(I was privileged to speak @ Jefferson United Methodist Church on Sunday, March 17. This is the text of that talk.)
Good morning. I’m glad you are here. Recently, Pat and I were able to see the movie, OZ the Great and Powerful. It’s a nice, family friendly film, but best of all, it holds true to the story which it precedes. Also, it’s a nice morality tale about our theme for today. But before we get to that, let me tell you a little story.
As many of you know, I’m the youngest child of seven, the baby of the family if you will, and, as any youngest will tell you, there are certain expectations, reputations and other things that go with that birth position. Well, long story short, a lot of that stuff is true in my case. It got to the point where sometimes I felt like the guy in that movie I mentioned. You know, “I am Ron, the great and powerful!” That is until my siblings and I started getting together as adults. Then the true nature of things came out. On a recent trip with my brother, and two of my sisters, it came even closer to home. At one point this was said: “This is the universe. This is the center. It’s not you.” What would you make of that?
But, it really didn’t have that much of an affect on me. You see, I’ve been married to a great person who has regularly reminded me in various situation: “It’s not always all about you, Ron.”
Now having said that, let’s read today’s Scripture, Romans 12:1-13
The New Life in Christ
12 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. 6 We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7 ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8 the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.
9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; 10 love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.[a] 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
When we look at the beginning of this chapter, we see Paul describing what a new life in Christ is, and should be. We are to present ourselves as living sacrifices. Up until the time of Jesus’ life, sacrifices were taken to the temple and carried out by priests. They were seen as outward expressions of devotion to God, and were to be of the best and purest kind.. Here we see Paul telling us that because of what Jesus did, we are now to internalize this practice, becoming a part of the process, making it a constant daily thing. We are to serve God in all we are and do, to the point where we cease to live for ourselves. Through this we gain holiness. Our devotion to God and the holiness that comes with it shows in how we live our daily lives, moving beyond some traditional rituals. It shows in how we offer ourselves, and continue to every day.
Looking at V. 3-8 we see these were written especially for Church Leaders, but can easily be seen as instruction to us, too. They serve as a warning, letting us know we should avoid getting too full of ourselves, and then lording it over others. This not only applies to any position we may hold in the church, but also to our talents and abilities. All too often, we look at what we are able to do and kind of get it into our heads that the church, and the world would fall apart without us. We think too highly of our own talents while looking down on those of others. I know I’ve said things in meetings along these lines that have caused Pat to cringe. I really wasn’t trying to be arrogant, but that’s how it came across.
What I really want to center on today is verse three. This one has always stuck in my mind, and I’ve struggled with what it really says and what it truly means for a long time. I often come back to it when certain things come up in my life, or when something nice is said to me. Because of this inner conflict, I’ve found I’m not able to take a compliment, usually disarming it with humor or with what others perceive as arrogance.
What
it comes down to is pride. So, let’s look at that. Exactly what is pride? One definition is the state or quality of having
inordinate self-esteem; conceit of one’s talents, ability, wealth, station;
contempt for those seen as beneath us in station.
Pride is regarded as a vice,
scripturally, as we see in 1 Samuel
2:3:
3 Talk no more so very
proudly,let not arrogance come from your mouth;
for the Lord is a God of knowledge,
and by him actions are weighed.
We are even told pride precedes a fall.
Think about it….. Why do we strike out alone to accomplish a task, thinking we can handle it without God? Why do we have arguments, and compete with each other for attention? Why do we think what we have to say is more important that what someone else’s input and opinion? Why do we jockey for position, wanting to gain as much control as we can? Why won’t we allow God to love us or be a part of some areas of our lives? What is it, when we have been put into our place, causes us to want to lash out? It’s that evil dragon, pride. Pride, pride, pride. We can’t allow this to run free, for pride is destructive. We can’t keep it caged up, so we must give it over to God to control.
We have to be careful not to get so full of ourselves that we start thinking we’re indispensable. I used to think that when it came to my career. There were some days when I should have stayed home, but I was sure things wouldn’t get done properly if I was gone. And we must not get too set in our ways. I really resisted becoming a Social Studies teacher for the whole sixth grade, because I was convinced I could do many things equally well. Even when technology came around, I was bound and determined to take my chalkboard to the new school, and leave the smart board to anyone else who’d use it more. How foolish I was, but it was a matter of pride and not wanting to change. I became a slave to “that’s how I’ve always done it”, instead of a servant doing what was best for all the students. But, as with anything, I found good stuff in these new things, and used them to become a better teacher, humbling myself and adopting fresh ideas to mix with the old.
The words of Romans 12:3 ring true. Let me repeat them here: "For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly that you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith God has assigned." By following this instruction, we can learn, through prayerful consideration, to cooperate with one another and enhance and expand each others effectiveness in being servant-warriors. God does provide, and we keep in mind what we have doesn't come from our efforts alone. God has His hand in everything.
I’m not saying
all pride is bad. Pride can be a good thing, as long as it is an appreciation
of one’s position as a Christian and a member of the human family. This helps
us to keep our heads, and, hopefully, keeps us from doing anything that lessens
that standing. Romans 12:16 states: “16 Live
in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly;[a] do not
claim to be wiser than you are.”
This
good pride reminds us that we rise to the level of faith that God’s grace gives
every day. All that is good, all that is right and acceptable can be a source
of pride as long as it is founded in faith, and flows from faith. How many
times to we give credit to God for the blessings we have in our lives, and for
the faith, hope and love that we feel? Now faith, and these other spiritual
gifts with it, is given to us according
to the amount God sees we need.
Jesus
said in Matthew 20:25-27:
25 “You know that the rulers
of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 26 It will not be so among
you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wishes to be
first among you must be your slave.”So, do you find yourself in a position of power and influence? Don’t forget to thank God. How about the talents and skills you have? Again, thank God for those. And after thanking Him, don’t forget to use them for His glory. A sober use of the gifts that God has given us is required. On the one hand we must not be proud of our talents, but on the other hand we must not bury them.
Now, back to OZ. I don’t want to be a spoiler if you haven’t seen this film, but the wizard learns of the good he can do just by using the talent and know how he has. Does it come out okay in the end? Hey, this is Hollywood. What do you think?
Use what you’ve been given, not in a conceited or puffed up way, but in the true service of God. And, if the Spirit moves you, use that in the delivery of your service. Don’t worry about what others may think of your service. Rejoice that you can rejoice, and allow them to serve and rejoice in theirs.
C.S. Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, says this: “A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.” A little later in the same book he states:” “The point is each person’s pride is in competition with everyone else’s pride.” If we learn to accept this diversity in our showing and using of the gifts God gives, then this competition will go away, and we all become equal. Our understanding of each other grows, and our need to be better than someone else disappears along with the fog of smoke and mirrors that has prevented us from relating more fully with our fellow humans. To be truly great we must become servants of one another, not to boast in false humility, but to live life like our Master Savior.
In this chapter of his letter to the Romans, Paul’s point is that we are to avoid feeling superior to others, whether it be according to the amount of faith we think we have, or according to our gifts and how wonderful and special they seem to be. No, we should view and use these gifts and our faith for the good of all other members of the family, seeing them as no better or worse than the gifts our other family members have.
And so we see from all of this that pride, when it is the wrong type, can lead to negative things. So, how do we combat it? When asked what the opposite of pride is most people would say humility. So what of this humility? What is it and where does it fit in with our faith?
HUMILITY
can be defined as the state of being free from pride and arrogance; a modest
estimate of one’s worth, or a sense of unworthiness through imperfection and
sinfulness.
When we
don’t pursue it on our own, sometimes we can have it forced upon it. I can’t count
how many times in my life this has happened. Whether it be with friends,
family, or colleagues, there are always times when pride got the best of me,
and I needed to be taken down a peg or two. When I should have had the wisdom
to keep my mouth shut, I (as comedian Ron white likes to say), I seem to lack
the ability. How many of us have taken credit for
some coincidence, or something not of our doing? How many have quoted someone
and let it be thought to have come from us? When we are humble we do not take
credit for any goodness or virtue, do not overrate ourselves, or take too much
delight in ourselves. We know our limits, and we give God the glory for any
good we might do or any goodness we might have.
In the words of Rick Warren: “You cannot exalt God
and yourself at the same time.”
Every Christian fellowship
has the duty to cultivate their own humility. And the best way to do that is to
use Jesus as our standard. Let me close with one of his parables that
demonstrates how we are to behave humbly:
In Luke 14:7-11, we find a
parable about how our humility should work and affect our lives:
7 When he noticed how the guests chose the places of
honor, he told them a parable. 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding
banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more
distinguished than you has been invited by your host; 9 and the host who invited
both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in
disgrace you would start to take the
lowest place. 10 But when you are invited,
go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say
to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of
all who sit at the table with you. 11 For all who exalt
themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
It reminds me of the audition process for any
show. You go in ready to show people what you have, and then wait patiently to
see if it’s what they want. If you have a history with the directors, you kind
of expect them to use you. But, there’s always that possibility you’re not
right for the show. That’s when you don’t allow your pride to take over; simply
accept there will be other opportunities and move on. In other words, we are
not to expect to be honored just because of anything we think we are, but are
to take the more humble position of allowing someone else to recognize where
our true place should be. Be humble enough to know that even though one
opportunity closes, others will present themselves.
