Pride and Humility (Part II)

August 10, 2008

 

Summary from last message

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Humility is a characteristic to knowing who I am and what I am in the Lord.

I need to be myself around others and reflect the Lord¡¯s character through my life. 

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 changing to humility

 

1. The origin of pride

 

 

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

2) Main reason for the fall – He tried to put 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) satan¡¯s temptation

a) satan stole the word of God from her 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 of becoming 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

 

      3) Compare the temptation against Jesus

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

         b) Matthew 4:6 – the pride of life

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

 

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

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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 to people?

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 – Pharisees condemned Jesus by calling Him a sinner – He challenged them – Pharisees¡¯ response - Their knowledge caused them to become prideful by way of 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. Furthermore, this religious spirit does the same even to this day. This is the most dangerous spirit among Christians.

 

Who was against Jesus Christ?

Was the Roman Government against Jesus Christ? No!

The religious leaders who were full of knowledge from the Bible were against Jesus Christ and killed Him by means of the Roman Government Judicial System without any fear of the Lord.

 

All Christians should fight against satan, not against each other.

Satan is our enemy!

 

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Questions for the Discernment

1) Give the Glory to God alone or not

2) Deny Jesus Christ or not

3) Believe Jesus Christ as perfect God (the Son of God) and Man (the Son of Man)

    or not

4) What kind of fruit is produced

     The fruit has 2 different kinds according to the word of the Lord.

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

6) Do we have witness for this ministry?   

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My testimony

My ignorance about the Holy Spirit before – I was against the charismatic movement,

and I also rejected it.

 

I had two reasons

1) I attended the charismatic movement with a hungry heart, but I never experienced

     the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. – discouraged

2) I concluded that the word of God is the only solution.

    So I was digging in the word of God, and attended bible studies and fellowships as

    often as I could during my college years. God spoke to me a lot and equipped me for

    the Kingdom of God. At the same time I did not put much value on the charismatic

    church because I felt and concluded that the charismatic church was more focused

    on experience, rather than the word of God.

 

I had an encounter with the Lord by the baptism of the Holy Spirit in 1999

I saw myself –

I picked one piece of sand from the beach, and I claimed that I know the Lord.

I realized that the reality was that I did not know God at all.

I was so humiliated in front of the Lord at that moment when I saw my pride. Many years

I had pride and a strong religious spirit.  At the same

time I felt so much shame and apologized to the Lord for how arrogant I was, so I

repented of all my pride believing that I knew the Lord.

 

And I repented for my beliefs about the charismatic people and churches.

 

So many things were changed and this experience brought me into the light after having repented.

And God delivered me from this religious spirit and other

evil spirits instantly and continually until today.

 

The Conclusion of Knowledge

 

The first woman was interested in what satan said to her ¡°For God knows that when you

eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil¡±

She wanted to know everything about God, so she can be like God.

 

If a person gets puffed up with knowledge and doesn¡¯t use it according to God¡¯s way,

then this knowledge becomes a deadly poison for his/her life and others.

 

 

2. Self-righteousness makes you arrogant

the big prides, the ones that says, ¡°I¡¯m bigger than, better than, more than, smarter than, wiser than anyone else. ¡°

Pride hardens the mind and refuses to hear the wisdom of anyone.

It closes us off from others and from God; it rejects all other wisdom.

This closed mindedness brings consequences.

 

A. The pride of Nebuchadnezzar:  Daniel 5:20

 ¡°But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him:¡±

His dream – A big tree – fruit, beast dwell under the tree and the bird lives in the branch

                     Angelic activity – chop down – Stump and root still there – living like a 

                    beast

Daniel interpreted it 12 moths ago, King was in pride – lost mind – cast out from his kingdom  and lived in the wilderness with beast for 7 years.

He realized that the Lord reigns.

 

Egotistical stubbornness demands a price and that price is often steep.

 

B. The pride of the Pharisees:   Luke 18:11

¡°The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ¡®God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.

 

Self-righteousness is arrogance that says, ¡°My way is right, no other way is right.¡± It¡¯s setting oneself above others and proclaiming oneself as better than others.

 

1) Good deed – Matthew 6:1-4

 

Matthew 6:1-4

Mt 6:1 ¡°Be careful not to do your ¡®acts of righteousness¡¯ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

Mt 6:2 ¡°So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.

Mt 6:3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

Mt 6:4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

 

2) Prayer – Matthew 6:5-15

 

Matthew 6:5-15

Mt 6:5 ¡°And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in

the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they

have received their reward in full.

Mt 6:6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who

is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Mt 6:7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be

heard because of their many words.

Mt 6:8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Mt 6:9 ¡°This, then, is how you should pray:

¡° ¡®Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

Mt 6:10 your kingdom come,

your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

Mt 6:11 Give us today our daily bread.

Mt 6:12 Forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Mt 6:13 And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.¡¯

Mt 6:14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also

forgive you.

Mt 6:15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

 

3) Fasting – Matthew 6:16-18

Matthew 6:16-18

Mt 6:16 ¡°When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.

Mt 6:17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face,

Mt 6:18 so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

 

4) Comparing - Luke 18:10-11, James 4:11-12

   a) Judging

   b) Gossiping

 

Luke 1810-11

Lk 18:10 ¡°Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

Lk 18:11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ¡®God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.

 

James 4:11-12

Jas 4:11 Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.

Jas 4:12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy.

But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

 

My testimony

After the baptism of the Holy Spirit, God revealed the pride that I had and one at a time He removed it from me.

 

 

3. Pride disguised as humility: lack of self-worth

 

Inverted pride is a hidden pride that says, ¡®I¡¯m less than, worse than, uglier than, more useless than anyone else.¡± This kind of pride is disguised as the virtue of humility, but it¡¯s not humility at all. This too is a deflated self-worth, but this one says that God made me wrong. God doesn¡¯t do anything wrong. It is us that warp what He has made so perfectly. There are many kinds of hidden pride and our job is to sniff them out and be rid of them. They are no better than the visible prides and will do the same kinds of damage to our spirits.

 

4. Warning about pride

A. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble

I Peter 5:5

Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ¡°God opposes the proud

but gives grace to the humble.¡±

 

B. Before his downfall a man¡¯s heart is proud

Proverb 18:12a      

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

 

C. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit

Philippians 2:3

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better

 than yourselves.

 

D. Blocks the relationship between you and God.

Genesis 3:

 

E. Blocks your relationship with people.

 

F. God gave them up –this is a curse from the Lord

Romans 1:28-32 – this is the result of the pride

Ro 1:28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, He gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

Ro 1:29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,

Ro 1:30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;

Ro 1:31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

Ro 1:32 Although they know God¡¯s righteous decree that those who do such things

deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those

who practice them.

 

III.          We have to be humbled

 

God¡¯s requirement:

1. To love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

 

2. With leaders:

1  Peter 5:6

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God¡¯s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

Hebrews 13:17

Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Psalm 133

1 How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!

2 It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard,

running down on Aaron¡¯s beard, down upon the collar of his robes.

3 It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion.

For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.

 

3. Husbands & Wives

Colossians 3:18-19

Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

 

4. With others:

Philippians  2:3

with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves

 

IV.         Conclusion

 

 

But humility comes before honor. 

Proverb 18:12 b

but humility comes before honor.  (NIV)

 

 Pride brought rebellion and great division to God¡¯s Kingdom.

 Pride brings rebellion and division between God and people.

 Humility brings harmony and unity with God and with people.

Pride is deception by satan, so we believe the lies.

So we need to break satan¡¯s power continually by casting out demons from

us and obeying the Lord.

 

V.             Ministry

What was your most humiliating experience and what have you learned from it?

What prideful area do you still struggle with right now?

 

Do you feel anything hindering your relationship with God?

What is it? Where did it come from? Are you willing to deal with it right now?

 

Do you have any hindrances in your relationships with others?

What caused the problem?