Pride and Humility

(Part I)

 July 20, 2008

 

Humility is a character trait that allows me to know who I am and what I am in the Lord.

Be myself and reflect the Lord¡¯s character through my life. 

 

Question:

Conviction – Who I am, What I am

1) The true conviction – Paul¡¯s life after conversion

2) The false conviction – Paul¡¯s life before conversion

 

Proverb 18:12

Before his downfall a man¡¯s heart is proud,

but humility comes before honor.  (NIV)

 

Philippians 2:3-4

3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;

4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

 

I. Introduction

Purpose: Pride shifting to humility

 

1. The origin of pride

In the beginning pride came from satan – brought great rebellion and division in the spiritual realm.

There exists a war between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of satan.

 

1) Isaiah 14:12-14 – the Fallen Angel ¡°satan¡±

12 ¡°How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning (Lucifer: the name of

Venus), son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have

weakened the nations!

13 ¡°But you said in your heart, ¡®I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above

stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north.

14 ¡®I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most

High.¡¯

 

2) Main reason for the fall – He tried to place himself above God – Pride

 

2. satan¡¯s strategy

John 10:10

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

 

 

3. Adam being tempted by satan

 Genesis 3:1-6 – the fallen man by the fallen angel ¡°satan¡±

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, ¡°Did God really say, ¡®You must not eat from any tree in the garden¡¯?¡±

2 The woman said to the serpent, ¡°We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,

3 but God did say, ¡®You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.¡¯ ¡±

4 ¡°You will not surely die,¡± the serpent said to the woman.

5 ¡°For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.¡±

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

 

1) satan¡¯s temptation

a) satan stole the word of God in his heart –

     ¡°Did God really say, ¡®You must not eat from any tree in the garden¡¯?¡±

b) satan planted a lie – ¡°You will not surely die.¡±

c) satan planted pride – ¡°You will be like God.¡±

d) satan destroyed the relationship between God and man.

 

2) Adam fell into temptation

a) They believed the lie that they were like God.

b) They attempted to be like God by eating the fruit.

c) They brought destruction to us.

        d) Notice the 3 areas:

            (1) Good for food

            (2) Pleasing to the eye

            (3) Desirable for gaining wisdom

 

Compare the temptations faced by Jesus:

1)     Matthew 4:3 –  the lust of the flesh

The tempter came to him and said, ¡°If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.

  2) Matthew 4:6 – the pride of life

 ¡°If you are the Son of God,¡± he said, ¡°throw yourself down. For it is written:

¡° ¡®He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.¡¯¡¯¡±

  3) Matthew 4:8-9 – the lust of the eye

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.

9 ¡°All this I will give you,¡± he said, ¡°if you will bow down and worship me.¡±

 

Why Jesus was tempted by satan in these 3 areas since the beginning of His Ministry

 

 

Since Adam & Eve¡¯s fall, pride has been the main issue among human beings throughout history.

 

II. Pride

We've all heard the saying that pride goes before the fall from the Bible.

What is it about pride that is so attractive?

What is it about pride that trips us up?

Is there good pride and bad pride?

 

Our pride against God.

Our pride against others.

Our own pride.

 

1. The Tree of Knowledge brings pride

I Corinthians 8:1

We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

 

Jesus healed the man who was born blind – The Pharisees condemned Jesus and called him a sinner – He challenged them – Pharisees¡¯ response - Their knowledge became a pride issue due to a religious spirit.

 

John 9:34

 they replied, ¡°You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!¡±

And they threw him out.

 

The result: They were against the Lord and rejected the spirit filled people.

 

Their religious spirit was fervently against Jesus¡¯ Ministry and killed Jesus without any fear or guilt, even today this same spirit kills. This is the most dangerous spirit among Christians.

 

Even today satan is working very hard to come against the ministry of Todd Bentley.

 

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We really need to discern the things that are going on right now.

We can discern all situations by basing it on God¡¯s Word.

 

1) Give Glory to God alone or not

I Corinthians 10:31

   "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."

It is heresy if they do not give honor and Glory to the Lord alone.

2) Deny Jesus Christ or not

I John 2:22-23

  "22 Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist, he   denies the Father and the Son.
   23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also."

 

3) Believe Jesus Christ as perfect God (the Son of God) and Man (the Son of Man) or not

I John 4:2-3

   2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges

      that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
   3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

 

4) What kind of fruit is produced

Matthew 7:15-18

   15 Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep¢®¯s clothing,

       but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.
   16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?
   17 Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
   18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

There are 2 kinds of fruit according to God¡¯s Word

   a) The fruit of evangelism - disciples (Matthew 28:18-20)

   b) Fruit of the Holy Spirit - individual character transforms into Jesus¡¯ character (Galatians 5:22-23)

 

5) The signs of the Work of the Lord's Hand or not

John 10:37-38

   37 Do not believe me unless I do what My Father does.
   38 But if I do it, even though you do not believe Me, believe the miracles,

        that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.

Even Jesus challenged the Pharisees' stubbornness. His main point was to let them see the miracles and wonders that are not likely to occur in the natural realm, and they are the signs of the Father's work.

Yes, we could see the work of the Lord, and we could not deny the works at all.

There are so many miracles and wonders during this period, and not only in Florida, but also this anointing is starting to spread to many other places right now. California, Arizona, Texas¡¦on and on. If it is not God's work then it will be satan's work. Why do people confess Jesus, if it is satan's work?

                                                                                                    

6) Does this ministry have witnesses?   

 

Well known and respected Christian leaders support him for this revival.

Like Peter Wagner, Che Ahn, Bill Johnson, John Arnott, Stacy Campbell, Rick Joyner, Bob Jones...

What you have heard about Todd¡¯s testimony is way beyond our knowledge.

Even Jesus could not say many of the secrets of heaven to His Disciples because of the limitation of their understanding.

 

John 16:12

12 I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.

 

Jesus already mentioned to His Disciples that their understanding and capacity was limited in the Word.

 

But Jesus clearly promised to His Disciples that the time is coming to understand when the secrets of heaven will be released. This means that we could hear more than what we understand in our time.

That is why Jesus prophesied as below.

John 16:13-15
13 But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.
14 He will bring glory to Me by taking from what is Mine and making it known to you.
15 All that belongs to the Father is Mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is Mine and make it known to you.

 

If Todd Bentley is against all these facts, then the people can be against him.  But if he is not against it all, then people who are against Todd Bentley are against the Lord¡¯s work along with people who are captured by satan. Also they are committing the sin of

blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which is a serious sin against the Lord.

 

Mark 3:28-29

28 I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them.
29 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.

 

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