SPEAKER_00: This evening, the topic will be on pride and humility.
SPEAKER_00: There are several points on this topic I would like to focus on.
SPEAKER_00: What pride is and why it is not always a good thing, how it enters your life and its effects on it, and how to deal with pride and how to become more humble.
SPEAKER_00: So our first point, what pride is and why it is not always a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: Please don't answer, but what is pride?
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: Before I go into the definition of pride, what does the Bible say about pride?
SPEAKER_00: Throughout the entire Bible, there are many different examples of pride.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be summarizing these passages, so if you want to turn there, you're gonna have to be very fast.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 11.
SPEAKER_00: The people thought they could build a tower to heaven, thought they could be God's equal, even or even greater than God.
SPEAKER_00: And God scattered them by creating different languages among them.
SPEAKER_00: In Daniel 4, King Nebuchadnezzar thought he was the greatest king in the world.
SPEAKER_00: He was the greatest person.
SPEAKER_00: He had made his kingdom all by himself.
SPEAKER_00: But God corrected him and by forcing him to live like an animal until he recognized God as God.
SPEAKER_00: In Acts 12, verses 21 through 23, when King Herod gave his speech before the people, he did not stop the people from saying that he was God.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, God replied by sending an angel to strike him down in front of all the people.
SPEAKER_00: In all of these accounts, somebody would think he was either equal or greater than God, and it would always result in God's furious and inevitable response.
SPEAKER_00: It is clear from these passages that God hates pride.
SPEAKER_00: Now pride can be defined in different ways, but for this lesson we will use one definition.
SPEAKER_00: Pride is an overly large amount of self-esteem or self-confidence.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 16 verse 18 says, Pride goes before destruction in a haughty spirit before fall.
SPEAKER_00: Now pride is not always a bad thing, like in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 31.
SPEAKER_00: Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: In this case, it's a good thing, because it's pride in your God.
SPEAKER_00: Good thing.
SPEAKER_00: And even a reasonable amount of self-confidence is a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: But becomes a bad thing when you start to use it just to inflate your head.
SPEAKER_00: And just it's a bad thing when you do that.
SPEAKER_00: Now on to our second point, how pride enters your life and its effects on it.
SPEAKER_00: Pride can be very hard to notice.
SPEAKER_00: Slip under your guard and inflate your head like gas prices.
SPEAKER_00: It also comes in many ways.
SPEAKER_00: I want to focus on two ways.
SPEAKER_00: The first way is through compliments, or things that make you feel proud about yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Compliments can be good for you and other people, but it matters what you do with the compliments.
SPEAKER_00: In Mark 7, verse 22, Mark 7, 22, it says, For from within out the heart of man comes evil thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: And then a little later on says, pride and foolishness.
SPEAKER_00: Simply giving or receiving compliments, it is not a bad thing.
SPEAKER_00: But if you take the compliments simply to inflate your head, then it becomes a problem.
SPEAKER_00: A simple, you did a good job.
SPEAKER_00: Can easily turn into, huh, I did a good job, I'm better than that other person over there.
SPEAKER_00: So the process begins, you stand a little taller, you start looking down on people.
SPEAKER_00: And when someone tries to pop this bubble of illusion, but it doesn't go well.
SPEAKER_00: It ends up hurting both yourself and the other person involved.
SPEAKER_00: And it causes disunity.
SPEAKER_00: Second way is much more tricky, is self-reliance.
SPEAKER_00: Unlike compliments, just like compliments.
SPEAKER_00: Self-reliance can be a good thing, not being dependent on everyone for everything.
SPEAKER_00: The devil can use this for bad.
SPEAKER_00: He can tempt you with obvious, blatant sins, and so blatant that you can just knock them down no problem, right?
SPEAKER_00: And when you overcome these sins, he has pride at the very end.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, did you really need God for that?
SPEAKER_00: Nah, you didn't.
SPEAKER_00: It's all by yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You're doing great overcoming these sins.
SPEAKER_00: Keep on going.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need God's help anymore.
SPEAKER_00: So slowly, very slowly, almost unconsciously, you drift away without even knowing it.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you slowly stopped praying or stopped studying your Bible as much, or even consistently thinking about God.
SPEAKER_00: These are what may seem like small things, but they aren't.
SPEAKER_00: They affect your spiritual life and your physical life so much that you just didn't notice because you'd forgotten about God.
SPEAKER_00: Now pride doesn't only destroy your relationship with God, but with other people.
SPEAKER_00: Even if it starts out as just thoughts, it can develop into words about other people.
SPEAKER_00: And as James constantly constantly warns throughout the book of James, the tongue has more power than any other person could imagine.
SPEAKER_00: It can create and break relationships faster than you would have ever thought imaginable.
SPEAKER_00: Being that guy or girl who acts like the main character or the most important person in the world can distant others from and distance others from you and cause division within God's church.
SPEAKER_00: This is shown in 1 Corinthians 12.
SPEAKER_00: Throughout this passage, it heavily emphasizes the importance of an entire whole body.
SPEAKER_00: The body cannot function properly if one thinks he's better than another, especially as everything in the body matters.
SPEAKER_00: This is truly what the devil used this for, to destroy the Christian church and your relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: And it all starts out with a few seem like simple, small internal thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: But then how do you deal with this?
SPEAKER_00: How to deal with pride and how to become more humble.
SPEAKER_00: There are several ways to deal with pride that I found very helpful.
SPEAKER_00: But before we get into that, however, let us observe what the Bible has to say on this.
SPEAKER_00: In Philippians 2, verses 3 through 5.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians 2 verses 3 through 5.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourself.
SPEAKER_00: The next six verses go into Jesus' humble sacrifice and how he was not prideful.
SPEAKER_00: He had the mindset of a willing servant, always looking for a way to be a servant for other people.
SPEAKER_00: Part of following Jesus' example is becoming a servant like he was, and doing it not to be seen, but because you love God and you love people.
SPEAKER_00: Putting yourself in this mindset can also help bridge yourself of pride.
SPEAKER_00: But is it important, it is important to remember, being in a servant mindset is something to be cultivated over time.
SPEAKER_00: It's not going to happen overnight.
SPEAKER_00: It requires practice.
SPEAKER_00: Though every person has their own system for dealing with pride, I have found these three methods to be the most useful and are found in scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Constant watchfulness, constant prayer, and blunt force trauma to the head.
SPEAKER_00: The scripture that covers all of these is in 1 Peter 5 verses 3 through 8.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter 5 verses 3 through 8.
SPEAKER_00: Not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples in your flock.
SPEAKER_00: This part is talking about the elders and talking to the elders.
SPEAKER_00: And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
SPEAKER_00: Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to your elders.
SPEAKER_00: Clothe yourselves all of you with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
SPEAKER_00: Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you.
SPEAKER_00: Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
SPEAKER_00: Be alert and sober minded.
SPEAKER_00: Your enemy the devil prowls around looking for someone to devour.
SPEAKER_00: First point constant watchfulness.
SPEAKER_00: This paragraph, the verse of this paragraph, is verse eight.
SPEAKER_00: Your enemy the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.
SPEAKER_00: Being on constant watch for pride helps immensely.
SPEAKER_00: Look in the mirror every morning, not just the physical one, but look in that one too.
SPEAKER_00: Look inward on yourself.
SPEAKER_00: What are you thinking?
SPEAKER_00: What have you been doing?
SPEAKER_00: Have you been praying, thinking about God, studying your Bible?
SPEAKER_00: Have you been acting strange?
SPEAKER_00: Seeing people as less than yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Look, every single day, this should be a daily thing.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter if you're struggling with pride or not, this is for any sin.
SPEAKER_00: Second point is being constant in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 7, it says, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, being constant in prayer, casting all your anxieties on him, doesn't mean always walking around with your eyes closed and your hands clasped in front of you, and it's sounding like you're muttering incantations under your breath makes you look insane.
SPEAKER_00: But being in constant prayer means to be constantly thinking of God, to be in a prayerful mindset at all times.
SPEAKER_00: If something comes up, pray to God.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter if it's five seconds or five hours, it's a silent prayer or a loud cry to God.
SPEAKER_00: Always be in that mindset.
SPEAKER_00: And when you are in prayer, be careful not to view yourself as, not to view God as your servant.
SPEAKER_00: View Him as higher than yourself.
SPEAKER_00: This can help you keep you in the mindset that God is greater than you are.
SPEAKER_00: My final point for the evening is applying blunt force trauma to the head, which probably confused y'all.
SPEAKER_00: Now, by this, I don't mean if you feel pride coming on, or if you see someone being prideful, to grab your Bible and just start whacking them on the head or whacking yourself on the head.
SPEAKER_00: Because God doesn't want you to do this.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, confront yourself with these basic truths that help deflate your pride.
SPEAKER_00: Pick yourself apart.
SPEAKER_00: No matter how ruthlessly, be brutally honest with yourself.
SPEAKER_00: But if this doesn't work on yourself and you're so in deep in pride that you can't do this, you can have a friend do it for you, or ask the elders to help you.
SPEAKER_00: And first, oh it sounded bad, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: In 1 Peter 5, it starts out by talking to the about the elders.
SPEAKER_00: The elders, though they are not our chief shepherd, because that is God, part of their purpose here is to guide us, to give us correction and encouragement.
SPEAKER_00: So talking to an elder, asking him, can you pray for me about pride?
SPEAKER_00: Can you help me with this?
SPEAKER_00: They will do it for you.
SPEAKER_00: They will do everything they can possibly, they possibly can to help you.
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't have an elder present, it's always good to have that one brutally honest friend around who will always set you straight and they they do not censor their thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: They're brutally honest.
SPEAKER_00: But if you are that friend that someone comes to when they're feeling pride, or if you notice that friend feeling pride, choose your words according to that person.
SPEAKER_00: If they are one of those people where you definitely need to like hit them over the head, uh, not literally, but you hit them over the head with the truth, then do that.
SPEAKER_00: But if there's someone more fragile, you want to be gentle about how you do it.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to go at them with the sword and then them thinking we're a bunch of Bible-whacking Christians.
SPEAKER_00: They're so scary.
SPEAKER_00: You never want to discourage someone from the gospel that way, or anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Our goal is to get people to the gospel, to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Though you've used these tactics, you can go to the opposite end of the spectrum and begin to have self-doubt or self-worthlessness.
SPEAKER_00: And this goes back to my second point on dealing with pride.
SPEAKER_00: Pray to God and He will fill you.
SPEAKER_00: It may take some time, but He will fill you with the necessary fulfillment.
SPEAKER_00: That's one of the amazing things about God.
SPEAKER_00: He can fill you and will fill you with what He knows you need to accomplish His work.
SPEAKER_00: When you are baptized into Jesus Christ, He fills you with the Holy Spirit, which He knows you need to accomplish His work.
SPEAKER_00: As we go into this new week, let us all be earnestly seeking to abstain from sin and practice.
SPEAKER_00: In 1 Peter 5, verse 5, it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
SPEAKER_00: This applies to baptism as well, by humbly admitting that you are a sinner and in need of grace.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you know that Jesus died for your sins, that he was raised again on the third day, and that he is the Son of God, and that you need baptism for your eternal salvation, please come forward as we stand and sing.