One of the dangers of living in the
1990s is that we live in a graphic
world and oftentimes our vision is so difficult
to see the things of God because we
are so content to see the things of
earth.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians, well we look
not on the things which are seen but
of the things which are unseen.
For the things which are seen are temporal,
the things which are unseen are eternal.
My young friends, what we need is a
vision of God.
We need to see Him sitting upon His
throne.
Every man who came into the presence of
God, and by the way, there is only
one man in Scripture who even dared ask
to see the glory of God.
Only one man had the courage to look
the Almighty in the face and say, show
me your glory.
Would to God that a group of young
people like this would have the courage to
say, show me your glory.
Tonight we are going to broach a subject
that is painful for me and I trust
it will be as painful for you too
because every one of us in this room
are infected with it.
We are all gripped by it.
It comes in many shapes and sizes and
forms and I would like to ask tonight
for three young men in this room who
are full of the Holy Spirit, who would
stand and ask God to show us His
glory.
In your words, from your heart to His,
lead us in prayer.
Three young men.
I will pause and I will wait until
three have prayed.
Father, show us your glory.
The glory is departed, Lord.
We long to see you sitting upon your
throne, high and lifted up.
Father, all of us in this room need
to see you.
So amazing, those men in Scripture who came
into the presence of your glory, who fell
down as dead men.
When they saw the majesty and the power
and the dominion and the might and the
authority, they saw the justice, the judgment and
the grace.
Father, as Moses was hidden in the cleft
of that rock and you passed before him,
might we dare have the courage and the
guts to ask to see your glory.
Father, tonight, would you dismantle our hearts so
all things are naked and open into the
eyes of Him with whom we have to
do.
Therefore, God, there is nothing that will be
preached on tonight that you are not already
aware of.
There is nothing that has occurred in any
life in this room that you are not
already profoundly known knowing.
So, Father, I pray that we would have
the courage, the grace to simply acknowledge as
we see our lives from your perspective.
Father, would you give us the spirit of
brokenness.
And it is for this that we beg.
In Christ's name we pray.
Amen.
I was fully prepared earlier, Brother Kenison, to,
as you were preaching, and as I, I
don't know about you, but he dismantled me
and put me back together all in one
session.
It was a marvelous adventure of God's grace
and God's conviction.
But as he was preaching, he stopped and
talked about the blessings of God that unfold.
And then he talked about how he could
take an hour.
And I kept saying, I wanted to say,
go ahead, Brother.
I think when we were done, you were
up to seven hours that we were going
to go, because I think we had seven
things on the list that you had touched
on.
And I was fully ready to sit in
the seven-hour service, Brother, because I was
thrilling in what God was doing in my
heart.
What a joy that that was and also
a great reflection in the testimonies of heart.
What a blessing it is to just be
here and a blessing it is to be
in ministry.
You know, corporate America is very vicious.
My brother works in corporate America.
He tells me many stories.
And oftentimes whenever I hear my brother talking,
I'm reminded of some quotes that I have
written down in my own journals through the
past, things that I've come across.
Margaret Hasley, who was born in 1910, she
wrote a very interesting book.
And the title of the book was, With
Malice Toward Some.
My, isn't that a book you just want
to run out and get and read?
With Malice Toward Some.
Here's what Margaret said on the subject of
humility.
She said, Humility is not my forte.
And whenever I dwell for any length of
time on my own shortcomings, they gradually begin
to seem mild, harmless, rather engaging little things,
not at all like those staring defects in
other people's character.
Muhammad Ali, born in 1942.
Some of you will remember him.
Fly, float like a butterfly, sting like a
bee.
Muhammad Ali said this.
It was reported in the Sunday Express, a
London newspaper, on the 13th of January, 1963.
Muhammad Ali said, At home I'm a nice
guy, but I don't want the world to
know.
Humble people, I found, don't get very far.
We go back just a little bit to
Samuel Butler.
He was an English author.
Here's what he said.
He said, I really do not see much
use in exalting the humble and meek.
They do not remain humble and meek long
when they are exalted.
And then, John Selden said this, Humility is
a virtue all preach, none practice, yet everybody
is content to hear.
The master thinks it's a good doctrine for
his servants, the laity for the clergy, and
the clergy for the laity.
Dear friends, may I tell you tonight, as
we broach the subject of humility, it is
one of the most difficult subjects we will
ever approach.
I have heard countless messages in my last
19 years of ministry on immorality.
I've heard dozens of messages on the sins
of the tongue.
I've heard a multitude of messages, if you
will, on being committed to Christ.
I can remember one message I have ever
heard preached on the sins.
As one man said, as I was reading
a couple of weeks ago, there was a
dearth of preaching on pride in this generation.
In this entire century, it has been almost
a neglected truth and doctrine among us.
Tonight, as we turn to Matthew chapter 5,
I wish we had 12 sessions together.
I have a whole body of material that
I do called the Dynamics of Discipleship from
Matthew chapter 5.
We have often called it the Sermon on
the Mount.
I call it the Dynamics of Discipleship because
I believe as Jesus saw the multitude and
then was seated down and His disciples came
to Him, I believe that in no uncertain
terms, Christ was laying down the conditions of
discipleship.
This is what the ultimate disciple looks like.
These are the characteristics that are borne out
and fleshed out in the heart of this
ultimate disciple.
And tonight we will have no time but
to get beyond the first as we go
down in our passage of Scripture in verse
2.
And He opened His mouth and taught them
saying, verse number 3, Blessed are
the poor
in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom.
Blessed in the multitude.
It's a plural term in the Greek language
which for a very specific reason talks about,
as our brother was saying, literally the multitude
of blessings.
Are poured out upon those who bear the
marks and qualities of discipleship.
And you could almost piggyback upon what brother
Denny was saying earlier and this entire passage
of Scripture, because again, Christ reminds us that
blessedness and the blessings of God are pouring
out those spiritual blessings upon those who will
dare breach what a biblical disciple is.
And the number one quality, the very first
mark and dynamic of discipleship is the mark
of humility.
The dynamic of humility.
Let's talk about a number of issues tonight.
First of all, let's talk about the essence
of humility.
What is the essence of being poor in
spirit?
Very interesting words.
If you simply stopped at the word poor,
you and I would get an understanding.
This person, as there were several levels of
poorness, this is not just an individual who
just doesn't have things.
This is an individual who is completely without
resources.
It's an individual that is totally without any
ability to accomplish anything.
He has nothing with which he can use.
Nothing from which to draw.
It's not just that he's got a little,
as we would look out in America and
say, oh, they don't live in a nice
house.
They're poor.
That's not this individual.
It's an individual who has nothing.
But Jesus qualifies it.
He says they are not poor in things.
They are poor in spirit.
There is a profound humility.
What does it look like?
It is to acknowledge our utter helplessness before
God.
Our spiritual poverty.
Our spiritual need.
We are solely dependent upon God to meet
our needs and there is nothing that we
have that has not been given to us
by the unmerited favor, the grace of Almighty
God.
Everything we have has been given by Him.
We find that the essence of humility is
to acknowledge our utter lack of being able
to face life and eternity apart from God.
It is to acknowledge the real blessings of
life and eternity will come from that right
relationship with God.
It is understanding that there is nothing that
I can produce in myself or nothing that
I can do at all that will bring
God joy and that everything I have is
by His unmerited favor, His grace.
It is to acknowledge our utter lack of
superiority before men and others.
That is what poor in spirit is.
It is to recognize our spiritual deadness before
God and that we are no more superior
to anyone around us and the next person
is just as significant to God as I
am.
That I am not in any sense elevated.
And it doesn't matter what occurs in life.
It doesn't matter what achievements have been made.
It doesn't matter what toys or trinkets I
may possess.
Everything is level in Calvary.
To Jew and Gentile, to the rich, to
the bond, to the free, to all, the
Gospel is freely given.
And all can receive the grace of God.
That's spiritual poverty.
That is the essence of humility.
My brother-in-law was in 4th Recon.
Does any of you know what 4th Recon
is?
It's a very elite unit of the Marine
Corps.
There's the Navy SEALs.
There's the Green Beret and the Marines.
It's 4th Recon.
My brother-in-law one time, as I
was discussing things with him, was telling me,
he's a brilliant mind and knows much of
military strategy.
As I was talking to him one time,
he said, you know, one of the greatest
things that you can do in warfare is
to understand your enemy.
For if you understand your enemy, and Paul
bears this out and says we are not
ignorant of his devices.
We are not ignorant of his tools.
And my brother-in-law would say to
me over and over, I've got to know
my enemy.
I've got to know who I'm fighting.
I've got to know what his tactics are
so that I know how to face that
enemy.
And what I want to do tonight is
not look at humility from humility's perspective.
I'm not going to look at the essence
of humility.
I want to look at the enemy of
humility.
I want to look at the antithesis.
I want to look at pride because sometimes
I think we do not get the full
picture of humility until we see the enemy
of humility and see pride in just how
it wells up in our souls and how
it entrenches itself in our life.
Let's look tonight at the next few brief
moments that we have at the enemy of
humility.
And we will do that, dear friends, by
looking at five perspectives of pride.
Five perspectives of pride.
You know, the opposite of being poor in
spirit is having a spirit that is full
of self.
And it is a world of difference between
those two spirits.
The church at Laodicea in Revelation 3 starting
in verse 14.
And the angel of the church at Laodicea
is right.
These things say at the amen, the faithful
and true witness, the beginning of the creation
of God, I know Thy works.
And by the way, He knows yours too.
And He knows mine too.
I know Thy works, that Thou art neither
cold nor hot.
I would that Thou were cold or hot.
I will spew Thee out of my mouth
because Thou sayest, I am rich, increased with
goods, and have need of nothing.
And knowest not that Thou art wretched, miserable,
poor, blind and naked.
My dear friends, that's it.
That is where we live.
And we wonder why in America there has
been no movement of revival.
You say, Kevin, why?
The reason is, is because we're doing very
fine without God.
Thank you.
And we're not hungry for revival.
And we sing about revival.
We pray about revival.
We talk about revival.
We just don't really want it.
Because revival will cost the death, the one
we love the most, and that is self.
And it is significant that Jesus begins the
dynamics of discipleship with poor.
They're poor in spirit.
What are the five perspectives of pride?
Number one, God's hatred.
How does God look at pride?
No sin is more abhorrent to Almighty God.
Sins of the flesh are revolting and bring
very grave consequences.
But against none of those did God speak
with such vehemence as He did against the
sin of pride.
Him that hath a proud heart will I
not suffer.
Psalm 105.
The proud He knoweth afar off.
Psalm 138.
These six things doth the Lord hate.
Yea, seven are an abomination to Him.
A proud look.
Proverbs 6, 16 and 17.
Pride do I hate.
That's rather clear.
Proverbs 8, 13.
Every one that is proud in heart is
an abomination to the Lord.
Proverbs 16, 5.
A proud heart is sin.
Proverbs 21, 4.
That's rather clear too.
Pride of man shall be brought low.
Isaiah 2, 17.
God resisteth.
What a powerful term.
He stiff arms the proud, but gives grace
to the humble.
James 4, 6.
No further words are necessary to express the
hatred and revulsion of God to pride, arrogance,
conceit, haughtiness.
It is an abomination to Him.
And how in the world can we condone
what God hates?
How in the world can we entertain what
is an abomination to Almighty God?
God opposes the proud and holds them at
a distance.
There is no point of meeting between a
proud heart and a holy God.
There is no point of meeting.
But a broken and contrite spirit, He will
not.
God hates pride.
Perspective number two.
The essence of pride.
We saw the essence of humility.
What is the essence of pride?
What is pride all about?
The word pride in James 4, 6 carries
the idea of one who considers himself above
others.
Pride is a deification of self.
That's what pride is.
It thinks more highly of itself than it
ought.
It ascribes to itself the honor which belongs
to God and God alone.
It caused Rabbi Simon Ben-Jochai to say
with profound arrogance, if there are only two
righteous men in the world, I and My
Son are the two.
If only one, I am He.
This is what brought Nebuchadnezzar down to a
level of the beast.
I remember reading a story years ago about
the servant of the last German king, the
last German monarch, the Kaiser of Germany.
And here's what he said about his master,
his king.
He said, I cannot deny that my master
was vain.
He had to be the central figure in
everything.
If he went to a christening, he wanted
to be the baby.
If he went to a wedding, he wanted
to be the bride.
If he went to a funeral, he wanted
to be the corpse.
And unfortunately, that's exactly where some of us
have locked ourselves internally because we are the
center and we are constantly superimposing ourselves over
God and superimposing ourselves and giving ourselves the
glory that only God deserves.
Pride is characterized by an independence from God.
That was the heart of Adam's sin.
He wanted to be independent of God rather
than being dependent on Him.
He desired to be as God.
And pride is perfectly self-sufficient.
It desires to submit to no one, to
neither man nor God.
And let me tell you something, my young
friend, if you sit in this room tonight
as our brother just a few moments ago
said that he would have loved to have
talked about being under authority and I would
have loved to have heard him preach on
it, my dear young friend, if you are
locked in struggle with authority, the root of
that struggle is pride.
Because you are wanting to superimpose yourself and
you do not want to submit yourself to
man or to God when God has clearly
and without reservation in Scripture in black and
white laid down for you that you have
a clear-cut responsibility before God.
And that is to be under authority.
We find that pride involves contempt for others.
You remember in Luke 18, I thank Thee
that I am not as other men are.
Even as this publican in Luke regulates every
other mortal to a minor role in life.
And in essence, that's what pride is.
Pride sees itself as center stage and everyone
else is relegated to a minor role in
the play of my life.
And I am the center of the universe.
And that is the essence of pride.
And it doesn't matter what you want because
I desire and my desires are more important
than yours.
That is the essence and the heart of
pride.
It uses others as the background to display
its own brilliance.
The proud considers others beneath him.
If you would, the hoi polloi.
You say, what in the world does that
mean?
It's a Greek term.
It literally means just the common herd.
They are the hoi polloi.
I am the special one.
Let me ask you a question, my young
friend.
Do you find yourself wanting to be superior
to your brothers and sisters at home?
Do you find yourself degrading and downgrading them
and wanting to constantly get things for yourself
and constantly get the attention for yourself?
Or do you find yourself deferring and wanting
to give?
You see, pride is at the essence of
that.
It has contempt for other people.
And when pride is not the center stage,
then pride has great difficulty.
We find that pride essentially is competitive.
C.F. Lewis, who wrote a number of
great books, he said this.
He said, No one is proud because he
is rich or clever or good looking.
He is proud because he is richer or
more clever or better looking than someone else.
It involves a comparison which always goes in
favor of the one who makes the comparison.
Isn't that amazing?
How we all have our opinions and we
all have our thoughts, but what we must
understand is that when pride rears its ugly
head, that those assessments always go in favor
of the one who is making the judgment
and that's me.
Because we find that we are people who
love competition.
And Paul said, They who compare themselves among
themselves are not wise.
But yet pride is essentially competitive.
Let's look at perspective number three.
The manifestations of pride.
Can I tell you something, my young friends?
Pride adapts itself to every temperament.
Pride accommodates itself to every situation.
Pride is remarkably fluid.
It can be haughty or humble, all at
will.
Pride is very interesting and we will do
well if we will identify the specific forms
of pride.
Let's look at a few of them tonight.
This is by no means exhaustive.
I could go on as my brother said
for hours on this.
But let's look at several of the forms
of pride, what pride looks like.
First of all, there is pride of faith.
Pride of faith.
If we look around in this room tonight,
we'll notice that there's many different shapes and
sizes of people.
There's many different faces and the way that
people look.
And there is pride of faith.
And can I tell you, every one of
us in this room tonight, none of us
can claim good looks of ourselves.
We have nothing to do with it, dear
friends.
But there is a pride of faith.
And it is that kind of a pride
of faith that oftentimes will drive people as
I have witnessed myriads of times in youth
groups.
You'll get a young guy who's a jock
and he's athletic and he really knows how
to put on the dog and everybody likes
him and all the girls swoon over him
and they all like to be around him.
But yet there might be somebody else.
And I don't know about you, but I
was that kid in fifth grade when it
came to choosing for basketball.
I was not the one chosen.
As a matter of fact, they were fighting
over who would take me.
I was that kid.
By the time I was in the third
grade, I weighed 103 pounds.
Some of you girls don't weigh 103 pounds.
I was a rather large young man.
And here I was in the fifth grade.
They go to choose a team.
No, you take him.
No, no, you take him.
And this is what causes those young men
who have it all together and who look
so sharp to tip their noses up at
somebody else and say, ah, I don't need
to invest in you.
I don't need to give you any time.
You're not worth it.
Pride of faith.
What causes a young lady in the youth
group to be so snippy and be so
arrogant and be so uppity and not have
time for somebody else and not be able
to give their life away, what causes that
is pride because it says, I am better
than you.
I am prettier than you.
I am better looking than you.
And I am more valuable than you are.
I'll never forget years ago watching the Focus
on the Family film a man called Norman.
A wacky old man living in a community.
But a neighbor looked beyond his own heart,
his own family, his own self and invested.
And what a great thing God did.
Because he wasn't too proud to say, well,
you know, I'm too important for him.
He's just a wacky old coot.
He's just a weirdo.
No, there was no pride of faith there.
He didn't say, I live in a nice
house in a nice mid-sized neighborhood.
He reached out and brought that man literally
into his home, into his family and invested
his life in them.
There was no pride of faith.
And listen to me, friends.
All around you, there are people that are
crying out.
Their lives are filled with need.
They're longing to be loved.
If we will simply not have pride of
faith.
Secondly, there is pride of race.
It's even sad that one would have to
say something like this.
But there is no room in the church
of Jesus Christ for racism.
And yet our churches are filled with it.
If I had a dollar for every off
-color comment I've heard in the last 19
years, I'd have a nice little piggy stash.
If I was to be able to look
across America and go to all the different
places I've been and hear all the things
that I've heard, oh, my dear friends, there
are those that say I am of one
color and you of another, therefore, I am
better.
Well, you better go memorize Ephesians 2.
Because my dear friend, in Christ, everything is
coming down and the middle wall of partition
is not there.
And dear friend, the Jew and Gentile are
an even keel at the cross.
Some of us sit in this room and
we struggle with racism.
That's pride.
That is sheer, unbridled arrogance.
You are no better than anyone else.
I don't care what color skin they have.
I don't care what country they come from.
I don't care what socioeconomic status they live
in.
My friend, there better not be in our
souls a pride of race because you didn't
get to choose what color you were when
you were born.
And what you have has been given by
Almighty God.
But my young friend, pride of race crushes
and cripples many.
We find that there is also a pride
of place.
A pride of place.
Paul sternly warned the Corinthians that pride puffs
up.
In fact, of the eight times that that
phrase puffed up is used, seven of the
eight times is to the Corinthian church.
You know, it's very interesting.
If you've ever read any of the life
story of Charles Dickens, people who met Charles
Dickens for the first time would have never
suspected that he was the most distinguished literary
man of his time.
When you walked into the presence of Charles
Dickens, it was often said that he made
you feel like the royalty of England.
No matter who you were, no matter what
your status, whether you were a little tiny
snotty-nosed kid from the street, when Charles
Dickens got you in his audience, he would
make you feel like a king.
There is a pride of place.
It is this kind of pride that causes
a senior...
and by the way, you can look up
here and you can think I'm a radical
too, brethren.
But I get sick and tired of the
senior mentality, making seniors rule.
That makes me sick.
It makes me nauseous.
Seniors rule.
Everybody else drools.
That's a pride of place.
Would to God we had some seniors who
would go out in their lunchtime and go
to another school and sit with some seventh
graders and give their life away.
Go out and find the Normans and say,
I want to be your friend.
I want to love you.
I want to invest in you.
There's a pride of place.
It is this kind of pride that we
find a place that very frequently will destroy
Christian schools.
It will frequently destroy church youth groups, everybody
vying for position, wanting to be the leader,
wanting to be the best.
I'll never forget a number of years ago
a young man named Kevin.
Kevin was a senior.
Let me back up.
He was a junior.
He went to a Christian school of 1
,000 students, a very large Christian school by
most numbers.
Kevin's junior year, he went to a camp
and at that camp, God revolutionized his life.
Kevin would never be the same.
Kevin went back to his Christian school his
junior year.
Kevin began to live as a servant.
He began to give his life away.
The summer between his junior and senior year,
you know what Kevin did?
Oh, Kevin could have gone out and got
all kinds of jobs.
Kevin could have done numbers of things.
Very popular kid.
Very athletic kid.
Very prominent kid.
Everybody wanted to be Kevin's friend.
You know what Kevin did during his junior
and senior year?
He became a coach.
He and another friend of his, a very
close friend, became a coach of a t
-ball team.
You know what they did their whole summer?
They gave their lives away to little tiny
kids, loving them, having them over to their
house, having extra special practices with them and
gave devotions every time they got together.
Kevin had an impact on that team that
was unreal.
You know what Kevin did his senior year?
Rather than sitting with all the seniors.
You know what Kevin did?
Kevin got up and he walked over to
sit with the 6th, 7th and 8th grade
kids.
And Kevin so invested his life in those
kids his senior year.
Let me tell you something.
When most kids graduate from high school and
they walk away, there is nothing of value
left.
As a matter of fact, most people say,
glad you're gone.
Get out of here.
But you know what happened?
When Kevin walked away, it was completely different.
Two groups of people can come back to
that church and that school.
One of them was a group of people
that didn't care.
They were the seniors' rule.
They were the we are the dominators.
And you know what?
When they come back, nobody cares.
Nobody cares whatsoever.
As a matter of fact, they kind of
say, you get out of here.
Your turn is over.
It's our turn now.
But you know what happens when Kevin walks
back on campus?
He is mugged from one end of that
campus to the other and everybody wants to
know, how are you Kevin?
Oh, what are you doing?
How long are you going to be here?
Everybody, all those little kids who were 6th,
7th, and 8th graders are now sophomores, juniors,
seniors.
And they want to know how Kevin is
and what Kevin is doing and what can
we do for you and how can we
serve you.
You see my friends, that's what comes when
pride goes.
That's one of the blessings.
When we do not have that pride of
place and that pride of position and we
don't look at our position as something that
we flaunt around, but we look at it
as an opportunity of ministry.
That's all that it is.
Next, we find that there is a pride
of grace.
A pride of grace.
Do you know that it is very possible
to be proud of spiritual gifts?
Isn't that incredible?
God has entrusted to us and we can
actually strut about ostentatiously forgetting that we have
nothing that we did not receive.
It is God who gave the gift, did
He not?
And we can actually be filled with pride
at the eloquence and brilliance of our message
on humility.
Some of you will get that about tomorrow
afternoon.
I wrestled with this this afternoon.
You know you can actually be proud about
your message on humility?
And I'm going along and I'm reading through
this and I'm studying and all of a
sudden, I was gripped with the fact that
I'm proud about my message on humility!
How incredible!
Is not pride very fluid?
Does it not adapt itself to every situation?
Does it not constantly look for a place
to rear its head and to grab a
hold of the heart and life?
There's pride of grace.
Dr. John McNeill had just finished preaching a
message on humility and when he was greeting
people afterwards, a woman approached him and said,
yes, Dr. McNeill, humility is my forte.
I don't think she got it.
I don't think she understood.
My dear friends, can I tell you something?
Everything you have tonight in Christ was a
gift of God.
And there's not one of us in this
room that can look out.
As a matter of fact, I like the
way one writer put it.
He said, you know what?
He said, the preaching of the Gospel is
one beggar telling other beggars where to find
bread.
That's what it is.
We can't look out at this world with
such a condemning heart and say, oh, that
naughty, awful, wicked, bad world.
Yes, it is naughty.
Yes, it is awful.
Yes, it is wicked.
And my friends, that's where we were too.
For Paul said to the Ephesian believers, such
were some of you.
Could God be thanked by His amazing grace?
And is not His grace amazing?
Is not His grace incredible?
Is not it wonderful to live in the
grip of grace?
Well, my friend, grace is the gift of
God.
I'm not the author of my gift.
God is.
I'm not the author of ministry.
God is.
It is even possible to be proud of
the pride of grace.
Pride is an obsession with self.
It is a person whose soul loves and
worships at the shrine of self, much like
Narcissus, who in Greek mythology was gazing into
the fountain.
He was so infatuated with himself.
But there was one problem.
As he tried to reach out and grab
a hold of this one that he was
so infatuated with, the one whom he loved,
he could not obtain the object of his
affection, so he committed suicide.
He's a perfect example of the folly of
being a lover of self.
But pride in its essence is loving me.
That's what it is.
It's demanding my rights.
It's wanting my way.
That's what pride is.
Pride thirsts for flattery and praise because it
gratifies self-love.
Pride is elated when it is given all
kinds of accolades and all kinds of compliments.
And pride is depressed when they are withheld.
In a palace at Versailles, there's a hall
known as the Hall of Glass.
It's the hall of 1,000 mirrors.
And when you enter, 1,000 hands are
outstretched to welcome you.
When you smile, 1,000 smiles meet yours.
When you weep, 1,000 pairs of eyes
weep with you, but they are all your
own.
Hands and eyes and smiles, such are the
proud, surrounded by self, engrossed in self, and
imprisoned by self.
The essence of pride.
Pride is a germ that transforms nutritious food
into venomous poison.
There's multitudes of biblical illustrations about pride.
1 Chronicles 21.
It was pride of His kingdom that caused
David to divide and number the people.
He was living in arrogance.
And there was pride that rose up in
his heart in thinking of the greatness of
His kingdom.
He numbered the people.
It was pride in 2 Kings 20.
He showed all of His covetous enemy the
house and the precious things of silver and
gold, and then He lost all of them
because He was so filled with arrogance and
wanted to show off and show them just
how important He was.
He turned over the things of God to
the enemies of God.
Somebody say that for me.
Thank you.
I knew He was in there somewhere.
I just call Him Nebo sometimes because I
can't spit all that stuff out.
Nebuchadnezzar's pride fed His own achievements.
Is this not great Babylon that I have
built for the house of the kingdom by
the might of My power for the honor
of My majesty?
His haughty spirit went before a gigantic fall
while the word was in the king's mouth.
There fell a voice from heaven saying, The
kingdom is departed from thee and they shall
drive thee from men and thy dwelling shall
be with the beasts of the field and
they shall make thee to eat grass as
an oxen.
When His sanity was restored, the focus of
His worship was shifted from self to God.
Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor
Thee, the King of Heaven, who came to
recognize who He was before a holy God.
Uzziah's heart, Scripture says, was lifted up in
pride.
And his supposed military might and success, 2
Chronicles 26, but when he was strong, his
heart was lifted up to his destruction, for
he transgressed against the Lord his God and
went to the temple of the Lord to
burn incense upon the altar of incense.
The leprosy even rose up to his forehead
before the priests and the house of the
Lord from beside the incense altar.
He was lifted up in pride.
It was Herod that lapped up the pride
and praise of the people of Tyre as
they accorded to his orientation.
It is the voice of God and not
of man.
And immediately, the angel of the Lord smote
him because he gave not glory to the
Lord.
Peter's pride made him feel so superior in
mortal courage to his fellow disciples that he
boasted, Though all men forsake Thee, I will
not.
Arrogance.
Boasting.
James 3, 3-5 Pride causes one to
act superior and self-sufficient.
1 Corinthians 4-7 Sacrifice
godly values on the altar of acceptance.
That's arrogance and pride.
It causes one to seek positions.
Luke 14-7 It causes one to seek
recognition.
Luke 14-12-14 Causes one to turn
from God to idols.
Romans 1-22-23 It causes conceit of
the heart.
Romans 12-16 It causes one to elevate
oneself over others.
Romans 2-19 Romans 11-18 Romans 12
-16 It causes idolatry.
Romans 1-22-23 It is the author
of strife in the heart.
Pride is at the root of all of
those.
Please say, Kevin, those things are all wonderful.
They're all nice.
They're all good.
And that is so great that you're preaching
that because my neighbor really needs to hear
this message.
And man, did my parents...
I wish my parents...
Oh, and you know, as one man said,
if the phone rings, answer it.
How about perspective number four?
What is the proof of pride?
How many of you like tests?
You say, Kevin, I'm out of school.
Do not do this to me.
Well, let's go to the school of God
for a few minutes, shall we?
I don't like to go to doctors because
they poke and jab too much.
But this last year I learned a very
important lesson.
Some of you...
Were any of you here in January when
I was here?
Were any of you here?
You may not have known this, but in
January, I was having a number of very
major physical problems.
I didn't tell anybody here.
I wanted to go on with the conference.
You'll notice I didn't spend a lot of
time out and about with people because I
was having physical problems.
Literally, I thought I was dying consistently.
I didn't have any idea what the problem
was.
I'd go to a doctor.
He'd look me over.
Do blood tests.
Say, you're fine.
Everything's okay.
I finally found the right doctor.
He looked in my left ear, and every
time I'd been to doctors, they'd look in
my left ear, and they'd say, Oh, you've
got a real bad ear infection.
We need to give you some antibiotics.
So they'd all give me the most powerful
antibiotics that they could come up with, and
they were drugging me to death.
And no matter how many antibiotics I took,
nothing changed.
Everything was still the same.
I finally found this doctor.
He looked in my ear.
He said, We have a problem.
I said, Really?
Yes.
I said, Oh, that infection?
He said, I don't think this is an
infection.
He said, Your eardrum is missing.
I said, Oh.
That's kind of important, I take it.
He said, Yes, it is.
Oh.
Okay.
What do we do now?
He said, I'm going to send you to
a specialist.
Okay.
I walked into this man's office.
If there was ever a man that I
have ever met in my life that looked
like the Apostle Paul would have looked like,
I think it's this man.
Really.
He reminds me of all the descriptions I've
read of the Apostle Paul, but he is
the most wonderful and most brilliant physician I've
ever really known.
And I walked into his office, and he
sat me down, and he looked in my
ear, and in 30 seconds he said, You
have a major problem.
I said, What is that?
He said, You have in your ear something
that's called an attic cholesteatoma.
I said, Is that bad?
I've always been tempted when I get in
an airplane to take ketchup packets whenever I
eat a meal and dribble some ketchup down
the sides of my ears and go up
to a stewardess and say, Is it supposed
to do that?
But I constantly had stuff coming out of
my ear.
And so he's telling me, He said, You've
got this thing.
I said, So what is an attic cholesteatoma?
He said, It's a tumor.
Oh.
It kind of turns your conversation rather serious
when people start talking tumors.
I said, Well, tell me what it does.
Well, he said, It's very simple.
It destroys everything it touches.
It destroys bone.
It destroys flesh.
It destroys tissue.
It destroys anything it touches.
And he said, Your cholesteatoma is rather large.
Actually, it's the size of my thumb and
my entire middle ear was taken up with
a cholesteatoma.
This cholesteatoma was actually wrapping itself around the
vagus nerve.
That's why my heart was constantly going haywire.
I didn't know what to do.
My stomach was in a turmoil.
I couldn't hardly eat.
Everything was all messing up.
My dear friends, can I tell you something?
Just a little tiny cholesteatoma in my ear
messed my whole body up.
I couldn't function.
Do you know that one little tiny issue
of pride that is unresolved will mess you
up?
One little tiny area.
One little tiny thing of pride.
We say, Kevin, how do I know?
Let's take a test.
Number one, let's have the test of preeminence.
What is the test of preeminence?
May I ask you a personal question?
How do you react when others are selected
for something that you wanted?
Have you ever had something you really wanted?
I remember a young man one time, he
was trying out for a musical position in
his school music, a small chorale, and he
was trying out for it, and he didn't
make it.
And his attitude and actions as a result
of that were an evidence that his heart
was lifted up in pride.
He began to badmouth the teachers and began
to say they don't know what they're doing
and they chose them because of this and
all kinds of things.
He said, you see, there was something he
really wanted, but he didn't get it.
Let me ask you a question.
How do you respond when there's something that
you really want but you don't get?
How do you respond when you want something
or want to go somewhere and your parents
say, no, it's not best?
That is an issue of pride, dear young
friend.
How about when somebody else is promoted while
you're overlooked?
Does that ever happen to you?
Have you ever had somebody else, and even
sometimes through the course of ministry, I've seen
two friends, two best of friends, one gets
promoted, the other doesn't, and watch their friendship
blow apart because of pride, because of error.
These are the tests of preeminence when we
are overlooked but somebody else is promoted.
How about when another is honored and we
are ignored?
Can I tell you something, my young friend?
You find out very quickly just how deeply
pride is rooted in your soul when you
go out as a servant and you do
something and you serve and then you expect
for somebody to stand up and say, we
are just so glad because so and so
just did this.
You find out whether there's pride or not
when you do something and you invest your
life and nobody says anything.
Nobody says thank you.
Nobody says wonderful job.
That's when you really begin to discern whether
or not pride is there in your soul.
When someone overlooks what you did and they
don't really see it and it's not noticed,
then you begin to see whether or not
you really are looking to be preeminent.
When someone outshines us, does it stimulate us
to jealousy or ill will?
You'll see this happen in schools.
You'll see it happen in youth groups.
Somebody brand new comes in and they're bigger
and they're better and they're prettier and they're
nicer.
Your response to that will either be a
response of humility or a response of pride.
You'll either find yourself jealous of them and
down-talking and trash-talking them or you'll
find yourself reaching out to them to pull
them in, to respond.
It will either be one of pride or
one of humility.
Can we really rejoice in another's achievement or
greater ability?
That's a part of the test of preeminence.
Can I really rejoice when somebody else outshines
me and somebody else is better?
We preachers struggle with this, don't we?
I don't know how many preachers' conferences I've
been to and you get guys and I'll
be one of the preachers and you're sitting
back there and you evaluate it.
Is he preaching better than me?
I mean, is he going to get more
of a response than I got?
Are people going to like him better?
It is amazing just how deeply pride is
rooted in us.
We as preachers struggle with it.
It's been an omnipresent problem for me.
The most difficult position to play in the
orchestra is second fiddle.
You ever notice that?
Thanks be to God for a man by
the name of John the Baptist who said,
He must increase, I must decrease.
He did not long to have the preeminence.
He longed to hide in the shadows and
give Christ the preeminence.
Test number two.
The test of sincerity.
You say, Kevin, what is the test of
sincerity?
You know, we are often prone to say
all kinds of bad things about ourselves.
But the test is when somebody else says
something bad about us.
Is that not the way that it is?
Oh, we'll get up and we'll say, Oh,
you know, I'm really no good and I'm
really this and I'm really that and we'll
do that and it'll look real spiritual and
it'll look real nice.
But you let somebody else talk about us
and say something about us and we can
become like vicious tigers on revenge.
As a matter of fact, we often find
ourselves fighting fire with fire.
How many of you ever heard that term
before?
Fight fire with fire?
I said this at the men's advance here
in January.
I'll say it again.
You know, when I was a kid, I
wasn't real intelligent, but I went to a
fire station one time and all the little
kids, they'd line them up next to the
fire engine and they would get up and
tell us how they put out fires and
I learned then that the most effective way
to put out fire was with water.
Isn't that really profound?
I mean, that's deep, isn't it?
But yet you'll hear people say, I'll fight
fire with fire.
You know what that means?
I'm going to give better than I got.
You said that about me, you wait till
you hear what I say about them.
Fighting fire with fire.
You know what that is?
P-R-I.
That's pride.
We find out when we're faced with an
issue of responding, when others say bad things
about us.
Do we fly to justify ourselves?
Do we find ourselves in hostility and resentment
when somebody says something about us?
Do we criticize the critic and try to
disdain the critic and denounce the critic and
thereby remove the criticism?
We find that oftentimes that is how we
respond and that is the test of sincerity,
the test of truth.
And we find, number three, there is a
test of truth.
You say, Kevin, what is the test of
truth?
Let me ask you a question.
Do you lie?
You say, what do you mean?
Do you lie to impress others because the
truth is not exciting enough?
Have you ever found yourself lying and saying
things that are not really true about your
home or about the place you live or
about what your dad does for a living
or about this or that because the truth
just isn't exciting enough?
You know what the birth and heart of
that is?
Pride.
That's the test of truth.
Are you just willing to say things as
they are because it's the truth or do
you constantly long to press it just a
bit because the truth just isn't exciting enough?
Then we find, number four, there is the
test of inferiority.
There are a lot of people that I
have met in ministry who claim to have
an inferiority complex.
It is my opinion that they are not
necessarily free from pride.
As a matter of fact, indeed, I think
the very complex may be a clear indication
of pride.
Pride which is hurt because somebody didn't accept
me, somebody didn't like me, somebody didn't love
me the way I wanted to be loved,
and so now I'm going to huff and
puff and hide in my shell.
I think that is just as much bold
-faced pride as arrogance and flaunting, and yet
we call it inferiority.
So, Kevin, God's exposed my heart.
Oh, beloved, who of us in this room
can stand before the searching eye of God
tonight who knows everything we've ever said, everything
we've ever done, knows how we've responded to
situations this day.
Just a few moments before I got up
here to preach, I had to confess publicly
with my brother an issue of pride.
This is an ongoing struggle, an ongoing problem,
and which of us in this room tonight,
if we dare look into the eyes of
Him with whom we have to do, if
we dare look and beg to see His
glory, would not be completely flattened to our
faith and recognition that at the root of
who we really are are multiple issues of
pride.
My friend, it is my contention that pride
is that very branch from which the self
-life seeds all of the issues.
That's it.
It all comes back to an issue of
pride.
Whether it's the pride of not wanting to
submit myself to God and humbly obey His
Word, or the pride of not submitting myself
to authority here on earth, or the pride
of sticking my nose up at somebody else
because they're not as good as me or
they don't look like me or they have
different skin, or whether it's the pride of
place or the pride of grace or whatever
it might be, all of them go back
to the single, solitary issue of pride.
Say, Kevin, what's the cure?
Let's look at perspective number five.
The cure of pride.
I'm going to briefly touch on these, dear
friend.
Pride is overcome, first of all, by acknowledging
one's sinfulness.
I want you to turn, if you would,
tonight to Luke 18.
I want you to look at this account
with your own eyes.
It is a very familiar account.
We have all heard it on numerous occasions.
But Luke 18.
Luke 18.
And by the way, did you realize that
there are two people in the Bible, two
individuals in the Bible that prayed with five
eyes?
You say, five eyes?
I didn't know anybody ever had five eyes.
I'm not talking eyes.
I'm talking eyes.
The first individual who prayed with five eyes
is an individual called Lucifer.
And in Isaiah chapter 14, if you will
read that text, you don't have to turn
there, you will find that he prayed, I
will.
I will.
Eyes.
But there's a second individual in Scripture who
prayed with five eyes, and the reason that
I know that these two are related is
because this one prayed just like his father.
You say, Kevin, what do you mean?
Let's look in Luke 18 starting in verse
number 10.
Two men went up into the temple to
pray.
One Pharisee and the other a publican.
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.
God, I thank Thee that I am not
as other men are.
Extortioners.
Unjust.
Adulterers.
Or even as this publican, I fast twice
in the week.
I give tithes of all that I possess.
And the publican standing afar off would not
lift so much as his eyes unto heaven,
but smote upon his breast saying, God, be
merciful to me a sinner.
My young friend, I don't care what the
issue of pride.
I don't care where God found you.
I don't care where He pointed His finger.
I don't care what it is.
My young friend, your only response to a
holy God is to fall upon your face
broken without anything and simply cry in the
agony of soul, God, be merciful to me
a sinner.
Forgive me for my arrogance and pride.
That was the heart of this one called
the publican.
The cure of pride is acknowledging one's sinfulness.
And secondly, pride is only corrected by genuine
faith.
Romans 3, verses 27-31, where is boasting
then?
It is excluded by what law?
Of works?
Nay, but of the law of faith.
Therefore, we conclude that man is justified by
faith without the deeds of the law.
My friend, you and I must understand that
genuine faith in Christ produces within the soul
a humility in recognizing the grace of God
that everything that He has given, all the
abundance of His mercy, is not of anything
that I could ever have done.
It was by His sheer choice and His
amazing grace, He bestowed it all upon me.
And I am unworthy of all of it.
It is that kind of heart of faith
that overcomes pride.
Humility in Philippians 2, 3, and 4, we
already looked at today.
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory,
but in lowliness.
And by the way, that word lowliness is
a powerful term.
The actual Greek term is carpet-mindedness.
Are you willing to be walked on?
Jesus was.
But yet when our rights are touched, what
do we do?
We raise our ugly head of pride.
We find that it is also defeated by
not loving the world.
You say, Kevin, what do you mean?
1 John 2, 15-16, Love not the
world, neither the things that are in the
world.
If any man love the world, the love
of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eyes and what?
Do you know that literally you can draw
all sin back to these three roots of
sin in the Garden of Eden, in Genesis
3?
As Eve is there, she is drawn away.
There are three roots.
You find the lust of the eyes, the
lust of the flesh, and the pride of
life.
I believe it overshadows all of it.
You find as you move up to Christ,
as Satan tried attacking Him there, Jesus, as
He dealt with Him, Satan's attacks all came,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes, and the pride of life.
And then you go to John, and you
find He says that all that is in
the world.
Do you realize that since the dawn of
the fall, Satan has never changed his tactics?
Does that not blow your mind?
Normally, an enemy will adjust.
Satan has never had to adjust.
Do you know why?
It works.
Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes,
pride.
Not loving the world.
Serving and giving quietly is something that we
must learn to do to defeat the issue
of pride in our life.
Matthew 6, verses 3 and 4, But when
thou doest thine alms, let not thy left
hand know what thy right hand doeth, that
thine alms may be in secret, and thy
Father which seeth in secret shall reward openly.
We must be so careful even in these
issues that we talk about the servant's heart
because oftentimes we find ourselves even in the
servant's heart doing it so we can get
the accolades of men.
No, Jesus said don't let your left hand
know what your right hand does.
If you want to serve, fine.
Do it quietly.
Do it so that God in heaven and
by the way, I would much rather have
reward by God.
You know why?
Jesus said that not even a cup of
cold water given in His name would lose
its reward.
Boy, He keeps detailed accounts, does He not?
Is that not overwhelming and incredible?
We find that pride is also defeated by
submitting to others and serving others.
Matthew 20, 26-28, and 1 Peter 5,
verses 5-7.
You know, it's very significant if you just
take your Bible and turn back with me
for a moment to Matthew 5.
It's very significant that Jesus begins by dealing
with poor in spirit, by dealing with arrogance,
by dealing with pride.
You say, Kevin, blessed are the poor in
spirit.
Yes, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
You say, why is this so significant?
Because all the virtues that Christ commanded and
the beatitudes, it is significant that the very
first is humility being poor in spirit.
Why?
Because that underlies all of the others.
What do you mean?
You cannot be one who mourns without appreciating
how insignificant and insufficient you are to handle
in your own strength.
That's humility.
You cannot be meek unless you have needed
gentleness yourself.
And knowing that need is humility.
You cannot hunger and thirst for righteousness if
you proudly think of yourself as already attaining
and already righteous.
You will not be filled.
That spiritual longing and appetite demands humility.
We find as we go on down here
that you cannot be merciful without recognizing your
own need for mercy.
You cannot be pure in heart.
If your heart is filled with pride, there
is no way to be pure in heart.
You cannot exclaim and have the humility that
is afforded.
You cannot be a peacemaker if you believe
that you are always right.
And finally, you cannot identify with Christ no
matter what your reaction to others when they
revile you and say all manner of evil
against you falsely.
You cannot have that humble response in the
face of adversity if there is pride.
You will bristle.
You will buckle.
You will retaliate.
When people give, you will give back.
Dear friends, the issue of pride.
Let's bow our heads and close our eyes.
One of the greatest things that you will
ever learn in the Christian life is that
the way up is down.
What has God said?
Has God found you coddling and courting issues
of pride in your own soul?
Has God found you hanging on to them
and loving them and feeding them?
I wonder tonight, as you look into the
face of the incomparable Christ, as you look
into the glory of God, into the majesty
of eternity, what's your response?
What will you do?
I don't know if there's a pianist here
that can just simply quietly play a song
of invitation.
But if there is, I'll ask him to
go to the piano now and play simply
a song like all to Jesus I surrender,
all to Him I freely give.
As our brother shared with us earlier.
What's our response?
Did God find the root of pride that
is deeply embedded in us?
Did He find specific, tangible issues of pride?
Did you go through the tests of pride?
Did you find yourself having to acknowledge that
that's the way you really are?
That that's the way you really respond in
the consistent testimony of your life?
That that's the way it is?
What are you going to do?
Well, my friends, I would pray that your
response would be sitting upon your face before
God.
For that is really the only response that
a believer can have in the face of
pride, in the face of the grace of
God.
Tonight, with heads bowed, with eyes closed, I'm
not going to pull anybody's teeth.
I'm not going to sing 27 verses of
anything to make you do anything.
That's not what this is about.
But the bottom line is this, if God
has confronted you with an issue of pride,
if He has uncovered and opened up and
unveiled an area that needs to be resolved,
maybe tonight there are people sitting around you
and their whole perspective of you is one
of arrogance and pride because that's the way
you've basically puffed yourself up and you've basically
strutted around in your youth group or your
home.
Maybe there's moms and dads that need to
hear a broken teenager say, please forgive me
because I've lived in rebellion and the issue
is one of pride.
Maybe there's kids from your youth group who
need to hear you say, I am so
sorry, I am wrong because I have offended
you with my tongue.
And it was all done in pride.
Maybe there are people in your sphere of
influence that you have completely neglected because they
were different.
They were, as you thought, inferior.
They didn't need to be involved in your
circle of very special friends because you're too
good.
Well, my friend, maybe it's time to get
on your face and acknowledge flat your pride.
Heads are bowed and eyes are closed.
My dear friend, the only ones who are
looking around are people who are moving to
do the business of God.
You may need to tap somebody on the
shoulder and move to obedience right now.
You may need to go get alone with
God privately in a quiet place and fall
upon your face and beg the mercy and
grace of God like that publican who beat
his chest and said, be merciful to me.
Right now, maybe the issue for you is
one of genuine salvation.
Maybe it is your pride and your arrogance
that has kept you from truly coming and
submitting your will to Christ as Lord and
Savior.
Kevin, what do I do?
I would give you this challenge to get
up from your place and walk this way
and stand in the front here.
And we'll take a Bible and show you
tonight how you can know Christ and be
just like that publican.
Anyone else?
Just move right now.
We're not going to wait.
We're not going to play games.
Right now is the time to move.
Let's all stand, if you would, to make
it easier for some to get out.
Stand to your feet.
Let's sing that song together.
I surrender all.
My dear friends, you can move.
There's an old-fashioned altar here.
There's a place over there in the quietness
of the prayer seats you can go.
If you are without Christ, you just simply
come and stand here in the front and
we'll have somebody take a Bible.
But right now, you move.
You may need to grab somebody to simply
obey what God has already said and to
move into a relationship that is right.
A rightly related relationship right now.
Move to that.
Right now, as we sing together, would you
respond in obedience?
Would you respond in broken humility before the
holy God of heaven?
Would you lead us, our brother, as we
sing this song, this invitation, and we'll simply
sing one or two verses.
All to Thee.
Sing quietly.
How about you, my young friend?
What will you do?
Did God deal with a specific issue of
pride?
Does it need to be resolved?
How about it, moms, dads, leaders, pastors, youth
workers?
One of the greatest things that may ever
happen in your youth group is for you
to swallow your own pride, to admit your
own needs, and to deal with issues of
pride.
Oh, don't sing the song unless it's reality.
Something of pride that is unbroken, unsubmitted.
One more verse and I'm turning the service
over.
I'm done.
You one,
is the Spirit of God prompting your spirit
right now?
Do not delay.
Do not say no to the Spirit of
God.
Do not harden your hearts.
Do not develop a seared conscience.
A seared conscience is developed when one says
no to the promptings of God's Spirit.
If He is prompting, the only response is
instant obedience.
Respond.
Let's pray
for a moment tonight.
This message was given at the 1999 Youth
Prayer Advance.
This message, as well as others, are available
from Christ Life Ministries, P.O. Box 399,
Venton, V-I-N-T-O-N, Virginia,
24179.
Or you can visit our website at www
.ChristLifeMens.org.