Northside Church - Sydney
Special Guest: Edwina Blair – Humility
I don't know if you've seen the whole of that movie, it's called Bruce Almighty. And that is Bruce, he's been given the powers of God for a few weeks and the chaos that he ensures is the movie. And Evan, who's the poor guy that was under the control of Bruce just then, is his rival. And I don't think Evan actually knows that he's Bruce's rival, but he is. And we laugh at that because I think there's something deep down that we kind of understand that, don't we? That either the rivalry or something within us that sometimes likes the idea of just trying to revel in someone else's misfortune or the opposite of that and you may be much nicer than I am. But kind of we can sometimes resent other people's success. And that's because like Bruce, we kind of lack a bit of humility. And maybe you don't need a lesson in humility this morning. And this is one of those messages where you're not allowed to look at the person next to you. You're not allowed to kind of elbow them and say, "I hope you're listening to her. You've got to keep eyes forward." Because I think we all need lessons in humility every now and again. And when I was 10 years old, I snuck into my father's 40th birthday party. It was at our house and they were making a lot of racket and I kind of snuck in. Just as my dad's friends were giving him his presence and back then you could get something called a single, which was like a record. And they gave him, they said, "This is your theme song." And they put it on the record player and they sang at the top of their lungs my dad's theme songs as far as they were concerned and it was called, "O Lord, it's hard to be humble." I don't know if you know that song. I'm not going to sing it to you, but the words go like this, "O Lord, it's hard to be humble when you're perfect in every way." I can't wait to look in the mirror because I get better looking each day. To know me is to love me because I'm a hell of a man. O Lord, it's hard to be humble, but I'm doing the best that I can. And I don't know why they thought that should have been my dad's theme song, but that was the moment from which I heard the word humble and started to understand what humility actually was. And you see, humility is something that's very important for us to understand. It is the act of being humble and each one of us needs to have humility in our life. And that's why I want to talk to you about it before because I've had a long life so far of trying to learn to be humble. And I don't think any of us can do without just a little bit of a reminder about this. It is to have or to show, and I think both actually, a modest estimation of one's own importance. And it's the opposite of pride. It is the opposite of being proud. And Paul in his letter to the Philippians, and if you've got your Bibles with you this morning, this is where we're going to be looking at. Paul in the letter to the Philippians actually has something very key to say about this. And I don't know if you know the letter to the Philippians very well, but he's talking to the church at Philippian. And in chapter two, he's leading them to a place where they understand the importance of them being imitators of Christ. And there's this beautiful section in the middle of chapter two, I'm going to read it a little bit later, where he's talking about how we can imitate Christ and the humility of Christ. But before he gets us there, he says this, and this is what we're going to explore this morning. He says, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility, consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but to the interests of others. And what Paul here is doing is he's putting before us a choice and either or. He's saying that we can choose to live our life. Our approach to our everyday life has to have a choice about it. There has to be the choice between living a life that imitates Christ or doesn't. One way leads us in that direction and the other way doesn't. One way demonstrates that you and I are followers of Christ and the other one says that we are followers of ourselves. Now this may sound very black and white and I don't apologize for that because Paul doesn't apologize for that. And throughout scripture, the issue of humility and pride, it comes up a lot. And there's other passages that talk about this in Proverbs 18. It says, before his downfall, a man's heart or a woman's heart is proud, but humility comes before honor. And then Jesus himself in Luke 14 says, for everyone who exalts himself or herself will be humbled. And he or she who humbles himself or herself will be exalted. They are very black and white statements about this issue of humility and pride. And that is what Paul is putting before us. He's putting before us that choice, every moment of every day, that choice between selfish ambition and vain conceit or in humility, considering others better than ourselves. And this is what we're going to unpack this morning. So let's first look at selfish ambition. Selfish ambition is very similar to rivalry. And we just saw a great example of rivalry. I think Bruce Nolan is the poster boy this morning of rivalry. And rivalry is when one person is pitted against the other. But the thing is that rivalry can either be real or imagined. You could have a rivalry that is very obvious. There's a rivalry between New South Wales and Queensland in anything. That's a real rivalry. But there can be imagined rivalry, which means it's in your mind, but the other person has got no idea. There can be rivalries in marriage. There can be, if you have a brother or sister, there's rivalries in our sibling relationships. There's rivalries in families, in sporting teams, in social networks. And of course, not at Northside, but in churches. There are rivalries. Because whenever there's two or more people, there will be somebody who is put out by another person. There is somebody who thinks that they are not getting what they need or what they deserve. And that is why Paul talks about this so specifically. And he even actually talks about this even further. In Galatians chapter 5, he actually includes selfish ambition in his acts of the sinful nature, which is in direct opposition to the fruits of the spirit. And even though healthy ambition or godly ambition is encouraged, it's a very slippery slope. And so selfish ambition is the unhealthy part of that. And what Paul does is that he links selfish ambition here, which exists at the expense of another person. He connects it with vain conceit. Now, we don't use the word vain conceit very much anymore, but vain conceit is really empty glory. It's glory that we bestow on ourselves. It's glory that we take, and we put it on ourselves instead of reflecting it to the one who should have all the glory, the fullness of glory, which is God. So vain conceit really exists when we think too highly of ourselves. When we think we are all that and more. And we don't have to do that, obviously. We can just do it, you know, very quietly. Can't we? Again, eyes forward. Don't nudge the person next to you. We can do this very quietly. And just in a moment, there'll be a flash within us that just thinks, hang on, I deserve that, or hang on. Aren't I noticed? Or different elements of that. And that is what happens. You know, vain conceit, as I said, is when we think too highly of ourselves. And Paul, again, speaks very specifically about this. In Romans 12, a letter to the church at Rome, he says, "Do not think. It's more highly of yourself than you ought, but think rather of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the measure of faith that God has given you." So it's like Paul is setting up here, selfish ambition and vain conceit as the power twins of a bad attitude. And Bruce, again, our poster boy of these things working in all their glory. Because when we see one, we see the other. And when we have them, our self-perception gets warped. And when our self-perception gets warped, our perception of other people and in situations get warped. And we can just go off in this tangent of a warped understanding of what's going on. And we can think and do and say things that are not leading us down the path of imitating Christ, which is what this is all about for Paul. That choice doesn't occur in the way that he intends it to do. And it is not then the way that we advance the cause of Christ. Now, Bruce's bad attitude, his selfish ambition and his vain conceit was all about the fact that he believed that he should be getting what Evan Baxter got, that his obvious skill in his mind were not being appreciated and applauded and promoted. And so it made him do some crazy things. And we laugh because we know, don't we, how that feels. We may not go to the extent that Bruce Nolan has gone. Maybe you have, I don't know. But we don't usually. We may want to, but that stays in our head most of the time because we don't get what we think we deserve. Now, one of the reasons why I love preaching on humility and the opposite of that, which is selfish ambition and vain conceit is because I'm an expert in it. Not in humility, in the opposite. You know, there have been periods in my life where I have been the poster girl for selfish ambition and vain conceit. And I don't know if I've shared this story here before. I kind of have lost track. But it is me and my selfish ambition and vain conceit glory. So I will share it with you for your amusement this morning. And in my late 20s, I was serving in our local church and I was in the worship team and our worship pastor was about to resign and move to another church. And so there was much discussion about who was going to take over. He had two key senior leaders. I was one of them and my friend was the other. Now, when this was announced, I, of course, as everyone did, started thinking. And in my mind, I was the heir apparent. It was a done deal because my rival imagined in her mind, but in my mind, it was very real. In comparison, when I lined us up, she had no hope. She didn't. She sang. And she sang lovely. But I was so much better. Not singing. But I had studied at the Conservatorium of Music. I played the piano. I could sing. I could do all these things. And so it doesn't compare. It really does it. So in my illusions of grandeur, the job was mine. I had even no joke. Worked out how I was rearranging the office when I took over because I had been called into ministry. That had been confirmed in my mind. And other people had said it. And this was my grand opportunity. The worship asked you about to leave. He said, you're the one that should take over. Wasn't his choice. But he said that. So his confirmation, my illusions of grandeur, my very healthy ego, you can imagine the cliff I am about to hurtle off. So the moment arrives when my rival tells me that she has been just appointed the worship pastor, you can imagine my response. The indignation within me. And I'm not someone who chucks tantrums. I have never chucked a tantrum. It's just not my way. I am passive aggressive to the hilt. So I smiled sweetly, very insincerely. I kept it all together until I got home. And Troy will testify to this because he witnessed every moment of my self-aggrandizing meltdown. And he will just give it to you in all its glory. And I just lost it because it made no sense to me. And I was angry and full of selfish ambition and vain conceit. And God had a field day with me because he had to. He had to teach me the necessary, extremely painful lesson of 1 Corinthians 1, 27, which says, but God chose the foolish things or the things we think are foolish to shame the wise or those that think they're wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of the world and the despised things of the world. And the things that are not to nullify those things that are or think they are so that no one can boast in him. She was the perfect person at that time because she had humility, which is the one thing I had not an ounce of. And in my mind, it was foolishness that God had to nullify me. Nullify means to make of little or no consequence because until that happened, I could never be open for him to do what he had to do in me because the whole point of it is to imitate Christ. And I was at the other end of the spectrum of imitating Christ. You know, it took me a long time to get to a place where in humility I could consider her better than myself. And it did. It took me a long time, but I got there in that instance. I have lots of other roads to travel when it comes to in humility. But really it's because I made a choice and I understood that I had to have a proper estimation of myself because that is what humility is all about. A proper estimation of yourself. A good understanding of both your weaknesses and your strengths. Humility is not overstating your weaknesses and it's not underplaying your strengths. A truly humble person can just as easily tell you what they are good at as they can tell you what they're not good at. A truly humble person. If someone says I'm not good at anything, I'm terrible, they're not truly humble. They're kind of going the other direction. And for other reasons that we don't have time to get into. But a truly humble person has a proper estimation, the good and the bad. And humility has a vertical aspect to it and a horizontal aspect. It's a proper understanding and estimation of our relationship between God and ourselves. It's understanding that He is the Creator and I am the creation. I exist to give glory to Him. I don't exist to grab all the glory for myself. It's understanding and having a proper estimation of God's place in my life and my place in that. And then equally the horizontal relationship. Having a proper estimation of myself when it comes to others. It's understanding that I live my life in a way where I have a greater concern for them than I have for myself. In any relationship. And when that exists there is no rivalry because I applaud you. I promote you. I encourage you. I want you to exceed and succeed in any way. That is how we are called to live. That is how we imitate Christ. And that is what true humility is. But you and I will always struggle with pride. It's part of our human nature. And that's why Paul is talking about this because we have to choose this over and over again. The moment we think we've beaten pride, we haven't. And so it's something we have to continually do. Because pride is the belief that what applies to you doesn't apply to me. There's a great scene in West Wing where the ambassadors at the UN just ignore all the parking fines and park wherever they want because there is this belief that what applies to you in terms of where you park doesn't apply to me. I am somehow better or smarter or exempt in some way. That is what pride is all about. It says that I'm different and it can come on us in an instant. And the Bible tells us how seriously God takes this with one of what I think is the most terrifying verses of Scripture for me personally. And my issues with pride and that is that God opposes the proud and gives grace to the tumble. I do not want to be opposed by God. I find it hard enough without being opposed by God. And that is how serious God takes this. Because until we have a posture of humility, God can't do what he needs to do through us. You know, pride seeps into our lives. It seeps into our lives in a slow and insidious way. And unless we are on top of it, it can take hold. And I don't know if any of these describe you. And again, eyes forward. Pride seeps into our lives when we are secretly, secretly hoping to be singled out for praise and recognition. When we sit there going, they have to acknowledge me. They have to. That is pride seeping in. It's when we keep score secretly. We keep score about who has been mentioned, who has been given that opportunity, who's been promoted. This happens in families. It happens at the workplace. It happens in sporting teams. It is keeping score in some way against whoever we think is our rival. It seeps in when we try and make other people think the way that we do or act the way that we do simply because it will make us feel better. We call it appearance management. It's building ourselves up by making everybody else conform just so we feel more comfortable about who we are and it says more about us than who we're dealing with. It's when we secretly rejoice in the failures of others. And again, you may never have done this, but I have. When there's just something in me that's just yay. But also when we resent the success of others, they're the same thing. It's just different circumstance. There's that something within us that only we know. And it is when we defend ourselves against criticism. Even the smallest, most constructive criticism, there's something within us almost like a lion that reacts. And again, that comes from a place of pride because how dare they? I am exempt from this. So there are all these moments where pride can seep in and it happens without us even knowing. But unless we're aware, we can't shut it down in our life. God takes this so seriously because He can't work through us if this is what is operating. And Scripture says that we are to humble ourselves because God will humble us Himself if we don't. And I am living proof of that. If it gets so bad, He will just take you off the cliff like He did me. We have to humble ourselves because that is how we walk towards imitating Christ. You know, I want to finish this morning by reading the passage from the message that we've been looking at. But I want to keep reading because I want to keep reading where Paul takes us. It's like this issue of humility is the door in towards imitating Christ. So I want to read from the message what Paul says. He says this, "Don't push your way to the front. Don't sweet talk your way to the top. Put aside. Put yourself aside and help others. Get ahead." Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lead a helping hand. Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of Himself. He had equal status with God. But didn't think so much of Himself that He had to cling to that advantage, to the advantage of that status no matter what, not at all. When the time came, He set aside the privilege of deity and took on the status of a slave and became human. Having become human, He stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, He lived a selfless, obedient life and died a selfless, obedient death, the worst kind of death, that of a crucifixion. We need to crucify within ourselves selfish ambition and vain conceit. It is the only way we can imitate Christ. And my prayer for you this week is that you will be open to recognising this in yourself. It is the work of the Holy Spirit that shines the light on those moments. And you may be aware of it already. You may be sitting here this morning going, "I know when I've done that." Or you may be sitting here this morning not aware. And that's okay. We're all at that place at some point. But we need the Spirit of God to help us to see and to prompt us in that moment to go, "Oh, that's how I just reacted." And sometimes people trigger that in us and that's okay. But we are not responsible for them. We are responsible for ourselves. So I just want to pray right now as we all enter this week with this issue of humility. Lord, I just thank You so much that You are so patient with us, that You can just every moment of every day give us the grace to just try. Lord, I just thank You that You choose to partner with us in advancing the gospel, that You choose to partner with us in expanding Your Kingdom. But Lord, we can only do that when we have a posture before You of humility. Lord, show us this week where we have the attitude of selfish ambition and vain conceit. Show us this week in those moments when we react out of pride. Just help us to humbly come before You and just open every part of our life, particularly our inner world that nobody else sees but You. Help us to humble ourselves so that You never have to. Lord, we just lift ourselves up to You. We open ourselves. We kneel at Your feet. We want to imitate our Lord and Savior. And we know that this is one of the key ways for us to do that. Lord, we give all honor and glory to You where it belongs. And we just thank You and we praise You in Jesus' name. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]