The Way of Jesus 6.0

We're doing a little bit different.

this afternoon, this morning was a bit of a free for all kids in

crazy time, but we're adding some elements from that morning's.

Event into this evening.

If you weren't here this morning, you missed out on an inflatable peacock

being flung around the auditorium.

In worship.

In worship.

So we were trying to, you know how our children, children just like absolutely

have an a boy, a ball, a ball of a time.

They are full of joy in all

circumstances.

And, and if even if they

haven't got something fun to find, they'll find it right.

but as we get older, we tend to lose a little

bit of that.

There was much joy to

be there.

Sorry.

I was trying to force the oldies to, you know, lift high the peacock

and let it travel over the, the crowd, so to speak.

It was.

It

was hilarious actually.

It was, but you had to be there.

You

had to be there.

Sorry.

Those who were there.

Would you, do you agree with?

Lots of fun?

Yep.

Very good.

Oh

yeah.

Ross is raving for, I know

Ross is, he's back again for more.

Yeah.

All right, so tonight we're continuing uncovering the way of Jesus, and we're

gonna be talking about the way of humility, or another way of putting it

is the freedom of self forgetfulness.

So we are very much drawing on the wisdom of, it's

a little book, if you'd read it, by a guy called Tim Keller.

It's called the freedom of self forgetfulness.

Even I can read it in an evening, quite short and sharp.

And we're gonna be utilizing that tonight.

If you've never read it, haven't read it, like seriously, get yourself

four copies of it because want, it's like two bucks on Kindle.

You'll want to give it a give it away.

So, with that in mind, we're gonna set the scene for tonight

by actually watching a short clip.

Anybody know who Jim Gaffigan is?

Show of hands, Jim Geffen.

I Levi, I'm stoked

right now.

Okay.

Jim?

Jim

Gaffigan.

Jim Gaffigan is a comedian.

I

don't get the mirrors, you know, I don't wanna see myself working out.

I know what I look like.

That's why I am going to the gym.

Obviously there's some people that do want that, right?

They're like, if I'm gonna be working out, I want to look at something like myself.

I wanna look at myself while I work on myself.

I should do a recording so I can listen to myself while I look at

myself, while I work on myself.

As I leave through myself magazine read how myself can improve myself,

you'll go to my Facebook page and look at photos of myself, read what

myself has written about myself.

All right.

So, that somewhat sets the scene for us tonight.

So we're talking about the way of humility.

What, Jim, I dunno, Jim

Gaffigan has set the scene ever before season.

Yes.

No, this is the

first time, but, Jim is more

setting the scene of, The way our world can

approach, or our culture approaches, how we can actually tend to our

own selves by a gross amount of introspection and focus on ourself.

But what is the way of humility?

The way of humility is the way of self forgetfulness, not the way

of self-focus, self-improvement.

And so just a quick recap.

Of where we've been so far in this series.

So we began just by asking the question, you know, what is the good life and

what is the way to the good life?

And basically every human heart is trying to answer that question, how do I

live the good life?

how do I know the way

to live that works?

And.

In Matthew 7 13 14, this is where we began this series.

Jesus says, there's a narrow way that way is gonna take you to life,

but there is a wide way, and that way is gonna lead to destruction.

The other verse that we have been leaning into quite heavily through

this series is Proverbs 1412.

It says there's a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.

And so just to.

Use that clip again.

This clip reveals one of the wide ways of our culture that can seem so, right.

Even virtuous at times.

You know, it's right that I'd be looking at myself to improve myself.

Right?

Seems so good on the surface, but it's actually a trap.

It's a snare and it leads to.

It is one of those things that will lead to death.

And what do we mean by death?

We talked about this last week.

It's this separation from the life of God, which is true life.

So the way of self-improvement, self focus, self obsession,

self-importance, self at the center of it all is not the way to the good.

Life is not the way to freedom.

It's not the way to the life that Jesus has called us to walk in.

And so tonight we wanna talk about this way of Jesus that is in contrast

to this and the way of humility or the way of self forgetfulness.

And that is where true life and freedom is found.

And so passage of scripture we're looking at to night is, where are you going?

Oh, very good.

All right.

Let us read this together.

So then.

No more boasting about human leaders.

All things are yours, Paul, writing to the church in Corinth.

Whether Paul or Apol or CFUs or the world or life or death or the present

or the future, all are yours and you are of Christ and Christ is of God.

This then is how you ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted

with the mysteries God has revealed now it's required that those who have

been given a trust must prove faithful.

I care very little.

If I'm judged by you or by any human court, indeed, I do not even judge myself.

My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent.

It is the Lord who judges me.

I. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time.

Wait until the Lord comes.

He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will

expose the motives of the heart.

At that time, each will receive their praise from God.

Now, brothers and sisters, I've applied these things to myself and Apol for

your benefit so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying.

Do not go beyond what is written, then you will not be puffed up in being a follower

of one of us over against the other for who makes you different from anyone else.

What do you have that you did not receive?

And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

Alright, there is quite a lot in this passage, but we're gonna just

dial down into a few key parts of it.

But just to set a bit of context, what's the broader context here?

What's going on in the Corinthian church?

So the Corinthian church, as much as you remember, we did Philippians and

we talked about Philippians is like.

This church that was so dear to Paul, Paul just loved this church so much.

Let's just say the Corinthian church is Paul's problem child, right?

This

church is a hot mess and there is all sorts

of just division and strife and just like sexual immorality of.

The chart.

There's social class system happening.

You know, you read what's happening when they come to the Lord's table and the poor

are getting pushed aside while they're

rich, you know, just,

Push themselves forward, they the division over well, I follow Paul, or I follow

Paul and trying to, basically say that they're better because of who they follow.

So there is all sorts of toxic garbage happening in the Corinthian church.

And less we go, oh no Corinthian church.

How silly of you.

All of this stuff is present.

In any given body of Christ, and so we do well to listen in, lean in with humble

hearts, and so the Corinthian church is struggling with pride, status comparison.

So do we.

We do.

what had infected the Corinthians was a divisiveness that was based

on social and spiritual status.

So they've got this social status in mind.

They're measuring themselves up, comparing themselves, where

do I fit in the hara hierarchy?

But now that they're Christians, they can add this spiritual status to it as well.

And so then they can make themselves feel even better by comparing themselves

to one and then going, oh, well, I'm even more spiritual than you because.

I follow a policy, you only follow CFUs.

What?

And so, and you know what, don't tell me this doesn't happen in the church today.

Right?

We've all got this tendency towards this disgusting spiritual

pride, and it really is.

So Paul shows us here though a radically different way to live

with gospel humility, with the freedom of self forgetfulness.

So just on this, just to link in a bit of what we talked about this morning, 'cause

it really does tie into this quite well.

'cause what we talked about this morning, one of the things

was who was the greatest?

So what was the passage that you talked about this morning?

So

this is out of Matthew 18 verses one to five.

What's interesting is Jesus is actually making a similar point to what Paul's

writing about here, but it, it's coming at it at a slightly different angle.

And this

story here, Jesus is, with the disciples,

and disciples are actually having a rather large RG bji about who

is the greatest, who's the GOAT.

They are at each other's throats actually.

And, does

everyone know what the GOAT is?

Yeah.

They're having, they're wondering which one, which one of the desires is

gonna be.

Right.

And, so they're having this conversation and then Jesus, calls a little child

to him and places the child among them and says, truly I tell you, unless you

change, unless you convert and become like this little child, you will never

enter the kingdom of heaven there.

Whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest

in the kingdom of heaven.

And whoever welcomes one such child welcomes me.

Such a strong, strong P position.

And I think Paul is, is making a similar point, and it's sort of found at the

end of what we read in First Corinthians

three, where it says, what do you have

that you did not receive?

And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not receive it?

But the point is, he's, he's contrasting, he's going, there's,

there's receiving something and then there's earning something.

And this is where we are getting into this comparison about children or little ones.

I did this great interview with Hope today and I was asking her these

questions about, so you know when you are hungry, who cooks the meals?

And she said, my mum does.

I'm sure

you do, don't you?

You, you are the cooker.

No mum.

Mum says, I'm allowed to touch the oven.

It was so cute.

And we asked lots of these questions and the point being was that.

Children are dependent on someone else doing something for them.

And this is the point because Jesus is saying, unless you actually, unless

you celebrate what someone else has done for you, unless you posture your

heart with a position where actually someone else is doing something for

me, I'm not proud of what I'm doing.

I'm actually proud of what's been done for me.

Should have heard her talk about her mom today?

It was so cool.

She was like pumping on her mom like she was awesome.

It was like mom's.

Mom does everything for me.

And we were just watching kind of like awe and wonder on her face.

Well, I was anyway.

And so Jesus is making this point about this, what I suppose the

trap we can fall into and what the disciples have fallen into

in this particular case is that they have learned that we get

rewarded when we achieve something.

But to be adopted into God's family, to be his friends, we need to be like a child.

That's what's coming to God's about actually not.

I've got, I've not got nothing to be proud of here.

I've got nothing to bring to the table.

And this is exactly what Paul was kind of talking towards.

So let us not fall into the trap of having something to fight, to

argue, to strive to achieve, to.

Because every time we actually are trying to acquire something, trying

to get social value, trying to get a sense of status, it's usually attached

to it as a human, some sort of strife, some sort of difficulty, whether that's

strife with others or whether that's actually strife within, I think part

of this acquiring stature, acquiring a sense of identity, there's a strife

going on the internal world of us.

Like who have you become to get what you've got.

If you actually go the world's route in relationship to the, the attaining

of a sense of value where you have done it all, it's highly likely

you've become a person that you're actually not all that proud of.

Becoming like a child is not about childish behavior, it's actually about

renouncing your claims to social status.

Actually, my status doesn't come.

From what I've done, it comes from who Jesus is.

We fall into the trap of measuring education and achievement, and we think

those achievements of education and, and, and things we've done actually is of,

of some value in a moral moral sense.

You know, we've actually got value, but it's not, children live in

the reality that's free from this.

They don't care.

They're just alive.

They're just in the moment.

They have value because.

They've learned the art of self forgetfulness in many ways.

We'll get to how that gets a little bit more complex later.

But, yeah, that's a little bit about what we touched on this morning.

and I think part of the antidote when we think about what is greatness, true

greatness comes from seeing life as a gift, not something you've earned.

True greatness comes from seeing life as a gift that you

receive, not something you earn

or achieve.

I think, you'll, you'll know

that you're in the space of earning something, achieving something, because

once you achieve it, there's also another subtle message that the heart's running.

It says, oh, this is mine.

This belongs to me because I've earned it.

I've achieved it.

It's mine.

And then when you're challenged to actually give freely out of what you

have, sometimes there's a jarring.

But when you know, it's just, I've received everything I've got, giving

has becomes this like free expression.

And so part of this freedom is this idea that I'm not focused on myself and

what I've achieved, which is what Paul's referring to in this moment, where we're

stuck in this place of earning, we actually receive as little children.

So that's kind of a bit what we touched on.

Beautiful.

Very good.

All right.

So Paul uses this phrase in this

passage we just read.

In, one Corinthians.

Can we have this, next slide up.

The

slide, the natural condition of the human ego.

Okay, so in one Corinthians four, six, Paul says this, then you will

not be puffed up inflated with pride.

And so we just wanna look at what Paul is talking about here when he used this word.

Puffed up.

And so it's a really great word.

And so the Greek word is fuso.

And, it actually, it's what we would refer to as ego and what, and then

what this word actually means is to be overinflated, swollen, distended.

And so he's revealing something here about the state of the human

ego that when we are puffed up, these four things are true of us.

We are empty.

Painful, busy, and fragile.

This is the state of our ego.

What do we mean by ego?

Exactly?

Ego is essentially a person's sense of self, their self-esteem, their sense

of self-worth or self-importance.

And what Paul is saying here, there is a state that the human ego can

be in, that it's actually this empty, painful, busy, fragile.

If we're not filled up with Christ, this is where we will be and that will cause

us to strive in this world to try and.

Prove ourselves.

And so can we just use again from this morning, 'cause it

was too good to pass out, right?

Adam did a bit of a, visual this morning.

this thing here is called a, steroidal vortex cannon,

right?

When's the last time you saw a tural vortex cannon in church

other than this morning?

and so this is a really great example of what the puffed up ego.

So inside the, there's just nothing really.

It's just smoke and air, right?

So when you're living where your ego is actually very fragile, you know, and you

speak, just feel like hot air, right?

Like, you know when Fred, you guys are really Fred.

Do you know what's funny about this?

Is the softer I touch it.

The kind of the more shape and see how it's still going.

Oh, it goes further.

The gentler, you touch it.

It's a bit like ego, right?

You got a fragile ego.

See what I mean?

I didn't touch much there, man.

That was just truck.

If I can get Donovan.

All right, do it at me just to show you how actual,

so it's really quite powerful.

All that empty air is quite powerful and we'll get to that in a moment.

All right.

So let's just talk about empty for a bit.

Empty.

The ego is hollow craving something to fill it.

This is the natural broken unredeemed state of the human ego.

It needs something to fill it.

And spiritual pride is the illusion that we are competent to run our

own lives, achieve our own sense of worth, and find a purpose big enough.

Us big enough to give us meaning in life without God.

And so we're tempted to feel this emptiness through achievement,

through earning these kind of things.

And so the ego searches are something that's gonna give it a sense of worth,

a sense of specialness and a sense of purpose that builds itself on that.

And of course, as we're often reminded, if you try to put anything in the middle

of the place that was originally made for God, it is going to be too small.

And so like the canon, the ego can look impressive and carry force,

but it's really just hollow.

And so next painful.

It's okay.

So like a sore toe, you do not notice your toe until it is hurting.

It's one of these appendages that's just kind of there until

something goes wrong with it.

Then it draws attention to itself, and that's like the ego.

When it's not filled with God, it constantly feels offended,

insecure, defensiveness, defensive.

So drawing attention to itself all the time.

We think our feelings are hurt.

Oh, my feelings got hurt.

This person hurt my feelings.

Feelings can't get hurt, right?

Feelings don't have feelings.

Yeah.

Love that.

It's our ego that gets hurt.

Yeah.

The end of the day.

And, how hard is it to get through a day without feeling bad, without

feeling offended, without feeling stupid, without feeling misunderstood?

Those kind of feelings because our egos are sensitive.

Little things.

So like the to steroidal vortex, cannon, the puffed up ego when poked,

emits a force that is felt by others.

Defensiveness, judgment, self-justification.

And what does it do?

Pushes others away.

Just like the force of that win these things, they end up doing the very

opposite of what we're looking for.

We are looking for that deep connection, that deep sense of being known.

But when our egos aren't filled with God, with the truth of God, with the

presence of God, we end up responding in ways that actually push people away.

The ego gets busy when it's not full of God.

It's always comparing and boasting.

This is what's going on in the Corinthian church.

It's forming a self-esteem resume, constantly assessing

how am I being perceived?

Come.

Will you walk away from a social situation and go.

All right.

You are either feeling like you did pretty good there, or you're beating

yourself up because you overshared.

and you're constantly

assessing yourself, well, how did I do in this?

And you're adding to that self little resume in your head

trying to validate yourself.

Do I have worth?

Am I okay?

So you don't really see little kids come up after a social setting

and go, I wish I hadn't said that.

Yeah.

Like everything I've said is pure gold in their minds.

Right?

They've actually just forgotten themselves.

Like they're just outside themselves.

They're, they're not self kids,

self-conscious, so to speak.

No,

they don't have vulnerability hangovers.

So I've had the worst vulnerability hangover this week.

Like you even know what a vulnerability hangover is.

It's just when you overshare and then you're just like, you just walk away

going, oh gosh, why did I say that?

Children don't have.

Vulnerability.

Hang on.

Because they just move on.

Right?

They're just, they're just

moving on.

And so, that's not

suggesting that as a, a good behavior, by the way, potentially as a self

recognition that that was a wrong moment.

Oh, yeah.

True.

And go, Hey, can you please forgive me?

Because I was a Muppet?

You know?

Yeah.

So there's, we're not saying that, right?

We're saying it still needs to be handled correctly.

So

this CS Lewis quote is really great just in this area of what we're

talking about here with this busyness.

So talking about pride here, 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're not.

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

If everyone else became equally rich, equally clever, equally good looking,

there would be nothing to be proud about.

Right?

So this is the comparative nature of pride, and it's horrid to be in that place

where you're always assessing yourself with those around you, because that means

you've always gotta try and put others down in order for you to feel okay.

You can see the antichrist ness.

Of this way of being, but this is the places we will go.

If our ego isn't full of God, if it isn't full of gospel truth.

If our egos haven't been redeemed, we will lean into these ways and we can be

great at sanctifying them church, and we can be great at looking all pretty on the

outside, but on the inside we're driven by these things always comparing and.

It's a horrible, horrible way to live.

Okay, not freedom at all.

Next is fragile.

The o, the over-inflated, puffed up ego.

Unredeemed is like an over-inflated balloon.

There is this quote from Madonna and I've used it before and I did

steal it from Tin Keller and it's in his little book and it's great.

And because I think the way she talks about herself here, she

just nails this, all of my will.

Has always been to conquer some horrible feeling of inadequacy.

I'm always struggling with that fear.

I push past one spell of it and discover myself as a special human

being, and then I get to another stage and think I'm mediocre and

uninteresting, and I find a way to get myself out of that again and again.

My drive in life is from this horrible fear of being mediocre,

and that's always pushing me.

Pushing me.

Like that's a pretty honest self-reflection there.

And many of us can fall into this trap as well.

This need to be seen as special by other people.

And it pushes and it pushes.

And you think of the, the horrible degrading, as talented as she is,

but the horrible, degrading things that she has done in order to.

Continually be proving herself and to get

that recognition.

And, I mean, maybe, you

know, I'm talking to a younger crowd, so maybe you're not fully familiar with

Madonna.

Right.

But, she's, she, just out

of

interest, who's familiar with Madonna?

It's good.

Very good.

Oh

yeah, yeah.

but yeah, she descended

into some pretty dark places.

Trying to prove her worth.

That's, I think that's the

nature of when you, are acquiring a sense

of value from what you do and what you've earned.

It just

leaves you feeling, insecure because there's

a, a niggling question of how much or how good is good enough.

Like when will I arrive?

How are you gonna measure that?

If you're in that space?

Like if you're in that space, it's just like a hamster wheel

that never ends and you are stuck.

You are trapped, and that leaves you feeling insecure.

Yep.

Which is what Madonna's saying there.

And that's true for I think every one of us.

Right?

God does not want us to live insecure.

He wants us to live secure.

Dale, do you think ego is like some neutral position

that either can go.

like sometimes we say

ego, we suddenly sort of like straight away go negative.

Mm. Like do you think ego is more like a neutral descriptor of the internal.

Dynamic of a person that can go into a place of health?

Yes.

I either way of Jesus or can it be

if you just, if you're understanding ego as your sense of self,

your sense of self-worth.

Yep.

It's just as it's, and it's a container.

Container.

Then what have you

filled it with?

and this is what we're

talking about, a tendency, the unredeemed state is to fill it with.

These things that are just actually, like you talked about

this morning, they're just empty.

They look like they've got substance, but they're empty and they're

never actually going to fill.

Mm-hmm.

Because actually the only thing that will fill it is God himself will

only bring us to that place of deep peace and assurance about who we are.

And we live in a culture that wants you to be insecure, that wants you

to be constantly questioning yourself because then you'll buy stuff.

Yeah, the more insecure you are, the more stuff you are gonna buy, the

more experiences you're gonna pay for the hamster wheel of consuming,

you'll just be enslaved to it because you're trying to fill something that's

actually only fillable by God himself.

And so when Paul is talking to the Corinthian church here in this passage.

You know, there's all these people, they're claiming a

special relationship with him.

You know, some of these people claiming a special relationship with Paul, some

with the Poly, some with CFUs, and what's really sad about this is that they can't

just enjoy the fact that they know Paul.

Mm-hmm.

They have to use their relationship with him for one upmanship.

And this is the horrible thing about it too.

It causes us to use one another.

I just can't enjoy this person for who they are.

I can't just accept them for who they are.

It's all about what they can do for me.

How can they improve my standing?

How can they add value to who I am by the fact that I'm associated with them?

And that's gross.

And we just gross and we go.

That would never happen in the church.

Ha.

Of course it does.

We do it all the time.

We, we go to a certain person because I look better when I'm with them.

Right.

Which is going back to that Matthew 18 scripture

where Jesus is saying, and he elevates the

little ones.

The little ones.

The Greek there is, yes, it's a child, but it also has the additional concept

of the vulnerable, which is a little bit broader than just like children.

It's a little bit larger.

And so my question for all of us is, who do you look to go

to when you walk into the room?

Do you look to go to the person who's like, makes you

feel better about yourself?

Do you look to go to the person that by while you're around them you look better?

'cause you kind of

know them?

Or do you, do you go to, or do

you stay away from the, the, the high maintenance?

You know, do you stay away

from the vulnerable?

stay away from the vulnerable, the lesser.

and what's the crazy

scripture there that Jesus refers to is he says at the very end, in verse five,

he says, whoever welcomes one such child or one such vulnerable, one welcomes me.

Which means that if you can't go to the vulnerable and welcome them, there's

reason to ask the question whether you've actually welcomed Jesus as king

into your own heart, because he says you can't even into the kingdom of God.

This is not a little small phrase here.

This is, we're, we're shooting, we're shooting bullets here,

people, this is serious.

so I just, I think

that's a really interesting parallel between Jesus'.

You know, moment with the children.

Yeah.

And then this what Paul's talking about.

Very much so still children had not a lot to offer.

Jesus, at

the end of the day.

all right, where do

our ego problems come from?

This is a way of framing it.

Okay.

Where does this problem come from?

And so we wanna use a clip right now that we use this morning,

and it's such a great clip.

And it's from Toy Story four.

Anyone fan of Toy Story franchise?

Like it's pretty great, right?

This clip is about.

A character called Forkey.

Let's go.

Hi toys.

Hi.

Oh, he did go to kindergarten.

I know.

No, you're trying to get Bonnie in trouble.

No, of course not.

You could have been confiscated.

What does that mean?

Taken away?

No.

Or worse, you could have been lost.

No, no, no.

Guys, listen, Bonnie had a great day in class and we're going on a road trip.

Road trip vacation.

I think something really weird happened.

Bonnie made a friend in class.

What a, oh, she's already

making friends?

No, no.

She literally made a new friend.

Hey, it's okay.

Come on out.

That's it.

Come on.

There you go.

Come on, let's get you outta there.

You got this?

Good, good Everyone.

I want you to meet KY all Bob, half that.

Look how long his arms are.

Trash.

No.

No toys.

They're all toys.

Trash.

No, no, no.

That's the trash.

These are your friends.

Hello?

Ah,

trash.

No, no, it's okay.

Trash

Whitty.

I have a question.

well actually not just

one.

I have all of them.

I have

all the questions.

Why does he want to go to the trash?

Because he was made from trash.

Trash.

Look, I know this is a little strange, but you gotta trust me on this.

Forkey is the most important toy to Bonnie right now.

Important.

He's a spork.

Yes.

Yeah, I know.

But this sport, this toy is crucial to Bonnie getting adjusted to kindergarten.

Oh, Whitty, aren't you being a little dramatic about all this?

I know this is new to everybody, but you should see how much this

little guy means to Bonnie, which she started playing with him.

She had the biggest smile on her face.

I wish you could have seen it.

Bonnie was really upset and I swear once she made Forkey, it

was a complete transformation.

Oh, Woody, just a second, Jesse.

So we all have to make sure nothing happens to him.

Something happened to him.

Ha.

Shoot ladder.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

You are a toy now for key.

Come on.

Stop.

Stop at, no, no, no.

Come on.

Well, I guess I'll just babysit him till he is used to the room

for key.

Where are you?

Forkey.

There you're, I thought I'd lost you, Phil.

So good.

All right.

What was the point of that?

Well, what's our, what's our problem?

There's lot's

going on there.

Well, the three things that point out to me is.

Fork.

He's own self perception, so he believes he's the scum of the earth.

He's trash, so he keeps going to his.

So there's a dynamic of our understanding of identity going on there.

So we're all forkey.

Yes, yes.

Then there's another thing going on where there's the perception of

others around this character forkey.

And then the third thing is Bonnie.

And her love and affection for this broken trash can of a thing.

Right now, what's precious about the idea around our ego is we

attach ourselves to how we see ourselves in terms of our own value.

We, we attach value to how others perceive us, but value actually comes from, from,

from ky, and even Woody said it there.

He's like, do you know how much.

Bonnie loves this fork or spork, right?

The reality is that's how the father sees us we're, to be honest with you,

even the toys in that movie, they're, they're, we're all trash, okay?

But it's the father's love for all of us that causes us to have value.

So there's a sense of how do we actually resolve our ego problems?

We actually, firstly, need to acknowledge that we're, we're garbage.

Yeah, actually, right?

Yes.

We're made in the image of God, yes, but we're broken.

We're sinful.

We are needing a savior, but, but we we're also recognizing that he loves us,

which is the nature of the gospel, right?

Our sin is so severe that Jesus had to go to the cross for our sins, but

at the same time, simultaneously, we are of so much value to our father.

Who has so loved us all happening at the same time at the cross.

It's huge.

This is the moment that causes the ego to not find attachment to

other things, but by who loves me?

Mm. Who you are loved by you.

Loved by.

So I think, yeah.

Where we go wrong is when we believe that the most important

thing about us is our brokenness.

When we actually understand the most important thing about us is

who loves us, then we're truly free.

Yeah.

But when we fall into that trap of believing, the most important

thing about us is our brokenness.

Is our insufficiency.

Yeah.

Then we start looking for these external validations, rather

than going, well, who loves me?

All right, so what is our culture's way of dealing with ego or self-esteem problems?

Okay, so what do you do?

What does our culture suggest?

Right?

When you're feeling you're dealing with insecurities, you know, one of

the ways our culture deals with it is to just, well, you just, you know, say

some affirmations to yourself, right?

You just pump yourself up.

You just tell yourself how great you are.

You put some people around you to tell you how great you are, and you try and,

you know, fuel the ego with some good,

solid affirmations and, it doesn't really work.

It's like pumping up a, it's pumping up a leaky football, right?

It's just gonna, yep.

We try and accumulate accolades and you know, we try to be seen with the

right people, wear the right clothes, listen to the right music, read the

right books, eat at the right places.

Just accolades.

Am I doing the right thing?

Am I being seen by the right people?

This kind of stuff just to try and prove our own worth.

Pump ourselves up.

But Jesus says, well, the greatest in the kingdom is who?

One who hasn't really done anything of any significant worth at all.

And so I heard this great thing this week because our world's way

of dealing with insecurity is to try and bump up self-esteem, right?

Problem is low self-esteem.

So we've just gotta bump up self-esteem.

So we have lived for decades now with this understanding that the

world's biggest problem is a lack of self-esteem, and therefore the answer

is to bump up people's self-esteem.

What do we have right now?

The most anxious generation known to man, this hasn't worked.

Pumping up people's self-esteem isn't, isn't working right.

So the problem isn't.

Low self-esteem or high self-esteem, it's actually God's self-esteem.

So I was listening to this podcast this week and I thought this

woman made such a great point.

She was dealing with deep insecurity in her life when her and her

husband went to plant a church.

And it was just like, suddenly she goes, I used to be a confident

person and now I'm just this

insecure wreck.

And so she started saying

the affirmations, you know, you can, I can do all things through Christ

and strengthens me and all that.

She's like, and it wasn't working.

And so I went to scripture and I'm going, okay, what does the Bible say?

How does God deal with insecure people in the Bible?

When people are expressing insecurity before God, what does God do?

And so as she's looking at the testimony of scripture, she began to

notice something really interesting.

Unless she's Moses as an example.

You know, God comes.

To Moses in the form of this burning bush.

And he's like, this is what you're gonna do.

Moses and Moses becomes very insecure about this call of

God on his life right now.

He go, I can't do this, Lord, are you kidding me?

And what does God do?

Does God pump Moses up with some good?

So affirmations and tell Moses how great he is and good looking

he is, and charismatic he is.

No.

What does God do?

God says, this is who I am and I am with you.

All right.

So that's what every human heart needs to know is not looking here.

This is never gonna answer that need.

It's looking here at the greatness of God.

Come

on.

That's when our egos fill with what is true and good, and will hold us

in this beautiful, gracious place of humility and self forgetfulness.

And, I just thought that

was incredibly good.

So if you here, and you're in a shaky place right now, okay?

Don't go inward, right?

Go upward.

Look at the greatness of God and remind yourself of his promises, how

he sees you, and that he has promised to never leave you or forsake you.

And don't beat yourself up when you're looking inward as well.

'cause we all do it right.

We're not looking up.

Well, I just remember that story that,

that God doesn't give, Moses a hard time because

he is looking in the wrong spot.

It's like he's so gracious, so patient, ah.

What is Paul's answer to this?

Yep.

In verse three,

this last of first Corinthians

four.

Yeah.

We have, love this part.

I care very little if I'm judged by you or any human court.

I don't even judge myself.

I, I, I, my Adam's paraphrase of this.

I don't care what you think about me.

I don't even care what I think about me.

I only care what he thinks about me.

Like that's been a mantra in my world for a very long time.

I don't care what you think.

Like church is not easy to lead in church.

Like, man, I can't, I can't be all about what you all think of me.

I can't be all about what I think of me.

I actually just gotta care about what he thinks of me.

Yeah.

And

that'll sustain me and itll sustain you when no matter what season you're in.

And so then how do we get this transformed self?

Next slide there e. So one Corinthians four, four, Paul says, my consciences

clear, but that does not make me innocent.

It is the Lord who judges me.

It is the Lord who judges me.

I don't judge myself.

I don't care how you judge me.

God has judged me.

And what has God said?

God said the verdict is in.

There is now no condemnation for those who were in Christ Jesus.

Jesus was judged in my place, so I am now free to live for

joy and not self-justification.

I don't need to justify myself anymore because the verdict is in.

It has been passed, and so now I am free to live out of the courtroom.

And when we don't know this, and we don't live in the truth of this,

we live each day like we're still in the courtroom trying to prove

ourselves, justify ourselves by doing enough right things, enough good

things, enough righteous things.

And I was just reflecting this week, the amount of things that we judge

as, these are righteous things.

These are unrighteous things, right?

And it.

They're not, they're actually morally neutral.

We just subscribe moral value to them so that we can prove

to ourselves that we're good.

Well, I've read my Bible today.

Is reading your Bible a righteous or an unrighteous act?

It is neither.

Okay?

It's all about how you come to it, right?

It's not gonna earn you any righteousness by just reading it.

Prayer, righteous or unrighteous.

Again, same.

It's all about how you come to it.

The actual act itself isn't earning you anything before God.

That verdict is in.

You're not in the courtroom anymore.

You have been declared.

Not guilty and you're good before God, so you are free.

There is nothing left to prove.

I like the, the courtroom scene, 'cause it always reminds me of the

judge and he is got the, the gavel, is it called the gavel in his hand?

He's like, he hits it, you know, and a verdict's done like poof.

When you are living, attaining, achieving, earning value, it's

like you're stuck and you haven't actually heard the judge's gavel hit.

His little, I wonder what the gavel impact pad's called.

That'll, do

you know what I'm talking about?

Like it hits this thing, it doesn't just slam it on the table.

He's got a, he's got a B up.

The

GIP for sure.

You know, like, like the question is, and this is something for you to answer.

Have you heard the judge's gavel go down?

Like, have you heard it?

Has it been like loud and resonating in your heart?

Boom.

Paid in full.

I am forgiven.

Have you heard it?

Because if you haven't, that's why.

Reason why you might be finding yourself stuck in this hamster

wheel of trying to do an oath.

Whoa, hear that?

It's called an oath.

Gee, the gavel hits the oath and boom verdict.

Is there.

Is that seriously

what it's called?

I had

a feeling it was significant.

According to Wikipedia, so it must be true.

That's so good.

That's good.

I'm gonna have to think about that some more.

Yes.

Oh, why didn't I know that before?

I'm, I'm trying to think of all the scriptures in there.

I'll say oath.

Do you know one of the, he swore

an oath.

This is,

what was that scripture?

Are you done?

Sorry.

This is the beautiful,

unique thing about the Christian faith, right?

Every other religion, whether it's a spiritual religion or whether it's

just some manmade, even consumerism, those kind, they're all religions,

those kind of things, right?

Is you perform.

To get the verdict.

Christianity is the only religion where the verdict comes in.

Then comes the performance, right?

Then comes the actions, the obedience, which are all then

worship, not earning, not striving.

And when we apprehend this, what happens, right?

We become free.

We don't have to worry about ourselves anymore.

We don't have to be constantly wor wondering how people are perceiving me.

Where am I in the order of things?

Are the right people talking to me?

Oh, my word.

Not to get in a soapbox, but seriously, if I happen to listen to another person,

say, you know, oh, there's sad, tragic tales of woe about how this person

didn't talk to me in church and that didn't, how about we stop putting

you at the center of it and you come.

And going, I'm the verdict is in, I'm good, right?

So I'm free just to love all these people here, whether they talk to me or not.

That's freedom, right?

That is freedom where you can walk into a room.

It matters not because he loves me.

Yeah, I'm sporty and I'm loved

spooky by the

guidey.

Spooky foy.

I like spooky.

Okay.

Oh, okay.

Spooky.

I'm Foy.

Yes, we are all folky, but we are loved by the Almighty and

therefore we are free and true.

And then we are free to know, you know what?

This is the lesson for me.

We are then free to love those whingy people who come through those doors.

Yeah.

Who're complaining about everything, right?

They're no longer offend us, right?

We are free to just embrace them as they are and hopefully love

them into a place of wholeness.

This is what Adam was talking about before, right?

When, when you're not worried about yourself, right?

You don't have to attain anything from those around you.

You are just free to love in the way that God has called you to.

All right.

Very good.

You wanna, shall we bring this home?

We need to bring this home.

Yeah.

So Sarah really wants to sing the last song.

We've still gotta do, yeah, we gotta do this.

We're go communion.

So we've got some reflection

questions on the screen, and you don't have

to do them all, but if there's one of these questions that jumps out, what I

want you to do is, we're gonna release

you in a second and

I want you to find, two maximum three people, to pick one of those

questions quickly talk about it.

Once you've had a quick chat about it, I want you to come down

the front and get.

some elements to share

communion together, pray for

each other, and then, we'll call you back and we'll, close

the service off, together.

It's interesting

what communion actually is.

It's actually a reminder.

I used this this morning of like, who is the greatest question I.

Who is the greatest human?

Actually the greatest is the one who went the lowest, and his name is Jesus.

And in this act of him going the lowest communion actually

says, oh, I've forgotten that.

I actually need you as my source of identity and value.

Come and, 'cause we we're, we're a human being, right?

So we have great days, we have low days.

Some days we're like, oh, I'm not feeling it.

But communion is a reset.

It's a saying, Hey, I need you back on the throne of my heart,

and I want you to take this

opportunity to do just that.

so we can actually

get our eyes off ourselves and actually on to him.

You know, in communion we go, we sometimes we take it and it's all about God.

Forgive me, forgive me, forgive me.

That's not bad.

But be careful because your eyes just might be on yourself and your problems

actually go, God thank you that you've forgiven me, that it's what you've done.

It's what you've done.

Jesus at the cross, you've done this.

It's your accomplishment.

You've done it.

You've earned for me my forgiveness, my freedom.

I'm a child of God.

Make that your focus as you take communion.

Alright?

We're gonna let you go.

We have these questions.