Well, good morning, everyone, and Happy New Year. I'll add that to everyone else's this morning.
And New Year's resolutions, I'm not sure if you're one of those people who has New Year's
resolutions. I personally highly encourage it, at least give you something to sort of work forwards,
if you like. I'd be grateful if you could turn 1 Corinthians, grab a Bible, either physical Bible
over here somewhere, and also on your app, 1 Corinthians 3 would be fantastic.
Top 10 resolutions for last year, New Year's resolutions for last year were number one,
only do exercise you enjoy. Number two, healthy eating. Number three, turn off the self-view
on your Zoom calls. Number four was review your relationship with alcohol. Number five,
find a new hobby. Number six, travel more. Number seven, volunteer. Number eight, meet someone.
I'm assuming that's romantic as opposed to just meeting someone randomly. Number nine was to sleep
more. And number 10 was to start therapy. So that's not my New Year's, that's New Year's resolutions.
Number, so my New Year's resolutions for this year, number one, and I've got five of them. Number one,
to forget about myself. Number two, to read the entire Bible and the New Testament and Psalms twice.
Number three, to not buy any new pieces of clothing. With two caveats. I don't wear secondhand underwear.
And I don't wear secondhand joggers. There's a reason for that. It has something to do with injury.
Number four for me is to run my first ever marathon. Number five is to set a PB running a marathon.
So providing I do number four, I should automatically do number five.
What are your goals for 2023? Particularly, what is your discipleship goals? In other words,
the question that we constantly ask ourselves around here is what might be your next step?
Now, our summer series here in January is called Running the Race. It's based loosely around Hebrews
chapter 12, verses one to three, sorry, one to two, which says,
Since we are surrounded by such great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders
and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
So what we've got here in January is five standalone messages around the theme of running the race of
discipleship. A few of them will be biographies of those who have the, you know, some of the great,
greats of the faith from past eras who have run the race and set a great example for us.
What is I'm doing today, what is intriguing about today's passage is that it gives us a way to see
ourselves, to start this new year in seeing ourselves differently.
And seeing particularly how we might change.
And it's totally different than traditional culture or contemporary Western culture on how
it views we are to change. Up until the 20th century, traditional cultures believed that a
too higher view of yourself was the main cause of personal problems and the breakdown of relationships.
And society.
The Greek word for it is the word hubris, an excessive pride and arrogance and overly high confidence in oneself.
In our modern Western culture, we have developed the exact opposite cultural consensus.
Our belief today, which is deeply embedded in everything, is that people, when people feel bad about themselves,
they do bad things to others.
It's that is, the main problem is low self-esteem.
And all you have to do is to put people on the right path of self-improvement and you will advance society.
And so the question is, do we fix ourselves and fix our own issues, issues between people,
by a higher view of ourself or through a lower view of ourself?
Which one's right?
One Corinthians 3 and into 4 gives us an approach to the way of seeing ourselves that is absolutely different than the traditional way or the contemporary way.
The way that we see ourselves in 1 Corinthians is to forget ourselves.
Real enduring change can come about when we actually forget about ourselves.
So maybe 2023 is the year to find true freedom in your life by forgetting about yourself,
which is why, for me, it's number one on my New Year's resolutions.
So if you're someone who likes to take notes, I've got three points.
The fragile ego, the transformed ego, and how to get a transformed ego.
The fragile ego.
The Corinthian church, if you read earlier in 1 Corinthians 3,
you'd see that it's a church that's filled with all these divisions.
Paul shows that the real core issue of those divisions is pride and boasting.
In chapter 3, verse 6, he urges them not to take pride in one person over against another.
They're flocking to certain leaders and taking their sense of worth attached to a particular leader.
The word Paul uses here for pride in chapter 3, verse 6 is in fact an unusual word.
The word literally means to be overinflated.
It means to be swollen.
Something that is beyond its proper size.
It's swollen, inflamed, it's ready to burst.
That's the condition, it says, of the natural human ego.
And the ego is therefore empty.
The ego that is puffed up and overinflated is just a bunch of gas.
It's nothing at its centre.
The ego is empty.
The ego that is puffed up has nothing at its centre.
Spiritual pride is the illusion that we are competent to run our lives by ourselves.
Achieve our own sense of self-worth.
To find a purpose big enough to give us meaning in life without God.
Not only is it not possible, but the overinflated ego is also painful.
We do not notice our body until something goes wrong with it.
That's the nature of it.
It'd be pretty rare for us to think.
Like, I've never actually gone at the end of it.
My goodness, my elbow is working really well today.
Just, well done.
You know, it's not until something's wrong with the elbow
that you notice it's either not working or it's now working brilliantly.
The ego often hurts because of something unbelievably wrong with it.
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,
without feeling ignored, without feeling stupid,
without getting down on ourselves in some way or another.
That's because there's something unbelievably wrong with our sense of self.
And therefore the ego is incredibly busy trying to feel the emptiness,
to deal with the pain.
It's busy comparing and boasting.
In verse 6,
there is no full stop after the word pride.
It says,
then you will not take pride in one person over against another.
And that is the very essence of the fragile ego.
It tries to feel its emptiness,
to deal with its pain by comparing itself to other people.
In his chapter on pride,
in his classic book,
Mere Christianity,
C.S. Lewis points out that pride,
by its very nature,
is competitive.
He writes,
pride 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're only proud of being more successful,
more intelligent,
and more good looking than the next person.
That's his point.
When we're in the presence of someone
who is in fact more successful,
more intelligent,
more good looking,
then we are,
then what we have there is a loser sense of the pleasure of what we had.
It then becomes a problem with us.
And so we tend not to gravitate towards people who make us feel bad.
We gravitate towards people who make us feel better about ourselves,
because we are by nature competitive.
The hollow ego is competitive.
It's fragile.
Anything that is overinflated is always in imminent danger of being deflated.
Empty, painful, busy, and fragile.
The normal state of the human self without God.
And Paul wants the Corinthian church here,
and us,
to know the difference that Jesus Christ makes.
And how the Christian gospel
has transformed things for him,
and how it can be for us too.
Which is my second point,
the transformed ego.
In verses three and four,
Paul shows them how the Christian gospel
has transformed his sense of self-worth.
He says,
he writes there,
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 judges me.
Now the word translated judge here,
it has the same meaning as the word verdict.
It's referring to that,
if you like,
elusive stamp of approval
that we all crave.
We all crave.
Some of us have grown up in families
where we've never had that elusive stamp of approval.
Always striving,
always seeking to fill the empty ego.
And what says here,
Paul's saying his self-worth is not tied to that.
He's not tied to the Corinthians' evaluation of him.
Now most parents would say to their child at some point,
especially when they're having problems with other kids,
you know, in the schoolyard or something like that,
we would normally say things like,
it doesn't matter what your friends think of you.
It doesn't matter what other people say about you.
Any parent ever heard them repeat those words?
It doesn't matter what other people think about you.
In our modern world,
there seems to be only one way
of dealing with low self-esteem.
And that is fix it with high self-esteem.
We tell someone
that they need to see that they are a great person.
They need to see how wonderful they are.
And Paul's approach here is very different.
He cares very little if he is judged by the Corinthians,
but he doesn't turn that around and go,
well, I think really well of myself.
So it doesn't matter what you say about me.
He says, I don't care what you think about me,
but I don't care what I think about me either.
I don't even judge myself.
It's as if he says,
I don't care what you think
and I don't care what I think.
Look carefully what he says in verse four.
My conscience is clear,
but that does not make me innocent.
Now, I'm pretty sure that Paul would not say,
or that he would say,
it's a very significant trap
to set your own standard,
your own bar of standards.
You know, the way you can feel better about yourself
is to set your standards so low
that you will meet it every time.
We feel rotten
because we often can't live up to other people's standards,
and so the answer is to boost our self-esteem
by living up to our own standards,
and we just keep dropping them.
That can't deliver either.
We cannot keep our own standards.
Did you know a little bit of a tip for you
who do set New Year's resolutions?
Only 8% of people will follow through
with their self-improving New Year's resolutions.
8%.
92% will break those resolutions,
will give up on those resolutions
by the end of January.
So what's the answer?
Set less resolutions?
Set really low resolutions.
That makes us feel terrible
because we realise that we're the type of person
who just constantly lowers the bar.
Every time we break our standards,
we just lower them.
Boosting our self-esteem
by trying to live up to our own standards
is a trap.
And Paul here does not look to the Corinthians
for the verdict that he's a somebody,
but he also doesn't look to himself
to get the verdict that he's a somebody.
Now, he's now moving into a territory
that very, very few people know anything about.
And this is the Apostle Paul,
to this day,
still rated in the top five
most influential people in human history,
to this day.
And this is what he writes
in 1 Timothy 1, verse 15.
Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners
of whom I am the worst.
Not that I was the worst,
but of whom I am the worst.
We are simply not used to someone
who is that incredibly confident,
volunteering that sort of opinion
about themselves.
Someone who is totally honest
and aware of all sorts of moral flaws,
and yet at the same time
has incredible poise and confidence.
A man who literally changed
the course of human history.
A man who Western civilization
is built on.
When he says that he does not
let the Corinthians judge him,
nor will he judge himself,
he is saying that he knows
about his deep failures,
but he does not connect
those deep failures
to his identity,
to his sense of self.
He does not see his sin
and let it destroy his sense of self.
Nor does he look at his accomplishments
and congratulate himself.
He sees all kinds of sin in himself
and all kinds of accomplishments,
and yet he refuses to connect
any of those things
to his sense of self.
Paul is saying here
that his ego is not puffed up,
it's filled up.
It's like he's reached a place
where his ego draws no more attention
to itself.
When he does something wrong
or something good,
it's not connected
to him anymore.
C.S. Lewis again
in Mere Christianity
makes a brilliant observation
right at the very end
of his chapter on pride.
If we were to meet
a truly humble person,
we would never come away
from meeting them
thinking that they were
actually humble.
They would not be always telling us
that they were a nobody
because a person
who keeps saying
that they're a nobody
who's got low self-esteem
is actually a self-obsessed person.
The thing we would remember
about meeting a truly humble person
is how much they seem
to be totally interested
in you,
in us.
And how happy
and at peace they were
whatever the circumstances
are in life.
The essence
of a transformed ego
is not thinking
more of oneself
or thinking less
of oneself.
It's thinking
of oneself
less.
It's the freedom
of self-forgetfulness.
It's not a high self-esteem.
It's not a low self-esteem.
It's not even about self-esteem.
A truly humble person
is not a self-hating person
or a self-loving person.
They are a self-forgetful person.
For example,
the self-forgetful person
would never be devastated
by criticism
because they don't put
too much value
in other people's opinions.
The fragile
ego
is either
devastated
by criticism
or they're not
devastated
by criticism
because they do not
listen to criticism.
They won't accept
criticism.
The person
who's a self-forgetful
person
is the complete
opposite.
When someone
whose ego
is filled up
gets criticised,
they're not
devastated,
they listen to it
and they see it
as an opportunity
to change.
Wouldn't you want
2023
to be like that
for yourself?
Wouldn't you want
to be a person
who does,
who neither
needs honour
nor afraid
of it
when you receive it?
Someone
who does not
lust for recognition
nor,
on the other hand,
frighten to death
of it.
Don't you want
to be the kind
of person
who does not
admire
what they see
in the mirror
but not
cringe
by what they
see in the mirror?
Don't you want
to be the kind
of person
who in
your imaginary
life
doesn't sit
around daydreaming
about successes
that gives you
an edge
over others?
Or perhaps
you tend
to beat
yourself up
to be tormented
by the regrets
of your life?
Wouldn't you like
to be free
of all of those
things?
Wouldn't you like
to be the athlete
who wins
the bronze medal
and yet
is thrilled
to celebrate
with the gold
medal winner?
Because you've
got to be there
to experience
their brilliance.
This is the possibility
for you and for me
if we keep
on going
where Paul
is going
here.
We can start
to enjoy
things
that are
in fact
not about
me.
We can
actually enjoy
things for
what they are
or people
for who
they are.
They are
not just
there
to fill
up my
emptiness
or your
emptiness.
That's the
transformed ego.
That's the
life,
the blessed
life of
self-forgetfulness.
And our
society
has got
no categories
for this
kind of
life.
Don't know
where to put
this kind
of life.
So how
do we get
this
transformed
ego?
Paul tells
us he got
to this
place.
He says,
my conscience
is clear
but that
does not
make me
innocent.
The word
translated
innocent
comes from
the word
justify.
He's
saying that
even if
his conscience
is clear,
that does
not
justify
him.
What Paul
is looking
for is a
verdict,
the ultimate
verdict that he
is important,
that he is
valuable.
We look for
that ultimate
verdict every
single day of
our life in
all kinds of
situations and
people around
us.
The problem
with self-esteem,
whether it's
high or whether
it's low,
is that every
single day we
are on
trial.
Every single
day you're
on trial.
There is this
prosecution and
there is defense
sitting on either
shoulder.
Everything we do
is providing
evidence for the
prosecution or
evidence for the
defense.
And some days we
feel like we're
winning the trial
and other days we
feel like we're
losing the trial.
And Paul says
for him the
trial is over.
It's done.
He is out of
the courtroom
because the
ultimate verdict
has come in
for him.
He knows that
the Corinthians
can't justify
him and he
knows that he
can't justify
himself.
He says it
is the Lord
who judges
him.
What Paul is
saying here,
it is only,
only in the
gospel of the
Lord Jesus
Christ that Paul
and us get
the final
verdict.
And crucially,
he says,
it comes before
any performance
on our behalf.
Most people
get their
self-image
from being a
good person
and hope that
eventually they
will get a
verdict that
confirms that
they are a
good person.
Performance
leads to a
verdict, in
other words.
All the
great religions
and philosophies
of this world
work on that
principle.
Performance
leads to the
verdict.
It is only
in the
Christian faith,
only in the
Christian faith,
does the
verdict lead
to performance.
in Christianity,
the moment we
believe, God
says, you
are my
beloved
child, in
whom I am
well pleased.
Only in
Christianity do
you get the
praise of the
praiseworthy
before anything
that you've
done.
And in
spite of all
the things that
you have done
that you
shouldn't have
done.
or Romans
8 verse 1
which says,
therefore, there
is now no
condemnation for
those who are in
Christ Jesus.
The moment you
trust in Jesus
Christ, God
credits Jesus'
perfect performance
to you as if it
was your own.
And he adopts us
into his family.
The verdict is in.
And now we
perform on that
basis.
because he
loves us and
he accepts us.
We don't have to
do things that
just build up our
reputation.
We are free now
to do things
for the joy of
them, simply for
the joy of
them.
Free to help
other people in
order to help
them, not
because it makes
us feel better
about ourselves,
not because it's
filling up our
emptiness and
building up our
ego.
In
Christianity,
Jesus Christ
went on trial
instead.
Jesus went into
the courtroom
on our behalf.
He faced the
trial that should
be ours so
that we don't
have to face
that trial
ever.
He took the
condemnation that
we deserve for
our lack of
performing to
God's standards
of perfection.
perfection.
And we just
simply need to
ask God to
accept us on
the basis of
Jesus.
That's it.
And when we
do, the only
person whose
opinion actually
matters looks at
us and he finds
in us a person
more valuable than
all the jewels of
the earth.
Now, perhaps
that's brand new
for some of you
here today.
Don't let this
moment pass you
at the beginning
of 2023.
This is
fundamentally
revolutionary,
as it has been
for millions of
people for
centuries.
Keep looking,
keep digging,
keep asking
questions.
There's a lot to
discover.
I've covered a
lot of ground
in a very short
space of time.
There are lots
of pieces of the
jigsaw puzzle to
put together.
But keep looking,
keep searching,
keep exploring the
Christian faith.
Understand the
whole picture.
Make it, can I
encourage you to
make it of central
importance in
2023.
But maybe you're
in a different
position.
maybe you've
already trusted in
Jesus, maybe
done so for many,
many years.
But every single
day you find
yourself being
sucked back into
that courtroom.
Keep getting
sucked back into
it.
And all I can
tell you is
that you must
relive the
gospel every
single day.
We must live
the gospel every
single, every
moment we pray,
every time we
gather as a
church, every
time we feel
rejected.
Forgetting
self-remembering
the gospel of
Jesus Christ is
the key to
treasuring Jesus
and embracing
diversity and
discomfort for us
as a church.
It's the key to
letting go and
finding true and
enduring rest.
We have to
relive the
gospel in every
single experience
of life.
life.
We need to relive the
Christian gospel on
the spot and
ask ourselves, am
I putting myself
back into the
courtroom here?
Am I turning this
around to be about
me again?
Like Paul, we can
actually live day by
day saying, I
don't care about
what you think.
I don't even care
what I think.
only care what the
Lord thinks.
And he's the one
who has said, you
put your trust in
Jesus, you are my
much loved child.
The verdict is in.
So embrace Jesus and
all of his work more
and more each day
this year.
Put self-forgetfulness
at the top of your
new year's resolutions
and pray for the help
to remember Jesus
moment by moment, to
preach the gospel to
yourself moment by
moment and what he
has achieved for you.