Series: Tipping Points: “Humility” (7)

Isaiah 66:2

comments:
1. church picnic baptisms – this is for all followers of Christ who haven’t been baptized – children, youth, adults
2. building –
à moved date of 1st service back 1 week 9/30
à made 1st draw on loan of $392,903 on 8/7
à $250,000 code upgrade money from insurance
à good chance will move into new building w/out all furnishings, contents
3. cac appeals for money – we’ve tried not to focus too much on giving, but we’ve had to talk about it much more than usual – thanks for your giving - $681,000 in 18 months in addition to regular giving
4. cac appeals for help – more than usual, time where we’ve needed extra help & will need in the next 4-6 weeks
5. change, transition, uncertainty – be patient, hold tongues, understanding, be unified, walk together, serve together as new future emerges
6. fall schedule – stay in 1 service, 9/16 beginning of fall schedule (9am worship 10:30am classes), why? a) unity health strengthening of the Body b) until growth forces us to return to 2 services
7. thanks to Kyle & Mike for preaching – heard great things about Kyle’s sermon & the communion service he led, same for Mike’s message on ‘whole life worship’
8. pray

tipping points
1. this summer I’ve been talking about tipping points in our relationship with God. Actions, behaviors, attitudes that if we get them God-right, they will tip us in the direction of his presence, power & kingdom.
à 7/1 – challenge of sin & necessity of God’s forgiveness
à 7/8 – noise & silence
à 7/15 – busyness & Sabbath
à 7/22 – fear & trust
à today – the challenge of pride & the necessity of humility.

2. I’ve been saying for months now that it is time to become a new people for a new building. How?

3. one way revolves around these tipping points. Will our sin lead us to seek God’s forgiveness? Will we move from noise to silence, busyness to sabbath, fear to trust, pride to humility?

4. God’s forgiveness, silence, Sabbath, trust & humility will prepare the soil of our souls for spiritual growth. Sin, noise, busyness, fear & pride will accomplish the opposite.

5. today – the challenge of pride & the necessity of humility

pride
1. I begin with 2 quotes from John Stott on pride:
Pride is more then the first of the seven deadly sins; it is itself the essence of all sin.

At every stage of our Christian development and in every sphere of our Christian discipleship, pride is the greatest enemy and humility our greatest friend.

2. pride has a long history. Pride was the very first sin. Isaiah 14:12-15 records the downfall of a king. Many biblical scholars believe that this references the rebellion & downfall of Satan – you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven, I will raise my throne above the stars to God, I will sit enthroned on the mount of the assembly…I will make myself like the Most High.

3. Satan & the other angels who followed him were cast out of heaven, out of God’s presence. We learn here that the essence of pride is aspiring to the status & position of God. Refusing to acknowledge dependence upon him. Pride infringes upon God’s supremacy.

4. the scope of the Bible’s teaching indicates that there’s no sin more offensive to God than our pride.
Proverbs 8:13: To fear the Lord is to hate evil – I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech – God hates pride!

Proverbs 6:16-17: there are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him – haughty eyes – God detests (hates) pride eyes!

Proverbs 16:5: the Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this – they will not go unpunished – God detests proud hearts!

5. now we know why Jonathan Edwards (1703-58; the greatest theologian in American history) called pride the worst viper that is in the heart. He ranked pride as the most difficult sin to root out of our lives and the most hidden, secret and deceitful of all lusts.

6. pride creates the sovereign self. The self that stands apart from God. Full of self.

7. my kids have roped me into watching The Office. A parody about modern American office life. The show delves into the lives of workers at Dunder Mufflin paper supply company in Scranton, PA. Regional Manager Michael Scott (steve carell) is a single, middle-aged man who is the tour guide for The Office. He is the personification of pride, arrogance, the sovereign self. He’s revolting. He’s a creep. He cares about no one but himself.

8. there’s a little bit of Michael Scott in all of us.

5 signposts of pride
1. Peter Wagner gives us 5 signposts of pride in his book Humility:
1) longing for praise & human accolades – a hunger for complements, pats on the back, your name in print or in the bright lights can rapidly lead to pride.

Another form of this is name-dropping. How many
important people you know? Who are your friends?

2) keeping score – we develop a system or scorecard to calculate how many self-defined, prestige-loaded points we accumulate. End result? Aren’t I something! We work hard at building our image to impress both ourselves & others.

Every year we receive a Christmas letter from a couple we went to college with. It’s basically a 2 page scorecard listing all the family accomplishments since their last scorecard. We know what they’ve “done” during the year. But who are they?

3) cultivating a creator complex – this happens when we compare to ourselves who others are & what they do. To the degree that they think or do things differently, we view them as inferior. Often we try to change them into our image. Because we are always right!
à why do they drive a ???
à couldn’t they have chosen a better college?
à don’t they know that’s not the way to paint a house?
à I would never shop for clothes where they do
à why do they keep going back to that terrible golf course? Don’t they have some class?

4) rejoicing in other’s failures & resenting others’ successes – the failures of others can make us look better while their successes can make us look worse. When’s the last time you were secretly happy at someone’s stumbling & failure? Or happy for their promotion or grand opening or large bonus or new house or honor roll child?

Every year in our Ash Wednesday service we pray together a prayer of confession that includes our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves.

5) compulsively defending yourself against criticism – key word, compulsively. This is a hard one. No likes their name or reputation to be run through the mud. The temptation is to fight back. We prove ourselves right in order to make our accusers wrong.

I’m always struck by this whenever I undergo a
criticism & want to defend myself – Jesus never defended himself to his accusers. He let his life, words, actions, track record speak for itself. We need to be more like Jesus!
What are some ways we can combat pride?
1. reminding ourselves that God is God & we’re not –
à he’s the Creator – we’re his creation
à he’s all wise – we’re prone to foolishness
à he’s sovereign, all-powerful – we have limitations
à he’s morally pure – we have character flaws
à he’s the only One who can save us from our sin & God’s judgment – on our best days we’re not good enough to earn our salvation
à he’s the giver of all good things – all that we have ultimately comes from him, from the air we breathe, the water we drink, to the gifts & abilities to make money

2. doing secret acts of kindness for others – in a manner that we won’t be recognized. This is good for all of us. Especially leaders, those who are in the public eye. There are many of you who are like this. Keep it up!

3. practicing downward mentoring – there’s a new book out called Off-Road Disciplines. It’s about spiritual & leadership formation. One of the disciplines – finding someone younger than yourself & asking them to teach you things that they know but you don’t. Some of the best leaders I’ve ever known in the church have made it a point to have people younger than themselves that they’re learning from. Proud people balk at this.

4. last but not least, practicing whole-hearted confession & repentance. As Jonathan Edward wrote over 200 years ago, pride is the hardest sin to root out of our lives. It’s stubbornly holds on to our hearts, egos, wills. We can only successfully fight it with God’s grace.

Next week – humility.