Neighborhood Church

The Year You Forget Yourself

Hyper-Individualism
an extreme focus on personal autonomy, self-reliance, and independence, often at the expense of community, social responsibility, and collective well-being.

Self-preoccupation anxiety

We’ve raised a generation that is more self-focused—and yet more anxious, fragile, and unhappy.

The more we obsess about ourselves, the more miserable we become.

Self-Absorption

Main character syndrome

Self-Consciousness

Self-Righteousness

Self-Deception

incurvatus in se
Latin for “curved in on oneself.”

Jesus is our clearest picture of what God looks like.

Jesus came to show us what real, full human flourishing looks like.

Jesus continually taught that selflessness was the key to the good life.

The Beatitudes

makarios
Greek for exceedingly happy or fortunate

For Jesus, greatness is formed through humility, and strength is revealed through service to others.

The way of Jesus points us toward humility.

Jesus embodied humility.

True greatness is found when we give our power away and pour ourselves out for the sake of others.

The cross stands as the fullest expression of the life Jesus lived and the values he taught.

The cross is not just what Jesus does to save us; it is who God is.
Michael J. Gorman

Humility is the noble choice to forgo your status, deploy your resources, or use your influence for the good of others before yourself…the humble person is marked by a willingness to hold power in service of others.
John Dickson

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.
CS Lewis

According to Jesus, humility is:
• Dependence on God
• Non-competition with others
• Service rather than status
• Self-emptying love
• Freedom from the tyranny of our ego
• Participation in God’s upside-down kingdom of love

According to wider Christian tradition, Humility is:
• Freedom from the need to be noticed or admired
• Liberation from comparison
• Resting your identity in God rather than performance
• Becoming so secure in God that the self no longer needs to be at the center

True humility means I stop connecting every experience, every conversation, with myself. In fact, I stop thinking about myself. The freedom of self-forgetfulness. The blessed rest that only self-forgetfulness brings.
Tim Keller