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[0:00] Good morning.

[0:12] As we begin, I want to pray. I want to ask you to pray with me. Amen. Lord, we come before you this morning in desperate need of you to help us.

[0:36] Because even as we have sung and prayed just now that you would speak to us, Lord, we need your help because in our natural selves we do not want to hear from you.

[0:53] We do not seek to hear from you. Lord, how often we desire to go our own way and to think our own thoughts rather than hear your word speak to us.

[1:08] I pray this morning that your Holy Spirit would have mercy upon us. Lord, that we would sit together under your word and that you would teach us.

[1:21] Lord, I pray this morning. Lord, who is worthy to preach of these things? I pray, Lord, that you, Lord, would work through me this morning, that my words would be fitting, useful in your hands for all of our good, that we may know more of your greatness.

[1:50] Lord, we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Tim Keller, in his masterful short book, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness, writes this.

[2:09] Up until the 20th century, traditional cultures have always believed that too high a view of yourself was the root cause of all evil in the world.

[2:19] And he goes on to point out that exalted self-regard has been typically seen as the root of most crime, violence, abuse, cruelty, and just plain bad things.

[2:33] He goes on to say, Traditionally, the answer for why these things happened was hubris, the Greek word meaning pride or too high a view of yourself.

[2:44] Traditionally, that was the reason why people misbehave. Tim Keller goes on in this little book, let me recommend it to you, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness. It's downstairs on the bookstall.

[2:56] He goes on then to say, In our modern Western culture, we have shifted to a different way of thinking, that it is not a too high view of ourselves, but in fact, too low of a self-regard, or as it's commonly stated, a lack of self-esteem that has caused people to misbehave.

[3:14] So he goes on, and here he says this, For example, the reason husbands beat their wives, and the reason people are criminals, is they have too low a view of themselves, that we have too little self-esteem.

[3:29] He goes on in the book to say that there's actually been some research done, because much of the restorative work that's trying to be done in prisons and schools and other places is based on this view of self-esteem.

[3:41] And in fact, the scientific studies have shown that these approaches have not been successful in transforming people.

[3:54] Keller concludes by saying, Perhaps the modern Western culture has more to learn from the traditional understanding of where the root of the problems that we face in our own lives and in our world come from.

[4:09] What does the Bible say about this? How do we understand pride and humility from a biblical standpoint?

[4:19] Particularly today, as we continue in our series of Proverbs, we're looking at the second big chunk of the book from 10 to 31. We're looking at topics.

[4:31] We're looking at collections of Proverbs that help us understand a little bit about the way of wisdom. And so, I want to point out as we continue that in your bulletin, right after the order of service, there's a sermon supplement that has many and maybe even a few extra Proverbs regarding the topic of wisdom, the topic of pride and humility.

[4:55] And so, I point you to that rather than furtively and furiously trying to flip around in your Bible from passage to passage. If you look at that, that will help you follow along as we look this morning.

[5:09] This morning, we're simply going to explore these two concepts in sequence, pride and humility. What does Proverbs say about it? How do we understand it in our own lives? And what do we do about it?

[5:22] So, let's look at these things in order. First of all, pride. What is it? If you look it up in a definition, in a dictionary, you might read something like this.

[5:33] Pride is pleasure or satisfaction in one's own accomplishments or of those closely related to you. So, you might be proud of your family or proud of your associations, proud of your country.

[5:47] It might also mean an excessively high view of oneself. And this is true, isn't it? When we use the word pride as we talk about, there are times when pride can be positive.

[5:58] You can take pride in an accomplishment of a job well done. You could take pride that you have been recognized for your hard work and gotten a promotion. It could also have a proper sense of human dignity that an athlete, having laid it all out on the field, though he may not have won, he could carry his head off the field with pride because he has fought well and played well to the end.

[6:26] There's a sense of dignity that can come from it. And all of these things are good things because they recognize that God-given goodness and celebrate them.

[6:38] But interestingly, when you come to the Bible, it doesn't use these words in these ways. It is pretty uniform that the Bible uses pride as a negative term.

[6:53] Specifically, that it talks about how quickly and how often we make ourselves the center of our universe, how quickly we arrogantly exalt ourselves above the people around us, wanting desperately for their praise and affirmation, and how we seek glory, not because of God-given goodness, but for ourselves, that we might be seen as glorious.

[7:21] And so, Proverbs says things like this. Proverbs 16, 5, Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord.

[7:33] Be assured, he will not go unpunished. Or Proverbs 21, 24, Scoffer is the name of the arrogant, haughty man who acts with arrogant pride.

[7:45] Here we see the way the Proverbs refer and use the word pride in all negative connotations. And interestingly, if you shift over to the New Testament, though you will also see pride well scattered throughout the writings, one of the other concepts, categories for you to look for as you read particularly the Pauline epistles is the idea of boasting.

[8:10] For Paul brings in this idea of boasting as a recognition of pride and how easily we in boastful spirits exalt ourselves.

[8:22] How do we understand then if this is what pride is, where does it come from? Why do we do this? Well, it comes from the very, very root. It comes from our relationship to God and to others and self.

[8:38] We've talked about this as we've gone on about wisdom. What is the way of wisdom that Proverbs is encouraging us to do? It's living in light of God's created order and it's living along the grain of how God created us and what He created us for.

[8:56] And as we walk in wisdom, we do those things. And pride is in fact the opposite of that. Pride is cutting across the grain at every turn of God's plan for us.

[9:11] Because in relationship to God, we want to make God smaller and ourselves bigger. We want God to serve our needs rather than our serving Him in His glory.

[9:25] We want, in fact, as James prayed earlier, to usurp Him and to take His place. Is this not the very story of the Bible that we read?

[9:37] From the very beginning, what happened in the Garden of Eden in chapter 3? Adam and Eve lived in a place where they were perfectly provided for in every way.

[9:52] And yet, the tempter came and said, is it really good enough? Do you think God is really being all good to you? Maybe He's holding back.

[10:03] Why did He say don't eat that fruit? You could be like God, you know. And they took the bait.

[10:16] And they disobeyed. But even more than that, what they did is they decentered God from the universe that they lived in. And they put themselves in their place. They aspired and grasped to be like God themselves.

[10:31] And in doing so, shattered the fabric of the created order. And friends, this has been the human heart ever since. From the very beginning, we are like this.

[10:47] If you've ever had a one-year-old and a two-year-old, you know that they come out ready to be the center of the universe. And they are ready to get you wrapped around their finger so that you will serve them.

[11:02] And the challenge of the terrible twos is a wonderful and glorious and heartbreaking and exhausting job of trying to help them see that that's not actually a good thing for them to be in the center of their world.

[11:18] because if you've seen people as they make themselves the center of the world, as you see the dynamics of your own heart as you strive to do this, it doesn't just affect our relationship with God, does it?

[11:37] It reflects our relationship with others. If we're the center of the world, then others are there to serve us, to do whatever we need in order for us to feel good, to feel affirmed, to be glorified, to be recognized.

[11:55] And so, in our relationships, we use other people. Sometimes, as we've talked about earlier in this series, we look down on people so that we might exalt ourselves. we even do it with ourselves.

[12:13] Our relationship to ourself is broken as we try to take on this arrogant perfectionism. It drives us to deny that we have any faults.

[12:24] It causes us to focus only on our strengths and in doing so, make us disconnected with who we really are. this impulse of pride is so central to us that it is impossible for us to imagine ourselves without at least this temptation.

[12:49] Let me just ask a couple of questions for you to think about. Have you ever lost an argument that you've replayed in your mind with someone? have you ever walked into a room and sized up everyone in the room where you stand in the pecking order?

[13:13] Who's better than you? Who's worse than you? Who am I going to spend time with for my good? Have you ever found yourself defensive when someone questioned your actions or your motive?

[13:32] How do you respond when you've been passed over for recognition or promotion that you think you've deserved? So just some questions for you to ask maybe to help you see in yourself the impulse of pride.

[13:52] So what does it look like? If that's the source of it what does it look like? Proverbs helps us a little bit more concretely with this. There are a number of different things. First of all one of the things that's most clear in the Proverbs is that pride shows itself in those who are wise in their own eyes and unwilling to receive correction from others.

[14:16] And so Proverbs 26 12 says do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than him. And perhaps one of the most famous sections in Proverbs 3 5 through 7 trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.

[14:42] Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. We talked about this back in late June when we talked about words of correction.

[14:56] You can go back. It's on the website if you want to hear it. But here we see one of the root issues. Pride is one of the things that makes us unable or unwilling to receive correction.

[15:10] And in fact it's one of the great symptoms or signals of how great our pride is. We don't want other people to tell us what to do.

[15:20] We don't want other people to tell us when we're wrong. We don't want other people to question us or correct us. Proverbs says this runs from this root of pride where we are in the center of the universe.

[15:38] If we recognize that God is the creator and we are simply a creation, if we recognized our human frailty and weakness, it wouldn't be very hard for us to say, I don't know everything.

[15:51] I'm not right all the time. Please help me. Please help me to know how to do things better. But we don't, do we?

[16:01] It's so difficult. It makes us unable to acknowledge or honor God, and it shuts us off from being able to hear from others.

[16:14] Another thing that Proverbs points out that uses the word, one of the expressions of pride is arrogance or haughtiness, thinking better of ourselves than others and being full of ourselves.

[16:28] So, in Proverbs 16, 17, or 16, 16, there are six things that the Lord hates and seven things, seven that are an abomination to Him.

[16:38] And He starts the list with this, haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood. And He goes on, you can read the rest of the verses, but what I wanted you to see is at the very top of His list there, what does the Lord detest?

[16:54] A haughty eyes. When you look at that word, what it means is to be full of self, to be inflated of self-worth, how often do we dismiss people because they don't meet our standards?

[17:12] Maybe they're not as smart as we are. Maybe they're not as clean as we are. Maybe they aren't as cool or as hip or as with it or whatever the word is nowadays.

[17:25] Eli, help me here. whatever it is in junior high and high school about being in or being out. It's the same impulse that drives us towards tribalism.

[17:40] Who are my people defined by who are not my people? Friends, it's at the root of our racism. When we look at other people and we judge them because of the color of their skin, haughty eyes and a pride to exalt ourselves by putting other people down.

[18:03] And it is an abomination to the Lord. Proverbs says, not only is it an unwillingness to receive correction, not only is it this arrogant haughtiness, but it is also glory seeking.

[18:21] Pride seeks glory for oneself. So interestingly in Proverbs 25, 6, and 7, do not put yourself forward in the king's presence or stand in the place of the great.

[18:34] For it is better to be told, come up here, than to be put lower in the presence of a noble. See what he's saying? When you walk in, don't assume in the king's courtyard that you're going to be received like a high, important person.

[18:49] Assume that you are actually a lowly person. If you assume that you're a high and important person and you're not, then you will be shamed when he puts you low.

[19:02] The impulse to want to be seen as a high, important person is what I'm calling glory seeking because the word honor in the Proverbs is related to the concept of glory.

[19:15] glory. And so being honored is actually being given glory. And when God does it to us, it is a wonderful thing and it is a right thing.

[19:27] And there are times when we might rightly give it to one another. I give glory to the elders that I serve with because I'm so thankful for their constant patience and their steadfast love for this congregation.

[19:42] And I may give them glory, but to self-seek it, to put yourself in the position to say, this is what I need, this is what I want, you have to give it to me, to pursue it and to manipulate and to strive for it.

[19:57] Well, Proverbs 18.12 says this, before destruction a man's heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.

[20:10] So we see that this pride actually will lead us not to high places but to destruction. It's only in humility that we will actually be able to receive from God and from others glory that might be rightfully ours.

[20:32] Think about when, again, if you have a young one or three-year-old, Daddy, look at me. Daddy, look at me. Maybe I've had my daughter grab my face.

[20:44] Daddy, look at me. Sorry, that didn't work well with the microphone. You know what I'm saying. He takes her face and makes Daddy, look at me. And it may be innocent, an innocent cry for an expression of love and attention in a three-year-old, but how terrible it is when it becomes hardened and codified in our life.

[21:05] Look at me. See how great I am. Let me exalt myself. Is this not what drives the pettiness of high school clicks?

[21:16] Is this not what drives the cutthroat competitiveness of the workplace? Or the Pinterest posting of a perfect life? Are not all these seeking glory for ourselves?

[21:31] Friends, it even can be at work here in our church. We can use spiritual things to seek glory. Look what a great servant I am.

[21:44] Look at how faithful I am. Look at how prominent I am. Look at all the skills that I have. And the hard thing is that all of those things may be true.

[21:58] And in the life of a humble person, they are a blessing. to our congregation. When you have gifts and service and dedication and devotion and time and all of those things.

[22:11] But you see how quickly they get twisted and none of them become true blessings for the church when the heart of it is glory seeking. When it's all about me.

[22:22] Look at me. What a great servant I am. What a great Christian I am. Interesting how Jesus pointed this out.

[22:34] He called it the men who serve who do things to be seen by other men. Think about the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector who prayed I thank you God that I'm not like other men.

[22:54] In his righteousness his self righteous service he exalted himself. So Proverbs points to these things.

[23:05] Friends I just want to tell you that Proverbs could go on for a thousand chapters about how pride produces sin and ugliness in our lives.

[23:17] Think about let me just run through quickly. Our envy is driven by pride because I deserve what they have. Self pity is driven by pride because I deserve better than this.

[23:30] Anger is driven by pride because my will is thwarted and I am not being rightfully acknowledged. A critical spirit is driven by pride when we look at others and say you're not good enough for me.

[23:43] You're not meeting my standards. Defensiveness is driven by pride when you say I couldn't have done something wrong. Arrogance is driven by pride when you look at another person and say you are beneath me and unworthy of my time and attention.

[23:59] Competition drives us at times to some of the most unspeakable evils. I will go and take from you what you have not because I want it but simply so that I can prove that I can take it from you.

[24:15] Self-centeredness is driven by pride. Isn't it all about me? Self-reliance is driven by pride. I can do it myself. I don't need you.

[24:27] Self-abasement is driven by pride. When I think I'm terrible and lowly and worse than anything it is because I believe that I ought to be something good that I'm not and I can't be there and so I judge myself in such a way that crushes me.

[24:51] That's not humility. We'll get there in a minute. That's actually pride in a converse form. Friends, pride is a universal problem.

[25:06] Let me just speak to two forms in our particular context here. Many of you, at least some of you, are related to that big university over there with a worldwide name, right?

[25:19] Yale. You're connected to Yale and it's a big deal in the world. And it is so easy to be related to Yale in a way that feeds your pride.

[25:32] If you're an undergrad here, I don't think the undergrads are here yet, not quite, but, you know, they tell them, you're the best and the brightest. You're going to go change the world. It's this indoctrination when they come in.

[25:46] How are you going to be good stewards of your experience at Yale because you are the best and the brightest? And they're fed this over and over and over again.

[25:58] And those of you who are here studying and PhDs and graduate school and even working at it, you have incredible giftings and incredible opportunities and incredible resources.

[26:10] And you should not be ashamed of any of those things. But your danger is, are you allowing it to build your pride? Are you allowing it to shape your relationships with other people?

[26:23] Are you allowing it to shape your values where you end up seeking glory for yourself, being resistant to correction, and being haughty, looking down on others?

[26:42] Paul in 1 Corinthians 4-7 says this, what do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? pride?

[26:52] The other contextual expression of pride is that we're in New England. And I know some of you are transplants and you've come here from other places that may not struggle with this in the same way, but there is a unique kind of New England self-sufficiency.

[27:12] I can do it myself. I don't need others in my business. I don't need community. I am a self-sufficient man. And you need to stay away.

[27:25] Don't butt in. I don't need your ore in my water. Thank you very much. And again, there's a good thing here. There's a resilience and a strength and a perseverance.

[27:37] People who've endured long winters in farming and rocky soil for decades and generations, generations, it's not a bad, there is good to it.

[27:50] But you see the danger. The danger is that you think that you actually can do it yourself and that you don't need other people. In doing so, you have displaced God in your life and said, I don't need God because I can do it on my own.

[28:09] And you've displaced the role that God wants other people to play in your life, particularly in the church. Where you need people to come into your life to love you, to bear your burdens, to speak truth and love to you, to have mercy and show kindness, to encourage you daily, and all the other things that the community of God's people are called to do together.

[28:39] And even outside the walls of this church, to bless our world and our community with these things. And we cut ourselves off from those things and we exalt ourselves to the position that John Dunn referred to when he said, no man is an island, no man stands alone.

[28:59] But we so much want to be, don't we, here in New England? Some of you are like that. And you barely made it here this morning because you're not sure why.

[29:10] pride. Well, friends, we must be careful of this. We must be aware. These are some of the particular societal and cultural expressions of pride that we live around.

[29:27] Friends, we've already read it, but let me remind you again that Proverbs gives this warning, a warning in 26, 2, that there is no hope for one who is wise in his own eyes.

[29:38] or the famous words that you've heard before, Proverbs 16, 18, and 19, pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

[29:51] It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than divide the spoil with the proud. Do you see what the Proverbs are saying there? What we want so much in our pride is to be lifted up and exalted and to be in this place of prominence.

[30:08] And it is the very essence of foolishness and proverbial foolishness because it does not lead to success in that endeavor, but it leads to destruction.

[30:21] It is better to be poor and humble because even the spoil that we have with the proud in the end will be taken away. We see this throughout scripture, we see this over and over and over again.

[30:44] The pride leads to destruction and a fall. But thankfully, the way of wisdom which exposes this pride as foolishness says there is another way.

[30:55] There is a way of humility for us to walk in, a way that brings us out of this pattern of running against God's grain and running along with the grain of God's created order and purposes for us.

[31:12] So let's now look at humility for a few minutes. What is humility? Well, again, a definition. A modest or low view of one's importance. Interestingly, it's ambiguous.

[31:24] Is humility a bad thing or is it a realistic thing? Is it a good thing? Well, depending on how we use it, it could be both.

[31:36] Sometimes in common use, we use humility and we think it's a terrible thing. Sometimes we use it in light of sort of humiliation as something that is destructive to someone's dignity and self-worth.

[31:54] Biblically, humility is always a good thing. It is a rightly modest view of oneself. And again, where do we see this?

[32:05] At its core, consider back at the Garden of Eden before sin entered the world. What did Adam and Eve do? They received from God everything that they needed.

[32:18] God provided for them and they put themselves in a dependent and receiving place, which would be vulnerable except that providing the provider was perfect and all-powerful and never failing.

[32:33] And so, in their humility, they said, yes, I will put myself in that place of vulnerability and know that I need to receive. It also meant that they submitted to His commands.

[32:47] He said, don't eat of the tree. And for a while, they didn't. And that seemed right and good. It also seemed they acknowledged and enjoyed God's presence. He would come and walk with them in the cool of the day.

[33:01] And this was a good and beautiful thing and they trusted in God's goodness. To have humility allows us to relate to God properly as His creation, receiving from Him as His creator and living under His sovereign good rule in our lives.

[33:24] And wonderfully, it actually then also allows us to relate to others better as well. We look at the people around us and we are no longer in competition for glory with them.

[33:34] And that allows us to receive them, to look at them and celebrate them for the unique gift that they are to this world, to the unique way that God has made each one of us and allows us to explore and celebrate differences as a good thing.

[33:53] It means we don't have to live with comparison anymore. Am I better than them or not? It simply means we can look at them and enjoy them for who they are. We don't have to have a pecking order.

[34:05] Where do we fit? We can just treat one another. Again, humility then brings great blessing when we live in it.

[34:20] What does it look like? How do we actually live out a life of humility? Proverbs 3, 5 through 7, we've read it once but I want to read it again and spend a few minutes looking at it.

[34:33] Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes.

[34:44] Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. people. What are a couple of the key aspects of the way of humility that are exposed here? The first one is a wholehearted trust.

[34:58] No matter what I have experienced, I will trust that God is good and God is sovereign. Friends, sometimes we have to wrestle with that, but part of humility ultimately says you are the potter and I am the clay.

[35:15] and I don't have a right to say why have you made me thus? Why have you shaped my life in this way or that way? Humility allows us to see God and say God I trust you even when I don't understand and even when this is hard I trust you.

[35:37] It also shows, another key aspect is that it shows a self-doubt about one's understanding and knowledge. Right? Do not lean on your own understanding it says.

[35:47] I need God's help because I might be wrong. I don't see myself as wise but as one who needs wisdom from God. I therefore have to live not with an unbreakable self-confidence but with a healthy self-doubt about my own ideas.

[36:07] It makes me willing to accept input and correction from others as we've talked about. Humility also recognizes that again from Proverbs 3 in all your ways acknowledge him.

[36:26] Humility flows and is expressed in this fundamental I am a created being and God is my creator. He has shaped me. He has given me purposes for my life.

[36:39] And it means that in acknowledging him part of the idea here is also that we will seek not our glory but his glory. God, what is your best in this situation?

[36:50] God, how is it that you want to show yourself? God, how can I reflect your character and the dynamics of your kingdom? How do I forgive?

[37:02] How do I love what is good and hate what is evil? How do I live sacrificially for the sake of others? how do I do good when it's recognized and when it's not?

[37:18] All of these things flow from seeking to live a life for God's glory. To acknowledge him is to say my life is not my own. It is God's and I am not an owner but a steward of it.

[37:31] proverbs also shows us that there is in this a glory for us as we seek God's glory there will be a glory for us that will be just wonderful.

[37:53] Proverbs 29 23 Isn't this interesting?

[38:06] What the proverbs here is saying is that when we seek our own glory we end up at the bottom. But when we have lowliness of spirit when we recognize our creatureliness in humility we will obtain and again I want to come back to this idea of receiving it's receiving from God a kind of glory that is beautiful.

[38:34] It is if you if you're interested in the eclipse tomorrow you can think about this it is like the moon having light because it reflects the sun's light the glory of the moon is not self generated but it is given the light is given to the moon and as it reflects it there is glory in it friends this is the kind of glory that we were created for pride wants to displace the sun and put us in the middle of the solar system and have everything orbit around us but humility says no I'm not that's not my place I'm just a moon but I have the glory of reflecting what God who God is and what he has done I have the opportunity to have this honor this glory that he will give me friends in today's society when we live in a world where people are so much seeking to get ahead and defend their own how much we need this humility how much we need humility to bring peace to our communities that are wracked with conflict and strife and friends this humility allows us to be gentle and patient and kind and merciful and meek and ultimately one of the most wonderful things is that humility frees us to love because remember when we talked about pride and how pride causes us to use people for our own glory because we're the center of it well when we're not in that center place anymore it actually enables us to love others we love them because we see

[40:30] God's created purposes in them and because we have in displacing ourselves from the center have put ourselves in a place where we receive God's love and then we're able to share that with others when you meet someone who is truly humble it is a beautiful thing C.S.

[40:52] Lewis has a great quote worth reading says do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man that he will be what most people call humble nowadays he will not be some sort of greasy smarmy person who's always telling you that of course he is nobody probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him if you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily he will not be thinking about humility he will not be thinking about himself at all friends this is at the very core of it pride is when we think about ourselves all the time humility frees us from that and allows us to entrust ourselves to God and his care know that he will care for us and in doing so we are free from that to think about others and to think about

[41:59] God and it gives us great freedom in this world and so Proverbs 22 4 says the reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life a humble life is lived along the grain of God's created purposes and it will provide goodness you will find good things there it is not a promise of prosperity it is a promise of a good life before God so what do we do how do we pursue humility well of course this is the problem isn't it as soon as you begin to pursue humility and have a little grain of success what happens you get proud about it you think hey I'm getting really humble and then you've shot yourself in the foot you've got to go back to start and do it over again right no we're so complicated aren't we to pursue humility is not about trying harder to become more humble instead instead it's to turn our gaze somewhere else it's to stop thinking about ourselves and to stop looking at ourselves and to stop trying to protect ourselves and it is to fix our eyes on

[43:20] God because when God is in the right place in our vision in the center of it when we are fixing our eyes on him we fade into the background friends this is a part of the passage that we read earlier from Philippians 2 Paul exhorts the Philippians right before what Tosin read to be completely humble and to put the interests of others in front of their own to have the mind of Christ because this is the God that we serve we serve a great God who is the creator of all things and who deserves all of our worship but more than that who also has shown us the way of humility in the person of Jesus Jesus left heaven and all the prerogatives of Godhead to become a human being he humbled himself for those who don't humble themselves he took on human flesh flesh think about the indignity of the

[44:33] God who created the world taking on the fallen human flesh the limitations of sleepiness and hungriness and fatigue he submitted to the humiliation of the incarnation he he bore the indignation the indignity that is of servitude he became a servant upon this earth and ultimately he went to the cross and he bore the sin of humanity on his shoulders dying a death that was disgraceful in the eyes of all humans this is humility counting not himself as most important but to complete the will of the father and for the sake of us so that we might know his love and be saved from our sin he did this for us he went and died on that cross in the greatest act of humility ever who would have thought that the creator would die for his creation to redeem it and to rescue it from their own foolish pride and yet this is what he did so that we might be exalted in salvation and in a relationship with him

[46:00] Jesus not only was humiliated and in humility went to death but then God raised him from the dead and God raised him up to a place with a name above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue could confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and this is the restoration of all things that we see promised in the gospel that one day pride will be gone we will see Jesus as he is and we will bow down and worship him and friends we have the call to do that now to worship him now to receive what he has done for us now to recognize that the gospel call for us is there is no room for pride because we are all sinners before God and we have no hope apart from a savior like this but friends as we are joined with him in faith and as we humbly receive what we cannot do for ourselves our salvation we are also joined with him and know that there is a glory to be given to us because of

[47:16] Jesus at the end that is far beyond what we can even imagine and what a good thing that is and friends this is what leads us to the table now as we turn now to the Lord's Supper as we come to this table we recognize that this is what we are doing when we celebrate this meal as we come here to celebrate by drinking a cup of juice and by eating a piece of cracker what we are doing is recognizing Jesus goodness to us and his humility for us and this call to this table is a call to repentance because to come to this table and to receive these things is to acknowledge that we are sinners and that we need this and so we need to repent of our pride and I want us to spend some time as we are doing this to reflect on that ask the

[48:19] Lord it is a scary prayer but ask him Lord where am I proud in my life show me my pride but as you come to this also recognize and receive this as a gift of grace to remind you of his great love for you and that the humility that you can have because of the humble savior who died for you and that's what we celebrate as we do this let me invite those who are going to serve to come up and join me and as we're as they're coming up let me just what we'll do is we'll pass out the crackers and then we'll hold on to them and we'll eat them together we'll pass out the cup and we'll hold on to it and we'll drink it together let me just say this as well if you are here this morning and you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ if you have said yes I know that I'm a sinner and I know that I need a savior if you are a Christian then come and partake and be a part of this if you have not made that decision if you are a visitor if church has been more cultural for you or if you're exploring

[49:28]  Christianity then we would say don't take this today don't eat and drink today because by doing so that's an expression of faith and instead we would have you meditate on what this means so so as we go let me also just extend an invitation if there's anyone downstairs who needs to come up to join us for this celebration I want to extend that invitation now the apostle Paul recounts in first Corinthians says for I receive from the Lord what I also deliver to you that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread and when he given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me