247: Counterfeit Christianity — Counterfeit Humility

Adam Cook (0:00): Welcome to the Messy Walk podcast with pastor Adam Cook, where our goal is to have a genuine and authentic conversation about the Christian faith journey and what a messy walk with Jesus really looks like. Make sure to follow us for future episodes that will be posted regularly each Wednesday. We hope you enjoy this episode.

Unknown Speaker (0:19): Hey. Welcome to the Messy Walk podcast. I'm your host, Steph here, pastor Adam.

Unknown Speaker (0:23): Hey. Hey. Hey.

Steph (0:24): Hey. So we started a series, about two weeks ago called counterfeit Christianity. Yep. And we are already enjoying this. Like Yeah.

Steph (0:34): I know that you've said multiple times already too that you've really liked the first two episodes. I have

Adam Cook (0:39): as well. Did. This is the so most of the time, the series that we teach in here are stuff that I would not would not necessarily be a a preaching series. Right? Mhmm.

Adam Cook (0:50): Or they are extra stuff that comes out of a preaching series. The entire time we're working on this podcast series, I've been going, this should be a preaching series. Right? Like, we should turn this podcast series into a preaching series. But, anyway, yes, I have very much enjoyed it so far.

Unknown Speaker (1:05): And these Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (1:05): It's

Adam Cook (1:05): good. The episodes we're recording today, one right now and the one that we'll record in a few minutes, it'll come out the following week. They're my favorite of the series so far. So I really like this I really like this concept. This counterfeit Christianity concept.

Adam Cook (1:20): I really like it. Mhmm. And and it's a it's a it's one that makes you know, can make you uncomfortable because what we're calling out is fake versions or fake not complete versions of Christianity, but fake portions of Christianity, fake pieces that are really just fake counterfeits to what the real thing is. And they look close enough to fool people, but far away to miss Jesus. Right?

Adam Cook (1:47): And that's what ends up happening. So week one, we talk through counterfeit grace. And then, of course, we're juxtaposing those with what real grace looks like. Right? What real what the real thing is.

Adam Cook (1:57): And then last week, we talked about counterfeit worship, which I really enjoyed that one.

Unknown Speaker (2:01): Yeah. That was good.

Adam Cook (2:02): I actually had a couple of people come up to me that have listened to the back end. Right? Like, you know, because it's not out yet. I don't think I don't think it's out yet. Think it comes out well, if you listen to this now, it's out.

Adam Cook (2:13): But when we're recording, it's not out. And so I got a couple people that are listening to it on our cloud, and were like, I really like this counterfeit worship thing. Right? I was like, I did too. So that one was pretty good.

Adam Cook (2:22): So today, though, we're talking about what, Steph? What's what's the one for today?

Steph (2:26): Okay. So this is the third one. Counterfeit humility.

Adam Cook (2:29): Counterfeit humility. Episode

Unknown Speaker (2:31): Two forty seven.

Adam Cook (2:32): Awesome. And and this one this one's good. Right? And the reason we need to talk through this is because I think humility may be one of the easiest things to fake spiritually. Right?

Adam Cook (2:43): Like, we talked about the fact that grace is corrupted in week one, and we can talk about the fact, like, last week that, you know, you can you can have worship this much more about emotion than it is about what what real biblical worship is. But I think that it's really, really easy to fake spirituality. I mean, just just just think about it. Some of the proudest people don't look proud at all. Right?

Adam Cook (3:07): But they are. They don't appear proud, but they're proud. Some proud is very loud. Some pride is polished. Some pride is arrogant, but some pride hides behind insecurity.

Adam Cook (3:21): Some pride hides behind self pity. Right? Some pride hides behind false humility. Yeah. And I think one of the most dangerous things about pride is that it almost always disguises itself.

Adam Cook (3:35): Right? And so you can you can think that you're not prideful by showing a bunch of fake humility and fake self pity. Right? But that's just pride. You know, it's the same thing.

Adam Cook (3:46): It's the exact same thing. Right? It's just not loud and brash. Nobody walks around saying, I am prideful. So all pride is sort of disguising itself.

Adam Cook (3:55): Pride is smarter than that. Pride convinces you, well, you're just being honest. You're just protecting yourself. You're just aware of your weaknesses. Right?

Adam Cook (4:06): But counterfeit humility is still obsessed with self.

Unknown Speaker (4:10): That's true.

Adam Cook (4:11): And it's it's this fake level of humility. Like, I'm just gonna pretend like what I'm gonna put out there is this this, you know, oh, I'm no good. Oh, I'm bad. Oh, I struggle with these things. Oh, I can't get it right.

Adam Cook (4:24): But that's really pride. You just don't think it is. It's just disguised, because it's still obsessed with self. Pride is being obsessed with self. Yeah.

Adam Cook (4:33): So you can have this level of false humility that's just really pride disguised. Right? That's the key. Like, real humility real humility is not thinking less of yourself. It's thinking of yourself less.

Adam Cook (4:46): Yeah. Right? That that's a that's a good line. Right? So when we talk about somebody being humble, we don't mean somebody who walks around and puts themselves down.

Adam Cook (4:55): Right?

Unknown Speaker (4:55): Yeah.

Adam Cook (4:55): That's fake. Right? Because it's still about you. It's still you in the middle of it. Right?

Unknown Speaker (5:01): Mhmm.

Adam Cook (5:01): So if you wanna be somebody who's humble, it's not let me think little of myself. That's not the case. The bible calls you not to think little of yourself, by the way. Right? You know, this idea of this idea of personal self worth and value that the world has kinda come up with, the bible is consistently telling you that you are a masterpiece, god's creation, right, god's finest work.

Adam Cook (5:23): In Christ, you know, you are his treasure. Right? Like, the the the the Jesus goes through Hebrews talks about Jesus going through the shame of the cross, for the joy set before him, and the joy it's talking about is us. Right? So walking around putting yourself down is not humility.

Adam Cook (5:43): Right? That's fake humility. Real humility is just thinking about yourself less. Right? Not thinking less of yourself, but but about yourself less.

Adam Cook (5:52): Biblical humility is freedom from self obsession. That's what we're trying to get to. Right? That's what real humility is. It's I'm not obsessed with myself.

Adam Cook (6:02): That's what real humility looks like. But we live in a culture that is completely consumed with self. And every time we say something about the culture, every time we live in a culture and we say something bad

Unknown Speaker (6:14): it. Culture.

Adam Cook (6:14): I like to remind myself and and congregation and all the people that you can't just say the culture's bad. You and I are a part of the culture. So we've helped That's true. We've helped create

Steph (6:25): this too. The culture, not me.

Unknown Speaker (6:26): Right. It's the culture.

Unknown Speaker (6:27): The

Adam Cook (6:27): culture. Well, no, we're a part of the culture. Right? We're we're living in it. That's true.

Adam Cook (6:31): And so we are helping with it, but this is a culture consumed with self, consumed with your image, your truth, your platform, your brand, your audience. Right? Like, it's it's it's consumed with self. And so we live in a world now where people perform authenticity, which is obviously not real. Like, you can't you can't perform authenticity, but that's what we try to do.

Adam Cook (7:04): We try to put on and perform the fact that we're authentic. I mean, think about that. We perform vulnerability now. Yeah. Like, we sit around and go, let me share and perform how vulnerable, how authentic I am, which means that it's not true.

Adam Cook (7:17): Like, when we're we're taking videos of ourself and posting them online about how humble our home is or about how humble our clothes are, about you know what I mean? But but the whole time, it's centered around us. So it's sort of fake humility. It's fake vulnerability, but that's the culture we live in now. We perform these things.

Adam Cook (7:34): We carefully craft transparency. We strategically reveal weaknesses. We package brokenness in ways that still keep us in control of how people perceive us. Right? And and I'll tell you from a pastor perspective, from a preacher perspective, this is a hard thing to break.

Adam Cook (7:52): Right? Because what you what I wanna be as a preacher is I wanna be somebody who is who is vulnerable, who is transparent, who is open, who is authentic. But I have to be careful that I'm not I'm not performing that. Right?

Unknown Speaker (8:06): Like, you

Adam Cook (8:06): know what I mean? Like, I'm not like, I'm actually being somebody who's authentic. I'm not going, oh, well, this is a good weakness for people to see. Like, you're not just saying anything. Yeah.

Adam Cook (8:15): This is a good let me show this weakness to people because then that'll this one's okay. I'll show them this one, and that'll help me get them to listen to me when I'm talking about this. Right? That's the same concept. Right?

Adam Cook (8:26): That's and that's still there's a problem because that's that's still around self.

Steph (8:30): You have to check yourself with it.

Adam Cook (8:31): Absolutely. Yeah. All the time. Because I want you know? And so this is this is the tension that's here.

Adam Cook (8:35): Yeah. Is that we want to be authentic and transparent. But when we're crafting that too much, it's not real humility. It's actually fake or it's like our word for the series. It's counterfeit humility.

Adam Cook (8:50): Honesty and vulnerability are not bad things. It's kind of the key to being a Christ follower, actually. Right?

Unknown Speaker (8:57): Mhmm.

Adam Cook (8:57): Like, you have to I mean, you can't come to Jesus without humbling yourself and admitting the fact that you need a savior and a lord. Right? So they're kinda key. But sometimes what we call authenticity is still just self promotion wearing different clothes. Right?

Adam Cook (9:14): Because pride doesn't care whether people admire your strength or your struggle. Right? It doesn't really make any difference. Pride just wants attention. Right?

Adam Cook (9:22): So if

Unknown Speaker (9:23): That's true.

Adam Cook (9:23): What you're doing is you're putting out your struggle so much and getting the attention from that, that's still pridefulness is what I'm trying to say. Right? Yeah. You're right. Just sitting there poking your chest out and talking about how awesome you are.

Adam Cook (9:33): Well, that's prideful too. But pride don't care whether you get recognized because you're struggling or recognized because you're awesome. Pride just wants attention, period. But the moment humility becomes performance, it actually stops being humility.

Unknown Speaker (9:48): Yeah.

Adam Cook (9:48): Right? So I agree. So if if you and I are crafting some image in the workplace, online, at church, like for me, from the platform, if I'm crafting some image, it's not humility. It's a counterfeit version of humility that we're telling ourselves that's humility, but it's not. It's really just pride wearing counterfeit humility clothes.

Adam Cook (10:09): Right? Yeah. Because it's all based on performance. And so Jesus addresses this constantly, by the way, because one of the biggest things he has a problem with with the pharisees is he has a problem with the fact that they are prideful and arrogant. But the way they're trying to display their prideful and arrogance is how religious they are.

Adam Cook (10:31): Right? It it's a it's fake. Right? So, he talks about it constantly. Like, Matthew six, which is known to me and to everybody as the anxiety chapter.

Adam Cook (10:40): Jesus talks about a lot of different stuff in Matthew six, but he also talks about praying publicly to be seen. He talks about fasting publicly to be noticed. He talks about giving publicly to be applauded. And he comes against all those things. He comes against all of them.

Adam Cook (10:58): That's called that's called being extremely spiritual while being internally motivated by attention. That's the issue he has with the pharisees. They are externally they are externally, spiritual. Right? But internally, they're really motivated by how people see me spiritually.

Adam Cook (11:18): Right? And that's not real humility. That is counterfeit fake humility. That is nothing more than pride. It's just disguised as spirituality and religious and holiness, but it's not really.

Adam Cook (11:32): That's what he's mad on about them all the time. They're they're outwardly putting out I'm spiritual. I'm spiritual. I'm spiritual. Right?

Adam Cook (11:38): Look at me. Look at how good I am. Look at how good I do this. But what's driving that is the fact that they are internally wanting so much attention. Right?

Adam Cook (11:49): And Jesus says to them in Matthew six when he talks about this, he talks about them giving and showing everybody that they gave, announcing it is what they're doing. He talks about them praying out loud so people can hear them and Yeah. Showing everybody physically how they're how they're fasting. Right? He talks specifically about that that when they're fasting, they're letting everybody know.

Adam Cook (12:10): They're walking around all disheveled and hungry. You know what mean? They're they're showing everybody these things. And what Jesus says back to all of that is he's like, don't do that. They already have their reward.

Adam Cook (12:19): Right? Their reward has already happened, which I think that whole situation is terrifying because it means that you can do spiritual things for self centered reasons. Right? But you and I as humans are very capable of doing spiritual godly things for reasons that are that are just for us, that are self centered. Yeah.

Adam Cook (12:41): Right? Versus because they're not supposed to be for us. Right. They're things that we are doing to honor the lord. Right?

Adam Cook (12:47): To be holy and righteous that give glory and honor to god through our own sacrificial, you know, spiritual practices.

Steph (12:56): Can I Yeah? You do more. Yeah. I remember when I was younger, maybe less than a decade ago when I would be on Instagram, there was times where I would see people post pictures of themself in worship like they were laying down on their face. Mhmm.

Steph (13:11): And I thought, wow. That they are so spiritual. And I would think that and now that I've grown more, I'm like, what was that for?

Unknown Speaker (13:20): Correct.

Steph (13:21): Even and I don't mean that to be skeptical of them. Sure. But now that I'm older, I'm like, it looks really cool, and it looks very deep. But was it, or was it was it partly to be seen?

Adam Cook (13:33): It can't be that deep if you pause to take a picture of it.

Unknown Speaker (13:37): Yeah. I've I don't know. Was thinking maybe it.

Adam Cook (13:40): Yeah. Do you remember what we used to call? We used to call it the Instagram Christian girl.

Unknown Speaker (13:44): Like Oh, yes.

Unknown Speaker (13:45): There was a lot of jokes about this.

Unknown Speaker (13:46): And we all participated at some

Adam Cook (13:48): point. Yep. I know what is is there would be a bible set out Mhmm. With some highlighted notes and a little note card, little journal, and a cup of coffee.

Unknown Speaker (13:57): Been there.

Adam Cook (13:57): And this perfectly curated picture of that. Yes. And it was posted of starting my morning with Jesus. Right? You know?

Adam Cook (14:05): Getting in the word first thing. I need my I need my Jesus and my Java. Right? You know?

Unknown Speaker (14:11): Got to

Adam Cook (14:12): do this first. And it was this it was the practice. Like, obviously, they're trying to practice, you know, lord first in the mornings. Right? Like, let me start my day in the word.

Adam Cook (14:21): Let me start my day off in prayer. Let me start my day off in lord, which is a which is a thing we're supposed to do. Yeah. But the minute we turn it into, let me curate and show this online, now we're crossing some boundary to where, are we really doing this for those reasons, or are we doing it to curate some thing where we look more spiritual? We want people to see it.

Unknown Speaker (14:42): Yeah.

Adam Cook (14:42): Right? Right? We want people to see it, and that's why we're doing it. That's what Jesus is talking about with them. He's like, it's not that the things that they're doing are wrong.

Adam Cook (14:49): It's that they're doing them because they want somebody to see it, which is fake. Yeah. It's it's it's not real.

Steph (14:54): Right? I'll say this too. There was times growing up where, you know, they were pointing this out. And if I was doing it myself, I started questioning later on. I'm like, I started reading the bible, and then I immediately wanna share it.

Unknown Speaker (15:06): Right.

Unknown Speaker (15:07): To be seen. Right. Then I felt I did feel god being like, you know, you don't have to share it immediately. Like, spend the time with me. You know?

Unknown Speaker (15:16): So, yeah, I'm

Adam Cook (15:17): like And be and I think maybe it would be a little different if what you were trying to do with it, which is not the case, which is why it's a problem. If what you're trying to do with it is you're trying to spur other people on to doing it Mhmm. Right? But would it makes you stop what you're doing to post it and get distracted by it and curate it just right you know what I mean? Like, if the picture's gotta be curated just right, then it can't be about you reading your bible in the morning.

Adam Cook (15:43): It's much more about what's this image that I'm putting out there.

Steph (15:46): Yeah. And you know in your heart if you're doing it for a little bit of of attention. Absolutely. For what the good thing you're doing.

Adam Cook (15:53): I have to check this all the time too. Right? And I don't even take pictures, but mine will be like, when I when I decide to post something like I did last night. So we finished up a union basics class and I really like our discipleship pathway stuff and I like the graphics from it and I'd had a long day, a long weekend. Right?

Adam Cook (16:13): I'd I had a wedding rehearsal. I had a wedding on Saturday. I had to preach on Sunday a bunch of times, and I had to leave that class that night, you know? But I was excited when I left. Mhmm.

Adam Cook (16:25): So when I left, I wanted to post about this is one of my favorite things to do is to teach through this. But I have to check myself and make sure I'm not trying to just tell everybody that I worked so hard this weekend.

Unknown Speaker (16:35): Yeah. You know I mean? Get that. Right? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (16:38): And then the devil will also try to be like, yeah. You can't be excited that you worked hard either.

Adam Cook (16:42): Yeah. The scary thing about this is Jesus calling us out is

Unknown Speaker (16:45): he Crazy.

Adam Cook (16:46): It tells us that we are very capable of doing spiritual things for selfish, self absorbed reasons. Yeah. Right? Which is a which is a very which is a very scary thought. Right?

Adam Cook (16:58): It's very scary. Scary. One of the reasons that counterfeit humility spreads so easily is because true humility feels invisible. Right? Like, real humility is something that nobody sees.

Steph (17:12): Yeah. You're right.

Adam Cook (17:13): So so the fake humility part tends to spread like a disease. Right? Like, we wanna share this because real humility is something that is very invisible. Like, real humility rarely gets celebrated. Rarely.

Adam Cook (17:27): The person who is the person who is really humble in your workplace is rarely celebrated for being humble. Right?

Unknown Speaker (17:35): That's true.

Adam Cook (17:36): The people who tend to get celebrated tend to be the people who are promoting themselves some, right, which is not real humility. And real humility rarely gets celebrated because it serves quietly. It obeys quietly. Real humility survives when nobody notices. That's what it's really rooted in.

Adam Cook (17:56): And so it it's so invisible that we end up wanting a we want a fake version of it. We want a counterfeit version of it because we want everybody to really see it. But the minute we want everybody to see that we're humble, then we're not humble. Right? Yes.

Adam Cook (18:08): You know what I mean? So bad. So real humility is just so behind the scenes.

Unknown Speaker (18:13): Yeah.

Adam Cook (18:14): Right? I mean, it rarely ever gets celebrated. Rarely.

Steph (18:18): And you know when you're really being humble. You really know.

Unknown Speaker (18:21): It rarely gets celebrated.

Unknown Speaker (18:23): You're really not gonna be have your name highlighted for it.

Adam Cook (18:25): Yeah. And that's the struggle because we don't really wanna do like, the the struggle is we don't just wanna do meaningful things. We wanna be seen doing meaningful things. Yep. Right?

Adam Cook (18:36): Like, we just don't wanna do the things that are right. We wanna also at the same time be seen doing them. And that's where it becomes a problem. It becomes a trouble. Right?

Adam Cook (18:46): It's an issue. And there's a lot of counterfeit humility in our Christian world. That is that is much more about if you start to look at it, like what you were just talking about with that example you brought up, you start looking about it. It it it it's much more about let me me be seen Yeah. Than it is about the actual spiritual practice.

Adam Cook (19:13): Right? Because if you're really humble, then you then you are doing it behind the scenes just because it's naturally coming out of you. You're humble, which means you don't you're not gonna put it in front of everybody because your your humility is not even gonna make you think of that. Right? You know I mean?

Adam Cook (19:34): Like, I think Jesus, what he's driving at with those folks is when he when he's talking about these things. I think he's driving at why wouldn't you be so consumed with praying that you wouldn't need anybody to hear you? Right? Why wouldn't you be so consumed with fasting that you didn't need anybody or want anybody to see that's going on? You're so consumed with it that you don't have time to think about you.

Adam Cook (19:57): Why wouldn't you be so consumed with, I'm giving unto the Lord and I'm thinking about that so much that I don't even have time to even think about if anybody's gonna see me doing it. Right? So the minute that we start walking on, you know, walking towards like, I need somebody to see me doing it. We're walking in counterfeit humility every single time. You know?

Adam Cook (20:16): And and that's the issue as humans. Like, we don't really wanna just do meaningful things. We wanna do them and be seen for doing. Like, we want both of those things. Right?

Adam Cook (20:27): We wanna be recognized for it.

Steph (20:28): Right? Accept it.

Adam Cook (20:29): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know? And and we wanna be we wanna be seen as pious and holy and righteous.

Unknown Speaker (20:36): Define pious. Holy

Adam Cook (20:38): and righteous. Yeah. Good good character. Because I'm hungry, and I thought about pie.

Unknown Speaker (20:45): My bad, y'all.

Adam Cook (20:45): Apple pious. The scariest scripture to me we'll we'll we'll wrap up in a minute, but no. No. I jumped I jumped too far. Culture rewards self promotion constantly.

Adam Cook (20:59): Right? If you've been in any workplace, I think it was my I think I had a little did you hear that?

Unknown Speaker (21:04): Yeah. I thought it was

Unknown Speaker (21:05): like me. No. Was me. Culture rewards self promotion constantly. Right?

Unknown Speaker (21:11): Mhmm.

Adam Cook (21:11): Any workplace you've ever been, somebody who's constantly self promoting himself gets rewarded. Right? They get pushed to the top. You know, they're they're keeping their accolades and what they do in front of people. Uh-huh.

Adam Cook (21:21): But meanwhile, the kingdom grows people in very hidden places. Right?

Unknown Speaker (21:27): That's true.

Adam Cook (21:28): And those two things don't go together completely. Like, I'm I'm getting ready to preach a series on integrity, and and one of the things that I'm learning through it, and all I'm gonna do is teach through every single week, teach you the exact same 10 verses on Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. Because Jesus' temptation in the wilderness before he goes into ministry has nothing to do with the temptations. It has to do with his integrity. Anyway, what you'll see with that is that that that that integrity, that god is always focused privately before he lets you be public.

Unknown Speaker (22:08): So true.

Adam Cook (22:09): Right? Always. And he he doesn't wanna set us up for failure. So the kingdom works very different than this. The kingdom is forming people in hidden private places where our culture is all about self promotion.

Adam Cook (22:24): The scary here we go. The scariest scripture to me whooping on my microphone. The scariest scripture to me personally, and I think about it all the time, James says this. He refers back to, Proverbs chapter three. Peter says this in first Peter chapter five.

Adam Cook (22:40): He refers back to Proverbs chapter three. And then you see the same same statement just worded differently in, like, 12 different places in Proverbs. And here's the one. Here's the one they quote. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Adam Cook (22:55): God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. There's a couple other ones that say, god comes against the proud but he lifts up the humble. So think about that think about that verse. God opposes the proud. It does not say this is why it's scary.

Adam Cook (23:10): It does not say he ignores the proud. It says he opposes them. Right now, what we think of when we think of that verse is the whole thing we've been talking about all the through here. We think, well, god comes against those people who are like, chest poked out. Yeah.

Adam Cook (23:25): I'm awesome. I'm great, and god is opposing them. But pride, we just talked about this, that pride tends to come out though in this fake humility where we're sitting around going, oh, woe is me. Right?

Unknown Speaker (23:36): Oh, yeah. Been there.

Adam Cook (23:37): That's pride too. Mhmm. And it doesn't say he ignores the proud. It says he opposes the proud. That is really scary.

Steph (23:45): That is scary.

Adam Cook (23:46): Because that means that god is coming against you. Right? Coming against you when you're proud. When when you have pride, when you're prideful. Right?

Adam Cook (23:55): When you're prideful. There we go. But when we're humble, he's lifting us up. He's giving us grace. He's assisting us.

Adam Cook (24:02): I don't think that I don't I mean, I don't know about you but I don't need holy, perfect, righteous god who could do anything he wants to opposing me, right? Coming against. We're to lose that battle every time. You know

Unknown Speaker (24:16): I mean?

Adam Cook (24:16): Like, and that word oppose there is a is a an a word having to do with with fighting, right, and and an enemy. Like, we become god's enemy when we become prideful. And so I don't think we want god opposing us. That's a scary verse. But that pride comes in all kinds of ways.

Adam Cook (24:35): Right? It not it's not just I'm walking around with my chest stuck out thinking I'm great. It's also let me make sure I show everybody how not great I am. And if I'm doing that for the reasons of being seen, now I'm being prideful too. Right?

Adam Cook (24:47): Yeah. It it's a scary scripture. And let me say something uncomfortable. Sometimes insecurity is just pride facing inward. Right?

Adam Cook (24:56): Because both pride and insecurity are forms of self obsession. And so one of them says, I'm amazing. The other one says, I'm terrible. But both of them remain consumed with self, so therefore, they are pride. Mhmm.

Adam Cook (25:10): Humility frees you from constantly orbiting around yourself. Right? So when we actually are humble, now all of a sudden, we're not the whole world is not centered around us. One of the clearest signs of counterfeit humility is when somebody constantly advertises their brokenness without pursuing transformation. Right?

Adam Cook (25:32): You you're talking about being broken all the time, but you aren't actually pursuing god changing your heart, changing your mind. Right? And so honesty honesty matters very deeply, but Jesus never called us to worship our wounds.

Unknown Speaker (25:48): That's good.

Adam Cook (25:48): Right? He heals them instead. And so, yes, we should be forthcoming with those things. But when we keep doing that all the time or we do that so people see it, all that is is a fake humility. And so we're not supposed to be worshiping our wounds and our problems that we have and our issues that we have and our, you know, things that we're not that good at because Jesus wants to heal those things.

Adam Cook (26:08): Think some people have become more committed to appearing authentic than actually becoming holy. Yeah. And in the church world, I think, as us as Christians, especially online, this is what we do.

Unknown Speaker (26:21): Mhmm.

Adam Cook (26:22): Right? That's true. In online, Christians seem to fall into this trap, and I'm sure I've done it too.

Unknown Speaker (26:29): Oh, yeah. We've all done it.

Adam Cook (26:30): We're real committed to appearing authentic. Right? But we're not really committed to actually becoming holy. You know what I mean? Mhmm.

Adam Cook (26:41): Fake humility is exhausting because performance is exhausting. And that's all fake humility is. Performing is exhausting. Curating some image of yourself all the time is exhausting.

Unknown Speaker (26:55): It is.

Adam Cook (26:56): Right? It will drive you crazy. You were never meant to build your life around managing a perception. Right? We're supposed to walk authentically all the time, and yet we find ourselves walking into work and going, let me make sure I don't look like this.

Adam Cook (27:10): Let me make sure I don't act like this. Let me make sure I don't come across like this. We're managing perception. Right? We're we're performing, and it it is exhausting.

Adam Cook (27:18): Right? We need to be able to walk around and just be ourselves in an actually humble way. Right, and care more about what god is doing on the deep parts of us inside than displaying those things on the outside. Some of the holiest people you will ever meet are invisible to the world.

Unknown Speaker (27:37): Nobody

Adam Cook (27:38): sees them. Nobody's tweeting them. Nobody's quoting them. Nobody's posting them. Nobody's giving them accolades.

Adam Cook (27:46): And those are some of the holiest people you ever meet. Because the kingdom of God has always been built more by hidden faithfulness than public attention. And that's that is when I've been in that scripture on Jesus' temptation, that's what I've been consistently moved by is when we look at what real integrity is, is that it is what is being formed in the hidden places, and that always goes in the kingdom of god. It always goes before any public platforming. Right?

Adam Cook (28:18): I met with a young guy today who 21 years old, who feels and I don't usually put meetings like this on Mondays because I'm tired and probably I probably ain't giving the best advice. You know what I mean? You don't wanna do a pastoral counseling session with me on a Monday because it's probably gonna be like you know, you'll be like, well, I'm struggling with this, and I'll be like, well, stop. Let's go home. But I was talking to him today, and and he had he's sensing this call on his life, and he's felt this call in his life since he was a little kid.

Adam Cook (28:47): And so what he's asking is is, what do I do? Right? Like, how do I how do I be into walking into this calling that I feel like god's like, he's he's feel called to preach. Right? How do I get there?

Adam Cook (28:58): And all we talked about all day was, what are you doing in the quiet places? Right? What's happening behind the scenes? Because that's really what god cares about before he's gonna open the door to you doing this publicly. Right?

Steph (29:09): True that.

Adam Cook (29:10): That's what he cares about. It's what happens in the hidden places. The kingdom is built on hidden place stuff, And that is where real humility is formed. And Christian, real Christian biblical humility is the most beautiful thing that you will never see. And that's the point of it.

Adam Cook (29:28): Right? You won't see it. Right? And so our goal is to walk in that, not in this counterfeit humility. And the counterfeit humility is us walking around pretending like we're all holy and righteous, so that's the reason for it, but really we're trying to get attention.

Adam Cook (29:45): Or that's us walking around you know, all good and pious, but we're really doing it to get attention. Right? That's the same thing as that arrogant pride that everybody recognizes. Right? It's the same stuff.

Adam Cook (29:57): Real humility is god working in the deep parts of your heart then you will never ever really fully see it. That's the point. Right? And that's why Jesus says they already have their reward because what he's looking to do in heaven is he's looking to give rewards. Right?

Adam Cook (30:15): Atta boys rewards for the stuff that nobody sees at all. Right? So true. Private development that's happening. Right?

Adam Cook (30:22): It's pretty cool, actually. Anyway, I'm done.

Unknown Speaker (30:30): I was just thinking, man, this is a good episode.

Adam Cook (30:32): It's pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty good.

Adam Cook (30:36): It's this is something that I don't know. We don't I don't we don't think about this a lot. We don't think about the good the thing I like about this series that we're talking through is we're talking through ways in which we sort of, pardon my French, bastardized the the faith. Right? We've taken we've taken these things to the beautiful parts of Christianity, and we have counterfeited them.

Adam Cook (30:58): Right? And something like this, something like counterfeit humility is not something we talk about a lot. Yeah. But we need to because what we're called to do is actually follow the humility of Jesus. Right?

Adam Cook (31:12): Him humbling himself. Follow his humility, which led him to not just bringing himself down on the level of humans, but putting himself below the level of humans. Right? And the reward that the father gives for that level of ultimate humility. And you watch.

Adam Cook (31:29): You watch Jesus walking to the cross. You watch his engagement as the trial is happening and all those things. He don't even defend himself. Right? There's no words spoken.

Adam Cook (31:38): There's nothing. Right? He just takes it. And the cool thing is is that you see god rewarding him for the secret place things in heaven. The father the father then makes the godhead makes the Jesus the name above all names.

Adam Cook (31:52): Right? That every tongue will confess, every every knee will bow, right? He's the king of all kings. He's lifted to the complete highest place because he was really humble behind the scenes in the secret places for us, right? And that's the goal for us as Christians is to which is why I like us talking about this because it's not something we talk about very often.

Adam Cook (32:13): Like, I I don't think I've ever talked about fake humility in the church Ever. Right? We talk about pride a lot, and we talk about humility a lot. We've never talked about how we have this counterfeit fake version of humility that's not really what god's called us to be. Right?

Adam Cook (32:28): God's not calling you to sit down. I'll pick on Steph because she brought it up, But it's me too. God's not calling us to sit down and read our bible and take pictures of and post it on Instagram.

Unknown Speaker (32:37): Oh, yep. Right? Mhmm.

Adam Cook (32:38): He's not calling us to get in some awesome worship pose and have somebody get a picture of us. So so, you know, he's calling us to actually just love and worship him.

Unknown Speaker (32:46): Mhmm.

Adam Cook (32:48): Because we love and worship him, and we don't need anybody to see it. We don't need any accolades from it. Right? That's what real humility looks like, not this counterfeit version of it. If you buy the counterfeit version of it, it's going to exhaust you.

Adam Cook (33:01): Gonna be wore out all the time because all it is is performing. And it's centered around you, and you and I are horrible gods, so nothing should be centered around us. You know? Anyway, that's all I got. Next episode is my favorite one, I think, so far if I can get it out of my face and not burp on the mic like I did a few minutes ago, and it's on counterfeit community.

Unknown Speaker (33:23): So we're gonna talk about that one next.

Unknown Speaker (33:25): Alrighty.

Unknown Speaker (33:27): Good? Yeah. Awesome.

Unknown Speaker (33:29): See y'all next week.

Unknown Speaker (33:30): See later. Bye. Thank

Adam Cook (33:32): you for joining us on the Messy Walk podcast with pastor Adam Cook. Make sure to follow us for future episodes that will be posted regularly each Wednesday. Have a good day.