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00:00:01 today's passage is taken from 1 Corinthians chapter 3: 18 to chapter 4: 21 reading from the NIV 2011 version do not deceive yourselves if any of you think you are Wise by the standards of this age you should become fools so that you may can become wise for the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight as it is written he catches the wise in their craftiness and again the Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile so then no more boasting about human leaders all things are yours whether
00:00:39 Paul or Apollos or sephus 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 chapter 4 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 is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful I care very little if I am 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
00:01:21 judges me therefore judge nothing before the appointed time wait until the Lord comes he will bring to light what is hidden in darkness dark nness and will expose the motives of the heart at that time each will receive their praise from God now brothers and sisters I have applied these things to myself and Apollos 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
00:01:56 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 already you have all you want already you have become rich you have begun to Reign and that without us how I wish that you had really begun to rain so that we might also reign with you for it seems to me that God has put us Apostles on this play at the end of the procession like those condemned to die in the arena we have been made a spectacle to the whole universe
00:02:31 to angels as well as to human beings we are fools for Christ but you are so wise in Christ we are weak but you are strong you are honored we are Dishonored to this very hour we go hungry and thirsty we are in ranks we are brutally treated we are homeless we work hard with our own hands when we are cursed we bless when we are persecuted we endure it when we are slandered we answer kindly we have become the scum of the earth the garbage of the world right up to this moment I'm writing this not to shame you
00:03:12 but to warn you as my dear children even if you had 10,000 Guardians in Christ you do not have many fathers for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel therefore I urge you to imitate me for this reason I have sent to you Timothy my son whom I love who is faithful in the Lord he will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every Church some of you have become arrogant as if I were not coming to you but I will come to you very soon if the Lord is willing and
00:03:51 then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking but what power they have for the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power what do you prefer shall I come to you with the rod of discipline or shall I come in love and With A Gentle Spirit this is the word of the Lord testing might be oh it is on okay good all right um before we start uh for last for next week's yes uh next week's sermon will be on spiritual maturity in the church by Brother John Lee for God so love the World Part 3 honor him the
00:04:35 week after that and church discipline by Dr Peter okay um before we start today let us come to the Lord in prayer Our God and our father we give you thanks that we can come into your presence this day we thank you that we can come before you only because of the blood of our Lord Jesus as we have sung this morning truly Our Father There Is Power in the Blood the power that saves us from not just death and but the power to save us from sin father we just pray that as we meditate on your word together we pray you'll help us to
00:05:10 die to ourselves we ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ all right today's topic is on uh blessed self forgetfulness and um we have read a really long passage chapter three uh thank you Dr Peter uh and all the way to chapter four right so it's um a lot of verses there we're not going to cover everything uh oh yeah John told me I had to be within the table okay um so we're only going to cover this in a surgical fashion meaning that we're going to go through select versus and you'll see what I mean okay so we have read that
00:05:49 I'm going to start again verse 21 so this is where our focus is going to be therefore let no one boast in men for all things are yours let no one boast whether Paul or Apollos or sephus or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all are yours and you are Christ and Christ is gods and chapter four the first seven verses let a man so consider us as Servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful but with me
00:06:20 is a very small thing that should be judged by you or by a human Court in fact I do not even judge myself for I know of nothing myself my conscience is clear yet I not justified by this by He Who judges me is the Lord therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord comes who will bring who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the heart then each one's praise will come from God verse six now these things Brethren I have figuratively transferred
00:06:47 to myself and apollis for your sakes that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other for who makes you to differ from another and what do you have that you did not receive now if you did indeed receive it why do you boast as if you had not received it so this will be our Focus today um the other verses before and after actually complement this particular section but this is really the Crux so it starts off in Corinth so ideally we will start with
00:07:23 chapter 3 uh previously but we'll do that next week so in Corinth um the Corinthian Church uh the letter that was written to them it was well known that there was something going on within that church and there were actually a lot of Divisions they were very divided there a lot of strife a lot of competition so the division in the Corinthian Church what is that all about it starts off in chapter one he says I'm of Paul I'm Apollos this theme continues on until now chapter 3 chapter 4 originally the
00:07:54 church was there because of Paul and then sooner or later some other teachers and other ministers came along some other PR preachers came along like apollis apollis was known to be a very good preacher cers Etc so different people here ministered to the church and one person perhaps was mentored by Paul and another Maybe mentored by apus and instead of being happy you know that they have relationships with these people they start to use it as a basis for a power play what does that mean I'm going to say this to people you know I
00:08:24 know Paul you know I say you only know apus actually AP is not that great I know Paul I'm better I'm more suited to be a church leader h is that sort of tension that they start having and they start having claims you know just because I know this person you know I am worth more so it's a basis of a power play so Paul when he writes this letter he's saying that there's a root cause to all this division happening why is there no peace and why can't we get along with each other and the real result of is
00:08:52 just a result of Pride and boasting now where do we find this in the passage okay let's go back to um chapter uh 3 verse vers 18 no no verse 21 therefore let no one boast in men boast okay that's the word and that same word is used again in chapter 4 verse 7 all the way to the end for who makes you to receive differ from another Etc all the way to the end why do you boast as if you have not received it so that is the boasting remember the other thing is about pride and that is in verse six that none of you be puffed up
00:09:31 very interesting word that's used okay so these two words will be really the basis of what we're going to consider today boasting and being puffed up John Piper puts it this way boasting is the outward form of the inner condition of Pride boasting is the outward form of the inner condition of Pride so if we are proud naturally what we're going to do is we want to talk about it we want to let people know this is what I have I have a relationship with Paul or I have a relationship with Apollos it goes much
00:10:00 deeper than that so it brings us to a very interesting topic of self esteem okay so pride and boasting is very deeply related to self-esteem so what is self-esteem self-esteem really is how we value and perceive ourselves how do we esteem ourselves what price do you put on your person on your being because the higher the price the more I can talk about it right but if I if it's low I can't really talk talk much I can't be proud of I can't boast about it so each of us will be on a scale you know in
00:10:38 terms of our self-esteem some people have lower self-esteem some people have higher self-esteem right so what are the symptoms you know low self-esteem people you know you we we may feel you know that being constantly compared to others um other than ourselves and then you know we engage in people pleasing Behavior you don't we don't reinforce boundaries all sorts of things now what about people with overly High self-esteem so it's not just high but overly high and this is where if you have an inflated sense of self you will
00:11:08 start to boast and tell people about what you have so that is what Paul is trying to address here pride and boasting is very intricately linked with self-esteem and now we're going to talk about the overview of what we're going to see today three things the natural condition of the human ego the transform sense of self and how to get it okay now first thing the natural condition of the human ego that's what we're going to address and then after how do you fix that human ego how do you get there so
00:11:36 the natural condition of human ego remember the word that was being used in the passage 1 Corinthians chapter 4: 6 it says there that none of you may be puffed up now the word puffed up in the Greek is um fusio is to be inflated or you can say make proud you are having giv a sense of something and then you just inflate it so big that is what it means to be puffed up so so you see a picture of puffer fish like very cute it's a it's a natural state for a puffer fish to to puff up if it's in in danger okay
00:12:12 so there are only seven occurrences all written by Paul six of them are found in First Corinthians one is found in Colossians chapter 2 and it's a special theme of Paul it's a it's different from the word hubris the word puffed up here brings a sense of something different and it's um something that commentators have realized he's trying to teach something about the human ego using this particular word for Pride so it is really like a a Bellow all right we don't have Bellows here but it it really
00:12:48 comes from that word so um if we are in countries where there are fireplaces a Bellow is just an um object that is able to inflate it has air inside and when you deflate it air comes out so I don't know but if if anyone here goes to kampong right usually if people are cooking they will take a fan and just fan the fire right so this is an object to actually just fan the flames and and make it larger so the Bellow naturally works by inflating deflating inflating deflating now Paul is saying here this
00:13:19 is these are natural things but there's something unnatural about this it evokes the image of an organ that is distended because so much air has been pumped into it that is ready to burst he's using very visual images now the next image that is to come is quite a visual one so prepare yourself now there's this boy called anit rman okay and he's suffering from chronic liver disease and therefore because of that chronic liver disease he's actually suffering from a very very bloated very inflated stomach and this
00:13:52 is the kind of image that Paul is trying to say you are so inflated your ego is so so big because it's way Beyond is proper size you are getting puffed up now that's the idea not just the puffer fish that's natural but this is unnatural it shouldn't be any part of the human body shouldn't be just so inflated it's it doesn't work that way now next he's he let's reflect on what this means all right how how does this relate to remember pride and boasting right self-esteem so there are four things that come to mind
00:14:30 and this is a a very interesting points that Tim Keller has brought up and one of it is saying that the human ego is empty it is painful it is busy it is fragile okay so your self-esteem my self-esteem all our self-esteem have these four traits in common so the first one it is filled with air second is stretched very far is busy he's looking to fill that emptiness and for bricks very easily so let's go through it one by one first thing empty so the heart at the heart of the center of the human ego no matter how big it is
00:15:05 it is and emptiness s k God he puts it this way it is a normal state of the human heart to try to build this identity around something besides God anything other than God and you're trying to fill a god-sized hole in your heart it's very hard to do that so what can the natural human ego build on besides God so naturally in this case in the Corinthian Church they build bu their ego on knowing certain people right I know Paul I know apollis and I don't know about you but I always hear some people say this I know this D I
00:15:41 know this tansri they're pulling their ranks same thing so other than that it can be things of value you know we we'll talk about that in in a little more detail this so anything that will give you a sense of Worth or sense of specialness a sense of purpose anything that sets you apart that makes you special okay so if you're trying to put anything in the middle of a place that was originally designed for God which is in your heart you're going to find out that it's really too small so it's going
00:16:09 to be empty so remember like trying to fill a a round hole with a square peg you're trying to fill a god-sized hole with everything in this world no matter how much things you throw inside how many people you know is never the same as saying that I know God it's different so in the Book of Ecclesiastes all right um so the preacher he talks about a lot of things and he comes to the conclusion that vanity of vanity is all vanity everything is futile okay so what is he trying to say now the preacher remember this in
00:16:43 chapter one he talks about I think in life it's more important for me to gather knowledge and wisdom and he did exactly that and he found that hey it's pointless he moves on chapter 2 it says why not then I go and find for you know murf that is you know happiness pleasure and and he says never mind I'll gather myself um servants you know men servants maid servants I'll you know have my own pools I have my own garden I have fruits and I have everything silver gold so he gathers all those wealth and he at the
00:17:14 end says in chapter three all go on one place all are of the dust and all turn to dust again is futile this whole life if I'm just trying to fill that emptiness earlier with all these things is pointless the the whole is never going to be filled up so what's the conclusion of the meod that's in chapter 12 let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of man so in this life if you go and pursue all these things with without God in the picture you're going to find that
00:17:50 it's just futile it's empty so that's why God says I think we read this this morning Psalm chap there's no chapter sorry Psalm 37 and verse four delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart I used to read it this way if I Delight myself in God he will give me whatever I want right so if I Delight myself in God you know he will give me a Ferrari because I want a Ferrari but no that's not quite what the verse is saying if you delight yourself in the Lord try to read it this
00:18:19 way he will put his Desires in you he will give you the desires of your heart because you are delighting yourself in him his desires become yours your will aligns with his and he will give you exactly what you're looking for so it's not just empty it is also painful so if you're puffed up with pride it's painful okay so let's talk about why it's the idea of being distended you know if you're inflated so big overly inflated you're being stretch of course it's going to be painful right I think everyone saw you know how big the
00:18:48 stomach was just now even IE cringe like o this looks really painful in fact it is if you read read the article so now imagine anyone right um if you talk to one another this morning I I wonder if anyone would say you know oh my elbow works very well today right no not really yeah I think you wish each other good morning you know and Etc but you won't say there's something wrong my uh something right with my elbow right you know or or you w say you know my eyes are working fine today you know wow you
00:19:19 know I think don't think anyone would actually do that okay most of us wouldn't okay but we would say something about our elbows if we actually injured it recently oh my elbow is actually better now because it was injured last time it you know or or maybe perhaps it is still bad you know or there's something wrong with our eyes we have an eye infection like oh no you know my eye is really painful today you know I'm getting a red eye you know and so on so forth so what is the idea behind this your body parts only bring attention to
00:19:55 themselves if there's something wrong with it okay it only brings attention to itself if it's painful and the human ego our pride has got something incredibly wrong with it because it's calling attention to itself all the time okay some of you say nah no not really you know but let me prove the point okay it's always calling out attention to itself all right now why is it painful in the sense why is it calling the attention to yourself like how do I know that my ego calls attention to yourself how many times do
00:20:30 we go anywhere even church right and you start thinking oh how do I look you know you check in the mirror you know what if people see you know that there's this little veggie in my teeth you know or you know maybe my hair is uncamp you know I got one piece of hair that's sticking out or you know um maybe I got a zit you know pimple my face oh you you know so we always constantly thinking about how we look or how we are being treated you know you know this morning that uh boy or that girl never say hi to
00:20:57 me you know so rude you know know you know we are constantly thinking of how we're being snubbed or ignored you know that person walk past me today you know but never say hi you know it's always about me feeling down about ourselves or feeling that something wrong with our identity is always about me myself and I that is the natural state of the human ego it's very painful it's always calling attention to itself it's always about me so it's always almost never happy because it's always drawing attention to itself now third point so
00:21:27 it's not just empty it's not just painful it's also very busy right now this is is thing this where I would say you know um it it boils back down to that boasting that we have earlier okay so that it really draws attention to itself two ways by comparing and by boasting okay comparing and boasting so first thing we're going to look at is comparing now in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 again they were comparing who they need right they're puffed up they're inflated because I know this Paul and the other
00:22:03 one says I know apoll and other one say I know cus so they're starting to say because I know these people I'm worth more they're comparing who they knew but there's more to just comparison about who you can know you can also compare about what you have right or or what you have achieved so it's about achievements you know oh you know I have done this this this in my life oh I I have this this this in my life and other people don't have it so comparing is really you can Define it to take pride in one thing
00:22:37 over against another right so I think it happens all the time even in school you know what are your marks you know if I get higher than you I'm happy you know but if uh you know if even if everybody does well but if I didn't get the highest I'm not happy you know very very typical I'm sorry if there are any singaporeans here this is a kiasu kind of M mentality okay so no matter even how good I do if as long as I'm not better than the next person it's not good enough I must be the best okay so the normal human ego tries to fill that
00:23:09 emptiness by comparing itself with others also it's so incredibly busy all the time and we deal with that discomfort by comparing ourselves with others and hopefully favorably okay so this is why we struggle when when we are around other people who are actually better than us in the areas that we prize okay now who I'm going to ask two questions okay first question who can recognize what this is anybody will venture to give a try her M I hear her m in more particular than her M there's a special
00:23:44 series sorry crocodile yes it is crocodile leather yes it's a burking hamag right it's a crocodile skin Hermes Burkin hamag all right and I think we all know that this belonged to our previous prime minister's wife right and it's worth a house is worth an entire house imagine that I can just carry a little you know piece of leather and this is worth what I'm staying in wow it's really really expensive okay now let's do a thought experiment okay let's do a thought experiment imagine if I close my eyes and say I really have this
00:24:27 bking handbag her maze handbag this crocodile skin handbag that somehow um you know she gifted to me at some point close my eyes I just point my finger and it landed on you all right and I say whoever my finger lands on I'm going to give this back all right imagine if that person is you all right just imagine will you be happy a lot of people murmuring yes a lot of people say yes everybody's going to say yes all right even I also will be happy even though I'm not going to use a bag I'm going to be happy because you
00:25:02 know it's worth a house so now so generally the consensus is I'll be happy if I can get this back all right let's do thought experiment number two imagine tomorrow suddenly Malaysia hits a gold mine underneath us what I mean is that SUNY there's so much oil more than say the UAE and Sun now we are one of the richest countries in the world and suddenly everybody every country comes to us and say you know we are going to buy you know your oil from you and we are willing to give them money and sudden the government feels so
00:25:36 generous and they say tell you what we're going to buy heres Bingham bags for every single person in the country imagine H so H just now you are thinking oh yes I got my Bing hand you look to your neighbor on your left and your right he also the same handbag you know everyone gets the same one you know on your left on your right front back everyone's carrying the same handbag okay so of course if everyone has the same it's not going to be worth 80 820,000 anymore right price going to drop now because I mean like if I take
00:26:08 it to you know the You Know M next door and there's a kid there holding a bin handbag and like hey you want mine no I got one already I don't want anymore you know so it's going to be worth less maybe it's going to be worth 820 ring now but it's a booking hand or crocodile skin leather you know so let me do another question all right and the question is this if you're happier in the first situation where you got the biringham bag yourself you keep your hands down and if you're happier that everybody got a Birkin
00:26:39 handbag a heres handbag put your hands up nobody want to raise their hand hey I thought you we all very generous everybody should be fair and square everybody should get you know good things together Noah no okay even I also put my hand down okay so why is that the case case all right let's answer the question why is that the case are we really proud to be the owner of a heres bag are we really just proud of the fact that we have more than whoever's around us okay so let's ask the question again
00:27:15 am I proud of actually owning the bag or am I actually just proud that I'm having more than everyone around me that is pride so we may think that we are proud of being successful or being intelligent or being good-looking or owning a herian bag but actually really we are only really proud that we are more successful we are more intelligent more good-looking having more than the other person around us that is the essence of Pride so when around people who are much more successful or intelligent or
00:27:43 good-looking or have more than us we are we lose pleasure on what we already had honestly it's the same bag that you would have received whether it's given on MK or is it given to you as a person it's the same bag imagine that but what we really care about is a what's around us whether or not I I'm happy with the bag or not it's dependent not on whether it's a really nice bag it's dependent on who else has it it's about exclusivity now so pride is really having the pleasure of having more than someone
00:28:17 else not just having but having more so in Mere Christianity CS Lewis puts it this way pride is essentially competitive it is competitive by Nature while the other VI other sins are only competitive so to speak by accident but Pride by its nature is competitive it doesn't get any pleasure out of something on its own it only gets pleasure out of having more than the next man so it is not just busy comparing itself it's also very busy boasting right so we've compared now we boast now back in school right um I've
00:28:54 checked this with my mother all right apparently during her time until today we still have have what we call Scouts right or Girl Guides during that time or you know during my time I joined patan buan sabit pbsm okay so all of us had some extracurricular activities to do but honestly speaking right if I had a choice sorry to say I wouldn't actually go right for any of these meetings I find it extremely boring I to spend about one to two hours there just sit down while somebody talks or you know
00:29:29 you know um just do some activity together but it's not that I actually want to be there I only am there because I need to fill up my curricular form so that I have something to say that I have done in school but actually I have no pleasure in actually doing it right I what's the point of me being there is just so I can get points that's pretty much it so I can participate and in a sense your human ego my human ego our human ego all of us our self-esteem is really just busy finding things to fill
00:30:00 our resume we are boasting that means to recommend ourselves we are busy filling that resume and that how's that resume going to look like I know Paul I know apollis I have this or I have that I have achieved this I have achiev so it's desperate to fill that emptiness and the Lord this does say whoever finds their life will lose it this is what he means you're trying to find your life by filling that resume you're going to lose it but whoever loses their life for my sake shall find it last but not least is
00:30:27 also fragile okay anything that's over inflated is imminently about to be deflated so some there are some people among us that may seem to have no Pride they are always hating themselves in that sense they're always self-loading you know so what does that mean so um imagine if someone says you know I'm a really lousy person actually the other person is better you know I'm I'm not as good as that person sounds very humble but actually think about it it's he's pointing to himself he he was at a point
00:30:56 inflated and then only he feels deflated right right you were inflated first before you can ever be deflated you you must be thinking of yourself too highly or and then it goes low it's about yourself remember so if we are inflated we will be imminently deflated it's the same thing where it's a superiority complex or an inferiority complex it is still about the self-esteem and I'm going to use this picture right so imagine I have a building that is actually on stilts now that is your self-esteem and the stilts are the
00:31:26 different things that you build your self-esteem on but whether it's achievements career wealth or others approval it can break at any time it's fragile so coming back to Corinth Paul is saying that this is your state your normal State my normal State our normal State and he comes around and says that don't go around saying that you know me even if you know me you don't actually enjoy the fact that you know me you're only using it to have one upmanship against another person right he says let me show you how I do it but before that
00:31:54 let's look at a picture now imagine if you you come to church and you know he like you know you see someone else and he he's just the same as me you know what I'm going to try to be better than the other person and say I know Paul I know apollis I win you know so you're just showing off same thing so Paul is saying we need to get over that so how the transformed sense of self that brings us to our next point so it says there that we are being judged judged by you or by any human court and the word
00:32:23 judge is the word for verdict either positive or negative it's not about condemnation so Paul is saying I don't care about what other people think about me because he says there I'm not it's a small thing that should be judged by you or any human being any human Court he says I don't care what anybody thinks about me my identity is not tied to me so how does he not care how does he get there and I think it's very natural for everyone to say that if I want to not care about what people think you know it
00:32:51 just tell myself that all I need to really matter what really matters is what I think about myself right I don't care what people think about me I only care what I think think I shouldn't live according to their standards or what they say I only should care about my standards and what I think but if you think about it it's a very proud way of dealing with low self-esteem is that what Paul is saying what matters most is how you see yourself and the answer is no we should not set our own standards
00:33:18 why because in our world we deal with low self-esteem by replacing it with high self-esteem which is actually essentially Pride which is what Paul is saying you shouldn't be doing in the first place so Pride go before destruction and a hty spirit before a fall God resists a proud and give grace to the humble same thing God does not like Pride so pride is not the way to go so if I say I should think highly of myself Paul is saying no don't think highly of yourself even I don't think of highly of myself I don't judge myself I
00:33:49 don't care what you think I don't care what I think I have a very low opinion of what you think of me I have a very low opinion of what I think of me so he says my ience is clear but that does not make me innocent even if I think I'm doing well it does not make me innocent so in 1 Timothy 1:1 15 he says there I am the chief of Sinners this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save Sinners of whom I am chief not I was Chief I am chief he says
00:34:18 I am the chief how can he being one of the most influ on one of the most influential men in history and yet had having such incredible confidence and Poise how can he have the you can say the balast to say that he's the worst person there is around and reason is because he wasn't judging himself so self judgment do we judge ourselves normally we would we will associate what we do with what we are and Paul is saying disconnect that you shouldn't need to do that okay I don't connect my sins to myself I don't
00:34:55 connect my achievements to myself it's not the same say that we should sin no that's not the point but I don't connect it to my identity that's what he's trying to say he's not going to judge himself because he's his ego his self-esteem is not puffed up it is filled up it's different so we have to disconnect self from judgment we have to come to a place where I'm not thinking about myself anymore that's where the topic of self forgetfulness comes in Paul is saying I want you to have that freedom from pride and and from boasting
00:35:29 how you going to have that freedom is so is by you not being concerned you don't try to exalt yourself I don't want you to disparage others or find contentment in myself or focus on myself or what people think about me it's a form of Freedom that he wishes for the Corinthians and that brings us to the topic of Christian humility if we met a really humble person we will never come away thinking that person is humble right now this is quite tough because I don't think I've met anyone I'm certainly not that way
00:35:58 now he will say that you know he's a nobody because that's a self-obsessed person right so if someone tell you hey you know I'm nobody but actually he's thinking about himself so that's a person who's judging himself whether up or down it doesn't really matter which direction he's judging himself so all we remember coming away from a truly humble person is that how interested he was in you so CS Lewis puts it very nicely humility is not thinking less of yourself is thinking of yourself less now digest that now humility is not
00:36:30 thinking less of yourself whether up or down but is thinking of yourself less so the essence of gospel humility you don't have to think of more of yourself or think less of yourself is think of yourself less so Philippians chapter 2 it says there you know we should esteem others better than ourselves and it goes on to say you know that we should look on the interest of others and our lord Jesus let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be
00:36:58 equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man and being found in fion of man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross so why is he trying to get there the Lord Jesus himself is esteeming US highly more than himself he humbled himself that's what it means and we ought then not to esteem ourselves more than others but to think of others more than we think about ourselves essentially as it's not all
00:37:28 about me we don't need to go into a room thinking you know will you know this what I say make me look good you know or do I really want to be here I can stop thinking about myself and that is the Blessed rest of self forgetfulness that Paul is trying to teach us in First Corinthians an ego that's not puffed up but filled up so remember that's gospel humility we don't draw attention to ourselves that is truly how we can love our neighbors as ourselves as the Lord has commanded is in Matthew chapter 22
00:37:59 love your neighbors as yourselves don't think so much about myself forget about myself think about others that's what God is trying to say now there's a little test in a sense if we start off from a place of low self-esteem are we badly hurt by criticism you know does it keep us up at night do we feel devastated if someone tells us something and does it bother me or on the other hand you know you say okay you know I need to get off like um you know this train of you know of low self-esteem I'm going to put myself on a train of high
00:38:29 self-esteem I'm going to not think about what others think I only care about what I think so I'm not going to be devastated by criticism but how would I take it would I actually take it will I actually listen to it or learn from it sometimes the answer is no so again in other words we do not know how to heal low self-esteem except with pride so on the other hand Paul is scking us off the map it's not something that is you know low self-esteem or High self-esteem he's saying don't even try to esteem yourself
00:39:02 forget about yourself self forgetfulness and criticism is very very different so if I'm self-forgetful if my ego is filled up not puffed up I will see criticism as a way for me to change for the better and it wouldn't devastate me either and now I can actually do things for the actual purpose of doing things you could actually start doing things for what they actually are it's like saying that I can enjoy my heres back for it being a her back whether or not it's better than others or whether or
00:39:31 not it's common on the street I can actually enjoy it for what it is so everything that we do now is not about us anymore it's not about you know work is not about me romance is not about me I I don't need to do these things just to fill a resume I don't need to do these things to make myself feel better and you know than my neighbor that is the point it's not a way of filling up the emptiness so again gospel humility is not thinking less of yourself it is thinking of your yourself less now last
00:40:00 part how do we get it how do you get there to say that I can really truly forget myself now Paul says number one earlier he says I don't care what people think about me I don't care what you think I don't care what any human call thinks and number two I don't even care what I think I don't look to you for a verdict I don't look to me for a verdict now where do I find this word verdict now it comes from verse what was it six if I'm not mistaken okay he says there my conscience is clear or maybe verse five
00:40:35 or it's somewhere in the middle sorry it's earlier than verse six he says my conscience is clear but that does not justify me the word justify is really the word for a verdict is used all throughout Romans and Galatians where God justifies us we are looking in a sense this what Paul ising at all of us myself included you and I we all looking for an ultimate verdict an ultimate result to say that we are important and that we are valuable in God's sight so where do we find this there multiple places find this verse four not
00:41:11 verse six earlier sorry so I know nothing of myself my conscious is clear yet I'm not justified by this so where do we find this verdict in a sense that's the problem with the human selfesteem he says I'm not going to be Jud by you by any human Court a human court is a very interesting phrase to use every day we are actually in a courtroom or trial think about it there is a prosecution and there's a defense so all of us come maybe to church and then we are actually just here to aduce our evidence this is my evidence I'm a
00:41:49 good person you know I did this you know I served in this ministry or you know I've done this for the poor I've done this every day we are trying trying to feel that emptiness we are trying to say okay you know I know this person or I have this thing what is it we are adducing evidence same thing isn't it so some days we feel like we're winning some days we feel like we are losing now all we really want at the end of the day is for this chop to be approved in this court as it were I want to be approved
00:42:23 think from the start if I I'm someone in Corin and say I know Paul what what am I really looking for I'm looking for someone to chop sign oh you know Paul chop sign approv you know or if I have this heres H chop sign approve you are actually someone who is worthy you know or if if I have achieved something in my career you know I have become the president or you know Etc chop sign approv you are worthy as a person isn't that what we're looking for that's what Paul's trying to say you're looking for an ultimate
00:42:53 verdict that you are important and you're valuable chop sign approved that is what we are looking for at the end of the day think about it from the day of the Garden in Eden when Adam and Eve sinned they felt it they felt that they needed to be approved instead God when he asked you know where are you you know say I am naked because he feels that he's not approved from that day on so why do we feel like we are in a courtroom every day why do we feel that way why do we feel that sense of inadequacy that I need to be proud
00:43:25 and boast to people why is because of this word called sin I think we all know this very well it's a good reminder what it is the Bible defines sin as for all have sinned and come short or fall short of the glory of God and the word fall short is really the term to miss the mark God has made us to be perfect in the garden and yet sin came into the picture and made us imperfect and because of that we have fallen short we have come short we have missed the mark and that's all we really want we want to be approved but we can't
00:44:03 anymore because we've missed that Mark I want to have the praise but I can't have the praise because I didn't quite get myund in my adms you know it's that sort of thing so we've missed the mark now what's the remedy in our last few minutes what's the remedy Paul is trying to say I don't look to you for the verdict I don't look to me for the verdict I Look to God he who judges me is the Lord how if God judges me honestly we wouldn't stand a chance right if if humans can't approve of me what more God
00:44:40 right if I can't approve myself what more God so how notice remember we every day we're in a trial but also remember that the Lord Jesus Christ went to trial for you and for me do you remember that inadequacy that we're trying to cover up that whole is because of sin right and sin is the very thing that puts us in that trial in that courtroom we are just trying to aduce evidence to everyone around us to cover up for that inadequacy of sin but someone took your place and my place at that court so
00:45:22 Jesus Christ Our Lord Jesus went into that courtroom he went on trial he was as a lamb brought to the slaughter and as a sheep before assuras is dumb so he openeth not his mouth it was an unjust trial because if it was just then where we should have been there we should have been standing before the people and yet he was put to death why he was our substitute so he took that condemnation for the inadequacies for all the pride and boasting that we are trying to fill it up with he took that everything that we
00:46:00 deserved everything that is unapproved of us we want to find the approval of men we can't find it we feel that we want that approval because we are unapproved he took that unapproved upon himself now we think that the courtroom is really the people but let me tell you that the greatest courtroom was at the cross it's not the people it was God that was the greatest courtroom room in the history of mankind and he stood in the dock as it were and he would say my God my God why have you judged me why has thou forsaken
00:46:40 me why have you judged me he stood at a dock and innocent man condemned but he stood condemned because he stood in our place unapproved why so that we can be chop signed approve so the minute I say Lord accept me for what the Lord Jesus has done for me because I have accepted that he is my substitute He's My Sacrifice now I can come into your presence accept me because of what the Lord Jesus has done then the opinion of the person that truly matters that person's opinion God's opinion of you he looks at us and finds
00:47:26 us more valuable than in all the world because that's what he did for God so loved he gave the ultimate verdict is in people cannot justify me you cannot justify me I cannot justify me but God is the one who judges and only his opinion counts and only his opinion matters and only in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ do we get the verdict before the performance normally we would try to perform first I want to show how good I am and therefore the the verdict is chop sign approved no it doesn't work
00:47:59 that way God is trying to say now it you need the verdict first before you can do have the performance the verdict is in we are approved and because of that approval think about it do I really need to do any of these things for myself to prove my worth no because when I believe God says you are my well beloveds in whom I am well pleased you are now my beloved child there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus I now perform on the basis of the verdict I don't perform for the verdict
00:48:34 I can now just know that he loves me he accepts me I have been chop sign approved so whatever I do now is not to build my resume or to make me look good I have the freedom now to do things for what they truly are right I can really help people to help people and not just help people so that I can feel my resume I can I don't need to actually know Paul so that I can say I know Paul but I can really know Paul to know Paul it's that's what it means so I don't need to fill up that emptiness anymore so that's
00:49:04 what the Lord Jesus has done the trial is over and that's the reason that it can leave you and leave me with this blessed self forgetfulness it takes us out of the courtroom all together the trial is over and the verdict is in we are chop sign approved we we have to Rel this gospel every day you have to say why am I doing in this courtroom court is a j Christ has done it all he has chop sign approved me so whose approval are we seeking for as it were whose approval now before we sing our final song for today just
00:49:44 recap now the natural state of the human ego remember pride and boasting that is what we naturally would like to do and then after that Paul says don't look to people for judgment don't look to you don't look to your neighbor don't look to yourself I don't care what you think I don't care what I think so how do we get it we only get it because of what our lord Jesus has done he bore that judgment so that I will not be judged therefore there is now no condemnation for you and for me for those who are in
00:50:18 Christ Jesus I'll end with this one verse in Jeremiah 9: 24 say said let him who boasts boast in this now you think that boasting is wrong there's one thing that God says you can boast about if you want to boast boast in this Bo let him boast that he understands me God and that I the Lord practices loving kindness steadfast love Justice and righteousness didn't he do all that at the cross he showed us love he showed us Justice because we deserve justice but he was the one who took it showed us righteousness and made us righteous so
00:50:58 may we learn to forget about ourselves and look more towards God and others shall we bow our heads in prayer Our God and our father we thank you again for reminding us that we are broken people with broken self-esteem yet Our Father we know that the cure to all of this is just to look at our savior our lord Jesus because he was the one who forgot himself and went to Calvary even for me we thank you our Father for giving your son so freely and that he alone if we were to look to him we can truly die to ourselves and really
00:51:35 live unto Christ so father we pray that you will help us to be who you want us to be even in our lord Jesus as we ask this in his worthy and precious maybe you want to take a seat going to share the Lord's supper together today and the words of the Lord's Supper are usually taken from Seven chapters forward for what we William has spoken to us about and be and the situation is this the Corinthian Church were divided they were polarized there were different groups they didn't like each other so they come to
00:52:21 church but at the single most important uni if Ying event that the church will ever do you know what that is it's a Lord's supper at this event Paul writes in the 11th chapter of Corinthians divisions burst open you know what they happened they didn't come and scold each other or take a stick and beat each other the Richer Corinthians because the the Lord's Supper was not this measly little piece of bread it wouldn't fill one quarter of your stomach it was a whole meal together they would gather they have you know
00:53:10 chicken dumplings Haka noodle whatever it would eat a proper meal it was a proper meal in those days and they didn't like each other some of the more well-endowed ones who got their own business they come early they Maka all the Haka noodle the poorer ones who had to work and finish late would come later on and all they had was scraps all they had was scraps nothing much and and although you don't come out publicly and sco each other the divisions that were within their heart erupted in the fact that they didn't
00:53:55 care about each other they showed their division because that guy don't like I'm I'm going to eat my bread first I don't care what happened to him and they come together for the Lord's Supper but when you take the supper you take the bread you saying you're dying to self and you take this together because you're part of whole body together because of that sacrilege of that insult the Lord punished them some of them died many of them fell sick and in that particular passage if you look look there Paul is saying when you
00:54:33 take this today you examine yourself I'm not asking you to examine yourself in so far as all the sins you've committed examine the body who you have against in this body you may not publicly shame him or insult him but in your heart you've disregarded him youve gone forward your meal your life and you don't have a concern for that person don't take the supper if that's what you're like because Corinthians 11 says that if you take it you will take judgment it's Discerning the body Brothers and Sisters in Christ as
00:55:21 William has preached we are nobody it is because of Christ we are now somebody we are people for whom the Son of God died for us we are somebody and you look at your neighbor with whom you held your his hand and her hand they are also somebody and don't you dare judge them don't you dare disrespect them don't you dare ignore them so when we take this body I want you to take out the bread with this bread we're saying that we die to self that our bodies filled with Christ's love and Christ's blood no longer filled with our own
00:56:20 Pride we take this bread means we forgive we treat each other with good Grace not what based on what the person is or has done to us but with Grace the same grace that brought Jesus to the cross I received from the Lord what I also rece delivered to you the Lord Jesus and the night he was betrayed he took bread he had given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this in Rememberance but it is also something we take to proclaim the victory the victory you know what this Victory is about the
00:57:07 victory is that we have overcome our own ego and when we take this cup we celebrate fact that no matter who we are in First Baptist Church we are members of each other we will overcome our differences we will be bonded by the love of Christ if that's what you feel and believe let let's take this cup the New Covenant in his blood let's take it together father Lord we thank you we thank you for your blood we thank you for this supper and we pray as we leave our church this morning we will go into
00:57:47 the world and show the world what we are made of we're not made of our individual successes or failures we are made of the blood of Christ We Are People by Grace we are what we are and your grace Works within us we ask this for jesus' sake amen now for the benediction taken from numbers the Lord bless you and keep you the Lord make his face shine upon you be gracious to you the Lord lift up his countenance on you and the Lord give you peace the service is over and those of you who would like to stay back for the pastors
00:58:31 and Elders to pray for you you're welcome to do so God bless you
