Well, if you can keep Proverbs 30 open in front
of you, that'd be really helpful. Let me pray
and let's ask God for help as we look at His
Word now. Gracious Heavenly Father, Your Word
tells us that there are those who are pure in
their own eyes and yet are not cleansed of their
filth. That there are those who are wise in their
own eyes. Please Father help us not to be like
that. Please humble us today as we listen to
your word and teach us how crucial and important
humility truly is. And we ask this in Jesus name.
Amen. Well years ago I came across the most fascinating
book. You know there's sometimes you find a book
that's You know, not just insightful, but it's
really well written. It's nice when you get that
rare combination of both, isn't it? And so I
came across this book. You might have heard of
it. It's called Good to Great by Jim Collins.
It's a book about empirical research, which I
know straight away turns a lot of people off
when you hear the words empirical research, but
it's actually really well written. It's a book
about exceptional businesses. So what Jim Collins
and his team did was they got together and they
looked at some businesses that vastly outperformed
other businesses and tried to work out what did
these businesses that vastly outperformed the
other ones have in common. These were the great
ones. Why were these ones great and just the
other ones good? They looked at businesses like
Gillette, Nacor Steel, Fannie Mae and others.
And after all this research and thinking that
they did, they came with seven principles. Some
of them were these businesses confronted the
brutal facts but still wouldn't lose hope. Some
of these businesses were very big on who then
what. They'd go, let's work out who's driving
the bus before we work out where to go. They
had a thing called a hedgehog concept, a big
sort of hairy, audacious goal. They'd use new
technology to accelerate what they were doing.
But one of the things that stuck with me in this
book, more than the rest actually, was when they
talked about level five leaders. These were the
best CEOs. And they were saying in this book
that the best CEOs were not the ... overflowing
with charisma types like you'd expect. They were
the ones who blended strong convictions with
deep humility. These were the leaders that were
great. And it's not what you'd expect. We think
greatness is that larger -than -life kind of
guy, the one who's got all the answers, who can
sell ice to Eskimos, who breaks all the norms.
But they found that the greatest businesses and
the greatest leaders were the ones who had unwavering
conviction blended with humility. Now Good to
Great is not a Christian book, but it's tapping
into something that the Bible is on about. It's
there trying to show that humility is incredibly
powerful and wise. So, what does it look like
to be humble? Is humility really the wisest path?
I mean, in our culture, humility is often overlooked,
isn't it? The big and the brash, they tend to
get ahead. That's how it seems to be. And the
humble, well, they tend to be the ones who get
hamstrung. Who needs humility? Well, Proverbs
30 reminds us that we do. Whether we're leaders,
whoever we are, we all need humility. Proverbs
30 is trying to show us what humility looks like.
Here's what it looks like. Listen humbly to God's
voice, live humbly in God's world, and learn
humbly from God's order. That's what humility
is about listen humbly to God's voice live humbly
in God's world and learn humbly from God's order
and There's one big thing that ties these three
things together that we're going to see today
Jesus humbled himself to save us from our self
exalting folly So that's what we're going to
look at today. So let's start with the first
thing that Proverbs 30 teaches us about humility
Listen humbly to God's voice. If you got prose
30 there, come with me to verses 1 to 6. It says,
the sayings of Agur son of Jakar and inspired
utterance, this man's utterance to Ithiel. I
am weary God, but I can prevail. Surely I am
only a brute, not a man. I do not have human
understanding. I have not learned wisdom, nor
have I attained to the knowledge of the Holy
One. Who has gone up to heaven and come down?
Whose hands have gathered up the wind? Who has
wrapped up the waters in a cloak? Who has established
all the ends of the earth? What is His name?
And what is the name of His Son? Surely you know.
Every word of God is flawless. He is a shield
to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to
his words or he will rebuke you and prove you
a liar. These verses are reminding us to listen
humbly to God's voice. Actually, it reminds me
of Dirty Harry. You remember Clint Eastwood's
Dirty Harry? A man's got to know his limitations.
That's what this is trying to tell us. One of
our limitations is we can't know as God knows.
He says here that he's weary and brutish because
he's feeling the limitations of human reason.
But he says he will prevail at the start because
he's able to listen to God's Word. And it lands
on that idea that God's Word is perfect and protective
because no one is like God. No one speaks like
God. And so, His word should be heeded and not
added to. And it takes humility to do that. Imagine
going to the Louvre at night with paint and paintbrush.
Because you're there and you're going, well,
I saw this painting Mona Lisa, and it just, it's
a bit subpar. And you're thinking, I'll go there
and I'm gonna just jazz it up a bit, I'm gonna
put some disco lights in the background, give
her a proper smile, it'll make it really good.
That'd be absurd, wouldn't it? Adding to the
Mona Lisa would be very damaging, and not just
to the Mona Lisa, but for your bank account too.
Adding is subtracting sometimes, isn't it? What
you should do is if you ever go to the Louvre
is admire the Mona Lisa, learn from it, be inspired
by it, let it move you. To add to it would be
a disaster. Well, God's Word is like that. It's
perfect and powerful as it is. It doesn't need
changing. It needs to be taken in, absorbed and
admired. We need to be humble before it. Now
there's a balance here that we need to get right.
We don't want to be cultish. We don't want to
say that there's no place for human reason. That
would be silly, wouldn't it? And even Proverbs
has actually Egyptian wisdom literature included
in it. So we know that there is great wisdom
to be gleaned from the world around us. The Bible
doesn't tell me about what to do when my head
gasket blows. My mechanic does that. You know,
it's good to go get wisdom from others. It's
not a bad thing. But there is a recognition here
that the scriptures are something else. They
are God speaking. And therefore we need to humbly
listen to them. I mean, have you ever thought
about when you're reading your Bible, It's just
the same as if you were there on Mount Sinai
like Moses listening to God speak audibly. It's
no different. The Bible is just as much God's
Word as it is when you stand on Mount Sinai hearing
God speak. We need to humbly listen to it. But
this highlights also the great error of Roman
Catholicism and some forms of charismatic theology.
Because in Roman Catholicism, what they do is
they say the Pope is equal to God's Word. He
gets to interpret God's Word, which really is
saying it's on the same level, isn't it? Well,
that to me, that's adding to God's Word, isn't
it? It's not a good place to be. And some charismatic
theology, it's about, oh, I've had a prophecy,
I've had a word from the Lord. Well, I mean,
that's something we've got to be very careful
with. Maybe you did, maybe you didn't. How do
you know it's actually from God? How do you know
it wasn't just the cheese that you ate last night?
I mean, I'm not trying to be too silly, but I'm
saying it is tricky, right? How do you know that
it's not the voice of the evil one? So we've
got to be careful. Are we adding to God's Word?
I mean, I think that's to go around saying God
spoke to me when he didn't is actually misrepresenting
God in a big way, isn't it? So there's some real
dangers there that we've got to be careful of.
But for us, if we want to be humble and wise,
we need to be teachable. I mean, this can be
the era that we fall into in our tribe is that
we don't let the Bible push us and unsettle us.
We can easily get into a point where we think
we know it all, don't we? That's equally a danger,
isn't it? So we need to keep letting the Bible
challenge us. That's the humble approach. You
might be thinking, well Brendan, what's that
look like? Well, if something in the Bible seems
wrong to you, it looks like this. You come across,
you're reading your Bible, something, you go,
that seems wrong. It might be really uncomfortable
and unsettling. It could be something like, hell
is real, or homosexuality is a sin, or whatever
it might be. You know, the genocides in the Old
Testament, something like that. And it's so easy
to go, okay, the Bible must be wrong here. That's
not how we should think. If something in the
Bible seems wrong to you, here's the humble approach.
You think, either I've interpreted this wrong,
or I'm wrong and I need to change. And I tell
you what, if you've been reading the Bible for
a long time, you'll see, you'll know, you'll
agree with me that the Bible is right. It is
perfect and flawless. It is powerful to protect
us. If you haven't been reading the Bible for
a while and you're saying, Brennan, that sounds
a bit crazy, can I encourage you to go read it?
Sit down and read one of the Gospels, Matthew,
Mark, Luke or John. Check it out for yourself.
See how powerful the Bible is. It's unlike anything
else. And that's why we need to humbly listen
to it. But humility is not just about listening.
It's also about living. And here's the second
thing we need to see from Proverbs 30. Secondly,
we live humbly in God's world. Have a look with
me at verses seven to nine. Otherwise I may have
too much and disown you and say, who is the Lord?
Or I may become poor and steal and so dishonour
the name of my God. Now in this section, it's
warning us about a wrong way to live, a distorted,
arrogant way to live. And it starts with a prayer
about two things. A petition for honesty. and
humble provision from God. So he's saying living
by deception, a lot of people think that's the
way to get ahead in the world, that's the wise
way. He's saying no, it's actually harmful because
getting ahead is not everything. And then he
goes on to say that really what we should be
thinking is that we need a balance in life. We
need to ask God to provide not too much and not
too little. because either has the potential
to damage our relationship with God, either will
become self -sufficient and dishonour God, think
it's all about me and myself and be arrogant,
or will go steal and dishonour God. And so he's
trying to walk this fine line. He's saying there's
a balance to life. It's a bit like packing on
a trip. The other day I went to Sydney for my
uncle's funeral. And, you know, now you've got
all these baggage limits. They seem to just go
a bit smaller every couple of years, don't they?
So, you know, I'm there and I'm trying to not
overpack. So I don't want to get, you know, half
my wardrobe in there and get all the heavy and
bulky things that'll exceed the baggage limits.
So that wouldn't be good. But I don't want to
underpack. because I don't want everyone to put
up with my smell from the unwashed clothes that
I'm wearing for the third time. You know, you're
trying to get the balance right. Packing well
means getting the balance right. And life is
like that. I mean, if this life is all there
is, it makes sense to hoard, doesn't it? I mean,
that's the most logical wise thing. If there
is no God and we all die and that's it and you're
just grey matter twitching, well then, hey, he
who dies with the most toys wins. But if there
is more to life, if there is a God who reigns
over everything, who loves us, who sent his son
to die for us, if there is eternity, well then...
We need to be wise in how we balance things.
This life is temporary. It's a trip to glory,
isn't it? And we need to pack right. We don't
want to overpack now. We don't want to underpack.
We want to make sure we get there to eternity.
That's the key. Now, I reckon this is a real
blind spot for us who live in the West. Are we
guarding ourselves against the dangers of lack
and excess? I mean, I think we all see the real
danger of lack, whether it's money or relationships
or whatever it might be. We go, lack is a bad
thing. We don't want to be missing out. And this
is pointing out the wisdom of that. You know,
we don't want to be lacking and then stop trusting
God and do things that dishonour him. But there
is also a danger of excess. That if you get way
more than you need, it can go to your head. And
you can forget God and stop thinking that you
need him. You know, you could imagine two people
and they're opening their mail. The person with
lack, they open another bill and they're there
and they're freaking out. How do I pay it? and
they come up with some way, some dodgy way to
take or do something wrong, that's dishonouring
to God. But it's just as much a danger for the
person who's there opening their mouth to find
out that their great aunt or something has given
them a large inheritance. And that, yeah, their
life's so much different now. There's a great
danger in that too, isn't there? Because both
lack and excess can threaten humility and threaten
our relationship with God. And so what does Proverbs
30 tell us to do? It tells us to pray. Pray we'd
live humble and content lives. Is that your prayer?
I was reflecting on this and I thought, it's
funny, we pray for so many things, don't we?
But we so often forget to pray for the state
of our hearts. It's easy to have our list of
things. Yes, God, I want that. Please do that.
Please deal with that. But where's the prayer
for humility and contentment? It's a great challenge,
isn't it? I feel challenged by it. To pray more
for humility and contentment. But thirdly, Proverbs
30 wants to tell us that we also need to do one
more thing. We need to learn humbly from God's
order. We need to learn humbly from God's order.
If you got your Bible there, come with me to
verses 15 to 23. It says, the leech has two daughters.
Give, give, they cry. There are three things
that are never satisfied four that never say
enough. The grave, the barren womb, land which
is never satisfied with water, and fire which
never says enough. The eye that mocks a father
that scorns an aged mother will be pecked out
by the ravens of the valley will be eaten by
the vultures. There are three things that are
too amazing for me. Four that I do not understand,
the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a
snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high
seas, and the way of a man with a young woman.
And this is the way of an adulterous woman. She
eats and wipes her mouth and says, I've done
nothing wrong. And we could go on there. But
here we have a bunch of numeric proverbs. They've
got a pattern of three and then four. Did you
see that there? There's these patterns of three
and then four. And they're trying to teach us
about the limits and boundaries of God's order
in creation. And the trick is to try and work
out what the three and four things have in common.
So verses 15 to 16, they're things that always
want more, they're never satisfied. And that
this is the nature of things. We live in a world
where these things are never satisfied. They're
always going to want more. In verses 18 to 20,
it's about effortless beauty. And you then get
the adulteress in verse, at the end there, she
corrupts that. She's the opposite of that, the
way of a man with a young woman. And she's there
saying, I've done nothing wrong. Or then in verses
21 to 23, it's the normal order gets broken and
things are not good. In verses 24 to 28, it's
things that are wee but wise. In verses 29 to
31, it's those that have a confident stride,
that they feel very secure. And then the conclusion.
In verses 32 to 33 is this, if you play the fool
and exalt yourself or if you plan evil, clap
your hand over your mouth. For as churning cream
produces butter and as twisting the nose produces
blood, so stirring up anger produces strife.
It's saying life has an order and it's important
that we humbly accept and respect that order.
We don't exalt ourselves and constantly have
endless ambition that we don't fight about everything
and try and keep climbing over everyone, but
that we humbly accept and be content with the
way that God has arranged things. Think of it
a bit like a playground. When we used to live
in Broken Hill, there was a great playground
called Sturt Park. Now, as a parent of five kids,
what makes a great playground? I can tell you.
A fence. A big fence so that the kids are contained
and they're safe. And hey, all the other stuff
is good too. You need the slides and the swings
and all the other things, but the fence, the
boundaries, the limits, that's a good thing.
And they had a safe time. They loved Sturt Park.
They had a flying fox as well. That was a good
thing too. But it was great because they could
enjoy themselves, but there was no risk of ...
them getting out onto the road or anything. But
I remember a church I worked at back in Geraldton,
they had no fence and every Sunday was so stressful
because kids would play out on the grass and
there was no fence and the kids could easily
run out onto the car park and even the road.
Actually, about 30 years before we started working
there, one kid actually did that and got hit
by a car. It was tragic. And it kept reminding
me, and we actually got a fence put in eventually,
which was good, but it reminded me just how important
boundaries and limits are. That we can actually
flourish and thrive when there are good boundaries
and limits in place. That there is an order to
things that boundaries and limits provide. I
mean, you can't have a good game of footy without
boundaries and limits, can you? Because no one
knows when the ball's gone out or anything like
that. Well, it's the same with life. This is
showing us that eroticism is bounded to marriage.
It's showing us that there's a hierarchy which
is a boundary for society. That there is all
sorts of things that create good order. And understanding
and accepting how the world works is humble and
wise. And this is a challenge to us because so
much of our modern society is built on hubris.
And on the assumption that we need to deconstruct
everything. That we need to remove boundaries
and hierarchies that existed for millennia because
they're damaging us all. And somehow, hey, you
know, today we're just so smart, we know better
than everybody. And don't mishear me, sometimes
it is a really good thing. Sometimes there are
things that need to be changed. challenge, there
are good innovations. But I think often what
we tend to do is use a hacksaw instead of a scalpel.
We tend to throw the baby out with the bathwater,
don't we? And when as a society or as individuals
we do that, we end up creating chaos, disorder
and anarchy instead of progress. This is a healthy
reminder that restrictions in boundaries and
limits can be good for us. I mean, think of the
sexual revolution. There was probably some really
unhealthy repression that needed to be challenged
there. But they threw the baby out with the bathwater,
didn't they? And it led to all sorts of hurt
and problems as a society. Feminism has done
some fantastic good. But sadly it seems like
it's gone from women can do anything to women
must do everything. That's really unfair on women.
There's a utilitarian ethic that just exists
in our society today that we need to be careful
of. That we know better and we'll work it out.
But again, it's built on arrogance, isn't it?
This is a great reminder that we need to be discerning
about things that have lasted for a while and
we need to try and work out what is the good
order that God has made and go that there is
some beautiful things there that actually things
that can feel restrictive may not be. They may
be the perfect environment. thriving and flourishing.
It's not that we accept everything but we need
to be wise and thoughtful and humble most of
all. So Proverbs presents a beautiful ideal of
humility yet none of us live up to this ideal
because all of us struggle to see this kind of
humility as wise. We want to throw off the shackles.
We want to be free. We want to do our own thing.
And so listen humbly to God's voice. Well, often
we read the Bible and it's easy to think we know
better, or we add to it, or we just don't absorb
it and treat it as God's word. And that's the
heart of sin, isn't it? Is to not listen humbly
to God and treat him as God. What a live humbly
in God's world. We don't trust God as we should.
We keep trying to keep up with the Joneses. Trying
to get more and more and more. Or we don't learn
humbly from God's order. We see the order that
exists as a straight jacket. Rather than trying
to understand how it truly works. Trying to understand
the balance and the harmony. Yes, being discerning.
Yes, seeing that some things need to change.
But realising that God has built the world in
a good way. and that we want to go back to how
he has made everything. But Jesus, he did meet
that ideal. We don't, but he did. He embodied
humility. He was humility personified. He listened
humbly to God's voice. He cherished God's word.
Where the Pharisees and religious heavies of
Jesus' day were adding to it and making rule
upon rule upon rule, Jesus humbly listened to
the Bible. He so humbly listened to God's word
that he even went and died on a cross. And he
lived humbly in God's world. He wasn't self -indulgent.
He wasn't a thief or a liar. He trusted God to
provide and he enjoyed and shared what he had
with others. And he learnt humbly from God's
order. He understood the created order. So he
didn't overthrow society. He didn't revolt and
rebel against everything in his day. But he went
around and changed lives. Humbly, caringly, wisely.
And because Jesus was like this, It led to him
going to the cross. But why? Why leave heaven
to be humble and humiliated? Why do that giant
bungee jump going all the way down to the cross?
Well, it's so that he could spring back up again
in glory. But not only that. It was so that he
could save us and serve us. Remember what we
said the big idea of today was? Jesus humbled
himself to save us from our self -exalting folly.
He was like a bodyguard. You know how a bodyguard
jumps out and dives in front and takes a bullet?
Well a good bodyguard does anyway. Well that's
what Jesus did for us at the cross. He humbly
leapt in front of us so that we could be saved
from our folly. So what's this mean for us? Well,
if you're not yet a Christian, can I suggest
you leave today taking a humble response? We've
got up the back for free. You can grab one of
these. They're Mark's Gospel. Grab one of Mark's
Gospel and have a read of it and I'd encourage
you to humbly read it. Look at it, check it out,
see if Jesus is as humble and awesome as what
I'm claiming today. If you've got questions,
you know, scribble them in the margins or get
a notepad and write all your questions down and
come and have a coffee with me. I'd love to have
a coffee with you and talk about what you found
in Mark's Gospel about Jesus and answer any questions
you might have. But if you're here today and
you're a Christian, I want to remind you because
we're saved, we need to strive to be humble.
Jesus saved us from our self -exalting folly.
It's not a good place to be. And so what's it
mean for us to be humble? Well, we've looked
at that today. It's to get deep into God's Word,
isn't it? It's to read, think and pray on God's
Word. And that's what we do at a church on a
Sunday. It's something we need to be doing individually.
It's something we do as well in a growth group
or a one -to -one. So please make sure you're
someone who's deep into God's Word, letting it
teach you and change you and move you. But also
we need to be people who pray for balance. Neither
poverty nor riches. That we'd be content and
generous and honest. And that we'd be people
who don't just jump on the latest bandwagon of
ideology or social norm. That we let God's Word
and our observations help us critique traditions
and movements. So that we can see what God's
order is and how to live in a way that is honoring
and pleasing to him and good for us Let me ask
you will you be teachable thoughtful and not
letting your ego run your life When I read good
to great it surprised me that humility was such
a powerful and effective aspect of great leaders.
But it shouldn't have. Because you can't be wise
without humility, can you? Not just leaders,
but anyone. It's an essential part of wisdom,
is that we be humble. So will you walk the path
of humility? Will you seek to be humble too?
Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you
so much that you sent Jesus to save us from our
self -exalting folly. And please, Father, help
us to be people who humbly receive His salvation,
who humbly receive Your Word implanted in us,
who humbly live a contented life, trusting you
to provide, who humbly respect and accept your
order for the world. Please, Father, give us
wisdom and help us to rejoice in you always.
And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.