morning. It's good to be in church with you this morning. I'm not sure if you're one of those
people who sets New Year's resolutions, but the top 10 New Year's resolutions for 2017
are improve fitness, eat better, quit smoking, quit drinking, learn something new, travel more,
volunteer, meet someone that is like a partner, sleep more, and get out of debt.
And as of this morning, a New Year's resolution for me is to check with Sam what he's wearing
for church on Sunday. Couple dressing is not appropriate, in my opinion, at any time,
let alone if it's one of your work colleagues. Another goal for me for the next couple of years
is in fact to run the city to surf before I turn 50 and to do it in personal best time.
Given that I've never run it before, I should be able to hit the second goal, providing I get the
first goal. And so far it's going okay. I've been seeing a physio, an exercise physiologist,
and a masseur to deal with the injuries that I've already created in my body.
I was doing a little bit of reading on New Year's resolutions, and one of the articles that I read
said this, the New Year is when you think about the past and most importantly, reflect on how you
can improve yourself for the upcoming year. Self-improvement, or at least the desire for it,
is a goal shared by all Australians, which is why so many of us make New Year's resolutions in the
first place. Unfortunately, only a fraction of us keep to our resolution, which experts estimate
only about 8% commit to the very end. 8%. There is something in all of us that loves this
idea of a fresh start, improve things that we don't like about ourselves. And I'm certainly
committed to those things myself. I want to change. I want to grow. I cannot compute with an individual
who's settled and comfortable. I want to see change and transformation. I think that that is,
in fact, one of the key elements about the journey of the Christian life. Even as we've sung this
morning, oh, for a closer walk with my God. That is, I desire to change from where I am at the moment.
What is intriguing about today's passage is that it gives us a way of seeing ourselves and how we
change that is absolutely, totally different than traditional cultures or even contemporary Western
culture. See, up until the 20th century, traditional cultures believed that a too high a view of yourself
was the main reason that you had personal problems and the reason why there was so much evil between
people. The Greek word for it was hubris or is hubris. It's an excessive pride. It's an arrogance.
It's an overconfidence of yourself. And so in our modern culture, we have developed a total opposite
cultural consensus. Our belief today, which is deeply embedded into everything in our culture,
is that people feel bad about themselves and do bad things to other people because of low self-esteem,
not high self-esteem. Low self-esteem is the reason why there is drug addiction and domestic violence
and our jails are full and so on and so forth. It's an attractive theory because you don't have to
make any form of moral judgment on another individual in order to deal, or society, in order to deal with
society's problems. All you have to do is put people on a path of self-improvement. That's how you fix
society's problems, which is why our prison system aren't called prison system. It's called a
corrective services. So in the most part, we believe that we can correct people. There's a bunch we don't
think we can correct and so they never get released, but some others we think we believe that we can
correct people, put them on a path of self-improvement. On the other hand, the way you dealt with these
problems in traditional society is that you would clamp down on people, you'd convict them and call them
really bad, nasty people. You'd make a judgment on them. And so do we fix our issues and the ones that
we have between people and the ones we have between nations by everyone having a higher view of
themselves or everyone having a lower view of themselves? That is, by high self-esteem or low self-esteem?
1 Corinthians gives us an approach to the way of seeing ourselves that is absolutely different
than both the traditional and the contemporary way. A way to see ourselves in 1 Corinthians is,
in fact, to forget ourselves, which is why I've titled this sermon, 2017, The Year to Forget Yourself.
It's, I've got the title of it from Tim Keller's little book, which is where I get most of my ideas
from in this book, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness. The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness. So maybe 2017
would be the year to find true freedom, freedom by forgetting yourself. The Corinthian church was full of
divisions. Different people had connections with different prominent leaders. One person was
mentored and discipled by the apostle Paul. Another was mentored and discipled by another leader in the
church, like Apollos, for instance. And these relationships became the basis of power plays
between groups within the church. Paul shows that the real core issue is pride.
It's boasting. Chapter 3, verse 21 starts off with, no more boasting. That's the very first
verse that Sam read. And then in chapter 4, verse 7, it says, why do you boast? And in chapter 3,
verse 6, he urges them not to take pride in one man over against another. Verse 6 gives us a glimpse
into the natural condition of the human ego. The word Paul uses here for pride is an unusual word.
It's not hubris. The word literally means to be overinflated, to be swollen, to be beyond its proper
size. And so what he does in using this word, he invokes a painful image of an organ in the human body
that is bloated because so much air has been pumped into it. It's swollen, it's inflamed, and it's ready to burst.
That is the natural human condition.
And he uses that word about seven times in the New Testament to refer to the natural human condition.
The ego is empty. It's full of air. The ego is puffed up and overinflated and there's nothing in the middle of it.
So spiritual pride is the illusion that we are competent to run our own lives, to achieve our own sense of self-worth,
and to find a purpose that's big enough to give us meaning in life without God.
And it can't do it. And so the ego is painful.
We do not notice our body. I don't know if you've noticed this,
but you don't notice your body until there's something wrong with it.
I never knew that I had a hip flex until it started to play up and started to cost me money to fix.
It would be pretty rare for us to think how, you know, I walked down into Chatswood yesterday,
and I was walking down there. I wasn't thinking how brilliantly my elbows are working today.
There's just no problems there at all. I didn't even think about my elbows.
Until, unless of course there was something previously wrong with my elbows,
or something became a problem with my elbows.
Parts of our body draw attention to themselves if there is something wrong with them.
And the ego often hurts because there is something unbelievably wrong with our ego.
It is always making us think about how we look and how we're treated.
It is very hard to get through a whole day without feeling snubbed, ignored, feeling stupid,
getting down on ourselves, thinking about how someone else has done it to us in the past.
That's because there is something incredibly wrong with our egos.
There is something wrong with our sense of self.
Therefore, the ego is busy trying to feel the emptiness, to deal with the pain.
It's busy comparing and boasting.
There's no full stop.
In verse 6, there's no full stop after the word pride.
It says,
And that's the very essence of the human ego.
It tries to feel its emptiness, to deal with its pain by comparing itself with other people.
In his chapter on pride in mere Christianity,
C.S. Lewis points out that pride is by its nature competitive.
Pride, he says, gets no pleasure out of having something,
only out of having more of it than the next person.
It's competitive.
In other words, we are only proud of being more successful, more intelligent,
more good-looking than the person that we're hanging with,
which is why we tend to hang with people who make us feel good.
In other words, that means they're people who are lower than us.
When we are in the presence of someone who is more successful,
more intelligent, more good-looking,
then we lose all pleasure in what we had.
That's because we really had no pleasure in it at all.
We were proud of it.
Which means the ego is always fragile.
It's like a balloon full of air, ready to pop at any moment.
Anything that's over-inflated is in imminent danger of being deflated.
Painful, empty, busy, fragile.
That's the normal state of the human self.
Paul wants the Corinthian church and us gathered here today to know the difference that Jesus makes
and how the Christian gospel transformed things for him and how they could do it for us too.
In verses 3 and 4, Paul shows them how the Christian gospel has transformed his sense of self-worth.
He says,
The word translated judged here is the same meaning as the word verdict.
It's referring to that elusive stamp of approval that we all crave.
We all crave that elusive stamp of approval.
And Paul does not look to the Corinthians or to any human court for the verdict that he is a somebody.
It's as if he says here,
I don't care what you think.
I don't care what anyone thinks.
Paul's self-worth, his identity is not tied up with other people's evaluation of him.
Now that doesn't seem terribly unusual, does it?
Really.
Most parents would say to their child at some point,
especially when that child is having problems with other kids or other people,
we would say to them,
It doesn't matter what your friends think of you.
You hear yourself saying that, parents?
It doesn't matter what your friends think of you.
In our modern world,
there seems to be only one answer for the issue of low self-esteem,
and that is fix it with high self-esteem.
We tell someone that they need to see that they're a great person.
We need to help them to see that they are wonderful,
who they are.
We tell them that they need to set their own standards
and accomplish their own standards
and then make their own evaluation of themselves.
Paul's approach could not be more radically different.
He cares very little if he's judged by the Corinthians or any human court,
but he says he will not even judge himself.
It's as if he's saying,
I don't care what your opinion of me is,
but then again, I don't care what my opinion of me is.
That's radically different.
I have a low opinion of your opinion of me,
and I have a low opinion of my opinion of me.
I don't care what I think either.
He says that about his own opinion,
even though he declares himself in this passage
of having a clear conscience.
Look at verse 4.
He says,
My conscience is clear,
but that does not make me innocent.
He knows that even if he does have a clear conscience,
that doesn't necessarily mean he's innocent.
You know, Hitler may well have had a clear conscience.
It doesn't make him innocent.
And I'm pretty confident that Paul would say
that it is a trap for us as we do today
in the modern Western society
set your own standards.
Pretty sure Paul would say that's a trap.
That's not the answer.
You see, we feel rotten
when we can't meet our parents' expectations
or our friends' expectations.
We feel rotten
when we can't meet society's expectations.
And so the answer in the individualistic West
is to boost your self-esteem
by setting your own standards.
And it can't deliver either.
We can't keep it around.
Only 8% of people
follow through with their new year's resolutions.
So maybe the answer then is to set incredibly low standards.
And then we feel rotten
because we know we're someone
who's set incredibly low standards.
Boosting our self-esteem
by trying to live up to our own standards
or someone else's standards
is in fact a trap.
But Paul does not look to the Corinthians
for the verdict that he is a somebody
but he also does not get it from himself.
And so now we start to discover
where Paul finds that sense of self
and he moves into territory
that is...
we frankly don't know anything about.
Paul was a man of incredible stature.
I'd be happy to argue
that he is one of the most influential people
in history.
Given that he wrote
one third of the New Testament
and something like
two billion people in this world
say that they're followers of Jesus.
I'd make that make Paul pretty influential.
And yet in 1 Timothy
he says Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom
I am the worst.
Not I was the worst
of whom I am the worst.
We're not used to someone
who has incredible poise
and confidence
volunteering
to give us that kind of an opinion
of themselves.
Someone who is totally honest
and aware of all sorts of moral flaws
and yet who has incredible poise
and confidence.
When he says that he does not let
the Corinthians judge him
nor does he judge himself
what he's saying there
he says that he knows
about his sins
he knows about his flaws
he knows about his failures
but he does not connect
those things to his sense
of worth and identity and self.
He does not see sin
and let it destroy
his sense of self.
Neither does he see
an accomplishment
and congratulate himself.
He sees all kinds of sins
in himself
and all kinds of accomplishments
in himself
but he refuses to connect
those to who he is
his identity
his sense of worth.
Worth.
And what Paul is saying here
is something that's terribly astounding.
He's saying that his ego
ego is not puffed up
it is filled up.
Not puffed up
it's filled up.
It's like he has reached a place
where his ego draws
no more attention to itself
than any other part
of his body.
It's not constantly hurting.
When he does something wrong
or something good
he does not connect it
to his sense of worth.
C.S. Lewis
in Me Christianity
makes a brilliant observation
about gospel humility
at the very end
of his chapter on pride.
He says
if we were to meet
a truly humble person
we would never come away
from that meeting
thinking
that they were humble.
They would not be telling us
about
that they were a nobody
a humble person
would not be telling us
that they were a nobody
because a person
who keeps saying
that they were a nobody
is a self-obsessed person.
The person with low self-esteem
is just as self-obsessed
as a person with high self-esteem.
The thing that we would remember
for that meeting
Lewis says
is how much
they seem to be
totally interested in us
and how happy
and at peace
they are
with themselves.
You see
the essence
of Christian humility
is not thinking
more
of myself
or thinking
less
of myself
it's thinking
of myself
less.
Thinking
of myself
less.
It means
I stop connecting
every experience
and every conversation
and every interaction
with another individual
to me.
It's somehow
a reflection
on me.
It's the freedom
of self-forgetfulness.
It's the ego
that's not puffed up
it's the ego
which is
filled up.
It's not high self-esteem
it's not low self-esteem
it's not even about
self-esteem.
A truly
gospel
humble
person
is not
a self-hating
person
nor a
self-loving
person
they are
a self-forgetful
person.
An example
of what this
might look like
for instance
the self-forgetful
person
would never
be devastated
by criticism.
A person
who's devastated
by criticism
is putting
too much value
on someone
else's opinion.
Our society
tells the person
who is thin-skinned
and devastated
by criticism
to deal
with it
by saying
to themselves
who cares
what other
people think?
People are
either devastated
by criticism
on the one
hand
or they are
not devastated
by criticism
because they
do not listen
to it
which is the
opposite problem.
They will not
listen to it
or learn from it
because they
don't care
what other
people think.
In other
words,
our only
solution
to low
self-esteem
is pride
and arrogance.
The person
who is
self-forgetful
is the
complete
opposite.
When someone
whose ego
is filled
up
gets criticized,
they're not
devastated.
They can
hear it.
They can
see it
as an
opportunity
to change.
As we
launch
into 2017,
don't you
want to
be like
that?
Wouldn't
you want
to be a
person who
does not
need
honor,
nor be
afraid of
honor?
Don't you
want to be
a person
who does
not last
for recognition,
nor on the
other hand
to be frightened
to death
of recognition?
Don't you
want to be
a kind of
person who
does not
admire what
they see
in the
mirror,
but also
doesn't cringe
at what
they see
in the
mirror?
Wouldn't
you like
to be the
type of
person who
in your
imaginary
life does
not sit
around daydreaming
about the
successes that
would give
them the
edge over
other people?
If only I
did this,
I could
finally beat
my brother.
Or perhaps
you tend to
beat yourself
up and to
be tormented
by regrets.
wouldn't
you like
to be free
from that?
Wouldn't
you like
to be the
athlete who
wins the
bronze and
he's so
thrilled to
celebrate the
gold medal
winner because
you just
happen to be
there when
they did
this brilliant
run and
you experienced
it?
Don't you
want to be
free to do
that?
This is a
possibility for
you and for
me if we
keep on going
where Paul is
going here.
we can
start to
enjoy things
that are
not about
me.
That is my
work's not
about me,
my sport's not
about me,
my siblings are
not about me,
my friendships
are not about
me.
You can
actually enjoy
things for
what they
are.
That is they
don't exist to
fill my ego,
to puff up
my ego.
Don't you
want to be
like that?
this is
gospel humility
because it's
the place of
blessed self
forgetfulness and
peace and rest.
Our society
doesn't know
what category
to put this
stuff in.
Simply just
thinking of
myself less.
It's the key
to people
like us
getting on
and solving
differences and
treating each
other as we
ought to be
treating each
other.
So Paul
tells us
how he
got to
this place
of self
forgetfulness.
He says
my conscience
is clear
but that
does not
make me
innocent.
The word
translated
innocent
comes from
the word
justify.
It's the
same word
he uses
right throughout
Romans,
right throughout
Galatians.
Here Paul
is saying
that even
if his
conscience
is clear,
it does
not justify
him,
it does
not give
him that
stamp of
approval.
What Paul
is looking
for is what
we are all
looking for
and that
is that
ultimate
verdict.
That ultimate
verdict that
we are
important,
that we are
valuable.
We look for
that ultimate
verdict every
day in all
kinds of
situations
with everyone
around us.
every single
day,
every single
day,
every single
day,
every day,
we put
ourselves in
the courtroom,
so to
speak.
Notice what
Paul says,
he says,
I care very
little if I'm
judged by
you or
by any
human court
in verse
three.
And I
think he's
speaking
metaphorically
there,
I don't
think he's
actually in
a courtroom
on trial.
However,
the problem
of self-esteem,
whether it's
high or low,
is that
every single
day you're
on trial.
There's the
prosecution,
there's the
defense.
Everything we
do is
providing
evidence for
the prosecution
or the
defense.
Some days
we feel like
we're winning
the trial,
some days
we feel like
we're losing
it,
and Paul
says,
for me,
the trial's
over.
He's out
of the
courtroom
because the
ultimate
verdict is
in,
and he
knows that
the Corinthian
church can't
justify him.
He knows
that he
cannot justify
himself.
He says,
it's the
Lord who
judges him.
It is only
God's opinion
that counts.
It's only in
the gospel of
the Lord
Jesus that
Paul and
us get
the final
verdict,
the ultimate
verdict that we
all crave
for.
And
crucially,
it comes,
the final
ultimate
verdict comes
before the
performance.
Most get
their self-image
from being a
good person
and hope that
eventually they
will get a
verdict that
confirms that
they're a good
person.
That is,
my performance
leads to the
ultimate
verdict.
All the
great religions
and philosophy
of the world
work like that.
Performance
leads to the
verdict.
Follow this
set of rules,
follow this
guidance,
this wisdom,
and you'll
get maybe
the verdict
that you're
looking for.
Every day
you're in the
courtroom hoping
the verdict
swings your way.
In Christianity
the verdict
leads to
performance.
In
Christianity
the moment
we believe
that God
says,
this is
my son
in whom
I am well
pleased.
Or Romans
8.1
Therefore
there is now
no condemnation
for those
who are in
Christ Jesus.
The moment
we trust
in Jesus
God
credits
Jesus'
perfect
performance
to us
as if it
was our
perfect
performance.
And he
adopts us
into his
family.
We get
the ultimate
verdict
of
approval.
God
can say
to us
just as
he once
said to
Jesus
you are
my son
whom I
love
with you
I am
well
pleased.
The
verdict
is in.
And now
we perform
on the
basis of
that
verdict.
Because
he loves
us and
accepts us
we don't
have to
do
things that
build up
my
reputation.
Free
now to
do
things
for the
joy of
doing
them.
Free
to actually
help
people in
order to
help
people.
And to
do it
with a
sense of
joy.
Not
because it
makes me
feel better
about
myself.
Not
because I've
got a
New Year's
resolution to
volunteer.
And
self-improve.
Not so
that I can
fill up the
emptiness
of a
consumeristic
culture.
In
Christianity
Jesus
Christ went
on trial
instead of
us.
Jesus
went to
the
courtroom.
It was
an unjust
trial.
It was
a kangaroo
court as
we say
in Australia
but he
did not
complain.
He faced
the trial
that should
be ours
so that we
do not
have to
face that
trial
anymore.
He took
the condemnation
that we
deserve for
our lack
of performance
to give
us his
perfect
performance.
And we
simply need
to ask
God to
accept us
because of
what Jesus
has done.
And when
you do,
the only
person whose
opinion counts
looks at
us and he
sees us as
being more
valuable,
of much
more worth
than all
the jewels
of the
world.
Now,
perhaps for
those of you
who are here
today,
some of you,
this is
totally new.
Can I say
don't let
this pass
you by?
This is
revolutionary.
2017,
make it the
year to forget
yourself and
to embrace
Jesus.
Set us a
New Year's
resolution.
Keep digging,
keep looking,
keep asking
questions.
There is so
much to
discover.
I've had
maybe 30
minutes on
this so far
and I have
covered a
whole bunch
of ground
in a really
short space
of time.
There are
lots of
pieces of
the jigsaws
to put
together.
Why did
Jesus have
to die?
Why did
he rise
from the
dead?
Is he
really the
son of
God?
Keep
looking until
you understand
the whole
picture and
you find this
place of
peace and
rest in
him.
Make this
a matter of
central importance
this year.
But maybe
you're in a
different position.
Maybe you
trust in
Jesus.
You might have
been trusting
in Jesus for
so many years
but every
day you're
finding yourself
just sucked
back again
and again
into that
courtroom.
You do not
feel that you're
living like Paul
says here.
You're getting
sucked back in
and all I can
say is that
you have to
relive the
gospel
every day.
you have to
relive the
gospel every
time you
pray,
every time
you come to
church and
interact with
someone else,
every time
you feel
rejected,
every time
someone changes
something that
you had a
hand in
building or
creating,
forgetting
self and
remembering the
gospel is the
key to
treasuring
Jesus.
It's the key
for us as a
church to
embracing
diversity and
discomfort as a
church.
It's the key
to letting go
and finding
rest.
We have to
relive the
gospel in the
supermarket.
We have to
relive the
gospel when we're
doing the
dishes.
We have to
relive the
gospel when
we're raising
our kids.
We have to
relive the
gospel in our
marriages.
Everything.
Asking myself,
am I constantly
being drawn back
into the
courtroom?
Where's my
identity?
Where's my
security?
Where's my
sense of
worth?
And like
Paul, we can
say, I don't
care what you
think.
I don't care
what I think.
I only care
what the Lord
thinks.
And he's the
one who says,
therefore, there
is now no
condemnation for
those who are in
Christ Jesus, and
you are my
beloved child.
With you, I am
well pleased.
Embrace Jesus and
all his work
more each
day this
year.
Make it the
year to
forget self.
Put self-forgetfulness
to the top of your
New Year's Eve
resolutions, or
forget New Year's
Eve, just make a New
Year's resolution.
And pray for the
help to remember
Jesus moment by
moment and what
he's achieved for
you.
relive the
gospel every time
you're in the
courtroom.
Amen.