaps an all in assignment is to find a way to do one act of secret kindness this

week.

Pay for the next coffee, drop a subway to the person who sits on the street corner.

Anonymously send a gift to someone, write an anonymous note of encouragement and leave

it on someone's desk.

Somebody mow your neighbour's lawns, eat someone a pizza, break into someone's house and mop

their floors.

Maybe not that last one, but if anyone wants to mop my floors, you can break into my house.

There's so many things you can do.

Do one and tell no one.

Tell no one.

Don't post about it.

Don't do it for the gram.

Don't tell your mum.

Don't tell your family dinner or your resi-dee cohort.

Let it be your little secret with Jesus.

And this is just the ancient spiritual discipline of secrecy and it helps us to break our pride

and forget ourselves and choose the path of true humility.

Because telling others about the good things that you do is for you.

It's not for the person you did the act of secret kindness for.

You're doing it for yourself.

You're still thinking about yourself.

And the essence of gospel humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of

myself, it's thinking of myself less.

So you might need to do something to intentionally learn to forget yourself this week.

But I also aware that some of us don't have the gospel set it in our hearts.

We might know it in our heads.

We might know that Jesus loves me.

They died for me and that I get to be with him forever.

It's just an intellectual idea but it doesn't affect me personally.

It's not how God sees me.

Thanks so much for tuning in to this week's message.

If you felt challenged or need prayer, would love to hear from you on Instagram at EncounterHenry.

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.