Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / November 14, 2021 | Bad Religion - Pride

Transcript

November 14, 2021 | Bad Religion - Pride · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome, welcome.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: I've got two quick points of order.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is that if you are watching us over in the cab right now, we had a power outage uh last hour, which was super fun, and it reset the brightness on those screens.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so if it's particularly bright right now, just know that that's the reason why.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: And uh sorry.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the other thing is wanted to help set your expectations because next week I'm really excited.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: We are doing sort of a one-off message, Thanksgiving service of praise.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to be using those boards that are out in the cabin, the mulvane lobbies, where people have been saying what they're thankful for.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: We'll have them up here on stage.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so I hope you'll consider writing down something that you're thankful for so that it's just sort of a visual reminder of all the wonderful things that God has done.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it'll be a really great service.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but that'll be next week.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then the following week, we'll finish up our uh fourth and final message in the bad religion series.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: So just so you're aware.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: But today we are talking about bad religion.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, if you haven't had the chance to be with us, bad religion is this idea that our convictions um don't always match our actions.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: As Christians, we often say that there are certain things that are important to us, but we don't always live those out in our daily lives.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: And when that happens, two important and very harmful things can happen.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: The first is that we can lose our faith, our trust in God.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: It can become weak because we are not living out the things He has asked us to do.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: But then also that as Christians are supposed to be a light into the world around us, we don't shine very brightly, and the world loses faith or trust that Christianity is the answer for our world, then we know it really is.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: So bad religion has been us looking at this idea that our convictions don't always match our actions.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's when good Christianity goes wrong.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this morning, I want to take just a second to talk with you about repentance.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Repentance probably would have been a really good church word if we had kept that series going, but repentance is simply the turning back of our previous life.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's acknowledging that we were wrong and saying that we're going to do different in the future.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've trusted in Christ as your Savior, your journey with him has and should continue to be marked by repentance.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: In another way of saying it, when we come to Jesus for the first time, what we're saying is, you are my savior, I cannot save myself.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: You are the one who has done all of the work, all of the good things, who has rescued me because I can't rescue myself.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's a positional, or it's a position that we take before God, and it's also an attitude of humility that's supposed to mark the rest of our lives.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: We're never supposed to get beyond this point where we are constantly recognizing our own sinfulness before God and his beautiful grace and mercy that has been given to us, forgiving us of our sins.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: You can look at it sort of in the flip side, and that there's never been someone who has gone to God and said, Hey God, I'm pretty awesome.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Just want you to know that because I do.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I know that you've got this whole salvation bit.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um I would love a little bit.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need all of it because I've done a lot of good things in my life.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so if we could just work something out where a little bit of you, a little bit of me, we'll move forward.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the problem is God does not take that approach very well.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh He does, uh our pridefulness does not get us far into his kingdom.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: He requires an attitude of humility.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Problem is that as Christians, especially as ones who have trusted in Christ and then had the opportunity to be a Christian for a while, we can often forget that attitude of humility and we can become prideful.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh when I was a kid, uh here's something that relates to everybody the humility of learning to ride your bike for the first time.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: So when I was a kid, I had this really cool my first bike, it was awesome.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: It was had tiger stripes and it had tassels on the side, and I was pretty tough.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I'm riding around and I've got my training wheels on, and but eventually, right, you take those off, and I had learned to ride my bike.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you have the parent who's like, I'm never gonna let go, and then definitely let's go, and uh it worked out fine.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: But eventually, right, I had forgotten, you know, I was good at riding a bike, I was good on two wheels, and I got this beautiful BMX bike.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: It was a blue schwin that had pegs on the front and the back, and I was like giving rides to all my friends around the neighborhood, you know.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and there was this huge dirt ramp near my house, and I decided that I needed to go off of it on my BMX bike.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: I had been playing some video games where I'd seen people doing the same thing, and I was like, I'm gonna be like them.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so I decided I'm gonna go off this ramp, and I'm going to spin my handlebars 360 degrees.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: And right, because that would look even better.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so you've got all your friends on the side that are like, you should do it.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Keep going.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so I pedal and I go off this ramp and I spit start spinning the handlebars, but I had forgotten a few critical things.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: One of them gravity.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Second, my dexterity, you know.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it didn't go 360, but it went 270, and I landed on my handlebar.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: I've still got a scar to prove it.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: I had uh gotten a little too big for my britches there.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: I had forgotten that there were certain things that were supposed to mark, I was supposed to remember as I was riding a bike, um, that were supposed to keep me grounded, both figuratively and literally.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I had sort of become overconfident and I paid the price for it.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when it comes to our Christianity, right, where do we step into a bad religion?
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it comes when we forget the humility that once marked our relationship with Christ.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: And like I said, we become prideful.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: When we do that, we are in essence acting, whether or not it's an active part of our thoughts, we are acting in a fashion that says, I actually have somewhat become my own Savior, and I don't need Jesus as much.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not okay.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't send a good message and it weakens our faith.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: So this morning, our main text where we're going to look at this and how much Jesus really dislikes pridefulness is going to be in Luke 18, 9 through 14.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm going to have the uh passage up here on the screen.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mislabeled it.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: We this is the correct place where we're going to be, but just so you know, um, as I put the words on the screen here, I want to preface this for a moment for those of you who have your Bibles or phones and want to turn to it.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um in the church today, uh, it's no small feat that the word Pharisee has a lot of baggage attached to it.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: And Pharisees have sort of become the one stop-all place for someone who is living out the law of the letter but not the spirit.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: They are our punching bag in the church, and they're an easy punching bag because they made a lot of mistakes like we do.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: But this parable that we're about to read that Jesus was giving is uh is pretty famous.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's pretty popular, and you've probably heard it before, but before you just immediately flow into what you think the parable is about, I want you to pause for a second and understand that Jesus is bringing up two contrasting figures.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, one is going to be a Pharisee, and one is a tax collector.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: And to the original audience, Jewish audience, that would have heard this parable, the Pharisee is the one who is expected to act righteously, and the despised tax collector is the one who is expected to behave in a profane manner.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is going to flip those roles, but just so you know, that's where we're coming from.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Two men went to the temple to pray.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: I thank you, God, that I am not like other people, cheaters, sinners, and adulterers.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm certainly not like that tax collector.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Instead he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, Oh God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: I tell you, this sinner, Jesus says, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God, for those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: So we've got these two contrasting figures.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's similar to uh the parable of the Good Samaritan, where the ones that in that cultural sh or in that culture should be expected to do the good thing, do the wrong thing, and then vice versa.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: The ones who are looked down upon in society are the ones who are living out God's commands.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let's talk for a second about tax collectors, uh, because this was more than like being an ancient IRS member.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um you might have heard this before, but basically, tax collectors back then were ones who had they were Jews who, right in Jesus' time, it is Roman, uh they're under Roman authority.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so they are fellow countrymen, fellow Jews who have decided to follow uh the rules of the Romans and work for them by collecting taxes from their own people.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: And not only were they seen as a traitor in the eyes of many, but also they were frequently known for um inflicting unscrupulous business practices upon their fellow countrymen.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: They were making money off of their own people.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: They just had to give a certain amount back to the government, and whatever else they collected in taxes above that was for their own gain.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: So frequently they were wealthy, they were despised, they were looked down upon, and Jesus loved hanging out with them.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so we've got these two individuals here, and they strike a contrasting picture.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the Pharisee had confidence in himself, right?
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: He goes up to God and says, God, thank you for making me so awesome.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: You have made me, I'm not a sinner like these other people.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and he goes to God in sort of this unrighteous pride.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: He goes to God and it's not even really a prayer, to be honest.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's it reads more like his own PR campaign.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes to God and says, God, thank you for making me so great.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's obvious that he has confidence in himself.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: But it bleeds into this other idea that as Christians, um, the design for sanctification is that we become more righteous.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: That you are, should look more like Jesus now than maybe five years ago, ten years ago, depending how long you've been a Christian, that we should look more and more like Jesus as we walk closer with God.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: But the danger there, the pitfall, is that we then view our growing righteousness as sort of like a payment to God that we are doing the good thing and either are deserving of more stuff, or we feel like we no longer need the cross as much as we once did because we have hopefully excised certain sins from our life.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, what I'm saying is that as we know Jesus longer, it becomes easier for us to think of him less, because we often see ourselves as being righteous, as this one did.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: He lifts up these different sins.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: He judges other people very harshly.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Thankfully, Lord, I am not an adulterer, I am no cheat, I am not a sinner.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you so much for not making me like them.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: And while he might have viewed, for instance, one of elys' adultery, he might have viewed that as more of a condemnation than whatever sins he viewed of himself.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Objectively speaking, God does not like either of them.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: God does not like the sins that either one are contributing into the world.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a slippery slope that we get on where we have lifted ourselves much higher than the world around us.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Our pedestal grows taller and taller each day.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: And by virtue of thinking of ourselves more mightily than we should in pride, we view everyone else around us incorrectly.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: We think that they are the sinners and we are the righteous.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: When in reality, as Romans 3.23 says, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: That God shows no favoritism based upon this.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: And the pride of the Pharisee was just as grievous as the adultery or the anger or the malice of another.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: But the Pharisee in their pride was judging others.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: And the final one is that he was practicing false devotion.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: He says at the end, he goes, Lord, you know that I fast.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know that I give you a tenth of my income.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: And it's as if he's saying, Lord, here's my offering before you, you're welcome.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: And we can fall into that space as well.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: We can think of ourselves, no matter what it is.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: We, hey, we go to church, we give to missions, we help, you know, bake our neighbor a meatloaf or something like that.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: And we're like, God, I did this really cool thing.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: You're welcome.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: If there was a draft right now for Christians, I'm a first-round pick.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: We can get into this sense that we are doing things just because we are getting attention for them and not because we actually care about God and about his commands and what we have been called to do.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: It was false devotion.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: His motives for it was so that he would be recognized.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, a almost 180-degree contrast comes the despised, as Jesus said, tax collector.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: He had confidence in God.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: If you'll remember, his prayer is very simple.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Lord, be merciful upon me.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: I am a sinner.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: His confidence is in God, not upon himself.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: He recognizes that he has come before God in a position of humility, of repentance, recognizing that he needs the forgiveness that Christ is offering continually.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: There's not a point in his life where he no longer requires the cross, but that his confidence is laid up in God and not in himself.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Then he judges himself.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: He judged themselves.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Lord, I know that I'm a sinner.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, there might be other people around me who are doing things that aren't good, but God, between us, you know that I've messed up a lot.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: He continues to walk forward in this sort of attitude of thanksgiving for what God has done for him.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: And God counts it as his justification later on.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, I'm thankful that you have continued to recognize that you need me, that you have not reached a point where you no longer do, and you're acting like it.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, the tax collector is practicing true devotion, and it's sort of an argument made out of absentia because he doesn't mention any of the wonderful things that he's done, like the Pharisee.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Where the Pharisee goes, Yes, I have fasted, yes, I have given.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: The tax collector comes and knows that all of the good things that he has done for God are but, as the Bible says, dirty rags.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: That nothing that we can do, nothing that we can provide for God, no righteous deed can be presented before him as something that ultimately justifies us in his sight.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is why we know we do not go to heaven because of our good works, but rather because we have been saved by grace through faith in Christ.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: So these two figures present a striking contrast, one in pride, one in humility, one having attitudes that might be easy to develop if we've known Jesus for a while, and one exhibiting the kind of heart that is supposed to be focused on God, no matter how long we have known Him.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: But at the very end of the passage in Luke 18, Jesus presents sort of a kingdom-wide mandate.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: And he says that those who are exalted will be humbled, and those who are humbled will be exalted.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: In the Greek, these two words mean the exact opposite of each other.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Exalt means to literally raise something high up so it can be seen.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Humble means to bring something low so that it's more difficult to see.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: And God, kind of like the parent who says between two kids, here's a sandwich, one of you cut it, the other one chews, God says, This first area, whether you are exalted or humbled on this earth, is in many ways up to you.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: But based upon your decision, based upon what you choose to do, I will humble you or exalt you in my kingdom.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a worldwide application to this, that those who have been humbled, um, have humbled themselves, as we've talked about, and have come to Christ will be exalted in his kingdom, and those who have said that they are their own Savior and rejected Jesus will be eternally humbled.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: But there's also an application for those who have trusted in Christ, which is that the Bible is very, very clear that in heaven there will be sort of different positions of authority and honor given.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: That everybody who is in heaven will have been saved.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: There will be no more crying, there will be no more tears.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: It is a wonderful place.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: We get to worship and be in God's presence forever, our relationship fully restored.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: But those who were the had the meek disposition in this world, who did not seek to honor and glorify themselves, they will be honored in heaven.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: And we will know that they deserved it.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: And for those Christians who seek the praise of others, who do things out of a false devotion because they want to sort of project this illusion that they are sufficient, God says, You will be with me, but you will have a lower station.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: We can think of the disciples, where we know that the disciples that follow Jesus around, the apostles, that on the walls of New Jerusalem and the new heavens and the new earth, that their names will be inscribed on the gates.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like they get a position of honor.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: They were apostles.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: It makes sense.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: So is the same with us.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus set the perfect example for this.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: There has been nobody in history who has deserved praise more than Jesus.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, what did Jesus do?
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: He consistently spurned the glory that he was due.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: He did not seek it out, but rather humbled himself to the cross so that we might be saved.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then what happened?
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: God raised him up next to him and exalted him before everybody.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: And in the new heavens and the new earth, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: He was the most humble, and he is exalted now, and will continue to be in the future.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: But for us, this is our focus right now is am I exalting myself?
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Am I lifting myself up or am I humbling myself?
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: And there's sort of a deferred gratification here because if we are seeking humility, ultimately God will exalt us, but it might not happen in this world.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's a really compelling thing, though, to want to seek out our own righteousness.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: Very tempting to want to be seen as better than other people, to lord yourself over others.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: There was a study done in Harvard, in our Harvard classroom, which might have something to do with it, but there was a study done, and the students in the classroom were given two different options.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: They said, okay, you're presented with two jobs.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, all things being equal, these jobs are the same, same responsibilities, same hours, all that.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: Option A, um, you are uh presented a job offer where you make$50,000.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: And option B, you're presented a job where you make$100,000.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: And they were taking this test anonymously, and they said, but there's there's sort of a wrinkle here.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh depending on which one you choose, most people would choose B, making$100,000.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: But they said, um, here's the here's the snag.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you choose option A, where you make$50,000, everybody else in your company makes$25,000.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: If you choose option B, where you make$100,000, everybody else in your company makes$200,000.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: Choosing anonymously, the majority of the students chose option A.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: That they would rather make less money, but make more money than everybody around them, than objectively have a better salary, but know that others were paid more than them.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of surprising.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you might say, like, who in their right minds would have picked option A?
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: But I think it's Valuable to look at sort of this human condition that in our deepest, the deepest part of us, maybe even when you were hearing that story, you go, man, that would be kind of hard to be in a work environment where I knew everybody was making more than I was.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: There's a certain pride that we do still hold on to.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: Also, I um fumbled that story three separate times in the other service.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm glad that I was able to make it through that without having to restart.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: That was just for me.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: That wasn't for you.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: That was just a me thing.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um but we have this condition, we have this attitude, and even if it's not as pronounced as some of the examples that we've been talking about, we understand that Satan can weave these threads into our lives where we still hold deeply to this pride and don't exhibit exhibit the humility of Christ.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: But why do we do this?
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Jesus says, He says, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: In ancient Israel, what they would do to bury somebody is they had a whole lot of rocks, and they would dig into the cliffside, um, and they would have a space where they would lay somebody who had passed away.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: A year later they would come back and take the bones and put them into an alcove, and so you would have like a family burial plot that would have the bones of all of your ancestors.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: But you would sort of decorate and you would uh design the front of this space so that it looks nice.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus is talking about here is he says, You are one of these tombs, hypocrites.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You are whitewashing, you have made the outside look beautiful, but on the inside it is dead and rotting.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that is our condition now.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: That before God we love to look righteous, but on the inside we can be apathetic, we can be prideful, we can be seeking ourselves rather than God.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: And he says that is dangerous.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: When I was a kid, I uh I was known at Christmas time for being really good at like saying thank you for gifts.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like I wasn't one of the kids that was like, oh, I don't like this sweater and socks.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: I was always, you know, thank you so much.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: And my aunts decided to play a prank on me uh one Christmas and to take advantage of that.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was like in grade school, I was pretty young, and they had wrapped a fruit basket for me.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so I opened up this fruit basket on Christmas, Christmas morning, but um that was a fruit basket that they had received about four weeks prior.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was moldy and you know, disgusting, and all the fruit was it was gross.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I opened it up and I was like, thank you so much for this.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: In my head, I'm like, what is this?
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: But on the outside, I'm going, oh, this is fantastic.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: And they're of course cracking up laughing because they got me.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know, there's this you we're me.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: I act like that frequently, where I recognize that something is not going right in my life, but I project an attitude that everything is fantastic.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: And even though it's actually weakening me, and even though it's actually harming me, I want everybody else to know that everything is fantastic.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that in and of itself is pride as well.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, we know what pride looks like before God and what humility looks like.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: We know why we do it, because we desire to, you know, project this illusion, and because we want to sort of whether convince ourselves or other people that we've got it all together.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: But one final question for this morning: why do we keep doing it even though we know it's wrong?
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: Why do we continue down this path even though we've been told, even outside of church in the Bible, that pride is not a good quality?
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: Why do we continue to do that?
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, speaking at the end of his uh message on the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives a couple reasons, and there are three of them.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: They're short, and after each one, I want you to think about what sounds the same in each of these three statements.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, thus when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: Truly I say to you, they have received their reward.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: So there would be those who give to the needy, and there was this sort of like um megaphone apparatus near the sanctuary where they could uh throw in their coins and they would make a lot of noise, right?
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so that could be what we're talking about here, or it could just be a figurative statement, but whatever it is, there were those that Jesus was talking to who said, Hey, when you give money, um that's not supposed to be something you need to proclaim to the whole world.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like you should be giving to God's kingdom, but it's supposed to be so that your right hand doesn't know what your left is doing.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's not so that you can be praised.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: That was the first one.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh in Matthew 6 5 comes number two.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: Truly I say to you, they have received their reward.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: Standing on the street corner, he talks about there's more to this statement where he says that there are also those who just pray way too long, which I know some of you have probably experienced.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, Connor, shorten it.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: But you're praying way too long, but the reason they were doing it is because they wanted people to hear them.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: They wanted to see their righteousness.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: And God says, No, that is not why we're doing it.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Third, and finally, uh in Matthew 6, 16, and when you fast, right, uh abstaining from food for a purpose, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: Truly I say to you, they have received their reward.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: They would put on sackcloth and ashes, and they would put makeup on their face so that they looked more gaunt, like they hadn't obviously had not been eating for a while.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was like, just in case I hadn't told you yet, I'm doing something for God, and you can see that visibly.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Truly I say to you, they have received their reward.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been playing along at home, what is the statement that Jesus has continually said, truly I say to you, they have received their reward.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: So why do we keep doing it?
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: Why does any bad habit persist?
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: Why do we, why does the person who can't take their hand off the slot machine, or the alcoholic, or the person who is just caught in continual like lust and pornography, like why do they continue in these habits?
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because through short-sighted vision, what's happening now and how good it feels is not worth exchanging for the good that can come down the road.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: But we know that that is how God has set up his kingdom.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: That there will be those who are humbled now, that will be exalted in his kingdom, which is far better, far better than being exalted now.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the other, uh the reverse will happen as well.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: That there are those who are exalted now, which will be humbled in eternity.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: And we will be with God.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: For those who are Christians, we will be with God forever.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not like we will regret the opportunity to be with him.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: We are still in heaven and have been forgiven of our sins.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: But God says in that hierarchy, there will be those that I want to honor because of how they acted in this world.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's just, we don't really think of that that often.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: We love the attention that we get now.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: We love how it feels now when somebody recognizes us for a gift to a mission fund.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: Or how it feels now when we help out somebody who's in need, and people say, Wow, it's so great that you do that.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's the feeling that we get now when we, you know, post a picture on social media of our Bible that's open and we've got our coffee cup and all the verses highlighted, but as soon as that picture is posted, we close our Bible because we weren't actually reading anything.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: There's a self-gratification that comes now, and it's not worth what God can bring later.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: But we just don't always think of it that way.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: And to be clear, I want to back up my statement here.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: No part of this is that we should not continue to seek God in righteousness, pursue his goodness, and act in a fashion that is more like Jesus.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: We should be doing all of those things.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's just out of a heart of true devotion rather than false devotion and self-righteousness.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: There's a proper way to do those things.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: So, what should our example be in this life?
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: How can we try and live focused on the future, not what happens now?
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: Paul tells us in Philippians 2, verses 3 through 8, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count a quality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: Paul gives us a pretty loaded statement here.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: What it meant, and there's even debate now, conversation now, about what it meant for the king of the universe to humble himself in the form of humankind.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: That it's significant.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but less about the theological impact or um the ontology of Christ, but more just how does it affect us?
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like the fact that God did do that, that he humbled himself, that to whatever extent it looks like, he um relinquished some of his powers, um, whether, uh, well, yeah, again, I'm not gonna get into this, but God chose to humble himself.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: And we should follow that example.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: We should be ones who want to follow in that path that Jesus took, that God was born into a manger in the lowest of lows, and yet was the king of all of creation.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: That he was found in human form and humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like, just think, we talk about the cross so often, but think of it from that point of view.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: That Jesus did it, and it was humiliating for him.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: That he was, uh, despite all of our drawings, he was probably nude uh when he did it, and that he was had uh parts of his beard plucked out and he had been whipped beforehand and in front of everybody.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: He had been mocked by the sign that was above his head, he uh was posted as a crim uh as a criminal between two other criminals, like humiliating for the king of the universe, but he chose to do it because of what it was going to accomplish.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: And just like Jesus, we are supposed to be humble and not prideful.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, how uh how how can we break this down in hopefully a simple fashion?
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: I just separated it into an inward and an outward question.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: Inward mean self-reflective, or I guess they're both self-reflective, but inward mean sort of our own thoughts and feelings, and outward being how we are acting to the world.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: And the first one is where's my confidence?
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you remember the Pharisee and the tax collector in uh Luke 18, right?
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: We said that the Pharisee had confidence in himself.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Hey God, I'm pretty great.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: I've done a lot of good things.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: I act like you want me to act.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't you know I fasted and I gave money and I and I tithed?
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, God, I'm pretty great.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: Is our confidence laid up in ourselves, in the way that we view other people, in our motivation for acting righteously?
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: Or is our confidence in God?
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: Where it should be, where our humility will place it properly, that we recognize that we still need Him no matter how far away from conversion we get, that 80 years on from trusting in Christ, we still need Jesus every day because we are sinners.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: Where's our confidence at?
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully it's in God.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: Second is how can I serve others better?
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: It happened quite a few times that in the the disciples, when they were following Jesus, they go, hey Jesus, which of one of us is the best?
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I know you have favorites.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's me, right?
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: And though John did refer to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved, um, we know that every single time the disciples asked these questions about who was best, Jesus said, When was the last time you thought about other people?
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: He brings over a child in one of the instances in Matthew 18, and they say, Which one of us is greatest?
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: And he puts the child before him, and he says, Which one of you has humbled yourself like a child?
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's his answer.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: At the Last Supper, they're arguing about which one of them is greatest.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Let me set an example for you of what being first in the kingdom of heaven is like.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then he takes off their sandals and washes their feet.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: He says, This is what it should be.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to be exalted later on, which was their goal, if you want to be righteous, seen as, you know, lifted up and wonderful later on, you will humble yourself now.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: You'll seek the intent of others first.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: You will love people like Jesus loved them.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: A final example of this that I thought was really interesting and I wanted to share with you, is uh there's a story about a thousand AD of a king named King Canute.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: He was a Scandinavian, um, he was the leader of Viking forces.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: And in about a thousand A.D., he unified, became king of um England, Denmark, and Norway.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so he is this king who has brought all of these nations together, and his court is filled with people who praise him.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: All day long.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: They're saying, King Canute, you're so wonderful and fantastic, and the world is, you know, no match for you.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: You can do whatever you want.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: And he gets really tired of it.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so he takes his throne and his entire court, and he goes down to the sea.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: And he puts his throne in the sand as the waves are sort of lapping up nearby, and he sits down and he goes, I want everybody to watch.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: And he looks out into the ocean and says, Stop rising.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: And he keeps doing this for hours.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: He looks at the ocean as it as the low tide is becoming the high tide, and it continues to then hit his toes and then his ankle and then his knees as his throne is being submerged, and he keeps yelling at the sea, stop rising.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually he turns to his court after having them watch this for a while, and he says, Let all the world know that the power of kings is empty and worthless, and there is no king worthy of the name save him by whose will heaven and earth and sea obey eternal laws.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: King Canute, who was a Christian, said that there is no reason for us to be prideful in this world when we truly compare ourselves to the king of the universe.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: That we are supposed to trust in God and trust in his provisions and not in what we can do for ourselves.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: If you have believed in Christ, part of that is saying, I can't be my own savior, I need a savior.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so thanks be to God that warts and all, he takes us, those who are prideful and those who are humble, and he accepts us and brings us to the cross and forgives us, even though we don't deserve it, because Jesus humbled himself as an example for us.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful reality of God's kingdom work.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, he will make all things right.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: Those who are the least of these in this world, they will be raised up high in the end.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: But it requires sort of staving off some of that glory now so that we can receive it later, like Jesus.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we thank you for today.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, for Christ.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the cross.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for his humiliating sacrifice, that he died so that we may live.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: And God, I pray that we will never, ever lose sight of what it means to believe in a God who humbled himself to the cross.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: God, please help us as we try and become more righteous, to live like you would like us to live, that we don't get too big of ourselves and think of ourselves differently than we ought to.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: Father, please help us with clear eyes to judge ourselves, to not raise ourselves above others around us, but to just focus on you and how we can live in this world dedicated to you, whether or not we receive praise for it.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: God, we desire all to be exalted by you in the new kingdom, and we pray that you would help us to live humble lives so that that might be the case.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name that we pray.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: All right, have a great week.